EVERY SPOKEN WORD
155 min read · 30,608 words- 0:00 – 15:00
You do not need…
- CWChris Williamson
You do not need a feeling of insufficiency in order to motivate yourself to go and become a better version of yourself. You can do that simply because you want to become better, simply because your time on this earth is limited, and in that time, you want to make the most of your minutes here and leave the world in a better place than you found it. That does not mean that you need to feel terrified and insignificant and broken and fragile and insufficient without making progress. This progress is not going to fill the hole that you feel inside of yourself. That hole can only be filled by you feeling like you are enough already. (whoosh) Hello, everybody. I'm back. I'm back. I made it. I made it back from Austin all the way to the UK. That flight nearly destroyed me because it was 24 hours basically without any sleep, but I managed to catch up and woke up to find that we'd hit 250,000 subscribers on YouTube, which is good news. It's the- that was the outcome goal, the one outcome goal that we had for the channel this year was 250,000 subs before Christmas. We've done it with three days, four days to spare, so still considering it a win. As is tradition, thought that I would do a Q&A episode and there were a lot of questions, so I'm very sorry if I didn't get to yours. Either I haven't had time or it wasn't interesting enough. So, uh, yeah, let's get into it. George Mack, "What podcast, yours or others', have you re-listened to the most?" Naval on Joe Rogan. That podcast, it's the best podcast of all time as far as I'm concerned. It's absolutely phenomenal. If you haven't listened to it, go and check it out. Naval just drops calm, mind-blowing wisdom for a couple of hours and then leaves and then says, "I'm not going back on for a long, long time because I want to have new thoughts." The guy's ... like he's just such a p- force of nature. Awesome, awesome episode. Sam Flett, "Any thoughts on how you approach political arguments these days? Just seems pointless debating anything regarding politics, gender, race, et cetera as everyone is convinced they're right." Yes. Humor is a really, really good tool for this, and this is only something I've realized recently that if you try and take it too seriously, and I'm aware that these can be serious topics, but if you can approach them with a little bit of humor, people are ... it- it allows a let-off valve for all of the people in the conversation. It stops it from getting too serious. So whenever I- I don't talk about it that much. It's a culture war issue, but in- outside of the show, I'm not really that bothered. Like, it's- it is a big cost that you have to pay and I'm not very interested in the outcomes, at least not personally. So use humor, like remember that it's just a game and everybody is going to die and in three generations no one will remember your name. So taking anything too seriously seems a little bit dumb, especially stuff which isn't directly applicable to you. Like these are group dynamics that you're talking about here. So remember that it's all a game. Paul Campbell, "Have you felt compelled to share your stance on how COVID has been/is being handled? Vaccinations and lockdowns and masks and more. It seems many of the podcasters have diverted their content toward this topic more than Modern Wisdom. And are you going to break the Spotify app with five-star ratings now that Spotify podcast ratings have been launched?" Okay, so second question first. Yes. Uh, if you haven't checked your Spotify app, you can now rate. You can give star ratings like an Apple Podcasts on Spotify. So if you haven't done that already, please find Modern Wisdom and go and give me five stars. That would make me very, very happy. And I want to hit 1K because we've got a thousand s- reviews on Apple Podcasts and I need the same on Spotify. So go do that. Link will be somewhere. Uh, have I felt compelled to share my stance on how COVID has and is being handled? So yes, what you've seen is a lot of podcasters have become what's called audience captured. So they have found that they can get clout and plays and money through plays by leaning into either a pro or an anti-vaccine, pro or anti-lockdown message. The whole COVID thing to me is ... it would take an awful lot of research to have a sufficiently well-researched opinion. The background reading that I would need to do in order for me to get to the level of competence and understanding around COVID that I would need is higher than I'm prepared to put in. And there are so many other podcasters out there that are leaning into this topic. Plus it just seems like the- the information is very, very difficult to parse. David Fuller from Rebel Wisdom has done more reading than pretty much anyone that I know on the planet and even he still has questions around this. So yeah, I've purposefully kind of steered away from that. If a guest wants to talk about it, I'm happy to have a chat, but I- I don't fancy adding more noise into the tiny, tiny amount of signal that's out there about COVID. Like I ... not an epidemiologist, I'm not a virologist. I don't understand publi- public health. I have my own opinions, but this is quite a serious situation. So I think, you know, letting the experts speak, at least on this one, like this is the one that I cannot give my cod psychology bro science opinion on. I'll leave, leave the experts to this one. Terry The Tuff Cunt, "Someone somewhere sometime did the biggest fart in the history of humanity. Question, what country and what era do you think they were from? Guesses on duration." I love everything about this question, including the name. Um, what country, what person and time would have had the most ... Well, it's got to be modern day, I think. More processed foods in the modern day.I mean, there's some, there's some big boys in America. I saw some big boys while I was traveling. Um, but then they eat lots and lots of greens in somewhere like Japan. And you could imagine some little Japanese grandmother just cracking out a big one. Just a big fat one out of nowhere. Uh, I'm gonna go with the, I'm gonna go with the little Japanese lady. I'm gonna say modern day Japan, like one of the... Just a village in Japan. Uh, guess is on duration? Well, what, what are you looking for here? Is the biggest fart how long it went for? 'Cause she could have just squeezed a little one out for a long amount of time. Or is it a... Is it the volume of gas that's left out? Or is it the size of the noise? Is it how loud the, the actual fart itself was? Um, if I was gonna say duration, I can't see how much longer than about a five second, five seconds of actual gas passage. I don't think that you can beat that, so I'll say five seconds. Could have heard it... Easily could have heard it next door, maybe two houses away. Uh, Japanese lady. @realpauldano, "Do you regret talking to Gad Saad after the gurus pod?" So, for people who aren't aware of what any of this means, there is a podcast called Decoding the Gurus. They featured an episode that I did with Gad Saad, and they had some, uh, less than complimentary things to say about it. Uh, and then I went on the- their podcast to do a right of reply and kind of explain my position and stuff, and that, that seemed to go down really well. Uh, I was really happy with the, with the response to people, to my response. Um, I don't regret speaking to Gad at all, no. That whole process of being featured on Decoding the Gurus and then speaking to the guys afterwards has been really, really valuable. I mean, it wasn't very comfortable. It was... Like, it's not nice to have someone critique something that you really, really care about. But some of the things that they brought up have led me to become a better podcaster. So, I- I'm all for it. The ends justify the means, even if the means were kind of pretty shitty, at least in terms of my experience. Aaronhasherpes, "What do you feel has been the formula/circumstances that significantly increased your popularity on YouTube?" Man, I don't know. A- again, fucking what a, what an absolutely awesome username. I don't know where we're at with YouTube at the moment. It still feels... I- I'm a bit biased, right? But I think that Modern Wisdom is hopelessly under subscribed, and press subscribe obviously if you haven't done already. But like, I really, really... I've always loved the conversations. I've always loved the guests that we've had on here. If I wasn't running this show, I would subscribe to it, and that's why I've made it. Um, when I look at some of the stuff out there that is crushing it in terms of plays, I do sometimes think like, "What are we missing?" I don't know what it is. I know that we've... We're doing well, and a quarter of a million subs is nothing to sniff at. But maybe it's just a case that we're playing catch up. Uh, maybe the difference... I feel like there's a difference between the quality of the content, the quality of the conversations, and where the channel is at. And I feel like that there's still a lot of low-hanging fruit for us to pick up. But the biggest difference this year has been that we got really serious about clips. We did a rebrand, so all of the thumbnails look really nice and beautiful, and they're all consistently designed so that you can kind of get this signature style. You know that it's us. Just simple stuff. And then, you know, continuing to pick up good name guests, but then, you know, you look at an episode like Vincent Jaramillo or Adam Lane-Smith. These guys are essentially nobodies, right? Internet, in terms of internet clout, they're nobodies. You put them on the internet and have an awesome conversation with them and it absolutely bangs. So, focusing on clips, making sure that we were consistent with that, improving the quality of the thumbnails, just like little things. But personally, I'm hoping that there is a... We feel like we're in a hockey stick, right? I'm really hoping that this just is the very beginning of the hockey stick and we've got tons of headroom above. Also, if you want to help, just comment for the algo. In fact, you can comment commenting for the algo. Just do that. Whenever you see an episode, just click on it and, and comment, and then we can speed up this manipulating of YouTube's algorithm