Mere Mortals Conversations

Best to think about death because in the end we're all just mere mortals. In Episode #377 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: using stoic principles to prepare for death, all the time Juan has spent on health and fitness recently, abstract math required to self diagnose elbow problems, the CrossFit masters competition, bank bailouts and why it's nice to have an independent cur...

How do you determine the tradeoff's when judging an opportunity? In Episode #376 of 'Musings', Juan and I discuss: the twitter threads popping up for Juan, why it's hard to judge risk, why I place physical safety above emotional well being and material concerns, a sad puppy week, why you don't want to handstand on cliff faces, subjective value changing the opportunities fo...

Alexander Watanabe is an artist, coder, architect and co-creator of the 'The Perfect NFT' on the Cardano blockchain. In Conversation #85, Alexander and I discuss: why Alex might has a more cynical disposition to NFT's, Sam Bankman-Fried and effective altruism, fun stories from travelling around the world, the cultural critique he is doing with The Perfect NFT and some tips for codin...

What would Benjamin Franklin want us to do? In Episode #375 of 'Musings', Juan and I discuss: a founding father's steps to self-improvement, why you must examine your weaknesses first, how ethics might not be captured in your normal habits, Juan's ethics as first discussed in Ep #138, my new plan to keep myself accountable and why you should only go 2-3 levels deep with self-de...

What's better than a bilingual child, only a trilingual child! In Episode #374 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: a couple of the cool but mostly strange people I met recently, why we only have 2500 books left to read between us, the differences between English/German/Spanish/French, why Juan and I lack finesse with out language skills, my recent chat with Alex again and the ridic...

Simple question, what is the best way to train? In Episode #373 of 'Musings', Juan and I discuss: our experience after training for decades, Juan's advice to a friend who needs a training plan, the difference between our session lengths, how the styles matter little in comparison to volume/time and why a plan is useful for continuing through the 7/10 workouts. A huge thanks to our o...

You smell that ....... it smells like it's goal time. Do you set yourself monthly goals and if so, how many do you set? Juan and I on the first week of every month go over our progress from the previous month and where we are heading for the next. Emphasis as always is on the shortcomings; what we didn't achieve in the previous monthly goals and how we will fix that for the month that co...

Justin Fox is the founder of Zen Garage, graphic designer and first appeared on the Mere Mortals in Conversation #72. In Conversation #84, Justin and I discuss: how he is finding an artistic outlet in plants, how technology changes the art scene, the various behaviours found in digital communities, why it's valuable to have the ability to cold approach, finding a girl who isn't just a co...

We're going to be experimenting and altering our style soon, what can you expect? In Episode #372 of 'Musings', Juan and I discuss: why we're unlikely to need a trademark, how we will try to move forward but without breaking things too badly, the way to get a Mere Mortals shirt, Juan's creation of a new podcasting room, why I had to give up fixing Juan's spelling mist...

Juan thinks Gorillaz is trash. I think he is trash. In Episode #371 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: our reactions to the newly released Gorillaz songs, unpredictable feedback coming from YouTube, why I will continue with handstands basically no matter what, why we probably won't ever get cancelled, our daily uses of artificial intelligence and why the book reviews probably won&...

What are your principles when it comes to investing? In Episode #370 of 'Musings', Juan and I discuss: Juan's sagely wisdom for the youngsters, where we begin when thinking about investing money, why self-custody is not just a crypto rule of thumb, the paradox of diversification, books and macro people (Ray Dalio, Lyn Alden, etc) who we find knowledgeable and why Juan is going all i...

HOSKY is the PREMIERE low-quality s#!t coin doggo meme token, exclusively on the Cardano Ecosystem (and it must be true, so says the website)! In Conversation #83, Hosky and I discuss: rules of thumb while investing in the age of meme coins, why his lifespan got shortened by success, the hard facts about non-decentralised money, appreciating the fun times despite the responsibility and why the onl...

