What's up everyone? This is Anthony Pompeo. Know most of you know me as pomp. You're listening to the pump podcast, simply the best podcast out there. Now, let's kick this thing off. Ed Lattimore's, the former heavyweight boxer. He's a best-selling author and a chess enthusiasts. In this conversation. We talked about the crackhead work ethic his life story. His break from alcohol addiction and why Ed seems to think that the world is gone. So crazy. I really really enjoyed this conversation with Ed. He is one of
Last remaining independent thinkers that I can find on the internet. And we had talked about a number of topics both in the current day and over history. I hope that you enjoyed this episode with Ed as much as I did. Let me know in the comments or on Twitter, what your thoughts are after you. Listen, let's get in this episode with Ed Latimore. I hope you guys enjoy it. Anthony promptly on oh, Ron's pomp Investments, all views of him and the guests on his podcast are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of pomp Investments. You should not
not treat any opinion expressed by pomp or his guests as a specific inducement to make a particular
investment or follow a particular strategy. But only, as an expression of his personal opinion, this podcast
is for informational purposes, only. All right, guys, bang bang, very excited about this. I thought the first place we could start is a crackhead work ethic. And I'm going to tell you a story before you explain why you talk about this so much. But I have a brother, I got four brothers but one of them used to joke all the time and say
Crackhead wakes up and they don't eat today. Don't let them out. Work you and I came across one of your tweets. Like two three, four years ago whenever was I was like, holy shit man. You know my brother, I seen you talking about this and then I've seen talked about over and over and over again. So what exactly is crackhead work ethic. So you know
people first off people wonder where I like that comes from a why to talk about that so much. And you gotta like, understand where I grew up. Like I'm uh,
I'm a project of public housing and if you don't know anything about public housing, you know, there's the average skus Urban elements gang violence. A lot of drugs, that kind of thing, right? So so meal crackheads. Like
this is part of growing up, man. We used to get babysat
by a crackhead. I've seen people smoke in the shit and, and doing other drugs. And I remember one time was a Youngster. I didn't, I didn't understand why, why, my mom was
What the woman had babies have sat us because I was like, oh, I just squirted some water on the couch. Why is this a big deal? I was like three or four. Well, turns out, it was a syringe full of heroin a strict, but it wasn't. Why? I didn't know that I didn't like and my moms, like, why you have this trying to kid in a crack, his like, why, who's gonna pay for this? It's all freaked out. So that was the debate. Who's going to pay for it? It was silly. Like, I remember asking my mom about this probably a few years ago and just like we're missing at all.
And that was the the issue, you know, the she was mad that the attic was mad because you know, that's drugs and who's going to pay for my mom's. Otherwise the stuff out to her kid, can't even get to it or whatever. So do so you see this stuff and you have to cope with it and I always say, you know you can laugh a little more cry, a lot, right? So I choose to make humor out of my life and in that humor, one of the things it's just funny to me, man are crackheads. And I think
think,
I think the like vampires man, like if you look at him Elena there's a joke like can't kill him or you can't catch him and there's, they're super strong. I mean, the reality is like whether they're stronger fast, whatever, A lot of it is driven by the need to acquire this very addictive substance and that's what I work. Ethic comes from, I mean, sure we could bottle that without the without the need to get addicted to something. That'd be awesome. Right? But, but, you know, we can see.
Instead, I joke about it and and then those jokes, I'm trying to. I'm imparting some wisdom. Because look, if you have you ever seen someone get clean? A lot of times what happens is, you don't just break an addiction instead you replace it or diluted with other things and a lot of times you know these guys will pick up something positive and whoa just run with it because
No longer they're getting their fix from something that has a, it has a positive externality, you know, associated with it as opposed to getting their fix it, you know, from from an addictive destructive substance. So that work ethic that gets channeled into a lot of other things. And that's what a crackhead work together
comes from. I have this theory about people and this, I think aligns very well with it, which is, there's High volatility and low volatility people, I've talked to a bunch of times on on the show about as an investor
When you're investing in founder, you want High volatility people either, they're going to build a multibillion-dollar company or it's going to be a big hole in the ground. We wanted to go big right guys? Like Adam Newman. Goodbye. Why does he keep getting money whilst cause for have going big? You just don't know which direction, right? But like it's gonna be big and so, that's an investing. But in the regular world, you know, outside of investing there's High volatility and low volatility people. And what you're describing is basically High volatility people where there's an obsession of like almost personality trait, where yes the drug there is a
Two component to it where they get addicted to it and they become obsessive and all this. But if they replace it with something else, that then becomes an obsession, whether it's a drug or or not, that's a high-volatility person. They can swing drastically and then go like 100 miles an hour towards that thing. And it's almost like the person themselves is their point in the right direction. It's a positive going. The wrong direction is could be catastrophic. And yeah, and the two things come on, when you say
that, right? So first I never described it as high.
Agility and low volatility. The the phrasing I always use but it's not in the context of an addictive personality. Just kind of how you grew up on what you you, you know, experienced it as a youngster, I call it a ceiling, the ceiling on the floor concept, right? When you grow up in a safe environment, when you grow up nurtured with without really wanting for anything. I'm not saying you're spoiled, just not destitute.
For
your mentality is to maintain that and to kind of Meet the expectations of the status quo you grew up in. So your your floors higher, like, you like, you're not, it's really hard for you to fall off. You got to support system around you. You you more or less understand how to work and do things and be a constructive productive, contributing member to whatever group, you're part of your floor is higher, but your ceiling is lower, you're not we
You never going to take risk. You're not going to fly off and do some crazy because those those moves are highly volatile, you know to start a business, right? You know, you could succeed and be great. You could also fell and end up going on the wild for a long and if you never been in that position that is like devastating. We don't deal well with loss at all. So you're like I'm going to avoid the loss but better than avoiding the loss. You know, you avoid the game the potential gain as well, right.
and then the other thing I thought about when you were saying that is,
You know, I know some
people who who did hard drugs and then get hooked, you know, I know a guy that smoke crack like two or three times and he was like, you know, it's just not for me now. No one would look at that. End of one experiment and go told you it was a scam that's not addictive. Like no like no one will react that way but what that tells me. Well, there are a lot of different ways to interpret that based on what we know now and you know, how your environment and who you are shapes.
The you're going to get addicted to certain things and not, but one of the other interpretations is like, you know what, if there are people who for whatever reason, they don't, they don't take two things like that. And and drugs, just happened to be an easy example, to look at it measure because we can measure the, the, the negative output or not - I put negative outcomes, you know? Okay, well, you're in prison, we can ask you, where your drugs, she committed a crime, we can see the drugs. Mama, you know, you get into the system in
One way or the other and we can see the effect the drugs, but we don't see are the people who have that same trade, never pick up something negative, but never excel in something positive either. You know, they're, they're the people who it's like who the balanced lifestyle, folks. Right, there's there's that whole thing like all, you know, you want a little balance and balance is cool, balance is great and there's a lot of benefit to it but one of the things you don't get typically where you have balance is you don't get exceptionality you, you get, you know, there are two ways to be.
To have a have a b average, right? Which is to be bees and all subjects are I have like two ways and a bunch of these, you know and it's still not going to quite work out but you tend to not be exceptional in any one or two areas that it's one again you recognition or are disproportionately or asymmetrically higher
income.
Then if you do the right balance thing and you don't write as I don't like saying right if you take the balance safe approach,
Each to
life, one of the beliefs. I think that's changed a little bit in business. Is it used to be go find the well-rounded person go find the person who went to certain school got the degrees got you know this skill said they were in this club, they did this extracurricular activity. They worked at this job for five years, you know, whatever. Now I see a lot more people talking about, no higher for the exceptional skill. So exactly, you're talking about, don't hire the, the be student across the board higher for the person who is amazing at sales and their horrible at
Right. Because guess what? When they join the team they are not going to be running the finance team to come here on the sales team and you need someone who's actually at sales and instead go higher for that. But what it makes me think a lot about is, like, in your life. Most people are actually aspiring to be the well-rounded person, and it always cracks me up. Like, I'll talk to a friend about, you know, what you've been doing? I know, tell me some like crazy hobby, they picked up or something. Why are you doing that? Like it, basically. Because I think I
should
Oh my do enjoy doing it though. I know it's hard to sucks. I'm like
sorry you doing it because it's hard and it sucks like, okay, you know, I see that path of thinking but usually is no because I think that I should be doing this and it provides some social signal or I want to fit into a certain group or whatever. And I was like, man what a life that would suck till I live just doing shit because you think other people expect you to do
it and and what you're describing,
You're describing a lot of people and and probably even more than I I tend to Cluster because I'm to me. I see it as a normal distribution, I see a lot of traits and and even if that's not like exact and it almost certainly isn't
it's useful
and we can make some useful predictions. If I tell you that you know they the average person is, you know, balanced and most people, follow them, 11 humble, two standard, deviations out.
M saw, you know, do they're going to be Condor good at many things and car kind of bad. At many things that leaves us rare individual. That is that gets it, whether what? And, and whether they get it intentionally or accidentally stumbled into it, and it had some good experiences, and some, payback and kept, but it doesn't matter, but they get it. The the rewards are just there. So disproportionately
Higher than they don't scale linearly. I wouldn't even say it truly exponentially. If you are, if you are really good, that's like like like boxing. For example, if you're really if you're if you're good enough boxer to get into the top 10, you're going to make a lot more money than a club fighter, but not nearly as much money as the guy who is fighting for the title. My definition one or two. Okay. But to get to one or two, you got to
About ball a lot. Even again, the top 10, you gotta give up Ally wrote an article about this. When I was, you know, people always ask me why I stopped with the record I had and, and it's complicated answer or at least multifaceted answer, which is why I wrote the essay but one of the things I touched on was that
for me to get to the top 10
with my ability where I started my size, that's a
huge opportunity cost. Is it worth it
right now? I'm making it. I'm not.
I'm making a decision because I happen to have other skills that have a payoff. And I made the trade off, I think it was inappropriate, smart one, the focus on building my writing career, my website and everything I do on the internet in place of that but a lot of people want that trade off. So you look at you look at the fighters who would shoes Fighters because that's the example. But I think it's scales in any competitive domain or domain where there is a zero-sum is probably a better way to look at it and
The people who make it to the top are so much further ahead of everyone else in the middle. But to get there, you have to be obsessed. Like like
those are like anyone. You see playing
professional sports on TV, those are well-rounded individuals, but it's actually kind of a joke here in America that we make these guys go to college first, at least in in the NFL, the NFL thing is the only sport where there's not a direct from high school to Pro pipeline,
I know there's one in basketball. I know there's one in baseball and I'm pretty sure there's one hockey, but not not in the NFL but but it's a joke. They were like, you got to go through the NCAA and go to college. Because who are we kidding here? You're not making these guys, very rarely where you get the guy. That's like
Myron roll. Remember him? Yeah. Right, my role was like a Rhodes scholar engine like pre-med and he's also star on the football
field. Remember, God's name. He played for the Ravens. Johnny, he I follow move on and on Twitter, I think we've probably covered buddy. He's
His degree in math, you know, I remember Courtney Brown who played with her for the Browns, he was an engineering, he had an engineering major at Penn State, but these guys are
like rare rare. I mean, like a weenie, can name them? Because they're so rare.
All right, exactly. We don't even follow football, at that much least. I don't follow well enough to know that I won the one someone outstanding like that shows up because that's not normal. What is normal is being so obsessed? That you get to that level and you
Don't do anything else. I don't like no one cares. Everything these guys can't even really read. I mean, I'm not saying that's a good or bad thing. I'm just pointing out that sometimes, you gotta give up what we can read the defense, that might be more important than the NFL since then, you know, real love and peace this War and Peace. Now that's what we're looking for.
Yeah. All right. Elon Musk. When he was on SNL, he's I think, said it best. He's, like, I'm trying to get to Mars. Did you think I was going to be normal like, no? And then I remember seeing all these articles,
While ago, my father actually he pointed out I think it was like, there's an article written as like Jeff Bezos does the dishes at home and I drop the kids off at work. I was like bullshit, right? And I get that people want to present like a certain Viewpoint, right? But it's like, it's all so different between what it took to get to a certain point. And then what you do once, you're kind of at the peak right, but but it's just, it's hard work, right? And goes back to kind of like crackhead. Work ethic idea of like if you want to be great at something,
you have to fucking work hard. If you want to be the greatest crack addict, it's ever a little pipe in the hood. You're not, didn't, you're
not getting a job, you know, you know, I've met functional addicts like no, you gonna be you're gonna be out there every day hitting the scrapyard something right now, I don't want anyone to hear this and go to this. This motherfuck is, is promoting drug you like? No, that's not the point. I like your copy or
commenting. They want something that is very real.
Which also a lot of people in society. Don't see every day, right. Never then they don't. There's a whole
I think about this a lot. I just tell you random story did not illustrate this before I go into the detail. Number one day. And in my old neighborhood before I moved, it wasn't a world where I lived. As an adult, it wasn't a bad neighborhood. It was just then the it was just in the city and I know enough about the drug game.
And how it works. I know enough to know that you're not storing, a massive amount of product and not everyone that's in the business is going to live in the area where the stuff is sold. In fact, you know, why would they okay?
And I was like midnight or something and I was up and I
just heard it was like a rain of bullets for like 5 minutes. They pulled up on this house and just just eliminated. It drove off, doesn't make the news and I'm like, we're going to hear anything about this.
Nope. And and I
said to myself, I know enough to about the area, I'm in probably probably something related
to two drug trade like
because the the you know, the way that was done that's not you know, or maybe rented but unlikely where I live. All right. So that's what I tell. A story I tell the story to say that most people are like, living in the world and they don't realize there are levels.
As beneath and above them. And if you don't see anything else other than what, you know, you assume that's all there is. And that's a, that's a whole that sounds obvious. But we don't think about the implication of that, I can talk all day about everything I've seen, and I think this is one of the reasons people enjoy some of the writing, I'll put out on this topic because it's a world. They're never going to touch and that's not a bad thing. I tell you like, you don't want you.
