0:00 - Philosophy Chat Introduction
1:20 - Academic Journey and Career Choices
3:35 - The Importance of Truth in History
5:58 - Critique of Psychological Discipline
7:41 - Understanding Sanity and Reality
9:41 - The Natural State of the Human Mind
10:50 - Dealing with Negativity Bias and Building Faith
13:16 - Challenging the Notion of Blind Self-Belief
15:16 - The Reality of Self-Perception and Skills
22:25 - Personal Experience with Arts and Skills
25:12 - Astronauts' Opinion on Elon Musk
27:21 - The Pathology of Unearned Entitlement
29:22 - The Myth of Confidence Alone
34:40 - The Impact of Partner's Poise on Business Success
36:22 - The Importance of Poise and Social Circles
44:07 - Gratitude and Obligations of Life
49:50 - Entrepreneurship and Family Life
55:27 - Pushing Your Potential to the Limits
1:00:53 - Recognizing the Need for Change in Career
1:07:53 - Embracing New Beginnings and Quitting Jobs
1:11:45 - Considering a Move for a Fresh Start
1:15:35 - Gratitude for Meaningful Conversations
In today's philosophy podcast, we embarked on a rich dialogue encompassing various thought-provoking topics. We began by expressing gratitude for our dedicated listeners and highlighted ways they can contribute to the show's financial stability. Transitioning into an exploration of history and the subjective nature of truth, we shared personal anecdotes from our academic journey, shedding light on the transition from studying English literature to delving into history in pursuit of objectivity.
Our conversation then delved into the essence of language, truthfulness in religious teachings, and the societal implications of falsehood. We analyzed psychology, delved into figures like Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung, and underscored the significance of evidence in belief formation. Navigating through the complexities of sanity, confirmation bias, and the importance of verifiable foundations for self-assessment, we emphasized the critical role of tangible proof over baseless optimism.
As we ventured into discussions on personal and professional paths, we examined the significance of experimentation and perseverance in discovering one's true calling. We critiqued blind self-assurance, discussed confidence dynamics influenced by gender norms, and dissected societal constructs that shape individual success and validation. The exploration of truth, self-belief, and societal influences offered a stimulating journey, urging listeners to seek evidence-based convictions and challenge conventional norms in pursuit of authenticity and personal fulfillment.
Our conversation then transitioned to unpacking the notion of blind belief in oneself and its implications, especially in societies where confidence is expected without substantial accomplishments, particularly affecting women. Drawing examples from Elon Musk's journey and personal experiences in writing and philosophy, we underscored the importance of hard work and evidence over unwarranted self-assurance for genuine success.
Delving into societal expectations portrayed in media like Disney movies, we scrutinized the culture of magical thinking, attractiveness standards, social dynamics, and the role of poise and social skills in fostering meaningful relationships. The conversation traversed dating expectations, the balance between support and tough love in relationships, and the discernment of genuine commitment through realistic goal setting. The speaker shared insights on late entrepreneurship, its challenges in balancing work and family life, and the significance of self-awareness, diligence, and realism in both personal and professional spheres.
The podcast further explored entrepreneurship, life choices, and personal growth, emphasizing the value of delving into entrepreneurial endeavors before settling into family life. We discussed optimal ages for entrepreneurial pursuits, the challenges of juggling business aspirations and family commitments, and the concept of leaving a secure job to unleash one's potential and contribute positively to society. Encouraging listeners to continuously push boundaries, seek personal development, and evade complacency in unfulfilling roles, we advocated for expressing gratitude for the gift of consciousness by utilizing one's abilities for the betterment of humanity. The conversation concluded with an invitation for audience engagement, highlighting the community's role in fostering personal growth through ongoing participation and support.
[0:00] Good morning, everybody. It is June 2nd, 2024, and it's Sunday morning. It's 11 and change, so it's time for our philosophy, a philosophy chat, and thank you for dropping by. I am thrilled to get your tips, help out the show, help cover the costs and the payroll and the expenses and this and that and the other. So if you could do that, freedomain.com slash donate, I'd really, really appreciate it. You can, of course, tip on the app. You can tip freedomain.local.com. You can tip on Rumble. Generally, if you don't mind, freedomain.com slash donate has the lowest overhead. So I would appreciate that. All right.
[0:52] Yeah, just, here's a funny thing too, right? If you think that anything you learned in history is true, try going back to your, if you have dysfunctional parents, try going back to them and talking about your history. And see how, I don't mean to laugh, but, you know, see how history is reinterpreted according to the dictates and requirements of those in power. And that's going to be a great education on the truth of history.
[1:21] It's funny because i actually um i started out in english literature and you know i thought it was enjoyable i love to read and i love to write about reading but i ended up so i left i did two years at the glendon campus of york university in english literature and did very well and then i ended up going to the national theater school for almost two years but then i found the the whole environment repulsive i was having like a full body revolt about the whole environment it was just so relentlessly leftist and and i just found it uh it was almost giving me hives like i just had a full physical reaction to the environment like an environmental toxin anyway so then i ended up going to do history because i'm like well the problem with english literature is if you're convincing and i kind of am and if you're linguistically skilled which i kind of am, if you can write convincingly about your thesis.
[2:19] You really can't be wrong. How could you be wrong? So I wanted to go something more objective, so I went to history. It turns out I'm not sure I did. It turns out I'm not sure I did. Yeah.
[2:33] Yeah, I just, I did a whole show on the purpose of language, like the real purpose of language invented. And so you should check that out. You should check that out. But, you know, if you've seen what I've done in the world, and then you've seen what's been written about me, you may, thank you, Kairos, I appreciate that. That you may notice a couple of discrepancies. A couple of discrepancies. Jared says, I've already looked at finding the truth of what was said yesterday. I then use that as a measure of the likelihood of how accurate reports from 100 years ago are. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I do think that in the past, there was more of a commitment to truth from those who were religious. Right. I do think that there has been a significant increase in falsehood as a whole in the world as the result of the fall of Christianity, because Christianity has, of course, as do other religions, but Christianity is the one I know the best.
[3:30] Christianity says thou shalt not bear false witness. So if you lie, you can go to hell.
[3:35] Right. Literally. Right. So if you lie, you can go to hell. And so there was a restraint on the darwinian advantage of false falsehood right a falsehood has incredible advantage from a darwinian standpoint right everybody knows the story of the cuttlefish who pretend to be females in order to get past the male guards of the female cuttlefish in order to mate with the female cuttlefish apparently it's the equivalent of being a bjj instructor apparently that just ends up being an instructor of the first two letters, but that apparently is the thing.
