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Cortex

Cortex 61: State of the Apps 2018

 

01:00:00   they started working with more and more

01:00:01   people in slack and also end up being

01:00:04   signed up to more slacks I'm very aware

01:00:07   that like in the space of a year or it

01:00:09   may be 18 months I've gone from a slack

01:00:12   is my communication salvation to I feel

01:00:15   deeply ambivalent about slack because

01:00:17   now when I open up it's just like I find

01:00:19   it hard to manage but also recognize

01:00:23   that this this like email has now become

01:00:26   a like a business communication tool

01:00:28   that is so firmly entrenched I can't

01:00:31   imagine that it's going anywhere yeah I

01:00:35   don't know if I feel exactly the same as

01:00:37   you but I feel there are some things

01:00:39   where I'm similar well like I hang out

01:00:41   in slack way less than I used to but I'm

01:00:44   still there all the time because it's

01:00:46   where the business is happening with the

01:00:48   people that I work with like slack is

01:00:50   kind of more akin to the office now like

01:00:55   it's where my co-workers are right and

01:00:58   there is still like a water-cooler that

01:01:00   people can go and chat in mm-hmm but I

01:01:03   think I spend less time actually doing

01:01:06   the chatting now I still listen but I

01:01:08   don't chat as much just because I don't

01:01:10   know why actually but it's it's just a

01:01:12   lot every single slack that I'm in

01:01:15   basically its sense to be quite a lot of

01:01:17   noise and it can be harder to keep up

01:01:20   with as time goes on and more and more

01:01:21   people join yeah I think there there

01:01:24   definitely is a function that there's

01:01:27   like it's like all communications

01:01:32   channels trend towards memes eventually

01:01:35   right like that's that's what just

01:01:37   happens is and like nobody means for it

01:01:40   to happen and of course like the reason

01:01:42   it happens is because it's funny and

01:01:44   it's easy but but it does make things

01:01:46   just really noisy and if you if you are

01:01:51   like if you're like me I feel like my

01:01:53   goal with slack as always I want to open

01:01:55   it up I want to get a bunch of stuff

01:01:57   done and I want to go that tendency

01:02:02   towards noise makes it harder to work

01:02:06   with sometimes and and slack you know in

01:02:11   a bunch of different slacks that many

01:02:12   you do have the

01:02:13   problem where it's like the urgent flag

01:02:18   on emails when like the other person

01:02:19   gets to decide how urgent a thing really

01:02:22   is like slack can be that way a little

01:02:24   bit where it's like other people are

01:02:25   deciding that a thing is really urgent

01:02:26   for everybody to have to hear about

01:02:28   right now and like maybe everybody

01:02:30   disagrees on how urgent that thing

01:02:32   actually is so I feel like I'm gonna be

01:02:36   using slack for forever

01:02:38   I really couldn't run my business the

01:02:40   way I do now without having a gray

01:02:43   industry slack like I just I can't

01:02:45   imagine doing it any other way

01:02:47   but I do find myself thinking about it

01:02:50   more ambivalently

01:02:51   as a tool as time has gone on yeah I

01:02:55   think if you say it's it's kind of

01:02:57   normal right like it's I think most of

01:02:59   the communication tools that I've used

01:03:01   in the past I've eventually felt like I

01:03:03   wanted to move away from social networks

01:03:07   yeah enough exactly like social networks

01:03:09   eventually I always want to find a

01:03:11   replacement for this which is better

01:03:13   than the current one like in and I think

01:03:16   slack is finally finally going that way

01:03:18   like slack was the replacement for work

01:03:21   email for me which is amazing I'm so

01:03:23   happy that happened but now I'm like

01:03:25   what is a replacement for slack there

01:03:28   isn't one yeah I've been I've been

01:03:30   thinking about that and it is it is

01:03:32   fascinating though where it's like you

01:03:33   know we've talked about email on the

01:03:35   show very many times and I am aware that

01:03:38   in my life in all realistic ways it's

01:03:41   almost like email has completely

01:03:42   disappeared for me it's like I almost

01:03:45   never even open email and I almost never

01:03:48   look at it because again 95% of what is

01:03:53   important in matters is coming to me

01:03:55   through slack so slack has just absorbed

01:03:58   all of that yeah which which I never

01:04:02   would have expected so do you want to

01:04:04   run into a lightning round okay yeah how

01:04:06   we gonna do this I don't understand

01:04:08   these rules do you want to just do one I

01:04:11   say one you say one and then we go and

01:04:14   you say one we have a little explanation

01:04:15   pick one what do you like all right one

01:04:17   password because it's where all the

01:04:19   passwords go and I now have like team

01:04:21   stuff set up and it's awesome numbers

01:04:23   absolutely love it as a spreadsheet

01:04:25   because it is

01:04:27   powerful than Excel but a million times

01:04:30   more beautiful than Excel and the way

01:04:33   you can arrange tables just fits with my

01:04:35   brain better so numbers is where all my

01:04:36   spreadsheets live in a similar thing I

01:04:38   love numbers for stuff that's just for

01:04:39   me but if anybody else is involved it's

01:04:42   Google Docs and Google sheets

01:04:44   nobody has collaboration tools like

01:04:47   Google does and the Docs and sheets

01:04:48   programs are the best in class even if

01:04:52   they can be frustrating yeah 100%

01:04:54   nobody does collaboration like Google

01:04:56   next one up I got to give all credit to

01:04:59   Federico 40g for recommending this to me

01:05:01   which is a service brain dot F M which

01:05:04   is yeah I'm gonna say music but not

01:05:08   exactly music to listen to while you're

01:05:10   working I listened to a single song on

01:05:13   repeat a lot whenever when I'm writing

01:05:14   but brain dot FM I really like bringing

01:05:17   this into my life because sometimes I

01:05:20   don't have a song that I'm listening to

01:05:22   on repeat and now brain dot F M is is a

01:05:25   is an easy decision to just be like I

01:05:27   don't know what song I'm gonna listen to

01:05:28   I'm just gonna open brain FM and just

01:05:30   let it play and I love it it's a it's a

01:05:33   great addition to the background sounds

01:05:36   in my life a mail Oh

01:05:38   air mail my email app it's my favorite

01:05:42   email app even though upsets people I

01:05:44   love it last one for me I'm gonna

01:05:45   mention an T RSI which I was still using

01:05:48   in 2014 if you're on a Mac all day you

01:05:51   want a computer to remind you to take

01:05:52   little breaks so that you can try to

01:05:54   manage your RSI and anti RSI is still

01:05:57   the one that I like the best I think

01:05:58   it's the simplest and it does the best

01:06:00   job of reminding you to take little

01:06:02   breaks and to take big breaks at regular

01:06:04   intervals if you're on a Mac all day I'm

01:06:08   just saying yeah if you're on a Mac all

01:06:09   day what happened to you it's are we

01:06:11   talking about me I'm talking to the

01:06:13   people hmm

01:06:13   last one I'm gonna recommend is a tool

01:06:15   that very few people are going to need

01:06:17   but I do use it and love it it's called

01:06:18   pipe drive and it's like a sales

01:06:20   management tool icons that sounds very

01:06:24   business it is in credits the most

01:06:26   business II app that I use it's like a

01:06:29   contact relationship management tool and

01:06:31   like a sales funnel tool we usually use

01:06:34   Trello for this and we outgrew Trello we

01:06:37   needed some more specific features like

01:06:39   having

01:06:40   ability to add people's contact

01:06:41   information to the deals that we were

01:06:43   doing and needing multiple people to

01:06:46   have better access over it so we use a

01:06:48   tool called pipe drive it is without a

01:06:51   shadow of a doubt the most business you

01:06:52   thing that I use

01:06:53   I almost feel a little bit uncomfortable

01:06:55   every time I open it sales funnels

01:07:00   everybody loves sales funnels so next up

01:07:06   is writing this is the exciting part

01:07:10   so what writing tools you using now okay

01:07:13   huge change absolutely love my main

01:07:18   writing app now is Ulysses and Ulysses

01:07:25   is just amazing and it took me a really

01:07:27   long time to get into it because it has

01:07:31   a very very different way of organizing

01:07:34   what you're working on and it was it was

01:07:38   that different method that kept me away

01:07:40   from it for a long time or I thought

01:07:41   like I don't need your rethinking of how

01:07:44   writing on pages works Ulysses but they

01:07:47   are totally right and they have this

01:07:50   concept where you don't have pages they

01:07:54   have these little things that are called

01:07:55   sheets and a sheet can be as long or as

01:07:59   short as you want it to be but the

01:08:02   killer feature is you can glue a bunch

01:08:06   of sheets together so that it looks like

01:08:10   it's a page but it remains easy to

01:08:14   rearrange so in a practical example like

01:08:17   right now I'm working on another Q&A

01:08:20   script like a for a Q&A video and so I

01:08:23   can have each question and answer be a

01:08:27   single sheet and then it makes it really

01:08:30   easy while I'm writing to just say oh

01:08:33   you know what this question this

01:08:34   actually works much better at the start

01:08:37   and so I can just quickly like fruit

01:08:38   drag it up rearrange it and it's it's so

01:08:42   nice plus they just have they have a

01:08:45   million great features like it's it's

01:08:48   markdown compatible but you can also

01:08:50   export to anything that you want and you

01:08:52   can write your own little

01:08:54   styles for how things are going to be

01:08:56   exported so like when I want to turn a

01:08:59   script into something that I'm going to

01:09:01   write on by hand I have my own custom

01:09:04   style to export it into PDF it's it's so

01:09:09   nice it's it's so great oh you can have

01:09:11   different different formatting for the

01:09:14   or different coloring for the way you

01:09:15   want text to be so you can say like oh

01:09:17   these two characters are going to mark

01:09:20   off that this text is going to be in

01:09:22   pink right or this text is going to be

01:09:24   underlined and you can you can start

01:09:27   building up a system for yourself about

01:09:29   how you want to work like it's it's

01:09:32   really really fantastic I feel like I

01:09:34   can't say enough good things about

01:09:35   Ulysses and I'm always coming up with

01:09:38   more ways to use it I have used it it is

01:09:42   very good it's too much for me it can it

01:09:46   can definitely be a bit over

01:09:48   overwhelming it makes me feel like I

01:09:51   should be writing a novel yeah it does

01:09:56   have a biased war that's not even fair

01:09:58   but it does it does maybe compel you to

01:10:02   be working on bigger projects like if it

01:10:05   feels like it could just be used for

01:10:07   these huge things and I don't even use

01:10:10   all of the features because I mean I'm

01:10:12   sinking it through Dropbox which then

01:10:14   only allows you to use a smaller number

01:10:16   of their features because if you're

01:10:18   using it with iCloud like you can do it

01:10:20   like an endless number of things with

01:10:22   Ulysses it's really quite impressive

01:10:25   actually I'll give you I'll give you an

01:10:27   example of a way I used it which was

01:10:30   totally unexpected but is a side effect

01:10:32   of of organizing and sheets and okay so

01:10:37   I've been I've been playing around with

01:10:39   another vlog for my channel which may or

01:10:42   may not ever get released I don't know

01:10:43   it's it's a big it's a big mess yay

01:10:49   Mike's laughing now because he's been

01:10:50   hearing about this for like months

01:10:55   but anyway a couple weeks ago I was I

01:10:58   was working on it and I felt like I I'm

01:11:01   at like a log jam point here like

01:11:03   nothing is really working but what I

01:11:06   what I got the idea to do

01:11:07   was in Ulysses I actually ended up

01:11:10   writing out a bunch of the different

01:11:12   parts of the vlog and using their color

01:11:16   coding to represent different things so

01:11:18   I could say okay let me let me type out

01:11:20   what I'm saying in the vlog at this

01:11:21   point and if it's pink

01:11:23   that means it's audio that was recorded

01:11:26   live on on on location and if it's green

01:11:30   here's something that I want like future

01:11:32   gray to be saying and if it's blue

01:11:34   here's something that somebody else was

01:11:36   saying and then if it's like another

01:11:38   color it's an indication of what's gonna

01:11:40   happen in the scene I would yeah well it

01:11:43   was it was an interesting thing to do

01:11:45   because like I wrote it out which one

01:11:47   just made me think a little bit more

01:11:48   about what the structure is going to be

01:11:51   but then because you have these sheets

01:11:53   it's like each sheet was like a little

01:11:55   subsection of a scene and it ended up

01:11:58   being a situation where I realized oh

01:12:00   this is this is much easier to think

01:12:03   about the vlog at a very high level

01:12:05   because now I can rearrange where these

01:12:07   things go without just having to watch a

01:12:11   whole bunch of footage over and over

01:12:13   again that maybe I'll use or maybe I

01:12:14   won't use so it just ended up being like

01:12:17   oh this is this is turned into a

01:12:20   text-based storyboarding tool mm-hmm

01:12:24   so it was it was just it was an

01:12:26   interesting thing to have done and it

01:12:28   really helped me a couple weeks ago

01:12:30   realize a bunch of stuff that doesn't

01:12:33   need to be included and a couple of

01:12:34   things that that should go in different

01:12:36   spots like it's much more obvious

01:12:37   looking at it that way so even if you're

01:12:40   not writing there may be other places

01:12:44   where the ability to rearrange text is

01:12:48   very valuable and so Ulysses is just

01:12:51   like that is it's real that's it's that

01:12:53   is it's real strong suit for any type of

01:12:56   writing that I do which is like longer

01:12:59   than a message to someone I'm probably

01:13:03   or if it's not going in notes so I'm

01:13:05   gonna get to notes later for its

01:13:06   purposes for me it would be there is

01:13:09   where I do this type of there is grave

01:13:11   there is a really really nice app that

01:13:14   does a great job with like markdown so

01:13:17   if I'm writing like a blog post or

01:13:19   something like that then it would go in

01:13:20   bare it

01:13:21   really really nice for it and I have

01:13:23   used their organizational features they

01:13:25   have a great tagging system and stuff

01:13:27   like that I haven't gone too deep into

01:13:29   that because I started doing it and then

01:13:31   realized that I never ever needed it

01:13:33   like I never I was I was tagging

01:13:35   everything I was writing him bear then

01:13:37   realizing that I just never needed the

01:13:39   tags because I could just search if I

01:13:42   needed anything and that wasn't such it

01:13:44   for me it wasn't a system where I was

01:13:46   like needed to catalogue things as such

01:13:49   so I kind of realized that it just made

01:13:51   sense we to open it right to know that I

