WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:07.359 I think Luke put it best at the roast a few years ago when he said, "Why the are you here?" 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:10.960 That's a two-part answer. I'm speaking today because of the recent community 00:00:08.639 --> 00:00:14.400 outcry demanding change. I'm here because I agree with the community. We 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:17.920 do have a lot of work to do. Before we talk about that, while I wish I was on 00:00:16.240 --> 00:00:21.279 better terms, I just want to say I'm very glad to meet you all. I have spent 00:00:19.760 --> 00:00:24.640 the last couple decades on the corporate side, but my educational background is 00:00:22.880 --> 00:00:28.240 in computer science. My first role in the tech industry was as a writer at 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:31.840 NASA. My history building gaming PCs goes even further back to when I built 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:36.239 Acceleron 300 A rig because everyone assured me it was guaranteed to 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:39.840 overclock to 450 MHz. I guess my trip didn't really get the memo. In any case, 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:43.120 it feels really good to be back on most days. I'm only 6 weeks into the job, but 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:48.160 in that time I've seen a lot. I've looked at some budgeting, some team building and operations, but my main 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:53.120 focus has been to be a fly on the wall and gain an understanding of what's going right and what's going wrong. 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:56.239 There's a lot of both. I've asked the team to unflinchingly address both the 00:00:54.800 --> 00:01:00.640 concerns that have been raised and how we intend to fix them with the money 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:05.600 we'll make from our sponsor. Just kidding. I was asked for 00:01:02.879 --> 00:01:09.760 unflinching and here it is. Lus is a human gas molecule. You've been telling 00:01:07.600 --> 00:01:14.560 him for years and I've been telling him for years. Staying relevant on YouTube 00:01:12.320 --> 00:01:18.640 is hard for everyone. But we aren't fighting for survival anymore and we 00:01:16.320 --> 00:01:22.240 don't need to run at this pace. In fact, in some ways, it's our efforts to keep 00:01:20.479 --> 00:01:26.479 doing more and keep doing better that have created our current situation. My 00:01:24.799 --> 00:01:31.200 background is in managing a pharmacy where the small details matter a lot. 00:01:28.960 --> 00:01:35.360 And basically, I agree with the community. So, I'm putting my foot down. 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:38.960 Effective immediately, all YouTube video production is on pause. And our teams 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:43.280 are going to be spending this entire next week focusing on long-term workflow 00:01:41.119 --> 00:01:47.600 changes to make our content better in a lasting way. This means for the first 00:01:45.360 --> 00:01:52.079 time in over 12 years, LTT will be missing not just one daily upload, but 00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:55.920 many. But improving to the degree that we want and need is going to take more 00:01:54.240 --> 00:01:59.280 than a week. So, I'll be working with Taran and Coen to manage our sponsor 00:01:57.600 --> 00:02:03.840 commitments and the financial hit of both this housekeeping week and a 00:02:01.600 --> 00:02:08.000 reduction in our LTT upload schedule, at least for now, while we get our house in 00:02:05.520 --> 00:02:11.200 order. But before anyone gets concerned that we're going to cut investments into 00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:15.040 the well-being of our personnel and our future capabilities, I can assure you 00:02:13.440 --> 00:02:19.200 that I've read the criticisms that we weren't willing to spend $500 to test a 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:23.200 product. And as the one that manages the finance, I can tell you that couldn't be 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:26.480 further from the truth. Lionus made a clear and egregious judgment error 00:02:24.879 --> 00:02:30.959 regarding retesting a product he felt was impractical. That was wrong, and 00:02:28.720 --> 00:02:34.879 I've told him so. He allowed his personal feelings on the matter to cloud 00:02:32.560 --> 00:02:38.239 his judgment. And I want to stress that our organization is committed to our 00:02:36.720 --> 00:02:42.959 ongoing investments in making our content better and we will do better as 00:02:40.640 --> 00:02:47.920 a team. Why don't I let our chief money spender take it from here? 00:02:44.640 --> 00:02:50.800 Hi, I'm Gary, head of Labs. First off, 00:02:47.920 --> 00:02:55.040 we've made some mistakes, too