Couldn't agree more. The urge and desire to start learning was constantly squashed by the daunting task at hand. Once my ideas began to coalesce into something coherent, the passion and interest superseded the difficulty or fear I'd never "get it".
I have to agree. It seems to be a compromise between "hipster" ideals someone else mentioned or competing. And, the reality is that this was already happening, now, perhaps it's just more transparent and streamlined. Interestingly, isn't this what Facebook is already doing? I view the timeline feature as exactly this. Except, instead of creating a more complete profile based on the things you search or use across platforms, FB is allowing its users to do the legwork and fill in the blanks for them. In other words, you provide a more complete profile or timeline for your life and they have more complete info on your preference, likes/dislikes, etc. Like it or not; it's clear it's the way of the future.
I have to agree at least partially. I had better really want (or need) that job to go through the trouble. And at the same time, I find this quite refreshing. The process of submitting resumes is quite passive and limiting. While the effort to create a video might be a more laborious task, I appreciate the opportunity to represent myself outside of bullet points and buzzwords like "spearheaded". There must be some balance here between answering the same questions with the same answers and proving you are sharp, creative, interesting, etc.