People that make the world a better place
There’s a lot of crap on the internet today. Which, if you think about it, simply reflects the character traits of society as a whole. There’s an ever-lowering barrier to spill a person’s thoughts, words, persona, and bare themselves for the world’s evaluation and receiving feedback on their skills and efforts. For many people, this is done without a care in the world. They have no dignity or esteem to lose. For others, it may involve a lot of trepidation, if they’re truly interested in making the world a better place.
When the internet was new, that was exciting. The playing field was leveled. Fast-forward to where around 6 billion people have internet access, and the competition heats up. Billions of people elbowing their way in trying to create their own niche. And there are a lot of niches out there – some most people don’t even realize but are HUGE. ASMR has taken off for this wonderful young Russian immigrant. It just goes to show how far things can go. You can turn anything into a business, as long as you’re persistent, consistent, and relevant to someone else.
One thing the internet allows us to do is to gauge ourselves as to where our personal standards and expectations rest. That’s a very good thing. One of the best aspects of the internet, really. If you’re honest with yourself you can find out in a globally democratic method where you stand and measure up to others doing the same.
I’m always aiming to be better and learn more. Constantly. Everyone has some areas that can be improved, no matter how good you think you are, there’s someone who is always better.
That’s what this page is about. The people I’ve discovered online make up the 1%. I’m not basing that on actual data, mind you. But these people represent the sliver that is “A-game.” They’re the Ted Talks of their niche(not an offshoot of the core ).
I LOVE finding these people. They cause you to rethink how you’ve been living and should live. The reason I’ve found them is that we share interests. I stumble upon them trying to improve myself by looking on the internet for tips, tricks and ways to up my game in some certain area, and when I find them, I fall down a rabbit hole.
And then when you think you know the best, there’s someone who emerges, does what they do on another level, and causes you to adjust your paradigms. I love when I’m shown that I was doing it wrong along.
Chris Fix
This guy gets it, and he enables anyone in the world to tackle common car issues that people willingly hand over a fortune to others to do for them, and receiving a substandard job.
Chris Fix is a young guy, still living with his parents, and they’ve done a good job of instilling integrity into him. He does a good job, he does it the right way, he focuses on safety, he uses only stuff that anyone can get from anywhere, and is on a budget. He’s upbeat, and his editing and camera and lighting doing what he’s doing are perfect. First-person POV. He doesn’t waste your time, he doesn’t um, er, cuss, or cut corners. He shows you what you need, what you don’t, and gets down to business. He even buys all the products you might think you need and tries them out and tells you how it goes.
Some of his videos may seem elementary, but he knows tips and tricks that are valuable and shares them. He’s an educator. And a very good one, dealing with equipment that looks alien to most people. How to change your own brakes, for example. And if that’s out of your grasp, he has one on how to clean your windshield so that it’s perfect. And it is. All of his videos show you the correct way to do what he’s doing, with nothing hidden or eliminated, and he even goes in and responds to comments that are left. Taking customer service [free, mind you] to the next level.
And if that isn’t enough, he’s a good person. He pays things forward, donates his profits to good, close causes, and sincerely wants to help people. When he began making some money from his videos, he bought his mother and father their dream cars, fixed up of course, before he finally found his dream car, which is a HumVee 1 that’s been modified to take it over the top. And he can use it to haul his drift car and project cars around. He’s a smart cookie. And he’s humble, which is an important character trait to teach your children.
Rick Beato
This guy is about my own age somewhat, and his musical knowledge and skills are professional grade. Of course. All these people will be.
But I found Rick, mostly because YouTube kept suggesting I check him out. I would be grabbing video or doing something with a sole purpose on YouTube. And I kept seeing the words over the still image, “What makes this song Great?”
And as Rick has now pounded out more than 100 of that exact type of video and asked that same question over one hundred times, I finally gave in and decided to see what “this guy” thought about a similar song that I happened to like. I don’t even remember the exact song.
But what hit me first was his age. Around the same as me, filming himself in a studio, with dim lighting, most likely kids in bed, wife upstairs asleep, end of the day kind of musings that old white guys tend to do.
But as I learned, he was in Atlanta, my birthplace, not NY or LA or London. So musically that meant that he knew a lot about Southern music/rock/alternative. I have a friend in the music business in LA that’s high profile also our same age, so this was getting interesting.
But what mesmerized me was that he had the same passion for music I have, which was demonstrated by his upbeat, energetic discussion of whatever he was doing. Which I’ll get to in a second.
He obviously had the same background as I did in music, and was well-versed and familiar with the music business. I never could find what he did for a living, or what level he was on financially, not that it mattered. I was just sizing him up. I could see he was sitting in what looked like a home studio, which had an impressive array of guitars in the background. And of course, being in the music business, one would need the tools of the trade.
What I suddenly discovered was that Rick wasn’t a hack tradesman that knew somebody and could play guitar as well as I can. Not at all.
His passion was music and he had degrees in it and entered the music scene through some rough, low-paying, rudderless attempts at musicianship. And what blew my mind was how accomplished he was at every instrument. EVERY instrument. Didn’t matter. He could play and keep up with the best of the best and not blink. That takes tons of practice and dedication.
Plus he has a trained ear, knew how to use pro tools to single and sample tracks on the computer, which I’m sure knocked a lot of aspiring producers out of the lineup. So he can quickly grab a single note out of a symphony id he wanted. That’s huge. That’s something I’d like to learn to do, but the logistics, budget, and timing are off.
That allows him to dissect a song down to the individual nerve and examine it. So he essentially has become “Mr. Music.” He knows all the people in the industry and has helped produce albums and knows where things should be put.
I’m a big fan of music, and I’m helping my daughter to learn to enjoy it also, as Rick has done with his children, and hopefully my daughter and I will be able to play together.
Brandon Withrow: https://withrow.io/simpsons-tv-build-guide
Raspberry Pis can do a lot of things. For something so simple, they’re robust. They’re understated, which is why people like them. Like a butler.
I have one that I’m using as a wireless server to my 3D printer. I can watch it and control it from anywhere, thanks to a very smart and generous nordic person.
Paul Davids
This guy’s brain is remarkable. Mmmmmm…………..brains…..
This guy shoots both audio and video, edits, uploads, practices, plays, impeccably. A Master of his crafts/skills. I couldn’t find a way to post it on my site from YouTube, surprisingly.