8.3M views · Aug 17, 2021 · 19:25 · 5 HN recommenders · 20 mentions · discussed 2021–2025
Veritasium explains why clickbait titles and thumbnails work, how he tests them, and why educational creators feel pushed to use them. He classifies types of clickbait and discusses the trade-offs.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN cites it whenever YouTube titles and thumbnails come up, both to defend creators and to criticize the drift toward clickbait.
“Derek of Veritaseum made a video laying out why "clickbait-y" titles like that are necessary, and I feel like it makes a pretty good case.”HN comment, 2022
“Veritasium does a great video on this.”
Why creators constantly optimize titles and thumbnails
YouTube allowing creators to change Title and Thumbnails as many times as they want after a video has been uploaded, and providing realtime analytics after a change is what is driving this. They basically are constantly optimizing, until they find what sticks. The crap you describe obviously does very well. Veritasium does a great video on this. this video
“Veritasium posted a brilliant way for optimizing thumbnails and headlines to improve click-through rate on Youtube”
Optimizing thumbnails and headlines for click-through
Actually, Veritasium posted a brilliant way for optimizing thumbnails and headlines to improve click-through rate on Youtube: this video I plead guilty and say that I've repeatedly posted the same link on HN but with different query parameters to understand its performance. But I've come to understand that users will notice this behavior and start to generally downvote. As a creator with a small audience, the only success with tapping into a high throughput feedback loop has been by painstakingly write articles and submit them one by one to HN. I've gotten much better at it already and frankly I've also noticed that engagement and "likes" isn't everything either. I've realized too that if you truly do what you believe in consistently, I've found that I suddenly start having "impact", which I think is different from engagement. How I see it: - Engagement: clicks, views, comments - Impact: The world changes, there's consequences and substantial changes as a reaction But I think you can't have one without the other. High engagement means you're a popstar. High impact means you're a politician. Ideally, I want to be able to pick my position on the gradient.
“Derek of Veritaseum made a video laying out why "clickbait-y" titles like that are necessary, and I feel like it makes a pretty good case.”
Makes a good case for why clickbait titles are necessary
Derek of Veritaseum made a video laying out why "clickbait-y" titles like that are necessary, and I feel like it makes a pretty good case. this video The tl;dw is that the most effective titles come right up against the edge of what an average target audience member would consider unacceptable on the axes of withheld information (to create a curiosity gap) and misleading sensationalism (to maximise the perceived importance of the topic); and you have to play the game of having effective titles because otherwise no one clicks on your video and it stops being recommended to people who would find it valuable.
“His classification of clickbait into different types is also fascinating.”
Creator perspective on clickbait and its purpose
Take a look at Veritasium's perspective on this issue [1]. Veritasium reflects on clickbait thumbnails from the content producer perspective, and balances that against the motivation behind YouTube's algorithms. His final conclusion is that cilckbait isn't all bad, and that it serves an important purpose for both viewers and content creators. His classification of clickbait into different types is also fascinating. [1] this video
“I feel like his channel has actually blossomed since then.”
Video preceded channel's improvement in quality
The video in question for reference: this video Interestingly, when I saw that I figured this channel for a goner because he was going to turn to the darkside, but quite contrary to expectations I feel like his channel has actually blossomed since then. His older videos are fine, but often just explaining concepts that you can find a lot of other explanations on, but some of his recent videos have rocked the boat even among physicists and IMHO he was ultimately proved to be correct for them. I particularly point at his videos about how nobody has measured the one-way speed of light ( link ), which was well-known among people very very deep in the field of relativity but not very well known outside of that (even amongst physicists in other fields, let alone lay people) and the electricity videos he's done in the last year ( link , link ) which attracted a whole whackload of "debunking" videos, which were themselves wrong (the best "bunking" video, if I may call it that, is probably AlphaPheonix's: link , since he actually set up the experiment, albeit on a smaller scale). They aren't all of that caliber, but the knot theory video was very good too and not something I've seen a hundred times elsewhere, and the airships video that preceded that one clearly had a high degree of research put into it beyond just the hype.
“Veritasium talks about thumbnail and title experimentation on YouTube”
Thumbnail and title experimentation on platforms
Veritasium talks about thumbnail and title experimentation on YouTube, and argues for the need to do so on platforms that surface up and recommend content to users: this video
“Veritasium did a video about this recently, actually.”
Related video on YouTube clickbait
Veritasium did a video about this recently, actually. I got the picture and didn't finish it, but it helped me realize how YouTube has pushed junk to me, despite trying to subscribe to quality channels. this video
“do whatever it takes to hook people in that have never heard the topic before, then teach them something new.”
Hook new people, then teach them
I think this is the same argument made by Veritasium - poorly summarized: do whatever it takes to hook people in that have never heard the topic before, then teach them something new. this video
“there's a Veritasium video for that too”
Explains why titles are clickbaity
And if you're curious as to why it's clickbaity, there's a Veritasium video for that too :) this video
Creator discussing more clickbait titles
Committed to, actually. He made a video about how they were going to start doing it more: link . Also, more recently: this video .
“Veritasium had a great video talking about this for his youtube thumbnails.”
