Teaching 

Just got offered a teaching job in video games design this morning! What excellent timing :)

After teaching for 11 years in game dev I can relate. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing a student click in their head, and lose the self-doubt thoughts that are trying to conform to what they think is the standard (Always being right), and being okay that they don't know and can't know everything. And its all about giving it their best shot. Thanks for the videos Tim :)

Teaching is a scary skill to try and learn and do. It literally means you as a teacher have to be vulnerable in order to help understand the other persons perspective in how they are thinking but also put your ego aside to learn yourself - this is because you might be wrong and they might be right. Very rewarding in the end when you see your student succeed and jump for joy and possibly get smarter than you so you can also learn from them BUT it is difficult at first.

Man that bit about explaining code to a more knowledgeable developer hits so close to home. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve completely fumbled when trying to actually explain why I wrote something the way I wrote it without just saying “I don’t know that’s just how I chose to do it”

I got a part time teaching kids how to make games in python when i was in uni. Not only do i feel like i learned as much as those kids, that gig paved my way to becoming a programmer.

My father works as an educator and now I’m working as a TA. Thank you for speaking about this pretty relevant discussion.

As a language teacher I can say that teaching is the best way to improve in your field

As a solo dev making my first game, I always look forward to a new Tim Cain video.

I tend to talk to myself constantly. Done it my whole life. Recently what I realized is that what I am often doing is having an imaginary conversation with someone where they are asking questions about whatever I'm thinking about, and I am trying to teach that imaginary person. I brought this up while talking with some friends one time, and they all looked at me like I was crazy. I thought everyone does this. Like I've seen so many memes about "imaginary arguments in the shower," but apparently people aren't always having imaginary conversations as constantly as I do. I don't know why people think it's weird, because it's basically just pretending to teach someone, and teaching truly is one of the best ways to gain a deeper understanding of something. That's why I also think it's great for introspection. Pretending to explain to a friend, parent, etc. why something is funny, why something makes me sad, or why something makes me angry, really helps me gain an understanding of myself. I find it really helps me better understand how I think and why I think the way I do.

Teaching (as a parent) is wonderful. When I didn't know the answer, or - as became increasingly frequent as they got old, I _thought_ I knew the answer but doubted myself - we would go and Google it together, checking a few sources. 😊

Thank you! I've always been interested in gaming and enjoying your insights.

Waking up to Tim AND the why files, what a treat of a Monday :) you rock, Tim!

Golden Advice Tim, Thank you!

I got through school mostly because my friends thought I knew things and liked me explaining to them. I usually had no idea either! But I wanted to help explain it... so I obviously had to learn and understand it myself, and properly, since I didn't want to screw them over by telling them something wrong. I found that anything I learned this way, where it was partly for others and with the goal of being able to explain it in simple terms, I still remember much better than whatever I studied for just a grade or a test.

Great video as always. I am so happy i discvered your channel a few weeks ago. So much information and amazing insight and experience. Thank you! My Dad was a professor and I have always been a natural teacher. I am a BBQ pitmaster by trade and spent the last four days training two large groups of people very in-depth BBQ knowledge and then I get home agfter day so the road and this is the first RU-vid video i see when bring up the page. Great timing universe.

really love your videos tim, you have a lot of knowledge to share! thank you for making them

Damn it. I just realized that in that last paragraph, that sometimes I was the person you're talking about. Falling into "I'm the only person who's right" is tempting when you feel you're the most knowledgeable around. All that confidence builds and builds you up, so when the time comes that you are wrong, admitting it isn't easy. Admitting it means losing that seemingly comfortable foundation that you've come to rely on. I remember I used to tell people all about how I learned my second language and how anyone could do it. Speaking it fluently, and thinking in it instead of translating it. The idea that I figured out the way to do it was empowering, it gave me a lot of confidence and I made a point of sneakily mentioning it in every conversation I had. Everyone was so impressed, it felt real good for sure. Then I had to confront the reality of doing it again with a third language. It dawned on me. I knew nothing that could help anyone else. I understood so little of the process. I was lucky that my knowledge, the resources available and my interests aligned in such a way that I could learn it while doing what I was going to do anyway. That wasn't a big sudden realization, but having confronted with reality time and time again I slowly realized that this is what it was. I really appreciate videos like this. Thank you, Tim!

The fun thing about Professor Tim: you don't ask for extensions. Instead you heist his notes and write in that he gave you one!

I wonder if Tim and the storyteller from shoddy cast ever met - loved the lore vids he did back in the day & he just passed last week I guess

Liked it: "at some point that person's going to be right about something that is very wrong" (c) Tim Cain

Every day you should try to learn something new, it doesn't have to be a big mind blowing thing.

Kids will ask you the most unexpected questions all the time. You never know what the next subject will be. I got asked how skin layers grow and why yesterday. My son is four.

Another great video. Thanks Tim. Chris

"Just rewrite the code and the bug disappears" Assuming you have unit tests, or introduce another bug without realising because the old code was done in a particular way for a reason 😬

I never went to school for Computer Science because I thought it was a better path to what I liked to do than just a game dev degree. despite this, the class that helped me the most become a better programmer was actually a game dev class I took as an extra curricular. My teacher had us use her company's game engine, built on opengl. it taught me to program better than most of my classes.

I'd love to someday teach at the college I'm attending for a semester or two, so unsurprisingly I enjoyed this video lol. I don't feel confident enough in most subjects to teach them but some subcategories of history & writing I could offer enough knowledge to be a good teacher I'd like to think. Maybe once I graduate I can try & find out 😅

Yeah it makes total sense you were a teacher, so many successful channels are by teachers or actors (in case of JSH he was both). IMO there are 2 motivations that work, you either like to talk to (perform for) people or you like to reveal the the truth. And often times the other part involves something you did yourself.

I hope I can one day give a talk I'm grossly under qualified to give.

Hey Tim! Absolutely love your games and videos! It’s pretty amazing how many of your videos can translate to the video industry. I’m in my 5th year of my commercial video editing career and your videos have invaluable for teaching the proper mindset, work ethic, and flow a creative in a more corporate space should have or at least learn from! One thing I am curious about is your note taking habit. Is there any rhyme or reason or process to the way you take your notes? Do you write them as they happen or do you write a debrief at the end of the day? I’m really curious because as I get more into my career and take on more serious jobs I’d really love to take more detailed notes to reference later on in my career! Thanks for everything Tim!! Can’t wait for more

Tim Cain

I wish you would talk about how you felt about other game development studios at the time when you were making Fallout Like did you have relations with ID and so on

Great vid as always! The topic of learning reminds of this book I'm reading (I'm a high school teacher in math) about making students think instead of imitating. The idea is that most students aren't working their minds during class, and are instead just mindlessly copying what the teacher does. What is your take of this, in regards to game dev and learning to code/design etc? Also, would you say the same can be applied to "learning" in games (i.e. tutorials)? Which type of learning (think yourself vs imitate) works best to introduce the player into the new game and its mechanics?

The mistake question is one where the age of the person you're asking relaly matters. Tons of people will legitimately have no good answer beyond "WELL, I didn't do my math homework once" and that is entirely fine. It doesn't mean anything about their character, but it is a shit and terrible answer. Just a bad question for them. If the person is in their 30s and 40s and can't have a good answer then you might be onto something.

The goat

Your tricks are true you have to restudy it and you get better also more solid also what do you mean by codify?

IMPORTANT QUESTION: When you leave the room, do you turn the spinning ball off?