Cortex

00:00:00 ◼   ► [phone ringing]

00:00:02 ◼   ► Hello, Myke.

00:00:03 ◼   ► Oh, God.

00:00:04 ◼   ► How you doing?

00:00:04 ◼   ► I'm good.

00:00:05 ◼   ► You look very nervous.

00:00:06 ◼   ► You're just in this black room now.

00:00:10 ◼   ► Is every inch of this office now covered in those panels?

00:00:14 ◼   ► Please don't touch them.

00:00:15 ◼   ► You don't like me touching the panels, Myke?

00:00:16 ◼   ► We've been through this before.

00:00:17 ◼   ► Please don't touch the panels.

00:00:18 ◼   ► Because what's happening is we're on video right now,

00:00:21 ◼   ► and you're going to touch one of those panels.

00:00:22 ◼   ► It's going to fall down and hit you on the head.

00:00:24 ◼   ► Now look--

00:00:24 ◼   ► It's going to knock you unconscious,

00:00:25 ◼   ► and I can't do anything.

00:00:26 ◼   ► Don't do that.

00:00:27 ◼   ► You can see it's really solid, right?

00:00:29 ◼   ► Oh my god. Yeah, it looks great.

00:00:32 ◼   ► Anyway, no, Myke. I wouldn't be crazy. I wouldn't cover my entire room with nothing but soundproof panels.

00:00:40 ◼   ► I've just built a little monolith at the back of my room that I'm now cozy and ensconced inside.

00:00:47 ◼   ► Oh god.

00:00:47 ◼   ► It gets very warm in here.

00:00:49 ◼   ► Yeah, I bet it does. At least you sound great.

00:00:52 ◼   ► That's what matters, Myke. It's all for the show.

00:00:57 ◼   ► I dropped my black keyboard. I brought from the iMac Pro that graphite wireless keyboard.

00:01:02 ◼   ► I brought that home to use in the recording studio.

00:01:04 ◼   ► Or the recording monolith, I guess.

00:01:07 ◼   ► - The recording box. We need a name for it, but I don't know what it is yet.

00:01:12 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's a black monolith. Which is great because it's wireless.

00:01:16 ◼   ► It's really convenient. Except for this moment where I've dropped it,

00:01:21 ◼   ► and because this room is entirely black, I cannot find the keyboard.

00:01:26 ◼   ► I don't know where it is.

00:01:27 ◼   ► - Really?

00:01:28 ◼   ► - Like I know it has to be within no more than two feet

00:01:33 ◼   ► of where I am right now.

00:01:34 ◼   ► But I can't find it.

00:01:36 ◼   ► I can't pull up the show notes.

00:01:38 ◼   ► Oh, here it is.

00:01:38 ◼   ► Okay.

00:01:39 ◼   ► Oops, there it is.

00:01:41 ◼   ► All right, I didn't drop it.

00:01:42 ◼   ► I slid it underneath the iMac that's in front of me

00:01:45 ◼   ► and then it became immediately invisible.

00:01:47 ◼   ► - It's like, what is that Fanta black?

00:01:49 ◼   ► That like, that black paint that--

00:01:53 ◼   ► - The black is the black.

00:01:54 ◼   ► Yeah, is it Vantablack? Is that what it's called?

00:01:57 ◼   ► That sounds right. That might be right. I don't know.

00:01:59 ◼   ► You need to get some of that going on in there.

00:02:01 ◼   ► I think I don't. I think actually what I need is more lights.

00:02:04 ◼   ► More lights and more air conditioning.

00:02:06 ◼   ► That stuff, I'm looking at pictures of it now.

00:02:08 ◼   ► That Vantablack is like, it just looks like a hole is cut out of the image.

00:02:11 ◼   ► Yeah. Yeah, it's unreal to see some of those photos.

00:02:13 ◼   ► It's so weird. It's like, it's strange because it comes across even in photos.

00:02:18 ◼   ► Just like, these pixels, these pixels are registering nothing.

00:02:21 ◼   ► Yeah, it's really strange.

00:02:22 ◼   ► Well, yeah, so I'll get some air conditioning in here.

00:02:25 ◼   ► Mm-hmm.

00:02:26 ◼   ► And then, of course, air conditioning makes a little bit of noise, so I'll need some more

00:02:30 ◼   ► sound isolation.

00:02:32 ◼   ► And then you need more air conditioning.

00:02:34 ◼   ► More air conditioning.

00:02:37 ◼   ► You need to build that set up inside of an igloo, and then you'll be okay.

00:02:43 ◼   ► No, I'll just keep adding layers of air conditioning and layers of soundproofing and layers of

00:02:47 ◼   ► air conditioning.

00:02:48 ◼   ► And it'll be like that comic book blame where the world is just like a universe that's entirely this artificial construction stretching out throughout the entire solar system.

00:02:59 ◼   ► Like it's just gonna be air conditioning and soundproofing all the way to Pluto.

00:03:03 ◼   ► Hi Myke.

00:03:05 ◼   ► Hello.

00:03:06 ◼   ► We've finally found a recording date that we can both get together to record the show.

00:03:14 ◼   ► Both.

00:03:15 ◼   ► Both is not, there wasn't a problem with both.

00:03:17 ◼   ► both. No, we're both in London so we can record the show. That is the necessary condition.

00:03:24 ◼   ► But one of us didn't go anywhere. Now that I have invested all of this time and effort

00:03:29 ◼   ► into the recording monolith which is around me, I do not want to record anywhere else.

00:03:35 ◼   ► Well we cannot have it. And we both need to be in London in order to record a podcast.

00:03:40 ◼   ► Except for that one episode a year where we're going to be in San Jose. Except for that one.

00:03:46 ◼   ► I don't know who knows if that's going to happen. Who knows right? Who knows? I don't know. I know.

00:03:51 ◼   ► [laughter]

00:03:55 ◼   ► What does it mean?

00:03:57 ◼   ► So you've been out and about what are your observations of traveling around? Tell me the thoughts of a rambling man.

00:04:06 ◼   ► I mean, I've been on, I think since the last time we spoke, four trips. Three out

00:04:16 ◼   ► of the country, one within the country. Too much travel.

00:04:19 ◼   ► Year of order. Order to the travel.

00:04:25 ◼   ► Year of order, those first two trips, total disaster. I was like, I have two trips back

00:04:31 ◼   ► to back, I'm going to go, year of order. Total fail right from the start. Didn't work at

00:04:38 ◼   ► all. I was like, I'm going to get up in the morning, I'm going to write, and I'm going

00:04:43 ◼   ► to exercise, and then I'm going to go do all the things, which is the reason why I'm on

00:04:48 ◼   ► this trip. Nope, of course, because when you go on business trips, one of the reasons you're

00:04:52 ◼   ► going is because there's lots of stuff that you should be doing when you're there, and

00:04:56 ◼   ► it just ends up sucking up all of your time. And I was thinking like, oh sure, I'll get

00:05:00 ◼   ► back to the hotel later and exercise, but later means one in the morning. And I was

00:05:04 ◼   ► like, "Guess what? It's not going to happen then." So yeah, little preview for Year of

00:05:09 ◼   ► Order with traveling so far, total fail. I did do slightly better on the second two trips.

00:05:14 ◼   ► I feel like I'm trying to learn how to make things reasonable. But one of the main things

00:05:22 ◼   ► with Year of Order that's driving me crazy with traveling right now, I think that I'm

00:05:27 ◼   ► obsessed with Myke is my travel charging situation. All of the various things that I bring with

00:05:38 ◼   ► me that need charging. I am a man obsessed with trying to reduce the number of different

00:05:47 ◼   ► kinds of wires or the number of things that I have to charge. And once you start thinking

00:05:56 ◼   ► about it. Like it won't let your mind go. And it's it's driving me crazy. Okay, so here,

00:06:02 ◼   ► let me tell you one thing, one thing alone, that's really bothering me. So I think the

00:06:08 ◼   ► Pareto solution for charging is like you need three wires that will be able to charge 90%

00:06:16 ◼   ► of your devices. I feel like that's a that's a general rule, you're going to need three

00:06:20 ◼   ► different things like two wires will probably get you 70% of the way. And three wires will

00:06:25 ◼   ► get you 90% of the way. And for me, those are lightning, USB-C, and I always forget

00:06:34 ◼   ► which way it goes. Is it the mini USB or is it the micro USB that's the really small one?

00:06:38 ◼   ► I want to say is the micro USB that's the really small one?

00:06:40 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:06:41 ◼   ► Yeah, nobody knows, right?

00:06:42 ◼   ► I think it's micro. I think mini is like a really weird connector.

00:06:46 ◼   ► There's too many USBs.

00:06:47 ◼   ► Yeah, it's micro. Micro is the one that you're thinking of.

00:06:50 ◼   ► Is the really little one.

00:06:51 ◼   ► That's the one that everybody uses. Like if you're not using lightning or USB-C, it's

00:06:56 ◼   ► micro.

00:06:57 ◼   ► Right, okay. So that's micro. Got it. So those three, I feel like, are my 90% solution wires.

00:07:04 ◼   ► What are you charging with micro USB though?

00:07:07 ◼   ► Oh, Myke. This is what makes me sad. What I'm charging with micro USB is all the things

00:07:14 ◼   ► I should be charging with USB-C.

00:07:17 ◼   ► - Yeah. - Why is USB-C

00:07:18 ◼   ► taking such a goddamn long time to get here?

00:07:23 ◼   ► I am charging, okay, let me think off the top of my head.

00:07:26 ◼   ► Stuff in my bag that I'm charging with micro USB.

00:07:29 ◼   ► Okay, number one, vitally important,

00:07:31 ◼   ► noise canceling headphones.

00:07:34 ◼   ► - They should be USB-C, what's going on?

00:07:36 ◼   ► Like, I know this isn't your thing, right?

00:07:37 ◼   ► But like, come on.

00:07:39 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:07:40 ◼   ► So noise canceling headphones, micro USB, super frustrating.

00:07:45 ◼   ► My mouse for traveling, I use the MX Anywhere mouse.

00:07:50 ◼   ► So that's like the little brother version

00:07:54 ◼   ► of the MX Master mouse.

00:07:56 ◼   ► And I bring that one with me for traveling

00:07:59 ◼   ► because it's ambidextrous.

00:08:01 ◼   ► So while at home, I have equipment like the pen tablets

00:08:04 ◼   ► and stuff that would allow me to easily switch hands.

00:08:06 ◼   ► When I'm traveling, I want a mouse

00:08:07 ◼   ► that I can use in both hands and the MX,

00:08:10 ◼   ► Yeah, I think it's called MX Anywhere.

00:08:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, MX Anywhere, I'm looking at it right now.

00:08:13 ◼   ► It's a good looking mouse.

00:08:14 ◼   ► I assume it's small, right?

00:08:16 ◼   ► - Yeah, okay, so it, yeah.

00:08:17 ◼   ► - Oh yeah, here's a picture of it in somebody's hand.

00:08:19 ◼   ► There you go, now I know.

00:08:20 ◼   ► - Yeah, small and you can swap left or right hand.

00:08:24 ◼   ► - Great.

00:08:25 ◼   ► - You can use it both ways.

00:08:26 ◼   ► So it's nice.

00:08:28 ◼   ► It's not a mouse I would wanna use at my desk

00:08:32 ◼   ► because it's just a little too small

00:08:33 ◼   ► for like an all the time mouse,

00:08:35 ◼   ► but it's perfect for traveling.

00:08:37 ◼   ► But that uses mini USB. Super frustrating.

00:08:40 ◼   ► Oh man. Logitech make an ergonomic mouse.

00:08:44 ◼   ► I did not know about this. It's called the MX Ergo.

00:08:48 ◼   ► Isn't the MX Master Mouse an ergonomic mouse?

00:08:50 ◼   ► No, it's not, Gray. It's got a track ball and it tilts.

00:08:53 ◼   ► You can tilt it to any level you want. Look at that little thing. Interesting.

00:08:57 ◼   ► Please send me that link after the show.

00:08:59 ◼   ► I will.

00:09:01 ◼   ► Next week on Cortex, you'll hear how Myke's arm fell off.

00:09:06 ◼   ► because he used another Logitech mouse.

00:09:10 ◼   ► -You're the only one who has problems

00:09:11 ◼   ► with those Logitech's mice. I love them.

00:09:13 ◼   ► -That's a cortex deep cut.

00:09:15 ◼   ► That still comes up for me every now and then,

00:09:17 ◼   ► where, like, people reference the fact --

00:09:19 ◼   ► I was so excited about that mouse,

00:09:20 ◼   ► and then, like, three weeks later, like,

00:09:22 ◼   ► "Oh, I can't move my wrist anymore."

00:09:25 ◼   ► -Yeah, that's real early show stuff.

00:09:30 ◼   ► -Mm-hmm.

00:09:31 ◼   ► -Okay, so last thing that I bring with me

00:09:35 ◼   ► that requires mini USB is the Amazon Kindle.

00:09:40 ◼   ► And that one is particularly frustrating

00:09:43 ◼   ► because the Kindles, while I really like them,

00:09:46 ◼   ► Amazon super cheaps out with whatever port

00:09:49 ◼   ► they're putting in for the mini USB, it's the worst.

00:09:52 ◼   ► It's the cheapest, flimsiest,

00:09:54 ◼   ► hardly connects version of mini USB.

00:09:57 ◼   ► - Mini USB is crap though, like it is crap.

00:10:00 ◼   ► It's a terrible, terrible connector.

00:10:02 ◼   ► Like USB-C is so vastly superior to it.

00:10:05 ◼   ► It's unbelievable.

00:10:07 ◼   ► - Yeah, oh yeah.

00:10:07 ◼   ► That little tiny USB port is the worst.

00:10:13 ◼   ► I always feel like if I'm putting in,

00:10:15 ◼   ► like I'm crunching it,

00:10:16 ◼   ► like it feels like I'm physically breaking it.

00:10:18 ◼   ► - Every time, every time.

00:10:19 ◼   ► And I know why it is, and it is a good,

00:10:22 ◼   ► I guess kind of a good feature.

00:10:23 ◼   ► It has those little hooks, right, that like latch in.

00:10:26 ◼   ► Because you have to do that.

00:10:28 ◼   ► Like this isn't a normal thing for connectors

00:10:30 ◼   ► where like you can feel something changing

00:10:32 ◼   ► when you plug it in.

00:10:33 ◼   ► - It's like it's very strange.

