Attention Institute
Personnel!
Those of you who have been a part of the Templin Institute since the first few years of its
activities in this reality might remember that we periodically held what we called 'Pilot Weeks’.
For those of you who have joined the Institute since then, allow me to provide a bit of context.
Now everyone knows that the Templin Institute consists of 12 distinct divisions, plus a
number of other sectors, entities, and legal subsidiaries whose nature is kept deliberately
murky to prevent the disclosure or oversight as would regularly be required by the Templin
Institute Code of Conduct, the most notable example of course being the Anomalies Division.
Now everyone knows the Templin Institute consists of 12 distinct divisions, no more,
no less. But due to a complex, interlocking web of factors, usually budget considerations,
currently only 6 of these divisions are producing regular investigations for public consumption:
Mainline, Atlas, Dossier, High Command, Arsenal and Incoming. Other divisions such as Bestiary
occasionally produce content as well, but their investigations are far more infrequent.
You may be surprised to learn however, that this was not always the case. During
our early days there was only Mainline Investigations, with the remainder being
added as the Templin Institute expanded. Pilot Weeks were how the decision was made
on which departments would gain greater resources. And it worked liked this:
Participating divisions would produce an investigation,
which would then be released day by day over the course of the week. On Friday,
the polls would open on our Patreon, and a pledge of $2 a month would get you a vote. After a week,
the votes would be tallied, the victor added to our regular series schedule,
and the long-suffering Bestiary Division having once again in last place would be left to wonder
how they could possibly maintain their facilities, let alone study their specimens, or provide a
safe work environment for their personnel on a dwindling shoestring budget that can't even -
Our most recent Pilot Week has held towards the tail end of 2018 and at the time, we said that
would be the final one, but as the Institute has evolved, so too have our capabilities, and I am
pleased to announce that week is officially, Pilot Week IV. But this one is going to work
slightly differently. We’ll still have four ideas for new series, and you’ll get a chance to vote
for your favorite. But this time around rather than 4 divisions competing against one another,
each new pilot is coming from a single Division within the Institute, specifically, Incoming.
As the primary research and analysis division within the Templin Institute,
Incoming has always stood apart. Rather than participating in field investigation directly,
it instead collects and analyzes the data and reports from other divisions and uses
them to create various kinds of theoretical analysis, situational reports and proposals
for interstellar operational frameworks. There’s also quite a bit of complaining,
and general whining in there. Sometimes from us, sometimes from the audience.
And over the course of its publications, several unofficial sub-divisions, or series
have emerged within Incoming such as “building your interstellar blank”, “state of the blank”,
“Blank doesn’t work” and others. Now the time has come to make these official components
of the Incoming Division and add some more. But that’s not all that’s different this time around.
I am so confident in the four new series we’ve prepared that all of them are going to become
permanent additions to Incoming. Your vote will instead determine how often each series
is released. You can excerpt whatever comes in first place to be a regular occurrence,
with our last place finisher maybe just getting a few videos
a year. Think of it as us taking the temperature of the room so to speak.
So what are these four new ideas? Well I am only too happy to give you a quick preview of each one.
Tomorrow, on Tuesday, May 9th, we’ll have the pilot episode of “Everything That Annoyed Me
In… blank” , a horrifying look into how I personally interpret alternate worlds and
why it's so hard for me to enjoy anything. You’ll follow along as I deliver some commentary about
every little thing that annoyed me within a certain area of some alternate world,
why that was, and whether I was even right to be annoyed in the first place.
The following day, we have “What If”,
no wait, that’s gonna get us sued. The following day we have “If it were the case that…”,
oh man that’s no good either. Screw it, let’s just call it “Alternate History” these names are mostly
just for internal use so it really doesn’t matter too much. In “Alternate History” we’ll look at how
things might have played out if certain decisions or events had occurred just slightly differently.
After that, is the pilot episode of “Building Your Battlegroup” where the Templin Institute
designs the best military task force we can within certain constraints. For those
of you who follow us on social media or pay attention to the community tab here on YouTube,
you might have caught a special preview of this a few days ago.
And then we end things off on Friday, May 12th, 2023, with “The Worst Place
To Be Alive” in which we look at the places from across alternate worlds where you would never,
ever want to find yourself. Sort of like a reverse tourism guide.
After that, the polls will be open,
and all our Patrons will get a vote to decide how frequently each series releases episodes.
I can’t wait to see the response to these shows and all the suggestions
you might already have for future topics we could cover within them.
But before we end things for today, I want to include a small personal note. You might have
noticed over the previous month we didn’t release any videos. There were a few factors that led to
that, sickness across our team, travel plans, and a few other issues that just so happened
to all occur in the worst possible order. But the biggest thing is that since January of this
year I’ve had a couple health issues affecting my ability to write scripts or even speak for
any length of time. For a while there, whenever I was recording my narration it felt like I was
simultaneously climbing a mountain. And while you might notice that I still sound just a bit
different, for the most part I’ve recovered and excited to be getting back into things.
But I wanted to express my appreciation for the support this community showed
to me. There aren’t many jobs in the world where if you need to take some sick leave,
that potentially half a million people can become aware of it, and that brings with it
a certain level of anxiety. Regardless, I’ve always considered it important that
we stay communicative and as transparent as is practical, even when, or especially when
delivering bad news. Your understanding in this regard makes all the difference.
So, we’ll see you tomorrow, and until next time, this has been Incoming.
Ah whatever i’m sure I’ll fix that in the edit this in a way that’s not
jarring so that nobody will ever suspect I screwed up. It’s that dedication to
nothing less than perfection that really sets the Templin Institute apart really,
all these different elements just coming together in this perfectly seamless way