I got another comment expressing hunger for new content and lamenting all the polished up older stuff. I wrote this response that ended up feeling more like a full post than a simple comment reply. Hope you dig it. Also, I made this a poll because I don't think YouTube loves just random essays... But I do like to write random essays so...
It's hard to get pumped about cleaned-up older content, but like Carl Sagan said: "If you wish to bake an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
All projects go through predictable stages of expansion and contraction, and then expansion into the next evolution. After landing the plane on the 5-year journey through the total solar eclipse (thank you, Founders!), I had to walk back all the way to the fundamentals.
I had to force myself to learn stuff that I hadn't had to worry about in years, like "where are all the episodes located? On what drives? Where are all the logins? How many services are we double-purchasing?" And "how much of this equipment is old, broken, antiquated, redundant and just taking up space?" And "it's been 15 years since I edited things. What's changed? Do we even need physical media on our cameras? How much of all of this is now silly to have humans still doing?"
Essentially I've had to re-learn and re-design every stage of the production pipeline. And that means "Undercover Boss"-style, actually performing every single job of every single person that had been standing between you the viewer, and me the creator. There were just too many steps in-between us for years and years, and it was long overdue that I fix that.
I know it's not very exciting to hear about data backups of hundreds of terabytes of footage, setting up systems with robot cameras, configuring automated systems that let me conceive of an episode during my 6am run, and have it published by lunch, and so on...
Those are all the parts that are too boring to watch. We're only just now getting to the more fun parts that make for good livestreams (BTW, those are really fun hangs... I'd encourage you to give them a try in the MR channel).
We went nearly a decade building brittle patchwork systems on top of brittle patchwork systems, all while my real time body had to be out giving lectures and talks, performing magic shows, hosting podcasts, workshops, etc. etc. And now it's time to get back to the shortest possible distance between me and you.
Basically, we're 6 months into a literal once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a better storytelling engine that can run faster and better for the rest of my life, and while it's not earth-shattering to see old ads vanish and previous content cleaned up, I hope you'll keep peeking in so you can catch that lightning-in-a-bottle moment when the Wheel of Ka turns, and stuff catches fire once again.
-Brian
PS: One small ask? Get on that email list, and very little of this will remain hidden from you :-) In fact, let's make that the poll question! Are you on the email list?
Scam Nation
I got another comment expressing hunger for new content and lamenting all the polished up older stuff. I wrote this response that ended up feeling more like a full post than a simple comment reply. Hope you dig it. Also, I made this a poll because I don't think YouTube loves just random essays... But I do like to write random essays so...
[[Insert_Wonderful_Fan_Comment_Asking_For_More_New_Stuff_Here]]
My response:
Yep.
It's hard to get pumped about cleaned-up older content, but like Carl Sagan said: "If you wish to bake an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiX...
All projects go through predictable stages of expansion and contraction, and then expansion into the next evolution. After landing the plane on the 5-year journey through the total solar eclipse (thank you, Founders!), I had to walk back all the way to the fundamentals.
I had to force myself to learn stuff that I hadn't had to worry about in years, like "where are all the episodes located? On what drives? Where are all the logins? How many services are we double-purchasing?" And "how much of this equipment is old, broken, antiquated, redundant and just taking up space?" And "it's been 15 years since I edited things. What's changed? Do we even need physical media on our cameras? How much of all of this is now silly to have humans still doing?"
Essentially I've had to re-learn and re-design every stage of the production pipeline. And that means "Undercover Boss"-style, actually performing every single job of every single person that had been standing between you the viewer, and me the creator. There were just too many steps in-between us for years and years, and it was long overdue that I fix that.
I know it's not very exciting to hear about data backups of hundreds of terabytes of footage, setting up systems with robot cameras, configuring automated systems that let me conceive of an episode during my 6am run, and have it published by lunch, and so on...
Those are all the parts that are too boring to watch. We're only just now getting to the more fun parts that make for good livestreams (BTW, those are really fun hangs... I'd encourage you to give them a try in the MR channel).
We went nearly a decade building brittle patchwork systems on top of brittle patchwork systems, all while my real time body had to be out giving lectures and talks, performing magic shows, hosting podcasts, workshops, etc. etc. And now it's time to get back to the shortest possible distance between me and you.
Basically, we're 6 months into a literal once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a better storytelling engine that can run faster and better for the rest of my life, and while it's not earth-shattering to see old ads vanish and previous content cleaned up, I hope you'll keep peeking in so you can catch that lightning-in-a-bottle moment when the Wheel of Ka turns, and stuff catches fire once again.
-Brian
PS: One small ask? Get on that email list, and very little of this will remain hidden from you :-) In fact, let's make that the poll question! Are you on the email list?
2 months ago | [YT] | 49