Learning Through Entropy 🌀
A friend-of-the-brand writes this week's review
blog.seventy-two // Earlier this week, creator and congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh gave us a look inside her campaign office (and mind).
One of Kat’s central goals—to further democratize our democratic system and normalize all walks of life running for office—reminded me of just how big an impact the Internet plays in all of this.
At the same time, we’re at a point in creator culture where every sensationalized story has been played out. Think of a random luxurious good, and someone has likely stood in a circle for far too long to get it.
But that underscores the importance of impactful stories all the more. You can get whatever content you want with the click of a button, yet to make a real connection, that takes effort. And that’s exactly what I’d like to think that we do here, and exactly what the videos we picked for this week also do.
Before we dive into those, though, please give a warm Creator Mag welcome to our first guest reviewer: Danny Desatnik. Danny’s an OG friend of the brand who's collected every single print issue. In his words, he's keeping them stowed away for when they 10x on the resale market a decade from now.
He's also a brilliant tastemaker and curator in his own right. We couldn't think of a better voice to feature in this space.
Enjoy.
— judd the intern
P.S. On July 19, we’ll be hosting conversations with Kat Abughazaleh, Daren Vongirdner, and more featured creators at our Summer Block Party in Chicago. Get your ticket today!
P.P.S. Last week, we reviewed Simon Kim’s new adventure film—and recommended two can’t-miss videos. You can read it here.
Video: ‘Speedrunning the Flute.’ (2025)
Creator: Flich
Review by: Danny Desatnik
When was the last time you remember watching something so good that you wanted to rewatch it immediately?
I’m of the opinion that those moments don’t come often—but when they do, you feel them. You remember where you were, what the air smelled like. The sounds of your surroundings washing over you. Years later, you could even deliver a lecture on that moment. On the spot. No notes.
One of those moments happened to me last week. A friend sent me a YouTube link via text. Please watch this. 36 seconds in [this is] probs the coolest thing I’ve seen on YouTube.
I found twenty-five minutes and forty seconds of uninterrupted time in my day, turned my phone on silent, and put the video on my TV.
As it came to an end, I queued it up again.
Videos that stand out to me have a hint of familiarity while they, simultaneously, feel like nothing else I’ve watched.
Speedrunning the Flute is the product of two styles of videos colliding on the screen: challenge videos and art house indie film. The combination of the two created a chemical reaction that I couldn’t have imagined. I was in awe.
My belief is that there are two types of art that change the world.
1. Art that reflects a human truth—and makes you reflect on your own experience.
2. Art that inspires you towards building a new future, or forming a new way of thinking.
Flich’s video fits in that first bucket.
From the age of six to twelve, I tried to learn three different instruments: piano, guitar, and the drums.
I still can’t play any of them.
But each journey followed a very similar path:
1. Romantizicing what life could be like with the joys of knowing an instrument
2. Renting/buying the instrument of choice
3. Finding a teacher—or lining up instructional YouTube videos
4. Learning a basic string of notes
5. Feeling on top of the world when I learned the first part of a song
6. Realizing the amount of work needed to play the song I love
7. Taking an interest in the mundane around me as a way of ignoring the task at hand (we call this procrastinating)
8. Ending the honeymoon phase when I realize, like everything else in life, nothing worth it comes easily.
Flich (real name: Michael) brought this universal experience to life. While I could go on forever about the video and its creator, there are two moments that stand out.
The Intro
The first two minutes of the video brought me into a new world. One where everything felt just right. The color. The narration. The visuals. The tension.
I was hooked. My friend wasn’t lying.
What follows is the same deeply-held human truth when learning something new—the shine wears off, and the work lies ahead.
The rest of the video doesn’t reflect the short film-esque cinematography displayed during the first two minutes of the video. Part of me believes Michael did this on purpose to hyper-exaggerate our excitement toward something new, before actually taking action to do it. Upon rewatching, I view the intro and the rest of the video as reflections of the overarching narrative.
My Favorite Moment
Something illuminating happens from 7:50 to 8:15. Michael starts to rationalize why the flute sounds the way it does. He feels like something is off…but reasons that it must be his lack of skill, not the instrument.
He stops playing and shares his thoughts with us, the viewer, while he fiddles around with the flute. Eventually, he comes to realize it wasn’t screwed in properly.
Two more truths come out of that moment:
We’ve all had that experience of starting something new—and blaming our beginner skillset for the issues
We’ve all taken a random action that miraculously leads to a discovery
Speedrunning the Flute did more for me than any other video I’ve watched recently.
It made me excited for Michael’s future as a creator.
It made me reflect on my own experience trying my hand at various musical instruments.
And it made me think deeply about a core part of the human experience: learning new things that we so badly want, but might not want enough to put the necessary work into.
I’ll leave you with this question: When was the last time you tried so desperately hard at something, only to feel like a failure—and yet you still discovered something stupid, random, and beautiful through the sheer phenomenon of entropy?
Danny’s Score: 4.4/5
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‘How Muppets Break Free from Their Puppeteers’ (2025)
Creator: Alex Boucher
Alex Boucher has always made fascinating videos about movies. But in this past year, he’s really seemed to have carved a rather out-of-the-box niche for himself: non-human acting.
In a world of what feels like a million-and-a-half video essays, Boucher’s work feels refreshing, not just for its depth within each topic, but for this growing sense of personal voice he’s developed, with his latest upload his most personal yet.
Like many creators, Boucher’s self-evolution is documented within his past videos: over time, his voice grows more confident, his pacing more storylike, and—most interestingly—an increasing presence of hand drawn animation.
In this latest Muppet-focused video, these charming, childlike sketches are everywhere, vividly accenting the topic at hand, illustrating the imaginative mechanics behind the Muppets wonderfully.
Judd’s Score: 4.4/5
‘is reddit advice fake? The ones i wrote sure were’ (2025)
Creator: Paul Platt
As another commentary-based comedian, Paul Platt finds himself in a very crowded place.
How does he try to stand out, you may ask? By integrating nuanced think pieces into his videos on Gen Z nostalgia and trends.
This specific video chronicles Platt’s surprisingly difficult quest to make a fake post on the infamous subreddit r/AITA (Am I The A**hole). Through it, he engages in a conversation on the ethics—and allure—of lying on the Internet, and, further, its surprising link to storytelling in the modern age.
Judd’s Score: 3.5/5*
Thanks for reading! Shoot us a reply, comment, or DM if anything resonated with you in particular—we respond to them all.
* Chon Digital is another wonderful up-and-coming commentator you may like if you enjoyed this video.
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