Life Hacks 201 | Modern Wisdom Podcast 187

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   It is Life Hacks.…

   1. CWChris Williamson0:00

      It is Life Hacks. This is kind of like the second season.

   2. JOJonny0:05

      I really hope there's somebody listening to this episode who's not got any of the weird references so far-

   3. CWChris Williamson0:10

      Oh, don't, absolutely.

   4. JOJonny0:10

      ... and just thinks we've all got Tourette's.

   5. YUYusef0:11

      Have you seen the Alan Partridge thing where he's talking about how to wash your hands in a train toilet without touching anything? So he's like, "Elbow, elbow, soap, soap, tissue, tissue, down, kick the door, open, done, out."

   6. CWChris Williamson0:21

      (laughs)

   7. YUYusef0:21

      It's like that, (laughs) that's how my morning feels.

   8. CWChris Williamson0:24

      Yusuf, why have you put Kermit the Frog behind you on your...?

   9. JOJonny0:27

      He's, he's back again. Can you, can you just tell me when he goes away?

   10. CWChris Williamson0:32

       I cannot, I cannot believe- It is Life Hacks time with Jonny and Yusuf from propanefitness.com. How are you doing, gentlemen?

   11. YUYusef0:44

       Good.

   12. JOJonny0:44

       All very good.

   13. YUYusef0:45

       Good.

   14. CWChris Williamson0:45

       Are you doing the Macarena?

   15. JOJonny0:47

       I don't think it's like that, is it? It's that.

   16. YUYusef0:49

       That looked more like a mime artist pretending there was a glass wall.

   17. JOJonny0:53

       Yeah.

   18. CWChris Williamson0:53

       Pretending to do the Macarena? (laughs)

   19. JOJonny0:55

       I'm, I'm not very up to date with my like '90s dance.

   20. CWChris Williamson0:58

       (laughs) '90s dance moves, yeah. If it-

   21. JOJonny1:00

       Vengaboys.

   22. CWChris Williamson1:01

       Yeah, if it was anything after-

   23. JOJonny1:02

       That's, yeah.

   24. CWChris Williamson1:02

       ... Vengaboys or Craig David's debut single, that's, that's your most current music, isn't it?

   25. YUYusef1:07

       (laughs)

   26. JOJonny1:08

       (laughs)

   27. YUYusef1:08

       It's like how Yusuf has like-

   28. JOJonny1:09

       Really good.

   29. YUYusef1:09

       ... a se- one series and one film to talk about when someone's like, "Do you watch any Netflix?" He's like-

   30. CWChris Williamson1:13

       Within each decade, yeah.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Oh. It's, it's the…

   1. YUYusef15:00

      like, "I'll ju- oh, I wonder whether there's any reviews, like, you know, non-biased reviews about AirPod Pros." You Google it and it's just like page after page of, "These are the best headphones ever produced." So I was like, "I'll just be back in a moment." I bought some AirPod Pros.

   2. JOJonny15:16

      Oh. It's, it's the sign of a great product when you see the advert and then you're like, "Oh," and like in a bit of pain.

   3. CWChris Williamson15:20

      There's a visceral reaction because you don't own them. Yeah.

   4. YUYusef15:24

      It's, yeah, Apple do this thing to me where I imagine you both probably have the same thing, where they release something and you think, "That looks pretty expensive," but you kinda know that at some point you're gonna buy them. It's just a matter of time. It's like there's a planet-

   5. CWChris Williamson15:36

      You see them on the horizon.

   6. JOJonny15:37

      It's like, "That's stupid."

   7. YUYusef15:38

      Yeah.

   8. JOJonny15:38

      Like that pencil. And you're like...

   9. YUYusef15:40

      Yeah. (laughs)

   10. JOJonny15:43

       And then there it is.

   11. CWChris Williamson15:43

       Before you know it, it's, before you know it's in your house. Yeah, exactly. (laughs) Wow.

   12. YUYusef15:48

       You're like, "Did I do that when I was drunk?"

   13. CWChris Williamson15:49

       AirPod, AirPod Pros, final lovely thing about AirPod Pros, if you're on a plane, the best way to notice the difference in noise canceling is if you're on a plane. So you can imagine that usually it's really actually quite loud and you don't realize how loud it is until you can't hear it anymore. And it's not the same as not having noise because you need the noise canceling. So if you just put earplugs in, that's not the same as noise canceling.

   14. YUYusef16:13

       Mm-hmm.

