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Comment by pg | Hacker News Reader

Sorry, podcasts are not my kind of thing. Jessica Livingston is about to start a blog, though.

I think podcasts and essays are close. Podcasts are just more efficient....

Not even for the founders dinner speakers? Looking Forward to Jessica's blog. I am about to finish her book.

We could never record the speakers. Dinners are off the record so that speakers can say things they would never dare to say publicly.

Makes sense. I am just so hungry for information and tired of reading.

Are you writing a June essay?

Actually I've been working on News.YC lately. And advising 19 new startups. I can just about remember what they're each working on...

Think you're getting close to the upper limit of startups per session?

I felt that way at the first dinner, but things are under control now.

'... Podcasts are just more efficient ...'

For users, not creators. They take a lot of work to do properly (Doug Kaye, The Secret Lives of MP3 Files, http://pa.gigavox.com/shows/detail1600.html mp3, 54min, 25Mb ) and besides articles are way more bandwidth efficient given their size.

I meant this relating to time. It takes a long time and a couple of revisions to write a good polished essay (or blog post) I think for creating a podcast you write down what you want to talk about in point form and then you talk and elaborate on these ideas.

That would be the equivalent of writing down a few notes for your essay beforehand and then posting the first draft. The revisions are needed for a reason, which doesn't go away if you're talking instead of typing.

My personal feelings are strongly anti-podcast. I find them a great inconvenience. I can read faster than people can talk and I can't think or work effectively when someone is talking. Written communication is by far my favorite way of getting information.

I agree, but podcasts are great when you are going for a walk, driving, or riding your bike.

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