NTL: Improving In Work, Life, And Learning

This is the last episode of the NTL Podcast.  Because they’ve decided to move in different directions Jon and Jess decided to close out the show with a discussion on how and when to end projects, how to make sure you’re respecting those you work with, and specifically how they made the decision to move on.  They also share more about other projects they’re working on that will take up the time saved from NTL.

When to end projects

How to make these decisions with collaborators in mind

Other Projects our hosts are working on

Other things we’re working on:

Go try out Zak the baker in Miami

Jess’s blog - Straight From The Sources Mouth - supporting farmers and businesses that clear and transparent supply chains

Jon’s podcast about urbanism - Polis: A Show About Cities

Jon’s podcast about everything interesting in the world - While We’re On The Subject

Jon on Twitter - @JonJamRob

Jon’s - YouTube Channel

Jess and Jon discuss the complicated business of building successful collaborations and how to manage control, trust, and the flow of information in situations where there is no boss or clear authority.  They also talk about a new collaboration of Jon’s (a new podcast on Subject Radio) and how to maintain a remote community or build a new community in person when you pick up and move.

How to productively build sustainable collaborations

The importance of clearly assigning roles and empowering people to make decisions

How to maintain and foster communities remotely and in person

The Polis Podcast: A new fortnightly show all about cities and how they shape our world with Benjamen Ulrey and Jon Roberts

The Polis Podcast Logo

Jess and Jon touch on what they’ve been reading and learning about lately before talking about their writing processes including everything from the software they use to how they seperate editing from composition.  They follow this up with some unusual thoughts on setting deadlines, how you can use others to keep yourself accountable, and how regularizing things and focusing on habit formation can make all of this easier.

How to think about the process of writing and editing

How to prioritize tasks based upon your energy levels

The value of deadlines and how to get that value without adding stress

Books:

My Kitchen Cure - Mee Tracy McCormick

The Lean Startup - Eric Ries

What Jon has been cooking:

Honey Sesame Seared Salmon

Roast Butternut Squash with Apples & Bacon

Skillet Chicken Cacciatore

Pomodoro timers

Jon and Jess start by touching on proactively dealing with procrastination.  Then they discuss their years in review and explain their plans for the coming months.  They debate the ins and outs of developing complex creative skills and whether copying other peoples’ work should be a part of this process.  They then go into their reasons and inspiration for the NTL podcast in the context of the kinds of media they consume. They close by analyzing the progressive changes in the broader media landscape, how much more narrowly niched educational content is being made these days, and some warnings about the dangers of niching down too far.

Listen to this Episode and Learn:

How the hosts have put together their goals for the coming year

The role that copying has in the process of developing new skills

The differences between technique and creativity

How the content and medium of content can complement one another

Mentioned in the Episode:

Tree app: stay focused, be present. Don’t kill your forest

Rescuetime - time and productivity tracker, can block websites for you

Chris guillebeau - how to review and plan a year

Pat flynn - smart passive income

Leonard Cohen: hallelujah, and Dance me to the end of love

Pardon the interruption - ESPN Sports commentary

The Daily Show - started shift toward “infotainment”

Aziz Ansari: master of none

7 Habits of Highly Effective People - some good ideas, way too long

Asian Efficiency - The Productivity Podcast

Jon and Jess talk about the pressure to have new year’s resolutions, the busy circus that is December, and how they’re preparing for the coming year.  They go on to discuss how important the recent sexual abuse scandals are and why they feel compelled to address them.  They explain how the internet has pressaged and created the environment that allows for these scandals to be made public, discuss some parallels with the progress of the civil rights movement, and debate whether the shift in sentiment around the scandals is a momentary blip or a permanent change.  They also go into their personal views on the boundaries of relationships in work and the difficulty of deciding what is acceptable when you work independently or are networking in less formal settings.  They close by touching on the international impact of the scandals.

