OTOH I can and have driven stick shiftfor decades (until they replaced it the bridge across the canal on the hill down from our hous sported the green paint from the old Ford pickup that I slewed around the bottom curve when I was late to marching band practice in High School and forgot to downshift) Now I much prefer the sedate automatics.
This, but I need to fill up 20 characters to be alowed to post it.
For me, it is the driving experience. A manual gives more direct control and a satisfying kinesthetic experience than an automatic does. Steering wheel paddles do not, in my opinion, replicate that driving experience.
I should clarify that I’m referring to cars designed for more than mere transportation. For example, many years ago, I was intentional in purchasing a BMW with a manual instead of an automatic transmission. That said, I would not want a manual transmission in my family SUV. On the other hand, I would be fine with a manual in my large Tundra, especially when I’m towing something.
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In the US 
On this side of the pond the vast majority learn how to drive properly 
I’m not so sure; I keep seeing them drive on the “wrong side” of the road.
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I think you mean, the correct side of the road?
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Always drove a manual, but towing specs for a modern automatic transmission are so much better than for a manual that pickup truck manufacturers have dropped the stick from their line-ups. My last two pickup trucks have had slushboxes in them.
Only 1 Full-Size Pickup Truck Offers a Manual Transmission
Once upon a time, most full-size pickup truck buyers ordered a manual transmission … Today you only have two options for a midsize pickup truck with a stick shift. The only full-size truck that offers a manual transmission is the Ram 4000. And even that isn’t available in the U.S.
5 Full-Size Pickups With Manual Transmissions on Autotrader - Autotrader
The major makers built the last full-size pickup truck with a manual transmission in 2018, so you’ll have to flip your calendar back a few years to find one.
My father was a used car dealer and a part time house builder. I learned to drive whatever he was using when he decided to give me a lesson 
. Car, truck, manual, automatic, he thought I should know how to drive anything.
On the topic of more diverse guests, heck, even something like web design or web development. I don’t want to sound like a jerk by suggesting myself exclusively, but I do that kind of work (although I’m definitely not internet famous). I know @webwalrus does as well, and it may be a pleasure to listen to some of his flow and a discussion of the apps he uses. A topic like that is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from productivity and could be very wide-ranging.
Similarly, illustrators would make for interesting interviews. I’d be interested in hearing the process of how they use those tools; it’s all a mystery to me even as a guy familiar with Photoshop and Illustrator.
I know you folks have had Stalman on. It’d be interesting to have him back and discuss photography tools, since that landscape has changed a lot over the past few years. (I know he’s drifted back to Lightroom because of AI, but for a while he used Capture One, and learning about the differences between those tools could be an evergreen episode).
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I’ve been lurking here for many, many years and decided to finally create an account just to chime in on this. I’ve been an avid MPU fan since the beginning, and also listen to nearly every Relay podcast, along with ATP etc. I also pay for MorePU.
I echo many of the sentiments about more diverse topics and guests. I enjoy many developers/youtubers/podcasters, but many of the tools and workflows discussed heavily overlap and I rarely feel like I get something valuable from them. I would never expect MPU to cater to my specific needs, but just to give an example, I’m in academia and historic preservation and was hoping that a recent-ish episode may have covered academic tools and workflows (especially Scrivener). The most recent example I could find was #338 from 2016, and while it’s a completely lovely episode it’s a bit out of date (and wow, MacSparky’s voice has changed over the years!). I don’t think there’s ever been a guest that works in the design field that isn’t graphic design, but I could be wrong.
I love MPU and am not going anywhere, but I think it would be beneficial to everyone if more guests were brought in from a little outside the productivity/apple sphere.
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Welcome to de-lurking! 
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Same in the Netherlands. Taking driving lessons and exam is by default a car with manual gearbox. Only people that really cannot drive (mostly physical conditions) with a manual gearbox can take lessons and an exam in an automatic. If you do your exam for an automatic gearbox I believe it is also only allowed to drive an automatic…
Electric cars are the reason more people drive automatic these days, but otherwise it is mostly manual.
I think that would be a great topic to apply their shallow-to-deep approach. We get a number of questions here from people at all levels of experience and access to tools. There’s definitely interest.
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To clarify, I would also love to hear @snelly or @webwalrus or any of our other resident web developers on the show. Didn’t mean to imply it shouldn’t be a guest topic.
I’ve come to learn, professional is a meaningless term. I’ve seen “professionals” publish pretty bad photos and “non-professionals” publish great photos.
Most of the instructional videos I’ve seen—both paid and freely available on YouTube—are screencasts of software being used on a mac, so even if the app isn’t from the Apple ecosystem, the workflow is likely mac-centric.
Thanks for the kind comments and encouragement regarding the two photos. Like I said above, they are good primarily because the subject is so cute. 
I drove cars with manual transmission until I moved to Chicago. That cured me permanently.
Indeed! Like I said, manual transmissions are great—except in stop and go traffic. For driving a sports car, I don’t think they can be beat for the sheer fun of driving.
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