Ali Abdaal

[aitchH]

I would simply not talk to him. Most other people would also stop talking to him. It's probably why he has to build a "business" in which he's essentially paying people to be his friend.

If your contribution to a conversation is that David Woods in his book How To Be A CEO said this on some podcast rather than your own personal thoughts or experiences then you are not worth talking to. When Ali is sharing is own personal opinions they're widely abhorrent like donating £2000 is more statistically moral than volunteering to a soup kitchen in your local neighbourhood because one "saves more lives".

The whole "I donate money so save more lives than the doctors working" thing is really abhorrent. Only someone who has never had love for another person, whether family or friend, could reduce human life in such a way. I want to see him arriving in A&E needing emergency life surgery, and the surgeon to tell him that it will be more cost effective to instead spend that money saving poverty-stricken lives in Africa so he should not have the treatment

Yeh the constant quoting thing is so odd. I really cringed watching Diary of CEO interview when he would repeatedly do that. Ali has really put me off using self-help books or self-help videos. He should have a syndrome named after him of what happens when you forgo real life for so much book learning.

 

[Machtc99]

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.

perhaps some degree of autism hitting it big on youtube

 

[hollowcrown]

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.

Yeah I ended up watching this one too because it was curious.

He is an out of touch idiot. If everyone had a "skill" they could "monetise" (that's called a job for most people Ali) to quit their 9-5 job then the economy would collapse. She has by far the more nuanced view on that. He's so out of touch but that's expected given that he's been making "passive income" since his early 20s and never really needing to work.

It's also unbelievable that he's set up that marriage email inbox and then never checks it. No wonder he is getting no success with women if he's so terrible at replying. Probably takes 2 weeks to reply on Tinder or directs them to his calendar booking system to arrange a date and then is surprised when girls unmatch him.

Such a level of emotional disconnect to other humans and no empathy.

 

[JohnMasters]

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.

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.

 

[sergeantsantiago]

This whole "Wife Quest" in his productive bucket list video is honestly to me, a really destructive way to think about relationships. I couldn't imagine anything worse than block-booking dates through calendar apps and ticking them off until someone sticks.

My most organic and fulfilling relationships have all been due to shared interests or fundamentals and then the ability to grow/learn together- started by conversations, or groups, or introductions from friends-of-friends. I appreciate the difficulty of dating with COVID but has he not experienced forming a really close organic friendship and then reflected on why this has worked? What about the other person involved in his method of dating? I really can see him being on a date and thinking about checklists, algorithms, does she meet this and that criteria. I think he is so far into this productivity thing that he can't let anything generate organically in his life.

Yeah, I feel quite sad for him in this regard. "Quest" even makes it sound like he wins or gets the prize at the end. Marriage is a huge commitment, not something 'productive' to do before you die. Productive is a buzzword that is mis-used a lot and I hate it (but I digress).

COVID does make things basically impossible but I wonder if it's because his hobbies are quite insular (YouTube, reading, etc) that he uses all these apps/tools. It's hard to imagine Ali just going to a class and getting to know someone organically like you said. Then again, I don't know him irl, maybe he's super chill and is just using apps to be more 'productive' and hasten the process along.

 

[mindlessness]

Honestly the 'wife quest' stuff is creepy. It's framed as such a clinical thing, like any other item on his Noted to do list.

 

[Limey]

Living your life seeking maximum productivity in everything you do will destroy you eventually, most of his audience are in their early 20's and it's not a message he's putting out (burning yourself out)

His life seems both exhausting and a bit sad. The constant quest to be productive every nano second because you’ve got nothing else going on.

 

[hollowcrown]

If you are reading book summaries you are not reading 1000 books a year fuck sake it's just as cringe as his watching anime on 10x speed video what a fucking pathetic nerd

 

[xan34563]

I won't get into much details but some here seem to be really unaware on how incel and TRP works and is towards women.
Him following those accounts on Twitter and reading their books on his goodreads profile is already very self-explanatory. While I won't list them but feel free to check the accounts (the blocked ones) mentioned in screenshots of my first reply here on twitter.

