Back to Work

By 5by5Society & Culture Business Technology Careers

Back to Work episodes

April 24, 2018Episode 373: Red Cheekums
Discussed: Dan's gummi vitamins, vitamins in general, the childhood shame of those weird plaque pills, exotic sickness images, Fifth Disease comes to Austin, Dan's car troubles, Faraday Cages and how to build them, a potential t-shirt for you.
Dan was cleaning out his garage, and Merlin has a lot to say about the philosophy and practical components of getting rid of junk at scale. Also, Dan really kills it on eBay.
Merlin is very excited about Fantastic Four coming back and has some potential warnings about the new Wes Anderson film. Spoilers: there's nothing weak about knowing what freaks you out.
Also, the boys discuss why Merlin changed his mic setup. Which is fascinating.
Links for this episode:
A little-known California law is Silicon Valley's secret weapon - Vox
Apple, Google give high tech workers an extra $90 million in “no-poach” suit | Ars Technica
Ungainly X-Mann Meetup #22 — Merlin Mann
MERLIN MANN (Back to Work, Roderick on the Line, Reconcilable Differences, Do By Friday, You Look Nice Today, et al.) invites you to drop by Two Cats Comics on the evening of Thursday, May 17th to hang out, talk about comics, and just say, “Hi.” It's free and it's fun.
flickr downloadr - Batch download your flickr photos!
Amazon.com: Nature's Way Alive!® Immune Gummies, Food-Based Blend (150mg per serving) and Elderberry, Gluten Free, Made with Pectin, 90 Gummies: Health & Personal Care
Amazon.com: Jarrow Formulas Methylcobalamin (Methyl B12), Supports Brain Cells, 5000 mcg, 60 Lozenges: Health & Personal Care
The Basics on Fifth Disease
Amazon.com: Blocsilver High Protection EMF Wifi Radiation Shield Bed Canopy (Californian King): Home & Kitchen
Sara Pichelli's Excellent Tumblr [NSFW!]
Fantastic Four Returns this Summer from Dan Slott and Sara Pichelli
The Return of the Fantastic Four - The New York Times
Marvel Age-by-Age Guide | Common Sense Media
Isle of Dogs Movie Review
Does the Dog Die?
Isle of Dogs [2018] [PG-13] - 1.5.2
Merlin Mann on Twitter (re: "Isle of Dogs")
Weird datapoint. “Isle of Dogs” was a movie I expected to utterly adore, then only kinda liked in the theater, but now I keep thinking about it a lot a lot. So, I think maybe I liked it more than I thought?
Walter Hickey on Twitter: "#justice4hawkeye… "
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1 hr 49 min
April 17, 2018Episode 372: Hole That Rabbit
This week, the boys discuss Drafts, The Archive, Merlin's love of Spotify, some great playlists, and weird rules for cheerleaders.
In extensive follow-up, your hosts talk about the listener who was having trouble with addressing employees and social media use. This goes lots of interesting places.
Next up, even more input from listeners on social media policies and living life in a fishbowl.
Links for this episode:
Drafts | Agile Tortoise
Drafts (@draftsapp) | Twitter
Vector with Rene Ritchie: 033: Drafts, with Greg Pierce and Merlin Mann
Drafts is developed by Greg Pierce and used the hell out of by Merlin Mann. They sit down together to talk direction, workflows, and what's coming next.
Upgrade #189: Obsolescence Isn’t What It Used to Be - Relay FM
Baby's Breath · Bill Callahan
"Wild, Wild Country" playlist on Spotify
How N.F.L. Teams Use Social Media to Promote, and Control, Cheerleaders - The New York Times
Smog - Your Wedding - YouTube
Burt Bacharach - The Look of Love
Key & Peele - Substitute Teacher - YouTube
"Ay-ay-ron?"
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Slack (Slack: Where work happens. Find out why at Slack.com).
1 hr 31 min
April 10, 2018Episode 371: Avocado People
Bula vinaka, bee tee dubs nation! This is an epic odds and sods episode, replete with TV follow-up, font follow-up, and Wild, Wild Country follow-up, along with book recommendations, happy Splatoon 2 talk, and a pretty terrible 70s board game. Also, ubi sunt retail amirite?
Also, your hosts finally (finally!) address a listener's excellent and very difficult question about her millennial employee's use of social media. Lot of levels!
Links for this episode:
Rules of Thumb: A Life Manual: Tom Parker: 9780761150732: Amazon.com: Books
The Order of Things: Hierarchies, Structures, and Pecking Orders: Barbara Ann Kipfer: 9780761150442: Amazon.com: Books
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: The Definitive, 4th Edition: Betty Edwards: 9781585429202: Amazon.com: Books
Toys R Us blames Amazon, Target, Walmart for dealing death blow over holidays
Kid80s.com: M&M's "Thanks, Easter Bunny" Commercial from the 80s - YouTube
Splatoon 2 for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Game Details
Splatoon 2 - Turf War Gameplay - YouTube
Splatoon 2 Review - YouTube
Splatoon 2 for Nintendo Switch – Official Site
tonsky/FiraCode: Monospaced font with programming ligatures
The Times Issues Social Media Guidelines for the Newsroom - The New York Times
