0:00:00You wanted your vlog, you got your vlog.
0:00:02Yeah, but I still feel like you owe me a vlog. You skipped a week.
0:00:05You will never be satiated. Never.
0:00:07Well, I think you owe me like an extra vlog. That's all I'm saying.
0:00:11Well, you're gonna be sad because I'm not doing one this week.
0:00:14I can't believe you're disrespecting the schedule like this, Myke. I don't understand
0:00:17what's happened to you. I think I've rubbed off on you.
0:00:21There is no schedule though, Gray. There was no schedule.
0:00:24You were the one who decided there was a schedule, not me.
0:00:28Why is this the one project that doesn't have a schedule, Myke?
0:00:31Because it's not my job.
0:00:32It's not.
0:00:34It's because it's your side project?
0:00:36Because it's my side project.
0:00:37And quite frankly, I mean, like the real reason is
0:00:41I just don't have enough interesting things going on.
0:00:44Or all times to make like, I could make a video this week, but it would be really boring.
0:00:48So I'm gonna make a video next week because I'm moving house.
0:00:54I mean, that's the reason that I'm not making a video this week is because next week we're moving.
0:00:57Oh, it's finally happening for real?
0:01:00It's finally happening for real.
0:01:01We had the movers booked.
0:01:02By the time many people were hearing this, I will have moved.
0:01:05Ooh, very exciting.
0:01:06Yeah.
0:01:07Into Cottage, I'll be ensconced in the mega office.
0:01:10So this is the last recording in your old office then, which is your bedroom?
0:01:16Actually, yes it is.
0:01:17It is the last recording of anything.
0:01:19Oh really?
0:01:20Yeah.
0:01:21Wow.
0:01:22Yeah.
0:01:23I didn't realize that until just now.
0:01:24It's momentous.
0:01:25week shows, even though we're moving middle of the week, but all of next week's shows
0:01:29are going to be recorded from Mega Office.
0:01:31I think because I'm the last one, I should also be the first one in the new office.
0:01:36Great, so you want to record next week?
0:01:38So, delay all of your shows until after the next recording of Cortex.
0:01:45I think that's the way to handle this.
0:01:48I mean, I could do that, but I would then also lose the house that I'm buying, so...
0:01:52Right, fair enough.
0:01:53Okay, I can see why you don't want to.
0:01:55I can see why you don't want to.
0:01:56- As nice as it would be to take
0:01:57Cortex once across everything.
0:01:59- You gotta pay for those houses somehow.
0:02:01And houses aren't cheap I hear.
0:02:03- That is very true.
0:02:04So you wanted to know my YouTube ranking.
0:02:08It turns out that there is a website that will tell you it.
0:02:11VidstatsX is like the second tier website now
0:02:15to something called Social Blade,
0:02:17which many people wrote in to tell us about.
0:02:19My current ranking as of today, Gray, is 232,533.
0:02:25subscribers. I'm actually pretty pleased with that to be honest.
0:02:28Yeah, I think that's, that's interesting. I was aware of social blade.
0:02:33And I think what happened was when I first started being aware that there were
0:02:38websites that could track your subscribers,
0:02:41social blade was actually the one that I used years and years ago.
0:02:44And then at some point vid stat X took the mantle for having better numbers,
0:02:49but it looks like social blade is coming back on their game now to be the better
0:02:54website with the live subscriber count things that they do and also being better on mobile.
0:02:59So it looks like I'm going to be sort of moving back to Social Blade from VidstatX for looking
0:03:05up various things on YouTube.
0:03:08Although I do absolutely hate that the website has these estimated earnings which are off
0:03:13by like an order of magnitude with their estimates for like the low and the high numbers.
0:03:19It's amazing.
0:03:20estimated yearly earnings are somewhere between 63 pounds and a thousand pounds. That is a
0:03:25huge difference.
0:03:28I know, I know. It's like, I don't know why they even have those numbers there. I don't
0:03:32understand what those estimated earnings things are. But it just bothers me that they have
0:03:37a data point that is just so meaningless and that like their high end numbers for some
0:03:44channels are just comical, like they're just like just insane insane numbers.
0:03:51That's my least favorite thing about Social Blade but overall it does seem
0:03:54like it's it's winning the war for which website is actually better. But yeah I
0:03:57agree with you that it's interesting to see that you are just rounded off like
0:04:05in the top quarter million of YouTube channels and what is your current
0:04:10Subscriber numbers ten thousand six hundred and fifty nine ten thousand six hundred and fifty nine
0:04:15I think this this again goes to reiterate the conversation that we were having before of
0:04:20the the total number of YouTube channels is just
0:04:24incomprehensibly large
0:04:27and it's like you're you're moving up this power law distribution of
0:04:31What subscriber numbers look like and where you are in the rankings against all other channels with that. So
0:04:39So keep climbing that power log graph Myke.
0:04:42I will say the live subscriber count for me is just a sad page.
0:04:48It doesn't move very much.
0:04:50You can sit and look at that thing for a while and nothing really happens.
0:04:53Do you leave it open in the background somewhere so you can check in on it every once in a
0:04:58while?
0:04:59I have it on a dedicated TV hanging on the wall now.
0:05:01Just got to keep my eye on that thing.
0:05:03I think you have space for that in MegaOffice.
0:05:05That should be one of the things that's in the background of your videos.
0:05:08You should always have that in the background.
0:05:09It's just a flat line.
0:05:10Yeah, but not forever, Myke. It won't be a flat line forever.
0:05:15So I think you should do that.
0:05:16You should have a dedicated TV in the background that shows your live subscriber
0:05:20numbers as you're recording the vlog.
0:05:22There's no way people will mess around with that. Uh,
0:05:25that's definitely something that you should do.
0:05:27Yeah, I'll look into that.
0:05:28Do you remember we asked Ryan to slowly fix your problem with your email mail
0:05:33boxes?
0:05:34Oh, is this tech support? Okay. We're back to my tech support.
0:05:37Excellent. Ryan is back again for our bi-weekly check-in here for the situation of your email
0:05:46problem. And he has provided some handy screenshots. Oh wow. So basically there is a rule that
0:05:56you can set up. This is the problem. We were looking in smart mailboxes for the situation,
0:06:00for this VIP problem. It is a rule that you can set up on your Mac for if sender is in
0:06:07my contacts you can create a mailbox for that to be in, call it the VIP mailbox or whatever.
0:06:13If you use iCloud email there has to be a Mac on always to filter this. But if you use
0:06:19Gmail or something I assume maybe other services that are not iCloud email you can set up these
0:06:25rules and it will work in the cloud. And then he has also provided instructions on how you
0:06:30can set up those mailboxes to be pushed on iOS which is not intuitive but Ryan has provided
0:06:36steps.
0:06:37>> Boy, these are some nice screenshots, I have to say.
0:06:40This is done very nicely here.
0:06:41>> This was a multiple days of communication between me and Ryan to get to this situation.
0:06:48>> Oh, wow, I appreciate that the two of you are working on my tech support problems.
0:06:52This is great.
0:06:53>> It was more he was just doing it and I was just saying thanks and then he would come
0:06:58back with another saying, oh, it didn't work.
0:07:00So Ryan, I think Ryan may have solved your problem here.
0:07:04>> I mean, this is interesting.
0:07:05I'll have to look at this in more detail when the show is over.
0:07:09Because I'm assuming you use Gmail or something similar.
0:07:12I don't use Gmail.
0:07:13I actually use fast mail as the back end.
0:07:15I'm not using Gmail.
0:07:16Maybe fast mail will do the same thing as Gmail, though, because who knows?
0:07:19This is what this is.
0:07:20What's occurring to me is they have a bunch of server side rule stuff that you can do.
0:07:23So there may be something similar to this.
0:07:25It's just a question about synchronizing contact books.
0:07:27But it is helpful, but I still do have the one limitation with the Apple
0:07:34mail thing that I find frustrating which is that I can't sort by sender on iOS.
0:07:38So it's like limiting everybody to the people who are in my contacts book, this is fantastic.
0:07:44I would love the ability to sort by sender on iOS like you can on Mac OS.
0:07:50But this is like 60% of the way towards being very helpful.
0:07:55So I will definitely take a look at this in more detail after the show.
0:07:59Maybe Ryan can somehow create some elaborate system of rules to reorganize your mail for
0:08:04you in alphabetical order.
0:08:05Who knows?
0:08:06Just route it through some server somewhere.
0:08:10Or maybe Ryan can work with the guys at Unibox to get their update out to fix all of their
0:08:16various problems on iOS.
0:08:18Whatever it is, I look forward to solutions that I've received on the podcast.
0:08:23This is fantastic.
0:08:25Thank you, Ryan.
0:08:26Poor Ryan.
0:08:27Today's episode of Cortex is brought to you by Squarespace, the simplest way for anyone
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0:09:53Many people in the Reddit have tried to fix your notification problems for you.
0:09:59Oh have they? I bet they have amazing solutions.
0:10:02There is one person, Funkju on the Reddit, who suggested something that was in my mind and I don't know why I didn't bring it up at the time.
0:10:11So considering you have your device set for these basically two different modes, you have a contact me mode and a do not contact me mode.
0:10:21Why don't you just have two phones?
0:10:24I saw this comment and I saw a lot of Twitter replies about having two phones.
0:10:30Because this is within your character, right?
0:10:33You have two watches for this purpose, you have like two iPads, maybe seven iPads.
0:10:38I was going to say two iPads.
0:10:40Two?
0:10:41I feel like you've forgotten our conversation from long ago.
0:10:45I have at least twelve!
0:10:46Yeah, you and Myke have been brought along to the multi-pad lifestyle here, right?
0:10:52You were so skeptical a long time ago.
0:10:55I am like a mere apprentice.
0:10:57I have but two iPads.
0:10:59So why do you not have multiple phones for this?
0:11:02One that is just disconnected from everything and one that's connected.
0:11:05Yeah, so I saw people mention this, and I think it's just kind of funny.
0:11:09Mention it in a way as though it had never crossed my mind to use multiple devices for
0:11:13this purpose.
0:11:15The problem is the way Apple handles two different things, one of which is the notification stuff.
0:11:23So while you can have what I do, multiple Apple Watches that are connected to an individual
0:11:30phone, you cannot reasonably have one Apple Watch that connects to two different phones.
0:11:38This is just not a possibility.
0:11:40If you want to do this, it means you have to wipe and restore the Apple Watch every
0:11:44single time, which takes forever and is an enormous hassle.
0:11:49So you can't tell an Apple Watch to look for whichever phone is the one that's being actively
0:11:55used right now.
0:11:56Is it the morning phone or is it the evening phone?
0:11:59And so what this means is it automatically makes it impossible for me to have the notifications
0:12:04go the way I want them to go, which is through the Apple Watch.
0:12:08So the morning phone would not be able to use the Apple Watch.
