331! Generalists

Is it better to generalize or to specialize? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about polymaths, running, functional fitness, idea people, curiosity, and Starship Troopers. They don’t talk about dilettantes. 

references 

• Specialization is for insects. 

• Stardew Valley 

• Forbes: Going Pi-Shaped: How To Prepare For The Work Of The Future 

• 129 Ways to Get a Life 

• Robert A. Heinlein 

330! Unlikely Internet Innovations

Are there actually interesting life innovations that are coming out of the content creation boom? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about homemade pop tarts, learning letters, the power of song, TikTok, mastering movements, and apple dumplings. They don’t talk about Action Bronson. 

references 

• The recipe is the sooonnggg. 

• cool.missp: ABCs Turn Up 

• EBITDA 

• What Are Popovers And What Do They Taste Like? 

• Pepperidge Farm Bakery Frozen Spiced Apple Dumplings Pastry 

329! Imprecise Language

How many other things do we have that we think of as imprecise but are actually pretty precise and agreed upon? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about box plots, New York neighborhood names, Australian colloquialisms, measurement language, baking, and square roots. They don’t talk about The Smiths. 

references 

• Box plot 

• Reading a Box and Whisker Plot 

• Perceptions of Probability 

• The New York Times: An Extremely Detailed Map of New York City Neighborhoods 

• The Journal of Neuroscience: Distinct Contributions of the Cerebellum and Basal Ganglia to Arithmetic Procedures 

• Goldilocks Zone 

• Square root 

• Spiral of Theodorus 

• Klein bottle 

328! Compromises

What if we've become less willing to sacrifice our pawns to take the queen? 

This week, Jess and Joey talk about Ezra Klein, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Obama, game theory, defaulting to passion, and nuclear weapons. They don’t talk about David Lightman. 

references 

• The Ezra Klein Show: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Bridging Gaps vs. Drawing Lines 

• Nash equilibrium 

• Mutual assured destruction 

• A Beautiful Mind 

• Pareto principle 

327! Notes-apalooza

What's in your notes? 

This week, Aaron and Jess talk about internet chalk, bottle lining, the Pantry Challenge, gold bars, word clothes, and golden milk. They don’t talk about Gold Bond powder. 

references 

• Heinz Breakfast Ketchup 

• Paris is Burning trailer 

• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller 

• Chinotto 

• Astral Chain 

• Bossa Bros and Nara 

• Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell 

326! Changing Personalities

How much do you think you can change your personality? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about life satisfaction, sad auras, nominative determinism, nature versus nurture, Martin Seligman, magical meat sacks. They don’t talk about marinade bags. 

references 

• Forbes: How Singer-Songwriter EJAE Found Rumi’s Voice In ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ 

• @thetalesoftayls' sad aura tweet 

• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Most people's life satisfaction matches their personality traits: True correlations in multitrait, multirater, multisample data. [PDF] 

• Nominative determinism 

• Eeyore 

• Martin Seligman 

• Dungeon Crawler Carl 

325! Patterns of Wisdom

What are places where wisdom exists where it shouldn't? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about the Benner Cycle, feng shui, jelly shoes, BMW dashboards, the bullshit asymmetry principle, and Hitchens's razor. They don’t talk about Christopher Robin. 

references 

• Human League 

• Benner Cycle 

• Bagua 

• Black–Scholes model 

• Joseph Henrich 

• Enneagram of Personality 

• Strauss–Howe generational theory 

• Brandolini's law 

• Hitchens's razor 

324! Waving

Why do we wave from trains and boats? 

This week, Aaron and Jess talk about kids, duck boats, kerchiefs, air travel, cruise ships, and roller coasters. They don’t talk about chucking the deuce. 

references 

• Knott's Berry Farm 

• Medieval Times 

• New York Transit Museum 

• L.A. Train Festival 2025 

• Some Kind of Quest 

323! AI Defenses

How are you personally preparing mentally, psychologically for the increased engagement with AI? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about AI psychosis, Blake Lemoine, the Turing Test, cognative security, red teaming, and hats. They don’t (yet) talk about NonsenseLLM. 

references 

• Psycho Killer and the big suit 

• X: Keith Sakata, MD 

• The New York Times: They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling. 

• The New York Times: Chatbots Can Go Into a Delusional Spiral. Here’s How It Happens. 

• Washington Post The Google engineer who thinks the company’s AI has come to life 

• Bloomberg Technology: Google Engineer on His Sentient AI Claim 

• Turing Test 

• Johns Hopkins Magazine: The science behind why we see faces in nature 

• Study: Barking Up the Wrong Tree: Human Perception of Dog Emotions Is Influenced by Extraneous Factors 

• Pareidolia 

• Red team 

• Planning red teaming for large language models (LLMs) and their applications 

• Ig Nobel Prize 

• Six Thinking Hats 

322! Old

When is old good and when is old bad? 

