Ali Abdaal

[Welshgal]

Hiya everyone, just found this thread and read through it during a very boring shift at work (how shockingly not-pRodUcTivE of me).
I actually found Elisabeth’s channel first and had no idea who Ali was at first but eventually his videos kept getting recommended to me so I caved and watched some (days in the life, what’s in my bag and tech set up). What a weird fella he is.
Though I have thought that since Elisabeth made that video about being his assistant (I do not believe for a second that they’re both as productive as they want everyone to believe) and mentioned the marriage applications?! like wtf
Can’t say reading through the gossip on here that I can change by mind for the better about him.

Someone mentioned way back on page 4 or something how they can’t respect him after not helping out during the pandemic as a bleeping doctor and I agree 1000%. So many of my friends where pulled from their studies to help out in hospitals and no one complaint because that is what they always wanted to do - help people in times of crisis. What a horrible light he shines on Cambridge, his place should have gone to someone who truly has a passion for medicine and people.

Ok. Rant over

 

[hollowcrown]

Yeah he is clearly out of video ideas if he's just making videos on why Apple = good video with ridiculous click bait title. So low effort especially since most of that stuff is literally saving 2 seconds or can easily be done on Android/Windows plus the "seamless" integration of Apple doesn't even work half of the time as quickly as people claim

Hiya everyone, just found this thread and read through it during a very boring shift at work (how shockingly not-pRodUcTivE of me).
I actually found Elisabeth’s channel first and had no idea who Ali was at first but eventually his videos kept getting recommended to me so I caved and watched some (days in the life, what’s in my bag and tech set up). What a weird fella he is.
Though I have thought that since Elisabeth made that video about being his assistant (I do not believe for a second that they’re both as productive as they want everyone to believe) and mentioned the marriage applications?! like wtf
Can’t say reading through the gossip on here that I can change by mind for the better about him.

Someone mentioned way back on page 4 or something how they can’t respect him after not helping out during the pandemic as a bleeping doctor and I agree 1000%. So many of my friends where pulled from their studies to help out in hospitals and no one complaint because that is what they always wanted to do - help people in times of crisis. What a horrible light he shines on Cambridge, his place should have gone to someone who truly has a passion for medicine and people.

Ok. Rant over

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.

 

[platypus567]

Has anyone seen his insta post, looks like he's back working as a doctor. I wonder what specialty he's working in

 

[ravenclawboi11]

Has anyone seen his insta post, looks like he's back working as a doctor. I wonder what specialty he's working in

Probs emergency medicine

 

[platypus567]

Probs emergency medicine

That would make sense, EM is one of the easiest fields of medicine to go part-time in.

 

[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.

 

[hollowcrown]

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.

I agree with you on it being a flaw of the UK education. Medicine education is ducked and the whole deciding what to do for the rest of your life when you are 16 is stupid. I would go back and do biochemistry instead of chemistry for instance.

I could probably go and study medicine now but it's years of extra study and I've already gone to uni and done a masters and worked for several years in my career now. The path is too long and to get into it at an early stage you have to have these weirdly high grades vs. what the content of the course actually is. I think there's a whole culture discussion to be had here too

I don't really blame Ali for deciding to take a different path from his 16 year old self, but I do kinda blame him for pursuing the career for so long, making bank off it, and then deciding to bail to make irrelevant click bait. I do feel like he'd have done better going off and becoming a data scientist like his brother did.

 

[platypus567]

I don't really blame Ali for deciding to take a different path from his 16 year old self, but I do kinda blame him for pursuing the career for so long, making bank off it, and then deciding to bail to make irrelevant click bait. I do feel like he'd have done better going off and becoming a data scientist like his brother did.

He was only a doctor for 2 years before he quit, and it looks like he's at least going back part-time now. I'm a doctor and it's strongly recommended that you finish the first 2 years of being a doctor (the foundation programme) first before quitting, because then it's easier to go back to being a doctor if you ever decide to come back to it. So even if he had quit he made the sensible decision to stick it out that long IMO. It's also pretty common for doctors to take a year out or at least have more of a chilled year after finishing the foundation programme.

 

[mindlessness]

He was only a doctor for 2 years before he quit, and it looks like he's at least going back part-time now. I'm a doctor and it's strongly recommended that you finish the first 2 years of being a doctor (the foundation programme) first before quitting, because then it's easier to go back to being a doctor if you ever decide to come back to it. So even if he had quit he made the sensible decision to stick it out that long IMO. It's also pretty common for doctors to take a year out or at least have more of a chilled year after finishing the foundation programme.

I agree, with you but do side eye a bit that he quit at the start of a pandemic that has placed a lot of strain on the NHS and his colleagues across health services. If he was burnt out I’d understand stepping back but it really seemed like he just wanted to make easier money being an influencer.

 

[hollowcrown]

One more thing Ali trying to sing properly with his actual singing voice (in the wrong key) during a sing along with his mates in his Tesla is so cringe. Notice how everyone stops. Just sing bro this isn't the X-Factor you don't have to put on your singing voice.

