I feel like he kindof caught himself. If anything this video may have softened me a bit on him. He’s good a talking about his process because he’s good at it and it’s successful.
Is he retconning it some? Probably.
But whatever. His site is nice to look at and to quote him “everyone is just looking at it on their phones anyway”.
I might have to watch this. I feel like Prolz actually changed for the better when he stopped drinking. His whiskey drinking bro persona was my least favorite and probably lead to some of his notorious bad copy. I haven’t hated his endeavors for the past couple years. The photos really are very good.
How was he “an architect in his former life”? Wasn’t the dude in his 20s when he started doing tricktrack stuff? By being an architect does he mean going to school for it and having an entry level job at a firm for a couple of years? Maybe he’'s older than I thought, though.
It could just be vibes based, “I must have been an architect in my prior incarnation because I have great design sensibility”
At the risk of coming off as a big Prolly apologist here, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say you were something in another life if you literally studied it for 5 years, received a degree, and worked in the industry for years. Does he need to have an architecture firm or a building with his name on it to be considered an architect?
(The only architect I’ve known from childhood who stuck with it to be a capital A Architect was heavily subsidized by his parents.)
Architecture school is a scam
We’re gatekeeping jobs now
the architects gate keep the jobs. that’s why it’s a scam.
my world is full of kids with degrees who are never going to get to do what they wanted with them because they are never getting a license.
To be fair, I’ve been told that prolly was heavily subsidized by his parents as well.
I mean… lots of people are. Generational wealth.
Sure. I don’t hold it against anyone. Just pointing out that in that industry the difference between working an entry level job for a while and then successfully striking out on your own could be your parents buying a multi million dollar loft and hiring you to redesign each million dollar apartment in it with an unlimited budget, and not having parents that do that.
At the end of the day, I think the Prolly stuff is holdover hate from when Tarck was an uglier place. If beneficiaries of nepotism follow their passion and contribute something to a stupid niche industry where no one makes money, that is preferable to pursuing a life of further wealth hoarding, addiction, exploitation.
I took every drafting and architecture class in high school, including college AP. I got into Carnegie Mellon university. I was on my way to be an architect, then I talked to a few. ‘You’ll start coming into your own in your fifties.’ WTF. THAT’S NOW.
RE Prolly. Having a public writing job is the worst. You always have to adopt a bit of a persona to be marketable, to lean into something that will be remembered and will generate buzz - and whenever your audience grows older and wiser, and sees through it, you become a target.
Am I alone in just viewing him as one of the eccentric characters in the scene that we agree is a bit silly, but is fundamentally no more fucked up than any of us?
prolly seems like a nice enough guy based on our mutuals who are huge haters otherwise. I think his content has always been hard to relate to but easy to aspire to, which has made a user base of clout chasers.
also if y’all trying to talk architecture education lets fucking go
I was never an architect but still sometimes say I have an architecture background because of the collective trauma that comes with architecture school.
If Prolly has a million haters, then I am one of them. If he has ten haters, then I am one of them. If he has only one hater then that is me. If Prolly has no haters, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world loves Prolly, then I am against the world.
Just like the PLP guy, nothing he’s done is original - it’s just harvested from others and condensed into simple palatable “content”.
IMO I’d guess that most public bike people are probably pretty decent to hang out with and talk to with the exception of that guy in the polka dot kit.
For some reason that reminds me of the one time in my shop days I went to a trade show. I met Paul Price and asked him if he recommends short or long pull levers for 26>27.5 conversions with Motolite brakes. He basically said “yeah it’s going to be wrong either way so yolo”
Most of the people I know are 10x more annoying online than IRL. I imagine the same applies to any public-facing bike nerd.
It’s true. I remember needing a week to recover full brain function at the end the a semester. I made it to the ‘draw bathrooms for The Man’ stage and then found better things to do. School was kinda fun though.
I’m just being a hater. His comments felt very much like the gap year traveler who spent a month in Thailand and then developed a lifetime of stories about how they have a unique insight into meditation and mindfulness.
I always thought the root for the word dilettante was the same as diluted i.e. lacking
Turns out it’s actually from delectable i.e. enjoyable
It’s not that bad of a thing to enjoy life, really
sounds like some phish talk to me.
the few times i have met prolly in person he’s been fun to talk to and a genuinely nice guy
i can’t stand his writing
¯\_(ツ)_/¯