Friday Ideas 12/6: Walt Disney's birthday, C.S. Lewis on visions, Emerson on individuals and institutions, Norm MacDonald on improv, Nathan Baschez on growth, a $4k record + more
Welcome to Weisser’s Multitudes.
Every other Friday I share a wide range of things I enjoyed in the last two weeks ranging from podcasts to articles, books, and and music.
Curious to see what you think. If you enjoy any of the ideas in particular please let me know.
Happy Belated (12/5) birthday to Walt Disney who was born this week in 1901.
Here’s Walt’s first business card from when he was still in Missouri:
Walt had little patience with those whose thinking was earthbound.
He was adamant about not selling, about not surrendering control, no matter how badly he needed revenue. Why? Because he didn't want to just be another animation producer.
“If we lose the detail, we lose it all.”
(10 more ideas/quotes on Walt Disney at the bottom of this issue)
Links and Ideas
Sam Altman in 2020:
Let yourself occasionally get a little screwed in exchange for not having to live with your guard up all the time. It’s worth it.
It all began with a picture… by C.S. Lewis
All my seven Narnian books, and my three science-fiction books, began with seeing pictures in my head. At first they were not a story, just pictures. The Lion all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: ‘Let’s try to make a story about it.’
Newly discovered footprints provide physical evidence for the co-existence of multiple hominid lineages in Kenya 1.5M years ago—something that has only been inferred previously from overlapping dates for scattered fossils.
Emerson on individuals and institutions:
A man Caesar is born, and for ages after we have a Roman Empire. Christ is born, and millions of minds so grow and cleave to his genius, that he is confounded with virtue and the possible of man. An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man; as, Monachism, of the Hermit Antony; the Reformation, of Luther; Quakerism, of Fox; Methodism, of Wesley; Abolition, of Clarkson. Scipio, Milton called "the height of Rome"; and all history resolves itself very easily into the biography of a few stout and earnest persons.
The Religion of Ramp is the first Extendable Article by Every which includes an AI chat with access to all of the sources they used to write the piece — including hours of original interviews and research.
Why anesthesiologists frequently charging patients an out-of-network rate at an in-network facility appears to be intentional.
Words I'm leaving behind in 2024 by Kevin Espiritu who started the massively successful Epic Gardening YouTube channel (~3.5M subscribers) and adjacent businesses.
Download the complete collection of +200 essays from Paul Graham’s website and export them in EPUB, and Markdown.
Norm MacDonald on his improvisational technique applied to standup comedy:
I have a fantastic punchline [predetermined] and then I just wander around. I used to do it by rote. On Letterman you had to do 5 minutes and you had to do it word-for-word. But I'm not a good enough comic actor to pretend it's my first time saying it. So instead I just start yapping and think of little jokes knowing the giant joke is coming. I'm just circling it like the moon is circling this whirling cinder we call earth.
You can apparently make scrambled eggs with an espresso machine (using the steam wand). It’s supposedly incredible — anyone in SF have a machine we can try this with? :)
Useful prompt to generate a versatile meal plan with ChatGPT/Claude including menu, shopping list, and prep schedule.
Nathan Baschez has been building Lex — the best word processor ever — and shared some lessons on growth after launching their paid plan 12 months ago:
“[Growth is] like a pyramid where you can't skip the base even though it's not as obvious that it drives sales But all the growth has been because of continual improvements to the below”:
New (and old) music:
Sahib Shihab and the Danish Radio Jazz Group (1965) and Sahib’s Jazz Party (1964) — I discovered Sahib when Noémie got me a reissue of Danish Radio from a boutique jazz label in Paris (the median sales price for an original copy is $4,210.52). This is truly wonderful music that works well at all times of the day, for close listening, or as a background soundtrack to thoughtful work, or a party.
Sahib takes flight on saxophone and flute. The Danish Radio album features a huge big band sort of sound but not at all stuffy like you might imagine when you hear the term “big band”. Jazz Party is more of a standard jazz band lineup and was reissued last week on Record Store Day and includes an additional 30 minutes of bonus material from the same concert at Jazzhus Monmartre.
Beethoven Blues (2024) by Jon Batiste — I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a pianist play such virtuosic yet seemingly effortless manner. This new record combines Beethoven with the gumbo of influences that make Batiste one of the most compelling artists to come out of New Orleans in decades.
More about Walt Disney for his Birthday Week
Walt was interested in improving product as a matter of personal pride and psychological need.
When I say Universal Pictures or 20th Century Fox, you don't have anything special in your mind. If I say Disney, you have something special in your mind.
Disney built an environment where excellence was expected. Part of Walt’s secret was that in insisting on quality from individuals of whom it had never been required, he inspired commitment.
He often griped that when he hired veteran animators, he had to put up with their goddamn poor working habits from doing cheap pictures. It was easier, he believed, to start from scratch with young art students and indoctrinate them in the Disney system.
He would hire for enthusiasm and youthful enthusiasm over experience. He decided he wanted to grow his own talent and winded up starting his own training school.
“The thing I resent most is people try to keep me in well worn grooves. We have to keep blazing new trails.”
His matra to remind himself of the constant need for reinvention was “You can't top pigs with pigs.” — he even pasted it inside his hat.
Detractors on Disneyland: “All the proven moneymakers are conspicuously missing. There's no roller coasters. There's no Ferris wheel. There's no carny games. Things like the castle and the pirate ship are cute, but they aren't rides, so there's no economic reason to build them. There's too many things here that do not produce revenue. Walt's screwy ideas about cleanliness and great landscape maintenance were economic suicide.”
All of the things had never been done before. Walt had gathered up all these people who had never designed a theme park.
Often he squatted down and commented, “can you see little kids looking up at this?” Most of his planners had never once considered looking at the theme park from the vantage point of a child.
That’s it for this installment of Multitudes. Have a wonderful weekend.
