STUFF I WROTE & RECORDED—

[Todd Nief’s Show] Brad Stulberg (The Growth Equation)

Brad Stulberg has a list of accomplishments that would make most authors drip with envy.

Hundreds of thousands of books sold. A regular column in Outside Magazine. Contributions to publications like The New York Times, Sports Illustrated and Wired. A blue checkmark on Twitter and tens of thousands of followers.

A lot of Brad’s message is about avoiding the trappings of chasing external validation - yet, he remains acutely aware of the necessity of playing the status game in order to create the opportunity to do the work that he loves and spread the message that he cares about.

Check out the full conversation with Brad to learn how to chase lofty goals without burning out, how to properly balance chasing status with focusing on the internal process, and how to mitigate the damage of burning the candle at both ends when it’s necessary.

[Dreams of Consciousness Podcast] Episode 129: Like Rats

I was a guest on the Dreams of Consciousness podcast this week discussing the new Like Rats record.

From Adrian (the host of the show):

"Though they have members of power violence heroes Weekend Nachos and a name taken from a Godflesh song, the hearts of Like Rats are very much in the late Eighties/early Nineties era of death metal. The Chicago band excels at writing songs that are immediate, as well as bone crushingly heavy.

I spoke with Like Rats guitarist Todd Nief about his approach to songwriting, his musical influences, and the latest Like Rats album, Death Monolith. We also discussed Todd's own podcast, Todd Nief's Show."

Check out the full interview here.

STUFF I ENJOYED THIS WEEK—

PODCAST—

[Complexity by the Santa Fe Institute] Nicole Creanza on Cultural Evolution in Humans & Songbirds

If you feel like I share almost every episode of the Complexity podcast, you’re probably right.

Pretty much every time I listen to it, I’m just like "damn, yeah that is another earth-shattering insight."

In this case, the balance between the modularity ("separation as individual units") and interconnection of societies in both humans and songbirds impacts their creativity.

If societies are totally disconnected, they don’t get exposed to enough new ideas - and they can also "forget" pretty valuable things (like how to make fire, for example).

However, total interconnection is not a great idea either.

Instead, we want pockets of creativity with just enough information being shared between groups to maximize the ability to come up with successful solutions to problems.

Hate to pile on social media even further, but remember when we thought that connecting everyone and giving everyone a voice was going to be an intrinsic good for the world?

Well, there’s network science showing that, in order to maximize effectiveness of creative problem solving, we need to have some modularity. This makes intuitive sense as well if you think about the small creative "scenes" that have produced huge amounts of innovation - from technology in Silicon Valley to hip-hop in late 70s/early 80s New York to Impressionist painters in France, etc.

COVID ARTICLE—

[The Onion] Walgreens Introduces New Dumbass-Only Shopping Hours For Dipshits Who Don’t Know How To Stay 6 Feet Away

Far, far, far too real.

ARTICLE—

[Outside Magazine] Your Warm-Up Doesn’t Matter as Much as You Think

I have to admit it - this article aligns with a lot of my priors.

I believe that Alex Hutchinson is an excellent and clear science communicator - especially when it comes to athletic performance.

I also believe that a lot of the tactical stuff that people concern themselves with like supplements, accessory work, and - yes - warm-up routines is overrated and, at best marginal in terms of likely gains.

So, when Alex Hutchinson writes an article talking about how warm-ups don’t actually matter that much, I must admit, I’m a little too eager to be like "yeah, that’s what I’ve been saying!"

It’s a little bit more complicated than that, but you can probably chill out with your 30 minute warm-up routine.

SONG—

[Power Pop Hit of the Week] Marshall Crenshaw - "Rock On"

I’m crazy for Crenshaw.

This is a relatively obscure Crenshaw song that was actually written by Giorgio Moroder (the disco genius responsible for a lot of Donna Summer’s hits - and that song from The NeverEnding Story) for the Superman III Soundtrack.

I think I came across this because my friend Pat (shout out - he usually reads these things) sent me a clip of a Crenshaw interview where he talked about working with Moroder.

I wonder how much Moroder tried to channel Crenshaw for this track, since it does all kinds of Crenshaw-ish things like taking a relatively standard 12 bar blues idea, then doing a much more morose and melodically interesting little vocal hook to resolve the phrase at the end of the verse going into the chorus.

I know this doesn’t really sell this song, but it’s certainly not Giorgio nor Marshall’s best work - but what the hell how did these two freaks end up working together?

Thanks for reading. Please let me know if you’ve seen any articles or podcasts this week that you think that I would enjoy.