Ali Abdaal

[hollowcrown]

Almost like an MLM

Spending between $1.5k to $2.5k dollars to get 3.6k views on a video a just under 6k subscribers hahahahah and that's for someone who is "working" for Ali what a complete waste of money LOL

Honestly imagine getting getting into your dream university course at medical school but then you spend your time getting up at 2:30am to work for some guy who thinks his YouTube channel is a proper business. What a waste of intelligence and talent.

Kharma Medic is really the only one of these people I can stand because he is clearly in it for the medicne first rather than trying to become some weird social media celebrity.

 

[JohnMasters]

This whole financial advice bullshit started a while back with one of his first "how much money I make" videos. He saw he got like a million views on it and jumped on the bandwagon trying to copy Graham Stephan or anyone else that ever hit it big with financial videos. Not only is his advice useless but he keeps repeating the same crap in each video just like he has in the last 10-20 releases. Parroting the same Tim Ferris shit and just being overall obnoxious. It's very sad a channel like this can just keep growing and gaining momentum off the back of some half-assed generic "advice" from a guy who is, if you take away the money, an awkward loser by most accounts. Yet his comment section is full of gullible twats who praise his every move frothing at the mouth at every insipid thing he says.

I've seen parts of his "course" and it's generic shit you could get from any "how to youtube" video and yet it has given rise to an army of clones that copy his blue/orange lighting scheme, ridiculous thumbnail expressions and even the icons he used in thumbnails. They're just sitting there refreshing his channel and just emulating everything. Imagine giving someone $5k so that he tells you to get a better camera and lighting. I'm not aiming to be a hater but 99% of his "students" will not achieve anything on youtube simply because they have zero charisma or presence and all they know is how to copy their idol's setup. These people would've been infinitely better off investing that money in books or a gym membership.

 

[Machtc99]

Could we get a thread for Productivitytubers in general? I know there's this one for Ali and also one for Holly Gabrielle but might be nice to have a space to discuss people like Nathaniel Drew, Matt D'Valla, KharmaMedic and others in that circle.

Kharma Medic seems to me more down to earth, he has a private life - a girlfriend and the attitude that "I will not make new videos because I've to pass and exam and/or focus more on private life". I think that for him youtube and other media are just addition, a hobby whereas with Ali social media are his life, he doesn't have girlfriend/boyfriend and seems to be stuck in the bubble "I have no goal in my life".

Ali = delicious looking cookie which gives you hard bowel movements

 

[Machtc99]

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!

 

[JohnMasters]

Noooo what will their "Head of Marketing" do now

He'll be chatting up the Head of Public Relations at the dole office.

If views and engagement keep going like they're going, they might have to sound the alarm at Abdaal HQ and call in the head of HR, the COO, the CFO, the vice president, head of Crisis Management, regional managers and global branch managers and organise an ayahuasca vision quest on the balcony to figure out the next step. Although going by how things have been operating recently, they might smoke the office potpourri bowl and just pretend instead.

I would be embarrassed as hell if I thought my videos appealed to a certain class of people then took a look at the comment sections and discovered it's a cesspool of spambots, arse lickers and brainlets. It's gotten to the point where the spam bots apologise to human commenters for the crap quality of videos. I'm not even kidding, spam bots are evolving and turning into Abdaal himself. To be fair, he also seems like he's been morphing into a spam bot for the past couple of years so it looks like everything is converging to a single peak of cringe.

 

[JohnMasters]

I’m also shocked that there are women who agree to play this game with him. Either desperate women or with some kind of willingness to ”correct him”.

I'm not shocked, he's famous and apparently has plenty of money. That's very attractive for most girls. Unfortunately they only get to see scripted and edited appearances of him and not the actual reality, which is a droopy-eyed sociopath with zero skills and no life. They're probably dreaming of some idealistic relationship with Ali the doctor/productivity god when the reality is they'd be spending most of their time (the 10% he'd allow according to his relationship philosophy) at the occasional restaurant grabbing some footage for the vlog and trying to get him to talk like a human being and not a fucking robot.

 

[TheTatler]

Bit of a rant here but I hate when people in the developed countries underpay the ones in the developing countries. I get that labour is cheap there and okay, maybe in England or the USA, you gotta pay $50 to a person doing a job, whereas in developing countries, it's much cheaper but he mentions $7 for the entire work? Fine, don't give 50, but how about $40 for that? They are putting in the same effort too! I hate how these rich people from a privileged background say their time is not worth doing a particular work but willing to underpay someone who's financially struggling in a poorer country.


this was what my first-ever post was about. i lost bit of a respect for him after this. I am all for productivity but this is too much lol

Okay, my bad - people in the comment saying that he talked about paying $7/hour (I cannot verify because I do not feel like watching the video again). However, I still do not think that it is a fair price - even to someone in developing countries. I have done freelancing for 2 years and trust me, the amount of work is too much at times, especially when people think they can ask you to redo something over and over again with the same settled price. And yes, they do that. almost 95% of them think it's justified.

