culturedleftfoot's recent activity

  1. What's the biggest YouTube channel still run by just one person?

    ~creative Ask (survey)
    Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but I wondered about this recently. I took three seemingly-solo Youtubers as examples at different scales. Penguinz0 has 16 mil subscribers, and as...

    Not sure if this is the best place to post this, but I wondered about this recently. I took three seemingly-solo Youtubers as examples at different scales.

    Penguinz0 has 16 mil subscribers, and as far as I know his uploads are just him talking into the camera, giving his opinion about recent things in games and pop culture (I could be very wrong about that, I don't know why he's popular). Looks like he uploads at least a few times a week, so that could be manageable.

    Videogamedunkey has 7.5 mil subscribers, and he used to do weekly uploads until very recently, I think. Given that his humor and editing style is a big part of his content, I'd be surprised if he's got anyone else working on his vids.

    Northernlion has just over 1 mil subscribers and uploads multiple videos daily, and (in)famously refuses to do any editing. He just basically streams on Twitch all day and uploads clips from that.

    I would imagine the day-to-day running of the business, i.e. answering emails and phone calls, would be where having help is most advantageous as you grow, but it also probably depends a lot on what kind of content you make. How big can you get before it's too much for a solo operation?

    45 votes

  2. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    Just finished Disco Elysium: The Final Cut after about 50 hours, and I quite liked it. Maybe the highest praise I can give it is that I almost immediately thought about replaying it in a...

    Just finished Disco Elysium: The Final Cut after about 50 hours, and I quite liked it. Maybe the highest praise I can give it is that I almost immediately thought about replaying it in a contrasting style just to see how different my experience can be the second time around, and I probably will. I typically try to squeeze as much content out of a game in just one playthrough, so that'd be highly unusual. Some of the political and philosophical allusions went over my head - my custom character was more or less a thinker, and the game can give you A LOT to chew on if you dig - but I love how extensively they built and fleshed out the world.

    The disparity in the Steam reviews is hilarious, and does a great job of showing just how much the game reflects your own mentality. I didn't necessarily get any moments of profound self-reflection out of it, as compared to some of those commenters on YouTube, but maybe that's because I'm moralist scum. I recommend it.

    5 votes

  3. Comment on TV Tuesdays Free Talk in ~tv

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Mother's milk in a cup! I don't remember that peaches one from WoT but I get what you mean. I loved all those expressions, but I'd never thought about their intent as devices to reinforce the...

    Mother's milk in a cup! I don't remember that peaches one from WoT but I get what you mean. I loved all those expressions, but I'd never thought about their intent as devices to reinforce the difference between our world and theirs. Makes sense.

    I should have probably been an engineer, as my mind is quite similar. However, a comment on this video (which I agree and disagree with in possible equal measure, in terms of how successful they say BES is at writing Mizu, especially concerning principle #4) makes the point that the show does so much well in developing its story and NOT falling into overworn tropes that it should have earned grace from its viewers to overlook the inconsistencies. And I think I can settle there.

    1 vote

  4. Comment on TV Tuesdays Free Talk in ~tv

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    I also quite liked BES. From a technical standpoint, just about everything is operating at a really high level - writing, animation, score, VO, fight choreography, etc. But I did settle on the...

    I also quite liked BES. From a technical standpoint, just about everything is operating at a really high level - writing, animation, score, VO, fight choreography, etc. But I did settle on the same critique as you. Also, one or two details were just too incongruous to continue suspending my disbelief. The biggest one would have to be Fowler straddling our MC in their fight, with a probable 70+ pound advantage, bashing their face in, with barely a bloodied nose, much less a broken jaw... I was just like, alright.

    I'm curious as to how we each arrive at the line where something breaks your immersion, because practically any samurai legend exaggerates their feats, and I really tried to reconcile it as the show retelling a legend, but... come on.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on TV Tuesdays Free Talk in ~tv

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    Just binged Undone over the past two days, having gotten @tomf's recommendation more than a year ago , and I'm glad I finally did. Despite some gripes, it's a really interesting, unique twist on...

    Just binged Undone over the past two days, having gotten @tomf's recommendation more than a year ago , and I'm glad I finally did. Despite some gripes, it's a really interesting, unique twist on the familiar time-travel premise. The first season was very strong; the second, maybe not so much... with less focus on Alma's psyche, it gradually became more of a generic sci-fi time-travel tale. Honestly though, it's a very difficult task to wrap up these kinds of stories neatly and satisfyingly, and I think they ultimately pulled it off. So, I'd say it's a solid 7.5-8/10, but I'd recommend it higher than that simply for offering something different.

