Comments on: Get a life, buddy.–Is it crazy to spend your drive listening to Podcasts.

By: Marina

Marina — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 14:49:19 +0000

Why look at it as “productive” use of time? Does it matter if you enjoy it completely? Lectures from a person with the art of thinking/speaking is a wonderful way to unwind and relax. Like listening to a well written novel, or a symphony… I thinking “justifying” the use of our time by calling it “productive” is the worst form of capitulating to an economy that is driven by our identification with the production/consumption paradigms. Just enjoy great words/ideas for their own sake.

By: Mike St. Pierre

Mike St. Pierre — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 19:26:00 +0000

Mark, I’m a huge book on tape fan and use my drive time as well for learning. While I hear what Narek is saying (and sometimes random listening is ok), I’d rather bankroll knowledge than just fill my head with “chewing gum for the brain” and channel switching for 45 minutes.

Mike

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 03:46:12 +0000

@Ron – When I was working on my bachelor’s degree in music, I would intentionally not watch television the week before I had piano juries (playing several pieces for my final grade). I found that television cluttered my ability to really concentrate on memorizing the music.

My audio media diet is similar to yours. Non-fiction books, industry news, and college lectures make up most of what I listen to. Oh and Mozart piano sonatas.

When I’m driving, I find that I have to spend about half the time with silence as well. I can’t fully absorb a lot of what I’m listening to unless I take some time to think about it.

By: Ron Larson

Ron Larson — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 02:56:03 +0000

May I suggest another way of looking at this issue? The other day I heard the phrase “take control of your media diet”. I really like it.

What you were trying to say is for people to consider their media “diet”. They can consume junk (pop radio with ads), or they can consume quality media.

The key word here is quality. Remove the junk. Your quality media does not have to be work only. But work related training and education media is better than junk media.

I stopped listening to terrestrial radio a couple of years ago. I now only listen to (1) podcasts, (2) books on MP3, (3) music of my choosing, (4) silence.

I find the best combination for me is half podcast and half silence. The silence lets me think over my day, sort out my ideas, and think things over. The podcasts I use to learn when I don’t want to think about my work.

And to relax, books on MP3 is great for long trips. I get them free from the library and rip them in iTunes.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:36:20 +0000

@RAS and Dylan — You are both correct and I have modified the post accordingly. I remember thinking that it sounded a little strange when I first wrote it down, but it was late so I didn’t recheck it for obvious errors. Thanks for both of your input in correcting my numbers.

By: Dylan

Dylan — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:49:50 +0000

I too suggest that your estimate is low. My BA involved at least 1800 classroom hours, by my estimate.

A 4-credit course typically met 3x/wk for about 1.25 hours/time. That’s 3.75 hrs/wk/4 credit course. A 16 week semester makes 4 credits equivalent to about 60 classroom hours. 120 credits to graduate means 1800 hours of class time.

That does not include lab time for lab science courses. And, my BA included lots of half semester courses worth 2 credits–but those classes met just over 4 hours/week, which again, makes my estimate of 1800 on the slightly low side.

On a side-note, the homework involved where I went to school was extremely heavy and significant toward earning my BA. I’d say 3,000 hours of learning is a low-ball estimate of BA hours (lecture and non-lecture).

Your suggestion that 500 hours is over 4 times a typical BA’s classroom time doesn’t hold water: At 125 hours per BA and 120 credits to graduate, you’re only putting in about an hour of lecture time per graduation credit. That’s like attending a little more than one week of typical lecture schedule per course.

By: ras

ras — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 13:16:01 +0000

Mark,

I agree with you that more work-related productivity can provide more time and energy for more personal, now-work related pursuits, such as family time and leisure. But permit me to take issue with your example that,

“For the past 5 to 7 years, I’ve spent about 2 hours per week listening to spoken audio. (This almost seems trivial compared to how much time the average American spends watching television.) That means over the past 5 years I’ve listened to about 500 hours of lectures, books, technical discussions, etc. That is four times the classroom lectures included in a typical bachelor’s degree. Four times!

Your estimate is more than 3 times lower than actuality. Assume the typical bachelor’s degree is a minimum of 120 credit hours. That’s roughly 40 3-credit-hour courses. The standard 3-credit-hour course requires about 42-45 hours of contact time–that is, class time. It is classroom contact time that would be equivalent to your time in the car with recorded audio. So multiply 40 courses X 42 hours of contact time and the typical bachelor’s degree is 1680 hours-almost 3.5 times your estimate. And that doesn’t include the commonly recommend 1.5 hours of study time per contact hour outside of class.

RAS
(A professor and college administrator at a large state university.)