Is Gen Z Completely Cooked? With Ed Elson

Michael Batnick (0:00)

It is difficult talking to a microphone. And I've noticed this increasingly about myself, that my brain breaks all the time. And I think when you're talking to somebody in like normal life, and you sort of stumble, like they just fill in whatever word you're looking for.

But when you're on the microphone, you're like...

Ed Elson (0:15)

That's why you gotta do it like a bazillion times.

Michael Batnick (0:17)

So Scott is incredible. Like his brain does not break on mic. Josh's brain, your brain doesn't.

Ed Elson (0:22)

No, Josh's brain never breaks.

Michael Batnick (0:24)

I always lose the sentence or lose the word that I'm looking for all the time.

Josh Brown (0:27)

I don't think you always do.

Michael Batnick (0:28)

I mean, I feel like I do it a lot. You never do.

Josh Brown (0:31)

So I told you, I listened to your conversation with the guy from Hamilton Lane, that you did it this week.

I thought it was one of the best things I've ever heard you do. And maybe it's because you know the topic so well. It was like a flawless, no um, no uh. Like as soon as he finished a sentence, you had the next question ready.

Michael Batnick (0:53)

Well thank you.

Josh Brown (0:54)

And you reacted to his statements immediately.

Michael Batnick (0:57)

I rarely feel like I finished something. I'm like yeah that was pretty good. But I did do a good job.

Josh Brown (1:01)

It was really good.

Michael Batnick (1:02)

I know the content and he was very good. So he made it easier.

Josh Brown (1:06)

He was very good too.

Michael Batnick (1:07)

When you do a bad show, how long do you think about it for?

Ed Elson (1:10)

I used to think about it for weeks. Now I think about it for hours.

Michael Batnick (1:13)

Weeks? Yeah. I'm hours.

Ed Elson (1:16)

But the thing I've learned is that the more you do, the less each one matters.

Michael Batnick (1:20)

And there's also less time to work. Because you have another part of the next step.

Ed Elson (1:22)

You've got another thing to figure out.

Michael Batnick (1:24)

And nobody cares.

Josh Brown (1:27)

Are you in a lot of two-way conversations with your audience?

Do you get a lot of feedback and do you respond to any of it? Do you use that to try to improve the show?

Ed Elson (1:38)

Yeah. I do. But I think you've got to take everything with a grain of salt because people online are generally insane.

Josh Brown (1:43)

I don't mean comments. I mean like literally somebody comes in to you and says something constructive but critical.

Michael Batnick (1:53)

Not in an open forum.

Ed Elson (1:54)

If they're right. Sometimes they're wrong and I'm like...

Michael Batnick (1:57)

So I feel strongly about this. I very much not try to. I do avoid the comment section.

Ed Elson (2:04)

Yes.

Michael Batnick (2:04)

Because Bill Simmons said it crystallized with me. Because obviously like everybody else, it's weird to see strangers talking shit about you in a personal way. It's just a bizarre feeling. Yeah. I understand and I'm thrilled that people even care to listen to us. So I'm not mad that people talk shit. That's part of the game. I accept it. I totally get it. But I don't want to subject myself to it, number one. Like it's not healthy. But number two, and more importantly for the audience's point of view, I want to say what I want to say. Exactly. Without a random anonymous person comment in the back of my brain. It's not fair to the audience. Because the audience isn't reading the comment section for the most part.

So why would you like steer the conversation in a way that's going to try to avoid language that don't exist?

Ed Elson (2:43)

Just to please them, you're just going to say the things that they want. Then you're not going to say your opinion anymore.

Michael Batnick (2:47)

And I think the most lame thing that a podcaster can do is talk to the negative comment section. That's not what the audience is there for. They don't give a shit that somebody...

Josh Brown (2:56)

Oh, fight with the comments?

Michael Batnick (2:57)

Through a tomato. They don't care.

Ed Elson (3:00)

You got to move on.

Some people say, don't read them at all, zero. I think that it's worth just checking them out and getting a sense of just where people land.

Michael Batnick (3:12)

But at a certain point, you don't have to anymore.

Ed Elson (3:15)