Self-confidence

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That was my entire idea for a podcast. Thanks for shitting on my dream. I guess I'll never start it now.
- With that attitude, better become a Musician pronto
  
  Funny you should say that. I'm already a terrible musician. I've got a solo gig and a band gig this weekend. I just wanted the podcast to complete my middle aged white dude punch card because my cargo shorts just got here the other day.
  
  Two gigs in the same weekend? Who's going to keep an eye on the smoker?!
  
  I am an actual cliche. Dang.
  
  I'll have everything prepped to start it up drunk at 2am on Sunday morning. This ain't my first rodeo and my brisket will be ready to slice by dinner Sunday evening.
  
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  Cliches are often very powerful and hold a lot of potential for talent.
  
  You'd look way cooler in something fast and shiny...
  
  My motorcycle is plenty shiny and fast.
  
  Seriously, my superhero name should be Average Middle Aged White Dude. The only thing I'm not doing is getting more conservative as I get older.
  
  I guess I'm going to have to wear some white tube socks with my slides and saying shit like "Working hard or hardly working?"
  
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  Socks are weird in general for so many reasons and at so many different levels.
  
  How else should I prevent my thongs from chafing?
  
  Interesting question.
  
  Socks should ideally have some kind of internal smoothness that prevents discomfort. Ridges in awkward positions would probably make your senses play up.
  
  Where we at with video games?
  
  BG3 occasionally, Elden Ring once a week, and once a month or so I'll break out a classic NES or SNES game. Plus I play Battle for Wesnoth with dad when he's not on the road.
- if a random comment on the internet is enough to destroy
  
  your dream
  
  then it was a weak and shitty dream. Get a new one.
  
  do it anyway. Who cares. You know what's the worst that could happen? You try, and it doesn't work out and then you can look back at it and consider it "gave it a good shot, didn't work out". And then you can point to all the people who still sit on their couch and didn't even try.
  
  do it.
  
  This is good advice for people who are serious about their dream. I was not. I've had a crazy life and got to at least kind of hit all the high points of my dreams. My only other one is to retire while I'm young enough to get into trouble and I'm doing my damnedest.
- Well, in that case. Thanks SteveFromSpace for saving us from that one...
- Why not make a podcast about gatekeeping and use this as your first example? There, you've got an objective.
  
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  You are completely right.
  
  I was trying to make a joke, piggybacking off the other guy's joke, but I can see that was poorly communicated.
  
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  I think you did good, I took no offense. I often get insecure about "Are they joking? I'll give a serious reply in case they're not, or in case someone else thinks they might be serious" myself, so I'm usually more concerned with the question "Is this clear enough as a joke?" than with blaming other people for not getting that.
  
  I have an irrational aversion to suffixing my posts with tone markers like "(joke)" that I probably should do something about. It would certainly help with that confusion.
  
  Either way, offering a serious take as a safety measure is a good thing, and I appreciate that you took the time.
  
  May life be as kind to you as you are to others!
  
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- Was the name gonna be "Three drunk Texans"?
Yeah, if you’re not a comedian then you can’t just ramble and expect people to enjoy it. Whereas Bill Burr can talk about any old shit and make it interesting.

Everyone overestimates how interesting and funny they are.
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  Some people like listening to some of them, though, which is how they get famous in the first place.
  
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I once had this idea for a show about nothing....
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  ConfusedSeinfeldLook.jpg
  
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This is exactly why I like Bad Friends.
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Oh shit. I hate that bro.

Goddamnit...
Yeah and I mean these people are just sitting around talking about the most mundane stuff as if anybody would be interested in hearing it.
- Oh shit. I hate that bro.

It's a form of parasocial relationship. It can trigger the same feelings as if you were in a room with some friends chatting. You get to "know" the people's personalities, you can anticipate their reactions to things, you get invested in their personal relationships.

Most of the stuff I listen to is either professionally funny people or specialized topics that I'm interested in.

You need to find better podcasts to listen.

How? I’ve never figured it out.
- Start with a topic you're interested in. For me it's movies so my weekly rotation is The Film Cast and The Big Picture for general contemporary movies. Then Blank Check, The Rewatchables and Unspooled for retrospective movies depending on which ones they're doing.
  
  The trick is to start with your interests and start trying some stuff out. If you don't like a show, just bounce and try another. Eventually you'll find a selection of shows that works for you.
  
  Other interest based podcasts in my rotation that I would recommend:
  
  Music: Song Exploder, Switched on Pop, 60 Songs that Explain the 90s.
  
  TV: The Watch, Prestige TV
  
  Science: Twenty Thousand Hertz
  
  Marketing: Under the Influence
  
  Tech: Engadget, Vergecast
  
  Videogames: DLC, Windbreaker
  
  Curiosities: Search Engine, Decoder Ring

I listen to My Brother, My Brother and Me because I like to listen to the three brothers be funny at each other.

Some people don't need or want intellectually challenging media all the dang time.

Most music isn’t intellectually challenging
- Even dumb music is way harder to make than a shit podcast
  
  it doesn't even have to be music, or have a point, just something to make you say "ok...wtf" and it's more interesting to me than "shootin the shit w mah dudebro brother dudes" type podcasts
  
  https://youtu.be/rk8OZeZavQ0
  
  I don't know what to tell you. Sorry that my preference isn't your preference?
  
  It's light entertainment, who cares what other people like?
  
  glad you enjoy it
  
  It’s not challenging for the listener though.
- I also listen to music?
  
  I can do more than one thing, and I enjoy listening to them.
  
  I don't get why this is getting pushback. It's weird to refuse to understand that other people have different tastes in media consumption.
  
  I don't get why this is getting pushback. It's weird to refuse to understand that other people have different tastes in media consumption.
  
