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Andy Payne—architect and software developer at McNeel—on Grasshopper 2's latest features.

Andy Payne is a licensed architect and software developer at Robert McNeel & Associates, the company behind Rhino and Grasshopper 3D. He is a Doctor of Design graduate from Harvard's Graduate School of Design (2014). Andy has lectured and taught workshops throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, and his work has received awards from several leading academic organizations. Andy has also co-authored several software plugins and desktop apps (including Firefly and Monolith). At McNeel, Andy works on the Grasshopper and Rhino.Compute projects for the Rhino 3D modeling environment.

Connect with Andy* LIFT Architects * Monolith by Andy Payne & Panagiotis Michalatos * Firefly by Andy Payne & Jason Kelly Johnson

Links* Rhinoceros * Grasshopper 3D * Content Cache component * Figurines * Shouts * Rhino Core-Hour Billing * Grasshopper Hops * New Grasshopper data types * Metafold * Monolith * Plasticity * Blender

People mentioned* David Rutten · McNeel * Kike García · McNeel

Chapters* 00:00 · Introduction * 00:50 · Grasshopper 2 * 03:03 · Data types * 04:44 · Content Cache component * 06:35 · Rhino Compute * 07:37 · Object attributes * 08:36 · New features * 08:51 · Shouts * 09:50 · Visual diffing and graphics * 10:24 · Figurines * 11:33 · Installing Grasshopper 2 * 12:32 · Andy's day-to-day * 13:39 · 3D tools

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Andy Payne—architect and software developer at McNeel—on the origins of Grasshopper, Grasshopper 2, Rhino.Compute, teaching, learning to code, generative AI, open-source code, and his journey.

Andy Payne is a licensed architect and software developer at Robert McNeel & Associates, the company behind Rhino and Grasshopper 3D. He is a Doctor of Design graduate from Harvard's Graduate School of Design (2014). Andy has lectured and taught workshops throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, and his work has received awards from several leading academic organizations. Andy has also co-authored several software plugins and desktop apps (including Firefly and Monolith). At McNeel, Andy works on the Grasshopper and Rhino.Compute projects for the Rhino 3D modeling environment.

Connect with Andy* LIFT Architects * Monolith by Andy Payne & Panagiotis Michalatos * Firefly by Andy Payne & Jason Kelly Johnson

Favorite quotes* “Nobody wants to spend days and days developing a model. Our job as developers is to make it as easy as possible. […] There’s something about the craft and time you spent developing your ideas into a 3D model. There’s something about that investment that makes it worthwhile. When you have an easy AI button that makes it for you then it trivializes [the process].” —Andy Payne * “Originally the product was called Explicit History, because it was a different approach to Rhino's native (implicit) history feature.” —David Rutten

Links* Rhinoceros * Grasshopper 3D * Explicit History * Form-Z * 3ds Max * Slow Food Nation Canopy (2008) * Grasshopper Primer by Andy Payne & Rajaa Issa * Grasshopper Data Trees * Rhino.Compute (Source code) * Grasshopper Hops * New Grasshopper data types * Rhino Core-Hour Billing * Visual Programming * C-Sharp (C#), Visual Basic (VB) & Python * Stable Diffusion, DALL-E & Midjourney * Nighthawks by Edward Hopper * IKEA effect

People mentioned* Rajaa Issa · McNeel * David Rutten · McNeel * Jason Kelly Johnson · FUTUREFORMS * Daniel Piker * Shelby Doyle * Edward Hopper * Panagiotis Michalatos

Chapters* 00:00 · Introduction * 00:35 · Andy Payne * 04:11 · Grasshopper origins * 07:23 · Andy meets Grasshopper * 09:19 · Grasshopper Primer * 10:26 · Grasshopper 1.0 * 13:22 · Grasshopper 2 * 15:11 · Developing Grasshopper * 16:59 · New data types * 18:57 · Rhino Compute & Hops * 22:32 · Cloud billing * 27:05 · Teaching * 30:07 · Visual programming * 36:23 · Open source & monetization * 42:03 · McNeel Forum * 50:07 · Connect with Andy * 51:57 · Learning to code * 58:00 · Generative AI * 01:02:09 · The IKEA effect * 01:05:38 · Authorship * 01:08:56 · AI trade-offs * 01:12:58 · Panagiotis Michalatos * 01:16:02 · Advice for young people * 01:17:08 · Success * 01:18:35 · $100 or less * 01:20:12 · Outro

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Thanks to Andrea Villalón Paredes for editing this interview.
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Ian Keough—CEO and founder of Hypar and the father of Dynamo—on how Hypar is creating the next-generation platform to design, generate, and share buildings, and thoughts on open-source software, visual programming, authorship, monetization, and generative AI.

Connect with Ian * Hypar * Hypar Elements * Hypar on Discord

Favorite quotes * “What would we have to build to have [our new AEC software stack] decoupled from all of the historical and legacy software?” * “I just can’t stand toil.” * “You don't wanna penalize the customer for using the system more.”

Links * Revit * Tekla * AutoCAD * PyTorch * Unity * Dynamo * Grasshopper * Python and C# * IFC * OpenAI Codex * DALL-E * Stable diffusion * GPT * Runway ML * Gather * Visual Studio Code * GitHub Copilot * NVIDIA’s Omniverse * Calendly

People mentioned * Andrew Heumann * Matt Campbell * Serena Li * Chuck Driesler * Eric Wassail * Eric Bass * Anthony Hauck * Brian Ringley

Chapters * 00:00 · Introduction * 02:08 · Hypar * 12:02 · Hypar Elements * 14:11 · Visual programming * 16:59 · C Sharp * 18:24 · Grasshopper on the cloud * 19:57 · Do I need to code? * 22:11 · Toil * 24:03 · Sharing * 26:00 · Authorship and knowledge dissemination * 37:16 · Remote work * 39:27 · Gather * 40:44 · Monetization * 48:18 · Advice for young people * 49:11 · A $100 purchase * 50:47 · Artificial intelligence * 53:32 · Sustainability * 55:37 · Exercise * 57:33 · Generative AI

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Alex O’Connor, researcher, computer scientist, and ML manager on transformers, language and image models, fine-tuning, prompt engineering, tokenization, the latent space, adversarial attacks, and more.

Alex O’Connor got his PhD in Computer Science from Trinity College, Dublin. He was a postdoctoral researcher and funded investigator for the ADAPT Centre for digital content, at both TCD and later DCU. In 2017, he joined Pivotus, a Fintech startup, as Director of Research. Alex has been Sr Manager for Data Science & Machine Learning at Autodesk for the past few years, leading a team that delivers machine learning for e-commerce, including personalization and natural language processing.

Favorite quotes* “None of these models can read.” * “Art in the future may not be good, but it will be prompt.” Mastodon

Books* Machine Learning Systems Design by Chip Huyen * Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn, Keras, and TensorFlow by Aurélien Géron

Papers* The Illustrated Transformer by Jay Alammar * Attention Is All You Need by Google Brain * Transformers: a Primer by Justin Seonyong Lee

Links* Alex in Mastodon * Training Dream Booth Multimodal Art on HuggingFace by @akhaliq * NeurIPS * arxiv.org: Where most papers get published * Nono’s Discord * Suggestive Drawing: Nono’s master’s thesis * Crungus is a fictional character from Stable Diffusion’s latent space

Machine learning models* CLIP * char-rnn * Arcane Style Stable Diffusion fine-tuned model * BERT, ALBERT & RoBERTa * GPT and ChatGPT * Bloom * Stable Diffusion * Imagen * DALL-E * word2vec * Mupert.ai and Google’s MusicLM * t-SNE and UMAP: Dimensionality reduction techniques

Sites* TensorFlow Hub * HuggingFace Spaces * DreamBooth * Jasper AI * Midjourney * Distill.pub

Concepts* High-performance computing (HPC) * Transformers and Attention * Sequence transformers * Quadratic growth * Super resolution * Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) * Long short-term memory networks (LSTMs) * Gated recurrent units (GRUs) * Bayesian classifiers * Machine translation * Encoder-decoder * Gradio * Tokenization * Embeddings * Latent space * The distributional hypothesis * Textual inversion ★ * Pretrained models * Zero-shot learning * Mercator projection

People mentioned* Ted Underwood UIUC * Chip Huyen * Aurélien Géron

Chapters* 00:00 · Introduction * 00:40 · Machine learning * 02:36 · Spam and scams * 15:57 · Adversarial attacks * 20:50 · Deep learning revolution * 23:06 · Transformers * 31:23 · Language models * 37:09 · Zero-shot learning * 42:16 · Prompt engineering * 43:45 · Training costs and hardware * 47:56 · Open contributions * 51:26 · BERT and Stable Diffusion * 54:42 · Tokenization * 59:36 · Latent space * 01:05:33 · Ethics * 01:10:39 · Fine-tuning and pretrained models * 01:18:43 · Textual inversion * 01:22:46 · Dimensionality reduction * 01:25:21 · Mission * 01:27:34 · Advice for beginners * 01:30:15 · Books and papers * 01:34:17 · The lab notebook * 01:44:57 · Thanks

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Zach Kron, senior product manager at Autodesk, on making and selling pen plotter art, evolving with your projects, capturing ideas, and remote work.

Zach is a Senior Product Manager at Autodesk, a global provider of design software. Since 2007, Zach has been involved in the research and implementation of digital tools that drive real world building projects and increase the availability of advanced design practices. While his focus is on making software, Zach also participates in teaching, hands-on workshops, hackathons, and all other forms of design technology community development.

You can find Zach at Buildz.info.

Zach’s* Art store * Blog * First podcast appearance

Favorite quotes* “The process is fun, and more than the actual editing process is the process of ideating the best workflow that you can get.” —Nono * “But you have to remember that I didn't have to put on pants today.” * “We aren't really good at having something that you do just for the sake of it. We need to have the side effect.”

Books* Formulations by Andrew Witt * Systems Upgrade by Leire Asensio Villoria and David Mah * The Information by James Clear

Links* Pen plotter art * Chiaroscuro (art) * Dynamo and Revit (software) * Adobe Podcast (formerly Project Shasta) * In Seth Godin’s words, “funktionlust is a German word that describes the love of doing something merely for the sake of doing it.” * Social capital (concept)

People mentioned* Jose Luis García del Castillo (podcast) * Andrew Witt (podcast) * Rev Dan Catt (@revdancatt) * Dana De Filippi - DanamoBIM * Bill Debevc - YouTube channel * Seth Godin (author) * Steven Pressfield (author) * Lex Fridman (podcast) * Neil Stephenson (author) * Alice Cooper (author) * Cal Newport (author) * Jeff Koons (artist)

Chapters* 00:00 · Intro * 01:00 · Evolution of this podcast * 09:46 · Freediving * 12:16 · Capturing ideas * 13:25 · People are different in person * 15:54 · Evolving with your projects * 20:10 · Connecting with your audience * 21:20 · Live vs. offline * 26:19 · The creative medium * 30:00 · Selling art * 38:46 · Pen plotter art * 46:34 · Making art with Dynamo * 50:31 · Art * 01:02:53 · Funktionlust * 01:05:09 · Remote work * 01:11:54 · Outro

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Nono Martínez Alonso shares tips on producing a podcast, building an audience, booking guests, content formats, motivation, and goals.

Here's my recent conversation with Steve — who wants to build a YouTube channel about the joy of making and listening to music, emphasizing health and well-being — where I shared tips and insights from five years of podcasting.

Links * Riverside is the tool I used to record this episode remotely. * How to monetize YouTube * Perl, Java, and JavaScript are programming languages

People mentioned * Lex Fridman * Tim Ferriss * Seth Godin * Joe Rogan

Chapters * 00:00 · Introduction * 00:58 · Start * 01:55 · Steve's idea * 03:45 · Passion for music * 04:37 · Podcasting * 05:20 · Motivation * 08:04 · Recording and editing * 09:07 · Guests * 11:40 · Building an audience * 14:01 · Long-form conversations * 15:34 · Process * 17:33 · Goals * 21:51 · Evergreen content * 24:14 · Monetization * 25:38 · Start lean * 29:30 · Outline * 31:59 · First episodes * 33:17 · Outro

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Leire Asensio Villoria and David Mah on decoding and upgrading design systems, reverse engineering the creative process, knowledge dissemination, the long tail of niches, Erwin Hauer and associative models, book writing and publishing, and much more.

Leire Asensio is a senior lecturer in urban design and architecture and Co-Director of the Advance Digital Design + Fabrication (ADD+F) at the University of Melbourne’s school of design.

David Mah is a senior lecturer in urban design and architecture at the University of Melbourne’s school of design.

Previously, both Leire and David were lecturers at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (2010-2017), design research leads for the Health and Places Initiative, a research collaboration that studied the links between the built environment and health outcomes, and taught design and theory at Cornell University’s department of architecture (2006-2010) and Landscape Urbanism at the graduate design school of the Architectural Association in London (2004-2007).

Leire and David have worked within several international design practices, including Zaha Hadid Architects, FOA (David), or Arup (Leire), engaging in the design and delivery of urban designs and architectural projects

Leire and David have been collaborating as asensio_mah since 2002. They’ve authored the books Systems Upgrade: (Re)fabricating Tectonic Prototypes (2022, Actar) and Lifestyled: Health and Places (2016, Jovis) and have been active in the production of architectural and creative works, exhibited internationally including at the Royal Academy of Art in London and The Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York and featured in professional books and journals published by Birkhauser, Evolo, Lars Muller, Actar and Routledge amongst others.

In this episode, we discuss their latest book, Systems Upgrade, which offers a design research approach that leverages the embodied knowledge latent within the material legacies of design history for direct applicability in creative practice.

Books * Systems Upgrade by Leire Asensio Villoria and David Mah * The Long Tail by Chris Anderson * Translations from Drawing to Building by Robin Evans

Links * Suture curve * Continua surface * Reconstruction of the Dresden cathedral * Sagrada Familia * Visual programming * Grasshopper * Dynamo * Digital Project * The Long Tail by Chris Anderson in WIRED * Nike by You * Objectile by Bernard Cache and Patrick Beaucé * Actar * DALL-E by OpenAI * Midjourney * Stable Diffusion

People mentioned * Erwin Hauer * Enrique Rosado * Joseph Albers * Sheila Hicks * Jørn Utzon * Miguel Fisac * Buckminster Fuller * Eladio Dieste * Victor Papanek * Antoni Gaudí * Chris Anderson * Robin Evans

Chapters * 00:00 · Introduction * 00:36 · Erwin Hauer * 02:22 · Associative models * 04:18 · Erwin Hauer's model making * 07:03 · Limitations of digital tools * 09:39 · Systems Upgrade book * 11:10 · Reverse engineering * 26:09 · Decoding Erwin Hauer * 30:21 · Authorship and knowledge dissemination * 36:48 · Visual programming * 41:39 · Selling less of more * 46:54 · Individualizing everything * 49:23 · Context * 53:18 · Book writing and publishing * 01:02:49 · Creative process * 01:11:13 · AI content generation * 01:17:42 · Thanks * 01:18:43 · Outro

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Frank Harmon on the purpose of writing and sketching, what makes great writers, artists, and architects, and the importance of giving people a sense of place.

Frank Harmon, FAIA, is a nationally renowned award-winning architect, a professor of architecture at NC State University’s College of Design. and a popular mentor to four decades of student architects. A graduate of the Architectural Association in London and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, he has also taught at the Architectural Association and has served as a visiting critic at Harvard, the University of Virginia, and Auburn University’s renowned Rural Studio. Among dozens of design awards throughout his career, Frank received AIA NC’s highest honor, the F. Carter Williams Gold Medal, in 2013.

Frank is also a published writer and illustrator, using hand-drawn sketches and 200-word essays that consider the relationship between nature and built structures in his online journal Nativeplaces.org. In 2018, ORO Editions published a collection of sketch/essay duos from the journal and Frank's thoughts on the value of drawing in a hardback book entitled Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See. He is currently working on a new book that celebrates the people, places, and stories behind eight of his signature projects.

Frank lives in Raleigh in the award-winning modernist house and lush gardens near NCSU that he designed with his late wife, landscape architect Judy Harmon.

Favorite quotes * “My goal in life is to make short sentences.” * “We lost contact with our senses by making everything depend on the visual.” * “When we draw, we touch.” * “Once we’ve bought into the digital internet world, we’re never going to get rid of it.” * “When we make a place [we should make it] situated in its place so that we've got something physical and concrete that grounds us in an otherwise unlimited digital world.” * “Genius is the ability to recall your childhood at any time.” —Baudelaire

Books * Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See by Frank Harmon * The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses by Juhani Pallasmaa

Links * Frank’s Instagram * Native Places blog by Frank Harmon * Frank’s Drawing as a Way to See talk at Clark Nexsen (2019) * Frank’s Heritage talk at Creative Mornings Raleigh (2014) * Less is Love by Frank Harmon

People mentioned * Ernest Hemingway * Joan Didion * C. S. Forester * Tadao Ando * Kevin Carl - Child psychologist, friend * Pablo Picasso * Henry David Thoureau - “ Every child discovers the world anew.” * Peter Zumthor * Jordan Gray (podcast) * Charles Baudelaire - “[G]enius is nothing more nor less than childhood recovered at will.” * William Shakespeare * Alice Munro - Canadian short story writer, Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 * Marlon Blackwell * William Faulkner - American writer * Glenn Murcutt * Tom Kundig * Ted Flato * Rick Joy - Studio Rick Joy * Brigitte Shim - Shim-Sutcliffe Architects * Brian MacKay-Lyons * Patricia and John Patkau - Patkau Architects * Larry Scarpa * Frank Gehry * James Monroe * Henry Woodhead * Mies van der Rohe * Tadao Ando * Le Corbusier

Chapters * 00:00 · Introduction * 01:14 · Writing * 05:00 · Becoming an architect * 06:21 · Frank's book * 07:19 · Living in London * 09:03 · Studying abroad in the US * 13:37 · Childhood place * 20:38 · Born with screens * 23:39 · Design * 27:42 · Place * 33:41 · Good architecture * 37:10 · Bad architecture * 38:48 · Frank Gehry's middle finger * 39:31 · Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See * 43:47 · The best way to write * 44:23 · The purpose of sketching * 45:45 · Thanks * 46:09 · Outro

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Experiments with OpenAI’s text-to-image generation AI system DALL-E 2, mini-essays on the creative process and being done, and blogging tools you can use.

Links * DALL-E 2, Explained by Nono (video) * Variations of "A minimalist 3d render of a balloon car" plus "A sunflower" by Edward Hopper by Nono x DALL-E * OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 publication * Google Imagen: Text-to-Image Diffusion Models * Google Parti: Pathways Autoregressive Text-to-Image Model * The meaning of done (post) * If it's not fun, you shouldn't do it (post) * Another one of those (post) * Folio: Nono’s content management system * Substack, Twitter Writer & Medium (blogging platforms) * Ghost, WordPress, Jekyll, Hugo & Next.js (blogging frameworks) * Nono’s sketches and stories * YouTube channel

Books * Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio

People mentioned * Frank Harmon * Ray Dalio

Chapters * 00:00 · Introduction * 00:39 · An incoming conversation with Frank Harmon * 01:34 · Episode contents * 01:55 · DALL-E 2 and AI systems * 06:45 · What can DALL-E do? * 09:54 · GPT-3: Language models * 12:05 · Mini-Essays on the creative process * 12:15 · Mini-Essay: The meaning of done * 13:38 · Mini-Essay: If it's no fun, you shouldn't do it * 15:33 · Mini-Essay: Another one of those * 16:51 · Writing series * 17:51 · What does Nono use for blogging? * 22:45 · Outro

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Thoughts on traveling and meeting people in person after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Favorite quotes * "You can do anything that you set your mind to, but you don't have time to do everything.” —Frank Harmon

Links * It’s nice to see you, in person (post) * Back from Atlanta (post) * Nono’s blog * Nono’s sketches and stories * YouTube channel * Kean Walmsley’s blog post * A.I. Artificial Intelligence by Steven Spielberg (movie) * Has the Pandemic Transformed the Office Forever? by John Seabrook for The New Yorker

Books * Formulations by Andrew Witt

People mentioned * Andrew Witt * Frank Harmon * David Allen * Satya Nadella

Chapters * 00:00 · Start * 00:10 · It's Nice to See You, In Person * 06:05 · Back from Atlanta * 07:34 · Podcast updates

Submit a question about this or previous episodes. I'd love to hear from you.

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My current habits, the podcast, the blog and sketches, the YouTube channel and the live stream, my new recording studio, monetization, crypto, and the importance of learning and play.

Books * Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Links * My ‘atomic habits’ (podcast) * My writing habits (podcast) * Nono’s blog * Nono’s sketches and stories * Which one would you like to read? (post) * NFTs * Solana (cryptocurrency) * YouTube channel * Readwise * The Flatten Layer, Explained (video)

People mentioned * Ian Keough * Andrew Witt * Joanie Lemercier * Aziz Barbar * David Allen * Dieter Rams * Cal Newport

Chapters * 00:00 · Introduction * 01:34 · Daily habits * 05:08 · Active projects * 07:27 · Blog * 09:11 · Sketches & stories * 15:06 · Studio * 17:06 · Podcast * 21:36 · YouTube channel * 23:24 · Knowledge anxiety * 24:43 · Anything, not everything * 25:45 · Monetization * 28:41 · Learning and play * 32:22 · Crypto and digital art * 36:21 · I need your help * 39:50 · Outro

Submit a question about this or previous episodes. I'd love to hear from you.

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Andrew Witt, associate professor at Harvard University and author of Formulations, on how mathematics and computational methods transform the way we think, design, and make art.

Andrew Witt is co-founder, with Tobias Nolte, of Certain Measures, a Boston/Berlin-based office for design futures and an Associate Professor in Practice of Architecture at Harvard University. Trained as both an architect and mathematician, he has a particular interest in a technically synthetic and logically rigorous approach to form. His work has been shown at the Centre Pompidou, Barbican Centre, Futurium, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, among others. Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn and Certain Measures.

Favorite quotes * “It’s not possible to do everything in an amazing way all at once. You have to cycle through those things. Different moments in life will create different opportunities.” * “One of the consequences of mass media is that [it] creates intuitions around certain concepts through imagery.” * "The only thing that really conveys human value to things is time.” * “What remains after people are gone?”

Books * Formulations by Andrew Witt * Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson * Synergetics by Buckminster Fuller

Links * Andrew Witt * Certain Measures * Application public interface (API) * The Black Box with Aziz Barbar * Grasshopper & Dynamo * Deep nostalgia and deepfakes * DeFi and NFTs * The adjacent possible is an idea introduced by Stuart Kauffman in 2002 and later used by Steven Johnson * Log magazine edited by Cynthia Davidson * A Machine Epistemology in Architecture by Andrew Witt * MIT Press * A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden by Maggie Appleton * HfG is Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design * Institut Henri Poincaré is a mathematics research institute

People mentioned * Alfred North Whitehead * Charles Johnson - Matrix theorist * Buckminster Fuller * Steve Baer * Bruno Latour * Norbert Wiener * Tobias Nolte * Refik Anadol * Satoru Sugihara * William Huff * Louis Kahn * Ben Ferhman-Lee - Graphic designer * Cynthia Davidson - Book series editor * Sean Canty, Esther Choi, and Cameron Wu * Aziz Barbar * Henri Poincaré * Peter Pierce * Sanford Kwinter * Paul Erdös

Chapters * 00:00 · Introduction * 01:22 · Mathematical design * 06:53 · Gray boxing * 09:28 · Black box algorithms * 14:26 · Knowledge anxiety * 20:47 · Collective authorship * 22:04 · Adjacent possible * 27:18 · The physical medium * 30:13 · Triangulation and photogrammetry * 33:40 · Voxel and pixel * 37:52 · The role of the designer * 41:10 · Formulations book * 43:48 · Catalogs * 48:56 · The eve of digitization * 52:58 · Artificial intelligence * 01:00:26 · Mass media * 01:02:29 · Research methods * 01:06:25 · Book publishing * 01:15:10 · Writing * 01:19:04 · Digital gardens * 01:21:53 · Creative thinking * 01:26:20 · Lecture preparation * 01:30:20 · Erdös number * 01:32:43 · Zines * 01:39:54 · Consistency * 01:41:08 · Time * 01:43:18 · NFTs as value stores * 01:48:44 · NFTs at Certain Measures * 01:50:42 · The AI design critic * 01:55:20 · Modern-day design collectives and influencers * 01:58:38 · Advice for young people * 02:01:08 · Money * 02:03:35 · Collaboration and delegation * 02:06:16 · Death * 02:07:55 · Success * 02:09:27 · Outro

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Adam Menges is a founder at Lobe and a former Apple employee, currently working on something new.

