John Gruber talks about the Talk Show leaving 5by5 | Hacker News Reader

John Gruber talks about the Talk Show leaving 5by5

muleradio.net

7 pointsleeohsheeus5 comments

Be warned: I've been listening for ~23 minutes, and they're still beating around the bush to get any non-rambling explanation.

The irony is that if Benjamin was cohosting, they would have wrapped up the issue within the first 5 minutes of the podcast.

Just like, say, Dan keeps a tight rein on the first half hour or so of Back to Work right? (I kid, I love the first half hour, just like the rest of it).

I agree with the first bit though, while he talked 'about' the move, he didn't really say anything useful. He might as well not have said anything.

Overall I found this episode so difficult to listen to I probably won't bother with the show again, despite being a relatively long time listener of the 5by5 version. Gruber sounds a lot more animated, but there's very little actual content.

The problem is that his co-hosts have added almost nothing to the show. They're neither hosts that keep the showing movie along like Dan Benjamin or co-hosts that can hold their own like Merlin Mann.

That episode of Gruber and Merlin a year ago was great. I thought this would be more like that, but so far Gruber's chosen guest hosts are too in awe of him or too nice to really add anything.

Lonely Sandwich makes a nice third person on a podcast, but he's not the kind of co-hosts that will keep this show together. I really like him on You Look Nice Today, but he's certainly the third person on that show. It would never work as just him and Merlin or him and Scott Simpson (but I think Scott and Merlin might be able to do a show together).

As much as Gruber may not want to admit it, he needs a full-time cohost to keep the show together. Gruber has great insights, but he needs someone to draw those out, to challenge him and to keep the show focused.

I listened to it earlier, and am still confused as to what John meant by the "longstanding [business] disagreements" he had with Dan. However, I'm glad he moved it, I got tired of John just talking and Dan pretty much agreeing with whatever he said, and this is the reason I went from listening to almost all of the 5by5 podcasts to listening to none of them (except for one, but this one in particular wasn't always part of 5by5 and doesn't include Dan).

I really hope this kerfuffle wasn't over longstanding business disagreements related to t-shirts.

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