0:12:10It's like, okay, that alone is a big problem.
0:12:14But there's a second really big problem,
0:12:17which is that Apple, to my great frustration,
0:12:20which I mentioned before,
0:12:22doesn't synchronize your health data across anything.
0:12:25And so when I was playing around with this a while back,
0:12:28like I quickly realized you end up with two fragmented,
0:12:32unrelated health databases that like can't be merged
0:12:36and can't be handled in an easy way.
0:12:38And so because I exercise in the morning,
0:12:42I run into this problem with the apps
0:12:45that I want to use for exercise,
0:12:47trying to write data to a separate Apple Health database.
0:12:52- Which is stored on the phone, not the watch.
0:12:54So you can have two watches,
0:12:55but you can only have one phone
0:12:56'cause you have one central store for the health data.
0:12:59- Right, right.
0:12:59Your Apple Watch is always going to be tied
0:13:02to one particular phone.
0:13:04And it makes sense, okay,
0:13:05whatever phone I'm going to receive iMessages on,
0:13:07that has to be the phone that the Apple Watch is going to be tied to.
0:13:10But then that means like, oh, the morning phone that I would use
0:13:13that has this kind of subset of notifications that I want to receive
0:13:18which are reminders to myself from myself
0:13:20that phone can't run notifications through a watch
0:13:23and any health stuff that's done on that phone is going to be limited to that phone.
0:13:29It can't synchronize out elsewhere.
0:13:30It's like this is just, it's too much of a hassle, like it's too much of a pain in the butt
0:13:34that it causes more problems than it solves,
0:13:38let alone some of the other synchronization issues
0:13:42that I'm always a little bit frustrated with with Apple.
0:13:44So it's like I would totally do it
0:13:47if it was something that the software supported,
0:13:50but it's not something that the software supports
0:13:53at this time.
0:13:54And so this is one of the reasons why
0:13:56I have this frustration with a lack of granularity
0:13:59over notifications, because I feel like,
0:14:01Hey Apple, even if I am willing to buy two phones to solve my notification problem, I
0:14:08still can't solve my notification problem because of the way the software operates.
0:14:12So that's why I don't do this.
0:14:15But it was to the many people who were giving feedback about this issue, yes, I had, I have
0:14:19definitely, this had definitely crossed my mind.
0:14:22I had definitely done some trials with older phones to see if I could make this work.
0:14:27And it was just like, no, this is way impractical.
0:14:30This is much more of a hassle than the problem I'm trying to solve.
0:14:33It's a shame, the health data thing, because I could have seen a world where you ended
0:14:37up with two phones and four watches.
0:14:42Which would have been just delightful for me.
0:14:45Yeah, I think you would have enjoyed that quite a lot.
0:14:47But I think that's crazy.
0:14:49I don't really need that.
0:14:51Really though?
0:14:52Is it more crazy?
0:14:53Is it more crazy than just having two watches?
0:14:56Like I feel like it's a diminishing return of crazy.
0:15:00You always say that the two watches thing is crazy, but it's not crazy.
0:15:02I've given you all the reasons why it's fantastic and I love it.
0:15:05Mm hmm. Yeah.
0:15:06I don't think that it being fantastic and you loving it doesn't mean it's not
0:15:09crazy.
0:15:10It's but it isn't crazy.
0:15:12It isn't crazy because I have very good reasons for the,
0:15:14for the way that I do it.
0:15:15I don't have good reasons to be running two phones and four watches,
0:15:18so it's not going to happen even though I know that you would love it for
0:15:22podcasting purposes.
0:15:24And the inevitable argument, the inevitable argument was
0:15:29[Sigh]
0:15:31The obvious one.
0:15:33I know. Android can give you what you want.
0:15:35Right. I know.
0:15:37It is the inevitable argument anytime we ever complain about anything Apple-related.
0:15:42But, the level at which Android can give you what you want here is far greater than I would have assumed.
0:15:50Because in my experience of playing around with Android, it felt to me that the notification problems were the same,
0:15:57But I had not gone deep enough, Gray.
0:15:59- Right, because you have one of the Google Pixel phones,
0:16:01right? - I do, yes.
0:16:03And maybe I wasn't looking because I didn't think
0:16:07such a thing could exist, but it does.
0:16:10So I asked for some assistance and some guidance
0:16:12from the people in the Reddit thread
0:16:15to try and give me some information
0:16:18for how notifications work on Android.
0:16:21So you can definitely have settings on an app by app basis
0:16:25about what notifies you. So that's one thing you can do. But then they also have a whole
0:16:31system called priority apps. And this is where it gets kind of incredible. Priority apps
0:16:36can break through your Do Not Disturb barrier. You can set that, you can set that, the priority
0:16:42app notifications to activate and deactivate at certain times. This is all built into the
0:16:48system, let alone the things that you can do to hack on it, right? And also, in the
0:16:52In the latest version of Android, there is a six-tier importance level system, including
0:16:59showing what can and can't be shown on the lock screen.
0:17:03Six tiers.
0:17:04Six tiers.
0:17:05Even I feel like that's quite a lot.
0:17:07That's quite a lot of tiers.
0:17:09But this is the thing, I think of all of the arguments, because we get this argument a
0:17:13lot, right?
0:17:14You like pencil support, you should use a surface.
0:17:17Right.
0:17:18Okay.
0:17:19It really does feel to me that like this is such a fundamental frustration for you.
0:17:26It's solved there.
0:17:29And I just I wonder and I know the problem, the problem of this is the exact same problem
0:17:34of the day phone, night phone is the Apple Watch.
0:17:36The Apple Watch is the problem.
0:17:39But it is just interesting to me to see just the level at which Android has solved this
0:17:44problem and then the level at which Apple is ignoring it.
0:17:48Yeah, I think it's interesting like that, that is a way more in depth
0:17:52granularity than I would have expected as well. Like this is,
0:17:56this is definitely a case where you and I are like iOS peasants where we're
0:18:01asking for a single level of the ability to break, do not disturb.
0:18:05And Android is over there. It's like, look at me with my six levels, right?
0:18:10I have levels to spare. And so I guess this is definitely a case of,
0:18:14of where like Android wins this one. But I've always,
0:18:16I've always acknowledged like if you want a bunch of settings, like if that is your primary concern is the ability to fiddle with and make everything exactly the way you want it.
0:18:28Android is is the choice for you.
0:18:31And I think this is partly why like people go a little bit crazy why I'm not an Android person because they think I'm that person with everything.
0:18:38But like in this is a case where I am not that person.
0:18:42I have other priorities aside from just like the sheer number of settings that are available.
0:18:47But this large this, this goes mostly straight to this core of this frustration of there are definitely many places in iOS where it feels like it's a little neglected.
0:19:00like it's a little creaky, it's a little old,
0:19:03and the notifications area is definitely one of those places
0:19:06and this is like a comical disparity then
0:19:09in the amount of granularity that you have on Android
0:19:12versus the amount of granularity that you have on iOS.
0:19:14- Yeah, I expected that this problem was solvable
0:19:19on Android, right?
0:19:20Because they all seem to be, right?
0:19:22Every problem you have can be solved on Android,
0:19:25but it's usually with like, you gotta root your phone
0:19:27and use the Android development tools,
0:19:29But no, this one's just built straight into the system.
0:19:32Yeah, that's, that's the big differences.
0:19:34This is not, this is not, Oh, you're hacking around with your own phone.
0:19:38This, this is just built in and that does make a huge difference.
0:19:41And so I hope Apple is listening.
0:19:45I hope that they think about adding some more features to iOS and the ability
0:19:51to break through, do not disturb or have more granularity in the settings.
0:19:54I am not hopeful, but I hope that it is something that will change
0:19:59eventually but I'm hoping that because I'm not switching to Android anytime soon
0:20:03even though it apparently would solve every single one of my problems.
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0:21:06Alright so last time on the show we promised an Ask Cortex special for Cortexmas so I wanted
0:21:13to get all of our follow up out of the way so we've cleared the stage for the Cortexmas
0:21:19break. So that's all dealt with now. And I do not feel like it would be hyperbole to
0:21:26say that I have been inundated with questions. Far more than I expected to receive. So we're
0:21:33good on Ask Cortex for a while, but keep sending them in anyway.
0:21:38My favorite question was, "Why are we sending all the questions to Myke and not to the both
0:21:43of you. And I feel like, because Myke is much better at organising all of this stuff than
0:21:49I am. Question number one, this is the answer. Myke has a big document full of tons of questions,
0:21:57nicely indented, nicely bullet pointed. I would never create this, so thank you Myke
0:22:03for arranging all of this. Sorted, rewritten, highlighted. I was also
0:22:08very surprised, Gray, that I only received one question by email.
0:22:12That's fantastic. Isn't that what you want?
0:22:13Yeah, but that question was tweet length, so I have no idea why it came to me by email.
0:22:19But it did. It was exactly what I wanted. Many, many, many people used the hashtag,
0:22:26and many, many, many people used the Reddit. I appreciated the people who were trying to
0:22:31group the questions up for me. That was very nice of you. But I have a vast array of questions
0:22:38here for the two of us to go through.
0:22:40So starting off with Justin, Justin asked, can you give us a full rundown of the applications
0:22:46that you're currently using for tracking your time and or making you more efficient at work?
0:22:52I am also interested in this because I want to get into time tracking a little bit more
0:22:58sometime after Cortexmas and to trying to understand where my time's going and maybe
0:23:04what it's best used in and trying to maybe work out that scary figure that you have of
0:23:10what my time is actually worth in money.
0:23:15One year later you might actually do this.
0:23:18Okay, fantastic.
0:23:20I think you have to go through a whole process before you want to start doing stuff like
0:23:23this.
0:23:25And I'm also a little bit scared of what I'll find out, but it's something I definitely
0:23:29want to do.
0:23:30So what are you currently using for time tracking?
0:23:34Before we get to that, I do just want to reiterate that for anybody who does the "what is your
0:23:40time actually worth" calculation, I'm teasing Myke about putting it off, but I've done this
0:23:45with a number of people.
0:23:50People are, in some sense, right to feel hesitant about doing this and hesitant about really
0:23:55facing it straight on because it can be
0:23:59terrifying and
0:24:02life-changing in all kinds of positive and negative ways and
0:24:07and like to really put a number on your time, so I
0:24:11kid you, but I do understand why there's a lot of mental
0:24:15resistance about doing this kind of thing because it's like your life will never quite be the same
0:24:21After as before when you really sit down and and value your time per hour
0:24:25I get it can't help but become a thing that lodges in your brain and
0:24:31Changes the way you think about a lot of stuff because like here's the thing right do I work in a creative field?
