0:00:00How does Google Docs not have a dark mode?
0:00:02- 'Cause they're idiots and I hate them.
0:00:04- Whoa.
0:00:05(both laughing)
0:00:06- I'm really (beep) off at Google Docs at the moment.
0:00:08- I just clicked on the little thing on my icon.
0:00:10I was like, "Surely there must be a dark mode button here."
0:00:13I didn't realize I was opening up Myke Fury over that.
0:00:16- I'm seriously considering moving
0:00:18to Microsoft Word or something.
0:00:21- Really? - Yeah.
0:00:22- I should retract that tremendous question mark really,
0:00:25because I haven't used Microsoft Word in 10 years.
0:00:29- Okay, well then.
0:00:30- So I'm not up to date.
0:00:32Maybe Word's amazing now,
0:00:34but when I was putting together worksheets for school,
0:00:38Word was no fun, no fun whatsoever.
0:00:41- So there's a lot of asterisks here
0:00:43because I know that Word has a collaboration now.
0:00:47Like you can do like Google Docs like collaboration,
0:00:52but I don't know how good it is.
0:00:53Like I would need to test that out.
0:00:55- Okay.
0:00:56- But the thing is,
0:00:57Microsoft seems to be adding more features to Word
0:01:00that are modern on the platforms that they're on,
0:01:03including iPadOS, than Google is.
0:01:06So like, you can have multiple Word documents side by side
0:01:10on iPadOS right now.
0:01:12You can't do that on Google Docs.
0:01:15- You can't do that with Google Docs?
0:01:16- No.
0:01:17They don't have the multi-window support.
0:01:19- Wait, what was multi-window,
0:01:20was that multi-window support last year?
0:01:22Or was that two years ago? - That was last year.
0:01:23That was last year. - That was last year.
0:01:24- It was, okay, I'm thinking, right, sorry, yes.
0:01:27Multi-window support, they haven't added it.
0:01:29- They haven't added that, there's no dock mode, right?
0:01:31Now I don't think Word has a dock mode either.
0:01:33But like, Microsoft have committed to adding
0:01:37the trackpad support by the end of the year.
0:01:40You're never gonna get that kind of commitment out of Google.
0:01:44Like maybe they'll do it, maybe they won't.
0:01:46And the thing is with Google, and with Google Docs
0:01:50and its history over the last few years,
0:01:52is like, maybe you'll get those features,
0:01:54maybe they'll take forever to come.
0:01:55You're just gonna have to wait for them.
0:01:57Really, these days, Microsoft have more
0:01:59of a vested interest in keeping the product up to date
0:02:01because you pay for it.
0:02:03- Oh, right, 'cause that's the Office.
0:02:04- Office 365. - Office, yes, of course.
0:02:07And Google Docs is what, like a charity project
0:02:09by Google, I guess?
0:02:10- Yeah, I mean, I'm paying Google for G Suite,
0:02:13but that includes so many millions of things, you know?
0:02:17So yeah, it's something that I've been mulling around
0:02:20in my head, like I've been thinking about it,
0:02:22I'm considering it.
0:02:23And that's why you've caught me at a time
0:02:25when I'm particularly salty about Google Docs.
0:02:28But Google Docs is great in the fact
0:02:30that it's available everywhere
0:02:32and the collaboration stuff is rock solid.
0:02:35But if Microsoft can give me most of the collaboration stuff
0:02:39in almost real time and they also will make an app
0:02:43that feels modern, then that's probably
0:02:46where I'm gonna go eventually.
0:02:47- So you're thinking of this what,
0:02:48primarily for the show notes stuff?
0:02:50- Yeah, yeah, for show notes.
0:02:51This is all I use Google Docs for really,
0:02:53is like shared collaborative documents,
0:02:55which for me is like 95% of those are show notes documents.
0:03:00So I do, this is the other thing,
0:03:02it's like I'm dragging my heels and it's a little bit,
0:03:05is I have to try and convince everyone to use Word then,
0:03:10which might not be easy.
0:03:11So I really wanna make sure that my case
0:03:14that I make to all of my co-hosts is a solid one.
0:03:17So I need to really spend some time making sure
0:03:21that that's the right move for everybody, which is the other reason why I'm putting it off because
0:03:24that feels like a lot of work. Right, yeah, because I stopped myself because I suddenly realized,
0:03:29no, this is a collaboration problem as well, right, so you have multiple people. Of all the
0:03:34possible tools in the world, why would you switch to Word? But I guess maybe that one has the highest
0:03:40probability of being able to convince people to switch, you know, as opposed to something like
0:03:47Dropbox paper or Notion, which might be more esoteric, you know, based on users.
0:03:53We don't say Notion around here because...
0:03:55Why don't we say Notion around here?
0:03:57Because it brings out the Notion nation.
0:03:59People that use Notion, they like really love it, you know, and it's, and then
0:04:04every time we mention it, people want to know why we're not using it.
0:04:08And like, I am using it, but don't really understand it.
0:04:11Yeah.
0:04:11Well, I mean, look, I bring up Notion because recently my assistant has
0:04:15decided that the entire back end of the Grey Empire is going to convert to Notion and was
0:04:21like, "Well, I'm along for this ride as well." So Dropbox paper got ejected and now
0:04:26it's Notion time.
0:04:27Maybe we need to talk about Notion at some point in the future.
0:04:29Yeah, but I don't know anything about Notion.
0:04:31That's what I mean.
0:04:32She set up all these things, I'm like afraid, I don't know how to use it.
0:04:36Why is this so scary, right? Like what is it about—you know what's so scary about
0:04:41Notion is that there's a million YouTube videos about people that run their entire
0:04:44lives from Notion, and the notion of that notion is terrifying.
0:04:48Yeah, yeah.
0:04:49Part of the workflow process for me with the videos is that you have what's called a "work
0:04:53in progress" document, so it's like the way the animator and I communicate, like,
0:04:58"Here's the list of all the things that need to be done for the animation in order
0:05:01for it to be considered complete," you know.
0:05:04And again, like, that could be Google Docs.
0:05:05We just happen to use Dropbox Paper for a variety of reasons.
0:05:09But now that, like, my back end has been switched for me to Notion, I was like, "Well, I'll
0:05:14how hard can it be to make a new page to start a new area for me and my animator?
0:05:19And I was, and I was like, Oh, I don't, I'm terrified to click anything.
0:05:23I don't understand like all of what, what are these permissions?
0:05:26So the end result there was I found myself in the position of sending a message
0:05:32link.
0:05:32Could you please create an area that we could use so that we
0:05:36could communicate in this way?
0:05:38And it's like, Oh yes.
0:05:39No, you can't just create a page.
0:05:41The page is merely a container for sub pages and the sub pages are where the work in progress documents can go.
0:05:47That's the thing I can't get my head around.
0:05:49Like you create a page but that page is now just like an entry in the wiki and it's like
0:05:53"but why can't I just start writing?"
0:05:57Because you haven't enabled a text block but why?
0:05:59Why though?
0:06:01That's a good comparison. It's very wiki.
0:06:03It feels like Notion is the new "oh just use a wiki for that".
0:06:07A wiki will solve all of your problems because it can be everything.
0:06:12Notion has already spawned a bunch of companies that want to be like Notion.
0:06:15Have you heard of Rome Research?
0:06:17Oh yes, this is the other one I'm dimly aware of.
0:06:20A number of people have messaged me and been like, "Hey man, I've got the solution to
0:06:25your Evernote problem.
0:06:26It's called Rome."
0:06:27That's why, yeah, that's what you're hearing about it.
0:06:29I know nothing about Rome Research.
0:06:31I looked at it for two seconds and was like, "This looks like Dropbox paper, I guess?
0:06:36I don't know."
0:06:37is at the moment is that it lives on the web.
0:06:40That's the only place that it exists right now.
0:06:42So like that's immediately out for me.
0:06:44Like even though Notion's iOS apps suck
0:06:47because they're just web views,
0:06:49I at least wanna have an app, right?
0:06:51- Yeah, yeah, I want an app as well.
0:06:52- Yeah. - I feel the same way.
0:06:54- The other thing I know about Roam research
0:06:55is that it's basically just like a really powerful
0:06:57personal Wiki builder.
0:06:59So I use Notion, people may remember this,
0:07:02I mentioned it in the past,
0:07:03I use Notion to collect up everything to do
0:07:05with Cortex brand.
0:07:07So all of our ideas and all of our like little pieces
0:07:11of information, it all goes into there.
0:07:14- You mean Evernote, you don't mean Notion?
0:07:16- No, I mean Notion.
0:07:17- Oh, okay.
0:07:18- Yeah, I moved it from Evernote to Notion
0:07:21because I realized I couldn't handle Evernote.
0:07:23- I think I just mentally blocked out that entire process.
0:07:26- Yeah.
0:07:28So like this is what I use for that stuff
0:07:30and like it does the job,
0:07:32but this is one of those applications that as I'm using it,
0:07:35Like I feel guilty for not feeling like I'm using it properly because everybody
0:07:40talks about how like, Oh, you can run your entire business in this application.
0:07:44And I look at it and I'm like, I don't know how I would do that.
0:07:47But it's like, you know, I set up something and it looks like a page,
0:07:50but no, this is now just a folder.
0:07:52It's like, okay, so why doesn't it have a folder icon?
0:07:54It's all very confusing to me, Gray.
0:07:56Yeah.
0:07:57I was trying to add something on my iPad where I was writing a sentence.
0:08:00I just wanted to use the phrase "and/or" in a sentence, and so I'm typing out "and/"
0:08:08and the second I hit the slash it brings up this big menu of options.
0:08:12Oh my god I just did it.
0:08:14Yeah.
0:08:15Okay.
0:08:16Like I'm happy this exists, but why on earth could I drop in a calendar now?
0:08:20Right yes, and so I was unable to successfully type the slash symbol.
0:08:25Oh I've just done something terrible.
0:08:28Why is there a calendar here now?
0:08:30Yeah, that's what can happen.
0:08:32So I spent, I don't know, 30 seconds trying to figure out, okay, Notion must need an escape character for letting me type the slash.
0:08:43So I'm like, what is it?
0:08:44Was it that I needed to type?
0:08:45I could not figure out for the life of me how to type the slash.
0:08:48So I just said, oh, f*** it, I'm doing the other slash the other way.
0:08:51So like an idiot, I wrote end slash or with the backwards slash.
0:08:58Because it was just like, "I can't figure out what the escape sequence is that you want here."
0:09:02I'm on my iPad, it feels a little finicky because it is this web view, like it's not quite working the way it's supposed to anyway.
0:09:08I'm like, "The hell with this!" They'll know what I mean, and /or, I just look like a moron who wrote it backwards.
0:09:14Yeah, I don't, I don't, I feel like I just don't understand this application.
0:09:18I have a bunch of YouTube videos that I've saved to my watch later queue
0:09:22- Right, yeah, of course. - Of various productivity
0:09:24YouTubers explaining Notion, and like at some point,
0:09:26I'm gonna watch those videos and see if they can try
0:09:28and explain it to me, but right now, it feels a little like,
0:09:32it's a lot, and I feel like I just wanna do something
0:09:35very simple with it, and it does not want me to do that.
0:09:38- Right, so this is not a candidate for switching
0:09:41- Absolutely not, no. - your show notes
0:09:43and trying to get everybody else on board.
0:09:45- I don't wanna accidentally drop in a four-page calendar
0:09:48into my Quotex show notes document.
0:09:51- Right, or on any of your other shows,
0:09:53have your co-hosts accidentally drop in a relational database
0:09:56in the middle of a bullet point.
0:09:58- Like, oops, I pressed the space key
0:10:00and now there's a page for every word in this document.
0:10:03So long and short of it is,
0:10:07there should be a better tool, I think,
0:10:09for doing this collaboration stuff now,
0:10:12like just very simple, like we have outlines.
0:10:15And I feel like Word is a strong contender for,
0:10:20Here is a product where there is a vested interest
0:10:23by the creators of this product to make it modern.
0:10:27And I just don't think Google has that anymore
0:10:30with Google Docs.
0:10:31Well, 'cause plus, as we're recording this today,
0:10:33there was like this,
0:10:34I saw this article of like,
0:10:38Google wants to integrate all of their features into Gmail
0:10:40to be more like Slack.
0:10:42- No, no.
0:10:44- Yeah, man.
0:10:45Google Chat rooms and Meet to come into Gmail.
0:10:49And it's kind of just like, well, eventually I suppose
0:10:52they're gonna wanna swallow Google Docs up into that.
0:10:54And like, I don't want that, right?
0:10:57And I feel like eventually that's what they're gonna want
0:10:59me to do.
0:11:00And so it's a different type of product, right?
0:11:03Like Google wants everything all integrated
0:11:05and Microsoft just want you to pay them every month.
0:11:08And I feel like that those business models
0:11:11will end up with me seeing that maybe Microsoft Word
0:11:14is a better option for the stuff that we're doing.
0:11:17- Yeah.
0:11:17Like a native feeling application where we could put our show notes into.
0:11:21Imagine that.
0:11:22Yeah, I mean that would be nice.
0:11:23I'm here using Flotato to have Google Docs in a little app on the computer and I hate
0:11:30it.
0:11:31It's like it's better than having it in a browser because I won't lose it.
0:11:33It's like oh yes it's just a thing I can alt tab to but like can I get a desktop app for
0:11:38Google Docs?