Creator discusses title and thumbnail tradeoffs
Author here. I totally hear the criticism. I had "Capabilities for nodejs packages" or something like it as a draft title for the post. But its a boring title. And I believe this article would have had far less reach with a name like that. I hear you. I don't believe the answer is to just sensationalize everything to 110%. But I personally absolutely can't stand boring writing. Like, holding my attention on anything which isn't at least a bit human and engaging feels like torture. My job is 70% researcher, and one of the worst parts of my job is reading academic papers - I just can't hold my attention on a boring paper for more than a few sentences. My old supervisor used to tease me about using 2 weeks in the lab to save 5 minutes in the library. I think he's more right than he knows. So, I really don't have a good answer. What feels like sensationalist clickbait for you might seem like a catchy title to me, with a promise of engaging writing for someone else. And what sounds like an accurate title for someone else might turn me off completely because of its blandness. I suspect there's no middleground here where everyone is happy, and at the end of the day when I write its up to me and my judgement. And you, the audience to complain more loudly if you feel like like I'm taking it too far. I need that, because only have my own judgement for calibration. But thats pretty unsatisfying! Veritasium had a great video talking about this for his youtube thumbnails. I found it quite
“if you want to thrive by producing content, you need to juice up the title a little.”
Creators need to juice up titles
Titles rarely do. And sadly, if you want to thrive by producing content, you need to juice up the title a little. Yeah, I hate it too. this video But on topic, Apple's official stance, as provided by this repair manual, is that replacing a battery requires you to replace vast portions of the final product. Car analogy time: Got bad seals on your block? Send us the engine; who knows what kind of damage those bad seals have done. Oh, and only we, your car manufacturer can get you the tools and an authorized engine replacement. Can the battery be replaced without the assembly? iFixit says yes. Is this how Apple does it? Sure, but it's generating a lot of cost and waste. They can write both of. Can you?
“Veritasium also admits to changing the title to test viewer responses”
Admits to changing titles to test viewer responses
The current HN post title of "Standard Reference Materials" is accurate and neutral. Veritasium's title as you mentioned is clickbaity. Veritasium also admits to changing the title to test viewer responses, as mentioned in this video "Clickbait is Unreasonably Effective" [2021-08-17]. He also explains the problem with titling a video with a term that you would only understand after watching the video.
“his goal is to make actually educational videos and have them seen”
Why he uses clickbait titles for educational videos
> I would classify this as marketing and self-promoting hyperbole Or probably better, "clickbait". The author actually did a video about why he started using clickbait titles; basically, his goal is to make actually educational videos and have them seen, and clickbait titles means a lot more people see them. this video
“i mostly just subscribe to the veritasium school of ethics here”
Ethics of reach with professional standards
as a content creator who mixes reach and professional standards i mostly just subscribe to the veritasium school of ethics here this video
“Watch an older Veratasium video about Youtube's title+thumbnail clickbait”
YouTube title and thumbnail testing
Youtubers regularly swap the video thumbnail + title. Youtube even has tools to A/B test various thumbnails + titles nowadays for different users. I can confirm that the title "I Hacked My Friend's Phone to Show How Easy It Is" was the actual title when the video was uploaded. However you're right that it now looks like it changed to "Exposing The Flaw In Our Phone System" a day later. Watch an older Veratasium video about Youtube's title+thumbnail clickbait: this video
“Blame YouTube's recommendation algorithm, not the creators.”
Creators forced into clickbait by the recommendation algorithm
It's funny you mention Veritasium in particular, since he hates the clickbait as much as anyone, and made a video specifically about it: this video tldw You're basically forced to structure your thumbnails and titles that way if you want your videos to actually be seen. Blame YouTube's recommendation algorithm, not the creators.
“At some point he started A/B testing them to maximize his revenue.”
I think he is easily one of the smartest people on YouTube and is producing some of the very best videos. He is also a brilliant educator. For examples, his videos on special [1] and general relativity [2] were real eye-openers for me, even though I have studied physics and have seen this stuff explained a million times before. What I really don't like are the new video titles. At some point he started A/B testing them to maximize his revenue. He even made a video about it [3]. Of course, this selects for the most outrageous clickbait in order to get that sweet engagement. I am starting to wonder if he took into account, how much this is starting to alienate long-term followers. [1] link [2] link [3] this video
“The video titles ironically seemed to get more clickbait-y after he released this video”
I suppose this one isn't too bad in that regard, I think I was mainly thinking of this video: link This video about leaded gasoline makes a solid case and the science and history are there to back up that Kettering caused the lead poisoning on this scale, but I think it's a stretch, or a gross oversimplification to say he killed the most people in history. I guess I expect slightly more scientific rigor and caution from someone like him (though, I understand that YouTube videos aren't expected to withstand the scientific method). With this video, I think it comes down to the title. Saying he killed the most people is a reach, I think saying he poisoned the most people is probably more accurate. That's not saying anything to discredit how bad lead poisoning is and that it does kill people, but if you're going to accuse someone of being a mass murderer I think you need to make your claims really precisely and have data that really clearly shows a causation and not just correlation. The video titles ironically seemed to get more clickbait-y after he released this video: this video
From "Clickbait is bad, and I don't do it." to "I am working to efficiently clickbait people." Reminds me of: this video
