Giertz: Established audiences do not disappear when creators take time off
Simone Giertz · Simone Giertz on Her Robots and Returning to Work After Brain Surgery · Y Combinator · Jun 5, 2019 · at 16:00
Simone Giertz, creator and YouTuber, discusses overcoming creator burnout and the fear of platform irrelevance after being forced to step away for brain surgery.
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“In the beginning, you, when you start kind of building your platforms online, it just felt like if I didn't constantly feed this fire that I've like really worked my ass off to start, it would go out. And you realize, and now, like, because if I had some health issues, I've been forced to take time off, and I've been gone for a while, and you realize that you can kind of come back, and it's still there. Like, if you build it to a certain Certain level. Like, it's not really gonna go away just like that just because you're not constantly feeding it.”
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Giertz: Building 'shitty robots' was armor against being mocked in robotics
“Building shitty robots was this like way of approaching a very intimidating field, which is robotics that I was really interested in, but I haven't gone to school for. And I was like, oh, if I only try to build shitty things and nobody can like make a joke on …”
Giertz: Peak productivity comes from fun, easy work rather than painful struggle
“If something comes easy to you, and you think it's fun then that's probably what you're best at, and, but at the same time, we have this, like, I've noticed for myself, at least, and that I've heard from a lot of other people, do you have this, like, programmi…”
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“I feel like it's in some way easier to burn out when it's something you're really excited about and care for”
Giertz: In fields with endless work, standard hours preserve life balance
“Like if you could work, if you're in a field where you could work 24 hours a day and still not get done, that means you could just as well work eight hours a day and just get a little bit less done, but have a good life on the side.”