Reflecting On The Wildest Year - Christmas Special (4K)

1. 0:00 – 1:19

   Intro

   1. CWChris Williamson0:00

      Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a Modern Wisdom Christmas special. For those of you who are probably in the 99.5% that have joined within the last two and a bit years, you won't recognize this location. This is my living room in Newcastle. This is where we did the first ever in-person episodes with Johnny and Yousef. And, we've got George Mack with us as well over from Dubai, specially, just for this, not for Christmas or to see his parents, just for this (laughs) , just for this episode, who'd a thunk it. And, uh, we're all in, for those that can't see, we're all festively adorned in Christmas jumpers and Yousef is refusing, even though he's hot, refusing to take it off because-

   2. YUYusef0:39

      It may have to happen halfway, thanks for the reminder. (laughs)

   3. JOJonny0:44

      (laughs)

   4. CWChris Williamson0:44

      (laughs)

   5. YUYusef0:44

      The microphone for the-

   6. CWChris Williamson0:45

      Yes.

   7. YUYusef0:45

      ... for the podcast.

   8. CWChris Williamson0:46

      For the podcast, yeah.

   9. YUYusef0:47

      (laughs)

   10. CWChris Williamson0:47

       Uh, you may, because you complained that it feels like a hair shirt, so you need something to protect you underneath.

   11. YUYusef0:52

       It's a stoic torture device.

   12. CWChris Williamson0:53

       (laughs)

   13. YUYusef0:54

       I'm just really trying to build up my willpower this Christmas.

   14. CWChris Williamson0:56

       It's resilience training.

   15. YUYusef0:57

       Yeah.

   16. CWChris Williamson0:57

       This Christmas jumper is resilience training.

   17. YUYusef0:59

       (laughs)

   18. CWChris Williamson0:59

       Anyway, we're going to go through some of our best lessons and life hacks from the last 12 months. For those of you that haven't heard a life hacks episode before, we go round in a little loop and go through some of the most en- best way to make a toasted sandwich, some new app that we've become obsessed by, some new productivity system or a book or something that we've been watching. And as is tradition, Johnny-

2. 1:19 – 6:26

   Jonny’s Morning Protein Drink

   1. CWChris Williamson1:19

   2. JOJonny1:19

      There it is.

   3. CWChris Williamson1:20

      ... hot potato for you to go first.

   4. JOJonny1:22

      (laughs) There it is. Is the toasted sandwich one the one you... 'cause that was mine. Do you remember that one? Feel like you bring it up a lot.

   5. CWChris Williamson1:26

      Uh, was it a Breville Toasted Sandwich Maker?

   6. JOJonny1:28

      It was a sleeve that you put bread in to a toaster to toast it. I mean, it's, it's average, to be honest, but-

   7. CWChris Williamson1:34

      Okay. Well, I mean-

   8. JOJonny1:35

      ... you remember it more than me.

   9. CWChris Williamson1:35

      ... we've done hundreds and hundreds of life hacks over the last six years.

   10. JOJonny1:38

       And that's the one you remember?

   11. CWChris Williamson1:39

       There's one that I remember. Anyway, first up, what you got?

   12. JOJonny1:41

       So mine's, uh, it's a supplement, and it's one that I think you feel very strongly about. Don't know what the two guys think. Clearaway, specifically the raspberry lemonade flavor-

   13. CWChris Williamson1:54

       Okay.

   14. JOJonny1:54

       ... mixed with either lemon or orange LMN salts.

   15. CWChris Williamson2:00

       That's interesting.

   16. JOJonny2:01

       I would genuinely have that over anything else.

   17. YUYusef2:04

       That's a sophisticated blend.

   18. JOJonny2:06

       It is. It's great. Great way to start-

   19. CWChris Williamson2:08

       So you're using that post-training?

   20. JOJonny2:09

       Just morning.

   21. CWChris Williamson2:11

       First thing in the morning?

   22. JOJonny2:11

       Yeah.

   23. CWChris Williamson2:12

       30 grams of protein and some salt?

   24. JOJonny2:13

       Sometimes two scoops.

   25. CWChris Williamson2:14

       Two scoops?

   26. JOJonny2:15

       Sometimes two scoops (laughs) . Raspberry flavor.

   27. CWChris Williamson2:18

       (laughs) Raspberry lemonade. Uh, and what's that, 50, 55 grams of protein?

   28. JOJonny2:22

       I don't even know.

   29. CWChris Williamson2:23

       Yeah.

   30. JOJonny2:23

       Enough.
3. 6:26 – 8:42

   Pyrex Storage for Berries

   1. JOJonny6:26

   2. CWChris Williamson6:26

      All right, Seth, you're up.

   3. YUYusef6:28

      So life hack to begin with. I'm excited about this 'cause I've been working with a team of accountants and operational analysts to develop the optimal categorization system for life hacks. And what they've landed on is basically digital and physical life hacks. So I'm gonna begin with a physical one, which I got from my partner, which is, if you have-

   4. CWChris Williamson6:55

      I love how you had to take the glasses off.

   5. GEGeorge6:57

      (laughs)

   6. YUYusef6:57

      (laughs) At that point.

   7. CWChris Williamson6:57

      Like this is, I'm fucking down to business now.

   8. GEGeorge6:59

      This is important.

   9. YUYusef7:00

      We're getting serious. If you eat a lot of berries, like me, get yourself a Pyrex Tupperware with a sealable lid, and they last days longer. Like they no longer, you know, you, ev- you would, we like a turgid, plump blueberry that's not- Mm-hmm. ... kind of a bit deflated- Mm-hmm. ... and crap. You just, it maintains that for five, six days.

   10. CWChris Williamson7:22

       'Cause most of the packaging for berries has got little perforations in the top of the seal, right?

   11. YUYusef7:29

       Mm-hmm.

   12. CWChris Williamson7:29

       Is that not there for a reason?

