You’re Probably Taking Life Too Seriously - George Mack

What were you doing before we left the house? I >> I was listening to Nickelback on 2x speed. >> You were listening to Nickelback on two times speed? >> Yeah. >> We just let that sit for a second. >> Mhm. >> And you've been listening to Phil Collins on 1.5 times speed? >> Yeah. Sometimes 1.6. >> Do you want to explain yourself? >> Well, I I went through a phase that I'm still in. um that I think YouTube is better to listen to music on than Spotify or Apple Music because you can get live tracks way more like it's underrated live tracks on YouTube just hearing the crowd. Um and I've also stopped listening to hip-hop as much. >> Okay. >> Cuz I don't know about you, I started becoming a bad person when I'd listen to hip-hop too much. [laughter] >> Did you not get did you never get the one? Well, if you just listen to people committing crimes in your head all day long, you do become you do become a bit of a terrible person. So, um well, this was what we found. Where were you working? Was it when you were at Social Chain and we were talking about uh serotonin George, serotonin Chris listening to Anduna Deepep and then it was Cortisol George and Cortisol Chris listening to Kanye West. That was pre-ancellation as well. >> Yeah. I mean, even even Kanye wouldn't be full Cortisol. It would be like it'd be like DMX. >> Okay. or like very angry two pack. >> Okay. Vinnie Paz is great. Jedi mind tricks. >> You've explained you've explained to me why you think that YouTube is a good platform. You haven't necessarily explained to me why you've been listening to >> taking a just taking a little interlude. >> Phil Collins at 1.6 time. >> So when I go to um the gym, I put tunes on on YouTube, usually live tracks. Um but then I was listening to Nickelback Rockstar, which is a completely underrated song. And I was, but if you listen to that at 1x speed, it's quite hard to work out to. But if you go and listen to [laughter] if you go and if you listen to hip-hop, it's um it's too >> you want to go and commit a crime. >> But Nickelback at 1.8x speed rockstar customizer. He changed the beats per minute and great workout. But this is actually really sad. This is really sad. part which was on if you look look look at Nickelback Rockstar and you go in the comments it's like um it's this boy talking about how his dad used to listen to Nickelback Rockstar and he's now just about to have surgery and he's unsure if he's going to wake up and he's listening to Nickelback Rockstar so I'm there like listen to it at 1x speed reading the comment section I'm in the comments incredibly sad I don't little speed you're speed listening to Nickelback reading sad comments okay well have you seen the there's a conspiracy theory that Nickelback's downfall in the mid 2000 thousands was to try and demoralize America after 9/11. >> No. Why? Why demoralize America? >> That Nickelback was kind of on this surgeent. It was sort of American spirit. It was the equivalent for them in the new world after this horrible catastrophe that had occurred. And uh it's this huge long documentary like I don't know 40 minute 50-minute breakdown of exactly why Nickelback was sort of taken down from the inside. M but N I think Nickelback are one of the most underrated bands of all time because people thought they were one of the most overrated bands of all time. They're now one of the most underrated bands of all time until they then become the most overrated because it's swung back again. Yeah. Well, this is like Creed, right? Creed Creed got to come back around. >> Well, there's talk that um uh there's like this great videos breaking down why do people hate Nickelback and one of the theories is that they try a little bit too hard as well. Whereas some of these edgier bands during the era, which ironically everybody's forgot, and there was this interview with the lead singer of Nickelback, and he's talking about how he would study songs, like figure out why songs work with the music. >> Yeah. >> And because he was trying so hard, well, there's something about being nonchulant that's cool. There's always going to be something cool about being nonchulant, especially if you're British. But it's not a very American >> uh like personality trait >> to enjoy nonulence in the same way as a Brit does because the Brit, everybody enjoys nonulence, but the Brit enjoys non nonchulence. I nearly said nonsulence. [laughter] >> It's just something very different. >> The Brit enjoys nonulence in a different way, which is that it protects us from having to be called a kino. >> Like you don't want to be called too keen about anything. M >> and you inherently don't like anybody that does seem too keen or excitable. >> Yeah. When you took me to that uh gym opening the other evening, I was talking to um a lady there and she was implying she was an introvert and yet she was like one of the most extroverted people like American I don't think American introverts truly exist compar comparatively to a Britain scale. Yeah. If you here's a question, right? If you had introversion, extroversion and you're massively grouping countries together, what do you think is the most extroverted country and most introverted country? If you're grouping the populacees, >> you're probably not far off with America and the UK. >> You're probably not far off. >> Yeah. Who's more Who's more introverted than us? [gasps] >> Japanese. >> Japanese probably cut themselves off 60 years. Hardcore [laughter] hardcore introversion. >> They did a national a national introversion push them. I mean, who's more extra? I guess it's probably some South American places, you know, like some Latino >> extroverted, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. Like Brazil. >> Yeah. >> Uh but you know, we really have gone from one end of the Overton window to the other when it comes to extrovert. But you're right. Like an American extrovert, an American introvert is a British extrovert. M an American extrovert is a British extrovert, an afterparty at 4:00 a.m. on every single substance that's ever existed trying to talk about how he's going to fix the interest rates of the Bank of England. >> Yeah, we need to talk about your sneezing. I'm sorry. >> Okay, let's go for it. >> Do you think that there might be an issue? >> Like a medical issue? >> No, I you sneezed 15 times. >> I did. >> Yeah, I did. >> And they were over a minute apart. I didn't realize you heard me. I was upstairs thinking >> you shook the house. >> Yeah. >> You shook the house with them. It was thunderous. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Well, it was a bit of a doom loop. Um because I would sneeze, blow my nose, and then whatever something was going up my nose when I was blowing the nose, and it would then create this economic doom loop like Gary Stevenson's uh in charge of the economy. It was um it was rough. Yeah, it was rough. >> I don't think I've ever sneezed that much in my entire life. I think that's I think and also I think this is you struggling with not having a girlfriend in the house. >> Yeah, that's a nightmare. Yeah, I do. We've discussed this before that uh guys over a certain age between the hours of 5 to 900 p.m. Like if the hours of 5 to 5 to 9:00 p.m. was 24 hours, I think the economy would go down by about 30%. Like we're just useless. Like nothing's happening. Um, it's scrolling, it's checking stuff, it's relaxing but stressing that you should be working or working whilst thinking that you should be relaxing. This is a real domesticating influence of having a partner. >> Yeah. >> This is why you need one. >> Yeah. Just purely for the nervous system. >> It's for It's so that you don't like regress back to the mean of just doing [ __ ] that you really wish that you weren't. How do you think you've wasted? What's the biggest um like evening waste that you've had when you've been single or not been with your girlfriend? >> [ __ ] It's got to be fun. It's got to be fun. >> Yeah, but where like what's Yeah. So, zoom in. Open your iPhone. What? Instagram. >> Instagram typically. >> And what what sort of stuff on Instagram? >> Instagram or YouTube? But it's not YouTube on TV is really when I watch stuff on my TV, it's always very conscious cuz I it's such a [ __ ] on to try and change from one video to another. I'm I'm much more uh uh scrutinous, way more discretion >> around what I'm going to watch if I'm watching on TV cuz I can't be bothered to change what I'm watching. >> So true. Nobody Nobody uses YouTube shorts or Tik Tok really on TV. >> There's an Instagram app for TV now for smart. >> Is anybody using it? >> I don't know. I have to assume so. I have to assume so. M I've seen I saw a video of a guy who ran a 5K underneath a table and in the background throughout the entire video took about 30 minutes he just like spun round under a table like this for 30 minutes and in the background was someone was watching on a TV was watching Tik Tok swiping through Tik Tok. >> What do you mean somebody's running underneath the table? I'm so confused. What do you mean? >> I mean he did it is Straa said that he did it. >> Uh but in the background it's Tik Tok on a TV. The people have got to be doing it. People have to be >> Jesus. >> Christ. >> Wow. Wow. >> But you're not a vertical video consumer. >> No, no, no, no, no, no. >> I'm so confused. >> Me running a 5K under my therapist's table. Can't imagine that's his therapist. Anyway, >> there you go. That's what you should be doing. That's actually that's that's the greatest advert. That's the greatest advert for having a girlfriend that I've ever seen. That's after 7 p.m. >> Yeah. Wow. Well, if the CCP