Linus's personality - has money changed him?

[Rhino16]

I don’t think it’s money exactly, but I seem to notice he doesn’t seem to know what’s going on a lot of the time which is surprising. Maybe it’s just gotten too big to keep up.

[Tehkast]

How could anyone here really tell he is a internet persona that shows what he wants to show. Only his friends and family really would know the answer to this question.

[fohatadri]

1 minute ago, ColonelSupremePizza said:

Not my problem if they survive. They have to figure that out, not me. They are an over glorified band of street performers. Whether I give them money or not is dependent on if I like their content and want to support them. Ultimately, if it's unsustainable because of adblock, that's on them for not diversifying and coming up with a business model to keep 120+ employees well compensated and get millions of dollars in equipment.

 

You are also beyond delusional if you think ads are as good as a water bottle sale. That water bottle is worth tens of thousands, or likely hundreds of thousands, of ad views. They absolutely should push their merch because then you get something back for supporting them.

 

You have an unbelievably naive way of looking at the world.

I'm naive? For looking out to smaller channels? What else you're going to say, that you torrent music? Going out of your way to find and read paid news outlet articles? Calling YouTubers names because you don't like this business model ain't going to change anything. Get real.

[ColonelSupremePizza]

1 minute ago, fohatadri said:

I'm naive? For looking out to smaller channels? What else you're going to say, that you torrent music? Going out of your way to find and read paid news outlet articles? Calling YouTubers names because you don't like this business model ain't going to change anything. Get real.

Again, I'm not going to subject myself to garbage ads. If you want to, go for it, but I respect myself enough to not watch them. If I CHOOSE to support a creator, that's my choice. I'm not obligated to do a damn thing. If you think I should be, you're flat out wrong.

 

If content creators don't like what ads are on the platform? Try and campaign to get better ads.

[RoseLuck462]

Let’s just hope that this year alone was just super stressful (and we just had LTX) as he was going to be stepping down as CEO.

 

Hopefully going forward the new CEO will make the right changes such as allowing more time for better videos.

[Radium_Angel]

3 hours ago, fohatadri said:

Explain to me like i'm five, why and how Adblock is not piracy.

Browsing the Interwebs withOUT (edit..can't speel) adblockers, is like going to an orgy without condoms.

Sooner or later, you're gonna get infected

[Radium_Angel]

25 minutes ago, Rhino16 said:

I don’t think it’s money exactly, but I seem to notice he doesn’t seem to know what’s going on a lot of the time which is surprising. Maybe it’s just gotten too big to keep up.

To quote a line from a song

"It's tough to handle this fortune and fame, Everybody's so different, I haven't changed"

[imreloadin]

11 minutes ago, RoseLuck462 said:

Let’s just hope that this year alone was just super stressful (and we just had LTX) as he was going to be stepping down as CEO.

 

Hopefully going forward the new CEO will make the right changes such as allowing more time for better videos.

This is what I don't get. They literally hired Terran to be CEO so *HE* should have been the one responding to this, not Linus and his knee-jerk reaction. The processes/procedures that the Lab uses to benchmark and generate their results along with the high workload put on the staff each week are solely business decisions, so they should be handled by the CEO.

[Action_Johnson]

Money is like cocaine. It amplifies personality traits. 

[Mr_Coffee]

Dude definitely changed. Just imagine what younger Linus would have said about these actions coming from Nvidia or something. I don't know if the money got to him, or if he just stopped caring after he got his, who knows. It's sad to see, I've been a fan after looking for a TechTV replacement, and I know young Linus would have torn Current Linus a new one over this stuff. Either way, it's extremely dishonest and disrespectful to the viewers/fans. Clearly people aren't happy, the real question is if he cares and tries to fix the problems. Hopefully Future Linus can be a better man, but currently I'm not seeing any actions that would make that happen. Feel bad for the other employees who might have disagreed but still had to follow in those footsteps though.

[Johnny Memonic]

1 hour ago, fohatadri said:

Explain to me like i'm five, why and how Adblock is not piracy.

It's not illegal. It's not against any laws. You can tell anybody and everybody you block ads and you won't get a letter from a lawyer in the mail.

[TheSilverSpade]

Money hasn’t changed him it’s everyone else’s ability to manage him thats changed.

[mnxmfan]

People need to stop thinking they "know" someone because of what they put on the internet.  You see less than 10% of Linus (or really ANY creator) so you really don't know how Linus is, just how Linus wants you to see him.  Can the two be the same?  Sure.  But, we are shown time and time again that they can be vastly different as well.

 

It's frankly why the PR profession exists, and why I won't be surprised AT ALL to learn that Linus has a PR person that he'll use to "fix" all of this in the coming weeks.

