Comparison trap

Public numbers show views, subscribers and polish. They hide the budget, the team, the ten years before the channel worked and every video that flopped along the way. Comparing your third upload with somebody's four hundredth produces a conclusion about neither of you, and the usual result is a week of not filming.

The comparison that helps is against your own last ten videos, where the variables are held still. Studying a bigger channel for how they open a video or build a title is a different activity, and that one is genuinely useful.