0:05 - Welcome to Friday Night Live
0:29 - The Stanford Prison Experiment Discussed
27:34 - AI and OnlyFans: The Future of Content
27:52 - Tariffs: Understanding Economic Impacts
34:46 - The Brain and Gut Connection
39:53 - Exploring the World of Anime
53:51 - Therapy vs. Business: Where to Invest?
56:52 - Finding a Good Therapist
1:00:41 - Defending Against Smear Campaigns
1:08:20 - Closing Thoughts and Farewell
In this episode of Friday Night Live, I dive into the complexities of human behavior through an engaging discussion centered around the notorious Stanford Prison Experiment, prompted by a recent book by Thibaut Le Texier. I reflect on the claims made by Russell T. Warne, who critiques the experiment's integrity, suggesting that much of what we were told about it may be rooted in deception. We unpack how this landmark study, often cited to illustrate the latent capacity for cruelty within all humans, falls short under scrutiny. I share insights from Warne's findings, such as the misrepresentation of data, the coaching of participants, and the experiment’s ethical violations, ultimately questioning the validity of conclusions drawn from flawed science.
As the conversation unfolds, I connect the dots between this exploration of fraught psychology and societal perceptions around moral failings. Through examples, I express skepticism toward the pervasive narrative that hints at an 'inner monster' lurking within all individuals, stressing instead on the positive aspects of human nature and the assessments we place upon ourselves and each other. This skepticism extends to other well-known social science narratives, such as the Kitty Genovese incident, prompting a broader reflection on how sensationalized stories shape our understanding of community and human decency.
Transitioning into audience interactions, I tackle questions surrounding personal decisions and perceptions of self-worth, urging listeners to consider their inclination to conform to social norms that often mask true happiness. We navigate the virtues of honesty in relationships, especially regarding family dynamics, ultimately advocating for prioritizing constructive intimacy over superficial connections.
In light of various undercurrents in contemporary society, including the effects of media representation and interpersonal trust, I critique the narratives promoted by popular culture, such as the idea that we are mere steps away from embracing cruelty under the right conditions. Encouraging nuanced views and thoughtful introspection, I invite listeners to reflect on their instincts and emotional truths, underscoring the importance of sincere human connection in an era defined by distrust and division.
The episode concludes with discussions ranging from the value individuals place on personal freedom versus truth, seeking to inspire a collective movement toward genuine dialogue and moral accountability. With a promise to share more on my ongoing literary endeavors, I encourage listeners to engage deeply with these themes as they consider their moral compass in navigating life's complexities.
[0:00] Good evening, good evening. Welcome to your Friday Night Live.
[0:05] Thank you for everyone who dropped past earlier today for a spontaneous live stream. We had a very good chat and conversation. And hello, hello. Good evening. Welcome to your Friday Night Live. Fourth of April. My God, April already. 2024, 2025. Boy, time really is flying.
[0:30] And I have topics, of course, I'm sure you're aware that we do have topics as a whole, I have lots of space in my brain, heart and mind for your questions and comments and preferences And what is nice for you, And we could start with some fraud Okay.
[1:02] So yeah we could start with some fraud i mentioned this many years ago but i came across it recently and i thought it was worth talking about a little bit, so uh russell t warne that's russ warne w-a-r-n-e on x wrote um i finished reading Thibaut Le Texier's book Investigating the Stanford Prison Experiment, History of a Lie. This is the most thorough treatment of the real history behind the Stanford Prison Experiment.
[1:36] So this is his perspective on it. Obviously, I haven't verified these claims, but I'm putting them out there because they're interesting. So the Stanford Prison Experiment was this idea that you take a bunch of random college students, you divide them into guards, and you divide them into prisoners and you just give them these roles to play, and the guards become progressively more sadistic, and the prisoners become progressively more hang-doggy and desperate and so on, stiflingly rebellious and all of that, and that they had to stop the experiment very quickly because the guards were just becoming so crazy and sadistic. And so the general argument is that there's this incipient sadism that is in the hearts and minds of people as a whole. And if people get power, they go crazy. They get crazy aggressive, crazy hostile. Their personality has all this latent sadism. and so on, and it's a very sort of powerful experiment.
[2:55] And there seems to have been some fraud. So Russell writes, After reading the book, it's hard to deny that Zimbardo, as the original psychologist, lied about almost every aspect of the study at some point in the 53 years he lived after conducting it. Some of the most inexcusable lies include saying that five, quote, prisoners left the experiment early for mental health reasons. In reality, only two to three did. In fact, one left, because the dry air and denial of access to his medication was causing problems with his eczema. Zimbardo's then-girlfriend, later wife, was not the cause of the study ending. In Zimbardo's telling, she visits on day six and is horrified about what's happened and convinces him to stop the study. In reality, she had visited earlier, participated in a fake parole board, and was aware of what was happening in the study before it ended. No, the quote guards did not all turn sadistic. In fact, most were reluctant about embracing their role. and the day shift guards were actually pretty lenient about rules. Next, the experiment did not get progressively or increasingly intense with each passing day. Also, the guards' behavior was not spontaneous. They were coached multiple times about how to behave. They were given suggestions for punishments and they did not invent the prison rules.
