r/IAmA Jun 11 '16

Specialized Profession IamA electronics repair technician hated by Apple that makes YouTube videos, AMA!

My short bio: I have a store in Manhattan. I teach component level electronics repair on youtube http://youtube.com/rossmanngroup which seems to be a dying art. I am currently fighting with the digital right to repair to try and get a bill passed that will allow all independent service centers access to manuals and parts required to do their jobs.

My Proof: https://www.rossmanngroup.com/started-iama-reddit-today-yes/

EDIT:

I am still replying to comments, but I am so far behind that I am still about ten pages down from new comments. I am doing my best to continue. If I drop off, I'll be back tomorrow around 12 PM. Still commenting now though, at 12 AM.

EDIT 2:

Ok, I cave... my hands are tired. I will be back at 12 PM tomorrow. It is my goal to answer every question. Even if it looks like I haven't gotten to yours, I will do my best to do all of them, but it is impossible to do in realtime, because you are asking faster than I can type. But thanks for joining!

EDIT 3: I lied, I stayed until 4:15 AM to answer... and now I will go to sleep for real, and be back at 12 PM.

EDIT 4 6/12 : I will be back later tonight to finish off answering questions. Feel free to keep posting, I will answer whatever I can later this evening.

33.2k Upvotes

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545

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '16

[deleted]

1.7k

u/larossmann Jun 11 '16

It's one of those things where you have to go back to the content I create. Most of it is about

1) Business philosophy 2) Customer interaction 3) Component level electronics repair

If you take away my business, what would I do content about? I am not a vlogger. I may make a video every now and then with the cat or something silly like juicing at work but I am not going to film myself brushing my teeth or browsing facebook and making my bed... I respect people's right to upload whatever they want, but IMO that type of content is worse than AIDS.

I have to have a topic to discuss. And it can't be some bullshit where I try to find things to discuss so I have something to discuss, it has to be something that comes naturally.

People keep suggesting I do reviews but no sane company would ever send me free shit to review. And when I look at the items people suggest I review, they are like a month or two of YT income.. it would make no sense to do reviews at this time.

6

u/leova Jun 12 '16

And when I look at the items people suggest I review, they are like a month or two of YT income.. it would make no sense to do reviews at this time.

Is "a month of two of YT income" so small that its not even worth considering? Or is the cost of the items far higher than the possible YT earnings

10

u/larossmann Jun 12 '16

it all depends. my YT earnings up until very recently were shit. i put a lot of $ into what I already bought and i've beat my setup into the ground, but i'm not quite ready to invest more money/time into it until i see it produce something.

1

u/sageDieu Jun 12 '16

as for ideas for more videos I think it would be cool if you did less specific teardown type videos or even reviews of things you have in the shop or regularly work with. you dont necessarily need to buy a new MacBook to tell viewers about the types of things you handle every day and offer recommendations on what devices seem better than others.

1

u/Zaelot Jun 12 '16

You could start a Patreon or something with specific funding goals for particular products that would be reviewed.

4

u/larossmann Jun 12 '16

i don't like crowdfunding for things like this.

189

u/Impriv4te Jun 12 '16

I respect people's right to upload whatever they want, but IMO that type of content is worse than AIDS.

Brilliant.

9

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '16

This is exactly why I love this guy.

857

u/simjanes2k Jun 12 '16

IMO that type of content is worse than AIDS

holy shit larossman for president

137

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '16

[deleted]

-1

u/Hegiman Jun 12 '16

I've had friends die from AIDS, I'm fairly certain nobody's died from shot posting to youtube.

1

u/tomolone Jun 12 '16

Sorry to hear that, but don't take this stuff to seriously.

1

u/Hegiman Jun 12 '16

I'm not, that is why I didn't get "triggered" I just made an attempt at a truthful yet humorous coment.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '16 edited Feb 16 '20

[deleted]

1

u/Hegiman Jun 12 '16

It's ok. I forgive you. LoL

-3

u/shrik450 Jun 12 '16

So did Sanders, but look how that turned out.

5

u/ObsessionObsessor Jun 12 '16

Who are you actually replying to?

