Note Apps, Book Summaries & iPhone Tips - Life Hacks 205 | Modern Wisdom Podcast 341

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   I suppose I've got…

   1. YSYusef Smith0:00

      I suppose I've got to start with-

   2. JWJonny Watson0:02

      (laughs)

   3. YSYusef Smith0:02

      ... the biggest announcement of the year. I'm leaving Evernote. It's official.

   4. CWChris Williamson0:06

      Oh, okay.

   5. JWJonny Watson0:07

      Having a written down warm up that you do each time makes such a difference in training. It's like year seven PE level advice. This is like-

   6. CWChris Williamson0:16

      Arm circles. Do you do arm circles?

   7. JWJonny Watson0:17

      Yes. I, so I actually do arm circles.

   8. CWChris Williamson0:20

      Hang on, hang on. Can I, can we back up for-

   9. JWJonny Watson0:22

      You start small and then go bigger.

   10. CWChris Williamson0:22

       Can we back up for a second? Are you, as an international level power lifter, telling us that a game changing life hack for you is doing a warm up? Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome back to the show. It is another life hacks episode. Tools, techniques, and tactics for a productive and efficient life. I tried to get some of the world's most productive people on to join me today, but none of them were available. Then I asked Dominic Cummings, he wasn't available. So I've settled for Johnny and Yusef from propanefitness.com. Welcome to the show gentlemen.

   11. JWJonny Watson0:55

       Hello.

   12. YSYusef Smith0:56

       Thanks for having us.

   13. CWChris Williamson0:57

       It's a pleasure. What have you been doing recently other than the first time that we've been out for food in a venue post pandemic so far? Happened last night.

   14. JWJonny Watson1:08

       Not much. Well, it feels like I'm doing a lot, but that's just like occasionally leaving the house and going to places ...

   15. CWChris Williamson1:14

       (laughs)

   16. JWJonny Watson1:14

       ... which feels like, gosh, like I can't handle this.

   17. CWChris Williamson1:17

       Novelty.

   18. JWJonny Watson1:17

       My, my calendar is really strained.

   19. CWChris Williamson1:20

       Novelty.

   20. JWJonny Watson1:20

       But yeah, it's, I'm, I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying like the slow ... I'm pleased that there's like a, there's a road map of, of gradual release 'cause I think if it had just been in your house for a year and then everything's available.

   21. CWChris Williamson1:32

       Like features of Apple products, like you don't want the virtual reality headset right now. You want it-

   22. JWJonny Watson1:36

       Yeah.

   23. CWChris Williamson1:37

       ... to be drip fed to us over the-

   24. JWJonny Watson1:38

       That's a, that's a great way of looking at it. I don't think anyone will be ready for like augmented reality, so you need to phase it in, don't you?

   25. CWChris Williamson1:44

       Fine, fine, yeah. Just push it back. Keep on pushing it back by four weeks. Anyway, uh, on this episode if you're not familiar with life hacks, we go through whatever we've come up with to make life a little bit more efficient and effective over the last few months since our last episode. All the links to everything that we talk about, if there's any discount codes or whatever will be in the show notes below. And, as is tradition up first is a hot potato for Jonathan Watson. There you go Johnny.

   26. JWJonny Watson2:06

       (laughs)

   27. CWChris Williamson2:07

       What have you, what have you got for us?

   28. JWJonny Watson2:09

       Got it. Got it. Uh, I have a, an automation, a phone, an iPhone automation. Uh, as we were just talking about, I just have, uh, an old, cheap, chatty iPhone XR so I'm sure the new ones can just do this automatically. But one of the automations I have set up is to automatically turn on low power mode at a low battery percentage, which just gives me peace of mind a little bit, a little bit extra.

   29. YSYusef Smith2:37

       Gives a nice landing strip, doesn't it?

   30. CWChris Williamson2:39

       Hang on. Is that not in-built already at 20%? Is there not an option that pops up and says, "Battery is low. Do you want to turn on low power mode?"
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Probably. …

   1. CWChris Williamson15:00

   2. JWJonny Watson15:00

      Probably.