[4:14] There are also lies of omission. Zimbardo did not come up with the experiment himself. Some of his undergraduate students did a smaller version of it a few months earlier. It's a class project. He almost never credited them. The guards were misled into believing that they were part of the experimental team. They thought the study was only about prisoner behavior. As a result, the guards did not lose themselves in a role by being placed in a fake prison. They never thought of themselves as real guards. The participants were not all good or normal young men with no history of misconduct. Some had a history of a petty crime, drug use, social dysfunction, etc. Contrary to claims that participants treated the experiment as if it were real, both prisoners and guards were constantly aware that they were in an experiment and that they were not really prisoners and guards. No one consistently lost himself in his role. Variability was the rule in the Stanford prison experiment, not the exception. For decades, Zimbardo portrayed all the prisoners as becoming rebellious and then broken as the guards became authoritarian and cruel. In reality, some prisoners had good relationships with some guards. The day shift was businesslike, and some prisoners or guards saw the situation as a weird temporary job, whereas others desperately wanted out. Oh.
[5:42] Let's see. He says, Russell says, the Stanford prison experiment was simply bad science. There are so many flaws that it cannot reveal anything about human behavior. In the past, I called it performance art, he says. Reading La Texia's book reinforced that view. The protocols were erratic, changed often and haphazardly. Almost nothing in the Stanford prison experiment was systematic. Data collection was erratic, irregular, resulting in sloppy data. In the months and years after the experiment, Zimbardo's assistants and students warned him that the data were hard to interpret. He ignored them all. Zimbardo started the study with a predetermined goal in mind. He published a press release on the second day of the study, touting its results. He testified to Congress and gave dozens of interviews before he had even analyzed his data. The demand characteristics must have been overwhelming. especially for the guards, who were coached in their behavior. Everybody knew or had a pretty good idea of the purpose of the study and what Zimbardo wanted to see. There was almost constant supervision from Zimbardo and his assistants.
[6:53] The conditions only superficially resemble the real prison. This has two consequences. One, running the experiment was sometimes cruel and definitely unethical, even by the standards of his time. The Stanford prison experiment does not tell us anything about the effects of real imprisonment.
[7:08] Among the conditions that were worse than those of a real American prison were prisoner uniforms or gowns worn without underwear, which sometimes exposed prisoners' genitals. Conditions were unsanitary. Bathroom access was severely limited. At night, the prisoners had to urinate and defecate in a bucket. Sometimes prisoners even had to clean out the buckets with their bare hands. The prisoners were worried about disease. The prisoners could not shower and were only allowed to shave or have a sponge bath if outside visitors were expected. The prisoners had no access to fresh air or exercise. Access to recreation was almost zero. Books were taken away, and prisoners were not allowed to have any personal effects or mementos. The, quote, parole board was a total sham that had no power to release prisoners early. Prisoners wore chains almost constantly, which caused discomfort and injury. For Zimbardo, the lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment was that potential for cruelty and evil lurks inside everyone, and the right or wrong situation could let out that inner monster. I think Zimbardo thought this message resonated, says Russell, because he actually did do cruel things to other people. The conclusion that everyone has evil inside them probably greatly is washed in Zimbardo's guilt. So.
[8:27] Very sad. Very sad. And I think it's probably a bit of an atheist thing too, right? In that, well, new God, virtue, philosophy doesn't tame the beast within and all of that sort of stuff. Okay. All right, let me get, we had an interview with Russell Warren back in the day. Did we really? Thank you. If you give me the link, I'd appreciate that. Give me the number. All right, let's get to your, so the general idea is that whenever there's like a, what seems to be a very sort of, this is Emil Kierkegaard wrote this. Remember kids, whenever you hear of one important story or study from social science with some morality tale attached, it's probably fake in some way.
[9:28] Yeah, even the Kitty Genovese event was seriously misrepresented. You know, this idea that this woman gets stabbed to death and nobody does anything, even though dozens of people can hear her. It's not really what happened, but you can look that up. The murder of Kitty Genovese, G-N-O-V-E-S-E. You can look that up, debunked. It's very interesting. It's all this stuff that was gospel when I was growing up. Oh, okay, yes, sorry. Wrong About IQ. So the show is 4059. Russell Warren. We did that show. One of the intelligence experts. Okay. Thank you for the tip. Floored network. I'd appreciate that. Country Scholar writes, what would you do if your wife and two daughters hated the mods you made to your SUV? Would you add more off-road gadgetry or give in and get something more refined? My kids are forced to ride with me for several more years.
[10:26] Well i don't know it's interesting i guess you made some manly stuff that the women don't appreciate i would get it changed personally i would get it changed, i mean it's not like i'm not saying you should get bullied or pushed around with every decision or choice that you make but what i would say is that you want your family to know and understand that you care more for their happiness than some tricked-up thing for your SUV. I mean, if they hate it, just get rid of it. You know, if I were to buy, I don't know, if I were to buy a shirt or a hat that my wife and daughter hated, I'd just get rid of it. I'd just take it back. If you hate it, it's no biggie. So I would, I mean, you should preview these things with your family as a whole. Make sure you get people's buy-in but I would you know it's not worth it it's not a hill to die on so to speak.
[11:34] James says, I'm reminded of an episode of Star Trek, The Next Generation, where the big moral was, there's an evil monster that lives inside all of us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is... It's not true. I've never had an evil monster that lives inside. I mean, I think we all have the capacity to be cruel, sure. But that's just a larger part of self-protection as a whole, right? All right. Somebody writes, Hi, Stef. Why do I feel burdened by someone else's destructive decisions? Because, my friend, in the past, secret, secret. In the past, we couldn't escape them. You grew up in a small town, a small village, a small tribe, and somebody has some really destructive opinion, some destructive perspective. You really can't escape it. So you are burdened by it, you know. The idea that you can escape the dysfunctions of your childhood environment is really new. Or even the possibility that you can really do that is really new.
