Hacker News Reader

Comment by mochomocha | Hacker News Reader

I'm hoping you have the minority opinion here!

"Youtuber" doesn't mean being your own boss at all. It means being a pretense for advertising, and having your sole source of income depends on the whims of a gigantic monopoly.

View on HN

As opposed to a NASA astronaut, who must spend his or her days laboring under the regulations of the US Government, and whose sole income depends on the whims of its gigantic monopoly.

So you're comparing the income stability of a "government type" job to the high-volatility of advertising dollars coming from the quickly moving trends of online platforms?

In theory, all government employees could be fired tomorrow, if it pleases Congress, the President, and the Courts.

In theory all YouTubers could be "fired" tomorrow if it pleases Google (to shut down, demonitize, or otherwise alter YouTube).

I'd put that as significantly more likely, not that either one is very likely at all.

If you are genuinely trying to imply that being an astronaut at NASA has a similar level of financial and professional stability as a social media influencer you are unequivocally incorrect

Please don't prescribe values to me I didn't present. I didn't say if I think it is a good thing or bad thing. My point is that I can easily understand why young people rather be youtubers.

You clearly framed one as better than the other.

You used positive examples and positive language when describing youtubers and negative examples and language when describing astronauts. You are the one that prescribed value to your statement based on the way you described both professions

It's not quite a monopoly. Small-time online personalities can choose at least between YouTube and Twitch right now for video. I expect there are a few less popular platforms, too. Anyone care to comment on which ones?

IGTV, TikTok, Snap are other platforms for this

TikTok is blowing up, I wouldn't be surprised when they grow to become a serious yt competitor.

One big difference is you can make money directly from YouTube and Twitch if you have many followers through ad revenue sharing. On those other platforms, you have to get more creative in monetizing your popularity, e.g. striking a deal with advertisers directly to do sponsored posts.

I dunno. Being an astronaut doesn't sound much better when you put it reductively.

"Astronaut" doesn't mean "space adventurer" at all. Most of the time is spent in training and classes on the ground. Moreover, once you go out to space -- supposing you ever get to go, not likely -- you find that there's nothing there (that's what "space" means), most notably, no bars, movie theaters, or hot young people of your preferred gender. And the whole deal might be scrapped if the wrong political party gains power and slashes NASA's budget by 50%.

Yeah, if fame/status/respect is what you're looking for, astronaut is not a great deal right now. Way to much effort for what you get. But that's not the only reason to pursue the profession.

A lot of demonetized or otherwise smaller channels use Patreon or similar for revenue, so that doesn't have to be the case. Of course, they still give Youtube ad revenue.

There are plenty of people using Patreon that are neither small nor demonetized, as it's more reliable than YouTube ad money and can get people more involved/loyal if you provide some perks for supporting on there.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com