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Really sad to see so many people dismiss this just based on the YouTube thumbnail at the bottom. Jeff consistently makes very high quality content, I really enj

Really sad to see so many people dismiss this just based on the YouTube thumbnail at the bottom. Jeff consistently makes very high quality content, I really enjoyed his series on Kubernetes, I would urge you to look past any preconceptions there. The fact is, if YouTube makes up a sizeable portion of your income, and that can increase by a factor of 10% just by making a dumb face, you’d be silly not to do so. It’s unfortunate that this is the way things work, but I can personally look past that to ensure that creators who provide value to me are able to put food on the table.

MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
That expression alone tells me "I'm not really an expert, just someone with time, money and trying to appeal to morons." YouTube was cool back in the day cause people didn't make it their livelihoods. It was something to do for fun or to showoff. You just wanted to get popular or well known, not get rich.
geerlingguy 5y ago
> and that can increase by a factor of 10% just by making a dumb face Think more like 20-30% — and not doing it leads to a much quicker falloff from YouTube recommendations, where over 90% of video views come from. I overlook dumb thumbnails when the content is actually enjoyable/entertaining/educational.
- 0des 5y ago
  Noting the username, are you the guy in the video?
  - geerlingguy 5y ago
    Yes.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  There's a thread not too far from this one where people are complaining about the difficulty of cancelling subscriptions to their gyms. I'm sure the gyms use similar reasoning.
  - ALittleLight 5y ago
    Enticing someone to try the content is different from making it difficult for them to stop paying for it. A more appropriate analogy would be if gyms noticed that having pictures of fit people in the advertisement increased the effectiveness of the ads and you were complaining about that. A face in a thumbnail has no cost to you.
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
      That's a fair assessment. So I guess the question is, do we think having ads that psychologically manipulate us into doing things we would not otherwise do are not making the world a worse place? Because I feel that they are. There is a mental cost to fighting this attempted manipulation that we all have to pay.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
> The fact is, if YouTube makes up a sizeable portion of your income, and that can increase by a factor of 10% just by making a dumb face, you’d be silly not to do so. Sorry, I don't believe profit motive alone should ever be acceptable justification for making the world a worse place. You might argue that stupid faces and clickbait titles don't really make the world a worse place, and if that's the case we'll just have to agree to disagree.
- CyberRabbi 5y ago
  This guy makes free high quality content for random strangers online to enjoy and learn from and you’re unironically accusing him of making the world a worse place? Spend 1 week doing the work of making free content for strangers online and then you can get on your soapbox about YouTube thumbnails. Until then you just sound like a parasite.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
    Yes, I am. It's only a tiny bit worse mind you, but it all adds up. Just because you make something and give it away doesn't entitle you to a pass for making the world a worse place in the process. People make systemd for free and get endless shit about the ways it makes the world worse, google produces chrome for free and gets endless shit about the ways it makes the world worse, etc. Besides, lets be clear here: if the goal is to produce and give away videos they don't need to optimize for generating clicks, and therefore ad revenue, do they?
    - CyberRabbi 5y ago
      > People make systemd for free and get endless shit about the ways it makes the world worse, google produces chrome for free and gets endless shit The existence of systemd and chrome have unequivocally made the world a better place. The world would unequivocally be a worse place if they did not exist. > Besides, lets be clear here: if the goal is to produce and give away videos they don't need to optimize for generating clicks, and therefore ad revenue, do they? You sound like someone who has never made anything independently in their life. He has chosen to make a living by providing free technical content online. That’s clearly his passion and it’s a net benefit for the world. To support his passion he needs to make sure he can make a minimum profit otherwise he cannot sustain his work of providing you with free content. To support himself he must optimize his view count to get his ad revenue to a minimum amount, as well as generate other revenue sources. This should all be obvious to any functioning human so either you are completely detached from reality or you have some problem with independent creators needing money to live. But then why? It’s a job like any other, except in his case his job provides you with free high quality technical content.
kmos17 5y ago
Yes agreed, HN is an amazing community but there seems to be a sizable contingent of grumpy old men when looking at some comment threads like this one above. nature of the beast I guess.

MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago

That expression alone tells me "I'm not really an expert, just someone with time, money and trying to appeal to morons." YouTube was cool back in the day cause people didn't make it their livelihoods. It was something to do for fun or to showoff. You just wanted to get popular or well known, not get rich.

geerlingguy 5y ago

> and that can increase by a factor of 10% just by making a dumb face Think more like 20-30% — and not doing it leads to a much quicker falloff from YouTube recommendations, where over 90% of video views come from. I overlook dumb thumbnails when the content is actually enjoyable/entertaining/educational.

0des 5y ago
Noting the username, are you the guy in the video?
- geerlingguy 5y ago
  Yes.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
There's a thread not too far from this one where people are complaining about the difficulty of cancelling subscriptions to their gyms. I'm sure the gyms use similar reasoning.
- ALittleLight 5y ago
  Enticing someone to try the content is different from making it difficult for them to stop paying for it. A more appropriate analogy would be if gyms noticed that having pictures of fit people in the advertisement increased the effectiveness of the ads and you were complaining about that. A face in a thumbnail has no cost to you.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
    That's a fair assessment. So I guess the question is, do we think having ads that psychologically manipulate us into doing things we would not otherwise do are not making the world a worse place? Because I feel that they are. There is a mental cost to fighting this attempted manipulation that we all have to pay.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago

> The fact is, if YouTube makes up a sizeable portion of your income, and that can increase by a factor of 10% just by making a dumb face, you’d be silly not to do so. Sorry, I don't believe profit motive alone should ever be acceptable justification for making the world a worse place. You might argue that stupid faces and clickbait titles don't really make the world a worse place, and if that's the case we'll just have to agree to disagree.

CyberRabbi 5y ago
This guy makes free high quality content for random strangers online to enjoy and learn from and you’re unironically accusing him of making the world a worse place? Spend 1 week doing the work of making free content for strangers online and then you can get on your soapbox about YouTube thumbnails. Until then you just sound like a parasite.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  Yes, I am. It's only a tiny bit worse mind you, but it all adds up. Just because you make something and give it away doesn't entitle you to a pass for making the world a worse place in the process. People make systemd for free and get endless shit about the ways it makes the world worse, google produces chrome for free and gets endless shit about the ways it makes the world worse, etc. Besides, lets be clear here: if the goal is to produce and give away videos they don't need to optimize for generating clicks, and therefore ad revenue, do they?
  - CyberRabbi 5y ago
    > People make systemd for free and get endless shit about the ways it makes the world worse, google produces chrome for free and gets endless shit The existence of systemd and chrome have unequivocally made the world a better place. The world would unequivocally be a worse place if they did not exist. > Besides, lets be clear here: if the goal is to produce and give away videos they don't need to optimize for generating clicks, and therefore ad revenue, do they? You sound like someone who has never made anything independently in their life. He has chosen to make a living by providing free technical content online. That’s clearly his passion and it’s a net benefit for the world. To support his passion he needs to make sure he can make a minimum profit otherwise he cannot sustain his work of providing you with free content. To support himself he must optimize his view count to get his ad revenue to a minimum amount, as well as generate other revenue sources. This should all be obvious to any functioning human so either you are completely detached from reality or you have some problem with independent creators needing money to live. But then why? It’s a job like any other, except in his case his job provides you with free high quality technical content.

kmos17 5y ago

Yes agreed, HN is an amazing community but there seems to be a sizable contingent of grumpy old men when looking at some comment threads like this one above. nature of the beast I guess.