The Dichotomy of Control
"No matter where you go, there you are" - Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
Steve Makofsky
Espresso Shots 1-17-25
"I learned that just beneath the surface there's another world, and still different worlds as you dig deeper. I knew it as a kid, but I couldn't find the proof. It was just a kind of feeling." - David Lynch
Espresso Shots 1-2-25
"It is true that whisky improves with age. The older I get, the more I like it." - Ronnie Corbett
Holes
"I don't make changes to confuse anyone. I'm just searching. That's what causes me to change. I'm just searching for myself." - David Bowie
Book List: 2024
"Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic." â Carl Sagan, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage
Mako "Things I Like": 2024
The annual Mako âThings I Likeâ report for 2024.
52 Things I Learned: 2024
"You will not laugh! You will not cry! You will learn by the numbers! I will teach you!" - Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, Full Metal Jacket
Espresso Shots 12-8-24
"I'm staying. I'm finishing my coffee. Enjoying my coffee." - John Goodman as Walter Sobchak in The Big Lebowski
Espresso Shots 11-25-24
"I put instant coffee in a microwave oven and almost went back in time." - Steven Wright
The Overwhelming Noise
"External things are not the problem. Itâs your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now." - Marcus Aurelius
Espresso Shots 11-10-24
"I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell." - Christopher Walken (as fictional music producer Bruce Dickinson on SNL)
Espresso Shots 11-3-24
"If it wasnât for the coffee, Iâd have no identifiable personality whatsoever." - David Letterman
Espresso Shots 10-20-24
"As long as there was coffee in the world, how bad could things be?" â Cassandra Clare, City of Ashes
Your Goal Broke the System
"Because I've done a lot of television, I'm sort of a generalist. I'm not a pastry cook, but I've had to learn a certain amount about it. I'm not a baker, though I've had to learn how to do it. I'm sort of a general cook." - Julia Child
Espresso Shots 10-6-24
"Stand before the people you fear and speak your mind - even if your voice shakes." â Maggie Kuhn, The Socratic Method
Espresso Shots 9-22-24
"I am not an optimist. Iâm a very serious possibilist." - Hans Rosling
Espresso Shots 9-14-24
"Mornings are for coffee and contemplation." - Jim Hopper, Stranger Things
Rethinking Reading
"I say never be complete. Stop being perfect. I say let's evolve, let the chips fall where they may." âTyler Durden
Espresso Shots 8-25-24
"It means setting small reasonable goals for yourself one day at a time. One tiny step at a time. Baby steps." - Dr. Leo Marvin, What About Bob?
Espresso Shots 8-18-24
"The most sophisticated people I know - inside they are all children." - Jim Henson
Ignore All Previous Instructions
"I say never be complete. Stop being perfect. I say let's evolve, let the chips fall where they may." âTyler Durden
Espresso Shots 7-27-24
"Iâm staying. Iâm finishing my coffee. Enjoying my coffee." - Walter Sobchak (John Goodman), The Big Lebowski
Espresso Shots 7-20-24
"Itâs all in the grind. Canât be too fine. Canât be too coarse. This, my friend, is a science." - Grimes, Black Hawk Down
Espresso Shots: 7-14-24
"Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom." â Terry Pratchett
The Board, Revisited
"You want to get out of the hole? First youâre going to have to put down the shovel." -Rick Dicker, Incredibles 2
Fixed Growth
âYesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.â - Oogway, Kung Pu Panda
Less
"It's important to think. It's what separates us from lentils." - Jack Fisher, The Fisher King
Firestarters
"A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it." - Marcus Aurelius.
Take an Adventure
"Do you want to take a leap of faith, or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone?" - Saito, Inception
One A Month Club
Just a quick service announcement - In the spirit of Jarrod Blundy's "One a Month Club", I present - Club Mako.
The idea is simple: while I've had a long standing "buy me a coffee" link, I've added a super
Maximum Viscosity
âThere is rarely any joy in a frictionless space, so find your inner viscosity.â - Richard Siken, Crush
The Curse of Meh
"Beware the lollipop of mediocrity; lick it once and youâll suck forever." - Brian Wilson, Beach Boys
When to Fold 'Em
"Every gambler knows / That the secret to survivin' / Is knowin' what to throw away / And knowin' what to keep" - Kenny Rogers, The Gambler
Mako "Things I Like": 2023
The annual Mako âThings I Likeâ report for 2023.
