TOPIC: Superpowers, Madness, and the Pursuit of Interesting Problems

Dan and Merlin talk about the superpowers you have and can't control as well as the demons and drivers that our heroes have and can't control. How sometimes we find ourselves craving the screaming in someone else's head. Because, we surely do love and revere our Beautiful Losers and Genius Lunatics.

Entered into evidence: Hunter S. Thompson, The Incredible Hulk, Sylvia Plath, Brian Wilson, Nightcrawler, Van Gogh, Syd Barrett, Tom Waits, Robert Lowell, Howard Hughes, and Corporate Stooges (n.b.: Dan said that; not Merlin).

The upshot? Try not to get too obsessed with someone else's ether in the convertible or, for that matter, the cake in your own conference room.

Get excited about constantly releasing that "better version of yourself"—and make the world a happy beneficiary of your own particular madness.

Links for this episode:

• [SPONSOR] PDFpen for iPad: PDF Editing Software for Mac iOS
  
• Efficiency Ninja Part 3: A Tablet, a Stylus, a Man, and a Plan | GeekDad | Wired.com
  
• How to Transfer Kids' Activity Books to the iPad (GeekDad Wayback Machine) | GeekDad | Wired.com
  
• 5by5 | Back to Work #31: You Can Polish AC/DC All Day Long
  
• Scratching an itch through the scalp to the brain : The New Yorker
  
• kung fu grippe • Way of the future. Way of the future.
  
• Amazon.com: The Aviator (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition): Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe, Stanley DeSantis, Alan Alda, Kelli Garner, Edward Herrmann, Ian Holm, Danny Huston, Jude Law, Frances Co
  
• Amazon.com: The Aviator [Blu-ray]: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin, Stanley de Santis, Sam Hennings, Edward Herrmann, Ian Holm, Vincent Laresca, J.C. MacKenzie, Frances Conroy, Brent Spiner, Alan Alda, Dann
  
• Amazon.com: The Aviator: Leonardo Dicaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, John C. Reilly: Amazon Instant Video
  
• The Aviator (2004 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness: Donald L. Barlett,James B. Steele: 9780393326024: Amazon.com: Books
  
• Ultra Man Intro - YouTube
  
• Actuary - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• ALL THAT JAZZ. Show time - YouTube
  
• [SPONSOR] Squarespace (10% off with offer code, "`dingus`")
  
• The Aviator ending scene ("The way of the FUTURE.") - YouTube
  
• kung fu grippe • “That’s What You Do.” Viz. Ibid. Bless you,...
  
• Synecdoche, New York (2008)
  
• God Only Knows - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• There Will Be Some Changes Made - YouTube
  
• Hell's Angels (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• Tom Waits - Rockpalast 1977 02 Invitation To The Blues - YouTube
  
• Tom Waits - Invitation to the blues - YouTube
  
• The Mountain Goats - "Cubs in Five"
  
• Syd Barrett - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• Robert Lowell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• Ral Partha Enterprises - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
• 5by5 | Mac Power Users #102: Workflows with Jim Dalrymple
  
• Dan at Ultraman-watching Age
  

This week's episode of Back to Work is sponsored by Smile Software, and Squarespace.

Smile's PDFpen is a powerful Mac PDF editor at an affordable price: add text, images, and signatures, make corrections, fill out forms, edit images, OCR scanned pages and more

Sign up for Squarespace today to get an extra 10% off any new account with the offer code "soold" (as in, "Merlin looks sooooooo old!"). Watch Merlin's new Squarespace 6 site get built in real time (including screencasts) at http://merlinm.com/s6.