111: Brackets Around the Brackets

John interrogates Merlin about his weekly reminder errand.

• Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code DIFFS at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
• BarkBox : A monthly box of dog goodies. Get one month free.
• Burrow: The Luxury Couch for Real Life. Save $75.

John wants to take another shot at promoting Relay dot fm, and Merlin admits a shame. In follow-up, John has an update on Millennium Actress. As you know, Satoshi Kon is not the bitcoin guy. Listener response about cast iron skillets was huge.

Merlin has updates on his Apple TV, and John has trouble understanding Merlin's beta obsession. Unsurprisingly, this leads to yet another discussion of the Apple TV's ample room for improvement. Children are not qualified to know which things are good or bad.

John assures Merlin that he does not ever need this reminder, and Merlin assures John he has his reasons why he does things.

Merlin does not like creating unnecessary work for himself, and John has thoughts about the implicit encouragement to overextend oneself. How are you training your audience?

John knows how this book turns out.

(Recorded on Tuesday, August 13, 2019.)

• Audio Editor: Jim Metzendorf
  
• Admin Assistance: Kerry Provenzano
  
• Music: Merlin Mann
• The Suits: Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley

If there is a hard, high wall and an egg that breaks against it, no matter how right the wall or how wrong the egg, I will stand on the side of the egg.

This video demonstrates how to strip a cast iron skillet using Easy-Off Oven Cleaner. Easy-Off contains lye, which is a popular chemical used in stripping cast iron. I also demonstrate my seasoning method along with what I do to maintain my cast iron cookware.

"We have cameras."