Episode description

TOPIC: You Are That Little Dot.

This week, Dan and Merlin talk about notifications, beeps, bloops, flashes, and all the stuff we have zero control over. There's about a million ways people can contact us and just as many ways we can unintentionally disappoint every one of them.

There's sanity in realizing which stuff you actually control, which stuff you have to let go, and how many of the expectations in-between can be reasonably managed.

Links for this episode:

• Email Drafts the Hard Way
  "I learned a hard lesson early in my adventures of writing words on a computer screen: The last thing you write is the recipient address."
• peg.gd: Bacon Ray - “Tomfoolery” 7-inch (AAJ Records, 1995)
  Reminder: you can download the theme song from B2W for free here.
• selfdeterminationtheory.org — An Approach to human motivation & personalityHome - selfdeterminationtheory.org
  
• Silver Surfer Vol. 1: New Dawn - Comics by comiXology
  The Silver Surfer, sentinel of the cosmos, is often alone on his quest to defend space. All that changes when Surfer meets earthling Dawn Greenwood, a young woman determined to push the Surfer's boundaries. Plus, the introduction of the villain known as Never Queen! When Surfer tries to return Dawn home, he finds himself in his strangest battle yet with Shuma-Gorath!
• Technical Difficulties - 080 - A History of Computing with Dr. Drang
  Dr. Drang returns to explore his background in computing from the late 1970s to today. Along the way we discover what happens when you mess up a punchcard, what Linux was like in the early days, why he uses a Mac today, and his perspectives on the near future of computing.
• 5by5 | The Incomparable #217: Weird Reverse Hidden Charisma
  Come with us if you want to live! It's time for our re-watch of 1984's classic sci-fi/horror/monster/car chase movie "The Terminator." It's a film that offers a fine distillation of everything '80s, from Linda Hamilton's Guess jeans to the pulsating Casio keyboard soundtrack. How do Kyle Reese's stolen pants remind him of home? And whatever you do, keep an eye out for a gigantic Austrian!With panelists Erika Ensign, David J. Loehr, and Steve Lutz.
• Benedict Cumberbatch As ‘Doctor Strange': Actor Cast In Marvel Movie | Deadline
  
• Scratch — Your Quick-Input Notepad
  
• Drafts - Agile Tortoise
  
• Editorial for iOS
  
• Byword • Simple and efficient text editor for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
  
• Sugar: The Bitter Truth - YouTube
  
• 5by5 | Back to Work #192: Party City Trophies
  TOPIC: Reinforcement, Aikido, and FearThis week, Dan and Merlin try to tackle positive versus negative reinforcement.
• Just give me all the bacon and eggs you have... - YouTube
  
• Showbot
  Listener-submitted titles for this episode.
• Film Crit Hulk Smash: ON DESPAIR, GAMERGATE AND QUITTING THE HULK | Badass Digest
  Hulk attempts to make sense of the maelstrom. 
• Home - Woodworkers Collective - Los Angeles - Offerman Woodshop
  
• Reinventing iOS Automation: Editorial Review – MacStories
  

Sponsored by Varonis DatAnywhere (Try turning your own network shares into a private cloud free for 30 days with an unlimited amount of users and if you visit varonis.com/backtowork you get 5 users free forever) and TextExpander Touch 3 (TextExpander Touch 3 gives you custom keyboards that let you expand custom keyboard shortcuts into frequently-used text snippets on your iPhone or iPad.)