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I had three YouTube titles, this one got about 2x the watch time as the other two, so I let YT pick it. For technical readers, I write my blog posts. I don't h

I had three YouTube titles, this one got about 2x the watch time as the other two, so I let YT pick it. For technical readers, I write my blog posts. I don't have to (I lose money hosting that thing and all it's mostly just free training data for Anthropic, OpenAI, et all), but I enjoy writing, so I do it anyway. If you don't like the YT game, please subscribe to the blog's RSS feed. I much prefer text over video.

aurareturn 2mo ago
Just because this title did the best doesn't make it not misleading. If you are a serious reviewer, it wouldn't have been an option in the first place. You can make an even more outlandish title and get even more views. Doesn't make it right.
- HeWhoLurksLate 2mo ago
  since it's too much to paste in here, here's 10 recent tech review videos from each of the top 10 most viewed tech youtubers: https://pastebin.com/4PZe9iTf https://pastebin.com/4PZe9iTf Here's a few of them: - Humane AI Pin Review: The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed - I Tested the World's Craziest Smartphone - Do NOT Buy These Fake Tech Products! - This Is Not a Normal Laptop... - Unboxing the $10,000 Mystery Tech Box - Don't Make This PC Building Mistake - This Desk Accessory Changes Everything - I Didn't Expect This Phone to Be This Good - I Bought a Mystery Tech Box from Amazon - Testing the Craziest Cheap Tech on Temu Jeff Geerling's videos have fine titles. Declaring that Jeff can't be a serious reviewer because he uses clickbait is kinda silly. Have you seen the state of journalism? Somehow the tabloids are frequently less clickbaity.
  - joshspankit 2mo ago
    It also seems that YouTube is steering the ship: they could simply push content that’s straightforward and non-clickbait (and in fact: downgrade clickbait), but as Geoff says the clickbait got 2x the traffic. That’s not “the same amount of people were shown the video and 2x the people clicked in”. The algo is always skewing.
  - testing22321 2mo ago
    Sounds like you’re trying to justify kicking dogs because everyone in the industry goes around kicking dogs. Say it ain’t so. Just because lots of people are doing something that sucks does not make it OK.
    - HeWhoLurksLate 2mo ago
      It's a hook. That's been a standard part of writing for like at least a hundred years. It's not kicking dogs. Or, if it is kicking dogs, society has been doing it for at least as long as publishable media has been a thing, probably longer with the likes of bards. This is ridiculous
      - testing22321 2mo ago
        I’m a writer, I write for a few magazines and have published three books. I write hooks all the time. A good hook does not have to be clickbait. In my experience, when a person struggles to come up with a good hook, they write clickbait.
Eufrat 2mo ago
You are trying to launder responsibility for a clickbait title to a computer program. Then you try to shift the topic to the public good you are providing. I don’t think it’s wrong to use clickbait, but come on, own up to it. You consciously chose to “let [YouTube] pick it.”
- geerlingguy 2mo ago
  I never said it wasn't clickbait. If you don't like it, either install DeArrow or subscribe to my blog, where I tone it down for the more technical audience. (Or block/ignore my content, no skin off my back!)
  - aurareturn 2mo ago
    That's why you're not a serious reviewer. If you're serious, you wouldn't mislead people. Even your blog post does not tell the truth nor does it have highlights of benchmarks that represent how people will actually use a $600 laptop. The people who are buying these laptops are likely not very technical and it's your job to guide them. They wouldn't know that an FP64 test on the $600 laptop is near useless - yet you base the entire conclusion on it.
    - ithadhumor 2mo ago
      Jeff has a day job. He is not a professional reviewer. He shows cool products and showcases what he’s passionate about. YouTube as a medium requires clickbait - that’s the belly of the beast.
      - aurareturn 2mo ago
        I'm not denying that clickbait works on Youtube. He's amassed 1 million Youtube subscribers doing clickbait it seems. My problem is that both the clickbait title and the conclusion are straight up wrong and misleading. Even clickbait titles on Youtube will often have the correct conclusion. This is not the case here.
  - 2mo ago
testing22321 2mo ago
> I had three YouTube titles, this one got about 2x the watch time as the other two, so I let YT pick it. I think you’re being mid leading here Jeff. You almost make it sound like YT actually came up with the title. For anyone that is not a YouTuber, Jeff wrote three different titles himself, then YouTube ran an A/B test and just kept the one that resulted in the most watch time. Jeff consciously chose to write a click bait title, he could equally have chosen not to.
- wasfgwp 2mo ago
  He also consciously chose to post it on Youtube, he could have chosen not to.
throwawayZvY7QV 2mo ago
[dead]

aurareturn 2mo ago

Just because this title did the best doesn't make it not misleading. If you are a serious reviewer, it wouldn't have been an option in the first place. You can make an even more outlandish title and get even more views. Doesn't make it right.