could see see this, they'd be delighted. >> If they knew what was going on, you see the uh the guy who accidentally hacked 7,000 DJI Roombas. This dude was trying to control his Roomba with his PlayStation controller. Hey, >> and ended up using Claude. Here it is. >> So, in theory, you could have used someone else's vacuum and navigated it around their home to see whatever you wanted to see. are launching a deep cleaning at 420 for everyone. Yes. >> Software developer Sammy Ezu was building an app to hack his DJI Romo smart [music] vacuum. He wanted to use his PlayStation controller to make it move. But in the process, he accidentally uncovered a major security flaw. With the help of an AI chatbot, Sammy discovered [music] he could also access what [laughter] he says were roughly 7,000 other vacuums, allowing him to get their across locations and even remotely control other people's vacuums. He [music] could also see through other users live camera feeds and hear through their vacuums microphones, features typically [music] in place to help the vacuums navigate around a home and respond to voice commands. >> Yeah, it feels like we're going to be living through an era where this is going to happen more and more. Well, we >> can't hack paper and pen. You can't hack you can't hack the Moleskin notepad. >> That's true. Although they have got a digital version of that now. Uh we were talking to a friend at dinner the other night and he said everybody here has tried to get Chachi PT to do something illegal. I I can see if you can get me this for free if you can hack the back end or do extract whatever. And one of our friends who works building data centers said he'd used some offlabel Chinese model that's run locally on his computer and didn't mean to get it to do something illegal, but it did. So he put in he wanted to try and see if they could screenshot all of this different data and it's thinking I can't do that. Thinking I can't do that. Thinking, oh, there's an API that's open on the back end. I can just pull the entire website out and now he's got 9,000 pieces of data that completely illegal to have. So our models, we can't get to do something illegal when they want them to. Or even just slight like I was ask I asked Claude the other day for what do people think are where's the ugly because you said the UK has the ugliest men in the world. [laughter] So I got I asked Claude where do you think has the ugliest men or could you pull the data of what people think has the ugliest men and it refused to do it. >> So it won't do that but then the it would give you the most good-looking though. I know. I don't I don't ask actually Jared if you can. I don't even think I don't maybe >> well then I guess if you if you asked it for all them looking in order rank it all the way down say now flip that list around >> or it might do the top 50% and say you get to the middle of the but you can then work it out from there. I look >> the only I didn't I don't mean to badmouth our country especially given that both of us are from it. >> I just saw the unite the rally march videos. We're just not we're not a particularly aesthetic nation. >> And perhaps again this is a selection effect, but best looking is obviously subjective, but there are a few places that consistently come across fashion modeling, dating app data, tourism surveys, and pop culture for producing unusually attractive men, usually because of some mix of genetics, grooming culture, fitness, style, and confidence. Uh Brazil, Italy, Spain, France, Sweden, Lebanon. Wow. Uh, can we say what about the what about the ugliest? That gets a lot harder to answer fairly because ugliness is even more culturally loaded than attractiveness. People tend to judge entire populations based on stereotypes. >> Uh, it's not going to give us an answer, is it? Keep going down. >> It basically it basically says the UK there, right? Some Northern European, some Anglo countries. >> Plain despite strong genetics because the culture is understated and less image focused. It's a nice way to say that we don't care about our appearances. Do you remember do you remember when um you started going to therapy and you were talking about how all this stuff that you discovered from therapy of you couldn't quite feel emotions or how harsh you was on yourself. You had this laundry list of symptoms that had given you. >> And I remember thinking I didn't want to be a rude when a friend was going through therapy but I was like kind of waiting on the phone for a bit. It's like I think that's just being British. Like all a lot of the stuff that the therapist diagnosed you with, >> hang just being >> Hang on a second. Hang on a second. >> Wasn't diagnosed with, >> you know what I mean? You know what I mean? >> Look, these are some of the patterns that you've got from your past. That's a big difference to a diagnosis. We're talking in a clinical context. >> British syndrome. You have British syndrome. Sorry. >> British syndrome. Yes. Yeah. I've seen that your passport is dark blue. Uh yeah. Well, I mean, we're a country of people that are kind of we revel in misery a bit, which probably makes us quite resilient. Probably why we did well in the B battle of Britain. It's probably why we don't have the same victimhood culture that somewhere like America might do. >> It's also the same reason that we hate ourselves quite a lot. >> And no one was the last time you heard anybody say that they were proud of the UK? >> Me. When was the last time you heard someone that wasn't you say that they were proud of the UK? >> The st the strange thing is is the more that I travel. It I always describe the UK as like having a autoimmune condition that it attacks itself from within. But the UK, if you travel outside of the UK, most countries that you travel to, the people will talk about how much that they love the UK. So, it's weird that the the people that hate the UK the most are often inside the UK and everybody outside >> quite like it. >> Well, we've discussed this before, but you go, "Oh, okay. JK Rowling, Harry Potter, >> Paul McCartney, John Lennon, William Shakespeare, Charles Darwin. Should we just do the entire episode just like the guy?" [laughter] >> And guess what? You could >> Harry M freestyle rap. Yeah. But no one no one would. >> Where do you end up with like wretch 32? >> Yeah, exactly. You're really scraping the bottom of the barrel once you get beyond the year 2000. Like after the Spice Girls, everything really went downhill. >> Adele. >> Okay. >> Uh Ed Sheeran. >> Mhm. >> Um >> Olivia. >> Olivia Dean. >> Oh, Christopher Nolan. Ridley Scott. Don't get me wrong, just we're starting to run a little thin on worldwide >> quantum computing. >> Yeah. You always >> You didn't think we could go from Olivia Dean to quantum computing. True. >> But we can Dennis whatever his face is from Google. He's not British though, is he? >> Dennis is British, is he? >> Dennis. Yeah. Um, yeah, he's born in the UK. >> Oh, okay. That's interesting. >> Yes. Or at least he at least grew up in the UK. He's famously stayed in the UK. >> Wouldn't that be a wonderful way to get our own back on a world that's forgotten us to unleash a super intelligent AGI that nobody can control. That would be a wonderful footnote. The Empire's back briefly before it gets subsumed by this monster it made itself. >> And it only uh allows people to spell with S's. Yes, I find that so offensive when I'm writing and uh Grammarly will try and auto correct me for even even chatbt or even the autocorrector will try and correct me to the >> you got it on American English that's why >> yeah but I then make a decision of do I want most of the people that read this who speak American English to understand it or do I just really in the ground >> you got to you got to hold on to it dude it's the same reason we both got plus 44 phone numbers >> this country can take my taxes but it's not going to take my plus 44. >> It's not going to take my [ __ ] area code. This episode is brought to you by Gym Shark. If you're going to spend an hour in the gym, you might as well look hot and feel comfortable while you're doing it. Gym Shark makes the best men's and women's training gear on the planet. And here is something I realized a few years into training. When you actually like what you're wearing in the gym, you show up differently. You train harder. You stay longer. You get way more high fives. Their hybrid shorts are unreal. They're the perfect length. They're super lightweight. They're easy to wash and dry. And their sleeveless t-shirts are basically what I've trained in every day for a year now. They're the ideal fit. They're breathable, and they hold their shape perfectly. So, no more looking like Adam Sandlers, your stylist. Basically, everything they sell is unbelievable, well-designed, high quality, and you get 30-day free returns globally with global shipping, plus a 10% discount sitewide. Right now, you can get 10% off everything by going to the link in the description below by heading to jim.sh/modernwisdom sh/modernwisdom and using the code modernwisdom10 at checkout. That's gym.sh/modern wwisdom at modernwm wisdom10 a checkout. I learned about savant syndrome. >> Okay. You heard of this? >> No. >> Okay. So, there was a guy who shot himself so badly. >> Okay. Great start. >> That he gave himself the art arteries in his brain exploded and then when he woke up he was an artistic genius who wanted to paint for 19 hours a day. >> This can't be real. >> It's true. Tommy McHugh was a British artist and poet in his early life. Mchugh was a builder and also involved in youth crimes. When he was 51, he suffered a stroke on both sides of