THIS WEEK: Elon's Speechwriter, Deep Work and The Importance of Switching Off

Hi all

I hope you have all had a fantastic week! I have gathered my top recommendations to inspire you this weekend from a podcast with Elon Musk's speechwriter to an interview about the importance of deep work, a book by child prodigy turned tech entrepreneur Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, and a documentary on the creator of Vue.js.

Enjoy!

PODCAST

This week's guest on the podcast is Dex Hunter-Torricke, a speechwriter and Communications leader who has had the unique experience of working closely with top tech leaders including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt. In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss Dex’s upbringing as the son of a Burmese refugee, what tech companies get right and wrong about storytelling, and the importance of free speech, as well as critical content moderation, in our digital age.

Listen here.

QUOTE

I came across this quote today and it reminded me of a piece I wrote entitled The Madness of Genius and The Tortured Souls Who Live With It. There is importance in founders taking time out and being alone with our thoughts. The quieter the person, often, the louder their mind.

INTERVIEW

“If you’re going to live a deep life, the ultimate original commitment is, ‘I’m going to commit to discipline in the sense of things I am going to do on a regular basis, because they matter, even if I don’t feel like it.’ And that is the biggest binary zero-to-one flip that happens in crafting a life.” Cal Newport

I have been meaning to post this Tim Ferriss and Cal Newport conversation for a while as I found it really useful and think you will too. The Pursuit of Craftsmanship, the Deep Life, Slow Productivity, and a 30-Day Challenge sees Tim and Cal discussing productivity, deep work and the importance of blocking time off.

Watch the interview here.

BOOK

She’s in CTRL: How women can take back tech – to communicate, investigate, problem-solve, broker deals and protect themselves in a digital world by Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE.

Anne-Marie is a force for nature in the tech world - noted as a British computing, mathematics and language?child prodigy, she was one of the youngest children to pass two?GCSEs?in two different subjects while in primary school. She then went on to found and become CEO of?Stemettes?in 2013 (aged 23), a social enterprise promoting women in?STEM?careers which has done an enormous good in inspiring and empowering girls into the field over the last nine years. She also found time to present the maths segment on Countdown.

But if that wasn't enough, Anne-Marie is now author of She's in CTRL which comes out this September. A book described as, "An inspirational exploration of why women are under-represented in tech, why it matters, and what we can do about it." I can't wait to read it and will hopefully get Anne-Marie on the podcast to discuss it.

Pre-order now here.

WATCH

If you want to be inspired, check out this documentary featuring Evan You. Evan is an indie software developer and the creator of the open source JavaScript framework Vue.js. I don't think there are enough raw documentaries like this on creators so I wanted to highlight it.

Watch here.

PS Next week's podcast conversation is with the incredible Mary Lou Jepsen - and my paying Substack subscribers will get early access to it. If you want early access too, you can sign up here.

Until next time.

Danielle