James Huang is Heading to Substack

[ghammer]

I've been following James since forever and have personally interacted with him a few times. He's very knowledgeable, articulate, and generous with his assessments. Some folks here mentioned that they don't miss them on escape Collective's podcasts. Well, i do miss him. I find Dave Rome insufferable and can barely stand the guy. Am sure as person he might be swell, but he's constantly trying to be funny with silly pauses after ridiculous puns.
I have subscribed to his newsletter and can hardly wait for the podcasts.

[Angryasian]

Originally Posted by November Dave

It's definitely worth saying that at least at one point during his tenure at EC, he was working part time at Whole Foods. This got mentioned during a podcast where he had brought the snacks. None of this bike stuff is anything resembling lucrative.

To clarify, I've never worked at Whole Foods in the sense that I was employed there, and I can see where the confusion would come from. I think I'd mentioned (or some other host mentioned) that I'd worked at Whole Foods in the sense that I was working while *sitting at* Whole Foods. Changes of scenery are pretty important when you work "from home", and for whatever reason, I've found that to be a pretty productive place for me. Plus, it lets me do smaller and more frequent grocery trips so we don't have old produce at home


Anyway, seems like there are a fair number of questions. Ask away.

[November Dave]

Originally Posted by Angryasian

To clarify, I've never worked at Whole Foods in the sense that I was employed there, and I can see where the confusion would come from. I think I'd mentioned (or some other host mentioned) that I'd worked at Whole Foods in the sense that I was working while *sitting at* Whole Foods. Changes of scenery are pretty important when you work "from home", and for whatever reason, I've found that to be a pretty productive place for me. Plus, it lets me do smaller and more frequent grocery trips so we don't have old produce at home


Anyway, seems like there are a fair number of questions. Ask away.

My bad, sorry. When I was much more involved in bike stuff I was luckily able to slide into counter-seasonal stuff that paid really well and it would have s**ked to be without. So probably some projection, and definitely some sympathy, on my part.

Good luck with the new venture.

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by Angryasian

Anyway, seems like there are a fair number of questions. Ask away.

How'd you get companies to keep sending you products to try even when you weren't affiliated with any publication?

[Angryasian]

No need to apologize! Definitely easy to misunderstand if someone says they were "working at Whole Foods".

[Angryasian]

Originally Posted by prototoast

How'd you get companies to keep sending you products to try even when you weren't affiliated with any publication?

Companies send stuff to reviewers for a variety of reasons. On a surface level, it's in hopes of some sort of published review. But savvier brands also send stuff because they want honest, informed, and *usable* feedback – good or bad – that can potentially be incorporated into future product development or refinement.

I think a lot of companies/brands assumed (rightfully so) that I wasn't going to be on sabbatical permanently so the lines of communication were never broken after I left Escape. I guess it helped that I have a reasonably sizeable Instagram following, too. Probably was also helpful that I've been in this line of work for nearly 20 years now and companies know that I'm not just hoarding a bunch of stuff and selling it out the back door.

And to be clear, I wasn't reaching out to companies; they reached out to me. I legitimately thought I was taking the summer "off".

[AngryScientist]

Ah, the man himself!

I'm glad you had the forward thinking to join back in 2016, because I have been woefully behind on approving new members here

Welcome to the conversation.

[benb]

I definitely like the opening spiel and the mission/direction.

I have always been skeptical of the N+1 thing in any hobby because more stuff becomes more of a PITA to store, maintain, etc.. and I want each one of the Ns to be as perfect as possible. I want my bikes ready to go but I don't want maintaining or storing them to take over my actual bike time. I also think it's kind of high time for bike culture to push back more on the way bikes are getting ever more complex, expensive, proprietary, requiring more and more proprietary/specific tools, etc.. for marginal improvements. I have been listening to & watching more and more bike packing type content lately where they are much more skeptical of some of this stuff, even though I've never taken an overnight trip.

