January Roundup (2025)
A collection of podcast and reading recommendations, cool people or projects I have found online recently, any new tools or tips, and some personal updates.
Polymathematics is a blog and newsletter about trying to do many things well. Creative people in tech or practical people in creative fields tend to enjoy it most.
Every month I send a post with the best podcast episodes, reading, and coolest people and projects I discovered that month. My recommendations / curations have been applauded by very cool people such as Ted Gioia, Patrick O’Shaughnessy, Harley Finkelstein (Shopify) and more… which is awesome!
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Howdy! Each month I post a roundup post like this one sharing the best reading, podcasts, projects, and people or projects I’ve discovered from my month. This is the first one of 2025.
Podcasts
1.) Graham Duncan, Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy
A recent one I enjoyed where about 70% of the concepts discussed wired new neuron pathways and the other 30% felt like a foreign language to me. Strong worldview held with a “loose grip”. Particularly Grahams ideas about “source” were fascinating to me.
2.) How an Anonymous Researcher Predicted AI's Trajectory, Dwarkesh Patel + Gwern
Drarkesh continues to excel, but the inteview with Gwern really stood out of the recent batch of interviews from him. Gwern has that charming quality of being a world within himself (themselves?) and this interview lets you into that world, introducing new patterns of thought and approaches to work.
3.) Scripts for difficult conversations, Lenny’s Podcast
Tactical and prescriptive conversation with Alisa Cohn about how to have difficult conversations and give constructive feedback at work.
4.) Kurt Vile Interview, Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions
Kurt seems to approach his music with that perfect balance of seriousness and playfulness. Been binging Aquarium Drunkard interviews lately, feels like a cozy radio show of a bygone era.
5.) Jeff Tweedy, Reverb interview
Jeff is always a great conversationalist but something about this Reverb interview feels so light and casual, full of humor and off the cuff. Really enjoyed it, complete with the off camera looks and side convos.
Reading
1.) How to Write One Song, Jeff Tweedy
This is a short little book about Jeff’s experience and advice on songwriting tips, written under the guise of explaining how to write your first song. But of course, this has tons of useful bits even if you’ve written hundreds.
Tip I will pass on for other musicians: grab a random book off your bookshelf and flip through it absentmindedly until you spot a word that grabs your attention. This is a good way to find what new words might hold some reservoir of meaning for you.
2.) Torching the Modern Day Library of Alexandria, James Somers
Great read from James Somers about the world we almost got, where any book ever written was available to anyone and the bureaucratic dealmaking between publishers and Google that prevented it.
3.) The Editors Protecting Wikipedia From AI Hoaxes, Emanuel Maiberg
Pairs well with the above, giving a good overview of the modern spin on Wikipedia trolling threatening the trustworthiness of Wikipedia. Previews fascinating (and terrifying) possible futures that overlap with ideas like the Dead Internet Theory and even Kessler Syndrome… where we create an information ecosystem of half-truths, truths, and complete fiction—until we find ourselves trapped in an orbit of self-replicating misinformation, unable to free ourselves from a system we no longer trust.
That’s all for now, thanks for reading! As always I’d love if you dropped me a recommendation (podcast, reading, song, whatever) in my public rec box or in the comments here. I am especially on the hunt for the best interviews or documentaries with writers. Here is a good one from Sam Anderson on Haruki Murakami and another on John McPhee.
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In case you missed them:
New Year’s Clarity: Why Wait a Year?
2025 Rough Draft: Reviewing 2024, Prepping for 2025