It's mid-May 2024 and farmers across the Midwest are gearing up for one of their busiest times of the year, planting season.

In Nebraska and Kansas, farmers are getting ready to fire up their tractors and put some seed into the ground.

Everything that comes later in the year, the watering, the harvesting, the delivery of crops to fulfill government contracts.

It all stems from this crucial period of time.

Meanwhile, far across the country, a reporter is sitting at a bar.

I was actually at a bar in Los Angeles and I got a text message from one of my sources who lives in Nebraska.

Corn farmer, soybean farmer.

This is Jason Kebler.

He is a tech reporter and he's the co-founder of 404 media and host of their podcast.

And at that moment, Jason was getting a particularly hot tech tip.

And he texted me and he said,

all of my tractors stopped working today and everyone I know has stopped running their tractors today. Like this is a really big deal.

And I was like, what?

Like what are you talking about?

Farming is a very schedule-oriented profession.

It's like the corn needs to go into the ground

in this specific window.

And the window is not like you know get the corn in the ground

during the spring or during some month it's like get the corn in the ground in

this like four to five day window and then you will be able to water it on a

certain schedule and fertilize it on a certain schedule and then harvest it on a

certain schedule and so these farmers were telling me like our tractors stopped working.

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