Ever felt like your thoughts aren't entirely your own? Strap in as we journey through the maze of media manipulation and societal division, all while dissecting Tom MacDonald's "Brainwashed" and its haunting commentary on the state of our society. We'll reflect on the power of propaganda, the importance of honoring our soldiers versus cultural events, and how labels can divide us. I'll also share my personal insights on Rolf Dobelli's "The Art of Thinking Clearly," guiding us through a mental cleanse for a more critical analysis of the world we navigate every day.
Life has a way of throwing curveballs, and this episode isn't shy about sharing them. From financial struggles to the simple pleasures of baking with family, I open up about the highs and lows on my own path to personal growth. We'll peel back the layers on beginner's luck and how early success breeds overconfidence in various fields, examining the thin line between chance and skill. And through my candid anecdotes about door-to-door sales gone awry and investment choices made amidst cognitive dissonance, we learn the valuable lessons of humility and the power of critical self-reflection.
As we wrap up, we confront the gripping phenomenon of cognitive dissonance head-on, especially within the buzzing realms of cryptocurrency and NFTs. I share stories that illuminate our struggle to justify conflicting beliefs, bolstered by historical experiments that reveal how this mental tug-of-war affects our choices. We'll also chat about the seductive trap of hyperbolic discounting and the role of decision fatigue in our daily lives. My aim is not just to inform but to challenge you to think critically, recognize biases, and hold facts in higher regard than feelings in an age where controversy is the norm. Join us for a thought-provoking session that's as real as it gets.
FYI OUTRO
Ever felt like your thoughts aren't entirely your own? Strap in as we journey through the maze of media manipulation and societal division, all while dissecting Tom MacDonald's "Brainwashed" and its haunting commentary on the state of our society. We'll reflect on the power of propaganda, the importance of honoring our soldiers versus cultural events, and how labels can divide us. I'll also share my personal insights on Rolf Dobelli's "The Art of Thinking Clearly," guiding us through a mental cleanse for a more critical analysis of the world we navigate every day.
Life has a way of throwing curveballs, and this episode isn't shy about sharing them. From financial struggles to the simple pleasures of baking with family, I open up about the highs and lows on my own path to personal growth. We'll peel back the layers on beginner's luck and how early success breeds overconfidence in various fields, examining the thin line between chance and skill. And through my candid anecdotes about door-to-door sales gone awry and investment choices made amidst cognitive dissonance, we learn the valuable lessons of humility and the power of critical self-reflection.
As we wrap up, we confront the gripping phenomenon of cognitive dissonance head-on, especially within the buzzing realms of cryptocurrency and NFTs. I share stories that illuminate our struggle to justify conflicting beliefs, bolstered by historical experiments that reveal how this mental tug-of-war affects our choices. We'll also chat about the seductive trap of hyperbolic discounting and the role of decision fatigue in our daily lives. My aim is not just to inform but to challenge you to think critically, recognize biases, and hold facts in higher regard than feelings in an age where controversy is the norm. Join us for a thought-provoking session that's as real as it gets.
FYI OUTRO
Thank you. Lives, white lives, which lives mean most. We only dedicate one day to remember our fallen soldiers, the men and women who died young. But if you come out the closet, it's caitlin jenner, you're a hero and you get a whole pride month.
Speaker 2:The most dangerous pandemics. Propaganda from these clowns. Only mass is gonna save us. This duct tape on their mouths don't speak. We don't need to deform police. Need to deform the media. Who lies through their teeth like big pharma doesn't cure you dog, cause every patient that gets cured is a customer lost and Big Oil runs the world. The only wars to get fought are with the countries who have natural resources they want.
Speaker 2:Heard him claiming if a white man braids his hair and likes rap, he's appropriating culture. But if a white man acts too white, he's white trash, he's a racist, he's a bigot, he's a monster. Let's just have the conversation. Not every liberal is dumb, not all Republicans are racist. The government wants everybody fighting with their neighbors, cause they know that if we get along, we'll probably go against them. They can't stop us, cause we're ready to fight, trying to brainwash us, but we won't let freedom die.
Speaker 2:The whole world's brainwashed.
Speaker 2:Everybody pick a team, start a riot in the streets. The whole world's brainwashed. It's us against them and you against me. How did monkeys become people and people turned into sheep? They put fluoride in the water. That's keeping us all asleep, claiming what was best for us. I find it hard to believe because they've been selling us cigarettes since since we was 18.
Speaker 2:Fake news, fake woke, distracting divide. You're either right or you're left, or you're black or you're white. Big tech don't need a microchip to hack in your life, cause the phone inside your pocket is a tracking device and I don't know what I'm on. Sick of Rappers or Joe Biden looking like he ate a hundred Xanax for dinner, cause censoring the president and kicking him off Twitter is a bigger threat to freedom than foreign ballistic missiles. You don't trust the police or the government, but you want people giving up the right to own a firearm. Why would you be comfortable in police and the government, the only people on the planet with the right to buy a gun? White privilege getting amplified to reinforce division. It convinces white people that they're favored by their skin and black people getting angry cuz they're told they're treated different. So the conflict is between us and never with the system. Let's just have the conversation. Not every liberal is dumb, not all Republicans are racist. The government wants everybody fighting with their neighbors because they know that if we get along, we'll probably go against them. They can't stop us, cause we're ready to fight Trying to brainwash us, but we won't let freedom die. The whole world's brainwashed Everybody. Pick a team, start a riot in the streets. The whole world's brainwashed. It's us against them and it's you against me.
Speaker 2:Step one train the people only to consume. Step two infiltrate adults with the news. Step three indoctrinate the children through the schools and the music and the apps on the phones that they use. Step 4, separate the right from the left. Step 5, separate the white from the black. Step 6, separate the rich from the poor. Use religion and equality to separate them more. Step 7, fabricate a problem made a lie. Step 8, put it on the news every night. Step 9, when people start to fight and divide, take control. This is called situational design. They can't stop us, cause we're ready to fight trying to brainwash us, but we won't let freedom die. The whole world's brainwashed everybody. Pick a team, start a riot in the streets. The whole world's brainwashed. It's us against them and you against me.
Speaker 4:This is another Tom and Donald song for the start of the space today. Welcome to Bamboo Book Time, everybody. We're talking about the art of thinking clearly and because the song is called Brainwashed, you know, I figured it was a good song to play. When we're talking about trying to think clearly, um, I think, uh, even though brainwash means you've been basically uh indoctrinated into an ideology or whatever, I think that uh, the majority of society actually needs to have a brainwash, in essence, and clean their brains out so that they can uh think clearly. So that's kind of why I tied that one in with the the space and obviously, tom mcdonald.
Speaker 4:Um, he's trying to get people to think a little bit more critically. Obviously, he's trying to play both sides of the coin. He's not trying to um say one side's better than the other, and he's trying to get people to understand that and realize that. So, um, one of the funny things about him is doing some research on him myself. He's actually Canadian, um, and a lot of his songs has to do with America. So, uh, he, obviously he lives in the U? S right now, but uh born in Canada and um, just just interesting facts that uh, here's a Canadian who's being more controversial in the States than I think a lot of people in the states are nowadays.
Speaker 4:So, um, yeah, just uh interesting um subject matter. I think he all his songs tend to sound very similar, but obviously he's, um, like I said, trying to help people try and think a little bit clearer and critically think on stuff. So, um, but yeah, we're, we're talking about uh rolf dobelli's book, the art of thinking. Clearly, I think we left off the last space on uh like 54 ish somewhere around there um, so we're going to try and cover as many as we can today, while also trying to uh dive deep into them and not uh skip over stuff. So welcome to our book club.
Speaker 3:Welcome, welcome. Thank you, Sparky. I just tossed out an invite for co-host. Let's get Dem Reese a little invite for a co-host. We got Dem Reese up here at the start and we got to give him a co-host spot. Congratulations and welcome to the co-host spot, Dem Reese. How are you, my man? Hopefully we got Dem Reese with us. You there, Dem Reese? How are you, my friend?
Speaker 5:What's up? What's up? Doing good, doing good. I'm just I'll share with you relaxing my body for tomorrow.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. Congrats on the new work, right.
Speaker 5:Yeah, bro, definitely. And to be honest, it's not the one that I wanted, but it's the one that presents itself at the moment. So I'm gonna work with, work with it until I am finally in the government section section, you know. I mean, so that's what I'm working on, bro. After that it's strictly up from there. I mean so yeah, let's go I love it.
Speaker 3:I love it. Thanks for being here with us. I'm I'm excited to get uh, any and all thoughts from anybody about this content. I'll be honest, though uh, I really like hearing sparky's thoughts on these, and he's taking it upon himself a bit to to really make us review this content. I'm so thankful, so I'm excited to get to the book content itself. I want to just catch up with everyone in their lives as well. There's only a couple of us, so I think we got an easy opportunity to get to the content. But real quick, sparky. How are you doing? How's life?
Speaker 4:life, my friend life's um okay, uh, obviously I'm still um still struggling over here as far as financially and work-wise, but uh got a got a few job opportunities, hopefully, uh, not opportunities, but uh applications in the works, so just um seeing those go. One could take a couple of years to get through the process. Um, the other one is, uh, you know, it could take a week or two. So, um, I still have to sit down and do the other one, but um, uh, you know, some something might happen, who knows? Um been been doing a lot more of my uh experimenting in the in the kitchen. Um, I don't know if I explained to you that um, my oven was broken for the longest time and um a couple weeks ago, like, like over a year, like almost like two years, my oven was broken and um, about two, two, three weeks ago, um, I fixed it. Uh, it was basically just a broken element. I googled how to fix it. I googled how much it would cost cost me like 60 bucks to get the part uh and fix it relatively easily. Um, so I've been doing a lot more baking. We did some uh custom pretzels, uh soft pretzels, the last couple of days, me and my son, and one of the things that we did was because the dough is just dough, I made pizza with it. So you know, I made a batch of dough and then made some pizza and then turned the leftovers into pretzels, so really interesting stuff that you know, you tend to not think about how easy this stuff is because it's, um, a lot of a lot of work, but it ends up being cheaper because of the ingredients and everything that goes into it. So, uh, I've been doing a lot more experimenting with just baking and making my own things. As weird as it sounds to say out loud for myself, it's uh, it's been, it's been a good, uh kind of process, because you know you don't have to spend so much on, uh, on groceries when you're doing stuff like that. Um, and it, it, uh, the. The pizza itself was a bit of a pain because you have to roll it out and flatten it out and that's a lot of effort, but once it, it's done, it was, it was actually really good pizza. And um, really, uh, really good pretzels.
Speaker 4:Um, the second batch of pretzels that we just did today, me and my son uh, turned out really good, um, but, uh, that's kind of what we're up to right now is is that sort of stuff? And, um, I did, uh, I did a space for the book on Friday again, did a space for the book on friday again. Um, nobody showed up except for ivan. Um, but I wasn't expecting anybody to show up because it was like last minute, I'm impromptu and I just kind of threw up a space and talked about, uh, chapters three, four and five, basically, and I think maybe six, um, and went a little bit deeper in those and explaining them to people and whatever. So I think that helps a little bit more with what we're trying to do with this book. But yeah, that's kind of my just. How are things with you? What's going on with you?
