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Linus Tech Tips is all-in on the clickbait-centric style of YouTube production that is the polar opposite of quality tech journalism. They emphasize exaggerated

Linus Tech Tips is all-in on the clickbait-centric style of YouTube production that is the polar opposite of quality tech journalism. They emphasize exaggerated reactions and silly accidents over the thoughtful and well-prepared content that Ian’s writing is about. Some people love it (obvious from their numbers) but I always feel like it’s a waste of time to watch his videos because it’s 90% entertainment and maybe 10% useful info. Entirely different audiences. So I hope he’s not joining them. It would be great if he formed his own venture instead.

tomc1985 5y ago
You just described everything that is wrong and also most profitable about Youtube culture
BoysenberryPi 5y ago
I agree you about LTT to a certain point but I think you are dragging them too much. LTT has done some very good tech journalism in the past and brought some very important stories to light. While I do not prefer them for my hardware information for reasons you stated, I would not call them the polar opposite of quality.
- willis936 5y ago
  This is what annoys me most about LTT: they have nuggets of value in most videos, but they're buried under a mountain of optimized dirt. It's cool to see them try a different format and hope they succeed in bringing proper empirical-mindedness to the top of the presentation.
- PragmaticPulp 5y ago
  That's the 10% good info that I referred to. If I drop into a random page of a random Ian Cutress article, there's a high probability it will be interesting and well thought-out content. If I drop into a random LTT video and scroll to a random timestamp, it's most likely going to be some minimal content arbitrarily stretched past the 10 minute threshold for YouTube monetization. I can usually find the answer to the clickbait headline with enough seeking around, but many of his videos contain so little actual content that it could probably be summarized in a couple of Tweets. His specialty is expanding it into 10+ minutes of overly enthusiastic, slow-paced talking about it. The information density is at polar opposites of the spectrum, and that's by design. YouTube favors quantity and clickbait, and it's no secret that Linus is playing that game as aggressively as he can.
  - newsclues 5y ago
    Wow, entertaining content is orders of magnitude more popular and profitable than in depth analysis. Doesn’t mean that entertainment doesn’t benefit from rigorous science and methodology.
    - freemint 5y ago
      Which LTT has been shown to be interested in producing, buying cable testing equipment, using high speed cameras for monitor analysis, ... and with LTT Labs those efforts will likely increase.
  - thot_experiment 5y ago
    I mean very obviously you're comparing different media aimed at different audiences but even so you're wrong, there are plenty of LTT videos where they dive into their methodology and provide explanations that are fairly in depth. I think you should be blown away by the fact that LTT manages to retain it's broad audience going as deep as they do when it comes to stuff like testing thermals under various conditions. I came into LTT thinking it was clickbait trash but it's absolutely not, you have a long way to go before you get to the "polar opposite of the spectrum". In any case people are suggesting Ian join LTT Labs, not LTT.
  - sumedh 5y ago
    > arbitrarily stretched past the 10 minute threshold for YouTube monetization. So do you blame the creator or Google who makes these rules?
- jolux 5y ago
  I don't know if this has changed but at some point I stopped watching LTT because my own knowledge of computing exceeded his (as far as I can tell) and I started noticing trivial technical errors in a lot of the content he made, delivered with unwarranted confidence. He's not an engineer, he got his start demoing products for tech retailers. This is why I've long since preferred AnandTech to LTT. They employ people like Cuttress, who has a respect for scientific rigor and can go deep into the technological weeds and actually report usefully from them, whereas I feel LTT was limited mostly to surface-level observations when I watched regularly.
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    YouTube is HN taken to the extreme: nobody asks for credentials if you present content with infinite confidence.
Kye 5y ago
Linus might be a showman, but I didn't see anything inaccurate or uselessly shallow in the videos I watched. It's not my style, but if the only complaint you have is stylistic, it's not enough to dismiss the whole thing.
- ivank 5y ago
  He has an entire video about cleaning keyboards that consists of putting them in the dishwasher as a whole, PCB included. There’s no way that’s ever a good idea because of corrosion.
  - Kye 5y ago
    This seems to be in agreement with what I said, but you appear to have put it up as a counterexample. Showman means entertainment. He's an entertainer. He also seems to be one of the rare entertainers who doesn't fib for greater entertainment value. The LTT labs thing linked elsewhere suggests he cares about the technical side and, like BuzzFeed News, wants to use entertainment to fund more serious stuff. I don't see a problem here. The keyboard thing sounds entertaining, so I'll go check it out.
  - freemint 5y ago
    Yet the video shower that wasn't an issue and he gave tips how to minimise corrosion anyway
    - c0balt 5y ago