  Because you're lowering our collective IQ listening to cringe bullshit as entertainment.
  
  /s
I rather call these pointless convoys challenging media. I understand nothing, yet it's quite annoying noise to my ears.
fair enough
Episodes 1-250 were great. They’re insufferably flanderized now.
- The most recentish eps (from about a month or so back) have been hitting me a lot better than their "during Covid" era for sure. I got into them late though, sorry to hear what they are now isn't what you enjoy of them anymore. I had the same feeling about Game Grumps right around when they stopped doing episode numbering.
  
  Fair! I gave up at about 300. I still revisit 1-100 sometimes though. So good.
  
  I'd say it's worth checking out a more recent episode or two to see if they've gotten better, but I'd also totally understand just being done.
  
  Personally, I'm super glad I stuck with it because otherwise I'd probably also have dropped The Adventure Zone, and the newest Dracula arc has been really satisfying to me.
That's when i read a simple manga or something. Those poor ears.
- I'm not saying your approach to how you spend your free time relaxing with the media you enjoy is wrong or bad.
  
  I'd really like people to stop insinuating that my approach to how I spend my free time relaxing with the media I enjoy is wrong or bad, though.
- Fiction makes me depressed sometimes

The same appeal as reading the pointless shit people type out while sitting on toilets.

this is interactive though-- everyone can participate in the conversation. i guess you can talk to people in tiktoktube comments, but not with the people who are the focus of the entire "gathering." maybe podcasts are like watching sports on tv. meh, doesn't matter. enjoy what you enjoy

It's like Facebook in the early days.

Here's a picture of my breakfast yogurt.

Here's a picture of me getting on the bus.

Here's a picture of my desk setup.

Here's a geotag of where I'm having lunch along with a photo of my BLT. It was so yummy! Duck face pic!

Here's the geotag and photo of the place I got coffee on the way back to work! Luv u all!

or facebook today:

here's a picture of my cat

here's a picture of my cat

here's a picture of my cat

here's a picture of my cat

here's a picture of my cat

here's a picture of my OTHER cat

here's a picture of my cat
- If that were true, I'd still bother with Facebook once in a while.
- Here's a picture of the REAL president telling the TRUTH about COVID 19
- The Other Cat is going to get a complex from that favoritism.
- I thought facebook today was more like
  
  here's an uncanny AI picture of Jesus
  
  here's the same but Jesus is with a korean flight attendant
  
  here's the same but jesus is with a starving brown kid
  
  Here's the same but the brown kid is missing limbs
  
  Here's an uncanny AI picture of people, in military kit, missing limbs, in wheelchairs, sitting in the middle of the highway, with signs
  
  Here are AI comics with midcentury styled nuclear families, and soldiers, in situations, and with text, that is surreal, at best, and nightmarish, at worst
  
  These are all with titles like "people don't want to see pictures like these anymore", "no one wants to support the troops", "you won't share this", and they are all tagged #BOOMchallenge
- I wish Facebook was still like this.
  
  Now it’s 90% ads and posts from groups I didn’t subscribe to with a post from a friend sprinkled in every so often.
OK but desk setups are fun to look at

I list n to podcasts about science, space, farming, linguistics, and literature. They're actually rather interesting. I don't think I could do just random bullshit

I listen to a variety of podcasts for different moods, and I also use it like music. Sometimes I'm in a music mood, sometimes I decide I need to hear how terrible Kissinger really was, sometimes I want to hear Dan research and refute all the lies Alex Jones spouts (the last two come often with the benefit of learning the origin of bullshit being spouted by some internet personalities), and sometimes I want to hear 3-5 guys who I find funny discuss movies and/or Wikipedia articles. I also like listening to factual and historical podcasts that have more detailed researching.

Why listen when I could look up and read it? Well I do look up and read specific topics, but that takes my full attention. I have ADHD and my mind can wander without additional input if I'm doing something tedious. So I listen while driving, cooking, cleaning, working, and even gaming. Gaming isn't tedious per say, but sometimes you have bursts of that (farming items, repeatable dailies, etc). I pause when I really need to, but some games I also play for relaxation, and I can relax and listen to a funny podcast at the same time. If it's work or gaming where I need focus, music works better.

I actually really enjoy "stuff you should know" it's a podcast with 2 guys from the "how stuff works" network that explain everything from "how cranes work" to the "Tulsa race riots." They're good people that like to joke with each other so it's not just straight boring facts.

That said, they aren't experts and will sometimes read emails that correct things they got wrong lol

Man, I know. Especially when they go off the actual topic and start talking about some random shit while cackling like a bunch of dumbasses.

The only time they appeal to me is when the facehole flappers are genius comedians like Norm Macdonald or Tom Green. Tom was doing his own streaming live shows before Youtube existed and before most others had even realized it was possible.

Don't think Norm is putting out a lot of podcasts these days. :(
- Yep unfortunately so. So I don't watch podcasts much, and that's fine.

I have one podcast I listen to like this because I know them personally, and it's like hanging out with them. I need to have a hook to listen.

I like Making It with Jimmy DiResta, David Piccutto, and Bob Clegatt (I like to make stuff on YT) because they're makers and youtubers. They do talk about random crap sometimes, but they also talk about making stuff and youtube and being middle aged with all those things in the mix.

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Not all podcasts are about pointless shit. Here are two guys talking about books:

https://www.ifbookspod.com/

You're checking out wrong podcasts.

Behind the Bastards Lions Led by Donkeys Magnus Archives Throughline It Could Happen Here

All of these are essentially audio-format shows. They're usually structured to an extent and cover a variety of topics.

I mean, it just comes down to entertainment ability. Some podcasts like Spitballers can talk about random stupid stuff and make it hilarious. Some podcasts just try that and…don't quite pull it off.

Self-confidence

your dream