Better Offline - Radio Better Offline: David "Shingy" Shing

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

Welcome to Radio Better Offline, a tech talk radio show recorded out of iHeartRadio's studio in New York City.In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by famed “digital prophet” David “Shingy” Shing, who calls himself a “creative omnivore,” to talk about adtech, being a "digital prophet," and society's attraction to nostalgia.https://www.shingy.com/ Vote for Better Offline's "Man Who Killed Google Search" as the best business podcast episode in this year's Webby's! Open until April 17! Vote today! https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2025/podcasts/individual-episode/business --- LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/  Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at Ed's Socials: https://twitter.com/edzitron https://www.instagram.com/edzitron https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com https://www.threads.net/@edzitronSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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studio in beautiful New York City. Today I am joined by a man who in 2014 rose to fame after becoming AOL's digital profit. He joins me in the studio today. David Ching, best known as Shingy, David. Hey Ed, how are you, mate? I am fantastic. Hell of an intro. Oh yeah, this is the most normal show in tech. What are you up to these days, Chingy? Great question. There's three things I'm primarily up to. Okay. I'm out speaking and educating. That's quite much what I'm known for. I also have a creative house. Nice. That started around pandemic time. Okay. What's a creative house too? It does everything from

iconography all the way through to strategy. So all the way through the end. What's iconography? You happen to be wearing a brand on your t-shirt right now. Somebody designed that, dude. Okay, so a design thing. Mm-hmm. And then the other flip side is a advisory practice. That's cool. And it's institutional advisory as well as small startups, which has really been research for me, which has been amazing. Yeah, as a fellow consultant with a podcast, it's always good to meet another one. So you, it's been a while. since you rose to fame. What kind of happened? What kind of happened? Because you, I remember I was in the Bay Area at the time when I saw you, you arise on MSNBC and then just went and did other things. I had to

go and make some mistakes in my life, I guess. What was it you did at all? Well, so I ran 13 countries for them. I ran the media and marketing for them. Right. Throughout Europe. But what did that actually entail? I ran 13 countries with multi-millions of users. Yes, but what did you do each day? because I launched a series of websites, and I launched a series of ad platforms, and I helped change the iconography for AOL, and when you build a new brand, and you don't have any budget to support it, you have to think about a way to be in the marketplace, so I created a persona. Wait, did you not have, like, much budget? Oh, yeah, we did. But not in Europe.

No, not in Europe. No. Because what happens in a big company, you could probably appreciate this. If one division performs poorly, everyone suffers. Right. So if you're not close to the sun, you're not going to get all the budget. It's just how it works. It's funny because your whole thing, and don't say this as an insult, got kind of flattened to that one picture of you with the kind of.

MSNBC? Yes, the MSNBC. Yeah, because, and then there was that Guardian interview. It's like, you drew a zebra. It said you showed someone, AOL a picture of a zebra. Zebra pants, probably. It's just. I was wearing them, by the way.

You're wearing, nice. Yeah. Yeah, it's funny because you've become. somewhat of like a, like a, I want to say like a character within tech. A meme? I think memes fair, but it's more than that. The character's probably a little underrated. Yeah, it's just, because you have a real job, it seems, and you have this whole time, despite the fact that I've been told like, oh, this guy just like shows up and says he's the digital profit. And I was genuinely curious about, like, I'm excited. I never really told anybody the mystery. I want to hear the mystery. And the magic of it still replicates today. So I would go in and get interviews, get audiences with brands we could never be in front of. Like what? Like what brand? Like, yeah, what kind of brands?

Nike. Nike? Why couldn't AIWL get in front of them? Well, but they could, but they're going to just sell ads. I'm trying to sell innovation on top of the ads. Right. So much bigger than we would ever be able to do. And what would that innovation manifest as?

What were you selling to Nike for example? I know that this is just an example. We invented an ad called Devil, which was like this incredible new, magazine-esque style ad takeover that the IAB ended up picking up and running with. So we were just building things that were radically different than spots and dots that sales teams are selling. Right. So how do you feel about AI?

How are you feeling about all this? Because look, you were part of a hype cycle. So end of 2014 was like a very hype-driven time. It's like the sexiest time in Indiegogo and Kickstarter land, I would say, back then. What do you think of AI? How do you feel about it? Do you think it's a bubble? No.

No. Well, it's also been around for 40, 50 years. Right. So generative AI specifically. What do I think about that? Yeah, sure. I think it's magical. Really?

Yeah, it hallucinates occasionally, but I think it's great. Because if I can extend a background without having to go reshoot it, that's pretty good. And I'm able to change it out. Can you do that, though? Yeah, have you not been, have you haven't checked out Firefly or Photoshop. I read your substack. I do read your blog. It's just right now, as a hype man, I don't mean that derisively.

I mean that, like, your job is ostensibly hype. Right now it feels like there is this marketing dissonance between Firefly, which I'm aware, and I know there are lots of people who listen to the show who are going to be very angry at me that we're even talking about Adobe AI. Calm down everyone. It's shingy. Allow him in. But it feels like you've got this massive business failure.

happening in the background, billions of dollars burn from Open AI, but you've got some utility. How do you balance that? Like, how do you've... In what characterization of it? You said generative AI and then... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'm talking about the fact that you're hyping up something that is unsustainable right now. Which bit?

I mean, the generative AI features of Firefly, for example, the same... Why is it not sustainable? Well, because Open AI burns $5 billion a year, they still haven't worked out any profitability for any of these models. They don't know if Firefox. Yes, but Firefly's run on generative models. Yeah, right. And they help create ad performances at scale. Right.

So at some point in time, these things level out. When? Because that's the thing, like the amount. When there's demand for better ads. Right. I just feel like we're a little lost within the generative AI conversation, as an industry. Right. And I'm curious.

Do you play with Runway? I've played with Sora a bit. Yeah. I just think, I found runway to be really fucking mediocre. Well, there's a dystopian to it, which is definitely that shine will come off, and that production's going to be pretty amazing. What do you mean? Single tool that does one thing, no good.

Right. But a tool that allows you to master audio without an engineer. Pretty amazing. Yeah, but does that exist yet? Yeah, it does with voice AI. Because Riverside is not good. Riverside is a podcasting platform. And they have AI mastering on it.

God bless them. But they're not just doing mastering. So you can upload something to something like voice AI, and it's absolutely designed for mastering. Right, but there is this massive financial problem at the side of this, that this stuff is burning so much money. And I guess you could have on-device models, but that's nowhere near what we're...