[4:12] So, falsehood has such great advantage that without a divine commandment to tell the truth, lying is so profitable that it is irresistible to those without massive, massive incentives to tell the truth. Now for me i don't want to lie because that's humiliating i mean there's moral reasons uh upb and aesthetically preferable actions and so on i get all of that and i'm not trying to dismiss that as a philosopher but just at an emotional standpoint uh why do we lie we lie because we're helpless we lie because we're subjected to those in power we lie because we are punished in in an asymmetrical fashion, for telling the truth. So to me, to lie is the mark of a slave.
[5:07] And I was kind of like a slave to error, delusion, and madness when I was a child. And I just, I don't want to do that anymore. I just, yeah, I haven't wanted to do that forever, right? So, yeah, I just don't want to, don't want to lie. All right. Was Joseph Campbell smart or did he just write The Coattails of Carl Jung? Joseph talks a lot about old history. history well i know a little bit about joseph campbell the hero of a thousand faces guy who inspired star wars but uh carl jung i know a little bit more about and uh well jung was quite mad right all the mandela's and the mysticism and the collective unconscious he was he was quite mad, and not empirical and he was somebody who like freud is evocative without proving anything thing.
[5:58] And how are things disproven in the world of psychology, right? And so the world of psychology has a lot to do with, you know, things like authenticity and history and acceptance. But there's no objective methodology that I've ever seen that has anything to do with, I mean, say, well, there are all these papers, but, you know, half the papers are not reproducible, which means they're basically lies. I view a lot of modern psychology as more akin to a mystery religion than an actual discipline.
[6:35] So, I mean, yeah, so it's not, I don't have much respect for Jung, although, again, I find him evocative and interesting, but unfortunately psychology says so much that what often comes up is confirmation bias right so i'd be reading through jung i read a lot of jung i'd be reading through jung found it very interesting and you know i found freud's analysis of the unconscious and of dreams to be very interesting but i also have a natural interest in truth reality fiction and creativity but when i would come across something in the scattershot of what psychologists would write i'd come across something that really hit me in the feels be like like, ah, wow, what a great thought. It's the same thing with Nietzsche. Just say everything and people will pick up on something which they like. Whereas if you have a consistent methodology from the ground up, you'll either be loved for good reasons or hated for bad reasons, but people won't just scatter grab with confirmation bias. Like, you know, in social media, right? Everybody goes to social media to confirm their biases. So not everyone, but a lot of people. What is sanity?
[7:41] A sanity is when the thoughts in your mind.
[7:47] Accurately represent the facts of reality. Sanity is when the contents of your mind that claim to accurately represent the facts of reality do accurately reflect the facts of reality, right? So if you say, well, being a felon is really bad, and then you also say, well, being a felon is totally unimportant and that person's a victim and all of that, well, then you have contradictions, right? Right. And so sanity is when if you claim something is true and real, that it is, in fact, true and real. And the reason I have to say that is, of course, you know, we all have crazy dreams at night and we all have daydreams and fantasize about good and bad things. But we don't claim that the dreams at night are accurately representing things in objective reality. But when we say something is true, if it is, in fact, true, we are sane. And if we say something is true, when it is, in fact, false, we caught insanity and vice versa. it right if we say things are false when they are in fact true. So when we mask our prejudices in the appearance of objectivity, then we are courting madness. So that would be my answer to that. I can't lie and it's caused so many issues. Yeah, no, I get that. I get that.
[9:07] I get that. I just, maybe it's my old aristocratic nature. My ancestors were aristocrats, but the idea of lying for advantage is to say, I can't get things in life unless I falsify things, which means you're a slave, right? You can't get food unless you, right? Unless you falsify things. Finally, embarking on the peaceful parenting book, thank you for everything you do. Well, good. I hope that you find it important.
[9:41] I find I'm around more and more people who are irrational and a little insane. Well, insanity is the natural state of the human mind. Insanity is like this bizarre tumor that grew on the base neurons of the madness that characterizes most of our history.
[10:00] I did a rebuttal this morning to a guy who said, well, you know, conservatives are just in love with tradition and communists aren't. And it's like, are you kidding me? Resentment against the successful is one of the oldest and deepest characteristics of the human mind. It is ridiculously, communism is ridiculously traditional in that it goes back through Christian ethics to the resentment of the high characterized by all societies prior to modern societies and not everywhere in the world even, right? I talked about this when I was doing my speeches in Australia five years ago, six years ago, I guess six years ago. So time flies. But I don't anymore, really, because all that. So, yeah, I mean, generally it's a bad idea to be around irrational people.
[10:51] All right. How does one deal with their negativity bias when it comes to themselves? Is there anything you tell yourself to build faith in yourself? What? Sorry, make sure I understand this. How does one deal with their negativity bias when it comes... Oh, is there anything you tell yourself to build faith in yourself?
[11:18] I'm sure I'm getting this wrong. But are you saying, or are you asking, how do you believe in yourself without reason, without empirical evidence? Well, what's the answer to that? Everybody knows this well enough, right? What is the answer, thank you, Chris, what is the answer as to, well, how do you believe in yourself when you have no evidence for that? Is this a matter of just Well you gotta will shit You gotta will stuff Just will it Just have a belief in yourself Regardless of the evidence.
[12:00] What is the answer? How do you believe in yourself without evidence? You don't. Because that's a fantasy. You don't. Of course you don't. Of course you don't. Oh my gosh. Of course you don't. So how do you believe in yourself? You provide evidence. That's how you believe in yourself How do I believe that I'm a great singer? Well, you sing, you play it back You have people listen to it You see if people like it You see if you go to a coffee shop You sing, you go to karaoke You see if people applaud and so on, right?
[12:47] You know, I did a little singing thing not too long ago And people erupted in applause laws. Not that I'm such a great singer, but I sure pour my heart and soul into it. I hold nothing back. So how do you believe in yourself without reason? You don't. You don't believe in anything without reason. How do I believe I'm a good person? I don't know. Do some good stuff. Then you've got empirical evidence and you won't need to have faith in yourself.
[13:17] What is all of this absolute trash-brained Disney shit, like, you just believe, you just have to believe in yourself. It's like, no, you don't. That's a fantasy. That's delusion. To believe in the absence of evidence on things that you can will is to court madness. And, of course, general culture is trying to infect you with madness so that you're easier to rule and have no access to objective standards that might have you question or push back against dominance.
[13:50] So don't believe. More to the point, how do you find the evidence? What do you mean find the evidence? I don't understand what you mean. How do you find the evidence?
[14:03] Brother, my brother in Sunday morning philosophy, you are the evidence. Do I believe that I'm decent at philosophy? I just have to believe. I just have to believe that I have some language skills I just have to believe that I'm good with analogies. I just have to believe that I'm vaguely quick on my feet and can generate arguments and metaphors on the fly that are very effective. I just have to believe. What? I don't know. What does that even mean? I'm sorry. Again, I know it's sort of a general meme. Just believe in yourself. Well, how do I find the evidence? Well, I'd like to write fiction. See, Your Honor, I'd like to write fiction. I don't know where to find the evidence. Well, have you written any fiction? No. Well, then you have no evidence. You have a desire. So you want to believe that you're good at something without actually doing it? I don't understand. Do it and find out if you're good.
