Weekend Wrap 11/09/2025
Each weekend, I like to pause, reflect, and look back on the past week. This isn't a deep dive or grand reflection—just a quick review of a handful of things that brought me joy, made me think, or challenged me.
This past week involved a lot of travel, some reading, and watching some awesome swimming. As a result, I didn’t get through too much this week. Still, it was worth looking back, even if it is a day late.
Music
I've been listening to Psychonaut since their first release, Unfold the God Man. World Maker was released the same day as Unself from Conjurer. At the time of release, the sludgy ugliness of Unself was what I was looking for. The clean singing, the slow build, the almost happy and hopeful sound of the first track of World Maker just wasn't working for me.
Then I spent a few more days enjoying the California sun, the fresh air, an excellent conference, and time away from it all with my wonderful wife.
I gave Psychonaut another chance.
Slowly, World Maker unfolded before me.
And it is excellent.
This is progressive metal for people who want layers. The music is deep, layered, and slowly opens up. There are plenty of moments of aggression and bombast. But they are balanced by serene moments of beauty.
Now that I "get" what Psychonaut is doing on World Maker, I find myself coming back to it over and over. This album runs deep. Dive in. It's worth it.
Books
Having finished Murder Your Employer (I can't recommend it highly enough! I loved it!), I needed to find something else to read. It seemed a perfect time to dive back into the world of Murderbot. Artificial Condition is the second book in the series and is an excellent follow-up.
I've only read these two novellas so far, but what I find so appealing about Murderbot is the character is an excellent cypher for each of us. It is traveling through a world, trying to understand its place in it. It has moments of humanity that both fascinate and disgust it.
Murderbot constantly finds itself at war with its desire to just take in the media it has downloaded (don't we all feel that way some days?), and an urge to help out the squishy, stupid, helpless humans it finds itself surrounded by.
I'm planning on finishing all of these now. I'm in.
Movies
This week, Eden and I watched Transformers One. The podcast episode will be out tomorrow (subscribe, it's great, and we have a lot of fun!), but here is the short of it.
Transformers One is a fantastic Transformers movie. It is the best Transformers movie ever. Better than the 1986 original. And don't even get me started on the live-action garbage that has been inflicted upon the world over the last many years.
TFO deserves to be seen. It is predictable. Nothing really surprised me. But the story is still incredibly compelling, and the key is the relationship between Orion Pax and D-16. And who they become. You already know.
Seriously, go watch this movie. You won't regret it.
Quote of the week
Fiction can have wisdom. Here is a nugget from the final book in The Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light. Leadership is often more about knowing when not to step in, rather than when to step in.
It's incredibly easy to micromanage. After all, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Right?
Wrong.
We need to step back and let the people who actually know how to do the job do just that. We need to let them work. And if they don't have the tools/skills/knowledge to do that work, then we can help them get those tools and skills. But getting in the way? Too often (every day?) I see leaders trying to do just that.
They don't trust their people. And those people see that. They know. They aren't stupid.
That's not leadership. Stepping in often just makes things worse.
What didn't work
I've really fallen off the meditation train. I can come up with dozens of reasons. But they are all lies. Excuses. I haven't made it a priority.
I need to.
It makes a difference in so many ways. It helps my mental clarity. Setting aside time to be mindful helps me be calmer, handle my stress better.
It makes me a better person when I do it.
So why is it so easy to stop? It takes time. Not much, but still time. And our hyper-stimulated world encourages us to fill every second with "noise" of some sort.
Just being still? Harder than hell some days.
But so worth it.
Wrapping up
It was great to get away. I learned some things, realized that we are doing some incredible urology in Pocatello, and in many ways are functioning on par with much larger programs.
That is encouraging. It is fun to realize we are doing some really, really good work. I feel that way, but interacting with urologists from all over the country proves that. It excites me to come back, keep it up, and hopefully push things forward.
Standing still isn't an option.