{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"upside","title":"Library Magic Pt. 1 // Eric's one year reflection","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":439,"description":"On upside, failure hasn’t really been the default. Most initiatives have come naturally and been met with, at worst, mildly positive reception. For the last few months, Jay and I have been struggling to find to an appropriate way to commemorate one year. \r\n\r\nWe planned a multi-week festival of podcasts. Too much. \r\nWe reached out to Steve Case. Nothing. \r\nWe interviewed each other. That felt wrong. \r\n\r\nToday, we’re going to try something different. I’m going to speak to you host to listener, one to one, on my takeaways from one year of upside and what I see in the future.\r\n\r\nMonique Villa changed my perspective of the podcast when she said that, to her, “founders are like books.” This podcast - therefore - is a growing, curated library.\r\n\r\nGrowing up, I was fascinated by libraries. Being surrounded by books is one of the two environments in which I feel a sense of complete belonging. The ability to disappear into a rack of books or simply peruse the aisles puts me in a state of awe. The output of thousands of human brains sitting on racks of dead trees waiting for your undivided attention. But when you choose a book and you read a book, that’s where the magic happens. \r\n\r\nMrs. Wilder, our grade school librarian, used to let me sneak into the library on bathroom breaks to read a few extra pages of the books I burrowed about the shelves, out of the sights of the Dewey decimal system and curious classmates. We had a book limit of 5 books per week, causing those with prominent shelving to incite a stampede during library time. When i could, I read those. When I couldn’t I read rest of the library - the undervalued titles that didn’t get the shelf space they deserved, the books with ugly covers, or boring titles on something like insect species.\r\n\r\nGreat books make you feel by teaching you something you already know in a way that’s different from what you know. When you read a great book, you aren’t being lectured, you’re having a dialogue. They say to never judge a...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/qhlBwGFVyVQpTQUPz91SL_FZ9LxsieuifdWQEs8peZY/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzkxLzE2MDU2MzQx/MjktYXJ0d29yay5q/cGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}