HeWhoLurksLate 2mo ago
since it's too much to paste in here, here's 10 recent tech review videos from each of the top 10 most viewed tech youtubers: https://pastebin.com/4PZe9iTf https://pastebin.com/4PZe9iTf Here's a few of them: - Humane AI Pin Review: The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed - I Tested the World's Craziest Smartphone - Do NOT Buy These Fake Tech Products! - This Is Not a Normal Laptop... - Unboxing the $10,000 Mystery Tech Box - Don't Make This PC Building Mistake - This Desk Accessory Changes Everything - I Didn't Expect This Phone to Be This Good - I Bought a Mystery Tech Box from Amazon - Testing the Craziest Cheap Tech on Temu Jeff Geerling's videos have fine titles. Declaring that Jeff can't be a serious reviewer because he uses clickbait is kinda silly. Have you seen the state of journalism? Somehow the tabloids are frequently less clickbaity.
- joshspankit 2mo ago
  It also seems that YouTube is steering the ship: they could simply push content that’s straightforward and non-clickbait (and in fact: downgrade clickbait), but as Geoff says the clickbait got 2x the traffic. That’s not “the same amount of people were shown the video and 2x the people clicked in”. The algo is always skewing.
- testing22321 2mo ago
  Sounds like you’re trying to justify kicking dogs because everyone in the industry goes around kicking dogs. Say it ain’t so. Just because lots of people are doing something that sucks does not make it OK.
  - HeWhoLurksLate 2mo ago
    It's a hook. That's been a standard part of writing for like at least a hundred years. It's not kicking dogs. Or, if it is kicking dogs, society has been doing it for at least as long as publishable media has been a thing, probably longer with the likes of bards. This is ridiculous
    - testing22321 2mo ago
      I’m a writer, I write for a few magazines and have published three books. I write hooks all the time. A good hook does not have to be clickbait. In my experience, when a person struggles to come up with a good hook, they write clickbait.

Eufrat 2mo ago

You are trying to launder responsibility for a clickbait title to a computer program. Then you try to shift the topic to the public good you are providing. I don’t think it’s wrong to use clickbait, but come on, own up to it. You consciously chose to “let [YouTube] pick it.”

geerlingguy 2mo ago
I never said it wasn't clickbait. If you don't like it, either install DeArrow or subscribe to my blog, where I tone it down for the more technical audience. (Or block/ignore my content, no skin off my back!)
- aurareturn 2mo ago
  That's why you're not a serious reviewer. If you're serious, you wouldn't mislead people. Even your blog post does not tell the truth nor does it have highlights of benchmarks that represent how people will actually use a $600 laptop. The people who are buying these laptops are likely not very technical and it's your job to guide them. They wouldn't know that an FP64 test on the $600 laptop is near useless - yet you base the entire conclusion on it.
  - ithadhumor 2mo ago
    Jeff has a day job. He is not a professional reviewer. He shows cool products and showcases what he’s passionate about. YouTube as a medium requires clickbait - that’s the belly of the beast.
    - aurareturn 2mo ago
      I'm not denying that clickbait works on Youtube. He's amassed 1 million Youtube subscribers doing clickbait it seems. My problem is that both the clickbait title and the conclusion are straight up wrong and misleading. Even clickbait titles on Youtube will often have the correct conclusion. This is not the case here.
- 2mo ago

testing22321 2mo ago

> I had three YouTube titles, this one got about 2x the watch time as the other two, so I let YT pick it. I think you’re being mid leading here Jeff. You almost make it sound like YT actually came up with the title. For anyone that is not a YouTuber, Jeff wrote three different titles himself, then YouTube ran an A/B test and just kept the one that resulted in the most watch time. Jeff consciously chose to write a click bait title, he could equally have chosen not to.

wasfgwp 2mo ago
He also consciously chose to post it on Youtube, he could have chosen not to.

throwawayZvY7QV 2mo ago

[dead]