   13. YUYusef7:30

       So soon... I, I mean, I don't know what their reason is. I think it's still-

   14. CWChris Williamson7:34

       (laughs)

   15. YUYusef7:34

       Because like there's a difference between what-

   16. CWChris Williamson7:36

       You just revolutionized the berry industry forever.

   17. YUYusef7:38

       Oh.

   18. CWChris Williamson7:38

       There's someone, some, someone from Kia Ora listening going, going, "Wow, didn't we think about this?"

   19. JOJonny7:44

       (laughs)

   20. YUYusef7:44

       So there's maybe a difference between the way things are stored in a supermarket for display versus at home. So eggs and things are stored differently, but berries, give it a try.

   21. JOJonny7:55

       Do you ever get frozen berries?

   22. YUYusef7:57

       I do, but-

   23. JOJonny7:58

       Not quite as good.

   24. YUYusef7:58

       No, they don't quite land as well, do they?

   25. JOJonny8:00

       Mm. Well, they haven't got the, the snap.

   26. CWChris Williamson8:02

       Mm. Yeah, agreed. Uh, I mean, finding the right blueberries is a, it's difficult, a difficult challenge. I've found that you can go super small and they're tangy and take, take your face off and can make you go like, ugh.

   27. YUYusef8:15

       Mm-hmm.

   28. CWChris Williamson8:16

       Uh, and then if you go too big, there's never big and turgid, and turgidity is what I optimize for.

   29. YUYusef8:23

       It's the triangle, isn't it? So you get to pick two of three. So there's taste-

   30. CWChris Williamson8:26

       (laughs)
4. 8:42 – 13:48

   Text Your Friends

   1. CWChris Williamson8:42

      my one. So this is an old one, the OG listeners of which it's literally like points of a percent that will have heard this one before. So all of this is essentially new to everyone. Uh, but it's one that I really reinforced again this year and has just continued to pay dividends. I would probably say top five life hacks of all time.

   2. GEGeorge9:00

      Wow.

   3. CWChris Williamson9:01

      Text your friends when you're thinking about them.

   4. GEGeorge9:03

      Mm.

   5. CWChris Williamson9:03

      Just it continues to pay huge fucking dividends. Why is everyone laughing?

   6. YUYusef9:09

      I- Is there a limit? So let's say you think about someone-

   7. JOJonny9:13

      (laughs)

   8. YUYusef9:13

      ... five or six times in a day.

   9. CWChris Williamson9:14

      Oh, yeah, of course.

   10. YUYusef9:14

       Because one, because it's a self-exciting process, isn't it? Once you think of someone, you're more likely to think of them again that day.

   11. CWChris Williamson9:19

       Well, yeah.

   12. YUYusef9:19

       But if you keep texting them that day, they're gonna be like, "Well, all right, Chris, like-"

   13. CWChris Williamson9:22

       This is the Yousef who at five years old organized all of his toy trucks in a perfect semicircle by size and then color coming out. Uh, uh, uh, just, just t- t- to be sure, are we... Is it every time that I think about... Evidently not. Like use, use a filter of let's not be a crazy person.

   14. YUYusef9:40

       So if there's any programmers or developers listening to this.

   15. CWChris Williamson9:43

       You've actually clarified a caveat quite importantly, but no, just when you're thinking about someone, just send them a message. Like whatever it is, you know, we'll do it all the ti-... Like, remember that thing or even just a link to whatever it is that we did previously that's resurfaced somewhere 'cause you think about your friends way more than you're in contact with them, and they never get to benefit from it. By sending them a text saying, "Hey, mate, just thinking about you, hope everything's good," or a memory about what it is that you're doing or whatever it is that's surfaced in your mind, it makes them feel great because it just nice to be reminded of that. It makes you feel good because you've unselfishly just bestowed some, you know, love onto whoever it is, and it keeps friendships ticking over. If, if your friends knew how often you thought of them, friendships would decay much more slowly than they actually do, and by doing this, you actually reduce that gap between the two things. I mean, this is something that you've done as well, right, this year?

   16. GEGeorge10:37

       Trying to do better, yes.

   17. CWChris Williamson10:38

       Yeah, yeah, yeah. You are chronically bad with your phone-

   18. GEGeorge10:40

       Yeah.

   19. CWChris Williamson10:40

       ... which is actually being very good with your phone.

   20. GEGeorge10:42

       Yeah. Yeah, that, that is the tough balance with the one you've given there of I try not to be on my phone too much and then I'll end up in that sleuf of texting back and forth.

   21. CWChris Williamson10:52

       But the reason that you try not to be on your phone is not because of texting your friends.

   22. GEGeorge10:55

       No, texting is actually-

   23. CWChris Williamson10:56

       You know what I mean?

   24. GEGeorge10:56

       ... one of the... If you had to, like, draw a graph of ROI activities, texting friends is up, up on the top.

   25. CWChris Williamson11:02

       It's the same as why y- you actually got me back into taking photos at events. I'd mistakenly thought that taking a photo was cringe because the only reason you take a photo is so you could post it on Instagram. So I dissociated taking photos of things that you enjoyed with being a cringe inf- Instagram poster. But it's actually I can take a photo and not post it anywhere and it's my memory for me. So I had to, like, chop that bit off.

   26. JOJonny11:28

       Very important distinction.

   27. YUYusef11:30

       Yeah. I have a recurring reminder at different cadences for friends to check in on them, give them a call, et cetera. So it's like-

   28. CWChris Williamson11:37

       You have it geotagged as well, don't you?

   29. GEGeorge11:38

       I'm immediately...

   30. YUYusef11:38

       Oh yeah, geotagged, so if I'm in certain cities it pings up with like, oh, I'm in London, get in touch with Ali, get in touch with whoever. So-
5. 13:48 – 19:49

   Double Duvets

   1. GEGeorge13:48

      um-

   2. CWChris Williamson13:49

      (laughs)

   3. GEGeorge13:49

      (laughs) Fucking hell. Oh, it's thrown me. That's really thrown me.