But historically I have a really hard time paying for this kind of stuff.. the content needs to be really, really high quality and really well aligned with what I'm interested in. More for guitar stuff than bike stuff I have paid for some content and then been disappointed. So I'm really reluctant to pay for subscriptions versus 1 time purchases when I think something is really dead on target.

I think I'm more likely to pay for one offs if there is a free "lite" version and an in-depth paid version for people who want to dig in more on that specific topic. But if it's a more in depth thing on a specific bike it needs to be very detailed to compete with all the people who will just do the same thing with ads. The ad supported stuff does seem to have glaring holes from time to time though.

[Angryasian]

Yep, totally understandable, and I certainly went into this cognizant of "subscription fatigue".

I'm not going to have everything paywalled, and I believe Substack has a teaser function where you can assign a certain portion of articles to be visible for everyone. Still figuring this out and fingers crossed I can earn your subscription at some point, but I appreciate the feedback regardless.

[marciero]

Originally Posted by Angryasian

Companies send stuff to reviewers for a variety of reasons. On a surface level, it's in hopes of some sort of published review. But savvier brands also send stuff because they want honest, informed, and *usable* feedback – good or bad – that can potentially be incorporated into future product development or refinement.

DC Rainmaker is an example of that. Bias is always unavoidable but ideally there is transparency so the reader can weigh any potential conflict of interest- for example if the reviewer is paid consultant, was flown to Europe all expenses, etc.

[Angryasian]

Originally Posted by marciero

DC Rainmaker is an example of that. Bias is always unavoidable but ideally there is transparency so the reader can weigh any potential conflict of interest- for example if the reviewer is paid consultant, was flown to Europe all expenses, etc.

I can't speak for Ray, but I will say that at least in this industry (and I believe in most consumer goods industries), it's commonplace for brands to cover travel expenses if they're holding some sort of media event (product launch, etc) and has always been this way for as long as I can remember.

You can view the following statement with as much skepticism as you'd like.

But while brands absolutely make efforts to bring media to picturesque riding destinations all over the globe, I spent many years being gone 100+ days – almost all between Feb and Oct – and the novelty wore off on me a long time ago (and on my wife far earlier than that, especially after our kid was born). Fancy hotel rooms eventually look like any other room that isn't yours, air travel isn't exactly glamorous, and rides that should take two hours but actually take four because seemingly every editor has to get that perfect "sprinting in the drops" action shot gets old quick.

I know, I know... cry me a river. But if you want the honest answer, that's it. Take it as you will.

[slowpoke]

Originally Posted by Angryasian

Companies send stuff to reviewers for a variety of reasons. On a surface level, it's in hopes of some sort of published review. But savvier brands also send stuff because they want honest, informed, and *usable* feedback – good or bad – that can potentially be incorporated into future product development or refinement.

Hi James, big fan of your writing throughout the years.

Have companies asked for a draft of a review, then asked a reviewer to bin the review if it's not favorable for a product?

[kiwisimon]

Wishing you tail winds with the new venture. Don't be afraid to invite fresh voices to contribute from time to time.
When I hear and read your thoughts they almost unerringly exactly mirror mine, similar generation. I think I like hearing a fresh younger perspective to give me some thoughtful pause. Younger talent often just wants a platform to reach a bigger audience. cheers KS.

[Angryasian]

Originally Posted by slowpoke

Have companies asked for a draft of a review, then asked a reviewer to bin the review if it's not favorable for a product?

Nope, never, at least not from me. I typically make a point of sending a summary of my findings before I finish writing in case there's something I missed or if they want to offer a rebuttal, but otherwise, they never see a draft of what I've written.

[Angryasian]

Originally Posted by kiwisimon

Wishing you tail winds with the new venture. Don't be afraid to invite fresh voices to contribute from time to time.
When I hear and read your thoughts they almost unerringly exactly mirror mine, similar generation. I think I like hearing a fresh younger perspective to give me some thoughtful pause. Younger talent often just wants a platform to reach a bigger audience. cheers KS.

Let's just say I intentionally didn't brand the Substack as "angryasian" or something similarly specific to me. We'll see how this goes.