[Velc]

“If you’re taking AI or drop shipping startup ideas from online videos with hundreds of thousands of views, you’ve already lost.”

So nobody can find inspiration and learn about new things from YouTube videos? This seems like a fairly obtuse statement. I don’t watch these hustle porn guys on YouTube but I learn a hell of a lot from smaller tech YouTubers who produce educational content.

The author is clearly quite salty. Vox is just as bad if not worse than these guys on YouTube. Their whole schtick is riling people up for page views with no consideration for the wider societal impact.

[highwaylights]

I think you’ve missed the point of the comment.

The point is that these people aren’t making their money from what they’re preaching, they’re making it from YouTube.

Even if there were some validity to what they’re saying in the videos, if the video has 3 million views by the time you’ve watched it then you’re at least the 3 millionth fish in the packed-to-the-gills salmon farm by then and there’s no margin left for you.

[MrPatan]

Vox also doesn't make their money from whatever it is they preach, but from Vox getting clicks.

[taneq]

It’s a bit like people who write financial advice books. They don’t make their money from their clever investment ideas, they make it from selling self help books.

[lethuel]

There's lots of similar programming videos, does that mean you should not learn programming because you'll be the 3 millionth fish? Competition exists in every niche, you still have to get better than others, there's no silver bullet.

[varsketiz]

I'm not sure how you get from

"If you’re taking AI or drop shipping startup ideas from online videos with hundreds of thousands of views, you’ve already lost"

to

"So nobody can find inspiration and learn about new things from YouTube videos?"

[Velc]

If a startup idea is good, it doesn’t really matter if someone mentioned it in a video that got hundreds of thousands of views. Execution is still the key component.

‘You’ve already lost’ implies that every idea must be completely unique in order for you to ‘win’ whatever that means.

[calculated]

I was going to say the same thing as you. The article has a good title but besides that it completely missed the point. And the sentence you quoted was only the cherry on top.

[FredPret]

Elsewhere on HN’s front page today: negativity drives engagement. Vox and others on both sides of the political spectrum turned that into a business.