Speaker 3:Good, good, I had a oh boy, a nightmare last night. Happen to me. I am a little spacey today. I was so exhausted because I stayed up last night doing a video project and Adobe. I haven't worked in Adobe Premiere in a long time and I got it downloaded and I was all excited. I fucking forgot that you have to save with Adobe. They have a pretty good recovery tool that will save your stuff If the app goes down. Sometimes you can pull up the recovery file and it's like, oh, not too bad, not too bad, I didn't lose much.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm doing a project with my Sifu for Jeet Kune Do and it's just a volunteer project and it always seems to happen on these volunteer projects. I get myself into where I do all this work and everything goes wrong. It all went wrong on the shoot as well, like this light I had. It was supposed to be all charged up and my brother forgot to charge it up, so I was missing a light. One of the batteries was causing an issue and so I volunteered to help out my Sifu, my instructor, and he just is seeing a shit show. Last night, oh man, was like waiting for sarah, her, his daughter, to send me some footage to put in. And right when I pulled it in, adobe crashed and it's like, please, uh, would you like to send a report to adobe? And I'm like, oh no, oh no, uh-oh, uh-oh. I completely all these uh like traumatic memories of back when I used to do full time video work just came back and I had to start from scratch, and so I'm going on a little bit of sleep. Hey, good news here you guys. The video did get done and he was really happy with it.
Speaker 3:We had a great basketball game today and we took a loss, but I'm so happy with our team, my son's team, my son had an awesome game. We just played against a legitimately pretty good little group of players today and we played so well. We lost, but I don't think I've been this proud of my team that it just started to click today. Their defense was great. These guys should have put up about 50 points and we kept them to about 16 points. They had actual little dribblers and shooters on their team and our little squad was just keeping them from scoring and they were frustrating them. And I was so happy because every game this season we've just kind of had a hard time with keeping positive and a few of our players just kind of really let it get to their heads and they get real frustrated. And today all of them just seemed to have their heads on. They were strong. They were like we got this. Look at this. They're getting frustrated out there. Guys Like I don't know. I was so proud of my little team coming together and we we took the loss, but you know it was. It was just one of those times where I just couldn't even come up with much to tell them what we could have done better. I was so happy and so that's that's been my day so far.
Speaker 3:I am excited to kind of sit back and relax for the rest of the day. So this is me just kind of getting home, and you'll have to bear with me today if I'm a little slow and spacey. I just got back from a game. I think my adrenaline of watching my little kiddos succeed in different ways I really had like almost an adrenaline dump and just getting home I'm like, oh man, I'm exhausted. So that's where I'm at. I'm really excited just to sit back and chill and talk about this book and I might not have even though I never do have really bright, crazy, awesome ideas. I might have even less today, so bear with me just a little bit. But yeah, there's my little report and I appreciate you asking, my friend, but I'm ready to get into this content though. I'm excited to have a good, successful, stay-on-track full space today. I think the intro of you know, the intro window, was done and I think we can get to it, my friend.
Speaker 4:Yeah, fair enough. I did look back and it looks like we're at 49. We're not at 54 or whatever I said.
Speaker 3:That's what I remember. I was going to pipe in there and say, yeah, I think we, I think we agreed to 49. The beginner's luck was where we're going to pipe in there and say, yeah, I think we agreed to 49. The beginner's luck was where we were going to leave off.
Speaker 4:So beginner's luck is a very interesting one, just because of how many people tend to think that it's a thing. It's just beginner's luck.
Speaker 3:You won that because you've never done this before and it's, you know, it's just beginner's luck.
Speaker 4:You know, like you, you won that because you've never done this before and it's beginner's luck, and um, they talk about that. Uh, it ties somewhat into association bias, but uh, you tend to see connections where none exist. Um, for example, as they say in the book, regardless of how many big presentations he has nailed while wearing them, kevin's green polka dot underpants are no guarantee of success. We now come to a particularly tricky branch of the association bias, which is creating a false link with the past. Casino players know this all too well. They call it beginner's luck. People who are new to a game and lose in the very first few rounds are usually clever enough to fold. But whoever strikes lucky tends to keep going. Convinced of their above average skills, these amateurs increase the stakes, but they will soon get a sobering wake-up call when the probabilities normalize.
Speaker 4:Beginner's luck plays an important role in the economy. Say, company a buys smaller companies, b, c and d. One after the other, the acquisitions prove a success and the directors believe they have a real skill for acquisitions. Buoyed by this confidence, they now buy a much larger company e. Integration is a disaster. The merger proves too difficult to handle. The estimated synergy is impossible to realize. Objectively speaking. This was foreseeable, because in the previous acquisitions everything fell perfectly into place as if guided by a magical hand. So beginner's luck blinded them.
Speaker 4:So it basically talks about how there's a fallacy in the sense that a lot of people think that if they're successful in the beginning, it's going to continue going forward because they have some unnatural skill, because it just everything fell into place.
Speaker 4:And there's a lot of people who their whole lives kind of go this way. They tend to have all of the right things fall into place for them at so many levels of their life. But at some point that bubble is going to burst and you'll find people who don't get to carry things forward because of it. You know, we've seen different people in our lives this sort of thing happened to. I mean, one person I could think of off the bat that most people would probably look at is people like Brendan Fraser. I wouldn't necessarily say he had the beginner's luck, but it kind of seemed like he had everything going for him in his life and then everything just came crashing down all at once and you know it. It's kind of the same fallacy as people thinking that they can just get away with doing things nonstop and nothing's going to like hurt them or or you know nothing's going to happen to them.
Speaker 4:You tend to just think that I, you know, I'm good at this, so I'm just going to keep doing it, and nothing lasts forever. It's just kind of the gist of this fallacy, as far as my understanding of it. So you know. They further this chapter by saying the same goes for the stock exchange. Driven by initial success, many investors pumped their life savings into internet stocks in the late 1990s. Some even took out loans to capitalize on the opportunity. However, these investors overlooked one tiny detail. Their amazing profits at the time had nothing to do with their stock picking abilities. The market was simply on an upward spiral. Even the most clueless investors won big. When the market finally turned downward, many were left facing mountains of dot-com debt. So again, people who got in on a boom. They think that they have some sort of skill and they keep trying to ride that wave forward, but it doesn't recreate. It's like trying to capture lightning in a bottle.
Speaker 3:You were able to do it once, but it's damn near impossible to do it again, and I've I've experienced this several times, but one that I can really really just point out was actual gambling yeah I I found just a system in roulette that was like a great statistic and I was like I'm gonna play this like this, should this should work out well, and it worked out great.
Speaker 3:I I walked away that first night of playing roulette. Uh, just my, my little system of playing either the, the, the uh groupings or the columns I forget the rows of the columns and I had a nice system, it played out great, walked away with a few hundred bucks.
Speaker 3:I tried it again and again and again, and every time that I'd lose I'd I'd come up with some silly excuse like, oh, I veered from my system, that's why I, I got cocky, I got emotional. Yeah, I, I would still walk away losing, following my system so many times, and I held on to that beginner's luck, I was like, no, it works it. And it's just like. No matter what statistics you try to play the, the house stats are always going to supersede you. But I, I was truly blinded by until I just had that, you know, I admitted to myself I'm like, all right, gambling.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it always works until it doesn't. That's the thing, right.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that reached me back in 2012 when I was working in production stage production work. There is this the place is called Treasure Island, the place is called Treasure Hunt and the driver at the time he had his card so he could go in, okay, and everything. So he was like, alright, bro, boss, not carry lunch, so come over here, I'm gonna show you a thing and we can make money or we can buy some food. I'm like, alright, him, don't have no money on him. I had the last $1,500 and went in there. It was sure big in Oslo, bro, Because that $1,500 was $1,500. We make $7,500 from the horse racing machine and I will leave and buy KFC.
Speaker 5:I look at him and say, all right, I can make some money there, we'll go back in there, went back in there and put $2,000 on the card, was there playing and winning and winning, and while winning, the $2,000 reached down to $500. Until someone looked at me and said, all right, when I come here, you have to make up your mind. You see, they come to win or you come to have fun, and with gambling, they cannot come to have fun. So you have to make up your mind what you call, what you come inside this place to do sit there and I was playing this place to do Sit there and I was playing, actually winning some funds, passed my $2,000 because I got serious about it. All of a sudden the house took back everything, the profit including the $2,000. That's it for the night. I'm done and, to be honest, I haven't been back to Treasure Island since then.
Speaker 3:I know that feeling all too, well, too well, my friend, I know that feeling it was a.
Speaker 5:It was a nice experience, to be honest, because I got to enjoy the night and I got to learn how the machine works, because there was an old lady there and each time the arses went around the truck and that machine I could see her lighting up Her section. Just keep on lighting up. She has never lose and from I went in there after six that night, I got in there and saw her and she didn't come out until the place closed. You know what I mean. So for some people it's beginner's luck and for some they actually know what they're doing when it comes to gambling and so forth. I don't think I reached that far in the book, though I think I'm at number 12 because I keep on playing back over, because it keeps on reminding me of some stuff that happened in my life, but we can discuss that more in the space.
Speaker 4:It's one of those things that there's just people out there who do have a system and, like Lane said, he knows what he's doing but he kept losing because it just wound up being just gambling. And that's what the majority of gambling is is just gambling. There are some things that you can have a system that is like, I'd say it's like an 80% success rate to some degree, but it's very hard to find those. And if you do find them, there are times where you could be playing and making tons of money, but then one hand just completely ruins you. So, um, you really have to be careful, it's, it's. It's like. It's like the people who play poker and think that they can do it for a living there. There are some people out there who can bluff and and, even if they have nothing, come away with huge hands. But at the end of the day, if the person you're playing against knows without a shadow of doubt, that they have a like the most uh, probable hand, unbeatable hand, they've played the numbers, they're, they're reading the board correctly, there's absolutely no way you're going to be able to bluff that person. So someone who is thinking they've got game and they're you know, I can bluff even the best players. You know they're going to try and at the end of the day they're not going to succeed, especially if someone actually has, like a royal flusher or whatever whatever the highest possible hand is at that time with those cards. Um, I've had that experience myself where people trying to bluff me and it's like I had the fucking best hand from the flop. So there's no way you're going to try and um destroy me in that sense. So it still winds up being gambling to some degree and you really do have to be careful with that stuff.
Speaker 4:But an example that I came across in kind of my sort of tenure of going from stock trading to crypto trading to everything else is when I I first started stock trading, um, I I looked into, like obviously got in around gme and all that stuff and and watched that stuff pop off and then I met someone who had kind of a similar conviction towards amc as um that guy whatever his name is, roaring Kitty had of GME. This guy had a similar conviction for AMC and he wound up putting $30,000 into it and he turned $30,000 into $30 million and was able to literally capture lightning in a bottle. But he tried to repeat that success on a numerous type scale. He kept trying to do it over and over again and he didn't take any of that profit out, not even a substantial amount. I think the most he took out was he bought himself a G-Wagon which is like a $ hundred thousand dollar mercedes, and um, I think he paid cash for it or whatever, but um, he never took out a substantial chunk to live off of and wound up blowing it all like he lost 30 million in the course of like I think I knew him for like four or five months, something like that, maybe, maybe longer, but it was like seven, eight months.