Kids Z2 stuff, man. It like because for every one of me survivors bias is really meant for man. Everyone at me you know it is there's a thousand or probably a lot more and, you know, and and jail whatever so I can see this in comment on it and then deliver it up and it's I would imagine it's in Reverse when you talk to people I call it, I call it, like visiting the Matrix when you, when you step down into the to deal with people who have no idea how how long
I can make a living the way you make it living room. They look at you like you got superpowers, man, from from from a lifestyle perspective, you're dodging bullets,
okay? And then you step
are leaving go back what other people who have interacted and you know who you know from The Matrix and there are is a loved one. They can't imagine your love with any more than it. Can imagine my level. Most people
are our sandwich, right? In the
middle and
it
back to what we were saying in the beginning. They don't have
Below that floor shit. I don't know what's in the basement but they never going to lead a house forget going to the attic. They never leaving this stuck
there. When I was in college, I got pulled out to go to Iraq. I came back and there's two stories that always immediately jumped to mind about this idea of a kind of understanding the people who are ahead of you in the people who want to be in your position, right? That's really what it ends up being as everyone was looking up. It's just there's very few people who
look up and there's nobody else. Uprightness light is like five people in the world but the first was when I came back I was a white dude with a shaved head who all a bunch of these dudes on football team knew was he went to Iraq. There was like four or five kids that maybe six months after I'd been back. I said something to one of them and he has look like he saw a ghost. All I, what's up? And he goes,
bro, I was never gonna talk to you. He's like, you guys. Shaved head. You went to war, like, fuck that,
right?
Like this idea of I had an experience in life that they couldn't, you know, even comprehend. By the way, the same kid went to a school, I think was in Ohio or something. I remember him telling me, like, do we had clear backpacks and walk through metal detectors like all this and I was like, no, no, my high school, right? So like okay, like we both have these experiences in life that we probably could learn from each other. But just, we is hard to understand without actually going through it. And the second thing was got paid some money while I was
Away in the military and I came back and I was a young kid. No wife, no girlfriend, no kids, no responsibilities outside of like survive in this college environment, which is basically a cakewalk compared to where, you know, I
just was and so
somebody who I admired had told me about foreign currency trading, that's just sounds like a get rich
get rich
real quick. So I started doing this and I remember I was sitting in class and I'll never forget, I was in a Chinese economics class and I'll sit in the back.
Akai my laptop up and I can see everyone else. Everyone's taking notes, doing all you know what they're supposed to be doing. And I'm like not trading, but I'm like, looking at the charts and everything. Kill the football, team sit next to me and I'm right. He kept like kind of looking over and Beyond the fuck. Is this guy? This guy's just as dumb as me right? Like what's he doing this? And so when he left he said you'll pop let me ask you a question like, what was that? I was foreign currency stuff and he goes like, how does it work? And I told him like super high low, right? Like there's these things they move and if you pick the right,
A'ight bet. Essentially you can make some money and he's like, a, he's a, you just made some money. I said, yeah, it's so far and he's like, how much thousand dollars Haley looked at me, he goes brass better than drugs,
it's not illegal and it's not
illegal. And so, you know, we're talking whatever he came from Washington DC area, not the best area in the world or whatever. But like to get rich quick, that was his experience was. People would go into drugs or just do things. That weren't go get a nine-to-five job or whatever. And so,
It is funny because like those are like very kind of closed environment. You're on a college campus, you know, it's like weird things that people don't interact with on a day-to-day basis. But if you extrapolate that out, just the United States versus other, you know, Societies in the world that alone we don't think about how fortunate we are to be in a country where but you can go say some crazy shit on the street and you're not going to get abducted and killed. Yeah, right. Like you know, if you go to the extreme example, like there are
He's in the world where a woman cannot walk outside, without her face covered. Mmm. But that's a pretty big fucking difference than what we have here in the United States
and every never
Being aware of it is one thing, right? I think, one of the best things about the internet and social media, there's a lot of negative and people, it's very easy to point out the negative, but I think one of the best things about it is that it really does allow you to interact with albeit, sometimes in a rather explosive manner, other cultures. But if you're willing to learn, you get to see a lot about the world that you had no concept about and you get like a first-hand real-time experience.
And conversation and perspective from people on the ground are 20 years. Even 20 years ago, that wasn't really a thing, but now it is, okay? But to go and to go and live it to experience, even even not to that extreme but to just talk to people who are not American who who live everyday not caring or knowing about the stuff you consider to be important.
That you consider really important. People have told you, I'm poor. Like for example, like like our politics and politics everyone makes a big deal goes. Oh, you know, it's about Governor named the United States and you live here and you have to care about this and you need to be fired up. And this makes a big difference him out. And, and because I spend, I wouldn't say like a lot, but certainly it certainly more than the average person. Tom out of the country, I'm just like, do you know, there's a lot of other stuff going on. This is this is just one.
Thing, you know, there's a whole
group of people who don't who they don't even get a chance to
vote in our life, because they're not, they're not citizens. And I just I think about that a lot that a lot of people have their, their world and their world is important and in their world, they can decide whether they want to interact with. Other worlds are doubled down on on staying in the world that they have in the world. They know what makes the most comfortable. And I think most people choose the Comfort option. Of course.
But one way or the other sooner or later you get, you can introduce the something different or whether you're prepared for it. And I was a totally different
story. One of the funniest things to be in the world is that the United States taxes. Illegal immigrants described here for a second. So we're worried about all this stuff right? But the United States basically is built on the idea of no taxation without representation and we got people who get taxed but they don't have a say, you know, blows
my mind and then that same vein.
is, you know, when I was considering
Getting my Walnut consider. I'm still going to do it. I'm just not going to do it the way I had anticipated because I just know more now. All right, when I was going to grab my my citizenship and Portugal and I was just looking to learn about all the things and our tax grew. And I was like, you're telling me that if I ever stop being an American, I still gotta pay taxes because I was an American once that bloom I was like, why would I ever get rid of my citizens suit? They like that. I get rid of
That's the worst of all worlds.
Yeah, they armed. So some people have kind of gotten to this now but you know that if you were to renounce your citizenship you get taxed that day on all your assets right, as if you died. So basically, you know, call 50%, give or take. But you know, why they do that. There's a guy who was actually a co-founder of Facebook who he renounce his citizenship. He I think moved to Singapore had couple billion dollars where the
Stock. And at the time, there was no rule. Wow. So he pronounced. You're good, right? If you're a citizen, no matter where you live in the world wherever your residency is, you pay Uncle Sam. But if you renounce, then you're good and they don't have the citizenship, right? And so it comes out of question like, how important or how valuable is it? But if you got billions of
dollars and it may you take on a Singapore which is like one of the one of the passports and citizenships that that is more that gives you more access than an American. So after this guy did
Hey,
hold on a second here. We're not going to let this fly. They implemented this Rule and so it's always funny because you can look at a lot of tax law and is because someone somewhere figured out some loophole or did something and then they're like, okay let's close that. Let's change this out.
It was too much. Yeah. And then it's so now we gotta pay if he had done
with 100 million, no one
would care. We did a couple of billion there, like I was closed down with this is. Wow. Yeah,
the other taxing. That's pretty interesting is. I don't know if you've heard of these opportunities owns
It's so opportunity zone is basically under Trump. They came up with a map essentially and they went into cities and they said this is a not actually a bad area but just an area that has received less investment and so taxes can serve as a carrot or a stick. So let's go ahead and put an incentive in place. If you take Capital, you invested in the pre-selected areas and you hold it for ten years, right? There's a lot of nuance but basically, if you hold the investment for 10 years, don't pay taxes.
So, if you make a long-term investment in areas that we're telling you need investment, then we will give you favorable tax treatment. Hmm. One of the guys who helped push that through, is Sean Parker
from from Facebook at ours,
right? And so, you start realizing it's like, well, how did that login,
please. Haha, some
guys who were Rich were like, yo, we got a great idea, right? Let's go and Pitch it and do all this stuff. And so, when you start to realize that a lot of laws and regulations, and legislation, all stuff is like, there's usually it traces back to one individual.
Was I think something should change and people either get on board or they don't like that's how the rules get made.
Yeah, one of my favorite quotes man is from The Wire. And he the detective goes, you know, if you follow you, follow drugs, you're going to get drug addicts and drug dealers, but if you follow the
money, you don't know where the fuck, you going to end up. It's
true. And I think about that, that that
Is what is the while I was 11 years old at this point? And I think about that what a poignant observation about everything. And in our world, not just the love. We are politics in particular
to. Yeah, it it makes you think hard. This episode is brought to you by athletic greens. I take a G1 by athletic greens literally every day. I gave it a try a couple years ago and now I liked it so much that I even became an investor in the business. It is.
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Means available to everyone either join the waitlist for a free blockchain.com domain or visit Unstoppable domains.com to buy your domain today starting as low as $5 Unstoppable, domains.com. What the thing is interesting about you is you've said that you've had four lives and I think a lot of people don't think of their lives, kind of in, almost chapters, right? But but I think we're unique in that.
There's like almost like adolescence right there's this element of if you serve in the military in any capacity there's like kind of a time box around that time. Yes weird is very very weird. And people who have been in the military, I think can understand that. People who haven't the bag? What do you mean? Like you know whatever. Nah it's just like that's a time in your life and then there's these other chapters, your four chapters. I think couldn't be more different. It feels like
And you really kind of transition between this, do you ever think that you're all four of those people or do you just think of it as I used to be this person? And now I'm like a new person,
I am if I'm going to lay look at a transition point, a rude differentiation between each life and whatever life comes up. I think it all comes down to what my priorities were and what my weaknesses were at the time. So, you know,
kind of what's driving me and what is holding me back. And sometimes they're the same thing. You know, like hiking my mid-20s, my priority was, was
pretty much, you know, drinking and
chasing girls, amazing how to hold you back from making progress. You know, I look back at it. Now, my my my late 30s and I go, wow, of course, it's obvious. And then I'm like, well, why am I having these issues of my life? Well, because that was my priority, but it was awesome obstacle. But
But I think it's very easy for me to separate that out because there's just, there's this clear blocks. I mean, because of the people, I was around the things I was doing and the feedback I was receiving and what I knew and all that they look like different worlds and they have different experiences in each world. But I am, I'm a product of everything that I've gone through and learned from the lucky breaks in the tub breaks. Maybe a product of all of it. You don't get to leave any of that, you know, behind
And thank goodness because if you don't if you don't learn from your mistakes you're going to repeat them. The thing about getting older is it is that what was the best way? I've put this. If you take
care of a problem
early,
you get a
discount on it if you
take care of it, when it shows up, you're going to pay MSRP pants ticket price but if you delay it, you're going to pay a tax and a penny of taxes and a penalty on it and it might exceed your capacity to and like and I came up with that when I was thinking about the drinking thing, when you start drinking iced,
This crazy. I can say I say relatively late like 18 is relatively really? But yeah that's when I started but it was out of hand and it was causing me to make just awful terrible
decision, right? Out of the gate, you just drank a lot, right
out the gate, you know? And if there's no Half Steppin here, we were just talking about that
but there's anything worth doing is worth overdoing,
right? You know, and
and and fortunately I've
never been able to be a moderate God. That's what you know. I actually had a lot of people don't know this.
I've been sober now to be nine years, this December a lot of people don't know. I had another period of sobriety from
Well, year and a half. I think
I care. I can't even remember. I
know it was longer than a year and a half. It was like from 20 to 23. I didn't drink because I don't, I don't know the middle, there's no no little here. Why would I like it cracks me up and I can watch my girl short. Sure, open a bottle of wine because she wants Munch open a bottle of wine. Pour a glass and drink, half that glass, and forget it was there, and that bottle of it on sit there for like, three, four months before she even goes back to. And I'm like
What is wrong with you used to go through 23 at night when there was time to drink a bottle. Why not us together? Because she is been a great influence, but in general, us as in the the drinking Community 23 night. So there's no middle there. But but when I look at that, that Tom my life that is a
It's an example of a life that if I didn't get in front of that problem, I was going to pay a big tax in it and got close because we do know there's when you get in front of your problems and you you
express real remorse and you
express the desire to
change and you stick with that change.
People forgive a lot, probably more than I should, right?
Because because you you really are making an effort and you made the effort and it shows you seriously, I'm sure nobody would take me took me seriously. When I, when I was a month in a year and a lot more people like, hmm, five years I was like, okay, this this dude is real it's not just an act or whatever but imagine if I you know you say that and you go back and do it again and every time they all met I'm done drinking I'm done being an asshole and you go back and you do it again. Like not means nothing. Hey, you know, it means nothing. I always I always say
If I had to go behind bars and stop drinking, imagine that did then no one cares if I stop. Then it's then, as you know, Society baby stopping. And I've done some damage likelihood that me just stop cold turkey
or stop, okay, we need yourself off.
It's funny. Man, I went through these these phrases. So, so what? In 2012, September 2012. I was at moved back to Pittsburgh where I'm from where I live now. I was out in Los Angeles for like two years because of because of something related to boxing. So move back.
And I would do these on and off things man, like, like, I tried to go up, was I'ma go one week without drinking, see how it is, and
go three days without
drinking, see how it is, and get back on, and go hard and go the other way, right? And then, finally,
when I came back from from my
basic, I did my basic and then I did my AIT, my AIT was, was 22 weeks out in Fort, Lee Virginia. Basic was in Fort, Leonard Wood. Did that together? We will
Let out, I think I get back like, December 18th, some like that. Then went out during Crazy. Made a fool
and got somewhere and I didn't remember
getting there. I did, but I just know I drove and I was like oh this is this is mad and I got a bunch of stuff from the line I like cared about myself more as weird as that goes and then I was able to finally like stop but I'm a like a public, not a public declaration but I texted my father.
The closest friends. And I was like, I'm just letting you guys know. I think I got real issue. I'm going to stop. I understand if you guys don't want to kick it anymore because I think a lot of people who start drinking the worried about that and rightfully so, because if they're not good, friends, I've lost friends. I mean, it ain't like cut me out and be like, we can't be friends, but they stopped hanging out with me or two or three years. And when they were shot, I was serious in my life was making progress and moves and you know we shifted away misery likes company. Oh is it? And not just misery.
That's only part of it but but more than more than misery people like feeling like a position, they're in a position of superiority that people do not like when the status changes and it changes because you moved it, not because they know they're not very happy about that. Like people can cope with them falling off and you, you know, staying there. But when they stay still or think they're doing well and then you make a change and you LeapFrog them. It's a different game entirely but we made those are bleed.
I made those changes and then it was able to stick and I was busy. I had things, I was worried almost my fighting career, I was I was back in school. What else is going on? Was riding through the website, is trying to be a decent boyfriend. It was with Don dunwell and it's work. Is she still here? You know? Yeah, two years later and it's not
mouth and when you said that you were going to stop. So the reason also interested in this is in January of 2021.
Very first night before I got hammered, as I think, most people do on New Year's and all through 2020. Like I never been a huge Drinker by like going out. I like partying and doing all the stuff especially, you know, my twenties and stuff. And for whatever reason during the pandemic, I joked that like, I kept liquor store in business down the street, New York City, right? And I was just getting wine, but I would go. I'll pour a fact, you know, glass of wine. I could not do what your girlfriend was doing, right? In terms of drink a little bit and it's whatever.