   15. CWChris Williamson16:13

       So you go from like (noise) to (noise) , and it's, it's so good.

   16. YUYusef16:19

       Yeah.

   17. CWChris Williamson16:19

       I was next to a crying child, which is obviously like on a long flight everyone's worst nightmare on the way out to Bali. Next to a crying child I just looked at it and I was like, "Ha!"

   18. YUYusef16:29

       (laughs)

   19. CWChris Williamson16:29

       Bump.

   20. YUYusef16:31

       You just squeeze it, don't you? Give 'em a squeeze, give 'em a long squeeze.

   21. CWChris Williamson16:34

       Just do what you want.

   22. YUYusef16:35

       'Cause then, then the tr- there's transparency mode of like, so if I'm like, while I'm doing my kitchen routine with my elbows and, and everything, Becca speaks to me, I'm just like, and it goes boo-boo. And then suddenly it's like the music's being played from over there.

   23. CWChris Williamson16:48

       Yeah, and you can hear it from the-

   24. YUYusef16:49

       And it's ambient noise.

   25. JOJonny16:50

       The prob-

   26. YUYusef16:50

       I'd drop-

   27. CWChris Williamson16:51

       I, I, I need to, um, I need to kinda caveat that you will look like an ignorant twat a lot with them in because the number of times my housemates said something to me behind me, if it's on noise canceling-

   28. YUYusef17:02

       No comment.

   29. CWChris Williamson17:02

       ... with sound playing in it, you're not getting, you're not getting anything. There can be a fire and you're not gonna, you're not gonna know about the fire. (laughs) Yeah.

   30. JOJonny17:11

       So can you put noise canceling without anything playing?
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Mm-hmm. …

   1. CWChris Williamson30:00

      something like the Nano X and the ROM 4s is that you will have a much higher heel-

   2. YUYusef30:06

      Mm-hmm.

   3. CWChris Williamson30:07

      ... on the lifting shoes that permits you to get more range through your hips, more dorsiflexion. There you go.

   4. YUYusef30:12

      Exactly those. Exactly those.

   5. CWChris Williamson30:13

      Yusuf's, Yusuf's talking about those black ones. They look badass, man.

   6. YUYusef30:16

      Yeah. They're comf-

   7. CWChris Williamson30:16

      Um, but yeah, I think the vast majority of people, if you don't know what a pair of lifting shoes are, you probably don't need a pair of lifting shoes.... but-

   8. YUYusef30:25

      Yeah.

   9. CWChris Williamson30:25

      ... if you don't know what a pair of Nano X's are, you still might need a pair of them because, like, ignorance to get you through the door, you could be wearing something which is potentially going to snap your shit. Whereas if you don't know what lifting shoes are, you're probably not squatting to a sufficiently high, uh, volume.

   10. JOJonny30:43

       The, yeah, the- The metric we use is, if you, if you're squatting at 1.5 body weight, you've unlocked the right to get some shoes.

   11. YUYusef30:51

       (laughs)

   12. JOJonny30:51

       When you're squatting-

   13. YUYusef30:51

       And a belt.

   14. JOJonny30:52

       ... twice body weight, you can get a belt.

   15. YUYusef30:54

       Oh, right. Wow.

   16. CWChris Williamson30:54

       I love that. I love that as a, as a little, a little rule.

   17. JOJonny30:58

       It, it's because ... And, and you guys have to be, you know, much more face the face with this daily in the CrossFit gym, which is there are many people who have all the gear, yet no idea.

   18. CWChris Williamson31:09

       Mm-hmm.

   19. JOJonny31:10

       And they have not unlocked that achievement-

   20. CWChris Williamson31:13

       Well, but-

   21. JOJonny31:13

       ... but they've tried to get the cheat codes and-

   22. CWChris Williamson31:15

       Fucking hell. Power lifters.

   23. JOJonny31:16

       ... it doesn't work.

   24. CWChris Williamson31:16

       Power lifters, like the amount of kit that they come in with. And the thing is that for a lot of them, a lot of you guys, it's perfectly justified, heavy ass weight, like a lot of heavy ass weight. But when you can measure the amount of kit you've got in square meters on the floor-

   25. JOJonny31:34

       Mm-hmm.

   26. CWChris Williamson31:34

       ... that someone comes, they open the bag up and it's just like a ... (imitates machine gun firing) Stuff starts flying out. And when you include like bags of Haribo and like multiple cans of White Monster in that.