0:11:39That would be lovely.
0:11:40What about we could do a little challenge here.
0:11:43But if I make it so our next episode, we do the show notes, like our internal show notes
0:11:49in Word and just see what happens.
0:11:51I mean, okay, I can agree to that because this is 99% on your shoulders and 1% on my
0:11:57shoulders.
0:11:58Yeah, basically all you need to do is accept the invitation and you've done all you need
0:12:01to do.
0:12:02But that's my 1%, that's my contribution, Myke, is I will click accept and install from
0:12:09the App Store?
0:12:11Microsoft Word?
0:12:12I don't know.
0:12:13Is it on the App Store?
0:12:14- Yeah, yeah.
0:12:15- Okay, cool.
0:12:16All right, I can commit to that, Myke.
0:12:17We can try Word for show notes next time.
0:12:20You can run Cortex show notes as the beta
0:12:22for your convince everyone to use Word plan.
0:12:25- I never could have imagined that this show
0:12:27would be the beta for something like that.
0:12:29But I guess I've caught you at the right moment as well.
0:12:32- You've caught me at the exact right moment.
0:12:34Yes, this is the only thing I use Google Docs for
0:12:39is Cortex show notes.
0:12:41- I guess the only thing that we need to do as a test,
0:12:44we can do it when we're recording,
0:12:45is seeing if the collaboration is real time.
0:12:48'Cause Google is, right?
0:12:49Like then that's what makes Docs so powerful.
0:12:51So if I start typing a word,
0:12:53you see it literally as it's happening.
0:12:55- Yes, yes.
0:12:56Or I think Apple Pages has their pseudo real time.
0:13:00- Pages isn't good enough, Apple Notes isn't good enough.
0:13:02- Oh, I didn't think about Apple Notes.
0:13:03You've tried it, it's not good enough,
0:13:05it's not real time enough?
0:13:05- It updates frequently, but not real time.
0:13:09And you know, like in some of my shows,
0:13:11like multiple people can be adding notes in,
0:13:14or like the same part in the document,
0:13:16because like someone's talking.
0:13:17- Real time matters.
0:13:18Real time 100% matters.
0:13:19It can't be close to real time for this sort of thing.
0:13:21- Right, 'cause it's like, you know,
0:13:22like imagine if you're saying something now,
0:13:23it's like, oh, that's a good point.
0:13:24I wanna make sure I remember it.
0:13:26Like I will write it down, right?
0:13:27But in shows where I had three people,
0:13:29sometimes two people are doing that, right?
0:13:30And having that real-timeness of it is important,
0:13:33so then you don't end up with conflict
0:13:35when it tries to resolve itself in a sync.
0:13:37So that kind of stuff can be really messy.
0:13:39And that is why everybody uses Google Docs
0:13:42for this type of stuff.
0:13:43And so that's why I've always used it
0:13:45because it works really great.
0:13:46But the experience of using Google Docs
0:13:49on like a phone or whatever, it's just not that nice.
0:13:51You know, like I would like an application
0:13:53that felt better. - No, it's terrible.
0:13:54- Again, I don't know if Word is the right app
0:13:55for that either, but yeah.
0:13:58This episode of "Clotex" is brought to you
0:14:00by the new season of "Wireframe,"
0:14:02a podcast all about how user experience
0:14:05can help technology fit into our lives.
0:14:07Wireframe is a show for designers and the design curious
0:14:10hosted by Koi Vinh, senior director of design at Adobe.
0:14:14The pandemic has changed our habits and our lives
0:14:17and this season of Wireframe leans into how design
0:14:19intersects with these changes.
0:14:21So you'll hear stories like how user experience design
0:14:24helps people manage stress and sleeplessness
0:14:26or find something good to watch
0:14:27on an online streaming service.
0:14:29Maybe even help individuals, creators and social causes
0:14:31through crowdfunding.
0:14:32This is another great one,
0:14:34how you can help older family members understand technology.
0:14:37That is an episode that I checked out myself
0:14:40and it's super great actually.
0:14:41Really fun and interesting stories that relate
0:14:44to helping people in your family with technology,
0:14:46which I think is something that we can all relate to
0:14:48and is the theme of the entire episode.
0:14:50But this episode also focuses on how good design
0:14:53can help people get around these issues.
0:14:56Like a good user experience can help new users
0:14:58from not needing to require the help of younger people
0:15:01in their lives.
0:15:02design something for the people you want to use it and include lots of people in it, you'll
0:15:07have a much better experience for your users.
0:15:10People shouldn't be left behind because technology is getting more and more complicated.
0:15:13Anyway, you don't want to hear me explain the episode, you should go listen to it yourself,
0:15:17it's really engaging, loads of great interviews.
0:15:19You're going to hear from some seriously impressive designers and design leaders who have built
0:15:23UX and UI experiences for companies like Headspace, Patreon, Kickstarter and Ythings.
0:15:29Whether you're into UX, UI, technology or just curious about the way design impacts
0:15:33our everyday lives, you should check out Wireframe.
0:15:37Just search for Wireframe in your favourite podcast app, like the one you're using, right
0:15:41now or check out the link in the show notes.
0:15:43So thanks to Wireframe for their support of Cortex and all of Relay FM.
0:15:48Talking about betas, have you installed any of Apple's betas on any of your products
0:15:52yet?
0:15:53No, I have not.
0:15:54Oh, okay.
0:15:55Interesting.
0:15:56Hold on.
0:15:57You were very confident last time, but you know, my,
0:16:01my feeling is I have no need to do this. It's fine. I can wait this year.
0:16:06I'm not planning on installing any of the betas on my devices. And you know,
0:16:11I'm sure also like the thing I'm thinking of and this, this,
0:16:16you make, you can tell me if this is true or not.
0:16:18You were giving me a real song and dance show last time about look at all this
0:16:22magic with shortcuts. Look at everything that I have in my hat here,
0:16:26like just pulling out these rabbits.
0:16:28And while that is amazing,
0:16:30the problem with shortcuts in particular
0:16:33is installing the beta on one device
0:16:35means you're installing the beta
0:16:37on every device eventually, right?
0:16:38There's the beta spread of the shortcut stuff
0:16:42won't work everywhere.
0:16:43And so it's like, well,
0:16:44if I just start it with my loaner iPad,
0:16:46then I update some automation
0:16:48and now it doesn't work on everything
0:16:50where the beta isn't installed.
0:16:51And so it's just like, it spreads like a virus.
0:16:54- I haven't had that happen. - So I'm keeping it.
0:16:55- Okay.
0:16:56- I mean, I've installed it on my phone
0:16:58because I like the shortcut stuff so much on my iPad
0:17:01that I want it on my phone too.
0:17:02So I'm running iOS 14 on my iPhone now.
0:17:05- Okay, and this is still the developer beta, right?
0:17:08We're not even in public beta season.
0:17:08- Public beta's out now.
0:17:10- Oh, okay.
0:17:11- Maybe that's why you didn't do it
0:17:12'cause you didn't know the public beta was out.
0:17:14Should've thought of that.
0:17:16But yeah, I'm on the developer beta now
0:17:18on my iPhone and my iPad, but the public beta is available.
0:17:23And I cannot wait for September
0:17:26for the home screen conversations that we're gonna have.
0:17:29'Cause they're gonna be big.
0:17:30I am one screen now.
0:17:32- You weren't one screen last time?
0:17:33- No, I had the second screen of all the stuff on it, right?
0:17:36I had no folders on my first screen.
0:17:38But now I'm a four by four grid of apps
0:17:40and then a large widget.
0:17:41And they're just the Apple widgets.
0:17:42I know that when I start getting third party widgets,
0:17:45either in some, hopefully some betas,
0:17:47but like when they come out in the store,
0:17:49like I feel like I'm gonna really change up
0:17:52lot of my home screen for a while, if not forever.
0:17:55There just feels like a lot could happen with it
0:17:57and it could be really interesting.
0:17:59So I'm excited about that.
0:18:01But the thing that I really love is I was just able
0:18:03to hide the other two home screens, they're gone forever.
0:18:06I heard someone say something on a podcast,
0:18:09I don't remember where I heard it now,
0:18:10and I thought you might like this thought.
0:18:12Because it's so easy to, you can have another home screen
0:18:16that you just can long press and then hide it.
0:18:19that you could have like a work app home screen.
0:18:22- Can you explain that?
0:18:23I don't know what you mean by this.
0:18:25- Now you're able to long press on the home screen,
0:18:27kind of, you know where you have the dots
0:18:29are just above the dock.
0:18:31And you go into like a zoomed out view,
0:18:34almost like expose or mission control on the Mac.
0:18:38And you can uncheck home screens that have apps on them,
0:18:41then you hide them.
0:18:42- That's interesting.
0:18:44- So this is like how people get rid of their home screen
0:18:47so they just use the app library,
0:18:49which is what I've been doing.
0:18:50And then apps just installed to the app library
0:18:53and that's it.
0:18:53- Can you hide the app library?
0:18:54- No.
0:18:55But you just, it's only there when you swipe for it.
0:18:57- Oh, okay.
0:18:58So you can have a home screen that's just widgets.
0:19:00- Yeah, you can, I think it's actually possible
0:19:02to have a home screen with no apps on it now.
0:19:04- That's interesting.
0:19:05- I think that you will be a no apps but widgets person.
0:19:09And I think that I might get close to that,
0:19:11like just a few apps and then a bunch of widgets.
0:19:14- Yeah, I mean, we'll have to see.
0:19:16Part of the reason why I'm also able to,
0:19:18so far hold off on the beta is because widgets are the most interesting thing.
0:19:23Yeah, and you can't get them for the apps that you want them for.
0:19:26Exactly. Like everything that I want the widget for, I'd have to harass the developers to let me
0:19:31into your beta, right? And like that's not going to happen. So I kind of can't play with the most
0:19:35interesting stuff yet. And I'll be very curious to see when it's actually out and apps start
0:19:41releasing their own widgets. But there is a little bit of a question in my mind about how much this
0:19:46is going to be a bit like complications all over again,
0:19:50where the promise of how potentially interesting
0:19:53complications are is much greater than the check that is
0:19:57cashed by what complications are actually able to do.
0:20:01And so I just wonder about that with widgets, like six months after
0:20:05the thing comes out and we're done playing around with the novelty of
0:20:08widgets, like how useful will they actually be one year
0:20:12from now? I'll be interested to see.
0:20:15I think the benefit that we have there is that complications on Apple Watch exist.
0:20:19So if you just think of the widgets as big complications, that's what they are.
0:20:24We already have a sense of what that type of UI is like.
0:20:28You have UI that it shows you information and you tap on it and it just opens the app.
0:20:33That's what these widgets do.
0:20:35So we have an idea of it already, but just seeing some of the designs that developers
0:20:40that I follow on Twitter are putting out there for things that they're working on,
0:20:44I'm like, "Oh yeah, you know what? I think I would quite like that."
0:20:47Or even just like little things like Apple's weather and calendar widgets.
0:20:51I'm like, "Oh yeah, I really want these for fantastic current Carrot weather,
0:20:56and that's going to be amazing."
0:20:57There's just like little parts of it where I'm like,
0:21:00"Well, having that widget is so much better than the app icon,
0:21:04because I get what I want to open the app for like 90% of the time."
0:21:09Right? I'm opening Carrot weather to find out what the temperature is right now,
0:21:13or I'm opening Fantastic L to see what events I have for the day.
0:21:16Well, the widgets will just show me that information.
0:21:19It will be really nice, and I'm really happy
0:21:21that we're finally going to have it in this way,
0:21:23because developers could have done stuff
0:21:25and have done stuff like this already.
0:21:27There is already a Fantastic L widget
0:21:29and a Carrot Weather widget over in the Today view,
0:21:33but it's just not the same
0:21:34when it's hidden away in its upper place.
0:21:36Having it on your home screen,
0:21:38as soon as you unlock your phone, it's there.
0:21:40And what I've liked about the ones that I'm seeing
0:21:42is they're also just there even when I'm not looking for them. So I feel like I just have
0:21:47that information at hand more.
0:21:48>> Right, it's ambient awareness of things which can be useful.
0:21:53>> So and what I really like is that when you put them in these stacks, you can layer
0:21:57them on top of each other. You can have the phone try and be smart and rotate them through
0:22:01today to show you what you want. And I've found that serious suggestion type stuff to
0:22:06actually be pretty typically quite good for me in the past, like the serious suggestion
0:22:10of apps so like you know when you pull down and it shows you what apps you
0:22:13might want to be using that's always worked pretty well yeah I agree I agree
0:22:17that works better than you think it will yeah and I expect it's gonna be a very
0:22:21similar kind of logic for the widgets right of like understanding what you
0:22:24might want to be looking at a different time of day it's probably pretty similar
0:22:29to what apps am I opening on at certain times of day mm-hmm and also like I
0:22:33always really liked the Siri watch face rest in peace it's still there just
0:22:38never got changed. But I like that because it did a good job for me to show me what I
0:22:43wanted to see. And again, I expect the widget rotation to be a similar idea to that as well.
0:22:48I remember, whatever that was, a couple WWDCs ago, when you were really harping on like,
0:22:54this is the future of watchOS. I really thought it was. You had very good
0:22:59reasons and I think made a compelling argument for, yeah, this is going to be the future
0:23:03of watchOS and then just like with so many things like oh it came out and is never touched again.
