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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)

#771

Post by corry »

KeplerBoy wrote: post #769
corry wrote: post #764

MrBeast - an OG Founder Mode guy? I'll leave it to you all to debate the ethics of MrBeast's videos, YouTube, and the questionable value of these videos. Meanwhile, the most fascinating part of this is a glimpse into a new kind of media company, where he instituted a particular process and approach and scaled it up outside of the initial set of producers. You get the sense he's flying by the seat of his pants into a…

> There are more parallels to startup founders than one might admit. It is a startup and he is a founder. There are no parallels, he is simply an example. His video production company is very similar to other entertainment companies catering to the same audience like roblox (studios) or mobile gaming startups in general.

Fair, I should have said "tech founders" I suppose. I think it's reasonable to draw distinctions between tech, media, clothing, retail, etc startups.

Like, MrBeast seems like a media startup which is different than, say, a SaaS startup or an AI assistant startup. Fair enough?

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

#773

Post by jjkaczor »

tpmoney wrote: post #218
simonw wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other corporations seriously have employee handbooks with sentences like this in? “… instead of starting with his house in the circle that he would live in, we bring it in on a crane 30 seconds into the video. Why? Because who the fuck else on Youtube can do that lol.”

They do, but usually you'll find it worded something like "Deliver high value, seamless and synerginized entertainment that frontalizes our strengths and inspires diverse modalities of consumer satisfaction"

This guy "corporates"... today you win at "buzzword bingo"!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzzword_bingo

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

#774

Post by emchammer »

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…

If you write everything as if you must put your name to it, and then do put your name to it, your writing becomes stronger, and those kind of contrarian-neuroses go away.

This account name is not my real name, but I have thought about making an HN account with my real name. Mostly I just try to spend less time on HN these days.

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

#775

Post by wrsh07 »

calmbonsai wrote: post #545
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

You lost me at "ignoring the ethics". By de facto, you never ignore ethics. You may disregard them, but they're never ignored.

I'm surprised you've never had a hypothetical conversation

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

#776

Post by corford »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #715
bayindirh wrote: post #698

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Replace "youtube videos" with whatever the company is trying to achieve. Some counterpoints: - Xerox knowingly didn't fix the problematic gear trains to guarantee periodic part changes, prioritizing money over "best copier possible". - Ford didn't fix Pinto's fuel tank, prioritizing cost minimization over "best possible car in its class". - Microsoft is did tons of shady things in its OS development history to prio…

> - Dyson's some batteries are notorious for killing themselves via firmware on slight cell imbalance instead of doing self-balancing. Dyson prioritize "steady income via killing good parts early" instead of "building the best vacuum possible". Any good alternatives?

I swapped to Shark and haven't looked back. Current one takes an absolute beating (masses of dog hair, kids mess, countryside dirt walked into the house etc. etc.) and still performs perfectly after 3+ years of almost daily (ab-)use

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

#777

Post by codedokode »

latentcall wrote: post #770
gleventhal wrote: post #359

I don't have the energy for an intellectual debate, but personally, I have the sense that Youtube is net bad for the world and the monetization of Youtube has incentivized and amplified mediocrity, stupidity, and social decay. I don't follow or watch Mr Beast videos, but from what I've seen, they are largely driven by a money fetish and as far as "creativity", it feels on par with the more boring "What would you rath…

Yes agreed. Another commenter said YT is the most valuable educational tool in existence today. I think the real answer is a library. YouTube is 99% junk and just because 1% of it is decent, that doesn’t make up for the 99%.

Maybe but YT recommendations are good enough so that you don't see those 99% you are not interested in.

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

#778

Post by aredox »

doix wrote: post #689

There are lot of comments here disliking MrBeast and what not, but some of the advice can definitely apply to all organizations. > Your goal here is to make the best YOUTUBE videos possible. That’s the number one goal of this production company. It’s not to make the best produced videos. Not to make the funniest videos. Not to make the best looking videos. Not the highest quality videos.. It’s to make the best YOUTUB…

So your ideal model of a company is the infinite paperclip machine?

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

#779

Post by achenet »

Ygg2 wrote: post #550
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 of Mexican drug cartels, they are producing some crucial and consistently demanded products. Like high-volume of drugs and violence that rivals the state. None of those are easy to achieve. Sure, it's maybe not great to be impressed by the logistics of a militarized drug cartel, but from a business and systems view it's quite interesting. /sarcasm This is literally cocaine logic, i.e. because I fe…

what if you study Mexican drug cartels, and you find that they have a certain method of communication that enables them to communicate more efficiently.

You copy this communication in your non-profit organization that feeds starving children and find that you are able to feed 50% more children when communicating with this more efficient method.

This is not "literally cocaine logic", it's learning from others.

To use an example you'll probably agree with more: You can hate the lyrics of a given musical artist but copy their production style and in doing so give your lyrics a better platform from which to be heard.

Methods != end goals

You can adapt effective methods currently used to accomplish questionable things to accomplish more noble things.

although, to be perfectly honest, I doubt you'd learn much from Mexican drug cartels that would apply to software, as the markets are completely different.

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

#780

Post by xivzgrev »

doix wrote: post #689

There are lot of comments here disliking MrBeast and what not, but some of the advice can definitely apply to all organizations. > Your goal here is to make the best YOUTUBE videos possible. That’s the number one goal of this production company. It’s not to make the best produced videos. Not to make the funniest videos. Not to make the best looking videos. Not the highest quality videos.. It’s to make the best YOUTUB…

I liked how honest the guide was. There wasn’t anything fake noble here and a lot of his frustrations I have also felt as a people manager - the questions employees ask, making excuses when deadlines slip, etc

the job is to make YouTube videos that people click and watch

What gets them to watch and stick is a few things but notably wow factor, something crazy they haven’t seen before

The bar for wow factor keeps rising

Therefore you need to keep learning driving better and better results. Otherwise you are out

You need to take ownership for results to avoid delays at all costs.

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