00:10:35 ◼   ► - And also because there's some expectation of resistance,

00:10:39 ◼   ► it is the only cable where I have pushed unreasonably

00:10:44 ◼   ► when I have it going the wrong direction.

00:10:46 ◼   ► - No.

00:10:47 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:10:49 ◼   ► - So it is the only port which I have occasionally

00:10:55 ◼   ► actually broken on devices because I'm like,

00:10:57 ◼   ► oh right, this little micro USB,

00:11:00 ◼   ► it feels so terrible when you put it in,

00:11:02 ◼   ► I'm putting it in and it feels terrible, sure it does.

00:11:04 ◼   ► And then crunch, like, oh no,

00:11:06 ◼   ► like I actually broke it this time.

00:11:08 ◼   ► It's terrible. - I feel like I need to

00:11:09 ◼   ► be the voice of the agonized listener right now

00:11:12 ◼   ► to just point out the fact that you also need another cable,

00:11:15 ◼   ► which is the Apple Watch charger,

00:11:17 ◼   ► 'cause you haven't mentioned that one yet.

00:11:19 ◼   ► (he sighs)

00:11:20 ◼   ► - Yeah, so this is-- - Right?

00:11:21 ◼   ► - But this is what I mean by this charging law,

00:11:24 ◼   ► that if you have three cables,

00:11:26 ◼   ► you'll be able to charge 90% of your stuff.

00:11:29 ◼   ► But then there's all the crap

00:11:31 ◼   ► that has one specialized charger, right?

00:11:34 ◼   ► And it's like, "Lookin' at you, Apple Watch."

00:11:38 ◼   ► Oh, like that was my least favorite thing

00:11:40 ◼   ► about the Apple Watch right from the start.

00:11:41 ◼   ► It's like, "Oh, I need a cable just for you."

00:11:45 ◼   ► And the electric toothbrush that I use

00:11:47 ◼   ► has a different funny USB connector at the end

00:11:50 ◼   ► that nothing else I own uses.

00:11:51 ◼   ► So it's like, "Oh, okay,

00:11:53 ◼   ► if I wanna charge my electric toothbrush,

00:11:54 ◼   ► I need a cable just for you."

00:11:57 ◼   ► - Do you not have the one where you can plug it

00:11:59 ◼   ► into the case with mini USB?

00:12:01 ◼   ► - Yeah, it charges through the case.

00:12:02 ◼   ► - Oh, but it's a different connector for you?

00:12:04 ◼   ► - It's a different USB, yeah.

00:12:06 ◼   ► - Oh, great.

00:12:06 ◼   ► - It's not the same micro USB

00:12:08 ◼   ► that my headphones and my Kindle use.

00:12:10 ◼   ► No, it's a different USB.

00:12:12 ◼   ► - That's probably mini then.

00:12:13 ◼   ► - I think that is the mini one.

00:12:15 ◼   ► It's the chunkier one that used to be on cameras

00:12:17 ◼   ► a long time ago.

00:12:19 ◼   ► And I'm forgetting what it is,

00:12:21 ◼   ► but I have something, there's something else in my bag

00:12:22 ◼   ► that also requires like a custom charger,

00:12:25 ◼   ► which is super annoying.

00:12:26 ◼   ► I can't think of what it is.

00:12:27 ◼   ► - Is it you?

00:12:28 ◼   ► Shhhhhh! Shhhhhh! Shhhhhh! Don't, don't, don't. Don't say that, Myke. Don't let the people

00:12:37 ◼   ► know. Because I feel like I'm gonna break your heart here, but for my traveling purposes,

00:12:43 ◼   ► I only need three cables. Okay, yeah. What are your three? It's the Apple Watch, Lightning,

00:12:49 ◼   ► and USB-C. Yeah, but that seems right. I have a micro, like, in my backpack in case of emergencies,

00:12:56 ◼   ► I don't have any technology that I take with me that requires a cable that isn't one of

00:13:01 ◼   ► those. That works really great. And I do agree that like, that's good, because really, that's

00:13:06 ◼   ► just that's three cables I need. I mean, of course, I have a couple of lightning cables

00:13:09 ◼   ► or whatever, right? But I don't need all of those. I can get away with just one.

00:13:14 ◼   ► Yeah, but even I feel like anybody, they name three cables, and they're pretty much fine.

00:13:20 ◼   ► Like, I could get away with not bringing the extra cables.

00:13:24 ◼   ► It's like necessary.

00:13:26 ◼   ► And if I had to not bring cables, it's like, okay,

00:13:29 ◼   ► well the toothbrush cable's gonna be the first one to go.

00:13:32 ◼   ► But I think almost any traveler,

00:13:33 ◼   ► there's going to be three things

00:13:35 ◼   ► that they absolutely have to have.

00:13:37 ◼   ► But so I've been obsessed with this idea

00:13:39 ◼   ► of trying to consolidate chargers down.

00:13:42 ◼   ► And I had what I thought was a brilliant idea.

00:13:46 ◼   ► So I'm thinking, okay, all right,

00:13:48 ◼   ► I've got all these different wires.

00:13:50 ◼   ► We also have the problem of what's on the other end

00:13:53 ◼   ► of the wire, right?

00:13:54 ◼   ► So what is the wire plugging into to actually charge?

00:13:59 ◼   ► And now we start getting into the fun question of like,

00:14:02 ◼   ► is it USB-A on the other end?

00:14:05 ◼   ► Is it USB-C on the other end?

00:14:07 ◼   ► Is it some other like funky little travel charger thing?

00:14:10 ◼   ► Like what's on the other end of this thing?

00:14:13 ◼   ► And I thought, I thought Myke, I was gonna be so clever

00:14:17 ◼   ► because I thought, I know what I'm going to do.

00:14:20 ◼   ► I can't, I can't get all of the,

00:14:22 ◼   ► I can't condense down the number of cables that I need.

00:14:26 ◼   ► But what I can do is at least make the other end

00:14:29 ◼   ► of all of these cables USB-C

00:14:32 ◼   ► so that I can try to simplify my charging situation

00:14:36 ◼   ► on the other end.

00:14:37 ◼   ► That I'll just have like a brick

00:14:40 ◼   ► and it'll have a bunch of USB-C ports in it.

00:14:42 ◼   ► And I'll buy wires from Monoprice or Anker or whatever

00:14:47 ◼   ► that have a USB-C cable on the one end,

00:14:50 ◼   ► even though that's not entirely up to spec

00:14:52 ◼   ► with some of the things it plugs into,

00:14:53 ◼   ► but whatever, I don't care.

00:14:55 ◼   ► Like, I'll just get that,

00:14:56 ◼   ► and at least I'll simplify on one end.

00:14:59 ◼   ► But, Myke, why?

00:15:02 ◼   ► Why are there no USB-C chargers that I can buy

00:15:05 ◼   ► that have more than one USB-C port?

00:15:08 ◼   ► I don't understand the situation in the world.

00:15:10 ◼   ► I scoured the internet, like, hey,

00:15:13 ◼   ► I will spend any amount of money

00:15:16 ◼   ► for a charging brick that has four USB-C ports in it.

00:15:21 ◼   ► Any amount of money.

00:15:22 ◼   ► - Yeah, it doesn't exist.

00:15:23 ◼   ► - It doesn't exist.

00:15:24 ◼   ► - 'Cause you can get them.

00:15:25 ◼   ► I have one, which is like an anchor thing,

00:15:27 ◼   ► which has five USB, regular USB ports on it.

00:15:32 ◼   ► But like the most that I've ever seen

00:15:34 ◼   ► is like one of these things

00:15:36 ◼   ► and it has one or maybe two USB-C ports on it,

00:15:39 ◼   ► but never more than that.

00:15:40 ◼   ► - Yeah, so I'll get to what my current solution is

00:15:43 ◼   ► for the moment, but I was so frustrated with this.

00:15:47 ◼   ► I feel like USBC has been around now for what?

00:15:49 ◼   ► A year and a half, two years?

00:15:51 ◼   ► Two years is a thousand years in internet time.

00:15:55 ◼   ► I don't understand why I can't,

00:15:57 ◼   ► I feel like I am the guy who needs to exist,

00:16:00 ◼   ► the person who is willing to be on the edge

00:16:02 ◼   ► and willing to spend a bunch more money on earlier products

00:16:05 ◼   ► to help create the market where things eventually

00:16:08 ◼   ► come down in price later.

00:16:10 ◼   ► And so I was there on the internet with my credit card and my wallet open.

00:16:15 ◼   ► I will spend anything to simplify my charging situation in the slightest way,

00:16:21 ◼   ► which is to just get USB-C all on one end, and the internet said back,

00:16:26 ◼   ► "No, sorry, we can't help you. There's nothing we can do here."

00:16:29 ◼   ► And it's just incredibly frustrating.

00:16:31 ◼   ► So I'm frustrated with my charging situation because there's too many things that I need to charge

00:16:37 ◼   ► that have too many different kinds of wires.

00:16:39 ◼   ► I wish everything was just...

00:16:41 ◼   ► I wish I could get more things like wirelessly charged,

00:16:43 ◼   ► like anything I can do to get these numbers down,

00:16:45 ◼   ► I would be happy about.

00:16:46 ◼   ► But then even on the other end,

00:16:47 ◼   ► like the things that I need to plug it into,

00:16:49 ◼   ► it's like, oh, okay, I need to have some smattering

00:16:53 ◼   ► of USB-C or USB-A on the other end,

00:16:56 ◼   ► which is now doubly frustrating

00:16:58 ◼   ► because it's a question of like, well,

00:16:59 ◼   ► some of these things, if I want to plug them

00:17:01 ◼   ► into my computer, I need to make sure

00:17:02 ◼   ► that I have the USB-C end for those cables,

00:17:06 ◼   ► but can I plug those cables into a brick

00:17:08 ◼   ► charge them in the wall? Like, no, I cannot. Now I need to have a USB-A and a USB-C version

00:17:13 ◼   ► of a bunch of these cables, like the Lightning cable. I need the USB-A version and I need

00:17:17 ◼   ► the USB-C version. And I'm going mad, Myke. I'm going mad. I hate it. I hate travel charging.

00:17:26 ◼   ► So what are you using now, then?

00:17:30 ◼   ► Okay. My current solution. Oh, right, of course. One of the problems is it needs to work internationally

00:17:38 ◼   ► as well, my charging solution.

00:17:39 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:17:40 ◼   ► - My goal here, smallest number of wires,

00:17:44 ◼   ► maximum number of countries.

00:17:46 ◼   ► That's what I'm going for here.

00:17:47 ◼   ► What I want to create is a charging solution

00:17:52 ◼   ► that lives in my travel bag that I never touch, right?

00:17:56 ◼   ► It's just in there and I don't have to assemble it

00:17:59 ◼   ► every time that I travel.

00:18:00 ◼   ► So this is my goal.

00:18:02 ◼   ► And what I'm using right now is there is an anchor charger

00:18:07 ◼   ► that has four USB-A ports and one USB-C port.

00:18:12 ◼   ► - Yes.

00:18:15 ◼   ► - It's like IQ something charger.

00:18:17 ◼   ► It has like a little blue ring around the USB-C port.

00:18:20 ◼   ► - I hate that they have that little blue light by the way.

00:18:23 ◼   ► I have the older version of that

00:18:25 ◼   ► and it has a little blue light on it.

00:18:26 ◼   ► But these things go on the bedside table in the hotel.

00:18:30 ◼   ► So then there's like a little blue light constantly.

00:18:32 ◼   ► I hate it, I hate it.

00:18:33 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:18:33 ◼   ► Travel pro tip on my travel checklist,

00:18:36 ◼   ► a bit of black tape because hotels--

00:18:39 ◼   ► - Yeah, I keep meaning to do it, but I've not done it.

00:18:40 ◼   ► But yes, that is a good pro tip.

00:18:43 ◼   ► - Yeah, I've had that in the back of my mind

00:18:46 ◼   ► as a thing to do for a long time,

00:18:47 ◼   ► and this year I finally did it.

00:18:48 ◼   ► And it's one of those things where as soon as you have

00:18:50 ◼   ► the tape available and you're standing in a hotel room,

00:18:52 ◼   ► you're like, "Oh, there's so many things

00:18:53 ◼   ► "I could put this tape across, right?"

00:18:55 ◼   ► Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.

00:18:56 ◼   ► Make all these lights go away.

00:18:58 ◼   ► - You just tape it up the window.

00:18:59 ◼   ► - Yeah, oh yeah, you get tape up the window.

00:19:02 ◼   ► You can put tape over the people.

00:19:03 ◼   ► You can put tape over many things in the hotel room.

00:19:05 ◼   ► - Gosh, they do one of these with 10 USB ports on it?

00:19:09 ◼   ► That is wild.

00:19:11 ◼   ► Who needs that?

00:19:12 ◼   ► - That's a lot.

00:19:13 ◼   ► That's a lot.

00:19:14 ◼   ► Well, I would take more than four USB-A ports,

00:19:17 ◼   ► but anyway, that brick so far

00:19:21 ◼   ► is the best solution I've found.

00:19:24 ◼   ► It's frustrating because I still have this,

00:19:26 ◼   ► I need to duplicate some cables

00:19:28 ◼   ► if I want to plug things into my computer,

00:19:30 ◼   ► which is USB-C, so frustrating,

00:19:32 ◼   ► but I can't get the USB-C charger, so frustrating.

00:19:35 ◼   ► But the other thing is that cable,

00:19:40 ◼   ► it has a removable power cord at the back,

00:19:43 ◼   ► which uses this Infinity 8 style charger.

00:19:46 ◼   ► And you can buy wires for different countries

00:19:49 ◼   ► that will then plug into the back of that Anker charger.

00:19:52 ◼   ► So at the moment, that's my idea

00:19:56 ◼   ► for how I'm going to handle this,

00:19:57 ◼   ► is I can have different wires for different countries

00:19:59 ◼   ► that plug into that Anker power brick,

00:20:02 ◼   ► and then I can plug all of the various crap

00:20:04 ◼   ► that I need to charge into the front of that Anker device.

00:20:08 ◼   ► And that's where I am right now,

00:20:10 ◼   ► but I'm still not happy about it.

00:20:12 ◼   ► There's still too many wires.

00:20:14 ◼   ► Things aren't nice and simple and nice and smooth

00:20:17 ◼   ► the way I want them to be.

00:20:19 ◼   ► But I would love to hear from the listeners

00:20:23 ◼   ► what they do for travel charging.

