Bonus: Incurious Greps
2026Show notes
Here's this week's after show. Which your hosts thought was good. Please listen to the main episode first.
Transcript
Tap a timestamp or any sentence to play from there · machine transcribed (mlx:mlx-community/whisper-large-v3-turbo), expect mistakesAlexHello. Hello. After show.
MerlinIt's in the machine. I hope I enjoy the show.
AlexIt's a bit, but I sincerely apologize.
MerlinWhat? Why?
AlexGod, why?
MerlinDidn't I say? Didn't I respond? Didn't I? Didn't I?
AlexDidn't I say? You did? You did? I'll gobble it up, baby.
MerlinI'll gobble it up. I'll take that big trash can full of time and just put my face in it like a goddamn feed bag. I don't want to talk about LLMs, but I do. I think there are moments like you ever catch yourself in a reflection. I mean, I think everybody has. There's something about noticing your reflection somewhere you didn't expect it to be that's startling, regardless of how you feel about yourself and your body, whatever. But when you see something move, I think there's some part of your brain that first captures it as, I wonder what that is.
And you're looking like, ah, that's me and I'm 60. Right? I think there are moments where I catch my reflection in something. Can I just real quick reach? I'm just completely out of context. I'll give you one tiny bit of context. Oh, please, please. But the main context is I'm running an audit on some dumb shit, which I realize is probably pointless. But yet I persevere. because it related to what was just happening with work on the show. Can I just tell you the most recent thing that I've typed to my LLM? Please. After it had said, oh, yeah, I guess maybe there's a problem.
I said, we're still seeing huge failures to always start with repo, history, instructions, and tool set. It's insane how often I catch this bullshit, guessing about shit, based on incurious greps and expired work products. That is some bullshit. That's the last thing I just typed to a computer. and curious grabs title because it does this thing where it's like i don't know i'll just go look at whatever's on just sitting around and guess what you're talking about no you know to
always go check all of your usual places right and don't just grab and then get excited because you found something my god what a way to live i don't think john syracuse would like that at all I mean Huge failures to start with repo history instructions and tools that
AlexHe seems to not enjoy when you talk to it like
MerlinI'm sharing this because as much as everything it's like Max being mostly off Twitter Remind me when that started 2015 He's mostly off Twitter now
AlexI think it was the day after Trump was elected
MerlinBut remember one of our first challenges was follow political twitter oh yeah that's how i that's how i got
Alexall mobs up in this shit wait who's texting oh oh so he gave you the tape like the first
Merlinthe first twitter list for free i just got hey it's david curious about your views on israel can we chat huh no i'm good david thanks i'm and you know a cynical person would guess from your name what your point of view might be which brings us to oh boy which brings us to hi how are you are you doing all right i think my sore is mending i'm actually fantastic i really thanks thanks for all thanks for your hard work on this and i didn't step on
your changes oh no no i everybody this is can i just say real quick i'm going through a lot right now and this is going to be a hair down episode and i'm going to tell you why for one thing i've turned off D&D because I just don't care. Also, I have my little window open. And also, I've made a water and I watched a bunch of Conan. And I'd like this to just be, I'd like to record for probably two and a half, three hours because I could just really use the interaction.
Thanks for coming, everybody.
AlexWe're still
Merlinseeing huge failures to always start with repo history instructions.
AlexBecause you understand? You have the tools. All I need you to do is remember you have the tools.
MerlinHear that? Streetcar.
AlexExcuse me. Oh, that's a...
MerlinThat's because my window's open. Because it was a hair down episode. Title.
AlexThis is so funny. I got transported back to 2018, 2019, because I've never heard that through your window, only through my eyes.
MerlinSomeday when it's funny to talk about COVID again. Well, maybe a first time. Like, still so painful. Like, I just watched this amazing thing on Conan, but it's from during the lockdown. And it's like, everything feels so tainted by that. But even up, I would someday love to talk about all the, frankly, money, but also admittedly time and effort I put into weird shit during COVID. I think that could still be funny someday. I tried so hard to soundproof this place.
And it was completely, it was ridiculous. It's like a scene, you're from Chicago. like you're seeing that like in the blues brothers when they go to um elwood elwood yeah they go to elwood's house i mean he's got his hot plate for making his toast and uh what is it the not the l the what do they call the train there the oh yeah yeah you can hear like the elevated streetcar like the entire place is shaking right and it would be like that's what i'm trying to soundproof like literally where it's like the thing is i can put up a series of sublime velvet curtains but all of
Alexthe china is clattering the uh i um just happened to to get lucky in my like i joke about dougie and this apartment in my little hobble but we're lucky to have anywhere just yeah it and it's uh
Merlinhappened also tenuous alex it's also very tenuous it's just nice to have a place to sleep
Alexuh oh absolutely and a place to sleep that is relatively quiet like i this is my first yeah yeah yeah and it's the first apartment i've ever had that wasn't underneath or like immediately by a train and i truly i that truly doesn't bother me
Merlinand under another bowling alley but but it it is no frank grimes or grimy as he liked to be called gotta go back to my mansion and my lobster
Alexbreakdown in when he first when he first really cracks
Merlinum um yeah so anyway we got that um um sorry you were saying what was it cutting i've got lots i've written things down i could tell you about um and the suggestions and then what else anything else
Alexis there anything i should add to the list before i read it to you no i will just say that i would like i propose that the challenge for next week to still be this challenge okay because i think it is
Merlininteresting or or something like you know what i well you know what i did this so poorly because that was my number one number one is do you have more things to say about hand running because I found it very interesting and I had some, I think, I don't know, as things go, fairly insightful things to share. We could keep it going.
AlexI mean, we can do it now. We can do it next week. We don't do both. It tears down, whatever.
MerlinYeah, okay. All right, so here's what I wrote down. Thank you, friend. One problem is that we are still seeing huge failures to always start with repo history instructions and tool set. Handwriting challenge. We might talk about that more in a minute. We'll see what comes up organically. Oh, shit, I didn't even write down Terry Green. Terry Green. Terry Green is on the list I wanted to talk about how I changed how I think about prompts and Claude which is Google and I wanted to talk about Zeno's Paradox and its role with my
ice machine and Claude prompts That episode
Alexis diarizing right now
MerlinWhat else did we have? Oh god there's a lot of blood on this previous page Big tennis I think making things big is funny kind of like the world's oldest stuntman falling down the steps oh did you watch it? did you stick with it for as long as you need to stick with it to realize how dumb it is?
Alexwell because
Merlinit's deliberately dumb and a person could watch that and go this is dumb you're like you know stay with it it's so dumb but like I said last night it's genuinely dumb in a fairly accomplished way when it gets to the brick wall
Alexthat's that is why i was always a fan of conan in the same way that i'm a fan of things that as you said much more eloquently in uh i 15 love you 30 is like the good 30 bigger or smaller it
Merlinis like oh did i mention the context of people and statues uh because i could see myself saying that because you know you know i'm freaked out by a certain size of person i mean a proportion A proportionately sized person that's proportionately sized, but just a little bit too small is very upsetting to me. Oh. Like Little Dancing Man wouldn't be so bad because he's about six inches tall. Get him a tiny checkbook. He'll never love a woman again. Did you watch it?