The new guidelines underscore our newsroom’s appreciation for the important role social media now plays in our journalism, but also call for our journalists to take extra care to avoid expressing partisan opinions or editorializing on issues that The Times is covering.
[PDF] Starbucks Dress Code
BBQ and Foot Massage
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Slack (Slack: Where work happens. Find out why at Slack.com).
Hullo Pillow (Visit hullopillow.com/backtowork to learn more).
1 hr 35 min
April 03, 2018Episode 370: King Jeremy the Wicked
This week, Dan and Merlin discuss Jessica Jones and the problem of super power constitution, plus some more Netflix recommendations ("Look away! Looooook awaaaaay!"). They also do a dive into updates on the monospace fonts they like and use. Next, up they talk about the new app, The Archive, contrasting with nvALT.
Finally, your hosts answer an excellent listener question about struggling to manage more experienced developers.
Links for this episode:
The Archive (macOS) • Zettelkasten Method
Jessica Jones (TV series) - Wikipedia
Alias (comics) - Wikipedia
Max (comics) - Wikipedia
Krysten Ritter - Wikipedia
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Wikipedia
Top 10 Programming Fonts
Introduction | IBM Plex
Getting Apple’s SF Mono Font in macOS – Shashikant Jagtap – Medium
source-foundry/Hack: A typeface designed for source code
Roboto Mono - Google Fonts
mozilla/Fira: Mozilla's new typeface, used in Firefox OS
DIN Schriften™ - Desktop font « MyFonts
Factor Rainbows | Worksheet | Education.com
Rainbow method to find all factors of a number - MAT0018 Additional resources - Oliver - LibGuides at Polk State College
Amazon.com: ART Pro Audio HeadAmp 4 Four Channel Headphone Amplifier: Musical Instruments
Netflix - A Series of Unfortunate Events
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eero (For free overnight shipping to the US or Canada, visit eero.com and at checkout select overnight shipping then enter BACKTOWORK to make it free).
Casper (Visit Casper.com/itsyourshow and use the code ITSYOURSHOW for $50 towards select mattresses).
1 hr 41 min
March 27, 2018Episode 369: Comic Blood
This week, your hosts say "Bula Vinaka!" They also discuss phone cards, some Netflix recommendations, Merlin's phone usage, and "accidentally" getting punched in the face by your kid. Of course, they also talk about the TV and voice control ecosystems.
They also respond to listener questions about better active listening, and how they each take notes for podcasts.
Links for this episode:
AT&T Fiji Commercial - YouTube
Netflix
Wild Wild Country | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix - YouTube
Netflix
Netflix
Flint water crisis - Wikipedia
List of Movies and TV Shows on Netflix | Flixable
Customer relationship management - Wikipedia
nvALT - BrettTerpstra.com
Would ‘Black Panther’ Work As TV? Plus Guilty Pleasures and New Music In the Mailbag | The Watch (Ep. 236 ) — The Watch — Overcast
Michael Wolfe's answer to Why is Dropbox more popular than other programs with similar functionality? - Quora
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1 hr 20 min
March 20, 2018Episode 368: Call the Mouse Guy
This week, your hosts discuss Steely Dan, digital mastering, The Police, Dune, high-quality VCRs, and Dan's brother-in-law's close call.
Next, they dive into a fascinating article on why projects fail.
Finally, the boys respond to a listener's question about cautious workplace enthusiasm.
Links for this episode:
The meaning of snafu, clusterfuck, and shitshow: There's a difference — Quartz at Work
SPARS code - Wikipedia
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FreshBooks (To claim your month long unrestricted free trial, go to FreshBooks.com/backtowork and enter BACK TO WORK in the “How Did You Hear About Us?” section).
1 hr 15 min
March 13, 2018Episode 367: A Favorite Child
This week, your hosts talk about some stuff they're doing, loving Spotify, some Echo podcast-listening tips, the attraction of Google Drive, some thoughts on backup strategies, getting swole, the joys of rock tumbler ownership, scary times in Austin, weird iMac problems, some more thoughts on backup strategies, Merlin's obsession with drumming videos, and yet more Apple TV foibles.
Links for this episode:
Ungainly X-Mann Meetup #21 — Merlin Mann
Amazon adds follow-up mode for Alexa to let you make back-to-back requests | The Verge
Mindfulness in Plain English - Audiobook | Audible.com
Beatles '66 - Audiobook | Audible.com
All the Pieces Matter - Audiobook | Audible.com
The Dragonet Prophecy - Audiobook | Audible.com
Spotify
Spotify Integration - Fireside
Amazon.com: My Pod: Alexa Skills
Home - My Pod
Using Google Drive - New Features, Benefits & Advantages of Google Cloud Storage
Microsoft OneDrive
Google Photos - Wikipedia
How to use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support
Shirt Pocket
SuperDuper!
