On Mr. Beast and being alone in a circle for 100 days

https://coldhealing.substack.com/p/on-mr-beast-and-being-alone-in-a

by exolymph • 4 years ago

199 276 4 years ago

coldhealing.substack.com

A lot of Mr. beasts content feel like reverse kidnapping and mental torture situations. And the only “mental trick” you need to pull to illustrate just how horrible a human being he is, is to imagine he’d given them the money up front and told them that to leave his enter-torture-ment they have to pay up a ransom matching the initial gift. That’s what he’s subjecting poor people too, for fun and profit, because he knows the money is worth that much to them. And of cause because he’s making a fortune doing this.

zemvpferreira• 4 years ago

As a content creator Mr Beast only acts as a conduit for what we, the audience, are willing to pay for. It's not he who is the monster but us.

Otek• 4 years ago

Exactly. Don't hate the player. Hate the game. And the game is humanity, who wants this type of content.

But overall i disagree that anyone is monster here. No one forces these people to be a part of these challenges.

igorkraw2• 4 years ago

While true I love how the norm of discussion about this is bouncing between two things as if they are mutually exclusive.

Yes Mr. Beast is just following incentives that youtube + attention economy + other factors created for him.

But also: he chose to do that. I've personally walked away from good gigs when I was eating rice and beans because they didn't align with my values. He doesn't seem to realise or care. And maybe that's because of his situation, which should the also be addressed. But there still remains some personal responsibility for choosing to make money (lots of money) this way

noja• 4 years ago

only acts as a conduit

That's a lazy analysis. His creation is expanding a small audience into a larger one.

jrootabega• 4 years ago

Our children are the victims. They're willing to watch anything, and unfortunately this is the kind of stuff that they think is normal and good.

wil421• 4 years ago

That’s like saying it’s OK to create CP or torture someone because there’s an audience. Complete nonsense.

dustedcodes3• 4 years ago

But we are not paying for it. He just gets the views and Google (YouTube) are those who think it is ok to pay for this content. People will always consume content about some crazy shit if it is made for free, but would we actually have to pay for it then it would show that most kids who watch MrBeast content today couldn’t actually care less about it.

Let’s look at it from another angle to bring my point home. If a person gets assaulted and the assault gets recorded by CCTV cameras and then shown on BBC news then lots of people click the article and view the video, but nobody (or mostly nobody) would pay the BBC to assault another person and film it and then stream it. Do you see the difference?

tpush• 4 years ago

Nonsense. Mr. Beast isn't an unthinking tool, but an intelligent human being. Exploiting people for money is unethical no matter how much 'the audience' wants to see it.

emptyfile• 4 years ago

You're both equally disgusting.

gjulianm6• 4 years ago

While I'm no fan of him, I think you might be too harsh.

is to imagine he’d given them the money up front and told them that to leave his enter-torture-ment they have to pay up a ransom matching the initial gift.

People enter those challenges fully knowing how they're going to go. It's random, rules don't matter, you might get money you don't expect or not get money you expected. The point at which they get the money doesn't really matter, I don't find it a different situation.

That’s what he’s subjecting poor people too, for fun and profit, because he knows the money is worth that much to them

Well, he gives amounts of money that are worth very much for a lot of people. I doubt there's a lot of people that can make $500k in 100 days, for example. I watched the one where there's 100 people in a circle, and people got quite a lot of money for the most random things (I think one gets several thousand dollars for being the first to go, for example). I'd get this criticism if the amounts of money were lower, but I don't think it's really the case. A lot of non-poor people would consider those challenges very much worth the money.

And of cause because he’s making a fortune doing this.

He says that a lot of his videos lose money and I honestly believe it. Between the money he gives and the amounts he spends to make the videos (like renting entire stadiums) his costs must be incredibly high, even with as many subscribers as he has I imagine some videos might not break even. And he could very easily break even on all of them just by lowering the amounts of money and toning it down a little.

dustedcodes3• 4 years ago

MrBeast is pushing the boundaries on the ethics and morals of how easily people with money can coerce poor people who are in dire need to perform extremely questionable things for the sake of his own amusement.

Personally I don’t think this is good in any meaningful way. You could only rationalise such behaviour with the same arguments that other forms of exploitation are explained.

prepend11• 4 years ago

People enter those challenges fully knowing how they're going to go.

People who have financial need aren’t able to clearly decline and have agency over their decision. Asking someone who supports a family if they will degrade themselves for $500k if not really a fair question and people will say yes.

It’s like saying that people who blow their boss do it knowing fully well what they’re getting into. There is a power imbalance so even perceived consent isn’t really consent because of the leverage and greater power of one party.

sumedh8• 4 years ago

He says that a lot of his videos lose money and I honestly believe it.

Lot of big Youtubers say that the videos themselves dont make lot of money but the more views a video has the more merch they sell, that brings in the profits.

strken2• 4 years ago

I'm not that badly off and have never watched a Mr. Beast video prior to this. I would gladly stay within a 300ft circle for 100 days while some dude blasted clown noises at me in return for $500k. There's a library, a garden, some exercise bands, stationery, and 3000cal/day of food. I did 21 days isolation in an apartment at the start of the pandemic, which is 20% of the way there except with less floorspace.

There's a really good essay titled The Copenhagen Interpretations of Ethics[0], which makes an argument that the moment you interact with a problem you become responsible for it in the eyes of the world, even if you strictly improved it in a utilitarian sense, and even if the people judging you have done exactly nothing to fix the problem. Reminds me a bit of this.

[0] https://blog.jaibot.com/the-copenhagen-interpretation-of-eth...

isitmadeofglass2• 4 years ago

Sure, people enter in willingly. And you’d be able to find quite a lot of Poot people who’d do really shitty stuff and let you be extremely shitty to them for money. But so what? He’s still kidnapping and terrorizing poor people and excusing it by paying them off. And Better yet he’s doing so for profit, but he’s effectively have them sign a contract that means they don’t get paid if he gets them to break. It screams of what a shitty person he is in setting this up. If it was just about giving money to poor people there would be no need for the sick games he plays with them, just do a feel good show about how much the money change their lives. But propably not as much add money in it for him doing that. He used to plant trees, now he brutalizes poor people. It’s sick even if it is with consent from the victims.

