WEBVTT - Son of Listener Mail 2014 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.520 Get in touch with technology with text Stuff from stuff 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:14.280 works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.280 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland, and this is the second 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:20.480 of two episodes where I look at listener mail and 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:23.239 answer a bunch of questions that don't quite merit a 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:28.040 full episode. Their short answers and short questions. Uh. The 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:30.680 answers tend to be pretty long because it's me. But 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:32.640 if you guys have any questions you would like me 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:35.640 to answer in a similar style show, just write me 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:38.560 tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com. I'll repeat 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:40.720 that again at the end of the episode. But let's 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.080 get onto some of the questions that were sent into me. 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:45.920 This one comes from Susan on Facebook, who says, I'm 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:47.559 not sure if this is something you can use, but 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:49.800 it bugs the hell out of me. Why could you 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:53.599 only post photos to Instagram from a mobile device? Most 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:56.400 social media sites have web page access as well, but 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.600 Instagram will only let you leave comments on their desktop interface. 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.320 Why does Instagram maintain this lack of functionality? It makes 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:05.440 it much harder for those of us in social media 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:09.480 to schedule and work with Instagram as a platform. The 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.319 answer I have for you now This is again kind 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:16.480 of my opinion slash guests, because I don't work for Instagram, 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:18.800 so I don't know the inside story, but I think 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:21.880 it mainly has to do with Instagram positioning itself as 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:26.119 a mobile photo sharing service. Now that means that it 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:28.840 is trying to be the photo equivalent of something like Twitter, 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:31.720 and a move it to the desktop world would mean 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.479 that it would have to compete against lots and lots 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.520 of other photo sharing uh and photo album software suites 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.399 that are out there, and I don't think Instagram wants 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:44.000 to compete in that market. They don't want to be 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:48.240 up against things like Flicker or even Facebook, um that 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:51.080 sort of stuff. They would much prefer to have this 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:55.480 other niche area really well defined. So creating an app 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:58.880 that makes it easy to take pictures and apply filters 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.320 and share it to a social net work is really 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:05.360 really appealing in the mobile space. It's something that the 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.720 easier it is to use and the more functionality it has, 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:11.519 the more likely people are going to adopt it. So 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.919 that's a lot easier than creating a very compelling service 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:20.400 on the desktop. UM that's probably why they're going that way. 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:23.080 It also makes it easier for them to work with 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:25.799 other existing social media if it doesn't look like they 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:30.359 are um hedging in on the perimeter of those other 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:34.000 services like Facebook. So that's my guess. I think it 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:36.639 makes it a big fish in a small pond as 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:39.080 opposed to being a small fish in a big pond. 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:41.320 But I do agree that for those of us who 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:43.840 work in social media where we're trying to schedule things 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:49.520 out and we're having to manage multiple social media UH platforms, 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:55.240 it's really frustrating. Um I oversee Facebook and Google Plus 0:02:55.280 --> 0:03:00.120 and UH and Twitter and Tumbler, and every time you 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.360 add one then you have a new suite of problems 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:06.280 that come up as a manager, So it becomes a 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.200 full time job just to manage the social media on 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:11.760 top of creating the content that I do. So I 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:17.000 understand the frustration from Christian on Facebook. Hey, tech stuff, 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:18.840 I can't remember if I heard this from you guys 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:21.200 or not. However I heard that all the new technology 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:24.280 that comes out now, such as smartphones, for example, has 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.600 already been long and invented. In other words, there's nothing 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:31.080 really new, like warp drives or things like that. Everything 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.959 that is sold to the public is basically just repackaged 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:37.160 such as on the iPhone. They didn't just invent fingerprints 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:40.160 scanners or touch screens or wireless tech. These things have 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:42.600 been around forever. I didn't believe this at first and 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.040 eventually started to agree. But now I'm questioning that again, 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:46.840 and I'm really curious what tex Stuff would have to 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:48.920 say about it. By the way, I love the podcast 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:53.560 on Elon Musk and all his business ventures. Well, you know, 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:56.240 I talked about this in our last episode a little bit. 0:03:56.680 --> 0:04:00.400 The thing about inventions is again they are so it's 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.880 a it's a work in progress. It's not a moment 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.360 where someone comes up with something brand new that has 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:09.800 never been seen before and that changes everything. It usually 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:14.160 is an incremental improvement to some existing idea. It may 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.719 be taking something that only existed in the world of 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.560 ideas and making it a real thing that happens. That 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.160 kind of happened with radio, for example. People had been 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:28.599 working with different implementations of radio, but Marconi was the 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:32.640 first one to really get one to work, especially transatlantic radio. 