It's very much likely that Sheen and Elizabeth are unaware about this just like some of you here. Plus it's very easy to maintain a mask with others as you don't want to risk ruining your reputation anyway but behind the scenes it's totally different story.

Edit: Grammer

 

[Jellyjam_]

Just found this thread. Probably covered already but he comes across very arrogant and pretentious. Gives me seriously robotic, asexual vibes. Absolutely don't want to shame him or diagnose off the internet but like another person said, it wouldn't be shocking if he was on the Asperger's/Autism spectrum.
At first I couldn't figure out if it was all an elaborate parody or that's his actual personality? Either way I immediately clicked off after a few minutes. His voice is super grating, posh and plummy sounding.
Also what was up with that girl housemate he had? They were always awkwardly joking about being in a relationship but not actually. Was that also a joke?

Anyway I find all these unhealthy, sUpEr pRoDuCtiVe videos from medical YouTubers as a whole very weird. It perpetuates this toxic mentality of: "if you're not spending every second of your life hustling and improving then you're a waste".
I like kharma medic he seems much nicer and down to earth but even he seems a bit too polished and perfect. Like even with a fever he's still being pRoDuCtiVe?
(Maybe I'm just sounding jealous since he has such a seemingly balanced life )

He said in some video a while back that he doesn't actually care about kids dying in Africa and now he contradicts himself while simultaneously taking the moral highground over people who choose not to donate to charity but do charitable work nonetheless.

Omg PLEASE tell me HE DID NOT say that! What is wrong with this robot!

Ok edit: I'm reading a bit more on this thread and it sounds like he's some sociopathic incel? Damn here I was thinking he was just a run of the mill arrogant nerd

 

[ipiraka]

Living your life seeking maximum productivity in everything you do will destroy you eventually, most of his audience are in their early 20's and it's not a message he's putting out (burning yourself out)

 

[JohnMasters]

That course bit was funny as hell. It looks like such a ponzi scheme when someone takes the time to click on all the comments. A bunch of clones with the same tired boring content liking each other's videos after they paid thousands of pounds to hear someone tell them to get a better microphone. There's a sucker born every minute. I'm sure his devoted fanbase makes twitter threads every day praising the depth of knowledge they gained from his "course" and filling the internet up with more of this crap content.

 

[ravenclawboi11]

Still want to defend he is pretty good guy? Or there is really something about him that implies: obsession about cash

Yeah fine, making a video that will do well about a topic that interests lots of people in an area he's successful in makes him a bad person. It's almost like he has a brand or something.

Anyone else watch Sheen's 10k subscriber video where she said she was looking for a future partner who's in touch with their emotions and can communicate them well? F in the chat for Ali lol.

 

[xan34563]

Xanny, you really came through with the tea.

All I can say is WTF there's something wrong with this guy. He's always been sus. Something about him never sat right with me.

The funny thing is, he literally looks like an incel . I heard incels can be a bit scary too.

The Twitter likes, the following, the books omg this guy is actually shameless. Imagine pushing 30 and liking tweets speaking about women like that, yuck. The fact he was working in gynaecology too...

Glad someone here finally knows what I am talking about as some users here seem to be unaware.

Holy shit I had no clue he worked as a gynaecologist, now it sounds more scary and quite gross.I also saw him once recommending this book on how to think more about sex on goodreads and on his video. I ignored it that time as well as it felt harmless but the dots seems to be connecting now

It’s not about his or anyone’s physical appearance here or whatever conventional attractiveness standard to determine that BUT the mentality and mindset we know about them with their misogyny, hypocrisy and entitlement towards women of those guys.

 

[Machtc99]

It's also unbelievable that he's set up that marriage email inbox and then never checks it. No wonder he is getting no success with women if he's so terrible at replying. Probably takes 2 weeks to reply on Tinder or directs them to his calendar booking system to arrange a date and then is surprised when girls unmatch him.
Such a level of emotional disconnect to other humans and no empathy.

I can’t believe that he’s made such mailbox, because It’s confirming he treats people like objects. Srly, you want to meet your second half, create a life together and not be alone, and you make a mailbox and require „CV with photo” WTF????? He’s not Ricky Martin or something…

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”.

