Can We Fool the Algorithm? Or Are We Just Chasing Each Other in Circles?

 

Can We Fool the Algorithm?

Or Are We Just Chasing Each Other in Circles?

Every digital creator eventually hits that moment — the sudden, sinking realisation that the YouTube algorithm is not a benevolent librarian organising your work in neat, logical rows.
No.
It is a hyperactive octopus wildly slapping buttons in the dark while trying to sell us something.

And somewhere in the middle of this, creators like me (and you, dear reader) are trying to make sense of the chaos.

The Algorithm vs The Artist

Let’s be honest: YouTube’s algorithm feels like a moody Victorian governess.
One day it favours your drawing timelapses.
The next day it punishes your music.
Then suddenly, without warning, a six-second throwaway clip of an old punk flyer becomes your new Golden Child.

It’s not personal, of course.
It just feels personal.

I’ve watched genuine fans — real people with real curiosity — get blocked, obscured, buried, or simply not shown my content because the algorithm was having “one of its days.” And it leaves you wondering:

Is YouTube cheating me out of my own audience?
Sometimes it absolutely feels like it.

But Are We Any Better?

Before we sharpen our pitchforks, consider this:

We are just as fickle.

We click randomly.
We binge at 3 a.m.
We abandon series halfway through.
We watch videos with the sound off.
We follow trends we don’t even like.

The machine is trying to predict behaviour that we can’t even predict in ourselves.

So who’s actually chasing who?

Cat and Mouse?

Hare and Tortoise?
Or Two Mirrors Reflecting Each Other Forever?**

Creators think we’re the hare: sprinting out new content, hacking tags, redesigning thumbnails, whispering sweet nothings to the Analytics tab.

The algorithm thinks it is the hare: sprinting after trends, adjusting its knobs, tweaking its levers, desperately trying to bottle human behaviour like lightning in a jar.

But truthfully?

We’re both mice.
And we’re both cats.

Sometimes we outrun the algorithm.
Sometimes it chases us into a corner.
Sometimes we trick it — for a day.
Sometimes it tricks us — for a month.

And sometimes (most of the time), we and the Machine just stare at each other across the digital field, both pretending we understand each other.

The Real Secret: The Algorithm Doesn’t Know Who You Are

And it never will.

It doesn’t understand:
– nostalgia
– nuance
– artistry
– the emotional weight of a creative archive
– the thrill of rediscovering a forgotten performance
– the human ache behind a piece of music
– or the way a story can rise from a decade-old hard drive and ignite again

It just knows patterns.

We know meaning.
And that is our advantage.

Can We Fool the Algorithm?

Short answer: yes, but only briefly.

Long answer:
You can nudge it.
You can confuse it.
You can flood it.
You can even charm it.

But you can’t tame it.

Because the algorithm isn’t truly chasing views or engagement.
It’s chasing predictability.
And humans will never be predictable creatures.

So What Do We Do?

We keep creating.
We keep experimenting.
We build archives.
We tell stories.
We show up daily, weekly, monthly — whatever our rhythm is.

We make art that outlives the octopus in the machine.

Because long after today's algorithm has been replaced by tomorrow’s smarter, pushier, nosier version, our work will still be there — still clicking, still resonating, still being discovered.

The algorithm is temporary.
The artist is not.