I love running as a tool to explore areas.
Lately, I can’t run that far as I’m recovering from a stress fracture (from running…). Restricted to 5km max runs has an amazing effect on the area I can explore.
This is just maths.
Double the radius of a circle, The area is 4x bigger.
A daily 5km instead of 10km gives me 75% fewer route options.
The odd Sunday marathon (44km) is almost 10x further than a 5km run. If you 10x the radius of a circle and you have 100x more area!
So I’m feeling a little cooped up.
This directly applies to Creativity
Creators want to write or record content that is interesting.
If you only explore initial ideas in a topic you are doing ‘short’ miles. This makes it very unlikely you will create something people haven’t heard before.
A short philosophical tweet is just a quote I can get anywhere.
A 30-minute podcast interview with someone you haven’t met before. It will yeild that person’s basic ideas.
These aren’t new unexplored territories. Instead, they should pound some miles
Diving deep into a topic area week in and week out with a cohost is genuinely more valuable.
Researching an area deeply and giving me your summary in a tweet-storm is better than a surface-level idea.
My favourite content has depth
Breaks down every detail of an album
4-5 episodes just to tell the back story before the album was made.
Then an entire episode to each song; its chord progressions, samples, lyrical analysis.
Two expert cohosts with a background in the niche
Every episode dives deeply into a sub-topic of the niche
(The Rest is Politics podcast is exactly the same, apart from its politics not history..)
Books
Well someone spent years making an entire book on a topic…
Okay, what about popular interview podcasts?
Steven Bartlett is famous. He finds the most famous (and talented speakers) he can to come on his podcast.
He then studies the guest’s books and background and prepares questions that go past the boundary of everything this person is already known for.
So his interview explores the new territory of a famous person we love.
That is a more compelling listen than an interview exploring the initial ideas of someone we don’t know.
If you want to do interviews it will be hard to compete on fame. So go very niche.
All praise the geeks
If you only make short content based on initial learnings you aren’t creating something we haven’t seen. Explore deeply.
If you geek out to a nuts degree. You can take people on a journey worth following along for.
Make this your mantra
2x your depth = 4x your interest
10x your depth = 100x your interest
Don’t be mediocre, when you can be obsessive.
Geek out
Whatever you can get obsessed with, I’m all for it.