Ali Abdaal

[rubyyredd]

It was the video with Elizabeth that made me actively try and search for a thread on Ali... I can't believe that nobody in the comments was bringing up just how off his character felt

 

[JohnMasters]

This guy is the most unfunny cringe youtuber I've come across in my life. It's mind boggling that he managed to get 1.8 million subs. His comment sections are a swamp of indians frothing at the mouth, scam accounts and "first" spam. Almost zero real engagement and intellectual discussions. No matter how low quality and uninteresting his content is, he still gets 95-98% likes. Feels like people watching don't actually give a shit about how bad his videos are, they're just happy to see one of their own "make it".

Ecommerce ads people usually target India for engagement then switch the demographics to countries that actually have money and can purchase their crap. His entire channel seems like one big ad that just got indians riled up then switched over to peddle garbage to viewers that have money. That youtube course of his is just spitting out clones of himself that copy his everything then go off on twitter creating praise threads about how much they've learned and doing his advertising for him. Great ponzi scheme, wonder if they're getting a cut.

As for his "team", it honestly seems like he just keeps surrounding himself with yes men just to feel like a CEO of something. There are much bigger channels that handle content creation with 2-3 people, meanwhile he just keeps stacking more and more orbiters around him, along with the ridiculous coaches for "freestyle rap" and "magic" and more idiotic hobbies, after which he has the nerve to claim that his time is worth hundreds of pounds an hour. HAHA WHAT. Unreal. He doesn't even know how to cook himself a piece of chicken but he hires coaches to teach him freestyle rap. I don't even...

Also it's pretty obvious that he slept with his so-called executive assistant as suddenly she's sponsored by the same companies that deal with the agency he claimed to have purchased into. Not to mention the non-stop promotion of her videos and the fact she keeps making videos about him to leech his audience. The same assistant that's sorting his ridiculous wife emails. The girl must have zero self-esteem. Pathetic. Especially because at no point did he admit he was involved with someone. So he's banging Elizabeth but not even acknowledging her presence publicly. Bonkers. Although you'd have to be kind of a dimwit to see Ali as boyfriend/husband material so maybe she had it coming to her.

I tried to show his channel to some of my friends that are real people and not rabid indian fans just to get a second opinion and they were all going "what the fuck, this guy is a loser". Seems like flexing your Apple toys and how much money you make constantly doesn't take away from the fact that you're a dweeb Ali. I know you're reading this thread. You could be making 10 million a year, you'd still be the same dweeb. You think you're putting out value because your braindead fans keep clicking Like now matter how bad your content is but take it from someone who's been around - your content is absolute trash. Constant showing off and recycled boring millionaire mindset garbage that all the scammers talk about on instagram and twitter. Get a grip on reality.

 

[NotAnArtist]

I only just watched his passive income videos and... oh great, another business dude telling other business dudes to start a podcast because we def don't have too many of those as it is

 

[hollowcrown]

I have spent 5 years studying finance and accounting, graduated my bachelors and masters, then have 1,5 year of postgraduate course in advanced accounting and financial management, then took a challange and started studying in Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, ACCA to be fully qualified member, passed 8 out of 13 exams in English, which is not my native language and I would not DARE to give publicly people advices how they should invest their money. No, this is not right.

He has no professional training in terms of finance and investments, and he gives people who watch him illusion. Investment decisions should be carefully considered, risk should be assessed and you as a person who invests should be aware of all bad things which may happen.

55k $ is the amount I earn in almost 2 years. And I come from a G20 country - what about people in much poorer countries? And he has the balls to come to the public and say "I've lost, but its not devastating"

Disgusting human being!

Ali deserves credit for creating his sustainable medical tuition businesses. But that does not give him the authority to give advice in crypto and other investments. His commenters and hangers on clearly think he can do no wrong.

His medical tuition business income and the fact he owns property insulates him from any bad investment decisions but he almost never discloses this clearly. However much money he loses or if his businesses go down the drain he can also just walk back into medicine and earn a UK median wage easily.

