Congratulations, Geoffrey! That is amazing and so well-deserved!
My first teaching job out of college was at a residential school for students with significant needs (I won’t get into the specifics). Many of them were violent - knock you out, bite you, break your nose kind of violent - and the staff had to be trained in takedowns, supines, and all kinds of crazy restraints. I have so many memories from that place...both good and bad. I loved the students (I will never forget any of their names), and the people I worked with were incredible. We became pretty tight-knit.
The turnover at the place was insane. Some people quit within their first hour or two of working on the job! Needless to say, after a year and change I left. 😅
Sounds like you were doing amazing work in your first teaching job, as difficult as it was. Good job sticking around much longer than others. I can imagine you made a big difference in a lot of students' lives. As I get older, I come around to believe that what you're doing for work is less important to your job satisfaction than who you're doing it with, though there are extreme cases where the work might be too much for some folks to handle.
My first job was reshelving books at the library. I learned the Dewey Decimal System (more or less). The job I was probably happiest to leave was the one after that--stocking shelves at the grocery store. So similar, yet so different...
A lot of the coolest people I know are librarians and library workers. I can imagine you worked with a lot of smart, interesting people, and learned a lot (like Dewey and his Incredible Decimals).
Aw, thanks for believing in me ;-) And congrats on your award! It was an after school job, so I was mostly a gopher, but it was cool seeing all the random books that got returned everyday, poking around in the stacks, and learning how libraries work. Now I want to start a nerd band called Dewey and the Decimals...
First, thanks for pointing folks to my post, Geoffrey! I can assure everyone that despite the dire warnings, the blender, raw fish, Jansport backpack trick totally works and it will NOT rip a hole in the space time continuum. That said, it will create bit of mess, so it's probably best to perform this growth hack at an AirBnB; you'll eat the cleaning fees, but you'll reap massive subscriber growth!
OK, on to the game & the questions!
I ended up getting fired, but I got a sweet golden parachute, so I think I won, even if I lost.
As for my first job, I worked for my dad as a PA / shop grunt. Mostly, I ran errands, coiled audio cable, and swept the floor. Because my boss was my dad, California labor laws didn't really apply. So I started this gig around age six and I the last time I worked for him I was in my early 20s. My first job-job was as a student librarian in college. I loved it! Lots of free time to read.
Brands I love? I used to love Borders Books and Walden Books. I love bookstores, so that love extends to Barnes & Noble, but not to the Amazon bookstores. I loved the Arclight movie theaters. They were great. I used to love Ben & Jerry's back when it was actually run by Ben & Jerry. These days, I love McConnell's ice cream. Back when I played a lot more video games, I guess you could say that I loved the Sid Meier brand. I loved Civilization a lot, and I consider my culture victories to be among my highest gaming achievements.
Job I was glad to quit? I'll see your job and raise you a career. For a time, I was a lawyer. I hated it. I worked for OK people, for the most part, but I hated being a lawyer. I was really glad to quit that life.
Plus, you can write off the AirBnB cleaning fees on your taxes as "Business Mess."
"I think I won, even if I lost." -> The gold standard for an Adventure Snack game.
I think it's cool your dad wanted to bring you in on the family business, and you got to attend events like presidential inaugurations and the Super Bowl, which is pretty rad! I was fired from a PA gig at MadTV for getting lost and calling the PA supervisor, like, 12 times on one errand run to El Segundo.
This is a well-curated list of nice brands. Borders and B&N were great because you could read in them all-day, whereas the Walden Books in the local mall was too small for that. I'm very into Alamo Drafthouse. I was into Ben and Jerry's, but I've got to cut down on my fat intake, but Yasso is delicious low fat ice cream that doesn't taste like sugar water and chemicals. Kind of surprised you're eating Mitch McConnell's ice cream. I thought you were on the right side of ice cream history.
Good for you! Some people would go through life feeling stuck as a lawyer, because they invested time and money into it. I think it takes courage to leave a career like that to pursue work you're passionate about.
Usually I don't go for the jerk responses on my first run through, but it felt fitting for this story. How can I resist the classic 'your face is' comeback? So what if I got fired, starting a meeting late and opening it with "a warning to all who listen" is peak sigma hustlegrind something something. Liked how the stock changed with each answer, though I'm concerned that chipping my employees got it to go up.
