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I love Instapaper and will continue to support Marco with a paid subscription. But B&A has become more of a Marco Rant show instead of what it was the first fe

by atonse 15y ago

I love Instapaper and will continue to support Marco with a paid subscription. But B&A has become more of a Marco Rant show instead of what it was the first few episodes. But I think that's an intended common theme of 5by5 shows. Dan Benjamin encourages that sort of behavior with his hosts and wants that sort of image.

nhangen 15y ago
I can't figure the show out anymore. It was once filled with great dev related discussions, but now mostly, like you said, Marco going on at length about the same 3 or 4 topics (Android, Amazon, Textmate, etc). I still listen, but find myself being less interested. What are some good alternatives?
- oldpatricka 15y ago
  Core Intuition (http://www.coreint.org/ http://www.coreint.org/), is a really great podcast by two iOS/Mac developers (Daniel Jalkut of MarsEdit fame, and Manton Reece of tweetmarker). Daniel's shtick is that he's a punkass, but it's immediately apparent that both of them are pretty humble, and always trying to keep it positive. The most insightful part of the show they take questions from the audience and answer them. I was hoping Build and Analyze would be more of the same, but the show took another direction.
Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
5by5 podcasts seem to indulge their hosts too much and Dan Benjamin needs to put a bit more structure and a bit more focus around them. There's only so far taking a smart, interesting person and letting them rant and ramble can take you before you need to ask them to focus and prepare a bit more. Whenever I see a weekly tech podcast of this sort clocking in around the hour mark my instant reaction is "you didn't prepare enough and you didn't edit enough". See also the StackExchange / StackOverflow podcast.
- achompas 15y ago
  Is the SE/SO podcast another example of unstructured dialogue? Or is it more structured?
  - mapgrep 15y ago
    It is roughly as unstructured as a typical 5by5 podcast. There are often topics and/or guests selected in advance, with some or a lot of rambling. (Personally, I like some rambling. A good podcast is like a good essay in that it will go off on tangents. But there needs to be unifying theme acting like gravity to reel the tangents back to Earth. For the StackOverflow podcast, the initial unifying theme was building StackOverflow, with the cofounders debating various decisions. With 5by5's The Talk Show it's typically one (or more) Apple events from the week plus a James Bond movie at the end. For The Pipeline and some other podcasts, the focus of each show is the guest who comes on the show that week.)
- nhangen 15y ago
  I don't mind the length, in fact I prefer it, but you're right that Dan needs to jump in more often. My favorite podcasts on 5by5 are those in which Dan has a strong part in the discussion.
  - Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
    Yep, it's not the length per se, it's the length to content ratio. Too often it feels they could have fitted the same stuff into a 30-40 minute show.

by atonse 15y ago

nhangen 15y ago

I can't figure the show out anymore. It was once filled with great dev related discussions, but now mostly, like you said, Marco going on at length about the same 3 or 4 topics (Android, Amazon, Textmate, etc). I still listen, but find myself being less interested. What are some good alternatives?

oldpatricka 15y ago
Core Intuition (http://www.coreint.org/ http://www.coreint.org/), is a really great podcast by two iOS/Mac developers (Daniel Jalkut of MarsEdit fame, and Manton Reece of tweetmarker). Daniel's shtick is that he's a punkass, but it's immediately apparent that both of them are pretty humble, and always trying to keep it positive. The most insightful part of the show they take questions from the audience and answer them. I was hoping Build and Analyze would be more of the same, but the show took another direction.

Tyrannosaurs 15y ago

5by5 podcasts seem to indulge their hosts too much and Dan Benjamin needs to put a bit more structure and a bit more focus around them. There's only so far taking a smart, interesting person and letting them rant and ramble can take you before you need to ask them to focus and prepare a bit more. Whenever I see a weekly tech podcast of this sort clocking in around the hour mark my instant reaction is "you didn't prepare enough and you didn't edit enough". See also the StackExchange / StackOverflow podcast.

achompas 15y ago
Is the SE/SO podcast another example of unstructured dialogue? Or is it more structured?
- mapgrep 15y ago
  It is roughly as unstructured as a typical 5by5 podcast. There are often topics and/or guests selected in advance, with some or a lot of rambling. (Personally, I like some rambling. A good podcast is like a good essay in that it will go off on tangents. But there needs to be unifying theme acting like gravity to reel the tangents back to Earth. For the StackOverflow podcast, the initial unifying theme was building StackOverflow, with the cofounders debating various decisions. With 5by5's The Talk Show it's typically one (or more) Apple events from the week plus a James Bond movie at the end. For The Pipeline and some other podcasts, the focus of each show is the guest who comes on the show that week.)
nhangen 15y ago
I don't mind the length, in fact I prefer it, but you're right that Dan needs to jump in more often. My favorite podcasts on 5by5 are those in which Dan has a strong part in the discussion.
- Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
  Yep, it's not the length per se, it's the length to content ratio. Too often it feels they could have fitted the same stuff into a 30-40 minute show.