234: Catching up with Merlin Mann

Today’s guest, and the first guest in what I’ll call season 2 of Systematic, is Merlin Mann. He’s a prolific podcaster and man about the internet, and a repeat — one might say regular — guest on Systematic. Merlin joins me to inaugurate season two of Systematic. From mediocre home automation tools to the latest in Teppanyaki videos, it’s two ADHD podcasters catching up after a couple of years.

NosillaCast
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Garth Jennings)
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (BBC)
Bunch
MailMate
TaskPaper
Drafts
Editorial
Eufy
Phillips Hue Motion Sensors
GuardianVPN
You Look Nice Today
California King

Top 3 Picks

Descript
Hit Parade

slate hit parade red red wine

Japanese Chefs cooking Teppanyaki

How to ADHD
Answers With Joe-Joe Scott
Technology Connections

Bando Manndo the Bearded Dragon @bandomanndo

Thanks!

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Check out more episodes and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. I’m @ttscoff on Twitter, and you can follow Systematic at @systmcast.

Transcript
Brett: [00:00:00] so this is my first show in, how long has it been? This one was, November 8th, 2018. Yeah. So, so this is you are my first guest and I picked you because you are the easiest interview in the world.

Merlin: [00:00:19] It's really hard to get me to talk.

Brett: [00:00:21] Yeah, right. Like with no planning or forethought, conversations with you just happen and

Merlin: [00:00:29] enjoy our visits. So very much as you know, I am a huge fan of your work and I'm honored to be your first guest in, you know, Years. I, you know, as I'm revealing myself as somebody who has not noticed the absence of your show, and it's just because in the same way that I forget why I muted somebody on Twitter, I also sometimes forget why I kept the podcast, but turned off new episodes.

So the lack of episodes to me can be, could be written down to the fact that I just can't [00:01:00] remember why I turned it off. At on. I just didn't notice.

Brett: [00:01:03] I had quietly just decided to take a hiatus. At first it was going to be a couple months, and then it was going to be six months. Then it was going to be a year. And then I stopped worrying about it and just decided if it comes back and then some turns of events and all of a sudden, I just found myself excited about it.

Again, I built a whole new website where we're network free

Merlin: [00:01:27] that's so awesome. Well, I have this thing that, I mean, I'm not certainly not the first person in middle age to realize this, but something I have learned to accept and leverage is that. Every time. Well, for example, every time I'm leaving the house , I either have the feeling that I have everything that I need or they don't have everything I need that I've done everything I need to do, or I haven't done it.

Yeah. Everything I need to do. And if I have even the slightest feeling that there's something I've forgotten [00:02:00] and I don't know what it is. If I take a minute, it always turns out to be something that I have indeed. Forgotten. And so while I'm trying to become less of a who quote unquote trust there, gut, I believe in that in your case, I think when your brain tells you, your brain is trying to tell you yeah.

Something it's time for a break. This is not fun.  if you're not looking forward to a thing that you do, this is very privileged, but I believe it. If you're not leaning forward to the thing that you're doing, it's worth interrogating that. Like what, why is that? And if you don't know why. You know, why push a rope?

A brakes are good.

Brett: [00:02:39] Do you know Alison Sheridan?

Merlin: [00:02:42] I feel like I

Brett: [00:02:42] pod feat, the most know Zillow  podcast.  She's been doing that podcast for  15 years and has never missed a week.  That kind of blows me away.

Merlin: [00:02:55] E so wait, that's 2005.

Brett: [00:02:59] Math.