Our Biggest Lessons From 2020 | Modern Wisdom Podcast 261

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   Well, it's an annual…

   1. CWChris Williamson0:00

      Well, it's an annual tradition for us, isn't it? To wear either ours or if you're Yusuf, your girlfriend's Christmas jumper.

   2. YUYusef0:06

      So pre-role, we had to adjust the neckline because I looked like a, a Christmas Steve Jobs.

   3. JOJonny0:13

      (laughs)

   4. CWChris Williamson0:13

      You did. (laughs) You looked like a festive Steve, didn't you?

   5. YUYusef0:15

      (laughs)

   6. JOJonny0:15

      So I suppose this, the second lesson is, like, test something's worth by taking it away for a while and see if you notice anything or see what changes. Try not doing something that you think is helping and see if you're right or not. If you're right, great. Like, try not sleeping for a month. I guarantee you conclude that sleeping is helpful.

   7. YUYusef0:29

      We've seen a massive impact on people's mental health this year, and a lot of it, I think, stems from people not being comfortable in their own company. It's actually really dangerous having to poo in a hospital toilet because the emergency buzzer is next to the toilet roll, and it's a long cable, and it's really sensitive.

   8. JOJonny0:47

      Oh, I've pulled stuff like that before in the past. I've, I've yanked a red cord like that before in a steam room, thinking that it was the, like the thing for more steam.

   9. CWChris Williamson0:55

      More steam. (laughs)

   10. YUYusef0:55

       (laughs)

   11. JOJonny0:56

       And then-

   12. CWChris Williamson0:56

       This is a more steam cord. (laughs)

   13. YUYusef1:00

       Yeah.

   14. CWChris Williamson1:04

       Ladies and gentlemen, merry crimbo. Look at us. Look at how lovely we are. Look at this. Get your, get your Christmas jumpers out for the lads. So nice. You always have the classiest Christmas jumpers, Johnny. Look at that.

   15. JOJonny1:21

       So, so my remember went-

   16. CWChris Williamson1:21

       It's so Abercrombie, isn't it?

   17. YUYusef1:23

       Johnny duped us last year with the, um, the light up one.

   18. JOJonny1:29

       It's broken.

   19. YUYusef1:31

       You said it was voice activated, I think.

   20. CWChris Williamson1:32

       (laughs)

   21. YUYusef1:33

       Yeah, that was a bit...

   22. JOJonny1:33

       Yeah, I remember that.

   23. CWChris Williamson1:34

       So what, where's that from? Is it Hollister?

   24. JOJonny1:36

       So, so this... So the reason I'm wearing this is that Becca has bought all three of us, all three of us, including Dexter, matching Christmas jumpers. So Dexter has the same jumper, slightly smaller obviously. And then-

   25. CWChris Williamson1:52

       (laughs)

   26. JOJonny1:52

       ... Becca also has one. And they're the same but kind of slightly different color themes. But yeah, I agree, like, it's very... Like, you could wear it, you could wear it out and just have your, your hand over sort of the reindeer, the arm over the reindeer, and no one would say anything.

   27. CWChris Williamson2:02

       Pretty trendy.

   28. JOJonny2:03

       And just be like, "Oh, Johnny, Johnny's just wearing a, one of them jumpers he always wears."

   29. CWChris Williamson2:06

       Well, it's an annual tradition for us, isn't it? To wear either ours or if you're Yusuf, your girlfriend's Christmas jumper.

   30. YUYusef2:14

       (laughs) So pre-roll, we had to adjust the neckline because I looked like a, a Christmas Steve Jobs.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   You got anything to…

   1. YUYusef15:00

      that process. Um, but it's so, it's been so interesting to see that unfold.

   2. CWChris Williamson15:08

      You got anything to add there, Blud?

   3. JOJonny15:10

      So the, the... There's a study that Gary Weber references, um, about... Yeah, I think we might, we might even have talked about this. So before we came on this podcast, I checked the life hacks list, and I don't think any of us have actually ever said meditation. I think we've mentioned-

   4. CWChris Williamson15:27

      Used apps, we've said...

   5. JOJonny15:29

      Yeah.

