Oddbean new post about login | logout Is there an obvious reason that the most popular youtube/twitch/radio/etc. folks are generally much more confident/loud/brash/etc., than the most popular writers? E.g., the most widely read programming bloggers over time (https://danluu.com/writing-non-advice/) are mostly fairly confident, but the most confident/loud/brash among them isn't even close to the same league as the most popular steamers like xqc (video games), Hikaru (chess), Primagen (programming), etc.
@ed709062 our working hypothesis has been that it's a medium that rewards that, both due to the social signals that make people want to be around loud/brash people coming across better through video and voice, and due to the algorithm prioritizing *engagement* over whatever user priorities would organically drive repeat traffic in the absence of algorithmic intervention
If you look at the most popular streamers over time in any given niche, a huge fraction of them are cut from the same cloth as shock jocks like Howard Stern. There are other strategies that work (banter with 2+ people, very attractive person showing off how attractive they are, actually informative videos, etc.), but the modern version of Howard Stern tends to dominate these when someone does it well (as in, gives people what they want) in way that doesn't seem to be true for writing.