End-of-the-year review

Thanks to those who sent me their addresses. You *should* have received your card by now, but let me know if you haven't. 

Channel Milestones

I posted my first video to this channel four years ago this week. I honestly can't believe it -- I've made 79 videos in that period; 20 in the past year. That's a lot of city planning content! In many ways this has been the channel's biggest and most challenging year yet. Subscribers crossed the 200k and 300k marks, and videos racked up 11.5 million views this year alone. I've attached some other channel statistics auto-generated by YouTube, in case you're interested in that sort of thing.

A Year of Change

I called this year challenging because well, COVID, but also my own life changes. I finished my PhD, moved to a new city, and started a new job as a professor. Life as a graduate student was a little more relaxed, and it was fairly easy to balance writing a dissertation with making videos. Now I have a "real" job with classes to teach, meetings, research, etc. I'm left feeling more tired than before, which makes it difficult to post a video every two weeks.

That said -- I don't intend on slowing down! I will take more breaks, like this five week winter break I'm on right now (which isn't really a break; I've written two scripts already). But expect two videos in January, February, and March, until I take a little spring break.

Plans for Next Year

1. Get more help. My long-time editor Eric is moving on and I'm switching over to new editor Ryan. I'm also looking into getting some part-time help from a graphic designer or motion graphics artist. I think they could help me spend more time writing and less time fiddling with Adobe After Effects. They'll probably also improve the overall channel graphics!

2. Travel when it's safe. Videos on this channel are about cities around the world, but I've been stuck in my house, like most of you, for much of 2020. I've had to really rely on stock footage to get shots of different cities. Whenever it's safe, I'd like to get out and film in other cities. I think it will make the channel feel a little more fresh. Personally speaking, I also miss traveling; I learn so much when I do!

3. Livestream more. I haven't done any livestreams since I moved, and that's primarily been because I've been so busy adjusting to my new life and schedule. I want to do more, including one soon. I'll keep you posted.

4. Shoot for 500k? Subscribers are a "vanity" metric -- views and watch time matter more. And I generally make the videos I want to make, not ones that will attract new subscribers. But I only need about 182k more subscribers in 2021 to hit that mark... so we'll see! If it happens I'll have to do some cool celebration.

Those are the big goals. There are other continuing goals too, like constantly trying to improve my writing and production skills and focus more on international cities. Thanks so much for all of your support. I truly appreciate it. It's been a wild four years making these videos, and you all make me want to keep going for another four (at least). 

Dave

Here are the aforementioned stats: