Giant Bombcast 590: Ice Cube Is Our Coworker

I logged to find the notification for this reply two days after I made and promptly forgot about my original post, and I was wondering for a good moment there what the hell I could have posted to elicit such a response.

Damn people are rude... Ben can read this stuff, you're all talking shit about a human being. Maybe think about this before being so horrible towards him like it's no big deal. Criticism is fine but just straight up insulting him is pretty messed up.

@avantegardener: Yeah, I’m a company man (been with one place for 17 years), but I work with a number of folks who spent their 20s and 30s contracting. It’s risk/reward. You don’t have the security of an employee (which is all at-will anyhow), nor the benefits, but you can pick your spots and make a load of money.

I skipped that lifestyle as I married VERY young and valued the stability more, but holy hell, do I NEVER hear contractors and former contractors complain about the money, the travel, the experience, etc.

@sto_ln: Agreed. I found the tariff discussion (leading into the working conditions discussion) infuriating. First off, I’m generally anti-tarrif. But the reason MS, Sony, and Nintendo are against this is because of money. They can use a company like a Foxconn to get cheap shit made because they pay and hours are basically slave labor (so much for caring about working conditions).

By imposing a tariff, we’re forcing our own companies to reevaluate the cost/benefit of working with the tariffed good from country x. In a lot of cases, companies will work to get their goods from elsewhere. A company like Foxconn will move operations elsewhere (maybe better for worker conditions, maybe not). The idea is that, of course MS, Sony, and Nintendo don’t want to pay more, increase product price tags, and reduce the market. They’d rather find ways to get what they need cheaper, maybe icing China out.

Again, I’m not saying tariff’s are a good idea. I’m generally against them, but I found the approach taken in this discussion, and the comical timing of demanding cheap goods from countries with significant working condition issues segueing into concern for other worker’s rights pretty tone-deaf.

@plinko: I’m an old man who was listening during Arrow Pointing Down just to follow Jeff and Ryan.

This show has taken some turns, with the death or Ryan and the expansion into multiple offices, and there have been growing pains.

I think Dan’s introduction in the wake of Ryan’s death was exactly what the show needed. I feel similar about Brad taking over hosting duties (I think it freed Jeff up to be his best).

The addition of Ben is another major evolution that I think was critical for the show. It breathed new life into Jeff on the show. I think Jeff is especially elevated by a guy he can riff off of.

While I wasn’t initially big on Ben, I think that dude is fucking key to the show, these days. His humor is hit and miss, but it’s unique, weird, and something you can use as the foundation of a fun conversation.

The same author that wrote Masters of Doom also wrote Jacked about Rockstar in the Bully/GTA3 days which contains even more insane stories of co-workers stabbing each other in the eye with pencils and becoming hardcore drug addicts so that seems a likely candidate for season 2. Both books are awesome.

nice episode

Rorie is actually mostly well-behaved in this. Pleasant surprise.

Rorie is great, I wish we had him more often. Also, Brad you should always check what RAM modules your motherboard supports. It's safer that way and it's not hard at all - you just check the list and then buy one from that list.