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While you make your opinion harshly, I have to agree completely. Marco is an intelligent, driven guy who has been successful with Instapaper. It's a shame to hear him complain so much, and I've stopped listening to Build & Analyze as a result.

That's a good point. I think the success is what changed him. When the podcast started he was just starting to become a member of the "outspoken" members of the community. Thus, he was sort of the new guy.

You know what I'm talking about. The new guy that's quiet because no one knows him outside of "hey, he's the new guy." But as you get to know him, and he becomes more comfortable he starts to show who he really is as he becomes more outspoken.

Now, I don't want to say to not be yourself, and you can't please everyone. But I preferred the first 5-6 episodes of B&A over all the others. He was humble and interesting. Somewhere between 7-15 the humble was disappearing and the interesting vanished.

Many of the 5by5 shows have morphed into "listen to a nerd rant for 60-90 minutes about boring topics"

If Dan could keep his "hosts" on a leash, introduce some structure, and cut the shows down to 30 minutes then they might have something that was more listenable.

Once they started spending 30+ minutes talking about "which Mac they should each buy to replace their current one" I had to stop listening. Siracusa is good, though.

Give Web Ahead on 5by5 a listen. Sometimes might be too basic for some, but interesting tidbits all over I think.

Why wouldn't you recommend the app if it's good, regardless of how he comes across in the podcast?

The biggest challenge for Instapaper was the iOS5 "Read Later" feature. This version of the app shows to his customers that they didn't waste their money and ensures that their loyalty continues. It's a great response from a small software vendor, and I applaud him for releasing it at the perfect time right after the new iOS5 feature is out.

If Mark Zuckerberg rubs you the wrong way does that make you less likely to recommend Facebook?

No. Why should it? I don’t understand, are you implying it should?

I don’t think personality flaws of the creators that don’t impact the product are ever a good reason for not using a product. That line of thinking doesn’t even make sense to me.

(Note that I’m not talking about products where the personality of the creators also impacts my experience of it. I’m perfectly willing to give up on a restaurant – even if I quite like the food – if the waiters are rude and annoying. Now, the food might be so great that I’m willing to overlook those flaws but at the very least the personality flaws figure into my decision. I can, however, happily use Facebook without ever being confronted with Zuckerberg’s personality flaws.)

I find your comment really amusing. Your whining and complaining about Marco's podcast doesn't exactly make you look like the paragon of humility, reason, and understanding.

It's almost as if HN has become a soapbox for you to complain about some application or developer ... ok sorry for that last (clearly hyperbolic) jab. I hope you get the point though, and take it in the friendly and jocular way it was intended.

It wasn't intended to come out as if I was complaining. Someone mentioned the podcast, it's not as though I brought it up myself. I liked the podcast in the beginning. It just simply took a different path than it should've in my opinion.

The title of it is "Build & Analyze" right? So, it should be about "building" things (whether that be coding, building said code, or as a metaphor for other things in life) and "analyzing" things related to the same... code or life.

But instead there is very little discussion of building... and the analyzing is ranty and uninspired.

One of the recommendations I made was Hypercritical with John Siracusa. Let's compare and contrast a bit..

Siracusa is one of those guys that just knows how to take something, whittle it down to nothing and find the faults. There's nothing wrong with finding fault in things. There will _always_ be faults, however big or small. The difference is in how Siracusa talks about them. He's critical of things to the point of beating a dead horse. Hypercritical is perfect for his podcast. Probably the most apt name I've ever seen for a podcast. But when he discusses these faults he provides some of the best examples he can come up with for _why_ he feels that way, and/or _how_ the faults they could be corrected.

Marco on the other hand just. Complains. I think he tried in the beginning to provide just cause for his complaining. But in the end he failed to be able to do it consistently. Instead, the podcast turned into another version of The Talk Show. At least with the Talk Show Gruber can be entertaining. Though I rarely listen unless the show notes show me something interesting. But Marco is trying to emulate Gruber and failing hard. Even his blog is taking on the same type of thing with a tiny bit more iOS discussion.

Either way. People can make their own opinion. I just hoped to make it a quick way for people to know to avoid it. If they're like me and they find annoying dick-ish podcast hosts to be on the do-not-listen list then they know right away that Build & Analyze isn't for them.

The title of it is "Build & Analyze" right? So, it should be about "building" things (whether that be coding, building said code, or as a metaphor for other things in life) and "analyzing" things related to the same... code or life.

The title is actually taken from a feature in Apple's Xcode, and as far as I can tell is just meant to indicate, "Here are the thoughts of an iOS developer." Nothing wrong with that.

Also amusingly, there's always someone to pipe up and say "you're complaining about someone complaining...HYPOCRITE."

It's hypocrites all the way down.

The problem might be that you haven't really supplied any of the reasoning behind your opinion. Your argument ceases at "he is an ass" and "he's slowly gotten a big head".

I apologize to everyone else for the metaspam, but I thought gks needed a reason to avoid problems in the future. I just wanted to let you know that I just downvoted you as well, and while I cannot explain why others downvoted you, I can explain my position. My biggest issue was the phrase "turned into a dick". Feel free to express your opinion, and I respect it, but I could personally do with less high schoolish namecalling.

