Scott Mitchell jumps in time to dissect his own experimentation life philosophy, his efforts to remove creative friction, and his worldview. An experimental episode on Scott's metaphor of the arena, experiments he's carried out over the past years, and his current solo adventure.


Scott Mitchell is a designer and software engineer currently working out of Boston, Massachusetts. Scott is the founder of stud.io (stud-io.org), a construction technology company focused on automating fabrication processes for geometrically complex projects. He previously worked as a software engineer at Autodesk as part of the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Generative Design group. Scott received masters degrees in both Architecture and Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis, and he received his BA in Film and Media Studies from The University of Oklahoma.


Favorite quotes


"This works for me, and it might not work for other people."
"At first you're a player in the arena, and when you get good at that you can step out of the arena and rework the rules of the game, and then step back in."
"Can we have slates wiped clean anymore or, because we're out of school, we have a job that just goes own every week, can we create those moments for ourselves where we are able to be entirely free?"
"These are two points looking at Scott's life philosophy and its evolution."


Links



Transcript


HowickMaker for Dynamo

Constraint satisfaction problems


Email Charter


Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter

Habit tracker sheets template


Flow


Deliberate practice



Books



Atomic Habits by James Clear

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport

Ultralearning by Scott Young


People mentioned



Jessie Vogler


George Foreman


Jose Luis


Megan Berry


Alan Watts


Margot Shafran


James Clear


Scott Young


Cal Newport


Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi


Anders Ericsson


Chapters


01:17 · Intro
08:49 · Two learning steps
10:23 · Main learning challenges to get comfortable with making
10:43 · "This works for me, and it might not work for other people."
15:34 · Misusing tools
16:25 · The arena and the ruleset
17:38 · Changing the rules of the arena
20:01 · The beginner's mind
21:38 · Documenting your work
23:04 · Experimentation
24:14 · The curls experiment
26:05 · Experiments at studio
28:08 · Hobbies
29:52 · The noodle experiment: Experiment No. 3
31:33 · Experimentation vs. practice
32:56 · Experiments at work and what died at architecture school
34:00 · "Do you ever enjoy being bored?"
36:47 · Getting the slate wiped clean
37:33 · Oranges in the shower: Experiment No. 2
40:39 · The ritual of done
42:29 · Define yourself
43:15 · Flow
44:58 · Work in progress
45:59 · Becoming a slave of systems
46:37 · Benefits of documentation
47:15 · Boredom
48:01 · The podium and friction
48:56 · Shortcuts
52:00 · Laziness and automation
55:48 · Procrastiworking
57:55 · A disconnection policy
01:03:16 · Social media
01:03:49 · Books and online resources
01:04:52 · Success
01:05:01 · A role model
01:05:43 · A message to the world
01:06:05 · Wearing 90% black
01:07:20 · The list of things I want
01:08:11 · Book recommendations
01:08:15 · A purchase of a $100 or less
01:09:31 · Connect with Scott
01:10:19 · Simple and intuitive
01:11:50 · The arena
01:12:46 · Clutter
01:14:07 · Email
01:14:38 · Meditation
01:15:02 · Money
01:15:23 · Thanks
01:16:56 · Back to the future
01:18:51 · What's changed?
01:21:23 · Outsourcing
01:22:48 · Going solo
01:24:12 · Howick Maker
01:25:11 · Finding other people
01:26:07 · Working by yourself
01:27:06 · What's more likely to fail?
01:28:51 · New experiments
01:32:18 · Atomic habits
01:37:18 · Habit tracker template
01:40:53 · Discipline
01:41:26 · Flow vs. Deliberate Practice
01:42:25 · Scheduling your leisure time
01:45:10 · The "Things that.." list
01:49:06 · Outro


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Theme song Sleep by Steve Combs under CC BY 4.0.


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