| 00:00.00 | mikebledsoe | Welcome to Monday morning with Mike and max and today we're going to be talking about decentralization now this is a word that's being thrown around quite a bit I don't think that people necessarily know what it means and when it's used. It's normally used specifically for. Currencies they're talking about decentralized currencies alternative currencies like bitcoin ethereum and a bunch of other shitcoins that are out there but the idea of decentralization is much bigger than that and when we look at technologies that allow us to decentralize. We can see how it disrupts. |
| 00:37.94 | mikebledsoe | Economics It Disrupts social constructs and it yeah entire societies. So we're gonna talk about as decentralization occurs what you can do to position yourself to be in the best place possible. Um, and not get completely screwed over like some people are gonna experience. |
| 00:58.54 | Max Shank | Well I think this is gonna be perfect for us to talk about because you and I have really different perspectives on this I'm not very schooled in cryptocurrency because I don't quite understand the stability of it. Um. But I am deeply interested in increasing the amount of freedom I have in my life as well as that of our listeners. So I'm excited to discuss it with you today. |
| 01:27.44 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, so let's start here the the decentralization um as a concept is that there's a smaller group of people that have absolute control over what's going on in their world. |
| 01:46.14 | Max Shank | Um, that's centralization. You mean. |
| 01:46.84 | mikebledsoe | So right now decentralization. Well there's ah what I mean is like you're grouped into a smaller group So there's greater responsibility for the individual in a decentralized society. |
| 01:58.88 | Max Shank | So the individual has more agency over their money their time their food that sort of thing. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. |
| 02:03.31 | mikebledsoe | Yes, yeah, yeah, more agency more autonomy more choice. Um in some cases so in ah and a centralized setup. |
| 02:15.43 | Max Shank | A. |
| 02:21.72 | mikebledsoe | Which is primarily what we're existing in right now if we have we have centralized money we have centralized food supplies. We have centralized energy systems. So when I talk about decentralization or centralization. This is a global conversation. Not necessarily. Talking only about cryptocurrencies or only about farming so with that being said is if you're we are being driven into a decentralized society because of ah you know this twofold one is people desire. It. Enough people desire it and that desire has helped people to generate technology which makes it possible and due to a lot of centralized power and a lot of money coming into a very small group people a lot of technology has been advanced. That used to only be available to a few that's now available to many an example of this is I remember when and you've probably noticed this max is Amazon um, and this is just a function of capitalism Amazon has. Always has better technology than the average ecommerce store. They have better tracking. They've got more data on their users. They've got ah their ability to sell at scale is just incredible and there's so many pieces of technology that. Only existed for http://amazon.com five years ago and now you and I have access to Facebook ads that targeting targeted ads that most people don't know much about ah because of Facebook and ah. A lot of this stuff that only really advanced marketers with a lot of money had access to special software. That's now been made available to all of us. So um I mention that because because of the way that things have been built up at this point is what actually creates the opportunity for a. Decentralized technology do exist now. So one's not better than another one just gives birth to another and the technology that's available will basically demand that you things be more decentralized and that each person takes more personal responsibility. And for those who don't take personal responsibility. It's gonna be a hard transition. |
| 04:56.23 | Max Shank | I think you brought up 1 of the big advantages of centralization which is called economies of scale. So one of the reasons that people we can feed more people and one of the reasons that we can get more people a cell phone. |
| 05:05.25 | mikebledsoe | Go. |
| 05:15.98 | Max Shank | Is because these companies are able to do it at a much lower cost because as the number of units goes up the cost per unit thanks to efficiency goes down so not just. Thinking centralization bad decentralization good is important and I would also agree that as long as the consumers are free to choose their product then that will yield the. Best efficiency as long as you can choose whether you want to go to Walmart or the farmer's market or something like that I think that's kind of inherently good and the more we are allowed to choose the better. The outcome is and the more people are forced to obey. the the worse the outcome is historically and presently. |
| 06:15.79 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, this conversation makes me think about Atlas shrugged. You've read the book. Yeah, okay, ah so in out. |
| 06:23.99 | Max Shank | People either really like that book or they really hate that book's guts don't they no no, one's like it's all right I guess. |
| 06:32.38 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well you know anytime I run it when I run into people that hate it it I've learned to to focus in on 1 thing in the conversation that will totally break them and that is did you finish it. |
| 06:50.33 | Max Shank | First. |
| 06:51.91 | mikebledsoe | Did you read the whole thing because I've yet to meet somebody who's actually read the whole thing that still hates it so you know usually people hate it because they read something that someone else wrote about it or they're part of a ah social group that. Thinks that ein Rand is the Devil. So ah, it makes me think about that because you know you're saying choice. But right now they're essential like so let's just forget forget that but the where things are going when decentralized decentralization becomes possible technologically possible I think is what's going to happen is what happened in atlas shrug which is the most productive people in society are going to choose decentralization now. Decentralization wasn't. Necessarily a concept in that book. But the concept in the book was that the people who were the most productive and the people who took the most responsibility for themselves and their companies and things like that once that once they were being taxed. And the government was demanding and and social groups were demanding that they be more like slaves than independent and people they basically burned down their factories and walked away from their jobs and shut down the railroads and all went hiding in a valley in Colorado. And a lot of and then people in society are going. You can't do that and goes I can do whatever I want I'm not a slave and so I think what's gonna happen is the the atlas shrug is happening but we're not gonna have to go hide in a valley in Colorado. And where we're we were you know able to hide from planes and radar and shit what's going to happen is we're me able to hide technologically or we're going to be able to opt out of the current system. Ah and technologically and then everyone who's productive goes there and the people who are mediocre at. Best will still subscribe to the to the centralized model and so when we start talking about choice. It's like yeah you do have a choice but the being a part of a centralized model in 2020 or 2019 or whatever was. Really probably the most convenient choice. It was you you ended up having a lot of luxury a lot of really cool things were available to you. But as time goes on if the best producers on the planet decentralize. They've now removed themselves from your economy. So you're not getting the best anymore. |
| 09:43.84 | mikebledsoe | And the the beauty of a centralized economy and a centralized society is you don't have to think so much because people can become much more specialized and they don't have to consider. You know where does my food come from. You know what's really going on with the currency people right now. For instance, you could take a computer programmer and they've gotten really good at computer programming. They don't know Jack shit about anything but computer programming and so that's because. They can pick up their phone and have their groceries delivered to their house. They can just automatically have their money. Ah go into an Ira that you know someone from their job told them it was a good idea and that could they're they're outsourcing their wealth. Their health. Just outsource all these things something goes wrong physically, they don't have to be aware of it. They just go to the doctor and they write him a prescription a pill to fix it and so. |
| 10:42.41 | Max Shank | Well, that's comparative advantage. You hunt the food I'll cook the food and this guy here will protect us in the night and this lady over here will take care of all the children. |
| 10:51.76 | mikebledsoe | Totally but in a world of centralization where we're dealing with hundreds of millions of people. We'll we'll talk about the United States specifically it's become. It's we've gone past the point of diminishing returns. There is a massive benefit to it. But now we're seeing the repercussions of it for instance, the average person unless you're a health expert your health is really poor. |
| 11:19.31 | Max Shank | That's true and we could think about the causality of that and to piggyback on this centralization theme I think it's really important to differentiate between which sectors. Of Centralization. We're talking about So I like to simply think of it as you have no choice of where to go you have to come to us basically right? and so there's education which I'm no fan of I think it's child abuse. |
| 11:42.50 | mikebledsoe | In a centralized model. |
| 11:54.28 | Max Shank | I Think it's a really bad investment I think it's yeah public school I think it's one of the worst things you could do to a child. It's a horrible investment I could it's obedience school. Let's keep a simple language obedience school listen to this guy at the front. |
| 11:54.41 | mikebledsoe | Government education. |
| 12:01.14 | mikebledsoe | We should just call them indoctrination system governmental indoctrination systems or something. |
| 12:13.23 | mikebledsoe | Did you you send your kid their obedience school today. He's been acting up. |
| 12:13.56 | Max Shank | Sit down shut up, ask permission to go to the bathroom god forbid it I ever have a kid I would never send it to school not in 1000000 years um under no circumstance. Yeah well, it's ah you know I don't want to assume it's gender. |
| 12:22.85 | mikebledsoe | If I won't have a kid as long as you start referring to as long as you refer to it as it. Um, you might get yourself in hot water there in California. |
| 12:33.55 | Max Shank | Ah, so I don't want to be 1 of those hateful people who used to think that genitals identified your gender. Ah I'm woke now. Ah so anyway, so. |
| 12:49.23 | mikebledsoe | Congratulations max. |
| 12:50.61 | Max Shank | Centralized education gets away worse result. Ah the bigger. The centralized government is the worse. The result is because it's the difference between the pie makers and the pie slicers and you have to Zoom way out and. And way in to really understand what's happening so zooming way out to what it's like to be a creature who's capable of doing things and surviving in the world is really difficult on your own. In fact, it's impossible on your own. So the whole purpose of our culture. Is to reduce chaos and that's why actually why games and play are so critical for building relationships and also building skills because if you have the chaos reduced through culture but you don't have any dosage of that excitement or chaos. You're going to be a really sad little monkey and then you also need to really zoom in on what I call rules of engagement so you have to consider the interactions between entities. And reduce it down to the fewest parts possible to really understand what's happening. You know if 3 people live on a cul-de-sac and 2 people vote that they should Rob. The third one is that okay and interestingly enough in democracy. Yes, that's. That's perfectly. Okay, in fact, that's exactly how it works as long as most people want to Rob the not most people then is totally fine. So all of this back and forth. |
| 14:33.33 | mikebledsoe | It. It's interesting. How people people lose the concept of morality at scale it. What you? what you say makes no sense when it's a hundred people but the moment it's a 0 people it's |
| 14:43.50 | Max Shank | The. |
| 14:52.23 | mikebledsoe | Somehow has eluded people What what do you think that is. |
| 14:55.22 | Max Shank | The the greater good The fallacy of the greater good. Um, and it has to do with arrogance. Some people want to be saviors so they have a messianic complex of some kind and they want to be the guy who saves everyone some people are just sadists. And they want to dominate and control people and typically those are the only type of people who want ah positions of Authority like I I don't want a position of Authority over anyone but myself because I think I'm I'm a reasonable person. Ah, it's totally unreasonable. To want to be in charge of hundreds of millions of people. It's totally unreasonable. Um, but that's why. |
| 15:40.86 | mikebledsoe | There's a book about this There's a political pourology I I began it I've read about 20% and then I had to start it was one of those books where it started getting I was gonna have to invest more energy into it. When I want to put my energy somewhere else. I'm definitely going to come back to it but the concept I had gotten to that point was psychopaths make up 4% of the population. This is a so this is a known psychological statistic. |
| 15:59.26 | Max Shank | M. |
| 16:14.72 | mikebledsoe | And just like the rest of Society. The psychopaths tend to you know they the thing that makes a psychopath so powerful is not only are they not experiencing emotions the same way we are so we experience emotions and. Creates turbulence and it impacts our decision making and yeah, we just we just do really strange things to fit in and somebody who's a psychopath the the really good ones understand that other people. Are having a different emotional experience than they are. They know it and they know how to exploit it and so yeah, so not only not only do they, they're not experiencing the same emotional stuff so they actually become very apathet on a become I think they just are that sounds like they're born this way. |
| 16:55.20 | Max Shank | They leverage that perceived weakness. |
| 17:10.91 | mikebledsoe | They're very apathetic which is kind of a problem but then on top of that they understand how you can be manipulated with your emotions and so ah, just like any group of people they're the ones that are really smart and then they're the ones that are really dumb. The dumb ones end up in prison and the smart ones end up in Dc and the so there they are attracted to pout. So you tell about being unreasonable this book makes the um makes the case that ah. They're drawn to power over other people and so. |
| 17:48.40 | Max Shank | Exactly and like what you just said, it's rhetoric driven. It's tugging on people's emotions rather than focusing on fundamental rules of engagement. You know there really shouldn't be that many laws and every law should be in simple language. But of course. |
| 17:52.84 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 18:07.74 | Max Shank | That is not incentivized by the people who are writing up these laws. You know so. |
| 18:11.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I like what you're talking. Ah I want to go back a little bit because we're a little off track but the it was worth touching on the the as you were talking before I was thinking about incentives because when we think about people who are in in a centralized power structure. And you always mention this first we got to look at incentives so someone in a centralized power structure where is the incentive for them to make the decisions that they're making so what is the incentives of the news media. The centralized news media outlets Cnn ah Fox all these things a highly centralized stream of information because they're all reporting the same shit. They've got the same narrative. There's a centralized There's a centralization of information there and then. |
| 19:06.00 | Max Shank | I would say they're opposing narratives but they're about the same thing and that thing doesn't matter very much compared to the real situation which is jurisdiction and Authority who's in charge and when do they exercise that authority. |
| 19:08.30 | mikebledsoe | There. |
| 19:13.18 | mikebledsoe | Well. |
| 19:21.20 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, and well that episode that you recommend to me last week Joe Rogan with Gavin De Becker he talked about how man that was one of the best Rogan shows I've ever heard. Ah, he talked about. |
| 19:29.55 | Max Shank | Is champ. |
| 19:38.50 | mikebledsoe | How all the news media outlets basically agreed to call Iver mechton horse paste and there wasn't a major news outlet that wasn't doing that and so what they got. |
| 19:42.80 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 19:49.96 | Max Shank | It's a coordinated assault on people's minds to maximize their attention and to maximize their fear because fear is deeper in the brain than anything else. So you have to recognize that that. You have to recognize that the news is a hostile entity and you must take precautions to protect yourself from this because of the incentives you know, um, the whole idea of good and evil. Is um I think it's a trap all on its own. You know, don't believe the red guys are evil the blue guys are evil whatever just recognize that they're um, traumatized animals just just like almost every person right? and they're just doing. What is in their best interest with no regard for you but rather than ah say this is evil this is good. This is what whatever you just have to recognize for yourself that that is a hostile attack. On your mind and it's not going to help you exist in the world better to pay attention and it might even feel ironically a little more scary at first to not like know what's going on in the world but when it distracts you from. |
| 21:16.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 21:22.60 | Max Shank | The fundamental. That's why I come back to rules of engagement if I have value that I can provide to you that you believe is truly valuable as long as I can communicate with you. You will take it. And it'll be a win-win situation. That's why I say the customer is always right? The coercer is always wrong and the more you focus on serving your customers something that they really value the more abundant your life will be and the more you focus on. Plugging in to a machine that is literally trying to destroy your mind and break you into thinking that you are alone and isolated and powerless and convince you that some asshole in a big chair. Knows what's best for everybody else because he suddenly like figured out his version of utopia How could utopia be the same thing for Everybody. We're so different. You know some people like having their nipples hooked up to car Batteries. Do I Want that guy deciding what utopia is no way. |
| 22:30.21 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, ah, circle back. But the going back I wanted to finish on the incentives thing is is ah going back to the fear. The the media creating fear the incentive there is. The more fear they can create the more you're gonna consume their content and the more you consume their content the more you're gonna buy from their advertisers and their advertisers are going to send more money to the news agency and so you know. |
| 23:03.11 | Max Shank | And the more you'll trust what they say if you if you just expose yourself to it more you will start to trust what they say more and more and more and more and more and that's why you have right now, People who blindly Trust one outlet and blindly distrust another is the classic. |
| 23:07.31 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 23:11.54 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 23:22.71 | Max Shank | God and the devil situation. Blindly Trust whatever God says which is your favorite news outlet and blindly distrust whatever the devil says which is the fucking other guy. It's just it's us and them type of shit and you would think we would be past this but we're still just. Ah, half-retarded chimps looking for food and love. |
| 23:47.78 | mikebledsoe | There's um I want to point out you said something really important is the it's the repetition creates beliefs. So if you if you were consuming that news outlet every day. It's the repetition of something that makes it believable. We talk about the there's there's ah, a handful of ways that you learn something and if you want to ingrain something as ah as a skill and I think about skills and beliefs the same exact way is. Every skill you want to get better at hitting baseballs. You're gonna fucking swing that baseball bat a lot of times if you want to believe that something is true. You'll go to church every Sunday that way you get that repetition and so that you ingrain it. Whether it be good or bad I'm not saying either 1 is good or bad. But this idea of good and evil ah playing out and saying yeah red team bad blue team good whatever it is. It is is really. Great to look at through the lens of centralization versus decentralization because in a in a centralized model of society you can create groups of people and just say that entire group over there is bad or that entire group over there is good because not only is the information. There's um, there's so little deviation from one narrative about who's good or bad There's no opportunity. It. Yeah, it just creates very few options. It's like you're either like good bad or independent and you're kind of a dick for not you know. Deciding you're good or bad or not and so the decentralization of good and evil requires and here's the thing is decentralization requires people to think and that's why a lot of people are are resistant to it because you have to think. And if you have to apply moral law in your own mind to each individual that you come in contact with then instead of just being able to label them and not have to be curious about them and think about them and listen to them. It's it's a form of laziness. And people are ah again going back to repetition. People are repetitively ignoring information they're being ignorant by choice and they've done it so much that they they don't even think there's a way to consider and. |
