My problem is that, unless I’m doing something that is entirely kinesthetic in nature (that is, I don’t have to think about it at all), then the words in my head will invariably drown out the words of the podcast. Anything I listen to that does not engage me completely (the way a movie or TV show would), I generally have to rewind and listen to again (and again, and again, etc.), to hear the parts that I missed.
Now, this isn’t to say that I demand transcripts from them — transcription is a time consuming and frustrating process. I don’t blame them in the slightest for not doing it.
I’ve just been subscribed to the YANSS RSS feed since it was a blog and not a podcast, and I miss reading those posts.
Listening to podcasts, while doing nothing other than having a beer on my back porch, after the kids are in bed and dinner and the fuss of the day is finally done is my ONLY respite. I’m a stay at home parent. I don’t have a commute. I work roughly 14 hours a day, 7 days. That podcast + beer when the house is finally quite is my only chance to exhale and let my brain be taken elsewhere.
Maybe there’s something to that distinction. Reading is going somewhere, listening to radio or podscasts is being taken somewhere.
This is what kills it for me. I really like the topics YANSS covers, but it’s frustrating to get 10 minutes in, and find out that was just the intro and they spend another 10 minutes going over the same stuff again. Just get to the point. Even though I prefer transcripts, I’d still listen, if they didn’t take 20 minutes worth of essential material and fluff it out to 45.
This is actually a very poor example of the sharpshooter fallacy. The gun wielder is attempting to group the shots. He’s just not great at it. Maybe a shotgun blast would have been better.