AlexNot that one, no. You didn't watch Little Dancing Man? Just because I didn't have to. I was trying to fix the-
MerlinWhich one did you watch? We watched the first one. Hey, everybody. Hey, everybody. We watched the opening one, the Terry Green Machine. Nice.
Alexand then I
Merlinget that water to the right temperature it's not funny when it's too hot there's at least three classic Tim Heidecker bits that involve there's three classic Tim Heidecker bits that involve temperature that I can think of right this second Terry Green Machine you gotta get the water to exactly the right temperature of course Absolute Vodka
AlexI was gonna say
Merlinthe hell of a hot tub you got out there
Alexyeah
Merlinit's not funny when it's too hot but then we know you know what else is funny is the cigars you smoke are gonna give you cancer the guy with the guy on I think you should leave. This is a nice hat. Tuck-tuck sound. Remember that? And he's mad because the gazpacho is room temperature. And he thought...
AlexThe courtroom scene, I've only...
MerlinTemperature's funny. Make it big, make it small. It's in the machine. Isn't it funny when they're looking through the giant directory and the blood's all over it?
AlexOh my god. Today I think blood is funny, apparently.
MerlinBlood is funny on my keyboard. my dreams.
AlexThere are no crime scene
Merlininvestigators for my soul. CSI, Soul Investigators Chicago.
AlexOoh, that's that is a joke, but that is a book series.
MerlinI know Judy Garland knew so much about zoology.
AlexI just watched it again. see i was just uh listening to freaks and geeks in the background and oh did you watch that bit is it on the internet yeah aren't those kids so cute oh my god they're so little i know i know all of them are so so little it's a neat show it's like how i feel when we're watching
Merlinsomebody somewhere or what was the other one that i was watching with billy i was watching something recently with Billy and I was just like I love a show that's like I don't have like a smart way to put it but like it's so its own thing like okay somebody somewhere perfect example again yes again it's so much its own thing like you know it's like it would be hard you can't really describe that show it's very much a how it's about it sort of show but you know what it's closest to is you ever watch the detectorists I have
never even heard of that it's a it's a really good show but another one of those I would say obviously I'm comparing it it's similar to Somebody Somewhere in the sense of like in tone so it's about you know Mackenzie Crook alright so the guy who played Garrett on The Office UK he was in Pirates of the Caribbean the guy who looks like a skeleton
Alexoh hello
Merlinyou know him right he has like the dark lines under his eyes
AlexGame of Thrones actually I think
Merlinyes he was absolutely I think he was in one of the first you know who he is he's one of the guys, I think he's one of the guys who's trying to kill them when Bran and Hodar and everybody's up in the tower.
AlexI believe so.
MerlinI think he might be one of the free folk. Yeah. Everybody hates the cave people. That's what Mance Raider says. You work with the Thins because you've got to get along with the Thins. Mance Raider's the only one who's able to bring all these 100,000 people to go to all these different tribes. So he's in it. And you know who else is in it? It's your boy that I know you like. Toby he played Truman Capote he's been in he's in The Hunger Games
AlexPhilip Seymour Hoffman
Merlinis it Tobey Maguire
AlexPhilip Seymour Hoffman is in I mean he's also in The Hunger Games weirdly his last film was The Hunger Games
Merlinwhat was I don't think he was on Detecturus
Alexno who else is
MerlinToby Jones is the name of the guy Just search for Detectorists 2014. And it's about two guys who, two like rural English guys who are really into metal detectors. And they have a metal detector club. And it's that, which is kind of like saying, here's a story about a woman who works at a test grading facility in Kansas.
AlexI agree. And all, but that also is like, sounds like a fantastic show.
MerlinI'll tell you when you have diarrhea.
AlexOh my goodness.
MerlinOh yeah, I remember you. No, you don't.
AlexTotally under the radar. Three, four, five.
MerlinAnyway, but I love the shows that are really that kind of show. I'm sorry, I already got us off track again. I really, I've come to really treasure stuff like that. And I get, I mean, I really, I get my back up a little bit with some of this like dross that, you know, comes out on streaming, including stuff my wife would be really into. And I'll just be like, oh man, this is so B+. like i really this makes me just want to go back and watch the crown again
Alexi do uh i don't feel vindicated but i do feel like less of a dick about being like come on guys this new netflix stuff like it's oh my goodness did you end up watching that um patrick williams video no uh oh from notes no not yet it is patrick i've been i've been talking about this on i think
Merlinevery podcast for a couple weeks um and patrick williams has a really good um new video it's been on nebula for a few weeks but it just came up on youtube a couple weeks ago and it's about streaming stuff streaming blockbusters and why it is that these companies have such a hard time creating generally action comedy blockbusters anyways it's a really it really every time i I keep thinking again and again how like there's a show, there's a movie streaming on Netflix that nobody talks about and it cost
$320 million. That's just mind boggling to me. And every time they cut to that John Krasinski show where he's supposed to be like Indiana Jones, it just looks so bad.
AlexI forget that exists.
MerlinThat's the thing. That's his whole point. It's like none of these are anybody's favorite movie. Yeah. And he does it in an interesting way, like to set up his point. I mean, this will not make a ton of sense if you're outside the universe, but he starts by talking about not just what the reviews are, but how many people on Letterboxd have logged the movie. And so I think this is kind of an interesting idea. You look at things like box office success. You look at things like critical success. And however you look at that through paid critics or through tomato meter or gangs of people going and jacking up or knocking down the rating.
But just looking at like the number of people that have logged the movie on Letterboxd, which again, admittedly, but you take the point. It's like these are movies that cost hundreds of millions of dollars that are logged like one fifth as much as things that are regarded as like the most garbage thing. Whereas, and he even goes in and says like, whereas this other thing that was streaming got this many logs. so he really has like apples and apples and apples comparisons in some ways where you're like these movies have so little impact and they're such shit
and their help the implication is they're kind of helping drive out the availability of money for anything interesting because all the money's going into this shit
Alexthe I really thought for a while that I was just maybe this isn't for me because I'm an old
Merlinsmart wise way to look at it
AlexAnd then I was just like, I don't know, man. The pacing, you know?
MerlinThe pacing in some of those things is so... First of all, there's a whole bit that everybody's talked about, which is like you've got to capture your audience in N seconds or it's all over. Like there's got to be... Like it used to be funny and fun. And it's amusing that every James Bond movie... James Bond movies became after... Sorry. In the 70s. I would say even in the 60s. Starting as early as From Rush With Love. Really. For Much What I Love is a cold open. This is 19, I think, 62. It's a cold open that has a complete misdirection about the entire movie in it.
