The chaos of our attempts to boost productivity and creativity, and let me tell you, it's a roller coaster! I recently rearranged my apartment, seeking a fresh perspective, but it turns out that even a new desk orientation can’t magically fix my productivity drops. I’ve been battling fatigue and the dreaded feeling of just not wanting to do anything, which many of us can relate to. So, I found myself tempted to buy the latest gadgets, thinking they would spark my creativity—only to realize that this shiny new gear often leads to a cycle of purchase and regret. Join me as I navigate through the ups and downs of podcast promotion, the lure of new tech, and the common pitfalls we face in our creative journeys. Excitement bubbles up as I share my recent weekend adventures and the thrill of rearranging my apartment. There’s something refreshing about a little chaos, isn’t there? I’ve been facing the wall at my new desk setup, and surprisingly, it feels great to have a fresh perspective. Honestly, I think it’s normal to feel the need for change; we all crave that fresh start sometimes. But let’s be real, with this new arrangement comes the inevitable dip in productivity. Between feeling under the weather and juggling responsibilities, it’s been tough to stay motivated. I often find myself stuck at my desk, yearning for that spark of creativity, but it eludes me. So, like many of us, I turn to shiny new gadgets to rekindle my inspiration. But I recently decided to curb my spending habits—though I did have a brief, impulsive fling with a new phone that I returned the next day. This leads me to a deeper conversation about podcast promotion and how, in today’s landscape, video content seems to be the golden ticket. I’m torn: as much as I want to embrace video, the self-consciousness creeps in. I reminisce about my vlogging days, but now it feels a bit insincere, and I wonder if my true passion lies in simply connecting with you through audio. I’m excited about the potential of live streams, but life’s commitments hold me back for now. Meanwhile, I find myself contemplating the latest tech, and the allure of the newest iPhone tugs at my creative aspirations. But I know all too well how easily we can slip into the trap of buying gear only to leave it untouched. It’s a common story; we invest in equipment, thinking it’ll spark our creativity, but often it just becomes an expensive paperweight. I’m determined to break that cycle and remind myself that creativity isn’t solely dependent on the latest tools. The real challenge lies in consistently creating, regardless of the gear we have. Let’s keep this conversation going as I navigate the highs and lows of tech temptation and creativity together with you, my fellow podcast enthusiasts! The air is thick with anticipation as I dive into my weekend reflections and the excitement of shaking things up in my apartment. It’s funny how rearranging furniture can feel like a mini-reset for the mind. I’ve turned my desk to face the wall—yes, the wall!—and for some reason, it feels liberating; maybe it’s a metaphor for facing my tasks head-on. Yet, with this newfound arrangement comes a struggle: a drop in productivity. It’s been a rough patch with illness and the weight of daily responsibilities, and I often find myself staring blankly at my screen, wishing for that burst of creative energy. We’ve all been there, right? The temptation to grab the latest gadget to reignite that spark is real. I confess, I recently bought a new phone on a whim, only to return it the next day after a night of contemplation. It’s a classic case of thinking that new gear equals new ideas. But as I transition to discussing podcast promotion, I realize that video content is becoming increasingly necessary in our current landscape. I’m itching to experiment with video, but my self-consciousness holds me back. I reminisce about the authenticity of my vlogging days, yet I can’t shake the feeling that it all seems a bit staged these days. What truly excites me is the idea of connecting with you through this audio format, where I can share unfiltered thoughts without the distractions of visual presentation. With that said, I’m eager to explore live streaming in the future, but life’s current demands mean I’ll have to wait. I find myself contemplating the latest iPhone and its capabilities, but I also reflect on the cycle of consumerism in our creative pursuits. It's too easy to think that a new piece of equipment will magically transform our creative output. I aim to remind myself that buying gear doesn’t equate to creativity. The real work lies in consistently producing, regardless of the tools at our disposal. Join me as I navigate this journey, sharing insights and experiences, and let’s challenge ourselves to create meaningfully without falling into the trap of consumerism.

Takeaways:

1. Rearranging my apartment has given me a fresh perspective, and I'm excited for the week ahead.
2. Feeling unproductive can hit hard, especially when responsibilities pile up and energy drops.
3. I realized that buying new gadgets often leads to excitement but rarely to true creativity.
4. The temptation to upgrade my phone was strong, but ultimately I decided to stick with my current one.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Pixel 8 pro vs Pixel 10 Pro
2. iPhone 17 Pro Max - king of the smartphone video

Hello, everybody.

I hope you had a good weekend, and I hope you're ready for next week just as I am.

I'm kind of excited.

I'm kind of excited.

I've rearranged my apartment pretty much.

I know some people never do this, and they might be confused as to why would I move things around since everything was already functioning.

I kind of feel like I need to move, reshake everything, just get fresh perspective, literally.

And with my desk.

