0:00:00So in the current trend of grey productivity, you put out like another video. Like what has happened?
0:00:06No, we can't start here. We can't start here, Myke.
0:00:08We have to start with how ungodly hot it is right now so that the people understand what we're doing for them.
0:00:17Okay. Put this into context for people.
0:00:20[laughs]
0:00:22Yeah, because you want to just start out the nice show, but all I can think about is how uncomfortable and sweaty I am right now.
0:00:29Yeah, it's pretty bad, right?
0:00:31I don't. I don't think the people understand how much podcasting work is hot, sweaty work under the best of circumstances.
0:00:46Usually you're recording in a room and you're trying to isolate that room from sound.
0:00:50So you've insulated it so it becomes very warm anyway.
0:00:54Under normal circumstances, I always take a shower after I finish podcasting because I just feel gross and exhausted and sweaty.
0:01:03But today is... it's a record high in London temperature.
0:01:08My watch says it's 92 degrees right now where I am.
0:01:13Where are you?
0:01:15Well, I'm at 93.
0:01:19Which is, you know, I don't usually deal in that temperature, so it's like 33 degrees
0:01:24Celsius.
0:01:25But it sounds more impressive when you say it's 93 than 33.
0:01:30Yes, this is one of the very many reasons why the Fahrenheit scale is obviously superior.
0:01:34But yes, it is way too hot.
0:01:37It is way too hot.
0:01:39And we are recording this podcast anyway for the people.
0:01:44it might be shorter than normal because I don't know how long we're going we're going to last.
0:01:49You at least have air conditioning.
0:01:51I'm sitting here in a room of all the windows closed, the doors closed, and I have no fan or air conditioning.
0:01:58Mm-hmm.
0:01:58So if there is if at any point I start to hallucinate during the episode,
0:02:03I just need you to just bring me back from that.
0:02:06Yeah, well, I'll do that.
0:02:07Thank you.
0:02:08I do however just want to say that when Americans will hear air conditioning,
0:02:13They will imagine a nice scenario, but that is not at all, that is not at all what I have right now.
0:02:20I have one of those wheelie around rollie portable air conditioners that I have put in the main room of my house and
0:02:26that is attempting to cool down the house, but it really hasn't. I was trying to find a thermometer
0:02:32but I'm willing to bet that even with the air conditioner, it has to be
0:02:3685 degrees or warmer in the house, which is
0:02:42Just not not good. It's not good at all
0:02:45English English homes are just not built to deal with with warm temperatures
0:02:52No, it's well, it wouldn't make any sense cuz like yeah, I've seen we it hasn't been this hot here in like eight years
0:02:58It was the last time we had this English people always talk about how it doesn't make any sense
0:03:03but it does make sense because the summers are always awful every year, but
0:03:08everywhere everywhere in England just is like oh we'll just we'll just get right we'll just get right through this and
0:03:14Pretend like each summer is some unique experience, but it's always like this. It's always-
0:03:19-Stiff upper lip gray come on.
0:03:20No, no
0:03:22My my house set up
0:03:25I'm just gonna complain a little bit more because hot temperatures are particularly thing that just I can't stand my
0:03:30house set up I live on the top floor and
0:03:33on where my office is
0:03:37The ceiling is slanted and it has nice big
0:03:40slanted windows that the sun pours
0:03:43Directly into and my office and my bedroom are on the same side of the house so even on
0:03:50Mildly sunny days the one half of my house is
0:03:54Just way hotter than it can possibly be
0:03:58My apartment then is
0:04:01Divided into those those two rooms on one side and then the main room is like down a little hallway on the other side
0:04:06And I just feel like I have abandoned that section of the house, right?
0:04:11That's just a lost cause of not going in there.
0:04:14I've just brought everything that I need into the main room of my house. I have my podcasting gear here.
0:04:19I have my laptop here.
0:04:21Everything, everything that I thought, oh that I could possibly need from the bedroom or from the office,
0:04:25I brought it out in the morning. It's like we're just leaving that. That's just gone.
0:04:30It's just, it's a lost cause. If I can make a really nerdy analogy,
0:04:36My office is Osgiliath, which has fallen to the enemy of heat, and I have retreated to Minas Tirith in my main room and barricaded everything against the door to just try to keep the heat out.
0:04:50But it is not working. So that's where I am right now.
0:04:53I came upstairs, I've been working downstairs, and it's been fine. I didn't even need any windows open.
0:04:59Like it's for some reason, the downstairs of my house is always the perfect temperature.
0:05:04It's perfectly warm in the winter and perfectly cool in the summer.
0:05:08I will never understand why my front room is the way that it is, but it's perfect.
0:05:12So I came upstairs to record thinking it would be okay.
0:05:16I closed the window here because I don't want any street noise to come in and sat down and
0:05:21within five minutes I have been reduced to a big puddly mess.
0:05:26I don't really know why my house is built the way that it is, but there is some extreme
0:05:32temperature issue here.
0:05:34Yeah, so that's where we are.
0:05:37Now that we've complained about the heat, now we can try to pretend like it's a normal
0:05:41show.
0:05:42A normal, though probably much shorter than normal show.
0:05:45Can we talk about then the last YouTube video you'll ever make?
0:05:49Because this is the end, great.
0:05:51Yeah.
0:05:52Yeah.
0:05:53So you did put a video, another one out.
0:05:55You know, we were talking about you posting videos and then you ended up just posting
0:05:59another video like the day that the episode came out last week.
0:06:03Yeah, that happened to work out quite nicely that our last episode ended up being called
0:06:08Posting Day in which I talked about what I do when I post a video and I had a video to
0:06:13post on that day.
0:06:14It was entirely coincidental, that was not planned.
0:06:18It just worked out that way.
0:06:19But it was kind of nice.
0:06:20So you weren't doing one of your "I'm gonna be secret" scenarios?
0:06:23No, no. We recorded on Wednesday, or right, I think?
0:06:29Yeah, Wednesday.
0:06:30Yes. And that video was a shockingly fast turnaround because I didn't start it until Thursday night.
0:06:38So I didn't even know when we were recording our podcast that I was going to put up a video.
0:06:43But that's what ended up happening.
0:06:46And this one has now taken the record for the fastest I have ever made a video.
0:06:50video displacing the previous record holder which was the net neutrality video which I
0:06:57think I did from start to finish it was two and a half days maybe three days yeah I think
0:07:03maybe I started on a on a Friday evening and had it up on a Monday that was my previous
0:07:08record.
0:07:09Did this one feel like like six weeks of work in two days or was it relatively easier to
0:07:13produce compared to other stuff do you do?
0:07:16I don't know how to say what I'm what I'm about to say without sounding kind of like
0:07:18an idiot or or like an airy fairy person but I'm not an airy fairy person just
0:07:24look at that let's get that straight I wouldn't have messed that about you
0:07:28that's my that's my preface to now possibly sounding like I believe in
0:07:33magic I if if you talk to anybody who makes their living in a creative field
0:07:46And I mean creative in the broadest of all possible ways.
0:07:50That you are making a thing that hasn't been made before and you're going to share it with
0:07:55an audience.
0:07:56Very often people in creative fields, particularly writing, will talk about being visited by
0:08:02the muse where it feels like there is an additional thing that is just helping you along to make
0:08:09this thing that you're making.
0:08:11Now obviously there isn't any actual additional force that's helping you with the video, but
0:08:17it is a useful way to think about it on occasion.
0:08:23And this was one of those cases where I started writing the video on Thursday night, and it
0:08:29was a total being visited by the muse moment, where the writing just went extraordinarily
0:08:37well the first time and then on the when I went over it you know an hour later I
0:08:44was able to edit it really well and then pull it all together and there were a
0:08:48couple of little places where the story was working out very nicely all of this
0:08:54just fell into place and why that happens sometimes and not other times is
0:09:01this is this unknowable thing but when it works it really feels like oh wow
0:09:05there's a little creative muse on my shoulder which is just whispering into
0:09:09my ear all of these great things to do and so that that is entirely the reason
0:09:14why I was able to turn that around so quickly it's just everything went
0:09:19extraordinarily smoothly which is not normally the case. I understand that like
0:09:26there are times where I'm working on something and like for some reason I
0:09:32have received this flash of inspiration that I can't quite explain and it's different to normal.
0:09:38Yeah, or it's not even necessarily inspiration. There's a friend of mine who also works in the
0:09:45writing field who I've spoken to about this and he writes short passages in the same way that I do.
0:09:52And he has said the same thing that I do, that you can spend two or three weeks writing and
0:10:00and rewriting something, but that it is very strange how some writing sessions are just
0:10:09golden and you can have an hour or two hours that is clearly worth two or three weeks of
0:10:18normal work.
0:10:19That it's just worth this multiple of what you normally do.
0:10:24And you want every time you sit down to write to be like that, but for whatever reason it
0:10:30just that does not always happen.
0:10:35Because I'm interested in being really efficient with my writing, boy I would love to have
0:10:39that be every single time, but I've never been able to figure out why that happens.
0:10:44But yeah, so with this one I just got extraordinarily lucky and over the years I've gotten a little
0:10:51bit better about knowing how to cheat with the animation if I'm really in a hurry to
0:10:58make it look okay even by doing way less than I normally would.
0:11:04And so it was those two things combined that allowed me to get it out so fast.
0:11:08The little tricks that you've learned.
