Episode Discussions

TD;LR is about PSTD, I thought was clear. I don't know if he is ASD and surely NOT NPD. NPD style is a psychological word, technical, for talking about people who aren't NPD.

I was reading thousand of articles about many many ASD (autism spectrum disorder, formerly "asperger") growing older achieve NPD (narcisistic spectrum disorder) both in style and behaviors as way to escape and self protection. I don't know why but Joe looks that stereotype. I was reading many many people got the misdiagnosis for this. In this article, which is obviously more chaos theory than a psychiatric research, go deep into ASD and NPD similitudes. Is interesting since is full of ASD people acting as NPD. The difference is clear in the end: NPD act selfish, ASD pretend. It isn't NPD, is a way to cope and healing... is a copying method in a world where you are a looser. Usually is also the worst step.

In the end he got healed stopping his NPD style.

Edit1: NPD traits = childhood traumas... whatever is ASD or not. I thought was granted, my fault.

Edit2: I was watching Avicii documentary and at some point he said "I'm an introvert who is pretending to be an extrovert" as ASD with NPD traits by myself with me what you see is the NPD behaviors and is really difficult see in me ASD traits unless I'm in crisis.

You see ASD traits when he got the crisis. Living with NPD traits means living in a nightmare, whatever is ASD or not... that's why are so bad.

For example both Gordon and Joe in my opinion are two side of ASD spectrum, Gordon the goofy and Joe the NPD and both are ok and here are evident. Both are copying with ASD in different ways, Gordon drinks heavily.

Here Joe isn't hiding any of his neurodivergence. Here he is hiding.

Halt and Catch Fire -- Season 1

It is everything for a man to be creative. To create something is to live. The process of creation is a way of acknowledging your existence. To diminish creativity is to diminish self reflection. To let creativity take the form of consuming and sitting back is the same as someone else living out of your life for you.

Success is celebrated thouroughly usually. But failure is also expressed equally harshly. It is a rare luxury of habit to be indifferent. Ups and Downs are both expressed. Most humans have habitualised themselves to expressing both. Reacting drains energy. Reacting to good made Gordon Clark buy ferrari that was eventually stolen. Reacting to bad made Cameron Howe break into the house of Donna Clark who eventually helped her recover her bios. Inaction is not Not-reacting. Inaction is a reaction. Awareness imbued action gives curiosity and knowledge. Awareness imbued inaction teaches patience and observation. It is animal to be unaware, non-reflecting. It is human to be aware, reflecting. To be aware is to be creative. To force awareness is not possible by definition, but imitation of awareness in this way drains energy. To habituatise to unawareness is to be addicted. To follow awareness is to be creative. Humans have many creative poles. Success is dictated by a degree of distance to these poles. So, this psychologically leads to celebration, mourning.

Sex can be a tool. Any biological drive can have a rederived purpose. Awareness of psychology is needed. Even anger, revenge, power. Nathan Cardiff had a psychology of power, derived to some extent. Joe Macmillan of enterprising, creativity. Gordon Clark of passion earlier, then family. Cameron Howe of passion, sex. What Jon Bosworth felt towards the young talent -- appreciation, parenting -- became a driver of creativity for him. Family, kids, relationship can be a burden to creativity, but it can also be an aid to creativity.

Vishal Paudel

2024-10-24 08:00 Thursday

Hi All! The fan Discord server is starting a new rewatch of the show at 9 pm EST Sunday Oct 20.

How it works: We watch one episode a week (currently Sunday nights) and live text chat while it's playing. We don't stream the show through Discord so you will need to have access to the show on your own device. Chat happens in the WATCH CLUB halt-and-catch-fire channel, there will be a 10 minute reminder at 8:50 but no countdown for starting the episode - just press play on your respective device at 9:00 and join the discussion. Hope to see you there!

Invite: https://discord.gg/SWb24rZh (if this is expired send me a message and I will get you a new link)

If this time doesn't work for you: There has been interest in doing a concurrent rewatch at a different time to accommodate other time zones and schedules. I've created an alternate-time-zone-discussion channel under WATCH CLUB, please feel free to post time/day ranges that work best for your area.

Other things: We occasionally watch other tech and tech adjacent shows and movies together, right now on Mondays at 9 pm EST we're watching For All Mankind. The server is fairly quiet outside of rewatch times, but feel free to look around and post in the other channels.

I'm 7 episodes into season 4, and I just wanna say it: I HATE DONNA, like I only liked that character for a season and a half, more or less. I love the actress though(and the writers obv), because for someone to actually play a loveable character at first then turn it into a rotten vengeful human, that takes skill.

I love Joe, Cam, Gordo and Bos (order irrelevant)

and whose car is it? is it like an American festival thing?