Pre-credits. Ba-dum, ba-dum. Before you even see the gun barrel. And it became, in the 70s, it became a whole thing, especially during the Roger Moore years, of how you always had to start a James Bond movie with, like, an amazing set piece. Like, for the time, right? So, like, him on skis coming off of a helicopter or, you know, whatever. Think about the beginning of Skyfall, which is my favorite beginning of a James Bond movie, you know, where he goes in the water.
AlexThis is the end.
MerlinBut you can't, you maybe oughtn't do that for everything to have like action happening the seventh second of the show starting. And like, unless you can do it, unless you know what you're doing. But a lot of times you're just like, it's just a lot of running around.
AlexBut you also can do it well. I always think of Good Time and how...
MerlinThat movie. That movie's lovely. I heard Robert Pattinson had a career-making role in Odyssey. People are freaking out about Odyssey.
AlexI don't know if you're being sarcastic.
MerlinWhy would you think I'm being sarcastic, Alex?
AlexWhat about my tone makes you think I'm being sarcastic?
MerlinAre you aware of tone? Do you know when you sound like the internet?
AlexI know. No, I am genuinely, I am very excited for it.
MerlinAnd I adore Pattinson. I'm just happy for Pattinson.
AlexI am happy for him doing another incredibly funny press tour. That's nice, too. I don't know.
MerlinThere's nothing to watch. I don't want to watch any more murdered women shows. I don't want to watch North Korean things. I don't watch South Korean things. Just give me something that's good. I'd watch Black Bag again or whatever. That really good thing with, what's his name? With the guy I like, Fossbender. But like, you know, they still can make them. It's just that the calculus for this, this has existed for a long time. We learned that blockbusters are high risk, high reward. You put a ton of money up front into it. Half of your, like when they talk about the budget for a movie, make sure they're including marketing.
Because it's not unusual at all for marketing to be equal to production nowadays. Right? Right. And so like if you put all that effort into it, it better be a big – I remember hearing that Michael Jackson's album, I want to say was it bad or the one after bad? But I remember hearing or I've heard this about Britney Spears. We're like, yeah, it's a hit, but it wasn't a big enough hit. It's a number one album, but it's not a big enough number one album because we're not going to earn back enough on the amount of promotion it took for us to make that the number one album, which is I think something interesting to keep in mind. If you have the ability to drop this bullshit in the top row of Netflix,
pushing away everything good that's ever existed on there. So all you're seeing is like the roulette wheel of dross. Like, what a way to live. That's not the way you become Ingmar Bergman, let alone, say, Frank. I mean.
AlexThe way that even the really B-minus documentaries have been like edged out too. Like I was very confident, like, okay, these are bad, right? They're pretty bad. But even that, like, it's now become cheaper to just, I really need to watch this video. Does Patrick Willems talk about the documentary slop of Netflix?
MerlinNo, he talks. No, you'll get it. You'll get it pretty fast. No, I totally hear you. Which makes it pop out all of them even more when there is a new one or a good one or it takes a different angle. It's not like people aren't trying things for the last, I would say, especially two, three, four years. A lot of people have been trying some very novel and interesting approaches with documentaries. So they don't always work for me. Like, should I marry a murderer? Like, okay, that's a very interesting concept. A, I've had enough of murder stuff. But also, like, I get the premise is that what this woman almost got into with this guy and, like, reporting back on it.
But then I look at something like, what's the neighbor thing we liked with the woman? Like, that was extraordinary. And that had a trick to it. And the trick in that was, I mean, like a lot of interesting independent documentaries. It shows to use, in this case, only one, mostly one kind of footage, as we talked about. No, I hear you. There's a lot of stuff out there that's just like, you know, just because you aren't doing this conventionally doesn't necessarily make it good or interesting. Like, you know, I'll allow passes. Like, it's okay. If you show the person sitting down and putting on the mic and being uncomfortable and like that worked in the last two, three years that worked so far in exactly one documentary, which was the peewee one.
Generally, like I don't need to see all this behind the scenes shit. This post Tiger King sort of like Mishigas.
AlexThere's pacing.
MerlinLove good pacing.
AlexThere's like the it feels like vulnerability is almost like set dressing. like you know that they did the subject's vulnerability like oh we relate to them now because you see them putting on the lavalier but just as often though
Merlinhonestly I feel like that's really used to show like okay here's the sketchy guy you never would have imagined we'd get for this
Alexoh yeah remember the one with the weird couple with the
Merlinexercise clothes and that weird couple and you're like oh my god how did you ever agree that you would do this remember that one not lululemon lulubelula but it was a couple who was like so they were like a like tv ministers like you know like just adamant about how they'd done the right thing and just like instance after instance they showed these people to be complete hucksters i don't think it's a yoga pants thing it was a yoga pants mlm there's so many lulu there's so
Alexmany mlm and like i've i really finish most things and there's been a lot of mlm ones I'm like, no, no.
MerlinI just rewatched something because I'm pitching Syracuse on finally talking about something from the doc. The Titan Submersible thing. There's a handful of pretty good ones of that. I have to say the one that really gets me was actually made by, it's on HBO. But I think technically, for reasons that will become clear, Discovery, a Discovery show. But that one, it's called, I think, Implosion. but whatever the one on HBO Max is, it really goes into the psychopathy of Stockton Rush.
AlexOh, and like his,
Merlinhis obvious death wish. Whereas the one on Netflix or excuse me, the one on Netflix or Hulu, there's one that's really good about like, oh my God, these poor engineers that tried so hard to prevent this. There's one that's very focused on the hearing in South Carolina to like, or North Carolina, whatever it was to deal with this. But that one is so well done. And part of what makes it interesting, though, is because it's Discovery. You won't see this until the second act. But Discovery was going to maybe do an episode of this Discovery show with that guy.
And they kind of went down there, I guess, to kind of informally get the setups and see if it would work.
AlexOh, the...
MerlinDangerous Expeditions or something.
AlexOh, shit.
MerlinAnyway, that guy now with the presence of mind, he looks back and goes like, I had no idea that like only four of the 17 bolts were inserted when we went down. I didn't know that the hull of this had already cracked. And every engineer that told them to get rid of it and start over had been fired. So they just fixed that hull and made another shitty one with the same problem. And he's like, I, you know, this guy had no idea how close to death he was. And he's like, I did something I almost never do. which like contacted somebody high up at discover at the network and said, we can't run, we can't even run.
We should not do this project, but we can't even use any of this footage because this is not safe.
AlexI, it first felt weird.
MerlinHis takeaway from his time is two hours or three hours in the submersible was that absolutely nothing the entire day worked the way it was supposed to.
AlexOh, he went in. Oh,
Merlinno, he was down there for like three hours with his camera guy.
AlexOh,
MerlinAnd like the computer kept crashing. The controller stopped working. The thruster stopped working. And then they eventually had to bag it and like say, okay, well, we'll go up and pick this up later. And through it all, I forgive my saying, speaking ill of the dead, but fucking psychopathy of Stockton Rush. Very Jeffrey Epstein in his assertiveness about how smart he is and how he knows everything. and these poor people, especially this one woman, this engineer, this scientist, who was like the karma suck in the room
that everybody hated because she's like, wait, what are you talking about? There's like three things about this that are completely insane.