0:23:10It really felt like it to me like it really did and I was so wrong because they really did not do
0:23:19anything with it ever again. Yeah you wonder sometimes like what's the deal like what's the
0:23:24internal story with that of it seemed like such a great idea with so much potential and then just
0:23:29"Oh, it's gonna sit untouched for years and no one's going to make complications for it because it's the only one that can do this."
0:23:37Now with the shortcut stuff that you were telling me about automating changing the watch faces,
0:23:41it's like, that Siri watch face is done.
0:23:44- Oh yeah. - That is totally gone now.
0:23:47I'm not planning on installing the watch beta on my watch.
0:23:50I mean, I may as well because I don't wear the watch that much, but it's just not high on my list right now.
0:23:56That is the only thing that has annoyed me since you told me about it is the ability to say change a watch face at a particular day or at a particular time.
0:24:04And now every time at night I manually swipe over to my nighttime watch face, I'm a little annoyed.
0:24:11I'm like milling my own grain here.
0:24:14Like I don't understand why I have to swipe this over.
0:24:16So if anything's going to get me for the beta, it's something like that of just the continual annoyance of I shouldn't have to do this.
0:24:25Like, it's eight o'clock, switch over to the nighttime phase, just do it.
0:24:30[laughs]
0:24:32- I've also spent a little bit of time in Mac OS 11.
0:24:35- Oh, okay.
0:24:36I just assumed that you would not have installed the Mac beta because...
0:24:41Well, let me guess, you're not running it on the production machine right now, of course.
0:24:45- No.
0:24:46I'm not even running it on a computer that's mine.
0:24:48- Oh, okay. You stole someone's computer?
0:24:50- No, some time ago, Apple sent me a review unit of a MacBook Pro.
0:24:54Ooh, fancy, fancy man.
0:24:56This was ages ago.
0:24:58Honestly, like, I think I really like it.
0:25:01You really like the beta?
0:25:02The way it looks, like I like the new look a lot.
0:25:05Yeah, I mean, I've only seen it in the screenshots,
0:25:07but it seems intriguing.
0:25:08I've never minded flatter design.
0:25:10Like, as a general statement, I think flat design
0:25:12is a safe, solid, and also interesting way to go for things.
0:25:17I've forgotten what transparency was like.
0:25:20Did you turn off transparency on your machines,
0:25:22or what do you mean by that?
0:25:23I've had transparency off on my computers
0:25:26since Apple introduced transparency to the OS.
0:25:29- Right.
0:25:30- So when I turned it on, I was like,
0:25:33what the (beep) is going on, right?
0:25:35Like, why can't I see my wallpaper everywhere?
0:25:38'Cause they seem to have made it
0:25:39a little bit more aggressive anyway,
0:25:41but it was like a big surprise to me
0:25:43because I had not seen that in a very long time.
0:25:47- This had to open up on my computer.
0:25:48I couldn't even remember.
0:25:49I was like, oh yes, I too have reduced transparency on.
0:25:53like what happens if I uncheck that?
0:25:54Oh, nothing happens because my background
0:25:56is just a dark gray background,
0:25:58so nothing looks different.
0:25:59(laughing)
0:26:00- You wouldn't even know.
0:26:01- QuickTime gets ever so slightly darker
0:26:04if I uncheck that button,
0:26:05and that is the only thing as far as I can tell.
0:26:08- But yeah, like overall the look of it
0:26:10just feels fresh and modern in a way that Mac OS
0:26:13is not for like the last 10 years in my opinion.
0:26:16- Yeah, I mean, this is based on nothing
0:26:19except just the visual look of it,
0:26:21but having seen the screenshots,
0:26:24it does make me really wonder about Apple's statements
0:26:27of like, oh, guys, we're never gonna merge everything
0:26:29into one operating system.
0:26:31Like, we have no plans to do that.
0:26:33We're just going to make them more and more similar
0:26:37to each other with each following year, right?
0:26:40But they're never gonna merge.
0:26:41That's crazy talk.
0:26:43- Yeah, but see, at a certain point,
0:26:44you don't need to merge them
0:26:46if the application platform's the same.
0:26:49And I think that's what they're going for,
0:26:50is like the application platform is the same
0:26:53across all of them, right?
0:26:54You write it in SwiftUI and write in Swift
0:26:57and it can run everywhere.
0:26:59And then they can still have things like the terminal,
0:27:02but then they never have to bring terminal to iPad.
0:27:04- Right, right.
0:27:05- So like I've actually come around recently
0:27:07on the idea of like, I do believe
0:27:09they will keep them separate for a long time,
0:27:11but the things that third parties can make,
0:27:14they're gonna be the same.
0:27:15It'd be the same everywhere, or it can be.
0:27:18but Apple can still have these distinct operating systems
0:27:22for a while.
0:27:23- I see what you're saying, but that strikes me as
0:27:25a distinction without a difference,
0:27:27in the same way that, oh, there's iOS and there's iPadOS.
0:27:31- Yeah, and they do different things,
0:27:33but they're still the same.
0:27:34- Yeah, it's like, yeah, sure, I get what you're saying,
0:27:37but it doesn't matter.
0:27:40I think the way that they say,
0:27:41we'll never merge the platforms is
0:27:44heard and interpreted in people's brains
0:27:47in an entirely different way from what Apple's obvious plans actually are of like everything
0:27:54the same everywhere. That is very clearly our ultimate plan. Oh, look at the maps in
0:28:00these presentations. There's clearly not being designed to also be the same for our
0:28:04future augmented reality platform. Like everything is coming together to be the same and that's
0:28:10clearly what they're doing. I mean, I don't know what the temperature online is for the
0:28:14redesigned but like I don't mind it it looks it looks nice having not actually
0:28:18experienced it myself yeah you're okay with it like you like it yeah I really
0:28:22like it I really like because it looks interesting to me and and it looks like
0:28:25the type of operating system that I am more familiar with and comfortable with
0:28:30and prefer right like it looks a lot like iPad OS in places and I think that
0:28:34that's a really good idea personally because you can freshen things up give
0:28:38people that are less familiar with that with the Mac platform more familiar with
0:28:43with the Mac platform, I think that it's clever,
0:28:46and I think it's especially clever
0:28:47as they're moving into these Apple Silicon Macs
0:28:51with iOS apps that can run on these machines.
0:28:54And if that's the thing that they wanna do,
0:28:56and I think will be a thing that they will consider
0:28:58to be a serious benefit,
0:29:00having a lot of the operating system around it
0:29:02be a little bit more reminiscent of the place
0:29:04where those applications are native might be a good idea.
0:29:08- Should I put the beta on my laptop?
0:29:10- No.
0:29:11- No? - No.
0:29:11You don't want me to have it on the production machine?
0:29:13I thought you were trying to push these betas on me.
0:29:15Do you record from a laptop?
0:29:17Yeah, I do record from a laptop right now.
0:29:19Oh, there he goes.
0:29:21What do you mean? What do you mean there he goes?
0:29:23You moved away?
0:29:25I could hear you moving away.
0:29:27Yeah, because I'm looking at the laptop.
0:29:29I was looking at the laptop.
0:29:31What, did you check that it was there?
0:29:33I don't know, because I was talking about it,
0:29:35so I had to go look at it.
0:29:37But no, in my division between
0:29:39between standing desk and sitting desk in my eternal home office now it's it's ended up that
0:29:46my like iMac is at the standing desk and my sitting desk which is the podcast desk has a
0:29:52laptop with the screen attached to it look i've got so much i bought one of those like crazy
0:29:57external whatchamacallit the eGPUs wait i've got like a huge eGPU that's connected to the little
0:30:04laptop another one because you went through this before and you had all that trouble with the USB
0:30:08C cable.
0:30:09No, we've been looking for it.
0:30:11Look, this is like, I've been going totally crazy in my home office, like trying to get
0:30:17the setups just right.
0:30:19And I eventually had to cave because the laptop running an external display, like it slows
0:30:24it down and I did have to go back to doing the eGPU and I had used the Blackmagic one
0:30:29forever ago, but it was super wimpy and didn't really help a lot.
0:30:33So I ended up getting one of these like Razer Core Chroma enormous eGPU things and then
0:30:40got one of those like GPUs that has three fans on it and stick it inside and try to
0:30:45make it work and so I've tried to beef up my sitting down working station.
0:30:52Oh you're such a gamer!
0:30:53Oh my god do you have RGB on your eGPU?
0:30:57You do don't you?
0:30:59Yes there is RGB on my eGPU.
0:31:02- Oh yeah, what a gamer. - If that makes you happy.
0:31:04So I thought you might enjoy that.
0:31:05- Yeah, I do enjoy that.
0:31:07Oh man, that's amazing.
0:31:09- Anyway, all this is to answer your question,
0:31:10like yes, I am recording on a laptop right now,
0:31:13but I've tried to beef it up because I presume
0:31:17that you don't want me recording at my standing desk
0:31:21that has a treadmill underneath it
0:31:22while we're doing podcasts.
0:31:23- You have a treadmill desk?
0:31:25- Yeah, didn't I tell you this?
0:31:26- No, I don't know about this.
0:31:28- I guess this is,
0:31:29here's the big problem that I keep having,
0:31:31is I just have no sense of time or...
0:31:36I don't know how to like,
0:31:39if you measure something at two points in time,
0:31:42there's a difference between them.
0:31:44So like, oh, what did my office look like six months ago
0:31:46versus what did it look like now?
0:31:48Because I have no sense of time,
0:31:50I have no sense of the ability to understand like,
0:31:54what is the differential between previous times
0:31:57that we have spoken and now?
0:31:58And so when a piece of equipment comes into my office,
0:32:01I have this feeling of like, has it been here for two days?
0:32:04Or has it always been here, right?
0:32:06Like, I have no idea anymore.
0:32:09-Did it come with a house? -Yeah.
0:32:11Like, this is also why I'm very confident
0:32:14that I won't actually put the betas on any of my devices,
0:32:17because since every single day is the same
0:32:19as the day that came before it and I have no sense of time,
0:32:23new phones and the final operating system
0:32:26will be here before I have any subjective sense
0:32:29of time passing at all.
0:32:30So I think I really am going to skip it this year.
0:32:32Um, but no, I've got so much stuff in my office now.
0:32:35I don't have any idea.
0:32:36Like what you know is here and what you, I have a boom arm.
0:32:38Do you know I'm recording on a boom arm?
0:32:40I know you wanted that.
0:32:41Oh my God.
0:32:41Uh, did I know that?
0:32:44I feel like maybe you have the same problem too, but yeah, I'm I have a boom arm.
0:32:49Yeah.
0:32:49We went through it because you were banging on the desk and it sounded good.
0:32:52Yeah.
0:32:52Yes.
0:32:53That's right.
0:32:53Yeah.
0:32:54So I have a boom arm.
0:32:55The boom arm as a bonus point is actually connected to the standing desk so that
0:32:59not even possible for vibrations at the sitting desk to make it to the standing desk into
0:33:05the microphone. So it's like it's perfect isolation.
0:33:07Oh wait, hang on a second. Hang on a second. I have to map this one out in my brain because
0:33:11the way I had imagined this was very different to how you've described it. So you're sitting
0:33:15the standing desk and next to each other. Yes, there are two desks there next to each
0:33:20other. One is a standing desk, one is a sitting desk. I'm sitting at the sitting desk, but
0:33:26the boom arm is connected to the standing desk so that the microphone then comes down
0:33:31and is in front of me because that just the way everything's arranged that ends up being
0:33:34a nice place for it to be.
0:33:36Can I ask why you didn't consider a sit-stand desk?
0:33:39Um okay so the reason I didn't consider a sit-stand desk is that the okay so I bought
0:33:45a treadmill to go with the standing desk.
0:33:47Because of the treadmill yeah yeah and where's the treadmill gonna go where's the chair gonna
0:33:51go okay.
0:33:52Exactly the treadmill is one of those ones in theory you can put it up against the wall
0:33:55but in practice.
0:33:56- No one's gonna do that.
0:33:57- Yeah, you don't wanna ever actually do that.
0:33:59I could have sworn I told you about it, but anyway, yeah.
0:34:01So the treadmill desk has been by far and away
0:34:04one of the best quarantine purchases,
0:34:07and I usually spend like at least two hours a day on it,
0:34:10like while I'm working and stuff.
0:34:11- So what are you, are you walking?
0:34:13- Yeah, I set it for walking,
0:34:15and then I'm writing while I'm doing that.
0:34:16So it's taken the place of pacing back and forth
0:34:19in the office a little bit, is to be on the treadmill.
0:34:22And also for light editing, for either doing like audio or video editing, as long as it's
0:34:31not too precise, I can be on the treadmill desk and do that as well.
0:34:35It's very much a core part of don't let your muscles atrophy away during quarantine time
0:34:42has been get on the treadmill desk every day and do part of your work there.
0:34:48But yeah, so anyway, I could have sworn I told you about that, but obviously I didn't
0:34:51and I have no sense of time and all of this was to say you don't want me walking while
0:34:57recording the podcast. I think you wouldn't enjoy that.
0:34:59No, I wouldn't enjoy that. That would be quite disruptive, I think. But I guess it's good
0:35:05because I know you would pace, right? And now you don't know maybe you do you get that
0:35:11feeling. Does it feel like the same thing if you're walking on the desk to pacing?
