I made a “TLDR for the internet” — curious if this is a real problem or just my bad habits…
Hi everyone!
Im consuming a lot more content on youtube then ever, news, science, programming, design, you name it. I know that youtube and other platforms change some rules about its algorithm and most creators are adapting to it. But very often I get the feeling that they are loosing a lot of time before going to the point just to keep me there - to make videos around 8min or 20min. I get it, they need to make money, but the worst part are those that don’t even deliver what the title was about, or are fake. Just to grab my play.
So I decided to make something for myself: https://ondex.co
Now im kind of in a crossroad, for me personally is cool, i like and use it everyday. But it has some costs. For me its ok, but to scale i don't see people paying for this.
Some thoughts that also crossed my mind during the process:
- TLDRing everything, am i incentivizing this high-speed consumption, short attention spans? A toxic culture of “no one has time for anything”?
- It feels like more and more people are becoming creators. And with AI many are doing 10x more content optimized for algorithms and retention (which I understand).
Will this be worse in the near future? Do you feel the same?
Feedback/thoughts much appreciated!
This is cool, I could see there being a niche market for it, but all the big companies are heavily investing in keeping everyone's attention for as long as possible at all costs, so it kinda feels like an uphill battle. I'm the same way with building tools for myself that I find really useful, but not knowing if anyone else feels the same way, or how to market it. Easy to stay stuck. Good luck!
Thank you! I will be reframing my approach. I see there’s plenty of people online talking about their watch later getting very messy on YouTube and how people keep million tabs opened forever. Wha kind of stuff you build for yourself, I’m curious to know!
Ah yes, agreed on the watch later part for sure! My latest project has been a financial tracking webapp built around monthly financial reports. Fun to build things exactly as I need them. Also recently built a beautiful application tracking tool I run locally so I can track the hundreds of SWE jobs I'm getting rejected by :D
monthlysnapshot.c o m is my financial app if you care to check it out!
cool! no doubt, it reminded me projectionlab. com - i tried some years ago
ahah thats great, will do!
Real problem IMO. A good wedge might be "intent‑aware" summaries (tutorial vs opinion vs news) so you don’t oversummarize when pacing is the value. Also consider a pro angle: “stay current in X with 10‑min daily digest” — budgets exist there more than consumer.
Thanks for the comment, yeah i believe you are right!
Building something similar for tech news — I feel this tension daily.
On the "attention span" concern:
I think the problem isn't speed, it's quality. A 20-minute video padded to hit algorithm targets wastes time. A 2-minute summary that captures the actual insight respects it. The issue is content designed for engagement metrics vs. content designed to inform. You're solving for the latter.
On monetization:
The hard part: people don't pay to save time — they pay to feel smart or stay relevant. "I summarize YouTube" is a utility. "I keep you informed in your field without the filler" is positioning with stickier value.
A few questions:
The "10x creators optimized for retention" problem is only getting worse. I think tools that help people filter (not just summarize) will have more defensibility than pure summarizers.
thanks for taking time and thoughts! i believe you have a good point on that monetization aspect. To make money it needs to change the approach!
Thanks again for your thoughts, i will have a loot at your project too!