I'll just go just drinking but it wasn't. Like I was addicted was almost out of like a boredom, right? Cause there's nothing to do. You're sitting inside 5:00 bam. I was gonna get a glass of wine and so, I was like, man, not maybe as coherent as you would be in like half a problem. As much as it was like, January, dry January. I've never done that before. That sounds, cool. Let's see how I feel. If I just don't drink and I started take Health little bit more seriously. Sleep more, you know, do all these different things during the pandemic, whatever. Because I time, too,
Think about like you know, stop
and after 30 days, I actually felt pot committed, right? Because I have fun. All summer, streak Rolla, hot streak. I can't drink on day 32, right? Because I get 32 33, whatever and I haven't drank since. And so is Bennett, you know, almost a year and nine months or whatever. But I don't have the same. I think sense of like accomplishments maybe as you do in the sense of you were like I have a problem I got a correct it and what I thought
I think about a lot is like, fortunately, I think most people probably are more in my seat, then in yours where they drink, but they don't think that they have a problem. They don't think it's like quote too much, it's more. So just like maybe I should drink less, right? And as less of like a black-and-white like in some ways a the black and white of like I have a problem. Let me
stop is a lot easier to carry, right? Yeah. That grey diem and I just don't do well with it. And yeah, it's an anything in my life.
Meanwhile, I'm sitting here right now. I had my coffee this morning that I made in the room, then the coffee that they brought me. And then I went, I got to the studio, a little early and I'm sorry, let me walk down and get a coffee at McDonald's. I got a copy here. The difference is that the three coffees? I'm not slurring my speech man. Being making an ass of myself so we can we can do that. But that that middle ground, you know.
I think shows the first of all on alcohol, I'm not like anti, you know, of all you're leading the prohibition charge, anything like that. You know, do you want a drink? You want a drink with that said, always remind people. There is no health benefit to alcohol, right? It is in the pure sense of the word a poison. It's one we've we handle, you know, better than cyanide but like it's still not like your body's gonna be okay without it.
Even even our Suites, you know, you one could argue you need carbohydrates. And I will not argue, you know, you do but, you know, and it triggers just carbohydrate. And I bring that up to say, you know, some people go, you don't need sweet. Either my okay, you don't need sweets. But the things that sweets are made out of you do need is running with that. Not the case with alcohol. So so it's just this Crown, but it's not gonna like it. You know, I want glass one. Here it is not going to kill you though. There's a great movie. This side. No. One of my favorite movies. One of the best ones I've seen.
Call shock collar and shock collar is about this, this this guy, he's a, I think, he's like some type of insurance or Trader or something like that, but like a white collar, dude, and he goes out with his wife and their friend, and he has like a few glasses of wine and gets into a car accident and ends up doing a. Because the guy I think I camera of the goddaughter, everybody ends up doing like a year and a half in jail, but they seem to like for real. No shit prison.
I think it was like it was like Chino or San Quentin or something like that, and why he's inside, he clicks up with the white gang and they asked him to do something, he ends up, he ends up in a killing somebody on the fighting to get you, get seven years. She goes from one year to seven and it's about his transformation. From this guy, who is just a regular load, like dude who has a job and a family, and all that took her salesman today to become a like a shot caller in prison. And and what
Why I took away from their movie. Do when I wash it, is it mean it's a great movie? The lead actor is the guy who plays Jamie Lannister. I can never remember his name, but one of the things I took away from, it was like, yo, imagine going out tote like it's not like he was drunk and got into the accident. It was just it. He just happened to have a BAC when he he did. And that's how your life goes down, the shitter is you had a few glasses. I want completely not not impaired whatsoever.
But things just design, it's a coin flip. I think about this, this idea to clean a lot
when humans are adaptable to, right? You could take a human and put them in the insurance business and they have some path and depending on their personality, the environment, like all these different things they adapt. And I think of it as like they're playing a role in the movie. Yeah. In the movie of Life of like you ever like meet somebody and you're like bro you could done could have seven other different things and
Or here and you got the suit and tie on. But like you do not want to be wearing that suit and tie. Right now, I
got a good friend one day, he was actually my best friend growing up when we were kids in the cuz I lived in two projects. I lived in anybody who's from Pittsburgh. They'll recognize these names. But um, you know, give them because they're important from from birth, to eight years old. I lived in the Hill district projects. I've been Addison terrorist. Then we moved to Northview Heights and astrology jobs, 18. And those are both projects were my friend when I was a kid was this kid.
very similar, I like it would you know the world strange my we would go friend's birthday was a week before monofin astrology or anything like that but no we
We were friends and then we split off. We kind of stayed in touch and them. I didn't hear from him for years and its social media made it easy to get in touch and heat. I reached out to him, and we connected and sort of talk and a life was good. And but the first time we met up, we met up at a bar, he was conned out of it. And then I didn't hear from him for, like, two years and then we link the began and he was a, our bond apologize for how I was like,
When we met I was he I think he was like detoxing some because he was just about to go to jail because he managed to become one of the most powerful, one of the most powerful drug dealers in the City, by sheer luck on some sloppy police work. When they, when they busted them, they busted them. They were waiting to catch him with all the drugs and I was everything to put them away. And and I think they jumped the gun or
Something this the store he told me and they when they made the raid, he was out doing The Re-Up and was able to, to discard the product. So when they pinch them, he didn't having a bunch of a bunch of weight on them. And, and when he was telling me because one day, he just sat down like, and I've recorded it was a cool conversation. He was telling me everything. How are you moved from like weed to heroine and I started in high school selling and everything out on work. And I'm listening to this and I'm watching him now because he's still
Of the same personality and talents and gives him. I'm just like man
You could have been anything but where you ended up and what was around you, you took your Acumen and your skills for Ali and people and you became a plug and I was like wow, that's crazy to be just listening because now he's that now he's doing, there's a funny man. How does this stuff works? It works. Now he's doing it substance abuse recovery work. Helping people get off the stuff and is also got his music on the side. He works and everything.
And I just think it's really cool when you mention that, there are people who could do anything. And I think our, our friend in December, because if we had stayed together and I had moved and I'm coming up on my man, I have, I naturally for whatever reason we all come out a little different. I naturally have a little more regard for the law, a little more fear of its consequences, but I could have ended up right next to him. We could have been were running and ruling things together, but I don't know, I'll never know because
As I went down a slightly different path and that little Divergence made a big difference.
It also makes me think of Jay-Z's got a new verse on DJ khaled's. Album, God did and in it, he basically is talking about the fact that he's a sell drugs. And now he's like, now they got weed in the stores. How crazy is that, right? Like, just 20, 30 years ago, you could get locked up, you could go to jail. Your entire life could be
derailed.
For something. Now, you go and little grocery store like the Apple Store now man. You go wild,
right? And then you look at the hypocrisy of, you know, all this talk around. Brittney Griner being locked up in Russia. And now there's a lot of complexity sensitivities, geopolitical chess. I mean, there's a lot going into it but then they were talking about is a substance that she's locked up for their and we've seen multiple people come out say wait.
Man, we got people locked up for similar shit here in the United States, right? And so like, is it hypocritical is it? No, is the geopolitical sensitivity that's playing into it. Like you start thinking about it. So wait a minute, we got people in cages for plants, you know, one of the things, you
know, and, and I keep meaning to like, do a deep dive on this because I have an intuition based on what I've experienced growing up, that if it did that, informs this opinion, but I haven't done a deep dive into the number, so I always like to
Preference there. So people don't think I'm just talking out my ass. Don't know what I'm talking about. I am but it's based on my experience and if the numbers contradict me, the numbers are right. A lot of those people in jail for weed, they're not in jail, just some weed. One of the things that happens when you when you sell an illegal substance is you don't you don't have the protection of the law.
So, you have to compete differently and a lot of those competition methods. Well, those are problematic, especially when we start talking about big way, always just all our anything that is hard, you know, like only what they consider our jobs, and we pretty much like, you know, the Coke and its derivatives crack, right? So that's like a different thing. People go in a little, we can debate, the, the difference between a laws on coke and crack, but that's a different argument because no one.
Okay, pokes legal. We should be releasing the crack dealers Tom of the weave, I don't know, unless you have moving big way. Yeah, you know then we start looking at your case and go. Should you be out you you should be not a not even a doubt. Sure. We removing stuff on people's records. Absolutely. That is a big problem, but I don't think there's there are people who are doing big, big senses like football numbers in jail. I don't think they're the people doing anything like that because just for Joe,
Just for weed and just and even just moving I don't remember what the the amount difference is for distribution versus, you know, consumption or something like that. But I know that,
you know, I don't even think, even in the even in
the early 2000s where I would be, like, mostly aware of and wasn't just like a thing in the background noise in my life. As I was, when the kid, I don't think anyone was really you.
You get caught what up? But a lot of stuff, but what I would have enough to where they were. Like where do you? You're not smoking. It's all on your own.
Yeah. Pretty much.
And that was, that was the big deal. Then that always cracks me up is when they
arrest somebody and they're like it a lot of money on them. I'm like, okay how much is a lot, right. And now he has $700 and I'm like I know a lot of people got seven hundred dollars in their pocket when they're walking around right lost in a lot of people who don't have 700 dollars in their pocket but like, you know, whatever, they the
It is but then there's the people who like, well we caught him, he has 75 thousand
dollars. What are you doing with that? That's
why I think the other piece that it's fascinating about this is, there's a book and I mentioned a couple times now on the show because is less about what's in the book as much as how the book came together, but it's written by Robert Greene. The guy rule 48 Laws of Power human nature all. Yeah. And 50 Cent?
Yeah, the 50th law but I got that. You got that long. The first thing is it looks like
Bible. They got it all. They got the gold Pages, they got a whole thing right but was fascinating about that book is Robert Greene is writing the way that he's always written in a very eloquent articulate, kind of theoretical sense and then he juxtaposes it to 50 Cent's life and what you realize is like 50 Cent and his lived experience is very similar to what Robert Greene is talking about.
They just use completely different language and they had never had any clue that the two of them existed until Robert, wrote a book and 50 Cent reach out to and I'll stuff. But it's like man that tells you a lot about Society. Right there human Nature's is,
is the same, you know. I was just I was just I made a tweet about this and someone commented something interesting that I agree and he the the Tweet was about, you know, I don't think that people need to get their ass kicked.
Disrespecting people, but I do think you need to be aware. That there's a penalty for disrespect and usually to deterrent, you know, that that penalty is enough to deter people from acting like assholes, okay? And that's like the whole idea that, you know, Mike Tyson has said, like, you know, people gotten way to confer with disrespecting people from behind social media because no one thinks they're going to get punched in the face and a little, I'm not a pro violence guy. In fact, I'm probably
You probably know most peaceful Friday ever going to be but
people who know how to conduct violence are pretty bummed pacifist until it's time to because I
know how bad it can get and how quickly
right with that. Said somebody said some really
interesting and I was like yeah that makes sense. And it goes, you know, you got a lot of a lot of the societies were we're civilized because men got together. And we're like okay if we make these mistakes, we're going to kill each other.
That's not good for anybody. So let's come up with a set of rules and to make it real clear and I said of conduct expectations for conduct. So it's very clear when someone's being disrespectful and what they expect for that confrontation, right? Which was pretty much eliminates
why I hate passive-aggression. I mean I
really think it's a weak thing to do because we're past regression. Tries to do it tries to get the benefit of a conflict without
out without the but I'm paying the
price for it. You know, it tries to try to maintain, you'll get jab man. I
get something else snarky or whatever and but but you do it in such a way to where it's not obvious that you're doing it a try to show and somebody freaks out you you maintain plausible. Deniability well you know in a in a
house
Depending on your perspective, more primitive or more advanced Society, you wouldn't be able to do that. You have to speak clearly and make your point, otherwise you just get ignored. Our you don't have one and if you make a point and it is in disagreement with someone else's, you got to express that in a certain way, otherwise, you're inviting trouble, there's certain things, you just don't do those and fight trouble, you know. So I think about that a lot, the wording changes because because we all use a different
Words and different vernacular. You know, our lexicon is filled with different words and things like that to describe the same thing to we're observing and we're all observing human nature. We just come up with different words for it.
So, you know, Robert Greene, his
education and his writing and 50 Cent with his lived experience, they both
have seen the same thing and have different words to describe
it, but it overlays perfectly and then it and then because it's from two different perspectives, you create it's not one plus one equals two. It's like one plus one equals seven.
Yeah, and you get an even deeper and
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Is you said something to the effect of there's somebody out there with half your IQ who's accomplishing 10x what you are? Because they're not smart enough to doubt themselves, which is just like, yes, like talk a little bit more about why did you think that was so such an important point?
Because you get a lot of people who everything is planning planning planning
planning planning, planning planning planning planning planning. But the
execution, because the execution is where you get
To find out. Is it a good idea or not? That's where you faced rejection. I'm working with a kid right now. He has been training fighting. He's been in the gym. Going to going back. A room and boxing for four years. How many fights you think this is? Okay no fights, no matter. What are you doing? Like do you do you want to fight or do you want to just say you trained to fight if it's if it's still you know, the ladder.
Cool, it's cool. Will, what are we
talking for? But you want to
fight, so
go fight. Now you go sub novice and every time we talked you know is he's got he's got a reason why he hasn't done it yet and I might know just take the fight just do it and when you noticed that a lot of people live like that because execution is scary. Hmm. Every every idea is a good idea in your head.
And there are some people who are not able to deal with the idea that perhaps it's not the best idea.
Perhaps reality is going to go, you know, let's go back to the drawing board with this one. It's
terrifying represent, like
it represents so much of what were afraid of wasted time. Rejection embarrassment. But the people who get farther ones that Embrace that, in fact, you know, one of my favorite sayings is look. When you're living true to yourself, you look forward to being rejected because that is, that's the most efficient way to
Cut out the fluff when someone like like when you know it is not a good idea when you know, it's not going to work on, you know. And then, you know, that because the market is says, yo, this is some bullshit you can go back with, but if you take it personal, you'll never do it. And that's the problem. People take it personally.
