The Happy Jōb Records

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...

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...

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...

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. chiffo...

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 i...

The guys seek wisdom for all the brand noobies out there, including themselves. Seamless segues from drums to guitar to ornithology. 0m 8s Imagining the world before you knew what you know now. 2m 34s Breaking out of the anticipation phase. 8m 35s Uptight Beethoven quotes. 15m 46s Aging into playing in “collectives” instead of “bands.” 16m 50s The first stuff is not going to be good, so don’t quit...

When you have a day job that isn’t artistic or creative, that doesn’t mean you’re not artistic or creative. Sometimes you segment your worlds. Sometimes you just live like you’re an artist. 5m 36s Chamber music for high schoolers 7m 14s When professionalism isn’t enough 10m 32s Paying for art 19m 33s Terry’s vinyl record non-collection 27m 50s Creativity is some mysticism that's been harnessed and...

If you are compelled to make music, make music. The rest will come along with it. Ville Leppanen joins today and talks about missing meals, playing for pizzas, and weighs in on whether there will ever be “another Nirvana.” Ville cofounded and runs The Animal Farm with his brother Mat. Find artists on the label and blogs from Ville at www.theanimalfarm.co.uk/ Read the full transcript at www.thehapp...

This one surprising trick will let you beat feelings of inadequacy and worry less about how you’re being judged: Do stuff. Either people will respect you for the stuff you do and the problem is solved, or they don’t and you’ll stop caring because you are too occupied doing stuff. Honestly the rest is just details but for the sake of consistency have some more notes: 1m 47s Nobody cares 4m 54s Defe...

If you have any curiosity about invention at all, patent databases (and in particular patents.google.com) are a treasure trove of other people’s ideas expressed as succinctly as possible with no fluff whatsoever. Good ideas, bad ideas, crazy ideas, crazy-enough-to-work ideas. Find them all! 11m 43s Patented anti wrinkle cream is patented; may or may not prevent wrinkles. 20m 19s When you’re thinki...

Mechanical engineer turned quantitative analyst turned data scientist Dan Buttera joins today to weigh in on shifting from industry to industry while building up a useful skillset in tech and management. He brings some fresh perspective to the ongoing discussion of fitting in, finding where you can be effective, and the value of putting in reps to establish your knowledge base and credibility. Als...

7m 1s Breaking into academic publishing was just one example of credential-bucking. There are all kinds of areas where it can be hard to do the thing without being an insider, and getting inside is daunting. Then again, there are a lot of backdoors to this stuff hidden in plain sight. 13m 36s “James Cameron is also an undersea explorer.” 18m 7s A signature Terry Yardstick, applied to how the filth...

Doing will always beat talking, which is why the guys always talk so much about doing. Russ perceives himself as a sometimes-researcher in technical field(s) with semi-technical publications. Terry puts the pressure on to walk the line between sufficient rigor and democratized access to the rarified air of R&D. Questions arise as to the actual quality of that air; many go unanswered for now. 2...

Shakers and Movers (the segment formerly known as Movers and Shakers) returns, where recognition can’t be bought and the rules can’t be explained. 1m 5s The first honoree is…the same company for both esteemed judges. What’s the company? Of all the companies how did they arrive at the same one? Is this whole thing rigged? 11m 35s Toolpath Labs does automated design for manufacturing for machined pa...

Russ tries to keep Terry’s foot out of his mouth and pet lovers everywhere from being mildly to severely offended. The results are mixed. 5m 30s “A dog is not a personality.” Remember this point because it keeps coming up. 14m 15s Rules for friends and families with dogs. Maybe “it’s me or the dog” is a trope for a reason. 16m 0s It is not common for a human to feel compelled to pee on your leg. A...

Hey Terry how many did you bring? Seven. Round 2 of 10 Questions goes mildly absurdist and earns the unofficial subtitle “I obviously smell songs.” 2m 59s Movie magic 5m 31s 10 Random Questions 2. The ground rules are laid. 9m 16s Terry is the man in black 15m 10s Who wore it first 15m 16s Flag boobs 24m 20s Pet color names 34m 22s How do you feel about snakes? 39m 1s Fly like a bird or swim like...

Today, Larry Grate on going from conveyor belts in a kaolin mine to hardening industrial systems against cyber attacks. Spoiler alert: Email phishing scams put things like water supply and power grids at risk. Russ is unusually concerned and pessimistic about fixes and progress but encouraged by Larry’s visible enthusiasm for industrial cyber security. A lot of good stories (and sage wisdom) get l...

Science gets filtered before Regular Joes read it. But why? There’s nothing innate to academic (or commercial) research and development that makes it too complex for the average person to follow the basics. Maybe it’s just easier to assume a bunch of big brained geniuses have it under control. Maybe there are some perverse incentives to overcomplicate communication on research and results.  1...

Russ rebuilt a speaker and Terry makes the logical jump from there to postapocalyptic wasteland survival skills. The guys spend the day as tourists in doomsday-prepper land. 0m 15s Drums and guitars are instruments that most players can work on themselves, but are much more likely to if they are already mechanically inclined. 5m 24s Russ describes rock n roll guitar tone and effects like your slig...

Defying all odds, someone listened to the show. But then it turned out Terry trusts the “experts” that the Earth is “flat” instead of doing his own research. Maybe that spells the end of letting readers boss us around and divide us against each other. Then Russ lightly grills Terry on why bother anyone should bother writing music, making records, playing shows, and the rest. The answer is simpler...

Where did Happy Jōb even come from anyway? It came from Terry’s mind, that’s where. After getting that background out of the way, it’s a day of talking shop about data and numbers in industrial settings. While this one’s pretty technical in some of the details, most of the concepts generalize to basically anyone responsible for data collection, standardization and cleanup, reporting, or usage of a...

After days talking discipline, the guys look to the classics. They wonder how much of this stuff is timeless vs. modern. Will it help you win wars. Is getting out of bed in the morning a war. This is all a sideways approach to analyzing individualism vs. collectivism, self-worth, society and identity, and cultural expectations. 4m 11s You don’t hear much about pamphlets anymore. 6m 57s Marcus Aure...

Russ wants to know what happens to Terry’s routines in the face of distractions and Terry gets philosophical: “A day is just a series of hours.” 0m 28s Drums end songs. 6m 54s The stage is set: What happens to discipline when faced with distraction? 14m 50s Neck tattoos get a bad rap and are at the center of an alternate universe timeline for our lives. 25m 30s “The ingestion of food is the hardes...

The numbers don’t lie unless you don’t bother tracking the numbers. Today, Terry gets some semi-solicited advice on how to keep track of things that matter as the number and breadth starts to grow. 1m 1s Russ’s unsuccessful attempts to supplant self discipline with expensive notebooks. 7m 20 Golf carts and bicycles and fitting in. “I’ve been asked more times than I’d care to ‘Why don’t you have a...

Russ puts his life in Terry’s hands and gets a line by line rundown of what to cut out and what to really lean into. Like good advice usually does, today’s work takes the form of a half hearted quiz game. 0m 55s Ground rules and introducing the categories: House and home; Leisure suits; Emotional acumen; Aging gracefully aka clean living for hard bodies; I prefer to spend on experiences. 3m 55s Te...