00:20:26 ◼   ► And I would really like knowing

00:20:29 ◼   ► that the really big travel season is coming,

00:20:32 ◼   ► that I've just been through the travel warm-up.

00:20:35 ◼   ► I really want to hear everybody's tips and tricks

00:20:38 ◼   ► from frequent travelers.

00:20:39 ◼   ► Like if you travel a lot,

00:20:41 ◼   ► I want to hear your tips and tricks in the subreddit

00:20:44 ◼   ► 'cause I feel like I really need to gear up.

00:20:46 ◼   ► I really need to gear up for this.

00:20:47 ◼   ► I want to know your charging solutions.

00:20:50 ◼   ► I want to know your solutions for everything.

00:20:53 ◼   ► Tips and tricks people in the subreddit.

00:20:55 ◼   ► I want them.

00:20:56 ◼   ► - I already feel bad for you.

00:20:59 ◼   ► - Why?

00:21:00 ◼   ► - 'Cause you're not gonna get what you want.

00:21:03 ◼   ► - I know.

00:21:03 ◼   ► - It's like, please listeners, fix this for me.

00:21:06 ◼   ► Have a magical solution, but like, sorry.

00:21:11 ◼   ► - I know, I know, it's like, I really am kind of hoping

00:21:14 ◼   ► that somehow there will be solutions

00:21:15 ◼   ► that will be better than my many hours

00:21:18 ◼   ► of searching everywhere over the internet

00:21:20 ◼   ► with an open wallet.

00:21:21 ◼   ► - How did you miss this?

00:21:22 ◼   ► It's available for you right here.

00:21:24 ◼   ► - I mean, I was deep into it.

00:21:28 ◼   ► Like I was so angry at one point I was researching the USB-C spec and I'm like, "Oh, this thing

00:21:33 ◼   ► is a bunch of bullshit!

00:21:34 ◼   ► That's why this isn't working out at all!"

00:21:36 ◼   ► It's like, "Oh, the USB-C spec is actually three specs.

00:21:40 ◼   ► It's the physical spec, it's the data spec, it's the power spec!"

00:21:43 ◼   ► And then going into this weird thing where it's like, "Oh, Apple doesn't follow the power

00:21:47 ◼   ► spec the same way all the other companies!"

00:21:48 ◼   ► It's like, "Oh, god damn it!"

00:21:50 ◼   ► And then you've got Thunderbolt, which goes on top of it all, right?

00:21:54 ◼   ► Makes it even more confusing.

00:21:55 ◼   ► It's crazy.

00:21:57 ◼   ► It's totally great.

00:21:58 ◼   ► But it's, again, this is where it's like,

00:22:00 ◼   ► I will use money to solve this problem.

00:22:02 ◼   ► I will buy $100 USB-C cables,

00:22:06 ◼   ► and just so I know that it always works with everything,

00:22:08 ◼   ► but it's like, I can't even do it.

00:22:09 ◼   ► I can't even do it.

00:22:11 ◼   ► Hello, Cortex listeners.

00:22:12 ◼   ► As I'm sitting here in my black monolith,

00:22:15 ◼   ► recording this ad for you,

00:22:17 ◼   ► I'm thinking, what could spruce this spot up?

00:22:22 ◼   ► There's not a lot of space in here.

00:22:23 ◼   ► I couldn't have any big objects.

00:22:25 ◼   ► I would need something thin, possibly something very light, to go on the walls.

00:22:31 ◼   ► And I think that would have to be a fracture.

00:22:35 ◼   ► Fracture is the company that takes beautiful photos and turns them into glass.

00:22:41 ◼   ► And every time you hear that, you're thinking, "Oh, it must be really heavy."

00:22:44 ◼   ► But it isn't.

00:22:45 ◼   ► The fractures I've had in my hands, they're so light.

00:22:48 ◼   ► They're surprisingly light.

00:22:50 ◼   ► So I could actually mount some against this freestanding, ready-to-fall-over-at-any-moment

00:22:56 ◼   ► soundproofing that's all around me right now.

00:22:59 ◼   ► A little LED spotlight at the top.

00:23:02 ◼   ► I think this could be great.

00:23:04 ◼   ► Perhaps a beautiful nature scene to calm me down through rants about why USB-C cables

00:23:10 ◼   ► are so frustrating.

00:23:12 ◼   ► Anyway, if I can find a place in my house where I think a fracture should go, there's

00:23:17 ◼   ► definitely places in your house where a fracture should go.

00:23:21 ◼   ► Think of all of the photos that you've taken just trapped away in your photo library, rarely

00:23:27 ◼   ► to be seen.

00:23:28 ◼   ► You should go to fractureme.com and have some of them turned into physical, beautiful pieces

00:23:35 ◼   ► of art in your house.

00:23:37 ◼   ► The fractures you'll receive are handmade in Gainesville, Florida from US source materials.

00:23:43 ◼   ► They're sleek, they're frameless, they go with any decor.

00:23:46 ◼   ► The ordering is super simple.

00:23:48 ◼   ► The fractures come ready to mount right out of the box.

00:23:51 ◼   ► They include the wall hanger and the screw that you'll need.

00:23:54 ◼   ► It's really very simple.

00:23:56 ◼   ► So head to fractureme.com to get started.

00:23:59 ◼   ► Use the offer code "CORTEX" and you'll get 15% off your first order.

00:24:05 ◼   ► That's fractureme.com, offer code "CORTEX" to get 15% off.

00:24:10 ◼   ► And in their one question survey about where you came from, don't forget to pick Cortex.

00:24:15 ◼   ► doubly lets them know that this show is where you came from.

00:24:19 ◼   ► Thank you to Fracture for their support of Cortex

00:24:22 ◼   ► and all of Relay FM.

00:24:23 ◼   ► I got Arumba and I love it.

00:24:28 ◼   ► And I love it because I've mentioned before,

00:24:33 ◼   ► one of these, like the dumbest,

00:24:36 ◼   ► the dumbest productivity tricks that I use on myself,

00:24:39 ◼   ► which still works years and years later,

00:24:43 ◼   ► is if I'm feeling lazy, I just start up one of the robots in my house doing work.

00:24:48 ◼   ► So I was like, "Oh, okay. I'm going to put a bunch of clothing in the Laundry Matron,

00:24:54 ◼   ► and I'm going to run it."

00:24:55 ◼   ► And once the laundry machine is running,

00:24:59 ◼   ► it feels like, "Oh, I should probably do something too."

00:25:03 ◼   ► And then it's like, "Oh, I'll load up the dishwasher," and then like,

00:25:05 ◼   ► "Oh, the laundry machine and the dishwasher are running.

00:25:08 ◼   ► Well, now I should really do something."

00:25:09 ◼   ► It just -- It feels like there's some kind of force multiplier

00:25:15 ◼   ► going on when there are machines that are doing work for me.

00:25:17 ◼   ► -They're your co-workers. -They're not co-workers, Myke.

00:25:20 ◼   ► -Sure they are. -It's like a -- No.

00:25:22 ◼   ► No, not at all. -Mm-hmm.

00:25:24 ◼   ► -But it's this feeling of force multiplication.

00:25:27 ◼   ► And I have the Roomba, and I totally love it,

00:25:30 ◼   ► not least because now there are, by my count, four little robots

00:25:35 ◼   ► that I can have doing stuff in the house.

00:25:37 ◼   ► So it's like, "Okay, washing machine's going.

00:25:39 ◼   ► dryer is going, dishwasher is going, and the Roomba is going.

00:25:43 ◼   ► And then for sure I am going to get some work done

00:25:46 ◼   ► because I can't be the only one in the house

00:25:47 ◼   ► not doing anything.

00:25:49 ◼   ► And I absolutely love it.

00:25:51 ◼   ► But so anyway, I've been talking about how much

00:25:52 ◼   ► I love my Roomba to everyone who will listen.

00:25:54 ◼   ► Like, "Oh, you should totally get a Roomba."

00:25:57 ◼   ► And it's interesting, people push back

00:26:00 ◼   ► against the idea of the Roomba because they're like,

00:26:03 ◼   ► "Oh, but I'll have to vacuum myself

00:26:09 ◼   ► some of the areas that the Roomba can't get.

00:26:11 ◼   ► I mean, like, does the Roomba do a perfect job?

00:26:14 ◼   ► Can it do absolutely everything?

00:26:15 ◼   ► And the answer is, of course, no.

00:26:17 ◼   ► No, it can't do everything,

00:26:18 ◼   ► but it can do a lot of things for you.

00:26:22 ◼   ► And I feel like a Roomba is just another perfect example

00:26:27 ◼   ► of, like, changing your expectations

00:26:30 ◼   ► and being able to have big benefits from it.

00:26:33 ◼   ► So people are like, "Oh, I'm going to set out the Roomba

00:26:37 ◼   ► like I'm doing the vacuuming,

00:26:38 ◼   ► and I'm going to set up the whole house in order

00:26:41 ◼   ► to make sure that the Roomba can try to get everywhere.

00:26:43 ◼   ► It's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:26:46 ◼   ► You just have it go and it does what it does

00:26:50 ◼   ► and you just get the advantages from it.

00:26:52 ◼   ► It feels like just a perfect example of automation.

00:26:54 ◼   ► Like this thing is doing a job.

00:26:57 ◼   ► Is it doing as great of a job as you could do as a person?

00:27:01 ◼   ► No, of course not.

00:27:03 ◼   ► You could do a better job as a human being.

00:27:05 ◼   ► You could get into all the little nooks and crannies.

00:27:07 ◼   ► You wouldn't have to bounce around the room

00:27:08 ◼   ► 300 times because you're blind and can't see where you're going and are just vacuuming randomly?

00:27:13 ◼   ► No, you wouldn't you wouldn't have to do that.

00:27:14 ◼   ► But the whole point of the Roomba is that you don't have to do the thing.

00:27:20 ◼   ► You can be doing something else. You're sitting on your computer, maybe answering emails.

00:27:24 ◼   ► Probably not if you're me, but you can do something else.

00:27:27 ◼   ► And it's just I find it interesting that they're like some people have a hard time with this idea of

00:27:34 ◼   ► If the job can't be done as well as I could personally do it,

00:27:39 ◼   ► I don't want something else to do it.

00:27:43 ◼   ► And I feel like it's, you just,

00:27:45 ◼   ► this is like really important for learning

00:27:49 ◼   ► how to get more stuff done in life.

00:27:51 ◼   ► It's like, yeah, I'm accepting that this job

00:27:53 ◼   ► is not gonna be as thorough as if I was doing it,

00:27:56 ◼   ► but it doesn't matter because I'm getting

00:27:58 ◼   ► this productivity multiplier, that something is happening,

00:28:02 ◼   ► I don't have to do it and I can let go of how it would need to be super perfect the

00:28:08 ◼   ► way I would do it.

00:28:09 ◼   ► So I totally love my little Roomba.

00:28:12 ◼   ► He's my little productivity multiplier buddy.

00:28:16 ◼   ► I have a comparison that I want to make.

00:28:19 ◼   ► But like, it's, you have to, like everybody just has to let me finish.

00:28:25 ◼   ► No, no, I'm going to get ready to jump down your throat.

00:28:28 ◼   ► Whatever you're going to say, halfway through I'm going to interrupt Myke.

00:28:32 ◼   ► It's kind of like hiring someone.

00:28:36 ◼   ► How dare you compare them to a vacuuming robot?

00:28:40 ◼   ► Nobody is going to do things exactly the way that you would do them, right?

00:28:45 ◼   ► Some things are going to be better, some things are going to be different, some things are

00:28:48 ◼   ► going to be worse, but you kind of just… and this is the same with just delegation

00:28:54 ◼   ► in general, right?

00:28:55 ◼   ► Like not even just hiring someone, but giving a task away to somebody else.

00:28:59 ◼   ► There's going to be this spectrum of how the results are at the end, but no matter what

00:29:04 ◼   ► it is, you do get a benefit from it.

00:29:07 ◼   ► Even if something's not as good as you would do it, as long as it's done, it doesn't really

00:29:13 ◼   ► matter does it?

00:29:14 ◼   ► No.

00:29:15 ◼   ► Roomba.

00:29:16 ◼   ► It's baby's first delegation.

00:29:18 ◼   ► I don't know about that.

00:29:23 ◼   ► Because they're really expensive.

00:29:25 ◼   ► So like, I don't know if you can go there first.

00:29:29 ◼   ► I think like other things have to happen in your life before you can get a Roomba.

00:29:34 ◼   ► That's true.

00:29:35 ◼   ► Babies have no money to buy Roombas.

00:29:36 ◼   ► No, I did just see one on Amazon that integrates with the Echo.

00:29:40 ◼   ► Oh no!

00:29:41 ◼   ► Right?

00:29:42 ◼   ► So I could be like, "Echo, start the hoovering or whatever."

00:29:48 ◼   ► You and your Echo, Myke.

00:29:49 ◼   ► You really love it.

00:29:50 ◼   ► I do really love it.

00:29:51 ◼   ► I do.

00:29:52 ◼   ► So now I'm like looking at this like unnecessarily expensive Roomba.

00:29:56 ◼   ► there are Roombas that are like multiple hundreds of pounds cheaper but like oh but this one

00:30:00 ◼   ► ooh but this one I can I can connect it to my home automation system.

00:30:06 ◼   ► Yeah you want the 960 mic that's what you want. That's the one I'm looking at. It's

00:30:10 ◼   ► right at the top of the price pyramid. Yeah yeah oh but I can save 220 pounds so that's

00:30:17 ◼   ► good news. Is that what you have the 960? Uh yeah I think so I think it was yeah I love

00:30:23 ◼   ► it's great. It's absolutely great.

00:30:25 ◼   ► We're getting deep into Roomba talk now. How often do you need to vacuum yourself when

00:30:30 ◼   ► you have a Roomba? Do you still need to go and take care of it in some way?

00:30:36 ◼   ► No. You don't need to take care of it. You just need to empty it sometimes. And I have

00:30:43 ◼   ► it run because I go to the glass forge in the morning. I have it just automatically

00:30:49 ◼   ► scheduled that shortly after I leave, it just wakes up, chirps a little happy song, and

00:30:56 ◼   ► then goes around the whole flat vacuuming.

00:31:00 ◼   ► And what I really like is it sends you a little map of what it thinks your flat looks like

00:31:05 ◼   ► after it's done.

