Methodology
How this wiki was made, what its labels mean, and where it can be wrong.
Sources
- Videos: the uploads of Ali Abdaal's YouTube channel (long videos, podcasts and interviews, Shorts, livestreams): 129 recordings recordings (21 hours), 2016–2024.
- Shorts: a Short that is a cut of one of his long videos is not read; the others are read only for what they add.
- Comments: the channel's own comments and replies (a viewer's question is shown as the context of the answer; viewers' words are never recorded as his).
- Transcripts: Whisper large-v3; the channel's automatic captions are not used. Names are normalised to their usual spelling; misheard names may remain in quotes.
How each video was read
- An analyst model reads the transcript and records his statements (advice, rules of thumb, recommendations, stories, plans, numbers), the people, products and ideas named, and dated answers to practice questions.
- A second model audits that record against the transcript and fixes invented or distorted content, a guest's words given to Ali, a sponsor read taken as advice, and missed answers.
- Code checks that every quote and evidence span is copied from the transcript and anchors it to its time.
- A registrar merges new people, projects and threads into one registry.
Nothing is added from outside knowledge.
Practice questions
Each answer is dated and attributed: first on record, restate, refine, shift, revise, tension
Threads and their statuses
A thread follows one thing across sources. Its status is a state, not the last thing that happened:
| kind | status |
|---|---|
| project or life chapter | proposed, running, completed, lapsed; completed, not continued; last documented in YYYY when nothing new is recorded for over two years; known from looking back |
| promise | kept, kept late, dropped, changed; the project it belongs to reported its result; standing commitment; open (no report in 2016–2024); open (updates through YYYY, not reported done); postponed (YYYY); not reported kept; said in jest (not tracked) |
| ask | reported back; the project it belongs to reported its result; asked again year after year; asked again in N years (YYYY–YYYY); asked in YYYY; no response reported; reminder only; promotion, announcement, invitation, joke or advice (not a request) |
| prediction | came true, partly came true, proved wrong, or unresolved (no horizon named); due YYYY; outcome not yet known; its date passed (YYYY); no outcome reported; said in jest (not tracked) |
| story | told N×; followed over N videos; updates only |
The events on a thread are named:
| kind | events |
|---|---|
| prediction | predicted, repeated, recalled, came true, partly came true, proved wrong |
| promise | promised, progress update, kept, dropped, changed, kept late, postponed, recalled |
| project history | proposed, announced, launched, milestone, setback, rule change, paused, restarted, outcome, looked back |
| story | told, retold, update, mentioned, stopped |
Dates
Dates are upload dates, which set the order. Where the speaker gives a different recording date in the video, it is added as "said on YYYY-MM-DD, implied" (derived from the date said in the video).
Limits
- Machine reading makes mistakes; the audit catches many, not all.
- Coverage ends May 23, 2024: later releases and changes in advice are not here.
- Prices, limits and plans change often; every figure carries its date.