Getting Simple

Runway's co-founder Cristóbal Valenzuela on the need for new creative interfaces to control complex algorithms that focus on results (not technology), the freedom of being a startup, and how machine intelligence is changing how we think, design, and make art. Cristóbal Valenzuela is a technologist, artist and software developer interested in the intersection between artificial intelligence and cre...

Illusionist Héctor Ruiz on getting started and standing out as a magician, how COVID-19 changed his world, his take on talent, effort, creativity, success, and entrepreneurship, and more. Héctor Ruiz is an illusionist from Spain that performs over the planet with his show amazing and amusing audiences. In the last years, Hector has performed at some of the most important TV shows in his field at t...

Host Nono Martínez Alonso and Aziz Barbar introduce the Bytes series—concepts at the intersection of digital technology and culture in a language we can all understand—and talk about cloud storage. Listen to this episode to learn more about the series, its name and format, co-host Aziz Barbar, and what's coming. Nono hosts the Getting Simple podcast, sketches things that call his attention, writes...

Luis Ruiz Padrón on the creative process behind his sketches, writing, and publications, seeing the world as an Urban Sketcher, identity, teaching, technology, life, success, and more. Luis Ruiz Padrón is a PhD architect. He teaches Architectural Graphic Expression at the University of Málaga; drawings of cityscapes is his main interest as a scholar but also his first source of pleasure, sketching...

A practice to focus by listening to the same songs, over and over again. Chapters 0:00 · The compact disc and streaming services 0:56 · The walkman and repeat mode 2:51 · Looping playlists, the practice 8:09 · Repeat one 9:38 · My playlists 10:35 · Focus Zero 11:07 · Focus A 12:14 · Focus B 13:56 · I'd love to hear from you I'd love to hear from you. Submit a question about this or any previous ep...

Techniques, challenges, and reasons to live as if you were retired. Chapters 0:00 · Intro 0:28 · Marc's question 1:12 · What are mini-retirements? 3:56 · Challenges 7:04 · Vacation slack 8:38 · How much money do you need? 10:17 · Financial independence 11:42 · Creating your own products 12:54 · Passive income, freelance, and full-time 14:02 · Money is time 16:08 · Safety 17:39 · Enjoy every day 19...

James Melouney & Selene Urban on how to get started with meditation, self-discovery, building trust and connection with your audience through a humane and authentic message, and key learnings from their entrepreneurial journey. James Melouney is an eclectic mix of mathematics, finance, strategy, marketing, meditation and self-discovery. He graduated with a University Medal in Mathematics &...

Strategist, investor, community builder, and NGO founder Mike Gabour on mindfulness and attention, meditation and dark showers, the multiplier effect, minimizing time in front of the screen, the contents of his backpack, and falling in love with the ocean. Mike Gabour is a first generation immigrant, born on the Mediterranean ocean in Alexandria, Egypt. He is Co-founder and Managing Director for K...

Harvard's Jose Luis García del Castillo and host Nono Martínez Alonso on teaching, live streaming, the guilt of postponing things, the difficulties of delegating tasks and micro-management, the fear of shipping creative work, and lessons learned after forty podcast episodes. This episode opens the ALGO series—conversations between Jose Luis García del Castillo y López and myself on teaching, machi...

During your commute, do you listen to music or podcasts? Books Deep Work (and productive meditation) by Cal Newport Links My Podcasts Not Music blog post (2014) Oak meditation and breathing app Hurry Slowly podcast by Jocelyn K. Glei Deep Questions podcast by Cal Newport People mentioned Adam Menges Cal Newport Chapters 00:00 · Intro 03:38 · Why not music, by default? 04:20 · Focus and meditation...

Modelical's Roberto Molinos on the benefits of being patient and embracing uncertainty, a series of techniques, theories, and books that can help you rethink your company and market your products, and his 4-day workweek. Roberto Molinos is an architect and holds a Master of Advanced Studies in Structural Design from Madrid Tech - Madrid (ES). He has developed undergraduate and graduate research wi...

Celebrating a year of weekly sketches and stories. Today, I bring you an episode that celebrates a year and a half of weekly sketches and stories. At the time I published this essay on my blog, I was at fifty-three publications. But as I write these lines, I'm at seventy-one posts. Happy Newsletter-versary! Repetition, repetition, repetition. It works, it works, it works. —John Maeda Links The Law...

