Cortex

00:00:00 ◼   ► I am recording on the computer.

00:00:02 ◼   ► I have two backup recordings going this time,

00:00:05 ◼   ► and I have optimized my podcast recording situation for dog comfort.

00:00:11 ◼   ► Excellent.

00:00:11 ◼   ► Because Lucy is here and she refused to sleep in her basket.

00:00:16 ◼   ► Instead, she wants to sleep on my lap while I'm recording the podcast.

00:00:20 ◼   ► So I had to change the whole setup.

00:00:22 ◼   ► You frequently change your setup for dog comfort.

00:00:26 ◼   ► Dogs come first.

00:00:28 ◼   ► It feels like it has been a really, really long time since we've recorded a show the way we're recording a show today.

00:00:35 ◼   ► Like honestly, it feels like it wasn't even the same show that used to do what we're doing today.

00:00:40 ◼   ► I know exactly what you're saying. It's like, "Oh, Myke! I talked to him a lifetime ago!" It's amazing.

00:00:50 ◼   ► Well, okay, we have that, which is like, it just feels like it's been forever since we recorded an episode.

00:00:55 ◼   ► but I mean more that you're not at home.

00:00:58 ◼   ► - I'm in a whole different country.

00:01:01 ◼   ► I'm in America at my parents' house.

00:01:04 ◼   ► Am I a whole new person?

00:01:06 ◼   ► Because it feels like the person I used to be,

00:01:09 ◼   ► he only existed in one location.

00:01:11 ◼   ► He never went anywhere.

00:01:12 ◼   ► But the person I am now, the whole world is available.

00:01:16 ◼   ► He can go places.

00:01:18 ◼   ► He can see things.

00:01:20 ◼   ► He can do things.

00:01:22 ◼   ► What a novel concept.

00:01:24 ◼   ► the previous person doing things.

00:01:27 ◼   ► No, there was no doing things.

00:01:28 ◼   ► There was staying at home.

00:01:31 ◼   ► So yeah, it does feel like, wow,

00:01:34 ◼   ► it sure has been a real thing

00:01:36 ◼   ► since the last time we spoke to each other.

00:01:38 ◼   ► - So in our last episode,

00:01:39 ◼   ► we were wondering if you were going to be able

00:01:42 ◼   ► to make your various trips.

00:01:45 ◼   ► And it seems like that you obviously have done it

00:01:48 ◼   ► because you are in America now, you're with your parents.

00:01:52 ◼   ► How was your travel experience?

00:01:54 ◼   ► Yeah, it's one of these funny things where I know that previous me was quite concerned.

00:02:02 ◼   ► I don't, I don't, I think we talked about like betting on if I was going to be able to do all of my travel plans successfully.

00:02:10 ◼   ► And I think I gave it like 50/50 odds.

00:02:11 ◼   ► I don't remember.

00:02:12 ◼   ► Because you were adding the complexity in, right?

00:02:14 ◼   ► Because you were going from home and then you're going somewhere in Europe and then you're going back home again and then to America.

00:02:20 ◼   ► Did you end up doing that by the way?

00:02:22 ◼   ► 'Cause I remember there was a conversation

00:02:24 ◼   ► of whether you would just leave from location one.

00:02:27 ◼   ► Did you go home again and leave?

00:02:28 ◼   ► - Yeah, so the plan was to go from London to Switzerland

00:02:33 ◼   ► and then from Switzerland to North Carolina.

00:02:36 ◼   ► But I was very concerned that travel complexities

00:02:38 ◼   ► wouldn't allow that to happen.

00:02:40 ◼   ► But from current me's perspective,

00:02:42 ◼   ► it's a little bit like,

00:02:43 ◼   ► "Oh, what was that guy worried about?"

00:02:45 ◼   ► Nothing was a problem.

00:02:46 ◼   ► Like everything was really easy.

00:02:49 ◼   ► And it's like, okay, it's travel the way travel is the way I remember travel.

00:02:54 ◼   ► There's just one additional piece of paper that you need to get.

00:02:59 ◼   ► And that's your COVID test results.

00:03:01 ◼   ► And I had my test done.

00:03:03 ◼   ► They both came through just fine.

00:03:05 ◼   ► And at Heathrow airport, they were very concerned to look and check

00:03:10 ◼   ► and scan the piece of paper.

00:03:11 ◼   ► And then they let me through and it was totally fine.

00:03:13 ◼   ► And at Zurich airport, literally no one ever looked at the test results.

00:03:19 ◼   ► I never showed that document to anyone

00:03:21 ◼   ► and I just flew to America.

00:03:24 ◼   ► So no problems whatsoever on the flying front.

00:03:28 ◼   ► - Oh, so you did go from Zurich to North Carolina.

00:03:31 ◼   ► That was the final plan?

00:03:33 ◼   ► Okay. - That did happen.

00:03:34 ◼   ► And the funny thing was no one checked the paperwork.

00:03:36 ◼   ► I almost felt like I wanted to show the flight attendant

00:03:39 ◼   ► on that flight, like, oh, look at me, I have a test result.

00:03:42 ◼   ► - I did it! - Nobody's checked it.

00:03:44 ◼   ► - I did it, come on, that's my gold star.

00:03:47 ◼   ► - I had all these extra plans.

00:03:48 ◼   ► I spent an extra day in Switzerland to make sure that I had enough time to take the test and get the result

00:03:54 ◼   ► but not fly out on the same day to do it the next day.

00:03:57 ◼   ► So like it was all for nothing. I didn't need to do any of that.

00:04:00 ◼   ► So the travel could not have been smoother and I was super surprised, but now I just feel like, "Oh, okay, great."

00:04:07 ◼   ► So there's just one more piece of paper for travel. Travel is back on the menu. Great.

00:04:11 ◼   ► This is the thing that you can do. So yeah, it was perfectly smooth.

00:04:14 ◼   ► So you went straight back into your old way.

00:04:17 ◼   ► So when we traveled to Romania a few months ago,

00:04:20 ◼   ► I noticed, like as we were talking about on the show, right,

00:04:23 ◼   ► that I had lost some of my traveling confidence

00:04:27 ◼   ► because things were more complicated.

00:04:30 ◼   ► But for you, it feels like you were just straight back into old gray mode.

00:04:35 ◼   ► Yeah, I think it helped that I had the two flights.

00:04:38 ◼   ► So on my flight out to Switzerland,

00:04:40 ◼   ► I was a bit like, "Oh my God, everything like,

00:04:43 ◼   ► Airports are so big. Am I agoraphobic now? I don't know.

00:04:47 ◼   ► I did have that a little bit on the way out, but by the time I was on the way back,

00:04:51 ◼   ► like, you know, it's a shock surprise.

00:04:53 ◼   ► There's not many, like, Zurich to Raleigh direct flights,

00:04:57 ◼   ► so I had to take a couple flights to make it to North Carolina.

00:05:01 ◼   ► But by that point, like, then I just felt totally normal.

00:05:05 ◼   ► I was like, "Okay, I'm just on a plane for a while. This feels normal.

00:05:09 ◼   ► "Oh, I have to change at an airport and get on another plane and it just feels totally normal."

00:05:14 ◼   ► So yeah, I think by flight two, it's like, "Oh, I got my travel mojo right back and no problems whatsoever."

00:05:21 ◼   ► So yeah, I'm feeling great about it.

00:05:23 ◼   ► Yeah, I was totally fine on the planes.

00:05:25 ◼   ► It was the airports were complicated because like there were more steps that we had to go through.

00:05:32 ◼   ► Maybe that's going to change.

00:05:33 ◼   ► Like we're hoping to take a vacation in like a month or so.

00:05:37 ◼   ► and it will include, similar to you,

00:05:40 ◼   ► like a bunch of plane trips.

00:05:42 ◼   ► Like it's not just a simple,

00:05:43 ◼   ► like you can just get on one, get off, and you're there.

00:05:45 ◼   ► And maybe that will help kick me in a little bit.

00:05:48 ◼   ► I really would like to not have regressed in that.

00:05:53 ◼   ► 'Cause I used to be such a nervous traveler

00:05:56 ◼   ► and I really just don't want that.

00:05:58 ◼   ► I tell you I have not got my packing situation

00:06:02 ◼   ► under control.

00:06:03 ◼   ► Like we take it a couple of like little weekend breaks

00:06:06 ◼   ► in the last month or so, and my packing situation

00:06:10 ◼   ► is just, it's a nightmare, and I'm not really sure

00:06:13 ◼   ► what I have to do to get that back under control again.

00:06:16 ◼   ► I feel like I've forgotten how to pack.

00:06:18 ◼   ► - I'm completely with you there.

00:06:19 ◼   ► I already have, I've been making a bunch of notes

00:06:22 ◼   ► on this trip of all of the things that I forgot

00:06:25 ◼   ► that I do need to bring, so that part of it, yes.

00:06:28 ◼   ► That's still more uncertain just because

00:06:29 ◼   ► I'm out of the habit, but I feel like you and I

00:06:32 ◼   ► have both gone through the same process with travel

00:06:34 ◼   ► like starting as very nervous travelers, then doing it a bunch and feeling like,

00:06:38 ◼   ► "Okay, now we're confident, haha, business travelers,"

00:06:41 ◼   ► and then falling out of it during COVID.

00:06:43 ◼   ► But I expect that you'll get back into it very quickly as well.

00:06:46 ◼   ► Like once you do another complicated travel situation, you'll go,

00:06:50 ◼   ► "Oh, okay, this is fine."

00:06:52 ◼   ► And then you can also start making all the notes for the things that you need.

00:06:55 ◼   ► You're like, "Oh, right, I need a time machine drive.

00:06:59 ◼   ► I need a little external drive because I can't have footage

00:07:02 ◼   ► that I'm shooting in just one location because one location is none location but I just totally

00:07:07 ◼   ► forgot like oh yeah you need this this thing with you so I have a bunch of those little

00:07:10 ◼   ► things we might talk about this in a couple of months time but I don't plan to ever travel

00:07:15 ◼   ► the same amount that I used to oh a couple of months time interesting okay in a couple

00:07:20 ◼   ► of months time what's in a couple of months time I have no idea the end of the year yeah

00:07:25 ◼   ► - Interesting.

00:07:26 ◼   ► - And so I just don't plan to do that anymore.

00:07:30 ◼   ► You know, I will still, I expect travel more

00:07:32 ◼   ► than I have at certain points in my life,

00:07:35 ◼   ► but not to the level of like 10 trips a year

00:07:38 ◼   ► or whatever it was that I was doing in 2018, 2019.

00:07:41 ◼   ► - Well, I look forward to hearing much more about that.

00:07:44 ◼   ► - So this trip, these trips,

00:07:46 ◼   ► are mostly like relaxation focused for you, right?

00:07:50 ◼   ► How has that been?

00:07:51 ◼   ► Am I right in assuming that?

00:07:53 ◼   ► that it's been kind of like get out of the usual flow,

00:07:57 ◼   ► take a break in some ways kind of thing?

00:07:59 ◼   ► - I don't know, it's been a real mix.

00:08:01 ◼   ► I wouldn't say it's a clear one thing or the other.

00:08:05 ◼   ► At the start of the year, I did say,

00:08:07 ◼   ► I'm going to see my parents and my family

00:08:09 ◼   ► before the end of the year, I just don't care what happens.

00:08:12 ◼   ► And so that was part of this trip,

00:08:14 ◼   ► it's like, okay, it's September.

00:08:17 ◼   ► Like if you're really gonna do this,

00:08:19 ◼   ► you need to do this at some point.

00:08:21 ◼   ► So that's part of what this was about.

00:08:23 ◼   ► But part of it was also working.

00:08:25 ◼   ► And so one of the things that I did is,

00:08:28 ◼   ► the reason that I went to Switzerland

00:08:30 ◼   ► is that was actually a writer's retreat thing

00:08:34 ◼   ► that I was doing with a couple of friends.

00:08:37 ◼   ► I know, I know, it sounds so fancy.

00:08:39 ◼   ► - Did you wear a beret the whole time?

00:08:41 ◼   ► - Yes, I wore a beret and I was smoking a cigarette.

00:08:44 ◼   ► I was looking into the mountains.

00:08:47 ◼   ► - Bonjour everyone.

00:08:49 ◼   ► Yeah. I mean, it was in the French speaking part of Switzerland,

00:08:53 ◼   ► which was hilarious.

00:08:54 ◼   ► Good old French people always refusing to speak English even when you know they

00:08:58 ◼   ► can understand you perfectly well. It's like, Oh,

00:09:01 ◼   ► they're always holding up that stereotype. I always think, Oh, that's not real.

00:09:04 ◼   ► That's just a thing people think, but no, it's totally real. But yeah, so it was,

00:09:08 ◼   ► it was great. And it is a thing that, you know,

00:09:10 ◼   ► like I do work trips on my own, you know,

00:09:13 ◼   ► great occasions where I'm just doing it like a dedicated period of work.

00:09:17 ◼   ► I've been lucky enough to be invited to some of these things with some people.

00:09:21 ◼   ► And this is one that a couple of friends had been trying to arrange

00:09:25 ◼   ► before the whole pandemic started.

00:09:27 ◼   ► And then is one of these things that we just kept pushing back several months

00:09:30 ◼   ► at a time for a year and a half until finally all of our schedules lined up.

00:09:35 ◼   ► So that experience is a really intense working experience that's hard to describe

00:09:43 ◼   ► because I feel like even on my own,

00:09:45 ◼   ► when I do little gradations to just write

00:09:48 ◼   ► and I'm by myself, those experiences are often

00:09:52 ◼   ► very draining and very focused times.

00:09:57 ◼   ► But when you also have a few other people there

00:10:00 ◼   ► who are there to do the same thing,

00:10:03 ◼   ► and you're also kind of checking in with each other

00:10:07 ◼   ► at the end of the day of like,

00:10:08 ◼   ► "Hey, what did everybody get up to?"

00:10:10 ◼   ► It is really intensive.

00:10:13 ◼   ► it's a really focused amount of work and it was a great experience to

00:10:17 ◼   ► one, be able to travel to a different place,

00:10:21 ◼   ► two, be able to see some friends who have been trying to meet up with

00:10:24 ◼   ► for a long time, and then three, be in an environment where I have

00:10:29 ◼   ► you know what I think of as like colleagues and

00:10:32 ◼   ► we're all there to do the same thing which is get a lot of writing done in a

00:10:37 ◼   ► short period of time and so it basically got an entire script

00:10:41 ◼   ► written in the, I don't remember exactly, like nine days I was there, which is pretty

00:10:48 ◼   ► great, but it was very exhausting by the end of it. Like I was completely tapped out, just

00:10:58 ◼   ► like no energy left, can't do anything, just got on a plane and flew to America. So yeah,

00:11:06 ◼   ► That was the first part of the travel which was very, very work intensive.

00:11:12 ◼   ► Quite easily one of the most intensive, say, 10 days of work that I'll do all year, partly

00:11:18 ◼   ► because other people are there and we're checking in with each other and we're all here to do

00:11:22 ◼   ► the same thing.

00:11:23 ◼   ► So it's very focused, very intense.

00:11:25 ◼   ► I have some questions about this experience.

00:11:27 ◼   ► Okay, what are your questions?

