0:00:00[phone ringing]
0:00:02Hello, Myke.
0:00:03Oh, God.
0:00:04How you doing?
0:00:04I'm good.
0:00:05You look very nervous.
0:00:06You're just in this black room now.
0:00:10Is every inch of this office now covered in those panels?
0:00:14Please don't touch them.
0:00:15You don't like me touching the panels, Myke?
0:00:16We've been through this before.
0:00:17Please don't touch the panels.
0:00:18Because what's happening is we're on video right now,
0:00:21and you're going to touch one of those panels.
0:00:22It's going to fall down and hit you on the head.
0:00:24Now look--
0:00:24It's going to knock you unconscious,
0:00:25and I can't do anything.
0:00:26Don't do that.
0:00:27You can see it's really solid, right?
0:00:29Oh my god. Yeah, it looks great.
0:00:32Anyway, no, Myke. I wouldn't be crazy. I wouldn't cover my entire room with nothing but soundproof panels.
0:00:40I've just built a little monolith at the back of my room that I'm now cozy and ensconced inside.
0:00:47Oh god.
0:00:47It gets very warm in here.
0:00:49Yeah, I bet it does. At least you sound great.
0:00:52That's what matters, Myke. It's all for the show.
0:00:57I dropped my black keyboard. I brought from the iMac Pro that graphite wireless keyboard.
0:01:02I brought that home to use in the recording studio.
0:01:04Or the recording monolith, I guess.
0:01:07- The recording box. We need a name for it, but I don't know what it is yet.
0:01:12- Yeah, it's a black monolith. Which is great because it's wireless.
0:01:16It's really convenient. Except for this moment where I've dropped it,
0:01:21and because this room is entirely black, I cannot find the keyboard.
0:01:26I don't know where it is.
0:01:27- Really?
0:01:28- Like I know it has to be within no more than two feet
0:01:33of where I am right now.
0:01:34But I can't find it.
0:01:36I can't pull up the show notes.
0:01:38Oh, here it is.
0:01:38Okay.
0:01:39Oops, there it is.
0:01:41All right, I didn't drop it.
0:01:42I slid it underneath the iMac that's in front of me
0:01:45and then it became immediately invisible.
0:01:47- It's like, what is that Fanta black?
0:01:49That like, that black paint that--
0:01:53- The black is the black.
0:01:54Yeah, is it Vantablack? Is that what it's called?
0:01:57That sounds right. That might be right. I don't know.
0:01:59You need to get some of that going on in there.
0:02:01I think I don't. I think actually what I need is more lights.
0:02:04More lights and more air conditioning.
0:02:06That stuff, I'm looking at pictures of it now.
0:02:08That Vantablack is like, it just looks like a hole is cut out of the image.
0:02:11Yeah. Yeah, it's unreal to see some of those photos.
0:02:13It's so weird. It's like, it's strange because it comes across even in photos.
0:02:18Just like, these pixels, these pixels are registering nothing.
0:02:21Yeah, it's really strange.
0:02:22Well, yeah, so I'll get some air conditioning in here.
0:02:25Mm-hmm.
0:02:26And then, of course, air conditioning makes a little bit of noise, so I'll need some more
0:02:30sound isolation.
0:02:32And then you need more air conditioning.
0:02:34More air conditioning.
0:02:37You need to build that set up inside of an igloo, and then you'll be okay.
0:02:43No, I'll just keep adding layers of air conditioning and layers of soundproofing and layers of
0:02:47air conditioning.
0:02:48And it'll be like that comic book blame where the world is just like a universe that's entirely this artificial construction stretching out throughout the entire solar system.
0:02:59Like it's just gonna be air conditioning and soundproofing all the way to Pluto.
0:03:03Hi Myke.
0:03:05Hello.
0:03:06We've finally found a recording date that we can both get together to record the show.
0:03:14Both.
0:03:15Both is not, there wasn't a problem with both.
0:03:17both. No, we're both in London so we can record the show. That is the necessary condition.
0:03:24But one of us didn't go anywhere. Now that I have invested all of this time and effort
0:03:29into the recording monolith which is around me, I do not want to record anywhere else.
0:03:35Well we cannot have it. And we both need to be in London in order to record a podcast.
0:03:40Except for that one episode a year where we're going to be in San Jose. Except for that one.
0:03:46I don't know who knows if that's going to happen. Who knows right? Who knows? I don't know. I know.
0:03:51[laughter]
0:03:55What does it mean?
0:03:57So you've been out and about what are your observations of traveling around? Tell me the thoughts of a rambling man.
0:04:06I mean, I've been on, I think since the last time we spoke, four trips. Three out
0:04:16of the country, one within the country. Too much travel.
0:04:19Year of order. Order to the travel.
0:04:25Year of order, those first two trips, total disaster. I was like, I have two trips back
0:04:31to back, I'm going to go, year of order. Total fail right from the start. Didn't work at
0:04:38all. I was like, I'm going to get up in the morning, I'm going to write, and I'm going
0:04:43to exercise, and then I'm going to go do all the things, which is the reason why I'm on
0:04:48this trip. Nope, of course, because when you go on business trips, one of the reasons you're
0:04:52going is because there's lots of stuff that you should be doing when you're there, and
0:04:56it just ends up sucking up all of your time. And I was thinking like, oh sure, I'll get
0:05:00back to the hotel later and exercise, but later means one in the morning. And I was
0:05:04like, "Guess what? It's not going to happen then." So yeah, little preview for Year of
0:05:09Order with traveling so far, total fail. I did do slightly better on the second two trips.
0:05:14I feel like I'm trying to learn how to make things reasonable. But one of the main things
0:05:22with Year of Order that's driving me crazy with traveling right now, I think that I'm
0:05:27obsessed with Myke is my travel charging situation. All of the various things that I bring with
0:05:38me that need charging. I am a man obsessed with trying to reduce the number of different
0:05:47kinds of wires or the number of things that I have to charge. And once you start thinking
0:05:56about it. Like it won't let your mind go. And it's it's driving me crazy. Okay, so here,
0:06:02let me tell you one thing, one thing alone, that's really bothering me. So I think the
0:06:08Pareto solution for charging is like you need three wires that will be able to charge 90%
0:06:16of your devices. I feel like that's a that's a general rule, you're going to need three
0:06:20different things like two wires will probably get you 70% of the way. And three wires will
0:06:25get you 90% of the way. And for me, those are lightning, USB-C, and I always forget
0:06:34which way it goes. Is it the mini USB or is it the micro USB that's the really small one?
0:06:38I want to say is the micro USB that's the really small one?
0:06:40I don't know.
0:06:41Yeah, nobody knows, right?
0:06:42I think it's micro. I think mini is like a really weird connector.
0:06:46There's too many USBs.
0:06:47Yeah, it's micro. Micro is the one that you're thinking of.
0:06:50Is the really little one.
0:06:51That's the one that everybody uses. Like if you're not using lightning or USB-C, it's
0:06:56micro.
0:06:57Right, okay. So that's micro. Got it. So those three, I feel like, are my 90% solution wires.
0:07:04What are you charging with micro USB though?
0:07:07Oh, Myke. This is what makes me sad. What I'm charging with micro USB is all the things
0:07:14I should be charging with USB-C.
0:07:17- Yeah. - Why is USB-C
0:07:18taking such a goddamn long time to get here?
0:07:23I am charging, okay, let me think off the top of my head.
0:07:26Stuff in my bag that I'm charging with micro USB.
0:07:29Okay, number one, vitally important,
0:07:31noise canceling headphones.
0:07:34- They should be USB-C, what's going on?
0:07:36Like, I know this isn't your thing, right?
0:07:37But like, come on.
0:07:39- Yeah.
0:07:40So noise canceling headphones, micro USB, super frustrating.
0:07:45My mouse for traveling, I use the MX Anywhere mouse.
0:07:50So that's like the little brother version
0:07:54of the MX Master mouse.
0:07:56And I bring that one with me for traveling
0:07:59because it's ambidextrous.
0:08:01So while at home, I have equipment like the pen tablets
0:08:04and stuff that would allow me to easily switch hands.
0:08:06When I'm traveling, I want a mouse
0:08:07that I can use in both hands and the MX,
0:08:10Yeah, I think it's called MX Anywhere.
0:08:11- Yeah, MX Anywhere, I'm looking at it right now.
0:08:13It's a good looking mouse.
0:08:14I assume it's small, right?
0:08:16- Yeah, okay, so it, yeah.
0:08:17- Oh yeah, here's a picture of it in somebody's hand.
0:08:19There you go, now I know.
0:08:20- Yeah, small and you can swap left or right hand.
0:08:24- Great.
0:08:25- You can use it both ways.
0:08:26So it's nice.
0:08:28It's not a mouse I would wanna use at my desk
0:08:32because it's just a little too small
0:08:33for like an all the time mouse,
0:08:35but it's perfect for traveling.
0:08:37But that uses mini USB. Super frustrating.
0:08:40Oh man. Logitech make an ergonomic mouse.
0:08:44I did not know about this. It's called the MX Ergo.
0:08:48Isn't the MX Master Mouse an ergonomic mouse?
0:08:50No, it's not, Gray. It's got a track ball and it tilts.
0:08:53You can tilt it to any level you want. Look at that little thing. Interesting.
0:08:57Please send me that link after the show.
0:08:59I will.
0:09:01Next week on Cortex, you'll hear how Myke's arm fell off.
0:09:06because he used another Logitech mouse.
0:09:10-You're the only one who has problems
0:09:11with those Logitech's mice. I love them.
0:09:13-That's a cortex deep cut.
0:09:15That still comes up for me every now and then,
0:09:17where, like, people reference the fact --
0:09:19I was so excited about that mouse,
0:09:20and then, like, three weeks later, like,
0:09:22"Oh, I can't move my wrist anymore."
0:09:25-Yeah, that's real early show stuff.
0:09:30-Mm-hmm.
0:09:31-Okay, so last thing that I bring with me
0:09:35that requires mini USB is the Amazon Kindle.
0:09:40And that one is particularly frustrating
0:09:43because the Kindles, while I really like them,
0:09:46Amazon super cheaps out with whatever port
0:09:49they're putting in for the mini USB, it's the worst.
0:09:52It's the cheapest, flimsiest,
0:09:54hardly connects version of mini USB.
0:09:57- Mini USB is crap though, like it is crap.
0:10:00It's a terrible, terrible connector.
0:10:02Like USB-C is so vastly superior to it.
0:10:05It's unbelievable.
0:10:07- Yeah, oh yeah.
0:10:07That little tiny USB port is the worst.
0:10:13I always feel like if I'm putting in,
0:10:15like I'm crunching it,
0:10:16like it feels like I'm physically breaking it.
0:10:18- Every time, every time.
0:10:19And I know why it is, and it is a good,
0:10:22I guess kind of a good feature.
0:10:23It has those little hooks, right, that like latch in.
0:10:26Because you have to do that.
0:10:28Like this isn't a normal thing for connectors
0:10:30where like you can feel something changing
0:10:32when you plug it in.
0:10:33- It's like it's very strange.
