Best Software Zen Podcasts (2024)

1
S02E06 - Kolkata Doctor Case - How Can We Do Better As A Society? (2 Key Points) 21:46

3h ago21:46

21:46

On Aug 9th, 2024, news about a heinous crime in Kolkata, West Bengal, India started to go viral across all social media platforms and news channels - a 31 year old doctor Moumita Debnath was found brutally raped and murdered at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The devastating news, enough to send chills down the spine of even the cold…

1
Podcast: Task decomposition and complex tree diagrams 18:38

16d ago18:38

18:38

This tutorial will help you understand task decomposition by guiding you through the process of creating a complex tree diagram that's too sophisticated for an AI tool to create at once. Whether you're creating tree diagrams or not, it doesn't matter. This is just an example of how to break down complex information into smaller chunks and pass it i…

1
Podcast: Using long-token contexts to quality check an entire API doc set 21:58

16d ago21:58

21:58

One of the advantages of recent Gen AI updates is the massive token input context. When you can pass in an entire set of documentation as an input, you have a much stronger possibility for powerful prompts. In this tutorial, I share some quality-control prompts you can use that deal with entire doc sets as inputs, as well as explain some of the cha…

1
Podcast: Using file diffs for better release notes in reference docs 17:31

16d ago17:31

17:31

You can use AI prompts when creating release notes for APIs by leveraging file diffs from regenerated reference documentation. The file diffs from version control tools provide a reliable, precise information source about what's changed in the release.By Tom Johnson

1
Podcast: Populating documentation templates using AI 22:47

16d ago22:47

22:47

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to use AI to populate documentation templates with the source material you've gathered. For example, API overviews often follow a highly structured template. This technique can be a quick way to get an initial draft of documentation, which you can then edit and review with SMEs.…

1
Podcast: Gathering source material for context input 18:02

16d ago18:02

18:02

One of the most successful strategies for using AI is to pass in an abundance of source material that can augument and inform the AI's responses. In this tutorial, I cover strategies for gathering this material, including what types of documents to look for, optimal ordering, pitfalls to look out for such as outdated or slanted information, and mor…

1
Podcast: Creating high-fidelity, thematically organized notes from engineering meetings using AI 15:29

16d ago15:29

15:29

For AI tools to generate accurate information for documentation you're writing, you need to pass in source material. This usually means meeting with engineers and product managers to gather information about the product. In this tutorial, I share prompts for turning those meeting transcriptions into organized, readable meeting summaries. These clea…

1
S02E05 - Can WE Fix Politics & Beyond? (A Summary of The Beyond Politics Series) 44:04

18d ago44:04

44:04

Today's video is the last in The Beyond Politics Video Series on The Unlearning Playground by Chetan Narang & Rocco Jarman. Well, last in the first iteration (we hope!). This is my first standalone video in this series, and what I talk about is a summary of the entire series, key takeaways everyone can have from it and practical advices for everyon…

1
[Podcast] Uncovering and communicating the value of your tech comm teams' work, with Keren Brown 47:32

3M ago47:32

47:32

In this podcast episode, I talk with Keren Brown, VP of Marketing and Value at Zoomin Software, about strategies for technical writers to demonstrate their value within their organizations, especially in light of recent layoffs in the tech industry. We discuss aligning documentation work with high-priority initiatives, quantifying the impact of tec…

1
S02E04 - Do We Really Have Free Will? Exploring the Concept and What's Often Overlooked 34:57

3M ago34:57

34:57

The question of whether we have free will is a longstanding and complex debate in philosophy, neuroscience, and psychology. The internet is full of amazingly detailed and intriguing content talking about this concept in much detail. In today's episode, I wanted to talk about two extremely crucial concepts that I think are often overlooked in most d…

1
S02E03 - Grief, Healing and Moving On (Life after Death) 36:58

4M ago36:58

36:58

Dealing with the loss of a loved one is a profound and personal journey. In today's heartfelt episode, the third one of season 2 of The Unlearning Playground Podcast by Chetan Narang, we discuss practical and emotional tips to help you process grief and navigate the complex emotions that follow.I feel that conversations around the topic of death ar…

1
[Podcast] Breaking ground: New API documentation course at UW, with Bob Watson 53:05

8M ago53:05

53:05

In this podcast, I chat with Bob Watson about an upcoming API documentation course he'll be teaching at the University of Washington. Bob has extensive experience working as an API technical writer at big tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. The UW reached out to Bob to develop this new course offering. The 14-week evening course will…

1
My 2024 technical writing trends and predictions 28:28

8M ago28:28

28:28

I've been mulling over whether to write a trends post this year. There's so much uncertainty, it's hard to feel confident about how the tech writing profession will play out. But little trends-related ideas keep surfacing in the back of my mind, so I decided to write out some of my thoughts. Before I jump into this, I want to say that I’m much more…