Someone asked what kind of work he outsourced. I have no idea but he mentioned UpWork so my guess is content writing and stuff.

This person in the comment section worded it pretty well. Ali didn't like the comment (I am mentioning this because he has a knack for liking even the most meaningless comments. but he liked newer comments too, so I am guessing that he saw and didn't bother to acknowledge it.)

I would also like to point out that I was shocked he suggested that because he is of South Asian descent himself.
Also from what I know about him, someone like Ali can offer to pay more than just $7/hr even when he did not have 1M+ followers on YouTube. But we all know how business-minded he is, which is good when you balance it properly. But, I cannot expect that from someone who believes in applying a business-like mindset while trying to find a wife.

 

[aidil]

Ali Abdaal

Our mission is to create inspirational and educational content that helps people do more of what matters to them. In 6 years, the YouTube channel's grown to 3M subscribers, with hundreds of thousands of followers on our other platforms. Our content...

apply.workable.com

Gosh, the state of this advert! So he basically wants to pay someone to write “in his voice”. Regular phone calls with him where they convert his ideas into something that sounds as though it’s been written by him… The cringe is off the charts! Hate this odious little twerp.

 

[NotAnArtist]

Nah I've completely stopped watching him. Definitely poor engagement numbers.

I'm a few years older than him and just cannot fathom his approach to life. Not even to hate watch. I think those who still find Ali admirable may also be quite young and still undergrads? Just an impression I get.

This might be where the disconnect between his content and his audience comes from. Like, I currently watch and enjoy The Financial Diet, but when I looked into their channel as a student, I couldn't make much of it at all. It's not rich people advice, but not student-budget advice at all.

And here Ali is unboxing products that could cover years worth of rent and tuition, giving advice on how to create passive streams of income using affiliate links and a successful youtube channel to... 21 year olds with a webcame built into their shitty laptops? Why does he think these videos are appropriate for his audience, many among which would literally have to take out a loan to purchase a gigantic apple computer they don't need...

 

[Machtc99]

On this video, the cringe exceeds all levels. He's not humble at all, he doesn't look at her...
Then around 13:30 he is angry because she's got different view on leaving 9-5 job...

Ali, if you want to get married, learn some emotional skills and stop being a douche bag. Respect your guests.

 

[Lola123]

Sorry but that seems completely unreasonable. Why would UK youtubers have to basically nuke their channels just cause some random authority decided that when other youtubers don't? What if someone moves abroad and it takes 5 years to get citizenship in that respective country? Would they have to use "#AD" in their thumbnails for 5 years just because their citizenship is UK? Or what if 80% of their audience was US-based? It seems more than reasonable to have disclosure in the description, via the pop-up and spoken within the video. Don't really care that it's "law" in the UK, it's a stupid law. The video isn't an ad, it just contains a 50 second ad that is properly disclosed. You'd have to be an absolute imbecile to not figure out the video contains a sponsorship after it was disclosed in 3 places including via spoken word. The idea is not to present a product/service like you're genuinely using it when in actuality you were paid to do so and it seems absolutely ok to disclose it according to FTC regulations.

Got nothing to do with being a citizen, it’s where you’re currently working from, just like if you were living in a country you now have to adhere to their laws. Doesn’t matter about where your audience is, it’s where you are. And they shouldn’t be disadvantaged if the AD is the right fit, the ASA developed these guidelines because it was never clear in the UK when it was an AD and when it wasn’t and they’ve charged several influencers as a result now

50 second ad that is properly disclosed. You'd have to be an absolute imbecile to not figure out the video contains a sponsorship after it was disclosed in 3 places including via spoken word……
Umm what about deaf users? Or people with learning difficulties!

 

[Machtc99]

He is much egotistic and has little-to-none emotional intelligence, but he's not a bad person.

LOL, so being egotistic ("being centered in or preoccupied with oneself and the gratification of one's own desires; self-centered") and having no emotional intelligence ("the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically") doesn't mean he is a bad guy? Yes, he is merciful like a Jesus.

Call it red-pilled or incell or whatever you want to call it, this is not a standard man, and definitely has some issues which can create a lot of pain for another person - man or woman, no matter who he's going to date.