Speaker 4:But yeah, he, he, he went up losing it all and it's, it's this thought process that again, big beginners, lucky. He just wound up getting lucky on this one stock that uh shot up and had had a short squeeze and he wound up getting crazy, crazy good profits off of it. And you know, at that point you would think I've got $30 million, I'm set for the rest of my life. Uh, I, I should just end it, just walk away.
Speaker 4:And no, he wanted to recreate that same thing. He was chasing that high almost and uh, and never could recreate it and wound up losing everything, which is absolutely stupid, but just goes to show that it's it's a true thing that we'd like people out there think I was able to do this. I should be able to recreate it and repeat it. And you know, even myself I've had that same sort of situation where anything that I've gotten into trading wise, it's like yeah, I see this pattern or I see this thing and I'm learning as much as I can and I did really good here. And then you know, you try and recreate that. The worst ones that I think people fall for in terms of thinking that they can do this stuff over and, over and over again.
Speaker 3:Um, this, this one. I have one more, uh, really good example in my in my mind anyways for helping me understand my past decisions. I fell into beginners luck, luck with door-to-door sales. I did really well with a program, painting Homes, and it was a lot of door-to-door. I was a Mormon missionary for heaven's sake, I'm door-to-door trained and seasoned. I got offered a really cool signing bonus after a successful painting program to work for a security company doing door-to-door and the signing bonus was enticing enough just to like, yeah, I'll give it a shot. But I was like, nah, I should go see if this is for me. I went out and, sure enough, like three doors in, closed a cell. I didn't even know what I was doing. I was like, oh shoot, this is going to be so easy. I've got this under my belt. I've done door to door with this and this and this.
Speaker 3:That was the roughest summer of my life. I was not cut out for security door to door sales. It was just a different posturing, a different attitude, a different confidence. It was like everything that I was trying to almost run away from in my personal life also at that time. So I just made it. It was a really drastic decision.
Speaker 3:Now, in retrospect, where I am now, I'm really glad I did that because it changed the whole course of my life. But it was a stupid decision and like I could have ended up at this point through so many other, uh, better decisions than that one, I'm sure. But yeah, I I definitely fell into beginner's luck. I even dropped out of college at that point, for heaven's sake. So I I just felt so confident and it really beat me up, bro, like to suck that bad at sales, at something I had never experienced. It was really like it weighed on me emotionally. I had a bunch of tough nights. I became like a heavy drinker that summer. It was tough on me to not be good at something and just like I could have saved my own ego and my own everything by just having proper expectations of like bro, you can't, that means nothing. You did well with paint jobs. Like that is.
Speaker 3:It's a different sell if it's something I've really tried to fix that going forward. But it's really nice to read these fallacies and pinpoint stuff like that and it's like man, yeah, that's, that was a good one, that was a good. I slipped into beginner's luck in so many different ways and I wasn't even really successful. I kind of got lucky with painting also, you know what I mean. Like I was in a really good area and, no joke, I feel like every single paint job that I secured I secured like a $24,000 paint job and it was just because this couple loved me, bro, and I think they were almost praying, like I think I got super lucky with that and it gave me like this confidence. So it's a really it's a doozy, especially with someone like me that like grew up confident.
Speaker 4:Well, it also adds to the overconfidence fallacy that we I think we've either touched on or that's coming up at some point. But, like you know people, people tend to have that it's part of the beginner's luck thing too, is you, you see yourself being successful in something. Luck thing too is you, you see yourself being successful in something so you have this false sense of confidence because of it and you over inflate how good you are at something so it winds up not being true. It's like sales is. It's different from one avenue to another and, like you said, like different uh types of um product is harder to sell. So if you're good in one field, it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be good in another field. And I think that just goes across the board for a lot of different, different just things in life, whether it's work or, or you know, sports. You're going to see people who are good at one sport and say, oh yeah, I can definitely do the other sport because I'm good at this one. Like, you have that overconfidence and you definitely see yourself fail at that. But yeah, it's, it's. It's interesting because it's one of those things that like, how do you? I mean they even see at the end of the say, at the end of the chapter.
Speaker 4:How do you tell the difference between beginner's luck and the first signs of real talent? They say there's no clear rule, but these two tips may help. First, if you are much better than others over a long period of time, you can be fairly sure that talent plays a part. Unfortunately, though, you can never be 100%. Second, the more people competing, the greater the chances are that one of them will repeatedly strike lucky, perhaps even you. If, among 10 competitors, you establish yourself as a market leader over many years, you can clap yourself on the back. That's a sure indication of talent top dog among 10 million players in the financial market or whatever market in one particular year. You shouldn't start visualizing a buffet esque financial empire just yet. It's extremely likely that you have simply been very fortunate.
Speaker 4:Um, and a great example of this too is uh, I heard I don't know how accurate this is, but um, I heard a thing from Neil deGrasse Tyson that was basically like if you start off with, let's say, a thousand people and you give each of them a coin and you say flip the coin, you know roughly half will be tails and half will be heads, heads, and so then you say okay, and then, like the ones who flip tails, sit down and then you do that again with the 500 and you go okay, half, you know, get tails, half get heads, and and you do it, and you do it, and you do it and by the time that you're done doing it, you get down to one person that's left and that person essentially has hit heads every single time that they did this to be the last person standing.
Speaker 4:And that's just like, essentially, the law of averages, of you know, if, if 50% of the people hit heads and 50% of the hit tails, one person at the end is going to be left standing that had hit heads, that's not entirely accurate, that that's always going to be the case, but it's. It's an interesting statistic to see that there's always going to be somebody out there that's lucky. And they didn't do anything special to learn or to earn that. It's not like they learned a specific way to flip the coin so that it always landed on heads. It just wound up happening that way.
Speaker 3:Sometimes it's like timing and circumstances. You know, I, I work at, uh, my partners and I, with our compliance, and it's like I, we could, we could try to recreate what we did two months earlier, starting point, or like five months later or seven years later, and it's like I don't know if we could do it. The timing was perfect for us and and we didn't know it, and every step along the way and it's like it changed and it could have been this or that. But really it's almost. I have to admit there's a lot of timing, luck and like holy crap, what if that competitor was around when we started? Could we have no way? We couldn't have competed against that? Because, like it's not just doing well but you have to, you have to weather the storms of, like, other competitors playing their tricks on you and trying to wear you out and and kick you out of the, out of the club, and so every little inch along the way. So I don't know, I, I really and maybe that's me trying to overcompensate with understanding beginner's luck, but it's like I think it's important to understand lucky circumstances Also. I just have to put that out there.
Speaker 3:Like a lot of successful people find the right timing. Sure, I guess we can pat ourselves on the back for jumping at opportunities at the right time. That's the tricky part. Opportun opportunities are crazy risky and crazy scary and the windows are extremely tight. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:And so I just think beginner's luck needs to be appreciated and understood, because otherwise we've seen it ourselves as business partners trying to recreate it, even owning market share, so to speak, and being safe to go at it, even with a new company with new names you can't create that same spark twice into trucking insurance. It would just be absolutely naive for us to think that, oh yeah, we competed and we kept up and we're now on top of compliance, let's go do that with insurance, let's go do that with freight brokering. It would just be not only naive but extremely reckless. You could fall into crazy lawsuits and get yourself into really big trouble type stuff trying to carry that kind of beginner's luck from one industry to the next. So this, this one, I really, uh, appreciate this chapter a lot. I've I've been a dummy with this one, so I'm trying to get smarter with this one.
Speaker 4:I think the other thing to think about, especially with this is is in something that you're touching a lot on, with everything that you're discussing and saying with like could we have done it if this person was involved or could we have not done it if this happened? And that is, you're tying in some of the stuff that we've already discussed early on, which is like one of the things being alternative paths. You're starting to see all the different paths that could have happened and you're acknowledging that the one that you're on is you know you're lucky, essentially, to be here. So again, going back to my point of this book actually helping you in a way, see things clearly is you're starting to see that you know you guys have been fortunate and fortunate and you know if it had gone this way, it would have been completely different. If it had gone that way, it would have been completely different. So you are starting to take away some of the knowledge that this book is offering and utilize it to see kind of where your life is at and where your, your, your aspect of things is going and how you are essentially utilizing the book. I'm talking in circles to some degree with that, but it's just it. That's how it winds up working. It's it's working out for you. I think in in that sense. But like just to finalize this chapter.
Speaker 4:Basically, what they say at the end is watch and wait before you draw any conclusions. Beginner's luck can be devastating. So guard against misconceptions by treating your theories as a scientist would Try to disprove them. As soon as my first novel 35, was ready to go, I sent it to a single publisher, where it was promptly accepted. For a moment I felt like a genius, a literary sensation. The chance that this publisher will take on a manuscript is 1 in 15,000. To test my theory, I then sent my manuscript to 10 other big publishers and I got 10 rejection letters. My notion was thus disproven, bringing me swiftly back down to earth.
Speaker 4:So essentially, what they're saying is anything that you think you have a success in. Try and recreate that success in many different avenues and see how it goes. And if you can't recreate it, then you're a talentless hack and you had some beginner's luck. But no, you know, it's not that you're talentless, it's just that you're not as smart or as great as you think you are, as smart or as great as you think you are, and it's just helping you to realize that there's still some improvement to be had and that you do have some beginner's luck. So definitely utilize that process.
Speaker 4:It's the process of how the scientific method is you have to try and prove your theory on on multiple occasions for it to actually become a fact rather than it just being a theory. And, uh, that's just how we prove things are scientifically fact when we do stuff. So we discovered gravity. That's how we discovered many different things in our, our reality, that that we have listed as fact, because we've done these scientific tests, that you and myself could do the same tests with the formulas and recreate them, um, and that's one of the biggest reasons why I mean we talked about um, we talked about the? Um, the forecast illusion, I think at some point, and how people try and make these. Maybe we haven't talked about the forecast illusion, I can't remember, but you know, there's people who are trying to present themselves as gurus and they're trying to present themselves as these geniuses that can predict the market swings and the market, this and that, and also the.
Speaker 3:Russ's, the Russ's of the yeah, yeah that sort of stuff um hey, I, I have to admit I do like one of his songs.
Speaker 4:I, I do I mean, whether you like his music or not, is is completely different than him trying to uh present himself as I know how to make you successful like don't you think of his book?
