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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)

#851

Post by quest88 »

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%.

So, you always go to the library for every problem you have where you need a detailed guide?

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

#852

Post by underlipton »

agluszak wrote: post #721
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…

And the "best YOUTUBE videos possible" are... toxic, useless brainrot? (with occasional for-views philanthropy) These videos are certainly the best in terms of what money they can make... but are they any good for their consumers?

His competition and giveaway videos are just the modern version of reality TV and game shows, where the draw is the horse race and human drama. You might call that "toxic, useless brainrot," but personally, I feel like such fare is about on the same level as any number of classic novels (including pretty much anything authored by a Bronte sister). Your enjoyment likely hinges on your level of empathy for the people involved, as they're thrown into complex social situations with their livelihood at stake, or whatever.

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

#853

Post by [deleted] »

meowface wrote: post #785
agluszak wrote: post #721

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the "best YOUTUBE videos possible" are... toxic, useless brainrot? (with occasional for-views philanthropy) These videos are certainly the best in terms of what money they can make... but are they any good for their consumers?

>toxic, useless brainrot I assumed that's what all his videos were for years and hadn't ever watched any (given I am not a child, among other reasons), but I gave one a chance out of curiosity and found myself surprisingly enjoying some of the competition videos. The competitions are often well-designed and adeptly narratively structured.

[deleted]

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

#854

Post by JohnMakin »

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #694
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…

>Lawyers finding problems and trying to stop things from happening instead of finding solutions. Sounds like they're doing their jobs, which is to protect your future selves from your current selves. Sure, finding solutions is great, but faulting them from finding problems and slowing things down until solutions are found is odd. Yes, security or IT does sometime have to act as a reality check in an organization that…

See this all the time - for example, zealous dev "if I had production DB read/write I could get things done so much faster."

Sure, but the production DB has an incredible amount of PII and we are audited out the wazoo, but even if that weren't the case and it was totally fine, all it takes is you being careless with your credentials one time and the company's hosed or we have a massive breach, or some rogue employee encrypts the data with ransomware. So, yes, it would make you faster, and no, you can't have it. It's insane how often I have this type of conversation and insane how often I am the bad guy in it.

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

#855

Post by darby_nine »

xwowsersx wrote: post #845
darby_nine wrote: post #789

I can't be the only person disturbed by the penetration of terms like "obsession" into nominally professional culture. You should not be asking your employees to qualify for DSM symptoms just to not get fired (with severance, lol, that is genuinely a step up from nothing even if it's clearly meant to soften the psychological shock of reading about A- B- and C- employees).

You may not find it appealing, but the truth is that most major successes are driven by obsession. It’s not a balanced or psychologically sound way to live—no one claims it is. If you believe great achievements come from people working regular hours, taking it slow, and maintaining a comfortable pace, you are mistaken. Newton, Steve Jobs, Marie Curie...the list goes on. These people's success wasn't a product of bala…

> You may not find it appealing, but the truth is that most major successes are driven by obsession.

Great, don't force it on your employees. I am not working for you for anything other than a paycheck and flexible working conditions and stimulating work.

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

#856

Post by dogleash »

jerrygoyal wrote: post #606
tkgally wrote: post #335

It might be interesting to contrast MrBeast’s management approach with that of Marques Brownlee (MKBHD). He is also a successful YouTuber who leads a team that puts out videos on several channels. While his videos don’t have the huge production scale of MrBeast’s, they seem to be produced on short deadlines and must require close coordination among his team. If I were young and wanted to work in online media producti…

despite less views, MKBHD is more net positive for humanity than MrBeast. MrBeast's whole game is to draw people's attention to not-so-useful content.

Is product fetishism really better than light entertainment? The MKBHD slop is just branded with that same vibe of the products he likes to cover, namely the self-satisfactions of luxury goods that people mistake for high quality. That gives the false signal it provides more value than Mr. Beast. Yes, MKBHD technically covers products, but so did Top Gear. The content is neither necessary nor sufficient to make an informed purchase decision.

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

#858

Post by fishpen0 »

twojobsoneboss wrote: post #839
btbuildem wrote: post #714

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lawyers finding problems and trying to stop things from happening instead of finding solutions. Security blocking things and not suggesting alternatives. IT blocking this or that instead of trying solve problems, etc. I think these are clear signs of a dysfunctional organization. I want to associate that with company size (larger -> more bureaucratic, counter-mission nonsense), but I've also seen large companies th…

TBF there are orgs at companies whose sole role is to play DEFENSE - lawyers, CSO etc… if they deem something too risky it IS their job to block it, and then it’s up to upper management to override them if the situation calls for it. Now that said they should still try to advance the mission within that framework, and not be lazy.

The most secure company is, of course, the company that doesn't exist. Bankrupting your org is certainly the most effective way to keep it secure.

Yes, their role is defense, but not insofar as to remove the profitability of the organization. In several orgs now I've seen the legal team blow contracts and the security team break the product and the IT team break development in the name of performing their role "correctly".

Brainless box checking is not part of defense, you must be willing to critically think about how to fit your role to your product or organization's profit motive.

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

#859

Post by gregmac »

oulipo wrote: post #635
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.

Exactly!! we need to stop conflating "efficiency" with "success" Being efficient at destroying the planet is NOT success If anything we need to go slower and gentler (environmentally, socially, economically), not "faster"

> Being efficient at destroying the planet is NOT success

For some businesses being efficient means there is a side-effect of destroying the planet. For others it's causing customers/employees long-term health effects like cancer. Many industries that are considered highly profitable have these types of things -- think pharmaceuticals (legal or not), lending, gambling.

"Success" in a business generally means being profitable. Usually this requires being "efficient" but being efficient isn't the goal. Neither is "Net good for society/humanity at large" -- at least not the main one, taking priority over being profitable.

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

#860

Post by intalentive »

Andrex wrote: post #434
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For as much slop as gets produced on YouTube, I think the high quality educational content more than makes up for it. You can literally look up any subject and find a full blown series on the topic. His huge budgets and willingness to reinvest all the profits into future videos have allowed MrBeast to produce a lot of unique videos which are effectively unmatched by anyone else. Right now they're really the undispute…

Agreed, YouTube is the PBS of the internet. It's free and fast.

It’s a wonder of the modern world
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