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Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

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Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#181

Post by lhorie »

slightwinder wrote: post #167
lhorie wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imo we should be lauding this brand new sector I disagree. Twitch/YouTube/TikTok didn't create a new kind of millionaire. They're simply celebrities. The only thing that arguably changed is that content production is so cheap and saturated now that consumers get a lot more choice in terms of who they want to watch, without being constrained by TV schedules and other distribution/logistics limitations. There is no "…

> I disagree. Twitch/YouTube/TikTok didn't create a new kind of millionaire. They're simply celebrities. Yes and no. They are celebs, but definitely a new style of celebs. They are your average Joe, with barely any special skill. They could be your neighbor or the dude next to you in a supermarket, and you wouldn't know. Furthermore, they are millionaire working from home, growing from home, with average equipment an…

> They are your average Joe

I think you're blurring some lines. I don't imagine Ben Levin (a friend of the much more famous Adam Neely) is a millionaire, and I certainly don't imagine either of them are anywhere on the same level as someone like MrBeast, who actually employs a crew much like a TV show might.

It certainly is as easy as ever to get started, but I think this idea that anyone can just pick up an iphone camera and become a millionaire is a bit disingenuous. As the article alludes, it does take effort, sacrifice and probably a healthy dose of luck to get somewhere in the industry, especially with how crowded it has become.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#182

Post by jackothy »

blahblah123456 wrote: post #49
mym1990 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't really make sense. Athletes in many sports are playing way past their 'prime' these days and they are wearing out much more than just their hands. Consistently good reaction times are a result of consistent training. Plenty of older baseball/tennis players have superhuman reaction times. I would see mental fatigue and boredom as being the major hurdle to playing esports on a professional level at an olde…

It's counterintuitive, but if you look at eSports players, the prime years are much lower (both the start and the end). You do see 16 year olds at the top but you never see 30 year olds. It feels like the prime is really 16-25. Reaction times in traditional sports are not as important, and hands are one of the worst things to wear out. More parts != more wear out. There's a reason why there are (general) physical the…

Re: Boredom

eSports players spend a lot more time playing than normal athletes. You can only be physically active for a few hours per day. eSports players can do a lot more, like tyler1 who consistently streams for 10+ hours 5 days a week.

Normal athletes arguably also get more variation. Football players don't play back to back football matches all day every day, they practice and improve in a lot of other ways. They also get more variation due to traveling around to play away games.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#183

Post by jakear »

munk-a wrote: post #58
short_sells_poo wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ordinary cars are a strongly depreciating asset. However, above a certain level this stops being true. I had the fortune to buy, use and subsequently sell a number of higher end cars (Ferrari, Lamborghini) and I made little to no loss on any of them. In fact, the Ferrari 458, which to this day I consider the best supercar to drive, appreciated during the year or so I had it.

It sounds like the cars might have slightly more than broken even on cost for you which sounds like a terrible investment option when you've got everything from real estate to mutual funds that will generally outperform cars - and, much like stock picking, most of the models you purchased didn't significantly appreciate - just one ended up gaining in value. I suppose I was misinformed in that I thought that cars of a…

When you have enough cash on hand to buy one, chances are you already have investments in money-returning assets, and you're diversifying into entertainment-returning ones. No point making a bunch of money just to spend it all on making more money. If you can tie up a bundle of cash for a year, get a bunch of entertainment out of it, then liquidate for approximately the same amount, who is to complain?

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#184

Post by huetius »

dvt wrote: post #46

Imo we should be lauding this brand new sector and the folks that made it in it. Twitch/YouTube/TikTok literally created a new kind of millionaire. Are we just upset we're also not uber rich for playing video games all day? It's the same with crypto, OnlyFans, and so on. It was the same in '99 with the dot coms. Merely from an economic standpoint, it's interesting to see who these new industries are displacing (since…

I’m sure there are plenty of incoherent criticisms and not a small amount of envy at play, but there are more serious traditions of thought that are negative towards “culture industry,” writ large.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#185

Post by slightwinder »

antisthenes wrote: post #176
slightwinder wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I disagree. Twitch/YouTube/TikTok didn't create a new kind of millionaire. They're simply celebrities. Yes and no. They are celebs, but definitely a new style of celebs. They are your average Joe, with barely any special skill. They could be your neighbor or the dude next to you in a supermarket, and you wouldn't know. Furthermore, they are millionaire working from home, growing from home, with average equipment an…

> They are your average Joe, with barely any special skill. Absolutely, provably false. It takes a lot of skill to constantly produce content at the rate that millionaire twitch streamers do. Most of them own youtube channels as well, which requires additional time to process, edit, and mix videos, depending on what they're doing with it. It also takes a high level of creativity in order to come up with new ideas for…

> It takes a lot of skill to constantly produce content at the rate that millionaire twitch streamers do.

Well, that's disputable. Most content-sources are delivered externally, in form of games and stuff they can react too. It's not like they sit there and think up something fresh by themselves for 8 hours a day. Though, yes, they have some naturally skill in socializing which they hone over time. But still I would not say it goes beyond the skill of any other natural socializer which exists in any community.

> Most of them own youtube channels as well, which requires additional time to process, edit, and mix videos, depending on what they're doing with it.

Which is most of the time not done by them. Usually they pay people for this. And to be fair, Videos of streamers are usually not really masterpieces either. They are optimized versions of their streaming-content. A good youtube-creator has significant more skill there. They occasionally also create far higher quality of content than most streamers.