AlexAlso, I mean,
Merlinit's not what carbon fiber is for. It's the opposite of what carbon fiber is good for. You know what their solution was? Their solution was to build in acoustic, basically microphones, to capture the sound, to capture the sound of the, what's it called? Am I using the right term for that?
AlexLike echo, like did they try to use that?
MerlinThe fabric, what do you call it? What do you call it? It's like, you know, like the stuff that we make like bulletproof vests out of. This is great for certain kinds. But anyway, as we can hear the threads of this cracking, we'll be able to, quote, predict how close this is to having a problem by listening to the booms and cracks of the structure of the ship.
AlexJesus fucking Christ.
MerlinBut they had an array of microphones to capture that. But then a completely other person who we saw earlier comes in and goes, yeah, but you know, there is no predictability to this. It isn't like you stepped on this part of your boat too much and now you can see the fiberglass underneath or whatever. There's nothing predictable about knowing that this crack or boom is a certain thing. And every time he's down there with the people and he's like, yeah, that's just normal hearing that. it's the carbon fiber
breaking apart first becoming you know losing its basic integrity maybe hanging on but then eventually I mean it just goes and you have a complete implosion in less than like a nanosecond everything inside is blended bits
Alexyeah the way that I joke but it is in a lot of like phone cases and in a lot like tons of shit because it's so it is really what's great you know that's the thing that's
Merlingreat at what it does and i'll get this backwards this is not my topic but like the one of these that i watched put it pretty plainly which is oh gosh i'm sorry i'm really forgiving you guys i'm not trying to sound smart but there's certain kinds of things that are good at like like this thing won't there's explode versus implode right and there's different things that are good like this can handle being stretched you know engineering videos talk about this a lot like grady at practical engineering talks about this a lot like there's things and bridges and structures and buttresses and all this stuff where it's like why do like why do we put rebar in concrete and
it's like because well there's all kinds of good reasons but like one is that there's certain materials that can handle being stretched out this way or in this way or pressed this way versus pulled this way and apparently carbon fiber is almost uniquely not great for withstanding outside forces.
Including that you need it to keep the cap on there and not cause a breach. Four of 17 bolts inserted. Don't worry, the pressure will just hold it on.
AlexBolts in curtain
Merlinflames. God damn it. Anyway, that's a good one. I think it's called Implosion is all I wanted to say. It is.
AlexThe HBO
Merlinor wait.
AlexHonestly, I'm probably going to watch both of these. It's not like a shot in thing i'm not like haha they died it's it's the reverse of the sort of like productivity that's
Merlinthat's basic porn but no it's just it's about being every great documentary eventually becomes about power and this is the way that the power is evidenced in this is like this guy was a like jeffrey like again like jeffrey like the new york financier jeff epstein i think he had an extraordinary ability to like people might sort of doubt it doubt him but very few people were willing to like contradict him or like report him for a really long time and that was part part of that was the force of his personality and the power structure that helped undergird it honestly
he's from he and his wife are both from like extreme generational wealth his father was like in the bohemian the bohemian grove group i mean it's yeah but then a certain point he's like i'm not going to return all the money for people who said they're going to come be on my quote crew Oh, that's the other thing. Well, you know, that's one way they got around it, was it saying anybody who gave their $250,000 or whatever, they were technically on the crew. And so they didn't have to be certified. They came out with a ship that was unflagged and unregistered.
The submarine had never been inspected. And the whole point, one of his whole Jeffrey Epstein things was, we have to do everything to keep these from being inspected by people, because they'll just slow us down. Move fast and break stuff.
AlexFun.
MerlinNow, I've spoiled it for you. It's a really good documentary.
AlexOh, spoilers. I think they implode. The things I'm looking at with this really are kind of like, it's like the opposite of watching something like Gyro Dreams of Sushi. Just seeing it also, like there's the, I like what you said about power. well but it's almost it's like the I don't know how to put it
because that power the story being about power with this is true but also like the power in engineering or in just doing something well and then there's this with the complete opposite of it I don't know
MerlinI mean look at the thing the building in New York The building in New York has had all kinds of infractions about it that were not directly related to what would become the structural problem. But, you know, there's been all kinds of things where they're like, hey, you still haven't fixed this thing. You still haven't done this excavation thing. You still haven't blah, blah, blah, blah, which seems a little bit like a canary in a coal mine to where now like there's parts of the structure are buckling at the 35th floor, which is not good.
Alexall of it is kind of weird to see how much many of these engineering and you know civic issues uh issues like you look at the failures of the titanic right and it's like ah ha ha
Merlinno but you're on to it dude just for me to say power is too much but it's like you get you get what i'm saying mostly no but it's also infrastructure it's failure of infrastructure structure failure of um governance if you like or just like failure to like think that you're you're subject to the same laws of nature and america as everybody else the um empathy is
Alexsyracuse actually his empathy for the machine uh thing is what i've still never gotten him to say
Merlinif i understand what that means do you know sorry never mind never mind go ahead go well i i just Every time I say, oh, so it's like this, he goes, no. And I'm like, okay, so you mean like this? Like, oh, no. It's one of those things like hard sci-fi that he refuses to ever give an example of.
AlexReally? Oh, yeah.
MerlinI bet if I threatened his family, he'd say 2001 is close, but still not there. But I have to threaten his family. Take away his wife's milk.
AlexHuh. I, huh.
MerlinHuh.
AlexThis, I have nothing to.
MerlinIt's in the machine. The Terry Green machine.
Alexuh the the end the idea of like empathy for the machine i've always thought of it as like all right you are going to literally i mean be like okay what is it going to feel like with this amount of strain with a uh with like like carbon fiber or oh it also sounds like the fan is going
Merlinso fast the like learning things like you know like how the world works this is another way of
Alexempathy for me i mean that's like our one human this is so fucking cheesy but it like that's like the one human superpower that has yet to be replicated is like uh at least at least being able to uh to ape ape empathy in some way which it sounds like this guy was not able to to do and just, I mean, you know, being like, huh, maybe I am not God and cannot fight the iceberg.
MerlinMaybe I am not God.
AlexLike, just the, I mean, like, I don't know, the transference of empathy onto something that is truly, like, biologically impossible and not just psychologically impossible is kind of how I have thought about it. That's why we have a binary. Wrong. Yes, I love those.
MerlinAnd the book of Genesis.
AlexI don't get it.
MerlinShow me Adam and Steve. That's an anecdote from Genesis. Sorry, Paul's letter to the Genesis. Oh shit, we also got to do titles.
Make a big point.