in a completely unethical way. AlanaMarie1, "Why is it so stressful to try and niche down?" Good question. So I'm guessing that this is someone who's a creator. What she's referring to is that when you begin a channel, often gids (sic) -given advice is that you're supposed to niche down. You're supposed to find a particular microcosm of a broader subject area, and you're supposed to really, really focus on that, because it means that you can find love within a community very quickly. The reason that it's so stressful to do that is that by choosing to do one thing very, very tightly, you're choosing to say no to all of the other things that you could be doing. So that causes you to... It's just FOMO, basically. You're looking at all of the other topics that you might be able to do and thinking, "Oh, well, by, by focusing on fitness, that means that all of my insights about fucking cryptocurrency, they- they're not gonna work." Or, "Because I'm gonna do things to do with cooking at home, that means that my dog walking content is gonna go down the pan." So, you need to give up one thing for another thing. You... By niching down, you are inevitably saying no to a whole bunch of other stuff, which is why choosing the niche is really important. But that being said, I'm not the best person to speak to about niches. I just stuck my middle finger up at niches and decided to speak to, you know, a porn star and a philosopher and a psychologist and a whatever back to back to back. Um, so personally, depending on what the type of content is, I think that you can get away with rapid growth without niching down. And if you want to do it, you are going to suffer some stress, especially if you have a wide range of interests, 'cause you're going to see all of the things, that interesting buffet of options that you are not choosing to look at.adamdixon95. (text plops) "Do you limit your phone use, and if so, what strategies do you use?" Yes, I do. Massive into phone reduction and tech reduction. So, sleep with your phone outside of your bedroom, don't use your phone before a certain time and don't use it after a certain time. So, like, intermittent fasting for your phone. All of the apps off your main home screen. Remove Siri search so you can't search for it. Uh, and ... What's the other one? Mm. There is another one. That, I mean, uh, do that, do those things, and you will change, you will have a, a hugely redefined relationship with your phone. Oh, take social media off your main phone and get ... I have a second phone which is for Instagram and Twitter and stuff, and that is wifi only. So when I go out of the house, I can't use social media. Um, those, those'll make a huge difference. Even just sleeping with it outside of your room and the don't use it before a time and don't use it after a time, that's a game changer. MindfulMitch. (text plops) "Would you rather fight a Komodo dragon or a drunk pit bull?" (sniffs) Do you mean, do you mean Pitbull, the rapper, drunk? Or do you mean a dog which has been inebriated? Because Pitbull the rapper kind of looks like he's drunk all the time, and I ... I don't know. I feel like a drunk pit bull dog would make it easier to fight, and I think a Komodo dragon is already pretty ... Uh, gimme pit bull. I want, I don't want ... Because you've been insufficiently precise with your language here. I don't want a drunk Pitbull the dog. I'll take on Pitbull the rapper, drunk any day of the week, and then I'll feed him to the Komodo dragon once I'm finished. (sniffs) "Anything that would make your life more fulfilling right now?" from jojomclaff. Um, more impact, I think, would be, is gonna be one of the things that I push for next year. Um, I really want to use ... We've worked hard at building a platform, right? And although I still feel like we're hopelessly undersubscribed, the, we get to reach, you know, a few million people a month. And I really want next year to try and push a lot to do things that optimize for impact and optimize for making people's lives better. Uh, I did a free end of year review template process thing, which you can get if you haven't done your end of year review yet. It'll appear up here at chriswillex.com/review. You can go and get it for free. Um, and that was cool. People messaged me and said, "Hey man, just wanted to let you know I've finished the end of year review. I've got really clear about the things that I want next year." Uh, and it made me feel very, very cool. So more stuff like that, more high impact things. But life's pretty fulfilling
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Section 2
- CWChris Williamson
as it is. So yeah, if, if I can beat where I'm at at the moment, I'll be pretty impressed. connbavedas, "What is something that motivates you to make content? I've been watching you for some time now, and it seems very grueling and intimidating to get interviews and put out podcasts when you're just starting. How did you cope with that and work through it?" Um, there's two, two separate questions here. So motivating me to get through the grueling side, and then intimidating when you first start. Uh, intimidating when you first start, just don't take it too seriously. Know that you're ... Basically go, you're a newb, right? You're a white belt at whatever it is that you're trying to pursue. So just treat it like that. Okay, you're gonna mess up more times than you're successful for the first however long that you do whatever your pursuit is. You know, let's use content creation for that. But it's the same with anything. You're gonna fuck up over and over and over and over again. Just accept that. "Okay, this is just another lesson that I need to add to the pile." And every single time that you get one of those, it is one time fewer that you're going to make a mistake in future. So that would be ... That, that's exactly how I saw it when I first started. Like, it's skill acquisition, and this is a skill which is incredibly complex and lots and lots and lots of people are very, very good at. And if I compare myself to them, then I'm going to feel, like, terrible. Uh, and then something that motivates me now, I guess, to keep going is ... It's like a habit, man. Like, if I didn't have two to three conversations for a couple of hours per week, I would feel like there was something wrong. I would feel like, uh, uh, I don't know, like I'm thirsty and need a drink, but the drink is a conversation. It's just, it's sh- it shows the power of routine. Look at a really punishing schedule, which I still find difficult, and yet when you slowly build it up over time, you go from one a week to two a week to three a week, plus guesting, plus editing, plus clips on YouTube, plus content on YouTube, plus the newsletter, plus everything else. Like, you just get there step by step. And that's the whole it takes 10 years to become an overnight success thing. You look at people that have been doing whatever it is for a long, long, long time, and you think, "God, they seem almost superhuman." And you don't realize that all that they've done is taken some very, very, very slow steps over time, consistently, and they get there. And to them they're just like, "Oh, this is just what I do." Like, yeah, I've ... I'm all right at this. But yeah. Slowly, slowly. That's the way to do it. Uh, m- (text plops) ml- mlaycock, mlaycock23, "Loved your openness to chat and learn with Decoding the Gurus. Very refreshing." Thank you. Yes. I was the first person, uh, actually that had asked to go back on to go and have a chat with them. That was one of the more, um, not stressful, but I was excited. Like, I was really, really excited to go and speak to them, uh, and, and sort of put myself up against two guys that are ... They can be quite disagreeable. They're smart dudes. They're quick. Um, and I was looking forward to having a conversation, and it was ... It went better than I think any of us could have hoped. And me and Chris Kavanagh, the host of Decoding the Gurus, had already had this big three-hour chat, so I al- I already had a sensation that it could be really good and, like, a really amazing episode, and it ended up being great. So, I appreciate the guys for being good sports and letting me come on.... inexorable. What belief/beliefs do you hold that you suspect your subscribers would most disagree on or find surprising? (sighs) So, I've- I really got changed by the conversation I had with Andrew Gold when he spoke about spending time with pedophiles and pedo-criminals, uh, the difference being that pedophiles are attracted to children and pedo-criminals act on it. But the pedophiles don't. They sort of understand that their sexuality is something which they can't act on. And, um, just increasingly, the more that I learn about that section of the world, people who are born with an attraction to children and choose not to act on it, but are still- they still feel incredibly alienated from society and, you know, unsurprisingly... The belief would be that pedophiles, it seems to me like they need a- they need sympathy. Um, you know, we- we need to find a way to make these people that don't choose to act on their impulses, but they- they are working hard to try and control something which they've just been cursed with... You know, they didn't choose their sexuality. You do not get to choose what you are sexually attracted to, and yet somebody who's working so hard simply to try and not do something that they know all of society is going to hate them for, but then finding out that they- they're alienated and, you know, lambasted by all of society, like, it just- it makes me feel real uncomfortable. I don't know what the solution is either, and, like, we should be understanding of people who aren't acting on their impulses but do find children attractive, is... I mean, that's not a particularly popular line of thinking, uh, and, you know, people that read tabloids, it's quite easy to, like, "Lock 'em up, lock 'em up! Fucking nonces." And you go, "Well, yeah, the ones that act on it, I'm happy to castrate them. But the ones that don't, like, they didn't choose to be this way." And this, uh, th- that's just my empathy kicking in that I really struggle to just imagine that. Like, imagine that that was the way that you were born, that that was what life had gifted you as your sexual proclivity. Could have been