> Also, from watching the videos, I had the impression that the technical work is mostly done by other people, e.g. the famous glitterbomb was built by Sean Hod

> Also, from watching the videos, I had the impression that the technical work is mostly done by other people, e.g. the famous glitterbomb was built by Sean Hodgins. That seems a little unfair. From the description is "Mark came to me with an idea and a design. Who knew a simple idea could turn out to be such a complicated device? [...] It was fun being able to bring Marks concepts, designs, and ideas to reality, and together work to solve each problem as they arose". Mark releases about a video a month. No way can he do 12 projects a year entirely on his own. Everyone big on YouTube has a full team behind them. It's big business! Is a company founder the only force behind a startup? No! They hire and build a company! But are they the driving force? That's often a fair statement. I feel like you're pitching a story of "YouTube personalities are just a facade who don't do anything". Which I don't think is generally true. However I think the following is very true. "YouTube personalities have 10+ person teams behind them. And big channels have media empires pushing their brand."