{"id":41172,"date":"2018-01-07T06:00:28","date_gmt":"2018-01-07T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=41172"},"modified":"2018-01-07T03:04:36","modified_gmt":"2018-01-07T08:04:36","slug":"the-best-of-youtube-andrew-huang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=41172","title":{"rendered":"The Best of YouTube: Andrew Huang"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re on this site, then you probably have some passing knowledge of tabletop roleplaying games. Likely as not, you found me through this webcomic<\/a>. Which means you know how it works when you create a character: You roll some dice, and the outcome determines your stats. Maybe you roll a 12 for Strength, a 13 for Charisma, a 3 for Wisdom, a 9 for Intelligence, and so on. The numbers fall on a bell curve, with the low and high values (3 and 18) being far less likely than the values in the middle of the range. <\/p>\n

I actually experimented with this way back in 2006<\/a>. The odds of you rolling the dice and getting a magical super-character with all of their stats set to 18 is an astounding 1 in 101 trillion<\/em>. So if a player showed up to your game with such a character you’d feel pretty safe calling them a cheater, right? I mean, it’s obvious<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now imagine they do one worse. Imagine they’re not just cheating at a roleplaying game. Imagine they’re blatantly cheating at real life<\/em>. That’s what Andrew Huang is doing. <\/p>\n

Huang runs a Youtube channel where he posts weekly videos about his experiments and adventures in music-making. I don’t know the full list of instruments he plays, but I know it includes keyboards, guitar, drums, and violin. <\/p>\n

All by itself, that’s a little suspicious. It’s not unheard of or anything, but when someone has mastered that many instruments they’re clearly way ahead of the curve.<\/p>\n

But then on top of that he’s also a composer and lyricist<\/a>. And a singer with a pretty good range<\/a>. Still not convinced he’s cheating at life? How about the fact that he’s also a rapper with amazing speed<\/a> and he has a keen understanding of what makes music compelling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Okay, I hear you saying this isn’t necessarily cheating. After all, guys like Beck<\/a> have all these skills while also mastering a dozen instruments. It’s rare, but not impossible. <\/p>\n

What if I told you he was also an accomplished sound engineer<\/a>, producer<\/a>, and that he is able to work in almost any genre<\/a>? Is that pushing the limits of credulity for you yet?<\/p>\n

Now maybe you’re think this is still possible if someone dedicates their whole life. Like sure, you can accomplish all of this, but by the time you mastered the big stuff you’ll be a dumpy middle-aged person. But Andrew is young. <\/p>\n

And fit. <\/p>\n

And handsome. <\/p>\n

And he’s funny. <\/p>\n

And he’s got a talent for making fun YouTube videos<\/a>, which is another skill set entirely apart from the music stuff. Oh, and let’s not forget the time he did a rap song that incorporated five different languages<\/a>. I mean come on<\/em>, man. Did you think we wouldn’t notice?<\/p>\n