01:13:53   need and then move away but like I

01:13:55   really really like bear I think it's a

01:13:57   very nice app that is going through a

01:13:59   lot of great revisions that are adding

01:14:01   new features very frequently I'm a big

01:14:03   fan of it sort of like how slack

01:14:06   amoeba-like

01:14:08   eat all of my email bear has an all of

01:14:11   the random text files in random folders

01:14:13   everywhere in my system so like I used

01:14:16   to have just in different places like

01:14:18   lists of things or here's here's a note

01:14:20   about this and I realized the same thing

01:14:24   that's like I'm just gonna keep all of

01:14:25   this in bear and if it's a list of

01:14:29   anything or a note on almost anything I

01:14:31   can just search for word and bear fast

01:14:33   enough and pull it up and I really like

01:14:35   it it's a great app it's a really

01:14:37   beautifully designed app as well and it

01:14:40   syncs quickly and and reliably so yeah I

01:14:43   have a ton of stuff in bear and I highly

01:14:45   recommend it as well and then obviously

01:14:49   I use my Apple pencil to take notes

01:14:51   every now and then and there are two

01:14:52   apps that I really like to do that with

01:14:54   and it's good notes and notability I

01:14:57   kind of use them both for different

01:14:59   things I find good notes to be really

01:15:02   good for marking up PDFs and stuff like

01:15:04   that

01:15:04   but if I'm taking notes I actually

01:15:06   prefer notability for it in the past at

01:15:09   least initially I found notabilities

01:15:11   Apple pencil support to be better I

01:15:14   really like the way you can move things

01:15:15   around and it's also good notes

01:15:18   sometimes overwhelms me with how much it

01:15:21   does and notability feels much more

01:15:24   focused when I'm in it hmm it's funny I

01:15:27   feel like I feel the exact reverse I

01:15:29   feel like notability has all of this

01:15:31   stuff and good notes is relatively

01:15:32   straightforward

01:15:34   but I think it's also just like I have

01:15:36   spent an enormous amount of time and

01:15:37   good notes I got yeah I really like that

01:15:39   you know that back up front like it was

01:15:41   in the 2014 list yeah yeah that was

01:15:45   surprising to see I didn't realize it

01:15:46   was it was that old so I think that is a

01:15:49   case of like longtime familiarity with

01:15:51   the app has just made it to me like it's

01:15:52   a it's it's indistinguishable from using

01:15:56   a legal pad and a pen for me at this

01:15:57   point so I absolutely love good notes

01:15:59   and I really like it that's all I have

01:16:02   for writing I don't know if you have

01:16:03   anything else I mean you know this is

01:16:09   where I could like I can just mention

01:16:10   Evernote it's sort of like you know it's

01:16:13   still there it goes in the right-hand

01:16:15   column well you know I use it for

01:16:17   research and stuff okay like there I

01:16:19   mean if we if we're shuffling into

01:16:22   research I would throw notes in for me

01:16:25   this is where I I put all of the links

01:16:28   and all of the articles and all of the

01:16:30   kind of the thoughts and notes that I

01:16:32   have for the shows that I do and as I'm

01:16:34   just going through the week and then

01:16:36   either the day before the day of the

01:16:38   show that's recording I will then go

01:16:40   into Google Docs and transfer that stuff

01:16:41   out and plan out the shows in more depth

01:16:43   but everything that I'm saving in the

01:16:45   weeks between each show it's all going

01:16:48   into the Apple Notes app it's a very

01:16:50   good app it got a little bit flaky not

01:16:53   flaky it's got a little bit weird in

01:16:54   some places and I was 11 with the way

01:16:56   that it saves some links that you put

01:16:58   into it but I never have data loss and

01:17:00   you know it's not that kind of weirdness

01:17:02   it's just sometimes things move around

01:17:04   in a strange way but the the share

01:17:06   extensions and all that stuff remain

01:17:08   completely rock-solid for me and I love

01:17:10   it bear has a really fantastic share

01:17:12   extension too but it can get it can get

01:17:16   kind of weird with sync conflicts so I

01:17:18   try and not put put stuff like that in

01:17:21   it hmm interesting

01:17:23   yeah I'm still using notes in the in the

01:17:26   way I described a while back which is

01:17:27   like just as a place to jot down stuff

01:17:30   that I'll figure out later where it goes

01:17:32   so notes is is a very temporary place

01:17:35   for me and and bear is the place where

01:17:37   structured long-term lists live like if

01:17:41   like if I'm thinking about something for

01:17:42   cortex I'll often write it down and bear

01:17:45   and then transfer it over to the Google

01:17:46   Doc later

01:17:47   okay so this is a similar usage really

01:17:50   yeah so video production I mean all I

01:17:55   have to say on this is final cut yeah I

01:17:58   have final cut to say as well but I do I

01:18:01   feel like I need to get something on the

01:18:02   record my final cut which is that's this

01:18:07   year I did I did make an attempt to

01:18:10   learn Adobe Premiere oh I forgot about

01:18:13   that yeah yeah there was a time where

01:18:15   you were threatening to move to audition

01:18:17   on me yeah I was I was investigating the

01:18:20   Adobe suite and I sunk a lot of hours

01:18:24   into learning Premiere and I got to the

01:18:27   point where I could put together a video

01:18:30   and in premiere like I got far enough

01:18:32   along and I just I felt like this is not

01:18:38   for me I don't like Premiere I don't

01:18:40   like the way it works Final Cut Pro just

01:18:43   works with my brain and I'm really glad

01:18:47   I put in all of those hours with

01:18:48   premiere because I feel like I feel like

01:18:50   I appreciate Final Cut Pro so much more

01:18:54   like I appreciate it a hundred times

01:18:56   more after using Premiere than I did

01:18:59   before so I feel like Final Cut you're

01:19:02   amazing

01:19:02   I'm sorry I looked elsewhere for a

01:19:04   little while that's exactly it like

01:19:08   you're the only one for me all of your

01:19:11   features that are amazing I was just

01:19:13   taking for granted and like I super

01:19:17   appreciate Final Cut Pro I may hold it

01:19:20   up as one of the the best applications

01:19:23   on any platform that Apple is that all

01:19:25   right all right okay I don't forgive

01:19:31   news like we're getting along just great

01:19:33   but yes I not only do I use Final Cut

01:19:36   Pro I really love Final Cut Pro no I

01:19:40   mean what about animation tools do you

01:19:43   still use any so at this point

01:19:46   everything that was my animation tool

01:19:50   creation stuff like that has essentially

01:19:54   98% been outsourced at this point so I'm

01:19:59   working with my animator and

01:20:01   he is doing essentially all of the

01:20:04   animation at this stage so a lot of my

01:20:07   concerns about vector tools on on

01:20:09   different platforms they just they just

01:20:12   do not exist as concerns anymore for me

01:20:14   which which is a huge actually quality

01:20:16   of life improvement yeah not having to

01:20:19   worry about that stuff so is there

01:20:22   anything else in the video production

01:20:23   category so there's only one other thing

01:20:26   in the video production category that

01:20:28   I'll recommend which is an iPhone app

01:20:31   called filmic Pro which is if you're

01:20:35   ever going to try to be shooting video

01:20:37   say you're trying to walk down a street

01:20:40   in Las Vegas and you want to film a

01:20:41   montage this is a little a little manual

01:20:46   camera app a video camera app for the

01:20:49   phone which just has it has a million

01:20:52   features but there's really only two

01:20:55   things that I use in it that I really

01:20:57   like and it's the ability to to set a

01:21:02   point on the screen for where you want

01:21:04   the focus and where you want the

01:21:07   exposure to be set so you can say like

01:21:09   I'm walking down the street but I want

01:21:11   the focus to be on the sidewalk but I

01:21:13   want the exposure to be set against the

01:21:15   sky alright so you can manually say this

01:21:17   is how it's supposed to look

01:21:18   whereas with the regular iPhone camera

01:21:20   like the iPhone does a great job of

01:21:21   automatically figuring it out for you

01:21:23   but sometimes you do want to be able to

01:21:25   manually set that and then the other

01:21:27   thing that I like which is just a little

01:21:29   detail but with filmic Pro you can tell

01:21:32   it which microphone it should be

01:21:34   recording the audio from and just as a

01:21:38   little trick like for a lot of Las Vegas

01:21:40   stuff and for some vlog stuff you can

01:21:43   tell it to use the microphone that is

01:21:47   facing you while you're recording the

01:21:49   stuff that's in front oh man that's

01:21:51   amazing yeah it's really great and you

01:21:54   can save it as a little preset so you

01:21:56   can open up filmic Pro and so it will be

01:21:59   using the microphone at the bottom of

01:22:00   the phone to record you talking while

01:22:04   you're looking at the screen and filming

01:22:06   the thing that you're looking at so I

01:22:09   really like that if you're just trying

01:22:11   to capture any kind of video on your

01:22:14   phone

01:22:14   and that's the thing that you're using

01:22:15   so I highly recommend it it's a great

01:22:17   little app it's a pro tip it's it's an

01:22:20   app recommendation

01:22:21   what about reading I have absolutely

01:22:23   zero in this category you don't exactly

01:22:27   so I will have no reading recommendation

01:22:30   I mean I'll recommend the Kindle is the

01:22:34   Kindle an app it's a physical device is

01:22:36   this too far is that stated the app

01:22:37   Kindle isn't app you're recommending the

01:22:40   Kindle app well I mean I'll recommend

01:22:42   that I'll recommend the Kindle app if

01:22:44   you have to I'll recommend a physical

01:22:46   Kindle as better now that they've fixed

01:22:48   all of their software problems and if

01:22:50   you installed the Kindle app on your

01:22:51   phone I recommend that you create a

01:22:54   workflow to launch it that you don't

01:22:56   have to look at its icon which is

01:22:58   improved but still not good so yeah I'll

01:23:02   recommend Kindle in in terms of reading

01:23:03   oh and of course I'll still recommend

01:23:06   Instapaper for articles and stuff like

01:23:08   if I'm saving articles I'll still throw

01:23:10   them into instant paper so those are the

01:23:12   the reading apps that I use okay was

01:23:16   reading a category on my old yes in the

01:23:21   original was Instapaper and Kindles so

01:23:23   you're a your creature of habit

01:23:25   well I think I think I think what

01:23:26   actually happened is we went so we went

01:23:28   far away and then came back right it was

01:23:31   so long that we've actually done that oh

01:23:32   yeah definitely used other stuff right a

01:23:34   bit you had a pocket phase and you had

01:23:37   an iBook I had a socket phase and the

01:23:39   iBooks phase wasn't a phase iBooks phase

01:23:42   iBooks was a was a state of life for a

01:23:45   very long period of time so it may

01:23:47   actually be that like right after I

01:23:49   wrote that article I switched away from

01:23:50   Kindle and I have only just recently

01:23:51   switched back also you can't recommend

01:23:55   the physical Kindle through fear that

01:23:56   this ends up becoming a gift guide

01:23:58   episode you have to be real careful we

01:23:59   have to like skirt around the gift guide

01:24:01   yeah no it's not a gift guide not a gift

01:24:03   guide it's the state of the apps but a

01:24:05   Kindle would make a fantastic Christmas

01:24:07   yeah it's not a gift guide but I will

01:24:10   recommend this for one gift it's I don't

01:24:12   think one gift is a guide no it's not

01:24:15   know what Jing is the next category why

01:24:19   did I have watching as a category what

01:24:20   was past me thinking about I don't get

01:24:22   this I think where does it roll this up

01:24:23   into media right some reason you

01:24:26   included feedly and

01:24:27   and you're watching which seemed like

01:24:30   strange really strange recommendation

01:24:33   because one is an RSS reading app and

01:24:36   one is read it later app no I but here's

01:24:42   what I was doing Mike

01:24:43   I was I was trying to force the YouTube

01:24:47   subscription service into being the way

01:24:49   I wanted it to be so I was pulling RSS

01:24:52   feeds for YouTube channels and then

01:24:54   dumping them in a separate app so that I

01:24:56   would get all the videos in the order

01:24:58   and organization that I wanted that's

01:25:00   what I used to be doing no I think you

01:25:02   can't do that anymore because youtube

01:25:04   doesn't even have RSS feeds for channels

01:25:07   I think they got rid of it that's not

01:25:09   even still exists because why would you

01:25:11   set up your own RSS feed right yeah yeah

01:25:14   I think that's I think that's all gone

01:25:16   I mean obviously I recommend YouTube but

01:25:19   I don't think I need to recommend that

01:25:20   to anybody

01:25:21   it's like recommending Netflix like yeah

01:25:23   got some great shows have you ever heard

01:25:25   of smart phones I think that you might

01:25:27   like them I use an app on my iPad called

01:25:31   end player hmm what I use this for end

01:25:34   player is a really great way to get to

01:25:37   be able to get videos onto an iPad and

01:25:40   have a place to watch them in so I'll

01:25:42   give you an example we do not have

01:25:45   YouTube read in the UK yeah very

01:25:47   frustrated so if there is a YouTube

01:25:50   video look there are some videos that I

01:25:52   watch that are multiple hours in length

01:25:54   and I would like to have them on a plane

01:25:56   like I watch some like Let's Plays and

01:25:58   stuff like that and some game streams

01:26:00   that sometimes I like to watch them when

01:26:02   I'm on a plane instead I use workflow to

01:26:06   download the YouTube video okay right

01:26:09   and then I save it out to end player

01:26:11   that's clever

01:26:13   that's clever and so that's that's a

01:26:15   good way of doing it I'd actually don't

01:26:17   know if I can share the YouTube workflow

01:26:19   they exist on the Internet yeah I don't

01:26:21   think you should you can find them

01:26:23   potentially but that's something that I

01:26:25   do well there is a way to fix this

01:26:27   YouTube just give me YouTube read like

01:26:30   you are the one who controls this just

01:26:33   give me it but they won't I wish they

01:26:35   would but they won't because I get

01:26:37   teased every time I go to the US right

01:26:38   and I open the YouTube apps like hey

01:26:40   sign up

01:26:41   they put download buttons on everything

01:26:43   so this is point let's call icon just

01:26:45   cuz I'm in this country I can't start

01:26:46   just using you to read now I had a

01:26:48   YouTube red account on a YouTube account

01:26:51   that is mine that is in the US so for a

01:26:54   while I was enjoying all the benefits of

01:26:56   YouTube bread in the UK but eventually

01:26:58   they crack down on that they're like oh

01:26:59   no we know you're paying us money we

01:27:02   know this is a u.s. bank and account but

01:27:05   you sir are not on a vacation you're

01:27:07   clearly living in another country so no

01:27:11   Netflix did the same thing so

01:27:14   disappointing today's episode of cortex

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01:28:28   make your next move make your next

