I just find that screwdriver to be the most pretentiously bad product. Still a product that's half as good as something from Klein or wiha, or Milwaukee, or Greenlee, for three times the price. He put all that money into a designing a cheap but overpriced Chinese piece of junk, when there are already great screwdrivers used by professionals for years and years. Linus was so arrogant he didn't even think that somebody's already made a superior product with established tooling. But no, he has to reinvent the wheel and design a screwdriver nobody's asked for
I've used one, and it actually is pretty good. For comparison, I have a Megapro Automotive (211R1C36RD) screwdriver. I like the ratchet and shaft knurling of the LTT more, but the smaller bits are a bit annoying (though the smaller handle size because of them is nice). Overall, it's not a bad screwdriver, and even though it is too expensive for me, it's another good product option in case other brands' tools don't fit someone's needs.
To be clear, LTT is plenty problematic, but I don't think "making a screwdriver" is one of their problems.
I was just thinking about how theres almost no gradient between what makes you a "quirky and fun small business" which they want to act like and "oh shit better put on our IBM corporate hats and make another video"
Personally felt it was the right thing, and earned some respect back from me. They need to address Madison's accusations separately (which are damning), but they certainly had positive movement with the points raised by the community / GN.
Each of the department heads outlined their shortcomings and how they were being addressed. It felt genuine and sincere, and certainly not the generic bullshit you usually get from a corporate PR team on damage control. I hope they follow through enacting those plans, and it has a positive impact to both their quality and working environments.
The only bit I hated was Linus' section (and this is meant to be a criticism, not a personal attack).
He opened up with a joke that Luke will have a lot to do curbing his (Linus) own behaviour, had a brief moment of sincerity, but went back to immediately defending himself and their actions. He didn't fully acknowledge what his "emotional" response actually did, nor a personal response/apology to both GN/Billet Labs for it. There was no real acknowledgment he will address his own shortcomings. It honestly felt like someone who acknowledges he's wrong (purely based on number of internal members telling him he's in the wrong), but doesn't agree nor accept it.
I mean the monetizing of the video was in pretty poor taste.
They plugged they're merchandise multiple times.
They joked about the video being sponsored twice.
All of which screams, we don't care about what we did just don't take away our money.
The video was still then being defensive.
They never apologized to GN or Hardware Unboxed.
Sex jokes too enlight of sexual harassment and employee mistreatment claims.
They rushed the video out too, it's a culmination of most of the things wrong with lmg. If they had taken their time with this and taken it seriously I would have probably given them points and been very surprised, but this was absolutely bs pr. Totally unapologetic and insincere. Even if they do change anything I don't believe it's because they want it, itll be because they'll be out $$$.
They also need to reconsider they're hr, pretty significant conflict of interest there... then again hr isn't there for employees protection anyway...
People buying this haven't worked for a mid to large sized company. This is internal corporate coolaid bullshit. Nothing ever comes from this lip service. It's just cringe