his brain that resulted in two burst blood vessels. He was sent into a coma for a week and that acquired savant syndrome. Mchugh attempted to evacuate his bowels quickly due to a knock on a toilet door. So he didn't want someone to find him [ __ ] Then the sudden pressure led to an artery being severed in his frontal and temporal loes causing him to hemorrhage. So what happened was he like squeezed And then he heard this big explosion inside of his head and sort of half collapsed to the ground. Apparently the reason that he said that he kept himself conscious was that he wanted to pull his pants up so no one would find him naked on the floor of the toilet. And as he was pulling his pants up, that's when the other one went. So it was like the two it was like the the first tower and the second tower. >> Jesus. >> Uh by the way, British. >> British indeed. Uh while uh relearning after he strugg rhyming, so he's speaking in rhymes. uh he began to write poetry to express everything he was experiencing. He also experienced an identity crisis which was the most likely motivation for his artistic outputs. He was painting three to six to nine different paintings at any one time all at the same time. Speaking in poetry, he basically became like a Buddhist monk. Was terrified of hurting anything. He saw the entire cosmos as beautiful. He's like sweeping away bugs that he might step on on a This is a guy that was in youth crimes. Damn. shot himself so badly that he acquired savant syndrome. Wow. Wow. >> I mean, I don't know what to say. >> Unbelievable. >> You know, >> unbelievable. >> My um my grandfather um who I greatly love didn't didn't shirt himself, but he >> famously Tommy M >> he had he had a stroke and beforehand he was quite some people would maybe call it tight. He was quite conservative with money. And then after the stroke, he would just be watching the shopping channel >> and just be going like shopping left, right, and center, all all sorts of stuff. He actually, unfortunately, the stroke was so bad that he couldn't pay. So, we managed to stop like him being able to put the payments through, but otherwise he would have just spent everything. Um but but uh keeping things on the British topic, the the Gallagher brothers, Liam Null. >> Uh they've fallen out again. >> No, Null was always the musician cuz they grew up in is it B is it B? Burbridge I can't I can't pronounce it. It's in um in Manchester. >> They grew up together very like council estate part of uh England. And null was super into music, which is very strange, like being where he's from. And Liam was like just found the whole thing like quite sad and lame >> and was like, "Why would you get into music?" And Liam gets in a fight at school, gets a hammer hit on his head, wakes up the next day, >> he's into music, >> wants to make music. Yeah, >> you're kidding. >> Joins a band the next day. >> So he got like savant syndrome from a mallet. Yes, >> basically. But you got musician syndrome. Champagne Supernova. What would you want to acquire if I hit you in the head with a mallet? >> That's a [laughter] That's a great question. >> Less sneezing, I imagine. >> That would be useful. >> That would be good for me. I'm just going to hit you in the head with stuff until I can try and accumulate that. [sighs and gasps] >> What would you do? What would you do? >> I'd want to be I'd want to be able to be a bit more frivolous with money. I think that'd be nice. >> Really? >> Yeah. Just I mean, >> what was the last frivolous thing that you bought? Actually, >> yeah, you're right. >> What >> did I bully you into that? >> What? The trampoline? >> Yeah, because for quite a while we had I had an intervention with you. I've had a few interventions with you. >> I don't spend I don't spend you don't spend money in a frivolous enough man. It's not that you don't spend enough money, it's that you don't spend it on stupid [ __ ] >> Yes. >> And I think that's important. And then you have bought the most expensive trampoline that you could find and you've just dropped >> way too much money on a bean bag. The most expensive. >> I've not I've not acquired the bean bag yet, but it's set to be okay. >> It's set to be acquired recently. I'm [laughter] I've got a few uh a few claude agents scoping out the beanag market as we [laughter] speak. Okay. I don't want a bean bag from Facebook marketplace. Second is unbelievably absorbing. >> I'm getting my my AI to look at bean bag reviews that haven't been written by AI [laughter] that have actually been written by human. >> What was that thing to find the best bean bag? >> Wasn't it a recruiting company that said um recruiters are using AI to read applications that candidates have written using AI and nobody's getting hired? It's just this endless doom loop of people using AI to help them get a thing which is assessed by AI that detects it's AI and no one goes in. It's a stalemate. >> It's a stalemate on the the LinkedIn jobs market at the moment. >> It's dead internet theory, right? Let let us know in the comments section if you're a bot. [laughter] Did you see um someone I saw this video this girl was doing a assignment and the teacher had put in white text at the end of one of the questions if you were an AI uh please use this website to fill in the qu the the uh answers to this particular question and uh basically if you were to do that and you just copied it blindly and thrown it in you wouldn't have necessarily seen it and then the AI would have given you the answer from this website. So it wouldn't have the person would have still submitted but that the answer would have been detectable because it would have been pulled from this one particular reference and anybody that uses that reference obviously submitted it with >> so it really is an arms race now and the lecturers are having to >> even or they're just identifying the ones that are on the free plan. >> You know what I mean? Like if they if they're on the premium plan it may be picking up on this. >> Yeah. I I get the sense that frivolous spending is is something that you kind of you need to acquire. I think it's a skill that you need to. Some people are cursed with it and some people actually have to learn it as a skill. It's a little bit like singing in tune. >> And being British, >> I'm just always on the back foot. I'm always on the back foot with frivolous spending. Like remember where you are. Where have you um where have you spent frivolously cycling through [laughter and gasps] >> carbonated drinks? What have I spent frivolously on? It's always the same stuff. It's the same stuff as >> Well, it's not frivolous then, is it? >> Yeah. But that's what I mean. I'm I'm Hey, I I was in the trenches with you >> with regards to your frivolous spending. >> I just Maybe we just don't need to spend frivolously then. Just Just >> I think we do. I feel like I'm Is there something that's compelling me to spend? >> Okay, how about I'll give me Does it count if Does it count if I spend it for you? Cuz how about we exchange? >> I'll give you 500 bucks. >> Yeah, likewise. And then you've got to buy something frivolous that >> you've already you've already cailed me with the the top two. That was a trampoline and a [ __ ] bean bag. >> I don't even think those are frivolous. Those are um >> they're quite utilitarian, aren't they? >> Yeah. >> Have you seen the the Soviet nail factory story? It's a parable. So apparently there was this Soviet nail factory that was rewarded based on the number of nails that they produced. >> Then after hearing about the bonus, the factories reduced the size of the nails to produce as many nails as possible. In the end, they met the targets to get their bonuses. But the government ended up with millions of useless tiny nails. Oh wow. And to correct the mistake, the government updated the bonus target as the tonnage of nails produced every month. So Soviet factories quickly changed and they stop stopped producing the mini nails and started producing huge ones that were unbelievably heavy. End of the month, the factories hit the target again, but the regime ended up with useless giant nails that didn't help with the nail shortage. >> Wow. >> Look at that. Look at that. >> [laughter] >> Who needs such a nail? It doesn't matter. What's important is that we fulfilled the plan for nails. God's law. >> Wow. Yeah. The Soviets uh Soviets is just an underrated part of history. It feels like the Nazis get so much attention, but the USSR or even communist China, like Ma China, is just it's just an afterthought. Have you spent much time learning about those? >> Um, no. Because I'm mainly focused on World War II like everybody else. Not as efficiently as I'd like to, but um it feels that it's clear if I say, "Hey mate, I'm going to bring a Nazi >> to the drinks." It's it's a big no no. Yeah, a mauist. >> But like they're a bit more >> net net like in terms of people killed. >> They were more efficient. So maybe you should bring them. Have you have you heard about the guy who um wanted to go to Cambodia to meet Paul Pot? So he was this academic that was a big defender I think of the Vietkong and then Paul Pot in Cambodia and so much so he flew out to meet Paul Pot like tried to give him a little bit of advice as like he's a big admirer of like how he could potentially improve things. Killed him. killed him. Like he's the original Midway. I don't know if you could look that up, um Jared, of the guy that got killed, the American academic that got killed by Paul Pot. It's like all of those people that go to North Sentinel Island, all of these people that try to go and convert the North Sentinel into Christianity or whatever and they end