013 - Beyond Netflix: The YouTube Revolution. Paris Metro Secrets, AI personas and expiry dates on dental floss

Ever wondered if you're getting the most bang for your buck from your streaming subscriptions? This week's episode might change how you view your entertainment options entirely. We uncover the surprising truth that YouTube has actually dethroned Netflix and Amazon Prime as the world's most-watched streaming platform – and for good reason.

The secret lies in YouTube's democratised content creation ecosystem. With creators now equipped with professional-grade cameras and equipment, the platform delivers stunningly specific content that mainstream services simply can't justify producing. From intricate woodworking tutorials to in-depth cycling content, YouTube serves the passionate niche interests that Netflix never will. We share our own content rotation strategy that could save you hundreds annually while still catching all your favourite shows.

For those planning European adventures, our Paris Metro hack alone is worth the listen. Ditch the overpriced tourist day passes and use the Navigo card through Apple Wallet instead – a simple change that could cut your transit costs by more than half. We also dive into the art of effective AI prompt engineering, revealing how giving your AI a persona and asking thoughtful follow-up questions dramatically improves results. And what's the deal with expiration dates on dental floss? We tackle this peculiar packaging mystery and question whether food expiry dates are genuinely necessary or if we're all capable of determining freshness without printed guidance.

Whether you're a streaming enthusiast, a budget-conscious traveller, or simply curious about the small peculiarities of modern life, this episode delivers practical tips and thoughtful observations to make you "12 and a half minutes more awesome" this week. Subscribe now and join us next week as we explore the gift-giving conundrum: what items are too personal to buy for someone else?

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Transcript

Welcome and Streaming Service Surprises

Speaker 1 0:07

Welcome to the Bravo Charlie Club podcast , making you 12 and a half minutes more awesome each week . He's Ben , I'm Richard . Let's go , Ben . How are you this week , Mate ? Amazing .

Speaker 2 0:19

Amazing , awesome , yeah , look , I'm well and truly down the path of recovery and I've been watching a bucket load of streaming television , so I finished Netflix .

Speaker 1 0:32

Everything .

Speaker 2 0:33

Yeah , it's done , yep , and almost through Prime as well , and it had me thinking like if you had said to me which is the biggest streaming service in the world , it has to be Netflix or Prime , doesn't it ? Am I missing something there ?

Speaker 1 0:52

I think it's YouTube . You know , I think in terms of minutes watched , yeah , youtube's taken the crown Not long ago . I think yeah .

Speaker 2 1:01

So how does that work ? Like YouTube's like , isn't that ? That's not even they don't put , like that's not even a TV station Seinfeld on there . What's on YouTube ?

Speaker 1 1:14

I think the great thing about YouTube . I'm well into down the YouTube rabbit hole .

Speaker 2 1:20

Let's get into it , because I don't know anything about this .

Speaker 1 1:22

I

YouTube: The Unexpected Streaming King

Speaker 1 1:23

love it . The user generated content is just excellent . I think the quality of technology you know cameras , microphones , that sort of thing recording in 4K , you know the quality of the images is nice and sharp and you can just get right down into the really interesting niche stuff that you just can't get from stations that the netflix so you're saying netflix will never have like a woodworking channel ?

Speaker 1 1:55

I don't think it will yeah , shout out to scott brown carpentry in new zealand . I love his work . I love his work and he's just you know recording himself on the job . He's just you know making kitchens and all sorts of stuff .

Speaker 2 2:07

No , you're right , it's interesting because I've always used youtube as like , if I've like , if the , if the kitchen sink's blocked or if there's a light in my car which I need to work out how to turn . I've gone to youtube for that , but you're saying it's just like everyone's there , there's no , there's no real gatekeeper too .

Speaker 1 2:24

On youtube , right , I think that's the thing right . Anyone can put things up there and you can find your niche . You can find your tribe , you know global cycling network . I really love that one as well , because I'm a cyclist do you have netflix like ?

Speaker 2 2:35

do you use the traditional streaming services , as they say you ? Go to block , but you probably go to blockbuster still is it .