   27. JOJonny31:47

       'Cause you've gotta carb up for those three reps that you're doing, like the, the thing that, um, Jonny and I were discussing the other day was a guy back from the like, the old school golden era of fitness called Pete Hrubys, who is just this freak deadlifter, who would train in his like, in this basement. And he's just got this like washing machine, like rattling in the background and he's just in shorts with plates that have been Sellotaped together, and he's just a nutter. He's just this completely like unhinged deadlifter. He's pulling ridiculous amounts of weight just in shorts and barefoot for years and years, and it's like, that is the man who deserves to get himself a belt.

   28. CWChris Williamson32:23

       You're allowed, you're allowed to have a belt, yeah.

   29. JOJonny32:25

       Just final investment something.

   30. YUYusef32:25

       Yeah, that's it.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Mm. I like that.…

   1. JOJonny45:00

      not thinking about the whole thing, process.

   2. CWChris Williamson45:02

      Mm. I like that. It's the, uh, increase in friction. There was that study done where they asked people, uh, on the, out, uh, the exit of a supermarket, "How much do you think your receipt was?" They took the receipt off them and said, "How much do you think your receipt was?" And the difference in how people that had paid cash, people that had paid card, and people that had paid contactless-

   3. JOJonny45:22

      Oh.

   4. CWChris Williamson45:22

      ... was insane.

   5. JOJonny45:24

      Yeah. I, I, I couldn't tell you. Like, if I pay contactless, it's just like, I don't know.

   6. YUYusef45:27

      'Cause cash makes it real, doesn't it? Like, having to count the money out makes it feel real. Whereas if you just have to touch your phone on something, you're like, "Oh, well that didn't happen."

   7. CWChris Williamson45:34

      Do you do that thing-

   8. YUYusef45:35

      "I'll deal with that later."

   9. CWChris Williamson45:35

      ... if it's at self-service, do you do that thing in Asda, I try and do this, where I'll pay and then beding, and then I'm trying to be out of the door before it prints the receipt. I'm like, right, that's it. Bag, phone, pocket, AirPods, transparency mode off.

   10. JOJonny45:48

       Pirouette.

   11. CWChris Williamson45:48

       Da-da-da-da-da. Yeah, yeah. Spin.

   12. JOJonny45:50

       I can't do self-service. It-

   13. YUYusef45:52

       Really?

   14. JOJonny45:52

       It just, oh, it's so frustrating. Unexpected item in bagging area, and then you have to go and get the litter person to come and help you, you know. I'd just rather get someone to do it.

   15. YUYusef45:59

       Do you know what I've noticed about those, right? There's, the more expensive the shop, the, the better and the more trustworthy the self-service system is.

   16. CWChris Williamson46:08

       You shop at Waitrose and Marks as well?

   17. JOJonny46:09

       The Waitrose ones are good.

   18. YUYusef46:10

       I don't, I don't shop at Waitrose, but I have shopped at Waitrose, and if you do use it at like, at Waitrose and M&S, the, the, like, you can, you can stick whatever you want in the bagging area, it doesn't really notice it.

   19. CWChris Williamson46:20

       But mate, that's, that's because-

   20. JOJonny46:21

       It's got like an AI machine learning system.

   21. CWChris Williamson46:23

       But that's because the bour-

   22. YUYusef46:24

       Yeah.

   23. CWChris Williamson46:24

       ... the bourgeoisie obviously aren't stealing a pack of Percy Pigs. However, the, the proletariat in the street, when they're in Aldi or Lidl, like, they're-

   24. JOJonny46:33

       That's so true. Like, they've probably dropped the sensitivity to the... To be fair, I've not set foot in a supermarket in years, so I don't even know what they look like.

   25. CWChris Williamson46:39

       (laughs) Um, here's another thing I noticed. So in Asda, in the se- uh, the self-service checkouts, they have, uh, an alert that says, um, "That's scanned. Please place it in the bagging area." And that comes on so soon after scanning something that it's really irritating. Even with noise-canceling on, you can still hear it a little bit. So what I think, here's my hypothesis about why they have it come on so quickly, is that you turn that voice off when it registers the weight flat and static in the bagging area. So if you think, that actually encourages someone to scan stuff as quickly as possible and place it in the bag, to turn the noise off.

   26. JOJonny47:20

       Dark pattern.

   27. CWChris Williamson47:21

       What do we think? Do we think that might be true?