[12:54] So, in the past you were. And because of that, you had to stay focused and attentive to what was going on. Now you do have a choice, right? Now you have a choice. In the past, you didn't. All right. Yeah, I don't like the idea that, you know, we're all just different degrees of evil. And, you know, we're all just, you know, one day of power away from becoming a sadist. I don't believe that's true. All right. What do you make of insomnia so far as philosophy goes, what do you make of insomnia so far as philosophy goes um i would say it's more of a self-knowledge thing.
[13:51] I think it's more of a self-knowledge thing um, I would say that insomnia is when there's, and I'm just talking about self-knowledge stuff, not any sort of physical thing, but if you have a big sort of rank contradiction in your life, I did, and I had some insomnia when I was in my late 20s, early 30s. If you have a big rank contradiction in your life, and mine was I was reading about philosophy and theorizing about philosophy but not practically living in a sort of very material way philosophy.
[14:39] So if you have a big contradiction in your life it needs to be resolved, contradictions will twist your brain into some supernatural London subway pretzel. It's really not good for your mind as a whole to have sort of big contradictions floating around in your brain. So if you've had yourself physically checked out and you're fine sort of physically, the place that I would look for resolution of insomnia is to look for a big contradiction. I'll give you some of the typical ones. I mean, based upon 20 years of calling shows. So some of the typical contradictions are, I say I love someone, but I don't. I claim to love someone, but I don't love that person. I claim to be attached to someone who is not producing any particular virtues that are inspiring me to love, worship, and adore. So if there's someone in your life you claim to love, And maybe you have some historical or residual affection for or whatever, but someone in your life that you claim to love, but you don't love them, that's a big one. That's a big one. If your values...
[15:59] Are drifting from the production of virtue. In other words, if you're pursuing sex for the sake of sex alone, if you are pursuing money for the sake of money alone, if you're pursuing status or beauty, or if you're one of these Greek statue narcissists who spends three hours a day in the gym, if your values and your decisions are said by you to be valuable, but they do not directly contribute to the spread of virtue in the world, that's kind of a contradiction. At least it will be from a philosophical standpoint, because philosophically speaking, we get the most happiness from the production of virtue in the world.
[16:48] So that's another one. If you You are suppressing your true self, but calling it being nice, that's a big problem. If you are redefining negative traits, vices, as positive traits, you're going to have a problem. You're going to have a problem with your heart, you're going to have a problem with your peace of mind. And it's not so much that we do negative things. I mean, we do it. It happens from time to time. We do negative things. But if we redefine those negative things as a positive thing, you know, if you, let's say that you have some dissolute friend who keeps wanting to go out and get drunk, and you're like, hey, man, I worked hard. I deserve a break. I deserve some relaxation. I deserve to have fun, all that kind of stuff.
[17:56] Then you're going to have problems. Because it's the dishonesty with the self, I think. That's key. I think that's the big problem.
[18:17] All right, let's see here. Oh, see, what are the other ones? If you are severely undershooting your own potential, that's a problem. And if you are severely undershooting your own potential, and you're not honest to yourself about it, that's a big problem. It's going to cause you, I think, some significant unhappiness and problems. What else? What do you guys think? Have you ever had this kind of insomnia that comes from not having a sort of very solid sense of, oh, there's some sort of contradictions going on in your brain? Saying that you're happy with your circumstances when you're simply addicted to the familiar. I think that's another one that can be a big problem for people. That's another one that can be a big problem for people. That's right, let me check the various places here.
[19:37] All right, so somebody says, Thanks, Stef, appreciate you. I have recently, and long overdue, increased my donations. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. C2Spark, nice to see you again, says one of the most successful shows, Breaking Bad, premise, was we are one cancer diagnosis away from becoming a violent drug lord yeah yeah i couldn't stand that show i couldn't do it it was too gross too violent um what do you think of guys saying i'm so lucky to have her um yeah that is signaling a kind of uh i think that comes from having a distant mother that you constantly had to race around and try and please and uh have her enjoy your company i think that just comes from that it's very cock behavior i mean i'm lucky to have my wife she's lucky to have me and we both work hard um we don't work hard we have a great relationship we both work hard at virtue and honesty and so we have a very sort of direct and fun relationship um we're lucky to have found each other but i think we both earn and deserve each other as a whole i know that so i think it is a signal to say to the woman um uh i don't know how she's put up with me for so long blah, blah, blah, right? Of course, a woman would not want that. A woman with self-esteem would not want a guy who she has to kind of put up with, deal with, and so on, right?
[21:03] Oh, he says, yes, I've had some of that, very in line with what you're talking about. Yeah. You know, it's hard, if you didn't have parents who are really devoted to you, it's hard to feel that people can really devote themselves to you in the future, if that makes sense. You always feel like a little bit like you're hanging on by a thread that people are putting up with you, that you're kind of tolerated, if that makes sense. And that's not fun. That's no fun. Sorry, just to go back to Breaking Bad and Stanford Prison Experiment and James, the Star Trek show that you talked about.
