{"video_id":"fp_51PUkfHHTG","title":"Meet the Team - James Strieb | Exec Week","channel":"FP Exclusives","show":"FP Exclusives","published_at":"2025-01-27T21:19:00.015Z","duration_s":1973,"segments":[{"start_s":0.0,"end_s":4.1370000000000005,"text":"James: Welcome to Exec Week; I'm James and this is my Meet the Team. 2 00:00:04.137 --> 00:00:05.872 man this is so corporate, I'm in a call pod. 3 00:00:05.872 --> 00:00:06.706 Sammy: Hahahahaha. 4 00:00:06.706 --> 00:00:08.274 James: That's Exec Week Babyyyy. 5 00:00:09.509 --> 00:00:13.480 Sammy: Alright, before we start James, you're gonna give us two truths and a lie. 6 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:15.515 James: Two truths and a lie, okay I prepared this. 7 00:00:15.615 --> 00:00:20.854 James: I used to be in the army, I was once stabbed in Mexico City, I'm a jujitsu blue belt. 8 00:00:21.021 --> 00:00:22.489 Sammy: I never heard the second one, that's crazy. 9 00:00:22.589 --> 00:00:24.691 Sammy: Okay so we'll start with the first question here, which I totally- 10 00:00:24.691 --> 00:00:26.292 James: Wait that's it? I just say those and then- 11 00:00:26.426 --> 00:00:28.795 Sammy: And then at the end we'll, we'll go through it at the end, yeah. 12 00:00:29.129 --> 00:00:30.864 Sammy: So I guess the first question is who are you? 13 00:00:31.431 --> 00:00:33.133 James: Who am I? Geez what a question. 14 00:00:33.166 --> 00:00:33.800 Sammy: Hahaha. 15 00:00:33.900 --> 00:00:37.937 James: It's changed since my tenure here, a lot has changed my life since I started here. 16 00:00:37.971 --> 00:00:43.109 I was hired as a writer, and then from there I ended up becoming the writer supervisor 17 00:00:43.143 --> 00:00:47.814 and then I joined the Exec team when that became a thing, and now I'm head of writing? 18 00:00:49.249 --> 00:00:54.587 And so I, I'm kind of like the creative director for all the different channels, 19 00:00:54.854 --> 00:00:59.426 all the creative stuff we do; the different channels, social media, that stuff. 20 00:00:59.426 --> 00:01:04.297 I almost got fired one time uh in the early days by Linus, 21 00:01:04.297 --> 00:01:09.903 because I was writing a review of a underwater GoPro mic, I think it was a Sennheiser mic? 22 00:01:10.003 --> 00:01:13.807 And Linus told me to go to swimming pool and get some shots underwater, 23 00:01:13.807 --> 00:01:16.443 and I was like that's boring and stupid, I'm gonna go to the ocean! 24 00:01:16.643 --> 00:01:18.478 Past James: Aaaaaaaaah! 25 00:01:18.478 --> 00:01:20.947 James: So me and Taran Van Hemert went to white rock, 26 00:01:21.014 --> 00:01:24.217 and I swam around and splashed around in the water, and uh 27 00:01:24.250 --> 00:01:28.321 almost none of that footage got used, because it was dark and murky under the water 28 00:01:28.321 --> 00:01:29.622 James: and you couldn't really see clearly. 29 00:01:29.656 --> 00:01:30.423 Sammy: Hahahahaha. 30 00:01:30.423 --> 00:01:34.160 James: So then I had to go with Linus, so we had to change the whole shoot schedule; 31 00:01:34.160 --> 00:01:38.064 I had to go with Linus in the morning to a leisure center pool and get more footage, 32 00:01:38.064 --> 00:01:42.435 and he was like \"when I tell you to do something, it's for a specific reason\", 33 00:01:43.603 --> 00:01:47.540 because he knew a lot more about making videos than me, and that was almost it. 34 00:01:47.574 --> 00:01:49.576 If I screw up like that again I probably would have been gone, 35 00:01:49.676 --> 00:01:53.480 in which case I wouldn't have become the writing supervisor a couple years later 36 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:56.516 and then eventually head of writing on the exec team like I am now. 37 00:01:56.516 --> 00:01:57.584 It's been almost eight years! 38 00:01:57.650 --> 00:01:58.518 Sammy: Eight years? 39 00:01:58.585 --> 00:01:59.986 James: Yeah I'm coming up on eight in february. 40 00:02:00.153 --> 00:02:01.020 Sammy: Oh my goodness, that's a long time. 41 00:02:01.154 --> 00:02:02.989 Sammy: So what does head writing entail? I guess. 42 00:02:03.056 --> 00:02:06.426 James: So what do I do here, it's kind of a tough question because it's transitioning. 43 00:02:07.627 --> 00:02:10.363 I'm hoping to offload a lot of the stuff I do because 44 00:02:10.363 --> 00:02:12.765 a lot of the stuff I do is really kind of supervisory stuff; 45 00:02:12.765 --> 00:02:17.337 and we have a couple positions starting so that I won't have to make the shooting schedule 46 00:02:17.337 --> 00:02:22.008 every day and every week, and things like that; but at a high level what I do is 47 00:02:22.675 --> 00:02:25.612 help determine the direction of like the kinds of content we make, 48 00:02:25.612 --> 00:02:28.481 prioritize with a marquee releases that are going to be in a given year, 49 00:02:28.481 --> 00:02:30.817 like are we going to do a Scrapyard Wars this summer? Are we can do- 50 00:02:30.817 --> 00:02:33.620 What are we doing for April Fools? What are we doing for Secret Shopper? Etc. 51 00:02:33.620 --> 00:02:38.625 On a video to video basis, I help out, I have a particular knack with packaging, 52 00:02:38.625 --> 00:02:44.564 like titles and thumbnails and intros, help the writers make sure that 53 00:02:45.098 --> 00:02:49.235 they're ready for their next Linus checkpoint, like they've done all the steps 54 00:02:49.235 --> 00:02:53.907 and what they're bringing in is quite good; so that we minimize the Linus time used; 55 00:02:53.907 --> 00:02:59.179 and then also help other kind of directions, like how many videos are we making at CES? 56 00:02:59.179 --> 00:03:02.549 And who's coming to CES? Things like that. 57 00:03:02.749 --> 00:03:04.217 Sammy: What hobbies are you interested in? 58 00:03:04.217 --> 00:03:04.717 James: Hobbies. 59 00:03:04.717 --> 00:03:05.752 Sammy: Yeah, that's not writing. 60 00:03:05.752 --> 00:03:09.189 James: Non writing hobbies, well it's actually you shouldn’t say that because like a lot of- 61 00:03:09.189 --> 00:03:11.524 A lot of people don't write when they go home, 62 00:03:11.524 --> 00:03:13.860 but I did have a hobby for a couple years of screen writing, 63 00:03:13.893 --> 00:03:17.830 I wrote a spec screenplay and started specking out like a series; 64 00:03:17.830 --> 00:03:21.167 but anyways, didn't really go at very many places. 65 00:03:21.201 --> 00:03:24.470 That was actually around the time that I became an executive, 66 00:03:24.470 --> 00:03:30.376 and then I just focused on work more, but my non writing hobbies now are jujitsu; 67 00:03:30.376 --> 00:03:32.345 I do that twice a week, I've been doing that for like, 68 00:03:33.780 --> 00:03:39.152 like five years but injuries and like a year off pandemic a bunch of things in between there. 69 00:03:39.552 --> 00:03:42.355 I have been playing guitar more recently. 70 00:03:42.889 --> 00:03:44.057 Sammy: Oh that's cool. 71 00:03:44.057 --> 00:03:46.459 James: Technically I've been playing guitar for like over 10 years now? 72 00:03:46.526 --> 00:03:51.164 But probably not playing it for more time in there than actually playing it. 73 00:03:51.197 --> 00:03:53.533 I'm at the point now where I was like I picked it up again; I'm like 74 00:03:53.533 --> 00:03:57.270 It's been so long that my fingers are like discovering songs I used to know how to play. 75 00:03:57.604 --> 00:04:01.708 Um, I haven't discovered them all again, and I definitely haven't learned anything new. 76 00:04:01.708 --> 00:04:04.577 I bought a house a year and a half ago and so it's from 1980, 77 00:04:04.577 --> 00:04:07.647 so I have to do a lot of renovations and I do them myself, 78 00:04:08.748 --> 00:04:12.585 which was new to me but that's very fun. 79 00:04:12.585 --> 00:04:16.155 Basically I built a sauna like a year and a half ago? Two years ago? 80 00:04:16.155 --> 00:04:21.394 And I had never really done any DIY stuff or woodworking or construction stuff before that 81 00:04:21.394 --> 00:04:25.098 and I learned a lot from that and it kind of emboldened me to 82 00:04:25.098 --> 00:04:28.401 when I was going to be moving into this house to just think well 83 00:04:28.401 --> 00:04:31.137 why not look on YouTube to see how to do that thing? 84 00:04:31.137 --> 00:04:33.439 Instead of just automatically hiring someone to do it. 85 00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:35.341 And it turns out you know, little by little you can do almost everything, 86 00:04:35.341 --> 00:04:37.677 And it turns out you know, little by little you can do almost everything, 87 00:04:37.844 --> 00:04:41.214 including electrical, and I'm not dead yet. 88 00:04:41.314 --> 00:04:42.115 Sammy: Hahahahaha. 89 00:04:42.315 --> 00:04:43.283 James: I could be dead soon though. 90 00:04:43.383 --> 00:04:46.819 A lot of my spare time is that kind of stuff, and also just I have children 91 00:04:46.819 --> 00:04:51.824 so taking care of my kids and trying to teach them how to read, and crap like that. 92 00:04:51.824 --> 00:04:51.858 Sammy: How- Do you use the sauna often now? Or is it- 93 00:04:51.858 --> 00:04:53.526 Sammy: How- Do you use the sauna often now? Or is it- 94 00:04:53.693 --> 00:04:54.093 James: Oh. 95 00:04:54.193 --> 00:04:56.162 Sammy: Once you built it you're like I don't want to use it as much? 96 00:04:56.296 --> 00:05:00.767 James: Oh, I love sauna but I don't have a sauna at my house, it was built somewhere else. 97 00:05:00.867 --> 00:05:01.467 Sammy: Oh. 98 00:05:01.467 --> 00:05:02.869 James: So I don't get to go that often. 99 00:05:02.869 --> 00:05:07.774 James: In theory I go to the gym every weekend? And to lift weights and then go to the sauna; 100 00:05:07.807 --> 00:05:12.779 but it pretty much only happens like once a month and usually the weights don't get lifted. 101 00:05:14.113 --> 00:05:16.916 Sammy: What made you interested in the writing role at Linus Media Group. 102 00:05:17.050 --> 00:05:20.653 James: It was a weird journey, I never saw myself as a writer when I was a student; 103 00:05:20.753 --> 00:05:24.424 I just took english as like an elective during my degree, 104 00:05:24.557 --> 00:05:27.160 and I had an english professor who said you could be a writer you know? 105 00:05:27.293 --> 00:05:28.895 And I thought okay, cool. 106 00:05:29.028 --> 00:05:29.595 Sammy: Hahahaha. 107 00:05:29.595 --> 00:05:33.266 James: And then I just went on, I finished my degree and I went to a technical school after 108 00:05:33.266 --> 00:05:37.937 and did a different technical degree, then I had a job, I quit that job to go traveling for a year. 109 00:05:38.438 --> 00:05:41.674 I thought of a business idea while I was traveling, I tried to launch that company; 110 00:05:41.674 --> 00:05:45.345 part of launching that company I decided I should make content related to this, 111 00:05:45.345 --> 00:05:48.414 and while that was happening I started doing some freelance writing 112 00:05:48.414 --> 00:05:52.151 and so that's when I applied for this job because I was like 113 00:05:52.151 --> 00:05:57.290 hey I'm kind of like a low level - entry level kind of content creator and writer right now, 114 00:05:57.290 --> 00:06:00.860 so i'll apply for this, and that's kind of what happened and I- 115 00:06:00.860 --> 00:06:05.365 It was an LTT job but I had been watching TechQuickie for a while; 116 00:06:05.365 --> 00:06:07.533 I was like binging it every every day when I was eating supper, 117 00:06:07.533 --> 00:06:11.070 and I had no idea it was a Canadian property. 118 00:06:11.070 --> 00:06:14.707 I thought it was oh that's one of those big youtube channels, they must be in California or something 119 00:06:14.707 --> 00:06:18.978 and then I found out they were in Surrey I was like holy-! Okay, so then I applied. 120 00:06:18.978 --> 00:06:21.881 And I had an advantage when I applied because I was like underemployed. 121 00:06:21.881 --> 00:06:25.451 I just worked at this gym; actually David worked there too, that's how we met. 122 00:06:25.451 --> 00:06:25.818 Sammy: Really!? 123 00:06:25.818 --> 00:06:28.254 James: Yeah, I actually knew david before LMG and- 124 00:06:28.254 --> 00:06:28.588 Sammy: Oh wow. 125 00:06:28.588 --> 00:06:31.791 James: I was the one that like encouraged him to apply or whatever and um- 126 00:06:32.458 --> 00:06:36.028 But back when I worked at that gym you know I had not full time hours, 127 00:06:36.028 --> 00:06:39.432 so as part of the application here we had to write a sample script, and I wrote it 128 00:06:39.432 --> 00:06:43.202 and then like a day went by and I was like I'm gonna just do another one; 129 00:06:43.336 --> 00:06:48.207 and I remember Linus replying like he said in his reply email that \"I like your hustle\" 130 00:06:48.408 --> 00:06:49.242 and I was like, yes! 131 00:06:49.375 --> 00:06:51.511 It's like we've been hustling ever since. 132 00:06:51.711 --> 00:06:52.779 Sammy and James: Hahahahaha. 133 00:06:53.045 --> 00:06:55.515 Sammy: Oh, can I ask what tech degree you have, or technical degree? 134 00:06:55.648 --> 00:07:01.087 James: Oh yeah, so I have a- This is funny, I have a degree in geography actually; 135 00:07:01.087 --> 00:07:05.525 and I have a advanced diploma in GIS, which is geographical information systems. 136 00:07:05.525 --> 00:07:08.428 James: It's basically just like, if you have a spreadsheet of data, 137 00:07:08.428 --> 00:07:11.731 and then you have two columns for lat and long coordinates? 138 00:07:11.764 --> 00:07:16.969 You've just made that data spatial, and so it yeah that's basically it; 139 00:07:17.003 --> 00:07:18.871 it's like computers and maps, you know? Sammy: Oh okay. 140 00:07:18.871 --> 00:07:22.575 Sammy: I was gonna say, like if you play Geoguessr can you like, figure out where you are? James: Geoguessr? 141 00:07:22.708 --> 00:07:25.445 James: I've never really played Geoguessr, but I think I'll probably be okay at it 142 00:07:25.445 --> 00:07:27.980 because I have been to like 36 countries? 143 00:07:28.047 --> 00:07:29.982 Sammy: I guess you kind of mentioned already, but uh 144 00:07:30.149 --> 00:07:31.617 how did you get into your skill I guess? 145 00:07:31.751 --> 00:07:32.151 James: Um- 146 00:07:32.151 --> 00:07:34.620 Sammy: Like did writing just come fluent to you? Or did you have to do like a lot of- 147 00:07:34.687 --> 00:07:36.222 James: Writing did kind of come naturally to me, 148 00:07:36.255 --> 00:07:39.392 my favorite teacher in high school was my english teacher? 149 00:07:39.425 --> 00:07:39.826 Sammy: Mmmm. 150 00:07:39.992 --> 00:07:43.596 James: Um but back then it was pretty much just you know, we're doing five by five essays. 151 00:07:43.729 --> 00:07:47.266 I took the AP english exam, like I took AP english. Sammy: AP english, oh my goodness. 