Pencil Problems
Episode Archive
Episode Archive
39 episodes of Pencil Problems since the first episode, which aired on September 20th, 2017.
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Episode 23: Hero worship, self-doubt and winning
March 26th, 2018 | 1 hr 48 mins
hustle, side projects, startup, work
Kent and Nick talk about Hero Worship and Self-Doubt. They ruminate about when/if they'd go all in on something and the secret to winning at side projects. Bonus Parent Corner content at the very end. Enjoy!
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Episode 22: Pros and Cons of Building Side Projects with a Team or Going Solo
March 18th, 2018 | 1 hr 44 mins
lone wolf, side projects, teams
Nick and Kent talk about the pros and cons of starting side projects with a team or going solo. They also answer a hypothetical question about what would they tell their 25-year-old selves.
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Episode 21: Filming a Kickstarter Video, How to Deal with a Drop in Shopify Orders - Project Update #3
March 7th, 2018 | 35 mins 49 secs
able cells, project update, the book
In this episode, Kent and Nick give a quick product update on the book and Able Cells. Kent is worried that he went 2 days without an order and wants to rebuild Shopify. Nick is working on storyboards for his likely Kickstarter video. Kent records a slightly awkward outro. Remember to send any questions and feedback to hello@pencilproblems.com
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Episode 20: Lessons Learned Pitching Sponsors
March 3rd, 2018 | 56 mins 25 secs
sponsorship
In this episode, Nick and Kent talk about how it went pitching the podcast to a few potential sponsors. Like a good math problem, they work out a solution for what sponsorship could look like going forward. Remember to send any feedback or questions to hello@pencilproblems.com or @pencilpod on the Twitter.
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Episode 19: Getting Sponsors
February 22nd, 2018 | 1 hr 17 mins
meta, parenting, sponsors
In this episode, Nick and I talk about the vision of Pencil Problems going forward and how we would try and pitch it to potential sponsors. We also kick-off Parent Corner around 1:03. Enjoy
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Episode 18: Book Club
February 16th, 2018 | 2 hrs 7 mins
books
Nick and Kent talk about the books they love and how they shape their actions, worldview, and their kids' future. Full of tangential goodness.
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Episode 17: State of our Unions
February 2nd, 2018 | 1 hr 1 min
able cells, books, domains, free speech, lumens, picking a name, project update, side projects, trump, twitter, wordpress
Kent and Nick talk about whether Jack should kick Donald off Twitter, then roll right into an extended project update with a snazzy new transition sound effect. Kent rails about Able Cells, while Nick tries to figure out a broader context for his book project. In the end, they sell it all and buy XLM, Spoilers!! Just kidding. Enjoy.
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Episode 16: Self-driving roulette
January 25th, 2018 | 1 hr 41 mins
bitcoin, ces, email marketing, feedback, fitness, health, keto, products, self-driving cars, side projects, tools
Kent and Nick talk about their side projects, answer listener questions about email marketing, and health and fitness, the difference between tools and products, Nick tells us about CES and Kent and Nick make a bitcoin bet about self driving cars in 2030.
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Episode 15: Intellectual Summer Camp
January 12th, 2018 | 1 hr 51 mins
academics, computer science, dgp, grad school, masters, phd, research, tag lab, trump, university of toronto
Kent and Nick get their first listener feedback, they talk about their time at The DGP, why grad school is like intellectual summer camp, advice for people thinking about grad school, academic politics, doing research, intellectual freedom and end with a healthy dose of Donald Trump.
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Episode 14: A time for selling
January 4th, 2018 | 1 hr 57 mins
2018, alt coins, crypto, e-commerce, goals, growth hacking, las vegas, zig ziglar
Nick and Kent talk about the future of pencil problems, their goals for the podcast in 2018, whether or not Nick should dabble in the black hat world of e-commerce, personal goals, las vegas buffets, zig ziglar, kent's crypto corner and so much more. This episode is a MUST download.
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Episode 13: Crypto
December 14th, 2017 | 2 hrs 10 mins
augur, bitcoin, bitcoin cash, civic, crypto, dash, ether, etherium, golem, litecoin, lumens, melon, zcash
Kent and Nick talk about Bitcoin, Etherium, Litecoin, tokens, and their gambling problems
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Episode 12: OK Google, open the pod bay doors
December 8th, 2017 | 1 hr 43 mins
alexa, amazon, apple, bitcoin, echo, google, google home, homepod, iot
Nick and Kent talk about their worst episode yet, then move right into the war of the living room, Google Home, vs. Echo vs. Homepod vs. Sonos, they talk about the internet of things, the role of voice, and stay tuned for a bitcoin price prediction.
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Episode 11: Imposter Syndrome
December 2nd, 2017 | 1 hr 41 mins
confidence, cooking, dreyfus model, imposter syndrome, mastery, pragmatic programmers, pragmatic thinking and learning, pragprog
Nick and Kent talk about the imposter syndrome, confidence, the Dreyfus model of skills acquisition, pragmatic thinking and learning, cooking, achieving mastery, and Kent puts out a reward to our 5 listeners
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Episode 10: What Would Jay-Z Do?
November 26th, 2017 | 1 hr 47 mins
ambition, business, cars, coco, disney world, jay-z, motivation, pixar, rap, reality distortion fields, self help, steve jobs, the secret
Nick and Kent talk about Disney World, Pandora, Pixar, Jay-Z, ambition, Jay-Z level ambition, good being the enemy of great, the secret, reality distortion fields, the fact that we made it to 10 episodes and then back to Jay-Z.
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Episode 9: Pivot
November 15th, 2017 | 1 hr 49 mins
apple, ar, google, hubba, microsoft, pivot, sago mini, second life, startups, vr
Kent and Nick talk about pivoting a company or business, microsoft and their failure to pivot, Google and their dozens of pivots, Apple's big pivot, Facebook's huge pivot gamble, VR, AR, and when you know it's time to leave
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Episode 8: Programming System 1
November 9th, 2017 | 1 hr 36 mins
cargo cults, data driven, decision making, hubba, intuition, kent fenwick, nick shim, programming, sago mini, system 1, system 2, thinking fast and slow
Kent and Nick talk about Cargo Cults, making data driven decisions, system 1 and system 2, intuition, doctors, AI and that's about it.