| 26:31.91 | mikebledsoe | And make a moral judgment themselves on an individual instead of an entire group people because someone else did the thinking for them. |
| 26:37.79 | Max Shank | Well, there's a reason that um, we do that is because trust saves calories. It's really valuable to be able to trust other people that way you're not assessing every person you interact with and go oh is this guy going to attack me and steal my. |
| 26:44.70 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 26:57.78 | Max Shank | Will the beast meet or whatever it is I'm guessing be different now but trust saves calories so it can be a very powerful tool and if you trust nobody man life is extremely hard and it feels very isolated So it's. |
| 26:58.57 | mikebledsoe | Um, am. |
| 27:11.81 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 27:16.36 | Max Shank | No surprise that we want to trust somebody that we want to. It's all it's trust is pure efficiency it. It is like language faith Trust all this stuff if I can outsource my health to someone who knows better. |
| 27:28.32 | mikebledsoe | 5 blame. |
| 27:36.23 | Max Shank | And I can outsource my finances to someone who knows better and I'm saying legitimately. Also they legitimately know better that that's going to give me a much better outcome if I can trust a farmer who's much better at farming to make my food I'm going to end up. So. Crazy wealthy. It is like a superpower to have all of these different experts and that's the core of comparative advantage but you got to be careful who you put your faith into right? That's why I think um, The. The most flexible culture is one that is based on free choice because if trust is broken in one sector, there's another sector to soften that trauma basically. |
| 28:29.20 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 28:30.62 | Max Shank | You know what? I mean as long as there are multiple options for where you can go to school buy your food. Um that sort of thing. It's ah yeah, multiple places multiple doctors you can go to and of course everyone because of. |
| 28:41.60 | mikebledsoe | Well that this is where. |
| 28:49.60 | Max Shank | Power structures we want to go from survival up to supremacy. It's like survival sex and supremacy and sex and supremacy are so closely interrelated because that's how ladies choose the more ah exalted or elevated you are in the hierarchy the more. Ah, you are going to alert the sounds so weird alert The females to your viability genetically right? So you have to look at these. |
| 29:19.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 29:25.00 | Max Shank | Raw instincts underneath all of this stuff so because there are people who are looking to dominate and protect their authority. They're also going to stomp out other alternatives and maybe even with good intentions. Do some? Ah arguably evil stuff the greater good just anytime you like hear or even feel that sense of the greater good. Oh My God that person. |
| 29:49.30 | mikebledsoe | That's where book burning comes in hand comes in handy. |
| 30:02.45 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that's ah, that's a slippery one. Um, why the ah book burning I mean the modern day book burning is getting banned from Twitter or Youtube or whatever it is um. |
| 30:02.86 | Max Shank | Come on get out of here. Good lord. |
| 30:14.78 | Max Shank | Yeah, that's pretty wild. |
| 30:19.42 | mikebledsoe | It's pretty fucking people people think are advocating for if they were actually burning books on the street they might freak out but they don't think they're not able to think and connect the dots that these the the way it's happening is the same thing or. |
| 30:34.68 | Max Shank | Censorship is an admission of guilt we should. We should be able to have we should be able to have ah a Martin Luther King guy and a hitler guy have a nice debate with each other that would be interesting to watch and like. |
| 30:36.97 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 30:45.32 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 30:49.94 | Max Shank | What you have so little faith in humanity that everyone's going to go like you know what after that crazy guy yelled for a while I think I am going to go for ethnic cleansing now. It's like what come on. |
| 30:58.35 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, oh man. Ah yeah, there's so much to talk about there. The I think that I want I Want to point out that decentral late decentralization is not isolation. It's quite the opposite and I think what's going to happen in the future is that. |
| 31:20.88 | Max Shank | It's of specific aspects to it's not absolute decentralization because that that wouldn't be very efficient at all I think you're mostly talking about currency I think you're mostly talking about currency. |
| 31:27.39 | mikebledsoe | Right? You can decentralized to right right? You're not, We're not decentralizing down to the individual all I'm talking about but no I'm talking about food I'm talking about energy all these things. Ah the the it's not. It's not well. |
| 31:37.30 | Max Shank | In most cases right. |
| 31:44.95 | Max Shank | Talk to me talk to me about him separately though. So I can understand better. |
| 31:46.49 | mikebledsoe | I say this because what? ah my isis. Okay well I suspect that the media in the future. The mainstream media is gonna start trying to talk about deset people who are doing decentralized things forming decentralized communities. They're gonna be considered isolationist and. You know they're gonna try to you know, burn them. But ah, they're racist. Yeah,, they're already doing it. You're racist if you don't want to participate in this this narrative that we have going On. You must be a racist trumper and you can't be Trusted. We're gonna have to. |
| 32:08.38 | Max Shank | They're racists. |
| 32:22.50 | mikebledsoe | You know, hold some trials at some point down the road because of you. |
| 32:26.69 | Max Shank | It's just ah, a new agey fancy way of saying you're the devil. We don't listen to that guy at all. It's it's an ad hommonym censorship I mean it's so obvious once you filter it down to the real meaning of what's going on and if you're not even willing to have a discussion. |
| 32:32.29 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 32:43.53 | Max Shank | And sell somebody on an idea and you have to force an idea upon someone is it really that good of an idea I mean if you need to spend billions and billions of dollars marketing your drugs are they really like all that good. You know it has no marketing for it whatsoever. Cocaine. Ecstasy marijuana psilocybin guess what people do shitloads of with no marketing whatsoever. All those things so if something is really good. People will find out about it as long as they are free to communicate. |
| 33:20.58 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, what? what were you wanting I agree what were you wanting me to explain separately. You only said right out. |
| 33:20.92 | Max Shank | Freely with one another. |
| 33:25.83 | Max Shank | Ah, okay, so decentralization of currency and banking. Let's say versus or alongside decentralization of other aspects. So let's say food. Education maybe even governance because that's ah, that's a tricky thing right? How do you? really How do you live in America without participating in America. |
| 33:54.95 | mikebledsoe | But well governance is at the core of all decentralization. So That's the that is how are we going? What are we? What are we agreeing or how are we agreeing on the decisions we're going to make as a group. You know what are the rules that we're gonna abide by what are what are our values? um. |
| 34:16.31 | Max Shank | We already have a perfect method for that. We have lobbyists who pay the politicians to decide what kind of laws they want to exercise over the people and then. Over time. The people have less and less authority over their lives. It's perfect system. |
| 34:34.63 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it works. Yeah, just shut up and go home. Don't don't go outside. Ah so the but let's talk about this so you want me to talk about currency and then talk about food as examples of this I think I think currency. |
| 34:47.94 | Max Shank | Sure just just ah, make them separate. |
| 34:54.25 | mikebledsoe | Which one should I start with the food might be make the most sense I think it's people can put their eyes on it and so decentralizing your food I'm involved in a project that is decentralizing food at this point and so um, there both. |
| 35:07.69 | Max Shank | For yourself or for lots of people. |
| 35:13.59 | mikebledsoe | So so this is what decentralization is it's about me my my objective is to create as much. Um, value for myself as possible and that is true value being ah my lifestyle. You know my my ability to critically think is valuable having a roof over my head is valuable the community I hang out with is valuable. The things that are of true value is I want to create as much value in my life. Ah as possible and. If I do that? Well enough I can then distribute some of that value outside of myself and so ah in a decentralized food network. For instance I'm gonna just give some hypotheticals because this is this is happening around. Awesome Texas right now. So some of it's hypothetical because it's in the. Plan and it hasn't completely been executed yet. But these things these are things that are in the process. So say that there's a twenty acre farm over here a sixty acre farm over here 200 over here five over here. Everybody has the ability to ah grow all sorts of stuff and. What you do is is you grow enough to where if you couldn't leave your own farm. You're good. You may not have all the shit you want. You're not going to get you know I don't I I have lamb but I don't have any beef and so and a decentralized model with food is we would then exchange. Locally with other farms now then it extends beyond that even fewer items might get exchanged between regions and we're also sharing information so we're farming in Texas someone else might be farming in Louisiana or California and we're exchanging. Not just goods and services but information as well instantly on what's working. What's not working and so in this yeah I mean we're not going to talk about economics as you know as a part of it but ah it. |
| 37:12.33 | Max Shank | Um, so it's kind of like bartering. |
| 37:24.27 | mikebledsoe | There's an so this is where I was thinking about timing money into it which is now I'm I'm like interlacing the 2 already which I didn't want to do but I was trying to stay away from that so the but I think that the the way that currency is going the decentralization decentralization of currency is making this possible. The other thing that's making this possible is daws decentralized autonomous organizations so you mentioned earlier that people need to exercise trust in order to save calories and so that's actually that's one of the big reasons that there's centralized power right now and dows actually help. Decentralized governance so daws are are basically governance models that are executed with smart contracts if this then that so right now if you and I go into a contract with each other and I say I'm gonna give you. Money for this service or whatever and then you don't do it and or or maybe you do it and I don't pay you. What's your recourse you then need to go to a court and then you need to so on and so forth. So as technology is advancing. We don't need a court to verify that something was completed or not there is there is a smart machine that is watching I mean depends on the service but but to make it easy to understand because this will extrapolate out to like farming. Um, if. You complete a project that we can track on your computer and you do it and you hit the complete button now. Automatically, the money is sent if I want to dispute it. There's really nothing I can do and that's possible because we're not using banks anymore and I'm not going to go dispute it and create a legal issue out of this. It just is and so. In the early days of dows which we're in There's going to be some stuff where people set up some rules and then they regret setting up those rules and then they're like oh we need to think this further out we didn't consider this and they're going to have to update things as they go along. It's going to become very sophisticated. And these rules aren't being drafted by lawyers lawyers are pretty much the people that are running and governing the world right now and like you were saying earlier. They use all sorts of tricky language. It doesn't make any sense to the layperson. It's very confusing and you can pretty much if you're a good lawyer. You could. And trap anybody in anything kind of like the Irs can basically you know if you follow all the rules as you see fit. You're probably going to be wrong or they could make you wrong if they really wanted to so in. |
| 40:11.22 | mikebledsoe | With dow's decentralized autonomous organizations which are run on the blockchain trust becomes unnecessary. You don't have to trust what someone says it just is um so last you there a second. How long were you gone? Okay, not not long at all. Ah, so yeah, the doubt dows are beginning to They're not going to completely eradicate the necessity for trust, but the future we won't have operating agreements in the future. |
| 00:04.83 | Max Shank | I'm back um, 3 seconds yeah |
| 40:49.56 | mikebledsoe | It'll be your business will be a dow and. |
| 00:26.10 | Max Shank | Well, it will still be an operating agreement. It'll just be executed by computer software. So it's software as a service basically which is responsible for a ton of efficiency. |
| 40:59.79 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 41:07.28 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and with the blockchain software with Blockchain is basically recorded everywhere instantly and so you can't go fuck around with it and that's what makes it where it's it's like oh people are fallible. The legal system is prone to fuckery. But. |
| 00:44.58 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 41:27.20 | mikebledsoe | Over time. The dows are going to become more and more solid more and more useful and their use cases are going to expand and so um, what I see a future where the dows we talked about this. We have the farms. We talked about this like a year ago yeah and the. |
| 01:15.78 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 41:45.78 | mikebledsoe | The currency is decentralizing the same way if I buy if I buy bitcoin but I want ethereum or you have ethereum and we want to make an exchange I can quickly and easily convert my bitcoin to ethereum and then exchange with you and then I can take. You give me ethereum and I could exchange it over to bitcoin it was it used to be.. Yeah yeah, um, and so what I see is that people will join. They'll be using so particular currencies based on their values. |
| 01:40.38 | Max Shank | Provided someone else wants what we're selling right. |
| 42:23.50 | mikebledsoe | And if I want to exchange with somebody inside my value group. We all agree that we like to farm regeneratively and so on and so forth. Yeah let's just get on the same currency. We'll make it easy. Ah, each organization has their own dow each farm has its own dow that also can. Plug into another dao and so there there can become there can become hierarchy I think there will be really cool hierarchies that are designed with das and what's gonna happen is ah I'm gonna be making this food over here and you're making your food over there and or maybe. And then another guy has a solar farm down the road and he's delivering batteries to people who don't have space for solar so you know that's the decentralization of energy and so and all this is running on 1 cryptocurrency. That are multiple daalas plugged into a greater dao and if this happens then this happens someone is signaled. Oh this guy is low on energy that this guy delivers it and then there's ah the currency you can see the current start to work there and ah a current is always moving. And so the the system we're existing in right now it can take days for money to transfer. It's it's all these weird bureaucratic administrative steps that we got to go through in order for this or that to happen accountants. And bookkeepers those jobs those are jobs of the past. Those are not gonna be They're gonna they're gonna look very different or become unnecessary. They'll be It'll be more of like a reporting thing. Um, and so. |
| 03:43.91 | Max Shank | The. |
| 44:16.47 | mikebledsoe | Because what's going to happen is. |
| 03:50.36 | Max Shank | It seems like you have more ah control over what's going on but it it seems a little bit less efficient because you don't have the same economies of scale. |
| 44:27.75 | mikebledsoe | You're not going to have the same economies of scale. Ah and well and that's not that's not necessarily. Yeah, you're not going to accumulate. It's going to reduce the amount of of Deca billionaires. |
| 04:05.67 | Max Shank | Um, it's kind of like um self-reliance. Well so I like to think in extremes. |
| 04:17.76 | Max Shank | Well, it's just going to reduce your individual efficiency. So I like to reduce things to exaggerated Exc Extreme extremes. Ah for fun and for clarity and so I think of the ultimate decentralization like we've talked about is you run your own farm. |
| 44:50.25 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 04:37.51 | Max Shank | You run your own solar farm. You have ah a plot of land on a River all your own so you can make everything you need to make but the more you are relying on yourself. You have to have less. |
| 45:23.13 | mikebledsoe | M. |
| 04:56.34 | Max Shank | Um, sophistication and complexity right? if your computer breaks down and you don't know how to fix a computer you're screwed. So What's the solution is it to learn how to fix a computer in addition to being a farmer or is it to live without a computer which ah. Is probably good in some ways and in other ways it's it's far more difficult so you just have less efficiency and less overall power. Um, if you're reliant on a smaller group so you don't have the efficiency through economies of scale. |
| 45:49.83 | mikebledsoe | Well, a lot of those things are. |
| 45:56.68 | mikebledsoe | Well, and ah if you Google decentralized network. So the the idea of decentralization that that word was made you popular in the IT community so ah now I can install a network inside of my house. It's highly decentralized. |
| 05:37.18 | Max Shank | The here. |
| 46:15.82 | mikebledsoe | And everything just flows and I can be on one side of my house and I I get perfect connectivity and I don't have to hop from router to router and all that stuff so decentralized networks. Um, the way it works is 1 thing could go down and it doesn't impact everything else. |
| 05:58.68 | Max Shank | The. |
| 46:32.84 | mikebledsoe | But everything else can pick up the slack for that 1 thing that went down so in your in your case where you're talking about the farmer whose computer breaks or whatever. He's not isolated. There are still people who are going to specialize. There are people in his community that are specialists and computers down the road and then all he has to do is flash up the bat symbol. |
| 06:06.92 | Max Shank | And. |
| 46:52.27 | mikebledsoe | And says you know I have this issue and so that's something where like we're talking about different specializations there and so you. |
| 06:27.30 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 06:34.57 | Max Shank | But that's where we get our efficiency from is through that comparative advantage.. That's why the whole concept of money in the beginning was so damn Useful. Ah, some people say money is the root of all Evil I think it's probably more greed is ah the root of some. Evil stuff that happens but the advantage of money is if you are a baker and I'm a candlestick maker and I still want bread but you don't want any candlesticks I can still get bread. |
| 47:30.49 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, and so decentralization doesn't make that that makes that even more possible look. We've got billions of people on the planet. We don't need 1 manufacturer of 1 thing in order for it to be really good. There's there could be many many and. |
| 07:20.15 | Max Shank | To and and I'm not advocating for that at all that there should be like 1 1 person who makes all the food. |
| 47:49.72 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, so I'm not saying we should or shouldn't but a decentralization doesn't mean that what the the main thing the benefit of the decentralization that I see is in a centralized model. We have single points of failure so you know there's 3 just as ah, ah this isn't totally accurate, but there's there's in ah in a centralized model and a centralized model like let's just assume that there's very few Usda. |
| 07:46.44 | Max Shank | Do you mean multiple points of failure in a decentralized model in a sense. Okay, got it. |
| 48:28.52 | mikebledsoe | Butchering facilities. 1 guy gets covid in one facility and now it completely stops up all operations and it breaks down the entire supply chain to where the farmer has to start euthanizing pigs because and this is this actually happened yet. These farmers have to start euhanizing pigs because the cost of keeping them. Alive isn't worth it because they got to keep feeding them. Plus they got more pigs coming. They're being grown and when a pig gets a certain age. You don't want to eat that meat anyway. So like there's like this very specific. |
