I always find that characterization of Grey and the Cortex podcast to be weird. He never claims to be a productivity master or the most productive person around. Quite the opposite, he has said multiple times how much he is not naturally productive, and how he actually kinda dislikes working in general. The systems and habits are the ways he found to essentially trick himself into working.
Which I think is what people gather from him, but somehow think he's hiding it or pretending is not the case? Which I find strange, given how openly he's talked about it.
As for his productivity going down over time, I think that's a combination of his videos getting bigger scopes and production values, and also he moving some of his time into some not so publicly visible ventures. E.g., he was one of the founders of Standard, which eventually became the Nebula streaming service (though he left quite a while ago now).
> Which I think is what people gather from him, but somehow think he's hiding it or pretending is not the case? Which I find strange, given how openly he's talked about it.
Well the person you're responding to didn't say anything like that. They're saying he's unqualified.
> The systems and habits are the ways he found to essentially trick himself into working.
And do they work? If he's failing or fooling himself then a big chunk of his podcasting is wasting everyone's time.
> videos getting bigger scopes and production values
I looked at a video from last year and one from eight years ago and they're pretty similar in production value. Lengths seem similar over time too.
> moving some of his time into some not so publicly visible ventures
I can see he's done three members-only videos in the last two years, in addition to four and a half public videos. Is there anything else?
> Well the person you're responding to didn't say anything like that. They're saying he's unqualified.
When they said "It's the appearance of productivity, not actual productivity.", that does very much sound to me like an accusation that he is pretending or trying to deceive you into thinking he's a super productive person.
> And do they work? If he's failing or fooling himself then a big chunk of his podcasting is wasting everyone's time.
I'm afraid I'm not close enough to Mr Grey to be able to confidently say one way or another. Everything seems to indicate that he is a fairly successful individual, as a YouTuber with a big following and founder of at least two companies that seems to be going pretty well. So unless he is incredibly lucky and keeps failing upwards, if I had to guess, I'd say he has had at least some success in making himself work on stuff from time to time.
> I looked at a video from last year and one from eight years ago and they're pretty similar in production value. Lengths seem similar over time too
Really? I mean, let's look at some concrete examples. His latest video [1] features many unique drawings, extensive animations, even some 3d stuff with the rotating globes, and almost every scene has an actual drawn background layer.
Meanwhile, one of his biggest videos from 9 years ago [2] is pretty much just a slideshow, with no animations, and most of the video features a static generic white background.
The overarching style (i.e. stick figures, no elaborate textures) is the same, and I guess this is a partially a subjective point, but I think it's a bit crazy to say the visuals in these two videos are of similar quality.
For an example of stuff other than just the animation itself, he put out the Rock Paper Scissors video [3] two years ago, which had a pretty insane huge scope (though that might not be obvious at first glance)
> I can see he's done three members-only videos in the last two years, in addition to four and a half public videos. Is there anything else?
By definition, I'm not aware of stuff he's not made public. I just know that there is stuff that he chooses not to talk much about (he never once mentioned the Standard stuff on his podcast, for example). He also handles a good portion of the backend stuff for the Cortex Brand line of products (I think managing/planning logistics/inventory?). I'm not a member of his channel or his Patreon so I can't tell you how much he invests in exclusive videos, or if there is some other work he discloses over those channels that he doesn't in others.
> Really? I mean, let's look at some concrete examples.
That's not his most recent video, it's a fix of a 2022 video. And the channel still had pretty good output 3-4 years ago.
I compared the nickels video instead, to the worst ID system in America, and they seemed to be similar levels of embellished slideshow.
> By definition, I'm not aware of stuff he's not made public.
I thought you meant paid access stuff and it's easy to see a list of those. If you're suggesting secret videos then uh maybe but that's kind of a weird assumption.
And whatever happened with standard was too long ago to be the problem here.
> He also handles a good portion of the backend stuff for the Cortex Brand line of products (I think managing/planning logistics/inventory?).
That might be the answer but it seems like a waste of his productivity potential.
> That's not his most recent video, it's a fix of a 2022 video.
That's fair, I didn't notice that.
> I compared the nickels video instead, to the worst ID system in America, and they seemed to be similar levels of embellished slideshow.
He still has videos that are simpler. But back then he had nothing that came even close to those big productions he releases from time to time.
> I thought you meant paid access stuff and it's easy to see a list of those. If you're suggesting secret videos then uh maybe but that's kind of a weird assumption.
I'm suggesting he may work on stuff other than videos. Like non-general public facing/non personality driven businesses. Like Cortex Brand, and the Standard stuff before it. He obviously talked a lot about the Cortex Brand stuff, but he kept Standard on the down low. I don't cite Standard as a reason that he is not putting out videos right now, I cite Standard as evidence he isn't necessarily shouting from the rooftops every time he creates a business. So it stands to reason that he may have had other similarly "secret" ventures over the years.
> That might be the answer but it seems like a waste of his productivity potential.
I don't consume their products (they seem nice but they're far too expensive for my third world salary), so selfishly I'd also prefer if he focused more of his time on the videos. But that's an entirely different conversation from "he just pretends to be productive and actually gets next to nothing done".
Yeah, it can be pretty difficult at times. I'm quite proud of my 75% solve rate with Connections, which I'm slowly but surely improving (though the last week or so has been a bit of a regression).
I'm almost tempted to include that stat in my next CV as evidence of my grasp of the language :p
I always find it interesting to take a look at the Connections Bot, which gives the puzzles a difficulty rating based on how many people solve it or fail. It's not rare that I nail one rated 5/5 difficulty, just to completely fail the next day on a 1 or 2 out of 5. The gaps in general knowledge that you can have as a non native can be pretty funny at times! The groups relating to sports team names always get me.
