Are You Following the 10/90 Rule? 

I’ve got my own 10 90 rule. For every £10 I spend on 40k I spend £90

"multiple family... units... kids, whatever" love this guy

I once heard an applicable story called "Chicken Church". Short version the chickens were tired of hearing the same things at church every week and told their chicken bishop they would stop coming if he didn't have something new to share. So the bishop invites Prophet Eagle to speak at church the following Sunday and with great patience he successfully teaches these chickens to fly. After church the chickens are walking home all excited, talking about church and guessing what will be taught next week when while crossing the street they all get run over by a bus. They had just learned how to FLY and they were WALKING home. Failure to apply and practice what you learn, whether it's church, school, or RU-vid, renders the time spent learning as wasted.

lol im on the 90/9/1 Rule. 90% youtube 9% thinking about painting 1% painting

This can be applied to SO MUCH MORE than just hobbying.

Time to go spend 90 minutes applying this concept.

Perfect advice for any hobby/endeavor. Timing will never be perfect- at a certain point you just have to jump in to whatever the thing is.

This is not only incredible hobby advice but incredible life advice. Like to a point I made a sticky note for myself summarizing the 10/90 rule: This applies to so much.

You always make such interesting conversation videos for a hobby where most people just make videos on lore and updates, and while I appreciate them, I love that you do the videos you do and that you give so much thought to them. You help a lot man and have earned an avid viewer here.

Great hobby advice...I feel like you may have not realized this...but great LIFE advice. Love it.

Whenever I am fiddling with my X-Wing mini designs or painting my Clone Army for Legion, I listen to your videos.

I've been picking up gardening this spring. Kinda seems like an opposite hobby lol. Try to do 90% and around 35% everything is done until things grow more, the ground thaws, etc,etc etc. So I go paint more minis 😁

For the past two weeks I've been devouring any and all miniature based video... last night I FINALLY built and painted my first Gretchin set, lol. This video spoke to me on a spiritual level.

Very solid advice here. I learned so much more in my apprenticeship as a sign painter, putting theory into practice, under the tutelage of an experienced professional sign painter, than any textbook or online tutorial could've ever taught me. That said, I think online tutorials is becoming the evolution/substitute of the old fashioned master-to-apprentice model. In my mind though, there is no substitute for that face-to-face and immediate response, of having someone looking over your shoulder and immediately responding to what you're doing, right or wrong, in practice! Looking up advice and knowledge online is a *VERY* valuable tool (I do it a lot!!), but if you *don't* put it into practice and then *don't* reflect on it through a perspective of: "Well what did I learn, *by DOING what I was advised to do* and how can I improve?". Then, the tutorial risks becoming: "Just another video I watched that gave me good and constructive advice" or at worst: "Just another video that taught me something I never got to experience first-hand and therefore, just gave me an idea and not an actual outcome". _As a (hopefully) clear example:_ I could sit in my room for 20 years and thoroughly research and write conclusions on how a bowling-ball would react upon hitting the ground when thrown from a 3 story building. But until I actually go out and throw a bowling ball from a 3 story building, I will never know.

Thanks your videos always get's me more motivated to paint.

You hit the nail right on the head with this one. I've been watching your videos for a while and I'm always blown away at how it seems like your speaking directly to me (and others!) about things that are relevant. I'm fairly new to the hobby, and was actually just thinking two days ago "man I really spend a lot of time watching videos about the painting and th hobby I should be putting in more work at the table" and boom, heres your video. Fantastic advice (as always)!

Every video you make seems to speak directly to a current situation or outlook I'm having. It's pretty profound. I've been staring more at my hobby table than being at it as I don't feel I know enough to do the effort justice.

My wife and I got into the hobby 3 weeks ago when we went on a random vissit to Warhammer World. We've spent the last few weeks watching this and other channels and waiting for our airbrush kit to arrive. I cant wait to completely mess up my first paint job on my Imperial Knights army! :-)

i so need to hear your videos they really put me back in my place on terms of reality around hobby stuff thanks again for doing these you always come up with such great subjects

I've been cleaning and assembling for weeks now while watching RU-vid. I've got so much plastic ready to paint. I really need to stop the RU-vid and start getting paint down.

