Back to Work

TOPIC : Fear, Anxiety, and Existential Whack-A-Mole This week, Dan and Merlin talk about Color Guard, the science of binge watching, and the uncertain future of podcasts. But, mainly, they talk a lot about fear and anxiety. Deep dive here. How are fear and anxiety different? What's a habitual thought feel like? And, what are some little ways to start gently climbing out? Links for this episode: Te...

TOPIC : Take it personal and make it personal. This week, Dan and Merlin talk about culture, solipsism, hiring, and needle-moving things. Links for this episode: Ungainly X-Mann Meetup #8 — Merlin Mann Steve Albini: State of the Music Industry 2015 - yewknee ? A Few Good Men Introduction - YouTube John Gholson on Twitter: "Recolored KILLING JOKE looks like a totally different book. http://t.co/wcK...

TOPIC : Kremlinology and Verbing This week, Dan and Merlin follow-up on Dan's neighbor and The Trailer Incident. They also undertake a rather circuitous exploration of how little we understand about how stuff gets made. This leads to a semi-useful discussion of how the verbs we verb do and don't constitute the nouns we noun—and when we realize that. Links for this episode: 5by5 | 5by5 at the Movie...

TOPIC : With great power comes…uh, uh, what-have-you. This week, Dan and Merlin cover a lot of ground. What makes a great comics movie. What movies to show (and not show) your kids. The majesty of The Big Lebowski . And, what exactly Dan should do about a construction trailer and a crawfish-pinching doctor. Links for this episode: 5by5 | Getting There #33: Merlin Mann Shows Us His Panacea In which...

TOPIC : Youth as exception. This week, Dan and Merlin talk about chess, the problem with SEO, and why getting old is normal (if you're lucky). Links for this episode: I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski: Life, The Big Lebowski, and What Have You: Ben Peskoe, Bill Green, Scott Shuffitt, Will Russell: 9781596912465: Amazon.com: Books Search results for the big lebowski on Can I Stream. It? Dudeism - O...

TOPIC : Thinking Patterns and Thinking Bias This week, Dan and Merlin talk in detail about how our unconscious patterns of thinking can damage our quality of life and hinder our ability to grow. Links for this episode: Cognitive bias - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Don't You Dare Use 'Comprised Of' On Wikipedia: One Editor Will Take It Out : NPR For single-minded devotion to grammatical rectitu...

TOPIC : A lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous. This week, Dan and Merlin are all thrown off since they're recording on a Monday. Weird, right? They mostly talk about the respective states of comics and Apple fandom. Links for this episode: MailMate MailMate is an IMAP email client for Mac OS X featuring extensive keyboard control, Markdown supported email composition, advanced search c...

TOPIC : The weather is not the sky. This week, Dan and Merlin talk about discovering the challenges that help you to thrive— and grow. Links for this episode: Email overload: Building my own email app to reach Inbox Zero. Search | San Francisco Public Library | BiblioCommons Costco Business Delivery - Wilcox Organic Hard Cooked and Peeled Eggs, 2 pk, 12 ct Monodraw for Mac — Helftone IngenuiTEA Te...

TOPIC : Less of an Island. This week Dan and Merlin talk about time, negotiations, and what we want (and don't want) from our email apps. Links for this episode: Eudora (email client) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Microsoft Outlook - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Slack: Be less busy Macromedia HomeSite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sponsored by Squarespace (use code ITSYOURSHOW for a...

TOPIC: Throwing Stars and Managers This week, Dan and Merlin talk about working in a beehive and discuss whether they played D&D properly. Links for this episode: Brain Games (National Geographic) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Brain Games (TV Series 2011– ) - IMDb Apollo Robbins, The Master Pickpocket: Tricks of the Trade - YouTube apollo robbins - Google Search Amazon.com : Aqua Notes -...

TOPIC : Illness, Late Night TV, AI in the home, and Talking Baby Dolls This week, Merlin battles the flu to talk with Dan about late night television, binge watching, talking baby dolls, and the kind of artificial intelligence we really need. Links for this episode: "Portlandia" One Moore Episode (TV Episode 2012) - IMDb The Arsenio Hall Show - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 5by5 | Back to Work...

TOPIC : Scoping the Minimally-Viable Me This week, Dan and Merlin catch up on illness, Marvel comics, and what-have-you, but end up talking a lot about who we really are—who "I" actually am. Merlin eventually slips into an imbued and mildly-psychedelic fugue state that may strike the listener as alternately insightful and insane. Links for this episode: Review: HAWKEYE #21 | Comicosity Hawkeye #21...

TOPIC : Work as Practice This week Dan and Merlin chew on some of the numerous eternal imponderables of creative work—with a special focus on "work as practice." Links for this episode: Cotton Bureau – #SUPERTRAIN by Roderick on the Line Pack a small bag with the very first official Roderick on the Line shirt. 5by5 | Back to Work #31: You Can Polish AC/DC All Day Long 5by5 | Back to Work #205: Obs...