0:10:35- And also because there's some expectation of resistance,
0:10:39it is the only cable where I have pushed unreasonably
0:10:44when I have it going the wrong direction.
0:10:46- No.
0:10:47(laughing)
0:10:49- So it is the only port which I have occasionally
0:10:55actually broken on devices because I'm like,
0:10:57oh right, this little micro USB,
0:11:00it feels so terrible when you put it in,
0:11:02I'm putting it in and it feels terrible, sure it does.
0:11:04And then crunch, like, oh no,
0:11:06like I actually broke it this time.
0:11:08It's terrible. - I feel like I need to
0:11:09be the voice of the agonized listener right now
0:11:12to just point out the fact that you also need another cable,
0:11:15which is the Apple Watch charger,
0:11:17'cause you haven't mentioned that one yet.
0:11:19(he sighs)
0:11:20- Yeah, so this is-- - Right?
0:11:21- But this is what I mean by this charging law,
0:11:24that if you have three cables,
0:11:26you'll be able to charge 90% of your stuff.
0:11:29But then there's all the crap
0:11:31that has one specialized charger, right?
0:11:34And it's like, "Lookin' at you, Apple Watch."
0:11:38Oh, like that was my least favorite thing
0:11:40about the Apple Watch right from the start.
0:11:41It's like, "Oh, I need a cable just for you."
0:11:45And the electric toothbrush that I use
0:11:47has a different funny USB connector at the end
0:11:50that nothing else I own uses.
0:11:51So it's like, "Oh, okay,
0:11:53if I wanna charge my electric toothbrush,
0:11:54I need a cable just for you."
0:11:57- Do you not have the one where you can plug it
0:11:59into the case with mini USB?
0:12:01- Yeah, it charges through the case.
0:12:02- Oh, but it's a different connector for you?
0:12:04- It's a different USB, yeah.
0:12:06- Oh, great.
0:12:06- It's not the same micro USB
0:12:08that my headphones and my Kindle use.
0:12:10No, it's a different USB.
0:12:12- That's probably mini then.
0:12:13- I think that is the mini one.
0:12:15It's the chunkier one that used to be on cameras
0:12:17a long time ago.
0:12:19And I'm forgetting what it is,
0:12:21but I have something, there's something else in my bag
0:12:22that also requires like a custom charger,
0:12:25which is super annoying.
0:12:26I can't think of what it is.
0:12:27- Is it you?
0:12:28Shhhhhh! Shhhhhh! Shhhhhh! Don't, don't, don't. Don't say that, Myke. Don't let the people
0:12:37know. Because I feel like I'm gonna break your heart here, but for my traveling purposes,
0:12:43I only need three cables. Okay, yeah. What are your three? It's the Apple Watch, Lightning,
0:12:49and USB-C. Yeah, but that seems right. I have a micro, like, in my backpack in case of emergencies,
0:12:56I don't have any technology that I take with me that requires a cable that isn't one of
0:13:01those. That works really great. And I do agree that like, that's good, because really, that's
0:13:06just that's three cables I need. I mean, of course, I have a couple of lightning cables
0:13:09or whatever, right? But I don't need all of those. I can get away with just one.
0:13:14Yeah, but even I feel like anybody, they name three cables, and they're pretty much fine.
0:13:20Like, I could get away with not bringing the extra cables.
0:13:24It's like necessary.
0:13:26And if I had to not bring cables, it's like, okay,
0:13:29well the toothbrush cable's gonna be the first one to go.
0:13:32But I think almost any traveler,
0:13:33there's going to be three things
0:13:35that they absolutely have to have.
0:13:37But so I've been obsessed with this idea
0:13:39of trying to consolidate chargers down.
0:13:42And I had what I thought was a brilliant idea.
0:13:46So I'm thinking, okay, all right,
0:13:48I've got all these different wires.
0:13:50We also have the problem of what's on the other end
0:13:53of the wire, right?
0:13:54So what is the wire plugging into to actually charge?
0:13:59And now we start getting into the fun question of like,
0:14:02is it USB-A on the other end?
0:14:05Is it USB-C on the other end?
0:14:07Is it some other like funky little travel charger thing?
0:14:10Like what's on the other end of this thing?
0:14:13And I thought, I thought Myke, I was gonna be so clever
0:14:17because I thought, I know what I'm going to do.
0:14:20I can't, I can't get all of the,
0:14:22I can't condense down the number of cables that I need.
0:14:26But what I can do is at least make the other end
0:14:29of all of these cables USB-C
0:14:32so that I can try to simplify my charging situation
0:14:36on the other end.
0:14:37That I'll just have like a brick
0:14:40and it'll have a bunch of USB-C ports in it.
0:14:42And I'll buy wires from Monoprice or Anker or whatever
0:14:47that have a USB-C cable on the one end,
0:14:50even though that's not entirely up to spec
0:14:52with some of the things it plugs into,
0:14:53but whatever, I don't care.
0:14:55Like, I'll just get that,
0:14:56and at least I'll simplify on one end.
0:14:59But, Myke, why?
0:15:02Why are there no USB-C chargers that I can buy
0:15:05that have more than one USB-C port?
0:15:08I don't understand the situation in the world.
0:15:10I scoured the internet, like, hey,
0:15:13I will spend any amount of money
0:15:16for a charging brick that has four USB-C ports in it.
0:15:21Any amount of money.
0:15:22- Yeah, it doesn't exist.
0:15:23- It doesn't exist.
0:15:24- 'Cause you can get them.
0:15:25I have one, which is like an anchor thing,
0:15:27which has five USB, regular USB ports on it.
0:15:32But like the most that I've ever seen
0:15:34is like one of these things
0:15:36and it has one or maybe two USB-C ports on it,
0:15:39but never more than that.
0:15:40- Yeah, so I'll get to what my current solution is
0:15:43for the moment, but I was so frustrated with this.
0:15:47I feel like USBC has been around now for what?
0:15:49A year and a half, two years?
0:15:51Two years is a thousand years in internet time.
0:15:55I don't understand why I can't,
0:15:57I feel like I am the guy who needs to exist,
0:16:00the person who is willing to be on the edge
0:16:02and willing to spend a bunch more money on earlier products
0:16:05to help create the market where things eventually
0:16:08come down in price later.
0:16:10And so I was there on the internet with my credit card and my wallet open.
0:16:15I will spend anything to simplify my charging situation in the slightest way,
0:16:21which is to just get USB-C all on one end, and the internet said back,
0:16:26"No, sorry, we can't help you. There's nothing we can do here."
0:16:29And it's just incredibly frustrating.
0:16:31So I'm frustrated with my charging situation because there's too many things that I need to charge
0:16:37that have too many different kinds of wires.
0:16:39I wish everything was just...
0:16:41I wish I could get more things like wirelessly charged,
0:16:43like anything I can do to get these numbers down,
0:16:45I would be happy about.
0:16:46But then even on the other end,
0:16:47like the things that I need to plug it into,
0:16:49it's like, oh, okay, I need to have some smattering
0:16:53of USB-C or USB-A on the other end,
0:16:56which is now doubly frustrating
0:16:58because it's a question of like, well,
0:16:59some of these things, if I want to plug them
0:17:01into my computer, I need to make sure
0:17:02that I have the USB-C end for those cables,
0:17:06but can I plug those cables into a brick
0:17:08charge them in the wall? Like, no, I cannot. Now I need to have a USB-A and a USB-C version
0:17:13of a bunch of these cables, like the Lightning cable. I need the USB-A version and I need
0:17:17the USB-C version. And I'm going mad, Myke. I'm going mad. I hate it. I hate travel charging.
0:17:26So what are you using now, then?
0:17:30Okay. My current solution. Oh, right, of course. One of the problems is it needs to work internationally
0:17:38as well, my charging solution.
0:17:39- Yeah.
0:17:40- My goal here, smallest number of wires,
0:17:44maximum number of countries.
0:17:46That's what I'm going for here.
0:17:47What I want to create is a charging solution
0:17:52that lives in my travel bag that I never touch, right?
0:17:56It's just in there and I don't have to assemble it
0:17:59every time that I travel.
0:18:00So this is my goal.
0:18:02And what I'm using right now is there is an anchor charger
0:18:07that has four USB-A ports and one USB-C port.
0:18:12- Yes.
0:18:15- It's like IQ something charger.
0:18:17It has like a little blue ring around the USB-C port.
0:18:20- I hate that they have that little blue light by the way.
0:18:23I have the older version of that
0:18:25and it has a little blue light on it.
0:18:26But these things go on the bedside table in the hotel.
0:18:30So then there's like a little blue light constantly.
0:18:32I hate it, I hate it.
0:18:33- Yeah.
0:18:33Travel pro tip on my travel checklist,
0:18:36a bit of black tape because hotels--
0:18:39- Yeah, I keep meaning to do it, but I've not done it.
0:18:40But yes, that is a good pro tip.
0:18:43- Yeah, I've had that in the back of my mind
0:18:46as a thing to do for a long time,
0:18:47and this year I finally did it.
0:18:48And it's one of those things where as soon as you have
0:18:50the tape available and you're standing in a hotel room,
0:18:52you're like, "Oh, there's so many things
0:18:53"I could put this tape across, right?"
0:18:55Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.
0:18:56Make all these lights go away.
0:18:58- You just tape it up the window.
0:18:59- Yeah, oh yeah, you get tape up the window.
0:19:02You can put tape over the people.
0:19:03You can put tape over many things in the hotel room.
0:19:05- Gosh, they do one of these with 10 USB ports on it?
0:19:09That is wild.
0:19:11Who needs that?
0:19:12- That's a lot.
0:19:13That's a lot.
0:19:14Well, I would take more than four USB-A ports,
0:19:17but anyway, that brick so far
0:19:21is the best solution I've found.
0:19:24It's frustrating because I still have this,
0:19:26I need to duplicate some cables
0:19:28if I want to plug things into my computer,
0:19:30which is USB-C, so frustrating,
0:19:32but I can't get the USB-C charger, so frustrating.
0:19:35But the other thing is that cable,
0:19:40it has a removable power cord at the back,
0:19:43which uses this Infinity 8 style charger.
0:19:46And you can buy wires for different countries
0:19:49that will then plug into the back of that Anker charger.
0:19:52So at the moment, that's my idea
0:19:56for how I'm going to handle this,
0:19:57is I can have different wires for different countries
0:19:59that plug into that Anker power brick,
0:20:02and then I can plug all of the various crap
0:20:04that I need to charge into the front of that Anker device.
0:20:08And that's where I am right now,
0:20:10but I'm still not happy about it.
0:20:12There's still too many wires.
0:20:14Things aren't nice and simple and nice and smooth
0:20:17the way I want them to be.
0:20:19But I would love to hear from the listeners
0:20:23what they do for travel charging.
0:20:26And I would really like knowing
0:20:29that the really big travel season is coming,
0:20:32that I've just been through the travel warm-up.
0:20:35I really want to hear everybody's tips and tricks
0:20:38from frequent travelers.
0:20:39Like if you travel a lot,
0:20:41I want to hear your tips and tricks in the subreddit
0:20:44'cause I feel like I really need to gear up.