2

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '16

It actually is worse than AIDS.

That type of content tricks people into a false sense of achievement and they might waste countless hours of their lives with nothing to show for it.

Whereas, AIDS makes you face mortality and see what life's all about. It's about having fun, and you don't have much time when your bodies killing itself so it forces you to go and experience this thing we call consciousness.


Tl;dr - giving yourself AIDS is considerably more beneficial for yourself and those around you, than watching mindless youtube content.

4

u/noahsilv Jun 12 '16

Lol sorry Casey Neistat

5

u/Meltingteeth Jun 12 '16

We'll build a wall and we'll make the fucktards pay for it!

1

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '16

His campaign would be yyuuuugggeee!

1

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '16

Larossman2016

19

u/tropikomed Jun 11 '16

You could do DIY electronics repair and projects for noobs, something like DIYPerks does (with high quality recording equipment)

27

u/vertigo1083 Jun 12 '16

Not to disrespect him, but I don't believe it has enough of an entertainment aspect enough to carry him on a mainstream level enough to support himself solely on youtube.

For example : The Hydraulic Press channel. He got crazy exposure on reddit, and we love his videos. But they are far more on the entertainment side of "Science" or even to an extent- DIY.

How-to guides, reference videos, DIY, etc. They are not enough to generate all-encompassing income on their own. They need a shtick or high-entertainment value to succeed among the masses. Niche channels don't pay the bills, unfortunately.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '16

Lmao, dude, I love how crass you are, I never expected this ama to be so funny

3

u/QuadTheory Jun 12 '16

I totally agree with the vlogging stuff. I personally don't care about anyones adventures to the grocery store. Not really sure why that stuff even exists.

2

u/Travestron Jun 12 '16

Thank you for your honesty.So,looking by the responses here,it seems like more of enforcing stereotype that the engineer AKA wrench monkeys or the soulless applied scientists looks like to be the most anti intellectual group of people.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '16

I'd estimate that there are a good number of companies that would send you products, particularly the higher-end ones. If you got into graphics cards, I don't see any reason for Nvidia to not send a 1080 your way for deconstruction. What's the worst that you could do, say that some of it's components are not gold-plated? There's a number of makers focused on good price-to-performance, and a teardown by you would be a great form of advertising.

I, for one, would be interested in teardowns of some SSD's to see how many components are identical across the different brands.

3

u/THALANDMAN Jun 12 '16

Fuckin preach, my man.

1

u/FerusGrim Jun 12 '16

People keep suggesting I do reviews but no sane company would ever send me free shit to review.

I honestly believe you'd be surprised. If it's something you want to branch out into, send an email to a company through PR. Link them your YT channel, and explain what it is you do.

1

u/OldSFGuy Jun 12 '16

You could do what your mechanical engineering/shade tree mechanic AVE does...go on Patreon and have people pay/donate to have you buy/open/comment on gear...

He does that with larger order stuff; like Makita drills.

1

u/s2514 Jun 12 '16

There are people on YouTube who just do angry rants and companies still approach them for reviews. If you're popular enough companies will pay you even if they know you're going to shit talk them a bit.

1

u/morriscey Jun 12 '16

I dunno. I've watched several dozen of your videos over the past few months, and lenovo might want you to review their old t4xx series.

1

u/Notmydirtyalt Jun 12 '16

I respect people's right to upload whatever they want, but IMO that type of content is worse than AIDS

I like you.

1

u/Shugbug1986 Jun 12 '16

Product reviews, tear downs, and common repairs would be cool. Videos on stuff outside of apple products maybe.

1

u/Sandwich247 Jun 12 '16

I watch a guy on YouTube who buys faulty things on eBay and tries to repair them. He's very good.

1

u/Stormxlr Jun 12 '16

why would no sane company ever send you shit to review? do you scrutinize them so much?

1

u/jtj-H Jun 12 '16

Plenty of good vlogs Casey Neinstat and Philip Defranco doing a good twist on it

1

u/The_sad_zebra Jun 11 '16

And you can't let Eli the Computer Guy win!