0:11:11Yeah, it's just from paying attention to feedback that people have about the videos and seeing
0:11:19what things people notice or learning ways to make it, to squeeze some animation out
0:11:25of simpler stuff. I don't always do it, but when I'm in a rush there's some shortcuts
0:11:30that I can take where I think, "Oh, I would animate this more if I had more time, but
0:11:35I can get it looking fine pretty fast if I absolutely need to." But again, this is also
0:11:41the case of sometimes I run into a real problem with the animations and that can derail stuff.
0:11:46And so this is, I just lucked out that I didn't run into any of those kinds of problems.
0:11:51There was, one of the little things I knew that I wanted in the video is at the very
0:11:55end there's a scene where the Confederacy surrenders and the flag falls to pieces and
0:12:01it just leaves the white surrender flag on the screen.
0:12:06And that was the only part I was a little bit worried about how to try to make that
0:12:09look okay and make that look good.
0:12:11But it worked out just fine and so yeah, I got a video out very quickly.
0:12:15is the end of that story. My favorite part of the video is when you're showing the part about the
0:12:22was it the nation of Florida or something what is it called? Oh the Republic of West Florida.
0:12:26That's it and then you say like the and but the U.S. put an end to that like the the stick figure
0:12:32just like slides in from the side of a gun. I just thought it was really funny I just really
0:12:36like that bit. Yeah yeah the that was one of the other things when I'm doing these projects I
0:12:43Sometimes I'm looking for facts that let me make a video and
0:12:48The Republic of West Florida was one of those details I found very quickly on Thursday night
0:12:55That really felt like yes, this is an excellent thing to have in a video without the Republic of West Florida
0:13:02This is a much less interesting
0:13:04Video and so I just had like those things all came up in the in the right way
0:13:09And so when I came across this okay great. I have this I know the animation that I want at the end with the surrender flag
0:13:16I was able to work in this little pattern of
0:13:1978 days later and then 36 days later so the beginning and the end are somewhat similar
0:13:25I was able to allude to the surrender in the middle that happens at the end
0:13:28So just everything just went really great and normally that takes weeks and weeks and weeks for me to make something that that I think
0:13:35Is is that good so I was quite happy with this video actually I'm very pleased with the way it came out
0:13:39Let's let's let's actually address some follow-up from the from last week's episode
0:13:44The great perspective zoom debate I think has maybe been put to sleep now
0:13:50I think we have the result after basically for the entire week receiving contrasting feedback from people
0:13:56You know some people would say something one thing one person will say another thing
0:14:01I just want to interject Myke before you give the correct answer I
0:14:04I want to thank the audience for sending all of this feedback to you.
0:14:08Yep.
0:14:09Because they didn't send it to me and I really appreciated that.
0:14:12I asked on the last episode, please don't send me on Twitter all of your screenshots that look nearly identical.
0:14:17It all went to Myke.
0:14:18Yep, I got a lot of it.
0:14:19That is great.
0:14:20Mm-hmm.
0:14:21[Laughter]
0:14:21A lot of real details to look into of people's home screens.
0:14:25So thank you audience, I appreciate that.
0:14:27I also appreciate it.
0:14:29There we go.
0:14:30I like to hear from the Cortex people.
0:14:32But a friend of the show, Mr. Underscore David Smith,
0:14:35he's a great guy, he's a very smart guy, he's a developer,
0:14:38and he looked into this for me.
0:14:39And he basically posted in the Reddit
0:14:42what I consider to be the categorical proof
0:14:44of how this stuff works.
0:14:46And he even made this diagram of some description
0:14:49that I don't fully understand,
0:14:51but it looks complicated enough that it makes sense.
0:14:54And basically, he settled it as this, right?
0:14:58If you have reduced motion as off,
0:15:02things will move around,
0:15:04no matter what you do with perspective zoom.
0:15:07So basically the only way to stop things from moving
0:15:10is to have reduce motion on and,
0:15:14but then perspective zoom, it doesn't even matter.
0:15:16Perspective zoom does nothing.
0:15:17To turn and reduce motion on, wallpaper doesn't move,
0:15:20icons won't move, you can align perfectly.
0:15:23But if you have reduced motion turned off,
0:15:25no matter what you do, stuff will move around.
0:15:28whoever the wallpaper will move or the icons will move,
0:15:30something will move.
0:15:32So the only way you can stop everything from moving
0:15:34is by turning reduced motion on.
0:15:36- So what you're saying is I was right.
0:15:39That's what this sounds like,
0:15:40because I had reduced motion on
0:15:43and I was convinced that my icons were not moving.
0:15:46Is that what you're saying here?
0:15:48- I thought you said you had it off.
0:15:50- No, I had it on.
0:15:51- Oh.
0:15:53- I think I did.
0:15:54Now I don't remember.
0:15:55When you open apps and close folders, do they zoom away or is there like a swipe on the screen?
0:16:01Oh no, you're right, you're right. It does the animations, which means reduced motion is off. Is that right?
0:16:08Yeah. Which means I was right. That your icons are moving, you just can't see them moving.
0:16:14Because you have a black background or a dark background or whatever, but they are moving around there.
0:16:19Okay, so then the problem is really with my eyes.
0:16:22That's what you're saying. My eyes are not sharp enough to register the motion, but the motion is happening.
0:16:27Yeah, unfortunately your eyes don't register motion. You're kind of like the T-Rex in Jurassic Park, like...
0:16:32I thought the T-Rex only sees motion.
0:16:34Yeah.
0:16:35Yeah, but then that analogy makes no sense. Then I should only see the icons when they do move.
0:16:39You're like, okay, you're like the opposite of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
0:16:43[laughs]
0:16:44This is going very well.
0:16:47It's really hot here, okay? All I can think about is dinosaurs.
0:16:51But yes, I can see _DavidSmith's comment on the Reddit, which goes through all the options of what's going to happen.
0:16:57He is a very knowledgeable guy, and he has a thousand apps, so I will trust him.
0:17:03He has so many apps, I actually even used one of his apps in one of my videos, just without even knowing it was his.
0:17:09It was that took a screenshot of the weather app when I was in Las Vegas
0:17:11Intending to use it in my Las Vegas video and I didn't even know that that was an underscore David Smith app
0:17:17Who knows I could have 20 apps on my phone that are underscore David Smith's he makes so many anyway
0:17:23Thanks underscore David Smith average Batman
0:17:25Along with many people on the reddit
0:17:28Question to you in regards to your clothing requirements as to why don't you just go to a tailor like because there are many
0:17:35tailors in London like in Savile Row and you can just get a custom shirt made and
0:17:39then you could just get a bunch more made if you wanted. Why don't why don't
0:17:43you go ahead and do something like that? Have you thought had you thought of
0:17:47doing that? To go to a tailor and tell them your requirements and have them
0:17:49make it rather than trying to build an entire industrial factory.
0:17:53Yeah so this never occurred to me as a solution to think of "oh tailors they
0:18:00exist. I think in my mind I imagined tailors as an 18th century thing of
0:18:07before we had factories we used to have to have people hand making the clothes
0:18:13in every major city in the world and you would you would go to them to make the
0:18:19clothes and that's where the clothes came from. And so it just it did not
0:18:24occur to me that tailors were something that really existed but when they
0:18:29pointed out that this is on Savile Row, I also realized that I have walked down that
0:18:33street many a time and looked right at the tailors. And I think it's like my brain was
0:18:40photoshopping it all away. Like, oh, this, they can't be really making clothes in there.
0:18:47They're just clothing stores that are trying to give the impression that they're old fashionedy
0:18:50as a branding maneuver. I think that's what my brain was thinking. So I thought this was
0:18:58an interesting suggestion. I've never been to a tailor. I have no idea how much it would
0:19:03cost, but I bet it would probably cost less than trying to build a factory.
0:19:08Yes. Yes. However, however much it costs, it will be cheaper than building a factory,
0:19:16buying machinery and employing people to make 25 shirts.
0:19:20Yeah, 20, 25 shirts.
0:19:24That is, I feel like that would not sit very well in the grey spreadsheet system for ROI
0:19:29there.
0:19:30That would be terrible ROI.
0:19:33So maybe I will try this.
0:19:34The thing is I have also received very many links from people who have sent me various
0:19:40t-shirts or sorry, various collared shirts that seem to match the description that I
0:19:44gave last time.
0:19:45I've collected all of those links in a note and I'm going to go through them at some point
0:19:49and see what those shirts look like and possibly place some orders, but if that doesn't work,
0:19:54tailors! They are an excellent option, maybe. So, feedback in the future. My quest to find
0:20:01an acceptable black collared shirt. Thank you everyone.
0:20:05Maybe we can do it in conjunction with London Fashion Week or something.
0:20:08Does London have a fashion week?
0:20:09Yeah, yes, of course it does.
0:20:12What do you mean of course it does? Why of course?
0:20:16Because it's one of the fashion centres of the world.
0:20:18fashion week? I don't know anything about this. Is fashion week a thing? Is it a thing
0:20:23that happens in cities?
0:20:24Yeah, it's a big thing.
0:20:26It's not big enough? I haven't heard of this.
0:20:31Other than trying to start your own brand, I don't think you're very clued into the fashion
0:20:35world in general.
0:20:36Yeah, but you know, when people say "Oh, it's very big!" Is it? I don't know what this thing
0:20:40is. That's all I'm saying. Is there a New York fashion week?
0:20:44Yes.
0:20:45Is there a Hong Kong fashion week?
0:20:46I think so, yes.
