Originally sent on 3/31/2026

Hi all,

Thanks for participating in the first of my surveys. As promised, below is the summary of the results plus some of my own commentary. Apologies this took a little longer than expected, I have been moving to a new apartment this weekend and that has consumed my life over the past several days.

Q1: Timothee Chalamet - approve or disapprove?

Results:

Highlighted Free Responses:

• "I think he’s a good actor but a bit big for his britches. He has yet to live up to his ego, and actually, he was at his best in call me by your name when his boisterous bravado was most reeled in."

• "Fuck ballet and fuck opera"

• "his greatness SAG speech wasg goated"

• "Francis envies him" [best answer]

Commentary:

I am firmly on the approve side here. Ever since that SAG speech he has been approaching his career like an NBA player who really wants to win MVP or 2010s Kanye. A lot of his PR stunts this last year invoked Album Mode Kanye in a way that really spoke to teenage me. (Nathan stop talking about Kanye before you get yourself into trouble).

Timmy is clearly cut from the same cloth as our generation, with our sensibilities and cultural references, and I think that's good. We need new stars that we can relate to, and Timmy is our Leo or Brad or Paul Newman. The guy loves the Knicks, used to make modded Xbox controllers, and listens to Bill Simmons. And he's fucking Muad'dib! How could I not love this guy? Glad to see the majority of you agree.

Q2: Have you been to a movie theater in the last 6 months?

Results:

Highlighted Free Responses:

• "I bought the Regal Snack Pass ™️ because I am a big back."

• "Either the movies I wanna see have extremely short theatrical runs or I can’t justify a date night to see them"

• "...babies ruin my experience"

Commentary:

Most of you can guess that I am on the yes side here. This is a bit of a hobby horse of mine as an AMC Stubs Member and a holder of the AMC Popcorn Pass.

But I can understand why people are less gung ho about this. Movies are expensive, crowds are annoying, and they don't show movies you or your partner might want to see.

If I were a less empathetic or understanding person, I might counter those points by saying: you can make an effort to see smaller movies by yourself if you make the time, there are plenty of ways to save on movie ticket costs, and maybe you just need to seek out more movies for adults because they are still making plenty.

But I am really empathetic so I won't say those things. Just see da movies. 

Q3: What store/brand’s clothing constitutes the largest percentage of your wardrobe?

Highlighted responses:

• "Asspizza...duh" ( I wonder who this is )

• "pretty thorough mix of madewell, Levi’s, H&M, and thrifted garb."

• "Uniqlo"

• "catchall category of “misc secondhand” instead of a single brand"

• "Obey" (can't tell if this is ironic or not)

Commentary:

My answer would also probably be Uniqlo or Madewell which speaks to my boring white-collar yuppie existence. Seems like there was also a fair amount of similar sentiment in the responses, plus some Nike. Turns out the people I know are also middle-class white-collar drones! 

Probably should have expected answers like this, in hindsight. Most of us have to dress at least somewhat practically and affordably most of the time. Or is that just something we have chosen to do, following the crowd like Harvey Lemmings? Maybe I should start pulling up to my bi-weekly office days in Asspizza. 

Q4: Do you typically sleep with a top sheet?

Results:

Highlighted Free Responses:

• "Don't even know what that is"

• "Comforter too heavy, but need something to protect me from the critters of the night"

• "You don’t sleep with a top sheet? Do you also sleep on a mattress on the floor?"

• "I sleep in a big bed with my wife."

Commentary:

I am in the yes camp here, but only in the last couple of years. Growing up, the top sheet was not a norm for me but I've come around to its value aesthetically and functionally.

I expected to see more nos here to be honest. The top sheet seems to be increasingly tossed aside by younger generations, and I'm sure others who grew up in non-traditional homes also did not grow up using top sheets. I expected the generational + cultural vectors to generate more of a split here, but I guess Big Top Sheet still has zillennials in a chokehold wins out.

Q5: How often do you use AI?

Results:

Highlighted Free Responses:

• "Unfortunately for work I use it everyday."

• "im probabky ripping 5+ hours a day. usually multiple threads open at the same time"

• "Idk I actually like using my brain to think thoughts"

• "I’m retarded and important at work. AI helps bridge this gap."

Commentary:

I am also in the very often / every day camp here. Partially because my day-to-day job currently involves AI engineering and development, and partially to help me with other personal stuff (like applying to other jobs).

As a Good Little Liberal I feel like I have to provide a disclaimer here: I do have legitimate concerns about AI safety, responsible use, effects on our society and the way we think and interact, job loss, electrical costs and environmental consequences, increasing concentration of wealth, and the invention of The Terminator. 

But it's become pretty obvious to me that AI is an essential and transformative technology that will become deeply embedded in all of our lives. So it behooves us all to at least get familiar with it, whether we like it or not. Judging by the responses, it seems like even those of us who are resistant to AI still have come to accept it in limited doses.

I wish I had something funnier to say here so instead I'll just provide a link to an AI classic artwork of our time.

Q6: What was your honest opinion of the Bad Bunny half time show?

Results:

Highlighted Free Responses:

• "Symbolically great but expected more from the performance itself"

• "Far from a bad time but surely goes harder if you speak spanish"

• "...I came away from it thinking that if you didn’t vibe with it, that it’s entirely a “you” problem."

Commentary:

I'm with the plurality here - I liked it, didn't love it. I'm sure if you were Puerto Rican or a big Bad Bunny fan you would have been crazy about it. I appreciated the staging and the vision, but I just didn't understand the music or the cultural references enough to really love it.

I got that experience with Kendrick last year because Kendrick is my guy. It was a gratifying culmination of listening to him and following his career for over a decade, so of course I was going to love it. Plus he got to call Drake a pedophile on national TV. So I imagine Bad Bunny fans must have felt the same, especially with the Grammys only a week before and the political/immigration themes underlying everything. It's a symbolic victory if nothing else.

I do think it's interesting how the Super Bowl halftime show under Jay Z and Roc-Nation has not been afraid to be more polarizing as one of the most highly viewed events in the country. And I mean polarizing in an artistic and purposeful way, not polarizing-ly bad like Slash with the Black Eyed Peas.

I was surprised that some respondents just didn't see it at all. A reminder that some people are capable of being prejudiced against both the NFL and Puerto Ricans. 

Other programming notes

I'd say the first of these has been a relative success, at least in terms of engagement and my personal enjoyment. I'm not sure if you all have gotten anything out of it but I hope you continue to participate.

As you may have noticed from the survey results, the number of respondents is pretty limited. I should have mentioned this earlier but I kept the first wave of participants to about a dozen people. I'm open to expanding this to others now, but still only to people that I know personally. If there's someone that we mutually know that might want to participate, let me know and I can get them added to the list.

Lastly, it definitely seems like I need a better system for this. It seems that a lot of initial emails have gone to people's spam folders, and I've had to send some reminders to get people to complete surveys. I still like the general shape of this format rather than something like a group chat or Whatsapp group, so I'll likely look into something like a Substack for future versions. I'm open to other suggestions as well. Thanks for bearing with me.

New survey will be out later this week. Thanks for participating.

Warmly,

Nathan