Aunche• 4 years ago

Mr. Beast himself used to subject himself to torture for profit, so it's not surprising that other people are happy to do the same. His first viral video was counting to 100,000. There was another video where he tried to spend 24 hours underwater and stopped because he had built to much CO2.

Gregioei• 4 years ago

While I subscribed to mb and unsubscribed quite quickly again, I would do that.

Easy life changing money. Once in a life opportunity.

prepend11• 4 years ago

The hardest part is having a job that allows this. If I could telework than 100% this is easy.

imperialdrive• 4 years ago

The author (coldhealing) sure can write. I've seen maybe 3 Mr. Beast vids in passing, but now I want to really watch a few more. His bit on Joe Rogan about translating content was pretty clever too.

a3w• 4 years ago

His bit on Joe Rogan

OT, but was Joe Rogan during that time (playing) an idiot that never second guesses blatant lies? I find it hard to watch obscure experts, that are either genius' or delusional, and not know what I heared/watched due to no classification by a reliable source, as any journalist should provide with any third party statement.

Therefore, I'd rather watch an interview elsewhere.

I think he now has a "fact checker" who googles questions (nope, not scholar.google.com, regular google queries), but interviews seem to stick to their obscure logic even if a house of cards was just debunked at the very foundation by five minutes of fact checking.

nullc3• 4 years ago

I've never seen a mr. beast video because I found the weird sex-doll gaping face on all his videos extremely off-putting and so I block every channel that displays one whenever they're suggested. In fact, the reason I learned it was possible to block channels at all was specifically due to these videos constantly being suggested.

I only know what the name is because a picture of him showed up in some other video-- and because I'm constantly reminded by how often I need to block new stuff because more of it keeps showing, even though I always block it.

I'm kinda surprised to read this article and hear how awful the content is-- esp given that many other YT channels have spoken highly of him. The face just seemed to non-genuine and engineered to overstimulate some neural network (artificial or organic) and left me feeling that watching even one would be contributing to the downfall of civilization. It's interesting to see that my initial highly negative impression may have had some basis: it certainly doesn't sound like content I would find worthwhile.

EdwardDiego• 4 years ago

That sex-doll gaping face or the fake shocked "Omg I cannot believe everything I'm seeing" face is de rigeur for YT, and I'm guessing it's because The Algorithm (blessed be its bytes) has determined kids click on thumbnails with incredibly exaggerated facial expressions.

It's... weird and a tad scary.

idontwantthis2• 4 years ago

I use an extension called click bait remover that replaces thumbnails with an actual frame from the video. Also normalizes capitalization.

kajaktum• 4 years ago

People need to study more why that gaping face became a trick to the algorithm. It's certainly (I hope) not functioning adults that are so easily tricked by it? I suspect a large amount of what drives the algorithm is young impressionable kids and that basically dictates the trend for the rest of us.

Hbruz0• 4 years ago

How can you block YT channels ? I've only been able to specify "not interested in this channel"

bunkmaster1337• 4 years ago

On creator focused networks like YouTube, tiktok or instagram your recommendations get reset if you accidentally open a link to a video or channel you marked as “Don’t recommend this X.”.

If you really want to nuke them from your feed the easiest way is to report them. Might be ethical questionable but the 99,9X% of reports get ignored anyway so why not use it as feature.

searchableguy• 4 years ago

Blocktube and sponsor block browser extension.

climb_stealth• 4 years ago

Huh? On the front page I can for each recommended video select "Not interested" or "Don't recommend channel". This is on Firefox both desktop and Android.

Is it different for you?

shabble• 4 years ago

I have a ublock rule like:

    www.youtube.com##div.ytd-rich-item-renderer:has(ytd-channel-name a[href="/c/SOME_CHANNEL_HERE"])

Freak_NL• 4 years ago

I've never seen a mr. beast video because I found the weird sex-doll gaping face on all his videos extremely off-putting […]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one put off by whatever that look is (interestingly worded too). For me it's something in the eyelids giving him a sort of watery look that triggers a deep-seated automatic feeling of disgust (and then there is the topic of the content itself which makes it a rational disgust).

sumedh8• 4 years ago

I found the weird sex-doll gaping face on all his videos extremely off-putting

The contestants have to play by Mr Beast's rules, Mr Beast has to play by Youtube's algorithm rules. The algorithm recommends videos with clickbait thumbnails and titles.

nullc3• 4 years ago

> I found the weird sex-doll gaping face on all his videos extremely off-putting
The contestants have to play by Mr Beast's rules, Mr Beast has to play by Youtube's algorithm rules. The algorithm recommends videos with clickbait thumbnails and titles.

And, if we choose, youtube has to play by our rules. I'm trying to do my part, you can join me.

throwaway123884• 4 years ago

I never watched his videos. Do yourself a flavour by blocking his and similar channels they all produce nothing but crap.

unsupp0rted4• 4 years ago

I really try to block them but somehow Youtube keeps finding new ones to put in my feed every single day.

How can I tell Youtube:

* I will never watch a Mr. Beast video

* I will never watch a music video

* I will never watch a sports video

* I will never watch a video about cars

* I will never watch a video about Minecraft, or any video game at all

unglaublich2• 4 years ago

- Click 'not interested' whenever you see such a suggestion. - Never click the suggestion! - Like and subscribe to content that you want to see instead.

em-bee2• 4 years ago

not having a youtube account seems to help. i watch different types of videos in different firefox containers and my kids watch on a different laptop. they see mr beast all the time, but i never notice him showing up for me.

dimmke• 4 years ago

This is so odd to me because this isn't my experience with Youtube at all. I just opened the homepage and it's mostly content I subscribe to and music that I've listened to before (I use Youtube for listening to DJ sets/Live music a lot.) I scrolled for a while and didn't see any Mr. Beast videos recommended.

Maybe it's because I pay for Premium? I also don't use Youtube that much.

k12sosse• 4 years ago

Vigilence. Don't show me this video. Tell me why? Don't like the video. Not interested. Also, subscribe and like videos you do enjoy, not only for the content, but the style of delivery. Takes roughly 2 months to start not being a cesspit.