I'm not a self-driving believer (never had the opportunity to try it, actually), but I'd say bad traffic would be the number one case where I'd want it. I don't mind highway driving, or city driving if traffic is good, but stop and go traffic is torture to me. I'd much rather just be on my phone, or read a book or something.
Agreed that public transportation is usually the best option in either case, though.
To me any kind of driving is torture. I don't want the responsibility, the risk, the chance of fines if I miss a speed sign somewhere. And if my car could self drive I could spend the time usefully instead of wasting it on driving. It would be amazing.
Right now I don't even have a car but for getting around outside of the city it's difficult sometimes.
Yeah, I feel ya. I don't mind it, but I'm far from loving it. What particularly stresses me out is how I can be screwed even doing everything correctly, if someone else screws up.
All reasons why I think public transit is the better solution over self driving cars. They're generally much safer, and also you get to do something while you're on the go. Pretty nifty, I think.
Yes that's why I don't own a car. In a big city public transit is amazing. I spend 20 bucks a month on unlimited travel. That won't even buy me a headlight bulb for a car these days lol. When I still owned one I had to pay for the car, insurance, road tax, fuel, maintenance, parking, tolls. It felt like it was dragging me down the whole time. It's insane how much costs add up.
I love public transport and an added benefit is: I don't have to go back to where I left it. I often take a metro from A to B, walk to C and then get a bus back to A or something. Can't do that with a car, as such I tend to walk a lot more now. Because it's a hassle-free option now. The world seems more open for exploration when I don't have to worry about returning to the car, or having a drink, or the parking meter expiring. I really don't get that people consider cars freedom.
Of course once you go outside the city it's a different story, even here in Europe. Luckily I don't need to go there so much. But that's something that should be improved. On the weekend here in the city the metro runs 24/7 and the regional trains really should too but they don't.
Unfortunately in my region highway traffic is quite congested, and so called "adaptive cruise control" is a game changer. I find it reduces fatigue by a lot. Usually the trucks are all cruising at the speed limit and I just hang with them. I only change lanes if they slow down or there's an obstruction etc.
Can confirm, could never stand the taste of Diet Coke, but Coke Zero tastes pretty close to the original to me! To the point that I pretty much never drink regular Coke anymore, if Coke Zero is available. There's basically no downside to going with Zero, imo. And the upside of no calories is pretty great.
That’s because Diet Coke is not based on classic Coke. It’s based on new coke, it should really be called diet new coke. Coke Zero is based on Coca Cola classic.
If Diet Coke has a bitter taste to you (like it does to me) you may have a genetic mutation that allows aspartame to bind to both sweet and bitter taste receptors (as I understand it). For most people it only binds to sweet receptors.
Although to be fair, the last time I had a diet coke, I was, dunno, maybe 10? So like 20 years ago at this point. So maybe if I had some now, I'd have a different opinion. But I don't think diet coke is even sold here in Brazil anymore, It's been years since I last saw one. I was actually not aware that it was still sold in the US!
Well yeah, but then any discrepancies that are found can be discussed (to decide which of the behaviors is the expected one) and then added as a test for all existing and future implementations.
As a Brazilian fellow, 100% agreed. US international is the least bad compromise I've found. I can't say I mind the dead keys too much. And I do enjoy that all combinations are sensible (i.e. key for the symbol + key for the letter). Memorizing the (not quite random but not exactly 100% logical either) position for some of the diacritics would be very annoying to me.
I guess I don't mind it too much because the standard portuguese keyboard layout also rely on dead keys for accented letters, instead of having dedicated keys for them. (Or at least the Brazilian Portuguese layout does, not sure about the European Portuguese layout). So that's just what I've always been used to.
There's nothing wrong with research that doesn't make it to the public. There is definitely something wrong with making false promises to the public, who buy tickets to your park based on what you advertised could be an attractions there, which never materialized.
Cars are inherently dangerous, though. They're multi ton hunks of metal moving at high speeds. That's dangerous from literally any angle you can imagine.
There are ways to make it less dangerous, sure. But they're never 100% safe. Which makes them, by definition, inherently dangerous. That's... What those words mean.
So long as you’re also willing to label swimming pools, grapes, and crayons as, by definition, inherently dangerous on account of not being able to be made 100% safe, then I’ll at least grant you a level of consistency in your argument.
Swimming pools are absolutely inherently dangerous. Why do you think lifeguards are a thing?
Like, really man? If you can't even recognize as dangerous the one activity that famously requires someone specifically trained to save people to be present, then I'm happy to end this conversation right here. It's clearly just a waste of time all around. I just hope there's no one in your life depending on you to judge what's safe and what's not.
Comparing "100% safe" vs the danger cars represent is so ridiculous I have to question if you're kidding? We're talking 40,000 people killed every year in the US alone on account of traffic accidents. And you're talking about grapes and crayons?
And swimming pools are pretty dangerous though? There are around 4,500 drowning deaths per year in the US, so on the order of 10x fewer than due to car accidents, but still quite a lot.
GP is the one who argued “not 100% safe” as evidence of inherently unsafe.
I agree with you that it’s a comically wrong threshold, which is why I offered that series that was progressively more safe but never 100% safe as examples against that line of reasoning.
Make the threshold "won't kill you 99.9% of the time, even if you have little to no training at that specific activity" then. Is that specific enough for you to engage meaningfully with the conversation at hand, and show why you think driving is at the same side of this threshold as eating grapes or using crayons?
Which I think is what people gather from him, but somehow think he's hiding it or pretending is not the case? Which I find strange, given how openly he's talked about it.
As for his productivity going down over time, I think that's a combination of his videos getting bigger scopes and production values, and also he moving some of his time into some not so publicly visible ventures. E.g., he was one of the founders of Standard, which eventually became the Nebula streaming service (though he left quite a while ago now).
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