“I’m Doing a Lot of Stuff with Computers Right Now”
An informal history for Friend-of-the-Show Christopher Bowers
The Origin (e180 — “I’m Doing a Lot of Stuff with Computers Right Now”)
April 17, 2022
How It Came Up
Siracusa is explaining macOS security stuff (message blast services, sandboxing). Merlin checks something on his Mac and starts explaining he messed something up:
Merlin: Let me see what it’s doing right now, just so I know. I’m really— oh boy, I really screwed myself up last week. I figured out finally, as you know, I’m doing a lot with computers right now. And I really screwed myself up last—
Siracusa cuts him off immediately:
Siracusa: I really feel like there should be either a bumper sticker or a t-shirt for you of some kind. Not a red hat. “Doing a lot of stuff with computers right now.”
Then they start riffing:
Merlin: “Honey, could you change the baby?” “I’m doing a lot of stuff with computers right now.”
Siracusa: Or you could cut to a cocktail party scene and you’re in the middle of a conversation with a stranger and your line is just “I’m doing a lot of stuff with computers right now.”
Then Merlin pivots to talking about his wife being a “fierce mouser” and they joke about making a “Mouse Harder” shirt, and Merlin says they should start “diversifying your revenue stream” with more shirts.
Later in the same episode, Merlin drops it again completely naturally:
Merlin: Well, I mean in fairness I’m doing a lot of stuff with computers right now, so I should probably look down.
They named the episode after the quote.
Callbacks
e184 — Used casually:
“You’re doing a lot of stuff with computers right now.”
e187 — Siracusa applies it to himself while working on Switch Glass:
“This is a totally canonical ‘I’m doing a lot of stuff with computers right now.’ I’m doing this very important task for this thing that’s not going to make me any money and has no point and nobody cares about except for me. So I just wanted to throw that out there. I’m doing a lot of stuff with computers.”
e189 — Siracusa tried to sell the shirts to his kids:
“They’re not doing a lot of stuff with computers right now, so they were just not into it.”
e223 — Merlin, frustrated with YAML/Home Assistant:
“I’m really trying not to be that guy who’s like, I’m Merlin Mann from the internet. Like I’m doing a lot of stuff with computers right now. Why is this such a problem for me?”
e242 — Tag team:
Siracusa: You’re doing a lot of stuff with computers right now.
Merlin: Yeah, I am doing a lot of stuff with computers right now.
The Shirt (e185 — “A Shirt’s Journey”)
June 24, 2022
Why Two Designs?
Siracusa: Why are we doing two shirts? Because we’re stupid. Really one shirt would be better, but we’ve got two of them. Why do we have two different designs? Because we couldn’t decide on one.
Design 1: Siracusa’s
Person viewed from behind at a ridiculous multi-monitor setup, ethernet cables, text in a circle:
Siracusa: You’re seeing the back of them sitting in their chair at their desk with a bunch of computer screens in front of them. A Mike Hurley–like array of screens. And it says “I’m doing a lot of stuff with computers right now.” And the idea is that you are there taking yourself so seriously with your big important computer setup and probably what you’re doing is organizing your light bulbs.
Siracusa wrote a design brief explaining the joke:
Siracusa: My design document explains the meaning in the context of the show of “I’m doing a lot of stuff with computers right now,” why we think it’s funny and why we think it would be good on a shirt. So it totally sucks all the air out of the shirt. It should come with a little card that says, if someone asks you what your shirt is about, just hand them this card. And then walk away because they’ll never finish it.
Design 2: Merlin’s
Chicago bitmap font, command key icon:
Siracusa: The second one, which is Merlin’s design, executed by me, story credit by Merlin Mann, is “I’m doing a lot of stuff with computers right now” in the bitmap Chicago font from the classic Mac. And above it is a command key, which I lovingly rendered in the exact proportions of the command key on the brand new Apple extended keyboard with Touch ID.
The subtle part:
Siracusa: The only way anyone would know it’s associated with our podcast is if they already listen so much that they know “I’m doing a lot of stuff with computers right now.” But this one, if you squint really close … you have to recognize it as a command key. And then you have to recognize, oh, “recdiffs,” and it’s all lowercase because command is all lowercase on the keycap.
The Merlin Origin Story
Merlin: I had a MacBook, two iPads, and then other devices that I just happened to be doing regular maintenance on. And my dear wife walked into the room and I looked at her. I looked her dead in the eyes with dead black shark eyes. And I said, “I’m doing a lot of stuff with computers right now.”
The Hectoring (with Casey/ATP reference)
Merlin on why they keep reminding people:
Merlin: This is what’s turned Casey into like a TSA person who has to keep telling you to throw away your cannon and your gallon of water. It’s like no matter— and it’s a joke, but it’s not. And I’ve been on both sides of this. “Hey, why didn’t you tell me you were selling a shirt?” “Oh, I didn’t even know you were selling shirts. Are they still for sale?”
I understand that because everybody’s got a life. But I feel like a homunculus because of how much I’ve been mentioning this, partly because I like money, but also owing to the fact that I know it’s very frustrating when you can no longer get something.
Siracusa on ATP experience:
Siracusa: What I have learned from doing podcast shirt sales— because we do multiple shirt sales on ATP every year because we have all sorts of different fun designs— is that you need to have someplace to send people to buy the shirts.
The deadline:
Siracusa: Oh yeah, I forgot to say when the sale ends. Sorry. Real quick. Tentatively, this sale is going to end on July 15th. And that may seem like a long time to you if you’re listening right after the show drops, or maybe not so long if you listen to it later. So July 15th, that’s your deadline.
The “don’t feel obligated” caveat:
Siracusa: These t-shirts are not really a way for us to make money. Like I know they look expensive when you buy them, but by the time everyone takes out the money … we don’t make a huge amount of money. If you’re like, “Oh I don’t want a stupid t-shirt, but I would like to support RecDiffs”— well good news. We have a membership. That is a way better way to give us money.
Meta-Callbacks (“doing a lot of stuff with X”)
e185 — Siracusa extends the format:
“I’m doing a lot of stuff with music right now.”
e190 — Siracusa deploys it:
“Is that why you’re doing a lot of stuff with TVs right now? Sounds like you’re watching a lot of TV shows.”
Total footprint: 20 mentions across 7 episodes