The Peter Verdone Interview ala Ronen Sarig

A bit over a year ago, I sat down with my friend Ronen Sarig to discuss what made him tick. I had been looking forward to this. We share a bond that spans many levels. Riding bikes, engineering, philosophy, etc. I knew we’d have fun with this…and we did.

The problem was me. I felt that I hadn’t done a good job with the interview. I wasn’t at my best. After a long while, Ronen suggested that we give it another shot. This sounded great, but I felt that we’d do better with a new take. Ronen should interview me. His rules.

I knew that Ronen wanted something to come together that would resemble works of Tyler Cowan or Colman Hughes. Something tight and succinct. That’s hard for me to do. I go long. I spiral. I didn’t make it easy for Ronen even as I was trying to match his goal. Maybe if I get interviewed myself more, I’ll get practice and better.

So we sat down and did that. We broke it up into two sessions. The first in my living room and we’d talk about engineering. Then in his living room where we’d talk about life and such. This would keep our energy.

Below find the recordings of those two sessions.

Engineering (01:55:12):

http://www.peterverdone.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Pete-with-Ronen-Engineering.mp3

Life (02:10:19):

http://www.peterverdone.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Pete-with-Ronen-Life.mp3

Listening to the life interview, I felt good about what I had said and the way I phrased things. None of this is a prepared lecture so there are going to be hiccups but that’s the game.

Notes:

Sheldon Brown

Sutherlands’s Handbook For Bicycle Mechanics

Barnett Bicycle Institute Manual DX – 14th Edition

Team Robot

Anachronism

Pulled into PinkBike: https://www.peterverdone.com/the-art-and-science-of-front-end-geometry/

Don Quixote

“Never wrestle with a pig: You both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”

Taking flack: Flak is a contraction of German Flugabwehrkanone. Anti-aircraft fire in WW2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.8_cm_Flak_18/36/37/41

https://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/threads/for-those-who-mount-their-own-tires-important.164403/

“A Worthy Rival does some or many things better than us. Their strengths reveal to us our weakness. The value of Worthy Rivals is to show us where we can improve and grow.” – Simon Sinek