Four topics this week: The crying CEO meme. What went wrong there? Why would someone post something like that? The answers are deeper and more interesting than you might think. The unreasonable effectiveness of 1:1 learning. You might not think it's worth the time, money, or effort to get a private tutor. You might think nobody tutors people for the thing you're trying to learn. If so, you might be wrong! In this segment, Dan shares how he convinced one of his favorite authors to teach him how to write a novel. The tactics and principles are broadly applicable.  Execution is exponential. In case you needed more motivation to go deeper in your craft, Nathan shares some interesting math that shows just how valuable good execution can be for a business.  Dan's 7-day silent meditation retreat. If you've ever been curious about meditation, zen, or silent retreats, this segment is for you! Dan shares all.

Amanda Natividad is a marketer that grew her Twitter audience from 0 to 100k in just two years. In that same span of time Nathan grew his Twitter following from like 12k to 37k. (Cue sad trombone wah-wah sound.) In this special interview episode of Ordinary Astronauts, Nathan learns everything he can from Amanda about how to grow an audience, and they even live workshop a tweet at the end. Turns out, God really is in the details. Enjoy!

Three topics this week: Is Social Media Dying? Last week we published an essay by Michael Mignano that made waves, predicting The End of Social Media. The theory is that algorithmic feeds are going to outcompete friend/follow graphs. The question is why, and the answer is that we're generally more interested in people who are professionally interesting than people we happen to know. Solo Creatorhood is Overrated.  If the world really is moving away from friends and towards creators, the question becomes: what business models will support these creators? Dan and Nathan posit the controversial take that going it alone on the internet is overrated. It's good for some people but not great for so many others. We talk about how brands like Every can have a slot in your head as a sort of "creator"—corporations are people too, my friend! (Mostly kidding!) How Meditation Helps You Feel, Better. A lot of people think meditation is about feeling better, but what if it's actually about feeling, better? As in feeling whatever you are feeling, but with more depth and awareness and control, rather than being owned by the feeling? This helps us understand what the principle of non-attachment is really about. And in the after-show, as a bonus, Nathan explains some incredible drama in the F1 world. 

Three topics this week: Instagram's Existential Bet — why do they think they need to become more like TikTok? Why isn't it working that well so far, compared to when they copied Snapchat Stories? The answer has to do with the purpose and structure of TikTok's network, and why it's less compatible with Instagram than Snapchat was. Also, an interesting addition from Dan on why we always dislike new things and sometimes it's worth sticking it out, based on his essay from awhile back. The Productivity Backlash — a few years ago everyone was super into advanced note-taking setups and productivity systems built in new software like Roam and Notion. Now, there's a growing meme online that these things are "mid". In other words they are for midwits that are avoiding doing the real work, and high performers just use Apple Notes. Dan and Nathan discuss why the backlash is happening now, and what is coming next.  You Grow From Your Edges — a lot of times we have impulses that are good when balanced, but become bad when we take them too far. For example, an environmentalist who cares so much about the planet that they alienate allies, get burnt out, and ultimately have far less positive impact on the ecosystem than if they had a more balanced and flexible approach. It's hard to see this about ourselves, but if we can learn to, it can lead to new levels of personal efficacy and happiness. 

Nathan and Logan talk about: What’s going on in markets right now? Public markets haven’t found a bottom yet—what is the effect on VC rounds? Why tech investors aren’t conspiring to bring down deal prices  How the shifting capital markets might affect decisions that founders make about what types of businesses they want to build What caused him to start Cartoon Avatars How he decides what type of content to create  Why Quibi failed (yes, really) Why Cartoon Avatars blew up  And more If you like this, follow Logan on Twitter and subscribe to Cartoon Avatars!

Welcome to the first episode of Ordinary Astronauts! Every week Dan and Nathan will talk about whatever is interesting to them within the world of tech, product building, and the psychology of work. This week: Medium. How are they doing? What's going on in the broader market for writing on the internet? Read more here. How to Analyze a Market. There's a five step process that Nathan created based on his reading of Clayton Christensen, Michael Porter, and Hamilton Helmer. Read more here. Philosophies as Cuisines. Lots of times when we're thinking about how the world works, and we see different ways of explaining what's happening, we have an impulse to ask "which one is right?" But what if a more useful impulse is to ask "which one is useful for what purposes, in what situations?" Kind of like how there are different culinary traditions, equally valid, maybe there's something similar about philosophies or schools of thought. Mental Chatter: meaningful or meaningless? It's interesting because it might be useful to view it as meaningless or meaningful depending on your circumstance. Afterwards, we talk about Dan's trip to Paris!