Videos

Makebelieve Help, Old Butchers, and Figuring Out Who You Are (For Now)

Merlin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:17:46 -0400

Makebelieve Help, Old Butchers, and Figuring Out Who You Are (For Now) - Vimeo [NSFW]

Here’s a video I made about a video I made. Consequently, it’s also about writing a book, fake self-help, the long road to developing expertise, and the ups and downs of repeatedly asking the world to tell you who you are.

The video is long. As usual. This is how it works.

I’d had this fancy idea that I’d do a DFW-style dump of annotations about what I talk about over these 40 minutes, and I might add that later, but for now here’s all you need to know:

Dish soap cleans dishes; Stuart Brown says everybody needs Play; Rands has a cave where he doesn’t multitask; The Dreyfus Model has ﬁve stages; Andy Hunt wants you to Think & Learn Pragmatically; my pal, Sean Hussey helped me ﬁgure some of this stuff out.

And, oh, what the heck. Here’s how to supercharge your zen turbocharger with “5 Surprising House Hacks!” [even more NSFW]

[Index Card Photo: Inbox Zero Tumblr]

”Makebelieve Help, Old Butchers, and Figuring Out Who You Are (For Now)” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on October 22, 2009. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Video: Merlin's Talk, "Toward Patterns for Creativity"

Merlin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:27:38 -0500

Merlin Mann - “Toward Patterns for Creativity” - Macworld PULSE

Here’s a video of my presentation, “Toward Patterns for Creativity,” from earlier this month at Macworld, here in SF.

My slides were kind of a mess thanks to a bonehead technical problem on my part, but you can follow along ﬁne below.

As I said, I’m very interested in seeing where a topic like this could go. Because I truly believe it’s an idea that could help push a lot of people to the next level.

Related: if you’re interested in where my head was as I prepped for this, be sure and catch the previous post, The Problem with “Feeling Creative”.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, do yourself a favor, and pick up the book I highlight in this talk: The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharpe.

Addendum: 2009-01-28 06:42:03

It should not go without mentioning ﬁve (5) John Gruber-related things:

Seriously. I really did like John’s talk, and I think he’s totally onto something with the Auteur thing. (cf.)
John very kindly let me borrow his laptop after my learning that my own was un-dongle-able.
The slide problem stemmed from my preparing the presentation on a newer version of Keynote than John had installed.
I’m pretty sure John did have Helvetica Neue installed. Because he’s a giant type nerd.
John invented Markdown. In which I write everything. Including this.

Which is just to say that John is a friend as well as my favorite person in the Apple universe. So, upon watching this a second time, I realize I’d hate to leave you with the impression that I feel anything other than embarrassingly abundant aloha for him.

Thanks, John.

[video via: Macworld Pulse: Merlin Mann | Macworld]

Like the Talk?

A big part of what I do these days is delivering talks like this and others all around the US and beyond. If you’d enjoy having me visit with you to present at your company, event, or conference, drop a line and my ninja assistant, Erica, will be happy to take your details and check for availability.

”Video: Merlin's Talk, "Toward Patterns for Creativity"” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 27, 2009. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

43f Screencast: Merlin's First Desktop Tour

Merlin — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:20:25 -0500

Merlin’s First Desktop Tour on Vimeo (Full HD Version)

After a recent “Most Days” episode, several people asked to see what all’s in my menu bar, so I made this little video using ScreenFlow. It’s a “proof of concept.” A “pilot program,” if you like. Again: an experiment. (Hint: this looks way better in full HD)

Watch this space next week for more info on these apps, plus discount codes and more.

Liked this? Want to see more of these? Got ideas? Stuff you’d like to see or have ever wondered about? Leave a nice comment on the Vimeo page. But, be gentle. It’s my ﬁrst attempt at a screencast, and I’m no Don McAllister.

Seeing Your App Here?

NB: If you’re a developer of one of the mentioned apps and want to give my readers a sweet discount via a coupon code, hit me up at macstuff at 43 folders dawt com with the subject “I Love 43f Readers.”

”43f Screencast: Merlin's First Desktop Tour” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 23, 2009. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Eric Idle, on John Cleese's Writing Process

Merlin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:07:25 -0500

Eric Idle, on John Cleese’s Approach to Writing

John Cleese sweated every word — to the point of exhausting collaborators like Eric Idle.