many. We're hoping that it's how we deal with 00:02:52.480 --> 00:02:59.760 it moving forward that will define who we are. And regardless, it's clear that 00:02:57.760 --> 00:03:03.360 we need to serve you better. So, our team will be spending our week 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:07.840 publishing living documents for our testing standards and opening them up to 00:03:05.920 --> 00:03:13.040 feedback from the community and our peers in the industry should they wish 00:03:10.239 --> 00:03:17.360 to participate. We will also task part of the team with going back through 00:03:14.640 --> 00:03:22.080 every video with Labs data to ensure accuracy, make full corrections, and if 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:28.480 there are any fundamental issues with the workflow design or results, pull or 00:03:24.959 --> 00:03:30.319 replace that video outright. I don't 00:03:28.480 --> 00:03:36.959 agree with every criticism that's been leveled at my team, but for my part, I 00:03:34.319 --> 00:03:42.319 need to own what we've done wrong and lay out our action plan for how to move 00:03:38.959 --> 00:03:44.720 forward. Before I do that, one point I 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:49.360 do need to address here is that Lionus misspoke when he said we retest for 00:03:46.799 --> 00:03:53.840 every video. We retest for every project. When we used the same data for 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:59.120 our RX7600 and RTX 4060Ti videos, we knew in 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:03.519 advance that these cards would release two days apart and designed a broad test 00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:08.159 suite that accounted for all the numbers we would need to make those two videos 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:13.680 and ran everything at once with no BIOS or driver changes. In fairness, Linus, 00:04:10.799 --> 00:04:19.600 the project to video ratio is normally 1 one, but the devil's in the details. 00:04:16.880 --> 00:04:24.240 Now, let's talk about what's coming. We will release our current markbench 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:26.400 harnesses as open source items so that 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:31.120 the community can audit the code around our test integrations. We will do a vlog 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:36.160 style video on flow plane about our testing from start to finish so you can 00:04:33.440 --> 00:04:42.080 see how the sausage is actually made. We will open a new community forum post 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:44.880 asking for transparency suggestions and 00:04:42.080 --> 00:04:49.440 more importantly we will follow up. We will start placing our testing project 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:54.720 number in the credits. So we are always open about the data set that was used 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:57.280 for the benchmark results and there is a 00:04:54.720 --> 00:05:02.320 lot more still to come ranging from test variation percentages per workbench to 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:07.520 each benchmark we utilized in the videos among others. It's going to be a busy 00:05:04.960 --> 00:05:11.360 week of not making videos. Same goes for us. I'm James, head of the 00:05:09.440 --> 00:05:15.199 writing department. We are extremely grateful for everything the lab has done 00:05:13.039 --> 00:05:19.360 and continues to do to make our jobs easier. But the actual testing is not 00:05:17.919 --> 00:05:24.080 the biggest source of our recent struggles. It's the human factor. There 00:05:22.320 --> 00:05:28.080 have been times when an internal video review caught an incorrect graph, 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:33.840 resulting in new versions of the graph being created only for those new graphs 00:05:30.880 --> 00:05:38.560 to not be put in the video. Just about every error that has appeared 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:42.800 in a video in the past year has directly resulted in a process change designed to 00:05:41.039 --> 00:05:47.039 prevent that specific issue from ever happening again. But this kind of 00:05:44.880 --> 00:05:51.520 problem pops up, create a new process, whack-a-mole, isn't working. We'll be 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:55.520 using our time to take feedback from our team on all of our processes and comb 00:05:53.840 --> 00:05:59.039 through all of our pending projects for areas where we can improve as we move 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:04.160 forward with our reduced upload schedule. You'll see some of these videos go up during our time off. We 00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:08.000 already have multiple videos that are scheduled for release, but my main 00:06:06.080 --> 00:06:11.680 message to the team is that we want to spend