gay, could have been straight, could have swung both ways. No, had to get given this. And yeah, it- that's something that increasingly, I think, will be more and more of a conversation, right? We need to integrate people into society. So, that would be one. Jake Rok, "Thots on Bitcoin." Uh, so I think this is supposed to be "thoughts on Bitcoin," but you've spelled it as "thots," so I'm going to talk about thoughts on Bitcoin, and yes, you are right. There are loads and loads of girls that look like they should be on OnlyFans that promote crypto and NFTs. And w- what you're seeing there is basically decentralized OnlyFans. All that you've got is girls who are fit with big Instagram followings or big Twitter followings talking about NFT drops and stuff, and then guys that want to simp for them are buying these NFTs or investing in this crypto thing, hoping that they're going to get attention from the girl that talked about it. So, that is my thoughts on thots on Bitcoin. Sam H Smith, "Do you think that the podcast space develops ideas or does it simply propagate the ideas that individuals have on their own?" That is a fucking great question. Um, this has come from The Locals, by the way, which has some terrifyingly smart people in. Modern Wisdom Locals is like, I don't know, a radically sensible group of cultists. Um, does this... So, I definitely think that there's new things that come out of it because when two people are putting their ideas forward and they're focused on the conversation in front of them, they can end up synthesizing things in a new way. For instance, (sighs) yeah, for instance, I had a conversation with Vincent Haranam a little while ago and neither of us said it, but both of us realized that one of the implications of having a vast class of, uh, underclass of sexless men and women who are struggling to find a partner which is up and across their dominance hierarchy, one of the potential solutions, probably one- an unpopular one, would be to have one woman, uh, sorry, one man with many women and just pick the men that are the- they've got the most status, the- the Elon Musks of the world, right? He can fund the lives of 30,000 women the same as one millionaire. Now, I'm not proposing that as an idea. However, that was something that neither of us had thought of before that podcast. So, I do think that it develops ideas. However, there is a lot of just regurgitation, and I see this in myself, right? Like, I'm having a conversation with somebody about something, they bring up a topic, and I have my answer, I- I have the line that I've- I have said in the past. So, good podcasters try, when that comes up, to reassess, "Okay, sh- do I just release the same sequence of words that I usually do, or should I try and assess whether or not I have a new insight around this?" And that's really, really difficult, especially if you're podcasting multiple times per week, because you don't have a bottomless pit of things to tap into, you know? You're not this endless well of insights, so you are going to repeat yourself. Um, however, I think that there are some new things that come out of the podcast space. How many people act on them and make changes in the world because of it? It's probably a bit of a different question. Uh, Hawaii Escape Co, "Did you know the Petersons were going to recruit you to teach? What will you teach?" Uh, so that isn't my announcement about the Petersons. I'm afraid that that's a swing and a miss for Hawaii Escape Co. Uh, that's not what's happening next year. ButterflyBasher, "Just curious, can't find any interviews with women on the scroll down of your page."... do you only talk to men and is that on purpose/what you've based your podcast on? Uh, you haven't looked hard enough, I'm afraid. There are many interviews with women on there. Anna Lembke this year has been one of the most played. Um, however, it is much easier to find men who want to say yes. Uh, the public intellectual space is still dominated by men. If you look at most of the people that are writing nonfiction in the areas that I talk about, it is dominated by men, so there is a skew that way. Uh, and being honest, it is easier to get men to say yes to come on the podcast. I don't know why, but my strike rate with getting guys on is easier. Uh, I definitely don't have... I'll have my biases I'm unaware of, but there's no... I don't think, "I'm not going to get that person on because it's a woman." I'm going out of my way to try and find interesting women to speak to. But, you know, if you've got suggestions, if you have... Uh, this is the same thing I always say, whenever someone pipes up and says there's not enough of whatever type of person, my first answer or my question back is, "Who would you suggest? Who do you want from the subgroup? So if you can't find interviews with women on the podcast, what women would you like me to speak to?" Tell me and I'll get their emails and I will reach out to them if they're interesting. Zero Gratification: favorite Bring Me The Horizon song/era? Fucking great question. Uh, probably Sempiternal's got to be the album, um, because that was just... That, that entire live show was amazing. The production was phenomenal. Me and my buddy Mark went to go and see them at Manchester, maybe at the NEN, I think. And it was just, it was outstanding. And then, or was that Drown? Was that, uh... whatever the one with the umbrella was? I don't know. But that and probably Avalanche, favorite song. Politically Homeless: how can you bring in new people that may not be on the radar but who have ideas that deserve to be explored? This is a fucking awesome question as well. So increasingly now, as the show grows and as we do more and more plays and get more and more reach, this is... This shit fires me up so much, finding someone that is an absolute animal and doesn't yet have a platform, and now I can be that person who can take this little unknown rough-hewn diamond and just give them enough, uh, boost, boost that signal, and they can go and absolutely smash it. So Adam Lane-Smith is a perfect example of that from this year. He did this awesome Twitter thread. I saw it, I said, "If he can podcast one fucking tenth as well as he can tweet, this guy's going to be an animal." Sure enough, came on, smashed it. Second most highly played episode of the year, which is behind... It's Jordan Peterson and then Adam Lane-Smith, nobody, psychotherapist from the middle of Fuckno's Bumfuck. And that, that gasses me up so much. It's so interesting, so cool, that I can now be a magnifying glass or a megaphone for people who really deserve it, who've got talent but just haven't managed to find a platform. Vincent Jaramillo is the same thing. Lauren Johnson, that, um, mental performance coach who worked with the New York Yankees for years, exactly the same. And then Adam goes and does Mikhaila Peterson's podcast and launches a course and does a bunch of other things. Lauren Johnson, after she did me, she went and did Ben Bergeron's show. Uh, Vincent Jaramillo. Jordan Peterson has reached out to me and said that he wants an introduction to him after the episode that I did. So it's, it's so cool. Like, that's the best thing. And it's, it's weird, because I can still remember the time, you know, when you begin a podcast where you're desperately asking for other people's assistance to grow your clout. And that's, you know, not to say that I'm not still doing that. But I can be that person now for other people, and that's like... it's so dope. Lyndon: wonder if you think there is a small town mentality in the Northeast that keeps a lot of people from venturing very far, both spiritually, mentally, and physically? Yes, absolutely. I mean, this is probably the same anywhere, right? Small town mentality, people that are born, live, and die here, they find their partners here, they get married here, they have their kids here, their kids maybe even go the same school that they did or they're in this similar sort of catchment area. It's probably the same all over the world, but it's a part of the Northeast that makes me, like, kind of uncomfortable. It's like, it... the small mindedness is, is my least favorite part of it, and I go out of my way to find... If you look at the list of friends that I have that are from the Northeast, they're people that you wouldn't think were from there. And that's not to say that there's nothing, that there's something wrong with a small town mentality, but it's not the sort of life that I want to live. And that means that if I'm not careful, I'll start to adopt a bunch of values from people that I don't want to inculcate myself. So yeah, it, it absolutely does. And if that's you, if you're around those people, then just find yourself a new community of people. They are out there. It's a little bit more difficult to find in, you know, spit and sawdust, salt of the earth, working class towns, but
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(laughs) …
- CWChris Williamson
