The boss I’ve never met
and why I keep trying to impress it anyway
Hello you. No big news this week, just something that’s been on my mind, and this newsletter has always been the place I think out loud. So bear with me.
🤖 The invisible boss
Every creator on YouTube works for a boss they’ve never met, can’t email, and who changes the rules without warning. The algorithm. Some weeks it loves you, some weeks it acts like you’ve personally offended it, and nobody in the building will tell you what you did wrong. I’ve spent more evenings than I’d like to admit staring at a graph trying to read its mood, and ended up none the wiser!
📈 The trap I keep falling into
Here’s the honest bit. It’s dangerously easy to start making videos for the machine instead of for you. Chase the trend, copy the thumbnail everyone else is using, shave thirty seconds off because “retention”. And every single time I’ve done that, the video’s been worse and I’ve enjoyed making it less. The stuff that actually lands, funnily enough, is the stuff I cared about. Who knew!
🧭 Where my head’s at
So the plan, if you can call it that, is to keep improving the craft (better edits, tighter scripts, sharper thumbnails, all of it) without letting the numbers dictate what I actually point the camera at. But I want the content to get better for you, not for the graph or “the algo”! Some of that you’ll already be seeing in the recent uploads. Some of it you’ll tell me I’ve got completely wrong, which is fair, and welcome.
✈️ An exciting Munich trip coming up
XPENG, a Chinese EV car brand has invited me to come check out their latest, in beautiful Munich! So the next issue of this newsletter will certainly have more details on that! I had the pleasure of test driving their EVs last year at the Mobility IAA, also in Munich and I couldn’t believe how much luxury and performance you get with XPENG. So can’t wait to see what they’ve been cooking!
💬 Over to you
If you noticed something different in the content that you enjoyed, please do let me know. But also tell me if you didn’t like something new that you noticed. As much as I try to improve the content, I want to make sure it lands for you.
Just reply to this, or leave it in the comments on my latest video. You lot have steered this channel more than any algorithm ever has, and I’d rather keep it that way.
Right, back to squinting at graphs and suffer watching England in the World Cup!
Have a great weekend!
Obrigado,
Alex