[21:52] It's a way of eroding social trust. Right, so this sort of mythology of the every single one of us, the devil inside. It's a way of having you look around the world and you don't see normal people. You don't see people with their struggles and average people. You see these like caged demons in middle class, skin suits of vague respectability. And I can turn on you like that, right? I can turn on you like that. And that really does erode social trust. There's a movie, I remember a friend showing it to me. Oh gosh, Dennis Hopper, Dennis Hopper, Karl McLaughlin. I mentioned it a couple of months ago. The show's called Blue Velvet.
[22:49] Isabella Rossellini, and it starts with a guy having a heart attack, and the camera kind of zooms past, the kid's just standing there, the dog is uninterested, and the camera kind of zooms down into the grass, and in the bottom of the grass, underneath the grass is all of the disgusting sounds of the insects all eating each other and fighting with each other and so on, right? And it is this idea that there's this sort of respectable life that people have, but then underneath that, and very quickly underneath that, is this really terrible, predatory, violent, ugly, nasty world. And I mean, Dennis Hopper was a complete psycho and really lobbied hard to get this role of Frank, whatever his name was, because he said, like that guy's me so the idea that everyone is it can be easily possessed and will turn on you on a dime that is a nasty that is a nasty perception to have and you can't really relax you can't trust you can't get a sort of productive or healthy or happy tribe around you you can't do any of that. You just wait for people to turn on you.
[24:13] Now, the counter-argument to that is COVID, where people did kind of turn on each other.
[24:22] Freedomain.com slash donate to help out the show. Very much appreciate that. Very much appreciate your support.
[24:40] All right, let me get back to... There's a great, great question to comment. Thank you. Ah, yes.
[25:03] Charles Murray, did you write something? The Three Laws of Social Programs. I did see world of engineering. It's always a good thing to follow. The human brain can store an almost infinite amount of information, equivalent to about 2.5 million gigabytes. Amazing. I don't know if this is true as a whole, but Brian Rommel wrote, the AI-generated OnlyFans workers are now scheduled to make more than their human workers by 2026, displacing them by sheer numbers of 1,000 to 1. I don't know that that's true. I'm not sure how you would figure that out. I suppose, I mean, isn't the way that OnlyFans works that you can... Oh, somebody says, your post is a fabrication. OnlyFans has strict rules against AI-generated content. He said, that is absolutely not the case. It is rather easy to bypass the rules.
[26:18] So that's interesting. It seems unbelievable, but as far as I understand it, OnlyFans works to some degree, because what you can do is you can text the OnlyFans model and ask it to do stuff, right? And if you do that, then she'd take off your top, hold your hands up in the air and shake him. Was that an old song? So you would instruct the OnlyFans model on what it is you want the OnlyFans model to do, and then she'll do it. But I suppose it's just an AI prompt then at some point, right?
[27:00] But it will be very interesting. It'll be very interesting to see, what happens if AI can spontaneously generate pornographic content based upon user input in real time. Interesting. And if AI does that, then that would liberate more women from this fairly vile line of work, I suppose.
[27:35] So there could be real positives around that.
[27:53] All right. Kurt Schlichter writes, I know the people in Washington, D.C., and the people on Twitter will be really upset by it, but I'm not sure the American people will ever understand why foreigners can charge higher tariffs on us than we charge on them. If you tell an American that Trump is simply matching the tariffs they impose on us, most Americans are going to be happy about it. And what is significant is absolutely no one in this whole frenzy debate has made a case about why foreign countries should have higher tariffs on us than we have on them i've not seen one person make that argument i'd like to know what the argument is if there's one other than, america should just suck it up and take it.
[28:42] So, it's an interesting question. But, of course, all of the people who were instant experts on ivermectin are now instant experts on tariffs. It's pretty wild. There's a guy, a dude's posting their wins, Ws. This guy is staying in a $100 billion development project, and he basically has the entire city to himself because barely anybody lives there. Isn't that wild? It's across from Singapore and there's a few thousand people in this massive area. I remember seeing this sort of ghost stuff that was going on in China, right? Which is you get these malls with like two stores out of like 200 that we're actually running isn't that wild.
[29:48] I mean it is pretty horrible the amount of wasted resources but it's I don't know I'd be curious visiting a place like that, the red-headed libertarian posted this marriage vow from 1450 years ago, i take you to be my wife i hold your cloth you as far as my wealth allows i won't invite the friends for drinking party if you are opposed to it or i'm liable for the penalty fee of 18, solidil solidil that's oh sorry for some reason i thought that was italian um but it's from egypt it's now the british library isn't that funny.
[30:31] It was funny um seeing or interesting was it yesterday i saw a bunch of tweets um and i got to see my old alma mater i graduated with a undergraduate degree in history from mcgill, and it's interesting seeing all the streets i used to walk and now taking over by middle eastern protesters and taking over the buildings and so on it's pretty wild man, now did you know this hit me with a why if you are, um into anime or know much about anime i don't not because there's anything cool about it i just it was not my demographic not my generation really but hit me with a why if you know much or anything about, the exciting world of anime and manga. Anime is the cartoons and manga is the comics? Do I have that right? Is that right? Something like that? I've not heard of Brian Tracy, I'm afraid. I'm not really half by, yeah. So, a bit 50-50. So, this is wild. It's sort of like when you look into how much money video games make compared to movies. It's just insane, right?
