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Tom Scott: After ten years, it's time to stop making videos [video]

846 points by Philpax 3y ago

scoofy 3y ago
Tom is definitely in this thread somewhere and I hope he's smiling. Thanks a bunch and have a nice vacation. You are appreciated.
etewiah 3y ago
By pure coincidence I just discovered Tom Scott today. I happen to have resolved yesterday to do a video each week for the rest of this year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBFkj9SjsLU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBFkj9SjsLU After seeing this I am wondering if I might just try to stretch that to 10 years...
simonw 3y ago
Tom's incredible ten year run inspired me to write a thing about escalating streaks, and the power of doing something on a repeating schedule and trying to make it a tiny bit better every time: https://simonwillison.net/2024/Jan/2/escalating-streaks/ https://simonwillison.net/2024/Jan/2/escalating-streaks/
jgrahamc 3y ago
Godspeed, Tom Scott (and thanks for your help on POPFile all those years ago).
- chris_wot 3y ago
  What’s the story there?
  - mhasbini 3y ago
    Tom Scott was an early contributor to POPFile.
  - jgrahamc 3y ago
    As a teenager Tom Scott helped write the documentation for POPFile. By chance he interviewed me years later on stage at some conference and just before we went on stage he told me that some of his very first contributions to anything on the Internet were to POPFile documentation. I had no idea. https://getpopfile.org/docs/welcome https://getpopfile.org/docs/welcome
    - permalac 3y ago
      Is the project still active? I'd love to find a solution for my email issues.
      - jgrahamc 3y ago
        Barely. The software still works but I haven't worked on it for years. And no one else has. What email issues are you having?
    - user_7832 3y ago
      Huh, that really feels like one of those “small world” occurrences. Interesting to think about.
skywal_l 3y ago
You'll be missed. Each video was interesting, fun and well made. I recommend to anyone to have a look at the backlog, especially the series about linguistics inspired by the "lingthusiasm" podcast.
wcarss 3y ago
I've learned a great deal from him over this time. Thanks Tom!
junon 3y ago
End of an era. I knew this was coming and it still was a shock to see it hit my feed today. Best of luck on everything Tom Scott!
djmips 3y ago
I agree with his self assesment. I liked many of his videos but many I also found disagreable and opinionated without much of a sound argument. Sounds like he doesn't like those videos either. All in all, his videos are heads and shoulders above most of YouTube and I wish him well.
mtmail 3y ago
Well deserved. The amount of travel he's done was crazy. I'll still listen to the Lateral podcast and whatever he'll come up with in the future.
orenlindsey 3y ago
Tom Scott has been one of the best YouTube creators ever. He deserves a break.
kioshix 3y ago
One of my favourite youtubers, a well-deserved break.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
lifeisstillgood 3y ago
What struck me was “it’s either keep growing and become a manager or stop and do smaller projects” As someone who many years back looked at a team of 40 developers I was leading and went “nah, I want to be an IC again” that resonates
- isurujn 3y ago
  I joined a company in 2021 as a tech lead after working as a IC for almost a decade. I thought it was going to be a technical role but it slowly turned into a more engineering management one. The were aspects about it that I liked and actually good at. But I really missed programming and building things on my own. Plus the stress was bad. Few months ago, I went back to an engineering job.
- mooreds 3y ago
  Same same. I get the desire to manage more folks (status, money, org impact, joy of mentoring) but the ability to see what you directly build help solve problems... Well, that's hard to beat.
- CooCooCaCha 3y ago
  I'm not sure I buy his reasoning there. He said that he uploads a video every week which is a brisk pace. Why not a video every month? Every quarter? Perhaps he really just wants a break and this explanation sounded the most reasonable. But I hope he didn't get burned out because he was afraid of switching things up.
  - jacooper 3y ago
    Well, smaller could also mean moving this project to a monthly basis.
    - Kye 3y ago
      Some YouTubers did this quietly. hbomberguy and Contrapoints come to mind. Fewer videos, more unscripted/lightly scripted stuff like streams, podcasts, and collaborations.
graypegg 3y ago
Tom Scott’s work stands out as some of the best examples of how interesting and valuable web content can be. In a sea of short derivative junk-food content, he made things that i honestly learned from, without demanding more than 10 minutes of my time a week! There’s of course a lot of people also doing the same sort of great content, but it does feel like a slowly dying breed. Tom definitely deserves an indefinite break though. If/when he goes back to short form web video, I’ll be happy to watch again! :)
- Waterluvian 3y ago
  I agree! But the thing is— I’ve got about fifty Tom Scotts in my subscription list. I’m perplexed by doomsaysers’ laments about the state of online educational media. I’ve got far more high quality content for a huge variety of topics than I’ve ever had before. My theory is this: your favourite hobby store expands and adds one more aisle of fantastic products and five aisles of garbage. You’ll likely perceive quality as having gone way down. In a limited sense, sure: it might be in the way. But it didn’t replace the good stuff.
  - keepamovin 3y ago
    please share your sub list it'd be fascinating! :)
  - jwestbury 3y ago
    > My theory is this: your favourite hobby store expands and adds one more aisle of fantastic products and five aisles of garbage. You’ll likely perceive quality as having gone way down. This is actually something which is borne out by research, though in a slightly different context. Niro Sivanathan at the LBS has studied how arguments are presented, and essentially, recipients of arguments engage in an averaging function instead of an additive function, when evaluating strength -- adding one weaker point to a pair of very strong points actually detracts from the perceived strength of an argument. It would not be at all surprising if we did the same sort of thing in different contexts, such as the example you gave here.
  - phillryu 3y ago
tupac_speedrap 3y ago
RIP you solid lad
- graypegg 3y ago
  He's not dead! His other projects are worth a look. Different kinds of content, but same creative spark.
- ninju 3y ago
  A little premature on the Rest In Peace declaration...he's still alive (I hope)
Kiro 3y ago
What happened to the "Six months from now, this channel stops" video he posted? https://twitter.com/tomscott/status/1675158819629064192 https://twitter.com/tomscott/status/1675158819629064192
- tripdout 3y ago
  Today is 6 months from then.
  - Kiro 3y ago
    Yes, exactly. So why was it removed? The only reason I can think of is if he changed his mind, which he obviously didn't.
    - dharmab 3y ago
      He usually hides channel announcement videos after they're no longer relevant. I assume so he doesn't receive ideas/pitches he solicits in them.
supernova87a 3y ago
