Songs You Must Listen To At Maximum Safest Volume

  • “Uptight”, Steve Wonder
  • “Summertime Blues”, The Who
  • “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, The Beach Boys
  • “Good Vibrations”, The Beach Boys
  • “Jungleland”, Bruce Springsteen
  • “Once In a Lifetime”, The Talking Heads
  • “Flashlight”, Parliament
  • “Rhythm Nation”, Janet Jackson

Top of Mind No. 3

Working in small increments towards medium-to-large projects or outcomes is tricky. I too frequently find myself down a much deeper rabbit hole than I’d intended. And I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it and practicing at it! Recommended reading: Simon Willison on productivity.

Read-only and write-only modes of accessing social media – there’s something good here. E.g., blogs and feed readers are distinct from most1 posting software. Currently, I’m reading Twitter once a day, as a digest, without the ability to scroll an infinite timeline. If I want to post, I open up an entirely different app that nudges me towards writing instead of dashing off hot-takes. Interestingly, Typefully and Mailbrew are what I’m using for this and are made by the same team. I wonder if that was intentional or a happy accident?

Billing/subscriptions/payment projects are absolutely crucial, “undifferentiated heavy lifting”, and difficult to pull off. I have a ton of unstructured ideas about this. The latest kernel of an idea: billing projects are very likely to involve weird interactions between business goals, customer psychology, and anecdata.

The nap hierarchy – naps are probably in my top 5 list of work-from-home benefits.

  1. Early versions of NetNewsWire and Userland Radio notwithstanding. ↩

Albums You Should Listen To From Start To Finish

  • Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen
  • Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
  • The Blueprint, Jay-Z
  • Songs in the Key of Life, Stevie Wonder
  • Sign ‘O The Times, Prince
  • Symphony No. 9, Beethoven
  • The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky

The nap hierarchy

Doing a short snooze in the middle of the day? I highly recommend it if you have the means. Ideally, one of these places (in order by quality of rest):

  1. Couch nap
  2. Chair nap (recliner/lounge chair, ideally)
  3. Bed nap
  4. Sky nap (airplane)
  5. Train nap
  6. Car nap

Places I have napped, for better or worse, and would not recommend:

  • A rock concert (The Who, Bruce Springsteen)
  • A college lecture
  • A piano recital
  • Voyage of the Little Mermaid (Walt Disney World, Hollywood Studios)
  • Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln (Disneyland)
  • American Adventure (Walt Disney World, EPCOT)

Bruce Springsteen Epochs

  • Motown Bohemian, curly hair, The Wild, The Innocent, and the E-Street Shuffle
  • Denim, muscles, Born in the USA
  • The introspective wanderer, bolo tie, Human Touch
  • Revival, the flavor-saver goatee, The Rising
  • The rock ‘n roll stateman, dark vest and necktie, High Hopes

What A Guitar Is Supposed To Sound Like

  • “Summertime Blues”, The Who, Pete Townsend
  • “Estranged”, Guns ‘n Roses, Slash
  • “Glory Days”, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band
  • “Highway to Hell”, AC/DC, Angus Young

Music I Wish I Had Written

  • The Rite of Spring, Igor Stravinsky
  • The Planets, Gustav Holst
  • “Good Vibrations”, Brian Wilson
  • “Losing My Edge”, James Murphy
  • “I Feel the Earth Move”, Carole King