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What lies beneath the thumbnails is the backbone of Ryan’s content: idea generation. He identifies what’s working on YouTube by focusing on outliers—videos that outperform their channel’s average view counts. This strategy isn't about imitating successful videos; instead, it's about discerning why those videos succeeded.
Ryan exemplifies this through his content inspired by fellow creator Mr. Beast. With his I Tried Every Seat on the Most Expensive Airline video, which fetched an impressive 44 million views, Ryan cleverly adopted the successful formula of another video without copying it outright. By adhering to the principle of ‘copying why, not what,’ Ryan taps into popular themes while maintaining originality in execution.