00:11:30 ◼   ► Everybody's working on their own project?

00:11:32 ◼   ► Yeah, no one's working together.

00:11:34 ◼   ► isn't like a theme like a overall like we're all gonna write a script about such and such topic?

00:11:39 ◼   ► No, no, no, there's there's no theme.

00:11:41 ◼   ► Okay, there's no structure to it.

00:11:42 ◼   ► No, because also we're not all the same kinds of writers like we're writing different sorts of

00:11:48 ◼   ► things so it doesn't make sense to say like, oh we all have to write a script because not everybody

00:11:51 ◼   ► is writing a script.

00:11:52 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:11:52 ◼   ► So everybody has their own stuff that they're working on and there's there's just like a very

00:11:56 ◼   ► vague at the start of it, okay, there's things we want to try to accomplish and so for me it was I

00:12:02 ◼   ► I wanted to try to take a script that was basically just barely started and bring it to completion by the end

00:12:09 ◼   ► and so I was able to do that.

00:12:10 ◼   ► And other people had their own targets for things that they were working on.

00:12:14 ◼   ► Right. And every day you're like checking in with each other, this is how much I did today.

00:12:18 ◼   ► Do you set like, are there targets set in the day, like I want to get this far through

00:12:22 ◼   ► and then you talk about if you did that or what does that look like?

00:12:26 ◼   ► Yeah, some people did that, some people had specific goals of like,

00:12:29 ◼   ► "Oh, I need to hit a particular word count" or "Oh, I need to finish this particular section."

00:12:34 ◼   ► I didn't do that because I never find...

00:12:36 ◼   ► Yeah, I just don't find the scale of a day makes a lot of sense for me.

00:12:42 ◼   ► The scale of like the entire time I'm here makes much more sense to me.

00:12:46 ◼   ► Just basically the very loose structure is everybody's working on their own during the day.

00:12:54 ◼   ► Maybe we get together for fancy beret cigarette smoking breaks as we think about life in the mountains.

00:13:02 ◼   ► Right, yes exactly.

00:13:03 ◼   ► Sacre bleu.

00:13:04 ◼   ► Oui.

00:13:05 ◼   ► Yes, oui.

00:13:06 ◼   ► Sacre bleu.

00:13:07 ◼   ► Trae magnificente los montanos.

00:13:13 ◼   ► Oh jeez.

00:13:14 ◼   ► Okay.

00:13:15 ◼   ► And so then the only rough structure is we have dinner together and talk about what we were up to.

00:13:21 ◼   ► And that's really the only set point.

00:13:23 ◼   ► Yeah, it's just a useful environment because in many ways, the kind of job that I have, it's a very "you're on your own" kind of job.

00:13:33 ◼   ► You're just reading about stuff and then you're trying to write things and summarize it, and it's like a very, very solo job.

00:13:42 ◼   ► And it is useful sometimes to be able to bounce ideas off of colleagues.

00:13:48 ◼   ► leagues. And it's particularly useful to be able to bounce ideas off of people who do

00:13:53 ◼   ► similar work, but maybe in a slightly different way or a slightly different field so you can

00:13:58 ◼   ► get just a different take on things. So it's a very useful experience and I always feel

00:14:04 ◼   ► very lucky when I get invited to one of these kinds of things because I've always found

00:14:09 ◼   ► it really beneficial.

00:14:10 ◼   ► - Do you not think about trying to find a way to keep that as an ongoing thing? Or do

00:14:15 ◼   ► do you think it can only work in these short breaks in person?

00:14:18 ◼   ► For me, it only works in these short bursts. There's a lot of things that I find effective

00:14:25 ◼   ► in much smaller doses that as ongoing things I just don't find effective.

00:14:31 ◼   ► Probably like partly the novelty of the trip helps that.

00:14:35 ◼   ► Yeah, so I think novelty is a big part of it. I can convince my brain to be super serious

00:14:41 ◼   ► about it in a really constrained amount of time. It's like, "Okay, we have to be working

00:14:46 ◼   ► at 100% no jokesies." That's also why it makes it more serious when you travel to a

00:14:54 ◼   ► different spot. It's like, "No, no, I'm very serious about this. I've taken time

00:15:00 ◼   ► to go someplace."

00:15:01 ◼   ► - Right, why else would I be here if I wasn't actually getting the work done? If I wasn't

00:15:06 ◼   ► gonna get the work done, what was the frickin' point in making this trip?

00:15:09 ◼   ► Exactly. And so I've tried at various times these kinds of...

00:15:15 ◼   ► And just to be clear, I'm not knocking this, I'm just saying it doesn't work for me.

00:15:19 ◼   ► The sort of thing where you try to, on a much more regular basis, say like,

00:15:22 ◼   ► "Oh, check in with people every other day or every week about what you've been doing."

00:15:28 ◼   ► And I just find that I'm not able to maintain it over a long period of time.

00:15:34 ◼   ► and my brain starts to, I don't know,

00:15:37 ◼   ► just like not take it seriously anymore.

00:15:39 ◼   ► And so it doesn't work.

00:15:41 ◼   ► So yeah, it does sound like,

00:15:43 ◼   ► "Oh, shouldn't you just do that all the time?"

00:15:45 ◼   ► It's like, no, it actually works so well

00:15:48 ◼   ► precisely because it doesn't happen all the time.

00:15:51 ◼   ► It's the same reason that it's like,

00:15:53 ◼   ► "Oh, I take the graycations,"

00:15:56 ◼   ► not recently, but like, you know,

00:15:57 ◼   ► "on occasion, I take them

00:15:58 ◼   ► to go to an intense period of work."

00:16:01 ◼   ► And it's always super productive

00:16:03 ◼   ► because my brain takes it really seriously.

00:16:05 ◼   ► But let's say I went somewhere new every week

00:16:09 ◼   ► to try to always just be writing really intensely.

00:16:12 ◼   ► I think that wouldn't last two weeks.

00:16:14 ◼   ► I think by week three, I'd go, oh, this is dumb.

00:16:17 ◼   ► - It's quite reductive, right?

00:16:18 ◼   ► Like, it's like, why don't you just work hard every week?

00:16:22 ◼   ► What's your problem?

00:16:23 ◼   ► Like, I understand why the question is so,

00:16:27 ◼   ► is on the face of it makes sense,

00:16:31 ◼   ► but in actuality it's pretty silly, right?

00:16:33 ◼   ► It was like a good thing.

00:16:34 ◼   ► - No, I don't, like here's the thing,

00:16:35 ◼   ► I don't think it's a silly question

00:16:37 ◼   ► because this is part of knowing about yourself.

00:16:42 ◼   ► And so, like it's quite interesting,

00:16:44 ◼   ► but like one of the people I was with,

00:16:46 ◼   ► he does do the thing where he has someone

00:16:49 ◼   ► to check in with him every day about what he's working on.

00:16:53 ◼   ► And like he finds that very effective.

00:16:55 ◼   ► And this is where you have to figure out

00:16:57 ◼   ► like what works for you.

00:16:59 ◼   ► I just find like that doesn't work for me.

00:17:01 ◼   ► I become almost weirdly resentful of like having to check in with someone.

00:17:06 ◼   ► It feels like, "Oh, am I in school?

00:17:08 ◼   ► Is this homework?"

00:17:09 ◼   ► It just like, it completely doesn't work.

00:17:11 ◼   ► You have to figure out what works for you in your own life.

00:17:15 ◼   ► I think it's – this is also one of the reasons why it's very useful in these kinds of things

00:17:20 ◼   ► to talk to other people about like, "Ooh, how do you write?

00:17:22 ◼   ► How do you write?"

00:17:23 ◼   ► And you can sometimes pick up ideas and say, "Oh, that's something interesting I never

00:17:26 ◼   ► thought of."

00:17:27 ◼   ► Like I'll give that a try and see if it works.

00:17:30 ◼   ► And if it does, like it becomes part of your routine.

00:17:32 ◼   ► And if it doesn't, it just doesn't.

00:17:34 ◼   ► It's an interesting and valuable experience,

00:17:35 ◼   ► but it's not something, you know,

00:17:38 ◼   ► it's not something I could do every month.

00:17:41 ◼   ► I think I would either die from exhaustion

00:17:46 ◼   ► or it would just rapidly become completely ineffective.

00:17:49 ◼   ► And my brain would just be like, we can't take it seriously.

00:17:52 ◼   ► We're not here to work.

00:17:54 ◼   ► We're on vacation in Switzerland.

00:17:55 ◼   ► like, "No brain, no!"

00:17:58 ◼   ► It's not what we're doing at all.

00:17:59 ◼   ► We have to write scripts to pay the bills

00:18:03 ◼   ► to be able to do these writing trips.

00:18:05 ◼   ► You can't just wander off and think that this is a vacation.

00:18:09 ◼   ► That's not what this is at all.

00:18:10 ◼   ► So that's what would happen, I think,

00:18:11 ◼   ► if it was more regular.

00:18:12 ◼   ► - Yeah, okay, that makes sense.

00:18:14 ◼   ► So then from Switzerland, we went out to North Carolina.

00:18:18 ◼   ► Was that more of a, has this been more of a relaxing time?

00:18:23 ◼   ► Well, so here's what I would say happened.

00:18:26 ◼   ► I don't know if you remember, Myke,

00:18:29 ◼   ► constant talk of the swamp of uncertainty

00:18:31 ◼   ► that I was living in.

00:18:32 ◼   ► - Yep.

00:18:33 ◼   ► - I think in some ways it worked out great

00:18:37 ◼   ► to be able to do this writing trip with some friends.

00:18:40 ◼   ► And in other ways it was a terrible decision

00:18:45 ◼   ► because after having the Sharks project

00:18:50 ◼   ► followed by the Tiffany project, and then immediately going into the most intense,

00:18:57 ◼   ► you know, week, ten days of work that I've had in a year and a half, I really was just,

00:19:04 ◼   ► you know, I was like barely alive when I got on that plane. It was brutally exhausting.

00:19:11 ◼   ► Oh, it also doesn't help that the poem video that I was working on,

00:19:15 ◼   ► One of my main goals with that thing was I was like,

00:19:18 ◼   ► "Oh, I absolutely have to get this done before I go on the writing trip.

00:19:23 ◼   ► Like, I need to be completely done with that project."

00:19:26 ◼   ► But guess what? It wasn't done. Like, I didn't finish it in time.

00:19:29 ◼   ► So the first few days I was there, I was really, like, just busting my butt

00:19:34 ◼   ► trying to finish up the last few details on that poem video and get it done.

00:19:39 ◼   ► And also I was like, "Oh, I need to film a thing at the end."

00:19:43 ◼   ► And so some very sharp-eyed viewers did notice that those mountains are like, "Oh, those

00:19:47 ◼   ► look like Swiss mountains."

00:19:48 ◼   ► And guess what, viewers?

00:19:49 ◼   ► You're exactly correct at the end.

00:19:50 ◼   ► Like, those are mountains in Switzerland.

00:19:52 ◼   ► That was funny for me because I watched the version without that at the end, right?

00:19:57 ◼   ► And I remember we were sitting down one day and saying to it, you know, "Oh, did you

00:20:02 ◼   ► want to watch the new Grey video?"

00:20:04 ◼   ► She said, "Oh yeah, let's watch it."

00:20:06 ◼   ► So I was like, "Oh yeah, I'll watch it again."

00:20:07 ◼   ► And then that happened.

00:20:08 ◼   ► I was like, "Oh, you didn't finish it in time!"

00:20:10 ◼   ► Because I knew where you were, I knew where you were going.

00:20:14 ◼   ► And I kind of maybe wasn't aware of the timelines, and it was just very funny to me.

00:20:19 ◼   ► It's like, "Oh, you're still working on it."

00:20:21 ◼   ► Yeah, it was really terrible.

00:20:23 ◼   ► It was like, just one of these combinations of like, too many things went wrong,

00:20:27 ◼   ► and also that project, like it would just take hours and hours to render on my computer,

00:20:33 ◼   ► and so it's like, I just ran into these delays of it, it lasted until the trip to Switzerland.

00:20:38 ◼   ► That video though did give us like one of the great out of time moments.

00:20:44 ◼   ► So in our episode out of time you're like "Oh I don't know this video feels like it's gonna be terrible"

00:20:48 ◼   ► and it's got like 50% more views than the video it's about which is fantastic.

00:20:52 ◼   ► Yeah that is still a little confusing to me.

00:20:55 ◼   ► That is a case where I was definitely very wrong in my prediction of how that video would do and so yeah.

00:21:01 ◼   ► I think it's the title. I think the title really helped someone dead ruin my life again.

00:21:05 ◼   ► I think that title's really good.

00:21:07 ◼   ► Like it's just a good title.

00:21:09 ◼   ► - Yeah, but don't say that, it makes me so sad.

00:21:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, I know, I know.

00:21:12 ◼   ► - I hate the title game on YouTube.

00:21:14 ◼   ► - Well, we both do.

00:21:15 ◼   ► More Texans know that we both really hate that stuff,

00:21:18 ◼   ► but it's just a genuinely good title.

00:21:21 ◼   ► I don't really feel like it's a clickbaity title per se.

00:21:24 ◼   ► It's just a good title for that video.

00:21:27 ◼   ► And it's very representative of the content.

00:21:30 ◼   ► - Yeah, I don't think it's clickbait either

00:21:31 ◼   ► because it is representative,

00:21:33 ◼   ► But it still, it does make me sad that,

00:21:35 ◼   ► oh, if I happen to have a worse title,

00:21:37 ◼   ► I'm fairly certain my prediction of this video

00:21:39 ◼   ► won't do very well, would be more accurate.

00:21:42 ◼   ► - Yep.

00:21:43 ◼   ► - And that makes me really sad in my heart.

00:21:44 ◼   ► But you know, again, if you subscribe to More Text,

00:21:46 ◼   ► you can listen to me cry about how I don't like

00:21:48 ◼   ► how you have to have clever titles for your videos.

00:21:50 ◼   ► Like a big baby.

00:21:51 ◼   ► - Get more text.com.

00:21:52 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:21:53 ◼   ► - Get more text.com.

00:21:55 ◼   ► But yeah, so that like, this was part of the problem is like,

00:21:58 ◼   ► I had two nightmare projects in a row,

00:22:01 ◼   ► one of which split into two videos.

00:22:04 ◼   ► The second video ended up being what, like,

00:22:06 ◼   ► I don't know, a half an hour almost.

00:22:07 ◼   ► It was like forever long.

00:22:09 ◼   ► - Feature length is how I keep describing it.

00:22:11 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:22:12 ◼   ► It's just a feature length video.

00:22:13 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's a feature length video.

00:22:17 ◼   ► And then also my only goal in life was I have to finish

00:22:20 ◼   ► this stupid poem video before I go on this writers retreat

00:22:23 ◼   ► and I completely failed.

00:22:25 ◼   ► And so then I was like just rushing so hard to finish it

00:22:30 ◼   ► on the writer's retreat.

00:22:32 ◼   ► And you know, Myke, this is a thing that just never happens.

00:22:36 ◼   ► Like when I finish a video, it is exhausting already.

00:22:40 ◼   ► So I normally take a couple of days off.