0:35:16It's not quite the same but it's fine. Just with deciding like I need to have this treadmill
0:35:20desk so that I have the option of working while moving has reduced the space just enough
0:35:26in the office that there really isn't enough space to pace without spending 30% of the
0:35:31time in the turning around moment, which is no good.
0:35:34Right?
0:35:35It's walking in a circle.
0:35:37Yeah, there's a ratio of how much length of walking do you get versus time spent turning
0:35:44around and you don't want the turnaround frequency to be every five seconds.
0:35:48You're basically just using one leg, right?
0:35:51Yes, exactly.
0:35:52You're just going around in a circle.
0:35:53Yes, just going around in a circle that way.
0:35:54So standing desk with treadmill, highly recommend, has almost certainly prevented my legs from
0:36:01becoming just vestigial organs during the lockdown.
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0:37:17CORTEX. I have a little I have a little secret. What's your secret? Do you have a
0:37:22treadmill desk? No I don't have a treadmill desk. I am not recording at
0:37:25home today. Oh are you out? Are you in are you in your office? Your outside office?
0:37:33I'm in Mega Studio. You're in Mega Studio? This is the very first podcast recorded
0:37:38from Mega Studio.
0:37:39- Oh wow.
0:37:40- Yep, I thought it felt special to me to give Cortex that.
0:37:43- I was gonna say, that genuinely feels
0:37:45like a really big honor.
0:37:47- Well, it feels like the right place, right?
0:37:49Like the whole, I think like the Mega name came
0:37:52from the show and like I've been chronicling
0:37:54the studio on this show.
0:37:57It felt like the, so I would say, you know,
0:37:59people may notice that I sound a little different
0:38:01because I might sound a little different
0:38:02because there's an echo still in here a little bit.
0:38:05I reckon I'm like 80% there, right?
0:38:09Like there's still more to do,
0:38:10but I'm at the point where I feel like it's good enough.
0:38:13Like I feel like the echo in here
0:38:16or like the level of quality of audio I can get here
0:38:20is about what I would get or what I feel possible
0:38:23when I'm in like a hotel room or something.
0:38:25And I've recorded many episodes of Cortex from hotel rooms.
0:38:28So I thought to myself, I feel good about it.
0:38:30Like I wanna give it a go.
0:38:32There's a couple of things more that we wanna do
0:38:34that we still haven't done,
0:38:35which I think will continue to reduce the echo in here,
0:38:39but I'm really pleased with the lengths that we've gone to
0:38:44to make it doable.
0:38:46So I figured maybe now's the time,
0:38:48and I'll find out in editing just how it sounds, I suppose.
0:38:53Like, I've been doing tests.
0:38:54- Listen, I guarantee you,
0:38:56no one noticed that anything sounded different.
0:39:00- Until I shouted echo, maybe.
0:39:01- Well, yeah, until you shouted,
0:39:03But even then, people wouldn't notice, right?
0:39:05And unless, you know, people at this point will be like,
0:39:09"Oh, I totally know this."
0:39:10- I knew all the time.
0:39:11It's like that time when we recorded two episodes
0:39:14back to back and said, "Haha, nobody knew."
0:39:16And then some people were like, "I could tell,
0:39:18but no one knew." - Yes, yes, no, I knew
0:39:19right from the start. - No one knew.
0:39:20- Exactly, and it's like, unless you left a comment
0:39:25before you got to this part of the podcast,
0:39:28you didn't really know, right?
0:39:30It's the same way that people trick themselves
0:39:31when they're doing flashcards to learn something new
0:39:33and like you can constantly trick yourself
0:39:36into thinking you've given the correct answer,
0:39:38but it's like, no, no, say it out loud
0:39:40before you look at the back of the card
0:39:42and then you'll find out if you really know
0:39:44what the back of the card says.
0:39:45You know, this is the same thing.
0:39:47So I guarantee you, no one will have noticed.
0:39:50You could have recorded from Mega Studio for a year
0:39:54and there would never have been a peep from anyone
0:39:57about, oh, does Myke sound different?
0:39:59His echo seems to be 10% more present than it was
0:40:03when he was working from home, so don't worry about that.
0:40:06But congratulations on being in Mega Studio.
0:40:09That's a big thing to actually be there.
0:40:11Is the plan to be recording from here going forward now?
0:40:15- No. - Okay.
0:40:16- My thinking is I will start doing more,
0:40:21because frankly, I just am not right now
0:40:25thinking that I will be here all the time.
0:40:27we're still limiting how much time we're out of the home.
0:40:30'Cause it's a whole to do, right?
0:40:33So I went to get a coffee before we started this show.
0:40:35And like, there's like a, you know,
0:40:37like I bring the coffee into the studio
0:40:39and then I have to use the hand sanitizer
0:40:42and then the alcohol wipe on the coffee.
0:40:43Like it's like a whole, it's too much of a to do
0:40:47for this to be all the time, you know?
0:40:50But I'm slowly thinking that I will increase.
0:40:53'Cause as well, like those things that I've just explained,
0:40:55they're just gonna become more and more things
0:40:57that I'm used to, so maybe there'll be less of a thing
0:41:00that annoy me, you know what I mean?
0:41:01'Cause you know I mentioned about the quarantine zone
0:41:03and we didn't have any of that set.
0:41:06Well, we've got that now.
0:41:07We're at home in our hallway, so nothing will go past
0:41:11this part of the hallway, right?
0:41:12- Right, yes, yeah.
0:41:13- It's here and then we can, nobody touches anything,
0:41:17shoes come off, all that kind of stuff, right?
0:41:20And we didn't have any of that set up here as like,
0:41:23well, this is how that operates.
0:41:25But now we do, like Adina bought colored tape
0:41:27and she drew a box on the ground.
0:41:29Nothing leaves this box.
0:41:31- Right.
0:41:32- Right, you come in, we have hand sanitizer on every desk,
0:41:35we have alcohol wipes and we have like food containers
0:41:39and bags, they will stay here and then the stuff
0:41:41will be taken out.
0:41:42Like seeing like, just doing what you do now, right?
0:41:44But we didn't have any of that set up here.
0:41:46So it wasn't really working, but like we've got that
0:41:50in place and now we've got that in place.
0:41:52We're like, okay, we feel like we understand
0:41:54the transition from outside to into the studio now.
0:41:57But then it was like, well, all of the things
0:42:00that I planned on bringing here computer-wise,
0:42:04I can't do any of it.
0:42:05So I'm not bringing my iMac here because,
0:42:08one, I'm not gonna be recording from here all the time,
0:42:11and two, even if I decided I was,
0:42:14that's not the machine I wanna have to bring home
0:42:17in a hurry if we lock down again.
0:42:19- Right. - Right?
0:42:20That thing is gonna go in a moving van
0:42:22when we eventually move all of the studio here.
0:42:26And then it was like, well, but I had always planned
0:42:28that I would do my recording from a laptop,
0:42:30but I'm not buying a laptop right now for many reasons.
0:42:34Like the main one of them being,
0:42:35like if I'm buying an Apple laptop in the next six months,
0:42:39I want it to have an Apple Silicon chip in it
0:42:41because why not, right?
0:42:42- Yeah, I don't really think that the effect is large,
0:42:46but I can imagine that there's a significant number
0:42:49of people where the moment Apple said,
0:42:52we're making our own chips. All computer purchases are ceased.
0:42:57Yeah, of course.
0:42:57Like I know I'm in that category of like, I'm gonna wait, right? I don't care how long it takes,
0:43:03I'm not buying another Intel computer if I could possibly, possibly avoid it.
0:43:08It is really, it's because like the the Apple Silicon chips are going to be interesting
0:43:12potentially in so many ways in these laptops. I will want one so I can talk about them on shows.
0:43:18I'm not gonna buy two laptops, right?
0:43:20So like that's gonna wait.
0:43:22But what I have done is I have for a few years now,
0:43:25I think I've had a Mac mini at home,
0:43:27just performing some like home server type tasks.
0:43:31So I brought it here.
0:43:32It can do all of those things for me.
0:43:34I can still VNC into it from home if I want to.
0:43:37But that Mac mini is now here.
0:43:39I had to buy a monitor because couldn't get the one from you.
0:43:44- Right, yeah, we never quite figured out
0:43:46how this transport is going to happen.
0:43:48- Well, I just figured,
0:43:49because we agreed to this LG drug deal before the pandemic.
0:43:54Right, and then at that point I was like,
0:43:57well, I know I'm not seeing Grey for a long time.
0:44:01And I figured if I see you for any reason,
0:44:04the primary reason is not gonna be
0:44:05because I wanna get a monitor from you.
0:44:08- Right.
0:44:09- That's just not really high on my list.
0:44:10- Yes, would you like to try to transport this home
0:44:13on a train right now?
0:44:14- Yeah, no, not really.
0:44:15- So I bought a Dell monitor.
0:44:18It's like one of the Dell,
0:44:19I think they're called UltraSharp monitors.
0:44:22And this is mainly because those LGs
0:44:24are really hard to get right now in the UK.
0:44:27'Cause I was gonna get one of the LG monitors
0:44:29just because then I didn't have to think about
0:44:31will this be supported properly, right?
0:44:33Because I couldn't get one,
0:44:34I had to do the research I didn't want to do.
0:44:37- Right.
0:44:38- And found out that the monitor that I was gonna get
0:44:39was gonna be good.
0:44:40And it's great, like it looks great.
0:44:42It's got all of the ports on it that I want.
0:44:44and it's on a VESA arm here on the desk, which is fantastic.
0:44:46I love having the monitor off the desk
0:44:49and the arm is way back, which it wouldn't be
0:44:52if it was an iMac, right?
0:44:53Like I'd have to have it closer to me.
0:44:55And I have more flexibility with it.
0:44:56I can lift it up, I can move it around.
0:44:58And I'm really happy with that.
0:44:59So that's kind of where I am with the desk.
0:45:02And I've got most of the things set up.
0:45:03I had to buy some extra peripherals.
0:45:05Like I got a new Wacom tablet and stuff like that
0:45:07for this desk, which is stuff I would have bought anyway.
0:45:11'Cause what I'm trying to do is, at the moment,
0:45:13is not to get things that won't be used.
0:45:16So like, my expectation is at some point,
0:45:19Apple will release a new monitor,
0:45:21which I will want for this desk.
0:45:23But then, Adina will then have this Dell for her desk.
0:45:26- Right, right.
0:45:27You're planning the pass me down path of electronics?
0:45:30- Exactly, and also like, all of the gear that I'm using
0:45:33here is my travel gear, right?
0:45:36So it's stuff I already had.
0:45:38Because I'm in this in between,
0:45:40I don't wanna buy things technology-wise
0:45:42adjust for the in-between. Because that's not the way that this thing will be used in the future.
0:45:47So yeah, I'm pretty happy with where we're at. Obviously I'm comfortable enough to be recording
0:45:53this show. There's more to do. I've realized that I've kind of... to be able to get this place to
0:45:58where I want it, I have had to let go of some of my aesthetic ideals for the studio. Well, yes,
0:46:04one of the things I've been waiting to ask you for is, "Send me a picture of where you're recording
0:46:07from. Like, I want to see what the setup looks like right now." Well, okay, I can send you some.
0:46:12I mean, you've seen the little kind of room
0:46:16I constructed for myself, the blankets.
0:46:17- Yeah, yeah, but it's different when you're actually there
0:46:20and you're really recording in it.
0:46:21I wanna see what it looks like right now.
0:46:23What does Myke's recording setup look like?
0:46:26- So I'll send you a picture of my desk.
0:46:28When I meet the aesthetic ideas thing that I'm talking about
0:46:31is for having this little room constructed
0:46:34of big blankets and dividers, right?
0:46:36But I've decided that I kinda just have to
0:46:40let go of that a little bit, you know?
0:46:41because this thing has to, at its core, be functional.
0:46:45And I can make the rest of the studio be comfortable
0:46:49and look the way that I want it to be,
0:46:51but this recording area, it has to be fit for purpose.
0:46:54And if that means I have to have these really ugly blankets
0:46:58hanging to each side of the desk,
0:47:00then that's just the way it's gonna have to be.
0:47:02- They seem fine though.
0:47:03It seems like a perfectly fine setup
0:47:05to have those two on either side.
0:47:07- Yeah. - I don't know.
0:47:08It kind of works with the bricks behind it.
0:47:09- Yeah, and you'll notice that I'm struggling
0:47:11to get those sound panels to stick to the walls.
0:47:14(laughing)
0:47:15- Well, yes, the sound panels,
0:47:17you have a sad sound panel that's fallen off the wall.
0:47:18- There should be three of them.
0:47:19I put all three of them up.
0:47:21- Ah, okay, that makes a lot more sense.
0:47:23- And then we came back,
0:47:24first time we came back after the lockdown,
0:47:25two of them had fallen off the wall.
0:47:27The one on the left has somehow managed to stay on the wall.
0:47:31Like, they're light, these panels are actually quite light.
0:47:34But they have these large kind of Velcro strips on them
0:47:38that have an adhesive on the back.
0:47:40and I stuck them on the walls and they were fine.
0:47:42Didn't really think about the fact
0:47:43that these brick walls are very uneven.
0:47:46- Yeah, those 3M adhesives are not gonna work
0:47:49on a brick wall. - No.
0:47:50- That's not gonna happen.