My goodness, have already called off work tomorrow claiming my friend Gordon passed away. I’ve never been this shook by a characters death before, the way it was written in had by jaw on the floor but I quickly had to pick it back up because the tears started flowing. Then again when Hayley went to put her headphones on in the finale and Gordon started speaking. 11/10 show, loved every minute!

Edit: Fuck Yahoo!

At the end of episode when Joe goes to see the Apple demo the hotel room number is 1492, as in Columbus? What, so, I’m thinking there’s no way this was an accident. The next frontier, to Joe’s great dismay, as he encounters yet again, someone got there first.

Ok maybe I’m a total freak but anyone notice how the theme of recursion comes out in S4 and if you actually put a rough timeline together of the whole show you can trace the themes backwards and they pretty much meet in middle and begin and end with the same question “Let me start by asking a question.” Recursion as some version of Gordon’s definition of insanity, but the show sort of disputes the idea. It’s doing the same thing over and over and actually getting a different result. Posing the same question as an open form of inquiry and ideas was always the lifeblood of the show and the characters. The script works.

In the Halloween episode where Cam and Joe meet at her house and they inspect the hornets nest together, as though they’re peering into the terrifying unknown of the literal World Wide Web of connectivity to come? It would seem to be some sort of veiled premonition, but it’s one of my absolute favorite gems of this show.

What a great series - season 1 was ok, but someone here said to keep going. So so so worth it.

Was great seeing all the tech happen during the decades. So many times I was pointing at the tv saying oh oh oh that's the start of Doom or chat, or remembering websites having the Netscape navigator badge on them 😆

Man I loved Netscape Navigator!

Will be adding this to my list of series rotations

Edit: fixed up what I mean about season 1

Bos is cookin' up some DVD box-set chili for a lot of people this weekend and wants to know if anyone else needs a pot of chili for themselves since all of his ingredients are still out in the kitchen. Just DM me this weekend so I can tell Bos, before he puts all of his fixins away. iTunes? Man... they're chargin' 3 times more for their cinnamon chili! Keep that stuff in the cupboard where it belongs!

I've been waiting for this to be on sale for a while so I thought y'all might be interested. I know digital "ownership" has its issues but I already own season 1 and 2 on dvd and it doesn't look like we're getting anything else any time soon so I'm just happy to have a way to watch the series again.

https://tv.apple.com/us/show/halt-and-catch-fire/umc.cmc.5s15r46uj0wx044tipm2zoh88
Look for where it says "Box Set"

I'm introducing my mom to the show (I've seen it probably 3 times already) and we just finished season 1 episode 3. She was wondering why Gordon fired Brian, and what, if anything, the bird symbolized.

I told her I think Gordon fired Brian because Brian was always a naysayer, and kept trying to get Gordon to quit the project. After the crash, Gordon had a sort of mortality crisis and realized that if he didn't make the Giant now he might die before he got the chance.

And I think the bird symbolizes different things to Gordon and Donna. To Gordon it represented his own mortality. He comes back home after the car crash and marvels at the fact that the bird, like him, is still alive. But for Donna it represents Gordon's failings, his unwillingness to put in the effort in their relationship. Donna tries to get Gordon to kill it, but he can't (because its life is his own), so Donna once again has to roll up her sleeves and do the hard thing that no one else will.

But those are just my thoughts. What do you think?

What is the name of the spy movie Gordon and Katie were watching on tape at the beginning of the episode "Nowhere Man" ?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/speak-no-evil-mackenzie-davis-halt-and-catch-fire-1235998506/

I know many love the Cameron character and she does have her bright spots, but I just finished another rewatch and I think she hamstrung several plot points along the way. This leads me to think that she is the villain of the show.

Now I know the show had to play loosely around what really happened during that time, but she pretty much hamstrung all the big projects everyone worked on.

Season 1: This was her most justified show of frustration when they removed her OS from the Giant. This lead her to look for more independence and found Mutiny, but she also helped Boz embezzle funds which he took the fall for.

Season 2: She ran Mutiny like a child and it showed. Whenever she encountered Joe, she went into an instant spiral. The whole Tom relationship. The cherry on top was destroying the WestNet rollout with the Sonaris virus. Though justified in a way, she destroyed Joe's marriage and ended Jacob Wheeler's career.

Season 3: She was closed minded by continuing to have Mutiny only be operational on the Commodore 64. She fell off the face of the earth with zero contact when her company really needed her. Then she shows back up with yes better ideas, but her immaturity caused too much damage. Dragging her feet on open platforms, payments, and improving community. Not playing well with others leads to her being voted out. Then there's the end of season project where she kicks Donna to the curb.

Season 4: She creates an algorithm for Comet's direct competitor Rover and then sheepishly sits to the side when Joe initially finds out. How do you not offer something like that to the supposed person you love???