Speaker 1 2:44

If only I could . But yeah , so my sort of strategy there is we have Netflix as a sort of a for the baseload , because kids and so Damn kids and then switch around between Disney , prime Stan , other sorts of ones , just for a couple of months a year and then watch all the shows , the new shows that have come in , and then sort of can it and move on to the next . I think back in the day when Netflix was your only option , they used to have all the content right and you could just go to Netflix and you could get it . They had Marvel and stuff .

Speaker 2 3:20

But I think didn't Disney buy that , or ?

Speaker 1 3:21

something . Well , yeah , but then disney sort of had disney plus oh , that's another one in the rotation as well so that disney stuff stopped being on netflix . They've become the gatekeeper for their , for their content now , but it doesn't change . It's always there , like you've kind of got more incentive to leave because it's always going to be there when you , when you go back , whereas you know , at netflix when it was kind of there and it was only there for three months or something you kind of like watched .

Speaker 2 3:51

You wanted to watch it quick , um , so my girls , introduced me to a service where you can work out which streaming service . So you , I think it's , I think they use flicks or compare tv or something , but you , yeah , go on and you can actually work out which streaming service has got the , um , the show

Streaming Service Subscription Strategies

Speaker 2 4:10

that you want to watch . Um , yeah , we'll , we'll regularly just what . Take it for a month and then cancel it and then switch to the next one because the shows you know that we want to watch have moved or whatever . So sounds like we've got a fairly similar strategy in that regard .

Speaker 1 4:25

We got binged for a while . We got all into sort of a treasure hunting program called Oak Island , nice and it was on the History Channel , but like binge was the only place to get it , so okay , we're all in , watch all the episodes . Watch all the episodes . Yeah , yeah .

Speaker 2 4:42

Well , if anyone interested , I've just finished watching Day of the Jackal with Eddie Redmayne . It's one of the best TV series I've seen .

Speaker 1 4:48

Oh nice .

Speaker 2 4:49

Really enjoyed it . Not too much bloodshed , no swearing , so it's fairly user-friendly but , yeah , worth a look . Hey , speaking of Eddie Redmayne and Day of the Jackal , one of the countries he went through was France in his escapades , bringing on a travel tip of the week , and I want to talk about France , in particular the metro

Paris Metro Travel Hack

Speaker 2 5:14

in Paris . Yes , because I think one of the biggest scams in the world is the metro in Paris and the daily pass they make us foreigners buy . If anyone's heading to Paris and you've got an Apple , an apple phone , in fact , it'll probably work on the , on the samsung or android versions , I just don't know because I don't have one .

Speaker 2 5:35

But there's an what's called a navigo card in the apple wallet . So you literally go into your apple wallet , you press plus , add a card . There's a transit card section . Download the navigo card because it costs two euros to take a trip on a metro . The average daily pass is like eight or nine euros . So you're three or four trips to get the value of a single trip , um , and the average person goes into Paris , goes to the Eiffel Tower , goes to the Champs-Élysées and goes home . So I would argue you're going to be in front using single trips , rather than buying that daily ticket , which I'm sure is just the biggest joke in France .

Speaker 1 6:18

Yeah , good , solid pro tip . I've actually done that , Luke .

Speaker 2 6:23

I think I was the mug that actually had the yeah , I remember seeing your picture on the metro wall actually , as we went through , we've got this guy . Don't , don't be richard . Yeah , um , listen to feedback . We're so lucky that guys write in , but one guy has actually given us a little bit of an uppercut . He's like get back to your roots . He said the first episode you touched on ai and I want more of that . So it kind of got me asking you know , richard , what's vibing in AI ? This is definitely not a question for me . Is there a prompt of the week or something you can share , that sort of what's vibing in ?

Speaker 1 6:58

AI . Yeah , so much big stuff happened

Effective AI Prompt Engineering Tips

Speaker 1 7:02

this week in AI . Actually Chat , chippy , t5 came out . But I guess , rather than sort of like prompt of the week , maybe something a bit more interesting is how to craft a good prompt and the sort of components of a prompt .

Speaker 2 7:20

So we discussed that in the first episode that your prompt engineering was actually a really important part of your use of AI . So you're going to give us the gold . Everyone , get your pens out .