Adam Menges is a product designer, entrepreneur, and engineer located in San Francisco who specializes in artificial intelligence and visual programming languages. He’s a former Apple employee and founder at Lobe, a company acquired by Microsoft that aims to make deep learning accessible. You can contact Adam to find out more at adammenges.com, and reach out to him at adam@adammenges.com and +17204840285.

Books * The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander

Links * HyperCard * Lobe * The Origins of Lobe - Adam’s first appearance on the podcast * Figma GPT-3 plugin by Jordan Singer * GitHub Copilot * Pokemon GO by Niantic * Dreams for PlayStation - A game to create games * Horizon Worlds by Meta * Proof of work vs Proof of stake * Support-vector machines * The Hive (mesh network) * Calendly * Google Magenta * Moxie Marlinspike’s NFT that turns into shit if you buy it * Helium Network Hints at Crypto's Practical Uses

Visual programming languages * Quartz composer * Blender * Facebook Origami for user interfaces * Spark AR for Instagram filters * Grasshopper 3d * Autodesk Dynamo * vvvv * Davinci Resolve Fusion * Max/Jitter * TouchDesigner * Unreal Blueprints * Node-RED

People mentioned * Kyle Steinfeld * Jordan Singer

Chapters * 00:00 · Introduction * 02:45 · Visual programming * 07:40 · Grasshopper * 11:14 · Extendability * 13:19 · Lobe's visual programming interface * 14:31 · The role of visual programming * 17:00 · HyperCard * 18:11 · Accessibility * 20:52 · Making programming easier * 23:45 · Artificial intelligence for creatives * 24:27 · Polarization and human-machine collaboration * 28:12 · Pair programming with AI * 31:39 · Software for gamers * 35:45 · Healthy social experiences * 36:27 · Hindsight * 37:00 · Startup success and team dynamics * 39:11 · Macro and micro focus * 41:38 · Analysis paralysis * 43:18 · Routines * 45:09 · Ranking the news with AI * 48:27 · Staying in touch with friends * 50:40 · Zoom fatigue * 53:35 · COVID * 55:29 · Bitcoin * 57:43 · Hacking NFTs * 01:01:10 · A crypto use case * 01:03:15 · Social FinTech * 01:06:45 · Advice for young people * 01:08:59 · Happiness * 01:10:30 · Connect with Adam

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Nate Peters on being intentional, digital art and generative NFTs, the advantage of established creators, and the fast pace of artificial intelligence & crypto.

Nono hosts the Getting Simple podcast, sketches things that call his attention, writes stories about enjoying a slower life, and records live streams and tutorials on creative coding and machine intelligence.

Nate works as a software engineer for Autodesk. Before joining Autodesk, he earned his Master of Design Studies in Technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture at Iowa State University.

We’re no experts, so please don’t take our words as financial advice. We just hope our conversation sheds some light in your own path to learning more about the world of digital currencies, machine learning, and technology.

Links * Substack & Revue * Memberful * Descript’s new features * Typinator, PHP, Bash & Makefiles * Processing & p5.js * WebGL & three.js * HuggingFace & Gradio * Foundation.app, NiftyGateway & OpenSea * Smart contracts * NFTs (non-fungible tokens) * Ethereum & Solana * Artblocks * SHA256 hash generator * Pix2Pix, StyleGAN & Pixel2Style2Pixel * Machine-learning based sketch vectorization * Suggestive Drawing * iA Writer, Dropbox Paper & Notion * Figma

People mentioned * Refik Anadol * Tyler Hobbs * Craig Mod * Matt DesLauriers * Seth Godin * Lex Fridman * Anthony Pompliano * Zach Lieberman

Chapters * 00:00 · Introduction * 00:57 · NFTs * 02:55 · Established creators * 06:27 · Early adopters * 07:50 · Ownership * 10:04 · Royalties and smart contracts * 13:55 · Generative art * 19:39 · Mechanics of crypto art * 29:07 · Digital artists vs speculators * 30:53 · Attention is power * 34:48 · Supporting artists and platform lockdown * 47:48 · Laser eyes * 48:59 · DAOs * 52:17 · Machine learning and artificial intelligence * 59:30 · Generative networks * 01:01:33 · Making machine learning accessible * 01:10:03 · The fast pace of AI * 01:21:32 · AI-based audio and video editing * 01:27:43 · Subscriptions * 01:37:50 · Advice for beginners * 01:39:21 · Wrap up * 01:41:20 · Outro

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A conversation with an anonymous guest on how new technologies can help promote positive moral behavior, blockchain and crypto concepts, digital art and NFTs, the convenience of centralization, online identity, impostor syndrome, the ever-newbie, and lots more.

Favorite quotes * “Writing code is talking to computers, but you also have to talk to people through your code.” * “How do we figure out, in a digital age, what is good and what should we aim for as a civilization, as a society?” * “Information is the resolution of uncertainty.” —Claude Shannon, 1948

Books * Collected Papers from Claude E. Shannon * The Information by James Gleick * Permanent Record by Edward Snowden

Links & Terms * DeFi (decentralized finance) * Web3 * Escrow smart contracts * InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) * Candy Machine * Arweave permanent storage * Genesis Go * JavaScript, Rust & C++ * Pair programming * Nifty Gateway & Foundation.app * MetaMask & Exodus (wallets) * Coinbase, Kraken & Gemini (exchanges) * BIP39 (Bitcoin Improvement Protocol) * Curiosity Stream - “YouTube for nerds” * The Coding Train with Daniel Shiffman * Ruby on Rails * Keras & TensorFlow * PlayXO.com * SushiSwap, PancakeSwap & Abracadabra * Glitch * Ruby on Rails * Anchor for Solana

Learning resources * How to Mint an NFT on Solana Using Candy Machine * Solana tutorials by Henry-E * Solana tutorials by Doug Anderson * Solana development guide with React, Anchor, Rust & Phantom by Nadir Dabit * Ethereum & Solana tutorials by Brian Friel * A normal person explains cryptocurrency * Starting with Solana, Part 1 * Starting with Solana, Part 4 - A Todo List with Rewards

People mentioned * Henry-E * Brian Friel * Nadir Dabit * Doug Anderson * Mr. Beast * Mark Zuckerberg * Satoshi Nakamoto * Edward Snowden * Richard Feynman * Aaron Schwartz * Kevin Kelly * Daniel Shiffman

Chapters * 00:00 · Introduction * 00:15 · Motivation * 02:03 · Collaborative AI Sketching * 05:02 · Blockchain and NFTs * 09:07 · Promoting positive moral behavior * 10:20 · Smart contracts * 12:41 · The simplest smart contract * 14:37 · NFTs * 20:11 · Programming smart contracts * 22:58 · Art * 25:24 · Crypto wallets and passphrases * 29:16 · Information * 31:25 · Security * 35:43 · Web3 * 39:24 · The convenience of centralization * 44:02 · A definition of Web3 * 45:05 · Learning resources * 46:39 · Anonymity * 49:48 · Zuckerberg or Nakamoto? * 54:08 · What would a good person do? * 56:13 · Sharing your life online * 58:10 · Hijacking the hijacking of your brain * 01:00:41 · Pair programming * 01:02:55 · Coding for yourself or others * 01:06:54 · Impostor syndrome * 01:10:15 · The constant newbie * 01:10:58 · Content discoverability * 01:12:31 · Outro

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Jordan Gray on creative friction, the fine line between passion projects and work, storytelling in design, and overcoming the beginner feeling.

Jordan Gray works as a Visualization Specialist at Hanbury.

Architecture and design always have a narrative—an evocative, deeper meaning. From napkin sketches, to drawing sets, to post-construction marketing, each medium for client communication is key to architectural storytelling. I've always had a passion for the visualization toolset, recognizing how renderings, photography, and filmmaking go hand-in-hand with the design process. It's my proverb to practice openness to new methods when there's a better way. Always explore; always collaborate.

Links * Gray Collab - Jordan’s renderings, photography, and film. Started while freelancing. * Jordan on Vimeo * Carolina Day School — Asheville, NC by Jordan Gray * Kappa Achievement Park: A Place to Belong by Jordan Gray * Hanbury * xkcd: Is It Worth The Time? * Unreal Engine * Lumion & VRay * Rhino & Grasshopper 3D * Building Information Modeling (BIM) & Revit * Google Books Ngram Viewer * Austin Kleon: Pencil vs. Computer on Hurry Slowly

Books * Less But Better by Dieter Rams * Faculty Department Volume 1 by Justin Chung * The Photography Storytelling Workshop by Finn Beales * So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport * You Can’t Make This Stuff Up by Lee Gutkind * 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam

People mentioned * Steve Martin * Tim Ferris * David Allen * Cal Newport * Jocelyn K. Glei * Austin Kleon * Dieter Rams

Chapters * 00:00 · Intro * 00:16 · Start * 01:25 · How did you get into photography as an architecture student? * 02:54 · How do you cope with not having time to pursue new things? * 06:42 · Have you been doing much deliberate practice lately? * 11:42 · How knowledge translates across tools and disciplines * 18:21 · What's your personal way of maintaining growth and creativity? * 32:13 · Does that friction become positive? * 35:19 · Can everyone make their passion part of their work? * 38:43 · Asking yourself "Does it feel gratifying? Is it fulfilling? Is it satisfying?" * 44:27 · Have you been hearing about "storytelling" in your field? * 48:17 · How can we focus on the human experience instead of other designers? * 51:58 · How do you make sure a rebrand isn't just skin deep? * 58:34 · What makes people feel something? * 01:00:59 · What's most important to focus on if you want to change how you are percieved? * 01:03:23 · How do you get to the point where people seek you out? * 01:05:45 · The concept of the podium * 01:09:14 · The chaos of taking pictures * 01:13:20 · How much is just overthinking or overdoing? * 01:14:34 · Will anyone notice the time you spend on the details? * 01:17:23 · How do you go about capturing creative moments? * 01:21:03 · Do you have any daily routines that make you happier or more productive? * 01:22:45 · What would be some book recomendations? * 01:24:59 · What would be your message to the world? * 01:27:05 · Enjoying the process of grinding the beans * 01:34:39 · Using your brain to design things vs just grinding mouse clicks and workflow steps * 01:37:08 · How would you define simplicity? * 01:42:15 · What have you learned about simplicity from making this podcast? * 01:46:28 · Where can we find you? * 01:50:53 · Outro

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Podcasting, live streaming, sketching, and writing highlights of 2021, and why you should start writing in public.

2020 has been an incredible year in many ways. Yet I didn't expect COVID to be as present in 2021 as it was in 2020, honestly. Wherever you are, I hope that you're staying safe and healthy and can be, at least, in contact with your close friends, even if you can not spend time with them in person. Join me as I revisit my achievements in podcasting, live streaming, sketching, and writing over the past year. Happy new year!

Links * Freediving podcast * Freediving posts: First Impressions, How to prevent your diving mask from fogging up, Otovent & The Diving Reflex * Luis Ruiz interview on video · Huge thanks to Daniel Natoli from Peripheria Films for making this possible. * Live stream playlist * Bytes series - StyleGAN, NFTs & Digital Art, and The Black Box * Machine learning networks - Pix2Pix, StyleGAN & Pixel2Style2Pixel * On writing: One Word per Day, 600 days of practice, Why should you write?, Are you writing enough?, and the Writing habits podcast episode * Nono’s Substack * Most-visited stories of 2021

Books * So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport * Deep Work by Cal Newport * Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport * Originals by Adam Grant

People mentioned * Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo * Daniel Natoli · Peripheria Films * Aziz Barbar * Adam Menges * Andrew Witt * James Melouney & Selene Urban * Mike Gabour * Luis Ruiz Padrón * Héctor Ruiz * Cristóbal Valenzuela * Nate Peters * JR from Insisting Simplicity * Leo Cremonezi * Jordan Gray * Kevin Kelly · Books * Tim Ferriss · Books * Cal Newport · Books * Adam Grant · Books * Seth Godin · Books

Chapters * 00:00 · Intro * 00:15 · Start * 00:41 · Achievements * 01:07 · Live stream * 02:55 · Podcast * 03:18 · First full video interview * 04:25 · Bytes * 05:05 · Freediving * 05:53 · Building a recording studio * 08:13 · You should write a blog, in public * 11:39 · Removing creative friction * 12:40 · Most-visited stories of 2021 * 15:26 · I would love to hear from you * 15:44 · 2022 * 18:19 · Outro * 19:23 · Thanks

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Host Nono Martínez Alonso and Aziz Barbar on how complex machines work, technological polarization, and the growing need to make algorithms understandable.

Nono hosts the Getting Simple podcast, sketches things that call his attention, writes stories about enjoying a slower life, and records live streams and tutorials on creative coding and machine intelligence.

Aziz is an architect and design technologist. He occasionally teaches design courses on computation and the built environment.

Favorite quotes * "Do we have a backup plan? Very few of us know, we're just blindly trusting these black boxes." * "We're going to have to find ways - we as in the people making the algorithms and people who are technical - to explain how these programs are making decisions for them."

Links * Pascaline (Pascal's calculator) * Open Source Software * Python (programming language) * C# (programming language)

People mentioned * Lex Fridman * Travis Oliphant

Chapters * 00:00 · Intro * 00:22 · What's the machine doing? * 01:21 · Visible mechanisms and the Pascaline * 02:49 · Obscuring how mechanisms work * 05:02 · Open Source Software * 06:13 · Computers excel at complex and repetitive tasks * 07:07 · Who's making the background algorithms we use daily? * 08:51 · What does 'black boxing' mean? * 10:03 · Two types of black box * 10:37 · Machine learning and explainability * 11:33 · Polarization and a growing need to make algorithms understandable

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Host Nono Martínez Alonso and Jose Luis Garcia Del Castillo on teaching and coding live.

Nono Martínez Alonso hosts the Getting Simple podcast, sketches things that call his attention, writes stories about enjoying a slower life, and records live streams and tutorials on creative coding and machine intelligence.

Jose Luis García del Castillo y López is an architect, educator, and Doctor of Design in Technology by the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he teaches Computational Design. He runs a weekly Computational Design Live Stream at ParametricCamp.

Links * Nono.MA Live YouTube Playlist * ParametricCamp * Previous episodes with Jose Luis: ALGO Lessons from Teaching, Live Streaming, Publishing, and 3 Years of Podcasting, Will Robots Simplify Your Life? & Freediving * C-Sharp * VVVV * Grasshopper 3D * Processing * p5.js * The Coding Train * Visual Studio Code * JSON * Camtasia * OBS

People mentioned * Refik Anadol * Daniel Shiffman * Cal Newport * Lex Fridman * Victor Lin * Robb Beal * Mahmoud Randane * Mahmoud Ala * Saurabh Mhatre

Chapters * 00:00 · Intro * 00:34 · Start * 03:15 · How have the podcast and live stream evolved? * 05:31 · Automation, delegation, and friction * 08:00 · Teaching complex topics * 10:21 · Can you be flexible with the topics you cover? * 16:47 · Community * 23:56 · Live podcast format * 26:56 · Video editing * 31:56 · Practice * 33:25 · Content creation * 36:09 · You should not make that video * 39:47 · Connect with Nono and Jose Luis

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Host Nono Martínez Alonso replies to audience questions on the evolution of the live stream after a year of weekly streams.

Books * Atomic Habits by James Clear * Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport * Deep Work by Cal Newport

Links * Nono.MA Live Playlist * Suggestive Drawing (and an in-depth tech dive) * CATIA, Digital Project and Gehry Technologies * Harvard GSD * Parametric modeling

People mentioned * Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo * Panagiotis Michalatos * Carmen Chamorro * Adam Menges * Cal Newport

Special thanks * Bittor Arrillaga * Jean-Marc Couffin * Juanda Cabrera * Mayur Mistry * Ricardo César Rodríguez * Robb Beal * Sujay Kumarji * Theaveas So

Videos mentioned * Live 38 · Dimensionality reduction with sci-kit learn and t-SNE * Live 35 · RSS feed parsing * Live 19 · DigitalOcean basics * Live 18 · Hallucinating Sketches with StyleGAN * Live 17 · Runway ML and StyleGAN * Live 16 · Runway ML and Pix2Pix * Live 15 · Runway ML models * Live 11 · ResNet 50 and TensorFlow Hub * Live 09 · Electron, React & TypeScript * Live 08 · SageMaker training * Live 07 · Training an image classifier: Part 2 * Live 06 · Training an image classifier: Part 1 (Fashion MNIST)- * Live 04 · Lobe AI and TensorFlow Lite (TFLite) * Google Colab * Jupyter notebooks * Python Playlist

Programming languages * PHP * Objective-C * Python * C# (C-sharp) * Grasshopper * Golang * Perl * Processing

Libraries * esbuild * create-serve * perfect-freehand

Chapters * 00:00 · Intro * 01:44 · Start * 03:20 · How has the channel evolved since the first live stream? * 07:50 · What challenges have you faced coding live? * 11:39 · How many programming languages are you familiar with? * 14:50 · Have you considered doing tutorials for beginners? * 15:48 · Do you have any tips on time management? * 18:20 · Who got you into coding for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC)? * 21:36 · Coding for AEC is not mainstream in China or India * 22:10 · Are community-based learning and tutorials the future of learning? * 23:57 · Should I get a master's degree in machine learning? * 24:50 · What's your take on work-life balance? * 28:09 · How can I acquire solid math knowledge? * 29:08 · Podcast - Existing YouTube Videos * 32:07 · Outro

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Host Nono Martínez Alonso and Aziz Barbar on non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and digital art.

Listen to this episode to learn about non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Note that cryptocurrencies and stock options are highly volatile markets, and you shouldn't make financial decisions based on this episode.

Nono hosts the Getting Simple podcast, sketches things that call his attention, writes stories about enjoying a slower life, and records live streams and tutorials on creative coding and machine intelligence.

Aziz is an architect and design technologist. He occasionally teaches design courses on computation and the built environment.

Favorite quotes * 'Beeple is looking at his whole body of work as it's presented on Instagram as a kind of Duchampian readymade' —Noah Davis

Links * Beeple (@beeple_crap) * Christie’s * Foundation.app - “We're bringing digital creators, crypto natives, and collectors together to move culture forward." * R//Motherboard by @maxwellstep * Nifty Gateway - Owned by Gemini (Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss) * Ethereum * “Minting” and “Gas” * “Drops” * MetaMask * Metapurse * WalletConnect * Beeple: A Visionary Digital Artist at the Forefront of NFTs * Jack Dorsey sells his first tweet ever as an NFT for over $2.9 million * Vignesh Sundaresan, known as MetaKovan, on paying $69 million for Beeple NFT * Cardano * Zcash

People mentioned * Mike Winkelmann @beeple_crap * Vignesh Sundaresan @MetaKovan * Vitalik Buterin

Chapters * 01:55 · Getting familiar with NFTs * 05:22 · The cultural significance of NFTs * 08:35 · The $69 million dollar auction that exploded the NFT world * 11:44 · NFTs allow for a much clearer history of ownership * 13:54 · There are thousands of cryptocurrencies that operate in different ways * 14:44 · NFTs are created inside the Ethereum chain * 16:34 · Privacy in the blockchain * 18:23 · Minting an artwork costs money * 21:05 · The environmental impact of crypto transactions * 22:22 · Artists make limited drops to build hype around their work * 23:42 · Moving from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake * 26:02 · Have you bought an NFT yet? * 28:04 · You're not going to create value out of thin air * 29:41 · Wrapping up

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The cover image is a derivative from Imaginibus' picture of a museum frame.

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Host Nono Martínez Alonso and Nate Peters on the machine learning-based audio-editing solution this podcast is being produced with, web components, React and UI libraries, the effects of COVID-19 in our work lives, NFTs and cryptocurrencies, and the new informal catch-up conversation podcast format we're testing out.

Nono hosts the Getting Simple podcast, sketches things that call his attention, writes stories about enjoying a slower life, and records live streams and tutorials on creative coding and machine intelligence.

Nate works as a software engineer for Autodesk. Before joining Autodesk, he earned his Master of Design Studies in Technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture at Iowa State University.

Links * Audio Hijack and Loopback by Rogue Amoeba * OBS * Descript * Lyrebird * Deepfakes * GPT-3 * Adobe Audition * p5.js * perfect-freehand by Steve Ruiz * TypeScript * Yjs, y-websocket & y-webrtc * CRDT * WebSocket * WebRTC * DigitalOcean * Figma * SVG * Next.js * Leva * Perlin noise * G-Code * Pen plotter * React * React Hooks * React Router * React Three Fiber * Three.js * dat.gui * How Figma’s multiplayer technology works * Material UI * Grommet * SCSS * Lex Fridman podcast * Travis Oliphant on Lex Fridman * NumPy & SciPy * zk-SNARKs * Zero Knowledge Proof * Foundation.app

People mentioned * Aziz Barbar * Lex Fridman * Nate Peters * Travis Oliphant * Steve Ruiz

Chapters * 00:00 · Intro * 00:33 · Announcements * 01:22 · Start * 03:53 · Descript * 09:40 · Studio Sound * 11:37 · What's that little UI library? * 13:41 · CRDT, Yjs, WebSocket, and WebRTC * 19:40 · React hooks * 21:39 · UI libraries * 23:48 · Technical conversations * 25:44 · COVID-19 * 28:11 · Podcast format * 28:41 · NFTs and cryptocurrencies * 29:53 · Outro

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Reclaiming time to be human.

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Theme and exit songs, Sleep and A Loop to Kill For, by Steve Combs under CC BY 4.0.

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Host Nono Martínez Alonso and Aziz Barbar on StyleGAN, NVIDIA's state-of-the-art machine learning algorithm that generates convincing images.

Listen to this episode to learn about StyleGAN.

Nono Martínez Alonso hosts the Getting Simple podcast, sketches things that call his attention, writes stories about enjoying a slower life, and records live streams and tutorials on creative coding and machine intelligence.

Aziz Barbar is an architect and design technologist. He occasionally teaches design courses on computation and the built environment.

Favorite quotes * "Do we learn less because we can skip certain steps?" * "Do we skip the process of hiring a designer if we have a computer algorithm that can generate those paintings for us?" * "StyleGAN is an algorithm open-sourced by NVIDIA - that's the company that creates the graphic cards - that can learn from the features or style of a bunch of images and generate synthetic (or fake) images that resemble the original ones."

Links * StyleGAN * Pix2Pix * Generative adversarial network * Machine learning * Image classification * Latent space

People mentioned * Ian Goodfellow * Phillip Isola

Chapters * 0:00 · Intro * 0:28 · What is StyleGAN? * 1:39 · Adversarial networks * 4:03 · Unexpectedness * 5:44 · Does it know what it's drawing? * 7:37 · Latent space * 8:42 · Hallucinations * 9:37 · Creative block

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Host Nono Martínez Alonso and Jose Luis García del Castillo on the mindfulness of breath-hold diving and being deep underwater, best practices, equipment, and techniques, equalizing your middle ear pressure, scuba versus freediving, and recommendation systems.

Before parting ways at the boarding gate, Jose Luis and I captured our first impressions after a week of freediving classes; what we learned, what we loved, and things we thought we knew but didn't.

Big thanks to Paco González Castro, Biaggio Alessandro Picardi, Fernando, and Georgia for an unforgettable week.

Nono Martínez Alonso hosts the Getting Simple podcast, sketches things that call his attention, writes stories about enjoying a slower life, and records live streams and tutorials on creative coding and machine intelligence.

Jose Luis García del Castillo y López is an architect, educator, and Doctor of Design in Technology by the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he teaches Computational Design. He runs a weekly Computational Design Live Stream at ParametricCamp.

Links * Apnea Academy West Europe * Freediving * Freediving lead weights * Freediving mask * Tenerife * Otovent * Nono's freediving first impressions * How to prevent your diving mask from fogging up * @deivid.af * Spearfishing

Chapters * 0:00 · Intro * 1:48 · Freediving is a sport * 3:52 · Benefits of putting safety and technique first * 5:52 · Equalizing * 7:55 · Scuba vs Freediving * 8:42 · Otovent * 11:24 · Shout outs * 12:03 · Exercises * 14:03 · Being deep underwater * 18:40 · Equipment * 21:57 · How did we end up here? * 24:15 · Wrapping up

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Runway's co-founder Cristóbal Valenzuela on the need for new creative interfaces to control complex algorithms that focus on results (not technology), the freedom of being a startup, and how machine intelligence is changing how we think, design, and make art.