I remember asking at some point what seemed to make Tom Scott so successful compared to the thousands of others who have probably tried to make it big on Youtube/social media. Was it the format/length/style, the topics, the camera work, the commentary/research, etc? I think the consensus was that he came out with generally interesting content, but most of all, predictably and sustained, which generated viewership. Interesting how that can be the main factor -- maybe both in keeping people's interest, but also developing the skills to create content that was improving each time and becoming more engaging. And I guess he points to that explicitly in this last video, where he says he challenged himself to make it his real job. For 10 years.
- fennecfoxy 3y ago
  Consistency in quality and other metrics is the key, I think. People like McDonald's because it's filled with sugars, salts and fats but also because they know what they're getting and it's (mostly) consistent from visit to visit. I think Tom was also one of the earlier "cool/casual science & technology" channels and was probably actually one of the main drivers of this type of content. The only downside is that as other people have mentioned in comments, this type of content has gotten more popular, which seems great at first but it ends up being treated as entertainment rather than provoking thought and really being absorbed (not Tom's fault, just the way the average person consumes).
  - supernova87a 3y ago
    It really took me a surprising amount of time to notice the difference between his channel (and similar other actual content creators like Veritasium) and the many many other channels where some guy pretty much regurgitates information he did with only desk research, showing about 200 short stock footage clips while voicing over from some bedroom. I suppose it just goes to show how easily you can be on autopilot and not appreciating or being able to tell actual journalism or original content from junk.
- CM30 3y ago
  Yeah this makes sense to me. He covered interesting and unique topics, and posted about them on a regular basis. That's extremely difficult to do in any medium, let alone something like video where filming and editing demands are significantly higher and a well researched piece just takes far longer to put together.
janvdberg 3y ago
Tom is why I understand UTF-8 [1]. And it is not so much WHAT he explained but HOW he explained it, what really made it stick. It was his sheer unbridled genuine enthusiasm that put him on the map for me. One of the best to do it. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MijmeoH9LT4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MijmeoH9LT4
- devoutsalsa 3y ago
  And he's why I know I shouldn't roll my own time zone library. https://youtu.be/-5wpm-gesOY?si=eL38cruwJZDiuHVS https://youtu.be/-5wpm-gesOY?si=eL38cruwJZDiuHVS
- chubot 3y ago
  This is a great video! I’ve been writing about UTF-8 on my blog and I noticed that many programmers don’t understand it, after 10 or 20 years The main impediment seems to be that languages like Java, JavaScript, and Python treat UTF-8 as just another encoding, but really it’s the most fundamental encoding. The language abstractions get in the way and distort the way people think about text Newer languages like Go and Rust are more sensible, they don’t have global mutable encoding variables
  - omsimun 3y ago
    It's misleading to describe UTF-8 as "the most fundamental encoding", because of the existence of UTF-32 (essentially just a trivial encoding of "raw" Unicode code points) and UTF-16 (which has certain limitations that later became part of the specification of what code points are valid in any encoding) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-16#U+D800_to_U+DFFF_(surrogates) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-16#U+D800_to_U+DFFF_(surro... UTF-8 is the most ubiquitous encoding on the web, but that doesn't make it more fundamental than any other.
    - lifthrasiir 3y ago
      The word "fundamental" here probably has the same meaning as "elementary" as in elementary mathematics, i.e. something you should absolutely understand first, not something that makes up everything else.
unsupp0rted 3y ago
I dislike montages and yet this was a wonderful one. You made countless lives better, in small ways times a million. If this is the best thing you’ll ever do, it’s already good enough. The rest is gravy.
TheAceOfHearts 3y ago
What a brilliant bit of foreshadowing with the helicopter statement. Given the other comments about the deep sea or space, maybe those are areas which he hopes he could've explored which he might end up tackling at some point! I'm really glad I was around for his journey. Sometimes creatives will keep pushing a form of media long past the point where it's interesting or exciting. It takes a great deal of courage and creative integrity to let great things come to an end.
- bornabox 3y ago
  He really had me at the helicopter, too. I just had to smile, it made me happy.
  - fennecfoxy 3y ago
    Same here, and not even a whisker of trepidation either. Just pure, total exaltation as his feet lifted off the ground - can't help but smile and laugh along with him, what a genuine personality.
Rebuff5007 3y ago
To this day when I have buffering problems with online videos I immediately think about his explainer-demo with confetti [1]. Love his work! [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Rp-uo6HmI&themeRefresh=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Rp-uo6HmI&themeRefresh=1
smitty1e 3y ago
Totally had not heard of the fellow. But HN is a gateway to so much goodness.
beej71 3y ago
That literally brought tears to my eyes. We love you, Tom!
danwaterfield 3y ago
On the latest cortex, CGP Grey made the point that what's happening in youtube education-adjacent videos is much the same as what's happening for entertainment in those spaces: the law of the excluded middle. You either do long infrequent videos e.g., like MrBeast, or frequent short videos. Both CGP Grey and Tom Scott did frequent mid-length content, which gets squeezed out.
- withinboredom 3y ago
  I assume cortex is a channel or something you watch, not brain matter?
  - Dylan16807 3y ago
    If you assumed that, was there a need to post that you assumed it? I mean, if you search that name and that word it fills up the results. It doesn't help for you to go "hint hint".
    - withinboredom 3y ago
      People who don’t validate assumptions are made into fools. Without context, I wouldn’t even know if the search results would be the right thing to look for without making further assumptions.
      - Dylan16807 3y ago
        > Without context, I wouldn’t even know if the search results would be the right thing to look for without making further assumptions. Yes you would. The search results are very clearly the right thing.
        withinboredom 3y ago
        To someone who knows, they are "clearly" the right thing. To someone who is searching for random words, but usually searches for some of these words in a different context ... it isn't.
nativeit 3y ago
I started watching his channel at the beginning of Things You Might Not Know. He’s one of the all-time greats. His RI lecture “There Is No Algorithm For Truth” is as prescient as ever. He truly helped make YouTube a special platform, even if it doesn’t always recognize its own strengths, and chases trends it’s fundamentally incapable of adopting properly.
MrFoof 3y ago
