Episode Transcript
Speaker0: Hey, what's going on? Welcome to the My Hi-Fi Podcast. I'm Doug Cunnington, and I want to introduce this episode. This one is about stoicism. It's a throwback episode from way back, July 11th, 2023. And what I did here is edited out a lot of the other stuff in the episode, and I just kept what I thought. Were the best parts. So it should be even better than the first time around. And it's been a long time. So even if you listen to it back then, it'll be a fresh take because you've forgotten all the things that we talked about in that episode. And this is back when Carl was still on the show. So a couple of things I want to note, I mentioned it even in the highlight reel
Speaker0: for this episode, but in the beginning of the episode, I mentioned what I maybe try to do. It's one of those classic, do what I say, not what I do. So I do my best with the ideas of stoicism, but sometimes we're tired or sleepy. When I get hungry, I get a little cranky. So we do our best and I want to emphasize that here. There's a couple other highlights that I'm not going to spoil the episode, but other things maybe that I don't even mention in this episode with the highlight reel and the edits and all that stuff. One is around like time and time as a resource. So I feel like one of the biggest things for me is not being in a rush.
Speaker0: As time has passed, even since this episode from 2023, I try to do even less stuff. And it's really awesome. I enjoy it so much. The, I mean, I'm still, I still feel busy. I'm just doing fewer things and things, that created like busyness in my life. I've removed some of those. I still feel like I don't have enough time to do things, but I'm doing a really fantastic leisure activities, like playing the guitar. That's fun i like to walk outside and exercise and those you know just those two things, take a pretty long amount of time i mean i like thinking of guitar like i want to practice more there's a few guitars sitting around me out of the camera frame
Speaker0: you can't even see them if you're watching on youtube, but i'm like i want to play more and it takes time to develop those skills You know, you can't just, brute force do more. You can't, you know, try to practice guitar or any instrument or learn a language, in a really compressed amount of time. You have to put the time in, you reach plateaus, you have to use deliberate practice and kind of push yourself and then, you know, just keep going with it, which it's fun. I enjoy that kind of stuff. But even with that, it's like, I feel like I don't have enough time to do those. But not being in a rush is great.
Speaker0: Classic example for me, when I lived back in Georgia, when I worked and I had a corporate job, I was in the consulting field. So we had project-based assignments. So we worked on projects and you never knew like where in the city you might have to go drive to. So there were times where I was driving like 30 miles each way. So I was driving like 60 miles a day to get to the project. That was way out in the suburbs and I lived in the city and it was just... Not that fun. I mean, that just stressed me out. It was not cool just sitting in the car and wasting whatever, two and a half hours a day or something like that.
Speaker0: Just sitting there. I would listen to podcasts, but I mean, still that is a lot of idle time. So anyway, time wealth is really important. And we mentioned it a little bit in this episode, but mainly being around. It's mainly around like rushing and when people are behind. So I've sort of eliminated most of that. And part of it is just doing fewer things per week. And like each day, I try not to have too many things going on. I don't want to have too many obligations. And if I do, it's because either I screwed up on the scheduling and I'll try to rearrange things or there's something unavoidable that popped up.
Speaker0: The other thing is the sound check for this episode is when Carl and I were talking about writing the book. So I'm gonna put that at the end, like a normal sound check, which I feel is part of the format of the show to have the sound checks. And from my perspective, like when I have a guest come in and literally as a sound check, occasionally things don't work. Usually they do. But it's good to run the sound check, double check, listen, make sure everything's working how it's supposed to. But the other thing, if it's a guest and they don't record all the time, it is a great way just to warm up and get people a little more comfortable,
Speaker0: a casual thing so that they see that it is hopefully not scary. It might still be scary, but hopefully not scary. So yeah, listening to us talk about writing the book before we actually did it, I was like, oh man. Maybe I should write this lazy book. Looking at the analytics over on the productivity is a problem episode, which came out like a month ago and some change or something like that, that was about laziness. That was about anti-productivity. That was like one of the top downloads for the podcast in the last several months. Certainly the top five, especially on the audio side. So it's super interesting.
Speaker0: The audio side typically has more downloads per episode than the video over on YouTube. And it's not the same. So more audio listeners were much more interested in the productivity is a problem episode than over on YouTube. On YouTube, people are like, I wanna be more productive. So it's kind of interesting how the different audiences are interested in different things. So we talked about the book and I was like, maybe I should write that book. We'll see. I think if I do, let me know if you are interested in this. People still ask me about it all the time. And there were a couple of people when we were actively working on it, they said.