Also despite the fact he's rich he still doesn't make smart personal financial decisions. Insane amount of money wasted on lattes, takeaways, and other hobbies. Because he's flogging these expensive courses and has high turnover people tihnk he's some kind of financial god.

 

[aidil]

It really proves that job titles mean nothing. How can you be "Head of Social Media" when you're the only person in the business running the social media Like yes it is correct but it doesn't mean much.

It’s giving me Office vibes

 

[hollowcrown]

but are you spending your disposable income on these poor people in poor countries or refugees from ukraine ?
if you arent, how does that make you a better consumer than ali abdaal?

What's the relevance of this and how does it determine ones morality?

 

[ravenclawboi11]

As someone who aspired to be a doctor at one point it's incredibly annoying. I get that I didn't get in for a reason (A level grades not good enough) but I did get a good score in the UKCAT test but the reason it is such an oversubscribed course is because you have high acheivers like Ali going to med school because they don't know what to do. They end up taking up spots that could go to people who are perfectly capable to completing the course but just can't get quite as high a grades as you get these people like Ali who are incredibly clever, but don't know what they want to do so go for the prestige of medicine.

I'd disagree with this, to expect 15/16 year olds to make big decisions about their future and then stick to that plan for life is unrealistic. Like I've said before this whole thing about medicine having to be a passion that you dedicate your life to is an unhealthy ideal that contributes to the high levels of doctors leaving the profession in the UK. The discussion around the importance of grades to making a good doctor is more something that should be blamed on medical schools admissions and the bma rather than individuals who complete training then realise the profession isn't for them.

 

[miguelc]

Wow, this is quite something.

What was the price of his course thing before the 300% (!!) increase?

Business is business but that is an incredibly transactional way to view your subscribers. He's mentioned before how he's a rationalist and I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that he struggled with empathy. I think his focus on efficiency plays into being 'rational' in business.

There was this comment on Reddit about the podcast episode which I'll quote part of here because it's relevant to the discussion:

the first cohort course costed $399. The current one costed $1499. It’s greedy but legal.

what is illegal is to reveal the prices as tickets go on sale and make people feel under pressure to buy

 

[hollowcrown]

Was kinda wondering when this thread would just go full on racist and it happened overnight lol

It is not racist to point out that Ali is acting as an aspirational figure to people of a similar demographic to him and then taking advantage of it in order to make money off them. All you have to do is read the comments on his video (and how they've changed over time from his vlog style content made pre-pandemic) to confirm that that's what is happening here.

In fact it's being said that it's disgraceful on his part to be taking advantage of these people.

I don't think he actually employs Indians but he's sure advocating that everyone else does. So yeah, he's perpetuating this stupid trend of paying people almost nothing throughout his "student" base and fanbase. What's more sad is that nobody is calling him out on it. This whole productivity niche is such a circlejerk of people praising each other and collabing for useless videos just for clout. I highly doubt everyone's all lovey-dovey with each other as they portray publicly, it's just a way of leeching clout off each other and hybridizing their fanbases.


Don't take the bait, just ignore. Never bite when someone brings baseless accusations, it happens so often nowadays.

So many of these Youtubers who are selling themselves a productivity gurus manage it on the back of other peoples labour and teams of assistants off screen managing their time and money for them.

There is for example this hopeless case:



He's a millionaire based on some good investments he's made so he doesn't have to actually work so has just decided to become a "guru" despite the fact he has almost no real knowledge. Productivity tips include stuff like "buy things which can do two jobs" and "go for a walk in the morning to clear your head". Money saving tips include absolute brain dead stuff like not getting takeaways and cooking your own food instead and then freezing it. Then it's sold to the audience like it will make you a millionaire. You should see the video of him trying to cook his own food it is pathetic.

This is the company Ali has made for himself and what this whole circle is based off.

 

[Machtc99]

He can't make decent profit margins, he doesn't control operating expenses, he employs way too many people.
Definitely a wonderful match for MBA studies on Harvard.