152 00:07:47.300 --> 00:07:51.337 James: Um, and then I technically my degree is an arts degree, 153 00:07:51.337 --> 00:07:53.439 so I did a lot of writing in university; 154 00:07:54.140 --> 00:07:59.979 and I had a couple um professors in university, some of whom weren't even in the english department 155 00:08:00.112 --> 00:08:06.519 who really did push my writing, and plus my best friend to this day he was a 156 00:08:06.552 --> 00:08:10.456 he was an english teacher at like a private school for a long time? 157 00:08:10.456 --> 00:08:14.160 And so he taught like SAT english, like SAT writing 158 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:19.065 and, and how to write your essays for that, and so we always kind of nerded out on writing. 159 00:08:19.098 --> 00:08:22.401 So I guess all those kind of things together. 160 00:08:22.401 --> 00:08:23.903 Sammy: I didn't know you did AP english. 161 00:08:23.903 --> 00:08:25.204 James: Why would you know that? 162 00:08:25.338 --> 00:08:27.440 Sammy: I don't know, I'm surprised you know? Because you know, 163 00:08:27.440 --> 00:08:29.509 because I went to a school that was focused on AP? 164 00:08:29.609 --> 00:08:30.109 James: Mmm. 165 00:08:30.142 --> 00:08:33.412 Sammy: So, and I'm just like oh like I guess this is like a really like niche thing 166 00:08:33.412 --> 00:08:36.516 but the more people I find out who've done these kind of classes, I'm like wow. 167 00:08:36.516 --> 00:08:40.152 James: I took an AP art history class, with that same teacher. 168 00:08:40.186 --> 00:08:40.553 Sammy: Oh. 169 00:08:40.653 --> 00:08:43.422 James: That guy was a beast honestly, he's still on my Facebook. 170 00:08:43.856 --> 00:08:45.992 He used to have this thing on his blackboard, 171 00:08:45.992 --> 00:08:48.961 he would have like an obscure word and its definition; 172 00:08:48.961 --> 00:08:53.399 he would have a really cool quote, what I'm listening to and usually also like an artwork. 173 00:08:53.399 --> 00:08:56.636 He still to this day posts this stuff on his Facebook page every day, 174 00:08:56.636 --> 00:08:57.036 Sammy: Mmmm. 175 00:08:57.169 --> 00:09:00.172 James: And it's like the only reason to log into facebook, 176 00:09:00.172 --> 00:09:04.810 it's like the only content that goes on your feed that's just not like either brain rot or negative. 177 00:09:04.977 --> 00:09:08.548 James: Um, yeah Mr. Livingstone, you rule dude. 178 00:09:08.648 --> 00:09:09.582 Sammy: Hahahaha. 179 00:09:09.715 --> 00:09:11.517 James: Really, the formative teacher. 180 00:09:11.651 --> 00:09:15.154 The reason it's kind of relevant here is he's similar to Linus in that like 181 00:09:15.254 --> 00:09:17.990 there's people in this world who are just like appreciators of things, 182 00:09:17.990 --> 00:09:20.793 or who are like, who have opinions on things; 183 00:09:20.793 --> 00:09:26.265 like Linus and what we do here you can't do unless you are, unless you have an opinion, you know? 184 00:09:26.265 --> 00:09:30.303 When you look at a monitor and you're looking at the refresh rate of it or the smearing or whatever 185 00:09:30.303 --> 00:09:35.341 it's like some people just go this is a monitor, and other people go this is an okay monitor; 186 00:09:35.341 --> 00:09:37.810 it's good at this or it's bad at that, they actually 187 00:09:37.810 --> 00:09:39.845 interpret life at a higher resolution than other people, 188 00:09:39.845 --> 00:09:41.180 they actually look for things in their lives. 189 00:09:41.414 --> 00:09:45.184 And this teacher of mine, he cared about the arts you know, 190 00:09:45.184 --> 00:09:50.423 he had a favorite poem, he would hear a song in a commercial and be like that is a cool song 191 00:09:50.423 --> 00:09:54.860 and it you know, evokes these emotions; and he kind of instilled that into me, 192 00:09:54.860 --> 00:09:56.662 in particular around the arts. 193 00:09:56.662 --> 00:09:58.097 Sammy: So how's working at LMG? 194 00:09:58.097 --> 00:09:59.899 James: I've always said it's fun stuff in a hurry. 195 00:09:59.899 --> 00:10:06.005 I think culture of a whole company kind of trickles down from the top, from ownership; 196 00:10:06.005 --> 00:10:10.009 so a lot of how it is to work here is how Linus is, you know? 197 00:10:10.009 --> 00:10:17.149 Linus likes to work hard, he likes to kick ass, he likes to have high quality, 198 00:10:17.817 --> 00:10:21.487 he likes to have fun, he likes to put things into the world that 199 00:10:21.487 --> 00:10:23.456 make the world better, they don't make it worse; 200 00:10:24.357 --> 00:10:28.761 um, he's an honest person, like you know we have high degrees of transparency. 201 00:10:29.895 --> 00:10:33.499 The whole culture kind of comes from who he is, and we all kind of 202 00:10:33.499 --> 00:10:36.669 to some degree or another work the way that he works. 203 00:10:36.669 --> 00:10:40.139 I haven't worked in many places and I haven't worked at any large companies. 204 00:10:40.139 --> 00:10:45.678 I assume this is kind of what it's like everywhere, but it may not be. 205 00:10:45.711 --> 00:10:46.078 Sammy: yeah. 206 00:10:46.078 --> 00:10:49.148 James: But I feel like that's kind of the root of company culture 207 00:10:49.148 --> 00:10:52.718 and probably why it's so hard to change company culture or like 208 00:10:52.718 --> 00:10:54.820 where did they even come from, you know? 209 00:10:54.987 --> 00:10:57.156 So yeah that's kind of what it's like to work here, it's like- 210 00:10:57.156 --> 00:10:58.424 Sammy: Work hard, play hard? 211 00:10:58.557 --> 00:11:01.694 James: No I wouldn't say \"work hard, play hard\" really because 212 00:11:02.061 --> 00:11:03.596 I don't know, I don't want people to get the impression, 213 00:11:03.629 --> 00:11:07.366 there are other jobs where people work 80 hours a week, or they work like super long nights 214 00:11:07.366 --> 00:11:08.901 or they bring their work home with them, 215 00:11:08.934 --> 00:11:15.174 like I really check out after I clock out, like I don't really think about work too much. 216 00:11:15.207 --> 00:11:17.343 I mean I'm lying in bed, I think about work; but I don't- Sammy: Hahahaha. 217 00:11:17.343 --> 00:11:21.313 James: I personally don't go home and do more emails at night and stuff like that; 218 00:11:21.313 --> 00:11:22.782 I know a couple people here do, but- 219 00:11:22.915 --> 00:11:26.819 Even by the time I was hired, which was already like I don't know, 220 00:11:26.819 --> 00:11:31.257 four or five years into the company? Because I was hired in 2017, I think it started in 2013? 221 00:11:31.257 --> 00:11:35.761 They already were trying to create work life balance for people, 222 00:11:35.795 --> 00:11:39.598 because in the very early days, the original employees there wasn't that much of that; 223 00:11:39.598 --> 00:11:43.235 it was, it was just a couple friends making videos kind of thing. 224 00:11:43.235 --> 00:11:46.806 Um, and there were some really late nights, and that's just not how it is anymore, 225 00:11:46.806 --> 00:11:50.843 it hasn't been for a very long time and the owners like prided themselves on 226 00:11:50.843 --> 00:11:54.647 \"making a real company\"; so it's like \"work hard while you're here\" 227 00:11:54.647 --> 00:11:56.048 like I'm not on my phone when I'm here, I'm not on reddit unless it's the LTT reddit, 228 00:11:56.048 --> 00:11:59.552 like I'm not on my phone when I'm here, I'm not on reddit unless it's the LTT reddit, 229 00:11:59.552 --> 00:12:03.222 like I'm not just like scrolling, I'm not watching the WAN Show 230 00:12:03.222 --> 00:12:07.059 like some people at work are doing right? Like when you're working here like 231 00:12:07.059 --> 00:12:11.797 you're working all day, okay? Like I have to- I check my phone when I get into the car at night, 232 00:12:11.797 --> 00:12:14.400 it'd be like okay am I supposed to pick up some bread on the way home. 233 00:12:14.567 --> 00:12:15.935 And like that's it. 234 00:12:16.035 --> 00:12:19.505 Sammy: Yeah, I mean I was going to say I watch WAN because I sometimes have to. 235 00:12:19.538 --> 00:12:23.542 James: Some people who work here have to watch videos for work, it's true. 236 00:12:23.576 --> 00:12:24.176 Sammy: Hahahaha. 237 00:12:24.210 --> 00:12:26.779 James: I'm just mea- I just mean like I'm on task all day. 238 00:12:26.779 --> 00:12:27.546 Sammy: Yeah, yeah. 239 00:12:27.546 --> 00:12:32.451 James: You know? Um, and I feel like you pretty much have to to to thrive here; 240 00:12:32.551 --> 00:12:38.858 or even I don't know, I've seen people on reddit say that like their job is mostly 241 00:12:38.858 --> 00:12:41.293 just like click a button every like, every couple hours, 242 00:12:41.393 --> 00:12:42.928 and then they just go back to like screwing around. 243 00:12:43.129 --> 00:12:44.463 It's like you would not last here. 244 00:12:44.497 --> 00:12:44.897 Sammy: No. 245 00:12:44.930 --> 00:12:47.166 James: We are like a lean and productive bunch. 246 00:12:47.199 --> 00:12:47.266 Sammy: Yeah, I feel like it's like you are, 247 00:12:47.266 --> 00:12:49.869 James: I just feel like- but it's, I just want to make sure like it's different than like 248 00:12:49.869 --> 00:12:52.772 I wouldn't say we have like \"hustle culture or grind set\". 249 00:12:52.772 --> 00:12:57.076 Like it isn't a building of people who want to work 80 hours a week and work for free. 250 00:12:57.076 --> 00:12:59.979 James: It's not like startups, it's not like that at all; 251 00:12:59.979 --> 00:13:04.717 it's just- It's just like a team of A players who are on their a game while at work, 252 00:13:04.750 --> 00:13:08.053 and then, and then work is over, and go have the rest of your life. 253 00:13:08.053 --> 00:13:11.757 Sammy: What's the weirdest story you have about work? 254 00:13:11.991 --> 00:13:14.860 James: Man weird stuff here happens all the time. Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 255 00:13:14.894 --> 00:13:17.563 James: Like today I was walking through the Labs warehouse 256 00:13:17.563 --> 00:13:21.367 and they had a bunch of magnetic cable management things stuck to the back of a truck, 257 00:13:21.400 --> 00:13:23.035 and they're trying to like tow something with them. 258 00:13:23.035 --> 00:13:25.204 Like this job man, like there's just... 259 00:13:25.237 --> 00:13:29.074 I've slapped Linus in the face for a slow motion camera before. 260 00:13:29.909 --> 00:13:30.776 Sammy: But what's the weirdest? 261 00:13:30.776 --> 00:13:31.443 James: The weirdest? 262 00:13:31.477 --> 00:13:31.877 Sammy: Yeah. 263 00:13:31.911 --> 00:13:35.247 James: I don't know, there's that footage of me in bed with Linus with a wig on, 264 00:13:35.247 --> 00:13:36.782 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. James: like I'm pretending to be Yvonne. 265 00:13:36.816 --> 00:13:39.618 James: There's that photo shoot that me and Colton did where I- 266 00:13:39.618 --> 00:13:40.152 Sammy: Oh... 267 00:13:40.186 --> 00:13:46.258 James: I like- My wife was pregnant at the time and we made like a cast of her torso; 268 00:13:46.258 --> 00:13:50.062 so I had her big pregnant belly, but also boobs were connected to it, because why not? 269 00:13:50.095 --> 00:13:53.666 And I was wearing that like under a dress... or no Colton was wearing that! 270 00:13:53.666 --> 00:13:56.535 And then I like was snuggling with him in the fields; 271 00:13:56.535 --> 00:13:58.904 Like how do we even think of that? 272 00:13:58.904 --> 00:13:59.738 Sammy: Hahahahaha. 273 00:13:59.772 --> 00:14:00.606 James: That's amazing. 274 00:14:00.773 --> 00:14:02.741 Sammy: But what's what's the weirdest of all of them? 275 00:14:03.442 --> 00:14:05.277 James: What's the weirdest of all of them? That might be it. 276 00:14:05.344 --> 00:14:06.512 Sammy: *Laughs* 277 00:14:06.545 --> 00:14:08.747 Sammy: Snuggling with Colton? With your wife's cast. James: I feel like they're- 278 00:14:08.747 --> 00:14:11.083 We took, like the photos are amazing; I actually printed them out, 279 00:14:11.116 --> 00:14:13.319 like they're on the wall in the studio for the longest time. 280 00:14:13.652 --> 00:14:15.020 One of my favorite moments ever, 281 00:14:15.020 --> 00:14:19.225 like Dennis obviously is like a endless fountain of creativity and humor; 282 00:14:19.225 --> 00:14:22.695 something about that guy, he just has that x factor, he's so funny. 283 00:14:22.695 --> 00:14:23.996 One of the funniest things he ever said, 284 00:14:25.631 --> 00:14:29.802 and this is the best part about the why Dennis is funny, is like he's a funny person 285 00:14:29.835 --> 00:14:35.241 but then he's also transplanted into Canada where like he's unintentionally funny sometimes? 286 00:14:35.241 --> 00:14:39.011 We're trying to think of the title for this robot vacuum centric, 287 00:14:39.011 --> 00:14:42.548 James: Like floor is lava type Channel Super Fun game. 288 00:14:42.615 --> 00:14:43.782 And we're like okay don't- 289 00:14:44.483 --> 00:14:48.787 Don't touch the like the vacuums are gonna kill you, or like what should we call it? 290 00:14:48.954 --> 00:14:50.456 And then you know when you're in a brainstorm, 291 00:14:50.456 --> 00:14:52.791 and then something like clicks and you just blurt it out, and you're like 292 00:14:52.791 --> 00:14:56.061 So confident that it's gonna be the best idea ever as soon as it hits the airwaves. 293 00:14:56.061 --> 00:14:58.497 Dennis goes \"Don't Be Sucked!\". 294 00:14:59.765 --> 00:15:04.303 James: \"Don't Be Sucked!\" I was like that is the best title I've ever heard; 295 00:15:04.336 --> 00:15:08.841 like just, just \"Don't Be Sucked\"; I still say that, 296 00:15:08.841 --> 00:15:10.910 it's like a meme in my household, it's like so funny. 297 00:15:11.076 --> 00:15:13.913 James: No one, like no native english speaker could ever come up with that; 298 00:15:13.913 --> 00:15:19.018 you like, you just had to- You had to be Dennis to say those words, it was so funny. 299 00:15:19.184 --> 00:15:20.886 Sammy: What's the hardest part of your job then? 300 00:15:22.221 --> 00:15:22.354 James: The hardest part of the job honestly might be uh, like the public nature of it? 301 00:15:22.354 --> 00:15:27.459 James: The hardest part of the job honestly might be uh, like the public nature of it? 302 00:15:27.626 --> 00:15:28.394 Sammy: Mmmm. 303 00:15:28.494 --> 00:15:34.266 James: It's tricky, I mean we're obviously so grateful and privileged to have an audience; 304 00:15:34.400 --> 00:15:41.106 but um, it's hard having an audience you know? Like especially our audience, 305 00:15:41.106 --> 00:15:47.179 our audience isn't brain dead, our audience uh isn't a passive, a group of passive watchers. 