Thread by @AliAbdaal

Last night, I had a catch-up call with some YouTuber friends (@mattdavella, @TomFrankly, @joeyschweitz, @np1ndey, @nathanieldrew_). We chatted for around 2 hours. Some notes 👇

Every YouTuber at every size worries about the algorithm. One of the biggest challenges of being a YouTuber is trying not to worry about the algorithm.

The highlight reel looks very different to the behind-the-scenes. The guys complimented me on my apparent disregard for the algorithm, and willingness to put out random content (eg: piano + singing) that had nothing to do with productivity.

In reality, I was shititng myself when I pressed publish on that video, and it absolutely tanked in performance, which made me sad for many days.

.@nathanieldrew_'s taken a break from posting regularly recently. We all worry so much about consistency and about 'channel momentum'. But his doesn't seem to have changed at all. Could consistency be a myth? Maybe for some channels, it might be.

We're all trying to be sincere with our videos, but not too serious about them. 'Sincere' = recognising that it's all just a game, and we're going to play our best, but not let it ruin our lives. 'Serious' = taking the game too seriously.

We often don't watch each other's videos, so as to not accidentally-end-up-copying an idea. But we probably worry too much about appearing as though we're stealing ideas from one another anyway.

Most of us feel 'experienced-starved' because of covid. It's like we've been living the same day everyday for months. When creating content of any kind, it's always more interesting and fulfilling to draw from first-hand experience, rather than to distil second-hand experience

This is a big part of why I'm heading back into Medicine, rather than aiming to be a 'full time YouTuber'. *Doing* stuff and then talking about it is very different to *reading* stuff and then talking about it.

Amongst all of us (and lots of my other YouTuber friends), there's a general trend towards "I want to make videos I enjoy, rather than just focusing on videos that I know will perform well".

Recurring calendar events are the best. Matt initiated the first call 3 months ago, and now it's in the calendar for every quarter. This is going to ensure it actually happens.

Someone always needs to initiate. If you've got a group of friends, then try to be the initiator of a regular group activity (with calendar links). They'll all be thankful for it.

Some level of structure is also good. The conversation was very free-flowing, but had a general structure of 'each person sharing what they're working on this quarter', which springboarded into interesting discussions.

Thanks guys for the ongoing inspiration. Special shoutout to @TomFrankly for bringing us together, and to @mattdavella for organising the calls :) Until next time xx