What Am I Doing With My Life?

[@RobertElderSoftware]

If you missed some of the videos in this series, you can check out the complete list here: kzbin.info/aero/PLp31D6HATKffiOUcem6DX0Yrq5n38QNkY

[@davidsun9026]

The long form video format is my *favorite* Linux KZbin video format.

[@RobertElderSoftware]

This is my favorite comment.

[@VagrantCode]

It’s admirable that you’re trying something on your own rather than just capitulating and getting a coder job. I’m rooting for ya. Keep it up

[@wizard-pirate]

Those 30 days were fantastic. Please stay on KZbin. I will try to remember to watch that stream tomorrow.

[@rob4966]

Stay on KZbin and keep us educated please

[@Rose-ec6he]

This has been fascinating to watch. So few KZbinrs are humble and honest enough to do this kind of experiment and to top it off, you have publicly owned the failure so well. It's not failure in the bad sense, you've made it into a fantastic learning experience for the world and you did see your income measurably improve. I feel fortunate to get to see these vivid snapshots of this journey. I really sympathise with your living situation and hope becomes more predictable soon. Nobody deserves to have their home taken from them, especially not like this. Best of luck moving forward, hope to see you around sometime

[@comosaycomosah]

youre 100000% gonna make it soon dude you make quality videos and its so so so hard to even get where youre at be proud bro!

[@nitrogenez]

$250/month for a parking spot!? what the actual fuck!?

[@The13thRonin]

That's only $8 a day. I don't know the guy, but if he lives in a city that's entirely reasonable.

[@This_Account]

Your conclusion that consulting is a form of liquidity was enlightening. Your business content may not be applicable to everyone, but it is very applicable to those of us with a favorite linux command.

[@IQof2]

I subscribed for the technical content but I absolutely love your business videos

[@lucaiii9955]

I've really enjoyed this "series", if you'd call it that. I love your sense of humor paired with the way you provide actual real insightful information and explanations for things. Hoping everything works out for you and I'm looking forward to more videos! :D

[@LambdaTechnology]

Do everything you can. You’re awesome. The content/format/time-length is whatever you choose. Stay here, and we will continue to support you. Very well done.

[@BrianMcElwain]

Keep on rockin in the libre world! -Brian from Toronto

[@RobertElderSoftware]

Thank you!

[@neat7673]

Hey man, I love your videos. Especially the new business oriented stuff. Keep them coming. I hope that you'll find a better place to stay 🙏

[@der.Schtefan]

I WAS HIS FIRST CUSTOMER! It was me! I was so happy! Get the prints! Ada Lovelace, Kurt Gödel, Alan Turing. They are amazing! Really good quality! Got them in 4 days, international shipping!

[@catmaxi2599]

The long form business engineering videos are my favorite youtube videos

[@quas-r]

I honesty never noticed that you only had ~30k subs and several thousand views per video. This is not to insult these numbers, but on the contrary, to praise your content quality. I honestly appreciate the effort you put into not only editing your videos but the writing as well. Your kind of dry humor is something that I really like. I also seem to like your personality that oozes from behind the dry humor facade very much. Thank you for entertaining and informing. Love from Turkey.

[@jamesread-tannock7176]

I've been enjoying your videos. Wasn't aware of the experiment but i did note how prolific you have been! Hope you find a sustainable way to keep going

[@wizard-pirate]

Thanks!

[@RobertElderSoftware]

Thank you!

[@brothertyler]

You have to advertise things like your merch. I didnt know you had it.

[@nickstrong1572]

I just found your page and I love it so far! I appreciate your story and I hope the best for you!

[@bradley144]

I enjoy your content a lot, Robert. I think a more targeted series for beginners would be very nice, and increase your viewership statistics. I appreciate your fast paced content as a more advanced user myself, but some viewers might not be accustomed to the familiarities you or I are used to. I think a community such as IRC or discord would be a great next step for your KZbin channel, as well as targeting your descriptions to include beginner friendly keywords. Thanks for all you do!

[@NewsRedial]

Just subbed. I find it strongly encouraging that just based on your photo, it would be hard to tell if you are educated, intelligent and erudite as you actually are, or a hard drinking street brawler. Of course, you could be both.

