Comment by nluken

The way I read it, the author says not that the creator as persona is synthesized by metrics, but rather that Jimmy himself is subsumed by MrBeast. He is being authentic, but that's true only because the platform inculcated those desires over a years long "information diet".

It's a view I sympathize with, even though I'm reticent to apply it to specific cases like this. Rather, when we look at these systems, we should treat their demands as prescriptive, rather than descriptive. Spotify is an excellent example. Say the recommendation algorithm starts recommending a genre, but not for any aesthetic reason. Over time other musicians that internalize the aesthetics associated with that genre and will succeed because they also get picked up by the algorithm. These artists are succeeding by making algorithm bait, but they're also being authentic because the algorithm they're courting shaped their sensibilities as artists and as people.

The article isn't making a novel observation that people are shaped by the systems around them but applying that idea to the creator economy.