In other places, I’ve heard Cleese himself talk about his work ethic within the Pythons, mentioning how Graham Chapman might slip out early to start drinking, while Cleese would stick around and revise a sketch for another half-hour or longer. Over time, he felt the extra effort was what made the difference in the enduring appeal of his material.

It also helps explain why a classic like the Cheese Shop still delights a word nerd like me. Speciﬁcity.

[Note: This post originally appeared on our daughter site, “43 Folders Clips,” and we liked it enough to republish it here.]

”Eric Idle, on John Cleese's Writing Process” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 01, 2009. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Ze Frank: Executing and Theoretical Perfection

Merlin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 06:44:33 -0500

the show with zefrank (2007-11-06 / “washington, ideas, brain crack”)

Ze Frank, on executing ideas even, or especially, when you can’t do them perfectly. (PNSFW)

[video via Waxy Links]

As some pals and I have been banging around ideas for new projects, I’ve been thinking a lot about Ze Frank, and realizing what a talented and brave fellow he is.

I didn’t follow The Show closely during its beloved one-year run, but I’ve enjoyed several episodes quite a lot, and, in the time since The Show ended, I’ve retroactively (sporadically) been catching up on some of the little projects Ze’s pushed out over the last few years. Proliﬁc, warm, and very engaging work.

The “brain crack” video arrived with perfect timing, because I’ve been obsessing over a similar idea. In the video above, Ze says, unblinkingly:

And the longer they wait, the more they convince themselves of how perfectly that idea should executed…But the bummer is most ideas kind of suck when you do them.

That’s inspiration that’s hard to beat.

Also, although most sports racers certainly will have seen it by now, Ze’s talk at TED from a few years back is a stitch.

[Note: This post originally appeared on our daughter site, “43 Folders Clips,” and we liked it enough to republish it here.]

”Ze Frank: Executing and Theoretical Perfection” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 01, 2009. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Video: Merlin's Time & Attention Talk

Merlin — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:39:27 -0500

Macworld ‘08: Merlin Mann / “Living with Data”

Like the talk? Hire Merlin

Sure, you can hire Merlin to speak to your group. Here’s how.

This was the ﬁrst edition of a talk that’s already starting to evolve rather quickly. The slides are available at Slideshare, and you can yoink yourself an embeddable version right here:

Notes:

Last month, I premiered a new presentation at Macworld San Francisco 2008 called “Living with Data” (previously). Since this talk was part of the “Vision” track, I used the opportunity to start gathering some threads around the idea of time and attention that had been ﬂoating around my head for a while (I think you can see the genesis of some of this stuff in my IDEO visit).

The IDG folks were kind enough to post a movie of my slides + the audio. Unfortunately a lot of folks were having trouble getting to the page (it doesn’t appear to have a permalink), so here’s a Flash version you can watch from right here.

Thanks to Paul Kent and Kathy Moran at IDG for being such wonderful hosts. And very special thanks to Mike Monteiro (and his now-famous meeting tokens) for inspiring the talk in the ﬁrst place.

”Video: Merlin's Time & Attention Talk” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on February 14, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Macworld Expo '08: Merlin talks with the makers of 1Password

Merlin — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:28:57 -0500

Aha! Embeddable video for a third MacBreak interview at Macworld ‘08 has turned up – this one’s with Dave Teare at Agile Web Solutions, makers of 1Password.

As we discuss in the video, I’m really looking forward to seeing 1Password’s secure password bookmarklet for iPhone.

MacBreak: Macworld 2008/Agile Web Solutions

And, as a bonus – just so Dave can catch up with his some of his countrymen’s peerless pop music – here’s videos of three of my favorite Canadian bands.

Flashing Lights / “Highschool”

Sloan / “The Good in Everyone”

Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline)

”Macworld Expo '08: Merlin talks with the makers of 1Password” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 22, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Macworld Expo '08: Merlin visits with Panic, Agile Web Solutions, and James from New Jersey

Merlin — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 12:52:25 -0500

Macworld Expo wouldn’t be the same for me if I didn’t have the chance to hit the ﬂoor and talk to the kids for MacBreak.