Tom Scott was so sharp, he knew to end on a high note, and damn near his peak. It’s one thing to produce a lot of great content, but it’s very rare for someone to wrap it up when they clearly were still at or near their best.
HL33tibCe7 3y ago
> There’s nothing in my life right now except work Quite sad
- philipwhiuk 3y ago
  There's a reason most YouTube accounts doing the 'numbers' he has are teams of many people.
M2Ys4U 3y ago
Tom's commitment to accessibility is fantastic. Turn on the subtitles on any of his videos (particularly when there are multiple speakers) and you'll see the effort that goes in to it. Far too many people who publish to YouTube just let users deal with the the auto-generated subtitles, even when they have the ability and budget to do it properly. "'Oh look at me I bought a Lamborghini!' Buy some damned subtitles" -- Tom Scott.[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m__OZ3ZsO4Y&t=334s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m__OZ3ZsO4Y&t=334s
- throw0101b 3y ago
  > Turn on the subtitles on any of his videos (particularly when there are multiple speakers) and you'll see the effort that goes in to it. He actually did a video on subtitles recently, "Why don't subtitles match dubbing?": * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU9sHwNKc2c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU9sHwNKc2c
  - alister 3y ago
    His explanation about why subtitles don't match dubbing is not convincing. Basically he says that subtitling and dubbing are done by different teams with different goals. The dubbing crew tries to match lip movement. OK, so why not use the script that the dubbing team produced for the subtitles? Why do the translation twice? His explanation for that: (a) sometimes what's spoken is too long to fit as subtitles on the screen, (b) what's spoken needs to be summarized, like multiple people shouting over one another on a reality show, otherwise the subtitles would be a confusing jumble of words, and (c) jokes/slang/puns can be difficult to translate. I that agree (a) and (b) are legitimate reasons why subtitles might occasionally not match dubbing, but (c) is irrelevant. Jokes/slang/puns might be difficult or impossible to translate, but whatever way it ends up being translated can be spoken and written identically. In fact his goose joke is spoken and written in Portuguese as Eu estou gansado deles in the same way (timecode 3:57). I.e., the dubbing matches the subtitles. So the examples he gives do not support what he did in his own video. Furthermore, his video (like almost all videos and TV shows) is chock full of cases where the subtitles and dubbing are different for no plausible reason related to (a), (b), or (c) above: All examples below are when the video is set to Brazilian Portuguese audio and Brazilian Portuguese subtitles. Time: 0:22 Dubbing: E o motivo disso é que as legendas e a dublagem ... Subtitles: Isso acontece porque as legendas e a dublagem ... Time: 0:51 D: as legendas e a dublagem são praticamente idênticas S: as legendas e a dublagem são quase idênticas Time: 1:08 D: é sincronizar o movimento dos lábios o mais próximo possível S: é sincronizar os lábios o mais próximo possível Although I agree that reasons (a) and (b) above might be valid on rare occasions, I think the real reason that subtitles don't match dubbing is because they are done by different teams with no coordination, with different timelines and deadlines, and probably by completely different companies in different countries. If you cared strongly about this issue, I don't see any reason why the subtitles and dubbing couldn't be 99% or 99.9% identical in any particular target language. The 1% or 0.1% case being when the dialog is much too long for the screen or when you have to summarize a bunch of people talking simultaneously.
janeerie 3y ago
I'm glad he's still doing the Lateral podcast (as that's the only thing I know him from). I do wish he would get somebody besides Youtubers as guests, though. It's frustrating to hear 20-somethings with very little cultural and historical knowledge try to work through the problems.
- M2Ys4U 3y ago
  He's had a few "mainstream" people on as guests. Professor Hannah Fry is one guest who's a pretty established broadcaster (in the UK at least).
- pavel_lishin 3y ago
  One of the more recent ones actually had a joke about this - one of his guests was significantly older than the other two, and some cultural references didn't quite land on either side.
CM30 3y ago
Damn, this is a video I didn't want to see today. I love Tom Scott's videos, and just about everything he's ever made has been a great watch. I still remember the VPN videos debunking common myths about them, and the one about how electronic/online voting was a bad idea. But sadly, I get what he means here. YouTube has basically split down the middle, with the assumption being that you'll either pump out content quickly without much time to prepare, or you'll work on more infrequent essay length videos on a monthly basis or longer. And in both cases... the expectation seems to be that most videos are a professional endeavour now, created by a team of people with pro level editing skills and different people working on things like the script, research, getting the footage needed, etc. It honestly feels like the platform isn't 'fun' anymore, and the kind of content we used to visit for is becoming less and less common by the day. Regardless, enjoy your break/retirement Tom! You've made some incredible videos over the years, and I'll be excited to see what you create in future too.
nadermx 3y ago
Imagine making a video every week for ten years, 520 videos. I don't even think I've made git commits that consistently.
lsllc 3y ago
What a great ending to a video to end a great channel! (If you didn't watch to the end, go back and watch it, one of the best ever outtros). Good luck Tom.
ljm 3y ago
I honestly didn't feel I'd be so emotionally moved by this send off, but here I am. When you're done you're done, and 10 years of persistent, meaningful and education videos(not merely 'content'), published weekly, is more than anyone can ask of a single person and his crew. Onwards and upwards, the adventure of life, and not work, still beckons.
thinkingtoilet 3y ago
gg wp
imiric 3y ago
I always appreciate when authors of successful projects decide to stop after they've figured out the formula for success. Whether these are films without sequels, TV shows without dozens of seasons, or video content creators who are not compelled to keep uploading in perpetuity. It shows true care and dedication to their craft, and a desire to keep innovating in perhaps other areas of their career. It also avoids the pressure of keeping the high bar for quality, as there are not many authors who can consistently pull this off. I'd rather enjoy high quality content for a short time than see it gradually worsen over a long period. Still, 10 years is a long run for any type of content, and uploading every week without fail is very impressive. I'm sure Tom Scott used the "Seinfeld strategy" for this, which goes to show that great minds think alike, considering Seinfeld is one of the shows that ended at the peak of its success. Thanks for the interesting content over the years, Tom, and best of luck in whatever you decide to pursue next.
- mkl 3y ago
