#4 Read-Watch-Listen

Read

A More Beautiful Question

By Warren Berger

People don’t like being questioned because it feels like their authority, identity, or ego is being challenged. There is an art to asking questions but we don’t think about it until after we’ve asked some invasive or inappropriate ones, or in my personal experience, when we’ve been criticised for sounding confrontational or displeased. It takes time and insight into designing and framing questions just the right way to not lead people to an answer, to get more than you asked for, and not annoy people.

A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas There is an art to asking the right questions and it almost always depends on context. I’ve only just started reading A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger and so far he brings up the same concerns. There is so much more information and data at our fingers tips than ever before to the point of overwhelming. With so much information, where do you look? Who do you turn to and what do you ask when you get there. This book is about asking the right questions to spark innovative thinking. If you end up reading it - please reach out as I’d love to chat about it with someone else!

Watch

Succession

Created by Jesse Armstrong, produced by Adam McKay & Will Ferrell

We finished watching succession over the holidays and was kind of disappointed that I hadn’t watched it before. It’s been a long time since I’ve wanted to watch episode after episode, bingeing away on a tv show. My first introduction to it was actually over a year ago through Nerdwriter’s analysis of the show (told you he’d be back). He dissected the doublespeak the main character use and the discomfort they have when speaking from genuine emotion. Nerdwriter’s analysis hits it straight on - you can’t trust anything these people are saying and everything they say has multiple meanings, it’s sarcastic, or down right cruel. And the thing is, there isn’t one character that you can turn to for saving grace, you find yourself treading to find some relatability or a favourite character (you eventually do, because it is Greg).

After watching it and looking through the credits it all make sense. The big names that you can see breakthrough the show are Adam McKay and Jesse Armstrong. Adam McKay is known for writing and directing silly movies with snappy humour - think The Big Short, Anchorman, Step Brothers, and Vice. Jesse Armstrong wrote on shows like Veep, Peep Show, Thick of It, and Black Mirror as well as writing the film Four Lions. If you haven’t seen any of the above, you should - and if you don’t want to dive into a series, Four Lions is a good intro (Riz Ahmed is great in it).

This show is so dark and so witty. There is this playfulness and cadence to the dialogue that rivals ( dare I see is even better than?) Sorkin’s. If you’ve watched all three of Veep, Peep Show, and Thick of It, you’ll know what I mean. The kind of people that Armstrong writes about are the same people that authority figures often tell us are the masterminds that shape our society and culture - the politicians, the big bankers, the broadcasters. His writing rips that message into pieces - these people aren’t masterminds, they’re just cynical, evil and/or stupid. But the more that you watch, the show convinces you that it isn’t that, it’s just that they’re human - just like you. And if you were in their situation, maybe you would be just as cynical and make as stupid or evil decisions or mistakes like them.

Listen

Princess Diana Part 1: The Courtship

By Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes, You’re Wrong About

I own this sweatshirt and haven’t taken it off since I bought it. Big thanks to my good friend Emily for pointing me to this podcast. My suggestion is to start where I started, which are the episodes on Princess Diana. It is a good intro to what the show is about and something you can get invested in over four episodes. You’ll also pick up on some references that will make you want to listen to other episodes. If you grew up in the 90s and experienced the media and celebrity hysteria that engulfed 90s culture, you’ll enjoy Sarah and Michael’s journey redeeming women of the 90s, exposing moral panics, and revealing that it was capitalism all along.

A lot of people who have reviewed this podcast have pointed to how the hosts are incredibly empathetic to the people that they are talking about even if they are murderers and the like. I think what actually makes the show great isn’t the empathy that they have for the people they are talking about but the empathy they have for listeners. The show’s structure is a bit of ping pong between Michael and Sarah where one host is essentially presenting to the other host whom doesn’t have much idea or context what the other one is going to talk about. By doing this, they essentially give the other person permission to be ignorant/naive to the subject matter making it okay to keep asking questions. They put themselves into the same position as us (their devout listeners), making us feel like we’re part of the conversation and put us at ease with the fact that we didn’t know something or that we misremembered what happened or didn’t pay attention to. If you’ve ever had a friend say “What!? You’ve never heard of [insert niche pop culture reference here]. That’s crazy!” and felt like a complete outsider or dummy, you’ll like this show.