Back to Work

Dan and Merlin talk about "Cranking" - Merlin's latest post at 43folders.com.

Links for this episode:

• Cranking | 43 Folders
  
• 100% New Zealand Bacon
  
• Netflix: Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run: 30th Anniversary Edition: Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run
  
• Netflix: Cyrano de Bergerac
  
• » Chip Scanlan | Poynter.
  
• Male Answer Syndrome
  
• Netflix - Watch Louis C.K.: Chewed Up
  
• Amazon.com: The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing - Richard Hugo
  
• Bruce Springsteen - "Thunder Road" - London, 1975
  
• YouTube: Cyrano de Bergerac Theatre Scene
  
• The Poetry of Project Management, by Jeffrey Veen
  
• "May I mambo dogface to the banana patch?" - kung fu grippe
  
• After Dark #18: After Back To Work 013 - 5by5
  

Sponsored by Worldview and Intuit.

Merlin Mann has some "followup" before he and Dan Benjamin discuss entrusting your agency to others, how to reclaim it, and picking the right balance between expertise and challenge instead of fixing your metadata.

Links for this episode:

• The ASC -- American Cinematographer: Post Focus:
  
• 002: Interview: Jonathan Coulton | The Merlin Show
  
• Don't Run DOS - 30 Seconds with Phone Guy - Merlin Mann
  
• Kinda My Idea - 30 Seconds with Phone Guy - Merlin Mann
  
• _Inbox Zero_ cover - Merlin's Mockup
  
• ANH:R Change List | Star Wars Revisited News
  
• Csikszentmihalyi: Challenge vs Skill.jpeg
  
• In The Life Of...The Beatles: Purple Chick Discography
  
• kung fu grippe - RE: Chewie's Medal
  
• WIKIP: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (That "Flow" Guy)
  
• Video: John Roderick on String Art Owls, Copper Pipe, and Bono's Boss | 43 Folders
  
• Of Sawdust and Mistakes - kung fu grippe
  

Sponsored by Audible and MailChimp.

Merlin Mann joins Dan Benjamin to talk about futureproofing your passion by finding your obsession and voice, putting away your buggy whip and evolving, spreading your chips out across safe and risky investments, and taking smarter chances.

Links for this episode:

• The Pipeline #49: Philip Elmer-DeWitt - 5by5
  

Sponsored by Shopify and King of the Apps.

Dan and Merlin try to remove the airquotes from "inspiration" by talking about what it's great for (shipping better and more interesting stuff), what it's terrible for (getting started). Also covered: Dan's Old Testament name(s), part of Merlin's body that was once believed to be inspired by air, the problem with Some Hot Chick Typing in Her Underwear, TKTKTK writing tips, plus Batgirl. Always with the Batgirl.

Links for this episode:

• Music Thing: Practice in front of a bush: Captain Beefheart's rules for guitarists
  
• Salvador Dali Museum (thedali.org) / The official site of the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, featuring a comprehensive collection of works by Salvador Dali.
  
• 750 Words
  
• Time Management, Productivity, & Project Tracking Software (Mac/PC) | RescueTime
  
• Letters of Note
  
• TSoYA: "With All Due Respect to the Seduction Community…" (Merlin Mann on Doing Creative Work)
  
• Amazon.com: MERLIN D MANN: Wishlist
  
• Writer's Block 1 by =Scherbius
  
• Kick procrastination's ass: Run a dash | 43 Folders
  
• Procrastination hack: '(10+2)*5' | 43 Folders
  
• At Last the 1948 Show - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• Hack your way out of writer's block | 43 Folders
  
• Fresh Starts & Modest Changes | 43 Folders
  
• MPU 046: Workflows with Merlin Mann II « Mac Power Users
  
• Webstock 2011 - Merlin Mann -" Scared Shitless: How I (Mostly) Learned to Love Being Afraid of Pretty Much Everything" [Merlin cries like a hobo pussy. Happy now?]
  
• “Distraction,” Simplicity, and Running Toward Shitstorms | 43 Folders
  
• "Some Hot Chick Typing in Her Underwear" (Now re-Tumblr-d 8656 times. KILL ME. —mdm)
  
• Wu Tang Clan - "Triumph" - In which Inspectah Deck drops the SINGLE GREATEST VERSE in hip-hop history [~00:00:36-00:01:25]
  
• Foo Fighters - "Everlong"
  
• Kraftwerk - "Autobahn"
  
• The Wrens - "Everyone Choose Sides"
  
• R.E.M. - "Moon River" & "Pretty Persuasion" (Live, 1984)
  
• Captain Beefheart on Letterman (ca. 1982)
  
• Blogsmith Bundle - Brett Terpstra
  
• Markdown Service Tools - Brett Terpstra
  

Sponsored by Sound Studio 4 and Worldview.

Dan and Merlin improvise topics this week and get from Synechode, NY to dopamine, being scared and being safe, believing your thoughts and coloring your dreams, and solving problems by moving your hands instead of thinking.