0:20:48What's it, is there a Dayton, Ohio Fashion Week?
0:20:52Probably but nobody knows about it unless they live in Dayton, Ohio.
0:20:56Hmm.
0:20:57Okay.
0:20:58Daniel via Twitter also sent in a link to this website, I think it's a German website,
0:21:04where you can customize and create your own shirt from a selection of options.
0:21:10Ooh.
0:21:12Custom shirt configurator.
0:21:13I feel like the configurator should have a K.
0:21:16It should.
0:21:17Like Conqueror.
0:21:18Have you ever used Conqueror back in the day?
0:21:20Was that the games thing?
0:21:23I'm thinking of Linux.
0:21:25Conqueror was one of the interfaces.
0:21:27I was not a Conqueror person, I was a Gnome person.
0:21:31These are, as always on the internet, you have these arguments between computer people.
0:21:35Just so you have Apple versus Windows.
0:21:36It's like, oh, but even the people who use Linux, they have their own little holy wars
0:21:40that they have to fight.
0:21:41And Conqueror versus Gnome was one of those things.
0:21:44but everything in Conqueror was with a K,
0:21:46which I thought was kdum.
0:21:47- I've never seriously used Linux.
0:21:50- You're not missing much.
0:21:52- Uh-oh.
0:21:53- It's not for normal people, that's all I mean.
0:21:58If you're the kind of person who's using Linux,
0:22:01you already know that you're that person.
0:22:04But I see Linux people sometimes saying,
0:22:06"Oh, I'm gonna set up my mom with Linux."
0:22:08No, don't set up your mom with Linux, it's a terrible idea.
0:22:10If someone doesn't already know that they need Linux,
0:22:12they shouldn't be using Linux.
0:22:13That's why I say you're not missing anything.
0:22:15- After talking about regit apps,
0:22:18a selection of people suggested that I try out
0:22:21an app called Narwhal,
0:22:22which is a very simple Reddit app and I love it.
0:22:27And it's now the app that I'm using.
0:22:30It has, like, I really like the UI,
0:22:32there's lots of swiping and stuff,
0:22:34and it's set up in such a way that it's really,
0:22:36really easy for me to get to your subreddit,
0:22:39which is like the only thing that I have in Reddit.
0:22:41I have unsubscribed from all subreddits,
0:22:43except for CGP Grey so far.
0:22:45I tried-- - That's the way to do it.
0:22:46That's the way to do it.
0:22:47- I've added a couple and then had to remove them
0:22:49like basically within five minutes
0:22:51'cause it's just too much for me right now.
0:22:53But it does some really cool stuff.
0:22:55Like when you click on the little thread,
0:22:59the comments are like below and you can swipe up
0:23:01and the webpage sits behind it.
0:23:03It's quite nice.
0:23:03So you can swipe down and see the webpage
0:23:05that it's linked to and then swipe up to see the comments.
0:23:08I really like it.
0:23:08But it is iPhone only.
0:23:09That's the only problem that I have.
0:23:11- Oh, I get it. - Yeah, yeah.
0:23:13- Yeah, so I'm using, I'm still using iAlien on the iPad,
0:23:18but I'm now using Narwhal on the iPhone
0:23:20and I like it very much.
0:23:22I have spoken to the developers of the app
0:23:26and they tell me that iPad is coming at some point,
0:23:29but that could be seven years away for all I know.
0:23:33- Yeah, you can never trust developers when they say,
0:23:35"Oh, it's coming at some point."
0:23:36- Or just in general, really.
0:23:38(both laughing)
0:23:40- Yeah, all it means when they say it's coming
0:23:42is they have a text file somewhere
0:23:44where they've written iPad app in that text file
0:23:46as one of a thousand potential things to do.
0:23:49That's all that means.
0:23:50- It's on a whiteboard.
0:23:52- Yeah, that's right.
0:23:53- KD131313 on Reddit wanted to know something
0:23:58in regards to the way that you post videos to social media.
0:24:02Like, do you use anything like IFTTT to do that
0:24:05or do you, I don't know, like buffer or anything
0:24:07or do you just post them all manually?
0:24:09- Okay, first of all, just so people know--
0:24:11- That's how I say it.
0:24:12- No, what the heck you're talking about.
0:24:15They're asking about If This Then That,
0:24:18which is an automating web service.
0:24:22That might be the best way to describe it.
0:24:23I mean, it exists on iPhone and iPad as well,
0:24:26but it is a service that is designed to,
0:24:29if something happens, do something else.
0:24:33So I do use If This Then That for a couple of things.
0:24:37One of which is I have a Twitter account,
0:24:41which automatically tweets anything that I post to my website.
0:24:46And it's the CGP Grey blog, I think, is the name of that Twitter account.
0:24:50I'm not exactly sure what it is.
0:24:52But that I set up automatically so that when I post something on my website,
0:24:56a minute or two later, that Twitter account automatically fires off a tweet.
0:25:01And I do the same thing with the Hello Internet Twitter account,
0:25:04so that when we post a new show,
0:25:06the Hello Internet Twitter account will automatically post as well,
0:25:09saying that there is a new show.
0:25:11But I don't do that with the videos because it's just not really saving me much because the video posting doesn't happen all that often.
0:25:22And that is the kind of thing that I want to have more fine-grained control over.
0:25:28I don't always feel like I want to post on Twitter straight away that the video is up.
0:25:32In no small part because Twitter is not the best place to get feedback.
0:25:37It just tends to be a wall of people talking.
0:25:41So I sometimes wait until a little later in the day to actually post on Twitter when I
0:25:45can then pay a bit more attention to what is happening on Twitter as opposed to focusing
0:25:50on Reddit, which is my main focus when the video first goes up.
0:25:53Can I complain about If This And That for a minute?
0:25:55Yes.
0:25:56I hope there's a developer at If This And That listening right now.
0:26:01I don't understand why they don't yet have additional logic operators as part of If This
0:26:11Then That.
0:26:12Do you know logic, Myke?
0:26:16No more than what we use to edit our podcasts with.
0:26:18Okay, not that logic.
0:26:20This is the good kind of logic.
0:26:23Logic is the simplest kind of programming that can exist.
0:26:28So right now, if this then that, all it can do is exactly what the title is.
0:26:33If a new episode of Hello Internet goes up, then post on this Twitter account that it's
0:26:39gone up.
0:26:41That's useful, but it would be infinitely more useful if they added logic operators,
0:26:48which are things like AND or OR.
0:26:52So you could do something, I mean one of the things that they have, they try to sell you
0:26:56on is like weather notifications or something. But you want to be able to say if a certain
0:27:04weather condition is the case and it is a particular time, then send me a notification.
0:27:13You want to be able to combine stuff into a bit more of a sentence. And if they programmed
0:27:20to be able to do if and then adding and or adding or does not seem like it's a big deal and I keep
0:27:30waiting for this to appear because it would vastly vastly increase the utility of if this than that
0:27:37because it would turn it into a very very simple programmable thing where you could have people
0:27:45adding blocks of AND or OR or NOT so that you could make more complicated conditions
0:27:51for when things are going to happen. And it just, speaking of developers and when features
0:27:55are coming, I find it mind-blowing that this, that if-this-then-that has been around for
0:27:59as long as it has and it hasn't added what is the most obvious, most useful next feature.
0:28:06So I'm really, I keep my fingers crossed for logical operators in if-this-then-that. But
0:28:12I feel like maybe they're never going to come.
0:28:15It's just strange.
0:28:16I find it very strange.
0:28:18This week's episode of Cortex is brought to you very kindly by the lovely people over
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0:30:44Table Lamp Ottoman on the Reddit would like to know what you do
0:30:49during video rendering time and like when you're uploading stuff
0:30:52Like what's happening in these long periods of time where you're rendering a video or uploading it or processing it?
0:30:58Like what sort of tasks do you undertake? Are you working during those times? Do you take breaks during those times?
0:31:04I'm trying to see if I can say some of the exact things that I do
0:31:10this is this is one of the one of the ways in which I
0:31:13Like to play around with the checklists because yes when I'm done animating a video and I've I've
0:31:22I've synchronized all the animations to the audio and I'm going to export it.
0:31:25It takes a little while, it doesn't take too long because my videos are relatively short.
0:31:31But I don't know, maybe it takes 10 or 20 minutes because I also now render the videos at 4K and 60 frames per second.
0:31:40Which people sometimes think is a bit excessive.
0:31:43But I like doing it that way because why not? It doesn't cost me anything to do it.
0:31:48I've played around with the checklist to move different things to different times.
0:31:52And the thing that I normally do while I'm waiting for it to export is I am creating the video thumbnail,
0:31:59which I usually leave until the end because very often I'm just modifying one particular frame of the video to be the actual thumbnail.
0:32:07And then I am also getting the email list ready during that time.
0:32:15So I do think that when you are grinding through options, it is very useful to think about things that you can do while something else is happening.
0:32:28That always feels doubly productive to me, to be able to do something while something else is happening.
0:32:35Which I will mention one of the dumbest psychological tricks that I use on myself, but that is totally effective.
0:32:42When I'm not feeling really productive, I like to run the dishwasher or run a load of laundry.
0:32:50Because then I feel like I'm getting twice as much done if I'm working right now.
0:32:56Because I'm doing something and my washing machine robot is also cleaning the clothes.
0:33:02And somehow it feels like the work counts twice as much when I'm doing it this way.
