“Have conviction in what you want to share with the world.”

Marques Brownlee published a video commenting on YouTube’s just announced A:B testing feature. In short, for some creators, it will be possible to publish a slightly different version of the video on launch to part of their audience, if that version is deemed “close enough” to the original. Brownlee digs into how confusing this feature might be in actual use for viewers, never sure whether they’re watching, commenting, or rewatching the same video as others see, or even as themselves earlier saw. Toward the end of the video, Brownlee shifts his focus toward other YouTubers, with a monologue that I wanted to quote here because it captures something important: You know, this is being framed as a tool to help you improve your videos. But I think for 99.9% of creators – well, to be literal, it’s not actually helping you make better videos; it’s helping you find which version of your video has the best retention, which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a better video – hot take. And there are…