 You may have seen that we recently hit 80,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel last week, but additionally I just hit, what is it, one million hours of Luke Smith content consumed on YouTube That's a lot of hours and 12 million views. I remember last year we hit 6 million views And we've already doubled that now of course in the grand scheme of things That's like the amount of views the PewDiePie gets in a day But it's great to see the channel has been I guess advancing especially now that I've been putting out videos anyway in this video I want to answer some user questions. That's why I have my laptop out here So I want to answer some user questions FAQ that I actually get a lot and a lot of them are about Some of them are about Linux, but a lot of them are about me lifestyle stuff like that So anyway, I'll read I'll read the first one out first one is actually more of a Linux question Actually, maybe it's not a Linux question. I'll let you decide. So here's what this is something I actually get a lot so I wanted to do an example of this Do you think the time you've spent learning about all this stuff is actually outweighed by the time you've apparently saved? Not a critique just the thought that's a good question because most of the times when I get that it isn't a thought It is a critique because people will say stuff like oh well Who cares about figuring out all the stuff about programming or? Scripting or configuring a Linux system. It's just gonna save you like two milliseconds and you're you know It's totally useless like why would you ever do it now? That's a good question now first off There are a couple answers to that the first thing is when I let's say I'm learning something about how to Shell script or something like that that is not wasted time in itself because I am not the kind of person Like that's what I do as a hobby like a lot of people will get home and they'll have nothing to do and they just want to brain Brain drain, you know, so they'll play video games or and play video games for hours Or they'll watch porn or something my equivalent is just opening up my scripts folder and optimizing things and that is a much more I mean, it's not just more edifying. It's honestly more consistently enjoyable than any of that junk So the way I look at it is I never lose time when I'm learning about something like this That that is just what I do as a hobby. I'm glad that I have started this habit Maybe it's a hard habit to form but I have it and I don't have to worry about time wasting stuff outside of that So even if it was useless it still would be no cost, but of course it isn't useless at all So one thing I one implicit thing behind this is a lot of people have the idea, right? Oh, yeah, let's say you spend all this time optimizing a script, right? Well, you might get a couple milliseconds out of that when you run it But who cares? Well, the important thing is when you're optimizing when you're doing something really well Even if it's just if you're being a perfectionist about it You it might be an optimization that is trivial in that script But you are learning things that are generalizable to everything else. So I did a video talking about this. What was it? It was the Are you too smart to learn anything? I think that was the title of it where I talked about, you know People it's weird because people will have these two separate questions and they don't realize they're the answer to one another on one side They'll say how do I learn about Linux? How do I figure things out and then on the other side? They will have this sort of concern troll question about why do you care about, you know? Optimizing things and and getting things right and knowing how they work on the command line and stuff like that Those are the same things when you actually allow yourself to Tinker with how your system works. That is how you learn things. That is exactly how it's done It is not a waste of time if you optimize a script and you only get a couple milliseconds out of that If you have learned something that is generalizable and the fact of the matter is especially if you don't know how a computer works You are not able to see all the stuff that you will learn if you just give it a chance, okay? So it you will only be able to see that after you learn it, okay? So I'll just say learning how to script is not like, you know, if you play a video game You are only gonna learn things within that video game with a couple very rare exceptions Okay, you might have some you might gain a little world knowledge in playing a let's say a historical video game or something like that Like that whereas if you're scripting you are gonna learn stuff concepts optimizations You know how a system works you're gonna learn a whole lot of stuff all the time So that is one of those things that is basically never never ever gonna be a bad investment So that's what I say to people like that It's it's just a hobby so it's not wasting my time be you're gonna learn stuff and see I think there was some other C That oh, yeah, the other C is a the the other thing is sort of a personal thing in my life Obviously even if I was not even learning anything I have fame and fortune because I have this you you know I do this kind of stuff so and that's the same thing with you I mean you I'm not saying you're gonna become a youtuber or something like that But there are a lot of ways where you are going to benefit from doing what you're doing that you can't see, okay? So that's what I recommend it pays off if you know how to use a computer It doesn't pay off if you use that time to watch porn and play video games, okay? That's the difference. All right. That was a long answer to that question, but it's it has to be said all right Oh and one note. This is less of a question. Well, I get this a lot What window manager am I using and what distro am I using? I'm using artix Artix is basically just the same thing as arts linux except for it uses run it instead of system D I've done videos on system D before I'm not against it I just happen to use it and it basically has the the same experience as using arts linux So it doesn't really make a difference And what window manager I use I use DWM. I've used nothing but DWM for the past year I know that I mentioned Trying out BSPWM because I thought it could be sort of a in-between between DWM and I3 because people always want me to do I3 stuff. I don't care about I3 I want people to switch to it I think I want to do videos on it to encourage people to switch to to DWM Because I3 I just think I'm never gonna use it again. I don't find it elegant or I don't know expandable in the way that DWM is I vastly prefer DWM Maybe I'll explain what explain why in a video Okay, so other question what YouTube channels do I watch? Very