| 08:18.48 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 08:26.22 | Max Shank | Wild. |
| 49:01.57 | mikebledsoe | Way of doing things and there's single points of failure in a centralized model and a decentralized model that one farmer could get I've gotten Covid and kind of fucked up. You know say he gets some some type of weird plague thing going on and and then and then the rest of it doesn't ah impact the entire. |
| 08:47.12 | Max Shank | I Totally yeah I Totally understand that I think for like. |
| 49:20.42 | mikebledsoe | Global community it impacts a very small person 1 person or very small group of people and the ability for these other ah because you're never disconnected in ah in a decentralized model. There's always interaction with the outside. It's just. |
| 08:55.98 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 49:39.60 | mikebledsoe | Just not centralized I might have instead of I always I only have a you know one way to get in that of my neighborhood I now have 20 and it take it may take me longer to get from point a to point b but I'll never get stuck in traffic. |
| 09:32.44 | Max Shank | It's kind of like insurance. It costs you more money than not having insurance unless something happens yet. |
| 50:02.92 | mikebledsoe | Setting it up is expensive. You know it's it's a time it takes time energy. Um I'm doing things with decentralized currencies decentralized food. Ah, ah, I'm talking my buddy Jesse about doing decentralized energy. He's working on that. Um, I think that's also important and so really focusing on on on getting all these things done is a huge investment of time energy money right now. But when something goes wrong. When there is when steaks are at $100 I want to go get a stak. It's me a hundred dollars because russia's not exporting the ingredients we need for fertilizer right now. Ah then I'm not going to have to pay a hundred bucks for my steak I I just go over to the farm and I pick up my food. Because I already contributed already made my thing I'm already I yeah we yeah we could we could eat steak exactly and so um, yeah, it's not cheap, but it is. |
| 10:34.62 | Max Shank | Or maybe you start selling steak and you start eating something else. |
| 10:47.40 | Max Shank | That's why I like thinking of it like insurance. Well it makes sense to me. Yeah well and you have to assign some probability of risk in your mind. |
| 51:15.31 | mikebledsoe | It is valuable. It's ah it's a you have to think further out and ahead in the future than most people are willing to do. |
| 11:00.65 | Max Shank | Like what is the probability that x will happen. What is the probability that y will happen and we talked about this in our in an earlier episode too. You have to ask yourself like what is the probability that I won't have access to food for three months six months one year and um. Everybody has a different perspective on that That's why thinking of this like insurance is helpful for me because in when times are good. It's going to be less efficient. But if there's some ah risky occurrence that happens. |
| 52:04.34 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, if something terrible happens if something if supply chains get fucked up and all that then we're living like Kings right by comparison. But here's the thing but it is already happening. |
| 11:39.10 | Max Shank | Then it's going to be well worth it. |
| 11:44.90 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 11:50.80 | Max Shank | But when it's not happening. You're not working as efficiently as you could and you're outlaying more capital to set it up. Well I mean. |
| 52:24.30 | mikebledsoe | So Here's the thing is there's canaries in the coal mine and there's very few of there's very few of us that are picking up on it I've been picking up on it for a long time Decade I Read Omnivore's dilemma and you look at that and I and I look at what's happening with the farming and I go. Yeah, I'm willing to invest a lot of energy in a farming even if nothing ever happens to the supply chain stays exactly the same I Still want to do this because ah the food that we have access to right now is not very nutrient dense and it's not it. It's already Poor. So The thing if I'm going to invest in my health then I'm going to invest in the farm If things stay the same but we all know the experts all agree and this is widely agreed upon whether you're on the left right? Whatever is. Soil is being degraded. You know there's only what 50 or 60 crops left that can be farmed on the soil the way it's being done so that every day that goes by the average nutrient nutrient density of our food. Is going down. It's going down. It's going down so I look at that and I go look even if we don't have a huge fertilizer shortage which is going to lead to skyrocketing food prices and rights in the streets and all that even if that doesn't happen I Want to do this anyway. Ah, the idea that something like that might happen definitely has spurred a little more urgency around the matter because I've been thinking about this since 2011 and it's 2022 and I'm just now getting to it because before it there was no. |
| 13:29.32 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 54:14.50 | mikebledsoe | There was no potential danger like oh this is coming now. It's just a slow trip. You know we're frogs in the boiling water. You know, just. |
| 13:56.70 | Max Shank | I think we should talk about food next week because what you're telling me now is a very different reason for decentralizing your food or ah taking more control over the lifecycle of your food and I think it's extremely valid. |
| 54:39.40 | mikebledsoe | Well, that's the case with everything that's the case with energy. That's the same with currency. It's It's not like it's not like I'm buying bitcoin or other cryptos because the dollar might fail that might cause someone to like oh fuck I need to get some now. |
| 14:15.94 | Max Shank | Because you. |
| 54:57.45 | mikebledsoe | But the reality is is we've got we've had ah you know we came off the gold standard in the 70 s and the value of the dollar is slowly degraded. It's the same thing as the food. It's just slowly happening. We're just watching it. But it's so slow that you don't notice and you don't feel the sense of urgency to make change. And so I think that I don't think we need to cover food necessarily again, but your your view of it being insurance is is that's only part of the conversation of like the benefits of decentralization. Ah, because. |
| 15:06.53 | Max Shank | The. |
| 55:35.19 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it's just I think it creates a healthier system. Overall. |
| 15:14.32 | Max Shank | And maybe not as efficient but healthier. |
| 55:44.20 | mikebledsoe | Um, I Well when you say efficient I I think I think it'll be more energy efficient Overall like right now we've got food being shipped from chile and. |
| 15:24.99 | Max Shank | Energy in versus energy out. |
| 56:03.38 | mikebledsoe | Steaks from Australia New Zealand and we're having it to make an impossible burger. You're having to get some ingredients from 20 different countries. That's highly centralized and inefficient. It's only efficient financially. It's not efficient. It's not efficient use of. |
| 15:52.74 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 56:22.19 | mikebledsoe | Oil. It's not the efficient use of people's time and huh. |
| 15:59.82 | Max Shank | But it has to be Efficient. It has to be efficient use of all those things The idea is that the amount of energy to produce it locally including everything has to be more. Than it would be to import it from somewhere else unless there's like dirty dealings or something like that. But you know if you're a company you're going to try to maximize efficiency. |
| 56:42.90 | mikebledsoe | And well well well part of it's cultural right? and part of it's cultural like it. It would be more energy efficient to get your food all locally. Um but the thing is is. You're not going to get people to farm because they expect to get more money almost everyone use 95% and now and now we got like yeah computer programmers in the city and and whatever fucking jobs are happening in the city going. Keep going back to computer programmers. |
| 16:38.41 | Max Shank | Um, well almost everybody used to be farmers and but and and and poor. |
| 57:20.94 | mikebledsoe | Only because you before the show. Ah, that's ah, that's pretty much it they like the most like the most useful people to me I Do you make shit. |
| 16:55.57 | Max Shank | Um, in our in our in our community. There's only farmers and computer programmers. You can be a farmer or a computer programmer or get the fuck out. |
| 57:40.17 | mikebledsoe | You make awesome software and can you feed me then I'll be your friend. |
| 17:19.46 | Max Shank | That does cover a tremendous amount of bases. Actually you know plumber Electrician there are other things that are similar to but you need like a tech guy and a food guy. Basically. |
| 57:48.40 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 57:55.11 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, tech guy and a food guy is it right? because that's all technology. The plumbers are you know they're working with technology. You know. |
| 17:38.60 | Max Shank | But I wouldn't trust a computer software guy to do my plumbing or the or the electrical well and that's what I mean you could figure out anything. It's ah it's so. |
| 58:07.24 | mikebledsoe | No no could I figure it out. |
| 17:57.48 | Max Shank | Amazing to be able to exercise the benefit of comparative advantage in a community whether that community is large or small. The reason for currency is so you don't have to rely on the barter system which necessitates that you have something the other guy wants. |
| 58:41.37 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 18:17.80 | Max Shank | And you want something of his so I definitely agree with you. The quality of food is questionable in a lot of places and inflation is a very sinister tax that is hidden and really. Fucks The bottom percentage of the population the worst. Ah by far. So ah, you know I try not to think in good and evil but that shit's pretty fucking evil. |
| 59:03.23 | mikebledsoe | Totally, it's like the ah. Ah I saw was I saw a meme a few weeks ago that was like Biden saying we're not gonna tax the poor rolling in tax the rich and then they print off a shitload of money. It's like yeah a fucking snake. Um, but here's something we haven't talked about but. |
| 19:01.42 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, it's yeah, inflation's not good. |
| 59:30.78 | mikebledsoe | that I that I've begun to experience and I think we both kind of do this is neither one of us optimize for finances. We really value happiness and connection and. Like was it ah a year ago or more you took a lot of time off of Instagram you said? Yeah I'll make a little less money. Yeah I'll make a little less money but you know it's not worth my happiness. |
| 19:31.66 | Max Shank | Yeah, like 2 years but if I hadn't prioritized but if I hadn't prioritized wealth before that I wouldn't have been in that position to do it either. |
| 01:00:07.23 | mikebledsoe | Totally yeah you you thought I had Yeah, that's maybe to have I mean to have the same exact lifestyle you have then sure. But when I think about. |
| 19:51.20 | Max Shank | If money is the goal then I think you're missing the point I think if freedom is the goal then money is a good tool for that. Just like exercise and language are good tools that can facilitate freedom. |
| 01:00:30.71 | mikebledsoe | Well I think people people do get caught up on the money equals freedom piece and the truth is is that if I took away all your money could you still be free for sure. Yeah, but you it doesn't. |
| 20:18.16 | Max Shank | Yeah, free to sleep in the gutter until I figured things out. No, you'd figure it out. Yeah you I would figure it out I will say this though. Ah because I don't want to sound like ah super asinine I mean the reality is. |
| 01:00:49.30 | mikebledsoe | But not the same thing. Yeah freedom is freedom and money is money. |
| 20:38.80 | Max Shank | Money won't solve all your problems but it will solve many of them instantly that a poor person might agonize over. Ah you won't necessarily be happier. What's that. |
| 01:01:07.65 | mikebledsoe | totally totally I'm not saying I solve problems. Well they that they've they've done studies where more money this is I mean the studies over a decade old. So the numbers may seem a little small, especially with inflation. But they said that? Ah what they looked at was getting a pay raise making more money actually increased people's happiness up to $75000 after $75000 no change in happiness happiness didn't go up. But it it did actually tend to go down a little bit and so yeah, there's in seventy five Thousand ten fifteen years ago it's pretty much talking about Maslow's hierarchy of needs is you have all those things you're experiencing some safe you probably can afford a home in a place where you feel. Ah, somewhat safe. You have a shelter you're able to eat food and whatever so 75 hours after that no more but I bring up the happiness thing because do we really need to. Keep on going down the path of ah, having more and more specialization advancing technology and innovation and all this stuff that is happening at at a very fast rate with the centralization of power and by the way it actually might advance more quickly in a decentralized model. If we look at open source software. That's ah, that's a good example of of ah of a decentralized system where there are a lot of people contributing separately and doing their own experiments but like I use an operating system on my phone that is. Much more secure and a lot more advanced than ah than Android you know it it utilizes android but this company that created the operating system I use. It's open source people are contributing to it from all over the world for free and then Android then later adopts it. And then everyone else gets it because it was the the advancements are being made in ah in a decentralized model but going back to the happiness piece is you know I could have a shitload of money I could be flying in private jets to my 5 different homes around the world and all that but also which. |
| 22:57.26 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:03:41.20 | mikebledsoe | I Could still do in a decentralized model that type Lifestyle doesn't completely go away there. But if I say hey I'm gonna take a pay cut and I'm going to live more simply and I'm gonna spend more time on the farm and I'm gonna and I'm gonna do more varied Activities. So this past weekend I did a little bit of gardening I did some work on the house I did some home improvement stuff hung out with a friend of mine to do all of it and I felt incredibly happy and incredibly wealthy. Um in that space. But if I. |
| 23:48.29 | Max Shank | Sounds like that's going to really interfere with your hustling and grinding though and you're giving 110 I I think it's good. You bring that up too because not only are people poisoned by the news but they're poisoned by. |
| 01:04:22.21 | mikebledsoe | That's right. |
| 24:08.26 | Max Shank | The false idols of culture in general. So people chase things that they are made to believe will bring them satisfaction and and then I'll be happy if I if I get blank then I'll be happy if I do blank then I'll be happy. And the reality is people are are different I know that's an outlandish thing to say people are different but we are and people have different wants and desires for a lot of different reasons. We have different upbringings and who's to say. That you're better off working at something you hate for 20 years so you can retire before you're 40 or doing something that you just purely enjoyed doing because you would do it anyway and making enough money but working until you're 80 years old ah, and there's not a right answer to that we want to especially the guru types and the leader types they want to say this is this is the way but it's like is it really the way like I don't know for you. Man. |
| 01:05:44.31 | mikebledsoe | By the way max and I are coming out with a product. It's called the way. |
| 25:25.74 | Max Shank | This is called this is the way do it or else. |
| 01:05:53.49 | mikebledsoe | Ah I think you brought up an interesting thing is because a lot of what people desire is based on what they seen on media right? No one knew that they wanted that car or this or that and so I mean if we go far enough back and. |
| 25:45.74 | Max Shank | It's all about sex people look. It's food and survival and then it's sex and sex is directly proportional to your position in the hierarchy and Ferrari's and glittery tits are the new currency. |
| 01:06:26.63 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, totally now if we look at the influencer culture and so we go on Instagram and we look at ah, what's his name ty lopez and. |
| 26:00.63 | Max Shank | For your position in the hierarchy. It's all this stuff is deeper than language. |
| 26:09.98 | Max Shank | The. |
| 01:06:41.83 | mikebledsoe | You know he's got the lamborghinis and the books and he's got this lifestyle thing going on all the glitzing lamb a lot of that was a lot of that was based off of hollywood so like people saw hollywood stars and people wanted to be like the the actctors and actresses back when you know television. And movie stars were the only influencers you know the I think you heard about that on that that podcast that we both listened to you talked about? Ah, there was only like 5 influencers in the world that that back in the 50 s or whatever it was or 60 s. And then yeah, yeah, like there's only a handful people that are known by millions or billions of people and now there's a shitload of people that are known by so many people and the influencers have become decentralized one. |
| 26:54.66 | Max Shank | When we were talking about like Elvis I think right? Yeah right. |
| 01:07:38.70 | mikebledsoe | We added channels to the television. You know we went from print media to video media audio video then it was internet Instagram Youtube and now there's there's more influencers than we can count and so that's decentralized so I think that. In the centralization of influencer culture. There was only a few ways to live your life. You saw their lifestyle on you know the lifestyles of the rich and famous and you go oh I want to have that mansion in that pool and all this but now like I talk to a lot of people that are my age and younger. And they look at that kind of stuff and they just kind of go hey and there's definitely ah, a lot of young people that are doing the glitz and glam and all that. But it's it's becoming less popular and it's actually made fun of a whole lot. It's the. They become comical means it's like yeah that is true, but everything's decentralizing. So now I you know I may follow some influencers that I like that that share my own values and so I think we're gonna see um where I think we're gonna see a lot healthier. Social environment with the decentralization of the influencers as well because I think where I think we've had to go through a point where everyone realizes oh I can be an influencer and they become extremely egotistical and it becomes it's not. |
| 28:39.42 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:09:08.99 | mikebledsoe | It's such a weird thing and I I think that a lot of people got fucked up by that in the last decade but I think on the other side of that. It's growing pains on the other side of that everyone kind of goes. Oh yeah, everyone's connected to everybody and everybody's unique and I don't need to be like anybody else or. You know I want to I want to be a part of this crew over here I don't need to to try to kill myself to live up to some fake standard that I'm noticing over here. So I think that with with well with tech. Well but what one of the things that technology is really doing and ah. |
| 29:11.38 | Max Shank | I Hope people are thinking that way that sounds awesome. |
| 01:09:46.92 | mikebledsoe | Bitcoin's a good example of this is transparency is you can see all the transactions between all the wallets anytime you want and so the well I mean my only my email is tied to my my wallet. |
| 29:24.13 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 29:32.34 | Max Shank | Doesn't leave much for privacy though. But that's okay I guess. |
| 01:10:05.97 | mikebledsoe | So you wouldn't really be able to figure out who I was if I didn't want to be found Um, ah and you guessed it. Ah so but um. |
| 29:45.34 | Max Shank | Mike Underscore blood so at Gmail I wonder who this is. |
| 29:53.82 | Max Shank | Who could this possibly be. |
| 01:10:21.26 | mikebledsoe | The thing is is we've had an incredible level of transparency in our culture but it's been one-sided Only only intelligence agencies were allowed to have ultimate ah transparency you know there's anyone can go look at any my shit. |
| 30:10.19 | Max Shank | M. |
| 01:10:39.32 | mikebledsoe | I mean if they want to be in my computer and my phone right now they can do it and there's nothing I can do about it and they want to freeze my bank account they can freeze my bank account. They want to look at my books they can look at my but they can do whatever they want we already have it's ah I think it's a Peter Diamandas ah is like. |
| 30:17.90 | Max Shank | Um, amazing wild gnarly. The power of the stick. |
| 01:10:58.16 | mikebledsoe | Like the future is already here. It's just not widely distributed yet or maybe that's a occurs while and and the same thing happens with transparency transparent 100% pure transparency already exists. You're already being watched if they want to watch you. |