[31:58] So, this guy wrote, whether you like it or not, it is undoubtedly a huge success story, what anime has become. In 2024, it produced a whopping estimated $35 billion. For comparison in box office sales, the entire American movie industry generated $8.7 billion in 2024. That's almost four times. At the core of most Japanese storytelling reflected in their anime is honor, courage, friendship, and hard work. Is it a surprise it is poised to surpass the american movie slash tv industry which produces soulless corporate agenda-driven dispassionate degenerate contrived and predictable content the japanese storytelling motto never give up american storytelling motto life is meaningless, that wild, there was of course about a billion memes about this the spectator index wrote Justin the US has imposed tariffs on the Australian territory of Herd and Macdonald Islands which is uninhabited by humans but has colonies of seals and penguins, and what was the joke the penguins are saying you think you can deport us we've been dealing with ice for centuries.
[33:23] Yeah well, of course the reason why you have to include these things is that if you don't include them then people would just set up little shops or corporations there and then be exempt from the tariffs so that's kind of how it works but yeah of course people do find it funny and i get that it's funny, but it's midwit humor, to put it mildly. Somebody wrote, if you were to write out every number, one, two, three, et cetera, you wouldn't use the letter B until you have reached one billion dollars, one billion. That's true. I guess that's true, right? Now, I'm sure you remember me talking about how sort of pretty fake the economy is as a whole in america well most western countries um so this guy wrote uh almost every year since 2008 gdp growth has been negative if you take out increases in government spending and he wrote that's what radical radicalized me very true.
[34:47] I've talked about this before, too, but it always bears reminding. The human body has a second brain in the gut. It's called the enteric nervous system, and it has about 500 million neurons, more than the spinal cord. It actually produces 90% of the body's serotonin, which affects mood. This is why the gut feelings are a literal thing. That's very true. Gut instincts, gut feelings, and so on. Very interesting. Uh kanakoa the great quoted stephen moore who was saying he said our tariffs is the u.s our tariffs are about three to five percent and many other countries are above twenty percent, the u.s does have the lowest tariffs virtually in the world and as trump has been saying these other countries are ripping us off, in 2023 the united states had the lowest trade barriers among g20 nations and imposed lower tariffs the most of them. Trump's right. We don't have free trade and America is getting ripped off. Wild.
[35:59] All right, let me get back to your questions and comments. Can we do a vote on whether we want Stef to watch and review an anime? I'd do that. I'd do that. I'll tell you what, just hit me with some animes. I used to watch Dragon Ball Z. I've never seen an anime. Anime still tells stories western movies etc about the message and subversion yeah true there's nothing organic in western art anymore hasn't been for decades um of robo says i think that the anime motto is actually the series never ends they go on forever good evening james nice to Have you read it? There are strange elements in anime series, but honor loyalty. I remember really enjoying seeing it portrayed. Okay, let me just make some notes of these. We got Attack on Titan.
[37:02] And what's the other one here? Death Note. Death Note, isn't that a movie? Attack on Titan is very violent. Eh. Grave of Fireflies. I used to, when I was a kid, after we moved to Canada, there used to be a show on in the morning from 8.30 until 9.00. I never got to watch the end of it because I had to get to school. Oh, Star Blazers. Star Blazers. Oh, Star Blazers. We're off to outer space to save the human race. Anyway, it was fun. And it was half, I guess it was half anime and half not anime because some of the characters were more realistic and some were less.
[37:51] Yeah, I don't want any, like, sex tentacle stuff. Thank you very much. Yeah, I don't want anything too violent. I don't want anything with this grotesque, you know, squealing Japanese girls being penetrated by weird squid beasts. I don't want any of that nonsense. You know, if you're going to give me, you know, good honor-based and all of that, then give me that, if you could. Thank you.
[38:23] Studio Ghibli films are fantastic. Eh, I know people like them. I think I've only seen Spirited Away. And I watched it on the recommendation of an FDR listener, I don't know, 15 years ago. Found it a little too weird. I watched it again, didn't find it that weird. Maybe I've just become less sensitive to weird. But, yeah. But is that anime? I guess it's anime, right? Okay, what is the definition of anime? What is anime? I don't even know. It's not all Japanese comics, is it? I have heard a lot of references to Tengen Topper Garin Lagan. I think I'm having a stroke. I'm going to make a note of that one too. I might have to ask my daughter. Not that she's at anime, but she might know people who are.
[39:24] Yu-Gi-Oh. Is that anime? That's games too, right? Yu-Gi-Oh. I'll make a note of that. Thanks.
[39:54] Yes, it is an anime. Okay. What do people think about Cowboy Bebop? I've heard of that. It's a space western. Fallout Outlaws might be worth watching a couple of episodes to see what you think. Naruto is another one. Okay. Thank you. Are they hard to get these? Yeah, but Attack on Titan is the violent one, right? Cowboy Bebop is similar to Firefly. Yeah, I was going to say that, right? It does seem that way, right? Cowboy Bebop. Okay, I will check that out. Thank you.
[41:06] Um somebody says my brother was big into naruto follows a group of children through moral and otherwise trials and tribulations all right thank you i appreciate that you can you just sign up for crunchyroll to get most anime crunchyroll all right gets most anime, I will check that out, thank you I assume they have a trial, All right. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you for the link to Yu-Gi-Oh. Yu-Gi-Oh. Yu-Gi-Oh? I'm going to have to look up how to pronounce these things, I assume. Thank you. Oh, that's on Netflix. Okay. I'll check it out. All right. On the topic of products of Japan, have you seen people complaining because the Nintendo Switch 2 is delayed because of the tariffs? Oh, Grave of Fireflies. Yeah, my mother would have been one of those. Well, not in Japan, but in Germany. Same kind of thing. Thank you. That's on Netflix too. Thank you.
