this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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Linus Tech Tips
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They both serve a purpose. GN is much more of a serious channel for data and numbers when you are researching a new purchase. LTT is far more entertaining though.
Think Linus should just stop pretending to do actual reviews and just focus on entertainment.
That's what I've been doing for the last several years, ignoring all of LTTs reviews and only watching their lab videos or info about new servers or screwing with his house where I'm curious about what happens and not the info being portrayed.
Well he seems to be going the opposite direction. The Lab is him trying to get very serious about reviewing hardware. And I applaud him if he succeeds. And this video doesnt prove that he hasnt succeededbecuase setting up a Lab is not a few weeks or even a few months worth of work. He will have way more capabilities and resources than any other YT channel that i know of and clearly way more than average users.
A few issues with the Lab might simply stem from Linus himself. He's now a nerdy rich kid. And as such he wants all the toys. Luckily for us is that the toys he wants are ones dealing tech and testing. He himself doesn't have the journalistic or scientific background to know what to get and how to get his results. I think he is focusing too much on hiring engineering and entertainers and writers, and needs to hire at least a few people with journalistic background. An engineer might know the equipment and how to do testing. A writer might be able to whip up an entertsining script, but a journalist is who you want when it comes to reporting on the findings in a fair and balanced manner.
I hate to see this turn into a feud. Both channels are useful. I rarely watch GN if I am not looking to making a purchase or when there is a big new product launch, but I appreciate that he puts his journalistic integrity above anything. I don't want him to water down his channel either, but he could use hiring more entertaining people because you can only take that deadpan delivery for so long.
Engineers/scientists know how to test, what to test, why to test, and report their findings in a very critical manner. The main issue is the lack of time.
Test engineers, sure. He's hires engineers to design his new screwdriver and whatever other products they plan on releasing. As a design engineer I would not want to be setting up experiments to feed his media company.
To add on, I'm seeing a ton of comments saying "I only watch LTT for entertainment". Because of this sentiment, it isn't looking good for Labs. Isn't Labs goal suppose to be a superior version of GNs testing process? If so, I'm seeing a ton of comments saying "GN videos are boring". I can only assume this is coming from the same demographic.
I'm not sure what LMG is planning long term but they are shooting themselves in the foot by setting up their core audience to watch their videos for entertainment rather than data/reviews.
As I already mentioned, the Lab is far from totally set up. I don't think it is fair to judge their work at this stage in the game. Linus clearly has a vision to do tons of testing, which for consumers can be fantastic, because no one that I know of has been doing this kind of testing on the scale that Linus has eluded to. It is good to hold these companies accountable, but the results seen by the Lab have to be seen as being trustworthy. Until we start seeing these results I think all bets are off. They might have to break out the Lab into it's own sub-channel or they might need to hire on more "serious" presenters to be taken more seriously. Most of the current hosts they have are entertaining to watch, but they go off on silly tangents far too often to be considered serious reviewers. For instance when Jake is reviewing a product, it feels like he is being forced to do it and it also feels like they threw this hosting duty at him 10 minutes prior to the camera being turned on. Jake is great in the other segments he is in, but none of his reviews seem particularly good or well researched.
I don't know, but GN definitely had that mono-tone delivery that makes him sound more serious when he is delivering his news segment, but I couldn't picture Steve doing a $5000 PC build for his employees (like the one that Linus does). I just wouldn't think it would be a fun video to watch.