1
Podcast: Notes and themes from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig 1:03:29

8M ago1:03:29

1:03:29

These are some notes and thoughts from reading Robert Pirsig's classic philosophical novel, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, published in 1974. My reading here focuses more on the technical writing aspects and themes from the book. Some themes include Classic versus Romantic modes of thought, the concept of Quality, our relationship with …

1
Webinar recording: Experiments and use cases for AI from a tech writer’s perspective 1:02:34

9M ago1:02:34

1:02:34

I recently gave a webinar titled 'Experiments and use cases for AI from a tech writer’s perspective' on December 8, 2023. The webinar was sponsored by the STC Washington, DC - Baltimore Chapter. In this presentation, I shared some personal experiences in using AI for different writing-related use cases, explaining what I’ve found helpful. These use…

1
30+ ways I’m using AI in everyday writing life as a technical writer, blogger, and curious human 44:33

9M ago44:33

44:33

In this post, I provide over 30 real-life examples of how I'm using AI on a daily basis, not just for technical writing tasks but more broadly in life, including summarizing content, explaining concepts, answering questions, troubleshooting problems, and having engaging conversations for a variety of tasks and scenarios. In my view, AI use cases ar…

1
Podcast: The evolution of podcasting, with Ed Marsh 57:24

9M ago57:24

57:24

In this podcast, I talk with Ed Marsh about podcasting. You may have listened to Ed Marsh's Content Content podcast previously. As an experienced podcaster, Ed has a lot of insights and thoughts about podcasting. We discuss what initially drew him to start podcasting, the equipment and logistics involved in podcasting, different formats that engage…

1
Podcast: Tech writing and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, with Dan Grabski 42:12

9M ago42:12

42:12

In this episode, I chat with Dan Grabski, a senior content developer based in Portland, both about his recent WTD talk titled 'Zen and the Art of Manually Creating API Documentation' and Robert Pirsig's 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.' Dan explains the importance of focusing not just on technical details of implementations but also on i…

1
S02E02 - How to live a better life by being more childlike? 50:54

9M ago50:54

50:54

A thought that every adult encounters ever so often is centred around the idea of how life was better when they were a kid, when they were more childlike. I think there are a lot of life lessons in this train of thought, and that is the epicentre of today's episode of The Unlearning Playground. Even The Bible reportedly says something to the tune o…

1
Doing research with AI tools -- avoiding the trap of fabricated URLs 14:56

10M ago14:56

14:56

In this short podcast, I explore using AI tools to do research, the potential for fake URLs, and how to deal with the fabrication. I started by using Claude to summarize a podcast and provide a list of salient points, including the potential counterargument. What I didn't expect was for Claude to fabricate a list of imagined research and then summa…

1
Notes for Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality 46:49

10M ago46:49

46:49

In Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality, Melissa and Chris Bruntlett describe how the Dutch achieved so much cycling success, and how other cities might do the same. The authors bring up a variety of techniques and approaches the Dutch have used, such as seamlessly integrating cycling with public transit, pursuing custo…

1
My experience trying to write original, full-length human-sounding articles using Claude AI 37:30

10M ago37:30

37:30

You can use AI tools like Claude to help you write full-length content. By going paragraph-by-paragraph, you can direct the AI while seemingly maintaining your own voice and ideas. However, despite my attempts to use AI with writing, I've found that it's harder to pull off than I thought. I can get close, but due to the way AI tools are trained, th…

1
Chatting about AI trends and tech comm with Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti 49:01

10M ago49:01

49:01

In this podcast, I chat with Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti, a tech writer in Barcelona who blogs at passo.uno and works for Splunk, about various AI news topics. We talk about the Forrester AI jobs impact forecast, the community element in documentation, the way the profession is changing with AI, content design roles with LLMs, how complex processes an…

1
[Podcast] AI and APIs: What works, what doesn't 1:00:58

11M ago1:00:58

1:00:58

In conversations about AI, a lot of tech writers are asking what kind of scenarios is AI good for? What works, what doesn’t? In which scenarios? You may have read my responses to these questions before in previous posts, but this time I recorded a podcast with slides. In the podcast, I try to pull together these ideas into more of a narrative shape…

1
S02E01 - What is the purpose of Life, and how to find yours? 1:03:58

11M ago1:03:58

1:03:58

One of the most fundamental questions every person asks at some point in their lives is - “What is the purpose of life?”. Not surprisingly at all, this is also one question that most of us learn to suppress very early on in our lives. In this episode, the first of season two of the unlearning playground podcast, I dive into this question head on. I…

1
0042 - The end of season 1, and start of something better 5:11

12M ago5:11

5:11

Endings are hard indeed. But if we keep ourselves stuck in the same old same old, we hold ourselves back to what might be. And therefore, like a snake must shed its old skin someday to allow a new layer to flourish, I end season 1 of The Unlearning Playground podcast today with this episode. I talk about 2 major updates about the content you can ex…