Links for this episode:

• Literature and Latte
  
• Better - Merlin Mann
  
• Four Years | 43 Folders
  
• Great Tools For Your Mac By Andreas Hegenberg » BetterTouchTool, BetterSnapTool & SecondBar
  
• YouTube - SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK : Official Trailer -- HD
  
• Louis CK - Turning 40 ("That's just a new *thing* you do")
  
• Amazon.com: Mac at Work (9780470877005): David Sparks: Books
  
• "Each time I sit down to write..." - Don Murray
  
• Audiobook: "Writing Down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg
  
• Amazon.com: Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting (9780060391683): Robert Mckee: Books
  
• Making the Clackity Noise - kung fu grippe
  
• MPU 023: Workflows with Merlin Mann « Mac Power Users (March 13th, 2010)
  

Sponsored by MailChimp.

This week, Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin eighty-six their restaurant jobs—emptying grease traps, handling logs of meat, and sharing what they learned by bringing mostly bad food to America's table. Dan burns velvet hands, Merlin's Mom gives the guy with the coupon a kung fu, and old people want a monkey dish of sauce before they boost all your Sweet'N Low.

Links for this episode:

• 43F Podcast: The Perfect Apostrophe | 43 Folders
  

Sponsored by Sourcebits and Audible.

Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin relate to Richard–a listener in the middle of a quarter life crisis working jobs he doesn't like–with stories from their pasts, suggestions to combat the cascade of seriousness, and some first steps for breaking out of the vocational wheel.

Links for this episode:

• Quarter-life crisis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• Saturn return - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• Artist's Dates
  
• The Artist's Way
  
• Morning Pages
  
• WCA: "Paul's Case"
  
• Amazon.com: Writing Down the Bones eBook: Natalie Goldberg, Staughton Lynd: Kindle Store
  
• NATALIE GOLDBERG
  
• Making the Clackity Noise - kung fu grippe
  
• The Artist's Way
  
• Where Is the Ham? | You Look Nice Today
  
• FL Driver's License; Summer, 1991 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
  
• Excerpts from Natalie Goldberg/Writing Down the Bones and Wild Mind
  
• Doodle: easy scheduling
  
• daybooks
  
• Amazon.com: The Essential Don Murray: Lessons from America's Greatest Writing Teacher (9780867096002): Donald M. Murray, Thomas Newkirk, Lisa C. Miller: Books
  
• Vachina | You Look Nice Today
  
• Writing sensible email messages | 43 Folders
  
• Idiocracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• Mind Tools - Management Training, Leadership Training and Career Training
  
• How to Make a Mind Map®
  
• Appreciating Donald Murray (a/k/a, “Quit trying... - kung fu grippe
  
• YouTube - Idiocracy (2006) [trailer]
  
• Baron Karza - Google Image Search [SWEET Micronauts]
  
• "Sounds like pops and buzzes from here"
  
• [ERRATA] Melrin Regrets the Error: Back to Work, s01e07
  
• Vinyl Fever to close its doors this weekend
  

Sponsored by FreshBooks and Rackspace.

Merlin Mann is back from Webstock and ready to recap with Dan Benjamin, which leads back to caring first, performance and fear, meditation, hypnotherapy, and why you really need the hard answer instead just more tips.

Links for this episode:

• The Conversation #27: Missionless Statements - 5by5
  
• MacSparky - Blog - Mac Power Users - Workflows with Merlin Mann
  
• Introducing the Hipster PDA | 43 Folders
  
• MacGuffin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• Amazon.com: Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware (Pragmatic Programmers) (9781934356050): Andy Hunt: Books
  
• Amazon.com: The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master (0785342616224): Andrew Hunt, David Thomas: Books
  
• Back to GTD: Do a fast "mind-sweep" | 43 Folders
  
• BOOK: "Creating Flow with OmniFocus," by Kourosh Dini, M.D. (HIGHLY recommended by Merlin)
  
• Hivelogic - The Paleo Diet: A Link Primer
  
• AUDIO: Quotidian Public Radio - "The 14-Second Work Year"
  
• VIDEO: Makebelieve Help, Old Butchers, and Figuring Out Who You Are (For Now) | 43 Folders
  
• PHOTO: "We Look Nice Today" by lonelysandwich - kung fu grippe
  
• Clear and Present Danger (1994)
  
• Amazon.com: The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play (9781585425525): Neil Fiore: Books
  
• Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology : The New Yorker 
  

Sponsored by MailChimp and CodeConf 2011.

Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin talk about the black art of paying attention to the right things, how lamps are no substitute, that it's hard whether you’re working from home or a cube, being honest about your expertise before looking for independence, and the need to move past inspiration.

Links for this episode:

• Dunning–Kruger effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• Theory of Forms - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• Dreyfus model of skill acquisition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• Software Integrity Blog » Blog Archive » The Dreyfus Model - Back In The Spotlight?
  

Sponsored by Shopify and King of the Apps.

Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin talk about trying to change other people, how things really aren’t that bad, balancing fear or being driven by fear, leaving capacity for when you get The Pitch, procrastination (eventually), and giving yourself permission to fail in an interesting way. You’re not gonna get black lung from a spreadsheet.

Links for this episode:

• Why Wesabe Lost to Mint - Marc Hedlund's blog
  
• Viktor Frankl - Wikipedia ("…finding meaning in all forms of existence…")
  

Sponsored by MailChimp and Sourcebits.