      They later on, as a side part of a last year or so video, discussed that all pf those keyboards failed a few months afterwards. The cause was not discussed but I would guess washing introduced either corrosion and/ or a lot of wear tp the keyboards. They mentioned that they would like to revisit the concept later but, iirc, it hasn't been done yet.
mrweasel 5y ago
People shouldn't fool themselves, Linus is running a business, and the clickbait titles and thumbnails bring in viewers. Linus even stated this in a video. I do think his heart is in the right place and his team is able to produce high quality, both in terms of the content and the production. If LTT is serious about LTT Labs, then they need someone like Ian Cutress, and LTT is one of the few place that would be able make him a genuine offer.
- joshstrange 5y ago
  Agreed, I get annoyed with the over-the-top-ness of many of his videos, even the podcast, but overall they do a decent job of covering things. Clickbait titles/thumbnails are unfortunately table stakes on YT and while I hate it I can't bring myself to hate the player. LTT is far from perfect and I certainly don't agree with him on everything but I'd rank his content over quite a few other channels.
sockaddr 5y ago
Disagree. His videos definitely have the click-baity look and titles. But the content is usually pretty top notch even if you need to ignore some silly parts of certain videos. I think his channel pairs well with GamerNexus.
CyberRage 5y ago
Had to chime in after seeing this comment. LTT is definitely a click-bait, simple and shallow channel but that's their strength. LTT wouldn't be as big if they did highly technical "boring" analysis, they can be so big and influential because they are light, layman-friendly almost at a stupid level. Youtube is about attracting the crowd and let me tell you something, the crowd isn't very smart for the most part.
- bavell 5y ago
  On one hand I respect their success - what they do isn't easy and they run a successful business. On the other hand, I'm not at all impressed with their info-sparse, silly, light-hearted approach to their content. I understand there's demand for it in the market but it's a big turn-off for me...
bavell 5y ago
Totally agreed. I've been following Anandtech since ~2008 along with other tech news but I've always had a very low opinion of LTT. I've watched a few videos but they feel so fake to the point of cringe. I'm definitely in their target demo but they're way too childish for me to take them seriously.
baybal2 5y ago
> Linus Tech Tips The first thing I though before googling it up was that Linus Torvalds got into youtubing.
user_7832 5y ago
I think you're quite misinformed about the situation. Linus has literally said that he doesn't like the clickbait himself but it's almost essential to get decent views thanks to YouTube's algorithms. It's true that a lot of their work is more surface-level compared to AnandTech but that's just partly because a. You need a lot of talent that they might not have had, and b. They actually ARE expanding in that direction. Side note: Tom Scott/Rohin Francis/Veritasium have also started having more clickbaity video thumbnails. Do I blame them? No, I blame YouTube. Don't forget, Linux has a huge team he needs to pay and support.
Philip-J-Fry 5y ago
They do a lot of low effort clickbait stuff, but that pays the bills for them to do higher quality journalism. They have done plenty of high quality reviews of new tech. Plus they have made a big investment into doing even more advanced testing and reviewing. So I don't really agree that they are "all-in". They do it because that's what makes money, but Linus also wants his channel to be a place for high quality journalism.
PolygonSheep 5y ago
LTT Labs could end up being like BuzzFeed vs BuzzFeed News where a site famous for its clickbait, inane quizzes, and half-assed listicles started doing serious investigative journalism. If you told me ten years ago that BuzzFeed's news site would end up winning many prestigious awards including a Pulitzer Prize I would have thought you were joking.
- JohnBooty 5y ago
  What an insightful point. I was thinking the worst, but this gives me some hope.
- azeirah 5y ago
  The interesting thing is that that was all planned from the start. I think it's a TED talk but I'm not entirely sure. Buzzfeed was an MIT grad product to figure out how far they could go with virality and virality alone. If the project proved succesful, they'd invest in serious journalism. It's all there in the video I don't have a link to!
weaksauce 5y ago
so was buzzfeed until they used that money to fund their actual journalism.
starky 5y ago
It is like you didn't watch the video link in the comment you replied to. Linus is trying to add to his entertainment empire with more scientific data based reviews. He seems to be perfectly aware of what he has to produce to keep his business solvent, while at the same time is using that success to add on the more detailed type of content he is interested in producing. Honestly, I don't mind what current LTT videos do. I've spend enough time around tech and doing design work that a lot of the mistakes and situations are familiar. Sure the staff is aware they have to be entertaining and play it up, but a lot of the mistakes are genuine. Plus it makes videos quicker to shoot if you aren't trying to get a perfect take.
stonecharioteer 5y ago
Some things LTT does are really good. But I see where you're coming from. I use SponsorBlock on YouTube and some thimes their entire video is full of "irrelevant content". SponsorBlock and the crowd that sources the info about this stuff is the best.