Also: have an account, and remove garbage from your history if you watched it - and watch out, those auto playing shorts are going into your history. Hide the shelf, in app, or with uBlock origin.

sph2• 4 years ago

YT being useless as usual because you can only tell it you don't like a video only in specific sections, but still happily shows hidden channels elsewhere, like search, with no option to tweak it. And search is useless anyway, biased towards trending and just vaguely being related to your search keywords.

yreg• 4 years ago

I never watched it and it's crap

sumedh8• 4 years ago

You should check it out sometime, the videos are entertaining and short.

throwaway123884• 4 years ago

haha..

you should try 5minute crafts and muskbot channels if you want to loose more brain cells

jccalhoun2• 4 years ago

I've never watched his videos but I'm not willing to call them crap sight unseen.

flappyeagle• 4 years ago

Someone is going to die in one of his stunts. It’s inevitable.

prydwen3• 4 years ago

By standing in a circle ? Touching an expensive car ? Playing red light green light ? His videos aren't exactly Fear factor/Jackass style

hnbad• 4 years ago

The question isn't whether someone will die but what happens after.

80s shlock like Running Man used to be portrayals of a ridiculous dystopia, but at this point they should be considered a warning. We already increasingly undervalue human life and have culturally accepted avoidable deaths as long as they can be justified with "personal responsibility" or follow from a perceived moral failing.

We're not there yet, but we're inching ever closer.

The first article of the post-WW2 constitution of Germany does not establish freedom of speech but the sanctity of human dignity. Of course in practice only lip service is paid to this, but it feels like "entertaintment" like Mr Beast's videos are the exact antithesis.

melvinmelih• 4 years ago

Can’t imagine it’s mentally healthy to record yourself for 40 hours straight counting to 100,000: https://youtu.be/xWcldHxHFpo

ugjka• 4 years ago

There are plenty of jobs that are not good for you in the long run and being a Youtuber is a job for some

bb123• 4 years ago

This blogger is acting like traditional network television has never mentally tortured people for our viewing pleasure. Have they never seen an episode of Hell's Kitchen, Dr Phil, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here or Big Brother? Basically the entire reality TV genre is based on that premise.

Edit: Seeing as they mention Joe Rogan, Fear Factor is another great example of a reality TV version of basically the same thing.

citizenkeen2• 4 years ago

Fox had a reality shoe where they just tortured people for money.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solitary_(TV_series)

permo-w2• 4 years ago

and only for the chance of winning $50k

LanceH2• 4 years ago

And a lot of people look at these "torture" situations as a battle of wills. Nobody is truly being tortured and they aren't really in a dangerous situation (generally). Fear factor is a mix of scary and disgusting, with an audience watching and thinking, "yes, no, yes, not for all the money in the world, maybe, yes".

Mr Beast isn't exactly "bum fights".

RegnisGnaw3• 4 years ago

The Chamber (which is almost literally torture) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chamber_(game_show)

If you want to watch an episode, check this out on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_FiahUZsxs

montebicyclelo• 4 years ago

Contestants on the reality TV show "The Island with Bear Grylls" get lightly starved. And if you get to the final round of "SAS: Who Dares Wins" you get to be lightly tortured (kept awake, loud music, people shouting at you, bound, blindfolded..). (But they do have medics on hand at least...)

robotnixon• 4 years ago

The show "Alone" is pretty much a starving contest. In recent years contestants have started packing on weight prior to filming so they can rely more on fat stores when their food supply dwindles. Typically one or two contestants a season get pulled for medical reasons due to excessive weight loss.

marginalia_nu• 4 years ago

This blogger is acting like traditional network television has never mentally tortured people for our viewing pleasure. Have they never seen an episode of Hell's Kitchen, Dr Phil, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here or Big Brother? Basically the entire reality TV genre is based on that premise.

There's also this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasubi#Denpa_Sh%C5%8Dnen_teki_...

Although I guess Japan has always sort of been in a league on its own when it comes to questionable TV show premises.

FumblingBear• 4 years ago

That's definitely the show that came to mind when it comes to the depravity of torturing the victims for a pittance.

What a truly tragic story...

matwood• 4 years ago

Yeah, something like Naked and Afraid is way worse than what Mr. Beast did here.

ineedasername4• 4 years ago

The author doesn’t seem to ignore that at all. They simply point out that those more traditional venues have some built in guard rails.

bambax3• 4 years ago

Also radio. In 2007, Jennifer Strange died after drinking 2 gallons of water, in response to a KDND morning show that ran a contest called "Hold your wee for a Wii".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

RegnisGnaw3• 4 years ago

Those aren't that bad, for the extreme you have to thank Fox for "The Chamber" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chamber_(game_show) which pretty much was literal tourture..

You had to answer trivia questions under extreme cold/hot conditions, with electroshock and wind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_FiahUZsxs&t=1667s

mdrzn• 4 years ago

"It’s terrifying that a man spent one hundred days in a small circle in an empty field. It’s even more terrifying that this is solely at the whims of a single former Minecraft YouTube creator who happened to find the perfect niche to build a platform and happens to have a perfect sense for what his millions of anonymous viewers want from a video."

Cannot agree less on this take. There's dozen of interviews with Jimmy (Mr. Beast himself) where he explains his POV, why he does what he does, and what his goal is: make the best YT videos possible.

Nobody is forced to partecipate in his videos.

Maybe this difference in opinion in based on age? Or some other metric?

antasvara3• 4 years ago

Some people fundamentally have an issue with the idea of making money off of what essentially amounts to embarrassment or (depending on the challenge) light mental torture.

Mr. Beast's motives are irrelevant if that's the belief you're operating under.

astura3• 4 years ago

In that case singling out Mr. Beast makes no sense, there's reality TV shows which are much more extreme in embarrassment and torture than any Mr. Beast video.

hombre_fatal3• 4 years ago

Those views seem inconsistent unless those people also disagree with compensated labor.

There’s already a type of degradation in a conventional job: someone having power over you that you can’t question, you have to degrade yourself by being agreeable to nonsense, you have to whore out your time and attention and energy, etc.

Spending 100 days in isolation is less degrading to me than all the things people take for granted at even their cushy software job, they’re just used to it.

How many of you are forced to sit in on absolutely banal Zoom meetings yet grandstanding about what someone else wants to do for $500k?

pjc503• 4 years ago

"Whenever I watch these videos I’m awed and scared at the lengths to which humans in the twenty-first century will go to slurp up the drips of unimaginable wealth that the algorithm leaks out through Mr. Beast."