00:22:42 ◼   ► Like I just have to, but I'm in a situation

00:22:45 ◼   ► where I'm like, no brain, boom,

00:22:47 ◼   ► we got to like hit the ground running full speed tomorrow

00:22:51 ◼   ► because I've already lost a couple of days of this,

00:22:53 ◼   ► like only happens once in a while trip.

00:22:56 ◼   ► That's super valuable.

00:22:57 ◼   ► So I just went like straight into writing another video, which I never do.

00:23:02 ◼   ► Got to the end of the week.

00:23:03 ◼   ► I had finished a script and then like this, so this is just to like give the

00:23:08 ◼   ► listeners an understanding of like, I really mean it that when I got on that

00:23:12 ◼   ► plane, I was like a dead man walking.

00:23:14 ◼   ► I was just totally tapped out in a way that I, I just kept thinking about it.

00:23:22 ◼   ► Like, I think I haven't been that tapped out since I had the worst year of my life,

00:23:28 ◼   ► which was my last year as a teacher, when I, you know, quit teaching to do YouTube full-time.

00:23:34 ◼   ► And like, that year was really brutal, and I remember the same thing, like, that summer,

00:23:39 ◼   ► I was just so tapped out from trying to manage my teaching job and also trying to do enough

00:23:45 ◼   ► videos to push the YouTube channel over the hill so it could be like a full-time position.

00:23:51 ◼   ► I'll never forget.

00:23:52 ◼   ► first summer after I quit my teaching job and I'm like I'm gonna be a full-time youtuber

00:23:57 ◼   ► but also I've totally killed myself to get in this position so I just didn't do any work

00:24:02 ◼   ► for a really long time and I remember I happened to meet up with Vsauce that summer and he

00:24:07 ◼   ► asked me he goes like "oh are you still doing youtube or have you decided to quit that?"

00:24:12 ◼   ► I was like it was so crushing because I'm like no I've literally just decided that I'm doing

00:24:17 ◼   ► it full time.

00:24:18 ◼   ► [laughter]

00:24:19 ◼   ► If you're retired, I've only just started!

00:24:22 ◼   ► Yeah, I've only just started, but I'm worried that I broke something in my brain trying

00:24:29 ◼   ► to get to this position.

00:24:30 ◼   ► To be fair though, that I guess has ended up, that interaction has set an ongoing precedent

00:24:37 ◼   ► throughout your career, right?

00:24:38 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, no.

00:24:39 ◼   ► Has Grace stopped making videos?

00:24:40 ◼   ► You know, you have these periods every year or two.

00:24:44 ◼   ► Is he done with that now?

00:24:46 ◼   ► Yes, yes.

00:24:47 ◼   ► Yeah, so like that was definitely foreshadowing of the shape of things to come, 100%.

00:24:53 ◼   ► But I just, I just like, I never forget that and like every time I see Vsauce I always

00:24:57 ◼   ► think of him going like "Oh did you say..."

00:24:59 ◼   ► Like no, I just, I'm full time now actually, thanks for asking.

00:25:04 ◼   ► But yeah so like I've just been, I was thinking about that a bunch this summer because I think

00:25:08 ◼   ► that currently this is the longest period of time in which I have just done nothing

00:25:15 ◼   ► work-wise since I went full-time, so like since 10 years ago. I don't think I've had

00:25:21 ◼   ► a break this long. But it's also because, for the same reason like last time, I think

00:25:27 ◼   ► I've just, I had never been so tapped out from several projects and then a really intense

00:25:35 ◼   ► working period previously. And here's the thing though, it's been great because when

00:25:41 ◼   ► I got to North Carolina, I finally got to see my parents, see my family, see Lucy, who's

00:25:48 ◼   ► still sleeping on my lap right now, gently snoozing away.

00:25:51 ◼   ► For the first few days, I had this little feeling of like, "Ooh, I should get to work

00:25:57 ◼   ► soon.

00:25:58 ◼   ► Like, I really want to--" I finished this video script.

00:26:01 ◼   ► I need to, you know, now get this video actually finished so I can have something up for the

00:26:05 ◼   ► month of October.

00:26:06 ◼   ► But I realized quite quickly, the way I've been thinking about it is like, I needed to

00:26:10 ◼   ► give myself a special dispensation, it's fine. You haven't taken a long amount of time off in a

00:26:18 ◼   ► really long time. You haven't seen your family in a really long time. Just go with it. Like, just

00:26:26 ◼   ► decide right now. This is always the key with things. Decide right now you're not going to feel

00:26:33 ◼   ► guilty about not doing work for a while, just, you know, it's okay.

00:26:39 ◼   ► You've given yourself a special dispensation, and as always, like, eventually the time will

00:26:44 ◼   ► come when you're not completely tapped out and you're recharged and you can get back

00:26:49 ◼   ► to work.

00:26:50 ◼   ► But in the meantime, it's like, be with your family.

00:26:53 ◼   ► Pay a lot of attention to the dog, like, do some interesting things.

00:26:58 ◼   ► And you, like, you haven't traveled, you haven't been anywhere, like, just actually enjoy it.

00:27:03 ◼   ► So it's been basically a really glorious month to have after the completely miserable swamp of uncertainty and sharks and Tiffany and everything else.

00:27:15 ◼   ► So I feel quite relieved that I made that decision right at the start and haven't just felt guilty.

00:27:22 ◼   ► It's like, no, you need to do this every once in a while.

00:27:25 ◼   ► And if there's any time it's legitimate to take a bunch of time off,

00:27:31 ◼   ► It's when you're spending time with family you haven't seen in like a year and a half.

00:27:36 ◼   ► So it's been great. I've been very relaxed.

00:27:39 ◼   ► As you know, Myke, I've been just like taking some walks.

00:27:42 ◼   ► Behind my parents' house is a terrifying swamp, but it has a lovely little boardwalk.

00:27:47 ◼   ► And so you can just like walk around and relax and do nothing.

00:27:51 ◼   ► And yeah, spend time with my parents, help my mom out with a year and a half's worth of

00:27:58 ◼   ► tech questions that she has built up as like a list of things to ask me.

00:28:02 ◼   ► Great! That's what I'm gonna do. It's been glorious.

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00:29:48 ◼   ► So you posted a picture on Twitter of what I can only assume is a vast selection of Magic

00:29:53 ◼   ► the Gathering cards, and I'm assuming a score thing 30/30, or if that's not really

00:29:59 ◼   ► sure what this means.

00:30:01 ◼   ► Can you explain what all of this is?

00:30:04 ◼   ► Yeah, so one might wonder, they go, "Oh, so you've just been like hanging out with

00:30:09 ◼   ► your parents for a month, like what can you possibly do?"

00:30:13 ◼   ► And the first thing is, my mom always does build up a lot of questions about the computer

00:30:17 ◼   ► between my visits. And so she did have a literal folder full of sticky notes of tech questions

00:30:23 ◼   ► that we needed to work through. But one of the other things that did come up is my mom

00:30:30 ◼   ► expressed a little bit of interest in learning how to play Magic the Gathering. So she had

00:30:37 ◼   ► seen my, the stream that I did on my channel and she had heard us talk about the game on

00:30:44 ◼   ► the show a few episodes ago and she'd made some like just little comments

00:30:48 ◼   ► that made it sound like oh she might be interested in trying to learn how to

00:30:52 ◼   ► play the game so I completely seized on this and decided oh great I'm gonna take

00:30:59 ◼   ► this on as a project I'm gonna teach my mom Magic the Gathering she seems

00:31:03 ◼   ► interested I also think she will totally love it I took a picture at the end

00:31:08 ◼   ► because I thought it was hilarious but before I arrived in America I thought oh

00:31:12 ◼   ► "Oh, okay, I'm gonna teach my mom this game. I need to order a bunch of cards."

00:31:15 ◼   ► "Oh, but also if I'm gonna teach her, I need to-- we need some dice to keep track of things."

00:31:20 ◼   ► "Oh, and also we do need to have a scoreboard because that'll be easier than writing numbers down and it like gives people something to focus on."

00:31:27 ◼   ► So I started ordering like a bunch of equipment,

00:31:29 ◼   ► and I didn't quite realize until I actually arrived in America how many little Amazon boxes full of magic stuff were waiting for me on the other side.

00:31:38 ◼   ► But anyway, it was very fun like opening it all up and getting out the cards and it's been this interesting experience because

00:31:46 ◼   ► the game is

00:31:48 ◼   ► incredibly

00:31:50 ◼   ► complicated and

00:31:51 ◼   ► difficult to explain. I've had this interesting experience over the last several weeks like teaching my mom who by the way

00:31:59 ◼   ► Has gotten very into it like she is super into the game now as I've completely expected

00:32:06 ◼   ► she would be. I'm sure it will surprise absolutely no one to hear that CGP Grey's mom is also

00:32:13 ◼   ► a very obsessive kind of person who can really get absorbed endlessly in the details of a

00:32:19 ◼   ► bunch of things. And so this is why I was looking at her and going like, "Oh, you'll

00:32:24 ◼   ► totally love this. Like if I love this, you'll love this." But so even though I haven't been

00:32:30 ◼   ► working in the sense of writing a script, I feel like I've had this incredible experience,

00:32:35 ◼   ► Which is trying to explain this incredibly complicated game in a way to get someone else

00:32:46 ◼   ► on board.

00:32:47 ◼   ► And it's, I keep thinking of this phrase like, it's been professionally useful to me because

00:32:54 ◼   ► when I make a video and I'm trying to explain some idea, whatever it is, one of the main

00:33:00 ◼   ► things that happens as you write a script where you're trying to explain something is

00:33:05 ◼   ► you can make choices about simplification. Like, how are you going to simplify an idea

00:33:12 ◼   ► for the listener? When you research a topic you end up knowing a ton about it. At least

00:33:17 ◼   ► I think if you're doing a good job making a video that's what you should be doing. You

00:33:21 ◼   ► should have a deeper understanding that is conveyed in the actual video itself or whatever

00:33:25 ◼   ► it is you're explaining, if you're teaching.

00:33:27 ◼   ► You should understand the thing a level or two deeper than the level at which you're

00:33:32 ◼   ► teaching it.

00:33:33 ◼   ► So it always involves like, simplification.

00:33:36 ◼   ► You have to decide what parts of complexity are you going to skim over.

00:33:42 ◼   ► You know, it's like that's something that occurs in my videos all the time.

00:33:45 ◼   ► It's like I'm trying to simplify something down so that it's understandable more easily.

00:33:52 ◼   ► But the problem with Magic the Gathering is that the fact that it is exactly this complicated

00:33:58 ◼   ► is the whole thing.

00:34:00 ◼   ► That's what the game is.

00:34:03 ◼   ► Is like, there's all of these complications.

00:34:05 ◼   ► And so I can't actually decide to say, "Oh, we're going to ignore the difference between

00:34:10 ◼   ► this and that."

00:34:11 ◼   ► Because the difference between this and that is critical, and it matters, and it will be

00:34:15 ◼   ► the reason why you win or lose.

00:34:17 ◼   ► Or you go, "Oh, I'm just going to ignore that this thing exists."

00:34:21 ◼   ► But you can't because tons of the cards will explicitly reference "this thing exists"

00:34:26 ◼   ► and so a person will go "what is that thing that exists?"

00:34:29 ◼   ► So I don't know, I've just found it very interesting as a kind of problem or like a practice exercise

00:34:37 ◼   ► in explaining something where you don't have the option to simplify and the thing is really

00:34:44 ◼   ► really complex.

00:34:46 ◼   ► I've never had the experience as an adult of trying to teach someone else magic,

00:34:51 ◼   ► and I do just keep thinking, it's kind of a miracle that anyone learns to play the game,

00:34:58 ◼   ► because you kind of need someone to be like an evangelist and tell you like,

00:35:02 ◼   ► "Okay, listen, this is going to take two weeks.

00:35:06 ◼   ► This is unlike any other board game you've ever come across,

00:35:09 ◼   ► but I promise you it'll be worth it at the end,

00:35:12 ◼   ► but it will never seem worth it until three weeks from now

00:35:17 ◼   ► where you've not only learned how to play it,

00:35:19 ◼   ► but you've also been able to play it on your own a bunch

00:35:22 ◼   ► and start to get a feel for it.

00:35:24 ◼   ► So hey, trust me, we're gonna go on a three week journey together

00:35:28 ◼   ► and at the end, you'll love this thing, comma, hopefully.

00:35:33 ◼   ► Sign me up.

00:35:33 ◼   ► [laughs]

00:35:35 ◼   ► Myke, you're a very good friend of mine.

00:35:37 ◼   ► I'm just gonna say right now,

00:35:39 ◼   ► There's no game on Earth that is less for you than Magic the Gathering.

00:35:43 ◼   ► Oh, do not get me wrong my friend, I was being 10,000% sarcastic.

00:35:49 ◼   ► I 100% already know this is not for me.

00:35:53 ◼   ► I downloaded the video game version.

00:35:56 ◼   ► Oh no.

00:35:56 ◼   ► And I just opened it and kind of closed it immediately.

00:35:59 ◼   ► I just could just tell, I don't know why.

00:36:02 ◼   ► You should be like, "No, this isn't for me."

00:36:05 ◼   ► Just in general, card games, just general card games,

00:36:09 ◼   ► I tend to just forget how to play them all the time.

00:36:11 ◼   ► I'm not very good with board games,

00:36:14 ◼   ► remembering the rules of board games,

00:36:16 ◼   ► and it kinda just is like,

00:36:18 ◼   ► "No, I can see where this is going,

00:36:20 ◼   ► "and me and this game are not gonna get along very well."

00:36:23 ◼   ► - No, I think you wouldn't get along very well.

00:36:25 ◼   ► I feel like I endlessly talk about it,

00:36:27 ◼   ► but I also think it is a interesting problem space,

00:36:30 ◼   ► because one of the things that I realized,

00:36:32 ◼   ► I'm like, "Oh my God, how do new players get into this?"

00:36:35 ◼   ► It's so hard and I feel kind of lucky that oh, I first learned this as a kid when it was a much simpler game

00:36:41 ◼   ► It's like oh they've added complexity over time. So when I jump back in I go

00:36:46 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, but I know a bunch of this stuff. Like I remember the bones of it from when I was younger

00:36:50 ◼   ► But jumping in now, it's like oh my god. There's so much to learn and

00:36:53 ◼   ► again why it's so

00:36:56 ◼   ► Difficult to try to think about like oh, how do I explain it? How do I simplify things is because oh

00:37:03 ◼   ► "Oh, there's a ton of rules."

00:37:05 ◼   ► And literally every rule has an exception to it. That's part of the point.

00:37:09 ◼   ► So you go, "Okay, alright, this is a very complicated right to start with."

00:37:14 ◼   ► But also, there are tons of things that happen that, like, the way I've come to think about it is

00:37:21 ◼   ► they're not in the game.

00:37:23 ◼   ► They're just a thing that happens because this card says it should happen now.

00:37:29 ◼   ► And it's like, "Oh my god, how on earth do you explain this?"

00:37:33 ◼   ► And the thing that's been quite interesting to me is I can't stop my brain from working out,

00:37:40 ◼   ► "Oh, how would I try to change this to make this friendlier for new players?"

00:37:45 ◼   ► And, "Oh, there's just a bunch of pattern matching that's taking place."