When I met the love of my life I didn't think about "sexual market value", and although I am constantly increasing professional qualifications and my carrier I would never EVER make judgments like him, like "I am going to spend for my girlfriend 10% of my daytime". He talks a lot (i.e. in the last video) about being husband and dad, and states these are his long-term goals, but with his current attitude he will not be a good husband and dad - he will sociopathic / self-obsessed. And dear god, please forbid his wife from being smarter than him, he will not survive it! If she outshines him, he will leave her.

 

[aitchH]

Wow this thread has livened up thanks to the #1 fan.
You've really made a lot of straw man arguments.
Ali is different to a celebrity like Emma Watson or JK Rowling who are liked for the work they produce, their acting or singing or writing talents.
Ali is selling mainly his personality and brand, like many social media people. And social media people do get cancelled or disliked if they exhibit bad qualities. I might be selfish, but I actually don't want to support and watch selfish people and want to be motivated to do good.
I watch another YouTuber Mia Marples who spoke of the Ukraine crisis when it happened, and she has more wholesome vlogs with her family.
In contrast, with Ali, everything always seems to be about money money money. One of his videos recently was ideas for how teenagers can make money.
If I had his platform, I would choose to influence teenagers to be kinder to each other, to look after their health/others, promote family values and teach the younger generation to not be hamsters on the money wheel.

Hence, we are not disliking Ali because he isn't donating all of his money. We dislike him because he is representing the lower human qualities of greed of money and capital consumerism so explicitly. It just isn't healthy.
You'll probably think I'm jealous and assume that I want a Tesla and to show off that I have made millions... these things don't bring happiness. Having a healthy mindset brings happiness.

 

[hollowcrown]

Problems I generally have with Ali:

1. Sells himself as a doctor for the prestige despite being non-practising. He's started saying he's an ex-Doctor now which is progress at least.
2. Promotion of immoral business practises eg. selling expsneive courses, outsourcing work to cheaper workers half way across the world, crypto
3. Lack of original thinking - he will regurgitate the opinion of the last person he's interviewed on his podcast or book he's skimmed through as the new objective truth of the world rather than form his own view.
4. Tendancy to see the world through peoples theories and systems and rules and games. I think this is a very dangerous way to think about the world especially when viewing relationships etc because they are not simply
5. Focus on money above all else especially the way he sells his content. I have no problem with people giving financial advice or strategies (Martin Lewis from MoneySavingExpert is a legend and has done very well off this) but Ali's advice is simplistic, comes from a position of extreme privilege and isn't actually useful to anyone who is struggling in any sense of the world. Someone who is on the breadline or working a minimum wage job isn't going to turn their life around by buying one of his courses and starting a side hustle.

Problems with herthebeavers arguments

1. People can criticise Ali because he's built himself as a public figure and puts himself in the public lens.
2. Criticising people for being on benefits or doing sex work is stupid. I'd rather pay for someone's OnlyFans than giving Ali some money for his course. However they're both valid lines of work.
3. Criticising people for not giving their entire disposable income to charity is stupid.
4. Ali has climbed the ladder and become rich but doesn't mean he's done it without privilege. His mum being a Doctor would help with the application process that non-medic families won't have had to by affording him opporunities for shadowing work placements etc. that would look good on his application. As a failed medical applicant myself it was a nightmare to get work experience like that and I'm sure Ali had things a lot easier with his mum being a Doctor.
4. Criticising people for participating in a capitalist society which we are forced to participate in is stupid. I'd like my phone not to be made of slave labour, but the alternative or not having a phone is probably something like starving because I an't apply for any jobs because everywhere uses the internet now.
5. Bringing up other random celebrities like Emma Watson is pointless.

y


what i like about ali is that he resorted to his intelligence to make money, not his looks, victimhood, sex work, crime etc.

anyone in the uk can make money in a decent, legal manner, no need to resort to crime, unethical or dangerous practices or to begging others for support

you can work multiple low paid jobs like cleaning etc. to pay for causes that upskill you into higher paid jobs eg. computer programming

and how do u know ali isnt donating to poor people in secret? maybe he doesnt mention ukraine etc, bc he knows he cant really help the ukrainians that way--- he can help them better by donating and multiple media outlets are covering ukraine anyway so to mention ukraine as a money/productivity youtuber is just virtue signalling

granted, ali could engaged in more ethical business/personal practices but none of his business practises harm others in the same way as being a criminal
even if ali is outsourcing his work to poorer people abroad, he is still paying them enough by their standards to live, his not engaging in slavery like the fast fashion industry

Is the bar really so low now that you praise Ali because he's not doing anything illegal or criminal?

And that he's giving money to poorer people abroad?

Is that really how long your standards also.

