Hindsight is 2020 and all, but I did always feel like something was a bit off with his demeanor (Linus). First I thought it was just his camera voice/personality, but now I'm thinking it's just him turned up (or down) a notch...
It's very clear once you've watched a few episodes of The Wan Show that he's basically a massive asshole and a liability, surrounded by people desperately trying to rein him in.
Particularly more recently, I think? Like, I eventually stopped watching because the first 40 minutes of every episode was Linus trying to defend himself for the latest bullshit thing he'd done. 🙄
tbf, you don't know that. Linus is probably also the guy you can call at 3AM in an emergency, and he'll be there for you. Which might explain the loyalty he gets from early hires.
Tbf, yes we know that, 15 years of hearing and watching Luke vent on WAN, interviews and public spaces. And Linus confirming it all.
As well as stories from Jake and Ivonne in the same vein.
Yeah seems like he has that overboard personality. Everything needs to be max effort, 100% of the time. And it probably got him where he's at, up until recently. But not everyone or everything operates that way. Things eventually break down or have issues, and I think we're starting to see some of that now.
Unfortunately, he went from a small, buddy buddy business to a now large, corporate business still trying to hang onto the way they used to do things. Kind of like closing a deal with a handshake. Things don't operate like that anymore. People need to be held accountable, documents need to be signed and filed away...
The personality traits that made Linus a very successful YouTuber are probably the exact same personality traits that make him unable to deal with this kind of backlash in a healthy way, or to run a 100-person team for that matter.