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Comment by pooriaazimi | Hacker News Reader

What are Mann's episodes about? I tried to listen a few times but I never fully understood what it was about and got confused... Could you give me a few pointers?!

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Ha, I believe the original intent is to discuss productivity which is what Mann consults with business / startups.

It doesn't always go as planned which is probably why you were confused. The show is filled with random tangents which could be just as engaging. Topics include his other podcasts, Sodastream, keyboard, GTD, daughter, Star Wars, etc.

Pro Tip: sit with the episode for at least 30 minutes if you really want to hear the topic of the week. The first 29 minutes are build up to excellence.

Edit: I love the fact that while I was typing two other posts described the exact same thing. Awesome.

This 5by5 drawing sums it up, http://goo.gl/6kXwj It's a good network overall, Merlin's show is mostly funny, he can touch on interesting topics about productivity, but mostly his character is very peculiar.

:) I can almost hear Siracusa saying that!

Who's the guy in the middle left?

(I think the discussion on this submission is one of the most intellectually-uninteresting HN discussions ever!)

Guy on the middle left is Zeldman

Productivity...well, kind of. If the show is an hour long you get 45 minutes of madness with Mann and Dan talking almost incoherently but then you get 15 minutes of brilliance from Mann. I always walk away with some useful quip or anecdote about life or work.

I suggest starting from the beginning. There is a lot of gold in those first few months of episodes, and they tend to get to the meat faster. These days they've built up quite a thick layer of memes and inside jokes, but they still talk about good stuff. If you don't enjoy the humor it's probably not worth it, but you won't be giving it a fair shot unless you get in from the ground floor. It's also probably the only 5by5 show that ages well.

They're supposedly about productivity, but most of the show is just Mann saying things in strange voices. If you can make it past the first ~20 minutes, things get less absurd and the hosts begin to form coherent thoughts.

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