Back to Work

DISCUSSED: Merlin's additions to Bunch have him stepping on his own dingus; maybe it's time to invert the permissive legacy model for who gets access to us (as well as how and when); there's no amount of technology that can make other people be decent; Oh. Hey. Defaults? Be better; also, please quit stealing my focus; Dan is not buying anything new; your hosts talk about the various (often non-obvious) costs of adding, changing, or removing features; maybe building your whole business on Facebook wasn't such a great idea; passing discussion of Bloom County, Muppet dogs, and a Tilikum bottle; the tale of Underscore's unexpected success, and the costs it brought; talk of affordances; and, finally, Just cough up some dough, Mac!

Links for this episode:

• Can U2’s Songs of Innocence Be Removed From Apple Account?
  
• ELECTION PROFIT MAKERS
  
• Strong Songs is creating podcasts about music | Patreon
  
• Blackfish (film) - Wikipedia
  
• The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film) - Wikipedia
  
• Opus the Penguin - Wikipedia
  
• The Flop House Animated - The Porthole of Time - YouTube
  
• Bunch - BrettTerpstra.com
  
• 15 Early Telephone Etiquette Rules We Should Bring Back | Mental Floss
  
• Semantic satiation - Wikipedia
  Semantic satiation is a psychological phenomenon in which repetition causes a word or phrase to temporarily lose meaning for the listener, who then perceives the speech as repeated meaningless sounds.
  

DISCUSSED: Merlin has a lot to say about the benefits of making lists; this leads to an old-school stemwinder on "Journal" calendars, functional playlists, shared Notes, the lessons of the cutlery drawer, desire paths, arbitrary grids, "Reference" albums, urban bike hooks, auxiliary paper towel holders, and more; praise for The Boys; the magical combination of Halide and Pixelmator Photo; Dan resurrects a beloved podcast; and, finally, Merlin endorses a really weird British weather report that can help you sleep.

Links for this episode:

• Desire path - Wikipedia
  
• The Pot Roast Principle | Psychology Today
  "I don't know. That's just the way my mom always cooked it. Why don't you ask her?"
  

DISCUSSED: hey, it's an advice episode!; San Francisco has a lot of available office space; a musical unguent for your soul; a cool font that makes accessibility pretty; getting in front of your next wave of depression; the Emotional Police are here to cite you for your numerous infractions; and, finally, Merlin highly recommends a recent podcast episode about why we're all so exhausted and what we might want to do about it.

Links for this episode:

• Visualizing the Vacant Office Space in San Francisco
  In other words, there’s roughly 8.7 Salesforce towers, or 516 Salesforce tower floors, worth of empty office space in San Francisco at the moment, which is roughly enough space to accommodate between 67,000 (based on an average, pre-Covid, density) and 91,000 (a la twitter) worker bees.
  

DISCUSSED: Sending good vibes to The Dude; Merlin has a couple awesome app recommendations; some Follow-Up on the Apple Event, including what your hosts are ordering and what they're each excited about; which kinds of things your hosts do and do not find useful about the Apple Rumor Industrial Complex; Dan tries on a new iOS camera app; Merlin recommends a clever web cam app; some of our voice friends hear well, others understand well, and some sound good, but none (for now) do it all; finally, Dan finds some productivity insight, courtesy of The Buddha.

Links for this episode:

• An overly complex hack for finding books on cluttered shelves (Interconnected)
  
• Memos - Private Memory
  
• Bunch - BrettTerpstra.com
  
• Reincubate Camo - Use your phone as a pro webcam, free
  
• Marriage Logic Map
  
• Adittapariyaya Sutta: The Fire Sermon
  
• Jeff Bridges Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ - YouTube
  
• Jeff Bridges Remains 'Chill' During Troubling Times - YouTube
  
• Jeff Bridges, John Goodman And Steve Buscemi Talk ‘The Big Lebowski’ In Extended Inteview | TODAY - YouTube
  
• 10 Questions for Jeff Bridges - YouTube
  
• Dakota Johnson & Jeff Bridges Answer the Web's Most Searched Questions | WIRED - YouTube
  
• Too Many Cooks | Adult Swim - YouTube
  

DISCUSSED: Merlin is reporting live from the show floor; Dan is due for a new phone; nostalgia for buying a carton of cigarettes; praise for Netflix's "Challenger" series; Merlin shares some updates on his big resource-leveling project; gotta find those big rocks, amirite; interruptions are the death of the tech person's day; remember, your work is part of your life—not separate from it.

Links for this episode:

• "Challenger: The Final Flight" (Netflix)
  
• Apple’s new HomePod mini speaker revealed in leaked images - The Verge
  
• Nostromo patch | Etsy
  
• NASA Armstrong Fact Sheet: Shuttle Carrier Aircraft | NASA
  
• F-1 Rocket Engine | National Air and Space Museum
  
• You Are Allowed 20 Birthday Parties - YouTube
  

DISCUSSED: Merlin craves an easy visit with Floyd; Spirit's lawsuit no longer winds on down the road; Question: what obligation does a company have to support their developer tools? And for how long exactly?; when are new film editions not "the good one?"; despite swearing not to do so, a popular service for monetizing indie content is, as they say, put on blast; lot of talk about business things; waiters shouldn't lie to people who used to be waiters; exciting developments in the Drafts ecosystem; and, finally, Merlin unleashes an old school stem-winder on taking a recent stab at resource-leveling—using technology!

