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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 develo

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.
- withinboredom 3y ago
  I don’t think it matters what you buy. He just doesn’t want a schedule, I think he explained it pretty well.
  - CooCooCaCha 3y ago
    Sometimes we don't really understand why we do things until later. No need to be passive aggressive.
- kevingadd 3y ago
  The algorithm on YouTube strongly favors a fast upload cadence, so that would lower the profit on his videos most likely
  - charcircuit 3y ago
    The algorithm does not care about upload cadence. At worst it breaks viewer's habits of watching someone's videos despite the viewer not actually enjoying it. Or with the extra time they have they find someone who can make better videos. There are plenty of examples of successful youtubers like Mr Beast who can go months between uploads and still perform well.
  - mixdup 3y ago
    he specifically said he doesn't care if what he does in the future is "less" in terms of views and reach
- KaiserPro 3y ago
  > I'm not sure I buy his reasoning there. Not everything is more than it seems. Its ten long years of uploading weekly. Thats hard graft.
  - CooCooCaCha 3y ago
    It's really not a stretch to think maybe it would have been a good idea to change up his schedule instead of doing the same thing for 10 years.
- mixdup 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? Yeah, this immediately came to mind for me as well. There's nothing set in stone that his production has to be weekly. He could move to monthly, or whatever. It doesn't even have to be a schedule, just whenever the next thing is ready push it. Which, he did leave the door open to but he also definitely seemed to couch this whole thing in "I'm completely done". It is a little weird, but of course he's free to do it how he wants Although, he's not quitting completely and retiring, as he is still going to do all the other stuff (podcasts, other channels, etc) so maybe he's just shifting into different types of content, which is fine
  - schiffern 3y ago
    >There's nothing set in stone It's not about setting in stone, it's about setting a goal. That means something to some people. >he's just shifting into different types of content, which is fine He wasn't waiting for your permission. ;-)
    - mixdup 3y ago
      obviously, and that was a poor way of wording it. my point was he's not completely retiring, just moving on to other forms of output which fit his preferred workload and schedule I do think it's weird how much of a "I'm never coming back" vibe it had, though, given that he's still going to be doing podcasts and left the door open to more YouTube videos. I think it would've served him well to just say "hey, I'm cutting back but I'm not gone, just moving to a more healthy balance of how often I do these incredibly complicated videos" but to your point, he should do him and how he wants to handle it
- namtab00 3y ago
  maybe it's about being able to adequately pay his team, which might require posting regularly to insure a steady income for payroll...
- ysavir 3y ago
  He definitely could, but I imagine his immediate goal is to manage expectations, and making sure no one is disappointed. Leaving it as he did, he's open to do anything he wants: upload monthly, upload in indeterminate times, never uploading again, etc. And no one will feel let down or deceived. If he said he'll start doing monthly, but then finds that he much prefers not doing the primary Tom Scott stuff at all, many people looking forward to those monthly videos will be let down. If there's one thing that I feel comfortable saying about Tom Scott (as a casual viewer, at least), is that he likes doing right by people. I doubt anyone, including he, knows what to expect will be next, and the best thing he can do for his audience is to set an expectation that there ought to be no expectations. Let any surprises be surprises for the better, and let him have the peace of mind that he can do what he wants without feeling external pressure to deliver.
al_borland 3y ago
I was lucky to have a boss who let me dip my toe into the water of management. I dealt with a team of 10, I was formerly a IC on, and they required very little effort. After a year I decided to go back to being an IC as well. I was glad I was able to see I didn’t want to do it when the stakes were low and the team was actually easy to manage. It also gave me some more empathy for those in those management roles. Interestingly, back in YouTube land, Matt D'Avella also just announced he got rid of his team and is back to doing things himself. He fell into that trap of thinking he needed to hire a team and scale a few years back, then found himself as a manager and wasn’t happy. It’s good Tom was able to see the paths ahead to avoid the headaches and layoffs when he ultimately decided he didn’t like it.