   4. YUYusef13:54

      Chris, he's, he said no private jokes.

   5. GEGeorge13:55

      Yeah. Yeah.

   6. CWChris Williamson13:55

      That needs explaining. That's not private. Everyone's seen Our An-

   7. JOJonny13:57

      You're right, actually, it's on BBC.

   8. CWChris Williamson13:58

      (laughs)

   9. GEGeorge14:00

      So, enough with the Alan Partridge references. My one is gonna, um, uh, a threefold one. I think it's gonna, um, add years onto men's lives, reduce the divorce rate, and it also killed my fear of dying alone. So, um, I had this-

   10. CWChris Williamson14:18

       Very low bar to get over.

   11. GEGeorge14:19

       Yeah. I had this, uh, simultaneous fear that for ages I wouldn't be able to share a bed with anybody, because I would constantly get woken up throughout the night. And it's like, what point in the dating process do you bring that up of like, "We're gonna have separate beds"? So I just assumed that it wouldn't work out. And there was this image on Reddit, for people who haven't seen it-

   12. CWChris Williamson14:39

       Do you know where they are in the edit?

   13. GEGeorge14:40

       ... where, where a boyfriend and girlfriend track their sleep for like over a year. And both of them, the top two are very similar. So fasted in bed, uh, three hours before bed, um, is a 16% improvement in sleep. Getting in bed before 11:00 PM, both of them, that was the tw- two most beneficial factors. And then for her, the beneficial factor was sharing bed with partner, and then you go all the way down his list through all the good ones, all the way past alcohol, all the way past like everything bad you can think of. The single biggest thing, a minus 25% score, was sharing bed with a partner. However, for her it was plus 7%.

   14. JOJonny15:21

       Behaviors.

   15. GEGeorge15:21

       So she benefits from it, meanwhile he's down... And for context, girls, her menstruating was minus 15%, so he sh-

   16. CWChris Williamson15:28

       So it was nearly double that.

   17. GEGeorge15:29

       Him sh- yeah, him sharing bed with a par- with her was, was way worse than-

   18. JOJonny15:34

       Careful with this.

   19. GEGeorge15:35

       Oh, sorry. Was way worse (laughs) than, uh, her menstruating.

   20. JOJonny15:39

       Is there a hack here, George, or is this just-

   21. CWChris Williamson15:41

       Yes. Yeah, yeah, mate. I know, I already know what's coming.

   22. GEGeorge15:43

       All right. In fact, you don't want to do this.

   23. CWChris Williamson15:43

       I've seen the end of this movie.

   24. GEGeorge15:44

       The fact you don't-

   25. YUYusef15:45

       If, if you're male, you're screwed.

   26. CWChris Williamson15:46

       This might change your life.

   27. JOJonny15:46

       This might change your life.

   28. GEGeorge15:47

       S- can I, can I ask around the room, do, do you sleep better or worse when a partner's in the bed?

   29. CWChris Williamson15:51

       Way worse.

   30. GEGeorge15:51

       What about yourself?
6. 19:49 – 21:10

   The Origin of Life Hacks

   1. CWChris Williamson19:49

      First one from you, Johnny, what we got?

   2. JOJonny19:50

      Oh, my God. I thought we were doing life hacks. I was ready for...

   3. CWChris Williamson19:52

      One loop of life hacks, one loop of lessons. We can kee- keep it variety.

   4. JOJonny19:55

      Okey-dokey. Um-

   5. CWChris Williamson19:58

      Just before we actually get started with that, do you remember? It was... I know exactly where I was at a set of traffic lights when I texted both of you this years ago. I wanted to do something, I think it was called, like, um, like, lesson, lesson hacks or, like, life lessons. It was life lessons.

   6. JOJonny20:13

      Mm-hmm.

   7. CWChris Williamson20:13

      And I was like, "Why don't we do a series of life lessons as well as life hacks?" Which is kind of what we're gonna go through here. And I seem to remember you saying something along the lines of, like, "That's a, a big shout to presume that we're sufficiently interesting to actually bestow lessons on anybody."

   8. JOJonny20:29

      Mm-hmm.

   9. CWChris Williamson20:29

      And, uh, so I bailed out of doing that. But a couple of years later, all of the listicle-style episodes that I do, like the Hormozi-style one, uh, the ones that me and George do, if it's a list of mental models, all of that, that is the progeny of originally what I was thinking about doing from life lessons. And, um, I think it probably wasn't time at the time, but I'm, I reckon now we're, we've ascended to be.

   10. JOJonny20:51

       I thought that was-

   11. YUYusef20:51

       Plus, you're the most requested guest on the podcast as well, so...

   12. JOJonny20:57

       (laughs)

   13. YUYusef20:58

       According to my brain. (laughs)

   14. JOJonny21:02

       (laughs)

   15. GEGeorge21:03

       (laughs)

   16. JOJonny21:03

       You want to listen to me on the podcast the most, more than anyone?

   17. YUYusef21:05

       I, I, I would listen to you talking life lessons all day.

   18. JOJonny21:07

       Y- you get to, you get to talk to me all the time.

   19. CWChris Williamson21:09

       Oh, it's getting hot.

7. 21:10 – 26:58

   Importance of Sleep

   1. CWChris Williamson21:10

   2. JOJonny21:10

      I'm... So my first lesson is actually from you, Chris.

   3. CWChris Williamson21:15

      Okay.

   4. JOJonny21:16

      Really recently, and it's linked to what George has just said. So, if anyone's listened to life hacks from the very beginning, I've been on a real journey with tracking devices, Fitbit, Aura, Whoop, borrowed your Oura Ring years ago, didn't like it that much. Y- y- it was you sa- you summed up, I think, what the whole point of all these things is, which was you said something like, "It's not about how recovered you are or what your score is, it's just how much sleep you get."

   5. CWChris Williamson21:46

      Mm-hmm.