Speaker 4:sometimes reading through this, yes, I think I think of it all the time because he's such a fraud like it's. It's such a fraudulent book that you know I I had it's. It's the beginner's luck nonsense. Or you know the, the person who had everything going for them at every aspect of their life to get them to the point that they're at. It's like you can't recreate that. Go and try to recreate that with 15 different people. It won't work the same. Like you literally have to have everything lined up identically for each person for it to work, and I just think it's like that's the type of crap that I think is nonsensical is just these gurus out there that are trying to promote this as if they're uh able to to do this stuff and at to promote this as if they're uh able to to do this stuff, and at the end of the day, they're not, because it it they would be financially successful on a large scale if they could, if they had that magic formula. And I think that's like again, I don't know if we've, if we have actually done the forecast illusion, but um, when we get to it, it's one of the ones that uh, yeah, it's, it's. It's absolutely ridiculous how there's these people out there who think that they can predict this stuff, but the reality of it is they can't predict shit. Um, I'm just trying to look here what chapter the forecast illusion is. Uh, oh, maybe you know, maybe we have talked about it. Oh yeah, it was number 40. We talked about it last week. So, yeah, forecast illusion is. Yeah, it's a very interesting one and it's one that I think I think a lot of people become sort of stuck in is is thinking that they can predict shit and without actually being able to prove it, you're just creating this false narrative. Um, so yeah, that in a nutshell, beginner's luck can fuck a lot of people over Um. Next week we deal with cognitive dissonance and I think that fuck a lot of people over. Next we deal with cognitive dissonance and I think that's again another interesting one.
Speaker 4:The title is Sweet Little Lies and it's lies that we tell ourselves to try and lessen the blow of something or try and kind of give ourselves a bit of a reprieve when we've failed at something. So it talks about a fox crept up to a vine. He gazed longingly at the fat purple overripe grapes. He placed his front paws against the trunk of the vine, stretched his neck and tried to get at the fruit, but it was too high. Irritated, he tried his luck again. He launched himself upwards, but his jaw snapped only at fresh air a third time. He leapt with all his might, so powerfully that he landed back down on the ground with a thud. Still not a single leaf had stirred. The fox turned up his nose. These aren't even that ripe yet. Why? Why would I want a sour grape? Holding his head high, he strode back into the forest.
Speaker 4:The Greek poet Aesop created this fable to illustrate one of the most common errors in reasoning. Aesop fables, aesop's fables whatever. An inconsistency arose when the fox set out to do something and failed to accomplish it. He can resolve this conflict in one of three ways A by somehow getting at the grapes. B, by admitting that his skills are insufficient. Or C, by retrospectively reinterpreting what happened. The last option is an example of cognitive dissonance, or rather its resolution. So there's a lot of times in society that we do that, where we do these mental gymnastics to completely misconstrue a situation, to kind of come out in our favor, however it ends up being, and so glad you used that, that phrase mental gymnastics.
Speaker 3:That's, that's this chapter, bro.
Speaker 4:That's a great summary, I love that you well, it's true, and you see it a lot with narcissists, you see it a lot with, um, just people in general there's, there's a lot of people out there that they, even when they're wrong about something, they will try and create some sort of scenario where I wasn't wrong, I was just fed this wrong information.
Speaker 4:Um, and it's a bit of a um, it's, it's mental gymnastics, like we said, but it's a, it's a bit of a, a fraudulent thing that people do, that they're trying to make themselves look better or whatever. Um, and it sucks because, you know, obviously we all kind of do it to some degree. Uh, you know, I didn't do well at this, but I didn't have this information, or I didn't have that information. Or you know, like you're trading in the stock market and you bet on something and it goes the complete opposite direction and you're like, oh well, well, this happened, that created it to go this way. So my statistics still stand strong and it would have gone that way if this one thing hadn't happened. But at the end of the day, it just winds up being that you don't know what you're talking about and you're you're you know, uh, you're doing some forecast.
Speaker 4:Uh, illusion, even though you're. You're trying to do these mental gymnastics to think that you're really good at what you do.
Speaker 3:Um, this one can really, this one can really uh, be utilized heavy by cults or any cult-like.
Speaker 3:I lived under cognitive dissonance for the majority of my life and it's a really, really, really tough band-aid to pull off. It's so hard to pull off off and you know you need to and you there's. There's a portion of cognitive dissonance that you hold strong to and you know it's there. You, you never associated it with that word, but you know you do it and you're proud of it. But you know you do it and you're proud of it and you call it by certain things that feel good, but it's cognitive dissonance.
Speaker 3:It's mental gymnastics. It's calling someone with purple hair a redhead and it's like no man. They have purple hair and it's like you look at them and it's like silly you, if only you knew. And it's like bro, he's got purple hair. And it's like you look at them and it's like silly you, if only you knew. And it's like bro, he's got purple hair. And you walk away and they feel like they won. It's like what just happened Cognitive dissonance and it's like it can really mess you up. It can really mess you up.
Speaker 4:It's the biggest coping mechanism that we use to try and convince ourselves that we didn't buy something shitty. It's like it's a. You know it's a, a feature or whatever, and we do it in so many ways with, uh, like a lot of stuff, but one of the biggest ones that you will see it a lot in is, like crypto and nfts, is people who buy into a rug or buy into a project that has shitty founders or whatever. It's nonstop, literally, cognitive dissonance from the people who are the diehards, because they're trying to convince themselves over and over that they bought something good Like this is a, this is a great project, this is a great, this is a great project, this is a great, this is the best project there is. And, um, nothing beats this project, even though there's so many red flags that say this project is absolute trash. So we you really have to be careful in that sense that you know you're not falling into that trap, especially when it comes to this sort of stuff with crypto and nfts, because there's a lot of nfts out there that people will try and convince themselves are great.
Speaker 4:I mean I've written articles on some of them that to this day, the, the um, the, the community. The whales that are holding the most in the community are still trying to convince the the rest of the community that the project's a viable project and it's it's a great project, but at the end of the day it's it's still garbage, it's still a shit project, like they're not going anywhere, and there's red flag after red flag after red flag. That this project is is literally dead. And you're you're still trying to convince yourself that the project is going to take off, and I don't know. It's delusion at its best.
Speaker 3:To some degree. I think it's so cool. Every single one of these chapters so far I have found like big Web3 NFT lessons in them. Are you finding the same thing, sorry? What lessons in them? Are you finding the same thing, sorry? What is it hard for you to like? Ignore web three nft thoughts while reading this book? I they just are glaring at me every single chapter. It's like gosh web three. I almost feel like web three and nfts though don't take this the wrong way, but our ancestors, for the most part, come from like the 4chan trolling community and it's like it's widely accepted, it's widely appreciated and loved by a lot of crypto Twitter or Reddit Twitter. Like the vulgar, the immaturity, the I don't know the immaturity that I don't know. It's almost like, but it's, it's so against what some of the big goals are of, like mass adoption and inclusivity and like I don't know, it's. It's kind of a. I just think about web web three a lot, I think it's bad for web three.
Speaker 4:I don't think I think of web three more than I think of every other example that I come up with, but Web3 is obviously the kind of ecosystem that we're a part of with all this stuff, so it is a bit at the forefront to some degree, but it's not necessarily the thing that I first go to when I'm thinking about this stuff. There's other examples that come to play in my reality.
Speaker 3:Oh man, I needed to hear that that was such a good answer. It's like yo Web3 ain't everything dog.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's so good and healthy to hear.
Speaker 4:I love that. I mean especially when I listen to some of your takes on stuff. With talking about this book, I'd say a lot of your stuff talks about the compliance aspect and your religious aspect and things like that. So even for yourself, you may think that you're thinking heavy on web3, but there's other stuff that you're mentioning more and above that stuff for sure, for sure, yeah, no, my mind definitely wanders.
Speaker 3:uh, but man, I, I, yeah, I, I think I'm recognizing maybe unhealthy attachments to the space. You know what I mean? It's been good for me to, I guess, recognize and just be like no, this is good, this is good. Yeah, I'm wrapping my head around it still, I guess.
Speaker 4:Sorry, just reading up on this real quick. I read this, but I'm rereading it because it it was sort of tying into one of the other ones that, um I I was kind of getting it confused with, but uh, the the interesting example that they they talk about here with cognitive dissonances. There was two people at Stanford University that asked their students to carry out an hour of excruciatingly boring tasks. They then divided the subjects into two groups. Each student in group A received a dollar it was 1959, so you know dollar went differently back then and instructions to wax lyrical about the work to another student waiting outside. So don't tell them about it, is what they're saying. Don't tell people about this. In other words, they need to lie. The same was asked of the students in group B, with one difference they were given $20 for the task. Later the students had to divulge how they had to really found the monotonous work.
Speaker 4:Interestingly, those who received only a dollar rated it as significantly more enjoyable and interesting. Why? One measly dollar was not enough for them to lie outright. Instead, they convinced themselves that the work was not that bad. Just as Aesop's fox reinterpreted the situation, so did they. The students who received more didn't have to justify anything. They had lied and netted $20 for it a fair deal. They experienced no cognitive dissonance. So the cognitive dissonance comes when something's been cheapened for you. You're trying to convince yourself that it's better than it actually is, and so the work wasn't really that bad in their eyes. I mean, think of how many other situations that you have in your life that you have happen like this, where something shitty happens but you try and do these mental gymnastics to make it seem better. Um, I mean, I can think like we do it regularly.
Speaker 3:so regularly, bro. I'm just like thinking how toxic I am with that.
Speaker 4:I'm so bad at that well, like like an example for my own life, our oven broke, the element in our oven broke, it and it we let. We let it sit broken for like two years and at first it was like we, well, we have our toaster oven, so we don't really need it. Toaster oven was big enough to, um, basically baker oven pretty much anything that was for me, my wife and our, our toddler at the time, because we don't eat a ton of food, so anything that needed to be baked could be baked in it, because it was also an oven. It was. It was, it was big enough that it's not necessarily just a toaster oven. It was an oven as well and, like you, could get it up to 400 degrees and some of the stuff just needed a little bit more time. So you know, you do these mental gymnastics and say like, okay, the big oven's fine, we don't need to worry about it. But reality was we should have just fixed the damn thing for 60 bucks. I didn't know how easy it was to do that, I didn't know how cheap it was and I didn't bother. I just did the mental gymnastics that it's not that bad, we have the stuff that we need, we'll get by, and so you put it on the back burner pun intended and you basically just put it off.
Speaker 4:And then our toaster oven broke to the point where it has two settings. It has the toaster aspect of it which the elements still turn on, the elements still cook and everything. It works fine as a toaster. But when you go to turn it onto the oven portion there's like broiler. There's the different degrees of temperature that you can set it on. It doesn't switch over. When I click it over to that, it doesn't turn on. So it none of that aspect works anymore. So we couldn't use it to bake anything. So when that went I was like, well, fuck, I have to fix this or that. So I googled the element and it wound up being that it was cheaper or whatever. But you know, the point is I went through the cognitive dissonance of saying it's not that big a deal, we don't need to fix it. We have our toaster oven, so we do this stuff on a regular basis.
Speaker 3:This was like a good tangent of this fallacy that I didn't really think about. That I do often, so often, and I feel like I'm passing it on in a negative way to my kids. I'm just like, oh, roll with the punches, baby. Like it can get, it can get bad. If you don't like, stand your ground with that shit. So I'm really glad you brought up this aspect of this fallacy, because I I think about this fallacy in such a different light that, like day-to-day little cognitive dissonances, it hasn't, uh, hit me yet. It just did. Well, that was good, thank you well at the end.
