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Comment by Loveaway | Hacker News Reader

Not my cup of tea personally, but I recommend watching his interview with Lex Fridman for some behind the scenes insight. He comes across as incredible smart and knows exactly what he's doing. Also not afraid to re-invest millions of dollars into producing these videos. Obviously it's very much a for-profit endeavour. Not sure, don't think he's fooling anyone and his accomplishments deserve at least some respect I think.

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I've not seen the interview, but I'd be interested in which character comes across.

"Mr Beast" is clearly a character that is played up to, visible in the YouTube videos. Behind this is Jimmy Donaldson, who seems to regularly give interviews about his motivations, and describes in a much more mature way how he just wants to create good content and be altruistic. Beneath this however is the private Jimmy Donaldson who seems like a much more cynical capitalist who knows how to manipulate and stay under the radar on the law in order to make money through illegal mechanisms (gambling).

I'd assume it was the middle one that turned up in the Lex Fridman interview as with most of his interviews. The latter seems much more private.

That's not even a contention here. He's a top-level YouTuber.

Have you watched the video? Because the whole point of it is exposing how MrBeast is earning money by manipulating his children audience into gambling.

Yeah, he cracked the code of how to milk money from children, incredible smart at what he's doing.

I don't think he deserves absolutely any respect for exploiting children for profit.

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