Shopify Product Director Alex Danco returns for his NINTH appearance on the show — and he comes in hot. As you’ll hear, I didn’t even get a chance to introduce him before he launched into his take on what everyone gets wrong about Citizen Kane.

We also unpack the performance art of parenting, why dinner parties are the new status signals, the difference between meme and slop culture and MUCH more.

Unsurprisingly, this was a fun one. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alex_Danco
• Substack: https://danco.substack.com
• Website: https://alexdanco.com/
• Previous episode: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/finding-method-in-the-madness?utm_source=publication-search

Show Notes:

• What EVERYONE gets wrong about Citizen Kane
• Jim’s hardest interview question
• Elon & Lutnick: clash of the cartoons
• The status hierarchy of baby strollers
• What happened to Yuval Noah Harari? (With a diversion via digital girlfriends and North Korean crypto hackers)
• Dinner parties as status signals
• Parenting as performative art
• History’s greatest memers
• Infinite Jest: the sequel (an Alex Danco & Jim O’Shaughnessy production)
• GIF culture vs AI slop
• From “code is capital” to “code is labour”
• “Did I mention that I dropped out of Stamford?”
• From Clint Eastwood to Cloud Atlas
• MORE!

Books, Articles & Films Mentioned:

• Two Thoughts: A Timeless Collection of Infinite Wisdom; by Jim O'Shaughnessy and Vatsal Kaushik
• Finnegans Wake; by James Joyce
• Invest Like the Best; by Jim O'Shaughnessy
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind; by Yuval Noah Harari
• Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding; by Hannah Farber
• The Magic Mountain; by Thomas Mann
• The Gervais Principle; by Venkatesh Rao
• Scarcity & Abundance in 2025; by Alex Danco
• Cloud Atlas; by David Mitchell
• Citizen Kane; directed by Orson Welles
• F for Fake; directed by Orson Welles
• My Dinner with Andre; directed by Louis Malle
• Letters from Iwo Jima; directed by Clint Eastwood
• Million Dollar Baby; directed by Clint Eastwood
• Fawlty Towers (TV show)
• Absolutely Fabulous (TV Show)