0:20:46I really need to gear up for this.
0:20:47I want to know your charging solutions.
0:20:50I want to know your solutions for everything.
0:20:53Tips and tricks people in the subreddit.
0:20:55I want them.
0:20:56- I already feel bad for you.
0:20:59- Why?
0:21:00- 'Cause you're not gonna get what you want.
0:21:03- I know.
0:21:03- It's like, please listeners, fix this for me.
0:21:06Have a magical solution, but like, sorry.
0:21:11- I know, I know, it's like, I really am kind of hoping
0:21:14that somehow there will be solutions
0:21:15that will be better than my many hours
0:21:18of searching everywhere over the internet
0:21:20with an open wallet.
0:21:21- How did you miss this?
0:21:22It's available for you right here.
0:21:24- I mean, I was deep into it.
0:21:28Like I was so angry at one point I was researching the USB-C spec and I'm like, "Oh, this thing
0:21:33is a bunch of bullshit!
0:21:34That's why this isn't working out at all!"
0:21:36It's like, "Oh, the USB-C spec is actually three specs.
0:21:40It's the physical spec, it's the data spec, it's the power spec!"
0:21:43And then going into this weird thing where it's like, "Oh, Apple doesn't follow the power
0:21:47spec the same way all the other companies!"
0:21:48It's like, "Oh, god damn it!"
0:21:50And then you've got Thunderbolt, which goes on top of it all, right?
0:21:54Makes it even more confusing.
0:21:55It's crazy.
0:21:57It's totally great.
0:21:58But it's, again, this is where it's like,
0:22:00I will use money to solve this problem.
0:22:02I will buy $100 USB-C cables,
0:22:06and just so I know that it always works with everything,
0:22:08but it's like, I can't even do it.
0:22:09I can't even do it.
0:22:11Hello, Cortex listeners.
0:22:12As I'm sitting here in my black monolith,
0:22:15recording this ad for you,
0:22:17I'm thinking, what could spruce this spot up?
0:22:22There's not a lot of space in here.
0:22:23I couldn't have any big objects.
0:22:25I would need something thin, possibly something very light, to go on the walls.
0:22:31And I think that would have to be a fracture.
0:22:35Fracture is the company that takes beautiful photos and turns them into glass.
0:22:41And every time you hear that, you're thinking, "Oh, it must be really heavy."
0:22:44But it isn't.
0:22:45The fractures I've had in my hands, they're so light.
0:22:48They're surprisingly light.
0:22:50So I could actually mount some against this freestanding, ready-to-fall-over-at-any-moment
0:22:56soundproofing that's all around me right now.
0:22:59A little LED spotlight at the top.
0:23:02I think this could be great.
0:23:04Perhaps a beautiful nature scene to calm me down through rants about why USB-C cables
0:23:10are so frustrating.
0:23:12Anyway, if I can find a place in my house where I think a fracture should go, there's
0:23:17definitely places in your house where a fracture should go.
0:23:21Think of all of the photos that you've taken just trapped away in your photo library, rarely
0:23:27to be seen.
0:23:28You should go to fractureme.com and have some of them turned into physical, beautiful pieces
0:23:35of art in your house.
0:23:37The fractures you'll receive are handmade in Gainesville, Florida from US source materials.
0:23:43They're sleek, they're frameless, they go with any decor.
0:23:46The ordering is super simple.
0:23:48The fractures come ready to mount right out of the box.
0:23:51They include the wall hanger and the screw that you'll need.
0:23:54It's really very simple.
0:23:56So head to fractureme.com to get started.
0:23:59Use the offer code "CORTEX" and you'll get 15% off your first order.
0:24:05That's fractureme.com, offer code "CORTEX" to get 15% off.
0:24:10And in their one question survey about where you came from, don't forget to pick Cortex.
0:24:15doubly lets them know that this show is where you came from.
0:24:19Thank you to Fracture for their support of Cortex
0:24:22and all of Relay FM.
0:24:23I got Arumba and I love it.
0:24:28And I love it because I've mentioned before,
0:24:33one of these, like the dumbest,
0:24:36the dumbest productivity tricks that I use on myself,
0:24:39which still works years and years later,
0:24:43is if I'm feeling lazy, I just start up one of the robots in my house doing work.
0:24:48So I was like, "Oh, okay. I'm going to put a bunch of clothing in the Laundry Matron,
0:24:54and I'm going to run it."
0:24:55And once the laundry machine is running,
0:24:59it feels like, "Oh, I should probably do something too."
0:25:03And then it's like, "Oh, I'll load up the dishwasher," and then like,
0:25:05"Oh, the laundry machine and the dishwasher are running.
0:25:08Well, now I should really do something."
0:25:09It just -- It feels like there's some kind of force multiplier
0:25:15going on when there are machines that are doing work for me.
0:25:17-They're your co-workers. -They're not co-workers, Myke.
0:25:20-Sure they are. -It's like a -- No.
0:25:22No, not at all. -Mm-hmm.
0:25:24-But it's this feeling of force multiplication.
0:25:27And I have the Roomba, and I totally love it,
0:25:30not least because now there are, by my count, four little robots
0:25:35that I can have doing stuff in the house.
0:25:37So it's like, "Okay, washing machine's going.
0:25:39dryer is going, dishwasher is going, and the Roomba is going.
0:25:43And then for sure I am going to get some work done
0:25:46because I can't be the only one in the house
0:25:47not doing anything.
0:25:49And I absolutely love it.
0:25:51But so anyway, I've been talking about how much
0:25:52I love my Roomba to everyone who will listen.
0:25:54Like, "Oh, you should totally get a Roomba."
0:25:57And it's interesting, people push back
0:26:00against the idea of the Roomba because they're like,
0:26:03"Oh, but I'll have to vacuum myself
0:26:09some of the areas that the Roomba can't get.
0:26:11I mean, like, does the Roomba do a perfect job?
0:26:14Can it do absolutely everything?
0:26:15And the answer is, of course, no.
0:26:17No, it can't do everything,
0:26:18but it can do a lot of things for you.
0:26:22And I feel like a Roomba is just another perfect example
0:26:27of, like, changing your expectations
0:26:30and being able to have big benefits from it.
0:26:33So people are like, "Oh, I'm going to set out the Roomba
0:26:37like I'm doing the vacuuming,
0:26:38and I'm going to set up the whole house in order
0:26:41to make sure that the Roomba can try to get everywhere.
0:26:43It's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
0:26:46You just have it go and it does what it does
0:26:50and you just get the advantages from it.
0:26:52It feels like just a perfect example of automation.
0:26:54Like this thing is doing a job.
0:26:57Is it doing as great of a job as you could do as a person?
0:27:01No, of course not.
0:27:03You could do a better job as a human being.
0:27:05You could get into all the little nooks and crannies.
0:27:07You wouldn't have to bounce around the room
0:27:08300 times because you're blind and can't see where you're going and are just vacuuming randomly?
0:27:13No, you wouldn't you wouldn't have to do that.
0:27:14But the whole point of the Roomba is that you don't have to do the thing.
0:27:20You can be doing something else. You're sitting on your computer, maybe answering emails.
0:27:24Probably not if you're me, but you can do something else.
0:27:27And it's just I find it interesting that they're like some people have a hard time with this idea of
0:27:34If the job can't be done as well as I could personally do it,
0:27:39I don't want something else to do it.
0:27:43And I feel like it's, you just,
0:27:45this is like really important for learning
0:27:49how to get more stuff done in life.
0:27:51It's like, yeah, I'm accepting that this job
0:27:53is not gonna be as thorough as if I was doing it,
0:27:56but it doesn't matter because I'm getting
0:27:58this productivity multiplier, that something is happening,
0:28:02I don't have to do it and I can let go of how it would need to be super perfect the
0:28:08way I would do it.
0:28:09So I totally love my little Roomba.
0:28:12He's my little productivity multiplier buddy.
0:28:16I have a comparison that I want to make.
0:28:19But like, it's, you have to, like everybody just has to let me finish.
0:28:25No, no, I'm going to get ready to jump down your throat.
0:28:28Whatever you're going to say, halfway through I'm going to interrupt Myke.
0:28:32It's kind of like hiring someone.
0:28:36How dare you compare them to a vacuuming robot?
0:28:40Nobody is going to do things exactly the way that you would do them, right?
0:28:45Some things are going to be better, some things are going to be different, some things are
0:28:48going to be worse, but you kind of just… and this is the same with just delegation
0:28:54in general, right?
0:28:55Like not even just hiring someone, but giving a task away to somebody else.
0:28:59There's going to be this spectrum of how the results are at the end, but no matter what
0:29:04it is, you do get a benefit from it.
0:29:07Even if something's not as good as you would do it, as long as it's done, it doesn't really
0:29:13matter does it?
0:29:14No.
0:29:15Roomba.
0:29:16It's baby's first delegation.
0:29:18I don't know about that.
0:29:23Because they're really expensive.
0:29:25So like, I don't know if you can go there first.
0:29:29I think like other things have to happen in your life before you can get a Roomba.
0:29:34That's true.
0:29:35Babies have no money to buy Roombas.
0:29:36No, I did just see one on Amazon that integrates with the Echo.
0:29:40Oh no!
0:29:41Right?
0:29:42So I could be like, "Echo, start the hoovering or whatever."
0:29:48You and your Echo, Myke.
0:29:49You really love it.
0:29:50I do really love it.
0:29:51I do.
0:29:52So now I'm like looking at this like unnecessarily expensive Roomba.
0:29:56there are Roombas that are like multiple hundreds of pounds cheaper but like oh but this one
0:30:00ooh but this one I can I can connect it to my home automation system.
0:30:06Yeah you want the 960 mic that's what you want. That's the one I'm looking at. It's
0:30:10right at the top of the price pyramid. Yeah yeah oh but I can save 220 pounds so that's
0:30:17good news. Is that what you have the 960? Uh yeah I think so I think it was yeah I love
0:30:23it's great. It's absolutely great.
0:30:25We're getting deep into Roomba talk now. How often do you need to vacuum yourself when
0:30:30you have a Roomba? Do you still need to go and take care of it in some way?
0:30:36No. You don't need to take care of it. You just need to empty it sometimes. And I have
0:30:43it run because I go to the glass forge in the morning. I have it just automatically
0:30:49scheduled that shortly after I leave, it just wakes up, chirps a little happy song, and
0:30:56then goes around the whole flat vacuuming.
0:31:00And what I really like is it sends you a little map of what it thinks your flat looks like
0:31:05after it's done.
0:31:06So you can see if it got blocked off somewhere or if some room didn't work out.
0:31:13But it again, it's a perfect example of, oh, you know, on Monday it sends me back a
0:31:19a little map and I can see that, oh, like the kitchen door was closed so it didn't
0:31:24get in the kitchen. And instead of thinking like, "Oh, that Roomba, it's so useless,
0:31:28can't open doors," it's like, "Well, it's going to run again tomorrow and the
0:31:31day after." Like it's going to get the kitchen eventually.