this time working on interdep 00:06:09.440 --> 00:06:16.880 department communication and cleaning up our house. What we won't be doing is 00:06:14.319 --> 00:06:19.840 sanitizing things too much. We know that some of our best videos are centered 00:06:18.400 --> 00:06:24.240 around Lionus and other members of the team just goofing around with tech and 00:06:21.840 --> 00:06:29.360 having fun. That is not going to stop, but others like GPU and CPU releases 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:33.520 certainly require all the rigor we can muster. Those launches don't happen as 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:38.240 often these days, so it will take some time before you see the full payoff of 00:06:35.919 --> 00:06:42.560 our continuous improvement, but it has already started happening. Not only did 00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:48.240 the community love our 4060 review, but our team found it less stressful to put 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:50.000 out. Have we had a flawless victory? No. 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:54.319 But since these last reviews, we've onboarded a dedicated visualization 00:06:52.080 --> 00:06:58.080 person whose full-time job it is to create graphs that are correct, 00:06:55.840 --> 00:07:01.759 digestible, and accessible. We've done serious development on our automatic 00:06:59.840 --> 00:07:06.560 specs database thing so that our visualizations pull the correct info in 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:10.479 every time. And we'll soon be announcing the details of a new crowdsourced 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:14.560 factchecking system for both LT and TechQuiki so that our contents 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:19.039 correctness satisfies even our most discerning community members. 00:07:16.479 --> 00:07:22.960 I'm Ed, a head of our production team. We have some of the most comprehensive 00:07:20.880 --> 00:07:26.960 documentation and processes in the company. From automations to keep 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:31.680 project information accurate to communication procedures to standards 00:07:29.440 --> 00:07:35.360 for how loud videos can be. Those systems have helped with the video edit 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:38.960 side of things, but I've seen some examples where we've failed to see the 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:43.680 forest for the trees and allowed well-edited but erroneous content to 00:07:41.520 --> 00:07:47.599 slip through the cracks. So, for our part, we'll be spending our time looking 00:07:45.520 --> 00:07:52.080 at how we can improve communication to help the team address anything that 00:07:49.039 --> 00:07:54.000 seems off as soon as possible. A 00:07:52.080 --> 00:07:58.400 personal task for me will be putting the finishing touches on some cool ways we 00:07:56.080 --> 00:08:02.879 can make small edits that avoid the slap dash text on screen corrections whenever 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:07.840 possible. As for how we catch those bugs, that's not my department, so I'm 00:08:05.919 --> 00:08:12.879 throwing it over to Nick. Hold on, hold on. I'm mostly on the 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:17.120 product side. ltstore.com. What? Somebody had to say it. But the 00:08:15.039 --> 00:08:22.400 theme of today's video is transparency and accountability. You might not see me 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:26.879 NVIDIA credits, but I still serve as a last line of defense in reviewing most 00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:31.759 LT videos before they are published. I typically check for security links and 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:34.880 inappropriate or NSFW jokes, but there are times when I catch a factual error 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:39.200 or a weird graph that doesn't really tell the full story. To be clear, we 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:43.360 also have checks for technical aspects from our writing team and in some cases 00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:47.600 the lab. But our processes for ensuring those checks happen and following up 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:52.480 these findings haven't been perfect and our corrections are often made quickly. 