A few weeks ago, there was a bit of a disaster in regards to the podcast app on my phone. It seems I’ve lined up so many shows to the queue that the memory load completely overwhelmed the system, and the app refused to function correctly. Every time I scrolled to the list of saved podcasts, the app would crash. At first unwilling to accept the reality, I did everything I could to resuscitate the app, including multiple trials of restarts. However, it was not meant to be, and the only method to get podcasts functioning again was to delete and re-download it from the app store.
My preciously curated queue of podcasts was wiped clean.
I could’ve painstakingly put the list back together once again, but the lazy part of my being compelled me otherwise. The rationale is that ever since I started listening to podcasts during my commute, the upcoming list have been growing and growing, with no end in sight; what’s the use of constructing it again only to potentially lose it once more? Some of the scheduled shows have been on the queue for the better part of a year, so purging it wasn’t really that big of a lost, other than the mental blow to my obsessive compulsive tendencies.
The problem with online content is that there’s so much of it, the well goes forever down into an endless hole. Each week brings in new stuff, and like a dog chasing its tail, you simply can’t hope to consume it all. This is true no matter the medium, be it podcasts, videos on Youtube, streaming television, or even physical books (I’ve made a pact with myself to not buy another book until I’ve read every single one that’s currently on the shelves.) It’s easy to fall into the trap of attempting to consume everything, which explains how my podcasts list got to be long enough to crash the app.
And also why I listen to podcasts at faster than normal speed (usually at 1.5x.) The point became to devour as much shows as possible, rather than listening closely and maybe learn a thing or two.
The unfortunate circumstance with the podcast app crashing presented the perfect opportunity to start over, to remind myself what the point of podcasts is. These days I’ve returned to listening at normal speeds, and only putting a few shows on queue to avoid having to take out the phone to select a new one when an episode ends.
Making haste slowly.
iPhone 11’s new Night mode continues to amaze. I wouldn’t do prints with it, but for a simple capture, smartphone photography technology have advances a very long way.