0:31:34Right. And then you just like open the door, right? Like one day you're just going to
0:31:39open because I think about like with my place, but the bathrooms because the bathroom door
0:31:43is closed, right? So I would just need to prop it open one day so it can go in there
0:31:48and do what it needs to do.
0:31:49Yeah, it's great.
0:31:51It's fantastic.
0:31:53Cleaning delegation.
0:31:55So Grey, as of a couple of weeks ago,
0:31:57it is now possible
0:31:59for many more people
0:32:01to get their hands on the Apple Pencil
0:32:03which is a thing that we have
0:32:05sold the virtues for for a couple
0:32:07of years now on this show.
0:32:09Because Apple have released
0:32:11a lower end iPad,
0:32:13a $330 iPad
0:32:15or something like that,
0:32:17now has support of the Apple Pencil. All iPads have support for the Apple Pencil now, except
0:32:22the iPad Mini, RIP. Still there, but RIP. Still selling it. Did you not know this? Did
0:32:29you not know about this?
0:32:30Yeah, I missed this one.
0:32:32Yeah, it wasn't big news. They had an event, right?
0:32:35I feel this is like a dereliction of duty for Cortex, but no, I feel like I totally
0:32:40missed this one. I'm sorry.
0:32:41I can't believe that. I just can't believe that. But anyway...
0:32:44In fairness, I haven't been listening to podcasts because I have been traveling, but
0:32:48yeah, I did totally miss this one.
0:32:50So it's just all the iPads now have the pencil support.
0:32:53That is when people listen to podcasts, is when they're moving around.
0:32:56But like, whatever, you know, you do you.
0:32:58I will do me.
0:32:59So now all iPads can use the Apple Pencil now, which is great because I think it's
0:33:06a great tool and now more people get to use it.
0:33:07Yeah, that is great.
0:33:08I wanted to do a kind of recap/primer for our Apple Pencil usage for two reasons.
0:33:16One, because now more people will be able to use one.
0:33:18And two, people ask me for this all the time.
0:33:21And I will now be able to say, go and listen to episode 67 of Cortex.
0:33:26And now I'm done.
0:33:27Right?
0:33:28Because I don't know about you, but I get this question asked of me a lot.
0:33:30Like people getting their iPads for the first time, like, what apps do you use?
0:33:33What do you use the Apple Pencil for?
0:33:35What accessories do you have for it?
0:33:36And all that kind of stuff.
0:33:37So I wanted to just wrap it up into one little bundle here.
0:33:41So for me, personally, the most usage in an application that I get from the Apple Pencil
0:33:49is in Notability, which is a note-taking/PDF markup application.
0:33:58You can take regular handwritten notes and if I have a meeting where I want to be able
0:34:02to have my handwritten notes accessible to me later, because it's an important meeting
0:34:07or whatever, then I will grab my one of my iPads, I'll grab my
0:34:10Apple pencil, I'll open Notability and I'll start making my notes there.
0:34:14And the same if I have a PDF that somebody sends me and maybe I want to make
0:34:19some changes on it or I want to just sit and kind of like really analyze it,
0:34:22then I will open it up in Notability and kind of get to work on it.
0:34:26There has all of the features you'd expect, right?
0:34:28It has handwriting tools.
0:34:30You can draw some shapes and stuff like that.
0:34:31You can add text.
0:34:33You can kind of grab things and move them around, which I really like.
0:34:36that has a really good selection tool,
0:34:38so you can write a bunch of stuff,
0:34:40you draw a circle around it to select it,
0:34:42and you can move it around or make it bigger or smaller,
0:34:44which can be really useful sometimes.
0:34:46If you wanna fit more on a page,
0:34:48you can just shrink everything.
0:34:49- Yeah, that's really nice.
0:34:50- I really like Notability.
0:34:52It's a powerful app, it has a bunch of different paper stuff
0:34:54and I like it a lot.
0:34:55If memory serves, you use Good Notes,
0:34:58which is very similar,
0:35:00but it has just some slightly different features, right?
0:35:02- Yeah, they're pretty similar.
0:35:05One feature that GoodNotes doesn't have
0:35:07is that ability to shrink down something,
0:35:11which can definitely be handy sometimes.
0:35:13But, no, GoodNotes is my digital paper of choice,
0:35:18and I totally love it.
0:35:21Every once in a while, I do check out Notability,
0:35:24and just for me, there's something
0:35:27that's just a little bit different
0:35:28about the way the two of them are handling
0:35:32the smoothing algorithm for when you're writing.
0:35:35There's like a little bit of a difference,
0:35:37and I just like the way the GoodNotes
0:35:39handles that much better.
0:35:41But yeah, I do the same thing where
0:35:44if I need to work with PDFs,
0:35:47that's the place where I can mark them up.
0:35:50And mostly I use it as like these pads of paper
0:35:55for me to brainstorm ideas or to write things out.
0:36:00And it's really useful for just for thinking things through
0:36:05for me.
0:36:06As a little sidebar here, Myke,
0:36:07I know you'll appreciate this,
0:36:08but on my last round of travel,
0:36:12I was trying to travel really light
0:36:14and I was trying to think like, okay,
0:36:15what can I not take with me?
0:36:17And I decided to not take my iPad with me on the last trip.
0:36:22I was like, okay, I don't think that I need it,
0:36:25but I definitely need the laptop.
0:36:28And I totally regretted not bringing it.
0:36:30- Okay, phew, I thought you were punking me then.
0:36:33Right, okay.
0:36:33(laughing)
0:36:35- 100%, I regretted not bringing it because of good notes.
0:36:39Because that really is just the way,
0:36:42when I'm in a particular mood,
0:36:43it's very useful to sketch stuff out with a pencil.
0:36:45It's just different than working on a computer.
0:36:48- Like if you get into that kind of mode
0:36:50of like wanting to be able to grab this PDF
0:36:53or grab this image or grab this like wireframe
0:36:57or mock-up or whatever.
0:36:59You get used to doing that.
0:37:01It's so powerful because there is no better way of doing it.
0:37:05You can do this stuff on a Mac, right?
0:37:08You can do it, but it's nowhere near as good
0:37:11because you're actually manipulating the thing
0:37:14in front of you with a pencil.
0:37:16It's brilliant.
0:37:17- Yeah, the handwriting sketching kind of stuff,
0:37:19it's just clearly the place that it is super superior.
0:37:22But also what you might enjoy is,
0:37:25I was so frustrated at my decision
0:37:27to not bring the iPad that I went out
0:37:29and I bought a paper notebook and I bought a pen.
0:37:33And I was like, okay, well, like I'm in the mood
0:37:35to do this kind of thinking.
0:37:36And I sat down with the paper notebook and the pen
0:37:39and I was sort of doing the same kind of thing
0:37:42I would do on my iPad.
0:37:43And I was like, oh, this is a far inferior experience
0:37:46because I can't do a lasso tool to move things around
0:37:50when I want to move them around.
0:37:51It's like, it's just here on ink.
0:37:53I can't move this.
0:37:54How am I supposed to copy and paste this
0:37:57when I want to show this thing three or four times.
0:37:59So it's like, oh, paper, that's why I left you paper.
0:38:02The digital stuff is much better.
0:38:05- This is, you know, I said it, like I made a hint to it.
0:38:07Like I am a big pen and paper guy as people know,
0:38:09but if I'm taking notes on something
0:38:12that I consider to be really important,
0:38:14I want them digitally so they're everywhere.
0:38:17Like I only ever take pen and paper notes in a meeting
0:38:20or on a call or whatever,
0:38:21if it's like I'm expecting it to not need it.
0:38:25That's the only time I ever do that.
0:38:27- Yeah, it was also an interesting moment
0:38:28where I recognized a whole orbit of problems
0:38:31that I used to have to deal with
0:38:33before the iPad and the pencil came around,
0:38:36which is exactly this, of all this work that I'm doing,
0:38:39how am I going to get it back into my system?
0:38:41And so I'm thinking like, am I just gonna take a picture
0:38:43of these pages with my phone?
0:38:44Like, is that, am I gonna, like, oh,
0:38:47how do I turn this back into digital?
0:38:49Because ultimately in my life and the way that I work,
0:38:51I want everything that's important should be digital.
0:38:55and should be synchronized and should be everywhere.
0:38:57And I was just so aware of that,
0:39:01like, oh, I have to hold onto this paper notebook
0:39:02and if I lose it, all the things I have written down
0:39:04are just gone.
0:39:05Like, well, that's dumb, that's ridiculous.
0:39:07I don't like this at all.
0:39:09- It doesn't make sense in the modern world, right?
0:39:11It doesn't, and I get it.
0:39:12- I was totally missing it.
0:39:14I will just quickly mention,
0:39:15it's not strictly Apple Pencil stuff,
0:39:20but the one related tool that I use with Good Notes
0:39:24when working on things that are writing
0:39:27and that I really love is I use Ulysses
0:39:30for most of the writing work that I do
0:39:32as my text editor of choice.
0:39:34And Ulysses has a really great feature
0:39:37where not only can you export the text
0:39:40that you're working on as a PDF,
0:39:42so I can say like, oh, here's a thing I'm working on,
0:39:44export it as a PDF, open that PDF in GoodNotes,
0:39:47and then mark it up by hand with pencil,
0:39:49which I really think is a great thing to do
0:39:51to shift your mind into thinking about
0:39:53what you're working on in a different way.
0:39:55I find it really helpful.
0:39:56But Ulysses also allows you to customize the format
0:40:01of how that PDF is going to look.
0:40:04So I have a customized template that does two things.
0:40:08It exports the text at like triple spaced.
0:40:12So there's lots of space between the words.
0:40:15And I've also taken to dramatically reducing the opacity
0:40:20of the exported text.
0:40:21So the exported text is just a very light gray.
0:40:24And then that makes it really easy
0:40:26when I'm marking up stuff to later on see,
0:40:28"Here's the markup.
0:40:30Here's all this plenty of space that I had."
0:40:32So GoodNotes is great,
0:40:34and I find if you're working with text,
0:40:36Ulysses plus GoodNotes is a great experience
0:40:40from going from text to PDF to markup
0:40:43to then put your changes back into Ulysses
0:40:45and go back and forth in that cycle.
0:40:48-Yeah, I know that, like, the Ulysses team,
0:40:51they really like to think of and build the application
0:40:54with specific tools and thoughts in mind for novelists,
0:40:58like the people that write long books and fiction
0:41:02and non-fiction, that kind of stuff.
0:41:03And that is clearly one of those features
0:41:05that was built for that type of work, right?
0:41:08That you can export a PDF so somebody can mark it up.
0:41:12Right, like someone can print that
0:41:13and do some real kind of like marking up of the text
0:41:18and edits and all that kind of stuff, right?
0:41:20I don't know if many bloggers do this.
0:41:25And I feel like a lot of my blog writer friends
0:41:30use Ulysses 'cause it also has really great publishing tools
0:41:34and great markdown support and stuff like that.
0:41:36But then it also has these,
0:41:37oh, you can triple space the lines in your PDF.
0:41:39That is clearly for the long form writers.