[15:16] Now, it doesn't mean satisfy other people. I think I'm a fantastic novelist. The publishing world significantly disagrees. I view that as a mark of honor these days.
[15:29] I think I'm not too bad an actor. You know, you can, when I play various people in my audiobooks, right, you can judge for yourself. I'm certainly satisfied. Unless you were Elon Musk, no one believed in him. What are you talking about? And his mother is still a great, massive fan of his. Nah. No, so no one believed in him. I mean, he got an engineering degree when he was, I think, 13. He got an assembly code game published in a magazine. I mean, he got massive, he did massive amounts of things from being a child onwards that gave him enormous positive feedback about his skills, capacities as an an engineer and an entrepreneur. I mean, he didn't just believe in himself. He started working from childhood onwards. Oh, my gosh.
[16:30] Oh my gosh.
[16:33] No.
[16:36] Yeah, you are the evidence. So I tried a bunch of different things when I was a kid, right? I tried a bunch of different things. I tried painting and found that I didn't particularly enjoy it. And it felt kind of brain dead. I'm not saying it is for everyone. It just was for me. Painting is, I have an uncle, I had an uncle, who was an expert at reproducing famous paintings. He was incredibly skilled and was basically like this live-action photocopier of all, and he did this as a hobby, and I think he made some coin on the side doing this. But painting was just not my thing. I remember when I was in theater school, we had to do something to do with mime, right? And so I mimed putting up a tent and starting a fire and so on, right? And I remember the teacher, the acting teacher, this is one of the things where I was like, I don't think this is for me. I just remember very clearly, it's like the acting teacher says, well, you know, when you work as a mime, you have to establish the levels. Right, so the tent is on one level, the fire is on another level, the firewood, and you have to keep returning to those levels. And it's those levels that make the world come alive to the person watching the mime. Now, I don't, you know, have any particular dislike of mimes, but I was just like, that is the most boring, pointless thing that I could imagine doing with my Battlestar Galactica of a brain conceivable.
[18:05] Oh, I guess that was being decommissioned, wasn't it, in the show? Anyway, so, you know, you've got to really concentrate on where the levels are of the imaginary stuff you're pretending to interact with. And I'm like, oh, my God, that is like autistic child's play. It's the wrong level. You know, you get an exam based on whether you're reaching for the thing at the right level that you previously. I just, I thought, and again, no particular problem with mimes, I guess. Hey, come on, come on. Mime is money. Um, but, you know, it just wasn't my, uh, wasn't my thing. Just wasn't my, my thing. So I tried that. I, so I tried, I remember dragging a whole door. I dragged a whole door home to paint a giant landscape on it. And it was not my particular thing because, you know, sometimes when you get a sense of how long it's going to take to get good at something and you just see this big giant hill and it's just not worth it. For me right other people right so i did 10 years of violin and when i was i was in a little orchestra and so on and we played publicly and uh it just wasn't my thing because i thought oh my gosh you know this is how long it's going to take to get good at violin it's not my particular thing.
[19:23] So i i learned a couple of songs on guitar and i've got fairly short fingers and i was just like I get a sense of how long it's going to take to get good at guitar. I tried piano. So I've tried a whole bunch of things in my life.
[19:37] And you keep trying things until you're good at something that you like. Because if you're good at something but you don't like it, well, that's not going to be your life's work, right? If you like something but you're not good at it, then that's not going to be your life's work. But if you like something and you're good at it, and you just keep trying various things until you hit that groove, and for me it was writing and philosophy right creative writing and philosophy were the two things and acting to some degree but creative writing philosophy and acting let's say those were the things so now i have a a job where i do philosophy i do some creative writing and i also do some acting i do some acting with the role playing with the audience i do some acting when i pretend other voices in the show i do some acting when i read the audiobooks of my novels and so on, so I just, I get to do the things that I like, that I'm good at. So I didn't just believe, well, just believe in myself. I don't know what that means. I mean, I believe I exist, I know I exist, I believe, but what does it mean to believe in myself? I don't know. Am I worthy of love? Well, if I'm a good person and I am beneficial to a woman and she's beneficial to me, then, right?
[20:54] So, yeah, the belief thing, like, I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry. I was at some place yesterday where there were some musicians coming out to play with the crowd, right? And the guitarist was like hopping and dancing around with these two women who were very pretty, who were sitting there smiling, and he was, you know, doing that performance thing, right? Right? And you know, this is, it's a little typical, right? Which is that the men, the men have to have all these skills and the women just have to look great. And the men did have skills and the women did look great. No problem with any of that, but the just believe in yourself, it's feminine.
[21:37] It's feminine. We have to do, we have to prove, we have to, right? Because the woman provides value with, in terms of children, without effort. I'm not saying that I'm not saying that, of course, being pregnant is easy or giving birth is easy or breastfeeding is easy, but it's not a skill-based occupation. You don't have to go to school or practice guitar, as the old song says, right, till your fingers bleed. You don't have to spend 10,000 hours learning how to get pregnant or give birth, right? These are automatic processes, right? It's not easy to have a period, because my sentences are very run-on. It's not easy to have a period, but you don't have to study, right, where the men have to study and learn and get skills, right? Like, not too long ago, I did some real archery, like real archery.
[22:25] And, of course, it did call to my ancient Anglo-Saxon Norman instincts. Oh, no, a surf is getting away. Do-do-do-do, right? But it's one of these things where my daughter and I both tried it, as did my wife, and it was fun. And I'm like, ah, we should try that. Maybe we should get some bows and arrows and, you know, give that a try. And maybe I will, maybe I won't, but it's not one of these things where gotta do the archery right.
[22:52] But it's, so for men in particular, for women, believing in yourself and all of that is important because it gives you a kind of charisma and glow and receptivity and positivity that is very attractive. And like, you know, the pretty girls all have these kinds of smiles that is just like melts your heart, right?
[23:14] But men, we can't just believe in ourselves. We actually get shit done. We can't just sit there when we're young and be pretty. we actually have to go and and and get some shit done and that's empirical so i think that the believe in yourself stuff in general comes from uh single single mothers it comes from uh the the um the the crippling estrogen chokehold on testicles that characterizes the modern modern society we have a complete matriarchy in the modern society right women outvote men uh women uh have uh uh created family courts that entirely benefit them and entire legal systems that entirely benefit them. And it's not any problem with women. It's just females plus the state. Men plus the state gives you war. Women plus the state gives women freedom from consequences.