Alexmake a big point like a an arrow a finger what's a dumb thing to say um i'm like matt gorley
Merlinholding up the rap sign zeno's paradox one of zeno's paradoxes is that um if you're standing say two feet away from a wall and you take a step that's half the distance to the wall where you'll be exactly half the distance from where you were before. Now, if you take another step that's exactly a half of the amount between that. Anyway, infinite recursion, right? That idea that like you're all, no matter, you're getting closer every time and yet you're not actually that much closer
to where you were. And that's how I feel with Claude and I feel with my ice machine. So I keep thinking I fixed my ice machine, but then I keep coming back to my ice machine and I realize I'm still half a step away.
AlexThe way that you talk about how people, will um yell at you on the internet for talking about plot if you just put ice machine it could be like a safe word so so so what would stop fucking me hard the um what in what context
Merlinwould that be my safe word uh strangers that doesn't seem safe the people how do we meet on
Alexthe apps that you're the people who know that you're actually talking about llm s&m lincoln
MerlinThat's another one of Brian McCann's characters.
AlexS and M Lincoln.
MerlinThat's exactly what it sounds like.
AlexIf you follow me on the internet,
Merlinyou would have seen this last night.
AlexKeep talking.
MerlinMake a big point.
AlexAre you just on Blue Sky? My big point is now I want to know the metaphor you have for an ice machine and a large language model other than this paradox.
MerlinWhat I was saying was like, so I've been trying to fix a couple problems with my ice machine for a long time And I've made every time I think, okay, sorry, here's the big point. Every time I think I've made progress, I realize I still have more things to learn or could learn. And even as I do, I can and do learn new things. I still don't feel certain that I'm that much closer than I was before. And I go through this with my LLM. And, and I mean, obviously a huge problem with that is just, I just am trying to use this for stuff that it probably shouldn't be used for. And I get frustrated when it doesn't remember things or work the way I expected.
And I don't know, maybe it's not what it's for. but like I keep thinking I'm making progress on that and I mean the only way well not the only way the primary way that I gauge progress is how often I feel fucking annoyed and when I feel annoyed I'm like oh man I thought this was settled law like I thought we already like got this thing fixed and then I go into a whole thing and that's why 60% of my time on Claude is spent trying to fix Claude that's the metaphor the Zeno's paradox that particular paradox part is like although I am definitely moving closer to where I theoretically want to go. Not, I mean, the, the spoiler,
like I wonder if I'll ever get there. Probably not. But also like, just because I'm moving forward doesn't mean I'm doing that much better. But it also relates to anxiety as well as LLMs and ice machines, which is, you know, something I keep saying, like it's easy to go, oh yeah, Merlin, whatever. For an anxious person, new information feels like the way to, to feel safe. Like getting new information makes you feel safe. And like we're put differently, lacking the information you think you need makes you feel unsafe. That's the better way to put it.
And something I said in the document that I think about and have operationalized is for an anxious person, you know, getting new information feels like a comfort. But what I've discovered is, and this is not against the idea of education or improvement or information at all. But the truth is that I'm never slaked. My anxiety will not go away because of new information. Because guess what? This is like inbox zero, really. The second you've got that new information, what does it do? It gives you more new information you don't know yet.
and if you aren't careful if you aren't mindful about monitoring that you may never realize how much of your time you spend trying to get adequate information to make you feel safe even just for another minute or until you get the next bit of information and that's also why like i don't google everything that people mention i don't go and run and like look things up it's not because i'm against phones or screens or any of that stuff not at all But what I am trying to do is be circumspect about like, yeah, maybe potentially recapturing some of the idea of having a conversation that doesn't require a phone with somebody.
But also like I've learned that that's a fool's errand for me is running after information or running after even if you like completion. So like honestly, to quote Paul Newman in one of my favorite movies, sometimes nothing can be a pretty cool hand. and that's not now i'm leonardo dicaprio pointing up and saying cool hand luke um sometimes nothing can be a pretty cool hand because what you can realize is that yeah you'll always need new information and benefit from new information but there's a thousand other things that you might as
well just drop in my opinion the idea that you can ever feel like caught up that you that you will ever press a bruise enough for it to not bother you that you got a bruise to like you know whether that's about Trump or whether that's about your ice machine or whatever it is, you have to have a presence of mind to say, you know, am I, am I, am I done for now? Am I done here? And that kind of thing has helped me with my work. It's helped me with my sleep. It's helped me with a lot of things. And it's, it's kind of adjacent to this week's challenge, honestly, but becoming more cognizant, more present of mind about when my monkey mind starts tearing,
tearing off in one direction. One instance of monkey mind is I start writing really poorly. that doesn't mean that writing neatly will make me be mentally ordered or emotionally ordered but that's just a that's a good thing if i can see that like i've been spending so much of my time trying to find some fact or some condition or some new piece of information and i get myself stressed out about like why hasn't it arrived yet and then my mind starts reeling off about what that means like if y'all don't do that keep doing that like if that's not a problem like please
You're doing great. But is there a chance any of you have done that, that you start spinning off in these directions over something that at the end of the day, it's not bringing you any benefit at all? I don't think there's a more, apart from medication, I don't think there's a more canny behavioral way than to start noticing that and to very gently, like Annie Lamott style, just disincline yourself from chasing what you think will make you feel safe. because as the great Alan Watts says in his wonderful book, The Wisdom of Insecurity,
covering ourselves with all the things that temporarily make us feel more secure can eventually make us very insecure. Having one lock, if you guys are right now, you have two locks, but you're only using one, right? Because you're safe. You're safe with that one. That's fine. You've done the precaution. You've done the same thing. You could lock the other lock if you're having a bad night or you're feeling stalked or something. You could lock the other lock. Having 48 locks of different kinds on that door will not only not make you that much safer, it will probably endanger you in ways that may be unanticipated.
You will lock yourself out of your own life if you try to be too safe, if you try to chase security, if you try to chase information completion. However you are is how you are. And just shoving the world into your fucking mouth is not going to make it better. But sometimes it's nice to slow down a little bit, do your handwriting 20 slower maybe even do your computer typing 20 slower give yourself time to
Alexnotice when you're being a fucking idiot have you found any sort of balm or uh not not balm because that's too temporary but after you've realized that you're writing a little bit messy what what's next after you're like that's such a good question that i mean honestly that's that's
Merlina really smart question i think the way i put it accidentally right now i think just now was kind of smart and you're picking up on this i think is that like what it buys you is a little bit of time it buys you a minute well first of all like you just not don't stop doing your automatic thing like don't if you're if you're like go google daniel kahneman but like if your impulse like all of our impulses is to always fall back on your sort of first order basic ass thinking notice moments when it might be beneficial to just take a beat and then apply some second order
thinking like not that you're going to be some kind of like a swiss scientist or something but You can catch that before it makes you nuts. And that's very difficult to do. But if you make a practice of starting to do that, you may discover that you have a little more expansiveness. You have a little bit more metaphysical distance. You know what I mean? Because you know the worst part of that feeling, like being trapped in a sub almost. Like, I'm in this situation.
It is intolerable. I can't take this anymore. I'm losing my fucking mind. But sometimes, and I can't fix that, but you can catch yourself and go like, uh-oh, we're doing that thing again.