00:37:49 ◼   ► And there are ways that you could try to explain that.

00:37:53 ◼   ► So, "Oh, instead of having all of these things that can put players off,

00:37:56 ◼   ► "Oh, there's orcs and there's goblins and there's wizards and some people just don't like that kind of stuff."

00:38:02 ◼   ► It's like you could explain all of this just using shapes. You could say, "Oh this card,

00:38:06 ◼   ► it's a square and this card is a circle and that one's a triangle." And you have another card that says,

00:38:12 ◼   ► "Remove all triangles from the board." And like, "Oh suddenly it's so much more understandable."

00:38:19 ◼   ► That's just like you're just matching patterns. You're matching these different words that are going on.

00:38:23 ◼   ► But anyway, it's also just made me think a lot about what makes games fun.

00:38:31 ◼   ► Like, why is it that a game can be fun?

00:38:34 ◼   ► And a big part of, I think, what some people find fun about games,

00:38:40 ◼   ► and I don't know if this is true for you,

00:38:43 ◼   ► is it's not so much the game itself that's fun,

00:38:47 ◼   ► it's the figuring out how to play the game part that's fun.

00:38:52 ◼   ► Like at the beginning of the pandemic, my wife and I, we got the board game pandemic,

00:38:57 ◼   ► and we played it for a little while.

00:38:59 ◼   ► Great idea.

00:39:00 ◼   ► Did you say bad idea?

00:39:02 ◼   ► I said great idea, but I mean bad idea.

00:39:05 ◼   ► No, it was great.

00:39:06 ◼   ► Have you played Pandemic the board game?

00:39:08 ◼   ► No, I've never played it.

00:39:11 ◼   ► I think you might actually like pandemic.

00:39:12 ◼   ► It might be fun.

00:39:13 ◼   ► But so here's the thing.

00:39:14 ◼   ► It's like, oh, we played it.

00:39:16 ◼   ► But part of the fun for me is like learning how to play the game.

00:39:19 ◼   ► And I go, oh, okay.

00:39:21 ◼   ► But at a certain point, I feel like I've kind of solved it.

00:39:25 ◼   ► It's like, "Oh, I know how to play this game.

00:39:28 ◼   ► I've gotten reasonably good at it."

00:39:31 ◼   ► And now suddenly the game just loses all interest and I just never want to play it again, which

00:39:36 ◼   ► is exactly what happened with Pandemic.

00:39:38 ◼   ► And so my pitch for anyone listening is if you have this experience where you play games,

00:39:46 ◼   ► But then at some point when you feel like you've figured out how to play the game,

00:39:52 ◼   ► and then you just lose interest, you actually don't really want to play it anymore once

00:39:55 ◼   ► you know how to play.

00:39:57 ◼   ► It's like, magic is for you.

00:40:00 ◼   ► And it's one of the reasons why I really wanted to pitch this to my mom of like, "Oh, she

00:40:05 ◼   ► should totally get into this.

00:40:06 ◼   ► She would love it."

00:40:07 ◼   ► Because I've seen her do this same thing her whole life, where she learns how to play a

00:40:11 ◼   ► game.

00:40:12 ◼   ► of solves it and gets very good at it and then totally loses interest in it.

00:40:17 ◼   ► But what you're saying is, with Magic, there's always something to learn.

00:40:21 ◼   ► Yeah, it's completely impossible to master, and so, like I taught my mom how to play Settlers

00:40:26 ◼   ► of Catan a number of years ago, and you know, she used to play on the iPad, and then I think

00:40:31 ◼   ► she basically became like a world-class player and never lost and got just totally bored

00:40:35 ◼   ► and was like, "Oh okay, I've solved Catan, there's nothing more here for me," and she

00:40:39 ◼   ► put it away and never played it again. But the thing that makes Magic different is that

00:40:45 ◼   ► every three months they come out with new cards and the new cards change all of the

00:40:49 ◼   ► rules and mix everything up. And so like it's never ever done. If the thing that you think

00:40:56 ◼   ► is fun about a game is figuring out the game, Magic 100% is for you. But the flip side is,

00:41:05 ◼   ► "Oh my god, is it the most complicated game in the world to explain to another person

00:41:11 ◼   ► and to get another person into and to like get someone on board with?"

00:41:16 ◼   ► So there's a funny way in which even when I haven't been working,

00:41:21 ◼   ► I can see that the part of my brain that does the thing which is my career in some ways,

00:41:27 ◼   ► which is explaining things.

00:41:30 ◼   ► How do you do it? How do you make it better?

00:41:33 ◼   ► How would you want to change this language so that it's more comprehensible to a viewer?

00:41:38 ◼   ► Like that part of my brain is on vacation, but it's also had this interesting toy to like

00:41:47 ◼   ► play around with while it's recharging.

00:41:49 ◼   ► And I'm very happy that I have successfully taught my mom how to play Magic.

00:41:54 ◼   ► And she is successfully working her way up the ladder, beating the new players now.

00:42:00 ◼   ► And she's super happy about it.

00:42:02 ◼   ► and it's one of those experiences where I see her in the morning

00:42:05 ◼   ► and she's all bleary-eyed because she stayed up until two in the morning

00:42:09 ◼   ► like playing game after game after game trying to beat people on the ladder

00:42:13 ◼   ► and it's like "oh fantastic mission accomplished"

00:42:15 ◼   ► Do you consider it a good thing that you can't turn that part of your brain off?

00:42:20 ◼   ► What do you mean?

00:42:21 ◼   ► Well does it not ever make you feel like you can't just relax

00:42:26 ◼   ► because your brain's always looking for something to explain to someone?

00:42:29 ◼   ► Well...

00:42:31 ◼   ► I mean, yes, and...

00:42:33 ◼   ► Here's the thing, like...

00:42:35 ◼   ► I like to play games.

00:42:38 ◼   ► I've always played video games, and you know, now I'm just like, "Magic is my life."

00:42:44 ◼   ► The reason that I like that activity is because it's like the only time that I do feel like my brain actually is relaxed.

00:42:55 ◼   ► So it's a different experience playing the game, not trying to explain anything.

00:43:00 ◼   ► And I just mean this for any video game.

00:43:02 ◼   ► Like, it can be really absorbing.

00:43:03 ◼   ► Like, I'm playing Factorio or Minecraft or anything.

00:43:06 ◼   ► It's the only time it feels like my brain can just shut off entirely.

00:43:14 ◼   ► That's part of the reason that video games have always been part of my life.

00:43:17 ◼   ► And it's part of the reason why, when I'm done with a video and I need to recharge,

00:43:22 ◼   ► It's like, "I'll just sit down and play a game for eight hours in a row and I will do nothing else."

00:43:28 ◼   ► And it's like, it's completely quiet in my head and wow how relaxing it is.

00:43:33 ◼   ► So I use games to relax in that way.

00:43:37 ◼   ► It's like, it's very hard to describe, but it's just, it's a way to be absorbed,

00:43:43 ◼   ► to be pleasantly concentrating on something,

00:43:47 ◼   ► but also in a way where it's just clear and straightforward and quiet.

00:43:53 ◼   ► But yeah, in the rest of my life, I do feel like my brain is always chitter-chattering away about how to explain something,

00:44:00 ◼   ► or, you know, I feel like, "Oh, my brain is very curious. What's this? What's that? What's that thing over there? Oh, how does that work? How does this go?"

00:44:07 ◼   ► Like, that's always happening.

00:44:09 ◼   ► But I also don't think I would have the kind of YouTube career that I currently have if I wasn't that sort of person.

00:44:16 ◼   ► So I wouldn't want my brain to be any different.

00:44:19 ◼   ► It's always gonna be that way, you've just found a way to turn that into what makes you

00:44:23 ◼   ► money too.

00:44:24 ◼   ► Yeah, well it's like you figure out what are you good at.

00:44:28 ◼   ► And figuring out how things work and then simplifying them down is something that I'm

00:44:35 ◼   ► pretty good at.

00:44:36 ◼   ► And so obviously I didn't set out to do this on purpose, but it's the sort of thing where

00:44:41 ◼   ► you just see like, oh, where are the skills that you're good at useful?

00:44:46 ◼   ► Yeah, sure.

00:44:47 ◼   ► Some, sometimes there are totally downsides to a brain that constantly is

00:44:51 ◼   ► going like, wait, how does that work?

00:44:53 ◼   ► How does this work?

00:44:54 ◼   ► Why did, why is that the case?

00:44:55 ◼   ► When I'm talking to people, I can, it can definitely be a downside sometimes

00:44:59 ◼   ► where I'm like, oh, where did you hear that?

00:45:01 ◼   ► How do you know that that's true?

00:45:02 ◼   ► Why do you think that?

00:45:03 ◼   ► Oh, if that was true, would that mean that this is true?

00:45:06 ◼   ► Like that, that kind of stuff can totally get me in trouble in

00:45:08 ◼   ► conversations with actual people where I think sometimes people feel like I'm interrogating

00:45:13 ◼   ► them but I don't really mean to. I'm just trying to follow through some of the things

00:45:16 ◼   ► that are being said. So there are totally downsides. But yeah, it's games for me are

00:45:21 ◼   ► the way to turn that off and to actually relax. But what I mean by this trip being really

00:45:28 ◼   ► pleasant is I feel like I've had the best of both worlds that I have actually been able

00:45:34 ◼   ► to relax and recharge for a big period of time. And also the explainer part of my brain

00:45:40 ◼   ► hasn't been completely inactive. It's had a pleasant difficult puzzle to work on during

00:45:48 ◼   ► that time, which is also a like no stakes kind of puzzle of how would you explain this

00:45:54 ◼   ► incredibly complicated thing and you're not allowed to simplify it because the complications

00:45:59 ◼   ► are the whole point. So that's what's been going on and it's been just a really fantastic

00:46:05 ◼   ► month although I have just recently finally finally gotten back into actual work. So again

00:46:11 ◼   ► like this period of time is now over.

00:46:14 ◼   ► Hello.

00:46:15 ◼   ► It's been great. It is true. Actually I told my parents I was like oh can you please leave

00:46:24 ◼   ► the house while I'm recording because now I actually need to work today. Work is back,

00:46:31 ◼   ► mic is here.

00:46:32 ◼   ► [DING DONG]

00:46:33 ◼   ► Cortexmerch!

00:46:34 ◼   ► Dot com!

00:46:36 ◼   ► Subtlety is back! I think we've maybe decided this is a product that gets a once a year

00:46:42 ◼   ► release. I feel like that that works pretty well. I know that people love the subtlety.

00:46:46 ◼   ► I always want more subtleties and sweaters because I wear them a lot.

00:46:51 ◼   ► I am surprised how much I wear my own subtle tees.

00:46:53 ◼   ► Yes, I'm actually looking at my subtle tees

00:46:55 ◼   ► and going, I need more of these.

00:46:57 ◼   ► So Myke needs to bring them back.

00:46:59 ◼   ► - This is one of those things where I think

00:47:01 ◼   ► we had a good idea and it keeps working.

00:47:04 ◼   ► And I know people that I know that own them,

00:47:06 ◼   ► they love them because they're really beautiful,

00:47:08 ◼   ► fantastic, very nice, very classy, very subtle.

00:47:11 ◼   ► You know, it's just a t-shirt or a sweater

00:47:13 ◼   ► with a little embroidered cortex logo on the chest.

00:47:16 ◼   ► It's fantastic.

00:47:17 ◼   ► We have a two week pre-order going on right now.

00:47:21 ◼   ► you have until November 10th to get your order in.

00:47:24 ◼   ► We're bringing back all of the colors from last year.

00:47:27 ◼   ► So previously it had just been blue.

00:47:29 ◼   ► Then we brought in black and red options.

00:47:32 ◼   ► This year we're bringing those three back

00:47:35 ◼   ► and introducing a brand new color, green.

00:47:38 ◼   ► So there is both a green sweatshirt and tea

00:47:41 ◼   ► as there is blue, black and red ones.

00:47:43 ◼   ► So there's lots of color choices.

00:47:44 ◼   ► You could buy one, you could buy them all.

00:47:46 ◼   ► I know I'm gonna get some more red and some green.

00:47:49 ◼   ► That's what I'm gonna get this time for sure.

00:47:51 ◼   ► I'm wearing my red sweater today and love it.

00:47:53 ◼   ► - You're wearing your red one today?

00:47:54 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:47:55 ◼   ► - My red subtlety is the shirt that I own

00:47:58 ◼   ► that gets me the most comments of any shirt

00:48:00 ◼   ► because people will literally tell me,

00:48:02 ◼   ► "Oh my God, you're wearing a color.

00:48:05 ◼   ► "Like I've never seen you wear a color."

00:48:07 ◼   ► - I've never seen, I didn't even know you own the red one.

00:48:09 ◼   ► I've never seen you in the red one.

00:48:10 ◼   ► I've seen you in the blue ones and the black ones.

00:48:12 ◼   ► - Yeah, I like the red one, but I'll tell you,

00:48:14 ◼   ► everyone who knows me, they're shocked

00:48:16 ◼   ► every time I wear the red.

00:48:17 ◼   ► But like, "Oh, but I think it's a really nice red.

00:48:18 ◼   ► I quite like it, but I'm also gonna add the green to my repertoire. I really like the color green for this subtlety

00:48:24 ◼   ► So I think at least for me anyway, I'm gonna do the same thing

00:48:27 ◼   ► I do every year which is I'm gonna buy a bunch and then I'm gonna go six months from now

00:48:31 ◼   ► Oh, I don't think I actually quite bought enough. I need Myke to put them back on sale again

00:48:37 ◼   ► So here we get your subtleties people. They're great cortex merch.com

00:48:44 ◼   ► This episode of Cortex is brought to you by Fitbod, the fitness app that provides a personalized exercise plan, a fitness plan

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00:49:33 ◼   ► Because look, it can be really hard to know how much you should be doing while exercising or even to know what to do.

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00:50:47 ◼   ► of this show and Relay FM.

00:50:49 ◼   ► Talking about great.

00:50:51 ◼   ► Maybe I'm tipping my hand here.

00:50:53 ◼   ► - Oh. - Brand new iPad mini.

00:50:55 ◼   ► - Oh, oh, do you like it, Myke?

00:50:56 ◼   ► Do you have an opinion on the iPad mini?

00:50:57 ◼   ► Have you given away your opinion?

00:50:58 ◼   ► - Oh, do I? - Right at the start.

00:50:59 ◼   ► - Oh, do I?

00:51:00 ◼   ► Do I love my iPad mini?

00:51:02 ◼   ► So this has been out for like a month now,

00:51:05 ◼   ► so at the iPhone event, Apple unveiled an iPad mini,

00:51:09 ◼   ► which by and large is very styled

00:51:12 ◼   ► around the kind of newer iPad aesthetic,

00:51:15 ◼   ► so like maybe closer to the iPad Air.

00:51:17 ◼   ► Has touch ID, full screen, not no bezels,

00:51:21 ◼   ► but much thinner bezels now.

00:51:22 ◼   ► Nice and thin in a few different color ways.

00:51:25 ◼   ► Supports the Apple Pencil, which is a thing

00:51:27 ◼   ► that I think we spoke about on the show in the past

00:51:30 ◼   ► that we thought would never happen.