Yes, I heard never her story, Elon Musk when they start boring company know. So he's at SpaceX and
At some point putting tunnels becomes a topic of discussion and my theory is that they're practicing for Mars because they believe that we're going to have to be underground for some period of time. And so if you want to be get good at doing tunnels on Mars, you process start on Earth. But other people say it's because of traffic or whatever the the reasoning is, but they're talking about it. And he basically says to a room of Engineers or whatever he says,
Figure out, you know, can we dig a tunnel? And so they talked for a few minutes or whatever I suppose. If somebody says to him art, I think we could figure this out, he goes. When can we get started? Ha ha, ha. They say, it took us about two weeks and it's on Friday. And he says, how about you go out in the parking lot right now? And see how far you get by Sunday and to God and they literally, within two hours, they were out the parking lot, digging a hole in the ground to see how big of a hole they could dig and it's like two weeks to
If people decide a moving and he was like, right, this fucking second go outside in the parking lot, don't worry about permits, don't worry about, but getting equipment that just go outside with whatever we got and see how far we could dig by Sunday. And that look this is my struggle with two that's
speed of implementation because because look the the sooner you do it. The
sooner
Doing and look at might be a great idea by itself. You don't need to add anything else. You might discover something you didn't even that you either. You leave come over. Go mom. I always use the thing
about this and when they're, when they're doing quality testing video games, I highly, they figure out all the ways. This can go wrong. I always wondered
that what do they have? A bunch of beta testers? They like they know what, they know how it
should work right based on their design. And what they
Think and even even with their simulations. But until you get real people in their testing and going they have no idea. And that's why they were there that testing period they discover and fixing things. It's the same way with anything that goes on your head, you get to it. You can you just get out there and go quick? And and look, I am not the biggest friend anymore, I'm getting better. But that planning phases to say, overrated is incorrect because you need something. But you
need
Lot less, especially when the, especially when the cost for failure is so low.
You know, it's not like it's not like harsh surgery like this is a pretty big big penalty. If you you know you go in there you get a bunch of people. Are you going on figure this out? Oh now it's getting. Let's get some butter knife and we'll just see what happens. But when it comes to something like like starting a company or writing or not even something like that, you know, just start a website you
want to write start a
website. All right, just get out there because the cost of you making a mistake is so low. But what you learn?
The experience you get is so hard. There were, there really isn't a better way. You can do those steady right before years and what you'd agree on. Now, I'm qualified right now, it doesn't work that way, real world. I think that's one of the biggest changes in the world world. Now is that we have moved
from your your
credentials, mattering to you watching people who know a lot less in the same field that you study making real big.
Moves. I mean, it would it would absolutely. I don't even know how one gets here but I would just be sitting there kanikama hot if I'm watching Vice study marketing for four years out of college paid, like a hundred, twenty thousand dollars and I come on news his 19 year old kid. This figure it out. All I got to do is make some catchy videos on Tick, Tock and put a link in the description or what up.
Hey, if you think about,
Did that is right now. I think a lot of Street verse The Boardroom, like, my entire life, my entire worldview, but a lot of my worldview is informed by those two things. Which is the, there's the street approach this, the street mentality, there's the street, you know, like all these different components to life and then there's the boardroom. And what is the boardroom? Do they plan was a street do action, right? Boardroom they sit there and they say okay well you need the credentials, you need this. The street says, hey you got the product or do you not right? I mean it's like it's like a very different view of the world but
That. But marketing is a great example. I actually think today, the person who is able to take a Twitter account or Tick, Tock encounter, whatever. And in say to a company, hey, in three months, I went from nothing to 50,000 followers. Here's the engagement, all this stuff. And another person shows up and says, I went to Harvard for marketing. Obviously, the company picks, the the person
who leaves the company should.
Yeah, at least they
should like like my website. You know, the Google is Ben.
Google. And what that means is that
Once the technology really became viable to implement Mass like like we've always cut, we've always had to my understanding G PT 3 or something to that effect. Pretty much the predictive kind of all. This is what they do. Believe you're right and the military and kind of figure out what the words mean quickly and and that's like a combination of a huge database.
And processing power and then I guess on the last and you need some conduit like fast internet, right? Okay so as you see this with Google translate and that's what Google translate does and how it gets better, how it kind of figures out the difference between regions and and that's why I like you can you can protect something in today and get one translation, and six months, get a better one because it is in a sense learning and this, and I bring this up to say that,
That is the basis as I understand it, for a lot of the updates, Google is made to the algorithm for it searches, you know, that they go in there and tweak what they wanted to emphasize and downgrade. Like, for example, it made a big adjustment back in 2019, or 2018, where, you know, we were talking about health stuff, but you didn't have the credentials behind it, like it was a DOT edu or a.gov or are some
WebMD or some other, you know you were dominating but literally, you know, these people, you know, have credibility, you're just the site. Let's figure it out, no matter how well it's written, what I bring all this up. These changes wiped out a lot. There were a lot of people did enjoy, you know, I had their websites and blogs people complain him. The these changes, you know, disrupted everything. Because I wasn't just like, that's just, the field are used medicine but you know, the like Finance it took heads to all of these. Whoa, I'm not going to
give up because that's my site. We took a hit man. We did. I was cruising along about the crack 20,000 followers for
visitors per month,
organic. And we just get, we got dinged. And I was like, all right, what are we going to do? Well, I'm Gonna Learn SEO. I'm learn to Street way, do, which pretty much what I did, maybe, because everything in my mind, I'm actually like putting together now. So I can teach somebody directly and then from there I'll probably produce a product. But but I learned a lot about how SEO works.
Because I had a vested interest in. Having my sight, my side work and I don't know. Last I checked, you know, this is over three years almost now, but been figuring out taking different dings learning, seeing what works, what doesn't and figuring out tools. Well now it's 60 thousand visitors per month organic, and that is because I didn't give up and it continues to bump a bump and go up, but it's all from tall from that street approach. In fact, I didn't take
Any classes.
In to lay any even? Someone's course I didn't, I didn't do anything probably until the last three months. But I was well on my way up and I was like, oh let's let's learn and see if there's anything. I don't know because I've been I've been figuring out a lot here. Let's see who you know who else knows what? And I think that's really the best approach. Even learning learning works is where I think great too. Because because every time I come to Miami, I'm reminded of sometimes I feel good about my Spanish and other times I'm just
like okay.
Right? But but the way, you know what I discovered a method on YouTube I was like wow this guy is brilliant, he put together this thing where he met where he took himself to fluent in French and Spanish and 45 days, right? Wow. Now he did it devotee. Eight hours per day, which I don't, you know, I have, but you look at it and you can pull a lot from it. And one of the things I took from it,
this was so cool.
One of the things you do.
Do you sit and you tell a story, very personal to you all, you just need to have the ability in the language to construct a sentence. When you don't know the word you want to use for the story. You write that down, you put in the translate, you pop it on key deck. So you can read we review a review it, and then you come back and you just keep trying to tell the same story to tell us a story time. Story until it fills, do you can go through the whole story and a funny thing happens with this. Very simple bump into the wall method as opposed to.
Studying different things wine, you've got a working vocabulary, it is personal to you because you tell him a story. Like the first story I put together was like the first day with me and my wife now and I'm like, oh now I know these words, I thought I knew when I didn't know, but now I have it because it's very personal to me and then the tens of speaking and all that, but I picked it up from bumping into the wall. Okay, that's that's so much better than how we
Typically go about teaching language which is go and learn some grammar. And here are a bunch of sensors, they mean nothing to you. So why would you remember them? Like, you know, even do I don't love, Duolingo doing. It was based in Pittsburgh, I better loved Duolingo, right even do illegal like because it's just an interface and it's good for some things. They know method can do this where you have where you put together a vocabulary and approach, it's viable.
You did, it has that has meaning to you when you do that combined, with just trying to bump into the wall, trying to talk to people and use these words, then you really. And then you start to feel confident, and then you, then you can go get, let me look at a book because I like, man, I have no idea how to how to use the the imperfect for this room. Let me go look this up now. But you, you get a feeling that you need something like what you do for there, but Force for new situation, and, you know, find it so bumping into the Wall Street Method, how are you?
On a call, I'll call it bumping into the wall, but I think I'm gonna start calling the street method is a lot
better. I've always thought of these people as googlers. Now, that term was co-opted by the company. Google, that's what they call their employees or Google, but put that aside for a second. They got the
pinwheel to know that I'm gonna have to remember that because they call themselves good
and they got the you ever seen I forget what the what the comedy movie is but they got the pinwheel hat, you know, like the multicolored hat and he's got a little thing that spins a year that's real. They
Those to the googlers.
But I was thinking googler, as you ever like hang out with somebody and it is costly on their phone or the computer, but it's everything. You talk about, they don't know something immediately. Just go, when they look it up, I love those people. It's like so much. We have like the
world's knowledge at your fingertips. I love this man because
I'm always in awe of Technology like I never stopped being an all the water. My minute. I mean, we were in Juneau and I just was watching the planes coming. I was like yeah, we figured out how to put a metal tube, the waste tons into the air for
people. So I didn't and stuff like that. It makes me feel in
our like whenever I read about old cities and I'm like, man, we
have sanitation
and plumbing like you can like go to the bathroom and it's not going up on the street like that's cool. One of the things that just amazes me is
The we have this handheld, handheld, not this big old room, a handheld device and in that handheld device, you are simultaneously connected to every other human on the planet who has won. And we had a all have one because you need him now and the whole sum of human knowledge is at your disposal. All you have to do is develop the skills to ask the right questions and Google has a commercial incentive to make sure they figure out how to
Best pair your your
question with the best answer
and if they didn't you know, be really wanted to dig deep. He's going to dark web or figure things out. Things like that. But there's so many resources and so many ways, like there's no reason to not know anything. It's crazy. Like every time someone goes out, I'm not sure. Uh, let me just look it up and they're very few situations where it's inappropriate to put my phone on. Look it up.
So there is no reason ever, like doubt facts. I think, you know them from there and people go, that makes the quite the conversation. Draw my no,
no. We don't have conversations to discuss and swap facts. We have conversations to connect and see perspectives and and
understand one another.
It puts the focus back on the
conversation while you have it if you don't have to debate a fact and it also adds
Clarity Sports is the place where
You see this
purse? I'm sorry
they're pulling all stats right? Whatever. The other thing around technology I'm reading a book right now called the rise and fall of American growth which is absolutely the worst book if you want to be entertained but it's full. It's 700 pages is super dense, information, all about the economy and and all this stuff and somebody recommended to me and I've enjoyed it so far. But the reason why I enjoy it is the lessons are pretty simple. Like, his argument is basically Economist think that economies grow for.
Ever as long as no one touches them. I disagree like that's basically hero 700 pages on, right? But the book is littered with all these super interesting facts. So, one of them is in like 1908, the Ford Model T comes out. It was $950 by 1923 15 years later, they've gotten the cost down 70%. Like $269. Wow. Well, they used a manufacturing method where there was a line of people.
People who are manufacturing the product and you just did the doors, right? And like, okay, well, that's how we manufacture everything today. There was literally somebody who pioneered that implemented it, and now that is how manufacturing is done. Then they talk in the book. I think it's like 1870 or so which we think of like the 1800s 150 years ago, right? All homes were completely disconnected from the world. You had an outhouse. You had water that you had to go get like you had to be self-sufficient.
By 1940, which again, sounds like kind of a crazy thing but it's only 70 years pretty much all homes in any urban area. Had water gas electricity. Like they were hooked up now right early, what they call Network. And so, you think, man, 70 years when someone was born, it was self-sufficient, completely unconnected world before they died. Everything was completely different and so you're like, okay, like that's a lot of change, but then he makes an argument
Went where he says the speed of Transportation has not changed since 1950.
When we went from the stagecoach, automobiles.
Automobile is not like awesome. We're all going. 22 miles an hour, right? Like, they pretty much have been going the same speed, you know, since the 50s, okay? Planes. The Boeing 707 is the example. He uses like 1953 or whatever, goes about the same speed. It's not like we're making these, you know, 10x improvements over what is now 70 years in the speed of transportation. And so his point is basically like there's very compacted time where there's
It's Innovation inventions progress, like all these changes and we go like really long periods of time and nothing happens. And so for you and I we think about like Google's like a fucking crazy thing,
right? As and it
is around information and Technology, you know, like this information, technology world.
But if we actually sat here and were like, what are the major innovations that we've seen in, like the physical world over the last 50 years? Sure, Tesla, with the electric car. Like we can come up with a couple the car. You ya self the smartphone versus a dumb phone like, you know, I sure like that right? Okay. I got it but not like the invention of fucking electricity and write
something. It is in fact, I think the last thing like the invention of electricity would be like
It's a time of the internet, right? We're in even that is still like a digital thing. Yeah. Now it helps right in this is where it gets kind of a nuanced conversation because internet obviously drastically kind of created Innovation all these industries and all the stuff but like it is interesting to think about how many inventions happened in a certain period of time and then if you think today like it's not like you and I wake up every day and we're like damn somebody created, you know?
Why do we get super excited over like pretty small stuff now? And so, at least this conversation around, like, yeah, everything is digital where all the Innovations happening
are you are you bumper to the? This is a new problem and it's one that like when you you talk about us like of course. But then until you you run into you like wow this is really a
thing.
There are no,
there are no physical mediums anymore that people distribute. Like, we're like pretty much the age of physical medium for for Distributing attainment. Is over at least in terms, because we went from in my life, Tom VHS DVD, and then they were like, oh we can all kill with the illegal copies over, you're downloading, downloading downloading.
Bluetooth aren't blue Blu, Ray not blue to Blue Area and then full circle because now everything is digital. So now everything is hidden behind like and now that's much easier to secure like good luck, trauma trying to download something on, make sure you can, but you really got to be bout that life. It's not like hopping on LimeWire or BitTorrent. You know, where anyone could really Li Mi wasn't fucking Lottery to get the
file, you getting the virus. You didn't know
what, you know, what you was give but now, you know, blew my mind.
I was thinking about because we went to a um just to watch a local band perform and afterwards they were selling merch. So and copies it or work and they had CDs. And I was like, where the hell am I going to play this? Like I never thought about it before it was. I oh, do you have the tape? Didn't have? We been around long enough to go. Oh do they have the tape version? I don't have a CD player yet to oh I'll get the CD but you have the MP3 now. It's like there's only really one way to get this. They'll get me a CD 1.
My do it. This like I can't mock my MacBook doesn't have one. My holder. No, none of my get an extra piece of Hardware. Now that plain old cousin why we have that that sold.