Speaker 4:So one thing that I I forgot to mention was um, okay, we'll go back to the last chapter in a minute here, but at the end of this chapter basically it talks about the, the chapters that you should look at that kind of play into it. So just to finalize the chapter. I reacted very similarly some time ago when I oh, hang on. Yeah, suppose you apply for a job and discover you have lost out to another candidate. Instead of admitting that the other person was better suited, you convince yourself that you didn't want the job in the first place. You simply wanted to test your market value and see if you could get invited for the interview. When I had to choose between investing in two different stocks, my chosen stock lost much of its value shortly after the purchase, whereas shares in the other stock, the one I had invested in, skyrocketed. I couldn't bring myself to admit my error. Quite the reverse, in fact. I distinctly remember trying to convince a friend that, though the stock wasn't experiencing teething problems, it still had more potential overall. Only cognitive disson distance, can explain these remarkable irrational reaction. The potential would indeed have been even greater if I had postponed the decision to purchase the shares until today. It was that friend who told me the aesop fable you can play the clever fox all you want, but you'll never get the grapes that way. So at the end of the chapter that's his summation. But he talks about how it ties in with uh, endowment effect, self-serving bias. Uh, endowment effects, chapter 23. Self-serving bias 45, confirmation bias, which is seven, and eight, uh, the because justification which is coming up here is 52, and effort justification, which is 60. Um, but one that it doesn't tie into in that ending bit and that I think it should tie into to some degree is, um, freak. Now I forgot which one it was. I had it on the tip of my mind. There's one specific one that it tied into that he doesn't quite mention. I'm just going to go through here quickly and look um, I mean, I guess they all tie in together at some point. Um, oh, it'll get worse before it gets better. Fallacy tends to be a tie-in with that one because you you're justifying the worst aspect of it. So you know it's going to be worse before it gets better, so you're tying that in. But it also does have some of these other ones in there, like sunk cost fallacy. Uh, is a bit of cognitive dissonance. You tend to be like, oh, we've already spent money on it, why not suck it up anyways? Uh, winds up being some of that in itself, so it ties in more than what he's saying at the end of each chapter.
Speaker 4:Um, so to go back to 49, to try and tie in the chapters that it goes into, uh, they also want you to see, and again, uh, beginner's luck. Um, so they want you to look at also survivorship bias, which is number one. Um, which the first one. We talked about people basically thinking that just because these people are doing well at something, that you're going to do well at it, which is never the case. Um, self-serving bias, association bias. Oh, sorry, self-serving bias, chapter 45. Association bias 48. Uh, causality, false causality 37, an illusion of skill 94. We haven't got to illusion of skill, but you know, you can surmise that what that one is about. Um, next up is hyperbolic.
Speaker 3:I can guess what that one is about. There's like I've gone through periods in my life, uh, where it's like I don't make beats. I've never made beats yeah, I've never played around with software to do hip hop beats but like in the back of my mind it's like I could do that. I bet, I bet I'd make the best fucking beats, all yeah. And it creeps up every now and it's like shut up, what, why does that creep up every now? And then it's it's a talent I don't even like care to have, like I. And it's like go ahead, make a beat. Yeah, and stupid.
Speaker 4:I could probably think of a million of those that go through my head I, I think we all do that, and I think it's it's an interesting one to get to when we do get to it, but yeah, it's, it's very interesting, oh, sorry.
Speaker 4:The next one, hyperbolic discounting, is one that I had a very personal um experience of myself, and I know we talked about having um trying to doing homework, of figuring out some of these things that tie in or relates to something that you've experienced or that you've witnessed, and so this is one that um definitely really really kind of tied in with something that I dealt with in my own career, my own life, and it it then ended up screwing me over and soured a relationship. So, um, it's very interesting to kind of read this one and go, oh, that's exactly why that happened, um, because you don't think about it as to why, but it ends up being that way. And so, um, basically, what hyperbolic discounting is is when. Maybe this isn't the one, sorry, hang on. No, this isn't the one, sorry, this isn't the one that I related to you hyperbolic discounting.
Speaker 3:Uh, I think that was the get money now or get more money.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, right, yeah, basically that's a tough one.
Speaker 3:That's a tough one even for me. You know what I mean. It's like oh, a little bit of cash right now no-transcript.
Speaker 4:In both cases, if you hold out for just a month longer, you get $100 more. But in the first case it's simple enough. You figure I've already waited 12 months, what's one more? But not in the second case.
Speaker 4:The introduction of now causes us to make inconsistent decisions naive people. When they're trying to scam them or sell them on a product or something along those lines, it winds up being, yeah, but if you buy now, it's this price, or if you invest with me now, you'll get 100% return, instantaneously, sort of thing. And it's one of the reasons why people like Bernie Madoff got away with some of the stuff that they did is they promised these overinflated profits in a shorter time frame that were just unrealistic. And I mean, it's probably one of the reasons why you see these infomercials doing so well is if you act now, it'll only cost you you 30, as opposed to if you buy it in. Like a month from now, it winds up being 60, so you're paying more. It's kind of the reverse is the hyperbolic thing, but it's the same kind of concept. Uh, to some degree sparky.
Speaker 3:I am so glad I I uh turned to this chapter kids, kids come here real quick. I wanted to share with them. I marked in this chapter Kids, kids come here real quick. I wanted to share with them. I marked in this chapter. I completely forgot I did this. I marked in this chapter a paragraph I really liked and I think it was a good reminder for myself. Okay, it says what about children In the 60s? Walter Mischel I think that's how you say it conducted a famous experiment on delayed gratification.
Speaker 3:You can find a wonderful video of this on YouTube by typing in marshmallow experiment. In it, a group of four-year-olds were each given a marshmallow. They could either eat theirs right away or wait a couple of minutes and receive a second. I cracked up when I read this. It says amazingly, very few children could wait. I thought that was just like expected. I expect the kids just to gobble them up, but he says amazingly, very few children could wait. Even more amazingly, michel found that the capacity for delayed gratification is a reliable indicator of future career success. Patience is indeed a virtue. I loved that. I loved that whole chapter, that one paragraph. I haven't marked much, so I need to continue marking. I'm glad I do that kind of stuff because it just jumped out to me there's some real gems in here and patience. I need to work on myself.
Speaker 4:The problem ends up being is the next chapter kind of completely destroys that to some degree.
Speaker 1:The older we get, the more self-control we build up, the more easily we can delay rewards.
Speaker 4:Instead of 12 months, we happily wait 13 to take home an additional $100. However, if we are offered an instant reward, the incentive has to be very high for us to postpone the fulfillment. The incentive has to be very high for us to postpone the fulfillment. Case in point the exorbitant interest rates banks charge on credit card debt and other short-term personal loans, both of which exploit our must-have now instincts. So you know, it goes back to the get this now and it's free money and you don't have to worry about it. But, um, you then have this crazy debt that has long-term, uh, interest rates that screw you over, and you want to pay more for the product than you even anticipated. So, uh, in conclusion, it's not a big chapter. But in conclusion, though, instantaneous reward is, uh, incredibly tempting.
Speaker 4:Hyperbolic discounting is still a flaw. The more power we gain over our impulses, the better we can avoid this trap. The less power we have over our impulses, for example, if we are under the influence of alcohol, the more susceptible we are Viewed from the other side. If you sell consumer products, give customers the option of getting their hands on the item straight away. Some people will be willing to pay extra just so that they don't have to wait. Amazon makes a bundle from this with their prime bullshit. A healthy chunk of the next day delivery surcharge goes directly into its coffers. Live each day as if it were your last is a good idea once a week, as if it were your last is a good idea once a week. So it kind of goes back to us saying that people who are selling you something are using this to some degree to try and sell you something. Buy it now and you get it for sale. So this ties in with decision fatigue, which is coming up, and it's also an interesting one. I had a clear example of that one. Decision fatigue is 53. Simple logic, which is chapter 63, and procrastination, which is 85. We all know about procrastination Because justification this is an interesting one and it's basically telling people to use the word because you don't even have to give a copy machine.
Speaker 4:And so she went into the library and waited until a line had formed. Then she approached the first in line and said Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine? And her success rate was 60%. She repeated the experiment, this time giving a reason Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine Because I'm in a rush? In almost all cases 94% she was allowed to go ahead. This is understandable If people are in a hurry, you often let them cut to the front of the line. She tried yet another approach, this time saying excuse me, I have five pages. May I go before you Because I have to make some copies? The result was amazing, even though the pretext was ahem, paper thin. After all, everyone was standing in line to make copies. Obviously she was allowed to pass to the front of the line. In almost all cases 93%. So again, it's simple to just say the words because, and not really give any good enough reasoning, she said I need to make copies, which winds up being the exact reason that they are all there, and she got through 93% of the time.
Speaker 4:So when you justify your behavior, you encounter more tolerance and helpfulness. It seems to matter very little if your excuse is good or not. Using the simple validation because it's sufficient, a sign proclaiming we're renovating the highway for you is completely redundant. What else would a maintenance crew be up to on the highway If you hadn't noticed before? You realize what is going on once you look out the window and yet this knowledge reassures and calms you. After all, nothing is more frustrating than being kept in the dark.
Speaker 4:It's kind of the reason why we have the weather network. It's like, how hard is it for you to stick your head out the window or step outside and see what the weather is like in your local area? But we also have to go on and read what the weather is like because we want to know the justification of what the day is gonna be like. It's it's not the same, but it's kind of the same to some degree. It's like ultimately, we all could just go look outside and be like oh yeah, it's sunny out, I don't need an umbrella today.
Speaker 4:Um, so interesting stuff. But uh, basically the the factor of it is uh, at the end of the chapter I mean I don't feel like we need to tie too much into this because it's such a long chapter there's me using the book because justification. It's a long chapter that basically says you know, use the word because and use it as easy as you can, don't try to get away with stuff Like, don't be a dick about it, obviously, but use it to your advantage. He says at the end of the chapter. Never leave home without, because this unassuming little word greases the wheels of human interaction. Use it unrestrainedly, I'd say. I'd say, sure, use it unrestrainedly, but don't be a dick about it yeah, that's a good.
Speaker 3:That's a good point. I find it's like. You know, I I'm trying to think of an easy scenario where maybe the bathroom is closed and it's like the janitor just. For example, this happened to me at the gym last night. I guess that's why it popped in my head there's another bathroom available I can use. They were cleaning it and I walked up from afar I was like, oh man, the bathroom looks closed.
Speaker 3:They had the yellow thing across the entryway and as I got closer I was like man, the bathroom looks closed. They had the yellow thing across the entryway and as I got closer I was like man, it sure would be nice to know why the bathroom is closed. I'll just understand. I approached it's like the bathroom is closed because a woman is inside cleaning and I was like, ah, fine, with me. I made the extra little trek across the way to the other bathroom they have another one there available to use but I could have seen that if there wasn't a sign there and it was just like closed, I probably would have ducked under, gone in there, broken whatever rule I was breaking by going past that. Maybe like ask, hey, is there a janitor in here? I would have been annoying. And hey, why can't I be?
Speaker 3:in here and it was a probably a woman that would have had to explain like oh, we just do it to keep things like not awkward, I don't know, yeah, I'll be done like it would have just been awkward, you know. So the because sign was really nice.
