WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 My name is Nicholas Ploof. Wow, I moved too much, and so the lights came on. Where's the tape? 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:13.000 I got used to too much moving with my hands for the videos to say stuff. I'm doing my job too good, yeah. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:18.000 My name is Nicholas Ploof, and I'm a writer here at Linus Media Group. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:21.000 How long have you been working here? Two years, over two years now. 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:26.000 Basically, every day, and I'm learning something, almost every single week or day. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:32.000 Every project, whether it's something new or something I already know about, I'm going to have to learn more about it. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:37.000 So, I like always learning, and I like, if I'm not challenging myself, then I just kind of sit around doing nothing. 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:41.000 It's like I need something to push me. Yeah, that's probably my favorite part. 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:44.000 The worst part is, that's a tough question. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:47.000 Standards are pretty high, and so that can be really hard. 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:53.000 It can be hard when scope creep happens, and then all of a sudden an easy video turns into a not easy video. 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:58.000 So, all of a sudden a video can become huge and hard to manage, a little unwieldy. 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:01.000 Maybe I have to do even more research than I initially thought. 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:07.000 It's like, oh, this is kind of deep where I want to go, and then all of a sudden I'll talk to Linus or James or someone else, and it'll be like, 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:13.000 actually, we're going to go deeper into this, and then it's a whole extra half a day of just research. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:18.000 Otherwise, the parking. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:28.000 We've hired quite a few people. When I first started, this wasn't much of a problem, but now we're at the point where, if you're not here by like 9 o'clock, 9.30 at the late, 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:32.000 even if you show up at like 9.30, you're probably not getting a parking spot, and you're going to have to park on the street. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:37.000 9.12. Yeah, don't show up passing like 9.12. 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:41.000 It's hard. Not in a bad way. 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:45.000 It's just, he's very demanding, and he has really high standards. 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.000 He does change his mind, but it's usually for a good reason. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:58.000 So I've only ever had to basically argue full stop and say, no, we are not doing this once. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:05.000 It was only one time, and I presented a pretty good argument as to why we shouldn't, and, you know, he went with it. 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:09.000 He's like, yeah, okay, fine. It's just, yeah, he's reasonable. 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:14.000 He's got a strong opinion, but it's not usually a bad take. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:18.000 Usually. Wanshow is a whole other thing. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:24.000 But when it comes to projects and video ideas and whether or not a video will be better because we're doing a certain thing his way, 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:29.000 it's usually right. He's been doing this like 10 years. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:37.000 But he has really high standards. And like I said before, I like having to meet high standards because I'll try to do that, and it'll push me to actually improve myself. 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:40.000 But yeah, it can be hard. I don't know how I'd describe him. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:44.000 He's Linus. It's hard to... 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:50.000 I don't know. He's a tech guy running a media company. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:57.000 I don't know. Like I said, he's got a strong opinion on things, and he's got high standards. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:00.000 I don't know. I feel like I kind of described him in the last question already. 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:06.000 He's just very set in his ways, but he's not going to like... 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:08.000 He's open to feedback. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:14.000 He'll just probably have a response when you inevitably have a response to that feedback. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:20.000 They probably think it's like all fun and games. And to get to work here, you know, it's like a dream come true. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:25.000 It's a lot of work. It's a lot of hard work. And you wear a lot of hats no matter what department you're in. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:28.000 Say you're an editor, there's a good chance you're going to have to shoot something at some point. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:33.000 You might have to edit something completely unrelated that you've like never even had to do before. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:37.000 If you're a shooter, there's a lot of different challenges that you might face. 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:40.000 These guys always have to set up weird lighting setups and get everything right. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:43.000 Get the camera angles perfect and all that. 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:48.000 As a writer, yeah, it's hard because we have a lot to do. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:53.000 Like I said, I'm a writer and host, but really I'm like a producer. 00:03:53.000 --> 00:04:00.000 I'm an IT guy, not like management level, but I'm like low end IT guy to try to fix whatever computer problem is happening. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:04.000 I'm a producer, you know, running around making sure the video actually happens. 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:13.000 So yeah, just don't try to come in thinking it's all sunshine and rainbows and we just mess around all day. 