Yeah. You know the other the other piece I think a lot about I'm assuming based on our conversation that you read a decent amount, do you read physical books? You got Kindle, you do audiobooks, how do you consume
this? Okay so it depends on what I'm reading. I will now read fiction on
Kendall or my phone. Okay. But nonfiction I do because it's just easier to take notes and then transfer those notes out and then and then on top of that, I love this little thing. You do when your Kindle, where you highlight a section, and you can write what you're thinking, and type that in and that really helps me absorb the information and really helps me learn it, but I won't read fiction that way. I think fiction is fiction is a special thing and, and if we consume it that way, I think we robbed the specialness of
Of it, which is, which is one, it's not a note-taking medium. It's not even the thing you hollering make it, maybe like shithole, you really like, but then you just go, remember, write it down but because I'm reading it in a physical book, then, I know it is this thing I can take with me and immerse myself into, but when I read on my Kindle, I'm automatically thinking I heard there's probably some information I want to like take down so I'm not not reading it with the with the undiluted Focus that I should that I, you know, approach my
Fiction with,
I don't read fiction, so I can't speak to, oh, well, here's going back to our conversation around. I read a lot, but I know what I'm good at and know what I'm not and for fiction, whatever reason. I just it's like a lack of Interest which is probably makes me less well-rounded.
But if that's just what it is, what
it is, right? But the reason why I bring this up,
Three, four months ago up until then I pretty much read everything either some sort of Kindle type device, or whatever,
or audiobooks I did. A lot of audiobooks
I sat down. I tried to read the physical book, my head hurt. I couldn't concentrate, no kidding and it's like pissed me off. I was like, what you mean? I can't sit and just read a book. I literally could not read the book. My head started hurting my eyes were hurting like also having my eyes hurt sometimes just like the fluorescent lights or whatever. Right. But like I was like this is bullshit like I was
Hannah myself, right? So,
for the last like, three, four months only will read the physical books. Now, I'd like forced myself to be able to read the physical books now. And so over the weekend, I was on a flight and I listen to audio. But first of all listening, I feel like I was on crack.
Oh shit. This is 2x be like I
was blowing through this book, right? But then what it goes back to is like, I don't know, retention wise, like maybe I get like 90 percent retention out of the physical book, maybe is like 70.
Five percent that audience. It's like spring is pretty similar but definitely a little less on all you, but the physical book. It made me think. I was like, all this technology. All this information at our fingertips. All these things like the physical book. Made my head hurt. Yeah, and all we hear about is how the computers are going to make our heads and our eyes hurt. It blew my mind. So, there's some, there's some
Some interesting.
I guess, you know, a week, or maybe week, maybe strong correlations, whatever. But we talked about,
There's this rise in ADHD diagnosis and it's like and it doesn't really make sense. When you look at it, it goes. Okay, we've known about this thing forever and all of a sudden skyrocketing skyrocketing didn't amounts of diagnosis. And I only know about this in context, to a speech I gave about how, how boys are treated like kind of like defective girls and the school system. And one of the points I raised
Won't how I found that data was the this raisin adhdboys. Our representative four to five times more than girls but but you know it's a rising
tide on all fronts
and I think about this a lot in terms of screens because
Although we're we're looking at this thing and and and I do worry that we're just focusing on pulling it in. I think by Nature with screens. Do you know what? The notable exception, you know, being able to read your Kindle that way? Well, no screen even with the Kindle, but you and swipe your screens allow you to change the speed. They allow you to be distracted, typically however you want to be, they change. How you
In the information. And if you're still bringing any information, I mean, something has to fundamentally change about how you're processing it.
And when you go back to a book without those things, I think my guess would be that. It's like, it's like the opposite of training with weights on, and then you go take the way to where you are. I'm faster. I'm like, yeah, it's great because you're in control of it, but if you remove all these stressors, then you can't. In fact, here's a great analogy and I just thought about this, there's this great book called The epidemic of absence nonfiction. If you want to check it out the basic, the basic thesis
The epidemic of absence is that our immune systems evolved in a hostile environment, full of pathogens, fully disease, full of Filth, whatever, right? And now that that we don't have that we live in a classless society. You see, that's why you see this Roz apologies because the immune system is like yo I need to I need to give me something right? That looks. That's a protein. It looks kind of like the other proteins and viruses and bacteria, I'll Attack it. And so you could drown geez to you know, shellfish
And eggs or milk and said, all right, and that's the other and then, like the author goes, and like him, facts himself on a tapeworm in an attempt on his allergies, to his tape, even stuff like that. But, um, I think about that a lot especially in ending this context, which is we have this Army system didn't take a break.
It didn't
change.
Our environment changed and I was like I'm going to attack something else and that thing is typically helpful to you but it looks close enough. Like what I'm used to dealing with, let me go do something. Let's take that up, that, that analogy and wood and we were use it
for for reading. You get used to
pulling in your information, just right there in front of your face. You devote all your mental activity to it because that's what you'd have to do to read out.
Be like, I think read one music on is probably a relatively new thing but I can see how it's possible without it interfering too much. But I know I have trouble reading this, right? Like when specially music with with words in it, I couldn't do it look this up recently
because I thought to myself as I was trying to figure out the book, I said I wonder if it's better or worse and as you just alluded to with words scientifically as shown it distracts your brain, it screws up your ability to read
But even music without words they said
just my troubles.
Yeah because the distraction
it gives me throw. So like you you have this method of pulling in information
Total focus. And then you bring in a new method there, by its very nature of design comes with a new year, not turning Pages, you're able to kind of skim not as much as on the in front of you at the same time as they would be with a. But the book you have all these new things that aren't necessarily improvements in the sense of they make you a better arm or more fishing reader May
Faster. But not necessarily more efficient. Because your brains like, well, I'm gonna give you all, I got to do something. Give me something. And there's only so many words, I can pull in here. All right, we're gonna mess with Josh site, you know, are we're going to get we're gonna make you every time you see something you're looking up immediately and get pulled out and we know how long it takes for you to get your focus back on its broken on something and it's a so you may not even be able to focus as long as you used to be able to because your focus is
Now used to being broken up broken, I broke it up.
Whenever you get a push notification or something like that, or you want to look something up with, you want to highlight something that's very unnatural to to the how I while you're reading we're used to just pulling and information but this is all just my mom. I've never put these two things together before, but in this conversation putting these ideas together, that, that's my guess that's what I whether that is are, they are at the very least, that's an interesting explanation and it's an easily testable. One
What happens when you go back to reading without enjoying today and you're able to view your able to focus a lot more out of
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That's alt oira.com. Pump start investing today, one of the science research kind of paths that I find. Fascinating is there's a lot of work stoics. There's a ride holidays, written books. I call stuff around, just like focused illness. Like all this type of stuff can lead to more idea, generation or whatever. So if you basically sit for 30 minutes, while a lot of people get ideas in the shower reich's, and not doing anything else or -
Kind of wanders, they think of something whatever. But there's also a bunch of research around walking and so the walking becomes really interesting because you could take a person and they aren't moving. That is the least you know kind of beneficial thing. And then the other extreme is that they're literally walking outside. But this is Middle Ground. What about walking on like a treadmill, right? Or like we got these standing walking desk, whatever is actually shown that part of the value of walking to the brain.
Is one there's a physical component, but to is actually the movement forward. Mmm. And so the research unlocks him like know if you're gonna walk like, get your ass outside and walk not mimic almost like a lab rat, you know, walking on the trail now. It's better than sitting or you're just standing there but the benefit to actually walking and moving through the environment, your brain does something different than just walking on like a treadmill stationary. It's fascinating, not only that and this is this
Is a rare case I can remember the name of the author and not the book, I can't even see the cover of the book of my head weird. But Barbara Oakley is the the author and she writes about learning. It might be the science or learning something to that effect. I'm not sure. But Barbara Oakley is the is the author and she talks about you, defuse mines, they versus the focus. And when we're focused were like trying World War, where like the analogy she gave us was the focus. This is
You you're looking at each individual Dot and trying to navigate around and figuring out on diffuses where you step back and you see this whole pattern and you see the whole layer, you may not be thinking about how to get through it, but you just absorbing on your brains kind of working on the process to get through the background. One of the things that walking does showering does doing anything else but working on the immediate problem does is it? Lets lets you kind of step back and it's always there. It's in the back of your mind. Otherwise, it's not important. But
We are not thinking about it. That's when you make these connections that you couldn't see kind of like, you know, the whole forest for the trees analogy, when you're looking at the individual trees because you're trying to get out the forest, you don't realize the path, the the most optimal path to follow, unless, you know it, but if you step back and your are step up, in this case are raised up and you're able to look down and see you go. The path is really clear, but now you're out the force. How are you going to communicate it now? I know hopefully you carry it but it's but it's only
It's only in that diffuse mode that we make a lot of the these connections that were able to see how things work and play together. Like I mean, I wasn't even thinking about the epidemic of absence and I make this connection to reading and those
are two two films that don't really well. Why would they ever match?
But, you know, because I was thinking talking about this and this is in the background and that's like an analogy kind of like a mental model. That I that I use a lot that I found a lot of people don't have, which is that you
The idea that a thing has a purpose and when you remove that purpose, the thing doesn't change. It just figures out. Another way to to do what it thinks is it supposed to do these connections? Get
made it some tool versus environment sometimes right? And I always think of it in the most
extreme situations or so, I just jumped to the extreme
with so I can take a gun and all the gun debate in all seven goes on in America today, right? It's like, look, there's a lot of different tools.
Yes. But they've used for good or bad and that doesn't mean necessarily that we shouldn't address the use of the tool or that certain people should have access or not have access or whatever. Like there's all these nuances, you and I are gonna solve this, whatever. But it always shocks me as to the level of Elementary analysis.
I was, I was going to say, binary
thinking. Yeah, just just like like, you know, this is a tool. Like can we all at least at least agree on that part? Which is a important almost building block.
Have a discussion around what should the years be? And there's like a whole
group of people who just might not want a tool.
Exactly. And it's really hard here because
You know, something, when you get, when you learn is stat something, they tell you, you just kind of take the face value, they tell you that intelligence is normally distributed.
You just take that phrase value because most people are never going to have the the opportunity to verify that at all, the put it to the test and then you get on social media. You have a large following a lot of interactions and you realize holy shit. This is not only is this true. It might actually be exaggerated
And one of the the difficulties humans have and I have no idea what like are. If there's even an IQ level or some like that, our cutoff point is, is to consider contrary thoughts without being attached to our well, the ability to detach their personality, from the thought their ego, because I think that's what I'm hip. It's a lot of
constructive discussion as people if I if I'm pro-second Amendment.
And I make, you know, guns are part of my identity, right?
That's who I am. I
can't entertain any discussion, they might reduce my access to them or anyone else has access to them. I can't do it. If I see that as part of my personality and I'm not open to to any way to actually make make the world a better place by perhaps making, you know, perhaps my being more pro-gun, you know, is where does that?
As we will go. Okay, I'm gonna have to give ground. But what if you don't have to give ground, what if the ground you think you're given? Actually makes your position stronger? You know, I might like I have this town all the time about people about guns guns, just a great way. Grace the most extreme case, right? Well not only is the most extreme. It's really an easily discuss one because we have so many examples and and so many
Not just examples of when things go wrong or right, interestingly enough time for things to go right? They have to be wrong but that's a different discussion but we also have a lot of different debates we've seen and and pop up but but if you if you entertain the idea, for example at this is I was mad funny how relevant these things happen. I was just having a discussion. I said,
look, I'm almost pro-gun as
is anyone, you know, can be
But I think if you're going to have a gun, you need to train with that thing. Have you ever late like every
really a garden? This one of my instructors tells me this all the time. Most people don't go to the reins and they need to go to the range because when I bring up, everyone goes. Oh they cite your, your boy. I think it was down to Texas, maybe our Illinois, where he shot the guy who was going to shoot in the mall. Oh, and he's like, oh look, you gotta understand, I don't know where that guy. Got his training where he trained
with. That is a train dudes, like 40 yards, he hit him.
8 out of 10 for 10 15 yards, the average
person is not going to even hit the target, let alone Center Mass, it's not happening. So so all our proposed I said, look, everybody who has a gun they should. They should have to keep this have to put in training hours. I really believe that this shouldn't be walking around with something that can end the life with just that with just pulling a trigger and you don't and you don't have to train with it, and the blowback I got on this idea.
You never like, I don't think people should have to
train. I don't think people, you know, if
they if they want to have a gun as it's our goddamn right? I'm like I'm not telling you to give up your guns but I'm saying is, you're actually be a better gun owner like you, do you realize that and and it didn't, they couldn't give any ground on. Everyone should have guns.
I always like to ask people who seem to be kind of dug in on a topic, you know. So let's take a very pro-gun person.
I would ask them. Is there ever an instance where you think somebody should not own a gun? Yeah, right. Let me just like, just, Again, by the way, they'll be like no by. All right, so if somebody has killed, multiple people before has a documented mental illness like this, you know, like, just go to the extreme right? Like, do you think that person have a gun if they say yes. Is I'm done talking to you? Yeah,
right. We're good. The other end.
The anti-gun people. Is there ever a situation? Where you think somebody should be allowed to own a gun? Yeah. And if they're like, no.
My okay, well, what happens if someone is breaking into your house with your child? But you know all these different things, right? And if they still say, not all think I should be able to defend themselves. There's okay. I'm done talking to you soon. You know, that's
a great great tactic. That's probably going to save me a latke because my my weakness on there I'm I'm one of the
I would like to thank anyhow.
I'm one of the more patient respectful people on the internet, that that's changed a little bit about. But only because one of the cool things about about knowing you have a kid on the way as you
Thinking about was important. Um like your stupid opinion is an important to me. I've no interest in changing it that's relatively recent but I'm sure it'll go. I'll go back to my base line but I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt and I think overall that's a good strategy because it allows me to at least have a conversation and see where they're at from a tactical perspective I have a good strategy but that's a sound tactic to ask that.
Start. Okay. Do you think there's ever an instance where you would change your stance? Okay. Well and then you give some note well then we can save ourselves from Tom but I can find that if we find some ground, William
it is. I mean I guess that's
common ground with like we're going to debate about guns and we can both find that Common Ground. There are his there's a situation where you should not have one, okay? Now we can talk but if you're not even, you know, it's basically
Is what way to filter. I just wanted on talking to a person who can have a rational conversation. Yeah,
that's a good way to go. Like I have no
interest in talking to irrational people where it's become a religion, right? Or it's become like
because, you know, I don't want to get through
today. I don't talk to people and try to convince them to give up their religion, right? And if you do that amazing, I feel that makes you happy. That's great. I'm guessing the success. Right record of that is pretty low, right? And so if you then just said,
Yourself like cool. I just want to talk to people who can see a little bit of nuance. That's okay, we don't agree but at least I it's like a good faith conversation where I know that like all right right you see a piece of the conversation that the most extreme in your Camp? Don't see. And that then makes it at least worth the time to start a conversation. You know,
always when I will buy these conversations are great because once again another Insight, it just came to me that I
never really made.
My own. So I think that's that's a defining characteristic of someone who would be considered extremist at least to me because I'm always really fascinated with the idea of one. What makes a person extreme and and to do do people who are on their side but not as extreme. See them
as extreme
or not, those are two really interesting question to me. And that that I did that, okay.
