The last month has been hectic but incredible.
To put this post into context for future readers, I just finished part 1 of the KEGerator series. My subscriber count has increased by an order of magnitude (5,000 subs) since my last blog post. I have made a couple of missteps on my videos, but I have internalized these mistakes and will ensure that they do not reoccur. One mistake that I wanted to talk to you about is the Bladeless Fan video. This video has received more dislikes than all my other videos combined. Many of these dislikes are from the fact that the bladeless fan is not actually bladeless. I know that this is disappointing but this is not a mistake nor the problem I am referring to. In the video, I incorrectly described pulse width modulation (PWM). I was in a rush to get the video out and omitted the word “average” before voltage, and did not catch my mistake before I published it on YouTube. You can read the comment section here for more information. Even if I had said the average voltage increases as you turn the potentiometer this is a misleading way to describe PWM. Initially, I was going to change it but I was over my head in schoolwork, and I honestly thought no one was going to watch the video. But of course the one video I did not want to blow up, blew up. To this date, I am still receiving thousands of views a day on the video. If I delete the video and re-upload it then it will lose its favorable YouTube search rank. The video is on the first page of the search results for “bladeless fan.” This is an ethical dilemma for me. Do I delete the video that is providing a lot of traffic to my channel but is also spreading misinformation? I want you to know that I have put much thought into this, and I hope you forgive me for leaving the video up. From this experience I have learned to slow down my output of videos even if I miss self-set deadlines to ensure quality.
My life outside of YouTube has been experiencing significant changes. As you can tell from the banner I recently graduate from the University of Virginia. I received undergraduate degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics. I have accepted an offer of admissions for a PhD program in Biomedical Engineering. One thing a lot of people do not know is that most engineering PhD programs pay their students tuition and provide stipends. If you want to pursue higher education consider a PhD program with a heavy emphasis on research because these will often compensate you. After approximately five more years of education I will be able to rightfully call myself Dr. D-Flo.
With a new school comes new living arrangements. I am extremely excited to move out of my current apartment. As you saw in my workshop tour my CNC router and 3D printer are in my bedroom. These machines caused a lot of restless nights. My new house, which I am sharing with two new roommates (RIP Jeff), has a garage which I can keep my tools in. Unfortunately, my two best friends Elise and Jeff are pursuing their own careers which are far away from my graduate school. It is my hope to bring the team together as often as possible but without these two it will take me longer to make videos. I will make another blog post dedicated to my future plans as soon as possible.
Talk with you soon,
David Florian
April 11, 2017