00:51:32 ◼   ► I think somebody sent me a clip of that at some point over the last couple of weeks,

00:51:35 ◼   ► which is us believing that the Apple Pencil would never come to the iPad at this point

00:51:39 ◼   ► just some time ago.

00:51:41 ◼   ► And yeah, so we have a brand new design.

00:51:44 ◼   ► You have one, right?

00:51:45 ◼   ► You did get one?

00:51:46 ◼   ► Well, okay, so no.

00:51:47 ◼   ► I didn't get one.

00:51:49 ◼   ► My wife ordered one that was delivered here to my parents' house, and so the box was just

00:51:55 ◼   ► sitting there.

00:51:56 ◼   ► And I had no intention of buying the iPad mini.

00:51:59 ◼   ► Do you want to know why, Myke?

00:52:01 ◼   ► Why?

00:52:02 ◼   ► So teeny tiny.

00:52:03 ◼   ► Like that screen, it feels like the screen is barely bigger

00:52:08 ◼   ► than the big phone.

00:52:10 ◼   ► - Well, I don't think that's the case.

00:52:11 ◼   ► I mean, in size, like when you look at it,

00:52:14 ◼   ► like when they say like, oh, these are the sizes,

00:52:16 ◼   ► it's like, oh, sure that's not that much bigger,

00:52:17 ◼   ► but it is a big difference.

00:52:18 ◼   ► But for me, it's not even so much the screen size,

00:52:21 ◼   ► even on the iPad mini, you have iPad OS.

00:52:23 ◼   ► So you're able to do more on that screen.

00:52:27 ◼   ► - I had no intention of getting the mini,

00:52:29 ◼   ► but my mom did get a mini.

00:52:31 ◼   ► And so I saw her using it and I thought, Ooh, that looks interesting.

00:52:36 ◼   ► And then somehow my wife's iPad box got opened and I installed my iCloud

00:52:44 ◼   ► settings onto my wife's iPad mini.

00:52:51 ◼   ► You know, just to like, just to try it out, just to see, you know, my actual

00:52:57 ◼   ► critical test for the iPad mini was.

00:52:59 ◼   ► Is it too small to play Magic on?

00:53:02 ◼   ► The answer is no, it's not too small to play Magic on.

00:53:05 ◼   ► And so I may have been using my wife's iPad mini

00:53:10 ◼   ► quite intensively for the past couple of weeks.

00:53:14 ◼   ► And I may certainly be ordering one for myself

00:53:18 ◼   ► when I go back because I'm very surprised, but I like it.

00:53:23 ◼   ► I like it quite a lot.

00:53:24 ◼   ► It seems extra ridiculous when I put it next

00:53:27 ◼   ► to my giant iPad Pro.

00:53:30 ◼   ► But the thing that has been really interesting to me

00:53:32 ◼   ► is realizing it's just a very nice notebook size.

00:53:37 ◼   ► Like it's almost exactly the same pleasant size

00:53:41 ◼   ► as our theme system journal.

00:53:43 ◼   ► It's like what a great little size

00:53:45 ◼   ► for a little companion iPad.

00:53:47 ◼   ► And yeah, I've been surprised by how much I like it.

00:53:51 ◼   ► And I've been surprised by how much I find myself

00:53:53 ◼   ► reaching for it over my giant iPad Pro.

00:53:57 ◼   ► It's a real win as a product.

00:53:59 ◼   ► I absolutely loathe the volume button placement,

00:54:03 ◼   ► but other than that, I have no complaints

00:54:06 ◼   ► for that iPad mini at all.

00:54:07 ◼   ► Like it's such a great little device.

00:54:09 ◼   ► - Yeah, with the volume button thing,

00:54:11 ◼   ► I feel like they gave and took away at the same time, right?

00:54:14 ◼   ► 'Cause it's weird 'cause it's at the top,

00:54:15 ◼   ► but I don't know if you'd notice this,

00:54:17 ◼   ► but the up and down changes by device orientation.

00:54:20 ◼   ► - Yeah, no, I have noticed that,

00:54:22 ◼   ► but here's the thing that kills me.

00:54:24 ◼   ► Yeah, okay, yeah, great idea.

00:54:27 ◼   ► I have no problem with that.

00:54:29 ◼   ► I get why they did it.

00:54:29 ◼   ► It helps make the volume button placement less weird.

00:54:32 ◼   ► But now it bothers me that my big iPad

00:54:35 ◼   ► doesn't work that way, right?

00:54:37 ◼   ► It's like, guys, this is a software thing.

00:54:40 ◼   ► You should make all the volume buttons work this way

00:54:42 ◼   ► so that the one on the top is--

00:54:43 ◼   ► - Yeah, it doesn't really make sense

00:54:45 ◼   ► that just because you moved it to the top,

00:54:47 ◼   ► now it doesn't make sense.

00:54:48 ◼   ► 'Cause the point is that the buttons are always fixed

00:54:51 ◼   ► and it doesn't matter where they are,

00:54:53 ◼   ► if you change where the iPad's oriented,

00:54:56 ◼   ► the buttons will be in technically different order.

00:54:58 ◼   ► So it should be everywhere.

00:55:00 ◼   ► I don't know why this is just a thing for the iPad mini,

00:55:04 ◼   ► but it is as of right now.

00:55:05 ◼   ► - They should do it on the phone too.

00:55:06 ◼   ► Like if they make the decision that the button on top

00:55:09 ◼   ► is always the up volume button, for the love of God,

00:55:12 ◼   ► do it with all of your volume buttons.

00:55:13 ◼   ► Don't do it with one of your volume buttons.

00:55:16 ◼   ► It's a very strange decision.

00:55:17 ◼   ► - But that's kind of just how that's settled right now.

00:55:20 ◼   ► The iPad mini now is it's the only iPad I'm using.

00:55:24 ◼   ► - Okay, so you used to have just the regular size one,

00:55:26 ◼   ► right, you didn't have the Pro?

00:55:27 ◼   ► - No, I have both Pros.

00:55:29 ◼   ► - Oh, okay.

00:55:30 ◼   ► - So I had the big one,

00:55:32 ◼   ► that was what I always had started with that,

00:55:34 ◼   ► and then with the 11 inch,

00:55:37 ◼   ► I kind of started to move away from it,

00:55:39 ◼   ► and then once I kind of became Big Mac Boy again,

00:55:44 ◼   ► I stopped using the 12.9 inch completely,

00:55:48 ◼   ► and was just using the 11 inch iPad Pro,

00:55:50 ◼   ► pretty much exclusively at home as my home computer,

00:55:53 ◼   ► You know, it's like I'm at home, I'm doing things,

00:55:55 ◼   ► no matter what it is, I'm gonna use my iPad for it.

00:55:57 ◼   ► But now that has transitioned to the iPad Mini.

00:56:00 ◼   ► 'Cause by and large, what I'm doing when I'm at home

00:56:04 ◼   ► is like content consumption stuff.

00:56:07 ◼   ► And I feel like this iPad Mini is like

00:56:09 ◼   ► the best content consumption iPad that's ever been made.

00:56:12 ◼   ► Like screen is just big enough for video,

00:56:15 ◼   ► and it's so small that you can hold it

00:56:17 ◼   ► really comfortably in one hand.

00:56:19 ◼   ► And it's also, whilst very small,

00:56:22 ◼   ► especially when you have the keyboard up in landscape,

00:56:26 ◼   ► you don't really get a lot of information on the screen.

00:56:29 ◼   ► It's big enough that I can respond to some email,

00:56:32 ◼   ► check a couple of spreadsheet things if I have to.

00:56:35 ◼   ► And so I am actually, now, I'm gonna be selling

00:56:39 ◼   ► my big iPad, my 12.9.

00:56:42 ◼   ► - Oh, okay, so it's really going.

00:56:44 ◼   ► - That size class for me is done now.

00:56:47 ◼   ► The smaller iPad Pro, I do like that I have it.

00:56:50 ◼   ► I haven't decided, that may go,

00:56:52 ◼   ► but I've not made up my mind on that yet completely.

00:56:55 ◼   ► Because the Magic Keyboard is such a fantastic tool.

00:56:59 ◼   ► And being able to have an iPad with that keyboard

00:57:03 ◼   ► right there is really great.

00:57:05 ◼   ► I wish that there was some kind of solution

00:57:07 ◼   ► for the iPad Mini.

00:57:08 ◼   ► Not an impossible task, but a very difficult one.

00:57:11 ◼   ► - Like what are you gonna do,

00:57:12 ◼   ► a one-handed Dvorak layout on that keyboard?

00:57:14 ◼   ► - I have used a iPad Mini keyboard before.

00:57:20 ◼   ► So at Bridge Keyboards, they used to make

00:57:21 ◼   ► an iPad Mini keyboard, and very small,

00:57:24 ◼   ► but it could get the job done.

00:57:26 ◼   ► Nevertheless, so I'm not, I don't really know exactly

00:57:29 ◼   ► what the iPad Pro will be for me in the future,

00:57:32 ◼   ► 'cause the question mark that I keep having is like,

00:57:35 ◼   ► they're not gonna update this Mini

00:57:36 ◼   ► as much as they update an iPad Pro.

00:57:38 ◼   ► And if I'm like, oh, I'm all Mini all the time,

00:57:41 ◼   ► nothing's ever gonna change me,

00:57:43 ◼   ► in four years time, I'm gonna be really upset

00:57:45 ◼   ► because they just haven't done anything with it.

00:57:48 ◼   ► So I don't really know exactly what the future holds for me

00:57:51 ◼   ► when it comes to the iPad.

00:57:53 ◼   ► But right now, because this iPad Mini has all of the specs

00:57:56 ◼   ► that I care about the most, you know,

00:57:58 ◼   ► like it's fast and it's capable,

00:58:00 ◼   ► I can do anything I want with it,

00:58:02 ◼   ► it really has just become like,

00:58:04 ◼   ► this is the perfect iPad for what I'm using an iPad for now.

00:58:08 ◼   ► - I'm gonna recommend with the keyboard stuff,

00:58:11 ◼   ► like I think on the Mini,

00:58:13 ◼   ► it's way better to float the keyboard

00:58:16 ◼   ► and use the little floating iPhone-style keyboard instead.

00:58:20 ◼   ► - The swipey guy, yeah, I've been doing that.

00:58:22 ◼   ► I've been doing that more.

00:58:23 ◼   ► I've been doing the split keyboard a bit too,

00:58:25 ◼   ► but the floating one is the best one.

00:58:26 ◼   ► 'Cause you could still just use one thumb

00:58:29 ◼   ► while you're holding it to do all of that.

00:58:31 ◼   ► So that works pretty well.

00:58:32 ◼   ► I have bumped into a few applications

00:58:34 ◼   ► that don't handle that very well.

00:58:36 ◼   ► I don't know why.

00:58:37 ◼   ► I've had some stuff since the iPad mini come out

00:58:39 ◼   ► where there's been some weird UI things that have been going

00:58:43 ◼   ► on, which is starting to get cleared up.

00:58:44 ◼   ► But one of my favorite was the Carrot Weather widget.

00:58:49 ◼   ► Like the widget shows you like a seven day forecast

00:58:52 ◼   ► and it would show me Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday.

00:58:56 ◼   ► 'Cause Thursday, Friday and Saturday would get cut off.

00:58:58 ◼   ► And that was very funny to me, you know,

00:59:01 ◼   ► like just a couple of days

00:59:02 ◼   ► would just get cut out of the widget.

00:59:03 ◼   ► You know, 'cause it is slightly different in size

00:59:07 ◼   ► and all that kind of stuff.

00:59:07 ◼   ► And so with these kinds of things,

00:59:09 ◼   ► 'cause they just drop them all of a sudden,

00:59:11 ◼   ► some developers--

00:59:12 ◼   ► - Yeah, this is always the case

00:59:13 ◼   ► when Apple has a new screen size.

00:59:15 ◼   ► You have to expect for the first month,

00:59:16 ◼   ► there's a lot of like UI weirdness.

00:59:19 ◼   ► Oh, the magic app isn't full screen.

00:59:21 ◼   ► There's weird black bars on the side.

00:59:23 ◼   ► It's like, right, 'cause they had no idea this was coming.

00:59:25 ◼   ► And yeah, I've definitely noticed a few other things

00:59:28 ◼   ► that are a bit weird.

00:59:29 ◼   ► The other thing that like this one reminded me

00:59:32 ◼   ► that I totally forgot that I used to do

00:59:35 ◼   ► is like that split keyboard

00:59:37 ◼   ► where you can use two thumbs to type

00:59:39 ◼   ► on either side of the screen.

00:59:41 ◼   ► I find that a really comfortable input method.

00:59:46 ◼   ► And I forgot that I used to, with one of my very old minis,

00:59:50 ◼   ► sometimes take it out on a walk

00:59:52 ◼   ► and use that double thumb split keyboard

00:59:55 ◼   ► as a way to write down ideas really quickly.

00:59:58 ◼   ► And I've been doing that again

01:00:00 ◼   ► as I've been taking little walks around here.

01:00:02 ◼   ► And I just love it as an input method.

01:00:05 ◼   ► I find it just very pleasant.

01:00:07 ◼   ► It's faster than on the phone with one thumb,

01:00:10 ◼   ► but the device isn't so big that it,

01:00:13 ◼   ► like I'm not gonna take my giant iPad Pro out for a walk

01:00:16 ◼   ► and use like a split keyboard on either side,

01:00:18 ◼   ► like that's dumb.

01:00:19 ◼   ► I just, I really like the size of it.

01:00:21 ◼   ► And I also find with the cover and hallelujah,

01:00:25 ◼   ► the flat sides, like when you fold that cover back

01:00:28 ◼   ► and with the flat sides, it's so comfortable to hold.

01:00:32 ◼   ► And I feel like I have such a solid grip on it

01:00:35 ◼   ► that it is a thing that I can like take out

01:00:38 ◼   ► for a little walk to the local coffee place

01:00:40 ◼   ► and have out while I'm walking and thinking

01:00:43 ◼   ► and writing down some ideas.

01:00:46 ◼   ► It really is just a fantastic little form size.

01:00:48 ◼   ► I think they did such a good job with it.

01:00:50 ◼   ► And I'm with you, Myke.

01:00:52 ◼   ► Like for whatever reason, Apple seems to not enjoy

01:00:55 ◼   ► updating their small devices, but right now,

01:00:59 ◼   ► while it's new and it's still reasonably fast

01:01:01 ◼   ► and can do all the modern things,

01:01:03 ◼   ► like I think it's a fantastic little iPad.

01:01:05 ◼   ► - Maybe if we just convince all the cortexes to buy them,

01:01:09 ◼   ► then maybe they will update it more frequently

01:01:12 ◼   ► 'cause we just need to become complete evangelists

01:01:15 ◼   ► for the iPad mini now, which I have no problem being

01:01:17 ◼   ► because it is an absolutely superb little device.

01:01:21 ◼   ► I have the purple one, we have the Cherry case,

01:01:24 ◼   ► and such a nice little pairing,

01:01:26 ◼   ► and this thing's gonna,

01:01:28 ◼   ► one of the things that I've been struggling with

01:01:30 ◼   ► when thinking about getting back into travel again

01:01:33 ◼   ► is I'm not going to want to have just an iPad with me anymore

01:01:38 ◼   ► which is what I was doing with some trips before.