Okay, you can. Can you see a situation where your perspective is
incorrect? Or,
at the very least, your perspective is an adequate, whether it needs to be a modification if you can't see that, then? Yeah, I think that would qualify as someone whose extreme but them but if you give, you can see how it'll change and be my, you know, then it's different. And I think, I think that's a really good it.
If I apply that filter to to a variety of social issues, not you know that we've faced everything from from raised to to religion, you know, to do abortion or guns. You apply that filter to to it. You can pretty much suss out relatively quickly who the, the extremists are. All right. And who are the people who can have reasonable conversations?
I think that if you take this exact same framework and during the debates,
It's on the political side every candidate should have to answer. What is one thing that your candidate believes that you agree with oh goes against your own party? And if you say nothing, you're disqualified, right? Like like to some degree that just that alone like what is something that the other person believes that you tend to believe more than what the standing.
Oh, kind of Line in the Sand of the party is, but, you know, politics, at least in this country, they have done a really, it's almost, it would be impressive if it wasn't so destructive, they've made it so slowly know that there's the will just say left and right. There are the ideas on the left and the ideas on the right, all right? And the odds of you, you know, if you believe one idea and left the odds, you believe in the other ideas or are pretty high, whether that's accurate or not is irrelevant. What is real?
Element is that I can typically with some accuracy and consistency. If I know how you feel, a one thing, I know how you feel on a bunch of other things. Okay, they've weaponized this because now you can't, if you're if let's say, you're a left leaning
on, on the abortion issue,
right? But you're
pro-gun. Hmm, pick one. You can't
be both a even though those things are not related, you're either going to be a
You got to decide how you're going to go on everything for the left, everything on the right, but they're not going to let you mix and match and people who do that. They almost
in there. Well, I can
answer it almost like Center Center is because, you know, no one wants to be called a Libertarian where because now they're trying to make that like, oh, just just a way to be a right-winger yesterday, they say because they don't, they don't want that neutrality, you know, even even street gangs recognize neutrality, man, but not a thing.
That I do believe is a very powerful force in politics right now, which no one is acknowledging or talking about.
Is the weaponization of extremism, hmm, where there's pulling to the extremes, which I think people recognize that and they say, Okay, X candidate or X politician, they are on the extreme of that party, right? So, we recognize that, but people aren't yet talking about is the labeling of extremism. So the right winger thing is like a perfect example where it no matter what you actually believe, right?
I've heard Joe Rogan talk about the fact that they were like, oh, this right, leaning? Republican bubble. He's like, I voted for fucking Democrats my
entire life righty-o,
and I don't know, maybe it's a Nostalgia or whatever. But 20 years ago, if somebody came out and said, I am a Democrat, I vote for Democrats, I whatever didn't like you like, that's a Democrat that happened now, it's all about the label, the labels actually, almost more important thought and now in Reverse, it works the same way. The right, we'll label certain people and say that's socialism.
If that's all, you know, whatever the terminology that kind of proves the point. And so if you kind of, again, just take a step back and you look at kind of the whole playing field, what you realize is. It's not about the truth. Nope. It has nothing to do with the truth. This is all a propaganda war that is being fought by two different factions, and if it wasn't in the United States, if we looked at it and this was Iraq, for example, you know what the storyline would be in the United States.
The two warring factions. Yeah. Led by you know, like the language will be so different and we would all sit there in the United States. And we'd be like, that's crazy and move on with our day. Because it's our
politics, we no one, no one sees it, you know.
one of the, one of the observations I made, you know, that
Look, here's the, here's the problem. What would be in a call it a for? I would like to consider myself a free thinker. Now, I will also say, at the same time, a lot of people who consider themselves freethinkers happen, all think the same and don't you think that's funny. But
cancelled
but but one of the things about being black is your ear expected to think and tow a certain line. And I think that's that's one of the most destructive things that they can happen is
People look at me
and I, when I
say people, I mean, I mean a general group of politically motivated, people who see me being black as a is a card to play it. Get them on our side speak platform, whatever. Okay. But
When I, when I questioned things that I go, well, that's not racist, right? Do you just, you know, and you try and get them to pin down a definition of racism and then then they can't do that. I think one of the, the dangers here and I get to say it because I'm, or at least I used to it now. And now, I'm an uncle Tom, and a kunai, bring it up, but I can say that's not racist. Like you might not like how it feels. But wait, let's not throw in colorations.
Here's the thing. When you call everything that there's a slight against you when you, when you try and put a racial spit on him. Then what happens is actual racism is Con that gets to slip in because you don't even recognize it anymore. Like, there's this great video about the voter ID laws where God goes and ask a bunch of bunch of people on Berkeley's campus what they think about voter ID.
I d-- laws and everyone's like, oh, you know, they they disproportionately affect minorities because they have less money and they can't figure out the internet and they can't go alone with go get to the NBA. And so we need these. I'm saying her listener. Like do you hear you is like you, do you do here? Ha ha ha. Like that's the real racism to assume that because and then he goes by contrast and goes on a Harlem and as someone's wife will, yeah, I know what the DMV is. Al - everybody's got the ID you can
Leaving. You can't buy alcohol without it everything. So I thought that would like when I saw that, I was like, Wow, because we're not but because we're not allowed to question, are they try to make it so you know you can't question. Things are pinned down definitions and that's a totally different conversation, the manipulation of our language and really trying to make an ambiguous, sort of it can fit whatever purpose we needed to fit. All right, let's call. Let's call it races when we are.
Reduce, you know, when we oppose something called voter ID law, but it's not racist. When you go over to reasons which all center around degrading either at least, you know, pointing out our lack of function. That's why we needed. We obviously can't get to the DMV, then we are problem. And so that is that is one of the other problems with politics today is the manipulation of these labels. And I think words are powerful man. I think that's why I'm drawn to them because I
How powerful? They are navy. Watches that the manipulation of these things. Is incredible.
Did you see the black lives matter? Donation /
lawsuit. Yep. So I don't, I don't know what time about
this. I saw a headline. I think I read two paragraphs. I want to be careful that I don't fuck up any of the
facts, Frank. Okay,
but there was one specific sentence in this in this statement that my head was in a blender. I
Couldn't understand kind of how this all plays out. So I would love to hear kind of you Riff on a little bit.
There's two I guess, factions right that it kind of come out of situation. There was a bunch of money that was donated one of the co-founders being accused of taking or using 10 million dollars. That's basically a personal slush fund. Yeah, that's my words. Not theirs, but that was just the general kind of accusation.
That individual appears to almost be saying, like, oh, the other group is using the white man system to oppress me. And so when I saw it like, it just like, on that alone, it was just one of those situations where I was just
like,
holy shit. We're headed into a world. I don't even worry about like today, it's like 10 years from now. It almost gets to the point where like it will be impossible to navigate the world without offending someone. Yep.
and whether as bar design or not, that's a different conversation but
When you, when you, when you decide that words, don't get what when you strip away the meaning of a word, right? Are you a modified slightly? But there's a consistency. We understand that. That's that's what a dial like kind of. Is it, you know, will you use these words are certain way and we all agree with that. What they mean? The problem is, when you are allowed to change them whenever the situation suit you and the no one calls you,
Now our checks you on it like like
oppress. Who's oppressing, you you have 10 million dollars man. Like that's currently is crazy. That one can go. He can
say that with a straight face because they'll, you know, hopefully, hopefully, you know, the powers-that-be take care of this problem but let's navigate the mindset to get you to the point where you think that's, that's an okay to like like and probably genuine believer. I don't think it's a cop.
A powder. That's another important piece of of a lot
of things, not just race-related just across Society. I do always ask myself given the facts that are publicly known do, does it appear that this person actually believes what they're saying? Yeah, and I actually do think in most cases, people do believe what they're saying, which almost makes it crazier. Oh yeah, because you're like, oh, that person really believes that they're wrong, they're like, completely wrong when. But they do believe what they're so you can correct.
Ignorance are the very least you can remedy, you know, by by
putting the correct information up front.
But but
Insanity, you like
almost by definition. You can't really do anything about that. So when a person says that they really think they're being oppressed, that they really think they suffered at the hands of some, you know, their how do you prove to them that they have and how do you get them to go? No, it's not quite that way. You can't do it.
you know
what man, that the whole BLM thing
I used to think it was just somebody really bad marketing and that's what I caught a BL 0 because because if I'm going to attack it, like let's let's say I Mom an opponent in, I'm going to attack them to go. Whoa. Well they're they're, you know, Chiraq was on fire this weekend. Well, you know, and it was a lot of black. Wow, this is neither do those not matter, but they only matter when they are taking at the hands of what you believe is someone who you can pray, you know, profit from and rile people up.
I used to think that was just bad marketing and now I'm, I am almost 100% convinced it's intentional. You call it this good name and AdSense. It's brilliant marketing. You call it this name, it's very easy to get my own very simple, black lives matter, this get out there they matter and then the fine print that no one sees, no reason they matter when the police officers, shot them is white when the crime the happening and some of us it was perceived by tomorrow. Well, bye-bye white man, and we're not going.
Worried about any of the interpersonal, violence or interracial violence and things like that, because that's not important and we can't profit from that,
right? That's like that mean, that that's how the farm print has to read based on their
actions. And I tried to have this discussion with somebody who's very Pro Cam Pro black lives matter. I was like well you know we just had this crazy shooting in we going to see them show up here but I know it's for the police I'm like well why are they called that, you know,
No.
And and that is the Power of Words. You gotta /. Uu people
who logically. Will you can you can get them to follow it like, okay, they're not showing up when there are other crimes well, when they're when they're of violence and when there's violence in Black communities at the heads of all the black people and we can we can get them to logically. Take that step, but then when I get them to go so we can agree that it's not that black lives matter. It's that when there's a
Situation. We can spin. Oh, I won't even see. He's been that's my worth, but they only matter when the people who are taking them are not
black and
you can like see the breakdown because the either they admit that and I'm right ours in denial. And the concept is wrought by in general, just not right. Well are they can't give and so we did just go back and now we're talking more about people who can't. Yeah.
The the others.
Situation. And I always get so nervous that I misspeak on on the exact details. So this is the general recollection of it, but the kid, who his mom like drove them across state lines, had a gun. He was at one of the protest. He shot and killed two people. I think it was the Kennesaw.
Oh yeah, Rittenhouse Red House car and house. Yeah. So I remember
when like the trial happened, I believe he shot two white people. Oh yes, crazy.
Me no know and he wants whatever I want. Hold
on. That's not what we were told.
And this is something because I followed this, like, probably as closely as you ever get me following mainstream news, it doesn't affect me because I was curious because I didn't know things. And and I wanted to see like, what's the, what's the to do is, are we going to see? Okay, but here's the thing, I'm not one way where we got to make sure Justice.
Is is distributed well and be aware that
because it's important for people who do wrong things to be punished, right? Because if he, if he was out
there just randomly shooting black people, right? That's a big deal if they let him off any. But but but it's also a big deal. If he's like not, we got to figure out what it is when you go, when you go and learn the details of the
case and and the
background of him, you know, this is a guy who like had been talking about black lives
I'm cells away kid and I'm the as I remember, he was either donating are contributing to clean it up, but the but he did shoot, you know, white guys. And so that's like it's a great spin because we know well, what did what did Mark Twain? He say man are lies, halfway around the world. Before the truth gets his shoes on and that was before the internet.
Sona. So now, you got people going up into the trial, really believe that and I didn't dig too deeply into it, but then when I found out, I was like, okay, let me follow this little one closely with it, has a lot to learn here and then you still, you stay the whole state lines thing. You know, I believe that was his signature is just grandmother father's neighborhood. It wasn't like he was just randomly on a bus when I'm gonna go on. I know.
I that was the
One time where I seems like similar to you and they're like I don't really pay that much attention to like the national news about a lot of this stuff and frankly the most interest that I have in you know kind of what I would consider more local or Regional things that blow up to the National level is hung all there's a police chase. I has a cool videos. Yeah. Which like you know, the good or bad, whatever that she met nature. Like there's some crazy thing that ends up being entertainment. Unfortunately, for some portion of population, but this one I don't lose because it was
Being pushed so hard by the national Media or whatever, but like, I feel like I can't pop my head up and I was like, oh that's not exactly what I what my assumptions were. What I had thought I were the facts or whatever and then it was kind of one of those things where like I couldn't wait to like pull my head back down and just like,
that's not
want to be paying attention. I'm not happy when I'm reading that stuff every day in terms of like the national.
Yeah. Really
mess with you. Yeah, and there was just one of these situations where I remember saying to myself, like for me somebody who's on the internet a lot.
And like, right? Like generally aware, maybe of like, the national news stories. I don't pay a lot of attention to him, but like I see what's trending on Twitter. You know, all this stuff if I was that surprised.
I don't even want to go. Why was Fox News and MSNBC? Because, again, it's just like the mainstream Twitter conversation, you could see the shock and like the, the outrage High to extreme of a word. But, just like people being like, well, there's more here that maybe we don't understand, right? That you could imagine the extremes of the mainstream media, just pulling every detail, spinning it, doing all something. You're just like, that's just like we're all going to die. One day, I don't want
to smell.
my
time trying to figure out how I
feel, you know, some people always ask me
Well, not all. They don't always ask me, but it comes up a lot because I've been, I'm fairly local. Bought him about my
disinterest in politics and current
events. And I know that seems weird because we just spent the last, you know, 20 or 30 minutes, discussing these things. But it's only because you you can't really like it's very hard to be on the internet to the level we are and not be at least aware of things and some things you will.
You will dig deeper into because they they're just for whatever reason. Whether it's because of the details seem interesting, or are they just won't go away? That's what really the big one. It would just won't go away, but for the most part I got, I tried to maintain. I call it willful, and willful ignorance and active disinterest. And, and a lot of the stuff that is on the
ticks and, and current media. Because, you know, the end of the day, I figure like this. Well, let's let's forget this dog stand. Start really believe in that, which I'm going to die one day. I'll but rather enjoy it. If something's real big deal. Like, real big deal is going to affect my life. I'ma find out like, oh, like let's say, I didn't know anything about real ID and I just went on my way. I'm going to find out that my idea is wrong. I might have to do something about that. Even if everybody
As I travel, I'm going to hear about any way, you know. And and I think about the number of things that have happened in politics that they bug me are our that affect me, not bugging with it, affect me. And I'm like
I can't thank a much and when and when they do our thank goodness I structure my
life in such a way. Well if something really bothers me like is really big deal. So much going to leave the country. I moved to another
state
like like I am
and a lot of people did that over the last two years, right?
