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How are people making money selling knowledge on the Internet? (crazypolymath.substack.com)
22 points by supersarkar 2434 days ago
3 comments

I recently watched a YouTube video about some guy who worked as an engineer at FB, Google, etc and was recently fired by FB because of his YouTube channel. Anyway, YouTube’s algorithm thought I was trying to learn CS and blasted my landing screen with these kinds of videos.

This is when I discovered there’s a micro genre of content creators on YouTube that say they can teach you how to work through big tech company interviews, and some have spun off separate personal websites where you can get access to premium videos or tutorials.

I mean - there’s an industry around how to do well in programming interviews. I had no idea.

It's amazing how much his videos get recommended. He plays the algorithm like a fiddle.

As for the actual videos, I finally watched a few and not even sure what to make of them. It seems so ridiculous, but I can't tell how much is real or made up. I'm just kind of amused by the whole thing.

Here's the channel for anyone wondering: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xKdmAXFh4ACyhpiQ_3qBw

I am pretty sure it's a joke played so deadpan that I hate it.
> I mean - there’s an industry around how to do well in programming interviews

A ex-Facebook employee who's an acquaintance runs a highly successful business that employs 250+ people, bootstrapped up until recently when they took in $1.5M in angel funding at $20M val. They aren't that big as there are even bigger players in the market. I'm not sure if existence of such shops is a good indicator of the state of hiring in tech. Also, such business seem to be optimising for a very narrow goal unlike https://podia.com which is a wonderful platform for creators / tutors to monetize their content.

Despite the existence of books, websites, and MOOCs with arguably better content and community which are cheaper or even free, I've seen many instead opt to pay companies that help tame tech interviews. I guess, people only value what they have to pay for.

Yes the tech lead
what does "yes the tech lead" mean?
The guy is called tech lead on yt
From everything I've read and researched on this topic, it seems that self-help content is the winner. Does anyone know other types of content published by people, as opposed by organized entities, that have provided nice financial rewards similar to those identified in this article? History, politics, travel are some of the topics that come to mind.
People "selling" their skills on YouTube are not actually selling anything. They help YouTube to sell ad space to advertisers, that is all.