Here is another roundup of the best reads, podcasts, internet people + projects, and anything else I’ve discovered the past month.
Podcast Recommendations
Podcasts continue to feel “on fire” this month. The newest branch of the algorithm I am exploring has proven fruitful! Twitter + other podcasts continue to be my main method of discovery when it comes to podcasts, which feels old school to me.
1.) The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim continues to demonstrate his hard won experience creating deeply meaningful conversations. Over nearly ten years, it really is awesome to see him continuously improve. This month he released two incredible episodes that have sparked several brainstorming sessions. The first that I recommend is his latest conversation with Derek Sivers. Derek is such a gem. I recommended his appearance on The Pathless Path in February’s roundup too. In this one, it seems like Tim traveled to visit Derek in New Zealand, and they record a wonderful conversation they had together there. It feels real and intimate, while still being aimed at bringing value to the listeners. I particularly like Derek’s advice on becoming technologically independent (a path I feel myself heading down as I rebuild my site from scratch).
The second episode worth listening to is Tim’s latest episode with Kevin Kelly. Kevin has been making the rounds so to speak and I’ve enjoyed each of his recent conversations. But he and Tim have a fun vibe given that they have become friends so this one feels effortless and natural. They discuss many topics but I particularly like listening to Kevin’s advice on creating traditions within a family and how to stop aiming to be “the best” and instead aiming to be “the only.”
2.) James Dyson: Against the Odds! – Founders Podcast
I told Tessa recently that I don’t understand how the Founders podcast works so well. A single host reads biographies and autobiographies and then goes through the highlights and lessons via audio. It shouldn’t work, but it does. It might be because of what James Dyson realized about the secret ingredient for success being difference. By simply being different than your competition you can succeed. This rhymes with Kevin Kelly’s advice from the Tim Ferriss episode, don’t be the best, be the only. This idea is so rich that I plan on exploring it more deeply in a longer post. David, who hosts Founders, is embracing difference. He is extremely passionate about entrepreneurship and clearly gets sincerely absorbed in the books he covers. That enthusiasm can’t help but make it out of the podcast player straight into the listener’s ears. This episode about the grueling pursuit of invention will pump you up and make you want to drop what you’re doing to go build. Highly recommend this episode. I’ve added this autobiography to my “on deck” spot for next reads. If you dig this episode, you will probably love the James Dyson episode of How I Built This, where you can hear some of these stories (and more) from Dyson himself.
3.) Stephen Wolfram
Two fantastic interviews with Stephen Wolfram dropped recently, and in one of them I got to ask Stephen a question!
The first episode with Stephen Wolfram I’d recommend is his recent appearance on Aarthi & Sriram’s Good Time Show. This is a fascinating exploration of Wolfram’s perspective on learning, mastery, and building a career based on ideas. The best part is Aarthi and Sriram are genuine fans of Wolfram and his work. And as I said, I got to ask Wolfram a question vicariously after responding to Sriram’s tweet. You can hear Wolfram’s awesome answer in the very first few minutes of the episode.
The second episode with Wolfram I’d recommend is his appearance on This Week in Startups with Jason Calacanis. This one is great, specifically for hearing Wolfram recount the history and current state of AI research.
Reading Recommendations
As always, you can keep up with what I am reading here. You can also check out my Reading This page to see the five things I am currently recommending.
1.) Libraries Need More Freedom to Distribute Digital Books – Dan Cohen for The Atlantic
“Last week, a district court judge in New York ruled on Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive, a case that is likely to shape how we read books on smartphones, tablets, and computers in the future.” This is the opening sentence of this wonderful piece. Read this to understand the furious struggle between the major publishers and libraries trying to provide access to the most readers possible and the reading their members want most. This was all reignited during COVID when the Internet Archive (a project I’ve recommending investigating in a previous Roundup) began lending out Ebook copies of its archived content to help compensate for public libraries closing.
2.) Why Are Ebooks So Terrible? – Ian Bogost for The Atlantic
I am a huge fan of my Kindle and also intend to never stop buying physical books. This is a fascinating exploration of the design limitations of Ebooks based on the physical form of books versus Ebooks as well as the historical design elements omitted in modern reading devices. It is also just a great recap of the history of reading + reading tech. If you like thinking about the design of everyday things, you will love this quick read. I considered many of these same ideas when building Printernet. Can Ebooks overcome these challenges? The optimal design might be ultra-thin Eink display pages that actually turn like a real book, not sure how far we are from that tech. Reading this made me realize the limitations of Ebooks, but also helped me articulate what Ebooks are especially good for too.
Twitter, Cool People + Projects
I’ve built a new little tool for Twitter! It is called MotMot (named after the beautiful green and blue bird) and continues the trend of building useful tools for myself. MotMot lets you instantly Tweet any text you highlight on the web. I call it a highlight to Tweet tool.
If you want to try it out, let me know! Here’s the very first Tweet created with MotMot. Next, I plan to link back to the URL where the text was highlighted from. But this MVP is already pretty cool!
Next up is cool people and projects.
1.) Neal Agarwal’s Space Elevator
I recently discovered this amazing creative programmer named Neal. I found Neal and his work via the Recommendo newsletter, where they linked to his latest project Space Elevator. Space Elevator is a webpage where you start at sea level and gradually scroll your way up into space. You pass birds, planes and other aircraft, and learn about the various layers of Earth’s atmosphere as you go. Plus, you get to pick fun elevator music and clothing for your little elevator passenger. After exploring that delightful project, I checked out the rest of Neal’s work and found many more quirky projects. Another I’d recommend is his Absurd Trolley Problems.
2.) CW&T’s 55-66-88
I’ve been a huge fan of CW&T’s stuff ever since my friend Camilo showed me them while he was studying at RISD. I recently purchased this fun 3D printed phone stand from them which allows you to position your phone at three different angles. I plan on using it for recording myself and reading recipes while cooking.
Personal Updates
First and foremost, it has been a busy time of year as we approach 30 days until our wedding. We’ve been jamming on lots of working sessions and coordinating all the logistics involved. Definitely feels real now and I can’t wait for the day to arrive! The entire week is shaping up to be wonderful. This past weekend I purchased my shoes and tried on my suit for the first time, wild!
I’ve also been spending my free time rebuilding my website from scratch. I am doing this for a few reasons: first to continue expanding my programming skills, also to reduce my monthly costs of hosting on other platforms, and to provide myself with more customization capabilities. I’ve decided I want my website to feel like my home that I am welcoming you into. You can explore the home at your leisure, you can stay on the main floor or explore the greater mysteries. You can open drawers and find my loose notes and rough drafts. The curious are rewarded with secret doors and even physical gifts! That is the ambition and some of the early prototypes are already live. Check it out and follow along as I build my digital home: polymathematics.net.
Another cool project I began this month is Reco.
The idea of Reco is in the same idea family as Reading This and continues my exploration of recommendations and sharing the digital content you are loving with other people. Reco is like email, but for recommendations only. Each user gets a public “Recbox” where other people can drop reading or podcast recommendations into. The recs that get dropped into your Recbox then make into an email like dashboard for you to view and you can decide to display the best ones publicly.
It is in its infancy, but I’ve already had some great recs come in and I am super excited to continue tinkering with it. Leave me one here and if you want your own Recbox, I’d love to help you set it up!
That’s all for this month, see you on the other side of May!
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