Can't agree enough. I watched videos on layering for hours. The videos made it look easy enough but the "perfection" of the presenter's work was daunting and made me hesitate due to fear of failure. Finally did it and learnt more in doing it for an hour than all those watching videos.

Great vid. Just reinforced what I started doing a few months ago. I was spending waaaaaaaay too much time watching YT, Twitch and whatnot about painting techniques, tools, new minis, etc, that even when I had all my paint, brushes, minis and other supplies in front of me I would rarely get any painting done and it really left my feeling bummed out. On my days off, I would spend 6-8 hours watching and learning but never doing. I finally set a two hour limit and then turned off all media and only have background music and have been able to get quite a bit done. Slowly work myself up to watching streamers with no audio but sometimes I can still go down the rabbit hole. The one downfall of our digital age and access to so much information is we spend way too much time searching for "the best way" to do something instead of just learning a way. Much appreciated!

Completely agree with what you’re saying. I’m totally addicted to your videos but I find it helps having it on during my painting too.

I listened to this Video yesterday and just got down and finished my first two models. Thanks for the inspiration, I am starting to plow through now that i have a couple done to the standard I am happy with

So for every $90 I spend, I spend 90 hours watching RU-vid and 10 minutes painting. Why do I never get any painting done... but I have entered a path to glory so I have painted a bit this week. I found that really motivating.

Plato (I think): learning without doing, is like plowing without seeding. Great advice Uncle Atom...

Great advice. As you say, it's also important to realize that you can combine learning and practicing together. As an educator, this is a very important convention to follow. Thanks for bringing this topic to the fore.

A great concept for all sorts of learning not just painting.

I agree with you 100%! Very good advice in my opinion. Thanks for sharing.

I call it "Edutainment". Very good points I agree strongly with. Im constantly falling into this.

4:33 “...and play, and have a good fuuuu...good game with your friends!” Wow, this rule applies to the best things in life. ;)

Sounds like I am about 300 hours behind in getting some minis painted. Ooof!

Man, that's so true... Thank you very much for this video!

Man this video was for me. I have felt the "I learn a bunch but never get stuff done" thing a lot lately. Love the video and thanks for the reminder and advise.

I've found myself in a "all I want to do is paint every Malifaux miniature I ever bought" phase in preparation for M3E. It's been awesome thus far, but I'm worried there will be a nasty burnout soon.

Needed this. Thanks Uncle Atom!

You mentioned this but I love using that 90% to also learn as well. I love watching your stuff or people like NextLevelPainting while painting and building

That's why I learn while doing. Not enough hours in the day to do both. I craft and make while listening to things. Also, all the rest of my time is just learning while doing the other everyday stuff.

This topic has been weighing on me recently and glad you did this video. I spend way too much time, in multiple hobbies, researching/learning and not doing. Here’s to doing more...

Dude i really like your channel. It Is a pleasure to listen to you. Subscribed

This is just crazy, i have a lot of difficulties to focus on projects and a lot of things in my life, and this video just show up, for real all the things that uncle Atom say are really really helpfull not just for painting miniatures but like a advice for life you know. This was post on May 3 2019, there is another video called "Who Are You Painting Miniatures For? May 17 2019 , and talk about a lot things like self esteem, to be happy with the things you do, dont compare to another people, man its like exactly things that i needed to hear..."How Good is Good Enough?" march 15 2019, "What to Do When You're Overwhelmed With Your Hobby" May 24 2019, dude its like 2 months of videos and all of them, are really good advices for your hobby and life, but why exactly now, this year, this month, these videos can be made like 2, 3 ,4 years ago and i find it randomly and gonna understand it, but i find this channel like 1 week ago, and the most recent videos are exactly what i want and need, even like dont searching for them on youtube. I know all this can sound like crazy, but its like a gift from the universe, i love warhammer, crafts, paint, miniatures and similar things, and all this things combined on these videos, how can just be a coincidence, i really don't understand, but im so happy to find it. Really really thanks for all your teachings Uncle Atom, there are helping me to get better in life. May the God Emperor bless you battle brother

You have put into perfect words the thoughts I have had for several years. I've noticed the rising generation (and myself) hungering for information, but not doing anything with it once it has been acquired. Probably because information is so easily accessed now, but application is still as difficult as ever. Thank you sir!

