Fresh off of taking in some glorious mid-winter sunbeams, Russ seals himself up in an interior room with inferior audiovisual equipment. Astronomy these days isn’t riding the high it used to. Terry wonders out loud about trusting the stars. And trusting anything.

2m 8s We’re not in decline, we’re just in a trough. Or something.

3m 50s Kids these days can’t name constellations.

4m 53s Marveling at the overall shortness of time, if you’re measuring in generations.

10m 30s “This is not a tangent at all.” - Russ Waddell

15m 20s Astronomical wonder and Instagram reels.

19m 1s Kids today are out here committing tax fraud by accident.

27m 7s Did the Mad Max movies include zombies?

When the little things are big flaming balls of gas hundreds of thousands of miles across sustaining all life on Earth, is it worth waking up early just to bask in the glow? That, and imaginary submarine missions. 

1m 58s Feeling bad for those confined to solitary. 

3m 30s SPONTANEOUS SUNSHINE SONG ROUNDUP 

7m 21s Nirvana: They’re not putting out another live album. 😬 

8m 56s Submarine missions and job assignments. Every submariner must wear many hats. 

12m 16s Regional pronunciations. 

22m 45s Early riser perks.

How does one feel about the outdoors? A trivial question on its surface reveals deep, foundational worldviews and interpretations of self and society. Although when all is said and done, mayb just go feel the grass.

4m 19s Raised by the woods.

7m 10s Very specifically sky blue.

8m 34s The salt life is calling and I must go.

13m 28s Building the illusion of deep wilderness, starting with eliminating the people sounds.

15m 16s Better to die at the hands of the wilderness than in a boring old car crash.

28m 56s The internet makes you stupid. Don’t smoke.

31m 50s “Just go feel the grass.” -Terry Miller

Fresh off of a long series on learning (for adults), Russ has some scary questions for returning guest Larry Grate. A consensus is reached that doing is in fact the best way of learning; Russ remains concerned that his personal information may be compromised by some rookie mistake when “learning” cybersecurity. A questionable set of experiments are conceptualized.

0m 20s Honeypots are real.

2m 12s Making attractive targets for “hackers” then attempting basic cybersecurity hygiene.

5m 40s Cost is not a factor for this particular contrived human-robot mousetrap, or more accurately it is strongly preferred that it have no cost.

7m 30s Hacker trapping as a service (HTAAS, pronounced hot-tass).

8m 47s “A little knowledge is the most dangerous of all knowledge.”

12m 30s If someone really wants into your network, how likely is it that they’re getting in? True second hand stories of human engineering and treacherous emotional manipulation.

18m 22s First, build a semi-secure device that you are going to depend on to live. Next, put it in your body. Finally, don’t let it get hacked.

25m 12s The technical details on your basic home internet of things doohickies versus hardened, industrial grade internet of thingamajiggers.

Stories come from everywhere, but if you’re Terry and Russ they don’t come from novels. Or poems. Or short stories. Or novellas. Or movies. Or TV shows. So where do these guys get their fiction and why are all the usual avenues falling short for them?

0m 26s It can be difficult to coax stories from monkeys, birds, and other wildlife. But not impossible.

3m 30s Not reading Kurt Vonnegut novels.

4m 41s Questionable reasons to judge decorated music producer Rick Rubin.

9m 6s Banjos and campfires make for better stories.

18m 32s Organic stories in sports and life. Manufactured storylines vs the stories in Terry’s head.

26m 0s Offending jocks who can’t read good.

Learn from others. There are some things that must be done alone, but making it through life isn’t one of them. Today, the guys explore where mentorship comes from, the form it takes over a career and as you age. They come up thirsty in the end with more questions raised than answered.

1m 27s Segue way school.

4m 38s Where mentors come from. (The answer is “lunch.”)

7m 43s The possible decline of institutional mentorship and whatever happened to the Masons.

10m 50s Looking young vs being young.

16m 21s What a mentor does, sometimes intentionally.

28m 34s Seeking cheat codes from those who have walked the path before us.

Russ fails a learning challenge but wins at Pokémon. Terry deflects and may or may not have even attempted a learning challenge. The guys wax nostalgic about having limited funds and the freedom of a semi-reliable vehicle. Golf carts. Making stuff up about Gen Z.

1m 15s The Learning Challenge, updated.

6m 25s Learning your limits is learning even if it just gets you to what you need to learn.

11m 45s Changing the subject away from whether Terry has learned any specific skill in the last decade.

12m 55s Getting stranded by your car will teach you to figure out how to fix it. “Fix” being used very loosely here.

15m 42s Somehow the word vehicle got used to mean car and only car.

21m 30s Imagining scooter riders in ones lived environment.

26m 10s “In my generation if you didn’t have a car, good luck dating. Good luck with that.”

Once you’re done with your schoolin’, everything changes when it’s time to learn something new. Russ tries to take Terry to task about learning via methods other than osmosis, and about getting down to brass tacks rather than “high level” and “conceptual” learning. It remains unclear where new skills are actually acquired. Sorry.

0m 50s How a grownup learns stuff (for example MIDI).

3m 15s Beating up wooden boards with our hands.

6m 32s Questionable decisions on squeezing learning into a busy schedule.

12m 30s Succeeding and failing at trascendental meditation.

18m 18s Motivation for and with skillbuilding.

19m 50s Publicly failing to get fluent in Spanish. The standards for language leaning referenced in the episode and used by Duolingo are Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

28m 15s Questioning parents coaching on where to get skills.

Learning. Everybody does it, whether they want to or not. But is learning going out of fashion? Is Terry the last applied intellectual left? Bear witness to this first in a series on sometimes-reluctant skill building and knowledge gains for busy and important grown men.

4m 0s A gift certificate for a degree in zoology is a selfless and generous offer.

4m 17s Skills vs. knowledge. Mince vs. chiffonade.

9m 13s Learning and boredom for busy adults.

9m 50s Why doesn’t anyone ever learn how to email?

21m 40s Getting past one’s golden age of full-immersion learning.

32m 2s Disagreeing over whether “people” embrace learning “these days.”

37m 50s Sidestepping slanderous comments about your ex-attorney.

Steven Ramirez joins from California to talk about finding your way in life and work, leaving big companies, and what it means to be a communicator.

12m 15s The nature vs. nurture of listening skills.

17m 30s Benefits of “rigorous feedback” aka being told you’re doing a bad job.

30m 58s Asking about the problem instead of asking about the solution.

31m 27s You miss 100% of the pucks you skate to instead of skating to where the puck's gonna be.