0:33:06this way. It's one of the weirdest little tricks, but it is definitely effective to
0:33:11get myself started sometimes when I don't feel like doing something in the afternoon.
0:33:15You just say, "You can run a load of laundry, right?" And you go, "Okay, I can put some
0:33:20laundry in," and then I start it. And then I feel like, "Well, while I'm doing the laundry,
0:33:24I might as well do this other stuff." And it just, yeah, it feels like it's a 2X modifier
0:33:28in a video game to do work while also doing the laundry or the dishes.
0:33:33I'm very confused. So you have work to do and you procrastinate from the work by doing
0:33:40some housework.
0:33:41No, no, no, no, no, no.
0:33:42And then you procrastinate from the housework by doing more work.
0:33:44No, that's not exactly it. The situation that I'm talking about is usually an afternoon
0:33:53and what this is is like a starter motor problem. Afternoons are not very good working time
0:33:58for me, but very often I have things that I want to grind through anyway.
0:34:03And the laundry is this little trick to get things moving.
0:34:08I'm not, right?
0:34:10It's that I don't really want to get started, but the laundry is a very simple task to just
0:34:15start.
0:34:16It is totally mindless and I just do it.
0:34:18And then it feels like it counts more when I am doing other work.
0:34:26It's a bit like, I like to work really early in the mornings, and I think there's something
0:34:31really nice about getting up early and doing work.
0:34:34And somehow if I'm writing a script before other people are awake, it's that same feeling
0:34:43of "I don't know why, but it feels like it counts for more doing it while other people
0:34:48are asleep.
0:34:49Like this work counts twice as much."
0:34:50It obviously doesn't.
0:34:51It's not actually getting twice as much done, but it just feels like there's a 2x modifier
0:34:59on top of my activity when this is happening.
0:35:01There's just this idea in my mind that you set the washing machine on, or the dishwasher
0:35:07on, and then you're like, "Well, other robots are working.
0:35:09I guess I should be too."
0:35:11Honest to god, that is probably a good way to summarize it.
0:35:16That is exactly right.
0:35:17If I had a Roomba, I would set that going as well.
0:35:20The more robots that could be doing work around the house, the more likely I am to be doing
0:35:24work around the house.
0:35:26So today I want to talk a little bit about taking time off.
0:35:28Oh, do we have a topic today?
0:35:30Is that what we're doing?
0:35:31This is the topic today.
0:35:32Okay.
0:35:34And I want to talk about kind of like entertainment as well in part of that.
0:35:37So because we've spoken about putting out videos and you mentioned that like once you
0:35:40do that you take a little time.
0:35:43Like you take like your video weekend, right, where you just veg out and just do whatever.
0:35:48So is this the only time that you carve out for relaxation during like a regular schedule?
0:35:54What I currently have is Saturdays, I'm not perfect about this, but this year I have been
0:36:04trying to reserve Saturdays as a work doesn't need to happen today day off.
0:36:14And usually that means hanging out with my wife on Saturdays.
0:36:18But I have been far from perfect with that because work still often intrudes and because
0:36:25I usually upload the videos on Monday, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays, it's very easy for work to
0:36:33bleed over into the weekend.
0:36:36I have definitely gotten better over time at actually reserving Saturdays as a day off.
0:36:43Now on my layout of the week, I do have the other six days blocked out that work occurs
0:36:50on those days.
0:36:51Different kinds of work at different times, there's a whole cycle to it, but yes, the
0:36:56other six days of the week are blocked out as work days to some extent.
0:37:03On Sunday it's a bit flexible, but the mornings at the very least are blocked out.
0:37:10So I guess to answer your question, aside from the Saturdays, yes, the time after the
0:37:16video is the time that I really take as downtime.
0:37:22And that is officially worked into the schedule in the sense that I just blow off whatever
0:37:27is on my calendar for the next few days after a video goes up.
0:37:30I just say, "Okay, as long as I don't have appointments with anyone in person, I'm going
0:37:37to ignore what else is on the calendar here, or what else I would normally be doing on
0:37:40on a Tuesday morning.
0:37:42- I think that, well, we definitely have very,
0:37:44very different ways of approaching this.
0:37:46So on an average day, I work very late into the evenings.
0:37:53- Well, your whole schedule is weirdly shifted
0:37:56into the evening because most of the people you work with
0:38:01are not only Americans like myself,
0:38:03but Americans in America.
0:38:05So you have to live halfway on an American schedule.
0:38:09Yeah.
0:38:10Because you record, like with Jason Snell, you record, he's on the West Coast.
0:38:13I mean, what on earth time do you guys record together?
0:38:16Oh, he records, luckily, quite early.
0:38:19We record at like 7pm or something.
0:38:23So that must be morning time for him?
0:38:25The West Coast is the worst to try to coordinate with London.
0:38:29That is the worst mismatch.
0:38:30Yeah, I'm very lucky that one, Jason works for himself so he can pick his hours.
0:38:35if he worked at a job we wouldn't be able to do it because he would get home at
0:38:39like 5 6 p.m. and then I you know it's basically the next day and and so and he
0:38:46you know gracious he recalls quite early in the day which makes it doable I mean
0:38:51I have some shows where the recording begins at 11 p.m. oh my god so quite
0:38:58frequently I am awake working maybe until like 1 a.m. 2 a.m. sometimes 3 or
0:39:05depending on what's happening.
0:39:07So I work quite weird hours,
0:39:09but I wake up most days relatively early,
0:39:12like between 8.30 and nine.
0:39:14And that's mainly just to see my girlfriend in the morning
0:39:18and to let her out of the house.
0:39:19Like it's just something that I like to be able to do.
0:39:22(laughing)
0:39:23- To let her out of the house?
0:39:26It just.
0:39:27(laughing)
0:39:28- Yeah, she has, it's not like I keep the keys from her.
0:39:31- You phrased that in a very cat-like way.
0:39:33"Oh, she's at the back door meowing
0:39:36"and you're going to let her out of the house."
0:39:38- If I don't prepare her meals for her in the morning,
0:39:40I'd open the door, she'd just get stuck in the house.
0:39:42No, oh God.
0:39:44I basically just wake up
0:39:45and then I see her off in the morning, you know?
0:39:48- Okay, yeah. - It's just something
0:39:49that I like to do because I'm able to do that.
0:39:51Which means that typically I'm awake then,
0:39:54so effectively the first couple of hours of the day,
0:39:58in most days, I don't really do anything.
0:40:02I maybe watch some TV or I, well I have my breakfast
0:40:07and I read Twitter and I maybe play a video game.
0:40:10I tend to just tool around until it gets close to lunchtime.
0:40:15So usually like 11 a.m. is when, from then on,
0:40:18is when I actually start to do any real work most days.
0:40:21And I'm pretty good at giving myself breaks
0:40:26where I need to in the day if I want to.
0:40:28I feel, and I say pretty good at that
0:40:31it means I don't work constantly cuz I work really really weird hours.
0:40:35Well how many if I have scheduled six days a week of work happens at some point on those
0:40:43days, how many days a week do you have that work occurs on?
0:40:46Five.
0:40:47Five.
0:40:48Typically.
0:40:49You take the weekends off is that the way that works?
0:40:50Typically yes.
0:40:51So I always do a little bit of work on Sunday evening.
0:40:56I have a show that I edit on Sunday evening.
0:41:01And sometimes I work on the weekends
0:41:03if my girlfriend needs to work, mostly.
0:41:06Unless something crazy is happening
0:41:10and I ask her if she's okay with it,
0:41:11then I will do some work on the weekends.
0:41:14Because that time is carved out to spend with her.
0:41:19And that is very important to us.
0:41:22So I basically turn over my whole weekends mostly
0:41:27for us to spend time together.
0:41:28And I do that happily 'cause it's also what I would want
0:41:31to do, I would go crazy I think otherwise.
0:41:33Because of the weird hours that I work,
0:41:37we never really get to see each other, you know?
0:41:40Because I'm like locked away recording and she comes home
0:41:43and then it's like 11 p.m.
0:41:44and then I sneak out for like five minutes
0:41:47and then I'm back to work again.
0:41:49So the weekends are very important to us
0:41:51that I get those. So that's kind of the way that I work. So I tend to do five and a bit
0:41:57days of work, but my hours are all kinds of crazy. But I make sure that I take time in
0:42:04there to chill a bit, you know, and to relax because otherwise I think I'll go mad.
0:42:08Yeah, you go crazy if you don't take some time off.
0:42:12What kinds of activities do you tend to partake in in your relaxation time?
0:42:17It depends a bit on what's happening, but in terms of hours spent in non-work relaxation
0:42:28mode, it's got to be gaming by far, just playing various video games.
0:42:34That is my big downtime activity.
0:42:40I have always, I've always enjoyed video games ever since I was a kid.
0:42:44But the thing that I find really useful about them,
0:42:51now as an adult, is that they occupy the work part of my brain.
0:42:59They keep it busy, and so I feel like I can actually...
0:43:04I can actually genuinely relax.
0:43:09because... how to put this...
0:43:12So when I was younger I would also read a lot for relaxation.
0:43:19But now I'm aware that because I mostly read non-fiction,
0:43:24that activity is also still partly work.
0:43:29Like I don't read as much as I did when I was younger, although I still read.
0:43:34But I'm aware of how that is not a 100% downtime activity.
0:43:41I schedule reading into my day because it's important, but it's also partly a work activity if I'm reading nonfiction.