First, let me say, I've really been enjoying your videos! I've just gotten back into painting miniatures after about a 30 year break. Mmy kids are picking up D&D, which gave me an excuse to get back into it. I've found myself nodding along with most of your videos. Your perspective is very much on point. This is the first of your videos where I found myself disagreeing -- a bit. I mean, I agree that people shouldn't get so overly worried about messing up a miniature that they watch video after video and never get around to painting. But on the other hand, we all hit plateaus in our painting (which I know you have another video about), and it's good to watch videos for a while to figure out what you could do differently to work past those. Part of me thinks like a carpenter: measure twice, cut once. The same goes for miniatures, to a degree. Yes, it's true that we can paint over something that didn't work out the way we wanted. But it's also possible to paint so many coats (especially with a brush) that we obscure the details of the sculpture. And then it's kind of a pain to remove the paint to start over. Plus, it can just be fun to watch videos and see how people do what they do. Sometimes I pick up tricks I never even thought to look for. And even if I learn nothing, it's just fun to see masters in action. But please don't take me as arguing with you. 99% of what you say resonates with me. Just adding a SLIGHT counterpoint. Thanks, and keep up the great work!

As always; great points. Love the channel

Very well said. It's a struggle to get there, putting in that 90, but it's so damn rewarding when you do it and see those results.

Really good points and something I struggle with myself. I'd say painting I'm about 60/40 and gaming I'm about 80/20, which definitely leads to serious self-inflicted frustration at times. I'm also a strange blend of perfectionist and lazy, which contradict each other. This is pretty much me on a daily basis: "I really want to paint those Blightlord Terminators" "Ugh...I have no idea how to tackle them. I can't decide on a color scheme" "Well I'm not going to chance screwing them up so I'm going to hold off. Let me look for ideas first" Then I spend the next three days searching youtube, patreon, pinterest, and blogs searching for the answer and coming up empty as those Termies sit across the room guilt-tripping me with their sad little rotten eyes.

I have started to keep a journal of what I have learned, applied and the results and blah blah blah. the journaling has helped in keeping me on track and being able to go back to review my errors, is nice as well. great video again !

I love this video. Thanks uncle atom , bringing us out of procrastination/avoidance in the farse of perfection to avoid the "doing". This is a great Equalizer to say hey, there is only so far information will take me... My goal is not to learn the best but to get my models painted.

Thanks! this is something I really needed to hear

I am so guilty. I feel compelled to absorb as much knowledge as I can find before attempting a thing. It really makes no sense bc I learn so much faster & easier by doing than by watching or reading

I agree with this, with a small caveat. Before i picked up a brush i watched about 20 hours of painting videos to get a feel of the beginner techniques (i haven picked up a brush since elementary school, 20 years) and it was time well spent

Got Atom in the back ground while i try and finish up some Intercessors. :D

There is another "caveat" you didn't mention and that is my situation. I watch painting videos at work or when I am in a queue or some other time when I can not paint so when I come to my desk I can apply the things I learned (and usually fail, but that gives me new questions that I can find answers later). So my time doing is maximized, even though the ration is not 90-10 but more like 70-30 or 60-40.

Sound advice. As an illustrator and a person who takes gaming seriously, I've certainly fallen into 6 hour youtube holes of strategy videos instead of doing the particular thing. I've come to believe that tutorial vids may inform me of something I didn't know, but the only way I ever truly learn is by putting in hours of doing. I'm actually listening to a ton of your vids and not going out and buying my first model and paints. lol. Point being you tought me to start small. I was saving for an entire army and changed my plans to just buy one model first. So thank you.

Great video!! As always good tips!!

great made realize I NEED TO GO FISHING!

I Woke up this morning and painted one space marine. I always break my builds over days. Each day has a task that is kinda like gardening for some.