That's it, isn't it? It's the exact opposite of dignity of labour: it's compensation for degradation. The "voluntary" part is just highlighting how willing people are to trade in unnecessary misery for the entertainment of the comfortable.

mylons2• 4 years ago

agree —- i kept waiting for the author to spend more time on the indignity and exploitation Mr. Beast is dispensing. there are desperate people out there that will leap at a chance for this much cash. how long until we see a Mr. Beast version of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_(King_novel) (the arnold movie is ultra cheesey and fun too)

GameOfFrowns• 4 years ago

I think we're already halfway there with the "MrBeast Squid Game".

SkipperCat• 4 years ago

On many levels I agree with you. But, you can also look at this thru the paradigm of the "hero's journey". A normal person, plucked from the masses is given a harrowing mission. If they survive, there is glory ($$$), if not, then there is failure (Internet ridicule).

Granted, Mr. Beast is not giving us the story of Luke Skywalker, but I can understand the rational of the person taking the challenge.

For most people watching, it's just torture porn, but content providers have to give the people what they want to make a buck....

pjc503• 4 years ago

Yes, but the difference here is that the mission is inherently unnecessary. Consider the JFK speech and what went before choosing to go to the moon:

"But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?"

Perhaps we've conquered all the naturally "hard" things and are left only with artificial challenges to inflict on ourselves and others. Climbing the highest mountain for the first time has a kind of natural "because it's there" dignity to it. But it's become a littered tourist spot now.

torture porn, but content providers have to give the people what they want to make a buck

Someone could quite easily write 1k words on what the word "porn" is doing in that sentence and how it relates to desire, suffering and spectacle.

WastingMyTime892• 4 years ago

but content providers have to give the people what they want to make a buck...

Modern entertainment really is a blight. At least when I was a kid public TV was making shows which were both entertaining and trying to uplift people. There is something slightly despicable about this race to the bottom mentality if that’s what people want, we are not guilty of feeding them garbage.

swrobel• 4 years ago

So, just a shade away from Squid Game?

bambax3• 4 years ago

"Compensation for degradation" defines most kinds of labor. To labor means to suffer, and compensation is the other word for salary.

So it's not certain this is the "exact opposite" of labor; maybe it's its ulterior incarnation.

ycombinete• 4 years ago

They said "opposite of dignity of labour"; not "opposite of labour".

MPSimmons2• 4 years ago

To labor means to suffer

I disagree with this intrinsically.

Certainly, some labor is suffering, but what it actually means is to put forth effort. To some people, any effort put forth is suffering, but that's certainly not always the case. Laboring on behalf of something you believe in deeply can be joyful. If you really have never experienced this, I urge you to change your habits and try to find a way to do things that you can take joy in.

SideburnsOfDoom• 4 years ago

That's it, isn't it? It's the exact opposite of dignity of labour: it's compensation for degradation.

You're not wrong, but it's not that new - see 1930s dance marathons https://www.historylink.org/file/5534#

cainxinth• 4 years ago

“They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” for the 21st century

criley22• 4 years ago

"The "voluntary" part is just highlighting how willing people are to trade in unnecessary misery for the entertainment of the comfortable."

Aye comrade, aye.

You say Mr Beast, I say Capitalism.

keiferski• 4 years ago

A lot of the Internet popular culture really is just an echo of something someone else did years before, but with less fanfare, no money involved, and without the desire to get as much attention as possible. One of my favorite performance artists is Tehching Hsieh, who did 4 time-based works:

- One Year Performance 1978–1979 (Cage Piece)

"In this performance, which lasted from 29 September 1978 through 30 September 1979, the artist locked himself in an 11.5-by-9-by-8-foot (3.5 by 2.7 by 2.4 m) wooden cage, furnished only with a wash basin, lights, a pail, and a single bed. During the year, he did not allow himself to talk, to read, to write, or to listen to radio and TV. A lawyer, Robert Projansky, notarized the entire process and made sure the artist never left the cage during that one year. His loftmate came daily to deliver food, remove the artist's waste,[3] and take a single photograph to document the project. In addition, this performance was open to be viewed once or twice a month from 11 am to 5 pm.

- One Year Performance 1980–1981 (Time Clock Piece)

For one year, from 11 April 1980 through 11 April 1981, Hsieh punched a time clock every hour on the hour. Each time he punched the clock, he took a single picture of himself, which together yield a 6-minute movie. He shaved his head before the piece, so his growing hair reflects the passage of time.

- One Year Performance 1981–1982 (Outdoor Piece)

In his third one-year performance piece, from 26 September 1981 through 26 September 1982, Hsieh spent one year outside, not entering buildings or shelter of any sort, including cars, trains, airplanes, boats, or tents. He moved around New York City with a packbag and a sleeping bag.

- Art / Life: One Year Performance 1983-1984 (Rope Piece)

In this performance, Hsieh and Linda Montano spent one year between 4 July 1983 and 4 July 1984 tied to each other with an 8-foot-long (2.4 m) rope. They had to stay in the same room when inside, but were not allowed to touch each other until the end of the one-year period. Both shaved their hair in the beginning of the year, and the performance was notarized initially by Paul Grassfield and later by Pauline Oliveros.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehching_Hsieh

lawrenceyan• 4 years ago

Is this the algorithm or just late-stage capitalism / pre-post scarcity economics?

I think situations like these will only become increasingly prevalent as time passes thanks to technological development decreasing the raw resource cost of goods and services. Because while we have a good mechanism for reliably increasing productivity and efficiency, no analogous mechanism exists for distribution. Thus profit / wealth inevitably concentrates and you end up with

the lengths to which humans in the twenty-first century will go to slurp up the drips of unimaginable wealth that the algorithm leaks out through Mr. Beast.

I have no idea how you actually come up with a reasonable solution for this since communism/socialism clearly failed. My hope is that there's enough trickle down from technological growth, that despite increasing wealth inequality, at least the baseline minimum will be high enough that even the poorest people will be able to have a decent standard of living.

mcv5• 4 years ago

I have no idea how you actually come up with a reasonable solution for this since communism/socialism clearly failed.

