Back to Work

TOPIC: Obsessions, Compulsions, Obsessions, and Compulsions. Also, Obsessions—and Compulsions.

This week, Dan and Merlin lick the doorknob five times, tap their heads with their shoes, and ponder th…

TOPIC: Capture, Contracts, and Mapping the Territory.

This week, Dan and Merlin talk about keeping an honest calendar and ensuring you regularly review your "contracts" with yourself.

Chock-a-block…

TOPIC: Honesty and Sociopathy Go to Work

Merlin and Dan talk about the cultural divide between you and your work. Coping with work is a little like being a sociopath so you better make sure you're t…

TOPIC: Kicking and Screaming

Merlin has been dragged kicking and screaming into at least two things this week. Sometimes, that works out, and sometimes it doesn't. But, how many of those things do w…

TOPIC: Adapting to the Danger Room of Life

Dan and Merlin talk about how the protagonist of your story handles change in personal and work environments.

How do you respond in the face of change you…

TOPIC: Gut Churn, Pointing Arrows, and Recognizing Change

This week, Dan and Merlin talk at length about a recent article by Radiolab's Jad Abumrad, called, "The Terrors & Occasional Virtues of Not …

TOPIC: Motivation, Hardware Stores, and Fighting the Last War

This week, Dan and Merlin talk about motivation—how it changes, how it doesn't, and how it can be fueled by anxiety and cognitive disson…

TOPICS: Better Meat & Working Backwards

This week, Dan and Merlin talk about the many strategic and tactical benefits of reverse-engineering your next project.

There is also extensive discussion of…

TOPIC: Feeling Stuck in the Middle

This week, Dan and Merlin talk about a topic suggested by listener, @toddsandends: what happens when you're stuck enforcing rules you don't agree with?

Whether yo…

TOPIC: How Much Honesty Can We Stand?

This week, Dan and Merlin talk about how ridiculously complex "Honesty" can be. Do "Candor," "Transparency," "Frankness," and all those other Capital Letter Nou…

TOPIC: Aspects of Letting Go

This week, Dan and Merlin talk about two very different viewports into doing what you want to do and being who you want to be.

There's the non-fiddly value you earn fro…

TOPIC: Confidence, Courage, and the Problem with Thinking

This week, Dan and Merlin talk about why we may or may not feel confident to do stuff. How do other people seem to get it so easily, and whe…

TOPIC: The Problem with Passive-Aggression. If that's okay with you.

This week, Dan and Merlin apologize if they've made you unhappy with an episode about passive-aggressiveness, wussy non-communica…

TOPIC: Recalibrating Expectations

This week, Dan and Merlin talk more about struggling with expectations. Everybody's expectations. Including yours.

Why it's worth recalibrating your own expectati…

TOPIC: Boogers and Expectations

Are you making perfect reports when your boss just wants them on time? Are you making crème brûlée when you should be jumping in a trench? Are wangs and boogers causi…

TOPIC: Incentive, Inspiration, and Motivation

This week, Dan and Merlin are inspired to talk about the incentive and the motivation to make something.

Inspiration is marketed as something you're mi…

TOPIC: Trying On The Change

This week, Dan and Merlin (who might not have mentioned he didn't sleep much) discuss the balance between placing nickel bets versus going all-in—or at least thinking all…

TOPIC: The Pete Campbell Problem

Ever notice how you never really "arrive?" Or, have you ever noticed that right when you think you've "arrived," you don't stay arrived for very long—but now have a …

TOPIC: Stressing Out About Stress

Dan and Merlin talk about what happens when stress meets stress, anxiety feeds anxiety, and 10 guys maybe try to jump you in the woods.

Which kinds of stress are s…

TOPIC: The Surprising Problems of "Doing What You Love"

Merlin has some follow up on Agency: be in control of what you give away and why you charge what you charge, and Dan is interested in what hap…