The recent criticism of Linus Tech Tips, explained::Linus Tech Tips founder Linus Sebastian has admitted to “sloppiness” in the hardware review channel’s handling of controversy that erupted over its recent review of a high-end watercool
I find some of the stuff they do entertaining, but have always found the technical information pretty… lacking and sometimes outright wrong. Seldom do they focus on what an item is engineered to do and instead just slap something together for content.
The billet labs stuff doesn’t surprise me for those reasons, but i feel like the GN focus on it just brings their incompetence to the forefront and made what I already suspected that much more visible.
I’m sure there are plenty of great people that work at LMG, but this ain’t about people at an individual level. It’s about a company that is literally built to sell you stuff. Whether it’s through sponsor spots, float plane(services), or through their own store. I’ve always felt their message was high and mighty and rang a bit hollow.
For their sake, hopefully they actually improve on the technical aspects and are able to endure not because I care about them, but because I don’t think this will actually mean anything once the drama is gone.
I’m sad about the Madison stuff, not because I care about LTT, but because working in that type of environment and watching your “heroes” not only implode but actively harm you has to be one of the worst experiences I can imagine.
My heart goes out to her.
Devccoon@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Lately there’s been this weird undertone of discomfort in Linus’ videos, and I think I now understand why. He does a great job appearing to be a decent and relatable guy who’s just being mean for a gag, but it’s becoming more clear that’s not a bit. His relationship with the people he appears with on camera only seems to work because there’s a back and forth in their quips and insults. Whenever he’s on with someone who’s not a staple of the channel, there’s this sense that he’s untouchable, that he can dish it out but grounds for pushback are shaky at best. Communication overall seems to suck, and there’s never not a Disappointed Linus moment when he’s involved in a project. You can really feel the unnecessary stress he’s piling onto the situation, and if it’s that obvious on-camera, how bad is it when nobody else is around? Or for the employees who feel like a bit of a squeaky wheel? It’s been clear for a long time that Linus is a cheapskate (he openly complains about relatively acceptable prices for the silly stuff he’s doing in videos pretty often) but for some reason in the back of my mind I thought maybe he wasn’t so stingy as a boss, where it counts. Wouldn’t bet on it now.
For someone who’s even a little bit out of place at LMG, I can 100% see how Linus has built a toxic work culture. It should speak volumes that nearly everyone, when given a chance to speak without Linus’ final say on the video, expresses much the same criticism toward his hustle culture. They don’t have the time they need to do good work, I don’t get the sense that they have a supportive and creative environment conducive to enjoying the process, and the output is clearly suffering.
Linus’ initial response dropped the ball harder than anything he’s dropped in his storied career of dropping things. But even if his response was heartening, the further reports of toxic culture and fanbase are enough for me to keep my distance. I’m going to miss their flavor of “tech nerd fun” videos, but the “Linus is a bad guy” Pandora’s box is open, and it’s going to take a lot of goodwill before I can just enjoy their videos again. Sad to see another titan of Youtube let it all go to his head, but this just goes to show that success doesn’t make a man better, it just makes him more powerful.
scarabic@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I couldn’t disagree more. He’s always come across as a hateful asshole.
Exactly. The guy’s a prick. There are so many good choices for this kind of content out there. I never understood how anyone could tolerate looking at Linus.
I suppose younger guys might look at him and think “he sounds like he knows his stuff” or… maybe think he’s relatable, like you said above. Maybe?
But as a grown ass man, my take on Linus has been “fuck this prick” since the beginning. He always looks and acts like he has never taken a shit in his life, and today’s the day it’s going to come to a head.