WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.760 My favorite thing about working here has never changed, and it was actually the reason that we founded the company. 00:00:04.760 --> 00:00:12.760 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. 00:00:12.760 --> 00:00:20.260 So it was all about building a team of people that I actually wanted to spend the majority of my waking life with. 00:00:20.260 --> 00:00:27.560 I think if we look back at the original goal of creating a team that was fun to work with and hardworking and passionate, 00:00:27.560 --> 00:00:35.060 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, 00:00:35.060 --> 00:00:39.360 but people behave like that, I don't know anyone who would do that. 00:00:39.360 --> 00:00:43.960 You know, well, that's, this is why. The worst part of working here is the grind. 00:00:43.960 --> 00:00:50.160 We never have time for retrospection. It's always just, that's out. 00:00:50.160 --> 00:00:53.360 What's the next thing? Moving forward, moving forward, moving forward. 00:00:53.360 --> 00:00:58.160 I acknowledge that it's a treadmill, but the reality of it is that that's not a pace that I set. 00:00:58.160 --> 00:01:05.460 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. 00:01:05.460 --> 00:01:11.760 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. 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:15.560 I think working for me is the experience that you make it. 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:26.460 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. 00:01:26.460 --> 00:01:38.760 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. 00:01:38.860 --> 00:01:45.960 So I feel like a lot of what people perceive of me is their own personal projection. 00:01:45.960 --> 00:01:53.860 And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe, maybe that's just me imagining it, but I do observe people a lot. 00:01:53.860 --> 00:02:01.160 I'm a people watcher and I see that people will just kind of treat me however they think a boss should be treated. 00:02:01.160 --> 00:02:07.360 And the only thing that I can really do is say, look, don't call me sir or, you know, whatever else, right? 00:02:07.360 --> 00:02:12.760 But no one ever changes. They just do it anyway. So I just kind of roll with it. 00:02:12.760 --> 00:02:23.260 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. 00:02:23.260 --> 00:02:30.360 Really though, my superpower is that I get bored before anyone else gets a chance to, you know, it's from the writing team. 00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:34.060 Linus, we should do a video about this. I don't know. We've done something kind of like that. 00:02:34.060 --> 00:02:38.860 I don't want to do that again. You know, or the audience saying, we want more power supply unboxings. 00:02:38.860 --> 00:02:42.060 And I go, these are played out. I have nothing left to say. I'm bored. 00:02:42.060 --> 00:02:45.660 Let's move on. I think that's what's kept the channel fresh all these years. 00:02:45.660 --> 00:02:49.860 I care too much. 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:53.460 If I had to pick a biggest weakness, it's that I'm not very detail oriented. 00:02:53.460 --> 00:03:04.860 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. 00:03:05.460 --> 00:03:09.760 Just dragon energy and 360 degrees around me. 00:03:09.760 --> 00:03:12.960 LTT has changed enormously since I've been here. 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:22.660 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. 00:03:22.660 --> 00:03:29.460 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. 00:03:29.460 --> 00:03:34.460 Like I thought that you could just use spackle. I didn't even know about tape and drywall mud. 00:03:34.460 --> 00:03:38.360 But it didn't matter. I just needed something where I did everything myself. 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:47.060 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. 00:03:47.060 --> 00:03:52.260 That costs us whatever an opportunity cost. I'm like, I just got out of a script review. 00:03:52.260 --> 00:03:58.760 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. 00:03:58.760 --> 00:04:05.560 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. 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:11.060 In some ways, I'm the boss. In other ways, I had just ordered around all day. 00:04:11.060 --> 00:04:17.760 I miss how it used to be every day, but I also see the opportunity that is over the horizon. 00:04:17.760 --> 00:04:23.060 That's another thing. Part of getting bored easily is that I am naturally insatiable. 00:04:23.060 --> 00:04:29.460 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. 00:04:29.460 --> 00:04:34.960 Because if I wasn't looking for what's new, what's next, what are the career advancement possibilities here? 00:04:34.960 --> 00:04:40.460 Ed would still be our only video editor. Luke would still be what making notes for scripts. 00:04:40.460 --> 00:04:43.760 Come on, right? Nobody's going to stick around for that. 00:04:43.760 --> 00:04:46.760 I think our retention here has been really good and I think that's a big part of it. 00:04:46.760 --> 00:04:51.260 I think the things people get most wrong about Linus Media Group have changed over the years. 00:04:51.260 --> 00:04:56.460 In the early days, the thing most people got wrong was that, oh, it's not a real job. 00:04:56.460 --> 00:05:05.860 If anything, I think that has actually shifted to the point where now people seem to think that I'm some kind of taskmaster. 00:05:05.860 --> 00:05:11.860 I don't know how we went from these guys are just fooling around and this isn't a real job to, 00:05:11.860 --> 00:05:16.860 wow, that seems like an insane grind without ever finding that happy medium in the middle 00:05:16.860 --> 00:05:22.560 where it seemed like we were all having a good time and working, you know? 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:26.160 The reality is probably somewhere in the middle and always has been. 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:32.860 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. 00:05:32.860 --> 00:05:37.260 If you don't actually care, I've always said this to aspiring creators. 