With Merlin on sabbatical, Dan is joined by John Roderick to discuss his recent visit to Africa, the military, corporate friends, strategic thinking, the Internet, digital books and albums, echoes, playmobil figures, measuring your arms, the tribal world, selling coats on the internet, and more. Links for this episode: Lockheed AC-130 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Roderick on the Line - Merli...

TOPIC : "I am NOT talking about bartending." A kind of two-parter this week. First up, a meditation on invasive thoughts, how they can take over our lives, and how we can maybe learn to deal with them. Second (starting about 38 minutes in), a VERY SPOILER-HEAVY dissection of the amazing new time travel movie, Predestination . Links for this episode: Predestination (film) - Wikipedia, the free ency...

TOPIC : The things you did or didn't say. This week, Dan and Merlin sympathize with their pal Marco 's recently becoming " way too popular for a day ." What happens when something we said or wrote gets quoted, misquoted, taken out of context, or amplified a thousand times more than we'd expected? Links for this episode: Bursitis Definition - Diseases and Conditions - Mayo Clinic Bursitis (bur-SY-t...

TOPIC : The Life You Actually Want. This week, Dan and Merlin talk about organization, multitasking and new year's resolutions. Links for this episode: Amazon.com: ARRIS / Motorola SB6121 SURFboard DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem - Retail Packaging: Electronics "Requires Cable Internet Service" deep-dark-fears The Cost of Continuously Checking Email - HBR Suppose each time you ran low on an item in your ki...

TOPIC : The Opacity of the Stack In this depressing holiday episode, Dan and Merlin talk about how tenuous our modern infrastructures feel. How great it is when everything in the stack "just works"; how increasingly seldom all the pieces work; and how frustrating it can be to figure out exactly what's broken. Links for this episode: Spider-Woman Gets Her First Costume Change in Decades Spider-Woma...

TOPIC : He'll only do three of these. This week, Dan and Merlin mark their 200th episode by responding to listener feedback and talking about Led Zeppelin and lunch tables. Links for this episode: peg.gd: Bacon Ray - “Tomfoolery” 7-inch (AAJ Records, 1995) BBC Radio 4 Extra - Raw Meat Radio Chris Morris is known by most for his ground-breaking film and television work but, like most good things he...

TOPIC : When You Love a Voice. This week, Dan and Merlin talk about podcasts they're loving right now. And, yeah, Merlin rants a little about overthinking and fetishizing podcast production. Links for this episode: 5by5 | Hypercritical #93: A Magic Elf in My Computer John Siracusa and Dan Benjamin talk more about Forstall's departure from Apple, Surface storage, and Fusion Drive, then discuss US v...

TOPIC : Time to reboot. This week, Dan and Merlin respond to a note from Listener Tim on how to stay busy and active during his garden leave . The Boys encourage him to experiment with the personal rebooting that's almost impossible to do when you're stuck at an official jobby-job. Links for this episode: [VIDEO] Flake Music - "Spanway Hits" Garden leave - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Garden l...

TOPIC : Mail Bag. This week, Dan & Merlin respond to listener email and toots. Specifically, dealing with passive-aggressive team members, bulbous " CC: " lines, and what constitutes "stability." Links for this episode: Image Comics | Releases | Bitch Planet #1 2014 Best Writer Eisner Award nominee KELLY SUE DeCONNICK (PRETTY DEADLY, Captain Marvel) and VALENTINE DE LANDRO (X-Factor) team up f...

TOPIC : Hakuna Matata. This week, Dan and Merlin talk about home pest control, misleading beef jerky, and becoming a more conservative electronics consumer. Links for this episode: 'Sync Solver' Allows Fitbit Users to View Fitness Related Data in Apple's Health App - Mac Rumors The $0.99 app provides a daily sync of eleven different pieces of data from the Fitbit into the Health app. The points of...

TOPIC : Working alone together. This week, Dan and Merlin look at the many ways workplaces have changed over the years, and how they can be great or not so great. Links for this episode: Ungainly X-Mann Meetup #6 — Merlin Mann MERLIN MANN (Back to Work, Roderick on the Line, You Look Nice Today, et al.) invites you to drop by Two Cats Comics on the evening of Thursday, November 13th to hang out, t...

TOPIC : What gets us on the moon? This week, Dan and Merlin talk about varieties of clowns, rogue walruses, bloody elevator buttons, taking risks, and catching footballs. Links for this episode: Charli XCX - SuperLove (Official Video) - YouTube Inquisitive #11: Merlin As A Service - Relay FM This week Myke is joined by Merlin Mann. They talk about preparing for changes in life and preparing for po...