Playing With Networking (Weekly Recap 3/22/2025)

The Personal Archive: Bill Burr's Accidental Legacy

Somewhere in the digital ether sit hundreds of recordings of Bill Burr talking into a flip phone on Monday mornings. He started his podcast in 2007 with no fancy equipment, no real plan - just a hunch that talking into the void might be worth something. A new creator flywheel started spinning for him. This is not a comedy lesson. This story hits deeper.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: "Personal Archives are different. They're your responses, reactions, and raw reflections on the world around you. They capture not just what happened, but how it felt to you when it did. They're the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your relationship with everything you consume and experience."

Enlightenment Is Just Remembering: The Wisdom of Unlearning

When Phil Pearlman casually reduced "Buddha for Dummies" down to "Enlightenment is just remembering" (to Jess Yarmey and I), he planted an idea I can't shake. Mark McCartney deepened it when he returned to JUST PRESS RECORD: "It's more about revealing or remembering something that's innate rather than creating or constructing something or adding on to what we already are."

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: "Take away, not add. In a world obsessed with more - more productivity, more optimization, more everything - it's a rebellion if not an outright revolution to even suggest that we already have what we need. We're humans. Modern humans. We pile it on, we don't excavate and evaporate until there's nothing but empty space(!)"

Fighting Forward: Beyond The Rusty Nails

When Burna Boy sings "Pree Me," he's talking about the people who stalk you waiting for an opportunity to take advantage. The enemies we make along the way aren't just obstacles, they're signposts that we've taken a stand for something. Fighting back keeps you stuck in their narrative. Fighting forward creates your own. Bonus shoutouts to Ted Lasso and shoutats to actual enemies.

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: "Fighting forward is keeping it honest. Fighting forward is keeping it fair, to me and the people I love and want to protect. Fighting forward is keeping it noble, and never forgetting there's a higher purpose I internally strive to rise towards."

The Status Seesaw: Ricky Gervais' Secret Weapon

The court jester can tell the king the truth and live to laugh about it. That's Ricky Gervais' genius move - deliberately lowering his status first so he can punch up despite his wealth and fame. We're all playing on the same invisible playground equipment. One side goes up, the other goes down. (No political commentary in this, but read Ben Hunt’s “It Was Never Going To Be Me” if you haven’t yet. I’m in my own wise as serpents and as harmless as doves era)

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: "Freedom isn't about escaping the seesaw. It's about understanding it well enough to play on it consciously, to ride it with intention and grace, knowing exactly when to rise, when to fall, and—most importantly—when to jump off entirely and invent your own game."

The Intentional Investor: Cullen Roche's Balancing Act

When Cullen Roche microwaved sushi for his future partner, he didn't just screw up dinner, he demonstrated something that would echo across his approach to his career and his life: Be loyal to your people. Be disloyal to bad ideas. In his words, economics is "like trying to understand how a car operates, but then also having to understand that there is an insane person operating that vehicle."

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: "In a world of financial punditry obsessed with being right, Cullen offers a different approach: 'As you get older, all you kind of keep learning is that you know less than you thought you did.'"

From Coffee Pots To Constellations: The Art of Linear Storytelling

It hit me while washing a coffee pot I'd forgotten about the night before (and luckily, now I have a metal one so I can’t break it in the sink. Again). Johnny Harris dropping knowledge on David Perell's podcast about what makes storytelling work. If you tell stories (spoiler: everybody tells stories, you might as well learn to tell good ones) consider this snip: "Knowledge is one thing, but storytelling is the curation of chaotic information about the world into a very firm, linear, presentation."

Quote from the (Personal) Archive: "The chaotic information we've picked up, stacked into a linear order like it was destiny, is a magic trick. It's not reality. It is very much an after-the-fact reconstruction. But seeing it that way, is magical. It's moving from a starry sky to having a star map."

Other Places I Showed Up This Week (aka, do you have a podcast/YouTube/something? I’m doing more guest spots. Just ask!)

Jess Bost (who, fun piece of trivia, named “Just Press Record” after we did the accidental, inaugural episode) and Mark Newfield (one of my favorite finance + music nerds) had me on their podcast, How Did I Get Here, to talk about my weird, starry sky without any constellations until now when I look back, career(s) arc. These are commute-sized in length, and very smartly broken down into part I and part II.

Paul Fenner is another financial industry friend of mine who I regularly check in with. He asked if we could just record one for his podcast, Emotional Balance Sheet, so, like I said in the header - just ask. This was great. I was just working some thoughts out when we did this that really helped me hone my messaging in too.

Personal Archive Prompts (for you): Who do you know this reminds you of, and/or what do you think about...

The intentional vs. accidental life?

The balance between loyalty to people and disloyalty to ideas?

The status seesaw in your own creative work? The status seesaw in how you show up in the world?

The practice of fighting forward instead of fighting back?

Building your own Personal Archive, Monday by Monday (what’s your cadence and why)?

As always, I did my part, now it’s your turn to write some reflections in your own Personal Archive.

(then, be sure to let me know where you're keeping it, I'm in search of the others too)