Conversation with Ernie Smith regarding NewsletterNerds Twitter Community

you are SO strong in text that my immediate rebuttal to that would be that Tedium, especially, needn’t worry about audio at all. as in, your consistency in volume (that’s oversimplified, but i’m sure you’ve heard this all before.)

I’m going to be STUPID presumptuous for a sec: I’ll bet most of the folks recommending “podcast”-adjacent departures on your part are the sort who actually regard the jest of Tedium/your brand to be actually esoteric, when honestly your beat, if you will, should be on the minds of most knowlege workers, cerainly. but I am saying so from a very specific personal lens so.

it does not seem to me that you of all people would have much to gain from the function “podcasts” (we need more goddamned terms to differentiate audio publishing ASAP lol) seem to play in the professional lives of other folks living in text: it’s a break, basically, from our endless Thought/Task/Note management SaaS Listicle Hell.

personally, I am struggling more than I ever have to live and think primarily in text as someone who has socialized mostly in text forever (virtually all of my many close adult friendships have spanned great wordly distances - only recently have I realized how much more deeply I am invested in the Social Web than most … and why.)

you, sir, more than any other voice I have ever subscribed to, do not appear to struggle whatsoever with what people (hatefully) refer to as “writer’s block.” I think to the sort of people who feel compelled to recommend audio as a medium in that context - along with myself - your written voice appears so comfortable, regular, cohesive, and just… natural in text in a way we aspire to, certainly. covet, probably, but of course, it’s actually just experience, I’m sure, and deliberate discipline.

I guess what I’m ultimately saying: if I could write like you right now, I wouldn’t bother speaking at all to anyone lol.

sorry that’s a big one lol… I actually want to ask you what’s going to sound like the most basic bitch question:

have you “”””enjoyed”””” writing MidRange? as in, the actual time passed spent pounding keys?

because I remember actually noticing your timed time for the first time (lol) and fantasizing about being able to just sit down and pound out a few hundreds words (in gargantuan and alarmingly growing contrast to the actual rate in which I have peronally been able to satisfactorily manifest text) as if it’d be like… getting a severed limb back, basically.