   28. JOJonny47:23

       Nice. Yeah. Uh, I think all these, like, all these incentives that are created at scale must be really, really well thought through.

   29. YUYusef47:30

       Mm.

   30. CWChris Williamson47:31

       Nothing's done-
5. 1:00:00 – 1:09:30

   So one, one thing…

   1. CWChris Williamson1:00:00

      you're fresher in abs, in being able to brace, in being able to do all this stuff, you will give your weaker side a sometimes minor, sometimes perhaps even major advantage, which will help to bring that imbalance back up. And I've always done it, I've always started with my left, because my left's so much weaker than my right. And, um, still not managed to balance that imbalance out, but I'm gonna guess you guys do more-

   2. JOJonny1:00:23

      So one, one thing you can add to that is, um, you start with the weak side and then you match the reps with the strong side rather than trying to do more on the strong side until they equilibriate.

   3. CWChris Williamson1:00:34

      Mm-hmm.

   4. JOJonny1:00:35

      So let's say you can do eight reps with the left arm, ten reps with the right, you just match eight on the right as well.

   5. YUYusef1:00:42

      I see. So you get slightly more muscle, muscly on one side for a bit.

   6. JOJonny1:00:47

      (laughs)

   7. NANarrator1:00:47

      (laughs)

   8. YUYusef1:00:48

      I get it.

   9. JOJonny1:00:48

      Slightly more muscly.

   10. YUYusef1:00:48

       But less, less muscly on the side that's already more muscly.

   11. JOJonny1:00:52

       Until eventually you're just muscly 

   12. CWChris Williamson1:00:53

       Everything is muscly, yeah.

   13. YUYusef1:00:55

       Well, as muscly as possible.

   14. CWChris Williamson1:00:56

       Jonny, what you got?

   15. YUYusef1:00:58

       Uh, watch s- a subtitled film to help to combat with, like, two screening or make it a more immersive experience. So I've had... I get really frustrated, I don't know why, but when Netflix upload, like, f- or- originally foreign films, so aren't, they aren't in English and they're dubbed and it's really badly dubbed, so like the voice just doesn't fit the situation, like the, the intonation, the expression makes it, like, unwatchable.

   16. CWChris Williamson1:01:28

       (laughs)

   17. YUYusef1:01:28

       Becker and I watched this film called Parasite the other week, which is Korean, I believe, um, subtitled in English. And I had really low expectations. I was like, "It's really frustrating." It's like read- I'm gonna have to read the entire thing. It's amazing how t- e- 10 minutes in, you've almost forgotten about the fact that it's subtitled, but you're completely engrossed in the film, because you can't even look away from it for five, five minutes, 'cause you, you completely lose track of what's happening.

   18. CWChris Williamson1:01:56

       You don't know what's, what's happening. So this only works-

   19. YUYusef1:01:58

       So like i-

   20. CWChris Williamson1:01:58

       ... this only works with foreign films, because there's no reason-

   21. YUYusef1:02:02

       Yeah. Yeah.

   22. CWChris Williamson1:02:02

       ... to continue watching.

   23. YUYusef1:02:03

       Exactly. Yeah. So I th- so I think there's a lot of good foreign cinema, a lot of good foreign series in cinema. A lot of them are dubbed, which c- I think makes everything worse, 'cause you're actually less likely to pay attention. But if you get the, get like the version that's foreign and watch it with the subtitles, often they're, they're pretty good. Um-

   24. CWChris Williamson1:02:19

       I mean, I'm... I like that. Have you seen The Platform on Netflix? It's about-

   25. YUYusef1:02:22

       I've heard, I've heard about it.

   26. CWChris Williamson1:02:24

       And so... The concept's so cool. It's people locked in kind... it looks a little bit like this prison, and there's two people per level and like 50 stories and a huge, big hole in the middle. So you can imagine that the people live around the outside of a square, and in the middle of the square, there's this big hole, and this elevator goes up and down. But it was Fr- I want to say French or something like that. And, um, I just, uh, went on, started watching it with the British d- dubbing, overdubs or whatever it's called-

   27. YUYusef1:02:52

       Mm-hmm.

   28. CWChris Williamson1:02:52

       ... and it was unwatchable. So I was like, "I'm not gonna bother. I'm not gonna bother doing it." Um, I, but if I watched it with subtitles-

   29. YUYusef1:02:58

       It's such a shame.

   30. CWChris Williamson1:02:59

       ... ruined it completely.

Episode duration: 1:38:10