My first job was bagging groceries at a supermarket. I guess I learned that work can feel like school when it's slow. And that even a part time minimum wage job requires connections to get these days, I spent like months following up on the application and things just happened to finally progress when a friend of a friend brought it up.
Nintendo is also my answer to the favorite brand question, though they've done a lot of stuff I'm critical of so it's not blind fanboyism. I'm heading to the new theme park early next month actually. I was hoping to go to the one in Tokyo since it opened but with certain events there hasn't been a good opening for international travel. Maybe by the time you go they'll finally add pizza to Toad's cafe.
People compare school to having a job, so I'll say that I was happy to leave school and go to jobs with clearly defined hours that don't bleed into and attempt to control your entire life.
Oh boy, personal brands, that thing. "William Fisher Edwards is an author of prose fiction and video games with a substack basically nobody reads who spends too much time writing design docs for games they can't make yet and is also obsessed with an Aztec god that people just won't stop demonizing."
Yeah, the game is absolutely encouraging the player to be a jerk, so I'm glad you leaned in. Oh, chipping your employees definitely makes the stock price go up. I didn't even debate that design choice. I was like, "Wall Street would absolutely love this."
That's true about certain minimum wage gigs requiring an "in." I think the assumption is that no one wants those jobs, so therefore they're easy to get, but there are lots of people who need to work and will take any available option. I hear it's really difficult to get a Starbucks barista gig.
I agree, Nintendo is far from perfect. I've read about some of their labor practices, like how freelancers are poorly treated, and it's not encouraging. But I'm excited to hear you're going to the theme park! (My partner and I were planning a trip to Japan when the pandemic hit, so same here.) Will you post your thoughts in table talk after your visit?
+50 points! You dug deep! Since you're interested in making and designing games, if you haven't already, I'd recommend checking out the Indie Game Academy (https://indiegameacademy.com/). I've taken several of their classes in Unity and paper prototyping and they're very helpful.
I guess I'll have to bring it up in the tabletalk afterwards now. Thanks for the link. I'm currently working on making a game with an engine built on top of Godot and figuring out things as I go along.
Geoffrey, congratulations on the awards!! Well-earned and well-deserved! 👏👏👏
👩💼 My first job was at the computer lab in college. I basically sat around surfing the internet throughout my shift, and answered the occasional question from my less tech-savvy peers. Still the best job I've ever had!
💝 Nintendo, absolutely! Also, Shake Shack (mmmmm...), for its good food AND business practices.
🔥 Yes, I worked for a PR agency that was less a business and more the founder's personal fiefdom. It was terrible. I got written up for missing work to visit my stepfather on his deathbed, just to give you an idea. I was so relieved when I finally told them to f*$# off (albeit in more diplomatic terms)
✍️ "Jay Rooney plays video games and then writes about them, and will totally steamroll you at trivia night."
A number of my friends were former Computer Lab Guys and had similarly good experiences. So glad you snagged that coveted gig!
Wow, so many of us adventurers are Nintendo people. Maybe I should make the long-awaited F-Zero follow-up as an Adventure Snack quest?!
Sorry for your loss and for enduring such a shitty experience. As if missing a day at the PR agency was more important than the passing of a loved one. The goddamn nerve! Down with capitalism!
If you do an F-Zero Adventure Snack quest, I'll play the hell out of that!
Yeah, that was a horrible experience. It was one of the things that really cemented my decision to start Game & Word—after losing the job after THAT one for similarly BS reasons, I realized I could never work for anyone else again. Yes, down with capitalism!
ANOTHER fun game. The stock price held, despite my antics!
My first job was...a glorified receptionist. I had to make up what I needed to do. I often checked the mail multiple times in one hour. I mostly learned that jobs for young people are boring.
I'm a sucker for EVs right now. I genuinely love the Rivian electric truck. Like if I wasn't married or had pressing responsibilities I'd probably spend my whole salary on it and live out of it.
I was so happy to leave my last job. It was as a creative copywriter for podcasts and youtube scripts... my boss was horrible and I found advertising to be completely empty of purpose!
My brand is: a very specific brand of absurdist comedy.
