TOPIC : How many keys do you really need? This week, Dan and Merlin return to the question, "What do you want ten times more of?" and weigh the risks and benefits of increasing the amount of complexity in your life. Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] Stock Photos, Royalty-Free Images and Vectors - Shutterstock [SPONSOR] Build a Website — Squarespace Editorial for iPad Powerful Markdown Editing and Workflow Automation for iPad Editorial for iPad: A Landmark in iOS Text Editors If that gets you cur...
Aug 20, 2013•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Fraud vs. Failure This week, Dan and Merlin dive into what makes us feel like frauds and what makes us feel like failures. Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] Build a Website — Squarespace Batman: Year One - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Year One", later referred to as "Batman: Year One", is an American comic book story arc written by Frank Miller, illustrated by David Mazzucchelli, colored by Richmond Lewis, and lettered by Todd Klein. It originally appeared in issues Watchmen - Wikip...
Aug 13, 2013•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC: Power, Yelling, and Airport Kung Fu This week, Dan and Merlin continue their discussion of power and how it does or doesn't work. Do real leaders actually talk like the douchebags, serial entrepreneurs, and screamy travelers struggling to imitate them? Not really. That's one way you can tell they're leaders. Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] Stock Photos, Royalty-Free Images and Vectors - Shutterstock [SPONSOR] Build a Website — Squarespace Pint Of Code — Back to Belgium Squarespace for R...
Aug 07, 2013•1 hr 28 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Delays This week, Dan and Merlin talk about delays, agency, power, and why yelling at people about your problems rarely helps anyone. Links for this episode: Yad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A yad, literally, "hand," is a Jewish ritual pointer, popularly known as a Torah pointer, used by the reader to follow the text during the Torah reading from the parchment Torah scrolls. Beyond its practical usage, the yad ensures that the parchment is not touched during the reading. There are ...
Jul 30, 2013•1 hr 28 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Lists This week, Dan and Merlin talk about 3½ kinds of lists that can change your game. Merlin knows a lot about Productivity. Links for this episode: Interstate (typeface) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Interstate is a digital typeface designed by Tobias Frere-Jones in the period 1993–1999, and licensed by Font Bureau. The typeface is closely related to the FHWA Series fonts, a signage alphabet drawn for the United States Federal Highway Administration in 1949. Brother's Little...
Jul 23, 2013•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Time Awareness & Scope Wormholes This week, Dan and Merlin talk about why we (and Frank) are terrible at estimating time, as well as what we can do to get better at it. Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] Transporter Transporter (use code "btw" for 10% off) 5by5 | Back to Work #107: Pull Out Your Dingus This week, Dan and Merlin talk about compression. What happens when we don't account for how long something really takes to do? And, worse still, what if we don't think about what has t...
Jul 19, 2013•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Employers, Bosses, Leaders, and Managers This week—in what may easily turn into a multi-episode arc—Dan and Merlin talk about bosses . Whether we're looking at it from up or down, management is tricky business. The question is, what makes a boss a good manager, and what makes a good manager a great leader? Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] Build a Website — Squarespace Use code "**`LITTLEKNIVES`**" for 10% off. So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for...
Jul 09, 2013•2 hr 34 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : How many Saturdays do you get? This week, Dan and Merlin talk about time. Its scarcity, its passing, its tyranny, and its possibilities. Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] Drafts - Agile Tortoise [SPONSOR] Build a Website — Squarespace [SPONSOR] Transporter | Data Redefined Ending the Tyranny of the Open-Plan Office - Businessweek The key to making workers happy and productive is having a mix of spaces for different activities. Gensler found that workers spend more than half their time at...
Jul 04, 2013•2 hr 53 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : There are Only Two Prices: Free and What It Costs This week, Dan and Merlin return to the classic lineup and some classic topics, including knowing your value, learning what to charge, and realizing what you can live with. Also: jury duty, traveling, bathrooms, the sliding scale of suffering, and what-have you. Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] Transporter | Data Redefined Transporter is a private cloud storage device for syncing, sharing, accessing, and protecting your digital life. No ...
Jun 28, 2013•2 hr 59 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : The Chinese Symbol for 'Pants' Inside of The Chinese Symbol for 'Jury Duty.' This week, Dan's away, so Merlin goes solo, taking a break from jury duty to talk about the opportunities that can be hiding inside change, inconvenience, and tumult. Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] Stock Photos, Royalty-Free Images and Vectors - Shutterstock Over 25 million stock photos, illustrations, vectors, and videos [SPONSOR] 1Password for iOS Have you ever forgotten a password? 1Password can remember t...
