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3 mistakes my audio chain

Experiment #181 · closed · published 8/1/2026, 12:17:00 PM

What happened

Creative features

  • hookTypenumber_list
  • lengthBucketunder_60s
  • thumbnailArchetypeface_reaction
  • publishSlotweekend_pm
  • formatcommentary
  • topicCluster6

Confounds the baseline knew

  • Followers at publish27,060
  • Days since previous post1.1
  • Channel age at publish (days)253
  • Local publish time8/1/2026, 12:17:00 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)

482

Baseline expected

198

Residual reward

+1.48σ

raw 1.48σ · residual sd 0.599 log-views

Checkpoints

CheckpointViewsWatch time (min)CommentsLikesFollower delta
168h (close)4826,7482241
24h2653,7111131
72h3865,3982191

What changed in the posterior

  • Post beat its baseline by 1.48σ. Moved: topic_cluster:topic_6 +0.066, format:commentary +0.043, publish_slot:weekend_pm +0.039.

    • topic_6-0.288-0.222 Δ+0.066±0.27
    • commentary-0.0150.027 Δ+0.043±0.25
    • weekend_pm0.1480.187 Δ+0.039±0.26
    • number_list-0.142-0.103 Δ+0.039±0.25
    • under_60s0.0780.111 Δ+0.033±0.25
    • face_reaction0.0540.086 Δ+0.032±0.24
    • tutorial0.0690.054 Δ-0.015±0.24
    • object_hero-0.258-0.271 Δ-0.013±0.26
    • topic_0-0.080-0.092 Δ-0.013±0.24
    • 10_20m0.0460.034 Δ-0.011±0.25
    • claim-0.193-0.204 Δ-0.011±0.25
    • weekday_pm-0.040-0.051 Δ-0.010±0.24
    • 4_10m-0.099-0.109 Δ-0.010±0.25
    • topic_70.1930.184 Δ-0.010±0.26
    • topic_30.2330.224 Δ-0.009±0.25
    • text_dominant0.0590.051 Δ-0.008±0.24
    • topic_1-0.045-0.053 Δ-0.008±0.24
    • vlog-0.070-0.078 Δ-0.008±0.25
    • weekend_am0.1490.142 Δ-0.008±0.28
    • list-0.026-0.033 Δ-0.007±0.27
    • story_cold_open0.2000.193 Δ-0.007±0.25
    • weekday_late-0.135-0.141 Δ-0.007±0.27
    • topic_5-0.013-0.019 Δ-0.007±0.26
    • topic_2-0.166-0.172 Δ-0.006±0.25
    • contrarian-0.003-0.009 Δ-0.006±0.25
    • before_after0.0120.007 Δ-0.005±0.27
    • none0.1300.135 Δ+0.005±0.26
    • interview0.1160.111 Δ-0.005±0.24
    • weekday_am-0.126-0.130 Δ-0.004±0.25
    • topic_40.1620.157 Δ-0.004±0.25
    • shorts-0.077-0.075 Δ+0.003±0.25
    • 20m_plus-0.096-0.098 Δ-0.003±0.26
    • question0.1750.172 Δ-0.002±0.26
    • demo_first-0.040-0.042 Δ-0.002±0.25
    • 1_4m0.0670.069 Δ+0.002±0.25
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