0:24:36Mm-hmm. So there is a lot of stuff that I do
0:24:39Which doesn't make money or doesn't make as much money as other things like for example my youtube channel
0:24:47Like my youtube channel
0:24:50Would right now just be a black hole
0:24:53Yeah from a financial perspective and it's like if I find that figure out I
0:24:59Don't want it to rule my life, but just to inform it
0:25:04Right. Yeah, and so that's why I've been hesitant of it
0:25:07Yeah
0:25:08That's the real key is that you have to understand this as you know
0:25:12Like I say with a lot of the things that I have set up for myself. They are
0:25:15guidelines they are not rules because you'll lose your mind if stuff is like a rule that you have to follow all the time
0:25:23But so after all of that preamble I have nothing to help you Myke I have nothing to help you that's good
0:25:32Because I would actually love to
0:25:36Hear from people what they use for time tracking because I have gone through various phases of tracking my time in
0:25:43in different ways over the years.
0:25:45And what I find occurs is that as the nature
0:25:50of my work changes, I eventually find
0:25:52that there's some limitation
0:25:55about the way I'm doing time tracking,
0:25:56which isn't working for my current work,
0:25:58that did work for my old work.
0:26:00And I've gone through like three phases of this.
0:26:02- 'Cause you were using like a Rube Goldberg machine
0:26:07triggered by Launch Center Pro, weren't you?
0:26:08Like a long time ago.
0:26:10Yeah, yeah. Well, this is, this is in modified versions.
0:26:14Launch Center Pro has been at the heart of what I've used for a while,
0:26:19but it's been connecting to different systems behind the scenes.
0:26:21And I basically,
0:26:25I have come up against a kind of limitation about this recently because for
0:26:30various ways that my business has changed,
0:26:32I want to be able to do more granular tracking on a project basis.
0:26:37I need to know more specifically than just,
0:26:41here is the time that I spend on YouTube.
0:26:43Like I want to be able to narrow that down
0:26:46to time spent on a particular video as a subset of YouTube.
0:26:51And the system I had built for myself in the past
0:26:53couldn't handle this very well.
0:26:56And so I was aware that I needed to change
0:26:59time tracking systems as the year was going on.
0:27:02And then as I was working on that rules for rulers video,
0:27:07And I was aware like all of my time is being spent thinking about and working on this project.
0:27:13I was aware that even thinking about time tracking was just nonsensical during that time because it's like,
0:27:18well, I guess I'll just write down six weeks all of the time because I can't release this.
0:27:24And so I actually made a conscious decision to stop time tracking sort of halfway through that project and put time tracking aside until I have figured out a new system that has the features that I'm looking for.
0:27:36So I don't have any particular tools to recommend for you and I I
0:27:40too am exactly in the world of looking into
0:27:45What are the options out there?
0:27:48I think I do have a bunch of like particularly picky things that I want like I kind of want to be able to set
0:27:54Timers like that's very much how I work and that seems to be how no time tracking software works
0:28:00But I'll be very curious to see like what do people recommend?
0:28:02in the comments for
0:28:05software that is easy to use and detailed with time tracking.
0:28:09So I'll tell you the tool that our mutual friend Federico is using and the one
0:28:15that I want to try is called toggle,
0:28:17T O G G L and it is a time tracking
0:28:22application that has apps for all the major platforms,
0:28:27but also a bunch of integrations with other systems and an API.
0:28:32Okay. See, that's, that's very interesting. That's very interesting.
0:28:35So, I mean,
0:28:36I know that he has been leveraging the API and its integrations with automation
0:28:41services like Zapier. It doesn't have an IFTT integration, unfortunately.
0:28:46He's been using that to track his time and it was when he started doing it and
0:28:50showing me what he was doing that kind of pushed me over the edge because it
0:28:54wasn't just my crazy friend, gray, who was doing it.
0:28:57Federico started doing it too.
0:28:59Oh, okay. Right. Yeah.
0:29:01because there are so many things that you do that are like not for normal people.
0:29:06Yeah, but see like here's my perspective on this. You think that there are all these things that I
0:29:11do that are not for normal people, but slowly but surely in our time together, you pick up more and
0:29:18more of them, right? Yeah, I'm becoming just like you. It's horrific. They all start out crazy.
0:29:22But then eventually you talk to me long enough and you see the reasonableness of what I do.
0:29:27So I know, but there isn't there is an element of my life where I realize I can't blindly follow you.
0:29:35But I'm not asking for blind faith, right? That's why I'm so convincing is I'm just trying to show
0:29:41you the reasons for why I do things. I'm not asking for your blind faith. I don't want your
0:29:45blind faith. So now I've decided that this is the thing that I want to do. And this is a service
0:29:50that I'm thinking about trying. So this is going to be the one that I maybe dip my toe into the
0:29:54the water with, especially considering you have no options.
0:29:58So maybe you can try this and tell me what you think of it as well.
0:30:01But I've seen some of the charts and graphs and such that this app produces.
0:30:05And it seems very interesting.
0:30:07Yeah, I like the right at the bottom of the very first page, one of their features
0:30:12is like timer integrations, like sounds interesting, sounds, sounds,
0:30:16sounds very interesting indeed.
0:30:18And if it is able to be tied into other services,
0:30:22it sounds like it's the kind of thing that maybe I can build on top of it precisely what
0:30:27I need so I can kick something off from a button on iOS.
0:30:31So I will definitely be looking into this as well.
0:30:34>> Jay Kroll on Reddit.
0:30:39This is one of the problems with Reddit, by the way.
0:30:42When people tweet me their questions, they usually have their names attached to them,
0:30:45so I can just look at their user profile and grab their name.
0:30:49Doesn't happen on Reddit.
0:30:50So lots of interesting usernames.
0:30:52Yeah, but the Reddit, I don't think that's a problem of Reddit, that's a feature of Reddit,
0:30:56is that people have hilarious usernames.
0:30:57Oh, I know it's a feature for Reddit, but it's less of a feature when you're trying
0:31:01to read them in your Q&A section of your podcast.
0:31:04Makes it more difficult.
0:31:05Yeah, well, you're just lucky you didn't get any of those PME, your whatever usernames,
0:31:09right?
0:31:10That's too many of those on Reddit.
0:31:11I don't even know what that's about, but maybe I should stay away from that, eh?
0:31:15Yeah, it's not for you.
0:31:17J. Curl asked, "I would love to hear about some of the checklist based workflows that
0:31:21you both have. This can include templates, repeating items. I have a checklist, the phrase
0:31:27I have a checklist is a famous grey quote that has been skirted around for some time
0:31:30now. So I will kick things off. The main checklist that I have, like standard checklist, is the
0:31:39checklist that I created for this show. So I have an OmniFocus template which is triggered
0:31:46by a workflow action, which I will obviously not share with you, which goes through detail
0:31:53by detail what it takes to publish a show. And it includes things like checking if the
0:31:57music is correct and in the right places, processing the file, uploading the file to
0:32:01our website and uploading the file to our audio provider and then making sure all the
0:32:07show notes are right and then create the YouTube video, post the YouTube video, here are the
0:32:1275,000 things you need to do when you post a YouTube video. It's all in there and I trigger
0:32:16that every time I, on a Monday morning when I publish the show and I have all of the lists
0:32:22there and I just tick them off as I go. That's one of my checklists that's triggered in OmniFocus.
0:32:27My other big checklist is my packing checklist when I pack for something and that lives in Clear
0:32:33and over time that list just gets added to and added to and Clear I find to be a really nice
0:32:40application for this sort of stuff. It lives off in a folder on my second screen and I only use it
0:32:44it for this packing checklist. But I like it a lot more than something like OmniFocus
0:32:48because it is like this purpose built, this is my packing checklist application and I
0:32:53can add to it really easily and I get satisfying sounds that play every time I pack my shoes.
0:32:59Yeah I still recommend Clear all the time when people are asking for just a simple checklist
0:33:03on their phone. I think it's a really great little app and I use it for a few things.
0:33:07I do wish they would update for the iPad Pro, that would be great.
0:33:11I think it's dead, Gray.
0:33:12I know it's dead, but I'm just, I'm just hoping, right. It's just like,
0:33:15it hasn't been updated in like two years. I assume it's dead, but I'm just,
0:33:19I'm vaguely hoping.
0:33:20I don't think they make it anymore.
0:33:22Yeah, no, I think it's over. I agree with you there.
0:33:25So I don't use it for repeating lists. I use it for a couple other things,
0:33:27but yeah, I have a travel checklist too. Like I think if anybody,
0:33:31if anybody needs like a starter drug to why you should have a checklist,
0:33:36it's your travel checklist.
0:33:37The webpage for clear on the developer's website,
0:33:42It doesn't even load anymore. Oh God. I'm sorry. Great. It's, it is actually dead.
0:33:47Wow. Okay. Wow. That is, that is actually, yeah. What a shame.
0:33:52Oh well. What are you going to do?
0:33:55A travel checklist is by far and away the best like return on investment
0:34:01introduction you're ever going to get to a checklist. And it's just the,
0:34:04it's just such a sweet spot because it's a thing that you do often enough that
0:34:09you think you're going to remember everything,
0:34:11but not often enough that you actually will.
0:34:13And the travel checklist is such a living document of every time you pack,
0:34:18you can just add a bunch of other stuff to it.
0:34:20And so my travel checklist is ridiculously long,
0:34:23but it's because it includes a ton of items that are not intended for every
0:34:29trip. Yeah. But are there to just be like, just run through this, right?
0:34:33Every single time it's like the travel insurance is on there.
0:34:36Like do you need this thing every time? No,
0:34:38but just like check and take a quick look.
0:34:40There's a bunch of stuff that's on there that's specific to if I'm traveling to the US that doesn't need to be there every time, but I just want to run through this massive one.
0:34:47So I think that's that is really what everybody should start with if you want to build some kind of checklist to use all the time.
0:34:54But I guess if this person's asking like what my general checklists are like the the big three checklists for me are unsurprisingly like the three related to the projects in my life right there.
0:35:06The Cortex checklist, the Hello Internet checklist and the YouTube video checklist.
0:35:10And the YouTube video one is the biggest one by far and the most in-depth.
0:35:14But those ones I'm constantly tweaking every time I go through one of those processes
0:35:23to figure out what is the best order or to just make it work a little bit better in OmniFocus for the way that I want it to work.
0:35:30Those are the big ones.
0:35:31There's a few other minor ones that I have.
0:35:35One of which is actually I just invoked today, which is that I have a monthly financial checklist,
0:35:42which is going through a bunch of the bank accounts and the numbers for both the personal accounts
0:35:50and the business bank accounts and making sure there's enough money in my personal account to pay the rent
0:35:55and checking up on a bunch of other stuff.
0:35:57Like that's another perfect case for me of a thing that I do often enough but not often
0:36:03enough to remember all the fiddly little details.
0:36:05What has to happen in your life to make you create a checklist like that?
0:36:09Do you do them proactively or reactively?
