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MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

nytimes.com

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Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#241

Post by motoxpro »

batmaniam wrote: post #172
motoxpro wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this take on him so strange. I also don't understand the take that altruism/philanthropy has to be zero sum. i.e. true altruism means that I lose something and you gain something. Maybe it is a hold over from religion and the idea of sacrifice being the ultimate good. The times I have had the most impact (helping people in need, teaching, starting my own NPO) it has been very much positive sum. If he has zero…

> Can someone give me some examples of philanthropy that is NOT predatory/extractive? Richard Stallman and his work on free software? I think what OP is saying is that at Mr Beast's income level, he can effectively create a lasting change that most of us can't. Instead he focuses on people individually, giving them nice gestures but nothing life-changing, and he continues to do this because his viewers demand these t…

Does philanthropy have to be utilitarian? In the sense that if you donate money your only goal should be scale? Is that the definition?

Which one is better, donating $1 to 100,000 people or $100,000 to one person?

Similarly is donating $10,000 to cancer research better than $10,000 to one person? The cancer research may never have an impact, but it makes us "feel" good becasue it has the potential to change millions of lives.

Just an interesting one to me how we diminish the impact of helping one person when that one person could go on to be a Steve Jobs or the first person in the family to go to college. Literally life changing, where as donating for scale is a drop in the ocean and means almost nothing to a ton of people.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#242

Post by dmarchand90 »

guyzero wrote: post #210
Dig1t wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man this is such a cynical take. I listened to his interview on the Joe Rogan show and was really impressed. Mr. Beast built his channel by taking all profits from each video and plying it into the next video. Using this approach he was able to produce progressively larger and more expensive videos. He has demonstrated his frugal lifestyle, has publicly given away an incredible amount of money to good causes, and has…

"Mr. Beast built his channel by taking all profits from each video and plying it into the next video" To me this seems like a semi-obvious minmaxing solution to making popular videos: make essentially zero profit, regardless of revenue. At some point you get so much revenue that you can't spend it all so the next logical step is to simply give it away as part of the video. And in this case it's a virtuous cycle - app…

I thought he was cool until he launched a chocolate line. Really? Is that what we need? Most of his audience is young gen z, and I'm sure the last thing the most obese generation ever needs is someone pushing more sugar on their diets

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#243

Post by memefrog »

photoGrant wrote: post #236
memefrog wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Attention is not money. Watching a YouTube video is not being charitable. You cannot just blankly assert that "their time is paying for the charity in the videos" without explaining why this is true. You will have a difficult time explaining that, because it isn't true. As I said in the comment you replied to, but apparently didn't take the time to read, his viewers do not give him money by watching the videos. YouTu…

Attention is money. How you skin it doesn't matter. Your attention is what's for sale, and bought.

It literally just is not. Attention and money are categorically different things. If you want to argue that directing your attention at something is somehow equivalent to spending money on it, then be my guest. But you have not done that. You have shallowly asserted that they are identical with the verb "is". They are not.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#244

Post by Invictus0 »

chimen wrote: post #80

It's not altruism if it's your source of income. Sorry but I don't buy this bs. He's doing it to generate income, that's all. Altruism is "unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others" but we have quite the opposite here - a selfish way of milking poor people for emotions in order to generate income. Real altruism is hard and done only by a few. Literally EVERY man/woman/child on this planet will say yes…

Terrible fucking take that could only come from HN. How many cataract surgeries have you funded? How many pounds of trash have you cleaned up from the ocean? Let's hear what a big impact you're having if Mr. Beast's impact is 0.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#245

Post by guyzero »

dmarchand90 wrote: post #242
guyzero wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Mr. Beast built his channel by taking all profits from each video and plying it into the next video" To me this seems like a semi-obvious minmaxing solution to making popular videos: make essentially zero profit, regardless of revenue. At some point you get so much revenue that you can't spend it all so the next logical step is to simply give it away as part of the video. And in this case it's a virtuous cycle - app…

I thought he was cool until he launched a chocolate line. Really? Is that what we need? Most of his audience is young gen z, and I'm sure the last thing the most obese generation ever needs is someone pushing more sugar on their diets

It's better than an energy drink line I suppose.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#246

Post by idank »

mkaic wrote: post #167
iamleppert wrote: post #136

He isn’t genuine. In his origin story you’ll notice he talks about trying lots of different strategies to maximize his views and engagement. That’s his only real goal. He stumbled upon his current formula by accident after significant iteration. It strikes me that he could have just as easily be producing any kind of harmful content if the rules of what’s acceptable to society and YouTube were different. It just so h…

The way I see it, if those lonely elderly people's days are brightened by being given a flower, who cares what the intentions of the flower-giver were?

