r/nerdfighters

Hello, what has nerdfighteria been paying attention to?

I remember a while ago, Hank posted about gambling vs. cannabis - their relative harm. Anybody stay with that? I think I made a meme / image about it, then basically forgot about it.

TB-Fighting I was reading Black Angels. Now the book club (TB-Readers, very cool), seems has moved on, and then moved on again. I also meant to read the back-catalogue, bought 3 past books of the book club besides the then current one, I didn't even finish the first I tried...

I think it's quite relevant to talk about attention "spans". I think recently in politics it is pretty true that the Iran War diverted attention from the Epstein scandal, not only in the news but also in Congress. I say that not to be political but in the sense that maybe it's worthwhile to look into what we pay attention to and why we move it, if or when we do.

Hank has spoken a bit of how he enjoys having a lot of projects, right? Starting new things. Are John's occupations longer term than Hank's, do y'all think? Books take a while, maybe...

Is your attention span short? (not in the sense of tiktok, measured in seconds or minutes - but in the sense of having projects or interests that last months or years) Has it been very nerd-fighter-y? I guess in my case there is a link with crash-course literature and John's love for the written word at least, I've been participating a lot in book clubs, writing a bit of poetry.

But yeah, - is there a sense in which we are at "war", continuingly battling, to choose for ourselves, instead of "going with the flow"? A flow of distractions and peer pressure? A pressure to go for novelty instead of "being boring"?

If it's your birthday today, a special someone has a message for you. :)

(Also, big ups to Hank for keeping his kid offscreen. That's the way you do it.)

Just letting everyone here know that my younger brother saw a world history video in his 6th grade class, and exclaimed "this is so weird because I only know him as the pizzamas guy because of your weird shirts..."

Hello nerdfighters I’ve got a question to run by y’all. This seems like a good place to inquire about a friendship conundrum as this community if a place a lot of people find friends. For as long as I can remember I’ve struggled to make friends. I don’t struggle to be friendly or socialize. I do a lot of extra stuff, hobbies and classes, and I have a lot of “friends” at these places. I also had a lot of “friends” when I was in school. But lately I’ve realized that all of these “friends” are very location dependent. I socialize with these people, ask them things about their life and chat with them, do the shared activity together… but the relationships never break out of the place we met. I don’t have anyone I text with regularly about stuff, get coffee with, go for a walk around the park with etc. I don’t know how to approach someone and be like, hello I want to be your friend and do stuff with you and invite you over to my apartment just to hang out. I’ve invited people to things before and they almost always say they’re busy, and if it does end up happening it’s kind of awkward and then nothing ever comes of it. So, anyone else experience this or have advice? Or maybe you’re a person in the twin cities area who is down to become my friend? Hit me up!

I am imminently unqualified to make business claims and don't want to contribute to Hank overworking himself but it felt like I should put this out into the world for discussion as I noticed what appears to be a hole opening in the market.

Native has stopped making their plastic-free deodorant line in a quiet and weird way that may or may not be related to a proposed class action suit against them for using PFAS in those products. Additionally, Wild was sold to Unilever last year which is leading to some calls for boycotting and switching away.

There will likely be a number of people like me trying out alternatives over the next year or so to see if we like them.

I know that my wife and I would absolutely jump at the chance to subscribe if good.store were to carry a deodorant but maybe its a bad fit for some reason I don't realize.

https://preview.redd.it/l9ff602gek1h1.png?width=900&format=png&auto=webp&s=025dfa35f58f52606eb241b8fcac4b2fad458b43

Wonder how many of those likes/reactions are from DH&J listeners, since none of the other reviews have reactions at all. 😏

