Showing posts tagged Merlin Mann

The Alan-Alda-fication

  • John Roderick: When we were kids, the school curriculum was still based on the premise that we were trying to beat the Russians to the Moon. Even though we had already beat the Russians to the Moon, we were still reading those same math books.
  • Merlin Mann: We, we wanted to get the Moon, and we wanted them NOT to get to the Moon.
  • JR: Yeah, right, we wanted to get to the Moon and go, “IN YOUR FACE!”
  • MM: Um-hmm
  • JR: But then somewhere there in the Seventies, the ‘Alan Alda-fication of America’ happened, and suddenly everybody was an Artist. Nobody had a slide rule anymore, nobody was trying to get us to the Moon. Now everybody...now everybody was free to be... and we were all, our little hearts needed to be...set free.. and we needed to talk about our feelings... and everybody needed to share...and now we live in a nation of 350 million of the Most Important People Who Have Ever Lived. Nobody can wait in line. Nobody can admit for a second that maybe - in the Grand Scheme of Things - they...are...a PEON...
  • MM: Um-hmm
  • JR: ...and they need to STFU and get in line and do their jobs and get out of the way of better drivers who are on their way to some place, and only have nine minutes to get there.
  • MM: I think I finally understand it: OK, it’s really, it’s a problem with at least two levels. The second level is that the people are in your way, they’re making it take way more than nine minutes, you’re not gonna get the chance to have a walk or a nap, they’re in John’s way. If I understand correctly, the first, much more broad problem - we’re never gonna get to problem two until we get through problem one - is that people are literally not being forced to literally listen to you.
  • JR: Um-hmm.
  • MM: Because that’s part of the problem...your...what you have to share with them is getting lost amidst all the voices and talking about feelings. Is that fair to say?
  • JR: That is fair to say, except that - with the caveat - that I don’t really care if they’re listening, I just want them to be quiet while I’m talking. If they are just sitting there, just, just dumbly...
  • MM: So it’s not really about the movie. The movie, really, the movie is You. The problem is they’re talking during You.
  • JR: They’re talking during Me.

Some Slides

merlin:

I’ll post all of them after I tidy up and redact a bit.

No, I don’t actually think Merlin Mann is the Messiah, despite what I may have said before.  But now, on top of producing (and/or contributing to) many of the most enjoyable things on the Internet and the airwaves, he’s also been invited out to talk to the fantastic team at Pixar (my kids would very happily swap Dads right about now).   An inevitable progression, I suppose (MC at Steve Jobs’ retirement dinner next?), but I really like it when good things happen to talented, genuine people.   

(Reblogged from merlin)
“I sympathize, honestly. I understand. We are in economic hard times, and when we are in economic hard times, people take comfort in watching millionaires hit balls with sticks. And watching millionaires who have no loyalty to you or the city you live in hit balls with sticks for millions of dollars. What could be more comforting? … So as I say, I’m not against it, it’s just the pervasiveness and the absolute unquestioned sense of its importance that it has about itself that drives me into a kind of nerd rage, as you can tell. It emulates the kind of annoying self-confidence of the jock in general. Like, “Well, of course you love me. I am briefly the most popular person in high school because I am strong, and I was born later in the year than you, so I’m bigger than you and better at the sport than you. Of course I am a good human being. You’re the one who has to justify yourself, nerd. Yes, in four years I will be graduated from high school and the likelihood that I will become a professional athlete is close to nil, and I will go through a huge crisis of identity as I try to define who I am in a world that no longer cares about my sagging body, which is how I’ve defined myself for my whole life. But you, nerd, who’s studying something that you’re passionate about and care about, and that you’re going to do for the rest of your life, you’re the one who has to explain why the fuck you’re at this party.” - John Hodgman (via @hotdogsladies) View high resolution

“I sympathize, honestly. I understand. We are in economic hard times, and when we are in economic hard times, people take comfort in watching millionaires hit balls with sticks. And watching millionaires who have no loyalty to you or the city you live in hit balls with sticks for millions of dollars. What could be more comforting?