00:08:49.920 --> 00:08:55.760 So while we take this time to reflect, I'll be focused on helping build a set 00:08:54.160 --> 00:08:59.360 of guidelines for our pre-release reviews and trying to set up a system 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:04.640 that allows our team to take a finer look at every aspect of our videos every 00:09:01.920 --> 00:09:08.000 single time. And maybe with time, everyone here will be so aligned with 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:11.440 our mission that my input is no longer needed. And I can focus my full 00:09:09.680 --> 00:09:16.480 attention on making little widgets that you don't need, but definitely want, 00:09:13.760 --> 00:09:19.680 like this retro themed screwdriver. Errors in our supporting assets like 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:23.680 tables and grass chip away our credibility. So continuing to improve 00:09:21.839 --> 00:09:27.120 our process issues to minimize errors will remain a top priority under my 00:09:25.040 --> 00:09:31.760 leadership. I guarantee there will be future mistakes. We are human. But next 00:09:29.920 --> 00:09:34.880 week, we'll be creating and publishing a clear policy for correction handling. 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:40.160 And I'll be working with the community management team to be prompt and transparent with corrections that are as 00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:42.959 visible as possible. I think what happened with the punish mouse is a 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:46.560 perfect example of the kind of breakdown that should never happen again. Last 00:09:44.800 --> 00:09:49.440 Friday, Lionus was notified of the issue a couple hours before the wine show 00:09:48.160 --> 00:09:54.080 where he discussed the errors of the video and ShortCircuit and apologized unequivocally. But while we recut the 00:09:52.880 --> 00:09:59.040 video to remove the misleading information, no one closed the loop and dealt with a ton-deaf and frankly 00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:02.160 unapologetic correction in the pin comment. Our mission is to get the 00:10:00.640 --> 00:10:07.600 information to the community, which includes having a degree of humility about our mistakes, even if it makes us 00:10:05.680 --> 00:10:11.040 look less than perfect. The other side of my job as CEO is keeping the lights 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:14.720 on, ensuring our staff is well taken care of, and putting dollars into some 00:10:12.640 --> 00:10:18.240 fun stuff like watering and cooling a PC with a pool. And that's through 00:10:16.160 --> 00:10:22.000 sponsorships, affiliate programs, paid subscriptions, or merchandise sales. One 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:25.120 thing that's not negotiable with me, ownership or the business team on 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:29.279 sponsored content is we need to maintain control of the creative. I was on a call 00:10:26.800 --> 00:10:32.240 with a potential partner recently. They asked for a cream puff piece. What's the 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:35.680 cream puff piece? That's when they're like, "How much money do we have to give 00:10:33.839 --> 00:10:39.360 you just so that you tell the story that we want?" Before I can jump in and say 00:10:37.760 --> 00:10:43.440 anything, just because I'm in shock at this point in time, Nick turns over and 00:10:40.880 --> 00:10:48.399 says, "No, absolutely not." I started laughing a little bit. I just said, 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:50.079 "Hey, Nick, there's probably a more um a 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:53.839 better way to handle that." um where we could just uh soften up a little bit. 00:10:51.680 --> 00:10:56.959 But the truth is, I don't disagree with them. We've had many rocky periods of 00:10:55.600 --> 00:11:00.240 sponsors where they're not happy with the content or the conclusions and 00:10:58.800 --> 00:11:04.320 because they couldn't affect the editori editorial bends. This has and continues 00:11:02.560 --> 00:11:07.839 to have significant negative impacts on revenue. I think we're pretty 00:11:05.760 --> 00:11:10.800 transparent on how, where, and why we make our money. And one of our strategic 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:14.240 pillars is to make sure that we can maintain editorial independence. This 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:18.240 has included on multiple occasions saying goodbye and good luck to sponsors 00:11:16.640 --> 00:11:21.839 ranging from thousands of dollars a year to hundreds of thousands of dollars a 00:11:19.839 --> 00:11:25.279 year over remaining independent and doing right by the LT community. While 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:29.680 we were deciding if we were a good fit for each other, I was very pleased to see the integrity of the team here based 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:33.760 on the deals that these guys have walked away from. I think one thing that we've 00:11:32.160 --> 00:11:36.480 done a poor job of, however, is publishing these standards where a 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:41.200 community can see them. That's something I'll be improving upon. And so will I. I'm Colton, the head of 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:45.440 business development, which includes departments like