I just, I don't know how you couch these two things. Supply and demand. I mean, there's a massive supply for new ways of creating different tools. And the supply cycle is incredibly wide. It feels like, you know, back in the... web 1.0 cycles. Right. But now it has different tools

that are much faster to build. But the demand isn't there. Yeah, I think so? I mean, I did a piece a few months ago, no, weeks ago, Jesus Christ, time dilation, where it was like, copilot has like 11 million monthly active users. Okay.

Which is pretty pissed poor, and that's Microsoft's. I am hearing that there are various companies like 11 labs which are kind of leveling out as far as user base goes. What happens if this doesn't get much bigger? It just continues to do everything else does, it tails off and becomes a niche, which is okay. You think so?

Yeah, it's totally okay. So you seem quite high on it. So what are you using then? Talk to me about the AI tools you use. The obvious. I mean, I think chat's interesting. I think that Claude is interesting to help you do draft one. So those sort of tools are fine.

I think SORA is, it seems interesting, but dystopian. Runaway works okay if you can actually model it correctly. When you say dystopian, what do you mean? Overglossy, really hard to understand. stand, depth of field. Like, if you are going to be a deep practitioner, you know the sort of thing you want. Right. To try and visualize that can be very difficult.

And I think that's kind of the challenge today is these tools do remarkable amount of work. Right. It's the matter of can you get it to do the work that you wanted to do without taking more time than actually doing it physically? Right. With software. So it's just software. And it's curious, but it's not. here's what I am seeing.

I'm seeing a consolidation of tools saying here's one tool that you log into and it does all these things for you. But it does all of them only okay. So you have to splinter off and find something that does just what you want it to do. So focused. And better at bookwriting than maybe stories

or better at drawing than maybe painting a landscape. I mean, these articulations that become really just splinters of a certain technique today are all corralled into one thing. And I don't think anything does a great job. Words are great. I think the agent... I don't know if I agree on the word site.

I don't... Well, as a... But never let it. And you still, your points made. But it's way better than me as a first edit copywriter, so... Yeah, but that's a skill issue, shingy. Like, you could get better by writing more. You could.

It's good. Do you... Is your substack chat GPT written or Claude written? No. But it's, you know, I think what's interesting about the tools, I don't want to have to necessarily... become very technical when I'm wanting to shoot an idea of a landscape or something. By the way, I'm only using my own images and only purposely not using anything generative.

It's all like photos from my own photo library. Right. So no stock, no generative. Because until it's actually really good, as much as I'm an advocate for it, I'm a better believer in craft than I am. So can these tools, like mastering, for example, of sound? Love that. Love that for a tool because I have no clue how to bring EQs up.

I have no clue how to bring in any depth within a voice. I have no clue on that. So, God bless. And do you use it for that? Like, you actually use it? What do you use for mastering it? I use voice. I think it's voice.

I've used a couple of them. And by the way, when you skim it, you know, when I'm looking for something, it's typically at urgency. Other levels are low and I can't seem to bring them up and they're over-peaky. Right, right. I use a service. It comes back. It's too peaky or it's got too much base.

I don't know, right? So it's really about, can I use things, tools that help get to a better, artifact than the actual tools that I can use because democratization of tools means that everything is kind of flatlined. So I'm looking for things become really interesting. I don't necessarily think that the quality of the end result is higher resolution enough, but it sure beats, squeaky markers and bleep-poof pads that we grew up with. So the efficiency of getting ideas out, love that. Right, but is it craft if you're using generative AI? Yeah, I think it is.

I think it's, I think an Anastus can use any tool. This just happens to be one of them today. Right. Now, you talked about value, though. You talked about this thing, seemed to be bleeding money, et cetera, et cetera. All of them. Yeah, God bless. What do you mean, God bless?

I mean, that's going to be their problem. At some point in time, they're going to have to factor that out and figure out a model that. Everyone's trying to, you know, generate these tools that can be the panacea, and then they're going to make money on it at some point. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. We'll see. It's just not all the tools are going to make money, you know that.

Sure, but none of the tools currently make money. Like that's kind of the thing. It just, it feels like an atypical hype cycle in that having lived through enough of these now myself, I'm a little bit younger than you. I've never seen one that was just burning cash like this. And it, but I've never seen one with more, nor have I ever seen one with more disconnection between the utility and the marketing hype. It feels like they are promising more than ever. Yeah. And we're in this weird, distant area where it's like, no one really knows what's going to happen.

Well, you know, I live in the space of ads still. So from an ad perspective, there's no shortage of demand. But for what, though? Ads. Yeah, sure, but demand for ads. But what about generative AI? Like, where does generative AI into this? Are you saying creative?

Yeah, helping to create the ads. I think the ads that are created with generative are pretty rubbish. Yeah. But the truth is there's a demand for lots of ads because of just sheer audience. growth. But the reality is that efficiency of can you make ads cheaper. That's a, that's a conundrum. But is, is General of AI doing that? I don't think so. I think they're doing some of it, perhaps. Maybe they're doing an interesting background that would have taken you up, but it can't, it's not the whole thing. And by the way, if you and I were to look at a bunch of ads right now

and try and pick with their AI or not AI, you would, I think nine out of ten would get. We would know that it's written by AL. There's like an uncanny valley feel to them. It's got a dystopian, I guess. It kind of feels a little bit like, and we've gone way beyond hallucination. We've gone into this kind of, you just know. You can just see it and feel it. It's cold. It's weird. And the funny thing is, is I think what you're talking about is not hallucination.

It is actually an accurate depiction of something, but it's too accurate. It has this kind of sheen. It feels like the movie AI, ironically. Yeah, it does. I said that came off my head. I'm like, shit, I'm stupid. Anyway. And the number of frames a second seem off.

Yeah. There's too much light. The lighting's perfect. I completely agree with you, but it's also where I see those sort of things used are in more kind of tonnage ads, like things that are just trying to get a lot of these creatives saturating the marketplace, which ultimately, if we're not careful, we'll make ads more expensive, meaning to get to ed the human at the end of it, if you've now just become completely oblivious or ignoring ads that feel like they're AI'd, because it's, unless that gets figured out, you'll become blind to these AI ads. So to get to you is even going to be harder. So this is the weird thing right now. Ads and AI don't seem to have touched that much. And I say this because there's a company.

You heard of perplexity? True. So perplexity is allegedly Hayden Field at CNBC reported this last year. They're apparently looking for like $55 CPM. On what platform? On their search net, their search platform. Okay. But you've not really seen ads and AI touch.

Like even Google's AI search, they just did ads. No, I think perplexity, if you were to, give it a prompt and it recommended something that you were looking for. Yeah. To assume you're looking for a piece of gear and they recommend a piece of gear versus these other 10 pieces of gear. That review is probably in their eyes an ad. Right. You know what I mean?

It may not be a display ad, as we've seen it in the past. They're not doing ads yet. It's just... No, but I'm saying they could be in the description. Sure. Are they formally not doing ads or they haven't... They haven't started yet. They want to.