0:41:42- Yeah, 100%. - And for you,
0:41:43it's 'cause you're writing scripts, right?
0:41:44And it's a similar kind of idea
0:41:46that you're trying to edit something to be spoken out loud,
0:41:50which is, whilst they're not the exact same practice
0:41:54between that and a novelist,
0:41:55the reasons you're doing it are the same, right?
0:41:57Which is to whittle it down,
0:41:59to make it as good as it can possibly be when read.
0:42:03Which, I would be surprised to know if any of my friends
0:42:07who write technology blogs get their Ulysses documents,
0:42:12that was PDFs and start marking them up, I don't know.
0:42:15- Yeah, I think that's a very different use case.
0:42:17But if you're that kind of person,
0:42:20GoodNotes plus Ulysses on the iPad
0:42:22is a really great combination to not have to go outside of it.
0:42:26Like, I used to have a crazy script
0:42:29that just ran constantly on my computer
0:42:31that was manually creating PDFs
0:42:35based on changes in Dropbox of markdown files
0:42:38and exporting them to a folder,
0:42:40which I would then try to import into GoodNotes.
0:42:42It was wacky and fragile and terrible,
0:42:45and then Ulysses came along and was like,
0:42:47"Goodbye, crazy system.
0:42:49This is much better.
0:42:50- Hey, are you a freelancer?
0:42:52Well, let me tell you about FreshBooks.
0:42:53They know how important it is
0:42:54to make smart decisions for your business.
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0:42:59or sending invoices to anybody, you need FreshBooks.
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0:43:04They're gonna help you save time.
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0:43:07self-employed people up to 192 hours
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0:43:12because it's so easy to use.
0:43:14They will simplify tasks like invoicing
0:43:16tracking expenses and even, maybe most importantly, getting paid online.
0:43:21FreshBooks has amazing tools that can simplify all of this for you.
0:43:25What I love about FreshBooks is just how easy and wonderful it is to create an invoice.
0:43:30Every time I go in, I see my invoice exactly how it's going to land in my client's inbox
0:43:34and I'm able to type in some stuff.
0:43:36So I type in the name of a show and everything can pre-fill for me because it saves previously
0:43:40used entries.
0:43:41It's so, so awesome.
0:43:42I love that I can go and look at a specific company that we invoice and see how long it
0:43:47takes them to pay so I can get an idea for how long that's going to be.
0:43:51But what's great about FreshBooks is I never have to worry about whether an invoice has been seen
0:43:56because right there on the page it will tell me this has been opened, this has been printed,
0:44:01so no more of those really uncomfortable emails "Hey did you see this?" No more with FreshBooks
0:44:06and that's just one of the many many ways that FreshBooks will help you save your time.
0:44:12If you're listening to this and you still haven't tried out FreshBooks, please go give it a go.
0:44:15They're offering an unrestricted 30-day free trial for listeners of this show with no credit card
0:44:20required. Just go to freshbooks.com/cortex and enter cortex into how you heard about this section
0:44:26so they will know that you went to them from this show. Our thanks to FreshBooks for their
0:44:30continued support of this show and Relay FM. I also use Apple Notes for Apple pencil related
0:44:37stuff if it's like I need a scratch pad. So Apple Notes I use for text is like my central
0:44:42storage point. Like I have so many things text related that go in there. I have PDFs
0:44:47that go in like all my travel notes go in Apple Notes now. But if I just need to like
0:44:51do some quick scribbling or you know sometimes I'll get like I'll get like a contract coming
0:44:57or whatever and I need to just just check some stuff out to maybe do some sums or whatever I
0:45:01need to do. I will use Apple Notes for that and kind of just because you could just grab the
0:45:05pencil, you touch it to the paper, it starts recognizing what's going on, and you can just
0:45:10start writing in it. And I like it for that, and then you can just immediately get rid of it. You
0:45:14can delete it. Apple Notes has a feature that it pretends that is good, which is the ability to try
0:45:20and do text recognition on the handwriting, in the sidebar to try and give you an idea of what's
0:45:27written in the note, like a heading. How well does that work?
0:45:30Terribly. Okay, not terribly, alright.
0:45:32I mean, okay, I have bad handwriting, but like, it's just everyone that I've ever known I've seen
0:45:39try to use it just has just like ridiculous things. I mean, it's doing OCR on it so you can
0:45:43also search the text. I mean, and it works, but not very well. There are also a couple of applications
0:45:52that I play around with that I like that are not necessarily things that I spend a lot of time in
0:45:58because I'm not good at some of this stuff, but I like them anyway.
0:46:01And one of them is called Linnea, Linnea, I'm not sure exactly how you pronounce it.
0:46:07And it is like it's a it's a drawing app. And they just added in some features for like being able to
0:46:13mark up images and stuff like that. But I find notabilities tools better for what I need there.
0:46:18But it's it's like an app to to produce art and to do sketch ups. And they, you know, they have
0:46:25a lot of interesting templates and stuff. So for like for app design and things like that.
0:46:29So they have little templates that look like iPhones and you can draw in them.
0:46:32It's a really nice application. It's low. It's kind of all of the applications that I've tried
0:46:38that are art related with the Apple Pencil. It is like the most focused and it has a more limited
0:46:44tool set. But it does them really well and it works really well. And then kind of like on the
0:46:50other end of that you have something like Procreate which has every single tool available
0:46:55to you, right, which is just this wonderful art application that I can't use because I
0:47:01have just like, like just just shocked into horror every time I open it because I don't
0:47:06know how to use it because it's so powerful and it's so far away from my skill set but
0:47:10it is a fantastic app.
0:47:11Do you have a hard time with it because it's such a complicated app and you can't express
0:47:16your amazing artistic skills through this complicated app? Is that the problem? Or is
0:47:21the problem a total lack of artistic talent?
0:47:23No, no, I just struggle to be able to get the tools to make true representation of the
0:47:30images in my mind. That's all it is, you know.
0:47:32Yeah, no, of course.
0:47:33Give me a paintbrush and I can do what I need.
0:47:35Yeah. I, on the other hand, have definitely bought many an art app on the iPad.
0:47:39Oh yeah.
0:47:40And within seconds remembered, I have no talent at all.
0:47:45Why did I buy this? I can do nothing with this app.
0:47:47I have no talent.
0:47:49-And there are some vector apps as well, right, for the iPad.
0:47:53-I never found anything that was suitable to --
0:47:59I guess I would fall in the category
0:48:01of professional vector use.
0:48:03I found a lot of stuff that was fine to play around with
0:48:07and maybe produce one or two things,
0:48:10but I never found a tool that could do what I needed to do,
0:48:13which is manage a library of hundreds of vector assets
0:48:17and be able to make changes across that kind of thing.
0:48:20-Okay.
0:48:21-I've left that world behind, but at least when I was looking,
0:48:24I never found anything that felt like it was much more
0:48:27than really a toy vector app.
0:48:29-Sure. That type of drawing style,
0:48:32like vector with the whatever it is,
0:48:34little anchors and the lines, I can't --
0:48:36my brain cannot understand what is going on
0:48:41whenever I try and use those. It's kind of quite funny really, but I just can't get my
0:48:46head around it.
0:48:47It's art, but with math, Myke. Just a bunch of Bezier curves.
0:48:52Pigment is also really good, which is a coloring book app. And so if you want to do coloring
0:48:57on your iPad, Pigment is there for you. It's the best one. Don't try any other. Just use
0:49:02Pigment. If you want to try any coloring, Pigment is the application for you. They even
0:49:06have a bunch of spinoff ones now, like licensed stuff, like Marvel and things like that. They
0:49:11They have like Marvel coloring books
0:49:12powered by the pigment technology.
0:49:14That's kind of cool if you want it.
0:49:16As well as all of this stuff,
0:49:17both me and Grey very frequently use the Apple Pencil
0:49:21as just general UI navigation.
0:49:23Still works.
0:49:25There are applications that doesn't work in any more,
0:49:27which I understand,
0:49:28but just in general across the entire system,
0:49:31it is still a comfortable and kind of
0:49:34a repetitive strain friendly way to navigate an interface
0:49:38in the same way that we use Wacom tablets.
0:49:41-Yeah, without a doubt.
0:49:42You know, my -- again, in my professional computer use,
0:49:47I know that I have to set hard limits
0:49:49on the amount of hours I can spend at a computer doing --
0:49:54like, I can't spend an infinite amount of time
0:49:56on the computer doing work.
0:49:58I'll run up against physical RSI limitations.
0:50:01But with pencil stuff, like, I personally don't run into that,
0:50:08and I always think it's much better.
0:50:10And it is a thing as my work has shifted more back to Mac OS
0:50:17and using a laptop.
0:50:19One of the things I think about a lot is that debate about,
0:50:22"Oh, Apple's not gonna make any touch-sensitive laptops,"
0:50:26which I think that debate is over, and they totally should.
0:50:29But I also find myself thinking one step further.
0:50:31It's like, "Oh, yes, but if Apple does ever make
0:50:33a touch-sensitive laptop,
0:50:34I want it to work with the Apple Pencil, too,"
0:50:37because I have totally, in that subconscious way,
0:50:40when I'm sitting at a desk and I have my laptop in front of me
0:50:42and iPad is next to me and the pencil is on top of the iPad,
0:50:46I have sometimes, without thinking,
0:50:47grabbed the pencil to point it at
0:50:50or move something on the computer screen
0:50:51and then go, "Oh, right. It doesn't work at all."
0:50:54But, yeah, it's great for UI and navigation,
0:50:58and I want pencil support everywhere --
0:51:00on the phone, on the laptops, on my watch.
0:51:04I'll take it everywhere.
0:51:07Do you use any accessories for your Apple Pencil?
0:51:10- Yes, the only thing that I use is I have,
0:51:15what's it called?
0:51:17It's one of the dbrand skins.
0:51:19I have a couple of different dbrand skins on a few pencils,
0:51:23because that for me, it solved one of the,
0:51:27my frustrations with the Apple Pencil is it's just,
0:51:30it's too slick.
0:51:32And I am, it's interesting when you talk to people
0:51:36who use Apple Pencils because there are two kinds of people
0:51:39who use Apple Pencils.
0:51:40People who buy bags full of the Apple Pencil replaceable
0:51:45tips and people who don't know that the Apple tip
0:51:48is even replaceable.
0:51:50And I think some people just press harder on the screen
0:51:54and so like burn through those replaceable tips
0:51:57and I am totally one of those people.
0:51:59And I think because I'm pressing harder,
0:52:02I often find that my fingers are sliding down the pencil
0:52:05I'm using it. Like I want more friction and so I bought quite a few wraps. The one that
0:52:13I find has the most friction and is the easiest to grip is like this pretty princess pink
0:52:20sparkly dbrand wrapper on the Apple pencil. It's great! My wife is like "I don't want
0:52:29to see you using that in public, you can't use that in public" but it's the grippiest
0:52:33one and it's the prettiest one. I really like it.
0:52:36Oh my gosh, which one did you get? Was it dbrand or Slickwraps?
0:52:42I don't know, it's one of these wrap things. Like Myke, you always want these specifics.