  > I'm sure Tom Scott used the "Seinfeld strategy" for this, which goes to show that great minds think alike, considering Seinfeld is one of the shows that ended at the peak of its success. Jerry Seinfeld himself didn't use the calendar habit technique attributed to him. Of it, he said: > This is hilarious to me, that somehow I am getting credit for making an X on a calendar with the Seinfeld productivity program. It's the dumbest non-idea that was not mine, but somehow I'm getting credit for it. -- https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/comment/ceiugt5/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/comment/ceiugt...
- leros 3y ago
  He's in a nice position in that he's diversified his content with a game show and podcast, so he can stop his main channel content and still have some income flowing. That gives him time to take a step back and re-invent himself if he chooses. I wonder if he would be doing the same thing if he only had his main channel.
  - al_borland 3y ago
    I would think if he invested well and lives a modest life, he could live off the investments and effectively retire. Not that he’d want to stop doing things, but he could focus on what he finds interesting rather than what will pay the bills. Of course I have no idea what his financial situation is like, but he doesn’t strike me as the type of YouTuber to blow all his income on fast cars and other “status” symbols.
denvaar 3y ago
I first saw Tom Scott on Computerphile. He’s so good at explaining topics with excitement and enthusiasm. It’s amazing he’s been so consistent with a video every week for the last 10 years. Not only “a video”, but videos that go above and beyond the norm in quality. He’s an inspiration.
- __e 3y ago
  The enthusiasm alone makes you interested in the topic. His storytelling and video production quality rounds up the experience
mhh__ 3y ago
I'm not sure exactly how to define it but this is the end of something — certainly something for that clique of British YouTubers (e.g. Tom Scott did the graphics for many jay foreman videos and so on) And really YouTube in general — Tom Scott understood the medium of youtube very early on. https://youtu.be/MrppkAIVhH4?si=6y2yRkk2QY6hknwF https://youtu.be/MrppkAIVhH4?si=6y2yRkk2QY6hknwF from 17 years ago is basically the exact same rhythm as a modern video, Tom Scott doesn't like memes so its also not massively dated either (other than the obvious).
dom96 3y ago
Tom Scott is one of the great YouTubers. I don't know him personally but he does come across as a genuine down to earth guy who just wants to share knowledge with the world. I also only recently learned that he has a newsletter. He mentions it briefly in some of his videos but I have never seen him ask people to sign up. The only reason I found out about it is because he included one of my articles in it[1]. Definitely highly recommend checking it out[2]. 1 - https://mousetrack.co.uk/blog/mosquitoes-at-disney-why-do-you-almost-never-see-them/ https://mousetrack.co.uk/blog/mosquitoes-at-disney-why-do-yo... 2 - https://www.tomscott.com/newsletter/ https://www.tomscott.com/newsletter/
- krick 3y ago
  What's even the point of a newsletter in 2023 unless you need to gather people emails for marketing campaigns or other shady stuff? What does it do that RSS doesn't?
  - kiwijamo 3y ago
    I like having a newsletter. Goes into my email inbox after signing up my email addtess. Doesn't need a separate app. Doesn't rely on a corporate who might kill my preferred RSS reader. Etc. I liked RSS in its heyday and used Google Reader to aggregate my feeds but that's long gone now.
    - trekz 3y ago
      Self-hosted, open source options are out there for RSS readers, like Tiny RSS or Inoreader if you want a nice replacement for Google Reader. Email relies on a separate app to read them though (email client). With RSS, I like that I dont have to give up my email address that can get hacked or stolen. It's one of the reasons we have so much spam in our emails. Also like companies like openrss and rss.app that are making RSS useful and cool again.
    - krick 3y ago
      Huh? It's the same as saying RSS doesn't rely on corporations that might kill your preferred email client. Both are true in a way, but RSS reader is as user-end, as an email client, all you need to read RSS feeds is a browser extension.
medion 3y ago
When major YouTubers like this stop uploading, I assume they're still getting fairly generous Adsense checks each month, which may decline over time, but, are probably not nothing and would continue ostensibly forever? I wonder what the numbers are if you grind for 5 years to build a multi-million subscriber count, then just stop (but leave everything online)?
maxglute 3y ago
It's nice to see Youtube channel end on their own terms. So many creators burn out without warning, maybe a written explanation somewhere. Very few would post a video saying this channel is dead for obvious reasons. It's probably against the rules, but I hope he reuploads every week from episode 1. I haven't gone through 10 years of backlogs and it's nice when new videos, as in videos that's never been watched comes to you. It would also be nice if he (and creators in general) reformatted the videos into season format. Way easier to mentally keep track whether you watched something or not. 20 seasons of 6 months / 24 videos each.
- philipwhiuk 3y ago
  They're not seasons? Seasons have breaks between each one.
petecooper 3y ago
2 million views in about 5 hours. Wow.
cassepipe 3y ago
You know you've made it as a cultural symbol when you are being parodied : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-IEVMwBEfo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-IEVMwBEfo
crtified 3y ago
I first saw Tom Scott onscreen around 2010, when he appeared as a contestant on the esoteric - and very good - BBC quiz show Only Connect. Link to 2022 Reddit discussion, which includes video [0]. It is a fun look back at a ponytailed Tom exercising his intellect and his natural aplomb on-camera, at around - or perhaps just before? - the era when his Youtube work began in earnest. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/pypew1/tom_scott_was_on_a_challenging_british_quiz_show/ https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/pypew1/tom_scott_wa...
ropable 3y ago
With the excuse of there being a MOUNTAIN of high-quality content on YT, for someone like me who's never heard of nor watched Tom Scott: would anyone care to curate me a couple of his best videos to sample from?
- joepie91_ 3y ago
  I wouldn't say this about a lot of channels, but in the case of Tom Scott I think it applies: just pick a couple-minute video from his channel that seems interesting from the title, and give it a shot. The quality and enthusiasm are impressively consistent throughout all of it, if you ask me :)
tlyleung 3y ago
It was great seeing him on University Challenge last year more than holding his own as team captain on a team of academics and professionals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDJyXH_r8VI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDJyXH_r8VI
1letterunixname 3y ago
Ouch. Burnout and painting oneself into a permanent corner. Seems a bit drastic. Apart from burnout, one of the worst things is wasted talent.
- lifthrasiir 3y ago
  FYI Tom Scott has several other active channels, and this only marks the end of weekly scheduled videos in the main channel after a full decade. It is not even the final video for the main channel.