tomc1985 5y ago

You just described everything that is wrong and also most profitable about Youtube culture

BoysenberryPi 5y ago

I agree you about LTT to a certain point but I think you are dragging them too much. LTT has done some very good tech journalism in the past and brought some very important stories to light. While I do not prefer them for my hardware information for reasons you stated, I would not call them the polar opposite of quality.

willis936 5y ago
This is what annoys me most about LTT: they have nuggets of value in most videos, but they're buried under a mountain of optimized dirt. It's cool to see them try a different format and hope they succeed in bringing proper empirical-mindedness to the top of the presentation.
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
That's the 10% good info that I referred to. If I drop into a random page of a random Ian Cutress article, there's a high probability it will be interesting and well thought-out content. If I drop into a random LTT video and scroll to a random timestamp, it's most likely going to be some minimal content arbitrarily stretched past the 10 minute threshold for YouTube monetization. I can usually find the answer to the clickbait headline with enough seeking around, but many of his videos contain so little actual content that it could probably be summarized in a couple of Tweets. His specialty is expanding it into 10+ minutes of overly enthusiastic, slow-paced talking about it. The information density is at polar opposites of the spectrum, and that's by design. YouTube favors quantity and clickbait, and it's no secret that Linus is playing that game as aggressively as he can.
- newsclues 5y ago
  Wow, entertaining content is orders of magnitude more popular and profitable than in depth analysis. Doesn’t mean that entertainment doesn’t benefit from rigorous science and methodology.
  - freemint 5y ago
    Which LTT has been shown to be interested in producing, buying cable testing equipment, using high speed cameras for monitor analysis, ... and with LTT Labs those efforts will likely increase.
- thot_experiment 5y ago
  I mean very obviously you're comparing different media aimed at different audiences but even so you're wrong, there are plenty of LTT videos where they dive into their methodology and provide explanations that are fairly in depth. I think you should be blown away by the fact that LTT manages to retain it's broad audience going as deep as they do when it comes to stuff like testing thermals under various conditions. I came into LTT thinking it was clickbait trash but it's absolutely not, you have a long way to go before you get to the "polar opposite of the spectrum". In any case people are suggesting Ian join LTT Labs, not LTT.
- sumedh 5y ago
  > arbitrarily stretched past the 10 minute threshold for YouTube monetization. So do you blame the creator or Google who makes these rules?
jolux 5y ago
I don't know if this has changed but at some point I stopped watching LTT because my own knowledge of computing exceeded his (as far as I can tell) and I started noticing trivial technical errors in a lot of the content he made, delivered with unwarranted confidence. He's not an engineer, he got his start demoing products for tech retailers. This is why I've long since preferred AnandTech to LTT. They employ people like Cuttress, who has a respect for scientific rigor and can go deep into the technological weeds and actually report usefully from them, whereas I feel LTT was limited mostly to surface-level observations when I watched regularly.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  YouTube is HN taken to the extreme: nobody asks for credentials if you present content with infinite confidence.

Kye 5y ago

Linus might be a showman, but I didn't see anything inaccurate or uselessly shallow in the videos I watched. It's not my style, but if the only complaint you have is stylistic, it's not enough to dismiss the whole thing.

ivank 5y ago
He has an entire video about cleaning keyboards that consists of putting them in the dishwasher as a whole, PCB included. There’s no way that’s ever a good idea because of corrosion.
- Kye 5y ago
  This seems to be in agreement with what I said, but you appear to have put it up as a counterexample. Showman means entertainment. He's an entertainer. He also seems to be one of the rare entertainers who doesn't fib for greater entertainment value. The LTT labs thing linked elsewhere suggests he cares about the technical side and, like BuzzFeed News, wants to use entertainment to fund more serious stuff. I don't see a problem here. The keyboard thing sounds entertaining, so I'll go check it out.
- freemint 5y ago
  Yet the video shower that wasn't an issue and he gave tips how to minimise corrosion anyway
  - c0balt 5y ago
    They later on, as a side part of a last year or so video, discussed that all pf those keyboards failed a few months afterwards. The cause was not discussed but I would guess washing introduced either corrosion and/ or a lot of wear tp the keyboards. They mentioned that they would like to revisit the concept later but, iirc, it hasn't been done yet.