   3. CWChris Williamson15:00

      ... three years ago. But-

   4. YSYusef Smith15:02

      (groans)

   5. CWChris Williamson15:02

      ... I'm more, more than happy for you to-

   6. YSYusef Smith15:04

      You know what this is? The messy middle. Like, you, he's gone from, like, the, the low end...

   7. CWChris Williamson15:09

      (laughs) Just, just read book summaries to must-have fully architected-

   8. YSYusef Smith15:13

      To, to read the full thing.

   9. CWChris Williamson15:14

      Yeah, to, "Just read book summaries." (laughs)

   10. JWJonny Watson15:16

       Well, I've got, I've got a reason. I've got a reason. I've got a reason.

   11. CWChris Williamson15:17

       Okay.

   12. JWJonny Watson15:19

       So, the... And I don't think it works for... So, what Blinkist is, for, for anybody who doesn't know, it is a book summary service where they... and Yousef has a, a better version that he'll, he'll introduce in a second called Shortform, I think. Is that right? Shortform?

   13. CWChris Williamson15:34

       Optimized.me. There you go.

   14. JWJonny Watson15:36

       Um, but they, they summarize it into blinks, which is like, it's like a 15-minute audio of a book. Um, so the... What I, what was happening was I had, like, 15 minutes in the morning where I would, like, want to listen to something. So, I would try and, like, listen to podcasts, but it, it's, like, not enough to get in the most podcasts. And I would try listening to an audiobook, but then you get the, like, "It was a cold, winter's morning in 1985," and you're like, you, you, you end up, like, not really getting anything in 15 minutes.

   15. CWChris Williamson16:03

       (laughs)

   16. JWJonny Watson16:04

       So, I thought I'd try it out. I'd do the trial. And it doesn't work for every book, is the problem. So, like, books that are incredibly deep and complicated that can't really be done justice in 15 minutes, I wouldn't advise it. But if there's a book that you, like, have always fancied reading, perhaps, that's a fair... Most, most, like, self-improvement books are a single concept that are, that are padded out, that you maybe want to just get into.

   17. CWChris Williamson16:25

       What are some good examples of ones that you have Blinkist-ed?

   18. JWJonny Watson16:30

       Essentialism, I re-listened to. So, this was my test. So, as I said, I wanted to see if I could get the, sort of the gist of Essentialism from the, from the blinks. And you, you more or less can. I, I think, anyway. Um-

   19. CWChris Williamson16:43

       Have you read the full book to compare it to?

   20. JWJonny Watson16:46

       Most of the full book (laughs) . Not cover to cover, but most of the full book. So, I... It's a... If you want to kind of pick up concepts from popular books, but you don't want necessarily to commit to read the whole thing, I think it's a pretty good service. When I originally... Go on.

   21. CWChris Williamson17:05

       Why not optimized.me? Because I tried both of these f-... three or four years ago, and I compared, and I came up with this, the synopsis of Bryan Johnson does a better job of this.

   22. JWJonny Watson17:17

       You think so?

   23. CWChris Williamson17:18

       Yeah, I think so, and-

   24. YSYusef Smith17:19

       I feel like Bryan Johnson, a- all of his summaries are the same. It's always like-

   25. JWJonny Watson17:23

       Yeah.

   26. YSYusef Smith17:23

       ... "And this comes back to our fundies. Brush your brain."

   27. CWChris Williamson17:26

       Yeah.

   28. YSYusef Smith17:26

       "And move your DNA."

   29. CWChris Williamson17:26

       "Don't forget about Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi." (laughs)

   30. JWJonny Watson17:29

       So, I think that's the reason why not Bryan Johnson.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   What I saw- …

   1. YSYusef Smith30:00

      probably surgery to some extent as well.

   2. CWChris Williamson30:02

      What I saw-

   3. YSYusef Smith30:02

      Um, d-

   4. CWChris Williamson30:03

      I saw during the buildup to the Logan Paul-Floyd Mayweather fight that Logan Paul was preparing with a virtual reality headset on and a pair of VR gloves. I don't know whether that was for the workouts and stuff.

   5. JWJonny Watson30:15

      Do you know, do you know I have the Quest, the cheap one?

   6. CWChris Williamson30:19

      ... quest bars, quest bars.