good question I basically don't watch YouTube And especially during the times where I'm making videos. I would probably say that I I Produce more video time on YouTube than I consume which is maybe a little weird The fact of the matter is especially tech YouTube channels. I mean I basically consume none of them I have them all in my like news boat I I watch their updates to see like what kind of videos they're putting out But I very rarely watch it a tech YouTube channel. I gave a recommendation a couple videos ago about a channel Brody Maybe I'll put a link to his channel But he has a it's a smaller YouTube channel that's focused on stuff very similar to mine He's a viewer of mine and he puts off so out some really consistent and good stuff But I mean I don't watch that kind of stuff I'm mostly familiar with you know what he's talking about and things like that But you might find it enjoyable and there are a lot of other channels like that as well But I just don't watch tech YouTube whatsoever I basically don't watch YouTube in general if I do watch YouTube It's for one of two things and this changes every once in a while actually I will say the last YouTube channel I watched consistently was Vargs, which has been off YouTube for like a year That is the last YouTube channel. I basically watched every video or at least pretty consistently most of the videos So the two two types of videos I do watch on YouTube one is like tutorials of like gardening and you know farming and Propagating crops and stuff like that. I watch a lot of tutorials on that because that's what I'm doing right now and the other thing I watch is like historical or theological Documentaries usually like catholic or orthodox ones. That's just something that I watch Like on theology and stuff like that. That's not seeing sounds a little left field if you don't know where I am But but I've only been doing that a couple months. I don't know if I will in the future I but that's what I watch on YouTube But as I said, I don't really watch that much on YouTube to be honest Oh and another thing people ask like, oh, what do you recommend for people who want to start a YouTube channel? I did a video is sort of talking about my experience on this maybe a couple months ago It was like reflections of a minor E-celeb or something like this But I think I'll give you the biggest takeaway Just try just don't invest too much time and make it easy and just make it easy for yourself I actually have a friend which is a good example I have a friend and she wants to start a YouTube channel and she was just Belly aching about this video that she had recorded and she was like, oh, I got to do all this editing and all this You know make it look good and stuff like that and I was just like just upload it People want to see the raw footage. They want to see you I mean she made like cutesy mistakes and you know hiccuped and stuff like that in the video But you know my mindset is if you're if you're trying to get into YouTube be as real as possible I still haven't I haven't made a single cut in this video and I probably won't make one Maybe I will but if I do there won't be fancy effects, you know That is definitely my mindset people really It's a testament to your authenticity if you are willing to upload just whatever No, I don't mean whatever like upload garbage upload good content But you don't have to you don't have to sand off all your corners I definitely recommend just make it easy for yourself and don't expect to get big don't expect to get money Don't expect anything. I got extremely lucky other channels that I've made gotten big all get extremely lucky It's not even if you make there is no labor theory of value in terms of YouTube videos You might put a lot of work into a video that doesn't mean it's gonna get a lot of views. That is one fact of life So anyway, let's see. Let me scroll down. I got a scroll down on my computer here. Oh How do how do I manage my website? Here's how I what manage my website? I Open up an HTML file in Vim and I edit it. That's how I manage my website a lot of people I especially nowadays because you all of these static site generators I don't do any static site generation. That's I don't know a bunch of garbage the what the way I think of it is Well, okay The most I do is I have a template file that I copy to a new place that has you know all the basic syntax of You know the HTML page that I want to put on my website that calls the CSS file and all that kind of stuff But that's the most that that's all I do everything else I do manually I just write it myself in Vim and I might have shortcuts to write HTML in Vim I think that static site generators are a big annoyance especially, you know Because what they'll do is they're really just marked down front-ends for writing HTML So like you write and mark down it converts the HTML It might do this other stuff and it's just a bunch of layers of Confusion that you either have to be perfect familiar perfectly familiar with or you have to know how to debug if you're doing something special I just don't like it. I just like I like simple websites If your website is too complicated for you to be able to edit it in HTML your website is too complicated You need to slim it down and that's what my mindset is Everything I do do that's fancy on my website is just with basic tools I think I mentioned in a video before like on on my main page Where it has like the last five blog entries. That's not fancy scripting. That's not JavaScript or any that garbage It's just a said command or a grep command and then I take the first five outputs of my blog page And then replace that line just with shell commands. You don't need any of the stupid Scripts or things like that. I don't do anything fancy. I don't do any markdown. I just write in HTML. That's it I know there are ways of actually Having a web server that renders markdown. I just think it's gimmicky. I'm old-fashioned. I like the way it's easy It's easy whatever Here's another good question a lot of people ask me about this So this is basically how do I live without a job which I need to put an asterisk on but I'll read this question out I was wondering how you managed to make a living from what you do Feel free to point me to a video if you've already addressed this question I'm interested in alternatives to the nine to five myself But I think I need to learn a niche skill that has some demand I was even considering learning something like computer science from scratch Okay, so here's first off you may know I actually do have a day job But my day job is well first off it's I'm salaried and it's canceled So I'm basically just getting paid because of this corona stuff So I'm basically getting paid to do nothing, but yes, I do have a job right now Although it's