UNPOPULAR OPINION: Watching YouTube Business Videos Is A Waste Of Time

[sendz]

I've been thinking about this a lot recently

I'm 22 years old and have been doing my own entrepreneurship thing for over 3 years now.

I remember that I used to consume YouTube content like nobody else. All day sitting there watching business YouTubers and motivational speakers and feeling inside like "wow I'm learning something"

The problem is that if you get stuck in the loop of just watching YouTube content it almost just becomes like Business Porn. You feel like you are doing business but in reality, you are just watching other people succeed.

The best way to do it is to spend 95% of that time actually working, and then when you run into a specific problem or have a specific question go to YouTube to have it answered. Don't just get caught up in the algorithm.

I'd love to hear what you guys all think about this, especially the perspectives from the different age groups.

This also goes with Instagram, TikTok, and any other platform where you are just sitting and watching Hormozi motivation all day. (Hormozi is a G no hate on him he's killing it)

 

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[The-J]

Not really an unpopular opinion around here. It's just another form of consumption.

Team Consumer: watches other people's videos.

Team Producer: makes videos for people to consume.

What team are you on?

 

[sendz]

Not really an unpopular opinion around here. It's just another form of consumption.

Team Consumer: watches other people's videos.

Team Producer: makes videos for people to consume.

What team are you on?

I'm glad to hear that its not an unpopular opinion here.

I'm Team producer, recovering consumer junky haha.

I just found this forum recently, I read the millionaire fastlane a while ago and loved it. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this forum was made by the author.

My new favorite community

 

[Shono]

I've been thinking about this a lot recently

I'm 22 years old and have been doing my own entrepreneurship thing for over 3 years now.

I remember that I used to consume YouTube content like nobody else. All day sitting there watching business YouTubers and motivational speakers and feeling inside like "wow I'm learning something"

The problem is that if you get stuck in the loop of just watching YouTube content it almost just becomes like Business Porn. You feel like you are doing business but in reality, you are just watching other people succeed.

The best way to do it is to spend 95% of that time actually working, and then when you run into a specific problem or have a specific question go to YouTube to have it answered. Don't just get caught up in the algorithm.

I'd love to hear what you guys all think about this, especially the perspectives from the different age groups.

This also goes with Instagram, TikTok, and any other platform where you are just sitting and watching Hormozi motivation all day. (Hormozi is a G no hate on him he's killing it)

I agree. It's like that scene in fight club on the subway where Tyler Durden says 'Self Improvement is masturbation,' ie. when you watch porn and your primitive brain can't differentiate reality from fiction it thinks you're getting laid so it's addicting. Reading non-stop self help books and videos is the same, it feels like you're making progress but self improvement really is just like masturbation, you're F*cking yourself and getting nowhere. (Also the no. 1 demographic of self-help books is stay at home moms, they are also the no. 1 demographic for most hours spent playing video games, which should tell you a lot about the utility of those with endless free time coupled with the pointless nature of consuming self-help shit but never doing anything with it.)

Self improvement for its own sake is for the passive dreamer and neurotic who wishes they could stop time wasting and were bold enough to actually do. There is only doing. My favourite tenet from Taoism is 'An ounce of practice is worth a ton of theory' which is true. Don't get me wrong, almost all successful people have one thing in common which is reading, but they do it in an actionable way, not just to say they read X amount of books.

Also the likes of Alex Hormozi, Tai Lopez, Andrew Tate, etc. are all clearly well read which is why they're so well received because they can regurgitate the highlights of what they read in bite size pieces for normies that don't read, thus for them hoarding ideas is invaluable. But for regular people that want to do shit, learning on the field is much more badass and in the end is the only way that provides actual growth and progress. The shy guy that approaches 10 girls made infinitely more progress than the guy that read 100 books on how to talk to women and never did.

 

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[Grugenio]

I've been thinking about this a lot recently

I'm 22 years old and have been doing my own entrepreneurship thing for over 3 years now.