HR, procurement, 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:49.040 logistics, events, and sales and marketing. Sponsorships specifically are 00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:52.240 an area where Lionus has more limited oversight than he used to, and in my 00:11:50.640 --> 00:11:55.920 opinion, we haven't done a great job conveying that. It's up to my team to 00:11:54.079 --> 00:11:59.600 vet incoming sponsor requests and deal with issues that you, our viewers, have 00:11:57.760 --> 00:12:04.240 with our brand partners. One way we do that is using our LMG sponsor discussion 00:12:02.079 --> 00:12:07.920 sub forum online as techtips.com to create a dialogue between our business 00:12:05.839 --> 00:12:10.800 team and the community. It's obvious from some of the issues we're seeing 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:14.800 that we need to be more communicative when we're actively working with brands 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:18.639 to rectify issues. Most content creators can attest to the fact that brands 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:23.279 sometimes take forever to respond to messages or address problems. A perfect 00:12:21.040 --> 00:12:26.880 example is Anchor, not removing Linus tech tips from their Amazon pages, even 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:30.720 though we've been asking to be removed since our partnership with them ended 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:34.320 months ago. We work hard to push for accountability, but we also understand 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:38.959 that these businesses are either large with lots of moving parts or small with 00:12:36.800 --> 00:12:42.720 limited resources. So things can take time, but you shouldn't be waiting in 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:47.200 the dark. It's critical for us to get the sponsorship piece right because real 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:50.639 talk, you guys are the boss. If you're not happy with brands we work with, you 00:12:49.040 --> 00:12:54.240 won't engage with our sponsors and suddenly we won't be able to support all 00:12:52.560 --> 00:12:58.240 the cool stuff we're currently able to do. Moving forward then, you can expect 00:12:56.480 --> 00:13:01.440 weekly updates in the sub forum on issues that need addressing, and we'll 00:12:59.920 --> 00:13:05.200 also include an up-to-date list of product verticals that are off limits 00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:09.360 for our channels. We hope this will enable us to make better calls 00:13:06.880 --> 00:13:12.959 consistently from here on out, all while maintaining our longtime commitment to 00:13:10.959 --> 00:13:17.680 transparency. Finally, I want to apologize to Bill Labs for auctioning 00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:19.440 off their monoblock at LTX 2023. Our 00:13:17.680 --> 00:13:23.680 processes failed when I was selecting items to include in the charity auction. 00:13:21.760 --> 00:13:26.959 But then it was compounded because when the issue was brought up to me via 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:31.120 email, even though I replied two hours later apologizing and offering to pay 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:35.760 for the component, I forgot to actually include our contact in that email. So it 00:13:33.760 --> 00:13:40.800 went to our procurement team instead of Bill Labs. Side note, that same team, 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:46.000 God bless them, didn't ask our event team who won the silent auction items 00:13:42.959 --> 00:13:47.839 and proceeded to email everyone asking, 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:52.480 "We don't need any of that. Certainly not for tax purposes. I clearly need to 00:13:49.920 --> 00:13:56.800 spend some of my week training the team unless I actually get fired for real 00:13:54.079 --> 00:14:00.240 this time." Moving forward, we'll be implementing a more rigid process for 00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:04.079 separating items that need to go back and which ones we'll be holding on to 00:14:01.920 --> 00:14:07.920 for future testing. This might ring a little hollow coming from one half of 00:14:06.160 --> 00:14:13.839 the Wanchow team that brought you Trust Me Bro in the privateeering incident 00:14:10.320 --> 00:14:16.079 among others, but we need to be better 00:14:13.839 --> 00:14:20.320 about our communication. Now, I have no intention to like kill the silly humor 00:14:18.079 --> 00:14:25.199 or be less open with people. I don't want anything to be less fun, but we do 00:14:22.959 --> 00:14:29.360 need to be respectful and conscious of the impact of our words. We should be 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:33.600 proud of the work that we do, but we shouldn't negatively compare ourselves 00:14:31.120 --> 00:14:37.120 to our fellow