01:28:30   website listening I feel like we need a

01:28:33   little disclaimer here because I'm proud

01:28:36   to recommend overcast has the only

01:28:37   podcast app that you should use but I

01:28:39   feel like we need to say like we know

01:28:41   Marco who makes overcast so just need to

01:28:45   need to put that on the record there but

01:28:46   I really do think overcast is is the

01:28:49   best podcast app and

01:28:51   it's it's largely because of the two

01:28:55   things like it's the smart speed feature

01:28:57   which cuts out a lot of the gaps unless

01:29:01   edited podcasts and it is also it's also

01:29:06   that whatever Marco has done with the

01:29:08   low level audio stuff

01:29:10   no podcast app makes speeded up audio

01:29:14   sound better than overcast so that's one

01:29:20   of the main reasons why I really really

01:29:22   recommend it is you can listen to a

01:29:24   podcast on a higher speed and it doesn't

01:29:27   have as many of the artifacts or

01:29:30   weirdness that other other speeded up

01:29:33   systems use exactly I mean the reason I

01:29:38   use overcast is because of smart speed

01:29:39   which is the silent shortening I don't

01:29:42   listen to podcasts at like 1.5 or 2x I

01:29:45   just let overcast just use its rubber

01:29:47   banding to make things faster and where

01:29:50   it needs to and it's that is the feature

01:29:53   right like it doesn't matter how many

01:29:55   other apps there are it doesn't matter

01:29:57   if like all that designs really pretty

01:29:59   or whatever as there are a bunch of apps

01:30:00   that are like that it doesn't matter

01:30:02   like because they don't have smart speed

01:30:04   in the way that I like it other apps

01:30:06   have silent stripping but I've tried it

01:30:08   and just to my ears it just doesn't

01:30:10   sound as good it's close but not good

01:30:12   enough and it's not good enough to make

01:30:13   me want to move and I one of my other

01:30:16   favorite features about overcast is the

01:30:17   black theme because I have an iPhone 10

01:30:20   so black themes where it's like

01:30:23   all-black look amazing because the

01:30:24   yellow it's green so I like that a lot

01:30:26   and yeah I mean that's why I use

01:30:28   overcast but then as gray said

01:30:30   the developer Marco is a friend and that

01:30:32   always helps but overcast is really good

01:30:35   I mean I know a lot of people use it and

01:30:39   they're not all friends of Marco so you

01:30:41   know there you go we can do I don't know

01:30:43   that guy's pretty popular travel travel

01:30:49   makes me sad because you could you could

01:30:51   ride that on your tombstone yeah yeah

01:30:54   you know in very many levels but I just

01:30:56   realize I totally forgot the name of

01:30:57   that app that everybody was using to

01:30:59   track flights that was then bought by a

01:31:01   company that then withered and died do

01:31:04   you

01:31:04   you know the one I'm talking about yes

01:31:05   was everybody saying you'll list here

01:31:07   flight track five is that what it was a

01:31:10   flight track yeah flight track was the

01:31:12   app yeah it was so good and nothing has

01:31:18   ever replaced it and I like when that

01:31:21   thing disappeared I swear to God I was

01:31:23   reaching out to everyone I knew to be

01:31:27   like what are you using to track your

01:31:28   flights like people are people on the

01:31:30   edge of my contact network I was like

01:31:32   what are you using to track flights tell

01:31:33   me what you're using I got hoping hoping

01:31:35   that somehow someone would have

01:31:36   discovered some like gem in in the

01:31:40   wilderness that I hadn't stumbled upon

01:31:42   but there was a really long period where

01:31:45   flight tracking apps were just not not

01:31:47   up to speed but my recommendation in

01:31:51   this category I finally found one this

01:31:54   is pretty good it's not perfect I do

01:31:58   sometimes have notifications about

01:32:02   flights that don't seem quite right but

01:32:05   the do is just forward though to the

01:32:07   developer and he seems really active

01:32:08   about trying to like wrinkle out all the

01:32:10   the final little bugs but I'm using

01:32:13   flight logger and I I really like it

01:32:17   because flight tracking apps have this

01:32:20   this delicate balance that they have to

01:32:23   play like there's a lot of information

01:32:25   like how are you going to display that

01:32:28   information and I think flight logger

01:32:31   makes for me the design decisions in

01:32:35   that trade-off that are pretty good so

01:32:37   that that's the one that in the past I'm

01:32:40   gonna say in the past six months I've

01:32:42   really settled on as okay this is going

01:32:44   to be the flight tracker for me every

01:32:46   time I'm traveling what are you using

01:32:49   like I used to use to I used to I use

01:32:53   flight logger and I really like flight

01:32:55   logo but I need to say they have been a

01:32:57   sponsor in the past some of my shows a

01:33:00   useful at logo because I like its

01:33:02   simplicity but then I also use an app

01:33:05   called app in the air has a lot of

01:33:09   information but too much and most of the

01:33:12   time I don't want it but there have been

01:33:13   times when I do want that amount of

01:33:15   information the problem with app in the

01:33:17   air is

01:33:17   sometimes it's too busy and it's pretty

01:33:19   expensive like they have like I think

01:33:22   it's like five dollars a month or like

01:33:24   thirty dollars a year I mean okay like

01:33:27   I'm comparing it when I say expensive to

01:33:29   what apps cost right like in a plant

01:33:32   that's pretty explain it but but I do

01:33:34   really like it but I like to you I use

01:33:38   them in conjunction every time I get on

01:33:39   a plane I put them into both apps so I

01:33:41   just want to find out like what time am

01:33:43   I taking off then I'll just open flight

01:33:46   logger and just find that now but if I

01:33:47   want to get like what type of plane do I

01:33:49   have will I have Wi-Fi are there lounges

01:33:51   in that airport like up in the air has

01:33:53   all of that ancillary and ancillary

01:33:55   information and I would say great if you

01:33:57   haven't used it in a while they

01:33:59   redesigned the app a little while ago

01:34:01   and it got a lot better it got way it

01:34:03   used to be really pushy about certain

01:34:06   things yeah like I think I'll just say

01:34:08   okay so maybe the redesign happened but

01:34:10   the reason I stopped using app in the

01:34:11   air is I've never felt this way about an

01:34:14   app but I felt like I was getting

01:34:16   bullied by app in the air like it was so

01:34:18   yeah variant on the things they wanted

01:34:21   me to do and and and also just like they

01:34:24   really wanted the passwords to my email

01:34:27   accounts to do stuff that I didn't

01:34:28   really care about them doing and it was

01:34:30   so pushy I felt like I feel like I'm

01:34:32   getting bullied by yeah you know like

01:34:35   it's way way better for I would

01:34:37   recommend you to try out again justice

01:34:38   okay I'll take a look at it again and

01:34:40   see yeah so yeah I really liked it we'll

01:34:44   talk about games well you always want to

01:34:46   talk about games Mike well yeah yeah of

01:34:48   course I love games I wanted to talk

01:34:50   about games last time but it just made

01:34:52   you sad should we talk about Mario

01:34:56   Odyssey okay flip flops solitaire is

01:35:13   probably my favorite iOS game this year

01:35:16   it is like a really weird solitaire game

01:35:19   I've always liked solitaire games you

01:35:21   know but I've never been like incredible

01:35:23   solitaire this is this is difficult to

01:35:26   describe I think but flip flops

01:35:28   solitaire lets you go in both direct

01:35:31   so with solitaire you would usually go

01:35:35   for example sighting at the top like 10

01:35:37   9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 right like you would

01:35:40   go down right you go down with ace being

01:35:42   1 but in flip-flops solitaire you can

01:35:45   stack in both directions so you could

01:35:48   have a 10 card right and you could put

01:35:51   on that tank card over a 9 or a jack

01:35:55   okay so you go up or down go up or down

01:35:57   I mean eventually you have to try and

01:36:00   still put all the cards away but it is

01:36:03   an easier way to move the cards around

01:36:04   because you could put them everywhere

01:36:07   it's I recommend people just try it it's

01:36:09   a fantastic game I really really love it

01:36:12   it's my favorite game this year that's

01:36:14   kind of been added to my games folder

01:36:16   and my games folder contains like my

01:36:19   all-time favorite iOS games and flip

01:36:21   flops solitaires very quickly become one

01:36:23   of those what that makes me think of is

01:36:25   a game I didn't play a lot of but I did

01:36:28   really enjoy was oh god what the heck is

01:36:31   it called I just need to look it up to

01:36:32   get the name right really bad chess I

01:36:35   don't know if you played this or not

01:36:36   it's made by the same person oh okay

01:36:39   well then that that makes sense

01:36:40   yeah they're both of these games are

01:36:42   made by Zach gage okay right there we go

01:36:44   yep but I had fun with really bad

01:36:48   chassis the premise there is I used to

01:36:50   play chess a lot when I was a kid you

01:36:52   know I was like a deal the chess team

01:36:55   kind of you know you're a kid come on

01:36:58   yeah

01:36:58   totally surprised but one of the things

01:37:01   that happened with me when I was playing

01:37:02   chess is when I started getting better

01:37:06   at the game the game became deadly

01:37:10   boring to me because you realize like oh

01:37:12   the first part of the game is about

01:37:13   openings and it's always the same and

01:37:16   then the interesting part of the game is

01:37:17   only when it you start getting into

01:37:19   unknown situations later and really bad

01:37:23   chess is super fun because it starts out

01:37:25   with the beginning locations of all your

01:37:28   pieces are just randomized and it made

01:37:31   the game just it made chess fun to play

01:37:34   again and I think it's the same thing

01:37:36   like what you're talking about with flip

01:37:37   flop solitaire where

01:37:39   the designer is tweaking the rules of

01:37:42   the game to make the game more fun to

01:37:45   play yep and so like I really enjoyed

01:37:48   really bad chess and like if you have

01:37:51   ever played chess and left it behind

01:37:52   this is at the very least you will have

01:37:55   an enjoyable afternoon playing really

01:37:58   bad chess it was it was it was a lot of

01:38:00   fun I'm so what games have you been

01:38:02   enjoying and they've recent are they old

01:38:04   here's the thing what I was thinking

01:38:06   about games this time because my old

01:38:08   article it's like Who I have I have a

01:38:09   bunch of games to recommend people that

01:38:11   are recent games but I I tend to go in

01:38:16   phases in and out of games or it's like

01:38:18   I play a lot and in a condensed period

01:38:21   of time and then I go for a while and I

01:38:23   don't play very much and I feel like

01:38:25   there's a there's a bigger meta cycle

01:38:27   that has happened in my life which is

01:38:28   that this year has been a relatively low

01:38:31   gaming year for me overall so I feel

01:38:34   like I don't have an enormous number of

01:38:37   games that came in like I know I did get

01:38:40   the switch so I'm just I'm going to just

01:38:42   mention three because I mentioned them

01:38:44   before so I can do it very quickly but I

01:38:46   have come to think of these games as my

01:38:48   Holy Trinity of games these are the

01:38:50   games that have stuck with me the

01:38:52   longest that I have played the most and

01:38:55   that have three very distinct roles in

01:38:57   my life can you guess what the first one

01:38:59   is Mike what might it be

01:39:03   hmm it's truck simulator game I was like

01:39:10   yeah okay mm-hmm yeah of course

01:39:13   right we've talked about it a million

01:39:14   times truck simulator American Truck

01:39:17   Simulator in particular absolutely love

01:39:19   it and that is my brain dead game it's

01:39:21   it's great many hours maybe I was I was

01:39:24   thinking about iOS and obviously has no

01:39:27   help that no there's no help they're

01:39:29   very very good Mac gaming rig but then

01:39:34   on top of that I mentioned them before

01:39:35   but I'll just mention them now again

01:39:37   factorio and rim world are the two other

01:39:40   games that I absolutely like and

01:39:43   I don't know if any have ever ever

01:39:48   anybody use the phrase absolutely like

01:39:52   yeah no one says that you love something

01:39:56   or you like it

01:39:58   you're absolutely like it I guess I do

01:40:01   absolutely like these I absolutely don't

01:40:12   mind them I'm glad you're enjoying

01:40:15   yourself over there this is what happens

01:40:19   on podcasts right when you're talking

01:40:21   instead of writing like these things

01:40:22   that come out you're like why am I

01:40:23   saying this no idea thanks brain for

01:40:26   assembling that sentence

01:40:27   absolutely like it's a phrase that I can

01:40:29   imagine you using right well I'm gonna

01:40:32   use it for I'm gonna use it now right

01:40:33   now that it's come into existence right

01:40:35   [Laughter]