Speaker 4:It helped me just be cool and walk away I will say that the one thing that he says and it's kind of a good example to utilize this for your own tool belt is if someone asks you why you haven't completed a task yet, it's best to say because I haven't gotten around to it yet. It's a pathetic excuse. Had you done so, the conversation wouldn't be taking place, but it usually does the trick without the need to scramble for more plausible reasons, the and and I'd say from my own experience, the more that you try and explain something away and the more you try and add, the less likely they're going to accept an answer. So the simpler that you keep things, the the more they're just being like oh okay. Whereas if you try and give like because of this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this, they're going to be like just get it done, shut the fuck up. So yeah, just give them the basic.
Speaker 3:That's really true. Yeah, a lot of times you can recognize someone that is really good at the because and they utilize it to their advantage in sneaky ways and, um, maybe I'm thinking of kids, yeah, but it's like. Well, let me tell you why I didn't do my task.
Speaker 4:It was because and it's like, bro, don't because me out of your chores yeah, don't let your kids get this like, pull this one over on you, though. That's the other thing. If you are a parent, don't let them get away with this, because kids love to use, because well because, because, because shut up.
Speaker 4:Okay, I get that with my son all the time. I mean him being four, he's pushing the boundaries as much as he can, but everything is because this, because that, because this, because that, and it's like you're the parent, you know better and like you, you can't say to him shut the fuck up, but you want to to some degree, because you're like you're, I know, I know you're full of it, I know you're. You're talking out your ass, little man, and I know what you're trying to do hey, I had kind of an interesting uh perspective on the because justification.
Speaker 3:Do you think if it's almost like asking for forgiveness versus asking for permission, almost like you can say the same thing, but the timing is key? Do you think because justification is better used when you are starting the communication? It's like, hey person, hey Bob, let me tell you this, this, this, because this, this, this versus bob comes to you with a problem and asks you why it didn't get done and then you have to use the because justification versus, like you supplying the because justification before they even I don't know.
Speaker 4:I feel like the timing on this one is pretty important I think the timing is important, but it's important for the scenario. Right, like you, you don't offer up the because unless someone asks you. But the signatures, the situation, the situation that was used with the library and the uh, the photocopier was they were offering it up because they needed to give a reasoning as to why they wanted to cut in line. So it it's also situation-based. It's not something that you're going to like. You're not going to offer the because when you're trying to cut in line, you're definitely going to offer it up freely.
Speaker 4:But if you're not doing a task at work, you're not going to sit there and say, oh, I haven't done this because of this, without them first prompting you. You're not going to go and give them a reason. It's like oh, I didn't even notice, you hadn't done that yet Now that you're telling me, I'm going to be on your ass more. So you really need to be. I think, be more cautious of when you're doing it. And the other thing that I would say is, especially with being cautious using it, as much as he's telling you to use it on unrestrainedly, I would say be careful, because you can utilize it as a form of cognitive dissonance and then you fall into that trap so you don't want to be kind of using it for that reasoning. Because we do. We use it for cause and cognitive dissonance. We utilize the because justification to justify why we've purchased something.
Speaker 3:Yeah to ourselves. We're because-ing ourselves, oh man.
Speaker 4:Or even your friends, or even the people that are telling you that it's a wrong play or a wrong decision. You're still utilizing the because justification, so be careful with it and the because justification, so be careful with it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's, that's a good, that's a good one to kind of analyze that because stuff, because it's funny, because I don't even read the, the c also um chapters at the end.
Speaker 4:I don't always, and this one even says. The first one it tells you is cognitive dissonance chapter, which we just discussed.
Speaker 3:Wait, what are you saying? Your version has a C also.
Speaker 4:Yeah, at the end of each chapter it says C also this, C also that.
Speaker 3:So it's like it shows you all the chapters that kind of tie in with this. That's why your pages are different.
Speaker 4:I mean it's a PDF version, but it's, it's gotcha okay it's. It's condensed, so like everything's on different pages, um, and everything's on. Like the chapters fit in a weird format, the way that they formatted the pdf like the words literally go to the edge of the page. So if you were to print this it wouldn't fit properly. Like it's not in a good book format whatsoever but well, hey, that that's pretty cool, it's.
Speaker 3:It's available, though.
Speaker 4:Uh, for anyone that can't purchase the book there, there's a nice pdf available yeah, my um, you know, finances aren't the greatest right now, so I'm trying to do everything in my power to to scrounge around for free books. When we do this Cause it's, uh, even though you're covering the cost, none of my credit cards are working right now, so I can't I can't get anything on Amazon or anything really, um, uh, so this, this one, chapter 53, is a very interesting one, um, because it's something that I didn't realize was something that affects us on a a grand scale, on a day-to-day basis, and if you don't read this chapter you may not even realize it, but it's so. Obviously, the the chapter is decide better and decide less, and the reason it says that is because this is called the decision fatigue, and the gist of it is the more decisions that you have to make on a day-to-day basis, on a daily basis, by the end of the day, your decision-making ability is completely shot, and it winds up being that you become so fatigued from making decisions that you're not making the same decisions and you're not thinking rationally, and so one of the examples that he uses in this is, um, he talks about judges doing, um, the same cases at like, early morning and mid afternoon, sort of thing and they, they do the exact same cases. So here here it is. Here for prisoners in an let me let me start over for prisoners in an Israeli. Wow, this is a tongue twister for prisoners in an Israeli jail. Petition to this is a tongue twister.
Speaker 4:Four prisoners in an Israeli jail petitioned the court for early release. Case one, scheduled for 8.50 am an Arab sentenced to 30 months in prison for fraud. Case two, scheduled for 1.27 pm a Jewish person sentenced to 16 months for assault. Case three a Jewish person sentenced to 16 months for assault. Case three a Jewish person sentenced to 16 months for assault. It was scheduled for 310. So 1.27 PM, which is like right after lunch, and 310 being right before the end of the day. Basically the exact same case. And then case four, which is the exact same as the first case is at 4.35 PM, which is an Arab. That, as the first case is at 4.35 pm, which is an error, of that, sentence to 30 months for fraud. So the first case and the last case of the day are the exact same, and the case that's just after lunch and the case that's just before the end of the day are the exact same 1.27 pm and 3.10 pm. And so, basically, he says how did the judges decide?
Speaker 4:Well, more significant than the detainees allegiances, uh, or the severity of their crimes, was the judge's decision fatigue. The judges granted requests one and two because their blood sugar was still high. Um, from breakfast or lunch, however, they struck out applications three and four because they could not summon enough energy to risk the consequences of an early release. They took an easy. They took the easy option and the men remained in jail. A study of hundreds of verdicts shows that, within the session, the percentage of courageous judicial decisions gradually drops from 65% to almost zero and after a recess, returns to 65%. So much for the careful deliberations of lady justice.
Speaker 4:But as long as you have no upcoming trials, all is not lost.
Speaker 4:You now know when to present your project to the CEO.
Speaker 4:So basically and they also talk about presenting a project to a CEO it's better to do it like early morning or after lunch as opposed to before lunch and before the end of the day or like in the mid-evening, because the decision-making fatigue has become so like exhausting.
Speaker 4:And even in today's society, where a lot of people wind up working through lunch or wind up eating lunch at their desk while they're still working, even though their blood sugar levels this is just me surmising this too but even their blood sugar levels, even though they've been replenished, they haven't had a substantial enough break that they're still going to have decision-making fatigue.
Speaker 4:So if you're ever wondering why, like at the end of the day, when you come home from work and it's like I don't know what to make for dinner, I can't decide on what to do, the reason being is you've been burnt out from making decisions all day. Even if your decisions aren't really like active decision-making, you're doing stuff on a day-to-day. Whatever job you do, you're making decisions. Even if you're making decisions, um, even if you're in construction, you're making decisions on what tools to use, what, uh screws to use, what, um, what, whatever like you're, you're always making some sort of decisions the commute to and from work you're making decisions and changing lanes and that's stressful yeah, so you, you wind up making decisions on a regular basis.
Speaker 4:And again, this is something that I didn't realize, even though I've felt it myself. I didn't realize how much of a effect it has on us. And so I, like my, my wife, judges gymnastics and I think I've talked about this before in the past. But one of the things that winds up happening is at the end of a weekend, when she's done, you know, three days of she's making decisions on these, these children, uh, you know, trying to decide whether they did a good enough, um uh, routine or whatever, to get a good enough score. And so when she comes home, at the end of the day, you ask her a question about something and she's like pretty much F off, I don't want to make any decisions, so it it.
Speaker 4:you know, I didn't clear into me or did clear.
Speaker 4:It didn't clue into me until reading this that how big of a thing this actually was and and so it. Even looking at my own life and the stuff that I do on a day-to-day basis with my previous job and things like that, yeah, it's something that affects us on a on a large scale, and you really need to, um, you really need to be, be, uh, cautious of this and, um, definitely take your decision-making to a different level by making your important decisions, you know, in the early mornings and after lunch, and not leaving them till the end of the day, so that you can actually have clear decisions or better decisions made at those times. So, when you're trying to figure out what to do for dinner, do it in the morning, do it after lunch.
Speaker 4:If you have trouble having that conversation or having a decision made because I know that's one thing that we've always struggled with was deciding what to have for dinner If we're doing it at like three o'clock in the afternoon or four o'clock in the afternoon, we never come to a decision until like six o'clock because you know nobody wants to make that decision. So if you're making decisions on what to do for vacation, make those decisions again early morning or after lunch. After lunch, um, do any kind of important decision, do so when your head's a little clearer and you have a little bit more energy to do so. Don't do it when you're exhausted and and making poor decisions, because you'll regret those decisions later on.
Speaker 3:one of the examples that he uses in this is I have a quick little decision fatigue experience of my own With video. I used to do a lot of documentary type stuff and so I would convince myself that it was okay to run and gun and just essentially I'm combining a lot of fallacies here. I procrastinate the decision fatigue by just shooting the shit out of the event, shooting everything and anything, because even though that's like work, I wasn't making decisions, you're just running the camera, right yeah you don.
Speaker 3:but then you are left with the most insane amount of decision fatigue with the editing process. You have so much footage, an insane amount of footage, and you have to like. So I don't know this one. I think we have control over some stuff where we put like decision fatigue on ourselves in terrible ways. I do anyways.
Speaker 3:I I'm really bad with. I hate decisions. I just like what do you recommend? I did it today. I they asked me. I took my kids to ice cream, like do you want pineapple or coconut? And I'm like what do most people get? It's too many. It's too many choices for me. Here I did I thought I ordered a float and it came with everything. Ah, choices, shit. Like I get terribly fatigued by decision making and so I'll put it off and make it even worse because it has to be done. So I need to become a better planner, and my wife is so good at that. My daughter, a bunch of my kids are good at that. I, my daughter, a bunch of my kids, are good at that. I'm terrible at it. It's a very interesting thing. I can fix it, I think, uh, in different ways.
Speaker 4:Well, it's, it's it's whether or not you're already fatigued, right? I think that's the biggest thing that we have to worry about is making decisions at the right time, because I mean even thinking about like, okay, so let's decide what we want to do for dinner. If you even decide to go out for dinner, then once you've decided what location you're going to go to whether it's like you know mcdonald's or wendy's or whatever.
