My favorite thing about working here has never changed, and it was actually the reason that we founded the company.
I was just so tired of working with people that I couldn't get along with or didn't respect, usually for reasons pertaining to their work ethic.
So it was all about building a team of people that I actually wanted to spend the majority of my waking life with.
I think if we look back at the original goal of creating a team that was fun to work with and hardworking and passionate,
that it's absolutely been a huge success. I think I'm often sheltered from the general population, and I read things in the news, I'm like,
but people behave like that, I don't know anyone who would do that.
You know, well, that's, this is why. The worst part of working here is the grind.
We never have time for retrospection. It's always just, that's out.
What's the next thing? Moving forward, moving forward, moving forward.
I acknowledge that it's a treadmill, but the reality of it is that that's not a pace that I set.
That's a pace that's set by the platform, a pace that's set by the audience, a pace that's set by the tech industry in general.
It's something that's been tough, but that I've come to terms with over the decade plus that I've been doing this.
I think working for me is the experience that you make it.
Some people I can tell are absolutely terrified to talk to me while others behave as though I would never fire them if they murdered my pets.
By the way, I would. That is actually a line for me. We had a nanny who killed one of our cats and we did in fact dismiss her after discussing it over the weekend.
So I feel like a lot of what people perceive of me is their own personal projection.
And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe, maybe that's just me imagining it, but I do observe people a lot.
I'm a people watcher and I see that people will just kind of treat me however they think a boss should be treated.
And the only thing that I can really do is say, look, don't call me sir or, you know, whatever else, right?
But no one ever changes. They just do it anyway. So I just kind of roll with it.
If I had to distill down what makes me good at this, I think it's a combination of just generally being passionate about technology and having ADD.
Really though, my superpower is that I get bored before anyone else gets a chance to, you know, it's from the writing team.
Linus, we should do a video about this. I don't know. We've done something kind of like that.
I don't want to do that again. You know, or the audience saying, we want more power supply unboxings.
And I go, these are played out. I have nothing left to say. I'm bored.
Let's move on. I think that's what's kept the channel fresh all these years.
I care too much.
If I had to pick a biggest weakness, it's that I'm not very detail oriented.
I don't follow things up. I am kind of scattershot when it comes to training, especially documentation, like creating processes is not something that I'm good at at all.
Just dragon energy and 360 degrees around me.
LTT has changed enormously since I've been here.
We went from just a few of us in the garage trying to survive with the hope that one day we will have enough revenue that we can all make a comfortable living.
I was hand assembling our first set with sheets of drywall and a two by two frame that I didn't even know how to do properly.
Like I thought that you could just use spackle. I didn't even know about tape and drywall mud.
But it didn't matter. I just needed something where I did everything myself.
Whereas now I get in trouble for doing things myself. I wanted to walk between the offices and James like pulled me aside and was like, you can't do that.
That costs us whatever an opportunity cost. I'm like, I just got out of a script review.
I need the three minute brain break anyway. If I want to walk between the offices, I'll walk between the offices, but I don't have that autonomy anymore.
I mean, there's someone standing right out there making sure that I go to wherever I'm supposed to go to next right now.
In some ways, I'm the boss. In other ways, I had just ordered around all day.
I miss how it used to be every day, but I also see the opportunity that is over the horizon.
That's another thing. Part of getting bored easily is that I am naturally insatiable.
It's always what's new, what's next. And in the same way that it benefits the content, I think it benefits the team here.
Because if I wasn't looking for what's new, what's next, what are the career advancement possibilities here?
Ed would still be our only video editor. Luke would still be what making notes for scripts.
Come on, right? Nobody's going to stick around for that.
I think our retention here has been really good and I think that's a big part of it.
I think the things people get most wrong about Linus Media Group have changed over the years.
In the early days, the thing most people got wrong was that, oh, it's not a real job.
If anything, I think that has actually shifted to the point where now people seem to think that I'm some kind of taskmaster.
I don't know how we went from these guys are just fooling around and this isn't a real job to,
wow, that seems like an insane grind without ever finding that happy medium in the middle
where it seemed like we were all having a good time and working, you know?
The reality is probably somewhere in the middle and always has been.
If you want to work here, the biggest thing that you should know is that we're not interested in people who are not passionate about what they're doing.