Ladies, he’s not McDreamy, don't try to buy his fake attitude, otherwise you will end up looking at him when he’ll ignore you and will look at the camera.

 

[sergeantsantiago]

There’s another quite relevant problem.

for example, on the part time YouTube academy course he created is used some strategies that go against the consumers act in the UK. In another words, he’s breaking the law.

Firstly, the cost of his course went up by over 300%. Legal but very greedy.

then a month before the second cohort went on sale, he increased the promotion of the course at the same time he removed the pricing information from the website.

His promos always mentioned that there’s a cap on participants so “be aware of that when we go live with sales and joining the mailing list”.

This means that a lot of people went to the website to get more information knowing that most likely he was going to be oversubscribed but no price information.

Then, at 4pm tickets went on sale for people to realise that the ticket cost a small fortune. Knowing that most likely is going to be oversubscribed people didn’t want to risk not getting a place and bought a ticket. This is an illegal practice and considered sales under pressure.

This are techniques that most likely he learnt in the book “oversubscribed”. What he forgets is that in Europe, consumer law is always on the side of the consumer.

On the example I referred he made many hundred of thousands of pounds of sales under pressure. I might need some of that money to pay for legal fees and compensation.

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:

[What I think Taimur was trying to get Ali to do is say] how the book should be something he should be proud of. A have a meaningful purpose. Something he can look back on, regardless of sales and be glad he did it the way he did. Ali brushed this off by saying something along the lines of "people don't want meaningful. They want catch phrases". He then went on to support his statement by backing it up with data that suggests this. - When he changed a youtube title, his use of thumb nails etc. Anyway, he basically came to the conclusion that this book is being written in a way and with techniques that can capture the highest amount of possible sales. Ugh.. completely soulless and scummy.

Maybe this is why he cant admit that mean comments make him sad? Because hes not proud if his work. Its purely for the purpose of business. Hes emotionally void from it. To be fair to him, I work as a delivery driver and could give two shits when people complain as I'm emotionally void from work too. The difference is, he can control what he creates, he doesn't have to be this money focused surface level bs machine.

 

[hollowcrown]

He's at 3m subscribers but is making 100k - 300k views on his regular uploads so 10% roughly of his sucribers are watching.

The vlog is making 15k on a good day. That is 2 full time employees making videos that will make a hundred quid if they're good.

Considering he has a huge team around making the videos the numbers do not feel particularly good. He is probably making the money up with his courses and sponsorship deals but it's probably quite worrying for him.

This Tweet thread shows he's been at least thinking about it:



I think there is a greater trend about in that coming out of the pandemic people do not want to be productive. When we were all locked up in our houses all day long not knowing if we'd live or die the next day, every moment counted and you wanted to make the most of things which is why his videos exploded in popularity.

Nowadays people would like to go out and enjoy the world. We don't want to be ultra productive. And that is probably affecting Ali's numbers.

 

[hollowcrown]

How to sleep productively… omg, how to poop and piss in a productive manner, this is sick.

again he has read something and made a video about it. It must be borring to constantly search and read books from these No-names and make fake statements how they have changed his World…

Terrible fucking video. Reads a book which is known to have a bunch of scientific errors in it, as a trained doctor. Says "It's a best seller and I feel like it's helped me" rather than the actual scientific evidence. Waste of a Cambridge education. How on Earth can he call himself a Doctor?

Kharma Medic released a similar video this week also and it was much better.

 

[hollowcrown]

I wish that Ali would stop calling what he does teaching and education.

He is not a qualified teacher and regurgitating some book summaries every week, hosting a podcast and making courses based on anecdotal experience doesn't make you a teacher.

 

[mindlessness]

Not sure how I feel about the beard...

View attachment 301954

Ha! The commenters for this vid seem to love it
Also the way he reads just makes me sad! We’ve talked about it before but it’s such a mechanical way to read. Not to mention, why not read the actual Greek Stoics, instead of popular nonfiction about them? (Philosophy grad here, and a fan of reading the source material!)