Likes Vim.

Transcript context

…Okay. So yes, YouTube and Twitch and Netflix are doing an incredible job. You eventually chose, the madman you are, to leave Netflix and to start on a new journey of being a wolf pack of one, start streaming. What was that? What was the story of that? So I was streaming for almost seven years now. It started actually at Netflix. We did a charity, Extra Life, shout out to Extra Life for starting my streaming career, effectively is just you stream and whatever money you raise, it goes to Kids with Cancer research. They are a great charity in the sense that they take no overhead and they raise their own donations for their website and everything. And so it’s a very great, straightforward charity. Really love what they’ve done. It was super cool because I live in South Dakota now, but I actually could choose a hospital directly where the money goes to. So there’s a direct impact from A to B. So it’s a pretty cool organization. And so my friend, Guy Cirino, Nice Try Guy is what I like to call him, he was probably the single greatest engineer I’ve ever met in my lifetime. And he was just like, “Hey, come do this. We’re going to all do this.” So I played Fortnite. So before I did that, I was like, oh, I better learn how to stream first. I better get affiliated so I can take subscriptions. And then if anyone gives me a subscription, I’ll also pay that forward. So June 2018 or something like that, I start, I start streaming and I start streaming some Fortnite. End up getting affiliated, end up doing the whole extra life thing. I end up really enjoying it. I’m like, “This is a lot of fun.” I’m playing Fortnite at that point. Okay, so mind you, I’m a Fortnite streamer at that point, and I start really enjoying it. I keep doing it and then one day I decide I’m going to do some programming. Because I really love Vim and I think I’m fast at Vim, and maybe people think programming is cool. Because there was no really programming section at that point. And I did it. I had like 30 people show up, which was just… And it felt like incredible numbers at that point. So I was like, “Oh my gosh, there’s like 30 people watching me program.” So it just kept on going and it kept on happening and it just kept on growing. And I did it for year after year. I would do my job, I would come home, I’d eat dinner with the kiddos, I would read them Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit during that time, I’d read to them for a half an hour, then I’d set that down. And then three nights a week I would program until like 2:00 in the morning or play video games until 2:00 in the morning streaming and building up this whole side thing. And I did this for a long, long time, and then eventually it just kept working out so well and I started making YouTube videos. And then that started getting better. And it was just a long, long grind until April of last year. long time, and then eventually it just kept working out so well and I started making YouTube videos. And then that started getting better. And it was just a long, long grind until April of last year. I went to the Streamer Awards and I got to announce the programming category and Pirate SoftwareOne. It was awesome. It was a great time. And during that time he gave me a challenge coin and just said, “You just got to go for it. Just go full time.” And so I just sat there and my wife can attest to it. It was like an emotional turmoil thing and it just took a lot of, it was pretty awful because Netflix is very safe option. It was both very fun. It was challenging. I liked a lot of the people worked with, it was overall a really great thing. I had a really great boss, really appreciated him. I still have text him now and then he’s really great guy. So it’s just like I’m leaving all these things for something that’s unsure. And the reality is that streaming and all these things, people love you one day, they could hate you the next day. There’s all this stuff that goes into being on the public side. And I had Netflix as the backing, so it’s like if public hated me the next day I’d be like, deuces, I’m out. I don’t care now it’s like, now I’m going to do this as a job. And so there’s a whole huge turmoil to this whole thing that went through it. And eventually I just said, okay, I’m going to make this. It resonated with me when I first made the decision to join Netflix. I’m getting older. There’s not a lot of chances to do something unusual. Those chances go down constantly. As you get older, this might be the last crazy thing I get to do. Let’s just try it. So in April I went full-time and I guess I haven’t looked back. I’m only not even a year into doing this as a full-time gig. And it’s just been a lot of fun. And the biggest thing is just being able to really explore and do these things on stream where people really enjoy watching and engaging. It’s been a great, hard, fun, amazing, difficult experience.…

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