[42:34] Somebody says, you can strike your child, but not your dog. Yet you can leave your dog in the car, but not your child. What a confused species humanity is. If we took the love that people have for their pets and put them into our children, we would have a transformed planet, I think. A truly transformed planet. And if you're listening to this later, and you want to suggest an anime, you can just email me, host, H-O-S-T, host at freedomain.com. Akira is a much-loved anime movie. Oh, thank you. All right, appreciate that, thank you. All right, so I'll move on. I've got more than enough, but I appreciate that. Okay.
[43:39] All right. Any other questions, thoughts, issues, challenges, problems? Very much appreciate you guys dropping by tonight. Ghost in the Shell is also a grand daddy anime. Hide in your shell. Thank you. I appreciate that. I'll grab that.
[44:13] Sorry this is a let's see here do you know of alan de baton alan ala de baton of school of life he recently appeared on chris williamson's show and had a marvelous conversation, why does that seem familiar how's the earbuds thing doing um it's it was better earlier today um i did a show on tariffs for donors earlier today and then i put these clamped on headphones so I think it kind of irritated the earbuds. So it's not as good this evening, but it was certainly fine earlier today. So it's, you know, like things, sometimes things, physical things, they improve kind of zigzag, like better, worse, better, worse, but generally, you know, one step forward, two steps back. So it's certainly, yeah, it's certainly better. All right. Somebody writes, the one thing good people could learn from bad people is to just do what they want instead of limiting themselves. like not doing something that isn't harmful just because statism says they need permissions, for example. They are children and need to grow up. Hmm.
[45:21] I'm not sure what that means. Stef, when you did sales on in your software company, what do you think is a reasonable sales rate? One to five percent of companies you reached out purchased. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would say one to five percent is about right. Especially because it was less in the very beginning because we were just starting out. The software that I wrote was new to the field. There was nobody else doing it when we started. So we had to really educate. Um you know if you have software as a service it's kind of people understand it and you're just one of many right like a match three game everybody kind of understands that as a whole they know what they're talking about um but when you have an entirely new software offering, um that's tough that's tough because you have to educate people on that it even exists it's not a market and then you spend a little bit of time building that up and then what happens is larger companies say, oh, if there's a market for this, and they come in with all of their, experienced salespeople and existing customer contracts and all of that. So yeah, it's quite a lot. But yeah, I didn't really do much cold calling. That was generally the job of the salespeople. I was director of marketing, so I created a knowledge of the software space as a.
[46:46] Do the cold calling um i did oh i don't know this is a while ago so what i did was there are databases where you can find out a lot about public companies right all the public companies publish all of their inner profits and losses and income and expenditures and and all of that and so i wrote code to get that from a database and then create um mail outs that would go out to clients that would say you know based upon your expenditures of this this and this based upon on the cost savings that we can provide because of this, this, and this.
[47:18] You know, we can make a very strong business case that our software can pay for itself within 12 to 18 months. And after that, it's pure profit. And I had graphs and charts and everything was just beautiful, beautifully formatted reports that went out to like a thousand different companies. And that was huge. That was huge for us because it really looks, because I had coded it all, it really looked like we had individually prepared a detailed presentation for each company. Now, some of them did quibble with the numbers because those numbers and those databases aren't perfect.
[47:46] But that was a sort of very big thing that I did to raise awareness. And of course, I would go to conferences and I would chat with people and we'd have a little jar, you put your business card in, and then you win an iPod at the end of the day. This is back when they were hard drive iPods. So I did a lot of travel, I presented a lot of places, and I would generally go down and do the presentation of the software when the salespeople had it and then let them hammer out the sort of business details which was not always wise but um yeah you just have to get used it's not really a lot of rejection right you just have to you know think of all of the women that you find unattractive and then you'll understand that there are women who find you unattractive and it's not it's not terrible or bad it's just not a particular type of thing so think of all the people who would love to sell you stuff think of all the emails that come in all the text messages or whatever you've got right so think of all the people that you would like, that would like to sell you stuff, and you say no. So you just have to recognize that you're just trying to find the right fit for people.
[48:54] To really get value out of what it is that you're doing.
[49:02] Um yeah so um in in canada this is back in the day uh there's these things called phase one environmental site assessments so if you're buying some land you want to make sure there wasn't like a battery plant or a gas station or you know something with a lot of pollution because then you buy the land and then you dig down you find a bunch of crap you gotta have it all remediated and and cleaned up and cleaned out so you do this sort of site assessment and our software automated that process to a large degree and then you could figure out whether you wanted the site or not, whether it had, whether there were underground storage tanks there before that you need to remove or even above ground storage tanks sometimes. So whether there were any kind of VOCs, volatile organic chemicals that were used on the site, that kind of stuff, right? So you could have a real portfolio of all of your environmental liabilities and issues, which was very important for legal reasons. And yeah, super fun. Yeah, like a super fun site, right um now of course the superfund sites were um so 80 of the money just went to lawyers didn't even go to clean up love canal you got to look into love canal it's not as i mean it was a very striking name but it's not probably not exactly what you remember the love canal was uh a little over hump over piped over hyped over pumped so to speak see heavy pumping on the love canal So, hey, we're back to AI, AI-only fans.