States, not Most states, a move
country. And I just seen an article. It's trending about how Mexico people are complaining. Mexico City hours too many white people. Not Mexico sitting like go back to America and they're like go back and edit is funny you know I'm seeing after Mexico, you know Mars Portuguese we're here the other record numbers of Americans in Portugal. Now lemon on still a small percentage but a lot of people leave
them but but that's where my stance
is. I have created this
Agency or on my life so that I don't have to worry about that stuff. And I think outside of people who who make a living by by by knowing knowing the game like, like my brother-in-law, he's a wealth planner and he makes a lot of his decisions on where to put money at based on what what he believes the economy will do and he comes to those conclusions from years of experience and watching the news. Yeah you probably should wasn't I don't do any of that.
That. So I don't pay attention to him, you know? And if it's a big deal, I'm gonna find out. My light is going to get a real hard reminder quickly,
but there's one other thing that started to happen that I noticed and it always scares me when I notice, I got a new reaction to things, I see. But it home this morning, actually I was on Twitter and saw account which, you know, in the gray area. So, you know, somebody could double-check
But they retweeted an account that I never seen before, and it was a video and it said, I thought Ukraine was being invaded or something to that effect and it was allegedly a video of a party in Kiev of a bunch of what looked like 20 something year olds partying their faces off drinking. No different than if on Friday night you went out in Miami and somebody took a video, right? And it will help you playing beer pong kind of like a college party.
Artie, right? And there was like two or three levels and like me 50-100 people, they're not what we would expect, right? Because on the same day, the same morning, I see that the president of Ukraine is ringing the stock market Bell and and basically pitching on CNBC the investment in Ukraine as thought to myself that my first reaction was not good or bad. It was, is this video real went to
man
Ukrainian
You start thinking yourself like I was like what time could this video been posed? Like all of a sudden you like now we're in this weird world on the internet of like I don't even know if that video is really and that you've it had even put
the energy, right? I just, you know. Yeah I'm trying, I'm slightly at a loss for words only because I have this, this exact reaction to everything you ever seen a major works and and the first time Neo meets Morpheus
or not the first time but it's doing early in their meetings. He goes, you have the look of a man who accepts everything he sees because he's expecting to wake
up funnily enough. That's not too far from the truth, right? I'm like,
huh? That's how I feel about a lot of stuff. I see because you can't, you, you don't know, you don't know anymore. And then and because so much come out were the angle is changed and leaving out something vital Arts out.
Fabricated Arts an old photo used to represent some new, you just got to look at everything with a grain of salt and go, okay? Look if I wanted like if you win you know how they say. If you want to find something be angry about if you want to be angry, you'll find something be angry about it's perfect example. You don't know if any have this stuff is real, half the stuff that comes out as
fake like, yo, it's so crazy. I'm aware of
all the news and all the numbers around inflation and and even I have to go sometimes I'm out.
The grocery store, I'm booked on the prices him go. Is
it really that bad? Like, what doesn't look on the meet. My, the end the price. And I know what I
paid because, you know, I'm just like he's really that bad. It always your
really happening and then I
think about 1984 and I think that's a book, everyone should read fiction. So all right. Hey, I have written as you did before but what that when they explained
that they're
not really at War and they break down the way things really. Really were girls. We just you know we tell everyone they
Unbelievable. And everyone proceeds if it is, it is like that because when things are that way, you don't have to innovate, you don't have to create, you know, as long as people think you're at War, they just listen and follow. And it gives it gives everyone the power to create and I've been a part of the government to enact laws and we don't have to worry about Innovation, educating our citizens. I think about that a lot sometimes like that. Like, you could, in fact, if you don't want to read and we'll listen, if you don't want to like read 1984, just got to that part.
Art where I can't remember. The character's name was explaining how everything really works when he gets Arrow. I think he finds a book or something that explains how how to war and all that is manufactured and you start and then you start looking around, you go to the okay, this is a little too close to home. I'm going to step back because
It's really designed. I think this, I believe dis in my heart of hearts because of because it makes sense. Following the money, this makes sense, forget the conspiracy angle, it makes sense that you've been enraged is good for the Network's pocket, because the
networks work on a
CPM model. As far as far as I understand this Mission internet, where you don't even got to buy
anything, you just gotta keep reading. Just got to be on the site. That's what I get paid,
you go on and you're going to go because you're angry and you got to find out more information.
And so they figured it out. Let's just put the most - extreme polar substantial something almost to the point of not being accurate, like when you read, what the articles about versus the headline
says, but it's okay because they got you to click through and read. So, there's more money, everyone goes home.
Happy when you're angry and
polarized. Give me a return 2020, CNN had the, I called it the death scoreboard.
Ha ha ha. However, they had that on
them, they literally had a score is
kept at the bottom of the screen, and I was it.
It was
the reason why I know is the time I was living in New York and in the building, there was a TV in the elevator and they never had anything else on. Like I requested a hundred times y, yo, can you please get that it was depressed. Right, right. It was like, man. Like this is like, not what I want to do, when I get in the elevators, look at this thing and it was there every day, every day, every day. And I remember being like holy shit like
That is, in terms of getting people in Rage and holding attention doing all the stuff that single thing, Master most Innovative thing they've ever done. You couldn't, you couldn't ask for
a better piece of I guess piece of reporting than this - Scoreboard on a on a very related note.
If you ever see Anchorman to not deliver them in a bird are both funny movies. But I Anchorman 2 is really underappreciated because it's a brilliant piece of social commentary on how to news spins things to keep you engaged. And when I first seen it at this point, it might be I don't know. I feel like it was it was definitely over 10 years ago, probably like 15 two-point Anchor, Man to, I remember, I thought that when I seen it this is before I got like really in a social media
And see anything.
I was like, wow. They really, they really sound it up. If you can make
people the the basic premises news by itself was boring, and doesn't keep people engaged. And so we don't lose. We don't make money and we're going to be out of the network. So, let's figure out how to make money. Oh, this is the kind of stuff. We gotta cover, let's cover that. And that saves the network when you and yet, when you see that, you can why this is not any, you know, it's funny. And so that's probably our people
Miss the main idea, me point, but that's what I took away from it, all those years, and I see it in place. Now, I see how it's working now, and yeah, that scoreboard, great did, you know, I was a great idea, going back to the race conversation. Let's not report on the shootings when the perpetrators white, or when the perpetrator, when the, when the victim is white, are the police officers are black. We don't want to report on those those on, that's not good news. All right, you know, it is good news.
101 on white guy, shoots a black dude. Like that video that that story about them, cops beating the crap out of them even with water. So many I don't even know what's wrong, right? It's me makes news it pops up because it's a violent video
Drop the way it goes away. The internet actually think has a much better memory now than that's true. It's not right because they will they'll pop this stuff up and also I think a lot of people on the
Net now have moved from fact entertainment. So I see a lot of videos on the internet and if you're like new to the internet, whatever that would mean. Like, you'd be trying to figure out is that really where it's from or whatever? I saw, I don't know. You saw them as allegedly Russian dash cam video where there's like two cars driving at night. One kind of pulls in front of the other driver hops out in the middle of highway. It's like, banging on the driver door
and ha, ha, ha.
Poor people get out and they're in like full.
Lone Halloween costumes. They beat him up right and they jump back in and they take off. And it's like I was the most amazing, dashcam whatever. And I saw it recently was circulated circulating again, and
people are retweeting
it and now I decide it was all give a fuck where that is. Like, that's just funny. Yeah. Like, like strip away, all the, like, kind of chaotic like, sensitivities that everyone's trying to get everyone and raised or whatever. And it's like, by the way, the
It's probably fake if I staged but if you look at it through the lens of like that's a YouTube stunts, all of a sudden now people are you lose funny as video and people were man they really coordinating. These U2's
those. I only know that because I had to share this video. Absolutely hilarious. But but it it blurs, the line. Well, you're from New York, you seen the way these these, these homeless people just kind of set up shop on a car and they just roll back and forth. So did the sort of video is of a homeless guy walking through a Subway? Got no
Shirt on those shoes. So, so pretty much everyone just kind of ignoring them like, you would a New York when you see it, nothing new. And then he stops looks at a woman, whatever food and then just grabs it and then runs off. And now, no one knows is a stunt but the guy who's recording and the guy who is running off with the food, but that's why it looks so
real. We faked it. Yeah, well, that he that he faked it.
Well, what's what's a fake? Did that would mean that everyone was in on it? Yeah, I don't think, I think that the only person or was it on it was the guy filming it and the guy who was but chose her as he really ought to know is he's being an asshole and filming. It is a better look at it. But but what does that do to our perception? Like, the way I share and I was just being funny like, oh man, he's homeless. People aren't just sitting around waiting for you to toss them, change to taking it out, right?
If I'm looking at their video I'm thinking oh man that is crazy. That a guy would do that he must it must be real. Now run in fact like someone just happened to be filming some my brother but it is kind of funny and weird. I've done that take pictures of crazy shit. I see your videos and the guy just happens to run off and with the food but it blurs Islam where everyone around, you doesn't know, it's a joke you know, it's a joke in the end but the only part of it that makes it a joke.
Is that he's not actually homeless do and it's set up for entertainment. It's kind of like it's like Candy Camera. Remember that is like same
idea. I always think you couldn't do some of these things that they used to get away with. You couldn't do them today.
I'm not there some sort of some of those like
prank shows and stuff that they could actually get away because they wouldn't get punched in the face or whatever, like societies kind of gotten softer and people who just be offended or whatever. And then there's some of those shows like punked or whatever. Like now I think people would just go to blows. Oh
Oh yeah, this is
bad. You know, like there's a hole. In fact, there's a whole video series somebody sent me or I guess it's in New York but it but he's behind bulletproof glass which is important here. It says Chicago New York's, one of those big, big cities and the Gods coming. And he goes and pays for stuff. It's a do behind the counter to do pan. And the dude goes, I thanks Daddy. You have a good night and he said, you know what you call me was I had to call your daddy, man, what's up? It was like like, what do you mean? That's pretty cool.
How was just like dudes? Like this, like model comment, I don't play that way. And he just keeps sending cuz I cou like and I want a nice one sugar lips and this is like, the guy can't get my camera, he's okay. But you're right, like if he could, you know, because some of the dudes were like, oh, you lucky you back behind that glass like you seen
whether you and NBA players they go they go up to the NBA players and like the most recent one they had. What's the kid that was in?
Philadelphia. And he got traded to the Brooklyn that Ben Simmons. And I think it's Ben Simmons. And they went up to him when they're like, what's up, what Russell Russell Westbrook? And they like go up to the players and they pretend that they don't know who they are. Like they think there's somebody else and of course, your MBA for him again, forget here is so they chase the dude out of a store because you because they realized immediately he was it's like now become a thing
where it's like you're trying to disrespect me now. It's like get out. Yeah it's just like a weird
thing.
Then I think a lot about is sometimes something happens in life and you don't know if it's like if they're trying to not punk you but like you see stuff happened here, just like it was that know, is that real? And you start kind of looking around? And in today's society you're kind of just like, is there a camera somewhere? Something happening or whatever. And I don't think that that's necessarily the best thing you do over the long run. If everyone is always just thinking about, you know, like how do you capture footage?
Like a life became basically a TV set that don't seem like a good path to go
down. You know, I'm in the Creator space on, I guess, the internet, Twitter, or social media YouTube. And one of the things I've observed
And I comment on a pretty regularly much to the dismay of many of my fellow creators. But I go look, man, I'm 37 and I was putting together my life because of my age. I was putting together my life as if wanting to be no cameras around, you know, I didn't I didn't start boxing so I can make videos of it. For example, it's just certainly didn't go back to school, so I could talk about it on the internet and trying to study Physics. Like, you know, that's like, like hard things you do to.
My life that like look as we really ER, I could probably with what I understand about internet making money. Now I could probably never do anything worthwhile again and just just make a living for the rest of my life on the derivatives, unless ins from from that. But I never never do that. Because I don't think that way.
You see, though, especially with the guys, under 30 because it's different generation and that, that sounds weird, but I'm 30. Would that make it? He be born in 93 maybe that. Yeah, so so, so obviously allow you to afterwards to means you gotta come up and, at the very least, in your high school days, that's my social medias on, start popping off, by the time, you reach your twenties, your early twenties, you're like, why would I ever go do something hard and challenging and push myself.
I'm going to instead, I'm going to try this internet thing. We're trying to make this money thinks you got a whole generation to God.
Who have figured out how to make money online.
Talking about and doing a lot of the same things that everyone else was there because they all sound the same slightly different flavor, but all talking about the same thing because there are certain topics that it's more engaging. But if you don't have a life to go b'hala, I can talk about and platitude when I say it, because you can look me up by your, I went through it, right? It's real life, but it. But if I can't, you know, if you you like some kid from middle class suburb family, you start talking about, you know, disciplined habits and, and you know, pulling yourself up,
Facing away, it comes off, you can get away with it and one platform and another or whatever. But the whole idea, the whole point is
that you, you only, you really
gain perspective and life experience and real. These things start to mean something and you have to use them, you know, it's like what, why would a kid join
join the Army? Now
you know that's another discussion, right? But but why would he? You know, going to listen.
In the armed services or take a combat sport,
all are
thinking of things, I've done harm service, they give a combat sport, girl, dude, did learn a very difficult subject. Pick up a language, are two very learning instrument. They're all these things that but they take Tom and their heart and and the failure is there and you're not going to face it. And then on top
of that, it's not good. Instant
screen time. It's not a good investment, right? It's not, you know, you can,
Capture everyone wants to be the be the man, you know, like I because I know a lot of guys personally and I see some of the things they post and I'm like, man, I know what you really doing and making us less comma. It's a little misleading. I'm not going to say because it ain't my thing you're not, you're not really selling money so I'll make it. But but I'll kind of go that's really
misleading because they're positioned themselves at the make more than they actually
do. Because yeah, because you, you can, you know, one of the cool things is what I like about travel and it says, like this about
anything but Travis is the first thing that comes to mind, is that
If you don't know, you assume it is, a very expensive thing to do is, I know once, you know you
go, it's
not really, you know, is what it is, but but it's a good selling point. You're
gonna be internet, you can find how to get a lot of places in the world
per machine. If you're good at the internet, you can't hate. Get a Lambo for two hours. I think you've have, you heard about these guys and their retina Lambos to make it look like why you you can, you can really make your life look a certain way. But when I, when I said
In front of you and I have talked and I realize you don't have any type of skill, you don't have any type of experience you don't know or do anything tart. A lot of marketer guys, know cotton laying the wood, the rivet I'm really big on the relationships in your life. I think I'm not saying you got to have a bunch but I think one of The Tell-Tale signs of somebody who is who has gone through a life is they have they have long-term friends, I don't like I'm not
Interested in the guy who really took that advice to Heart getting on, get rid of your old friends when you level up like not. Because there should be some people in your life that they bring something more to the table than our other than, you know, like advice and ideas on how to hustle. You know, I can like good solid relationships are these things, right? We're all these things to make a life. We have, we have really become about another. I'm not even going to say, we man, cuz I'm not in that that generation. I am very much a damn
An elder Millennial at this point.