00:31:06 ◼   ► So you can see if it got blocked off somewhere or if some room didn't work out.

00:31:13 ◼   ► But it again, it's a perfect example of, oh, you know, on Monday it sends me back a

00:31:19 ◼   ► a little map and I can see that, oh, like the kitchen door was closed so it didn't

00:31:24 ◼   ► get in the kitchen. And instead of thinking like, "Oh, that Roomba, it's so useless,

00:31:28 ◼   ► can't open doors," it's like, "Well, it's going to run again tomorrow and the

00:31:31 ◼   ► day after." Like it's going to get the kitchen eventually.

00:31:34 ◼   ► Right. And then you just like open the door, right? Like one day you're just going to

00:31:39 ◼   ► open because I think about like with my place, but the bathrooms because the bathroom door

00:31:43 ◼   ► is closed, right? So I would just need to prop it open one day so it can go in there

00:31:48 ◼   ► and do what it needs to do.

00:31:49 ◼   ► Yeah, it's great.

00:31:51 ◼   ► It's fantastic.

00:31:53 ◼   ► Cleaning delegation.

00:31:55 ◼   ► So Grey, as of a couple of weeks ago,

00:31:57 ◼   ► it is now possible

00:31:59 ◼   ► for many more people

00:32:01 ◼   ► to get their hands on the Apple Pencil

00:32:03 ◼   ► which is a thing that we have

00:32:05 ◼   ► sold the virtues for for a couple

00:32:07 ◼   ► of years now on this show.

00:32:09 ◼   ► Because Apple have released

00:32:11 ◼   ► a lower end iPad,

00:32:13 ◼   ► a $330 iPad

00:32:15 ◼   ► or something like that,

00:32:17 ◼   ► now has support of the Apple Pencil. All iPads have support for the Apple Pencil now, except

00:32:22 ◼   ► the iPad Mini, RIP. Still there, but RIP. Still selling it. Did you not know this? Did

00:32:29 ◼   ► you not know about this?

00:32:30 ◼   ► Yeah, I missed this one.

00:32:32 ◼   ► Yeah, it wasn't big news. They had an event, right?

00:32:35 ◼   ► I feel this is like a dereliction of duty for Cortex, but no, I feel like I totally

00:32:40 ◼   ► missed this one. I'm sorry.

00:32:41 ◼   ► I can't believe that. I just can't believe that. But anyway...

00:32:44 ◼   ► In fairness, I haven't been listening to podcasts because I have been traveling, but

00:32:48 ◼   ► yeah, I did totally miss this one.

00:32:50 ◼   ► So it's just all the iPads now have the pencil support.

00:32:53 ◼   ► That is when people listen to podcasts, is when they're moving around.

00:32:56 ◼   ► But like, whatever, you know, you do you.

00:32:58 ◼   ► I will do me.

00:32:59 ◼   ► So now all iPads can use the Apple Pencil now, which is great because I think it's

00:33:06 ◼   ► a great tool and now more people get to use it.

00:33:07 ◼   ► Yeah, that is great.

00:33:08 ◼   ► I wanted to do a kind of recap/primer for our Apple Pencil usage for two reasons.

00:33:16 ◼   ► One, because now more people will be able to use one.

00:33:18 ◼   ► And two, people ask me for this all the time.

00:33:21 ◼   ► And I will now be able to say, go and listen to episode 67 of Cortex.

00:33:26 ◼   ► And now I'm done.

00:33:27 ◼   ► Right?

00:33:28 ◼   ► Because I don't know about you, but I get this question asked of me a lot.

00:33:30 ◼   ► Like people getting their iPads for the first time, like, what apps do you use?

00:33:33 ◼   ► What do you use the Apple Pencil for?

00:33:35 ◼   ► What accessories do you have for it?

00:33:36 ◼   ► And all that kind of stuff.

00:33:37 ◼   ► So I wanted to just wrap it up into one little bundle here.

00:33:41 ◼   ► So for me, personally, the most usage in an application that I get from the Apple Pencil

00:33:49 ◼   ► is in Notability, which is a note-taking/PDF markup application.

00:33:58 ◼   ► You can take regular handwritten notes and if I have a meeting where I want to be able

00:34:02 ◼   ► to have my handwritten notes accessible to me later, because it's an important meeting

00:34:07 ◼   ► or whatever, then I will grab my one of my iPads, I'll grab my

00:34:10 ◼   ► Apple pencil, I'll open Notability and I'll start making my notes there.

00:34:14 ◼   ► And the same if I have a PDF that somebody sends me and maybe I want to make

00:34:19 ◼   ► some changes on it or I want to just sit and kind of like really analyze it,

00:34:22 ◼   ► then I will open it up in Notability and kind of get to work on it.

00:34:26 ◼   ► There has all of the features you'd expect, right?

00:34:28 ◼   ► It has handwriting tools.

00:34:30 ◼   ► You can draw some shapes and stuff like that.

00:34:31 ◼   ► You can add text.

00:34:33 ◼   ► You can kind of grab things and move them around, which I really like.

00:34:36 ◼   ► that has a really good selection tool,

00:34:38 ◼   ► so you can write a bunch of stuff,

00:34:40 ◼   ► you draw a circle around it to select it,

00:34:42 ◼   ► and you can move it around or make it bigger or smaller,

00:34:44 ◼   ► which can be really useful sometimes.

00:34:46 ◼   ► If you wanna fit more on a page,

00:34:48 ◼   ► you can just shrink everything.

00:34:49 ◼   ► - Yeah, that's really nice.

00:34:50 ◼   ► - I really like Notability.

00:34:52 ◼   ► It's a powerful app, it has a bunch of different paper stuff

00:34:54 ◼   ► and I like it a lot.

00:34:55 ◼   ► If memory serves, you use Good Notes,

00:34:58 ◼   ► which is very similar,

00:35:00 ◼   ► but it has just some slightly different features, right?

00:35:02 ◼   ► - Yeah, they're pretty similar.

00:35:05 ◼   ► One feature that GoodNotes doesn't have

00:35:07 ◼   ► is that ability to shrink down something,

00:35:11 ◼   ► which can definitely be handy sometimes.

00:35:13 ◼   ► But, no, GoodNotes is my digital paper of choice,

00:35:18 ◼   ► and I totally love it.

00:35:21 ◼   ► Every once in a while, I do check out Notability,

00:35:24 ◼   ► and just for me, there's something

00:35:27 ◼   ► that's just a little bit different

00:35:28 ◼   ► about the way the two of them are handling

00:35:32 ◼   ► the smoothing algorithm for when you're writing.

00:35:35 ◼   ► There's like a little bit of a difference,

00:35:37 ◼   ► and I just like the way the GoodNotes

00:35:39 ◼   ► handles that much better.

00:35:41 ◼   ► But yeah, I do the same thing where

00:35:44 ◼   ► if I need to work with PDFs,

00:35:47 ◼   ► that's the place where I can mark them up.

00:35:50 ◼   ► And mostly I use it as like these pads of paper

00:35:55 ◼   ► for me to brainstorm ideas or to write things out.

00:36:00 ◼   ► And it's really useful for just for thinking things through

00:36:05 ◼   ► for me.

00:36:06 ◼   ► As a little sidebar here, Myke,

00:36:07 ◼   ► I know you'll appreciate this,

00:36:08 ◼   ► but on my last round of travel,

00:36:12 ◼   ► I was trying to travel really light

00:36:14 ◼   ► and I was trying to think like, okay,

00:36:15 ◼   ► what can I not take with me?

00:36:17 ◼   ► And I decided to not take my iPad with me on the last trip.

00:36:22 ◼   ► I was like, okay, I don't think that I need it,

00:36:25 ◼   ► but I definitely need the laptop.

00:36:28 ◼   ► And I totally regretted not bringing it.

00:36:30 ◼   ► - Okay, phew, I thought you were punking me then.

00:36:33 ◼   ► Right, okay.

00:36:33 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:36:35 ◼   ► - 100%, I regretted not bringing it because of good notes.

00:36:39 ◼   ► Because that really is just the way,

00:36:42 ◼   ► when I'm in a particular mood,

00:36:43 ◼   ► it's very useful to sketch stuff out with a pencil.

00:36:45 ◼   ► It's just different than working on a computer.

00:36:48 ◼   ► - Like if you get into that kind of mode

00:36:50 ◼   ► of like wanting to be able to grab this PDF

00:36:53 ◼   ► or grab this image or grab this like wireframe

00:36:57 ◼   ► or mock-up or whatever.

00:36:59 ◼   ► You get used to doing that.

00:37:01 ◼   ► It's so powerful because there is no better way of doing it.

00:37:05 ◼   ► You can do this stuff on a Mac, right?

00:37:08 ◼   ► You can do it, but it's nowhere near as good

00:37:11 ◼   ► because you're actually manipulating the thing

00:37:14 ◼   ► in front of you with a pencil.

00:37:16 ◼   ► It's brilliant.

00:37:17 ◼   ► - Yeah, the handwriting sketching kind of stuff,

00:37:19 ◼   ► it's just clearly the place that it is super superior.

00:37:22 ◼   ► But also what you might enjoy is,

00:37:25 ◼   ► I was so frustrated at my decision

00:37:27 ◼   ► to not bring the iPad that I went out

00:37:29 ◼   ► and I bought a paper notebook and I bought a pen.

00:37:33 ◼   ► And I was like, okay, well, like I'm in the mood

00:37:35 ◼   ► to do this kind of thinking.

00:37:36 ◼   ► And I sat down with the paper notebook and the pen

00:37:39 ◼   ► and I was sort of doing the same kind of thing

00:37:42 ◼   ► I would do on my iPad.

00:37:43 ◼   ► And I was like, oh, this is a far inferior experience

00:37:46 ◼   ► because I can't do a lasso tool to move things around

00:37:50 ◼   ► when I want to move them around.

00:37:51 ◼   ► It's like, it's just here on ink.

00:37:53 ◼   ► I can't move this.

00:37:54 ◼   ► How am I supposed to copy and paste this

00:37:57 ◼   ► when I want to show this thing three or four times.

00:37:59 ◼   ► So it's like, oh, paper, that's why I left you paper.

00:38:02 ◼   ► The digital stuff is much better.

00:38:05 ◼   ► - This is, you know, I said it, like I made a hint to it.

00:38:07 ◼   ► Like I am a big pen and paper guy as people know,

00:38:09 ◼   ► but if I'm taking notes on something

00:38:12 ◼   ► that I consider to be really important,

00:38:14 ◼   ► I want them digitally so they're everywhere.

00:38:17 ◼   ► Like I only ever take pen and paper notes in a meeting

00:38:20 ◼   ► or on a call or whatever,

00:38:21 ◼   ► if it's like I'm expecting it to not need it.

00:38:25 ◼   ► That's the only time I ever do that.

00:38:27 ◼   ► - Yeah, it was also an interesting moment

00:38:28 ◼   ► where I recognized a whole orbit of problems

00:38:31 ◼   ► that I used to have to deal with

00:38:33 ◼   ► before the iPad and the pencil came around,

00:38:36 ◼   ► which is exactly this, of all this work that I'm doing,

00:38:39 ◼   ► how am I going to get it back into my system?

00:38:41 ◼   ► And so I'm thinking like, am I just gonna take a picture

00:38:43 ◼   ► of these pages with my phone?

00:38:44 ◼   ► Like, is that, am I gonna, like, oh,

00:38:47 ◼   ► how do I turn this back into digital?

00:38:49 ◼   ► Because ultimately in my life and the way that I work,

00:38:51 ◼   ► I want everything that's important should be digital.

00:38:55 ◼   ► and should be synchronized and should be everywhere.

00:38:57 ◼   ► And I was just so aware of that,

00:39:01 ◼   ► like, oh, I have to hold onto this paper notebook

00:39:02 ◼   ► and if I lose it, all the things I have written down

00:39:04 ◼   ► are just gone.

00:39:05 ◼   ► Like, well, that's dumb, that's ridiculous.

00:39:07 ◼   ► I don't like this at all.

00:39:09 ◼   ► - It doesn't make sense in the modern world, right?

00:39:11 ◼   ► It doesn't, and I get it.

00:39:12 ◼   ► - I was totally missing it.

00:39:14 ◼   ► I will just quickly mention,

00:39:15 ◼   ► it's not strictly Apple Pencil stuff,

00:39:20 ◼   ► but the one related tool that I use with Good Notes

00:39:24 ◼   ► when working on things that are writing

00:39:27 ◼   ► and that I really love is I use Ulysses

00:39:30 ◼   ► for most of the writing work that I do

00:39:32 ◼   ► as my text editor of choice.

00:39:34 ◼   ► And Ulysses has a really great feature

00:39:37 ◼   ► where not only can you export the text

00:39:40 ◼   ► that you're working on as a PDF,

00:39:42 ◼   ► so I can say like, oh, here's a thing I'm working on,

00:39:44 ◼   ► export it as a PDF, open that PDF in GoodNotes,

00:39:47 ◼   ► and then mark it up by hand with pencil,

00:39:49 ◼   ► which I really think is a great thing to do

00:39:51 ◼   ► to shift your mind into thinking about

00:39:53 ◼   ► what you're working on in a different way.

00:39:55 ◼   ► I find it really helpful.

00:39:56 ◼   ► But Ulysses also allows you to customize the format

00:40:01 ◼   ► of how that PDF is going to look.

00:40:04 ◼   ► So I have a customized template that does two things.

00:40:08 ◼   ► It exports the text at like triple spaced.

00:40:12 ◼   ► So there's lots of space between the words.

00:40:15 ◼   ► And I've also taken to dramatically reducing the opacity

00:40:20 ◼   ► of the exported text.

00:40:21 ◼   ► So the exported text is just a very light gray.

00:40:24 ◼   ► And then that makes it really easy

00:40:26 ◼   ► when I'm marking up stuff to later on see,

00:40:28 ◼   ► "Here's the markup.

00:40:30 ◼   ► Here's all this plenty of space that I had."

00:40:32 ◼   ► So GoodNotes is great,

00:40:34 ◼   ► and I find if you're working with text,

00:40:36 ◼   ► Ulysses plus GoodNotes is a great experience

00:40:40 ◼   ► from going from text to PDF to markup

00:40:43 ◼   ► to then put your changes back into Ulysses

00:40:45 ◼   ► and go back and forth in that cycle.

