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The Problem with Linus Tech Tips: Accuracy, Ethics, & Responsibility (youtu.be)
submitted 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) by to c/pcmasterrace@lemmy.world
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UPDATE 1: Statement from Linus

UPDATE 2: GN's response

UPDATE 3: Billet Lab's statement (it's on Reddit, but posted for completion's sake. ) You can find the complete text below

UPDATE 4: follow-up from Billet Labs Again, you can find the complete text below

UPDATE 5: "What do we do now?" LTT

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[–] [S] 131 points 3 years ago (3 children)

I must say, the Billet Labs part nailed me to the floor.

For someone who has to do with prototypes and early development products, such a blunder would have cost me my current job and would have barred me from any other in my field

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  • [–] 53 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    The Billet Labs cooler block stuff actually made me go "what the fuck" and got me to unsubscribe. That's not just some error you can cut out or some funny joke, everything about that was something that Billet Labs could likely prove monetary damages for in the worst case scenario.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    Fwiw, Linus made a post today and said they've already arranged to compensate billet for the prototype.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago

    Except that's also a lie, because as the new GN video talking about that response points out, Linus only contacted Billet about it after the GN video was posted, and they absolutely had not "arranged to compensate Billet for the prototype" yet

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  • [–] 38 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Yeah, everything else was bad, but I think ultimately forgivable if they can tighten up their testing and QA process going forward. The Billet Labs thing is on a whole other level though. Like, how do you even fuck up that bad as a professional organization?

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  • [–] 19 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Do you think LTT can invest in one laptop company and still review theirs and others' laptops? I don't know the right answer - I'm interested in your perspective.

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  • [–] 17 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

    Hard to say. Linus has always made it sound like his investment in Framework is a personal one, not one made by LMG. If that's the case, then I think any potential issues could be largely sidestepped by just having someone else do all the laptop reviews.

    If that's not the case and LMG is directly involved with Framework, then it gets a bit tricky. To their credit, they've done a good job of disclosing the Framework investment whenever the company is brought up, but I don't watch most of LTT's review content, so I'm not sure if it's being mentioned in the context of other laptop reviews. If not, it needs to be.
    The whole point of having that kind of disclosure though is so people know that the information being presented is potentially biased. At a certain point, it's on the audience to take that bias into account and cross reference other sources before making any purchasing decisions. I'm not sure there's anything LMG can really do to alleviate the perceived conflict of interest, unless they just stop reviewing laptops altogether. Whether or not it's ethical to continue reviewing laptops in that context, even with a full disclosure, is a question I don't have a good answer to.

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  • [–] 16 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    If Linus and his wife own 100% (or nearly 100%) of LMG, does it matter who invested in Framework? Especially when he has so much creative control?

    As far as I remember, they do not disclose the Framework investment when reviewing other laptops.

    Thank you, I appreciate your candor. You've given me some things to think about.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    As far as I remember, they do not disclose the Framework investment when reviewing other laptops.

    When Linus is hosting a laptop review he always has a disclaimer about being a Framework investor. I'm not sure about videos hosted by others because it's been a while since I've watched one but I don't think they do since it was a personal investment.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    If Linus and his wife own 100% (or nearly 100%) of LMG, does it matter who invested in Framework? Especially when he has so much creative control?

    At that point, just refer to the second half of my original replay. Though, if the investment is just a small part of something like an index fund, I'd say that concerns of bias probably aren't warranted.

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  • [–] 37 points 3 years ago

    That part really bothered me, especially Linus' words in the WAN show showing a complete disregard for the company and then auctioning off something they didn't even own. I know if they were in America they'd likely be sued for defamation or something, I swear. If I were a company in that position I wouldn't trust Linus with anything at all.

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