On Podcasts

14 Replies

1. Matt W adds this Comment:

   Listen to them while you’re shoveling all that snow?

   

   February 8th, 2007 at 10:57 am

2. Brad adds this Comment:

   Same here. And I’m the opposite often when I see tutorials or howtos these days. “Text and no video? Nevermind…”

   February 8th, 2007 at 11:06 am

3. Michael Sitarzewski adds this Comment:

   Or if you can multitask well. I listen to podcasts while working all of the time. I can’t read a blog and write code at the same time (efficiently anyway).

   Then there’s shoveling snow… yeah.

   February 8th, 2007 at 11:08 am

4. Erik J. Barzeski adds this Comment:

   I too listen to podcasts while doing work. Only podcasts with video (Ze Frank, Radiant Vista Daily Critique) require my full attention.

   And, c’mon, podcasts (hearing the tone and inflection, easily allowing multiple people to converse and debate) have benefits over plain old written text, speed of digestion aside.

   February 8th, 2007 at 12:52 pm

5. Jonathan Sampson adds this Comment:

   I absolutely love podcasts. I got an iPod Nano for Christmas, and I have nothing but podcasts on it. While I’m shopping for groceries, while I’m driving to work, while I’m running at the gym - all of these events are multitudes more enjoyable when I’m listening to a good panel-discussion on the merits of .NET and C#, or recent developments in PHP security, etc.

   I rarely, if ever, go to web addresses mentioned in podcasts…I don’t listen to them to find neat websites. Sometimes that happens, but it’s rare I listen to them for the geek-speak-factor, and learning about topics via communication.

   You’ll love them someday

   Jonathan Sampson

   February 8th, 2007 at 2:47 pm

6. Thom adds this Comment:

   Haha. I know what you mean. I would like to listen to some at work, but it’s currently too noisy in my office. Once things quiet down (not for a few months), maybe I’ll be able to get into some.

   February 8th, 2007 at 4:33 pm

7. adam adds this Comment:

   i used to love podcasts for working to. i can’t listen to anything except the office radio anymore, so they’re completely lost on me.

   tone and inflection do go a long way, but i see them as more one-directional than blogs.

   February 8th, 2007 at 7:06 pm

8. John Horne adds this Comment:

   I listen to 3 podcasts regularly: The NPR shows Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me and This American Life, and a weekly half-hour podcast called No Idle Frets which features jazz guitarists.

   Generally I agree that podcasts are a waste, usually sounding unpolished and unprofessional, but I’m wondering if musical offerings, including: songs interviews, lessons and that sort of thing might lend itself to the medium better than just an audio version of a standard blog entry.

   February 8th, 2007 at 8:05 pm

9. Grant Palin adds this Comment:

   I have a problem with situations where blog or site content is supplemented or even replaced with podcasts: I am hard of hearing. That sort of thing is no good for me, but I can read just fine, so I would prefer to at least have a text version.

   February 8th, 2007 at 9:20 pm

10. Tim adds this Comment:

    I’m with you 100%. I don’t have a commute, I can’t pay attention to someone talking and read/write/work at the same time, and I can read 10x faster than I can listen.

    February 9th, 2007 at 12:44 am

11. iolaire adds this Comment:

    Same here, I listen to a few, but I’ve skipped subscribing to new ones. I’d much rather scan a page in seconds prior to decide whether to read it, rather than listen to people try to entertain me for 30 minutes. It distracts from the information gathering. The primary ones that I listen to regularly is NPR so that I don’t have to worry about radio reception - those also have the added benefit of being professionally produced so the sound is at a standard level and such.

    February 9th, 2007 at 7:01 am

12. Geof F. Morris adds this Comment:

    I’m with you, Alex: I read about 800 wpm, so I’m gonna read faster than most everyone speaks. Also, audio is linear and you can’t look ahead and see if the whole thing is worth listening to.

    As someone who generates MP3s for listening [but not really a podcast; these are typically interviews I’m doing], I find it frustrating, because I either want to transcribe the thing or chunk it up into question-and-answer sets to respect folks’ time.

    February 10th, 2007 at 7:30 am

13. Sam Jackson adds this Comment:

    This is how I feel too… sometimes I’ll catch transcripts weeks later but then I still have to suffer through ‘Hey Jon, welcome! How’s the wife?’ bla bla bla. Ugh.

    February 11th, 2007 at 1:03 pm

14. Phil McThomas adds this Comment:

    Interesting views. I’m a podcaster. I hear where you’re coming from, and share many of the same frustrations (as a listener) as mentioned here.

    I have a rule that I get to the subject matter in less that 60 seconds.

    My podcast is also a discussion between two people (about British soccer). It just couldn’t be replicated in text.

    But if you’re listening to podcasts to learn tech then…yeah…probably not the best.

    February 12th, 2007 at 12:45 pm

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