   6. CWChris Williamson15:29

      ... different particular ways for-

   7. JOJonny15:30

      There's like four, four or five apps or web, like, things to try, but the, the hack that we've not actually suggested people do regularly is meditation. But the, the, the study that Gary references is they took, I think initially university students, and put them in a room, and they had to sit by themselves for 15 minutes, and it was... Like, they found that... And there still weren't like any devices. There were not to check anything. And they... It was incredibly painful for people. So they gave people a bracelet that was attached to a, like a strap around their ankle with the option to shock themselves with electric, electricity, and over half of the men, I think, opted to shock themselves. (laughs)

   8. CWChris Williamson16:10

      (laughs)

   9. JOJonny16:10

      It's just like when you think about that, it is insane that someone would rather shock themselves with electricity than sit by themselves for 15 minutes. And that-

   10. YUYusef16:22

       It's really amazing. It's-

   11. JOJonny16:23

       Yeah.

   12. YUYusef16:23

       ... such a, like, 14-year-old or, like, year nine activity as well. Like, you're sat there, you've got, like, a bit of deodorant, you just spray it until you, like-

   13. JOJonny16:30

       Spray it in your armpit. (laughs)

   14. CWChris Williamson16:31

       Yeah. Yeah. Or doing that thing with a compass where you go like, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.

   15. YUYusef16:36

       Oh, yeah. (laughs)

   16. JOJonny16:37

       Like through your arm.

   17. YUYusef16:38

       Well, you can have the two-man version where you flick pennies at each other across the, across the desk.

   18. CWChris Williamson16:42

       Oh, yeah, and then when you do it, you got to hit your knuckles. So I, I think, um... Who's the person who said all of man's problems stem from the fact you can't sit in a room, uh, quietly by himself? I think that's a philosophy-

   19. YUYusef16:56

       It was either Goethe, Hegel, or-

   20. CWChris Williamson16:58

       Hegel. (laughs) Probably, probably Hegel. Uh, but I'm pretty certain that's thousands and thousands of years old. And part of me wants to blame hyper-stimulus and the modern era of devices for ramping our dopamine up that we can't sit in a room on our own. But it seems like that's the sort of thing that's been around for quite a while.

   21. YUYusef17:21

       I reckon it's worse in this decade than it was.

   22. JOJonny17:24

       Yeah.

   23. YUYusef17:25

       Um, do you remember f- f- 15 years ago, you could... Like, you'd turn up for an appointment for something, and you'd sit in the waiting room, and you would just be like...

   24. CWChris Williamson17:38

       So-

   25. YUYusef17:38

       Now if someone does that, they're a psychopath.

   26. JOJonny17:40

       So I really hope that Ben Harrison is listening to this. But if you-

   27. YUYusef17:44

       'Cause he does that.

   28. JOJonny17:44

       Whenever you meet Ben, and he's there before you, and you see him, like, through the window, he's just sat like this... (laughs)

   29. YUYusef17:52

       (laughs) Just on a standby.

   30. CWChris Williamson17:54

       (laughs) Yeah. In a hol- in a holding pattern.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Yep. …

   1. YUYusef30:00

      uh, 2019 podcast, of Chris Spark's idea of "Nothing gets grandfathered in. Everything is up for sale."

   2. CWChris Williamson30:08

      Yep.

   3. YUYusef30:09

      Just because you've been doing something, whether you think it's good or think it's bad, it has to get reexamined and say, "Right, should I continue this habit or this project or whatever?"

   4. CWChris Williamson30:18

      Yeah.

   5. JOJonny30:19

      Did you find that you got the same amount of work done in Dubai?... like, did you still get the, like, the key work done in spite of, like, f- I presume working fewer hours?

   6. CWChris Williamson30:31

      Um, the key work? Yes. I, I can't pretend that I was working on the, probably the long-term important, on the cusp of important but not urgents. Because-

   7. JOJonny30:44

      Mm-hmm.

   8. CWChris Williamson30:44

      ... inevitably there are some things that will take you away from that. There's a boat party on tonight. There's a, MK is playing at a pool. There's whatever's happening. We're going out for dinner. I'm going for a walk. I'm cycling in the desert. Um, but the stuff that keeps everything ticking over, I kept on top of perfectly fine. And had I have been there for longer, and it not had a defined end point, that we pushed back by a week, but, uh, had a defined-

   9. JOJonny31:09

      (laughs)

   10. CWChris Williamson31:09

       ... end point to it, um, perhaps I would've forced myself to do that stuff. But for instance, the, the next lead magnet that I want to do for the newsletter is 151 Books to Read Before You Die. Like, I was not going to start that project while I was out there. It's got no defined deadline to it. It's slightly confusing and messy to begin. There's a lot of inertia to get over. There was no way I was gonna begin that while I was out there. But I kept recording. I kept on a recording schedule. Uh, I kept meditating while I was out there. I kept on doing my rehab for my Achilles, all that stuff.

