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> If we measure by view counts the things that are around the mean in terms of skill will be more popular.

I would instinctively have thought material conveying the basics would be the most viewed in the long run - since skill is cumulative, everyone at some point will have had to learn the basics, and only those who succeeded would go on to view intermediate content

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If you’re looking at an online course I agree the basics will be watched more often (as well as due to people not completing the course). But if you’re looking at something like cooking videos I’d expect the videos of people cooking cool things would get more views. People love food porn and want to watch something exciting about cooking but probably won’t watch a video about knife basics because it’s not as engaging to most people. That’s what I loved so much about Alton Brown and especially Good Eats, he makes so many mundane kitchen things exciting. Compare that to Thomas Keller’s Master Class, which is incredibly informative and I’d recommend it to anyone, but also significantly lower energy and you really have to want to learn the stuff to watch him julienne carrots for 5 minutes.

Good coincidence. I'm about to subscribe to Master Class (International 2 for 1 offer) and was looking forward to watching Thomas Keller among others. Watched 2 of Massimo Bottura's lectures with a guest pass and found it useful and informative, looks like I'll enjoy Keller as well...

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