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Theos Theory Business Career

I Need to Shrink to Grow | One Year on YouTube

A solo creator named George Montañez, who runs the channel Theos Theory, hits his one year anniversary on YouTube with about 5,000 subscribers and freshly earned monetization, and uses the milestone to do something almost nobody does: he asks the people watching to unsubscribe. The pitch sounds like self sabotage and he knows it. The logic is cold YouTube mechanics wrapped in a warm mission statement.

Published Jun 7, 2026 9:16 video 16 min read Added Jun 14, 2026 Open on YouTube →

At a glance

A solo creator named George Montañez, who runs the channel Theos Theory, hits his one year anniversary on YouTube with about 5,000 subscribers and freshly earned monetization, and uses the milestone to do something almost nobody does: he asks the people watching to unsubscribe. The pitch sounds like self sabotage and he knows it. The logic is cold YouTube mechanics wrapped in a warm mission statement. If subscribers do not actually click his videos, the algorithm reads that silence as proof the videos are worthless and stops showing them to anyone, so a smaller, genuinely engaged audience beats a large, indifferent one. To grow, the channel first has to shrink.

This is a reflection, not a tutorial, so the remake follows his line of thinking in order: the milestones, why YouTube is brutal, what he believes his actual calling is, why he refuses to become "the AI guy" even though it would be the easy win, where the channel is headed after his sabbatical, and the algorithm argument that makes the unsubscribe ask rational rather than crazy. A reader who finishes this page has the whole reflection, every number and every reason, and never needs to play the video.

One year in: the milestones, and the strange conclusion

Theos Theory just turned one. Montañez opens with the scoreboard. In its first year the channel grew to about 5,000 subscribers, which he frames as "halfway to the 10,000 bosses," and it got monetized. Two real milestones for a solo creator. Then he turns the celebration on its head with the thesis the whole video is built on: if he wants the channel to grow, it has to first shrink. So he is going to ask the audience to unsubscribe. Before he explains the mechanics he wants to walk through where the channel has been and what the vision is, because the ask only makes sense once you understand the mission. The cold open even brands the moment with a quick title card, "Theos Theory. Loyalty," which is the tension of the whole piece: he is asking the loyal to leave so the channel can find the people who will actually stay.

YouTube is tough, and the comment section is the abyss

Before the strategy he is honest about the emotional reality of the platform. YouTube is tough. It is discouraging. It is the kind of thing that will make you not want to make videos even when you started with the best of intentions and genuinely wanted to put something into the world. The various factors that come into play wear you down, and people will discourage you directly in the comments. Against that backdrop, simply staying consistent for one full year of producing videos is itself the milestone he is proudest of.

That is why his first move is gratitude, aimed squarely at the viewer watching. He thanks the original subscribers who were there at the start and asks them to leave a comment so he knows who they are, because they can see how the videos have changed, how they have not, and what he has deliberately kept the same. The reason comments matter to him is not vanity. He describes publishing as "dropping something into the abyss." He does not know who will watch, whether anyone will watch, and often there are no comments at all. So a comment is not just a signal to the algorithm, it is fuel for him, proof that what he is doing is making some sort of impact in a real person's life.

The stewardship test: impact or nothing

Here the reflection sharpens into a principle. Montañez says he wants to be a good steward of his time. He does not want to spend it on things that ultimately will not have an effect on people. He pushes the logic to its uncomfortable edge: if it turns out this channel with its roughly 5,000 subscribers is not actually affecting any of those 5,000 subscribers, he does not want to do it. He has no interest in doing things just for the sake of doing them. He states plainly that he does not need praise and does not need to be famous.

What he does want, in his words, is to make Jesus famous, to make God more famous. He is quick to add that God does not need him to do that and does not need anything he does, but he wants to do it anyway as a way of blessing God. He frames his own role modestly: God holds the insight, the wisdom, and the knowledge, and Montañez counts himself blessed simply to be included in distributing it. He gets truth from scripture and is allowed to share it, gets truth from what he learns through science and math and is given the ability to share that too. He calls himself "just a disciple here distributing what God has already provided." This stewardship test, impact or do not bother, is what makes the rest of the video coherent. A creator chasing numbers would never ask anyone to unsubscribe. A creator chasing impact will trade reach for genuine engagement without blinking.