And when they do those ads, they will be subtle like that. They will be within descriptions. they will be contextually relevant to that person in terms of the totality of a story and not just a display. I'm just wondering. I think it will be. No, no, no, no. I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just wondering how they pull it off because the whole thing with hallucinations, you can't predict where an ad is going to appear or what it's going to appear next to.

And I think the... If it's with words, the context is wider. You think so? If it's with voice. They're not going to do voice. Like, Aravins not. You know, it's like a, it's just a wider context, though. So let's just stream for a second.

If you're able to do that, at least you've got a wider con. concept of what the story is versus a display ad around story. Sure, but I mean, I mean just like practically speaking, if you vomit out a bunch of text, which may rip off a journalist outlet or two, how do you, like, I, perhaps I need to actually ask you the question. Why do you think that ads and AI really haven't touched it? Because chat GPT doesn't monetize with that perplexity. He's thinking about it.

I haven't Google AI has only just started considering it. Do you think it's a generative side? Like, you've been in the ad slot for decades now. I guess it depends on which place you want to sit in that question. Are you talking about me as somebody going to that tool to use it? No, I'm wondering why the companies themselves have been hesitant. No, no, no, hang on. Let's get back to the context real quick, so I can understand the framing.

Is it me going to perplexity's website to be able to use its tool and it's folding in ads in the results of me using it as a user? I mean on a grander. Generative. Like, taking it away from just like the user right now. You've been in ads for a long time. Yeah, forever. So I think... Why do you think...

It feels like ads to ad tech has traditionally been very quick to adopt stuff. Yeah. Like, they will rush... They rush to fucking meerk out. They rush to everything fast. Yeah, remember that. But it's AI, they've... Generative AI, generative search, chat GPT.

Because I just don't think it's... I would say that it's just a little naive. And I have seen ads... How do you mean? I have seen ads that are... directed by, so scripted by AI, shot by humans. Sure. And they look, there's just something missing.

And because that litmus test of, is it warm enough? Does it feel like something that is a motive? It misses. Sure. It is going to get a lot better, man. This is not even a debate, but. I mean, it absolutely is a debate. I mean, I will absolutely debate the shit out of this.

The training data required to make SORA better does not exist, even if you took every video ever taken. Adobe is paying people to take video. But my question was actually really way more specific, which is, you have been in ad tech for a long time. Everything else has been in, like generative AI platforms are not integrating ads as a monetization mechanism. Why do you think that is? Because the presentation layer of that, the actual ability to generate something that feels like it's not cold specifically, and I've said it a few times now, is not up to snuff. Everything else in the background that is actually using lots of big data to be able to represent the right type of context to you, today we will call that AI, is in play. So I think there's a

marriage between what's going on in the back, humming along, and the presentation layer of that, to be honest, is terrible in comparison. I agree. I agree, but maybe they need to be more specific. It feels like ad tech is, they will do the generative side. There's tons of ad tech platforms that will generate like the specs. And you see those ads. The specs. Yeah. Or you've seen the. ads too. You've seen the shiny, musliy person. Oh, God, yeah, the horrifying, like, beautiful people. Yeah, yeah.

With, like, a 19-pack. I mean more on a practical level of, you were at AOA. You were inspiring them to do more things. It feels like when it comes to the platforms themselves, putting aside the actual ads themselves, I mean, it doesn't feel like anyone, not perplexity. Perplexity being so slow. Google, especially, so weird. It feels like they're hesitant to attach ads to these platforms. at all.

Adds to the platforms? Yeah, as in like they have an integrate because ad tech loves integrating shit. They love putting stuff on stuff. But it feels like they've stepped away from it. Like they had... Yeah, and maybe because of... That's a really interesting question.

Maybe it's because it's just... You know, it's an interface for creation and they don't want to actually bastard data with ads today. It might be that pure. It might be that pure. I wonder if it's difficult to integrate. Or where would you? Because the interface today feels a bit like

Wikipedia. It feels a bit kind of retro, you know? Yeah. And because it's a new interface, the only way to put the context around it is in the context of what you're generating. And that's random every time. And it's also software equals ads before. So if we roll this back to the early 90s, mid-90s, there were holes cut across websites for display ads and those formats were accredited. Now it's so rare.

There is a little bit of throughline that feels like it's consistent, but it's not a consistent interface that feels like wrap ads around it, particularly on mobile, but desktop probably more so. And I wanted, and like, this wasn't meant to be an oppositional question. It's just fascinating to me. Oh, I don't think it is. I think it's a really good question because I would say that these, but the reason why I'm keep on asking for a pointed question to the question is that you've got creation tools and you've got consumption tools.

Yeah. And at times they're the same thing. Sure. So if you look at Chad or if you look at, you know, if you look at Claude, they're the same thing. So you're in there creating as a creator as well as somebody who's consuming. That's pretty new from a dynamic of a user interface because you don't go in in, you don't, well, you could go in and create a video on the fly and upload it to Instagram, but you wouldn't expect to see an ad on your creation of that video on Instagram. You know what I'm saying? So given that's the case, there's a new paradigm is all I'm saying.

And I haven't really thought about that paradigm converging. And that's the thing. Like your whole thing is what's new and sexy and ads and all that. shiny. And it's just so strange. It's truly unique because when we had the bullshit AR thing, I'm sure you remember that, they had ads on that shit immediately.

You could not, you couldn't, you were filthy with filters. You could have like a sprite filter on your face if you wanted it. They had the ads immediately. Yeah. Because in that context it felt like you really could, can you just layer it? Yeah. And it's just like it, and you, I agree

with you that they are creative interfaces when you look at them. This is not judgment on how much I like them. It's just what they work has. It just feels so weird that ad tech or like none of these platforms want to, Sam Altman said he doesn't like it, whatever, but it's just so bizarre. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends, me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

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podcasts. What about the fact that the gold rush of AI happening now is also part of the fallout of the euphoria of the Web 3 NFT blockchain world. How'd you mean? And what I mean by that is that that was all the attention. If we met, I don't know, on this particular show three, four years ago, that's probably all you'd talk about. I mean, the show didn't exist three years ago, but I was on that shit.

But if we were. But you know what I'm saying? So that has kind of, that isn't as quite hypey as it is today. So what I'm saying, if people are saying, Web3, the future of that's more puristic, we haven't seen a world like this. This is going to be incredible. Let's buy land in it, blah, blah, blah.

perhaps the positioning of what does this new web, better web look like, jamming ads in it is just like having the uninvited guest to the party too early. I don't know if I feel like it's a utopian thing. It's just the idea of any of these companies being like, oh, well, we don't want to fuck up the internet. I mean, look at Google search. I mean, there is no greater vector that has fucked up the internet. Prabagovang, piece of shit. It's just so strange. And I really only came to this conversation thinking about this.