01:40:38   but yeah I would describe rim world as

01:40:42   stardew valley except fun that's the way

01:40:45   I describe room and factorio is a game

01:40:53   where if you have any any programmer

01:40:55   inclinations at all factorial might be

01:40:58   dangerous for you to try but it is

01:41:00   deeply deeply involving and they've just

01:41:04   put out a new version in time for

01:41:05   Christmas which I'm I'm really really

01:41:08   trying to prevent myself from even

01:41:09   looking at until I have finished all the

01:41:11   work that I need to do until Christmas

01:41:13   season arrives because as soon as I open

01:41:15   that up it's like okay well here go here

01:41:17   go a bunch of hours but those have been

01:41:20   the stable three Holy Trinity games for

01:41:22   me for a long time now and I just I

01:41:24   think they are just great solid games in

01:41:28   in very different area so I just I

01:41:30   really like them and I don't I don't

01:41:31   have a bunch of new recommendations this

01:41:35   year so I'm just gonna rear-end those I

01:41:37   am gonna give you a very quick super

01:41:42   quick just give you the names of my iOS

01:41:44   gaming Hall of Fame mm-hm

01:41:46   threes Altos adventure stagehand Domino

01:41:51   drop a mini Metro

01:41:52   they are my favorite did they all my

01:41:54   favorite iOS games of all time and

01:41:55   flip-flop solitaire joins them

01:41:56   like they are the games that I always

01:41:58   keep installed on my iPhone they are

01:42:00   perfect iPhone games yeah Altos

01:42:03   adventure I can definitely recommend

01:42:05   that's really fun and and beautiful like

01:42:08   the art style and out those adventures

01:42:09   is great and mini Metro I never played

01:42:13   it on iOS I played it when it came out

01:42:14   on on Steam when it was in early access

01:42:16   and that that is I think that's a great

01:42:20   example of a game that is simple but

01:42:25   involving and one of the things that I

01:42:27   really like about mini Metro is it's a

01:42:29   game where you always lose but you don't

01:42:31   mind

01:42:32   it's very Tetris like like the

01:42:34   complexity just keeps scaling up and

01:42:36   you're doing a very simple thing and

01:42:38   you're always going to lose it's just a

01:42:40   question about how how long can you go

01:42:42   on before you lose so yeah I'm also

01:42:44   gonna really recommend mini Metro so

01:42:47   there are a couple of categories that I

01:42:49   think we could condense into

01:42:52   miscellaneous yeah I think we can do a

01:42:55   lightning round in miscellaneous all

01:42:58   right you go first I'm gonna mention the

01:43:01   last service I think which is Dropbox

01:43:06   oh yeah Shalini as one you know I kind

01:43:09   of forget like because it's just there

01:43:12   yeah it's it's just there but Dropbox is

01:43:16   the filesystem for me for everything and

01:43:21   it's the way that I keep my work managed

01:43:24   across different devices different

01:43:26   operating systems it's it's the

01:43:29   absolutely vital underpinning of almost

01:43:31   everything I do and I upgraded to

01:43:34   Dropbox business this year so that I

01:43:37   could use their new features like

01:43:38   selective or so not selective syncing

01:43:41   but the thing where you can have in it

01:43:42   what is it called it's what we call it

01:43:45   infinite it was originally called

01:43:47   Dropbox infinite which is an amazing

01:43:49   name and then they changed it to

01:43:51   something else and I can never remember

01:43:53   what the new name is because it's boring

01:43:55   but it's it is Dropbox's version of what

01:43:58   iCloud Drive tries to do which is like

01:44:01   we can show you all your files and then

01:44:04   we'll just download them as needed

01:44:05   except unlike iCloud Drive which is

01:44:08   terrible and caused me an enormous

01:44:10   number

01:44:10   of frustrating problems when I went to

01:44:12   use a smart sink no cuz smart sink is

01:44:15   the thing that just hides the folders no

01:44:17   that's electives not sink maybe it is

01:44:20   maybe it's it is either smart or

01:44:22   selectively sink

01:44:24   yeah I think it's smart sink cuz it says

01:44:25   on the website access every file in your

01:44:27   Dropbox right from your desktop using

01:44:29   very little hard disk space yeah yeah

01:44:31   okay yeah you're right I'm looking at it

01:44:32   now here it is it's smart sync but it is

01:44:36   great to be able to designate a folder

01:44:38   as to say like this folder always has to

01:44:40   be on the computer and up-to-date and

01:44:42   then this other folder you can push it

01:44:45   to the cloud and if I ever need to

01:44:47   access it just download it as fast as

01:44:49   you can and also in the theme of

01:44:53   communicating with lots of other people

01:44:55   you know Dropbox I have you know shared

01:44:57   folders with like 10 people various

01:45:00   things just so vital and to give you an

01:45:05   indication of just how vital it is my

01:45:08   Dropbox folder if I or if I open it up

01:45:10   now ok my Dropbox is seventy three point

01:45:16   six percent full on a 15 terabyte

01:45:20   Dropbox accounts but I am usually I am

01:45:24   using a lot what are you doing that's a

01:45:29   huge that smart sync is pretty vital I

01:45:33   mean I as somebody who has a shared

01:45:35   Dropbox folder with you I am very aware

01:45:37   of the fact that you don't like to

01:45:39   delete anything ever and there is like

01:45:42   some some pretty severe selective

01:45:46   thinking that we have to do like no no

01:45:49   but see but here's the thing I don't do

01:45:51   any selective syncing because with the

01:45:52   Dropbox business thing like the core

01:45:54   tech stuff is all just there and I never

01:45:56   even looking at well I have to because I

01:45:57   don't have that feature

01:45:59   I pay for their one of them paid plans

01:46:02   but I don't have the business plans the

01:46:05   nice thing with the business plan thing

01:46:06   is that I I select cortex as a file

01:46:09   which is just pushed into the cloud so

01:46:13   all of the core tech stuff is in the

01:46:15   cloud but I can also say if something

01:46:18   new pops up so like when we're done when

01:46:21   we're done recording this show have the

01:46:23   new thing

01:46:24   sync locally as quickly as you can so I

01:46:26   only ever have the new ones on the the

01:46:30   computer locally and then the rest of it

01:46:32   like I just never even look at it and it

01:46:34   just it just exists

01:46:35   wherever the Dropbox data stores are

01:46:38   probably you know in an NSA facility

01:46:40   somewhere but you know it's like

01:46:43   whatever it works great and I need it so

01:46:45   that's that's what but that's what it's

01:46:47   gonna be but yeah I'm sitting on a on a

01:46:49   15 terabyte Dropbox account and you'll

01:46:52   like 10 terabytes into it

01:46:56   yeah it's whatever seventy-three point

01:46:58   six percent of 15 terabytes is Wow okay

01:47:02   so that's a pretty vital service for me

01:47:04   let's hope the smart sync never breaks

01:47:06   and then just ten terabytes of stuff

01:47:09   tries to get pushed to you my Cloud

01:47:13   Drive used to do and ugly you never know

01:47:18   books are got it together yeah I'm gonna

01:47:21   recommend one of my very very very

01:47:22   favorite iOS apps which is carrot

01:47:24   weather oh yeah it's on my list so good

01:47:26   so I love carrot weather it is by far

01:47:29   the best weather app that I've ever used

01:47:31   for customization and data plus it has

01:47:34   this fun character to it you can you can

01:47:36   adjust whoever you want or don't want it

01:47:38   but I kind of like the joke so it tells

01:47:40   but the Apple watch app is just

01:47:43   stupendous and it is an app that is in

01:47:47   continual development and I thoroughly

01:47:49   recommend it to anybody that cares about

01:47:51   the weather yeah it's the it's the

01:47:54   no-brainer choice for a weather app and

01:47:56   I turn that personality all the way down

01:47:59   yes no patience for that lines in the

01:48:02   middle I just let it make jokes on the

01:48:03   screen it never bothers me of anything

01:48:05   which is a thing you can just there's

01:48:06   some space where they can just throw

01:48:08   some jokes in and I like that the

01:48:10   developer has found a way to update

01:48:13   those remotely and so they're very

01:48:16   frequently topical which is one which I

01:48:18   enjoy mm-hmm you enjoy that oh yeah I

01:48:22   know I know basically I'm really in the

01:48:24   minority amongst my friends but I just

01:48:27   let it do what it's doing I'm gonna

01:48:29   recommend next mind node which is a mind

01:48:33   mapping app which is the app that I use

01:48:35   to put together my thoughts on

01:48:38   the list of apps for today and it's

01:48:42   interesting cuz we did a show a while

01:48:43   ago where we both talked about how we

01:48:44   don't really use mind maps mm-hm and and

01:48:47   for me that is still true 99% of the

01:48:50   time like I just don't feel like a mind

01:48:52   map person but every once in a while it

01:48:57   feels like there's something I just kind

01:48:59   of want a mind map out I never really

01:49:02   used those mind maps later but there is

01:49:04   something that every once in a while I

01:49:06   feel like this is the appropriate way to

01:49:07   like think through a thing or for today

01:49:11   I decided to use the mind map because I

01:49:14   figured it's a it's going to be a more

01:49:17   condensed way to show all of the

01:49:19   information instead of having a list so

01:49:21   this way you might can just put a

01:49:23   screenshot in the show notes and instead

01:49:25   of having like a long list thing written

01:49:27   out but if you're going to use a mind

01:49:30   map I think my node is is the one to use

01:49:33   and particularly on iOS they have a

01:49:36   couple of features that are just

01:49:38   fantastic which al app which allows you

01:49:41   to act like you're typing a list but

01:49:44   have it go in mind map format

01:49:46   automatically so when you're on a branch

01:49:49   and you're you've written out the

01:49:51   category title like you just hit space

01:49:53   three times and then it goes and creates

01:49:56   a child branch and when you're on that

01:49:58   child branch and you're done typing you

01:50:00   just hit return three times and it

01:50:02   creates a sibling branch so there's a

01:50:04   really nice way if you're a very

01:50:05   keyboard focused person like myself it's

01:50:08   a super fast mind mapping application to

01:50:11   you so I really like it so I have an app

01:50:14   that I wanted to recommend called war

01:50:15   accounts plus plus and this is a worker

01:50:17   app and I will say like we said we were

01:50:19   over cost the developer of this app

01:50:21   David is a friend of mine and one of the

01:50:24   reasons that I want to recommend is

01:50:25   because of that because he's a friend I

01:50:28   was helping him test swimming

01:50:30   functionality that he was adding to the

01:50:31   app so I got to help tailor it to be the

01:50:37   type of design that I want so it's kind

01:50:40   of the perfect that for me went when

01:50:42   tracking my swims so that's why I love

01:50:46   it so much it is a workout app which is

01:50:49   really best with the Apple watch you

01:50:51   can create it was like a bunch of like

01:50:53   templates and you can adjust how you

01:50:55   want the information to be shown during

01:50:57   the workout so like you can show your

01:50:59   heart rate changes you can show the laps

01:51:01   to time and all that kind of stuff and

01:51:03   you can do this with loads of different

01:51:04   exercises but it means when I'm swimming

01:51:06   I get to see just the information that I

01:51:08   want to see mm-hmm

01:51:10   plus workouts plus plus has the ability

01:51:12   for you to integrate podcasts into it so

01:51:15   Johan that's nice listen to podcasts

01:51:18   with your air pods just from the watch

01:51:19   that's pretty sweet yeah this only

01:51:23   really works very well with workout

01:51:24   applications because they have to be

01:51:26   constantly running and that kind of

01:51:27   stuff but that has that future air pods

01:51:29   in while you're swimming has everybody

01:51:30   no I don't do that part but yes I like

01:51:34   to be able to have my when I'm swimming

01:51:38   alikes we have to see just the

01:51:38   information I want to see and I found

01:51:40   that Apple stuff while still good just

01:51:43   didn't give me everything I wanted and

01:51:44   one house plus plus does and it's I

01:51:47   think it's free so it's worth at least

01:51:48   trying out yeah I'll also recommend that

01:51:51   if you want to hear David and Marco talk

01:51:56   about their apps they have a show on

01:51:58   this very Network under the radar which

01:52:00   you should go listen to it's very good

01:52:02   and you should put that in the show

01:52:03   notes oh of course I will

01:52:05   so again to developers they make two

01:52:09   apps that we really like yes they are

01:52:11   friends but they are good apps and they

01:52:13   also have a podcast together and that

01:52:15   podcast isn't really a fan remember all

01:52:18   of that but both of these apps are free

01:52:20   so you've got nothing to lose when you

01:52:22   try them and then you'll know they're

01:52:23   great next thing I'm gonna recommend is

01:52:26   this is a little tip that I picked up

01:52:29   from while we're talking about relay

01:52:31   people Stephen Hackett you are a

01:52:33   co-founder he recommended to me at WWDC

01:52:37   a feature of Chrome on the Mac which I

01:52:41   did not know which I feel like is

01:52:43   life-changing and it's that chrome has

01:52:47   the ability to set up different user

01:52:49   profiles so that you can in chrome very

01:52:53   easily switch between a set of logged in

01:52:56   accounts and let me tell you as someone

01:53:00   who's trying to run a YouTube channel

01:53:03   and

01:53:04   a couple of podcasts and my own personal

01:53:08   life chrome when I'm sitting in front of

01:53:10   the Mac is the browser that I'm using

01:53:12   the vast majority of the time now and it

01:53:15   is solely because of this feature that I

01:53:17   can say very quickly switch between I am

01:53:21   just me as a person and use and have

01:53:24   this web browser logged in to all of my

01:53:26   personal accounts and now I am

01:53:28   officially CGP grey the YouTube person

01:53:31   so here's all of the accounts I need to

01:53:33   be logged in for that and the thing the

01:53:35   detail that makes this really really

01:53:37   great that Steven suggested is you can

01:53:40   have different custom visual themes for

01:53:44   these different profiles so when I am

01:53:47   logged into the most important accounts

01:53:49   as the CGP grey YouTube channel stuff

01:53:52   the whole Chrome web browser across the

01:53:55   top is red I say it is not possible to

01:53:59   make a mistake about like which account

01:54:01   am i logged into I really really love

01:54:04   this feature and if you're someone who

01:54:06   is using a bunch of different sets of

01:54:10   accounts or you're using a shared

01:54:12   computer in a family the profiles

01:54:14   feature on Chrome is is amazing I don't

01:54:16   use that but I do use Chrome but I know

01:54:19   why that would be great if you were

01:54:21   switching constantly I mean I just

01:54:22   whenever I'm posting I just using clean

01:54:24   neato mode and login but it's because I

01:54:26   don't need that access all the time but

01:54:29   I can see why that would be so useful

01:54:31   yeah it's it's great because it keeps

01:54:34   you logged in yeah guy used to log in

01:54:36   and log out of all the stuff but

01:54:37   particularly with YouTube where when you

01:54:40   log in on one count they want to log you

01:54:42   into a whole bunch of related services

01:54:43   it just it makes a big big difference

01:54:47   gbaud I use a third-party keyboard on my

01:54:54   iPhone lots of people think this is a

01:54:57   wild thing to do there are downsides to

01:55:00   it but honestly the upsides of FASTA

01:55:02   significant for me better all to correct

01:55:04   better emoji suggestions and emoji

01:55:07   search I can get gifts from my keyboard

01:55:08   and I can swipe type Apple can't beat

01:55:11   that in my opinion and I loved you board

01:55:13   and I've been using it as the only

01:55:14   keyboard on my iPhone for a very long

01:55:17   but I'm gonna back up that

01:55:19   recommendation uh

01:55:21   I started using G board a long time ago

01:55:24   on my iPad because I like swipe typing

01:55:28   with the pencil so I find it just easier

01:55:33   than try what if I'm using the pencil

01:55:35   element I've had I tend to want to use

01:55:37   the pencil for everything and tapping

01:55:39   out letters is really unpleasant to do

01:55:40   with the pencil so I started using

01:55:43   keyboard on the iPad pro so that I could

01:55:45   use the swipe typing and I really liked

01:55:47   it unfortunately there's a little bit of

01:55:49   bug with if you want to use a Dvorak

01:55:52   keyboard layout with the G board

01:55:54   keyboard installed on an iPad which is

01:55:56   sort of frustrating so I have to always

01:55:58   switch back into the regular iOS

01:56:00   keyboard to get that to work but I

01:56:02   really like it with the iPad and I've

01:56:04   been trying it on my phone the past

01:56:07   couple of weeks and I don't know if I'll

01:56:12   keep it but it's it's definitely worth

01:56:15   trying although for some reason I find

01:56:18   that the swipe typing with my thumb is

01:56:20   taking a little while to get used to

01:56:22   this it it's strange to do but it is

01:56:27   scary how good Google is at guessing

01:56:30   what you're what you're trying to type

01:56:31   you say scary I say really convenient

01:56:35   well what I mean what I mean scary

01:56:38   though like a thing that happened today

01:56:41   is I was swipe typing something and I

01:56:43   realized I had done it totally wrong and

01:56:45   I just thought I'm just gonna keep going

01:56:48   and like go back to the letters that it

01:56:50   was supposed to be so I I typed a seek

01:56:53   typed in quotes a sequence which is just

01:56:56   a nonsense sequence of work of letters

01:56:58   but Google was able to get it I'm like

01:57:01   oh we know what you were trying to say

01:57:02   and that's the situation where it's like

01:57:05   is is terrifyingly accurate because my

01:57:08   swiping was nonsense because I'd like

01:57:10   changed my mind halfway through about

01:57:12   what words I was trying to say like you

01:57:13   still did just fine

01:57:15   so again I'm not sure it will stay but I

01:57:18   can definitely back up your

01:57:19   recommendation that it is worth trying

01:57:21   and it's interesting I do want to

01:57:23   recommend nap that I completely forgot I

01:57:25   used until I had to set up two new

01:57:28   systems where I hadn't installed it and

01:57:30   that is one blocker which is one of the

01:57:33   ad blockers for iOS and for Mac I had

01:57:38   just installed this and forgotten about

01:57:39   it a long time ago and I had to recently

01:57:42   redo a couple of my systems and I was

01:57:46   feeling like why is the Internet such a

01:57:48   terrible experience and then probably

01:57:50   alright because I haven't installed that

01:57:52   ad blocker and so one blocker is a

01:57:56   really nice ad blocker not least of

01:57:58   which because you can set a lot of

01:57:59   customization to it and you can also do

01:58:01   things like block URLs that you want to

01:58:04   specify or if you're into like regex

01:58:06   rules like that's a thing that you can

01:58:08   do so it's a really great ad blocker I

01:58:12   don't use any blockers anyway learn

01:58:15   anything well you're a better person

01:58:18   than I am

01:58:19   no I don't think that's the case and I

01:58:20   don't think it's any kind of like and

01:58:23   I'm not trying to make any kind of

01:58:24   political statement I have just found

01:58:27   that like they just randomly break

