Podcasts imo a true problem-to-be-solved (in Clay Christensen sense) medium. Very few people actually prefer audio as a medium to consume information. It mainly solves the "boring commute" or "boring chores" problem.
Change my mind.
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Corollary: screencasts are an under-rated medium. While a lot of people DO like consuming a visual+audio track, it demands full attention if you're combining the two. Or at least, high-interrupt (glance to grok every new slide, which will be 1 every 1-2 minutes at a minimum)
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Corollary 2: When context overrides purpose the content is not *serious*. Unless there is a serendipitous match (eg. music is audio-only context and fit to purpose).
You wouldn't try to teach geometry in a podcast for eg. except to the blind
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Corollary 3: If you're putting your content in podcast form when that is NOT the form best-suited for the purpose, you're implicitly declaring it's not that important. It's a nice-to-have time filler.
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As you might have guessed, I'm trying to firmly talk myself out of doing a podcast 😂
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A way to test whether your content is actually a match to the medium or you're doing the "solve the boring commute problem" distribution hack, is to ask if it's easily substitutable by a *different* podcast that doesn't serve the same purpose.
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Example: If I'm reading 1 python tutorial and it sucks, I'm going to go look for a different one. I'm not going to randomly read about Ukraine instead. But with a podcast, I suspect if you don't like the lifehacks podcast, you might substitute a politics one of similar length.
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I know lots of people who listen to podcasts:
* While working out
* While playing video games
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Former is part of the "boring" subset (and hard to do above say being on medium speed on the elliptical if your workout requires serious concentration).
Video games... hmm. That would have to be a pretty easy video game.
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Could audio as the medium be a trojan horse to expand the diversity of conversation in people's lives?
(I agree, but maybe the point is to get people to live the content of podcasts and not to optimally communicate the literal content.)
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I think this is how political talk radio treats it, except not diversity but ideological agenda
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