[24:04] So I assume that this just believe, just believe, magical thinking, just believe in yourself, that is an immature female, right? Because at some point, like women do work very hard when it comes to running households in traditionally right running households raising children keeping communities together taking care of aging parents uh keeping charity going in the in the society and so on women work very very hard but when they're young that they they need to, be very attractive and confidence in a young woman who generally doesn't deserve confidence any more than young men do because it's prior to actual achievement the confidence is very appealing so just believe in yourself is something that makes women more attractive and men paralyzed So.
[24:54] Oh, a bit of an ugly fracas going on over there. Let me see if I can do something about that. All right.
[25:12] Bum-bum. Two previous astronauts said that letting Elon do SpaceX would be too expensive. They said that before Congress. Elon cried about it on national TV, invited them to come and see what he's doing. So, oh, is that? They said Tesla would fail. But he didn't believe in himself with no evidence, right? He kept working because he had prior evidence of his success, right? Had prior evidence of his success. So you start off small, right? I started writing short stories when I was six years old. I wrote my first novel when I was 11, and then I wrote more poetry in my teens, and then I started writing novels in my... I wrote 30 or 40 plays in my teens and early 20s and produced one of them. And then I started writing novels in my 20s, and I studied philosophy, and I read philosophy. I have, you know, I used to have, I don't think I still have them anymore, massive journals of my intellectual journey and history. I just wrote and wrote and wrote and spoke and spoke, and so it doesn't come out of nowhere. And so when I say, hey, I'm going to run a philosophy show, it's like not like, well, you know, I was vice president of the debating team in college and debated all over Canada. And the first year that I debated with no experience in debating, I was the seventh best in Canada. No, actually fifth best, I think, according to the judges' votes.
[26:41] Do you think Disney movies and such films contribute to the belief in magical thinking? Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Mentioning the summer of 69 and getting pregnant is pretty funny.
[26:59] I went to the flea market Saturday. I sold 100 items off my $1 table and only 10 items off my regular table. Things are getting lean and everyone's desperate for a deal. Have a tenner, my friend. Oh, thank you. I appreciate the tip. Faking belief is fine and dandy until you get hit in the face with the truth.
[27:21] Yeah, I mean, one of the most fundamental pathologies of the modern world is believing that you are worthy of something that you have not earned. You deserve. You deserve the best. You deserve what you negotiate for. You deserve a reasonable reciprocity for the value you provide. But thinking that just existing means that you deserve the best, I mean, come on. I mean, it's crazy. Well, on important things to try, subbing at freedomain.locals.com. I encourage trying that and seeing how you manage being subbed to the world's best philosophy show. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. And I appreciate your support, of course.
[28:10] Maybe Elon was crying because he realized his childhood heroes were corrupted. But, I mean, astronauts are just government workers, right? They're bureaucrats in zero gravity. I mean, they're just government workers. Why you'd go to astronauts for any advice on the free market is completely beyond me. I don't know. Oh, my gosh. It's like going to a shark for advice on how to make sushi. It's just, I mean, it's a bunch of government workers, right? Thank you for your support, David. I appreciate that very much. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Adam. I appreciate that. All right. Let me get back to your questions and comments. All right.
[29:10] Oh, sorry, Jared. I have that running. If you could, well, I'll just turn off my notifications. To be, I thought you had messaged me about something. All right.
[29:22] Faking belief is easier than doing something. Yeah, yeah. So there's this belief that if you just believe in yourself, great things will happen. Which is to say that confidence is the primary characteristic of success nope you won't have like unless you're genuinely insane you will not have the willpower to sustain belief in the absence of evidence i mean i'm talking about yourself and your choices and and what you're capable of and what you do. So if you say to yourself, oh, I'd be a great songwriter and you never write any songs, retaining that belief would be a mark of mental illness after a while. And the other thing, too, is that all unjustified faith in the self is a demand on others. And that is rough. That is rough. That is rough. All unjustified faith in yourself is a demand on others. We all know this, right? Right.
[30:35] So if some woman who's dull, average, fairly unattractive and kind of petty says, I deserve the highest value man possible. And her friend says, you know, I don't I wouldn't necessarily go with that. Right. I mean, this is what poorly thinks gets in trouble. Right. So I'm looking for a man in finance. Right. right all of the women who are like i want a six foot four guy with blue eyes and who makes, a quarter million dollars a year and so on and and she'll bring up pictures of these guys and their girlfriends and the girlfriends are all skinny leggy beautiful poised and you can tell they come from money right because if if you're a wealthy successful guy one of the ways you'll be judged is with your wife and i don't think people understand when you get into high money circles how much of it is socializing and how much you'll be judged by the company you keep right so if you show up to some high level event in some private club with a wife uh who um laughs too loud and gets drunk um and and can't make conversation uh and makes bad jokes uh you will will not stay in that world. Your wife is a ticket to high-value interactions.
[31:57] And so these guys are not looking for just sex. They're not even just looking for beauty. They're looking for an asset. Not just an ass, but an asset. They're looking for an asset. Someone who can handle high society, somebody who can help them with their career, somebody who's poised, somebody who knows what to say in wealthy circles, somebody who knows which fork to use, somebody who knows what to say and how to socialize and how to interact and how to be interesting without being overly controversial, how to be funny without being offensive. These are all very delicate balancing act and it takes a lot of experience and it takes a lot of intelligence. I mean, I remember when I moved in the business world, started moving among some serious money folks, I had no clue what I was doing. I mean, I'm fairly smart, so I figured it out very quickly. But at the beginning, I just kind of kept quiet. Because I felt very much out of my element. I felt like a fish out of water because I'd grown up in matriarchal manners, trash planet, single motherhood hellscape. So moving among some serious money folk, who are all very poised and usually come from at least the upper middle class, if not the very wealthiest classes, moving among those people was really weird and tough and strange, and I felt very uncomfortable.
[33:15] And now i mean i've been in the position over the course of my life of having, many lengthy conversations with some seriously wealthy people and i'm fine i i get it now, but so when the woman is like i want the the top tier guy and she's not, making herself as attractive as humanly possible and poised right the etiquette thing that's sort of walking with the books on your head and knowing which books to read and knowing how to have a conversation because when you're dealing with the high money people they're going to put a lot of money in your hands and they need to know what your judgment is and if you can't judge your wife, well how are you going to judge how to handle their money well so look i'm so so if a woman is like you know she's living in a basement apartment she's a little overweight and she spends all her time watching the kardashians well she's not developing the kind of poise and social skills and graces and attractiveness that is going to have people reassured that her husband is a good judge, is a good judge of character, is a good judge of people, and that her husband has confidence. Because if a man who's very, very highly sought after settles for a mid, then clearly something's wrong with him. Something's wrong with his confidence. Something's just wrong.
