Episodes
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This is the last episode of the NTL Podcast. Because they’ve decided to move in different directions Jon and Jess decided to close out the show with a discussion on how and when to end projects, how to make sure you’re respecting those you work with, and specifically how they made the decision to move on. They also share more about other projects they’re working on that will take up the time saved from NTL.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:When to end projects
How to make these decisions with collaborators in mind
Other Projects our hosts are working on
Mentioned in the Episode:Other things we’re working on:
Go try out Zak the baker in Miami
Jess’s blog - Straight From The Sources Mouth - supporting farmers and businesses that clear and transparent supply chains
Jon’s podcast about urbanism - Polis: A Show About Cities
Jon’s podcast about everything interesting in the world - While We’re On The Subject
Jon on Twitter - @JonJamRob
Jon’s - YouTube Channel
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Jess and Jon discuss the complicated business of building successful collaborations and how to manage control, trust, and the flow of information in situations where there is no boss or clear authority. They also talk about a new collaboration of Jon’s (a new podcast on Subject Radio) and how to maintain a remote community or build a new community in person when you pick up and move.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:How to productively build sustainable collaborations
The importance of clearly assigning roles and empowering people to make decisions
How to maintain and foster communities remotely and in person
Mentioned in the Episode:The Polis Podcast: A new fortnightly show all about cities and how they shape our world with Benjamen Ulrey and Jon Roberts
The Polis Podcast Logo
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Episodes manquant?
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Jess and Jon touch on what they’ve been reading and learning about lately before talking about their writing processes including everything from the software they use to how they seperate editing from composition. They follow this up with some unusual thoughts on setting deadlines, how you can use others to keep yourself accountable, and how regularizing things and focusing on habit formation can make all of this easier.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:How to think about the process of writing and editing
How to prioritize tasks based upon your energy levels
The value of deadlines and how to get that value without adding stress
Mentioned in the Episode:Books:
My Kitchen Cure - Mee Tracy McCormick
The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
What Jon has been cooking:
Honey Sesame Seared Salmon
Roast Butternut Squash with Apples & Bacon
Skillet Chicken Cacciatore
Pomodoro timers
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Jon and Jess start by touching on proactively dealing with procrastination. Then they discuss their years in review and explain their plans for the coming months. They debate the ins and outs of developing complex creative skills and whether copying other peoples’ work should be a part of this process. They then go into their reasons and inspiration for the NTL podcast in the context of the kinds of media they consume. They close by analyzing the progressive changes in the broader media landscape, how much more narrowly niched educational content is being made these days, and some warnings about the dangers of niching down too far.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How the hosts have put together their goals for the coming year
The role that copying has in the process of developing new skills
The differences between technique and creativity
How the content and medium of content can complement one another
Mentioned in the Episode:
Tree app: stay focused, be present. Don’t kill your forest
Rescuetime - time and productivity tracker, can block websites for you
Chris guillebeau - how to review and plan a year
Pat flynn - smart passive income
Leonard Cohen: hallelujah, and Dance me to the end of love
Pardon the interruption - ESPN Sports commentary
The Daily Show - started shift toward “infotainment”
Aziz Ansari: master of none
7 Habits of Highly Effective People - some good ideas, way too long
Asian Efficiency - The Productivity Podcast
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Jon and Jess talk about the pressure to have new year’s resolutions, the busy circus that is December, and how they’re preparing for the coming year. They go on to discuss how important the recent sexual abuse scandals are and why they feel compelled to address them. They explain how the internet has pressaged and created the environment that allows for these scandals to be made public, discuss some parallels with the progress of the civil rights movement, and debate whether the shift in sentiment around the scandals is a momentary blip or a permanent change. They also go into their personal views on the boundaries of relationships in work and the difficulty of deciding what is acceptable when you work independently or are networking in less formal settings. They close by touching on the international impact of the scandals.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How our hosts are preparing for the coming year
The long term impact of the recent sexual abuse scandals
How our hosts think about relationship boundaries in work and networking
The international impact of the recent sexual abuse scandal
Mentioned in the Episode:
Trump Access Hollywood bus controversy
Trump’s accusations of sexual assault
Harvey Weinstein accusations
UK Parliamentary sex scandals
Francois hollande mistress scandal