| 30:36.70 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 01:11:17.13 | mikebledsoe | They're already collecting the data the shit is there now it just needs to be widely distributed because the benefit of this massive transparency. That's coming is the transparency will start going both ways. So the. I think Snowden was one of these guys that that started this is people like oh I think we need more to have more transparency with the intelligence agencies. Let's see about that. Where's the money flowing. Well if they don't control the currency anymore we can start seeing where the money flows at a governmental level. Okay. Things all of a sudden become very unpopular when we can start seeing how money is flowing all over the world and it's not hidden or being mislabeled or whatever it is so it's it's one it's one of those things. It's kind of like. I really enjoy my privacy I'm gonna do my best to maintain it and I would rather live in a world where everything was 100% transparent than 100% ah than ah well I'd rather be in 100% private but we can't. We can't put pandawar back in the box right? and the yeah so it's like the the next best thing is for it to be a 2 wo-way street is that there's ultimate transparency. |
| 32:09.89 | Max Shank | In a lot of ways That's true. |
| 32:18.86 | Max Shank | I think that's an important thing to remember with everything that we're talking about is there is no ultimate final best solution except for except for live and let live and I don't mean final solution like final solution. Ah, that that phrase is not cool anymore after that 1 german guy. But just you you don't know ah hit Hitler. You remember that guy. |
| 01:13:07.87 | mikebledsoe | I Don't know what you're talking about no fill me in how yeah I heard about him. |
| 32:55.78 | Max Shank | Yeah, his final solution was to kill all the non Aryans now I never thought that was a good idea and fortunately a lot of other folks also did not think that was a good idea. But ah anyway, my point is. |
| 01:13:23.71 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 01:13:35.80 | mikebledsoe | How does have to do with live and let live. |
| 33:13.42 | Max Shank | There is not well what I'm saying is live and let live is a really good way to live but everything we're talking about. It's just searching for a marginally better way if you spend your whole life looking for the ultimate Best way to live. |
| 01:13:50.53 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 33:32.47 | Max Shank | You probably won't spend your life living and doing things that bring you joy I mean I'm a very contemplative guy. Personally I find it really fun to just sit and think about things and sketch stuff down. |
| 01:13:59.91 | mikebledsoe | Dude, it's gonna suck. |
| 33:51.68 | Max Shank | That no other human will ever see because it's way too outrageous and I find I find that I find that super interesting. It's It's a fun game. Ah I also like to play tennis and dojujitsu and things like that where I'm not living in my head and I'm just in that flow state. |
| 01:14:25.00 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 34:11.38 | Max Shank | Um, but if you spend all time analyzing like am I living the best way possible am I living the most secure way possible. That's it's kind of like buying fire insurance. But then agonizing over whether or not your house is going to burn every single day. |
| 01:14:53.14 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 34:30.79 | Max Shank | It's like checking the value of your home every day. It's like checking the value I mean it's just like ah it's ah, electing to give yourself some sort of schizophrenia. Basically it's It's not a really healthy way to live The reason we're talking about this stuff is. I Think to give you some sort of understanding of how things are and maybe how things are becoming and how to make yourself as free as possible as these things change. You know I. Have enjoyed this conversation so far a lot because I'm ah kind of an Assholeish Devil's advocate if I don't understand something I will just ask the most poignant autistic question Possible. So It's a lot of fun because I know that. |
| 01:15:46.12 | mikebledsoe | Perfect. |
| 35:26.63 | Max Shank | You won't take it personally and it's also a topic that I I really haven't been able to grasp very well. Um I understand how you can I don't know actually because um. |
| 01:15:59.99 | mikebledsoe | You do you understand it better today. |
| 35:46.31 | Max Shank | The the main thing I don't understand is what the staying power of different cryptocurrencies is I understand the value of ah autonomous contracts. Basically. |
| 01:16:19.28 | mikebledsoe | I Got you. |
| 01:16:27.29 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 36:05.10 | Max Shank | So like basically you have software and an escrow account like you know I lend you ah x amount of dollars you put y amount of dollars in an escrow account if you don't pay your payment I automatically draw on your thing that part makes sense. It's. Kind of like software as a service. what ah what I don't understand is how to value a cryptocurrency relative to another cryptocurrency or relative to the dollar. Um, but I also ah don't like the idea that. More can be printed any old time. So that's why so far I've focused on investing in companies that create a profit because it it doesn't really matter what currency they're dealing in. As long as there's more energy coming out than there is coming in and that's easier for me to understand whereas if you ask me how much f will be worth in two years I don't know if the answer is 20000 or or 0. |
| 01:17:41.47 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 37:18.80 | Max Shank | Quite frankly and and I can't understand how someone would be able to know that. |
| 01:17:46.24 | mikebledsoe | Man, there's um, there's a lot there I'm glad I'm glad that I'm glad you explained all that. So. Um, so the idea that that our entire lives from the earliest memory that we can before we understood value. We had made. We made something mean about money and for us american and probably people around the world I mean even if you're born in Mexico it's the dollar you know like the peso versus the dollar but our entire reality has formed around the dollar. So the dollar has behaved a very specific way. It's had its It's been consistent in our consciousness you know in different ways for different people. But I think that what we're gonna end up experiencing is it's a paradigm shift and so there's ah in in like all good paradigm shifts explaining. It is practically impossible. It's something that. I I think that for me. Ah what I've had to do is I've dug so much into all the different information I I look at how it works I've seen how it's behaved I look at the patterns and my I've loosened up my mind around the dollar being. The thing that everything else is compared against and it is um I mean I think we talked about this in the last year or 2 is like I've had a hard time going. Okay, we're not comparing things if we don't have a standard currency then man it's just going to be chaos. Really won't work. People are looking for stability. Um, so I think there's an opportunity for a paradigm shift around there being a single currency. Um, there's also people who were trying to There's a there's a gold backed cryptocurrency like ah you know a coin. Is an ounce isn't you know that's what it is it just is and when you when when you trade it there are your reserves of gold are somewhere and if you want it in your hand you can you know you could figure that out so there are things like that happening um a lot of people think and i. I tend to agree that bitcoin may end up being the like the reserve currency. Um, it's definitely a currency that now there's times that I believe that it won't be able to exchange in high volumes and that. |
| 40:00.40 | Max Shank | Definitely maybe. |
| 01:20:28.51 | mikebledsoe | It's expensive to trade and so only the wealthy will hold it so like like the classes of people will actually divide up based on part of it. It would would be like you know it's it's expensive to buy an Nft with ethereum compared to Mineero. For instance because the gas fees are higher so they basically train like ah like a transaction fee and so um, people will kind of like put themselves. They'll use currency that makes sense to them and they'll. |
| 40:28.70 | Max Shank | A. |
| 01:21:05.57 | mikebledsoe | Be a little bit of a hierarchy that starts there. Um, but I mean in the end the the law of economic like when the primary laws of economics with supply and demand is really how it's going to go is what's the supply of it and what's the demand of it and enough people agree to be using a particular currency. It's going to cause it to do that and. I think it's going to take some Ai technology for us to that's the paradigm shift is it more likely is it's there's going to be a machine that can compute at high enough speeds that just kind of says that this much bitcoin is worth this much. Ethereum is. This much monro and whatever you're holding and you want to make an exchange it. We're gonna we're gonna make it work and I know that there's companies that are already working on that. Um, and you know there's this really cool sign here in Austin because I'm in like. Crypto land here right? So it's well they just had the bitcoin conference last weekend I had a few friends there and other yeah. |
| 41:38.32 | Max Shank | Here. It's even crazier in Miami and Florida yeah, don't get me wrong I love I love the idea of a decentralized currency that's based on demand and not based on. Ah. |
| 01:22:22.79 | mikebledsoe | Right? Yeah I mean as long as the authorities control that as long as people put their faith in the authorities more than they do and people then we have problems but there's a sign in Austin. |
| 41:58.29 | Max Shank | Blind faith in an Authority's ability to control their money printing and their grubby hands. |
| 42:14.29 | Max Shank | Ideologically I'm like a hundred but percent bought in already with that idea. |
| 01:22:43.79 | mikebledsoe | there's there's well There's this there's this one company that keeps on putting up signs in Austin they're black signs with white letters. It's always I I forget the name of the website but 1 is bitcoin bitcoin is a revolution. Ah. |
| 42:28.22 | Max Shank | Bad marketing. |
| 01:22:59.74 | mikebledsoe | Hiding in plain sight. There's another one that's ah ah bitcoin isn't and is not an investment. It's a vote and then um. |
| 42:45.30 | Max Shank | Now that that part I understand because one of my strongest beliefs is that you vote with your dollars and you vote with your attention. Basically. |
| 01:23:18.68 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and then another sign is ah cryptocurrencies are ah is a rev cryptocurrencies something like that is a revolution disguised as a casino and so yeah. |
| 43:09.64 | Max Shank | Ah, that's one. |
| 01:23:37.48 | mikebledsoe | And so and and I think that all of those are clever and accurate. You know people are in there trading and getting in there and and they're excited about it's new technology. There's an opportunity to make shit tons of money if you want and not necessary. Well. |
| 43:26.44 | Max Shank | As long as you're in there early. |
| 01:23:56.13 | mikebledsoe | But earlier the better 100% about that. You know the best time to grow you know plant a tree was twenty years ago might as well hop in now and ah and and currencies is just one piece of this we have dows we have Nftts I've been learning a little more about Nftts recently. |
| 43:31.63 | Max Shank | There. Okay. |
| 01:24:15.91 | mikebledsoe | And well the Nft world is really you know what's getting a lot of the attention is the art but I can Nft my property and so now the the government so the the government ah holds the deed to the house right? They they. |
| 43:50.97 | Max Shank | Oh god. |
| 01:24:35.85 | mikebledsoe | Keep the the ledger and all that shit somewhere and they give me a copy of my deed and then ah but the Catholic Church used to do that and then the government took over that function because someone had to do it and they they have more power and now it's gonna become. Ah. It's because the deed and the recording of of assets is usually handled by the government if you buy a car they want your title if you own you know they give you your registration. They're going to handle the deed to your house I can nft my property. |
| 44:41.96 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 01:25:14.35 | mikebledsoe | And I can sell it to you and the smart contract says well when max sends this money here then this triggers that he gets this nft there and then it's recorded on the blockchain and it's inarguable and so the we just killed a ton of. Administrative load I mean it took me thirty days to close on my fucking house. It should take 1 and or maybe 5 you know you want to get your inspections and all that shit. But the majority of those. Yeah no shit. |
| 45:15.22 | Max Shank | Um, well look otherwise what are what are those realtors going to do otherwise though come on what about the poor realtors Mike that's not cool. Dude if they could. |
| 01:25:51.50 | mikebledsoe | Ah, ah, the realtors is oh the realtors are still be employed. No you think so I know I know I know a handful of realtors. They love their shit. They love putting people on homes. |
| 45:32.10 | Max Shank | Do something else. They would be doing that I don't know I just like to make fun of realtors. No being a realtor is an amazing gig in terms of the ridiculous commission that you can get on a house it. It makes no sense whatsoever. Um. |
| 01:26:10.46 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 45:52.10 | Max Shank | But just to clarify I think the idea of voting with your dollars resonates with me the most and that's why I like to let markets decide instead of people that's that's why I don't like the way democracy works because. It's basically glorified mob rule right? If 51 % of us vote to rape the other forty nine then it's perfectly legal but voting with your dollars requires that both parties of every transaction gain a profit from it. And there's no coercion involved so in that regard I think vote with your dollars and then investing in a certain currency because you ah believe in it like you vote with your dollars by investing into this currency because you believe in it I think that's totally valid. Still don't know how to value it relative to other things. But I think just fundamentally and philosophically voting with your dollars and voting with your attention is maybe the best advice to give anyone because then you also won't get caught. |
| 01:27:20.81 | mikebledsoe | Um, I think if you were to. |
| 47:08.46 | Max Shank | And this idea where you think like oh this is a good Politician and this is a bad politician. It's like no forget about it vote with your dollars invest in yourself and invest your attention in things that you ah want to absorb because you will be absorbing them kind of like you said you follow. |
| 01:27:40.24 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 47:28.12 | Max Shank | Certain Gurus Um, the internet is a tool cell phone is a tool social media can be a tool or it can be a poison and whatever you're paying attention to you're gonna. Absorb that you're basically downloading information into your brain So be really mindful of how you're investing your dollars and attention. |
| 01:28:15.49 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and go check out. Um, if you one of the things that things started stopped being so mysterious when I went and read some white papers. You know, pick out a few different. Cryptocurrencies If if you want to look at something that is somewhat difficult to buy you have to jump through some hoops. Um, you know I would say Theta is something that's extremely useful that is that not only will your. |
| 48:08.80 | Max Shank | And. |
| 01:28:50.26 | mikebledsoe | You have an opportunity for the coins you hold to increase in value but will actually give you cash flow as well. The more that the service is used so the current all these currencies are tied to real business services. Most of them are actually um and so. Ah, theta being one of these is it's a video streaming service and they're getting companies like Youtube netflix a lot all these streaming services are getting on board. |
| 48:57.10 | Max Shank | Is it like buying shares in that company basically but using the coins as an avenue to do that. |
| 01:29:27.23 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, so you could do that or you could do ah you could also run a node which would then earn you fuel. Yeah kind of like a miner so you'd be contributing to the network with your own resources and there's there's. |
| 49:11.32 | Max Shank | Like being a minor. Yeah. |
| 01:29:46.35 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, there's ways to be involved and yeah, part of it is like owning stock like it's the future stock market you know Apple should have a coin. You know you want to. It's just just new rules. New rules are that same same game and which does change the game cause. |
| 49:22.35 | Max Shank | F. |
| 49:33.60 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 01:30:04.78 | mikebledsoe | Game is pretty much defined by the rules. But. |
| 49:40.44 | Max Shank | Well, you got me convinced I just invested my retirement into Nfts is that what I was supposed to do. |
| 01:30:11.55 | mikebledsoe | I wouldn't take all of it and do that. But um I I did just I cashed out the last of my stocks last week I hold nothing but ah, the only thing I'm interested is crypto real estate and startups. So I. |
| 49:50.71 | Max Shank | I can't help poking fun because I just don't understand well enough. Oh. |
| 01:30:31.30 | mikebledsoe | I own stock I own stock in a few companies that are startups I don't not stock market. So I basically pulled my money out of the stock market 100% so I don't have a retirement fund anymore. Um, and because I mean the only benefit retirement funds is I mean there's a couple of benefits depending on which way have but like. |
| 50:09.90 | Max Shank | E O E E. |
| 50:22.73 | Max Shank | Taxes Primarily who. |
| 01:30:50.59 | mikebledsoe | Taxes is the main thing and and there is a reduction if you're doing like a life insurance policy on you know how much loss you might endear. But the. |
| 50:35.86 | Max Shank | Just a reminder to our listeners. This is not financial advice in any way. |
| 01:31:04.33 | mikebledsoe | No, not none whatsoever. We're not financial experts we ah you know I just I have fun with my money. But yeah I've I've made I've invested. That's why I buy fun. |
| 50:55.75 | Max Shank | That's why you buy funny money. |
| 01:31:23.99 | mikebledsoe | But yeah I like startups in crypto the most and then you know real estate's the least sexy but I think the most important asset anyone could ever own. |
| 51:10.72 | Max Shank | Yeah, you gotta live somewhere and there's built in scarcity just follow the 3 rules of real estate location, location location and someone's always gonna want to live there. |
| 01:31:45.30 | mikebledsoe | True that true dot let's wrap this bad boy up and we we went hard today. The final thoughts max were you aggressive or was high aggressive or were we aggressive. |
| 51:30.54 | Max Shank | Ah, it was aggressive. Um. No, the topic is um, very uncertain and because I don't understand it I feel like I just kept asking a lot of questions which is is cool. Ah, but I still. |
| 01:32:08.19 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 51:55.59 | Max Shank | You know there's a difference between understanding and explanation versus having conviction in the idea enough to bet and I think that's something um that you learn I mean life is a bunch of bets Poker is bets investing is making bets. |
| 01:32:24.64 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 52:15.49 | Max Shank | And if you don't have the conviction to bet you really don't have any conviction at All. So The proof is in the pudding for you because clearly you are putting your money where your mouth is and that's why all these phrases have lasted the test of time right? So I think you got to vote with your dollars. You got to put your money where your mouth is and ideally you want to invest in things that you understand. So if you understand them. Ah just because I don't that that doesn't matter. |
| 01:33:08.80 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, and I think the the one of the thing when I think about you're talking about conviction and the word that I was thinking of was like oh maybe you know I think this is how I see it is groking it that is I ah. When I grok a topic is I surround it I look at it from as many angles as possible. There's a shitload of data collection going on tons of research and it's just question question question question and then when I grok something one day it occurs to me I go. |
| 53:08.13 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 01:33:46.63 | mikebledsoe | And this happened to me in 2017 it's like oh we want you to talk on a panel about decentralization I was like well I guess I'd better. Go learn about crypto so early Twenty seventeen before that when I caught a really big upswing I started researching it in a few months into researching and I go it hit me I got the. |
| 53:26.54 | Max Shank | So. |
| 01:34:04.78 | mikebledsoe | Hit that grot point where I go I get this as like oh this is the future I should buy some now but and I did and I ended up making like $30000 in less than a year from like ah. |
| 53:40.54 | Max Shank | The. |
| 01:34:23.53 | mikebledsoe | Mean I think I may put like four or $5000 in total and the. |
| 54:02.91 | Max Shank | 6 x in a year is historically an incredible investment. |
| 01:34:31.72 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah I couldn't get that anywhere else I'm like I'm looking around I'm like I didn't do that in my own business. |
| 54:12.78 | Max Shank | Well, you could you could get it somewhere else, but it's just hard to know ahead of time. That's the thing there are lots of places you could get it Well I mean there are companies you can invest in that will do that. But it's just hard to know ahead of time. |
| 01:34:43.40 | mikebledsoe | Um, you can get it at the casino. Yeah, but totally totally totally. So um, so yeah I I like to when when something piques my interest. |