   6. JOJonny21:47

      And I think the point, th- what I've learned from all that stuff this year, 'cause we've had, we'll, as we'll get onto, we've had a fairly, like, jarring year.

   7. CWChris Williamson21:55

      Mm-hmm.

   8. JOJonny21:55

      Where I've realized, like, if I don't prioritize the recovery side, I'm so focused on the activity side, the training side, the step side, but I never r- like, the sleep and the recovery, like, I always push to one side. But having something to just remind you every day, like, "You should have a nap later."

   9. CWChris Williamson22:11

      Mm-hmm.

   10. JOJonny22:12

       Like, "You're taking the piss." Like, "If you keep doing this, it's gonna get worse and worse and worse." So having a recovery tracker or something external to prompt you to, like, "You are not prioritizing this, and if you don't prioritize it, it's a problem."

   11. CWChris Williamson22:26

       It's gonna scupper you.

   12. JOJonny22:27

       Yeah.

   13. CWChris Williamson22:28

       Yeah. You're gonna... Y- uh, I mean, this, I'm aware that I'm both a Whoop and Eight Sleep partner, so this is-

   14. JOJonny22:33

       (laughs)

   15. CWChris Williamson22:33

       ... maybe not great for my partnership with them.

   16. JOJonny22:36

       (laughs)

   17. CWChris Williamson22:36

       But I can give you the, the only takeaway that everybody that has one of those learns, "You're sleeping less than you think you are."

   18. JOJonny22:42

       Yeah. Yeah.

   19. CWChris Williamson22:43

       "You're sleeping less than you..." Like, it's just Whoop.

   20. JOJonny22:45

       Constantly.

   21. CWChris Williamson22:45

       "You're sleeping less than you think you are."

   22. JOJonny22:47

       (laughs) And this is going down.

   23. CWChris Williamson22:48

       Like, "Eight Sleep, you're sleeping less than you think you are."

   24. YUYusef22:49

       That should be the tagline, yeah.

   25. CWChris Williamson22:50

       Yeah, honestly. And i- i- all that you get from tracking your sleep is, "Fuck, I, I was in bed. I was sure that I was in bed for eight hours. Turns out it was actually sort of 7:15, and of that 7:15, my efficiency was 85%, which means I got six hours and 30 minutes of sleep last night, and I thought I got eight hours." It's just that over and over and over and over and over again.

   26. JOJonny23:12

       Well, you need to be in bed for nine hours, don't you?

   27. CWChris Williamson23:14

       To get eight, yeah.

   28. JOJonny23:15

       Yeah, absolutely.

   29. GEGeorge23:15

       And you, and now you're gonna have double duvet.

   30. JOJonny23:18

       Oh, yeah. Efficiency.
8. 26:58 – 32:07

   Business as a Vehicle for Self-Improvement

   1. YUYusef26:58

      So as Johnny said, we've had quite a turbulent year. Why don't you tell us about that? Why don't you both- So the, I guess the main thing is that from this time last year to now, the team has gone from two people to 19 people, which along- along with that comes a lot of operational complexity, a whole bunch of skill sets that Johnny and I just didn't have that we have to suddenly develop. We set up Propane about 10 years ago, well, 14 years ago, and we're very much like schizoid introvert type characters that just like to be at our desks doing our own thing, and we barely even communicate with each other. We're just like-

   2. CWChris Williamson27:36

      Mm-hmm.

   3. YUYusef27:36

      ... in a hole.

   4. CWChris Williamson27:37

      Well, you're- you're annoying. (laughs)

   5. YUYusef27:38

      Well, fair enough. Um, so we just kind of in the hole doing our thing and suddenly it's like, oh, there's a team and we have to learn to let go of a lot of the processes that normally we'd be handling ourselves. So the lesson has been that when you're especially running a business, it's like an accelerated version of this, and I know you've been thrown into this, is that it's, as James Clear says, "It's a vessel for self-improvement disguised as a money-making enterprise."

   6. CWChris Williamson28:03

      Mm-hmm.

   7. YUYusef28:04

      That it's the- the biggest driver of your personal growth because it comes in and just twists your nipples and finds all of the- the- the spots that you've got your trigger points, and it will force you to level up and to learn those skill sets and to grow.

   8. CWChris Williamson28:19

      Well, it's external to you. All personal growth is always done at your own pace, but the business isn't. (laughs)

   9. YUYusef28:25

      So it, yeah, it forces you along and- It's road running versus running on a treadmill.

   10. CWChris Williamson28:29

       Mm-hmm.

   11. YUYusef28:29

       Yeah. You- you're getting steamrolled and it's like a heat-seeking missile as well because it finds all of the things that would get you emotionally triggered or wound up.

   12. CWChris Williamson28:38

       Mm-hmm.

   13. YUYusef28:39

       So a difficult client or getting working late nights or getting stressed about a potential, I don't know, legal case or whatever it is. Learning to be more agreeable or disagreeable, learning to-

   14. CWChris Williamson28:48

       Well, and like-

   15. YUYusef28:48

       ... disappoint people.

   16. CWChris Williamson28:48

       ... fear that it'll go away, fear that it'll fail, fear you let people down, fear of how- how people think of you, like-

   17. YUYusef28:53

       Full spectrum.

   18. CWChris Williamson28:54

       ... they're all 10 out of 10, aren't they?

   19. YUYusef28:55

       A business is a vehicle for personal growth disguised as a wealth-making machine.

   20. CWChris Williamson29:00

       Mm-hmm.

   21. YUYusef29:00

       That's fucking brilliant. Is that in Atomic Habits? Don't think it is. Not sure.

   22. CWChris Williamson29:04

       No. One of his tweets, I think.

   23. YUYusef29:05

       Is it?