0:36:12I don't know what you mean by your business speak there, Myke.
0:36:16Gosh, it's not difficult.
0:36:19So for example, the financial checklist, did you create that because you thought something
0:36:23bad might happen or did you once not have enough money in your bank account so you were
0:36:28like oh I need to create this checklist well okay so I guess what what you're asking for
0:36:32there is what I'm what I'm looking for in my life is a feeling of am I trying to remember
0:36:40something now and and so when I would go through the finances I don't know exactly when I started
0:36:47this checklist. I feel like this one is recent-ish, as in maybe in the last two years. Like this is
0:36:55not a checklist that has existed for forever. And I know that I would have started doing it because
0:37:01of this feeling like when I'm doing this I'm trying to remember what the next step is. And
0:37:07that is just like a red flag in my system. Like you shouldn't ever be trying to remember what a thing
0:37:12is because that's an indication that this isn't routine enough that you don't need a checklist.
0:37:17It's infrequent enough and complicated enough that you just can't pull this out of your head
0:37:23every single time. And so if I have that kind of feeling, that's an indication that maybe I should
0:37:29think about a checklist for this thing. And so that's how I'll end up getting started with it.
0:37:34And they're really easy for me to make. I mean, the checklist exists just as a series of
0:37:39text documents in Dropbox that I use like a little workflow action to pull into OmniFocus.
0:37:45So like they're very, very easy to just make one really quickly and to just try it out.
0:37:50But that's the key thing. Like, is there a repeated thing that isn't repeated often enough
0:37:56to be routine and is complicated enough to more into checklist or are like, is the spacing in
0:38:02time very far. Like I actually have on the flip side of it like a very short checklist is I have
0:38:10a little checklist for reading books which I think people will find very strange.
0:38:15Geoff - Turn the page, check. Turn the page, check.
0:38:17Paul - Yeah but it's yeah but this is because reading books is part of my professional life,
0:38:25like this is important for my actual job and this connects into like I have a little process for
0:38:32or taking notes, what I want to do with those notes,
0:38:35making notes to myself for actionable items in the future,
0:38:39and then getting that book into my whole complicated
0:38:42and somewhat sad Evernote system.
0:38:45Like, that checklist is not really long.
0:38:49I think it's maybe only four or five items,
0:38:51but it can be spaced out over a very long time
0:38:54between when I start reading a book
0:38:56and when I finish reading the book.
0:38:57So it just acts as like a little placeholder in my system
0:39:00for this is a book that is like quote active in some sense and I can know where I am.
0:39:06Like am I still just reading this book?
0:39:07Have I finished the book?
0:39:08If I have finished the book, there are two or three little steps that I just want to
0:39:12do and make sure that they're done.
0:39:14So that's another case of a checklist is good.
0:39:17But I don't actually have a tremendous amount of them.
0:39:21It's just where they pay off in these various situations.
0:39:24@abysmaljam asked, "What pen does Grey use?"
0:39:27I use the Apple Pencil is what I use.
0:39:29You'd use a pen though, surely. Like, if you have to sign something, is there a specific
0:39:37pen?
0:39:38Well, when we first met each other back before the Apple Pencil existed, I was asking you
0:39:46for pen recommendations because I heard you're a guy with some knowledge in this world. And
0:39:53we started a process by which I was trying different pens that you were lending to me.
0:39:59And as time went on, eventually the Apple Pencil became a rumor and then an actual thing.
0:40:05And I felt like I just don't really have enough of a need to have a pen that I use all the
0:40:11time.
0:40:12Because you were looking for a pen to write on your paper scripts.
0:40:15I was looking for something to physically work with actual paper for the times that
0:40:21I print out and work on the scripts by hand.
0:40:24And now the Apple Pencil has solved that for me, like I can do that entirely on the iPad.
0:40:28And so that has eliminated 99% of the time that I would ever use a pen.
0:40:35And so now it is entirely down to signing cards and filling out that little form for
0:40:41going into the United States.
0:40:43Like I think these are the only times that I use an actual pen now.
0:40:46So you know just in our house, like in every house in the world, there's a jar which has
0:40:51a couple of random pens in it which I have no idea where they even came from.
0:40:55And on the rare occasion I need to sign something I just grab one of those and just sign something.
0:41:00So I don't have a pen that I use.
0:41:02So I'm sorry I have no answer for you.
0:41:05But I'm sure Myke has a very thorough answer for you.
0:41:08I will recommend a pen that I recommended to you that I think you did actually like,
0:41:14which is a pen that I will recommend to everyone.
0:41:16There is a line of pens called the Retro 51 Tornado.
0:41:21They have a very cool look to them.
0:41:22There are a million different styles and if you get the Retro 51 Tornado, the regular
0:41:27version, it has one of the best refills that I've ever used.
0:41:31And these things range from like $15 to $40 depending on the type of style that you want
0:41:36to go for.
0:41:37I recommend that pen.
0:41:38It is an awesome pen.
0:41:39It looks good, feels good, works good every single time.
0:41:41Yeah, it's a little short.
0:41:42I remember that one.
0:41:44I felt it was a little short in my hand, but it's a solid pen.
0:41:47Yeah, but they also then make a bigger one, which I just didn't have.
0:41:50Right?
0:41:51They have a whole range of these things. They make big ones, small ones, thin ones, fat ones.
0:41:56But the standard tornado is the one I recommend to most people.
0:42:01But you might like the tornado big shot, which is bigger in every dimension.
0:42:05Oh wow. Tornado big shot. How could you not like it with a name like that?
0:42:10Exactly.
0:42:11Precocious Apprentice asked, "A long time ago, on a podcast far, far away,
0:42:17Gray mentioned that he was thinking of trying Scrum instead of his usual GTD type method,
0:42:24but he never mentioned it again. I've also seen him looking into Kanban before.
0:42:28I'd be interested to hear his take on the two systems, if he's stuck with either of them,
0:42:32or cannibalized elements to turn into his own system.
0:42:35>> I feel like this is wrapped up into a much bigger discussion. We've sort of talked about
0:42:39that getting things done was perfect for me in the phase of my life where I first came across it.
0:42:47it and served perfectly for the first five years of my adult professional life, but has
0:42:54become less helpful over time.
0:42:58And yes, I did look into Scrum and I did look into Kanban and was just trying to, I spent
0:43:04a while trying to read up on different kinds of productivity systems.
0:43:10And the thing that I can say that what I have done is I've taken a little bit from this
0:43:20Kanban system, which is this idea of pulling work in when there are empty slots.
0:43:29And so Kanban is this idea, I think it's best illustrated by this idea in like a hospital
0:43:34where you can imagine you have a tray of medications, like little packets of medication that come
0:43:38out of a drawer and at a certain point there's a little
0:43:41Card that goes in the drawer and when you get to the card
0:43:45That card is an indication that it is time to order more medication, right?
0:43:49So it's like you have when you get to a certain level of emptiness like you bring on new projects
0:43:55And so I do have a little bit of a pull system set up
0:43:59just in that I am
0:44:02thinking in terms of like I have three videos that I'm working on which are like slots and
0:44:07And so when one slot becomes free, I try to then evaluate the next video that's going to go into that slot
0:44:14for something that I'm going to work on. But I can't say that I really have anything
0:44:18formal that I can describe right now. Like I'm
0:44:23I'm in the realm of I have a system that is working relatively well for me
0:44:29but I can't like lay out a bunch of rules for people about like, oh here is my system. I've written down and formalized
0:44:37and here's how you can follow it. It's more like I've taken some things that work from getting things done,
0:44:43some ideas from Kanban, and just simply the most un-getting things done thing like that I'm doing now,
0:44:49which is a much, much more heavy reliance on the calendar as a planning tool, as opposed to an appointment-only tool.
0:45:00All I can say is I looked into a bunch of this stuff and I've taken some useful pieces from it,
0:45:05from it but I don't have like a really
0:45:06formalized system right now.
0:45:08It's the gray system.
0:45:10It is the gray system but I am still aware that I
0:45:14I don't like this state of my current productivity system
0:45:19and every once in a while I do try to write it down
0:45:23and try to formalize it mainly because
0:45:27like I think that was a really useful lesson from getting things done that
0:45:31but sharp edges and really clearly defined boundaries are extraordinarily helpful in
0:45:39these kinds of systems.
0:45:41And I'm just, I'm aware that I've been operating for a while with a little bit of fuzzy edges
0:45:47for things.
0:45:48And I would, I would like to sort that out.
0:45:50I feel like it would be beneficial to sort it out, but I really think that part of the
0:45:54problem is just like so much of my job now is actually the job itself is extraordinarily
0:46:01fuzzy it's it's not as clearly defined as the work that I used to do in the past or even the work that
0:46:07I did a few years ago like I do find myself in lots of situations increasingly as time goes on
0:46:13where it's a bit hard to even know like is the thing that I'm doing now entirely work or not
0:46:19work at all, it's not always clear when you're working for yourself where some of
0:46:24those boundaries are.
0:46:25But one of these days I'll try to sort this out, but it is probably not anytime soon.
0:46:29We've mentioned that this season of Cortexmas is upon us, so Alexit Sayers has asked, "What
0:46:36are your systems of holiday decorations at home?
0:46:38Are there any policies of light arrangements or any traditions that you follow?"
0:46:44So it's interesting for me right now because I guess I need to create one?
0:46:48- Yeah, you do, you do.
0:46:50- Or be involved in said creation of holiday lights.
0:46:55I don't think we're gonna do it this year
0:46:58because we will be in our house
0:47:00for about a week and a half before Christmas,
0:47:05and then we're going on a trip directly after
0:47:08until the new year.
0:47:09So it doesn't really feel like there is enough time
0:47:12to actually have Christmas decorations.
0:47:14We did buy a very tiny Christmas tree,
0:47:17which is just for a little bit of festive cheer.
0:47:20But do you have, are there holiday decorations
0:47:24in the gray household?
0:47:26- Oh yeah, of course.
0:47:27It's nice to do holiday decorations.
0:47:29It gives a sense of the passage of time
0:47:32to change things in that way.
0:47:35I think like seasons and the holidays
0:47:37are psychologically helpful.
0:47:40It's one of the reasons why when I was living in Hawaii
0:47:43for a little while, it drove me crazy
0:47:45because every day is the same as every other day forever until you die.
0:47:49There's just like, there's no, there's no sense of passing time.
0:47:52It was just terrible. It was awful.
0:47:55And also doing Christmas in what feels like summer is,
0:47:59is crazy making. For me,
0:48:02the holiday decorations for Christmas sort of starts officially on December
0:48:075th, which is St. Nicholas day,
0:48:08which was a big deal for my family because of some Dutch background.