The topic spread, and the refusal to be "the AI guy"

Montañez next asks the audience for feedback on what has actually impacted them, because the channel is deliberately broad. He makes videos across several lanes: AI videos, general science videos, and very specific Christian apologetics, including scripture and Bible study videos. He wants to know which of these resonate and which viewers feel have helped their spiritual growth, because those are the ones he wants to make more of, whether or not they pull big view counts.

Then comes the most strategically interesting admission in the whole reflection. He already knows that if he makes an AI video and gives a really good talk, it could blow up. The data is in; AI is his blowup lane. And he refuses to lean on it. Two reasons. Number one, there are already a lot of people doing AI content. Number two, he does not feel that being "the AI guy" is the calling God has given him. It is part of his calling, not the whole of it. This is the rare creator turning down his own algorithmic cheat code on purpose, which is the same instinct behind asking people to unsubscribe. He is optimizing for the right audience, not the biggest one.

Figure 1. The year in one line. The channel reached about 5,000 subscribers and monetization at the twelve month mark, which Montañez calls halfway to "the 10,000 bosses." The dashed ceiling is the 10,000 goal. The curve shape is illustrative; the only hard numbers he gives are the 5,000 endpoint and the 10,000 target.

What he thinks his actual ministry is

Asked of himself, "what is my calling, what do I see as my ministry," Montañez gives a clean definition. His particular gift is taking something complex, breaking it down into its fundamental pieces, really understanding what those pieces are, and then putting them back together in a way that makes the connections obvious to others. It is a first principles instinct, and he traces it to childhood: he was the kid who took apart his mechanical toys to figure out how they worked. He notes that his PhD thesis is literally titled "Why Machine Learning Works," which was the same impulse applied to AI, trying to understand machine learning from a fundamental first principles perspective and then rebuilding it into something he could communicate. He wants to do exactly that across three realms: AI, science more generally, and spiritual and scriptural things.

He also pauses to thank his collaborators. Theos Theory is a one person operation, he is the only person behind the channel and does the editing himself, but he has hosted many guests, friends and fellow scientists he respects, and he thanks them for being generous with their time and letting him use their unique gifts to bless the channel's viewers.

Figure 2. Shrink to grow. The channel pours from three broad lanes through one focused mission and out to a small, genuinely engaged audience. Montañez deliberately narrows away from the lane most likely to "blow up" (AI) toward the calling he actually claims.

Where the channel goes next: sabbatical, Cambridge, fall

Looking forward, Montañez expects things to be a little different when he starts back up in the fall. He is currently on sabbatical, and spent some of it in Cambridge, England, which is why viewers noticed the video locations changed for a while. He is going to be teaching again, so he hopes to stay consistent with regular videos, though probably not at the same cadence he managed during sabbatical. He commits to keep doing the same kinds of things, whether AI, scripture, or science topics, all in service of one stated goal: to help build a credible, intellectually robust case for the claims of historic Christianity. He says he will reach for that through science, philosophy, scripture, and sometimes storytelling designed to make viewers rethink deep seated assumptions they hold without realizing they hold them.

Year 0 Channel launches, encouraged by his wife; a solo operation, he writes, films, and edits everything himself.
The year Consistent weekly uploads across three lanes: AI, general science, and Christian apologetics, plus interviews with guest scientists and friends.
Sabbatical Films from Cambridge, England; viewers notice the changed locations, and the cadence runs higher than normal.
Year 1 Hits about 5,000 subscribers (halfway to the 10,000 goal) and earns monetization.
The pivot Concludes the channel must shrink to grow and asks inactive subscribers to unsubscribe.
This fall Returns to teaching, aims to stay consistent at a likely slower cadence, still building the case for historic Christianity.

Figure 3. The first year of Theos Theory, from a wife's nudge to launch through a Cambridge sabbatical to the milestone numbers and the decision to deliberately prune the audience.

The crux: why unsubscribing helps

Now the mechanics behind the headline. Montañez lists how viewers can help. First, encourage him with a comment, just to signal someone is there. Second, share the videos if they are useful. Third, subscribe if you have not, but with a sharp caveat that subscribing only helps if you are actually going to watch. Then the paradox he is famous for in this video: if you are subscribed and you never watch, if you just let the videos slide past, then "unsubscribe, baby."

He knows it sounds weird, and he explains why it is rational. If YouTube shows his thumbnails to his current subscribers and none of them click, the platform concludes his videos are worthless and throttles them everywhere. So a smaller group of people who are genuinely excited about the topics actually helps the channel more than a large, inert subscriber count. The engagement rate, clicks divided by impressions, is what the recommendation system reads, and a dead subscriber drags that ratio down for everyone. If you are one of the excited ones, thank you. If not, he genuinely appreciates the support but suggests you hit unsubscribe for now, and, in his recurring refrain, "we'll see what God does with it."