 

[Machtc99]

Again, topic about cash




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


Ali, in 20 years you will become a productive sugar daddy, if you continue to talk about cash so much.

 

[sergeantsantiago]

Such a small thing but I hate that he talks about dollars when he’s British. I’m sure there’s some influencer logic to it though.

 

[Lola123]

Such a small thing but I hate that he talks about dollars when he’s British. I’m sure there’s some influencer logic to it though.

I think it’s the algorithm or something I’m sure he started before about it doing better as a result or his audiance/world wide it’s easier for them to convert from USD to their own currency.

 

[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.

 

[hollowcrown]

Building your brand on being a student/doctor ( "saving lives" as he used to say every 3 minutes in his old vlogs) and then switching over to becoming a passive income person is just incredibly annoying and kills his relatability and brand. He's in the same tier of scumbags like Oliur now who practise dropshipping aka "selling tat".

Next up a video will come up where he will be like "top 5 investment ideas" and one will be getting a property portfolio and letting your property out. Guarantee it. I will save my comments for when he does that but landlord Ali will be up next.

Sad how he he seems to completely have missed the point of Matt Da'vallas videos. Took on all of the aesthetics of minimalism with none of the actual values of the movement.

 

[Machtc99]

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.

Honey, he is a bad person because he is so focused on the topic of money, he forgets that in real life, not everything is about the money, and his prescriptions for passive income are not ideal for all of the people. He is a bad person, because he is spining round, and round (like a record) with this kinds of topics.

You can make a clickbait content and have lots of views, but the content just can be tasteful. See @hollowcrown point

 

[hollowcrown]

Tasteful/ethical sources of passive income would be sustainable stuff like:

- Online shop selling digital art, website designs, fonts etc.
- Selling courses like his UKCAT or Skillshare sources
- Selling a book, or music, or a game you've made.
- Money coming in from investments (NOT crypto)
- Money from Patreon / Twitch subscriptions

Ones I am eh about because you are potentially selling people stuff they don't need and it's wasteful but it depends what the product is.

- Sponsored sections on YouTube videos (eg. Skillshare/Brilliant/Manscaped/NordVPN depends what product it is but I am absolutely sick to death of all of these so just skip through the sponsored sections of everyone's videos now)
- Money from ads on YouTube
- Exploitative courses like the fiasco of raising the price of his YouTuber course at the last minute.

Unsustainable/unethical sources of passive income:

- Dropshopping (see Oliur who goes on about this constantly. It is rebranding low quality crap from China and selling it at a mark up. People who do this are literally killing the planet with the high carbon factories in Far East and shipping it over in huge containers on giant polluting boats). This extends to:
- "Merch". Decent quality merch is fine but crappy low quality YouTuber merch is just an extension
- Buy to let investments (buy your own house I have no problem with that and live in it, but there is a huge housing crisis going on in the UK now. Rich people buying up second or third properties, carving up the rooms to rent out for massive profits is the worst and anyone who does this cannot be forgiven. Biggest class issue in modern Britain right now so if you perpetuate that you can go to hell)
- Crypto/NFTs this one is obvious.

Ali has essentially gone off of his brand of being a studious and relatable, yet successful and intelligent doctor to just being another productive Youtuber worshipping at the altar of capitalism. Yes he probably is a Tory and may have been one for a while, but the manner in which he's flexing his income is incredibly distasteful, especially in the current climate of the UK. As mentioned earlier there is a housing crisis, people are still on furlough, and his colleagues in the NHS are being given pitiful pay rises after an unprecedented year in the pandemic. Can't imagine how furious I would be coming back from a 12 hour shift mid-COVID to see Ali flexing about his $28k of Apple products in the past year.

Makes it even sadder and funnier that he can't get a girlfriend with how much money he's earning though. Guess money really can't buy a good personality.

Honey, he is a bad person because he is so focused on the topic of money, he forgets that in real life, not everything is about the money, and his prescriptions for passive income are not ideal for all of the people. He is a bad person, because he is spining round, and round (like a record) with this kinds of topics.

You can make a clickbait content and have lots of views, but the content just can be tasteful. See @hollowcrown point

Good point also here. "Ideas for passive income" videos are usually just completely out of reach for most people or require significant time and effort to set up in the first place so are impossible or challenging for people working full time jobs or studying.

Then some of there verge on straight up patronising. Oh yes good idea I'll just invest in property that is easy hadn't thought of that one mate.

 

[ravenclawboi11]

Honey, he is a bad person because he is so focused on the topic of money, he forgets that in real life, not everything is about the money, and his prescriptions for passive income are not ideal for all of the people. He is a bad person, because he is spining round, and round (like a record) with this kinds of topics.