01:58:30   things and I find it frustrating to be

01:58:33   like all something isn't working Oh

01:58:36   might be because of my ad blocker and

01:58:37   I've gotten pretty I think I have been

01:58:39   on the internet for long enough that

01:58:41   I've gotten pretty good at ignoring ads

01:58:42   where I don't want to see them I've I

01:58:45   have the ad blindness you know like I

01:58:47   can look at a page and I should never

01:58:49   see him so you know I'm fine with it

01:58:52   again like and I'm really not trying to

01:58:54   be like oh but I also use Chrome as well

01:58:57   on my on my iOS devices so I can't even

01:59:00   use an app block or an iOS even if I

01:59:02   wanted to so there's a bunch of reasons

01:59:04   but like I'm not trying to make a

01:59:06   political stand I've just never really

01:59:07   gotten into it I do use a blocker I

01:59:12   think it's called like cookie box or

01:59:14   something like that I'll find it I'll

01:59:16   put it in the show notes and it stops

01:59:18   those European Union cookie consent

01:59:20   thing because that is like not helpful

01:59:26   to anyone and I have so like this is

01:59:29   mainly good for me because if I ever am

01:59:31   in Safari it's not a browser I use

01:59:33   frequently so I see those things

01:59:35   everywhere but then I have this blocker

01:59:37   that just blocks those pop-ups right

01:59:40   right

01:59:41   yeah that's good that's good my last

01:59:43   recommendation

01:59:44   for today i want to be p calc for two

01:59:47   reasons it's my favourite calculator app

01:59:49   i love it it's a great calculator app

01:59:51   I'm going to say three reasons I can

01:59:54   change to a many different icons so I

01:59:57   can have a fun icon and also it has a

01:59:59   game

01:59:59   game

00:00:00   where in the world is Mike Hurley well

00:00:02   it depends who are you talking to Mike

00:00:04   Hurley Oh the body is ah in London all

00:00:09   right right okay yeah I know this Mike

00:00:11   Hurley the kind of the general spirit

00:00:13   and consciousness is stuck somewhere

00:00:15   over the Atlantic Ocean right that Mike

00:00:19   early is still catching up with this

00:00:20   Mike early yeah can't be here

00:00:23   just in time for it to change again so

00:00:25   oh good

00:00:27   okay very excited about perfect so here

00:00:31   you're in that in-between time then one

00:00:33   trip is over and another trip will start

00:00:36   just as just as you've adjusted that's

00:00:38   the best that's that is just the best

00:00:42   yeah I've been tracing that feeling for

00:00:44   about three months I was I've had a lot

00:00:46   of really great travel this back end of

00:00:49   the year

00:00:49   mm-hmm but it's it has thrown my body

00:00:52   clock through a loop I just got back

00:00:55   from Seattle

00:00:55   yesterday from podcast from pod con it

00:00:59   happened

00:01:00   and I got back yesterday and I managed

00:01:03   to stay awake I've gotten pretty good at

00:01:05   staying awake when I get home and then I

00:01:09   just hate when did you have really bad

00:01:12   jet lag when you wake up the next

00:01:14   morning and feel worse yeah but when I

00:01:17   went to sleep and that was how I felt

00:01:19   today yeah I'm with you there so I'm

00:01:23   drinking a smoothie right now called

00:01:25   vitamin power ooh and I'm hoping that

00:01:29   that will get me through yeah

00:01:31   I have often found that the jet lag kind

00:01:34   of tricks you I'm often very optimistic

00:01:37   the first day I get back I feel like oh

00:01:39   don't do it really well

00:01:41   but like oh the jet lag is actually just

00:01:43   it's just winding up for day two okay

00:01:46   like oh I feel always day two your day

00:01:48   was my worst is night three hmm

00:01:52   night three I need to clear the schedule

00:01:55   for day four because night three means

00:01:57   Mike will not sleep yeah and tends to be

00:02:02   what happens to me so I've got no sleep

00:02:05   coming in a couple of days so that we

00:02:06   found this is the thing with travel

00:02:08   especially very long travel like if

00:02:10   you're going from London to the west

00:02:12   coast's

00:02:13   back again is it's it's really gotta be

00:02:18   worth it to do that trip

00:02:19   and you were going out to a pod con the

00:02:23   first pod con no one had ever been to a

00:02:26   pod con before was it worth it Mike was

00:02:30   it worth the jet lag without a shadow of

00:02:32   a doubt oh great yeah it was fantastic I

00:02:37   would do it again I'll do it again next

00:02:40   week if there was one next week I had

00:02:42   such a good time at probably the best

00:02:47   organized conference I've ever been to

00:02:49   well you know the Greens they have some

00:02:51   experience with organizing conferences

00:02:53   they know what's going on a put a few

00:02:55   together in their day yeah yeah I've

00:02:56   never been to VidCon but I could what I

00:02:59   could feel was happening was VidCon

00:03:01   moved to Seattle it was just an

00:03:06   incredibly well oiled machine everything

00:03:09   was taken care of

00:03:11   like every event that I had to go to

00:03:14   there was someone to take me there and

00:03:15   pick me up

00:03:16   like it was yeah it was amazing I was so

00:03:21   blown away by like how all of the

00:03:24   details were taken care of and it you

00:03:26   know made me smile everyone was wearing

00:03:28   radios right like it was just like a

00:03:29   whole big to-do it was very very well

00:03:32   put together that's really great to hear

00:03:34   it's it's one of those things where I

00:03:36   was I was not able to attend this year

00:03:38   like I wanted to go and I wasn't able to

00:03:40   go partly because my travel schedule has

00:03:44   also been crazy this year and I was I

00:03:45   was watching I was watching with some

00:03:47   sadness people on Twitter like seeming

00:03:49   to be having a great time at pot god I

00:03:50   was like oh I'm over here not able to be

00:03:53   there at pod con it was a great time it

00:03:55   was really good

00:03:56   remind me again like what were your

00:03:57   responsibilities at pod con you did a

00:03:59   panel is that right I had four events

00:04:03   for okay in total I had a panel about

00:04:08   networks there's some amazing people I

00:04:11   had what's called a podcast scramble

00:04:14   scramble yeah it's where they put two

00:04:16   podcast hosts that have never worked

00:04:18   together before together and you make a

00:04:20   show about anything like speed pod

00:04:23   Mike's big podcast dating yes but

00:04:26   the date happens in front of an audience

00:04:29   okay you have to do the podcasts just

00:04:32   live like what is line to a 15-minute

00:04:34   show yes a 25-minute show in front of an

00:04:36   audience do you know who you're going to

00:04:39   be scrambled with ahead of time yes we

00:04:41   knew we knew vastly ahead of time so we

00:04:44   were able to talk around together yeah I

00:04:46   wouldn't do the other one because that

00:04:47   sounds like hell like I'm just I'm just

00:04:50   trying to imagine what like maybe from

00:04:52   an audience perspective it would be

00:04:54   amazing great to have these two people

00:04:56   walk out on stage who don't know that

00:04:59   they're going to meet and then the

00:05:00   audience just screams entertain us right

00:05:02   and they have to do it like that could

00:05:03   be great from a watchin perspective

00:05:05   before very many reasons with every one

00:05:07   of these scrambles would be the same

00:05:09   house Park home for you that's how every

00:05:11   single one of them would go right it's

00:05:13   how they would all start house l-pod

00:05:14   Kahn now that's not a podcast then

00:05:17   you're just talking to the audience it's

00:05:18   a podcast if there's two people talking

00:05:19   to each other that's oh the audience can

00:05:21   yell at them and say no you're breaking

00:05:23   the rules this isn't a podcast this is

00:05:24   just a show I don't think I like the CGP

00:05:26   grey organized pod con very much well

00:05:29   this is why I didn't and shouldn't

00:05:32   organize any kind of conference there

00:05:35   there are many things people don't want

00:05:36   me to do one one of the things highest

00:05:39   on that list almost certainly would be

00:05:40   trying to organize any kind of

00:05:41   conference I'm always I'm always amazed

00:05:44   at these things and there is there is no

00:05:46   ability for me to put this stuff

00:05:47   together so no okay but so it was panel

00:05:50   mm-hmm scramble mm-hmm what we have the

00:05:53   to create a chat which leader chat

00:05:55   believe is something that happens at

00:05:57   VidCon yes yeah it does and this is

00:05:59   where like I sat down with a group of 12

00:06:02   people who I think were all mostly

00:06:06   podcasters themselves and they were just

00:06:10   asking me questions about what my

00:06:12   opinions were on things and the way that

00:06:14   I do things still like that that was

00:06:15   really fun

00:06:16   and then my signing was there was the

00:06:19   fourth and final thing the first three

00:06:21   things will happen on Saturday and my

00:06:23   signing happened on Sunday which was

00:06:25   both a blessing and a curse because I

00:06:27   feel like Saturday lost lost for two

00:06:29   days it felt like but then I have the

00:06:32   impending doom of signing hanging over

00:06:35   me

00:06:37   than concern the signing that you were

00:06:40   going to bribe people to come to you

00:06:41   with your poster yeah okay well tell us

00:06:45   Mike how was the signing the signing was

00:06:51   very overwhelming for me okay because

00:06:56   there were a lot of people there I don't

00:07:00   know exactly how many but I know it was

00:07:03   more than anybody was prepared for

00:07:06   because we needed another second

00:07:10   volunteer to come and help out and also

00:07:15   I realized that I don't know how

00:07:20   signings work and I wasn't really sure

00:07:26   what I was supposed to do so like I have

00:07:29   my box of posters in under my arm and I

00:07:34   was standing behind a black curtain okay

00:07:38   they did that set up right yeah I know I

00:07:40   know this set up yep through the curtain

00:07:43   and there was significantly more people

00:07:45   sitting there than I expected they made

00:07:49   noises and then I put the Box down on

00:07:53   the table and I said hello and didn't

00:07:56   know what to do next and no one was

00:07:59   there to tell me so I sat down and then

00:08:04   the the volunteer was like because this

00:08:06   is a great thing I didn't expect which

00:08:08   which shows the organisation happening

00:08:11   behind the scenes I expected to just see

00:08:14   a line of people just lining up mm-hm

00:08:17   but what they do is they sit everybody

00:08:19   down in front of you almost like

00:08:20   audience style and then bring people up

00:08:24   line by line and they just have one row

00:08:26   lining up at a time so it means the

00:08:29   people that are waiting aren't just

00:08:30   standing around they're sitting down

00:08:31   like that's a really smart way to do

00:08:34   this I just assumed that they would just

00:08:36   be like a snaking line of people it's

00:08:40   very uncomfortable to stand exact or as

00:08:42   long as for as long as much as much time

00:08:44   as it's going to take yep to see it Mike

00:08:46   Hurley apparently well it did take a

00:08:48   long time for some people unfortunately

00:08:51   I had an hour right that was my allotted

00:08:53   time so I figured I just started and

00:08:58   people came over and I would say like hi

00:09:00   hello how are you like I was able I got

00:09:02   good at reading people's names from

00:09:04   their nametags so I could start writing

00:09:06   the name stands I like write little name

00:09:07   then write the name on the poster that

00:09:09   could ask them where they wanted me to

00:09:10   sign it because there wasn't like an

00:09:11   obvious place I ended up working out the

00:09:14   obvious place on the poster I'm gonna

00:09:16   put a link in by the way to the poster

00:09:18   in the show notes I'll talk about the

00:09:19   poster again in a minute but just so you

00:09:20   could see it and I was writing it kind

00:09:22   of like around the chair there's like a

00:09:24   chair and the person it's like a white

00:09:25   space was writing it they're like thanks

00:09:27   so much for coming but alas since people

00:09:29   like how are you enjoying the how you

00:09:31   drawing pod con that kind of thing

00:09:33   people would you if you have something

00:09:34   that they wanted to say to me that was

00:09:36   great moving through people was having a

00:09:38   great time it felt really cool taking

00:09:40   some pictures then a little while goes

00:09:43   by I don't even check my watch like I'm

00:09:47   just completely focused on what's going

00:09:49   on oh yeah I'm just going through these

00:09:54   things getting the PO sign it like this

00:09:57   the volunteer comes up to me and she

00:10:00   says I just want to let you know that

00:10:03   you've run through half of your time but

00:10:05   a quarter of the people oh god okay so I

00:10:14   was like right okay then so I just tried

00:10:17   to start speeding up a little bit

00:10:18   speeding up a little bit I was kind of

00:10:21   getting to the point where like I

00:10:22   figured I think the thing that's taking

00:10:24   me the longest amount of time he's

00:10:26   writing out an individual note on

00:10:27   everyone's posters which was what I

00:10:29   wanted to do but couldn't so I was just

00:10:32   like writing people's names down signing

00:10:33   it taking pictures that kind of thing a

00:10:34   little while past this more and she

00:10:37   comes up to me again she's like you're

00:10:38   gonna have to speed up because the

00:10:40   McIlroy Brothers are next right and like

00:10:44   people are starting to arrive for their

00:10:46   signing right right so and so then it's

00:10:50   continue to go through continue to go

00:10:52   through and now I noticed something

00:10:53   changed in the audience we're like what

00:10:58   was happening was people would come and

00:11:00   then I would sign the poster if they

00:11:01   wanted a picture the volunteer would

00:11:04   take the picture

00:11:04   so like beforehand they would give her

00:11:07   their phone she would take the picture

00:11:09   and go then I noticed something change

00:11:11   where like other people in the line were

00:11:15   taking pictures for them and I was at

00:11:18   first I thought all these are just all

00:11:19   friends but then like that person would

00:11:22   take and then look and then while I what

00:11:24   I realized it happened is that the

00:11:25   volunteer had said to people you can

00:11:27   choose something signed or a picture so

00:11:31   that the attendees were going rogue and

00:11:36   taking pictures for each other right but

00:11:39   I see the thing was what ended up being

00:11:41   the best move was to ask for the picture

00:11:44   because I was making sure every person

00:11:46   left with a poster because that's right

00:11:48   that was the deal we made right yeah

00:11:50   nobody knew this but that was the deal

00:11:52   that me and you the listener made so

00:11:54   like if they took it I would just screw

00:11:55   by my name on it and like just throw it

00:11:57   right I got through everybody I thought

00:12:01   I was going to die

00:12:03   and like the volunteer came up to me

00:12:05   afterwards she was like thank you so

00:12:07   much you were amazing and we were not

00:12:10   expecting this amount of people so great

00:12:13   the bribery worked uh-huh maybe a little

00:12:16   too well

00:12:16   maybe a little too it I would say for me

00:12:18   personally it worked great because I

00:12:22   didn't walk out to just five people who

00:12:24   were my friends that was a great moment

00:12:26   they were like five of my friends were

00:12:28   in the audience and they all lined up

00:12:30   basically they came over we just took a

00:12:32   picture and I told him to get the heck

00:12:33   out of there and like and I I could feel

00:12:35   the happiness from the volunteer who was

00:12:37   trying to deal with this as I knocked

00:12:39   out half of a line in two seconds all

00:12:43   right I know I just gave them their

00:12:44   posters because they were just there for

00:12:46   me in case nobody showed up right it was

00:12:49   my backup plan so the volunteers

00:12:51   thinking oh this guy is a real pro he's

00:12:53   gonna get through this line in no time

00:12:55   at all little did they know what was

00:12:57   actually about to happen oh yeah I

00:12:58   thought of it that way yeah they're like

00:13:00   oh man this guy's great he must do this

00:13:02   all the time because like it's full

00:13:05   right so they're like well if this is

00:13:06   full he must have done this before

00:13:08   yeah turn it on so that's why you didn't

00:13:11   get a warning until half the time was

00:13:12   gone because they were thinking out at

00:13:14   any moment he's gonna get back into the

00:13:15   groove of it

00:13:16   and then there was Mannix was no groove

00:13:18   no curves no groove they need like I

00:13:23   feel like it like and running you have a

00:13:24   like a pacer runner right I feel like

00:13:27   they need some kind of mechanism to

00:13:29   visually indicate to you if you are on

00:13:32   ahead or behind schedule like some kind

00:13:35   of visual pacing mechanism like they

00:13:38   could build like a assigning robot which

00:13:40   is signing a pace I got like a pace

00:13:42   robot and that's it and I've got to kind

00:13:44   of match the pace of the robot that sits

00:13:45   next to me yeah I think that that would

00:13:47   probably make it feel just as as

00:13:49   personal and non mechanical to the

00:13:52   people coming to see you for the signing

00:13:54   maybe I'm not here I'm not here to help

00:14:02   you out with this I just I don't think

00:14:04   the pacing robot is is good I'm just

00:14:06   thinking like behind the line just a

00:14:08   light that's in your field division that

00:14:10   you can see that's you know green yellow

00:14:11   or red for how well you're doing that's

00:14:13   that's that's what they need I want to

00:14:15   get real for a second and just I want to

00:14:18   thank everybody that did come to the

00:14:19   signing and I think pretty much all of

00:14:21   those people listened to cortex

00:14:22   everybody told me that they loved the

00:14:24   show and it was gray a real life moment

00:14:28   for me honestly because I wasn't

00:14:31   expecting a lot well one thing I forgot

00:14:33   to tell you so I'm I am like in the kind

00:14:36   of the green room I'm getting ready to

00:14:39   go and I'm kind of a nervous wreck I

00:14:41   don't know what what's waiting for me

00:14:43   right and then somebody sent me a tweet

00:14:45   this is like 20 minutes before my

00:14:47   signing that there were 50 people in the

00:14:49   line at that point that made me feel

00:14:52   very uncomfortable hot because like at

00:14:55   that point that's already like maybe 10

00:14:58   times more people than I expected we're

00:14:59   gonna be there right so the whole

00:15:02   situation is something that I will never

00:15:05   forget because it was comply commotion

00:15:08   Allah overwhelming so yeah thank you if

00:15:12   you came it was it was amazing it really

00:15:16   was just amazing a guy I couldn't

00:15:18   believe it it was brilliant

00:15:20   oh I signed a bunch of phones this year

00:15:23   yeah yeah two iPhones to Google pixels

00:15:27   the pixels of that sign on

00:15:29   are they yeah something about the

00:15:31   aluminium in them like the weights

00:15:33   it was way nicer somebody had me sign an

00:15:35   iPhone 4 which was a disaster cause it's

00:15:37   glass so this cannot be science I signed

00:15:42   some beard oil okay alright I was I was

00:15:45   one I was wondering I thought like some

00:15:47   cortex listener is going to bring beard

00:15:49   oil yeah someone brought beard oil and

00:15:51   one person brought a safety razor

00:15:53   [Laughter]