0:43:51Because I'm reading a book that's about a topic, and I'm always making highlights and notes and saving things for the future.
0:43:59Or I'm reading a book that's maybe about business and so now this is very directly related to work.
0:44:06So that's why reading has...
0:44:10While it used to be a big amount of just relaxation time, it's now become work in a way.
0:44:21Whereas video games, there's no way to pretend like that's work.
0:44:27It's just not going to happen.
0:44:29And I find them engaging and enjoyable and it's just like, yes, this is 100% downtime.
0:44:37You can't fool yourself like you're working when you're doing this so you really need to actually just be able to be in a situation where you can just relax.
0:44:47And unlike reading a book, I don't have this thing in the back of my mind of like, "Oh, this is 20% work?"
0:44:54So that's one of the reasons why I tend to play them as my main relaxation time.
0:45:02I totally get that about occupying the work part.
0:45:05Because you're working on a new thing, but the thing exists in the video game world.
0:45:11But I'm the same. What it does is during that period of time, my brain is satisfied that it's accomplishing something.
0:45:17But I'm not thinking about or stressing about the jobs that I actually have to do.
0:45:22Yes, that that is a perfect description of what it is and I
0:45:25Mean this is this is going to for people who don't play games
0:45:30It's always a bit hard to hard to describe this but I can say that when I'm playing a game. I am actually
0:45:36Doing the exact same thing that I'm doing when I'm working on a video in a way
0:45:42So if you think about the high level of making a video
0:45:47the the big task that I'm accomplishing is that I'm trying to figure something out and
0:45:52then be able to explain it to somebody else and
0:45:57I I pick games the kinds of games that I play are almost
0:46:03Exclusively what what could be described as I sometimes joke that they're work simulators, but they are system games
0:46:11Where there's very little instruction
0:46:14You have a bunch of tools you have to put them together and you need to figure out how to make this whole thing work
0:46:21and so one of the games I was playing for a long time was called prison architect and
0:46:25That that it was the same this idea of you have to figure out how to make this prison run
0:46:30without a descending into into a riot, but it occupies
0:46:34It like it makes that some part of my work brain feel good because it's like okay. We're still doing the same thing
0:46:41We're figuring out something.
0:46:43We're figuring out how this works in the same way that we figured out how does the pope get elected.
0:46:48Like that part of my brain feels like it needs to be always engaged.
0:46:55And it's very hard to have that be engaged and also feel like I'm relaxing at the same time.
0:47:01So that's why they're useful.
0:47:03And that's also why I play a very particular genre of game.
0:47:11And I'm always aware of how, as soon as I have the game figured out, I go through the same pattern every single time.
0:47:18I know I'm nearing the end of my lifetime with this game, because I start thinking, "I should put together a tutorial series on this game!"
0:47:26I've never actually done this right I've yet to do this for any game
0:47:31But I've done this with every single one I go I should put together a tutorial and I'll start making some notes about like oh
0:47:38Yeah, let me put together a tutorial on this. Oh, okay. Yeah, here's here's the Quick Start guide
0:47:42here's what you need to do, and I'm making notes and
0:47:45almost always
0:47:48Halfway through that process I all of a sudden
0:47:51I just lose total interest in the game and then my brain switches and I go back to the
0:47:55next video because my brain goes, "Wait a minute!
0:47:58It doesn't make any sense to spend time on this tutorial series for this game because
0:48:04I lose interest the instant I figured it out."
0:48:08I drop games right away when I figure them out to their full extent.
0:48:15And I shouldn't spend time making a tutorial series for a game that I'm no longer interested
0:48:20in now it's time to make a real video.
0:48:23So this is the cycle that occurs.
0:48:27Is it because the challenge is lost?
0:48:32Why do you lose interest?
0:48:35It's not the challenge.
0:48:39For me I am playing the games in a meta way.
0:48:42I'm playing it to figure out what the thing is.
0:48:50And it's very hard to explain.
0:48:52Okay, I'll use the example of the game I've been playing the past few days.
0:48:55This has been my game this time around, after the Confederate video.
0:49:00I've been staying away from it because I thought it looked like a terribly ugly game.
0:49:05I've said as much in the Reddit, but I have been playing a game called Factorio, which I have ended up quite liking, even though it is hideous to look at.
0:49:14But Factorio is a game where you are basically building factories.
0:49:21The whole-
0:49:22Oh, this does not look good.
0:49:23It is very ugly.
0:49:25I have stayed away from it because of its hideousness for a while.
0:49:31I thought, "Oh, I'll never play that."
0:49:32But I gave in and I thought, "Oh, you know what? I'll actually- I'll give it a try."
0:49:35Because I wasn't quite finding anything that I liked.
0:49:39The whole game is just figuring out how to connect these various factories and assembly lines together to build other things and use the things that you've just built to build more complex things.
0:49:51And while the game in theory has its own purpose that the players might want, my feeling of playing the game is always,
0:50:02I don't really like to look at instructions very much. I don't really like to look at tutorials.
0:50:06I want to figure out how to make this thing go and that's that's one of the ways that I really like video games.
0:50:13It's it's totally unlike the only comparison I can think of here or the the best contrast I can think of is
0:50:20You couldn't sit down
0:50:23With a board game on your own without looking at the instruction manual and just figure out how it works
0:50:31That's an impossible task. But a video game is an interesting system because you can just mess around with it and it pushes back against you.
0:50:41It lets you know when you're doing things wrong or when you're doing things right.
0:50:44And that is the thing that I find engaging about it. It's not the game, it's pushing up against the boundaries of like, "Okay, if I do that I die and this is obviously the wrong thing to do."
0:50:57thing to do or like, oh, I made this new thing here.
0:50:59OK, great. What can this plug into?
0:51:01So it's all about figuring the thing out.
0:51:04And so a video game for me is
0:51:07it's like a really complicated Rubik's Cube.
0:51:09Like you can figure out the pieces and how they work.
0:51:12And that that's what I find enjoyable.
0:51:15But as soon as I have it all figured out, it's always,
0:51:18oh, well, I don't want to actually play this game right now that I know
0:51:22how everything works.
0:51:23I have no more interest in this thing.
0:51:25And that's, and again, that's the same thing that happens with my videos.
0:51:29It's a bit weird when people want to talk to me about the videos later on,
0:51:32because very often I remember so little about the videos I put together years ago,
0:51:38because I was trying to figure out what the thing was.
0:51:42And they're like "Oh, I figured that out!" and now that's done.
0:51:45But at least with the videos I actually do produce a thing that people can look at.
0:51:48Unlike my video game tutorials, which I always think I'm going to make, but I never do.
0:51:54I want to come back to video games and I want to like talk to you about some of the other stuff that you play and recommend.
0:51:59There was one other thing that I wanted to talk about in regards to taking time off and that's vacations.
0:52:04I know that you take vacations because you told me you were on one when you went to Las Vegas.
0:52:13Yes.
0:52:14How often do you take vacations?
0:52:18My wife and I went to Vegas in April and that was the first
0:52:24actual
0:52:27genuine this is
0:52:29100% of vacation it's not partly work or it's not partly family vacation that we had taken in years and
0:52:35that was
0:52:38Again, this was this is part of the changes that I'm trying to make in my life
0:52:42now is this moving much more towards a life that I want to live and my wife and I hadn't traveled in
0:52:48a long time just to travel and finally this year we felt like it was a more of a possibility. So I
0:52:56can't say that we have an answer to how often do we take vacations because we're just now in a
0:53:04position where it's something that we can actually start thinking about in a much more deliberate
0:53:09way, whereas in the past few years it was always.
0:53:13It was always going to see family and then we're sort of half
0:53:20doing a vacation then, but you're half seeing family,
0:53:22which is just a different experience or is something
0:53:25related to work.
0:53:27So I don't know how often we're going to do something like that.
0:53:30That's something we still have to figure out.
0:53:34I tried to take as many as possible.
0:53:36I left college, what we call college here is 18.
0:53:41So whatever that is in America, I don't know.
0:53:44- Sixth form college.
0:53:45- Yeah, I didn't go to university.
0:53:47So I kinda got a job because I was gonna take a break
0:53:53from university and then just liked getting money.
0:53:56So I've been like in, I was in full time employment
0:53:59from the time that I was like 18 to 26, 27,
0:54:03something like that.
0:54:05So I didn't really get the chance to do much traveling.
0:54:09I just went on some holidays here and there,
0:54:12but I never took the time that many people take
0:54:14before they get a real job to go and do any traveling.
0:54:17So now I'm in the position where I can kind of
0:54:21set my own schedule a bit more.
0:54:23I'm traveling to more places.
0:54:26Because luckily, right now,
0:54:29I have the means to do that as well.
0:54:30So I'm making sure that I do that,
0:54:33I like to take vacations and breaks but the problem is that what comes along with this is the fact that I can now never ever for the rest of my life take a proper vacation ever again.
0:54:44Because I am self-employed.
0:54:46Yes.
0:54:47You in particular have the schedule.
0:54:51You have shows that you're supposed to be recording, there are people who are waiting on you for things.
0:54:58this is the real trouble with being self-employed.
0:55:03And so yes, you have more control over your day-to-day time,
0:55:09but it definitely comes with this trade-off that...
0:55:13I mean, if you want to go to...
0:55:16If you went to WWDC, which is half a work thing, that's not really a vacation anyway,
0:55:21but you had to plan the week ahead, I'm presuming you were double recording shows,
0:55:26It was like you have to do way more work before and after
0:55:29when you take a vacation as a self-employed person.