1
0041 - How to be better in a position of power (5 book recommendations) 9:37

1y ago9:37

9:37

Here are the 5 books I recommend in this episode: Book 1 (https://amzn.to/45mPqs3) Book 2 (https://amzn.to/455eRP8) Book 3 (https://amzn.to/45lWk0E) Book 4 (https://amzn.to/47qjbtH) Book 5 (https://amzn.to/3YtGuPj) -------------- As we grow up, we take up positions of power or at least aspire to do so at some point. That could mean becoming a paren…

1
0040 - Life lessons from the Jason Bourne movies 5:35

1y ago5:35

5:35

There are some movies that sometimes, out of the blue, end up teaching you life lessons that stay with you forever. I understand it to be very unlikely that an action thriller movie franchise would make the cut to such a list, but it is what it is I guess. What is Jason Bourne about? If you had asked me this question some years ago, my answer would…

1
0039 - What is equality & where is it going wrong in 2023 (Indian context included) 19:20

1y ago19:20

19:20

Equality is a topic that is central to any relationship, family, community and society. And that makes it an extremely important subject to discuss, especially in today's world where like anything else it is subject to a host of interpretations and biases and opinions. In this video, I delve into the topic of equality in some detail. I talk about w…

1
0038 - The courage to be disliked book summary [4 powerful life lessons] 14:14

1y ago14:14

14:14

The book I'm covering in this video - The courage to be disliked The courage to be disliked is a life changing book, if there ever was one. And I do not say that lightly. As someone who has spent a good few years reading, devouring & digesting multiple non fiction books, of the self help kind, of the philosophy kind, of the psychology kind etc, I h…

1
0037 - The apple vision pro (3 thoughts - the good, the bad & the ugly) 12:00

1y ago12:00

12:00

Just this last week, Apple released a video introducing The Apple Vision Pro. It is a first-generation AR/VR headset, and Apple claims that with this device, the era of spatial computing is here. They claim this to be a life-changing technology. In this video of The Unlearning Playground podcast, I decided to record my first impressions about this …

1
0036 - How to sleep better, learn from a sleep expert | Why we sleep by Matt Walker book review (9 key tips) 16:02

1y ago16:02

16:02

Why we sleep is an internationally bestselling book by Matthew Walker, an English scientist and professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is someone who's widely regarded as one of the foremost sleep experts in the world. Why we sleep, by Matthew Walker on Amazon - https://amzn.to/45Whun6 In this episode…

1
0035 - Blame game, conflict management and the fundamental attribution error 4:41

1y ago4:41

4:41

Most people wish to become better at handling and resolving conflicts, but out of the dozen or so things that get in the way, one of the main blockers is the fundamental attribution error. It sounds like a bit of a mouthful, but it is actually one of the easiest cognitive biases to understand. Of course the precursor being that you actually want to…

1
0034 - 3 essential learnings the education system misses out 6:51

1+ y ago6:51

6:51

What is wrong with our education system? This is one topic that every adult has strong opinions on. And I think most of those opinions come from a place of genuine concern and good intention. Growing up, the issues we faced - we do not want our children to bear the same burden, or rather, to be more aware of the burdens they are about to bear. To i…

1
0033 - 24-year-old Bengaluru engineer earning 58 lakhs shares viral note on unhappiness (3-step guide) 18:22

1+ y ago18:22

18:22

A few days back, a 24-year-old software engineer from Bengaluru took to Grapevine and penned down a note on how despite earning a hefty salary of 58 lakhs per annum, he is unhappy with his life. The note has since then gone viral, having amassed a bunch of shares and comments from people talking about it from various different perspectives. As some…

1
0032 - God, truth, understanding & utility - In collab with The Most Serious Podcast 1:05:53

1+ y ago1:05:53

1:05:53

Ripudaman Bhardwaj from "The most serious podcast" is one guy who knows how to hold an honest and engaging conversation. I was recently a guest on his show, and the conversation was so deep and stimulating that I asked him to share it on my network too. We talked about the truth about God, different perspectives of looking at Life, what it means to…

1
0031 - Answering the most common question that comes up in therapy, counselling & life coaching 9:56

1+ y ago9:56

9:56

In this episode of The Unlearning Playground Podcast, I talk about the most common theme surrounding the questions that usually get asked in therapy, counselling and life coaching sessions. Now I understand that there are no one-size-fits-all remedies, but what I talk about here is a powerful realisation that might land if you're ready to receive i…

1
0030 - Self awareness & spirituality, and their relationship to self improvement in the modern world 17:49