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.520 So these are ideas that come as the result of 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:40.440 lots of work with lots of different people working on 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:46.640 the predecessors to these inventions. So I certainly don't think 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:49.440 we are at an era where we will no longer 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:54.040 see new groundbreaking technology. It may be that we just 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.479 witness it growing in small steps. But if you look 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.599 at the technology of today and compare it to stuff 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:04.080 from five years ago, it looks like a world of difference. 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:07.240 I imagine that five years from now, the technology we 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:10.479 have then will be even to the point where the 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.160 stuff we we the bleeding edge stuff we have today 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:17.560 looks primitive in comparison. Uh, it's hard to see during 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.880 the present, right, we just see the the incremental changes. 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:24.119 We don't see the big jumps. But those jumps are there, 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:27.599 they're just hidden by all the little incriminal steps. So 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:31.320 one thing I've learned is that you never ever predict 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:34.680 that we've reached the end of innovation or the end 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:39.120 of invention. People have done that throughout history. Uh, you know, 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:41.280 the like the head of the patent off it's saying 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.039 that everything worth inventing had been invented, and that was 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:47.200 at the turn of the twentieth century. And certainly we've 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:53.159 seen hundreds of world changing inventions come out as after 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:58.719 nineteen hundreds. So never never say never, never say that 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:02.279 we're done with innovation and inventing. It may just be 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.560 that the changes we see are so frequent and so 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:09.760 small that we can't see the big steps that define 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:14.040 different generations of products. So that's my answer for you. Next, 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:16.760 Frank on Facebook says, how about a podcast on the 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:19.880 media of the tech world? How does how do tech 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.160 companies compete for media coverage? How do tech news sites 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:27.040 choose which ones they want to talk about? With so 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.080 many people wanting to make their own gizmas, how do 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:31.000 they bring it to the big, bad world out there. 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:35.440 So this is a little insider baseball. Technically, if you 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:38.920 are a tech news site or a show and you're 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:43.200 covering technology, you largely take your cues off what your 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:47.400 audience wants to hear. So this isn't necessarily true for 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:50.000 every single story you run, but you might see that 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:54.080 perhaps your audience really loves Apple, for example. It's an 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:58.760 easy example because generally it's true. It means that you 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:01.599 would probably spend a little more time focusing on those 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.800 stories than on other stories that might be interesting, but 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.599 your audience doesn't flock to them. You don't want to 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.120 put all your eggs in one basket, ever, You want 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:13.000 to spread them out, but you you focus your attention 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:15.560 based upon what your audience has told you they want 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:19.240 to see. Now, if you have defined yourself as a 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:24.120 company that specifically covers technology from one sector, like Android, 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:27.680 then obviously you you're going to focus on that. You 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:31.480 may end up mentioning other companies as they relate to Android, 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:34.800 but that that defines your experience. As far as how 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:37.600 you determine which stories to cover, A lot of that 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:41.480 depends upon press releases. So tech companies send out press 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:45.000 releases all the time. Sometimes they're embargoed, which means that 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:49.560 you cannot release that information until an agreed upon time. 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.080 The embargo will lift at a certain time, and at 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.120 that point you can post your story about whatever it 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.280 happens to be. If you violate an embargo, you run 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:00.960 the risk of that company never are working with your 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:04.440 outlet ever again. So if I'm a reporter and I 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.920 get a press release that's under embargo that has an 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:11.440 amazing story about a new product, then my it's my 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:15.280 best interest to wait until the embargo is over before posting, 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.680 so that way I don't burn that bridge. UH. Ask 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.600 for how do companies get news out? They often will 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.520 have a public relations department, or they will hire a 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:28.720 PR firm to handle it for them, and what that 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:32.120 department's job is is to take the stuff that the 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:35.520 company is working on, create press releases about it that 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:38.880 spin it in the most positive, exciting way possible, and 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.480 then send that out to every single tech journalist they 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.640 possibly can. I am on several of these email lists, 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.320 even though I do not cover tech news. I don't 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.360 have a daily tech news show, although that's a great 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.559 idea someone should do one of those. Um it's a 0:08:55.679 --> 0:08:59.000 joke for my friend Tom Merritt. So since I don't 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.200 cover it, it doesn't really apply to me. But I 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:03.520 still am on a lot of these lists. I often 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:08.360 will use those as inspiration for UH for podcast episodes 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.560 down the line. But generally speaking, that's how you get 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:14.360 the information about your gizmo to the big bad world. 