The Person You Needed
"Be the person you needed when you were younger". -Ayesha Siddiqi
A Little Kindness
âWherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness.â - Seneca
The Backlog
Be the person that both Mr. Rogers and George Carlin would be proud of. - @kittywifclaws@hachyderm.io
Broken Pieces
"There this idea that we all have our broken pieces. What frightens and exhilarates and inspires us, are close together. Those feelings are what drives us to risk, in life and in love. Everybodyâs broken in some way. " - Bruce Springsteen, Western Stars
All Those Empty Calories
"A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti." â Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins)
Non Verba
"Life can be so much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call 'life' was made up by people who were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use." - Steve Jobs
Inefficiency Multipliers
âIt's easy to confuse 'what is' with 'what ought to be,' especially when 'what is' has worked out in your favor." - Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones
Owning The Narrative
"Buy the ticket, take the ride" â Hunter S. Thompson
What You Leave Behind
"I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different." - Kurt Vonnegut
The Arena
"Strength and honor." - Maximus, Gladiator
Nesting Dolls
"A grownup is a child with layers on" - Woody Harrelson
Forty Three Percent
"That rug really tied the room together, did it not?" â Walter Sobchak, The Big Lebowski
Token Reminders
"That way when you look at your totem, you know beyond a doubt you're not in someone else's dream." - Arthur, Inception
You Aren't Listening
"The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply." - Stephen R. Covey
Life 2.0
âCan you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?â - Charles Bukowski
Finding Your Superpower
"Now you wanna get nuts?! Come on. Let's get nuts!" - Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton), Batman
Manage The Moments
"You mustnât be afraid to dream up little bigger, darling." - Eames (Tom Hardy), Inception
Leaving Things Better
"Youâll have bad times, but itâll always wake you up to the good stuff you werenât paying attention to." â Robin Williams, Good Will Hunting
Surface v Depth
"I learned that just beneath the surface there's another world, and still different worlds as you dig deeper. I knew it as a kid, but I couldn't find the proof. It was just a kind of feeling." - David Lynch
The Good Gets Better
"We are in the habit of exaggerating, or imagining, or anticipating, sorrow." - Seneca
Mental Laziness
"All those moments will be lost in time... Like tears in rain." - Roy Batty, Blade Runner
Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
"I'm not a psychopath, Anderson. I'm a high functioning sociopath. Do your research." - Sherlock
You Got This!
"You canât have everything. Where would you put it?" - Steven Wright
Skewed Perspective
"You guys playing cards?" - Flounder, Animal House
Time Flies
"Time is what we want most, but what we use worst." - William Penn
Random Acts
"You're going to pay a price for every bloody thing you do and everything you don't do. You don't get to choose to not pay a price. You get to choose which poison you're going to take. That's it." â Jordan B. Peterson
Admit You're Wrong
"No one ever made a difference by being like everybody else." â P.T. Barnum, from The Greatest Showman
Forget What You Know
"The Problem Is Not The Problem. The Problem Is Your Attitude About The Problem." - Ann Brashares, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
How Do You Measure Success?
"The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care." - Peter Gibbons, Office Space
In Search Of
"Life has become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously." - Hunter Thompson
A Work In Progress
"I want to know what's wrong with the street. See, I don't think anything's wrong with the street." - Bill Foster, Falling Down
The Magic Roundabout
"I don't know. Just trying to understand why we keep making the same mistakes... over and over." - Luisa Rey, Cloud Atlas
Mako "Things I Like": 2022
The annual Mako âThings I Likeâ report for 2022.
The Joy of Rediscovering Joy
"The Less You Do, the More You Do" - Kunu, Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Facing the Struggle
"Parkinsonâs disease is the gift that keeps on taking. But it truly has been a gift." - Michael J. Fox
Too Many Empty Calories
"Once a man has seen, he can never turn his back on it. Never pretend it doesnât exist. No matter who orders him to look the other way" - Rorschach, The Watchmen
I Came In Like A Wrecking Ball
"Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Burn" - Alfred, The Dark Knight
When The Cost Is Just Too High
"Stop trying to control everything and just let go!" - Tyler Durden, Fight Club
Up Is Down
"All that we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." - Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring
The Problem Is You're Solving The Wrong Problem
"The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem. Do you understand?" - Jack Sparrow
A Work In Progress
"The Training Is Nothing. The Will Is Everything. The Will To Act."
