Jerry Seinfeld and Maria Popova (#746)

Jul 19, 2024 02:45

This episode is a two-for-one, and that’s because the podcast recently hit its 10-year anniversary and passed one billion downloads. To celebrate, I’ve curated some of the best of the best—some of my favorites—from more than 700 episodes over the last decade. I could not be more excited. The episode features segments from episode #485 “Jerry Seinfeld — A Comedy Legend’s Systems, Routines, and Methods for Success“ and episode #39 “Maria Popova on Writing, Workflow, and Workarounds.”

Please enjoy!

Bios of guests may be found at tim.blog/combo.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform.

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Transcript of the full Jerry Seinfeld episode | Transcript of the full Maria Popova episode | Transcripts of all episodes

Listen onApple Podcasts Listen onSpotify Listen onOvercast#746: Jerry Seinfeld and Maria Popova

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What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SHOW NOTES [05:16] Notes about this supercombo format. [06:19] Enter Jerry Seinfeld. [06:46] Jerry’s writing process for survival in the comedy ecosystem. [15:43] Lessons Jerry would teach in a writing class and how they relate to his fitness methods. [15:43] Soliciting creative feedback while preserving pride over doing the work. [20:33] Routines essential to Jerry’s well-being and their frequency and duration. [24:50] How nurturing creativity is like parenting, and Jerry’s belief about pain and knowledge. [26:17] Additional ways Jerry mitigates depressive episodes. [27:27] A resilience-building failure. [32:05] The importance of playing the game well. [33:42] “Survival is the new success.” [36:12] Jerry’s billboard. [39:06] Enter Maria Popova. [39:30] Are you correctly pronouncing names you’ve only read but never heard? [41:13] What does Maria do? [41:50] What is Brain Pickings (now The Marginalian)? [42:31] What percentage of New York Times best sellers are a result of Maria’s coverage? [47:55] The common denominator that guides Maria’s reading list. [49:16] The importance of writing for an audience of one. [52:07] Contending with the temptation to create BuzzFeed-like content. [59:44] The daily discipline required for Maria’s well-being. [1:07:10] Maria’s note-taking system. [1:12:53] Seneca and the time-tested challenge of presence vs. productivity. [1:16:08] Start-up opportunity? Build a note-taking tool for heavy readers/highlighters. [1:22:52] About the team behind [The Marginalian]. [1:24:28] Collaborative proofreading and copyediting. [1:27:21] Self-reliance pathology and how to overcome it. [1:29:56] Finding a professional personal assistant and learning to delegate. [1:34:36] Maria’s weightlifting regimen and favorite bodyweight-only exercise. [1:37:22] Designing content infrastructure to be evergreen. [1:39:28] Cutting out the commentary contrarians. [1:46:13] Scheduling social media. [1:48:25] Coping with email — and sometimes snail mail. [1:50:31] How to cultivate a personal inner circle and pre-screen book review requests. [1:54:54] What donation model works best for site revenue? [2:01:22] Recommended reading from [The Marginalian] and parting thoughts. SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

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