Another great vid. I’m reminded of the philosophy of the pursuit of the average. I;m not a great painter but getting better but more importantly I’ve found a regular group who are kind enough to melee my Tau into pulp each week

Man, you're up late Uncle Atom. Me too, painting my nurgloids.🤗

I’m finding the “watching” part increasingly counter-productive. I see all these amazingly painted minis and terrain, and think: I can do that, but I need to learn that special technique or buy that dremel and airbrush first. So, I buy a cheap dremel, and now I have to spend ages watching videos on how to operate it! And then more time buying add-on tools that are missing from the dremel kit. More days of painting lost... and my blank metal and plastic men are still blank.

Ya know when you explain this I start to see it in my Dailey life, I’ve got many hobbies where I watch videos or just learn about it but I never actually do the thing. And I would wonder why I end up getting bored about the thing, well it’s because I’ve extended the boring part “Learning about the thing”

I paint minis while engaging in my screen time. So I'm doubling up!

My exception would be like you said 'hobby time' should be 90/10. I say this because I have time where I can watch/listen to hobby content but painting would not be an option. Examples: working, driving, working out. I would not count those hours in my hobby hours time. So for me my learning hours greatly exceeds my painting/crafting hours but in hobby time I am easily at or above the 90% mark.

Too right Uncle Atom. When I was an apprentice welder, most of time was spent on the job honing skills I learnt at technical college, and funilly enough about 10 percent of my time was actually spent at college learning those skills, and about 10 percent of that time was spent in the classroom and the rest of the time was spent doing practical in the shop developing skills, which I took back to work. I’ve really got to get my shit together and actually put the wise advice you give on your channel, which funnily seems self evident once someonefinally points it out to you, into practice. Also how did the Tim Tams and Vegemite go?

Guilty as charged tho some of it is my shift patterns at work, however my painting has come on massively as I paint while listening 😊

Spot on. Living vicariously through “others” talents.

Great advice, I usually apply the 80:20. Although I think my 20 includes stuff you would put in the 80 so... I use the same principle for paining time as in you can get to 80% towards your best painting standard in 20% time spent. So for troops I stick to this. For projects and characters I flip that so spend much more time to get that last bit of quality out. Currently lots of "watching" (listening) whilst doing other stuff as just getting back into the hobby so lots to learn!

My main interest with this is reading up lore and making sure my figures fit into it to some degree. I like how games workshop is loose with some aspects of that stuff and I used that to make a kitbash for a deathwatch champion that I'm pretty proud of.

For me, the pitfall of learning a new game is the majority of content creators who focus on a meta. Most say buy these units, don't buy these units, and here's what you need to win. When I can go to my LGS wargamer night, and ask them what they think, I get the RU-vid information repeated back to me. I appreciate not having to lose time and money by reinventing the wheel concerning a unit or figure, but they should take the time to explain why it is sub-optimal or only for niche situations. I really want to learn the heart and feel, and not just take a,b,c and do 1,2,3 and you will more than likely win.

This is a video I need to listen to. And I was so sure this was going to be sponsored by skillshare after that intro, lol.

I guess I'm just spending more time learning because I'm currently buying all the things I need to make what I want. Just a few hours ago I ordered most of my airbrush supplies and greenstuff as well as sculpting tools, and some other bits and bobs. Once those come in I'm going to try out airbrushing on a few Marines and then I'm waiting for Looncurse or some new Seraphon stuff!

Skills not applied are not skills, it's just impractical knowledge. Most of my 'tv' is youtube and a huge chunk is watching instructional videos in various disciplines. Needing to apply the skill is why a big portion of the educational topics are more knowledge based, like STEM sciences. So I can work on painting, sculpting, drawing while listening to a philosophy debate, or a bio science lesson, or even another hobby I find interesting but I don't have the money, tools, or time to get into. For those times I need to focus more I'll put on a story or music channel.

I follow the 10/90 rule... Just backwards, 😁

Great point. Thanks!

Amen, sister!

I love how you almost said we all have multiple families haha! The many lives of Atom, next TM video haha! Great video, and so true. Made me put down the RU-vid and work on a wanderer today!

This is an excellent rule that goes for other pursuits in my life as well like martial arts and cooking. Learning about doing something is very different from practicing the thing.

My only pushback is that there are many times when I can watch RU-vid while holding my baby or something but I can't sit down and focus on hobbying with a knife or brush in my hand. However, I try to spend close to 100% of the time that I CAN actually doing it. Ends up being far away from 90/10, but still the best I can do at present.