You could simply give people more than just some drips that keep them on the edge of desperation. Whether or not you consider that socialism, it has been quite successful in a lot of countries. The failure of a totalitarian dictatorship in no way implies that excessive wealth inequality is the only alternative.

ryan933• 4 years ago

However much money your imagined society gives out people will still gladly do game shows for extra cash. Unless you want to be honest and say no one should have even a single extra penny to spend how they please

kwhitefoot• 4 years ago

IS this real?

elp• 4 years ago

He kept coming up when my kid watched YouTube. I sat through a few before I started blocking them.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Personally I'm pretty sure its all fake. The reactions are not quite right for people winning so much money. I'm pretty sure I've seen some of the winners as extras in other videos. He got caught handing out fake money which he claimed was for "security".

If you were Mr Beast would you really give away $500k plus the costs of spending a full 100 days of filming when you could just get some actors to do it in a week?

Especially when you would get the same view count either way.

prepend11• 4 years ago

It would save a lot of money if he just did stunts with friends who didn’t actually keep the money.

Kind of like all the NFT wash trades.

lettergram• 4 years ago

That’s the world we’re headed into. In the future, content is ruled by algorithmic desire, and those best suited to steer on the seas of the algorithm’s waves and whims.

What’s often misunderstood and unaccounted for is that this algorithm is a feed back loop. We are adapting to it as much as it’s adapting to us.

bambax3• 4 years ago

How does Mr. Beast have the money to create these videos? He’s the fifth most subscribed to YouTube channel in the world.

I had never heard of him or watched any of his videos. And now I have, and I'm afraid YT will recommend more. Not that I would ever watch one again except by accident, but still. I feel dirty.

Also, about this:

t’s terrifying that a man spent one hundred days in a small circle in an empty field. It’s even more terrifying that this is solely at the whims of a single former Minecraft YouTube creator (...) But there’s no standards, no compliance department telling Mr. Beast that this video maybe isn’t the best idea

Apparently the author has never heard of Tomoaki Hamatsu (Nasubi), a Japanese guy who was tricked into surviving off sweepstakes, fully naked, not for 100 days but for 15 months, while filmed and broadcasted 24/7 (without him even knowing it).

This stunt was organized by Nippon TV in 2000. It fascinated the whole country of Japan for as long as it ran, and some time after that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasubi

cube00• 4 years ago

But it's all for the viewers...he's only doing it for you.

In interviews, he explains that many of his videos lose money, and he invests almost all of his earnings from You back into more videos.

tenpies• 4 years ago

At this point he's quite likely the majority shareholder of a fast food empire, a chocolate bar company, and the owner of the Youtube channel. On top of that there is a layer of distribution deals and sub-channels (I mean there's even a Mr. Beast in Español channel).

I suspect that early on much of it was carried on the back of personal and business debt, but once the fast food division took off it all made more sense.

I also don't like where this is heading culturally, and while I find him odd, his crew or whatever the other members are seem incredibly annoying and vapid. It's also through watching Mr Beast videos, that every Westerner should immediately be able to understand why so much of the world has varying degrees of hate towards the West.

Applejinx3• 4 years ago

I think it's extremely plausible that he dumps all his earnings back into furthering his empire. It's the Amazon model, but for a personality (Bezos profits off Amazon beating all its competitors at executing on being an online store, MrBeast profits off beating all his competitors at being a youtuber)

It's basically an endgame for capitalism. When you lower the friction of engagement and globalize everything so it becomes possible to try and be the winner of 'the market' as in the WORLD, there will be people in control who insist on being THE winner even if it costs them.

It makes perfect sense that MrBeast dumps all his money back into YouTube attention, and it makes perfect sense that he conducts money give-aways to immunize himself against criticism, and everything that he makes (and re-gives) also makes YouTube money, so they are deeply invested in aligning with him and his approach.

He is not ABOUT bringing a return on his investments (or indeed, fairly paying or treating his own employees). He is about beating the market, about winning, and anything else is disposable externalities. He paid off his mom's house when it became trivial for him to do so.

When he dies, it all collapses. He's not building anything except that he's cementing YouTube dominance.

shitloadofbooks• 4 years ago

I watch most of Mr Beasts videos (primarily because "the algorithm" throws them at my face until I give in), but his recent interview with Graham Stephen[1] shows another side of him.

He lives in his office, doesn't care about personal wealth and is absolutely dedicated to making YouTube videos. He's definitely an odd fellow.

[1] https://youtu.be/yADi4cs4Dhw

prepend11• 4 years ago

He says he doesn’t care about personal wealth yet doesn’t donate to charity and instead amasses quite a bit of wealth.

He’s not odd, he’s just a YouTuber who is really good at SEOing youtube and getting billions of views.

simplyinfinity• 4 years ago

Oh, belive me, he does donate to charity quite a bit. Check out his charity channel and videos. He has a charity manager that distributes food and do food drives in a couple of states.

M4v3R2• 4 years ago

yet doesn’t donate to charity

You obviously have no idea what are you talking about. He not only donates to charity, he actually set up a charity by himself called Beast Philanthropy where he supplies people in need with food, schools with supplies, etc.

He also spearheaded two huge ecological campaigns - Team Trees (to plant millions of trees around the globe) and Team Seas (to clean up tonnes of garbage from the sea).

Euphorbium• 4 years ago

“Do not recommend channel” is an option hidden in a three dot menu on the video thumbnail. Without it youtube is unusable. You do not have to consume the shit it forces into your eyeholes.

ineedasername4• 4 years ago

I’m not sure that aspect of his personality makes it any better. Think of any horrible corporate behavior that causes human suffering and imagine a CEO who genuinely, honestly says “I’m just obsessively driven to make may customers happy. I donate every last penny to charity”

That doesn’t really make the human suffering aspect any better.

(Side note: I want to be clear that I don’t think what Mr. Beast does can compare to the worst things that some corporations do, not at all. It’s just an apt comparison to explore the extent to which motives matter or not in things like this)

seydor4• 4 years ago

Interesting that your comment got some emotional responses. Do people identify with MrBeast as a person? I mean he s good at what he does but he s a cruel executionist, not relatable at all after he leaves the office. He 's entertaining, or else he would be as sleazy as the other person in that video.

6stringmerc• 4 years ago

It’s right there in the name - Mr. Beast.

I wouldn’t seek out a personal trainer who chooses the name Mr. Hyde personally.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes - the $500k isn’t stupid, but the psychological effects are forever. Hope some of that money got earmarked for therapy and counseling! Not kidding, I am an advocate for CBT and I’m pretty sure this situation is pretty similar to stories where lottery winners end up with mo money mo problems.

core-utility• 4 years ago

Psychological effects? The contestant volunteered for this, and was able to step out at any time (many times while still making a good amount of money).