Microsoft's Adam Menges—founder at Lobe.ai and a former Apple employee—on helping people build intelligence into their apps by making it simple and understandable, his unconventional education, having death present, regret avoidance, grit, and his daily routine for note-taking, file management, meditation, and much more. Adam is a product designer, entrepreneur, and engineer located in San Francis...

Director Daniel Natoli on the making of Sisyphus, Getting Simple's first short film. A man is condemned to repeat a useless task day after day. It's easy to fall into the trap of mindlessly repeating the same routine over and over again. Every once in a while, we need to be reminded to stop and reflect; To meditate on whether what you’re doing makes sense; To find out how to get out of the loop an...

How to create good habits and break bad ones. This episode is part of the Habits series. In this excerpt from my interview with Scott Mitchell (episode 29), Scott and I discuss what atomic habits are, how to use them to create good habits and break bad ones, how I started implementing them in my daily routine more than a year ago, the difference between flow and deliberate practice, and why you sh...

Generating lots of ideas might help you achieve originality. Notes Skill and expertise let you judge your own ideas to better identify the good ones and discard the bad ones. "Many people fail to achieve originality because they generate a few ideas and then obsess about refining them to perfection." —Adam Grant, Originals I'd love to hear from you. Submit a question about this or any pr...

Portfolio careerist Carmen Chamorro on the benefits of working in different fields, managing multiple interests, and how recognizing a potential Renaissance-like profile might positively influence your career. Carmen loves change and disagrees that we must define ourselves in only one single and exclusive way. She is a natural learner and can draw on a wide range of commercial, educational and vol...

Insisting Simplicity's author, JR, on crafting your own routine from scratch, writing, blogging, frugal practices to achieve financial independence, permaculture design, the struggles of making a living as an artist, and more. Insisting Simplicity is a blog about simple living, minimalism, and adventure travel that JR writes to celebrate life, our planet, and the richness of simple living. "I...

Autodesk's Kean Walmsley (@keanw) on prioritizing fun, freedom, and flexibility, traveling and working around the world with family, blogging, teaching, remote work, and the post-COVID world. Kean Walmsley works at Autodesk Research, based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Kean joined Autodesk in 1995 and has worked in a number of Autodesk offices around the world – in the UK, the US, India and Switzerla...

Here's an episode in memory of Patrick Winston which opens the new Sketches series with a short piece on story understanding with artificial intelligence and my experience attending Winston's 6.034 lectures at MIT. "Don't just tell me it's a school bus. Tell me why you think it's a school bus." I've sketched for the last 365 days. A year ago I decided not only to sketch daily but to writ...

Scott Mitchell jumps in time to dissect his own experimentation life philosophy, his efforts to remove creative friction, and his worldview. An experimental episode on Scott's metaphor of the arena, experiments he's carried out over the past years, and his current solo adventure. Scott Mitchell is a designer and software engineer currently working out of Boston, Massachusetts. Scott is the founder...

What I've learned and what's changed over the past year, and new habits that seem to be here to stick with me for years to come. We're more virtually connected than ever before. Yet, we seem to be more disconnected from one another than any former civilization. We've created shallow ways of communication (say, email or instant messages) which generate a false sense of connection. It's harder to co...

Technology whisperer Tatjana Dzambazova on asking the right questions to avoid the waste of talent, connecting and inspiring others, becoming vegetarian, and the myth of a better life. Tatjana is Director of product management, software solutions, at Bright Machines, a software-driven-manufacturing start-up based in San Francisco.  Tatjana's career started as an architect—she practiced over 12 yea...

Nono's daily writing process, tools, and techniques. I believe the ultimate goal of writing is to touch others; to make our words resonate with our readers. Today my spoken words are for you. This episode is part of an experimental series titled Habits in which I share how myself (and others) do certain things and why, hopefully unveiling workflows, techniques, habits, and routines that you can ma...

Nono Martínez Alonso on his story, his worldview, how and why he started Getting Simple, and the struggles and joys of making a podcast about simple living, doing less better, and crafting your own lifestyle. Nono Martínez Alonso hosts The Getting Simple Podcast—a show about how you can live a productive, creative, and simple life, in the form of friendly, long-form conversations with creative fro...