306 00:15:47.179 --> 00:15:51.317 Our audience are very engaged, they have high standards and they hold us to those standards; 307 00:15:52.584 --> 00:15:59.158 but it's, you know? Kind of a lot sometimes to have people you know, 308 00:15:59.158 --> 00:16:02.061 pointing things out there were like how things could be better, 309 00:16:02.061 --> 00:16:06.899 or that you know, there's an audio issue over here or like \"um actuallys\" and stuff like that 310 00:16:06.899 --> 00:16:13.105 as um... you know you, it's just an endless uphill like amount of work 311 00:16:13.105 --> 00:16:16.508 to meet the standard that we want to meet? 312 00:16:16.608 --> 00:16:21.113 Um, and it's also like the parasocial element of it too. 313 00:16:21.146 --> 00:16:25.751 Like, it's... I just envy companies that nobody cares about; 314 00:16:25.784 --> 00:16:31.123 like imagine if you could have staffing changes without there being a reddit thread about it, 315 00:16:31.123 --> 00:16:41.166 like holy cow! Like it's just, it's just really a lot of work to just be 316 00:16:41.166 --> 00:16:46.839 under the microscope all the time? For things that just like normal companies do 317 00:16:46.905 --> 00:16:47.973 and they don't have to worry about it. 318 00:16:47.973 --> 00:16:52.878 It's just like we have this like overhead that we have to pay, you know? 319 00:16:53.012 --> 00:16:56.548 And I have had the experience now; um, which is very weird 320 00:16:56.548 --> 00:16:59.018 and I kind of hope everyone has this experience in their life; 321 00:16:59.051 --> 00:17:01.487 although I also don't wish this upon anyone, 322 00:17:01.487 --> 00:17:04.089 but I've had the experience of reading like a reddit thread 323 00:17:04.089 --> 00:17:07.960 and having more information than anyone else on the internet. 324 00:17:07.993 --> 00:17:12.598 This happened during the incident of 2023, I was reading a reddit thread; 325 00:17:12.631 --> 00:17:15.200 obviously people create their opinions, and beliefs, and narratives 326 00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:17.436 based on the limited information that they have. 327 00:17:18.237 --> 00:17:23.642 And so, they do that logically and some people are more logical than others, 328 00:17:23.642 --> 00:17:24.943 and their comments get upvoted. 329 00:17:24.943 --> 00:17:28.747 And it was just amazing to have that superior knowledge 330 00:17:28.747 --> 00:17:32.518 and just read like hundreds of comments or where people are so confident, 331 00:17:32.518 --> 00:17:35.921 and other people are like \"yeah, you're right!\"; and you're just reading being like 332 00:17:35.921 --> 00:17:42.561 this is so far from right that it's... it's like embarrassingly wrong, it's so crazy wrong 333 00:17:42.561 --> 00:17:46.532 and I- Ever since I've had that experience every time I read a thread about 334 00:17:46.532 --> 00:17:50.803 something in the Ukraine war, or like just anything; I'm like, 335 00:17:50.803 --> 00:17:55.040 even the the smartest sounding, most upvoted person here knows nothing! 336 00:17:55.040 --> 00:17:59.678 They know nothing about reality and it's like, just to keep that in mind. 337 00:17:59.678 --> 00:18:01.180 This is why I wish other people have the experience; 338 00:18:01.180 --> 00:18:03.682 like just keeping that in mind while you are out there in the world, 339 00:18:03.682 --> 00:18:05.284 it really changes your perspective. 340 00:18:05.284 --> 00:18:06.752 Sammy: I think that's, I've also kind of learned that, 341 00:18:06.752 --> 00:18:11.290 it's like people just assume things and then they're piloting off like hearsay 342 00:18:11.323 --> 00:18:13.659 or like just baseless like thoughts. 343 00:18:13.692 --> 00:18:15.094 James: They just have limited information. 344 00:18:15.227 --> 00:18:15.594 Sammy: Yeah. 345 00:18:15.594 --> 00:18:18.697 James: So it's like I have these five data points, which lead me to this conclusion; 346 00:18:18.697 --> 00:18:22.067 which sounds reasonable, it's like yeah but if you had 25 data points 347 00:18:22.067 --> 00:18:23.902 your conclusion will be way over here. 348 00:18:24.036 --> 00:18:24.470 Sammy: Yeah. 349 00:18:24.503 --> 00:18:26.572 Sammy: What's the coolest project you got to work on? 350 00:18:26.572 --> 00:18:29.141 Um, fairly early on in my tenure here; 351 00:18:29.741 --> 00:18:31.577 I took the initiative to organize a quantum computer tour, that we did; 352 00:18:31.577 --> 00:18:34.179 I took the initiative to organize a quantum computer tour, that we did; 353 00:18:34.179 --> 00:18:36.715 and I went with Linus on that shoot, and that was very cool. 354 00:18:36.715 --> 00:18:39.118 I think that might have been one of my first like tour videos? 355 00:18:39.351 --> 00:18:43.388 Um, and I never would have been in that building with that level of access, 356 00:18:43.489 --> 00:18:45.691 without this job; so that was very cool early on. 357 00:18:45.724 --> 00:18:46.125 Sammy: Mmmm. 358 00:18:46.258 --> 00:18:51.497 James: Later on I did a similar thing at Nanosys? Without Linus, 359 00:18:51.497 --> 00:18:54.233 the video did not get a lot of views but I think it's a great video; 360 00:18:54.233 --> 00:18:57.603 and I got to get a tour through Nanosys, and check out how the quantum dots work 361 00:18:57.603 --> 00:18:59.071 and they have those glowing liquid 362 00:18:59.071 --> 00:19:02.341 and they showed me how it all works, and gave me a big tour of their facility; 363 00:19:02.341 --> 00:19:05.244 it was very cool, I think you should check out the video. 364 00:19:05.444 --> 00:19:08.280 I'm still disappointed it didn't get it very many- 365 00:19:08.447 --> 00:19:11.450 It was a stinker when it came out, got like 700, 000 views or something like that, 366 00:19:11.450 --> 00:19:15.988 I was so devastated; but yeah maybe check it out and comment of like why got so few views; 367 00:19:16.021 --> 00:19:19.358 other than it being well A it's not Linus, and B it's, 368 00:19:19.358 --> 00:19:22.794 you know it's kind of niche it's like a display technology; so not- 369 00:19:22.794 --> 00:19:25.497 It's not going to get as many views as like how do I make my FPS better. 370 00:19:25.497 --> 00:19:29.801 Sammy: Second to last question is, what are your jobs prior to LMG. 371 00:19:29.968 --> 00:19:31.436 James: My jobs prior to LMG? 372 00:19:31.436 --> 00:19:31.870 Sammy: Yeah. 373 00:19:31.904 --> 00:19:34.840 James: When I was too young to work legally, I worked on a berry farm. 374 00:19:34.840 --> 00:19:35.307 Sammy: Hahaha. 375 00:19:35.340 --> 00:19:39.378 James: I worked on one of these machines, like they go over top of a row of raspberries; 376 00:19:39.511 --> 00:19:43.815 and they shake the bush, and then I had to like just pick crap out of there. 377 00:19:44.116 --> 00:19:48.320 And then when I came of age I worked at a movie theater for a couple years, 378 00:19:48.820 --> 00:19:52.658 I met some lifelong friends there; and when I was in college I 379 00:19:53.592 --> 00:19:57.896 usually didn't work during the semesters, I usually worked just in the summer; 380 00:19:57.896 --> 00:20:03.235 so in the first summer I worked as a plumber for like a distant relative in Edmonton, 381 00:20:03.235 --> 00:20:07.439 James: just building a high rise; but then every summer after that I was a wild firefighter, 382 00:20:07.472 --> 00:20:08.207 Sammy: Wow. 383 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:10.108 James: I had tried to get in that first summer but I didn't get it; 384 00:20:10.108 --> 00:20:13.478 I applied again the next year and I got it, I was able to be a wild firefighter 385 00:20:13.579 --> 00:20:20.986 for the ministry of forests out of Vernon and that was the best job ever as a college student, 386 00:20:21.220 --> 00:20:24.790 because I made so much money because there was so much overtime; 387 00:20:24.790 --> 00:20:30.229 that I graduated not in debt but instead with having like a sizable chunk of cash in the bank. 388 00:20:30.229 --> 00:20:35.567 And like the fire season just ran the exact same duration as like your summer, 389 00:20:35.567 --> 00:20:38.337 and then just go back to school, like it was sweet. 390 00:20:38.337 --> 00:20:41.940 I did work for a professor once as like a transcriber, 391 00:20:41.940 --> 00:20:44.276 I had to transcribe all these interviews that they did. Sammy: Ooh! 392 00:20:44.276 --> 00:20:48.413 James: Which was really interesting, I got to learn deeply about a topic 393 00:20:48.413 --> 00:20:51.783 because I was just transcribing all of their, all the interviews and then 394 00:20:51.783 --> 00:20:57.856 I graduated, I did one more fire season, then I went to BCIT, I wasn't working during that 395 00:20:57.856 --> 00:21:02.527 but that had a co-op that placed me at a software as a service company called Tetrad, 396 00:21:03.161 --> 00:21:07.366 where I worked there for two years; and they actually after I worked there, 397 00:21:07.532 --> 00:21:09.334 I think they ended up having a big data breach? 398 00:21:09.334 --> 00:21:09.768 Sammy: Oh. 399 00:21:09.801 --> 00:21:10.836 James: Which was crazy. 400 00:21:10.869 --> 00:21:11.503 Sammy: Hahaha. 401 00:21:12.404 --> 00:21:13.405 Sammy: Got out just in time. 402 00:21:13.438 --> 00:21:16.174 James: Yeah, and then yeah, and then after; 403 00:21:16.308 --> 00:21:18.844 when I came back from traveling for a year, then I- 404 00:21:18.877 --> 00:21:22.814 That's when I was doing like freelance stuff, and I worked at that gym just to do something; 405 00:21:23.081 --> 00:21:24.650 and then uh, then I came here. 406 00:21:24.783 --> 00:21:27.352 Sammy: I think of all the people I know you probably have the most life experience. 407 00:21:27.386 --> 00:21:29.154 James: Of all the people you know? 408 00:21:29.154 --> 00:21:29.655 Sammy: Yeah. 409 00:21:29.788 --> 00:21:30.956 James: Like in the world? 410 00:21:30.989 --> 00:21:31.490 Sammy: Yeah. 411 00:21:31.623 --> 00:21:33.392 James: Hahahahaha. Sammy: I mean what... 412 00:21:33.425 --> 00:21:35.627 Sammy: Because you did like, you did all the stuff like at work; 413 00:21:35.627 --> 00:21:39.164 but then prior you did like, you went to the army; yeah you- 414 00:21:39.164 --> 00:21:41.633 James: Hey that's a spoiler. 415 00:21:41.800 --> 00:21:43.769 Sammy: Oh uh, you did, you did something. 416 00:21:44.903 --> 00:21:47.806 Like you know, you did all that stuff and I think it's like wow; 417 00:21:47.906 --> 00:21:51.443 and then even now you're like, you're, you know, working on your house. 418 00:21:51.643 --> 00:21:52.477 You have a, you have a chicken. 419 00:21:52.711 --> 00:21:54.079 James: Haha, I have two chickens. 420 00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:54.646 Sammy: Yeah. 421 00:21:54.646 --> 00:21:57.115 James: And we used to have quails, that's in- There's video footage of that too. 422 00:21:57.182 --> 00:22:00.919 James: yeah, we used to have like how many we even have? Like a dozen? 20 of them? I don't know. 423 00:22:00.919 --> 00:22:03.455 Sammy: I think every time I talk to you and you tell me something about your life, 424 00:22:03.488 --> 00:22:05.791 it's just like it gets a little more interesting every day. 425 00:22:05.791 --> 00:22:06.625 James: Hahahaha. 426 00:22:06.725 --> 00:22:09.261 Sammy: Next time you'll tell me you can do like four backflips or something. 427 00:22:09.428 --> 00:22:10.395 James: I can do a backflip. 428 00:22:10.395 --> 00:22:10.896 Sammy: What!? 429 00:22:11.063 --> 00:22:13.465 James: Yeah, but I've never done it on the ground. 430 00:22:13.632 --> 00:22:15.167 Sammy: Maybe I'll record it so I can... 431 00:22:15.167 --> 00:22:16.535 James: I actually learned that through work too, 432 00:22:16.568 --> 00:22:19.338 we had like just a fun work event where we went to one of those trampoline parks 433 00:22:19.371 --> 00:22:22.274 and I was like dang it today is the day I learned to do a backflip! 434 00:22:22.274 --> 00:22:25.877 And I just went to the foam pit, and they're all, they're easy; they're just all about committing. 435 00:22:25.877 --> 00:22:26.144 Sammy: Yeah. 436 00:22:26.144 --> 00:22:27.112 James: You have to just commit. 437 00:22:27.913 --> 00:22:31.717 Sammy: Eli was teaching me how to do a front flip at Linus's pool. 438 00:22:31.917 --> 00:22:35.654 Sammy: I was like yeah, like once you start halfway through you're just like, you're done. James: Yeah I was there that day. 439 00:22:35.754 --> 00:22:37.556 James: Front flips are kind of harder and um- 440 00:22:37.556 --> 00:22:39.524 But I did, I was able to do those on trampolines. 441 00:22:39.524 --> 00:22:42.027 Sammy: Really? Front flips are easier than backflips? Or harder than backflips? 442 00:22:42.060 --> 00:22:42.361 James: Yeah. 443 00:22:42.394 --> 00:22:42.861 Sammy: Really? 444 00:22:42.861 --> 00:22:47.899 James: Because all you have to do for, with a backflip is once your hips like 445 00:22:47.899 --> 00:22:54.172 if this is like the vertical plane, once your hips go up and past, just past that vertical plane 446 00:22:54.373 --> 00:22:56.808 the rest of it can- Is like self completing. 447 00:22:56.975 --> 00:22:57.342 Sammy: Oh. 448 00:22:57.342 --> 00:23:00.045 James: Your ass wants to go back underneath. 449 00:23:00.312 --> 00:23:01.079 James: And so- 450 00:23:01.246 --> 00:23:02.414 Sammy: This isn't advice by the way. 451 00:23:02.514 --> 00:23:04.549 James: You have to just jump high, bring your knees up 452 00:23:04.583 --> 00:23:09.621 and then once you like turn enough it's like, and it just closes it, just yeah completes itself. 453 00:23:09.621 --> 00:23:10.956 Sammy: This isn't advice by the way. 454 00:23:10.989 --> 00:23:11.823 James: Hahahaha. 455 00:23:11.990 --> 00:23:14.593 Sammy: We do not hold responsibility if you try it. 456 00:23:14.760 --> 00:23:16.461 James: Go to a foam pit, you can do it. 457 00:23:16.628 --> 00:23:19.631 Sammy: Do you have any any life tips you can give to anyone in the audience? 458 00:23:19.664 --> 00:23:22.701 James: One very important thing in life is is just self discipline. 459 00:23:22.768 --> 00:23:26.638 James: When I was traveling I read a bunch of books and one of the books I read was the 460 00:23:26.638 --> 00:23:34.212 Isaacson Steve Jobs biography, and on steve jobs 30th birthday he recited some kind of like 461 00:23:34.212 --> 00:23:39.351 old indian maxim, which is in your first 30 years you make your habits, 462 00:23:39.351 --> 00:23:41.586 in your next 30 years your habits make you; 463 00:23:41.720 --> 00:23:46.491 and I think that um self discipline is like so important. 464 00:23:46.491 --> 00:23:48.226 I remember when I was working at Tetrad, 465 00:23:48.693 --> 00:23:52.631 I remember I used to do behaviors at my desk that were like lazy, 466 00:23:52.631 --> 00:23:57.135 like little corner cutting things like I would just not do something exactly properly 467 00:23:57.135 --> 00:24:02.507 because it was just it took longer and I remember making a decision at some point to be like 468 00:24:02.541 --> 00:24:05.444 I'm not going to ever do those corner cutting behaviors, 469 00:24:05.444 --> 00:24:07.612 I'm only going to do things just like properly. 470 00:24:07.779 --> 00:24:13.718 And if you have that mentality in every aspect of your life, you're so much better off 471 00:24:13.718 --> 00:24:16.221 and then people recognize it, and they want to work with you; 472 00:24:16.354 --> 00:24:19.224 Um yeah, there you go. 473 00:24:19.224 --> 00:24:23.395 Also another piece of um advice now that I'm 35 is, 474 00:24:23.395 --> 00:24:25.197 things do catch up with you when you're older; 475 00:24:25.197 --> 00:24:29.301 like if you're a power lifter when you're 24 and you squat 385, 476 00:24:30.969 --> 00:24:34.873 you actually might lose some of the cartilage in your spine; 477 00:24:34.873 --> 00:24:37.509 and then when you're older it'll suck, 478 00:24:37.609 --> 00:24:43.682 James: so like yeah, some things yeah they do catch up with you man. 479 00:24:43.682 --> 00:24:46.051 When you're in your 30s man you can freaking shoulder check 480 00:24:46.218 --> 00:24:48.420 and like put your neck out for a week, it's brutal. 