Speaker0: Give me the book. Like I, if the book's out, like I will buy it right now. Like I have an issue of like being so productive and I'm trying to get away from it. Like I see the cycle, but they don't have a good way to get out of it. And I'm not sure. Yeah. I'm not, I was like, I want to help you more, but I didn't have anything for them at the time. And the fact that people are interested. So if you are interested, shoot me an email, Doug at milehighfi.com, or you could leave a comment over on YouTube. That was a side quest as far as the intro here. But stoicism, the other thing that I'll mention is I still, I reached overload
Speaker0: capacity with some of the stoicism stuff. So when I first started listening to, I think it was the Tim Ferriss podcast and Ryan Holiday was a guest. I was really into it back in those days, which I can't remember, call it 2015 or so. So for 2015 to maybe like 2018, I was very interested whenever I saw Ryan Holiday was on a podcast, I would definitely listen. I read a couple of his stoic books, which I believe we reference and or at least parts of the book but overall i think i i reached uh some capacity. Like personally and i was like okay i i think i've had enough of this i think i overload i get very interested in something and then i overdo it i over consume,
Speaker0: which is exactly the same with like caffeine and alcohol. Luckily, those are decent vices. That alcohol so much. Caffeine can get you into trouble, but alcohol much more. Anyway, I tend to enjoy things and then do a tiny bit too much, but then I can like self-moderate. Luckily, I don't have a super addictive personality. So a little overconsumption because it's like, it's pretty fun. Like if I have one coffee, maybe two coffees is better. three that's too much right that's a little too many for me, but anyway reach to capacity on the stoicism stuff and i think i i've taken what was working for me at the time things are still working,
Speaker0: it's not that i can't learn more it's just i think i got what i needed at the time i'm still coasting uh and it's still working fairly well so i hope you enjoyed the episode, and you could, of course, if you have any questions for Carl, actually you could send them in. I think we're going to record before too long. So if you have some questions, you want to catch up with Carl and yeah, I'll see you on the other side.
Speaker1: Yeah, I sprung this up on Doug like an hour ago. So this is, I know our recordings are usually really, really thoughtful and professional sounding and put together. But if this one isn't quite so much, That's why you can blame me for it. So I guess I'll tell a little bit of a story. I was reading the YouTube comments, which is probably something most people should never do. And I think I talked about this commenter a couple episodes ago. She is not nice. She is a troll, but good for her because I think most trolls are men. So good for her for breaking the gender barrier. I think her name was like Raccoon
Speaker1: Mom 69 or something like that. So maybe she isn't a female. Maybe it's a male posing as a female. That's probably actually what it is. But anyway, she was like, Doug, I feel so bad for you that you have to record with Carl. Like him and Mindy suck. Like her podcast sucks and Carl sucks. Like, oh man, that's pretty rough. I don't mind getting criticism. But when they just say things like that, it kind of hurt me a little bit. But then I started thinking like, why is this person hurting me? They could be typing this out from their, it's probably some 16 year old dude from their mom's basement or some shit like that. Why would you let a random person borrow you?
Speaker1: And then I started thinking, I'm like, well, Doug wouldn't react like this. And I was thinking about the conversation we had, I think, a week or two ago, how when you say people insult you, you thank them for it. Yeah. You turn around and make it a compliment. Do you want to explain that real quick?
Speaker0: Yeah. And I think it kind of started as maybe a bit of a joke. I think like my wife elizabeth would say she wasn't saying anything mean but she would say something like ah is that the shirt you're gonna wear something not exactly that but like is that the shirt you're gonna wear, and i'm like oh yeah like thanks for noticing appreciate it and then just like treat it as a positive thing so i started to apply it, to a lot more things so if i if a comment is unclear i will still treat it as, compliment right so i'm like, i'll take anything even an insult and i'm like ah thanks thanks for noticing like you took time out of your day to say something to me even if it was negative,
Speaker0: so that said if you want to leave any reviews out there on itunes or if you want to comment even if it's negative you know that's cool you took some time out of your day to tell us what you thought, so so yeah i don't i don't know and then at some point i was like yeah i'm going to treat everything like it's a compliment even if it's clearly an insult.