Yeah, because every single hype cycle, other than, and crypto, I can understand why the ads weren't quite as prevalent. I can understand because it's difficult to do blockchain ads. Christ, what a hype cycle idea. But blockchain ads, because of the, sure, the immutable ledger, but how would you actually reliably? You could probably say a click happen. No, actually, it would be difficult. Yeah, attribution across that would be challenging. But I also think, but on your point, I don't know why, to be honest,

but I do think maybe there is, it's always an outcome. Monetizing a platform of popularity is always going to be an outcome. And by the way, that's with every platform. You know, it starts with the purists of all the social platforms. None of them had ads initially. Yeah. And then if you look at something, if you go into the vault and look at things like Myspace, they never had ads for the longest time because the artist was the ad.

I mean, you know? Sure. Does it make sense? Yeah, but I'm just thinking I'm having like one idea, which is very difficult for my brain. It almost feels like these hype cycles have failed because they haven't found an ad thing. All of the previous ones, all the internet is built on advertising, as you well know. But none of them, not meta, not Metaverse, not Crypto, not Generative AI, have found a stable ad income. And I have to wonder if it might be that the subscription model is not scaling.

Or at least it doesn't scale to the dollars that advertising can provide, which most of tech is dependent on. Yeah, for sure. I mean, the subscription dollars versus the ad dollars is still that. Pathetic, yeah. Forget about it. But there's something really interesting about that popularity, though. We're still in this world of popularity, right? Right.

Until you get scale, you don't have an audience that actually you can monetize. But it still comes down to, I think, these two interfaces are in conflict because you've got consumption and creation happening on the same platform. Right. Which I think is incredibly unique. It is unique. However, I feel about generative AI, there hasn't been something like this shit before, which is, I find it deeply annoying and all of it frustrating

and the environmental and the theft and all of that and the fact it's... Actually, the people that's put out of jobs feel like people who are already vulnerable as well, like art directors and, like, freelance audio people and freelance creatives are the ones getting fucked by this. And all of this is happening for them all. to lose money. That to me is the dystopian part. No one really appears to be benefiting from this other than maybe Sam Orman and Dariamaday. There is something to the culture of creativity, which is even in ads today still, is that creative is considered the non-working part of the media.

How do you mean? It means that it doesn't count as part of the media creative. So it's always this cost item over here. So what, the journalists and the artists and such? Or the people who create the commercials, for example, it typically doesn't get rolled up as part of the media spend or success. So it's always debatable. Media isn't because it's absolute because you got a rate card. You know what the audiences are.

I get what you're saying. Who are the people that have the – When you say it's not rated or it's not considered – It's not considered part of the media success. Who are the people saying this? Is it the ad – the ads people? They just don't consider the creatives. Oh, the brands.

So if a brand is sitting here saying, look, we're going to create an ad. But the cost of that ad doesn't get. attributed to where the meteor is because meteor is always whole. So that's always a... I'm not sure I understand. So I guess my point in saying this is that we're always going to try and skinny down the cost of creation. Right.

Okay. That's really the nut of it. Because everything else, that's rate card, negotiable, whatever. But the actual physical cost of the thing that gets placed, that always seems to be a stepchild. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a shame. And so when you talk about vulnerability, I completely agree with that. Yeah.

But the flip side of that is all of these efficiency tools that we see, and AI is considered one of those today. Because generative is just one part of it, which is still trying to find, I believe, its way. I find some things that are really kind of amazing. Right. But not all the time. Like, I wouldn't be using it all the time.

You can't. It is not reliable enough. Good point. No, I wasn't even trying to got you that, but you just can't right now. And it's also, you know, it's not higher resolution enough. There's many reasons why. But it does get you to mediocre faster.

And so at least that allows you to get. I'm not disagreeing, but yeah. So at least make those decisions to say, obviously, that's a bad idea. We're not going to go forward with it as opposed to somebody polishing 10 great ideas or 10 mediocre ideas and finding out there's one should have been executed faster, better, sooner. Maybe that's a case for it. I think you've really touched upon something, though, which is I think a lot of my listeners and my readers struggle with why so many corporations want generative AI to grow. and part of it is the labor automation. Why they want, generally thing?

Yeah, why they want AI to be a thing. And there's many stupid reasons, but I never thought about the fact that just in the ads world, which controls large swathes of our economy and funds a lot of the tech industry, just all creativity was considered minor. I mean, it's very obvious now I say it, but like it's fascinating to know that from that perspective. Is that like an executive position? Well, yet, here's the challenge. you have mediocre creative seen by many

and you see really great creative seen by few so that's why it feels like the creative still sort of sit at the back they're trying to do these things but whenever a discussion says at scale that's when it falls apart right so that's why it's

it's kind of why is mediocre seen by the many though like why does the media simply because of format I think is really you know the ability to try and create something that has a contagiousness to it, today seems to have a celebrity moment. Those days, I think, are kind of at least falling away.

And there are better places for people to hold their attention. So metrics have to change, effectively. Go away from popularity and talk about other things like, how do you hold somebody's attention for the longest time versus just trying to saturate, you know? Right. I mean, I think it's, I think the landscape's changing. but I don't think it's, I don't think creation of content or creativity is evolving at the same pace.

But would evolving even matter if there was this attitude towards creatives? Yeah, well, e.g. format, of course. What do you mean? Shape of the ad, style of the ad. You know, you talked about AR is a good example. That was small orienters' wow experience, to be honest. But where was the conversion there? Because that's the thing.

It doesn't feel like there has been a new successful ad format in a long time. Yeah. Have you seen another? No. I really haven't. It's so strange, isn't it? I've tried on, as I'm sure you have with Vision Pro, you've tried on the goggles. Oh, Christ, yes.

You know, I can't really see anybody, firstly, it just doesn't scale. It comes back to that, right? There is no scale. Yeah. But it's immersive. But the reality of, are you building things for a one to many, or you're building it for one-to-one? And just even then, I have. to wonder if there's not a problem, which we, the geniuses have discovered, which is there is no,

like we're in the IHart Radio Studios, one of the most successful advertising formats, and as my listeners love to tell me, is the ads, the basic radio play ads. Yeah, the audio ad, sure. And display ads. And so CPA, CPM. Otherwise, it doesn't feel like advertising has... Evolved? It tried to evolve.

Yeah. I mean, we tried to do it with devil. We tried to do it with these incredible formats. Do they work? They certainly did. and the measurement of work is, you know, dwell time, click through, all of those things that you can measure. Right. They were going through the roof.

