About the Show
About
Hi, I'm Erik.
I'm a software engineer by trade, a builder by instinct, and a professional question-asker by choice.
After years of listening to podcasts where everyone seemed to know exactly what they were going to conclude before they pressed Record, I realized I wanted something different. I wasn't looking for debates with winners and losers. I wasn't looking for interviews where the guest repeated the same stories they've told a hundred times.
I wanted conversations that could actually change someone's mind—including my own.
I'm not an academic. I'm not trying to be an influencer. I'm just someone who's endlessly curious about people, ideas, and the strange ways we convince ourselves we're right.
The show is the product—not me.
How I think
There's a word for trying to understand the strongest version of an idea before you criticize it.
It's called steelmanning.
It's the opposite of a strawman. Instead of picking apart the weakest version of an argument, you do the harder thing: you build the strongest version first.
That's the job here.
When I'm thinking through an issue by myself, I try to steelman every side—including the ones I disagree with. When I have a guest, I try to understand their position well enough that they'd say, "Yes, that's exactly what I mean."
Not because I want to agree with everyone.
Because I want to see clearly before I decide.
What this show is really about
I think most of us have forgotten how to hold two things in our heads at the same time.
You can respect someone and disagree with them.
You can admire someone's work without wanting to live like they do.
You can take an idea seriously without accepting it.
You can criticize a system while recognizing you're part of it, too.
You can want the world to be kinder while admitting there aren't always clean answers.
The internet often treats that kind of thinking as weakness. Pick your favorite insult: fence-sitter, cop-out, simp, both-sides-ing.
I don't see it that way.
I think it's what paying attention looks like.
Changing your mind isn't failure. Neither is discovering the other side has a point. If anything, that's evidence the conversation was worth having.
That's what Subverting Expectations is about.
Not proving people wrong.
Learning enough to surprise ourselves.
Photo coming soon.