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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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to the Bravo Charlie Club podcast, making you
12 and a half minutes moreawesome each week.
He's Ben, I'm Richard.
Let's go, Ben.
How are you this week, Mate?
Amazing.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Amazing, awesome, yeah, look, I'm well and truly
down the path of recovery andI've been watching a bucket load
of streaming television, so Ifinished Netflix.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Everything.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, it's done, yep, and almost through Prime as
well, and it had me thinkinglike if you had said to me which
is the biggest streamingservice in the world, it has to
be Netflix or Prime, doesn't it?
Am I missing something there?

Speaker 1 (00:52):
I think it's YouTube.
You know, I think in terms ofminutes watched, yeah, youtube's
taken the crown Not long ago.
I think yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
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 (01:14):
I think the great thing about YouTube.
I'm well into down the YouTuberabbit hole.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Let's get into it, because I don't know anything
about this.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
I love it.
The user generated content isjust excellent.
I think the quality oftechnology you know cameras,
microphones, that sort of thingrecording in 4K, you know the
quality of the images is niceand sharp and you can just get
right down into the reallyinteresting niche stuff that you

(01:45):
just can't get from stationsthat the netflix so you're
saying netflix will never havelike a woodworking channel?
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 justyou know recording himself on
the job.
He's just you know makingkitchens and all sorts of stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
No, you're right, it's interesting because I've
always used youtube as like, ifI've like, if the, if the
kitchen sink's blocked or ifthere'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 (02:24):
On youtube, right, I think that's the thing right.
Anyone can put things up thereand you can find your niche.
You can find your tribe, youknow global cycling network.
I really love that one as well,because I'm a cyclist do you
have netflix like?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
do you use the traditional streaming services,
as they say you?
Go to block, but you probablygo to blockbuster still is it.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
If only I could.
But yeah, so my sort ofstrategy there is we have
Netflix as a sort of a for thebaseload, because kids and so
Damn kids and then switch aroundbetween Disney, prime Stan,
other sorts of ones, just for acouple of months a year and then

(03:07):
watch all the shows, the newshows that have come in, and
then sort of can it and move onto the next.
I think back in the day whenNetflix was your only option,
they used to have all thecontent right and you could just
go to Netflix and you could getit.
They had Marvel and stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
But I think didn't Disney buy that, or?

Speaker 1 (03:21):
something.
Well, yeah, but then disneysort of had disney plus oh,
that's another one in therotation as well so that disney
stuff stopped being on netflix.
They've become the gatekeeperfor their, for their content now
, but it doesn't change.
It's always there, like you'vekind of got more incentive to
leave because it's always goingto be there when you, when you

(03:43):
go back, whereas you know, atnetflix when it was kind of
there and it was only there forthree months or something you
kind of like watched.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
You wanted to watch it quick, um, so my girls,
introduced me to a service whereyou can work out which
streaming service.
So you, I think it's, I thinkthey use flicks or compare tv or
something, but you, yeah, go onand you can actually work out
which streaming service has gotthe, um, the show that you want
to watch.
Um, yeah, we'll, we'llregularly just what.

(04:13):
Take it for a month and thencancel it and then switch to the
next one because the shows youknow that we want to watch have
moved or whatever.
So sounds like we've got afairly similar strategy in that
regard.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
We got binged for a while.
We got all into sort of atreasure hunting program called
Oak Island, nice and it was onthe History Channel, but like
binge was the only place to getit, so okay, we're all in, watch
all the episodes.
Watch all the episodes.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well, if anyone interested, I've just finished
watching Day of the Jackal withEddie Redmayne.
It's one of the best TV seriesI've seen.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
Oh nice.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Really enjoyed it.
Not too much bloodshed, noswearing, so it's fairly
user-friendly but, yeah, worth alook.
Hey, speaking of Eddie Redmayneand Day of the Jackal, one of
the countries he went throughwas France in his escapades,
bringing on a travel tip of theweek, and I want to talk about

(05:12):
France, in particular the metroin Paris.
Yes, because I think one of thebiggest scams in the world is
the metro in Paris and the dailypass they make us foreigners
buy.
If anyone's heading to Parisand you've got an Apple, an
apple phone, in fact, it'llprobably work on the, on the

(05:32):
samsung or android versions, Ijust don't know because I don't
have one.
But there's an what's called anavigo card in the apple wallet.
So you literally go into yourapple wallet, you press plus,
add a card.
There's a transit card section.
Download the navigo cardbecause it costs two euros to
take a trip on a metro.
The average daily pass is likeeight or nine euros.

