Divinations Podcast #004 - On Quibi

This week on the Divinations podcast, Adam Keesling and I are interviewed by our pal Dan Shipper about our Quibi prediction piece!

How to Listen

If you want to listen, the best way is to click the “Listen in Podcast App” link above by the audio player. That way you can listen in your favorite app — assuming it’s not Spotify — and subscribe to new episodes there.)

One Good Quote

At minute 10, Dan asked us what it was like to try Quibi for the first time after spending days writing a contrarian essay arguing they’d succeed.

I said:

Yeah, I mean it was terrifying. [nervous laughter] I really didn’t want it to suck but I also didn’t want to go into it biased. It’s a funny illustration of how you judge something when you’re obviously biased and you know you’re biased. Do you trust your gut reaction? You get all mixed up and it’s not a natural way to try a new thing. Frankly, I didn’t even really trust my opinion of the shows or the app design because I’m either being to harsh on it because I’m over-correcting, or I’m being too positive because I’m just going with my confirmation bias. That’s why I wanted to write the article before it came out.

In This Episode

• Minute 1–7: We tell the story of how we ended up changing our minds about Quibi in the process of writing the article.
• Minute 7–9: Why Quibi raised so much money, and what it’ll take for them to generate a good return for their investors.
• Minute 9–12: What it was like to use the app for the first time, after we’d spent days writing and researching a contrarian bull take.
• Minute 12–23: Dan introduces a new segment! It’s called “stick or switch?” In light of the news that Quibi only had 300k downloads on the first day, do Adam and I stick with our prediction? Or switch to the bear side?
• Minute 23-31: Why do people hate Quibi?
• Minute 31–37: Has Quibi become a habit for us? Adam watches in the morning at breakfast, Nathan watches at night before bed.

Enjoy!

PS — Want to try Quibi but not sure what to watch? Our recommended shows are I Believe, The Shape of Pasta, and The Most Dangerous Game.