June 15, 2025

Pulling the Thread

One of the most underrated superpowers in life and in storytelling is following the thread way further than anyone else would. Past what's practical. Past what makes sense.

A couple of my favorite creators currently working in the TV business are Nathan Fielder and John Wilson. Their respective approaches are different but orient around a similar idea of following something too far, much farther than any normal person would. And it's no coincidence that they work together, with Fielder acting as a producer and helping with the edit on Wilson's recent work.

Take Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal, which might be the most gloriously overcommitted show ever made. Fielder doesn't just take the bit too far—he turns it into an HBO-funded science experiment in awkwardness and the human struggle to connect. He takes a plot line about airline safety to such an extent that he devotes years of his life learning to fly, despite his obvious lack of aptitude. Can't get an airline to let him fly one of their planes? That's no issue for Nathan, he's willing to lease one on his own rather than change direction. Anchoring his approach is the idea that he'll follow an idea as far as it can possibly go, not as far as someone "reasonable" would take it.

Wilson does something similar in his documentary-style series, framed as a "How-To" show for things nobody really needs a tutorial on. In one episode, a supply store for amateur sports referees (soccer refs, mostly) becomes an accidental rabbit hole. The cashier casually mentions an upcoming banquet for a local referee association. A normal person would nod politely and move on. Wilson shows up. With his camera. At a banquet he definitely wasn't invited to. And it's great TV.

For Fielder and Wilson, following the thread doesn't just make their shows better—it is the show. It's the fuel. It's the reason you suddenly care about some Long Island referee banquet or why a comedian is flying a 747 with a hundred struggling actors as passengers. And for the rest of us? That same instinct can pull you out of the rut of routine and into the weird and wonderful. The insane freedom of free will can be paralyzing, so most people stay on the path of least resistance. But every now and then, it's worth ramming down a side door into something new.

Quick distinction: this isn't a squeaky wheel gets the oil argument. It's not "email 50 people on LinkedIn and hope one of them gets you a job doing tech sales." This only works in the physical world—the world with strange smells, awkward silences, side streets, and people who do and say unexpected things.

The internet is efficient, but it flattens randomness. Everything gets sorted into inboxes and timelines and tidy little channels. The mess gets filtered out, and so does the magic. There's a reason we don't like watching TV or movies where emails and texts drive the plot: it's boring. It's sterile. Why would we want life to work that way? The texture of human lives bumping into each other is missing in that case, and this texture is exactly what makes it worthwhile to follow something too far. The reward is in the texture, and it moves people to behave differently than when they receive a message from a stranger.

So what's your thread? Whatever that thing is, pull on the thread, then follow it further than a reasonable person would. That weird hobby you've been circling? That person you met once and haven't stopped thinking about? That random flyer for an amateur curling league? Go. Follow it. Way past where a sane person would. That's where the good stuff is. There's a reason that what lives there is unique and interesting; most people think it's silly to take it that far, and they miss out.