"My name is Ali Abdaal and I am Harvard Business School MBA student and entrepreneur living in London, here is my latte macchiato and you my dear Asian friend better go and buy one of my life-changing courses. If you do so, you will be able to afford coffee in London too. That is the white-privileged life!"

 

[July9696]

It's digusting that he openly advocates for tax evasion. He probably justifies it by saying that he can afford more to give to charity because his tax money is worth more going to a charity of his choosing than the government.

Everyone knows rich people avoid tax, and pay accountants to help them avoid tax. It's been the case for years. But you're supposed to do that shit under the table. The fact that he just talks about it so openly and probably gets praise from his cult about it is just gross. No wonder he left medicine if he willing to funnel his tax money away from the underpaid NHS.

I'm surprised this video hasn't been taken down yet:



No morals and a disgusting human being. He thinks he is enriching peoples lives and being a teacher but every step he takes hejust pushes himself further away from anything moral.

This stuff pisses me off. The argument that these people know better where to give the money they otherwise would’ve been taxed on (charities, causes they personally care about) do they also give donations to their local hospitals? GPs? Schools or to the council to pay for upkeep of local facilities? Doubt it.

I can’t watch him any more, even the fact he’s a trained doctor during a pandemic and doesn’t practice

 

[pastakid]

With the huel content he is very close to crossing the line of becoming one of those "productivity" gurus completely out of touch...
This productivity thing is not balanced anymore (imho) or at least not as before which is a pity because I really e enjoyed his content and personality

 

[hollowcrown]

" Bullshit, it's all a bullshit. All youtuber speak about how to make a money because this topic interest lazy people, and the result! The youtuber makes more money because he had a million of views in his channel. "

" Ali we have been here before! You have the moral responsibility to use the right language when you you use a clickbait title. You are NOT MAKING $4M, your REVENUE is $4M. Please make this clear to everybody. My and many other kids are watching your videos and they have no idea what is the difference they all think you are keeping all the money. As well you should talk about the risks and what would happen to your entire business if YouTube decides to change the algorithm and or decides to terminate your channel from one day to another as it happened in the past.Talk more about how to legally minimise taxes on this amount. Explain that all the fancy equipment, books etc are deductibles. Making revenue is only 1/2 of the story. The real question is how much you keep and what you do with it! "

Creatorpreneur is the most ick term of all time

 

[JohnMasters]

Hey friends, in this video I'll be going over the C-U-N-T framework that I came up for why it's better to just overload the internet with trash content rather than just take a week off and come back with some actually valuable videos. Alongside that I'll be presenting my brand new D-I-C-K-H-E-A-D system to ensure you're spending 18 hours a day on shit nobody cares about and your own family will forget what you look like. Let's get into it.

 

[JohnMasters]

Ali seems the kind of person who cracks a joke once, sees that a few people giggled, and then proceeds to crack the same joke literally EVERY time. Oh look, the fans found "PRODUCTIVELY" amusing once. Let's put it on every single video title cause iT's sO fUnNy aNd gEtS eNgaGemEnt. How about encouraging engagement with something actually interesting like asking people to list their own tips for better sleep instead of turning your comment section into a wasteland of cringe by trying to bait braindead fans into commenting "LOL PRODUCTIVELY HAHAH". Ali's comment sections are where IQ points go to die.

 

[JohnMasters]

Wait wait wait so his brother's wife lives with him? And his girlfriend lives with... other people? And his brother lives with... a different room mate? Alone? What the fuck kind of living arrangements are these two dweebs getting into? Makes your brain hurt.

It's like they haven't cracked the code to not being weird and offputting. Needs some further deep diving on their "podcast" methinks. Apparently his brother recently discovered that moving to a farm and playing outside with your kids is something people wanna generally do instead of living in a concrete jungle of trendy overpriced cafes and traffic jams. His mind was blown that someone would wanna do that. Whoa who would've thunk it. Sheltered city nerd discovers basic life concepts at almost 30. There's still time to grasp why someone would wanna make their own food instead of getting Deliveroo, it's not too late Taimur!!