Figure 4. The engagement math. A big subscriber list that ignores new uploads produces a low click through rate, which the recommendation system treats as a signal the content is worthless. A smaller list that reliably clicks produces a high rate, which gets the videos pushed wider. Hence: prune the inactive on purpose.

What the channel optimizes	The usual creator move	What Theos Theory chose
Subscriber count	Maximize it, never prune	Ask the inactive to unsubscribe
The AI lane	Lean in, it blows up	Decline it, it is only part of the calling
Success metric	Views and reach	Genuine impact on real viewers
Audience target	As large as possible	Small, dedicated, and clicking
Personal driver	Fame and praise	A mission he calls making God famous

Figure 5. Theos Theory against the default YouTube playbook. On every axis Montañez picks the choice that trades reach for fit, which is exactly why the unsubscribe ask is consistent rather than contradictory.

The mission underneath the strategy

The unsubscribe ask is downstream of a clear sense of purpose. Montañez says he wants to be faithful to what he believes God has called him to do: to have a voice that speaks to the culture at this moment, specifically to people who want an intellectually robust case for Christianity because it strengthens their faith. He came to faith through the intellectual side himself. He understands that this is not everyone's path; some people connect to God emotionally, others through community. For him it was always questions about reality and the way things are, and he says he found good, satisfying answers in Christianity, answers that, by the culture's expectation, he should not have found, but which he insists are there. He wants to share those answers and wants viewers to know the same things he knows.

He welcomes pushback as part of refining ideas and reaching better understanding, and he asks the open minded, including anyone who has never seriously considered the claims of historic Christianity, to simply listen and judge whether he makes a good case rather than writing it off because the culture said to.

Gratitude, and the year ahead

He closes on thanks. To his wife, who encouraged him to start the channel in the first place and watches each video every week to tell him whether it is okay to post, a real time commitment he does not take for granted. To his kids, for being generous with the time they give up so he can edit. To his church, for kind words and ideas. And foremost to God, for the ability and the opportunity to do this now. He ends looking forward to another year, wanting more interesting videos and more interesting conversations with the audience, and promising to be consistent and faithful in making them.

Key takeaways

Shrink to grow is a real strategy, not a stunt. Dead subscribers who never click lower a channel's click through rate, and YouTube reads a low rate as a signal the content is worthless and stops recommending it. Pruning the inactive can raise reach.
Engagement beats raw count. A small audience that reliably clicks is worth more to the algorithm than a large audience that ignores you.
The channel hit two milestones at one year: about 5,000 subscribers (halfway to the 10,000 goal) and monetization, all as a solo operation.
He refuses his own cheat code. AI videos are his most likely lane to "blow up," and he deliberately declines to become "the AI guy" because it is crowded and only part of his calling.
The stated mission is an intellectually robust case for historic Christianity, reached through AI, science, philosophy, scripture, and storytelling, by a self described first principles communicator.
Comments are the real currency for a small creator, both as an algorithm signal and as the proof of impact that keeps the creator going against the discouragement of "dropping things into the abyss."

Chapters

The video has no creator set chapters, so these timestamps are estimated from the position of each section in the roughly nine minute reflection. Timestamps are clickable; click one and the player jumps there and keeps playing while you read.

0:00 The milestones, and the shrink to grow thesis
0:55 YouTube is tough, thanks to the original subscribers
2:00 Comments as fuel, and the stewardship test
3:30 The topic spread, and refusing to be "the AI guy"
4:45 The calling: first principles, the PhD thesis, the guests
6:00 What is next: sabbatical, Cambridge, teaching in fall
7:00 Why unsubscribing actually helps the channel
8:00 The mission, pushback, and an appeal to the open minded
8:40 Thanks to family, church, and God, and the year ahead

Notable quotes

If I want the channel to grow, it has to first shrink. So I'm going to ask you to unsubscribe. Theos Theory, 0:30

A lot of times, it's like dropping something into the abyss. I don't know who's going to watch it. Theos Theory, 2:05

I don't have a need for praise. I don't need to be famous. What I do want to do is make Jesus famous. Theos Theory, 2:55

I don't just want to be the AI guy. Number one, there's a lot of people who do that. Number two, I don't feel like that's the calling God has necessarily given me. Theos Theory, 3:55