Listen to this Episode and Learn:

How our hosts are preparing for the coming year

The long term impact of the recent sexual abuse scandals

How our hosts think about relationship boundaries in work and networking

The international impact of the recent sexual abuse scandal

Mentioned in the Episode:

Trump Access Hollywood bus controversy

Trump’s accusations of sexual assault

Harvey Weinstein accusations

UK Parliamentary sex scandals

Francois hollande mistress scandal

Jess and Jon trace the progress of technology since the 1980’s and how that has gradually reduced barriers to entry for many freelancers and small scale entrepreneurs.  It has also disaggregated many media and creative industries.  They then talk about the effects of this on the global economy, our individual working lives, and increased the return on personal development and hard skills.  This trend is largely driven by the dropping cost and complexity of production and distribution methods.   After that they break down how mindsets about lifelong learning, personal development, and physical fitness have changed in recent years.  They close with a discussion on the illusion of talent, how we undervalue things we can’t see, how perceived weaknesses and strengths are self reinforcing, and  the difference between simple skills and highly composite skills.

Listen to this Episode and Learn:

How Changes in production and distribution have reshaped the working world

The growing importance of personal development

The illusion of talent and invisibility of skill development

Why getting useful feedback is so difficult

Mentioned in the Episode:

Pic monkey - photo editor

Canva - photo editor and design software

Comedians in cars getting coffee

Switching costs as a concept

Book: Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

Correction: Muggsy bogues is 5’3”

El salvadorians - our generation is short because many of them were malnourished in the 90’s

Amateur hours - where we started learning things in 30 hr chunks, so that we go from we can’t do something to we can do it and can do it kind of poorly.

Listen to this Episode and Learn:

How we think about choosing jobs, friends, and where to live

The importance of intentionality when making decisions

How your own values interface and sometimes conflict with other motivations

Mentioned in the Episode:

Host Challenges:

Jess’s articles are done

Jon finished a rough edit of his animation

Jess’s Website - Straightfromthesourcesmouth.co

Jess and Jon give an update on the challenges they laid down for themselves last week. They then explore how they make major decisions about what matters in a place to live, where to work, and how they spend their free time.  They explain their thinking and motivation going into big moves between countries.  Then they discuss the value of putting yourself in difficult or challenging situations, the importance of intentionality and taking action rather than letting things happen to you, and the need to define your own success by focusing on possibility and abundance rather than limitations.  They close with how people overestimate the risks of mistakes and their thinking about the weight of your values in the face of questions about your income and financial stability.

Listen to this Episode and Learn:

How we think about choosing jobs, friends, and where to live

The importance of intentionality when making decisions

How your own values interface and sometimes conflict with other motivations

Mentioned in the Episode:

Host Challenges:

Jess’s articles are done

Jon finished a rough edit of his animation

Jess’s Website - Straightfromthesourcesmouth.co

Jess and Jon get into Jess’s new job at the bakery, the history of bread, and brewing beer.  After that they talk about what outcomes matter in side projects, how investment in skill development squares with producing value now, and how we can make things more efficient by finding activities that allow us to work two two different goals at the same time.  They then break down their thinking about Checklists, SOPs, and mind maps, how these are used, and the kinds of information they’re best suited to organize.  They also talk about some recent travels to the Cliffs of Moher, England, and Italy, cheap plane tickets, the cold of Ireland, and the heat of Miami.

The Cliffs of Moher

Galway city’s population: 80k

York’s history - hasn’t mattered for a long time

Cooked - Michael Pollan

Jess’s current project - a blog on transparency in supply chain

Amateur hours - work on a specific skill for 30 hours

Getting Things Done - David Allen

SOPs - Standard Operating Procedures

Todoist - task management

OneNote - digital notebook

Trello - a kanban task manager

Evernote - a place to save anything to reference later

NTL’s Facebook

Jess and Jon discuss daylight savings time, how tracking their time has surprised them and dig deep into Language learning with a conversation about how to think about learning pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar and the differences between these. They also talk about a Net Impact conference Jess attended and how to connect with interesting and like minded people after moving to a new city.

Jess and Jon discuss routines, building habits, sleep schedules, attention spans, pomodoro timers, GTD, and measuring the success of plans.  They then dive into time tracking, misconceptions around how we spend our time, and the power of collecting data on yourself and generating your own feedback.  They wrap up with a run down of the technology they use to stay organized and lay down some challenges for themselves for the week.