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What did you do this week (and weekend)?
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!
I watched a Folding Ideas video essay on Mr Beast. The intent behind the video, the format of the presentation, the set up layer by layer towards the final point -- good stuff.
Previously, I only knew this guy was some big name YouTuber. His videos never came up on my feeds but that's not surprising because I miss out on most pop culture things. I vaguely knew of some lawsuits and bad burgers and bad meal bars. Oh and also Jayden animation had an episode of when she played one of their games.
Two thoughts as not to spoil the fantastic essay
Mr Beast is still a young-ish person with a ton of money. If he wants to genuinely learn from others and change the way he measures success for himself, he still has time to be a different person and use his dwindling influence for good.
In recent years, a lot of quality YouTube channels have shuttered because it seemed harder and harder to continue. Warms my heart to know that even supposedly the big one is crumbling. The hope is that it's indicative of YouTube itself crumbling. But then in favour of what? Tiktok? Any of the Meta stuff?
Thanks for the video suggestion, that was pretty interesting. I've been following MrBeast's story for a few years now and this whole venture feels like something that should be studied. I don't particularly care for the primary content, but all the videos around production and behind the scenes are actually quite interesting and telling of his mindset.
Watching this video I kept thinking about how during this new age of AI psychosis many people have started bragging once more about how they're able to pump out thousands of lines of vibe coded slop every day. It feels like there's something in the water supply that encourages this kind of mindset where you keep turning up a knob to 11 and bragging about it, without any core substance. Jimmy has bragged extensively about how he's constantly overworked and how he doesn't have any free time because he's always working on some new video. I cannot help but think that he would benefit from slowing down and enjoying life a bit; maybe if he sits down long enough the juices will start flowing and he'll find some creative inspiration. The real tragedy is that he has locked himself into a endless marathon which can only end in failure or death.
A broader issue with MrBeast that came to mind is that it doesn't feel like he's doing long-term investments in quality. Most of his content gets hyped up briefly and then it's forgotten as the endless conveyor-belt of media continues turning. How many people will look back on classic MrBeast videos and decide to rewatch them for nostalgia?
Can you comment on the quality of the channel's videos? Was there a "hey day" when it was much higher quality that kids will remember collectively? What was the secret of his success at capturing the cultural algorithmic Zeitgeist and what has it moved onto now?
I don't think I can comment on the quality of his older videos since I was pretty late in discovering him and I've never looked through the back catalogue. But from what I can tell, they've never been particularly high quality. I think what will make him stand out as a memorable figure is the fact that he was the first to try so many things and he's been one of the key figures in defining the "meta" for the past 5+ years. There's always this fixation on breaking records or being the biggest at whatever they're doing.
The secret of his success probably comes down to obsessively studying and understanding the YouTube algorithm. When he says that his goal is to make the greatest YouTube video he's serious about using that as his north star.
I think the meta with tons of fast cuts, zero downtime, and lots of yelling was popularized by MrBeast, although he eventually moved away from that content style as he tried to create more room for breathing. It's hard to say if he's the one to create a trend or if he just popularized it, but whenever he does something it tends to get adopted by everyone else. One technique that I think he popularized was showing a preview of things that would come later in the video, so very often he'll tease the climax right at the start before cutting to something else.
Oh, one tool that often goes unremarked is that he's quite dedicated about chasing a global audience. I think he was the first major creator that had his content dubbed in every major language. He used to have dozens of channels where he would upload dubbed versions of his videos until YouTube finally rolled out multiple audio channels specifically for him.