Hi Fellow Nerdfighters,
When my dad and I go on vacation far away, there is a small bookstore/ice cream parlor located there that we always make sure to visit. It is one of those rare places that feels genuinely alive. Locals gather there, travelers stop in, kids get ice cream, people browse books, and conversations just naturally happen.
The original owners had a simple but powerful goal: create a community meeting spot that was not just another bar serving alcohol. Not that there is anything wrong with bars either. They just wanted to build a different kind of third space for their town.
They took an old abandoned building on Main Street and, using much of their own retirement savings, slowly turned it into a thriving local business over the next decade or two. A few years ago, they decided they wanted to spend more time with their family and eventually sold the business. Thankfully, the new owners have done such a wonderful job carrying things forward that honestly I can barely tell the difference between the old and new ownership.
That whole experience got me thinking.
Independent bookstores, cafés, diners, and other small community gathering spaces are disappearing in a lot of places. Even businesses that people genuinely love often operate on razor-thin margins. Meanwhile, loneliness and isolation seem to be growing almost everywhere.
So I started wondering:
What if communities like Nerdfighteria could help preserve and strengthen local third spaces?
I know this is a huge idea, and I fully realize it may completely fall flat on its face. But I still think it is worth talking about.
My thought was maybe someday creating something almost like a cross between Kiva, Wefunder, and StartEngine — but focused specifically on helping independent bookstores and community gathering spaces survive and grow.
Maybe instead of huge donations, thousands of people could contribute smaller amounts like $100 or $200 each. Not to “get rich,” but to help community-focused businesses get enough runway to survive, improve, and hopefully become self-sustaining over time.
Long term, I think it would be amazing if some of these businesses could eventually transition into worker-owned cooperatives where the employees themselves slowly gain ownership stakes over time. Obviously there would be legal and financial hurdles to figure out, and worker ownership does not magically solve every business problem either. Running any small business is still incredibly difficult. But I still think the idea of community-supported, locally rooted businesses is worth exploring.
I also think it could start much smaller and simpler than outright buying businesses.
For example:
Every month Nerdfighteria could spotlight and support one independent bookstore somewhere in the world.
We could organize coordinated online book purchases or fundraising campaigns.
We could help stores fund accessibility improvements, repairs, events, or café expansions.
Authors could potentially partner with local indie bookstores for signings and community events.
Local Nerdfighters could use these places as real-world community gathering spots.
One thing I admire about the Little Free Library movement is that it reminds people that books and community still matter. I think third spaces matter too.
At the end of the day, I am not really talking about “saving bookstores.” I think I am talking about trying to preserve places where human beings can still gather, talk, read, think, laugh, and simply exist together offline for a while.
Thoughts?
Comments?
Suggestions?
Concerns?
Thanks everyone.

Listening to the podcast with Hank and Keith and wow. I can't believe how bad some of these takes were.

First, "some books are brain rot" is an insane take based on his definition of brain rot earlier in the pod. He argued that the "badger badger..." flash video was not brain rot. Apparently a video stops being brain rot if there is a story. What book is he reading that doesn't even exceed that most basic definition?

Also! If the options for your attention are AI slop on tiktok or a bad book, I think the bad book is always going to be a less rot-y use of attention. Plus, your brain processes words that are part of a sustained narrative experience (saying it like this, because I would argue that a lot of the stuff on AO3 is better than a lot of books, and absolutely counts as reading) differently than it processes a video. I have never left a book, no matter how bad, feeling like my brain has rotted in the same way that even mediocre videos make me feel.

Then his other take (which is probably more defensible) that all the classics are good is also just wrong. What are we defining as good? Culturally relevant? Than sure. But a lot of those books are boring, problematic or incredibly difficult to get through. Telling someone who wants to get into reading that they should just pick up a classic, is a great way to get someone to never read again. Can you imagine picking up Great Expectations or Moby Dick as a person who does not have the practice of reading and being able to get through it?

I do agree with him that picking up something popular from something you're interested in is a good idea. Tom Clancy might not win any Pulitzers but the stories are engaging and fast paced. Even "bad" popular books are a good way into reading because they are easily digestible and either you'll like it or you'll have a lot of thoughts.

Anyway... Rant over.

Basically the title. I came across an Instagram reel of someone "sounding the alarm" about some topic in a way that deeply scared me, but the first comment was from them offering their services on how to flee the US for [x] amount of money. And I just remembered some non-descript piece of critical thinking I guess I'm crediting to Hank and John that was like "If they're using your fear to sell you a product, is this a reliable narrator?"

Anyway thanks for being my reminder to think critically about the world and especially about the internet Hank and John. Its appreciated

Hey everybody!

I’ve been listening to The Away End and had a project itch to scratch, so inspired by John, Daniel, and Sean’s March Madness style bet I built a version anyone can play along with. I don’t know the exact scoring system they settled on, but I tried to keep it simple and make sure early mistakes don’t compound later on in the tournament.

Given the general consensus regarding sports gambling, I want to emphasize this is 100% for free and for fun, and there are no ads or trackers anywhere on the site.

If you’re a soccer fan or just a fan of the pod, I’d love for you to check it out and play along!