0:47:51- What I didn't really pay attention to about the fact
0:47:53is that the wall behind me is just a flat wall,
0:47:55and really my desk should have been against that wall.
0:47:58And then it would have been better,
0:48:00so maybe I'll move it at some point,
0:48:01or I'll do what I can do and just haven't done,
0:48:04which is to just drill some screws into the wall
0:48:06and hang them up that way.
0:48:07But we have yet to really work out the way.
0:48:11So this is what I'm talking about
0:48:12when I'm like 80% of the way there.
0:48:14It's like I have these sound panels
0:48:15that just all haven't gone up yet.
0:48:17- I have these sound panels.
0:48:18They're just not absorbing any sound
0:48:20in their current position.
0:48:21- They may be absorbing sound,
0:48:22but just not the way that I need them to absorb the sound.
0:48:25Like they're pointing in the wrong places.
0:48:27And then I'm gonna, the last thing I think we're gonna do
0:48:29that will probably be the only thing left to do
0:48:31is to like hang something from above.
0:48:34We're gonna bring like a professional in
0:48:36and just like hang these things called like clouds
0:48:39or something just above me.
0:48:42'Cause that's where the echo,
0:48:43the only echo that's left now,
0:48:45it's just right above my head.
0:48:47And then when that's done, I'll be happy.
0:48:50And ultimately, this is still more better for me
0:48:53for more what I want than to put a room in this studio,
0:48:57which was a thing that many people recommended
0:48:59and a thing that I considered and looked into, right?
0:49:01To get a soundproof room and put it in the studio.
0:49:04And I really didn't want to do that
0:49:06because I didn't like the idea
0:49:07and I still don't like the idea
0:49:09of being in this little box.
0:49:12Because plus I can be gruesome in the summer.
0:49:14I left the small room to get a big studio.
0:49:24I don't wanna get a big studio
0:49:25and then go into a small room inside of the big studio.
0:49:29Because even though I have these curtains to my side
0:49:32or whatever, I still feel like I'm part of this bigger space
0:49:36And I just don't really like the idea of it.
0:49:39Having had all the research done and everything,
0:49:43I'm pretty happy with where we've gotten to,
0:49:45and we just have that one last thing to do,
0:49:47and then I think we're pretty set.
0:49:48And then I'll be good to record from here.
0:49:50And then once I'm really comfortable with that,
0:49:53I can start being here all the time,
0:49:54and it will be fantastic.
0:49:56- Well, it's really exciting that you're there
0:49:58and recording this first episode.
0:50:00- I'm so happy.
0:50:01It just feels like,
0:50:04it's got that effect that, you know,
0:50:06I don't know how long this effect will last,
0:50:08but probably quite a while of like,
0:50:10I feel productive when I'm here.
0:50:12You know, like, because I have this mentality of like,
0:50:16and I always felt this way when I would do co-work
0:50:19and stuff like that, of like,
0:50:20if I've left the house to come to this place,
0:50:23I should just get the work done.
0:50:25Otherwise I might well be at home.
0:50:27If I'm not gonna do the work, don't be here, go home.
0:50:30So when I'm here, I'm like, I'm getting more work done.
0:50:34There is always like, um, this is the sort of Hawthorne effect where it's like,
0:50:39Oh, just having done something differently improves your productivity.
0:50:42Like that, that always is the case, especially in the situation you are in
0:50:46where you're paying the rent for this to be the office, which is supposed to be
0:50:51like the production core of the most valuable work that you do, keeping that
0:50:56foremost in your mind, I think is, is really helpful.
0:51:00And the most important part of that is recognizing,
0:51:04like, yeah, if you're not getting work done,
0:51:06get out of there, right?
0:51:07Just accept that fact and just go.
0:51:10And try to keep it like a holy place
0:51:12where you're doing your work.
0:51:14- I think I'll be able to do that.
0:51:15Like, I have a comfortable area here,
0:51:18but it's still to be worked in.
0:51:22'Cause not all of my work needs to be at desks.
0:51:25Sometimes I'm just reading stuff
0:51:27and I would like somewhere comfortable to sit to read.
0:51:30But like being in this space
0:51:31just has a different feel to it.
0:51:33It doesn't feel like my home at all.
0:51:36And that was the whole point
0:51:37of getting this place in the first place.
0:51:40It was like having somewhere out of home
0:51:42where I can come and get my work done
0:51:44and then go home and then there's no more work done.
0:51:46When I initially decided this,
0:51:50we were like the world is very different.
0:51:53And even though I was working at home,
0:51:56I was also leaving my home to do things,
0:51:59social things and whatever.
0:52:02Not doing that now so much.
0:52:04So I have that at home feeling,
0:52:08like the working at home,
0:52:09living at home, completely at home feeling,
0:52:12even more than I did when I decided
0:52:14I wanted an out of home studio.
0:52:16- Yes.
0:52:18- Right, so I am very appreciative of having this place now
0:52:21and I think it will continue to be of great use to us
0:52:24as time goes on.
0:52:26but we've just got to get the last little bits done
0:52:29and we'll be good.
0:52:30So I'm super happy that we're here
0:52:33and I've finally been able to record a podcast
0:52:37from this place.
0:52:38- Congratulations on getting that done.
0:52:40I am extremely envious of your non-home place to work.
0:52:44That's really great that you have that.
0:52:46- Well, whenever you want to break the seal
0:52:48on your quarantine, I'll set up a desk for you.
0:52:51- Nice try.
0:52:53- I mean it.
0:52:54ever won it, you can have it, you know?
0:52:57- Yes, no, we're not going to break the seal just yet.
0:53:00- That's why I said whenever, right?
0:53:03- It made me smile because just as this whole thing began,
0:53:06I was really trying to find another office
0:53:09outside of my house to work in,
0:53:11and obviously that got cut short.
0:53:13But one of the places that I was looking at,
0:53:17they're like, oh, we don't have any space available
0:53:19for you for what you need.
0:53:21I just got this email from them yesterday,
0:53:23and they were like, "Hey, you messaged us months ago
0:53:27"about trying to find a space here.
0:53:28"Well, we have anything you need."
0:53:31Right?
0:53:32And what was really great is like,
0:53:34I was talking to them about one space
0:53:36where I was like, "Oh, this could work."
0:53:38But they wanted me to sign like a two-year contract
0:53:41and I was like, "Forget that.
0:53:43"Like, are you crazy?
0:53:44"No way."
0:53:45And this email that came from them was like,
0:53:47"Short-term, long-term, big, small, anything you need,
0:53:52"we got a buddy.
0:53:53like we can we can do it. Would you like us to knock down the wall between two spaces? We'll do it.
0:53:57Do you want to just rent it for a week? No problem. Yeah it was just such a funny email to get and
0:54:04and it's like they have they have got to be hurting because I also imagine like my email
0:54:11must have been at that like someone's going through their inbox for the past year trying
0:54:16to find everyone who's ever contacted them about looking for a place and just messaging them
0:54:21You know, and even for me, I was like, well, you know, because of our situation, like I can't,
0:54:26I can't break quarantine yet. I'd love to help you guys out and help me out at the same time,
0:54:32but I cannot help you. So, uh, you know, good luck filling those seats, guys.
0:54:36[BEEP]
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0:56:22So you published a little video.
0:56:24Would we call it a little video?
0:56:26It was... let me say why I'm calling it that actually.
0:56:29Okay.
0:56:30It was shorter than the videos you've been doing recently.
0:56:32It was pretty timely because it was related to some news that was going on.
0:56:37And visually it was more typical grey style.
0:56:41What does typical grey style mean?
0:56:43I don't know what that means.
0:56:44- The old style.
0:56:46- Ah, okay.
0:56:47- Right, well, like I think it's very fair to say
0:56:49that like your videos of late
0:56:51have been much more ambitious visually.
0:56:54This was more like the standard stick figure style.
0:56:58There was no spinning spaceships or little animations.
0:57:03I don't know, am I saying this right?
0:57:04I don't know what I'm saying.
0:57:05I don't know what, I hate when you ask me that question
0:57:07'cause I know what I mean.
0:57:08I think everyone knows what I'm saying if they've seen it,
0:57:11but then I feel like I'm being critical
0:57:13of the work of your animator,
0:57:14which is not what I'm intending to do.
0:57:16- You're not being critical at all.
0:57:17The reason I ask is because I just,
0:57:19I always think it's very interesting
0:57:21with any kind of media consumption is
0:57:25when you watch something, you have a response to it
0:57:29and it's often hard to articulate
0:57:31why you have that response, right?
0:57:34And so I was asking not because I'm like,
0:57:37is Myke criticizing this different style?
0:57:40It's just more like I wanted to see
0:57:42What are you picking up on?
0:57:44- All right, I'm watching it now again,
0:57:46and I know what it is now.
0:57:48- Okay, what are you picking up on?
0:57:49- Nothing's moving.
0:57:51- Yes, okay, that is the key difference right there
0:57:55that you, this is one of those
0:57:57you don't notice but your brain does moments,
0:58:00whereas it's hard to articulate unless you go back
0:58:03and you're really trying to pay attention,
0:58:05but that is the key difference.
0:58:06Nothing is moving, everything is static slides.
0:58:09- Or like the movement that I just saw was like,
0:58:12that could have been done in PowerPoint.
0:58:14- Yes, yeah, yeah.
0:58:15That is a key difference.
0:58:17There's no, I always forget what it's called,
0:58:21but there's a visual effect I really like
0:58:24that we did in the Pirates video
0:58:25where if you are panning the camera horizontally,
0:58:30like across a scene,
0:58:33you can have the distant background
0:58:35moves less than the foreground.
0:58:38No one ever really notices it,
0:58:39but it gives it a sense of depth of like,
0:58:41oh, those trees are further away than the ship, right?
0:58:46And the stick figure is closer to the camera
0:58:49than the ship is, right?
0:58:51But that kind of stuff's a real pain in the ass to do,
0:58:53as you might imagine.
0:58:54But yeah, so you know, you're like,
0:58:57it's just interesting to me that you pick up straight away
0:59:01of like, wait, is this a little video?
0:59:02Something about it feels different.
0:59:05And it's little stuff like that that I think you're noticing.
0:59:08Like yeah, there's no motion in the video
0:59:10or there's very minimal motion in the video.
0:59:13And my voice is also a little bit different in the video
0:59:16because I didn't do a hundred takes
0:59:19and the writing style is slightly different.
0:59:22So there's a lot of things about that video
0:59:24that to me register as clearly very different.
0:59:29- Just like, you know, it's a paper texture video, right?
0:59:32It's just like the background is all the CGB grade
0:59:35paper texture, whatever you would call it.
0:59:37Which again, there are just recently not many videos
0:59:41that you've put out which have that visual style to them,
0:59:43which was the style when it was just you.
0:59:46And so like it is quite different in those ways,
0:59:50which is why I would say it's a little video.
0:59:54And I understand exactly why,
0:59:57because you are making a video about something
1:00:00that happened just a few weeks ago.
1:00:02And anyone that's listened to this show for long enough
1:00:05knows that it is incredibly rare for you
1:00:07to put something out like that.
1:00:08With maybe the exception of the lockdown productivity video,
1:00:13but at the same time, you nearly killed yourself
1:00:16making that video.
1:00:17And I'm pretty confident that that wasn't what happened here.
1:00:22I'm sure you were very busy for a few days,
1:00:24but it's quite a different thing.
1:00:27- Yeah, yeah, I mean, to put it in context here,
1:00:30so the little video that I put out is titled
1:00:33The Supreme Court Rules on Faithless Electors.
1:00:36And yes, this is another Electoral College kind of video.
1:00:40And basically, the way this happened is--
1:00:44you know this, Myke, because you use the YouTube studio.
1:00:46That's the behind the scenes app.
1:00:48But when you're managing your YouTube channel
1:00:50as someone who owns a YouTube channel,
1:00:52you see comments coming in from all of the videos in one place.
1:00:59And this is actually quite useful as a creator,
1:01:01because sometimes it allows you to catch, oh, something's
1:01:04going on with this video in a way that you wouldn't notice otherwise.
1:01:07Oh right, like the algorithms picked it up so there's new activity on this video.
1:01:11Yeah, yeah so like oh there's a bunch of comments on an old video that I can see are coming
1:01:15in why is that? And so I was just doing something in the YouTube back end and I saw that there
1:01:20were a bunch of new comments on the national popular vote interstate compact video that
1:01:25I'd made and all the comments were like oh well this plan is dead this plan is killed
1:01:30now, this is never going to happen, you know, boohoo sad faces. And so of course that immediately
1:01:35caught my attention. I was like, what's going on with this? And I looked it up and there…
1:01:39You find out your news from YouTube comments on your old videos.
1:01:43I mean, look, we can… Here, here's the thing. Here's the thing. We can actually get to talking
1:01:50about the news in a second. But this is one of the many mechanisms by which when I constantly
1:01:56proselytize to people, "Hey guys, you don't need to actively follow the news, like, news
1:02:03will find you whether you're trying to actively pursue it or not."
1:02:07Like you just don't think of all of the little sieves in your life, and this is totally one
1:02:12of those mechanisms of like, "Oh, something must have happened in the world related to
1:02:19the Electoral College and now I need to figure it out because I can see there's a bunch of
1:02:22comments on this nine-month-old video now all of a sudden."