| 54:30.72 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:35:02.12 | mikebledsoe | I Like to just say I want to Grot this and that means that I can I can stabilize a perspective around this I don't actually need to know everything about it because I understand the the philosophy I Understand. The the big picture how it works and then as I learn more information and I just get more and more confirmation like oh I learned this small detail about this cryptocurrency. You know that validates how I understand crypto and I keep getting upgrades to that that understanding something comes in I go. Oh you know what I didn't even know that that was possible but in the thing is the I've collected a lot of evidence. Of course you know we're all subject to the particular activating system and so. |
| 55:30.32 | Max Shank | Is that confirmation bias that you're talking about okay reticular activating system I learned so many new words when I talk with you new many new words and phrases. |
| 01:35:58.00 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, kind of yeah so you buy a red car and now you see red cars everywhere. Um, yeah, a s.. Ah yeah, there's been yeah. |
| 55:48.24 | Max Shank | I Think you hit something really good there though which was you're interested and if you're interested in some I mean look I've done pretty well for myself. But the reality is I was just more interested in the topic than almost anybody else. It's kind of like cheating it's like ah the idea of what's what's difficult. |
| 01:36:25.75 | mikebledsoe | That's true. |
| 01:36:33.72 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 56:08.10 | Max Shank | Well difficult is anything I don't want to do. But if I'm if I'm willing to happily spend hours and hour hours and hour hours a day learning ah about movement and exercise and psychology and copywriting then I'm going to. |
| 01:36:53.94 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that makes me think about ah is it not being fair people look at other people and go. They're so good at thing it's not fair. It's like you're just not as interested. What are you interested in. You need to go be unfair somewhere else. |
| 56:27.25 | Max Shank | Completely dominate someone who is just trying to do that to earn a buck. It's not fair. So if you're interested follow that. |
| 56:41.85 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, right? Yeah I when I'm playing games I like to I like to play games where the odds are stacked against me. But when I'm in real life. |
| 01:37:11.83 | mikebledsoe | Or maybe they've just been out the thing you're interested in longer that could also be. |
| 01:37:25.88 | mikebledsoe | Totally yeah I was talking to a regenerative farmer. He says ah just always trying to increase hammock time. But if I can make my garden grove I can make the farm work for me. |
| 56:59.93 | Max Shank | I try to only play games where I have an unfair advantage because you you can You can do that. |
| 01:37:45.70 | mikebledsoe | Where you know I think a lot of people think look at something like that and they think about all the hard work That's gonna have to go into It's like now you set it up and you hamicck time permaculture. You know certain farming methods are built that way. Alright, ah the only thing I've gotta say to wrap this bad boy up. |
| 57:28.18 | Max Shank | E. |
| 01:38:04.76 | mikebledsoe | Is invest your attention into things that are decentralizing and learn about it because I think this is my belief and so you can just if you want to adopt my beliefs which you know when people do good things happen. Ah. The I. |
| 58:00.21 | Max Shank | You seem so down man I feel like I broke you what happened here. He's like I guess just ah, invest in things you like? ah. |
| 01:38:30.10 | mikebledsoe | Ah I'm um'm um well I'm is well this is my way of like not trying to be overly influential is my way of like it's kind of it's my energetic way of going you know, take it or leave it but it is a good idea looking at what. |
| 58:20.41 | Max Shank | Um, ah. |
| 01:38:49.60 | mikebledsoe | What's happening in decentralization when it comes to food energy money and governance and when you look at all these things and you can understand them if you get in on you if you catch the wave that's coming then life's gonna be pretty good for you. You have opportunity to. For it to be pretty awesome if you resist it and you don't want to be a part of it and you just want to keep watching the news and you want to just and put as much money into the Ira as possible so that your company matches it doing the job you hate then. |
| 58:43.83 | Max Shank | All right. |
| 01:39:26.86 | mikebledsoe | You know I think I think life's gonna suck. But you know I'm just trying to convince you to do things from a perspective I'm holding. |
| 59:12.40 | Max Shank | All right? Well I'm gonna go the exact opposite way I'm not goingnna be not going to be wishywashy about it at all I'm gonna say that if you go to http://macank.com/pass I have a new course coming out. |
| 01:39:42.76 | mikebledsoe | Are a. |
| 59:29.72 | Max Shank | Specifically for coaches. But Also if you want to be the best training partner possible been working on this for a couple years I think it's a real revolution in personal training and just movement coaching and communication in General. Ah. Limited space available http://macshank.com/pass.. It'll be more than worth money more than worth your time and if you are a fitness professional. It's a way better investment than anything Else. You could make. |
| 01:40:27.75 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I heard that I heard that your program is like the it's basically the the decentralized training system. You know so definitely go check it out. Folks. Ah, one thing I do want to mention is I will be at paleo effects at the end of the month they have not run their event in 2 years and every year that I've been before it feels like a family reunion. It's just so sweet. So I'll be there I'll be speaking on stage I'll be on a couple of panels I got a booth there. We're gonna be hanging out. There's parties every night I highly recommend. Go to I got a link somewhere if you want it if you want me to make money off this thing shoot me a Dm and then I'll send you a link if you don't give a fuck about this and and you just want to buy your ticket then just go to http://paleofx.com and get a ticket and then I'll give you a high 5 either way. Later Max love you |
| 01:01:00.49 | Max Shank | Love you bye. |
| 00:00.00 | mikebledsoe | Welcome to Monday morning with Mike and max and today we're gonna be talking about ancient wisdom with modern technology because if you don't hold both of these at the same time really well in the year Twenty Twenty Two you're probably gonna have a hard. Time thanks for joining us max. |
| 00:22.25 | Max Shank | Well, thanks for having me in the year Twenty Twenty two since we started counting because if you look at how long homo sapiens have been in this current form. We've been around a really long time and depend to you ask. Roughly two hundred thousand years does that sound correct to you I believe as homo sapiens. Okay, so it's ah it's really hard to actually imagine timelines that long it's. |
| 00:46.53 | mikebledsoe | Ah sure why not? That's what they said on Discovery channel. |
| 00:59.40 | Max Shank | Almost impossible to truly hold in your mind. The fact that ancient egypt was 3 to eight thousand years ago 3 to seven thousand years ago and what's interesting is a lot of the questions that people ask today and a lot of the. Ideas that people feel are unique Today have been asked and answered thousands and thousands of times both spoken and written over the years and I think considering a the fact that we are animals. Who basically look for survival sex and supremacy more or less in that order even without the spoken and written word is an important foundational point for this so human nature which is really animal nature has not. |
| 01:50.34 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 01:55.91 | Max Shank | Changed really at all in thousands and thousands tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of years but the technology has changed dramatically in that amount of time. |
| 02:09.16 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it's um I as we start talking about this I think about there's a ah 30 hour presentation on Youtube by John Vervaki Dr. john vervaki and it's called awakening from the meaning crisis Highly recommend it if you're a philosophical nerd. You're going to love it. Um, and so what he does is he walks you through the stages of human consciousness and really ah you know. Our written history is very short compared to that 200000 year span that max is just talking about and he basically is able to start ah a in-depth conversation about the development of consciousness with the jewish people. Hebrew people and then how it then makes it over to the greeks and the the way the greeks start making sense of things and I but I believe there was either socrates or aristotle who started talking about what makes us. Human is our ability to use logic and to be able to plan ahead of time to be human is to be rational and that is to have that self-awareness and then ask questions and to develop. Wisdom your job as a human being if you want to become more human he talks about developing wisdom which we're going to get into and also getting in greater touch greater contact with reality and in order to develop wisdom. You have to get into greater contact. With reality and so ah in in order to get in greater contact. We have to become more accurate with what is and this is why max and I get really likely notice that we get really deep into semantics because. Words matter because ah, each word creates a distinction of reality you know and if you have a limited vocabulary your ability to interact with other humans in a way and and with your own mind in a way that puts you in touch with reality can become very very difficult. So um. |
| 04:38.86 | Max Shank | Well not only that not only that but the content of your thoughts determines your reality big time. |
| 04:40.41 | mikebledsoe | I Think about. |
| 04:46.19 | mikebledsoe | Absolutely yeah, you're you're projecting most of what's going on in what you would consider your reality as a projection of of the mind. Um, that's why 2 people can be sitting at the same event and. Have a completely different reporting of those events happens all the time in courtrooms and and then if we're if we're talking about anything beyond the current moment if we're talking about the past there has been a lot of research to show that people. Remember things. Not only do they remember things differently from person to person but they remember them differently over time and one of the studies that really stand out to me in regard to this is they did ah they researched people's ability to what did they report to the police. Ah, right? after a crime versus what did they say once they got on the stand and and then also what kind of impact did the questions that the police officers were asking the people how does that impact their memory of it and so. |
| 05:53.99 | Max Shank | The. |
| 06:02.50 | mikebledsoe | Um, I'm very wary of relying on my own memory or other people's memories to ah in order to be in contact with reality because I know that that simply may not be the case. Um, and so. Man Why am I talking about memories. Yeah, your your perception does does create a reality and how you remember things in the past paint how you're gonna behave now and so ah. |
| 06:32.81 | Max Shank | Well I meant from a very practical standpoint. It started with it. It started with semantics right? And the reason we go through these semantics so much is if you hold the word depressed. |
| 06:39.30 | mikebledsoe | Yes, yes. |
| 06:50.10 | Max Shank | In your mind as meaning a certain thing or even worse as something with a very nebulous meaning you might attach a certain word to your identity and there will be a domino effect to your entire psyche which is going to have a domino effect to your entire life and so just. Being able to ah clean, the slate and have ah an emptiness that you can put stuff back into rather than being saddled down with all of these destructive half ideas. That aren't really fully formed so you don't have a grasp of what's going on in your own mind and it's this very circular destructive cycle if you're not very conscious about the words that you use with yourself and with other people. |
| 07:40.38 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well let's dig into because we're talking about ancient wisdom and and modern technology and in speaking of semantics. Let's Define wisdom max. What's your definition. |
| 07:55.55 | Max Shank | Knowing yourself and acting accordingly. |
| 08:00.30 | mikebledsoe | I Like that the um, the way I think about wisdom is that you um, you, you're aware of cause and effect you're watching when I do this. This happens when when other people do this this happens. You don't wisdom doesn't necessarily have to be all based on your own mistakes of her Failures. You can watch other people's mistakes and Failures. So I think that wisdom is largely. Um. |
| 08:29.10 | Max Shank | Then. |
| 08:37.80 | mikebledsoe | Built upon taking personal responsibility for the things that are going on in your world and because if you are if you ever look out at the world and or you look at your own life and you blame somebody else for the way something is turned out in your life. You're robbing yourself of wisdom and you're robbing your ability to see how the impact of your actions thoughts all these behaviors how they have created the current situation and so somebody who is wise typically people who are wise you look at them and go wow they made a lot of mistakes earlier in their lut in there. And their life and now they they now know what? like yeah you got the old guy in the corner going hey little Johnny you may not want to do that and I was like why not and then does it anyway and then gets fucked up. You go? Oh ah so the the wisdom is. A lot of times people will associate age with wisdom but it really has to do with you know where are you paying attention and were you were you looking for? What was my role in creating any situation that's happening so when I think about wisdom I look at it like that. There's. Individual wisdom that's developed and then obviously the the collective wisdom and looking at ah yeah, and this is where like these buddhist monks that get together and they all meditate together and and they're very scientific in a way they're studying you know. |
| 09:56.62 | Max Shank | The. |
| 10:10.97 | mikebledsoe | But when we do this? What's the result we get happens in yoga as well and there the collective wisdom is when you get a lot of agreement. It's like oh we all did this 1 thing together and we all got this result and there's ah, there's ah, a collaboration and then we write it down in a book. And that gets passed down and so this is this is where I I really do enjoy reading what would be considered ancient wisdom ancient text because there's so much. Um, there is a lot of wisdom in there and it can help you avoid a lot of painful mistakes. |
| 10:48.49 | Max Shank | Yeah I think when you say wisdom to me that's knowledge because I think knowledge is knowing what to do and wisdom is doing what you know pretty much so the way I see it. There's a slight difference. But. |
| 10:49.48 | mikebledsoe | As you move forward. |
| 11:05.60 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 11:07.81 | Max Shank | I Can also perfectly understand the logic to your definition too. |
| 11:10.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, so so we've got wisdom. We got a couple to you know knowledge Wisdom Ah, let's define. |
| 11:20.60 | Max Shank | They all, they're answering ancient questions. Let's just put it that way a lot of questions have been asked since the beginning of human history where did we come from that's creation. What do we do while we're here. How do we balance out life and live life and then what happens after life death or destruction and basically every culture in the world has different myths or different stories. Ah, it's Funny. A myth is just ah. The the news a long time ago, right? So we asked the question hey where did we come From. How did we get here? How did everything get here. There are all these creation myths and there are a lot of similarities and differences we have How does how is balance. |
| 11:59.35 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 12:16.60 | Max Shank | Ah maintained. How should we live our lives and then what happens after we die and usually the way balance is maintained in our lives is there's a carrot or a stick upon our death that says if you lived a good life. You go to heaven if you lived a bad life. You go to? hell. And that is a very common thread in many different cultural fabrics so to speak you have the traditional heaven and hell you have ancient Egypt you have your heart weighed against a feather to see if you get to go. Ah, to the good place or suffer a second death. So a lot of these questions have been asked for many thousands of years of what to do with your life and what do you think? Mike? What should we do with our lives. |
| 13:11.10 | mikebledsoe | I think it's I think we should I think one of the pieces of wisdom that I've adopted over the years is looking at what's useful versus true and i. |
| 13:13.51 | Max Shank | According to wisdom. |
| 13:27.81 | mikebledsoe | When we talked about oh where did we come from what was the origin of the the world where what happens after you die and of course every tradition has their stories and I think what you're getting at you got the the heaven and health Piece. What is the Utility. Of believing that you're there's ah, a heaven or a hell at the end of the lifetime and that is to get people to behave a certain way and and so the utility for society to adopt a religion is to to help create order. |
| 13:55.20 | Max Shank | No doubt. |
| 14:06.71 | mikebledsoe | And ah this is where a lot of Western spirituality goes is you know? Well we're preparing for something later. Not right now and so which does create order and then if you go to the east and you look at. |
| 14:17.20 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 14:25.41 | mikebledsoe | A lot of those traditions and how they came about which um, ah, a bigger I think both have their their utility and in the east it's more of yeah, you're creating your own heaven or hell and in every moment and. Everything that's happening is a complete There's no progress so in western philosophy spirituality there's a beginning and an end and in eastern philosophy it tends to be circular like now there's no beginning and an end. It's just it's there's seasons and cycles. It's winter spring summer fall. They call that some sorrow and the ah I mean the truth is that that both exist. Yes, there is a progression of humanity over time. Ah, if you look at the universe. It's spiraling in a direction. There's an expansion happening. But it's also moving in a spiral. It's moving. There are seasons and cycles. So there are aspects of it that are predictable and then there are aspects of it that are not predictable so when I think about what's true if you talk to an eastern philosopher. They go. Well, you know it's just a season and cycle. It's not that important what's important is that you just maintain the quality of your own mind in this moment and create heaven on earth in this moment and then yeah, the the west says who gives a fuck about what's happening right? now go blow yourself up. For for allah and you'll get 72 virgins and so these these are extreme. Yeah, well, it's it's ah yeah, ah Hebrew um, yeah, well, it's it's not necessarily. |
| 16:00.82 | Max Shank | They're they're they're from the west. Um I believe Middle East not to be a stickler for geography. |
| 16:14.51 | mikebledsoe | It's east us. But when we but well when we look at. |
| 16:16.90 | Max Shank | It's all relative right? There are different cultures and they have different ideas of how you achieve some sort of Nirvana or happiness or peace or fulfillment right. |
| 16:21.40 | mikebledsoe | Or the. Yeah, well the origin of these philosophies that christianity came from which is what our culture is largely based off of based off judaism which is the same thing as based off of Islam. They're all come from. They're all considered western ah philosophy is is where it spring from so it went from. Ah, judaism hebrew to Greece and then came over whereas you had a completely different track going on in the east and that's why I talk about these 2 things. But then yeah, there's utility to both. So um, I really think about let's not get too attached to what's true or not. Because that is what happens as people get way too caught up on what's true instead of recognizing what's useful and so what I find to be useful is to say yeah, both of these things are true like we have no idea what's going to happen when we die and we. Have an opportunity to ah to create heaven on earth in this very moment. So why don't we just do both. Why don't we have a nice life while we're here in this moment and do well and help each other out and find peace in our own mind and let's also make some progress and see if we can. Make a better tomorrow than than what we have today. So I have no idea how I got to that point. What's that. |
| 17:49.21 | Max Shank | So so productivity pretty much do so Productivity is the is the way to live. It doesn't matter what is true just do what is productive and make up your own goals. |
| 17:58.99 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well you look at I think it was up was it socrates you know, true, good and beautiful if you pursue those 3 things life is gonna be pretty good. Do what's true. Do what's good and do what's beautiful and i. |
| 18:10.32 | Max Shank | That's a great way to go. |
| 18:17.24 | mikebledsoe | When I hear true I think of being in contact with reality not necessarily like a and I when I think about the Capital T truth I Think about that. That's my simple. That's what I in my own but personal wisdom says the Capital T truth is. Simply what is is right here reality right? now anything outside of that is got a ah degree of bullshit in it. |