And now I'm.

I feel much better about this arrangement.

You know, I don't have to describe it in a way.

I'm facing the wall, and I find this good.

I find this actually quite.

I mean, it's quite normal, isn't it, to face the wall of your desk?

I mean, unless I would have my desk facing the room.

But that's kind of like executive look.

And, yeah, I don't know.

It wouldn't really work.

But what I want to say is I pretty much moved every furniture except those in the kitchen.

And I'm really excited about how the next week will feel.

Like now I'm kind of struggling with a drop of my productivity.

I've been sick, I've been tired, occupied with all the responsibilities and duties.

And the worst thing, the really worst in this whole battle, the pursuit of being productive and creative, is just sitting down and feeling like trash.

A big part of it is being tired.

But also, sometimes I'll just sit down in front of computer and I'm thinking, I just don't feel like doing anything, man.

So what I tend to do, sometimes I tend to get some new piece of equipment, and that usually gets me going because there's a new toy that I get to explore and test.

Isn't this what we all do?

We buy stuff and we test it.

We don't really do anything with it.

And look, I'm honest.

That's what happens to me.

And I found a way.

I'm just not buying stuff anymore.

But I need to confess, I kind of bought a new phone two nights ago.

Kind of.

Kind of.

Because I did return it the next morning.

And this will kind of tie the whole episode up, I promise.

I want to talk about podcast promotion.

You know, how do you promote podcast now?

It seems like it was sort of my recent logic that you need to do at least some video.

You know, you don't need to do video podcast, although it's something I am yet to experiment with, but you need to be on video platforms as well.

And it kind of sucks because I, you know, I do like video.

And I kind of would like to be in front of the camera, but I guess I'm too self conscious, you know, I don't know.

Just I'm looking at those vlogs, you know, I was really into vlogging back in the day.

It was something really interesting.

And right now it seems all very fake.

And as much as I would like to do vlogging, I would like to point camera at myself and speak in all of those locations.

I feel like it's.

Yeah, it's really fake.

What really works for me is this, you know, turning microphone on and just speaking, just talking to you.

All the visual stuff is just distraction.

But yeah, I do want to experiment with it.

I want to do some live streams.

That will not happen next week.

I still have my daughter with me this week and it just wouldn't work.

You know, I need my beauty sleep as well.

So there's just no time to be on my own and to peacefully stream.

But yeah, I will do it.

I'll do that.

So, yeah, I.

What was I talking about?

I got this urge to upgrade my phone because I thought I need better video.

And yeah, I pulled the trigger and I bought Pixel 10 Pro XL because I currently have my Pixel 8.

It's quite dated, but you know what, it's actually quite good.

It's still quite good.

I don't need an upgrade.

And yeah, I didn't feel like that on that particular night.

I bought it and then next day I canceled the order.

And then I went into this whole rabbit hole of, okay, well I need better phone then because Pixel is not good enough.

Yeah, so I almost bought an iPhone because that's what you get when you get into, you know, watching reviews and again, watching videos.

You know, they.

I mean, YouTube is just one big ad at this point.

It really is.

I would love to be able to quit YouTube, but I. Yeah, yeah, that's a whole nother podcast.

How do you quit YouTube?

Yeah, the bottom line is I'm.

I'm not upgrading my phone.

I would like to stay with this phone for a while, at least few more years.

I know, I know, but, you know, it's really fine.

What I'm really thinking about is getting a dedicated camera.

And maybe I don't want to do vlogs, but I just would like to shoot some short videos.

And what I always wanted to do is I wanted to create a mix of 3D animation that I kind of work on regularly, but I don't.

Just whenever I have time, I'm opening unreal engine.

I try to do something with my project there, but I always wanted to create this mix of two worlds, world of footage, something taken with camera and something rendered in 3D and making those videos.

Well, maybe it's coming, but lately I'm quite pessimistic because, yeah, time is in a short supply and so is energy.

So is energy.

I'm recording this and yeah, I really should get my beauty sleep, to be honest.

But yeah, what I wanted to do is just, I, I wanted to talk to you about this temptation to get new hardware and the fact that there's always some justification to get next shiny thing and then you think, well, I'm going to need it because, you know, it will be for creativity.

I'll be expressing myself or it will help me to grow my business or.

Come on, come on.

I want to close with this.

Yeah.

A closing thought would be interesting stats about latest iPhone.

You know, iPhone 17.

There's a bunch of really interesting, honest reviews where reviewers say that iPhone 17, the base model, not pro, non pro, is very capable and it's relatively affordable.

It's like 2/3 of the price of the, of the huge Pro.

Now only 7% of iPhone buyers go for the basic, basic iPhone 17.

Everyone else goes for pro Max.

And I feel like it's this idea of aspiration and the fact that when you buy something, you feel like you, you're committing yourself to do something great.