Speaker1: Okay, so the real long-term, the introduction to this show is, I'm going to try to get a little bit into Doug's head. And stoicism comes to mind, I don't know if you would consider yourself a stoic, but we'll talk about that. Another thing you've said, which I frequently think about, is you say, I'm not sensitive. This doesn't bother me or whatever. Have you always been that way? And if so, would you consider yourself a Stoic? Have you studied Stoicism? I guess we've got the Daily Stoic right here on the table.
Speaker0: So yeah and then i have like the daily stoic journal so i um think for a pretty long time at least you know for a lot of my adult life i have been like not sensitive, probably you know a portion of it is like being emotionally unavailable and it's actually an issue, uh so you know that's the reality of it but at the same time it's just like, we have a choice right you could take everything personally and we probably know people that, they take like the news personally they take like comments they hear like on the radio or just they take everything personally even if it is clearly not directed at them,
Speaker0: they are making it an issue for no reason so we have a choice to like make things personal or not, and generally especially like with you carl or like other friends of mine like generally, you're telling me something to help me you're not intentionally like trying to hurt my feelings or something so, i shouldn't be sensitive about it i want to know. More information especially if it's like coming externally because then maybe that could help me out in the future right i have to filter it you know sometimes you have bad ideas carl so i have to filter these things but, overall like i have a choice like i could take it personally make it like i
Speaker0: could be defensive which i am defensive sometimes especially like if you ask elizabeth, yeah i will take things personally often with her but, on a grander scale and everyone's like personal relationships are different right, but on a grander scale i will try to make sure like i take the information i try to like, be detached from my emotional mind or whatever so i can look at it and try to logically do something with it or not. Your other question, do I consider myself a Stoic? I think at one point I was like really trying to be more Stoic, but at some point, like many things that I do, I overconsume.
Speaker0: So I really like Ryan Holiday too, and I have the Daily Stoic, and I have the Daily Stoic Journal, which I bought when it came out, and I actually gave it to my brother-in-law too. So I like bought a couple copies for myself and then I gave him some same deal for Christmas. I don't know if he did anything with it. Shout out to Matt. But at some point I like listened to too many podcasts and I was inundated with all this stoic bullshit. And I was like, I've had enough. I think I generally have the point, which this, all this is not very stoic, right? What I'm saying right now, but I'm like, I've had enough and I don't want to
Speaker0: hear like all this stuff. I don't need like a daily email fucking reminding me like I get enough emails like I don't need more reminders on this stuff I was trying to you know work through the journal with the written you know handwritten stuff, so I would say I don't really consider myself stoic currently but when you asked me today I was like oh yeah and you read a couple definitions I'm like yeah I think probably.
Speaker1: Okay so I want to unpack something you said a moment ago because I've actually seen this in action, you said you interpret all criticism the same, no matter if it's eloquently put and they're trying to be nice about it or if they're trying to be a total asshole. You interpret it kind of the same, right? That's kind of what you said. Yep.
Speaker0: That is the goal. I try to do my best. So keep that in mind. I mean, this is not an ideal situation by any means. But yeah, that's what I try to do.
Speaker1: Okay. So I remember, we both remember after we interviewed Pete, there was one email that showed up in our inbox and most people are positive, but this person was not. And He was not nice about it. He's like, yeah, I heard your Pete interview. And, well, I didn't expect Tim Ferriss. I didn't expect you to be as horrible as you were. Like, this was totally, like, it was going off. He was.
Speaker0: It was mean.
Speaker1: Yeah, he was mean. He was not happy. And I wasn't going to respond. I think I forwarded it to you because I check it a little bit more than you. And I wasn't going to do anything. And then you said, do you mind if I respond? I'm like, no, go forward. And you said something like, how could we have been better? Or what should we have asked him? And then after that, he became like a normal person. Like this transformation. He's like, oh, yeah, I'm sorry. I was a little bit harsh. Here is what I really wanted to hear, and here's what I would have asked if I could be doing it so. I'm not sure why he felt the need to open with being so harsh,
Speaker1: but it was pretty interesting to see you react just without emotion. It'd be nice about it and try to see if there's anything valuable to get out of it and then you opened up it was a normal better adjusted person remember that
Speaker0: Yeah yeah and it was so i had i had two two main thoughts when i got the email, and i was like i like we prepared a lot for that one we talked about it for a while and i was like ah shit did we did we do a bad job like i remember We had a good time. Pete had a good time. And usually those two things like that will make an interview good, even if the topic areas are not interesting to the person. I thought, ah, did we screw this up? And then the other thing is like, I want to find out. So I asked the specific, I kept it short. I think recently we talked about, you know, emails that, that I send sometimes. Right.