...unless, of course, this guy was actually transforming into a large male body part, in which case this is a major event in the world of science but irrelevant to the discussion at hand. Nah, I know what you mean. I just do not have to support the manner in which you express it.

I don't think Marco is too arrogant, just highly opinionated (like the way he doesn't want to support Android - he just isn't interested in that environment, and really like Apple), but I wish they'd talk more about Building and Analyzing and less about coffee or Macs. I was hoping he'd talk more about programming and software development. When he starts to overlap with Siracusa and Gruber I start to tune out. Especially Gruber, when they both talk about Apple stuff. Siracusa isn't too Apple centric on Hypercritical and has some good episodes on more general programming topics and things like Perl, so he doesn't overlap with Marco too often.

"When he starts to overlap with Siracusa and Gruber I start to tune out."

Agreed 100%. I like Marco, Siracusa, and Gruber's podcasts but it'd be nice if they did a better job coordinating their topics.

Agreed. The bottom line is I'm not really interested in Marco's opinion on tech products. He may be no more biased than Gruber, but he's rarely as insightful from a consumer perspective. I don't need to hear the umpteenth rant about how inferior Amazon's tablet will be, or how you can't make money in the Android Market. I love my Apple stuff, I just can't get anything out of that kind of cheerleading.

On the other hand, when he talks about actually building stuff or even tangential stuff like the App Store review process, that's where he distinguishes himself and can hold his own against Siracusa and Gruber who are stronger pundits.

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.

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?

Core Intuition (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.

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.

Is the SE/SO podcast another example of unstructured dialogue? Or is it more structured?

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.)

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.

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.

I just listened to the podcast (episode 46) and was expecting Marco to be some major ego-maniac. I didn't see that. Marco seemed thoughtful and insightful to me.

Sure, he's opinionated, but not in any offensive way. Personally I find it appealing when a podcast/radio host has a strong opinion, whether or not I agree with it.

One show is one thing. I think you'll get a better picture after several. But hey, if you like it you like it. No harm in that.

I was merely saying, maybe in a hyperbolic way, that his attitude rubs me the wrong way. It bothers me that such a high profile example of a "successful" indie developer can be so abrasive towards others on his podcast.

Yes, the app is nice, the latest version is stellar looking. But this is one of those "speaking with my wallet" moments. Sad fact is I've already paid for the Pro version, but I won't be paying him again unless I see the attitude change. That's probably fine by him too. He doesn't strike me as the type of person to be bothered by someone voicing their opinion of him. Needless to say, you put yourself out there and become a "indie" developer heart-throb you get some of the good with the bad. That was his choice. He writes publicly, he speaks publicly on his podcast. It's the same thing with any other person in that type of position.

As for podcasts, there's definitely better out there that I'd recommend way before his.

I think it's funny that you need to "like" Marco in order to use Instapaper.

No, I think he needs to "not dislike" Marco. It's a subtle and very important difference. Ambivalence is just fine.

And it's not as if I "dislike" him. I dislike his show and the attitude I see on it. He might be a perfectly nice guy in person. It's his online persona or whatever that I dislike so much.

The fact that he comes across the way he does makes me not want to use his app or recommend it, or listen to his show.

Again, he may be perfectly fine in person, but he isn't showing me any good reason to not "dislike" him online.

You sound a bit harsh, but I'm going to agree. In the first episodes Marco came off as an everyman developer in the trenches trying to make an awesome product. I bought Instapaper to support him. That changed.

One thing I started noticing was that he was parroting things he read about Android without checking the facts. I write mobile apps for both iOS (my preferred platform) and Android, and he says things about Android that are false and misleading.

I agree with the recommendation for Hypercritical. Siracusa holds himself up to a level of truth that some of the other tech-related, mac-focused 5 by 5 shows do not. I also recommend The Pipeline, where Dan Benjamin does a great job of getting inspirational material from his guests.

Marco's show is still very young. Making it short or more focused wouldn't allow it to develop as quickly (the man needs more hours not less). I still very much enjoy the show and think Marco is more free than he used to be and more enjoyable as a result. I think Marco's value or not an a good talk radio host is not in the more focused show.

Hypercritical is a more focused and is a great show in its own right.

As Dan would say "Sorry to lose you as a listener".

You may be being down-voted because of hyperbole rather than disagreement...

Critical Path is also very good. Insightful and entertaining sometimes on topics that I won't otherwise care for.

while we're naming 5by5 shows that are awesome—back to work with merlin mann http://5by5.tv/b2w start with episode 1 or just dive right in. productivity porn has never been this good, or this hilarious.

I agree with you about the podcast. I listened to a few episodes and stopped listening to any of 5by5 podcasts.

In general, I have not listened to many different podcasts, but so far I felt that they were very repetitive and there was very little to gain from them. It kind of felt like I was reading a forum with debates about text editors. It is addictive, but not productive.

Aside: If anyone has a good podcast to recommend, please do.

Thank you stating the truth. I could not agree more.

“Build and Analyze” is the name of a button in one of the older versions of Xcode (the program in which you code and test iOS and OS X applications). The name is just a play off of that; it’s not supposed to be a succinct description of the show’s purpose.