Thanks for playing! Well done maintaining all that sweet, sweet imaginary wealth.
Yes, I agree. Young people jobs are often boring. Why is that? Is it because employers only trust young people with strict, repetitive labor? Or maybe most work seems boring to someone who's never had to work before?
Sorry you had to deal with a bad boss. I spent several years as a creative copywriter. There were a lot of things I actually liked about the job, but the main problem, at the end of the day, was the writing itself. I agree that it felt purposeless, though lots of people in advertising take it very seriously! I was like, "Do we really need to stay in the office until 3 am writing a Valentine's Day tweet for Heinz?"
Well, I'm not sure if I should feel ashamed or proud of being a business genius, but here we are.
My first job was as a bagger at Meijer. I mostly learned that the phrase, "Get the mop and follow me," never ever ever ever ever ends well. Ever.
Brands I love? I'm pretty brand agnostic, but if I want to go way back, I loooooved the PC games made by Sierra Games. I'm now totally one of those people who laments the loss of a good point and click adventure with terrible puns.
My personal brand...hmmm... "Trin appears to be an endlessly patient technology trainer through copious use of the mute button, and has perfected the art of looking engaged in virtual meetings while actually browsing board gaming forums."
This was one of my favorites (and most painful, as someone in the midst of the current tech layoff abattoir environment). My personal brand is pretty: "Kate is a former librarian turned knowledge worker and is probably eating a sandwich right now."
I love Disney and its amalgamation of IPs hybridized with its theme parks. And I'm also partial to Nintendo (although I would love a new tentpole first-party franchise).
✍️ Bonus Challenge (+50 Points): Describe your personal brand in one sentence, but be honest.
Jon Auerbach writes epic urban fantasy, which is totally a thing, and is the process of creating his own interconnected cross-media story universe that will hopefully one day be its own section on the Disney+ app.
I also love Disney, especially the theme parks, though honestly I think I've become a little less into the parks since I went to Meow Wolf's Omega Mart in Vegas last year and realized that a rad art collective can create an immersive experience on a large scale. I also miss when the parks were developing their own original IP vs. movie tie-ins.
+50 points! I respect the ambition. Can't wait to be inundated with your universe everywhere I look!
I absolutely crushed it so hard as a CEO I'm investing in myself by buying a $20,000 suit. It'll surely pay for itself when everyone sees me wear it at the 'Soup for Clumsy People' convention.
Thank you for the kind AMBUSH TACTICS shoutout, Geoffrey! From one business genius to another, I appreciate your generous support and encouragement.
Now, let's get down to business:
1. Cutting grass at local golf course. Lesson: weed-whacking bunker edges should be outlawed under the Geneva Conventions.
2. Pathfinder, the TTRPG brand from Paizo Publishing, fills my heart with joy. That's why I write about their game: great rule set, even better pre-written adventures.
3. I spent a summer in the early 2000s digitizing stacks of legal filings for the SEC. Some salacious reading (we were specifically instructed NOT to read any of the pages we were feeding into scanners, but who can resist?). Otherwise the worst job. Glad to leave.
4. "Andrew Braithwaite used to be a National Magazine Award-winning restaurant critic, but now he mainly stays home and watches cartoons with a three-year-old who's too sick to attend preschool today. Also: so much Pathfinder."
Welcome to Table Talk, adventurer Andrew! As a thought leader in the TTRPG industry, your input is highly valued.
Woof. Sounds like that job was too much weed-whack, not enough Caddyshack.
Admittedly, I've never played Pathfinder before, but I liked Paizo's response to the D&D open source debacle. It's a great feeling when you find a system that really works for you.
If you hadn't told me working for the SEC was the worst job, I could've been convinced that was interesting work. I like a job with a salacious element!
+50 Points! I like that your brand is so up-to-date! Have you watched a ton of Bluey? We had a family with a child around that age visit us and it was all Bluey all the time.
Nooooo! That's a huge drop. We'd better do something to get the stock price up. Pivot to video?
Whoa, I’ve been Substack blind for the last two months and am thrilled about the award from the IFDB! Super jazzed for you, Geoffrey.