Kind of like me and snapping the rubber band. Just take a minute and notice. Does that make sense? Do you do anything like that? Is that any part of any, if I could ask, any kind of therapy you do? Do you try to like, it's not strictly CBT. It kind of is. It's a little bit CBT. It's a little bit mindfulness. But do you have ways to catch yourself when your brain starts tearing ass?
Alexto catch myself that's the well don't worry i got more on this but like i'm just asking if you use anything like that that you have benefited from the moment that i notice i need to second guess whether or not something is a hallucination then i know that there's maybe not even something that I need to be more mindful of or something I can be more mindful of. But all I can do at that point
is to give my nervous system some sort of little zap or shock to just be a little bit more of... I guess it's similar to your rubber band stuff, but there's this technique called tip, which is temperature, intensity, pressure point. I forget.
MerlinBut based on something kind of physical?
AlexYeah, it is part of dialectical behavioral therapy. And I try to just put ice on my wrist, and that is something that usually—
MerlinOh, shit, I love that.
AlexYeah.
MerlinI've heard that about the cold water, like putting your face in like ice cold water supposedly has like a well turns out supposedly has some kind of like ability to like do a light reset with your yeah i mean like there's so much banana stuff in this stuff i'm interested in including the body keeps the score but all the stuff with the vagus nerve i can't really shake it man like there's still a part of me that thinks that is such an interesting idea i still am not ready to just put that aside as a completely crazy
Alextheory it's well when i and when i say system that's also like the the word system is at least according to the and i usually often don't like doctors but many of the psychiatrists and neurologists i've talked to they're like the the key word here is system and that of a lot of people are like wackos because they have like latched on to certain binaries of like put the
Merlincopper right here but isn't it also for me kind of a magical thinking we're like if i look up and this thing is happening i'll know i'm okay if i look up and this kind of thing is happening i'll know i'm doomed like slight magical thinking a little bit and yeah and the issue is a lot of that
Alexyou know making the correlation between a a copper bracelet and a physical change whereas you it can be healthy to be like okay if you put some ice cube directly on a certain nerve it does like you you can't help but uh get a shock to your system i mean like if it works it works
MerlinThat's the thing.
AlexYeah. And, but it also can, like, you can get a benefit of the placebo effect. Then if you just go and put cold water on your face where it's like, technically it doesn't hit the part of the nervous system.
MerlinOh man, that's so great for me. Even just splashing water on my face makes such a difference. And I also then like, nobody cares, but like, I also will like put some of my hands and kind of rub it through my hair and on the back of my neck. And I, I feel 20% better after I do that. The way a lot of people will do breathing exercises, which I do also, but like, that's The way some people talk about, like, take five deep breaths or whatever. Like, for me, that can be just water on my face. And it doesn't matter if you think it works, listener. But, like, to me, it does something and it is absolutely not harmful. I mean, unless I'm wearing a tux or khakis.
AlexIt's just another form of mindfulness that, like, again, if the correlation isn't harmful, there's no reason not to. because it's just like you can't look at a river then you know i um i have a few things here that
Merlinare private but we could this is uh just me and you um you ask a good question right so sort of the lines of like the what happens when you catch you're like i don't forget exactly how you put it but like the way i'm answering this is what okay so now you caught yourself about to tear ass and runoff? Like, how do you use, and this is very CBT. This is very like Adler, I guess, but like, how do you use that impossibly small moment? What are you going to do now? Do you start,
as usually compulsively, just running in the direction of wherever your lizard brain tells you to start running? Or in that moment, is there, do you have an opportunity there? Fair? You know what I mean? Yes. And you've heard me say some of these before. I'm going to share some of these with you. These are things I say to myself when I catch myself doing crazy things. I mean, one is like, one of the oldest one in the book probably is stupid, can't stick to me. Just this idea that like, it's up to me to decide what kind of person I want to be based on how somebody is treating me or is being like, there's those kinds of things. Can I give you a few of
these? These go for sleep, waking up in the middle of the night and being freaked out. This goes for tearing ass. I think I've mentioned this. We might've already talked about this in a challenge but like for example like you know you know on veep with little richard the baby we don't say no we say that's not our plan remember that yeah these are some things that i say to myself and i'm going to share with you and this is very vulnerable for me to share these because these are very corny and they're very silly but if i'm getting weird and my brain starts tearing ass i don't always do it i'm not great at it and it does not always work but it's certainly worth a try
these are some i've started capturing a few weeks ago started capturing the things that i found useful when I catch myself. May I share a few?
AlexYes.
MerlinYou ever have trouble sleeping and you're, something happens and you, whoop, got a second, you catch yourself. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, where was my brain just now? And you're like tearing ass into like, like exploring the terribleness of your past and dreading the horribleness of your future. And you start planning, planning, planning in your mind. Maybe you're thinking about what you would say to somebody if they say those kinds of things. You know what the top one on the list is? that's not what we're doing right now.
That's good. It's subtle. That's not what we're doing right now. You know what it isn't? It's not, quit it. It's not, ah. You just say, no, that's not what we're doing right now. And it's the kind of thing you can say to a little kid, and I feel like in really a legit, like straight up way, as much as you want to go home, play with your iPad, you know, whatever. Well, the problem is that's not what we're doing right now. Now, how is that like getting things done from David Allen? Well, no matter how much you want to mow your lawn, you can't do it if you're on a plane.
Because that's not what we're doing right now. If it's time for you to sleep, you know what it's not time for? It's not time for you to worry about your past and dread your future. So you tell yourself that's not what we're doing right now. Second one, back to our previous point. You don't need to know.
Like, I don't need to know what? Well, whatever that thing is, you won't know what it is. I won't know what it is, but you will. Next time you catch yourself tearing off to think, oh, I've got to go reload a page to be happy in life, you don't need to know. And then think about, do I need to know this? Well, if you need to know this, do it like a fucking adult. But you probably don't need to know. And again, if it's the middle of the night, imagine these are all sleep things. If this is the middle of the night, do you really need to get up and go look at something to be able to sleep? Just a few more real quick.
This one is really general and I can barely begin to describe it. Waves go in and waves go out. think about where water and it's all the same earth but water comes up on the beach and then it goes away waves go in and waves go out good times come and go you can put this a million ways my grandmother had five different Old Testament ways of saying this you know or like a British comedian saying you got to take the you got to take the light the light with the shade related to that hey this is just one scene in the movie whatever's going through your head right now
that's not your whole movie That's one scene in the movie. And you're the one choosing to play it on your brain. You with me? You there?
AlexYou're asking me or the guest sister?
MerlinJust two more. Two more cookies. I got a ton of these, but I'm just doing two more. Let's take that at half speed. Or to paraphrase Letterkenny, let's try taking about 20% off there. Try whatever it is. You know how we talked about bigger and funnier and smaller? Well, is changing, to use your word, intensity or temperature? Is there a change to that that you could introduce here where you could still feel bad about it, but it wouldn't be everything in the world? Are you benefiting from tearing ass right now? Because what would happen if you took it half speed?
