Leo's Blog Discussion Mega-Thread

[zurew]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKPu4MppDnj/

[jimwell]

@Leo Gura said:

Quote

Don’t you see? It is so much more meaningful, so much more beautiful that you're imagining the world than that you are in a "real" world. Reality has the most beautiful design: an Infinite Illusion. Don’t get bummed out by this, fall in love with illusion. You are an Infinite Illusion falling in love with itself. Nothing could be more meaningful because nothing could be more profound.

Indeed. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Knowing that this laptop in front of me is not only an illusion but also sprouts from my consciousness makes me feel joyful. I'm about to grab my cup of coffee and knowing that this beautiful cup is also mental, sprouting from my mind, makes me feel awed. I enjoyed my walk and run in the rain yesterday afternoon and throughout the experience, I held the thought that it all sprouted from my mind. This compounded the joy and love I felt.

Nothing is cooler and more beautiful than the idea that reality, the universe, or the vicinity is imagination.  It's not only profound; it's also magical.  

 

Edited June 7 by jimwell
added music to encapsulate the mood

[Null Simplex]

Leftsplaining demonstrated by Mike Judge.

[Daniel Balan]

@Leo Gura, I don't think that the algorithms are at fault for your lack of audience! Fundamentally people don't care about such complex and thoughtful videos as you present! I shared actualized.org with all my family, all my friends, my girlfriend, my co workers, etc! For the last 11 years I tried to show to people your work! Guess what! None of them cared! Only one of my former classmates watched this video : 

Said it was cool, and then when I showed another one he said to stop bothering him because he doesn't care! 

Bottom line is that people don't care about such advanced content! 

Please Leo, could you upgrade your donation button so you could accept donations of 5 usd too? 20 usd is the minimum but I barely earn 100$ a week and I can't afford 20 as a donation, but I could afford 5 $, Every now and then! Also I would love If on youtube I could buy thanks where I could comment with an ammount of money! Please, we want to support your work, you should take in consideration my proposals!

[Miguel1]

1 minute ago, Daniel Balan said:

I don't think that the algorithms are at fault for your lack of audience!

Changes to the algorithm have directly cut his business in half in the past.

The current algorithm rewards and pushes mindless shit. Leo's stuff is the complete opposite of that = no organic pushing by the algorithm.

[Leo Gura]

If YT tweaks their algorithm just a bit, my videos literally get hundreds of thousands more views within days. I've seen it happen when they are running short experiments. But then they always end up cutting algorithm changes that send me more views, because it isn't profitable to them.

If the algo favors you, you can get a million views in a day.

But yes, on top of that viewers are also shallow and don't care. So Google serves up the slop they love.

It's like health food competing against junk food. The junk food always wins. I am in the business of serving the healthiest food and people are addicted to junk, but also Google enables and makes the addiction 10x worse because Google is chasing profits.

Google is the drug dealer for junk food for the mind. So of course our minds will be sick.

Edited June 7 by Leo Gura

[Leo Gura]

12 minutes ago, Daniel Balan said:

Please Leo, could you upgrade your donation button so you could accept donations of 5 usd too?

The button already has $5 and $10 options.

[Leo Gura]

14 hours ago, Rafael Thundercat said:

@Leo Gura your last posts are fire,pure fire. No more running around circles, just plain Truth. 

Thanks!

[Miguel1]

Ah, Leo just made a blogpost about the algorithm.

But see Leo? Trying to run a fully ethical and honest business in this world is not as easily done as said. We had this discussion last year, I believe. You made your millions doing unethical shit, and so it is easy to talk about ethical business now, sitting on your high horse 

And in the first place, what even is a fully honest and ethical business? How does that even look like in practice?

It's a freak show out there. Raw survival. All the big players are gonna devour you, if you even attempt to be so foolish as to think about being a fully truthful player.

But yeah, gotta agree with Rafael, the blogposts have lately been pure wisdom and insights, en masse. How the hell do you puke such depth and original thoughts out, in such a fast pace, is beyond me. Disgustingly good.

