Ali Abdaal

JohnMasters said:

I'd wager he's trying to take advantage of the higher CPM that finance-related videos have. He's constantly mentioning Graham Stephan and trying to enter that niche only the difference is Graham has charisma and is well versed in matters of finance, while Ali just keeps regurgitating the same "learn to code" crap and "sell a course" bullshit over and over.

He just seems to be unaware of the fact that his validation stems from the sheer number of Indian/Pakistani viewers that will gobble up his shit without even blinking, and not from the validity of his advice.


He has 50 zoom calls back to back with "coaches" that are fleecing him for moronic hobbies, nobody got time for watching a show and doing human things. /s

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We are a matter of months away of Ali beginning his "property portfolio" and talking about how he's bought a house and discovered he can let out individual bedrooms in the house to students to get 4x the rate of what he's paying for the mortgage like he's stumbled across the money making secret of the world. Bonus points if he puts things about it being an "appreciative asset" and then saying his Tesla is a "depreciating asset" so it's not as good as his house and present it like he's just discovered general relativity of something...

It is definitely a certain demographic which is probably buying Ali courses because of his presentation as an aspirational role model to them.

Maybe the secret to passive income is teaching courses for useless stuff to Ali Abdaal.

Yel said:

I'd presume this was a piss take? Film and TV makers carefully plan every second and here's this fool watching and constantly speeding up because he's oh so clever and can watch things in tripple time, while missing lots of the small important things. Although some stuff is crap that can be watched sped up, but if it's crap you're not forced to watch it so why bother?

All this productivity stuff is absolutely crazy. Human beings not human doings.

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Horrifically this was him being absolutely serious. He really does want to make even leisure time as ’productive’ as possible.

hollowcrown said:

We are a matter of months away of Ali beginning his "property portfolio" and talking about how he's bought a house and discovered he can let out individual bedrooms in the house to students to get 4x the rate of what he's paying for the mortgage like he's stumbled across the money making secret of the world. Bonus points if he puts things about it being an "appreciative asset" and then saying his Tesla is a "depreciating asset" so it's not as good as his house and present it like he's just discovered general relativity of something...

It is definitely a certain demographic which is probably buying Ali courses because of his presentation as an aspirational role model to them.

Maybe the secret to passive income is teaching courses for useless stuff to Ali Abdaal.

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I actually don't have a problem with landlords or renting unlike other people I've seen on here. It's a business like any other. My problem is with the fact that he's a twat who used his Cambridge education to monetize his useless skills and takes the "what's obvious to you is amazing to others" thing to a ridiculous degree. First it was cool that he was a doctor, although going by the feedback some of his patients left, not a very good one. Then he abandoned being a doctor with some absolutely moronic reason like the math of saving lives and people still praise him for being a doctor. Guess ripping off Doctor Mike didn't work out so well since that guy is handsome, funny and has charisma.

Yesterday I saw some plug for his skillshare course from another youtuber who was praising him for being a doctor and a productivity guru while "still having a social life". Guess he hasn't heard the news of what a fraud he is.

He makes the same videos every few months and nothing seems to change. Only thing that changes is what new Apple toy he's using. Still presenting Google Chrome and Gmail in his app videos like it's a new thing, still repeating the same quotes from his books, still shilling 4 Hour Work Week like it's some amazing discovery. I can't stand hearing about that book anymore. What a mindblowing idea to outsource your entire business to people who drink infested water and live in a tin can while paying them just enough to barely survive while you're living the laptop lifestyle.

It's a prime example of a sheltered kid with no social skills and perhaps some degree of autism hitting it big on youtube and thinking he's hot shit from getting constant validation from a fanbase that just seems to have no standards. His biggest problem seems to be how clicky his keyboard switches are or iphone functionality. He's not using his platform to do any actual good or even entertain, he's just plugging sponsors or products with almost identical verbiage every time and repeating the same videos. Other youtubers would not have gotten away with this degree of crappy content or even posting a self-own like the freestyle rap video and the watching anime one. However his channel seems to be chugging away just raking in cash from gullible cretins who pay $5k for his course and sign up to Brilliant to be as "smart" as he is. You'd have to pay me $5k to deal with the mental anguish of making content as godawful as he does but then again I wouldn't have millions of Indians praising my every move.

When I watch him i have that impression in my mind that he is very "empty" person.
I mean, sometimes is good to read some book about particular life topic, but he always, ALWAYS refers to a "magical" book he has read.
Like he has no own opinions or feelings or thoughts. He needs to /read/ about something in the book to be able to refer to it.

JohnMasters said:

perhaps some degree of autism hitting it big on youtube

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It's easy to balance productivity, social life and being a doctor when you only have to be a doctor 2 days a week and don't have to work full time and have enough money to buy takeaways for every meal and hire a cleaner.

