Episode 200 Q&A | Modern Wisdom Podcast 200

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   I, for some reason,…

   1. YUYusef0:00

      I, for some reason, was wearing swimming shorts to go to the gym, and they have a fly that's just, like, a flap so there's no zip. And I was going commando, and it was only when I got back into the changing room having finished my-

   2. CWChris Williamson0:12

      (laughs)

   3. YUYusef0:12

      ... session that I realized I'd, like, just ... (laughs)

   4. CWChris Williamson0:16

      The old chap had popped out. Johnny, hacks for when you are craving all the chocolate.

   5. YUYusef0:22

      Tuna.

   6. CWChris Williamson0:23

      Tuna? (laughs)

   7. YUYusef0:24

      Tuna. (laughs)

   8. JOJonny0:26

      What side hustles do you each have? Like, having a side hustle just suggests that the main hustle is insufficient.

   9. CWChris Williamson0:32

      You've done that thing again where you've put Kermit the Frog behind you, haven't you?

   10. YUYusef0:35

       Is he behind me again?

   11. JOJonny0:36

       (laughs)

   12. YUYusef0:37

       Every, whenever I'm recording, he just, uh, I think he must live in the bathroom. He must've ... Oh, God, right.

   13. CWChris Williamson0:43

       You've done it.

   14. YUYusef0:44

       Let's get rid of him.

   15. CWChris Williamson0:44

       You've done it again, where-

   16. YUYusef0:46

       I just want to make it into the trailer.

   17. CWChris Williamson0:47

       Oh, for fuck sake. It's episode 200. Woo!

   18. YUYusef0:55

       Two hundy.

   19. CWChris Williamson0:57

       200. As if it's been 200 episodes of this podcast, man.

   20. JOJonny1:02

       How many hours have you spoken on a podcast, Chris, now?

   21. CWChris Williamson1:05

       At least 300 probably.

   22. JOJonny1:07

       Probably closer to 400, isn't it?

   23. CWChris Williamson1:09

       Maybe not. Maybe, maybe th- probably about bang on three, I guess.

   24. JOJonny1:13

       I'm thinking, like, if you have a, the, the edited file is the trimmed down version all the time, isn't it? Or is it not for you?

   25. CWChris Williamson1:19

       Never, and I, I never, never touch it, man. Never play around with it. But then-

   26. JOJonny1:22

       It's full bore.

   27. CWChris Williamson1:23

       Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Neat, neat.

   28. JOJonny1:26

       (laughs)

   29. CWChris Williamson1:27

       It's, it's the equivalent of ordering a steak blue.

   30. JOJonny1:31

       Straight no frills. No filters.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   (laughs) …

   1. JOJonny15:00

      things actually. (laughs)

   2. CWChris Williamson15:02

      (laughs)

   3. JOJonny15:02

      Yousuf's just sat with bated breath waiting for-

   4. CWChris Williamson15:05

      Well, you know, when he ... 'cause he knows it's about him.

   5. JOJonny15:07

      It's gonna be about him.

   6. CWChris Williamson15:07

      (laughs)

   7. YUYusef15:08

      Well, the ... so my, my favorite bit, I, I edited into one of our videos yesterday, which I'll mention in a second. But-

   8. JOJonny15:14

      Okay.

   9. YUYusef15:15

      ... what's yours?

   10. JOJonny15:16

       So it's when Yousuf talks about how he used to arbitrage batteries.

   11. CWChris Williamson15:20

       (laughs)

   12. JOJonny15:23

       (laughs) And that's how, you know, like, "Oh, no, don't go to the petrol station. Come to me, I'll get you a good price."

   13. CWChris Williamson15:27

       I'll give you a good price.

   14. JOJonny15:28

       So that-

   15. YUYusef15:29

       That was one of them. Second one is when Yousuf told, uh, Chris and I that his laptop was, was custom-made for MacBooks.

   16. CWChris Williamson15:38

       Oh, his laptop bag?

   17. JOJonny15:40

       And there's a ... Yeah. That's it, yeah. And Chris and I ... In fact, I've got a third one. And then Chris and I just ex- exchanged this glance off camera as Yousuf was explaining. Burst out laughing and then Yousuf was sat there like, "What are you laughing at?" (laughs)

   18. CWChris Williamson15:52

       "What, what, what are you laughing at?" Is it the condoms? Is it the croissants?

   19. JOJonny15:55

       Is it the ... Yeah, it's the condoms and the croissants.

   20. YUYusef15:56

       Oh, good God.