We have our, it has become really cool to have the sizzle with our state. If that is, you know the time to put it in in real easy terms, really easy. Let's look the part. We don't really want to beat apart but I don't think they're trying to do that. They don't even know what the part is to
be that this is in business law, specifically in the tech industry and like the startup world. I used to call it a blog post founder person.
Ha ha ha, what I mean by
that is like, you could be a Founder who went and read a bunch of blog posts and you learned all the things that you're supposed to say. And so to the untrained eye, you could trick a lot of people you could make some money, you could do this this whatever. But to the trained eye it took like two questions and it's just bad you know it you could break it down now the benefit and this is like kind of a larger Story of All of society. Part of the positive that story is that information that used to be behind.
And closed doors in the like good old boys network. All the
stuff is now available on
the internet because there's somebody who reads it, who's a real entrepreneur, right? And we'll go and implement it and now they know how to work with their board or then how to put together a fundraising deck or there's a database of investors to reach out to or you know whatever.
But with positive comes negatives, and is lot of people who now can kind of fake it better because they read the blog post and they think they know what supposed to say, whatever that's business and usually it's in an environment where they're asking something from us, say, my dear. Yes, is like, ok, cool. Now, take it to the successful people and one of the things I tell all the young kids, who I see doing some of the stuff, so I was still my say, Amen, you ever seen a picture? Elon Musk on? Is he on his jet fry? Oh, and by the way, the
You saw him on a yacht. That's somebody else's. Yeah. And he didn't want the picture taken, right? One of the things that I really pride
myself on man is, you know, when you see glad because I use our G like everyone else, but I used to pump my writing really like heavily, but one, but I do like that show that I'm a real person and I exist. So I put pictures of my life and stuff, but it's always like, you know, it's me with some friends or my girl.
Girls are with the, you know, it's the last picture of posted. I was standing in the water. Making a silly pose on the beach man like just showing like but because I think after certain point like when you you learn the the negatives that come with a lot of that. In fact I would say like I'm really big on posting stuff that show me living life and actually living life. You know, we were in Budapest for one of this one. The coolest things about the internet and I'm
You like get this, right? So, so we weren't, we were in Budapest for a week and then took a river cruise down the Dan you stopped in Bratislava. Vienna lid stand. One of the Play Munich there and and when we were in Budapest, she was there that because what my wife does, she's involved in travel and scheduling stuff and help people take these amazing trips places. And so she was there for a river. I've River Cruise conference, so I was like, I'm gonna go
but that was always busy. So, what I did, I just let people know I wasn't and every day, there was somebody else to hang out and show me stuff. And so, I got like, real tours and rubber are just a different View and experience and I took pictures with everybody because I wanted to show, like, this is what was really richer. My life being able to like turns out. I have real conversations people. I talk to now. I'm still, I'm not in Budapest, and so that's really trained in a German worked out that was hard, because I'm not trained like
Fighter anymore, but it was with it. But that's the very end that wasn't one of my favorite pictures of posters. All these people that I got to meet and run to you, don't you don't see me you know sitting in a picture of me and my first class something like that or I'll put the Lambos are posing with my with my my jewelry and my wife's know, it's the people but but if I don't show but here's that's what they think. I don't show that stuff. People are going to buy from me or do with me and I get it. There's like this whole image to project but why would you want to
I was you, I don't know. I wonder what the motivation is to do it. I
guess it brings it back to Street verse boardroom, mmm, because there's people who their entire life to trying to project the boardroom. And then when they get there, I think a lot of people realize, like not me, you'll always want to try to get back to the street mentality to the this approach of those people are trapped. Yeah, think about it.
Aha. I'll tell you how. I take another great filter. I have my wife has her a lot. I don't think this have any identifying information. I don't know the person's name so that helps we're in Austin Texas. Two years ago, it kind of ended 2020 and we went out to eat and we were somewhere else, Sixth Street or whatever your kind of where if you were a tourist this is where you would go but I was kind of nicer place and guy walked in.
And, you know, I have a problem where I pretty much only just wear t-shirts. So every once in a, while you catch me movie and like a black collar shirt as of this big dress up for me, but I sit in there and, you know, just regular clothes, whatever my wife, same thing and this guy walks in and he had a button-down like a dress shirt, right? Some jeans and nice shoes and he was like, you know, cool goes over and it's an outdoor patio and this guy's a regular. He knows every staff person, like all this stuff people are showing up.
He's pointing to doing this, he ordered drinks, he's got the whole thing going.
And for whatever reason, I just turned my wife my so I bet you $100, I do some medical device salesman ha ha ha, right? And she was like, what do you mean? And I said he's got just enough money where he could ball in the local bar.
But he ain't got a yada jet up. Ferrari like whatever. You know, whatever right and by the way I always go back to like if he's happy amazing, congratulations, you fucking crushed life. But I always ask myself like
Did he one day? Say I'm going to go and I'm going to become successful whatever the job actually was right and I want to have enough money to go to local bar and like basically, you know ball out. Yeah. Probably not, right. And so like it was less about this one individual as much as it was just like there's a whole lifestyle that I think people go and they do and it almost like fooling themselves a little bit but it does go back to the fact that like if they're truly happy you got his high five him celebrate in life. Hey you killed life. I think the reason why people always point out these situations is because
Those people aren't actually happy and and not only.
As I think happiness is, is hard to because they'll be the be moments where you're good almost Vietnam, whatever right. But but ultimately,
I think I don't know why I don't like the word happiness. The describe it but but I do wonder if fulfilled that's still not what? Yes a great word fulfill kind of purposeful because was I got a good friend and he described it like this you know there's a lot of because of there's a lot of guys to figure out how to make money and they figured it out by by positioning themselves as opposed to generating value and
Just really getting in the getting in the right place where the money changes hands. And, you know, cut it take a cut, however, that looks whether it be an affiliate cut or found this fear somebody, whatever, right? He's getting the right place, right Plum. I'm moving somebody else's product and we associate money with
We associate my name of are you but personal value? So if it gets mixed up, they think
have this. And then and you had to lose a lot of skeezy people money and there's a lot of
cool people who broke them. It's not, it's not, this goes back to what I was saying about. You know, why would you drop your friends? All right, now you drop somebody as a problem for various reasons. But if you cut out hanging out with somebody because they're happy, doing something that might not be a financially lucrative move.
But their content their for food, they're still your Salah homie. You guys still have, are able to connect it and they're good person, right? But if it ain't about that, that image, that money that you can project. What are you doing now? And then that's where we're we got a weird relationship with money in this and this Society we, you know, because I think about what I think a lot about the stat 75,000 and above to be
Happy they see makes her thousand dollars and any more
on that than that to happiness, I think. Yeah, you know, I think, I
think, you know, we add inflation to that as probably, somewhere around 90, but like the point is, there's, there's a small, there's a place you reach where everything after that is condo, right? Is it doesn't make you feel more fulfilled. And so you start going, okay, well, well, how do I get there? That's what makes it different. And a lot of people just want the money, they don't consider that its path.
Depending you look because you can go selling dope, okay? You don't want to be, you don't want to do something illegal. Well, you can probably do do 18 to 20 hours shifts every other day doing day work, combine that with some, some Uber you get that money there.
I want to know one of the number one jobs in America. Make
100K was a drive, a truck for Walmart? Yep. Oh, starting pay
100 K. Right? If I forget this, that may be VP at
Walmart million bucks a year.
You ain't even got No One's Gonna know your name. You need to have a LinkedIn profile of a million bucks a year, then you run some division or whatever. Now, again like it take time to get there, you gotta have be smart, you gotta know what you're doing, you know? I mean like it's not like you just wake up one day and go apply and Bam. You're 22 years old, you're the VP. I want more but 100K as a truck
driver and long and weigh. Exactly are actually made the suggestion to a buddy of mine who was trying to make the money over there. Look nervous just about money schools gonna be a truck driver like
Now, if you want to like if there are other things that are important. Yeah. But when you make it about money, then you you miss out on. I just
I'll see a lot of truck. Drivers posted on Instagram. Saying, six figures, 526 lat,
but you guys are truck drivers. I know. Gagne Boilermaker. I'm he's doing, he's don't like 50s 55,000, the 50 50 50 and 55 dollars an hour, depending on the job, which works out
Out to be about 100K or a little, a little less.
But like
there's so many ways to get to this this Land of Plenty and you know you get there you go. Alright well do I like how I got there is is it all cracked up to be what do I need? You know, lifestyle creep is growing ever, right? All it is. Should go you figure out what matters to you and that's what I think this all comes back to is that
People have let people have the let let social media let other people determine what's important to them. So they think I have to make this life on this screen. Captured remove, almost all authenticity, create a somewhat fraudulent image, my fraud might be too strong for misleading is probably better somewhat misleading image to keep the money train going and it's not that much.
Money because well I don't have much to show for my life outside of this. Like if you removed it, I think about this, this this imagination are not like there was a say tomorrow, Parker is shut down. And we got to start over from scratch. What I'm alone. Do, I'm probably going to work on some mechanic or are turned into a soldier that's going to be one of them be out there foraging hunting figuring things out and then defending the new to do settlement with what skill, but they have that.
Kill, you know, you got to go do things and figure these things out. It's kind of um I'm kind of rambling but I'm not a
lie, it's a mentality. Yeah. And I think that's probably the biggest thing of a lot of the people who maybe seem a little lost or they're they're trying to project an image of somewhere where they're not yet that mean that they get their whatever. But I do think a lot about, could you take that person? Drop them off somewhere. How long does it take to come back? Yeah,
like out in fracking was funny when was
Having this conversation conversation with the wife, I was like, yo.
You know, I'm really happy with the the wife build and the connections and everything like that because I was talking about, it's not about who, you know? I mean it's not about what, you know, the older I get the more I learn. It really seems to be holding, you know who, you know, at least that helps a lot more than what you know. But I was like, you know, it, I think about this like if I was wiped out
Tomorrow. How long would it take to recover? I still have all my knowledge on my skills and I'm really happy that the day you know, I will not gonna like mediately bounce back but that's what shouldn't take more than a year and what I know and how I know how to interact with people and reach out with the Internet or not and the skill I have. I think that's that's a worthwhile kind of metric to stand out. Like if you were wiped out by all your shows, me everything done right? You just I was just regular old at Lattimore.
And I showed up all I have are my skills and my knowledge. I don't even have the cool boxing record. I put together I got thing. You know how would I come back? Okay. Well I know enough. I do one thing a few things and it would make it
that that to me is true for very many people in the sense of if they had to start over from scratch they probably would end up being further along over the long run because
they get it. Oh, I don't have to bump into as many balls.
Lot of walls man, huh? That's the games just figure it out over and over over time. You know one of my favorite jobs I had. In fact it was my favorite one. I did a longer than I had to I was a tutor for high school. High school is when physics and Mathematics I took on some the English kid ones and I was like never again I'd I just I mean I like reading but I don't like the way the school makes you read and what you have to know and what the
work is. But I can't
teach you how to gain the right answer, your thought,
process through physics,
chemistry or math and and I think
about that a lot because now I'm Granite because the people with that skill said there's not a it's not a big overlap between who has enough time to teach it and who knows enough most people that skill set of jobs using them as I was able to charger trip the premium but but the impact I have is that I still have many many of the kids.
I worked with when they're they they're not adults. Now I'll open their 2021. Is they still reach out? I just had coffee with the other one today and you know, she was telling me about our dad was like, you know, ask him about the XYZ and stuff like that and because as it was, it was
Working in the world. Man. This is physical. It was that the be there, but connect with humans. That means a lot to me. It was my favorite second favorite job. Most entertaining. One after that, though definitely would have been when I worked at the homeless shelter, you get a lot of stories, right? But these Rusty to here nor there, you know, you just, you just figure these things out and have a good time. I think there's the should almost be
a component where you got to do something with some some physical work before you can talk about,
Talking about doing stuff online. Yeah, - that's
very true, where, oh, where can we send people if they want to buy the books or reading your writing, or get more of these ideas that they lot of people hear this? And they say, oh, wait a minute, this guy's got some stuff figured out. He's still pretty open about figuring out more things in his life and he's been able to become self-sufficient on the internet, which a lot of folks, I think, are trying to figure out, where can we send them to learn more
from? So I am Ed Lattimore
everywhere on the internet at Lattimore.
Doug cam is my website.
A lot of moisture on Twitter, a ladder much my Instagram at ladder brush, my Facebook and Linkedin. So yeah, there's nowhere, I'd Latimore's, you're the only one. Yeah, you know, it was funny man. I thought I usually say, when people ask that I go look up. Somebody's born after name it Lattimore, I feel bad for him. I'm not going to name my son that man, because Ed, because if he ever wants to go on the internet, he's going after the to beat the SEO machine are built behind the knee. That's amazing well as I do more. So yeah, that's how you found me man. I'm everywhere.
We're down to that name,
Atlanta, more.com and
then Ed lot more and listen on the social medias.
Yeah, I really enjoyed today.
Hey man, I enjoyed it too. It was a great, great conversation. Very, I made some some insights that I did. Not necessarily connect before. Now, I gotta dig deeper like this. What is this, what I do like like when I having it and idea and it's a Flash and again, you know, let it be a flash from an it. And if I keep thinking about, I'm like, OK, I have to like sit down, that's why right?
One of the reasons why I write because it makes me smarter because if I get I described like right now that this thought the link between the immune system and reading, right? Not really connected at all. But now it's a thought and I'm thinking about all the ways you connects and they're like, little spinning, magnetic poles, and what I'll do, what I write is like running. A magnet over a piece of Steel and they all point in the same direction and I please just still has forced like it's a magnet and can
Things that so. And that's how I look on my thoughts. When I, when I write is and I'm putting them all in a,
the same direction writing is for Clear, thinking,
absolutely makes you a better writer one of my, one of my favorite sayings, you know, I don't, I don't write because I'm smart enough smart, because I right, that's
very, very true. That's a great place to end my friend. I appreciate it very much and I hope
everyone enjoyed this. Hey, thank you.
Thanks, so much for listening to today's episode. I really hope you enjoyed this one. Make sure you're subscribed on Apple Spotify, or your favorite.
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