After ages I released a decent YouTube video. I had had to stop last year because of the need to study for the MSRA exams (which seem to have gone well btw). Just before I stopped, I got a massively successful video about how much money I make as a doctor in the UK. But thanks to the exam prep, I could not capitalize on the newfound attention. It’s been 6 months since that high and the traction has almost flatlined.

Breaking out from the hibernation

Back to today… I have 5400 subscribers, so I did not lose everything during the hiatus. But that metric doesn’t mean much in 2024. Every video needs to stand out on its own. So, the new video which I released today is based on a script I wrote last year. It has some fluff that I would’ve cut out if I wrote the script this year, but I let it stay since I believed I had polished the script enough last year.

Now I got 100 views in 1 day, and it might have looked good to a beginner me… but because I have tasted the fame of the video that blew up, my expectations with myself have increased and I’m not as happy. I have lost another subscriber (I lost one when I made the 4-hour ‘study with me’ video as well), and the real time views have now started declining. Maybe YouTube is looking for an audience, but it doesn’t feel like that in the moment you know.

Analyzing ParkNotes

I remember watching ParkNotes (His substack) last year when I noticed how casually he made the video on his commonplace notebooks, and wondered there’s no way this video would do that great on metrics. He was at 20k subs at the time. Now just 6 months later, he has crossed 100k subscribers. I went back to the video to analyze it today and noticed subtle things.

His video is just as long as it needs to be, he emphasizes things that make him look like a topic authority. He even highlighted what his work means to him. And showed his arm tattoo. People latch onto these things. I can imagine how there can be many people who will look to him as super advanced in his domain, just because they have no background in what he is talking and would like to embody his teachings. And for them, his channel’s existence is a godsend.

Let’s see how this video performs. But currently, the chasing of metrics has made me a bit sad.