3 Minute Monday
Hi friend,
Last week I told you that I recorded an episode with a huge guest in Florida.
That guest is 4x Mr Olympia Classic Physique champion and absolute legend, Chris Bumstead.
We took a lot of risks with this shoot.
It doesn’t look anything like a podcast, apart from there being two people sat either side of a table with mics.
It’s not even shot in normal 16:9 aspect, it’s in a flatter, wider aspect called CinemaScope, like you get in movies.
There’s some ridiculous lighting tricks, insane lenses, cameras riding on dollies all over the set.
I was quite scared (and I still am) about breaking the conventions that you guys are accustomed to from a podcast, but after seeing the final result I couldn’t be more fired up to be pushing the limits of what’s possible.
It doesn’t look anything like any episode you’ve seen before, and that’s great.
I think it might be one of the most visually beautiful podcasts ever filmed.
Really really can’t wait for you to see the end result.
Full episode live next Monday. Two clips coming this week on the YouTube Channel.
In other news, I finally came up with a name for an idea I’ve been trying to meme for a long time.
Post-Content Clarity.
This is the best way to work out whether the content you consume is making your life better or worse.
You see, there is a problem.
While you watch anything, you are distracted by the content itself.
Which means you can’t judge how the content impacts you.
The creator has designed the content to be compelling and to keep you hooked, because if they didn’t, they’d be beaten by another creator who did that better.
But just because something is compelling, doesn’t mean it’s good for you.
You hate-watch adversarial, argumentative videos, not because there is a fascinating question being answered, but because you want to see your team make the other team look silly.
You pity-follow accounts to check in on the slow motion car crash of whatever catastrophe is happening to that person’s existence.
You descend into scroll-holes and browse Twitter arguments as your heart rate gets jacked up through the roof in silent apoplectic indignation.
But once you finish consuming, you forget that you consumed it, move on with your life and don’t assess whether it was actually good for you.
In this way, you are like a shop owner in a shop with no walls – you allow your most valuable resource (your attention) to be stolen by whichever individuals are most bold and aggressive, then tomorrow you forget that they didn’t pay you and allow them to do it all over again.
The solution is to ask yourself this:
How does watching different creators make you feel?
Some YouTube channels are compelling and limbically hijacking and keep me watching, but I feel uptight and tense and negative or cynical and zero-sum after watching them.
I don’t want to message my friends and tell them I miss them or pay people compliments or go outside and see nature.
I feel like the world is against me.
That’s not the sort of content I want to consume any of, no matter how much it makes my dopamine fire.
On the other hand, what is the content that makes you feel most connected to the world?
What makes you feel hopeful, open, prepared, informed, light and aligned?
If your body is made up of things you put into your mouth, your mind is made of things you put into your eyes and ears.
Your content diet should be spirulina for the soul, not fast food for your amygdala.
To achieve freedom you must be able to think for yourself.
If you don’t step in and live intentionally, the best you can hope for is to become a rich, successful or famous slave.
A slave to your base instincts, the worst norms of the society around you and the confused chemical signals of your body.
You will spend your life focused on unhealthy aims defined for you by others and the worst parts of yourself.
You will pass these bad assumptions about life onto your children and loved ones.
Worst of all, you will reinforce these boring, desperate defaults in everyone you encounter.
If you never peer into your programming then you may end up being the cleverest rat in the room, but that’s hardly worth celebrating.
TLDR: clean up your content diet by reflecting on how you feel after you watch stuff.
MODERN WISDOM
I do a podcast which has had 220 million+ downloads. You should subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
This week’s upcoming episodes:
Monday.
Anil Seth – what is consciousness? Why do we have a subjective experience at all? What does it mean to say that we’re the same person we were 7 years ago? Fascinating.
Thursday.
Geoffrey Miller – a great primer on artificial intelligence as an existential risk. Just how worried should we be? Can ChatGPT become conscious? What can be done to protect the future?
Saturday.
Dr Mike Israetel – a breakdown of why pessimists are almost always wrong, why porn panics are overrated, Dr Mike’s problem with my view of happiness and success and much more. Very fun episode.
THINGS I’VE LEARNED
1.
More people are unmarried at 40 than ever before.
In 1980, just 6% of 40-year-olds had never been married.
As of 2021, 25% of 40-year-olds in the United States had never been married.
A significant increase from 20% in 2010.
While many unmarried 40-year-olds are living with a romantic partner, most are not.
In 2022, only 22% of never-married adults ages 40 to 44 were cohabiting. — h/t Pew Research
2.
Not everyone wants to see you win.
“People like success but they love a failure because failure validates their own cowardice.
It gives them the excuse to think ‘I don’t look like an idiot for not trying myself’.
When you’re on your way up everyone roots for you because you remind them of their dreams.
When you’re at the top, you remind them of what they’ll never accomplish.”
3.
Marital Duels were a thing.
In parts of the medieval Holy Roman Empire, husbands and wives could have a legal fight, called a marital duel, to solve their arguments.
Interestingly, the husband had to fight in a hole and with one arm tied.
The wife could move around freely but had to carry weighted cloth.
Her weapon was usually a bag filled with rocks, while the man got three clubs.
If he touched the hole’s edge during the fight, he lost one club.
Before the fight, couples were given a month or two to try and solve their problems.
If they couldn’t agree, then the duel would happen.
If the husband lost, his head would be cut off.
If the wife lost, she would be buried alive. — h/t @fasc1nate
LIFE HACK
Tell your friends that you miss them.
We think about our friends a lot, but they don’t know it.
When you think about someone, just text them and tell them.
It brightens their day, makes you feel good and deepens your friendship.
This single rule has been one of the best hacks I’ve ever followed.
Big love,
Chris x
Never miss an episode by pressing Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
PS
Back in Santa Monica in 3 weeks for another huge MW production.