(05:54):
So you're three or four tripsto get the value of a single
trip, um, and the average persongoes into Paris, goes to the
Eiffel Tower, goes to theChamps-Élysées and goes home.
So I would argue you're goingto be in front using single
trips, rather than buying thatdaily ticket, which I'm sure is

(06:16):
just the biggest joke in France.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, good, solid pro tip.
I've actually done that, Luke.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
I think I was the mug that actually had the yeah, I
remember seeing your picture onthe 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 writein, but one guy has actually
given us a little bit of anuppercut.
He's like get back to yourroots.

(06:43):
He said the first episode youtouched on ai and I want more of
that.
So it kind of got me asking youknow, richard, what's vibing in
AI?
This is definitely not aquestion for me.
Is there a prompt of the weekor something you can share, that
sort of what's vibing in?

Speaker 1 (06:58):
AI.
Yeah, so much big stuffhappened this week in AI.
Actually Chat, chippy, t5 cameout.
But I guess, rather than sortof like prompt of the week,
maybe something a bit moreinteresting is how to craft a
good prompt and the sort ofcomponents of a prompt.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
So we discussed that in the first episode that your
prompt engineering was actuallya really important part of your
use of AI.
So you're going to give us thegold.
Everyone, get your pens out.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Well, I think the thing is with AI the more
context you can give it, or thequicker you can give it context,
the more precise and perhapsmaybe the more useful the answer
you're going to get out of AIis, and so, giving it context.

(07:57):
Like you know, you are a persondoing this job and here's what
I need from the person that'sdoing this job.
Here is the role and here'swhat I'm, you know, trying to
uncover.
You know, give me three optionsaround a certain topic or
response and drill into some ofthose with more details, I think
also to get it to find theholes in your answer as well.

(08:24):
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, andasking it to cite sources too,
for some rigor, and asking it tocite sources too, you want to
try and ensure that thehallucination factor there can

(08:44):
sort of be mitigated.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
So I've got to ask.
The first direction you gavewas to tell the AI to take on a
certain persona.
Yeah yep, yep.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
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 Xin the market.
You're a nasty history teacher.
Yeah, come up with the worstpossible assignment for my grade
8 students.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
You're a whimsical musician, okay, so it can do
that.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Is that I mean?

Speaker 2 (09:18):
I'm a novice.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
I think those kinds of things help it kind of focus
in on, I guess, the sort of thetone and the right level of the
reply.
So yeah, I've had good successwith that.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
So when I'm giving context, let's say I've
established a persona can Iwaffle?
Am I allowed to just write from, shoot from the hip and say
this is imagine yourself in thisscenario and these are the
outcomes that I'm trying toachieve, and can you cite the
sources that help me deliverthat?
Do you write as much as you can, or is brevity important?

Speaker 1 (09:59):
I do it bullet point form so I just kind of like type
it in, you know sort of likeone thing per line.
And you know, I think it'shelpful if you have an idea of
what you're expecting Ifanything comes back that kind of
seems unusual or unexpected,drill into it, get more

(10:21):
information and always ask itfor 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 theother 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, ortwice a year, just the day
before I have to visit thedentist.

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, Idon'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 waschecking for.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Um, yeah, mine blowed I mean, you ever watch those
shows alone, or survivor orwhatever it is, and they can
take 10 items, oh yeah, yeah, Ireckon dental floss should be
one of the things they can take.
It's the strongest thing on theplanet, instead of paracord
your dental floss Paracord is sooverrated.
I guess by extension I meanPlastic traps, the whole thing.

(11:39):
Yeah, I guess.
My question by extension is whydoes food even have used by
dates?
I think that's a legalese thatwe've been pushed into.
Everyone knows for sure thatyogurt's at least 14 days past
its we're not idiots.
You can look at it and work itout.
The truth bomb for me is guysdon't even take, they just give

(12:02):
it a sniff and pour the milkinto their coffee.
Pretty much.
So what's the point?
We're better than what'sprinted 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 onour week and if they're able, if
you're able, dear listener, toleave a review or send us a text
or join us in the sanctum, we'dlove to have you Next week's
show.
We ask the true conundrum giftgiving, what things are too

(12:40):
personal to buy for someone else.
See you next week.
Bravo, charlie, club Out andthat's the pod.