| 18:43.73 | Max Shank | Man we could go down that rabbit hole big time. But I'm gonna for once. Keep this ship steered in the singular direction because you you decide for yourself. What's important in life. Unless you get it from somewhere else and I think that's where intuition can come into play a lot now. Intuition is a little different than instinctual desire for pleasure because. You can go down the path of 7 deadly sins total excess that sort of deal and you may not find the joy or fulfillment that you're looking for and in fact, more likely than going to actual hell. When you die for overindulging in these 7 deadly sins. It's more likely that it's a metaphor for creating a hell or an uncomfortable experience within your own life by overindulging in certain things. So I think. Coming back to intuition is very valuable and that's how the scientific method starts anyway is with observation and intuition you you go with your intuition to determine what kind of experiment you'd like to carry out. In the first place to see how that feels for you and this is how I like to connect it with the idea of identity because people get so trapped in different identities. It's like oh I'm a red t-shirt but guy I'm a blue t-shirt guy I'm a. But. I'm a white or I'm a black or I'm a man or I'm a woman and it's very it's very limiting when you're a creative creator so you have all of this potential to create things as a creature but we limit ourselves with this identity. When in fact, we would be so much better off using our intuition and our powers of observation to see what we find intrinsically enjoyable beyond some external result. It's sort of like putting the cart before the horse. If you do something just because you absolutely love doing it. The result is going to be way better and way more fulfilling than if you do something just because of the result that you may get so I think starting with intuition. |
| 21:37.20 | Max Shank | And observation to I guess observation and then intuition to figure out what feels intrinsically good that gives you an unfair advantage about any against anyone who's gonna do the same thing as you because you're gonna love every second of it and it's not gonna feel. Difficult at all because the whole concept of easy and difficult to me is you know there are things that are difficult like doing 10 backflips off of a cliff and landing on your feet but more practically difficult just means anything you don't want to do. |
| 22:13.86 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I Think that's a that's a really. Yeah,, there's there's doing something you don't want to do or or doing something that you may want to do that gets you a poor result that's also worth worth Noting. We won't go down that we talked about the marshmallow test before ah but ah, but. |
| 22:34.70 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 22:38.56 | mikebledsoe | But I what I think of when you're talking about that is the the 2 modes that people may operate from when when seeking happiness and 1 is having and the other one is being and if if you're caught up in the having mode. Of being and in creating happiness. There's never enough and you're gonna run out of runway and some days there's gonna be plenty and other days there won't and ah there there will never be enough and then the being which is thing if we look at. |
| 23:02.10 | Max Shank | There's never enough. |
| 23:18.90 | mikebledsoe | A lot of the new age Community. At this point, a lot of them. You know one of the things they do well is there is this focus on how are you being and then that attracting all these other things. Um the the pitfall with that is if you are trying to change your being so that you can have. Already fucked up. It's like oh I want I'm going to use the secret I'm going to use the law of attraction to get that lamborghini. Yeah, and you'll see how enlightened I am by the size of my house and at the beach. |
| 23:45.49 | Max Shank | To win an enlightenment contest. |
| 23:53.20 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 23:56.46 | mikebledsoe | And so the ah because I'll be able to attract more whatever and so. |
| 24:00.99 | Max Shank | That goes back to our earlier thing of survival sex and status right? and status is really about sex. Anyway, we were talking about the very beginning Beyond language or even deeper than language even other animals. |
| 24:08.76 | mikebledsoe | Remind me. |
| 24:19.64 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 24:20.13 | Max Shank | They're going for survival first and foremost then they're going for sex which is typically a factor of your status and so the way we explore status now is glittery tits and ferrari's more more or less. |
| 24:28.26 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 24:36.40 | mikebledsoe | Through. |
| 24:37.90 | Max Shank | I mean I don't want to put too fine a point on it. There are other ways to gain status some people like to gain actual power over other people like having political clout. But you know largely it has to do with a man's ability to provide. Into the future because women have gotten more and more intelligent or calculated with their discernment So now. Ah you know a mongo type of giant man who's dumb can't provide as well as a frail nerd who. Knows how to create value and wealth and security long-term. |
| 25:19.31 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, absolutely so going going back to having versus being modes. Um I think that what what you were alluding to before is if you if you don't. Have the being part nailed down, you're gonna be It's gonna be easy to convince you to do a bunch of shit. You don't actually want to do so you can have all the stuff that you think is gonna create happiness and if you're operating from that place and then we introduce. Technology these technology is yeah, it's tools and it's ways of leveraging our own minds and bodies to be able to accomplish more with less effort and so if you're adding a lot of you know if you're if you're on a ship and. All of a sudden I you know we're going the wrong way. But we're going fifty knots if we're going really fast then you know some people are so excited that you're going fast but have no idea what direction they're going in and ah. That's what happens with technology. It's like oh I've got this iphone in front of me and I've got this laptop and I've got you know a 4 our-wheel drive truck that can go anywhere you you give these things you give these ah you give these things guns. |
| 26:45.57 | Max Shank | I Feel attacked. |
| 26:55.39 | mikebledsoe | Guns are a great technology. Um Blockchain is ah is a fantastic technology that's emerged ah all of these things in the wrong hands in the in the hands of idiots will cause death destruction and and. It's it's not ah, a good look. But you put this in the hands of people who are you know who've already figured their own shit out and they can create some really cool stuff. You can live a really good life. You can you can do a lot of good for other people. And you you also get to fucking enjoy it which is very very rare I I hang out with a lot of the entrepreneurial community people that have money and are very successful and yada yada yada and I don't think there are any more. Um, a lot of them are any more happy than than someone who's working a tip old 9 to 5 making you know a quarter of the money. |
| 27:58.75 | Max Shank | I Think there's a big distinction I would like to make between you mentioned the being and the having and I think there's also the doing which is a little different than being. |
| 28:09.40 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 28:15.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 28:17.70 | Max Shank | And clearing your being so that you're as empty as space as fluid as water not to sound too. Ah fruity language over here is X I. |
| 28:31.93 | mikebledsoe | He's a fruit cake folks. |
| 28:36.77 | Max Shank | Um, definitely I have some homosexual tendencies when it comes to just I don't know I like nice things I like to use flowery language sometimes I don't know I'm a simple creature. No. |
| 28:49.15 | mikebledsoe | You you heard you heard it here first folks? um. |
| 28:55.35 | Max Shank | No one's a hundred percent straight I mean back when I was watching pornography I I liked there to be at least 1 penis in there even if there were 2 ladies so I guess I was like 33% homosexual in my preference there. |
| 29:13.21 | mikebledsoe | Welllthough this are you is ah I mean the whole it's ah it's a manmade concept. Ah the that there's a really cool mental model that everybody every everybody. |
| 29:21.80 | Max Shank | I know you think I'm sexy Mike you can just come right out and say it. |
| 29:29.46 | mikebledsoe | Why do you think I was over at your house all the time. Ah,, there's this really cool mental model that everybody uses. It's used early on in textbooks. It's hard to miss and it's the spectrum. It's There's this thing on the left and there's this the opposite of it is on the right. And ah, you can be somewhere in the middle and you go from left to right? and ah, it's It's so and interesting to watch people put things like sexual preference on this scale. |
| 30:06.48 | Max Shank | Where it's binary. |
| 30:07.57 | mikebledsoe | Of Ah, yeah, it's binary exactly and so it's It's really really interesting to watch people do that I mean I've done it I Still do I I Love the spectrum it. |
| 30:19.89 | Max Shank | Spectrums Spectrums make labeling difficult which is what our whole culture is in love with we love putting a very precise label on something and that's why we often miss the nuance. |
| 30:34.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, so I mean so you have the linear spectrum but I like to think about a more 3 dimensional spectrum which would be let's let's have a ball. Let's have a sphere and and there's a lot of things in the middle. Um. |
| 30:34.89 | Max Shank | And the context. |
| 30:44.70 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 30:50.91 | mikebledsoe | Why am I bringing that up man I'm bringing up a lot of show on the show that I'm losing track of where I was at I cut back My new tropics Max What's the problem. |
| 30:53.24 | Max Shank | Well I think it's important I think it's important to understand that the problem you're having right now in this conversation is the same problem of focusing too much. On the definition of your being. The last thing you want to do is be proud to be a man or proud to be white or proud to be a woman or proud to be a you know fairy godmother. Whatever it really is so silly and you don't want to get stuck too much. |
| 31:11.77 | mikebledsoe | You know. |
| 31:29.68 | Max Shank | In trying to define your being being should just be enjoying where you're at it shouldn't be thinking about who you are too much. It should be recognizing that you are not a fixed State. You are a dynamic changing growth. It's classic. Growth Mindset versus Fix Mindset and even though the the book flow is really a challenging read for the reader. It's got some good information in there and that is where I come in with the idea of the doing. Rather than just the being like if you spend too much time in the being it can be entertaining to wax philosophical. But if you spend too much time there you become like a prisoner in your own mind instead of enjoying the emptiness. Of your being and focusing on the intrinsic joy of doing and getting into that flow state and that's where you become like an animal traversing the terrain or a big cat hunting their prey you become focused. You become the task. Instead of being focused on yourself I can't think of a worse psychological prison than being focused on the definition of yourself so much and that's one of the biggest emphases of our very sick culture right now is what are you.? Are you a blue t-shirt guy. Are you a red t-shirt guy. Are you a lady? are you you a she are you a they are.. It's what's a worse prison than that. So I say instead of that. Go back to the intuition and the observation to figure out the doing. Where you become the task and that is something that we've known about for a long time. That's chopwood Carry water. That's um, you know the yeah Boom tying it all back. |
| 33:25.82 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, ancient. Wisdom yeah that there's um I brought up this this video I saw on Instagram yesterday I followed a lot of the teachings of a Christian and Murty are you familiar. |
| 33:42.41 | Max Shank | So one of Bruce Lee's main influences. |
| 33:46.16 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think so and he he was talking about when you when you identify with an organization a group a religion or a race or a gender when you identify with any of these things. You are isolating yourself and a lot of time he was saying you know what? if you lived a life where you did not identify with any particular group whatsoever and at the first thought of that a lot of people would respond to him with. You know? Well, you'd be I You would be checking out of Society. You would not be participating and he would say no, it's the Opposite. You're open to the the all of humanity the moment that you identify with a group. |
| 34:31.63 | Max Shank | You have a more open connection with everybody. |
| 34:43.23 | mikebledsoe | You have just cut yourself off from and and you've isolated yourself to a very ah small small portion of humanity and ah and and the truth and and you're even isolating yourselves from people in that group because you're all in agreement about. |
| 34:52.96 | Max Shank | It's horrible. |
| 35:02.46 | mikebledsoe | 1 aspect of the entire universe and can potentially miss who that person is outside of that 1 thing and so you know I get some conversations with people around. You know, ah race and gender and the victimhood and and all of these things and I get frustrated at times and they're like are you frustrated because that ah that and I got I'm frustrated because the only I'm I'm trying to help you and. You're not even willing to help yourself. You're so caught up in this argument I can't there's nothing that I can do I can't I can't hand you any amount of money I can't include you any more than you're already included in and to participate in whatever it is that we're doing until you let go of the identity. As long as you hold on to that identity. It's it's you're inflicting this on yourself all the way now if you give that up and then you're being inflicted upon then now we have violence. There's a there's a real problem with that. But when we look at society as a whole right now. What I think. What most of us are witnessing is this this heavy identification with an organization group. Whatever it is and it's ah it yeah, it's creating massive isolation and isolation creates suffering. |
| 36:30.44 | Max Shank | And it's just ah, perpetuating this us and them mentality that this this whole idea that you should define yourself by 1 variable of your being is insane. You know. White pride black pride. These are just racist ideas. They're stupid like why would you? Why would you be proud of that. It's because you're so desperate to be part of a group because you can get status within that group. It's like a kid joining a gang because they have no family right. And if you don't have anything to offer yourself as an individual. You'll think oh gosh I can get some status even if I provide no value by just saying like I'm I'm part of this crew essentially so it's a part of our deep desire for community. |
| 37:18.92 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 37:26.88 | Max Shank | And when you have someone isolated like that It is much easier to get them jump in to some ah sick fractured part of a community. Oh big time. |
| 37:36.57 | mikebledsoe | Very easy to control very easy. Can I mean you I mean it's very easy to I like using politics as ah as just ah, an example because ah, no matter what political party you're looking at there is a. Oh are you? This are you? This are you? This have you checked these boxes. Well you you would be you would you wouldn't really be that if you didn't do this that you're not with how many um how many black leaders have been called white supremacists in the last couple years. |
| 37:56.92 | Max Shank | Us and them. |
| 38:13.99 | Max Shank | That That's a pretty funny one. That's that's a pretty that is a pretty funny one I mean some of the stuff I see is so outrageous. That's one of the things where I'm like this black guy is the black face of white supremacy and I was like huh. |
| 38:14.94 | mikebledsoe | Because they didn't go with. They didn't agree with Blm um, and it the. |
| 38:29.70 | mikebledsoe | Well I remember it happened it happened 1 time it happened with the guy that was running for the governor of ah ah of ah California and well well and and I and I was like oh that's interesting. But then I watched it happen over and i. |
| 38:32.22 | Max Shank | Okay. |
| 38:36.77 | Max Shank | Oh God here we go. |
| 38:49.40 | mikebledsoe | I think I've witnessed it over a dozen times at this point it's it's kind of like the boy who cried wolf though. Yeah I. |
| 38:55.20 | Max Shank | It's rhetoric and it's effective rhetoric if you know remember if I ever run for office. All my opponents are racist pedophiles. That's all I Got to say they're bad I'm good and they're bad I help nuns cross the street I work at the orphanage I. |
| 39:04.21 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 39:12.91 | Max Shank | Have a rainbow flag in my front yard and those guys are racist pedophiles. It's It's such a classic ah appeal to Authority ad Hominem attack which takes us right back to heaven and hell God The Devil These are not new ideas. There's a bad guy and there's a good guy. And if you can make people believe that a guy is bad. They will blindly ignore any rational thing that person might say and if you can make people believe. That one guy is good or God then they will blindly trust anything that guy says this is not new stuff and that's why it's so important to start with your gut and then you were talking about Aristotleian logic. It's really important. To have the tools to determine if something is reasonable, rational and true and it is difficult because most things the answer is not enough information and in fact, that's a ah, really valuable thing to. Notice is that when you have a true false question. There are usually 3 answers True false or not enough information to answer the question and most of the time there's not enough information to answer the question. |
| 40:42.29 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think you said something really brilliant there and I I want to I want to zero in on just one piece of it which is the I think the the. Primary technology that needs to be mastered in order to use all other technology in a very useful way that's going to benefit yourself and others is the technology of language and you're you're talking about rhetorical fallacies and. Understanding language to a degree in which you can see when people are being manipulative with their language when I when I watch ah politics when I watch ah when I'm at the airport and I look at a Tv and I see. Advertising and commercials and I for for different goods and services and when I stumble across stuff on the internet I I get a good chuckle out of it because I can see the the Nlp the neuralistic programming I can see the manipulation. It's ah and it's interesting and and I think I have ah a very a somewhat unique perspective to be able to spot these things for a while I I thought it was insane that everyone couldn't see these things but there's there's 2 things that I've identified that I've done that that uniquely. Qualifies me and I bet there's hundreds of other people that that have done these 2 things and 1 is I used to have a top secret clearance in the Navy and I saw and I worked in communications and I saw an incredible amount of message traffic coming through ah about some. Secret shit and what I witnessed 12 hours later on the news is that all these different news agencies would be reporting on the thing where I saw the the reports we had were you know it was bullet point this happened then this happened this is how this is how we responded because. You create us. It's called a sit rep you create a situational report so that we can learn from it and make better decisions in the future. It's a life or death situation on creating these sit reps. You would not create one and then put a bunch of flowery language in it or or put anything that. Might not be true to make yourself look better. You don't do that because right? So you don't do that and then so I'm looking at at what I would trust to be very factual information. |
| 43:16.00 | Max Shank | Um, you don't hide it within 10 pages of prose. |
| 43:30.17 | mikebledsoe | Then turn around 12 hours later and I'm watching the news and I see Msnbc reporting it 1 way Fox reporting it another way Cnn reporting it another way and I just remember one day after being just. Months and months of sifting and looking and and being exposed to these 2 things happening at the same time and I go holy shit they're they're manipulating the the public at large and then I and then I I leave the navy. |
| 43:55.63 | Max Shank | Ah, the. |
| 44:01.13 | mikebledsoe | And I start studying years later I study marketing and then I get deepened up into marketing I'm studying things like and Nlp I'm studying hypnosis I'm studying how language is used to to 1 influence yourself and influence others because you're you're influencing other. Yourself with every word that comes out of your mouth and through your mind is influencing you and which and the words that come through your mind include the ones that come from outside enter your ears and then go through your mind and so there are. Combinations of words and certain words when used in a certain way are have greater weight for influence with an individual so watching seeing the objective data come through watching how it's manipulated seeing how much bullshit. Actually does exist there and then learning how it actually works ah does put me in this very interesting position and part of me wants to stay on the rooftops and be like hey this is what like can't you know that this what it is but but. |