   21. JOJonny15:57

       Um, third one was Y- Yousuf doing ... Yousuf talking about the jaw position, in and ou- in or out. Yeah, doing ... (laughs)

   22. CWChris Williamson16:08

       (laughs)

   23. JOJonny16:08

       What ... For as ... You were like, "Why did we talk about that?" And he's like-

   24. YUYusef16:11

       He was talking about prognathia and retrognathia and the-

   25. CWChris Williamson16:13

       (laughs)

   26. YUYusef16:13

       ... surgery required to-

   27. CWChris Williamson16:15

       (laughs)

   28. YUYusef16:15

       ... to do each one of them, so.

   29. CWChris Williamson16:17

       (laughs)

   30. JOJonny16:17

       Then you go, Yousuf goes like, and like looks at each of us-
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   It, it looked like…

   1. JOJonny30:00

      It, it looked like you picked up an AirPods Pro box.

   2. CWChris Williamson30:01

      It did look exactly like that.

   3. YUYusef30:03

      No, it's just my wired ones.

   4. JOJonny30:07

      What did you just have in your hand? Circle back around. What did, you just had, you had something in your hand, an AirPods Pro box-

   5. CWChris Williamson30:12

      He's got...

   6. YUYusef30:14

      Mirror, phone, earphones, and-

   7. CWChris Williamson30:18

      We've got this on video just so-

   8. JOJonny30:20

      Do you think he's having us on? I think he's having us on.

   9. CWChris Williamson30:22

      Just, just, just so you know-

   10. JOJonny30:24

       Just so you know.

   11. CWChris Williamson30:26

       I've got this on video, and I can go back and see if you've secretly bought AirPod Pros.

   12. JOJonny30:32

       You definitely picked up a box.

   13. YUYusef30:33

       Well, you see, I've secretly got, like, a-

   14. CWChris Williamson30:35

       Right, look-

   15. YUYusef30:36

       ... adapter and stuff.

   16. JOJonny30:36

       Johnny, Johnny, it's fine. It's fine. We'll go back and we'll analyze the... Everyone that's listening, can you just rewind by about 30 seconds and see if Yusuf picks up a fucking... If you've bought AirPod Pros and not to-

   17. YUYusef30:49

       As if.

   18. CWChris Williamson30:50

       ... if you've bought them, his connection's going as well. He's pressed the- he's pressed the button.

   19. YUYusef30:54

       I- imagine the hit to my ... e- e- ma- oh, what?

   20. CWChris Williamson30:58

       He's pressed the-

   21. YUYusef30:59

       Imagine the hit to my ego.

   22. CWChris Williamson31:01

       Oh, Yusuf.

   23. JOJonny31:02

       What's happened?

   24. CWChris Williamson31:04

       Yusuf, now- now what-

   25. JOJonny31:05

       I've pressed the button.

   26. CWChris Williamson31:06

       You've pressed the button that means that your connection drops out so that me and Johnny can stop interrogating you about you.

   27. JOJonny31:12

       Oh, he's got like a jam up.

   28. CWChris Williamson31:14

       Yeah, that's exactly what's happened. It's- it's- do you know who it is?

   29. JOJonny31:17

       Jam up. It's the jammer. It's- it's- No.

   30. CWChris Williamson31:19

       It's- it's the large farmer. The very large farmer is coming in to check (laughs) .
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Ugh. There you... Ugh.…

   1. CWChris Williamson45:01

      (laughs) Christ.

   2. JOJonny45:05

      Ugh. There you... Ugh. Have a bit of that hot potato.

   3. CWChris Williamson45:10

      (laughs) Johnny, just hold this grenade a second. Um, what do you do if you don't know what you want? Uh, if you feel like you a- uh, like you actually don't know what you want from life. Directionless, meaninglessness, purposelessness.

   4. JOJonny45:24

      (sighs) I mean, some people approach this as like, you should work out what your values are and then make goals based on your values and all that sort of stuff. I- the thing that's- was most helpful for me in terms of like, why I, like, quit my job and why I'm, like, doing what I do now, is I actually did an exercise from a- a PDF download from a guy called Nate Green back in like 2010, um, which was called The Hero's Handbook. And Nate Green's a really good writer, if anyone wants to, like, go and read more and sort of like pop philosophy and sort of just like general very simple ideas of how to improve your life. But anyway, it was just literally, and you probably heard this before, design, like think of the best possible day you can imagine from start to finish. Like, where do you wake up? What's the room like? What are you doing that morning? What are you doing at lunchtime? What does the afternoon look like? What are your evening plans? And then expand that in like an, uh, like the best week you can imagine and then think, "Right, well, how can I begin to move my life towards that?" And from that, you extract, like, there's goals from that that you can create. And it's a- it is- it is pretty cool how, um, not to say like, "Look at me," but it is pretty cool that like, I'm pretty close to that. Like I- at the time, I was a mile away from it.

