Brilliant advice for any aspiring creative person, from an art teacher critiquing a student’s work:
My biggest critique is, I only merely dislike this piece. I want you to make me HATE it. Go crazy with the things that you like. Don’t hold back trying to make it palatable to people like me. Because I am NEVER going to like it. And if the audience does not like it, it should drive them crazy seeing how much YOU love it.
Heather Cox Richardson: “The president is establishing the principle that he can order the murder of anyone he deems a threat. And Congress is letting it happen.”
Pierce is one of my favorite tech journalists and podcasters, and it’s not just because he does great work and because of his winning, upbeat personality. It’s also because his mental processes and work style are similar enough to mine that I find it useful and enjoyable when he nerds out about his tools and work style.
He talks about the style of podcast where the hosts are friends and talk about a subject they love. The Vergecast, which he co-hosts is a great example. He and Mike Hurley praise two podcasts in that style: The Rest is History and Rewatchables. Those two podcasts and The Vergecast are three of my favorite podcasts. Locally, here in San Diego, the Voice of San Diego podcast is yet another great example I love of that type of podcast.
David says the friendships the audience feels for podcast hosts are real, that we spend more time with our favorite podcast hosts than we do with nearly all of our real-life family, friends and co-workers.
I definitely feel those feelings, but I am skeptical whether those friendships are real. I sometimes refer to my favorite podcast hosts as “imaginary friends.” I don’t know whether those feelings are mentally healthy.
I do occasionally write to my favorite podcast hosts (I just sent a quick note to Pierce), and I always keep in mind when I do that these people don’t actually know me. The relationship is 99.95% in one direction.
Further complicating things: I currently have two favorite podcast hosts and writers who are also real-life friends. I have met up with them many times in person, and they have been to my house. However, I only see one of them every few years, and the other one is someone I have not seen in more than 40 years. These two people occupy very oddly-shaped emotional spaces in my head.
David and Myke also nerd out about productivity tools. They both agree that they would love to be the kinds of people who sit down and do a weekly review of their plans every Sunday, and that they never do it. Same here.
“WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg called the company’s Tumblr acquisition his biggest failure — but one he hasn’t given up on yet." I continue to love Tumblr, and I am so very far from its target demographic. I’m basically the Tumblr creepy old guy.
Hey, I’m going to add that to my Tumblr profile.
“Even Oedipus is like, ‘whoa, that sounds overly incestuous.'" Newsletter editor Dave Pell on “circular financing” in AI, where a company — like, recently, AMD — pays another company — like, recently, OpenAI, to buy the first company’s products.
We finished watching The Diplomat Season 3, a fantasy series where the United States is run by competent, intelligent adults who have the best interests of the country and world at heart. It stars Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell and a whole lot of fabulous wallpaper. 🍿
I’m still reading “Lord of the Rings.” Blorbo is getting ready to peace-out from Bag End. He’s got this souvenir ring that he means to leave behind for his nephew, whose name is Froyo I think. But Blorbo can’t stand to give up the ring and he’s being super-weird about it. I’m sure this will not be a problem for the rest of the book.
Currently reading: The Lord of the Rings by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien 📚
I read Lord of the Rings when I was in my 20s and did not like it, but I’ve become a fan of The Rest Is History podcast and the hosts there love it. I’m intrigued by their comments that the book is, weirdly, a realistic portrait of medieval European history.
The podcast covered the life of JRR Tolkien, and how it likely influenced the Lord of the Rings, in particular his experience growing up in rural England, threatened by industrialization, and his later experience in World War I. Although, if I recall correctly, Tolkien himself denied the influences.
The podcast has talked a good deal about medieval European history, and British history in particular, and it is fascinating.
So I figured I’d give Lord of the Rings another go and see if I like it better.
I’ve barely started.
The books start with a long introduction or foreword about Hobbit history and major works of Hobbit scholarship, which is excruciatingly dry and is an odd creative choice by Tolkien. If I were picking up the book when it was first published in 1954, and knew nothing about it, I would have read no further.
Oddly, I’m reminded of the opening chapter of Snow Crash, which deals with the adventures of a cyberpunk pizza delivery driver. I found that childish when I first read the book. A couple of years later, I mentioned this opinion to a friend, and he said, yeah, the first chapter is dumb, but push through. You’ll be glad you did. And I did, and my friend was right — Snow Crash is brilliant. But the first chapter is dumb.
I pushed through with Lord of the Rings, and am now reading the first chapter, about Bilbo Baggins’s birthday party. When I first read the book, I found that section unbearably twee, but I took myself a lot more seriously then, and I’m enjoying this chapter now.
Overheard: “No, Chip Roy. Jesus is not my king. There is only one king in America and that’s Elvis.”