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:17.000 Because you've seen a few videos where people are messing around in the warehouse or something like that. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:25.000 It's yeah, it's a job. I was working from home during the pandemic and I was on PC Master A subreddit all the time and I was upgrading my computer all the time. 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.000 That's kind of just what I delved into in terms of hobbies. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.000 And I saw the post go up saying, hey, we're hiring writers. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:37.000 And I thought, eh, well, I'm a writer. 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:40.000 I like computers. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:43.000 I'll apply and see if I get it. And then I got it. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:50.000 It wasn't easy. There was a lot of, you know, tests and it was like a two or three interview process. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:53.000 But yeah, I'd been a fan of the channel for years. 00:04:53.000 --> 00:05:00.000 Not like a huge fan, but you know, I'd watch the LTT videos along with like GN and other tech channels for years. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:06.000 And I, it's funny about a year prior to that happening, I actually looked up, oh, they're right. 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:10.000 They're Canadian. Oh, they're NBC. Oh, they're in like Surrey kind of Vancouver area. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:13.000 I'm in Vancouver area. I like computer. 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:17.000 I like writing. I will apply and then I did and then I got the job. 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:20.000 He's pretty close. He's pretty similar, honestly. 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:26.000 Everything is kind of ramped up a little bit. And in some videos, he's definitely playing more of a character than in others. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:38.000 Like I don't, I personally don't like the gold controller videos because he goes, I don't know if you've seen them, but he goes like way too like energetic and like he's geeking out over gold and stuff. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:43.000 I just, I don't know. He doesn't seem as authentic as he does in a lot of other videos. 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:46.000 So those are like some of my least favorite ones. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:51.000 Honestly, yeah, it's, he's not, I don't think he's too different off camera. 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:57.000 Like maybe a bit more reserved and relaxed, but it's similar. 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:01.000 Yeah. He's definitely playing a persona, but it's like an amped up version of himself. 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:11.000 So if I could change anything about LMG, what I would like to change is I would like to focus on more content that is less expensive. 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:21.000 I would love to have us start a channel that like solely focuses on low end hardware, low end TVs, low end electronics in general. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:30.000 Because, you know, it's not that we don't know, we do a lot of expensive stuff and it's not that we know, or that we don't know that it's, you know, out of reach for most people. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:35.000 It's just, it's a lot easier to talk about expensive stuff because it's usually got the new features, it's got the cool stuff. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:41.000 If I go buy some like 1080p TV, it's like, it's a TV, it's a 1080p, so it's hard to make that content. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:45.000 But at the same time, I think there's a huge audience for people who want that. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:55.000 Because especially once you start comparing like five 1080p, even entry level four, five entry level, like $400, $500, 4K TVs, it becomes more interesting. 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:59.000 And so you can kind of go off of like, what's the differences rather than what's the new hotness. 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:03.000 So that's what I would like to see more time for projects would be good. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:07.000 If somebody wants to work here, what's one thing they need to know? 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:13.000 Be open to criticism. Like you, you can't be thin skinned at all if you want to work here. 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:17.000 I've never been put down or insulted or anything like that. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:24.000 But, you know, if I walk into a script review and I have a bad intro, the first thing Linus is going to tell me is like, this is a sh** intro. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:28.000 And he's right. Like that's like, it's, he's right. 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:34.000 He'll point out, it's always constructive. He'll always then, you know, here's why here's X, Y and Z, like this doesn't work. 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:45.000 This is a bad take, etc. But you'll be told right away, like whether something is a terrible idea or if it's not going to work or if, you know, it's just bad. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:48.000 And so luckily I'm good. I can take a lot of criticism just fine. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:52.000 Like just tell me what's terrible about it and we can move on and keep going. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:59.000 But yeah, if you thin skinned, if you, if you come in and you like, you have a script and you present it as a writer at least. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:05.000 And there's a bunch of flaws. Get ready to be called out on them because James is a grammar stickler in a good way. 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:10.000 And he's the head of writing. He should be. And then Linus is, I don't want to say a content stickler. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.000 Like he's very much like, this is good. This is bad. 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:16.000 This is going to get views. This is not going to get views. And he's usually right. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:25.000 And so if you're not ready to basically take a script and be okay with it completely changing and being told why it got changed and why it was bad in the first place, 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:29.000 then you're fine. If you can't do that, then yeah, you're hooped.