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Nobody saw my audio chain

Experiment #168 · closed · published 7/14/2026, 3:17:00 PM

What happened

Creative features

  • hookTypestory_cold_open
  • lengthBucket10_20m
  • thumbnailArchetypeface_reaction
  • publishSlotweekday_pm
  • formatvlog
  • topicCluster0

Confounds the baseline knew

  • Followers at publish25,549
  • Days since previous post0.9
  • Channel age at publish (days)235
  • Local publish time7/14/2026, 3:17:00 PM

The residual reward

Raw views mostly measure how big the channel already was. The baseline predicts what this channel “should” have earned given the confounds above; the residual is how the post actually landed relative to that prediction — measured in standard deviations.

Observed (168h)

87

Baseline expected

141

Residual reward

-0.80σ

raw -0.80σ · residual sd 0.599 log-views

Checkpoints

CheckpointViewsWatch time (min)CommentsLikesFollower delta
168h (close)8727,405040
24h4815,073020
72h7021,924030

What changed in the posterior

  • Post missed its baseline by 0.80σ. Moved: format:vlog -0.031, topic_cluster:topic_0 -0.024, hook_type:story_cold_open -0.023.

    • vlog-0.050-0.081 Δ-0.031±0.26
    • topic_0-0.030-0.054 Δ-0.024±0.25
    • story_cold_open0.2200.197 Δ-0.023±0.25
    • 10_20m0.0590.038 Δ-0.021±0.25
    • weekday_pm-0.039-0.051 Δ-0.012±0.24
    • shorts-0.054-0.043 Δ+0.011±0.26
    • face_reaction0.0610.050 Δ-0.011±0.25
    • tutorial-0.013-0.003 Δ+0.010±0.24
    • weekend_pm0.1540.164 Δ+0.010±0.26
    • demo_first-0.094-0.085 Δ+0.009±0.25
    • none0.0670.074 Δ+0.007±0.26
    • contrarian-0.036-0.029 Δ+0.007±0.26
    • 20m_plus-0.099-0.092 Δ+0.007±0.27
    • 4_10m-0.102-0.095 Δ+0.007±0.25
    • topic_40.1740.180 Δ+0.006±0.25
    • text_dominant0.0550.060 Δ+0.005±0.25
    • 1_4m0.0550.060 Δ+0.005±0.25
    • topic_1-0.080-0.076 Δ+0.005±0.25
    • commentary-0.025-0.020 Δ+0.004±0.26
    • topic_70.1740.178 Δ+0.004±0.27
    • topic_2-0.183-0.179 Δ+0.004±0.26
    • topic_5-0.033-0.029 Δ+0.004±0.27
    • before_after0.0880.085 Δ-0.003±0.27
    • question0.1640.166 Δ+0.003±0.26
    • weekday_late-0.131-0.133 Δ-0.002±0.27
    • list-0.023-0.021 Δ+0.002±0.27
    • interview0.1560.158 Δ+0.002±0.24
    • number_list-0.089-0.087 Δ+0.002±0.25
    • under_60s0.0780.080 Δ+0.002±0.26
    • weekday_am-0.132-0.131 Δ+0.002±0.25
    • topic_6-0.287-0.286 Δ+0.001±0.28
    • weekend_am0.1400.141 Δ+0.001±0.28
    • object_hero-0.280-0.279 Δ+0.001±0.26
    • claim-0.173-0.172 Δ+0.001±0.25
    • topic_30.2570.256 Δ-0.000±0.25
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