Machtc99 said:

When I watch him i have that impression in my mind that he is very "empty" person.
I mean, sometimes is good to read some book about particular life topic, but he always, ALWAYS refers to a "magical" book he has read.
Like he has no own opinions or feelings or thoughts. He needs to /read/ about something in the book to be able to refer to it.

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I mean yeah, I've read most of the books he refers to but I don't internalize them to this degree. It's just some dude's opinion. It's like as soon as someone puts some words on paper, Ali treats it as gospel. I don't give a toss how successful Tim Ferriss is, some of his ideas are crap.

hollowcrown said:

It's easy to balance productivity, social life and being a doctor when you only have to be a doctor 2 days a week and don't have to work full time and have enough money to buy takeaways for every meal and hire a cleaner.

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He outsources his laundry, he outsources his diet, outsources cleaning, outsources life. Seems like the kind of guy who would outsource his girlfriend to someone else so he has time to copy his notes from Roam to Notion and back again.

JohnMasters said:

He just seems to be unaware of the fact that his validation stems from the sheer number of Indian/Pakistani viewers that will gobble up his shit without even blinking, and not from the validity of his advice.

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What strikes me is that his audience didn't mind when he mentioned he has outsourced some tasks to Filipinos because they are cheap.
I mean, if you are from India which is Worldwide capital of outsourcing location for transactional and repetitive tasks, why would you praise the guy of similar ethnic background who looks on you part of the World as a location of cheap labour force and the way to have more cash in the pocket rather than paying fair amount of money.

I don't get it. I'm from Poland, remember the time when we were extremely poor, and when I see guy like him I am just disgusted.

The 4 hour work week is so fucking shit. Not only does it make lazy people feel like they're productive and incredible entrepreneurs, it is also depressing wages in both developed and non-developed countries and also often produces shit outcomes and causes work to have to be repeated anyway to get it at necessary level of quality.

Wouldn't be surprised if he paid an assistant to take control of his Tinder and Bumble because he does not have the time to do it.

Books are great but anyone can write a book really and a book does not automatically make something true or valid. I fear Ali has fallen prey to his own advice and thinks that reading a book is automatically productive and also automatically gives you objectively correct knowledge, which of course is not the case.

Machtc99 said:

What strikes me is that his audience didn't mind when he mentioned he has outsourced some tasks to Filipinos because they are cheap.
I mean, if you are from India which is Worldwide capital of outsourcing location for transactional and repetitive tasks, why would you praise the guy of similar ethnic background who looks on you part of the World as a location of cheap labour force and the way to have more cash in the pocket rather than paying fair amount of money.

I don't get it. I'm from Poland, remember the time when we were extremely poor, and when I see guy like him I am just disgusted.

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Yeah it's a mystery to me as well, I think the sheer fact of seeing one of their own have this success blinds them to the fact that he's indirectly shitting on his roots. They're still hoping he's a muslim and has kept a remnant of his culture but it's pretty clear he wants to be white and acts like it. He throws the occasional crumbs with some quote from the Quran that gets everyone all giddy before returning to his wannabe high-class white posh British nonsense. I'm an immigrant as well and know what it's like to be poor, which is why his complete lack of self awareness in regards to outsourcing irks me like crazy. I guess higher education has brainwashed him into the old British classism way of thinking which sorta coincides with India's old caste system.

JohnMasters said:

Yeah it's a mystery to me as well, I think the sheer fact of seeing one of their own have this success blinds them to the fact that he's indirectly shitting on his roots. They're still hoping he's a muslim and has kept a remnant of his culture but it's pretty clear he wants to be white and acts like it. He throws the occasional crumbs with some quote from the Quran that gets everyone all giddy before returning to his wannabe high-class white posh British nonsense. I'm an immigrant as well and know what it's like to be poor, which is why his complete lack of self awareness in regards to outsourcing irks me like crazy. I guess higher education has brainwashed him into the old British classism way of thinking which sorta coincides with India's old caste system.

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Ehh, For me it's just a way of thinking or life experience. In 2014 I worked in one outsourcing company in Poland. I was a junior accountant and earned back then around 350 GBP net per month. The company agreed with the client to lower the prices of the services, and they've moved all positions from Poland to India. For my position they've employed 3 Indian people... This gave me the broader picture how exploited in terms of wages Asians are. So I can't understand how you can be and Indian, and praise another Indian/Pakistani that he's so clever to pay 7$-10$ for the task he should pay 30$-40$.

His comment section is full of Pakistani/Indian people writing him how amazing and inspiring he is.