1+ y ago17:49

17:49

In this episode of The Unlearning Playground podcast, we sit together for a good & powerful meditation on the topic of spirituality. I talk about what I find to be the heart of spirituality, what a modern human must unlearn about spirituality, how spirituality actually enhances a person's self awareness & what is the relation all of this holds to t…

1
0029 - Albus Dumbledore, Sachin Tendulkar & Free will 4:10

1+ y ago4:10

4:10

Do we humans have free will? Can we really choose to act? Do our choices matter eventually? Is there an easy-to-understand answer to these questions? I delve into these questions in this short and meaningful episode via a quote that, for me, defines the legacy of Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies. I also take the example of an interview t…

1
Presentation recording: Specialization myopia syndrome and the content journey 50:52

1+ y ago50:52

50:52

This is a recording of a presentation called Specialization myopia syndrome and the content journey, which I gave to a company's private tech comm event. With their permission, I'm posting it here. You can watch the recording via YouTube or listen the audio file as a podcast.By Tom Johnson

1
Podcast: All about Redocly, with founder Adam Altman 36:16

1+ y ago36:16

36:16

In this podcast, I chat with Adam Altman all about Redocly, an authoring/publishing tool for creating API documentation. Topics we discuss include why he started Redocly, the approach to API doc tools, what explains the continued popularity of Redocly, the docs-as-code approach to API tooling, and more.…

1
0028 - The halo effect & 3 ways to overcome it 9:21

1+ y ago9:21

9:21

The halo effect, without a shadow of doubt, is one of the most important cognitive biases every adult in the room must be aware of. It is extremely important because it directly influences the way you think about people and in doing so, has a direct impact on the way you navigate your interpersonal relationships - both personal as well as professio…

1
0027 - 1 powerful tip to improve your people skills | Regression to the mean 18:39

1+ y ago18:39

18:39

Has it ever happened with you that people tend to quite often disappoint you right after you've just appreciated them? Either it has, or you don't appreciate the people in your life often enough. :) In this episode of The Unlearning Playground Podcast, I talk about one powerful tip on better understanding this dynamic of dealing with people using a…

1
0026 - 2 types of prayers | Change the way you think about prayers 7:32

1+ y ago7:32

7:32

In some way, shape or form, we are surrounded by prayers. Join me in this episode as I talk about the two primary types of prayers that we humans perform in our everyday lives, and let’s discuss whether there is enough motivation for switching from one kind to the other. This can be a touchy subject for some people, so please take it with a pinch o…

1
0025 - 3 ways to be less biased in your daily life | Understanding and correcting confirmation bias 10:50

1+ y ago10:50

10:50

In this episode, I, Chetan Narang, walk you through the confirmation bias, which I believe is one of the most tricky cognitive biases primarily because of its ability to hide in plain sight even for the most self aware person. I talk about where we can see this bias in our day-to-day lives. I talk about some direct indicators for spotting it in our…

1
0024 - Hope & equanimity | A message for the new year | Keeping a positive frame of mind 8:08

1+ y ago8:08

8:08

The new year is upon us, and with this being the last episode of 2022, I wanted to leave this year with a positive message for everyone listening. The message this episode hopes to convey is one of hope and equanimity, and having more positive vibes. In the sensationalist times we live in (read hustle culture and social media world), it’s almost as…

1
Podcast about Archbee -- a new documentation tool with a block-based editor, API publishing capability, content re-use, and more 29:09

2y ago29:09

29:09

Archbee is a relatively new documentation tool that offers a block-based editor, API publishing capability, content re-use, and more. The initial version of Archbee was released in early 2019. Since then, the product has been steadily ramping up in features and growing its customer base. In this podcast, I chat with Claudiu Dascalescu about Archbee…

1
0023 - An honest take on Diwali, crackers & pollution | 4 important points 23:12

2y ago23:12

23:12

Diwali is the festival of light and prosperity. We have all heard and read this line in our childhood textbooks, but what is its real significance? What is the real meaning of the festival of Diwali? And then of course – the central question that occupies our social media around this festival – should we burst crackers on this day? And going even d…

1
0022 - 5 examples where patterns = delusions | The gambler's fallacy 10:24

2y ago10:24

10:24

The gambler's fallacy is one of those logical fallacies of the human psyche that is equal parts hilarious and equal parts serious. As you'll see in this episode, the examples I provide for this fallacy are almost laughable and ridiculous at times. But the impact it has on our everyday lives is uncanny. And that makes this a very important episode i…

1
0021 - Unlearn, unself and let go | 1 very important message for our time 11:23

2y ago11:23

11:23

Ours is the time of the ego - rampant, self-indulgent ego. Selfies, personalised feeds, personalised ads, personalised everything - almost all good products, but almost all terrible if left unchecked or unsupervised. And isn’t that true for our times? We have let the idea of our “selves” go too far - far more than we ourselves can handle it. And th…

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