January 10: Workflow

Jake Fellman describes this day as genuinely great, noting a clear emotional difference when he publishes a video earlier in the day. Posting in the early-to-mid afternoon gives him a strong sense of completion, where everything afterward feels like a bonus rather than pressure. That timing shift noticeably improves his mood and productivity.

After publishing earlier, Jake uses the remaining time to make substantial progress on his next project: the seventh Brain Rot collection video, themed around Gravity. Because the concept is more abstract, he experiments with a new production approach. Instead of tightly planning a small number of shots and heavily iterating each one, he generates a larger pool of loose ideas—aiming for many viable options and then selecting and arranging them later. This lets him “fail fast,” reduce overgeneration, and stay more relaxed during production.

He explains that this method wouldn’t work for all videos—especially those requiring strict escalation, like the bean growth video—but fits well for gravity-based concepts where variations can be swapped, reordered, or escalated after the fact (e.g., zero gravity, moon gravity, orbit gravity). Overall, the shift feels more efficient and creatively freeing.

Jake then reflects on a problem from the previous day that he hadn’t mentioned earlier: a burning smell coming from his computer. After investigating, he traced it to the front ventilation intake. Based on troubleshooting and observation, he suspects a failing fan—something reinforced by noticing unusually aggressive fan behavior even during light use. He plans to take the computer in for servicing on Monday, hoping it’s a simple, affordable fix.

The issue weighs heavily on him because his computer is essential to his livelihood. At nearly five years old, the machine may simply be reaching an age where maintenance is unavoidable, but the timing is stressful given his financial situation and total dependence on it for work.

He ends the entry with mixed emotions. While the day itself was productive and positive, Jake is acutely aware that things still look grim overall—financially and professionally. Still, he reminds himself that it’s only ten days into the year and leaves room for the possibility that things could turn around, signing off with a quiet note of perseverance and self-encouragement.