481 00:24:49.254 --> 00:24:52.424 Sammy: Yeah, as you said that uh like like everything catches up when you're 30, 482 00:24:52.424 --> 00:24:53.825 I just, my back went straight. 483 00:24:53.925 --> 00:24:54.926 James: Hahahaha. 484 00:24:55.093 --> 00:24:57.329 Sammy: Now I have a surprise question for you. 485 00:24:57.329 --> 00:24:57.762 James: Oh God. 486 00:24:57.762 --> 00:24:59.264 Sammy: It's a James specific question. 487 00:24:59.264 --> 00:25:02.400 You've written a lot, and you've done a lot of video projects related to writing. 488 00:25:02.434 --> 00:25:06.905 What would you say is the most important thing when it comes to writing? 489 00:25:07.005 --> 00:25:10.342 James: I mean like my mind is going to multiple places, I'll just say like 490 00:25:10.342 --> 00:25:13.678 the first thing I'm thinking of is like packaging like, I don't know, 491 00:25:13.678 --> 00:25:17.215 if we're talking about writing for youtube, you're not a captive audience right? 492 00:25:17.215 --> 00:25:19.384 It's not like when you go to a movie theater, you're like well I paid for my ticket, 493 00:25:19.384 --> 00:25:21.486 I drove to the movie theater and now I'm sitting here; 494 00:25:21.486 --> 00:25:24.456 and so I'm not going to leave just because this ad's on, I'll sit through it. 495 00:25:24.456 --> 00:25:26.858 James: You have the opposite of a captive audience on the internet. 496 00:25:26.858 --> 00:25:29.261 Sammy: *Laughs* James: So it turns, your scripts are like upside down; 497 00:25:29.261 --> 00:25:30.829 the most interesting stuff has to be at the beginning, 498 00:25:30.829 --> 00:25:34.099 and it has to get like less interesting as it goes, you know in a sense. 499 00:25:34.266 --> 00:25:36.768 So like the intro is so important. 500 00:25:36.768 --> 00:25:41.873 I guess like having a point, and then like convincing people that you have a point 501 00:25:41.873 --> 00:25:46.411 and there's a reason to keep listening to you is very important. 502 00:25:46.411 --> 00:25:48.480 If you don't have a point don't make a video man. 503 00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:51.950 Another very very important thing and this applies just to communication, 504 00:25:51.950 --> 00:25:55.921 this will probably help everybody here; we've all heard of different cognitive biases, 505 00:25:55.921 --> 00:25:58.023 confirmation bias is a big one people cite. 506 00:25:58.023 --> 00:26:02.727 I think one of the most important ones in life is the curse of knowledge, 507 00:26:03.395 --> 00:26:08.333 once you know a thing it's impossible for you to imagine what it's like to not know that thing; 508 00:26:09.100 --> 00:26:12.070 and then you're talking to somebody else, or you're writing a video 509 00:26:12.070 --> 00:26:16.942 and no one knows what the hell you're talking about, you need to back up and you have to like 510 00:26:16.942 --> 00:26:21.880 reveal information like layers of an onion in a logical manner, 511 00:26:22.414 --> 00:26:25.050 assuming you know coming from the standing point of someone who knows nothing 512 00:26:25.050 --> 00:26:27.118 and building up to the knowledge that you have; 513 00:26:27.118 --> 00:26:31.089 just keep the curse of knowledge in mind all the time, because like- 514 00:26:31.089 --> 00:26:31.790 Sammy: Like Thanos. 515 00:26:31.923 --> 00:26:33.024 James: What the- 516 00:26:33.191 --> 00:26:35.694 James: What?...What? 517 00:26:35.694 --> 00:26:38.430 Sammy: Yeah because Thanos was like \"I too bear the curse of knowledge\"; or something like that. 518 00:26:38.430 --> 00:26:41.199 James: I learned that from Steven Pinker, yeah he's got some interesting books; 519 00:26:41.866 --> 00:26:47.539 Uh, if you're an aspiring writer he has a- What is that called? It's not called On Writing, 520 00:26:47.539 --> 00:26:54.212 it's called style something... I don't know, just type in Steven Pinker writing book, 521 00:26:54.212 --> 00:26:56.314 that's a pretty good and interesting one. 522 00:26:56.314 --> 00:26:58.483 Sammy: Do you recommend any books to the audience? 523 00:26:58.483 --> 00:27:03.021 James: If you're a business minded person um, the best business books I've read are 524 00:27:03.021 --> 00:27:09.861 the innovators dilemma and the innovator solution, Collins books, \"Good to Great\" and 525 00:27:09.861 --> 00:27:13.098 \"Built to Last\", like those are very good on the business end of things. 526 00:27:13.999 --> 00:27:19.471 James: Just like interesting history/technology books, you all know Harari with like Sapiens, 527 00:27:19.838 --> 00:27:23.675 Homo Deus, and his new book Network, what I'm reading now are awesome. 528 00:27:23.675 --> 00:27:29.214 I mean Dune, I'm more of a non fiction guy though as you can see; 529 00:27:29.214 --> 00:27:35.353 yeah it's important to read long things, our society is losing that, it's very bad. 530 00:27:35.420 --> 00:27:37.856 Read a whole book about something. 531 00:27:37.889 --> 00:27:40.091 Sammy: Me, I don't read. 532 00:27:40.992 --> 00:27:45.463 James: Apparently- I read some article that was like even like college age people 533 00:27:45.463 --> 00:27:48.833 who are going into ivy league schools can't read a book, or never have read a whole book; 534 00:27:48.833 --> 00:27:49.200 James: it's like- 535 00:27:49.200 --> 00:27:49.668 Sammy: Really? 536 00:27:50.602 --> 00:27:51.269 James: Scary. 537 00:27:51.302 --> 00:27:52.637 Sammy: Yeah, you can tell us which one was the lie. 538 00:27:52.637 --> 00:27:55.974 James: Okay, what was the order? The order was the army- 539 00:27:55.974 --> 00:27:58.176 I was in the army, I was in the army right out of high school; 540 00:27:58.209 --> 00:28:02.781 my stepdad was like an army brat and uh convinced me to join, 541 00:28:02.781 --> 00:28:06.284 and we were poor, so it was a good way to go to university without having any money. 542 00:28:06.284 --> 00:28:11.122 I didn't have, like I didn't have a savings account that my parents had accumulated for me 543 00:28:11.122 --> 00:28:18.863 so uh that paid for my first year, and then I worked plumbing and made some money for that 544 00:28:18.863 --> 00:28:21.933 like 16 grand or something like that? I was able to pay for the next year, 545 00:28:21.933 --> 00:28:24.202 and then I got into the firefighting and then it was all good. 546 00:28:25.336 --> 00:28:30.575 Um, yeah the army, I ended up- They call it vring, voluntarily releasing. 547 00:28:30.842 --> 00:28:33.545 Everything's, everything's an acronym or initialism in the military. 548 00:28:33.611 --> 00:28:37.382 So I did my- So basically I went to Quebec, I did like two months of training. 549 00:28:37.382 --> 00:28:43.021 For those of interested I was in the army and my trade was EME, electrical mechanical engineer; 550 00:28:43.021 --> 00:28:46.157 because I was actually initially in engineering when I went to university, 551 00:28:46.191 --> 00:28:47.492 I dropped out of that too, I dropped- 552 00:28:47.525 --> 00:28:51.663 I quit everything in my life, I quit engineering, I quit the army 553 00:28:51.663 --> 00:28:55.400 and I broke up with my girlfriend; like all in like a span of weeks. 554 00:28:55.400 --> 00:28:56.000 Sammy: Oh my God. 555 00:28:56.034 --> 00:29:00.705 James: Were any of those good decisions, I don't know; I kind of wish I was an engineer still. 556 00:29:00.705 --> 00:29:01.639 Sammy: Hahahaha. 557 00:29:01.706 --> 00:29:03.742 James: But whatever, that all happened. 558 00:29:03.875 --> 00:29:07.445 Yeah, that's the army part and then the next one was getting stabbed in Mexico. 559 00:29:07.445 --> 00:29:13.184 Yes, I was stabbed in Mexico City, um... Was that my second time there? 560 00:29:13.218 --> 00:29:16.521 I think that was my second time there, I would go again, it's a beautiful place. 561 00:29:16.554 --> 00:29:23.161 I got stabbed because I was in an Uber, in broad daylight, in traffic, in a very crowded area 562 00:29:23.161 --> 00:29:25.396 and when you're in traffic your car can't go anywhere; 563 00:29:25.430 --> 00:29:29.200 and our Windows were down, don't do that, roll your Windows up. 564 00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:34.038 So basically a kid with a knife came up uh to the driver's side window um 565 00:29:34.072 --> 00:29:36.574 and threatened the uber driver with his like little pocket knife, 566 00:29:36.574 --> 00:29:40.912 and then he like basically he had a friend, and they just went to every window 567 00:29:40.912 --> 00:29:43.982 and like you know I didn't give my backpack fast enough; 568 00:29:43.982 --> 00:29:46.885 so he just was like whoop and stabbed me in the legs, 569 00:29:46.885 --> 00:29:49.554 James: like kind of just above my knee, on the side of my leg. Sammy: Oh God. 570 00:29:49.587 --> 00:29:53.658 James: And then so like this uber had to drive me to the hospital; 571 00:29:53.658 --> 00:29:57.262 it took us like 45 minutes in multiple hospitals, I had this police escort, 572 00:29:57.295 --> 00:29:59.864 we're driving the wrong way down the highway and everything, it was nuts! 573 00:29:59.898 --> 00:30:02.433 And then I just had to get like a couple stitches. 574 00:30:02.433 --> 00:30:09.207 And then I think I went to like Teotihuacan with with like crutches, and I went to the top too, 575 00:30:09.207 --> 00:30:11.309 Sammy: Hahahahaha. James: I just hopped on one foot all the way up to the top of my pyramid. 576 00:30:11.309 --> 00:30:12.744 Sammy: Oh my God, what the heck? 577 00:30:12.777 --> 00:30:17.248 James: But yeah, and then the third thing was I'm a blue belt in Jujitsu, 578 00:30:17.248 --> 00:30:21.219 that's a lie, I'm not a blue belt; I think I might get my blue belt soon, 579 00:30:21.219 --> 00:30:23.955 but I'm a four stripe white belt, which is crazy because 580 00:30:23.955 --> 00:30:26.624 I feel like i've been doing jujitsu for quite a long time at this point. 581 00:30:26.624 --> 00:30:30.328 But as I said I like did a year, then the pandemic was a year off; 582 00:30:30.328 --> 00:30:30.795 Sammy: Mmmm. 583 00:30:30.829 --> 00:30:32.797 James: and then I did a year, and then I like 584 00:30:32.831 --> 00:30:37.001 I was off for six months because I moved and then my rib was injured, and blah blah blah. 585 00:30:37.035 --> 00:30:41.005 James: And then I think every time you switch gyms you kind of get reset a little bit? 586 00:30:41.139 --> 00:30:41.573 Sammy: Mmmm. 587 00:30:42.707 --> 00:30:46.845 James: Like I literally after switching from gym one to two I lost a stripe, 588 00:30:47.011 --> 00:30:50.782 and then from switching from gym two to three, I've been there for a year 589 00:30:50.915 --> 00:30:55.486 and haven't gotten any promotion, so I'm hoping I'm going to get promoted in the next couple months; 590 00:30:55.620 --> 00:30:59.090 and once I have a blue belt I can just obviously quit jujitsu never go again. 591 00:30:59.224 --> 00:31:03.127 Sammy: For the uh, for the curse of knowledge, how high is the jujitsu blue belt? 592 00:31:03.194 --> 00:31:04.362 For people who don't know. 593 00:31:04.362 --> 00:31:07.665 James: Oh blue belt's just the second belt, but there's only five belts in jujitsu. 594 00:31:07.665 --> 00:31:09.601 Blue belt usually takes people like two years? 595 00:31:09.634 --> 00:31:10.101 Sammy: Mmmm. 596 00:31:10.134 --> 00:31:11.169 Sammy: Oh, okay. 597 00:31:11.169 --> 00:31:16.107 James: It depends how dedicated you are, like some people go five days a week and study all the time. 598 00:31:16.107 --> 00:31:16.474 Sammy: Mmm. 599 00:31:16.474 --> 00:31:18.877 James: And other people are just like they go once a week and they don't really care; 600 00:31:18.877 --> 00:31:22.614 and then there's different levels, like you can go to McGym that just like 601 00:31:22.614 --> 00:31:24.048 gives belts out on attendance. 602 00:31:24.048 --> 00:31:27.952 And then you can go somewhere else where like they are very stringent with the belts, 603 00:31:27.986 --> 00:31:29.621 and you've got to be like really kick ass. 604 00:31:29.621 --> 00:31:33.124 So like a blue belt at one school might be like a purple or brown belt at another school. 605 00:31:33.124 --> 00:31:36.895 It's kind of like a musical equivalent would be like you can play- 606 00:31:36.895 --> 00:31:40.698 You can kind of like play songs by ear on guitar, you can put if someone's like 607 00:31:40.698 --> 00:31:42.367 do you know how to play such and such song? 608 00:31:42.367 --> 00:31:45.103 You can kind of just like listen to it and be like oh I can play; 609 00:31:45.103 --> 00:31:48.940 it's like a you're pretty competent now but there's still a lot to learn before mastery, 610 00:31:48.940 --> 00:31:50.708 but you like, you know what you're doing. 611 00:31:50.708 --> 00:31:54.913 Sammy: I forgot to ask before, you said you did a lot of stenography, 612 00:31:54.913 --> 00:31:57.582 like the trans- like transcribing the videos. 613 00:31:57.582 --> 00:31:58.716 James: Oh, yeah yeah yeah. 614 00:31:59.083 --> 00:32:02.720 Sammy: Yeah, so can you type on those keyboards that can type like over a thousand words a minute? 615 00:32:02.720 --> 00:32:04.489 James: Oh, we didn't use stenographer's keyboards. 616 00:32:04.522 --> 00:32:05.056 Sammy: Oh, okay. 617 00:32:05.056 --> 00:32:07.725 James: It was a regular keyboard, but I did use a foot pedal for like, 618 00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:14.933 uh playing and pausing the um, the track; but yeah there's a whole other aspect of that too 619 00:32:14.933 --> 00:32:18.303 like I had free reign of to transcribe it the way I wanted, 620 00:32:18.303 --> 00:32:21.339 and I tried to make it like really true to the audio track; 621 00:32:21.339 --> 00:32:25.176 like if someone stuttered I would- Originally I would write those in, 622 00:32:25.710 --> 00:32:29.080 I'd write on all the ums and everything, and then eventually I was like I think that, 623 00:32:29.080 --> 00:32:34.953 that's done we'll probably just write their like final take, what they intended to say. 624 00:32:34.986 --> 00:32:38.323 It was interesting it was about a program, I don't give a f***, who cares. 625 00:32:38.356 --> 00:32:39.557 Sammy and James: Hahahahahaha. 626 00:32:39.557 --> 00:32:43.594 James: Anyways you guys have had enough me, if you like this kind of format 627 00:32:43.594 --> 00:32:47.565 we're gonna have Terren and Nick Light's Meet the Teams later this week; 628 00:32:47.565 --> 00:32:49.434 it's Exec Week baby! Finally! 629 00:32:49.434 --> 00:32:50.168 Sammy: Hahahaha! 