Funny, I watch vids because I don’t have time to paint, 4kids 6 and under and one of those full time job things. When I do make time to paint the house goes into panic mode. Imagine trying to paint with one baby trying to sleep in one arm a three year old pulling your hair and the twins wrestling on the stairs (and usually the wife screaming something from the kitchen). I call EXTREME HOBBY PAINTING. Took me half an hour to write this! With only one baby falling off the table with scissors scare. Shoutout to all the hobbyists dads out there ! ✊🤨 stay strong and hobby on!

Good point Adam.

Great advice for life, really. Spend more time doing than watching.

Thanks, this was awesome

As someone just starting the hobby I'd be happy to follow this rule. Unfortunately I need to space out my purchases and or wait for my next purchase to arrive/be in stock. Over the past couple months I got the Kill Team core book, a set of dire avengers, a set of rangers, and two cans of primer/base spray. This afternoon will be the first time I get to actually play a match because of my schedule and the limited number of days the local hobby store does Kill Team. My next step will be to buy some brushes and layers, then shades and highlights, but I have to do it all in stages. The result is that I keep running out of stuff to do. I guess it isn't the worst thing but I would like to get that hands on experience.

I think it was Confucius who said "Thought without action is wasted time, action without thought is wasted effort."

I watched Sorastro's painting video for Chewbacca the other day, while painting the same model. It actually worked out well, though I took a little longer than he did.

Great vid, as always. Please don't wear that t-shirt again, I spent 9 mins watching that creepy clown.

Only been collecting/building a very short time but for me the ratio tends to already be for every $10 I plan to spend, I end up spending another 90. God dam this hobby single handedly keeping the global economy afloat!

This week I have painted 10 Primaris for a Marine Kill Team. 6 For my Deathwatch Kill Team. 12 Tyranid to add to my Tyranid Roster. I painted 23 Death Guard for my Housemates Kill Team, 4 more models for his Tau Kill Team and 6 more models for my Alpha Legion team. Also started 7/11 Admech and I have 9 Genestealers to do after that as well as 10 Kasrkin and a Lord Commissar to do then I have to do 90 Tactical Marines and 10 Terminators, a Captain, 2 Lieutenants a Chaplain and Librarian for my Crimson Fists Army. This week I have spent I think 30 hours painting or playing Kill Team and 30 mins watching hobby videos or reading the FAQ.

I come to the RU-vids just to hear the Atom's amazing voice 🤷‍♂️

I'm actually addicted to learning, in many activities. But as a father and husband I don't have much time for doing, while I can learn whenever I have 5 minutes of free time. But obviously I'd like to learn less and practice more :)

A good reminder that it's so easy to end up procrastinating by telling yourself that you aren't doing that - "because I'm learning".

Yeah I spend more time on youtube then on TV. I like learning. I prefer trying it out. Always felt the best way to learn is to do.

Great topic. I agree 100%.

A great accompaniment to do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good and the best paint job is done

Getting myself motivated to paint is not an issue. Keeping myself from buying more minis while stocking up on paint, though ... hard one!

This one hits close to home.

Another great video .. I should have made it a point to meet you when you were in Austin

ty good sir for videos like this one the wisdom cuota is always welcome i totally identifie some times with me watching lots of techniquies without practice in btw vids T_T.. ty a lot

Well, I'm 100/0, but the startup cost is a real issue. Somebody wanna send me a few space marines to get started (simple models), a bunch of imperial guard squads (for proper practice; They're cheapest per model, I think, and IMO it's always a good idea to have a bunch of guardsmen when you're interested in building imperial and chaos armies with narration in mind), and an airbrush (all the videos spoiled me)? Brushes, cutting mat, clippers, X-acto knife, superglue, Blu tack, greenstuff, that stuff I can get myself (I think), but the models are bound to sum up quickly (especially once I've painted the fiifth squad or so, and it's high time to move on to the really juicy bits).

I do it 50/50. Because I watch videos when I'm doing other work and don't have that much time to actually build and paint. A lot of the times I actually watch these sorts of videos while I build/paint.