   24. GEGeorge29:06

       One of the, uh, biggest hacks, um, I've found for that is documentation. So let's say if you write quite a lot about anxiety and all the stuff when you, when you go, when you get that fourth employee and you've doubled the headcount, and if you can now go back at 19 and review those thoughts of like how worried you was and anxious you was, and you go, "Oh," and you can see the evidence of you now going, "I've now almost five X'd that," um, it makes it a lot easier to then play that again, going, "Look how anxious I was then and I figured it out." It's constant evidence. Whereas in business there's no, like, Instagram account for it, so, like, trying to-

   25. YUYusef29:40

       (laughs)

   26. GEGeorge29:40

       ... create as much documentation is-

   27. YUYusef29:41

       That's so annoying.

   28. GEGeorge29:42

       ... fun. And especially between you two guys as well, to be able to share it is-

   29. YUYusef29:45

       Oh yeah. We look back and think, "Remember that thing that we thought was a massive problem?"

   30. CWChris Williamson29:48

       You- you know what would be... You know what would be a really good way to do this? A Slack cha- a private Slack channel that's just got you two in where you can just brain dump shit to each other. Like, "Dude, I'm feeling a little bit whatever, whatever about today," and that's all that goes in there, and that would be the journal between... Especially if you've got a business partner. Gonna be tougher for the solopreneurs. I remember, it's in my day one, so day one for me is serious shit, right?
9. 32:07 – 40:54

   Seeing Content as a Diet

   1. CWChris Williamson32:07

      here. The, um, this is from you, which is Max Content Raiser. Would you consume your own content? If not, don't post it. And that inspired Post Content Clarity, which is your content diet should be spirulina for the soul, not fast food for your amygdala. And, um, what I realized was that when you're consuming anything on the internet, it's almost alwa- it, it, it tends toward limbic hijack because if it didn't, you would watch something else which was more limbically hijacking. Mm.

   2. GEGeorge32:37

      Mm-hmm.

   3. CWChris Williamson32:37

      You know what I mean? So during the moment of consuming pretty much anything, this podcast included, you are a bad judge of whether or not that piece of content is good for you or not, because it's just compelling. But what you can do is have a sort of pillow talk, post-coital review of, "How did that particular session of YouTube watching or TikTok scrolling or Instagram browsing make me feel? And was there anything in there that is better or worse?" And if there's stuff that continues to come in as worse, it's like unfollow, not interested in this channel, don't recommend to me again. There's all of the, all of the social medias have a way of downvoting as well as upvoting, uh, channels. And you can get rid of them, you can hide them from your feed, you can do all the rest of the stuff. And if you hide something from your feed, it's tantamount to that entire worldview or that creator just dying.

   4. GEGeorge33:25

      Mm.

   5. CWChris Williamson33:26

      Right? It's exactly the same. So...

   6. GEGeorge33:28

      Unfollowing is great, isn't it? Like, there are people who just, they always come up on your feed and they annoy you, and then when you unfollow them, it's like, "Ugh."

   7. CWChris Williamson33:35

      Yeah. Or even muting. You know, if you can't, if there's some, you know, interpersonal reason why you can't get away with the unfollow, just muting accounts that you don't like.

   8. GEGeorge33:44

      I had this, when, I- I always struggled with Instagram. Delete it, download it, da da da. Go back and forth with it. And I had this realization one day about this three-fold question of like, "Did this educate me? No. Okay, move on to the next question. Did this like entertain me or make me laugh?" So if it's like an Alan Partridge thing or a funny meme, it stays on. If no, moves on to the next list of, "Do I want to see this person in the next six months? If no, mute." And that f- th- it takes about 12 hours of pruning, like, um, or like a day and a half of pruning just whenever you're on, and immediately the newsfeed is infinitely better. That is the one thing about the, people complain about the For You algorithms, that they're filter bubbles, but you can also create a wonderful filter bubble. If all you do is like photos of dogs, you will just have a feed of dogs.

   9. CWChris Williamson34:30

      Well, we're training the algorithms on what we actually want, but the problem is that what we want in the moment is not what we want to want after the moment. Retrospectively, we wish that we were watching more of X or Y or Z. One interesting thing I think that's happening with YouTube is, I think they have time-based recommendations. So at different times of the day-

   10. GEGeorge34:47

       Mm-hmm.

   11. CWChris Williamson34:48

       ... different things get recommended to me based on my viewing habits.

   12. GEGeorge34:50

       Mm-hmm.

   13. CWChris Williamson34:50

       So I tend to listen to World War II documentaries, which, uh, Shane Gillis calls early onset Republican.

   14. GEGeorge34:58

       (laughs)

   15. CWChris Williamson34:58

       Like (laughs) -

   16. GEGeorge34:59

       (laughs)

   17. CWChris Williamson34:59

       ... getting, getting interested in history documentaries. He's like, "Yo, if your man starts watching World War II documentaries, keep an, keep an eye-"

   18. GEGeorge35:06

       It's a gateway drug for you.

   19. CWChris Williamson35:06

       It is a gateway drug. It's early onset Republican. Um, but I do that, but it only recommends them to me at night. First thing in the morning, it's not. Middle of the day, it's always 10-minute to 15-minute videos that I can watch with my lunch.

   20. GEGeorge35:16

       Mm-hmm.

   21. CWChris Williamson35:17

       So again, just train the algo. But yeah, um, and then for the content creators or fledgling content, content creators out there, this is something that I'm battling with at the moment. There are ways to play the algorithm and there are ways to add value, and there are things that you want to do. And between, within those three prongs is some balance of what you have to do. You have to play within the limits of the algo, or else you're just gonna be shouting into the ether. But you don't wanna be completely controlled by it, because that's just audience capture. There is ways of having impact, but you can sacrifice reach and what you want to do. And then that's also, that's kind of a more virtuous version, but still a kind of audience capture. And then there's what you want to do, which can be like just total solipsism, like self-masturbatory congrat- congratulatory glory. But that's also not playing the game. So somewhere in all of them is where you want to be, but not leaning too far to just what does the audience want and what will get lots of plays. Because if you wouldn't consume it, what the fuck are you doing? And I realized this at the live shows that I was doing this tour. I would happily go for a beer with any of the people that arrived. And I know for a fucking fact that there are tons of podcasters who couldn't say the same. Like, they're not making an audience of people that are like them or people that are cool or people that are interesting. And-... every single person that came up to me, I was like, "Fucking, like, I'd happily, like, go train with this person, or go for a coffee with this person," or whatever. They're all interesting. They're all killing it. They're all in good shape. They're all, like, cool or whatever in some form or another. And yeah, would you consume your own content? If not, don't post it. It's just, it slices through all of the bullshit.