0:48:12And I feel like Christmas decorations should be up from the fifth until the
0:48:17first of January. That's kind of my mental timeframe for when should Christmas
0:48:22decorations exist. Uh, but sometimes there's a little bit of bleeding outside of
0:48:25those, those areas,
0:48:27but we don't necessarily have a ton of Christmas decorations,
0:48:30but I think a little bit goes a long way. Like we have a, you know,
0:48:35we usually get a tree,
0:48:36we put up a couple of stockings and like we have some Christmas pillows and
0:48:39things. And just having a little bit makes a big difference.
0:48:43Real tree? It is a real tree.
0:48:45Real tree in London is a not easy thing to achieve, I find.
0:48:49Yeah, it is not an easy thing to achieve, but it is a non-negotiable item from my wife,
0:48:56that the tree will be real. And so we do this.
0:48:58I'm a plastic tree person. Yeah, I would be a plastic tree person too.
0:49:04I think it's totally fine, but I have been brought over to the side of the real tree.
0:49:09Like it is, I have to say, it is a tremendous hassle, it is a real kind of pain in the butt,
0:49:15but I've gotten used to it and I feel like, oh it is kind of nice to have a real tree
0:49:19in your house.
0:49:20And then also, you know, it's worth noting that considering me and Greyboave live in London,
0:49:24there is no decoration of our homes because what are you gonna do?
0:49:29Are you gonna just hang some lights out the window?
0:49:31I don't know what you're going to do.
0:49:34Yeah, that's the closest you could do is put some lights out the window.
0:49:37Hang a bag of lights outside the kitchen window or something.
0:49:41I don't know.
0:49:42Yeah.
0:49:43This episode of Cortex is brought to you by Tracker.
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0:49:50Technology has made everything smart, but losing your positions can make you feel less
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0:51:23Rule of Lemmings asked, I am a first year engineering student with finals coming up
0:51:28and just wanted to ask both yourself, me and Grey because all these questions were directed to me,
0:51:33what are your best tips for studying and what did you do to study for finals?
0:51:38I am the wrong person to ask this question to, mostly I think because I didn't go to university
0:51:46So I have not taken an exam in a very long time, but also I was just not very good at revising.
0:51:55I only ever really thoroughly revised for… Revising is what British people call studying.
0:52:05I only ever truly revised for subjects that had intrinsic facts and figures related to them that
0:52:15that you had to know to pass.
0:52:18So maths and some science-related stuff and history.
0:52:23Like they were the ones that I really revised for
0:52:27because if I got the date wrong of such and such battle,
0:52:30that's a mark down, right?
0:52:33So I didn't really revise for English.
0:52:36I actually took one paper in my, I think my GCSE year,
0:52:43having never read the book.
0:52:45(laughing)
0:52:48I went to the classes where we spoke about the book.
0:52:52I read some Cliff Notes about the book.
0:52:56I just never read the book.
0:52:58And it was a book called,
0:53:00I think it was Return of the Native,
0:53:02was the name of the book.
0:53:05And I really didn't like the book
0:53:08and then just never read it.
0:53:12And I did okay.
0:53:13I got a B, so it was fine.
0:53:16- Yeah, see, that's exactly the thing though.
0:53:20- I do not recommend this system, by the way.
0:53:24I think you have to have a thing about you,
0:53:26which means you can probably get away with this.
0:53:28And my thing is that I can just waffle enough
0:53:32in the right direction that I get there eventually.
0:53:36I don't think this necessarily works for everybody.
0:53:39- Yeah, it depends.
0:53:43I mean, okay, so like I have two comments about this.
0:53:46The first is like everybody knows this,
0:53:52but I think there's a thing to really internalize here,
0:53:54which is when you're studying,
0:53:57you are really studying for the test, right?
0:54:02You are not studying the subject in general and people know this,
0:54:06but I don't think they always follow what the,
0:54:09Like the logical conclusion to this is
0:54:12you have to
0:54:14revise for that test.
0:54:19So this means if you have any possible way,
0:54:23you need to get your hands on old versions of the test.
0:54:28So if you can get it from previous years,
0:54:32if it's a standardized test,
0:54:34get your hands on that and go over that again
0:54:39and again and again. And this is what I used to do with,
0:54:42with my students towards the end of the year when we were preparing for their
0:54:47end of year exams was a very consciously had
0:54:52the kids do even the exact same test multiple,
0:54:57multiple times. And this is what the studying is like.
0:55:01Get the answers right on previous versions of it.
0:55:05Do the test over and over.
0:55:07And my marker for, if you're studying on your own for a test that really matters,
0:55:11is you keep giving yourself the exact same test again and again until you get a perfect mark.
0:55:17And the point of this is not so that you know all of the things.
0:55:23It's...
0:55:24The point of it is to drill the routine stuff into your mind so that it's easy to do,
0:55:30so that you've kind of freed up your brain for the actual difficult things on the real test that you're going to face.
0:55:36Now, of course, this does work way better for a subject like math or physics, right?
0:55:41Something that's real, right? Not a subject that's like English literature interpretation.
0:55:47Because there, when you're studying for the test,
0:55:51what you really need to be doing is just a kind of mind reading of the teacher.
0:55:56And those subjects are obviously much harder and much more frustrating to study for.
0:56:04But I think if you get it into your mind that you're really just playing a game called
0:56:10"What does the teacher want to hear?"
0:56:12And you're not actually discussing a book or a piece of literature,
0:56:18I think it's much more psychologically easy to deal with.
0:56:20Like, okay, all I have to do is really just try to repeat this person's words
0:56:25back to them in a way that doesn't make it too obvious that I'm just repeating their
0:56:29words back to them.
0:56:31That's what tests are in the more subjective areas.
0:56:34And my final little piece of advice here is if there's any kind of project that is like
0:56:41the equivalent of a final exam, get all of the feedback you can from the actual teacher
0:56:47on that project.
0:56:49Because what will happen is almost certainly they will just tell you to make changes and
0:56:53just make those changes.
0:56:55Just do whatever it is and you will get a better mark.
0:57:00My favorite example of this was I took an art class in college at which I was embarrassingly
0:57:06terribly bad at art but it was a requirement that we had to do.
0:57:10And I'm like okay there's no way I'm going to pass this by being good.
0:57:15That's certainly not going to happen.
0:57:16But what I just did all the time was I asked the professor like what did she think of this
0:57:22And she would just come over and start drawing like on top of my own projects.
0:57:27And instead of being annoyed about that, I was always thinking like, "Great, this is
0:57:31fantastic.
0:57:32I'm just accepting what she's doing."
0:57:35And then when she's marking this, what has occurred is like she's psychologically on
0:57:40board with this project being good now.
0:57:43Because she made it.
0:57:44Exactly, right?
0:57:45Like she has added stuff into this and I have just followed her.
0:57:49And so I'm just doing what you told me to do. And it's like,
0:57:53I got an eight plus in that class, right? Not everybody did,
0:57:55but I got a perfect score because I was always just having her come along and
0:57:59just like,
0:58:00just tell me what to do and I will do it to the best of my ability or like you
0:58:04can modify this thing directly, like go right ahead.
0:58:07I will not be annoyed in the least. So, so that's my thoughts.
0:58:12If it's a subjective subject,
0:58:13understand that it's a mind reading game and just do your best.
0:58:17If it's a real subject with real answers,
0:58:20just do the old tests over and over and over again.
0:58:23There's nothing better that you can do
0:58:25to prepare yourself than that.
0:58:27- Here's my other key,
0:58:28like the reason why I think I got on okay
0:58:31was I paid attention in class
0:58:33and tests didn't make me nervous.
0:58:35That's why I think I was able to do what I did.
0:58:39And also, I can talk for England.
0:58:43I can just keep going, keep going,
0:58:46just keep talking.
0:58:46You know, especially I did a lot of,
0:58:49especially for my A levels,
0:58:50I did a lot of like just essay-based courses,
0:58:53like I did media, politics, and English.
0:58:56So it's just, just keep writing until the end.
0:58:58- Right.
0:58:59- You'll get 'em in there, you know?
0:59:01Just keep writing, keep on writing.
0:59:03- Just keep going.
0:59:03- Just keep going.
0:59:05Sherlock asked, "Would either of you
0:59:07"consider writing a book?
0:59:09"If so, what would it be about?"
0:59:11- I know what your answer would be, Myke.
0:59:14- Do you?
0:59:15You don't read books, there's no way you're going to write a book or even consider writing a book.
0:59:19Have I never told you that I once started writing a book?
0:59:23Have I never told you this?
0:59:25I don't think so.
0:59:26Maybe this is ringing an ever so slight bell, but maybe you did. Tell me.
0:59:31Many years ago, I apologize if listeners have heard this story before.
0:59:35Many years ago, I got multiple tens of thousands of words into a podcasting guide book.
0:59:44Hmm. Okay.
0:59:47I had a I had a publisher attached to it like an indie publisher,
0:59:51not like a HarperCollins, but like an like a, you know,
0:59:54an actual company that published books.
0:59:56This was before like iBooks or anything.
0:59:58You know, and I was going to get an ISBN number and everything,
1:00:02and they were going to they were going to make it in physical paper.
1:00:06It wasn't going to be just an e-book.
1:00:07It was going to be an e-book,
1:00:08but they were also going to make a print on demand version.
1:00:10And I got tens of thousands of words into it
1:00:14and realized I don't want to write that book.
1:00:17But it wasn't until I got a long way into it
1:00:21before I realized that was the thing.
1:00:23And the reason is, I don't want to be responsible
1:00:28for dealing with that book for the rest of my life.
1:00:32Because as I was writing the book,
1:00:36like over the couple of months that I was writing the book,
1:00:38I was changing the equipment that I use.
1:00:41And I look at the me then those many years ago
1:00:44and realize I knew nothing about podcast production
1:00:48like the actual production compared to what I know now.
1:00:53So the actual answer is would I write a book?
1:00:56Yes, I would actually.
1:00:59But I don't know what it would be about.
1:01:02I don't like writing regularly because I find it difficult.
1:01:09Because you have to spend a lot of time going back over what you've written
1:01:13but when I get a real bee in my bonnet about something I
1:01:18Can and do write about it and feel like I do it and I'm proud of it
1:01:22Anyway, I feel like I do a job that makes me proud when I write something
1:01:26One of my favorite things I've ever written was a review for the Apple pencil
1:01:31Yeah, that was good, which I'll put it in the show notes. So people want to read it
1:01:35I've had it for like a few days
1:01:36but I really wanted to write something about it and felt like I had an opinion that other people
1:01:41don't have because I care deeply about actual pens. So I had some stuff to say. So I would
1:01:48write a book, maybe one day I would really like to write a book about my feelings on creativity.
1:01:54And a lot of the stuff that we talk about here, to really kind of just write that down. This is
1:02:01is how I feel about creative projects.
1:02:03And I have this whole like center
1:02:05around it of the idea of sacrifice
1:02:07and what it takes to have a side
1:02:10business and turn it into a real thing,
1:02:11especially if it's in the creative field.