[Synchor]

2 hours ago, Tumwum said:

Before you read this, I want to say NO, I don't believe he's changed.  I want to see if anyone else feels like I do about Linus and his personality vs how he's now perceived by viewers.

In this post, I'll go over how I feel Linus's personality originated and why he gets so much negative feedback.

 

• OG Linus - The early years of LTT
  • LTT Channel
    • Linus and LTT started off, as everyone should be aware, as a tech review from the perspective of an educated consumer.  Not necessarily the most tech-heavy reviews, but enough details to inform a viewer whether a specific item was worth buying.  His videos had jank and were fun to view as he represented what a tech consumer may do to gain the best performance or best results possible.  It hit a niche that most users wanted, additionally LTT's videos were entertaining to watch which stood him apart from other review channels at the time.
  • Linus's personality:
    • Linus was fun, he didn't mind jank and was able to make fun of himself.  He played a character at the time that would take shots at his staff, he didn't have to wink at the camera that he was joking because LTT was a SMALL team of friends, and it was clear that it was a joke.  We were all in on this joke, and it made Linus's personality pop, as he was that goofy boss we all enjoyed to watch.
       

I believe as the channel went through growing pains from leaving the old home to the new office, people were excited to see this small group of fun personalities finally make it to the big time, their videos continued to be entertaining and educational.  LTT and Linus grew their fan base, and it allowed him to expand into new and existing areas.

 

As his company grew, we started to see the same jokes that were fun in the small home studio start to become misplaced or, at the time, new viewers would just assume Linus being mean or a bad boss.  I think the best example of this kind of his personality can be seen through the INTEL / AMD upgrade videos.  Linus clearly goes through all of his employee's home pointing out stolen items, calling his employee's thieves.  Clearly Linus is joking but at this point, it's not a small company any more, it's a successful 100+ company and these comments from the CEO of a company with real wealth, hits differently then someone in a 5-man company.

 

Additionally, Linus can be seen building computers roughly, treating his employee's new tech with little care, again, I chalk this up as a character hamming it up for a video.  But without context, it's a CEO of a large company building something for his employee with little respect to the employee's home / items.

 

This is just an example, but I think feeds into the root of his personality / perception.

 

• Current Linus - The money bags years
  • LTT Channel
    • Linus and LTT are now huge, the channel is larger than ever, LTT is a +100 person company and their influence on the YouTube platform, review media and companies is beyond anything that Linus would have imaged.  His videos are now broken up into multiple channels, some still hit the fun spot as his original videos, but most are now standard reviews with surface level details (quick reviews).  LTT is in the process of creating labs a high-tech review wing of LTT, their goal to be THE place to go for any and all technical reviews for tech.  This goal seems to clash with the style of jank videos that LTT is known to produce. 
  • Linus' personality:
    • Although I do not know Linus personally, from a viewers' perspective I think his personalty has not changed.  Sure, he's perfected his on-camera character and continues to treat his employees with the same "bro" mentality he did when LTT was a 5-man crew.  He may have the best toys around, but he doesn't seem to let that side of his life influence what he enjoys.

 

IMHO, the problem is that current Linus isn't that young guy who had a small team of friends, he leads a huge company which he should take a step back and acknowledge.  Any fun joke, or inappropriate comment isn't being taken the same from a viewer's perspective and at time comes off as mean spirited or "better than tho" personality.  This isn't because Linus has changed, It's because LTT has changed.  Some of these people ARE Linus's real friends, and that can make things complicated for his on-screen personality.  But he needs to know how OG viewers and new viewers see him.

 

The only thing I will say about Linus and money is that a lot of his conversations or videos are about "LOOK HOW MUCH THIS COST" or him pointing out how much he pays someone. or how much he spent on XXX item for testing.  As someone who knows a lot of people like Linus, I know It's just off jokes, it CLEARLY does not represent how Linus feels, but from a viewers' perspective, sometimes these jokes don't land.  Compounding the issue, Linus's very wealthy home situation and new Porsche paints him in a certain light, whether he wants to or not.  Linus is no longer the common tech fan driving around in a pink Honda, he's a wealthy owner of a huge operation.  We can't relate with him anymore, so the jokes he makes comes from a place of power, not a from a common man.

 

I may be dead wrong, I may be the only one feeling like this.  But I think it may explain a bit of his personality / LTT's changes.

 

I think it's time for Linus to let go some of these jokes, he's a fun person who can come up with new ways to interact with his team.  My goal with this post is to see if this resonates with others? And if so, maybe it's something that Linus can work on for the betterment of himself and his on-screen perception.  As a fan, I hope this is taken as a constructive criticism, as it's intended to be.

