Working with the garage door up, means I’m really just thinking out loud. I’m talking mostly to myself. It’s been a long time since I’ve done an episode for one of my own shows. Obviously the break was begun because of health issues in 2024. In the last couple of months though, I again do have the time. And I miss it. So I shall resume.
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That’s how I got mitochondria.
~ Randall Munroe, from Stromatolites
No one asked me, but if I was asked to summarize Munroe’s work I’d say: He’s mastered the art of finding insight by shifting the scale. Why is that hard? Why is that helpful? Why is that great? Because to do it at the mastery level (as Munroe does) requires one to have integrated a lot of knowledge. A lot.
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Introductions are not hard— …we’re just not prepared.
Whenever I’m on a podcast, I dread one inevitable question: “I know who you are, but tell everyone listening who you are!”
This is a moment when I feel painfully insecure, first-day-of-sixth-grade only-kid-with-braces level.
The things I like about myself don’t matter in this scenario; my task is to answer, essentially, “What is interesting, valuable, or remarkable about me to strangers?”
~ Mari Andrew, from It doesn’t have to make sense
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This is doubly related to people around here. Mari goes on to talk about David Nebinski and it’s worth a read.
But also, just yesterday I was in a little session presented by Andrea Wojnicki where she gave (among much more) a tidy little framework for introducing yourself. She pointed out that her framework is a place to begin. Once you get comfy introducing yourself you can expand and modify and do what you like.
So, what’s your current self-introduction?
…then read Andrea’s ideas, and then what’s your new, better self-introduction?
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PS: Technically, it’s triply related since that’s a photo of some of Steve Heatherington‘s alpacas ;)
For as long as I can remember, we’ve sent some sort of holiday card to our family and closest friends. Over the years it’s been store-bought cards, then for a while I was custom printing my own cards, but most-recently the professionally printed ones just can’t be beat.
The hardest part is always—of course—getting a photo the two of us can accept. Anyway.
Happy holidays to you and your family, and best wishes for a healthy and joyful 2025.
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Optionality lets you do things no one would give you permission to do. It lets you write excellent software and give it away for free if you choose. It lets you do things that don’t make sense in the current climate, but will long-term. It lets you be early while eventually catches up.
~ Jason Fried, from Achieving optionality
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I’ve never heard that word used that way, and I’ve never heard that business happy-place described so succinctly.
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Web sites!
Our beloved podcasting is built upon technology from the free (as in freedom and money) World Wide Web. We’ve come to take it for granted, so we just call it the web without even a capital-W.
Every podcast creator talks about getting more listeners. There are billions of people using the web. Searching on the web has to lead to a web site.
My challenge to you is:
Type “Your Show Title podcast” into a few search engines…
(You could also search for the title, or some critical words, or a guest name, from a recent episode.)
What did you get?
How far down those results is it to something that you actually control?
Is there even anything you control, anywhere in the results?
The only thing you can actually control on the web, is your own domain name.
…go to https://hover.com/ and find a domain name that you like.
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If you want to make a positive difference in the world—or simply maintain your sanity—you need to step back. You need to learn how to be more philosophical—which means being more discerning about what you let into your mind and learning how to see the big picture, calmly and with perspective.
~ Ryan Holiday, from This Habit Is Making You Miserable
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Just in case you had a negative reaction to the word philosophical: I distinctly recall when I thought “being philosophical” meant telling others how to do things, or at least pontificating about how I do things better. I distinctly recall learning that the word comes from “the love of truth”—and how that struck me deeply. I distinctly recall that the more I learned about philosophy in general, the more I wanted to learn about my philosophy—first discovering that I didn’t have a definitely chosen one, and then beginning to choose.
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That’s why people stay behind – not because they lack perspective, or self-discipline, or because their dopamine loops have been hacked by evil techbro sorcerers who used Big Data to fashion history’s first functional mind-control ray. They are locked in by real, material things.
~ Cory Doctorow, from Enshittification isn’t caused by venture capital
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There are many things I deeply appreciate and enjoy about the way I do short-form blogging. But one thing I am aware is missing, is more-considered analyses. I do believe that federated systems are the way to keep things from getting completely out of control—as they are today with the big platforms and their enormous machinery behind the scenes. But that belief of mine remains stymied by the reality of how people and communities actually work in real life.
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It’s easy to misunderstand the idea of agile and the minimum viable product. We shouldn’t forget that the unspoken rule is: Don’t ship junk. We send a message to the market when we’re in such a hurry that we don’t put in the care and focus needed to do great work.
~ Seth Godin, from Winging it
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What Godin is pointing at, I refer to as “being professional.” A professional is someone who understands what he’s talking about, strives be what he’s talking about, and—most importantly—is slightly annoyed by people who are not professional. If non-professional people don’t annoy you (a little bit), you need to recheck your self-assessment. Professionals recognize other professionals (regardless of their respective professions) and professionals prefer to associate with other professionals.
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