You can make a clickbait content and have lots of views, but the content just can be tasteful. See @hollowcrown point

Sweetheart, we clearly just have different views on morality. I don't really see how running low on ideas makes you a bad person, just unoriginal, it's fairly obvious that financial advice isn't one-size-fits-all, and his brand is currently around being a millionaire so him talking about it is hardly surprising. Focusing on success and finances is a common first/second generation immigrant experience, which I highly relate to, and it takes a certain amount of privilege to dismiss it as a sign of low moral character. Again taste is a matter of opinion and I don't find the money videos distasteful, just boring, repetitive and clickbaiting. Deciding to switch his brand? His decision and something that's obviously not going to please everyone, including me, but doesn't make him a bad person.

Tasteful/ethical sources of passive income would be sustainable stuff like:

- Online shop selling digital art, website designs, fonts etc.
- Selling courses like his UKCAT or Skillshare sources
- Selling a book, or music, or a game you've made.
- Money coming in from investments (NOT crypto)
- Money from Patreon / Twitch subscriptions

Ones I am eh about because you are potentially selling people stuff they don't need and it's wasteful but it depends what the product is.

- Sponsored sections on YouTube videos (eg. Skillshare/Brilliant/Manscaped/NordVPN depends what product it is but I am absolutely sick to death of all of these so just skip through the sponsored sections of everyone's videos now)
- Money from ads on YouTube
- Exploitative courses like the fiasco of raising the price of his YouTuber course at the last minute.

Unsustainable/unethical sources of passive income:

- Dropshopping (see Oliur who goes on about this constantly. It is rebranding low quality crap from China and selling it at a mark up. People who do this are literally killing the planet with the high carbon factories in Far East and shipping it over in huge containers on giant polluting boats). This extends to:
- "Merch". Decent quality merch is fine but crappy low quality YouTuber merch is just an extension
- Buy to let investments (buy your own house I have no problem with that and live in it, but there is a huge housing crisis going on in the UK now. Rich people buying up second or third properties, carving up the rooms to rent out for massive profits is the worst and anyone who does this cannot be forgiven. Biggest class issue in modern Britain right now so if you perpetuate that you can go to hell)
- Crypto/NFTs this one is obvious.

Ali has essentially gone off of his brand of being a studious and relatable, yet successful and intelligent doctor to just being another productive Youtuber worshipping at the altar of capitalism. Yes he probably is a Tory and may have been one for a while, but the manner in which he's flexing his income is incredibly distasteful, especially in the current climate of the UK. As mentioned earlier there is a housing crisis, people are still on furlough, and his colleagues in the NHS are being given pitiful pay rises after an unprecedented year in the pandemic. Can't imagine how furious I would be coming back from a 12 hour shift mid-COVID to see Ali flexing about his $28k of Apple products in the past year.

Could count him subletting/renting out (idk if he owns his flat or rents) the other room in his flat as being a landlord idk. The environmental impact of crypto is something that has only been on the public conscious fairly recently and we're still working to fully quantify its impact but I'd agree that diversifying away from it would be the environmentally responsible thing to do. Think he's said in the past he won't ever do merch cause it's a largely ineffective way of making money. Probs leans economically to the right but socially to the left and has described himself as a lefty in the past, although labour have been losing Muslim voters by the boatload recently. Like I've said taste is a matter of opinion, and I've thought the way he's prefaced lots of his videos has been enough to mitigate the clickbaity titles but in some of them I'd agree with you there.

 

[hollowcrown]

He owns the flat (well he's got a mortgage on it). He rented it to Sheen for free he said in a recent video. I don't really count being as live-in landlord/having a lodger as half as exploitative as having a second (or more property) so definitely have no problem personally with him doing that.

 

[Machtc99]

Sweetheart, we clearly just have different views on morality. I don't really see how running low on ideas makes you a bad person, just unoriginal, it's fairly obvious that financial advice isn't one-size-fits-all, and his brand is currently around being a millionaire so him talking about it is hardly surprising. Focusing on success and finances is a common first/second generation immigrant experience, which I highly relate to, and it takes a certain amount of privilege to dismiss it as a sign of low moral character. Again taste is a matter of opinion and I don't find the money videos distasteful, just boring, repetitive and clickbaiting. Deciding to switch his brand? His decision and something that's obviously not going to please everyone, including me, but doesn't make him a bad person.

Honey, but I find his content and current persona disgraceful for all health-workers and "normal" people. It's simple as that. I will not convince you to accept my perspective - I will just freely express it here.

For me Ali is associated with word like: toxic, red-pill/incell, socially-awkward, money-oriented, cold, clickbait, obsession


And I DO NOT appreciate when someone has cash, and talks only about it. I am a higher-middle class, can afford for a decent life, but I don't spin round and round saying LOOK GUYS I AM SO SUCCESSFUL I CAN SPEAK FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HAVE TWO DEGREES, HAVE A GREAT CARRIER AND CAN AFFORD OF A GREAT APARTMENT.

If you really like people like that - that's on you

Cheers!