Jun 24, 2013•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : First Meeting, Gifts, and Grifts This week—after 122 episodes, plus almost a decade of internet pal-dom—Dan and Merlin finally meet and record in a room together for the first time. With only passing nods to the nominal topic of "gifts," Dan and Merlin mostly get to know each other. Why is Dan staring so penetratingly at Merlin? Does Dan think Merlin is fat as well as old? Why does Dan keep looking at his phone? Does that look clean to you? Whose show is it, really ? Is John Siracusa sle...
Jun 11, 2013•1 hr 29 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Loyalty, Altruism, Reality Check, or Extortion? This week, Dan and Merlin talk about what we talk about when we talk about " loyalty ." Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] Shutterstock Stock Photos | Shutterstock: Royalty-Free Subscription Stock Photography & Vector Art - Search and select from millions of high resolution royalty free images, stock photos, vector art, and stock photography. [SPONSOR] Less Meeting Less Meeting helps you improve meeting planning, running meetings, and meetin...
Jun 04, 2013•2 hr 46 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Dan's Recent Bathroom Incident, et al. This week, Dan and Merlin exhale. Don't search for secret doors. Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] TextExpander Touch 2 by Smile TextExpander Touch: Type more with less effort on your iPhone or iPad! Expand custom keyboard shortcuts into frequently-used text snippets. Grab your favorite snippets from your Mac! [SPONSOR] Squarespace Squarespace is the easiest way for anyone to create an exceptional website. Pages, galleries, blogs, domains, hosting, ...
May 28, 2013•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : What would you do differently if you had a "safety net?" This week, Dan and Merlin congratulate their pal, Marco, on the acquisition of a company he helped co-found. Which leads to the nominal topic: what kind of safety net would you need to feel secure, do the things you'd like, and mostly banish the more persistent cumulonimbus clouds of your own anxiety? Many angles are explored. Why was Elvis unhappy? How is habitual Schadenfreude and automatic bile ensmallening our culture? Can we e...
May 21, 2013•2 hr 37 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Macintosh Nostalgia and Utter Apple ID Madness. This week, after an entirely appropriate amount of very important follow-up, Dan and Merlin talk about Susan Kare's original Mac icons, why they're not going to be appearing on John Siracusa's t-shirt, plus the litany of completely monkeyballs problems that now has Merlin ready to literally shoot his Apple ID in the back of the head, mob-style. Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] Squarespace.com Build a Website - Squarespace - Squarespace is ...
May 14, 2013•1 hr 29 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Toward an (Admittedly Dubious) Unified Field Theory of Creativity This week, Dan and Merlin consider a framework for understanding the basic modes and focal lengths involved in producing creative work. Why and how do we get so hung up and frustrated about getting good at what we do? Why's it so hard to take an abstract idea for making something great, then end up feeling pathologically stymied when we struggle to actually make it ? The boys return to the classic topic of expertise , espe...
May 07, 2013•2 hr 36 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Offices, and when to get out of them. This week—in what will surely be remembered as the greatest Back to Work episode of all time—Dan and Merlin eventually talk about working at a desk and when to take it someplace else. Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] Squarespace.com Build a Website - Squarespace - Squarespace is the easiest way for anyone to create an exceptional website. Pages, galleries, blogs, domains, hosting, analytics, 24/7 support - all included. GIRL TALK - ALL DAY - ILLEGAL...
Apr 30, 2013•2 hr 32 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Quit & Analyze, and Marvel Character Speculation. This week, Dan and Merlin talk about Dan's "Quit & Analyze" episode, then proceed into a very useful conversation about which characters from the Marvel Universe they're each most like. Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] TextExpander: Mac Typing Shortcut Utility Saves You Time Type more with less effort! TextExpander saves your fingers and your keyboard, expanding custom keyboard shortcuts into frequently-used text and pictures... ...
Apr 29, 2013•2 hr 35 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Fixing the Culture of Meetings This week, Dan and Merlin address the problems with meetings, and how we can each choose to improve them. Ten quick ideas? Purpose Agenda Grazing Policy Hard Edges Scheduling Guests Timekeeper No Ratholes Focus Follow-Up Consistency Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] Stock Photos, Royalty-Free Images and Vectors - Shutterstock Over 25 million stock photos, illustrations, vectors, and videos [VIDEO] Merlin Mann - "Broken Meetings (and how you'll fix...
Apr 26, 2013•2 hr 39 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Quicksilver and the OS X App Launcher Landscape This week, Dan triumphantly returns from two weeks of crippling illness. So, the boys ease their way back into the groove with a grab bag of great follow-up, some Adventure Time talk, and a longer discussion of popular OS X App launchers, including Quicksilver 1.0, LaunchBar, and Alfred 2. Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] Build a Website — Squarespace Squarespace is the easiest way for anyone to create an exceptional website. Pages, galler...