How many people were kept locked in their - possibly smaller - homes during COVID with no option to exit and no end date in sight?

astura3• 4 years ago

LMAO, this stunt is a lot less psychologically damaging than my first job I worked as a teenager for $6.15/hr. At that job people lobbed personal insults at my daily, I was treated like human garbage, I was touched inappropriately many times, and I was always getting a raise "next week."

Get over yourself.

myaccount80• 4 years ago

Reminds me of the story of Nasubi: “Tomoaki Hamatsu was challenged to stay alone, unclothed, in an apartment for Susunu! Denpa Shōnen (January 1998 – March 2002), a Japanese reality-television show on Nippon Television, after winning a lottery for a "show business related job". He was challenged to enter mail-in sweepstakes until he won ¥1 million (about US$10,000) in total. He started with nothing (including no clothes), was cut off from outside communication and broadcasting, and had nothing to keep him company except the magazines he combed through for sweepstakes entry forms. After spending 335 days to reach his target, he set the Guinness world record for the "longest time survived on competition winnings".”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasubi

https://youtu.be/DWWK05t98os

ZephyrBlu3• 4 years ago

This feels very doom and gloom. Mr Beast gets to make the videos he wants, viewers get to watch amazing videos and people who are featured in the videos generally get paid. Everyone wins.

Most of his videos are basically excuses to give people money and you rarely see participants not having a good time. Having the guy sit around for 100d is the most 'exploitative' video I've seen, but that really doesn't seem like the goal.

If he starts making real-life Hunger Games videos I'd be worried, but it doesn't feel like he's heading in that direction at all. More like a new version of game shows, except it's way less forced, more varied and very lighthearted.

prydwen3• 4 years ago

To be fair this video also felt a lot like an excuse to give someone half a million dollars. He brought his kids around on Father's day so it wouldn't be too difficult. The circle was big enough and equipped enough to be able to exercise, maintain good hygiene, do some gardening... The 'toughest' bit was having a marching band play all night, ONE night. I'm a fan of the survival show 'Alone' and there people have to survive out of pretty much nothing for 50-100 days in the hope of earning the same amount of money. This guy had everything provided, the only challenge was boredom and missing people !

ZephyrBlu3• 4 years ago

Exactly. He's hardly torturing these people. On the contrary, most of the challenges are pretty damn cushy.

loceng• 4 years ago

Should we ignore that all of this is funded by the advertising industrial complex, advertisements which are arguably extremely harmful to society due to the cheap-shallow manipulation that occurs with them?

seydor4• 4 years ago

Should we ignore the fact that so many people watch his videos that it's impossible to ignore the number? I agree that his videos are basically a polished version of "give a homeless guy money to do something cruel". People watch them to see what people do for money. There s nothing beautiful in that, but it's a curiosity and it grabs attention. If it wasnt through ads, someone else would be funding it, i dont think that being ad-supported changes the dynamic of his audience.

mattbrewsbytes3• 4 years ago

Many people are ignoring some interesting aspects of Mr. Beasts business and instead are focusing on the content which is mostly attention grabbing, silly, ridiculous game show premises. The content isn't for me or likely many HNers but I see similarities with startups and his business model.

From watching a couple of interviews, things I've picked up - when his youtube videos were grossing $20-30k a month he started hiring people and said he hires about 1 person per month since then. He has a teams of accountants, editors, producers, etc. He decided early on to have videos translated but would hire premier voice actors in countries, like someone that voice acted Batman to do his voice. He has an obsessed culture of making the best videos. He built a huge studio and lives there.

I see many similarities to what I've read about startup founders and a growth mindset. If anything, there are some huge marketing lessons to be learned from how he runs his business. I would love to see an experienced interviewer with knowledge of the business world/startups interview him.

andrewfromx• 4 years ago

My kid made me listen to the whole joe rogan interview with him. It was very insightful. Maybe rogan isn't "an experienced interviewer with knowledge of the business world/startups" in some people's mind, but I thought he covered many issues well.

prydwen3• 4 years ago

Just this week he did a one hour interview with 'The iced coffee hour' (I think that's the name of the channel), and he goes really into details about his revenue streams, costs, his plans for the future etc. Really interesting

hnrodey• 4 years ago

I would love to see an experienced interviewer with knowledge of the business world/startups interview him.

It doesn't fully match your requirements but Mr. Beast was on Joe Rogan a few months ago. A fantastic interview and they talk a lot about the stuff you mention (voice actors, hiring people, etc.)

randac• 4 years ago

This is similar to the Rogan interview, but I figured I'd mention it here too.

MrBeast was just on Flagrant with Andrew Schulz for 4 hours, a day or so ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGrk7Mzm4uo

This was also an interesting and fun interview which I expected to skip over fairly quickly but ended up listening to in the entirety. Some discussion over how you would lose something like 3% of viewers if somebody sneezed, went to the toilet, and so on.. Other things to avoid, like any signalling that the video is winding down will lose you a huge chunk of viewers instantly.

mattbrewsbytes3• 4 years ago

Yeah the interview I saw a clip out of he or a staffer stated that any mention of peeing would drop viewership.

I watch woodworking youtubers and a couple of them had a behind the scenes discussion about their channels and also came to the conclusion that any wind-down loses viewers and this affects a channel. The algorithms use metrics of how long someone watches so it makes sense to end abruptly rather than have 30-60s of wind down.

Mr Beast's team must have second by second analytics on every video to know what works, what doesn't for the types of videos they produce.

retreatguru• 4 years ago

He mentioned that he pulls almost no revenue and reinvests the money he makes into the next video. He started off with a $10k sponsorship - and he just gave it all away to a homeless person. And this cycle just keeps getting bigger. So yes, very much a growth mindset.

prepend11• 4 years ago

In interviews, he explains that many of his videos lose money, and he invests almost all of his earnings from You back into more videos

I dont think this is true. He either doesn’t understand his revenue and costs or is misleading and spinning BS to seem more relatable.

He’s the 5th most subscribed YouTube channel. He’s making gobs of money off all his videos. That’s why he’s quite wealthy now.

He seems totally full of horse apples and is the closest we’ve gotten to “Ass: the Movie” in my lifetime.

I don’t want to be an old person yelling at clouds so if people like watching him then I leave it alone. I suppose there are worse things to watch. But it all seems too contrived for me to enjoy it.

