Web Excursions 2021-06-16
Hot Pod Newsletter - Issue 310
APPLE PODCASTS SUBSCRIPTIONS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHES TODAY, AFTER BRIEF DELAY
Apple Podcasts Subscriptions strikes me as being more beneficial for larger publishers than smaller publishers,
bringing to mind a possible future in which the tool drives greater differences between the haves and the have-nots of the podcast business.
In theory, what Apple offers with its Podcast Subscriptions product is the upside of
leveraging the combination of the company’s locked-in user base and
superior user experience
to drive more paid subscriber conversions.
The company as a whole continues to not take seriously the needs and potential of the ecosystem
that it has inadvertently fostered over the past decade,
as partly evidenced by the Apple Podcasts app’s recent sharp drop in basic usability.
Spotify reportedly nears exclusive deal with Call Her Daddy's Alexandra Cooper.
Spotify is “nearing a deal” that would bring Alexandra Cooper,
along with her popular sex-and-relationships-themed comedy podcast Call Her Daddy, exclusively to the service,
the deal could be valued at $20 million.
Spotify highlighted Call Her Daddy as being the fifth-most-popular podcast on its service.
The Joe Rogan Experience topped that list,
while The Michelle Obama Podcast came in fourth,
which means that, should Spotify close the deal with Call Her Daddy, three out of the five most popular podcasts on the Swedish audio platform last year would be Spotify exclusives.
The other two shows are TED Talks Daily and The Daily.
INTERACTION IS THE KEY: ONE THEATER COMPANY'S TAKE ON AUDIO IMMERSION
Turnkey Theatre [is] the company Turner and Wade created to deliver original audio plays accompanied by tangible scene-specific props,
which are shipped to people’s homes and meant to engage audiences as they listen.
It joins the ranks of similar efforts that sprang up in the vacuum of person-to-person art
Turnkey Theatre specializes in immersive audio theatre experiences for you to enjoy on your own or with friends and family
Our plays include boxes of objects shipped to you that you interact with. Your engagement with the items is part of the story, making you essential to the experience
Deluxe Version--Homecoming — Turnkey Theatre
This 30-minute interactive audio play takes you on a meditative journey that connects you to the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Participants receive a box full of items to interact with during the experience, bringing at-home Theatre to a whole new level.
Avoid News, Part 2: What the Stock Market Taught Me about News | Bayesian Investor Blog
Distorted Salience:
Storytellers could reduce the biases from that distorted salience, by sounding more worried in proportion to harm implied by their stories.
But that conflicts with the goal of making their stories entertaining, and with the goal of maximizing the number of stories that readers believe to be important.
Preparing for the Pandemic
there’s a difference between the probability of an event and the expected value of that event’s effects.
COVID fears
It sure looked like many commentators / storytellers were going out of their way to overstate the economic damage from the pandemic.
I presume that’s partly due to them trying to manage people’s fear levels
Another reason might be that fearful stories selling better than happy ones.
Enron: an example of why I mostly ignore stories, and focus on verifiable numbers.
a glowing report of Enron’s innovative management style in mid-2001
Then I looked at Enron’s earnings growth, revenue growth, and return on equity.
The revenue growth was fairly impressive,
but nothing about the earnings distinguished it from a boring company.
I also looked at charts of its stock price.
I saw signs that sellers were less patient than buyers.
That usually indicates an ordinary fluctuation in business
Coping Strategies
to decide what information I want, to actively seek it, and to minimize my attention to what other people suggest I should pay attention to.
If I let the storytellers decide what evidence to use in evaluating a company (or an industry, or the economy), I’ll end up using criteria that are selected for other people’s purposes.
to focus on sources that prioritize accuracy over entertainment (e.g. Wikipedia, Metaculus).
have some need for alerting myself to important events that aren’t on my radar.
The Wikipedia Current events portal is such a source, but isn’t wise enough about what’s important to be a complete answer.
I check news.google.com, but it’s click-baity enough that I keep hoping to replace it with something better.
Individual bloggers sometimes provide news-like benefits
Is it Getting Worse?
When I was young, there was less competition than we have today.
which means meant that storytellers had more freedom to write stories that enhanced the storytellers’ reputations with their friends and families.
That created a modest tendency toward high-brow, consensus-oriented stories.
Whereas today, we have storytellers that specialize in peddling outrage
I don’t want to leave you with the impression that storytellers are mostly wrong.
If they were, I could make more money by doing the opposite of what they say.
Their actual track record is much more ordinary than that.
Avoid News, Part 2: What the Stock Market Taught Me about News
arduinomancer: My current philosophy is to treat news/Reddit/social media like email in the old days. That is: log on to a desktop computer once a week and read the highlights. It is not accessible except through the desktop computer.