[50:30] Now, I remember the very first software that I sold. I remember that. It sold for $5,000. It seems like all the money in the world. And so I did $5,000, and then I think one of the later ones was $1.25 million US. So we had some growth we had some growth.
[51:05] And I did a lot of work. I built this whole thing called the Database Builder, where you would go down with the client and you'd say, okay, so what do you want the database to look like? What matches your data? What do we have to integrate with? And I wrote a whole program where the client would fill out spreadsheets or maybe do it online. And then when they had put together all of the changes they wanted to the system, then my code would go and change the system for them change the the data fields the tables the queries the forms the reports the query forms the whole thing it was wild and it would change also everything on the web interface because it was all metadata oh it's just amazing it was a really great great code um let's see here if you were 24 and had ten thousand dollars would you put it towards therapy or towards starting a business?
[52:06] Well, I would say that if I didn't have a business partner, I would put it towards therapy, unless I'd had a pretty good childhood, in which case I would put it towards the business. So there's a lot of variables involved in that. Therapy was really some of the best money I'd ever invested or spent in my life was therapy, Like, no question. Absolutely no question, no doubt. I would not have been able to get married to my wife if I had not gone through therapy. At least I don't think so. So if you had a bad childhood, I think putting some money into therapy is a good idea. Starting a business at 24 without a partner is pretty risky because there's a lot to learn. I didn't start a business. I co-founded a business. I didn't start a business entirely on my own. Oh, I guess this one. That was older. It really depends. Sorry, I hate to say that kind of depends, but it kind of does. If your childhood was okay, I'd put it into the business, but I would wait until I had a partner, somebody who had more experience or at least some knowledge of how to get a business going. And if I had a bad childhood, I would put it into therapy if I were in your shoes.
[53:19] All right. Any last questions? Going once going twice i'm all ears one busy one good.
[53:52] All right, let me just get to any questions. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you guys for dropping by tonight. I'm sorry we're still doing shows less than two or three hours, but things are... Oh, what was the best thing you learned in therapy? The best thing that I learned in therapy was to take my instincts with great seriousness. You know, to peel you apart from your instincts is the fundamental goal of the propagandist, and Lord knows we're surrounded by little bit propaganda these days. So what I learned, the most important thing that I learned in therapy was to take my instincts with great seriousness, is to take my dreams, the gut sense that I was talking about earlier, take yourself very seriously. Take your thoughts, your instincts, your suspicions. It's very easy. All of this language is thrown at us to separate us from our instincts.
[54:43] And, you know, I'm not alert, I'm paranoid, right? I'm not legitimately angry I'm unreasonable, I'm aggressive whatever right you can sort of go through all of this language, but the language that is hacked into us to separate us it's almost like taking a sneaker and sawing the soul off right, but what I learned through therapy was to take my instincts my gut sense my dreams my intuitions are very seriously and that doesn't mean that they're you know trust but verify right.
[55:31] Trust but verify so you know i would trust my instincts i wouldn't just act on them because we're a combination of things right mind body heart soul that kind of stuff right, somebody says i've always felt that when i don't follow my instincts things go wrong Are you ever going to come back to X? Not sure. Somebody says, what do you think of the avenues by which to communicate with your unconscious? Dream analysis, sentence completion, exercise, that sort of thing. What are your favorite such avenues? Dream analysis is very tough to do on your own. So if you've got someone you can talk about it with who's good at that sort of stuff, I think that's really, really helpful. Sentence completion exercises, they can be good as well. Meditation, I think is very good. So just physically relaxing and letting your instincts bubble up can be very helpful.
[56:22] There's a lot of workbooks. I've talked about these before. Nathaniel Brandon has them. John Gray has them. Other people have them. Sort of workbooks to try and figure out what's going on in your unconscious. Very helpful.
[56:35] Somebody says, how can you tell if a therapist is any good? Had one who was encouraging me to stay in touch with a crazy family of origin because, quote, family. Now, I always forget this number. I don't know why I have this bizarre block about it, but let me find it. Let me find it. Let me find it for you.
[56:53] All right I think it's 1927, yes FDR 1927 I'll put the mp3 link here in the chat, um that's my best thoughts my god how old is that show now, uh June 8th 2011, wow almost 14 years ago that's uh, it's a lot of dog years, but yeah so i have a thought on that yeah 19 fdr 1927 how to find a great therapist, i'm trying to think of a great question to keep you live haha thanks again donation imminent all right.
[57:53] I mean yeah it's funny because therapists generally are not moralists, so there's that challenge I think that they'd be better off if they were moralists but, that can cause some significant problems but they're not moralists so I think what you want as a therapist who's really focused on what's best for you and not trying to impose an agenda. I think that's really good. Hey, Stef, do you read Ho Math's tweets? I do. Yeah, he's a doodler and very incisive and bitter. I get it. I mean, I'm not going to criticize him for being bitter because he's obviously a lot younger than I am and I have the love of my life, which I understand is not quite as easy for younger men these days. Well, it wasn't easy for me either. But yes, I have read Homath's tweets, and he's definitely a smart guy. Definitely a smart guy. He has a great intuitive grasp of both female and male hypocrisy.
[58:55] Sorry, people are typing, so I'm happy to take another question or two.
