If viewers don’t really see him having fun, that’s by design. Donaldson has outright said he sees “personality” as a limitation for growth, once noting in a podcast that hinging your content on who you are as a person means risking not being liked. And if someone doesn’t like a creator as a person, they may not give the videos a chance.

McLoughlin’s comments hit at another bleak possibility: Viewers may hardly see MrBeast having fun in his videos because he’s not actually having a good time. In podcasts, Donaldson tells hosts that he goes so hard, he won’t stop working until he burns out and isn’t able to do anything at all. With a laugh, he admits that he has a mental breakdown “every other week.” If he ever stops for a breather, he says, he gets depressed. MrBeast is so laser-focused on generating content on YouTube that he describes his personality as “YouTube.” He acknowledges that this brutal approach to videos, which has cratered many creators over the years, is not healthy. “People shouldn’t be like me. I don’t have a life, I don’t have a personality”

While his free time seems minuscule, the rare times he does pull away from work are for dates with his girlfriend that center around activities that could enrich his videos, because he considers a single hour of a date to be worth $100K had it been dedicated to work instead.

Absolutely brutal indictment of algorithmic capitalism.

  • PKMKII [none/use name]
    ·
    5 months ago

    He tells viewers that while he employs a sizable percentage of his hometown, he still lives modestly, unlike other rich YouTubers.

    Okay this is something I’ve never been quite clear on: how many people/employees does it take to make Mr. Beast happen? I get that it’s a bigger operation than someone just doing “let’s talk about the patch notes for a video game update” kind of videos, but “employs an entire town” seems way bigger than warranted, unless we’re talking about a rather small town.

    • jackmarxist [any]
      ·
      5 months ago

      He apparently owns a neighbourhood which he bought for his staff.

      • Adkml [he/him]
        ·
        5 months ago

        So he wants credit for reinventing a company town.

        • FALGSConaut [comrade/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          I love paying for my rent in Mr. Beastville with Mr. BeastBucks then eating some Mr. Beast Feastables before my shift in the Mr. Beast content farm

          First as tragedy, then as farce

      • PKMKII [none/use name]
        ·
        5 months ago

        Yeah I heard that, but it doesn’t really answer the question. We talking about a hamlet of a hundred people and he employees 40 of them? Or are we talking a town of thousands and he employees a few hundred of them?

    • TechnoUnionTypeBeat [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      5 months ago

      he still lives modestly, unlike other rich YouTubers

      I'm fairly sure that by definition he can't live modestly. Like he has so much money that I sincerely don't think he can even comprehend living modestly

      If he owns a house and a car he's already living richer than most folks I know. I doubt he does groceries at whatever cheap store is in town, he goes to the luxury one but thinks he's modest when he only buys what's on sale

      And even if he isn't spending obscene money on supercars and toys, that just means he's hoarding money. I legitimately cannot believe he even knows what living modestly is like

      • Philosoraptor [he/him, comrade/them]
        hexagon
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        And even if he isn't spending obscene money on supercars and toys,

        Except he totally is. He just buys the supercars in order to feed them into an industrial shredder and shit for views. It's actually way worse than people who buy them and then like drive them drunk until they get arrested and have to pay off the cops or whatever.