totally not necessary for me. I live on the income I have from other places all my salary goes directly from my job job goes directly to my savings account I don't spend any of it So anyway, how do I make money by myself? Now this is one of the I'm gonna have to be a boomer here Okay, because you know I'm 30 now and I look back at how I was when I was 20 and you know I had the same kind of questions worrying about things and I'll just tell you this if you make yourself generally competent in not just one skill not just you know Doing computer science or if you're doing that make sure you're generally capable You generally know what you're talking about if you actually make yourself generally capable You will realize you you can do a lot of things for money. Okay? That's the first off the first thing so I'm the kind of person now I have the mindset of oh just walk in and give them a firm handshake That is that I am 100% that kind of person and I know that's dismissive if you haven't figured life out But it is just not as hard as you think if you If you can if everything you touch turns to gold You will be able to find a job and I think if you're in your younger 20s if you're in college If you're a teenager, I think you need to focus on improving yourself in terms of giving yourself skills I can't tell you what those are I know you're looking for like one or two things for me to absolutely tell you this is gonna make you money But you have to figure it out yourself. You have to just Focus on yourself and focus on improving yourself and it will come like it will come and I am of course I have YouTube I didn't expect to have YouTube five years ago. Okay, that is just and I was able to do that Because I was sort of ready when the gauntlet fell to me, you know, I picked that up. I ran with it I got lucky with this one thing in life I could have gotten lucky with a lot of other things in life instead and I did that and it's been a pretty stressful or stress-free Thing that's gotten me enough income. No, well not YouTube itself actually doesn't pay that much but from other things and you know, you just I don't you just get at that place where you want to be in A place where your hobbies can make you money and guess what nowadays is the easiest it's ever been Because look I live out in the middle of nowhere. There's my shed at my house is on the other side I took this I can make lots of money just putting out videos and doing stuff online That is not something that you could do, you know, easily 40 years ago You have it you can live in a place and not spend that much money and still be connected to the internet and make a lot of money, okay So it's easy to live without a nine-to-five job if you're generally competent person. That's what I say and yes when you are young My recommendations would just be you won't be I take a job that doesn't Take up all your time so you can tinker with the things you need to And don't go into debt. Absolutely. Don't go into debt if you do go into debt You need to remember that's gonna be a liability that you go with the rest of your life Or at least until you pay that off. It is nice in my situation because I only I deliberately chose a public like in the state that I went to I went to College in Georgia in Georgia they have a Scholarship or basically if you go to a junkie public school and you have grades that are fine enough They'll basically just pay for your education and I deliberately chose that rather than going to some swanky expensive private school Because debt is a permanent liability, right or if you have to go into debt to go into go to school Don't go to school. That's my recommendation. I am so I'm very happy whenever someone tells me I was thinking about going to college Then you told me it was a bad idea and I think I'm having second thoughts because college is definitely The only reason you should go there is to get some kind of rubber stamp Don't expect anything from college other than that a very expensive rubber stamp So that that's what I would say and I was gonna say something else. Let me think about it Shoot what is it? Hold on. I gotta think for 30 seconds Okay, I remembered I had to make a cut in this video, but I remembered Minimize your expenses in addition to just getting generally competent you want to live on as little as possible I don't do budgeting because I just never buy anything that that is one of the biggest things because I'll tell you I went to graduate school and in graduate school. You have so many of these bratty incompetent Rich kids who do things like they'll they can't cook for themselves or they if they do that's like a meme Oh, I'm gonna cook tonight because usually they go out and eat at restaurants two times a day They spend like 30 bucks on that they spend they have terrible habits like coffee or cigarettes or something like that That's like 10 20 dollars on that sometimes and it's insane the amount of money that people spend through and you need a I mean Even when I was a teenager before but when I was in that state where I was like how many of how am I gonna figure out What to do well at least I can minimize my expenses at least I can say How little can I get away with spending every single month and it's not an issue of budgeting I know a lot of people like budgeting like budgeting and they find it useful But I am just like I am only gonna buy something it is if it is the last Circumstance it if it's the last thing I have to do, you know what I mean So that is another recommendation. You just got to do it you It's insane how much money Like in the thing is if you are not go it's and it's crazy to go out to restaurants all the time Especially if you're alone, that's pathetic going to a restaurant alone if you go to a restaurant It should be an event with friends and stuff like that But just don't spend money you don't need to and every time you spend money You're relying on someone else to do something you should be able to do you should be Practicing your skills and cooking or doing something else or doing basic things for yourself And that's one of the great things about living in the middle of nowhere People have this weird idea that you're gonna be spending more money somehow and in fact sometimes things are actually more expensive But it makes you more independent. You start buying in bulk. You start planning ahead You start having a life where you spend so much less money Even if you actually move to a place that weirdly enough you might be paying more for which will nearly never happen All right, so that that was the last of the questions. I feel like that last one is worth its own video Maybe I should just do that but anyway, that's it and I'll see you guys next time Congrats to everyone on a million hours viewed consumed. See you guys next time