Cristóbal Valenzuela is a technologist, artist and software developer interested in the intersection between artificial intelligence and creative tools. He is Runway's co-founder.

Previously, he co-founded Latent Studio, a creative studio specializing in machine learning and artificial intelligence. He also contributes to OSS and helps maintain ml5.js. His work has been sponsored by Google and the Processing Foundation and his projects has been exhibited in Latin America and the US, including NeurIPS, Santiago Museum of Contemporary Art, ARS Electronica, GAM, ACADIA, Fundación Telefonica, Lollapalooza, NYC Media Lab, New Latin Wave, DOCLAB, Inter-American Development Bank, Stanford University and New York University.

Connect with Cristóbal on his website, Twitter (@c_valenzuelab), or GitHub (@cvalenzuela).

Favorite quotes * "You don't care about the mathematical function that goes behind blurring [an image in Photoshop]. You just want the output of it—the creative output of moving a slider and having an effect applied to your video, your pixels, or content." * "When you think about using algorithms to help you and assist you in the editing process, you need [to find] a metaphor or tool that would allow you to collaborate with those algorithms." * "We need those new interfaces, metaphors, and systems. And that's all we're building, basically, those next-generation systems to help people create video and content." * "When you take that picture, no one is saying, 'Oh, the AI is biased' or 'The AI worked or didn't work' or 'It showed me new creative possibilities.' It just works." * "[Artificial intelligence] is a tool as any other tool. And so, in general, I think all the art tools that we're making will eventually reach that point where you're not too concerned about the systems you're using. You are just using it as a tool. And if it provides you with good results to explore the creative direction, you're going to use it again."

Links * NYU ITP * Runway ML * Made with Runway * Runway's Generative Media * Runway's Green Screen * Making albums with AI from our backyard: Claire Evans, Jona Bechtolt, and Rob Kieswetter of YACHT * Machine learning (concept) * StyleGAN (machine learning algorithm) * Building accessible tools for artists by Cris (article) * Descript

People mentioned * Alejandro Matamala Ortiz * Anastasis Germanidis * Mario Klingemann

Chapters * 0:00 · Intro * 0:28 · What's new with Runway ML? * 1:44 · We need new interfaces * 4:23 · The freedom of being a startup * 4:55 · How's life? * 5:38 · Built with Runway * 6:55 · ML Lab and Sequel * 8:08 · Interfaces to control ML algorithms * 10:31 · Machine intelligence in design, art, and architecture * 13:14 · Creativity * 14:23 · Originality and bias * 16:06 · AI as a tool * 18:13 · Thanks

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Illusionist Héctor Ruiz on getting started and standing out as a magician, how COVID-19 changed his world, his take on talent, effort, creativity, success, and entrepreneurship, and more.

Héctor Ruiz is an illusionist from Spain that performs over the planet with his show amazing and amusing audiences. In the last years, Hector has performed at some of the most important TV shows in his field at the largest cruise ships in the world and has toured with big international magic productions. He is looking forward to having you in the audience to show you his unique touch to the art of illusion.

Favorite quotes * "I'm still that kid being entertained, watching magic videos and stuff I have never stopped being that kid. And I think it's going to work as long as I remain being that kid." * "[When] I went from Isla Mágica to cruise ships, I got bankrupt. I went into the biggest hole of my life, and that was the best thing that could ever happen to me." * "For the past 20 plus years, I've never been without performing for more than a couple of weeks and suddenly, I encountered myself being offstage for over a year, which is crazy!"

Links * Hector Ruiz Show * Hector's shop * Instagram * Pajaro Flama * Mr Hocus cool stuff for magic lovers by Hector * Isla Mágica * The Illusionists Live From Broadway * Chinese Linking Rings

Detailed chapters * Intro. [0:00] * How did you get started with magic? [0:59] * How did you become a professional magician? [2:21] * What was your show like at Isla Mágica? [3:50] * What is unique about theme park shows? [5:05] * How has your show's length changed over time? [5:54] * How do you learn magic? [6:40] * What kind of shows were you doing outside of Isla Mágica? [7:54] * How do you stand out as a magician? [9:52] * Does the community have a system for tracking who owns which tricks? [11:45] * Do you have a mission you have set for yourself/your act? [13:26] * What was your lifestyle like before COVID? [14:47] * Society doesn't understand entertainers. [21:34] * What do you think your talent is? [22:32] * What things require an effort from you? [25:02] * How was it to learn more languages? [26:53] * How do you understand creativity? [28:22] * What would be the easiest way to see one of your shows? [33:02] * How has COVID-19 changed things for you? [33:37] * How many planes did you used to get regularly? [35:29] * What's going to be different now? [36:36] * Where can people find you online? [38:29] * What did you do in the year you couldn't do shows? [39:07] * Can you tell us about the business you started during the pandemic? [41:01] * How did your day to day look like before COVID? [43:01] * How do you disconnect? [44:07] * Is there anything specific about how you manage your time? [45:16] * Do you do any type of meditation? [47:03] * Do you think solitude plays an important part in your life? [47:46] * Being online can have a negative impact on productivity. [49:33] * How would you define success? [50:25] * Who do you see as successful? [51:05] * Has any recent purchase under $100 had a positive impact in your life? [52:36] * What books do you recommend to people who want to get into magic? [52:58] * What do you think of guessing/explaining the tricks? [54:12] * Can we see you perform a card trick? [54:48] * Do you have any other message for the audience? [56:18] * Closing thoughts. [58:47]

Chapters * 0:00 · Intro * 0:59 · Magic * 13:26 · Being an entertainer * 21:34 · Talent, effort, and creativity * 33:37 · A year on pause * 43:01 · Lifestyle and time management * 47:46 · Solitude and productivity * 50:25 · Success * 52:36 · A deck of cards * 54:12 · Magic trick * 56:18 · A message * 58:47 · Closing thoughts

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Host Nono Martínez Alonso and Aziz Barbar introduce the Bytes series—concepts at the intersection of digital technology and culture in a language we can all understand—and talk about cloud storage.

Listen to this episode to learn more about the series, its name and format, co-host Aziz Barbar, and what's coming.

Nono hosts the Getting Simple podcast, sketches things that call his attention, writes stories about enjoying a slower life, and records live streams and tutorials on creative coding and machine intelligence.

Aziz is an architect and design technologist. He occasionally teaches design courses on computation and the built environment.

Links * GPG encryption * Dropbox Paper * M1 Macbook Pro * StyleGAN * Pix2Pix

Chapters * 0:00 · Start * 0:46 · Intro * 1:44 · Format * 2:35 · Name * 3:01 · Topics * 3:49 · Enter Aziz Barbar * 5:06 · Saving the files you print * 5:59 · Digital storage * 8:37 · Future topics * 11:33 · Outro

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The cover image is a derivative from the photo Internals of a 2.5-inch laptop hard disk drive by Evan-Amos.

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Luis Ruiz Padrón on the creative process behind his sketches, writing, and publications, seeing the world as an Urban Sketcher, identity, teaching, technology, life, success, and more.

Luis Ruiz Padrón is a PhD architect. He teaches Architectural Graphic Expression at the University of Málaga; drawings of cityscapes is his main interest as a scholar but also his first source of pleasure, sketching them himself.

He belongs to the Urban Sketchers global community and is the founder of the local group in his city.

He collaborates weekly as a columnist in newspapers and is the author of several books.

Favorite quotes * "Non-linear is a [good word to describe the creative] process. John Berger wrote that It's like digging a tunnel in search of light, you don't know how [the work] is going to turn out at the end, but you go forth. It's like a struggle." * "Nuccio Ordine wrote The Usefulness of The Useless. You have a background with images and textures that apparently are not related to each other, but suddenly there's a spark and you connect things." * "If you see the tiny dot we are in the middle of the universe, it makes you feel more relaxed about what you do and who you are." * "We are a social animal. It's incredible when you perceive a smile directed at you by, perhaps, someone at a store or something. It can change your whole afternoon." * "Trust your eyes and not what you have in mind. Be free. [Have a clean] look into things so that they don't condition your sight, your perception of things." * "The possibility of being in contact with someone on the other side of the world, just in this exact moment, is a miracle." * "Hunting is [having] a plan to discover things. I prefer fishing, [where] you just throw the net [and] something will come up. I think [this is how] I do things." * "When you sketch you understand what other sketchers did. […] What decisions they made, where they cheated. But they cheated to tell the truth. It's [a] contradiction. Sometimes you have to [cheat] to be honest."

Books * Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman * The Usefulness of The Useless by Nuccio Ordine * Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari * Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes * Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History by Stephen Jay Gould * A la pintura: Poema del color y la línea by Rafael Alberti

Links * LuisRuiz.es * Diario SUR and La Opinión publications by Luis * Drawings and books by Luis * Castillo de Gibralfaro, Málaga * Loving Books * Urban Sketchers

Sketchbook tools * Stillman & Birn Alpha Series sketchbook * Sakura Micron Pigma pens * White Nights watercolors * Talens sketchbooks * Hahnemühle sketchbooks * Concertina accordion sketchbook

People mentioned * Daniel Natoli * Panagiotis Michalatos * Gabi Campanario (books) * Gerard Michel * Florian Afflerbach (books) * Cristina Urdiales * Alejandro Villén and Maria Corredera * Rafael Alberti * Leonardo da Vinci * Albrecht Dürer * Bob Dylan * John Berger * Stephen Jay Gould * Daniel Kahneman (books) * Yuval Noah Harari (books) * Seth Godin (books)

Detailed chapters * 00:25 · What do you try to convey with your work? * 01:54 · Writing by hand compared to typing. * 04:21 · The process is non-linear. * 05:32 · It's a blank space. * 07:26 · How do you manage to stay happy knowing you may not be progressing in some areas? * 08:20 · How do you define where being a writer, sketcher, and teacher draw their lines? * 11:18 · Do you seek out other experiences you can relate your field to? * 11:53 · What's is one of the projects you have enjoyed the most? * 13:27 · Did you ever imagine you would ever be where you are in architecture? * 14:24 · How do you define yourself? * 16:08 · How did you start sketching and what is Urban Sketchers? * 17:55 · How did you get introduced to Urban Sketchers? * 20:25 · What is the importance of sketching in the actual place? * 22:01 · What do you do differently sketching at home versus sketching on the street? * 23:48 · When did you start drawing and when did you start sketching? * 27:33 · Why is it important to carry a sketchbook with you? * 29:47 · Can you comment on what it was like to start and how it felt the first time you went out sketching? * 30:59 · Where was the first place that you went sketching? * 31:23 · Do you have somewhere you would like to go sketching if you could? * 32:03 · Who has been somebody you consider influential on the way you sketch? * 33:28 · Are there any other people that left a mark on you? * 34:18 · Would you highlight one aspect of sketching you really enjoy? * 34:46 · Does the sketchbook help you understand things about the city? * 37:37 · How do deadlines change your creative process? * 41:14 · Can you talk about your writing process? * 45:31 · We tend to repeat the same things. * 47:57 · How did you publish your first book? * 50:04 · How does exhibiting your work feel? * 53:18 · What work of yours do you think of as most successful? * 54:13 · How does it feel to have a new website? * 55:03 · What changed after you were able to publish online? * 57:22 · How would you summarize yourself? * 58:14 · Where else can you be found? * 58:50 · Why did you start teaching? * 1:00:07 · What are the hardest things your students have to learn? * 1:00:48 · What advice would you get people trying to learn? * 1:02:20 · How does being online transform your work? * 1:03:30 · What is your relationship with digital technology? * 1:04:14 · What piece of software makes your life easier? * 1:04:56 · If you could send a message to the world what would it be? * 1:06:14 · Is there anything that makes it easier to do your creative work now that you didn't have before? * 1:06:37 · What would you do if you didn't really need money? * 1:06:53 · What would you stop doing if you had the money? * 1:07:30 · Are you comfortable with solitude and boredom? * 1:07:56 · Is there any time that you think about death? * 1:08:20 · How does thinking about these things inform what you do? * 1:08:59 · What do you think distracts you? * 1:09:52 · What do you do to disconnect? * 1:10:29 · What role does the city play in your daily routine? * 1:11:56 · Is there any routine you have for note-taking? * 1:13:23 · How do you define success? * 1:13:57 · What's your go-to gear for sketching today? * 1:14:38 · Sketchbook brands. * 1:15:29 · Pens and brush brands. * 1:16:02 · Do you write by hand? * 1:16:42 · What's next for you? * 1:17:28 · What was your thesis? * 1:19:00 · How does an architect like you evolve into doing something more interesting and enriching?

Chapters * 0:00 · Intro * 0:25 · Identity * 16:08 · Sketching * 37:37 · Writing and publishing * 58:50 · Teaching * 1:02:20 · Technology * 1:04:56 · Life and death * 1:13:57 · Tools * 1:16:42 · What's next? * 1:19:00 · Evolution

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A practice to focus by listening to the same songs, over and over again.

Chapters * 0:00 · The compact disc and streaming services * 0:56 · The walkman and repeat mode * 2:51 · Looping playlists, the practice * 8:09 · Repeat one * 9:38 · My playlists * 10:35 · Focus Zero * 11:07 · Focus A * 12:14 · Focus B * 13:56 · I'd love to hear from you

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Techniques, challenges, and reasons to live as if you were retired.

Chapters * 0:00 · Intro * 0:28 · Marc's question * 1:12 · What are mini-retirements? * 3:56 · Challenges * 7:04 · Vacation slack * 8:38 · How much money do you need? * 10:17 · Financial independence * 11:42 · Creating your own products * 12:54 · Passive income, freelance, and full-time * 14:02 · Money is time * 16:08 · Safety * 17:39 · Enjoy every day * 19:09 · Pause * 20:30 · Living as if you were retired * 21:31 · Do you need a mini-retirement? * 22:13 · I'd love to hear from you

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James Melouney & Selene Urban on how to get started with meditation, self-discovery, building trust and connection with your audience through a humane and authentic message, and key learnings from their entrepreneurial journey.

James Melouney is an eclectic mix of mathematics, finance, strategy, marketing, meditation and self-discovery. He graduated with a University Medal in Mathematics & Finance before becoming a management consultant. Though since then, James chose to follow his calling in life and authored two books: The Art of Success and Simple Living (March 30, 2021 release). James dedicates himself to living honestly and authentically. To rise above fear so that he can live out his life purpose. He believes our ultimate aim is to become the unique expression of who we truly are.

Selene Urban always felt naturally pulled to connecting to her inner world. From her name meaning “Moon Goddess,” to deeply experiencing what she is and how we journey through life & relationships, to exploring her physical body through dance and yoga. Acknowledging how precious life truly is, she facilitates yoga trainings, retreats and holds space for women and men ready to meet themselves with grace, intimacy and realness.

Favorite quotes * "Even if I'm really excited about a project. I need to just let it sit for a little bit, maybe a day or two. And then I decide if I want to go into it. And that's an example of slowing down. You can do far less, but you're doing the right things. So the outcomes are there, you've got more time, you've got less stress. I think it's beautiful." —James Melouney * "Whatever you're going through right now, it truly has a reason for a bigger mission that you have in this life. And no matter how hard it is, keep trusting in that calling that is right in your heart center." —Selene Urban

Books * Simple Living: Love Your Life by James Melouney * The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle * A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson * Deepest Acceptance: Radical Awakening in Ordinary Life by Jeff Foster * The Wonder of Being: Awakening to an Intimacy Beyond Words by Jeff Foster

Meditation and yoga * Vipassana meditation uses sati (mindfulness) and Samatha (calm) * Ayurveda is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent * Pranayama is the practice of breath control in yoga * Sankrist is a classical language of South Asia * A yogi is a practitioner of yoga * Yoga * Enlightenment is the "full comprehension of a situation" * Sama vritti (equal breathing) is a yoga technique proven to help lower stress and increase calm

Marketing and automation * Zapier * Buffer * Hootsuite * MailChimp * AWeber * ClickFunnels * Namecheap * WordPress * Divi WordPress theme * Thinkific

People mentioned * Peter Burkhardt * Eckhart Tolle * Marianne Williamson * Jeff Foster

Chapters * 0:00 · Intro * 4:26 · How James and Selene crossed paths * 13:06 · Meditation and Spirituality * 15:10 · Meditation workshops * 18:24 · Why do people meditate? * 19:17 · Steps to meditation * 19:57 · Am I doing it right? * 22:36 · What is vipassana? * 23:08 · The vipassana practice * 25:50 · Practice vs. Spirituality * 28:27 · Enlightenment * 34:13 · The fear of meditation * 36:48 · How to get started with meditation * 38:36 · How can you meditate when you're by yourself? * 39:20 · Same-length breath meditation: Sama Vritti * 40:18 · How is it to have learned this and communicate it to others? * 41:21 · How do people find you? Connection, marketing, and advertising. * 44:39 · How to make a message more humane and personal? * 46:30 · Connecting to your audience * 47:50 · On building a mailing list and authenticity * 52:07 · Struggles of having your own business * 55:36 · Techniques, products, and services * 58:19 · Would you like to continue doing this your whole life? * 59:31 · What would you do differently with a 10-20 people team? * 1:00:53 · What's the format of your gatherings? * 1:03:17 · How do you build trust? * 1:04:49 · Routines and habits * 1:07:33 · Is your life simple? * 1:09:37 · When do you meditate? * 1:10:41 · Do you exercise? * 1:12:26 · Non-work activities * 1:13:03 · What media do you consume? * 1:13:26 · Social media * 1:14:22 · Learning from other people's ads * 1:15:09 · Automation tools * 1:16:10 · Distractions * 1:16:55 · When do you get your best ideas? * 1:17:22 · How do you disconnect? * 1:18:20 · How do you deal with boredom? * 1:19:15 · How would you define success? * 1:19:39 · Is there anything you say to yourself in the morning? * 1:20:29 · Who comes to mind when you think of a successful person? * 1:22:06 · How do you handle seeing other people succeed ahead of you? * 1:23:53 · A message to the world * 1:24:39 · What would you tell your 20-year-old-self? * 1:25:20 · Are you paranoid about anything? * 1:26:37 · Who do you like to follow? * 1:28:23 · What's the other book about? * 1:29:04 · What do you think of slowing down in life? * 1:30:23 · What's next for you? * 1:30:59 · Is there something you want to ask me? * 1:31:26 · Where are you simplifying and slowing down in your life? * 1:34:27 · What have been the most challenging and most fulfilling experiences with making Getting Simple? * 1:36:22 · Thanks * 1:36:51 · Outro * 1:37:42 · Bonus: Simple Breathing with Selene

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Strategist, investor, community builder, and NGO founder Mike Gabour on mindfulness and attention, meditation and dark showers, the multiplier effect, minimizing time in front of the screen, the contents of his backpack, and falling in love with the ocean.

Mike Gabour is a first generation immigrant, born on the Mediterranean ocean in Alexandria, Egypt.

He is Co-founder and Managing Director for Koinonia, a micro-lending organization which empowers marginalized entrepreneurs in Egypt. Leadership Workshop Facilitator for The Littlest Lamb, an orphanage in Cairo which nurtures underprivileged children. Co-founder of Pequod, an app built with blind sailors for all sailors. Supporting blind sailors ability to autonomously navigate the water, and help the rest of us keep their eyes on the water, and ears on Pequod! Co-founder of the WAVE (Wider Access Virtual Expeditions) project, partnering with Harvard Deep-sea ocean exploration dept. and the Nautilus, a deep sea submarine. Co-inventor of Nezso, a fully immersive ambisonics music pod.

Mike is an avid sailor, free-diver, and oceanographic explorer.

Favorite quotes * "Attention is love." * "It's impossible not to fall in love with someone after you've heard their story." * "Always be prepared." * "You have your normal, I have mine." * "Traveling for me is more about understanding and experiencing other cultures than my own personal enjoyment." * "Do everything I tell you while we're on the water, but ignore everything I say when we are inland." * "¿Por qué no los dos?"

Links * WAVE (Wider Access Virtual Expeditions) * Pequod * The Littlest Lamb orphanage started by Mira Riad, run by Mira + Marina Rina * Koinonia Ventures, micro-lending NGO * Planet Earth * Wave Collaborative * Accenture * Mindfulness * The Sensorium * A Physical Paradigm for Bidirectional Brain-Computer Interfaces, Sam Hincks' dissertation on brain-computer interfaces * The multiplier effect * Girguis labs, Harvard * Maglev (magnetic levitation)

Books * The Tao of Pooh * The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams * Get Real, Get Gone: How to Become a Modern Sea Gypsy and Sail Away Forever by Rick Page * Principles by Ray Dalio * The Four-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss * The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness by John Yates, Matthew Immergut & Jeremy Graves * Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk * Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness by Dr. Qing Li * Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Contents of Mike's backpack * Portable battery * Liquid Bandaid * Kaufman Layer (a concept invented by the great Jonathan Kaufman, a final layer of clothing that is not meant to be worn, having it is knowing you can be warmer) * Merino Wool Buff * Leatherman - multi-tool with a screwdriver, scissors, wire cutters, etc. * Headlamp (with redlight) * Grave Before Shave "Gentlemen's Blend" Beard Oil * Backpack waterproof cover * Flask * Collapsible metal cup * Car and wall phone charger * Vibes Hi-Fi earplugs * Inflatable camping pillow * Mindfold mask * Card deck * Snacks and granola bars * Home-made hand sanitizer with boiled water, tea tree oil, and peppermint and citrus scent * Dude flushable wipes * Tea tree oil toothpicks * Pair of sunglasses * Water bottle * Moleskine A6 dot-style notebook * MUJI pen 0.5 * Tile locator device

Podcasts * RadioLab * This American Life * Surprisingly Awesome * Where Should We Begin? by Esther Perel

People mentioned * Peter R. Girguis * David Bangsberg * Naomi Hashimoto * Mr Rogers * Sam Hincks (Samulus) * Jeff Koons * Andy Wharhol * Bill Gates * Arianna Huffington * Ray Dalio * Jacques Cousteau * Bob Ballard * Neil deGrasse Tyson * Steve Jobs * Walt Disney * Oprah Winfrey * Neil deGrasse Tyson * Esther Perel

Special thanks Couldn't have done any of this without these wonderful people.

• Joe Bynoe
• Anup Mankar
• Grace Olsen
• Pauline Dowell
• Mike McManus
• David Bangsberg
• Jon Payne

Chapters * 0:00 · Intro * 2:28 · Mike Gabour * 3:57 · Your most exciting projects * 5:19 · Koinonia * 13:07 · Falling in love with the ocean * 15:41 · Freediving * 17:50 · Sailing * 19:41 · Sailing challenges * 22:06 · Scary moments on the ocean * 24:38 · Travel * 25:36 · Traveling with purpose * 26:11 · Mindfulness and disconnection * 28:54 · Meditation and attention * 30:22 · The meditation hammock * 30:57 · Dark showers * 33:47 · The contents of Mike's backpack * 40:51 · Mike's notebook * 44:29 · The Sensorium * 50:31 · The multiplier effect * 53:19 · Getting Simple * 53:28 · How does your day-to-day look like? * 53:53 · What things make your day more complex? * 54:23 · Daily habits * 55:03 · Commute * 55:14 · Exercise * 55:42 · Media you consume * 56:15 · Email * 56:38 · Planning and focus * 57:14 · Time, attention, and social media * 57:59 · When do you get your best ideas? * 58:20 · Disconnection * 58:38 · Boredom * 59:09 · Minimizing time in front of a screen * 1:00:12 · Success * 1:00:33 · What do you say to yourself in the morning? * 1:00:38 · A successful person * 1:01:15 · A message to the world * 1:01:24 · What will you tell your 20 or 30 year-old self? * 1:01:45 · How can people connect with you? * 1:02:04 · Book recommendations * 1:02:10 · The Tao of Pooh * 1:02:38 · The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy by Douglas Adams * 1:03:00 · Get Real, Get Gone * 1:03:08 · The Four-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss * 1:04:38 · The Life of Pi * 1:04:48 · Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk * 1:04:58 · Forest Bathing * 1:05:15 · Principles by Ray Dalio * 1:05:31 · Podcast recommendations * 1:05:58 · Where Should We Begin? by Esther Perel * 1:06:26 · The Mind Illuminated * 1:06:40 · Pequod * 1:07:22 · Blindfolding: Teaching People How to Sail * 1:11:33 · Outro

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Harvard's Jose Luis García del Castillo and host Nono Martínez Alonso on teaching, live streaming, the guilt of postponing things, the difficulties of delegating tasks and micro-management, the fear of shipping creative work, and lessons learned after forty podcast episodes.