In this case it was a simple, boring task and 100/100 anyone dropped into that circle would stay for 100 days to get $500k.

ZephyrBlu3• 4 years ago

He spends hundreds of thousands to millions on producing videos, it's very likely he doesn't make a profit on a lot of them. It also seems like he's expanding at a pretty incredible rate.

In this case it was a simple, boring task and 100/100 anyone dropped into that circle would stay for 100 days to get $500k

Crazy how the video of this simple, boring task has 32M views. Mr Beast manages to make this kind of stuff very engaging.

prepend11• 4 years ago

It is kind of crazy, but people like it.

The Kardasians tv show gets bizarre (to me) views as well. People find it engaging.

That’s ok, people can like their thing. But that doesn’t make it bullshit. Lots of people read The Secret and like it. It doesn’t stop the book from being absolute poppycock.

jccalhoun2• 4 years ago

It depends on how he is measuring it. If it is just in terms of what he gets from youtube and not advertising then it is easier to imagine. Then there is also the fact that it is probably the case that for every one of these big budget videos that don't make money he has several smaller ones that do make money. The big ones bring in the audience and the small ones bring in the money.

ineedasername4• 4 years ago

Yeah, but it’s strange to spinning it like “I don’t even make a profit on many of these but I still do it!”

That’s nothing special at all, he simply rediscovered the concept of “loss leader”. He not doing those videos despite their lack of profit, he’s doing the because they’re the reason he has profitable content to begin with. It would be like a shaving company saying “I know it seems crazy, but we lose so much money on these shaving handles, but we do it anyway!” Everyone knows what’s really going on there, what the business model really is.

prepend11• 4 years ago

If it is just in terms of what he gets from youtube and not advertising then it is easier to imagine.

Well this is an odd way to measure profitable. What’s the benefit to this method?

Imagine if Google said “we lose money on every search run. Unless you count the advertising, then we make billions. But we lose money on most of our activities.”

This just seems naively stupid. Because “most videos” is a dumb metric. Imagine if your VC answered the question “Are you rich from your fund?” with “Well we lost money on most of our investments.”

This is either a dodge or just a lucky fool. Mr Beast doesn’t seem like an imbecile so I assume he’s just trying to be humble or deflective.

Just from doing the YouTube napkin math if you saw his balance sheet he would have hundreds of millions.

Because trust me, the world would know if he donated to charity.

x86x87• 4 years ago

In this case it was a simple, boring task and 100/100 anyone dropped into that circle would stay for 100 days to get $500k.

Not sure that anyone could do it. He made the job easier by forking with the guy and providing human contact. Should have left the guy alone. 100 days of solitary confinement can literally drive you nuts.

Vt71fcAqt74• 4 years ago

Their strict standards resulted in content that was homogeneous and boring, but safe. It’s terrifying that a man spent one hundred days in a small circle in an empty field.

This isn't terrifying. People do much worse for 100x less. Prostitution and porn, for example, many times drive people to suicide. People stay on ships for months at a time without seeing their family, not too long ago, sailors would go years on ships. Why? For money. The author wants to live in a world where everyone gets everything at no cost: that isn't even admiribale, it's childish.

Barrin92• 4 years ago

The issue here isn't the money in a direct sense. People in the real world do worse jobs for less money, yes. But those jobs aren't intermediated by some benefactor who essentially treats human beings like lab rats.

Prostitution may be grueling but people generally do it to pay the bills in a trivial sense. Being put into some sort of alternate reality where you are being treated and experimented on like a video game character, to an audience who also probably perceives you as a virtual source of entertainment deserves to be looked at through a different lens than just bucks/hour made. It's a sort of low stakes hunger games where rich patrons throw people into an arena for their fun and benefit. The Mr Beast content could be its own Black Mirror episode.

And it's terrifying not despite but because the money isn't even that relevant. There's probably people who would do that stuff for free just to meet Mr Beast or get five minutes of online attention.

sweetheart5• 4 years ago

The author wants to live in a world where everyone gets everything at no cost: that isn't even admiribale, it's childish.

Why is it childish to want a life in which you don’t need to labor to have everything you need to be happy? It’s childish to think that human beings are born worthy of a happy peaceful safe life? Why do we need to earn those things? Are they not inherent within us?

M4v3R2• 4 years ago

Because at the end of the day you need to obtain food, clothing, shelter and other necessities to even survive to the next day, not even mentioning doing anything for pleasure. Either through labor of your own, or by doing labor to earn money to buy these for you possibly your family. Thinking that "human beings are born worthy of a happy peaceful safe life" is childish - the world doesn't owe us anything, and if we want to continue living on it we have to earn it.

flerchin3• 4 years ago

The folks working on farms, few though they are in the modern world, deserve compensation. What will the people not working on the farm do to deserve the fruits of their labor? Whatever it will be, will be work. Same for the folks building houses, and all the rest of modern infrastructure that we depend upon to live.

prepend11• 4 years ago

Why is it childish to want a life in which you don’t need to labor to have everything you need to be happy?

The same way it’s childish to want my parents to provide for all my needs. Or to want dragons to be real.

It’s not realistic and is counterproductive to being creative and providing for myself.

We can’t all be trust fund kids, thankfully as all the ones I’ve known have been insufferable.

colinmhayes11• 4 years ago

People aren't born worthy of anything. Thinking otherwise is childish. We need to earn things because they're not unlimited. Living a happy peaceful life means consuming things, if you don't provide things back no one is going to give you anything to consume.

namlem• 4 years ago

Because if no one had to work, nothing would get done, and we would not have the abundance of food and goods that we do. All that stuff is made by the labor of others.

edanm• 4 years ago

You're mixing two different things. I agree with you - if we could live in a world where we didn't have to work, that's great! That's the desired outcome IMO.

But you also ask:

Why do we need to earn those things? Are they not inherent within us?

And if I'm understanding correctly, the reason we need to earn these things is because right now, we're not living in a world in which we can stop working. The world doesn't just hand us what we need without toil, unfortunately.

ineedasername4• 4 years ago

The author wants to live in a world where everyone gets everything at no cost: that isn't even admiribale, it's childish.