Speaker0: So I kept it short and I was like, I didn't quickly understand if he replies back. I'll quickly understand if this guy has a point or if he's full of shit. He's probably having a bad day or whatever, right? The simple question was like, what would you have done? What could we have done better, right? Or two parts, right? He just had a different opinion. He wanted us to ask the normal questions. Actually, Mindy and Scott interviewed Pete around the same time, and they asked the typical five type questions. But we weren't interested in that. We didn't we didn't care. We didn't want to ask those same questions.
Speaker0: Um, that said, Mindy and Scott's interview was pretty good. I listened to it and it was like, Oh, it's cool to get a little update on what's going on in that topic area, but it's not what we wanted to talk to Pete about. So when, when you saw the email, yeah, I think you were like, uh, I'm just not going to respond after hearing me answer, like any thoughts on like, if we get other emails like that, like what how would you start doing that.
Speaker1: I thought you handled it real well and actually when i got the nasty youtube comment i i did respond i'm like well how how could i be better and and they never responded and that kind of puts the pressure back on them and maybe that's what it did to that person made him rethink his initial volley
Speaker0: And like i said i mean i've i've gotten some that were even worse where they're literally like, fuck you i hate you and stuff and i'm like you signed up for the email list like you asked to get the email so you could like just unsubscribe like why are you wasting my time and yours like, this is crazy yeah um but i that people that do that they're probably having a bad day and i i actually i need to thank uh ramit because in some of the emails that he sent out or maybe social media or something but he, um says that he'll reply back something like hey what's going on and just like see how they reply back and usually people will completely fold they're like i'm really sorry.
Speaker0: They think it's going to a black hole and no one reads the email. And ignoring it is totally fine. But I was like, ah, I'll engage a little bit. It's somewhat amusing to me. It could actually help the person out if they're like, oh, someone is on the other side. They're listening to whatever. And I'm like, hey, do you have any issues going on or whatever? Kind of like that. Yeah.
Speaker1: One other thing, back to a serious note, I was listening to Jocko recently and he was The point is if someone insults you and it hurts you, you have to consider that it might be true. Why else would you internalize it and think about it like that? So maybe, well, again, maybe they didn't deliver it the right way. Maybe that's an opportunity for you to work on something and they've pointed out something to you that you might not have realized.
Speaker0: Yes. And that's something, you know, YouTube comments can be pretty treacherous. There's a lot of garbage in there. I don't pay too much attention, but I do look and occasionally... Just like Jocko said, and the point you're making, Carl, when there's like the nugget of truth in there, those are the ones you're like most resistant to. So as I mentioned earlier, and we emphasize, like I try to detach and I try to look at the core of what it is. So even if some criticism, some negative criticism comes in, I try to shift it into something constructive, especially if I resist and react negatively. I'm like okay is there something i could fix and there have been times where
Speaker0: i'm like oh you're i wanted to be defensive and tell the person why they were wrong but then i you know wait a little bit maybe come back in a day and i'm like you're right i can fix this in future episodes or whatever future videos or something like that, and yeah those are the hardest ones because we want to like say the person's wrong but it's like, they're right they're 100 right and i have to do something with it yeah is that that's pretty tough but how do you react when when someone is right on the money, and you're being defensive.
Speaker1: I'm getting better at it but i used to be more defensive and actually i wish very few people will give you even in the most polite way most people will not give you criticism they'll be like the midwestern ice oh yeah you're doing great when maybe you didn't i'd And I'd much rather have someone say, hopefully in an eloquent way, that, hey, I think you should be working on this or I saw you do this and I think there might be some issues there. What can I help you with? So I've gotten better. I used to be more defensive, I guess. But yeah, if you're super defensive, I think you have some issues with yourself
Speaker1: too. You're probably insecure and you've got some shit to work on. So just no matter, regardless of what they said, if you jump to a point of defense, you have some work to do on yourself right there.
Speaker0: Mm-hmm. Do you consider yourself like a stressed person or anxious or do you have anxiety or anything like that?
Speaker1: I used to, not so much anymore.
Speaker0: Okay. Was that because like your work has changed or just you've gotten away from it?
