All righty, chat. Today we're going to

talk about how to stop watching YouTube

in 2026. And I recognize the absolute

irony of me telling you to do that as a

YouTuber. But here's what I'm seeing,

and it's pretty disturbing. We're seeing

a lot of people watch more and more

self-help content on the internet. And

as you watch things like this channel,

which by the way, a lot of our content

is great. I highly recommend it. There's

an insidious problem that's starting to

grow, which is that people are watching

content like this. They're listening to

podcasts. We're doing all kinds of stuff

for our benefit, but it's not actually

resulting in a lot of benefit. So,

here's how this works. I decide at some

point to waste a little bit of time.

Maybe I'm taking a break from work.

Maybe I'm going to the restroom. And so,

I decide to open up something like

YouTube because I want a little bit of a

distraction. I want to entertain myself

a little bit. And then a really really

sneaky thought creeps in which is that

if I'm going to waste my time, why don't

I watch something productive, right? So

instead of watching some standup comedy

or some like, you know, improv comedy

sketch or something like that on

YouTube, why don't I pull up a Dr. K

video or a productivity video or a

podcast and at least that way when I'm

wasting time, I'm actually learning

something. So it's not really a waste of

time, right? That turns out to be an

incredibly insidious thought because

what I want you all to think about for a

moment is what determines the self-help

content that you watch. The scary thing

is that our job as YouTubers is to make

content that is not helpful, but that is

palatable, that is entertaining, that is

enjoyable. The metrics we're measured on

are not randomized control trials where

people look at, you know, how much

YouTube you watch and how much you

actually get better. Those are not the

kinds of videos that we make. We make

videos that are entertaining. We make

videos that get people to click them. We

make videos that people will watch to

the end. And so, what we're actually

doing is making content that isn't

designed to be helpful. It's designed to

be consumed. Now, before we get into

like, oh my god, all YouTubers are evil.

I want to take a moment and just share

with you that that's actually your

fault, not ours. Because I've tried

this. If I made a 2hour really, really

really, really helpful video, but it was

boring, but it didn't have a clickbait

title, but it was not something that was

easily doable, who would watch that

video? And it turns out that the answer

is no one. So, there's a very subtle

problem here, which is that the

self-help content on the internet is not

designed in a way to be helpful. It's

designed in a way to be consumed. But

that doesn't mean that it isn't helpful,

right? So, like people watch this

channel. It's hilarious. There's

actually a study at the American

Psychiatric Association that's being

presented this year on healthy gamers

content. So, this is wild. like we are

actually being studied by people at the

American Psychiatric Association for the

value of the content that we produce.

And it turns out that our content is

about as useful as the American

Psychiatric Association's content.

Right? So these are people that are not

trying to be entertaining. They're

trying to be helpful. And I watch

self-help content. I listen to podcasts.

And there's a lot of good stuff there.

Right? And there are absolutely people

that have been a part of this community,

have watched this content. It has

transformed their lives and they've

moved on. The problem though is that

there are people who have watched

content for years. There there's people

who consume every podcast on the planet.

They watch for hours and hours and hours

and hours and hours and they don't

translate it into something. So then the

question becomes what's the difference?

And in order to understand that we have

to dig into the psychology a little bit

more. When people hear about our

coaching program, their first [music]

response is usually, "Why would I work

with another human being when I can

watch YouTube videos all on my own?"

Working with a coach is about amplifying

your time and effort. [music] We're

great at wanting things and even making

some progress, but we usually struggle

with follow through or have some kind of

setback. [music] And that's exactly

where working with a coach can help.

Coaches provide personalized support to

help you set appropriate [music] goals,

make progress, and even work through

setbacks. Just let us know what your

goals are, what kind of support you're

looking for, and we'll match you with

the best coach for your unique needs.