All The Little Things
"Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance"
Plan for the Disruption of Your Plans
"Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit."
Maybe It's Your Attitude
The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.
Maybe Theyâre Just an Asshole
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli
Finding Your Voice
âYou must strive to find your own voice, boys, and the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all.â
When The Cup Runneth Over
"You may think this is suffering, no. It is salvation. The universal scale tips toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile."
What Was and What Will Be
"You are too concerned with what was and what will be. There is a saying: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."
With Constraint Find Freedom
"Yeah, Well, You Know, That's Just, Like, Your Opinion, Man." - The Dude, Big Lebowski
Own Your Shit
"It's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you." -Batman Begins
Lets Boil Some Frogs
"Just because you havenât found your talent yet doesnât mean you do not have one." -Kermit The Frog
Not A Meal, But A Gathering
"Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one's life." - Anthony Bourdain
It's That Simple
"We really never lose our demons. We only learn to rise above them." - Ancient One, Doctor Strange
There's Just Too Much Crap
"Time is the stuff that when you spend it, you donât get it back." - Mark, The Map of Tiny Perfect Things
The Weakness Remains
"Your strength has returned. But the weakness still remains. And that is why you will always lose." - Darth Vader, ObiWan Ep 6
We All Have Icebergs
"Iceberg, right ahead!" - Frederick Fleet
The Path
"It doesn't matter if you believe in fate if fate believes in you" - Unknown.
The Rough Edges
"All right! We did not die today. I call that an unqualified success." â Fear, Inside Out
A Change Of Perspective
"Control can sometimes be an illusion. But sometimes you need illusion to gain control" - Mr. Robot
The Moment
"All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain." - Roy Batty, Blade Runner
Not Everything is Urgent
'What is urgent is seldom important and what is important is seldom urgent.' - Dwight D. Eisenhower
The Secret of Asking for Help
âHelp will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.â â Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Crushing Weights
"Power, time, gravity, love. The forces that really kick ass are all invisible" - Cloud Atlas
Perceptions and Reality
"What (if) we perceive isn't the real world at all, but just our mind's best guess? That all we really have is a garbled reality, a truly fuzzy picture we will never make out?" - Elliot, Mr. Robot
The Art of Self Destruction
"Maybe self-improvement isn't the answer, maybe self-destruction is the answer." - Tyler Durden, Fight Club
Simply Obvious
"A day without sunshine is like, you know, night." - Steve Martin
Two Simple Ideas
"The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem. Do you understand?" - Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean
#RestDayBrag
Wizard needs coffee, badly.
Surprising Things About Boredom
"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isnât nice, I donât know what is.'" â A Man Without A Country, Vonnegut
Feed Your Focus
âIâm a dog chasing cars. I wouldnât know what to do with one if I caught it! You know, I just⊠DO things.â - Joker, The Dark Knight
Circling the Drain
âWe're all puppets, Laurie. I'm just a puppet who can see the strings.â - Dr. Manhattan
Breathe
"Hey! Hey! Relax. Take a deep breath. Now, let's ask somebody for directions." - Dory, Finding Nemo
I Don't Know
"You are wise because you have doubts." - Clementine, Churchill
The Plateau
âThere are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.â -Bruce Lee
House of Pain
"Big things often have small beginnings." - David, Prometheus (or T.E. Lawrence in Lawerence of Arabia)
Artifical Constraints
"When the night is over, like a bat out of hell, I'll be gone, gone, gone" - Meat Loaf, Bat Out of Hell
Donât Do It
âItâs only after weâve lost everything that weâre free to do anything.â â Fight Club, Tyler Durden
The Games We Play
âThe game is tailored specifically to each participant. Think of it as a great vacation, except you don't go to it, it comes to you.â - The Game
Mako "Things I Like": 2021
The annual Mako âThings I Likeâ report for 2021.
The Big Dark
"Ah you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it." - Bane, The Dark Knight Rises
Continuity
"Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance." - Kurt Vonnegut
An Intentional Life
"Have you found joy in your life? Has your life brought joy to others?" - Carter Chambers, The Bucket List
Attack The Ideas
"We are what we imagine ourselves to be." - Kurt Vonnegut
Consistently Flexible
"It is not our abilities that show what we truly are⊠It is our choices" â Dumbledore
It's About Time
"Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me you built a time machine... Out of a DeLorean?" - Marty McFly, Back to the Future
Who Over What
âThereâs a starman waiting in the sky; Heâd like to come and meet us; But he thinks heâd blow our mindsâ - David Bowie, Starman
Whatâs your story?
