Chris Stott

Forever learning.

Dec 28, 2012

My Favourite Joe Rogan Experience Podcasts (so far)

I've recently started listening to the Joe Rogan Experience podcast and it has been blowing my mind.

There are now over 300 episodes, usually over 2 hours long, so it's hard to know where to start.

I'm most interested in the health, science and conspiracy theory ones but Joe also has a lot of podcasts with him comedy friends and people associated with MMA.

Below is a list of some of my favourites so far.

NB: Joe does his 'commericals' at the beginning. It's interesting to hear about these products first time round but you can easily skip past them to get in to the meat of the podcasts.

Enjoy!

TOP 5

  • 277 - Victor Conte (use of drugs in sport - fasincating)
  • 273 - Amber Lyon (Investigative Journalist - scary stuff)
  • 285 - Tim Ferris (4 Hour Chef focus - general interesting things)
  • 293 - Cara Santa Maria (HuffPo Science correspondent - lots about psychedelics in here too as well as mind blowing science)
  • 275 - David Asprey (bio hacker from Bulletproof exec)

Noteable:

  • 296 - Mix Master Mike (DJ to the extreme)
  • 290 - John McAfee (Eccentric Billionaire in hiding)
  • 282 - Peter Duesbery (The AIDS scam)
  • 245 - Robb Wolf (Paleo Guy)
  • 137 - Tim Ferriss (4 Hour Body focus)
  • 88 - Andy Dick (Comedian)

Also worth checking out any with Duncan Trussell (comedian) for conspiracy, simulation theory and more.

I love listening to podcasts while doing chores, working out (sometimes you need heavy rock though) or driving.

I'll probably add to this list as I discover more gold.

Dec 27, 2012

Switching Search Engines

When was the last time you thought about your search engine? Most people use the omnibar in their browswer as a direct link to their search engine of choice, and for most people should the statics be believed that search engine is the big G.

There are few companies that have had such an impact on our lives as Google over the last decade. Google is amazing. As a daily (hourly) user can you imagine living without it? Maybe you should.

I haven't read The Filter Bubble but I know the concept. Google is extremely clever about delivering excellent search results. That is what they do - if they weren't any good at it then they wouldn't be where they are today. The thing is they are getting even better. With personal search I'm just seeing results that agree with me all the time. This is great, it further solidifies my views on things.

There is a need for a different perspective though. A different, unfiltered view of things. Learning and expanding your mind is one of the joys of human existence yet how much of our lives do we spend living inside a bubble - without even thinking about it.

That's why I'm switching (again) to DuckDuckGo as my search engine of choice. This doesn't mean typing it in to your menu bar, it means changing your default search engine to this to force habit change.

The results will be frustrating, but that's the point - getting unbiased results opens you up to a world of the Internet that you have never previously encountered.

Without conciously looking at this kind of thing we can't move on and expand our horizons. It could just be that changing your default search engines could be the small switch to your daily (hourly) life that makes some positive changes.

I'm not anti-Google. I LOVE Google - and that is why I'm looking elsewhere - perhaps you can have too much of a good thing.

Here's a great TED talk that explains far better than me:

What do you think? Have you ever considered using a different search engine?

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I've not got comments here but you can Tweet Me @cjstott if you've got anything you want to say.

Dec 27, 2012

New Beginnings - Welcome

So here we are, a new site.

I've been wondering what to do with my personal site for quite some time now, and in the spirit of simplifying, I'm starting from scratch.

From 1st January 2013 my previous personal site cjstott.com will be just an archive.

Going forward this site, at the time of writing built using scriptogr.am, will be very much me - hence the .me domain.

The main things I will post here will be musings (short articles about whatever I'm thinking about), essays (longer considered articles covering specific topcs) and other entries.

I'm simplifying in 2013 and part of that is consolidating my online presences and taking a step back to reevaluate what I use and why.

That's enough rambling, welcome to a new beginning. Welcome to cjstott.me.