they're there. Ryanjiham, Ryanham, (laughs) uh, have you ever, have you ever had a guest who was that much of a dickhead that you had to not air the episode? So I've never had someone be a dickhead, but maybe one in 50 just don't go very well, and I'll choose to not air it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it doesn't show the guest in a good light.Like, if, if I have a conversation with someone and it's just not that interesting or they're not in that game or they're not making sense, like, it's not good for them. So let's say it's for, through a publisher or it's for their new book or whatever, it's not good for them to have that content out there. And you guys dedicate, you know, an hour or 90 minutes three times a week to the podcast. And although I could hopefully ride the waves of a few months' worth of, like, subpar episodes and you would still come back and listen to more, and I am conscious of the fact that there is a, a high competition for people's a- attention online, and you're really only as good as the next thing that you put in front of your audience. And yeah, over time, hopefully the loyalty that's being built up means that people have confidence in me even if there's an episode that isn't quite for them. But I do try and avoid that. Like, it is one really good way to cannibalize your own audience very quickly, is to just put out a bunch of shit episodes or a bunch of, of shit content. Um, so yeah, there's maybe one in 50, so, like, what's that? 2%. Like, a 2% failure rate on bringing people on. Uh, and the most annoying thing about it is not only obviously I've taken up the guest's time, but, like, it was them that was the shit guest, so it's not my fault. Uh, the worst thing about it is that I've taken up a slot recording with that person, which means that I now need to record four the following week just so that I can keep on with the same publishing schedule. And if I'm already behind or if I've maybe only got one booked in this week, I'm like, right, okay, so that's a five-day week next week for me to record in order for me to just stay on track with how many I need in the bank. Abby Swan, "Do you think you'll ever do any live events like James and Diran, et cetera?" Uh, yeah, I'd love to. Seeing James Smith, who is a fitness PT guy from the UK, for those of you who don't know, uh, and Diran Cartel, who's, like, his other half, um, they both do live events around their books, around their courses, or around just things that they've been talking about. And watching that live is powerful. It's really cool. Uh, so I would love to do that. I don't know whether we're at the stage whether that's realistic. Um, there's a few conversations being had behind the scenes about some cool shit that we might do over the next year to 18 months. Um, and if I was to write a book, then I would almost definitely try and do a live tour off the back of that, just because it would be awesome to speak about it in front of an audience and then get audience feedback. Um, yeah, it's, it's fun. I don't know... I don't know that there's probably gonna be any bigger of a buzz than to talk about something that you genuinely care about on stage in front of a group of people who all know you, who all are built similar to each other, who are familiar with your stuff. Uh, like, the, the way that you must feel after you do that is, is amazing. Next up, Jack Dankiels, "Do you consider jacking off to be a sport?" Uh, depends how frantically you do it. Like, vigorous, vigorous fapping would make for a high intensity workout, but it's probably going to be pretty short, um, and also perhaps dangerous. But... "Do you consider jacking off to be a sport?" I wouldn't like to see the channel that tries to commercialize that. You know, if we get, you know, in th- these dystopian futures 500 years in the future and all of society's just descended into this limbic hijack gray hell, um, when jacking off becomes a sport, I think we can just... The simulation can just get turned off. Like, that's, that's the final horseman of the apocalypse, when jacking off is a sport. LJ 22, "You've mentioned before that it is difficult for content creators who are learning their craft and building a following to keep to a path signposted by the moral compass when there are so many incentives to plump for audience capture instead. Now that you've reached 250K, which do you feel has potentially been dialed down more, the devil's on, devil on the shoulder that tells you to, uh, tells you that the data on a larger group of people would allow you to grow the channel at a faster rate by giving them what they seem to respond to best, or the angel on the shoulder that says that the larger audience now allows you to potentially play with a narrative that could challenge people to listen to views across the aisle, e.g. David Pakman, or to a more rounded set of contributors, e.g. Patrick Moore, Eisenstein, Richard Betts? Ultimately, do you feel more compelled to grow by giving the people what they want, or more freedom to challenge the audience you have built, or neither, or both?" Uh, this is a fucking sick question. It's another one that's come from the locals, as you can tell. Um, fuck, this is so good. (sighs) I would be... I, I don't think that audience capture right now is something that I need to be too worried about. Like, I'm... My integrity is sufficiently high at the moment. (laughs) It might change in future. But I'm concerned about having interesting conversations with people. I'm concerned about trying to have optimizing for impact next year, you know, really, really trying to add to people's lives, having, making them listen to conversations that's awesome. That being said, bringing someone on like a David Pakman that challenges views heavily for an audience that has become... that has started to expect a particular style of argumentation, that requires a really... The only people that are really, really interested in that are super, super academic or really, really intellectually minded, or people that go out of their way to find that sort of stuff. And it's going to take time for me to gently introduce that sort of content that's like, "Look, the whole purpose of this episode that you're about to listen to is to kind of make you feel a bit uncomfortable or to challenge your current understandings and your current beliefs." So...I would really love it if I get to the stage where I understand exactly what works in terms of still continuing to grow the channel, because, you know, we want to hit a lot more subs than we've got, whilst also being able to bring on people that challenge, um, everyone's existing ideas. Um, that's... The more and more that I get feedback from the audience, from you guys, the more that you comment, the well-meaning ones, not the ones that are just like a- a- an emoji of boobs, like where you do the, you do the two brackets and then you do the nipples with full stops, and a capital Y. Like, the- the really good comments, (laughs) they help and the messages really, really help because they help to direct me toward what is, what is working and what's not. But I can't have conversations that don't land. You need to have conversations that actually grow the channel or else what's the point? If you're just stuck at, whatever, that's a quarter of a million, that's the most that you're ever gonna get, that's- that's not good enough for me. I'm leaving too much on the table. So, I think over time, the challenges of a creator change. As you get bigger, there is a combination of more responsibility, but also more freedom to be able to speak to different people. Um, I don't like the idea that there is... I don't like someone thinking that there is any sort of limitation on who I can or can't speak to, but realistically, there is going to be people out there, you know, the Charles Murray's of this world who wrote The Bell Curve, bringing him on comes with a whole imp- load of baggage, even if there's equal sides contesting whether or not that baggage is true. I'm like, oh, okay, right. So I need to go and research whether or not this guy is as bad as people say he is, and that's contested, and then if I bring him on, I have to have a conversation where, do I bring up his old stuff that we're not sure if it's true or not sure if it's bad or not sure if it's good? It's- it's a difficult one. And increasingly, it's kind of becoming politicized even in the creative space. We saw this with the Decoding The Gurus thing, right? But, yeah, I think over the next year, hopefully continue to do what we've done this year. I think we've had a relatively well-balanced conversation. There's been people from the left and the right, there's been people that have been pro and against. I don't want to have to do that for everything. I don't want to bring someone on that's pro one position and think, "Right, here we go. Here's a series of conversations about fucking abortion or whatever, because I've decided to bring one person on because I thought that they were interesting." Um, but I also think that having that impulse, just having that reminder, it- it keeps me, not in the straight and narrow, but it keeps me moving in the right direction.
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Raffordx. (pop) "As you get higher visibility in the cultural sphere, what, if any, conscious choices/perspectives are you applying to keep yourself grounded/true to yourself, i.e. meeting and interacting with Jordan Peterson, Tim Pool, and other high-profile celebs?" Um... Fuck, this is a good question as well. (sniffs) What am I doing to keep myself grounded and true to... Well, these people are just normal people. That was the main thing that I realized when I met Jordan and we sat down for dinner for, you know, six hours, and I'm two feet, three feet away from him, sat across a table, and he's just a normal bloke. He's just, just a normal bloke that happens to be smart, right? And can communicate his ideas in a, in a good way. And, um, I got a story, right? So I'll, I'll tell you this. One of my friends interviewed a very well-known, uh, atheist a long time ago. No, about two years ago. And they were setting up in his house, and the guy, before they were going to start, said, "I haven't eaten yet today, would you mind if I just grab myself something?" He said, "No, no, it's fine, it's fine. I'll let the videographer crack on." So this guy goes into his fridge and pulls out a Muller Corner, which is one of those yogurts where you have compote in one side and you sort of snap it and pour it into the other. And this guy has been top of my friend's list of interesting people to speak, like, heroic, academic, titan person. And he's looking at him, watching him, and he takes the lid off the top of the yogurt and looks at it for a while and then licks it. And at that moment, my friend told me that all mystic spell, that entire pervasive wonder, the magic that had been around this person just went immediately. Like, if you lick the lid of a yogurt pot, that's the most, that's the most normal person thing that you can do. And that's everyone. So that's what I refer to as a, a yogurt lid moment, which is when you see someone's... Someone that you really respect and admire and realize that they're just a normal dude bro or dude girl. Like, they're just a person, right? They need to wipe their ass and get up in the morning, and they forget things, and you know, they're just normal people. So, it's not, um... it's not been as mad, you know, meeting the Tim Pools or the Jordan Petersons or the Lex Friedmans. Um... I don't know, give me six months and I might be so up my own arse that you can't even, I can't even see you anymore.