…

So as I say, I’m not against it, it’s just the pervasiveness and the absolute unquestioned sense of its importance that it has about itself that drives me into a kind of nerd rage, as you can tell. It emulates the kind of annoying self-confidence of the jock in general. Like, “Well, of course you love me. I am briefly the most popular person in high school because I am strong, and I was born later in the year than you, so I’m bigger than you and better at the sport than you. Of course I am a good human being. You’re the one who has to justify yourself, nerd. Yes, in four years I will be graduated from high school and the likelihood that I will become a professional athlete is close to nil, and I will go through a huge crisis of identity as I try to define who I am in a world that no longer cares about my sagging body, which is how I’ve defined myself for my whole life. But you, nerd, who’s studying something that you’re passionate about and care about, and that you’re going to do for the rest of your life, you’re the one who has to explain why the fuck you’re at this party.”

- John Hodgman (via @hotdogsladies)

“…maybe I should have just come in and given email tips because maybe that’s really all people have the ears to hear.   I can’t go in and say like, ‘oh, corporate America should be different’..and maybe it shouldn’t matter, except that all of those people have lives: everybody who spends those hours and hours and hours living inside a big brick building full of lies..that’s hurting them, that’s harming them.  They’re not only not doing good work they’re having to subsist on this diet of cognitive dissonance that I think is really harmful…because you’re really forcing your brain - if you’re a smart person and you’re compelled to look at posters of a boat all day - like, at a certain point - what are you gonna do? - you’re just gonna give up… It’s probably not a coincidence that a lot of times the people who bring me in - it’s not like they get fired or something - but I think sometimes they realise they didn’t really want to be there…and they end up going ‘wow, y’know, I can’t really change the problem that’s real let alone the problem I want to change’…so sometimes I feel like I leave them feeling sadder than when I arrived, which is…I don’t know, I don’t know if that’s good or bad…finding out the truth is a real pain in the ass. But if you really do care about your work…you have to figure out which of these cognitive dissonances you can live with and be happy and feel whole.” - Merlin Mann, Back To Work podcast, S1E17 “Brick Building Full Of Lies”   View high resolution

“…maybe I should have just come in and given email tips because maybe that’s really all people have the ears to hear.   I can’t go in and say like, ‘oh, corporate America should be different’..and maybe it shouldn’t matter, except that all of those people have lives: everybody who spends those hours and hours and hours living inside a big brick building full of lies..that’s hurting them, that’s harming them.  They’re not only not doing good work they’re having to subsist on this diet of cognitive dissonance that I think is really harmful…because you’re really forcing your brain - if you’re a smart person and you’re compelled to look at posters of a boat all day - like, at a certain point - what are you gonna do? - you’re just gonna give up…

It’s probably not a coincidence that a lot of times the people who bring me in - it’s not like they get fired or something - but I think sometimes they realise they didn’t really want to be there…and they end up going ‘wow, y’know, I can’t really change the problem that’s real let alone the problem I want to change’…so sometimes I feel like I leave them feeling sadder than when I arrived, which is…I don’t know, I don’t know if that’s good or bad…finding out the truth is a real pain in the ass.

But if you really do care about your work…you have to figure out which of these cognitive dissonances you can live with and be happy and feel whole.”

- Merlin Mann, Back To Work podcast, S1E17 “Brick Building Full Of Lies”

 

This simple little box is pretty amazing; amazing because it contains a Very Special Ticket.

This very special little ticket grants me a 3-day weekend at MaxFunCon, with many of the people I most admire and whom I would never, ever have a chance to meet otherwise.  Inspiring, hilarious, truly-gifted people for whom I have huge respect and admiration like Maria Bamford, Merlin Mann, Adam Lisagor, Scott Simpson, John Hodgman, Dave Shumka and even - wait for it - Oscar-winning director of Toy Story 3, Lee Unkrich. Yep, this amazing ticket allows me to meet, watch, listen to, eat/drink with and learn from some pretty phenomenal people in a beautiful retreat outside of Los Angeles, CA (yes, the one allll the way over in The United States!).  Truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

But perhaps the most interesting (OK, maybe “depressing” is more apt) thing about this special box - and the special ticket within - is that they will now only ever be a souvenir: after wrestling with the decision for months (since the moment it was handed to me on Christmas Day by my lovely wife), I’ve finally and formally decided that I can’t… actually… go.