00:15:56   t-shirts sound a couple of t-shirts

00:15:59   stuff like that but yeah the the beard

00:16:02   oil and the safety razor were hilarious

00:16:03   the t-shirts really are the hardest

00:16:05   thing designs so there's one very smart

00:16:08   person brought their own fabric pen mm

00:16:11   cuz I need sharpies sharpies they're a

00:16:13   disaster yeah sure a sharpie trying to

00:16:15   sign a t-shirt it doesn't work it's

00:16:17   terrible you you need if you're gonna

00:16:19   have a even try to sign a t-shirt with a

00:16:22   sharpie you need three people you need

00:16:24   the signer yep and you need two people

00:16:26   to hold tight the shirt in place in

00:16:30   order to even have a chance though you

00:16:32   need like a medieval rack to put yeah

00:16:35   that's that's 100% the only thing that

00:16:39   can keep it taut enough so you can

00:16:41   actually make the Sharpie make any kind

00:16:42   of imprint it's just like I know before

00:16:47   having ever done these things in my head

00:16:48   I think like Oh t-shirts seem like oh

00:16:49   there must be so that like the best

00:16:51   design write it easy to bring you know

00:16:53   it's like now they're the worst that the

00:16:54   absolute worst yeah it was I remember

00:16:57   the first time I signed his he chefs

00:16:59   like years ago and it was someone was

00:17:01   wearing the t-shirt there's a nightmare

00:17:04   it looks like it was signed by somebody

00:17:06   who's never held a pen before this just

00:17:10   it's just the worst just a bunch of

00:17:12   horrible lines I'm really glad to hear

00:17:16   that the signing went well and and you

00:17:19   know those things can be it it's such a

00:17:25   there's such strange moments that it's

00:17:28   hard to express what it's really like so

00:17:31   but like I get what you mean when you

00:17:32   say it's emotionally overwhelming

00:17:33   because you have this thing where it's

00:17:34   all of these people are here because

00:17:36   they've listened to you on a podcast for

00:17:40   you know you listen listen to you on

00:17:41   many podcast from

00:17:43   hours and you know they're coming up and

00:17:46   they want to say something to you and

00:17:47   you're signing these things and then

00:17:49   there is also like what makes it

00:17:51   draining is this there's like there's a

00:17:53   time constraint or there's a number of

00:17:55   people and you want to make sure that

00:17:57   everybody is as happy as you can

00:17:58   possibly make them but you also have

00:17:59   these constraints in the world like it's

00:18:02   it's a it's a strange situation that

00:18:06   that can be overwhelming on a whole

00:18:09   bunch of different levels did you have

00:18:10   to do anything immediately after the

00:18:12   signing or could you go just collapse on

00:18:14   the floor no I was ended up being very

00:18:17   happy that I only had that to do on

00:18:18   Sunday yeah right like at first I was

00:18:21   like but like I'm so busy on Saturday

00:18:23   but like no I needed the rest of Sunday

00:18:25   to just sit and just try and rebuild yep

00:18:30   yep there were two other things about

00:18:32   puck on that I wanted to mention one was

00:18:35   the feeling of the conference and the

00:18:36   audience and the attendees there was a

00:18:39   feeling of just like nice nice and warm

00:18:42   and like appreciation that I've never

00:18:46   felt any conference before everybody

00:18:50   just seemed to be really nice and having

00:18:52   a good time and that was amazing do you

00:18:55   think it was partly like a because I'm

00:18:57   thinking like you know we've been at

00:18:58   WWDC together and do you think that's

00:19:01   just because it gets much smaller than

00:19:03   WWDC is you know because WWDC is like

00:19:06   you know last year in particular it's

00:19:08   like oh the entire city of San Jose is

00:19:11   now WWDC Disney and like that's that's a

00:19:14   very particular feeling like an entire

00:19:16   city has taken over a place like okay so

00:19:19   Louis what's the comparison in your mind

00:19:21   between those two there's no cynicism

00:19:24   but popcorn hmm right everyone's just

00:19:29   super excited and happy to be there but

00:19:32   and like at something like a WWDC

00:19:35   there's there's always like a level of

00:19:38   people and and I'm not talking about

00:19:39   like if we do meetups or whatever it's

00:19:42   very similar to my experience at pod Con

00:19:45   but like the overall feeling of the

00:19:48   conference I've never felt something

00:19:51   like this where like everyone was like

00:19:54   super happy you know there are a bunch

00:19:56   of people in cause

00:19:56   play there are like fan like attendee

00:20:02   generated meetups that were like

00:20:04   official on the program whenever like

00:20:08   anybody goes onto a stage everyone goes

00:20:11   crazy for them like there was just like

00:20:13   a general feeling of like everyone that

00:20:15   is there is super excited and happy to

00:20:18   see the thing that they love well like

00:20:21   other conferences you there can be like

00:20:23   apathy to people that come out on stage

00:20:26   because you don't know who they are or

00:20:28   like it's something like a Dobby WC

00:20:30   there's a real mix of like just general

00:20:32   feelings towards what's happening at the

00:20:34   conference and that didn't feel like

00:20:37   that with pod con so I guess you're

00:20:38   saying that if they do it again next

00:20:39   year you'd go to be the hundred percent

00:20:42   because I also had the experience of

00:20:44   being a fan myself seeing some of my

00:20:46   favorite podcasts like there were

00:20:49   podcasts that I adore that were on Sage

00:20:52   and I got to sit in the audience and

00:20:54   watch them it was fantastic I really

00:20:57   really enjoyed that and it was all just

00:21:00   in this one event I would 100% go and I

00:21:02   would just say nobody's asked me to say

00:21:04   this great but it is possible still to

00:21:07   sign up to get a remote attendee ticket

00:21:10   which is audio of panels and stuff like

00:21:13   that and I believe that the podcast

00:21:15   scramble and the panel that I did about

00:21:18   podcast networks will be available to

00:21:20   people to listen to I think it's like

00:21:22   thirty dollars for a remote attendants

00:21:24   but there was a ton of fantastic panels

00:21:27   across the whole weekend some that I'm

00:21:30   looking forward to hearing again or some

00:21:32   that I missed so you can still go and

00:21:34   get that and you can get a lot of the

00:21:36   value if you're looking to learn some

00:21:37   stuff or if you're looking to be

00:21:39   entertained from that so I just wanted

00:21:41   to mention that because there was so

00:21:42   much great stuff there and if you

00:21:43   couldn't make it and or if this now

00:21:45   sounds interesting to you and you're

00:21:47   like ah man I wish I would have been now

00:21:49   you can still get some of that stuff you

00:21:51   still get some other feelings oh that's

00:21:54   interesting

00:21:54   I've I haven't come across this idea of

00:21:56   a remote me and uh ticket before but it

00:21:59   makes so much sense considering it was a

00:22:00   podcast convention that you would have

00:22:02   audio available afterwards it's like

00:22:06   could this be more thematically on

00:22:08   target I think not

00:22:10   that's a really it's a really

00:22:11   interesting idea to do the remote

00:22:12   attendants ticket I will be looking

00:22:15   forward to hearing hearing your panel

00:22:17   mm-hmm and hearing your scramble

00:22:19   scramble something about the word man I

00:22:23   love it Scrabble today's episode of

00:22:27   cortex is brought to you in part by our

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00:24:23   for less

00:24:24   of this show great context is about two

00:24:27   and a half years old now they're sad as

00:24:30   a project sorry I meant two weeks so I

00:24:32   make you feel better

00:24:33   oh no now it's uncertain if it's gonna

00:24:36   last two weeks its III feel like

00:24:40   projects should be eternally ten months

00:24:45   old okay that feels like a number I like

00:24:48   so I mean let me Rhys a that lean gray

00:24:50   cortex is ten months old no okay yeah it

00:24:52   feels better it was good right feels

00:24:54   good yeah since the beginning of the

00:24:56   show people have been asking for us to

00:24:59   talk about what we're gonna talk about

00:25:00   today you wrote a blog post hyping it up

00:25:05   Mike

00:25:05   he wrote a blind I am you wrote a blog

00:25:06   post in 2014 called state of the apps

00:25:09   yeah in which you kind of went through

00:25:12   in a bunch of different categories some

00:25:14   tools that you use and you wanted to

00:25:16   share them so when people started asking

00:25:18   me for this and it was a lot right like

00:25:21   I was getting a lot and still do I

00:25:23   always regret writing that article I had

00:25:28   assumed that you were writing it every

00:25:31   year yeah that was the intention because

00:25:34   people would say oh you should do a

00:25:35   state of the apps you just take the apps

00:25:37   I googled it saw what it was like oh

00:25:38   that would be a good idea and I put it

00:25:39   in my note and then when I went to look

00:25:42   into this maybe six months ago

00:25:44   kind of like less maybe start thinking

00:25:46   about planning this one out I was

00:25:49   surprised when I couldn't find 2015 and

00:25:51   2016 because the amount that people were

00:25:54   asking made me think that you had done

00:25:57   it regularly but no you did it once

00:26:00   three years ago yeah but everybody wants

00:26:03   it and I can't remember why we're doing

00:26:06   it today but we are I think maybe I

00:26:08   finally ground you down because he is a

00:26:10   really good idea and I guess now is the

00:26:14   time right yeah I think it's partly it's

00:26:18   partly that you ground me down and it's

00:26:22   partly because when we were we were

00:26:25   talking about when does it make sense to

00:26:28   do it at the end of the year is a is a

00:26:31   totally sensible time to do it

00:26:34   and if it feels like okay if we're going

00:26:37   to talk about it

00:26:38   you know Christmastime talk about all

00:26:40   the different apps that's not a bad time

00:26:41   people might be getting new devices and

00:26:44   looking trying to find like what what do

00:26:46   they want to install on those devices

00:26:47   and so yeah this is this is the best

00:26:50   time to do it and also it might be

00:26:52   easier for you to talk about it with me

00:26:54   rather than trying to write an article

00:26:56   and thought instead every year yeah well

00:26:58   like do a little sidebar here please

00:27:02   so that article is state of the apps'

00:27:05   2014 but it was actually written in

00:27:08   December 2013 because I feel like I'm

00:27:12   gonna write this article but I want it

00:27:13   but I want it to be good for a whole

00:27:15   year right so it's like it's like I

00:27:17   think nothing is with cars like the 2018

00:27:19   car comes out in 2017 yeah I think

00:27:22   that's what the yeah what happens yeah

00:27:23   right so that what that was my idea like

00:27:25   the state of the apps 2014 is this

00:27:27   article is good for the year 2014 of

00:27:32   coming but I did write its it was just

00:27:37   like it was just like a little list but

00:27:39   it was it ended up just being an

00:27:41   enormous amount of work and hassle

00:27:43   getting together all the little icons

00:27:44   and putting together all the little

00:27:45   links and boxes around them and

00:27:56   everything yeah okay so let me tell you

00:28:00   just a little story about those white

00:28:02   boxes uh-huh those white boxes are an

00:28:04   example of me giving up on something

00:28:06   because hmm okay okay

00:28:09   sidebar to the sidebar this was back

00:28:15   before I found the person who is

00:28:18   currently my assistant right so this is

00:28:21   a couple of assistants before I found my

00:28:24   current assistant and this was one of

00:28:27   those cases where like you assigned

00:28:29   someone a task and he said look I need a

00:28:31   bunch of app icons and what you get back

00:28:35   is one of these things where you feel

00:28:36   like if I have to explain to you that

00:28:39   they can't have white boxes around them

00:28:42   like I just like this is I can't I can't

00:28:47   fix

00:28:47   this I don't care enough I don't want to

00:28:50   reassign this thing like it was just

00:28:52   whatever I got this back it's not what I

00:28:54   wanted but it's just it's just done so

00:28:57   oh those

00:28:59   I like I remember those white boxes

00:29:00   quite intensely I was like oh this is

00:29:03   not what I was a guy I see yeah okay but

00:29:06   then one of the other things that does

00:29:07   happen is there are very few times I

00:29:17   have written articles on my website and

00:29:20   it is definitely a thing where the

00:29:21   frequency has dramatically dropped from

00:29:24   when I first set up the website and that

00:29:27   that is 100% like a like a return on

00:29:30   investment calculation that as my career

00:29:36   as a youtuber and then podcaster has

00:29:38   progressed it is up I'll put it this way

00:29:45   it is near fundamentally impossible for

00:29:48   me to justify spending almost any time

00:29:52   writing something that is just going to

00:29:55   turn into text on the website and it's

00:29:58   it's almost impossible to justify on two

00:30:01   levels one I don't have any direct

00:30:04   advertising on the website so the

00:30:06   website doesn't really make any money

00:30:07   and then the other side of it is even if

00:30:10   I'm just putting together a list article

00:30:12   like a like a state of the apps list

00:30:14   article that has a huge opportunity cost

00:30:20   because it's it's like the same amount

00:30:22   of mental or I should put it this way

00:30:25   it's like I only have so much mental

00:30:27   energy per day that I can throw at

00:30:30   writing and so to spend that mental

00:30:33   energy on the list article is like is

00:30:35   like doubly insane that there's no way

00:30:38   it's going to make any revenue and it is

00:30:41   the opportunity cost is incredible so

00:30:44   that that's partly why I like articles

00:30:46   have have just disappeared from the

00:30:49   repertoire of what are the things that I

00:30:51   do I just don't really do them anymore

00:30:52   so that is why I like state of the apps'