And they work until they become standards. And then they don't work because they're everywhere. So there's this exclusivity to these things that make you feel like your... It's scale. And then scale comes and ruins. No, because when everyone does the same thing. And it all gets back to fucking display. Well, you end up with homogenization, right?

So that's why it's homogenized. Everything feels normalized. It feels consistently. the same thing regardless of what you put in it. There was something, you know, this conversation makes me think of something that was retro years ago. When these ad formats came out, there was this ad, and I don't know what brand it is, so that at the jump, it tells me that the thing didn't work.

But what was working was this incredible experience. So a band built shape of a ad, display, had two shapes. One was square, one was rectangular. Right. And in this square, they had a direct. drummer and maybe a guitarist and that's where they had a bassist and maybe the vocalist. And they were playing live in these display ads. In the display ads.

And those live display because they were proportionally same. They were being broadcast to these websites. That's so strange. It was so fabulous. Did it work? It felt, I don't know, but I made a hell of an impression on me 20 years upstream. So that's the thing. And it just felt very inventive.

That is inventive. I'm also going to have to look this up because that sounds how the hell. Yeah, ban in a box or something. I can't remember what was called. It's very cool. But it's, you get, it feels almost as if the more I think about the ads and display ads and all this, how like this might actually be what's really undermined generative AI, which is they are trying to scale something that requires advertising dollar level funding with subscriptions, which may not work. I think you've hit on something. But I do think that when there's a format that becomes consistent, which doesn't exist today.

Right. When you've got that, there's always these outlines that are trying to create something around that format. Right. So back then in the day, there was breakouts and you have an ad you click on it, it folds open. Right. You know, all of those sort of things that happened. All of that stuff was really just to say, here's the format that we've all decided is important. We're going to put this value on top of it that makes it feel like it's really different.

And it reminds me of that band in the box thing. Yeah. Because there's no consistent interface, you can't have a consistent ad. So everything around it, all these ads that we're going to see, then it would be, cloaked in this thing called context and value, I think, and it'll be obfuscated. Because it'll come back as a long paragraph talking about why I should buy these Sony headphones versus something else. Yeah, I can see them trying that.

For sure. I mean, particularly in descriptive results. The problem is, if that result is generative, that's going to shave off that little bit of CPM revenue that's going to scrape it off. It's like, it's almost as if it's antithetical to add. Actually, I'll tell you where it won't shave it off. It won't shave it off because it'll probably. be moved from a CPA to a, sorry, CPM to a CBA.

How expensive would that be? Who knows? But it depends on the cost of, I mean, it depends on what the attribution cost is going to be. But let me, just stay with me for a second. If it moves from cost per million to, or thousands, to cost per acquisition, then there is a direct cost because that ad is generated one-to-one. Right. So it isn't a many-to-many model. It's a one-to-many. Sorry, it's actually a one-to-one generative.

So I'm able to produce an ad that feels highly tailored to Ed and his needs. That should be highly valuable, I suspect. It should be, but the hallucination when you scale it to a million people is the thing. But you don't have to, sorry, you don't have to scale it, is what I'm saying. Yes, you do. No, you don't. You don't. Because if people aren't, if you're searching generally for an ad.

Some headphones. We're searching for some headphones and you're presented with an app for headphones. If it's generating for each person, say a million people see this at, and it is one-to-one. Yeah, yeah. still generate, with fresh, at one point it's going to hallucinate. It's just,

right. And I'm not saying you're necessarily wrong with the idea. It's just the scale. It's not completely thought out, I can tell you that. But I love what you're, it's the scale.

Yeah, yeah. And it's like, but the scale is a challenge. With generative AI is, it's, I just have to wonder if this is not part of the economic failure because it doesn't,

it scales, but when you try and scale it in the traditional tech software way, subscriptions, it's not, they're not making enough money enough. With it, but even when you try and put it into ads, ads are by definition going to be scaled to millions, hundreds of millions of people to make any money.

And if you're doing generative, you're going to have things like Google telling you to eat rocks. I will tell you that I think this conversation isn't ready for that type of architecture because the generative tools are designed for generating. They're not designed to consuming. Sure. So I don't think there's a mass, I don't think the volume of people is at a point where average people are going to consume things

based on a search criteria as a new rhythm. I mean, that's how Google makes all its money. And that's Google. But if you're talking about these other tools that are thinking about how they actually monetize, it's from a creative perspective, not from a consumption. Yeah, I was just talking at scaling generative AI as an ad tech tool or an ad tool. And in your reference to that example with Google, Yeah, I'd be surprised if they're not at least trialing that.

Oh, they just started trying, but it's funny. It's just... In their search results. In their search, they just started. Gemini tools, you know? Yeah, well, no, they're now putting Gemini front and center, which is so funny. It's just like... Well, it definitely crowds out their homepage.

That's just like that. Well, that's the thing. Like, Google's in this weird, this really weird spot now. And actually... Do you think it's a catch-up spot? Tell me when you say weird, define that some more. Well, I mean that Google search has never been worse. Right.

It's definitely correct. Worst it's ever been. It's a little bit like Craigslist of the 90s, yes. By comparison, Craig's List information was relatively validated. I mean, you didn't have Craigslist optimization experts, and if you did, I'd love to meet them. But it's Google's position right now is they're behind on AI, even though it's like being the first to eat out of the toilet, in my opinion. It's they're behind on AI, their ad traffic is slowing. Like everything is kind of contracting with them and they're desperate and people hate these AI search results.

So yeah, they are in a weird spot. But on top of it, I think we've actually noticed one thing, which is the core economics of tech are around ads and ads have been the same. I agree. For 15 to 20 years. They've had, I agree. I mean, ads at scale. Sure. So.

It's the at scale question that comes back to that. Because, you know, everything sounds great in that statement. until you say at scale. Exactly. And that's kind of the world, oh, mate, you'll hear that at the creative brief stage where it's like, how can we do this? But it needs to scale.

I'm like, wow, but that's not, take that out of the vernacular of ads. Take that out of the vernacular of media. Everything is trying to scale. The beauty industry is trying to do things at scale. They're trying to do things at a high volume. I mean, this is just part of the vocab. It's an attempt to do something at scale with nuance,

which is almost impossible, I imagine. Yeah. That's a good observation. I mean, look at the Super Bowl commercials. They're all insane. Every single Super Bowl commercial is like either old people doing something that young people do or 11 celebrities. Right. And I was watching the super.