    Also, tom, you haven't steered me wrong yet, I love it!

    4 votes

  6. Comment on What are your ten favourite movies of all time? in ~movies

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    It's really interesting to me how different episodes of Black Mirror resonate with different people. When it first came out, I couldn't understand why the prevailing advice was to skip the first...

    It's really interesting to me how different episodes of Black Mirror resonate with different people. When it first came out, I couldn't understand why the prevailing advice was to skip the first episode, National Anthem - it's one of the best! IMO if that's too much for you, you really have no idea how close to reality the dangers the show covers are, and probably could use a bit of a rude awakening. On the other hand, I thought Fifty Million Merits was a good concept on paper, but found the execution too low-budget/cheesy to elicit more than some mild eye-rolling.

    2 votes

  7. Comment on What are your ten favourite movies of all time? in ~movies

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    Sorry to necropost but man, am I mad I missed this thread. I would have had so many questions for everyone. Despite not watching a ton of movies, and rarely rewatching any, I know quite a few...

    Sorry to necropost but man, am I mad I missed this thread. I would have had so many questions for everyone. Despite not watching a ton of movies, and rarely rewatching any, I know quite a few cinephiles and I need to get my street cred up to hang with them.

    My 10 favorites, in alphabetical order:

    • A Few Good Men
    • Airplane!
    • District 9
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
      (This is probably the movie that I've seen more than any other, and it's almost never been intended. I'm always coming across it while flipping channels, but it's so damn watchable, you can't lose.)
    • The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
    • Inception
    • Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
    • Mongol
    • Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise
    • The Woman In The Dunes

    Nowhere close to my list of the 10 best films I've seen (probably only AFGM, Good/Bad/Ugly, and Dunes have serious claims to be considered for that one), but I need to watch a ton more movies before that's worth proclaiming.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    For hidden gems of the NES through Xbox generations, I always refer people here - https://racketboy.com/guide/hidden-gems. I find them to be very accurate for all the consoles that I have good...

    For hidden gems of the NES through Xbox generations, I always refer people here - https://racketboy.com/guide/hidden-gems. I find them to be very accurate for all the consoles that I have good knowledge of and useful for the ones I don't. They tell you what the obvious hits are, have good justification for their picks as hidden gems, and also include many honorable mentions that are worth digging into.

    6 votes

  9. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Sounds like you had fun with Teslagrad 2, I'm glad to hear that :) I wouldn't be surprised if they purposefully toned down the challenge, or at least tried to make the difficulty curve more...

    Sounds like you had fun with Teslagrad 2, I'm glad to hear that :)

    I wouldn't be surprised if they purposefully toned down the challenge, or at least tried to make the difficulty curve more gradual. I played it maybe 5 years ago and remember looking at the achievements at the time, and the one that the most players had gotten was like 33% or something IIRC. It's just under 40% now. I remember thinking that although I liked the game despite two or three design gripes, I could see how easy it would be for people to give up on it when they have a million other games to play.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on How does your HR department handle the deluge of job applications? And how does that affect you as a hiring manager? in ~talk

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    It hurts when you're hiring against the clock. No one follows the instructions and you have to sift through them all anyway. I read a joke somewhere once, something about randomly throwing out 50%...

    It hurts when you're hiring against the clock. No one follows the instructions and you have to sift through them all anyway.

    I read a joke somewhere once, something about randomly throwing out 50% of applications to get rid of the unlucky people, and every time we have a hiring need I'm very tempted to act on it.

    14 votes

  12. Comment on Which content-recommending algorithms are actually good? in ~tech

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Wow, I entirely forgot that was a thing. It is indeed very useful.

    Wow, I entirely forgot that was a thing. It is indeed very useful.

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Which content-recommending algorithms are actually good? in ~tech

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Yeah! My usage has dropped off a lot in the past ~5 years, so I was mostly speaking from memory, but before then it used to be really good. Back when Winamp was a thing, I think there was a plugin...

