Reels is not a place of self-expression. YouTube might be a place for that. Reels is a game of adaptation. Even if you authentically, by being yourself, got some views, you might fall out of fashion as the algorithm evolves. Thus, to constantly stay at the top, you have to understand it’s a game of adaptation. You do many things, you figure out what are getting better results, you double down while you try other things. Thus, if there is any changes in algorithm, your diversified attempts tell you what is working now.

Thus you are experimenting, you are abandoning a lot of things, you are doubling down on a lot of things. It is a very cold-hearted game where you have to detach from it as a process and keep making what the algorithm demands. It’s a B2B business, not a boutique B2C art boutique game. You are supplying your business partner with media that they want and know will work with the audiences they have. Nothing else.

If you want to be random, and you want to create any type of content like PewDiePie did

• One day you are talking about sass
• Another day you are talking about philosophy
• Another day you are talking about memes

Then go for YouTube. I don’t think Reels is a place for that.

When I say reels, think of it as a synonym for all short-form content, be it YouTube Shorts or TikTok.

Long-form content is almost like a celebrity that everyone likes. People will love whatever it fucking does.

But short-form content is very much like a fucking employee. It is very commoditized. It should be what is demanded, and the demands might shift, and it should adapt to that demand or it will be out.