Pencil Problems

Episode Archive

Episode Archive

49 episodes of Pencil Problems since the first episode, which aired on September 20th, 2017.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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.

  • Episode 7: Rationing your Wonderbread

    November 3rd, 2017  |  1 hr 22 mins
    black hat, company culture, feedback, hubba, millennials, sago mini, snowflakes, startups, westworld, white hat

    Nick and Kent talk about company culture, the good and bad of backchanneling, the right way to give feedback, and finding a balance between the light and the dark.

  • Episode 6: Welcome to the Rock

    October 25th, 2017  |  1 hr 15 mins
    getting a book published, making money on medium, medium, medium subscriptions, piracy, prometheus, publishing, the rock

    Kent and Nick talk about piracy, publishing on Medium, making money on Medium, Prometheus, The Rock, and how not to get a book published.

  • Episode 5: Waiting for that Casper money

    October 20th, 2017  |  1 hr 46 mins
    ambition, casper, dan benjamin, finishing, ios, monatization, podcasts, sponsors, starting, startups

    Kent and Nick talk about ambition curves, what they would do if they got paid to do the podcast, what they really want to do with their lives, and talked more about potential productive pencil problems.

  • Episode 4: Productive epiphanies

    October 11th, 2017  |  1 hr 39 mins
    able cells, asana, gtd, omni focus, productivity, trello

    Kent and Nick talk about productivity systems and tools. Kent has an epiphany that he might be a type A disguised as a disorganized human being.

  • Episode 3: Searching for breadth vs. depth

    October 4th, 2017  |  1 hr 44 mins
    adwords, book agents, breadth, depth, grad school, keto, masters, phd, product management, programming, u of t

    Nick and Kent talk about bluetooth headsets, breadth vs. depth, the problem with drop shippers, how grad school is basically paid summer camp, and how Nick is looking for an agent.

  • Episode 2: That time I went to Taylor

    September 27th, 2017  |  1 hr 27 mins
    android, apple, apps, freemium, main street, retail, taylor

    Nick and Kent talk about the difference between main street and big retail and how that applies to apps. Kent rails on the kids these days, and Nick shares an awkward story involving vulgar lyrics and his mother.