846 points by Philpax 3y ago

Tom is definitely in this thread somewhere and I hope he's smiling. Thanks a bunch and have a nice vacation. You are appreciated.

etewiah 3y ago

By pure coincidence I just discovered Tom Scott today. I happen to have resolved yesterday to do a video each week for the rest of this year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBFkj9SjsLU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBFkj9SjsLU After seeing this I am wondering if I might just try to stretch that to 10 years...

simonw 3y ago

Tom's incredible ten year run inspired me to write a thing about escalating streaks, and the power of doing something on a repeating schedule and trying to make it a tiny bit better every time: https://simonwillison.net/2024/Jan/2/escalating-streaks/ https://simonwillison.net/2024/Jan/2/escalating-streaks/

jgrahamc 3y ago

Godspeed, Tom Scott (and thanks for your help on POPFile all those years ago).

chris_wot 3y ago
What’s the story there?
- mhasbini 3y ago
  Tom Scott was an early contributor to POPFile.
- jgrahamc 3y ago
  As a teenager Tom Scott helped write the documentation for POPFile. By chance he interviewed me years later on stage at some conference and just before we went on stage he told me that some of his very first contributions to anything on the Internet were to POPFile documentation. I had no idea. https://getpopfile.org/docs/welcome https://getpopfile.org/docs/welcome
  - permalac 3y ago
    Is the project still active? I'd love to find a solution for my email issues.
    - jgrahamc 3y ago
      Barely. The software still works but I haven't worked on it for years. And no one else has. What email issues are you having?
  - user_7832 3y ago
    Huh, that really feels like one of those “small world” occurrences. Interesting to think about.

skywal_l 3y ago

You'll be missed. Each video was interesting, fun and well made. I recommend to anyone to have a look at the backlog, especially the series about linguistics inspired by the "lingthusiasm" podcast.

wcarss 3y ago

I've learned a great deal from him over this time. Thanks Tom!

junon 3y ago

End of an era. I knew this was coming and it still was a shock to see it hit my feed today. Best of luck on everything Tom Scott!

djmips 3y ago

I agree with his self assesment. I liked many of his videos but many I also found disagreable and opinionated without much of a sound argument. Sounds like he doesn't like those videos either. All in all, his videos are heads and shoulders above most of YouTube and I wish him well.

mtmail 3y ago

Well deserved. The amount of travel he's done was crazy. I'll still listen to the Lateral podcast and whatever he'll come up with in the future.

orenlindsey 3y ago

Tom Scott has been one of the best YouTube creators ever. He deserves a break.

kioshix 3y ago

One of my favourite youtubers, a well-deserved break.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

lifeisstillgood 3y ago

What struck me was “it’s either keep growing and become a manager or stop and do smaller projects” As someone who many years back looked at a team of 40 developers I was leading and went “nah, I want to be an IC again” that resonates

isurujn 3y ago
I joined a company in 2021 as a tech lead after working as a IC for almost a decade. I thought it was going to be a technical role but it slowly turned into a more engineering management one. The were aspects about it that I liked and actually good at. But I really missed programming and building things on my own. Plus the stress was bad. Few months ago, I went back to an engineering job.
mooreds 3y ago
Same same. I get the desire to manage more folks (status, money, org impact, joy of mentoring) but the ability to see what you directly build help solve problems... Well, that's hard to beat.
CooCooCaCha 3y ago
I'm not sure I buy his reasoning there. He said that he uploads a video every week which is a brisk pace. Why not a video every month? Every quarter? Perhaps he really just wants a break and this explanation sounded the most reasonable. But I hope he didn't get burned out because he was afraid of switching things up.
- jacooper 3y ago
  Well, smaller could also mean moving this project to a monthly basis.
  - Kye 3y ago
    Some YouTubers did this quietly. hbomberguy and Contrapoints come to mind. Fewer videos, more unscripted/lightly scripted stuff like streams, podcasts, and collaborations.

graypegg 3y ago

Tom Scott’s work stands out as some of the best examples of how interesting and valuable web content can be. In a sea of short derivative junk-food content, he made things that i honestly learned from, without demanding more than 10 minutes of my time a week! There’s of course a lot of people also doing the same sort of great content, but it does feel like a slowly dying breed. Tom definitely deserves an indefinite break though. If/when he goes back to short form web video, I’ll be happy to watch again! :)

Waterluvian 3y ago
I agree! But the thing is— I’ve got about fifty Tom Scotts in my subscription list. I’m perplexed by doomsaysers’ laments about the state of online educational media. I’ve got far more high quality content for a huge variety of topics than I’ve ever had before. My theory is this: your favourite hobby store expands and adds one more aisle of fantastic products and five aisles of garbage. You’ll likely perceive quality as having gone way down. In a limited sense, sure: it might be in the way. But it didn’t replace the good stuff.
- keepamovin 3y ago
  please share your sub list it'd be fascinating! :)
- jwestbury 3y ago
  > My theory is this: your favourite hobby store expands and adds one more aisle of fantastic products and five aisles of garbage. You’ll likely perceive quality as having gone way down. This is actually something which is borne out by research, though in a slightly different context. Niro Sivanathan at the LBS has studied how arguments are presented, and essentially, recipients of arguments engage in an averaging function instead of an additive function, when evaluating strength -- adding one weaker point to a pair of very strong points actually detracts from the perceived strength of an argument. It would not be at all surprising if we did the same sort of thing in different contexts, such as the example you gave here.
- phillryu 3y ago

tupac_speedrap 3y ago

RIP you solid lad

graypegg 3y ago
He's not dead! His other projects are worth a look. Different kinds of content, but same creative spark.
ninju 3y ago
A little premature on the Rest In Peace declaration...he's still alive (I hope)

Kiro 3y ago

What happened to the "Six months from now, this channel stops" video he posted? https://twitter.com/tomscott/status/1675158819629064192 https://twitter.com/tomscott/status/1675158819629064192

tripdout 3y ago
Today is 6 months from then.
- Kiro 3y ago
  Yes, exactly. So why was it removed? The only reason I can think of is if he changed his mind, which he obviously didn't.
  - dharmab 3y ago
    He usually hides channel announcement videos after they're no longer relevant. I assume so he doesn't receive ideas/pitches he solicits in them.

