As of today, I have been making Youtube videos full-time for 10 years
So to celebrate, I am answering your questions
plus I'm giving away items like this beautiful spinning top from vorso and other items from my videos
so if you want to win one of those
then write down the characters that will appear randomly in the top right corner of this video
Those will be your password to the form in the description
so let's get into it
Why did you start doing youtube?
because I always wanted to be a filmmaker
As a kid, I loved doing plays and musicals
I had the most fun of my life when I was working with creative other people
but I always thought that a career in the traditional film or tv industry was a terrible idea
and like your life was out of your control
It seemed to rely on a big break; I don't think those industries were meritocracies
so for basically my whole life until I was 28, I did the safe thing
And I studied engineering and physics
and did a PhD in physics and then I taught people physics
and I love science
but I also love just the craft of putting together a film or a video and sending it out into the world
and I think this makes a lot of sense
because I liked learning about science, and I liked performing
and that is exactly what making Youtube videos allows me to do
You know the process of doing science is very different from the process of learning science
uh and so I think it's not surprising that this is the thing that I love more than being a scientist
I have been on Youtube for 10 years and it was starting to show. There was so much gray in my beard
that uh i'm shaving it off to wind back the clock
I am giving away this fully specked 2017 macbook pro
I used this to make a lot of my videos
but those are all wiped off here now
so it's just a nicely specced laptop
that you could use to make more videos if you wanted
Any advice you have for people coming out of high school or college and unsure how to take their first steps?
the key is just start doing it
after making my Youtube channel for a few months
I sort of snuck into a science awards in sydney and australia
And there I found sort of the executive producer of the only science show on Australian television
and I got his business card
And the very next day, I emailed him
And I sent him links to all of the videos, or you know, the videos I was most proud of anyway
And uh I didn't really expect to hear anything
but three weeks later I got an email back from him
and he was like, these are really good why don't you come in and we'll have a chat
and I think the key to that interaction was
I had stuff to show him
I didn't go to him and say, "Hey I'd love to be involved in your TV program."
you know what can I do for you? What do you need done? You know?
I came to him and I said that's what I'm capable of
and if if that's of interest to you, then great
I have literally thousands of penrose tiles
that I will be sending out, if you want them, I'm giving these away.
I will send you 21 kites and then 13 darts of another color
What has been the hardest part of your Youtube journey?
I would say the beginning
You know, everything's like a snowball
It's always hardest to make the snowball when it's small
and I know that there were a number of times when I thought that I would just quit doing youtube
because it seemed like I was getting no traction
I think the other problem with the beginning was, I wasn't very good at Youtube
I wasn't very good at presenting to a camera
I wasn't very good at picking topics
Most people know how to tell apart a
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a hard-boiled egg from a raw egg
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Well you're gonna find out pretty quick if you uh if you break the shell
I've said it before and I'll say it again
I think I was lucky not to know how bad I was
because otherwise I really would have stopped in the early days
I am giving away these Ames windows
All lovingly handcrafted by me
painstakingly over hours and hours colored in beautiful
gopro hero4
still works a little old
Do your kids watch your videos?
Some of them
uh their favorites are the one where
daddy quote "blasts off into space"
and also the one where the meteor hits the earth
I actually feel like the kids are a good barometer of what's gonna be successful
It's like if it appeals to their two and four-year-old brains
then it will appeal to all of us in some way
I'm giving away these astronaut shoes which are size 8 US or 41 in Europe
the salt lamp from negative ions
these platonic solids there should be five of them
What was the most humbling response you got from the audience and for which video?
uh depends on what you mean by humbling
In like Brady Haran has ruined this word for me
but if you mean like the most overwhelming positive response that I've gotten
You know, I would say I did this video on the bullet block years ago
and there were over a hundred video responses
which just totally blew me away
the one-way speed of light video
got a huge response from people
there's over 50,000 comments on that video
not to mention the hundreds of emails I received and the tweets
and it's incredible to have hundreds and thousands of people thinking about science
and the fundamental way that the universe works
I am delighted that you guys are with me
What do you do apart from Youtube?
Well, I have three kids and they take up most of the time outside of when I'm doing Youtube videos
so that's it I'm a Youtuber and a dad
Which is pretty great
I love going to the beach
I love hiking up the hill, I love riding our bikes
I'm a pretty simple guy
and 2020 has made things even simpler
because there was really nothing we could do
the last shade balls
All right. What would you say was the hardest part of your PhD?