00:30:55   was was toward the end of that phase

00:30:57   where I was realizing that that writing

00:30:59   articles

00:31:00   doesn't make any sense in the portfolio

00:31:02   of gray industries yeah that's but

00:31:05   that's also why it just it never got

00:31:07   another it never got a follow-up and

00:31:09   then why write an article and you can

00:31:10   make a great podcast up again of it

00:31:12   hence state of the apps 2017 here we are

00:31:15   no no Mike it's it's state of the apps

00:31:18   2018 right yeah how do you not

00:31:21   understand

00:31:22   yes state of the apps 2018 that's what

00:31:24   this is well I'm I'm too deep in upgrade

00:31:27   ease 2017 thinking right now okay right

00:31:31   yes that makes sense though because it's

00:31:33   the award for the previous year exactly

00:31:35   but see if we if we put this podcast up

00:31:38   with the title state of the apps 2017

00:31:40   people won't be listening to it next

00:31:42   Christmas yep so stay at the apps 2018

00:31:45   you previously did this with a bunch of

00:31:47   categories yeah and I have made a little

00:31:50   note in our document of all the

00:31:51   categories but you sent me a little my

00:31:54   map and the categories are totally

00:31:56   different so what I was planning on

00:32:02   doing is I was gonna go through all the

00:32:04   categories but now if you're gonna have

00:32:06   to suggest the categories and we go so

00:32:09   we can start wherever you want to start

00:32:11   okay this is also actually one of the

00:32:13   reasons why I think this this kind of

00:32:15   makes this is actually better to do as a

00:32:18   podcast because I think rather than me

00:32:21   just like listing a few things there is

00:32:23   there is a way that you can like talk

00:32:24   about why you've chosen a thing show oh

00:32:27   or in a in a way that makes more sense

00:32:30   but this but this is this is the

00:32:32   difficulty here like where do things fit

00:32:35   and I feel like no no I'm very happy to

00:32:37   follow your format Mike you run the show

00:32:38   right okay you're the you're the man

00:32:40   you're the man who does all of the

00:32:43   things I just I just show up that's

00:32:46   that's what I do so you want me to run

00:32:48   through the previous 2014 format and

00:32:51   we're gonna talk about them all I am

00:32:53   happy to rearrange on the fly in

00:32:56   whatever whatever way makes sense for

00:32:58   you because this morning also just like

00:33:01   a little little sidebar to the article

00:33:03   this morning one of the things that was

00:33:05   deep we look at what as many you know we

00:33:08   closed those previous talk now this is

00:33:10   another one like you have to keep the

00:33:12   parenthesis open and

00:33:14   in your mind right in you but with

00:33:15   different colors like in a programming

00:33:16   text editor anyway looking back over my

00:33:19   old article this morning when I was

00:33:20   preparing for the show I realized that a

00:33:22   lot of those categories don't even

00:33:24   entirely make sense anymore

00:33:26   and and part of it is recognizing like I

00:33:29   had these overlapping field of fields of

00:33:31   work that I didn't at that point and I

00:33:34   was really shocked to realize that that

00:33:36   article was written before I had done

00:33:38   any podcasting at all oh really yeah

00:33:41   yeah that this was this was prior to any

00:33:44   podcast existing and I was looking at

00:33:48   some of my software choices I was like

00:33:49   oh my god how did you do anything with

00:33:53   that buddy like how how were you putting

00:33:55   together videos with GarageBand still

00:33:57   like I don't understand what how passed

00:34:00   Gray was doing that stuff so the

00:34:02   categories have have sort of changed so

00:34:05   this morning I wasn't really sure how to

00:34:06   arrange things in my little my little

00:34:08   just making notes oh you you lead I will

00:34:10   follow Mike so let's start in in in OG

00:34:14   order with productivity mmm so what are

00:34:18   some of your what is some of your app

00:34:20   picks for productivity because there I

00:34:22   think something that maybe didn't exist

00:34:24   and does exist now I know it's in my

00:34:27   kind of list for stuff and I can see

00:34:28   that you have some things like this - of

00:34:30   services as well as apps and I think

00:34:35   that is just a change from 2013 to now

00:34:38   is that there are a lot more services

00:34:42   they exist yeah this is this is

00:34:43   definitely a thing is recognizing

00:34:45   services exist okay so on that note the

00:34:54   big productivity service and end a thing

00:34:58   that has made made a really big

00:35:02   difference to me this year and I think

00:35:05   I'm gonna touch on a little bit more in

00:35:08   our next episode where we plan to talk

00:35:10   about our year themes oh no don't tell

00:35:12   people well that's not a very great

00:35:14   thing to do right now if something

00:35:16   changes I'm pinning you down Mike okay

00:35:19   next episode your games right but a

00:35:24   service related to that the biggest

00:35:26   biggest thing that I've spent the moe

00:35:27   time on this past year is by far and

00:35:31   away toggle which is the the time

00:35:33   tracking service and ten thousand people

00:35:36   just stopped listening by everyone say

00:35:38   that like everybody everybody likes the

00:35:40   time tracking conversations I don't know

00:35:41   I don't know what you're talking about

00:35:44   but yeah by far in a way it's like is

00:35:46   toggle and app no it's not really an app

00:35:50   but it's it's a service that you can use

00:35:53   in a bunch of different ways from a

00:35:54   bunch of different places to keep to

00:35:56   keep track of time tracking yeah they

00:35:57   have an iPhone app that isn't horrific

00:36:00   now yeah I have they have an okay iPhone

00:36:03   app but it's only on the iPhone both me

00:36:06   and you still use it with some workflow

00:36:08   triggers that we set up yeah I would

00:36:10   that's exactly what I would describe it

00:36:11   to is is that their their iPhone app is

00:36:14   okay it's it's serviceable a web app is

00:36:19   vastly better like using amusing toggles

00:36:22   website is is way better than using

00:36:25   their app even on an iPhone oh yeah

00:36:27   without a doubt that that's definitely

00:36:29   the case but yeah so that's that is like

00:36:33   that is just a big overarching umbrella

00:36:36   under which a lot of this other stuff

00:36:38   Falls is that throughout the past year I

00:36:44   have gotten better and better and better

00:36:47   at nearly constantly running a toggle

00:36:51   timer in the background when I'm awake

00:36:54   and then that obviously connects into

00:36:57   these things like we've like we just

00:36:58   mentioned there it's like how do I do

00:37:00   that I'm using workflow as like a custom

00:37:03   interface on top of toggle so that I can

00:37:07   have preset timers turn on just by

00:37:10   pressing a single button so I don't need

00:37:12   to fiddle with their app I don't need to

00:37:14   fiddle with the website and I think if

00:37:16   there was if there was some kind of

00:37:19   frequency tracker for how often you

00:37:22   launch an app my workflow that I save on

00:37:26   my phone to start picking toggle timers

00:37:30   to start that has got to be my most open

00:37:33   app by two orders of magnitude compared

00:37:37   to anything else on my phone by far so I

00:37:41   I would say though those are the those

00:37:42   are the big ones big ones for me this

00:37:44   year in productivity I would say without

00:37:47   a doubt it's the same for me to achieve

00:37:50   my year of less I started time tracking

00:37:55   and time tracking is a habit for me now

00:37:59   I've recognized this the most when I

00:38:02   travel because when I travel even if I'm

00:38:04   working I tend not to time track yeah

00:38:07   it's really hard to do when you're

00:38:08   traveling but the reason that I know

00:38:10   this is worked is immediately when I

00:38:12   come home I start again mm-hmm you know

00:38:14   it's not that like I'm away for a couple

00:38:16   of weeks come home and then I've just

00:38:18   fell out of the habit of it now I just

00:38:21   go straight back into regular mode again

00:38:23   and it goes back to time tracking and

00:38:24   for me personally I wouldn't say that

00:38:28   like I'm using this data very frequently

00:38:30   to make decisions about the way that I

00:38:32   work but I have used this data a couple

00:38:35   of really key points for me this year

00:38:36   and having that data is vastly superior

00:38:39   to not having that data when it's come

00:38:42   to me to make some decisions about my

00:38:44   working life mmm there's also just a

00:38:47   mode shift in pressing the button yeah

00:38:49   like press the button right here we go

00:38:51   going to work now like and then when I'm

00:38:53   done

00:38:53   I clock out and that just the way that

00:38:58   that makes me feel like the clocking in

00:39:00   and clocking out or certain tasks really

00:39:02   kind of helps solidify in my mind when

00:39:04   I'm working on when I'm not more next

00:39:06   time but but one of the benefits for me

00:39:09   with toggle is the same things like how

00:39:12   how often am I really using that data in

00:39:15   a in a granular way not a lot but what

00:39:19   is mentally helpful is simply knowing

00:39:23   that somewhere there's a clock running

00:39:25   makes me more conscious of what I'm

00:39:29   doing in any particular moment and it

00:39:32   just it makes me more intentional in the

00:39:34   decisions that I'm making about how I'm

00:39:35   spending my time and for that alone I

00:39:39   think it's a it's a really great it's a

00:39:42   really great improvement and the the

00:39:44   biggest deal and biggest difference by

00:39:46   far in the in the productivity category

00:39:48   for me I also switched to todoist this

00:39:52   year for my

00:39:55   my to do my task management tool and

00:39:58   I've been very happy with todoist

00:40:00   it he gives me basically everything that

00:40:03   I needed from OmniFocus and the things

00:40:07   that OmniFocus has to do this doesn't

00:40:09   I've ended up not being deal breakers

00:40:11   for me at all but the thing that I

00:40:14   wanted is the thing that I got which is

00:40:16   the ability for other applications and

00:40:19   services to be able to read and write to

00:40:22   my task manager that has been great for

00:40:24   me and I've been very happy and continue

00:40:27   to explore ways to do this because it's

00:40:30   enabling me to not have to remember

00:40:32   everything that not every entry that

00:40:36   goes into my task manager has to come

00:40:38   from me remembering to put a thing in it

00:40:40   sometimes things just appear in it on

00:40:42   their own and I find great comfort in

00:40:45   that

00:40:46   how much do you use their shared

00:40:49   features like you're using that with

00:40:50   relay or with anybody else zero okay so

00:40:54   you're using it as a yeah I mostly don't

00:40:56   like the idea of somebody being like a

00:40:59   person being able to add and remove

00:41:02   tasks from lists I just personally like

00:41:05   to put it in myself and assume that the

00:41:08   other people person will do the same

00:41:10   I've played around of it a little bit

00:41:12   and ultimately I don't like all that

00:41:15   stuff being in the same place my my

00:41:18   to-do app is like a fortress right and

00:41:23   there's one tunnel which is for web

00:41:25   services and that's the only tunnel I

00:41:27   think was it I think it was at your

00:41:28   urging I tried to duyst and for me it

00:41:33   has fallen into the exact opposite role

00:41:35   which is that it is purely for shared

00:41:39   tasks and I don't use it at all for an

00:41:42   individual so this is the program that

00:41:44   is used between my assistants and I and

00:41:46   even there it's it's interesting to see

00:41:49   that what has happened is it's not like

00:41:54   it is it's not used on unlike a daily

00:42:00   basis of checking in things and being

00:42:02   constantly updated but we have ended up

00:42:05   using it like a record of what

00:42:08   the active projects to review every once

00:42:11   in a while so it's acting like it's a

00:42:14   like a placeholder for what are the

00:42:18   things that are going on hmm

00:42:21   but it's it's clearly not being used by

00:42:23   either of us as like the busy daily

00:42:26   thing and like on her and she has her

00:42:30   own system that she's actually using for

00:42:32   her task management personally in the

00:42:35   same way that I am using my own stuff

00:42:37   for my personal things but this is this

00:42:39   is just like where are we in on a very

00:42:42   high level on various projects like that

00:42:45   that's what has ended up happening with

00:42:46   with to do is for me see you actually

00:42:49   using a task manager again okay so we

00:42:53   talk about three task managers I mean

00:42:57   shall we I don't know I guess if that's

00:43:00   what we're doing I was only asking if

00:43:02   you were using one but if it takes free

00:43:04   to talk about it then sure we'll do that

00:43:07   okay let's let's run through a few of

00:43:09   the of the task managers that I have on

00:43:11   my on my list here clear your afternoon

00:43:13   everyone know I can get through this

00:43:15   very quickly okay I can get through it

00:43:16   very quickly indeed so what yeah the

00:43:20   task manager thing I do I do a little

00:43:23   bit want to save that again for a

00:43:25   conversation next time show but I will

00:43:27   I'll broadly say that it's like yes I've

00:43:29   been trying to get back into using task

00:43:32   managers on a more regular basis because

00:43:36   this year I was a little bit in the

00:43:37   wilderness with task managers and what

00:43:40   I'm currently doing is I'm using three

00:43:46   four different things OmniFocus is still

00:43:50   the heavy weights task manager where I

00:43:53   can throw a bunch of templates into it

00:43:55   right really long checklists for putting

00:43:58   up podcasts or putting up videos like

00:44:00   that that is the the heaviest of the

00:44:02   heavy weight things I'm using to do as

00:44:07   like I try to think about how to

00:44:10   describe this this morning but I've been

00:44:12   using to do is like a habit or routine

00:44:15   tracker so these are tasks like

00:44:21   in the morning I have a bunch of things

00:44:24   that I call like boot up and I want to

00:44:26   run through those things like here's a

00:44:28   bunch of easy wins in the morning to

00:44:29   check up check off these boxes and

00:44:31   you're just getting the day started

00:44:33   right like one of them one of the

00:44:36   simplest ones is just like drink a glass

00:44:37   of water in the morning because it's

00:44:41   just like I've seen like I definitely

00:44:42   have a better day when I do that so that

00:44:44   goes in to do and then like another one

00:44:47   of those things like go to the office

00:44:49   alright that's like another little part

00:44:51   of the morning routine it's like okay

00:44:53   great

00:44:53   I can tick this off in the box so all of

00:44:55   these things are actual items in a

00:44:57   checklist that you check off

00:44:58   yeah they are items in the checklist

00:45:00   that I check off so let me ask you a

00:45:02   question then hmm how do you remember to

00:45:05   start the list to do shows the badge on

00:45:07   my phone right so that's that's the

00:45:09   that's the way it communicates to me so

00:45:11   what are these daily recurring tasks

00:45:13   yeah there's the way I've set it up and

00:45:15   to do is their daily recurring tasks

00:45:17   that are set as due in the morning or

00:45:21   due in the middle of the day or do in

00:45:23   the evening which are like my three

00:45:24   primary habit locations where I want to

00:45:27   reinforce some behavior and so I just

00:45:30   ticked them off every day and their

00:45:31   daily repeating and they and they come

00:45:33   back on the on the day that they need to

00:45:34   but I said I really like it this is this

00:45:37   is a kind of task that for a long time

00:45:39   I've always done that that I think of as

00:45:42   like a workflow sort of task this is

00:45:45   this isn't the actual work maybe these

00:45:48   things do or don't need to happen on any

00:45:50   particular day but like this is how a

00:45:53   theoretically perfect day would go this

00:45:57   is the kind of day that you want to

00:45:59   reestablish and like I said I really

00:46:01   like it in the morning for starting a

00:46:05   kind of momentum to make things just

00:46:08   like easy to begin the day and feel like

00:46:10   okay great I got some my brain got some

00:46:12   quick meaningless wins but it still it

00:46:16   still helps get the ball rolling on the

00:46:17   bigger things that need to happen okay

00:46:20   so what's the third one okay so that the

00:46:23   final one is when I just been playing

00:46:25   around with a little bit which is things