01:01:41 ◼   ► It was just an iPad.

01:01:43 ◼   ► I'm now going to want to have a MacBook Pro with me,

01:01:46 ◼   ► especially when we talk about the new MacBook Pros

01:01:49 ◼   ► in a minute.

01:01:50 ◼   ► All I'm gonna want is to have a MacBook Pro with me

01:01:54 ◼   ► and I was struggling about would I wanna bring an iPad?

01:01:59 ◼   ► I really love my iPad for everything I do

01:02:03 ◼   ► when I'm stationary, you know?

01:02:05 ◼   ► Like when I'm at home, I barely use my phone.

01:02:08 ◼   ► I use my iPad, you know?

01:02:09 ◼   ► Like that's what I like.

01:02:10 ◼   ► And if I'm on vacation, if I'm hanging out

01:02:14 ◼   ► or we're in the room, like I would wanna use an iPad

01:02:16 ◼   ► for all of those things, right?

01:02:18 ◼   ► Like when I'm not doing work, but I'm not on the go.

01:02:21 ◼   ► Like, you know, this is kind of the way

01:02:22 ◼   ► that I like to consume content and media and stuff.

01:02:27 ◼   ► And if I was gonna be bringing my iPad Pro,

01:02:30 ◼   ► then that's like a big heavy thing

01:02:33 ◼   ► because I'm gonna bring my upper prom,

01:02:34 ◼   ► gonna bring it in the magic keyboard because of course,

01:02:36 ◼   ► and then it's like now I'm bringing two laptops with me.

01:02:38 ◼   ► - Of course, yes. - Right?

01:02:39 ◼   ► - Yeah, 100%, you're bringing two laptops.

01:02:41 ◼   ► - Yeah, and now with this little thing,

01:02:43 ◼   ► it just can just be thrown in the bag

01:02:45 ◼   ► in like the book pocket, not even in the laptop pocket.

01:02:48 ◼   ► Like my tote bag has like a book pocket

01:02:50 ◼   ► where I put my journal and this goes in with it.

01:02:52 ◼   ► Like, and it just feels like nothing.

01:02:54 ◼   ► It doesn't feel like I'm bringing

01:02:55 ◼   ► any additional weight with me.

01:02:57 ◼   ► And it's just, it's made even that kind of equation

01:03:01 ◼   ► way easier for me.

01:03:02 ◼   ► like it's a no-brainer I'll bring this iPad with me it's no problem I could

01:03:05 ◼   ► just put it in my jacket pocket if I want to you could put it in your jacket

01:03:11 ◼   ► pocket oh I put it in my pajama pocket if it's it's an interesting question I

01:03:16 ◼   ► don't know if when I get my mini if it's a thing that I'll bring on trips with me

01:03:20 ◼   ► but I will definitely be tempted I think I won't because my perfect travel

01:03:26 ◼   ► solution is I have the MacBook and I bring the big iPad Pro because when I'm working I use Sidecar

01:03:34 ◼   ► to have the two screens for the computer which is one of my favorite things Apple has ever done.

01:03:41 ◼   ► Like goddamn is that an amazing feature. Hey I mean you could do it with the little one

01:03:46 ◼   ► if you want right I don't know how good it's gonna be you know like I'm actually sitting here right

01:03:51 ◼   ► now I've never even tried I don't even think I've ever seriously ever used Sidecar. Oh my god Sidecar

01:03:57 ◼   ► is the best mic it's my favorite thing ever that's Apple. I have like tried it but I've never like

01:04:03 ◼   ► seriously used it so how do you use it do you set it up as a separate monitor or is it like just for

01:04:09 ◼   ► certain apps? Yeah so it like Sidecar allows it to function as a separate monitor that that's really

01:04:15 ◼   ► It's like you plugged in an external display to your computer.

01:04:18 ◼   ► And that's why, like, you know, on my writing retreat,

01:04:22 ◼   ► it's like I've got my laptop and I have the second monitor.

01:04:25 ◼   ► And that allows me, you know, without having to actually bring a second monitor,

01:04:30 ◼   ► to have a really great working setup where it's like I can have notes on one screen

01:04:35 ◼   ► and a script on the other.

01:04:37 ◼   ► And it's like, yeah, I know I can put them side by side on the same screen,

01:04:41 ◼   ► but it is so much nicer.

01:04:42 ◼   ► It's so much nicer, it's so much easier to be able to spread out across two screens.

01:04:46 ◼   ► Like it really is, like whatever engineers at Apple worked on Sidecar, like thank you.

01:04:51 ◼   ► It is my favorite thing in years and years that Apple did.

01:04:55 ◼   ► And like, it allows me when traveling to just really get so much more out of these things.

01:05:01 ◼   ► The only thing I'm always wondering is like, "Hey, could I connect more than one iPad to my laptop?"

01:05:06 ◼   ► because I would totally consider doing it with three

01:05:10 ◼   ► so I could have two screens on either side of my laptop

01:05:13 ◼   ► when I'm working.

01:05:14 ◼   ► But it would be amazing if I could do that with the Mini.

01:05:18 ◼   ► So do Sidecar to the big iPad

01:05:20 ◼   ► and do Sidecar to the tiny iPad.

01:05:22 ◼   ► I wouldn't be surprised if Sidecar

01:05:24 ◼   ► doesn't actually work with the iPad Mini.

01:05:25 ◼   ► I wouldn't be surprised if they hard-coded that in

01:05:27 ◼   ► to be like, no.

01:05:29 ◼   ► - I got it running right now.

01:05:30 ◼   ► - Oh, it does work.

01:05:31 ◼   ► Oh, that's interesting.

01:05:32 ◼   ► Okay, I'll have to play it.

01:05:33 ◼   ► - Oh hey look, it's like a little touch bar down here.

01:05:35 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:05:36 ◼   ► What's going on?

01:05:37 ◼   ► 'Cause I've got Safari open

01:05:38 ◼   ► and it's showing me all the tabs like a touch bar.

01:05:40 ◼   ► - Yeah, the Sidecar lets you have some little iOS

01:05:44 ◼   ► style controls along the side of your second monitor.

01:05:46 ◼   ► I turn all of those off because I just want to use it

01:05:48 ◼   ► as a second monitor because I want to be able to use

01:05:51 ◼   ► the keyboard on my laptop to just move between

01:05:53 ◼   ► all of the windows and everything very quickly.

01:05:55 ◼   ► I'm not going to touch the screen.

01:05:57 ◼   ► All right, well, when we're done with this show,

01:05:58 ◼   ► I'm going to have to go try Sidecar with my Mini.

01:06:01 ◼   ► I don't think it will be the same,

01:06:03 ◼   ► but I'll be curious to give it a shot.

01:06:04 ◼   ► Let me tell you, it works.

01:06:06 ◼   ► It's tiny.

01:06:08 ◼   ► (both laughing)

01:06:10 ◼   ► Any app I'm putting on this,

01:06:12 ◼   ► I have to significantly scale down in size.

01:06:16 ◼   ► But I don't know, what do you put on the side?

01:06:18 ◼   ► Like what are you putting on sidecar?

01:06:20 ◼   ► Like what are you putting on the display?

01:06:21 ◼   ► - So usually the way it works is I have like

01:06:24 ◼   ► my script writing app on the main display

01:06:26 ◼   ► and then I have notes or Safari on the second display.

01:06:30 ◼   ► And so that's how I'm using it to like divide up the screen.

01:06:33 ◼   ► I think perhaps the only thing that Sidecar would be useful for the Mini is to just run

01:06:37 ◼   ► "carrot weather" in it on full screen so you have a little display that shows you what

01:06:42 ◼   ► the weather is.

01:06:43 ◼   ► I think that's about what the mini-sized screen would be good for.

01:06:46 ◼   ► I just put "slack" there and it's filling up the entire display or whatever but it's

01:06:51 ◼   ► all perfectly readable because the screen's so crisp.

01:06:54 ◼   ► Yeah, I'll be curious to play with it.

01:06:56 ◼   ► But it's just, I don't know, maybe I tend to have apps bigger than I need them maybe

01:07:02 ◼   ► on the Mac in general because I have all the screen space, you know? But like I'm throwing

01:07:07 ◼   ► things on there now and yeah I have to resize them or whatever but it works perfectly well.

01:07:12 ◼   ► Interesting, I might play around with this some more. I think especially when I'm traveling

01:07:15 ◼   ► I might play around with sidecar some more. It's not really something that I've used very

01:07:19 ◼   ► much because you know like I have a like a 30 inch display for my laptop and so I just

01:07:26 ◼   ► use that one. And for my iMac, I have, you know, the iMac is 21 inches and then I have

01:07:32 ◼   ► another display on the side that the Dell display that I was using when I was using

01:07:36 ◼   ► a Mac mini on this desk, I just turned it on its side. So it's a portrait monitor and

01:07:41 ◼   ► I have all of the recording tools just on that window. So like my audio hijack and Skype

01:07:47 ◼   ► and all that kind of stuff is just on that monitor and it's just left alone and never

01:07:50 ◼   ► touched. So, you know, I'm used to using maybe different display situations where, I don't

01:07:56 ◼   ► I don't know, I don't find myself working just from a laptop very much, so I haven't maybe felt the need to even think about what Sidecar would provide me.

01:08:03 ◼   ► Yeah, I love it, but it's also a side effect of I'm using the other full-size one, which with my current laptop doubles the screen real estate, and I just find really, really useful.

01:08:14 ◼   ► Yeah, that is cool, though.

01:08:15 ◼   ► cramps the writing environment. I'm like, "Oh great, I've got more space here for notes and scripts."

01:08:19 ◼   ► I don't have to flip back and forth between the two of them or I don't have to squeeze it so that either of them is

01:08:24 ◼   ► half the single screen size, but...

01:08:26 ◼   ► So I will, because of that, I will always be traveling with whatever the biggest iPad is that Apple makes.

01:08:32 ◼   ► I mean, I'll just put a little asterisk on that in case they make like a table size one.

01:08:35 ◼   ► I'm not gonna travel with that. The biggest one they currently make I'm gonna have. But I could honestly find myself

01:08:41 ◼   ► tempted to bring along the mini as well precisely for what you're saying because it feels like

01:08:46 ◼   ► It's nothing to pack like why not have it?

01:08:50 ◼   ► It's a it's a great little size and there's lots of situations where I could imagine

01:08:54 ◼   ► Just wanting to especially when i'm traveling for a light day just go out with that mini and not take anything else

01:09:02 ◼   ► So I think I will be tempted to travel with it

01:09:04 ◼   ► Even though it is somewhat ridiculous to be traveling with a laptop and two iPads

01:09:09 ◼   ► I don't think I could bring myself to that, honestly.

01:09:12 ◼   ► [Laughter]

01:09:13 ◼   ► I'll be tempted. I'll let you know.

01:09:15 ◼   ► Next time I'm wrapping up all my packing,

01:09:17 ◼   ► I'll let you know what I've decided to bring.

01:09:19 ◼   ► [Music]

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01:11:16 ◼   ► So we had to move this episode because of the travel stuff and then we moved it

01:11:22 ◼   ► again and then we moved it one more time because Apple had another event and I

01:11:28 ◼   ► felt very confident that we would want to talk about what was announced on that

01:11:33 ◼   ► event and we would have been recording just before it and I felt like that I didn't want

01:11:37 ◼   ► to make another episode out of time.

01:11:39 ◼   ► Yeah we didn't want to do two episodes out of time.

01:11:42 ◼   ► It was also partly my fault, I don't know maybe we'll talk about it in more text, but

01:11:45 ◼   ► I did a little bit of like a trip within a trip so I as always am constantly causing

01:11:51 ◼   ► my problems with the scheduling so yeah we bump stuff back but when you told me like

01:11:55 ◼   ► oh there's going to be the MacBook Pro event maybe and we were scheduled to record the

01:12:01 ◼   ► the day before, it's like, well, that just seems silly.

01:12:04 ◼   ► Let's wait and see.

01:12:05 ◼   ► And I don't wanna tip my hand, Myke,

01:12:08 ◼   ► by giving away my opinion right at the start,

01:12:11 ◼   ► but it was great to wait for these MacBooks,

01:12:14 ◼   ► which as far as I can tell have been delivered

01:12:17 ◼   ► directly from heaven by angels to us to use on earth.

01:12:22 ◼   ► - Not that you wanna tip your opinions of it too soon.

01:12:25 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:12:27 ◼   ► They did it, man.

01:12:28 ◼   ► They done did it though, right?

01:12:30 ◼   ► So we are recording just before we get them.

01:12:33 ◼   ► Like maybe by the time this episode's out,

01:12:35 ◼   ► I might have mine, I kind of specked mine out

01:12:38 ◼   ► in such a way that it's taking a little bit longer.

01:12:41 ◼   ► Like I didn't just go with one of the default options,

01:12:44 ◼   ► like I made some choices, so it's kind of coming

01:12:47 ◼   ► towards the end of next week for me,

01:12:50 ◼   ► maybe the week after that.

01:12:51 ◼   ► But these computers are just obscene

01:12:55 ◼   ► in the greatest possible way.

01:12:56 ◼   ► I'm so excited, man.

01:12:58 ◼   ► I was very fortunate because I was out traveling and filming and doing a couple things on the actual day.

01:13:04 ◼   ► But I got back to my hotel room just in time.

01:13:08 ◼   ► It was, again, it was perfect.

01:13:09 ◼   ► Like, the angels were guiding me to the exact perfect moment that I wanted to be at

01:13:14 ◼   ► because when I turned on the Apple event, they literally just said the one final word about their AirPods

01:13:22 ◼   ► and then they're like, "And now let's talk about the Macs. Great! I've arrived. Perfect."

01:13:26 ◼   ► And it was 30 minutes of glory.

01:13:29 ◼   ► Like rarely have I been so happy at an Apple event

01:13:34 ◼   ► for all of the stuff that they did with the laptops.

01:13:37 ◼   ► It like, it just kept getting better and better.

01:13:40 ◼   ► And like, I have been dying for an upgrade

01:13:44 ◼   ► to my MacBook Pro.

01:13:46 ◼   ► And it's like, man, they just,

01:13:48 ◼   ► they delivered on every single mark.

01:13:52 ◼   ► And, you know, I know a lot of professionals

01:13:55 ◼   ► we'll talk about this sort of thing, but my experience in particular was

01:13:59 ◼   ► You know that day I had been out. I had been filming something

01:14:04 ◼   ► I was driving so I had two dash cams recording and I had another

01:14:09 ◼   ► camera that was running in the car and I had like another camera that I was using and you know what I got back to the

01:14:16 ◼   ► hotel room with

01:14:17 ◼   ► handfuls of SD cards that I needed to unload onto my current laptop

01:14:23 ◼   ► And so I'm like when I'm watching this event and they said oh and we've put an SD card reader right in the laptop

01:14:29 ◼   ► I'm like, oh my god. Thank you so much

01:14:32 ◼   ► like

01:14:35 ◼   ► No port could be more

01:14:37 ◼   ► Welcomely received by me than that right now in this moment when I've got a pile of these freaking things and it's so annoying to

01:14:45 ◼   ► Use dongles and adapters to try to get it through and they're always so much more flaky

01:14:50 ◼   ► Like that's just the most minor of things that they put an SD card in but like like I couldn't have been more primed

01:14:57 ◼   ► To be thrilled at that like one edition in that moment then than I was I was like, oh my god

01:15:04 ◼   ► Please keep talking about these computers. Tell me more and boy did they have more?

