Episode 84: Every Genie is an Actuary

Back to Work

5by5

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

4.7 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2012

⏱️ 104 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

TOPIC: Superpowers, Madness, and the Pursuit of Interesting Problems

Dan and Merlin talk about the superpowers you have and can't control as well as the demons and drivers that our heroes have and can't control. How sometimes we find ourselves craving the screaming in someone else's head. Because, we surely do love and revere our Beautiful Losers and Genius Lunatics.

Entered into evidence: Hunter S. Thompson, The Incredible Hulk, Sylvia Plath, Brian Wilson, Nightcrawler, Van Gogh, Syd Barrett, Tom Waits, Robert Lowell, Howard Hughes, and Corporate Stooges (n.b.: Dan said that; not Merlin).

The upshot? Try not to get too obsessed with someone else's ether in the convertible or, for that matter, the cake in your own conference room.

Get excited about constantly releasing that "better version of yourself"—and make the world a happy beneficiary of your own particular madness.

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This week's episode of Back to Work is sponsored by Smile Software, and Squarespace.

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Sign up for Squarespace today to get an extra 10% off any new account with the offer code "soold" (as in, "Merlin looks sooooooo old!"). Watch Merlin's new Squarespace 6 site get built in real time (including screencasts) at http://merlinm.com/s6.

Transcript

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0:00.0	She's up against the register.
0:02.2	It wouldn't have spat you love.
0:04.6	You're today's the reason.
0:07.0	She's just an invitation to the blues.
0:09.9	And you feel just like her knee.
0:12.8	She looks like we're the hero.
0:19.2	Way of the future.
0:20.0	Way of the future.
0:20.5	Good morning.
0:20.8	Way of the future.
0:21.5	How are you?
0:23.1	Way of the future.
0:24.5	You sound you just woke up and rolled in a bed.
0:26.5	Mm-hmm.
0:27.2	I don't roll.
0:29.1	Fall.
0:30.3	Mm-hmm.
0:33.0	Are you curious?
0:34.8	Epicurious.
0:35.7	Mm-hmm.
0:38.0	Um, I do somewhere between
0:41.6	springing, bouncing, rolling,
	...

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