What do we want from this podcast?
Some of the highlights from our discussion:
It’s necessary to be aware of where the bar is set for the content of the podcasts. Taimur believes the most engaging and impactful content requires some thought and active engagement and the need to hold the podcast to a higher standard than just a pleasant chat – ideally it would also make people think. However, by setting the bar too high in stating that the podcast has to be ‘cognitively stimulating’, other topics of genuine interest could be dismissed.
Having a target for the length of an episode can set an unreasonable precedent for what is required. Ali discusses how having the bar set at 30 to 50 minutes has led to him dismissing topics that may have provided valuable content or a discussion for 15/20 minutes. As content creators, we acknowledge that we need to be more flexible and accept that some episodes will be shorter.
There is a balance to strike between appealing to the audience and sticking to your own vision. Whilst Ali believes that he does have a 50/50 position on this, he does have a strong bias towards responding to listener feedback and taking ideas for content from the audience. On the other hand, Taimur in general is against ‘pandering’ to the audience and would rather move towards producing content that is novel and, in some way, uniquely personal.
There is no such thing as a unique message, only unique messengers. Ali raises the point that although the podcast does discuss topics such as social optionality that might appear to be unique, there have already been books written on these subjects. In essence, all content created in this form of podcast or YouTube video is information arbitrage in one form or another. Everything that we create is something that is already out there and we are applying our own unique twist to it. That said Taimur believes there is more value in certain areas such as social interaction that are perhaps not as well-covered as productivity.
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