Ali Abdaal

[Leni_Poekler]

lmao

 

[sergeantsantiago]

Who's going to buy a course from "Doctor + YouTuber" on Jazz Piano when there is so much other good and free material online, by actual musicians.

IMO his main point of interest for subscribers was studying medicine and being a doctor. Hobbies like music and tech were extras alongside that, but not the focus of his content. Now it’s like he’s throwing anything out there and hoping it will stick. And earn him money, ofc. It feels disingenuous to create a paid course in something that he’s not qualified to teach (afaik).

 

[hollowcrown]

The funny thing is that he does not even own it - he's renting it at £4,100 a month!

 

[Lola123]

The Muslim community wouldnt be so tolerate. He would also lose a lot of muslim followers. He reminds me of a guy at uni who was doing everything he could to not be gay, but he eventually came out. Everytime I watch Ali theres something that reminds me of this guy. Dunno. Just a gut feeling thats all.

Either way I just don’t think he’s comfortable with his sexuality, gay or hetro. He comes across as an incel and after doing research on it (thanks to this thread) that in itself is incredibly awful, he has mentioned a guy who is widely know for this sort of stuff too. Dating doesn’t fit in with his persona either as he “masters” everything but you can master relationships, they’re actual work. Someone mentioned that he might be more heavily on the ASD spectrum and that could be part of it (I’m not sure if he is any more on the spectrum than most lads)

 

[Machtc99]

He seems like he would be a great academic kinda lecturer/teacher at a university or med school. Unfortunately that's probably a fairly modest paying job compared to what he is earning selling £1000 courses online so isn't appealing to him, but it would be a perfect job for him really.

I disagree. To be a good lecturer and engaging professor you have to be human and genuine. He seems to be a "nice guy" only in front of the camera. There are many statements, including this forum, that in the real-life he is socially-awkward

Also, he is bored really fast, has a tendency to change mind/goals the way the weather on Iceland is.

I am sorry.

He is personification of a human robot and/or incell.

Instead of going into the NHS, he should go to the therapy and try to change his behavior.

 

[sergeantsantiago]

Yay, another unempathetic doctor. From his latest video. I've had a few of those emotionless, "I don't care" doctors. The nurses I've had at least attempt to build rapport lol (shouldn't doctors do this too?? because the ones I have had don't).

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Honestly if I were a doctor I would never admit this to my ginormous online platform? What the hell

I remember reading a while ago an article talking about how medicine and veterinary science graduates were highly academic but there was an increasing lack of social skills/good bedside manner.

Personally if Ali was my doctor I wouldn’t be able to take him seriously. I just think he’s a bit of a bellend

 

[hollowcrown]

This video is just ridiculous

He likes to write summaries for books and then to twitt them in a sequences to build an audience.

OMG, ”Get a grip, get a life, and get over it” Ali.

Honestly I do not know how someone can manage with all these apps and productivity tools and stuff. At my work the most successful and clever people I know are not fucking about with maximising their productivity with a billion apps and special gadgets they can simply do it all with a note book or One Note. It's all so unnessecary and extra and is not a means to an end.

 

[sergeantsantiago]

3) and then advertising the video tutorials by suggesting users can earn as much as he can.

Thanks for your perspective here -- very interesting and much appreciated! I've always wondered what medical students make of him (and not just the ones I've seen on Reddit).

Just wanted to highlight your third point here which I think is what made me give Ali some serious side-eye because:

1) Ali has clearly worked hard to produce his videos, use SEO, etc. to market his channel, and his regular upload schedule and content all played into his success. However, he was also lucky. Not all YouTubers who make videos regularly get thousands of subscribers, let alone hundreds of thousands or a million like Ali has now reached. For a while he had that special something I suppose -- the content, persona, etc. that made you and I watch him and like him and perhaps spread the word, etc, and his USP of being a Cambridge medic which definitely was interesting to me. The USP + good production + timing/luck really shouldn't be discounted in his success.

2) ^ leads onto my second point, which is privilege. Ali was able to get all the equipment and tech needed to produce good quality videos thanks to other ventures. His finances have always been (I'm assuming given his company) solid. Wouldn't most students would have to save hard to afford basic equipment like a camera, tripod, etc?

3) I seriously doubt Ali lets us into all of his ~~secrets~~ to success in these videos. Good SEO, regular uploading, etc. are really pretty obvious things to highlight, though I haven't watched the tutorial so maybe I'm wrong there. At first I was intrigued and surprised he was talking openly about his success on YouTube. And the videos were very interesting! But then came all the SkillShare shite and somehow the image of a benevolent benefactor was kind of muddied when you realise how much he earned from Skillshare...