1:02:26So I looked it up and there was a recent Supreme Court ruling having to do with the faithless
1:02:30electors.
1:02:31And so here's what happened.
1:02:35This was an evening time and I was just googling around and trying to figure out what it was.
1:02:41And I did come across a bunch of news stories that were reporting on this.
1:02:45Like the headlines were "Supreme Court bans faithless electors."
1:02:51You know, "Faithless electors illegal," says Supreme Court.
1:02:55you know, this kind of stuff.
1:02:57And I was like, "Oh, that's really quite surprising.
1:02:59That's quite shocking that the Supreme Court
1:03:01would step in on this issue in such a forceful way."
1:03:06And, of course, once you start digging through the details,
1:03:08like, it's not remotely that.
1:03:10It's like it's more subtle than the headlines are portraying.
1:03:14So I spent an evening trying to, like,
1:03:16dig around and figure out what this was,
1:03:18and then I eventually got to the actual Supreme Court.
1:03:21They put out, like, a PDF of, "Here's the summary
1:03:24our judgment that you can read through and it's surprisingly readable. So I was looking
1:03:28through that and it was it was interesting and I kind of thought, oh well this was just
1:03:32an evening's idle curiosity explored of like, oh okay well now I know what the deal was
1:03:40why this video was being more active. But it has happened sometimes. The next morning
1:03:46I just woke up mad like I was still thinking about it and the reason I was mad is I was
1:03:51mad at all the stupid headlines that I'd come across from the day before of like, is it
1:03:57that hard to write a headline that isn't explicitly wrong about what has actually occurred? Right?
1:04:04Like there's no ban. Nothing has been made illegal. There was just like a reaffirmation
1:04:09of 150 year old verdict in the Supreme Court. Like the case was a total nothing. It was
1:04:16just like, yeah, we're reaffirming a state's rights issue in the US.
1:04:20had changed, the Supreme Court just reminded everybody of something that already existed,
1:04:24right?
1:04:25Yeah, yeah, and it's, I was even thinking like, I don't know why the Supreme Court even
1:04:30took this case, like why did they, what was the deal here? Like, I don't understand. The
1:04:35way it works is like the Supreme Court obviously gets thousands and thousands and thousands
1:04:39of cases submitted to them every year. Part of the whole process is that the court picks
1:04:44which cases they're going to rule on and I mean it's not unreasonable to assume that
1:04:52they pick cases because there's something in particular that they think was either wrong
1:04:58or is like really important to make sure that like there's a verdict on this one way or
1:05:03another. So like Supreme Court news watchers you can make pretty good guesses that if say
1:05:11say like a case where someone who has been convicted and is in prison, if their case
1:05:18has made it all the way to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court has accepted that case,
1:05:23smart money is on the verdict is going to be overturned, right? Like that's part of
1:05:28why they accepted the case, right? So I don't even know why they accepted this case in the
1:05:31first place because it was just such a boring nothing. But I woke up like angry at the news
1:05:36headlines I had read the previous day and it's like, "Why did they have to write it
1:05:41as though a thing was different?" And so, as happens sometimes when you wake up angry,
1:05:47it's like, "Straight to the keyboard! You know, type type type type type type type!"
1:05:51Like, I'm just really annoyed about this and basically realized I had very quickly
1:06:00written most of what was a pretty decent quick little update script and then decided, "You
1:06:06know what, I'm going to drop the other thing that I'm working on right now and let me just
1:06:09see if I can rush a quick and very intentionally light little video around this topic. And
1:06:19this is just one of these cases of the stars aligning, like, it's a topic I'm already incredibly
1:06:24well versed in, so I don't need to like re-research a bunch of stuff. The video script itself
1:06:31can, you know, the majority of it is just a recap of the situation so that you can understand
1:06:36what the verdict is, with a little bit of me like sticking the knife into the news about
1:06:42like these headlines are lying to you and then telling you like nothing has occurred
1:06:46here.
1:06:47But yeah, so it just sort of happened very quickly and I think that's been on my mind
1:06:52for a while and goes all the way back to September and changing the business model is I was very
1:07:00aware that like when the channel was younger I did feel a lot freer to occasionally make
1:07:10just shorter videos on whatever like on a really small thing.
1:07:15Oh right yeah because it just as a refresher it's the idea that like if the Patreon was
1:07:21triggered on a per video basis you felt like maybe you needed to have a real big point
1:07:27to each video.
1:07:28Yeah, so yeah, this is exactly like one of the things that was on my mind is triggering
1:07:35it per video now constantly brought up the question of like, does this video count? Right?
1:07:42Or does this video not count? Oh, yeah, because you could choose, couldn't you? Yeah, I was
1:07:47choosing like, if I published a video, was this going to count? Or was it going to not
1:07:53count. That's a lot to put on yourself. Yeah and it was a thing that over the
1:07:58course of a couple years I recognized was genuinely becoming a real problem in
1:08:03the way that I was thinking about topics and like working on stuff. And so when I
1:08:07was making that decision to switch last September or October or whenever it was,
1:08:13one of the things that I had in mind was what I was thinking of as light gray.
1:08:19Alright like hey you know what would be nice? If I can make some light gray
1:08:23videos, not everything needs to be like big and serious.
1:08:27I can intentionally try to just keep it on my mind of like, Hey man, you've got
1:08:34the option to just try and do something that's simpler and shorter sometimes.
1:08:40Now, of course, like there's always costs with doing any kinds of projects.
1:08:45So, you know, one of the things I've talked about a lot this year is the
1:08:48change to my workflow of like, Oh, I have things that are topic locked and I'm
1:08:52trying to really stick to that and it's very helpful.
1:08:54And something like this breaks that rule a little bit of, Hey,
1:08:59we're going to drop everything for this week and just do this one quick thing.
1:09:04You know,
1:09:05like I don't want to do that very often because I think that does have other
1:09:08consequences,
1:09:09but it's useful to keep in mind of like when the stars align that can make sense
1:09:15to do.
1:09:16And since changing the way my business works,
1:09:19This has been on my mind of like, just keep your eye on the horizon for if this case comes up, this is now an option that's available and you can just do.
1:09:29And it's not something you have to agonize about.
1:09:32Does this video count?
1:09:35And if it doesn't count, does it make sense to work on?
1:09:38You know, so I have to say I'm really pleased with the way this has gone of just like, okay, I can make a little thing.
1:09:46I can put it up.
1:09:46It's totally fine.
1:09:49And it's another way in which I'm grateful that like through the support of my audience,
1:09:57I have options to make different sorts of stuff. And I'm always very careful to not say like,
1:10:05"Hey, I'm going to be able to make more because that's not just the way my channel works."
1:10:10But I have the ability to like put out a smaller thing like this sometimes. And I think everybody
1:10:18is happier to like have the video than to not have the video and it's nice to as the creator
1:10:25be able to think "oh there's just something smaller here that I can do"
1:10:30Right.
1:10:31It is very interesting looking at a bunch of my older stuff to realize how short some of the
1:10:37videos are. The amount of stuff that I have which is under two minutes from the older older back
1:10:44back catalog is surprisingly high.
1:10:46But yeah, so this I viewed as in some ways the start again
1:10:51of this kind of video.
1:10:54Smaller, simpler, and that can be OK.
1:10:57So I've made like--
1:10:59to try to help myself think about it,
1:11:01I've actually put it as like another playlist genre
1:11:04thing on my YouTube channel of like, oh, hey,
1:11:07there's the main videos, and here are the light gray videos.
1:11:12So maybe your expectations in watching these can be a little lower and that's fine.
1:11:17And you know, because there's, there's other things to watch here as well and they don't
1:11:22have the same amount of pressure as like the main videos do.
1:11:29And that's also one of the things you might be picking up on is even in the video thumbnail,
1:11:33like it doesn't have the official little line and CGP Grey logo on the side.
1:11:38It's just like, oh, this is a regular thumbnail
1:11:41to try to visually indicate,
1:11:43like this video is different from the others.
1:11:46It's a little bit of like an off sequence kind of video.
1:11:49- I'm looking at that.
1:11:50Okay, so the logo on the left side, that's the key, right?
1:11:54- Yeah, so the logo on the left side,
1:11:56I feel like I put those on serious videos in some sense.
1:12:00- Yeah, 'cause I can see like the video
1:12:03about your YouTube suspension.
1:12:05- Right.
1:12:06all the footnote videos and stuff like that they don't have it that's cool that's a nice little
1:12:12branding trick yeah again i don't think anybody consciously notices it but it's something i just
1:12:18try to do to enforce like here is this distinction and so i just just going through the back catalogue
1:12:25and trying to collect up all of the here's the random other videos and put them in one place
1:12:29And I'm like, "Okay, great. Now this is a genre."
1:12:32We have official, heavy, serious, like, Grey Explains.
1:12:36Many, many, many drafts.
1:12:38Hundreds of hours of animation kind of videos.
1:12:41And then down at the bottom, it's like,
1:12:43"Oh, here's the other stuff. Here's the light grey stuff."
1:12:46You know, "Enjoy. I hope you like it."
1:12:48-Do you see this as a shift to your theme?
1:12:52Do you think that -- -No. No.
1:12:54-No? -Like, what I think of this is...
1:12:58I mean, like, you know this as well, right?
1:13:02When you have a direct dependency on the audience for what you're making, it intrinsically changes
1:13:11the way that you think about things.
1:13:14And so I just really think that for my YouTube channel in particular, ultimately going to
1:13:23the per video thing, it made sense for a little while,
1:13:27but it grew into more of a problem than it was worth.
1:13:31And so switching to monthly got rid of that problem
1:13:36and now allowed me to go back to a thing
1:13:42that I used to do more frequently,
1:13:45but just died out as the problem of like,
1:13:48Does this video count?
1:13:50Grew more and more in my mind.
1:13:53So I don't think it's a new direction.
1:13:57It's a little bit of a return to optionality,
1:14:01I think is the way that I would put it.
1:14:04But yeah, it's also totally mind blowing from my perspective
1:14:07to have a video be conceived of and then uploaded
1:14:11in such a short period of time.
1:14:13It's like, wow, that's amazing.
1:14:17Talking about yearly themes.
1:14:19So I want to talk about yearly themes a little bit today
1:14:22because I think I may have mentioned this
1:14:24on a previous episode.
1:14:25- Yeah, you sneak peeked this last time
1:14:27that there's going to be an update to your yearly theme.
1:14:29- The update is I have a new one.
1:14:31- Right, year of refinements, no more.
1:14:34- Well, I'll get to that.
1:14:36So just as a quick aside, I thought that this isn't
1:14:38a full-on yearly themes episode in the sense like
1:14:42we're not going to go into the full backstory,
1:14:44I don't think you are gonna have a new yearly theme today.
1:14:47- No.
1:14:48- If you are new to the show,
1:14:50you don't know what a yearly theme is.
1:14:51We set these typically at the beginning of every year
1:14:54and they are like our guides for the year.
1:14:57It might be a word or a phrase
1:14:58and it kind of has a lot of meaning behind it
1:15:01and there's a lot of offshoots from it and what that means
1:15:03and then it will help us kind of shape
1:15:04what we want to achieve in a year.
1:15:06If you want more background than this,
1:15:08you can go and listen to episode 95 of the show,
1:15:11which was our 2020 yearly themes episode
1:15:14where we talk a lot about it and set our themes.
1:15:16And then there's also a wonderful YouTube video
1:15:18that Gray made about themes and like whether they're yearly
1:15:21or quarterly or seasonal,
1:15:23but like the idea as to what a theme is.
1:15:25So you can go and get a lot of information from those
1:15:27if you want a bit more of a background to it.
1:15:30So what I wanna do is I wanna recap my theme
1:15:35because I'm not gonna recap this theme anymore.
1:15:38The year of refinement is done.
1:15:40- Okay, so this is the post-mortem on year of refinements.
1:15:43- Yeah, yeah.
1:15:44I hope that it will come back at some point in the future,
1:15:49but I think it will become very clear
1:15:50why the theme is over for me.
1:15:53Because frankly, I just feel like in a nutshell,
1:15:56I can't achieve what I wanted to achieve
1:15:59from when I set out this year
1:16:01for what I wanted this theme to be.
1:16:03- No.
1:16:04- And I thought about trying to adapt it
1:16:06and just like take that meaning and put it to other things.
1:16:10And I was thinking about that for a while,
1:16:11but ultimately I ended up landing on something
1:16:14which is quite different and made much more sense
1:16:18than me just trying to find ways
1:16:20to make refinement fit to the other things.
1:16:22'Cause frankly, I'm not in refinement at the moment.
1:16:25That's just not where I am and it's not what my focus is
1:16:28because I've upended so much of my life
1:16:31in the last few months.
1:16:32It's not refinement.
1:16:33- Yeah, and even just the thing of trying
1:16:36to refit the theme, I feel like, no, no, no.
1:16:40If you're trying to make it fit something new,
1:16:42like it's already a bad sign.
1:16:44Like it should feel like a natural fit.
1:16:46You shouldn't be trying to make it rework it.
1:16:49- More of what I meant was,
1:16:50and this has happened for me in past years,
1:16:52I will have something come up that I think about,
1:16:55or it's come my way, and I think to myself,
1:16:58would this fit in my yearly theme?
1:17:00And then I kind of look at my yearly theme and be like,
1:17:03okay, it fits if I think about it in these ways.
1:17:06And then great, I'll move forward with it.