I remember that I used to consume YouTube content like nobody else. All day sitting there watching business YouTubers and motivational speakers and feeling inside like "wow I'm learning something"

The problem is that if you get stuck in the loop of just watching YouTube content it almost just becomes like Business Porn. You feel like you are doing business but in reality, you are just watching other people succeed.

The best way to do it is to spend 95% of that time actually working, and then when you run into a specific problem or have a specific question go to YouTube to have it answered. Don't just get caught up in the algorithm.

I'd love to hear what you guys all think about this, especially the perspectives from the different age groups.

This also goes with Instagram, TikTok, and any other platform where you are just sitting and watching Hormozi motivation all day. (Hormozi is a G no hate on him he's killing it)

Yeah i agree. I remember reading that constantly watching that kind of videos over and over without taking action is like masturbation for our brain. It creates dependence and kills the drive to put in the work

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Not an unpopular opinion here...

The best use of YT is to use it as a problem solver.

For example, my wife has become a master gardener and a plant-based gourmet chef, all compliments of YT.

The difference is, she didn't randomly consume content, she sought it out when confronted with a problem or an objective. Then she acted and practiced, over and over.

Specific problem or objective > YT > Act.

 

[YouCanDoThis]

And swap out YT with books or podcasts or webinars or even forums or any other medium for dispensing information, and the equation stays the same, of course.

 

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[MartinG]

And the beauty and also the curse of the internet is that the lines between effective consumption for action versus endless consumption are very blurred. Good luck!

 

[Pain Brain]

Yeah i agree. I remember reading that constantly watching that kind of videos over and over without taking action is like masturbation for our brain. It creates dependence and kills the drive to put in the work

Almost like you are living through the people you watch. You get the gratification without the experience.

 

[Panos Daras]

Rephrase this to "watching YouTube videos and not taking action based on the advice you received is a waste of time" and we are good.

For me watching YouTube videos AND taking action has helped me among other things:

1) Communicate better.
2) Get dates.
3) Get married.
4) Lose 30 kilos.
5) Fix stuff in my house.
6) Start a business.
7) Be better at my work.
8) Quit Alcohol.
9) Stop smoking.
10) Get inside the Fastlane forum and piss everyone off.

That being said it can always end on a mindless scroll. So after I asked for advice on this on the forum, someone proposed the YouTube Blur Chrome add-on. It basically blurs the thumbnails and it has brought my mindless scrolling down a lot.
So now I use it purposefully and I budget time for watching things on the platform.

 

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[MartinG]

Rephrase this to "watching YouTube videos and not taking action based on the advice you received is a waste of time" and we are good.

For me watching YouTube videos AND taking action has helped me among other things:

1) Communicate better.
2) Get dates.
3) Get married.
4) Lose 30 kilos.
5) Fix stuff in my house.
6) Start a business.
7) Be better at my work.
8) Quit Alcohol.
9) Stop smoking.
10) Get inside the Fastlane forum and piss everyone off.

That being said it can always end on a mindless scroll. So after I asked for advice on this on the forum, someone proposed the YouTube Blur Chrome add-on. It basically blurs the thumbnails and it has brought my mindless scrolling down a lot.
So now I use it purposefully and I budget time for watching things on the platform.

It's the single most greatest informational resource we have to learn how to do just about anything. Like with anything, if it can be used in moderation then you can get the unrivaled benefits from it.

 

[Panos Daras]

It's the single most greatest informational resource we have to learn how to do just about anything. Like with anything, if it can be used in moderation then you can get the unrivaled benefits from it.

Was. Now it is ChatGPT 4 by far.

 

[Bence Ur]

YouTube has some great free videos.

However if you have the budget it's better to buy a high-quality online course. Do your due diligence: read the reviews, ask around in forums, research the instructors etc. It saves you a lot of time. You might find everything online for free, but your time is valuable. So when you buy a high-quality online course you essentially buy time. Because it is like curated, high-quality information.

But yes then you need to take action immediately, don't just consume content. Analysis paralysis is a real thing.

 

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