[@houstonnhudson1674]

Honestly my brain is not big enough to understand any of your videos but for some reason still enjoyed watching them haha! Keep working hard to get out them apartments! They’re a bunch of crooks filled with greed!

[@flyingchic3n]

Just wanted to say I really liked the business videos. There's not much stuff like that out there, thanks for sharing!

[@NatesRandomVideo]

Enjoyed it. The algorithm found you for me. I can’t imagine $400 a month is worth the video editing time as income for all of those videos. Releasing videos about topics of interest as a fun thing every so often, seems interesting but I can’t be bothered. You helped solidify that thought for me.

[@zildeos9858]

It's weird. i normally like very technical videos, but i enjoyed your business and 'why i rejected x offer' videos a lot more than your technical ones.

[@headbanger1428]

Well done! I’m on board for all of this. Thanks!

[@thefrozensun]

I loved the business videos. Congrats on meeting your goal and challenging yourself. I hope you go on to create great videos and have a successful business.

[@ryoonio]

Anecdotal but I just found your channel due, I think, to all the recent videos and loving your perspectives so far!

[@BRUH.141]

at 5:50 robert looks like he is going to git commit -m "fix: removed upper_neighbor class"

[@JeremySeitz]

I really enjoy the videos you are making and look forward to every one of them! Like others have said, I think your audience and reach will just keep growing. The tech topics you choose are super interesting and your personal stories and analysis are really interesting and entertaining. Thanks for doing this!

[@AntonioRonde]

I like your short linux command videos. Especially the one about the divergence of man, info and help

[@der.Schtefan]

Take THIS!

[@RobertElderSoftware]

Thank you!

[@willft520]

I love your videos, dear Robert! you have a great sense of humor and a big brain! such a great combination!

[@levonschaftin3676]

loved the videos Rob. I hope you continue with them. I'm here for your personality/you, the tech topics are just icing on the cake.

[@OkWhatsavailable]

Love the humor of your personal experience. Keep the videos coming.

[@michaelmcwhirter]

Please give us some more of the business background in terms of these tech lifestyles. It'd be great to understand how the minds of Nvidia's CEO, Facebook's CEO, Tesla's CEO, etc think when it comes to knowing how to orchestrate everyone and everything through and through in order to make the whole business work and be profitable. Love the videos! 👍

[@herp_derpingson]

Come over to Dallas, we suddenly have lots of studio apartments at 1000-2000$/month range.

[@TheSporadicShade1]

Lmao OMG I think I found my new favourite channel. What a character you are!❤

[@dr.samsung_8855]

As a student of computer science, I find your experiences and stories very helpful and insightful. I'm very glad I found your channel. Hope KZbin ad revenue won't become a deterrent towards making content. I've never had a good opportunity to dip my toes in the corporate America lifestyle, so I really enjoyed hearing about your experience at Nvidia, and I sure hope that Amazon has changed their ways by now.

[@wi0lono]

I love your business videos, please don't stop!

[@turfptax]

Congrats on hitting the 1k mark for the month! Keep up the great content.

[@matiasbpg]

Keep it up! You've become one of my recurrent watches ❤. Also love your business videos

[@JulieLHessler]

😂brilliant use of renovation sounds!❤

[@ervinpm]

Experiments are what makes this channel unique. Keep em coming 👍

[@MultiScott1000]

love the content. hang in man!

[@veorEL]

Man I really like your content, it looks and feels honest and raw. All the best, sending good karma towards you and will drop a super like every now and then!

[@tylermunson7509]

5:40 was my favourite part

[@nikbl4k]

Id be satisfied if every video was a new business related scenario, expounding rigorously on each and every detail from fights over bottled water, to the ways everyone went on break, even if none of it happened yet (predictions as to the ways in which coworkers are gonna go on break)

[@gilbertporter4992]

What is the picture to the left of your head of at 5:51

[@bigyihsuan2]

Personally, I loved this series of long form videos. There was a period of time before this that I thought the channel was completely dead because I didn't know (and don't care at all for) the shorts you were making. To date, I haven't watched most of them, because I, as a viewer, absolutely hate shorts. And, IMO, I think the Linux command videos would be better suited to long form. It'd really let you get deep into the weeds and caveats and idiosyncracies that each command has. Maybe as a companion with each short?