Lots of retro soundtracks. Exactly. Yeah. And like big noises. And I feel very stupid because now I understand they are trying to create something that they are trying to create something that everyone could enjoy. Man, I know so little sometimes. But that's, I mean, the truth of that is to matter for everybody means you imagine. for nobody. Yeah. And that analogy rings true there. So there's something nostalgic and

comfortable and okay. But everything around it has to be super weird to try and make it fit, you know, in that example. But, you know, I think a Super Bowl is a really good example of, you know, it's a moment, right? The rest of, I don't know what happens on daytime TV, but those sort of ads don't turn up there, I suspect. Yeah, because you would also be spending so much money on all of it. You'd know more about the economics. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman,

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Let us show you at iHeartadvertising.com. That's IHeartadvertising.com. Hey everyone, it's Ryder Strong and Will Ferdell from PodMeets World. And now the Pod Meets Twirled podcast. We're two men who were completely clueless to reality TV, who now have covered Dancing with the Stars, traitors, and we're gearing up for the season finale of Survivor. So yeah, now we're experts.

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Again, we are experts. So make sure to tune into PodMeets Twirled for all our Survivor 50 takes. Listen to PodMeets Twirl on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There are times when the mind becomes a difficult place to live.

This is David Eagleman with the Inner Cosmos podcast, and for Mental Health Awareness Month, we're dedicating a series to understanding the mind when it struggles. I'm joined by doctors, researchers, and those with lived experience. We'll talk with singer-songwriter Jewel about anxiety. I started living in my car, and then my car got stolen. I was shoplifting. I was having panic attacks. I was agoraphobic.

And making it through hardship. To be present is a learned skill. and it's hard to be present. We'll talk with John Nelson about clinical depression and the brain implant that saved his life. What I learned is that procedure made me happy because I'm disease-free. And we'll talk with leading experts like Judd Brewer about anxiety

and John Hirschfield about obsessive-compulsive disorder and the science of how the brain can change. This is a month of deeply personal and honest conversations about what happens when the brain. brain goes off course and what we can do about it. Listen to Inner Cosmos on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I actually want to change gears slightly because you did write something related to nostalgia. And as a creative, as you go about your business, are you finding more demand on the client's

side for more nostalgic things returning to the 90s of the 2000s? Are you finding any of that? Yeah, it's not a date stamp. Yeah, yeah. It's just a feeling. And that nostalgic vibe is, I think it's a throwback to, look, we're in a room right now that has a lot of nostalgia out of it, mate. These buttons couldn't be more big. Oh, I love them.

And these sort of analog knobs and, you know what I mean? Yeah. Creaky chairs and, you know, the only thing that's modern here are the shore mics, everything else is kind of retrode, including the... And Daniel Goodman's wonderful skills. And the MDR headphones, whatever we're wearing right now. But what's amazing about this is there's a throwback one to those who are old enough to know about nostalgia and those are young enough to be curious about it. Because they didn't grow up with it, but they're super curious, you know, to read through liner notes and understand that there's a flip side to an LP. And there's something very, there's something very moorish about slowing it down because everything is highly consumptive.

Even in the time we've spoke and I saw you pick up your phone. Oh, that was to get a picture. Half a dozen times. No, it's one psyched. Can I not exaggerate? But what's amazing about this is there's something really kind of about that distraction that anchors it. There's something beautiful about nostalgia. And I'm going to keep harping on about it because I see it pop up.

I mean, Super Bowl is a classic example. I think I counted like 11 songs or something yet. I'm going to misquote that. But I could pick everything from bloody Huey Lewis to journey or something. And I'm like, my God, you know, firstly what happened? And secondly, is this the only thing we have is this throwback? there's something really unique about it. I have to wonder if it's not a bit of trying to ignore reality as well.

You talk about, I don't mean it in a bad way. No, I totally respect that. When you look at the news, it sucks. When you look at the, like everything kind of sucks. There's, you talk about the idea that we're constantly getting, we're having to engage with our devices constantly. And I agree. And it's the kind of a return to a time when we weren't harassed by them, even though

we, I love being online, but at the same time, no, I fucking hated it before online. I'm not going to pretend. I imagine normal people crave the time. of not being online constantly and not having, because it's not just like content. It's you get work emoge, you get your texts from people mad at you get a text from a t-shirt company you bought from 15 years ago.

Right. It feels like maybe people are craving an off-ramp almost. Yeah, or permission to have one at least. Yes. Can I also say, though, there's something about perhaps this fast culture that we've generated and this futuristic vibe that we've been in. Something and what I mean, but I'm just going to apply this to,

I'm just going to apply this to a thought in that statement you said about nostalgia. When I watch a brand like BMW online and I see their cars which look amazing. Right. The love that a retro car, like an old car that they did, like back in the 80s, a boxy M series or something, an M3 or something, 325 I or something, it gets way more love and commentary than anything they've got either in market or even planning on doing. Right.

Hyundai is a classic example. They, you know, they threw out this, they might bring back this boxy, beautiful. Oh, is this the electric one, but it's like an 80s. Yeah, dude. Oh, God, it looks so cool. You know, it's got the square lights and you'll see people go into every single design detail, like the white wall tire to the type of mud cap. You don't get that sort of detail today.

It's all spec, right? And it's not, there's no emotion to it. But you look at these things that feel like, and it's not bygone emotion. it's a different era of freedom. And maybe that's kind of the thing that is a land. Like terrestrial radio, it's probably still massive. I mean, I have so bloody successful. Terrestrial radio is unbelievable.

And I think it's because in a world of just sudden conversations, you have real ones. The reason that I like doing, the reason that any listener is curious about this, the reason I don't do a lot of virtual interviews is they kind of suck. Yeah, I made them pretty good. But the in person, it's having the microphone. It's like hearing yourself, the, icy tones. Right, right.

I also have to wonder if the reason that people are nostalgic for things like an old car or like a CD player or whatever is it felt like the companies gave more of a shit. Because you talk about that thing of scaling. Yeah. It's built for everyone but built for no one. Every car kind of looks the same. They all have the kind of Tesla-esque curve to it or like they look like a Porsche cayenne. Yeah, yeah. They all kind of look and feel the same and they all kind of.

And people are craving something that feels like anyone cared about building it. Yeah, and maybe it all got to a point. I think maybe designing culture generally has got to a point where it feels like it's efficient. Yes, exactly. And that efficiency means it's not, I'm not tied to any of it, dude. You know what I mean? Yeah. And that evolution of design means that if you've got efficiency already because you're using battery technologies

and you're using something that doesn't have to feel like it looks like a pin, so it becomes wind efficient. And you build something that's square, square, square, square. God bless, I think it's amazing. I think this is why people don't like Generative AI content as well, because it really, the point we're making earlier that it all kind of looks the same, it has the Uncanny Valley.

It feels like, wow, no love went into it. Not just like this is mass-produced. It's not even mass-produced. It's this sub-production where we're creating this thing for nobody and everybody at the same time.