The author seemed to deliberately avoid making value judgements of this sort until it compared to traditional reality media where there are more guardrails built in. Otherwise Just about the only editorializing there is the author’s speculation about Mr. Beat’s motives, that they are driven by a an extreme focus on creating desirably content for his audience.

kingkawn• 4 years ago

What’s the deal with this hay bale and why are we admiring it?

seydor4• 4 years ago

Not to say, people go to work at 9 and leave at 5 for years and years for small recurring amounts of money

fknorangesite• 4 years ago

go to work at 9 and leave at 5

Most people aren't even lucky enough to have this much consistency, and for even less money.

bergenty• 4 years ago

No, the ideal world is where everyone gets everything at no cost. That’s basically utopia. The only difference is we can’t make it happen yet.

Vt71fcAqt74• 4 years ago

I can't edit the post anymore, but after reading the comments, taking a break, and comming back to this, I realize that I didn't use the right language here. The tone is too negative and demeaning to the author. Since I felt that the article was unfair to Beast I "attacked back" in this post and that was wrong (perhaps in a way childish). I still hold the main points, but I think the word childish is not a nice word to use and lowers the overall discusion on HN. "Unreasonable" would be better, but the effect is not as good and misses some points in my opinion. But I think the effect shouldn't be the focus here. Attacking the author shouldn't be the priority at all. Childish implies an intelectual defect, and that can't be removed from the meaning. That's not what I meant in the context of my argument. But that shouldn't matter.

williamcotton• 4 years ago

Many things can become popular and then disappear when social mores change in response to negative outcomes.

https://bonjourparis.com/history/the-paris-morgue-a-gruesome...

We’re as stuck with the machinations of click-bait as fin de siècle Parisians with their morgue.

verytrivial• 4 years ago

So, basically "Ow My Balls!" from Idiocracy, but with more money changing hands.

lazyjones• 4 years ago

I won't complain about this new world of "algorithmic desire" because my desires provide me with interesting and enjoyable content (none of Mr. Beast).

Perhaps the problem isn't the algorithms of yt and Tik Tok, but rather the people who decide to watch these things instead of moving on?

seydor4• 4 years ago

those videos are crafted to be impressionable and consumable, almost too fast to watch, no time spent to know the protagonists etc. But it also feels terminal, like, there is nothing else after he will have rehashed every major TV trope in 10 minutes. He will certainly bank big and retire soon , this is not a long-term sustainable operation. I don't think he s pointing to any particular direction in entertainment. He's making a soft versions of a squid game, but after that, what?

It strikes me that he doesnt have competition in youtube currently, because nobody else (?) makes videos with somewhat substantial budgeting that feel like TV. So his videos get all the attention among the various podcast/travel/other kinds of slow-paced, monothematic videos. BUT he might start a trend here of big budget youtube productions. This will depend on his margins, but I m not sure that the relatively small payout of youtube will allow such trend

mihaic2• 4 years ago

I think one thing most posts saying "he optimizes for the algorithm" ignore is that content also slowly influences our desired and our culture. It's all a gigantic and relatively slow-moving feedback loop, where content influences culture and desires, which again influences content.

MrBeast's videos I find particularly damaging to culture, since it's incredibly dehumanizing and stripped of any nuance of the labor/value/money dynamic.

It's sad that I've become less and less confident that people can be trusted with what they consume -- food, content, anything.

Karsteski• 4 years ago

It's sad that I've become less and less confident that people can be trusted with what they consume -- food, content, anything.

Can you elaborate more on what you mean by this?

thisoneworks• 4 years ago

I think they are talking about our proclivity to get addicted to something similar to high fructose corn syrup in any shape or form.

mihaic2• 4 years ago

I mean, the more complex the world become, the worse our choices are in free market, since we don't see the long term consequences of some decisions. For instance, getting a streaming-service subscription is convenient for the consumer, but in practice it seems like making a customer binary (either on board or out) has made content more a race-to-the-bottom.

In the end, I think that gatekeeping of some kind can increase both quality and the tastes of the average consumer. The fact that it's hard has led us to abandon it completely though, similarly to how people say now "the government can't make anything".

I also know that I'm a weak creature, and could use some external help to not deliver me constant temptations. If you see content as food for your mind, I find it easy to binge junk, only to be left with a feeling of emptiness after a while.

viridian• 4 years ago

I'm surprised at how many people view this as legitimately torturous. I'd happily do the same for twice as long and for half the money. Hell, Henry David Thoreau did this in the woods, on purpose, for two years, with only a brief refrain when he was arrested for not paying his taxes.

atribecalledqst• 4 years ago

I'm not really interested in Mr. Beast's content but there is a video from one of the engineers involved in his Squid Game recreation that I thought was pretty interesting. Seems like this guy went for three whole weeks without sleeping, just piling on hack after hack to make the event come together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdt18p-VMmQ

warent2• 4 years ago

There's a lot of severe, judgemental commenting going on here, stooping to actually name-calling Mr. Beast.

Guys, relax. He's an entertainment entrepreneur. He's a circus ringleader. He gives normal people a chance to be trapeze artists for a day. Is it easy? No. It's hard work. But it's a once in a lifetime experience that people sign up for, mostly for that experience, with the money being secondary.

Nobody gets hurt, and he pays his people extremely, extremely generously.

His business model isn't cruelty and torture. It's just a circus that gives away huge sums of money.

Invictus0• 4 years ago

An interesting premise for an article with ultimately no worthwhile analysis. Not worth anyone's time.

mech987• 4 years ago

Seems to me that people are much more upset about this particular video (guy in circle for 100 days) because he's a husband and father. If it had been a young 20-something person, nobody would bat an eye.

daltonlp• 4 years ago

Some big spin in this piece.

During the pandemic, he partnered with local restaurants to sell “Beast Burgers”, a proprietary burger recipe that any kitchen could make and sell with his branding, and in interviews he speaks proudly of restaurants that would have gone out of business without the interest Beast Burgers provided.

No. He inked a deal with a kitchen arbitrage venture.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/dining/ghost-kitchen-mrbe...

The $24 burger was...not good.

nsonha• 4 years ago

Did an AI write this?

MPSimmons2• 4 years ago

This reminds me of The Bet, by Chekhov - https://www.shortstoryguide.com/read-bet-anton-chekhov/

rufius• 4 years ago

This is the first time I've heard of Mr. Beast.

Seems I haven't been missing a thing.

On Mr. Beast and being alone in a circle for 100 days

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