   7. JWJonny Watson30:21

      Do you know this? An Oculus Quest? They, like, th- they brought out a really, like, low-priced one.

   8. CWChris Williamson30:25

      Yeah.

   9. JWJonny Watson30:25

      Not the one that's a couple grand. It's like 200 quid, Facebook make it.

   10. CWChris Williamson30:29

       Mm-hmm.

   11. JWJonny Watson30:30

       I own one of those.

   12. CWChris Williamson30:31

       Okay.

   13. JWJonny Watson30:31

       So I've played- I've played table tennis on it.

   14. CWChris Williamson30:34

       We need to test your table tennis.

   15. YSYusef Smith30:35

       Someone said, I- I didn't know you had one, yeah. Some- someone said that, um, the next step is that they take, like, a front and side profile photo of you and they can map it as your face. And because it has eye tracking inside it, you could have a chat with someone and be making eye contact with them fully digitally. Just a bit frightening.

   16. JWJonny Watson30:55

       Well, they- they've just- they've just added this feature to it, which is hand tracking. So not, you know how there's normally the controllers?

   17. CWChris Williamson31:00

       Mm-hmm.

   18. JWJonny Watson31:01

       Now you- you can just use your hands. So you can make-

   19. CWChris Williamson31:04

       So it does have front-facing cameras?

   20. JWJonny Watson31:06

       Yeah.

   21. CWChris Williamson31:06

       Right.

   22. JWJonny Watson31:07

       So you can pinch and throw and grab, and it completely tracks. And the weirdest thing about it is, like, w- why it sometimes feels real is you do that, and the hand responds how you would think your hand responds. And so I suppose there's a- there's a moment where your brain thinks, like-

   23. CWChris Williamson31:23

       Well-

   24. JWJonny Watson31:23

       ... "This is just r- reality."

   25. CWChris Williamson31:24

       ... you've all seen that video of the guy doing the climbing up the side of the mountain-

   26. YSYusef Smith31:28

       (laughs)

   27. CWChris Williamson31:28

       ... in the middle of a GameStop or something, and he falls off that and crashes straight through, in the real world, crashes straight through the screen.

   28. JWJonny Watson31:35

       Yeah.

   29. CWChris Williamson31:35

       Because his body tips him over, thinking that that's what's happened. Anyway, buy an Aerobie Pro Disk. Everybody needs one.

   30. JWJonny Watson31:42

       When we do a life hacks on a sofa next, I'll bring the Oculus and we'll film-
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Wow. …

   1. JWJonny Watson45:00

      Google. Takes five or six seconds to calculate what that means.

   2. CWChris Williamson45:03

      Wow.

   3. JWJonny Watson45:04

      So the idea of, like, just using a whiteboard instead of that might be a bit of a challenge.

   4. CWChris Williamson45:08

      Too low-tech.

   5. JWJonny Watson45:10

      But I... For, for the warmup, I could definitely do it, for sure.

   6. CWChris Williamson45:12

      Nice. Seth, what you got?

   7. YSYusef Smith45:14

      I've stolen this one from Johnny, and I don't know if we discussed it on the last one. But the hack is, if you're ever faced with a office box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, don't piss about. Don't go for the, the plain disc with the ring in the middle. Just go for the, the nice one, like the Nutella or the Biscoff or whatever, because we looked at the calories, and they're not that different between the plain boring one and the all, all-singing-dancing, flashing-lights one.

   8. JWJonny Watson45:55

      (laughs)

   9. CWChris Williamson45:56

      I'm going to throw a spanner in the works. (laughs)

   10. YSYusef Smith45:58

       Oh, no. Okay.

   11. JWJonny Watson45:59

       That was, that was such a great place to explain this. (laughs)

   12. CWChris Williamson46:02

       I, I prefer the original glazed.

   13. YSYusef Smith46:05

       Well, that's fine. If you prefer it, then, then, you know, you... 'Cause it's still slightly lower calories. It's just not that much lower than...

   14. CWChris Williamson46:12

       But I resent your implication that it is of a lower caliber.

   15. YSYusef Smith46:15

       (laughs)

   16. CWChris Williamson46:15

       I resent your implication that-

   17. YSYusef Smith46:17

       Absolutely.