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- CWChris Williamson
I'm just living this life, this unencumbered, fucking A-lister life. But for now, I- I'm, uh, I'm just enjoying being like a normal guy who gets to meet these people who are also normal people, right? (pop) Hokagehuff, "Uh, if you could give one advice to your younger self, what would it be?" Um, probably be less afraid, I think. I was very conscious about, very fearful about not being successful for a long time, uh, and that means that on route to achieving success, it- it always felt bitter or... Not bitter. It always felt tentative and fragile, um, and I'm gonna end up where I'm gonna end up, right? Like, the- the work that I put in is going to get me to the place that it's going to get me to. The fact that I'm, that I was fearful around not getting there didn't change anything other than make the experience of getting there more unenjoyable. That's all that happened. So yeah, if I could give one piece of advice, it would just be fearless, right? Just, things are gonna happen. Allow them to come and go.Pim L-Lage Son, (notification pop sound) uh, "Can we get an idea of the plans you have with Jordan, uh, next year?" Can we get an idea of what the plans you have with Jordan next year are about? Um, no, not yet. I'll tell you, I'll tell you in the new year. I'm gonna ... We're hanging off on announcing until the new year. But you will, you will see it when we do it and it's gonna be pretty cool. It's gonna be very, very cool. (notification pop sound) Birdie152, "Does having/growing audience, does having a growing audience/potential mate pool make it difficult to find a meaningful relationship?" Um, not really. Like, I, it's podcasting, you know. Like, I have a very meaningful relationship at the moment and podcasting doesn't influence that. I'm not ... If you're Logan Paul, right, and you're constantly flying all over the world and in nightclubs in Miami and your brother's knocking out Tyron Woodley and stuff, that's a little bit different to being someone that researches the dopaminergic balance system, to have a conversation with some researcher from Stanford. Um, I imagine that there must come a tipping point when your platform is so big that you, you kind of are your body of work. Like, so think about, whatever, a Jordan Peterson or a Brett Weinstein or whoever, like a big, big content creator, they almost, they almost don't become human anymore. We almost look at these people as if they're not human. We look at them as if they're just their work, they're their body of work. And you forget, this is the thing about the previous question to do with what's it like meeting these people and how do you keep your feet on the ground, that from the outside looking in, these people are so much their bodies of work that they're barely even human anymore. But I don't know when that, I don't know when that point arrives when people no longer see you for just being a, a person. I imagine it must come ... I don't know. We'll find out. We'll find out. You will know because I'll start wearing a huge pimp fur coat, cane, top hat, and you'll have to call me milady. Uh, Mikajde
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Section 4
- CWChris Williamson
Dalton, "How do you decide ... I've been ..." I'm sorry to everyone. I've butchered every single fucking name today, so apologies. Have simpler names. Have whatever it was, Harry Has Herpes and Terry the, Terry the Dominator or whatever it was called. (laughs) (notification pop sound) "Uh, how do you decide which speakers you would like to feature on Modern Wisdom?" Good question. Um, with difficulty actually. Uh, I am constantly looking at books that have been released, always looking at other people's shows. I have a little community with me and Michaela and Aubrey and his team and a couple of other people who kind of, uh, were able to share ideas in a way, but it's not very easy. Um, and if you have somebody that you think that I should bring on, just tweet it at me, tweet it at me or send it to the contact form on the website because if you see someone that you think is an awesome podcast guest, I'm, uh, why haven't I got them? Like, if you listen to the show, be a part of the show. Like, you can say, you can curate what it is that you listen to. This is like a fucking choose your own adventure for Netflix thing. If you want something doing, tell me. If I can get the person on and if they're good, I'll do it. Just make sure that you link something they've already done and who they are and why I should get them on. Make the message short and just email it to chriswillex.com/contact. There's a form on there and just send it to me and if we can get them on, we'll get them on. (notification pop sound) "Uh, ratio of pod guests you source/guests who request to come on plus sourcing challenges?" So as I just said above, it's difficult because I need to do three a week. That's a very, very large amount of content. The problem is, I can't afford to really dilute down the quality because I'm competing. Every single podcast can get taken apart. And this was the problem with the Decoding the Gurus thing. Each podcast needs to stand on its own. I don't get more leeway because I'm doing three a week and somebody else does one a month. Their quality can be put up against mine. You could put those two episodes side by side, and if mine doesn't match up with theirs, then that's it. You just look like less of a good podcaster. So it's hard, uh, mostly. And the ratio of ones who request to come on, there are quite a lot of requests. Um, the ones that I like the least are the ones that come in from ... I'm trying to be diplomatic here. The ones that I like the least are the ones that come in from agencies, it's like podcastbookers.org and stuff. And all that they do is they just have people that want to get booked on shows and just spam them around a list of podcasters. That's kind of, that's a bit shitty. Uh, sometimes you find diamonds in the rough who want to come on, but the best ones are ones who other people that you respect, either o- other podcasters or well-meaning audience members send. And I, like, I can't remember who it was. Some- It's happened at least, at least four of the episodes from 2021 were someone tagging me on Twitter and saying, "Chris, you really should get this person on." I watch, you know, a little bit of a podcast that they've linked me with, and then I reply to the tweet and say, "How do you feel about coming on, name? Like, my DMs are open, just let me know." And it, and it happens. So if you wanna do that, you can all be, everybody can be a researcher, right? Everyone can be a researcher for Modern Wisdom, just fucking make sure they're good. (notification pop sound) "What's your favorite Britney Spears song?" From Ja- Jiamin P, "What's your favorite Britney Spears song? Do you believe intelligent forms of life exist out in the universe?" I'm not sure if these two are linked, what's your favorite Britney Spears song and do you believe in intelligent forms of life? Um, I don't have a favorite Britney Spears song, sorry. Uh, whatever happened to her? Oh, she's in court, isn't she? She's in court trying to ... What's she trying to ... She's trying to, like, get her own.... ne- she- g- the license to be able to take herself to the toilet or something. Like, her dad's- her dad owns her entire life and she can't put a pair of slippers on without his request first or something. It's a bit ... that's a weird one. Um, do I believe in intelligent forms of life? (sigh) Pass. Don't usually do this, but pass. I really, really don't know. Um, the odds seem so astronomical and yet selection bias, the, uh, selection observer effect, I think it's called, where because we are the place that we've observed it, we presume that it has to be everywhere, but we don't know how unlikely. It could be one in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion chance, uh, and we're the one, and we would be here. If that's so, we would be exactly here thinking, "Well, there's gotta be some elsewhere." Don't know, man. Don't know. (mouth popping sound) "You've started a business and are allowed five guests from the pod to work with from hazbolz." That is a sick question. Um, George Mack has to be in there. I need, I need that man on board. Jordan Peterson, I'm gonna, uh, utilize his ridiculously huge reach and YouTube channel and his massive email list. James Smith, he's gonna be in there for comedic relief and because he understands how to make businesses. Who are the other two? Need a wo- uh, Anna Lembke from Stanford. She can be the researcher to make sure that we're not frying our dopamine and she can keep us sweet. Uh, and I was gonna say Sienna Day, the porn star, but that's- that seems like a- that makes it into a different sort of business. Um, who else would I put in as the final one? Maybe, maybe Ben Bergeron, and Ben can be COO, and he could be like- he could be the performance ... Well, actually, who's- no. So George'll make it- George'll make it happen. I'll be there because for some reason I- I- I'm allowed as an- in as a part of this. James Smith understands the internet thing. Jordan Peterson's got the- got the platform. Anna's gonna make sure we don't fly our d- fry our dopamine. Ben Bergeron, he's team leader and he coordinates everyone and makes sure that we're motivated. (snaps fingers) Yes. FTSE 100. Um ... (mouth popping sound) A Schmidt: "Have you hopes or plans to marry and raise a family, Chris? I hope so. You seem like a pretty decent human being who'd make a good hus- husband and dad." Uh, well, looks can be deceptive, can't they? 