Kevin Rose on the next wave of consumer apps and what’s happening in the podcast industry
I wanted to start making products that are more meaningful and healthy. I think back to some of the products I made in the past. Some grew quite large but they were really just a way for people to waste time. I want to help promote a more healthy lifestyle. Not just encourage people to always be on their phone or computer.
Oak Meditation and Zero are both products born out of my fascination with health and fitness. They are built around this idea of creating the best version of yourself.
In retrospect, I feel the Silicon Valley work culture was toxic. We were pulling all-nighters fueled by pizza and caffeine. It made me feel burnt out. I needed balance. Meditation worked for me.
When I find something that piques my interest I want to go really deep into it. I got interested in tea. That led to me becoming a certified tea master. I was interested in cold challenges. This led me to the Wim Hoff 10 Week Challenge. You learn about the benefits of cold therapy and conscious breathing. You learn how to submerge yourself in ice for 15 minutes [without freaking out].
How do you stay positive when things don’t work out? Failure means that you’ve learned something. What you learned you can carry forward. You can do it differently next time. I don’t view that as a negative.
Our time is limited. Knowing this allows me to not get caught up in my own brain. It eliminates not trying something because other people may think you look foolish. I won’t be the most successful entrepreneur ever. I want to be remembered as someone who lived on his own terms and tried a bunch of crazy shit. Some worked. Some didn’t. At least I had fun. At least I explored the world. If you frame it like that, things are exciting and not depressing.
The machine learning innovation that has been applied to photos interests me. The Google Pixel portrait mode is amazing. Google processes the photo with machine learning. The result is amazing. It is easier to use than the iPhone portrait mode. What else we can do with machine learning to create a better outcome?
Somebody is going to use machine learning to improve the discovery process for great podcast content. We need smarter recommendations. There is an opportunity to build a product that makes a static MP3 file more interactive.