How YouTube Monetized Underwater Basket Weaving (and other '''worthless degrees''')

"Worthless degrees" and interests like art history are now more valuable than ever thanks to YouTube. Philosophy and film degrees can lead to amazing content. And that's a good thing.

Script:

Ten years ago if you told someone you were getting an art history degree — or any degree that doesn’t immediately land you in an air condition cubicle right out of university — the response would be pretty predictable. “OhhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHH cool, cool, what are your career plans for that?”

The idea would be that your vast wealth of knowledge accumulated in your given subject would ultimately result in you flipping burgers at McDonalds. But something has changed in the last decade — now you won’t be getting a job at McDonalds, you’ll be replaced by a burger-droid which does that for you haha just kidding.

The idea before was that you were a hopeless fool who needed to be broken in by reality before you came to your senses and got a computer science degree or something. And for all intents and purposes, that conventional wisdom was mostly right. But something odd happened. Something very odd. Something that practical knowledge hasn’t really caught up to yet. And that odd thing is this.

When it’s time for me to relax, I don’t turn on the television. Nobody does that. I open my laptop, go to YouTube and browse through my subscription feed. And I don’t know about you, but my subscription feed on a casual glance looks like this. We have philosophy majors explaining the ethical questions raised in television shows, we have animators explaining the mechanics of what makes good animation between animations of their own, and one of my favourite new YouTubers is basically just a talking art history degree, all of whose content I regularly consume, all of whom I support by watching the ads on their videos, none of whom I support the Patreon of but SOON AS I GET SOME DOSH I’LL THROW IT YOUR WAY FAM

I have never read an academic essay for fun, but I regularly consume video essays on everything from anime to particle physics. If someone can make complex concepts digestible you KNOW I’m gonna digest it and ask for more. And that’s where YouTube comes in because never before has your obscure knowledge been more interesting, more valuable or more monetizable.

Which is to say if you’re adept at turning the English essay into a video essay, if you’re half-decent at editing, heck if you’re really good at playing video games or even just average but have an appealing personality you can make money doing what you love. It’s not guaranteed, heck it’s still not even likely but you have less of an excuse than ever to not follow your dreams (provided you put “Logan Paul” in the title of your video).

Which is why degrees that represent what people love rather than what people think will make them the most money now actually contain some value if you well applied. “Underwater basket weaving” is a somewhat condescending term used to describe degrees like art history and 1600s German Polka that previously had no real life application. Nobody wanted to listen to you drone on about how 16th century Russian poetry really was very different from 17th century Russian poetry. Now make a YouTube video essay, talk really fast, use colourful metaphors and slap some stock footage of polka and find some way to tie it to Donald Trump and you can literally reach more people than an entire television show, seriously.

Whereas before someone would have good reason for telling you “you are never going to be able to monetize underwater basket weaving,” nowadays people can ask themselves if they find value in watching someone underwater basket weave. And the answer to that question is yes, of course you want to watch someone weave a basket underwater that sounds really cool.

So imagine the confusion of people who ten years ago were right in scoffing at people who followed their passion rather the economy when the underwater basket weaver is now selling the baskets they weaved on Amazon, raking in YouTube ad revenue with their family friendly content and having hundreds of faceless people fling money at them every month to sustain their Patreon account.

I’m not saying that you need to quit your job, go back to school and invest in that sweet sweet underwater basket weaving degree. That’s a terrible idea. You are still safer off following the economy than your heart, and if your heart happened to follow the economy then more power to you. What I am saying is that if you have decent video editing skills, the persistence to keep making videos through the ups and downs of YouTube algorithms and the ability to make genuinely interesting content, whether that be about philosophy, art history, or yes even underwater basket weaving.

[commandercostas]

"I only have 200 subscribers"
Well, would you look at that

[partybanana]

Damn, this video is basically Jreg reassuring himself that he did the right choice 😂

[zodayn]

Holy shit, was Jreg jsut being honest and real for an entire video :O Great advice though, realistic about there still being a risk, but also encouraging.

[noahbodycares]

“I only have like 200 subscribers”
Happy 10k buddy! I love this channel! You’re like me but motivated.

[daskanguru]

Your channel is massively underrated mate

[Marievska]

"It's funny because I as an ex-creative who had to follow the markets instead of my passion am now bitter and jaded and condescending towards anyone who has passions and makes less than me"

Glad you changed your mind

[Skillable]

I'm really glad you decided on underwater basket weaving.

[JTStarrProductions]

I was not a subscriber until today it seems. But now, that's changed!

[Heliocentrism_denier]

It's incredible that you kept going, making cents, hitting no exponential growth... And 2 years later... Here we are, at almost 100 times your subs since, congratulations! I hope you keep going, your videos are great and the best fact is that I and many others can relate to your videos, see you, 2 years later at 1 million

[RandDickson]

Great vids. Now you got one more subscriber

[andrewzuppardi]

This is the greatest YouTube video I’ve ever seen. This is the elevator pitch for why YouTube as a community works. I’m going to come back in 10 years and see 10 million views on this video. Great work Jreg.

[fn]

Knowing someone who just got his Masters degree in Computer Science and is now delivering food by bike you might not have been that wrong with your choice either.

[laurenpinschannels]

I'm so glad jreg has finally stopped doing that "irony" bit. When his next video comes out in 2 years ago, I'll bet it will be extremely insightful!

[Ashathefree]

What I find fascinating is that Jreg’s YouTube recommenced one year ago is similar to how mine was a year ago, clearly I am an aspect of Jreg, an avatar of his will, fear me.

[strabbie]

40% of your recommended videos were SU, I see you're a man of culture. It's strange how you had 200 subscribers when making this video, but the quality is like something from a much larger more refined channel. You're blowing up for a reason heh

[MrHatoi]

Man imagine Jreg posting an unironic video. Kind of cringe ngl

[accountrarysi]

I love sincere Jreg. Also I agree on your opinion on """worthless degrees""", probably.

[peterkerj]

>never read an academic essay for fun
holy plen

[iainhansen]

Fuck dude this is actually really seriously I just now realized that I’ve spent all my time on YouTube watching educational video essays that I would not have watched anywhere

[gibp]

"I have 200 subscribers". Who'd say that you'd have 60, 000 subs less than an year after this video, lol.