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by geerlingguy 251 days ago
Very, very few of the people who do those things make enough money to earn an income (proportional to how many try).

But the streaming platforms and game developers love that so many people do try.

2 comments

Luck is a big factor but still... Rolling the dice does not present much of an opportunity cost. I've seen people make a hobby out of gaming these platforms and algorithms with the most random things imaginable until they found something that sticked. They had nothing, then suddenly they had significant amounts of money. It doesn't matter what it is, it just needs to grab attention for long enough for the advertisers to push their products. It's not like the guy had to go to school for 10 years to do it.
To really take a swing at it requires basically full time commitment. It's like starting a small media corporation actually.
There was an interesting (hearbreaking?) piece about some of the numerous people who have spent years streaming without any viewers[0]. I suppose it is no different from any other novelist/artist/musician who never gains traction, but feels materially different when you have instant feedback that nobody cares about what you are putting into the world.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17541600