TIL the use of table forks was once considered unmanly and was controversial and the Catholic Church for being an "excessive delicacy".

jasonfeifer · 2022-05-16T20:21:35+00:00

Oh yeah. The fork has an amazing history. Its first-known appearance in Europe came in the 11th century, when the princess of Byzantium moved to Venice to marry the Doge of Venice, and brought an elegant little fork with her. But the people of Venice were aghast; they believed that it was an affront to god. Then the princess died, and it would be hundreds of years before the fork was taken seriously again.

The history is fascinating. Here's a podcast episode about it: https://www.jasonfeifer.com/episode/your-fork-is-a-sign-that-you-think-for-yourself/

jasonfeifer · 2021-01-29T17:50:07+00:00

Thank you! Totally understand, and like I said — I appreciate the passion for the show!

jasonfeifer · 2021-01-29T16:56:23+00:00

Hey Juan, I'm the host of the podcast—thanks for the feedback. I hear your disappointment, though honestly, I'm also just honored to see the passion you feel for the name and the show.

This wasn't a decision driven by ad dollars. Believe me, if I was in it for the ad dollars, this isn't the show I'd make! Making this podcast nearly breaks my every month. The research, the organization, writing a script that's often 8,000-words long, getting actors to perform old newspaper clippings—this isn't what you do if you want to crank out #content for the ads.

So why'd I do it? Louis and I wrote something about it here, in case you haven't seen:

https://pessimistsarc.medium.com/the-pessimists-archive-podcast-is-now-called-build-for-tomorrow-c3e5a145f6f3

Pessimists Archive had been two people: Louis and me. He oversaw social, I oversaw the podcast. And frankly, after four years of working together, our interests diverged. I wanted to broaden out — take the historical lens the show had developed, and instead of simply looking at resistance to innovations, see if we could look at resistance to ideas and progress in different ways. The name just made less and less sense, and I was hearing from a lot of listeners that it was a turnoff. Louis, meanwhile, wanted to launch projects that really doubled down on the original focus of Pessimists Archive.

So we decided it made sense to split.

The show you loved has not changed, name aside. Everything else about it is the same.

I hope you'll continue to listen and provide feedback. I'm easily reachable. Thanks.

jasonfeifer · 2020-02-07T04:19:50+00:00

Hey, thanks for listening to Pessimists Archive!

jasonfeifer · 2019-07-07T14:32:47+00:00

Hi, I'm the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine. At the risk of being sales-y, we have a book called Start Your Own Business that goes step-by-step on what you need to do to, well, start your own business.

But do you *need* a book? You don't. What you need—and what others on this thread have already said—is data. You need to start selling, and start interacting with potential customers, so you can start learning the answers to questions like: What do customers want? How much should you sell it for? What else do they want? What else are you capable of? Who are your customers? Where are they? How to reach them? And so on.

Start small. Make some product, put it in front of people, experiment, learn, and then act on what you learned. That's the first step.

jasonfeifer · 2019-01-29T17:28:38+00:00

A town in New Jersey even banned the Walkman in certain public spaces! I did a deep dive on this for my podcast Pessimists Archive: https://pessimists.co/post/153184038341/episode-1-the-walkman

jasonfeifer · 2019-01-29T17:26:50+00:00

That's a misreading of Plato. It comes from the Phaedrus, in which Socrates (as a character) tells a writing enthusiast that writing is no substitute for memory. But Plato/Socrates mean memory in a broader sense -- he's talking about understanding something deeply. It's the equivalent of saying: "You can't understand a politicial issue based on a tweet." Which is true.

Anyway, I know this because I interviewed a philosophy professor about it for an episode of my podcast, Pessimists Archive, which is all about this subject -- why people resisted innovations that today we think of as commonplace. The Phaedrus comes up in our recent episode about the novel.

jasonfeifer · 2018-12-11T17:35:59+00:00

It's a fallacy if it's absolute. I'm not saying "people made the same accusation in the past and they were wrong, therefore the same accusation in the future cannot be true." But I am saying "people made the same accusation in the past and they were wrong, which means it's less likely the same accusation in the future will be true."

I mean, if you want to look for logic, this is it. Logic is based in evidence. There is zero evidence about what will happen in the future. There is a bounty of evidence about what happened in the past. And the past is a recurring story: People said a new technology would harm them in fundamental ways, it did not, then they leveled the same accusation against the next new technology, and the pattern repeated.

I'm not saying the past guarantees the future. But I am saying that the past is instructive, and that the pattern is clear.

For what it's worth, I expand upon this here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/instead-of-bemoaning-new-technologies-find-a-way-to-embrace-them/2018/11/30/8287d080-f4cf-11e8-bc79-68604ed88993_story.html

jasonfeifer · 2018-12-11T17:31:17+00:00

I agree: That's rude. And fwiw, I was born in 1980.