0:52:45I mentioned that I have a backpack and then you need to know the exact one. Look, all
0:52:49I know is I have a pretty princess sparkly wrap thing that goes around my pencil which
0:52:54is super grippy and I don't know why you need to know exactly which company it is.
0:52:58I don't know, I can't even remember. I bought that backpack.
0:53:02- Oh, good.
0:53:04- It's very, very good.
0:53:06- Yeah, the reason why I didn't bring the iPad
0:53:09is one of the trips I was trying to do
0:53:10with just that backpack without bringing any other suitcases
0:53:14because it was a relatively short trip,
0:53:16or so I thought when the trip began.
0:53:18But yeah, I've been putting that one through its paces
0:53:22and I really like it as a travel accessory.
0:53:24- I'm a big fan of it.
0:53:26I believe, or I'm expecting you have
0:53:29the slick wraps glitz series pink one here because it's like all glittery and stuff.
0:53:37Yeah it's sparkly. Yeah because dbrand only make the one that looks like a pencil. Oh
0:53:43do they only? Okay so then it must be a slick wrap one. It's a slick wrap one. So I've had
0:53:47dbrand skins and slick wrap skins. I like them both. The ones that I had, I had one
0:53:53that look like a regular pencil, one that looks like a crayon. I then made my own.
0:54:03What with one of those like custom designer things?
0:54:06No, me and our designer Simon did it. We worked together on it and I had like a mic brand
0:54:16skin on my Apple Pencil, which I love. However, all of these are being issued now for a product
0:54:24called the Kaweco Grip.
0:54:25Hmm, okay. What is this? Tell me.
0:54:27Kaweco is a traditional pen company from Germany.
0:54:31Oh, okay. Here we go.
0:54:32They make fountain pens and they make regular pens and they have a long history.
0:54:36I was getting excited, but now I don't know.
0:54:38Absolutely out of the blue at a trade show a couple of months ago, Kaweco showed off
0:54:44grip. It's currently only available from one place in Europe, which is the son of the founder
0:54:49of Kaweco's company called Most Wanted Pens, and it is an entire sleeve/case type dealio
0:54:58for the Apple Pencil. This looks really interesting. Made out of aluminium, and it has
0:55:05what is called a knurled grip, which means it has a texture to the grip, right?
0:55:13And the way that you put it on is you slide one piece over
0:55:16and then you slide another piece, you twist it,
0:55:18and it locks into place.
0:55:20And they have them in the four colors
0:55:21that Apple make their devices in, and I love it.
0:55:24I have one on one of my Apple Pencils,
0:55:25I have another one on the way.
0:55:27I will tell you in advance what this thing does.
0:55:30So it makes it heavier, and because the Apple Pencil
0:55:34is so big, it kind of makes it maybe a little bit too heavy,
0:55:37but you get used to it.
0:55:38But then what it does is it stops it rolling
0:55:40because it has some flat sides on it.
0:55:42And it gives me what I've been looking for forever, which is a grip.
0:55:47Yeah, okay, so I feel like I've...
0:55:51It's inevitable that one of these is going to arrive at my house somehow, I don't know.
0:55:54I recommend that you wait until you see me next, and then you can try it.
0:55:59Because it's not a cheap thing, and then you have to do the shipping, which is coming from Europe, so that adds on.
0:56:05Just try it out because you might not like it.
0:56:08So I would recommend just like waiting until I can show you one before you go ahead and buy it.
0:56:14Click. It's probably already bought.
0:56:16Too late!
0:56:19The question that I would ask, which I already know the answer to but I'll ask anyway,
0:56:26is can you force it to fit in the top of the leather traveling case for the iPad?
0:56:34Probably not. I mean, yeah, that's what I assume because it looks pretty junkie.
0:56:37I haven't tried it because I don't have one of those. You might, I don't think, well okay,
0:56:43it's leather so it will stretch but that's what you'll need to do. That's what I'm wondering,
0:56:47there's a little bit of give. I'm sure you can stretch it. I reckon if you put it in upside down
0:56:53you might have a better chance but then you may lose the cap forever. So you know, it's up to you
0:56:58I guess but yeah I don't use, so you use one of those then that's that's another accessory you
0:57:03you have then, the leather travel case for the iPad.
0:57:07- Yeah, I do use that, and I use it when I'm traveling
0:57:12for exactly one reason,
0:57:17which is I'm getting on an airplane.
0:57:20And you know, there's always like this hassle
0:57:22when you're getting on an airplane,
0:57:24'cause you have people behind you,
0:57:25there's like this rush, you can't futz around for too long,
0:57:28otherwise you're holding up an entire airplane of people.
0:57:31And it's a very uncomfortable moment.
0:57:34But I love having that iPad leather travel thing
0:57:39because it means that when I am getting on the plane,
0:57:44I can just reach in and grab that thing
0:57:47and know that while I'm sitting in the airplane seat,
0:57:50I have the complete iPad package.
0:57:53Like I know that I have the keyboard case
0:57:57because the keyboard case hasn't slipped off
0:58:00in the backpack from being jostled around.
0:58:02And I know that I have a pencil to work with this stuff.
0:58:06So that is very, very often my move
0:58:10of sitting down on an airplane.
0:58:12It's like, I'm only gonna get two things out of my backpack.
0:58:14It's like, I'm gonna have a bottle of water on the side,
0:58:17and then I'm just going to reach in
0:58:18and grab the iPad travel sleeve.
0:58:21And I just love that it's a single package
0:58:23because before I had that, like fairly frequently,
0:58:27I would sit down and go like,
0:58:27"Oh, I don't have the pencil in my pocket
0:58:29because I'm traveling and I'm doing everything differently.
0:58:31Or like I said, the cover would slide off
0:58:34and then I'd have to root around in my bag
0:58:35and people are glaring at me while they're waiting
0:58:37to get further down the airplane.
0:58:38So I don't use it like around the house.
0:58:41I don't put the iPad in it, but if I'm traveling,
0:58:43iPad totally goes in that pencil on the top.
0:58:45- I don't know if this will work for that.
0:58:49But I do really like this product.
0:58:51I keep my Apple Pencil attached to my iPads via a pen loop.
0:58:56- Right, yeah.
0:58:57which is, links for all of this stuff
0:58:59will be in our show notes, by the way.
0:59:01One of the other reasons I'm doing this.
0:59:03- I think links for none of this stuff
0:59:04should be in the show notes.
0:59:05I think this should be an episode
0:59:07where you don't have any show notes, Myke.
0:59:08- How about I tell you there won't be any?
0:59:10- Okay. - Okay.
0:59:12And so I use a little pen loop,
0:59:14which I keep my iPad attached to it forever.
0:59:17And also say, if you don't wanna go down the route
0:59:19of the Kaweco grip, but you wanna add something
0:59:21to stop your Apple Pencil from rolling around,
0:59:24You can add a pen clip that work with the Fisher Space Pen,
0:59:28which is a little pen that is like basically
0:59:30the exact dimensions and thickness.
0:59:32So I've always used those as well
0:59:34before I got this Kaweco thing.
0:59:35So I just have a little clip.
0:59:37So when I put my Apple Pencil down, it won't roll away.
0:59:39So that is it.
0:59:41That's the Apple Pen, the apps we use
0:59:43and the accessories we use.
0:59:45So now I have this one place
0:59:47that I can send people to forever.
0:59:49- All right.
0:59:50Just tell them right after the Roomba talk.
0:59:53Just jump in right after the Roomba and you'll get what you want.
0:59:56Cortex merch!
0:59:58Oh! Cortexmerch.com?
1:00:00Cortexmerch.com.
1:00:02By the time you're listening to this, you may have just a very small window left to buy our amazing merch.
1:00:11It is available until April the 10th, 2018.
1:00:15We are not sure when or if this stuff will be available again.
1:00:19We've mentioned the gold Cortex Aversary and the glow in the dark Cortex shirt will not be available,
1:00:25they are limited edition, but we're hoping that maybe at some point the original and the hoodie
1:00:29might come back but we don't know when so if you want them go to cortexmerch.com and buy one.
1:00:34Thank you to everybody that did buy one. I will say I have been giving away codes on an almost
1:00:40daily basis on the Cortex twitter account which is @CortexPodcast. I am trying increasing ways of
1:00:46difficulty to give these codes away but the Cortex listeners seem to be very intrepid in that it
1:00:52doesn't seem no matter what I do or how hard I make them they go very quickly but I still have
1:00:58a few more codes to give away so if you want to get a shot at getting a free shirt you can go
1:01:02follow @CortexPodcast on Twitter but we have our amazing merch available for a couple more days
1:01:08at cortexmerch.com hopefully you got in time because you don't want to be disappointed avoid
1:01:15disappointment, go to cortexmerch.com.
1:01:17Yeah, there isn't much time left. Entirely, entirely because of me and my travel schedule
1:01:24delaying the show. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, listeners. But seriously, if you're listening
1:01:29to me right now and you've just downloaded the show and you want a hoodie or you want
1:01:33a shirt, you need to go to cortexmerch.com right now.
1:01:36Yeah. I mean, I know our stats and like the vast majority of people get to this within
1:01:40the first three days or so, so they still got enough time. So there's no excuse here.
1:01:46Go to cortexmerch.com, pick up a shirt.
1:01:49Or a hoodie.
1:01:50Or all of it.
1:01:51Yes, or all of it.
1:01:52Should we do some #askcortex questions?
1:01:55It's been a while since we've done some #askcortex. Yeah, let's do that.
1:02:00Let's go with Rinaldi's question first. Rinaldi wants to know, "Gray, what font
1:02:04do you use for your scripts?"
1:02:07- Okay, so this is an interesting time to ask.
1:02:12Let me back up and say, I have a very strong opinion here
1:02:19that if you are doing anything that's a kind of writing
1:02:22on the computer, you have to go with a mono spaced font.
1:02:27A mono spaced font where all the letters are the same size,
1:02:31that is what you want.
1:02:33I think it's just nicer for looking through something
1:02:38and editing something for all of the letters
1:02:39to be the same size, like it's an old fashioned typewriter.
1:02:42- What does that mean, the same size?
1:02:45- It means that all the letters are the same width.
1:02:47- Okay, so it's the same space always, right?
1:02:51So like, if you're writing a word that has the letter I
1:02:53in the middle, it doesn't squish down on either side.
1:02:56- It doesn't squish down on either side.
1:02:58Now, I think when you're reading something normally,
1:03:02Like you're reading a book on your Kindle.
1:03:04You don't want a monospace font.
1:03:05It would drive you crazy.
1:03:06I think that's a very different experience.
1:03:08But I really think that there is something beneficial
1:03:11about when you're writing something
1:03:13to have this even look across the page
1:03:17that all of, like the width of all of the letters
1:03:19are the same.
1:03:20There's something about it that just makes it much easier
1:03:22to quickly compare previous lines
1:03:27or to know how long things are.
1:03:28Like I feel very, very strongly about monospace fonts.
1:03:31I think it's interesting about that. I've never really used monospace fonts because up until like two years ago I didn't know what it meant.
