
Metamuse
Tools for thought, product design, and how to have good ideas.
Latest episodes

15 snips
Oct 5, 2023 • 1h 22min
84 // Retrospective
Mark and Adam reflect on their favorite episodes and the friends they made during three years of podcasting. They discuss the origin story, production process, and future of the podcast. They also explore topics such as computers and creativity, local-first software, and progress. The hosts share insights on preparing for podcast episodes, podcasting hardware, and the impact of AI on design. They also touch on the economics and uncertain future of computing, as well as the importance of maker biographies and their plans for the future.

21 snips
Aug 31, 2023 • 1h 1min
83 // End and beginning
Discussion about necessary changes, mixed emotions about the future of Muse, 'local first' concept in file storage, importance of efficient thinking in programming, live streaming and bug fixing experiences, refocusing on existing customers, transition of leadership

95 snips
Jul 13, 2023 • 1h 36min
82 // Spatial computing with Yiliu Shen-Burke
Is virtual reality useful for productivity software? Yiliu is the founder of Softspace, a VR/AR tool for thought. He joins Mark and Adam to discuss the human brain and body as inherently spatial systems; the question of whether information is fundamentally 2D; and why social comfort is the biggest challenge facing VR today. Plus: how to avoid a dystopian future.
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Show notes
Yiliu Shen-Burke @softspaceninja
Softspace
Wim Hof breathing method
Studio Olafur Eliasson
The Brain Maps Out Ideas and Memories Like Spaces
Oculus
Oculus development kit
heads-up display
Scott Greenwald’s Media Lab thesis
Beat Saber
A Beautiful Mind
Softspace demo
force-directed graph
Steven Johnson on DevonThink
Google Glass, Magic Leap, Vision Pro
Supernatural
vergence
history of VR
PlaneVR: Social Acceptability of Virtual Reality for Aeroplane Passengers

352 snips
Jun 22, 2023 • 1h 18min
81 // Evergreen notes with Stephan Ango
Stephan Ango, CEO of Obsidian, shares his journey from entrepreneur to leading a thought tool app. He dives into the concept of evergreen notes that make abstract ideas memorable and explores the challenges of merging freedom with cohesive design in digital tools. The discussion highlights the evolving relationship between creators and their tools, emphasizing the importance of innovative software while navigating the prosumer model. Plus, listen in as he reflects on the significance of Obsidian Canvas for free-form idea exploration.

52 snips
Jun 1, 2023 • 1h 11min
80 // Planning
Planning might have a reputation for being boring, but Adam and Mark believe it can be one of the most exciting moments in your team’s work. They discuss the importance of inspiration and collective knowledge; the musical rhythm of planning cycles; and how to “draw the line” when prioritizing. Plus: the importance of revisiting the plan in times of doubt.
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Show notes
Muse for Teams beta announcement
Against boring planning
agile methodology
ticket trackers
Gantt charts, burndown charts
Pivotal Tracker
kanban board
Jesper Jørgensen
V2MOM, OKRs
effort to impact chart
Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy
Amazon’s “working backwards” approach
go slow to go fast
Zoom fatigue
shared knowledge vs common knowledge

151 snips
May 18, 2023 • 1h 6min
79 // Read-later apps with Tristan Homsi and Dan Doyon
How can software improve the practice of reading? Tristan and Dan are the founders of Readwise. They join Adam to talk about the history of read-later apps like Pocket and Instapaper; the difference between reading for betterment and reading for entertainment; and the cat-and-mouse game of web parsing. Plus: how the personal knowledge management explosion in 2020 affected digital reading.
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Show notes
Tristan Homsi @homsIT
Dan Doyon @deadly_onion
falconry
My Side of the Mountain
Readwise
Anki
Dan and Tristan meeting on Hacker News
Reader
Pocket, Marco Arment, Instapaper
Mozilla acquires Pocket
Why We’re Bootstrapping Readwise
Alan Kay on computer science as pop culture
Readability.js
web standards acid test
Reader browser extension
RSS
Explorable Explanations
offline first
JSON Patch
Second Brain
commonplace book, marginalia
etymology of “document”

4 snips
May 4, 2023 • 1h 6min
78 // Local-first, one year later
It's been a year since Muse 2.0 launched. To help commemorate this anniversary, Adam Wulf once again joins Mark and Adam Wiggins to do a technical deep-dive on Muse's sync architecture. They discuss the benefits such as less ops burden and good developer experience; and challenges such as event vs state based data, handling different app schema versions, and the tradeoffs of a content-aware server.
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Show notes
Developer Duck
The Pragmatic Programmer
Metamuse episode 56: Sync
Muse 2.0
Muse for Teams
Local-first software
Pingdom
Local-first software with Martin Kleppmann
Text blocks
innovation tokens
Replicache, LiveBlocks, PartyKit
Automerge 2.0

6 snips
Apr 13, 2023 • 1h
77 // Writing on the internet with Francesco Di Lorenzo
Twitter has created a whole new generation of internet writers. Francesco is the co-founder of Typefully, and he joins Adam and Mark to talk about the evolution of blogging, the importance of diversifying your platforms, and how Twitter can be used as a beacon to invite like-minded people into your conversations.
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Show notes
Francesco Di Lorenzo @frankdilo
Typefully
Calm companies with Tyler Tringas
Atomic writing
Evan Williams and Blogger
Mastodon, Medium, Substack
Geoffrey Litt
Platforms with Joe Wadcan
Twitter acquisition
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
Farcaster

16 snips
Mar 23, 2023 • 47min
76 // Leadership
Great leadership is imperative to creating a successful company. Adam and Mark talk about setting up a healthy work environment, the importance of conviction and belief, and the role models who inspire Adam and Mark on their own leadership journeys.
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Show notes
Muse for Teams
Metamuse episode on Hiring
Netflix Culture Deck (2009)
Metamuse episode with Mario Gabriele
Adam’s Heroku’s values
Barbie and Ruth
The Score Takes Care of Itself
Difficult Men
Peter van Hardenberg
George Washington
The story of VaccinateCA by Patrick McKenzie
Sketching User Experiences
Slack: The Myth of Total Efficiency
The Principles of Project Management Flow
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
High Output Management
Management

112 snips
Mar 2, 2023 • 53min
75 // Collective intelligence with Conor White-Sullivan
Better tools and techniques for collective intelligence could be a path to building a more democratic society. Conor is the founder of Roam, and he joins Adam and Mark to discuss his motivations for working on a tool for collective intelligence, why knowledge doesn’t always equal articulated thoughts, and a vision for how to program your own mind.
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Show notes
Conor White-Sullivan
Roam Research
Bret Victor
Andy Matuschak on roman numerals vs arabic numerals
Logo, BASIC
agent-based economics simulations
Choose Your Own Adventure
“The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them”
The Wealth of Networks
Institutions and Organizations
non-rivalrous goods, public goods
3D printing organs, open-source medicine
The Centralized Internet Is Inevitable
map-territory conflict
micronations
critical thinking
“I, Pencil”
Limits to Legibility
Localocracy
A Syntopicon
Reinventing Discovery
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