01:15:09 ◼   ► Yeah, I think the whole ports thing is interesting because what they did with it

01:15:13 ◼   ► Really?

01:15:13 ◼   ► They made a bunch of niches of people happy and then someone like me

01:15:20 ◼   ► who very rarely needs an SD card or HDMI port,

01:15:25 ◼   ► but I do need them, you know, maybe once a year,

01:15:29 ◼   ► I'll need it or whatever.

01:15:30 ◼   ► So it's like, they make people who really need it

01:15:33 ◼   ► really happy and then people like me,

01:15:34 ◼   ► it's kind of like, okay, great.

01:15:37 ◼   ► I know it's, I have it now.

01:15:38 ◼   ► Like, you know, like I'm not like super excited about it.

01:15:40 ◼   ► They could have just given me,

01:15:42 ◼   ► honestly, I would have like probably preferred

01:15:45 ◼   ► two more USB-C ports or Thunderbolt 4 ports than those,

01:15:49 ◼   ► - For me, right, like why not?

01:15:51 ◼   ► Basically everything I own now is either that

01:15:54 ◼   ► or I've replaced cables, I've done that a lot.

01:15:56 ◼   ► I have USB-B to USB-C connectors

01:16:00 ◼   ► for some of my audio gear, right?

01:16:01 ◼   ► So like just over time I've been slowly

01:16:04 ◼   ► changing them over anyway, but also I guess like most people

01:16:08 ◼   ► I've invested in docking solutions, you know?

01:16:10 ◼   ► So like I'm not gonna change any of that,

01:16:13 ◼   ► like when I'm at my desk I have a dock

01:16:15 ◼   ► and it has all the ports that I need or whatever,

01:16:17 ◼   ► which is awesome, but now I'm just pleased

01:16:19 ◼   ► that they have done it for the people that need it.

01:16:21 ◼   ► - I totally agree with that.

01:16:22 ◼   ► And when they were talking about the HDMI port,

01:16:24 ◼   ► I'm literally not even sure what that's for.

01:16:27 ◼   ► I think that's for external displays or something?

01:16:29 ◼   ► I'm not like-- - Displays,

01:16:30 ◼   ► projectors in offices is a really big use case.

01:16:34 ◼   ► You need to connect to a projector to do your presentation.

01:16:37 ◼   ► Having a HDMI port is massively helpful

01:16:40 ◼   ► for that kind of stuff.

01:16:41 ◼   ► - Oh, right, okay, so I guess that's the replacement

01:16:44 ◼   ► for those old-- - VGA.

01:16:46 ◼   ► - Pin, yeah, the VGA pin connectors.

01:16:48 ◼   ► Oh, okay, all right, that makes sense then.

01:16:50 ◼   ► But yeah, I thought like, oh, somebody somewhere

01:16:52 ◼   ► is really happy about this HDMI port

01:16:54 ◼   ► and I'm really happy about the SD card slot

01:16:56 ◼   ► and this is what a Pro machine should have,

01:16:59 ◼   ► is like these solutions for people.

01:17:01 ◼   ► So yeah, back when I used to get really annoyed about USB-C,

01:17:05 ◼   ► I did look into like a whole bunch of the limitations

01:17:08 ◼   ► and I do think the way the spec is for USB-C,

01:17:11 ◼   ► I don't think we're ever really going to see

01:17:14 ◼   ► more than four USB-C ports on a laptop,

01:17:18 ◼   ► just because of the power delivery requirements for those versions.

01:17:23 ◼   ► So I think they are kind of always limited to four.

01:17:26 ◼   ► Like I agree with you, more USB-C ports would be great,

01:17:30 ◼   ► but I think I have a better technical understanding of why nothing on the face

01:17:35 ◼   ► of the earth has more than four USB-C ports, which is hugely frustrating,

01:17:40 ◼   ► but at least I can now accept it for what it is.

01:17:43 ◼   ► I will say for me, technically I'm gaining one,

01:17:46 ◼   ► 'cause my 13-inch MacBook Pro only has two USB-C ports.

01:17:51 ◼   ► And so the new 14 has three and then MagSafe,

01:17:55 ◼   ► which I'm pretty excited about coming back

01:17:57 ◼   ► as a charging option.

01:17:59 ◼   ► Like MagSafe is a better charging connector than USB-C.

01:18:04 ◼   ► Like it's way nicer.

01:18:06 ◼   ► And I like that they didn't create

01:18:08 ◼   ► an integrated brick this time.

01:18:09 ◼   ► Like it's just a cable.

01:18:11 ◼   ► It's like USB-C on one end, MagSafe on the other end.

01:18:14 ◼   ► That's pretty sweet.

01:18:15 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm happy about that.

01:18:17 ◼   ► Like while I am trying to very slowly convert everything in my life to USB-C

01:18:22 ◼   ► and I want to limit the number of connectors that exist, MagSafe is the

01:18:26 ◼   ► only one they could bring back that I'm happy to add to the list of things.

01:18:32 ◼   ► Because again, especially while traveling, it is like, like even right now, I'm in

01:18:37 ◼   ► my parents, uh, I'm in my parents' walk-in closet with a bunch of clothes,

01:18:42 ◼   ► uh, to try to dampen the echo.

01:18:44 ◼   ► so the recording is much better this time.

01:18:46 ◼   ► But like, when you're using your laptop on the road

01:18:50 ◼   ► in a bunch of weird spots, like, right now,

01:18:52 ◼   ► I have a USB-C wire that is just,

01:18:55 ◼   ► it's under tension to reach the plug on the other side,

01:18:58 ◼   ► and it is just begging for me to trip over it

01:19:02 ◼   ► and smash the laptop and mess up the recording gear.

01:19:04 ◼   ► So like, MagSafe is the one where,

01:19:07 ◼   ► like that additional feature of just breaking upon contact

01:19:11 ◼   ► is really useful and I have totally on the road like had some real dicey moments of oh god

01:19:18 ◼   ► the laptop's about to go flying so I'm very happy to have that back as well and you know it really

01:19:26 ◼   ► does feel like a useful additional connector to have for people who are using the laptops in

01:19:34 ◼   ► unusual situations where the probability of snagging the charging cord is way higher so

01:19:40 ◼   ► Yeah, I'm very very happy to bring that back.

01:19:43 ◼   ► It is funny to call it MagSafe.

01:19:46 ◼   ► Like to have both products called MagSafe because

01:19:48 ◼   ► there is no safe part in the phone.

01:19:52 ◼   ► Like there's no safe.

01:19:54 ◼   ► Like if you trip over a MagSafe connector attached to a phone,

01:19:57 ◼   ► the phone is going with the connector.

01:19:59 ◼   ► It's funny, I totally forgot that Apple called the other one MagSafe

01:20:02 ◼   ► because yes, that doesn't make any sense at all and...

01:20:05 ◼   ► It's funny.

01:20:06 ◼   ► I'm currently going to put that one as one of their weirdest connectors.

01:20:10 ◼   ► I still feel like I don't really know what they're up to with that iPhone magsafe connector

01:20:14 ◼   ► But whatever we'll see. It's like wireless charging, but make it prettier. Yeah, it's wireless charging, but it's connected

01:20:22 ◼   ► I don't know. But also like why can't I put that magsafe connector on the back of my iPad mini?

01:20:26 ◼   ► Shouldn't I be able to do that? No, I really wished they would have done that. That would be so sweet

01:20:31 ◼   ► At least I see you at least they put USB C on the iPad mini though. So, you know, it's not all bad

01:20:36 ◼   ► Yeah, oh, let me just minorly complain about pro stuff as well. Let me tell you when you've shot several hours of

01:20:43 ◼   ► HDR video footage on your new pro phone and you go to

01:20:48 ◼   ► Download that onto your computer over a lightning connector boy

01:20:52 ◼   ► Are you made aware of how slow lightning is for transferring big file sizes?

01:20:58 ◼   ► I've never been more annoyed. I was like god damn it guys

01:21:01 ◼   ► If you're gonna have a pro phone that's shooting files that are like 50 gigs in size

01:21:06 ◼   ► You should probably put a USB C connector on your phone if you really want people to be using this for video production

01:21:12 ◼   ► but anyway, we're not complaining about the phones we're talking about laptops from heaven, which are just

01:21:18 ◼   ► Fantastic, like I think the other thing that I was really happy about is those processors that they put in there are

01:21:26 ◼   ► Totally nuts like the numbers that they were giving for the faster render times

01:21:31 ◼   ► Again, I could not have been more receptive to this because like I mentioned really quickly when I was working on that poem video

01:21:38 ◼   ► Because that was an unusually long video and it also had an unusually large number of cuts

01:21:44 ◼   ► And it was doing more complicated things like mixing in real footage with pre-rendered animation stuff that took

01:21:52 ◼   ► Forever to render the final version on my computer

01:21:56 ◼   ► I think it was like four hours to render the final version of that thing at full quality and

01:22:02 ◼   ► These are laptops for professionals. I'm very glad to have this MacBook Pro, but Dan like those four hours

01:22:08 ◼   ► Definitely meant like some days. It was just too late to be able to upload the video anyway

01:22:14 ◼   ► So it would cost me a day and then I'd be working the next morning

01:22:17 ◼   ► So it's like holy moly if there's a laptop that can cut a five-hour project down into a one-hour project

01:22:23 ◼   ► It's like Tim Apple. You can't take my money fast enough to get that laptop

01:22:29 ◼   ► I just opened my wallet and I told him to reach in and take however much he wanted out and give me the

01:22:34 ◼   ► Fastest laptop they made because yeah, it really matters for

01:22:39 ◼   ► rendering big complicated video projects and

01:22:44 ◼   ► That doesn't matter all the time, but when it's a problem, it can be a real critical problem and really delay a project

01:22:50 ◼   ► So I was just thrilled with that. They were talking about like these laptops with the M1

01:22:56 ◼   ► Pro or Max chips can render

01:22:58 ◼   ► I don't remember which one is probably the M1 Max but can render a video faster than a Mac Pro with an afterburner card in it

01:23:05 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, which is just that's obscene. I think people under appreciate how much Apple is

01:23:13 ◼   ► quietly pushing into the entertainment industry on the production side

01:23:18 ◼   ► It's little things like this that like the you know

01:23:21 ◼   ► The reason that it can render that so much faster is because they designed part of the max

01:23:26 ◼   ► processor to specifically handle the pro res format

01:23:31 ◼   ► Which is what Final Cut uses when you're working on videos

01:23:35 ◼   ► You know, it's like this is all the stuff that I use

01:23:38 ◼   ► And so this is Apple at their best where it's like if they control the whole stack

01:23:43 ◼   ► They've made Final Cut which is the software you're using to make videos. They've helped design the video

01:23:50 ◼   ► format that the program works in and then they can also design the chip that it's running on to have

01:23:58 ◼   ► hardware designed to accelerate just this part

01:24:02 ◼   ► like that's why they're able to hit these totally crazy numbers and

01:24:06 ◼   ► I think anyone who works in the entertainment industry has to take notice at that kind of stuff because long render times

01:24:14 ◼   ► are total killers for projects. And again, my videos are short and small. Like I know people who make longer videos

01:24:21 ◼   ► you know and they have to

01:24:23 ◼   ► especially if they're traveling and they're just using a laptop like they have to dedicate a whole day just to rendering out like a

01:24:29 ◼   ► two-hour video file. I remember that MKBHD would take an iMac Pro with him to events.

01:24:35 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:24:35 ◼   ► Because he used to try and use a laptop and it would mean he couldn't upload before he would leave.

01:24:42 ◼   ► Because he's doing everything in like wild 8K and all that kind of stuff, you know?

01:24:46 ◼   ► Yeah, and people hear something like that and they think it's crazy,

01:24:48 ◼   ► but this is also where like you have to think about it in a professional setting,

01:24:52 ◼   ► where the, you know, the difference to MKBHD about being the first or the fifth to upload a video about a brand new technology product,

01:25:01 ◼   ► Like the difference to him is worth way more than like the cost of bringing that

01:25:06 ◼   ► iMac Pro with him to render the files. It's just interesting

01:25:11 ◼   ► like I look at what Apple is doing and I think they are really trying to take market share from

01:25:18 ◼   ► Adobe with this key selling feature of like

01:25:22 ◼   ► But look how fast we can render out the final video project

01:25:28 ◼   ► Why do you think they're doing this? Because it just felt like they didn't care for a while.

01:25:32 ◼   ► Do you have any kind of feeling on that? Like, I agree with what you're saying.

01:25:36 ◼   ► Like, they're building into the chips, which is really super interesting, the ability to handle all this stuff better.

01:25:43 ◼   ► But like, it feels like it can't be that many people. Like, it's like an interesting thing to go to these kinds of levels for it.

01:25:50 ◼   ► So here's my estimation.

01:25:52 ◼   ► Again, just from like being a youtuber. I'm on the edges of some people who work in the real entertainment industry, you know on like

01:26:00 ◼   ► big projects.

01:26:03 ◼   ► And what I, my take on this is yeah, you're right

01:26:07 ◼   ► this isn't a huge market in the sense of the laptop market is tiny compared to the iPhone market and then I think when you're

01:26:15 ◼   ► looking at people who work in professional video production that is much smaller again than the laptop market.

01:26:22 ◼   ► So it's not a huge number of people, but the budgets for big proper professional like

01:26:29 ◼   ► Hollywood and TV and Netflix productions, they're huge.

01:26:35 ◼   ► And so what I think Apple is trying to go for here is the market is not big, but for

01:26:42 ◼   ► those people, the cost of the hardware is a trivial part of the whole cost of the production.

01:26:51 ◼   ► So like you're making a TV show and even if we take a look at the Mac Pro and it's like,

01:26:57 ◼   ► okay, you say you fully spec out a Mac Pro and it's 20 grand.

01:27:01 ◼   ► That's like nothing in the budget for making a TV show for a streaming service.

01:27:06 ◼   ► It's like a trivial cost compared to everything else.

01:27:10 ◼   ► So I think Apple is pushing in this way because it's just a market for whom the cost of the

01:27:19 ◼   ► product is almost irrelevant compared to their other costs.

01:27:24 ◼   ► And also, the computers that are rendering the final products are very frequently the

01:27:31 ◼   ► bottleneck for lots of other things to happen.

01:27:35 ◼   ► They're the bottlenecks for, say, being able to render a file of the production in process

01:27:42 ◼   ► for one of the executive producers to watch.

01:27:45 ◼   ► because you can't have him like watch your raw version that you're editing,

01:27:49 ◼   ► you need to render something for him to be able to see.

01:27:52 ◼   ► And if you're working on like a big complicated thing, that's going to take a long time.

01:27:55 ◼   ► You know, let alone whenever you have a deadline for a TV series or a movie,

01:27:59 ◼   ► it's like, "Boy, you better hit it."

01:28:01 ◼   ► And guess what?

