{{Short description|YouTube channel}} {{Redirect-distinguish|Dan Olson|Dan Olsen}} {{Infobox social media personality | name = Dan Olson | image = File:Dan Olson.jpg | caption = Olson in 2025 | birth_date = June {{birth based on age as of date | 9 | 1991}} | birth_place = Calgary, Alberta<ref name=":6" /> | education = Southern Alberta Institute of Technology<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dan Olson |url=https://lumaquarterly.com/contributors/contributors/dan-olson/ |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=Luma Quarterly |language=en-US}}</ref> | youtube_handle = @FoldingIdeas | years_active = 2010–present | youtube_genre = Video essay, Documentary | youtube_subscribers = 1.06 million | youtube_views = 127 million | stats_update = March 21, 2026 | module = {{Listen voice |name=Dan Olson |filename = Dan Olson voice introduction 2013.ogg |recorded = 2013 }} }} '''Folding Ideas''' is a YouTube channel created by Canadian documentarian '''Dan Olson''' (born June 1981 or 1982)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Olson |first=Dan |date=June 25, 2024 |title=Finished one of my most ambitious videos ever, finally saw Los Campesinos! in concert (on my birthday no less), already off to a great start on the next project, I've got Shadow of the Erdtree and Oxygen Not Included expansions to play, and a kitty is snoring in my lap. Been a pretty good week. |url=https://bsky.app/profile/foldablehuman.bsky.social/post/3kvrl35siqc2p |access-date=May 3, 2025 |website=Bluesky|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250127123405/https://bsky.app/profile/foldablehuman.bsky.social/post/3kvrl35siqc2p|archive-date=January 27, 2025}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Levinson |first=Eliza |date=2022-02-11 |title=Meet the Guy Who Went Viral for Explaining How NFTs Are a 'Poverty Trap' |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/meet-the-guy-who-went-viral-on-youtube-for-explaining-how-nfts-crypto-are-a-poverty-trap/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250523094208/https://www.vice.com/en/article/meet-the-guy-who-went-viral-on-youtube-for-explaining-how-nfts-crypto-are-a-poverty-trap/ |archive-date=2025-05-23 |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=VICE |language=en-US}}</ref> which covers topics including media criticism, conspiracies, and financial culture. Olson's work has been received positively by critics, with ''Line Goes Up – The Problem with NFTs'' as a noted work. Scholar Christina Wurst labeled Folding Ideas a part of LeftTube.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wurst |first=Christina |date=November 29, 2022 |title=Bread and Plots: Conspiracy Theories and the Rhetorical Style of Political Influencer Communities on YouTube |url=https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/88006/ssoar-mediacomm-2022-4-wurst-Bread_and_Plots_Conspiracy_Theories.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |journal=Media and Communication |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=213–223 |doi=10.17645/mac.v10i4.5807 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251127101138/https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/88006/ssoar-mediacomm-2022-4-wurst-Bread_and_Plots_Conspiracy_Theories.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |archive-date=November 27, 2025 |doi-access=free}}</ref>{{Rp|page=216}}
== Content == Olson published his first video in 2010, beginning as a pop culture YouTuber.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Schindel |first=Dan |date=2024-01-23 |title=Video Essays to Beat the January Blues |url=https://hyperallergic.com/867185/january-2024-video-essay-roundup/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250429081231/https://hyperallergic.com/867185/january-2024-video-essay-roundup/ |archive-date=2025-04-29 |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Hyperallergic |language=en-US}}</ref> He analyzed the way films, such as ''Triumph of the Will'' and ''Fight Club'', communicated certain moral values.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Plantinga |first=Carl |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BKLLEAAAQBAJ&dq=dan+olson+folding+ideas&pg=PA219 |title=Screen Stories and Moral Understanding: Interdisciplinary Perspectives |date=2023 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-766566-4 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=219}}<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hanich |first1=Julian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PHG-EAAAQBAJ&dq=dan+olson+folding+ideas&pg=PA125 |title=What Film Is Good For: On the Values of Spectatorship |last2=Rossouw |first2=Martin P. |date=2023-09-05 |publisher=Univ of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-38680-8 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=125}} In the videos "''Annihilation'' and Decoding Metaphor" and "The Thermian Argument", Olson criticized tendencies to focus on the literal elements of a creative work to the detriment of less literal elements like metaphor.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=McCrea |first=Aisling |date=2021-02-24 |title=Satanic Panics and the Death of Mythos |url=https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/02/satanic-panics-and-the-death-of-mythos |access-date=2025-04-29 |work=Current Affairs |language=en |issn=2471-2647}}</ref> ''Vox'' writer Emily St. James and ''Polygon'' writer Ben Kuchera praised "Folding Ideas - #GamerGate", a video where Olson analyzed the motives of the Gamergate movement.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kuchera |first=Ben |date=2014-12-30 |title=The year of GamerGate: The worst of gaming culture gets a movement |url=https://www.polygon.com/2014/12/30/7460777/gamergate-2014-just-the-worst |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250510074858/https://www.polygon.com/2014/12/30/7460777/gamergate-2014-just-the-worst |archive-date=2025-05-10 |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=Polygon |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=St. James |first=Emily |date=2014-10-21 |title=Here's a terrific video about the roots of #GamerGate |url=https://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/10/21/7030693/gamergate-video-misogyny |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251205012751/https://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/10/21/7030693/gamergate-video-misogyny |archive-date=2025-12-05 |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=Vox |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2018, Olson published a three-part series analyzing ''Fifty Shades'' franchise, where Olson argued that the films promoted unsafe kink practices and dynamics. ''Polygon'' writer Wil Williams included it in their list of the "best of the best" video essays, calling it "refreshingly kink-positive" and praising its analysis of the first film as "shockingly fair".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Wil |date=2021-06-01 |title=The essential video essays of YouTube history |url=https://www.polygon.com/22417320/best-video-essays-youtube-history |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250515164026/https://www.polygon.com/22417320/best-video-essays-youtube-history |archive-date=2025-05-15 |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=Polygon |language=en-US}}</ref>