supernova87a 3y ago

I remember asking at some point what seemed to make Tom Scott so successful compared to the thousands of others who have probably tried to make it big on Youtube/social media. Was it the format/length/style, the topics, the camera work, the commentary/research, etc? I think the consensus was that he came out with generally interesting content, but most of all, predictably and sustained, which generated viewership. Interesting how that can be the main factor -- maybe both in keeping people's interest, but also developing the skills to create content that was improving each time and becoming more engaging. And I guess he points to that explicitly in this last video, where he says he challenged himself to make it his real job. For 10 years.

fennecfoxy 3y ago
Consistency in quality and other metrics is the key, I think. People like McDonald's because it's filled with sugars, salts and fats but also because they know what they're getting and it's (mostly) consistent from visit to visit. I think Tom was also one of the earlier "cool/casual science & technology" channels and was probably actually one of the main drivers of this type of content. The only downside is that as other people have mentioned in comments, this type of content has gotten more popular, which seems great at first but it ends up being treated as entertainment rather than provoking thought and really being absorbed (not Tom's fault, just the way the average person consumes).
- supernova87a 3y ago
  It really took me a surprising amount of time to notice the difference between his channel (and similar other actual content creators like Veritasium) and the many many other channels where some guy pretty much regurgitates information he did with only desk research, showing about 200 short stock footage clips while voicing over from some bedroom. I suppose it just goes to show how easily you can be on autopilot and not appreciating or being able to tell actual journalism or original content from junk.
CM30 3y ago
Yeah this makes sense to me. He covered interesting and unique topics, and posted about them on a regular basis. That's extremely difficult to do in any medium, let alone something like video where filming and editing demands are significantly higher and a well researched piece just takes far longer to put together.

janvdberg 3y ago

Tom is why I understand UTF-8 [1]. And it is not so much WHAT he explained but HOW he explained it, what really made it stick. It was his sheer unbridled genuine enthusiasm that put him on the map for me. One of the best to do it. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MijmeoH9LT4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MijmeoH9LT4

devoutsalsa 3y ago
And he's why I know I shouldn't roll my own time zone library. https://youtu.be/-5wpm-gesOY?si=eL38cruwJZDiuHVS https://youtu.be/-5wpm-gesOY?si=eL38cruwJZDiuHVS
chubot 3y ago
This is a great video! I’ve been writing about UTF-8 on my blog and I noticed that many programmers don’t understand it, after 10 or 20 years The main impediment seems to be that languages like Java, JavaScript, and Python treat UTF-8 as just another encoding, but really it’s the most fundamental encoding. The language abstractions get in the way and distort the way people think about text Newer languages like Go and Rust are more sensible, they don’t have global mutable encoding variables
- omsimun 3y ago
  It's misleading to describe UTF-8 as "the most fundamental encoding", because of the existence of UTF-32 (essentially just a trivial encoding of "raw" Unicode code points) and UTF-16 (which has certain limitations that later became part of the specification of what code points are valid in any encoding) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-16#U+D800_to_U+DFFF_(surrogates) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-16#U+D800_to_U+DFFF_(surro... UTF-8 is the most ubiquitous encoding on the web, but that doesn't make it more fundamental than any other.
  - lifthrasiir 3y ago
    The word "fundamental" here probably has the same meaning as "elementary" as in elementary mathematics, i.e. something you should absolutely understand first, not something that makes up everything else.

unsupp0rted 3y ago

I dislike montages and yet this was a wonderful one. You made countless lives better, in small ways times a million. If this is the best thing you’ll ever do, it’s already good enough. The rest is gravy.

TheAceOfHearts 3y ago

What a brilliant bit of foreshadowing with the helicopter statement. Given the other comments about the deep sea or space, maybe those are areas which he hopes he could've explored which he might end up tackling at some point! I'm really glad I was around for his journey. Sometimes creatives will keep pushing a form of media long past the point where it's interesting or exciting. It takes a great deal of courage and creative integrity to let great things come to an end.

bornabox 3y ago
He really had me at the helicopter, too. I just had to smile, it made me happy.
- fennecfoxy 3y ago
  Same here, and not even a whisker of trepidation either. Just pure, total exaltation as his feet lifted off the ground - can't help but smile and laugh along with him, what a genuine personality.

Rebuff5007 3y ago

To this day when I have buffering problems with online videos I immediately think about his explainer-demo with confetti [1]. Love his work! [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Rp-uo6HmI&themeRefresh=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Rp-uo6HmI&themeRefresh=1

smitty1e 3y ago

Totally had not heard of the fellow. But HN is a gateway to so much goodness.

beej71 3y ago

That literally brought tears to my eyes. We love you, Tom!

danwaterfield 3y ago

On the latest cortex, CGP Grey made the point that what's happening in youtube education-adjacent videos is much the same as what's happening for entertainment in those spaces: the law of the excluded middle. You either do long infrequent videos e.g., like MrBeast, or frequent short videos. Both CGP Grey and Tom Scott did frequent mid-length content, which gets squeezed out.

withinboredom 3y ago
I assume cortex is a channel or something you watch, not brain matter?
- Dylan16807 3y ago
  If you assumed that, was there a need to post that you assumed it? I mean, if you search that name and that word it fills up the results. It doesn't help for you to go "hint hint".
  - withinboredom 3y ago
    People who don’t validate assumptions are made into fools. Without context, I wouldn’t even know if the search results would be the right thing to look for without making further assumptions.
    - Dylan16807 3y ago
      > Without context, I wouldn’t even know if the search results would be the right thing to look for without making further assumptions. Yes you would. The search results are very clearly the right thing.
      - withinboredom 3y ago
        To someone who knows, they are "clearly" the right thing. To someone who is searching for random words, but usually searches for some of these words in a different context ... it isn't.

nativeit 3y ago

I started watching his channel at the beginning of Things You Might Not Know. He’s one of the all-time greats. His RI lecture “There Is No Algorithm For Truth” is as prescient as ever. He truly helped make YouTube a special platform, even if it doesn’t always recognize its own strengths, and chases trends it’s fundamentally incapable of adopting properly.

