PSTM: Requests, Demands, Facile Pleasures 2/5/26

PSTM: Requests, Demands, Facile Pleasures 2/5/26

4 minute read.

The idea: I think that too often servers and bartenders (and hell, people, but I know that world best) ask for too little, and demand too much.

A request is beautiful. You are reaching your hand out to another human. You expect nothing, but you are putting yourself on the line. You have vulnerability. You are earnest. I want this thing, I will say I want it.

Here I am.

With demands, there are only two possible responses: they give in, or they resist.

You let the other person have their way, you don’t support them into a brighter future.

Or, you resist. You say NO. That’s not how things go here, that’s not what we’re doing, that is the exact opposite of what we are about.

The quote: I’m obsessed with this book right now, Rajat Parr is coming on the pod later and I couldn’t be more stoked!

The quality of extreme deliciousness is a gift not mutually exclusive with depth, complexity, or profundity. Great Beaujolais inherently invokes the beautiful in life, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be taken seriously.The quality of extreme deliciousness is a gift not mutually exclusive with depth, complexity, or profundity. Great Beaujolais inherently invokes the beautiful in life, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be taken seriously.The quality of extreme deliciousness is a gift not mutually exclusive with depth, complexity, or profundity. Great Beaujolais inherently invokes the beautiful in life, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be taken seriously.
The Sommelier's Atlas of Taste: A Field Guide to the Great Wines of Europe
-By Rajat Parr and Jordan Mackay

The advice: Think of one place in your life where things aren’t going the way you want. See if you are demanding things instead of asking for them. One small shift is sometimes all it takes. Ask yourself:

“In what ways have I contributed to the situation I claim to not want.”

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