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.

  • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    Rich people's wealth is wasted on them. They don't know what to do with money other than use it to make even more money. The only rich person I know about who I consider normal is Tom Anderson, the Myspace guy. He made millions then retired and just wanders around the world without any worries. I can relate to that.

    Mr Beast has easily 10x the money of Myspace Tom and yet still keeps going, for what? So he can have even more money he won't spend on anything?

    • FALGSConaut [comrade/them]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Rich people's wealth is wasted on them.

      Many such examples! Musk is another great example. Dude could have fucked off years ago but he had to buy twitter because he couldn't stop posting!