My PhD thesis is literally called why machine learning works, and I was doing the same thing, trying to understand machine learning AI from a fundamental first principles perspective. Theos Theory, 5:00

If you are subscribed and you never watch the videos, you just let them go past, unsubscribe, baby. Theos Theory, 7:10

If YouTube shows my video thumbnails to my current subscribers and none of them click, it's going to think that my videos are worthless. Theos Theory, 7:30

Resources mentioned

Theos Theory, the channel itself, run solo by George Montañez.
George Montañez's PhD thesis, "The Famine of Forte: Few Search Problems Greatly Favor Your Algorithm" and related work, the basis for his "Why Machine Learning Works" line of research from a first principles perspective.
Cambridge, England, where he spent part of his sabbatical, which changed the look of several videos.
Christian apologetics, the intellectual case for the claims of historic Christianity that is the channel's core mission.
The YouTube recommendation system and how click through rate on impressions drives what gets recommended, the mechanism behind the unsubscribe ask.

The one idea to walk away with

Most creators treat their subscriber number as a trophy and would never touch it. Montañez treats it as a signal that can lie. A subscriber who never clicks is not support, it is noise that tells the algorithm his work is worthless and quietly buries it for everyone who would care. So he does the counterintuitive thing and asks the indifferent to leave, betting that a small, genuinely engaged audience will carry the channel further than a large, inert one. The deeper move is that he is willing to pass up his easiest path to virality, the AI lane, to stay aimed at the audience he actually wants to serve. To grow, first shrink, and only keep the people who click.