01:28:03 ◼   ► You know, like I know this from my own teeny tiny projects.

01:28:06 ◼   ► After you render the file,

01:28:07 ◼   ► you better watch it through all the way to make sure there wasn't a last minute mistake.

01:28:12 ◼   ► And if you make a last minute mistake,

01:28:14 ◼   ► You have to re-render the whole thing.

01:28:16 ◼   ► And so as you get closer to whatever the deadline is,

01:28:20 ◼   ► if you're working on something complicated and it takes a day and a half to render,

01:28:25 ◼   ► and then there's an error after it's done and it takes another day and a half,

01:28:29 ◼   ► like you can be in trouble real fast

01:28:33 ◼   ► and there's huge amounts of money on the line for hitting production deadlines.

01:28:38 ◼   ► So that's like, I don't know for sure,

01:28:40 ◼   ► but that's my feeling about why is Apple pushing in this way

01:28:45 ◼   ► is they've identified a market that has a problem they can totally solve

01:28:51 ◼   ► because they control the complete stack

01:28:54 ◼   ► and who is also willing to pay almost any amount of money

01:28:59 ◼   ► to make this problem significantly better.

01:29:02 ◼   ► So I would easily predict that these laptops,

01:29:07 ◼   ► like it's their first go at doing this,

01:29:10 ◼   ► But I expect when they come out with their next Mac Pro, with their new chips,

01:29:16 ◼   ► the numbers that they're going to be able to put up for rendering projects on Final Cut,

01:29:21 ◼   ► I think those numbers are going to be insane.

01:29:25 ◼   ► They're going to be able to say like, "We can render a video file in 1/50th the time!"

01:29:30 ◼   ► And that's where like, those Mac Pros are not for normal people.

01:29:36 ◼   ► I think everything the way Apple talked about their old Mac Pros,

01:29:39 ◼   ► and I bet even more so for the next one.

01:29:42 ◼   ► Like, no normal person should buy a Mac Pro.

01:29:45 ◼   ► They are pitching this as a solution

01:29:47 ◼   ► for the entertainment industry.

01:29:49 ◼   ► - I think that's gonna become even more so.

01:29:52 ◼   ► - What do you mean?

01:29:53 ◼   ► - If you wanted a really powerful Mac,

01:29:55 ◼   ► oh man, I want the most power in my Macintosh,

01:29:57 ◼   ► or like, you know, like, oh, I make some YouTube videos

01:30:00 ◼   ► every now and again, like it's not my,

01:30:02 ◼   ► it's like a side thing for me,

01:30:04 ◼   ► but I wanna spend, not waste time,

01:30:06 ◼   ► or you know, like, or whatever,

01:30:07 ◼   ► Like you get a Mac Pro, right?

01:30:09 ◼   ► You're like, oh, I just like to own the fastest Mac I can own.

01:30:12 ◼   ► I'll get a Mac Pro.

01:30:14 ◼   ► I just don't think that many of those reasons

01:30:16 ◼   ► are going to exist anymore because the laptops are

01:30:19 ◼   ► so incredibly powerful.

01:30:21 ◼   ► The next iMac revisions are going

01:30:22 ◼   ► to be so incredibly powerful.

01:30:24 ◼   ► And that's before you even start getting to the Mac Pro.

01:30:26 ◼   ► So like I think it's going to become even more edge of edge

01:30:29 ◼   ► case.

01:30:29 ◼   ► Right.

01:30:30 ◼   ► I see what you're saying.

01:30:31 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah.

01:30:31 ◼   ► Just as a little example, but even if it's come up

01:30:34 ◼   ► on this trip is like, "Oh, the new MacBook Pros,

01:30:38 ◼   ► the display allows you to actually color grade

01:30:42 ◼   ► properly to HDR footage."

01:30:44 ◼   ► On the current MacBooks, you can kind of do it

01:30:48 ◼   ► and you'll know it'll be mostly okay,

01:30:50 ◼   ► but it's not actually gonna be the way that it really looks.

01:30:54 ◼   ► It's like, "Oh, on the new ones,

01:30:55 ◼   ► you can properly grade HDR footage to the right color."

01:30:59 ◼   ► Why would they do that?

01:31:01 ◼   ► Like, that's not a feature that basically

01:31:02 ◼   ► anyone in the world cares about,

01:31:04 ◼   ► unless you're in video production.

01:31:06 ◼   ► And even there, you have to be in pretty high-end video production to care about that.

01:31:10 ◼   ► I do think that there is a certain type of buyer, which includes me,

01:31:14 ◼   ► which is like, "I just like knowing I own a computer that can do that."

01:31:17 ◼   ► Oh yeah, yeah. Obviously there's a way that they can talk about it,

01:31:20 ◼   ► and it's just like, "Oh, it's cool to know that your computer now has a trillion-to-one contrast ratio."

01:31:26 ◼   ► Like, they love being able to say those numbers.

01:31:28 ◼   ► But I'm just saying, getting it to the point where it can color-grade HDR footage

01:31:33 ◼   ► is a very different and also very specific thing to hit

01:31:38 ◼   ► that's different from just like,

01:31:39 ◼   ► we made the colors even better.

01:31:41 ◼   ► So I just feel like the messaging here is really like,

01:31:45 ◼   ► it kind of reminds me of how ages ago,

01:31:47 ◼   ► Apple really made a push into schools

01:31:50 ◼   ► to be in the education world.

01:31:53 ◼   ► It just feels to me like they're trying to do that now,

01:31:56 ◼   ► that they're trying to push

01:31:57 ◼   ► into the entertainment production world.

01:32:01 ◼   ► And I suspect, like, Apple has a little bit of a problem

01:32:05 ◼   ► if you compare Final Cut to Adobe software, which is...

01:32:09 ◼   ► I've used both.

01:32:10 ◼   ► I know lots of people who are familiar with both.

01:32:13 ◼   ► I would say the general consensus is that Final Cut

01:32:16 ◼   ► is much more pleasant to use,

01:32:19 ◼   ► but it's a program that works best if you are an individual.

01:32:23 ◼   ► You can use it in Teams,

01:32:25 ◼   ► but it is a little bit more work to do that.

01:32:27 ◼   ► Whereas Adobe is clearly designed

01:32:30 ◼   ► as like a team's first product.

01:32:32 ◼   ► But I think like maybe what Apple's trying to go for here

01:32:35 ◼   ► is they're trying to catch people

01:32:37 ◼   ► like they did in education,

01:32:39 ◼   ► where someone is at the start of their career

01:32:43 ◼   ► in entertainment,

01:32:44 ◼   ► maybe they're a person who has a YouTube channel

01:32:46 ◼   ► and they're a one-person show,

01:32:48 ◼   ► or they're just an influencer

01:32:50 ◼   ► who's like using their computer to put together videos.

01:32:53 ◼   ► And as that person grows, banking on,

01:32:57 ◼   ► oh, they use Final Cuts

01:32:59 ◼   ► and they got familiar with this and they're using a Mac

01:33:02 ◼   ► and then as these like new people get larger in the entertainment world

01:33:07 ◼   ► they're the ones since they like and use Final Cut who can enforce that like

01:33:11 ◼   ► "Okay, my little production company, we're gonna standardize on Final Cut"

01:33:14 ◼   ► "We're not gonna standardize on Adobe because it's what I know"

01:33:18 ◼   ► I don't know if that's true but that's kind of my guess

01:33:21 ◼   ► is I feel like maybe they're trying to catch people at the start

01:33:24 ◼   ► get them familiar with Final Cut by having all of these huge advantages

01:33:28 ◼   ► Like everyone knows if you're making videos, final cut on a Mac is huge and fast.

01:33:34 ◼   ► And then, you know, standardize your small production house when you become successful around this product.

01:33:39 ◼   ► And then when you're running a production house and you start dealing with much much bigger budgets,

01:33:44 ◼   ► you don't care at all about how much the new Mac Pro costs,

01:33:47 ◼   ► you just want the fastest computer that can render it.

01:33:49 ◼   ► So, I don't know, I could be wrong, but that's kind of my guess about what Apple's strategy is here.

01:33:53 ◼   ► And I just feel like lots of things are pointing in that direction.

01:33:57 ◼   ► And this new amazing MacBook Pro feels to me like it has a lot of things pointing in that direction.

01:34:03 ◼   ► Alright Gary, let's finish up on a #AskCortex question for today.

01:34:07 ◼   ► I have one for you from Eli.

01:34:10 ◼   ► Eli wants to know, "Does Grey still listen to Girl Talks all day?"

01:34:15 ◼   ► I was just re-listening to an old episode of the show and I'd totally forgotten about this album.

01:34:19 ◼   ► Yeah, actually good timing for this question because

01:34:23 ◼   ► My various "I listen to songs on repeat" go in and out of favor over the course of months and years.

01:34:30 ◼   ► And Girl Talk All Day had actually been really out of favor for a long time.

01:34:34 ◼   ► But actually, on this most recent writing trip, it came back in a big way.

01:34:40 ◼   ► - Oh! - Like, I listened to it just a ton.

01:34:43 ◼   ► And I think it's not a coincidence.

01:34:47 ◼   ► I think it happened precisely because, like, I just really 100% needed to get right back into writing

01:34:56 ◼   ► when normally I would just collapse after a big video like the poem video.

01:35:01 ◼   ► And so, yeah, it actually was the first thing I queued up, like, the morning after that poem video went out.

01:35:06 ◼   ► It's like, I got up. It's like, okay.

01:35:09 ◼   ► Alright, dude, time to get to work.

01:35:11 ◼   ► And so I put on my headphones and I let up girl talk all day and, yeah, I hadn't listened to it in a really long time.

01:35:16 ◼   ► But I will say like goddamn I love that album. I think it is total genius and

01:35:21 ◼   ► I listen to it on repeat in the mountains of Switzerland

01:35:26 ◼   ► probably

01:35:28 ◼   ► 200 times

01:35:30 ◼   ► I haven't listened to it in a really long time

01:35:32 ◼   ► I don't know if it's something that like you just put on in the background or just no it's focused

01:35:37 ◼   ► It's to me. It feels so specific

01:35:39 ◼   ► Yeah, you you you've got to be like I want to listen to this album now, right?

01:35:44 ◼   ► Like I don't think it's like, you know, just like,

01:35:46 ◼   ► like for me, like one of the things

01:35:48 ◼   ► that I was talking about around that time,

01:35:49 ◼   ► I think was Tycho, Tycho, T-Y-C-H-O.

01:35:54 ◼   ► And I can put that on in both instances.

01:35:57 ◼   ► I can put his music on when I'm just hanging out,

01:36:00 ◼   ► or I can put it on when I'm trying to focus for work.

01:36:02 ◼   ► Like it works for both of those for me.

01:36:04 ◼   ► 'Cause it's more like, it's got, you know,

01:36:07 ◼   ► it's got a good beat to it that can pump me up,

01:36:09 ◼   ► but it also is pretty chill.

01:36:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, he was a great recommendation of yours.

01:36:13 ◼   ► I've added a ton of stuff of his to my playlist.

01:36:16 ◼   ► And he is on the low-fi chill-hop adjacent kind of music.

01:36:24 ◼   ► It does hit both marks.

01:36:25 ◼   ► You can have it as background music to just relax, and you can also have it as music while

01:36:30 ◼   ► you're working, which is a hard line to straddle for me, but he definitely does that.

01:36:36 ◼   ► But the Girl Talk album is very much not background music, I feel like.

01:36:41 ◼   ► It's a lot more in your face.

01:36:43 ◼   ► That's a way to put it, for sure.

01:36:46 ◼   ► Have you tried out any of the spatial audio, Dolby Atmos music, that Apple Music has?

01:36:51 ◼   ► I don't know, I don't think I've listened to any of the spatial audio music.

01:36:54 ◼   ► I've just listened to the spatial audio when watching TV sometimes, which is very odd,

01:36:59 ◼   ► and I'm still not sure about it.

01:37:01 ◼   ► Like I don't know why this audio needs to sound like it's coming out of my iPad.

01:37:05 ◼   ► I would just prefer it to sound like amazing surround sound, but...

01:37:08 ◼   ► The music is more that. The music is more surround sound than coming from the phone or whatever.

01:37:13 ◼   ► And it's kind of, that's how it's made to be. Like the music is meant to kind of like surround you.

01:37:19 ◼   ► That's, you know, there's more of that.

01:37:21 ◼   ► I don't know. I mean, maybe I have, I've said before, I feel like I have a real tin ear for music.

01:37:26 ◼   ► I'm not a very musical person. And so it may be that I totally did listen to it and was just completely not aware.

01:37:32 ◼   ► I wouldn't be surprised by that.

01:37:34 ◼   ► - This is something like I've had this at home,

01:37:37 ◼   ► I said to Adina like, "Oh, try this."

01:37:38 ◼   ► And she just doesn't hear it.

01:37:40 ◼   ► And it's just different people reacting in different ways.

01:37:42 ◼   ► Like I have friends who hate it and I really like it.

01:37:47 ◼   ► I think it's just, it's definitely a personal preference

01:37:52 ◼   ► thing about how you relate to it.

01:37:53 ◼   ► - Myke, you send me some hip tracks.

01:37:57 ◼   ► - Awesome.

01:37:58 ◼   ► - And I'll give them a listen.

01:37:59 ◼   ► - All right, I'll find some hip tracks for you.

01:38:01 ◼   ► - I'll load them up on my turntable

01:38:02 ◼   ► and tell you what I think.

01:38:04 ◼   ► - You're gonna spin the wheels of steel.

01:38:06 ◼   ► - Oh sure, yes, that's exactly right.

01:38:08 ◼   ► That's what I'm gonna do.

01:38:09 ◼   ► - Next time, State of the Apps for 2022.

01:38:13 ◼   ► - Oh my God, it's the end of the year almost, Myke.

01:38:14 ◼   ► - Yeah, we've got two more.

01:38:16 ◼   ► All right, we're moving into the busy period, I guess.

01:38:21 ◼   ► From busy period to busy period.

01:38:22 ◼   ► So State of the Apps 2022.

01:38:24 ◼   ► So if you haven't listened

01:38:26 ◼   ► to a State of the Apps episode before,

01:38:28 ◼   ► I maybe recommend trying like the 2021 episode.

01:38:31 ◼   ► We basically go through our devices and talk about all the services and applications that we enjoy using.

01:38:38 ◼   ► I think we maybe will touch on some iOS 15 stuff like the focus mode stuff.

01:38:43 ◼   ► We might talk about that as part of the discussion for this one.

01:38:47 ◼   ► So I will ask if anybody has any like app service system kind of related like workflow-y questions

01:38:54 ◼   ► related to how we get our work done with the devices and apps that we use.

01:38:58 ◼   ► You can send in some #AskQuartexQuestions for those and we might pick some out to answer in the episode.

01:39:04 ◼   ► And just before we go, don't forget to get your subtlety and subtle sweater.

01:39:08 ◼   ► It's only available for two weeks. Go to quartexmerch.com.

01:39:13 ◼   ► Puppy, I need to put you down.

01:39:17 ◼   ► Ugh!

01:39:17 ◼   ► Sorry, Lucy's very heavy.

01:39:19 ◼   ► [BLANK_AUDIO]