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xvxvx 7 hours ago [-]
‘he has described tracking exactly where viewers stop watching and rebuilding videos around those drop-off points.’
I’ve seen only clips of his videos here and there, but assumed he was somewhat naturally gifted in creating content that interested people. Reading this, and his obsession with algorithms, his job seems like a hellish nightmare.
I recently stumbled upon ‘book influencers’ on YouTube and same desperation is holding them hostage. There’s no way this is fun for anyone. Being so obsessed with clicks and likes and retention and whatever. Then trying to earn money from it all. I’d literally rather be a vagabond.
Grombobulous 6 hours ago [-]
What’s crazy about it is that he already has more than enough money to do what he wants. He could scuttle his view-maxxing and just make what he loves to make and he’d still do well and live a lavish luxurious lifestyle with no worry for lost subscribers.
E.g., we see this with the way PewDiePie “retired.” My understanding is that he only makes videos that he wants and enjoys making these days.
But that idea assumes Mr. Beast isn’t just an amoral grifter who is in this job to do exactly what we see described here. He has no passion for making videos or the content of his videos, his passion is wealth and influence accumulation.
On the other end of the spectrum we see people like Technology Connections or Tim Traveler who are completely uninterested in sponsorships or marketing efforts and they get to just make the videos they love making. There is zero view optimization when Alec makes a 1 hour video about heat pumps. He knows there’s going to be massive drop-off and doesn’t care. It’s obvious to point out that Mr. Beast got his bag orders of magnitude above and beyond creators like that and could easily stop his insane operation and do the same thing.
You and I would call this a hellish nightmare but that’s not how narcissist and narcissist-adjacent folks feel about it.
gdulli 6 hours ago [-]
To be that kind of rich you usually have to make not only your career but your life about making money. And then it becomes your self image. The illogical decisions happen because there's nothing left of you but continuing to make the number go up.
hkpack 4 hours ago [-]
> and just make what he loves to make
That is what he loves to make, there is nothing more to it.
rdiddly 4 hours ago [-]
He has investors to pay back now, so I don't think he can just do whatever. If that were me, I would consider myself fucked. But in his case I suspect this is already what he wants to do.
jjk166 4 hours ago [-]
I mean if you are of the opinion that people stop watching videos because they don't like them and continue watching because they do, then it would logically follow that by tweaking videos in such a way that people keep watching, you are giving them what they want (even if it's not necessarily what they may say they want). You don't need to be a narcissist grifter to want to make what people want. It's not like this is high art, it's mass consumer entertainment.
MisterMunchkin 3 hours ago [-]
Alternatively, you could consider that maybe he just wants to be the best. In that viewpoint it would be like telling Usain Bolt to stop sprinting, because he already has money. Why go for a world record? Just stop bro.
EA-3167 2 hours ago [-]
The best at what? Making money on YouTube? View count?
exponentialnano 48 minutes ago [-]
Like running an startup, numbers are the boss.
solarkraft 6 hours ago [-]
> Being so obsessed with clicks and likes and retention and whatever. Then trying to earn money from it all
The pressure goes the other way around, though. Once somebody’s living depends on it, they have to make content that makes them money.
pull_my_finger 5 hours ago [-]
Hence why developers continue to make AI integrations, adtech etc, despite the natural adverseness to it.
6 hours ago [-]
orbital-decay 4 hours ago [-]
That's a weird thing to assume. Popularity and top charts are never about fun, it's hellish work and attention engineering. Music industry knew this since at least Bing Crosby.
cyanydeez 4 hours ago [-]
I'm always reminded of a study of empirical music tastes: the scientists wanted to to determine if there was some kind of intrinsic property to music that would naturally be reveal in the lab. So they created some generic music, split people into groups: one where people could see each other's choices and one where they couldnt; and they ran this several times with different people over and over.
The only thing that elevated music was when people could see others choices and select music just snowballed to popularity.
Most of reality is shaped like that. Once you see that Elon musk was just in the right asshole location, then you can release the shackles of the "meritocracy" that obscures just random chance and personality choices.
1245-a17z 6 hours ago [-]
Who watches the 10,000th iteration of "locking up 100 people in $place and who stays the longest gets $100,000", badly filmed and badly presented?
The pioneers of this genre were Big Brother by RTL in the 1990s. It was at least professionally produced.
It is hard not to think of viewbotting.
Ekaros 6 hours ago [-]
Lot of people like repetitive content it seems. And that goes for everything. I have no idea of music, but I have understood that people tend to listen to same genres inside which things are pretty much the same.
Same goes for TV shows, soap operas and sitcoms are popular. Same thing repeated for countless episodes. In general lot of tv shows were a story of the week variety.
Movies too. Sequel after sequel or some generic thing following same tropes and plot points...
Oh and why not lot of books. Mostly same thing repeated in each book with slight variations...