If you don't actually care, I've always said this to aspiring creators.
The first people to pick up on your BS are going to be the audience.
And if the audience doesn't like you, it doesn't matter how good I think you are.
I'm not the real boss here. If I could change anything, we'd go back to super flexible hours.
I don't like arriving at a set time. I don't like leaving at a set time.
I don't like working exactly eight hours per day. If I could do six one day and 10 the next, I think that would be great.
The problem is that no matter what it is, if you have any kind of flexibility,
someone is going to ruin it for everyone and the bigger you get, the better the chances that that's going to happen.
We had a conversation recently with one of the department heads where they asked why we're not allowed to have company provided alcohol at those monthly get-togethers.
Are they quarterly? I can't remember. And the reason is that it only takes one bad apple to do something totally inappropriate and all of a sudden there's this enormous liability for the company.
I want people to have fun. I want people to bond and enjoy each other's company.
It's the whole purpose of these events, but it's just not possible.
As soon as you take 100 people, only 1% of them have to do something dumb and then it's ruined for everyone.
Do you worry? Do I worry about like liability?
Yeah, like like... Yeah, I'm a public figure.
All it takes is for one person to tell a credible lie about me and I can be done tomorrow.
And it's not just me. 100 people can be done like that.
Yeah, I live in a state of constant fear. How do I deal with the responsibilities of my job?
I've heard drug use is really good. Yeah.
Yeah, pot's been recommended a lot. Cocaine.
Haven't tried any of that yet.
My strategy is while I wake at night.
I mean, I had that whole live stream where I was obviously on the brink of collapse.
None of that has changed. I mean, people act like, oh, he did that live stream.
I'm thinking of retiring, but like now he's fine.
Well, if you didn't notice, I seemed fine up until the day of that stream and I seemed fine the next day.
Nothing changed, right?
Just the mindset. I do it because it's the right thing to do and I do it because I don't know what else I would do.
People ask me, what do you do when they meet me for the first time, right? It's just one of those polite conversation questions and I go, I am a YouTuber.
They didn't ask me what I am. They asked me what I do, but for me, it's one and the same.
The weirdest thing I've had to do.
See, that's interesting because I don't have to do anything,
but if someone comes up with an idea and I think it's really great,
I do feel enormous pressure to execute on it.
So weirdest thing. Modeling underwear was really weird.
Posting mostly naked pictures of myself on the internet,
but there's got to be weirder stuff I've done. Like that channel Superfund said some weird stuff like the Jell-O-Eating contest, Dildo Racing.
That weird.
Yeah, that Computex video where I'm wearing like a Superman costume in the shower.
I didn't have to do that. It kind of comes back to what I said earlier about there not being any time for retrospection.
I don't think much about what's in the rearview mirror other than to say the Simpsons did it
and wear the Simpsons, so we can't do it again. I do feel very Simpsons did it very often.
Trying to bring writers meeting ideas. A new idea, a fresh idea we've never touched before is tough to come by.
Out of everyone in the company, I probably have the most people who can issue me orders and expect them to be followed.
James, head of the writing team, tells me what to do, you know, where to go, what to shoot.
Yvonne, obviously, tells me what to do in terms of meeting with people about anything finance related.
Any of the executives will tell me, you know, hey, you need to shoot thumbnails after videos so that we don't have to pick them up later.
For me, the difference is that it's less about the company org chart and who my reporting line goes to,
and it's more about whatever someone brings me, does it make sense, and if it does ensuring that it gets acted on.
So in a way, I take orders from literally everyone.
I've changed a lot. I was very naive coming into this.
I had no idea where this was headed.
I think I've had to grow up or at least act like I've grown up a lot.
I have to be more professional now than I used to be.
I've always been just kind of like born on the internet, dirt, you know.
Oh man, have I changed?
Luke tells me I've changed. He says it's mostly okay though.
I know that's not a very good answer, but that's the best I can really do.
Yeah, I would describe myself as an A-type chaotic, generally trying to do the right thing,
but also resigned to the fact that I can't change everything.
And I think that can come across badly sometimes.
But I also feel like coming back to one of your earlier questions,
what do people misunderstand about Linus Media Group? I think even internally, people misunderstand how much power I have to change things.
It's a big machine and turning it takes time.