 

 

 

I believe this is INCREDIBLY spot-on; I have been watching LTT since 2010, I was legit 10 years old when I started. And he hasn't changed a bit, but he really needs to. He treats his wealth as a cool thing that he happens to have but doesn't really affect his life when that's not the case. His life HAS gotten better because of his wealth; his business has grown, he owns a MANSION and a PORCHE, and is building his own Badminton court.  All of those things are yes cool, but they are also RESPONSIBILITY that falls squarely on him to maintain. This 'I'm too smart and busy to care" attitude doesn't fly anymore BECAUSE he has 100+ employees; everything he does that reflects badly on him, reflects badly on LTT, and compromises those people's livelihoods. Every time he says 'we are not perfect, mistakes happen" erodes confidence in his TEAM and the LTT BRAND, not just him. Its also not an excuse in this situation; he talks ALL THE TIME about his acquisitions and inventory team, yet between all of those people, across three months, the Billet Labs prototype STILL got misplaced? How is that even possible and his statement about not updating SOP is EVEN WORSE. SOPs are meant to be updated, specifically for edge cases like this one; I saw a great post on here that basically said they are the guard rails for when the car goes off the road, not the divider line. They dont just outline the basic tasks everyday, because after quality training, the average employee should be able to do their daily tasks. Its specifically for when THE UNEXPECTED happens. I think this attitude of not updating the SOP is also reflective of Linus' lack of change; back in the day, you could just have an all-hands-on-deck meeting with the 5 people, who are all your friends working for mainly the passion of it, to never happen again. That type of conflict resolution is simply not possible with a company of over 100 people, some of whom Linus admitted he DOESNT KNOW THEIR NAMES or WHEN THEY WERE HIRED. He hasnt changed, and its not good. 

[Synchor]

2 minutes ago, mnxmfan said:

People need to stop thinking they "know" someone because of what they put on the internet.  You see less than 10% of Linus (or really ANY creator) so you really don't know how Linus is, just how Linus wants you to see him.  Can the two be the same?  Sure.  But, we are shown time and time again that they can be vastly different as well.

 

It's frankly why the PR profession exists, and why I won't be surprised AT ALL to learn that Linus has a PR person that he'll use to "fix" all of this in the coming weeks.

I think its less about his ACTUAL personality, so much has his on-screen persona and how that affects the public's perception of him, his team, and LMG as whole.

[costafilh0]

2 hours ago, Tumwum said:

Before you read this, I want to say NO, I don't believe he's changed.  I want to see if anyone else feels like I do about Linus and his personality vs how he's now perceived by viewers.

In this post, I'll go over how I feel Linus's personality originated and why he gets so much negative feedback.

 

• OG Linus - The early years of LTT
  • LTT Channel
    • Linus and LTT started off, as everyone should be aware, as a tech review from the perspective of an educated consumer.  Not necessarily the most tech-heavy reviews, but enough details to inform a viewer whether a specific item was worth buying.  His videos had jank and were fun to view as he represented what a tech consumer may do to gain the best performance or best results possible.  It hit a niche that most users wanted, additionally LTT's videos were entertaining to watch which stood him apart from other review channels at the time.
  • Linus's personality:
    • Linus was fun, he didn't mind jank and was able to make fun of himself.  He played a character at the time that would take shots at his staff, he didn't have to wink at the camera that he was joking because LTT was a SMALL team of friends, and it was clear that it was a joke.  We were all in on this joke, and it made Linus's personality pop, as he was that goofy boss we all enjoyed to watch.
       

I believe as the channel went through growing pains from leaving the old home to the new office, people were excited to see this small group of fun personalities finally make it to the big time, their videos continued to be entertaining and educational.  LTT and Linus grew their fan base, and it allowed him to expand into new and existing areas.

 

As his company grew, we started to see the same jokes that were fun in the small home studio start to become misplaced or, at the time, new viewers would just assume Linus being mean or a bad boss.  I think the best example of this kind of his personality can be seen through the INTEL / AMD upgrade videos.  Linus clearly goes through all of his employee's home pointing out stolen items, calling his employee's thieves.  Clearly Linus is joking but at this point, it's not a small company any more, it's a successful 100+ company and these comments from the CEO of a company with real wealth, hits differently then someone in a 5-man company.

 

Additionally, Linus can be seen building computers roughly, treating his employee's new tech with little care, again, I chalk this up as a character hamming it up for a video.  But without context, it's a CEO of a large company building something for his employee with little respect to the employee's home / items.