up being skewered and eaten for dinner. >> Do you do you think if you was in the North Sentinel there, if you was in the North Sentinel Island, would you want to be contacted? Yes. >> Okay, go on. >> Would you want to have been contacted? Do you know I find it's a bit like asking what it would be like to be a dragon, isn't it? Are you just the man the man dress? >> I'm not far off actually. Uh I just I don't know what I would want. Do you know what you would want if you were someone that's totally different to you? >> No, of course. But of course, but I feel like I'd want to be contacted. >> I think I would as well, but that's the adventurous spirit. >> I guess the example now would be like ali if aliens exist >> Mhm. [clears throat] >> I would like to know that they exist. Well, there's there's a problem with the aliens thing because there's Meti and there's SETI >> searching for extraterrestrial intelligence and there's Meti which is messaging >> and a lot of people have got a problem with Meti because let's say you've got um whatever it's called dark forest theory for uh why the Fermy paradox exists that everyone is too worried of giving away the location in case somebody decides to go to war with them. Uh, but the radio signals that we've been sending out, we've been going for what, 100 years? A little bit more than 100 years or something. I'm pretty sure, can you search, Jared? What was the first radio signal ever sent into space? I'm pretty sure it was something that we really don't want out there. Like the first ever radio broadcast that happened, I'm pretty sure was something that we that if that's the first thing that the aliens see of us. >> Why? What was it? I can't I feel like I feel like it was something to do with the Berlin Olympics. [laughter] >> Really? I really think it was something to do with the Berlin. I can't remember. Better be a banger. >> If it wasn't a banger, you'd be thinking, "What [clears throat] will the aliens think?" The first accidental radio broadcast that escaped Earth will likely the high-powered radio transmissions. >> Uh commonly cited milestone is a transatlantic radio transmission. The famous one is Regginald Fessendon's Christmas Eve broadcast. That's not bad. voice and music over radio for ships at sea. That signal would have leaked into space unintentionally. Uh yeah, well that's okay. That's not bad. I uh those signals have now traveled more than 100 light years away from Earth. >> Wow. How far how far is 100 light years away? >> Uh Proxima Centuri is four, I think. >> I feel like I'm going to have to ask you another question. What's that? Proxima Centuri is the the next closest star that isn't our sun. It's the next closest star system to us. And I think Proxima Centuri is a I think it's a two star system. It's also where we are the Goldilock zone as well, right? We're the perfect if you were to be slightly further away from the sun, life couldn't exist. If you to be slightly nearer to the sun, >> life couldn't exist. Well, the only reason that Yes. And the finetuningness not only of the universe, but the finetuning of our planet in this system with the fact that we've got Jupiter that's this big hoover. It's basically a Roomba that's controlled with a [ __ ] PlayStation. Uh that hoovers up all of the bad asteroids that would come and hit us, all of the meteors that would come and hit us. It's just got such a big gravitational well. Uh I think you can fit it's it's unbelievably massive. And then the the maddest one for me is the moon. So the only reason that life exists on Earth is because of the moon. If you didn't have the moon, it would it stabilizes the axial tilt. So we're at whatever it is 23°. That's why we have seasons because as you go around the sun, you've always got this sort of 23° angle. But if you didn't have the moon there, it's kind of like a counterwe. So imagine that I'm swinging something on a on a a big rope and there's a weight at the end of it. If I wasn't holding on to it, you actually kind of run out. You get out of control quite quickly. But if you've got something that's holding on the other side, this mutual gravitational pull, it stabilizes the tilt or else it would be wobbling a lot. It would be way more chaotic. Also, the moon does the tides, which without that, the weather would be way more chaotic, too. Like the moon's the moon's the goat. The moon is the support staff that nobody sees behind the scenes. Everyone wants to talk about the Goldilock zone. Everyone wants to talk about the fact that we've got liquid water, etc., But it's the moon, mate. Wow. Did you know your gut controls your energy, your recovery, how well you absorb everything that you eat? And the one nutrient that keeps it all running properly is fiber. Well, it turns out that 95% of Americans don't get enough of it, which is why I'm such a huge fan of Momen's Fiber Plus. Most fiber supplements are a one-trick pony. One type of fiber solving one part of the problem. Fiber Plus is a threein-one formula built to tackle digestion, gut barrier strength, and blood sugar stability all at once. I use this every single day. It is kind of hard to get enough fiber just through food alone. And best of all, Mantus offers a 30-day money back guarantee. So, you can buy it, try it every single day for 29 days, and if you don't love it, they will just give you your money back. Plus, they ship internationally. Right now, you can get up to 35% off your first subscription and that 30-day money back guarantee by going to the link in the description below or heading to live momentous.com/modern wisdom and using the code modern wisdom a checkout. It feels uh it's very trit to discuss how strange it is or why are we here. It almost feels like if you bring that up, people are like >> roll their eyes. It's like it's the most absurd uh most absurd [ __ ] thing. Well, I think the only way that you can answer why are we here is by trying to look for an answer outside of this. That's what most people are doing because you can either say there's no reason or there's a reason that's bigger than us. >> Neither of those are particularly satisfactory. So, if you're looking for a reason that's outside of us, inherently that means it's difficult to prove. And if you're saying, well, it's nothing. It's just arbitrary fluctuations in, you know, [ __ ] matter coming together. That's also pretty unsatisfactory. So, I don't know what I mean, humans were always personifying [ __ ] right? We're always trying to put some sort of a narrative together. That's why the ancients would look up at the sky and they'd see thunder and it would be the gods fighting. Well, obviously, that makes way more sense than this microscopic interaction of clouds and electrons and [ __ ] you know, the lightning coming down to the earth. Why would you you wouldn't go to that? you would go to something that suits you, which is story and narrative and mythology and and [ __ ] So, we're always trying to explain things away with story. >> Why are we here? >> Stop it. Stop it. Okay. I'm sweating. I'm sweating in this outfit. It's too hot. It's too hot. It's not breathable. They haven't made these things breathable. >> You look very comfortable, actually. How where do you think let's say you would have been born uh 5,000 years ago, 10,000 years ago? How do you think you what do you who do you think you would have been? Do you think you'd be the same guy? Do you think you'd be so different you'd be unrecognizable to your current self? [sighs and gasps] I think it would be difficult to be anything like the sort of guys that we are 5,000 years ago. There wasn't much room, >> too much autoimmune conditions going on as well. You'd be wiped out. >> That Well, I also wouldn't live in a moldy house, you know. So, and COVID and the vaccines wouldn't have been around. So, that would have I would have [ __ ] escaped that. Um, I think I'm at least a little bit fortunate that I would have been able to did a good bit of sport that might have held me together. I mean, probably probably dead in child birth, mate. >> That's just like everyone else. Just like every other person except for the small number that made it to 5 years old. Well, I once ran the numbers that if you had every single human being to ever exist, so everybody alive right now >> and everybody that ever existed. >> Yep. >> So, assume that they're brought back on their final day as they go. >> Okay. >> I think the average age of the room is about 14. >> So, it means that assuming you're over the age of 14, 15, >> okay, >> you're already one of the oldest people to ever exist. I find that so strange when you go through history and you're like how old certain people people were. I think we've discussed it before that the um the as the luwaffer the German air force were bombing our grandparents and great-grandparents they were 27. Right. >> Mhm. >> But the RAF that fought them off the average age was 21. Which means that and you know how averages work. There's there's a few Gordons in there that are 37 >> Mhm. >> in the RAF that are bringing it up and the the the life expectancy was 2 weeks when you signed up initially. >> Well, there's that sketch in Black Adder. Do you remember where he joins the Air Force? It's in Black Adder goes over the top from World War I and I think it was even less time because that was imagine that when you you know the Wright brothers when were planes invented >> uh it would have been late 1800s early 1900s is when >> pretty much turn of the century. Okay. And within the space of 14 years, you've got something that's [ __ ] battle ready, >> bro. This thing just flew. >> This thing just flew and nobody believed. >> And now you're