[34:40] And if something's wrong with him if there's a a big disparity in the looks matching and the status matching if something's really wrong with him then that's going to play out in the business arena in some way and also if you want to mentor someone to come along in the business world you You want to mentor someone, and that person has a fairly low-rent wife, then as you bring him along into higher and higher circles, that's going to provoke more and more conflict in the marriage. Because you know how it's going to work out. He's going to bring the woman to some place. She's either going to be crushingly shy and then blame him for her discomfort, or she's going to be brash and loud and obnoxious and drink too much, and then she's going to, and you're embarrassing me.
[35:31] You know, you're the sort of cliche of the new entrepreneur with the trashy wife who's like, well, I think you've had enough, dear, and taken the wine. No, I'm fine. Don't tell me what to do, right? Well, you know that the success is going to cause massive fractures in the marriage, probably trigger a divorce, and then the guy is going to be wrecked through divorce when he's trying to run your company, the company you've invested in, right? So you just don't want any of this stuff. But so if you and this is i think what i'm obviously i'm exaggerating or extrapolating from what pearl davis says but she's basically saying if you want a guy like this look at his girlfriend do you look like this now again i'm not saying she doesn't know this but having moved in both poor middle class and super wealthy circles oh it's not both having moved in that sort of triple layer cake of poor middle class i would say super wealthy wealthy um.
[36:23] Not only do you look, are you a tall, leggy, slender, beautiful, but do you have poise? Kevin Samuels used to talk about this as well. So this is nothing crushing the original on my side. I'm just sort of encapsulating it together. But Kevin Samuels is like, okay, so a high asset, high value man, are you going to make him look good in a business meeting? Are you going to make him look good in socializing? Because at the higher levels of wealth, there are relationships. There's not just investment. It's not like you don't have a relationship with your boss when you work in a hardware store, but you have relationships with your investors and they're giving you, you know, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars if they're hard-earned money and they need to know what your judgment is. And if you don't have a big track record, they're willing to invest, but they need to look and see, can you handle yourself in intimidating high-value situations? situations.
[37:15] So if you go to the mid, who's a little pudgy, doesn't have any social poise, and has never moved in any elevated circles, and isn't even studying how to do that, but is just watching trash and listening to trash and so on, and then she says, well, I want the top value man, right? So she has this belief that she's entitled to something she's not willing to earn through diet, exercise, and either having or learning social poise.
[37:42] So she's not willing to learn what it takes it's like if you want to marry a guy who only speaks french maybe you should learn french maybe right so she's not willing to diet exercise maybe she doesn't have the looks to base baseline and she's not willing to learn the social poises she's not willing to start moving in these circles like all these women who want the highest value guys they wouldn't even know where to find them where do you find these high value guys well these high High-value guys are not going to bars and picking up mids, I mean, unless there's a pump-and-dump situation, in which case they're high-value, I guess, but not high-quality. But they're moving in these elevated social circles. Right?
[38:27] They're at the exclusive country clubs. They're at the very high-end resorts. They're moving in social circles you don't have any access to. I mean, I remember when I went to a very exclusive country club that one of my business partners was in when I was in my 20s. I mean, there was serious money there. And I can't even remember. It was crazy expensive to get in. It was like $50,000, and then I can't remember how much. And this was a long time ago. Don't quote me on it, but it was like crazy expensive to get in. And that's because there's these shields. Everybody knows that the high-value men can fall for just a pretty face, and so they want to create all these barriers. That's true for high-value women as well. They want to create all these barriers to make sure that there's a filtering mechanism to make sure that you don't end up with a career and resource and capital-destroying mid.
[39:25] So if you want the guy who makes half a million dollars and a six foot four and blue eyed and in finance and so on where are you going to meet him where are you going to meet him he's not in your social circle he's not in your recreational circle right he's not he's not playing pick up softball with your half drunk buddies on sunday he's just not there like where do you even like so if you You go to a woman and you say, she's once a six foot four, blue eyed, half million dollar finance guy. And you say, I don't think that's the best approach. And then, see, she has this belief in herself. She deserves the best no matter what. She has this belief in herself. And if you say that's not a realistic belief, what happens? Everybody knows this, right? What happens if you suggest that somebody has unrealistically high expectations?
[40:21] They get mad.
[40:25] They get mad. Really mad. How dare you not believe in me? Why don't you support me? This is my dream. How dare you insult me? With reality, right? The vanity, right? The vanity. So this is what I mean when I say that every unrealistic expectation that you have is a demand on others. Because if other people are not supporting your unrealistic expectations, you blow up at them. You get enraged at them. And suddenly you're not being supportive. Oh, God, that word. Oh, I kind of loathe that word. You're just a hater. Yeah, you're just a hater. You're not on my side. Why don't you believe in me? Can't believe you think that little of me. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? Any reasonable adjustment of expectations is considered abusive and a massive betrayal of their heaven-sent potential to get everything they want without any effort whatsoever. So they say, you're not being supportive. No, it could be for men too, right? It could be men too, the tubby neckbeards who want the anime amaranth-shaped girl. It's like, you're not gonna get her. You need to adjust your expectations.
[41:51] Steph these mids think they can find the high value men on elite dating apps like seeking arrangement it's a joke a cesspool of women who are ultimately just looking to sell their bodies sugar daddies only fans etc sure yes yes but generally the ideal is not I'm looking Working for a guy in finance who's 57, slightly tubby, twice divorced, right? Support is a word for engineering. Well, support, what does that mean? What does that mean? I don't like the idea of supporting people.
[42:37] I mean, all of my call-in shows are arguments against unreality. All of them. People are telling me things that are not true. And I have to point out that they're not true because I support reality. I support the truth. I support facts. So, unfounded expectations are like a fist coming back that if you don't agree, you'll get punched. You're going to get abused if you don't agree with the self-abuse of unfounded expectations. It's brutal and horrible. So when people say, I deserve the best, I deserve this, I deserve that, I expect this, I believe in myself, they're just preparing to abuse you if you don't enter into their circle of unreality that is fundamentally catastrophic to their potential. Tough love is better than support.
[43:33] I mean, facts are better than lies. Isn't this basically philosophy in a nutshell? The truth is better than lies. You know, if I have a friend who says, I want to win a bodybuilding competition and he doesn't work out and he's overweight and whatever, right? At one point you say, no, you don't. You're not doing a damn thing about it. Come on. This is ridiculous. Like this is not healthy.
[44:08] Oh, thank you for the tip. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Thank you.
[44:29] So, and the other thing too is that I'm at the sort of age now, and this was decades ago, right? Right. So certainly by the time you're in your late 20s, early 30s, anybody with unrealized dreams is just a quicksand that's going to drag you down to nothing. Nothing. Veer away. Veer right away. Hit the eject button, even if it means dancing through the chopper blades for people in their late 20s. You could say mid 20s, depending on how easy it is to achieve their dreams. But if somebody says, I want to be a writer, and then they're in their mid-20s and they can't show you stacks of writing, get out. Get out, man, because they're just going to tear you apart. They're going to tear you apart. Because they're going to keep saying this shit, and at some point you're going to say, well, why don't you ever write anything? Well, it's tough. I've got this excuse and that. I've been busy and this and that and the other, and I'm going to get to it, and how dare you not believe in my blah, blah, blah, right? Forget it.