This year, I returned to Tiny Town to talk to my new internet boyfriends, Cabel and Steven, at Panic, Dave Teare from my beloved 1Password, as well as the charming James from New Jersey who says he doesn’t want to punch Steve Jobs, no matter what.

MacBreak 121: Macworld 2008/Panic Software

Merlin Mann chats with Cabel and Steven from Panic Software.

MacBreak 123: Macworld 2008/Jersey guy

Merlin Mann chats with James from Jersey about ﬂying, beverages, and theoretically punching Steve Jobs.

(I couldn’t ﬁnd embeddable video of my interview with Dave from 1Password, but you can download ‘er directly)

”Macworld Expo '08: Merlin visits with Panic, Agile Web Solutions, and James from New Jersey” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on January 20, 2008. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Best of: Our Favorite Videos

Merlin — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:05:24 -0500

Back at work killing time? Sure you are. After all, it’s nationwide “Thumb up your butt” week, right? You bet it is.

So, from the archives of 43 Folders (and the on-hiatus Merlin Show), here’s four of my favorite videos of stuff I’ve done. Hope you like ‘em.

“Inbox Zero” Google Tech Talk

58 minute presentation at Google’s Mountain View campus; July 23, 2007
(original post)

It’s amazing to me that this little fellow has now been watched 213,000 times (If you’re counting, that’s over 23 person-years of viewing time. yikes.)

Anyhow, I really like how this turned out, and it’s been very cool to hear how many people this has turned on to the idea of doing something more responsible with their email.

Share this video…

Interview: Jonathan Coulton

10-minute interview with internet troubadour, Jonathan Coulton
original post

I conducted this interview with the wonderful Jonathan Coulton right around the time I found out I was going to become a father. Have to say that, given my mood at the time, I found what he had to say inspirational.

I’d love to catch up with Jonathan again some time and see if his email mojo has gotten any more satisfying for him since we talked.

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Merlin Show Interview: Jeffrey Veen

16-minute interview with Google’s Jeff Veen
original post

Jeff’s been a swell pal and great guy to work with (I managed projects for him back in the day). In this particular instance, Jeff’s insight into how to move aside the BS and get to the kernel of things is not to be missed.

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IDEO “Know How” Talk

1-hour conversation at IDEO’s Palo Alto campus; September 9, 2007
(original post)

Sure, I was high on the Theraﬂu, but this gave me the chance to talk about the idea that’s most got my attention right now: “How do we deal with the lack of scarcity in our electronic world?”

Many thanks to my pals at bOING bOING for putting this on lots of people’s radar screens. Much appreciated.

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”Best of: Our Favorite Videos” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on November 27, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"

Merlin at IDEO: "Know How" Talk with Scott Underwood

Merlin — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 10:06:47 -0400

Scott Underwood from IDEO was kind enough to invite me down to their Palo Alto HQ for a tour of the renowned design group (they designed Apple’s ﬁrst mouse!) and to participate with him in one of the company’s internal “Know How” talks. It was very informal (and – because this was during my recent “100-year sinus infection” – I was completely high on cold medicine).

We talked about Getting Things Done, life hacks, knowledge work, nostalgia for scarcity, and the problem of getting addicted to productivity advice, among many other topics. This one’s a tour de force.

Video runs about an hour, and yes: I am wearing a handsome Big Lebowski tshirt. Abide.

Click To Play

Mea culpa – this was an intimate little gathering held for the beneﬁt of those in the room and wasn’t intended as a for-video talk show shoot. So audience members’ questions were not recorded on-mic. Apologies for you not being able to hear them, but I think you’ll mostly catch the gist.

Many thanks to Scott Underwood for inviting me in and for hosting the talk, and thanks also to Eric Stangarone, who shot the video and who was kind enough to permit me to share this with you guys, as well. Awesome company. Great people.

Update 2007-10-09 08:14:45 PST

Oooo…almost forgot – alternative media formats (thanks, Blip!)

”Merlin at IDEO: "Know How" Talk with Scott Underwood” was written by Merlin Mann for 43Folders.com and was originally posted on October 09, 2007. Except as noted, it's ©2009 Merlin Mann and licensed for reuse under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. "Why a footer?"