Bad at Math

One of the millions of reasons we're told to love AI is that it makes so many things easier. All the things we need to do, AI lets us do them with far less effort.

But what if that's bad for us? What if the more valuable byproduct isn't the thing, but the effort itself? What happens to society when we stop having to work so hard? Can that really be so bad?

To say tipping in America is a complicated issue is like saying Dolly Parton was a good person. It’s a massive understatement. But as much as we’re annoyed by and completely fed up with tipping, we still do it. It’s like a trap. Because that’s what it was meant to be.

In my 5th episode, I dig into the pretty disgusting origins of tipping, and how it was designed from the very beginning as anything but a way to be kind.

This one’s for all the grammar nerds out there.

Why do we judge people by their grammar? Because almost all of us do it. Some of us take it as a point of pride. I used to. But the more I learn, the more I realize that much of what I’d been judging wasn’t actually bad grammar at all. It was simply a different dialect. With rules and structure and history.

It’s part of the colorful fabric that adds vibrance to our society.

So consider this a celebration of “bad English.” And I ain’t sorry.

In the late 1800s, San Francisco's Chinatown was a wild place. And for the young women duped into making the voyage from Shanghai, many entered a life of slavery and hell. But there were a few heroes dedicated to helping them. And they saved literally thousands of these women in what can only be described as San Francisco's own Underground Railroad. In this episode, we learn their names.

For more about the underground slave trade in San Francisco's Chinatown and the women who spent their lives helping free these women, please check out The White Devil's Daughters by Julia Flynn Siler at https://books.google.com/books/about/The_White_Devil_s_Daughters.html?id=Ka1oDwAAQBAJ.

In the 1930s, a down-on-his-luck salesman had an idea for a board game. He designed it, built it, sold it, and became one of the great American success stories.

Except... that's not exactly what happened.

And nobody knew that better than one badass woman named Lizzie.

See the original sets of rules to the original game here: https://landlordsgame.info/games/lg-1906/lg-1906_egc-rules.html

Do you consider yourself creative? When was the last time you did something creative that you loved? Or that challenged you?

We're living in a time when we've got access to more and more powerful creative tools than ever in history. Not to mention ways to share what we do with literally millions of people. We can all be creators. This should be a golden age of creativity.

So why do fewer people than ever think of themselves as creative? Why is more of what we create increasingly homogenous and formulaic?

In my very first episode, I discuss my own battles with creative doubt and fear. And how I look at breaking out of it.