MrFoof 3y ago

Tom Scott was so sharp, he knew to end on a high note, and damn near his peak. It’s one thing to produce a lot of great content, but it’s very rare for someone to wrap it up when they clearly were still at or near their best.

HL33tibCe7 3y ago

> There’s nothing in my life right now except work Quite sad

philipwhiuk 3y ago
There's a reason most YouTube accounts doing the 'numbers' he has are teams of many people.

M2Ys4U 3y ago

Tom's commitment to accessibility is fantastic. Turn on the subtitles on any of his videos (particularly when there are multiple speakers) and you'll see the effort that goes in to it. Far too many people who publish to YouTube just let users deal with the the auto-generated subtitles, even when they have the ability and budget to do it properly. "'Oh look at me I bought a Lamborghini!' Buy some damned subtitles" -- Tom Scott.[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m__OZ3ZsO4Y&t=334s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m__OZ3ZsO4Y&t=334s

throw0101b 3y ago
> Turn on the subtitles on any of his videos (particularly when there are multiple speakers) and you'll see the effort that goes in to it. He actually did a video on subtitles recently, "Why don't subtitles match dubbing?": * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU9sHwNKc2c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU9sHwNKc2c
- alister 3y ago
  His explanation about why subtitles don't match dubbing is not convincing. Basically he says that subtitling and dubbing are done by different teams with different goals. The dubbing crew tries to match lip movement. OK, so why not use the script that the dubbing team produced for the subtitles? Why do the translation twice? His explanation for that: (a) sometimes what's spoken is too long to fit as subtitles on the screen, (b) what's spoken needs to be summarized, like multiple people shouting over one another on a reality show, otherwise the subtitles would be a confusing jumble of words, and (c) jokes/slang/puns can be difficult to translate. I that agree (a) and (b) are legitimate reasons why subtitles might occasionally not match dubbing, but (c) is irrelevant. Jokes/slang/puns might be difficult or impossible to translate, but whatever way it ends up being translated can be spoken and written identically. In fact his goose joke is spoken and written in Portuguese as Eu estou gansado deles in the same way (timecode 3:57). I.e., the dubbing matches the subtitles. So the examples he gives do not support what he did in his own video. Furthermore, his video (like almost all videos and TV shows) is chock full of cases where the subtitles and dubbing are different for no plausible reason related to (a), (b), or (c) above: All examples below are when the video is set to Brazilian Portuguese audio and Brazilian Portuguese subtitles. Time: 0:22 Dubbing: E o motivo disso é que as legendas e a dublagem ... Subtitles: Isso acontece porque as legendas e a dublagem ... Time: 0:51 D: as legendas e a dublagem são praticamente idênticas S: as legendas e a dublagem são quase idênticas Time: 1:08 D: é sincronizar o movimento dos lábios o mais próximo possível S: é sincronizar os lábios o mais próximo possível Although I agree that reasons (a) and (b) above might be valid on rare occasions, I think the real reason that subtitles don't match dubbing is because they are done by different teams with no coordination, with different timelines and deadlines, and probably by completely different companies in different countries. If you cared strongly about this issue, I don't see any reason why the subtitles and dubbing couldn't be 99% or 99.9% identical in any particular target language. The 1% or 0.1% case being when the dialog is much too long for the screen or when you have to summarize a bunch of people talking simultaneously.

janeerie 3y ago

I'm glad he's still doing the Lateral podcast (as that's the only thing I know him from). I do wish he would get somebody besides Youtubers as guests, though. It's frustrating to hear 20-somethings with very little cultural and historical knowledge try to work through the problems.

M2Ys4U 3y ago
He's had a few "mainstream" people on as guests. Professor Hannah Fry is one guest who's a pretty established broadcaster (in the UK at least).
pavel_lishin 3y ago
One of the more recent ones actually had a joke about this - one of his guests was significantly older than the other two, and some cultural references didn't quite land on either side.

CM30 3y ago

Damn, this is a video I didn't want to see today. I love Tom Scott's videos, and just about everything he's ever made has been a great watch. I still remember the VPN videos debunking common myths about them, and the one about how electronic/online voting was a bad idea. But sadly, I get what he means here. YouTube has basically split down the middle, with the assumption being that you'll either pump out content quickly without much time to prepare, or you'll work on more infrequent essay length videos on a monthly basis or longer. And in both cases... the expectation seems to be that most videos are a professional endeavour now, created by a team of people with pro level editing skills and different people working on things like the script, research, getting the footage needed, etc. It honestly feels like the platform isn't 'fun' anymore, and the kind of content we used to visit for is becoming less and less common by the day. Regardless, enjoy your break/retirement Tom! You've made some incredible videos over the years, and I'll be excited to see what you create in future too.

nadermx 3y ago

Imagine making a video every week for ten years, 520 videos. I don't even think I've made git commits that consistently.

lsllc 3y ago

What a great ending to a video to end a great channel! (If you didn't watch to the end, go back and watch it, one of the best ever outtros). Good luck Tom.

ljm 3y ago

I honestly didn't feel I'd be so emotionally moved by this send off, but here I am. When you're done you're done, and 10 years of persistent, meaningful and education videos(not merely 'content'), published weekly, is more than anyone can ask of a single person and his crew. Onwards and upwards, the adventure of life, and not work, still beckons.

thinkingtoilet 3y ago

gg wp

imiric 3y ago

I always appreciate when authors of successful projects decide to stop after they've figured out the formula for success. Whether these are films without sequels, TV shows without dozens of seasons, or video content creators who are not compelled to keep uploading in perpetuity. It shows true care and dedication to their craft, and a desire to keep innovating in perhaps other areas of their career. It also avoids the pressure of keeping the high bar for quality, as there are not many authors who can consistently pull this off. I'd rather enjoy high quality content for a short time than see it gradually worsen over a long period. Still, 10 years is a long run for any type of content, and uploading every week without fail is very impressive. I'm sure Tom Scott used the "Seinfeld strategy" for this, which goes to show that great minds think alike, considering Seinfeld is one of the shows that ended at the peak of its success. Thanks for the interesting content over the years, Tom, and best of luck in whatever you decide to pursue next.