Okay so the hardest part of a PhD is that it's this research degree, right?
Which maybe is stating the obvious
when I got into it I remember
talking to someone who had recently finished their PhD and she told me
a PhD is a dark time in most people's lives
and I was like,
what did I get myself into
but I realized what she meant
because for three or four years I was kind of on this roller coaster
the problem with research is you never quite know what you're doing
that's the point of research and you never quite know what you're gonna find
so there's a big risk that it's all gonna be worthless
that you're gonna spend six months or a year or many years depending on your field
working on something and only to find out that it didn't work
or it's not gonna happen
and for me that is a very hard thing to do
I feel like my personality is not built for that kind of research
because I need sort of to regularly achieve things
and to feel like i'm doing practical things
and having a practical impact on the world
what was the best part of it?
getting to meet lots of academics and talk to different people
My thesis supervisor Manjula Sharma was fantastic
and I learned a ton about academia, and about research, and about writing
it was a real nice shift for me to go into a PhD
that was not solely focused on math you know coming out of engineering physics
it was nice to be focused on something that involved words and writing and reading
and I realized, oh that whole area of life has been kind of shut off to me
as an engineering student, so that was a nice transition
What was the most unexpected part of it?
well I gotta say that was having more people than just my thesis reviewers
which are three people read my thesis
and the reason for it was, I went out and made videos
You know, about my PhD research
and uh it's funny that a Youtube video
is the thing that these days can get your thesis or your papers more citations and better read
In 2010 I made this short video for tedx in Sydney
and I initially shot it like talking to camera
and when I got home all the footage was corrupted and I couldn't use it
it was the night before the submission deadline
and so I drew stick figures in paint
ask almost anyone about physics
and chances are they will tell you they don't like it, don't get it, or it's just not their thing
and I feel like that's still one of my the best things that I've done
Which is like, there are tons of times when it seems like you should be discouraged and throw in the towel
but I did not
I just made do with the crappy tools that I had
and frankly I think the video was better with the stupid stick figures than it would have been with a talking head
Okay the garage gets full of.. stuff
these are boxes of the Snatoms expansion kit
and I want to sign them and send them out to teachers
so teachers use your school emails uh in the form
and will send you one of these if you're lucky
okay lightning round why does Veritasium have 42 mass number
because that's the answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything from the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
How are you doing?
well
What's your favorite ice cream flavor?
pistachio or rocky road
Do you truly love turbulent flow or do you just fake it for the internet?
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Merch?
I don't have any
Would you like some?
some did you learn any Portuguese with your wife?
um bocadinho
She hates the way I say "bacalhau"
I find it impossible
Science or maths?
science
Do you miss Canada?
Yes. Today especially
Favorite shrek character?
Shrek
Is a hot dog a sandwich?
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How much do you love science?
to the moon and back
How many hours of sleep do you get
Not enough. Not.. Enough
If not youtube, what would you be today?
I think probably a teacher of some sort, maybe a professor
How big is your team?
because the production value of your videos has been so awesome these days
well thank you for noticing
and yes there has been a team being built
Johnny Hyman who can animate edit write music, write programs
He's also working on a channel of his own called verse you should check it out
My wife Raquel is frequently behind the camera
I'm so incredibly appreciative of that
thank you thank you thank you
Yvonne Tello is my animator
He's been doing lots of great work in all sorts of different styles
Peter Lebedev who's been helping me with research and writing
and doing everything that possibly needs doing
My former professor of general relativity at the university of Sydney
Grant Lewis has been an advisor on many of these videos
a huge thank you to Alice
for managing everything that's happening in Chinese Veritasium
There's Veritasium dubbed in spanish
in arabic, in russian,
We're working on a Veritasium hindi
and I gotta say paying people would not really be possible without the sponsors
so I gotta say thank you for being okay with it,
because that's what allowed me to have a rocket built
or build an eight foot tall optical illusion
those are things I just never would have dreamed of doing in the past
because my investment in every video was essentially only my time
and now I feel like I can try lots of different things
so this is a q&a video but the final q is for you
Which is, what do you want to see more of on this channel in 2021 and in the future?
What have you enjoyed the most in the past?
I just want to know what I can do for you
what is the thing that really adds the most value to your life
uh that's it for me
I guess, thank you seriously thank you