Merlin Mann,

I really dug your show, man. Your interview with Chris Wetherell was great. I particularly enjoyed how the two of you parsed the perfectionist’s dilemma of wanting to have the best research at one’s fingertips before engaging in a thread but also actually wanting to be productive. This also applies in general—it is almost always better just to get something done (or just to reply) rather than have something be perfect (or to have prepared every possible resource before starting a project). Reminds me of what some friends of mine used to call “writer’s vanity” where the would-be serious writer who does nothing but procrastinate (like myself) is able to keep a lofty notion of himself intact by not writing. Actually writing would force you to know the reality of what you’re like on the printed (written) page.

I work on the East Coast at a huge internet company and I’m just beginning to get my proverbial sh*t to gether. Your sites are great. I dig the hPDA and other, relevant, intelligent ways of surviving the “information rat race”. Jeffrey Veen’s simple, Google-issue engineering notebook, things like that. Where would you recommend someone like me start (I who most recently lived in a small rural area for years and am only now slowly returning to concrete civilization) These techniques remind me of things I used to do in grade school intuitively (when my OCD/creative tendencies had better outlets) but forgot about when I entered the corporate game. Basically, thank you for your work.

Hi Merlin,

I really love your show and your presentation technique. Keep up the good work! On a sad note though, you accidentally switched the itunes subscription link for the hi-res version and the ipod version. I’m looking forward to more of your shows.

Thanks, Roel — great catch!

I’m going to enjoy Merlin TV. Good interviewing style, I like informal, ‘chatty’ questioning - it’s far more productive in terms of what you get from the interviewee.

Criticisms - the backdrop looked pretty gloomy and what about the important questions? What did he have for breakfast? His favourite candy bar? What colour socks does he prefer? And can he sub me 20 bucks? Apart from that - excellent.

great interviewing style! never heard of this blog until a little bit ago good stuff

I’m just wondering, if i am the only person on the web, who can’t watch full length of video? The problem is that this video stops running exactly at 554s (9:14). (i’m watching downloaded flv’s locally, because low bandwidth makes watching video online a pain). This is not the first video i’m experiencing the problems with. I’m using wimpy flv player. I’ve also tried another FLV player with the same results unfortunately. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the hi-res feed and show. Different and humble is good.

First-world epiphany. Yesterday, after another foot of snow, I was heading over to the store at 5:30AM to pick up some cold medicine. Feeling a little self-absorbed and sorry for myself. There, crossing the street is a guy with a hat on that says, “BLIND AND DEAF”. Behind him he’s dragging some gear with big signs for the bus, with his destination printed on them.

Thaaatttttttttt pretty much put everything in perspective for me. We’ve all got it so easy and it’s all so silly.

But hey, I just picked up a Nokia N800 for 20% off at the going out of business CompUSA today! SNAP! Yes, I still have a lot of work to do.

I’ll always remember that guy, and be grateful to him for the way he slapped me with a graduate degree in persistence, courage, and will.

My N800 is taking so long to charge. Man, this sucks!

Hey Merlin, I’ve been a big fan of yours for a while now, loving The Merlin Show and your work with the folks at tWiT, as well as 43folders keep it up!

Btw. really miss ThatPhoneGuy! Where’d it go!

Hi Merlin,

Your show is excellent, short and sweet. Since you have the chance to talk to such great developer, it would be super nice of you to ask them what kinda tools they use when coding. Do they use a simple text editor such as vim or textmate… maybe they prefer IDE. What kinda version control they use etc.

Bye bye

Merlin, what were you drinking from that tiny cup? Little cup + big straw = pure class.