Overheard in a medical setting:

“Have you brought a urine sample?”

“No, I couldn’t because I don’t have a wotsit”

me: eyes widening… and trying not to look at the receptionist

turns out that by “wotsit”, they meant “sample bottle”

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20 years ago, podcasting felt like (and mostly *was*) a DIY movement. It was part of the fun to have to jump through all sorts of hurdles to get your stuff out there. It felt highly unlikely that more than a handful of people would ever hear it. That made the few who did hear it and who let you know that they’d heard it, feel close to you, whether they liked it or not.

Now I can put a short video on YouTube or TikTok and within a few hours see hundreds of “views” from people who I’ll never hear from again. And what I make is in some sort of weird competition with people selling products, ideas and ideologies.

All the talk in 2005 was about how to make production easier for creators and discovery easier for listeners. Discovery is still not great for longer-form content, but I can reach a lot more people than I ever could before, with way less effort.

Which just shows how meaningless “reach” can be. I’m not entirely convinced that we’re any better off now than we used to be. When a comment from someone on YouTube turns into a relationship where I end up sitting face to face with someone, grinning at the ridiculousness of it all, I might change my mind. Till then, keep on posting!

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I was reminded today of the point in my life where I needed to sleep until I was ready to work and then work until I was ready to sleep. Few other calls on my time. I don’t *miss* it, but it worked for a while.

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