Top Five Tech

Welcome to Top 5 Tech, my weekly show where I tell you things to read, watch, listen to,

download and something deep every week in the world of tech.

And we're going to jump in with number one, starting with what to watch.

A few months ago, Joanna Stern announced she was leaving the Wall Street Journal and we

knew she was starting a newsletter.

She has a book coming out, I'm Not a Robot.

Well, she just posted the first video to her new YouTube channel, which I'll link down

below.

And you should definitely watch her first video that's out there.

It's Why I Quit the Wall Street Journal.

And she has some awesome illustrations and artwork.

All of it human-made, no AI here.

And I followed Joanna Stern way back from Engadget days to This Is My Next to The Verge.

And I'm really excited to see what she does next.

I even got to meet Joanna Stern at WWDC last year.

So watch her intro video.

Be sure to sign up.

And I pre-ordered her book, I Am Not A Robot.

Look forward to reading that in a couple months.

Also, a little bonus of what to watch this week.

She was actually a guest on a podcast when it was announced

that Tim Cook was stepping down as CEO.

And she got the news broken to her while they were recording.

And so you literally see her in the moment reaction.

I had no thoughts about it immediately after, so that was fun.

For what to listen to, this is actually an older episode of the podcast 20,000 Hertz,

but it's one of my favorite episodes of a podcast.

And this one covers Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Studios.

So if you're into film scores, Hans Zimmer, or just want a behind

the scenes about music and movie production, it's a great show.

This is a great episode to listen to.

And it's just really entertaining, even if you're not

particularly interested in that stuff.

But maybe you want to hear a little bit more about

one of the most iconic composers from the last few decades.

That's the 20,000 Hertz inside Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Studios.

That link is down below as well.

Oh, and did I mention this is also a newsletter where I write

a little more of my thoughts in that?

I deliver it every Friday morning and you could sign up down

in the description on YouTube.

Or if you're listening, check out that link down in the episode show notes.

Thinking about what to read this week, there's been a lot of writing

and pontification about Tim Cook leaving and his legacy at Apple

and also John Ternus as the new CEO.

But if you read one thing, I would read Tim Cook's community letter.

It's one of the most heartfelt, probably real and translating moments of my life.

that he has communicated since he's been CEO at Apple for the past 15 years.

It's really heartfelt.

He talks about really the connection he feels to the people who use Apple products,

his daily morning ritual of reading email.

So I would read the community letter from Tim directly.

And right after that, you should read my co-host Jason Aten's article on Inc.com

about how Tim Cook's farewell letter just revealed his most important leadership habit.

I'll put the Apple News link down in the video and the episode show notes

because you can then read the article without some of the paywalls,

I think if you're subscribed to Apple news+

But Jason has some really good points about leadership and Tim Cook's community letter and what other leaders can maybe learn from that on what?

To download this week. It's actually gonna be a shortcut because earlier this week

I lost over 600 shortcuts because of a really weird iCloud syncing bug

I talked about it in my community and I'll be sharing it in my shortcuts video

Which should be coming out Saturday or tomorrow if you're listening and watching this now and I've always had weird syncing bugs with shortcuts

But this one was a lot of shortcuts that just suddenly disappeared from all my devices

I actually had an iPhone air that was not on it actually had died

And so I powered it on quickly disabled iCloud sync and I still had all of my shortcuts there plus I had backups

But I didn't have a good backup system that did it automated and regularly

So if you have a bunch of shortcuts or just want to make sure you back up whatever shortcuts you have download this

It's my backup your shortcuts shortcut takes all your shortcuts in your shortcuts library creates a zip file

Then you can have that saved to a folder of your choice

Anyways, I put it in an iCloud drive folder that then syncs to iCloud. And I also have

shortcuts that I'm using to back them up to even Apple Notes and Bear Notes. I'll be sharing

that in my shortcuts roundup video soon, but backup your shortcuts and maybe set this up

as an automation to run every morning at 6am. This way you always have a daily backup of

all your shortcuts. And finally, for something deep, you should watch Gerald Undone's video

on his YouTube channel. His title is "I'm Retiring" and the video is eight minutes talking

about how he's changing what he's going to be doing on YouTube and changing and doing

less of. He also has some really cool footage from when he was younger and

over the course of the years on the channel but it made me think as any

content creator eventually will get to the point that they're going to stop

making content. I know the Outdoor Boys channel had a similar video that's a

20 million subscriber channel. He has his goodbye video from almost a year ago but

he's also uploaded a few videos since then. I don't know if those were recorded

previously and I know a lot of creators kind of say goodbye videos maybe when

they're just changing studios or changing their setup but Gerald Odun

seemed like he was kind of done with the traditional camera reviews that he's

done for years. I've watched many of them and he's informed my purchases.

help me learn how to use that equipment, but it just made me think. I'm a long way away from

stopping making content. I literally just started but every content creator is going to stop

eventually and I wonder do you know because you're just not as passionate about it like

Gerald Undone says in his video and so he's gonna maybe still make videos on his YouTube channel but

they'll be more casual, less polished. He's gonna actually set up his studio so it feels like a

nice office space rather than a made-for-filming space. But it was just poignant for me to hear

hear from another creator that I've followed for a

And I've also watched others like DSLR video shooter who have taken extended breaks from YouTube and a hiatus

So I don't know it was just making me think how do I keep this a sustainable practice?

Keep really loving and caring and having passion for the things that I want to make content about but also balancing that with

Making videos I want to make and having sponsors that pay the bills and just trying to navigate that whole situation

So I thought it was a great video by Gerald undone and made me think about it

Let me know if you have

a creator that's kind of retired from making things and definitely like did

not come back like they were totally done I'd be curious to watch some of

their goodbye videos as well so let me know down in the comments if you're on

YouTube or you can just email me I'll put that in the show notes for this

episode and again you can subscribe to my newsletter I'll have a little more

formed thoughts I think and I write that and deliver it every Friday morning but

thanks for listening watching or reading this has been top 5 tech I'll catch you