Carlo Girardi

I’ve been thinking...

When a YouTuber interviews someone to show a part of the world they know nothing about, I’m pretty sure that in a parallel universe, there’s a creator who actually checks if what they’re posting is accurate before hitting 'upload'.

But then, I also think that in that same parallel universe, there’s someone like me, wondering if in another parallel universe, there’s a YouTuber who doesn’t just verify the facts, but actually chooses their interviewee with care, after carefully analyzing what that person is truly capable of saying.

And I guess this game of parallel universes could go on forever. Because it’s never enough.

But then, it hits me. Maybe that’s not even the point.

Pursuing that sense of perfection by finding the 'ultimate source' doesn’t matter... mostly because one source is never enough if you truly want to be perfect.

I’ve realized the real problem isn't the answers. It’s the questions.


Let’s be real—I’ve experienced this firsthand after a year of finding people to interview across Scandinavia. You arrive in a place, you try to network, you search for resources online... but the real questions only come after you’ve spent weeks or months banging your head against the wall to understand the topic.

They come after you’ve lived in a place for months or years. After you’ve seen things with your own eyes and noticed the details.

And noticing details takes time.

Time that a content creator doesn’t have.

Because they have to produce according to their 'content calendar.' Their gospel. God forbid they miss the Monday 2:00 PM upload. Everyone might forget them, and brands might tear up their contracts.

But at what cost? Probably the honesty of the story.

It’s easier to spend five days in a foreign country and come back with four 20-minute videos than to stay for six months and return with one 2-hour documentary.

You repeat the trick a dozen times a year and—magically—every week of the calendar is covered. Along with the payments in your bank account from ads, brands, donations, and subs.


So, I want to invite you to do something. Listen to the questions asked by everyone currently following the 'I exposed...' or 'I investigated...' trend. Don’t listen to anything else. Just the questions.

Then, let’s see if you still feel like sticking around to hear the answers.

4 months ago | [YT] | 1

Carlo Girardi

There is one thing I’ve always struggled to tolerate about singers: it’s like…doing the exact same show over and over again. I’m talking about zero differences from one night to the next because everything is engineered for marketing perfection.

They want to ensure the audience, having already seen clips all over social media, gets exactly what they expect. It’s this idea of "I saw someone else experience this specific moment online, so now I must experience it exactly the same way." They surrender an infinity of other possibilities just for the sake of conformity.

Well, this same concept is glaringly obvious in the world of content creators. It’s not just in the marketing, where a brand deal forces you to repeat the same talking points (though, unlike a concert, most people just skip that part of the video), but it’s also happening at the conceptual level.

We just keep seeing the same ideas that worked in the past recycled over and over.

As if the world truly needs another "I Survived 24 Hours in a Brazilian Favela" video.

But in this parallel between singers and YouTubers, a new element has emerged that connects both worlds—and frankly, it’s making me want to distance myself from these dynamics entirely.

I’m referring to the Audience Engagement.

In live shows, it started with "let's get the crowd to sing along." Now, you pay for a ticket only to end up singing the chorus yourself along with thousands of others, while being led to believe that this is the real value of the performance.

Then we moved on to bringing "randomly" selected people from the crowd onto the stage. Zara Larsson is a prime recent example. We’re not talking about backup dancers; we’re talking about ordinary people.

And I always find myself asking: what is the value of a non-professional dance routine compared to the price of that ticket?

We see it in comedy, too. More and more, comedians like Matt Rife or Victor Patrascan, and many others, build entire shows based solely on crowd work. Everything is dictated by something "unprofessional" coming from the audience, which is then skillfully packaged by the comic.

And don’t get me wrong, they are great…I’ve just cited them to highlight a trend.

So, this is where the second parallelism with content creation clicks in my mind. The most famous creator in the world, MrBeast, is setting the course for everyone else (brands, production houses, agencies)...

Everything becomes a "challenge" featuring random or selected people from the public (just like the dances on stage). And these participants don't actually justify the "price" we pay for the content, whether that price is measured in money (subscriptions, donations, etc) or simply in the time we spend watching.

All of this has led me to wonder: what is the actual role of the viewer for a creator?

I keep thinking that if the way you "give back" for thousands of comments is just to include a few random people so your next video performs better for the algorithm... or worse, having an agency or an AI respond to those comments instead of you... then, we aren't even remotely close to returning the value the audience pays every time they watch us.

I don’t have a definitive answer… maybe just a few hypotheses I'd like to explore in the future once the channel has grown.

But more than anything, I am certain that another way must exist. The only thing that matters is that it must be the diametric opposite of the path we've taken so far.

And the opposite path isn’t about more engagement, more comments, or better AI replies.

It’s about the courage to be "UNMARKETABLE".

It’s about a creator standing on a stage and performing something that wasn't designed to be shared on TikTok or YouTube.

And that’s the path I want to take once I've built a real community...

5 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 1