00:40:48 ◼   ► -Yeah, I know that, like, the Ulysses team,

00:40:51 ◼   ► they really like to think of and build the application

00:40:54 ◼   ► with specific tools and thoughts in mind for novelists,

00:40:58 ◼   ► like the people that write long books and fiction

00:41:02 ◼   ► and non-fiction, that kind of stuff.

00:41:03 ◼   ► And that is clearly one of those features

00:41:05 ◼   ► that was built for that type of work, right?

00:41:08 ◼   ► That you can export a PDF so somebody can mark it up.

00:41:12 ◼   ► Right, like someone can print that

00:41:13 ◼   ► and do some real kind of like marking up of the text

00:41:18 ◼   ► and edits and all that kind of stuff, right?

00:41:20 ◼   ► I don't know if many bloggers do this.

00:41:25 ◼   ► And I feel like a lot of my blog writer friends

00:41:30 ◼   ► use Ulysses 'cause it also has really great publishing tools

00:41:34 ◼   ► and great markdown support and stuff like that.

00:41:36 ◼   ► But then it also has these,

00:41:37 ◼   ► oh, you can triple space the lines in your PDF.

00:41:39 ◼   ► That is clearly for the long form writers.

00:41:42 ◼   ► - Yeah, 100%. - And for you,

00:41:43 ◼   ► it's 'cause you're writing scripts, right?

00:41:44 ◼   ► And it's a similar kind of idea

00:41:46 ◼   ► that you're trying to edit something to be spoken out loud,

00:41:50 ◼   ► which is, whilst they're not the exact same practice

00:41:54 ◼   ► between that and a novelist,

00:41:55 ◼   ► the reasons you're doing it are the same, right?

00:41:57 ◼   ► Which is to whittle it down,

00:41:59 ◼   ► to make it as good as it can possibly be when read.

00:42:03 ◼   ► Which, I would be surprised to know if any of my friends

00:42:07 ◼   ► who write technology blogs get their Ulysses documents,

00:42:12 ◼   ► that was PDFs and start marking them up, I don't know.

00:42:15 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think that's a very different use case.

00:42:17 ◼   ► But if you're that kind of person,

00:42:20 ◼   ► GoodNotes plus Ulysses on the iPad

00:42:22 ◼   ► is a really great combination to not have to go outside of it.

00:42:26 ◼   ► Like, I used to have a crazy script

00:42:29 ◼   ► that just ran constantly on my computer

00:42:31 ◼   ► that was manually creating PDFs

00:42:35 ◼   ► based on changes in Dropbox of markdown files

00:42:38 ◼   ► and exporting them to a folder,

00:42:40 ◼   ► which I would then try to import into GoodNotes.

00:42:42 ◼   ► It was wacky and fragile and terrible,

00:42:45 ◼   ► and then Ulysses came along and was like,

00:42:47 ◼   ► "Goodbye, crazy system.

00:42:49 ◼   ► This is much better.

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00:43:30 ◼   ► Every time I go in, I see my invoice exactly how it's going to land in my client's inbox

00:43:34 ◼   ► and I'm able to type in some stuff.

00:43:36 ◼   ► So I type in the name of a show and everything can pre-fill for me because it saves previously

00:43:40 ◼   ► used entries.

00:43:41 ◼   ► It's so, so awesome.

00:43:42 ◼   ► I love that I can go and look at a specific company that we invoice and see how long it

00:43:47 ◼   ► takes them to pay so I can get an idea for how long that's going to be.

00:43:51 ◼   ► But what's great about FreshBooks is I never have to worry about whether an invoice has been seen

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00:44:15 ◼   ► They're offering an unrestricted 30-day free trial for listeners of this show with no credit card

00:44:20 ◼   ► required. Just go to freshbooks.com/cortex and enter cortex into how you heard about this section

00:44:26 ◼   ► so they will know that you went to them from this show. Our thanks to FreshBooks for their

00:44:30 ◼   ► continued support of this show and Relay FM. I also use Apple Notes for Apple pencil related

00:44:37 ◼   ► stuff if it's like I need a scratch pad. So Apple Notes I use for text is like my central

00:44:42 ◼   ► storage point. Like I have so many things text related that go in there. I have PDFs

00:44:47 ◼   ► that go in like all my travel notes go in Apple Notes now. But if I just need to like

00:44:51 ◼   ► do some quick scribbling or you know sometimes I'll get like I'll get like a contract coming

00:44:57 ◼   ► or whatever and I need to just just check some stuff out to maybe do some sums or whatever I

00:45:01 ◼   ► need to do. I will use Apple Notes for that and kind of just because you could just grab the

00:45:05 ◼   ► pencil, you touch it to the paper, it starts recognizing what's going on, and you can just

00:45:10 ◼   ► start writing in it. And I like it for that, and then you can just immediately get rid of it. You

00:45:14 ◼   ► can delete it. Apple Notes has a feature that it pretends that is good, which is the ability to try

00:45:20 ◼   ► and do text recognition on the handwriting, in the sidebar to try and give you an idea of what's

00:45:27 ◼   ► written in the note, like a heading. How well does that work?

00:45:30 ◼   ► Terribly. Okay, not terribly, alright.

00:45:32 ◼   ► I mean, okay, I have bad handwriting, but like, it's just everyone that I've ever known I've seen

00:45:39 ◼   ► try to use it just has just like ridiculous things. I mean, it's doing OCR on it so you can

00:45:43 ◼   ► also search the text. I mean, and it works, but not very well. There are also a couple of applications

00:45:52 ◼   ► that I play around with that I like that are not necessarily things that I spend a lot of time in

00:45:58 ◼   ► because I'm not good at some of this stuff, but I like them anyway.

00:46:01 ◼   ► And one of them is called Linnea, Linnea, I'm not sure exactly how you pronounce it.

00:46:07 ◼   ► And it is like it's a it's a drawing app. And they just added in some features for like being able to

00:46:13 ◼   ► mark up images and stuff like that. But I find notabilities tools better for what I need there.

00:46:18 ◼   ► But it's it's like an app to to produce art and to do sketch ups. And they, you know, they have

00:46:25 ◼   ► a lot of interesting templates and stuff. So for like for app design and things like that.

00:46:29 ◼   ► So they have little templates that look like iPhones and you can draw in them.

00:46:32 ◼   ► It's a really nice application. It's low. It's kind of all of the applications that I've tried

00:46:38 ◼   ► that are art related with the Apple Pencil. It is like the most focused and it has a more limited

00:46:44 ◼   ► tool set. But it does them really well and it works really well. And then kind of like on the

00:46:50 ◼   ► other end of that you have something like Procreate which has every single tool available

00:46:55 ◼   ► to you, right, which is just this wonderful art application that I can't use because I

00:47:01 ◼   ► have just like, like just just shocked into horror every time I open it because I don't

00:47:06 ◼   ► know how to use it because it's so powerful and it's so far away from my skill set but

00:47:10 ◼   ► it is a fantastic app.

00:47:11 ◼   ► Do you have a hard time with it because it's such a complicated app and you can't express

00:47:16 ◼   ► your amazing artistic skills through this complicated app? Is that the problem? Or is

00:47:21 ◼   ► the problem a total lack of artistic talent?

00:47:23 ◼   ► No, no, I just struggle to be able to get the tools to make true representation of the

00:47:30 ◼   ► images in my mind. That's all it is, you know.

00:47:32 ◼   ► Yeah, no, of course.

00:47:33 ◼   ► Give me a paintbrush and I can do what I need.

00:47:35 ◼   ► Yeah. I, on the other hand, have definitely bought many an art app on the iPad.

00:47:39 ◼   ► Oh yeah.

00:47:40 ◼   ► And within seconds remembered, I have no talent at all.

00:47:45 ◼   ► Why did I buy this? I can do nothing with this app.

00:47:47 ◼   ► I have no talent.

00:47:49 ◼   ► -And there are some vector apps as well, right, for the iPad.

00:47:53 ◼   ► -I never found anything that was suitable to --

00:47:59 ◼   ► I guess I would fall in the category

00:48:01 ◼   ► of professional vector use.

00:48:03 ◼   ► I found a lot of stuff that was fine to play around with

00:48:07 ◼   ► and maybe produce one or two things,

00:48:10 ◼   ► but I never found a tool that could do what I needed to do,

00:48:13 ◼   ► which is manage a library of hundreds of vector assets

00:48:17 ◼   ► and be able to make changes across that kind of thing.

00:48:20 ◼   ► -Okay.

00:48:21 ◼   ► -I've left that world behind, but at least when I was looking,

00:48:24 ◼   ► I never found anything that felt like it was much more

00:48:27 ◼   ► than really a toy vector app.

00:48:29 ◼   ► -Sure. That type of drawing style,

00:48:32 ◼   ► like vector with the whatever it is,

00:48:34 ◼   ► little anchors and the lines, I can't --

00:48:36 ◼   ► my brain cannot understand what is going on

00:48:41 ◼   ► whenever I try and use those. It's kind of quite funny really, but I just can't get my

00:48:46 ◼   ► head around it.

00:48:47 ◼   ► It's art, but with math, Myke. Just a bunch of Bezier curves.

00:48:52 ◼   ► Pigment is also really good, which is a coloring book app. And so if you want to do coloring

00:48:57 ◼   ► on your iPad, Pigment is there for you. It's the best one. Don't try any other. Just use

00:49:02 ◼   ► Pigment. If you want to try any coloring, Pigment is the application for you. They even

00:49:06 ◼   ► have a bunch of spinoff ones now, like licensed stuff, like Marvel and things like that. They

00:49:11 ◼   ► They have like Marvel coloring books

00:49:12 ◼   ► powered by the pigment technology.

00:49:14 ◼   ► That's kind of cool if you want it.

00:49:16 ◼   ► As well as all of this stuff,

00:49:17 ◼   ► both me and Grey very frequently use the Apple Pencil

00:49:21 ◼   ► as just general UI navigation.

00:49:23 ◼   ► Still works.

00:49:25 ◼   ► There are applications that doesn't work in any more,

00:49:27 ◼   ► which I understand,

00:49:28 ◼   ► but just in general across the entire system,

00:49:31 ◼   ► it is still a comfortable and kind of

00:49:34 ◼   ► a repetitive strain friendly way to navigate an interface

00:49:38 ◼   ► in the same way that we use Wacom tablets.

00:49:41 ◼   ► -Yeah, without a doubt.

00:49:42 ◼   ► You know, my -- again, in my professional computer use,

00:49:47 ◼   ► I know that I have to set hard limits

00:49:49 ◼   ► on the amount of hours I can spend at a computer doing --

00:49:54 ◼   ► like, I can't spend an infinite amount of time

00:49:56 ◼   ► on the computer doing work.

00:49:58 ◼   ► I'll run up against physical RSI limitations.

00:50:01 ◼   ► But with pencil stuff, like, I personally don't run into that,

00:50:08 ◼   ► and I always think it's much better.

00:50:10 ◼   ► And it is a thing as my work has shifted more back to Mac OS

00:50:17 ◼   ► and using a laptop.

00:50:19 ◼   ► One of the things I think about a lot is that debate about,

00:50:22 ◼   ► "Oh, Apple's not gonna make any touch-sensitive laptops,"

00:50:26 ◼   ► which I think that debate is over, and they totally should.

00:50:29 ◼   ► But I also find myself thinking one step further.

00:50:31 ◼   ► It's like, "Oh, yes, but if Apple does ever make

00:50:33 ◼   ► a touch-sensitive laptop,

00:50:34 ◼   ► I want it to work with the Apple Pencil, too,"

00:50:37 ◼   ► because I have totally, in that subconscious way,

00:50:40 ◼   ► when I'm sitting at a desk and I have my laptop in front of me

00:50:42 ◼   ► and iPad is next to me and the pencil is on top of the iPad,

00:50:46 ◼   ► I have sometimes, without thinking,

00:50:47 ◼   ► grabbed the pencil to point it at

00:50:50 ◼   ► or move something on the computer screen

00:50:51 ◼   ► and then go, "Oh, right. It doesn't work at all."

00:50:54 ◼   ► But, yeah, it's great for UI and navigation,

00:50:58 ◼   ► and I want pencil support everywhere --

00:51:00 ◼   ► on the phone, on the laptops, on my watch.

00:51:04 ◼   ► I'll take it everywhere.

00:51:07 ◼   ► Do you use any accessories for your Apple Pencil?

00:51:10 ◼   ► - Yes, the only thing that I use is I have,

00:51:15 ◼   ► what's it called?

00:51:17 ◼   ► It's one of the dbrand skins.

00:51:19 ◼   ► I have a couple of different dbrand skins on a few pencils,

00:51:23 ◼   ► because that for me, it solved one of the,

00:51:27 ◼   ► my frustrations with the Apple Pencil is it's just,

00:51:30 ◼   ► it's too slick.

00:51:32 ◼   ► And I am, it's interesting when you talk to people

00:51:36 ◼   ► who use Apple Pencils because there are two kinds of people

00:51:39 ◼   ► who use Apple Pencils.

00:51:40 ◼   ► People who buy bags full of the Apple Pencil replaceable

00:51:45 ◼   ► tips and people who don't know that the Apple tip

00:51:48 ◼   ► is even replaceable.

00:51:50 ◼   ► And I think some people just press harder on the screen

00:51:54 ◼   ► and so like burn through those replaceable tips

00:51:57 ◼   ► and I am totally one of those people.

00:51:59 ◼   ► And I think because I'm pressing harder,

00:52:02 ◼   ► I often find that my fingers are sliding down the pencil

00:52:05 ◼   ► I'm using it. Like I want more friction and so I bought quite a few wraps. The one that

00:52:13 ◼   ► I find has the most friction and is the easiest to grip is like this pretty princess pink

00:52:20 ◼   ► sparkly dbrand wrapper on the Apple pencil. It's great! My wife is like "I don't want

00:52:29 ◼   ► to see you using that in public, you can't use that in public" but it's the grippiest

00:52:33 ◼   ► one and it's the prettiest one. I really like it.

00:52:36 ◼   ► Oh my gosh, which one did you get? Was it dbrand or Slickwraps?

00:52:42 ◼   ► I don't know, it's one of these wrap things. Like Myke, you always want these specifics.

00:52:45 ◼   ► I mentioned that I have a backpack and then you need to know the exact one. Look, all

00:52:49 ◼   ► I know is I have a pretty princess sparkly wrap thing that goes around my pencil which

00:52:54 ◼   ► is super grippy and I don't know why you need to know exactly which company it is.