630 00:32:50.201 --> 00:32:51.436 James: We deserve this! 631 00:32:51.436 --> 00:32:52.603 Sammy: Hahahahahahaha! 632 00:32:52.770 --> 00:32:53.037 James: Hahaha.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"James: Welcome to Exec Week; I'm James and this is my Meet the Team. 2 00:00:04.137 --> 00:00:05.872 man this is so corporate, I'm in a call pod. 3 00:00:05.872 --> 00:00:06.706 Sammy: Hahahahaha. 4 00:00:06.706 --> 00:00:08.274 James: That's Exec Week Babyyyy. 5 00:00:09.509 --> 00:00:13.480 Sammy: Alright, before we start James, you're gonna give us two truths and a lie. 6 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:15.515 James: Two truths and a lie, okay I prepared this. 7 00:00:15.615 --> 00:00:20.854 James: I used to be in the army, I was once stabbed in Mexico City, I'm a jujitsu blue belt. 8 00:00:21.021 --> 00:00:22.489 Sammy: I never heard the second one, that's crazy. 9 00:00:22.589 --> 00:00:24.691 Sammy: Okay so we'll start with the first question here, which I totally- 10 00:00:24.691 --> 00:00:26.292 James: Wait that's it? I just say those and then- 11 00:00:26.426 --> 00:00:28.795 Sammy: And then at the end we'll, we'll go through it at the end, yeah. 12 00:00:29.129 --> 00:00:30.864 Sammy: So I guess the first question is who are you? 13 00:00:31.431 --> 00:00:33.133 James: Who am I? Geez what a question. 14 00:00:33.166 --> 00:00:33.800 Sammy: Hahaha. 15 00:00:33.900 --> 00:00:37.937 James: It's changed since my tenure here, a lot has changed my life since I started here. 16 00:00:37.971 --> 00:00:43.109 I was hired as a writer, and then from there I ended up becoming the writer supervisor 17 00:00:43.143 --> 00:00:47.814 and then I joined the Exec team when that became a thing, and now I'm head of writing? 18 00:00:49.249 --> 00:00:54.587 And so I, I'm kind of like the creative director for all the different channels, 19 00:00:54.854 --> 00:00:59.426 all the creative stuff we do; the different channels, social media, that stuff. 20 00:00:59.426 --> 00:01:04.297 I almost got fired one time uh in the early days by Linus, 21 00:01:04.297 --> 00:01:09.903 because I was writing a review of a underwater GoPro mic, I think it was a Sennheiser mic? 22 00:01:10.003 --> 00:01:13.807 And Linus told me to go to swimming pool and get some shots underwater, 23 00:01:13.807 --> 00:01:16.443 and I was like that's boring and stupid, I'm gonna go to the ocean! 24 00:01:16.643 --> 00:01:18.478 Past James: Aaaaaaaaah! 25 00:01:18.478 --> 00:01:20.947 James: So me and Taran Van Hemert went to white rock, 26 00:01:21.014 --> 00:01:24.217 and I swam around and splashed around in the water, and uh 27 00:01:24.250 --> 00:01:28.321 almost none of that footage got used, because it was dark and murky under the water 28 00:01:28.321 --> 00:01:29.622 James: and you couldn't really see clearly. 29 00:01:29.656 --> 00:01:30.423 Sammy: Hahahahaha. 30 00:01:30.423 --> 00:01:34.160 James: So then I had to go with Linus, so we had to change the whole shoot schedule; 31 00:01:34.160 --> 00:01:38.064 I had to go with Linus in the morning to a leisure center pool and get more footage, 32 00:01:38.064 --> 00:01:42.435 and he was like \"when I tell you to do something, it's for a specific reason\", 33 00:01:43.603 --> 00:01:47.540 because he knew a lot more about making videos than me, and that was almost it. 34 00:01:47.574 --> 00:01:49.576 If I screw up like that again I probably would have been gone, 35 00:01:49.676 --> 00:01:53.480 in which case I wouldn't have become the writing supervisor a couple years later 36 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:56.516 and then eventually head of writing on the exec team like I am now. 37 00:01:56.516 --> 00:01:57.584 It's been almost eight years! 38 00:01:57.650 --> 00:01:58.518 Sammy: Eight years? 39 00:01:58.585 --> 00:01:59.986 James: Yeah I'm coming up on eight in february. 40 00:02:00.153 --> 00:02:01.020 Sammy: Oh my goodness, that's a long time. 41 00:02:01.154 --> 00:02:02.989 Sammy: So what does head writing entail? I guess. 42 00:02:03.056 --> 00:02:06.426 James: So what do I do here, it's kind of a tough question because it's transitioning. 43 00:02:07.627 --> 00:02:10.363 I'm hoping to offload a lot of the stuff I do because 44 00:02:10.363 --> 00:02:12.765 a lot of the stuff I do is really kind of supervisory stuff; 45 00:02:12.765 --> 00:02:17.337 and we have a couple positions starting so that I won't have to make the shooting schedule 46 00:02:17.337 --> 00:02:22.008 every day and every week, and things like that; but at a high level what I do is 47 00:02:22.675 --> 00:02:25.612 help determine the direction of like the kinds of content we make, 48 00:02:25.612 --> 00:02:28.481 prioritize with a marquee releases that are going to be in a given year, 49 00:02:28.481 --> 00:02:30.817 like are we going to do a Scrapyard Wars this summer? Are we can do- 50 00:02:30.817 --> 00:02:33.620 What are we doing for April Fools? What are we doing for Secret Shopper? Etc. 51 00:02:33.620 --> 00:02:38.625 On a video to video basis, I help out, I have a particular knack with packaging, 52 00:02:38.625 --> 00:02:44.564 like titles and thumbnails and intros, help the writers make sure that 53 00:02:45.098 --> 00:02:49.235 they're ready for their next Linus checkpoint, like they've done all the steps 54 00:02:49.235 --> 00:02:53.907 and what they're bringing in is quite good; so that we minimize the Linus time used; 55 00:02:53.907 --> 00:02:59.179 and then also help other kind of directions, like how many videos are we making at CES? 56 00:02:59.179 --> 00:03:02.549 And who's coming to CES? Things like that. 57 00:03:02.749 --> 00:03:04.217 Sammy: What hobbies are you interested in? 58 00:03:04.217 --> 00:03:04.717 James: Hobbies. 59 00:03:04.717 --> 00:03:05.752 Sammy: Yeah, that's not writing. 60 00:03:05.752 --> 00:03:09.189 James: Non writing hobbies, well it's actually you shouldn’t say that because like a lot of- 61 00:03:09.189 --> 00:03:11.524 A lot of people don't write when they go home, 62 00:03:11.524 --> 00:03:13.860 but I did have a hobby for a couple years of screen writing, 63 00:03:13.893 --> 00:03:17.830 I wrote a spec screenplay and started specking out like a series; 64 00:03:17.830 --> 00:03:21.167 but anyways, didn't really go at very many places. 65 00:03:21.201 --> 00:03:24.470 That was actually around the time that I became an executive, 66 00:03:24.470 --> 00:03:30.376 and then I just focused on work more, but my non writing hobbies now are jujitsu; 67 00:03:30.376 --> 00:03:32.345 I do that twice a week, I've been doing that for like, 68 00:03:33.780 --> 00:03:39.152 like five years but injuries and like a year off pandemic a bunch of things in between there. 69 00:03:39.552 --> 00:03:42.355 I have been playing guitar more recently. 70 00:03:42.889 --> 00:03:44.057 Sammy: Oh that's cool. 71 00:03:44.057 --> 00:03:46.459 James: Technically I've been playing guitar for like over 10 years now? 72 00:03:46.526 --> 00:03:51.164 But probably not playing it for more time in there than actually playing it. 73 00:03:51.197 --> 00:03:53.533 I'm at the point now where I was like I picked it up again; I'm like 74 00:03:53.533 --> 00:03:57.270 It's been so long that my fingers are like discovering songs I used to know how to play. 75 00:03:57.604 --> 00:04:01.708 Um, I haven't discovered them all again, and I definitely haven't learned anything new. 76 00:04:01.708 --> 00:04:04.577 I bought a house a year and a half ago and so it's from 1980, 77 00:04:04.577 --> 00:04:07.647 so I have to do a lot of renovations and I do them myself, 78 00:04:08.748 --> 00:04:12.585 which was new to me but that's very fun. 79 00:04:12.585 --> 00:04:16.155 Basically I built a sauna like a year and a half ago? Two years ago? 80 00:04:16.155 --> 00:04:21.394 And I had never really done any DIY stuff or woodworking or construction stuff before that 81 00:04:21.394 --> 00:04:25.098 and I learned a lot from that and it kind of emboldened me to 82 00:04:25.098 --> 00:04:28.401 when I was going to be moving into this house to just think well 83 00:04:28.401 --> 00:04:31.137 why not look on YouTube to see how to do that thing? 84 00:04:31.137 --> 00:04:33.439 Instead of just automatically hiring someone to do it. 85 00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:35.341 And it turns out you know, little by little you can do almost everything, 86 00:04:35.341 --> 00:04:37.677 And it turns out you know, little by little you can do almost everything, 87 00:04:37.844 --> 00:04:41.214 including electrical, and I'm not dead yet. 88 00:04:41.314 --> 00:04:42.115 Sammy: Hahahahaha. 89 00:04:42.315 --> 00:04:43.283 James: I could be dead soon though. 90 00:04:43.383 --> 00:04:46.819 A lot of my spare time is that kind of stuff, and also just I have children 91 00:04:46.819 --> 00:04:51.824 so taking care of my kids and trying to teach them how to read, and crap like that. 92 00:04:51.824 --> 00:04:51.858 Sammy: How- Do you use the sauna often now? Or is it- 93 00:04:51.858 --> 00:04:53.526 Sammy: How- Do you use the sauna often now? Or is it- 94 00:04:53.693 --> 00:04:54.093 James: Oh. 95 00:04:54.193 --> 00:04:56.162 Sammy: Once you built it you're like I don't want to use it as much? 96 00:04:56.296 --> 00:05:00.767 James: Oh, I love sauna but I don't have a sauna at my house, it was built somewhere else. 97 00:05:00.867 --> 00:05:01.467 Sammy: Oh. 98 00:05:01.467 --> 00:05:02.869 James: So I don't get to go that often. 99 00:05:02.869 --> 00:05:07.774 James: In theory I go to the gym every weekend? And to lift weights and then go to the sauna; 100 00:05:07.807 --> 00:05:12.779 but it pretty much only happens like once a month and usually the weights don't get lifted. 101 00:05:14.113 --> 00:05:16.916 Sammy: What made you interested in the writing role at Linus Media Group. 102 00:05:17.050 --> 00:05:20.653 James: It was a weird journey, I never saw myself as a writer when I was a student; 103 00:05:20.753 --> 00:05:24.424 I just took english as like an elective during my degree, 104 00:05:24.557 --> 00:05:27.160 and I had an english professor who said you could be a writer you know? 105 00:05:27.293 --> 00:05:28.895 And I thought okay, cool. 106 00:05:29.028 --> 00:05:29.595 Sammy: Hahahaha. 107 00:05:29.595 --> 00:05:33.266 James: And then I just went on, I finished my degree and I went to a technical school after 108 00:05:33.266 --> 00:05:37.937 and did a different technical degree, then I had a job, I quit that job to go traveling for a year. 109 00:05:38.438 --> 00:05:41.674 I thought of a business idea while I was traveling, I tried to launch that company; 110 00:05:41.674 --> 00:05:45.345 part of launching that company I decided I should make content related to this, 111 00:05:45.345 --> 00:05:48.414 and while that was happening I started doing some freelance writing 112 00:05:48.414 --> 00:05:52.151 and so that's when I applied for this job because I was like 113 00:05:52.151 --> 00:05:57.290 hey I'm kind of like a low level - entry level kind of content creator and writer right now, 114 00:05:57.290 --> 00:06:00.860 so i'll apply for this, and that's kind of what happened and I- 115 00:06:00.860 --> 00:06:05.365 It was an LTT job but I had been watching TechQuickie for a while; 116 00:06:05.365 --> 00:06:07.533 I was like binging it every every day when I was eating supper, 117 00:06:07.533 --> 00:06:11.070 and I had no idea it was a Canadian property. 118 00:06:11.070 --> 00:06:14.707 I thought it was oh that's one of those big youtube channels, they must be in California or something 119 00:06:14.707 --> 00:06:18.978 and then I found out they were in Surrey I was like holy-! Okay, so then I applied. 120 00:06:18.978 --> 00:06:21.881 And I had an advantage when I applied because I was like underemployed. 121 00:06:21.881 --> 00:06:25.451 I just worked at this gym; actually David worked there too, that's how we met. 122 00:06:25.451 --> 00:06:25.818 Sammy: Really!? 123 00:06:25.818 --> 00:06:28.254 James: Yeah, I actually knew david before LMG and- 124 00:06:28.254 --> 00:06:28.588 Sammy: Oh wow. 125 00:06:28.588 --> 00:06:31.791 James: I was the one that like encouraged him to apply or whatever and um- 126 00:06:32.458 --> 00:06:36.028 But back when I worked at that gym you know I had not full time hours, 127 00:06:36.028 --> 00:06:39.432 so as part of the application here we had to write a sample script, and I wrote it 128 00:06:39.432 --> 00:06:43.202 and then like a day went by and I was like I'm gonna just do another one; 129 00:06:43.336 --> 00:06:48.207 and I remember Linus replying like he said in his reply email that \"I like your hustle\" 130 00:06:48.408 --> 00:06:49.242 and I was like, yes! 131 00:06:49.375 --> 00:06:51.511 It's like we've been hustling ever since. 132 00:06:51.711 --> 00:06:52.779 Sammy and James: Hahahahaha. 133 00:06:53.045 --> 00:06:55.515 Sammy: Oh, can I ask what tech degree you have, or technical degree? 134 00:06:55.648 --> 00:07:01.087 James: Oh yeah, so I have a- This is funny, I have a degree in geography actually; 135 00:07:01.087 --> 00:07:05.525 and I have a advanced diploma in GIS, which is geographical information systems. 136 00:07:05.525 --> 00:07:08.428 James: It's basically just like, if you have a spreadsheet of data, 137 00:07:08.428 --> 00:07:11.731 and then you have two columns for lat and long coordinates? 138 00:07:11.764 --> 00:07:16.969 You've just made that data spatial, and so it yeah that's basically it; 139 00:07:17.003 --> 00:07:18.871 it's like computers and maps, you know? Sammy: Oh okay. 140 00:07:18.871 --> 00:07:22.575 Sammy: I was gonna say, like if you play Geoguessr can you like, figure out where you are? James: Geoguessr? 141 00:07:22.708 --> 00:07:25.445 James: I've never really played Geoguessr, but I think I'll probably be okay at it 142 00:07:25.445 --> 00:07:27.980 because I have been to like 36 countries? 143 00:07:28.047 --> 00:07:29.982 Sammy: I guess you kind of mentioned already, but uh 144 00:07:30.149 --> 00:07:31.617 how did you get into your skill I guess? 145 00:07:31.751 --> 00:07:32.151 James: Um- 146 00:07:32.151 --> 00:07:34.620 Sammy: Like did writing just come fluent to you? Or did you have to do like a lot of- 147 00:07:34.687 --> 00:07:36.222 James: Writing did kind of come naturally to me, 148 00:07:36.255 --> 00:07:39.392 my favorite teacher in high school was my english teacher? 149 00:07:39.425 --> 00:07:39.826 Sammy: Mmmm. 150 00:07:39.992 --> 00:07:43.596 James: Um but back then it was pretty much just you know, we're doing five by five essays. 151 00:07:43.729 --> 00:07:47.266 I took the AP english exam, like I took AP english. Sammy: AP english, oh my goodness. 