   11. JOJonny31:41

       I think the, (clears throat) something that I, I've found, like, not necessarily this year, but, like, on, in years where you're, you're traveling, going to, like, three weddings in a week, um, are sometimes (laughs) the most... For us, like, we'll have, like, the most profitable week ever in, in propane, and I've worked some of the fewest hours. And you look at it, and you're like, "Fuck's sake." You know, I, I... All these weeks where I sit and, like, hammer away at the, at the, trying to push the boulder up the hill when there's just a rate that it's going to move e- no matter how hard you push. J- is, is a, a nice reminder to say that actually I can just take... I can just stop working, have the, have the rest of the day off, or I can take the weekend and not check my emails or whatever. Um, but I think that's harder and harder to do when there's fewer... so s- the average person at home this year hasn't had the-

   12. CWChris Williamson32:30

       What the fuck else is there to do? (laughs)

   13. JOJonny32:32

       ... the, the desert to go and cycle-

   14. CWChris Williamson32:33

       Yeah.

   15. JOJonny32:33

       ... or the, the beach party to go to. (laughs) Um, but yeah, I think it's a... I think a lot of people I know have, have just let work, like, fill everything-

   16. CWChris Williamson32:42

       Mm-hmm.

   17. JOJonny32:42

       ... 'cause it's either work or Netflix, sleep, work, Netflix, sleep. Um-

   18. YUYusef32:46

       I think it's, it's about matching the personality type of the person to the recommendation, which you, you kind of hat-tipped to before, which is that if you're a type A, hard-driving, overachieving personality, then you need to engineer in work into your day, whereas if you naturally gravitate to sloth, then you need to create structure to do the work. Um, interestingly, someone called Niamh, who listens to the Modern Wisdom podcast and got in touch with me as a result, asked me to do a talk at my hospital, um-

   19. CWChris Williamson33:18

       Wow.

   20. YUYusef33:19

       ... for junior pharmacists and junior doctors on, like, life hacks for... It was sort of clinical life hacks. And one of them was, "Go for a poo."

   21. CWChris Williamson33:30

       (laughs)

   22. YUYusef33:30

       So bear with me. (laughs) It's... But when, when you're on a, an, an on-call shift, which is where you are covering the entire hospital out of hours for 13 hours, um, it's a long shift. And it's basically... Your, your adrenal glands are just slowly getting nipple crippled for the whole 13 hours so you're getting a phone call every, like, 30 to, 30 to 60 seconds, and you're being asked to do loads of stuff, and you're just getting, like, slammed kind of relentlessly. And if you just go from one job to the next without that personal break point, you're just... Your, your cortisol is just gonna go, "Mm."

   23. CWChris Williamson34:09

       (laughs)

   24. YUYusef34:09

       And so you, you do just have to stop and have a poo and be like, "You know what? I'm allowed a poo." Like-

   25. CWChris Williamson34:15

       (laughs)

   26. YUYusef34:15

       ... this job contract says-

   27. CWChris Williamson34:16

       What if you don't need one?

   28. JOJonny34:17

       (laughs)

   29. YUYusef34:19

       E- even if you don't need one, you can just, just sit and have a, have a shampoo. You know how you have the, the sham surgery with Stu McGill?

   30. CWChris Williamson34:25

       Yeah.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Well, that's what I…

   1. JOJonny45:00

      is just burpees for time?

   2. YUYusef45:02

      Well, that's what I mean, yeah, if it's like-

   3. JOJonny45:03

      But-

   4. YUYusef45:04

      Do, do you mean... Are, are you saying because it's like-

   5. JOJonny45:06

      No, no, I was just, I was just-

   6. YUYusef45:07

      ... un- (laughs)

   7. JOJonny45:08

      Whenever I think of, like, how would I make training as hard as possible for... I think there was a CrossFit Open workout or there was a CrossFit workout which was just-

   8. CWChris Williamson45:14

      Seven minutes.

   9. YUYusef45:15

      ... seven minutes of burpees.

   10. JOJonny45:16

       Seven minutes of burpees, yeah.

   11. YUYusef45:17

       (sighs)

   12. JOJonny45:17

       I can think of, I can honestly think of nothing worse.

