Ben Nesvig's Blog

About a year ago I created a personal meme account. I had spent the previous few months making memes for large snack brands and I tend to be an all or nothing person. I invested a lot of time learning about memes and now I couldn’t stop making them.

So I made a personal account in the niche of memes about Minnesota. The goal was to run it anonymously. Then once it had amassed a somewhat significant following on its own merit (ex. 10k), I’d reveal to people I know that it was me.

A year went...

I have a dilemma. Writing a book is a lot of work which requires a lot of self-motivation. I’m not sure what the motivation was for writing the two books I’ve written, but it wasn’t money. If someone told me they wanted to make money from writing books, I’d tell them to write fiction or a business book which they could use to make money from speaking or consulting (not non-fiction humor).

Now the dilemma I have is: do I write a third book?

I wrote a lot of words for a third book a few years a...

Pretend that I posted this back in mid-June.

The baby has arrived! What a journey it has been. A lot of people talk about how painful the labor process is, but I didn’t think it was bad, aside from my feet being a little sore from standing. But this new father is feeling healthy and relaxing now. Looking forward to when we can head home and get some high quality sleep.  I think this covers all of the info people ask for when a baby is born.

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I must admit there’s nothing like seeing your child s...

I didn’t read many books in 2016. The number of completed books ended up at 15. Prior years it reached as high as 82.

I also didn’t blog much this year. I wrote a measly ONE blog post. In the past (obviously), I once had a six-month stretch where I published a blog post daily.

What happened?

The guilt got to me. That is, the guilt of consuming (mostly books) without producing anything. So in 2016 I took a break from reading to do more doing of the things I’ve been learning. Since 2012, I’vebinge...

I was recently interviewed via email by an 8th grader for a school project. She asked me about first world problems, so I wrote up my thoughts which you can find an expanded version of below. I haven’t heard back from her, so maybe these answers are terrible.

1. What prompted you to write your book?
I wanted an outlet for my observational humor and the theme of First World Problems seemed like the perfect vehicle for my observations.

Also, I don’t like when people complain (note: ranting is dif...

I love reading end of year lists. They’re an easy way to discover new books, movies, and apps. Below are a few of my favorite things from 2015.

Mad Max: Fury Road
I saw this movietwice in theaters, which I almost never do. My wife generally doesn’t like action moviesbut loved Mad Max. George Miller, the writer/director of Mad Max (and Babe!), blew me away with everything in Mad Max. I’ll stop gushing now.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Funny, touching, and has a great cast.

Creed...

I enjoyed the first season of the podcast Serial, so I thought I’d give Netflix’s Making a Murderer a chance.

And there went 10 hours of my life in 4 days.

Making a Murderer one of the most fascinating things I’ve seen. There are so many twists, revelations, and jaw-dropping things that happen. I won’t spoil what happens, but I highly recommend watching the trailer below.

Watch the first episode for free on YouTube.

The wife and I recently went all out for a vacation. The problem is that I’m a maximizer ( which I learned from The Paradox of Choice). If I care about something, I want to have the best version possible.When it comes to the car I drive, the clothes I wear, and the razor I shave with–I don’t care about the quality as long as they work. But when it comes to computers, morning espresso, and vacations–I want the best possible experience.

And this is where a definition of humor can be found. Ben p...

Junk Mail from Voyager on Vimeo.

This video hit me with the feels. Worth taking 11 minutes to watch it.

If there is one thing people love in this world, meetings are not it. That said, you might enjoy a video I wrote and filmed that’s all about bad meetings. Watch it below (or click here).