 

This is just an example, but I think feeds into the root of his personality / perception.

 

• Current Linus - The money bags years
  • LTT Channel
    • Linus and LTT are now huge, the channel is larger than ever, LTT is a +100 person company and their influence on the YouTube platform, review media and companies is beyond anything that Linus would have imaged.  His videos are now broken up into multiple channels, some still hit the fun spot as his original videos, but most are now standard reviews with surface level details (quick reviews).  LTT is in the process of creating labs a high-tech review wing of LTT, their goal to be THE place to go for any and all technical reviews for tech.  This goal seems to clash with the style of jank videos that LTT is known to produce. 
  • Linus' personality:
    • Although I do not know Linus personally, from a viewers' perspective I think his personalty has not changed.  Sure, he's perfected his on-camera character and continues to treat his employees with the same "bro" mentality he did when LTT was a 5-man crew.  He may have the best toys around, but he doesn't seem to let that side of his life influence what he enjoys.

 

IMHO, the problem is that current Linus isn't that young guy who had a small team of friends, he leads a huge company which he should take a step back and acknowledge.  Any fun joke, or inappropriate comment isn't being taken the same from a viewer's perspective and at time comes off as mean spirited or "better than tho" personality.  This isn't because Linus has changed, It's because LTT has changed.  Some of these people ARE Linus's real friends, and that can make things complicated for his on-screen personality.  But he needs to know how OG viewers and new viewers see him.

 

The only thing I will say about Linus and money is that a lot of his conversations or videos are about "LOOK HOW MUCH THIS COST" or him pointing out how much he pays someone. or how much he spent on XXX item for testing.  As someone who knows a lot of people like Linus, I know It's just off jokes, it CLEARLY does not represent how Linus feels, but from a viewers' perspective, sometimes these jokes don't land.  Compounding the issue, Linus's very wealthy home situation and new Porsche paints him in a certain light, whether he wants to or not.  Linus is no longer the common tech fan driving around in a pink Honda, he's a wealthy owner of a huge operation.  We can't relate with him anymore, so the jokes he makes comes from a place of power, not a from a common man.

 

I may be dead wrong, I may be the only one feeling like this.  But I think it may explain a bit of his personality / LTT's changes.

 

I think it's time for Linus to let go some of these jokes, he's a fun person who can come up with new ways to interact with his team.  My goal with this post is to see if this resonates with others? And if so, maybe it's something that Linus can work on for the betterment of himself and his on-screen perception.  As a fan, I hope this is taken as a constructive criticism, as it's intended to be.

 

 

 

You mean the small group who's all into hating and cancel trying to ruin stuff?

 

Anyone who's not a kid and gets that things change and is not happy with it has already moved on. Simple as that.

 

I hardly disagree!

 

Change jokes because he is rich? So he can keep the immature audience on check? BS!

 

Mess up and everyone's out for blood! It's the same for anyone famous these days. People shouldn't change who they are because of that. If they do, they become PR fake faces and that's not what Linus wants, and I can respect that much more than any PR BS perfect record.

 

About the haters, they're just looking for someone to take their frustrations out on. They're unhappy, so they want a punching bag.

 

Normal people? They've got legit concerns, and these concerns should be properly addressed! They want things to be better and more transparent, and things should get better with trial and error and more and more transparent!

And also very important, normal people wish others success!

 

Everything else? Drama, public dirty laundry, and pure nonsense!

[mnxmfan]

5 minutes ago, Synchor said:

I think its less about his ACTUAL personality, so much has his on-screen persona and how that affects the public's perception of him, his team, and LMG as whole.

And how he responds to criticism.  Can you imagine if he just would have said "yeah, we screwed up, our bad, we are working to fix it".

 

Instead, he puts out this persona like he really cares about the little guy, so a little guy comes to him and says "hey, we have this water block, can you review it" and he not only can't be bothered, but he auctions it off for charity and does nothing to make it right until someone calls him on it?

 

Actions speak louder than words, Linus.  You want to fix this?  Show us with your ACTIONS.  Or, let your ego take down your persona until 100+ people are unemployed.

[Synchor]

2 minutes ago, costafilh0 said:

You mean the small group who's all into hating and cancel trying to ruin stuff?

 

Anyone who's not a kid and gets that things change and is not happy with it has already moved on. Simple as that.

 

I hardly disagree!

 

Change jokes because he is rich? So he can keep the immature audience on check? BS!

 

Mess up and everyone's out for blood! It's the same for anyone famous these days. People shouldn't change who they are because of that. If they do, they become PR fake faces and that's not what Linus wants, and I can respect that much more than any PR BS perfect record.

