How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF) • Hacker News Board

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

#501

Post by nfw2 » Mon, Sep 16, 2024, 5:21 AM UTC

threeseed wrote: post #188

ocean_moist wrote: post #77

Lot of people critiquing this, but you can't deny the success. I think a lot of the advice is applicable to startups. 1. KPIs, for Beast they are CTR, AVD, AVP, will look different if you are a startup. I am willing to bet he knows his metrics better than >95% of startup founders. Because he is literally hacking/being judged by an algorithm, his KPIs will matter more and can be closely dissected. Startups aren't that…

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.

I’ve seen multiple teams hire mediocre people despite having a choice. Usually it is because either:

- they believe velocity is simply additive (A player + B player > A player)

- they look too much into credentials (big name school / employer) and do not adequately vet ability

- they start with the attitude “let’s give this person a chance and see if they work out” and become too reluctant to fire when they turn out mediocre.

Teams should be more comfortable staying small longer in my opinion.

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

#502

Post by aaronbrethorst » Mon, Sep 16, 2024, 5:25 AM UTC

kloop wrote: post #465

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. I genuinely do not know what you're trying to say here. For funsies, I tossed this into Claude 3.5 Sonnet with the prompt "Translate this into 7th g…

They're talking about Bayesian priors. Basically prior assumptions about the likelihood of a subject. It's a common phrase in the ratsphere (and its descendants). Changing your mind is one outcome, but the implication is that it requires a complete reexamining of your worldview, as changing the internalized probabilities can have many effects on perceived likely outcomes.

I also do not understand what you’re trying to get at with “internalized probabilities” etc. I understand the importance of this sort of jargon to the ‘ratsphere’ and all that (https://www.reddit.com/r/sgiwhistleblowers/s/nLaIGJbWAI), but that doesn’t make it any more intelligible to me. I guess that isn’t the point.

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

#503

Post by nine_k » Mon, Sep 16, 2024, 5:34 AM UTC

latexr wrote: post #200

> Lot of people critiquing this, but you can't deny the success. You could say that about literally any shady business. Imagine seeing a PDF proving tobacco leaders knew for decades that it caused cancer and saying what you did. Being monetarily successful does not mean you’re good or shouldn’t be criticised.

Imagine that our bitter enemies invented a superior logistics tool, known as the wheel. Should we even consider adopting it, given its clearly ethically unacceptable origins?

If you think that this is an entirely artificial example, consider the fact that the same man designed the V-2 rockets which were hitting London during WWII, and the Saturn-5 rockets which brought astronauts to Moon: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun

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

#504

Post by csomar » Mon, Sep 16, 2024, 5:38 AM UTC

thrdbndndn wrote: post #471

> Here’s a darker note from the section “Random things you should know”: >> Do not leave consteatants waiting in the sun (ideally waiting in general) for more than 3 hours. Squid game it cost us $500,000 and boys vs girls it got a lot of people out. Ask James to know more Can someone explain this to me? I don't quite get what the original quote means.

s/consteatants/contestants. My guess is that they left the players in Squid game is the sun and someone got hurt?

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

#505

Post by johnfn » Mon, Sep 16, 2024, 5:38 AM UTC

dyauspitr wrote: post #258

pnathan wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But, what's the alternative? Ban YouTube. Have only 1 movie/TV night. Mandate books as primary entertainment. Stock the home library with classic tales of heroism and adventure. Own an encyclopedia set. Reject the brainshinker system and look to works of more enduring worth. Videos should be thoughtful. If that's not possible in the family dynamic, shut it down.

People might downvote this but it’s what our family is doing. We barely watch any TV and do t spend a lot of time on screens. We have a lot of books and entertainment for my kids is primarily through reading physical books, sports, hanging out with friends in their backyard etc.

Why on earth would anyone downvote this? This has to be one of the most common viewpoints held on HN.

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

#506

Post by DaoVeles » Mon, Sep 16, 2024, 5:39 AM UTC

smsm42 wrote: post #10

> “I Spent 50 Hours In Ketchup” > In general the more extreme the better. I may be sounding like "get off my lawn" guy right now but should there be some realization that these people are a cultural analogue of if not heroin than at least cigarettes? They are making a good living from making things objectively worse in a society by tickling the base instincts of the addicts. I am not calling for government interventi…

Maybe a little sprinkling of PT Barnum in there as well?

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

#507

Post by thinkloop » Mon, Sep 16, 2024, 5:41 AM UTC

gleventhal wrote: post #360

nrp wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s one of the most interesting parts of this document. Many people will read it and think “I would never work at a place like that,” and many others would think “that’s exactly the environment I want to work in!” More startups should be this transparent about their stated/desired culture (even if unintentionally).

It clearly biased for young people or those without a family with something to prove, the perfect type of employee to exploit and vampirize.

There's no exploitation, he wants them to get rich, he wants this to be their last career. He's asking who's interested in going on that journey.

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

#508

Post by mydogcanpurr » Mon, Sep 16, 2024, 5:43 AM UTC

the_gorilla wrote: post #473

gmd63 wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hating on "nitpicking" is the funniest thing to me. It's a bold admission that one has abandoned attention to detail. Huge red flag.

I wonder if this is meant to be ironic because this behavior is exactly what was being criticized. You just picked one specific detail to focus on and ignored everything else.

No, a lot of people on this website value very highly their completely irrelevant nitpicks. I’m starting to think it’s just the kind of mind the tech industry attracts, because I’ve noticed it in some coworkers as well.

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

#509

Post by xupybd » Mon, Sep 16, 2024, 5:44 AM UTC

latexr wrote: post #200

> Lot of people critiquing this, but you can't deny the success. You could say that about literally any shady business. Imagine seeing a PDF proving tobacco leaders knew for decades that it caused cancer and saying what you did. Being monetarily successful does not mean you’re good or shouldn’t be criticised.

This is not comparable

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

#510

Post by barrell » Mon, Sep 16, 2024, 5:49 AM UTC

lxgr wrote: post #417

wrsh07 wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring the ethics of Mr Beast, he is producing real videos at an incredibly high volume and they consistently do numbers. None of those videos is easy to make. Sure, it's maybe not great to be so impressed by logistics or supply chain of a tobacco company, but from a business and systems view some of it is interesting

> Ignoring the ethics [...] I think that's very straightforwardly the point of contention here. Some people are doing that and are discussing the business aspects; others aren't. I don't think any particular discussion is more appropriate than the other, as long as people are in agreement on which one they're having.

I don’t know if they’re necessarily two different conversations - there’s a conversation to be had whether the business practices discussed would have been effective in an ethical operation.

It’s entirely possible the success has nothing to do with the business principles and 100% the ethics. Same the other way around, or anywhere in between.