There is a Turkish proverb, "if one could learn by watching, the cats would all be butchers" :-)

No, you aren't going to watch some videos and come out of it a skilled python programmer.

But lectures can be good as an overview or introduction, or to help getting your head round difficult concepts. For instance Shai Simonson's Theory of Computation lectures ( http://www.aduni.org/courses/theory/index.php?view=cw) gave me a lot of insight which I couldn't have got just by writing code. There are also some excellent Haskell lectures around, which helped me grok the basic concepts so I could start programming with it.

Plus, I can watch video lectures while I'm eating, grooming, mentally exhausted, or huddled with my morning coffee hating the world. Yes, it's all too passive to really learn much, but it's a good way to semi-relax.

Also: Peteris, who wrote that blog post, also writes an excellent montly round-up of video lectures he's been watching. Highly recommended: http://freescienceonline.blogspot.com/