Speaker1: There's been different levels of it, but the most recent one is actually fairly recent. I don't like when my life, I don't know, there might be a term for this like box card when you have one event right after the other and you're rushing from thing to thing. I hate that. So if I have to pick up my kid at three, I used to leave like at 250. I'd be late, have to wait in this big long line. A much better way to do it, I found, is to leave at 220 and bring a book with her. Just I park the car and go for a walk. I actually get to stop by school security all the time because I think I'm some creeper like walking around the school.
Speaker1: I know the security people now and they let me do it. Life used to be so packed with shit that that would give me anxiety and stress. And I just, it might not even be primary anxiety. It's not anxiety over the task itself. It's just a secondary mental effect of being so busy that you don't have any time for yourself. And that just stresses me out on some deep level. But now that that's gone, I feel a whole lot better. And I feel like the weight has been lifted, but pretty recently, like the past couple of weeks, actually.
Speaker0: Well, and that's the thing that I noticed with you. And I, I hate that. It's just like being too busy. I don't know the exact word, but you're, you just like, you have too much shit in your schedule and it's like, you're always going to be late because, um, that you specifically, but like a person will be late if you like make your schedule based on like the best case scenario of like travel time or whatever. Because whatever you think it is it's not going to be the like the best case scenario you're going to get stopped at a light there's going to be some slower people in front of you funny thing i was driving uh just in our neighborhood here,
Speaker0: i was going kind of i'm not i'm usually not in a hurry i was going kind of slow it's like six in the morning i was going to go grab a coffee right so i'm driving around and someone was like speeding up to the roundabout so i like kind of was slow because i didn't know if they were going to blow through, anyway so i'm in there they end up behind me and i'm like driving slow through a pretty big parking lot at a strip mall kind of area, and eventually i park i go into lowe's like i do later in the day with uh georgie the dog and one of the employees was like oh did i see you in the red truck today,
Speaker0: yeah that's me did you see georgie too she was like, yeah you almost made me late for work and i'm like if you're running that close you, It's not my fault you're almost late for work. Like, fucking leave earlier. I was driving, like, whatever, five miles an hour in the parking lot like you're supposed to, you know. But I do feel slightly bad. I need to get those student driver magnets like you have, Carl. Put it all over my truck so people are a little more patient with me. They're like, oh, this guy's doing his best. Fucking 40-year-old, you know, student driver. You know, we'll cut him some slack. But anyway, the point is that person should just leave to get to work
Speaker0: a little bit earlier. Yeah.
Speaker1: So two points. One thing I really enjoy doing now is driving slow. If there's, I don't do it when there's someone behind me, but often I'll drive like five or 10 under the speed limit, like on the highway at 75, I'll just go like 70 or 65. It feels pretty good. I don't know why, if it's a causation or correlation thing that I now have the luxury of time, but I really enjoy that. But to back up a second, I feel like I hijacked your question. You asked me if I had anxiety. Were you going to make some other point there or?
Speaker0: Well, and I was just thinking like, do the ideas of stoicism like help relieve stress or anxiety? Because, you know, some people maybe have anxiety about things which they cannot control. Right. And I've let go of a lot of that stuff and I just don't think about it. You know, it's just, I'm like, I can't control it. I'll just handle what I have some influence over and not worry about the other stuff. Super simple example. I have a friend who checks the weather all the time for stuff that's way out in the future, like a week or two, right? It's just not accurate. And shout out to our friend, Kristen, the meteorologist. They do a great job out there.
Speaker0: But it's just, it's a little inaccurate. And like the person stresses over like future plans. It's like, you're going to do the thing that you're planning on anyway. It's going to rain or not. You literally can't control it. Yes. Look at the weather like a day or two before so that, you know, like, Hey, we shouldn't go hiking today. It's going to storm. Or do you need to bring an umbrella, bring the right gear or whatever. But like at some point it's just too much. And you obviously you can't control the weather. You're just going to deal with whatever is going to happen.
Speaker1: Yeah, that's totally true. You think of all the angst in the country now over presidents and stuff like that, and we don't talk about politics, so we're definitely not going to talk about that. But it cracks me up how much that bothers people because no matter who's president, it probably doesn't have that much effect on your daily life. I know Pete has said this too, if you really care, look at local policy and vote for local politicians because that's going to have a direct effect on your day-to-day life. We're a national one, despite what they do and how much you might hate whatever they're doing. It's really not going to affect you that much.
Speaker1: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker0: Yeah.