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.
withinboredom 3y ago
I don’t think it matters what you buy. He just doesn’t want a schedule, I think he explained it pretty well.
- CooCooCaCha 3y ago
  Sometimes we don't really understand why we do things until later. No need to be passive aggressive.
kevingadd 3y ago
The algorithm on YouTube strongly favors a fast upload cadence, so that would lower the profit on his videos most likely
- charcircuit 3y ago
  The algorithm does not care about upload cadence. At worst it breaks viewer's habits of watching someone's videos despite the viewer not actually enjoying it. Or with the extra time they have they find someone who can make better videos. There are plenty of examples of successful youtubers like Mr Beast who can go months between uploads and still perform well.
- mixdup 3y ago
  he specifically said he doesn't care if what he does in the future is "less" in terms of views and reach
KaiserPro 3y ago
> I'm not sure I buy his reasoning there. Not everything is more than it seems. Its ten long years of uploading weekly. Thats hard graft.
- CooCooCaCha 3y ago
  It's really not a stretch to think maybe it would have been a good idea to change up his schedule instead of doing the same thing for 10 years.
mixdup 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? Yeah, this immediately came to mind for me as well. There's nothing set in stone that his production has to be weekly. He could move to monthly, or whatever. It doesn't even have to be a schedule, just whenever the next thing is ready push it. Which, he did leave the door open to but he also definitely seemed to couch this whole thing in "I'm completely done". It is a little weird, but of course he's free to do it how he wants Although, he's not quitting completely and retiring, as he is still going to do all the other stuff (podcasts, other channels, etc) so maybe he's just shifting into different types of content, which is fine
- schiffern 3y ago
  >There's nothing set in stone It's not about setting in stone, it's about setting a goal. That means something to some people. >he's just shifting into different types of content, which is fine He wasn't waiting for your permission. ;-)
  - mixdup 3y ago
    obviously, and that was a poor way of wording it. my point was he's not completely retiring, just moving on to other forms of output which fit his preferred workload and schedule I do think it's weird how much of a "I'm never coming back" vibe it had, though, given that he's still going to be doing podcasts and left the door open to more YouTube videos. I think it would've served him well to just say "hey, I'm cutting back but I'm not gone, just moving to a more healthy balance of how often I do these incredibly complicated videos" but to your point, he should do him and how he wants to handle it
namtab00 3y ago
maybe it's about being able to adequately pay his team, which might require posting regularly to insure a steady income for payroll...
ysavir 3y ago
He definitely could, but I imagine his immediate goal is to manage expectations, and making sure no one is disappointed. Leaving it as he did, he's open to do anything he wants: upload monthly, upload in indeterminate times, never uploading again, etc. And no one will feel let down or deceived. If he said he'll start doing monthly, but then finds that he much prefers not doing the primary Tom Scott stuff at all, many people looking forward to those monthly videos will be let down. If there's one thing that I feel comfortable saying about Tom Scott (as a casual viewer, at least), is that he likes doing right by people. I doubt anyone, including he, knows what to expect will be next, and the best thing he can do for his audience is to set an expectation that there ought to be no expectations. Let any surprises be surprises for the better, and let him have the peace of mind that he can do what he wants without feeling external pressure to deliver.

al_borland 3y ago

I was lucky to have a boss who let me dip my toe into the water of management. I dealt with a team of 10, I was formerly a IC on, and they required very little effort. After a year I decided to go back to being an IC as well. I was glad I was able to see I didn’t want to do it when the stakes were low and the team was actually easy to manage. It also gave me some more empathy for those in those management roles. Interestingly, back in YouTube land, Matt D'Avella also just announced he got rid of his team and is back to doing things himself. He fell into that trap of thinking he needed to hire a team and scale a few years back, then found himself as a manager and wasn’t happy. It’s good Tom was able to see the paths ahead to avoid the headaches and layoffs when he ultimately decided he didn’t like it.