I have a different Spotify playlist depending on what I’m doing – reading papers, coding, thinking about new ideas, or going for a meditative walk. A lot of people ask me for my music. Here are the highlights!
Reading Papers and books
Utopia was my attempt to turn the past couple of years of reading science fiction, futuristic economics, and techno-humanist literature into a Spotify playlist. Hence the name. Amazing for reading papers and books.
Bunsen Burners is what your internal monologue sounds like when you’re on the verge of a breakthrough. Great for ingesting science.
Creating new ideas & thinking about life
Two-word Existentialism – a playlist for thinking about life. The “Two-word” in the name is a reference to the fact that all its artists fit into a suspicious theme of a vaguely exotic name and last name. Some purported this was part of a massive, multi-centi-million-$ conspiracy by Spotify to destroy popular, high-cost labels.
Von Karman Line – Sounds like space. A reference to the atmosphere/space boundary lying 100km above the earth, named after aerospace engineer Von Kármán. Great for thinking of new ideas.
Coding / Cleaning data
Utopia 2.0 – when Utopia (1.0) started becoming muddied with four-to-the-floor synthesizer goa trance, I separated those new tracks into Utopia 2.0. It’s perfect for coding and feeling like you’re part of a rogue collective of space hackers. Also great for staring out the window of a commercial jet at 560 km/h at the sun rising above the clouds.
Carpal Morphine - “2 injections of general anaesthetic and 5 shots of caffeine.” Great for doing data munging.
Music to be a Pirate to – Makes you feel like a pirate. Great for dredge-work… stuff where you need to turn off your brain, like cleaning data. Makes you code 62% faster.