Links for this episode:

• Introducing the ThoughtAsylum Suite for Drafts | ThoughtAsylum
  
• ThoughtAsylum - Tasks & Lists | Drafts Action Directory
  
• Airtable
  
• Guide to kanban view – Airtable - Support
  
• Introduction to Kanban Guide – What is Kanban? | Planview
  
• What Is Kanban And How Can It Be Used To Increase Productivity? | by Sandeep Kashyap | Medium
  
• Led Zeppelin emerges victor in 'Stairway to Heaven' plagiarism case | Reuters
  
• 40 Years Ago: George Harrison Found Guilty of 'My Sweet Lord' Plagiarism
  
• An update on Patreon’s API - Updates - Patreon Community
  
• Patreon raises $60M Series D, targets international growth and more customization | TechCrunch
  
• Patreon Tops $1 Billion Valuation as Pandemic Brings a Surge in Creators to Platform - WSJ
  
• Kanban (development) - Wikipedia
  
• Alien: The Differences Between Theatrical & Director's Cut
  Ultimately, the director’s cut of Alien doesn’t drastically change much for fans of the movie. Even Ridley Scott himself considers the theatrical release the true version of the film and representative of his vision for it.
  

DISCUSSED: the boys update one another on some very good media they're enjoying; everybody loves a movie with a big world; Merlin pitches Dan on the improbable magic of Ted Lasso; talk turns to some new features of Apple's recent OS updates; at length, Merlin makes a case for exploring the amazing new functionalities of widgets, complications, and especially the apps of Underscore David Smith; Guardian gets an exciting update and a pro plan; there's some talk of the challenge in finding a VPN that actually does what you think it's doing; it seems like the show is over, but then there's twelve minutes of movie talk with a focus on children and boobs; finally, Merlin kinda busts a gut about trying to run a Mr. Rogers on the kids you care about.

Links for this episode:

• Ep. 397: "Open Ticket" - Roderick on the Line - Merlin Mann
  The Problem: John likes to divide his life up into stories.
  

DISCUSSED: Folks, this one is a doozy, and that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Links for this episode:

• Inbox Zero: Merlin Mann's Tips for Managing Your Life Online | GQ
  “I've come to think of it as more of a philosophy than a methodology,” he says now. “It’s about trying to put a stake in the ground with regard to your attention. It’s a way of saying, ‘Some people are allowed to have some of me, some of the time. Regardless of what the world demands of me, here’s what I’m offering.’”
  

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition…

DISCUSSED: Merlin is reporting live from the show floor; remember to photograph your kid's room; some bearded dragon updates; some thoughts on pets; Merlin's grandfather was a reluctant dog obsessive; Dan wants to read you a label; Merlin met a fellow cadet; check out Dan's videos; Merlin is loving iOS 14, especially the smarter Siri suggestions; speculation on how machines learn; your hosts still want Macs to be Macs; Big Sur notifications are basically a Bop It; are we getting diminishing returns from theoretical Mac improvements?; Dan has a really good analogy involving wrist watches; there's a reason normal people don't like their apps to change; Merlin puts review requests on blast; an edit button would still be nice; Merlin finds himself with an unusual opportunity to field test some disused home tech; and, finally, it is hoped that Frasier will leave of his own volition.

Links for this episode:

• Cataract surgery - Mayo Clinic
  
• Dan Benjamin - YouTube
  
• Amazon.com: Craftsman 9-31794 Slotted Phillips Screwdriver Set, 17 Piece: Home Improvement
  
• Merlin Mann on Twitter: "No new @RoderickOn this week, but I did make something new with something old, mostly for my own amusement. "In a world…" https://t.co/6UicdysnES" / Twitter
  Merlin made a trailer for the "Supertrain" episode of Roderick on the Line.
  

DISCUSSED: California has no shortage of crises; Dan's got a brand new bag; thoughts on exercise as prophylactic medicine; extremely anecdotal data on the rise of fake ratings and reviews on Amazon; the return of "A cool thing I learned this week" brings some very neato apps, tips, and whatnot.

Links for this episode:

• TextSniper is a great Mac utility for converting graphics to text - 9to5Mac
  
• TextSniper - Capture any text from your Mac's screen
  
• LaunchBar Help (Clipboard History)
  
• Use Time Machine on your Mac to back up to multiple disks - Apple Support
  Time Machine rotates the backup schedule among the disks. For each disk, Time Machine backs up everything that’s changed since the last time that disk was used. If you designated items that shouldn’t be backed up, the list of excluded items applies to all backup disks.