If you create art/content—songs, YouTube videos, articles, podcasts—think about people who come across your work as 4 categories of reactions:

1) Didn't like it
2) Thought it was solid / fine
3) Really liked it
4) Absolutely loved it

(1/3)

1s and 2s are gone forever. 3s might come back. 4s will subscribe and evangelize your work to everyone they know.

4s are what make your work take off, not 3s. A piece of work that yields 4s at a 20% vs 5% rate probably ends up with probably 10X (or 1,000X) the spread.

(2/3)

The thing is, content that yields a lot of 4s also usually yields a lot of 1s—more 1s is the cost of going for more 4s. Likewise, creators trying to minimize 1s also usually minimize 4s. So it's really two choices: the 1-4 strategy or the 2-3 strategy. 1-4 beats 2-3!

(3/3)

Political media discovered the 1-4 trick in the 1990s and never looked back. For an individual creator, though, it's a happier path to pick your 4s based on who happens to like and jibe with your true self, not based on who you can best manipulate.