00:52:58 ◼   ► I don't know, I can't even remember. I bought that backpack.

00:53:02 ◼   ► - Oh, good.

00:53:04 ◼   ► - It's very, very good.

00:53:06 ◼   ► - Yeah, the reason why I didn't bring the iPad

00:53:09 ◼   ► is one of the trips I was trying to do

00:53:10 ◼   ► with just that backpack without bringing any other suitcases

00:53:14 ◼   ► because it was a relatively short trip,

00:53:16 ◼   ► or so I thought when the trip began.

00:53:18 ◼   ► But yeah, I've been putting that one through its paces

00:53:22 ◼   ► and I really like it as a travel accessory.

00:53:24 ◼   ► - I'm a big fan of it.

00:53:26 ◼   ► I believe, or I'm expecting you have

00:53:29 ◼   ► the slick wraps glitz series pink one here because it's like all glittery and stuff.

00:53:37 ◼   ► Yeah it's sparkly. Yeah because dbrand only make the one that looks like a pencil. Oh

00:53:43 ◼   ► do they only? Okay so then it must be a slick wrap one. It's a slick wrap one. So I've had

00:53:47 ◼   ► dbrand skins and slick wrap skins. I like them both. The ones that I had, I had one

00:53:53 ◼   ► that look like a regular pencil, one that looks like a crayon. I then made my own.

00:54:03 ◼   ► What with one of those like custom designer things?

00:54:06 ◼   ► No, me and our designer Simon did it. We worked together on it and I had like a mic brand

00:54:16 ◼   ► skin on my Apple Pencil, which I love. However, all of these are being issued now for a product

00:54:24 ◼   ► called the Kaweco Grip.

00:54:25 ◼   ► Hmm, okay. What is this? Tell me.

00:54:27 ◼   ► Kaweco is a traditional pen company from Germany.

00:54:31 ◼   ► Oh, okay. Here we go.

00:54:32 ◼   ► They make fountain pens and they make regular pens and they have a long history.

00:54:36 ◼   ► I was getting excited, but now I don't know.

00:54:38 ◼   ► Absolutely out of the blue at a trade show a couple of months ago, Kaweco showed off

00:54:44 ◼   ► grip. It's currently only available from one place in Europe, which is the son of the founder

00:54:49 ◼   ► of Kaweco's company called Most Wanted Pens, and it is an entire sleeve/case type dealio

00:54:58 ◼   ► for the Apple Pencil. This looks really interesting. Made out of aluminium, and it has

00:55:05 ◼   ► what is called a knurled grip, which means it has a texture to the grip, right?

00:55:13 ◼   ► And the way that you put it on is you slide one piece over

00:55:16 ◼   ► and then you slide another piece, you twist it,

00:55:18 ◼   ► and it locks into place.

00:55:20 ◼   ► And they have them in the four colors

00:55:21 ◼   ► that Apple make their devices in, and I love it.

00:55:24 ◼   ► I have one on one of my Apple Pencils,

00:55:25 ◼   ► I have another one on the way.

00:55:27 ◼   ► I will tell you in advance what this thing does.

00:55:30 ◼   ► So it makes it heavier, and because the Apple Pencil

00:55:34 ◼   ► is so big, it kind of makes it maybe a little bit too heavy,

00:55:37 ◼   ► but you get used to it.

00:55:38 ◼   ► But then what it does is it stops it rolling

00:55:40 ◼   ► because it has some flat sides on it.

00:55:42 ◼   ► And it gives me what I've been looking for forever, which is a grip.

00:55:47 ◼   ► Yeah, okay, so I feel like I've...

00:55:51 ◼   ► It's inevitable that one of these is going to arrive at my house somehow, I don't know.

00:55:54 ◼   ► I recommend that you wait until you see me next, and then you can try it.

00:55:59 ◼   ► Because it's not a cheap thing, and then you have to do the shipping, which is coming from Europe, so that adds on.

00:56:05 ◼   ► Just try it out because you might not like it.

00:56:08 ◼   ► So I would recommend just like waiting until I can show you one before you go ahead and buy it.

00:56:14 ◼   ► Click. It's probably already bought.

00:56:16 ◼   ► Too late!

00:56:19 ◼   ► The question that I would ask, which I already know the answer to but I'll ask anyway,

00:56:26 ◼   ► is can you force it to fit in the top of the leather traveling case for the iPad?

00:56:34 ◼   ► Probably not. I mean, yeah, that's what I assume because it looks pretty junkie.

00:56:37 ◼   ► I haven't tried it because I don't have one of those. You might, I don't think, well okay,

00:56:43 ◼   ► it's leather so it will stretch but that's what you'll need to do. That's what I'm wondering,

00:56:47 ◼   ► there's a little bit of give. I'm sure you can stretch it. I reckon if you put it in upside down

00:56:53 ◼   ► you might have a better chance but then you may lose the cap forever. So you know, it's up to you

00:56:58 ◼   ► I guess but yeah I don't use, so you use one of those then that's that's another accessory you

00:57:03 ◼   ► you have then, the leather travel case for the iPad.

00:57:07 ◼   ► - Yeah, I do use that, and I use it when I'm traveling

00:57:12 ◼   ► for exactly one reason,

00:57:17 ◼   ► which is I'm getting on an airplane.

00:57:20 ◼   ► And you know, there's always like this hassle

00:57:22 ◼   ► when you're getting on an airplane,

00:57:24 ◼   ► 'cause you have people behind you,

00:57:25 ◼   ► there's like this rush, you can't futz around for too long,

00:57:28 ◼   ► otherwise you're holding up an entire airplane of people.

00:57:31 ◼   ► And it's a very uncomfortable moment.

00:57:34 ◼   ► But I love having that iPad leather travel thing

00:57:39 ◼   ► because it means that when I am getting on the plane,

00:57:44 ◼   ► I can just reach in and grab that thing

00:57:47 ◼   ► and know that while I'm sitting in the airplane seat,

00:57:50 ◼   ► I have the complete iPad package.

00:57:53 ◼   ► Like I know that I have the keyboard case

00:57:57 ◼   ► because the keyboard case hasn't slipped off

00:58:00 ◼   ► in the backpack from being jostled around.

00:58:02 ◼   ► And I know that I have a pencil to work with this stuff.

00:58:06 ◼   ► So that is very, very often my move

00:58:10 ◼   ► of sitting down on an airplane.

00:58:12 ◼   ► It's like, I'm only gonna get two things out of my backpack.

00:58:14 ◼   ► It's like, I'm gonna have a bottle of water on the side,

00:58:17 ◼   ► and then I'm just going to reach in

00:58:18 ◼   ► and grab the iPad travel sleeve.

00:58:21 ◼   ► And I just love that it's a single package

00:58:23 ◼   ► because before I had that, like fairly frequently,

00:58:27 ◼   ► I would sit down and go like,

00:58:27 ◼   ► "Oh, I don't have the pencil in my pocket

00:58:29 ◼   ► because I'm traveling and I'm doing everything differently.

00:58:31 ◼   ► Or like I said, the cover would slide off

00:58:34 ◼   ► and then I'd have to root around in my bag

00:58:35 ◼   ► and people are glaring at me while they're waiting

00:58:37 ◼   ► to get further down the airplane.

00:58:38 ◼   ► So I don't use it like around the house.

00:58:41 ◼   ► I don't put the iPad in it, but if I'm traveling,

00:58:43 ◼   ► iPad totally goes in that pencil on the top.

00:58:45 ◼   ► - I don't know if this will work for that.

00:58:49 ◼   ► But I do really like this product.

00:58:51 ◼   ► I keep my Apple Pencil attached to my iPads via a pen loop.

00:58:56 ◼   ► - Right, yeah.

00:58:57 ◼   ► which is, links for all of this stuff

00:58:59 ◼   ► will be in our show notes, by the way.

00:59:01 ◼   ► One of the other reasons I'm doing this.

00:59:03 ◼   ► - I think links for none of this stuff

00:59:04 ◼   ► should be in the show notes.

00:59:05 ◼   ► I think this should be an episode

00:59:07 ◼   ► where you don't have any show notes, Myke.

00:59:08 ◼   ► - How about I tell you there won't be any?

00:59:10 ◼   ► - Okay. - Okay.

00:59:12 ◼   ► And so I use a little pen loop,

00:59:14 ◼   ► which I keep my iPad attached to it forever.

00:59:17 ◼   ► And also say, if you don't wanna go down the route

00:59:19 ◼   ► of the Kaweco grip, but you wanna add something

00:59:21 ◼   ► to stop your Apple Pencil from rolling around,

00:59:24 ◼   ► You can add a pen clip that work with the Fisher Space Pen,

00:59:28 ◼   ► which is a little pen that is like basically

00:59:30 ◼   ► the exact dimensions and thickness.

00:59:32 ◼   ► So I've always used those as well

00:59:34 ◼   ► before I got this Kaweco thing.

00:59:35 ◼   ► So I just have a little clip.

00:59:37 ◼   ► So when I put my Apple Pencil down, it won't roll away.

00:59:39 ◼   ► So that is it.

00:59:41 ◼   ► That's the Apple Pen, the apps we use

00:59:43 ◼   ► and the accessories we use.

00:59:45 ◼   ► So now I have this one place

00:59:47 ◼   ► that I can send people to forever.

00:59:49 ◼   ► - All right.

00:59:50 ◼   ► Just tell them right after the Roomba talk.

00:59:53 ◼   ► Just jump in right after the Roomba and you'll get what you want.

00:59:56 ◼   ► Cortex merch!

00:59:58 ◼   ► Oh! Cortexmerch.com?

01:00:00 ◼   ► Cortexmerch.com.

01:00:02 ◼   ► By the time you're listening to this, you may have just a very small window left to buy our amazing merch.

01:00:11 ◼   ► It is available until April the 10th, 2018.

01:00:15 ◼   ► We are not sure when or if this stuff will be available again.

01:00:19 ◼   ► We've mentioned the gold Cortex Aversary and the glow in the dark Cortex shirt will not be available,

01:00:25 ◼   ► they are limited edition, but we're hoping that maybe at some point the original and the hoodie

01:00:29 ◼   ► might come back but we don't know when so if you want them go to cortexmerch.com and buy one.

01:00:34 ◼   ► Thank you to everybody that did buy one. I will say I have been giving away codes on an almost

01:00:40 ◼   ► daily basis on the Cortex twitter account which is @CortexPodcast. I am trying increasing ways of

01:00:46 ◼   ► difficulty to give these codes away but the Cortex listeners seem to be very intrepid in that it

01:00:52 ◼   ► doesn't seem no matter what I do or how hard I make them they go very quickly but I still have

01:00:58 ◼   ► a few more codes to give away so if you want to get a shot at getting a free shirt you can go

01:01:02 ◼   ► follow @CortexPodcast on Twitter but we have our amazing merch available for a couple more days

01:01:08 ◼   ► at cortexmerch.com hopefully you got in time because you don't want to be disappointed avoid

01:01:15 ◼   ► disappointment, go to cortexmerch.com.

01:01:17 ◼   ► Yeah, there isn't much time left. Entirely, entirely because of me and my travel schedule

01:01:24 ◼   ► delaying the show. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, listeners. But seriously, if you're listening

01:01:29 ◼   ► to me right now and you've just downloaded the show and you want a hoodie or you want

01:01:33 ◼   ► a shirt, you need to go to cortexmerch.com right now.

01:01:36 ◼   ► Yeah. I mean, I know our stats and like the vast majority of people get to this within

01:01:40 ◼   ► the first three days or so, so they still got enough time. So there's no excuse here.

01:01:46 ◼   ► Go to cortexmerch.com, pick up a shirt.

01:01:49 ◼   ► Or a hoodie.

01:01:50 ◼   ► Or all of it.

01:01:51 ◼   ► Yes, or all of it.

01:01:52 ◼   ► Should we do some #askcortex questions?

01:01:55 ◼   ► It's been a while since we've done some #askcortex. Yeah, let's do that.

01:02:00 ◼   ► Let's go with Rinaldi's question first. Rinaldi wants to know, "Gray, what font

01:02:04 ◼   ► do you use for your scripts?"

01:02:07 ◼   ► - Okay, so this is an interesting time to ask.

01:02:12 ◼   ► Let me back up and say, I have a very strong opinion here

01:02:19 ◼   ► that if you are doing anything that's a kind of writing

01:02:22 ◼   ► on the computer, you have to go with a mono spaced font.

01:02:27 ◼   ► A mono spaced font where all the letters are the same size,

01:02:31 ◼   ► that is what you want.

01:02:33 ◼   ► I think it's just nicer for looking through something

01:02:38 ◼   ► and editing something for all of the letters

01:02:39 ◼   ► to be the same size, like it's an old fashioned typewriter.

01:02:42 ◼   ► - What does that mean, the same size?

01:02:45 ◼   ► - It means that all the letters are the same width.

01:02:47 ◼   ► - Okay, so it's the same space always, right?

01:02:51 ◼   ► So like, if you're writing a word that has the letter I

01:02:53 ◼   ► in the middle, it doesn't squish down on either side.

01:02:56 ◼   ► - It doesn't squish down on either side.

01:02:58 ◼   ► Now, I think when you're reading something normally,

01:03:02 ◼   ► Like you're reading a book on your Kindle.

01:03:04 ◼   ► You don't want a monospace font.

01:03:05 ◼   ► It would drive you crazy.

01:03:06 ◼   ► I think that's a very different experience.

01:03:08 ◼   ► But I really think that there is something beneficial

01:03:11 ◼   ► about when you're writing something

01:03:13 ◼   ► to have this even look across the page

01:03:17 ◼   ► that all of, like the width of all of the letters

01:03:19 ◼   ► are the same.

01:03:20 ◼   ► There's something about it that just makes it much easier

01:03:22 ◼   ► to quickly compare previous lines

01:03:27 ◼   ► or to know how long things are.

01:03:28 ◼   ► Like I feel very, very strongly about monospace fonts.

01:03:31 ◼   ► I think it's interesting about that. I've never really used monospace fonts because up until like two years ago I didn't know what it meant.

01:03:37 ◼   ► But I am prone to almost, especially in my friend group, I have a real reputation of just making horrific spelling blunders.

01:03:50 ◼   ► Which are based upon the fact that I'm very bad at recognising something is misspelt.