1:03:37But I am prone to almost, especially in my friend group, I have a real reputation of just making horrific spelling blunders.
1:03:50Which are based upon the fact that I'm very bad at recognising something is misspelt.
1:03:56I'm not a bad speller, but like I type something incorrectly and I always miss it
1:04:01and I wonder if a monospace font would help me with that because I might be able to
1:04:08Spot my misspellings a little bit easier
1:04:11Well, I mean I'll tell you as a horrific speller myself
1:04:15absolutely
1:04:18horrific
1:04:19So bad that many an English teacher told me that this would hold me back in my life significantly
1:04:25if I didn't learn how to spell, a monospace font does not help with that at all. I spelled
1:04:32just as badly with a monospace font as I do with a regular font. It helps not at all.
1:04:41This is, for anybody that's not aware of this, this is probably my crowning achievement in life
1:04:47now at this point, that the most important tweet that I have ever written, which was the tweet in
1:04:53which I was announcing to the world that I was quitting my day job.
1:04:57Oh god, that makes me awkward just to hear you started to tell me.
1:05:00To become a professional podcaster. The tweet ended with professional podcasters. I added
1:05:07an S to the end of podcaster. So in what was maybe the most important 140 characters
1:05:14to me that I will ever write, that was there. But however, I now kind of wear that particular
1:05:21mistake as a badge of honor looking back on it because it's funnier to me because now
1:05:26it's a meme that I see pop up every now and then which which is it's now I now I embrace
1:05:31it at the time I just wanted to die. Editable tweets would be a great just a great thing
1:05:38to have at this point but yeah sure would it's never gonna happen.
1:05:44So if you are looking for monospace font, the thing that I would recommend doing is
1:05:51just Google around for programmer fonts, because it's a similar thing that if you're a computer
1:05:57programmer, then it becomes an absolute necessity that the font is monospaced. That that is
1:06:02not a style preference. Like if you are a computer programmer and you're not using a
1:06:06monospace font, you're crazy. You can't do that. So I would Google around, there's a
1:06:12There's a whole bunch of different ones, and I would say the one that I have used by far
1:06:17the most over the years is a font called In Consolata.
1:06:23I think it's a nice trade-off between readability and monospaceness if someone's wanting to
1:06:33get into the monospace font.
1:06:35I feel like that one is always my default.
1:06:39I'm never 100% satisfied with it
1:06:41because I feel like it almost does too good of a job
1:06:44of looking like it's not monospaced,
1:06:47even while it is being it.
1:06:48But so I recommend that one as the place to start.
1:06:51That is the one that I've used the most over the years.
1:06:54I have recently switched to a different
1:06:59and quite stylistically dramatic monospaced font
1:07:04that I'm liking a lot for writing the scripts in.
1:07:08But I'm going to have to keep it a secret right now what that font actually is.
1:07:14I don't want to say it out loud.
1:07:17I'll just say that it's going to appear in a video at some point.
1:07:22And that's the font I've been using.
1:07:24But I don't want to give it away right now what monospace font I'm actually using.
1:07:28I cannot get my head around what it's going to give away.
1:07:34Right?
1:07:35Obviously the reason you're not talking about it is that if you talk about it, it gives something away.
1:07:40It would be my expectation.
1:07:42And like, what could that mean?
1:07:45I don't know, Myke.
1:07:45Coming soon to CGP Grey's YouTube channel.
1:07:47Font reviews with Grey. That's what it is. Now we know. It's your spinoff.
1:07:52Maybe it gives away nothing. I just don't want other people to use the font until I go public with it.
1:07:58Maybe that's it.
1:07:59Maybe it gives away the entire topic.
1:08:01Grey, are you a font hipster?
1:08:02[laughs]
1:08:04It's all about brands, Myke.
1:08:06I was using fonts back when nobody knew about them.
1:08:09It was just cool.
1:08:10This is where someone on Twitter tells us what a typeface is.
1:08:13And I forget immediately.
1:08:14We did this recently.
1:08:16I think we got away with it.
1:08:17it.
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1:09:42Daniel wants to know how the Switch is going.
1:09:45Have you been playing much Nintendo Switch recently?
1:09:48I mean, I could say obviously I have.
1:09:50I play my Nintendo Switch a lot.
1:09:52Have you?
1:09:54Uh, you know, sort of.
1:09:58Sometimes it's a Mario Kart machine, and I remember that it's a Mario Kart machine sometimes,
1:10:03and that's just about it.
1:10:05I think that you are in the market, like you're in the kind of the segment of a Switch owner
1:10:11who will buy like one or two games a year,
1:10:13which is like a perfectly valid purchaser,
1:10:16like who's not gonna buy lots and lots of games,
1:10:19but like once or twice a year,
1:10:21Nintendo is gonna bring out a big first party title
1:10:23that's gonna find its way into your home and you'll enjoy,
1:10:26but you're not gonna enjoy all of them.
1:10:28You know, and I've been that way in the past with consoles
1:10:30and I'm kind of that way with my PlayStation now,
1:10:33where like there's gonna be a couple of games a year
1:10:35on the PlayStation that I'm gonna want for the PlayStation,
1:10:39but won't be playing the majority of my gaming there.
1:10:42- Yeah, I mean, my pre-order copy of Kirby just arrived,
1:10:47but I haven't had a chance to open it and try it out,
1:10:50so I'll see how that is.
1:10:51- Now, why did you buy that?
1:10:53- I don't know, I remember I liked Kirby when I was a kid.
1:10:55- Okay.
1:10:56- I pre-ordered it so long ago I didn't remember,
1:10:59and it showed, I was like, "What's this package?"
1:11:01And I opened it up, and I was like, "Oh, hey, Kirby.
1:11:03"I don't remember ordering you, I guess I did."
1:11:06And this is also apparently so long ago,
1:11:08it was before I knew that you could download things on the Switch like you
1:11:11helpfully explained to me because I thought it was still all cartridges.
1:11:13It's like, what do you mean there's an online store?
1:11:18Yeah, yeah, okay. I've played the Kirby demo and it didn't really grab me but I've never enjoyed
1:11:25Kirby games so that wasn't really one for me.
1:11:29Yeah, I really like them but you know anytime you want to Myke we can talk about Super Mario
1:11:33Galaxy, I know. Or Super Mario Odyssey? Which one was it? No, it's okay. We can talk about
1:11:40it anytime, Myke. I played that one. I played that one all the way to the end. Are there
1:11:45any games in your life right now that you're enjoying a lot? No, I've been in a bit of
1:11:49a no-video-game phase. I feel like there's many things in my life that are on these sine
1:11:54waves and video games and podcasts and audiobooks are like these overlapping sine waves where
1:12:00They always go in these phases.
1:12:02And I'm in a bit of a no video game phase lately.
1:12:06So yeah, I haven't picked up anything lately
1:12:08that I really like.
1:12:09But I understand, Myke,
1:12:12that if there are video games that you're really enjoying,
1:12:16there's a place that I can hear about those video games.
1:12:19Where is that place, Myke?
1:12:20- Relay.fm/playingforfun.
1:12:23- Ah!
1:12:24- That's a great place to go.
1:12:25Yep. (laughs)
1:12:27- Are you uncomfortable with the opening
1:12:29that I gave you to promote your own show, Myke.
1:12:31- I didn't see it coming.
1:12:32- Was it so direct that it made you uncomfortable?
1:12:35- Well, no, 'cause there's a thing that we're gonna do
1:12:37and I didn't know if I wanted to mention it or not.
1:12:38Look, we're gonna play Portal 2 together and stream it.
1:12:42- Oh, that's a good idea.
1:12:44That's a good idea.
1:12:45- And I didn't know if I wanted to mention it or not.
1:12:48- Well, you've mentioned it now.
1:12:49- 'Cause we don't have the dates locked down for it, yeah.
1:12:53- This is a Cortex content exclusive reveal.
1:12:56That's what you've just given us.
1:12:58Again, you're having real trouble today understanding where the boundaries of what's in and out of the show are and what's happened to you.
1:13:04[Laughter]
1:13:06Yeah, sorry listeners. Myke is in a bit of a funny mood behind the scenes here.
1:13:10No, this has to go in the show, right? Listeners, Myke is in a bit of a funny mood, and so he keeps phasing in and out of what's in the show and what's not in the show.
1:13:19in the show. Myke doesn't know, and I just keep bringing it back. And then Myke is frustrated
1:13:24that I've turned his personal woes into what I think is pure gold Cortex content.
1:13:31So I guess then, you can also go to twitch.tv/playingforfunfm and you can follow me and Tif on Twitch,
1:13:40and we're going to be playing Portal 2 soon. I guess you can get notifications for that
1:13:46or whatever, maybe we'll upload it to YouTube too
1:13:49or something as well.
1:13:49You're killing me today, you're killing me.
1:13:52- I'm not killing you, I'm helping you, Myke.
1:13:54- I don't know if you are.
1:13:55Vex wants to know, did either of you receive
1:13:58any advice on self-employment or entrepreneurship
1:14:00either by your family or some other person or entity
1:14:04before you decided to go out on your own?
1:14:07And what do you think about entrepreneurship courses?
1:14:10- Well, Myke, you're the man who lived
1:14:14in the business world.
1:14:15I don't know what I think about courses. I've never taken any. I would say only pay for
1:14:33a course if there's nobody, literally nobody in your life that can give you advice about
1:14:41this. Like, if there is no one in your life that can give you advice or at least tell
1:14:48you where to go for advice that they got, you shouldn't do a course. Like, if you're
1:14:56in a situation where there is nobody in your life that is able to help you, then give it
1:15:00ago. The reason I say this is because there are a lot of almost snake oil like things
1:15:11in the entrepreneurship world. I genuinely believe that they're not all like this, that
1:15:18there are gen- like there are people that believe that they can genuinely help and do
1:15:22help, but I wouldn't want to say that it is like a constant, you know, that every single
1:15:27entrepreneurship course is going to help you. I would also say any entrepreneurship course
1:15:32that you are going to go on, just do some research about the person who is giving it to you. Because
1:15:39if their literal only entrepreneurship is this course, then I would maybe question how helpful
1:15:47they could be. Like if the only thing that they've ever been successful at is giving these courses,
1:15:52that they don't have experience running another business, then I would question it because
1:15:58what entrepreneurship do they actually know? Anyway, so I have a lot of problems with these
1:16:04types of things. So like these courses, like there are a lot of like online courses that you
1:16:08can take from like experts that are only their only experience is this thing that they do.
1:16:14So I get really wary about a lot of stuff like that. So do some due diligence on the person that
1:16:20that you will be paying probably a lot of money to.
1:16:24So that's my feeling on those things.
1:16:26The reason I say all of this is because
1:16:29all of the advice that I got was from people that knew me.
1:16:33And I think that there is so much importance
1:16:36to be placed in that, that if you can get advice
1:16:39on this stuff from someone that you know
1:16:42that you already have a relationship with,
1:16:44they're gonna know enough about you
1:16:46to be able to make some recommendations
1:16:48that they know will or won't work with you.
1:16:50So all of my advice, all of my help, all of my assistance that I ever got and continue to get
1:16:57comes from people that I have a relationship with.
