Jay is gone again, so Kathy brings back Merlin Mann to discuss productivity porn as well as a ton of other topics of import.

Guest Starring:

Merlin Mann

Links and Show Notes:

Checked Connections

- Merlin ✅ - Working on collecting the old sites and Fives list
- Kathy ✅ - Get ready for unicorning cowork

Keep sending those MyConduit Connections to us on Discord and through Feedback!

New Connections

- Merlin - Keep working on the site thing
- Kathy - Take things to the post office

For Our Super Conductors:

Pre-Show: LIDar on iOS. How do you know if you’re ladder is against the right wall?
Post-Show: Embracing the chaos

Credits

• Music: When You Smile
• Executive Producers: Relay FM Discord Community

Conduit e122 Links

Merlin's One Good Things

• Where Everybody Knows Your Name: Judy Greer (Ted Danson, Conan O'Brien Network) -- "I went in thinking, oh, this looks really good, and I ended up liking it probably twice as much as I expected."
• Judy Greer -- Cheryl/Carol on Archer, Kitty Sanchez on Arrested Development. "It was neat to hear her talk about how important it was for her to get better at acting."
• Typora -- WYSIWYG Markdown editor ($15). "A really nice balance of what I'm looking for" -- discovered through the 5ives redesign work with Claude.
• Judi Dench speech on The Graham Norton Show -- "Made me cry."

Kathy's One Good Thing

• Flavor Flav sponsoring the US women's hockey team -- Vegas celebration for the gold-medal team. Merlin responded by rapping "Bring the Noise" from memory.

Merlin's Shows

• Do By Friday (with Alex Cox)
• Reconcilable Differences (with John Siracusa)
• Roderick on the Line (with John Roderick)

Productivity / Publishing

• Inbox Zero -- "I'm the inbox zero guy." Merlin originated the concept; the world turned it into a marketing term.
• 43folders.com -- "In 2004, there were not a lot of websites about how to deal with your productivity problems as a Mac user."
• Back to Work (5by5) -- former podcast
• David Allen / Getting Things Done -- "He claims he's the laziest man in the world, and I've always admired that he says that."
• Danny O'Brien and the 2005 ETech "Life Hacks" talk -- "Danny and I are both so addled and odd and different... his energy was just incandescent to be around." The conference where Merlin's laptop had Wi-Fi for the first time.
• Site Meter -- "There's your life before site meter and your life after site meter." The little GIF badge that counted page loads and launched a million blog vanity spirals.

5ives & Typography

• 5ives -- Merlin's list site (2002), 450 lists, being revived. "I'm pleased with myself. I like that I made four hundred and fifty lists that some people thought were funny in the 2000s."
• Matthew Butterick -- fonts, Practical Typography. "One of those people where I'm just interested in your deal," like Simon Willison or Edgar Wright. Merlin bought the entire font set during a bout of situational depression and is finally using them for the 5ives redesign.

Movies & TV

• The Hollow Crown (BBC) -- Trailer. "Look at that stacked cast." Ben Whishaw, Tom Hiddleston, Sophie Okonedo, Rory Kinnear. Merlin told Kathy to buy it on Apple TV "or I can pirate it for you."
• Kenneth Branagh's Henry V (1989) -- "My number one movie that I recommend." "You don't even need to understand what they're saying. It'll still give you shivers."
• Mark Rylance: St. Crispin's Day speech at the Globe -- "It gives you a different kind of shivers, like a different part of your neck and your back." Merlin recited part of the speech from memory.
• The Death of Stalin (2017) -- "A very dark, very funny film" by Armando Iannucci.
• Veep / The Thick of It -- "It's gonna be difficult difficult lemon difficult." Both Iannucci. Led to Merlin imagining Matthew Butterick as a Veep restaurant reservation alias.
• Women Talking (2022) / Men (2022) -- Merlin's suggested double feature for mom's night. "Start with Women Talking, back with Men." Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear.
• Our Flag Means Death -- Merlin named his Mac Studio "Buttons" after Ewen Bremner's Mr. Buttons ("the guy from Trainspotting"). Rhys Darby, Kristian Nairn ("Hodor's on there. He's a big fella.").
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) -- "Just to be available." Merlin's favorite line, from Mr. Kylie the possum wanting to know his job in the big plan.

Music

• Vikingur Olafsson: Goldberg Variations (Deutsche Grammophon, 2023) -- Merlin's current obsession. "I care so intensely about that." Discovered after years of only knowing Glenn Gould.
• Glenn Gould: 1955 vs. 1981 Goldberg Variations -- The famous pair: 38 minutes of youthful showmanship vs. 51 minutes of deliberate structure.
• Public Enemy -- "Bring the Noise" -- Merlin rapped the full opening verse from memory when Kathy mentioned Flavor Flav. "Bass, how low can you go?"

Poetry

• Gwendolyn Brooks -- "We Real Cool" (video of her 1983 Guggenheim reading) -- "We real cool. We jazz June. We die soon." Merlin on hearing poetry "in the air" vs. on the page.
• Sylvia Plath -- "Daddy" (her 1962 BBC recording) -- "You do not do, you do not do... you really hear something you didn't see on the page."

Books & Podcasts

• Bessel van der Kolk on The Ezra Klein Show -- "One of my all-time favorite podcast episodes. It changed my life. Everything you know about trauma is screwing you up."
• Off Menu -- celebrities describe their dream meal. The Amanda Seyfried episode taught Merlin about a kind of olive he now puts on Brussels sprouts.
• Mr. Show with Bob and David -- source of the "hey everybody" drum bit Merlin does throughout. "I'm very, very, very specifically stealing it from a bit about the new Ku Klux Klan."
• Blank Check (Griffin Newman) -- source of "the great ___" bit. "I'll credit Griffin Newman for that bit."

People

• James Thompson (PCalc, Dice by PCalc) -- "What if twenty-sided dice fell on your head?" Merlin on how James finds delight in close-to-the-metal Apple tech.
• Armando Iannucci -- "If you like English nerd comedy, he's really something."
• Simon Willison, Matt Webb, danah boyd -- people Merlin follows because "I'm just interested in your deal."
• Edgar Wright -- "I will just show up because I'm interested in what he's up to. I don't even care if I like his movie."
• Ecamm Live -- streaming app Kathy uses for her unicorn co-working sessions.

Pre-Show (Superconductors only)

• LiDAR accessibility features on iPhone -- Merlin fiddled with it on the street, "pointing his phone at people for a very long time."
• Apple's breathing sleep LED -- the MacBook pulsing light. Kathy: "So relaxing, so unnecessary and delightful." Apple researched sleeping respiratory rates and chose the calmest end of the spectrum.
• Erich Brenn, plate spinner, on The Ed Sullivan Show -- the origin of "spinning plates" as a metaphor. 8 appearances in the 1950s-60s.

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