01:03:56 ◼   ► I'm not a bad speller, but like I type something incorrectly and I always miss it

01:04:01 ◼   ► and I wonder if a monospace font would help me with that because I might be able to

01:04:08 ◼   ► Spot my misspellings a little bit easier

01:04:11 ◼   ► Well, I mean I'll tell you as a horrific speller myself

01:04:15 ◼   ► absolutely

01:04:18 ◼   ► horrific

01:04:19 ◼   ► So bad that many an English teacher told me that this would hold me back in my life significantly

01:04:25 ◼   ► if I didn't learn how to spell, a monospace font does not help with that at all. I spelled

01:04:32 ◼   ► just as badly with a monospace font as I do with a regular font. It helps not at all.

01:04:41 ◼   ► This is, for anybody that's not aware of this, this is probably my crowning achievement in life

01:04:47 ◼   ► now at this point, that the most important tweet that I have ever written, which was the tweet in

01:04:53 ◼   ► which I was announcing to the world that I was quitting my day job.

01:04:57 ◼   ► Oh god, that makes me awkward just to hear you started to tell me.

01:05:00 ◼   ► To become a professional podcaster. The tweet ended with professional podcasters. I added

01:05:07 ◼   ► an S to the end of podcaster. So in what was maybe the most important 140 characters

01:05:14 ◼   ► to me that I will ever write, that was there. But however, I now kind of wear that particular

01:05:21 ◼   ► mistake as a badge of honor looking back on it because it's funnier to me because now

01:05:26 ◼   ► it's a meme that I see pop up every now and then which which is it's now I now I embrace

01:05:31 ◼   ► it at the time I just wanted to die. Editable tweets would be a great just a great thing

01:05:38 ◼   ► to have at this point but yeah sure would it's never gonna happen.

01:05:44 ◼   ► So if you are looking for monospace font, the thing that I would recommend doing is

01:05:51 ◼   ► just Google around for programmer fonts, because it's a similar thing that if you're a computer

01:05:57 ◼   ► programmer, then it becomes an absolute necessity that the font is monospaced. That that is

01:06:02 ◼   ► not a style preference. Like if you are a computer programmer and you're not using a

01:06:06 ◼   ► monospace font, you're crazy. You can't do that. So I would Google around, there's a

01:06:12 ◼   ► There's a whole bunch of different ones, and I would say the one that I have used by far

01:06:17 ◼   ► the most over the years is a font called In Consolata.

01:06:23 ◼   ► I think it's a nice trade-off between readability and monospaceness if someone's wanting to

01:06:33 ◼   ► get into the monospace font.

01:06:35 ◼   ► I feel like that one is always my default.

01:06:39 ◼   ► I'm never 100% satisfied with it

01:06:41 ◼   ► because I feel like it almost does too good of a job

01:06:44 ◼   ► of looking like it's not monospaced,

01:06:47 ◼   ► even while it is being it.

01:06:48 ◼   ► But so I recommend that one as the place to start.

01:06:51 ◼   ► That is the one that I've used the most over the years.

01:06:54 ◼   ► I have recently switched to a different

01:06:59 ◼   ► and quite stylistically dramatic monospaced font

01:07:04 ◼   ► that I'm liking a lot for writing the scripts in.

01:07:08 ◼   ► But I'm going to have to keep it a secret right now what that font actually is.

01:07:14 ◼   ► I don't want to say it out loud.

01:07:17 ◼   ► I'll just say that it's going to appear in a video at some point.

01:07:22 ◼   ► And that's the font I've been using.

01:07:24 ◼   ► But I don't want to give it away right now what monospace font I'm actually using.

01:07:28 ◼   ► I cannot get my head around what it's going to give away.

01:07:34 ◼   ► Right?

01:07:35 ◼   ► Obviously the reason you're not talking about it is that if you talk about it, it gives something away.

01:07:40 ◼   ► It would be my expectation.

01:07:42 ◼   ► And like, what could that mean?

01:07:45 ◼   ► I don't know, Myke.

01:07:45 ◼   ► Coming soon to CGP Grey's YouTube channel.

01:07:47 ◼   ► Font reviews with Grey. That's what it is. Now we know. It's your spinoff.

01:07:52 ◼   ► Maybe it gives away nothing. I just don't want other people to use the font until I go public with it.

01:07:58 ◼   ► Maybe that's it.

01:07:59 ◼   ► Maybe it gives away the entire topic.

01:08:01 ◼   ► Grey, are you a font hipster?

01:08:02 ◼   ► [laughs]

01:08:04 ◼   ► It's all about brands, Myke.

01:08:06 ◼   ► I was using fonts back when nobody knew about them.

01:08:09 ◼   ► It was just cool.

01:08:10 ◼   ► This is where someone on Twitter tells us what a typeface is.

01:08:13 ◼   ► And I forget immediately.

01:08:14 ◼   ► We did this recently.

01:08:16 ◼   ► I think we got away with it.

01:08:17 ◼   ► it.

01:08:18 ◼   ► This episode of Cortex is brought to you by Squarespace.

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01:09:42 ◼   ► Daniel wants to know how the Switch is going.

01:09:45 ◼   ► Have you been playing much Nintendo Switch recently?

01:09:48 ◼   ► I mean, I could say obviously I have.

01:09:50 ◼   ► I play my Nintendo Switch a lot.

01:09:52 ◼   ► Have you?

01:09:54 ◼   ► Uh, you know, sort of.

01:09:58 ◼   ► Sometimes it's a Mario Kart machine, and I remember that it's a Mario Kart machine sometimes,

01:10:03 ◼   ► and that's just about it.

01:10:05 ◼   ► I think that you are in the market, like you're in the kind of the segment of a Switch owner

01:10:11 ◼   ► who will buy like one or two games a year,

01:10:13 ◼   ► which is like a perfectly valid purchaser,

01:10:16 ◼   ► like who's not gonna buy lots and lots of games,

01:10:19 ◼   ► but like once or twice a year,

01:10:21 ◼   ► Nintendo is gonna bring out a big first party title

01:10:23 ◼   ► that's gonna find its way into your home and you'll enjoy,

01:10:26 ◼   ► but you're not gonna enjoy all of them.

01:10:28 ◼   ► You know, and I've been that way in the past with consoles

01:10:30 ◼   ► and I'm kind of that way with my PlayStation now,

01:10:33 ◼   ► where like there's gonna be a couple of games a year

01:10:35 ◼   ► on the PlayStation that I'm gonna want for the PlayStation,

01:10:39 ◼   ► but won't be playing the majority of my gaming there.

01:10:42 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, my pre-order copy of Kirby just arrived,

01:10:47 ◼   ► but I haven't had a chance to open it and try it out,

01:10:50 ◼   ► so I'll see how that is.

01:10:51 ◼   ► - Now, why did you buy that?

01:10:53 ◼   ► - I don't know, I remember I liked Kirby when I was a kid.

01:10:55 ◼   ► - Okay.

01:10:56 ◼   ► - I pre-ordered it so long ago I didn't remember,

01:10:59 ◼   ► and it showed, I was like, "What's this package?"

01:11:01 ◼   ► And I opened it up, and I was like, "Oh, hey, Kirby.

01:11:03 ◼   ► "I don't remember ordering you, I guess I did."

01:11:06 ◼   ► And this is also apparently so long ago,

01:11:08 ◼   ► it was before I knew that you could download things on the Switch like you

01:11:11 ◼   ► helpfully explained to me because I thought it was still all cartridges.

01:11:13 ◼   ► It's like, what do you mean there's an online store?

01:11:18 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, okay. I've played the Kirby demo and it didn't really grab me but I've never enjoyed

01:11:25 ◼   ► Kirby games so that wasn't really one for me.

01:11:29 ◼   ► Yeah, I really like them but you know anytime you want to Myke we can talk about Super Mario

01:11:33 ◼   ► Galaxy, I know. Or Super Mario Odyssey? Which one was it? No, it's okay. We can talk about

01:11:40 ◼   ► it anytime, Myke. I played that one. I played that one all the way to the end. Are there

01:11:45 ◼   ► any games in your life right now that you're enjoying a lot? No, I've been in a bit of

01:11:49 ◼   ► a no-video-game phase. I feel like there's many things in my life that are on these sine

01:11:54 ◼   ► waves and video games and podcasts and audiobooks are like these overlapping sine waves where

01:12:00 ◼   ► They always go in these phases.

01:12:02 ◼   ► And I'm in a bit of a no video game phase lately.

01:12:06 ◼   ► So yeah, I haven't picked up anything lately

01:12:08 ◼   ► that I really like.

01:12:09 ◼   ► But I understand, Myke,

01:12:12 ◼   ► that if there are video games that you're really enjoying,

01:12:16 ◼   ► there's a place that I can hear about those video games.

01:12:19 ◼   ► Where is that place, Myke?

01:12:20 ◼   ► - Relay.fm/playingforfun.

01:12:23 ◼   ► - Ah!

01:12:24 ◼   ► - That's a great place to go.

01:12:25 ◼   ► Yep. (laughs)

01:12:27 ◼   ► - Are you uncomfortable with the opening

01:12:29 ◼   ► that I gave you to promote your own show, Myke.

01:12:31 ◼   ► - I didn't see it coming.

01:12:32 ◼   ► - Was it so direct that it made you uncomfortable?

01:12:35 ◼   ► - Well, no, 'cause there's a thing that we're gonna do

01:12:37 ◼   ► and I didn't know if I wanted to mention it or not.

01:12:38 ◼   ► Look, we're gonna play Portal 2 together and stream it.

01:12:42 ◼   ► - Oh, that's a good idea.

01:12:44 ◼   ► That's a good idea.

01:12:45 ◼   ► - And I didn't know if I wanted to mention it or not.

01:12:48 ◼   ► - Well, you've mentioned it now.

01:12:49 ◼   ► - 'Cause we don't have the dates locked down for it, yeah.

01:12:53 ◼   ► - This is a Cortex content exclusive reveal.

01:12:56 ◼   ► That's what you've just given us.

01:12:58 ◼   ► Again, you're having real trouble today understanding where the boundaries of what's in and out of the show are and what's happened to you.

01:13:04 ◼   ► [Laughter]

01:13:06 ◼   ► Yeah, sorry listeners. Myke is in a bit of a funny mood behind the scenes here.

01:13:10 ◼   ► No, this has to go in the show, right? Listeners, Myke is in a bit of a funny mood, and so he keeps phasing in and out of what's in the show and what's not in the show.

01:13:19 ◼   ► in the show. Myke doesn't know, and I just keep bringing it back. And then Myke is frustrated

01:13:24 ◼   ► that I've turned his personal woes into what I think is pure gold Cortex content.

01:13:31 ◼   ► So I guess then, you can also go to twitch.tv/playingforfunfm and you can follow me and Tif on Twitch,

01:13:40 ◼   ► and we're going to be playing Portal 2 soon. I guess you can get notifications for that

01:13:46 ◼   ► or whatever, maybe we'll upload it to YouTube too

01:13:49 ◼   ► or something as well.

01:13:49 ◼   ► You're killing me today, you're killing me.

01:13:52 ◼   ► - I'm not killing you, I'm helping you, Myke.

01:13:54 ◼   ► - I don't know if you are.

01:13:55 ◼   ► Vex wants to know, did either of you receive

01:13:58 ◼   ► any advice on self-employment or entrepreneurship

01:14:00 ◼   ► either by your family or some other person or entity

01:14:04 ◼   ► before you decided to go out on your own?

01:14:07 ◼   ► And what do you think about entrepreneurship courses?

01:14:10 ◼   ► - Well, Myke, you're the man who lived

01:14:14 ◼   ► in the business world.

01:14:15 ◼   ► I don't know what I think about courses. I've never taken any. I would say only pay for

01:14:33 ◼   ► a course if there's nobody, literally nobody in your life that can give you advice about

01:14:41 ◼   ► this. Like, if there is no one in your life that can give you advice or at least tell

01:14:48 ◼   ► you where to go for advice that they got, you shouldn't do a course. Like, if you're

01:14:56 ◼   ► in a situation where there is nobody in your life that is able to help you, then give it

01:15:00 ◼   ► ago. The reason I say this is because there are a lot of almost snake oil like things

01:15:11 ◼   ► in the entrepreneurship world. I genuinely believe that they're not all like this, that

01:15:18 ◼   ► there are gen- like there are people that believe that they can genuinely help and do

01:15:22 ◼   ► help, but I wouldn't want to say that it is like a constant, you know, that every single

01:15:27 ◼   ► entrepreneurship course is going to help you. I would also say any entrepreneurship course

01:15:32 ◼   ► that you are going to go on, just do some research about the person who is giving it to you. Because

01:15:39 ◼   ► if their literal only entrepreneurship is this course, then I would maybe question how helpful

01:15:47 ◼   ► they could be. Like if the only thing that they've ever been successful at is giving these courses,

01:15:52 ◼   ► that they don't have experience running another business, then I would question it because

01:15:58 ◼   ► what entrepreneurship do they actually know? Anyway, so I have a lot of problems with these

01:16:04 ◼   ► types of things. So like these courses, like there are a lot of like online courses that you

01:16:08 ◼   ► can take from like experts that are only their only experience is this thing that they do.

01:16:14 ◼   ► So I get really wary about a lot of stuff like that. So do some due diligence on the person that

01:16:20 ◼   ► that you will be paying probably a lot of money to.

01:16:24 ◼   ► So that's my feeling on those things.

01:16:26 ◼   ► The reason I say all of this is because

01:16:29 ◼   ► all of the advice that I got was from people that knew me.

01:16:33 ◼   ► And I think that there is so much importance

01:16:36 ◼   ► to be placed in that, that if you can get advice

01:16:39 ◼   ► on this stuff from someone that you know

01:16:42 ◼   ► that you already have a relationship with,

01:16:44 ◼   ► they're gonna know enough about you

01:16:46 ◼   ► to be able to make some recommendations

01:16:48 ◼   ► that they know will or won't work with you.

01:16:50 ◼   ► So all of my advice, all of my help, all of my assistance that I ever got and continue to get

01:16:57 ◼   ► comes from people that I have a relationship with.

01:17:00 ◼   ► Yeah, that's one of the things with giving advice in general that's tricky.

01:17:07 ◼   ► Like even in this moment here, like people ask us, ask Cortex questions.

01:17:10 ◼   ► We are giving advice about giving advice, which is an interesting paradox to be in.

01:17:15 ◼   ► But nobody's paying us for this.

01:17:17 ◼   ► - But like, you know, the podcast is obviously

01:17:21 ◼   ► a money-making venture.