Did you know that the concept of the 'tragedy of the commons' was fueled by an ideology? In Episode #369 of 'Musings', Juan and I discuss: why a recent book review sparked this topic, a human depopulation article with an underlying ideology, Garret Hardin's hypocrisy, whether people under a spell behave differently, using emotions and cherry picking data, why Juan loves th...

Lots of crypto talk for this episode so we're on some shaky ground. In Episode #368 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: why I don't understand Ethereum well, the different variations of cryptocurrency staking, my dislike of Patreon's service, why Juan might be flying to the US next month and why I suck at public speaking and don't think I (or others generally) need t...

Is it possible to escape the numbers game or is there another game you can play? In Episode #367 of 'Musings', Juan and I discuss: why we don't like to talk about sex, our personal experiences of dating in Australia, whether it is possible to find a girl without crunching numbers, the pros/cons of intros via social groups, why some people like Leonardo DiCaprio might never settle do...

You smell that ....... it smells like it's goal time. Do you set yourself monthly goals and if so, how many do you set? Juan and I on the first week of every month go over our progress from the previous month and where we are heading for the next. Emphasis as always is on the shortcomings; what we didn't achieve in the previous monthly goals and how we will fix that for the month that co...

Emmet Louis is a mobility and flexibility coach, host of multiple podcasts and former acrobat/circus performer. In Conversation #82, Emmet and I discuss: funny childhood and acrobatic stories, why he doesn't use social media much, noteworthy experiences he has had coaching people, particular details about injuries and the one-arm handstand, rules of thumb regarding training philosophy and why...

How do you know when it is time to let something go because it isn't serving you anymore? In Episode #366 of 'Musings', Juan and I discuss: an Australian slang term, why Juan almost quit acting, how energy rather than time is a better determiner for calling it quits, my list for determining when it is not worth it to continue, why vitamins may be worth not taking and our mutual disl...

We seemed to have a lot of mild observations and complaints lately. In Episode #365 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: what I took away from watching Adam on the Spotify app, an analysis of podcasting platforms and search engines, a Scrubs reference to illustrate the dangers of too much info, our criticisms of 'Life Force'/'The Catcher In The Rye' and our methodolog...

Is there a way to stop letting opportunities pass you by? In Episode #364 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: latinos rejecting what I've got to offer, how we neglect to consider what our future selves might want, creating opportunity by simply putting in a bit of effort, why missed ones from fear sting even more, the time I didn't speak to the 2nd most beautiful girl I've ev...

Oscar (the cofounder of the Fountain podcasting app) is back on for the 3rd time after a long break between our chats. In Conversation #81, Oscar and I discuss: all the new features in the 0.6 edition, strategic decisions he is making whilst building the app, the complexity of trying to integrate comments from across different platforms, ways in which the onboarding is becoming much easier, whethe...

Juan's been doing some acting classes, do we have a superstar in the works? In Episode #363 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: Juan's experience at his 1st acting class, how we could potentially be more entertaining, why actors might be either fake or crazy, my experiences doing extras work and doing it shit, why your are better off practicing the thing you want to get better at...

The age old question, how do you raise your kids when technology is changing so rapidly? In Episode #362 of 'Meanderings' Juan and I discuss: why Juan's child will be raised with as much exposure as possible, why I think it's fine to ignore everything but the bare essentials, what level of tech adoption will be optimal for the best life, observations from my forays back into th...

How much of our life is spent in a deluded state? In Episode #361 of 'Musings' Juan and I discuss: how a listener email spurred this topic, what it means to be delusional, why my journeyman lifestyle might be stopping me from creating a family, why Juan will probably never become an entrepreneur, the bell curves I created from book reviews and why it's likely neutral-bad to be self-...

I'm kicking the conversations back off again with a casual chat with Pete Smissen (who is making his 4th appearance on the Mere Mortals). In Conversation #80, Pete and I discuss: horrible things from general history, why basically everybody in Australian history got wrecked, our thoughts on a whole bunch of issues facing the world, cultural nuances regarding how immigrants view education and...