11–20 of 31 posts
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room -- the necessity of using your head and keeping your eyes and ears open in the face of corporate carrot-and-stick
Secret History of the Credit Card -- the workings behind all the credit card bonuses and other tricks banks play
Free Solo Mainly because of Alex Honnold's perspective on why he does what he does and his singular laser-like focus. 10/10.
There was also this slacklining short doc, maybe not of the same caliber but probably interesting to you if you liked the climbing videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac_t4pNYr1g
Both focus on death row inmates and their crimes, not perceived innocence or “wrongfully accuses” sort of situations.
Herzog is an absolute master and leaves the viewer thinking, not with a pre-determined narrative.
The other one I’ll mention is 13 years old and is “The Bridge”. Suicide and depression are tough subjects but The Bridge navigates the conversation thoughtfully and powerfully.
I come from a nation where there's no gradient in quality. Someone who is a "rice expert" is unthinkable, almost laughable. And even if they were really good at rice, it would be meaningless, just a form of hobby.
But in Jiro's world, there are rice specialists, tuna specialists, specialist butcher. Every one a master of their trade. The rice specialist needs the sushi specialist because no other person in the world could cook rice "properly" and so the best rice would be wasted. It tells how one of the chefs spent years learning to cook a type of egg sushi before it's even worthy of being served.
It resonated with me - I always loved this idea of higher quality. In this era of Candy Crush and Clash of Clans being the most profitable software, it's really tempting to stray. Jiro gave me the resolve to focus on that path.
Connections - James Burke
Century of the Self
It's hard to judge the lasting impact both these docs will have on me, but boy, I can't even remember how I used to think before watching them. Watching Century of the Self and the AMC show Mad Men right after was also a very interesting contrast.