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Back to Work

Episode 51: Living Inside the Nonsense

Back to Work

5by5

Business, Society & Culture, Barriers, Dan Benjamin, Careers, Communication, Merlin Mann, Creativity, Work, Productivity, Constraints, Technology

4.72.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2012

⏱️ 83 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

TOPIC: Slipping on Dates, Sliding on Days

Merlin and Dan talk about managing projects, scheduling calls, and being home when you scheduled a party. It SEEMS SO SIMPLE but then Jeannie has to go to Guam and slipping is your SOP.

The way out of this quagmire is to admit you can't get out of it. You can't change a culture of slipping with a poster or a fairy princess. You have to fix the slides if you want to fix the slips.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, uh, uh, hello, hello, hello. Can you hear me? Yeah, it sound great.

0:06.2

Ah, I wasn't plugged in. I didn't know you're here. I know. I'm three minutes early.

0:09.5

No, no, I mean, I'm always ready. A, B, C, you know.

0:12.4

Hmm. How are you? Good. It's good to hear your voice. It feels like it's been forever.

0:17.2

Is this, is this the show? This is the show. This is the big show. This is the one we went,

0:21.7

we all wait for the show. It's the murder man show. Look at me. I can dance. I can sing.

0:28.4

Wow. That's amazing. I just, uh, thank you. I just like you. That was, that was remarkable.

0:33.7

Yeah. Wow. You know what I've been noticing? I've got another thought. But first,

0:38.0

I've been noticing a lot of, um, maybe early 90s letterman sneaking into your, uh, thing,

0:44.1

which I like. I don't know what it is about that. I'm Merlin man. Uh, uh, it's not quite like a,

0:50.5

like a, what's his name, Billy Ray Cyrus? The guy with the S link plate. It's, um, it's kind of

0:55.2

one of those, like, when he's doing his, uh, Merlin man. That's it. Yeah. Like guys who work,

0:59.4

it's kind of be honest with you and tell you who that actually is. Although I do see a letterman

1:03.6

parallel, that's not what I was going for. Can I tell you? Yes. Uh, I don't know. Tell me who?

1:09.2

Yosemite Sam, which is kind of how I see you. I kind of see you as a modern,

1:15.1

modern day. Well, I cut, I cut out the root and astuteness part and just go for the overall,

1:22.0

kind of overbearing, you know, excited, see me or that's how you see parodies of me. How does

1:27.7

that work? I'm Merlin man. Yeah. There's a big, big and bold. That's what it is. Big and bold

1:36.2

and, and confident, coxure. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. I like that. You know, I'm gonna hear that

1:44.0

in different way now. That's good. I mean, but I do, I can, I can hear that. I can hear what you're

1:48.0

talking about with the letter, with the letterman thing. That's not what I was going for. I can't do it,

1:51.4

but I hear it. You do it with Syracuse a lot. And I like it because, you know, I mean,

...

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