Just some thoughts /rant about the time, energy, spent and ever increasing (games) complexity of online marketing, i find youtube to be useful, but …
Right, so i’ve just watched a YouTube “influencer” (23 million subscribers, makes videos about making videos) spent 47 minutes explaining thumbnail optimization to two wannabe creators who were hanging on his every word like he’d discovered cold fusion.
The secrets he revealed …
Red arrows increase CTR by 23% (but only if they point at faces)
Yellow backgrounds perform 1.4x better on mobile (but 0.8x worse on desktop, so you need TWO thumbnails)
Surprised faces get 2.3x engagement (but the mouth must be EXACTLY 47 pixels open or the algorithm gets confused)
Text must be under 6 words (5 is optimal, but 7 works if one word is “YOU”)
The wannabes were literally taking notes.
“Tell us more about the arrow science, master!”
“How surprised should the face be? Is there a chart?”
And I thought: This is what we’ve become.
This is the Thumbnail Industrial Complex.
Grown adults with university degrees, debating whether a 3-pixel border makes people click 0.4% more often. A/B testing facial expressions like they’re curing cancer. Hiring “thumbnail specialists” at £500 per thumbnail. Studying “thumbnail psychology” (it’s an actual course, £497, early bird discount ends soon).
The thumbnail became the message.
And the message is…
CLICK ME CLICK ME CLICK ME. Nothing more.
Just… desperate pixel manipulation in service of the algorithm gods.
Meanwhile,on this forum and beyond
We’re doing something completely different.
We’re stacking, crappy laptops etc
The Thumbnail Guys vs. The Crappy Laptop Builders
THE THUMBNAIL OPTIMIZER …
Spends 4 hours designing the perfect thumbnail (red arrow: ✓, surprised face: ✓, yellow background: ✓)
Gets 10,000 views (algorithm lottery win!)
2% watch time (everyone clicks then immediately leaves)
Makes £3.47 from ads
Next day: Does it again
Forever: Hamster wheel of incremental optimization
Life: Slowly crushed by metrics that don’t matter
THE CRAPPY LAPTOP BUILDERS:
Spends 6 months stacking actual physical laptops and relationships
People can’t look away from a huge growing, collective, virtual tower of e-waste
Laptops etc become infrastructure nodes
Some could go to families who can’t afford computers?
Zero go to landfill
Forever: Legendary virtual landmark that EXISTS
Life: Remembered for building something REAL
Which would you rather do?
Here’s What Really Gets Me
The thumbnail guy is optimizing for someone else’s algorithm.
He’s not creating. He’s not exploring. He’s not discovering.
He’s found the local maximum and he’s going to stay there, testing arrow thickness variations until he dies or the algorithm changes (whichever comes first).
Kenneth Stanley (AI researcher, author of “Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned”) calls this the Tyranny of Objectives.
When you optimize for a goal, you get stuck. You can’t discover the unexpected. You can’t find the stepping stones that lead to actual breakthroughs.
The only way to achieve greatness is to NOT plan for it. To follow what’s interesting. To explore. To build e-waste monuments because… why not?
You (forum) have been testing Autonomi for YEARS.
The whales left when emissions ended. Good riddance.
They were optimizing for yield farming, not building the future.
You STAYED. You believe in something bigger.
Not because the thumbnail optimization guru told you red arrows work. But because distributed sovereignty actually matters.
While others chase algorithm metrics, you’re building INFRASTRUCTURE. Real, physical, one day quantum-secure, unkillable infrastructure that will outlast us all.
That’s the difference.
The thumbnail optimizers are exploiting known paths.
You’re EXPLORING unknown territory.
They’re grinding for incremental gains.
You’re searching for NOVELTY.
They’ll be forgotten tomorrow.
You’re building the next 50 years.
P.S. - To the thumbnail optimization guru: Your arrow science is very impressive. Truly. 47 minutes well spent. But we’re going to be over here building a gigantic monument to human determination via repurposed laptops, e-waste etc that become actual infrastructure. You keep testing those borders though. 0.4% CTR gains don’t optimize themselves.