'Cause actually, I- I just intend on- I just want to have children so that I can use them as pinatas. Um ... yeah, that's it. I'm just gonna hit them. Gonna hit them with a big stick. (inhales deeply) But no, I'm looking forward to being a dad. I can't wait to be a good husband and a good dad. That will be ... It's weird. I- I- I think about this more than I probably should do, that it's going to be one of the most emotionally intense experiences that I ever go to, and, um, I'm a pretty- pretty emotional guy at times. Like, I- I feel things strongly, in a nice way, but having kids is something I don't know whether I'm prepared for. But then everyone thinks this. Everybody thinks that they're a pro- that they're not ready to have kids, and then it happens, and apparently everyone seems to be fine, so ... (mouth popping sound) "Uh, what happens when you get so caught up in watching/learning all this great stuff that it just becomes your newest form of procrastination? All this new knowledge, still very little action." Again, an awesome insight that probably a lot of people struggle with. So, the issue that you have is that you give yourself the feeling that you're making progress by learning things through a podcast or by reading them or by (inhales deeply) doing whatever. It's the simulacrum of making progress towards a meaningful long-term goal whilst not actually doing any of it. And fuck, if that- if that's not, you know, the problem of the self-help world, then I don't know what is. (inhales and exhales deeply) To get around it, you just need to lean into action as much as you can. So you need to become an executor, not a strategist, right? One of the stats is that strategy and strategist are in the top 10 words used on all LinkedIn profiles, and executor or execution aren't even in the top 100. Why? Because it is significantly easier to strategize than to execute. So first off, don't beat yourself up about this. Like, this isn't just a- a byproduct of the self-help world. This is a fundamental feature of being a human, right? It is easier to theorize than it is to do the practical work, so most people theorize most of the time. (inhales deeply) One of the things that I would do is restrict what you're focusing on, so just look at one thing. "Okay, this month, this week, this year, I'm going to focus on this particular thing, this one thing, is I want to really- I really wanna get in shape. Like, that's my thing." And then forget about the other stuff. Like, you can enjoy learning about the self-help as long as you continue to make progress towards the goal that you've already identified. So I think planning in advance and understanding what you're going to suck at, um, choosing, "Okay, if I want to get in good shape in the gym, then maybe my work or my social situation, maybe they're gonna take a hit," right? "Maybe I'm gonna struggle to go out as much and have as much fun because I'm going to be working on my fitness." If that's the case, cool. That's the price that you need to pay in order to do it. But you need to remain focused on the thing. What is the one thing that you want to do? Make a plan, and then when something occurs later down the line, like you realize, "Oh shit, I haven't seen my friends in a while, or maybe work's dropping off," just go, "Okay, this was- this- this is why you're here. You made the plan for this to happen. You said that you wanted to get in shape. Is that goal still true? Yes, it is." Fine. Forget the fact that that's happening. You can get back to doing that in future. Leaning into action and trying to find what is the next physical step that moves me toward my meaningful long-term goals, that's the- that's the superpower, right? The best productivity strategy of 2022 is to get really, really clear about what you want and then ruthlessly cull all of the other things that don't contribute to it.... and this thing that you really, really want can be to be an awesome father, or to get into a relationship. This isn't me advocating for ridiculous productivity at the expense of everything else. I'm not saying that this has to be in a commercial or self-growth paradigm, right? It can be you, what- what do you want? Genuinely, what is it that you want? Pick that thing and then get really, really serious about doing that, and ruthlessly cull everything else. You've already decided in advance what it is that you want. Get rid of the other stuff and just focus on that. Focus on action. What is the next little thing that I can move myself toward? You listen to all of these podcasts. It sounds great. Pick the thing. Pick the thing in advance, and just focus on that. (sound of bubble popping) SA: "If you were transported back three years, what areas would you focus on more and what less?" Honestly, I'm really, really happy with the development that I've made over the last five years. Like, that's one of the reasons why doing the show feels so good, because I know, I know how much headroom there was for me to grow above where I was. Like, I was such ... I mean, you know, in five years, I'm going to look back on me now and think, "What are you talking about? You total piss-head." But looking back, I think I, I didn't know anything arse from elbow, and all of the steps that I took in order to get here ... I'm sure it could have been better organized, right? If Ali Abdaal had done it, he'd have had a fucking Notion spreadsheet tattooed on the inside of his arm. It would have been so much slicker than I'd done, and it would have been procedural and overloaded with spaced repetition and shit. If Yousef had done it, he'd have done the same thing. But I didn't, right? But it worked out okay. And that's, I think that's a (laughs) ... To fly the flag for the people that are totally unorganized, I think that's a much more realistic situation to be in, that you're just going to, you're gonna have a, like a vague direction that you think that you're supposed to go in and no real idea about how you're gonna do it. And then you just keep on trying things and find some strategies that work, like have a good routine every single day, read, expose yourselves to people that you really think are interesting and that bring value to you, optimize for action, et cetera, et cetera. And then you end up realizing, okay, I've made some fucking progress here. This is pretty cool. That, I don't know, it's, it's gone pretty good. It's gone pretty good. (sound of bubble popping) SD below SA. Weird. "Are you growing a full Selleck? Because I think you should." This is because, uh, I just wanted to post a photo that would get some comments on YouTube, so I just put up a photo that, a selfie that I took last year, and it was ... I, I realized this after I posted it. Uh, it was as I was beginning to grow my mustache. Um, the problem with Tom Selleck is my mum's only ever told me about one famous man that she fancies, and it was Tom Selleck. So I don't think, I don't think that my inner awkward would allow me to grow facial hair that I know specifically that my mother's attracted to. I don't think that that's an option. (sound of bubble popping) Uh, Isaac Orellana: "How do you keep pushing when your body says no?" Good question. Uh, I think the best mantra that I've got is, this is why you're here. So, when you have some fatigue in you, when you're struggling, whether this be in a workout, late at night when you're supposed to be doing work for your business or for school or college or uni or whatever it is that you're doing, this is why you're here. You go into the gym to struggle, right? You don't go into the gym to do the warmup. You go into the gym to do the hard things, not the easy things. So when thing, whenever it gets difficult, that's a signal of growth, right? You're in the business, you're running the business because you want it to be successful. The way that you make your business successful is by doing the things that other companies are not doing. That means that when it starts to get difficult, that discomfort would be felt by competitor number one and two and three and four and five. That's why you're here. You're here to step through that degree of discomfort and you lean into it. Uh, Ben Bergeron says that you lean into discomfort as if you invited it through the door, right? When it happens, when you're in a workout and your lungs start tearing and everything, your vision starts blurring and starts going in, just remind yourself, "Okay, good. This is a sign that I'm doing the thing that I'm supposed to be doing. This is a signal that I'm moving in the right direction." This is why you're here. (laughs) (sound of bubble popping) Uh ... "Do you think ..." Phil Lamb: "Do you think the person you are now would get on Love Island?" Uh, I don't know. I, I feel like probably, probably m- well, they don't have people over 32, I don't think, and I'm 33, so ... Um, but I think probably more likely to get on than previously, uh, just because ... fuck. Like, that was
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Section 5
- CWChris Williamson
... the difference that you get when you've spent a little bit of time on camera is, is pretty profound. Uh, how I would get on on Love Island might be a little bit more difficult because I'm a lot less able to hold my tongue when people annoy me or when there's things to say, and I would be much sooner to want to try and trigger stuff. Uh, but yeah, I don't know. Um, maybe, maybe I would. Deborah Marinelli: (sound of bubble popping) "How do we manage the balance between self-love and get to the best version of what we could be? It feels like a contradiction, isn't it?" Um, balancing self-love and, I guess, ambition or growth is a conversation that I've had so many times this year, right? Benjamin Hardy's new book, The Gap and the Gain, is all about that. You should go and check that out. It's 160 pages. It's brand new. It's really, really smart. Um, however, the implication there is that you can't love yourself whilst being ambitious, right? Or whilst trying to be the best version of you. You do not need a feeling of insufficiency.... in order to motivate yourself to go and become a better version of yourself. You can do that simply because you want to become better, simply because your time on this earth is limited. And in that time, you want to make the most of your minutes here and leave the world in a better place than you found it. That does not mean that you need to feel terrified and insignificant and- and broken and fragile and insufficient without making progress. This progress is not going to fill the hole that you feel inside of yourself. That hole can only be filled by you feeling like you are enough already. Will that kill a little bit of your drive? I think it will. I think