I remember when Nextel came out with their Walkie-Talkie feature for their phones — you could push to talk over cellular.

I won’t deny this served in some practical settings, but it largely amounted to a bunch of ding dongs yelling into their phones at the mall, having short, fragmented conversations for all to hear.

This is likely what made me hate talking to my phone. If I had the ability to type discretely while I was in public, why would I opt to tell the whole world? They don’t need to know I can’t find the specific sauce my mom wants from the store.

But there have been a few changes since…1997.

For one, lots of people are actively recording and broadcasting themselves on their internet.

For another, there’s actually more utility to talking to your phone.

I’ve embraced audio notes in the Messages app. It’s async, so I can choose when to both send, and listen to, messages.

Headphones are also a thing now, so at the very least, you don’t need to broadcast both sides of a conversation.

But of course, the biggest change for me has been the ability to talk through my thoughts to a little robot on my phone that is transcribing and processing what I’m saying.

This has made me far more productive because it means I can process thoughts away from my desk. I don’t lose ideas or forget tasks. When I get inspired or think of a solution, I can capture the entire context.

One of the most impactful things my Computer Science teachers did was think out loud through problems in class.

It’s very, very likely that they had solved those exact problems for years…or in some cases, decades.

But they knew how important it was to talk through problems, even if it’s with yourself.

This is where the whole notion of Rubber Ducking comes from.

And this is really why I’ve come to love talking to my phone.

It allows me to capture ideas, in full, when I think of them.

It allows me to think through complex problems no matter where I am, so I don’t lose my train of thought.

And then it sends all of that text to Obsidian, along with summaries, for me to review later when I’m at my desk.

I can write tomes on how I think AI is making us lose our critical thinking skills. This is one way where it helps us preserve them.

But beyond that, it helps me be more productive, without having to sit at my desk.

If you’re looking for a place to start with this, the Voice Memos (iOS) and Recorder (Android) apps are great and have built-in transcription.

If you use iOS and want to supercharge your voice notes, try Whisper Memos.

Do you talk to your phone? How do you use it? Reply and let me know!