"I love being a rich genius!" Is probably the most apt phrase in the world. I love that this story really simulates the ‘willy-nilly’-ness of being an out of touch rich guy and in turn accepting the success and denying the blame… is this art? Yes, why did you even ask.
Because I’m pretentious AF (I’m the parlance of our time) I really love Criterion. Want me all those Blu-rays. If your movie isn’t 4:3, black and white, Swedish and about questioning the very existence of god after getting a hole in your shoe… don’t even talk to me.
I’m a primary school teacher in the real world so I’ve both contemplated quitting and considered staying in my job on a day to day swing. Heck, sometimes even on the same day.
Congratulations, Geoffrey, what great accomplishments! So well deserved.
As for my first job, I was a funeral home attendant and groundskeeper... at age 13. We lived next to a funeral home, with no other neighbors around. Our family and the owner/mortician were friends for years. Me and each of my older brothers took turns at different times in our lives. I learned a lot about the human condition and closing up at night by myself was always a treat 👻👻👻
Wow, that's pretty incredible. When it comes to kid occupations, I think of lifeguard and burger chain cashier, but never "funeral home attendant." For the right kind of kid, I can see it being an amazing job? Kinda like being paid for poking dead bodies with a stick?
Congratulations, Geoffrey! That is amazing and so well-deserved!
My first teaching job out of college was at a residential school for students with significant needs (I won’t get into the specifics). Many of them were violent - knock you out, bite you, break your nose kind of violent - and the staff had to be trained in takedowns, supines, and all kinds of crazy restraints. I have so many memories from that place...both good and bad. I loved the students (I will never forget any of their names), and the people I worked with were incredible. We became pretty tight-knit.
The turnover at the place was insane. Some people quit within their first hour or two of working on the job! Needless to say, after a year and change I left. 😅
Thank you for the kind words, Justin!
Sounds like you were doing amazing work in your first teaching job, as difficult as it was. Good job sticking around much longer than others. I can imagine you made a big difference in a lot of students' lives. As I get older, I come around to believe that what you're doing for work is less important to your job satisfaction than who you're doing it with, though there are extreme cases where the work might be too much for some folks to handle.
Wow, I AM a business genius! Who knew?
My first job was reshelving books at the library. I learned the Dewey Decimal System (more or less). The job I was probably happiest to leave was the one after that--stocking shelves at the grocery store. So similar, yet so different...
I knew, J.M.. I believed in you!
A lot of the coolest people I know are librarians and library workers. I can imagine you worked with a lot of smart, interesting people, and learned a lot (like Dewey and his Incredible Decimals).
Aw, thanks for believing in me ;-) And congrats on your award! It was an after school job, so I was mostly a gopher, but it was cool seeing all the random books that got returned everyday, poking around in the stacks, and learning how libraries work. Now I want to start a nerd band called Dewey and the Decimals...
You could open for Atom and His Package, who sing about the Metric System!
First, thanks for pointing folks to my post, Geoffrey! I can assure everyone that despite the dire warnings, the blender, raw fish, Jansport backpack trick totally works and it will NOT rip a hole in the space time continuum. That said, it will create bit of mess, so it's probably best to perform this growth hack at an AirBnB; you'll eat the cleaning fees, but you'll reap massive subscriber growth!
OK, on to the game & the questions!
I ended up getting fired, but I got a sweet golden parachute, so I think I won, even if I lost.
As for my first job, I worked for my dad as a PA / shop grunt. Mostly, I ran errands, coiled audio cable, and swept the floor. Because my boss was my dad, California labor laws didn't really apply. So I started this gig around age six and I the last time I worked for him I was in my early 20s. My first job-job was as a student librarian in college. I loved it! Lots of free time to read.
Brands I love? I used to love Borders Books and Walden Books. I love bookstores, so that love extends to Barnes & Noble, but not to the Amazon bookstores. I loved the Arclight movie theaters. They were great. I used to love Ben & Jerry's back when it was actually run by Ben & Jerry. These days, I love McConnell's ice cream. Back when I played a lot more video games, I guess you could say that I loved the Sid Meier brand. I loved Civilization a lot, and I consider my culture victories to be among my highest gaming achievements.
Job I was glad to quit? I'll see your job and raise you a career. For a time, I was a lawyer. I hated it. I worked for OK people, for the most part, but I hated being a lawyer. I was really glad to quit that life.