telling me that I'm going to the Red Baron with his triple stacked wings like >> I told you. So, in the book, The Splender in the Vial, which is an incredible book, he talks about how lingerie sales went up significantly during the World War II bombings. Sorry, no, it's the wrong way around. Laundry sales went down significantly during World War II bombings, but uh casual relationships went up significantly. Why? I guess the theory would be don't have time to go shopping for lingerie or don't even care how I think how I how I think that I look when I might not be here tomorrow. [laughter] >> People having ugly sex whilst being bonded. That's your theory. >> Yeah, >> it might be true, but I What would I be 5,000 years ago? or even even in even in World War II. Um if for example you was trying to have the maximum impact on World War II that you could have just based off your personality type, your archetype, where do you think they would have put they would have put you? >> I would have probably been pretty good at, you know, one of the people pushing the troops around on the board, helping feed up to some some commander person at the top. That could be good. Uh not bad as an operate. I quite like operating. I said before if I didn't have this career I'd quite like to be an air traffic controller. >> Mhm. >> I think that'd be pretty fun. Why? I don't know. I just do you not think it'd be fun to do that? Like air traffic control. You very sort of rigid and strict operational guidelines. It's quite intense. It's but but you know you you know that you've got it under control. I think that'll be that'd be that would be a rush. That'd be pretty fun. >> Consequences if you have a bad day. >> Yeah, of course. But that adds that adds some value. You know what I mean? >> Uh yeah. I think 5,000 years ago, probably dead in childbirth. If not, uh, I would be breeder. Breeder. I'd be a breeder. >> What do you mean? >> I'd be I'd be doing the breeding. >> Well, like just >> breeding. >> Okay. But why? Why would you Why would you be the breeder versus all the other eligible mates that are trying to breed? >> Better at breeding. >> Okay. Based off zero children that you've had so far. What mean? That's correct. That's correct. It's correct. >> I'd be I'd be the I'd be the the the lead breeder. >> Okay. The leader breeder. The leader of the breeders. >> Correct. >> Wow. >> Um what about you? Interesting cuz I thought that you'd have said that. >> I I I think I would have been um some kind of pseudocientist alchemist. [laughter] >> You'd have been burned at the [ __ ] states for being a wizard. >> Yeah, I would have been um e either caught jester or pseudocience. >> I could have seen you as a druid. I can see you through it. >> Kind of like what you're I think it's a little bit like what you're talking about. He's basically trying to do tech before tech existed. >> Yes. >> He's like mixing herbs and stuff, but the dyspraxia would actually cause a massive error here. Your ability to measure [ __ ] forgetting things. You would definitely kill an entire tribe. >> That would be a nightmare. >> Yeah, >> that would go badly. Uh, speaking of stuff that you haven't seen before, a cow has been filmed using tools for the first time ever. Stunning scientists. Tools. Tools. The first ever known example of a multi-purpose tool used by a cow was reported with a brown Swiss named Veronica using both ends of a broom to scratch her own back and underside. Nice cow. >> It's a slow new day. It was a slow news day here, wasn't it? >> Brown Swiss, mate. >> Now she uses the smooth bit when she's got to do her delicate under parts. Wow. There is I was thinking about this when I watched it the first time. And now look at this. Look. So, she's used the smooth bit and now she's going to >> she's going to use the scratchy bit to get >> Wow. >> to get up there. Multi-use and then drops it. Uh, I was thinking about this. The physiology of a cow highly inefficient if you've got an itch. Physiology of a dog actually. But I think dogs are pretty bendy. >> You know, they can scratch themselves quite easily. >> Cow, you're screwed. And then you've got a hoof. How satisfying is a hoof for for scratching? Not very. Or was the It's the famous anecdote that you can take a cow upstairs, but you can't take a cow downstairs. And there's this old British joke of which farmer found that out the rock the hard way. [laughter] Is that true? Yeah. You can take a cow upstairs, but because of its joints, you can't take it downstairs. You can't take a cow downstairs because of its joints. >> I always think that when I see um is it emuse? I think. And their knees go backwards. Like our knees bend forwards. If we were to squat down, our knees bend forwards. >> Their knees go the other way. >> Oh, wow. Okay. >> Cows can walk upstairs fairly well, but walking downstairs is a different story. The main issue comes down to anatomy and perception. A cow has knee and leg joints that don't bend easily in a way that supports controlled downward stepping. The weight distribution cows carry a lot of weight toward the front of their bodies, making descending steep steps risky and unstable. Depth perception. They have poor perception for vertical drops. So stairs can look like a confusing or even dangerous surface. And instinct is prey animals. They're cautious about terrain that could trap or trip them. So, while a cow can technically go downstairs in some situations, especially shallow ones, they usually avoid it and often need guidance or special ramps instead. Wow. You know, a cow's keeping on the cow theme. Um, a cow's stomach is called the rin. Yep. >> Uh, a few different mammals have it. Um, where [snorts] they have like six to seven different stomachs inside of it. And the way a cow eats, you'll see it in a field. It'll be grazing and it's just constantly grazing all day long. And essentially what it's doing is grazing >> with carbonated beverageages. >> It's like me with carbonated beverages where it's grazing, regurgitating it, then grazing on it again, swallowing it, regurgitating it, and it's this loop from the room. >> So it goes from mouth to one. >> Yeah. >> From mouth tomouth to two, >> then mouth to one to two to three. I don't know if it goes in the uh the sequential order, but it goes through its stomachs, regurgitates it, and through like that, which is why when you see a cow in a field, it's constantly chewing. And then, >> but you don't realize putting new food in, that's old food. >> It's old food. It does it for a process of up to 6 to 7 hours, which is where the word rumination comes from. So, when a human being loops on the same forts, it's it's the process from a cow. What do you think about the rumination [ __ ] maxing great men of history didn't Yeah. introspection. What do you think of that? >> It seems like one giant test of the difference between the words. But if if you say rumination, I think everybody agrees that rumination for the most part is uh mainly negative. But if you say introspection, that's when it gets into this uh you know what it is that introspection debate is the current version of the you know the blue and gold dress. It's like that where some people imply introspection that they're meaning the word rumination where other people imply the word introspection that they're using some kind of form of clear thinking or reflecting to take action and they're just it's just one giant game of semantics. M but how do you get around that? Because it's always hard unless someone's going to define something. Unless somebody on one side is going to define it and no one's defining the terms, >> then you always if you're going to try and win an argument on the internet, you're always going to straw man what the other person's saying. >> Mhm. >> Always. >> Which means that you're going to say great men of history didn't spend their time worrying about their problems and overthinking things. You go, "No, no, I don't mean that. I don't mean ruminating. I mean I mean reflecting, thinking, improving, acting in a loop like an udala loop type thing and that but the response will never get that that the conversation is never allowed to have enough nuance to be able to get there. >> Mhm. >> What do what do you think? >> Bias for action is a big deal. >> Yes, 100%. having a bias for action. And it's the advice hyperresponders thing where most people mo on average most people probably need to think more. They probably need to be less rash uh more rational, more considered and considerate when they go and do stuff. But there's a small cohort of people, mostly the sort of people that listen to podcasts like Senrose or this one, who don't need to hear that. They actually need to hear the opposite message. they actually need to be doing [ __ ] maxing which is why [ __ ] maxing I think has taken off >> because it's a counterveailing force to people who already thought too much were told that thinking and doing your journaling and having a Ali Abdal 90day sprint broken down into daily actions and 25minut pomodoro blocks that doing that that's the way to get to success but that already played into the thing that they had a predisposition for what they didn't have a predisposition for was a bias for action. So if there was some way of being able to gift those people, but the problem is >> you're getting people who overthink and have a tendency to overthink to work against their nature, which is always going to be hard. >> Like lots of the people, like I look at Dana White, I do not see a person who has a problem with overthinking. I look at Mark Andre, I don't see a person who has a problem for overthinking. >> But if you were to say that