Hello, World
I’ve been meaning to start writing publicly for a long time. Not a newsletter, not a thread — just a place where thoughts can land and stay. This is that place.
For the first post, I didn’t want to write a mission statement. I wanted to write about something that actually moved me. So: Anton Ego’s review from Ratatouille.
The critic who changed his mind
The scene runs about two minutes. Anton Ego — the most feared restaurant critic in Paris, a man whose reviews have shuttered kitchens — has just eaten a dish that stopped him cold. A simple ratatouille, the peasant’s dish, prepared by a rat in a Michelin-starred kitchen.
What follows is one of the most quietly radical speeches in any Pixar film.
“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment.”
He goes on. The real risk, he argues, isn’t in demolishing something new — it’s in recognising and defending it. The world is unkind to new talent. The new needs friends.
And then the line that has stayed with me for years:
“Not everyone can become a great artist. But a great artist can come from anywhere.”
Why this matters to me right now
I work in technology. I spend a lot of time thinking about what gets built, what gets praised, and what gets ignored — and by whom. The critic’s posture is everywhere in this industry. Hot takes. Contrarian threads. The reflexive dismissal of anything that doesn’t fit the current consensus.
Ego’s speech is a corrective. It’s a reminder that the most important thing a thoughtful person can do is stay genuinely open to being surprised. Not credulous — open. There’s a difference.
The ratatouille surprised him because it was good. Full stop. It didn’t matter that it came from an unexpected source. The work was the work.
That’s the standard I want to hold myself to here. Write about things that actually interest me. Stay honest when I change my mind. Don’t perform certainty I don’t have.
More soon.