Celebrities on Reddit

Mark Rober

Engineer and YouTuber, formerly at NASA and Apple

How we know it's theirs

His 2017 r/IAmA AMA, posted from this account

We retrieved 12 posts and 50 comments from u/_scienceftw_, dated 2016 to 2021, most often in r/IAmA, r/videos and r/happy.

Best moment

A redditor wrote in r/IAmA

On “I am former NASA Mechanical Engineer turned YouTuber Mark Rober. I've been making videos for 9 years and just passed 10M subs. AMA!”

What made you switch over from NASA to Youtube?

u/_scienceftw_ replied

At the time it was a pretty easy decision. I started a Halloween company based off my first ever YouTube video. Sold it to some guys in the UK and they wanted me to come up with more ideas. It…

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At the time it was a pretty easy decision. I started a Halloween company based off my first ever YouTube video. Sold it to some guys in the UK and they wanted me to come up with more ideas. It may sound like a downgrade but it was a fun opportunity and a chance to see what it's like starting a business plus I knew I could always go back to NASA if it failed abysmally. After doing that for 2 years I was offered a position at Apple to do really cool stuff so I took it. My philosophy on career paths and life really is like crossing a river by jumping on stones. Have a very rough general idea of your path but then look at the best stone and hop on it. Only at that point will you really see the next available rocks and then wiggle them all with your foot and pick the best one. This idea of a having a 20 year career plan or knowing exactly what you want to do with your life in high school is a fallacy and it stresses people out. We think life paths are a straight line but they are always filled with twists and turns and mountains and valleys. That's way more interesting anyways :)

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More moments

A redditor wrote in r/IAmA

On “I am former NASA Mechanical Engineer turned YouTuber Mark Rober. I've been making videos for 9 years and just passed 10M subs. AMA!”

Hi Mark, I am an computer engineering student in my 4th year at university. While I still very much enjoy my field of study, I find myself suffering from burnout because of the grind. Do you find yourself getting burned out from time to time? If so, how do you deal with it?…

u/_scienceftw_ replied

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I feel strongly about burnout. I can't speak to your situation but I will speak to mine and hopefully there is some nugget that will translate for you. I feel like YouTubers feel this pressure that as soon as they see some sort of success they need to scale up. Hire a team, do merch, write a book, start releasing 4 vids/week, start a podcast, etc. It's the equivalent of turning up the speed on a treadmill. At first it's exciting and you're killin it but the problem is that the dopamine wears off (that's a feature not a bug of human evolution to keep us striving for more) but you're stuck on a treadmill at a sprinter's pace. That to me is the definition of burnout. It's the same input but you're not getting the same output you used to. I have done 1vid/month for 9 years. I JUST hired my first full time employee a few months ago. I still do all my own editing because I like it! Why would I outsource that?! I've just really tried to keep my treadmill at a jogging pace and keep the video quality high and as a result I've never felt burnt out yet.

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In a thread on r/IAmA

I am former NASA Mechanical Engineer turned YouTuber Mark Rober. I've been making videos for 9 years and just passed 10M subs. AMA!

u/_scienceftw_ replied

Apple has a more accessible budget to the lay engineer. For example, if I wanted a piece of test equipment at NASA that cost $100k it could take months and lots of approvals. At Apple, it would take just a single email.

A redditor wrote in r/IAmA

On “I am former NASA Mechanical Engineer turned YouTuber Mark Rober. I've been making videos for 9 years and just passed 10M subs. AMA!”

If something happened and YouTube wasn’t an option, would you keep doing these builds for fun? Also, what would you do for a living?

u/_scienceftw_ replied

I'm getting my teaching credentials! My dream job is to teach High School Physics (part time and volunteer).