Plus, you can write off the AirBnB cleaning fees on your taxes as "Business Mess."
"I think I won, even if I lost." -> The gold standard for an Adventure Snack game.
I think it's cool your dad wanted to bring you in on the family business, and you got to attend events like presidential inaugurations and the Super Bowl, which is pretty rad! I was fired from a PA gig at MadTV for getting lost and calling the PA supervisor, like, 12 times on one errand run to El Segundo.
This is a well-curated list of nice brands. Borders and B&N were great because you could read in them all-day, whereas the Walden Books in the local mall was too small for that. I'm very into Alamo Drafthouse. I was into Ben and Jerry's, but I've got to cut down on my fat intake, but Yasso is delicious low fat ice cream that doesn't taste like sugar water and chemicals. Kind of surprised you're eating Mitch McConnell's ice cream. I thought you were on the right side of ice cream history.
Good for you! Some people would go through life feeling stuck as a lawyer, because they invested time and money into it. I think it takes courage to leave a career like that to pursue work you're passionate about.
If I’m on the wrong side of ice cream history, I do not wanna be right.
Usually I don't go for the jerk responses on my first run through, but it felt fitting for this story. How can I resist the classic 'your face is' comeback? So what if I got fired, starting a meeting late and opening it with "a warning to all who listen" is peak sigma hustlegrind something something. Liked how the stock changed with each answer, though I'm concerned that chipping my employees got it to go up.
My first job was bagging groceries at a supermarket. I guess I learned that work can feel like school when it's slow. And that even a part time minimum wage job requires connections to get these days, I spent like months following up on the application and things just happened to finally progress when a friend of a friend brought it up.
Nintendo is also my answer to the favorite brand question, though they've done a lot of stuff I'm critical of so it's not blind fanboyism. I'm heading to the new theme park early next month actually. I was hoping to go to the one in Tokyo since it opened but with certain events there hasn't been a good opening for international travel. Maybe by the time you go they'll finally add pizza to Toad's cafe.
People compare school to having a job, so I'll say that I was happy to leave school and go to jobs with clearly defined hours that don't bleed into and attempt to control your entire life.
Oh boy, personal brands, that thing. "William Fisher Edwards is an author of prose fiction and video games with a substack basically nobody reads who spends too much time writing design docs for games they can't make yet and is also obsessed with an Aztec god that people just won't stop demonizing."
Yeah, the game is absolutely encouraging the player to be a jerk, so I'm glad you leaned in. Oh, chipping your employees definitely makes the stock price go up. I didn't even debate that design choice. I was like, "Wall Street would absolutely love this."
That's true about certain minimum wage gigs requiring an "in." I think the assumption is that no one wants those jobs, so therefore they're easy to get, but there are lots of people who need to work and will take any available option. I hear it's really difficult to get a Starbucks barista gig.
I agree, Nintendo is far from perfect. I've read about some of their labor practices, like how freelancers are poorly treated, and it's not encouraging. But I'm excited to hear you're going to the theme park! (My partner and I were planning a trip to Japan when the pandemic hit, so same here.) Will you post your thoughts in table talk after your visit?
+50 points! You dug deep! Since you're interested in making and designing games, if you haven't already, I'd recommend checking out the Indie Game Academy (https://indiegameacademy.com/). I've taken several of their classes in Unity and paper prototyping and they're very helpful.
I guess I'll have to bring it up in the tabletalk afterwards now. Thanks for the link. I'm currently working on making a game with an engine built on top of Godot and figuring out things as I go along.
Thank you! And yup, I can relate. Figuring things out as I go along is how I script in Ink.
Geoffrey, congratulations on the awards!! Well-earned and well-deserved! 👏👏👏
👩💼 My first job was at the computer lab in college. I basically sat around surfing the internet throughout my shift, and answered the occasional question from my less tech-savvy peers. Still the best job I've ever had!
💝 Nintendo, absolutely! Also, Shake Shack (mmmmm...), for its good food AND business practices.