[45:37] Unrealized dreams are a filter to make sure that only liars remain in your life. I dream of being a ballet dancer, if I said that, right? Then anybody who would say, yeah, you know, go for it, man. You should totally try it. As opposed to like, you're 57, you have the flexibility of your average slab of sidewalk, and you have the rhythm of a metronome bouncing down a deep well. I'm actually a pretty good freestyle dancer, but I don't do Rehost dance.
[46:14] So, it's a filter. The demon, the demon, for want of a better word, right? The demon who's got his grip around the heart of the deluded person is spraying out these delusions to make sure that no one comes along who can unseat the demon. The demon of delusion is taunting, is making sure everyone stays away who has a key to unlock the prison door of delusion. So. So, yeah, you're just gearing yourself up to absolutely be abused. They're demanding. Steph, what about entrepreneurship? How late do you think it is? How late do you think is too late to start? So, entrepreneurship is a young man's game. A young woman's game. It's a young person's game.
[47:08] And yeah, yeah, yeah, there are exceptions. I get that. There are exceptions. But why is it, in general, a young person's game? Why do you think? Why would I say? Steph, why would you say such a thing? Why would entrepreneurship? And I, sorry, I got a question at the very beginning from Joe. What guidelines to figure out if you should quit your job? I've been gearing up for that rant. And it's bubbling away, and we'll get there. Why is entrepreneurship? a young person's game. Where did my messages go? So.
[47:50] Entrepreneurship because of networking no you have a bigger network when you get older usually because it takes so much energy and time so it's a young person's game because i've been in business with people who have little kids it's horrible on the family life and i i think actually it did some fairly irrevocable damage and repairable damage because entrepreneurship is crazy late nights massive amounts of energy a lot of travel a lot of the time and so on and if you've got little kids, being an entrepreneur is a bad idea in general. I mean, exceptions, whatever, right? But if you have little kids, they need you.
[48:29] So if you want to be an entrepreneur, you want to do it before you settle down, before you get married and have kids. And, you know, there's, was it Malcolm Gladwell or something, someone like that, someone who does these, isn't it cool that, and here's some interesting facts that, all that up to nothing. I actually sat next to Malcolm Gladwell in a restaurant once. I'm like, is that a dandelion? No, no. Mackie Glad. So it's all interesting insights that lead up to precisely nothing. And so, but he was one of these guys who's like, well, you know, excuse me, all the big software entrepreneurs, they were all born in this year and they all came of age in this year and all of that. So they have a particular age where they come into their own because they're young enough to have energy. They generally have a family that has expertise and money to support them in their dreams. So, yeah, because if you want to have a family, then being an entrepreneur, and I've talked about this in calling shows before, trying to become an entrepreneur when you've got kids at home is bad. Is bad. As a whole.
[49:50] All right, let me just, uh, now again, you can be an entrepreneur when your kids get older, I suppose, but it's, you know, it's funny because I mean, my daughter needs as much time, energy, and attention now as she did when she was younger, because you know, the teenage years are exciting and, and there's some coaching and all of that so although she has a great circle of friends and a great social life so but yeah I mean you know there are questions and challenges and all of that with teenage life as a whole so, it doesn't end it doesn't even end but they move out but it certainly diminishes I assume, so yeah it's not a networking thing because networking is getting social circles that can help you with your job right.
[50:45] And you can network when you're young, but the odds that anyone is of economic or entrepreneurial or business value to you when you're young is not high. Not high. All right, so the question is, Steph, what do you think are some guidelines to figure out if you should quit your job? So, the general guidelines for quitting your job are, do you get or do you have a sense that your potential is far greater than what you're doing? We have all been given this unbelievable gift of not just life, which single-celled organisms have, and even viruses arguably have, we've been given this incredible gift called life.
[51:47] And in addition to the mere gift called life, which is rare enough, you look at the solar system, even the gift called life, which is rare enough, we've come back not as a platypus or a krill or a virus or bacteria in the colon of a great person, we've come back with reason, with consciousness, with the capacity for morality and concepts. I really genuinely deeply and always felt, in terms of obligation to exercise my abilities to the betterment of the world as a whole, that it is a payment that must be made to the great gift of life and consciousness.
[52:36] The ultimate golden ticket is thought, and it occurs, as far as we know, to only one species of creatures in the universe, humanity. Of all the atoms in all the hundred million stars in the hundred million galaxies, you are in possession of the atoms that generate, the fiery tsunami of human thought in the universe. us. If you're not deeply grateful for that every day, I really don't know what to say to you. You are ignoring the unbelievable good fortune that you have been provided. And to me, being the recipient of a great gift creates in that gift a reciprocal obligation, right? I mean, this is the whole donation model, right? I give the gift of philosophy, and hopefully you give the reciprocal obligation of helping support the show. I hate calling it a show, but conversation, philosophy. So when the universe has given me the greatest gift in existence, I feel an obligation, and I always have felt this obligation. How can I best use the talents that I have to benefit the world as a whole?
[54:04] Are you at the limit of your potential? It's a big-ass question, my friends. Are you at the edges of your potential? And being at those edges, does your potential go even further? And are you constantly chasing your potential? Surprising, nay, even perhaps shocking yourself at what you're capable of generating and communicating and doing and the value that you can provide every day. Are you thinking deeply? Are you communicating clearly? Are you expressing the values and virtues of truth, courage, integrity, conscience? Are you exhorting yourself and others to be better? And are you taking deep joy in the people you choose, as an adult you always choose, to surround yourself with? Or do you have the vague unease of, coulda, woulda, shoulda, I could do better, I could do more, I'm not achieving my potential, I'm not taking enough risks, or maybe I'm taking too many bad risks and paralyzing my potential with potential disaster.
[55:27] If your job is not stretching you into new and surprising shapes on a regular basis, if you're not progressing and challenging yourself and achieving more and more.
[55:40] And stretching your potential like a rubber band, almost to the breaking point, on a regular basis. Every show, every conversation, every time I talk to you, to the world, forever, ever. I try to add something you've not heard before. Something that is new and inspiring and surprising, perhaps encouraging, or perhaps discouraging if it's a vice, encouraging a virtue and discouraging a vice. And I think people come back because I'm cooking up around, I mean, I've done a bunch of shows I've never released, so cooking around 6,000 shows. And it's new it's not dems are the real hypocrites like the political stuff over and over right it's new should be new and i'm trying to stretch your mind trying to stretch my mind and to be even deeper and clearer in my examination of the causes and effects of this very complicated world world, to illuminate new patterns, new paths, new connections, new possibilities that are actionable. I don't want to do the same thing over and over, because satisfaction in repetition is for toddlers and dummies, and we are neither.