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:17.800 You hire somebody who can send that information out to 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.920 all the different outlets that might be interested in your work, 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:23.960 and then those outlets will take the ball and run 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:28.280 from there. Next from Nate Langson on Twitter now. Nate 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.600 Lanson is editor of Wired dot co dot uk UH 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:33.760 and as a friend of mine, so full disclosure there. 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:36.640 He says did you ever own a palm top computer. 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.960 My personal favorite was the Scion Series three, which I adored. 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:45.480 The three MX had a twenty eight Mega hurt CPU. Nate, 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.120 I am sad to say I have never owned any 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.880 sort of palm top computer. In fact, before I got 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.319 a smartphone, I didn't really have any kind of mobile 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:57.880 computer at all, unless you count the scientific calculator I 0:09:57.920 --> 0:09:59.880 had back when I was a senior in high school, 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.480 which was programmable and you could make pictures on it, 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:06.200 but that was pretty much the extent of it. So 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:10.120 I was really slow to adopt cell phones in general. 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:12.600 It was about a year or two after I graduated 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:15.000 college before I finally got my first cell phone, and 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:20.120 I graduated back in nine seven. So I've been pretty 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.800 slow to adopt most technologies, which might come as a 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:26.240 surprise since I host a technology show. But with the 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.960 exception of smart watches, I tend to hold off. I 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:32.360 don't jump on the bandwagon smart watches. I kind of 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:35.160 have a watch problem. I mentioned it in the previous episode. 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:37.600 I have a Pebble smart watch. I've got two other 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.360 crowdfunded smart watches on the way, and I'm always on 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:42.880 the lookout for other really nice smart watches. Usually what 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:45.560 slows me down is I'll read the initial review and 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:47.640 if I see that the battery life is terrible, then 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:50.880 I'll skip it. But at any rate, I've only ever 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:54.520 owned one tablet that was a Nexus seven Android tablet. 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:56.880 I still have it, but I think I only use 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:00.120 it to play Tiny Death Star because I'm still a 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:04.160 Tiny Star Wars fan. I've had three smartphones, the G one, 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:07.080 the G two, both by HTC, and the next is 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.920 for those are all Android smartphones, so you can see 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:14.280 what side I better my bread. I'm still rocking the 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:16.560 Xbox three six and the p S three. I have 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.880 not upgraded to a new console system. Um. I follow 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.920 all the news about all these different devices that keep 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:26.360 coming out. I'm well informed about them, but I tend 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.600 to be very conservative and adopting them because I have 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.840 very little spare time. And since I have very little 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:35.200 spare time, there are actually games that are on a 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.040 stack in front of my three sixty that I haven't 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.280 even taken out of the shrink wrap yet that I 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:43.280 need to play. I just finished Battle Block Theater. People. 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:46.480 I am well behind the state of the art as 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:49.720 far as games are concerned, so I tend to be 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:53.160 a little slow to adopt these. I love the technologies, 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:55.800 I just don't go out and grab them as soon 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.360 as they come out. I did buy a brand new 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.560 desktop computer that can run current generation PC games, and 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.040 that's got me really excited, though to be fair, I've 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:07.760 mostly used it to play Civilization five because again I'm 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:12.559 well behind the curve. And finally, I've got a trilogy 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:16.720 of questions from my good friend Ariel. Ariel and I 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:19.480 have known each other for more than a decade, and 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:23.640 we've done some comedy and some acting together, and we've 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.200 got some podcast projects together. So full disclosure, I know 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:29.960 her really well too, but she had some great questions 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.080 because she's a fan of the show, So thank you 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:35.559 very much, Ariel. And her first question was, how often 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:39.160 do you come across a tech subject that is really 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.400 hard to understand? What has been the most confusing tech 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.760 to get a handle on? To talk about? All Right, 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:49.480 so this happens frequently. I run into a lot of 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:54.160 tech topics that are difficult for me to understand. I 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:57.360 I do. I'm not an engineer, I'm not a computer scientist. 