Edited June 7 by Miguel1

[Daniel Balan]

54 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

If YT tweaks their algorithm just a bit, my videos literally get hundreds of thousands more views within days. I've seen it happen when they are running short experiments. But then they always end up cutting algorithm changes that send me more views, because it isn't profitable to them.

If the algo favors you, you can get a million views in a day.

But yes, on top of that viewers are also shallow and don't care. So Google serves up the slop they love.

It's like health food competing against junk food. The junk food always wins. I am in the business of serving the healthiest food and people are addicted to junk, but also Google enables and makes the addiction 10x worse because Google is chasing profits.

Google is the drug dealer for junk food for the mind. So of course our minds will be sick.

I don't know about the algorithm, but I found you via the search bar, which has nothing to do with the algorithm, I had self esteem issues 11 years ago and I found your self esteem video, which was 4th or 5th in that list, I've watched 2 other videos before I watched yours, and yours really helped me, and I clicked on your channel and starting binge watching all your prior videos for a week after I found your channel when I was 14 years old! I didn't even know English, I remember watching your videos with captions on, and google transalte in another tab, and stoping every 5 seconds to translate the seneces you said, because I barely understood anything in english, I did that every day after I came home from school! By 2016 I was already at the level I am today English wise! Thank you for that! You were the only English teacher I ever needed! And once I found your channel I activated all notifications, and for the last decade Youtube sent me notifications for each of your video releases! 

Bottom line is this: whoever is interested in finding such content will stumble upon it, the people who don't care could have their youtube page filled with actualized videos, they would most likely hate you in the comment section or  they would use the search bar to search for conspiracy theories!

[Miguel1]

4 minutes ago, Daniel Balan said:

which was 4th or 5th in that list,

Try searching now, and perhaps you'll find them on the 4th or 5th page 

[Daniel Balan]

@Miguel1 I just did, I searched the exact same sentence I searched 11 years ago! How to improve my self esteem? It is the 4th video in the first page!

[Miguel1]

6 minutes ago, Daniel Balan said:

@Miguel1 I just did, I searched the exact same sentence I searched 11 years ago! How to improve my self esteem? It is the 4th video in the first page!

Don't forget that the algorithm knows that you love his content, so it will push his content for you, and yet it is the 4th!

Also, his content from over a decade ago is like 100X more algorithm-friendly than his later years.

[Daniel Balan]

@Miguel1 I stand corrected! I just searched for many other how to topics that I used to search in the past, where then it recommended Leo's vides, now I couldn't find Leo's videos at all, unless I perfectly searched the exact video title of Leo's video! I stand corrected!

[Leo Gura]

28 minutes ago, Daniel Balan said:

don't know about the algorithm, but I found you via the search bar, which has nothing to do with the algorithm

YT has nerfed search so badly, it doesn't even give what you searched for beyond 5 items. The rest is recommended slop and shorts.

YT search is so bad now that I was outraged just because I wanted to avoid the slop engine by searching manually and even that is no longer possible.

It's really bad.

If your video isn't in the top 5 of search, you might as well be dead.

[Leo Gura]

40 minutes ago, Miguel1 said:

But see Leo? Trying to run a fully ethical and honest business in this world is not as easily done as said.

Of course I'm keenly aware of that.

Quote

We had this discussion last year, I believe. You made your millions doing unethical shit

I didn't make millions. I made about $300k that way.

Quote

and so it is easy to talk about ethical business now, sitting on your high horse 

Of course. I had to grind and scheme my way to a place where I could afford to be truthful.

But most people don't become truthful even after they have millions and billions.

Look at Joe Rogan or Jordan Peterson. They have so many millions yet contine milking their audience for more. It's insatiable.

40 minutes ago, Miguel1 said:

But yeah, gotta agree with Rafael, the blogposts have lately been pure wisdom and insights, en masse. How the hell do you puke such depth and original thoughts out, in such a fast pace, is beyond me. Disgustingly good.

I have thousands of insights written out on my phone. It takes me longer to post 1 on the blog than to generate 3 new ones on the phone. So my list keeps growing faster than I can publish.

It takes me longer to grammar check a blogpost than to generate a new insight.

