Should you pick a niche for your channel?

Niche, topic choice, expanding a personal brand.

Axis: experiment first, niche later … pick a niche from the start

Answers by date: 5 records in 5 sources, newest first; the answers above are the current ones. The advice was refined (2020), never reversed, in these records.

date	who	answer	source
2020-12-28 (said on 2020-12-15, implied)	Ali	You do not need unfair advantages to start YouTube, Ali says, and they should not be a barrier, but to stack the deck in your favour, work with your unfair advantages.	How Much Money I Earn as a Doctor + YouTuber 00:20:57
2020-08-04	Ali	Ali advises making your real name the brand: it has much more future potential than a brand name, which could typecast you, while your content evolves with you.	How to Make Money from your Passion 00:09:37
2020-04-17	Ali	When starting on YouTube, Ali says, you just start making things; over time you niche down as you learn what resonates with people, so it is a case of trying a lot of things and seeing what is fun and what sticks.	Answering your Questions 00:01:03
2019-02-14	Ali	Ali will not start a second channel for piano or tech: he puts everything on one channel, even if the mix of content annoys some viewers.	Valentine’s Day Live Stream 00:31:05
2018-07-23	Ali	Ali says everyone advises YouTubers to focus on one particular thing, but he will politely ignore that advice and mix niche videos for medical students with general videos on tech.	A year on YouTube - Channel / life update 00:04:59

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).