This episode opens the ALGO series—conversations between Jose Luis García del Castillo y López and myself on teaching, machine learning, coding, and creativity.

It's been three years since I last interviewed Jose Luis, and I enjoyed learning how his life changed when he became a Doctor of Design, began teaching at Harvard, and started live-streaming his lectures online. We also discuss the guilt of postponing things, the difficulties of delegating tasks and micro-management, the fear of shipping creative work, and lessons learned after forty podcast episodes.

Jose Luis García del Castillo y López is an architect, educator, and Doctor of Design in Technology by the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he teaches Computational Design. He runs a weekly Computational Design Live Stream at ParametricCamp.

Links * ParametricCamp live streams and tutorials on YouTube and Instagram * Introduction to Computational Design course * Introduction to Computational Design student projects * Machina.NET - A real-time robotics control open-source framework * Nono's YouTube channel and Live Stream playlist * Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo y López — Will Robots Simplify Your Life? (Episode 3) * Nono Martínez Alonso — The Origins of Getting Simple (Episode 25) * Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) * The Coding Train by Daniel Shiffman

Books * A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez * Cien Años de Soledad by Gabriel García Márquez * Originals by Adam Grant * Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson * The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda

People mentioned * Ben Fry * Panagiotis Michalatos * Daniel Shiffman * Steven Johnson * Kevin Kelly * Philip Glass * Ray Kurzweil * Seth Godin * John Maeda

Chapters * 0:00 · Intro * 1:38 · How's your life changed after submitting your thesis? * 6:26 · Live streaming a Harvard course * 10:39 · How did you start live streaming? * 11:38 · ParametricCamp is back * 13:54 · The ParametricCamp community * 14:49 · Why do you teach? * 16:40 · What's the process you follow to prepare your lectures? * 17:35 · Running away from too much abstraction * 18:50 · How does it feel to be a YouTuber, Jose Luis? * 19:53 · Tools that make teaching easier * 21:39 · What would you like to do if you had the time? * 23:04 · Would you be able to do what you're doing in the US in Spain? * 26:12 · What has Nono been up to? * 29:58 · 'This is who we are' * 31:42 · After publishing, the piece is not yours anymore * 33:03 · Publishing fear * 33:45 · I-don't-care-what-you-think gene * 35:14 · What will people judge you for? * 36:11 · Lessons learned from 3 years of podcasting * 38:41 · Forty humans that love what they do * 40:11 · The things we never get around doing * 42:25 · Eliminating the word 'should' * 45:02 · Avoiding micro-management * 46:40 · How does it feel to be a YouTuber, Nono? * 50:05 · What will machine learning for creatives look like in the future? * 53:00 · Who would you write a book with? * 54:50 · The purpose of teaching * 55:51 · Books * 56:49 · ALGO * 57:40 · Outro

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During your commute, do you listen to music or podcasts?

Books * Deep Work (and productive meditation) by Cal Newport

Links * My Podcasts Not Music blog post (2014) * Oak meditation and breathing app * Hurry Slowly podcast by Jocelyn K. Glei * Deep Questions podcast by Cal Newport

People mentioned * Adam Menges * Cal Newport

Chapters * 00:00 · Intro * 03:38 · Why not music, by default? * 04:20 · Focus and meditation * 04:53 · Why listen to podcasts? * 05:46 · Solitude * 06:24 · Meditative walks * 07:16 · Once-in-a-lifetime audios * 10:06 · My commute * 11:46 · Remote work * 12:38 · Listening together * 13:23 · TL;DR * 13:31 · What's your take?

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Modelical's Roberto Molinos on the benefits of being patient and embracing uncertainty, a series of techniques, theories, and books that can help you rethink your company and market your products, and his 4-day workweek.

Roberto Molinos is an architect and holds a Master of Advanced Studies in Structural Design from Madrid Tech - Madrid (ES). He has developed undergraduate and graduate research with Rafael Escolá Foundation and POLE Europe program, completing essays on the use of information technologies in multidisciplinary projects.

Roberto is the Managing Director of Modelical, a technology consultancy working at the intersection of design, engineering and computation with an extensive experience in complex projects across the globe. He also leads the BuiltTech program on digital transformation for the AEC industry at IE School of Architecture and Design - Madrid and is the co-director of Algomad, a workshop that seeks to spread the use of computational tools among the Spanish-speaking community.

The strong bias toward believing that small samples closely resemble the population from which they are drawn is also part of a larger story: we are prone to exaggerate the consistency and coherence of what we see. —Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

Books * High Output Management by Andrew Grove * Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Taleb * Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman * Scarcity: The New Science of Having Less and How it Defines Our Lives by Eldar Shafir and Sendhil Mullainathan * Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool by Emily Oster

Favorite Quotes * "Your company is your first product." * "[Those] who can price the products properly [are] magicians."

Links * Modelical * DejaVu * HoloBuilder * StructionSite * Dynamo * Customer Relationship Management (CRM) * Salesforce, SugarCRM, Contactually, Pipedrive (CRMs) * Basecamp & 37signals * Case Inc & WeWork

People mentioned * Cal Newport * Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson (the Basecamp guys) * Sarai Zabala (Modelical) * Andrés De Mesa Gisbert

Chapters * 0:00 · Teaser * 2:12 · Intro * 2:29 · Roberto Molinos * 3:28 · Career contribution * 5:06 · Modelical is good at selling Modelical * 7:29 · Your company is your first product * 9:51 · The playground * 11:58 · Techniques to market and develop products * 13:55 · Engaging the client late * 16:15 · The importance of pricing your services * 18:18 · How do sales happen? * 21:06 · CRMs * 22:54 · Best format to distribute content and attract clients * 24:56 · How do clients find you? * 25:43 · Missing on potential projects * 27:05 · How is COVID affecting Modelical? * 28:18 · Promoting yourself * 30:30 · Books to rethink your company * 30:51 · High output management * 31:32 · Don't worry about what you cannot predict * 33:59 · Preparing for failure * 36:01 · Save as much as possible * 36:49 · A definition of antifragility * 38:11 · Robustness or antifragility? * 40:36 · Books that influenced your decision-making process * 42:29 · Consistency tradeoffs * 44:26 · Consistency and automation * 46:17 · Buying peace of mind * 50:44 · How should we use the time we save? * 52:21 · Effectiveness * 53:22 · The four-day workweek * 56:23 · What will change after having kids? * 57:15 · The time blocking planning method * 59:53 · Best ideas and creative moments * 1:01:11 · More than thirty employees * 1:03:00 · From 3 to 10 employees * 1:05:12 · Do you consider your life simple? * 1:06:32 · Daily habits * 1:07:44 · Work-life balance * 1:09:13 · Success * 1:11:42 · Role models * 1:17:08 · Your message to the world * 1:17:30 · What gives you goosebumps? * 1:18:35 · How was Modelical's first office? * 1:19:34 · Data-driven parenting * 1:21:28 · Patience * 1:25:46 · Connect with Roberto * 1:25:57 · Outro

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Celebrating a year of weekly sketches and stories.

Today, I bring you an episode that celebrates a year and a half of weekly sketches and stories. At the time I published this essay on my blog, I was at fifty-three publications. But as I write these lines, I'm at seventy-one posts. Happy Newsletter-versary!

Repetition, repetition, repetition. It works, it works, it works. —John Maeda

Links * The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda (book) * My published sketches (blog) * My British Museum basalt stone statue sketch and story (blog) * My writing habits (podcast) * Stories are the answer (podcast) * Newsletterversary (post) * A4-sized Moleskine watercolor sketchbook

People mentioned * John Maeda * Lourdes Alonso Carrión * Patrick Winston

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Microsoft's Adam Menges—founder at Lobe.ai and a former Apple employee—on helping people build intelligence into their apps by making it simple and understandable, his unconventional education, having death present, regret avoidance, grit, and his daily routine for note-taking, file management, meditation, and much more.

Adam is a product designer, entrepreneur, and engineer located in San Francisco who specializes in Artificial Intelligence and visual programming languages. He spent time working for both Apple and SendGrid before starting his own company, Lobe, which was acquired in late 2018. Adam is continuing his work on making machine learning more accessible, and researching applications of the technology for video effects. You can contact Adam to find out more at adammenges.com, and reach out to him at adam@adammenges.com and +17204840285.

Favorite quotes * "You wake up in the morning, you reach over to the side of your bed, grab your laptop, and then you go until you're tired and have to go to bed." [22:40] * "In order to be wildly creative, in order to increase your creative capacity, you need to be able to see the effect of what you're doing in real time." [24:31] * "No one can actually context-switch, even if you think you can multitask." * "[Lobe] gives you a springboard to understand what's happening behind the scenes and go for the research elsewhere." * "If you are reminded five times a day that you're going to die, it makes each day much more meaningful." * "All right, I'm never goin to be the smartest person in the room but I'll outwork everyone, and that'll be me." * "You can do anything you set your mind to do. Don't hold yourself back." * "If it becomes addictive then the technology is not invisible. It's very present." * "The mission of Lobe is to make machine learning simple and understandable for those who are not machine learnists—those that don't code."

Books * Grit by Angela Duckworth * The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance by Steven Kotler * Einstein: The Life of a Genius by Walter Isaacson * Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

Links * AdamMenges.com * SendGrid * Lobe.ai * SmartGeometry * CSU University * NVIDIA Titan X graphic card * Machine learning (concept) * ReLU (rectified linear unit) (concept) * TensorFlow * ResNet * ImageNet image database * Grasshopper * Visual programming (concept) * Hacker Paradise * Mirrorless cameras * Direct manipulation * Bear (app) * Oak for unguided meditation by Kevin Rose (app) * We Croak (app) [34:05] * Markdown * Love Story Yoga in the mission * CrossFit * Widget tweet from Adam's countdown * Spark AR * Instagram filters * Shaders (concept) * All Birds * Statistical death * Flow * Deliberate practice * vvvv (visual programming language) * The Future of Programming by Bret Victor (talk)

Media * Behind the Tech with Kevin Scott * The Creative Brain (movie) * Abstract: The Art of Design (documentary series)

People mentioned * Samantha Walker * Kevin Scott, Microsoft's CTO * Bill Gates * Jonathan Ive * Markus Beissinger * Mike Matas * Angela Duckworth * Elon Musk * Steve Jobs * Lindsey Menges * Bret Victor * Cal Newport

Chapters * 0:00 · Teaser * 1:16 · Intro * 2:15 · An unconventional education and avoiding context-switching * 4:30 · SendGrid * 5:38 · Apple * 6:26 · The beginnings of Lobe * 7:39 · The machine in my apartment * 9:20 · A consumer tool * 10:13 · The origins of Lobe * 12:17 · Projects people built with Lobe * 12:32 · Wind tunnel simulation * 15:06 · Parents autoplaying audio books * 15:53 · Tracking dolphin migration patterns * 16:59 · Is Lobe a black box? * 18:53 · Joining Microsoft: From three remote workers to eighteen employees * 19:49 · Early days of Lobe: How it was to start the company * 21:04 · What do you miss? Building Lobe while traveling the world * 22:10 · Visual programming and immediate feedback * 22:47 · Photography * 23:31 · Direct manipulation * 23:58 · Adam's daily routine * 25:45 · Meditation * 26:20 · CrossFit and Yoga * 27:00 · The goal of meditation and focus * 27:33 · Distractions and notifications * 28:02 · Screen time * 29:31 · Death and regret avoidance * 31:21 · Habits to have death present * 32:51 · A death countdown * 33:36 · A file system to be present * 34:05 · How many days do you have left? * 34:20 · Calculating your statistical death * 35:11 · Analog activities * 35:43 · Keeping in touch online * 37:01 · Grit * 41:09 · The Grit Scale: Angela Duckworth's work on grit as an indicator of success * 45:19 · Forgetting past fears and struggles * 46:52 · Deliberate practice * 47:57 · Custom-made clothing * 51:39 · Connect with Adam * 52:15 · Books * 52:37 · Media recommendations * 53:22 · A purchase of $100 or less * 53:58 · Success * 54:24 · Role models * 54:42 · A message to the world * 54:50 · A healthy relationship with technology * 55:38 · Ideas: When and where do you get them? * 55:59 · Creativity: What makes you more creative? * 56:21 · Slowing down * 56:34 · Simple * 56:54 · Intuitive * 57:13 · Your mission * 57:24 · How will artificial intelligence and machine learning impact our lives? * 58:35 · Outro

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Director Daniel Natoli on the making of Sisyphus, Getting Simple's first short film. A man is condemned to repeat a useless task day after day.

It's easy to fall into the trap of mindlessly repeating the same routine over and over again. Every once in a while, we need to be reminded to stop and reflect; To meditate on whether what you’re doing makes sense; To find out how to get out of the loop and do what gives you joy.

There’s no need to measure how productive each of your actions is—some of it should just be play.

That's exactly what, as I understand, happens in the Greek myth of Sisyphus, in which a man is condemned to repeat a useless task day after day.

Watch the Sisyphus short film.

Daniel Natoli was born in Málaga in 1987. Traversed by his training as an architect, his cinematographic production focuses on non-fiction, documentary, and experimental formats. His works have screened at Málaga Film Festival, Seville European Film Festival, CINEMED, ALCINE, or CORTADA, among others. Currently, Dani directs the movie producer Peripheria Films, developing new film projects and distributing his latest works.

Connect with Dani on Instagram at @d_natoli or @peripheriafilms or via email on natolirojo(at)gmail.com or peripheria.films(at)gmail.com.

Sisyphus was directed by Daniel Natoli and produced by Nono Martínez Alonso, with the help of Marina Díaz García and Pablo de la Ossa.

Links * Sisyphus by Daniel Natoli * Peripheria Films * Málaga Film Festival * Seville European Film Festival * CrioCrea

Movies * Groundhog Day (1993) * Russian Doll (2019) * The Employment (2008)

People mentioned * Marina Díaz García * Pablo de la Ossa * Giovanni Battista Piranesi * Giorgio de Chirico * Robert Bresson

Chapters * 00:00 · Intro * 00:51 · Daniel Natoli * 02:06 · Making of * 02:47 · Idea * 03:23 · Location * 03:49 · References * 04:29 · Film festivals * 05:22 · Other projects * 06:12 · How did you end up in film? * 07:03 · Connect with Dani * 07:26 · Outro

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How to create good habits and break bad ones.

This episode is part of the Habits series. In this excerpt from my interview with Scott Mitchell (episode 29), Scott and I discuss what atomic habits are, how to use them to create good habits and break bad ones, how I started implementing them in my daily routine more than a year ago, the difference between flow and deliberate practice, and why you should schedule your leisure time.

Links * Habit tracker sheets template * Flow * Deliberate practice * How To Start New Habits That Actually Stick by James Clear * Nono's sketches * Interview with Scott Young

Books * Atomic Habits by James Clear * Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport * Ultralearning by Scott Young

People mentioned * Scott Mitchell * James Clear * Scott Young * Cal Newport * Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi * Anders Ericsson

Chapters * 00:00 · Intro * 00:43 · Atomic habits * 02:59 · How to create good habits (and break bad ones) * 03:57 · Don't break the chain * 05:41 · Meditation * 06:08 · Writing * 06:32 · Sketching * 06:53 · Why? * 08:15 · Discipline, flow, and deliberate practice * 09:47 · Scheduling your leisure time * 11:15 · Things are not obvious * 11:57 · Outro

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Generating lots of ideas might help you achieve originality.

Notes Skill and expertise let you judge your own ideas to better identify the good ones and discard the bad ones.

"Many people fail to achieve originality because they generate a few ideas and then obsess about refining them to perfection." —Adam Grant, Originals

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Portfolio careerist Carmen Chamorro on the benefits of working in different fields, managing multiple interests, and how recognizing a potential Renaissance-like profile might positively influence your career.

Carmen loves change and disagrees that we must define ourselves in only one single and exclusive way.

She is a natural learner and can draw on a wide range of commercial, educational and voluntary experiences that allow her to connect with different clients in personalized ways.

Carmen is a certified life, business and career coach that draws on two years of university study in psychology, as well as various courses in mindfulness. Currently, she also collaborates with Global Experiences, a global network providing international internships, as the Global Engagement Coordinator.

She understands the challenges of career change, having studied a degree in Architecture at the University of Granada in Spain followed by 8 years at Fosters and Partners. She has also worked in many other areas: event organizer, blogger, graphic designer, teacher, waitress, PR, strawberry picker, media runner, writer, sales…

She loves supporting entrepreneurship, having started up her own events company in 2014 that she has been running since.

Carmen's biggest passion is to help people connect with themselves and to guide them while they create, develop and implement new ideas and career paths.

A Spanish native, who has lived in 4 different countries, holds 2 passports and has extensively travelled the world, she loves learning about new places and cultures and strongly believes that traveling is an extraordinary tool for self-connection.

Connect with Carmen on LinkedIn.

‌Trust your nature. Be you. Don't be scared. We are all needed and we are all here. There is a balance in the world. We just need to go to the right place of the puzzle. You are here with a profile, and you are here to use it and to be authentic. Trust yourself, accept yourself, and have fun.

Links * Headspace (meditation app) * My Learning Quarantine * My Analog Parties * Origami * The School of Life * The Tim Ferriss Show * Global Experiences * Pomodoro technique

TED talks * Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett * Why Some of Us Don't Have One True Calling by Emilie Wapnick * Are You A Giver or A Taker by Adam Grant

Books * Designing Your Life * A Job to Love by The School of Life * The Emotionally Intelligent Office by The School of Life * How to Be Everything by Emilie Wapnick * Deep Work by Cal Newport * The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday

People mentioned * Tim Ferriss * Cal Newport * Andy Puddicombe (from Headspace) * Alain de Botton * Emilie Wapnick * Adam Grant

Chapters * 00:00 · Intro * 01:59 · Carmen * 09:58 · A new starting point * 12:24 · Fear of not changing * 13:55 · The Renaissance profile * 14:57 · When should we just do one thing? * 15:42 · Multipotentialites * 19:17 · Techniques to manage multiple activities * 20:09 · Pomodoro technique * 20:49 · Deep work and productive meditation * 23:29 · Placing problems in your mind * 26:44 · What distracts you? * 27:37 · From the office to remote work * 28:22 · When are you most productive? * 29:01 · When do you get your best ideas? * 29:22 · Work life balance * 31:54 · Life coaching * 33:47 · The Myers & Briggs test: 16-personalities * 35:19 · Success * 36:58 · Role models * 39:27 · Be you * 40:45 · Deliberate practice * 41:34 · Distractions * 41:55 · Mindful technology * 44:35 · Portfolio career profiles in COVID * 45:24 · Routines * 46:45 · Meditation * 47:13 · Is your life simple? * 48:22 · Your mission * 49:00 · Habits * 49:19 · Hobbies * 50:01 · Side projects * 50:43 · Books, talks, and podcasts * 52:38 · Connect with Carmen * 53:27 · 'You have a portfolio career.' * 54:39 · Outro

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Insisting Simplicity's author, JR, on crafting your own routine from scratch, writing, blogging, frugal practices to achieve financial independence, permaculture design, the struggles of making a living as an artist, and more.

Insisting Simplicity is a blog about simple living, minimalism, and adventure travel that JR writes to celebrate life, our planet, and the richness of simple living.

"I'm obviously attracted to the concept of simple living and to a stoic aesthetic and something that is boiled down to the really fundamental things in life that matter."

"You don't necessarily need cars and mansions and consumerism to do any of those things."

Links * Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE movement) * Permaculture design * Calm (meditation app) * Waking Up by Sam Harris (meditation app) * Making Sense by Sam Harris (podcast) * Workin' Out Back with Poppy Insisting Simplicity series * The Biggest Little Farm (movie) * Peak oil * The Trinity Study and the 4 percent rule * 10,000-Hour Rule popularized in Outliers by Malcolm Gladwel

Blogs * 11 Reasons Not to Become Famous by Tim Ferriss * Tenth Acre Farm * Practical Self-Reliance * Designing Your Life by Bill Bernett & Dave Evans * The Frugal Engineers * Designing Your Life (with Insisting Simplicity) (essay)

Books * Waking Up by Sam Harris * Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin * Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley & William Danko * The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka * Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren * Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut * Walden by Henry David Thoreau * Retrosuburbia by David Holmgren

People * Henry David Thoreau * Walt Whitman * Ralph Waldo Emerson * Bill Mollison * David Holmgren * Masanobu Fukuoka * Sepp Holzer * Joel Slayton * Kurt Vonnegut * John Maeda * John Muir * Carmen Chamorro * Mr. Money Mustache * Mad Fientist * Dan Harris * Sam Harris * Tim Ferriss * Seth Godin

Notes * Intro. [1:11] * JR [2:16] * How did you start the blog? [3:03] * Writing. [5:22] * A secret identity. [6:51] * Insisting Simplicity. [9:22] * Generalist or specialist? [10:58] * The 10,000-Hour rule. [14:07] * Integrity. [20:31] * A new routine. [21:38] * Life cycles. [24:35] * Permaculture design. [26:23] * Financial independence. [34:06] * Frugal practices. [41:02] * The struggles of making a living as an artist. [58:24] * Who should spread your idea? [1:05:28] * JR's daily routine. [1:09:37] * Meditation. [1:11:54] * How did you come across Getting Simple? [1:14:17] * What's next for you? [1:15:57] * Connect with JR. [1:18:06] * Define success. [1:18:31] * Role models. [1:18:37] * Book recommendations. [1:19:22] * A recent positive purchase of $100 or less. [1:20:19] * What helped you write better? [1:20:55]

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Autodesk's Kean Walmsley (@keanw) on prioritizing fun, freedom, and flexibility, traveling and working around the world with family, blogging, teaching, remote work, and the post-COVID world.

Kean Walmsley works at Autodesk Research, based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Kean joined Autodesk in 1995 and has worked in a number of Autodesk offices around the world – in the UK, the US, India and Switzerland – and in a number of roles, both technical and management-focused. He spent several years working in the Autodesk Developer Network and four years as a Software Architect for the AutoCAD product line.

In 2006 Kean started his popular Through the Interface blog, through which he enjoys a regular dialog with software developers working with Autodesk technologies. He also uses the blog to share his research into how Autodesk technologies connect with emerging industry trends, such as reality capture, natural user interfaces, virtual reality, and the internet of things.

Kean holds a Masters degree in European Computer Science from the University of Kent at Canterbury, as well as a License d’Informatique from l'Université de Paris-Sud. Outside work – aside from spending time with his family – Kean tries hard to play sport on a daily basis, whether indoor hockey, football or (on winter weekends) snowboarding.

Connect with Kean on LinkedIn, Twitter (@keanw) & About.me/keanw.

Favorite quotes * "You can do good in the world and make a difference to people without blindly chasing your vision." * "It's mostly about enjoyment and less about having a goal in mind." * "I'm very happy that I did start the blog. It, for sure, from my perspective, has led to me having the freedom to make these changes and to do what I do now." * "In the course of teaching you deepen your understanding of things, of lots of things. And there is this feedback loop that you create when you're seeing people progress, and you're really getting a genuine sense that you're helping people." * "Fun is an ultimate driving force for me. I do want to have fun at work on a regular basis." * "It is true that things will be different, but I I'm mostly just seeing the positive aspects for the moment."