   22. JOJonny36:45

       Do you think there's a... Do you think the people who listen to your podcast are you, but, like, a previous version of?

   23. CWChris Williamson36:53

       I think-

   24. JOJonny36:53

       Like, do you have to make content for what would five years ago Chris listen to? Or th- or watch? Rather than-

   25. CWChris Williamson36:59

       I, um-

   26. JOJonny36:59

       'Cause I assume what you wanna watch now-

   27. CWChris Williamson37:01

       Is different.

   28. JOJonny37:01

       ... is probably a little bit different, right?

   29. CWChris Williamson37:03

       So, yeah. Um, but I also think that if you were posting what you ten years ago needed, it wouldn't be a few steps ahead of where you were.

   30. JOJonny37:12

       Mm-hmm.
10. 40:54 – 49:32

    Progressing From Being a Midwit

    1. CWChris Williamson40:54

       up.

    2. GEGeorge40:54

       Um, my one, so, um, related to the chat so far, uh, so the content razor that we spoke about then is very midwit. Um, it's very, what is the simple answer that works? And the big thing for me this year has been the midwit meme. I've, I'm quite obsessive about the midwit meme, because I'm a midwit. I, I've diagnosed myself as a midwit, I'm a recovering midwit. I think you have to say it publicly to s- start recovering from it. And I did something that was quite midwit, but I think it ends up working, which is like trying to figure out an algorithm that moves you to the guy on the left, to the stupid guy on the left. Because if you try and be the genius on the right, that's what the midwit does. Whereas what you wanna do is simplify it down of, rather than a complex content strategy of scheduling at 2:30 PM every single day, and this editing strategy from Alex Hormozi, it's, "No, would I consume this?" So, the midwit algorithm is basically, it's what we spoke about in the first episode, but I've kind of completely neglected it, which is just basic inversion. So, the biggest takeaway for me is... So let's say, I've got like three examples here. So one is writing, (laughs) one is writing, the other is e-commerce, um, or like an internet business, and the other one is happiness. So, for like writing, like the obvious midwit thing would be to consume the best writers of all time and find out their specific morning routines and trying to reverse it backwards. Versus with inversion you just say, "If you was to make sure you was a terrible writer, what would you do?"Well, the first thing you'd do is you wouldn't write (laughs) , right? The second thing you would do is you would write inconsistently, if you ever did. And then the third thing is actually what you said then, which is you'd write about things you didn't like to write about.

    3. CWChris Williamson42:32

       I think there's a fourth.

    4. JOJonny42:33

       (laughs)

    5. GEGeorge42:33

       Go on.

    6. CWChris Williamson42:33

       You would, you would do things that make you feel like you're making progress toward writing-

    7. GEGeorge42:38

       Yes.

    8. CWChris Williamson42:38

       ... but aren't writing.

    9. GEGeorge42:39

       Yes, exactly.

    10. CWChris Williamson42:40

        Yeah.

    11. GEGeorge42:40

        And all of a sudden you, via just inverting, you found out what the guy on the left would say. It'd be like, "Write. Write consistently, and write what you like." And then even internet businesses, where I see this a lot, where people have these complex dynamic flows to this chat bot that then moves them through this AB cycle. Versus if you went, okay, you wanted to guarantee an internet business would fail, what would you do? Well, one, you'd have like the world's worst margins. So you'd make like what, like 0.1% margin. It would give you the worst margins possible. The second thing is there's like no repeat purchase, so there's such little LTV. And th- and also the average order value is tiny. And then there'd be like a zero principle, which would be like, you're selling shit sandwiches, you're selling something that nobody wants. So you'd be selling shit with no margin, no repeat purchases.

    12. JOJonny43:30

        Make it really hard to buy, make the site lo- pa- site page-

    13. GEGeorge43:32

        But even before that-

    14. JOJonny43:33

        ... load speed really slow.

    15. GEGeorge43:33

        ... that would be later down the list, but it just, right now, just shit sandwiches with no margin, no repeat customer.

    16. JOJonny43:40

        Thing is, shit sandwich has got a bit of a niche appeal though.

    17. GEGeorge43:42

        It's probably niche. Yeah. There we go.

    18. JOJonny43:43

        It's like the Nazi milk.

    19. GEGeorge43:44

        There we go.

    20. YUYusef43:44

        Did we talk about that?

    21. GEGeorge43:45

        No. No.

    22. CWChris Williamson43:45

        Oh, what's that?

    23. YUYusef43:46

        Oh, it was... Uh, correct me if I- if this rings a bell or you get it... So it was a woman sat doing photo shoots with Nazi memorabilia all around her, and she's got her feet in some milk, and she's bathing in milk and then bottles it up and sells it online as Nazi milk. And quite a decent markup on that. But again, niche appeal. You think, "Well-"

    24. CWChris Williamson44:08

        Didn't Belle Delphine sell her bath water?

    25. YUYusef44:10

        Oh, don't know.

    26. CWChris Williamson44:11

        Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Bathe in a bath.

    27. JOJonny44:12

        Well, those are both things that people want-

    28. CWChris Williamson44:14

        Actually wanted to buy.

    29. JOJonny44:15

        I think sh- anyway.

    30. CWChris Williamson44:16

        Anyway, moving, moving on from somebody, we have to achieve...
11. 49:32 – 56:36

    TickTick To-Do Lists

    1. CWChris Williamson49:32

       please.

    2. JOJonny49:33

       (inhales deeply) Uh, TickTick.