But what many people don't realize is that they, they commit the easiest step in this whole challenge.

You know, it's the easiest thing to buy something.

You may even buy something with money you don't have, which is arguably the worst.

But yeah, you get the equipment.

It gets to you.

It gets, you know, it's being sent to you.

You get it, you test it, you take a bunch of footage, then you finally shoot yourself talking about one thing or another, and you might be happy with it.

You post your first episode and then it's really hard to go for the second one because you kind of said everything.

You don't have anything else to say.

I know this, I've been there and I know many people are.

And this is why we see channels and podcasts with 1, 2, 3 episodes and that's it.

Everything that was meant to be said was already said.

So then you have this fancy phone that you bought for content creation and you never really utilize it.

It's very common.

It is really, really common.

And I feel like I need to remind myself regularly that not gonna be a victim of that.

I'VE done some math on the back of the envelope.

I love this expression, by the way.

I've done some back of the envelope math where it occurred to me that if I.

If I want to get this latest Pro Max iPhone because I want to express myself.

Well, I also need earbuds.

Let's take the latest ones because they're so amazing.

Oh, they also have really good microphones.

So, yeah, you need that for content creation, don't you?

That's.

That's 2,000.

You need to pay for this.

And maybe that's okay, you know, maybe it's fair price.

Of course it's not.

Come on.

But you know what bothers me?

You've got this camera, which is amazing.

I mean, iPhone is really the king of mobile, like smartphone video.

I give them that.

But the problem I have is that you've got all other things on this phone.

You've got your wallet, you've got, you know, things that don't sync very well, like some keys, some, you know, things that you cannot just simply recover.

I mean, I always wonder, if I lose my phone, how will I actually go through the recovery process?

You know, like, if I have my password manager and if I lose access to it, okay, what are the actual steps for me to get access to everything?

Because if I lost my phone, what are the steps to get my number?

I feel like there's a lot of processes to recover your information, your credentials, your password, your access that involve having a phone that you effectively lost.

And, you know, I have my backup codes, but I always wonder, is this enough?

I have those passkeys and I have my crypto wallet.

All this data is somewhere saved.

I also have it printed, but I don't do audit of that regularly.

I don't know if this is still valid.

Maybe I think I have it.

I don't.

You know, I had this conversation recently.

I know I'm digressing once again, but I had this conversation about those basic protocols of safety.

You know, my sister had a fire in her building.

Luckily no one got hurt.

But, you know, I kept thinking, where is extinguisher?

Where is fire extinguisher in my building?

And I was talking to a friend and I said, I'm actually quite sure I've got fire extinguisher in my.

In on the ground floor.

No, it wasn't there.

It wasn't there.

And, you know, that made me feel like, well, how many other things I have saved that are not there?

Like my passwords, my.

Like all the ways to regain my Access.

Anyway, let's bring it back to cameras, smartphones.

The point I want to make is you might be shooting something, something very silly that you might be very serious about, like your vlog.

Your phone might be on a tripod.

You might be, you know, like 10 meters away, pointing at things or walking or pretending that you know someone is shooting you.

So you're effectively looking away from your camera and someone snags your phone because it's just there unattended.

Right?

You lose your phone, man, you've lost your camera, but you also lost your phone with all the stuff on it.

I know, I know it all sings, but what if it doesn't?

I. I'm.

I'm sure actually not everything sings.

Okay?

I don't use cloud for everything because, yeah, it just doesn't work with everything.

But even on a day, imagine you're traveling.

Imagine you're traveling and you're shooting your travel vlog with your main phone and that phone gets missing.

I just hate thinking about it.

Why am I even talking about this?

I. I feel like I will regret recording this in the morning.

I feel like it's going to be exactly like with this phone that I bought, only to return it the next day.

Yeah, okay, I gonna go.

I'm gonna get my beauty sleep and I'll talk to you soon.

I promise.

This is going to be still open Rant tech podcast.

I don't know about the name.

We'll figure it out.

I just want to say I'm glad you're here.

I would like you to write to me because I'm not on social media.

I'm just here for now.

I'll appear.

I'll be taking some videos and I'll appear on YouTube just to see if that works.

Okay, I hope you like that.

I mean, I need you YouTube channel for my video stream.

But just be warned, okay?

I will.

I will share.

I will share videos once I make them.

And I'm also working on a website.

There'll be a website for this and for my other podcast because, yeah, sometimes I'm just not feeling like I want to record, but I want to tell you about the fact that I don't record.

So I need that place.

It's not Facebook or Instagram.

All right.

I don't know what what was said.

I don't know what.

What the point of this, but I feel like it was needed.

I needed it.

And I hope you.

You felt entertained.

And I'll speak to you again.

Maybe sooner than it was supposed to be.

I don't know what my schedule is, but I speak to you soon.

Okay?

Take care.

Have a good week.