I’m a big fan of the podcast Hardcore History by Dan Carlin.
Like, if you want six episodes on the fall of the Roman Republic, and each episodes is 5 hours long, Carlin has you covered.
I went digging for anything about Carlin’s creative process, and this jumped out at me, from an interview with Tim Ferriss.
Oh you should also know that Carlin’s voice and intonation is pretty… distinctive.
Dan Carlin: We talk around here a lot about turning negatives into positives, or lemons into lemonade, or creatively taking a weak spot and making it a strong spot. I always was heavily in the red, as they say, when I was on the radio where I yelled so loud - and I still do - that the meter just jumps up into the red. They would say you need to speak in this one zone of loudness or you’ll screw up the radio station’s compression. After awhile, I just started writing liners for the big voice guy: here’s Dan Carlin, he talks so loud, or whatever.
That’s my style; I meant to do that. And as a matter of fact, if you do it, you’re imitating me. So it’s partly taking what you already do and saying no, no, this isn’t a negative; this is the thing I bring to the table, buddy. I copyrighted that. I talk real loud, and then I talk really quietly and if you have a problem with that, you don’t understand what a good style is, Tim.
Tim Ferriss: I like that. I think I shall capitalize on that.
Dan Carlin: Right, just copyright your faults, man.
Love it.
This comes up in product design too, though I hadn’t really thought about applying it personally.
The design example I always remember is from an ancient DVD burning app called Disco.
Here I am writing about it from before the dawn of time in 2006:
It can take ages to burn a disk. Your intrinsic activity is waiting. What does Disco do? It puts a fluid dynamic smoke simulation on top of the window. And get this, you can interact with it, blowing the smoke with your cursor.
It’s about celebrating your constraints.
If your product must do something then don’t be shy of it. Make a feature out of it. Make the constraint the point of it all.
Ok so applying this attitude to myself, there’s the Japanese concept of ikagai, a reason to get up in the morning,
and what gets shared around is an adaptation of that idea:
Marc Winn made a now-famous ikagai Venn diagram – it puts forward that you should spend your time at the intersection of these activities:
- That which you love
- That which you are good at
- That which the world needs
- That which you can be paid for
(Winn later reflected on his creation of the ikagai diagram.)
I feel like I should add a fifth…
That which you can’t not do.
Not: what’s your edge.
But instead: what do you do that no reasonable person would choose to do?
Like, Dan Carlin talks loud, he can’t not. So he’s made a career out of that.
Some people have hyper focus. Some have none and are really good at noticing disparate connections. Some are borderline OCD which makes them really, really good in medical or highly regulated environments.
(Though, to be clear, I’m talking about neurodiversity at the level of personality traits here, not where unpacking and work is the appropriate response. There’s a line!)
I think part of growing up is taking what it is that people tease you about at school, and figuring out how to make it a superpower.
Not just growing up I suppose, a continuous process of becoming.
I’m a big fan of the podcast Hardcore History by Dan Carlin.
Like, if you want six episodes on the fall of the Roman Republic, and each episodes is 5 hours long, Carlin has you covered.
I went digging for anything about Carlin’s creative process, and this jumped out at me, from an interview with Tim Ferriss.
Oh you should also know that Carlin’s voice and intonation is pretty… distinctive.
Love it.
This comes up in product design too, though I hadn’t really thought about applying it personally.
The design example I always remember is from an ancient DVD burning app called Disco.
Here I am writing about it from before the dawn of time in 2006:
It’s about celebrating your constraints.
If your product must do something then don’t be shy of it. Make a feature out of it. Make the constraint the point of it all.
Ok so applying this attitude to myself, there’s the Japanese concept of ikagai, and what gets shared around is an adaptation of that idea:
Marc Winn made a now-famous ikagai Venn diagram – it puts forward that you should spend your time at the intersection of these activities:
(Winn later reflected on his creation of the ikagai diagram.)
I feel like I should add a fifth…
That which you can’t not do.
Not: what’s your edge.
But instead: what do you do that no reasonable person would choose to do?
Like, Dan Carlin talks loud, he can’t not. So he’s made a career out of that.
Some people have hyper focus. Some have none and are really good at noticing disparate connections. Some are borderline OCD which makes them really, really good in medical or highly regulated environments.
(Though, to be clear, I’m talking about neurodiversity at the level of personality traits here, not where unpacking and work is the appropriate response. There’s a line!)
I think part of growing up is taking what it is that people tease you about at school, and figuring out how to make it a superpower.
Not just growing up I suppose, a continuous process of becoming.