152 00:07:47.300 --> 00:07:51.337 James: Um, and then I technically my degree is an arts degree, 153 00:07:51.337 --> 00:07:53.439 so I did a lot of writing in university; 154 00:07:54.140 --> 00:07:59.979 and I had a couple um professors in university, some of whom weren't even in the english department 155 00:08:00.112 --> 00:08:06.519 who really did push my writing, and plus my best friend to this day he was a 156 00:08:06.552 --> 00:08:10.456 he was an english teacher at like a private school for a long time? 157 00:08:10.456 --> 00:08:14.160 And so he taught like SAT english, like SAT writing 158 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:19.065 and, and how to write your essays for that, and so we always kind of nerded out on writing. 159 00:08:19.098 --> 00:08:22.401 So I guess all those kind of things together. 160 00:08:22.401 --> 00:08:23.903 Sammy: I didn't know you did AP english. 161 00:08:23.903 --> 00:08:25.204 James: Why would you know that? 162 00:08:25.338 --> 00:08:27.440 Sammy: I don't know, I'm surprised you know? Because you know, 163 00:08:27.440 --> 00:08:29.509 because I went to a school that was focused on AP? 164 00:08:29.609 --> 00:08:30.109 James: Mmm. 165 00:08:30.142 --> 00:08:33.412 Sammy: So, and I'm just like oh like I guess this is like a really like niche thing 166 00:08:33.412 --> 00:08:36.516 but the more people I find out who've done these kind of classes, I'm like wow. 167 00:08:36.516 --> 00:08:40.152 James: I took an AP art history class, with that same teacher. 168 00:08:40.186 --> 00:08:40.553 Sammy: Oh. 169 00:08:40.653 --> 00:08:43.422 James: That guy was a beast honestly, he's still on my Facebook. 170 00:08:43.856 --> 00:08:45.992 He used to have this thing on his blackboard, 171 00:08:45.992 --> 00:08:48.961 he would have like an obscure word and its definition; 172 00:08:48.961 --> 00:08:53.399 he would have a really cool quote, what I'm listening to and usually also like an artwork. 173 00:08:53.399 --> 00:08:56.636 He still to this day posts this stuff on his Facebook page every day, 174 00:08:56.636 --> 00:08:57.036 Sammy: Mmmm. 175 00:08:57.169 --> 00:09:00.172 James: And it's like the only reason to log into facebook, 176 00:09:00.172 --> 00:09:04.810 it's like the only content that goes on your feed that's just not like either brain rot or negative. 177 00:09:04.977 --> 00:09:08.548 James: Um, yeah Mr. Livingstone, you rule dude. 178 00:09:08.648 --> 00:09:09.582 Sammy: Hahahaha. 179 00:09:09.715 --> 00:09:11.517 James: Really, the formative teacher. 180 00:09:11.651 --> 00:09:15.154 The reason it's kind of relevant here is he's similar to Linus in that like 181 00:09:15.254 --> 00:09:17.990 there's people in this world who are just like appreciators of things, 182 00:09:17.990 --> 00:09:20.793 or who are like, who have opinions on things; 183 00:09:20.793 --> 00:09:26.265 like Linus and what we do here you can't do unless you are, unless you have an opinion, you know? 184 00:09:26.265 --> 00:09:30.303 When you look at a monitor and you're looking at the refresh rate of it or the smearing or whatever 185 00:09:30.303 --> 00:09:35.341 it's like some people just go this is a monitor, and other people go this is an okay monitor; 186 00:09:35.341 --> 00:09:37.810 it's good at this or it's bad at that, they actually 187 00:09:37.810 --> 00:09:39.845 interpret life at a higher resolution than other people, 188 00:09:39.845 --> 00:09:41.180 they actually look for things in their lives. 189 00:09:41.414 --> 00:09:45.184 And this teacher of mine, he cared about the arts you know, 190 00:09:45.184 --> 00:09:50.423 he had a favorite poem, he would hear a song in a commercial and be like that is a cool song 191 00:09:50.423 --> 00:09:54.860 and it you know, evokes these emotions; and he kind of instilled that into me, 192 00:09:54.860 --> 00:09:56.662 in particular around the arts. 193 00:09:56.662 --> 00:09:58.097 Sammy: So how's working at LMG? 194 00:09:58.097 --> 00:09:59.899 James: I've always said it's fun stuff in a hurry. 195 00:09:59.899 --> 00:10:06.005 I think culture of a whole company kind of trickles down from the top, from ownership; 196 00:10:06.005 --> 00:10:10.009 so a lot of how it is to work here is how Linus is, you know? 197 00:10:10.009 --> 00:10:17.149 Linus likes to work hard, he likes to kick ass, he likes to have high quality, 198 00:10:17.817 --> 00:10:21.487 he likes to have fun, he likes to put things into the world that 199 00:10:21.487 --> 00:10:23.456 make the world better, they don't make it worse; 200 00:10:24.357 --> 00:10:28.761 um, he's an honest person, like you know we have high degrees of transparency. 201 00:10:29.895 --> 00:10:33.499 The whole culture kind of comes from who he is, and we all kind of 202 00:10:33.499 --> 00:10:36.669 to some degree or another work the way that he works. 203 00:10:36.669 --> 00:10:40.139 I haven't worked in many places and I haven't worked at any large companies. 204 00:10:40.139 --> 00:10:45.678 I assume this is kind of what it's like everywhere, but it may not be. 205 00:10:45.711 --> 00:10:46.078 Sammy: yeah. 206 00:10:46.078 --> 00:10:49.148 James: But I feel like that's kind of the root of company culture 207 00:10:49.148 --> 00:10:52.718 and probably why it's so hard to change company culture or like 208 00:10:52.718 --> 00:10:54.820 where did they even come from, you know? 209 00:10:54.987 --> 00:10:57.156 So yeah that's kind of what it's like to work here, it's like- 210 00:10:57.156 --> 00:10:58.424 Sammy: Work hard, play hard? 211 00:10:58.557 --> 00:11:01.694 James: No I wouldn't say \"work hard, play hard\" really because 212 00:11:02.061 --> 00:11:03.596 I don't know, I don't want people to get the impression, 213 00:11:03.629 --> 00:11:07.366 there are other jobs where people work 80 hours a week, or they work like super long nights 214 00:11:07.366 --> 00:11:08.901 or they bring their work home with them, 215 00:11:08.934 --> 00:11:15.174 like I really check out after I clock out, like I don't really think about work too much. 216 00:11:15.207 --> 00:11:17.343 I mean I'm lying in bed, I think about work; but I don't- Sammy: Hahahaha. 217 00:11:17.343 --> 00:11:21.313 James: I personally don't go home and do more emails at night and stuff like that; 218 00:11:21.313 --> 00:11:22.782 I know a couple people here do, but- 219 00:11:22.915 --> 00:11:26.819 Even by the time I was hired, which was already like I don't know, 220 00:11:26.819 --> 00:11:31.257 four or five years into the company? Because I was hired in 2017, I think it started in 2013? 221 00:11:31.257 --> 00:11:35.761 They already were trying to create work life balance for people, 222 00:11:35.795 --> 00:11:39.598 because in the very early days, the original employees there wasn't that much of that; 223 00:11:39.598 --> 00:11:43.235 it was, it was just a couple friends making videos kind of thing. 224 00:11:43.235 --> 00:11:46.806 Um, and there were some really late nights, and that's just not how it is anymore, 225 00:11:46.806 --> 00:11:50.843 it hasn't been for a very long time and the owners like prided themselves on 226 00:11:50.843 --> 00:11:54.647 \"making a real company\"; so it's like \"work hard while you're here\" 227 00:11:54.647 --> 00:11:56.048 like I'm not on my phone when I'm here, I'm not on reddit unless it's the LTT reddit, 228 00:11:56.048 --> 00:11:59.552 like I'm not on my phone when I'm here, I'm not on reddit unless it's the LTT reddit, 229 00:11:59.552 --> 00:12:03.222 like I'm not just like scrolling, I'm not watching the WAN Show 230 00:12:03.222 --> 00:12:07.059 like some people at work are doing right? Like when you're working here like 231 00:12:07.059 --> 00:12:11.797 you're working all day, okay? Like I have to- I check my phone when I get into the car at night, 232 00:12:11.797 --> 00:12:14.400 it'd be like okay am I supposed to pick up some bread on the way home. 233 00:12:14.567 --> 00:12:15.935 And like that's it. 234 00:12:16.035 --> 00:12:19.505 Sammy: Yeah, I mean I was going to say I watch WAN because I sometimes have to. 235 00:12:19.538 --> 00:12:23.542 James: Some people who work here have to watch videos for work, it's true. 236 00:12:23.576 --> 00:12:24.176 Sammy: Hahahaha. 237 00:12:24.210 --> 00:12:26.779 James: I'm just mea- I just mean like I'm on task all day. 238 00:12:26.779 --> 00:12:27.546 Sammy: Yeah, yeah. 239 00:12:27.546 --> 00:12:32.451 James: You know? Um, and I feel like you pretty much have to to to thrive here; 240 00:12:32.551 --> 00:12:38.858 or even I don't know, I've seen people on reddit say that like their job is mostly 241 00:12:38.858 --> 00:12:41.293 just like click a button every like, every couple hours, 242 00:12:41.393 --> 00:12:42.928 and then they just go back to like screwing around. 243 00:12:43.129 --> 00:12:44.463 It's like you would not last here. 244 00:12:44.497 --> 00:12:44.897 Sammy: No. 245 00:12:44.930 --> 00:12:47.166 James: We are like a lean and productive bunch. 246 00:12:47.199 --> 00:12:47.266 Sammy: Yeah, I feel like it's like you are, 247 00:12:47.266 --> 00:12:49.869 James: I just feel like- but it's, I just want to make sure like it's different than like 248 00:12:49.869 --> 00:12:52.772 I wouldn't say we have like \"hustle culture or grind set\". 249 00:12:52.772 --> 00:12:57.076 Like it isn't a building of people who want to work 80 hours a week and work for free. 250 00:12:57.076 --> 00:12:59.979 James: It's not like startups, it's not like that at all; 251 00:12:59.979 --> 00:13:04.717 it's just- It's just like a team of A players who are on their a game while at work, 252 00:13:04.750 --> 00:13:08.053 and then, and then work is over, and go have the rest of your life. 253 00:13:08.053 --> 00:13:11.757 Sammy: What's the weirdest story you have about work? 254 00:13:11.991 --> 00:13:14.860 James: Man weird stuff here happens all the time. Sammy: Hahahahahaha. 255 00:13:14.894 --> 00:13:17.563 James: Like today I was walking through the Labs warehouse 256 00:13:17.563 --> 00:13:21.367 and they had a bunch of magnetic cable management things stuck to the back of a truck, 257 00:13:21.400 --> 00:13:23.035 and they're trying to like tow something with them. 258 00:13:23.035 --> 00:13:25.204 Like this job man, like there's just... 259 00:13:25.237 --> 00:13:29.074 I've slapped Linus in the face for a slow motion camera before. 260 00:13:29.909 --> 00:13:30.776 Sammy: But what's the weirdest? 261 00:13:30.776 --> 00:13:31.443 James: The weirdest? 262 00:13:31.477 --> 00:13:31.877 Sammy: Yeah. 263 00:13:31.911 --> 00:13:35.247 James: I don't know, there's that footage of me in bed with Linus with a wig on, 264 00:13:35.247 --> 00:13:36.782 Sammy: Hahahahahaha. James: like I'm pretending to be Yvonne. 265 00:13:36.816 --> 00:13:39.618 James: There's that photo shoot that me and Colton did where I- 266 00:13:39.618 --> 00:13:40.152 Sammy: Oh... 267 00:13:40.186 --> 00:13:46.258 James: I like- My wife was pregnant at the time and we made like a cast of her torso; 268 00:13:46.258 --> 00:13:50.062 so I had her big pregnant belly, but also boobs were connected to it, because why not? 269 00:13:50.095 --> 00:13:53.666 And I was wearing that like under a dress... or no Colton was wearing that! 270 00:13:53.666 --> 00:13:56.535 And then I like was snuggling with him in the fields; 271 00:13:56.535 --> 00:13:58.904 Like how do we even think of that? 272 00:13:58.904 --> 00:13:59.738 Sammy: Hahahahaha. 273 00:13:59.772 --> 00:14:00.606 James: That's amazing. 274 00:14:00.773 --> 00:14:02.741 Sammy: But what's what's the weirdest of all of them? 275 00:14:03.442 --> 00:14:05.277 James: What's the weirdest of all of them? That might be it. 276 00:14:05.344 --> 00:14:06.512 Sammy: *Laughs* 277 00:14:06.545 --> 00:14:08.747 Sammy: Snuggling with Colton? With your wife's cast. James: I feel like they're- 278 00:14:08.747 --> 00:14:11.083 We took, like the photos are amazing; I actually printed them out, 279 00:14:11.116 --> 00:14:13.319 like they're on the wall in the studio for the longest time. 280 00:14:13.652 --> 00:14:15.020 One of my favorite moments ever, 281 00:14:15.020 --> 00:14:19.225 like Dennis obviously is like a endless fountain of creativity and humor; 282 00:14:19.225 --> 00:14:22.695 something about that guy, he just has that x factor, he's so funny. 283 00:14:22.695 --> 00:14:23.996 One of the funniest things he ever said, 284 00:14:25.631 --> 00:14:29.802 and this is the best part about the why Dennis is funny, is like he's a funny person 285 00:14:29.835 --> 00:14:35.241 but then he's also transplanted into Canada where like he's unintentionally funny sometimes? 286 00:14:35.241 --> 00:14:39.011 We're trying to think of the title for this robot vacuum centric, 287 00:14:39.011 --> 00:14:42.548 James: Like floor is lava type Channel Super Fun game. 288 00:14:42.615 --> 00:14:43.782 And we're like okay don't- 289 00:14:44.483 --> 00:14:48.787 Don't touch the like the vacuums are gonna kill you, or like what should we call it? 290 00:14:48.954 --> 00:14:50.456 And then you know when you're in a brainstorm, 291 00:14:50.456 --> 00:14:52.791 and then something like clicks and you just blurt it out, and you're like 292 00:14:52.791 --> 00:14:56.061 So confident that it's gonna be the best idea ever as soon as it hits the airwaves. 293 00:14:56.061 --> 00:14:58.497 Dennis goes \"Don't Be Sucked!\". 294 00:14:59.765 --> 00:15:04.303 James: \"Don't Be Sucked!\" I was like that is the best title I've ever heard; 295 00:15:04.336 --> 00:15:08.841 like just, just \"Don't Be Sucked\"; I still say that, 296 00:15:08.841 --> 00:15:10.910 it's like a meme in my household, it's like so funny. 297 00:15:11.076 --> 00:15:13.913 James: No one, like no native english speaker could ever come up with that; 298 00:15:13.913 --> 00:15:19.018 you like, you just had to- You had to be Dennis to say those words, it was so funny. 299 00:15:19.184 --> 00:15:20.886 Sammy: What's the hardest part of your job then? 300 00:15:22.221 --> 00:15:22.354 James: The hardest part of the job honestly might be uh, like the public nature of it? 301 00:15:22.354 --> 00:15:27.459 James: The hardest part of the job honestly might be uh, like the public nature of it? 302 00:15:27.626 --> 00:15:28.394 Sammy: Mmmm. 303 00:15:28.494 --> 00:15:34.266 James: It's tricky, I mean we're obviously so grateful and privileged to have an audience; 304 00:15:34.400 --> 00:15:41.106 but um, it's hard having an audience you know? Like especially our audience, 305 00:15:41.106 --> 00:15:47.179 our audience isn't brain dead, our audience uh isn't a passive, a group of passive watchers. 