2020 Year in Review — Podcasts

January 1, 2021
2 min read

This wasn’t a good year for podcasts. Previously I was listening to them mostly during commute, of which there was almost nothing left in 2020. I had to unsubscribe from a couple of shows, but also found some new ones — mostly in Polish, just to listen to the language. I will mention three podcasts I enjoyed the most this year, but only one of them started in 2020.

Dithering

I like reading and listening to John Gruber and Ben Thompson, so when they announced they are launching a podcast together I immediately signed up. It is the first paid podcast I subscribed to, but I think it is totally worth it, for just $5 a month (or $50 a year, which I paid for after a couple of months in).

The premise is simple, two people you know, talking for 15 minutes three times a week. They mostly take one subject and discuss that, but sometimes they just have fun.

If you want to understand if it is something you would like — listen to the episode of The Talk Show with Ben Thompson as a guest, or they put out snippets on Twitter.

Cortex

I’m listening to this from the start and this year subscribed to the paid version called Moretex, for some extra content. They talk mostly about productivity, but not in a “life hacks” kind of way. The biggest thing I got from this podcast over the years is the concept of Yearly Themes. Instead of New Year’s resolutions you decide on the yearly theme through which you make decisions throughout the year. They even created a journal for that. I recommend listening to the podcast and trying out the Yearly Theme concept.

Zavtracast

My favourite podcast in Russian (one of the three I listen to) and which immediately goes up the queue. Guys have a great chemistry together and a lot of the time their recommendations are in line with mine. They also somehow score amazing guests from time to time, like a guy from Us Two talking about Assemble with Care and Monument Valley.

Sunday Endorsement – 24.05.2020

May 24, 2020
4 min read

📚 Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech by Geoffrey Cain

“Fuck Steve. He’s dead and we were right. Samsung was right.” – this quote says quite a lot about Samsung culture. The story told in this book shows what happens when a company becomes too big to fail. When the whole country is depended on Samsung doing well.

If you’ve never been to jail, you’ve probably not worked hard enough – could be the mantra of Samsung management.

There are very interesting anecdotes and stories. But by the middle of the book you realize it’s mostly stories about mistakes, investigations, corruption charges etc. and less so the story of the company. I don’t like Samsung as a company, never owned a Galaxy phone, because I felt like they were just copying Apple, but even for an Apple fanboy, this book is a bit too much.

After finishing it, I was not sure on the history of the company, but I sure as hell knew that the dynasty has fallen.

📺 Drive To Survive – Season 1

“To finish first, first you have to finish”

Great documentary with an outstanding access to the drivers and teams, in the middle of the season, I’ve had a longer review written here, but can’t recommend it enough. And I’m already looking for ways to watch F1 season when it comes back.

📺 The Last Dance

Another great documentary I’ve finished this week. Again, never watched basketball, but enjoyed it so much. It’s about personality, team and most importantly leadership. Very different in style from Drive To Survive. It talks about the history, while Drive To Survive is more similar to the reality TV.

🎙 Dithering Podcast

Two of my favorite people in tech blogging got together and created a podcast. I had a little bit of doubt before subscribing as it is a paid podcast and there is no “demo” or even one free episode, but decided to try it out, I can always unsubscribe if I don’t like it and loose just $5. But of course I liked it. I’ve now listened to all the back catalogue and am listening as the episodes get out – three times a week. If you know John Gruber and Ben Thompson, you probably will have a feeling what a podcast is about and it will probably be correct.

This paid podcast model is very interesting and the first one I’ve tried. Almost all of the podcasts I listen to are ad supported with some help from listeners in form of Patreon or something similar. This though, paid up front subscription with no ability to try it out before is something I didn’t see before. The one time I’ve paid for a podcast was with a No Agenda show, which is totally listener supported (they even call listeners producers), but it is optional. They call it “value for value” model and I like the idea of it.

📰 Halide – Year 3

I started using Halide long time ago, probably as soon as it got released and it was on my home screen ever since. And I love reading their blog. It is interesting and honest. Reading about the struggles that current situation has brought (who would have though that nobody is traveling and using photo capturing app) made me realize that I can’t even fathom the real impact the virus had on all of us.

📸 My Photo From Thailand

This week my photo (at the top), got picked by the editorial team of Unsplash and my stats got crazy for a couple of days. More than 300,000 people saw it and some of them even saved it. An amazing result which gives the motivation to take more photos.