   13. CWChris Williamson45:19

       Mm-hmm.

   14. JOJonny45:19

       Training-wise. That's as bad as it gets.

   15. YUYusef45:22

       Yeah.

   16. CWChris Williamson45:22

       Les- Lesson two, Scobe.

   17. YUYusef45:25

       Lesson two is that 2020 has been the year of the confidently wrong.

   18. CWChris Williamson45:32

       (laughs)

   19. YUYusef45:34

       So, this is basically from all of the kind of online health experts and so on just coming out of the woodwork and preying on people's health anxiety or, or fears, um, not helped by media and so on that's, that's basically been like scaremongering the whole time and selectively using, um, claims or stats to like really send the shits up people to keep them in the house. Whi- which, which, like, you know, it has a, it has a policy purpose, but there are, um, there's definitely people that have tried to capitalize on that. And they're either knowingly wrong or they're unknowingly wrong. And so this is like people selling immune-boosting supplements online or, um, like we, we once saw someone selling an anti-cancer diet, and, you know, all this kind of thing. And you're seeing people repeatedly make predictions about what's gonna happen in the next month and then there might even be high-profile people that are then shown to be like dramatically wrong. And the lesson really is to hold your opinions lightly. I think this is a lesson that I've internalized quite a lot, um, and I think it's been caused by having my anus handed to me a few years ago from big trading losses. And that's because trading is the abstracted version of this. Like, yes, you're just looking at a line on a screen, but that, that's like the perfect way to distill that down to the pure emotional rawness of being wrong, because you can invest all your ego into like, "Oh, no, it's definitely gonna go up now, like after..." And then you, you like, you go sunk cost fallacy and you invest your, like, your, your energy into it and you're like, "Oh, no, but it's definitely..." Because obviously you're seeing patterns that aren't really there, and then the market just keeps hitting you with pain until you learn the lesson. And so by doing that, you end up realizing, "Actually, I have to hold my opinions lightly," not, you know, just for the sake of keeping my ego in check, but because, "I'm gonna be hit with pain if I don't." So, I think there was obviously... It was a great teacher and it applies to everything else that if you're able to quickly change your, um, opinion on something based on new evidence, then you're never gonna be stuck in a losing position.

   20. CWChris Williamson48:09

       I think the problem is, especially with social media, certainty is conflated with truthfulness or expertise.

   21. YUYusef48:19

       Yeah.

   22. CWChris Williamson48:19

       So someone that's absolutely hard in the paint about one particular point... I, I keep using this example, but it was just so fucking flagrant, I couldn't believe it. Joe Biden said at the beginning of this year that stopping Chinese people coming into the country was xenophobic, and then two and a half months later said that the travel restrictions were entered too late.It's like, dude, you do not get to fucking do that. You don't get to do that. Like, you're supposed to be the vanguard of statement-like truthfulness and honesty, and the problem is that... I, I, I don't know why, perhaps the media team say, "Actually, mate, if you were to track back on that and identify that you were wrong, it shows in the polls that people are going to lose faith in you or something like that." But, like-

   23. JOJonny49:05

       (laughs) .

   24. CWChris Williamson49:06

       ... that's only if you're so basic that you can only hold one thought in your ti- in your m- mind at a time.

   25. JOJonny49:12

       (laughs) .

   26. CWChris Williamson49:12

       Like, if your mental RAM is so constricted that, like a goldfish, you can only remember the last thing that this person said and not frame it against the things that they said before. But, perhaps this is me being a, a dickhead. Perhaps, uh, reputation on the int- the internet is additive with a time limit rather than multiplicative across time. I don't know.

   27. YUYusef49:35

       Additive with a time limit, rather than mul- multiplicative-

   28. CWChris Williamson49:38

       A- so, imagine if you multiplied by zero, you'd end up with a big fat zero. If you say something which is just totally, totally wrong and then decide to multiply it by something else which is totally wrong, you're just at zero. Whereas what it might be is it's just zero plus zero plus zero plus one. And you're like, "Oh, look at me, I'm up to one." And everyone's forgotten all of the fucking zeros in any case.