1:02:13It's all about sacrifice
1:02:14and the things that you have
1:02:15to be willing to let go of.
1:02:16That's the kind of nugget idea that I have.
1:02:19But I don't want to do it
1:02:20because I don't want the work
1:02:24involved, like of actually
1:02:26sitting down and writing it.
1:02:27But because the short answer is like,
1:02:29yeah, I would.
1:02:30But I have no intention of doing it right now.
1:02:33Hmm.
1:02:34I'm surprised.
1:02:35I'm surprised.
1:02:36I'm a man full of surprises.
1:02:37Yeah, you are, Myke.
1:02:38I really am.
1:02:39Yeah, multifaceted, Myke.
1:02:40That's what you are.
1:02:42Yeah, so I mean, would you consider writing a book?
1:02:46The answer is yes.
1:02:49I've attempted to do some stuff in the past.
1:02:54The thing is, like, I agree with you.
1:02:57And everyone I know who's a professional writer agrees that writing is no fun.
1:03:02I don't know anybody who writes for a living who's like, "Boy, do I enjoy the writing
1:03:06part."
1:03:07It's like, no.
1:03:08It's always grueling and unpleasant.
1:03:12And the few people who are like, "Oh, this is fantastic," are totally lucky freaks
1:03:18of nature.
1:03:19And I do not fall into that category.
1:03:21So I'm aware that I do have a bunch of ideas for books that I would theoretically want
1:03:27to do, but very few of them ever make it past the like, oh, that would be nice to have done
1:03:36thoughts, right?
1:03:37Like I don't actually start any real progress on them because it just doesn't, it doesn't
1:03:43make any real sense as a project to take on because it's, it's going to be an incredibly
1:03:50long amount of time to do for probably not a whole lot of reward.
1:03:55That being said, there are two projects that I sort of have on ice,
1:04:02where I am like collecting notes and writing out thoughts for projects that would be like book-like,
1:04:08but I am very aware that these things will probably never actually come to the light of day in any kind of meaningful book form.
1:04:17But I do have one thing that I'm collecting notes for that I have told a few people what the idea is
1:04:24and I always mention that if I were to ever write this book it would be literally the most boring book in the world.
1:04:32Like the topic is just incredibly boring but I just find myself attracted to writing about this one particular non-fiction topic.
1:04:40But I don't think it'll ever actually happen.
1:04:42happen. If it does it'll be just cannibalized as I'll make a couple of
1:04:46videos out of the parts that I want to talk about instead but I have mentioned
1:04:50this idea to a few people they're like wow that really is the most boring book
1:04:54I've ever heard of so I don't think it'll actually occur. You know and it's
1:04:58it's not like it's not like a joke right where plenty of people write interesting
1:05:03books on seemingly boring topics it's like no this is this is really a
1:05:08a terribly boring topic, but it's just something that I am
1:05:12randomly interested in for no good reason that I think like, "Hmm, maybe I'll write a book about
1:05:18this thing." I even have the perfect title, but it'll probably never happen.
1:05:21What is it?
1:05:24I'm not gonna tell you, Myke.
1:05:26You're just not gonna tell me in general?
1:05:27Yeah, no, I'm not gonna tell you. It's a secret.
1:05:30All right.
1:05:30I've only told a very few people, but it's not really gonna happen.
1:05:33Is it a book about me? Is that the reason?
1:05:35Yeah.
1:05:37No, it's not a book about you, Myke. I'm sure you're surprised to hear that, but no.
1:05:41Has this whole thing just been a really detailed anthropological experiment?
1:05:44Yeah, that's what's going to happen. I'm going to publish a book called A Study of Myke,
1:05:49How to Slowly Change One Man's Life Over Time.
1:05:51Oh, dear.
1:05:55Simon asked a question that fascinated me, and a few others, actually. I think it's the only
1:06:02question that there were multiple replies to that were like, oh, that's a really good
1:06:07question. Simon asked, when Grey reads his scripts aloud and hears something in it that
1:06:13he dislikes, does he make a note for later or stop immediately to figure it out?
1:06:19Oh, I don't even understand this, how this question could be interesting. Make a note
1:06:24later. What would that even mean? That would be crazy.
1:06:25Right. So you're reading a script, right? And then you hear like, oh, that doesn't work.
1:06:29a note, carry on. So you're not breaking the flow of the narration.
1:06:33No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that there's, there's nothing but there's no flow
1:06:39with that of the narration. There's, I guess I guess this is like a really obvious thing
1:06:44to me. But there on my on my writing checklist for producing a video, I have a first the
1:06:53first bullet point on there is is a is a real moment that takes a long time to get to. But
1:06:59It is when can I get the script to a place where I even can read through the whole thing
1:07:07once without stopping.
1:07:09And that takes a really, really long time to get there.
1:07:14Because that pre-phase is the research phase.
1:07:19It's also the just writing down random sentences and putting little paragraphs together and
1:07:24trying to find parts that I like and parts that I don't like and rearrange the whole
1:07:27thing.
1:07:28a really long time before I even can read the whole thing through once. So no, there's no
1:07:34making notes for later. My process is very much like I'm just going through and changing stuff
1:07:42as I'm going through. And one thing that I try to do as well is starting at different spots in the
1:07:50script. So I don't always start from the top and go right to the end. Sometimes I try to start in
1:07:56in the middle or just start at the end and then go back to the beginning.
1:08:01Because in the way my process works, if I'm, when I'm making changes immediately, what
1:08:06that can often mean is I'm making a ton of changes to like the opening paragraph again
1:08:11and again and again.
1:08:13And very often as a, as a, as a little approach later on in a process, I'll realize like,
1:08:17Oh wait, this whole opening paragraph is pointless and I can just get rid of the whole thing
1:08:21and start later in the script than I was thinking.
1:08:24So I do actually try to jump around a little bit in where I'm starting.
1:08:28But no, there is no making a note for later to have the flow of the script keep going.
1:08:34And it takes a really long time before I can even go through the script all at once anyway.
1:08:38So it is an intensely iterative on the spot process.
1:08:44It really does sound kind of horrible.
1:08:49It really does.
1:08:51But this is why, it's like, oh boy, writing, it's all fun and magic and rainbows.
1:08:58It's not like that.
1:08:59It feels very much like just constantly working on a thing over and over again to make it
1:09:03less awful in each pass.
1:09:07And I said before, I think that is what my skill really is, is in the iteration.
1:09:12It's not in the initial writing at all.
1:09:15And this is also something that's just changed over time is being much more aware of, I am
1:09:23writing a thing to be spoken aloud in my own voice.
1:09:27Like it's a thing that I've always been aware of, but I think as time has gone on, I have
1:09:32much more optimized the process for that idea as the outcome.
1:09:36Right that, like I'm really thinking about, I am the one who is going to be saying this,
1:09:41how is it going to be said?
1:09:44And that's all part of this process.
1:09:48But yeah, that's why I don't make notes for later.
1:09:50It's change it now and try to get it better.
1:09:53The main thing that I write is advertising copy.
1:09:58A vast percentage of the ads that are read across all of Relay FM are written by me in
1:10:04some way.
1:10:05Whether they're rewritten or just completely written.
1:10:09And when I am going through them, I read them aloud because it's in the same vein.
1:10:15It is stuff that is written down to only be read aloud.
1:10:20Nobody reads our ad copy just like as prose.
1:10:24It's much more like speech writing.
1:10:26So I have a whole method of writing these things in strange outlines and bullets to
1:10:30make them easier to be read aloud.
1:10:32And when I do this, I do read through, stop, fix, go back, read through, stop, fix.
1:10:39Because it is completely for me about the flow.
1:10:43So I will always stop and then go back to the start again and read through.
1:10:47That's how I do it.
1:10:48Martin Yeah, I mean, I think for anybody writing
1:10:50anything, giving it an out loud read through makes a huge difference.
1:10:55It is very helpful for finding awkward sentences that you don't realize.
1:10:59James Martin asked, "Can you give an update on
1:11:02your bag situation?
1:11:04What bags are we using?
1:11:05What's going in them?
1:11:08And is there still a redundant system?
1:11:12This is funny to me because it's one of these things where this question reveals to me a
1:11:18thing that has changed a lot about the way that I work that I haven't even realised has
1:11:22changed which is since I got this office that I use for writing exclusively the amount of
1:11:31wandering around London and working in different locations that I do has
1:11:36dropped to essentially zero. Uh, like I,
1:11:39this is not an activity that I do anymore. Uh,
1:11:43and I do almost all of the writing in this one location.
1:11:45And so I was like an update on my bag situation. Like what does he even tell you?
1:11:50Like, Oh right, of course. I used to have to have a different bag for,
1:11:54am I going to be wandering around the city or am I going to be working in a,
1:11:58in a confined radius?
1:11:59and I needed all these different things for those two different scenarios.
1:12:02Like, you know,
1:12:03one day was going to be the gym day and the other day was not going to be the
1:12:06gym day.
1:12:07So this is a thing that has totally changed because my life has changed and I
1:12:12just sort of forgot like what did old me used to do, right?
1:12:15Because he's dead now and like, Oh, that's right.
1:12:17I used to do this other thing.
1:12:18So the answer to the question is I just have now a very simple backpack that I
1:12:23use almost exclusively for just gym stuff that I take into my writing office.
1:12:28to my writing office on days when I'm going to the gym.
1:12:32And otherwise I just leave it at home
1:12:34because I have my equipment set up at the writing office
1:12:38and I just go there, right?
1:12:40I just have the iPad there,
1:12:41I have the external keyboard there, like it's all set up.
1:12:44And one of the things that I was trying to do
1:12:47is minimize resistance.
1:12:49So I wanna be able to just wake up and walk out the door
1:12:54and go right into the office
1:12:56and just have everything that I need there.
1:12:59- So the bag situation is there is no bag.
1:13:02- Essentially, yeah.
1:13:04Like essentially there isn't any bag at all anymore.
1:13:07Like I used to have this whole routine
1:13:10of emptying out the bags
1:13:11and checking that I had all the right chargers
1:13:13and various things that I needed in the different bags
1:13:15for different days.
1:13:16And it's like all of this has been replaced
1:13:19by a dedicated work location
1:13:21that has the equipment that I need.
1:13:23And also it's been replaced by having the iPad Pro,
1:13:28which I can, if I do on occasion wanna go out and work,
1:13:33I can and do just take the iPad Pro,
1:13:36like without even any bag.
1:13:38Like I'll just bring it and carry it with me
1:13:40and walk around and go do something.
1:13:42Like when you and I meet up on occasion in London,
1:13:45very often I just have my iPad Pro
1:13:48and I don't even necessarily bring a bag.
1:13:50or if I am bringing a bag, it's solely to just hold that item to make it more convenient.