🔥 Yes, I worked for a PR agency that was less a business and more the founder's personal fiefdom. It was terrible. I got written up for missing work to visit my stepfather on his deathbed, just to give you an idea. I was so relieved when I finally told them to f*$# off (albeit in more diplomatic terms)
✍️ "Jay Rooney plays video games and then writes about them, and will totally steamroll you at trivia night."
Thank you, Jay! Yay!!! 😊
A number of my friends were former Computer Lab Guys and had similarly good experiences. So glad you snagged that coveted gig!
Wow, so many of us adventurers are Nintendo people. Maybe I should make the long-awaited F-Zero follow-up as an Adventure Snack quest?!
Sorry for your loss and for enduring such a shitty experience. As if missing a day at the PR agency was more important than the passing of a loved one. The goddamn nerve! Down with capitalism!
+50 points! Love the confidence!
If you do an F-Zero Adventure Snack quest, I'll play the hell out of that!
Yeah, that was a horrible experience. It was one of the things that really cemented my decision to start Game & Word—after losing the job after THAT one for similarly BS reasons, I realized I could never work for anyone else again. Yes, down with capitalism!
50 points??? YAY!!!
ANOTHER fun game. The stock price held, despite my antics!
My first job was...a glorified receptionist. I had to make up what I needed to do. I often checked the mail multiple times in one hour. I mostly learned that jobs for young people are boring.
I'm a sucker for EVs right now. I genuinely love the Rivian electric truck. Like if I wasn't married or had pressing responsibilities I'd probably spend my whole salary on it and live out of it.
I was so happy to leave my last job. It was as a creative copywriter for podcasts and youtube scripts... my boss was horrible and I found advertising to be completely empty of purpose!
My brand is: a very specific brand of absurdist comedy.
Thanks for playing! Well done maintaining all that sweet, sweet imaginary wealth.
Yes, I agree. Young people jobs are often boring. Why is that? Is it because employers only trust young people with strict, repetitive labor? Or maybe most work seems boring to someone who's never had to work before?
Sorry you had to deal with a bad boss. I spent several years as a creative copywriter. There were a lot of things I actually liked about the job, but the main problem, at the end of the day, was the writing itself. I agree that it felt purposeless, though lots of people in advertising take it very seriously! I was like, "Do we really need to stay in the office until 3 am writing a Valentine's Day tweet for Heinz?"
+50 Points! (Very specific points.)
Well, I'm not sure if I should feel ashamed or proud of being a business genius, but here we are.
My first job was as a bagger at Meijer. I mostly learned that the phrase, "Get the mop and follow me," never ever ever ever ever ends well. Ever.
Brands I love? I'm pretty brand agnostic, but if I want to go way back, I loooooved the PC games made by Sierra Games. I'm now totally one of those people who laments the loss of a good point and click adventure with terrible puns.
My personal brand...hmmm... "Trin appears to be an endlessly patient technology trainer through copious use of the mute button, and has perfected the art of looking engaged in virtual meetings while actually browsing board gaming forums."
It's a hybrid: "Proshamed!"
Oof, I can only imagine what horrible and gross substances end up on the floor of a grocery store. *Shudders*
I'm a fan of point-and-click adventure games, too. ICYMI: There's an incredible book called The Art of Point-and-Click Adventure Games from Bitmap Books, which combines screenshots with developer interviews. https://www.bitmapbooks.com/products/the-art-of-point-click-adventure-games
+50 Points! Way to mute!
Oooooo! That has been sent to my husband, in case he needed any ideas for my birthday. Thank you!!!
Always happy to pass along a good gift idea! I got it for Christmas last year.
This was one of my favorites (and most painful, as someone in the midst of the current tech layoff abattoir environment). My personal brand is pretty: "Kate is a former librarian turned knowledge worker and is probably eating a sandwich right now."
I feel your pain, as someone who has lived through many rounds of tech layoffs.
+50 points! Yum! 🥪
Congrats on the IFDB wins! Amazing!
💝 Are there any brands you genuinely love?
I love Disney and its amalgamation of IPs hybridized with its theme parks. And I'm also partial to Nintendo (although I would love a new tentpole first-party franchise).
✍️ Bonus Challenge (+50 Points): Describe your personal brand in one sentence, but be honest.
Jon Auerbach writes epic urban fantasy, which is totally a thing, and is the process of creating his own interconnected cross-media story universe that will hopefully one day be its own section on the Disney+ app.
