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How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF)

simonwillison.net

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Re: How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF)

#271

Post by joshdavham »

simonw wrote: post #255
null0pointer wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope everyone here who is praising the A, B, C-player framework recognizes that it comes from Jack Welch’s much criticized Vitality Curve system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitality_curve#Ratings

I don’t see much similarity here, other than the use of those three letters and the idea that Cs should be removed from the company. The MrBeast As are rated on their ability to learn - which is surprisingly a characteristic that’s not mentioned in the Welch model. MrBeast Bs are As who haven’t got there yet - Welch Bs are not expected to get there. MrBeast Cs are reasonably capable but are missing out on that crucia…

I agree that they're not perfectly similar, but I strongly suspect that MrBeast's idea stemmed from the Welch model. They are suspisciously similar haha

Re: How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF)

#272

Post by __loam »

mondobe wrote: post #257
__loam wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really are condescending to us over Mr.Beast's management style right now. Hackernews is beyond parody.

One of the biggest (and most imitated) channels... on the biggest video-on-demand platform to ever exist... Yeah, not worth being "condescending" over.

Maybe as a case study for the structural failures of algorithmic feeds. Should founders really be looking at what looks like a toxic micromanagment culture for pearls of wisdom? Maybe I'm just a type C employee who needs to be excised rather than a type A who will pretend they're an owner.

Re: How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF)

#273

Post by GlacierFox »

shalmanese wrote: post #217

One distressing trend I've noticed becoming ubiquitous on HN is that any writing that is confronting to a consensus worldview becomes flooded with highly upvoted comments that are, in essence, excuses for why it's not necessary in this instance to re-examine your priors. He's making low value content/the culture of the company is horrible/he's a fraud/it's more luck than skill. The actual critiques are personalized t…

Is it just me or is the way you construct sentences jarring and hard to read? Not sure if it's my dyslexia but I had trouble deciphering the first couple of paragraphs/word jumbles.

Re: How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF)

#274

Post by xwolfi »

shalmanese wrote: post #217

One distressing trend I've noticed becoming ubiquitous on HN is that any writing that is confronting to a consensus worldview becomes flooded with highly upvoted comments that are, in essence, excuses for why it's not necessary in this instance to re-examine your priors. He's making low value content/the culture of the company is horrible/he's a fraud/it's more luck than skill. The actual critiques are personalized t…

You are wrong to think public debates are here to reach an understanding between the debaters. Whining that nobody submits to you in a fight is ridiculous: fight, show us your genius, and don't come crying to mommy if we fight back.

Your goal is to convince the audience, not your opponents.

Re: How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF)

#275

Post by mattmaroon »

zulban wrote: post #54
hypeatei wrote: post #6

So basically: Come up with contrived BS that caters to younger audiences, micromanage anyone who is holding you up, and attempt to game a blackbox algorithm on a site you don't pay for (YouTube) The whole modern social media / influencer sphere seems like a huge bubble that will pop eventually. Google has already started wiping inactive accounts[0] presumably because storage isn't truly infinite or cheap. I imagine Y…

The guy has earned a net worth of maybe $700 million starting with YouTube. Saying it's all a bunch of contrived bullshit hides the fact the he is obviously brilliantly talented and dedicated at making a business from YouTube. If you or others blow off a document he wrote or an interview he gives because most of his videos are "just" gaming an algorithm then you must not be a very curious person. I don't like coffee…

I don’t even think he’s gaming an algorithm. He doesn’t have to.

He’s just making videos people will click on and then watch.

It’s almost like he’s trying to make something people want. I’ve heard that before somewhere…

Re: How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF)

#276

Post by j45 »

greesil wrote: post #142
simonw wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m with you on the management vibes - it doesn’t sound like a culture that I’d enjoy. That’s one of the things I find so interesting about this document: it does feel very honest and unfiltered, and as such it appears to be quite an accurate insight into their culture. And that’s a culture that works if you want to create massive successful viral YouTube videos targeting their audience. How much has that specific ch…

At face value, this is not a culture that would reward risk taking. It's very operations focused. Get x done on day y or you're fired. Maybe they do value risk taking on the creative side?

Learning why it’s done the way it’s done before bringing up the beginner questions they get answered over and over is reasonable.

Re: How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF)

#278

Post by wfme »

nialv7 wrote: post #163
zulban wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy has earned a net worth of maybe $700 million starting with YouTube. Saying it's all a bunch of contrived bullshit hides the fact the he is obviously brilliantly talented and dedicated at making a business from YouTube. If you or others blow off a document he wrote or an interview he gives because most of his videos are "just" gaming an algorithm then you must not be a very curious person. I don't like coffee…

I don't like how much people tie success to the amount of money someone earns. (or how many views someone gets on YouTube, for that matter) There are many people who I consider successful that have never earned 700 mil, and there are people who made billions I don't give a fuck about.

I agree on money != success in a broader sense, but we live in a capitalistic society where wealth creation is possibly the top indicator of "success", so in that sense wealth captured and created is _the_ metric.

Re: How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF)

#279

Post by j45 »

DaoVeles wrote: post #266
threeseed wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always love the "just hire A-players" line. As though startups are trying to hire mediocre people instead of having no choice. And that 95% of startups don't know their metrics. Pretty sure almost all do but again don't have the skills or resources to meaningfully move them.

It does come from a point of privileged. Steve jobs said "A players hire A+ players. A+ players hire A++ players". That was because he saw A players hiring B players. B Players will hire C players - and so on. That is all well and good when you are the golden goose that is Apple. Most people just do not get the opportunity to hire like that.

Apple wasn’t that at the start. But it had a few a players.

Re: How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF)

#280

Post by j45 »

zulban wrote: post #54
hypeatei wrote: post #6

So basically: Come up with contrived BS that caters to younger audiences, micromanage anyone who is holding you up, and attempt to game a blackbox algorithm on a site you don't pay for (YouTube) The whole modern social media / influencer sphere seems like a huge bubble that will pop eventually. Google has already started wiping inactive accounts[0] presumably because storage isn't truly infinite or cheap. I imagine Y…

The guy has earned a net worth of maybe $700 million starting with YouTube. Saying it's all a bunch of contrived bullshit hides the fact the he is obviously brilliantly talented and dedicated at making a business from YouTube. If you or others blow off a document he wrote or an interview he gives because most of his videos are "just" gaming an algorithm then you must not be a very curious person. I don't like coffee…

Well said. It smells like some sour grapes in some of these comments.

Making videos that click and spread is clearly a skill or everyone would do it.

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