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Jess and Jon trace the progress of technology since the 1980’s and how that has gradually reduced barriers to entry for many freelancers and small scale entrepreneurs. It has also disaggregated many media and creative industries. They then talk about the effects of this on the global economy, our individual working lives, and increased the return on personal development and hard skills. This trend is largely driven by the dropping cost and complexity of production and distribution methods. After that they break down how mindsets about lifelong learning, personal development, and physical fitness have changed in recent years. They close with a discussion on the illusion of talent, how we undervalue things we can’t see, how perceived weaknesses and strengths are self reinforcing, and the difference between simple skills and highly composite skills.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How Changes in production and distribution have reshaped the working world
The growing importance of personal development
The illusion of talent and invisibility of skill development
Why getting useful feedback is so difficult
Mentioned in the Episode:
Pic monkey - photo editor
Canva - photo editor and design software
Comedians in cars getting coffee
Switching costs as a concept
Book: Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
Correction: Muggsy bogues is 5’3”
El salvadorians - our generation is short because many of them were malnourished in the 90’s
Amateur hours - where we started learning things in 30 hr chunks, so that we go from we can’t do something to we can do it and can do it kind of poorly.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How we think about choosing jobs, friends, and where to live
The importance of intentionality when making decisions
How your own values interface and sometimes conflict with other motivations
Mentioned in the Episode:
Host Challenges:
Jess’s articles are done
Jon finished a rough edit of his animation
Jess’s Website - Straightfromthesourcesmouth.co
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Jess and Jon give an update on the challenges they laid down for themselves last week. They then explore how they make major decisions about what matters in a place to live, where to work, and how they spend their free time. They explain their thinking and motivation going into big moves between countries. Then they discuss the value of putting yourself in difficult or challenging situations, the importance of intentionality and taking action rather than letting things happen to you, and the need to define your own success by focusing on possibility and abundance rather than limitations. They close with how people overestimate the risks of mistakes and their thinking about the weight of your values in the face of questions about your income and financial stability.
Listen to this Episode and Learn:
How we think about choosing jobs, friends, and where to live
The importance of intentionality when making decisions
How your own values interface and sometimes conflict with other motivations
Mentioned in the Episode:
Host Challenges:
Jess’s articles are done
Jon finished a rough edit of his animation
Jess’s Website - Straightfromthesourcesmouth.co
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Jess and Jon get into Jess’s new job at the bakery, the history of bread, and brewing beer. After that they talk about what outcomes matter in side projects, how investment in skill development squares with producing value now, and how we can make things more efficient by finding activities that allow us to work two two different goals at the same time. They then break down their thinking about Checklists, SOPs, and mind maps, how these are used, and the kinds of information they’re best suited to organize. They also talk about some recent travels to the Cliffs of Moher, England, and Italy, cheap plane tickets, the cold of Ireland, and the heat of Miami.
The Cliffs of Moher
Galway city’s population: 80k
York’s history - hasn’t mattered for a long time
Cooked - Michael Pollan
Jess’s current project - a blog on transparency in supply chain
Amateur hours - work on a specific skill for 30 hours
Getting Things Done - David Allen
SOPs - Standard Operating Procedures
Todoist - task management
OneNote - digital notebook
Trello - a kanban task manager
Evernote - a place to save anything to reference later
NTL’s Facebook
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Jess and Jon discuss daylight savings time, how tracking their time has surprised them and dig deep into Language learning with a conversation about how to think about learning pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar and the differences between these. They also talk about a Net Impact conference Jess attended and how to connect with interesting and like minded people after moving to a new city.
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Jess and Jon discuss routines, building habits, sleep schedules, attention spans, pomodoro timers, GTD, and measuring the success of plans. They then dive into time tracking, misconceptions around how we spend our time, and the power of collecting data on yourself and generating your own feedback. They wrap up with a run down of the technology they use to stay organized and lay down some challenges for themselves for the week.
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Jess and Jon talk about their backgrounds living and working on four different continents and how they came to work on self improvement so much together. They discuss what the NTL podcast will cover and delve into what it’s like to move to a new country or city you’ve never been to before with no network or job. Touching on how to deal with banking, housing, bills, and visas in new places. Then they talk about their shared goal of fluency in Spanish and some of the learning techniques they’ve used to rapidly learn the language.