01:17:23 ◼   ► I like doing the questions, but it is always a moment

01:17:25 ◼   ► I'm very aware of that a person is asking a question

01:17:28 ◼   ► and the entirety of their life has been condensed down

01:17:31 ◼   ► into a sentence or two to fit on Twitter.

01:17:33 ◼   ► And so you have to sort of talk about it

01:17:36 ◼   ► in a very general way.

01:17:41 ◼   ► Hopefully you do have people in your life

01:17:44 ◼   ► that can know you and talk to you directly about this kind of stuff.

01:17:50 ◼   ► And like I was very lucky that both of my parents,

01:17:57 ◼   ► I would not say that they are entrepreneurs

01:18:00 ◼   ► because that's a word that has become sort of poisoned.

01:18:04 ◼   ► And it's like someone introduces themselves as an entrepreneur.

01:18:06 ◼   ► -It's such a shame because it's such a good word.

01:18:08 ◼   ► -It is a good word, but it's this weird thing

01:18:12 ◼   ► where we're always losing words in English, right?

01:18:17 ◼   ► Because too many people start piling onto them.

01:18:21 ◼   ► And it's like, oh, now if, as happens,

01:18:25 ◼   ► if I'm somewhere and I meet someone

01:18:27 ◼   ► and they introduce themselves to me as an entrepreneur,

01:18:29 ◼   ► it's like my mental Bayesian filter

01:18:32 ◼   ► has put it at 80% probability

01:18:34 ◼   ► that this person is some kind of business sphincter

01:18:38 ◼   ► that just spews hot air constantly.

01:18:41 ◼   ► like, ah, that's probably what you do.

01:18:43 ◼   ► Because entrepreneur is just like,

01:18:46 ◼   ► you talk a lot about how you're doing things.

01:18:49 ◼   ► That's probably what this means now.

01:18:51 ◼   ► You okay over there, Myke?

01:18:53 ◼   ► - Yeah, I'm good.

01:18:54 ◼   ► I'm all good.

01:18:55 ◼   ► I have realized now, like in my tirade,

01:18:58 ◼   ► like the irony of this show, right?

01:19:02 ◼   ► Like in that, and I understand if people feel that way

01:19:05 ◼   ► about what we're doing here, right?

01:19:07 ◼   ► Like talking about our productivity.

01:19:09 ◼   ► Because there is a thing that I find really funny

01:19:12 ◼   ► that people mention, like, you know,

01:19:14 ◼   ► no, I'm not gonna get into this.

01:19:16 ◼   ► Like the you, what do you do?

01:19:17 ◼   ► I think that's like, what do you think,

01:19:19 ◼   ► there's nothing, it takes nothing to do this stuff?

01:19:22 ◼   ► Oh, he doesn't make videos anymore, so he doesn't work.

01:19:25 ◼   ► Anyway.

01:19:26 ◼   ► - Myke, I need no defending.

01:19:29 ◼   ► - No, but it, no, because it annoys me

01:19:32 ◼   ► because people were like talking that my work

01:19:35 ◼   ► is nothing work.

01:19:36 ◼   ► Like, podcasting, that's a piece of b*tch, right?

01:19:40 ◼   ► Like, doesn't take anything.

01:19:42 ◼   ► Oh, you're not making a YouTube video, so you're not actually doing any work.

01:19:46 ◼   ► [laughter]

01:19:48 ◼   ► Anyway.

01:19:49 ◼   ► There's the problem, Myke. When you make something sound natural and conversational,

01:19:53 ◼   ► it doesn't sound like it's anything.

01:19:55 ◼   ► Yeah, I guess so. I guess you're right.

01:19:57 ◼   ► Even if there are a thousand cuts...

01:20:00 ◼   ► Yeah, I guess there's a weird compliment in that, right?

01:20:03 ◼   ► Yeah, it shouldn't sound like it's any work.

01:20:04 ◼   ► it should sound like we just, we're just hanging out.

01:20:07 ◼   ► But along those, like sort of along those lines

01:20:11 ◼   ► and having a meta conversation

01:20:13 ◼   ► about this very show itself is,

01:20:15 ◼   ► so well I wouldn't say that my parents were entrepreneurs.

01:20:18 ◼   ► Both of my parents were very entrepreneurial.

01:20:22 ◼   ► Like they had successful side businesses that made money

01:20:27 ◼   ► and they had successful side projects

01:20:30 ◼   ► and they were always thinking about other stuff to do,

01:20:34 ◼   ► Like my father was self-employed

01:20:37 ◼   ► and my mom was a flight attendant,

01:20:40 ◼   ► which just like me becoming a teacher,

01:20:42 ◼   ► it was a career that gave an enormous number of hours

01:20:45 ◼   ► of free time if you did it right.

01:20:46 ◼   ► And so she spun off successful businesses on the side.

01:20:50 ◼   ► Like they were both very entrepreneurial

01:20:54 ◼   ► and I think growing up and just seeing that was very useful.

01:20:58 ◼   ► My parents never really spoke about it explicitly,

01:21:02 ◼   ► But I think just seeing that happen was good when I was a kid or my parents,

01:21:08 ◼   ► uh, sometimes very much against my will involving me in their entrepreneurial

01:21:14 ◼   ► side businesses, uh, right.

01:21:15 ◼   ► Was also,

01:21:16 ◼   ► Hey, it's summer!

01:21:17 ◼   ► Yeah.

01:21:21 ◼   ► I, I don't know if I've told you this on the podcast, Myke, but the one, the one

01:21:25 ◼   ► which at the time I've felt deeply ambivalent about, but now I look back on

01:21:29 ◼   ► like, "Oh, that was a good thing that I did," was still to this day, I've asked my father so many times,

01:21:35 ◼   ► I've never quite figured out, like, how exactly did this happen, but my mom was making jewelry

01:21:43 ◼   ► and selling it at these very upscale craft fairs, which I don't quite think these things exist in the modern world

01:21:49 ◼   ► the way they did when I was growing up, because I think something about them is a little bit pre-internetty dependent.

01:21:54 ◼   ► - It's Etsy now. That's where that stuff goes.

01:21:57 ◼   ► Yeah, it's kind of like Etsy, but for the very top of the market in very particular neighborhoods.

01:22:02 ◼   ► Oh buddy, you can get some expensive stuff on Etsy, let me tell you. Like, it's not all cheap.

01:22:07 ◼   ► Yeah, it was hard to describe it. So my mom spun this off, and that was an example where, like,

01:22:14 ◼   ► sometimes she would bring me into Manhattan with her while she was making inventory purchases,

01:22:19 ◼   ► like for the beads and the jewels and things that she needed. And it's like,

01:22:21 ◼   ► like, "Oh, it's interesting to see that."

01:22:23 ◼   ► And obviously my father, who was a lawyer and a tax attorney,

01:22:28 ◼   ► like had done a bunch of these things,

01:22:30 ◼   ► the gears were spinning in his head during these weekends.

01:22:34 ◼   ► And I don't know how it happened,

01:22:36 ◼   ► but somehow my father was like,

01:22:38 ◼   ► "Oh, I know what I'll do at these upscale craft fairs.

01:22:42 ◼   ► I'm going to sell pretzels that are made by the Amish."

01:22:47 ◼   ► And my dad somehow got like this Amish connection

01:22:51 ◼   ► where we would go to a Pennsylvania Dutch village

01:22:54 ◼   ► and be wholesale buying a bunch of their handmade pretzels

01:22:59 ◼   ► and then bringing them to a chocolate factory

01:23:02 ◼   ► to get them dipped in chocolate

01:23:03 ◼   ► and then selling them at these craft fairs.

01:23:06 ◼   ► And my dad had somehow been able to talk his way

01:23:10 ◼   ► out of being lumped in with the other food vendors.

01:23:12 ◼   ► He's like, "Oh no, this isn't food.

01:23:14 ◼   ► This is handcrafted by the Amish.

01:23:17 ◼   ► I deserve to be in the craft section of this market.

01:23:21 ◼   ► So we were the only food vendors in this whole area.

01:23:26 ◼   ► And I will never forget as a kid, my dad's like,

01:23:28 ◼   ► "Guess what, son? You're selling pretzels now."

01:23:31 ◼   ► (laughs)

01:23:33 ◼   ► - You have never told me this story.

01:23:35 ◼   ► - That is wild.

01:23:36 ◼   ► - It was really wild.

01:23:37 ◼   ► - Why did your dad ever get this into his head?

01:23:41 ◼   ► - I don't know.

01:23:41 ◼   ► I've been through this many times with him

01:23:43 ◼   ► and I can never quite figure out exactly how it got started

01:23:46 ◼   ► or like, who was the Amish guy you knew who started this off?

01:23:49 ◼   ► Like, I don't, I don't really understand.

01:23:50 ◼   ► - That's a wheeler dealer.

01:23:51 ◼   ► Like, he was a tax attorney.

01:23:54 ◼   ► Like, why would he want to sell pretzels?

01:23:56 ◼   ► That's so funny.

01:23:57 ◼   ► - Yeah, keep in mind, like during all this time,

01:23:59 ◼   ► he's doing his law practice as well.

01:24:01 ◼   ► But those, those weekends, I was, I was just like

01:24:05 ◼   ► the kid who was now selling pretzels with my father.

01:24:07 ◼   ► And it was, it was a great experience.

01:24:11 ◼   ► Like, I'm really glad that it was a thing that I did.

01:24:13 ◼   ► But like, that, that was kind of like,

01:24:15 ◼   ► you're getting wrapped up in these entrepreneurial activities,

01:24:18 ◼   ► whether you like it or not.

01:24:19 ◼   ► And I certainly didn't like it at the time

01:24:21 ◼   ► because I was terrified that some of my classmates

01:24:25 ◼   ► would see me at these things,

01:24:26 ◼   ► but luckily they were far enough away from where I grew up.

01:24:28 ◼   ► And the other thing that,

01:24:31 ◼   ► even though I was kind of embarrassed to be there at first,

01:24:33 ◼   ► I sure couldn't help but notice

01:24:35 ◼   ► that we couldn't collect the money fast enough.

01:24:37 ◼   ► The fact that my dad had talked his way

01:24:40 ◼   ► into being away from all the other food,

01:24:43 ◼   ► It was just like collecting money for eight hours a day.

01:24:48 ◼   ► And I was like, aha, well, well, well,

01:24:50 ◼   ► this sort of changes the concept of the idea about like,

01:24:55 ◼   ► what can you do that people want to give you money?

01:25:01 ◼   ► And we did it for a number of years

01:25:02 ◼   ► and built up reputations where people knew that,

01:25:05 ◼   ► like, even though we showed up with several truckloads

01:25:08 ◼   ► of these pretzels, we would sell them all out

01:25:10 ◼   ► before like 3 p.m.

01:25:11 ◼   ► So people knew they had to come

01:25:12 ◼   ► get the pretzel straight away.

01:25:14 ◼   ► That's like my growing up with entrepreneurial activities

01:25:19 ◼   ► around me, but the thing that's a little bit of a capper

01:25:21 ◼   ► on this is another thing that I don't know how it happens.

01:25:25 ◼   ► My father ended up running, while he was selling pretzels,

01:25:28 ◼   ► while he was also a lawyer, a night school,

01:25:31 ◼   ► like running classes for adults in the evening.

01:25:36 ◼   ► And he taught entrepreneurship in one of these classes.

01:25:41 ◼   ► Like, he was running the thing,

01:25:42 ◼   ► and he also did a class on entrepreneurship.

01:25:45 ◼   ► And he was a great teacher,

01:25:47 ◼   ► but the thing he always told me was,

01:25:49 ◼   ► people who go to classes on entrepreneurship,

01:25:51 ◼   ► they don't start businesses.

01:25:52 ◼   ► People who start businesses,

01:25:53 ◼   ► they just start their businesses.

01:25:55 ◼   ► They don't go to classes about how to start the business.

01:25:58 ◼   ► And I thought that was, that was like a--

01:26:01 ◼   ► - That is very good advice.

01:26:02 ◼   ► - It was a very interesting point.

01:26:04 ◼   ► And he's like, people you see

01:26:06 ◼   ► come to two entrepreneurship classes,

01:26:08 ◼   ► you know they're never going to start a business.

01:26:11 ◼   ► It's just not going to happen.

01:26:12 ◼   ► And I personally would dial back my dad's advice

01:26:17 ◼   ► a little bit because I can't remember where I heard

01:26:21 ◼   ► this joke, but I heard a joke that I think is applicable

01:26:24 ◼   ► across many things.

01:26:25 ◼   ► And it was a joke about going to improv classes.

01:26:29 ◼   ► And the joke is the first improv class you go to,

01:26:33 ◼   ► it makes you funnier because you learn some of the structure

01:26:36 ◼   ► of humor.

01:26:38 ◼   ► And every improv class you go to after the first one

01:26:41 ◼   ► makes you less funny.

01:26:42 ◼   ► And I feel like that can be applied

01:26:45 ◼   ► probably to many things.

01:26:47 ◼   ► I bet that going to the first business class

01:26:50 ◼   ► for a lot of people,

01:26:51 ◼   ► or the first class about how to write,

01:26:54 ◼   ► or the first class about many skills

01:26:57 ◼   ► that you can develop on your own,

01:26:59 ◼   ► I think there can be value in the first one.

01:27:01 ◼   ► But not only is there maybe not value in the second one,

01:27:06 ◼   ► but there's negative value in the second one.

01:27:09 ◼   ► So that's the big picture thought there on,

01:27:11 ◼   ► like, self-employment and/or entrepreneurship stuff.

01:27:15 ◼   ► -Pretzels, man.

01:27:17 ◼   ► -Yeah.

01:27:17 ◼   ► Got me through college, those pretzels.

01:27:19 ◼   ► Like, it literally paid for my college education.

01:27:22 ◼   ► Boxes and boxes of pretzels.

01:27:24 ◼   ► -That's what the "P" stands for in CGP.

01:27:26 ◼   ► It's pretzels. -No.

01:27:27 ◼   ► It's not what the "P" stands for.

01:27:29 ◼   ► -Chocolate-garnished pretzels gray.

01:27:31 ◼   ► -Yeah, perfect. Yeah.

01:27:32 ◼   ► That's exactly it. -I nailed it.

01:27:33 ◼   ► I cracked the code, everyone.

01:27:34 ◼   ► I did it.

01:27:35 ◼   ► (laughing)