00:46:28   and things has taken over the slot from

00:46:31   clear which is

00:46:34   the the place for having a really simple

00:46:39   superb limited task manager so what I

00:46:44   like that for is sometimes on busy days

00:46:47   I feel like I need to put or I should I

00:46:50   should back up not on a busy day but I

00:46:53   very often find on days where you're

00:46:55   feeling overwhelmed by tasks the most

00:46:58   effective thing is to really narrow down

00:47:01   and to say okay

00:47:03   I'm feeling really overwhelmed there's

00:47:05   like a whole bunch of stuff in the world

00:47:06   OmniFocus has a badge that has 67 in it

00:47:09   you know like I'm really overdue on a

00:47:12   whole bunch of stuff that would end my

00:47:13   life you know what do you mean like that

00:47:16   would be it I would die if I saw a badge

00:47:19   that said 67 now just that be it I would

00:47:22   immediately die yeah it's this is one of

00:47:27   the disadvantages of having like of

00:47:29   having of being ridiculously thorough

00:47:33   with like all the stuff that needs to

00:47:34   happen and putting it into a system is

00:47:35   that you can end up with this like like

00:47:41   sudden overloads where a bunch of things

00:47:43   come together all at once and you're

00:47:44   like oh god everything this automatic

00:47:46   system is showing me a million things

00:47:47   that are due today if if my if my badge

00:47:50   when I wake up in the morning on to

00:47:52   doest is over seven I know that my day

00:47:54   is like yeah this you have to keep in

00:48:02   mind that that in OmniFocus on being

00:48:04   ridiculously granular yeah I know you

00:48:07   don't have like 67 podcasts to post that

00:48:09   day but it's just like that number it's

00:48:12   just horrific to me and there are ways

00:48:15   in which like when you're really on your

00:48:16   game it doesn't matter and like oh great

00:48:18   okay I've got a lot of stuff I'm gonna

00:48:19   sort of blow through it but I do I do

00:48:21   like to have on hand something that I

00:48:23   can use as the I'm going to have a

00:48:27   simple and narrowly focused day and in

00:48:32   the past I've always used clear for that

00:48:34   but clear hasn't updated in a while I

00:48:36   know that they are intending to release

00:48:39   a new version soon but they haven't

00:48:40   actually done it yet I still use clear

00:48:42   and I am on the beta for clear no I know

00:48:46   the app is coming

00:48:47   be awesome like I know that I could I

00:48:50   cuz I can see it they are working on a

00:48:51   new version I went to mention that

00:48:53   because every time we mentioned clear

00:48:55   there are people that send us

00:48:57   screenshots now of like because they've

00:49:00   said I mean they've said it publicly you

00:49:02   can look in your release notes and

00:49:04   they're saying that they are working on

00:49:05   a new version and and I have been using

00:49:07   the new version and it's great so I'm

00:49:09   just saying like for me for right now

00:49:11   I'm just using things in that place and

00:49:16   I've always felt like things is a very

00:49:18   nicely designed app which which is why

00:49:19   can it can easily take over that slot in

00:49:22   my mind from clear whereas like the

00:49:24   thing that I liked and clear is like

00:49:25   it's simple and it's nicely designed and

00:49:28   things fills that same role like it's

00:49:30   simple and it's nicely designed and it's

00:49:32   very easy to say on things okay here are

00:49:36   four things that if I I do today I'll

00:49:40   feel like it was a great day and I'm

00:49:42   just going to have a day where I'm

00:49:43   focused more narrowly on on what's

00:49:47   occurring so those are the ways in my

00:49:51   mind that I use these different task

00:49:53   managers from like lightest weight

00:49:54   things to heaviest weight how many focus

00:49:58   and that's that's that's currently what

00:50:01   I'm using with those so you're actually

00:50:03   using full task managers I don't really

00:50:06   count to do is to focus realm I do but I

00:50:09   mean I'm gonna count it for you yeah the

00:50:12   reason the reason that I don't is in my

00:50:13   mind like to do is could easily be

00:50:15   replaced by a Google Doc like a shared

00:50:18   Google dot whip doc with some bullet

00:50:20   points on yeah but like things could

00:50:21   just be remind us well like a piece of

00:50:24   paper yeah I see what you're saying

00:50:27   I guess I guess it's just like any if

00:50:30   anything could be anything if we tried

00:50:32   like I know that this this could be

00:50:34   distributed as an audio cassettes

00:50:35   exactly but so there are four cost

00:50:37   managers that are in use like yeah I

00:50:40   just don't think of to do is like a task

00:50:43   manager uh-huh because I feel like I'm

00:50:44   using almost none of the features of a

00:50:48   task manager okay I can sympathize if

00:50:50   you a little bit because like people

00:50:52   always mention how I have like three to

00:50:54   that like to do managers on my home

00:50:56   screen also writing like that right now

00:50:57   I think it's only two because I have to

00:51:00   do it in

00:51:01   do because view is amazing for just

00:51:04   those things like take out the trash and

00:51:06   remind a few men oh yeah I love doing I

00:51:09   didn't even mention that one because

00:51:12   it's not really the same like taking out

00:51:14   the trash isn't like publishing a

00:51:17   podcast I mean I guess the sometimes

00:51:18   awesome similarities between those two

00:51:20   things but like they're completely

00:51:21   different actions yeah I mean if you if

00:51:24   you really if you really want to be

00:51:25   pernickety about it you could get this

00:51:27   number for me up to six yeah because I

00:51:29   do also use reminders the built-in

00:51:32   reminders and notes Olli has a checklist

00:51:34   function no okay no but I don't ask the

00:51:37   cow you can do remind this infant has to

00:51:39   count note that note that okay you're

00:51:42   pushing it too far Mike this is just

00:51:43   ridiculous but I do use one of the very

00:51:47   few things that series useful for is

00:51:49   sometimes being able to just tell her

00:51:52   like remind me about a thing at this

00:51:53   time right or when I leave my house

00:51:56   remind me to whatever I don't do that

00:51:58   very often but I do do that sometimes

00:52:00   and so yeah I guess six is the maximum

00:52:03   and theory that it could be so we are

00:52:05   still in the productivity category which

00:52:07   I had expected would probably be the

00:52:10   category that we spend the most time

00:52:11   looking about I guess for me as well in

00:52:15   there would be something like

00:52:16   fantastical like my calendar is very

00:52:18   important mmm and I would I would assume

00:52:23   that that was your pick too fantastical

00:52:25   yeah so I I use two calendars I can fill

00:52:30   it an Apple calendar and I use

00:52:32   fantastical why are you laughing Mike

00:52:40   one is none right okay no that's that's

00:52:44   a that doesn't apply to calendaring apps

00:52:46   no you just you just being silly now

00:52:48   Mike oh okay of course it doesn't

00:52:49   you just have to for fun why else would

00:52:52   you have to I like to have the I have

00:52:56   the to simply so that I can I can leave

00:52:58   them in different states

00:53:01   so like fantastical I use as the like

00:53:05   what are the most important things I

00:53:07   need to see today so fantastical has a

00:53:10   very very limited subsection of the

00:53:12   calendars that ever

00:53:14   has open so when I open it up like

00:53:17   things I want to see on fantastical are

00:53:19   my podcasting calendar I was like do I

00:53:22   need to be recording something today the

00:53:24   social calendar that's shared with my

00:53:26   wife like am I supposed to be at some

00:53:28   dinner party I didn't remember until the

00:53:30   last possible second right it's like

00:53:31   okay yeah that'll be there and I have my

00:53:36   own calendar that I call changes which

00:53:39   is essentially anything that I need to

00:53:41   know about on the day that's different

00:53:43   from normal so like meetings or like any

00:53:46   place that I need to be that that's

00:53:48   gonna be there so what I like to have is

00:53:51   fantastical is just those and the place

00:53:56   I actually use it the most is there

00:53:58   little widget on the phone so that I can

00:54:00   swipe over into the widget area and just

00:54:03   really quickly this is actually one of

00:54:05   my little like morning routine things is

00:54:08   check the calendar just to see if

00:54:10   there's anything you've totally

00:54:11   forgotten about today and that like that

00:54:13   is all I want to see whereas the regular

00:54:18   built-in Apple calendar there I have a

00:54:19   whole bunch of other things that like

00:54:22   none of them are urgent but if I'm

00:54:24   planning my year like I want to see a

00:54:25   bunch of different things but so

00:54:28   fantastical I use is just a fast way to

00:54:30   access the most important subset of the

00:54:32   calendars that I want to take a look at

00:54:33   how many calendars do you have Mike just

00:54:35   fantastical just the one yeah oh I mean

00:54:37   the Apple Canada is installed on my

00:54:39   device right yeah we really talked about

00:54:41   the things you use though but yeah I

00:54:42   don't use it for anything I just use

00:54:44   fantastical one thing that fantastical

00:54:47   on the Mac has which I wish they would

00:54:49   bring to the iPhone version is the idea

00:54:51   of calendar sets yeah it's really nice

00:54:55   yeah I wish I wish that they would do

00:54:58   that as well like so like you can switch

00:55:00   modes between like I want to have two

00:55:02   sets and they have three different

00:55:04   calendars in each so like you could

00:55:06   build that system in there if you wanted

00:55:08   to way like you have the one that you

00:55:10   have all the time but then when you want

00:55:11   to see everything you just change set

00:55:12   and you get everything which I like to

00:55:14   use this on the Mac because there are

00:55:16   some calendars that I only need access

00:55:18   to to input stuff and ever need to see

00:55:20   them because they're truhearing things

00:55:22   and all like are we broadcast shows live

00:55:25   a lot of relay FM and we have a

00:55:27   facing live calendar so if I change the

00:55:30   tenth time of a recording I'm doing I

00:55:33   also have to change it on the live

00:55:34   calendar as well so I would like I

00:55:36   wished that there was an easier way to

00:55:38   bring that in rather than having to like

00:55:39   go into settings and manually enable the

00:55:42   calendar and blah blah blah ya know that

00:55:45   is a really nice feature and and

00:55:47   especially if you're in a situation

00:55:49   where you're working with other people

00:55:51   and you need to have shared calendars

00:55:53   that you might not need to be thinking

00:55:54   about in all all different situations

00:55:56   the ability on the Mac to switch between

00:55:58   these different calendar sets is is

00:56:00   really great it's it's a it's a great

00:56:03   addition that I wish that they would

00:56:05   bring to iOS yeah for sure today's show

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00:57:59   blue apron a better way to cook I want

00:58:03   to call out a little bit of a little bit

00:58:05   of a subcategory here in productivity

00:58:06   mm-hmm that I think we can maybe end on

00:58:09   and then maybe do like a lightning round

00:58:11   afterward but yep I think there's

00:58:12   there's like communications as a concept

00:58:15   is something that I didn't have in the

00:58:17   2014 one well a long time ago when to

00:58:21   anyone it is it is no joke but it was a

00:58:26   thing that I was so aware of which is

00:58:28   what I'm gonna say is personally for me

00:58:34   you know it's communications is a very

00:58:38   hard aspect of my working life it's not

00:58:41   a thing that I am good at and it is not

00:58:44   a thing that I manage well and it was

00:58:47   something looking over the the 2014 the

00:58:50   state of the apps I didn't have a little

00:58:51   bit of wistfulness of like oh that past

00:58:54   gray he just got to be on his own all

00:58:58   day long like he didn't have to work

00:58:59   with anybody you know and now there's

00:59:01   like this orbit of people that I do work

00:59:03   with and it's like I'm just not very

00:59:05   good at communications but so now I feel

00:59:09   like I'm always I'm always sort of

00:59:12   juggling communication systems are like

00:59:15   trying to figure out how to make them

00:59:16   work and and the biggest change in

00:59:19   communications particularly over the

00:59:21   last year is the presence of slack in my

00:59:26   life now

00:59:27   like slack has just taken over so much

00:59:33   and when I when I first when I first

00:59:38   started using slack I like this is the

00:59:40   greatest thing ever like this is a

00:59:41   million times better than email but what

00:59:44   was really the case is it's just there

00:59:47   were so much fewer things coming through

00:59:50   slack

00:59:51   then at email and as as slack has spread

00:59:56   over time and I've slowly

00:59:56   over time and I've slowly

02:00:00   inside of it which I am the fastest in

02:00:02   the world at completing and okay I

02:00:04   literally am there's a game center yeah

02:00:07   yeah and I understand all right versus

02:00:09   just we just transitioned this app

02:00:11   recommendation into a brag yeah I got it

02:00:13   though

02:00:13   yep and I love the game because it

02:00:15   shouldn't be in the calculator and it is

02:00:17   and I love it it there are like two

02:00:20   separate levels to this game and James

02:00:22   Thompson is a wonderful genius and I

02:00:26   yeah it's wild it shouldn't exist but it

02:00:29   does and I love it it's a great

02:00:31   calculator app it's my calculator app of

02:00:33   choice as well

02:00:34   mm-hmm and of course we also know James

02:00:36   Thomson just for the record mm-hmm yeah

02:00:40   so what's really important to say that

02:00:42   we know James I don't know is it

02:00:45   important to say that I don't know like

02:00:47   do we legally have to say that I never

02:00:49   don't think we do but I feel like I

02:00:52   don't think I legally have to say it but

02:00:54   I feel like I should say it because

02:00:57   people might be like oh I see him

02:00:59   interacting with him on Twitter all the

02:01:01   time and yeah like and and and also I

02:01:04   think if we don't say it

02:01:06   it could belittle the quality to people

02:01:08   right so like if they work out that

02:01:10   we're friends with these people they'll

02:01:11   be like are there only recommending that

02:01:12   because they're friends but like I'm

02:01:14   really not it's an excellent calculator

02:01:16   it's the best calculator but I just I

02:01:20   don't know I don't know how this stuff

02:01:21   works

02:01:21   I also don't know like is this are we

02:01:24   good now that we've said at this once

02:01:26   and next year if we mentioned peacock

02:01:29   again do we have to mentioned again or

02:01:31   are we all set

02:01:32   well yeah but I don't assume that

02:01:33   everybody's heard everything you know I

02:01:35   mean I think we should have we should

02:01:37   assume that that cortex listeners I

02:01:38   listen to every episode Esther but but I

02:01:40   just like I don't know I don't know how

02:01:42   this is and I also feel like this might

02:01:44   be one of these things that is a meme

02:01:45   that just spreads mm-hm the idea of like

02:01:48   okay you legally have to disclose must

02:01:51   sell a set of things but then everybody

02:01:53   gets worried that you have to fix you

02:01:56   have to confess the set of like n plus-1

02:02:00   things which then just push pushes the

02:02:02   boundary out further so it's like I

02:02:04   don't know I don't know how this works

02:02:05   but just for some reason I kept feeling

02:02:07   like any time we know what developers

02:02:08   like we got to make it really clear they

02:02:10   also have a podcast on real

02:02:12   I really like CGP grey but he also want

02:02:14   me lunch one time so like wellness today

02:02:16   yeah yeah I don't know I don't know at

02:02:19   all how this works to finish up my

02:02:21   recommendations I have a simple

02:02:23   recommendation an app that does one

02:02:25   thing very well that app is called

02:02:28   Thunder scape and it plays Thunder

02:02:31   sounds in the background if you're

02:02:34   looking for Thunder sounds while you're

02:02:36   working thunder escape is where you want

02:02:38   to go

02:02:43   yep all right so I don't have to do this

02:02:46   again for another five years is that how

02:02:50   this works

02:02:50   no remember it's ten months no right

02:02:53   okay just ten months now this is get now

02:02:55   this is getting confusing mm-hmm there

02:02:58   you go people you can stop asking