1:17:08because like now I feel like this does make sense
1:17:10for my yearly theme.
1:17:12So like I did that, I was like, okay,
1:17:14so stuff like membership, right?
1:17:16And more tax, does that fit in the year of refinement?
1:17:18Let me think.
1:17:19Well, I could say, and then very quickly it was like,
1:17:22you know what, that doesn't.
1:17:23And if I'm gonna really focus on this
1:17:25in the way that I want to,
1:17:27I need to put the year of refinement away.
1:17:30So because we won't review the year of refinement next year
1:17:34when we do our 2021 yearly themes,
1:17:37I wanted to do that now, 'cause it will also, I think,
1:17:39give a little understanding as to why I think
1:17:42I have to put this theme to bed.
1:17:45So I had a few different areas that I wanted to focus on.
1:17:48So first was to do what I kind of considered
1:17:52is to better myself in the ways that I was interested in.
1:17:55So understanding more on food,
1:17:57understanding more on culture.
1:17:59Well, the opportunity is that I wanted
1:18:02to give myself, I can't do.
1:18:04So, like, you know, like obviously I'm not eating at
1:18:07restaurants at all, which was part of it,
1:18:10but also was to take courses and stuff.
1:18:12Like I mentioned that wine was a thing
1:18:13that I was interested in.
1:18:14Well, I had a couple of courses booked,
1:18:17but like I'm not doing them.
1:18:20One of them has been moved to way later in the year.
1:18:23And really the year of refinement,
1:18:25like a lot of it was focused around this very first point.
1:18:28So the fact that I can't really do any of that
1:18:32the way that I want to,
1:18:33makes me feel like I liked this theme a lot
1:18:36and everything that it stood for for me,
1:18:38because it was a lot more focused on taking time this year
1:18:41for me, just for me, and being that as like a part thing
1:18:46that I wanted to work on was myself.
1:18:49I want to do this,
1:18:51but I'll do it when the world is in a different place.
1:18:54The other thing was hobbies,
1:18:55and the main hobby that I'd set that I was excited about
1:18:58and interested in was pottery.
1:19:00and that requires going to places.
1:19:04- Or getting a pottery wheel for your house.
1:19:06- You can't put a pottery wheel in your home.
1:19:08It has to be like, well you can,
1:19:10but then you'll ruin whatever room you put it in, right?
1:19:14People tend to put them in basements or in sheds.
1:19:17I haven't got either of those.
1:19:19I do have, if you need to buy me a wonderful little gift
1:19:22of like a hand clay thing, so I'm gonna try that out.
1:19:27But what I really wanna do with the pottery stuff
1:19:29is wheel-based, right?
1:19:31Like to actually do things on a pottery wheel.
1:19:34And again, I know I enjoyed that
1:19:36and I know I wanna do more of it.
1:19:38So when I can, I will go back to it,
1:19:40but that's not gonna happen anytime soon.
1:19:42I have gotten kind of two things in my life now,
1:19:46which I do consider more of new interests.
1:19:50One is like over the last few weeks,
1:19:52we've been watching a lot of movies.
1:19:53We are typically TV show people for home viewing
1:19:57because we like to binge shows,
1:19:58but we decided, well, what if we just like,
1:20:01quote unquote binge movies, pick a director, pick an actor,
1:20:05watch a bunch of their stuff.
1:20:07So we've been doing that, which is because I love movies,
1:20:10but just never really watch movies at home very often.
1:20:14And this has been like a good reason to watch movies.
1:20:17It's because at home I like kind of dependable viewing.
1:20:21Right?
1:20:22So like you pick a thing and you start watching that thing,
1:20:25like binging a TV show and you know,
1:20:26like this is what that TV show is going to be for a while and that's your show.
1:20:30And movies are like, well, it could be anything. And also like movie to movie.
1:20:34Do you have any idea what the quality is going to be like?
1:20:37You're going to like them, right?
1:20:39But what I found is in picking certain directors or actors,
1:20:43if you like their work, there's typically a through line.
1:20:47Yeah. That's it.
1:20:48That's an interesting thing to do for this concept of binging movies,
1:20:51of picking a director or picking an actor because like with many things in life,
1:20:56There's options that you think of as like the high variance option and the low
1:20:59variance option and TV shows are the low variance option. Like, Oh yeah,
1:21:05you kind of know what you're going to get.
1:21:07There's just the question of a season change over, you know,
1:21:10and especially like a writing team change over,
1:21:12but like generally you getting what you know.
1:21:14And then movies are the high variance outcome,
1:21:16which is why it can be hard to pick them. Like,
1:21:20I think of our viewing habits and it is always the same thing.
1:21:24like, aspirationally you want to watch a movie and then you sort of fall back on the TV show.
1:21:31You stare at Netflix and be like, I don't even know what kind of movie I want to watch,
1:21:34let alone like if any of these ones will be the right ones.
1:21:37Yeah, yeah. And so it's like, oh, there's an hour of not picking a movie and then settling
1:21:43on the office.
1:21:44And that is exactly it, right? It's like, if they're gonna say, I want to watch a movie,
1:21:46I'm like, what movie? And then like, I never know what to pick. Like I get real like paralysis
1:21:51choice with home movie viewing. I can never know what to go for and so I've
1:21:56typically will just watch comedies because they feel like the safest
1:22:00option for me but so we've been you know like we started with like watched a
1:22:06bunch of Tarantino movies because I think it was just like I wanted to watch
1:22:11Reservoir Dogs had never seen it and I was like well let's just watch a bunch
1:22:14of these then I just was like well why don't we watch we've watched like a
1:22:18bunch of Tarantino movies which all kind of violent or like gangster-y so I was
1:22:23like you know what I want to watch why don't we watch The Departed which is a
1:22:26movie that I really like and I wanted to show it to Idina and I was like you know
1:22:30what I love Leonardo DiCaprio let's watch a bunch of Leonardo DiCaprio
1:22:33movies so that's that's kind of like the where we're going at the moment and then
1:22:37it's like a my favorite director is Martin Scorsese and he is directed a
1:22:42bunch of Leonardo DiCaprio movies so once we're done with Leonardo DiCaprio
1:22:45movies. I think I didn't want to move on to just watching a bunch of Scorsese movies.
1:22:48So like I think this might be where we go for a while just like following these
1:22:52chains but it's like well we don't have to all we have to do is which Leonardo
1:22:59DiCaprio movie are gonna be watched today. And that's way easier than like
1:23:02which movie. Yeah that's a million times easier. I'm always struck by the
1:23:08absurdity of the situation which is like okay turn on Apple TV now I have all
1:23:14"All media produced by humans available for me to watch."
1:23:18[laughter]
1:23:19And it's like,
1:23:20and I kinda don't wanna watch any of these things.
1:23:23- Yes. - Right?
1:23:24- Like, it is an absurd position to be in.
1:23:28It's, it's, yeah, I don't know.
1:23:31So I have to say, I'm giving two thumbs up
1:23:35to this algorithm of yours.
1:23:36I think this is a great idea to try to constrain it
1:23:39in some way by director or actor.
1:23:41I think that's a fantastic idea.
1:23:43And I like it because it gives you the ability to have a little bit of continuity in the comparison game of, "Oh, what is this actor like compared to these previous two movies?"
1:23:58And like it gives you a different level to think about and enjoy what you're watching. So I really like this. This is a great idea.
1:24:04is a great idea.
1:24:05- And I like it because like I said,
1:24:07I really do love movies,
1:24:09but I just find myself never watching them at home.
1:24:12So it's nice to be able to get into that a little bit more.
1:24:16You know, 'cause typically like, you know,
1:24:17like a movie will end and we'll talk about it a bit.
1:24:19And we don't do that after we watch like three TV shows.
1:24:22There's nothing to talk about typically, right?
1:24:24Like with most shows, but like a good movie
1:24:28will leave you thinking about something
1:24:30or wanting to talk about like,
1:24:31oh, I liked these choices that they made
1:24:33or I'm not sure what I thought about this or.
1:24:36Oh, we also watch a bunch of Christian Bale.
1:24:38Oh no, we started, we didn't start with Scorsese,
1:24:40we started with Christopher Nolan to,
1:24:43oh no, we started with Tarantino,
1:24:44then we did Christopher Nolan.
1:24:45This is not important.
1:24:46(laughing)
1:24:48And then the other thing that I've gotten in--
1:24:51- People need to know, Myke.
1:24:52- They must know.
1:24:53The other thing that I've really gotten into recently
1:24:55is Formula One.
1:24:56- Okay, so this is gonna be your sport to follow?
1:24:58- Yes, actually.
1:24:59We watched the Netflix documentary, Drive to Survive.
1:25:03It's just stupendous.
1:25:05And both me and Adina really enjoyed it.
1:25:08So then we were like, "Let's give Formula One a go."
1:25:10And we love it.
1:25:12And so we're just gonna keep doing it.
1:25:13And it's a nice thing 'cause it's something
1:25:14that we both got into at the same time
1:25:16with not really too much knowledge beforehand.
1:25:19So it's like something that it's not one or the other
1:25:22like saying like, "Oh, you should, I like this thing.
1:25:24"I think you might like it too.
1:25:26"There's none of that involved."
1:25:27So yeah, it's really cool.
1:25:28And it's like in the sense for me of like,
1:25:30there's a lot that happens around it,
1:25:32which I can choose to follow or not.
1:25:34And that makes it feel more like an interest
1:25:36than just watching something.
1:25:38You know, you can read the news about it,
1:25:40you can listen to podcasts about it,
1:25:42and there's YouTube.
1:25:43It's a sport, right?
1:25:46I feel like I'm trying to explain sport to people now,
1:25:48but I've never been a sport person,
1:25:51but this one's just in the kind of the intersection for me
1:25:55where for whatever reason I'm enjoying it.
1:25:57So I feel like this is the part
1:26:00that I've actually had the most success in,
1:26:02which is introducing things which are refreshed
1:26:06or new for me that I would consider hobbies or interests.
1:26:10The next part that I wanted to do in the year of refinement
1:26:13is to refine my work focus,
1:26:14like making some small adjustments is what I said.
1:26:17- Yeah, just some tweaks, just some tweaks to the work.
1:26:20- Here or there, just like little bits.
1:26:21- Yeah, everything's going great, just like,
1:26:23oh, just a little tightening, little adjustments.
1:26:25That's, yeah, that's what this year is gonna be
1:26:27for your business.
1:26:28- There has been no small adjustments.
1:26:30every adjustment is massive.
1:26:31So small adjustments just can't cut right now, right?
1:26:35- Yeah. - For what I'm doing
1:26:35and for where I am.
1:26:37And then the last part was to kind of refine
1:26:39what I'm known for.
1:26:41And that was kind of through working on new projects
1:26:43and looking at different areas of type of stuff that I cover
1:26:47and to show that I do have Austin Evans,
1:26:49the test drivers is part of that and was part of that idea
1:26:52because it's talking about different types
1:26:55of computing platforms, different types of devices
1:26:57from different types of manufacturers
1:26:59to what I usually cover, but it's stuff that I care about
1:27:03but don't usually get to talk about.
1:27:05There's still more I wanna do in that area
1:27:08and I think this will be something
1:27:09that I'll come back to more in the future.
1:27:10I like where I've gotten to with this,
1:27:13but basically I cannot right now just focus on me.
1:27:18- Right.
1:27:20- It's not about what I am known for.
1:27:22That can't be my focus right now.
1:27:25It was going to be, but it can't be now.
1:27:27I have to look at things much more broadly at the moment.
1:27:31So ultimately, the year of refinement
1:27:35is just not the right theme for now.
1:27:38Too much has changed around me.
1:27:40I don't feel like I'm the same person
1:27:42that I was six months ago.
1:27:44- Right.
1:27:45- And nor do I feel like I can permit myself
1:27:49to just fuss on these internal things.
1:27:52- Fuss is a terrible word there, but that's perfect.
1:27:55Yeah.
1:27:56have a sort of fussy theme for this year and that was by design yeah and that's totally fine
1:28:04like but fuss is just it could not be more misaligned with the reality of the previous
1:28:12six months yeah like oh i'm gonna try some wine i'm gonna go to a pottery class
1:28:21That was where I was in my life because I'd gotten, I'd worked really hard for years
1:28:28and things were nice and stable.
1:28:30Yeah.
1:28:31Now it's time to relax and focus on some of the enjoyable frivolities of life, right?
1:28:36They're like, "Nope."
1:28:38Nope.
1:28:39I mean, not only does it not feel right, it's also just not what I want to prioritize.
1:28:45So I have a brand new yearly theme.
1:28:48Oh wow.
1:28:49first on Cortex, the mid-year Switch, so I'm very excited.
1:28:53- Yeah, 'cause I have in the past, I added some stuff in,
1:28:57I have retired some stuff, but I've never gone like,
1:29:01all right, that one's done, here's a new one.
1:29:03And my plan is that this will just run
1:29:05to the end of this year,
1:29:06and then I'll pick a new theme for 2021,
1:29:09which will probably be more in line with this one
1:29:11than refinement, because I don't expect the world
1:29:14to have changed that much in the next six months.
1:29:19but who the hell knows anymore, right?
1:29:21Anyway, so.
1:29:22- Six months is a long time now, Myke.
1:29:24It's both a short and long amount of time.
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1:30:58My yearly theme for the rest of 2020 is called the Year of Shift.