"They call it a Royale with cheese." - Vincent Vega
#RestDayBrag
embrace it.
Personal Mission Statement
âThe code is more what youâd call 'guidelines' than actual rules.â â Barbossa
New Traffic Pattern Ahead
"I just felt like runnin" - Forrest Gump
Someone Better Than You
"We are who we choose to be. Now choose!" â Green Goblin, from Spider-Man
The Moth
"Moths don't need to explain why they're attracted to the light." - Marty Rubin
Good Times, Bad Times
"You will have bad times, but they will always wake you up to the stuff you werenât paying attention to." - Robin Williams
What is...
"No, no, no, no.. I'm sorry... I am so, so sorry...." - Dr Strange Supreme, What If...? Episode 4
The Empathy Machine
The movies are like a machine that generates empathy... It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us" - Roger Ebert
The Hardest Part
"That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run." - Forrest Gump
This Train Don't Stop There Anymore
"I used to be the main express, all steam and whistles heading west. Picking up my pain from door to door, riding on the storyline, furnace burning overtime.. But this train don't stop there anymore."
I Can See For Miles and Miles
I know you've deceived me, now here's a surprise; I know that you have 'cause there's magic in my eyes
The Circle of Life
"and it moves us all, through despair and hope, through faith and love, til we find our place, on the path unwinding"
2021 EDC
The annual "clean up my cable bag" exercise
Time
"Time is meaningless, yet it is all that exists" - Einstein (Farscape, "Unrealized Realities")
Be a Goldfish
"You know what the happiest animal on Earth is? Itâs a goldfish. You know why? Got a ten-second memory. Be a goldfish, Sam." - Ted Lasso
Superman
"You will believe a man can fly."
Breathe
Time to decompress
The Crawl
"You can never give up the fight for pain â that is only temporary" - Wendy Ingraham
The One About Food and People
"I don't have to agree with you to like or respect you." - Anthony Bourdain
Hoist the Colours!
"If rum can't fix it; you're not using enough rum" - Jack Sparrow
Harmony and The Field
"We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is." - Kurt Vonnegut
Your Move Chief
"You donât have the faintest idea what youâre talking about." - Sean Maguire, Good Will Hunting
The Resilient Parasite
"Once An Idea Has Taken Hold Of The Brain, Itâs Almost Impossible To Eradicate" - Cobb, Inception
Why so serious?
"What doesn't kill you makes you stranger" - The Joker from The Dark Knight
A Personal Board of Directors
Cultivate trusted circles
Some Like It Hot
"Water polo, isn't that dangerous?" - Sugar Kane Kowalczyk
The Woodsmen
"This is the water and this is the well. Drink full." - The Woodsmen in Twin Peaks, Season 3
We interrupt this program...
Pause and think
The Path
"There is a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path." -Morpheus, The Matrix
Carpe Diem
"Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary." - Dead Poets Society
All That Glitters is Gold
"When all is one and one is all, that's what it is; To be a rock and not to roll, oh yeah; And she's buying a stairway to heaven"
Everlong
"And I wonder when I sing along with you, If everything could ever feel this real forever, If anything could ever be this good again."
Did You Chop Down This Tree?
âA tree falls the way it leans. Be careful which way you lean.â â The Lorax
The Rot of Memory
â I have been a voice with no body. A body, but not human. And now a memory made real. Who knows what I might be next?â
Rising tides
âThere is a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path.â â Morpheus, The Matrix
Beautiful Polished Rocks
"You can't come up with a formula to change the way you experience the world." - A Beautiful Mind
Constant Reinvention
âLife moves pretty fast. If you donât stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.â â Ferris Buellerâs Day Off
Cast Away
I, have made fire.
Little Things
âBig things have small beginningsâ
Little things add up to big ones over time.
Often âboil the oceanâ projects that attempt to make huge course corrections, cultural changes, or technology shifts in an organization (or life, for that matter). But I think the biggest lesson that Iâve taken from
Black Hawk Down
Nobody asks to be a hero, it just sometimes turns out that way.
The Last of the Mohicans
Death and honor are thought to be the same, but today I have learned that sometimes they are not.
Strange Days
"I am your main connection to the switchboard of the soul. I'm the magic man... Santa Claus of the subconscious."