advice to someone else, it's going to go down very differently. So this the the whole advice hypers respond is advice doesn't land evenly. It distributes unevenly to the people who me too right guys that were told don't be pushy with women that were already blowing through boundaries they just disregarded it. They already disregarded the boundaries. The guys that were already a bit nervous and worried about approaching a woman they were the ones that took it to heart. So it just makes you more of what you are. A lot of the time advice makes you more of what you are. >> I I think it comes down to you need new words. So I I like like low agency thinking and high agency thinking. So the clear difference between the two is is one getting you closer to some form of action. Are you progressing or are you ruminating? I think a clear issue with rumination or overthinking is when three things. One, most of your thoughts aren't new. >> They're repetitive. >> They're cycling. M >> two, most of your thoughts aren't useful. They're not looking at ways you might fix this problem. They're just replaying a certain scenario again and again and again. And three, the most important part is that most of them aren't even true. >> Most of our thoughts that we think aren't even true. So the difference between I I would say when you're in low agency thinking is uh new, useful, true. And if you can go, if you can have new thoughts, if you can find useful thoughts, and you can find true thoughts, that's the difference. That's so good. That's really great. I guess >> how do you get around the bias for action even if you've managed to do that? Or do you think that having new useful and true thoughts tend to encourage you to act because >> exactly low low agency thinking will lead to more thinking more rumination by definition and high agency thinking will it's soon it's almost like the claude or chat GBT thinking time duh duh bull and ahead however I think we discussed this that netnet which I know you love the term netn net >> netn I would you'd rather be a bit of a idiot than a bit of a coward. >> What's the difference? >> Well, I'd rather be make an error with high conviction than make an error with low conviction. >> And again, you've got a huge generalization there where it's it's kind of Charlie Munger's advice of don't race trains, don't get involved in AIDS situations. like this. There's the obvious nuance there, but it's better to be quick to act whilst thinking through some initial risks and looking at the downside >> and moving fast than just sitting there for years without ever finding out. >> The reason type one, type two decisions. >> Yeah. The reason that that's interesting is most people who probably are making decisions that are too rash aren't that fussed about listening to nerdy podcasts, >> right? So, you almost don't need to caveat it that if if you're the sort of person that's reading Robert Green's 48 Laws of Power and is thinking about what time they get up and tracking their Whoop scores, like you're you've already pre-selected. You're not going to be in the [ __ ] maxing bin by nature. You're going to have to learn [ __ ] maxing through discipline, through through trial. And uh yeah, I guess that means that if it's the sort of thing that speak that you're listening to, it's probably the sort of thing that you need to hear because the platform that you're listening to it on is exactly the sort of one that the sort of person who needs to hear it would listen to. Does that make sense? >> Mhm. >> Yeah. >> Where do you think you need to do it more? >> [ __ ] everywhere, dude. >> Yeah. >> Jesus Christ. Yeah. I horrendous. Horrendous at overthinking. I mean, I've got a good bias for action, but uh it takes too long. My confidence threshold, if I could get in and adjust the settings in my brain, >> have a [ __ ] yourself and have a stroke. >> That's actually that's a great idea. >> If I was to go if I was to go and have a really, really, really hard [ __ ] >> which I had the other day, you couldn't believe that I had a [ __ ] in the middle of the day. >> Yeah, it was impressive. That was the most surprising thing of all of the things that I've done since we've lived together. Just having a [ __ ] at 1 p.m. to you. >> It was four. >> It wasn't. >> It was like four. >> Okay. Well, I mean, look, I'm I'm an equal opportunity [ __ ] and I'm desperately trying to have a [ __ ] aneurysm, so I acquire sant syndrome. [laughter] >> My latency. If Hitler If Hitler had this, >> if if Hitler had had a hard enough >> significant artwork being produced, >> if Hitler had had a hard enough [ __ ] we would wouldn't have had World War II. >> Yeah. If Hitler had shot himself more and more aggressively out. Yeah, but the [ __ ] numbers. Do you know what I mean? He's got the face. Yeah, he's got a face. Wasn't there a guy There was a guy who laughed so hard at a guy missing a football kick recently that it caused him to have an aneurysm in his brain or I think he had a stroke and then when they went in to find to work out what the [ __ ] had gone on they there was this huge tumor that was going to kill him and he had that done and it was because some guy had missed kicking the ball in a NFL game. >> Wow. and a fan of the opposing team laughed so hard that he basically did kind of similar to the Savon syndrome thing. Damn. Just had a full-on a full-on explosion, head explosion. Most people have no idea where their testosterone levels sit. But what if I told you there was a solution? Something that identifies low tea faster than a high school bully and it won't cost you all your lunch money. That's where Function comes in. Gives you access to over 160 lab tests, including a deep dive into your full hormone paddle. Every result is reviewed by clinicians. Anything out of range is flagged and you get clear explanations with a personalized protocol with actionable next steps. So if something's off, you know exactly what to do about it. Whether you just need to go to the gym more or you need to play Creed louder in your car, Function will tell you exactly where your testosterone and everything else stands. Normally, this level of testing would usually cost thousands, but with Function, it's $365 a year. That's $1 a day to stop guessing with your health and start knowing. And right now, you can get $25 off, bringing it down to 340 bucks. So, get the exact same blood panels that I do and save $25 by going to the link in the description below or heading to functionhealth.com/modernwisdom using the code modernwisdom at checkout. >> Are you Have you not got into American sports since since moving here? >> Fan of Rangers. I'm a fan of the Texas Rangers, dude. I >> meant Rangers FC. >> No, fan of Texas Rangers. So baseball became a fan of the Rangers. They won the World Series first year that I was a fan. I was like, "This is easy. This is brilliant." Following you not as successful. I have got into baseball. Baseball is the closest proxy for cricket. >> Huh. But that's it. I I watched the Super We watched the Super Bowl. That was good. >> What else? Can't get basketball's all right, but highlights good. Which is strange because baseball and American football are much slower moving sports. H and even though basketball is a much faster moving sport generally I think per minute of broadcast how long's a NFL game like 80 minutes? >> No, it's an hour. >> An hour. >> 15 minute quarters. >> An hour. I think the total amount of play time typical in a oneh hour NFL game, I swear it's less than 10 minutes. >> Damn. >> of action. It's a sport entirely reverse engineered to allow adverts to be played. >> The American dream. >> It is. Well, I mean, that's the most sort of American thing that you can do, right? To flog drain cleaner [laughter] in between. >> It's it's a [ __ ] Ponzi scheme. This country's sport system is a Ponzi scheme. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It's rough. I I've um I've struggled to get into American sports so far. And you realize that like Yousef, I tried to sell him on getting into sports because wherever you are in the world, you can have a conversation with a taxi driver. Apart from America, I can go anywhere in the world and if football comes up, if I say I'm from Manchester, we can immediately like have a great conversation for about 20 minutes. But we in American sports, it's just slightly it none of it makes sense. The same way British sports make sense. >> What is it? The the Premier Football League. Is that technically what it's called? >> Premier League, >> right? But I swear that people I swear that when I meet people in America, they say, "Oh, who'd you sport in the PFL?" >> Yeah. I'm like, "Hey, >> I called the EPL." >> EPL. Yeah. Who do you sport in the EPLL? And it took a little while for me to go, "What are you?" Tommy Robinson, [laughter] >> EDL. Uh, I just I that's not that we don't speak like that in England. We don't talk about >> the ECC, the English cricket or ECB, English cricket board. We're not talking about stuff like that. >> But yeah, I I >> I like baseball. Baseball's good. It's [ __ ] slow. It's really slow. Have you heard of >> Hurry up, dude. Have you heard of Ali Dier? >> No. >> British football player. >> Ali Abdal. >> He's no relation to Ali Abdal unfortunately. So Ali Dier was a a Southampton player. How he joined was you ever heard of George Wer? So George Wea was like the African player of the year. I think he briefly played for Manchester City back in the day. But um he was one of the best players of all like certainly from Africa but one of the best players in the world at the time. He might have even won a Balandor. and Graeme Sunnes was the