Again, these are all different for different situations. And the latest one I'll get to someday is I sometimes tell myself, I sometimes remind myself, I've decided to open my heart. The problem is once you open your heart, a lot of stuff gets in. But if you say to yourself, I'm doing a thing right now where my heart is open, think about how many things start to change in your life. Well, first of all, birds will fly in, but that's kind of cool. But if your heart is open, you'll handle so many things differently. And eventually, maybe even weeks later, you'll realize when my heart was closed, I wasn't that much happier.
And I was much less resilient because my heart was not open. So I thought everybody was stupid. And I thought I was put upon. And like you have zero metaphysical distance from anything in your life in those way if your heart is ultimately closed. I'm not asking you to like understand me when I say that. I'm asking you to think about you when I say that. What would be different if you sometimes reminded yourself that you've decided to open your heart? What if you decided that sometimes, and you know, in the moment, you're like your own caddy selecting clubs.
That's not what we're doing right now. Oh, a cousin of that one that's really good, Alex. That's not what we're doing right now. we're not doing that anymore.
AlexWhat do you mean we're not doing that anymore?
MerlinOh, yeah, that thing where you really feel bad about this one week in 1997, we're not doing that anymore. That doesn't mean you're not allowed to think it, but that means that that's not part of our portfolio anymore. Our ruminating over that is no longer a practice that we're going to put effort into. And instead, again, in the style of Annie Lamont and Bird by Bird, we're going to gently incline the puppy back on the paper. We're not going to throw the shitting puppy into a wall. We're going to just remind it that there's paper over there and I'm happy to take care of that.
You have to do this. I have to do this with my brain. I've got to say that's not what we're doing right now. Sometimes I have to say, why don't you pull back a little? Sometimes I say, you don't need to do that right now. Sometimes I need to say, I need to quote Dory. I need to say, just keep swimming.
And those may not work for you, but the times in my life that I've said those can't work for me are the times they would have been most useful to at least think about but that requires deciding to open your heart
AlexI worry or worried, I mean I still do worry about whether or not I am opening my just opening my mind instead of actually my heart, which is, I think, a very common and it's much easier to do, to be, it's easier to be angry
than to be sad. And I think-
MerlinEspecially if you've been rehearsing that without realizing it.
AlexYes. And I think when-
MerlinIf there's first order of thinking, that would be first order emotion. Or in my case, like, I think that, I've said this before, but I still think this is pretty smart and true, that almost every problem that men run into, regardless of the route it takes, like a game of Plinko, it almost always ends up in anger.
AlexYes.
MerlinThat is the fallback for most men. And they'll come up with a reason why they're angry in retrospect. But the real reason is, well, it might have been that they felt wounded. It might be that they felt vulnerable. It might be that they felt stupid. It might feel that they felt useless. According to a lot of media, it might mean that their dad wasn't very nice to them. but you know it opening your heart and mind both can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people and it doesn't harm you to at least think about that opening your mind would be more like
new ideas opening your heart would be like being more empathetic i i guess i should say like
Alexthinking you're opening your mind but really you're just consuming information or you know Yeah, right, right, right, right.
MerlinI mean, one example off the dome is like, you're sitting there and like you're having a bad day and let's say the waiter spills the soup on you. And it's like, there's a world in which you could go like, regardless of anything else in the world that's happening today, there's a new event in the world, which is, I have soup on me. But think about all the different ways that people will decide what to do next in their life as a result. Certainly, you might want to Karen that person's supervisor and try to get them fired. But is it possible that mainly you feel really bad about that?
Maybe you wish you hadn't ordered soup. But couldn't it also be that, oh man, on this day, now it really feels like the world is against me. And you're unintentionally making this poor waiter part of some cabal that's out there to get you. And actually, nobody fucking cares. Nobody thinks about you. Why don't you try to benefit from that rather than feeling ground down about it? And like it but whatever it is the most anodyte events in the world especially maybe for a magical thinker or a person with anger can really turn into this really can become a pockle events in proving that your closed heart has told you what's right about the world.
And this just proves it further.
Alexuh i had a really silly but significant thing happen uh a couple weeks ago where um a couple kids were riding bikes really fast behind uh the bench at a bus stop and uh they had water guns and completely soaked me and this other guy and of course immediately
reflexively i'm like oh my fucking god and and the and i i hope it's because i've grown as a person but i was like i mean they're just what what else can i do it's like if a bird
Merlinshits on you like yeah yeah i mean like a great test of this is like is this somebody else's shit or is this my shit because this might just be my shit and it's not really about the water guns it's about my how i how i'm uncomfortable with my place in the world and blame other people
Alexfor how it is right and and i what i and it i'm like i'm a good person i know i was chill but but then what like really broke my heart was the guy uh truly i think it's because i have younger brothers and these kids seem harmless and like they're little shits but having a blast but the guy next to me gets up starts sprinting and screaming at them and i'm like oh man that just
Merlinright it's like that scene in nice guys when it's like the scene of the nice guys when the the bank bag with the blue ink blows up in the guy's face and russell crowe's like is this how you wanted this to go like is this is this that's such a good question to ask yourself it's like you came in here to do something and like you are in such a different place than when you first came in here like is this how you wanted it to go like when that guy woke up that day if anybody could have given him just a quibi style like or a uh a vine style video of himself chasing children
Alexyeah and the thing is i don't i i think it's very easy to be like oh my god what a what a dick with his he did have a very stupid looking briefcase but but also that could have been the worst day that guy could afford that uh i i do whenever i see someone and think god they look stupid or like oh what a dick it's like i'm just going to try to assume that this is the worst day
Merlinof this person's life yes yes the thing that just you know i got a quote on this i got a quote from the document on this that i would like to share you and i'd like you all to listen to this closely and actually think about it. If a given thing you've decided to do goes flawlessly, what is the best possible outcome that you could imagine?
AlexYeah, that's a great, yeah.
MerlinAnd then here's the next sentence. Keep this question in mind before you, for example, jump onto a moving car or scream at a baby.
AlexYeah.
MerlinBecause I think we can take it as read that there are people in the world who have jumped on their moving cars. There are people in the world who have screamed at a baby. there are people with stupid briefcases who have chased children like that like you know later on you're going to be bummed like you're going to go like oh that i really if i hadn't tried to jump on this car i'd still be able to walk under my own power like i if if i hadn't yelled at that baby like in the larry larry david sort of way like you know my boss wouldn't have seen me or something you know what i'm saying but like that's why i split that into two parts if a given thing you've
decided to do goes flawlessly what's the best possible outcome you can imagine like do you think that guy at the bus stop with on the bench thought about that before he gave chase and if he
Alexhad do you think the answer would be fuck yeah get those kids and if he did like i know unfortunately i think we all know people who are the kind of person who would be like yeah i would have jumped up and chased them again because they're always right they're always right and they're aggrieved i i um they i don't want to sound like the oh it's the internet person um but the it's becoming
Merlinvery clear it is the internet there's a couple whatever it is it's the internet i there's a
Alexcouple of um a couple of people where i i do think like they they really uh like i i know them personally and they fucking like you kind of think of yourself is this how you want to come off
Merlinare you are you doing this on purpose do you really want to seem like this all the time
Alexand the answer is to them yes apparently and it's on brand i mean i think i'm like closed heart posse the the the i'm like what i'm like i like how you phrased it like we're not doing this like Like, I'm like, there's no reason for me to engage.
