John Siracusa and Merlin Mann try to figure out exactly how they got this way.

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Merlin Mann

The Wisdom Project

John Siracusa

Hypercritical

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    #266: The Misspeaking Community

    The folder is called “Pepperoni.”

    July 31st, 2025 · 86 minutes

    How does John generate all that cool chapter art?

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    Links and Show Notes

    Things kick off with John sharing some breaking news about The Flop House, plus it's clear that Merlin's Britishisms are becoming numerous, invasive, and a little un-American.

    Next up, Merlin wonders how John generated all that cool chapter art for a recent ATP special. (Hint: some of it was automated; some of it was not.)

    And, finally, Merlin decides to apply Theory of Mind to predict why John hasn't watched the Billy Joel special yet. Subsequently, John is pitched on why this program probably represents essential viewing for him and his people.

    In this month’s member bonus segment, John has book-adjacent questions about Merlin's Wisdom Project.

    You can sign up today to hear all the member episodes, get more bonus stuff, and help support our program.

    (Recorded Tuesday, July 22, 2025)

    Credits
    Flop House Mini 132: Stu Brings Down the Hammer

    This is the Flop House mini episode where Stuart Wellington fulfills John’s request to explain the Warhammer 40,000 episode of the Secret Level animation anthology series on Amazon Prime Video.

    Secret Level episode 5: Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear - Wikipedia
    Secret Level episode 5: Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear - Amazon Prime Video
    "Faff" in the Oxford English Dictionary
    Substage

    The Mac app for using an LLM to take actions in the Finder.

    ATP Tier List: Pizza Toppings
    ATP Member Specials
    XKCD #974: The General Problem
    Billy Joel: And So It Goes - HBO
    HBO’s Big Beautiful Billy Joel Documentary Delivers Maximum Piano Man Per Minute - GQ.com
    Bruce Springsteen: Girls In Their Summer Clothes - YouTube
    Hicksville, New York - Wikipedia
    Hicksville, New York - Google Maps
    The Gilded Age (TV series) - Wikipedia
    Billy Joel - Live in London (March 13, 1978) - YouTube
    Lorraine Bracco - Wikipedia
    wisdom.limo

    The fun URL for Merlin’s Wisdom Project.

    Merlin’s Wisdom Project on GitHub
    Inspirado for Merlin’s Wisdom Project
    The Art of Pants
    Reconcilable Differences #3: Helena Sell - Relay