Check out the link in the description

below to see if coaching is right for

you. So, it comes down to this idea of

let me just watch some content and be

more efficient, right? So, this is

something that happens so often where

like if I'm sitting down to do some

dishes or clean my kitchen, I'm going to

turn on a podcast. If I'm waiting for a

queue to pop in a game, I'm going to

have healthy gamer GI and Dr. Okay, on

my second screen. So, at least I'm using

that time efficiently. And so, this

self-help content that we watch becomes

bonus. It becomes free. It becomes

incredibly efficient. It becomes

something that isn't a priority that I'm

dedicating my time to, it starts to

become extra. And the problem with that

is that if it's something that's extra,

if it's something that's free, that

means it doesn't cost me anything. I'm

gaining something without spending

anything. And the moment we shift into

that idea, that's when we run into a

huge problem. Because the moment that

our brain starts to think this is

something that I'm getting for free, at

that point we become unwilling to pay a

price to actually improve our life

because we have tricked our brains or

our brains have tricked us into thinking

that this is something I can get for

free. So, there's a really good example

of this which comes from something

called motivational interviewing, which

is an evidence-based technique for

helping people overcome addictions. So,

in motivational interviewing, we learn

about something called ambivalence,

which is sort of this internal conflict.

I want to make a change, but I don't

want to make a change. So, here's the

way that this looks. When I start out

making a change, when I decide to make a

change, I think about the benefit of the

change, which is a far far far away.

Let's say that it's January of 2026 and

I'm going to sign up for a gym

membership. When I sign up for a gym

membership, what motivates me to do

that? It's the benefit of going to the

gym. It's thinking to myself, okay, if I

go to the gym for 6 months this year, if

I work out three times a week, I'm going

to get an awesome beach bod. I'm going

to be ready for summer. It's going to

improve my health. It's going to be

really good for my mental health. There

going to be all these benefits. We do

things because of the benefits. And so

the moment that I sign up for the gym,

I'm thinking about all the benefits but

not thinking about the costs. And then

we run into a problem because when I

actually go to the gym, what I do is pay

the costs without actually getting a

benefit. Right? I don't have a Beachbod,

the first time I go to the gym and I'm

huffing and puffing and sweating on the

treadmill and wondering why I ever came

here and I want to stop and I want to

leave early and oh my god, I'm so out of

shape. We start to have all of these

negative thoughts. So there's something

really interesting about human behavior,

which is that when we think about a

goal, it's all upside. And as we move

towards the goal, the cost actually

increases. This is why we don't stick

with stuff. We start something and we're

like, "Oh my god, this turned out to be

so much harder than I thought." And then

we decide to move in the opposite

direction. Okay, forget about the gym.

Now what I'm going to do is make a video

game because that would be really cool.

I'd make a lot of extra income. I love

video games. It'd be awesome to make a

game. I'm so excited. I have all these

ideas. And then you start the process of

learning how to code and then you run

into bugs and then you run into more

bugs and you run into more bugs and then

you realize all the work that you put in

doesn't really work because you weren't

sort of thinking about the architecture

of the game at the very beginning and so

then you quit. The way we help people in

motivational interviewing is by helping

them appreciate the cost. And so if we

want to stop wasting our time with

self-help content, there's one really

simple thing that we need to do. We need

to start separating out improvement from

entertainment. It's not something that

we're doing extra. It's if you are going

to improve something, that should be the

dedicated goal that you spend. It's not

on your second monitor. You are going to

sit down and intentionally

learn something for the sake of

implementation. And like I said, a lot

of people have benefited from this

channel. I have benefited from a lot of

the great content on the internet. And

here's the difference between people who

benefit and people who don't benefit.

Some people start doing the thing and

then consume content in a targeted way

to improve the thing. I'll give you all

an example from my life. I like watching

cooking videos. But the cooking videos

that are helpful to me are not the

random videos that I click on because I

think the thumbnail is cool. It's stuff

like, okay, if I'm going to learn how to

grill, I'm going to spend some time

grilling. And once [snorts] I spend some

time grilling, I run into problems with

the things that I grill. My carrots are

not tender, and if they get tender, they

get burned. This was a huge problem that

I ran into. So then I'm going to watch a

targeted video to help me solve that

problem. Here's the big difference. The

work, the energy investment, the cost

comes first. That is actually the

primary thing. and watching content to

supplement that comes second. It is not

something extra that I'm doing. It's not

something that I get for free. I pay the

price upfront. So, if y'all want to stop

wasting time on YouTube or Tik Tok or

Instagram, one thing that you need to

do, there's no more free extra or

efficiency of learning. Either you are

learning or you are wasting time. Don't

confuse the two. Hey y'all, hope you

enjoyed today's video. We talk about a

bunch of topics like this on the

channel, so be sure to subscribe for

more. If you're already subscribed, GG,

and we'll see you in chat.

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