What I've Been Watching — Issue #4

A personal YouTube watchlist recap for August 2026 from Nishat Shahriyar — business, AI, WordPress drama, the MrBeast saga, and a Liziqi comeback. 37 videos worth your time.

August was one of those months where the watchlist went all over the place. Business stuff, WordPress drama, MrBeast chaos, a guy trying to figure out his job, and somehow two Liziqi videos in there too. From 117 videos, here’s what actually stuck.

Money, business & creators

How I Work: $40K/Month Solopreneur — The unglamorous version of running a one-person business. No montages, just actual systems and trade-offs. Worth watching if you’re building something small on purpose.

24hrs With The Happiest Billionaire, Jesse Itzler — Jesse Itzler is genuinely one of the more interesting people to follow. This is a “day in the life” that actually shows something — not just a highlight reel.

I spent a day with a blue-collar millionaire in NYC — The blue-collar angle is refreshing. Real money made from real work, not from content about making money.

How to find businesses with (almost) zero competition — Less about niches, more about how to think about market positioning. Some good mental models in here.

Alex Hormozi’s Warning: Stop Chasing AI, Build This Instead! — Whatever you think of Hormozi, this one has a specific point — stop building on top of AI trends and start building the underlying value that AI is replacing. Good framing.

I Debated the Inventor of Zero-Click Marketing | Amanda Natividad (SparkToro) — Zero-click is the SEO conversation nobody wants to have but everyone needs to. Amanda makes the case well. The debate format keeps it honest.

Why I Didn’t Buy TED — Behind the scenes of a major acquisition decision. Fascinating even if you don’t care about TED specifically.

AI, tools & how things work

4 wild AI predictions from a $39B tech founder — Some of these are actually wild. The $39B number is doing a lot of work in the title but the predictions themselves are worth hearing.

AI Search: Why Your Whole Company Should Care | Emma Young — Not just an SEO problem. If AI search changes how people find information, that’s a product, ops, and marketing problem at the same time. Emma lays it out clearly.

YouTube is Already 20% AI Slop — Sounds hyperbolic. It’s not. The numbers and examples in this one are depressing in a “yeah, we all saw this coming” kind of way.

Should you block your Search result pages? — A very specific SEO question with a less obvious answer than you’d expect.

This Planet is…Up to Something — Not AI, but genuinely fascinating. Science content that earns its runtime.

WordPress & the open web

Its been fun, WordPress. — The vibes-based exit letter from someone leaving the WordPress ecosystem. Worth watching if you want a temperature check on where the community is.

WordCamps Are Great, But They’re Not Enough — A fair critique. WordCamps build community but they don’t necessarily move the product or the ecosystem forward. Someone had to say it.

Imran Siddiq on Teaching WordPress, AI, Productivity, and Reinventing Life After a Heart Attack — More human than the title suggests. The heart attack part reframes everything else he says about how he works.

The WordPress Agency Is Becoming Invisible: Why That Is a Good Thing | Vivek Jain — A counterintuitive take on the commodification of WordPress agencies. Worth sitting with.

The Agentic Web Is Coming — Is WordPress Ready? | Miriam Schwab — The most forward-looking talk in the WordCamp batch. Miriam’s framing of AI agents as the new “users” is a useful lens.

How The Ankler Outgrew Substack and Built An Independent Platform on WordPress | Nicola Catton — Good case study for anyone thinking about owning their publishing infrastructure versus renting it.

Creators & media

We can finally talk about this. — Withholding the context here on purpose — the title is the hook, and it pays off. Go in blind.

Just Trying to Figure Out My Job — A creator being genuinely honest about not knowing what they’re doing. More relatable than the usual “here’s how I grew to 500k” stuff.

The Problem With The Diary of a CEO — A fair, specific takedown. Not a hater video — it actually diagnoses the structural issue with the format.

The Last Honest Movie Star — Good essay video on what “authenticity” in celebrity culture actually means right now and who still has it.

How Netflix Ruined Korean Dramas Forever | AB Explained — A real argument, not just a complaint. The money, the pacing changes, the loss of mid-budget shows — all covered.

A Real Teacher Reacted to My Class — Surprisingly good. The feedback loop between content creators and actual subject-matter experts is underused.

The Scene Every Salesman Needs to See — Short. You’ve probably seen the clip. Still worth watching with this framing around it.

How BuzzFeed Lost the Internet Forever — A proper post-mortem. BuzzFeed is a cautionary tale about what happens when you optimize for traffic over audience.

The MrBeast chapter

August brought a full MrBeast storyline that I couldn’t ignore.

Peak EXPOSES MrBeast Mansion Video — The starting point of the saga. Take it with some skepticism but the questions it raises are real.

WE CRASHED A MRBEAST VIDEO! — Chaotic. Exactly what it sounds like. Fun internet moment.

The Truth About Mr. Beast (Charity) Medical Videos — The most substantive of the three. Asks harder questions about what happens when charity becomes content.

Just for fun

What’s Happening To CineDesi? (Dhurandhar 2 Update) — For anyone who’s been following the CineDesi situation. A good update.

RUSH HOUR (1998) Movie Reaction! | Jackie Chan | Chris Tucker — Yes, it’s a reaction video, but this one actually adds something. Rush Hour holds up.

For Everyone Who Knows My Name — Liziqi Channel — Liziqi’s comeback after a long break. Zero words needed to explain why this is worth watching.

I turned the Woodshed into a Forest-Themed Closet — Liziqi Channel — Same. The craft in these videos is just something else.

Kolkata, Siliguri Vlog | Travel, Event, Memories — A personal one. Good memories in here.

How to get your dream girl — Watched this. Won’t say much. Make of it what you will.

That’s August. Heavy on WordPress and business content this month, which makes sense given where my head was. The MrBeast saga and the Liziqi comeback were the wildcards.

If anything here catches your eye, let me know what you thought.

— Nishat