SmashNotes

Matt Miller is the head of content for Podcast Notes and the nature of his work enables him to work remote from anywhere, at any time. He can work from a coffee shop in the morning, explore a new destination in the afternoon, and then settle back into a coffee shop to do more work. Remote work allows Matt to have a job and an interesting lifestyle too!

Matt thoroughly enjoyed being a digital nomad because he says that if he’s home in New York, it’s difficult for him to focus on other things besides work. Being in another country offers other things to explore and do when he takes a break, which provides a nice work-life balance for him.

Matt really wanted to takes notes on podcasts and realized that Yoni had already started a site for that. Since they had a mutual interest, it made sense to work together.

At this time, it is solely based on Matt's interests. As it turns out, there are many others who are into self-help and development podcasts, too.

It impacts everything in one's day-to-day life. Constant learning from podcasts can and will spill over into every day life.

He tracks his sleep with an Oura Ring. He says that if he doesn’t wake up with an alarm, he’ll sleep for nine or nine and a half hours. When he would set an alarm and sleep for eight hours, he wonders if he's missing out on that extra hour or hour and a half of sleep, and about the damage it causes in the long-term.

There are a some things that Matt has changed in his life after listening to podcasts. One is that he stopped drinking tap water and will only drink spring water. He also works at a standing desk, and he feels a lot better when working at one.

Matt says that the theme of Gupta's podcasts are to look for the truth of whatever situation you're in. Everything that Kapil says makes you want to second guess and rethink things in the world.

Brandon Stanton, the founder of Humans of New York. Matt states that Stanton’s story is remarkable and one that everyone should listen to.

Listening can be time consuming and can sometimes be hard to glean all of the key points. Reading can allow someone to move through content more quickly. Writing about content can help cement information.

The host states those who have been tutored far, far outperform those who have normal learning.

They are primarily taking things month-by-month as the site is still somewhat in its infancy.

There is a trend in shorter podcasts, almost like a movement toward audio clips, that Matt has noticed.

Stewart heard about a study stating that about 22% of Americans know what a podcast is, which is incredibly surprising to Matt. He would have suspected at least 50% of people would know of them. He views this as room for the podcast world to grow.

Casey said that if you don’t know what you want to do in life, spend as much time as you can doing something you absolutely f*cking hate.

The ability to set aside long periods of time to focus and be creative is essential.

Matt describes it as totally losing yourself, any idea of the self. When you are doing your work, you don’t exist. Only the work exists. He says that if you listen to any of Kapil Gupta’s podcasts, you’ll understand.

Stewart says that the note takers are really good at synthesizing podcast information into written word.

Matt has noticed that Type A people tend to be introverts. Stewart agrees with him and says that a lot of CEOs in Silicon Valley are introverts.

One point is from Brandon Stanton’s interview, “If nothing mattered but how I was spending my time, what would I be doing? What would be most nourishing for me in any given moment?” The other is, “When you create one opportunity for yourself, oftentimes, that opportunity will create more opportunities.”