00:05:37.260 --> 00:05:41.660 The first people to pick up on your BS are going to be the audience. 00:05:41.660 --> 00:05:47.060 And if the audience doesn't like you, it doesn't matter how good I think you are. 00:05:47.060 --> 00:05:52.660 I'm not the real boss here. If I could change anything, we'd go back to super flexible hours. 00:05:52.660 --> 00:05:57.060 I don't like arriving at a set time. I don't like leaving at a set time. 00:05:57.060 --> 00:06:03.560 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. 00:06:03.560 --> 00:06:09.960 The problem is that no matter what it is, if you have any kind of flexibility, 00:06:09.960 --> 00:06:16.160 someone is going to ruin it for everyone and the bigger you get, the better the chances that that's going to happen. 00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:23.460 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. 00:06:23.460 --> 00:06:33.960 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. 00:06:33.960 --> 00:06:38.660 I want people to have fun. I want people to bond and enjoy each other's company. 00:06:38.660 --> 00:06:42.460 It's the whole purpose of these events, but it's just not possible. 00:06:42.460 --> 00:06:48.660 As soon as you take 100 people, only 1% of them have to do something dumb and then it's ruined for everyone. 00:06:48.660 --> 00:06:53.560 Do you worry? Do I worry about like liability? 00:06:53.560 --> 00:06:56.560 Yeah, like like... Yeah, I'm a public figure. 00:06:56.560 --> 00:07:03.760 All it takes is for one person to tell a credible lie about me and I can be done tomorrow. 00:07:03.760 --> 00:07:07.460 And it's not just me. 100 people can be done like that. 00:07:07.460 --> 00:07:13.860 Yeah, I live in a state of constant fear. How do I deal with the responsibilities of my job? 00:07:13.860 --> 00:07:17.860 I've heard drug use is really good. Yeah. 00:07:17.860 --> 00:07:21.260 Yeah, pot's been recommended a lot. Cocaine. 00:07:21.260 --> 00:07:25.260 Haven't tried any of that yet. 00:07:25.260 --> 00:07:31.960 My strategy is while I wake at night. 00:07:31.960 --> 00:07:36.760 I mean, I had that whole live stream where I was obviously on the brink of collapse. 00:07:36.760 --> 00:07:41.660 None of that has changed. I mean, people act like, oh, he did that live stream. 00:07:41.660 --> 00:07:44.960 I'm thinking of retiring, but like now he's fine. 00:07:44.960 --> 00:07:53.160 Well, if you didn't notice, I seemed fine up until the day of that stream and I seemed fine the next day. 00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:56.960 Nothing changed, right? 00:07:56.960 --> 00:08:05.060 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. 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:13.260 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. 00:08:13.260 --> 00:08:19.160 They didn't ask me what I am. They asked me what I do, but for me, it's one and the same. 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:23.460 The weirdest thing I've had to do. 00:08:23.460 --> 00:08:27.460 See, that's interesting because I don't have to do anything, 00:08:27.460 --> 00:08:31.960 but if someone comes up with an idea and I think it's really great, 00:08:31.960 --> 00:08:35.360 I do feel enormous pressure to execute on it. 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:39.060 So weirdest thing. Modeling underwear was really weird. 00:08:39.060 --> 00:08:44.560 Posting mostly naked pictures of myself on the internet, 00:08:44.560 --> 00:08:52.760 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. 00:08:52.760 --> 00:08:56.160 That weird. 00:08:56.160 --> 00:09:03.460 Yeah, that Computex video where I'm wearing like a Superman costume in the shower. 00:09:03.460 --> 00:09:10.460 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. 00:09:10.460 --> 00:09:15.960 I don't think much about what's in the rearview mirror other than to say the Simpsons did it 00:09:15.960 --> 00:09:22.260 and wear the Simpsons, so we can't do it again. I do feel very Simpsons did it very often. 00:09:23.260 --> 00:09:30.960 Trying to bring writers meeting ideas. A new idea, a fresh idea we've never touched before is tough to come by. 00:09:30.960 --> 00:09:39.760 Out of everyone in the company, I probably have the most people who can issue me orders and expect them to be followed. 00:09:39.760 --> 00:09:45.660 James, head of the writing team, tells me what to do, you know, where to go, what to shoot. 00:09:45.660 --> 00:09:52.460 Yvonne, obviously, tells me what to do in terms of meeting with people about anything finance related. 00:09:52.460 --> 00:10:00.360 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. 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:05.860 For me, the difference is that it's less about the company org chart and who my reporting line goes to, 00:10:05.860 --> 00:10:13.460 and it's more about whatever someone brings me, does it make sense, and if it does ensuring that it gets acted on. 00:10:13.460 --> 00:10:17.460 So in a way, I take orders from literally everyone. 00:10:17.460 --> 00:10:22.860 I've changed a lot. I was very naive coming into this. 00:10:22.860 --> 00:10:28.760 I had no idea where this was headed. 00:10:28.760 --> 00:10:33.060 I think I've had to grow up or at least act like I've grown up a lot. 00:10:33.060 --> 00:10:36.760 I have to be more professional now than I used to be. 00:10:36.760 --> 00:10:43.160 I've always been just kind of like born on the internet, dirt, you know. 00:10:43.160 --> 00:10:50.560 Oh man, have I changed? 00:10:50.560 --> 00:10:56.060 Luke tells me I've changed. He says it's mostly okay though. 00:10:56.060 --> 00:11:02.560 I know that's not a very good answer, but that's the best I can really do. 00:11:02.560 --> 00:11:09.160 Yeah, I would describe myself as an A-type chaotic, generally trying to do the right thing, 00:11:09.160 --> 00:11:13.860 but also resigned to the fact that I can't change everything. 00:11:13.860 --> 00:11:20.660 And I think that can come across badly sometimes. 00:11:20.660 --> 00:11:24.460 But I also feel like coming back to one of your earlier questions, 00:11:24.460 --> 00:11:31.660 what do people misunderstand about Linus Media Group? I think even internally, people misunderstand how much power I have to change things. 00:11:31.660 --> 00:11:35.760 It's a big machine and turning it takes time.