Links * Transcript * Through the Interface (Kean's blog) * Boules and pétanque (french games) * Functional programming * Dasher 360 * Internet of Things * Generative design (concept) * Kettlebell snatch * This is Love (podcast) * One in a million (podcast episode) * Something large and wild (podcast episode) * Bill & Ted (TV series) - "Be excellent to each other" * Between the Lines with Shaan Hurley (blog)

Books * Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

Programming languages * DesignScript * Miranda * Haskell * F# * TypeScript * JavaScript

People mentioned * Shaan Hurley * Robert Aish * Jeff Kowalski * Amar Hanspal * Dave Turner * Azam Khan * Simon Breslav * Ian Banks * Neal Stephenson * Alastair Reynolds * Ken MacLeod * Elon Musk * Bill Gates * Alvaro Pickmans * Jacob Small * Adam Menges * Tatjana Dzambazova

Notes * Intro. [1:11] * Kean Walmsley. [2:20] * Blogging. [9:26] * How did blogging change your career? [14:48] * 3 posts per week. [16:50] * Building your audience. [18:41] * Francophilia. [23:38] * Programming languages. [25:05] * Teaching - How did you get started teaching and what do you get from it? [27:33] * Working around the world. [30:54] * What's been hard? [33:49] * The 3 Fs. [35:32] * Remote work. [36:51] * Sports. [38:20] * COVID-19. [39:36] * 6-month family world trip. [41:45] * 15 countries. [47:58] * The post-COVID world. [54:02] * Going virtual - what's lost? [57:11] * Telecommuting. [59:12] * Connect with Kean (@keanw). [1:02:08] * Projects. [1:03:00] * Is your life simple? [1:07:42] * What could be easier? [1:08:33] * Daily habits. [1:09:52] * Meditation. [1:10:55] * Hobbies. [1:12:06] * Books & science-fiction. [1:13:38] * Podcasts. [1:15:39] * Creativity. [1:17:57] * Deliberate practice. [1:19:47] * Distractions. [1:21:25] * Email. [1:21:44] * Success. [1:23:03] * Role models. [1:24:44] * Someone successful. [1:26:03] * A message to the world. [1:27:55] * $100 or less. [1:30:31] * Apps. [1:31:18] * Questions from the internet. [1:32:00] * Nono's motivation to do Getting Simple. [1:35:56]

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Here's an episode in memory of Patrick Winston which opens the new Sketches series with a short piece on story understanding with artificial intelligence and my experience attending Winston's 6.034 lectures at MIT. "Don't just tell me it's a school bus. Tell me why you think it's a school bus."

I've sketched for the last 365 days. A year ago I decided not only to sketch daily but to write short stories and publish them online every Tuesday. The first story went out on July 2, 2019. And today is the first time I'm telling you one of those stories in a podcast, with my voice.

Please enjoy this episode, its transcript, and its show notes.

Favorite quotes * "How come I'm out here and [the orangutans] are in there? How come you're not all covered with orange hair instead of hardly any hair at all? Well, my answer to that is that we can tell stories and they can't." * "I think understanding our own intelligence is essential to the survival of the species. We really do need to understand ourselves better." * "If I angry you, you may kill me. Thank God, we don't always kill people who anger us. But we humans always are searching for explanations. So if you kill me, and I've previously angered you, and you can't think of any other reason for why the killing took place, and the anger is the explanation."

Links * Transcript * Story Understanding lecture by Patrick Winston * Brains, Minds and Machines summer course at MIT * Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 * The Genesis Story Understanding Group * "Narrow artificial intelligences [are] technologies that are able to perform specific tasks well, or better than, we humans can." —Michael Copeland * Suggestive Drawing * Pix2Pix * Generative adversarial network (GAN) * Hello World, Hello MIT talk (2019) * Westworld (series) * Carthago delenda est, Carthage must be destroyed

Books * The Emotion Machine by Marvin Minsky * The Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky

People mentioned * Marvin Minsky * Patrick Winston * Pier Gustafson * Dylan Holmes * Jonathan Nolan * Lisa Joy

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Scott Mitchell jumps in time to dissect his own experimentation life philosophy, his efforts to remove creative friction, and his worldview. An experimental episode on Scott's metaphor of the arena, experiments he's carried out over the past years, and his current solo adventure.

Scott Mitchell is a designer and software engineer currently working out of Boston, Massachusetts. Scott is the founder of stud.io (stud-io.org), a construction technology company focused on automating fabrication processes for geometrically complex projects. He previously worked as a software engineer at Autodesk as part of the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Generative Design group. Scott received masters degrees in both Architecture and Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis, and he received his BA in Film and Media Studies from The University of Oklahoma.

Favorite quotes * "This works for me, and it might not work for other people." * "At first you're a player in the arena, and when you get good at that you can step out of the arena and rework the rules of the game, and then step back in." * "Can we have slates wiped clean anymore or, because we're out of school, we have a job that just goes own every week, can we create those moments for ourselves where we are able to be entirely free?" * "These are two points looking at Scott's life philosophy and its evolution."

Links * Transcript * HowickMaker for Dynamo * Constraint satisfaction problems * Email Charter * Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter * Habit tracker sheets template * Flow * Deliberate practice

Books * Atomic Habits by James Clear * Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport * Ultralearning by Scott Young

People mentioned * Jessie Vogler * George Foreman * Jose Luis * Megan Berry * Alan Watts * Margot Shafran * James Clear * Scott Young * Cal Newport * Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi * Anders Ericsson

Chapters * 01:17 · Intro * 08:49 · Two learning steps * 10:23 · Main learning challenges to get comfortable with making * 10:43 · "This works for me, and it might not work for other people." * 15:34 · Misusing tools * 16:25 · The arena and the ruleset * 17:38 · Changing the rules of the arena * 20:01 · The beginner's mind * 21:38 · Documenting your work * 23:04 · Experimentation * 24:14 · The curls experiment * 26:05 · Experiments at studio * 28:08 · Hobbies * 29:52 · The noodle experiment: Experiment No. 3 * 31:33 · Experimentation vs. practice * 32:56 · Experiments at work and what died at architecture school * 34:00 · "Do you ever enjoy being bored?" * 36:47 · Getting the slate wiped clean * 37:33 · Oranges in the shower: Experiment No. 2 * 40:39 · The ritual of done * 42:29 · Define yourself * 43:15 · Flow * 44:58 · Work in progress * 45:59 · Becoming a slave of systems * 46:37 · Benefits of documentation * 47:15 · Boredom * 48:01 · The podium and friction * 48:56 · Shortcuts * 52:00 · Laziness and automation * 55:48 · Procrastiworking * 57:55 · A disconnection policy * 01:03:16 · Social media * 01:03:49 · Books and online resources * 01:04:52 · Success * 01:05:01 · A role model * 01:05:43 · A message to the world * 01:06:05 · Wearing 90% black * 01:07:20 · The list of things I want * 01:08:11 · Book recommendations * 01:08:15 · A purchase of a $100 or less * 01:09:31 · Connect with Scott * 01:10:19 · Simple and intuitive * 01:11:50 · The arena * 01:12:46 · Clutter * 01:14:07 · Email * 01:14:38 · Meditation * 01:15:02 · Money * 01:15:23 · Thanks * 01:16:56 · Back to the future * 01:18:51 · What's changed? * 01:21:23 · Outsourcing * 01:22:48 · Going solo * 01:24:12 · Howick Maker * 01:25:11 · Finding other people * 01:26:07 · Working by yourself * 01:27:06 · What's more likely to fail? * 01:28:51 · New experiments * 01:32:18 · Atomic habits * 01:37:18 · Habit tracker template * 01:40:53 · Discipline * 01:41:26 · Flow vs. Deliberate Practice * 01:42:25 · Scheduling your leisure time * 01:45:10 · The "Things that.." list * 01:49:06 · Outro

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What I've learned and what's changed over the past year, and new habits that seem to be here to stick with me for years to come.

We're more virtually connected than ever before. Yet, we seem to be more disconnected from one another than any former civilization. We've created shallow ways of communication (say, email or instant messages) which generate a false sense of connection. It's harder to connect in deep ways with our closest friends—where a brief walk, talking on the phone, or a video conference may suffice. But, surprisingly, we spend a huge amount of time learning about random details from the trendiest influencers that we don't even know from our closest friends (but probably should).

Favorite Quotes * "It's super fast to write 200 words. What's hard is for those words to communicate something meaningful and work as part of a story worth listening." * "I've reinforced the feeling that gritty people get more out of whatever it is they do in life. Effort and perseverance win the long-term game." * "The important part is creating a consistent and persistent habit first then focus on improving my skills."

Links * Daniel Natoli from Peripheria Films. [2:41] * Sisyphus. [2:52] * Make a copy of this template to create your own habit tracker. [5:57] * Oak for iOS by Kevin Rose - "An app for the self-experimenter." [10:40] * Adam Menges. [10:45] * Nono.MA/books * Nono.MA/to-read * Sketch.Nono.MA

Books I've Read * Atomic Habits by James Clear * Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport * Grit by Angela Duckworth * When by Daniel Pink * 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam * The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell * Beyond Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana * Thinking, Fast and Slow by Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman

Books I'd Like to Read * The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. * Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker * Solitude by Michael Harris * How to Speak Machine by John Maeda * Awareness by Anthony de Mello * Originals by Adam Grant.

A Year of Transformation * Intro. [0:40] * Podcast. [2:08] * Sketches newsletter. [2:23] * Sisyphus. [2:35] * Books I've read. [2:59] * What's an atomic habit? [3:47] * On maintaining habits. [5:52] * My habits. [7:00] * Sketching. [7:18] * Writing. [8:44] * Meditating. [9:44] * The habit series. [11:20] * Being gritty. [11:40] * On digital minimalism. [12:08] * On re-thinking your time strategy. [13:38] * Call to action. [14:16] * Wrap up. [15:28]

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Technology whisperer Tatjana Dzambazova on asking the right questions to avoid the waste of talent, connecting and inspiring others, becoming vegetarian, and the myth of a better life.

Tatjana is Director of product management, software solutions, at Bright Machines, a software-driven-manufacturing start-up based in San Francisco.

Tatjana's career started as an architect—she practiced over 12 years in Vienna and London. In 2000 she started her 18-year design technology journey with Autodesk, mainly in dual role of product manager for many new, disruptive software solutions, and a global technology speaker. In her two decades working in the digital design industry she was Autodesk's first product manager for Revit and a pioneer evangelist of the BIM Building Information Modeling approach in architecture and construction. During the Maker movement, she was employee number one and helped launch the Autodesk's consumer group, helping create innovative, disruptive digital fabrication and 3D printing solutions (the 123D line of products, such as 123D Make now known as Slicer for Fusion and many others). This group transformed into Pier 9 and led to a new phase 'Design and Make' in Autodesk, and the creation/acquisition of fabrication tools that complement the design tools. She also led the computer vision initiatives and the ReMake & ReCap Photo product.

Tatjana was also on the forefront of web story telling through visual programming, leading the Smithsonian 3DExplorer software effort and Project Play and project manager for Dr. Louise Leakey of African Fossils.

Before joining Bright Machines, she spent a year at Velo3D as director of product management, UX, and design, leading Flor, the printing preparation and simulation software of the solution, along with scientists and engineers who are pushing the limits of industrial-grade quality metal additive solutions for aerospace, medical, and industrial applications.

Tatjana is a technology book author and an energetic, passionate "Technology Whisperer." She presented at conferences around the world, including TEDx and Future of Storytelling FoST, and gave many talks on the convergence of technology trends and their impact on the future of design and manufacturing, covering Generative Design, Additive Manufacturing, IoT, Robotics, and Machine learning.

Don't get confused if you google Tanja and find lots of photos of her and lions, leopards, tigers and jaguars, or mentions of movies where she acted, such as Witness 11 or RICE. Still her, but that's a story for another podcast.

Connect with Tanja on LinkedIn and TatjanaDzambazova.com.

Favorite quotes * "I have chosen a life in which I want to learn a little about many things. Although in reality I respect the opposite, I respect people who have dedicated their entire life to do one thing perfectly." * "People love to learn. There's nothing more beautiful than when you give a talk or a lecture and you see somebody's face light up. That's because you opened a new door or opportunity in their mind, and you taught them. They want to know more." * "You inspired me so much. I want to be you when I grow up." * "For me it's a failure not to try. Innovation is not safe. People who change the world don't rely on talent, they rely on work." * "Don't ever let the disbelievers steer you away from a good idea. Just run with it. Believe in yourself and go with it." * "How does the world look like with my solution already adopted, fully implemented in the world?" * "I feel I'm postponing life." * "There's never a later. If you don't do it now you might never do it."

Episode links * TatjanaDzambazova.com * DeepNude creates fake nudes of any woman * The Smithsonian Museum * Population by Pixel campaign by Hakuhodo * Coding Dojo * ConservationX Labs * Virunga by Orlando Von Einsiedel (movie) * Brain Pickings by Maria Popova (blog) * Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat * Murmurations by National Geographic (video) * Murmurations by Islands and Rivers (video) * The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake * The bullet hole misconception * Explained: The Future of Meat on Netflix * Factum Arte from Adam Lowe * Eating Animals (documentary) * Sisyphus by Daniel Natoli (short film)

Books * The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell * Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari * The Snow Leopard Project by Alex Dehgan * 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari * The User Illusion by Tor Norretranders * Novecento by Alessandro Baricco * The End of Faith by Sam Harris * Waking Up by Sam Harris * Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges * Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino * Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

People who inspire Tanja (and others we mention) * Herman Hertzberger * Anton Schweighofer * Mario Botta * Abhishek Pani from Bright Machines * Daniel Siegel * Abraham Wald * Jonathan Parshall * Brian Mathews from Bright Machines * Carl Bass * Louise Leakey * Amar Hanspal * Sam Harris from Making Sense - "We're all in this Titanic together." * Ben Fry * Jonathan Harris - 24-year-old story teller who's using data visualization * Aaron Koblin * Alex Dehgan * Saul Griffith from Otherlab * Emmanuel de Merode - Director of Virunga National Park * Sam Harris * Maria Popova * Iris Van Herpen * Adam Lowe * Jorge Luis Borges * Italo Calvino * Alessandro Baricco * Patrick Süskind * Greta Thunberg * Werner Herzog * Yuval Noah Harari * Daniel Natoli * Sarah Krasley from Shimmy * Sly Lee from The Hydrous

Part 1 — Tatjana Dzambazova [1:16] * Think Different by Apple. [2:54] * The misfits and the crazy ones. [3:13] * Connectors. [4:01] * Messengers - Spreading ideas is as (or more important) than coming up with ideas. [5:22] * Inspiring others. [6:39] * Who is Tatjana Dzambazova? [9:34] * Your mission. [10:37] * Wasting talent. [11:49] * Solving the problems the right way. [12:49] * The bullet hole misconception. [13:07] * There's a better, new way. [17:55] * The most rewarding ideas you've pursued. [20:02] * Computer vision, Photogrammetry, Memento, and Laser scanning. [20:58] * Technology vs. product. [24:43] * The myth of a better life. [26:57] * Tatjana's habits to slow down. [29:22] * Work culture and being more empathetic. [32:06] * Serendipity and creativity at the office. [33:27] * A connection you've made. [35:41] * Programming teaches you how to think. [36:18] * HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, SQL, Flask, Django, and Jinja. [40:12] * People who inspire you. [41:50] * How do you disconnect? Going to Africa, hiking, paddling, sewing, and more [46:10] * Being a vegetarian, the Dzambazova zoo, and plant-based meat products. [48:03] * Connect with Tatjana. [58:56] * Book recommendations. [59:47] * Your message to the world. [1:01:18] * What would you do if you were rich? [1:02:10] * Slowing down. [1:03:25]

Part 2 — Tanja asks Nono [1:05:25] * Tanja asks Nono: What do you want to be when you grow up? [1:05:48] * Tanja asks Nono: What would you do if you were a millionaire? [1:09:48] * Tatjana's retiring dream. [1:13:37] * Outro. [1:14:48]

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Nono's daily writing process, tools, and techniques.

I believe the ultimate goal of writing is to touch others; to make our words resonate with our readers. Today my spoken words are for you.

This episode is part of an experimental series titled Habits in which I share how myself (and others) do certain things and why, hopefully unveiling workflows, techniques, habits, and routines that you can make use of right away. Specifically, this episode focuses on writing and what's helping me write more consistently. I share the software tools and gadgets that I use on a daily basis to journal and write essays, posts, and episodes, and to review and edit my writing.

Links * Readwise * nono.ma/now * Typinator for macOS * The "commonplace" book was a personal repository of notes * DEVONthink * Markdown * How to format your WhatsApp messages * CommonMark * iA Writer is my editor of choice * Dropbox Paper * My sketches * pandoc * pdflatex * Mercury extension for Google Chrome * Send to Kindle extension for Google Chrome by Amazon * iA Writer templates * Syntax typeface * Bembo typeface * iA Writer duospace * The zine went viral on Hacker News * The zine sketch and post

Tools * Kindle Paperwhite * Brother HL-L2375DW printer * Rapesco 790 long-arm stapler * Xerox 80-gram recycled paper

Books * Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant * On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. * Atomic Habits by James Clear * You Can't Make This Stuff Up by Lee Gutkind * Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson * When by Daniel Pink

Other people mentioned * Francis Bacon * John Locke * Andrew Witt * John McFarlane * Seth Godin

Chapters * 00:36 · Intro * 00:48 · The Habit * 03:20 · The Daily File * 09:16 · The Writing Queue * 09:46 · Tools * 12:05 · Reviewing * 17:00 · Printing * 21:58 · Sharing * 24:00 · Wrap Up

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Nono Martínez Alonso on his story, his worldview, how and why he started Getting Simple, and the struggles and joys of making a podcast about simple living, doing less better, and crafting your own lifestyle.

Nono Martínez Alonso hosts The Getting Simple Podcast—a show about how you can live a productive, creative, and simple life, in the form of friendly, long-form conversations with creative from eclectic areas—sketches things that call his attention, and writes about enjoying a slower life.

Nono is an architect and computational designer with a penchant for simplicity, who focuses on the development of intuitive tools for creatives, and on how the collaboration between human and artificial intelligences can enhance the design process.

Currently, Nono works remotely as a Machine Learning Engineer and Designer for Autodesk from Málaga, Spain. Previously, Nono studied Technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and worked in the design and delivery of complex architectural geometries at award-winning firms, such as AR-MA (Sydney) and Foster + Partners (London).

Links * Growth mindset (concept) * The Growth Mindset: How to Measure Your Own Success * Folio * Lobe.ai * Otter * Interview topics of Getting Simple * Twenty Thousand Hertz by Dallas Taylor (podcast) * The Minimalists (podcast) * Hurry Slowly by Jocelyn K. Glei (podcast) * The default network (concept) * What Screens Want by Frank Chimero * Akimbo: A Podcast from Seth Godin * SmartGeometry * MIT Media Lab * nono.ma/items * nono.ma/books * nono.ma/to-read

Books * Scarcity by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir * Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman * So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport * Deep Work by Cal Newport * Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport * Atomic Habits by James Clear * Mindset by Carol Dweck * Getting Things Done by David Allen * Tribes by Seth Godin * All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin * The Information by James Gleick * The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly

People mentioned * Jose Luis García del Castillo * Ana García Puyol * Seth Godin * Descartes * Plato * Nietzsche * Francine Jay, Miss Minimalist * Lourdes Alonso Carrión * Panagiotis Michalatos * James Melouney * Cal Newport * Adam Menges * Tim Ferriss * Zach Kron * Andres Colubri * Ian Keough * Ben Fry * James Clear * Carol Dweck * Jocelyn K. Glei * Marie Kondo * Daniel Goleman * Frank Chimero * David Allen * James Gleick * Kevin Kelly

Part 1 — Nono's story [2:33] * What defines Nono Martínez Alonso and how did you get there? [3:10] * Nono's first steps with computers, technology, and programming. [6:00] * Burnout at architecture school and going abroad. [10:56] * Getting time to focus and learning how to code. [12:57] * How did you end up in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts? [13:59] * How has going back to Spain been to you? [17:26] * What makes working remotely go well? [18:33] * What distracts Nono Martínez Alonso? [20:18] * Choosing what to work on. [22:54] * Less, better. [23:27] * What bores you? [24:12] * Can you name a successful person? [24:27] * Do you consider yourself successful? [25:40] * What would you tell your listeners? [27:43] * The role of tools and getting better. [31:29] * Sharing your tools - Creating tools for others and Folio. [33:02] * What's in your future plans? [36:16]

Part 2 — The Getting Simple Podcast [36:47] * How did the podcast start? [36:57] * Why is simplicity so important for you? And where does the Getting Simple name come from? [40:33] * The making of this podcast - How much time does it take you to do this podcast, how much cleaning and editing do you do and how, how much time you spent with guests? [41:34] * What was the hardest thing to make this podcast at the beginning, and what's the hardest thing now that you're experienced? [45:58] * Do you have a script for each interview? [46:41] * What's difficult about doing this podcast? [48:10] * Nice moments of the podcast. [49:54] * Who's rejected your invitation to the podcast? [51:11] * What's this podcast really about? [53:10] * Where is the Getting Simple podcast going? [57:45] * A public invitation to podcast guests, and who would you like to have in the show? [1:00:52]

Part 3 — Lightning round [1:01:47] * How do you deal with digital clutter? [1:01:59] * What does your daily commute look like? [1:02:38] * Two ways to start your day. [1:04:03] * What does your ideal morning routine look like? [1:04:42] * When do you get your best ideas? [1:05:36] * Quitting caffeine and alcohol - Self-imposed restrictions, delaying gratification, and willpower. [1:07:21] * A healthy relationship with technology. [1:11:27] * A recent purchase of $100 o less. [1:18:13] * What's your take on clothing? [1:19:10] * nono.ma/items. [1:20:34] * Book recommendations. [1:21:57] * How can people connect with you online? [1:24:46] * How did it feel to be interviewed? [1:25:37] * Outro. [1:27:02]

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Nate Peters on democratizing design tools and using his design skills for good, dealing with internet junk, potential misuses of machine learning, and more.

Nate Peters is a computational designer and software developer with experience in design optimization, digital fabrication, and machine learning. Nate received his Master of Design Studies in Technology from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and his Bachelor of Architecture from Iowa State University. Currently he works in Boston as a software engineer in Autodesk’s AEC Generative Design Group. At Autodesk he has assisted in the design and construction of multiple large scale research pavilions, and is currently focused on Project Refinery, a new generative design tool for architects and engineers in the building industry.

Connect with Nate on NathanPeters.us, on Twitter at @_natepeters, and on Instagram at @nate_peters.

Favorite quotes * "If you chase something you enjoy doing the money would follow, if that's what you're really looking for." * "It's rare for really good design to come from total isolation." * "There is something therapeutic about having the same exact motions every single day."

Links * Harvard GSD * Dark Matter by Blake Crouch * Men low-cut socks by Uniqlo * Women footsites by Uniqlo * The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation * Packaged house system by Konrad Wachsmann and Walter Gropius * Hardcore History by Dan Carlin (podcast) * Radiolab (podcast) * Freakonomics * x.ai * Clippy * TensorFlow * Neural network * Machine learning * Barack Obama deep fake in Ars Electronica (video) * Pix2Pix * Nvidia * vid2vid * MIT Media Lab * Google Brain

Books * The Information by James Gleick * The Prefabricated Home by Colin Davies

People mentioned * Shelby Doyle * Ian Keough * Jose Luis García del Castillo y López * Peter Boyer * Walter Gropius * Colin Davies * Elon Musk * Panagiotis Michalatos * Andrew Witt * Barack Obama

Chapters * 00:48 · Intro * 01:07 · Part I * 01:42 · Nate Peters * 06:47 · The studio culture * 09:15 · Public speaking * 13:35 · Democratizing design tools * 16:03 · Letting others use your tools * 18:56 · Learning process * 20:05 · Planned or not * 20:58 · Software * 22:40 · Mediating tools * 24:37 · Open source outside of code * 26:03 · Work-in-progress and documentation * 27:50 · Digital management * 28:48 · Cloud storage * 29:31 · iCloud * 30:33 · Internet junk * 32:14 · Disconnection * 33:22 · Open plan and meetings * 34:19 · A creative environment * 36:10 · Part II * 36:20 · Routine * 37:30 · Define yourself * 37:59 · Daily habits * 38:58 · Yoga and meditation * 39:40 · Podcast and book recommendations * 41:00 · Making things with my hands * 42:08 · Deploying apps to the cloud * 43:07 · Boredom * 44:11 · Healthy relationship with tech * 46:03 · Paranoia * 51:54 · Design automation * 54:50 · Misusing artificial intelligence * 59:06 · Success * 01:00:37 · A person who influenced you * 01:01:53 · Role models * 01:03:04 · Making for others * 01:04:08 · A message to the world * 01:05:22 · An actual hobby * 01:06:10 · Slowing down * 01:06:32 · Quality * 01:07:23 · Learning * 01:09:05 · Physical clutter * 01:10:26 · Financial independence * 01:11:43 · A personal uniform * 01:12:49 · Distributing money * 01:13:31 · A book * 01:14:15 · Low-cut socks * 01:14:54 · Ten years from now * 01:15:51 · Connect with Nate * 01:16:18 · Your favorite episode * 01:16:31 · Outro

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Harvard University's Andrew Witt on the power of ruminating ideas, understanding complex problems, curating signals, geometric simplicity, introspective automation, and finding time for reflection.