Edited June 7 by Leo Gura

[Space]

7 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

YT has nerfed search so badly, it doesn't even give what you searched for beyond 5 items. The rest is recommended slop and shorts.

YT search is so bad now that I was outraged just because I wanted to avoid the slop engine by searching manually and even that is no longer possible.

It's really bad.

If your video isn't in the top 5 of search, you might as well be dead.

I'm certain YT have recently majorly fucked with the algorithm too. I'm a creator and I've noticed a big shift in views, as have many many other creators I've spoken to.

As a viewer, I've noticed an obvious shift in what is being recommended to me. The quality of recommendations has dropped significantly. I might get one interesting video to watch on my recc page, whereas before I was constantly being recommended great content. 

I've been watching Youtube for probably 13/14 years, and this is the first time ever where I don't enjoy using it much. But YouTube has the monopoly so can't really go anywhere else can we.

There are still a lot of great video creators, of course, but I have to really dig to find them. And then when I do watch a good video, it's like my recommendation algorithm doesn't update. 

There's also been a big influx of AI-generated content on YouTube, even if it's just the thumbnail. I see a lot of hyper-click baity AI-generated thumbnails which have barely any relevance to the video or hyper-exaggerate the video content in some way to get the click. 

Edited June 8 by Space

[Xonas Pitfall]

Just a quick tip on the YouTube algorithm!

YouTube doesn’t necessarily blacklist topics like spirituality, self-improvement, or psychedelics. Plenty of channels covering those areas, including psychedelic education, (more controversial) conspiracy theories, and psychic podcasts, get tons of views.

The real game on YouTube largely comes down to thumbnail design and title format/clickability. While your thumbnails are unique, certain proven formats tend to perform better.

For example, your video on proofs of God could’ve had a much higher reach if presented in a “tier-list” format - similar to videos like these:

Your content is less overstimulating by design, which naturally filters out more casual viewers, especially in the first 30 seconds.

That said, I’m not suggesting you change your format in a way that feels inauthentic. If anything, I’m sure both your viewers and you would hate a complete format shift, so it’s just about approaching things more strategically. Once you have a more consistent viewership, even your niche-style videos can perform well, and you’ll still be able to spread your ideas genuinely.

One idea: do more conversational content like your discussion with Curt. Someone who comes to mind is Dan Koe – he’s a big fan of Actualized.org and has openly praised it as one of the most insightful and high-quality channels on YouTube. A dialogue or podcast episode with him could expose you to a broader audience of people aligned with your style. His channel has been growing like crazy over the past few years. 

Another approach might be offering commentary on trending topics, but from your higher-consciousness lens, similar to your Andrew Tate video, which pulled significantly more views than your surrounding uploads. Which also proves your channel isn’t really blacklisted, per se.

The YouTube formula is:
Thumbnail + Clickable Title + Solid Hook + Evergreen or "Trending" Topic.

Of course, I don’t know how much you care about view counts right now - this is just a small suggestion in case you’re looking to better navigate the algorithm. Either way, I love Actualized.org and will be a consistent viewer! The content is incredible, and the blog has also been an especially juicy addition lately. Thank you a lot! 

[Space]

7 hours ago, Daniel Balan said:

@Miguel1 I stand corrected! I just searched for many other how to topics that I used to search in the past, where then it recommended Leo's vides, now I couldn't find Leo's videos at all, unless I perfectly searched the exact video title of Leo's video! I stand corrected!

Yes I think YouTube have recently changed the algorithm to make it much less likely to see old videos, either through search or through the recommendation algorithm. 

Many, many creators have had big drop-offs in monthly income (including myself) because their old videos don't get shown any more.

[Space]

5 minutes ago, Xonas Pitfall said:

Thumbnail + Clickable Title + Solid Hook + Evergreen or "Trending" Topic.

Solid advice there. Just a quick thumbnail, title, hook, and a quick script on a trending topic. Easy as that.

So easy and obviously none of the other 2 million creators on Youtube are doing this so you'll be sure to get views.

Please tell me you are a regular YouTube creator and not just copy-pasting some generic advice you found online.