Thank you so much, Jon! ^_^
I also love Disney, especially the theme parks, though honestly I think I've become a little less into the parks since I went to Meow Wolf's Omega Mart in Vegas last year and realized that a rad art collective can create an immersive experience on a large scale. I also miss when the parks were developing their own original IP vs. movie tie-ins.
+50 points! I respect the ambition. Can't wait to be inundated with your universe everywhere I look!
Congratulations on winning two(!) IFDB awards! 👏👏🥳
Thank you very much, Cindy! Yay!!!
I absolutely crushed it so hard as a CEO I'm investing in myself by buying a $20,000 suit. It'll surely pay for itself when everyone sees me wear it at the 'Soup for Clumsy People' convention.
Way to go making those big buckeroonis! Your soon-to-be-ruined suit is an investment.
I hope you get a good meal soon, Libor. Everyone deserves to eat!
Longtime snacker, first time debriefer here:
Thank you for the kind AMBUSH TACTICS shoutout, Geoffrey! From one business genius to another, I appreciate your generous support and encouragement.
Now, let's get down to business:
1. Cutting grass at local golf course. Lesson: weed-whacking bunker edges should be outlawed under the Geneva Conventions.
2. Pathfinder, the TTRPG brand from Paizo Publishing, fills my heart with joy. That's why I write about their game: great rule set, even better pre-written adventures.
3. I spent a summer in the early 2000s digitizing stacks of legal filings for the SEC. Some salacious reading (we were specifically instructed NOT to read any of the pages we were feeding into scanners, but who can resist?). Otherwise the worst job. Glad to leave.
4. "Andrew Braithwaite used to be a National Magazine Award-winning restaurant critic, but now he mainly stays home and watches cartoons with a three-year-old who's too sick to attend preschool today. Also: so much Pathfinder."
I'm finishing my cereal. Adventure!
SNCK 96.32 (-33%)
Welcome to Table Talk, adventurer Andrew! As a thought leader in the TTRPG industry, your input is highly valued.
Woof. Sounds like that job was too much weed-whack, not enough Caddyshack.
Admittedly, I've never played Pathfinder before, but I liked Paizo's response to the D&D open source debacle. It's a great feeling when you find a system that really works for you.
If you hadn't told me working for the SEC was the worst job, I could've been convinced that was interesting work. I like a job with a salacious element!
+50 Points! I like that your brand is so up-to-date! Have you watched a ton of Bluey? We had a family with a child around that age visit us and it was all Bluey all the time.
Nooooo! That's a huge drop. We'd better do something to get the stock price up. Pivot to video?
Pivot to video?!?! How do you think we got into this mess in the first place?!?!
Pivot back to text, Geoffrey. Pivot back to text!
But the stonks!!!
Whoa, I’ve been Substack blind for the last two months and am thrilled about the award from the IFDB! Super jazzed for you, Geoffrey.
"I love being a rich genius!" Is probably the most apt phrase in the world. I love that this story really simulates the ‘willy-nilly’-ness of being an out of touch rich guy and in turn accepting the success and denying the blame… is this art? Yes, why did you even ask.
Because I’m pretentious AF (I’m the parlance of our time) I really love Criterion. Want me all those Blu-rays. If your movie isn’t 4:3, black and white, Swedish and about questioning the very existence of god after getting a hole in your shoe… don’t even talk to me.
I’m a primary school teacher in the real world so I’ve both contemplated quitting and considered staying in my job on a day to day swing. Heck, sometimes even on the same day.
Congratulations, Geoffrey, what great accomplishments! So well deserved.
As for my first job, I was a funeral home attendant and groundskeeper... at age 13. We lived next to a funeral home, with no other neighbors around. Our family and the owner/mortician were friends for years. Me and each of my older brothers took turns at different times in our lives. I learned a lot about the human condition and closing up at night by myself was always a treat 👻👻👻
Thank you, Brian! I appreciate the kind words.
Wow, that's pretty incredible. When it comes to kid occupations, I think of lifeguard and burger chain cashier, but never "funeral home attendant." For the right kind of kid, I can see it being an amazing job? Kinda like being paid for poking dead bodies with a stick?