C. talks about changes in creative output, Lam and C. ponder the importance of deadlines and weekly routines, they question the meaning of things once the obvious goals are gone, Lam praises repetition while begrudging coming home to make choices, somehow they make the point that pure democracy is terrifying without descending into actually talking about politics, they debate the existences of genius and natural talent, they tear apart the idiom of 'practice makes perfect,' Lam informs C. that there will be a fourth Matrix movie, he then tries to convince him to watch the Foundation tv show, and C. replies by telling him that he has no interest in the Will Smith adaptation of I Am Legend.

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The guys return again after a false start last year and the mess that was 2020 (and part of 2021.) Will they survive? Will they record again? That's the plan. This week's tangents include: dieting to relieve stress, college radio, the story of why Chad's grandfather believed in UFOS, a strange magazine synchronicity, Dune vs The Foundation, the question of what is Dune really about, mall culture, dealing with PTSD, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and why the transporters on Star Trek are murder machines.

Mentioned Media

Patreon link: College Dropout Radio #1

TV: Star Trek: Voyager

Podcast: Ep 35 - Chaotic Neutral with Lam

Magazine: Fate

Movie: Dune

TV: Foundation

Book: Dune

Book: Foundation

The Robot Series

Jasper Mall

Toto- Africa (playing in an empty shopping centre)

Book: Born on the Fourth of July

Movie: Born on the Fourth of July

Book: Dawn of the New Everything

Book: Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life

Podcast: Ep 42 - Missing Logic in Missing 411

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This conversation picks where I'm reminded that Lam had wanted me to tell him about my new writing habits, which I was eager to do because I'd been trying for a while to articulate what I'd been discovering in the past month. Process—when it's working—turns out to be incredibly hard to explain.

Most of this new process originates from a small story in a Seth Godin interview where he shares part of Isaac Asimov's own writing process. There are few better places to seek answers on writing than from Asimov who was one of the most prolific authors of all time. In fact, "prolific" may not even be the right word. We may have to invent a new word. Micheal Crichton is prolific, having written 32 books. Above that is the category where you find Stephen King (with approximately 79 books and 200 short stories) and Joyce Carol Oates (with approximately 170 books.) But above them, all sits Isaac Asimov who wrote approximately 400 books!

Having myself tried the technique that Godin describes, I can understand why Asimov was able to write that many books. This technique, which I refer to as "freewriting," is a bit like turning on a fire hose. You'll hear me use those exact words with Lam when I tell him how it scared the hell out of me. This is one of the parts that I was having trouble trying to find words for. The others being:

how this ties into habit-forming

why notebook abandoning is so common among writers

why I was continually busting my ass and achieving so little

what I got wrong about what writing is

how it feels for me to be writing again

and another big one: the difference between understanding and knowing

Mentioned Media

North Star Podcast — Seth Godin: Writing Every Day

Wilderness — Jim Morrison

The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results — Gary Keller & Jay Papasan

The Tim Ferriss Show #483 with Jim Collins

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Lam returns from two months in the Sarlacc pit we affectionately call the 2020 election. as usually we talk about more stuff than I care to list but the nature of political opinions, the future of news, the credibility of garbage content, and the scorpion tale of corporations all come up. Yet! I honestly don't think this is a heavy episode. I'm just really trying to convince everyone to move to Bangkok.

Lam returns from two months in the Sarlacc pit we affectionately call the 2020 election. as usually we talk about more stuff than I care to list but the nature of political opinions, the future of news, the credibility of garbage content, and the scorpion tale of corporations all come up. Yet! I honestly don't think this is a heavy episode. I'm just really trying to convince everyone to move to Bangkok.

Brief

Sleepy Hollow

Somebody Feed Phil

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Important episode for all subscribers to listen to. I will be combining all of my podcasts into one mega feed. My purpose has always been to create something with the passion and variety of old school personal blogs and the intimate feeling of a late night radio show. By putting all of my shows together I can begin to create that. The topics of books, true crime, and creative challenges all belong together. They should be commingling with each other and with other topics.

I will still be making episodes about what I'm reading.

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https://itmatters.captivate.fm/listen (https://itmatters.captivate.fm/listen)

If you aren't already you can follow me on twitter - https://twitter.com/therealchadhall (@therealchadhall)

And you can ☕️https://ko-fi.com/chadhall (Buy me a coffee☕️)

Finally picked up my copy of Allie Brosh's book Hyperbole and a Half. I was immediate struck by how damn good it is and also by the idea of writing letters to past versions of yourself. I have to admit I'm particularly vulnerable to this idea because of my belief in multiple egos. So, that's what I talk about in this episode...that and explaining a slight adjustment to the way that I'm doing these episodes to avoid becoming a book summarizer...boring.

We're really excited to be back and we're cracking a few beers to celebrate. Things get a little sloppy as we talk about why we're back, how we got here, and where we think we're going. Then we have an interesting conversation about streaming video programming wherein we long for episodic television, we question the hour-long format, and we admit how little the difference between good tv and bad tv matters. We hope you're as happy about our return as we are!

Lam's Beer: Taco Trunk by Dustbowl Brewing Co.

Chad's Beer: Mind Circus by Russian River Brewing Co.

Pluto TV

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Breathing is integral to life, yet many of us are doing in it wrong—I sure was. As someone who deals with sleep apnea, anxiety, mouth-breathing and more this books has really helped me to see the importance of learning small things to breath better and live longer...and to be less miserable. This is pretty personal episode about a really fun book.

Howard Eichenbaum believed that our abilities for autobiographical memory and imagination may be built upon the hippocampus' spatial structures—that what we refer to as "mental maps" may literally be mental maps. This is likely why memory palaces work so well.