Andrew Witt is co-founder, with Tobias Nolte, of Certain Measures, a Boston/Berlin-based office for design futures and an Associate Professor in Practice of Architecture at Harvard University. Trained as both an architect and mathematician, he has a particular interest in a technically synthetic and logically rigorous approach to form. His work has been shown at the Centre Pompidou, Barbican Centre, Futurium, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, among others.

Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn and Certain Measures.

Favorite quotes * "Feeling some sense of accomplishment or success allows you to understand, Okay. What it really takes to feel that level of satisfaction is this amount of work." * "When you are eighty, you can look back and see, That's the body of work that I put into the world." * "I try not to look at other people's work as much as possible and, partially, it is to force myself to create in a very particular way but also not to create false expectation of speed and expediency and immediate demand which can be super corrosive, especially if you want to nurture something that's going to be durable." * "There will be certain moments when you feel like, Okay. This was well done. This is something that I put into the world and is good." * "Our whole understanding of what it means to create something which is successful is about creating things which are frictionless and can be distributed as easily as possible through market channels. It's all about this process of consumption." * "There's this moment where you see the waves moving away from you towards the horizon. In its very basic way, it's only the water and sky that are around you."

Links * Certain Measures * Gehry Technologies (GT) and Trimble * Critique of Pure Reason by Kant * Patchwork theory * Formulations: Encoding Architecture, Mathematics, and Culture by Andrew Witt * Pre-Socratic philosophy * Commonplace book * The adjacent possible with Stuart Kaufmann * High-dimensional spaces * Graph theory * Mind the scrap * Form maps * Textonics * Ten Books on Architecture—De Architectura—by Vitruvius * Set theory * Topology * Marginalia * Friendster * Gmail API * Feltron Report * Pompidou

Books * Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson * On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin * Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi

People mentioned * Kant * Steven Johnson * Stuart Kauffman * Charles Darwin * Peter Boyer * Vitruvius * Alberti * Josef Albers

Chapters * 00:00 · Introduction * 01:04 · Part 1 — Career, ideas, and geometry * 03:33 · Certain Measures vs. Harvard * 08:27 · Stitching ideas * 13:58 · Letting ideas grow * 15:23 · Where good ideas come from * 18:04 · Mapping super-high dimensional spaces * 21:21 · Mapping projects * 22:33 · Big data * 26:25 · A geometrical challenge * 28:25 · Geometric simplicity * 31:02 · Simple and intuitive * 33:07 · Part 2 — Life, creativity, and the end game * 33:17 · Daily habits * 35:26 · Reflecting away from the screen * 36:02 · Commute and time for reflection * 36:40 · Marginalia, being a generous reader * 37:11 · Indexing ideas when reading * 38:33 · Creativity * 39:49 · Types of ideas * 41:29 · Practicing seeing * 42:00 · Curating signals * 43:33 · Scripting email * 44:49 · A customized journal * 46:03 · Time tracking * 46:38 · Digital organization * 47:39 · Quantified self * 48:55 · Analyzing your writing * 51:04 · Swimming * 53:12 · A happy moment * 55:46 · An influential person * 57:49 · The end game * 59:46 · Connect with Andrew * 01:00:21 · Spreadsheet of goals * 01:02:03 · (Not) looking at other people's work * 01:03:28 · Outro

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Scott H. Young on quickly mastering hard skills, acquiring knowledge, and becoming good at things that seem impossible to you right now.

Scott H. Young is an author, entrepreneur, and ultralearner. After learning MIT's 4-year computer science curriculum in less than twelve months, Scott taught himself four new languages in a year. In his book Ultralearning, Scott shares the principles and methods that he and other ultralearners employ to quickly master new skills, acquire knowledge, and become good at things that seem impossible to you right now.

Connect with Scott on scotthyoung.com, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

Favorite quotes * "All of us are learning. Otherwise, we would be rocks." * "Ultralearning is not just a philosophy of learning one thing [and getting better at it] but a constant process of taking on projects and learning new things." * "Most people don't do [what would probably work better for learning] because it's kind of scary or frustrating or a little uncomfortable at first." * "Learning is any change that happens in the brain that makes you do something better." * "There are mental and emotional obstacles that often prevent us from doing what [we] know would really make sense for learning better, because we're afraid or think it will be too frustrating or challenging." * "[Deliberate practice] is overriding the habits and patterns that you form." * "I'm always learning about learning." * "[The Feynman Technique] forces you to articulate what you understand and what you don't." * "Paper acts as an extension of your working memory. [Writing things down] is a kind of cognitive enhancement that allows you to think more intelligently about ideas." * "The ultralearning ethos: learning is intrinsically hard."

Episode links * Survivorship bias * Deliberate practice explained by James Clear * Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi * Stardew Valley by Eric Barone (game) * Skill polarization * Goals! An Interactive Guide by Scott Young * Fluent in Three Months by Benny Lewis * Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman (autobiography) * The Feynman Technique by Scott Young * Rubber Ducky technique * Top Performer by Cal Newport and Scott Young (course) * Don’t Break The Chain! (app) * LeechBlock (app) * Screen Time (app) * Text Expander (app) * Scott Young’s book club (podcast) * James Clear's blog * Study Hacks by Cal Newport * Marginal REVOLUTION by Tyler Cowen (blog) * Slate Star Codex by Scott Alexander (podcast) * Zen habits by Leo Babauta * Anki (space repetition system) (app) * Supermemo (app) * R (programming language)

Books * Ultralearning by Scott Young * Deep Work by Cal Newport * Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport * So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport * The Enigma of Reason by Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber

People mentioned * Darrin Rose * Leo Babauta * Benny Lewis * Roger Craig * David Autor * Anders Ericsson * Eric Barone * Lazlo Polgar * Susan Polgar * Sofia Polgar * Judit Polgar * Bobby Fischer * Richard Feynman * Cal Newport * James Clear * Ramit Sethi * Barbara Oakley * Tristan de Montebello * Tim Ferriss * Tyler Cowen

Chapters * 00:28 · Scott Young * 04:31 · Career * 08:37 · Going full time * 11:05 · Monetizing * 12:52 · Writing the Ultralearning book * 15:09 · Guinea pigs * 18:21 · Pushing yourself * 26:12 · Flow vs. deliberate practice * 29:22 · Ultralearning principles * 35:34 · Self-directed and intense * 39:48 · Why does ultralearning matter? * 45:17 · Can anyone learn? * 49:28 · Your learning approach * 53:34 · Directness * 01:02:01 · The Feynman technique * 01:05:33 · Rubber ducking * 01:06:23 · The mindset of experimentation * 01:09:24 · Constraints * 01:12:23 · The Expert Interview Method * 01:14:56 · Masters and mentors * 01:19:06 · Role models * 01:20:37 · Cal Newport and James Clear * 01:22:38 · Daily routine * 01:23:16 · Is your life simple? * 01:23:49 · Complexities * 01:24:44 · Team * 01:26:18 · Habits * 01:27:45 · Meditation * 01:28:35 · Rituals * 01:29:44 · Commute * 01:29:54 · Working from home * 01:30:37 · Sports and hobbies * 01:31:24 · Work hours * 01:32:57 · Email * 01:33:51 · Distractions * 01:34:45 · Social media * 01:36:46 · A list of ideas * 01:37:45 · Curating your work * 01:39:39 · Disconnection * 01:40:58 · Boredom * 01:42:13 · Healthy tech * 01:43:28 · Digital clutter * 01:44:52 · Workflows * 01:45:36 · Away from screens * 01:46:17 · The story about who you are * 01:49:25 · Successful people * 01:50:28 · One sentence to the world * 01:50:46 · What would you tell your 20-year-old self? * 01:53:54 · Paranoid * 01:54:55 · Book (and other) recommendations * 01:55:53 · Spaced-repetition systems * 01:57:15 · Connect with Scott * 01:58:15 · What's next? * 01:59:53 · Slowing down * 02:01:04 · See you next time * 02:01:32 · Scott speaking Spanish

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Technologist and artist Cristóbal Valenzuela on powering your creative work with artificial intelligence, co-founding RunwayML to put machine learning in the hands of creators, and his take on simple living and creativity.

Cristóbal Valenzuela is a technologist, artist and software developer interested in the intersection between artificial intelligence and creative tools. He is co-founder of Runway and researcher at New York University ITP.

Previously, he co-founded Latent Studio, a creative studio specializing in machine learning and artificial intelligence. He also contributes to OSS and helps maintain ml5.js. His work has been sponsored by Google and the Processing Foundation and his projects has been exhibited in Latin America and the US, including NeurIPS, Santiago Museum of Contemporary Art, ARS Electronica, GAM, ACADIA, Fundación Telefonica, Lollapalooza, NYC Media Lab, New Latin Wave, DOCLAB, Inter-American Development Bank, Stanford University and New York University.

Connect with Cristóbal on his website, Twitter (@c_valenzuelab), or GitHub (@cvalenzuela).

Favorite quotes * "For me, simplicity is anything that allows you to concentrate your energy on meaningful tasks so you don't spend time around things that are not necessary." * "Simple is hard to get and understand. There's no simplicity law." * "Being surrounded by people that are not in your field [and things] not related to what you do often, not common to your day to day [makes me more creative]." * "The main idea of Runway is to enable creative people to use and benefit from artificial intelligence in a way that's common to a language they understand." * "Anyone can do anything [with the right mindset and time]." * "We are on the verge of a new creative revolution. [Machine intelligence] is producing radical changes in the way digital content is made, understood, and processed, unfastening previously unimagined ways of creating."

Links * NYU ITP * Runway ML * Machine learning * ml5.js * Processing * Processing.py * Processing for Android * p5.js * Processing Foundation * Google Summer of Code‌ * The origins of ml5.js (article) * TensorFlow.js (formerly deeplearn.js) * Canvas API * MNIST * LSTM (Long short-term memory) * Style transfer * Pix2Pix * PoseNet * im2txt * GAN (Generative adversarial networks) * Ars Electronica * Inaccurate Collaborations (project) * Marrow (project) * Lobe.ai * Sketching Interfaces * Google PAIR * Naming ml5 (and other name ideas) * Rest of you (video) * iTerm (app) * Visual Studio Code (app) * Paperspace * Clear (app) * How to make your iPhone black and white (article) * The New Yorker * Building accessible tools for artists by Cris (article)

Books * Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas (book)

People mentioned * Daniel Shiffman * Yining Shi * Dan Oved * Alejandro Matamala Ortiz * Anastasis Germanidis * Shirin Anlen * Gene Kogan * Mario Klingemann * Memo Akten * Hana Davis * Mimi Onuoha * David Ha * Martin Wattenberg * Fernanda Viegas * Daniel Smilkov * Nikhil Thorat * Kyle McDonald * Jabrils * Daniel O'Sullivan * Carolina Pino * Nathan Melenbrink

Chapters * 00:33 · Intro * 02:29 · Cristóbal Valenzuela * 08:18 · ml5 * 10:44 · Naming ml5 * 11:50 · Experiments * 13:07 · Open source * 14:17 · Runway * 14:57 · Exposing it to people * 16:43 · Runway's roadmap * 18:28 · Projects * 20:44 · Machine learning * 22:19 · Visual artists * 23:47 · Other companies * 24:43 · Cristobal Valenzuela * 24:58 · Day-to-day * 25:44 · Commute * 26:24 · Exercise * 26:54 · Meditative moments * 27:14 · Simple living * 27:41 · Complexity * 28:20 · Hobbies * 28:40 · Book recommendations * 29:50 · Artificial intelligence on simplicity * 30:33 · Your contribution to artificial intelligence * 31:26 · Ideal work * 31:57 · Starting a startup * 34:33 · Focus, flow, and music * 36:00 · Distractions * 36:41 · Work-in-progress * 37:13 · Creativity * 38:32 · Serendipity? * 39:36 · @c_valenzuelab * 39:52 · Ideas * 40:35 · Deliberate practice * 41:11 · Digital tools * 42:23 · The sandbox folder * 43:10 · Favorite user interface * 44:31 · Simplicity * 45:02 · Intuitive * 45:33 · Healthy tech * 47:10 · Addictive tech * 48:42 · Measuring "success" * 49:07 · Disconnect * 50:25 · Boredom * 51:48 · Email * 52:29 · Away from the screen * 53:11 · Money * 54:07 · A positive purchase * 54:52 · Clothing * 55:30 · Physical clutter * 56:10 · Traveling light * 56:48 · Personal success * 57:31 · A message to yourself * 59:01 · A sentence to the world * 59:44 · Worries * 01:01:49 · Impostor syndrome * 01:02:26 · Habit-changing software * 01:03:28 · Environment * 01:03:59 · Connect with Cris * 01:05:09 · New York vs Chile

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Artist and illustrator Pier Gustafson on living a simple life with what makes him smile, the messy creative process behind projects, clients, and deadlines, and being an artist in the twenty-first century.

Pier is an artist who presently designs maps, monograms, logos, invitations and other illustrations usually for print. His passion is drawing. Though he explores various media from simple pencil to the iPad he tends to favor vintage fountain pens, which he collects and repairs and sells to other artists and calligraphers. (A pen made 100 years ago still works and works better than anything made today.) He is a “maximalist” in that he surrounds himself with objects which can “spark joy” when arranged and juxtaposed in creative ways. His man-cave is complete with jury-rigged “stalagmites” made of shelves balancing atop filing cabinets filled with stuff which may be used in his art.

He does like to smile by making others smile. The art he creates for himself has a simple goal: to make you think and to smile.

He is single, has a sharp-fanged cat named Orca, plays the ukulele and rides a bright red, fat-tired bike to do his shopping.

He’s about to turn 63 years old, but still has yet to grow up.

Connect with Pier on YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, or his Website.

Favorite quotes * "For me, more is more, aesthetically." * "Spending thirty minutes on a sketch is sometimes twenty minutes too long." * "If you're done doing what you like to do, find a job that you can do nine to five or even less, get a part time job waiting tables, and then spend the rest of your free time doing what you want to do." * "I think in a way I do have that simplicity, even if it involves lots of stuff. […] I have all of this stuff for the purpose of making me smile." * "Starting from scratch is sometimes the best thing you could do. You just throw the thing away and start completely over." * "What I save on commuting, I lose in productivity. Living and working in the same place is something that a lot of people think would be a great idea […] but I don't think it's all that great for me." * "Remember to turn things off, completely turn things off. Not just when you're at a movie theater, or dinner, just turn things off and go outside and ride your bike or go to the grocery store or read a book, a real book."

Links * Lettering * Calligraphy * Good Service Pen Co, Minneapolis * Technical pens and rapidographs * Fountain pens * Nono's sketch of MIT's Killian Hall * Felt-tip pens: Micron Pigma, Molotov Blackliner, Staedler Pigment Liner * Art Deco (art movement) * Ikebana (Japanese term) * Urban sketchers * Letterpress printing * The Dot and the Line by Chuck Jones (short film) * Wacom Cintiq (product) * Sketch Club for iPad (app), "The love child of Photoshop and Facebook." * Mylar * Feng shui (Japanese term) * Vexillology * Pier at Brickbottom Artists Open Studios (video) * Pier's hat (photo) * Some of Pier's works, monograms, and invitations.

Books * The Art of Living by Saul Steinberg * Mr. Pine's Mixed-Up Signs by Leonard Kessler * The Dot and the Line by Norton Juster

People mentioned * Saul Steinberg * Johnny Carson

Chapters * 00:33 · Intro * 02:05 · Pier Gustafson * 03:12 · Fountain pens * 04:07 · Artist * 05:45 · Studio/home separation * 06:53 · Pier's studio * 09:23 · Routines * 10:57 · Complexities * 12:24 · Habits * 13:35 · Meditative moments * 14:53 · Music and documentaries * 15:53 · Disconnection * 16:29 · Living with more * 18:42 · Born in the wrong century * 19:51 · New tech for art and design * 21:10 · Your best ideas * 24:33 · Deadlines, clients, and creativity * 25:39 · Deliberate practice * 26:26 · Work in progress * 27:35 · Calling it done * 29:48 · Favorite project * 32:24 · Letterpress printing * 33:07 · Success * 34:52 · Urban sketchers * 37:02 · Scope * 39:45 · Lightning round * 39:51 · Morning message to yourself * 40:50 · Someone successful * 41:22 · Your message to the world * 41:44 · Message to your 20-year-old self * 43:16 · Boredom * 44:00 · Money * 45:13 · Unique objects * 46:57 · Art * 47:45 · Craft * 48:48 · Making your live easier * 49:29 · Books * 51:08 · Digital tools * 52:15 · Sketch Club * 53:04 · Pro tip for the iPad and Apple Pencil * 54:47 · Healthy tech * 55:36 · Online communities * 56:13 · Slowing down * 56:48 · Busyness * 57:00 · Distractions * 58:12 · Vexillology * 58:45 · Artist's advice * 59:48 · Your future * 01:00:24 · Money * 01:01:25 · A challenge * 01:03:13 · Looks like a drawing * 01:04:45 · Connect with Pier * 01:05:08 · When we actually met * 01:06:03 · This podcast * 01:07:17 · Messy * 01:08:59 · Thanks * 01:09:58 · Ukelele song

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Panagiotis Michalatos on the luxury of choosing to be simple and the emerging trend of simplicity, the power of intuition, questioning our creative interfaces and workflows, and his love for screens.

Pan Michalatos is an architect, lecturer in architecture technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a Principal Research Engineer at Autodesk. Between 2006 and 2010 he worked as a computational design researcher for the London-based structural engineering firm AKT.

Along with colleague Sawako Kaijima, Pan provided consultancy, and designed computational solutions, for a range of high-profile projects. They have also developed a range of software applications for the intuitive and creative use of structural engineering methods in design.

Simplicity is an emerging trend; a luxury not everyone can afford.

For the last 10,000 years, human biology has barely changed — yet our lives feel more complex, accelerated, and stressful than ever before.

What are we trying to slow down from?

Favorite quotes * "I don't think there is such a thing as a simple life." * "You need to have the luxury to choose to simplify your life." * "Everything [including art] has utility for the fact that it is being done." * "There is a misconception: that our lives have accelerated. […] But for someone 10,000 years ago, [life] would be an equally constant state of stress." * "Screens are constructed, by accident or intentionally, to be stared at. You don't have a problem focusing on the screen. The problem is looking away from it." * "We are trying to create tools and workflows for designers that incorporate all the knowledge [existing in other disciplines] to be directly accessible and usable." * "Software is seen as a way to package knowledge in a usable (and mobile) form, to distribute it." * "The other people. That's the challenge." * "We try to find drives to keep us distracted from the fact that we're all gonna die."

Links * Adams Kara Taylor * Commodore 64 * oramata (app) * Monolith (app) * Objet 3d printer from Stratasys * Millipede (app) * Application Programming Interface * In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg (podcast) * National Technical University of Athens * Images of the artifacts used by the main hand by Alberto Frigo (project) * WarioWare: Smooth Moves (videogame) * "Simplify your life" on Google Ngram Viewer

Books * Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich * Red Plenty by Francis Spufford * Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter * Holy Anorexia by Rudolph M. Bell

People mentioned * Cristina Caprioli * Sawako Kaijima * Andrew Payne * Melvyn Bragg * Dimitris Papalexopoulos * Paul Valéry * Alberto Frigo * Slavoj Žižek

Episode notes · Part 1, Pan's career * Intro. [0:00] * Pan Michalatos. [2:27] * Intuitive. [12:02] * The "opening" of making. [13:43] * Specificity. [15:19] * Simple interactions. [16:47] * Developing intuition. [18:28] * Who designs your software. [20:01] * Rewarding interfaces. [22:56] * Design automation. [24:33] * Constrained interactions. [25:35] * Programming languages - How do coding languages affect user interactions? [26:06] * Three social contexts - Working with a team, teaching, and doing your own projects. [28:10] * Side projects. [28:57] * oramata. [31:01] * Monolith - A response to the "big promise" of the digital manufacturing industry. [32:46] * Millipede. [35:52] * Open source. [38:16] * Teaching. [39:26]

Episode notes · Part 2, Pan's worldview * Pan Michalatos. [41:26] * Is your life simple? [42:00] * Complexity vs Intensity. [42:31] * Daily habits. [43:14] * Commute. [43:25] * Exercise. [43:47] * Meditative moments. [44:18] * Boredom. [44:44] * Media recommendations. [45:06] * Focus. [45:48] * Email. [46:09] * What makes you more creative? [47:25] * Your best ideas. [47:52] * Work in progress. [47:57] * Deliberate practice. [48:32] * Disconnection. [49:03] * Restrictions. [49:45] * Analog. [50:03] * Social media. [50:52] * Digital clutter. [52:48] * Communicative software. [53:37] * Success. [55:12] * A person that influenced you. [56:33] * A sentence to the world. [57:25] * Anything you'd do differently? [57:42] * Nature. [58:15] * Money. [59:11] * Clothing. [59:57] * Objects. [1:00:33] * Distaste towards clutter. [1:00:54] * Travel. [1:02:06] * Fun experiments. [1:02:52] * What's art? [1:03:50] * Slow down from what? [1:05:13] * Slack vs Scarcity. [1:07:08] * The exceptional and the regular. [1:10:06] * Book recommendations. [1:15:20] * News. [1:17:28] * A creative hobby. [1:18:19] * Regulating technologies. [1:19:10] * Future work. [1:21:42] * On Getting Simple. [1:22:53]

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Theme song Sleep by Steve Combs under CC BY 4.0. Background sounds of people playing golf, vehicles, dogs, bugs, and birds, happened in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while we were recording.

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Nono Martínez Alonso on forgetting who you were trying to help, the main point behind creating tools, and the case of Machina, with Jose Luis García del Castillo y López.

Computer programs help us do things we couldn't do before. Often, programs provide new ways of doing what we were already able to do — faster, easier, more precisely — fostering experimentation and unleashing our creative potential.

At times, though, we get lost along the way. We focus on small details and forget about the whole picture. Trying to make the tool a bit better, we forget about what problem we were trying to solve, who we were trying to help, and why.

My friend Jose Luis (whom you might know from a previous episode) created Machina, an open-source program that intends to make a pretty hard task — controlling robots — a little easier.

In this episode, we learn about how Jose Luis managed to focus on why (and for whom) he was writing software; using Machina to help other designers quickly get going with robots.

Favorite quotes * "Teaching is fundamental to what I want to do and what I like doing because I feel I have a very tangible impact on the lives of people." —Jose Luis * "We often forget who we're trying to help and what problem we're trying to solve, and get obfuscated on solving problems just for the sake of solving them." —Nono

Links * Machina * The robo-selfie project * Jose Luis' episode * Matt Jezyk's episode * Jose Luis on Twitter

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CEO of NuVu, Saba Ghole, on creating an innovation school & reinventing high school education; growth mindset; art and design as expressive mediums; changing places; simple life habits; technology; and more.

Opportunities to talk to people like Saba Ghole and learn about how they understand life and what drives them to do what they do every day, is what moves me to continue with the Getting Simple project.

"I had a chance to reminisce with Nono about what it means to get simple and embody a growth mindset on his very special podcast. Mixed in are bits about my childhood, my artistic pursuits, and my current love and passion, NuVu Studio." —Saba Ghole, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of NuVu Studio

If you're intrigued about how growth mindset can be taken to reality, listen to this episode and learn about how NuVu, an innovation school for middle and high school students, helps students build long-lasting core competencies and creative skills.

Saba Ghole (@sabarani) is an entrepreneur, designer and artist. Around 9 years ago, she co-founded NuVu Studio, an innovation school for middle and high school students. NuVu builds creative skills in youth with a strong focus on real world interdisciplinary projects. NuVu is based in Cambridge, MA, USA, but its pedagogy and programs expand to cities around the world. Prior to founding NuVu, Saba studied architecture and urban design at MIT. While working in architecture and planning firms, she focused on the re-design of urban centers and designing new health-science-technology buildings in the Middle East and Asia. Saba also has a passion for designing and building large-scale interactive art installations that use technology and biofeedback — like Pulse and Bloom, a widely-featured piece — to raise social awareness and strengthen community connection.