Speaker 1 7:32

Well , I think the thing is with AI the more context you can give it , or the quicker you can give it context , the more precise and perhaps maybe the more useful the answer you're going to get out of AI is , and so , giving it context . Like you know , you are a person doing this job and here's what I need from the person that's doing this job . Here is the role and here's what I'm , you know , trying to uncover . You know , give me three options around a certain topic or response and drill into some of those with more details , I think also to get it to find the holes in your answer as well . So don't just kind of like , leave it unchallenged and just accept what it comes back with , kind of push up against it a little for some rigour , and asking it to cite sources too , for some rigor , and asking it to cite sources too , you want to try and ensure that the hallucination factor there can sort of be mitigated .

Speaker 2 8:46

So I've got to ask . The first direction you gave was to tell the AI to take on a certain persona . Yeah yep , yep .

Speaker 1 8:56

So imagine you're a nasty , you're the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or something , outline the strategy for how we're going to beat competitor X in the market . You're a nasty history teacher . Yeah , come up with the worst possible assignment for my grade 8 students .

Speaker 2 9:12

You're a whimsical musician , okay , so it can do that .

Speaker 1 9:18

Is that I mean ?

Speaker 2 9:18

I'm a novice .

Speaker 1 9:21

I think those kinds of things help it kind of focus in on , I guess , the sort of the tone and the right level of the reply . So yeah , I've had good success with that .

Speaker 2 9:38

So when I'm giving context , let's say I've established a persona can I waffle ? Am I allowed to just write from , shoot from the hip and say this is imagine yourself in this scenario and these are the outcomes that I'm trying to achieve , and can you cite the sources that help me deliver that ? Do you write as much as you can , or is brevity important ?

Speaker 1 9:59

I do it bullet point form so I just kind of like type it in , you know sort of like one thing per line . And you know , I think it's helpful if you have an idea of what you're expecting If anything comes back that kind of seems unusual or unexpected , drill into it , get more information

The Dental Floss Expiration Conundrum

Speaker 1 10:22

and always ask it for sources . So there you go .

Speaker 2 10:27

My two takeaways were give the AI a persona and ask follow-up questions . So , that's interesting . Hey , conundrum of the week , mate . Pretty simple . I was flossing my teeth the other day and I noticed that dental floss hasn't expired yet .

Speaker 1 10:46

Well , first of all , good work on flossing your teeth . Yeah , I do it once a year , or twice a year , just the day before I have to visit the dentist .

Speaker 2 10:55

Yeah true , yeah fair . My dentist visit is coming up . But what's that all about ?

Speaker 1 11:02

expiry date on dental floss ?

Speaker 2 11:03

I don't know have you ever used expired dental floss and gone ? Oh , that doesn't taste right , I don't know . Have I ?

Speaker 1 11:09

I could have I mean , I don't know , I didn't even know it had one . It wasn't really a thing I was checking for .

Speaker 2 11:15

Um , yeah , mine blowed I mean , you ever watch those shows alone , or survivor or whatever it is , and they can take 10 items , oh yeah , yeah , I reckon dental floss should be one of the things they can take . It's the strongest thing on the planet , instead of paracord your dental floss Paracord is so overrated . I guess by extension I mean Plastic traps , the whole thing . Yeah , I guess . My question by extension is why does food even have used by dates ? I think that's a legalese that we've been pushed into .

Speaker 2 11:50

Everyone knows for sure that yogurt's at least 14 days past its we're not idiots . You can look at it and work it out . The truth bomb for me is guys don't even take , they just give it a sniff and pour the milk into their coffee . Pretty much . So what's the point ? We're better than what's printed on the labels , is my take .

Speaker 1 12:16

I'm with you .

Speaker 2 12:17

That's it . We've BCC'd our listeners on our week and if they're able , if you're able , dear listener , to leave a review or send us a text or join us in the sanctum , we'd love to have you Next week's show . We ask the true conundrum gift giving , what things are too personal to buy for someone else . See you next week . Bravo , charlie , club Out and that's the pod .