Useful: <https://lawrencehook.com/rys/>

On my smartphone I'm not using Google Play Services so when I open the app, all I get is the search box.

I told a friend this and told him this flips the script on the Algo. Now instead of YT telling you what to watch, YOU are in control of what YOU want to watch.

We have to start breaking this cycle somehow. This is a great way to do it.

Or only use the subscriptions page, and never visit the home page.

Getting only the stuff you've curated is way better than the algorithm.

> Turn off your YouTube watch history

Just to add to that, it's a two step process: disable saving new history, and then clear all history

I estimate my watch time dropped by half per day the first time I did that. Then I started curating my subscriptions better, and watching from that.

its suggestions are the best way to get me to leave. not that i find myself there often, or stay long anyway. hn on the other hand...

Or don't login. It will still learn about you so you don't always receive the blank main page. My browser is set to clear that data, yet with a single video being played the algo is already suggesting more content.

This is so weird to me, I curate my watch history, and the vast majority of suggestions I get are relevant to me. Am I the only one who does this? (I especially make sure to open any unknown or political videos in a private browser as well). And if any garbage appears in my recs, I just tell it "don't recommend this" and it seems to work?

I did similar for my work PC but for the browser: turn off all the conveniences. No history in the bar so there's no way way to lazily navigate to a website, I have to manually type in the URL. Saved passwords and cookies? Nope! closing the browser wipes history.