[@RobertElderSoftware]

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, it's not completely clear to me if doing the shorts was a mistake or not. The shorts videos make close to no money, but idea was that they might bring in more people and grow the channel faster. If I had just made all my shorts long-form videos, I'd probably have might higher ad revenue by now. But that's a hypothetical, since I can't know for sure. Moving forward, I'll probably try to keep doing both as time permits.

[@Mempler]

Would love if you keep this open source, really interested to see how much yt may pay in the future

[@AaronALAI]

I don't know if you had a hypothesis about the yt algo structure from the get go, but I've noticed a few things by watching channels that grow from the ground up and channels that come from tictok. Essentially, I think your window of observation of 1 month is too short to draw any meaningful conclusions from. I think the yt algos work on a type of variable lag delay, to prevent spam and to push channels that have a higher likelihood of sustained content in the future. Like the yt algos watch YOUR rate of change over time, and push your channel as a function of your rate of change when it can predictably estimate you rate of change over time and it is of a certain slope. If your slope is too shallow, it will observer your rate for a long time and be slow to push your channel; if your slope is too steep, it will assume you will burn out and cannot sustain the rate of change, which may force it to observe your rate of change for a longer duration of time. I'm curious to see what happens to the ad revenue of videos you have uploaded thus far many months into the future if you can sustain a video upload/week or a few videos/week. I think the yt algo rate of change sweet spot (where it pushes your channel content as a function of your rate of change the soonest) is when people publish 1-3 videos per week on a predictable schedule over many months; with shorts thrown in there (either from the previous videos or unique) to engage people on days when there are no video uploads. I suspect the yt algo is designed to maximize the predictability of ad revenue for google, so if people's uploads are "sputtery" too many too fast and then not much, or very "sparse." Then the ad revenue from those individuals results in a more stochastic ad stream to google.

[@RobertElderSoftware]

Yes, indeed. I've come to a similar conclusion. At the very least, I think there are some kind of 'smoothing' effects, which is why I'm actually not that surprised about by results in the short term (but I do expect that the backcatalog of videos will help in the long term). Also, there is very much a feedback effect with advertising: Ad campaigns are created by real humans, and if you launch an ad campaign, run it for a month, and then find that it loses money, you'll probably shut it off and try again in 6 months. When I publish videos, that creates ad space inventory, but the correct counter-party that's paying the marketing bill for the ads many take months to 'discover' the campaign settings that actually support these videos.

[@AaronALAI]

@@RobertElderSoftware Smoothing effects, yes! I think that is a good way to explain it. Also, very interesting observation with the advertisers and discovery, I hadn't considered that variable. Great videos, love the channel

[@AaronALAI]

Also, have you tried nvidia rtx voice? You don't need a nvidia gpu or anything, it's software that filters out noise from audio in real time. Works great and might be a good solution to the renovation noise.

[@iplay4us]

Glad to see that Nico Bellic found a calling after GTA4

[@somebody-anonymous]

I just wrote a long comment, but it seems it got deleted. Long story short, I hope you get the other tenants organized and make the landlord regret their bs with your special set of IT + KZbin skills!

[@somebody-anonymous]

Give it all you got and it might make for excellent KZbin content

[@somebody-anonymous]

Maybe a tenants vs landlord app, or "class action lawsuit app" could be a thing

[@somebody-anonymous]

There aren't enough KZbinrs making content about how to set up a tenant union/association, or how to tenants organised and collectively get a lawyer and what to expect from lawsuits etc

[@RobertElderSoftware]

I haven't gotten a notice yet, but once I do, there are still a lot of legal mechanisms available to me to fight the process. The aggressive 'renoviction' tactic has only really been a recent thing now that the market rate rents have gone so much about what rent controlled apartments pay. There are a lot of movements starting up to push the government to enact legislation that will make it more difficult for landlords to use these bogus 'renovictions' as a way to simply increase the rents. Unfortunately, the core of the problem is the rapid increase of housing costs in general over the past few years, and that's unlikely to change any time soon. Also, about your comment getting deleted: That's very unfortunate, and for the record I basically never delete or moderate comments. I much more frequently do the opposite, where I 'approve' comments that somehow end up in the 'held for review' section. In comment threads like this one, I read a lot of heartwarming and positive comments, but the aggressive automatic moderation by KZbin makes me wonder how many critical negative comments I'm just never able to see, lol. Maybe YT is constructing a false reality for me where I think I'm awesome, but actually all my videos suck, but the negative comments just get deleted :P