Favorite quotes * "Take a deep breath. Leave behind any of a stressful thought, or a bottleneck, or a challenge that you were facing yesterday. And focus on one thing that you'd like to accomplish today. And do it." * "Simplicity gets to the essence of what makes me happy in its most basic way." * "[If] the same tool you're using to do one task [has] access to all these other apps and programs, you have to be very deliberate in how you monitor yourself. And that can be very challenging."

Links * Saba Ghole's Travel & Packing Checklist * NuVu * NuVu X * Pulse and Bloom * Burning Man * The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho * Can you learn creativity? Saba's TEDxSanJoseCA talk * Nurturing a Beginner's Mind. Saba's INKtalks talk

People mentioned * Saeed Arida * David Wang * Saurabh Mhatre * Jose Luis García del Castillo y López * Jack Dorsey * Zaha Hadid

Outline * Saba Ghole. [0:47] * India & California. [4:52] * Sound - What are the things that Saba appreciates (and misses) when living in India versus Orange County. [7:28] * An expressive medium. [13:06] * The studio model. [15:22] * Homeschooling. [17:34] * NuVu - An innovation school for middle and high school students. [18:57] * Core values - What values do NuVu students acquire? [24:12] * Collateral skills. [28:09] * Growth mindset. [29:38] * Jump into it - What would you say to someone who's afraid of trying something? [34:12] * "Nu vu" or "new view." [35:59] * Motivation - What's in NuVu for the students and their parents? [36:33] * Mindset - What will NuVu students be doing in ten to twenty years? [38:54] * NuVu X. [44:04] * Formats - Learn about the different programs NuVu offers to students. [47:53] * Connect. [49:44] * Back to Saba Ghole. [50:37] * Daily routine - What does your day-to-day look like? What are your routines, exercises, morning and sleep habits, meditation practices, and mindful moments. [50:55] * Commute. [54:45] * "Me time" [55:31] * The plan - Does Saba plan ahead of time, or does she like experimenting as she goes? [58:13] * Your best ideas - When do you think you get your best ideas? [59:23] * Distractions - What distracts you? [1:02:31] * Notifications. [1:04:33] * Email. [1:05:23] * Disconnection - Time and activities Saba uses to be with her own thoughts. [1:06:23] * Deliberate practice. [1:08:06] * Boredom. [1:09:27] * Technology - "Are we better off as a society and globally because we have these enhanced technologies in our lives? Have our lives improved? And, where are we headed? Some of that can be very frightening. [1:09:56] * Social media - How do you think social media affects the "growth mindset" of students. [1:13:37] * Healthy tech - Who's responsible for how we use technology? [1:16:04] * Personal success. [1:19:01] * Day starter. [1:19:36] * Someone successful. [1:20:21] * Simplicity. [1:22:39] * A positive influencer. [1:23:46] * A little thought. [1:25:11] * Books. [1:25:39] * Your work online. [1:27:00] * Money. [1:27:45] * A purchase. [1:28:25] * Essential travel - Learn about Saba's system to travel. [1:29:30] * Clothing - One in, one out. How to keep a simple wardrobe. [1:30:44] * Physical clutter. [1:32:14] * Digital clutter. [1:32:52] * Pulse and Bloom. [1:33:43] * Outro. [1:35:37]

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Tesla's Matt Jezyk on his rituals to slow down and stay afloat amongst all the things competing for your attention; embracing change and automation; techniques to be more creative; the rationale behind his ten-year life cycles; why he just transitioned from Autodesk to Tesla; and a lot more.

Matt works as the Sr. Staff Software Engineer at Tesla in the group that designs and builds the "Gigafactories." He develops software to smooth out the design, fabrication, and construction process. Matt’s group is responsible for developing smart factories for upcoming Tesla products.

Prior to his current role, Matt was the Senior Engineering Manager for AEC Generative Design at Autodesk. He has been in the AEC industry for 23+ years and has spent the past 20 years developing Autodesk Revit and various other design tools. Matt helped build Revit Architecture and Revit Structure and led the team at Autodesk responsible for developing Dynamo (computational design) and Project Refinery (optimization and generative design). Dynamo is now being used around the world and has an amazing community of users who now teach these techniques at many events and conferences.

Matt's group also has explored new ways of building by connecting computational and generative design directly to digital fabrication tools and robots. Examples of this have been shown in the Autodesk BUILD Space in Boston and presented at conferences like ACADIA, SmartGeometry, and Robots in Architecture.

Favorite quotes * "Anybody using computers uses it to be more efficient. There's an automation aspect. The computer can help you do something faster than it was before." * "It's going to take you eight hours to do something. The first time you write some code for it, maybe it takes you four or five hours to write. And then the thing runs, like, in a minute, and you're done." * "When you have a copy of a van Gogh is it still a van Gogh? It's a representation of the original." * "You need to find a business that is making money while you're sleeping." * "How do you apply automation in a way that doesn't threaten or doesn't take the original person out of the mix?" * "I find that unless I carve out time to be productive and creative it doesn't happen. So that's a pretty important ritual." * "If you're hard thinking about a problem and noodling on it and kind of stuck, one of the best things that I've learned to do is just detach and go for a run, go to the gym, go outside, do something else, kind of consciously, don't think about it. But then your subconscious is still working on it." * "There's a serious amount of work happening for these things that are constantly competing for your attention. So why give it to them?" * "The pervasiveness of phones and screens and applications that are constantly competing for your attention, and these little sort of dopamine hits that you get, [together with] "the likes" that are there. That changes more than other mediums that were there before. And I don't really know where we're going from there."

Links * The water-running lizard * How dopamine gets us hooked on tech? * Ex-Facebook president Sean Parker: site made to exploit human 'vulnerability' * How Designers Destroyed the World and another Presentation by Mike Monteiro * API (application programming interface) * Higharc * Adobe Research * GitHub * Kieran Timberlake * Minecraft * Stack Overflow * SquareSpace * The Massachusetts T * Raspberry Pi * Harvard Innovation Labs * Tesla Model 3

Books * Tribes by Seth Godin * Influence Without Authority by Allan Cohen, David Bradford * Drive by Daniel Pink * Design Is a Job by Mike Monteiro

People mentioned * Phil Read ("Two beers and a cheeseburger" guy.) * Leonid Raiz * David Conant * Robert Aish * David Rutten * Seth Godin * Daniel Pink * Mike Monteiro * Zach Kron * Devin Lu Linvega * Nate Miller * Peter Boyer * Gene Kogan * Mario Klingemann * Francis Bacon * Drew Houston * Lourdes Alonso

Outline * Intro. [1:01] * Matt Jezyk. [2:36] * Change - What do you do when you find a way to do your job faster? [14:18] * Learning the new way. [18:08] * Automation. [24:44] * What's your time worth? [27:21] * Firing your clients. [32:40] * We don't need you. [34:22] * Is it a van Gogh? [35:22] * Meaning. [39:20] * Being the first - Machine learning for artists. [41:46] * Teaching yourself. [44:19] * Code. [47:06] * Re-using your tools. [48:23] * Sharing. [50:54] * Slowing down - Matt's transition from Autodesk to Tesla. [55:13] * Flights & remote working - How many times you fly a year? [56:45] * Rituals. [58:47] * Commuting - Long commutes, transitioning in and out of work, and having autonomy. [1:01:15] * Autonomy. [1:04:24] * Mono-taskers. [1:04:55] * Competing for your attention - Separating work and non-work, services that deplete your resources and beg for your attention. [1:06:32] * Unhealthy tech. [1:08:37] * Altering how we interact. [1:10:15] * Try quitting social media. [1:11:24] * Meditative moments - Deep ocean dives, switching on your "background process," and forcing yourself out of your usual context. [1:11:56] * When: your best ideas. [1:16:12] * Working with your hands. [1:17:05] * Avoid work distractions. [1:18:58] * Email. [1:19:57] * Clutter. [1:22:13] * Personal success. [1:23:01] * A message to the world. [1:23:46] * Your 30-year-old self. [1:24:12] * Paranoia. [1:25:24] * Books. [1:26:24] * Connect with Matt. [1:28:16] * Slowing down. [1:29:01] * Retirement. [1:30:48] * Wrap up. [1:32:14] * Self-driving cars - Matt's thoughts on Tesla and the future of cars. [1:33:23] * Outro. [1:37:37]

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Antonio García Guerra, PhD from the University of Oxford, on the importance of physical activity, social time, and information to be more creative and perform at your maximum cognitive capacity.

Antonio Garcia Guerra is a recently graduated PhD student from the University of Oxford. He was born in Badajoz (Spain), but grew up by the sea in Málaga. In his own words, "The sun didn't wash the nerd away." Antonio studied Biotechnology as an Undergraduate at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona. Before graduating, he took a detour and stayed in Boston (USA); where he was privileged to visit Prof. Ali Khademhosseini tissue engineering's lab at Harvard, and remained as a visiting student at MIT. For his PhD, he joined Prof. Andrew Turberfield’s laboratory at the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford, where he have developed novel theranostic CRISPR tools and several nano delivery systems for nucleic acid-based therapies.

"Whenever I have time, I love to go to music shows, and spend as much time as I can with my friends. I run on coffee, and enjoy pizza, maybe too much."

Connect with Antonio on LinkedIn.

Links * The CRISPR technique * The Guardian * Axios * El País * Medium * TechCrunch * Harvard Business Review * MIT Technology Review * The 80/20 rule * Exosomes * RNA * NUPACK * In silico * cadnano * AND & OR gates * Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Mark Williams and Danny Penman * Deep Work by Cal Newport * Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport * So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport

Episode notes * Intro. [0:33] * Antonio García Guerra. [1:03] * Opportunities. [6:02] * Sports, emotions, and information. [7:12] * Creative collaboration. [12:20] * The CRISPR technique [14:04] * Media sources. [16:21] * Information overload. [18:41] * Meditative moments. [19:49] * Daily routines. [23:28] * Simple living. [24:56] * Making smart drugs. [26:56] * Genetic engineering. [31:36] * Moral implications. [33:21] * Your contribution. [35:09] * Connect with Antonio. [36:46] * When your best work happen. [37:06] * Current projects at Oxford. [38:33] * Technology. [40:54] * A healthy relationship with technology. [44:01] * Away from the screen. [45:36] * Books. [47:02] * Deep Work. [47:13] * Mindfulness. [48:43] * Having the maximum impact. [50:48] * Success. [52:17] * Role models. [54:32] * A message to the world. [55:52] * All the other things do matter. [57:00]

People mentioned * Ali Khademhosseini * Andrew Turberfield * Matthew Wood * Jocelyn K. Glei * Cal Newport * Robert S. Langer

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Craig Long on how life is in the moments you didn't expect, quieting your inner intensity, helping others achieve complex goals when they don't know where to start, remote working, and disconnecting from technology.

Craig grew up in the mountains of Wyoming wanting to be an architect, and studied architectural engineering with an emphasis in mathematics at University of Kansas. He currently works at Autodesk, Boston, developing software for other designers that — like he did for several years at Zahner — heavily rely on computers to build intricate designs.

After knowing Craig for a few years, I couldn't agree more with Kevin Rooney's description: "Craig is the mentalist. He can tear apart a problem to its root core to reveal the best opportunities. He can move easily between general ideas to technical execution in order to make [things] happen. He is also an incredibly kind person."

Connect with Craig at (@craigalanlong).

Favorite quotes * "Life isn't always a deterministic process you know ahead of time." * "[Listening to podcasts on my commute] became this empowering and centering force." * "Part of growing up and growing older is learning that life is in the moments and things that you didn't expect." * "If I looked at the logistics and analytics of how often I pick up my phone there would probably be very disconcerting information. So that's what I'm trying to be. More attentive [and] intentional about turning off those those stimuli and being more present." * "Find what you love and do it to the best of your abilities."

Links * Zahner * Arup * Experience Music Project by Frank Gehry * Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry * Stata Center by Frank Gehry * De Young Museum by Herzog & de Meuron and Fong + Chan * Grasshopper * Dynamo * CATIA * .NET Rocks podcast by Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell * C# * Scala * This American Life by WBEZ * Radiolab by WNYC Studios * Slack * Zoom * ShopFloor * Google Earth * Snowcrash by Neal Stevenson * Alto's Adventure * 2048

Chapters * 00:00 · Intro * 00:53 · Craig Long * 05:24 · The plan * 08:44 · Challenges * 12:03 · Starting a project * 16:09 · Manual vs. automated * 17:38 · The fun moments * 20:48 · Zahner * 28:16 · The last man * 33:23 · ShopFloor * 36:20 · Things you miss * 42:57 · Commute * 50:02 · Remote working * 54:55 · Helping others * 57:04 · Yourself * 58:08 · Creativity * 59:39 · Your best ideas * 01:01:17 · Disconnection * 01:02:42 · Email * 01:04:09 · Flow * 01:06:14 · Habits * 01:08:37 · Finding what you like * 01:09:59 · Digital workflows * 01:12:50 · Work-in-progress * 01:14:48 · Clutter * 01:20:51 · A comfortable user interface * 01:21:48 · Simple & intuitive * 01:22:46 · Success * 01:26:12 · One sentence to the world

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Co-creator of "Processing" and founder of Fathom Information Design — Ben Fry (@ben_fry) — on the beginnings of the Processing programming environment, the use of information design and visualization to understand complicated data problems, and his approach to design, life, & work.

Ben Fry is founder and principal of Fathom Information Design, a studio in Boston focused on understanding complicated data problems. He holds a Ph.D. from the MIT Media Laboratory and is a Lecturer at MIT. Fry has authored and co-authored multiple books and develops "Processing" — the programming environment he co-created with Casey Reas used by artists, engineers, scientists, and students all over the world since 2001. His work can be found in museums, feature films, research labs, and the portfolios of Fathom's clients such as Nike, JP Morgan, DARPA, and National Geographic. In 2011, Fry was honored to visit the White House to receive the National Design Award for Interaction Design.

Connect with Ben at Fathom.info, benfry.com, and Processing.org.

Links * Processing * Netscape * Fathom Information Design * Arduino * OpenFrameworks * Open Render * acu by Ben Fry, Jared Schiffman, and Tom White (1999) * acWorld by Tom White, Jared Schiffman, and Ben Fry (1998) * acWindows by David Small (1996) * OpenGL * C++ * Bad Windows by Bob Sabiston (1988) * Visible Language Workshop * Aesthetics + Computation Group (ACG) * Design by Numbers * Human genome project * NYU ITP * Valence by Ben Fry (1999) * Valence in Minority Report * National Air and Space Museum * Star Wars * Star Trek * NASA * MIT Media Lab * Valence in the Hulk * On needing approval for what we create, and losing control over how it's distributed by Ben Fry (2010) * SGI Octane * Photoshop * Sentinel typeface by Hoefler & Co. * National typeface by Klim * Fabriga typeface by Lux Typo * Ringside typeface by Hoefler & Co. * ProPublica * MacRecipes by Fathom * Rocky Morphology by Fathom

Books * The Information by James Gleick * The Innovators by Walter Isaacson

Movies * Big Hero 6 * 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick * Alien by Ridley Scott * Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames

People mentioned * John Maeda * Casey Reas * Daniel Shiffman * Andres Colubri * Tom White * David Small * Bob Sabiston * John Underkoffler * Tom Cruise * Jose Luis García del Castillo y López * Jack Dorsey * Charles Kingsley * James Gleick * Walter Isaacson

Chapters * 00:05 · Intro * 02:05 · Ben Fry * 06:00 · The beginnings of Processing * 15:42 · Information design and visualization * 16:33 · The human genome project * 18:27 · Casey Reas * 19:03 · Daniel Shiffman * 22:02 · Valence * 27:00 · John Underkoffler * 27:44 · Valence in the Hulk * 30:20 · On needing approval for what we create * 40:17 · Building your own tools * 45:57 · Your favorite user interface * 47:36 · Typefaces * 49:22 · What you look for in a design * 52:21 · Fathom * 59:07 · Projects that spread * 01:01:32 · Is your life simple? * 01:03:34 · Daily habits * 01:04:26 · Non-work activities * 01:05:06 · Boredom * 01:05:51 · Social media * 01:07:53 · Disconnection * 01:10:44 · Technology * 01:12:33 · Ads * 01:16:31 · Success * 01:18:28 · A message to the world * 01:20:30 · Book recommendations * 01:23:39 · Side projects * 01:24:06 · Simplicity

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Artist, designer, and educator Jiyoo Jye on the struggles of making art and choosing your projects; education at an innovation school as a creative; when to share your work and the role of feedback; media consumption and technology; and her approach to a simpler, greener life.

Jiyoo is a visual artist, designer & educator. She works at NuVu Innovation School, where students learn within an architectural Studio model and create multi-displinary & collaborative projects. Ji has a Master's in Design Studies from Harvard University, Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor's of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University, School of Art. She has previously worked for Area9 Lyceum, a physician-led software company specializing in adaptive learning technology. While finishing her graduate study, she worked with the Harvard Fogg Museum's, Division of Modern and Contemporary Art in creating an online archive for the American sculptor, Christopher Wilmarth. She has also been an editor & co-author for the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure and a Communications fellow for the MIT Office of Sustainability.

Connect with Jiyoo at Sweetish Segment and at @sweetishsegment on Instagram.

Links * Sweetish Segment * Harvard GSD * MIT Office of Sustainability * Harvard Fogg Museum * NuVu * Hydroponics * Arduino

Books * Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag * A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess * The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard

People mentioned * Christopher Wilmarth * Christian Boltanski * Susan Sontag * Marlene Dumas * Anthony Burgess * Gaston Bachelard

Episode notes * Intro. [0:00] * Jiyoo Jye. [0:55] * What is NuVu? [2:37] * How does your day-to-day look like? Learn about the tools and projects Ji is invested on daily with her students at NuVu. [2:50] * What are you taking from your day job? [3:49] * Was your experience studying as an artist at an architecture school? [4:34] * Educating adults vs. teenagers. NuVu's model teaches students core skills in an interdisciplinary space, avoiding pressures where students need to excel in specific areas. [5:16] * Hydroponics. [9:00] * Your time at Carnegie Mellon School of Art. A maple tree, a dripping system, and more. [9:44] * Challenges of being an artist. Learn about how Ji makes time to make art, the role it places in her life, and how she finds a place for art as a creative professional. [11:07] * How do you choose what projects to focus on? "The kind of art is the one that can reflect the voice of that particular time." [12:57] * Ji's current projects. Morphology series—a constant flow of movement of formations. [13:25] * Activities and hobbies. [14:09] * Would you consider your life simple? [14:36] * How to share what you make. Ji thinks about finding ways to show your work in ways that go beyond an exhibit. [15:43] * The role of feedback. (And having something for yourself.) [17:23] * What is art? [18:14] * Advice for new artists. [19:01] * Who supported you? Learn about Ji's circles and her harshest critic. [19:55] * Artist toolset. [21:12] * Art mediums. [23:10] * The ideal art session. [24:58] * Daily routine - Ji tries to make something different from the previous day—might it be a change on the way she works or her schedule, to find ways to stay engaged in her day-to-day. [25:41] * Commute. [26:28] * Habits - Perfecting your head stand. [27:04] * Compassion and isolation. [27:51] * Boredom. [30:06] * When you get your best ideas. [31:50] * Social media. [32:43] * Disconnection. [34:29] * Media consumption - Learn about where Ji gets her media from. [35:32] * Healthy relationship with technology. [36:23] * Technology in art and design. [37:15] * Book recommendations. [37:58] * A successful person. [38:31] * Clothing - "A fun and creative outlet for self-expression." [38:49] * A cheap, positive purchase. [39:14] * Favorite app. [41:00] * Sustainability - Ji is (and always will be) invested in the green movement. [41:35] * One sentence to the world - "Eat the sweetish segment or spit it out." [42:30] * Unnecessary complexities. [43:25] * Digital & physical clutter. [43:54] * Cleaning rituals. [44:54] * Spirit animal. [45:26] * Nature. [45:57] * Books on slow & simple living. [47:07] * A question to Nono. [47:36]

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Researcher Nathan Melenbrink on his research on simple robots, teaching, his efforts to bring news neutrality to the internet, liking new things, acquiring taste, and much more.

Nathan is a Fellow in Computer Science at the Wyss Institute, where his research focuses on swarm robotics for construction. He has taught courses related to design, computation, robotics and CAD/CAM at institutions such as MIT, Virginia Tech, and the University of Hong Kong, and is currently an Adjunct Professor at Northeastern University. His industry experience as an architect and computational designer includes offices such as UNStudio, Playze, and ECADI. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Virginia Tech and a Masters in Design Studies in Technology from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He is a Doctoral Candidate at the Institute for Computational Design and Construction at the University of Stuttgart.

Connect with Nathan at nathanmelenbrink.com and at @_n804 on Instagram.

Books * So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport. * 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson

Links * TheRecord.org * Harvard University * Harvard GSD * Wyss Institute * Self-Organizing Systems Research Group * ICD, University of Stuttgart * NuVu * Swarm robotics * ROB|ARCH conference * UNStudio * Expat packages * Zugzwang * Romu: A Robot for Environmental Protection * Wyss Institute lays some groundwork to protect the environment with robots

People mentioned * Saeed Arida * Saba Ghole * David Wang * Rhadika Nagpal * Justin Werfel * Mark Zuckerberg * Cal Newport * Michael Jordan * Barry Gabay * Jiyoo Jye * Elon Musk * Jordan B. Peterson * Nathan King

Episode notes * Intro. [0:00] * Who is Nathan Melenbrink? A brief introduction to Nathan's career. [0:32] * Teaching gives Nathan an immediate satisfaction of imparting students with knowledge of some kind, and enabled him to do robotics at a more advanced level. [3:21] * What is NuVu? Learn about the teaching model of this innovation school, how its founders conceived it, and how it is growing. [5:42] * Teaching international robotics workshops to young students. [9:45] * Nathan's academic research on swarm robotics as part of the Self-organizing Systems Research Group (SSRG) at Harvard University ran by Professor Rhadika Nagpal and Justin Werfel. [11:34] * What's role of swarm robots in design automation, architecture, and the built environment? [13:10] * How will automation, artificial intelligence, and better software affect our work life? [14:32] * "Robots replace tasks, not jobs." How are the tasks that compose professional jobs are going to change? [17:01] * What tasks have already been replaced by software? [18:21] * Is automation (say, consumer robotics for off-loading tedious chores) going to have a transformative impact on our lifestyle? [19:46] * Who is going to profit from automation? Nathan's main reason to be interested in technology is its promise to make people's life better, but he argues something is wrong with the current model and what we could do to improve it. [21:39] * Great minds to farm clicks and likes. [23:09] * A universal basic income. [23:43] * What would you do if you didn't have to work? [25:20] * Do the way you earn money and what gives meaning to your life need to be the same thing? [26:28] * "The passion hypothesis." [26:54] * Why is Michael Jordan the best basketball player that ever lived? Learn about Michael Jordan's "Love of the Game Clause." [30:16] * How does Nathan understand success? [32:04] * How are we consuming news and media feeds? [33:10] * Neutral and verifiable news: "We don't want to let some algorithm decide what's important to us, even if that's influenced by what we say we like." [34:26] * How can blockchain technology help news neutrality? [36:48] * Why do we check the news? "The human beings throughout history who were most adept at gathering acquiring information from their environment were more likely to reproduce and have fertile offspring." [39:35] * Learn about Nathan media consumption habits. [43:15] * What's your relationship with social media? [44:19] * Living in China versus the US. [47:01] * Habits (and frugality) in China. [49:22] * Learning Mandarin - Nathan's immersion in the culture and language of Shanghai. [50:29] * Meditative moments Nathan uses to disconnect. [52:47] * The ideological Turing test: Can you give the position of your political adversary so well to make us believe you have that position? [55:58] * What if you received suggestions of things you are supposed to dislike? [57:41] * Can you force yourself to like new things and acquire taste? [1:01:56] * A purchase that recently influenced your life. [1:05:13] * An object that makes your life easier. [1:05:44] * Something you are dependent on. [1:06:11] * Being slightly unprepared when you are traveling abroad is.. [1:06:17] * What do you say to yourself when you wake up? [1:06:43] * A sentence to the world. [1:06:49] * Clothing. [1:06:56] * Money. [1:07:16] * Self-imposed restrictions. [1:07:37] * How do you picture a healthy relationship with technology? "A relationship where it's easy for you to imaging spending a considerable amount of time without it." [1:07:50] * Boredom. [1:08:01] * Do you consider your life simple? [1:08:11] * Nathan's organizational tools. [1:08:29] * Open source versus private intellectual property. [1:09:50] * Other people's habits (and the car culture of America). [1:10:25] * Book recommendations - Get to know Nathan's efforts to expose himself to other political views. [1:11:24] * Find Nathan online. [1:12:11] * Art. [1:12:51] * How does Nathan understand simplicity? [1:13:56] * How much information can we get? How much information do we need? [1:16:06] * Outro. [1:22:13]

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Host Nono Martínez Alonso gives a brief overview of what's new and what's coming to Getting Simple over the next months. Discover who's up next on The Getting Simple Podcast in September, October, and November 2018.