Apr 17, 2013•1 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Drafts for iOS, and Who You Want to Be This week, Dan and Merlin cover two very different topics. First, there's a detailed discussion of one of Merlin's favorite iOS apps, Drafts , including a deep dive on the app's extraordinary interactions with everything from Twitter to calendars to Dropbox. Second, Dan and Merlin have an A-plus conversation on the hardest question you’ll ask yourself this week: “ Is this who I want to be?” Links for this episode: [SPONSOR] Shutter...
Apr 02, 2013•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Choosing Your Forks. This week, Dan and Merlin talk about some of the deeper and more slippery issues behind changes in our career and life. In particular, how do we go from a vague tickle to that feeling of full-blown intolerability that can end up driving a change? Are we looking backward at what we should be doing as we slavishly catalog our many petty aggrievements? Or, do we take two giant steps back and apply a cooler eye to what we really want to do next? Even before we find our f...
Mar 26, 2013•2 hr 35 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Memory. This week, Dan and Merlin try to tackle the complexities of memory. Why do we remember things from childhood with unimpeachable detail, but then forget our own phone number or PIN code? How can the same person remember the name of everyone he's ever met, and then space a phone call a couple hours after it was scheduled? Why do we remember and why do we forget? Unsurprisingly, few concrete answers appear, but there's plenty of lively conversation on savant syndrome, tactical memor...
Mar 19, 2013•1 hr 19 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Stupidity. This week, Dan and Merlin tackle stupidity . And, brother, there sure are a whole lot of flavors of stupid. Are we really talking about being clueless, unaware, dumb, absent-minded, or just plain-old ignorant? Because they're actually pretty different animals. Whether you're dropping your library book in the mailbox, leaving your iPad at home, following baseless medical advice, or doing whatever Dan did with his garage door (don't worry: the car is fine ), it's really helpful ...
Mar 12, 2013•2 hr 43 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Not So Much This week, Dan and Merlin eschew ““topic”” to freely discuss razors, beef, They Might Be Giants, prolapse, Genesis, dogs, Spider-Man (and -Womyn), pretender marteenies, truck butt, the lonely plaster casts of our youth, blind harmonicists, those awesome blue IKEA bags, ceviche, E.L.O., Goldenberg's Peanut Chews, bumping, hypoglycemia, how Merlin named his daughter, Hyman Roth, endive, and, of course, The Big Lebowski . Then, they go and blow it all by unintentionally having a...
Mar 05, 2013•1 hr 26 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Shaving a Yak This week, Dan and Merlin talk about The Hierarchy of Fiddling. When does self-improvement silently shade into navel-gazing, and how do we realize that it's happening? Some fixes mean applying a fast change that produces outsized results (a true "life hack"). But, most of our more circuitous excursions into the world of ““ productivity ”” lead straight into a recursive black hole of lost time, sheer frustration, and soul-sucking existential onanism (let's call that one a "l...
Feb 26, 2013•1 hr 29 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Compression This week, Dan and Merlin talk about compression . What happens when we don't account for how long something really takes to do? And, worse still, what if we don't think about what has to happen before we can even start it? If you find you're stressed-out, over-scheduled, under-resourced—and not particularly loving the things you're making—there's a pretty good chance you've become a victim of your own compression. Acknowledge and understand the problem, and then learn how to...
Feb 20, 2013•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Duplicates, duplicates, duplicates. This week, Dan and Merlin conclude their discussion of media management by focusing on dealing with duplicates . Just so many duplicates. Music, Photos, Contacts, and Finder files. It's all thorny business, but a canny combination of backup, cool apps, and paranoid discretion can make your digital life more manageable and fun. Also, some handy tips on sharing files, hosting media, and finding a digital home for your comic collection. Links for this epi...
Feb 12, 2013•2 hr 36 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Cool stuff Merlin loves. This week, Merlin is delirious and may be in a fugue state, so he and Dan talk about a bunch of cool apps and gadgets--stuff that Merlin likes and really recommends. Special attention goes to Drafts for iOS, the Logitech K760 Bluetooth keyboard, Verbatim's Tuff 'n Tiny USB drive, Cortex Camera for iOS, Cobook Address Book, with many more suggestions along the way, including handy tips based on how Merlin uses each. Links for this episode: Amazon.com: SodaStream R...
Feb 05, 2013•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast TOPIC : Modern Media Management: Metadata and Smart Playlists This week Dan and Merlin continue their 3-part series on Modern Media Management: handling your iTunes Library, iOS Devices, and iTunes Match without making yourself crazy. In this episode, the focus is on fixing audio metadata, with a big discussion of the awesome MusicBrainz and Picard . Links for this episode: Smile Blog [SPONSOR] Build a Website - Squarespace [SPONSOR] Stock Photos, Royalty-Free Images and Vectors - Shutterstock [...
Jan 29, 2013•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