[@somebody-anonymous]

​@@RobertElderSoftware I was sorry to hear about the organizers getting eviction notices and I'm glad you didn't share their fate. Best of luck, I'm rooting for you

[@Portvoid]

I just saw the video about making a CPU and i thought what could this be and then i wehn i pressed it it suddenly show me the step by step tutorial and its only by using a Stone ❤ love the transition and explanation along the way keep it up sir!! 👑

[@vilijanac]

Did EXCELLENT JOB Robert, you is mine Johnny Walker int IT hightech of America.

[@TorkilZachariassenTZNG]

YT / video is a new format to you. I have seen similar upcoming stars before, that succeded indeed, by having a core base, and had the courage to ask their audience on how they did, and what they could do better - especially in live streams. Your audience would just love to give their favourite advices. Just a hint along those lines, it looks odd to me, when you talk to the camera monitoring screen, rather than to the camera.

[@carlossaenz8204]

how is renovicting not extortion????? wth??????????

[@RobertElderSoftware]

The word 'extortion' has a precise legal definition, and the standard renoviction process doesn't really meet that criteria. The person who bought this building is a commercial real estate lawyer, so he knows exactly what legal tools are available to him to make it as annoying as possible to live here. Things like harassment are illegal, but things like crazy parking fees, or non-legally binding notices to scare people are part of the long-term process of wearing down tenants to get them to hopefully leave, or in some cases, make some kind of agreement to pay more or leave the building entirely.

[@theycallmeken]

Sounds like it’s time for a constructive eviction

[@logannday]

I think twitch and youtube live are promising places for tech content creators. There's a ton of value in watching live coding, and minimal editing required for the vod uploads of the streams

[@GrindLifter]

I have the same question

[@dark_luls]

🫡keep grinding!

[@matthewkriebel7342]

There's definitely a market for training and professional services, but I'm sure it's really hard to break into. Good luck.

[@siedmy]

I would dig into the car problem. What about encourage them to tow the car and contact you, or simply ask them to confirm a registration number for you, and make them act stupid.

[@lpil]

I enjoyed the favourite sounds section

[@Ren-uk7kj]

What am I doing with my life? Is a question I ask myself everyday.

[@TheDa6781]

Awk video lured me in, I stayed for the business/life videos.

[@JustinAquino]

Today I learned about the Renovate to Evict strategies.

[@esepecesito]

That must have been hard to record those videos!

[@voiceoftreason1760]

can you maybe cover the moreutils?

[@RobertElderSoftware]

I'll add it to the todo list.

[@jerksquatter]

Love your videos!

[@Chengiess]

Engineering and business goes hand in hand. It’s when engineers are not interested in business, managers get away with whatever that they do.

[@Chengiess]

How do you stay calm while dealing with so many problems

[@reim321]

Keep Going bro

[@kiri101]

I followed on Twitch. Assuming you'll just be on KZbin for now, where your audience (and the better bit rate and revenue cut) is.

[@apina4]

I don't watch ads, Robert.

[@carltongannett]

KZbin keeps showing me channels just before they blow up in popularity

[@RobertElderSoftware]

That's what I like to hear :)

[@simonabunker]

It might be worth making at least a second channel with more of the business stuff and leave the main channel for Linux stuff. KZbin will find the audience and it's probably a bit different from this channel's audience.

[@hasamat38]

Good videos!

[@amiraloi1694]

I just feel like, if you post videos of you programming sth but in a text editor with a nice theme(or a good looking terminal and shell) and also make a clickbait title for some videos, soon you will reach 1000$/mo and you will be many peoples favorite content creator!

[@AlchemyOfTheFourthKind]

Keep it up!

[@AkashMahata]

I actually enjoyed this video and made it to the end!

[@KashfiFahim]

It’s a start

[@Fullflexno]

Keep going👍

[@OghamTheBold]

If you do _business_ stuff then _economics_ stuff will be logical - some cons piracy theory fellow told me they _may_ be linked - *Awaiting data* ...

