My incredible audience sent me dozens of very thought provoking questions to answer, so for this mailbag I’ll answer 10, and save some for future mailbags. Thank you so much for all your thoughtful submissions!
1. Who's your favorite Succession character and why? ~ Debora Garbi
Roman, hands down. He’s a total degenerate and uses sarcasm and joking as a defense mechanism.
I relate.
2. Ever thought of moving to a smaller town / city? ~ Nitro & Sheps
I think it would be all kinds of awesome to move to one of the cute cities in New Zealand near one of the lakes and just kinda chill.
3. What was it like going from a quiet life to someone with a large following on Twitter/X? How has that process changed you and what did you do to manage the change? ~ Shibby
At first it was entirely overwhelming and I had multiple panic attacks and meltdowns. It’s a lot better now, I get triggered occasionally but I’m much more immune.
I still more or less live a quiet life, I actually consider my online life an entirely different… Life, almost? I don’t really actually want to be famous, so I’ve basically just mentally separated the two and been generally private. Perhaps one day they will merge, but only if I can make a sustainable living doing this stuff!
4. Make a tier list of the Final Fantasy games ~ Ardenteon
With the caveat that I haven’t yet played FFXVI, and never played FFII, FFIII, or FFV, and am leaving out the online games, here is my list:
FFVI (IMO the perfect game for when it came out. The best soundtrack. Gaming at its pinnacle for its time)
FFIV (This game was lifechanging, in that it started me writing music and stories as a kid. So many twists and turns. It doesn’t age as well as many of the others, but will always hold a special place in my heart)
FFVII / FFVII Remake (I loved both this game and the remake. It’s very close but the top 2 games more or less were childhood obsessions and FF7 was something I absolutely loved, but I can’t put it higher)
FFX (Very solid, love the Besaid Island theme, love the world, even loved blitzball after literally restarting the game to get the Jecht shot)
FFXV (I actually liked this more than most people did - the story was kind of presented clumsily, especially toward the end, but the gameplay was fantastic and the youtube videos explaining the story propped it up for me)
FFI (I used cardboard tubes to act out this game as a tiny kid with my sister. It’s… Not a great game or anything, but, it’s the first, and I played it a LOT)
FFIX (This one is tough because it reminds me of my first girlfriend, so at the time I loved it, but then it became associated with the pain of breaking up. I should revisit it. But right now it falls in the middle)
FFXII (The gambit system was fun. The story had such a great intro and then it just… Did anything really happen?)
FFVIII (I had a big crush on Rinoa. The gameplay was kind of terrible, but still a classic in its own right. The best meme came out of it, anyway)
FFXIII (I just rented this one and got bored, I actually thought I outgrew Final Fantasy then, sad times. But I think it’s just kind of a mid game, which is not great for a Final Fantasy)
Very excited to play FFXVI though, as soon as I finish Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (another masterpiece)!
5. What are your thoughts on Dunkaroos? ~ Moose
I don’t think I’ve ever had them. My mom would buy me Twinkies growing up (which I still have a fondness for but don’t buy for myself), and Goldfish snacks (which I still buy for myself), but not these. They look pretty good though!
6. Are you like Garfield (cat) who hates Mondays? ~ Juan R. Diaz
Oh, definitely. But Sunday night is actually the worst for me, because I always have a whole bunch of stuff I wanted to accomplish on the weekend, and then I procrastinate, and feel massively guilty. It’s pointless because it nearly always happens and I so often feel guilty even though I rarely ever actually accomplish my goals.
7. If you could remove one personality trait from all humanity which would it be and why? ~ KingsVerdict
I think it would be nice to just kinda reduce the narcissism. There’s no reason for so many people to be so sure that they’re so great. We’re all pretty mid. We’re humans, after all.
I think reducing pointless ego protection would go a long way in making navigating this crazy gift of life we were given a lot less stressful and frustrating.
8. How does someone with no earthly idea about crypto, buy a modest pile of doge? Or should they? ~ JasonX
So I should answer your second question first. I never recommend people buy crypto, that is completley up to them, if they want to go crazy. I wrote about it in this article:
If you read that and still want to for some reason, I would only suggest you be willing to lose all your money and use something that has been around for a long time. I personally have only bought crypto on Coinbase, which I have used since 2013, and Robinhood, which I had a little bit of extra money on.
9. Do you believe in God, if No then why? and if Yes then why? ~ imamzama12
I didn’t grow up with any organized religion in my life, so I don’t have any kind of standard religious beliefs, just kind of my own random spiritual ones.
I do think there is right and wrong, and I don’t think the world tends to “waste” things - i.e. whatever our “life force” is that seperates us from living and being a useless sack of meat, that energy I don’t think just goes away. I could more imagine it going back into some big blob of energy to be reused at some point. Maybe that blob is “God.” I don’t know.
I was more of an athiest as a know-it-all teenager, but now I think being a full out athiest requires a certain amount of hubris that I don’t have. I’m more of an agnostic, except I don’t think it’s “unknowable,” I just don’t personally know.
10. Are cats a net good or evil and why? ~ Elizabeth Kincaid
Oh, cats are terrible. They literally go kill things for fun, not even to eat. They’re naughty, they do whatever they want and don’t care what you want, they’re super entitled little buggers.
But they’re so cute though.
Net good.
Super fun read! 🤩
That Sunday evening comes so fast man. I feel that. 😅