Speaker 4:Or if you decide I want to go to a sit-down restaurant, then there's the decision on top of that of what to order. So you don't have the menu in front of you. If, to decide what to order, it's like deciding to go to Chinese food or order takeout Chinese food, Well then you got to order the food and figure out what food you want and it becomes a whole like drawn out decision-making process. So that's why it's always better to make those decisions when you have a clearer mind or when you have a fresh mind, so that you're not making them at the last possible minute.
Speaker 4:And then, oh, why did I order this? I didn't want this, this is garbage or whatever. So, uh, it's, it's, it's just it's. I really liked this chapter because of how much it ties into our day to days. Um, it ties in with our day to days, uh, like literally every day, and I don't think many people really realize how bad of a uh burden this can actually um weigh on you if you're not're not, if you don't realize it or don't notice it.
Speaker 3:So it sparked me. I've got a big announcement to make to you. Specifically, I told you I guess it's weeks, maybe months now a while back that I was going to get my nutrition in order, and this is a relevant chapter, because decision fatigue sets in with me and my appetite issues, and I don't eat and I don't have an appetite and I have a really hard time, blah, blah, blah. I finally pulled the trigger, bro. I'm only about a week in, but I made a meal plan and I'm just sticking to it every day. It's amazing and, uh, I don't have to deal with decision fatigue. I don't have to deal with, uh, I don't know it.
Speaker 3:Just, it does pay to to prep a little bit and, uh, it really saves a headache down the road, but I'm also doing some cooking, you'll, you'd be proud of me. It's good. I keep it real simple, though, uh. So I'm. My kids and my wife are already uh telling me they're excited to see me cooking for them. More, though, so it's happening weeks later though, but my goals are they're. I'm making progress here.
Speaker 4:So how many more did you want to touch on tonight? Cause I think we're only up to like 54.
Speaker 3:Hey, that was great, though we we really knocked out a few good ones, had some good discussion. I like that. I think we just, yeah, speaking of dinner, we're, yeah, we're going to get to cooking some alfredo and some veggies, and so I'm going to hop in and I'm going to. That's one of my goals is to be participating in the meals and I'm eating real food these days. So I'm going to hop in and help with some cooking, and it's probably about that time for a lot of us. I'm going to hop in and help with some cooking. It's probably about that time for a lot of us. So I think we got through a good chunk tonight. Let's just pick up next week where we left off.
Speaker 4:I love that, so we'll tackle 54 next week.
Speaker 3:We'll call it a space there. Okay, sounds good. Well, hey, let me. While you're doing some wrap-up here, I am going to post a giveaway in the general chat. Anybody that is a VIP listener, make sure you hop into the Discord, into the general chat, and I'll post a little $10 giveaway there for VIP listeners, listeners. And if you are not, I noticed hey, uh, you'll have to tell me if I ever get the chance, marilda, you hop into our spaces. Shoot me a dm. I'm pretty sure you've been into 10 of our spaces. I'll shoot you an nft and you can join our little giveaways. And if not, that's totally cool too. Thank you for for hopping into our spaces. That goes for anyone, anyone. So I'll put together a little giveaway here. And yeah, sparky, feel free to wrap things up.
Speaker 3:I really appreciate tonight's space. It's really fun talking about these and I sure appreciate that you're like hey, this seems to be going well and yeah, I'm trying to apply stuff. You know, I read something good, I want to apply it, and so I'm really enjoying putting forth effort to, yeah, at least keep an eye on this, you know, and be aware I'm at least more aware these days and I'll get better at applying them and making better decisions and being able to uh. One of my goals with this book, also because there's so many of them is to be able to make reference to them in casual conversation. I I really couldn't, uh, hold my own without having this book at my side right now. You know what I mean, except for a few of them, a few fallacies that I feel like I could look, you know, remember back and but I'd like to, I guess, quote unquote memorize these fallacies better. That's a top goal of mine, with not by the time we conclude this, but it's going to be a lifetime thing. Yeah, I'm just.
Speaker 4:I guess I'm committed'm being a more logical thinker throughout my life well, I think that's the key thing for anybody at this point is to to be able to kind of come back and and reference these fallacies. It's not so much the book in general, but just the fallacies and on their own, because they, they supersede the book right. They're they're their own entities outside of the book. It's not like something he made up. It's stuff that you can Google on your own and it's like Dap said when he, when he talks about the book, is using it as a good benchmark on how you want to proceed with doing things. You want to do things at the appropriate time, you want to make sure that they're not done in haste and you want to make sure that you're you're doing the proper decisions, and so I think it helps people. Again, going back to the title of the book of the art of thinking clearly, it helps people think more clearly and make better decisions in their life and and do better just on a more holistic level of just your, your day to day.
Speaker 4:If you read this once, um, at least the one time can help you cover, uh, a large portion of them and utilize them. But, um, the more you read it and the more you go over these things and reread them like even now, going through these spaces, you know I've read them, uh, and then I'm rereading them just to try and convey what's going on in them to everybody. Um, it's giving me more insight into them and definitely opening my eyes up to them on a grander scale. So the more you do touch base on them, the more you will start to have them kind of stuck in your mind and you'll you'll be able to hear someone say something or see someone do something and go, oh, that's this bias or this, that's this fallacy, and um. And then you start to tie them together with the ones that and um. And then you start to tie them together with the ones that, uh, kind of linger together or kind of cross paths with each other.
Speaker 4:Uh, you start to be like, oh, it's this one and this one mixed and uh you know, I'm I'm starting to do that more often because someone says something and I'm like, oh yeah, that's this one I have.
Speaker 3:I have a fun question um slash, stupid idea thing to say. By the way, only two participants, not a lot of competition. Two minutes left on that general chat VIP listener giveaway. Okay, so let's say you were trying to offer this book idea to someone that's like, oh, I want to read a book. And you're like, hey, why don't you check out this book on fallacies. And that a person was like, oh, yeah, yeah, I know all about fallacies. And it's like, well, do you?
Speaker 3:do you like. Have you read anything about fallacies? No, no, but I've heard plenty about it. Like what fallacy would that be in and of itself? Overconfidence bias overconfidence, yeah it, I can see that kind of happening with this book. It's like oh yeah, I know about fallacy. I don't. I didn't know about a lot of these, bro, I've been in the dark on the majority of these.
Speaker 3:I only know a few like, and I've heard fallacy talk, talk by fallacy type people a lot throughout my life right like, like more than I think I, other people like I'm I'm overconfident about that, but I don't know about a lot of these. So I think this is a good recommendation to people. If it's like I'd like to learn something new, you, you should check out some fallacy stuff and you'll probably get like some overconfidence from people about it. Like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't need to read about that, I already know about that. I don't know. It's kind of a boring ass subject too. So it's uh, I'm trying, I'm I'm going to try to work on like my pitch to get someone excited about reading this, cause I I'm really enjoying it. I think people, uh would would definitely enjoy it, as boring as it is right.
Speaker 4:Well, even people who have known this stuff or have done any kind of reading on this stuff, like my wife, I said she had a textbook that she had done for school because they took a course on critical thinking, and she has her textbook that is literally called the art of thinking clearly, which is really fucking weird, or it's called the thing, it's called thinking clearly or something along those lines. So it's it's virtually the same title but it's it's a textbook and it's a different author. But they talk about fallacies in that book but they break it down in a textbook format for you to learn from, whereas this is kind of a little bit different. Anybody saying that they know fallacies at the end of the day, you don't know fallacies Like even knowing these fallacies, like for myself, I knew of them but I didn't know them per se. And like there's even stuff in this book that I already did, that I didn't know it had a name or it was a specific thing. And so you, you wind up learning even though you already knew about this stuff, or you already kind of lived to this stuff to some degree, and, um, even knowing the fallacies, like you know, if someone were to come up to me and say you should read this book. I'd be like I have, but thanks for reminding me about it because it's been a while or something along those lines. Because it is. It's something that you will never retain 100% and follow 100%, and I think it's something that we need to kind of refresh ourselves on, just to kind of keep things at the forefront of our mind that you know we shouldn't be doing this and we shouldn't be doing that, um, because it is this fallacy or it's that fallacy. So it is, it's, it's.
Speaker 4:It's a very well put together book and I think the biggest thing about it kind of going back to the reasons why I'm playing a lot of tom's songs at the beginning and ends of spaces is it's not biased to one side over another.
Speaker 4:It's like it's not telling you that liberals are wrong or conservatives are wrong, christianities are wrong, or, uh, it's not telling you that liberals are wrong or conservatives are wrong or Christianity is wrong, or it's not telling you that one side is right either.
Speaker 4:It's basically just saying use your brain and think logically and utilize these fallacies as a way to avoid this fallacy or that fallacy, or utilize this fallacy like the because justification that fallacy or utilize this fallacy, like the just the because justification um, you know it's, it's trying to to tell you about the fallacies so that you can make a clear decision and essentially not get brainwashed coming back to the, the song of the beating.
Speaker 4:You don't want to get brainwashed by one side over another and unfortunately our society tends to be systemically, uh, brainwashed from one side over another. Whether you are, like I said, liberal or conservative or whatever, you wind up being polarized opposites and not able to have a conversation about it because you are so ingrained in that side of things, even if the information that is being fed to you is completely inaccurate and false. So I don't know. It's a very interesting thing to utilize these fallacies on a day-to-day basis and see where we're wrong with things and see where we're going wrong with things on a global scale. You talk about politics and you talk about politicians, you talk about fake news and fake media, and it doesn't matter, kind of what side you're on. You're hearing bullshit from either side. So it's, it's very interesting and the algorithm.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and the algorithms we have, we're up against it's because you, you, you you've already clustered yourself in a grouping. Whether you've posted about being this demographic or that demographic, it's now got that ingredient. Or if you've clicked on videos that support one ideology, now you're going to be fed those videos or those tweets, and so it does. It becomes a problem because even if you look at kind of the grand scale of things I mean, I look at the election that we had that got Trudeau into office for Canada we're talking eight years ago, the first time he got elected, his platform sounded like the best platform. It really did. He had a lot of good things that he wanted to accomplish.
Speaker 4:But then, post election, after he'd won, I'm listening to one of the other like people who lost. I'm listening to him discuss stuff and he sounded a lot smarter. He sounded like a lot more intelligent, whatever. And then you go and you look at his policies and his policies are parallel, they're, they're identical to the, the liberals policies, and you're like, okay, so this guy should have won because he's a lot more intelligent and he has the exact same policies. But the fact of the matter ends up being that when the race is going on, there's so much misinformation being fed that you don't realize that a lot of the policies that these guys are running on are identical and there's a few minor details that are different along the lines, but it winds up being that largely the things that they're running for are the exact same. They just word them differently or say them differently and we feel like ours are better because we go for this specific side and I say we in a quotation sort of sense. But it's all bullshit. They all are basically running for the same platforms. They just sound differently.