1:13:57So yeah, the bag system has essentially been relegated to the dustbin of history.
1:14:03So do you have an iPad Pro that just lives in the office?
1:14:07Well, Myke, do we really need to discuss the number of iPads that I have?
1:14:11Is that a thing that needs to happen?
1:14:12I mean, I want to now, because when you said that I realised, oh, he has an iPad that only
1:14:18goes there now as well and doesn't leave.
1:14:22This is a thing that I've been sneaking past you for months now, which I was thinking like
1:14:26"Oh, Michael never noticed that I actually do have two iPad Pros, like two big iPad Pros."
1:14:33But yes, one of them is just physically locked into my iPad Pro stand at the office, and
1:14:39the other one is like a mobile one that I can take around when I'm working.
1:14:44So two 12.9s.
1:14:45Mm-hmm.
1:14:46How many 9.7 inch iPad Pros do you have?
1:14:48I have one.
1:14:50One.
1:14:51How many iPad Airs do you have in use?
1:14:53Well it depends on what you count by in use.
1:14:56Well are they ever used?
1:15:00Actually I have no iPad Airs in use now.
1:15:05I have one that's in a drawer which is unused and I only dragged it out for that UR2 video
1:15:12where you can see my iPad Pro and my iPad Air.
1:15:15So I had that in a desk drawer.
1:15:18One of my old iPads went to my family in America
1:15:21for their use.
1:15:23And I do have an iPad Mini, which I think you can say
1:15:27is technically in use because it is running audio
1:15:31for a white noise machine that I use for sleeping at night.
1:15:34So it's just in a drawer connected to a speaker,
1:15:38and I can turn the speaker on and off.
1:15:40I think that barely counts as in use,
1:15:42but is technically in use.
1:15:44So the total number of iPads is four.
1:15:47I think on aggregate you've actually gone down.
1:15:50Yeah, I've gone down one iPad, but three of them are pros, which is kind of crazy.
1:15:56And to be fair, for a bunch of reasons, I'm not actually even using the 9.7 one because
1:16:02for the past few weeks that has become my wife's iPad Pro.
1:16:07So I've swapped that over into her using it because she wanted to use the pencil because
1:16:13she was going to be on the iPad an enormous amount. And so she also has RSI problems in
1:16:18her hand and now she is becoming a very enthusiastic Apple Pencil user and is hoping for the outside
1:16:26chance of an iPad mini that has a pencil in the future because she has been using my iPad
1:16:31Pro as her iPad. So I'm really down to just two. It's hard to even get by.
1:16:37No that doesn't count. I will not accept that. I will not accept I'm down to just two. No.
1:16:42I think I am down to just two.
1:16:44Yeah, I don't think that's how it works.
1:16:46But this is also a side effect of like the redundant bag system, right?
1:16:50It is not having to have different devices like charging and ready to go at any moment
1:16:57and using one older device for a different thing.
1:16:59Like this is actually a kind of consolidation that has happened because of the physical location consolidation.
1:17:04So I am at two iPads, 9.7 and 12.9 Pro, but I will be moving to three in use.
1:17:12when we institute the kitchen iPad.
1:17:17Ah, okay.
1:17:18Which will be my old iPad Air 2.
1:17:21Right, but that'll be also a shared iPad,
1:17:22which I think counts a little bit differently.
1:17:24You have one of these, don't you?
1:17:26You're holding back.
1:17:26Do you have a shared kitchen iPad, Gray?
1:17:29No, I don't even have space on my kitchen counter
1:17:34for a space kitchen iPad. I don't even have a kitchen.
1:17:36I live in London.
1:17:36(laughing)
1:17:41I'm thinking of my kitchen.
1:17:42The width of my kitchen is the same width
1:17:45as the desk I am sitting in front of right now.
1:17:47- Great, great.
1:17:48- It's like a sink and space for a coffee machine
1:17:51and a toaster.
1:17:52So we don't have any shared iPad space in the kitchen.
1:17:57- Okay, it sounded like you were really dancing around.
1:18:00That's like, "Oh, shared ones?
1:18:01"Shared ones don't count.
1:18:03"I have 20 shared iPads with people all over the globe."
1:18:07My current bag situation is complicated, I think,
1:18:11because it's going through some change.
1:18:14Probably like the main bag that I use right now
1:18:17is probably still the main bag that I used
1:18:20when we first spoke about this a long time ago,
1:18:23which is a bag called the Topo Mountain Briefcase.
1:18:25And that has been my like airline travel bag,
1:18:29that it is like part backpack, part briefcase,
1:18:32and I can put a ton of stuff in there.
1:18:34That is the bag that has like all of the charges that I'm going to need.
1:18:38You know, it has headphones in it always like Bluetooth headphones now,
1:18:43because that's what you have to do in 2016.
1:18:47You can't use wired headphones anymore because that's not allowed.
1:18:50So I now have some Beats Bluetooth headphones in there,
1:18:53the ones that have the really long battery life,
1:18:55which I kind of like a little about comfortable because they're on in over here.
1:19:01Hmm. But they're the only ones that I want to use
1:19:04right now because they have 40 hour battery life and quick charging and stuff.
1:19:07That's pretty sweet.
1:19:09And I have also added in a bag by a company called Tom Binn called the Ristretto,
1:19:17which I got this bag for when I'm traveling, I go to conferences a lot.
1:19:23And when I'm at conferences, I usually want to have a bag with me
1:19:26to put like my iPad in in case I want to take notes or something
1:19:30or I want to break it out and do a little bit of work.
1:19:32And my traveling bag, my topo briefcase, has got too much stuff in it to carry around all the time.
1:19:39So I got the topo bag as a way to have my like, when I'm at a place bag.
1:19:46And that bag has also actually become really good when I'm out and about vlogging because it's like
1:19:53an over the shoulder thing. It has more than enough space to put like the gimbal in and like
1:19:57the little Gorillapod tripod that I sometimes use. It's got all enough space for that and
1:20:02an iPad. So that's great. But then I have two more bags that have entered my life recently.
1:20:10So my-
1:20:12This is crazy. You have so many bags, Myke.
1:20:17I know, imagine. Imagine such a thing. I have a bag by a friend of mine, Brad, he's my co-host
1:20:22and a pen addict. He's making a bag called Delenia, which is just like a really thin
1:20:27briefcase type thing which I was using all and I really liked that for
1:20:32conferences because it's like super low profile like you just put like a
1:20:36notebook and an iPad and you're good and that's like great for that and then I
1:20:40had a we have a sponsor on some other shows who make carry-on bags and they're
1:20:48not sponsoring this show but it's a company called away and they have sent
1:20:51me this bag this carry-on bag to try out and now I'm like maybe I want to move to
1:20:57carry-on bag when I travel. So I'm all over the place right now. I have so many bags.
1:21:04I'm sorry Myke.
1:21:06But it's... they're all good bags with their own purposes. But if I decide to use all of these bags,
1:21:13which I could, then I'm going to be like you.
1:21:15This is the problem, yeah. It's like there are bags designed for specific circumstances,
1:21:20and you want to use those bags under those circumstances,
1:21:23but then suddenly you need redundant equipment in all of them.
1:21:26I'm gonna need to buy like 25 lightning cables.
1:21:30Yep.
1:21:31It's too much.
1:21:32So I don't know.
1:21:33My I'm in bag limbo right now.
1:21:34It's gonna be more than your house, right?
1:21:35The cost of 25 lightning cables.
1:21:37Ugh.
1:21:38And then, oh, do I go USB-A or USB-C?
1:21:42Who knows?
1:21:43The world is changing!
1:21:44Right, you'll need both!
1:21:46Ugh.
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1:23:24Paranigm wanted to know, Gray, why do you use double spaces between words when typing?
1:23:31Because it's obviously superior.
1:23:32It's the superior thing to do.
1:23:34Do you hit the space bar twice?
1:23:36Yeah, of course.
1:23:37Of course I hit the space bar twice.
1:23:39I don't understand how else would I put two spaces in there?
1:23:42You could use TextExpander and you could just have it trigger every time you hit a space
1:23:46to hit two spaces.
1:23:47That's ridiculous.
1:23:48No, do you know what's ridiculous?
1:23:50Double spacing your words.
1:23:51Why do you do this?
1:23:52Because it looks better.
1:23:53It looks better to double space.
1:23:57It clearly does.
1:23:58It's clearly the better solution.
1:23:59No, the way it looks is wrong.
1:24:01That's how it looks.
1:24:03It looks like you made a bunch of mistakes is what it looks like.
1:24:06No, it doesn't.
1:24:07It looks clear.
1:24:08It separates the sentences.
1:24:10It's easier to read.
1:24:11It's perfectly great and what I don't understand is, okay so I think this came up because I
1:24:19was on Twitter and somebody noticed this and there ended up being like a little bit of
1:24:25a Twitter evening of people arguing over single or double space which turns out to be a surprisingly
1:24:30heated argument which I don't understand because the single spacers are just wrong.
1:24:35But what I don't understand here is the reason people noticed is because I was tweeting from
1:24:41my computer. So when I'm typing, you hit spacebar twice and you get two spaces on the computer.
1:24:47But on iOS, when you do the double space thing, it automatically does the full stop and a
1:24:53single space, and then you move on to the next sentence.
1:24:55You can turn that off.
1:24:57But that's the default, right? That's on by default.
1:24:59Yeah, because that's great. I wish that my computer did that.
1:25:02This is where people could see, like, you know where I'm tweeting from based on if the
1:25:06the two spaces are there or if the two spaces are not there.
1:25:09If I'm on iOS, it ends up, I just use that default where tapping on the spacebar twice
1:25:15does the full stop and a single space.
1:25:17And if I'm on my regular computer, I'm doing two spaces that is the better looking way
1:25:24so that there's two spaces in between the words.
1:25:26All of the scripts that I read for my videos, there's two spaces after the full stops.
1:25:30Nobody even sees them, but I like to have them there because it looks better.
1:25:34We mentioned earlier that there are many things that you've convinced me are the right way
1:25:39to do things over a history of working together.
1:25:43I can categorically say this will not be one of them.
1:25:46It makes no sense to me.
1:25:47Can you sneak on one of your iOS devices and do an automatic replacement so that you get
1:25:52two spaces after everything you type?
1:25:53You won't even notice.
1:25:54If you're ever able to sneak onto one of my iOS devices, you can do whatever you want,
1:25:59my friend, because I would just be impressed that you managed to do it.
1:26:04[LAUGHTER]
1:26:05S: Georgia asked, "If you could recommend one video for somebody who's starting to first
1:26:10watch CGP Grey videos, what one would it be?"
1:26:12A - I don't think I have any ability to answer this question.
1:26:19That's going to be so particular for the person and I am almost certainly the least objective
1:26:24person when it comes to my own videos and I don't often watch my own videos after I
1:26:30make them.