[59:05] People are typing. I can see it. All right. Oh, I missed a couple here.
[59:17] Have you spoken about love bombing and red pilling combined in a new relationship? Thoughts if no? Love bombing and red pilling. I'm not sure what you mean by, I mean, I know what the two terms mean individually, but I'm not sure how that... Yeah hi Stef why do narcissists colloquial engage in smear campaigns, um because they want to protect their territory they want to protect their turf and they want to protect those they're preying upon so they need to keep incisive people who can expose their methods far away from a social group so they will project all of their negative characteristics onto, usually the innocent and accuse them of things that they themselves are doing So it's a form of territorial, right? The narcissists usually have a kind of stable of people that they're exploiting, and they need to keep those with perceptiveness and moral courage away from their victims so they can continue to exploit them. So the smear campaigns are, this person is bad, and to even question that is wrong, and trust me, bro, all that kind of stuff. So it's just a form of maintaining control over the people that are exploiting, if that makes sense.
[1:00:41] Freedomain.com slash donate. But it's not territorial nonsense. It is, I mean, it's very, sorry to be annoying, but it's very serious, serious stuff. It's very serious stuff. I don't know. All right. Thank you very much for the donation. I really, really do appreciate that. Did you read the one about video games and anime? Many angry replies. They remind me of weed addicts when you point out that they are addictive. Oh, thank you. I will have a look at that, let's see.
[1:02:09] Let's see here. Okay, I will read that. It's quite long to go on this as a whole.
[1:02:23] So, I mean, there's a couple of things I really don't like about anime, which is the combination of baby faces with adult female bodies. I find that a little creepy. And again, I'm not saying that's everyone, but that's a lot. How would you decide if it's appropriate to defend yourself against the campaign?
[1:02:50] Well, you know, if people... Usually with the narcissist, you don't notice anything directly. You simply notice a slight diminishment, or maybe a not-so-slight diminishment, of social invitations and positive feedback and curiosity and contact and so on, right? So when you're a victim of a smear campaign, then things just kind of seem to fall away. Things just kind of diminish. You don't get the invites. You don't like people kind of, there's a little bit of sort of closing the walls and maybe somebody will tell you, well, so-and-so said such-and-such about something, right? If you decide to fight, it's going to be extraordinarily volatile I'll just say that straight up I'll just say that straight up because, the Narasist in general views any challenge to control and authority as a battle to the death.
[1:03:57] So, I think you want to say the truth, and those people who care about you will listen to the truth, and they'll make the case, and so on.
[1:04:17] And I would definitely say that it is very volatile. And most people in the world, like 90% of the people, they really, really hate being caught between two opposing moral forces. They hate it. I mean, it's funny because everybody wants to watch movies about this and read stories about this and the heroic and fighting and good and evil and so on. But the reality is that most people are desperate to avoid any kind of moral danger. And in general, it's probably, in my opinion, it's probably not worth fighting for a community, where the smearer, the rumor spreader, where that person has authority and that person has control. It's probably not worth fighting because you're probably just going to lose.
[1:05:24] So I think it's always worth trying to get the truth out. It's always worth getting the truth out, but in general, people, they do like their gossip. And I mean, it's a minor weakness of mine, if that's of any consolation, but people do like their gossip. And one of the ways that the cruel people slowly pull others into doing bad things is that they get them to repeat salacious gossip, which is why you know just almost every conceivable moral system in the universe tells you to avoid gossip like the plague and the reason for that is that when you get involved in gossip and you repeat things that turn out to not be true as that's really what gossip is if it's true it's not really so much gossip it's exaggerated or distorted or something like that but you can't take it back, right? Once you have used your words to create the impression, a negative impression of something or someone in someone else's mind, you can't take it back. At least not without a lot of work and apology and all that kind of stuff. Oof. So.
[1:06:39] Yeah, try to avoid those kind of... I've always been very careful to try and make sure that I don't repeat anything that doesn't seem to be pretty true. I mean, Lord knows. It's happened to me once or twice over the years. But you can defend yourself. It's worth getting the truth out. But for the most part, most people will simply bow to whoever has the most power. Most people will simply bow to whoever has the most power and is the most willing to use it this is why you know bad people kind of run the world and good people, hide like mammals at the feet of dinosaurs, because most people will simply say oh well you're a nice person you're a reasonable person so you're not going to attack me if i disagree with you this person is a very crazy aggressive person so they will attack me if i disagree with them so i'm afraid i'm gonna have to side with them against you, and it's just the way that it is. And until childhood is generally improved as a whole, it's probably going to maintain itself as the standard.
[1:07:55] All right, I think, somebody says I used to think freedom was the most important in life now I realize it is the truth otherwise you end up with fake freedom fake love, fake health, etc yeah Yeah, very true. Very true.
[1:08:20] All right. Well, thank you everyone so much for a lovely evening's chat of philosophy. Have yourself a beautiful, beautiful night. We'll talk to you on Sunday morning. And thank you for all of the people who are showing interest in my new book. I am working hard on it, and I appreciate everybody's thoughts about it. I love writing fiction. It is such a, I mean, it's a challenge for sure, but I really do. I really do love it. And thank you everyone who listened and are really enjoying the new books. The new book, I'll give you guys some more when I'm ready to roll. And freedomain.com slash donate if you'd like to help out the show. Lots of love, everyone. Take care. Have a great night. Bye.
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