mkl 3y ago
> I'm sure Tom Scott used the "Seinfeld strategy" for this, which goes to show that great minds think alike, considering Seinfeld is one of the shows that ended at the peak of its success. Jerry Seinfeld himself didn't use the calendar habit technique attributed to him. Of it, he said: > This is hilarious to me, that somehow I am getting credit for making an X on a calendar with the Seinfeld productivity program. It's the dumbest non-idea that was not mine, but somehow I'm getting credit for it. -- https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/comment/ceiugt5/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/comment/ceiugt...
leros 3y ago
He's in a nice position in that he's diversified his content with a game show and podcast, so he can stop his main channel content and still have some income flowing. That gives him time to take a step back and re-invent himself if he chooses. I wonder if he would be doing the same thing if he only had his main channel.
- al_borland 3y ago
  I would think if he invested well and lives a modest life, he could live off the investments and effectively retire. Not that he’d want to stop doing things, but he could focus on what he finds interesting rather than what will pay the bills. Of course I have no idea what his financial situation is like, but he doesn’t strike me as the type of YouTuber to blow all his income on fast cars and other “status” symbols.

denvaar 3y ago

I first saw Tom Scott on Computerphile. He’s so good at explaining topics with excitement and enthusiasm. It’s amazing he’s been so consistent with a video every week for the last 10 years. Not only “a video”, but videos that go above and beyond the norm in quality. He’s an inspiration.

__e 3y ago
The enthusiasm alone makes you interested in the topic. His storytelling and video production quality rounds up the experience

mhh__ 3y ago

I'm not sure exactly how to define it but this is the end of something — certainly something for that clique of British YouTubers (e.g. Tom Scott did the graphics for many jay foreman videos and so on) And really YouTube in general — Tom Scott understood the medium of youtube very early on. https://youtu.be/MrppkAIVhH4?si=6y2yRkk2QY6hknwF https://youtu.be/MrppkAIVhH4?si=6y2yRkk2QY6hknwF from 17 years ago is basically the exact same rhythm as a modern video, Tom Scott doesn't like memes so its also not massively dated either (other than the obvious).

dom96 3y ago

Tom Scott is one of the great YouTubers. I don't know him personally but he does come across as a genuine down to earth guy who just wants to share knowledge with the world. I also only recently learned that he has a newsletter. He mentions it briefly in some of his videos but I have never seen him ask people to sign up. The only reason I found out about it is because he included one of my articles in it[1]. Definitely highly recommend checking it out[2]. 1 - https://mousetrack.co.uk/blog/mosquitoes-at-disney-why-do-you-almost-never-see-them/ https://mousetrack.co.uk/blog/mosquitoes-at-disney-why-do-yo... 2 - https://www.tomscott.com/newsletter/ https://www.tomscott.com/newsletter/

krick 3y ago
What's even the point of a newsletter in 2023 unless you need to gather people emails for marketing campaigns or other shady stuff? What does it do that RSS doesn't?
- kiwijamo 3y ago
  I like having a newsletter. Goes into my email inbox after signing up my email addtess. Doesn't need a separate app. Doesn't rely on a corporate who might kill my preferred RSS reader. Etc. I liked RSS in its heyday and used Google Reader to aggregate my feeds but that's long gone now.
  - trekz 3y ago
    Self-hosted, open source options are out there for RSS readers, like Tiny RSS or Inoreader if you want a nice replacement for Google Reader. Email relies on a separate app to read them though (email client). With RSS, I like that I dont have to give up my email address that can get hacked or stolen. It's one of the reasons we have so much spam in our emails. Also like companies like openrss and rss.app that are making RSS useful and cool again.
  - krick 3y ago
    Huh? It's the same as saying RSS doesn't rely on corporations that might kill your preferred email client. Both are true in a way, but RSS reader is as user-end, as an email client, all you need to read RSS feeds is a browser extension.

medion 3y ago

When major YouTubers like this stop uploading, I assume they're still getting fairly generous Adsense checks each month, which may decline over time, but, are probably not nothing and would continue ostensibly forever? I wonder what the numbers are if you grind for 5 years to build a multi-million subscriber count, then just stop (but leave everything online)?

maxglute 3y ago

It's nice to see Youtube channel end on their own terms. So many creators burn out without warning, maybe a written explanation somewhere. Very few would post a video saying this channel is dead for obvious reasons. It's probably against the rules, but I hope he reuploads every week from episode 1. I haven't gone through 10 years of backlogs and it's nice when new videos, as in videos that's never been watched comes to you. It would also be nice if he (and creators in general) reformatted the videos into season format. Way easier to mentally keep track whether you watched something or not. 20 seasons of 6 months / 24 videos each.

philipwhiuk 3y ago
They're not seasons? Seasons have breaks between each one.

petecooper 3y ago

2 million views in about 5 hours. Wow.

cassepipe 3y ago

You know you've made it as a cultural symbol when you are being parodied : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-IEVMwBEfo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-IEVMwBEfo

crtified 3y ago

I first saw Tom Scott onscreen around 2010, when he appeared as a contestant on the esoteric - and very good - BBC quiz show Only Connect. Link to 2022 Reddit discussion, which includes video [0]. It is a fun look back at a ponytailed Tom exercising his intellect and his natural aplomb on-camera, at around - or perhaps just before? - the era when his Youtube work began in earnest. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/pypew1/tom_scott_was_on_a_challenging_british_quiz_show/ https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/pypew1/tom_scott_wa...

ropable 3y ago

With the excuse of there being a MOUNTAIN of high-quality content on YT, for someone like me who's never heard of nor watched Tom Scott: would anyone care to curate me a couple of his best videos to sample from?

joepie91_ 3y ago
I wouldn't say this about a lot of channels, but in the case of Tom Scott I think it applies: just pick a couple-minute video from his channel that seems interesting from the title, and give it a shot. The quality and enthusiasm are impressively consistent throughout all of it, if you ask me :)

tlyleung 3y ago

It was great seeing him on University Challenge last year more than holding his own as team captain on a team of academics and professionals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDJyXH_r8VI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDJyXH_r8VI

1letterunixname 3y ago

Ouch. Burnout and painting oneself into a permanent corner. Seems a bit drastic. Apart from burnout, one of the worst things is wasted talent.

lifthrasiir 3y ago
FYI Tom Scott has several other active channels, and this only marks the end of weekly scheduled videos in the main channel after a full decade. It is not even the final video for the main channel.