This week, Jess, Aaron, and Joey talk about The Bible, first editions, berries, Final Destination, whiskey, and Rick Astley. They don’t talk about Flavor Flav. 

references 

• Dayspring by Anthony Oliveira 

• sarcophagus 

321! Clarity

How do you make sense? 

This week, Aaron, Jess, and Joey talk about intention, trust, assumption, context windows, synchronicity, and drinking. They don’t talk about Pal Joey. 

references 

• Click, Clack, Moo in book form 

• Click, Clack, Moo Read Aloud 

• Palworld 

320! Doing Hard Things

Why do we do hard things? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about the Baddie Performance Index, Barkley Marathons, fun types, self flagellation, dessert stomachs, and natural childbirth. They don’t talk about Saquon. 

references 

• Barkley Marathons 

• Running so far away 

319! Being Cool

Why is it so important to be cool? 

This week, Jess, Aaron, and Joey talk about Black culture, 21 Jump Street, social approval, bandwaggoning, alternative hierarchies, and Lauryn Hill. They don’t talk about Digable Planets. 

references 

• Dru Hill's "5 Steps" 

• Old Man, look at my life. 

• Journal of Experimental Psychology: "Cool is cool wherever you are" 

• Miles Davis' The Birth of the Cool 

• Uncola: Seven-Up, Counterculture and the Making of an American Brand 

• Wired Video: Linguists Explain the History of "Cool" 

• BET Video: The Origin Of "Cool": How Black Culture Embodies "Cool" & Influences Trends For Mainstream 

• 21 Jump Street (2012) first day of school scene 

• Corrections Department: To clarify, the study does not specifically question the Black origins of our collective use of the word "cool," rather it questions whether the emotional restraint in Black culture that came to define the early idea of "cool" is still the current concept of "cool." 

• Bow Chicka Wow Wow 

318! The Beach

How is it we've convinced ourselves sometimes that we like things that we don't really like? 

This week, Jess and Joey talk about the big light, the beach, group vacations, going to the movies, nature bathing, and bad drinks. They don’t talk about Mr. Nice Guy. 

references 

• Rest easy, Brian Wilson 

• Lord have mercy 

317! New Rules

What new rules should we have? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about the Irish Goodbye, music at the beach, phones on the train, zipper merging, gift obligations, and desire paths. They don’t talk about Dua Lipa or New Rochelle. 

references 

• Zipper Merging 

316! Possibility

How do y'all protect your sense of possibility? 

This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about optimism, imagination, resilience, cultural technology, escape rooms, and rules. They don’t talk about the endless persistence of existential dread. 

references 

• A Thousand Miles to the Pink Pony Club 

• Traitors 

• Dinosaur Island 

• Parkitect 

• Monument Valley 

• Royal Kingdom 

• Hollow Night 

• Thank Goodness You're Here 

• Age of Empires II 

315! Going Analog

What are the important analog activities in an increasingly digital world? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about luddites, handwriting, typewriting, mashing tomatoes, kinetic learning, and carbon dioxide. They don’t talk about Folkways Records. 

references 

• Taki Taki 

• Luddites 

• Study: Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom 

• Rick Barry 

In A Quiet So Loud

In April, SYLVAIN released an open letter of resistance in response to the chaos of the moment we're in. This is a live reading of that letter, and a reminder that resistance is ongoing.

Too many in our industry have been quiet in the face of injustice and uncertainty. Too many important conversations have been relegated to back channels. So we put pen to paper, naming simple truths that have guided our company and actions for 15 years—and will continue to guide us.

Have a listen or read the open letter at impact.sylvain.co

314! Universal Truths

What universal truths do you believe in? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about database shapes, LLMs, collective human intelligence, apple eating, folk wisdom, and Pi. They don’t talk about apple pie, though. 

references 

• West End Girls 

• Ethan Mollic on the "universal geometry" of meaning 

• The Platonic Representation Hypothesis 

• Doctor Dillamond’s Classroom 

• Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language 

• Study: Association Between Apple Consumption and Physician Visits 

• Honeycrisp apples 

313! No-Phone Zones

How do you feel about no-phone zones? 

This week, Joey and Aaron talk about AI, parenting, over-responsibility, constant access, bluetooth speakers, and biking while texting. They don’t talk about Nowadays. 

references 

• Rabbit r1 AI agent 

• The Humane AI Pin 

• The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee 

• The Last Sun by K. D. Edwards 

• The Bobiverse 

• The Traitors 

• Quad Press Release: "81% of Gen Z report wishing it was easier to disconnect from digital devices"