Sean Carroll

But back in the 60s and 70s, this was a big deal.

The Whole Earth Catalog was a way to like know where you could find the stuff you needed to exist in the world, which could be as simple as, you know, food or tools, but also where to learn, you know, computer programming or whatever.

Of course, these days we have the internet to teach us this stuff.

Stuart knows this very, very well.

He talks about it in his book, so the Whole Earth Catalog is no longer published.

But he also was one of the founders of The Well.

The Well, W-E-L-L, stands for Whole Earth Electronic Link, which is one of the first online communities, really, as well as a co-founder of the Long Now Foundation, which tries to

focus humanity's attention on the fact that there are things that last more than a couple years, and maybe we should think about the further future than we usually do.

So he's an iconic figure in various fields, and I find it just fascinating that this idea of maintenance is what he's turned his attention to.

And the book, as Stuart explains in the interview,

He's writing the book in real time, or at least he's writing it sequentially.

So he puts chapters online and then just collects them into a book.

So if he feels like, oh, I need to have a digression about motorcycles, then okay, we're going to have a digression about motorcycles.

Oh, we did a digression about rust?

Okay, we're going to digress about rust.

And if you're into that thing, if you go along to the spirit of the discovery in real time, it's a wonderful read.

So let's go.

Stuart Brand, welcome to the Mindscape Podcast.

So we're going to be talking about your new book, which is about maintenance.

I mean, feel free, by the way, to chip in with any stories you have over a very colorful career thinking about big ideas and doing fun things.