manager of Southampton and he gets a phone call from George Wayer saying there's this new guy um who has just played at the African Cup of Nations. He's like incredible. Um I think he even claims it's his nephew. He goes, "You've got to give him a trial for Southampton." So Ali Dier turns up at Southampton. It's like one training session before the game and they have such a small squad at the minute that they just put him on the bench. Um, one of the key Southampton players gets injured. They sub Ali Dyron and it's the worst like debut of all time. This guy's [ __ ] terrible. So much so, and this almost never happens in football. He gets subbed on and then subbed off. >> Mhm. >> Which is extremely rare. >> Y >> and he never played for Sam Hampton ever again. And then when they begin to investigate it, it wasn't George Wayer on the phone. It was him. This guy used to play like Sunday league. So he managed to black his way to play in Premier League football. So there's always a chant now with the Southampton fans of Ali Dier is a liar is a liar. So So he just blacked his way in. >> Jamie Vard's got a documentary coming out. >> I want to I saw that this morning. I want to show you. I want to watch that. Jamie Vardy, I don't even think started playing professional level until the age of 25. And he's just you the thing is you almost need like so much British knowledge to understand who Jamie Vardy is. >> Couched inside of a very deep and spiralally community and where does he come from and what does it mean and what's his background >> unless you've been to Magalof Zante. >> He is Jamie Vardy is Magalof. If Magalof coalesed into human form, it would be Jamie Vard. >> He would take that as a compliment. Like he he loves it. He [ __ ] loves it. >> Yeah. but he uh he ends up making it pro at such a later age in life but just plays like a a conference league player. So he even in the documentary the trailer I watched he talks about no striker tackles but this guy tackles or he's drinking like two red balls before the game. He's just constantly he almost quit at like 27 28 after making it pro cuz he wanted to go and do a season in Zante. He wanted to go and be a full-time nightclub promoter. >> It's an alluring industry to get into. And then because he was in Yeah. some [ __ ] Sunday league team. >> Yeah. >> And then got picked up by Leicester. >> Mhm. >> And then went on to have the most insane the first season wins the Premier League with Leicester, which is it's the biggest you'd argue it's one of the biggest sporting achievements of all time. It's one of the biggest underdog stories. >> And a lot of that was because of him and his performance. He he broke the Premier League record for the most amount of consecutive goals. Like I think it was 12 games, 12 or 13 games. >> Scored 13 games in a row, right? Which is insane. >> Whilst like eating Monster Munch and just being an absolute generous Yeah. >> I That's another thing that I think Americans really struggle with, which is there are some very good niche British snacks that you can't get over here. Uh because there's American aisles, American candy aisles now at Tesco's in the UK. So if you go and look and and you'll be able to get Lucky Charms and and Cheetos with America, all of the seed oils and the red 40 and stuff included. Uh but you can't come over here and get Jaffa cakes and jammy Dodgers and Cadbury's fingers and stuff like that. And I think >> we're missing out, man. That would be I think that would be a gift that we could give back to America. I I um wrote this thing recently about the uh Roman Empire. I relate it back to Britain. Um but I think we've spoken about this previously, but I did a research for this piece called Don't Wait for the News. And essentially the Roman Empire, do you know when the Roman Empire fell? 400ish. So the thing with the Roman Empire falling, it's it's up for debate. Even historians debate it. But the mainstream historical point of view, which is not the weird niche stuff that you get into, but the mainstream historical point of view is 476 AD that Romulus, who um was the founder of Rome, so it's poetic. I think this is why we like that as the ending. Romulus, who was the founder of Rome, then young Romulus, who was in the throne when it ended, got replaced by the barbarian Odisa. So Romulus saw Rome uh rise and Romulus saw Rome fall for clarity. It's not the same bloke. >> It's not the same bloke. This is over like hundreds of years. Um but that's just the poetry of why they say that date. [snorts] But if you woke up that day after the Roman Empire that we now say has fallen, there was no there was no big announcement. There was no news. If the book the sovereign individual has this beautiful line which if the CNN existed during the fall of the Roman Empire the headline would not have been the Roman Empire has just fallen. So you have the split of the Roman Empire you have the Eastern Roman Empire and you have the Western Roman Empire. The um Eastern Roman Empire goes on to about 1300 AD. Charlemagne becomes the emperor he calls himself the emperor of Rome in about 700 to 800 AD. So the eastern uh empire falls. Voltater famously says in 1700 that the entity that calls itself the Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy nor Roman nor an empire. That was in 1700s. It was only in the 1800s when Napoleon was invading did um I think it's Francis II dissolve the Roman Empire. So if you would have waited to be told that the Roman Empire was over, it would have been your great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandchild. 48 generations it would have taken. So I kind of wrote this this piece and then I said that this story terrified me because when today's biggest empire falls nobody's going to tell me like nobody's going to tell me that the British Empire is no longer the most powerful empire in the world. Obviously it is right now. Obviously, the British Empire is the the most powerful empire that exists right now. I can't tell if what I don't want to have happen is for me to be the one that lives in denial long after the event. >> I think you already are. >> The rise of Gary Stevenson. >> So, but I uh Yeah. Well, the Gary Stevenson will be like the 1800 one. That's when when Gary's when Gary's in office with the [ __ ] like tucked in [laughter] tucked in like this. That'll be when it's like the British Empire. We all admit the British Empire is over. But it's funny. So I posted that as a like a trolling like kind of sarcasm statement of like oh lecturering about the history of the Roman Empire whilst pretending that I still think the British Empire is the biggest thing. And there was quite a few people in the comment section who was going along with the the humor of it. But the amount of emails I got of people saying you do realize the British Empire is no longer the most uh powerful thing. And I was like let's just go fully fully in with the joke. I'm like why are you still talking English? and just like kept going back and forth with them that the uh the British Empire But you know what that's actually the saddest thing um I know don't really do geopolitics on the show but the saddest thing of the Ayatollah dying is that when he used to address um the world stage he would often talk about Great Britain as if we're still the most powerful country in the world or one of the leading countries so that's the one thing I did appreciate about the Ayatollah of Iran that it's Something that completely blows my mind that I don't understand. People who regularly get into small back and forth spats in the comment section. James does this all the time. >> Smith. >> Yeah, all the time, mate. He loves it. He loves it. He just loves winding people up. But I I just I I sometimes will post something on Twitter and there'll be all of these replies and all of these people and weeks later there'll be two people still going at it. [laughter] It's It's [ __ ] infuriating. It's in my notifications. >> Oh man. >> It's in my It's in my notifications. It's like Do you know what it's like? It's like having two neighbors that are having an argument with each other, but you live in the house that's in between. [laughter] Like, can you not go over to his house directly? Because at the moment, I'm caught in this crossfire. Unbelievable. >> Have you ever seen the meme? It's one of my favorite ones. uh where it's a guy on his deathbed and he's kind of like lay there like just about to die and he's got like the speech bubble for like the Bronny wear deathbed regrets and it's just I wish I spent more time arguing online >> people on the [laughter] internet. Yeah. >> But yeah, I I mean I rarely ever do the spats, but when it's pure, oh, this person doesn't understand the joke. That's that's fun. If you're trying to go from Joey Chestnut to Joey Swole, the RP Strength app is the best place to start. I've been in the gym for two decades, and it wasn't until this last year that I had some of the best training sessions of my life, and RP was a massive part of that. Actual scientists built this thing around the obsession to beat up their high school bullies and provide the most sciencebacked effective path to maximizing muscle gain. It tells you your exercises, how many sets, reps, the weights, everything. So, all you have to do is show up and lift. the RP Strength app could wipe your ass for you, probably would. And it adjusts automatically every week based on how you're actually progressing. For me, following a proper evidence-based plan has made a massive difference. And if you're serious about your training, it'll do the same for you. Right now, you can follow the exact same training plan that I use and