1:26:31So I actually ran into a situation where somebody messaged me earlier,
1:26:36one of my very old videos and said that they had enjoyed it. And I was like,
1:26:40Oh yeah, I forgot I made that one. That was a long time ago.
1:26:43So I don't think I'm a very good person to answer this question at all.
1:26:46I think maybe my,
1:26:48my go-to answer would just be the Holland versus the Netherlands one.
1:26:52But that's,
1:26:53that's entirely based on the fact that that was my video that felt the
1:26:57straightest in terms of production. Like I had an idea,
1:27:01It was relatively easy and straightforward to make and it came out just the way I
1:27:05wanted it to.
1:27:06So I feel like I like that one a lot because of the production behind the
1:27:10scenes. Uh,
1:27:11but I don't know if that's necessarily a good one for someone to start with.
1:27:14I think right now, right now,
1:27:17I would probably recommend to somebody to start with something like
1:27:22You Are Too,
1:27:23because if you can watch that video and enjoy it,
1:27:30you will enjoy everything else.
1:27:31Maybe the same for the trouble with transporters.
1:27:35Because they're super like,
1:27:38it is that is like they those two videos
1:27:41are the furthest you take any idea.
1:27:43Like you take the idea to scare you.
1:27:46And if you can accept those ideas,
1:27:49enjoy the production of them and learn something,
1:27:51you're gonna like anything else that's there.
1:27:53- Yeah, maybe, maybe you have a point there.
1:27:55I think it's a hard question to answer
1:27:56because I've been doing this long enough
1:27:57that I now have a pretty wide range of topics and styles on the channel,
1:28:05both in terms of just the videos that are older clearly feel like older videos.
1:28:09And yeah, there's just like a whole bunch of random different stuff.
1:28:14And so I have never felt even from the beginning like I have a particular theme on the channel,
1:28:21aside from I make videos on topics that are interesting to me is like the only theme that exists.
1:28:27And yeah, so I think that ends up with quite an eclectic group of videos and all kinds
1:28:34of different styles on all kinds of different things.
1:28:37So...
1:28:38Yeah, I think that's an age thing.
1:28:39I think it used to be less like that.
1:28:40You know, like I think maybe earlier videos really fit a more kind of central theme than
1:28:46it has ended up becoming.
1:28:49Yeah, people say that, but if you go back and look at some of the older things that
1:28:53that I was making, they're more varied than people think they are.
1:28:57And there's also a side effect of I am aware of what I was trying to achieve,
1:29:03which is with a lot of the earlier stuff,
1:29:05there was like a very particular purpose of like,
1:29:07I'm trying to hit a very viral note every time because I'm trying to grow this
1:29:12channel to make it into my full time living. So it's like,
1:29:15I think the first year when I was really focusing on it has like a much more
1:29:19consistent thing because I was aiming for something, but it just,
1:29:23I guess in my own mind it never quite felt like, oh, I'm trying to produce a particular
1:29:28thing.
1:29:29Well, like I would say, like, you know, looking at these videos, like the first maybe 15,
1:29:3520 videos was like political geography.
1:29:37It was like, that's what it was.
1:29:39And I think it's diverged quite a lot from that point.
1:29:42Yeah, maybe.
1:29:44And tying cables.
1:29:45Yeah, yeah, of course.
1:29:48Of course.
1:29:49I've never watched that one.
1:29:51It's the only video on your channel that I've never watched.
1:29:54- Yeah, don't watch it.
1:29:56- Oh, and time management for teachers
1:29:57'cause I'm not a teacher.
1:29:59- Yeah.
1:29:59(laughing)
1:30:00Yeah, that cable one was actually filmed in Hawaii.
1:30:03- Now I'm gonna watch it.
1:30:06Gorebags asks, "I have a question mostly in Myke's direction.
1:30:10After listening to the episode where you both talk about
1:30:12the best time to start something is right now,
1:30:15I decided that I wanted to start the podcast idea
1:30:18that I had.
1:30:19It's about motor sports.
1:30:20It's something that a friend and myself are really passionate about.
1:30:23We're just finishing up the first season of our show and we're happy with the
1:30:27numbers,
1:30:27but over the last few months it's plateaued to the point where we haven't gained
1:30:31or lost a single listener.
1:30:32How did you or do you go about growing podcasts and videos?
1:30:37So here's the issue I have with this. I ask this question a lot.
1:30:43I can't give you an answer about what I am doing right now
1:30:50to grow any work that I'm doing, what I can tell you is looking back, I can see things
1:30:56that I did that worked then. That's the problem with this, is that I get this question a lot
1:31:03and the issue is, I don't know that I ever really done anything specifically to grow
1:31:11anything that I've done, but I can look back and see the things that did actually work.
1:31:17So when I was starting out podcasting, there just weren't very many technology podcasts.
1:31:26So when I started having guests on to my shows, sometimes it was like the only time you will
1:31:32have ever heard that person on a podcast speaking.
1:31:35Or like they maybe were a guest on a show every now and then to the point where like
1:31:39in the Apple observer world where I am, all of those people now have their own shows where
1:31:45you can hear them every week.
1:31:46So having these people as guests on your shows doesn't really do anything for you anymore.
1:31:51But at the time, that was what really helped me build up my presence because people would
1:31:58subscribe to my shows because they would get to hear from the people that they're interested
1:32:03in because it didn't happen that often.
1:32:06So that was a thing at the time that I did.
1:32:08Then it was the network effect.
1:32:11idea of starting a podcast network or being a part of a podcast network as a way to like
1:32:18help me get rungs up the ladder as I was associated with other people who had bigger audiences
1:32:22and bigger audiences. That has been the thing that has got me to where I am now and I think
1:32:28that has been like the overall thing is that I started my own podcast network and I started
1:32:33shows with more and more people and it kind of was like got me rungs up the ladder to
1:32:37where I am now. The problem is I don't know how well that works today as a thing because
1:32:43there are lots of networks. There are YouTube networks and podcast networks and writing
1:32:47networks and networks and networks. So I don't know how well that works anymore. That's
1:32:53the problem. So the only advice that I can give you which is advice that everybody hates
1:32:59but there is a reason for it and the advice is just keep doing it. Keep doing it but find
1:33:07new weird interesting exciting innovative things to do. Try and do things that you aren't
1:33:14seeing other people do. Present your show in a way that you think might be interesting.
1:33:18It might not work but it might work and then you might hit upon the thing that nobody else
1:33:23is doing which makes people pay attention to you. And the reason people don't like the
1:33:28"just keep doing it" is because there's no advice in that. It's like just keep wandering
1:33:35into the darkness. But the thing was is that's all I ever did. And I happened upon things
1:33:42whilst undergoing this process that got me ever so slightly up the ladder. There was
1:33:47never like a secret plan that I had. It was just I just kept doing it. And by keeping
1:33:54doing it, it got me further and further up. And that's where I am with YouTube right now.
1:34:00I have a base that I've started from, but look, I am like 234,000 subscribers down the
1:34:08line right?
1:34:09We spoke about that.
1:34:10Like I am essentially, whilst I'm in a bracket, I'm essentially nobody on YouTube.
1:34:15Now my feeling right now is like I don't have an overriding idea of the thing that I want
1:34:19to do, but what I'm going to do is keep creating stuff to build up my knowledge, to build up
1:34:26my skills until I can then start having ideas that I can execute on only because I kept
1:34:32making.
1:34:33So that's my advice.
1:34:34It's not great advice because it isn't the five quick ways to make your podcast successful.
1:34:41But it is for everybody that I know that has ever had anything successful that they've
1:34:46built from the ground up.
1:34:47That's how they do it.
1:34:48By just keep doing it.
1:34:50Because most people give up.
1:34:54It's good advice and it is also the difficulty of like you said looking back on the particulars
1:35:00at the time when you were doing a thing versus now.
1:35:04How does that actually work?
1:35:07And you're right, you have to give people some reason to want to talk about the thing
1:35:12that you're doing.
1:35:14That's what growth essentially means, right?
1:35:17Somebody is seeing your thing and recommending it to somebody else or passing it on.
1:35:22However, the other side that people don't always necessarily want to talk about is
1:35:25some projects will come up against the limit of their audience. This is a thing that I
1:35:33think about a bunch, which is there is some natural limit to the audience of every project
1:35:41because there is an actual limit to the population of the world. And so even if you just want to start
1:35:46drawing the broadest circles, it's like how many people on earth are there? Seven billion. How many
1:35:51people speak English? Many millions. How many people who speak English might be interested
1:35:56in your thing? And I sometimes see people pick projects that are, they're at like the
1:36:05wrong end of two Venn diagrams. Whereas like you're picking a very narrow topic. And then
1:36:13like let's say you're also doing a podcast about that narrow topic. Like sometimes it
1:36:17can be a question of this audience is very small and then you also have to be
1:36:23talking about the people who are into podcasts who are also into this thing
1:36:27there's always going to be a limit to the size of everybody's projects like it
1:36:33ultimately can't grow forever and all projects will eventually reach whatever
1:36:40that maximum plateau is at some point and that's just a thing that you need to
1:36:44to be aware of.
1:36:46- Brandon asked, "Now that my YouTube channel
1:36:48has been around for a while, how's the troll factor?"
1:36:51Gray, I have some exciting news.
1:36:53- Oh yeah?
1:36:54- Yeah, I have my first person on YouTube
1:36:56that seems to dislike me just for me.
1:36:58(laughs)
1:36:59And I feel like I have hit a rite of passage.
1:37:01- Yeah, totally a rite of passage.
1:37:03This is actually your second YouTube rite of passage
1:37:05because you've already made the video
1:37:06about how you haven't made a video in a while, right?
1:37:08Every vlog needs the episode which says,
1:37:10"Oh, sorry, I haven't been vlogging for a while."
1:37:12- Yep.
1:37:13And then yes, collecting around yourself some people who dislike you because of your personality,
1:37:20you have to be at a certain level of popularity before you get those people.
1:37:23So congratulations.
1:37:24I'm honestly, honestly ever so slightly proud of it.
1:37:30Because this person just seems to just not, you know, they found me and they don't like
1:37:34me.
1:37:35And it's like, great, you found me even though you don't like me.
1:37:37And I'm happy that you're here.
1:37:39Because you keep coming back for more, which is really interesting.
1:37:43So I feel like I've finally landed.
1:37:45I'm a YouTube celebrity now, Gray.
1:37:49It's a great feeling.
1:37:50Heat viewers count just as much as regular viewers as far as AdSense is concerned.
1:37:55Yep.
1:37:56Now we've reached the end of the episode.
1:37:59We've also... means that Cortexmas is about to begin.
1:38:03Yay!
1:38:04And we'll be back at the end of January.
1:38:08Happy Cortexmas everybody!
1:38:09Happy Cortexmas!