Critical Nonsense

How do you ask a good question? 

This week, Jess and Aaron talk about 5-cent vs. 25-cent questions, tempo, performance question-asking, prioritizing curiosity over confidence, checking for clarification, and signposting. They don’t talk about Gang Starr. 

references 

• Aaron's Lullaby 
• Revisiting Critical Nonsense 174! Askers vs. Guessers and Working Hours 
• Harvard Business Review: The Surprising Power of Questions 
• The New York Times: The 36 Questions That Lead to Love 
• Ryan Hall, Y'all 
• America's Test Kitchen 

What's the best way to encourage people to own their confidence and speak their minds? 

This week, Jess and Joey talk about flatness, self consciousness, modeling vs. metering, explicit conversations, confidence intervals, and pants-pants. They don’t talk about Julie Andrews. 

references 

• Six Thinking Hats: An Essential Approach to Business Management by Edward de Bono 
• The New York Times: A Conversation With Bing’s Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled 
• Stratechery 

What is "cool"? 

This week, Joey and Aaron talk about kinetic energy, Obama, privilege and power, nerds, Blackness, and fish sauce. They don’t talk about Freestyle Fellowship. 

references 

• The Joey Sleeps Alone Tonight while Aaron Learns 
• Damien Rice covering Sia's "Chandelier" 
• How do you do, fellow kids? (the not-black version) 
• Wondrium Daily: Why The Word ‘Cool’ Has Stayed Hot For So Long 
• "I Like to Watch": Drag Queens Trixie Mattel and Katya React to Mean Girls 
• Hank and John Green 
• Quartz: How Black Americans have shaped cool globally 
• Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness 
• Corrections Department: Big Boi, not 3 Stacks, said "cooler than a polar bear's toenails". 

What do you think are the right places to deploy euphemisms, or should we abandon them altogether? How harmful is it to use euphemisms, and why not err on their side just in case? And, if we took all the euphemisms off the table, what do we do with language next? 

This week, Joey, Jess, and Aaron try out a new Exquisite Corpse segment where they pass along a conversation to each other one thought at a time. They talk about tech layoffs, pooping and peeing, the Space Shuttle Challenger, unreceptive audiences, buying used cars, the joy of playing with language, and protective speech. They don’t talk about exquisite jorps. 

references 

• Explaining Exquisite Corpse, the Surrealist Drawing Game That Just Won’t Die 
• The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster 
• Revisiting Critical Nonsense 174! Askers vs. Guessers and Working Hours 
• "Terminological inexactitude" 

What are the things you are competent and interested in but constitutionally not disposed to engage with? And how do we deal with not ever being in control? [21:40] 

This week, Joey, Aaron, and Jess talk about jazz piano, The Trifecta of Making Things Happen, The Overachiever's Dilemma, facilitators of fastidiousness, expectations, and purpose. They don’t talk about The Perks of Being a Wallflower or Joy Division. 

references 

• Mr. Joey's Lullaby 
• Apropos of nada: "You DO doodle on the paper!" 
• "Be water, my friend." 

What's to come in 2023? 

This week, Wild Prognostications (finally) returns! Joey, Aaron, and Jess reunite in person to make their annual predictions for the new year. They talk about the impending demise of influencers [4:31], a rise in video game super-franchises [19:18], extreme-weather clothing [35:00], chickens as the new unicorns [51:05], checkers [59:11], and a seismic shift in dating [1:03:17]. They don’t talk about the Chicken Unicorn. 

references 

• Rob Freund on Mikayla Noguiera 
• The Dots: Deconstructing Influence by Joey "Sylvain Labs" Camire. 
• Path 
• The New York Times: We Should All Know Less About Each Other 
• The New Yorker: How Harmful Is Social Media? 
• Variety: Marvel’s Kevin Feige Doesn’t Think Audiences Will Ever Get Tired of Superhero Movies 
• The Last of Us Podcast 
• Paramount+: Halo 
• Horizon Zero Dawn 
• Hulu: Kindred 
• Hulu: The 1619 Project 
• Long Wharf Supply Co.'s SeaWell Collection 
• Heihei 
• Sophie La Girafe 
• Everything You Need To Know About Chicken Combs 
• Ultimate Tic Tac Toe 
• Tea Dance 
• Vice: The Tea Dance Is Part of NYC's LGBTQ Living History 
• The Legend of Vox Machina 
• Invincible 

What makes video-game-to-film adaptations so damn hard to get right? And how do men make friends? [24:57] 

This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about world building, gaming IP, media properties, masculinity, love, and social infrastructure. They don’t talk about Whodini. 

references 

• How Levain Bakery’s co-founders came up with their iconic super thick cookie 
• The Last of Us video game 
• HBO's The Last of Us series 
• The Last of Us Podcast 
• The New York Times: In ‘The Last of Us,’ Bella Ramsey Might Save the World 
• DLC 
• The Witcher on Netflix 
• Final Fantasy VII cut scenes 
• Video Games: What Does IP Mean? 
• The Super Mario Brothers Movie - What Happened? 
• Vox: Men have fewer friends than ever, and it’s harming their health 
• Man Park - SNL 

How did our predictions play out in 2022? 

This week, Aaron, Jess and Joey make a belated review of their prognogs from Episode 156, discussing the low-rise jeans revival, the stabilizing housing market, rollerskating and black culture, crashing crypto, the gap-year micro-trend, and dreaming pants. They don’t talk about nightmare snuggies. 

references 

• Rest in Paradise, Coolio. 
• Who did it better? Joey or Alan Whicker? 
• Also, hi, Tom Browne. 
• Vox: "Low-rise jeans are back. Don’t panic." 
• Refinery29: "My Week In Whale Tails: What It’s Really Like Wearing A Visible Thong" 
• Jennifer Hudson singing the national anthem at Super Bowl XLIII 2009 
• United Skates 
• Usher's NYE performance 
• Lola Star 
• The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News and World Report, Laconia (N.H.) Daily Sun, and Higher Ed Dive on students taking a gap year

How do we identify phase shifts, and how do we deal with big changes that are happening much more quickly and in a punctuated fashion? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about going into work, social media, college, Web3, loose flaps, and vanilla. They don’t talk about math. 

references 

• G.I. Bill 
• CPU vs. GPU: What’s the Difference? 
• Moore's Law 
• Ars Technica: Is Moore’s law actually dead this time? Nvidia seems to think so 
• What is a neural network? A computer scientist explains 
• Grab some terryfold flaps 

Why should a good idea die? And how do you use concepts that you discover to make things better for yourself? [25:35] 

This week, Jess and Joey talk about speed dating, engineers, iterative creativity, body doubling, ADHD, and Santa's narc. They don’t talk about James Hinton. 

references 

• Revisiting last week's Nonsense: 201! The Paradox of Milk Math 
• Gary Gygax 
• @kelseydarragh on body doubling 
• Taste of Home: What Is Elf on the Shelf, and How Does It Work?