   5. CWChris Williamson46:35

      (laughs)

   6. JOJonny46:35

      And I- you couldn't see, you can't even think like, "How would I... How can I figure that out?" Like, "Surely I would never be able to build a business and live off it. Surely I'd be- never be able to- that wouldn't happen in the internet. That- that bullshit doesn't work." All these sorts of things. Um, and then sudden- like you look back on it a year later and you're like, "Shit. Like, I'm making progress towards that." So, I think that's the thing that, um... What is he called? (claps hands) (sighs) Right to wait, but why?

   7. CWChris Williamson47:03

      Tim? Not Tim Urban.

   8. JOJonny47:05

      Tim Urban, yeah. Yeah. So he talks about like, happiness being crushing a Tuesday on the interview he does with Tim Ferriss. So like, the idea that people worry about goals and what they want and all that sort of stuff, and forget that like ultimately, tomorrow you're just gonna wake up and it's just going to be a day, and you're just going to experience a sequence of those and then cease to exist. So if you just think about like, "Well, how can I make my day or my week the best possible or like maximize my- my experience of existence as possible?" Probably you'll be quite content and feel like you're moving in the right direction.

   9. CWChris Williamson47:34

      I think w- to sort of add on to that, a lot of the time because there's so much urgent stuff that we do, we don't ever actually sit back to get into planning mode. We're just constantly in dealing with mode.

   10. JOJonny47:46

       Mm-hmm.

   11. CWChris Williamson47:46

       And it's that system one, system two thinking, um, that you need to step into. And that's what I realized, especially with lockdown, because I got more time away from having to do the club stuff, which allowed me for the first couple of weeks, or even actually first few months of lockdown. I went through like tons of Chris Sparks' Experimentation Without Limits or whatever it's called. I went through that. I- I started using Things 3 and completed Tiago Forte's get- Get Stuff Done Like A Boss course. I did like loads of stuff, added in a bunch of habits. But you can't ever do that when you're constantly fighting fires within your own life.

   12. JOJonny48:20

       Mm-hmm.

   13. CWChris Williamson48:20

       So it's like, I think a lot of people that don't necessarily know what they want from life haven't ever taken time away from life to ask that question. It's like if all that you're always doing is being busy, um, saying yes to social events, saying yes to more stuff, projects, businesses, things for your boss, nights out, all that sort of stuff. Like you're not ever going to... It's not just going to emerge. If you don't have it, if you haven't stumbled upon it by chance, it's not just going to emerge.

   14. JOJonny48:49

       Mm-hmm.

   15. CWChris Williamson48:49

       You have to actually do the work. You have to spend the time consciously thinking, "What would a good day, week, month, five-year, 10-year, 25-year plan look like? What would I actually want to do?"

   16. JOJonny49:00

       And then it's like, where am I trending? Like, am I trending in the right direction or the wrong direction? Like, if I keep doing what I'm doing now for 10 years-... where will that leave me? Is that a good situation or a bad situation? And then adjust. But I feel like Yusuf's got something to say.

   17. YUYusef49:15

       Quiet the mind and the spirit will speak. Like, if you're firefighting the whole time, your voice for inner intuition and your existential questions are just muffled because you're dealing with all the, the crap day-to-day. So yeah, you have to create some space.

   18. JOJonny49:34

       Someone told me recently, it might have been one of you two, that every good idea they've ever had in business has been from going on a walk. Was it one of you two? Maybe not. It was like-

   19. YUYusef49:44

       We were talking about s- ideas in the shower the other day, weren't we? The notebook.

   20. JOJonny49:50

       Yeah.

   21. YUYusef49:50

       Having a brief notebook in the shower.

   22. JOJonny49:52

       Yeah, so writing things down while you medi- Like, things always come to me when I'm meditating, but like yeah, walking. Someo- someone said, I wish I could remember who it was, was like, they go for a walk in the morning and that's when like all of the... And there's something about like being in motion and the thought processes that happen when you're, when you're moving. Um, but that just the, the quiet the mi- So like if you walk without any podcasts or anything in, suddenly all this shit just occurs to you.