306 00:15:47.179 --> 00:15:51.317 Our audience are very engaged, they have high standards and they hold us to those standards; 307 00:15:52.584 --> 00:15:59.158 but it's, you know? Kind of a lot sometimes to have people you know, 308 00:15:59.158 --> 00:16:02.061 pointing things out there were like how things could be better, 309 00:16:02.061 --> 00:16:06.899 or that you know, there's an audio issue over here or like \"um actuallys\" and stuff like that 310 00:16:06.899 --> 00:16:13.105 as um... you know you, it's just an endless uphill like amount of work 311 00:16:13.105 --> 00:16:16.508 to meet the standard that we want to meet? 312 00:16:16.608 --> 00:16:21.113 Um, and it's also like the parasocial element of it too. 313 00:16:21.146 --> 00:16:25.751 Like, it's... I just envy companies that nobody cares about; 314 00:16:25.784 --> 00:16:31.123 like imagine if you could have staffing changes without there being a reddit thread about it, 315 00:16:31.123 --> 00:16:41.166 like holy cow! Like it's just, it's just really a lot of work to just be 316 00:16:41.166 --> 00:16:46.839 under the microscope all the time? For things that just like normal companies do 317 00:16:46.905 --> 00:16:47.973 and they don't have to worry about it. 318 00:16:47.973 --> 00:16:52.878 It's just like we have this like overhead that we have to pay, you know? 319 00:16:53.012 --> 00:16:56.548 And I have had the experience now; um, which is very weird 320 00:16:56.548 --> 00:16:59.018 and I kind of hope everyone has this experience in their life; 321 00:16:59.051 --> 00:17:01.487 although I also don't wish this upon anyone, 322 00:17:01.487 --> 00:17:04.089 but I've had the experience of reading like a reddit thread 323 00:17:04.089 --> 00:17:07.960 and having more information than anyone else on the internet. 324 00:17:07.993 --> 00:17:12.598 This happened during the incident of 2023, I was reading a reddit thread; 325 00:17:12.631 --> 00:17:15.200 obviously people create their opinions, and beliefs, and narratives 326 00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:17.436 based on the limited information that they have. 327 00:17:18.237 --> 00:17:23.642 And so, they do that logically and some people are more logical than others, 328 00:17:23.642 --> 00:17:24.943 and their comments get upvoted. 329 00:17:24.943 --> 00:17:28.747 And it was just amazing to have that superior knowledge 330 00:17:28.747 --> 00:17:32.518 and just read like hundreds of comments or where people are so confident, 331 00:17:32.518 --> 00:17:35.921 and other people are like \"yeah, you're right!\"; and you're just reading being like 332 00:17:35.921 --> 00:17:42.561 this is so far from right that it's... it's like embarrassingly wrong, it's so crazy wrong 333 00:17:42.561 --> 00:17:46.532 and I- Ever since I've had that experience every time I read a thread about 334 00:17:46.532 --> 00:17:50.803 something in the Ukraine war, or like just anything; I'm like, 335 00:17:50.803 --> 00:17:55.040 even the the smartest sounding, most upvoted person here knows nothing! 336 00:17:55.040 --> 00:17:59.678 They know nothing about reality and it's like, just to keep that in mind. 337 00:17:59.678 --> 00:18:01.180 This is why I wish other people have the experience; 338 00:18:01.180 --> 00:18:03.682 like just keeping that in mind while you are out there in the world, 339 00:18:03.682 --> 00:18:05.284 it really changes your perspective. 340 00:18:05.284 --> 00:18:06.752 Sammy: I think that's, I've also kind of learned that, 341 00:18:06.752 --> 00:18:11.290 it's like people just assume things and then they're piloting off like hearsay 342 00:18:11.323 --> 00:18:13.659 or like just baseless like thoughts. 343 00:18:13.692 --> 00:18:15.094 James: They just have limited information. 344 00:18:15.227 --> 00:18:15.594 Sammy: Yeah. 345 00:18:15.594 --> 00:18:18.697 James: So it's like I have these five data points, which lead me to this conclusion; 346 00:18:18.697 --> 00:18:22.067 which sounds reasonable, it's like yeah but if you had 25 data points 347 00:18:22.067 --> 00:18:23.902 your conclusion will be way over here. 348 00:18:24.036 --> 00:18:24.470 Sammy: Yeah. 349 00:18:24.503 --> 00:18:26.572 Sammy: What's the coolest project you got to work on? 350 00:18:26.572 --> 00:18:29.141 Um, fairly early on in my tenure here; 351 00:18:29.741 --> 00:18:31.577 I took the initiative to organize a quantum computer tour, that we did; 352 00:18:31.577 --> 00:18:34.179 I took the initiative to organize a quantum computer tour, that we did; 353 00:18:34.179 --> 00:18:36.715 and I went with Linus on that shoot, and that was very cool. 354 00:18:36.715 --> 00:18:39.118 I think that might have been one of my first like tour videos? 355 00:18:39.351 --> 00:18:43.388 Um, and I never would have been in that building with that level of access, 356 00:18:43.489 --> 00:18:45.691 without this job; so that was very cool early on. 357 00:18:45.724 --> 00:18:46.125 Sammy: Mmmm. 358 00:18:46.258 --> 00:18:51.497 James: Later on I did a similar thing at Nanosys? Without Linus, 359 00:18:51.497 --> 00:18:54.233 the video did not get a lot of views but I think it's a great video; 360 00:18:54.233 --> 00:18:57.603 and I got to get a tour through Nanosys, and check out how the quantum dots work 361 00:18:57.603 --> 00:18:59.071 and they have those glowing liquid 362 00:18:59.071 --> 00:19:02.341 and they showed me how it all works, and gave me a big tour of their facility; 363 00:19:02.341 --> 00:19:05.244 it was very cool, I think you should check out the video. 364 00:19:05.444 --> 00:19:08.280 I'm still disappointed it didn't get it very many- 365 00:19:08.447 --> 00:19:11.450 It was a stinker when it came out, got like 700, 000 views or something like that, 366 00:19:11.450 --> 00:19:15.988 I was so devastated; but yeah maybe check it out and comment of like why got so few views; 367 00:19:16.021 --> 00:19:19.358 other than it being well A it's not Linus, and B it's, 368 00:19:19.358 --> 00:19:22.794 you know it's kind of niche it's like a display technology; so not- 369 00:19:22.794 --> 00:19:25.497 It's not going to get as many views as like how do I make my FPS better. 370 00:19:25.497 --> 00:19:29.801 Sammy: Second to last question is, what are your jobs prior to LMG. 371 00:19:29.968 --> 00:19:31.436 James: My jobs prior to LMG? 372 00:19:31.436 --> 00:19:31.870 Sammy: Yeah. 373 00:19:31.904 --> 00:19:34.840 James: When I was too young to work legally, I worked on a berry farm. 374 00:19:34.840 --> 00:19:35.307 Sammy: Hahaha. 375 00:19:35.340 --> 00:19:39.378 James: I worked on one of these machines, like they go over top of a row of raspberries; 376 00:19:39.511 --> 00:19:43.815 and they shake the bush, and then I had to like just pick crap out of there. 377 00:19:44.116 --> 00:19:48.320 And then when I came of age I worked at a movie theater for a couple years, 378 00:19:48.820 --> 00:19:52.658 I met some lifelong friends there; and when I was in college I 379 00:19:53.592 --> 00:19:57.896 usually didn't work during the semesters, I usually worked just in the summer; 380 00:19:57.896 --> 00:20:03.235 so in the first summer I worked as a plumber for like a distant relative in Edmonton, 381 00:20:03.235 --> 00:20:07.439 James: just building a high rise; but then every summer after that I was a wild firefighter, 382 00:20:07.472 --> 00:20:08.207 Sammy: Wow. 383 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:10.108 James: I had tried to get in that first summer but I didn't get it; 384 00:20:10.108 --> 00:20:13.478 I applied again the next year and I got it, I was able to be a wild firefighter 385 00:20:13.579 --> 00:20:20.986 for the ministry of forests out of Vernon and that was the best job ever as a college student, 386 00:20:21.220 --> 00:20:24.790 because I made so much money because there was so much overtime; 387 00:20:24.790 --> 00:20:30.229 that I graduated not in debt but instead with having like a sizable chunk of cash in the bank. 388 00:20:30.229 --> 00:20:35.567 And like the fire season just ran the exact same duration as like your summer, 389 00:20:35.567 --> 00:20:38.337 and then just go back to school, like it was sweet. 390 00:20:38.337 --> 00:20:41.940 I did work for a professor once as like a transcriber, 391 00:20:41.940 --> 00:20:44.276 I had to transcribe all these interviews that they did. Sammy: Ooh! 392 00:20:44.276 --> 00:20:48.413 James: Which was really interesting, I got to learn deeply about a topic 393 00:20:48.413 --> 00:20:51.783 because I was just transcribing all of their, all the interviews and then 394 00:20:51.783 --> 00:20:57.856 I graduated, I did one more fire season, then I went to BCIT, I wasn't working during that 395 00:20:57.856 --> 00:21:02.527 but that had a co-op that placed me at a software as a service company called Tetrad, 396 00:21:03.161 --> 00:21:07.366 where I worked there for two years; and they actually after I worked there, 397 00:21:07.532 --> 00:21:09.334 I think they ended up having a big data breach? 398 00:21:09.334 --> 00:21:09.768 Sammy: Oh. 399 00:21:09.801 --> 00:21:10.836 James: Which was crazy. 400 00:21:10.869 --> 00:21:11.503 Sammy: Hahaha. 401 00:21:12.404 --> 00:21:13.405 Sammy: Got out just in time. 402 00:21:13.438 --> 00:21:16.174 James: Yeah, and then yeah, and then after; 403 00:21:16.308 --> 00:21:18.844 when I came back from traveling for a year, then I- 404 00:21:18.877 --> 00:21:22.814 That's when I was doing like freelance stuff, and I worked at that gym just to do something; 405 00:21:23.081 --> 00:21:24.650 and then uh, then I came here. 406 00:21:24.783 --> 00:21:27.352 Sammy: I think of all the people I know you probably have the most life experience. 407 00:21:27.386 --> 00:21:29.154 James: Of all the people you know? 408 00:21:29.154 --> 00:21:29.655 Sammy: Yeah. 409 00:21:29.788 --> 00:21:30.956 James: Like in the world? 410 00:21:30.989 --> 00:21:31.490 Sammy: Yeah. 411 00:21:31.623 --> 00:21:33.392 James: Hahahahaha. Sammy: I mean what... 412 00:21:33.425 --> 00:21:35.627 Sammy: Because you did like, you did all the stuff like at work; 413 00:21:35.627 --> 00:21:39.164 but then prior you did like, you went to the army; yeah you- 414 00:21:39.164 --> 00:21:41.633 James: Hey that's a spoiler. 415 00:21:41.800 --> 00:21:43.769 Sammy: Oh uh, you did, you did something. 416 00:21:44.903 --> 00:21:47.806 Like you know, you did all that stuff and I think it's like wow; 417 00:21:47.906 --> 00:21:51.443 and then even now you're like, you're, you know, working on your house. 418 00:21:51.643 --> 00:21:52.477 You have a, you have a chicken. 419 00:21:52.711 --> 00:21:54.079 James: Haha, I have two chickens. 420 00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:54.646 Sammy: Yeah. 421 00:21:54.646 --> 00:21:57.115 James: And we used to have quails, that's in- There's video footage of that too. 422 00:21:57.182 --> 00:22:00.919 James: yeah, we used to have like how many we even have? Like a dozen? 20 of them? I don't know. 423 00:22:00.919 --> 00:22:03.455 Sammy: I think every time I talk to you and you tell me something about your life, 424 00:22:03.488 --> 00:22:05.791 it's just like it gets a little more interesting every day. 425 00:22:05.791 --> 00:22:06.625 James: Hahahaha. 426 00:22:06.725 --> 00:22:09.261 Sammy: Next time you'll tell me you can do like four backflips or something. 427 00:22:09.428 --> 00:22:10.395 James: I can do a backflip. 428 00:22:10.395 --> 00:22:10.896 Sammy: What!? 429 00:22:11.063 --> 00:22:13.465 James: Yeah, but I've never done it on the ground. 430 00:22:13.632 --> 00:22:15.167 Sammy: Maybe I'll record it so I can... 431 00:22:15.167 --> 00:22:16.535 James: I actually learned that through work too, 432 00:22:16.568 --> 00:22:19.338 we had like just a fun work event where we went to one of those trampoline parks 433 00:22:19.371 --> 00:22:22.274 and I was like dang it today is the day I learned to do a backflip! 434 00:22:22.274 --> 00:22:25.877 And I just went to the foam pit, and they're all, they're easy; they're just all about committing. 435 00:22:25.877 --> 00:22:26.144 Sammy: Yeah. 436 00:22:26.144 --> 00:22:27.112 James: You have to just commit. 437 00:22:27.913 --> 00:22:31.717 Sammy: Eli was teaching me how to do a front flip at Linus's pool. 438 00:22:31.917 --> 00:22:35.654 Sammy: I was like yeah, like once you start halfway through you're just like, you're done. James: Yeah I was there that day. 439 00:22:35.754 --> 00:22:37.556 James: Front flips are kind of harder and um- 440 00:22:37.556 --> 00:22:39.524 But I did, I was able to do those on trampolines. 441 00:22:39.524 --> 00:22:42.027 Sammy: Really? Front flips are easier than backflips? Or harder than backflips? 442 00:22:42.060 --> 00:22:42.361 James: Yeah. 443 00:22:42.394 --> 00:22:42.861 Sammy: Really? 444 00:22:42.861 --> 00:22:47.899 James: Because all you have to do for, with a backflip is once your hips like 445 00:22:47.899 --> 00:22:54.172 if this is like the vertical plane, once your hips go up and past, just past that vertical plane 446 00:22:54.373 --> 00:22:56.808 the rest of it can- Is like self completing. 447 00:22:56.975 --> 00:22:57.342 Sammy: Oh. 448 00:22:57.342 --> 00:23:00.045 James: Your ass wants to go back underneath. 449 00:23:00.312 --> 00:23:01.079 James: And so- 450 00:23:01.246 --> 00:23:02.414 Sammy: This isn't advice by the way. 451 00:23:02.514 --> 00:23:04.549 James: You have to just jump high, bring your knees up 452 00:23:04.583 --> 00:23:09.621 and then once you like turn enough it's like, and it just closes it, just yeah completes itself. 453 00:23:09.621 --> 00:23:10.956 Sammy: This isn't advice by the way. 454 00:23:10.989 --> 00:23:11.823 James: Hahahaha. 455 00:23:11.990 --> 00:23:14.593 Sammy: We do not hold responsibility if you try it. 456 00:23:14.760 --> 00:23:16.461 James: Go to a foam pit, you can do it. 457 00:23:16.628 --> 00:23:19.631 Sammy: Do you have any any life tips you can give to anyone in the audience? 458 00:23:19.664 --> 00:23:22.701 James: One very important thing in life is is just self discipline. 459 00:23:22.768 --> 00:23:26.638 James: When I was traveling I read a bunch of books and one of the books I read was the 460 00:23:26.638 --> 00:23:34.212 Isaacson Steve Jobs biography, and on steve jobs 30th birthday he recited some kind of like 461 00:23:34.212 --> 00:23:39.351 old indian maxim, which is in your first 30 years you make your habits, 462 00:23:39.351 --> 00:23:41.586 in your next 30 years your habits make you; 463 00:23:41.720 --> 00:23:46.491 and I think that um self discipline is like so important. 464 00:23:46.491 --> 00:23:48.226 I remember when I was working at Tetrad, 465 00:23:48.693 --> 00:23:52.631 I remember I used to do behaviors at my desk that were like lazy, 466 00:23:52.631 --> 00:23:57.135 like little corner cutting things like I would just not do something exactly properly 467 00:23:57.135 --> 00:24:02.507 because it was just it took longer and I remember making a decision at some point to be like 468 00:24:02.541 --> 00:24:05.444 I'm not going to ever do those corner cutting behaviors, 469 00:24:05.444 --> 00:24:07.612 I'm only going to do things just like properly. 470 00:24:07.779 --> 00:24:13.718 And if you have that mentality in every aspect of your life, you're so much better off 471 00:24:13.718 --> 00:24:16.221 and then people recognize it, and they want to work with you; 472 00:24:16.354 --> 00:24:19.224 Um yeah, there you go. 473 00:24:19.224 --> 00:24:23.395 Also another piece of um advice now that I'm 35 is, 474 00:24:23.395 --> 00:24:25.197 things do catch up with you when you're older; 475 00:24:25.197 --> 00:24:29.301 like if you're a power lifter when you're 24 and you squat 385, 476 00:24:30.969 --> 00:24:34.873 you actually might lose some of the cartilage in your spine; 477 00:24:34.873 --> 00:24:37.509 and then when you're older it'll suck, 478 00:24:37.609 --> 00:24:43.682 James: so like yeah, some things yeah they do catch up with you man. 479 00:24:43.682 --> 00:24:46.051 When you're in your 30s man you can freaking shoulder check 480 00:24:46.218 --> 00:24:48.420 and like put your neck out for a week, it's brutal. 