If the Dark Side didn't give immediate results, then nobody would take it. It does have its merits. For years at a time. The Dark Side isn't retarded. Rather, they're rich.

Algorithms work because they base themselves on the weaker aspects of human nature. They get faster numbers while hurting their long-term credibility. The become wealthy but not respected.

If I aimed to build a business for the next 3 years only and cared not for things beyond that, I'd aim for the YouTube algorithm.

But if I aimed to build a business with longer-term aims, I'd be more cautious against clickbait and optimize for personal brand integrity.

Walker has high integrity, so much so that even as he messes with clickbait for experiments, I still know his integrity. His integrity is what led me to happily be on his show, for example. I like him as a person. Ultimately, I do vibes-based appearances. Walker has good vibes, so I joined his show over others that had 10x or 50x the following.

There is some balance between the forces. There's the hybrid approach of marketing clickbait + substantive high-integrity content once they click. Like, "I caught you with my clickbait, now let's talk philosophy!"

But at the end of the day, the more we stretch for audience reach, the worse we likely suffer in terms of audience substance.

And in the long run, it's nice to have a really based audience who understands us. Because we presented ourselves honestly from the start.

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