tech reviewers. When issuing corrections, we need to 00:14:35.040 --> 00:14:41.760 apologize. We need to respect people's time and their money. I said after the 00:14:39.680 --> 00:14:46.720 last round of this that you don't win by screaming loudly, or drama hard. You win 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:52.240 by fixing problems, improving, and becoming a hard target. We're still up a 00:14:49.920 --> 00:14:58.240 lot, and we need to own that, fix it, and move on. Not be defensive or sherk 00:14:54.959 --> 00:14:59.839 blame. That being said, I'm not really 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:04.880 on the production side of things these days. What my teams and I are working 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:10.800 hard on is to support the other teams in other ways. Reintegrating into LMG has 00:15:07.839 --> 00:15:14.639 been somewhat terrifying. One of my team's jobs is to take over management 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:19.760 of the infrastructure. And while I have brought an experienced team member into 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:21.680 the fold, it needs a lot of work. So 00:15:19.760 --> 00:15:26.399 far, we've mostly just been focused on documenting what we even have. And most 00:15:24.160 --> 00:15:31.519 of our initial steps beyond that will be improving overall stability rather than 00:15:28.959 --> 00:15:35.600 flashy video worthy projects. Any production interruptions due to shoddy 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:41.760 infrastructure additional burden to the other teams and our goal is 69s. 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:45.839 We will also continue to maintain and develop our inventory system which with 00:15:43.839 --> 00:15:51.279 better processes should be able to help keep things like billet's prototype from 00:15:47.760 --> 00:15:53.279 being mishandled, misplaced, and misused 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:56.800 in the future. And the foundational work we're doing on reliable data management 00:15:54.959 --> 00:16:01.920 and storage should enable teams like the editors and the engineering folks in the 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:07.120 lab to move faster and more confidently with lower risk of errors thanks to new 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:11.519 tools like our specs database. Among my other unmentioned and unrelated 00:16:08.959 --> 00:16:17.279 responsibilities is keeping Lionus from driving off various cliffs, which I have 00:16:14.160 --> 00:16:19.279 failed at a number of times. 00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:26.639 And let's face it, he's going to fail again. Hey, it's me. I'm chief vision 00:16:23.680 --> 00:16:30.079 officer now, but realistically I'm not going to be able to hide behind my 00:16:27.920 --> 00:16:34.240 recent demotion here. I was the one at the head of the company for each and 00:16:32.079 --> 00:16:39.279 every mistake that our community has rightly brought to our attention. And 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:45.040 once again, I made things worse by allowing myself to respond emotionally. 00:16:41.920 --> 00:16:47.440 It's honestly really hard when people 00:16:45.040 --> 00:16:52.160 take an internal process error and then they run that all the way to Lionus is a 00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:56.480 thief and wants to auction someone else's intellectual property to the 00:16:53.759 --> 00:17:00.959 highest bidder or accuses me of trying to brush something under the rug just 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:06.959 because I do think it's important to get all the details before declaring me to 00:17:03.279 --> 00:17:08.720 be a lowown liar straight up piece of we 00:17:06.959 --> 00:17:13.760 were slow shipping back the GPU that Billet Lab sent us. There's no way 00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:15.839 around it. That's our bad. But the delay 00:17:13.760 --> 00:17:22.000 in communication, the one that prompted the post that you guys just saw, it was 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:23.919 less than two business days. The second 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:29.360 that I was made aware of the situation on the 14th. I emailed Billet Labs and I 00:17:27.120 --> 00:17:34.400 explained what happened. I even included Colton's attempt at apologizing and 00:17:31.760 --> 00:17:38.960 offering no questions asked full compensation for their stated value of 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:43.360 the product which happened on the 10th before we were under any pressure to do 00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:48.080 so and without Colton even bothering to check with me or Ivonne before just 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:52.480 saying go for it. He knows that our internal policy is to do the right 