[@DiegoGZorrilla]

you've been making linux funny, so that's like amazing common

[@agnidas5816]

ah... too informative thanks !!!!!

[@realGBx64]

That person who did the super thanks on the first day is obviously a time traveler.

[@pixl_xip]

Does your favourite linux command change every day?

[@RobertElderSoftware]

This is my favourite comment.

[@atillacodesstuff1223]

hilarious ending xD

[@matthewrease2376]

19 seconds ago. What am _I_ doing with _my_ life...

[@RobertElderSoftware]

You're watching KZbin videos that are only watched by people who have extremely high IQ. On that basis, the KZbin algorithm must have decided that you were the best candidate to show this video to first.

[@wizard-pirate]

A big brain audience watching a big brain youtuber.

[@BrillianceTutorials]

I don't know why but I love you

[@proton46]

Great title...

[@paxcoder]

Oh that's why they were so messy. I would prefer more thought-out videos.

[@0000kk]

250 for parking wtf

[@RobertElderSoftware]

lol, yeah, and all the new tenants are being charged $100.

[@p_adam19]

Why don't you just make more CPUs?

[@FentForEnt]

i like your videos

[@alphadog6970]

This may be a stupid question but how does a man of your intelligence end up not owning a single piece of property where he can just exist without worrying about being evicted every 6 months? You work remotely as is and time you find something even if it's rural. This is ridiculous.

[@RobertElderSoftware]

That's a good question. I graduated from school 10 years ago, decided to start my consulting/contract business right after graduation. Long-story short is that I've done lots of different contracts (and I also spent time teaching for a while), but nothing pays well enough/is stable enough to keep up with living costs. Just before the pandemic struck, I had what I thought was a decent contract with a small startup here, but the company imploded spectacularly and left massive debts to everyone, including $20k in unpaid invoices to me. I'm not sure what country you're in, but here in Canada, the cost of rent has been increasing rapidly for the last 5 years or so: rentals.ca/national-rent-report Even our own police force is starting to predict a bleak future for our country that may lead to civil unrest: www.ctvnews.ca/canada/rcmp-warns-of-climate-change-recession-and-misinformation-in-secret-report-1.6821642

[@alphadog6970]

@@RobertElderSoftware its just so absurd and maybe its time to abandon the sinking ship. With your skills you can find a job anywhere in the world and have a home. As in you won't need a million dollars to get a home,you will be paid less but have roof over your head. Look what mental outlaw did, he found his place after being in the corporate mill. Now he raises chickens and shitposts on youtube.

[@RobertElderSoftware]

@@alphadog6970 Yes, I have some family that lives outside the city, and I have been taking steps toward building an 'escape hatch' in case things here in the city completely collapse. For now, I'm going to stay put, but I think that in the future KZbin will continue to become an increasingly important part of my business.

[@AaronALAI]

@@RobertElderSoftware The situation is already untenable in much of the world, the US is not faring much better. I think the pandemic highlights the extreme shortsightedness and myopic vision shareholders have. I want to preface my statement, I understand this sounds like an extremely dumb reason, but I believe the primary reason we are seeing this play out is because the rate of profit companies saw during the pandemic was high in many markets (housing being one of them) and shareholders refused to contextualize their profits within that framework, and expect/demand that profits continue to grow at these accelerated rates. Because the alternative would be to "shrink," they are like ratchets that exploited the government bailouts and conditions at the time, and refuse to return to the status quo. ARGH it is is untenable and is only getting worse.

[@RobertElderSoftware]

@@AaronALAI In a true free market, seeking 'profit' by itself isn't a problem because your competition can always come in and undercut you. I think one of the deeper causes for our problems is the lack of competition, and regulatory capture that allows the biggest companies in a given space to actively prevent anyone else from competing with them. The other issue is that increasingly, everyone has their hand in the pie and wants a tax/fee/stamp of approval etc. The core material costs of a house are an extremely small fraction of the actual market price right now. It only takes about two weeks of work for one person in the woods to cut enough wood to build a house, but somehow, a person working a minimum wage job would need to work for 200+ years to afford to buy that same house.

[@gangsterman5590]

Damn I only got here from the how to make a cpu video

[@bearblitz]

No worries on the slow comment replies. What kind of consulting work do you focus on?