Speaker 4:Um, so it's, it's very interesting, it's not, and that's a very big generalization. That's not to say that's entirely true, but it winds up being that, um, most people will vote in a single-minded sense. They vote on single policies and that tends to be why they vote. Whether it's like this policy that they believe in and this guy's against it or whatever, they'll vote that way. But by and large, the policies that they have wind up being relatively dissimilar. So it's a lot of misinformation and I feel like if we as a society wind up looking at kind of thinking clearly and critical thinking and break things down on a more regular basis, we won't fall into these traps of having one side brainwash us over another and we would wind up picking the one that is better or winds up being better, because of the ability to to break it down and and see the realistic side of things.
Speaker 4:Um, unfortunately people don't do that. They they don't, they don't think clearly and they don't bring things down. But if we did, I think we'd be far better off as a society in the long run. And that's kind of again going back to why I suggested we do a book on this subject matter.
Speaker 3:So pretty hard, pretty hard to argue with any of that, sparky.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I don't know, I I really I really enjoy this topic. I really enjoy kind of having these discussions, even if I wind up rambling up here the most on my own. Um, it's. It's interesting to have these conversations, especially when people are willing to discuss things and not argue. Um, because that's when things break down, is when people start to argue about my side's right, because I don't have a reason. Just because I say so is not an actual reason If you have facts to back.
Speaker 4:It is when you start to have a real conversation and you start to listen to some of these speakers on YouTube and some of the stuff that these people are saying. Whether they don't have a side or whether they do have a specific side doesn't matter. You can take the words that they're saying at face value and start to break it down and be like so what if he's conservative? Or so what if he's liberal? The stuff he's saying makes a lot more sense. So I don't know, I think a lot more people would benefit from this book and I think trying to uh, trying to tell your friends about it and your family about it is is a good step forward in helping us kind of heal as a society, because, you know, there's a lot of stuff that we have been doing illogically for a long time that has damaged us as a, as a uh, as a planet, and it just keeps making things worse and worse.
Speaker 3:So, as a book club, we are going to vow in our own personal time to go door-to-door with the book.
Speaker 4:No, I'm just joking.
Speaker 3:Bible thumpers for the, the bible of thinking clearly it really is uh on my mind, though, to share it with people. It's, it's good stuff, man.
Speaker 4:I, I agree yeah, and it's one of the reasons why I've been doing the spaces on fridays started last week and did it this this past friday as well as um, just for my own ability to kind of digest the information more but also provide a platform for people who want to learn about it or who want to discuss it and ask questions about it and have a discussion. I'm all for it. I think more people would benefit from that sort of thing than just going out and reading it and not being able to discuss the whole picture of it. Demrese has been requesting. I can't approve it because I don't know what is going on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on with him either, because maybe if I remove him from co-hosts, maybe that's what's hold on here. Hold on here, bringing Dem Reese back. Okay, he should be able to speak now. Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on here. One more try, one more try. There he is, dem Reese back in the house. Sorry to leave you on the in in the no, no man's land there. Damn reese, how are you?
Speaker 5:when I get back out, the only thing I can see is just the mic, and I'm still cold, so X is just like freaking tough right now.
Speaker 3:Well, hey, dem Reese, what final words of wisdom do you have to leave with us for tonight, to go into the new week?
Speaker 5:All I can say is just stay focused on what you guys, what you are doing, think about it clearly, always double check because, as what they always said when we were doing the exam or any school work, once you finish the work, double check it, see if it's correct, then you can move on. What we said about last week, when we said that we're to find a fallacy, that actually happened in our life, I was listening and social proof literally stand out to me. I remember when I was, I think, about 13, 14, that age living in Waraka Ilan, my mom said go empty the garbage bin. Now we have this big open area we call the quarry where everybody throw garbage over there. So she said go empty the garbage bin. I went down there and emptied the garbage bin.
Speaker 5:On my way back I saw three gunmen run past me and automatically I just ran behind them and turned right in my yard, literally like two minutes after the, my lane literally full with about 10 police jeeps and about five soldier vehicle. So I was thinking about inside. But back then it was like, okay, thank God I reached him. I ran behind him, but thank God I reached him. When listening to it, I started to reflect on it and say, what if I didn't run? And then those police came and saw me and remember Waruqa Hill is one of the biggest ghettos in Jamaica they would have probably killed me because police back then were very trigger-happy, so they would have probably killed me.
Speaker 5:Sitting and actually remembering and reminiscing those days, I was like, yes, social proof, it can be helpful at some times Because, as it said, if 50,000 persons say something foolish, it's still going to be foolish. That's true, right, but if you see someone run and you don't know why they're running and you actually run and say their life, then social proof actually works out in some ways. So it's a very interesting book and I'm going to continue to listen to the audiobook until I get through the entire seven hours plus and repeat that again, because it's a very interesting book and, as what dub said, you can actually use it as a benchmark in your life. Basically. So it's been one of the best books so far for the book club and congrats on that, bro, to everyone who made this choice, made this pick, including myself, congrats, congrats. I love this book so far.
Speaker 3:Thanks, Dem Rees. Much love to you, bro. Well, Sparky, you still here and want to wrap up. My friend, I don't know if it's just me, Demrys, can you hear Sparky at all? You hear we might have lost Sparky. Well, my friends, I'm so sorry. I'm starting dinner early and I was not expecting to speak right now. Okay, so wonderful space. I'm really happy for all of you that came through. Thanks so much for hanging around and talking about the art of thinking clearly. Thanks so much for hanging around and talking about the art of thinking clearly.
Speaker 3:I've been just enjoying this one and I can't wait for next week. Let's get together around the same time. I'm doing this time on Sundays. It's just a great window. After basketball it's still just crazy season.
Speaker 3:I hope you guys are staying busy and productive and happy. Let's kick ass this week. We've got a week coming up and let's kick its ass. I'm certainly feeling really empowered today watching a bunch of kiddos pick up on a sport and start to incorporate things. Human beings are so cool. I'm really just blown away by human beings, our minds, the way we can do different things and share love and happiness and teach each other, and I'm just super bullish on the whole experience. So let's kick ass this week. Much love to you all. Sparky, if you can hear me, thank you again. I always appreciate your thoughts and these spaces have been great. And to everyone else, thanks for listening. You can always come up and talk. I know we're long-winded, but please, please, feel free to join us. We'd love anyone to come up and we always love you hanging out as well. Sparky, you there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, sorry.
Speaker 3:We got Sparky. All right, I just did my wrap-up. If you'd like to do any wrap-ups, the time is yours. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think everything was pretty much covered for the points for today. I think we just finished everything up with a song. Tonight's song is another controversial one. I think the song is another controversial one simply because, even though he talks about being kind of in between and not really on one side over the other, he did partner with someone on one side of the arguments with Ben Shapiro for this song. So the song does tend to trigger a lot of people who don't like Ben Shapiro or don't like his takes because of his name, in whatever way.
Speaker 4:But the song is called Facts and me I like facts, I like to have things have facts around them, because it helps with the logical conversation. It's very hard to have a conversation when the only thing that you're presenting is feelings and there's no tangible substance to that. It's just, I feel this way, so I'm right. Well, no, because you can feel the sky is purple or you can feel that the grass is maroon, but the facts are that they're not, and you're probably colorblind if that's the case. So, um, this song is is for that, uh, for that reason, um, I think, uh, I think to kind of wrap up the space.
Speaker 4:Um, in general, after or before I do put the song on, though, I thank everybody for coming and listening. It would be great to have more speakers. So if anybody does want to come up and talk about this stuff, even if you have questions about it, that's kind of why we're here. It's not necessarily for us to ramble on and just explain these things, because if you're reading along, then we really shouldn't be needing to explain them. It's more or less for us to have a conversation and go over them. So, please, if you guys want to come up and discuss them and ask questions about them and give examples of things that you've seen, that you realize, I think it'll be better off for everybody. So, uh, have a good one. Thanks for coming by, and uh, and here's the song controversial.
Speaker 2:It's only two genders boys and girls. They can't cancel my message because I'm the biggest independent rapper in the whole freaking world. Claim that I'm racist? Yeah, all right, I'm out of shame because I'm white. If every caucasian's a bigot, I guess every muslim's a terrorist. Every liberal is right. I don't want to talk to folks who don't get it. Go woke, go broke, no hope. It's pathetic. Pro-choice, pro-nouns, pro-love. You're progressives but you ain't pro-gun no one to protect you.
Speaker 2:American flags Remember when people would hang those? They've been taken down. They all been replaced with BLM lights or a rainbow. This ain't money, cars and clothes. We ain't selling drugs. We ain't gonna overdose. We ain't pushing guns, ain't promoting strip of poles. We won't turn your sons into thugs or your daughters into hoes. I don't care if I fail you. I was put here to upset you. You've been crying. You can scream. You've been rioting the streets. You've defunded the police. Now there's no one to protect you. I hope I offend you. I ask myself what we've been through. Let's just keep it real facts. Don't care how you feel, man, if you want my pronouns, I'm the. I'm the man you don't respect.
Speaker 1:Let's look at the stats. I've got the facts. My money, like Lizzo, my pockets are fat Homie. I'm epic. Don't be a wap Dog. It's a yarmulke homie. No cap. Look at the graphs. Look at my charts. You're blowing money on strippers and cars. You go into prison. I'm on television. Keep hating on me on the internet. My comments actually know what Karen's and I make raps off compound interest. Y'all live with your parents. Nikki, take some notes. I just did this for fun. All my people download this. Let's get a billboard number one.
Speaker 2:This ain't rap. This ain't money, cars and clothes. We ain't selling drugs. We ain't gonna overdose. We ain't pushing guns, ain't promoting stripper pose. We won't turn your sons into thugs or your daughters into hoes.
Speaker 2:I don't care if I offend you. I was put into a stadium. You can cry and you can scream. You can riot in the streets. You defunded the police. Now there's no one to protect you. I would not offend you. I ask myself, what would Ben do? Let's just keep it real fast.
Speaker 2:I don't care how you feel, man, if you want my pronouns, I'm the man. I'm the man who don't respect you. You mad, you mad, you mad. I guess it's cool to be the victim. Well, i'ma be the man. You sad, you sad, you sad. You just try to get attention being triggered so you laugh. You mad, you mad, you mad. You blame everybody else for every problem that you can. You said, you said, you said. I will never say I'm sorry, I ain't taking nothing back. I don't care if I Was. I ain't taking nothing back. I don't care if I offend you. I was put here to upset you. You can cry and you can scream. You can riot in the streets. You're defunding the police. Now there's no one to protect you. I'm about to offend you.
Speaker 2:I ask myself what would Ben do? Let's just keep it real, man.
Speaker 4:Stunk at how you feel, man, if you want my pronouns, I'm the man, I'm the well, in fact, I think the fact is that ben shapiro is a terrible, terrible rapper, but it still doesn't defeat the message. I think the message is you know, facts are uh typically something that should be seen as a better argument than feelings, and, um, your feelings don't matter when facts are involved. So, uh, yeah, try to take that song for what it is, the the message that they're trying to say. He literally says that he's trying to offend people with it. So, um, take it with a grain of salt and uh, again, let's let's uh read this book and start to think, and uh, think a little bit more clearer and use some more critical thinking in our day-to-day. Thanks for coming to Bamboo Book Time, guys.