0:55:32- Yep, and sometimes during,
0:55:33like we were recording shows whilst there.
0:55:35But then also the other part of it is,
0:55:39when I used to work in my bank marketing job,
0:55:43there were a couple of things that could happen.
0:55:44When I went away, I was able to hand over my work
0:55:47to somebody else to look after while I was gone.
0:55:50And also, as soon as I left that building,
0:55:53I could just stop thinking about it and it was fine.
0:55:56That does not happen now.
0:55:58I mean, I can hand over some elements of my job to,
0:56:02like to Steven, my co-founder,
0:56:03or to other people within Relay
0:56:05can look after some things for me,
0:56:07maybe cover some shows for me or whatever.
0:56:09But none of that takes away the fact
0:56:11that I'm constantly thinking about it.
0:56:14There's no way to fully relax in that regard.
0:56:18'Cause it's like, what if something terrible happens?
0:56:20It's like, oh, you wanna go on a holiday?
0:56:21you also have to take your laptop in case something breaks.
0:56:24You just have to do that now.
0:56:26Like I'm going away for a short break this weekend.
0:56:29And it's like, well, I have to take a ton of stuff with me
0:56:32in case something explodes and I need to fix it.
0:56:35And it's like, you know, I will be sneaking time
0:56:40where possible to check and respond to emails.
0:56:42And you know, and it's not a great scenario.
0:56:47Like look, it's not like a woe is me tale.
0:56:49It's just because I'm very, you know, as I said,
0:56:51I'm lucky that I'm able to do this stuff, but it is that
0:56:53thing. It's like the trade off that you get from being able to
0:56:56do this stuff and go on these trips and and kind of set your
0:57:00own schedule. That way is that you can never truly take a real
0:57:03vacation again. Yes. This this is the the big difference and.
0:57:11It's the thing that I am most aware of being different in my
0:57:15post-teacher self-employed life is this constant awareness that there is always more work that
0:57:25can be done.
0:57:27There's always more that you could do for the business and it's a hard thing to get
0:57:37used to and especially when you're just 11 person and
0:57:45there's there's nobody to hand stuff off to.
0:57:50It's one reason why when I did take that Las Vegas vacation,
0:58:00I was really clear with myself that there was going to be
0:58:06Nothing that was work during that time. I didn't look at any emails. I didn't really look at
0:58:13Twitter. I was just trying to stay off the internet as much as practical and
0:58:19not do any work
0:58:22to just try to disengage from that for the space of a week and
0:58:28to not have my brain always thinking about what should be the next thing that happens.
0:58:34There's people waiting for the next video.
0:58:36You know, or what should the next video be?
0:58:39And it's a hard thing to do, but I think it's really important to have times when you're not focusing on work at all.
0:58:49But, and here's why it's hard to do.
0:58:53When it's just you, completely ignoring work means there will be problems that will happen when you're not looking.
0:59:06And if you're not, you have to learn to be able to accept that.
0:59:15And it's very hard.
0:59:18I have...
0:59:20After the Confederate video came out, I was unusually exhausted because a bunch of things had all happened all at once.
0:59:30And I decided to take a longer than usual break.
0:59:34So today is really my first day back at work.
0:59:37I took four days off.
0:59:39And I was very conscious of I'm not even going to open my email during this time.
0:59:46I'm really going to take time off from work.
0:59:49But I guarantee you that there are problems waiting for me in that email when I get back.
0:59:55And that is a hard balance to play because if you take off too much time, those problems
1:00:04get big and then they can turn into costly problems.
1:00:07And that actually happened on my trip to Las Vegas.
1:00:11There was a thing that occurred that if I had been able to pay attention to it at the
1:00:15time, I would have been able to fix.
1:00:18But because I wasn't paying attention to the business, there was a...
1:00:21I don't want to go into the details, but there was a business problem that cost a lot of
1:00:27money.
1:00:30And I'm okay with that because that is the price of taking time off sometimes when you're
1:00:40self-employed and when there's nobody around to pass the work off to.
1:00:44That has to be the price.
1:00:48You can't assume that you're going to be on top of everything all the time.
1:00:55And so you have to become comfortable with allowing problems to happen and learning what
1:01:04kinds of problems are okay and learning what things are core to your business and that
1:01:10you have to stay focused on.
1:01:12That's like a really long rambly answer about why vacations are difficult when it's just
1:01:19you and you're the only person in the business.
1:01:22back to not working on the Vegas trip. Whether you think it or not, your brain was working
1:01:28on that trip because you came home and made a video about Las Vegas.
1:01:31Well yeah, that's why the Vegas trip is one of the worst examples I could ever do. Because
1:01:37I literally made a video about Las Vegas. However, however, what I want to say in my
1:01:43defense is that I had written almost all of the script before I went to Las Vegas, and
1:01:52I did that so that I could have it off my mind.
1:01:54I always knew that I was going to do a Las Vegas video at some point.
1:01:59And I was in Las Vegas and just thinking ever so slightly, if I happen to come across anything
1:02:04that's interesting here to add to the video, I will do that.
1:02:08But I did that script as much as possible before Las Vegas because I knew otherwise
1:02:15it'll be on my mind the whole time I'm here.
1:02:18And I didn't want that to be the case.
1:02:21But yes, I did snap a screenshot while I was in paradise to get it on the phone so that
1:02:26you could see it.
1:02:27There were one or two other little things that happened while I was there, but it really
1:02:30wasn't very much.
1:02:31I was pretty successful.
1:02:33But that also goes to what I was saying before about the core thing.
1:02:36The thing in my business that matters the most is getting videos out and anything that
1:02:43is a problem that is not related to that is a problem I'd like to fix but it doesn't necessarily
1:02:50take priority in what's going to happen.
1:02:53Something like a vacation can take priority if I'm keeping focus on the most important
1:02:59things are still moving forward like videos.
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1:04:55How you doing Myke?
1:04:56I think the room's losing air now.
1:04:59So we've spoken about like taking breaks and you know those breaks will tend to be filled
1:05:05with entertainment types.
1:05:06Talk about video games a little bit but what do you tend to choose to unwind with more
1:05:11frequently other than video games especially for shared activities with Mrs Grey?
1:05:15Like do you guys watch movies and TV together?
1:05:17Like what do you do?
1:05:18Yeah we tend to take little walks.
1:05:22in an area of London that is very walkable. So that's a nice thing to do. I think like
1:05:28many couples, we'll watch movies together or TV shows together. I feel like it's just
1:05:36a very normal days on Saturdays because my wife has worked a full work week and she's
1:05:47really exhausted when the weekend rolls around and so she also just wants to relax. And I
1:05:52I feel the same way too, like "Oh, I want to relax as well!"
1:05:55Like, "Oh boy, we have a very nice comfy couch, and we will take great advantage of that comfy couch."
1:06:01And so there's a lot of hanging out.
1:06:04Yeah, I would say that my girlfriend and I do a similar kind of thing.
1:06:08We like to watch TV shows, like we like to pick a show that we haven't seen and like watch all of it.
1:06:13Like recently we did All of Friends, which felt like a great achievement.
1:06:18Yeah.
1:06:19The entire thing.
1:06:20And shows like we just have caught up with Brooklyn nine nine, which is a show that I very much enjoy
1:06:26So we do that kind of stuff watch movies and TV and but we you know
1:06:30We try and get out into London a bit as well and like go for walks places
1:06:35My better half enjoys that kind of stuff like we were in Hampton Court last
1:06:42Weekend, which is a nice part of London and when we try and do that kind of stuff
1:06:47like we try and get out a little bit in there but mainly I think the majority of our time
1:06:51is that kind of idea because she is also worth the full work week and is tired so we watch
1:06:56like movies and TV shows and things like that together.
1:07:02For you though, for your tastes, what types of movies do you tend to enjoy? Are you a
1:07:07comedy man, an action man? Do you like documentaries?
1:07:10very hard to find good movies and things worth watching. So I don't tend to, left to my own
1:07:23devices, watch a lot of stuff. But if I... things that I like tend more towards dramas.
1:07:35So I mean I've mentioned my favorite TV show ever, probably the best TV show, is The Wire,
1:07:40which I really enjoyed.
1:07:42But in a more modern show is something like,
1:07:45I've been watching "The Walking Dead", which I like,
1:07:48even though season two was terribly boring, it's picked up.
1:07:51So that kind of show is the thing that I would tend towards.
1:07:56But my wife does not like those kinds of shows.
1:08:02So I tend to watch those on my own.
1:08:04- That's great time.
1:08:05- Yes, she watches more upbeat stuff.
1:08:08So we just worked our way through Arrested Development.
1:08:10So we watched the first three seasons of Arrested Development.
1:08:12And...
1:08:14Don't watch the Netflix one.
1:08:15Yeah, I've not heard good things about it.
1:08:18But, so she, yeah, she tends to like other stuff.
1:08:20I know a few years ago we worked our way through all of Voyager,
1:08:24which she really likes and which I think is fine,
1:08:27but I get hugely frustrated with inconsistencies in the Star Trek universe.
1:08:31Of course you do, Gray.
1:08:32It is. It's hugely frustrating. It's hugely frustrating.
1:08:36The worst thing is that I end up knowing all of the details about the Star Trek stuff because while we're watching it, I'll be on like the Star Trek, the memory alpha, their wiki looking up the details of this and be like, wait a minute.