481 00:24:49.254 --> 00:24:52.424 Sammy: Yeah, as you said that uh like like everything catches up when you're 30, 482 00:24:52.424 --> 00:24:53.825 I just, my back went straight. 483 00:24:53.925 --> 00:24:54.926 James: Hahahaha. 484 00:24:55.093 --> 00:24:57.329 Sammy: Now I have a surprise question for you. 485 00:24:57.329 --> 00:24:57.762 James: Oh God. 486 00:24:57.762 --> 00:24:59.264 Sammy: It's a James specific question. 487 00:24:59.264 --> 00:25:02.400 You've written a lot, and you've done a lot of video projects related to writing. 488 00:25:02.434 --> 00:25:06.905 What would you say is the most important thing when it comes to writing? 489 00:25:07.005 --> 00:25:10.342 James: I mean like my mind is going to multiple places, I'll just say like 490 00:25:10.342 --> 00:25:13.678 the first thing I'm thinking of is like packaging like, I don't know, 491 00:25:13.678 --> 00:25:17.215 if we're talking about writing for youtube, you're not a captive audience right? 492 00:25:17.215 --> 00:25:19.384 It's not like when you go to a movie theater, you're like well I paid for my ticket, 493 00:25:19.384 --> 00:25:21.486 I drove to the movie theater and now I'm sitting here; 494 00:25:21.486 --> 00:25:24.456 and so I'm not going to leave just because this ad's on, I'll sit through it. 495 00:25:24.456 --> 00:25:26.858 James: You have the opposite of a captive audience on the internet. 496 00:25:26.858 --> 00:25:29.261 Sammy: *Laughs* James: So it turns, your scripts are like upside down; 497 00:25:29.261 --> 00:25:30.829 the most interesting stuff has to be at the beginning, 498 00:25:30.829 --> 00:25:34.099 and it has to get like less interesting as it goes, you know in a sense. 499 00:25:34.266 --> 00:25:36.768 So like the intro is so important. 500 00:25:36.768 --> 00:25:41.873 I guess like having a point, and then like convincing people that you have a point 501 00:25:41.873 --> 00:25:46.411 and there's a reason to keep listening to you is very important. 502 00:25:46.411 --> 00:25:48.480 If you don't have a point don't make a video man. 503 00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:51.950 Another very very important thing and this applies just to communication, 504 00:25:51.950 --> 00:25:55.921 this will probably help everybody here; we've all heard of different cognitive biases, 505 00:25:55.921 --> 00:25:58.023 confirmation bias is a big one people cite. 506 00:25:58.023 --> 00:26:02.727 I think one of the most important ones in life is the curse of knowledge, 507 00:26:03.395 --> 00:26:08.333 once you know a thing it's impossible for you to imagine what it's like to not know that thing; 508 00:26:09.100 --> 00:26:12.070 and then you're talking to somebody else, or you're writing a video 509 00:26:12.070 --> 00:26:16.942 and no one knows what the hell you're talking about, you need to back up and you have to like 510 00:26:16.942 --> 00:26:21.880 reveal information like layers of an onion in a logical manner, 511 00:26:22.414 --> 00:26:25.050 assuming you know coming from the standing point of someone who knows nothing 512 00:26:25.050 --> 00:26:27.118 and building up to the knowledge that you have; 513 00:26:27.118 --> 00:26:31.089 just keep the curse of knowledge in mind all the time, because like- 514 00:26:31.089 --> 00:26:31.790 Sammy: Like Thanos. 515 00:26:31.923 --> 00:26:33.024 James: What the- 516 00:26:33.191 --> 00:26:35.694 James: What?...What? 517 00:26:35.694 --> 00:26:38.430 Sammy: Yeah because Thanos was like \"I too bear the curse of knowledge\"; or something like that. 518 00:26:38.430 --> 00:26:41.199 James: I learned that from Steven Pinker, yeah he's got some interesting books; 519 00:26:41.866 --> 00:26:47.539 Uh, if you're an aspiring writer he has a- What is that called? It's not called On Writing, 520 00:26:47.539 --> 00:26:54.212 it's called style something... I don't know, just type in Steven Pinker writing book, 521 00:26:54.212 --> 00:26:56.314 that's a pretty good and interesting one. 522 00:26:56.314 --> 00:26:58.483 Sammy: Do you recommend any books to the audience? 523 00:26:58.483 --> 00:27:03.021 James: If you're a business minded person um, the best business books I've read are 524 00:27:03.021 --> 00:27:09.861 the innovators dilemma and the innovator solution, Collins books, \"Good to Great\" and 525 00:27:09.861 --> 00:27:13.098 \"Built to Last\", like those are very good on the business end of things. 526 00:27:13.999 --> 00:27:19.471 James: Just like interesting history/technology books, you all know Harari with like Sapiens, 527 00:27:19.838 --> 00:27:23.675 Homo Deus, and his new book Network, what I'm reading now are awesome. 528 00:27:23.675 --> 00:27:29.214 I mean Dune, I'm more of a non fiction guy though as you can see; 529 00:27:29.214 --> 00:27:35.353 yeah it's important to read long things, our society is losing that, it's very bad. 530 00:27:35.420 --> 00:27:37.856 Read a whole book about something. 531 00:27:37.889 --> 00:27:40.091 Sammy: Me, I don't read. 532 00:27:40.992 --> 00:27:45.463 James: Apparently- I read some article that was like even like college age people 533 00:27:45.463 --> 00:27:48.833 who are going into ivy league schools can't read a book, or never have read a whole book; 534 00:27:48.833 --> 00:27:49.200 James: it's like- 535 00:27:49.200 --> 00:27:49.668 Sammy: Really? 536 00:27:50.602 --> 00:27:51.269 James: Scary. 537 00:27:51.302 --> 00:27:52.637 Sammy: Yeah, you can tell us which one was the lie. 538 00:27:52.637 --> 00:27:55.974 James: Okay, what was the order? The order was the army- 539 00:27:55.974 --> 00:27:58.176 I was in the army, I was in the army right out of high school; 540 00:27:58.209 --> 00:28:02.781 my stepdad was like an army brat and uh convinced me to join, 541 00:28:02.781 --> 00:28:06.284 and we were poor, so it was a good way to go to university without having any money. 542 00:28:06.284 --> 00:28:11.122 I didn't have, like I didn't have a savings account that my parents had accumulated for me 543 00:28:11.122 --> 00:28:18.863 so uh that paid for my first year, and then I worked plumbing and made some money for that 544 00:28:18.863 --> 00:28:21.933 like 16 grand or something like that? I was able to pay for the next year, 545 00:28:21.933 --> 00:28:24.202 and then I got into the firefighting and then it was all good. 546 00:28:25.336 --> 00:28:30.575 Um, yeah the army, I ended up- They call it vring, voluntarily releasing. 547 00:28:30.842 --> 00:28:33.545 Everything's, everything's an acronym or initialism in the military. 548 00:28:33.611 --> 00:28:37.382 So I did my- So basically I went to Quebec, I did like two months of training. 549 00:28:37.382 --> 00:28:43.021 For those of interested I was in the army and my trade was EME, electrical mechanical engineer; 550 00:28:43.021 --> 00:28:46.157 because I was actually initially in engineering when I went to university, 551 00:28:46.191 --> 00:28:47.492 I dropped out of that too, I dropped- 552 00:28:47.525 --> 00:28:51.663 I quit everything in my life, I quit engineering, I quit the army 553 00:28:51.663 --> 00:28:55.400 and I broke up with my girlfriend; like all in like a span of weeks. 554 00:28:55.400 --> 00:28:56.000 Sammy: Oh my God. 555 00:28:56.034 --> 00:29:00.705 James: Were any of those good decisions, I don't know; I kind of wish I was an engineer still. 556 00:29:00.705 --> 00:29:01.639 Sammy: Hahahaha. 557 00:29:01.706 --> 00:29:03.742 James: But whatever, that all happened. 558 00:29:03.875 --> 00:29:07.445 Yeah, that's the army part and then the next one was getting stabbed in Mexico. 559 00:29:07.445 --> 00:29:13.184 Yes, I was stabbed in Mexico City, um... Was that my second time there? 560 00:29:13.218 --> 00:29:16.521 I think that was my second time there, I would go again, it's a beautiful place. 561 00:29:16.554 --> 00:29:23.161 I got stabbed because I was in an Uber, in broad daylight, in traffic, in a very crowded area 562 00:29:23.161 --> 00:29:25.396 and when you're in traffic your car can't go anywhere; 563 00:29:25.430 --> 00:29:29.200 and our Windows were down, don't do that, roll your Windows up. 564 00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:34.038 So basically a kid with a knife came up uh to the driver's side window um 565 00:29:34.072 --> 00:29:36.574 and threatened the uber driver with his like little pocket knife, 566 00:29:36.574 --> 00:29:40.912 and then he like basically he had a friend, and they just went to every window 567 00:29:40.912 --> 00:29:43.982 and like you know I didn't give my backpack fast enough; 568 00:29:43.982 --> 00:29:46.885 so he just was like whoop and stabbed me in the legs, 569 00:29:46.885 --> 00:29:49.554 James: like kind of just above my knee, on the side of my leg. Sammy: Oh God. 570 00:29:49.587 --> 00:29:53.658 James: And then so like this uber had to drive me to the hospital; 571 00:29:53.658 --> 00:29:57.262 it took us like 45 minutes in multiple hospitals, I had this police escort, 572 00:29:57.295 --> 00:29:59.864 we're driving the wrong way down the highway and everything, it was nuts! 573 00:29:59.898 --> 00:30:02.433 And then I just had to get like a couple stitches. 574 00:30:02.433 --> 00:30:09.207 And then I think I went to like Teotihuacan with with like crutches, and I went to the top too, 575 00:30:09.207 --> 00:30:11.309 Sammy: Hahahahaha. James: I just hopped on one foot all the way up to the top of my pyramid. 576 00:30:11.309 --> 00:30:12.744 Sammy: Oh my God, what the heck? 577 00:30:12.777 --> 00:30:17.248 James: But yeah, and then the third thing was I'm a blue belt in Jujitsu, 578 00:30:17.248 --> 00:30:21.219 that's a lie, I'm not a blue belt; I think I might get my blue belt soon, 579 00:30:21.219 --> 00:30:23.955 but I'm a four stripe white belt, which is crazy because 580 00:30:23.955 --> 00:30:26.624 I feel like i've been doing jujitsu for quite a long time at this point. 581 00:30:26.624 --> 00:30:30.328 But as I said I like did a year, then the pandemic was a year off; 582 00:30:30.328 --> 00:30:30.795 Sammy: Mmmm. 583 00:30:30.829 --> 00:30:32.797 James: and then I did a year, and then I like 584 00:30:32.831 --> 00:30:37.001 I was off for six months because I moved and then my rib was injured, and blah blah blah. 585 00:30:37.035 --> 00:30:41.005 James: And then I think every time you switch gyms you kind of get reset a little bit? 586 00:30:41.139 --> 00:30:41.573 Sammy: Mmmm. 587 00:30:42.707 --> 00:30:46.845 James: Like I literally after switching from gym one to two I lost a stripe, 588 00:30:47.011 --> 00:30:50.782 and then from switching from gym two to three, I've been there for a year 589 00:30:50.915 --> 00:30:55.486 and haven't gotten any promotion, so I'm hoping I'm going to get promoted in the next couple months; 590 00:30:55.620 --> 00:30:59.090 and once I have a blue belt I can just obviously quit jujitsu never go again. 591 00:30:59.224 --> 00:31:03.127 Sammy: For the uh, for the curse of knowledge, how high is the jujitsu blue belt? 592 00:31:03.194 --> 00:31:04.362 For people who don't know. 593 00:31:04.362 --> 00:31:07.665 James: Oh blue belt's just the second belt, but there's only five belts in jujitsu. 594 00:31:07.665 --> 00:31:09.601 Blue belt usually takes people like two years? 595 00:31:09.634 --> 00:31:10.101 Sammy: Mmmm. 596 00:31:10.134 --> 00:31:11.169 Sammy: Oh, okay. 597 00:31:11.169 --> 00:31:16.107 James: It depends how dedicated you are, like some people go five days a week and study all the time. 598 00:31:16.107 --> 00:31:16.474 Sammy: Mmm. 599 00:31:16.474 --> 00:31:18.877 James: And other people are just like they go once a week and they don't really care; 600 00:31:18.877 --> 00:31:22.614 and then there's different levels, like you can go to McGym that just like 601 00:31:22.614 --> 00:31:24.048 gives belts out on attendance. 602 00:31:24.048 --> 00:31:27.952 And then you can go somewhere else where like they are very stringent with the belts, 603 00:31:27.986 --> 00:31:29.621 and you've got to be like really kick ass. 604 00:31:29.621 --> 00:31:33.124 So like a blue belt at one school might be like a purple or brown belt at another school. 605 00:31:33.124 --> 00:31:36.895 It's kind of like a musical equivalent would be like you can play- 606 00:31:36.895 --> 00:31:40.698 You can kind of like play songs by ear on guitar, you can put if someone's like 607 00:31:40.698 --> 00:31:42.367 do you know how to play such and such song? 608 00:31:42.367 --> 00:31:45.103 You can kind of just like listen to it and be like oh I can play; 609 00:31:45.103 --> 00:31:48.940 it's like a you're pretty competent now but there's still a lot to learn before mastery, 610 00:31:48.940 --> 00:31:50.708 but you like, you know what you're doing. 611 00:31:50.708 --> 00:31:54.913 Sammy: I forgot to ask before, you said you did a lot of stenography, 612 00:31:54.913 --> 00:31:57.582 like the trans- like transcribing the videos. 613 00:31:57.582 --> 00:31:58.716 James: Oh, yeah yeah yeah. 614 00:31:59.083 --> 00:32:02.720 Sammy: Yeah, so can you type on those keyboards that can type like over a thousand words a minute? 615 00:32:02.720 --> 00:32:04.489 James: Oh, we didn't use stenographer's keyboards. 616 00:32:04.522 --> 00:32:05.056 Sammy: Oh, okay. 617 00:32:05.056 --> 00:32:07.725 James: It was a regular keyboard, but I did use a foot pedal for like, 618 00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:14.933 uh playing and pausing the um, the track; but yeah there's a whole other aspect of that too 619 00:32:14.933 --> 00:32:18.303 like I had free reign of to transcribe it the way I wanted, 620 00:32:18.303 --> 00:32:21.339 and I tried to make it like really true to the audio track; 621 00:32:21.339 --> 00:32:25.176 like if someone stuttered I would- Originally I would write those in, 622 00:32:25.710 --> 00:32:29.080 I'd write on all the ums and everything, and then eventually I was like I think that, 623 00:32:29.080 --> 00:32:34.953 that's done we'll probably just write their like final take, what they intended to say. 624 00:32:34.986 --> 00:32:38.323 It was interesting it was about a program, I don't give a f***, who cares. 625 00:32:38.356 --> 00:32:39.557 Sammy and James: Hahahahahaha. 626 00:32:39.557 --> 00:32:43.594 James: Anyways you guys have had enough me, if you like this kind of format 627 00:32:43.594 --> 00:32:47.565 we're gonna have Terren and Nick Light's Meet the Teams later this week; 628 00:32:47.565 --> 00:32:49.434 it's Exec Week baby! Finally! 629 00:32:49.434 --> 00:32:50.168 Sammy: Hahahaha! 630 00:32:50.201 --> 00:32:51.436 James: We deserve this! 631 00:32:51.436 --> 00:32:52.603 Sammy: Hahahahahahaha! 632 00:32:52.770 --> 00:32:53.037 James: Hahaha."}