This month's interview features Ian Keough — The Father of Dynamo — who shares insights on working remotely full time, getting started with a startup, the flow state, and a lot more.

New interviews are already underway, listen to this mini-episode and discover who will be on The Getting Simple Podcast in September, October, and November.

Episodes mentioned * Ian Keough * Nathan Melenbrink * Jiyoo Jye * Ben Fry

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Hypar's Ian Keough on automating the generation of the built environment to help stakeholders make better decisions faster, writing code from his garage.

Ian Keough (@ikeough) is the founder of Hypar. He writes code from his garage to automate the generation of the built environment to help stakeholders make better decisions faster. Trained as a fine artist and architect—and known as The Father of Dynamo—Ian believes efficiency breeds quality and automation yields better, higher-quality products. This episode uncovers the Ian Keough beyond Dynamo—including his life habits, tactics to get into the flow state and avoid distractions, and his new adventure to disrupt the architecture, engineering, and construction industry.

As a sculptor, Ian built big commission artworks for artists in New York—rationalizing them with a pointing machine—with the help of early versions of AutoCAD.

Before Hypar, Ian worked in the automation of building information modeling (BIM) workflows at Buro Happold, developing tools for the construction industry at Vela Systems, and developing Dynamo at Autodesk.

He is surprised that the technology we envisioned years ago is not here yet and that, instead, all sorts of sophisticated and complicated technologies solve problems we don't have.

I had a lot of fun talking to him. You can get a sense of the topics we discussed in the episode notes. We talked about daily habits, how he reserves time to exercise selfishly (and tries to run up to five times a week and surf at least once), his amazing commute, having a garage as an office, his use of social media, how he understands success, and a lot more.

You can find Ian on Twitter at @ikeough and @HyparAEC, and at Hypar.io.

Episode notes * Who is Ian Keough? [00:43] * Hypar is Ian's new adventure to automate the generation of the built environment to help stakeholders make better decisions faster. [2:07] * How would you define yourself? [2:40] * Diller Scofidio is an interdisciplinary design studio that integrates architecture, the visual arts, and the performing arts, based in New York City. [3:24] * Ian's experience as an artist. [5:58] * Drawing with a "CAD station." [7:15] * "La macchinetta" or the pointing machine, is a machine used to accurately copy physical models, by registering three-dimensional locations in space. [9:15] * How does your day-to-day look like? [13:30] * Commute. [14:58] * Work. [16:08] * The flow state: Getting uninterrupted time to work, and doing email two days a week. [16:55] * Dynamo is a visual programming language that Ian started while working at Buro Happold around 2010—to automate Revit workflows—an open source tool now maintained by Autodesk and a community of contributors. [18:37] * A picture of the grid-shell ETFE roof of the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center by HOK and Buro Happold in California. [19:09] * Stephen Elliot, from North Eastern University, spent a summer as an intern at Autodesk developing what would become the second version of Dynamo. [21:48] * What's your current involvement with Dynamo? [23:44] * Open-source in architecture, design, and arts (and the appearance of "super-users"). [28:29] * Does visual programming help code beginners? [29:57] * Processing is an open-source computer programming language and development environment commonly used for creative endeavors such as live installations and digital art. [31:06] * GenerativeComponents is parametric CAD software developed by Bentley Systems first introduced in 2003. [31:50] * Explicit History was one of the early versions of Grasshopper, a visual programming language developed by McNeel that ships with Rhino. * DesignScript is, in words of his creator Robert Aish, a programming language "at the intersection of design and programming," used as part of parametric and associative modeling workflows in architecture, engineering, and construction. * "They had to have a language." [31:16] * What is the mission of Hypar? [35:31] * "That's not design." [36:57] * What is the role of the architect or designer in this process? [38:40] * What is the role of automation in our lives? [41:03] * Daily habits. [47:20] * Meditation. [51:04] * Finding focus in the flow state. [52:30] * How do you disconnect? [54:39] * Do you ever get bored? [58:52] * What's your relationship with social media? [59:42] * Melinda Keough (@melinda_keough) is a creative and art director, and illustrator, based in Los Angeles. She has worked in advertising with companies such as Apple and Pepsi. [1:02:30] * What apps and services make your life easier? [1:04:30] * Are there any mobile apps you don't install in your phone on purpose? [1:08:04] * "Technologies that solve non-existing problems." [1:12:16] * A user interface you enjoy. [1:17:00] * Markdown is a plain text formatting syntax, which is frequently used to generate HTML. [1:18:58] * Unity is a cross-platform game engine used to create indie games, mobile apps, and interactive three-dimensional, augmented reality, and virtual reality experiences. [1:19:02] * Revit is building information modeling software for architects, engineers, designers, contractors, and other professionals, developed by Autodesk. [1:19:37] * "All of human emotion is flattened into a couple of possible responses: I like this thing or I retweet this thing." [1:25:11] * "Mall art." [1:28:23] * A purchase of $100 or less that makes your life easier? [1:31:15] * What do you use to sync your data to the cloud? [1:34:00] * "Efficiency breeds quality." [1:45:22] * "Quality comes from the reproducibility of a process." [1:46:07] * "Automation can give you a better, higher-quality product." [1:46:17] * pix2pix is a generative adversarial neural network (GAN) able to learn a mapping from one style of image to another from a training set or image pairs. [1:50:51] * Katerra "is on a mission to change [the global construction industry] by optimizing every aspect of building design, materials supply, and construction." [1:51:44]

People mentioned * Elizabeth Diller * Matt Jezyk * Stephen Elliot * Anthony Hauck * Zach Kron * Melinda Keough * Marie Kondo * Elon Musk * Robert Aish * Peter Boyer * Walter Isaacson * Steve Jobs * Isaac Asimov

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Saurabh Mhatre talks about the simplicity behind deployable systems, the chaos of taking pictures, mindful photography, material science, social media, productivity tools, and more.

Saurabh grew up and studied architecture in Mumbai. He holds a Master in Design Studies with a focus on technology from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he currently explores how flat deployable mechanisms can morph into three-dimensional shapes with minimal actuation, to enable ephemeral uses of mundane items and facilitate their storage and shipment, as part of his research at the Material Processes and Systems (MaP+S) Group.

He enjoys working with people from different disciplines, ranging from biological engineering to material science, and works across multiple material scales, from the nano-scale of medical devices to large form-factor of deployable shelters.

Saurabh also shares with us his love for photography, how he interacts with social media, and what productivity tools help him keep track of his work.

You can find Saurabh on Facebook, his photos at @sm8928 on Instagram, and his most recent work at saurabhmhatre.com.

Episode notes * The Material Processes and Systems (MaP+S) Group, led by Professor Martin Bechthold, is a research unit that promotes the understanding, development and deployment of innovative technologies for buildings. [2:00] * The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is the engineering school within Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. It offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering and applied sciences. [2:35] * The Wyss (pronounced /viːs/ "veese") Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering is a cross-disciplinary research institute at Harvard University which focuses on developing new bioinspired materials and devices for applications in healthcare, manufacturing, robotics, energy, and sustainable architecture. * Saurabh's current research on deployable mechanisms at different scales, flat objects that can morph into three-dimensional shapes with minimal actuation. [06:10] * What other projects would you like to work on if you had the time? [12:45] * Are there new materials or mechanisms (widely known in research labs in Cambridge) that will hit the market in the next years? [13:23] * Masala Chai is Saurabh's morning to-go drink. [17:08] * Differences between living in Mumbai and living in Cambridge. [18:45] * "The way photography for me started." [21:35] * Adobe Lightroom is a photography editing desktop app part of Saurabh's editing workflow. [22:45] * Evernote is a note-taking app. [31:45] * Toggl is a time-tracking tool. [33:08] * Digital toolbox. [36:10] * Visualizing Architecture by Alex Hogrefe. [36:24] * Contact staff and flow arts. [40:05] * Meditation, reiki, and art of living. [40:40] * The Secret Life of Walter Mitty's soundtrack by Jose González, who is also the singer of Junip. [45:45]

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Julia Hayden talks about how our actions affect the planet, ways to fight our throw-away society and minimize waste, her love for tiny houses, and a lot more.

Self-defined environmental activist, Julia believes her studies at Connecticut College in Environmental Studies and Botany made the ways in which her actions affect the planet be present in her daily life.

She is conscious of the lifecycle of everything she consumes (from production to landfill) and emphasizes the power of communities to give away, lend, share, and repair what breaks to minimize waste.

Julia dreams of living in a tiny house, and believes in the use of community spaces and public parks as a way to take up less space in the city.

Links * Buy Nothing are Facebook groups that intend for people to avoid buying new things and be wasteful throwing things away. * Free Craigslist is a directory to browse what people around your area are giving away for free. The famous curb alert refers to people leaving free stuff on the street to be claimed on a first come, first served basis. * Queer Exchange Boston is "[a Facebook] group for Boston queers (interpret “queer” however you’d like) to connect with one another. It is intended to be a space for buying/selling/bartering/gifting, service recommendations, and a place to organize socially." * The tiny house movement is a description for the architectural and social movement that advocates living simply in small homes. According to The Tiny Life, "the typical American home is around 2,600 square feet, whereas the typical small or tiny house is between 100 and 400 square feet. Tiny houses come in all shapes, sizes, and forms, but they enable simpler living in a smaller, more efficient space." * Getaway is a startup that offers simple escapes to tiny, beautifully crafted cabins in nature, in spots spread around New Hampshire, Virginia, and New York. In their own words, their experience is built for "taking the time to rest and unplug from the daily hustle and to focus on ourselves, our relationships and the wonder of nature." * Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart. * Maps is the navigation app by Apple.

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Peter Boyer (@ptrbyr) talks about his efforts to run away from notifications and centralized technologies toward decentralized, encrypted-by-default alternatives; and also about self-driving cars, being in relation with nature, addictive technologies, uses of machine learning for design, and a lot more.

Peter defines himself as a software engineer with experience in distributed systems, programming languages, and computer aided design on the web. Self-declared "incapable of getting bored," he believes in learning by doing and by asking naive questions, and enjoys how, in computer programming, experimentation is free — unlike in other disciplines such as architecture or scientific research.

While working at Autodesk, he built custom tools for artist Janet Echelman to build city-scale, net sculptures; was a core developer on the open-source Dynamo product; and was nominated, company-wide, for Innovator of the Year in 2016, due to his work on distributed systems with technologies like Go, gRPC, AWS, or Docker.

Previously, he built custom applied numerical optimization tools in C++ at Gehry Technologies for the fabrication and design of buildings.

While studying a Master of Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Peter cross-enrolled in multiple software engineering and math courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), like Geometric Computation or Design and Analysis of Algorithms, and proposed—in his master's thesis—a system to trace the inhabitation of a building throughout its history, as a way to positively affect the lives of its occupants.

You can follow Peter on Twitter and Github.

Links * The Lean Startup book. * GeoCities, founded in 1994, was one of the first free web hosting services. When it shut down (in 2009) there were 38 million user-built pages. * Gilbert Strang is an American mathematician with contributions to finite element theory, the calculus of variations, wavelet analysis, and linear algebra. Peter describes him as "a linear algebra guru from MIT." * Modern Operative Systems book by Andrew Tanenbaum. * Modern Compiler Implementation books by Andrew Appel, Princeton. * Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools book (also known as the Dragon Book). * Foundation is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. * Aldo van Eyck was an architect from the Netherlands. He was one of the most influential protagonists of the architectural movement Structuralism. * Next Door is "the private social network for your neighborhood." * Verb nurbs is an open-source, cross-platform nurbs library initiated by Peter in 2013. * Andrew Witt is an Assistant Professor in Practice in Architecture at Harvard GSD, teaching and researching in the relationship of geometry to perception, construction, automation and culture. * TypeScript is a strict syntactical superset of JavaScript, and adds optional static typing to the language. * The Loop-Blinn technique is a technique to render vector art on the GPU. * TrueType is an outline font standard developed by Apple and Microsoft in the late 1980s. * Machine learning is a field of computer science that uses statistical techniques to give computer systems the ability to "learn" with data, without being explicitly programmed. * Christopher Alexander is a widely influential architect and design theorist. * Janet Echelman is an American sculptor and fiber artist. * Conway's law is an adage named after computer programmer Melvin Conway, who introduced the idea in 1967: "organizations which design systems […] are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations." * ProtonMail is an encrypted email provider protected by strict Swiss privacy laws. * Mastodon is a decentralized, open source social network. * The Everglades is a natural region of tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida. * Upspin is "a framework for naming everyone's everything." * InterPlanetary File System is a protocol and network designed to create a content-addressable, peer-to-peer method of storing and sharing hypermedia in a distributed file system. * Craiglist's free stuff section features products that people want to give away for free. * Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle.

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Andrés Colubri (@codeanticode) on how he manages to do seemingly different things—such as art, computational biology, or open-source development—by connecting them around one overarching theme.

Andrés grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he obtained his doctoral degree in mathematics at the Universidad Nacional el Sur.

After living in the United States for a while, he went back to Buenos Aires to distance himself from the academic scene and revisit his interests on the visual arts, drawing, and animation. It was then when he crossed paths—and got hooked—with the world of creative coding, where art and computation join as one.

On his way back to the United States, Andrés got heavily involved with creating art with code, and became a major contributor to the Processing open-source project—what would become an international entry point to computer programming for artists and designers.

He leads the Processing for Android initiative, and recently released Processing for Android: Create Mobile, Sensor-Aware, and VR Applications Using Processing.

During weekdays, Andrés walks (or bikes) to work at the Sabeti Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a computational scientist—where he helps develop methods to detect and investigate natural selection in the genome of humans and other species, and to examine the genetic factors and signals of natural selection in pathogens such as the Ebola virus.

Links * Processing is an open-source computer programming language and development environment commonly used for creative endeavors such as live installations and digital art. Andrés has been involved in the development of its core functionality for several years now. Processing was initiated by John Maeda's students Casey Reas and Ben Fry, who built on Maeda's previous work (Design By Numbers). * Design by Numbers was an experiment to teach programming led by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab in the 1990s, with the intention of offering an easy entry point to computer programming to non-programmers (such as designers and artists). * The protein folding problem is "the obstacle that scientists confront when they try to predict 3D structure of proteins based on their amino acid sequence." * Shaders are "a type of computer program that was originally used for shading (the production of appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color within an image) but which now performs a variety of specialized functions in various fields of computer graphics special effects or does video post-processing unrelated to shading, or even functions unrelated to graphics at all." * The Emotional Life of Books is an experiment that uses the emotional judgement of readers to inform how books are organized in the Garden Library for Refugees and Migrant Workers. * Processing for Android was initiated by Ben Fry and Jonathan Feinberg. * Processing for Android: Create Mobile, Sensor-Aware, and VR Applications Using Processing with Processing by Andrés Colubri. * The Sabeti Lab, headed by Pardis Sabeti, is part of the FAS Center for Systems Biology at Harvard University, and maintains close ties to the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. It uses computational methods and genomics to understand mechanisms of evolutionary adaptation in humans and pathogens. * Mirador is "a tool for visual exploration of complex datasets [that was the result of a collaboration between between Fathom Information Design and the Sabeti Lab.] It enables users to discover correlation patterns and derive new hypotheses from the data." * Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle. * Patrick H. Winston is Ford Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Jacob Hamman on how virtual reality and healthy life habits can help prevent and reverse Alzheimer's disease.

Jacob grew up in Phoenix Arizona. After studying architecture at the University of Southern California (USC), he worked as an architect at Gehry Partners for seven years. He holds a Master in Design Studies in Technology from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he developed Archiverse, an immersive virtual reality modeling environment to create massing models at early stages of the design of a building.

Jacob's life shifted after his mom was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Inspired by the work of Dale Bredesen, he decided to research how virtual reality could help prevent and reverse Alzheimer's disease. The system he currently develops at Zenjoi incorporates a series of engaging cognitive and physical exercises, healthy life habits, and stress-reducing therapies into a virtual reality world to reduce the risk to suffer cognitive decline.

He is also one of the members of Growy, a startup that re-envisions the food distribution system by bringing locally-grown food to our houses. Jacob and his partners describe this exciting adventure as an "in-home gardening companion and social platform for sharing knowledge of healthy and delicious food."

Links * Gehry Partners is an international architecture firm established by Frank Gehry in Los Angeles, California in 1962. * formZ, AutoCAD, and Rhino are two- and three-dimensional modeling tools. * Contact 3D scanners probe the subject through physical touch, while the object is in contact with or resting on a precision flat surface. * Virtual reality is a computer-generated scenario that simulates a realistic experience. * Archiverse is an immersive, full body design interaction virtual reality environment to create massing models at early stages of the design of a building design, developed by Jacob at Harvard GSD. * Leap motion is a hand tracking device for virtual reality. * Zenjoi is using the latest virtual reality technology to seamlessly combine physical and cognitive exercises with personalized stress-reducing therapies. * The End of Alzheimer's: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline by Dale Bredesen. (See it on Amazon.) * Brain HQ is an interactive brain training program built by by Posit Science Corporation. * Early-onset Alzheimer's is Alzheimer's disease diagnosed before the age of 65. * Reminiscence therapy is defined by the American Psychological Association (APA) as "the use of life histories – written, oral, or both – to improve psychological well-being. […]" * Alive Inside is a documentary about the power of music to re-activate certain connections and trigger past memories. * Google Earth VR allows you to travel anywhere in virtual reality by using Street View with a virtual reality headset. * 1Second Everyday (1SE) by Cesar Kuriyama is a mobile application to create a video diary wiyh the photos and videos in your phone. * A Landscape of Memories: Aging Disasters is a project developed by Nono in which a player—inside a brain being damaged by Alzheimer's disease—has to fight virus to recover a series of memories embedded in three-dimensional cubes and audio clips. clips. * Lumosity is a brain training mobile application "create by scientists and game designers." * Google Photos (and other services) bring back alive photos from previous events and years. This is what we refer to as "nostalgia bombs." * Sleepcycle is a sleep analysis and alarm clock mobile app. * The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman by Tim Ferris. (See it on Amazon.) * The ketogenic diet is "a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet" which, according to Wikipedia, "can provide symptomatic and disease-modifying activity in a broad range of neurodegenerative disorders […]" * Growy is a startup that re-envisions the food distribution system by bringing locally-grown food to our houses. Jacob and his partners describe it as an "in-home gardening companion and social platform for sharing knowledge of healthy and delicious food."

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Jose Luis García del Castillo on robot control accessibility, learning from open-source software, the joy of being an educator, simple living, eating healthy, and more.

Jose Luis is an architect, computational designer, and educator who advocates for a future where programming and code are tools as natural to designers as paper and pencil. In his work, he explores creative opportunities at the intersection of design, technology, fabrication, data, and art. His current research focuses on the development of digital frameworks that help democratize access to robotic technologies for designers and artists. Currently, he is a Doctor of Design candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, an educator of computational creativity in the Arts+Design Department at Northeastern University, and a Research Engineer at the Generative Design Group at Autodesk.

You can find Jose Luis tweeting at @garciadelcast, taking pictures on Instagram at @garciadelcastillo, and writing code on Github.

Updates 2019.10.09 · You should definitely take a look at Jose Luis' course: GSD-6338: Introduction to Computational Design at the Harvard GSD.

2020.05.01 · Jose Luis is recording tutorials and live streaming on YouTube at ParametricCamp.

Links * Cesar Pelli, Mecanoo, OMA, and MVRDV are international architecture firms for which Jose Luis worked as a structural consultant. * Parametric design is a paradigm in design where the relationship between elements is used to manipulate and inform the design of complex geometries and structures. * Visual programming environments let users create programs by manipulating graphical elements rather than by writing code. (Some are Dynamo, Grasshopper, or Scratch.) * Ben Fry is an American expert in data visualization. He is a co-developer of Processing, an open source programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) built for the electronic arts and visual design communities with the purpose of teaching the basics of computer programming in a visual context. * The Block Research Group (BRG) at ETH Zürich focuses on several core areas, including computational form finding, structural design, fabrication, and construction technologies. * Compas is an open-source, Python-based framework for computational research and collaboration in architecture, engineering, and digital fabrication led by Tom Van Mele. * Robot programming (and software) is the set of coded commands or instructions that tell a mechanical device and electronic system, known together as a robot, what tasks to perform. * Machina is an open source, C# library for action-based real-time control of mechanical actuators. Machina can also be used with Dynamo and Grasshopper. * Robot Drawing is a quick installation that uses Processing and Machina for Dynamo Jose Luis and I did for having a robotic arm draw with a Sharpie what kids were drawing on a touch screen that took place at Kids at Autodesk Day 2017. Watch it on YouTube. * Machine Learning for Artists (ml4a) is a collection of free educational resources devoted to machine learning for artists. * Roomba is a series of autonomous robotic vacuum cleaners sold by iRobot. * Colin Angle (CEO of iRobot) gave a TEDMED TED Talk titled Will a robot care for my mom? at Palm Springs, CA. * Human-computer interaction (commonly referred to as HCI) researches the design and use of computer technology, focused on the interfaces between people (users) and computers. * Jean Piaget is known for his theory of cognitive development that explains how a child constructs a mental model of the world. * Seymour Papert was one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence, and of the constructionist movement in education. * Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn day long conference is an open forum for educators teaching computer programming in creative and artistic contexts led by the School for Poetic Computation. * Interfaces for Digital Making: Reflections at The Intersection of Creativity, Matter, Computers and Minds was written by Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo in 2016. * Brian Drey is Jose Luis's SoundCloud DJ profile. * Seth Godin is an American author who has written more than twenty books on marketing and how to defeat the resistance. * Dale Carnegie was an American writer and lecturer and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills.

Episodes mentioned * James Melouney * Zach Kron

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Zach Kron (@zachkron) talks with Nono about how new digital tools allow designers to work (and wether these tools make our lives simpler), and about life habits, boredom, constant connectivity and disconnection, digital clutter, and more.

Zach describes his daily job as "Banging digital tools with a stick to make them break." Since 2007, Zach has been involved in the research and implementation of software that drives real world building projects and democratizes advanced design practices. Before joining Autodesk—where he is a senior product manager–Zach worked as a designer in several Boston-area architectural offices on projects ranging in scale from furniture to bridges, and has taught at Autodesk, at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and ACADIA (Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture).

You can find Zach on Twitter at @ZachKron and writing at DynamoBIM.org.

Updates 2019.12.05 · Zach is now sharing his beautiful hand (and robotic) craft on Instagram at @kronzach.

Links * Dynamo is an open source visual programming environment for design. * Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. * Quakers are members of a historically Christian group of religious movements. (We talk about the ability to sit quietly alone or with others.) * Haiku is a very short form of Japanese poetry. * Bad Monkeys is a group of design technologists spread around the world, working to change the AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) industry "one workflow at a time." * Bread & Puppet Theater is a politically radical puppet theater founded by Peter Schumann, active since 1960s, where bread and theater belong together, currently based in Glover, Vermont. * The Cheap Art Manifesto, Bread and Puppet Glover, Vermont, 1984. * Walter Benjamin was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. * Shapeways is a 3D printing service and marketplace. * Style transfer is "the technique of recomposing images in the style of other images." * The Resistance is Handmade is a project by Victoria and printed at Albertine Pres by Gather Here. * Designalyze is a podcast (and website) by Brian Ringley (@brianringley) and Zach Downey (@zdowney). * The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. * Buildz. Practical notes for making impractical things by Zach, 2009-2015. * We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone. —Orson Wells

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Author James Melouney on the art of success, self-motivation, positive habits, and purpose.

James is the author of the book The Art of Success, a book to help others lead their best life.

Connect with James on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Books * The Art of Success by James Melouney (also available on iTunes, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo) * How To Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler.

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