I'm not going to debate Generative AI's efficacy with you in any further. I'm sorry about that. But it's more, we're all kind of craving a return to a time when things felt like they were made for someone, that they were made with a bit of a soul. And it sucks to be in this world. And it sucks to, and I think that nostalgia is the natural, it's kind of the natural end point of a culture that has escaped any kind of personalization or joy in the creation of anything mass market. Even the utility of these things doesn't feel like it's four people. You know, Ed, as you're having this discussion, and I'm with you, I look out at the

screen that we're facing and Flowrider was wrong. Oh, is it? And before that was Flav-a-flave. And I think before that, I might have seen Snoop. Yep. And I look at that and think, to your point, there's something about these, this cycle of comfort and familiarity that I think is, it's really interesting because what you're talking about is, by the way, I will just put a pin in this and say that I think the generative AI creation. will absolutely be for everything other than a human. And when you want to put a human in it, just film them. And then add them to this generative, crazy background and utopia if you want to do it.

So these blended AI experiences will happen. But I do think that, because it's called CGI previously. But I actually am going to push back on that and say, I believe that will happen. But I think people are going to get really upset with it because you're kind of seeing it with Severance and the Mandalorian when they're doing these weird. I don't know what it's called, but it's when they do the on shot thing where it's, they pretend they're outside. And for a while it convinced people, then you saw it enough times.

You're like, now fucking motherfucker. But what it would also do, though, is it'll inspire you when you see something that's really designed by cutting up the cardboard box to make it feel like a cardboard box. And I can show you some really good examples of people that push back against that and say, we're just going to film this thing analog, dude.

Oh, yeah. And you can feel it. And it feels so different. And it does. And it's just, we're getting back to, maybe nostalgia is just wishing that people, the creatives gave it. Not creatives.

Yeah, it feels like the mechanisms of creatives more than anything. Gave a shit. Gave a shit and felt like they were

putting any thought into it other than just kind of simmering it down for everyone. Yeah, you know,

I've almost bought the Samsung flip phone a couple of times. Oh, it's so cool. Yeah, it's so cool. I love it. I use that

exactly, I need my eye message. I need it. I'm a pig. And I don't have two phones. It just drives me crazy. But even the motorola

looks amazing. But there's something about that time when you'd have a flip phone and buttons and all that sort of relation. Oh, I didn't. I didn't have a flip phone.

I had the chocolate bar Nokia. Oh, that was so good, though. It's funny, it's funny, though. Chocolate bar, Nokia, yeah. But even then it kind of fucking sucked. I don't know why I'm pretending like I like this device. The moment the iPhone came along. Because you're probably still talking on the phone,

and that sounded amazing. Oh, God, no. It did what it did on the tin. No, I just like. You're texting with all those buttons? Yes. Oh, I'm a freak in many ways. And it's just funny because, as we discuss,

all these different bits, it really is just like creativity is considered this stepchild of ads. Ads are the way that a lot of people are exposed to an alarming amount of creativity. And it feels like people at scale are kind of becoming more aware of how much is manufactured for them. Maybe it's not just that things, maybe it's not that things have changed a ton. I believe they have, obviously. But it's that they've kind of, people are more aware now of when they're being fucked with, when they're being given the same slop, when they're being given. And I think that corporations may have slightly overplayed their hand.

In the mass production era. I mean, you'll see that with foods. You'll see that with, I mean, education in that criteria is way more transparent and interesting than it used to be. Because you don't have to have, you know, you can consume less and probably feel better. I have a question for you. Is that an aura ring? Yes, I've got an aura ring. Why are you wearing it?

Because I track my sleep. Oh, you do? My workouts. And you're actually, you are using it as a utility? I am. You haven't? How long you had it? That's a year.

Yeah, generation. It's like a Gen 3, isn't it? Oh, three. And do you find, so do you do anything with the data or you just do it? Does it just reassure you? Oh, no. Oh, no. This is the terrible choice if you wanted any gotcha.

No, so actually I'm really interested in my sleep because I realized a few years ago that my sleep was fucked. And I couldn't work out why. I was depressed. But I've become fascinated by what, I don't know, weed or alcohol will do to me. Not that I'm like experimenting, but if I have a bad night's sleep, I like to look at it and say, all right, this does affect me. I just got this thing called a somni as well. What is it?

It's like a thing you've strapped to your head and it has the little electrodes that go on to the top. This fella does. You sleep it down on? No, no. You just put it on. It does like 15 minutes before bed. It has increased my REM sleep and I have been feeling sharper. Yeah.

I'm annoying. Sorry, what does this thing do? Does it give you, sending electrodes into you or something? It has some sort of waves it does on you. I should be able to say this off. But you're finding your sleep cycles better? Yes. Now, are you finding that the patterns your sleep cycles previously, once you've sort of indicated I'm having a crappy night's sleep, has it changed your behavior?

Yes. No. Like how proximity of using any substances before bed, like what I eat, when I eat. That was a big thing, like eating late. I also. Oh, well. Okay. So you really are digging into the data.

Yeah, because otherwise why I'm wearing this thing that on dating apps convinces people that I'm married. Amen. Yeah, it's very fucking annoying. There's something interesting about, you know, the adoption of these sort of technology. Like athletes, for example, will clearly fall back to things like... The whoop band and... Oh, well, or not. Oh, no.

They'll wear these technologies that have been around for a long time for athletes. But, you know, the eyewatches of this world or, you know... Eye watch. No, no, no. That just means you've been around a while. You're just still saying the shit before they'd even announced it. But yeah, so... But what's interesting, you know...

to me is the subtlety of technology while it calms down and gives you what you need, hopefully that changes your psychology. Now, you don't necessarily see that on the phone, because all the phone does is kind of distract you or take you down a rabbit war. And so I was just super curious about what your behavior is your relationship with that sort of tech. But it is funny. Because I push it away from all of it. I generally do. Like I, with my workouts, I track my calories. And that is emotional. Yeah, good on you. No, that is absolutely emotional. And that's a good use case for that. But if I, but oh no, I use it.

But this is the ultimate tech bullshit, though. I don't use this to track all my workouts. I track boxing with this. You box with the ring on? Yeah. You bandaged your hand up like that with the ring on? No, you get quick wraps on. Okay.

Yeah. It doesn't crush your fingers. It did with certain wraps. Yeah. Okay. But it's not the lowest profile of ring. That's why I'm asking. No, it's really not.

It's like the chunky one. Victoria's Song of the Virgin. Are we spending too much time with the horror ring? I don't care. It's my show. I'll do whatever hell I want. I can say fucking shit and balls and all that. It is funny, though, because all of this talk about nostalgia, it is kind of where even I personally am leaning.