[57:02] When should you quit your job?
[57:08] You should quit your job because you don't want to express a lack of gratitude to the universe for providing you with consciousness by underutilizing that consciousness. A friend of mine many years ago, I didn't even know this existed, there's a programming language called Mantis, and he had to debug a very long computer program. And he said, you know, sitting by the window, the sun's coming in, I'm kind of warm, I'm listening to some music, and I'm paging down through these endless, endless pages of text, of code, in the computer program called, or the programming language or environment called Mantis. And he said, I realized I was just pushing the page down button and I was already at the bottom of the code. So I'm like, okay, I shake this off. So I control homed and I started paging down again. I was looking, I was looking, but the sun's pretty warm. Music's really, you know, it was either dark side of the moon or shine on your crazy diamond or some beta blocker hypnosis music. And he's like, by the third time I got to the bottom of the code. Remembering nothing of what I had paged through, I thought maybe it's time to change my job.
[58:38] When I first started working in COBOL 74, I didn't even know the language, so I was really stretching my abilities as a coder back then. Didn't really understand much about the stock trading world. I knew it economically because I'd studied economics, but I was at the edge of my abilities When I was first being an entrepreneur, I was at the edge of my abilities. When I was first being a leader in a software, I had like 30, 35 employees at one point. I mean, that's a lot of exciting challenges and all of that. And I was at the edge of my abilities. And when I write novels, I'm always at the edge of my abilities. I don't write the same novel over and over again. I'm not like Stephen King or Harlequin Romance. They've got a formula. I'm always writing a novel that I've never written before.
[59:29] So for me, I'm always at the edge of my abilities. It was real edge dancing to do peaceful parenting. That was the most difficult, brutal, and cliff-edge, half-drunk dancing I've ever done. I'm right at the edge of my abilities. I don't know what's going to be at the edge of my abilities next, but even in this communication, I'm at the edge of my abilities because I'm telling you things I've not phrased before, at least in this way. There's no script. There's no, oh, here's my list of things to say. There's no, I know what you're going to like. I know what you're going to listen to because I've already heard the cheers before. I'm doing something new every time. This is why I do the shows, because it's something new. So I am at the edge of my abilities every time I do a show. It's why when I do a debate, I don't reuse arguments. I always come up with new arguments. So I'm at the edge of my abilities every time I open my mouth. And I'm always striving to do better, go deeper, be more clear, be more inspiring, be more passionate, but without being crazy, or at least not too much. So I'm always at the edge of my abilities because I am unscripted in a landmine or in a minefield.
[1:00:54] So, you should quit your job if you're paging down code into sunshine listening to music and don't even remember what you've read. You should quit your job if it's repetitive, if it's boring, if it's not anywhere close to your capacities. And here's the issue, man. I'm not saying this to the gen pop, right? I'm not saying this to, you know, gosh, I mean, I remember I used to have 6,000 people on the live streams at times. But I'm not saying this to the general population. I'm saying it to you, luckless bastards. Luckless because you have potential. You have massive potential because you're listening to this show. You're here. You made it. Across the desert. To this nirvana of reason. So, unfortunately, you, like me, are burdened with great potential. And it is a burden at times. Sure. But you have it, like it or not. If you can follow what I'm saying, if you're here after all of this, that this community has been through, that I've been through, if you're still here, you're here because you have great potential. Now, maybe you're exercising that potential and maybe you're not. I regret nothing I did. My only regrets are around things I didn't do.
[1:02:16] It's hard to regret anything when you end up doing in life what you always wanted to do at the limits of your abilities and the continual expansion of the limits of your abilities with the people you love the most. And I do occasionally embarrass my daughter, although not my wife, when I say to them that I am eternally grateful to have such wonderful people to go through life with.
[1:02:46] It is a gift beyond measure to have such wonderful people to go through life with, and I include you in this circle. It is wonderful to be able to go through life with you wonderful people, with the wonderful people in my life, and to be doing the greatest work that I'm capable of in the service of humanity. This is the greatest work I'm capable of in the service of humanity, and the work that i'm capable of is a constantly moving standard it's a constantly elevating or rising standard you know like singers they hit their high notes in their youth and then what is it billy joel said you just you say goodbye to those notes as you get older right i i saw john i never saw john bon jovi in concert but i saw i happened to click on a living on a prayer you know Now, we're halfway there. Oh, he really shrieks that note, and he gave it to the audience, right? He gave it to the audience to shriek. Or there's a, when I hear that rock and roll, it gets down to my soul. When it's real rock and roll, when I hear that, he goes really high. And in concert, he's like Freddie Mercury. He's like, I'm not hitting that note. Forget it. Forget it. Not going to happen. Right?
[1:04:07] So for a lot of things you start off well and you diminish right gymnastics you start off well and you diminish dance you start off well and you diminish right because dancers in their 50s are not doing what they did in their 20s some things you advance and continue acting of course you get older hopefully you get better but then you can't play the lung you can't play the um the young roles anymore. But philosophy, you can just keep getting better and better. Love, you can just keep getting better and better. Wisdom, you can just keep getting better and better. The loss of range is the lack of looking after their voices when young. Well, that's true. That's true. I have actually seen Barbara Streisand in concert once, and she still retained, in her late 70s, she still retained the notes of her youth. But also, I mean, the belters, right, the rock and roll belters, it's very tough to look after their voices because part of what makes their voices rough and raw, you know, Bob Seger style is chafing the old nodules, right? So.
[1:05:16] This is why i find you so inspiring you share your gifts with the world that we are all better off for it i appreciate that and i share back my gift to the world right the universe gave me these great gifts as it gave us all these great gifts and to share them back seems so gracious and grateful and i am incredibly grateful for the mind heart and soul that i've been given and i was given it. I didn't earn it. I didn't earn it, right? I didn't earn it at all. I'm just born. Just born. Just born. So, you know, if an aunt gives you a million dollars, right? And you like her, right? She's an aunt. She gives you a million dollars, right? And then she needs some occasional help, you know, she needs some occasional help here and there. Would you not help her? I mean, she gave you a million dollars or $10 million or whatever. Would you not? And you like her too. And she's very generous. She's very kind. She was wonderful to you when you were a child. She gave you a million dollars so you could buy, I don't know, a small condo these days. But, and then she needed some help with something. Wouldn't you be happy to help her? Wouldn't you be happy to help her?
