335! Giving a Fart
What does your Zero Farts Land future look like?
This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about fucks. And farts.
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334! How to Strategy
How do you strategy?
This week, Aaron and Joey talk about Elliott Kalan, the School of Let's Figure It Out, emotional distance from work, working in teams, meandering, and strategy that bleeds. They don’t talk about Jamesy P.
references
Joke Farming: How to Write Comedy and Other Nonsense by Elliott Kalan
99% Invisible Podcast Episode 646: Interview with Elliott Kalan
Corrections Department: Les has never ever ever heard, touched, or even seen a copy of Pure Moods and now fears his colleagues do not understand him at all.
333! Hanlon’s Razor
Why do we expect the worst?
This week, Aaron and Jess talk about simple solutions, Karen moments, assuming malice, Thanos, Falkland's Law, and lemmings. They don’t talk about the famous former power forward for the Boston Celtics or the Hamburger Peddler's rhyming buddy.
references
Corrections Department: Camila Cabello "I'll Be Home for [Quizmois]"
Glee's Kevin McHale
Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein
332! Remembering Important Details
How has technology made us less sure of ourselves?
This week, Jess and Joey talk about technological change, Christmas cards, scraping, phone numbers, friendships, and FaceTime. They don’t talk about beepers.
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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.
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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.
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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
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
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.
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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
Paris is Burning trailer
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
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’
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Most people's life satisfaction matches their personality traits: True correlations in multitrait, multirater, multisample data. [PDF]
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.
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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.
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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
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
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
Planning red teaming for large language models (LLMs) and their applications
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.
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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.
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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
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
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."
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.
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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.
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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.
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