The most depressing conversation I've ever had online was with an Aspiring Content Creator on a Discord who insisted that they had to be as loud and obnoxious as possible to compete with other YouTubers, because Content is a zero-sum game, everyone is your competitor, and you are all fighting over the same audience. So your only option is to do what they're doing.
Obviously so much of that is wrong, and it's important to have your own voice. But I think what really hit me about it was the image of somebody who has resigned their life to making videos they don't like to share with people they don't like, because that's something they think they're supposed to do. Why get into it at all??
It baffles me why so many people think this is a good life path. I knew a friend-of-a-friend who threw away their successful early career to pivot to becoming a streamer, and it completely destroyed their life, they had no income for years, their long-term partner left them, and so on.
It is extremely possible to just... not do that? What's the allure of Becoming A Creator and obligating yourself to that?