   29. YUYusef49:57

       Oh, I see. Yeah, so, so I think the, the, th- the memory span of the feed and all of that stuff is very short. Yes, you'll get the occasional person who'll be like, "Oh, but you said back in March this." And, but also the, the whole system, as you said, the polls and the algorithms and everything are all... They don't reward nuance and restraint, which is what every true expert has, because they're, they realize how little they know, and they're like, "Well, you know, could be okay, but..." Um, and they reward people who are certain and promote, um, outrage in the comments. And yeah, the, the media thing's a big one. Like, I was, um, in the hospital the other day. One of the staff was like, "Here you are, Doctor. Are you having the COVID vaccine?" And I was like, "Well, maybe, but, um, th- well, mo- most likely yes, but, you know, I, I don't wanna be one of the first guinea pigs." But she was like, "I saw on Facebook they gave it to a bunch of African kids and they all died."

   30. CWChris Williamson50:55

       (laughs) .
5. 1:00:00 – 1:03:11

   Nice. Yeah, that is...…

   1. CWChris Williamson1:00:00

      And if you need it, it will be there. And because of that, the person that you are now when you're worrying and the person that you are if the incident that you're worrying about occurs are essentially totally different. Have faith that the future you is going to be able to deal with whatever's going to come. Have faith that the future you will pay the bill, make the business work, regain the client, fix the relationship, get over the relationship, fix the Achilles, deal with the opiate constipation, whatever it might be. Like, all of those things came together to make me sort of really reassured that everybody's constitution is far stronger than, than they know. And specifically mine. And I'm, like, a really, really good example of somebody who I think, who I thought would be terrible in that sort of a situation and I managed to get through it. So yeah, that was, um, you are more resilient than you know.

   2. YUYusef1:00:50

      Nice. Yeah, that is...

   3. JOJonny1:00:54

      (laughs)

   4. YUYusef1:00:55

      ... very good. I, I like the idea of discovering a room in your house that-

   5. CWChris Williamson1:00:59

      Yeah.

   6. YUYusef1:00:59

      ... you didn't know was there.I just hope I don't do my Achilles.

   7. CWChris Williamson1:01:05

      I wouldn't advise it. Uh, well, I mean, as a personal development strategy, it was effective, but not necessary. Like, I wish-

   8. YUYusef1:01:13

      (laughs)

   9. CWChris Williamson1:01:13

      ... that I hadn't had (laughs) to do it to realize it, but you know, in terms of-

   10. YUYusef1:01:16

       If you'd done a Sharm Achilles, that would've been better.

   11. CWChris Williamson1:01:19

       Oh, no.

   12. YUYusef1:01:19

       Like, you're still white, but-

   13. CWChris Williamson1:01:20

       Yeah, but you've still got to wipe.

   14. YUYusef1:01:21

       Still wipe. Yeah.

   15. CWChris Williamson1:01:22

       Uh, gentlemen, I, I really appreciate it. It's been a, a year where we've probably not seen each other... probably the least we've seen each other in, in forever. And even, maybe even spoken as well, which is a shame. But hopefully, hopefully next year that'll change. And, uh, uh, I value both of your friendships. I value the fact that you're both in my life, uh, as I always do. Uh, propanefitness.com/modernwisdom to find out the seven things you won't believe about how to build an online business. And propanefitness.com/calculator if you want to get your macros sorted. Did I, did I get it right?

   16. YUYusef1:01:54

       You did.

   17. CWChris Williamson1:01:55

       I did?

   18. YUYusef1:01:55

       Yeah, you can even just go to propanefitness.com.

   19. CWChris Williamson1:01:58

       Oh, okay. That would've been easier.

   20. YUYusef1:02:00

       But don't do that. But don't, don't, don't do that one. The calculator. Chris, it's been a pleasure. It has, yeah. Thanks for having us back on, man.

   21. CWChris Williamson1:02:05

       We're gonna do it more. We just need... I need to get ahold of you guys. It's significantly easier when we can sit us down in a living room, so we can get multiple episodes out.

   22. YUYusef1:02:13

       Yeah. I can't wait til we can do that again.

   23. CWChris Williamson1:02:14

       I know, man. I got my, I got my, um, couch, like, re-upholstered as well.

   24. YUYusef1:02:20

       Re-fluffed.

   25. CWChris Williamson1:02:20

       Yeah, yeah. It's so much more comfortable. It was all flaccid before-

   26. YUYusef1:02:23

       It's just...

   27. CWChris Williamson1:02:23

       ... and now it's very turgid. Um-

   28. YUYusef1:02:25

       It's ready, like, beckoning us to-

   29. CWChris Williamson1:02:28

       Enter.

   30. YUYusef1:02:28

       ... sit on it.

Episode duration: 1:03:11