[1:06:45] She calls you up and she says, my toilet keeps flushing and I can't get hold. And you live next door. And she calls you and she says, oh, how are you doing? Oh, what's that water running in your background? Oh, my toilet keeps flushing and I can't get hold of a plumber, wouldn't you? And you knew what you were doing. You'd go over and help her, wouldn't you? Of course you would. Of course you would. You would pay her back for the generosity and kindness and love that she had shown you. It wouldn't even be a doubt. you'd be happy and thrilled to help. You'd want to find ways to help her because of the generosity she had shown you. Well, you and I and everybody has been given infinitely more than a million dollars or ten million dollars or a billion dollars. You give a billion dollars to a dead guy, he does nothing. We've been given life, which is worth more than all of those things. To pay back the gift of life, Life, with the spread of virtue, is the most beneficial and foundational contract in the universe.
[1:07:53] All right, Steph, wonderful answer. This quitting your job topic is very relevant to me. I just learned my site is closing down, which perfectly coincides with the timing of my plan to quit and live overseas. My job is so repetitive and no upward mobility. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you for the donation. I love having the content you provide. Sadly, people refuse to understand things. Oh well, preaching to those who cover their eyes and pluck their ears.
[1:08:20] I had to change my career in my 40s due to tinnitus. Oh gosh, what happened? I'm sorry to hear that. It's a bit of a crap, tinnitus. You really have to work to not concentrate on it. I've got a little bit of it in my left ear from cancer treatments kind of fried my ear a little bit on the left. Actually, I just found out, what was it, Rand Paul is deaf in one ear. I don't know why. I don't think it was from the attack, but he's deaf in one ear. I don't know why. I like the idea that your best is ahead of you. perhaps that's why i'm drawn to programming yeah programming mostly blows these days though, software is so bloated and slow i saw a video the other day as somebody was starting powerpoint, on a 300 megahertz pentium 2 and it just opened up right away now maybe it's a preload or whatever but ssd should provide pretty much the same thing uh software used to be so fast i remember being able to run three big programs. I think it was Word, Excel, no, Word, Access, and Photoshop on a computer with two megs of RAM.
[1:09:28] Jesus Christ paid an infinite atonement, so we owe him everything. What can we be called on to give that is too much? Right. But you should want to give. You should want to give. Having life, being in possession of life in a modern in relatively free society. Being given the gift of life with this communications technology in particular, with all of our capacities to talk with each other and to record our thoughts forever, which was scarcely possible throughout almost all of human history, to be alive at all, to have consciousness at all, but in a time when we can do this, I don't know if I will ever be able to do enough good to express the gratitude I feel for the life we have been gifted. It is magnificent. It is magnificent.
[1:10:29] Paul said, We do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Yes, so this is the price you pay for the decay of the body is the strengthening of the mind. And you should work, to strengthen your body as much as possible to retain it as an honorable base space to the brilliance of the mind. Gotta burn that extra bandwidth and processing power on the creepy tech voyeurs milking you like a data cow. That's a great phrase. Yeah, I was a sound engineer which gave me tinnitus, so I've had to go into studio production instead. If I hadn't done that, the tinnitus would have become overwhelming. Yeah, there was a guy, I think he claimed he was the CEO of some hardware company, if I remember rightly. He got tinnitus so bad, I think he thought it was from of the vaccine that he killed himself. I'm not saying that to you, but so sound engineer, how did that give you tinnitus though? I mean, did you just listen way too loud? Because when I was younger, the sort of volume protector hearing thing wasn't a thing any more than sunscreen was a thing when I was a kid.
[1:11:45] Somebody says, I'm getting so demoralized and depressed living in Toronto. The city is a a nightmare now. I'm considering moving to my parents' home country in Europe or a smaller town in the province here. I haven't been back to Toronto for years. Really. I grew up there and I don't like it. Sent a YouTube short, HR hiring a programmer, but the guy who has all the credentials is going to be kicked to the curb. We want a time traveler who knows their internal systems, who can come back to explain it to them. Hashtag programming 2024.
[1:12:18] I got my hearing tested. The doctor said everything was fine, but the tinnitus I have is probably a TMJ-related thing. Is that a jaw thing? What is TMJ? Let me just look that up. I try not to make up my acronyms. They end up inexcusably rude.
[1:12:35] Jawbone to your skull. Oh, yeah, so when you clench your jaw, sometimes you get that whine in your ears, right? So you're saying, okay, got it. It was live sound in nightclubs. I wore earplugs, but the sound levels were insane. Oh, yeah, nightclubs are just brutal. Absolutely brutal. Yeah, I mean, my daughter goes to her dances. We have to nag the DJs to not play it too loud. I mean, it's just horrible. All right, any other last questions, thoughts, issues, comments, challenges, problems? What else can I help you with, my friends? And don't forget, you can now do freedomain.com slash call. Freedomain.com slash call. You can request a private call-in, and it's paid, but it will never be released. So if you've had something you want to talk about, but you didn't want it to go out to the world, which I completely understand, you can now achieve that at freedomand.com slash call. Just check off the private call option, and we'll talk about it from there.
[1:13:35] So, all right. You're absolutely right. What a wonderful gift we have been given. I know I'm capable of so much more. Yes. And the problem is the devil will keep you from achieving your potential until it's too late and then he will give you a sense of your greatness you could have been right hell is the life you could have had right and the devil will then give you full view of your own talents when it's too late to achieve them just to torture you some more and by that i don't necessarily mean the physical devil but the uh bad aspects of the mind the cowardly aspects of the mind your conscience will get you it's choose your suffering right you can get stressed from trying to achieve things or you can get stressed from regret.
[1:14:18] All right. Well, thanks, everyone. I appreciate your presence today. It's lovely to have you with me. If you're listening to this later, of course, freedomain.com slash donate. Would really, really appreciate your support. And as would Jared and James and the other fellow we're working with, we would really appreciate your support. Your resub is active as of today. That is something I should and do encourage trying for yourself. Yes, I mean, it's a great community. You get to chat with a lot of people. You get access to the StephBot AI, some fantastic. You can go to premium.freedomain.com and check it out. You can see, even if you can see the kind of shows that are up there, it's some juicy stuff. Actually, we just released a show that I did in Hong Kong, where I was practicing for one of my speeches in the Hong Kong documentary. And it's a rare footage of me working out and practicing a speech at the same time, because I find that grinds it into the bones. I often will work out while practicing speeches, because it grinds it into the body a little bit more.
[1:15:16] So you can also go to tiktok.com forward slash at free domain.com, or fdrurl.com slash tiktok, and you should check it out. Check it out. All right. Yeah, there are new shows on premium that are just coming out. We're constantly producing new, rare, spicy shows that were too spicy for the mainstream but can go on there. All right.
[1:15:35] Have yourself a wonderful afternoon, my friends. I will talk to you soon and thank you so much for the great gift of this conversation. I mean that most sincerely from the heart. I am incredibly, incredibly grateful, that you're still with us. All right. Take care, everyone. Bye.
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