Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I'm Against Podcasts

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 300 posts

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#91

Post by codingdave »

bovermyer wrote: post #83

I don't like podcasts. The reason I don't like podcasts, though, is the same reason I don't like talk radio or television. If I want to listen to people, I will talk to people myself. This is not an indictment of podcasts. Rather, it is a personal opinion. And I think the author of this article is confusing his opinion for a general truth.

I read it more as he wanted to vehemently express his opinion, because he likely isn't the only one who has it, and it is an opinion that is not currently voiced in the media.

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#92

Post by duxup »

This article reads like a wordy extension of the author's "Twitter fit". I feel like I read a lot of "I tweeted something" articles these days.

Ironic that the one tidbit about how it "sounds" (but not actually talking about sounds) is about people wanting to be heard, and the foundation of this is "I tweeted something one day".

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#93

Post by inflatableDodo »

>I consider them an enemy of music

Presumably something like 'Lost in The Stacks' http://lostinthestacks.libsyn.com/ with it's amazingly revolutionary mix of, get this, some talking and then some music, would blow his tiny little mind. Current episode, 'As Your Attorney I Advise You Again to Drive at Top Speed' - http://traffic.libsyn.com/lostinthestacks/LITS_Episode_420.m...

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#94

Post by tempodox »

Like so much other crap on the web it owes its existence to the fact that dilettants are inflicting their fumblings on a global audience. Either you ignore the whole bunch or you have to invest energy into filtering the good from the bad. Either way, whining that the new forms of entertainment aren't like the old ones won't achieve anything.

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#95

Post by ghaff »

jhbadger wrote: post #73
learc83 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always hated it when listeners called in on talk radio. They very rarely had anything insightful to day, and even if they did, they general weren't able to convey it clearly.

Yeah, the whole "Long time listener, first time caller" thing where they take like a minute before they get to their question, if indeed they actually have one. To be fair, I see this sort of thing in person fairly often in scientific seminars where somebody "asks a question" but spends time first complimenting the speaker on the seminar, and then spends a couple of minutes just making comments rather than actually a…

Pretty much every conference with Q&A ever. You can't avoid it in some settings, and sometimes a question will hit some point that the speaker obviously deliberately avoided, but for the most part Q&A is an anti-pattern at events. Provide some forum where the speaker can interact one on one instead.

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#96

Post by nickelcitymario »

This article is fantastic, because it lays out exactly why I love podcasts.

Podcasts are to audio what punk rock was to music: freedom to be an amateur. Was punk for everyone? Nope. Were punks particularly talented? Some were, but mostly nope. Yet punk became one of the most influential genres of music of all time because it gave you permission to suck.

It's like what's been said about the Velvet Underground: They never made it big, but almost everyone who went to one of their concerts or bought one of their albums started a band of their own. (The same was later said of The Pixies.)

Sure, there's a lot of garbage. But it's real. It's raw. It's people finding their voice.

I couldn't be happier to see the elites complaining about podcasts. Just add it to the pile of people complaining about punk, YouTube, ebook self-publishing, blogging, and all the other ways we're free to express ourselves today.

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#99

Post by ghaff »

Talanes wrote: post #24
jetrink wrote: post #10

I think this whole piece is a pretty bizarre exercise. > I consider [podcasts] an enemy of music. [...] With all of the world’s unheard songs beckoning us with their endless mystery, why would anyone choose to waste their precious listening hours on a podcast? This isn't just comparing apples and oranges, it's arguing that apples are the enemy of oranges. "With so many delicious oranges uneaten, why should anyone was…

The commenters over there are falling into the same trap hard. So many variations of "Why would I listen to this when I could just read the information quicker?" Who are these people who cannot fathom that people may want to listen to something mildly informative while they are otherwise unable to focus on reading? Or just have an easier time absorbing information audibly rather than visually? Or even that someone wo…

It's part of the whole tech self-important "Always be hustling" schtick. The same people who want an abstract at the beginning of every article that isn't written in inverted pyramid style.

That said, I've never liked talk radio (or even radio in general) very much. And am certainly not a fan of meandering chit-chat style podcasts. A lot of podcasts could also probably stand to be shorter as could many presentations. But even a simple 20-30 minute interview conveys information and nuance in a way that a transcript or article doesn't necessarily.

ADDED: There are of course also produced shows that are more than just the words spoken just as a film is more than a paragraph synopsis of the plot.

Re: I'm Against Podcasts

#100

Post by joombaga »

doe88 wrote: post #48

Listening a big chunk of my free time to various podcasts, I reluctantly come to the conclusion that the biggest enemy of podcasts is thinking and introspection . Where before I had moments in my day where I let my mind freely wander and think to the issues I'm currently working on or others, now I rarely have these moments anymore as I listen to podcasts more. I wish I reverted a bit, but it's difficult, listening p…

My experience is the opposite. Every little external sound is distracting. It's only when I'm ignoring some audio that I can think about problems holistically.
Post reply on HN