1:17:00Yeah, that's one of the things with giving advice in general that's tricky.
1:17:07Like even in this moment here, like people ask us, ask Cortex questions.
1:17:10We are giving advice about giving advice, which is an interesting paradox to be in.
1:17:15But nobody's paying us for this.
1:17:17- But like, you know, the podcast is obviously
1:17:21a money-making venture.
1:17:23I like doing the questions, but it is always a moment
1:17:25I'm very aware of that a person is asking a question
1:17:28and the entirety of their life has been condensed down
1:17:31into a sentence or two to fit on Twitter.
1:17:33And so you have to sort of talk about it
1:17:36in a very general way.
1:17:41Hopefully you do have people in your life
1:17:44that can know you and talk to you directly about this kind of stuff.
1:17:50And like I was very lucky that both of my parents,
1:17:57I would not say that they are entrepreneurs
1:18:00because that's a word that has become sort of poisoned.
1:18:04And it's like someone introduces themselves as an entrepreneur.
1:18:06-It's such a shame because it's such a good word.
1:18:08-It is a good word, but it's this weird thing
1:18:12where we're always losing words in English, right?
1:18:17Because too many people start piling onto them.
1:18:21And it's like, oh, now if, as happens,
1:18:25if I'm somewhere and I meet someone
1:18:27and they introduce themselves to me as an entrepreneur,
1:18:29it's like my mental Bayesian filter
1:18:32has put it at 80% probability
1:18:34that this person is some kind of business sphincter
1:18:38that just spews hot air constantly.
1:18:41like, ah, that's probably what you do.
1:18:43Because entrepreneur is just like,
1:18:46you talk a lot about how you're doing things.
1:18:49That's probably what this means now.
1:18:51You okay over there, Myke?
1:18:53- Yeah, I'm good.
1:18:54I'm all good.
1:18:55I have realized now, like in my tirade,
1:18:58like the irony of this show, right?
1:19:02Like in that, and I understand if people feel that way
1:19:05about what we're doing here, right?
1:19:07Like talking about our productivity.
1:19:09Because there is a thing that I find really funny
1:19:12that people mention, like, you know,
1:19:14no, I'm not gonna get into this.
1:19:16Like the you, what do you do?
1:19:17I think that's like, what do you think,
1:19:19there's nothing, it takes nothing to do this stuff?
1:19:22Oh, he doesn't make videos anymore, so he doesn't work.
1:19:25Anyway.
1:19:26- Myke, I need no defending.
1:19:29- No, but it, no, because it annoys me
1:19:32because people were like talking that my work
1:19:35is nothing work.
1:19:36Like, podcasting, that's a piece of b*tch, right?
1:19:40Like, doesn't take anything.
1:19:42Oh, you're not making a YouTube video, so you're not actually doing any work.
1:19:46[laughter]
1:19:48Anyway.
1:19:49There's the problem, Myke. When you make something sound natural and conversational,
1:19:53it doesn't sound like it's anything.
1:19:55Yeah, I guess so. I guess you're right.
1:19:57Even if there are a thousand cuts...
1:20:00Yeah, I guess there's a weird compliment in that, right?
1:20:03Yeah, it shouldn't sound like it's any work.
1:20:04it should sound like we just, we're just hanging out.
1:20:07But along those, like sort of along those lines
1:20:11and having a meta conversation
1:20:13about this very show itself is,
1:20:15so well I wouldn't say that my parents were entrepreneurs.
1:20:18Both of my parents were very entrepreneurial.
1:20:22Like they had successful side businesses that made money
1:20:27and they had successful side projects
1:20:30and they were always thinking about other stuff to do,
1:20:34Like my father was self-employed
1:20:37and my mom was a flight attendant,
1:20:40which just like me becoming a teacher,
1:20:42it was a career that gave an enormous number of hours
1:20:45of free time if you did it right.
1:20:46And so she spun off successful businesses on the side.
1:20:50Like they were both very entrepreneurial
1:20:54and I think growing up and just seeing that was very useful.
1:20:58My parents never really spoke about it explicitly,
1:21:02But I think just seeing that happen was good when I was a kid or my parents,
1:21:08uh, sometimes very much against my will involving me in their entrepreneurial
1:21:14side businesses, uh, right.
1:21:15Was also,
1:21:16Hey, it's summer!
1:21:17Yeah.
1:21:21I, I don't know if I've told you this on the podcast, Myke, but the one, the one
1:21:25which at the time I've felt deeply ambivalent about, but now I look back on
1:21:29like, "Oh, that was a good thing that I did," was still to this day, I've asked my father so many times,
1:21:35I've never quite figured out, like, how exactly did this happen, but my mom was making jewelry
1:21:43and selling it at these very upscale craft fairs, which I don't quite think these things exist in the modern world
1:21:49the way they did when I was growing up, because I think something about them is a little bit pre-internetty dependent.
1:21:54- It's Etsy now. That's where that stuff goes.
1:21:57Yeah, it's kind of like Etsy, but for the very top of the market in very particular neighborhoods.
1:22:02Oh buddy, you can get some expensive stuff on Etsy, let me tell you. Like, it's not all cheap.
1:22:07Yeah, it was hard to describe it. So my mom spun this off, and that was an example where, like,
1:22:14sometimes she would bring me into Manhattan with her while she was making inventory purchases,
1:22:19like for the beads and the jewels and things that she needed. And it's like,
1:22:21like, "Oh, it's interesting to see that."
1:22:23And obviously my father, who was a lawyer and a tax attorney,
1:22:28like had done a bunch of these things,
1:22:30the gears were spinning in his head during these weekends.
1:22:34And I don't know how it happened,
1:22:36but somehow my father was like,
1:22:38"Oh, I know what I'll do at these upscale craft fairs.
1:22:42I'm going to sell pretzels that are made by the Amish."
1:22:47And my dad somehow got like this Amish connection
1:22:51where we would go to a Pennsylvania Dutch village
1:22:54and be wholesale buying a bunch of their handmade pretzels
1:22:59and then bringing them to a chocolate factory
1:23:02to get them dipped in chocolate
1:23:03and then selling them at these craft fairs.
1:23:06And my dad had somehow been able to talk his way
1:23:10out of being lumped in with the other food vendors.
1:23:12He's like, "Oh no, this isn't food.
1:23:14This is handcrafted by the Amish.
1:23:17I deserve to be in the craft section of this market.
1:23:21So we were the only food vendors in this whole area.
1:23:26And I will never forget as a kid, my dad's like,
1:23:28"Guess what, son? You're selling pretzels now."
1:23:31(laughs)
1:23:33- You have never told me this story.
1:23:35- That is wild.
1:23:36- It was really wild.
1:23:37- Why did your dad ever get this into his head?
1:23:41- I don't know.
1:23:41I've been through this many times with him
1:23:43and I can never quite figure out exactly how it got started
1:23:46or like, who was the Amish guy you knew who started this off?
1:23:49Like, I don't, I don't really understand.
1:23:50- That's a wheeler dealer.
1:23:51Like, he was a tax attorney.
1:23:54Like, why would he want to sell pretzels?
1:23:56That's so funny.
1:23:57- Yeah, keep in mind, like during all this time,
1:23:59he's doing his law practice as well.
1:24:01But those, those weekends, I was, I was just like
1:24:05the kid who was now selling pretzels with my father.
1:24:07And it was, it was a great experience.
1:24:11Like, I'm really glad that it was a thing that I did.
1:24:13But like, that, that was kind of like,
1:24:15you're getting wrapped up in these entrepreneurial activities,
1:24:18whether you like it or not.
1:24:19And I certainly didn't like it at the time
1:24:21because I was terrified that some of my classmates
1:24:25would see me at these things,
1:24:26but luckily they were far enough away from where I grew up.
1:24:28And the other thing that,
1:24:31even though I was kind of embarrassed to be there at first,
1:24:33I sure couldn't help but notice
1:24:35that we couldn't collect the money fast enough.
1:24:37The fact that my dad had talked his way
1:24:40into being away from all the other food,
1:24:43It was just like collecting money for eight hours a day.
1:24:48And I was like, aha, well, well, well,
1:24:50this sort of changes the concept of the idea about like,
1:24:55what can you do that people want to give you money?
1:25:01And we did it for a number of years
1:25:02and built up reputations where people knew that,
1:25:05like, even though we showed up with several truckloads
1:25:08of these pretzels, we would sell them all out
1:25:10before like 3 p.m.
1:25:11So people knew they had to come
1:25:12get the pretzel straight away.
1:25:14That's like my growing up with entrepreneurial activities
1:25:19around me, but the thing that's a little bit of a capper
1:25:21on this is another thing that I don't know how it happens.
1:25:25My father ended up running, while he was selling pretzels,
1:25:28while he was also a lawyer, a night school,
1:25:31like running classes for adults in the evening.
1:25:36And he taught entrepreneurship in one of these classes.
1:25:41Like, he was running the thing,
1:25:42and he also did a class on entrepreneurship.
1:25:45And he was a great teacher,
1:25:47but the thing he always told me was,
1:25:49people who go to classes on entrepreneurship,
1:25:51they don't start businesses.
1:25:52People who start businesses,
1:25:53they just start their businesses.
1:25:55They don't go to classes about how to start the business.
1:25:58And I thought that was, that was like a--
1:26:01- That is very good advice.
1:26:02- It was a very interesting point.
1:26:04And he's like, people you see
1:26:06come to two entrepreneurship classes,
1:26:08you know they're never going to start a business.
1:26:11It's just not going to happen.
1:26:12And I personally would dial back my dad's advice
1:26:17a little bit because I can't remember where I heard
1:26:21this joke, but I heard a joke that I think is applicable
1:26:24across many things.
1:26:25And it was a joke about going to improv classes.
1:26:29And the joke is the first improv class you go to,
1:26:33it makes you funnier because you learn some of the structure
1:26:36of humor.
1:26:38And every improv class you go to after the first one
1:26:41makes you less funny.
1:26:42And I feel like that can be applied
1:26:45probably to many things.
1:26:47I bet that going to the first business class
1:26:50for a lot of people,
1:26:51or the first class about how to write,
1:26:54or the first class about many skills
1:26:57that you can develop on your own,
1:26:59I think there can be value in the first one.
1:27:01But not only is there maybe not value in the second one,
1:27:06but there's negative value in the second one.
1:27:09So that's the big picture thought there on,
1:27:11like, self-employment and/or entrepreneurship stuff.
1:27:15-Pretzels, man.
1:27:17-Yeah.
1:27:17Got me through college, those pretzels.
1:27:19Like, it literally paid for my college education.
1:27:22Boxes and boxes of pretzels.
1:27:24-That's what the "P" stands for in CGP.
1:27:26It's pretzels. -No.
1:27:27It's not what the "P" stands for.
1:27:29-Chocolate-garnished pretzels gray.
1:27:31-Yeah, perfect. Yeah.
1:27:32That's exactly it. -I nailed it.
1:27:33I cracked the code, everyone.
1:27:34I did it.
1:27:35(laughing)