The reasons for this are varied, but mostly centre around this beautiful and brand new addition to our family (who will only be 6 weeks old at the time) and the fact that it’s unworkable (and unfair) to leave Mel at home with a 6 week old baby and two siblings under 5.  I also have enormous trouble justifying the AUD$2,500-3,000 (flights, travel, accommodation) for something that’s just for myself, when there are other things far more worthy of the money.  I would dearly LOVE to meet my favourite comedians, writers, filmmakers, directors and artists - eg John Hodgman will be hosting a Q&A with Lee Unkrich, Maria Bamford will be conducting comedy workshops and performing, the You Look Nice Today guys and Stop Podcasting Yourself guys will be performing and recording - but I have to let this go.   

I’m [mostly] at peace with the decision (OK, I’m working towards that point): I know it is at least the less-selfish choice and the only choice I can make with a clear conscience.  I can also [somewhat] console myself by

  1. imagining how happy my withdrawal has made the next person on the waiting-list, 
  2. calculating that the money saved goes directly to our planned 2015 U.S. trip that commemorates our 40th birthdays and 20th anniversary (and which the whole family can enjoy - not just me) and 
  3. remembering just how lucky I am to have such a beautiful set of ‘obligations’ here at home.

Still, I’ll be very deliberately avoiding Tumblr and Twitter from June 10th-June 12th, and probably the month or so following: I’m not made of stone.

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When I finally get my thoughts collected, and can put together something that doesn’t come across as either saccharine and insincere or creepily effusive, I will write to Mr Mann and thank him.  I’ll thank him not just for this Back To Work podcast - though it is indeed great and he and Dan Benjamin should be proud of what they’ve put together - but for so much more.

Merlin is far-and-away the person that I most admire and respect across the whole Internet and he’s involved in an astonishingly-high percentage of the things that I most enjoy. From the MacBreak Weekly’s where I first encountered him several years ago (where he and Andy brought/bring so much fun, wit and intelligence even to the driest discussions about OLED shipments), through inspired pieces like The Noises Rest, the hilarious You Look Nice Today podcasts, to his Twitter feed and this Tumblr of course.  

While it’s his fantastic sense of humour that struck me first, it’s his honest, reflective, challenging, encouraging posts about creativity and doubt and fear and excuses and distraction and hard-work that set him apart.  I love that he is a talented, creative guy with a young family who is working it all out very publicly, not a guy with a dogmatic public mantra hiding private doubts.  As much as we don’t ever “know” anyone else on the Internet - at best, we’re all just showing heavily-edited parts of ourselves - I strongly suspect that Merlin Mann the internet persona is pretty close to Merlin Mann the husband and father and fellow Dora-The-Explorer-endurer. And I respect that so much.  

Part of the reason I’ve never written to him despite setting out to do so many times is that - with so many followers and ‘likes’ and ‘faves’ - my little note of appreciation seems pretty pointless and redundant, right?  But, on second thoughts, the fact that he’s now very well known and is an Internet Superstar doesn’t in any way diminish how much I personally appreciate him and what he gives of himself every day…and maybe he doesn’t actually hear an endless stream of thunderous praise like I assume he does.    

So thank you, Merlin: I’m really grateful.

merlin:

That’s my favorite (non-useful) 105 seconds in the latest episode of Back to Work.

…

So, yeah. I’ll be talking about this new show a lot. Because it’s my new thing. And, because a person doesn’t get the chance to do that many things that feel special.

I totally understand if you are now or soon will be sick of hearing about this. Because you will certainly not be alone. But—understand this though I do—and, per half of the point of this entire latest episode, I don’t have a lot of control over what anyone else thinks or does or expects. Which I’m actually kind of strangely grateful for.

Thing is: as immodest as I may sometimes seem, I don’t actually love every single thing I make. Not by a long shot. Not by a longity long long long McLongLong shot.

But, I do really love this. And, I really hope you do too.

(Reblogged from merlin)