Machtc99 said:

Ehh, For me it's just a way of thinking or life experience. In 2014 I worked in one outsourcing company in Poland. I was a junior accountant and earned back then around 350 GBP net per month. The company agreed with the client to lower the prices of the services, and they've moved all positions from Poland to India. For my position they've employed 3 Indian people... This gave me the broader picture how exploited in terms of wages Asians are. So I can't understand how you can be and Indian, and praise another Indian/Pakistani that he's so clever to pay 7$-10$ for the task he should pay 30$-40$.

His comment section is full of Pakistani/Indian people writing him how amazing and inspiring he is.

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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.

Machtc99 said:

Where do you see racism here?

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

ravenclawboi11 said:

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

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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.

JohnMasters said:

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.

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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.

hollowcrown said:

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.

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Yes apparently every 20-something-year old who came into money has every secret to a productive and successful life.

At least Ali doesn't pretend to be a minimalist anymore. Everyone knows he will buy the latest model of Apple anything and will proceed to flex with it on the poor people. His tech "reviews" and setups have always struck me as boring and uninspiring, especially since he admitted he gets all his gear after he watches some videos of recommendations. He loses no opportunity to plug his affiliate links for products like Ugmonk analog which is literally a bunch of cards anyone could print at home. Imagine being so out of touch with reality that thinking a $100 pack of cards and a piece of wood contributes to your productivity and then pushing that onto your audience. I actually bought one of the Leuchtturm journals based on his recommendations and it was a piece of crap. Then I did 5 minutes of research and bought an infinitely better product. I bet 10 years from now he'll still keep plugging his Amazon link for that low quality journal. I've never seen someone be this lazy about what they're recommending to their audience. If he's this lazy about the products, I guarantee he's just as lazy about the advice. So far he's peddled several different "productivity systems" on Notion and because he hasn't been able to overtake Marie Poullin as THE Notion person, he's gone back to Roam and stopped making videos about these apps altogether.

Same with these sponsors of his. I've seen videos where he claims that after a busy day he'll sit down at 11 PM and do a course on Brilliant. Christ, if you're gonna sell out at least make it somewhat believable. His kitchen is a mess, his apartment looks dirty as shit from up-close yet he's telling me he's so conscientious that there's no other activity he'd rather do in the middle of the night than courses on Brilliant to "learn more about crypto". Haha.

It's all just a big scam to sell subscriptions and courses and stupid products. Entrepreneur and productivity version of MLMs basically. Can't see how sites like Skillshare are not MLMs. Extends to physical products like that Ugmonk thing too (see also Grovemade who are aggressively promoting). They sell themselves as gurus to help you improve your productivity and life but are really just acting exactly the same as any other influencer like you'd see on Love Island or whatever, just the crap they're selling is marketed as more professional.

Ali isn’t even “poor” his mum was a doctor! She had two boys who she managed to send to a decent school, it’s all bullshit that the middle class pull to be “relatable” in the modern day. What Ali sells is much worse than some of these companies and his AD declaration is crap! Hope the ASA fine him crap tones and then really had to work out how to “make money”, it’s honestly so infuriating to watch (not that I do anymore!)

What are the guidelines/regulations around ad regulations?

Tbh I dont watch him much anymore - seems like a salesman now rather than anything of interest. Just jumping on whatever bandwagon is passing by for clicks. Considering a lot of his audience are students and impressionable, I found it really irresponsible for him to have videos about crypto investing. He is not a financial advisor. He is someone who can afford to take risks and lose money. Yet, by introducing himself as a doctor from Cambridge it brings an air of authenticity. He just seems stuck between spaces now - as a med student he had something to offer his target audience (other students). That also carried over to his early years as a doctor - but he has outgrown that audience now and seems to be flailing. There is only so much people want to hear about productivity etc. Even his idols like the minimalist guy have really cut down the number of videos they release now - focussing on quality content over getting a video out X times a week. And lets be honest - how productive and efficient are you really if you cant even find time to cook for yourself. Its not healthy to constantly eat takeout - I feel like crap after one night of takeout, I cant imagine living on the stuff.

Just wanna say Kharma Medics new video is fantastic and interesting, far better than anything Ali is putting out nowadays.

hollowcrown said:

Just wanna say Kharma Medics new video is fantastic and interesting, far better than anything Ali is putting out nowadays.

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He actually seems like a real human unlike the ridiculous cartoon that is Ali nowadays. The latter seems on a quest to become the least relatable person on youtube.

hollowcrown said:

What are the guidelines/regulations around ad regulations?

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He’d be subject to ASA regulations same as all the UK influencers on IG etc. https://www.asa.org.uk/uploads/assets/uploaded/3af39c72-76e1-4a59-b2b47e81a034cd1d.pdf