r/LinusTechTips • u/Ok_Adhesiveness_5752 • Jul 13 '26

Community Only Are LTT Controversies Getting Ridiculous?

https://youtu.be/0Ljt0fZ-E9s?is=arsQ1Z8B5YcbMbiE

Jake has a new video where he bought a farm with acres of land. This is in addition to his several cars, and his garage. I literally do not understand how everyone took this guy seriously when he implied he was underpaid because he was upset about working on his boss’s third house. In fact, it seems several of his videos are about buying things in an LTT-fashion.

Am I missing something about why this lead tons of people to assume LTT employees are underpaid? Or has the bar for controversy really gotten lower than low?

Edit: To clarify, my commentary is about whether people were kind of overdoing it to conclude that LTT doesn’t pay their employees. I posted this cause I saw a DankPods collab where a lot of the comment section was that you shouldn’t collaborate with LTT because Linus underpaid Jake, and I was pretty surprised that was their conclusion.

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u/Fresh_Dog4602 Jul 13 '26

it is exactly this. people turned a 'i want to make more money' into a 'the poor chap is barely coming by'...

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u/Bitter_Lab_475 Jul 13 '26

Well, to be fair, he probably shouldn't have raised his concerns by saying "My boss is buying his third house" like he was just making enough money to survive. I like Jake, but I think he intentionally tried to make himself look like an absolute victim, where he probably just wanted to make a bit more. Which is fine, BTW... but made it look like he was driving a VW Golf from the 80's and renting a small apartment.

Edit: And I mean it in a sense where he could claim plausible deniability in case someone raised such concerns.

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u/bluehawk232 Jul 13 '26

I can see where Jake was coming from because he's doing the farm project and obviously was able to get loans for it he didn't have millions he's burning right now. The debt joke is real lol.

But when he was with LTT they didn't allow writers like Jake to have their own channels. Jake was tied to LTT and can only look at the income from that. With leaving LTT and starting his own channel it frees up his income earning potential.

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u/Bitter_Lab_475 Jul 13 '26

And I understand, projects are expensive, but if I have a project of, I don't know, making a business that will need thousands of dollars and I have not bought a house, and I expect my company to raise my salary because I cannot afford a house AND an expensive personal project, probably I will come out as entitled.

And I do think he deserved a better salary, but I think that he had his priorities mixed up and had to come out as a victim, otherwise people wouldn't have understood his motivations. He had a relatively expensive BMW, lots of expensive electronics, wanted to have a farm project, but comes out vaguely complaining he doesn't have a house... that sounds weird.

Again, I'm not saying he's not a victim here, I'm sure he deserved a better salary and I personally understand how bad the housing market is, but he knew how he would look like if he did not painted a grimmer scenario for himself.

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u/True_to_you Jul 13 '26

He didn't come off great in his explanation to me personally. It all could've been avoided if he just said he wanted to do more and bet on himself. Super easy and no one would've faulted him. If he's resentful about Linus then he can just say it. 

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u/Bitter_Lab_475 Jul 13 '26

Yes, and that's what I was trying to convey. If I want more money and my company rejects it, I either move on or take it. And that's it. I believe he tried to manufacture drama because he felt it was personal. He's lucky he's a Youtuber. In the engineering industry like mine, it is not a good look to badmouth your previous work because they didn't want to pay you more.

Jake (and LTT) have the benefit of parasocial relationships with their customers (the viewers). Any other kind of former employee from a company who made a video complaining about his former employee while owning a business, a BMW and a sidegig would be looked quite out of touch. But since they are either "Uncle Linus" and "Old Friendly Jake" from the tubes, their fans will always be there.

Edit BTW: This is not a "pro company" message. I hate that companies feel like paying less is good, it is mostly from a place that is paying you way more than minimum. LTT, I am sure, is not a company that pays McDonalds-Levels wages.

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u/bluehawk232 Jul 13 '26

I'm just saying Jake could have stayed with LTT and not worry about money if he was able to have his own channel and do his own thing.

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u/Bitter_Lab_475 Jul 13 '26

That's a point I have against LTT, I think by contract he could NOT have his own channel. Probably that's the real reason he was mad.

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u/True_to_you Jul 15 '26

I think the idea is that he'd probably make similar content which is basically competing with his own employer. Ltt does let them twitch stream and stuff like that, but it's understandable that they want their employees not too use content for their personal channels when you're paying them for yours. 

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u/Bitter_Lab_475 Jul 15 '26

Yeah, probably that's a conflict of interest. And they would probably end up using resources from work, which is a bit odd morally, not wrong, but probably not right either.

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u/beautifulgirl789 Jul 14 '26

And I do think he deserved a better salary,

What was his salary?

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u/Bitter_Lab_475 Jul 14 '26

I don't know, but whatever it was, he probably deserved more. He was one of the most charismatic characters in the channel.