Speaker1: One other thing I think about is that 4,000 Weeks book, he talks about how insignificant we are. And I think this may or may not be a stoic principle, so tell me if it is or not. But once you acknowledge that, like nothing we're doing is really going to matter. I mean, nothing we do today is going to matter anytime soon. And the best, greatest thing we do in life is going to be forgotten probably soon after our death or maybe even during our life. So if you acknowledge that you're insignificant, then who gives a shit? It doesn't matter. Find your happiness today. And if you're nothing, then there's nothing that people can throw at you that should be able to hurt you. Yeah.
Speaker0: Yeah. Yeah, another great book. I don't know specifically, like I said, I currently I'm kind of out of the stoic mindset specifically, but it does make some sense. And I do think about like our insignificance generally. And like you mentioned, even the best thing that we do is probably going to be forgotten. Even people we know may not even know that we did this thing that was so great, right? And then in whatever, a few years after we die, like hardly anyone's going to remember us. So yeah, fairly nihilistic, I think. I referenced that in some previous episode, I think. And it's just, it's somewhat dark,
Speaker0: I think, if you look at it in a certain light, but also it's freeing.
Speaker1: Yes.
Speaker0: And it's like, ah, you know, like do the best each day that you can. And then, you know, move forward, try to get a little better. Don't make the same dumb mistakes or whatever. Yeah, 4,000 weeks.
Speaker1: To build on that, if you look at happiness research, it doesn't come from external circumstances. So if you're looking for external validation or on the flip side, if you let things upset you, that's bad. And that's not where your internal, that's not where real happiness comes from. Yeah. The inner versus outer scorecard.
Speaker0: And yeah i'm curious for you carl how much do you look for like the external validation and i'll buy you some time here so, one thing that i've realized in the last i don't know even just couple weeks or so so i have this other youtube channel it's just under my name doug cunnington, and i haven't been looking at analytics as much, and i'm like oh it's a little more fun the thing is when you look at analytics or you know maybe your blog traffic or your social media like we don't fuck around with social media either it's just not my thing i don't care, the more time i spend in it i'm like i see it's more of a waste of time and
Speaker0: you're looking for the external validation from some tech company that's trying to like get you hooked on using their app which is a complete waste of time, so like when i start peeling it back i'm like i don't give a fuck about the analytics like especially if we're trying to create something we're talking about writing a book right we need to like shut out all this noise and like focus on this thing that we're looking at, yes we'll need to get other opinions but like the from you know analytics, it's just not interesting to me anymore and i think the more i pull away from it like the more fulfilling like the work that i'm doing or the creative uh.
Speaker0: The creative products that I'm generating and delivering, they're going to be better because I'm not looking at analytics and catering to like really pandering to like the YouTube algorithm or whatever. Any thoughts on that?
Speaker1: Yeah, that's probably the most important life advice you can give. I talk about the Tim Urban blog post all the time, why you should stop caring what other people think. Oh yeah. If you think about the people who really do great things in life, Like Pete, he's a pretty big deal. He doesn't give a shit what the hell anyone else thinks. He does what he thinks and says what he thinks, and that's pretty much it. And I think that's how... Probably most of the great minds throughout history have worked. They're not going to seek that validation. They're going to have a strong voice. And whether it's a good voice or bad voice, they're going to change some shit.
Speaker1: Once you start looking for opinions on other people, you're just going to water from other people. You're just going to water yourself down and be some shittier, lesser version of yourself.
Speaker0: Thanks for listening to the episode. I don't think we gave any kind of advice in this one. But just to be sure, it wasn't financial, legal, or, you know, advice on how to live your life or anything like that. It was just some stories we were telling and things that work for us. Consult your own professionals. If you like the show, leave a review over on, you know, Apple Podcasts is probably one of the best places to do it. Or other places, if you're not into leaving a review, then you can subscribe, you know, check that out. You're probably subscribed if you're, if you've made it this far, you probably subscribe, but tell a friend, um, if you think I should be on other
Speaker0: shows, that could be cool. Let those other hosts know to invite me. Maybe you could send an intro email, something like that. I don't know. I appreciate you listening and you can check out the sound check now. Carl, we're going to start working on writing a book and I'm pretty pumped about it. We have, we have a lot of, a lot of like preparation to do, but one cool thing, we're planning on doing a, uh, kind of a writer's retreat. So excuse for us to go out to the mountains, kind of get out of our normal atmosphere and stuff like that. So number one, I wanted to double check. We're doing three nights, right? So we said, yeah.
