For a creative, the algorithm is the greatest modern friend. I have for years been introduced to interesting ideas due to YouTube suggesting a video essay on a topic related to my current obsessions. The X algorithm is now quite good too at paying attention to what I like, and it can be shaped pretty easily by clicking the like button with some discipline. I do not use TikTok or YT shorts that much, but there they also work reasonably well. Given that what matters most is a collection of relevant references, the way to get such collections for as many relevant topics as possible is having a well-tuned algorithm that's constantly showing you interesting things. I'm currently interested in music theory, so YouTube regularly surfaces videos such as the one below to me, and that's a good thing.

The average person may be one-shot by the algorithm, but the creative must be supercharged by it!