1:08:47It doesn't, the Star Trek universe has the same problems that comic book universes have. It's just too big over too many years. It can't possibly be consistent. But I can't stop myself from getting frustrated with it on occasion.
1:09:02It's not that I don't. Yeah, I'm not saying that I don't like it, but I just there are many things I would change about Star Trek when I watch it.
1:09:10I think I would change this. I would change that.
1:09:12So yeah, that's when we're watching stuff together. It tends to be lighter stuff like that.
1:09:18But when I'm watching stuff on my own, I tend more towards dramas.
1:09:23I feel like we have been friends for long enough that it would not surprise you when I say that I am an emotional person.
1:09:29Yeah, I'm not surprised by that.
1:09:32So I tend to like upbeat things.
1:09:35Like I like comedies and things that are simple.
1:09:38Like if a movie is exceedingly good,
1:09:41but I know it's gonna be sad,
1:09:43but I know it's a good movie, then I will watch it, right?
1:09:47And I like action movies as well.
1:09:49But I tend to like lighthearted things
1:09:50because stuff, movies, TV shows, books, music,
1:09:54can have a lasting effect on me.
1:09:56And I try to limit the effect that I allow things to have
1:10:01if they're not good enough.
1:10:04Right, so I tend not to be a big like,
1:10:08drama guy, but I will watch something
1:10:10if I know it's good enough, like The Wire for example.
1:10:13And Adina, she introduced me to The Wire, and--
1:10:18- Oh, a good girlfriend.
1:10:20- Yeah, because I had done, what many people done,
1:10:23I watched the first episode and then stopped.
1:10:26So like my advice to anybody hearing this
1:10:28who has not seen The Wire,
1:10:29I heartily recommend The Wire except the last season of that as well.
1:10:34And would say if you are interested, you have to commit to the first three episodes.
1:10:42You can't just say like, I'll see what this is like and then stop.
1:10:45If you want to start, you must commit to yourself to watch the first three.
1:10:49Because that's in my opinion, once you get through that it clicks because The Wire starts
1:10:54and you have no idea what's going on.
1:10:56Because I think it's purposeful, they take no time in trying to introduce you to characters.
1:11:00You have to learn the characters as it goes along and it takes a few episodes for that
1:11:04to click in.
1:11:05Yes.
1:11:06Yes, that's definitely the case.
1:11:07And I like The Wire for the same reason I like many other things.
1:11:10It is a show that is much more about a system and I love how The Wire just makes no concession
1:11:18to the audience of explaining anything.
1:11:20They're just like, "You know what, buddy?
1:11:23You're just going to figure it out.
1:11:25going to explain none of the slang. None of it. Yes, oh I know right. It's like there
1:11:31were lots of the show I had to watch with subtitles to just understand what was going
1:11:37on but then a lot of time yeah you just kind of have to infer what is occurring by the
1:11:40way that people are talking to each other rather than actually trying to understand
1:11:43the words that they're saying. It's a very it's a fascinating show but you've really
1:11:47got to commit to it but that's one of those things so I knew that was gonna be good I
1:11:51heard always good things about it and she really really pushed it on me she's like you
1:11:55should you will like this you have to watch this but i try and limit that kind of stuff
1:11:59and i tend to like more light-hearted things because then it's it's you know it washes
1:12:02over me and i enjoy it rather than needing to then think about it for six weeks um what
1:12:08about music do you listen to a lot of music like i mean we spoke about all day right but
1:12:13That is a functional thing.
1:12:15That is not like music for enjoyment.
1:12:18That is like a, this exists to help me do my work.
1:12:23- You're not gonna like this,
1:12:26but I have zero interest in music outside of its utility
1:12:31as a tool to accomplish other things.
1:12:34Just none.
1:12:38- Has it always been this way?
1:12:43I don't think, I mean I think as a kid I liked music more, but...
1:12:47Yeah, I just have no interest in music other than a kind of audio version of brain doping.
1:12:55Like, "Oh, this sequence of sounds can put my brain in a mood."
1:13:00Or, "This sequence of sounds is associated with something."
1:13:03Or, "This repetitive noise is useful in this moment."
1:13:07I just...
1:13:07I have no interest in music in and of itself.
1:13:12as an art form. I don't have any appreciation for this.
1:13:15Are you able to compute any music that you like?
1:13:19What do you mean?
1:13:21Like, is there anything that you can say "I like this album" or "I like this artist"?
1:13:29Not really.
1:13:31That's so interesting to me, Gray.
1:13:33I mean, again, I like that Girl Talk album, but that exists to me in the world as a thing
1:13:40that I listen to at a moment.
1:13:44I mean the most music I ever listened to was, I've done a couple of, in my younger days, road trips across the United States.
1:13:53And I had long lists of music that I listened to then.
1:13:57But even then it was as a tool for, I can't listen to audiobooks for four hours a row, in a row, every day while I'm driving.
1:14:07I need to break this up with something else. I'm not gonna break it up with silence because that will drive me even more crazy
1:14:12So I need something else. I'm gonna break it up with music
1:14:15But again, it was music as a as a tool if if I was able to listen to
1:14:20audiobooks all day in the car or silence in the car I would have
1:14:25But so yeah
1:14:26I just had I had a lot of upbeat sing-along kind of songs that I listened to on on the road trips because of the
1:14:32Of the function that they served not because I was like oh, I love this music
1:14:37Sorry Myke, I know you have a whole podcast where you're interviewing people about music
1:14:43and I don't listen to that one.
1:14:46But in those scenarios you have to make a choice, right?
1:14:51So when you need music even in those times like driving across the country, you must
1:14:58choose something, right?
1:15:00What do you choose?
1:15:02Okay, here is the way that new music comes into my life right now.
1:15:07Okay.
1:15:08Because I haven't had new music come into my life for maybe 10 years.
1:15:12What?
1:15:13Because I just didn't listen to the radio or anything.
1:15:15Like I had, I was aware that there was no way in which new music came into my life.
1:15:19I just had a collection of songs that I've been carrying around since college and there
1:15:24was no input into this system, which I recognized was not optimal, but I would never just listen
1:15:29to the radio or anything.
1:15:32So I signed up with Spotify so that there is a mechanism by which new music comes into
1:15:38my system.
1:15:39Or what I will often do is I will just go to the top charts on Spotify or something
1:15:44and just play it randomly.
1:15:47And this is when I'm working.
1:15:48I don't know how, but very quickly some song will clearly become stuck in my brain and
1:15:56then I'll just loop that one for an hour or two, just that same song while I'm doing work.
1:16:03But again, it's a totally utilitarian thing.
1:16:08It's like I'm using this music to stay focused.
1:16:14I don't even know who the artists are.
1:16:15I don't know what song I'm listening to.
1:16:18I know that the kinds of things that tend to work for me are usually like, I would just
1:16:25say just like pop kind of songs. There's something about
1:16:29them that really clicks in my brain of just like listening to
1:16:34it over and over again that there's like it has a catchy
1:16:36hook and it has this little melody that goes along. So I
1:16:40listen to that stuff, but yeah, it is I never I never think you
1:16:44know what I want to do right now. I want to listen to some
1:16:46music. I almost exclusively listen to music when I am doing
1:16:51work and I'm doing work with words in particular. Otherwise,
1:16:56I almost never listen to music. I didn't think I would ever
1:16:59meet somebody that feels this way. It's so it's so interesting
1:17:05to me. I think of all of the things I know about you. This
1:17:08is the one that I am now the most fascinated about. It seems
1:17:11just so strange that you don't seem to take enjoyment from
1:17:14music like it. No, no, it's that that's that's the wrong
1:17:17there it's not that I don't like music that's that's wrong but it's it's never
1:17:23an activity that I would seek out or do in isolation I it's always accompanying
1:17:29something else and it is a it's accompanying for okay like like the mood
1:17:34modifier sure I mean but that's how I listen to music but I still have tastes
1:17:38and choices and artists and albums that I enjoy you know yeah yeah I know I know
1:17:44I know this is a thing that people do.
1:17:46- I am a music fan and I like,
1:17:49I have a very wide music taste
1:17:51and I would suggest if anybody likes music like I do
1:17:55and is not great, they should maybe try out
1:17:58my favorite album run I'm doing on a show
1:18:00that I have called "Inquisitive"
1:18:01where I talk to people about their favorite albums.
1:18:03I think people like that
1:18:04and I'll put a link to that in the show notes.
1:18:06- That's the one that I am not listening to.
1:18:08- Yeah, well I'm not surprised now.
1:18:12my tastes tend to skew towards alternative rock, but I like a wide range of stuff.
1:18:19You know, I like rap and hip-hop and R&B and swing music and soul music, pop.
1:18:27I have a very wide range of tastes, but I guess I kind of skew towards the independent
1:18:34alternative rock more generally.
1:18:37So let's talk about video games then so I can perceive you as human again.
1:18:45What are some of your favorite video games?
1:18:47What are some of the stuff that you've played recently that you really really enjoy and
1:18:51kind of all time favorite stuff?
1:18:54Or maybe just like you know I know that you tend to like simulation games.
1:18:58Is that the only type of video game that you enjoy?
1:19:00No there's um...
1:19:02I try lots of stuff.
1:19:05I just I'm very aware that I tend to focus on these work
1:19:09simulator systems games right after I finish a video for a
1:19:13while like that will hold my interest for a long time and
1:19:16I'll play those but I play I play lots of different kinds of
1:19:20games. I like to try out different stuff.