Fellow YouTubers Doug Walker and James Rolfe were also the subjects of Folding Ideas videos. In his video reviewing Rolfe's work, Olson also reflected on his own position relative to Rolfe and why he felt the need to review Rolfe's work. Reviewer Jack Benjamin called its commentary "empathetic and insightful" and "exemplary to critics on YouTube and beyond".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Benjamin |first=Jack |date=2024-06-21 |title=I don't know Dan Olson: Folding Ideas and the introspection of cultural critique |url=https://indyfilmlibrary.com/2024/06/21/i-dont-know-dan-olson-folding-ideas-and-the-introspection-of-cultural-critique/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250429081230/https://indyfilmlibrary.com/2024/06/21/i-dont-know-dan-olson-folding-ideas-and-the-introspection-of-cultural-critique/ |archive-date=2025-04-29 |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Indy Film Library |language=en-US}}</ref>
In 2020, Olson published "In Search of a Flat Earth", where he performs an experiment at Lake Minnewanka showing the Earth's curvature before pivoting into the origins of flat Earth theories, linking them to QAnon-style conspiracies. Williams and Jef Rouner of Datebook noted the video's shots of the Canadian landscape as beautiful.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Wil |date=2020-12-30 |title=The best video essays of 2020 |url=https://www.polygon.com/22202828/best-video-essays-of-2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250429083734/https://www.polygon.com/22202828/best-video-essays-of-2020 |archive-date=2025-04-29 |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Polygon |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Rouner |first=Jef |date=April 9, 2021 |title=Five films that dig into conspiracy theories |url=https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/movies-tv/five-films-that-dig-into-conspiracy-theories |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250429081301/https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/movies-tv/five-films-that-dig-into-conspiracy-theories |archive-date=2025-04-29 |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Datebook {{!}} San Francisco Arts & Entertainment Guide |language=en-US}}</ref> Rouner compared the video to ''Q: Into the Storm'', calling Olson's video a "far more useful take".<ref name=":4" />
Olson has also covered financial culture.<ref name=":2" /> In 2022, Olson investigated Publishing.com, which provides a course that purportedly allows its students to earn passive income through the use of a ghostwriter. Olson argued that the books produced through this process had poor factual accuracy and gave the ghostwriters extremely low pay.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Grady |first=Constance |date=2024-04-16 |title=Amazon is filled with garbage ebooks. Here's how they get made. |url=https://www.vox.com/culture/24128560/amazon-trash-ebooks-mikkelsen-twins-ai-publishing-academy-scam |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250601090819/https://www.vox.com/culture/24128560/amazon-trash-ebooks-mikkelsen-twins-ai-publishing-academy-scam |archive-date=2025-06-01 |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=Vox |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Coletti |first=Andrew |date=2023-09-07 |title=Would You Trust AI to Help You Forage? |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ai-foraging-guides |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250424010521/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ai-foraging-guides |archive-date=2025-04-24 |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=Atlas Obscura |language=en}}</ref>
=== ''Line Goes Up – The Problem with NFTs'' === '''''Line Goes Up''''', Olson's most viewed work, criticized the utility of non-fungible tokens, decentralized autonomous organizations, and cryptocurrency.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite magazine |last=Chow |first=Andrew R. |date=2022-02-03 |title='The Problem With NFTs': A Crypto Expert Responds to a Viral Takedown |url=https://time.com/6144332/the-problem-with-nfts-video/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250513051436/https://time.com/6144332/the-problem-with-nfts-video/ |archive-date=2025-05-13 |access-date=2025-05-06 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gilbert |first=Ben |date=2022-02-18 |title=A viral YouTube takedown of NFTs has already clocked over 5 million views: Here are the biggest revelations |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/nft-takedown-documentary-youtube-cryptocurrency-scam-dan-olson-2022-2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250724100318/https://www.businessinsider.com/nft-takedown-documentary-youtube-cryptocurrency-scam-dan-olson-2022-2 |archive-date=2025-07-24 |access-date=2025-05-06 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}}</ref> The video was published to his YouTube channel on January 21, 2022.<ref name="line goes up">{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g |title=Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs |date=January 21, 2022 |last=Olson |first=Dan |type=Video |access-date=February 14, 2022}}</ref>
Olson traces the early history of Web3 through the 2008 Great Recession and the creation and early history of Bitcoin and Ethereum before reviewing concepts, technologies, and economics of cryptocurrency. Olson then covers the history and technologies behind NFTs while arguing that they mainly exist to bring more people into the cryptocurrency industry.<ref name=":02">{{Cite news |last=Newton |first=Casey |author-link=Casey Newton |date=January 28, 2022 |title=Three things Web3 should fix in 2022 |url=https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/28/22906010/web3-nft-internet-history-video-platformer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220201115434/https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/28/22906010/web3-nft-internet-history-video-platformer |archive-date=February 1, 2022 |access-date=February 2, 2022 |website=The Verge}}</ref> Olson criticizes the current general lack of quality in NFT art. In the latter half of the video, Olson examines the Crypto and NFT community while also criticizing blockchain games, the "play to earn" gaming business model (focusing on ''Axie Infinity'' in particular), and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). He concludes the video by arguing that the core of the Web3 movement is a "turf war" between the top 5% and 1%, and the market is based on a multi-level marketing style of pitch that if you "buy in now, you can be the next tech millionaire." He takes the stance that no matter how bad the current system is, NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and blockchains are the beginning of a worse system intent on making everything have a speculative price.