 

About the haters, they're just looking for someone to take their frustrations out on. They're unhappy, so they want a punching bag.

 

Normal people? They've got legit concerns, and these concerns should be properly addressed! They want things to be better and more transparent, and things should get better with trial and error and more and more transparent!

And also very important, normal people wish others success!

 

Everything else? Drama, public dirty laundry, and pure nonsense!

He acting this way, as the head of the company, DIRECTLY puts his employees' income in jeopardy. The solution is NOT for people to stop making legitimate arguments about the way he presents his brand image; the solution is for him to recognize he is not just Linus, he is the face of LMG, a multimillionaire, and trusted source of public consumer information. Every time he doesn't act like that is true, he puts the livelihood of ALL of his employees at stake. This time, its a small company, but if he keeps acting like an entitled frat boy in every one of his videos, eventually a larger sponsor will drop them, and then his EMPLOYEES will suffer the result, not him. He has said that he has enough money from him and his children to never work another day in their lives; do you really think it will give up his children's future instead of downsizing? This is why he cant act like that

[Tumwum]

I find this kind of subjective look into an online personality really hard to discuss, most of it is subjective and everyone has their own valid perception.

I know in the past, Linus has stated that it really bothers him that people think of him as mean spirited or a bad boss, so i hope someone at LTT has the ability to talk to him beyond the boss / employee role.

1 hour ago, TheSilverSpade said:

Money hasn’t changed him it’s everyone else’s ability to manage him thats changed.

Furthermore, I think SilverSpade really nailed it.  He's may be too "boss man" to have anyone question his actions or influence his decision.

 

[Tumwum]

1 hour ago, costafilh0 said:

You mean the small group who's all into hating and cancel trying to ruin stuff?

 

Anyone who's not a kid and gets that things change and is not happy with it has already moved on. Simple as that.

 

I hardly disagree!

 

Change jokes because he is rich? So he can keep the immature audience on check? BS!

 

Mess up and everyone's out for blood! It's the same for anyone famous these days. People shouldn't change who they are because of that. If they do, they become PR fake faces and that's not what Linus wants, and I can respect that much more than any PR BS perfect record.

 

About the haters, they're just looking for someone to take their frustrations out on. They're unhappy, so they want a punching bag.

 

Normal people? They've got legit concerns, and these concerns should be properly addressed! They want things to be better and more transparent, and things should get better with trial and error and more and more transparent!

And also very important, normal people wish others success!

 

Everything else? Drama, public dirty laundry, and pure nonsense!

You have a point, he shouldn't have to change the way he jokes in order to avoid how an audience perceives him.  That being said, he's so large now that the percentage of viewers who are new to his personality will most likely not take the joke the right way.

 

I think we both have to acknowledge that us viewers who have been watching for over 10 years are the small minority, and as much as I'm ok with his jokes, and some may even really enjoy that side of him.  Is it worth keeping around if the majority do not see his jokes as they're intended?

 

I'm not saying be fake or don't joke, I just think he needs to be made aware of how his standard go-to jokes make him look to new users.  If that perception is not an issue to him, then there's no discussion here.  But I've never seen him discuss this kind of topic.

[SADS]

I mean, wouldn't you?

 

If you grew your company to this scale... would you give a fuck anymore?

 

He's set up everyone and everything now.

 

He rocks up, reads his script, fucks off and collects his cheque.

 

At this point, the channel is so big, it doesn't matter if the content is shit.

it's a content farm. It's the same as 5 minute crafts at this point.

[Irisena]

Sit upon the throne, and the throne will act upon you... Or something to that effect. 

 

idk, maybe his personality haven't really changed, but his outlook on his business definitely is. I mean, LMG went from a scrappy YT channel into a 100+ people company right now. Obviously something's gotta change. 

[WarezSan]

5 hours ago, fohatadri said:

I'm naive? For looking out to smaller channels? What else you're going to say, that you torrent music? Going out of your way to find and read paid news outlet articles? Calling YouTubers names because you don't like this business model ain't going to change anything. Get real.

You are bloody naive.
It's really disheartening.
If you don't watch an advertising video, the advertiser does NOT pay google for the video.
The argument that small channels are harmed is stupid to say the least.
Small channels with ad advertising do not survive, they rely only on sponsorships and VOLUNTARY contributions from those who follow them.

[ShadowDev]

yes money did change them. for the worse. will be good when the channel dies. 

[Amias]

Linus moaning about spending $500 to correct a fucking video is disgusting. Then you factor in he makes videos where he's dropping tens of thousands of dollars on making his million $+ stupid home smart. Then shows videos of his employees living in shoe box apartments. Extremely extremely gross.