1:19:24Do you tend to mainly play on PC? Do you have a console? I
1:19:29don't I don't have a console. I haven't had a console since as
1:19:32kid I had a Super Nintendo. Oh wow, so you are a strict PC gamer. Yes. I'm assuming
1:19:38that you do all of this on your Mac though. Oh yeah, I was about to say I am
1:19:43I'm a member of the PC Master Race but I also play lots of games on an iPad and
1:19:49I'm also playing on a Mac so maybe I'm the worst member of the PC Master Race. I
1:19:53don't have a console but that's mainly because I don't have a TV to hook the
1:19:57console up to. I'm not opposed to consoles I just haven't I haven't played
1:20:00them in years. But on the occasions when I have played modern games with consoles, I
1:20:09find myself frustrated by the lack of precision input. I just want a keyboard and a mouse
1:20:17to play games. Or I want the other extreme, which is games that are designed for touch
1:20:22on the iPad. I find the console, my limited experience has not been great with modern
1:20:28console games but that could just be lack of exposure and yeah I think it's
1:20:33more the latter yeah but um but I feel like I didn't get a definitive answer
1:20:40and not because you dodged it but I just think I may have missed it you do not
1:20:44have a gaming PC do you or do you know I don't have a dedicated gaming PC right
1:20:50so there is no Windows machine that you're using to play video games on in
1:20:54your house no I have a Mac and that's what I play games on or do you steam a
1:20:58lot then? I have just in the past year started to use Steam so I don't have a
1:21:05bunch of stuff on Steam I only have a few items there but yes I am currently
1:21:09using Steam for for a few things. The things worth noting on Steam that I have
1:21:15I have City Skylines which I highly recommend as the SimCity game that
1:21:22should always have been it's very excellent. Yeah I own that and I haven't
1:21:26played it yet. I started it and then stopped. I don't know why, but I bought that because
1:21:32I love SimCity and the last one was an abomination.
1:21:36Well EA has been...
1:21:38They've ruined it.
1:21:39Yeah.
1:21:40Yeah.
1:21:41You bleep this out Myke. EA's been sh*tting all over SimCity, you know, for years in a
1:21:46way that I have found hugely frustrating.
1:21:48I want a new, modern, good SimCity for the iPad and they will not give that to me. The
1:21:53The last one that they did, I can't remember what they called it, Build It or something,
1:21:58was good except for the fact that you had to wait and buy and you know all the microtransaction
1:22:04crap.
1:22:05But the game itself was built well but then they just ruined it.
1:22:08Ruined it.
1:22:09Completely ruined it.
1:22:10Yeah.
1:22:11So I highly recommend City Skylines.
1:22:14Very good.
1:22:15It's everything SimCity should have been.
1:22:17And what I think is the most delicious part of the story of that game is that it's made
1:22:21by people who worked at EA on SimCity who got frustrated enough to leave and then made
1:22:26just an amazing game.
1:22:28That's awesome.
1:22:29It's like, you know what, I would buy that game twice just to support them and to give
1:22:34the middle finger to EA because it's a horrible company.
1:22:37EA really is terrible.
1:22:38They ruin everything.
1:22:39Yeah, they're absolutely the worst.
1:22:41I just, based on someone's recommendation on the Reddit, I got a game on Steam called
1:22:45Mini Metro, which it's only an afternoon's worth of play, but it's a fun little game
1:22:51It's like a metro simulator that was good.
1:22:55It's beautiful.
1:22:56Yeah, it's beautiful.
1:22:58It has a night mode which is really nice.
1:23:00Prison Architect which I mentioned before.
1:23:02Okay, so now something that's a little bit different is and very good that I recommend
1:23:07is XCOM which is a turn-based combat game.
1:23:17are defending the earth against an alien invasion, but the aliens take turns and you take turns,
1:23:26and you have to do it in a strategic manner of maneuvering around obstacles on the board,
1:23:31and which order do you want to fire in, or you have a bunch of decisions to make, and
1:23:38it's different from other games because it's a combat game.
1:23:42And I really like that, that one is very good.
1:23:45I'll go for another recommendation, which is a very different game.
1:23:48And I wish there were more things like this,
1:23:51but I'm going to highly, highly recommend a game called Year Walk,
1:23:56which is for the iPad.
1:23:59It may be on other platforms,
1:24:01but I think you should play it on the iPad if it does exist elsewhere.
1:24:04And here's my recommendation for Year Walk.
1:24:08Don't don't read anything about it.
1:24:11Don't even watch the trailer for the game.
1:24:15This is like a like an experience that you're going to have.
1:24:21It's not really a traditional game.
1:24:25So I would say put on headphones.
1:24:28Dedicate two hours by year walk and just play it.
1:24:34And I found this amazing and I wish there were more games like this,
1:24:40which were not necessarily games that you have to put in hundreds of hours for,
1:24:45but carefully crafted experiences that you can have as a player.
1:24:53I think it's very hard to do this right, but Year Walk really hits the mark dead on.
1:25:01So I really recommend that one. That was a great experience.
1:25:07On the other extreme, I do sometimes like really mindless stuff.
1:25:11Like I am looking very forward to the new version of Doom which is coming out.
1:25:15Because I used to play just many more just straight shoot 'em up games and I haven't seen one that I like in a while.
1:25:22And so yeah, sometimes when I'm playing a game I just want something that is absolutely absolutely mindless.
1:25:28And Doom looks like it. It fits that to a T.
1:25:31I don't need to think about anything, I'm just going to run around and shoot a bunch of demons and
1:25:35That can also be an enjoyable gaming experience. I play a lot of tower defense games on my iPad
1:25:41Those are good Kingdom Rush is very good. This has turned into the video game episode Myke
1:25:45I was not I was not prepared for this. I like to surprise you so I'm more of a console gaming person
1:25:51I actually have all of the three. Oh, yeah, PlayStation and Wii U
1:25:56You must have a lot of cables going to your television. Oh, yeah
1:26:00Yeah, it's one of the reasons it gets so hot in here.
1:26:04I tend to like a couple of different types of console game.
1:26:09I tend to like all of the first part Nintendo stuff.
1:26:14Always been a fan since I was a kid.
1:26:15Yeah, Nintendo is always very good.
1:26:17So I love, you know, all of the Mario games, the platformers, the 2D, the 3D, I love Mario
1:26:22Kart.
1:26:24That stuff for me is just always fantastic.
1:26:26There is a new game that Nintendo have made called Splatoon, which is a first person shooter,
1:26:32which is just a bunch of fun, because you just basically have to just spray the world
1:26:38with ink.
1:26:39Really fantastic.
1:26:40Love that game.
1:26:42And I also tend to like big open world games.
1:26:46Like currently I'm playing Batman Arkham Knight, and I am loving that game.
1:26:51That is my current game of choice, and I love that.
1:26:55And I'm very excited for a game that's coming up on PlayStation called No Man's Sky.
1:26:59It's also going to be on the PC.
1:27:01Which is a space exploration game, procedural like Minecraft.
1:27:09And it's basically, they have found a way to randomly generate planets.
1:27:17And some of the planets are the same size scale as real planets.
1:27:23And they have created universes and they're saying there's currently like quintillion
1:27:28planets created.
1:27:31And the idea is you just, there is, it's like Minecraft in the way that there is an end,
1:27:37but you basically just go and explore and see what you end up coming up with.
1:27:42It just looks incredible.
1:27:44I think people in the gaming world are really down on procedural stuff, but I think that
1:27:50is clearly the future of games and procedural is very... for those who are not gamers what
1:27:57this means is instead of a game designer hand crafting a level of a game you set up rules
1:28:06so that the computer can create its own areas and its own levels but because the computer
1:28:12is doing it you can do it on an infinite scale.
1:28:15You can never run out of levels or you can never run out of worlds and I've seen procedural
1:28:19stuff done badly but I think as time goes on procedural gets better and better and it's
1:28:26clearly the future of big games having enormous worlds that you can explore.
1:28:35It's a very interesting development in the gaming world.
1:28:39Yeah, I like it.
1:28:40I like that kind of stuff because it creates completely different types of video game where
1:28:44there's like there isn't even really the need for a story anymore because you make your
1:28:48own.
1:28:49Yeah, yeah, I think that was that was one of the big things
1:28:53for for Minecraft is probably the biggest, most popular
1:28:56procedural game of you can just keep walking forever and it's
1:29:00going to keep creating more world around you and as you go
1:29:05the areas will be different and it yeah this will just never
1:29:09end. You can spend forever in this in this area. Saying about
1:29:13that how popular is I saw a story today that Minecraft
1:29:17sales have now reached 70 million copies with 20 million sold on the PC.
1:29:21That's crazy. That is crazy.
1:29:24So yeah it's kind of popular.
1:29:25Yeah yeah. We would normally do some questions at this moment but I really I think it's it's
1:29:33better for both of us if we stop right now and it's better for the audience if we stop right
1:29:37now because if we keep going on we might actually die.
1:29:41In a moment you're just gonna hear this sound and that's me passing out.
1:29:46Yes. So listeners, thank you for the unexpected video game podcast.
1:29:51I hope you made it to the end, but we're going to we're going to have to go.
1:29:55If this episode was a little weird and a little different, you know, you know why.
1:30:00We are both podcasting with half baked brains.
1:30:05[BLANK_AUDIO]