I quite enjoyed listening to this episode of HPR.  Very well articulated.

Seems to me that the main argument can be summarized as HPR should be chasing popularity. This may very well be the optimal thing to do, however, when I look around at those that have done so (which admittingly is a small sample size and not random, and may also suffer from survivor bias), I see results that are rather unpleasant (well, to me, clearly there are many who must enjoy those high ranking Youtube tech channels, for example).

Success can be measured in many ways. Popularity is indeed one of those measure.

Great episode all the same, but, count me out.