> It's an incredibly demanding gig, that, at the very least, requires a pretty insane schedule, or being really passionate about the job.

How many streamers do you actually know? Well scheduled is not really what I would call most streams I've seen.

> Maybe some streamers get help in production and orchestrating their stream, but for most it's more than a full-time job commitment.

If you are a fulltime-streamer, earning money, then they pretty much all get help to some degree.

> Those average Joes you mentioned? They get 1-2 viewers, who are usually their closest friends.

Not really. They are many dedicated hardworking people with similar skill-levels even on the lowest levels. Success in streaming depends far more on luck than skill. Though, luck is also a skill in some way, so hard to say...

But the skills I was talking about are not the ones you are getting naturally but being alive or just doing stuff long enough to acquire them. Obviously if you stream long enough you get a bunch of skills and knowledge automatically, which any non-streamer is missing yet. But that is nothing special.

Special is stuff not everyone has or can acquire on it's own. Like a professional who went through a long professional training, reaching a level of quality a normal selfmade-streamer never can reach. Or someone which a career outside of streaming. There are more and more people like that hitting the platforms. Many entertainers with decade-long careers came in the pandemia to twitch and youtube, searching for new playgrounds and displaying skills which leaves any big established streamer in the dust.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#186

Post by slightwinder »

lhorie wrote: post #181
slightwinder wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I disagree. Twitch/YouTube/TikTok didn't create a new kind of millionaire. They're simply celebrities. Yes and no. They are celebs, but definitely a new style of celebs. They are your average Joe, with barely any special skill. They could be your neighbor or the dude next to you in a supermarket, and you wouldn't know. Furthermore, they are millionaire working from home, growing from home, with average equipment an…

> They are your average Joe I think you're blurring some lines. I don't imagine Ben Levin (a friend of the much more famous Adam Neely) is a millionaire, and I certainly don't imagine either of them are anywhere on the same level as someone like MrBeast, who actually employs a crew much like a TV show might. It certainly is as easy as ever to get started, but I think this idea that anyone can just pick up an iphone c…

I don't know Ben Levin, but IIRC MrBeast did started as the average Joe and just grew big. And yes, of course the lines do blur over time. If the new creators become big, they start stepping into the realms of professionality and are beginning cooperations with old industry, creating content for the new and old spaces. But they usually still have the average joe-vibes, because that's how people grew with them, how they see and remember them. But also because they continue maintaining this vibes, as this is their habit of working.

> but I think this idea that anyone can just pick up an iphone camera and become a millionaire is a bit disingenuous.

Obviously not everyone can do that, but this is how almost everyone from the new industry started. I would say, it's simply the difference in culture, between old industry professionals trained schools and such, and the self learners of the new industry. Though, old industry is now moving in this space too, so it will change with time.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#187

Post by tester756 »

kubb wrote: post #62
Permit wrote: post #51

Streaming aside, tyler1 has an almost inhuman dedication and focus when it comes to League of Legends. On Hacker News it's common to hear that programmers can't work (on classic programming tasks) for more than ~4 hours a day. I also feel exhausted after working for ~4 hours and have always wondered if this was some sort of mental trap I'd fallen into or a genuine limit. Games like League of Legends require complete…

Do you really imply that playing the same game over and over again (with some variables but still) is the same as solving programming problems? The game is literally designed to hook you in and make you play one more and one more. You absolutely can autopilot through a game and still win. Don't get me wrong, the guy has a lot of dedication for sure. But playing League all day is really not like coding all day, I don'…

I have 5?k hours in LoL around high plat / in previous season low diamond and I'd say that LoL while being different from competitive programming

is still exhausting if you want to play it with full focus for a few hours.

Of course there's difference between playing ARAMs for fun and tryharding on "relatively competent" ELO where you try to do not commit mistakes as hard as you can and games are not "fiestas" (lack of strategy, just fighting)

>You absolutely can autopilot through a game and still win.

Significant part of day2day programming can be pretty brainless/trivial too - yet another gluing json over http. Don't get me wrong, there are insanely exhausting projects too.

During programming you can take break whenever you want, go to kitchen, watch memes, hn, read news, blabla, meanwhile when you're in game, then you can't*.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#188

Post by chmod775 »

solidasparagus wrote: post #131
munk-a wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitch streaming can be extremely practical if you're being sustainable about it. Assuming you're actually watching your income and expenses and being smart about when to hire on additional help you can make a pretty darn successful career. I'd point to T90[1] as an example of someone that isn't near the top 1% but has built an extremely sustainable business including paid moderators and content editors (for sending…

T90 was number 211 in the leaks. That is the top 0.003% of streamers.

Most people who have a twitch account are 'streamers'.

I occasionally stream my desktop to show friends something - doesn't mean you should count me for that same list.

Re: Up all night with a Twitch millionaire

#190

Post by hogFeast »

1_player wrote: post #153
kubb wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really imply that playing the same game over and over again (with some variables but still) is the same as solving programming problems? The game is literally designed to hook you in and make you play one more and one more. You absolutely can autopilot through a game and still win. Don't get me wrong, the guy has a lot of dedication for sure. But playing League all day is really not like coding all day, I don'…

At gunpoint, I'd rather code 12 hours a day than play LoL or CS:GO 12 hours a day. Because programming is less exhausting and my code doesn't insult my mother on VOIP. And I say that as a gamer and esports enthusiast.

I used to play League...then I found out everyone who played that game had slept with my mother.
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