In an interview with ''Vice'', Olson stated he followed the rise of Bitcoin hearing claims that it would reach mass adoption, though after using it, he believed that cryptocurrency was not functional and that it was only viable because its price kept on increasing over time. Olson later came to believe that the history of cryptocurrency was a story about the evolution of fraud. He later became skeptical of new developments in crypto technology, viewing them as overpromising, and this drove feelings of frustration and anger that drove the creation of the video. Olson stated he started writing the video in April 2021, only to shelve it until the fall of 2021 because of rapid developments during this period, which made his written material quickly obsolete. The video was released in January 2022.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |last=Levinson |first=Eliza |date=February 11, 2022 |title=Meet the Guy Who Went Viral for Explaining How NFTs Are a Bullshit 'Poverty Trap' |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/meet-the-guy-who-went-viral-on-youtube-for-explaining-how-nfts-crypto-are-a-poverty-trap/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241125083859/https://www.vice.com/en/article/meet-the-guy-who-went-viral-on-youtube-for-explaining-how-nfts-crypto-are-a-poverty-trap/ |archive-date=November 25, 2024 |access-date=February 14, 2022 |website=Vice}}</ref>
==== Release and reception ==== {{As of|2026|May}}, the documentary had 18.3 million views with 443 thousand likes.<ref name="line goes up" /> After the video essay's release it trended on Twitter<ref name=":12" /> and several media outlets such as NPR and ''The Verge'' interviewed Olson for his expertise on NFTs and cryptocurrency.<ref>{{cite web |last=Martin |first=Michel |date=February 13, 2022 |title=Cryptocurrency expert slams NFT hype |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/02/13/1080210427/cryptocurrency-expert-slams-nft-hype |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220507090830/https://www.npr.org/2022/02/13/1080210427/cryptocurrency-expert-slams-nft-hype |archive-date=May 7, 2022 |access-date=May 28, 2022 |website=NPR}}</ref><ref name=":02" /> ''The Verge''{{'}}s Casey Newton noted "few of Olson's criticisms are entirely new, though the collective force of Olson's arguments is substantial."<ref name=":02" /> ''The New York Times'' calls it "a two-hour exegesis on the flaws with NFTs and crypto."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Roose |first=Kevin |date=March 18, 2022 |title=What are NFTs? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/18/technology/nft-guide.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002195638/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/18/technology/nft-guide.html |archive-date=October 2, 2022 |access-date=October 2, 2022 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
Two critics highlighted it in the 2022 ''Sight and Sound'' video essay poll. José Sarmiento said it was the best video essay of the year; Jason Mittell reviewed that it was prescient, comprehensive and "utterly captivating and convincing" but questioned whether its length was necessary.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lee |first1=Grace |last2=Trocan |first2=Irina |last3=Harris |first3=Cydnii Wilde |date=January 13, 2023 |title=The best video essays of 2022 |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/best-video-essays-2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231231132212/https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/best-video-essays-2022 |archive-date=December 31, 2023 |accessdate=December 31, 2023 |work=Sight and Sound |publisher=British Film Institute}}</ref> The following year, Olson's essay on a related topic—"The Future is a Dead Mall"—was nominated in the poll.<ref name="S&S">{{cite web |last1=Meadows |first1=Queline |last2=Trocan |first2=Irina |last3=Webb |first3=Will |date=December 19, 2023 |title=The best video essays of 2023 |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/polls/best-video-essays-2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231231123839/https://www.bfi.org.uk/polls/best-video-essays-2023 |archive-date=December 31, 2023 |accessdate=December 31, 2023 |work=Sight and Sound |publisher=British Film Institute}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
Category:YouTubers from Alberta Category:Living people Category:Video essayists Category:Date of birth missing (living people) Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Film critics Category:Video game critics