My commitment to television is poor. The notable exception was with Game of Thrones, though even then my attention was spotty: I watched a few episodes of seasons 1-2, binge-watched every episode from seasons 3-5 over 3 weeks to get caught up in time to watch season 6 in real time, started back from the beginning to complete the set, and complained along with everyone else when the final season 7 circled the drain. Sigh.
Despite moving to New Zealand to become a small business YouTuber (an endeavor that never went much of anywhere, which is fine by me!), I don’t follow anyone on that platform either.
At least, I haven’t since the last episode of Winners and Losers, a series I watched every Friday morning like clockwork until they killed it about 8 months ago. NYU Professor and businessman Scott Galloway’s weekly series was one of the references for what would have been my channel; I loved the research, the infographics, his fast-talking confidence, his willingness to get personal, his unflinching taking-of-sides, the infinite flexibility of the white background, and the absurd endings, a brilliant move designed to game the YouTube algorithm.
I loved everything about it… even if I occasionally hated him. Is he not, for instance, sexually harassing a member of his staff in the series finale?!
Fortunately for Professor Galloway fans like me, he never stopped writing his fascinating (and often surprisingly personal) weekly newsletter, No Mercy / No Malice. Today’s issue included a tiny PS at the bottom:
Of course I clicked, and am so glad I did! Scott is back! I was subscriber 814, and I’ll bet that number goes up fast.
There are only 2 episodes up on Professor Galloway’s mysterious new YouTube channel — and he hasn’t donned a wig yet — but because of those videos I now know that:
- A fifth of the people who purchased houses using Redfin in 2018 didn’t even visit those houses before buying;
- Louis Vuitton was the first to design shipping trunks with flat lids so that you could stack them more efficiently (he didn’t say when though, so I had to look it up: in 1858);
- The fanny pack I’ve been wearing almost daily since 1993 is apparently back in style! Well, fanny packs in general are. Mine was probably never stylish, alas, but oh-so-practical…
All of this to say, if you care at all about the digital economy and are searching for another reason to stare at a screen, get amongst Professor Galloway’s stuff. Enjoy!
Elizabeth Ü 