Speaker1: That sounds great.
Speaker0: Okay. I'm going to book something like today and then, you know, you could always cancel within 24 hours so i'll send it to you make sure the dates are good all that kind of shit um but one thing that i know for myself, is especially this type of work of writing i know i'll probably only be able to write about four good hours a day something like that max um, and it's kind of funny because like you know back in corporate jobs you do eight hours a day or 12 or i had a manager who was like, yeah, I'm working like 80 hour weeks. And I'm like, that's bullshit. Like either you're sitting around a lot,
Speaker0: like you might be on calls for 80 hours, but you're definitely not thinking about work for 80 hours. That's another story for a different time. But my question to you is for writing that type of focus and what we're going to be doing, how much time do you think you'll work per day? Like, do you have a greater capacity or is like four hours of good writing about all you want to do?
Speaker1: Yeah, I think four hours sounds like a pretty good number, but even worse than you, I need lots of breaks in between with creativity. Sometimes I'll I can't just sit there and write sometimes off to write, off to think about something, and then I'll have to go for a walk and plant the seed and then go for a walk and see where my brain takes it to or have a conversation with you. I actually, when we were recording yesterday, I had like two or three chapter ideas, so I don't think I can even just sit there and write for that amount of time. I might sit there and write for 20 minutes and then go for a walk or listen
Speaker1: to a song while I go for a walk and then come back and write some more. So it'll probably i'll probably be writing throughout the course of a day but for a over a very long period of time like maybe get some shit done at 6 a.m and then still be working at it at 10 with a lot of free time in between
Speaker0: Okay excuse me yep that i'm pretty much the same way like i can, i can do a little bit longer like maybe a 90 minute chunk um but about, 50 50 minutes to an hour it's kind of ideal get up walk around take a break play guitar for a minute, um like you said kind of early in the morning too it's like my my brain's really fresh a lot of good ideas maybe a quick walk and then like a 20 30 minute walk then work for a little while and then another break you know a longer hike for a couple hours we can go separate we can go together there's plenty of places to hike which is a cool thing and, then i'm usually i'll probably be done doing any of that kind of stuff by,
Speaker0: much time something like that so front part of the day is really good maybe some editing and stuff like that later but i figure you know we'll we'll go outside and like, whatever hike or take a couple hours off in the afternoon to do something um When you say 10, did you mean 10 in the morning or 10 at night?
Speaker1: Yeah, I bet starting pretty early, but then maybe I'll have some ideas late at night and be writing those down.
Speaker0: Gotcha. Okay. Cool. That'll be good. I think, yeah, there's only so many hours you could focus on. And then you need to let your brain rest and do some other stuff.
Speaker1: Yeah, I think it's good to at least, when I talk to you, when I'm probing you, Doug, I'm actually, a lot of times I'm riffing ideas and I come up with a lot more shit or you help me open up stuff. So I see us writing a little bit and then me maybe talking about what I wrote and hearing what you have to think. And then that might send me in another direction or have me add a bunch of shit to what I've already done. And we'll have a beer like in the middle of the day because we can.
Speaker0: Yeah. How about weed? Are we going to do a lot of weed?
Speaker1: That just puts me to sleep. I've tried edibles. Well, I guess when you let me try, I think that one was a little bit better, but I only tried it at the one time. But usually when I do edibles, I'm knocked out. Yeah.
Speaker0: I haven't been partaking. Actually, I need to get in touch with JD, our friend JD Roth. He and i did a couple episodes together and he was like i'm i'm uh abstaining for a little bit and uh it's been good and i i like, i stopped right around like when he told me we had a couple conversations couple off the record and i was like shit i'm gonna stop and i haven't had any since last year i think okay well um but, yeah and i was gonna say i think i was partially a crutch to like maybe help me sleep a little bit better and, i sleep awesome now because of the chili nice i think that's the thing that made the biggest difference so anyway i'm looking forward to it we'll book this
Speaker0: stuff we'll we'll spend some time out in the mountains and then maybe a secondary trip too we'll see, we'll see what we can carve out in the fall too yeah.
Speaker1: That's cool we're actually supposed to go for a hike and the main reason i uh well it's shitty weather anyway but I canceled on you because I want to work on the book. I've got all these random notes written down and I want to start bringing it together into something more cohesive. So that's what I'll be working on after I leave here.
Speaker0: Nice.
