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Thanks for writing about your experience! I think too many educated / computer science focused creators get demotivated when they see the kind of low brow "vir

Thanks for writing about your experience! I think too many educated / computer science focused creators get demotivated when they see the kind of low brow "viral" content that's plaguing youtube currently (yes, I mean Mr. Beast). Mr. Beast type content is to me more mind numbing than TikTok - it makes creators like Logan Paul and low brow comedy podcasts look like academics in comparison. I recently started dipping my toes in AI again, even building some tooling for GPU deployments for stable diffusion etc after a friend (less technical) ended up with a GPU mining farm that was burning a $60k hole in his pocket every month when ETH mining dried up. As a result, I found a curious niche and started making admittedly not very good videos of me attempting to create more approachable AI text to image content for a slightly less technical audience. I've been pleasantly surprised by how warm, interested and excited my small audience has been. If anyone would like to check out the channel here's a link - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCttqpACIkQqh83L2cHrY9Gg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCttqpACIkQqh83L2cHrY9Gg I'm working on some internal projects as a part of my channel, a big part are some active developments with the Stable Hoard project. Edit - goes without saying, many of my early videos are really bad, my speech is hard to follow etc. Ironically since I'm full remote, this has actually helped rehab my speech a bit and give me something technical outside of work to do sort of creative things with. I'd be lying if I didn't intend to turn this into a revenue stream at some point, probably starting with a mailing list.

alphabetting 4y ago
>I think too many educated / computer science focused creators get demotivated when they see the kind of low brow "viral" content that's plaguing youtube currently new content creators should try to not be discourage by this. at youtube's scale there will always be viral lowbrow content because that's what the majority of general public wants to consume. if your content is good and consistent the relevant people who follows your area will eventually find it from their algo.
- fiat_fandango 4y ago
  I certainly agree - I still think most creators underestimate the necessity of putting in some leg-work to understand your audience and attaching your channel to a niche that has an existing audience at all. Something that I ended up doing by accident was identifying a niche that a) was low risk (nothing political etc), b) had decent reach, and c) ended up with most of my traffic coming from "browse" and not "search". Initially, I had no idea traffic coming from "browse" was indicative of content that would likely drive more long-term value outside of "news" videos. Ironically, videos that feature community drama unfortunately still are my best performing videos.
obmelvin 4y ago
I don't necessarily take issue with your point overall, but I have to take issue with your calling out of Mr. Beast. Have you seen how much money Mr. Beast gives out to people? There are people just buying cars with their YT money, but he puts most of it back into his channel & directly in the hands of everyday people. I really don't understand how you could say he makes Logan Paul look like an academic. Also, he's pretty savy with growing his audience. I'm not aware of very many people who translate their videos into (some) other languages, particularly using somewhat-well-known voice actors.
- fiat_fandango 4y ago
  Yes, but the reason he's giving away money is for views . It's why charity for views is in my opinion kind of degenerate - arguably using poor people to make money but saving face because giving away money.
  - Pent 4y ago
    It worked for Oprah I guess
    - fiat_fandango 4y ago
      To be honest, Oprah's content in my opinion was miles better than Mr. Beast's. She was at least conducting interviews, having conversations etc. At least her videos weren't, "look at minecraft funny game - my friend made a poop sound hehe" or "omg look at kiddy pool filled with ORBEEZ FUN TIME" Candidly, with a hilariously not successful youtube but a solid career - I find it funny to imagine Mr. Beast "spending hours" coming up with "next level content" which in reality you'd be better off just paying a 7 year old with jolly ranchers to do.
      - alexb_ 4y ago
        >I find it funny to imagine Mr. Beast "spending hours" coming up with "next level content" As silly as it is for me to be the guy "defending Mr. Beast" of all people, I don't think you have any idea what he does.
devfig 4y ago
Nice I have subscribed. I think any content about AI would probably do well with all the hype around GPT-3 at the moment. Yes speaking in front of a camera is really difficult. There is literally hours of recordings of me trying to say the same thing over and over again that gets cut.
- fiat_fandango 4y ago
  Thanks for the subscribe!
kragen 4y ago
> many educated / computer science focused creators get demotivated when they see the kind of low brow "viral" content that's plaguing youtube currently (yes, I mean Mr. Beast). We're talking about a platform whose first big success was "Charlie bit my finger". There's some useful information there but it's never been Wikipedia.

alphabetting 4y ago

>I think too many educated / computer science focused creators get demotivated when they see the kind of low brow "viral" content that's plaguing youtube currently new content creators should try to not be discourage by this. at youtube's scale there will always be viral lowbrow content because that's what the majority of general public wants to consume. if your content is good and consistent the relevant people who follows your area will eventually find it from their algo.

fiat_fandango 4y ago
I certainly agree - I still think most creators underestimate the necessity of putting in some leg-work to understand your audience and attaching your channel to a niche that has an existing audience at all. Something that I ended up doing by accident was identifying a niche that a) was low risk (nothing political etc), b) had decent reach, and c) ended up with most of my traffic coming from "browse" and not "search". Initially, I had no idea traffic coming from "browse" was indicative of content that would likely drive more long-term value outside of "news" videos. Ironically, videos that feature community drama unfortunately still are my best performing videos.

obmelvin 4y ago

I don't necessarily take issue with your point overall, but I have to take issue with your calling out of Mr. Beast. Have you seen how much money Mr. Beast gives out to people? There are people just buying cars with their YT money, but he puts most of it back into his channel & directly in the hands of everyday people. I really don't understand how you could say he makes Logan Paul look like an academic. Also, he's pretty savy with growing his audience. I'm not aware of very many people who translate their videos into (some) other languages, particularly using somewhat-well-known voice actors.

fiat_fandango 4y ago
Yes, but the reason he's giving away money is for views . It's why charity for views is in my opinion kind of degenerate - arguably using poor people to make money but saving face because giving away money.
- Pent 4y ago
  It worked for Oprah I guess
  - fiat_fandango 4y ago
    To be honest, Oprah's content in my opinion was miles better than Mr. Beast's. She was at least conducting interviews, having conversations etc. At least her videos weren't, "look at minecraft funny game - my friend made a poop sound hehe" or "omg look at kiddy pool filled with ORBEEZ FUN TIME" Candidly, with a hilariously not successful youtube but a solid career - I find it funny to imagine Mr. Beast "spending hours" coming up with "next level content" which in reality you'd be better off just paying a 7 year old with jolly ranchers to do.
    - alexb_ 4y ago
      >I find it funny to imagine Mr. Beast "spending hours" coming up with "next level content" As silly as it is for me to be the guy "defending Mr. Beast" of all people, I don't think you have any idea what he does.

devfig 4y ago

Nice I have subscribed. I think any content about AI would probably do well with all the hype around GPT-3 at the moment. Yes speaking in front of a camera is really difficult. There is literally hours of recordings of me trying to say the same thing over and over again that gets cut.

fiat_fandango 4y ago
Thanks for the subscribe!

kragen 4y ago

> many educated / computer science focused creators get demotivated when they see the kind of low brow "viral" content that's plaguing youtube currently (yes, I mean Mr. Beast). We're talking about a platform whose first big success was "Charlie bit my finger". There's some useful information there but it's never been Wikipedia.