    Yeah! My usage has dropped off a lot in the past ~5 years, so I was mostly speaking from memory, but before then it used to be really good. Back when Winamp was a thing, I think there was a plugin that tapped into the same Music Genome Project data to generate playlists from any given song, and I found that very good as well.

    2 votes

  14. Which content-recommending algorithms are actually good?

    ~tech Ask (survey)
    For the end-user, that is. I'm sure Meta and the like think their algorithms are fantastic at what they want them to do. I find myself routinely asking why I get so many suggestions I have no...

    For the end-user, that is. I'm sure Meta and the like think their algorithms are fantastic at what they want them to do.

    I find myself routinely asking why I get so many suggestions I have no interest in when using all types of websites. I haven't used social media since the early years of Facebook, but I imagine most recommendation algorithms are tuned much like the ones on those sites, i.e. to offer more of the same, whereas I'd prefer something to introduce different stuff I'd probably like. Maybe that differentiates me from the average user, but there should be enough people like me that it'd be factored in, no? Just because I watch a cat video doesn't mean I'm all in on cats.

    I mostly like Pandora's service but it feels like their music library isn't huge for my fav genres. Steam regularly tries to interest me in the most insipid games based on superficial commonalities to what's already in my library. Youtube can be good, but it can easily be echo-chambery. Shopping websites of all sorts are usually a crapshoot. What gives?

    28 votes

  15. Comment on How much space do you need to live comfortably? in ~talk

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    So, assuming you have all the outdoor space you'd want, would your indoor space requirement be any different if it were just you in a 1-br apartment? I also find city life quite cramped, but 200...

    My rough formula for minumum comfort is about 200sqft per person plus 400sqft common space including bathrooms. Family of 4: 1200sqft.

    So, assuming you have all the outdoor space you'd want, would your indoor space requirement be any different if it were just you in a 1-br apartment? I also find city life quite cramped, but 200 sq ft per person sounds pretty roomy, even for 6'3".

    2 votes

  17. Comment on Let's build a playlist! in ~music

  18. Comment on Do you get bored? in ~talk

    culturedleftfoot
    Link
    It seems that distraction has replaced boredom for the newer generations. I don't remember when last I was genuinely bored either. If I had to guess it would have been somewhere in my tween or...

    I think of my students now, with phones, and wonder if they ever experience boredom anymore because they now have unlimited individualized high-interest content available at their fingertips 24/7.

    It seems that distraction has replaced boredom for the newer generations.

    I don't remember when last I was genuinely bored either. If I had to guess it would have been somewhere in my tween or early teen years, simply because I would have been more likely to be in situations where I had little to no autonomy. Since then, recognizing my own agency doesn't allow me to be bored, but that has less to do with keeping myself stimulated (external emphasis) and more to do with appreciating the here and now (internal emphasis). In fact, any mention of boredom in a dating profile, for example, is a red flag for me. I think adults who complain of being bored are most likely boring themselves, and I steer clear.

    This is the currently pinned comment on a YouTube video it feels like I find a way to refer to on Tildes every chance I get:

    I remembered this video a few weeks ago and finally got around to watching it again. The sequence following 23:15 strongly reminded me of a Cioran quote and since I don't remember it being in the game I wanted to share it.

    "A zoologist who observed gorillas in their native habitat was amazed by the uniformity of their life and their vast idleness. Hours and hours without doing anything. Was boredom unknown to them? This is indeed a question raised by a human, a busy ape. Far from fleeing monotony, animals crave it, and what they most dread is to see it end. For it ends, only to be replaced by fear, the cause of all activity. Inaction is divine; yet it is against inaction that man has rebelled. Man alone, in nature, is incapable of enduring monotony, man alone wants something to happen at all costs — something, anything.... Thereby he shows himself unworthy of his ancestor: the need for novelty is the characteristic of an alienated gorilla." - Emil Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born

    4 votes

  19. Comment on Ghosting isn't as cold-hearted as it seems, say psychologists — but people still hate it in ~life

    culturedleftfoot
    Link Parent
    Speaking as someone who has ghosted before and never been ghosted, it's also immature, cowardly, and disrespectful. The only acceptable reason to ghost someone IMO is to avoid/escape a likely...

    Speaking as someone who has ghosted before and never been ghosted, it's also immature, cowardly, and disrespectful. The only acceptable reason to ghost someone IMO is to avoid/escape a likely violent and abusive retaliation.

    46 votes

  20. Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: June/July 2024 in ~games