| 44:59.82 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 45:13.75 | Max Shank | And. |
| 45:14.94 | mikebledsoe | People are fish in water who don't know that they're in water and if you in my experience I talk to certain people who are very intelligent and they are plugged into Twitter all day and they know who said what? And. What's going on in Ukraine and they understand like war policy and all this stuff and I go I'm looking like it's like all your information is bad. You don't have any good data points. So it's like if if we assume that what you. |
| 45:45.30 | Max Shank | The. |
| 45:51.80 | mikebledsoe | No is actually true then you're right? But the problem is is the premise for which you're making your argument is actually wrong and so the. |
| 46:02.90 | Max Shank | That's a big distinction is to know that you could have a valid thought process very logical and correct. But if the premise is false. The result is still false. |
| 46:14.28 | mikebledsoe | And this is this is a conversation that I I have some friends that are you know buried pretty deep and in these in some narratives and anytime I bring this type of stuff up. There's a. You can see the emotional reaction and the and the immediate rejection of of a of a statement I'm like you know what there's and my girlfriend I Go Why don't you like tell them about this or this or this I'm like they're not they they stop hearing me as soon as they. You saw that physical reaction. They didn't hear anything after that. Yeah I immediately got categorized as some crazy asshole. Ah yeah. |
| 46:53.88 | Max Shank | You're on, you're on the other team is the thing right? You're the devil. You're the devil. You're on the other. No seriously, you're on the other team and everything you say will be ignored or misrepresented or just. Blindly mistrusted. It's better to not have any opinions that are too strong. Actually there was a really good conversation. Um Gavin Debecker who wrote a gift of fear he was on Joe Rogan's podcast the other day and. Joe Rogan changed his mind about something in real time and it was really nice to see because Gavin Debecker is a good communicator and he's patient. Guy. You could tell in the conversation. It was worth. It was worth a listen I really enjoyed it and they were talking. |
| 47:33.92 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 47:42.56 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna go look that up right now? What? um. |
| 47:49.41 | Max Shank | Were talking about ah model mugging I think it was called and Gavin Debecker was saying it's awesome and it's ah you know a 6 hour course 1 hour a week for six weeks and Joe Rogan um at one point was like oh I totally disagree. You got to learn martial arts for a long time. In order to make any of those ah make any progress because otherwise you'll have this false sense of confidence and you know as a martial arts teacher in this and that and he was like that and Gavin De Becker said wow you have ah a really strong opinion about this and Rogan was like yeah I do and he's like well. Let me tell you something that you don't know and he talked about the 23000 people who had gone through the program and had had better results in violent encounters and explained more about the program was and. Hundred percent credit to Rogan because I've seen him do this a few times and it's one of the more admirable traits in a human being is he goes gosh I really didn't understand it was like that and that that makes a lot of sense and he completely changed his mind within minutes and it's so rare to see something like that. And it's really encouraging any time I do and you're much better off not having such strong opinions really about anything because those are those are the hardest holes to dig yourself out of because you dug those holes yourself. By having too strong of an opinion the ability to change your mind is the sign of an agile and flexible mind and we've talked many times how adaptability is the chief survival characteristic. So if you get caught in these fixed mindsets and opinions that. Really aren't based on true premises and valid thought processes. It's like an extra prison that you have attached onto your being and if you think of one of the ways to greater mental and physical peace. As relieving yourself of the psychological burdens of the ego and breaking the back of the ego so that you can dance and you know drum to the rhythm of the universe not to raja style then it makes sense that you would not want to engage. In having such strong opinions because they are really more burdens and they're not very practical most of the time either. It's not like you get anything out of it and we can tie it back to the way that we use technology people are so desperate to. |
| 50:36.50 | Max Shank | To wave their own little flag and just say hey everyone I'm smart I know what's going on. Hey hey everyone I'm smart I know what's going on, please please like me give me some sort of positive feedback positive attention and that's what I see um happen a lot is it's. Fishing for compliments from the people who are already your side and alienating the people on the other side even more so it makes no sense to me what you're doing that for except to make yourself feel better. You might as you would be much more honest to just say. Hey hey everyone could you give me a few compliments I'm I'm looking for some validation Today. Can you tell me I'm smart and good but people don't want to do that because it sounds ridiculous, but they're perfectly willing to par it out the narrative of their team. Without having done any kind of searching for whether this is true or valid. So you're safer to just not have too strong of an opinion about things. It's very burdensome. |
| 51:47.13 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, if your if your ego can withstand it. There's are you familiar with ah Byron Katie okay yeah she's um, she came up with something called the work and she. |
| 51:56.20 | Max Shank | That name sounds familiar. |
| 52:04.68 | mikebledsoe | She also wrote I think one of her books I've got it somewhere around here. It's called ah, 1000 names for joy and ah she her background is very very interesting and that she's not a psychologist. She didn't study spirituality. Anything like that and yet she became one of the most profound ah speakers and you know like you quote unquote therapists that ever lived and if you really want to be impressed with her. She does something called. |
| 52:31.46 | Max Shank | And. |
| 52:39.47 | mikebledsoe | Ah, the work and the turnaround and she has a 4 step process that she takes people through you can just Youtube Byron Katie the work and you'll be able to witness it and the the idea of the work is the premise of it is that. People are creating suffering in their own life. Oh I want to talk about this first. The way she got to where she is now is she lost her fucking mind she lost her. Ah she went through down this really negative. Rabbit hole ended up like walking through the desert and she was gone. |
| 53:14.14 | Max Shank | Well, how did we get here? How did we get here. Didn't We do roughly the same thing I mean you and I lost our minds at least once E trent. |
| 53:15.75 | mikebledsoe | Back in the 80 s huh what do you mean. Oh for sure for sure. Um, but I don't think we were suicidal I only I wasn't suicidal when I when I lost it was one of sick. |
| 53:31.65 | Max Shank | We weren't so far gone maybe does suicidal mean you're like really going to do it or you just thinking about what it would be like because who doesn't think about who doesn't think about what it would be like. |
| 53:41.36 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, there's suicidal ideation. Yeah well of course there's suicidal ideation and then there's suicid all um. |
| 53:53.60 | Max Shank | I mean I have it all planned out like you you want to do it. You want to but I'm a perfectionist that that's why I haven't done it. |
| 53:57.87 | mikebledsoe | I Just want to I just go skydiving and not not pull the cord man just go skydiving I don't pull the cord. That's that's my mask you know if I'm ever gonna go. It's probably I'll do it. |
| 54:08.62 | Max Shank | The problem is I'm a perfectionist I'm still planning out the perfect suicide which is the only thing that's saving me. |
| 54:11.96 | mikebledsoe | Ah, ah. So ah, anyways, she she basically had ah a major mental breakdown and ah, you know there's something. Ah, there's a few people out there. Jeed Mckenna is another person who basically went through a mental breakdown took about 2 years to get through it. |
| 54:35.61 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 54:37.12 | mikebledsoe | Which is what what they have in common is they stop believing their thoughts and they got down to they were able to stabilize the perspective of truth which is just a constant presence with reality without the. |
| 54:42.32 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 54:54.33 | mikebledsoe | Ah, without stories narratives things like that getting a fixed and attached to so she has a 4 step process for any narrative you might have to pry your identity from it and so ah, the the. |
| 54:57.89 | Max Shank | M. |
| 55:06.54 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 55:12.99 | mikebledsoe | The key issue is that people believe their thoughts and when you believe your thought to be true. You then identify for it with it. It becomes part of who you are and if you try to wrestle the belief out of somebody's ego. The ego is gonna fight back and say no, no, no Motherfucker. If I Let go of this then I'm gonna die going back to being accepted by the tribe because yeah, and so and so I need to be accepted by the tribe if I let this go. It's a very deep. Ah you know. |
| 55:35.61 | Max Shank | Right permanence. |
| 55:50.26 | mikebledsoe | Deep thing in your psyche. It's not something where you just hear me talk about it and go Okay I'm good with it I've been I've been hip to this conversation for a decade and I'm still you know wrestling with constantly questioning is this a belief or is this what I'm noticing or you know like there's a constant. Ah. |
| 55:54.28 | Max Shank | Are. |
| 56:09.99 | mikebledsoe | Questioning going on which I think is very very healthy if. You're not doing that if you haven't stabilized reality which I think almost you know, probably a handful of people alive on the planet have actually achieved that the rest of us are walking around with some type of narrative. Some people are so bought into it. They don't. Don't even know their beliefs might not be true and then to to be operating from a place where you're actually questioning your beliefs as and being based in something that's not reality is ah is ah I think a really healthy place to be and and that means that the ego has to you have to have a relationship to the ego. That is ah that is not so attached you know and if anyone is if anyone really wants to get to the core of beliefs and language and all that I think Byron Katie is likely the best. Practical resource There's some other really cool resources out there if you're really into the conceptual shit but she has got one of those practical tools I've seen out there. |
| 57:17.61 | Max Shank | So it all comes back to trying to ease suffering basically right because suffering is resistance and the opposite of resistance is acceptance so you accept the death of the ego which. |
| 57:24.56 | mikebledsoe | Now. |
| 57:37.10 | Max Shank | The reason people fear death of their body is because the story ends I I like to phrase it that way at least makes sense to me I would be willing to hear any argument to the contrary because I like a good argument, especially a civil. |
| 57:41.61 | mikebledsoe | That's right. |
| 57:52.11 | mikebledsoe | Um, I'm afraid of the horns and the pitchfork fellow. Yeah. |
| 57:55.76 | Max Shank | Argument. We're afraid of the devil that makes sense. Ah he seems pretty sinister. Guy seems like he would enjoy torturing you for a really long time. But anyway so jokes on him I dig it. |
| 58:05.78 | mikebledsoe | I Might like it though start jokes on him. Um. |
| 58:14.70 | Max Shank | Give it to me Diablo Man. Ah so we're talking about how to ease suffering pretty much and allow us to live with more peace more prosperity more productivity and. More productivity That's where technology comes into play and a tool is just a tool. It is in fact, ah more about how you use it So a scalpel in the hands of a child is very dangerous but a scalpel in the hands of a surgeon can. Save your life so understanding what you're trying to do with the tools you have available and is it more mindfulness is it more intentioned is it more deliberate. These are all Synonyms. Of course. But look computers are such crazy leverage machines but most of the time we're just floating stuff out there um to get validation which is an external trap rather than an intrinsic joy of doing and being. So recognizing what tools are most important in your life is a good place to start kind of embracing a minimalist attitude toward the tools that you possess and. Not necessarily does it Spark joy. But what is the real use of this can I get along without it and the same way. A computer can totally trap you on the internet if you don't have wisdom and you have a computer with internet Connection. You are fucked. Your your soul will be gone if you're going on Pure instinct and you have a computer with internet Connection. You're Gone. You need to have some wisdom to control these very powerful tools. It's the same with the refrigerator. Wow. What an amazing Concept. A refrigerator can store all this food. But if I have unregulated gluttony instead of wisdom which you know there are ancient proverbs that say eat until you're 80% full. It's It's the simplest thing. But that's why knowledge is easy but wisdom is really the practice of Knowledge. It's knowledge applied to your specific Situation. So I think having ah an appreciation for technology is maybe a good first step. |
| 01:01:00.26 | Max Shank | And recognizing how fortunate we are to have access to the goods that we have access to and to put yourself in a scenario where you don't have access to these tools and what life is like and then reintroduce them back. Into your existence. You'll have a greater appreciation for them and they'll you'll use them a lot more deliberately I think. |
| 01:01:28.48 | mikebledsoe | Well sir that that feels like an end of show synnosis. Yeah yeah, yeah, same. |
| 01:01:34.19 | Max Shank | Boom I Love it. Yeah so I think the I think the modern technology is way Easier. We don't need to talk about it too much and I think the the ancient wisdom has a lot of facets to it. It. It does primarily center around questions people have been asking for a long time and how do you find peace in your being joy in your doing and gratitude in your having. |
| 01:02:07.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, beautiful, well said? Yeah I think about um, a really good example is you know how do you for those who use Instagram how do you use it are you are you a pure consumer that's just scrolling through that's. Being used by technology or are you are you using technology are you are you creating with it and not only are you creating but are you creating something that that brings you joy and brings other people joy and so I think about technology is simply an amplifier of it's going to amplify what is if. If if your life is full of destruction. You're gonna be able to amplify that destruction if your life is full of creative creative energy. You're gonna be able to create unlike you were be able to you were able to create before so be aware of that and the number 1 technology. That we all have access to is language. So what? what was that noise. |
| 01:03:13.23 | Max Shank | Dude I was gonna say the same thing I'm I'm right there with you. There's no, there's no more valuable technology than language. That's why you and I harp on it so much is because it is ah other than getting comfortable sitting quietly and just. |
| 01:03:14.52 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 01:03:30.40 | Max Shank | Doing things in silence it. It is the the key to unlocking and relieving yourself of these burdens. |
| 01:03:34.78 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, if you can master that you can be the creator of your world and if you don't master that you will be the slave to other people who have mastered language. So ah, ah. |
| 01:03:48.44 | Max Shank | Pooh. We. |
| 01:03:52.78 | Max Shank | Ah, it reminds me. It reminds me of this thing I was reading about ancient Egypt where the the priest or the leader had ah a temple that no one else could go into and they would bring him gold and food and women and shit like that. |
| 01:03:57.39 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 01:04:11.82 | Max Shank | And he told them that every night he had to negotiate Mott M a at which is balance with the equal and opposite world on the other side but of course no one could ah confirm this but I was just thinking what a powerful. Language swindle that is to say hey listen every single day I'm going to negotiate with essentially the other world or the underworld to make sure there's balance in all of our lives as long as you bring me all your gold and food and all this Stuff. While I go into that private room and handle this negotiation. It's it's crazy that you can get people to do things just by making noises with your mouth speaking of marketing and sales I mean it's Crazy. It's Crazy. It's Crazy. It's not Fair. It's not Fair. It's basically cheating because your relation with your relationship with yourself basically language related in a lot of cases understanding the definition of things your relationships with other people largely language related and then your relationship with your customers. You are setting the tone. |
| 01:05:10.67 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, go. |
| 01:05:24.51 | Max Shank | With every word you say it's It's not Fair. It's not fair that it's such an unfair advantage that if you can speak and communicate in a way that is both clear and inspiring. You can exponentially. Amplify. Whatever it is. You're slinging if you're slinging carpet cleaning or fitness products like myself. It is fully an unfair advantage and I can speak from experience. |
| 01:05:45.14 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:05:55.80 | mikebledsoe | Absolutely and an overlooked thing around language I think most people when they hear using language especially in the way we've been talking about it is in regard to marketing or Pr Politics Media they're thinking about the outside language. Well there's also the internal dialogue you're having with yourself mastering that will help you master yourself and then the next layer inside of that is the the thoughts that are made up of words that are operating in your subconscious. And I I believe that everybody has witnessed this whether they recognize it or not they witness something that's been living in the subconscious pop up into the conscious realm of their mind and they go where whered that thought come from that was fucking weird that thought's been in there. For a long time more than likely and ah, you're just now you just now have awareness of it and it's likely been causing your your personality. It's been causing behavior for you and you didn't even know it. So I think it's safe to say if you. This is one of those useful beliefs that I have which is 95% and I I say 95% to get people a little more credit but I think it's probably closer to 98 or 99% of what's operating in your mind is subconscious, unconscious and ah. We we give ourselves a lot more credit for thinking that we're we're doing things on purpose when most of what we're doing is is an autopilot function and ah for me it. It's really cool to do conscious programming where I am. |
| 01:07:37.10 | Max Shank | The. |
| 01:07:48.44 | mikebledsoe | Intentionally bringing thoughts into my mind that are going to move me where I want to go but I find even more power and subconscious programming if you learn how to hypnotize yourself and embed codes that you want to operate without any conscious effort. Throughout the day. There's ways to do that as well and maybe I should put together a course or something I told somebody recently at a mastermind that they go well what thing could you bring to the group that would benefit them well I could teach you how to hypnotize yourself. Everybody's heads turn. Never heard of that before I've heard of hypnotizing other people. Yeah, you can hypnotize yourself but you know what show is wrapping up so I to save that little trick for later later it. It's really simple so hit hit me up on Instagram if you want to know about it oll ah send you a free Pdf or something. Have to make it up. |
| 01:08:44.62 | Max Shank | Cool modern technology. |
| 01:08:49.89 | mikebledsoe | All right max it out where where are people finding you these days. |
| 01:08:56.77 | Max Shank | Well I'm currently at the top of a very tall mountain studying with a monk who is 500 years old to figure out the meaning of life and he says in another couple hundred years. We just might figure it out. |
| 01:09:11.80 | mikebledsoe | Nice, nice looking forward to hearing the answer to that I'm gonna be using all the new biotech that's available to live to for another 200 years so I think we're gonna be good to go. Ah, you can find me on Instagram at Mike Underscore blood so and yeah check out the blood so show for more content interviews go to http://matchschk.com. He's not gonna toot his own horn today for whatever reason so go to http://maschank.com and check out. Courses on how to do cool stuff with your body and I'll see you next time Levy Max |
| 01:09:50.67 | Max Shank | Love you buddy! Thank you. |
Is what you know about money & business true and accurate? How can you be sure? You can’t…
Krisstina Wise is a leader in the world about both topics, and in this episode, she breaks down what you’ve learned so you can unlearn it and learn the truth instead.
