The Creator Engine

The author presents a toy model called The Creator Engine, which frames creators' relationships with fans as a system where technology changes how many fan relationships a creator can sustain. The model treats capital as the fuel, relationships as the product, and carrying capacity as the limit on how many fans a creator can serve before each fan's experience worsens. The article cites YouTube as an example of a company that used technology to raise carrying capacity and lower costs, and it notes that the world uploads just under 4 million videos to YouTube every day.