MerlinWe don't do that anymore. Like, we used to do that, but we don't do that anymore. That's part of the path that made me less of an asshole over time, was realizing that I am being late. I mean, as much as I'm a pill about being on time now, that's because I spent 35 years being late for everything. Like, terminally, embarrassingly late. Like, awkwardly late. Like, arriving at dessert for a party of six levels of late. And I was a psychopath. And it took this kind of work over time to catch it. Being less of an asshole, you know, boy, I took, I mean, I'm not great at whatever, whatever.
We're all on our own journey. But like after it's so hard at that, and really along the lines, it has come along, it does come around to things like, like who the fuck do I think I am to have this be the way that I just talk to people? Like to just have this be like my automatic response is to tell somebody they're wrong or dumb. Or to like make some snarky remark that I don't even realize reflects my privilege. life like that's no way to be and people hear stuff like that and they understand we get frustrated and maybe even a little bit angry and go yeah but the world's treating me bad too and it's like well that's true like but like is it would it surprise you to know the world treats everybody badly
like you're not you're not special you're not different but like you're gonna let stupid stick to you is that your deal is this what we do now it do we make this 50 faster like do we do all the opposite of merlin's internal monologue advice how's that going because like it just
Alexmakes you more and more of like an um insufferable old man i wish that there was a word that had less baggage than toxic to describe maladaptive uh yeah unpleasant unpleasant but in unpleasant in a way that actually cause that's that uh can indeed cause damage to like psychic damage to you if
you just keep just keep on keeping oh you know what's good what's that phrase what's that phrase
MerlinI first heard this from Cory Doctorow, like, what is it? The internet considers, sees censorship as damage and routes around it, like that kind of thing. But there's like this part of you that's like, and, you know, like there's that one famous, I'm sorry, now I'm thinking of that famous RFC or announcement about something like,
Alexthere's like something like go to code considered dangerous or considered harmful.
MerlinThat's it, considered harmful. Is harmful a better word? This could be harmful.
AlexI like that.
MerlinConsidered harmful.
AlexOh, I like that.
MerlinI'll find it right now. Also, I'd like to go soon, please.
AlexNo, anytime. Hair is down. Thank you for being... No, seriously, this was very good.
MerlinThank you for being... Go-to statement considered harmful.
AlexGo-to statement considered harmful.
MerlinBy Edward Dykstra. Go-to statement considered... Go-to statements, jump instructions. yeah it's from 1968
Alexoh I never want to be that person and I just know those people and oh man that their go to thing is to other kind of go to is
Merlinthere wasn't go to oh sorry I hope I wasn't unclear go to as in like in basic oh no I know I like both but it works go to with a hyphen I like a lot too go to statement talk about first order thinking I can misunderstand so many things at scale it's kind of breathtaking
Alexthat was my first snap to grid it was a computer oh no I had a new thought technology
MerlinI want to talk to Marco about which is snap to grid faces I have this new unified field theory about Marco and snap to grid names
Alexyes
MerlinI also have another theory the snap to grid names
Alexwait like a resting bitch face What do you mean by snap to grid faces?
MerlinDerail. But like, for example, like what people think my name is or mishear my name as or snap to grid for my name is different in different places. It's also I've seen this true for Madeline. Sometimes I'm Marvin. Sometimes I'm Marlon.
And I'm not mad about this, but like it's, you know what I mean? What you hear in different places. Like in New England, people always thought my wife's name was Natalie. Because that's a popular name there. More popular than Madeline.
I love that album. I would like to pick titles, and the challenge for next week is the same as this week, yes?
AlexYes.
MerlinThe quick ones that I called out were Epistolary Audience, Paul's Letter to the Ding-a-Lings, Compass Point Whip Pants, Your Blood Document Rhetorical. I'm doing this for our listeners, Alex. Compass Point Whip Pants, Your Blood Document, Rhetorical Comment, and it starts out smooth. did you have there's tons more you just sent you the whole list this that particular loaf of emo active working area no it's not as good as i am
Alexi i've grown and uh i've grown across some toro's face i have uh uh grown attached to epistolary audience just because that's what because they're getting
Merlinletters we get letters we get sacks and stacks of letters yes yep epistolary audience that's
Alexpretty good um it's right there it's a forecast it looks so good it looks oh oh really okay um
Merlinyeah yeah and i you know i'm i'm this is gonna sound lame but potentially but i i i want i love to share the the um image do we need to warn people there's blood on it no i are you sure
Alexbecause it could really freak people out it looks like i was it also looks like sauce like genuinely
MerlinYou look like sauce.
AlexYeah. Well, I hope so.
MerlinI'm not doing that anymore. Give me one of yours. What's one of the things you say to yourself? Make it funny and I'll take a sound. Or make it profound and I'll call it.
AlexUh-oh. Uh-oh. No. Uh-oh.
MerlinOkay. All right. Okay. A neutral one.
AlexGenuinely something I say. Okay.
MerlinUh-oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How about this one? Here we go again. Here I go with this thing. like yesterday when I was on my fourth Elliot Smith song. I was like, oh, I'm doing that thing. I'm doing that thing. That's another thing. I'm doing that thing. I'm doing that thing where I just suddenly start listening to nothing but Elliot Smith for a while.
I know you'd rather see me gone than to see me the way that I am.
AlexOh, God.
MerlinYou ever listen to Elliot Smith?
AlexYep. And then I'm like, oh. Swim and my song, needle in the hay. Needle in the hay. And then I... Oh.
MerlinRichie's in there. He's in the bathroom. He loves the grotesque. You got Margot with the wooden finger. That's kind of fun.
AlexThere's a lot of grotesque in that.
MerlinAnd then you got, I mean, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be ableist. I don't want to be unkind to anybody. But then you got, for example, you got Saoirse Ronan. Doesn't she have the map of Mexico as a birthmark on her face?
AlexI don't know.
MerlinI would have not. She works for the bakery with the pink van.
AlexNo, I know. Compass Point Whip Pans. Two, three,
Merlinfour. That's the only guy that my voice is long. Compass Point Whip Pans.
AlexNo, now
MerlinEpiscolary audience.
AlexPeter, do say something funny. Three, two, one. I love you.
MerlinI'm really grateful for you. Thanks for doing the show, and thanks for being my friend. I'm going to cry. No, you're not. You're going to leave. Fucking whore. Bye everybody, thanks