   23. CWChris Williamson50:12

       I loved, um... uh, it was a life hack from a while ago, drive without any music or podcasts on. Like if you just go on a drive to work, like once a week if you pick W- Wednesday as your day where you drive to work without any content playing, fa- it's so nice. Like you just get to sit with your thoughts for a bit of time without the input of other minds, and that's this-

   24. JOJonny50:33

       Yeah.

   25. CWChris Williamson50:33

       ... uh, definition of solitude by Cal Newport, right?

   26. JOJonny50:35

       Mm-hmm.

   27. CWChris Williamson50:35

       Solitude is time, uh, on your own away from the input of other minds, not just time on your own, on the phone, listening to a podcast, reading, even that, you know. Um, so yeah. Uh, what else we got? Gyms or restaurants, you can only save one from the coronavirus. Yusuf.

   28. YUYusef50:55

       Gyms.

   29. CWChris Williamson50:57

       (laughs)

   30. YUYusef50:57

       Easily. Like, how, I mean, how often do you go to a restaurant compared, compared to num- like number of hours you spend in a gym? The alternative argument is keep restaurants open, buy a home gym, best of both worlds.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:15:00

   Yeah. …

   1. JOJonny1:00:01

   2. YUYusef1:00:01

      Yeah.

   3. JOJonny1:00:01

      So if you just assume that the major- that the common opinion is incorrect and wrong, and look for, like, look for the contrarians in the market, and, like, look for the polarity in the market, and then listen to those people and form your own view.

   4. CWChris Williamson1:00:12

      It's a lot of work, that.

   5. JOJonny1:00:14

      Or just don't bother.

   6. CWChris Williamson1:00:14

      It's eas- it's much easier-

   7. JOJonny1:00:15

      It's, it's easier to just not bother.

   8. CWChris Williamson1:00:15

      ... to just go with what everyone says.

   9. JOJonny1:00:17

      Yeah. (laughs)

   10. CWChris Williamson1:00:17

       Um, podcast how-to, logistics, software, mic, headphone, production. Already gone through that. Uh, top three guests, kind of already gone through that. Who stood you up last week? Uh, that was Michael Mazzola, the director of Unacknowledged, Dr. Steven Greer's UFO documentary.

   11. JOJonny1:00:35

       Oh, Michael.

   12. CWChris Williamson1:00:35

       Um, he's-

   13. JOJonny1:00:35

       He's off finding UFOs, isn't he?

   14. CWChris Williamson1:00:36

       He, he is. Yeah. Well, maybe he's been abducted, 'cause he didn't fucking reply.

   15. JOJonny1:00:40

       (laughs)

   16. CWChris Williamson1:00:40

       Um, do you take any protein supplements, Johnny?

   17. JOJonny1:00:45

       Not really.

   18. CWChris Williamson1:00:46

       Yusuf?

   19. JOJonny1:00:47

       Used to, back in the day.

   20. YUYusef1:00:49

       I've, I've got some but I'm not very religious with taking it.

   21. JOJonny1:00:52

       I thought you were, like, Mr. Whey.

   22. YUYusef1:00:54

       I was-

   23. JOJonny1:00:55

       Or like Dr. Whey.

   24. YUYusef1:00:56

       ... but... (laughs) Dr. Whey. Yeah, it's, it, it's a, it's a much more convenient way of taking protein in.

   25. CWChris Williamson1:01:01

       Oh, yeah.

   26. YUYusef1:01:01

       And I, I just see it as part of diet. I don't really... It's just a continuum of different food types rather than a supplement per se, or a... Yeah, but-

   27. CWChris Williamson1:01:10

       I haven't got room based on what I'm eating at the moment. I've got 205 grams of protein that's just flat at all times, and I, I don't have room for a-... protein shake in that.

   28. YUYusef1:01:21

       You eat a lot of yogurt, don't you? Which is basically a-

   29. CWChris Williamson1:01:24

       So-

   30. YUYusef1:01:24

       ... protein supplement.
6. 1:15:00 – 1:15:24

   Section 6

   1. YUYusef1:15:00

      for me, I think. I think it was being overweight as a kid, and then you're like, "Right, I need to get a handle on this." And then before you know it, you're sort of like reading things or li-... Like, I- I can remember listening to podcasts when, like, the way you would listen to a podcast on your phone in some instances was you had to, like, go onto the, like, like, the f- the web-hosted file and play it on, like, the native player. And it was like- On the webpage.

Episode duration: 1:47:47