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About Me
Yancey Strickler, Kickstarter cofounder, more info here
An hour into a plane ride from Salt Lake City to New York last night, this song, “Walk a Thin Line” from Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk, stopped me cold. I ended up listening to the song on repeat for an hour and a half straight, loving it more each time. It has this great lurching rhythm, a burdened gait, layers of falsettos, this whole mess of elements that congeal despite themselves. As my friend Kendel pointed out planes make us more prone to emotion — maybe that’s what it took for this song to hit the way that it did. But even here with my feet on the ground I can’t think of anything better.
Ai Weiwei fortune cookie. Sundance swag from the documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry.
Today’s best song in the world courtesy Ethiopia’s Alemayehu Eshete.
The TSA of Retail
On Sunday I went into Best Buy to buy a camera. I walked directly to the camera section and told a clerk that I wanted to purchase a specific model. The saleswoman unlocked the case, removed the camera, and walked me to a register nearby.
After scanning the camera, the saleswoman turned to me:
“Would you be interested in a Best Buy protection pla-“
“No thanks,” I interrupted. “I’m not interested.”
“-plan,” she continued. “If you do not choose this plan and something goes wrong you will be forced to send this camera-“
“I’m really not interested,” I repeated, cutting her off.
“Sir,” she replied in a sharper tone, “I’m required to tell you this.” She spoke for another 30 seconds about Best Buy’s warranty plan. Upon finishing she looked at me expectantly.
“I’m not interested,” I said for the third time.
“Would you be interested in applying for a Best Buy credit card? It’s a -“
“No thanks,” I interrupted.
She continued talking over me. The credit card up-sell took another ten seconds.
“I’m not interested,” I said yet again.
“Sir, can you step over here?” she asked. She pointed to the credit card swipe on the other side of her.
There was a yes-no dialogue on the screen, and I pressed “yes” to begin checking out. As soon as I did I noticed that the screen wasn’t what I thought.
“Sir, you have selected to apply for a Best Buy credit card.”
“I thought I was checking out.”
“No, you must first confirm that you are not interested in the credit card before checking out. You chose to apply for one.”
“No I didn’t. It was clearly a mistake.”
Mercifully I was finally allowed to spend $500 on the camera before being asked to supersize it, buy a timeshare, or whatever Best Buy’s latest revenue-maximizing idea might be. As Forbes titled a recent story: “Why Best Buy Is Going Out of Business… Gradually.” No kidding. Best Buy is the physical manifestation of a pop-up ad.
The actively unfriendly experience was perfectly underlined as I tried to leave: a brusque employee stopped me for a bag search and receipt check. From pointless procedure to poor staffing to untrusting behavior, Best Buy is the TSA of retail.
"In Silicon Valley, the conspicuous consumption norm is already relatively weak among the wealthy, at least as that norm was traditionally understood. Yet you can think of a web company itself as the new “conspicuous” — “look at what I’ve done!"
"You often here that for one reason or another the United States “can’t afford” this or that. We “can’t afford” to pay people Social Security benefits. We “can’t afford” to build high-speed trains. We “can’t afford” to give everyone early childhood education. But why can’t we afford this stuff? Are we a poor country? No, we’re not. We’re one of the richest countries that’s ever existed. Are we a poorer country than we used to be? No, we’re not. But a very large share of the gains we’ve made over the past three decades have gone to a relatively small number of people."
The Baptist Generals, “Going Back Song”
"The ball came out of Daniels’ hands well after he hit the ground, but despite that slight slip in logic, cornerback Pac-Man Jones was convinced that Daniels had fumbled the football. Amazingly, faced with perhaps the least reliable source in all of football, Lewis acquiesced to Jones’ insistence and threw his second challenge flag, costing his team its final challenge."
"Kickstarter is really good. I’m so glad it exists. It’s a very genuine thing. It’s a very genuine way to connect with people. It’s completely Belle & Sebastian in that sense."
Can, “Vitamin C” live. Absurdly great.
“His name is Yancey Strickler, not Stickler.” For some reason, we employees are finding this really amusing.
I was a New York Times correction today!
My 15-year-old brother Dylan is making movies now. He’s in the red hoodie.
My brother Dylan really loves the Strokes.