The Importance of Exercise
âSuffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.â â Muhammad Ali
Streets of Fire
Looks like I finally ran into someone that likes to play as rough as I do.
The Mind Palace
Get out. I need to go to my mind palace.
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
If your life had a face I would punch it.
The Prestige
My passion is equal to the task.
Contact
Mathematics is the only true universal language
Mako âThings I Likeâ: 2020
The annual Mako âThings I Likeâ report for 2020
Soul
Donât worry. You canât crush a soul here, thatâs what life on earth is for.
Play Chess, Not Checkers
You want my king, you got to come get my king. All these other pieces are just the means to do it.
Interstellar
Do not go gentle into that good night
The Bucket
Live like youâre already dead, man. Have a good time. Do your best. Let it all come ripping right through you. â Jeff Bridges
The Men Who Stare At Goats
Donât eat the eggs. We put LSD in the eggs.
Inversion
Up is down. Well thatâs just maddeningly unhelpful. Why are these things never clear?
The Abyss (Special Edition)
She didnât leave me. She just left me behind.
Jacob's Ladder
Home? This is your home. You're dead.
Apple Watch
Time is meaningless and yet it is all that exists
The Martian
Iâm going to have to science the shit out of this.
Looper
It's like this whole town. Big heads, small potatoes.
The Purge
A.K.A. The Audit
The Usual Suspects
And like that... he's gone.
The Game
I am extremely fragile right now
Wall-E
We cannot go home.
Fight Club
I want you to hit me as hard as you can
Forrest Gump
Me and Jenny goes together like peas and carrots
Sleep
Our dreams feel real while weâre in them. Itâs only when we wake we realize things were strange.
Hope
Hope is a dangerous thing my friend, it can kill a manâŠ
The Mind Garden
Hey, well that's just like...Your opinion, man.
The No People
The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didnât exist.
Flow
Be water, my friend
Watchmen
I am not locked in here with you. You are locked in with me!
Miller's Crossing
Nobody knows anybody. Not that well.
Gladiator
Are you not entertained?
Good Will Hunting
I had to go see about a girl
Scent of a Woman
Hoo-ah!
Black Panther
In times of crisis, the wise build bridges while the foolish build barriers.
Se7en
Whatâs in the box?!
Edge of Tomorrow
Come Find Me When You Wake Up!
V for Vendetta
There are no coincidences, only the illusion of coincidences
Vanilla Sky
The little things... there's nothing bigger, is there?
Tron: Legacy
I... fight for the users!
Heat
I say what I mean and I do what I say
The Dark Knight
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
The Shawshank Redemption
Geology is the study of pressure and time. Thatâs all it takes, really. Pressure and time.
Inception
Do You Want To Take A Leap Of Faith Or Become An Old Man Filled With Regret Waiting To Die Alone?
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Beautiful things donât ask for attention.
Immortal Beloved
I canât hear them, but I know that they are making a hash of it.
The Social Network
The internet isnât written in pencil, Mark. Itâs written in ink.
The Right Stuff
Dear Lord, please don't let me f*** up.
Cloud Atlas
I don't know. Just trying to understand why we keep making the same mistakes... over and over.
Fury Road
Oh what a day! What a lovely day!
Manners. Maketh. Man.
âDo you know what that means? Then let me teach you a lesson.â
Shattered
Execute Order 66
Chevaliers de Sangreal
The holy grail âneath ancient Roslin waits
2020 Desk At Home
Up-leveling my work-at-home space
SETEC Astronomy
My voice is my passport, verify me.
New York Groove
Feels so good tonight, who cares about tomorrow
The Final Cut
I can barely define the shape of this moment in time
2020 EDC
Why not prep for when I can go out again?
Time For Me To Fly
I make you laugh; And you make me cry
The Gambler
âCause every handâs a winner
Social Distancing Edition
Thatâs where I want to live the rest of my life. A warm place with no memory.
Almost Famous
âThe only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when youâre uncool."
Country Roads, Take Me Home
To the place I belong...
Ramble On
And now's the time, the time is now...
Deep Links
An Experiment
Thread Reader Automation
I often hear people complain that Twitter is total chaos. To be honest, I really enjoy using it daily as a source of technology discovery, but it didnât really become effective and under control until I started to move people off my timeline and into curated âlistsâ.
For example,
Mako "Things I Like":Â 2019
Welcome to the annual Mako "Things I Like" report for 2019