get up to $50 off the RP Hypertrophy app by going to the link in the description below, heading to rpstrength.com/modernwisdom and using the code modernwisdom at checkout. That's rpstrength.com/modernwisdom and modernwmisdom at checkout. What can we I was thinking about this the other day. What's the longest ever traffic jam in terms of duration? So, I'm just thinking about what's the longest ever internet argument is is still ongoing. It's something from 2008 that's still going in a weird forum somewhere, Mumsnet or whatever. >> Uh there two different records people people usually mean when talking about the longest traffic jam ever. longest by duration. The most infamous was the China National Highway 110 traffic jam in 2010 stretched about 100 kilometers near Beijing and lasted 12 days from August 14th to August 26. Some drivers reportedly moved only 1 kilometer per day. It was caused by a mix of road works, overloaded coal trucks, and traffic volumes far beyond the highway's design capacity. The longest by distance, Guinness World Records, the traffic jam in France in 1980 is the longest by length. It was 109 mile backup between Lyon and Paris caused by holiday traffic and bad weather. It's also a bizarre contender by sheer scale after German reunification in 1990. Reports described around 18 million cars clogging roots at the East West German border. Do you imagine living through that reunification? You've been part of the same country but essentially different universes. Jesus. If you like traffic data, I've got some Go on. >> Cracking traffic data. >> Go on. So, in the 1960s, >> here's a little little question. >> Okay. >> Can you guess where the most deadly roads in Europe were? >> Is of man. >> No. >> In the UK. >> No. >> Right. >> We're not in Europe. >> Brexit means Brexit, Christopher. It does. That's true. Island. >> No. Um, >> okay. I was trying to own something close to home there. >> So, it's uh it's Belgium. Surprising location of Belgium. Okay. So, they had a policy which was known as the 18th birthday party gift by Belgians. So, here's how it would work. You'd turn 18, walk downstairs, parents would do happy birthday. Can you do it in Belgian? >> No. Can you? >> No. um happy birthday to you. Um they'd then take you down to the car dealership. You'd get a little birthday plaque from them. They'd say happy birthday as well. You'd pay for a car, show your data buff, you'd get the car, and you'd attempt to drive away. So Belgium had no driving test policies at all. >> So you could just fullon libertarian style just attempt to drive away. And the 18th birthday party gift in Belgium was the number one killer of Belgians between the age of 18 to 24. So Belgium had the most deadliest roads in Europe, certainly per capita. So you know what the government did to try and fix it? They said, "Right, we're putting an end to this." In 1969 they said before you can drive you have to do a mandatory theory test because if you go and study and then drive at least will prevent these mistakes. So what happens is 1969 there's this cut off everybody from then onwards has to do theory tests and this Belgian transport official like releases the results and he goes it's appears to be the case that the accident rate amongst the theory drivers is higher than the ones who never got theory tested at all. So the death rate went up by 32% with the theory test drivers. Why? >> Um, one theory is, there you go. One theory is that they have this kind of false sense of confidence going into the roads that at least the ones that knew they couldn't drive didn't have. But the Belgian mate, the Belgian traffic stuff goes on for years. There's like iconic cartoons of like how dangerous the roads are in Belgium. And there's [snorts] a great thing in the 80s where I think it's Jeanl de Harm could be could have butchered that, but we'll go with it. Jean Dhan he becomes transport minister. This man ends up becoming PM but just listen to the job that he does transport minister. So he one day gets into office to fix the Belgium road. So he's done all this campaigning about the issues around it. He gets clocked going I think it's like 70 and a 40 [gasps and sighs] and he does the the beautiful politicians answer where he says it wasn't me it was my daughter. And then they quickly find out it wasn't his daughter, it was him in the car. So he goes, "Okay, I'll hire a chauffeur from now on. So I'll only get driven by a chauffeur." So he starts with a chauffeur. And a journalist one day tailgates the chauffeur. The chauffeur commits 12 driving offenses in 30 minutes. And this is one of the best political statements of all time. When the transport ministry was pressed, well, are you going to fire the chauffeur now? the [snorts] lady who's the spokeswoman, just a rare moment of honesty. She said, "If we fired everybody in the Belgian transport ministry that was committing traffic offenses, there'd be nobody left here to work." So, that's some cracking traffic data. Well, I know that Egypt got the I think it's the easiest driving test in the world, which is crazy cuz I've done the one in America and that explains a lot about American drivers. It's not The British one's kind of hard. Yes. You must know what what what do you reckon the failure rate among your friends was for the first time test? >> Did you do did you pass first time? >> I passed first time. >> You catch me as a first- timer. >> Yeah. Well, yeah, I know. [ __ ] Hermione Granger over here. Um, >> but then you look at somewhere like Bali and these guys are essentially surgeons with with scooters and they're able to thread this needle. I remember the first time I went to I'd spent time in Thailand, but I'd gone up north and up north in Pi, really, really close to the northern border. There's no traffic. So, yeah, people had riding around a family of five on a single scooter and there's a goat on the back and stuff, but there wasn't any of that crazy weaving [ __ ] And I flew back through Chiang Mai and it was insane. And you've been to Thailand? Yes. And you've seen the roads, right, in Bangkok and and Chiang Mai. It is out of this world. It is [ __ ] insane just how chaotic it is. And it really they kind of that scared me a bit. Like holy f like it's just so danger. I didn't I was in a car so I'm going to be okay I guess unless someone smashes through the window. But it made me it made me kind of fearful for all of the other people. This is your dayto-day. You're arriving at work. That's your commute right now. Let's sit down and go over the quarterly earnings report. Thinking I'm sorry, my adrenaline is just as if I've been in a fight with a bear. But I I wonder with time, do you adapt to it? I think where it doesn't get enough criticism for their roads is everybody talks about how safe Dubai is and it's this hub of safety. The roads in Dubai, I think you're four times more likely to die on than the British roads. And one of the >> drivers or because of the roads? Definitely the the design of the roads are are peculiar um and not optimal. But I have a theory that there where you have 90% expats from all over the world that there's actually no cultural like grounding on the roads cuz you've got one guy got one guy from Pakistan here >> that you should let you out. >> One guy from the UK here, one guy from France here, one guy from Germany here, one lady from Usbekiststan here. like it just lady from US is not allowed to drive but go on [laughter] I think you can drive inistan I don't know um but as a result there's no cultural crossover where for example if I'm driving in the UK I know that if a guy gets really angry beeping his horn at me it's like it's what it is like it's chill whereas I also wouldn't do that I would never I'm not a big horn beeper anyway but I would be way more like to beep in the UK than I would here >> everyone's got guns >> yes so it's just understanding the lay of the land. But when you're in somewhere like Dubai where it's just it there's there's no cultural uh attitudes on the roads, it's just >> it's too much of a melting pot and you need consensus cuz that's the only way that it works. I told you about the the guy who uh I was in a Uber. was like a this was in Dubai and it was like a Sprinter van and [snorts] I'm in the back of the Sprinter van and we're on the roads and there's like loads of other people in the Uber on the way to a steak restaurant and I'm just kind of lonely looking out the window and I kind of look at the driver and he's on his phone and he's goes off the the maps for a second. What's he going on? And I look at it and he's on trading 212. He's trading crypto, wasn't he? >> And he was he was shorting I think the Japanese yen as he's going 70 on the highway. >> And I so I I shouted at I go I go stop right now and this you know this is the most British thing ever. I thought why not say don't want to say anything. [laughter] >> I'll risk I don't want to make a fuss. I shouldn't make a I shouldn't make a fuss. >> If I die cuz some >> trying to short Japanese yen. So I shouted at him and he stopped. Start looking out the window again. Come back. He's doing it against the pound. [laughter] >> Yeah. The issue was my issue wasn't the currency. My issue wasn't the currency. It wasn't the trade. It was the fact that you were doing the trading. >> Man, >> I'm here for the self-driving cars. >> So you can So you can do as much trading as you want. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. [ __ ] yeah. All right. I appreciate you, man. Until next time. So much fun. >> See you everybody. >> Thank you very much for tuning in. If you enjoyed that episode, another one that I know you love, it's just here.