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.
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.