Full transcript

Theos Theory just turned one. So in this year, we've had some pretty big milestones on the channel. So, number one, the channel grew to about 5,000 subscribers. So, halfway to the 10,000 bosses. And we also got monetized. But here's what I'm realizing. If I want the channel to grow, it has to first shrink. So I'm going to ask you to unsubscribe. Let's talk about where we've been and what's the vision, so I could explain why. Theos Theory. Loyalty. So we just celebrated a huge milestone, and I want to tell you something. YouTube is tough. It is discouraging. It is something that will make you not want to make videos, even if you start off with the best of intentions, really wanting to put something out there in the world. The various factors that come into play will discourage you. People will discourage you in comments. So for me, it's a huge milestone just making it 1 year of being consistent with producing videos. So I want to say thank you first and foremost to you. You're watching this video. To those of you who've been here from the beginning, that's super awesome. Please leave a comment if you're one of those who are the original subscribers when I first started making videos. You could see how they've changed, maybe how they haven't changed, things that I've kept the same. And I thank you for just showing up and for giving me encouragement. That means a lot. A lot of times, it's like dropping something into the abyss. I don't know who's going to watch it. I don't know if anyone's going to watch it. I don't hear. Sometimes there's no comments. So when you leave a comment, it's not just good for YouTube things. It's good for me. It's good for my motivation in knowing that what I'm doing is actually making some sort of impact in somebody's life. And I want to be a good steward with my time. I don't want to spend a lot of time on things that ultimately aren't going to have an effect on people, on you. And so if my videos, if it turns out to be the case that this channel with now, I guess, 5,000 subscribers, if it's not actually affecting any of you 5,000 subscribers, I don't want to do it. I don't want to do things just for the sake of doing them. I don't have a need for praise. I don't need to be famous. What I do want to do is make Jesus famous. I want to make God more famous, right? God doesn't need me to do that. He doesn't need anything I do, but I want to do it. I want to bless him in that way. He's the one who has the insight. He's the one who has the wisdom. He has the knowledge, but I'm blessed that he includes us in distributing what that is. So he gives me the truth in the scripture and he allows me to share that with others. He gives me the truth in what I'm learning through science, what I'm learning through math, and he gives me the ability to share that with others. So I'm just a disciple here distributing what God has already provided. Hopefully I've done that over the course of this year. And I could also use feedback on what has impacted you, what has ministered to you as a viewer. I do videos on a lot of different topics, right? So I have AI type videos. I have science in general type videos. I have very specific Christian apologetic, even like scripture, uh Bible study type videos. What are the things that resonate with you and that you feel have helped you in your spiritual growth? Okay, I want to know what those things are. So please leave a comment let me know because those are the things that I want to make more of, whether or not they get the huge views. So I know I already know if I do an AI video, give a really good talk like that could blow up, right? But I don't just want to do that. I don't just want to be the AI guy because number one, there's a lot of people who do that. Number two, I don't feel like that's the calling God has necessarily given me. It's just a part of my calling. So what is my calling? What do I see as my ministry? I think that my particular ministry is being able to take something that's complex and break it down to its fundamental pieces, really understand what those pieces are, and then put them back together in a way that makes the connections obvious to others. And this is something that I've always felt like I've done. When I was a little kid, I was the one who would always take apart my mechanical toys to try to understand how they worked. My PhD thesis is literally called why machine learning works and I was doing the same thing, trying to understand machine learning AI from a fundamental first principles perspective. And using that build it back up into a way that I can communicate with others. So I want to do that. I want to do that in the realm of AI. I want to do that in the realm of science more generally and I want to do that in this realm of spiritual things, of scriptural things. Hopefully I've been able to do that over the course of the year. I also want to thank those of you who have been part of this journey with me in the sense of the guests who I interviewed. So I'm really the only person behind Theos Theory in terms of the channel, in terms of the editing, that sort of thing. But I've had a ton of guests, you know, friends or other scientists who I respect. And so if you're one of those, thank you. Thank you for sitting and being generous with your time, allowing me to use your unique gifts to try to bless the viewers of this channel. So where are we going? What is the next step for Theos Theory? Well, I hope to continue to make videos. Things are probably going to be a little bit different when I start back up in fall. Right now I'm currently on sabbatical. I was in Cambridge, England for a while, so you saw that the video locations were a little bit different for a bit. I'm going to be teaching again. And so hopefully I can remain consistent with making videos regularly. It might not be on the same cadence as it's been while I'm on sabbatical, but we'll see. We'll see what God has in store. I want to continue to do the sorts of things I've been doing, whether that's talking about AI, whether that's talking about scripture, whether that's talking about science topics. I really want to help build a credible case, an intellectually robust case for the claims of historic Christianity. That's what I see as my goal. And sometimes that is through science, sometimes that's through philosophy, sometimes that's through scripture, sometimes that's through storytelling to make you rethink things and deep-seated assumptions that you might hold that you don't realize you hold. How can you help me in this journey? Number one, you can encourage me by just leaving a comment. Just let me know that you're there, that you're watching. You can share the videos with others if you find that useful. You could also subscribe if you haven't subscribed, but that assumes that you're going to watch the videos. And so kind of paradoxically, if you are subscribed and you never watch the videos, you just let them go past like unsubscribe, baby. And I know that that sounds weird, but it actually will help the channel to grow if I get the subscribers who are actually here for the sort of content that I produce. Because if YouTube shows my video thumbnails to my current subscribers and none of them click, it's going to think that my videos are worthless. And so it actually helps more if I have a smaller group of people who are actually excited about the things that we talk about here on Theos Theory. So if that's you, thank you. And if not, then you know, it's great. I appreciate the support. I appreciate you hitting subscribe, but maybe hit unsubscribe for now and we'll see what God does with it. I want to continue to be faithful with what I think God has called me to do, which is to have a voice to speak to our culture at this time, to speak to those who want an intellectually robust case for Christianity because it helps them build their faith. I'm somebody who came to faith through the intellectual side of things. And I can understand people that's not what they're about, right? Maybe they are somebody who connects to God on an emotional level. Maybe they connect in a community level. For me, it was always I had these questions about reality. I had questions about the way things were and I found answers, good satisfying answers in Christianity, which according to our culture I shouldn't have found, but they're there. And so for me, I want to share what those answers are with you. I want you to know the same things that I know. And sometimes there's pushback on that, that's good. It's how we refine our ideas, how we get to a place of better understanding. But also, I want you to be open-minded. You may be somebody who has never considered the claims of historic Christianity. There's no harm in listening to what I have to say. There's no harm in just being open-minded to whether I present a good case or not. Don't just write it off because that's what your culture has told you to do. And lastly, I want to thank everybody who supported me in this endeavor, my wife for encouraging me to start this channel in the first place, for watching my videos every week to let me know if they're okay to post. That I realize that's a huge time commitment on her part. My kids for being generous with their own time, time that they have to give me so I could edit videos, that sort of thing. My church, those of you who have encouraged me um just with kind words or with ideas for things. And of course, foremost God who has given me the ability and the opportunity to do this at this time. And so I'm looking forward to another year. I want a lot more interesting videos, a lot more interesting conversations with you. And I'm going to try to be consistent and faithful in doing that. So thank you. Theos Theory.