that some of the most ambitious, best, uh, progressing people on the planet, I think that they are, on average, less happy than most normal people. And they are compelled by fear of failure or fear of insufficiency to go and do a thing. But do you want that? Like, do you want to live a more miserable life simply because it provides you with more success? Because if the goal of reaching the success is that you'll finally be able to make yourself happy, but on route to reaching the success, you make yourself miserable, you've- you've kind of shortcutted the entire situation. Like, why not just be happy? Why not just give yourself the opportunity to feel like you're enough? And I understand that we're not totally rational creatures, right? And also, we don't- we can't just go into our own code and reprogram it to be like, "Okay, you don't need to play keeping up with the Joneses now. You don't need to do the comparison game, or you don't need to feel concerned that you haven't got the status or the wealth or the education or the whatever it is, a new car." Nah. However, you can consciously design your life. You can step into your own programming and shortcut it. And this is ... i- if there was one core message that I think I've learned from Modern Wisdom over the last four years, it's been, you do not live, you do not need to live your life by default. You can live it by design. And that's the goal. You should be living your life by design, not by default. Your fucking factory-setting programming defaults are horse shit. They are so bad. They do not serve you. They do not make you happy. They do not make you fulfilled. You've imbibed what fucking culture and your parents and your older brother and the idiot people that you went to school with, you've consumed and absorbed all of the stuff that they gave you. And now, most of the work that you need to do is deprogramming that and getting to a place of you. What is it that you want? And you can want to be a better person. You can want to be a better person whilst feeling enough at the moment. And maybe you're not going to be quite as successful. Maybe the fear of insufficiency would propel you an extra 5% or 10%, or maybe it's fucking 50%. But if your goal is to be happy and you think that go- becoming successful is going to contribute to your satisfaction and your happiness in life, you can just choose to be happy right now. And in that case, it doesn't matter what level of success you get to. Find a thing that you love to do and you'll never work a day in your life. Like, find a life that you love to lead and you'll never need to feel insufficient. Uh, Big Red Baptista. Uh, (pop sound) "Is it fair to say that you're being guided by the judgments and limitations put on you by others? Decoding The Gurus. Do you think Joe Rogan gives a fuck? He had Molyneux on. Very much doubt that." So, (smacks lips) hmm, I don't think that I'm being guided by the judgments and limitations put on me by others. I don't think that judgment or limitation has caused me to act in a particular way. But I do think that, or maybe you're right. Maybe to give you a due, maybe I am being guided by that. "Do you think Joe Rogan gives a fuck? He had Molyneux on." Well, he did go back and redo the Jack Dorsey episode and then had to bring Tim Pool on to do the episode with him. So, I- I do think that he cares. I do think that Joe assesses his own performance in the same way that I do. The Decoding The Gurus episodes, the conversation that I had with them was insightful because it was the first time that someone who is understanding in this space had said a bunch of things, and part of them resonated as being true. Look, I need to, I needed to learn to be more skeptical around the guests that I have on on the show and I need to push back. Cool, okay, that's a skill that I need to acquire. Rogan had a conversation with Jack Dorsey that went so badly that his audience tore him apart, and then he- he brought him back on and didn't have faith that he was able to do what he needed to do himself, so brought somebody else back on. So, I don't think that you can say that he doesn't give a fuck about the conversations that he's had or about the people that he's had on or else he wouldn't have reneged on, uh, he wouldn't have, uh, gone back and done it again. Um, also, a lot of people come into podcasting from another industry, right? Rogan, comedian, commentator, presenter. Um, however, I've come into this as a podcaster. Like, my first position in this industry is I'm- I'm podcaster first. Like a CrossFitter that hasn't come into it from weightlifting or athletics or track and field or something, I've come into it from CrossFit, I've come into it from the sport that I'm actually trying to do, which means that I'm going to make more failures and I'm going to have to learn out loud more as the show progresses because I didn't pick up that time when I was doing 1,000 gigs on the comedy circuit over the space of 10 years or something, right? Like, I didn't get that. The difference is that when you do 1,000 gigs on the comedy circuit like Rogan's probably done in order to build his skill set up which he can now deploy on his podcast, he does that, th- that wasn't immortalized on the internet for everybody to see. And also, you don't just, you don't create an audience immediately like that. You know, a quarter of a million people and like whatever it is, two million, three million plays a month that we do, all of those people get to critique my performance. Um, I'm guided by trying to be the best person that I can be at having conversations, and I will take the input and the suggestions from anybody that I think has something correct to say. Um-... I'm not blind to the fact that there is headroom for me to improve at doing this. And if I really, really want to be good at this, then why would I not take the suggestion of somebody? A criticism that has value in it is a gift. Like if it's true, the criticism, even if it's deployed in a nasty, snide way, and I brought that up with the guys and I was like, "Look, like, the truth that you had was, um..." How would you say? Not ruined, but it was tarnished by the snidey top spin that somebody put on it. Um, whether or not you don't like the idea that a podcaster isn't, um... Whether or not you don't like the idea that a podcaster is taking on board the criticisms of others doesn't really matter to me. I'm adamant that I'm a better podcaster because I do that. Because when somebody brings something up to me, David Fuller from Rebel Wisdom, he had some comments to say to me this year. You know, fucking, if Malice rang me and said, "Hey, man, do you know what it is? Here's something that I think." And if I was like, "Oh, fuck. Do you know what it is? That's really, really true. Here's a way that I reckon that you could really, like, up your game with the way that you begin or end," or questions or comments or whatever, it's storytelling, anything. I worked with a speech coach this year. I worked with a diction coach for my TEDx talk and I decided to stick about and keep him on so that I could work with him for the podcast. I worked with a comedy coach this year and I'm gonna continue to work with him. Like, I'm being guided by the judgment and suggestions put onto me by others, i.e. my coaches. The fact that the guys from Decoding the Gurus or any other podcast, David Fuller from Rebel Wisdom or anyone that wants to contribute, the fact that they're not paid for me as a coach is, like, that just means that I'm getting more profit out of it, as far as I can see. Um, if all that I did was fold at the first sign of a little bit of criticism, then yeah, I think that there would be sign that your, your faith in your own performance isn't there. But when someone's got something that I think is valid to say, then sweet, I'll take it on. Karthik Chittara, "Hi, Chris. Can you, can you Russell Brand on your channel?" Uh, I can. Well, I can't Russell Brand on my channel because I don't think that I can grow that hair, but I can try and get him on my channel and I'm speaking to Jordan Peterson and Michaela at the moment to see if we can get something linked in. Maybe even just to connect with him for now. Um, I think... Is there another question about... Feel like there was another question about Russell Brand, about something to do with... Oh, it's down here. You've got another question about Russell Brand coming. Um, can I Russell Brand? I will try and Russell Brand as best I can, uh, but I will also try and get him on. Jovan Bedenovic, "Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton?" I haven't seen it yet. I haven't seen the final race, so I'm gonna hold off. One thing that I did see that I thought was quite noble was Lewis was pretty gracious in defeat, wished Max well, said that he was sort of happy for this guy, um, who had won in a quite contentious, uh, situation in the Formula 1. Um, so I'm gonna hold off Jovan, but I will, I will have a decision soon. Uh, Pat Steadman's Polish passport. See, these are the, these are the sort of fucking names I'm here for. Pat Steadman's Polish passport, that's the shit I'm here for. "Please facilitate a discussion/debate moderated by you between Rob Henderson and Rolo Tomassi about the mating market, evil psych, and what the stats mean. Rolo thinks that Rob is generally on the money and knows the uncomfortable parts about what the data suggests, but he plays it safe or PC when he's a guest on the more trad con channels like Jordan Peterson's." Rolo's an interesting one, man. Rolo... I don't know. Rolo is, uh, I- my mind is still not made up around whether or not Rolo gets his direction and his insights, which, you know, he's contributed to the meninism/red pill space, you know, he pretty much created it. Um, there is a degree of, um, n- uh, kind of like nastiness to some of the things that he puts out that makes me wonder. It makes me more concerned or more skeptical around whether or not the other ideas have... Whether they're free of bias, right? Like, there just seems to be... And, and this happens, this isn't just Rolo, but it, it seems to be in a lot of the meninism/red pill space, that the guys, they really