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:00.800 When I went to school, I went to school studying 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:05.360 English literature with a focus on medieval English lit, so 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:09.360 we're talking Chaucer and things of that nature. But I've 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:13.240 always loved technology and I've always been interested in it, 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:17.280 and I would follow along from my layman's perspective, and 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:19.720 I began to educate myself that way. So I'm largely 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:22.920 self taught when it comes to the ins and outs 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:25.840 of technology, and I do a lot of research. So 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:29.559 while I may not understand a subject when I first 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:32.480 start looking into it, I do my best to absolutely 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:35.760 understand it the best of my ability before I podcast 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.559 on it. And if I don't feel comfortable about it, 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:41.400 then I won't do a podcast, because I think that 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:43.640 that does more harm than good to do a really 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.680 crappy podcast that misrepresents a technology, or a company or 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.760 a personality. Uh. And I hope that I have managed 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.000 to do that throughout tech stuff. I'm sure there are 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:56.960 one or two episodes that are maybe borderline because they're 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:00.640 a little um, you know, they were based on things 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:02.680 that I felt I had a good understanding of, and 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:06.240 I might have been mistaken at any rate. I think 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:10.160 that the hardest episodes have been those that deal with 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:14.079 quantum physics, because when I went to school, I studied physics, 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:16.559 I studied chemistry, has staid biology, but I never got 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:19.720 into quantum physics in college. I've read an awful lot 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:23.440 about them. I've read books on the leading thinkers, both 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:27.960 the early thinkers of quantum physics and current thinkers, but 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:32.600 it's still a largely mysterious world to me. So any 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:36.040 of the UH concepts that involve quantum physics, and there 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.640 are a lot of them in technology, are really tough 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:41.760 and require a lot more work on my side to 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:45.560 get a good understanding before I feel comfortable enough explaining 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:48.960 how they worked to an audience. For example, let's look 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:53.360 at microprocessors. Transistors on microprocessors are on the nanoscale, which 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:57.040 means that quantum effects come into play. UH. So this 0:14:57.120 --> 0:14:59.480 is something that we come into contact with all the time. 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.320 If you have a computer, you or a smartphone or 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.120 mobile device of some sort, you have a processor in 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:08.920 there that's got elements that are so small that quantum 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:11.760 effects have to be taken into consideration. So it's not 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:14.600 like it's unusual for me to have to talk about 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.640 this sort of stuff. So I have to spend a 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:20.360 lot of time understanding the fundamentals and then building on 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.720 that before I feel comfortable talking about them. Pretty much 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:28.359 the hardest subject of them all for me is optical computers, 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.200 so anything that has to do with photons. Photons, of course, 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.560 are the the fundamental particle of light. They are massless. 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:37.760 They have a relative relativistic mass, which means that when 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:41.920 you are using them in relativistic equations, you factor in 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:45.240 a mass. But in in actual physical reality we would 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:49.240 say they are massless. Uh. They behave in weird ways. 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.200 They can interact in weird ways or not interact in 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:56.120 weird ways. And every time I do anything that has 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:58.680 to do with optics and and it's getting down to 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:03.320 that photon level description, it requires hours of extra research 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:06.040 on my part um. I find it really rewarding. I 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:09.240 love learning stuff, so I'm not complaining. Don't get me wrong, 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:12.200 I actually really enjoy doing this kind of thing, but 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:16.640 it is a lot of work. Next, Ariel has another question. 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:18.680 She says, what episode are you most proud of and 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.280 do you feel what do you feel most passionately about. 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:25.960 I love all my episodes. They're like children. I can't 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:29.840 pick between them, but I particularly love the episodes where 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.560 we explain how something actually works, as in the physical 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:37.920 workings of a piece of technology. I find that really satisfying. 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:41.440 For one thing, if you're explaining how something actually works, 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.840 there's a beginning, middle, and end. Uh it is it 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.280 is there, there parameters you work inside. It's not an 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:50.880 open ended question, so it makes it really easy to 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:54.520 focus on specifically what you need to explain. It also 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:56.920 comes with a challenge because how do you explain how 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.440 something works in an audio format where you don't have 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.040 the benefit of visual aids. That means that I have 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:06.359 to come up with interesting ways to explain concepts that 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:10.600 might not really be easy to imagine without some examples 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:14.240 or metaphors, that kind of thing. So I really enjoy 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:18.679 that that challenge. And uh also, because it isn't open ended, 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:22.440 you don't have to worry about fuzzy stuff around the edges. 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:24.800 You can just give the specific facts of how the 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:27.920 technology works and then maybe spend some time about why 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:30.359 it's important. I always think that's a good thing too, 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:32.800 And in fact, that's really what I'm most passionate about 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:36.920 is the social impact of technology. That's it really gets 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:40.119 me fired up, and that can be anything from enabling 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:45.600 people to communicate during times of duress or turmoil, like 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:50.520 what we saw with the Arab Spring, or how social 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:53.880 problems can be reflected in the technological sphere, like things 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.960 like racism and misogyny. I mean, these are serious issues 0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:59.840 and it's we see it both just out in the 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:02.720 world old in general and within the world of technology, 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:06.960 whether it's uh, you know, people using devices for raising 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:11.440 awareness or using technology to try and suppress people from 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:15.640 being able to express themselves. These are big, big issues, 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.600 and technology plays a very fundamental role in these issues. 