    3. CWChris Williamson49:38

       Ah, here we go.

    4. JOJonny49:39

       Here we go.

    5. YUYusef49:40

       (laughs)

    6. CWChris Williamson49:42

       So-

    7. JOJonny49:42

       All right.

    8. CWChris Williamson49:42

       ... I'm ge- I'm personally invested in this one. So-

    9. JOJonny49:45

       Yeah?

    10. CWChris Williamson49:46

        ... this is, this is now an ad read for TickTick for me.

    11. JOJonny49:49

        Okay.

    12. CWChris Williamson49:49

        Forget the fact that there's a few million people-

    13. JOJonny49:50

        In other, other news.

    14. CWChris Williamson49:52

        Don't say that anymore.

    15. JOJonny49:53

        (laughs) Sorry.

    16. CWChris Williamson49:54

        That's all right. Don't worry.

    17. JOJonny49:56

        Is it now just news?

    18. YUYusef49:57

        Because I think we've done Chris dirty-

    19. JOJonny49:58

        News.

    20. YUYusef49:58

        ... with TickTick, haven't we?

    21. JOJonny50:00

        Well, I-

    22. CWChris Williamson50:00

        You fucking left me out to dry.

    23. YUYusef50:02

        (laughs) Are you still on OmniFocus?

    24. CWChris Williamson50:02

        You hung me out to dry.

    25. JOJonny50:04

        (laughs)

    26. CWChris Williamson50:04

        Would you like to tell-

    27. JOJonny50:05

        Are you still on OmniFocus?

    28. CWChris Williamson50:06

        W- Yes. Would you like to tell the story of what you did to me?

    29. JOJonny50:09

        Well, uh, I mean, I, I thought at the time, Chris, I was doing the right thing. Okay. I mean, where do I begin?

    30. YUYusef50:15

        I- if only you'd just listened to my advice-
12. 56:36 – 1:00:36

    Alfred Computer Software

    1. GEGeorge56:36

       Saf, you're up.

    2. YUYusef56:37

       So, the most enduring life hack, you guys will be no stranger to this, but I feel like since we've... This is a, a new audience seeing this.

    3. CWChris Williamson56:45

       (laughs)

    4. YUYusef56:46

       It's got to be Alfred.

    5. CWChris Williamson56:48

       Oh, wow. Yeah, okay.

    6. YUYusef56:49

       So Alfred is one of the OG life hacks, and I have got to be one of the heaviest users. So I've checked my stats. I've used it 400,000 times.

    7. CWChris Williamson56:59

       (laughs)

    8. YUYusef56:59

       400-

    9. GEGeorge56:59

       Oh my god.

    10. Wow.

    11. YUYusef57:00

        ... 400 times a day. I-

    12. CWChris Williamson57:02

        400 times a day?

    13. YUYusef57:03

        I invoke Alfred 400 times a day.

    14. CWChris Williamson57:05

        (laughs) Invoke him.

    15. GEGeorge57:05

        You?

    16. YUYusef57:05

        It is like, it is, it is him. It's a $20 piece of software like Spotlight that genuinely I would pay four figures for.

    17. CWChris Williamson57:13

        Happily. Happily pay-

    18. YUYusef57:13

        Happily, yeah.

    19. CWChris Williamson57:14

        Happily pay four figures.

    20. GEGeorge57:14

        But not five?

    21. YUYusef57:16

        Probably. If, i- if they-

    22. GEGeorge57:17

        He's got a mortgage on his Alfred app.

    23. CWChris Williamson57:20

        (laughing) Yeah.

    24. GEGeorge57:20

        (laughing)

    25. CWChris Williamson57:20

        I've had to pay for it on Klarna through Alex.

    26. YUYusef57:21

        That's it, they, they could have me over a barrel. So Alfred developers, please don't...

    27. GEGeorge57:26

        I remember when you changed laptops. You said the thing you were most concerned about was changing your Alfred workload.

    28. CWChris Williamson57:31

        Your Alfred preferences were fucked.

    29. YUYusef57:31

        Alfred preferences, yeah, like-

    30. CWChris Williamson57:32

        It is a bastard. I had to go through it with you.
13. 1:00:36 – 1:06:31

    Hold Luggage is a PsyOp

    1. CWChris Williamson1:00:36

       Right, I'll go for this one. Um, I'm pretty certain that hold luggage is a PSYOP meant to keep you poor and late.

    2. GEGeorge1:00:44

       Wow.