take glee in shitting on women. Like, they really fucking enjoy the fact that girls don't understand how hypergamy works or that girls are gonna hit the wall at 30 or 35 or 40 and they're no longer gonna be interested, uh, that no guy's gonna be interested in them. Like, that, that amount of glee, to me, that's the side of this evolutionary psychology discussion that I really, really don't... Like, I'm just not bothered about. I'm not bothered about coming on and making girls feel like shit. I'm more than happy to push uncomfortable truths, uh, all day long. Like, harsh insights, yeah, all day, because that is someone having to deal with reality coming and hitting them in the face. But there's a limit to that. There's a limit to how, like, n- n- m- mean and nasty that can come across. This was the problem I had with Decoding the Gurus. So the problem that I had with them was like, "Look, guys, you can have all of the correct insights in the world, but if you're a dick when you say it, it's going to dampen the impact, and why are you doing it? Like, what is it that you're getting out of that?" That being said, Rob is a fucking awesome dude and he's a good mate of mine and Rolo is an important figure in this field. I don't think that there would be... I mean, plays it safe or PC, like Rob understands about the data but plays it safe. Like, Rob's a social sciences researcher and a PhD candidate at Cambridge.Like, who's to say that he doesn't actually just agree with the, w- with not leaning into shitting on women? Like, he doesn't not say things. He says the things that he, uh, that are the truth, but he doesn't lean into it in that red pilly way. So, I don't know, man. The, I had a lot of comments saying that I need to get Rollo on the show, but I don't really know what I'm going to talk to him about. Like, I don't want to have a conversation that makes 50% of the audience feel like shit. Uh, and that's not the type of evolutionary psychology that I'm into. Like, if you look at fucking Geoffrey Miller, right? Geoffrey Miller is, Geoffrey Miller's Rollo Tomassi with academic chops. And he doesn't, he doesn't lean into things in that same way. I don't know. I... We'll see. We'll see what happens over the next year. (sound of message appearing) Sgt Slimer, "If you hadn't had your epiphany in the Love Island villa, do you think you would have had it later on in life or not at all?" Um, yeah, I think it was coming. I think that there was a lot of, I don't know, just discordance in my life and I was thinking, "Fuck, like, is this really the best that I've got to offer the world? Like, getting people drunk and then fucking going on reality TV in a small pair of swim shorts?" And that would have happened one way or another, but the fact that it happened in a really condensed down version really, really quickly was useful. Not many people go on reality TV to be, like, catapulted toward a ni- a life of integrity and virtue, but I'll take it as a win. Uh, Kyle Blal- Blalock, Blaylock, (sound of message appearing) "When will you and Malice
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Section 6
- CWChris Williamson
travel abroad?" As soon as we're fucking allowed. Like, that's been so frustrating. Two years, we've been waiting to go, to go away. We spoke about this a ton while I was in, uh, Austin. We will see, right? We will see. As soon as we can do it, we want to go. We spoke about the plans, videographer's ready to go. We just need to get the borders open. Hale Wood, (sound of message appearing) "Why not pursue an agenda of not only focusing on individual improvement, but also on structural functionalism, a bit more like Russell Brand?" Yeah, okay, so... I avoid trying to make comments too much about what I think needs to be done by society at large, uh, structural functionalism, because who the fuck am I to know? Like, I've only just about started to understand how I work, and then maybe beginning to glimpse how other people work. Fucking multiply that by 65 million people that live in the UK or something. I, I don't know. The, Russell's stuff, Russell's blown up this year especially, uh, obviously he's leaned into a lot of the COVID discussion and I'm looking forwards to meeting him and having a conversation with him. I feel like, you know, if you're to take the Jordan Peterson approach of clean up your room, and then the kitchen, and then the other things in your house and then step out into the world, fix you before you try and fix everyone else, that to me feels like the best way to go along this journey, right? That by making myself and the people immediately that I can, um, influence as good as we can be individually, then moving that out to broader, uh, trends when I get older and when I've got more insight. But I just don't feel ready. I don't feel like I know enough to be able to talk about... I don't feel li- like I know enough to have most of the conversations that I have. But, to be able to try and claim structural changes of how I think things should be moved, totally, totally not there. And honestly, in situations like this, more noise and less signal isn't what the world needs. Uh, Justified Defiance, "How long do Twinkies last? I mean, if I find a one h- 1,000-year-old Twinkie still in the wrapper, is it safe to eat it?" Uh, I don't know. Let's, let's Google, "How long do Twinkies last?" According to Twinkie Deconstructed, the snack food ha- only has a shelf life of 26 days. Any longer than that, the sponge cake turns hard as a rock. Hard as a rock, which seems pretty measly compared to the myth. However, it's considered quite good compared to other baked goods. Uh, it's a myth, it seems. 24 days, 25 days, 26 days, 26 days the longest I found. 26 days, uh, Justified Defiance, that's how long. (sound of message appearing) Uh, "What does your step-by-step morning routine look like at the moment?" This is from Danbell99, but there was tons of questions about this. I'm gonna release a morning routine course very soon, and that will just take you through it. It'll be probably three hours at most from start to finish. It'll explain the principles of how to put together a good morning routine, how you can stick to it, all of the, uh, contingency routines that you need, and you'll dif- end up making it as well, you'll end up constructing your own one by the time that you're finished, hopefully in less than three hours, all in one go. Uh, and that'll be ready as soon as I get my arse in gear, uh, and you will find out on there. Uh, last one. Jonny Jennin, (sound of message appearing) "I'm 24 years old and feel lost in my current career. Where were you at 24 and what would you do?" 24, I was just out of uni, so I'd just finished my master's, uh, in international marketing at 23, and I was running club nights. I was working every Saturday all day setting up a club and then all night running the event, and then during the week managing shit myself, making sure that every single one... This was like peak, peak hardcore work mode. Me and Darren were just nailing it. We didn't have any managers, it was just me and him, that was all that we did. Like, 120, 130 staff all managed by us, no people underneath us. And, um...It took up a lot of time. Uh, what would I do if I was 24 years old and f- feel lost in your career? (sighs) Man, not fear. Like, you're going to be absolutely fine. You're 24. You have an endless, and this is such a, this is, like, exactly the same shit that my mom would say to me, but you have so much time to find out what it is that you want to do. If you feel lost in your current career, then leave. Leave. Go abroad for a chunk of time and work in a bar. Go do a season abroad somewhere and go work in a bar, or work as a PR for a- a- a club, or work as a fucking assistant in a museum or whatever it is that you want to do, right? You will find things that you gravitate toward more easily. You do not need to focus. If- if you're lost and you don't know what to do, it sounds like you're struggling to find out even a direction out of the career that you don't like, just do a bit of traveling, spend some time with a pattern interrupting to your current routine, new places, new people, new food, new smells, new experiences, all that shit, and you will not be able to hold on to your old modes of thinking. There's going to be so much new stimuli coming in that all you can do is notice the things that arise that you find to be interesting and notice the things that arise that you don't like. Over time, those patterns will start to repeat, and that is what life is. Life is you noticing patterns of things that you like to do and don't like to do and leaning into the ones that you like. You're split testing the experiences of your life, and over time, you get closer and closer and closer to the ones that you want to do, and hopefully you find them. You know, there are an unlimited number of things that you can spend your time doing. So sticking to something that you know that you feel lost in when you've got so much freedom and so much spare time, you don't need to do it, man. You're good. That's it. Fuck, that was a lot of questions. Dear Lord. And that was cut down as well. That was cut down by about half. So, uh, thank you to everyone who submitted a question, and thank you to everyone who follows the channel. Like, quarter of a million subs. For all that I can bitch and moan about the fact that we haven't got enough subscribers, right? A quarter of a million subs is- is mental. So, thank you to everyone who has subscribed. Press comment for the algo every time that you see a video. That's the one thing, if you want to thank me, right, for hitting 250K, you can do two things. First thing, go on to Spotify and give this show five stars. That would make me very happy. Second thing, just comment for the algo whenever this- you see the stuff come up. That- that's it. That's all I got, all right? Peace. What's happening, people? Thank you very much for tuning in. If you enjoyed that episode, then press here for a selection of the best clips from the podcast over the last few weeks. And don't forget to subscribe. Peace.
Episode duration: 1:22:23
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