Back to the point and your final observation: that he advertises tutorials suggesting users can make as much money as he can. It seems so sleazy that the focus here is on income. Yes, income = financial security. But content creators aren't guaranteed income. And if you are successful, there's a slog during which you probably won't get a bloody penny. There's the mystical YouTube algorithm and changing trends and surely, if you want to create content, it would be because you want to share your content? Wouldn't money be a real perk, but not the reason why you started creating videos in the first instance?

It just feels fucking disingenuous to sit there at the top and extol how great it is making content for the ££ and that it's really not that hard!!! when there will be many, many, many factors that played into Ali's success and monetary gains. He probably just sees it as helping others out, but then he's earning that ££ from these very video tutorials that probably benefit him far more than his viewers.

Sorry for the essay -- this guy just grates my fucking cheese. Try-hard but alright-seeming lad turned hardcore shiller & influencer moron. I've said it before and I'll say it again: he's got caught up in the fame and ££ and people are starting to realise it.

TL;DR: Ali can makes all the money he likes but it's disingenuous to act like everyone can have his level of success but then again he makes coin off of it all so

 

[Machtc99]

Simply speaking in public healthcare system you are not in the centre of attention - patients are. He is really looking for attention and that feeling "I am the star here".

Though, he's current content is so cheap. "In 30 days I learned how to rap".
Seriously this is the guy I'd subscribed and who gave good advises about note taking and using iPad as a learning tool?

 

[hollowcrown]

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.

 

[mindlessness]

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.

You’re entitled to your opinion on the matter.

But those are the rules UK influencers and creators are beholden to, and can be fined for not following.

 

[hollowcrown]

Who's going to buy a course from "Doctor + YouTuber" on Jazz Piano when there is so much other good and free material online, by actual musicians.

Has anyone actually used Skillshare? I have been hearing more and more how they're an absolutely dodgy company.

 

[boredmedic]

Simply speaking in public healthcare system you are not in the centre of attention - patients are. He is really looking for attention and that feeling "I am the star here".

Though, he's current content is so cheap. "In 30 days I learned how to rap".
Seriously this is the guy I'd subscribed and who gave good advises about note taking and using iPad as a learning tool?

I find this so funny because he’s one of the reasons I got an ipad for uni and his spaced repetition videos were good!

But his attitude now is just shambolic. I can’t imagine a doctor who went through at least seven years of training in Ali’s case who can straight faced say that they quantify their work via “lives saved”. There’s so many nuanced things that doctors do to improve the quality of life for patients how does a Cambridge educated doctor not think of that? Did he not mention this stuff during his interviews/PS??

 

[Machtc99]

University of Cambridge should show his case to the future medicine interviewers.it is clear he should not be admitted to the medicine. He has fake attitude, and as said earlier his whole existence is to impress others instead of helping them.

I stopped watching his content, only give him thumbs down and waiting for the breakeven point he reaches when more people sees his attitude.

 

[hollowcrown]

Ali Abdaal so humble and helping of people in the Ukraine with his £2.4m apartment I am sure he'll be helping to house refugees any day soon.

 

[Machtc99]

He employs 11 people - 7 full time, has 6 coaches, and spends monthly $84 000 just for the videos of money, and what "interesting" book he has read xD


And he has the balls to give people advices how they should invest as he would be a professionally trained finance person xD

INSANITY!

 

[hollowcrown]

Three of four videos now about exactly the same thing. Clickbaiting about money, get rich quick and easy doing these X amount of simple thing. Not only is the content boring now but the video style is also. Funny how he was talking about being upset that people on this forum thought he was snake oil salesman -like and now he's just unironically leaned into that so hard.

His comments also are just filled with crap now. If this is the audience he wants tho I guess fair enough Ali you do you mate.

 

[bubbles21]

You tube is a business to these people. Theres nothing original in any of their videos. Kharma medic has simply jumped on board the latests trend to keep up views - loads of toxic productivity videos popping up the last few months. Before that - everyone was having their lives changed by notion (for a large paycheck Id bet). They all have the spiel about wanting to help others - but if their channels were de-monitized theyd be gone in a flash. If you search UK med on youtube you just get dozens of med student channels all spouting the same crap in the hope they make it big. Have a few in my class who are apparently too shy to turn cameras on for zoom lectures despite having youtube channels. Its just bizarre and so fake.

 

[Machtc99]

I get the feeling he's fairly typical for a Cambridge medic? They're very focused on academics and the interview process is quite different from what's dicussed in that post. I attended one of his courses for med applications a long time ago and I remember him being asked about applying to Oxbridge - he replied something along the lines of do you just want to be a doctor or do you want to go to an elite medical school? Which I think says it all

What is the point of "elite medical school" when you are no longer a doctor? And your "eliteness" is only your diploma xD. No one cares Ali, now you are just a youtuber who desperately is looking for a girlfriend

 

[JohnMasters]

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.

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.

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.

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.