Hello show notes readers,

What is writing? What is art? Did I create this or did a robot and how would you be able to tell the difference? This week we coin the term "adverbious", hoping to prove we aren't robots and also to give you a tool to figure out who the robots are. We can't define it but we know it when we see it, if you know what I mean?

Later, we delve into Dan's masterful schedule management as an entrepreneur. Dan explains what it took to get there, what it takes to maintain, and why it is one of the biggest benefits of entrepreneurship.

Finally, we get a little woo and explore the work of Robert Anton Wilson. I share some early thoughts from Prometheus Rising and Dan provides some context from other authors.

As always, thanks for listening! We welcome your feedback! Find Dan at www.twitter.com/danielhatke or Sean at www.twitter.com/slowvsm.

📚 Books Discussed

• Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson
• The Expectation Effect by David Robson
• Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Hello show notes readers!

This week, Sean and Dan look into the rhythms of the oil and gas world — how things speed up, slow down, and sometimes just stop. They talk about layoffs making headlines, how organizations expand and contract like they’re breathing, and what it feels like to be on the inside when that happens. Sean explains why fewer rigs don’t always mean less oil, and why the people most affected aren’t always the ones you’d think.

They get into how managers try (sometimes awkwardly) to protect and coach people, what it’s like to get blindsided, and why being chased by a metaphorical predator might not be all bad — at least for keeping you sharp. The converstion takes a detour into parenting, classrooms, and whether pulling your kid out of tough situations helps or hurts in the long run.

Plus: what homeschooling has in common with org charts, why messy code and stuck loops are part of building anything, and a few thoughts on agency, grace, and figuring out when to hold on or let go.

• Prometheus Rising – Robert Anton Wilson; explores consciousness, reality tunnels, and mindset shifts.
• Factfulness – Hans Rosling; emphasizes how the world is improving despite negative perceptions.
• The Fifth Risk – Michael Lewis; highlights essential but overlooked government jobs and inefficiencies.

• Neville Goddard: https://youtu.be/zXsZnDakDVA

00:00 - Weather and Cyclicality

01:07 - Oil Layoffs & Market Trends

02:55 - Why the U.S. Exports Oil

06:38 - Fracking & Efficiency Gains

07:34 - The Workplace "Breathes"

12:47 - The Role of Fear & Agency

16:52 - Education & Homeschooling Trends

28:38 - AI, Coding, and Debugging Frustrations

40:57 - AI Slack Bots for Work Productivity

50:43 - Prometheus Rising & Reality Tunnels

55:15 - Telepathy Tapes & The Tower of Babel

1:02:00 - Manifestation & The Power of Thought

1:06:02 - Government Jobs & Bureaucracy Debates

1:17:05 - Wrapping Up: Big Topics & Future Thoughts

Hello dear show notes reader,

We're 25 episodes in! Woo hoo! (Imagine Leslie Knope. Now read the italicized bit again.)

As the author of these show notes, I feel like 25 should be a significant number, but I also don’t have any valid reason why. Nonetheless, I felt inspired to make these show notes really shine!

What’s good about this episode?
While editing, I had two realizations:

1. Dan is a better podcast host than I am. (I’ll deal with that emotionally later.)
2. This episode’s format unintentionally gave me a meta-analysis moment—right here, in these show notes.

Here’s what I mean: we both read long quotes from books we’ve been chewing on. When one of us shares a quote, we know a follow-up question is coming—something like "What do you think?" Since we expect it, we listen more actively, playing with the idea in real time instead of waiting for our turn to speak. By the time the sharer is done, the listener is already mentally off to the races, turning the quote over, looking for angles. That made for some damn good back-and-forths.

What’s bad about this episode?
The prep work. As you will hear, we listened to the auidobook version of The Sovereign Individual, by Jame Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg, and neither of us enjoyed it. But we hope you enjoy our discussion about this slog of a book.

• The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg
• The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neil Howe
• Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson
• The Tao Te Ching by Laotzi
• Three-Body Problem by Liu Xicin

[00:00] "Should We Just Move to a Tax Haven?"
[02:11] "Books That Should Have Been Shorter"
[04:33] "Did They Predict the Future?"
[06:48] "The Doomers Strike Again"
[10:16] "Technology Changes Power, but Does It Decentralize It?"
[17:59] "The Cyber Economy That Wasn’t"
[24:39] "Populism, Power, and the Small Guy’s Revenge"
[32:40] "Why Build a Few Big Things When You Can Build a Million Small Ones?"
[41:52] "Has the Outrage Faded?"
[45:31] "Should Governments Pay for Performance?"
[54:11] "The Future of Democracy and Its Critics"
[58:39] "Loneliness, Power, and the Failure of Community"