   18. CWChris Williamson46:17

       ... pejoratively, for most people, they don't want you... the basic, bitch, ring thing. That is-

   19. YSYusef Smith46:24

       Not everyone matches your-

   20. CWChris Williamson46:25

       That is my people.

   21. YSYusef Smith46:25

       ... your preferences, though. Not everyone is like, "Oh, I, I like the, the vanilla, mission-derie doughnut."

   22. CWChris Williamson46:30

       This could become very problematic for me.

   23. YSYusef Smith46:31

       However, the, the real thing to avoid is the mocha, because that is... The mocha from Krispy Kreme doughnuts is similar calorie amount to any of the doughnuts. So just eat a doughnut. Don't think like, "Oh..."

   24. CWChris Williamson46:47

       Why? Why does it taste... It tastes bad?

   25. YSYusef Smith46:50

       Well, I, I think it... I'm sure it'll be all right, 'cause it's very high-calorie.

   26. CWChris Williamson46:53

       Are you bad-mouthing a doughnut that you've never eaten?

   27. JWJonny Watson46:57

       What- what, what, what's the reason to avoid the mocha? Because of the calories? Oh, the calories, yeah.

   28. CWChris Williamson47:01

       Oh, the mocha drink, not a mocha flavor doughnut.

   29. JWJonny Watson47:04

       Ah, right. Yeah. R- right, right. Yeah.

   30. CWChris Williamson47:04

       Right. Thank you. We are all on the same page now. Yes.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:13:46

   What, as, as in…

   1. CWChris Williamson1:00:00

      that you would be able to, um, extend the cord of your lamp, put a layer of sound insulation in, put another board in, and then put a slightly lower ceiling in with more, with the same plastering over and then put your light back in. And I reckon for 1,500 quid you could, depending on how much sound from above you contributes to your life's, uh, misery, I reckon you could get rid of it for probably about a grand.

   2. YSYusef Smith1:00:24

      What, as, as in soundproof my ceiling?

   3. CWChris Williamson1:00:26

      Yes.

   4. YSYusef Smith1:00:26

      Not, not ask her to soundproof her floor.

   5. CWChris Williamson1:00:28

      Alternatively, but.

   6. JWJonny Watson1:00:29

      Well it's the, it's the same thing.

   7. CWChris Williamson1:00:30

      Yeah. It's one and the same.

   8. JWJonny Watson1:00:32

      You could also just get some great ear plugs.

   9. CWChris Williamson1:00:35

      Or AirPod Pros.

   10. JWJonny Watson1:00:36

       Like get like, sh- you know, shotgun shooting ear defenders and then you'll be out like a light.

   11. YSYusef Smith1:00:42

       The, the more annoying thing is when you're podcasting, to be honest.

   12. JWJonny Watson1:00:45

       Yeah.

   13. YSYusef Smith1:00:45

       'Cause that just immortalizes it.

   14. CWChris Williamson1:00:46

       We haven't picked, we haven't, I haven't heard anything. But...

   15. YSYusef Smith1:00:49

       That's 'cause I've been tact, tactfully -

   16. CWChris Williamson1:00:51

       Uh-huh.

   17. YSYusef Smith1:00:51

       ... practically -

   18. JWJonny Watson1:00:52

       Practically.

   19. CWChris Williamson1:00:52

       Right.

   20. YSYusef Smith1:00:53

       Yeah.

   21. CWChris Williamson1:00:53

       As, as is tradition toward the end of a life hacks episode, stuff that we have been either reading or watching on Netflix and such. And I am going to open up with Marcella...

   22. JWJonny Watson1:01:07

       ... seen it.

   23. CWChris Williamson1:01:08

       What do you think?

   24. JWJonny Watson1:01:10

       It's all right.

   25. CWChris Williamson1:01:11

       Oh, come on.

   26. YSYusef Smith1:01:13

       (laughs)

   27. CWChris Williamson1:01:13

       Come on.

   28. YSYusef Smith1:01:14

       Wah-wah-wah.

   29. JWJonny Watson1:01:15

       Have you seen all of it? Have you seen all of the seasons?

   30. CWChris Williamson1:01:17

       Yeah, right up to the Irish season.

Episode duration: 1:26:05