00:17:49.679 --> 00:17:57.360 thing. So he tried. Bless him. I guess his job is 00:17:54.640 --> 00:18:01.200 safe for another day. And I I'm sorry. I guess I've actually gotten a little bit 00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:06.080 emotional here again. So, I'm going to stop there. Um because whatever is being 00:18:04.320 --> 00:18:12.000 said about me and whatever is being said about the team should never have allowed 00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:14.880 my feelings to distract from any valid 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:20.080 criticism of our work. My decision, for example, to not bother retesting the 00:18:17.280 --> 00:18:25.840 monoblock, that was obviously wrong, and my lame response on the forum was a huge 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:32.160 and unnecessary blunder. I owe you guys better and I'm sorry for my part. First, 00:18:30.880 --> 00:18:37.200 I'm going to be working through the other members of the exec team for any 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:40.880 crisis communication moving forward. And second, I'm going to spend my week 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:44.799 working with the other teams to develop a system of processes that will help our 00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:48.880 company fulfill my vision of being a world-class tech media organization. I'm 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:53.840 also going to be spending my week just refocusing guys on what matters most, 00:18:51.600 --> 00:18:58.559 which is bringing you guys the best damn content that we can make. It's been over 00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:05.520 10 years. Good lord, it's been almost 15. Um, but I still love tech. I love my 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:09.200 team and even though our relationship's a little rocky right now, I love this 00:19:07.919 --> 00:19:14.160 community and everything that it stands for. None of that has changed and none 00:19:11.760 --> 00:19:18.000 of it is going to. During my interview, one line from Linus that stood out to me 00:19:15.840 --> 00:19:21.280 was, "I need somebody to come in who I know will be respectful in my life's 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:24.880 work." That's when the gravity is asking for Don and me for the first time. I'm 00:19:23.360 --> 00:19:28.880 by no means influenced through our social media guy, but suddenly I'm 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:34.240 accountable not only to Linus and Avon and the entire staff at LMG, but most 00:19:31.520 --> 00:19:37.120 importantly to the entire LMG audience. I'm fortunate to be inheriting a 00:19:35.679 --> 00:19:40.960 wonderful team that is passionate and has a ton of energy who shares the same 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:44.240 goal. We celebrate our wins together and when we make mistakes, we also share the 00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:47.440 responsibility. I'll be coaching the team on the kinds of deep state 00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:51.919 corporate stuff that I think I'm reasonably good at. Budgeting, team 00:19:49.919 --> 00:19:55.919 building, relationship management, business development, operational 00:19:53.520 --> 00:19:59.760 processes, all things I consider to be essential by skills rather than the 00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:03.120 tactics of some sort of weird Illuminati conspiracy. We need to be a more 00:20:01.600 --> 00:20:08.480 welloiled machine with better accountability as we've gotten more complicated internally with how 00:20:05.919 --> 00:20:11.360 technical writing editing teams all have to coordinate. There are still going to 00:20:09.840 --> 00:20:15.520 be deadlines, due dates, and time limited goals that we still need to 00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:19.440 drive towards, but the how of all this obviously needs more polish. I planned 00:20:17.679 --> 00:20:23.840 these topics to be covered in internal conversations over the coming weeks, but 00:20:21.520 --> 00:20:26.960 instead I'm talking to you about it during this on the job experience of 00:20:25.679 --> 00:20:30.320 what it's like to work at a YouTube company. For all our award warts, the 00:20:28.960 --> 00:20:34.320 team has worked hard to build up trust in the community and share the joy and 00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:37.039 the passion that we all have for tech. So, I do not take for granted the 00:20:35.840 --> 00:20:42.080 responsibility and stewardship that comes along with this position and I welcome continued constructive feedback. 00:20:40.880 --> 00:20:48.240 Thank you for all for holding us accountable. I feel ready for the challenge and ready for this message 00:20:45.919 --> 00:20:53.120 from our sponsor. Just kidding again. But Dbrand did 00:20:50.960 --> 00:20:53.120 offer.