On a micro scale it's a nice gesture, macro wise it could be seen as inauthentic and meaningless.

There's a comparison to be made to choosing to stay in the matrix or unplug yourself from the illusion.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#247

Post by fragsworth »

dmarchand90 wrote: post #242
guyzero wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Mr. Beast built his channel by taking all profits from each video and plying it into the next video" To me this seems like a semi-obvious minmaxing solution to making popular videos: make essentially zero profit, regardless of revenue. At some point you get so much revenue that you can't spend it all so the next logical step is to simply give it away as part of the video. And in this case it's a virtuous cycle - app…

I thought he was cool until he launched a chocolate line. Really? Is that what we need? Most of his audience is young gen z, and I'm sure the last thing the most obese generation ever needs is someone pushing more sugar on their diets

Are you joking? I can't really tell. Chocolate?

Do you think girl scouts are scumbags too?

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#248

Post by motoxpro »

nkozyra wrote: post #237
motoxpro wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That makes sense. Thanks for that. If unselfish means that I can't benefit in addition to you benefiting I don't think I see altruism as a super positive thing. Turns into "he gave up his last dollar for that person!" which is seen as a super altruistic thing to do, but now, not only does that person only have a dollar, you've taken yourself out of the game and can no longer do any more good in the world because you…

> If unselfish means that I can't benefit in addition to you benefiting One doesn't preclude the other. But if my benefit is a pre-requisite for the benefit of others, it changes the dynamic. Would Mr. Beast continue these acts if he weren't also turning it into content? I'm sure everyone has an opinion, but I'm not particularly convinced. I suppose what makes it hard to be skeptical here is there is real "good" bein…

I guess thats what I mean. Of course he wouldn't continue because he wouldn't have the money to continue.

I give you 30 grand or cure your blindness or buy you a house and you participate in my video. It seems like a win win.

If the argument is that he is making more than they are making off that one video, again, that goes back to me having benefit less than you.

Maybe the problem is the framing people have of it being a charity? Even in that light, he creates content for people to consume for free, the content is driven by him giving things away, the people who pay him are businesses who also get a service provided by all of those people finding out about their product/service. It seems a lot less extractive than most business models.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#249

Post by jdprgm »

I think it's a reflection of the complete monopoly Youtube has on E, pg, pg-13, and R (basically nonexistent on Youtube) content. Video on the internet is basically Youtube with all its restrictions or porn. Mr. Beast is basically the channel a bunch of marketing managers won't get fired for giving a bunch of money to. It's all the pretty fucked up result of our complete failure to innovate anything in-between ad based media and cable subscriptions.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#250

Post by batmaniam »

oh_sigh wrote: post #230
batmaniam wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, that's on the individual level. You and I can donate to a medical organization that helps people 'see and hear' too. Or fund a go-fund-me to help that person. It's great that person got immediate access to the healthcare they needed with this money. We can do basically what Mr Beast does right now if we pooled our resources together. The bigger issue is why that healthcare is inaccessible to them in the first…

What is Mr Beast's net worth? Maybe somewhere between $100M and $500M. There are at least 1000 people in the US right now, probably far more, who have just as much money or influence as him. What's stopping all of them from going to that next step?

Exactly. What's stopping them? Nothing, right? They've got all the money they'll ever need, and powerful friends if they need something money can't buy. Yet like you said, what's being done to fix structural issues within society?

The only structural changes I see are wealth disparities getting increasingly wider in society, with laws and tax cuts being favored for the ultra rich after each new presidential leadership. Who's putting the work into this? Not me, and probably not you. So who?

They for sure donate to make-a-wish foundations or whatever, which is great. But think of it this way: how does that help you or your kids when cost-prohibitive life-saving surgery is needed? Are you gonna quit your job and camp out near a rich youtuber's house to get that lucky chance encounter in the hopes you'll get picked for the next individual success?

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