Etcher
How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
How to download macOS Sierra - Apple Support
Cory Doctorow's craphound.com | Cory Doctorow's Literary Works
Audiobooks matching keywords percy jackson | Audible.com
School for Good and Evil
Bernard "Pretty" Purdie: The Legendary Purdie Shuffle - YouTube
No Retreat, No Surrender - Wikipedia
Jean-Claude Van Damme - Wikipedia
The Doctor's Promise - YouTube
Netflix
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Bombfell (For $25 off your first purchase, visit bombfell.com/backtowork).
1 hr 20 min
March 06, 2018Episode 366: Five Sides of the Street
This week, your hosts talk about using Windows, technology modalities, making sane decisions as a developer, reality TV, 20th anniversary of The Dude, Merlin's new fondness for Spotify, analyzing takes on the HomePod, options for high-quality in smart speakers, dealing with recurring financial (and psychological) eels, competitive heat in the smart home ecosystem, Canadians, and the name of Scotland Yard. They also answer a listener question about feeling overwhelmed by content options.
Links for this episode:
Amazon Alexa
(Choose default music services)
STAMP - Move to Apple Music, Spotify or Google Music
Stamp moves tracks and playlists across various services - Apple Music, Spotify, Google Music and others!
Amazon.com: AcuRite 01014M Weather Station with AcuRite Access for Remote Monitoring: Home & Kitchen
Under the Radar #120: Productivity by Inefficiency - Relay FM
Adopting inefficient hacks to save developer time, since hardware is so fast that it's often a worthwhile tradeoff.
Under the Radar #70: The Hacks We Ship - Relay FM
The difference between good and bad hacks, and some glorious hacks we've shipped in our apps.
GitHub Octoverse 2017 | Highlights from the last twelve months
GitHut - Programming Languages and GitHub
Sid the Science Kid, “Checking Out Charts” on Vimeo
Netflix
Credit union - Wikipedia
(1) The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England Explained - YouTube
Great Scotland Yard - Wikipedia
Bored and Brilliant | WNYC
The Beatles discography - Wikipedia
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1 hr 24 min
February 27, 2018Episode 365: Volume Eight
This week, Dan and Merlin talk about weather as a thing and giving up on Cash's dumb iPad problem. This leads to discussion about the risks, opportunities, and frustrations of having lots of data in different places (probably).
The main topic this week is an exploration of TickTick. Neat app.
They also almost talk about Black Panther.
Links for this episode:
TickTick
Overview · TickTick User Guide
Dew point - Wikipedia
Jaz drive - Wikipedia
MusicBrainz Picard
Queen - Somebody To Love (Official Video) - YouTube
TickTick - Todo & Task List - Chrome Web Store
STAMP - Move to Apple Music, Spotify or Google Music
Netflix
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HelloFresh (For $30 off your first week of HelloFresh, visit HelloFresh.com and enter promo code BACKTOWORK30).
1 hr 24 min
February 20, 2018Episode 364: The New Fudge
This week, Dan and Merlin talk a little too much about Harry Potter, but also manage to cover some other media properties as well as the shockingly limited options for British casting. Dan has a new task management app, and Merlin decides to give it a spin too. The need for help from the jackals who make Cash's iPad app is escalated.
In a somewhat classic style, the conversation moves to considering Big Issues around work, friction, modality, usability, and apps for pound-sign productivity.
Twitter, its apps, and its perplexing (lack of?) company direction are discussed. Merlin has something like a razor for this.
Dan is told that he is upset.
Links for this episode:
Thought-terminating cliché - RationalWiki
A thought-terminating cliché is a saying, often a tautology, that is repeated in order to relieve the stress of cognitive dissonance by avoiding all further consideration of a matter. Everyday examples include "it is what it is," "it's just common sense," and "you gotta do what you gotta do."
5by5 | Back to Work #299: Unhook from the Comparison
This week, Merlin shares some useful thoughts (via Patrick Rothfuss) on being careful about how we compare ourselves to others.
Manure Digester — Unattended Consequences — Overcast
Behind the scenes: Professor Flitwick - Pottermore
TickTick: Todo list, checklist and task manager app for Android, iPhone and Web
Merlin's Trick for Remembering HP ages and order
The Mythical Man-Month - Wikipedia
Towards a Bra-free Instagram Experience – NewCo Shift
Welcome to Willow Management
Douglas Adams - Wikipedia
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1 hr 25 min

About Back to Work

From the publisher's feed

Back to Work is an award winning talk show with Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin discussing productivity, communication, work, barriers, constraints, tools, and more.