1:31:05This name was inspired by my co-founder Stephen Hackett.
1:31:09He is of the gray mindset of giving project names to all projects.
1:31:14And when we started working on the membership stuff to change over to introduce the membership
1:31:21bonus content for shows like this one, he called it Member Shift.
1:31:25Oh, that's good.
1:31:26I thought it was a very clever name, it was a funny name.
1:31:29And then the word shift just kept bouncing around in my brain.
1:31:33So I have a few points that I'm focusing on now all around shifting.
1:31:38This is shifting business model for me and my company.
1:31:41So this is in membership focus, right?
1:31:44So creating this whole new platform for us to offer more membership content, that's one
1:31:50part.
1:31:51And then also continuing to move the sales away from me, which is something that I was
1:31:56doing more slowly before, but now I think is a thing that I want to continue with more
1:32:01gusto so I can continue working on content more which is the other big part
1:32:08so I'll just move straight into that which is for shifting my focus so I want
1:32:13my focus now to be more on caring about content creation than running the
1:32:19business because that's where I mean I spoke about this in our last episode
1:32:23quite a lot so I don't want to rehash a lot of it but I want to make sure the
1:32:28content that I'm making is so good now that people will happily pay for more of
1:32:33it. Mm-hmm like that's something that I want to keep doing and so like that
1:32:38means working hard on making sure that the membership stuff is good but also
1:32:42that the shows themselves are good so people enjoy they want to keep listening
1:32:47and they're like you know what I would like more of that so that is like a
1:32:51focus that I want to continue doing it's a model that I want to follow you know I
1:32:55I want my model now to be making the stuff as good as possible
1:33:01for the people that are listening,
1:33:02rather than how do I keep growing the shows to increase
1:33:06our ad rates.
1:33:07Right, right.
1:33:08So it's the focus being more on what's here
1:33:12than what it could be.
1:33:14Lots of content creators will do their best
1:33:18to make their content as good as it can be in the hopes
1:33:22that it will grow their audience.
1:33:25And we wanna grow our audiences for a few reasons.
1:33:28One of them is because if your content
1:33:30is advertising focused, your ads are worth more money
1:33:33if your audience is larger, right?
1:33:35- Right.
1:33:36- And that drives a type of thinking.
1:33:40And it's not saying that that makes shows
1:33:42less or more enjoyable, but it's just a way of thinking.
1:33:46I wanna make stuff that's so good that people will share it,
1:33:50or I wanna make stuff that's gonna be a big splash, right?
1:33:53But now I think I'm more in the focus of like,
1:33:56how do I create content which is in and of itself
1:34:01interesting for the people that already care?
1:34:04And I, as of right now, do not really know what that means
1:34:10or how different those things are,
1:34:12but it's more acknowledging the change in my thinking
1:34:18that I want to make this stuff as good as it can possibly be
1:34:23for the love of making the thing.
1:34:26Which when you are trying to start and grow a business,
1:34:29you can lose sight of a little bit
1:34:31because you are in growth.
1:34:33Like that's where you are.
1:34:34Your mind is in like, I need to get this thing
1:34:38to a point where it can be sustainable.
1:34:42And I'd done that,
1:34:43but it just never really changed my thinking.
1:34:46Just like this was the way we did it.
1:34:48this is what I do, this is how it's done.
1:34:50And what I want to do now, and what I am doing now,
1:34:55is taking a step back and thinking like,
1:35:00am I making the best stuff I can possibly make?
1:35:04And that's what I'm kind of shifting my attention towards.
1:35:09So it's quite hard to nail this part down.
1:35:13This is a very new way of thinking.
1:35:17Yeah, but like, I just think you're going through a little bit of the early stages of finding your brain considering what does it mean to have a membership program.
1:35:29Yes.
1:35:30Yeah, that's exactly it.
1:35:31Yeah.
1:35:31Yeah.
1:35:31This, this is like, I'm, I'm here with you, man.
1:35:35It's like, you know, this shift is, it's different in the way that you think about things in a lot of intangible and difficult to explain ways.
1:35:46But I think you did really, you have articulated well one of them, which is that if you're running a business, you have all of these different models.
1:35:55And of course, with all business models, like growth in general is a good thing.
1:36:02But some models are more tied to the necessity of growth than others.
1:36:09and advertising is much more strongly correlated with continual and constant growth than membership
1:36:18programs are. And so I think you're just, your brain is just starting to feel out the
1:36:23edges of like, oh, what do these different things mean? Like now I have a business that
1:36:28balancing these two aspects instead of just having a business that's advertising dependent.
1:36:34What does that mean for the kind of content that I'm producing or the way that I think
1:36:38about shows. And like that's something that you have to figure out for yourself, but it
1:36:43does just change the way you think about stuff to in this shift be much more focusing on
1:36:54the membership side of it and like the direct relationship with the audience than the advertising
1:37:00side of it.
1:37:01And then similarly, I also want to make sure that I'm shifting my attention on shows correctly.
1:37:08Which shows need the most effort? Which shows require it? And making sure that I am serving
1:37:15all of those properly. So that's like another part of this. Also like in shifting my finances,
1:37:23like thinking about where my money is spent. Like I think this is just a good time to do that.
1:37:28It's a time of risk for everybody, right?
1:37:31And it's just making me think, okay,
1:37:33now that I'm spending money in different places,
1:37:35because I'm not traveling, stuff like that,
1:37:38I'm just making sure that I have different sets of savings.
1:37:42I'm making sure that,
1:37:44just thinking more about where that's going now, right?
1:37:46Like it's just a time to reset that,
1:37:48which I think is useful for everybody every now and then.
1:37:51I'm also shifting product creation for Cortex brand.
1:37:55So this has been a long time coming.
1:37:57will have more to say on this in the future but we've been working hard on
1:38:01what we've always spoken about which was a version 2 of the theme system journal
1:38:05mm-hmm there is still some version 1 for sale hopefully quite soon but then that
1:38:11will be the last stock of the version 1 of the book mm-hmm so we've been making
1:38:17tweaks for the journal and I'm now gonna be much more involved in the day to day
1:38:22of how these things are actually produced and made so that's been a big
1:38:26project, a very big project that I want to follow up on in the future. And then
1:38:31the last part of the Year of Shift is to... so if I was gonna bring one thing of the
1:38:37Year of Refinement into this, it would be a little bit about thinking about me in
1:38:42certain ways and the way that I brought it over into the Year of Shift is to
1:38:47shift my mental energy. So still trying to find time for myself somewhere in all
1:38:54of this, right, which I still want to be able to make sure that I'm doing. But the
1:38:58place that I've landed on with the thing that I want to do the most now is in
1:39:03learning different technology things. So playing with apps and systems, because I
1:39:10love to do that, and there's some stuff out there that I really want to
1:39:14dig into a little bit more that I just haven't I've been putting off for a
1:39:17while. Like what? Like do you have a, I'm sort of curious about what you, the
1:39:21the specifics of what you mean by this,
1:39:23if you can say at this point in time.
1:39:25- Microsoft Word.
1:39:26(laughing)
1:39:27- Okay.
1:39:28- But that's why I've been thinking about that.
1:39:30And then looking at stuff like Notion, right?
1:39:32Like why do people use it?
1:39:34Like I wanna know and the app drafts,
1:39:38I wanna look into that a little bit more again.
1:39:41And look, I don't wanna get into this now.
1:39:45I don't know if I'm ever gonna wanna get into this.
1:39:49but do I ever want to think about like,
1:39:52like app development?
1:39:54Now I don't wanna do it, right?
1:39:55But I think I might wanna at least just try.
1:40:01And this is probably not gonna be this year,
1:40:06but with the stuff that Apple's doing around Swift
1:40:09and Swift UI, I kind of feel like if I was ever going to try,
1:40:12it would be kind of around now
1:40:16where there is a little bit of a reset going on.
1:40:18And you know, I've had some like very basic ideas and I've seen a lot of the things that
1:40:26Swift and SwiftUI can do and I see when people say like, oh, like this is a basic project
1:40:31and it doesn't require that much code and I'm looking at those things and like the ideas
1:40:36that I've had, it would fit in these what's looked like to be simple applications.
1:40:44So there's kind of a thought where I'm like, well, if I'm ever going to try, maybe it's
1:40:49sooner rather than later.
1:40:52Now I don't know if that's nil, I don't know if that's in six months, a year or never,
1:40:57but it has just been in the back of my mind a little bit more.
1:41:02But I have other things that I want to get to before that.
1:41:04But these are the types of things where like, and again, like, you know, I think I was saying
1:41:08on the last episode that like, I felt iOS 13 kind of passed me by.
1:41:13I've really been digging into iOS 14 a lot.
1:41:15I'm just really trying to understand it way more than I did with iOS 13.
1:41:20Because that's what I love to do and I actually benefit from knowing this stuff.
1:41:24I should know this stuff in detail.
1:41:27Being a domain expert in these sorts of things is a core competency that is valuable to you
1:41:32across many different properties.
1:41:36Really just making sure that I'm spending that time, which is useful, but also stuff
1:41:40that I enjoy.
1:41:41So that's kind of a thing that I've been thinking about and looking at.
1:41:45There's also like a bunch of really weird new email products that exist and I want to
1:41:50dig into those because why not.
1:41:52So like this is like a thing that I want to do.
1:41:54Like when I have time, I want to spend that time learning in different ways.
1:42:00And that was part of what the year of refinement included.
1:42:04But what I've decided is if I'm going to spend that time, I want it to be things that I care
1:42:09about but things that still do matter for my work because if I can do that you know what I might make
1:42:15the shows better and that's what I want to do. Yeah, yeah that makes sense that shift in focus
1:42:22of oh I'm not learning about the fancier finer stuff at the edges right like you want to you
1:42:29want to spend more time on the stuff that's more core to you that really does make a lot of sense
1:42:36this year as opposed to the previous theme.
1:42:40And yeah, I would also say if there's anyone listening
1:42:42who they're thinking about shifting their themes
1:42:45and they're thinking about computer programming,
1:42:48it's like this is clearly another time
1:42:51to get started in that sort of thing.
1:42:53Like you said, maybe not this year,
1:42:55maybe next year, who knows?
1:42:56But like it does feel very clearly
1:43:00that we're all on the edge of another major transition
1:43:03Like this isn't a bad time to be considering that sort of thing if it's on your horizon at all of just like look into the technology in more detail.
1:43:11I think your shift theme is a good one. I think this is a good... I don't know like...
1:43:18Adaptation in some ways of the refinement theme. Yeah.
1:43:22Like it's less of a hard break than I might have expected.
1:43:26But I think that's very natural and there's a way in which themes flow into each other.
1:43:31I think this is a very necessary shift to happen right now,
1:43:35and I think this is a good decision.
1:43:37- Yeah, I think the thing about the year of shift,
1:43:40which is different to the year of refinement,
1:43:43is this is touching on every single part of my business
1:43:48in a way that year of refinement didn't.
1:43:50Like, you know, I would be like,
1:43:52"Oh, you know, maybe I'll refine this or refine that."
1:43:55But like, the difference now in the second half of 2020
1:43:59is I am making significant changes
1:44:01to every part of my business.
1:44:04- Right. - All of it.
1:44:05- Yeah. - And that wasn't the case.
1:44:07So, you know, I've made more change
1:44:11in the last three months
1:44:13than I probably have in the last 12.
1:44:15Everything that I'm doing is undergoing some kind of change
1:44:20and a lot of that change is starting from me.
1:44:24Yes, there are outside forces,
1:44:27but ultimately, I'm not having these things just happen.
1:44:32Like I'm not letting the world just shake me up
1:44:36and then whatever it lands on,
1:44:39it's just where I'm gonna go.
1:44:41Like I'm trying to take some element of control in it.
1:44:43This is where I'm gonna guide it.
1:44:45And so that's the way that I'm dealing with this, right?
1:44:48Like just where we are in June,
1:44:52what June?
1:44:53Where we are in July of 2020, right?
1:44:57Like, so I've decided that like, all right,
1:45:00we're gonna draw a line in the sand,
1:45:02and I'm gonna shift everything around.
1:45:04And that's where I'm gonna push forward
1:45:05for the rest of the year.
1:45:07- I feel like that's normally where we get on the show,
1:45:09but we need to talk about getmoretex.com.
1:45:12- Ah, yes we do, don't we?
1:45:14- Getmoretex.com.
1:45:16Getmoretex.com?
1:45:18You bought a lot of domains.
1:45:19- I bought a lot of domains.
1:45:22I bought a lot of domains.
1:45:23Not only did I buy a bunch of domains
1:45:25because we were talking,
1:45:27then the Cortex animated,
1:45:29H.M. Patel put together a wonderful Cortex animated,
1:45:32which included a bunch of URLs in that,
1:45:35which I then had to go and buy.
1:45:36- Of course.
1:45:37- So I have, I think maybe eight or nine
1:45:40get more text.com URLs.
1:45:43So find the one that works for you, I suppose,
1:45:46but go to get more text.com.
1:45:48If you are a member,
1:45:50because you signed up at get more text.com,
1:45:53there's more text happening right now.
1:45:55See you in the more text, Myke.
1:45:57(laughing)
1:45:58- You trying to come up with like a bunch of new catchphrases?
1:46:01(laughing)
1:46:03- Yeah, I am.
1:46:05(laughing)