mrweasel 5y ago

People shouldn't fool themselves, Linus is running a business, and the clickbait titles and thumbnails bring in viewers. Linus even stated this in a video. I do think his heart is in the right place and his team is able to produce high quality, both in terms of the content and the production. If LTT is serious about LTT Labs, then they need someone like Ian Cutress, and LTT is one of the few place that would be able make him a genuine offer.

joshstrange 5y ago
Agreed, I get annoyed with the over-the-top-ness of many of his videos, even the podcast, but overall they do a decent job of covering things. Clickbait titles/thumbnails are unfortunately table stakes on YT and while I hate it I can't bring myself to hate the player. LTT is far from perfect and I certainly don't agree with him on everything but I'd rank his content over quite a few other channels.

sockaddr 5y ago

Disagree. His videos definitely have the click-baity look and titles. But the content is usually pretty top notch even if you need to ignore some silly parts of certain videos. I think his channel pairs well with GamerNexus.

CyberRage 5y ago

Had to chime in after seeing this comment. LTT is definitely a click-bait, simple and shallow channel but that's their strength. LTT wouldn't be as big if they did highly technical "boring" analysis, they can be so big and influential because they are light, layman-friendly almost at a stupid level. Youtube is about attracting the crowd and let me tell you something, the crowd isn't very smart for the most part.

bavell 5y ago
On one hand I respect their success - what they do isn't easy and they run a successful business. On the other hand, I'm not at all impressed with their info-sparse, silly, light-hearted approach to their content. I understand there's demand for it in the market but it's a big turn-off for me...

bavell 5y ago

Totally agreed. I've been following Anandtech since ~2008 along with other tech news but I've always had a very low opinion of LTT. I've watched a few videos but they feel so fake to the point of cringe. I'm definitely in their target demo but they're way too childish for me to take them seriously.

baybal2 5y ago

> Linus Tech Tips The first thing I though before googling it up was that Linus Torvalds got into youtubing.

user_7832 5y ago

I think you're quite misinformed about the situation. Linus has literally said that he doesn't like the clickbait himself but it's almost essential to get decent views thanks to YouTube's algorithms. It's true that a lot of their work is more surface-level compared to AnandTech but that's just partly because a. You need a lot of talent that they might not have had, and b. They actually ARE expanding in that direction. Side note: Tom Scott/Rohin Francis/Veritasium have also started having more clickbaity video thumbnails. Do I blame them? No, I blame YouTube. Don't forget, Linux has a huge team he needs to pay and support.

Philip-J-Fry 5y ago

They do a lot of low effort clickbait stuff, but that pays the bills for them to do higher quality journalism. They have done plenty of high quality reviews of new tech. Plus they have made a big investment into doing even more advanced testing and reviewing. So I don't really agree that they are "all-in". They do it because that's what makes money, but Linus also wants his channel to be a place for high quality journalism.

PolygonSheep 5y ago

LTT Labs could end up being like BuzzFeed vs BuzzFeed News where a site famous for its clickbait, inane quizzes, and half-assed listicles started doing serious investigative journalism. If you told me ten years ago that BuzzFeed's news site would end up winning many prestigious awards including a Pulitzer Prize I would have thought you were joking.

JohnBooty 5y ago
What an insightful point. I was thinking the worst, but this gives me some hope.
azeirah 5y ago
The interesting thing is that that was all planned from the start. I think it's a TED talk but I'm not entirely sure. Buzzfeed was an MIT grad product to figure out how far they could go with virality and virality alone. If the project proved succesful, they'd invest in serious journalism. It's all there in the video I don't have a link to!

weaksauce 5y ago

so was buzzfeed until they used that money to fund their actual journalism.

starky 5y ago

It is like you didn't watch the video link in the comment you replied to. Linus is trying to add to his entertainment empire with more scientific data based reviews. He seems to be perfectly aware of what he has to produce to keep his business solvent, while at the same time is using that success to add on the more detailed type of content he is interested in producing. Honestly, I don't mind what current LTT videos do. I've spend enough time around tech and doing design work that a lot of the mistakes and situations are familiar. Sure the staff is aware they have to be entertaining and play it up, but a lot of the mistakes are genuine. Plus it makes videos quicker to shoot if you aren't trying to get a perfect take.

stonecharioteer 5y ago

Some things LTT does are really good. But I see where you're coming from. I use SponsorBlock on YouTube and some thimes their entire video is full of "irrelevant content". SponsorBlock and the crowd that sources the info about this stuff is the best.