Year-end Update

Hey all,

I hope everyone’s 2023 is wrapping up nicely. Here’s my update for you.

First off, I’ll no longer do monthly Patreon updates. When I did a survey on them, responses were positive but few. I still intend to update regularly, but from now on if you see a Patreon post from me, you’ll know there’s something noteworthy. For those of you who enjoy smaller and more frequent updates, I encourage you to join the discord or follow on twitch.

I have to admit I had higher hopes for 2023. Only two videos were published, Primer has downsized from two full-time members back to just me, and despite progress on the timeline-based workflow, it’s still difficult to work with large simulation scenes, and production pace is continuing to suffer for it. No two ways about it; it was a bad year for the channel. I learned a lot, and I still get to make YouTube videos for a living. And on a personal level, I married someone wonderful this year. So I have a lot to be grateful for. But it will feel good to flip the calendar over to a new number.

I don’t have any big declarations for 2024, but there are two things I’m excited about.

The first is the list of videos to make. There are some really cool topics to cover in biology, economics, and other areas, and I’m looking forward to being able to share them with people.

Second, I’m the most capable version of myself I’ve ever been. My goal in seeking funding was to add software expertise to the team. And while it didn’t go quite how I hoped it would, there is a lot more software expertise on the team. It’s just inside my own skull. I learned a lot working with Matias for a year. Perhaps I’ll try to expand the Primer team again someday, but for now, I’m excited to just move forward with more confidence in my own ability to build things.

Thanks for being willing to bet on me.

Onward!

Justin