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:22.560 So a lot of times the big story isn't about 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:25.840 the tech. The tech is one piece that fits inside it. 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:27.960 But I find that the tech is an interesting point 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.760 of access to get into these conversations. And I do 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.160 expect in the future to have episodes really looking at 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:40.040 some ways that technology and social issues have have have 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:44.800 worked together or have clashed, particularly over the last couple 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:48.800 of years. So I hope that my listeners will really 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:52.399 enjoy those episodes because I think it's a really important 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:56.160 part of what technology is doing today. At any rate, 0:18:56.520 --> 0:18:59.239 I love talking about all this kind of stuff. Like 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.359 I've said, I love learning, So when someone gives me 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:04.960 a request about something, I don't know much about that. 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:07.400 I get really passionate about because it means I get 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.480 to learn stuff, and really I learned something new every 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:13.640 single week here at How Stuff Works, and it's one 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:15.199 of the benefits of the job. It's one of the 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:19.280 hardest things about the job. And Ariel's final question was 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:21.399 you used to be a writer for How Stuff Works. 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:25.120 What was it like transitioning from writing to podcasting, Which 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:27.800 is a great question because I don't know if everyone 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:32.880 out there is aware of this transformation. Um So, back 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:35.600 in the day, people used to say, well, what's it 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:40.000 like being a podcaster as your job and my response was, 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:44.000 I podcasting is not my job. My job is a 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:47.440 writer for How Stuff Works. I also podcast on top 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:50.120 of being a writer for How Stuff Works, And for 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:54.119 the first six years of my career here at how 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:56.359 staff Works, that was the truth. That was what my 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:59.960 job was. I wrote articles that got published to the website, 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:03.040 and on top of that, I would record episodes of 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:06.440 tech stuff, primarily UH and then occasionally do other things. 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.760 But then about two years ago, things changed and I 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:16.040 became a podcaster and video host and I haven't written 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.960 a full article for the website in two years. I've 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:21.399 done some updates, but I haven't written a how blank 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:25.080 works article in two years, and it's a big change. 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:28.240 So to understand how big a change it is, I 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:29.919 thought it'd be fun to kind of go through what 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.200 my schedule would have been like way back in the day. 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:37.840 So when I was a writer, my week both began 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:40.800 and ended on a Friday. It would end in the 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:43.119 sense that I would turn in a work assignment. Usually 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:46.760 there'll be two articles, normally one long article and one 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:49.560 shorter article would be due each week, so Friday was 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:50.760 the day I would turn them in, but it was 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:54.000 also the day I would get my new assignment. So 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:56.959 originally I had two weeks to research and write an 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:01.080 article based on that assignment grant Atually that narrowed down 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:04.479 to one week, So I would get a assignment on 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.600 Friday and it would be due the following Friday, which 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:09.879 sounds like it might be harsh to cut down the 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:13.360 preparation time in half, but it turns out Parkinson's law 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:16.680 is mostly right. So Parkinson's law is kind of a joke. 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:19.239 It's a tongue in cheek law, and it says that 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:22.560 work expands so as to fill the time available for 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:25.480 its completion. So, in other words, if you are given 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:28.359 a task and you're told you have five minutes to 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:31.800 complete this, and it would take a reasonable person five 0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:34.240 minutes to complete it, and you you do the job, 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:37.119 it takes you five minutes to do the job. But 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:39.679 if you're told you have two hours to complete this, 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:44.080 the work that you could complete in five minutes magically expands, 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:48.080 so it takes the full two hours before you're finished. Again, 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:50.080 it's a tongue in cheak joke, but it turns out 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:52.720 to be kind of true because my time was cut 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:55.720 in half, but I was still turning in articles every 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:57.399 week instead of every two weeks. In fact, I was 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.520 turning in twice as many, so it was um it 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:04.960 was really hectic because I also had podcasts on top 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:07.960 of that. At the time, I was also recording podcasts 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:10.439 on Friday morning, so Friday was a big day for me. 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:13.320 It was when I would turn in old assignments, get 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:16.640