Also nothing wrong with making money off your looks or sex work. Ali is hardly ugly anyway. Would love to see if his channel had kicked off like it did if he was really ugly.

 

[Magallanes]

ali's video: how to make $3k per month? get a job
anyone from his audience: i've been enlightened

 

[Roundhouses]

I was looking into skillshare myself but read some awful reviews about them stealing money

Skillshare is rated "Bad" with 1.3 / 5 on Trustpilot

Do you agree with Skillshare's TrustScore? Voice your opinion today and hear what 1,649 customers have already said.

uk.trustpilot.com

Makes me wonder if any influencers actually research what they promote

Eugh those reviews are bad! One saying that the content is no better than what you can get on YouTube, which tbh was my suspicion. What more does this guy have to say than what he hasn’t already got on YouTube?
Also - how scammy is it in general, all of these courses? It doesn’t sit right with me that he does this alongside his doctor title. I wouldn’t wanna be a patient in an NHS hospital and have this guy come in, he’d probably try and sell you stuff

 

[idk2]

He has got a book deal and brainstorming ideas on what the book will be about!! What a bloody joke

How does one get a book deal without knowing what to write it about? Shocking. Clearly he pitched his following and was like I'll do whatever you want as long as I get paid.

 

[Roundhouses]

FINALLY, a thread on him!
I'm a current medical student and it's really hard to levy any criticism his way because a lot of students see him almost like the second coming.

I genuinely liked his content a few years ago - it was a bit clickbait-y ("Day in the life of CAMBRIDGE MEDICAL STUDENT" "How a CAMBRIDGE MEDICAL STUDENT studies"), but his tips on studying were really clear and evidence-based. Now, it really just seems to be about making as much money as possible, without really putting out much original content. It always irked me that he put the hashtag #savinglives in all his instagram posts - even when the video was just him studying as medical student. Clinical medical students can do some things to help on the wards, but they really aren't SAVING ANY LIVES. Even when you've just graduated and are working as a foundation doctor for the first year, your abilities are heavily limited.

By all means, he can do what he likes to make money, but it seems like now the focus is just on 1) recycling old ideas into costly video tutorials, 2) releasing a YouTube video on how much these tutorials have earned him, 3) and then advertising the video tutorials by suggesting users can earn as much as he can. And he's not the first one to do this: I know of another YouTuber based in Europe who was making videos as a medical student about how she was going to be "saving lives soon"; after her first year as a doctor, she's left to focus on "other business ventures". These other business ventures are all opportunities she got because people were excited to work with a future doctor, Even on my course, there are LOADS of students who have started vlogging their studies in the hope to become the next Ali Abdaal and make enough money to never need to actually work as a doctor.

And don't let me get started on him putting "Cheeky" in every bloody thing!

Great post and it’s good to hear your perspective!
I work with a lot of medics and doctors in my current role but I find that not many of them have good business acumen. I think if a lot are trying to vlog and make some money from it - they’ve missed the boat. It’s a really over saturated market and people will already be watching some of the bigger names like Kharma medic, Faye Bate, Thatmedic etc.

The thing that Ali has done that I would never do is that he has made a business centred around himself. Not only is that exhausting in that he needs to constantly live up to this persona he has created, it means that everything he chooses to do is currently centred around this productivity/tech thing. That may all be well and good now when he’s interested in it but what in 5 years time if he fell out of love with all of this stuff? Are people really going to stick around for a drastic change in content? I suppose he may just ride the money train until then and invest in other stuff. I just think when you yourself become the brand you prevent yourself from being allowed to naturally grow and change in direction because you are always having to live up to the image you have created.

Also - I think he’s disingenuous as even so far as a fairly recent video he mentioned that his plan is to do another year out, travel and then train in emergency medicine. I just don’t see him doing that!

 

[Hasanah123]

If he wasnt a Cambridge Medical student noone wpuld care about his productivity brand

 

[sergeantsantiago]

Is he working right now as a dr? I’m not sure I have much respect for a qualified practitioner who doesn’t work during a pandemic and the worst emergency public health crisis in a century.

Correction: I definitely don’t.

Yeah, lockdown 3 in the UK and he’s chilling and shilling.

I know he reached a natural break point in his training, but I’m inclined to agree with this. With the other comment about not being very empathetic it hardly reflects well on him. Ofc it’s easy for me to judge as someone with no experience in medicine. I also understand (though don’t necessarily agree with) why he would choose not to work as a doctor during a pandemic given he has other income streams, but if it were me, I would feel awful while my friends/course mates/colleagues were doing their bit.

agree with @Roundhouses who highlighted his shifting friendships though and interests. Did this shift start before or after his channel started seeing success?