 

[sergeantsantiago]

His lack of empathy is showing. Again. And the first time it was literally from the horses mouth, no? He admitted it was something he struggled with IIRC.

 

[cheesecakes]

I grew up below the poverty line. I had a single parent household and although I’m living a solidly middle class existence now, the first ten or so years of my life definitely shaped me as an individual.

I know so many lovely, amazing people who have had to be on benefits for one reason or another. It is not a badge of shame as you seem to think it is, it’s simply another way to stay afloat. You might have to use them at one point in your life - especially with the cost of living rising.

Your parents are admirable, but demonising sex workers and people who need to resort to dealing drugs or getting involved in gangs to provide for their families is not it. They are admirable to. To do whatever you can, even at detriment to yourself, to put food on the table and send your kids to school in clean clothes, is amazing.

and am I saying I’m better than Ali Abdaal? Well, don’t live in a £2.1 million apartment - I live in a shitty student house with four housemates, and I can’t leave sometimes because of my agoraphobia. I don’t donate to charities because I’m poor as fuck and can barely pay my rent. And to you, this means I’m worse than him. Even though, y’know, I’ve grown up giving a shit about people worse off than me and will give a quid to a homeless guy on the street. Would Ali do that?

morality is not black and white, and you are incredibly naive for thinking it is. I’m sure even you have your good and bad sides, just like you, or anyone else on this thread. But please, for the love of god, learn how to formulate a better argument or leave. I’m losing braincells over here.

 

[hollowcrown]

Any thoughts about what Ali’s channel/content will look like over the next few months, or even in a year?

I’m interested whether he’ll return to medicine post-pandemic, or stick to his videos.

I know he’s relatively drama free as an influencer, and he did get through that set of terrifically weird “productivity” videos (like the one about watching TV productively, what the fuck man)which may have gotten peak toxic productivity (IMO) out of his system.

idk, I used to find him quite relatable and admirable and then at some point I just went off him entirely.

Money's gonna do that to a person.

He's gonna milk the process of writing his book for views as much as he can.

He'll move to more mindful/gentle productivity and explore meditating and mindfulness and that stuff. He will dip his toes into minimalism because there is a big market there. The book summary stuff is a good nook that he does well I think.

Alternatively he could go into the investment/crypto/passive income stuff. I hope he doesn't because we definitely do not need another one of those YouTubers but honestly his investment strategy does not seem particularly good (I wonder how his 20% of investments in BTC is doing now lol).

Tesla content is always a big one he could go for, as well as all the tech review stuff but from a productivity standpoint. He hasn't seemed particularly interested in putting out Tesla content or gadget reviews through apart from very surface level reviews of new Apple stuff.

Post-pandemic I think he will travel for a year or two, and try to work with YouTubers in the US. It was funny when he decided he was moving to America to pursue medicine there and also work with people like Matt D'vella and then Matt decided to move to Australia. Hopefully that will teach him that although he can work anywhere in the world, it is important to have roots somewhere and people close by to spend time with.

At the end of the day, his brand is productivity and being a Doctor so he can't stray too much away from those things. I hope he stays in medicine. I wanted to be a Doctor a long time ago but the competition for places was too high so I ended up doing a Chemistry degree instead. To have someone like Ali take up that spot, go through the training and then bun it off really stings.

His content right now is too diverse, which makes sense because there's been a pandemic, but he will need to focus up because I'm not sure what his channel is actually about right now. Seems too much like "unemployed rich man messes about doing whatever he fancies on a given day" and it isn't actually particularly helpful. The productivity stuff is much more useful when he's actually juggling being a doctor with all this other stuff.

 

[hollowcrown]

He spends 14k per year on take away meals

Got a screen grab of all of the employees in his "business" and it shows precisely what is so weird about his business.

"Leadership team" is straight from corporate guide books. The associate/senior associate etc. levels is also straight from corporate business structures and you can tell he's read a book about running a business and then applied it to his business made up of people in their 20s and it's all just very weird in my view like is it really nessecary? You can tell he's put his whole structure in place just to feel important and like he's running a business rather than running it organically.