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In the belly of the MrBeast

kevinmunger.substack.com

131–140 of 410 posts

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#131
post #98

> and I confess that I feel vindicated by the analytic approach in the book I feel the opposite, everything seems reasonable, business-centric, and marketing-aware strategies.

Isn't that the point? By purely focussing on business-centric strategies, the videos no longer have meaning.

Yeah, what major piece of film of the last 20 years isn’t a carefully crafted business plan?

I think YouTube was so exciting initially because it was so authentic, and now it’s back to big studios.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#132

Interesting experience to read an essay of such insight regarding a subject that is the opposite of insight. Best thing I’ve read this week. I am happy to say I have never seen a Mr. Beast video, and now I will be sure never to see one in the future.

"YouTubers" are one of those things that a lot of people are interested in, yet everything I learn about them makes me not want to start. The world has so much good film, music, novels, even video games and TV - in a choice between any of those and watching a YouTuber, why would anyone choose the latter?

The 'Youtubers' I watch are those that do things that are also my hobbies or interests, for education/demonstration/inspiration.

Woodworking, machining, 3D printing, electronics, that sort of thing. A modern alternative to magazines basically, or to regional/cable/'public access' (I don't really know how it works, not sure if we ever had that sort of thing here) TV shows like the fictional 'Tool Time' show within the sitcom Home Improvement if you ever saw that.

I got started via 'how to do x' for a couple of DIY things, realised there's so much stuff like that, started watching for fun/interest (vs. actually having the job to do myself) and from there the more 'maker' (hate the term) side of doing it for a hobby to create a thing rather than household DIY/repair.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#133

It's interesting how this is happening in software engineering YouTube content as well. It seems like things like "go sucks rust is great! Now rust sucks and zig is great!!" get way more views since it is basically clickbait for nerds. It's too bad that nuanced discussion doesn't do too well on social media.

Nuanced discussion can only happen in good faith. It’s impossible to enforce that so to prevent being turned in to 4chan, social media turns to the most obvious proxy- likes upvote etc.

The logic underpinning this is that if a person is a jerk they will be downvoted- therefore there is an incentive to not be a jerk.

However, because the person on the other side is anonymous and therefore people can’t instinctively presume good faith, upvoting system turn in to a voting system - the goal is not to develop ideas, but to submit ones people will most agree with. When the main danger is apathy, there is no reason from self-moderation. Nerds are not immune.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#134
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I called myself a Semiotics Engineer for 4 years, but the title didn't catch. I did domain analysis, logical model creation, concrete model creation in XML/OWL/KML, model review and improvement, semantic reasoning-based system design/implementation, and message system design/implementation. This was before the rise of ML.

What's your take on LLMs ? I ask you to comment on any aspect, whatever you think is the most interesting from a semiotician's perspective.

Everyone who is familiar with Baudrillard goes "simulacrum!" whenever they encounter LLM output. LLM output is after all a pure chain of symbols that is extremely far removed from a connection with ground truth reality.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#135
post #99
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I obviously don't know your personal experience, but your description is still how YouTube works for me. For example, over the holidays I would occasionally put on a video from a channel that plays holiday music with various videos of this guy's model train setup in the background. I immediately started receiving model train videos, which, of course, I had to click on and now I know a little bit about trains and buil…

I don't think thats the case. Don't confuse homepage recommendations with end of video queue recommendations. It used to be end of video recommendations were heavily weighted on the current video or chain of videos you just watched. Essentially you could keep going to the next video and go down a weird hole of obscure videos. Now the algorithm will quickly circle you back to your profile homepage of videos as opposed…

Oh, I see. I suppose I do recognize more of the 'general recommendations' in the post-video grid rather than basing those solely on the video itself. That being said, I don't use that mechanism generally and tend to rely on the homepage-refresh and side bar to discover additional videos.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#136
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a straight line through 70s Falwell, 90s Limbaugh, tea party, to MAGA. All fueled by a self-reinforcing rage machine.

Left leaning folks are swept up in rage machines too. Leaf through the BoingBoing BBS sometime to get a sense for it.

One only needs to observe societies response to Covid to see how “left leaning folks get swept up into rage machines”. People were cheering on cars getting towed from popular hiking spots, skate parks getting filled with sand, crazy people “protesting” beachgoers, etc. if you dared to suggest schools should open you were a grandma killing MAGA hat wearing pariah. Don’t forget the level of censorship, vaccine passes, wishing death upon those who didn’t get vaccinated, etc.

No sir, people of all tribes are fully capable of getting swept into rage machines. At the end of the day we are animals operating on animal instinct. No tribe gets to claim otherwise.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#137
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great analogy! As a performing magician and a big fan of the movie, I get how obsession with a craft can blur the line between reality and performance. But that line still exists. The best actors, creators, and magicians make us feel they’re being real, even when they’re not.

This is why I struggle with enjoying Andy Kaufman's content -- I'm never entirely sure where that line is. I respect his dedication to the craft, but I have a difficult time enjoying it -- on a meta level, it's unsettling.

Kaufman was Daniel Day Lewis-level dedicated to the character, but there are others, Tom Green for instance, who ostensibly was just as dedicated for the first arc of his fame and career, then loosened his grip on the persona with age. I often think about his trajectory compared to the average social media influencer -- he pioneered so many things and has worked in a bunch of mediums while they're basically imprisoned in their chosen persona, doomed to repeat the formula / gimmick / character day in and day out until the novelty wears off for everybody and they burn out entirely 12-24 months later. The ones with the most longevity seem to have been able to retain autonomy as a creator rather than a creation, as mentioned in the article, allowing them to grow and evolve rather than forever being a one-note wonder whose entire raison d'etre is eating shoe polish on camera.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#138
I think MrBeast and other high end influencers like the Paul brothers are harmful to children. Kids see them flaunting their huge wealth and abandon all their other ambitions in favour of wanting to become a YouTuber. Which, now, is a very competitive platform few succeed on. Kids should be nudged towards working fruitful careers beneficial to society.

Although MrBeast has done some good things with it, I find the way he flaunts his wealth perverse.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#139
post #129
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you suggest using instead. Actually?

People are generally good at context. Tone, expression, etc, all of these things are parts of communication that do matter. Assume your audience is at least as smart as you are.

When communicating through text only, tone and expression is all but lost which means we need to rely on the literal/actual/exact definition of words to convey our intended meaning. However it seems people dont agree on the exact meanings of words (using literally in this case), and so the intention often gets lost in translation and causes disagreements.

I feel personally this is a big reason why communication across the internet is becoming much more intense and full of conflict.

Re: In the belly of the MrBeast

#140

First of all – the essay is phenomenal and his book is available online for free – https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/youtube-apparatus/36... > “Communication within the YouTube Apparatus has no meaning.” The rapid feedback loop between creators and audiences (as constructed by platform metrics) means that the system more and more responds to itself. Rather than trying to go somewhere (as is the case with politi…

Now I understand why numberphile has videos about infinity. I jest, but it seems like only certain content creators can get on the intensification train.

Seriously though, this is true. My YouTube feed has none of this "intensification" stuff. Perun, Blancolirio, everything Brady Haran has made (he's the guy behind Numberphile, Sixty Symbols, etc), Applied Science, etc.

I think the idea that media aimed at education or sharing a passionate hobby is different from media that exists in the first place to just make money. If you start out with a goal that involves communication, I think it's more likely to stick than if your goal was just to become the Death Star from the start!

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