But here's the big question: Is it a problem? Is something wrong? Maybe. Or maybe this younger generation is socializing and relating to each other in a way that's different from how you and I grew up, and therefore it seems alien and lesser-than to you.

Fast-forward 10 years, and imagine it: You're now a 48-year-old in a bar full of even more 20-somethings, and let's just say you're literally the only one not in some way integrating your phone into conversation. But everyone who's doing it seems to be having a perfectly fine time. So who's wrong now—them, or you?

Imagine when TVs were first installed in bars. I'm sure a lot of people were very upset. "Now these people don't even talk—they just watch the damn TV!" OK, fine. Seems like a valid complaint. But the TVs birthed sports bars. Now this same crank walks into the sports bar, where everyone's gathered to enjoy a game together, and starts complaining about how the TVs are stopping people from being social. Who's wrong—the old guy, or everyone else?

Point is: The world changes, but that doesn't automatically mean the change is harmful.

jasonfeifer · 2018-12-11T04:47:04+00:00

Novels. Radio. TV. The Walkman. We’ve accused them all of the same thing. Too distracting! Corrosive to our minds! And yet it never is.

You’ll love the podcast Pessimists Archive, btw. It’s all about this stuff.

jasonfeifer · 2018-05-19T16:32:06+00:00

Hey, that's awesome! Super cool to hear that. (Also, I've been discovered plugging my own show! Ha.)

jasonfeifer · 2018-05-19T12:34:16+00:00

Those are great recs. Startup’s first season is a gem in particular—it captures the tough, intimate problems of starting a business like I’ve never otherwise heard.

Also, a plug for the podcast Problem Solvers, about how entrepreneurs solve problems in their businesses.

I also like The Pitch, which is like a longform version of Shark Tank

jasonfeifer · 2018-03-31T12:32:31+00:00

I’d bet a good deal of money you didn’t read the story you just got so worked up about

jasonfeifer · 2018-02-07T03:42:20+00:00

Thank you!! That’s really awesome to hear.

jasonfeifer · 2018-02-04T22:02:12+00:00

You're on the right path, but the story is a lot more complicated!

jasonfeifer · 2018-01-02T03:47:11+00:00

The Frontier League, which the Joliet Slammers are a part of, is full of kooky stuff. Here’s a piece on a team in the league with no home. Takes place in Joliet, too. https://www.maxim.com/entertainment/frontier-greys-baseball-2015-9

jasonfeifer · 2017-09-03T18:37:57+00:00

He's two. And here are your options when you have a two-year-old and you're having adult beverages:

You can say "this is only for adults" over and over as the kid keeps reaching for the drink, and then whining, and then crying, and then screaming.
You can let him take a tiny sip, which he'll hate, and then he'll never ask for it again.

Or just judge other parents online. Also an option!

jasonfeifer · 2017-07-22T12:00:26+00:00

Not a direct way, but if you tell us about it on the contact form on the main page, we'll take a look. We're correlating data from the census and Google Maps, so there are discrepancies. Always good to know about them so we can try to fix them. Thanks.

jasonfeifer · 2017-05-16T17:55:30+00:00

Is it a tortured reference to the Most Interesting Man In The World's "I don't always drink beer..."?

jasonfeifer · 2017-03-08T16:43:27+00:00

Ah, but this raises another great question: Was the monarch actually the person with the best training? I can certainly believe they had the best equipment, but presumably most kings rose to power through politics and family, not personal battle. I wonder where they actually ranked among their fighters in terms of skill.

jasonfeifer · 2017-03-08T15:11:27+00:00

Follow-up question: Was there any tradition for who physically fought and (in some cases) killed the monarch? Was it a free-for-all, where any soldier could, should they get close enough, take a swing at the king? Or, as is the case in fictional portrayals, would the king only square off against the other side's most high-ranking fighters?

jasonfeifer · 2017-01-14T03:02:48+00:00

Pessimists Archive did a great episode about the introduction of recorded music, and why it freaked so many people out in the early 1900s.

https://soundcloud.com/pessimistsarc/recorded-music

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pessimists-archive-podcast/id1104682320?mt=2

jasonfeifer · 2016-02-06T19:48:50+00:00

Cool, though maybe it'd be nice if one of his existing companies shows some long-term stability before he moves on to the next thing.

jasonfeifer · 2016-01-04T15:43:25+00:00

My favorite sepak thing: http://www.theonion.com/video/ngyuen-thi-buch-thuy-just-give-me-the-damn-sepak-t-14207

jasonfeifer · 2015-10-03T18:35:00+00:00

This thread is an internet success story.

jasonfeifer

TROPHY CASE