I'm listening to fucking metal from 15 years ago. My favorite in Flames album is Colony, which is 20 years old and barely resembles the band anymore. Like one of my favorite movies is The Guardians of the Galaxy movie, the first one, which is inherently nostalgic. And those movies got shit as all it became about was nostalgic. And now I've just had a live thought, which is that is the thing that's, that is actually something that's driving a lot of culture, which is the reason the Marvel movies did well at the beginning was they were fun, they were nostalgic, they had these characters you'd love to see, and they got progressively worse as these companies were like, okay, what do people like about this? Fuck it, it's the people they recognize. Look, it's the guy from the thing, the corporatization of nostalgia. Yeah, I think it's a fast.

But it does get rebooted, right? So if you look at the music videos that are playing back here, half those soundtracks, and I'm paraphrasing this, are using a soundtrack that's retro. Yeah. And it's familiar, right? You hear this backbeat and think, that seems like that's funky trimmer from, you know, James Brown.

You hear that in the track and think, okay, there's a reason why that works, because it's just good. And there's something about the time that that was done. And it wasn't created to scale. Right. Nor was it generative AI. They're putting even aside generative AI for now.

I just mean like, because if you look at this, there have been multiple things on TikTok where it's like a band just popped up. You're like, wow, they're so good. Or people have said this. And it's turned out to be like, they're pretending to be a garage pen, but it's actually assigned artists with United. Right, right, right. And it's, it does. Your bait and switch. Yeah.

And there's so much of it now. And there are things that are made to be, to appear normal and natural that are absolutely not. And I think people are craving normality again. They're craving things that don't feel. mass produced. I agree with you. It's a funny time. Yeah, I wrote about craft this week,

and it was really just about, you know, if you've got all these tools that make you feel like happy hands. What do you mean happy hands? Like very excited. And I can defend that all day, every day. But what I lean towards is craft, you know, I will all day every day, rather a pen and pencil than trying to scribble something down on my iPad, you know?

Yeah. So there's just something more visceral. And I'm leaning towards that as a test to make sure I'm not losing my rods and cones. that it's not just down this rabbit's warrant of distraction, then I can actually be, you know, back to creation. Are you, well, you say you're, like, aware of your phone nagging you. Are you generally, do you surround yourself with tech, or do you try to stay analog?

I'll push back again. How so? So I had all the tech that made me look like a tribal leader like you. I mean, I get it, dude, but I did, when I don't, gamifying data doesn't excite me about myself. Right. And it's not that interesting. And so the thing that's wild for me is nature. I mean, tech is, yeah, it's great to know, but what am I going to do with it?

And I don't know if I want to do that with it, whatever that is. So, no, I try not to. I'm trying to push back to, you know, no, not trying to push back. I'm trying to restrict the amount of things that occupy my mind and take my attention away from creating. And what are you creating? And is it for, is it just for you? I know I'm right. You know, yeah, it is really, I have this concept of addition of one.

It really is just for me, and it doesn't matter if it doesn't scale. And, you know, I'm a classically trained designer, so I'm back to full design outside of my creative practice. And I have a wet studio, so I'm married to an artist. Yeah, I'm married to an artist. We have, you know. What is a wet studio? We have paints in that thing that are constantly dry. I mean, it's a very practical, dude, and it's not screen free.

A lot of it is just back to articulating things. you know, playing music, you know, things that actually feel like. What do you like? I play guitar, sing all that rubbish. Oh, it's fun. But it's fantastic. I love, I love singing. But more of that than just sort of being a participant. Yeah.

I'd rather be actively participating in it, which is why I can't stand sports. I mean, I can't stand sitting and watching sports. I'd rather play football if I'm going to, you know, I'd rather go out in the field and kick if I'm going to kick. Right. I can't really sit back and watch it. It drives me nuts. Interesting. But there's something about kind of, uh,

just taking that position of the polymouth. I got lots of ideas that I want to express. Let's get them down on paper. But they're expressed for you rather than... Yeah. Unless I find it interesting, I've got a fashion co-lab that I'm doing. I've got these artisans and craft people in Mexico that are actually hand-stitching this embroidery instead of digital embroidery,

which I could have done. Right. And I'm finding it's sitting on the fabric differently. I mean, it's all of these things that are slow crafts, they're bloody. It's just awesome, dude. It really is. No, it's...

It slows me down and puts me in a place that feels more conscious. It's funny because this show came from a newsletter that I wrote for 300 people, 58,500 now. And this show started with a lot of people being very unfair to me on Reddit. And I will admit, I changed absolutely... Welcome to the internet. Oh, no. Fuck, yeah.

I didn't change shit. I just kept doing it until I felt good. And it's interesting how the show's done well based on that rather than trying to change it for anyone. I didn't, I never really understood why I would change for them. Like I was like, like, horse city at 55 has told me they don't like it when I say this. What the fuck am I meant to do? Write it down and like avoid the word.

Fuck that. It just, it feels that that is also another thing plaguing creatives, that there is this apparent source of derision and judgment on tap. Right. And you have to do that to scale, to do that. And the desperation for engagement is kind of sucking the joy out of even the process. It's too slow. It must be done this fast. We must be timely.

Yeah, but there's one thing that's definitive is there's only certain amount of time in a day, isn't it? Yeah. You can't create a new version of it, but you can participate in it differently. I think this has been an interesting conversation for me because I didn't know what we're going to chat about, if anything. Yeah.

And I'm an admirer of your work, so congrats on all you're doing. Thank you so much, Shingy. I think we can wrap it there. Where can people find you, Shingy? You know, the interwebs. Yes, but where? Okay, I'll put it in the episode I'm easily found on linked

Just look up shingy You could go to my dot com I'm there too hanging out Yeah But you know it's Yeah this has been a blast Thanks for coming in on a hot streak About Jen

Of course And we exit out on pottery Who the hell knows Joyius created my mum's potter as well I love that K Zetron All right you've been listening to me My name's Ed Zitron

You can Google Who Destroyed Google Search And you will find the answer is me. Thank you so much to Daniel Goodman or wonderful producer here in New York and thank you of course to all of you for listening. You'll now hear a very similar message

after that I've recorded in February of last year and I swear I'm going to re-record Matt Asowski and I were talking about this yesterday. Peace out. Thank you for listening to Better Offline. The editor and composer of the Better Offline theme song is Matt Rosowski. You can check out more of his music and audio projects

at Mattersowski.com. I.com. You can email me at easy at betteroffline.com or visit betteroffline.com to find more podcast links and, of course, my newsletter. I also really recommend you go to chat. Where's your ed dot at to visit the Discord and go to R slash Better Offline to check out our Reddit. Thank you so much for listening. Better Offline is a production of Cool Zone Media.

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