    3. CWChris Williamson1:00:44

       I am yet to find a scenario in which hand luggage isn't sufficient. Now you need to get good luggage-... that's a huge mediator of this. Mm-hmm. But I was on tour, me and James Smith, I did 29 days on the road, just hand luggage. Wow. Wow. No waiting ever- That's not good. ... for luggage to come out the other end. It's always with you at all times. Uh, and it causes you to be a little bit more thoughtful with what it is that you're packing, which is important because what you find is if you've got like f- Dude, hold luggage is massive, 23 kilos, unless you're carrying a ton of conditioner and shampoo. I was gonna say, where do you put your TRESemme? (laughs) Your salon-grade shampoo. We once went- Liquids is there. We once went- Yeah. ... to Iceland, not the con- supermarket, the country. (Laughs) Place. We once drove to Edinburgh while Youssuf had meningitis, to fly to Iceland, and I tried to transport five kilos of TRESemme, uh, because I just hadn't thought- Liters of shampoo and conditioner. ... I hadn't thought to decant it into something smaller. Wow. You managed to sweet talk the Glaswegian- Mm-hmm. ... person at the desk- Of course I did, course I did. ... who will do that, to transport liquids as well? Yeah, yeah. Mind-blowing. Yeah. I sweet-talk Glaswegians into worse. Um- Into a national security threat for Iceland. Yeah, yeah. (laughs) Too much TRESemme. "What is this that you've brought with you?" (laughs) Um, so- Cheapest thing there. Uh, it was the cheapest thing there. But yeah, um, hold luggage is a psy-op, meant to keep you poor and late. So- And you can get away with hand luggage only quite easily. I have a lot of questions. Hit me. Liquids. Uh, get travel-size containers. And do you run out? Do you buy more when you travel? Up to a hundred, up to a hundred mil, no. So I will caveat this, there's a couple of complications. First one is going to be if you use spray antiperspirant- Mm-hmm. ... very difficult to find a 75 mil of that. Mm-hmm. Very difficult. Lots of 105 mils, which is fucking infuriating. Um, don't wanna use a roll-on, not a massive fan of a roll-on, would rather go for a spray. That's a, that's a challenge. Yes, liquids, but largely- So do you buy an antipersp when you, when you, when you arrive somewhere? N- uh, if y- it depends how many stops you're doing. If this is one trip, yes. If it's multiple trips, no, 'cause that's just you, that's intiminta- intermittent purchasing. So you can get, you know, like 25 mil spray thing- Right. ... and just get like three or four or five of them and just throw them in. And you, you must be doing, like you must be washing your clothes regularly. I did la- I did laundry while I was there. Yeah. But I don't know about you, I, m- the, uh, how would you say, like Overton window of acceptable clothing, to me, isn't that broad. I don't have much more than about a hold luggage's worth of clothes that are like nice and cool to me at any one time. Mm-hmm. So for me to cycle through that stuff, I would probably be doing it anyway, and I would just have random surplus pieces of clothing- Mm-hmm. ... that wouldn't get worn, 'cause I'm like, "Ugh, don't like that T-shirt. Like, I really love that T-shirt though, so I'll get that one washed and I'll do it again." So I'd probably do that even if I was in hold luggage mode. And then what is the, what is the hand luggage recommendation? So before I started spending any amount of money on luggage, I would've said, "Luggage is luggage, it's fucking pointless. Like, why are you even trying to do it?" Then I upgraded and got an Away, which is pretty good, uh, and that has sort of tie-down straps that make things like much more organized. And then I started using Nomatic before I was a partner with them, so I bought their stuff and then became a partner with them, and it's just magical. Like different sections, magnetic ties so that you can lock things down and push things down, different sections for everything. They have a, it's called a ... You got, you got the backpack. What's your backpack called? Travel pack? They've got two. One's a travel pack and the other's a, uh, I can't, fucking can't remember. It'll be linked, I'll link it in the show notes below. (laughs) Um, but it's just, it's, this backpack opens like clamshell from both sides, and it's just phenomenal. So Nomatic's website just has all of the stuff on there and it, it's really good. But it just changes, it changes the quality of your life, having genuine high-quality luggage. Even if you are gonna go hold luggage, like there's ways that you can like lift different things up and, oh man, it's fucking, it's outstanding. Wow. I- Can it fit, can it fit a spare duvet? (laughs) James, James Smith managed to fit, uh, a pillow with him- Oh, wow. ... because he travels with his own pillow. What? Pregnancy pillow? And it's ... No, uh, like normal head pillow. He's bailed out of the pregnancy pillow life. Too hot. A lot of people, uh, flying long haul had brought their own pillows, I noticed that. I feel like that's probably gonna be a future li- If I was to predict what my life hack next year is gonna be, I reckon taking a pillow with you while you travel. (overlapping speech) Is it a blowout pillow, or it's a- No, no, no, normal. And he fits it in his luggage? Fits in hand luggage, bro. So you get space. In hand luggage. Thin pillow. Uh- But if it's a thin pillow, it's squish not what you want, is it? Squash down. Anyway, that's my, that's my thing, hold luggage, bail out- It's good. ... of it, get good hand luggage and backpacking roller, and you'll be able to get away with it. Also, one final one, if you are traveling and really struggling for space, whether it be hand luggage or hold luggage, if you want to just have like, let's say, shoes, shoes take up quite a bit of room, aren't that heavy, and you usually don't have space for them, just go into the airport, go to WHSmiths or something like that, buy a bottle of water, put your shoes in the bag. No one ever complains about you taking retail on from within the airport. Where were the shoes before? Is this before you go through security? Yeah. Yeah, so like literally just happen- So you're walking into the airport holding loads of shoes. Carrying shoes, yeah. Buy a bottle of water, ask for a bag. Yep, put it in the bag. Because if they didn't allow you on with stuff that you purchased from WHSmiths or- WHSmith wouldn't operate in the airport. My, my. Go fuck yourself, airports. Damn. Hack, G.

    4. GEGeorge1:06:29

       Um, so

14. 1:06:31 – 1:11:31

    Track Your Mental Health

    1. GEGeorge1:06:31

       my one, um, again, it's one I've done for a while, so I, I put it, it's been, it's not fresh this week, so it's been through the filter. Um-

    2. CWChris Williamson1:06:39

       Passed the 90-day filter.

    3. GEGeorge1:06:40

       Pretty much, I wouldn't be surprised, everyone who's listened to you as well as YouTube in the fitness scene, they've tracked like their lifts, they've tracked their nutrition, they've tracked sleep over the years, but very, very few people have ever tracked like their mental health or mood.So I created this idea, which I realize is quite a big therapeutic technique, which I didn't realize at the time. But essentially, imagine you have your mood. So you have zero here, which is worst day of your life, and then, like, 10 here, ecstasy pill in the system, serotonin, like, maxing off the charts. And let's say you kind of... Each day varies between a four to a six. And maybe not a British four or a six, 'cause a British person, like, their worst days are four and their best days are six. But, um, a, a wider ranging one. So let's say you have a four to a six every single day. As soon as you go outside of that, so if you go sub four, for whatever reason, just have a little, like, Apple Note table, like, negative mood here, positive mood there, just drop in the date and what the cause was. And likewise, if you go above a six, just write down, "Oh, um, great morning, uh, slept eight hours, coffee's in the system, Deep Work's done." Whatever it is that's caused it, write it down-

Episode duration: 2:05:21