Very relevant Key and Peele sketch:
18,767 karma · joined December 20, 2011
I could get nitpicky about a few areas that didn’t really make sense (and I’m still not really sure where the Seraphite camp was in act three given geography or what our actual aquarium looks like inside) but given how much I enjoyed the game I didn’t really care.
NFL broadcasts lean so heavily into betting odds, parlays, prop bets, everything… it’s so obnoxious hearing about X player hitting the over, only to go to a commercial offering some free money if you place a certain sized bet.
I really hope (but am not holding my breath given how much money is involved at this point) they ban sports betting advertising in the future.
I did this myself and ended up with a really satisfying 4ish years as a PM.
That being said while I was perhaps fairly cynical about why PMs needed to exist before trying the role myself, after being in the role for an extended period of time, fully understand why the role exists now.
Of course there can be bad PMs, a good/great one is super worth it.
…Optimizing my Factorio base supply chain until two in the morning.
One of the startups I did some time at was as close to a sure thing as one can hope for (unicorn valuation at one point) but it still went to zero in a very public flame out. It’s still impossible not to get imaginative about what could have been as I was a very early employee… such is life.
The most lucrative stretch of my career was working for a big company that paid good base salaries.
Has since faded but anytime I think about it I like to load up the puzzle app and do it.
Worked at a SaaS company that had a fantastic product and a great tech team that had built it.
We also did a lot of data-based research and published it as white papers for lead gen.
We wanted to start publishing more content on our site to expand reach, so the team decided a CMS would be a solution for the researchers and content marketers to publish without any tech involvement.
Well it turns out our CTO, for a few justifiable reasons if we’re painting with a broad brush, absolutely loathed WordPress. So despite our arguments an integration would be easier/cheaper/less time consuming for everyone, we built our own CMS instead.
And we, of course, ended up with a significantly worse version of WordPress that the content folks all hated.
So it goes.
Obviously not fooling anyone but gave me a chuckle.
I certainly haven’t found anything even close to this valuable in my 15+ years of hunting, so kudos to Tyler.
The true genius is that where it would be really easy to be mocking these small town people and their hokey play, the movie toes the line flawlessly of making sure the viewer isn’t really laughing AT them all that much. It’s also worth noting that the play itself at the end isn’t a disaster but actually a wonderfully produced show that the audience and town love.
I think Guest’s more recent films went a bit too far into the “mocking” part of the Mocumentary, but Guffman doesn’t.
Also worth mentioning Catherine O’Hara drunk in the Chinese restaurant might be one of the most realistic portrayals of being drunk I’ve seen in a movie.
Didn’t bother reading either of them, just selected one and went on with my day.
If it were me I would have set up a “hey do you mind if we give you two results and you can pick your favorite?” prompt to weed out people like me.
Ask them out for coffee, beers, a phone call, whatever and collect as much info from them as possible. Get them to dive into how they got there, and what steps they’d recommend you take to get started.
Zoom in on one you feel most confident you’d want to pursue and try and find someone willing to mentor you through the process of getting started. This can be very casual, it doesn’t have to be some formal “meet every month and talk” thing.
I left tech this year and am back in grad school for an area I’ve found a lot of passion in through the above (clinical mental health, for anyone curious).
It took a few years of seeking out a new career but I am very excited for the transition.
The absolute key for me was finding someone practicing in a speciality I wanted to pursue and having them guide me through the steps necessary to get there.
Most people are going to be willing to help.
https://youtu.be/C0Cvtu2FfGw?si=1_wk8fPMeeHYLrxl
I love that DFW wrote an essay about Lost Highway and used the term “Lynchian” (something horrific sitting right next to something mundane in a scene).
Charlie Rose asked Lynch about the phrase and didn’t really know how to respond.
Rose then brings this up with DFW who kinda chuckles and implies that was what he would expect.
Two extremely talented and intelligent creatives, but where DFW cared quite a bit how he was perceived, I don’t think Lynch ever gave a shit.
Lynch was on another plane of creativity and I’m not sure he even really knew it. He just did what he wanted to do (except for the original Dune film…)and let people take away from it what they might.
I honestly cant say I “enjoy” Lynch films but I will be the first to admit there is heart and soul poured into them by a genius.
Then comes that random rainy day at the end of the heatwave, gives the city a shower it needs and the fresh smell is unbeatable.
I’m not sure what heaven smells like, but if I had to guess it’s like the air after summer rain in my city.
This definitely reads more like a “everything is going AWESOME ignore anything else you hear about us” PR-ese.
I read this as messaging to shareholders more than anyone else (and sure some word-spreading about the product).
Other favorites:
* Absurd Trolley Problem: https://neal.fun/absurd-trolley-problems/
* Password game: https://neal.fun/password-game/
Worked at a few SaaS companies and there are playbooks for retention, upselling, renewals, etc but if a customer wants to cancel, the company will cancel.
I’d put more weight on Carta in this example just having a broken process that I’m sure this negative press will incentivize them to respond and fix.
I’m fully aligned I eat apples for the texture above all else, with flavor being important but nothing close to how much crunch eat bite has.
Never got anything serious from them as most were “we’ve update some random piece of info on your profile” notifications, but still made me nervous every time.
Sent one to my college roommate and sat quietly while he got home from class and checked his email. He obviously started panicking until the link in the email revealed the joke. He didn’t think it was funny and swore cold blooded revenge that I’ve yet to receive. Still keep one eye open at night.
I remember one time having a super helpful person at Home Depot walk me through a home project I needed some advice on so I asked to talk to their manager to compliment/thank them.
After a few minutes the manager came over and looked so ready for me to berate them about something only to look incredibly shocked that I was actually complimenting the service I had just received. Was nice for everyone.
Well for starters I was in grocery right out of college as a junior buyer for a major chain that I enjoyed enough but after a bit…
Was curious about digital marketing so I got a small company to take a chance on me where I rose through the ranks at companies big and small until I was in middle management and then…
I got an idea for a business so I started one that ran for 4-5 years before I ran out of steam and then…
I joined a semi-large corp in tech and product and did that for a while but…
My wife took on a super demanding new role and is now making enough to support our family so I’m a fresh stay at home dad.
I’ve got plans for what’s next but it’ll require some more school so once my kids are both in elementary school I’ll be going back to grad school to work in clinical mental health.
Has it all been worth it? Maybe, maybe not. But variety is the spice of life so here we are.
I’m curious if you work with a therapist at all. Seems like a lot of what you mention struggling with, it could be helpful to have that weekly neutral observer to talk to.
Sidebar: great advice on planning for my own late life care. The analogy I always hear is “put your own mask on first” when it comes to financial planning. Paying for college / weddings / down payments on houses for the kids would be great, but far more important to make sure financial retirement goals are being met for myself first.
You know what I love?
Physical controls for heat/radio/shifting etc.
It feels precise and tactile.
My wife refuses to drive it, she much prefers the modern luxuries in cars, but there is something so satisfying about FEELING the interaction with a control.
No investors, no board of directors, just a woman and her son who owned the business. They wanted to grow it but were very reasonable about it.
That being said the salary was probably 20-30% below market. At the time I wanted to make more money so I chased that for a while instead.
If I had the guts (no way) I’d ask “is this a planned forced attrition to get people to quit to avoid having to conduct layoffs?” But I’m at a point in my career where I kinda just keep my head down.
People got bristly that we’re all routinely forced to prove any decision we as employees want to make with data. But was a fascinating moment of transparency, even if a lot of people hated the decision.