I think people just might like formulaic repetitive content...
jjk166 4 hours ago [-]
I watch a guy solve a sudoku every day. The puzzle is always different, but conceptually it's just a minor variant of the same video. I don't watch Mr Beast or that sort of content but I can't judge anyone who does.
tstrimple 1 hours ago [-]
I used to love playing Magic The Gathering. But the hygiene issues at LGS and trolling issues with MTGO left me bereft. I found a YT channel which mostly played the sorts of decks I like (control) so I latched onto that as my MTG outlet. The exact same format over and over again, but it scratched the right itch to keep me coming back. Up until they added Members Only videos.
TFNA 3 hours ago [-]
MrBeast stuff is professionally produced. He is only the face and boss of a large company with a lot of employees.
cousinbryce 2 hours ago [-]
They don’t look very professional in the Folding Ideas video. They look like a bunch of 20 something friends with outsized resources bumbling their way to content production.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0dwagg5wYY4&ra=m
georgemcbay 1 hours ago [-]
> It is hard not to think of viewbotting.
I'm sure there are a lot of people (mostly kids) who legitimately watch MrBeast's content, but I'm also convinced that viewbotting to boost numbers is much more widespread than is generally acknowledged across YouTube, Twitch, etc, and the platforms don't really care so long as the advertisers don't make a stink about it.
It seems like every couple of years they'll do some bare minimum pruning of the most egregious outliers to make a show to the advertisers that something is being done and then things slide back to normal within weeks to months.
solarkraft 6 hours ago [-]
Children
Ekaros 6 hours ago [-]
What I actually find interesting about him and Cocomelon is that they actually follow stats and metrics to generate content that garners most clicks or keeps most engagement... Somehow it almost feels like lot of other more traditional media doesn't even attempt that. Like they pay lip service to it by committees. But they don't actually make content like that.
tstrimple 2 hours ago [-]
It's exactly the same sort of SEO slop you see trying to game Google algorithms.
gizajob 4 hours ago [-]
It’s weird - I use YouTube a lot and I’ve never ever been recommended one of his videos.
kioleanu 2 hours ago [-]
Same but my son gets them A LOT. he was watching gaming content and that was that
stonedge 4 hours ago [-]
Same. I guess I’ll give credit to the YouTube algorithm; it knows what I like. And I guess it knows I’m not the right viewer for his stuff.
tstrimple 2 hours ago [-]
I'd say the same, except when I land there not logged in. Then it's a shit show.
binlog 4 hours ago [-]
[dead]
greuceanu42069 4 hours ago [-]
so "spends millions to make billions"?
it makes sense tho. he has 400-500 ppl working for him, 200 the marketing side. if a quarter of that handles SEO/creative/engineering part for 4 major platforms + an extra team, that comes to 50 x 80k / yr = $5.2M. and this is on the low end of estimations.
I’ve seen only clips of his videos here and there, but assumed he was somewhat naturally gifted in creating content that interested people. Reading this, and his obsession with algorithms, his job seems like a hellish nightmare.
I recently stumbled upon ‘book influencers’ on YouTube and same desperation is holding them hostage. There’s no way this is fun for anyone. Being so obsessed with clicks and likes and retention and whatever. Then trying to earn money from it all. I’d literally rather be a vagabond.
E.g., we see this with the way PewDiePie “retired.” My understanding is that he only makes videos that he wants and enjoys making these days.
But that idea assumes Mr. Beast isn’t just an amoral grifter who is in this job to do exactly what we see described here. He has no passion for making videos or the content of his videos, his passion is wealth and influence accumulation.
On the other end of the spectrum we see people like Technology Connections or Tim Traveler who are completely uninterested in sponsorships or marketing efforts and they get to just make the videos they love making. There is zero view optimization when Alec makes a 1 hour video about heat pumps. He knows there’s going to be massive drop-off and doesn’t care. It’s obvious to point out that Mr. Beast got his bag orders of magnitude above and beyond creators like that and could easily stop his insane operation and do the same thing.
You and I would call this a hellish nightmare but that’s not how narcissist and narcissist-adjacent folks feel about it.
That is what he loves to make, there is nothing more to it.
The pressure goes the other way around, though. Once somebody’s living depends on it, they have to make content that makes them money.
The only thing that elevated music was when people could see others choices and select music just snowballed to popularity.
Most of reality is shaped like that. Once you see that Elon musk was just in the right asshole location, then you can release the shackles of the "meritocracy" that obscures just random chance and personality choices.
The pioneers of this genre were Big Brother by RTL in the 1990s. It was at least professionally produced.
It is hard not to think of viewbotting.
I think people just might like formulaic repetitive content...
I'm sure there are a lot of people (mostly kids) who legitimately watch MrBeast's content, but I'm also convinced that viewbotting to boost numbers is much more widespread than is generally acknowledged across YouTube, Twitch, etc, and the platforms don't really care so long as the advertisers don't make a stink about it.
It seems like every couple of years they'll do some bare minimum pruning of the most egregious outliers to make a show to the advertisers that something is being done and then things slide back to normal within weeks to months.