| 00:00.00 | Max Shank | Welcome back everybody to Monday morning with max and Mike Today we are going to talk about arguably the most important topic in your life because it is your life. It's about securing your future. Both. From a fitness standpoint a financial standpoint and a friendship standpoint so we are gonna talk about what is going to happen in the near and possibly distant future and what you should do about it. This is gonna be really fun. Mike thanks for joining me today. |
| 00:34.83 | mikebledsoe | Thanks! Man. Ah yeah, I'm excited to talk about this because we were just chatting before as we always do we we get a good fifteen twenty minute chat on before we do the show and I was walking max through all the steps that I've been. I've been getting walked through by a friend of mine on how to secure crypto finances and what it really takes to make sure that those things stay safe and why does that interest me well that interests me because. I look at the future and I see a lot of uncertainty which I think everybody does and if you're somebody who thinks that the future is certain then you have really fooled yourself and because we have no idea what will happen so the lot of ah. |
| 01:25.67 | Max Shank | I Think a certain future has to be kind of a sad one The the more certainty in your future. The more sad it's going to be and that's the paradox of what we're talking about is the more you secure something the more you trap that something. |
| 01:30.12 | mikebledsoe | Set Yeah a certain future is boring. |
| 01:44.85 | Max Shank | Because there are really only two ways forward. There's exposure and avoidance and if you only use avoidance as a strategy you will have greater security but you also have a much lower quality of life in your world Your universe your unique perspective. |
| 02:03.69 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well, this also makes me think about the was it Nicholas Taleb nasim his approach in the book anti-fragile anytime I think about securing the future or investing or health and fitness I gravitate towards his philosophy. |
| 02:03.89 | Max Shank | Will shrink. |
| 02:23.41 | mikebledsoe | And his his first really well-known book that came out was the black swan and black swan was about black swan events those are events that are unpredictable and black swan is is a reference to ah europeans that thought that only swans could be white. And they never considered that there'd be a swan that was any other color and then some of these europeans hopped on boats and traveled to other parts of the world and one day they see a black swan and it was mind-bending because it was never considered that. That could ever be true anyway and so the future and well the the past is is littered with black swan events. We think we know what's going to happen or we think we can prepare for every eventuality but the truth is is you can't actually prepare for every eventuality. And I find that anytime I start trying to set up an avoidance system for every potential problem that might come up I actually end up getting really bogged down and creativity goes down and it becomes very difficult to move forward and so ah. In his book. Black Swan he starts getting into the anti-fragile conversation then he goes into anti-fragile conversation and in that book and he ah basically says that most humans think about systems as either being. Ah, fragile or robust they're on the spectrum of fragility to robustness and so I have a Toyota Tacoma. It's considered a very robust vehicle but over time it will become more fragile. It. It will not make improvements and the same with my computer. These are systems that are truly fragile systems but the human body and he also talks about he makes a lot of comparisons between the human body and the economy is there are certain types of systems that do well with some uncertainty. So if you. If you expose your body to in exercise to novelty in small doses. You will actually see improvements and the system improves. Overall if you if you throw ah too much novelty all at once then then you start breaking the system down of course. But really separating out. How do you What's the difference between a fragile to robust system that spectrum versus something that exists outside of that which is anti-fragile system and so that's how I like to think about. |
| 05:10.34 | mikebledsoe | When I think about my finances when I think about my business when I think about my health when I think about a lot of these systems some people if they're trying to prepare for every eventuality actually end up building a fragile system instead of. Thinking about it as how do I build an anti-fragile system and when they do that having a hiccup in the system may be a little uncomfortable in the short term but in the long term It turns out being a really good one so just bringing that to the forefront as I. When I think about securing my future I think about those things. |
| 05:48.90 | Max Shank | Yeah I like to think of adaptability as the Chief characteristic of survival and Thrival which is not a word but I like to use it Anyway. Ah from a fitness perspective. Adding chaos to your training is really valuable. In fact, culture the whole purpose of culture is to reduce unpredictability and to reduce chaos and if you do not. Do something to compensate for that. You get really sad human beings. That's why you need to have games where you introduce chaos in a relatively safe environment like I don't know if you're familiar with pushing hands from TaiChi. |
| 06:43.69 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 06:45.99 | Max Shank | There's couple different types. But basically you and your friend try to push the other one or pull the other one so that they have to take a step and your feed are firmly planted and this chaos is like a more appropriate version of wrestling. For the average person. So the ability to adapt and react to an external force is really the chief characteristic of survivability. So I think adaptability number one culture is to reduce. Chaos and unpredictability so we need games and we need to dose ourselves with chaos if we want to really thrive and then just in terms of the the systems let's say there's ah, a fine line between prudence. And paranoia right? because the most the most robust system really would be to live with maybe 1 other person or a family on a farm by the river in a bomb shelter. And only leave when it's absolutely necessary so you increase your predictability but you also decrease your openness. That's probably why the further you go down that rabbit hole of securing and protecting the less creative and open and expansive. You are right. |
| 08:17.73 | mikebledsoe | Well Also Chaos is still going to find its way in going back to the black swan event is you when you create I think when people create a high level predicted Predictability. There is this inability to deal with the the chaotic and. Environment that that will come no matter what the black swan event's gonna show up no matter what and the more predictable you've been trying to make it the harder it is to adapt to that situation. |
| 08:49.54 | Max Shank | I don't think they're mutually exclusive but I understand what you're saying I think the more cards you have in your hand. The better off you are I think the benefit of living in a culture is that there's a lot of redundancy built into the system. Where I live. There are a lot of people who are electricians and plumbers and auto mechanics. So if one of them goes down I can go on to the next one if 2 of them go down I can go on to the next one and if you're relying only on yourself. You have to. Gain a ton of skills or you have to live in a very primitive way where you're not really able to use technology I just had my laptop sent in to get the battery fixed and before I sent it in. |
| 09:39.38 | mikebledsoe | Drew um, did you remove all the videos of you with hookers smoking crack. |
| 09:44.65 | Max Shank | Oh no no I just have it in a secret folder. Why would I get rid of those hookers love crack some of them do ah but I looked online first before I sent it in to get fixed. And it was 75 steps to replace the battery and you can buy a kit and do all those and it was 75 steps and I was like oh my god if I mess up one of these steps I can totally destroy my whole computer. So I ended up getting it sent in and. Especially with technology you have to recognize that no man is an island and that's why you really want to have kind of a segue here a little bit you want to have a social network ah a radical rolodex. Of. Not only service people but also friends that you can count on so there's that safety net we talked about a little bit before the 3 safety nets financial fitness and friendships basically and it's so valuable. Have those relationships with different providers of service and different providers of products and it really does increase your security and survivability. |
| 11:09.16 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well I think about what's happening what I'm witnessing happening that continually which is ah the decentralization of things and the the format of of our our current economy. Being very capitalist I think it's going to just become more capitalist but the capitalism has allowed for a lot of that redundancy a lot of that the natural configuration if somebody goes down somebody will fill that spot and it doesn't have to be ah. Decided to buy a person's like oh we need to change this thing the system pretty much just adapts to whatever's going on in the environment in a capitalist society and as things decentralized more right now. It's like everybody is trading with everybody. But if we have a currency that is no. That not everyone agrees on in the future if if the dollar loses its value to a point where now we're going into decentralized currencies then there's this potential for a more tribalist type of society where you may not be conducting commerce. With certain groups of people and I think there's going to be an opportunity for these groups to segment and now I'm only go do business with people who are using these four currencies which I also use because the people that use these currencies share the same values and so whereas. Previously things were done geographically or by nationality things are now split up by individual values and and can be distributed throughout the entire world instantaneously and so I think that as far as the friendship goes and. Ah, social goes and economics go is having um you know if things deteriorate socially in in society as as it seems they they may go right now. It's good to make those friends have that person on board. You know have. 3 electricians on board have a few farmers that you're in contact with because the way that things have been done right now is there's a lot of single points of failure. For instance, you know through regulation Usda. You know you have to have a Usda butcher butchering the meat for it to be shipped across state lines and now you have these states that have almost no ability to birch butcher animals and distribute food and so ah, there's gonna be I think that there's gonna be a time where we. |
| 13:56.25 | mikebledsoe | We actually have to create our own network instead of just relying on I'll just go to the grocery store and pick this shit up and I've already begun doing that I've been on the phone with a woman just last week where we she she's in contact with regenerative farms and and it's helping distribute those goods locally. So. It's I think that yeah being able to just go online and pull up a technician to do this or that may become more difficult in the future and I think that the level of responsibility for having to create those connections yourself may go up. |
| 14:33.99 | Max Shank | Yeah I mean unfortunately the closer you get to the barter system the less comparative advantage you have because you have to have an agreed upon currency. That's the whole advantage of money. |
| 14:49.46 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 14:52.87 | Max Shank | Is that it makes it so easy to trade Things. We would never have been able to produce computers and yachts and trucks and all these crazy things like if you think about it I'm in shock when I. Drive my truck around because of how impossible it would be for me to make anything like that. Even if I knew exactly how to make it and what that's that's what I'm That's what I'm saying it would be. |
| 15:21.40 | mikebledsoe | I would totally not make it I could have every step laid out and be given all the parts still not doing it. Yeah. |
| 15:29.63 | Max Shank | It would be impossible just to gather. The materials would be Impossible. So The fact that we figured out how to trade with each other in such a hyper efficient way is the only thing that has allowed us to do all that so you know it. It's frustrating sometimes because the only thing a leader really needs to do is not fuck up the money and not get into any ah Wars or conflicts. That's actually the only thing a leader really needs to do ah and if you do those things though. |
| 15:58.47 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 16:07.37 | Max Shank | It gets really bad so preparing for those eventualities is valuable I think gosh you know we can start getting into the nuts and bolts of preparedness. Certainly it's good to own at least. 1 property because you got to live somewhere and as the money devalues because we don't know if it'll be hyperinflation or stagflation or we we can't predict those sorts of things. |
| 16:43.68 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the the the variables that are currently present have never been present before we we are in a black swan event. So we have no idea what the result will be. |
| 16:44.26 | Max Shank | But rents. |
| 16:53.11 | Max Shank | Yeah, we don't know what's going to happen next exactly. But it's good to have an Id in your mind just have your best guess because I think we've talked about it once before it's like buying Insurance. You don't ah buy insurance for. Everything you just buy insurance based on what is legally required or based on what probability you assign to a certain thing happening right? So What is the probability that the value of a dollar or you know let's say that just a. Keep it simple suddenly a gallon of gas is $200 and you're like whoa. This is really bad but then you have to in your mind assign a probability to that. Oh and a certain timeframe and it gets very difficult to do those things. So. |
| 17:43.75 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 17:50.99 | Max Shank | Barring that which is unknowable. What do we know for sure that will not change and that is human nature will not change and so if you are productive yourself and you provide a skill or a service or a product that people will always want. That's always going to be very valuable so that's like your your functional safety net. What function do you perform. |
| 18:15.70 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I I think about the 2 things that that I am I do I was talking to Ashley about this Saturday which is I secure my future by continually creating value and investing in emerging economies or emerging. Technologies and if I do those 2 things I'm not really that worried about my financial future now the other the other the 2 other f's we were talking about It's not relevant as relevant to that I mean the creating value is pretty relevant to the the. The friendships the social piece because if you're valuable people will want to be your friend. |
| 18:53.24 | Max Shank | Is. |
| 18:59.80 | Max Shank | No question I think that having a group of people that you can be open and honest with who have your back and you have their back. You can't really put a price on that. So. It's good to nurture those things on a regular basis. That's really not natural for me to do I tend to be more in my own head working on projects and not really think to just reach out to people but it's something that I've gotten a little bit better with and it makes a difference. You know invite a friend out to lunch or throw a frisbee around and it can go a really long way, especially given what's going on right now where people have probably been socializing less than ever in Maybe any society for a very long Time. You know. I Guess ah neighboring Hunter gatherers probably socialized with ah their neighbors less than we do, but it's It's not a lot so reinforcing Those relationships is huge. |
| 20:04.52 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and they didn't have ah well what? what's interesting is in the last couple years. The amount of actual social interactions gone way down, but the but the we'll call it the the fast food of. |
| 20:19.55 | Max Shank | Basement. |
| 20:24.36 | mikebledsoe | Social engagement has gone up. You know the Facebook instagram all the social media platforms. So I remember I was listening to a thing that what's his name. The guy the dilbert guy. What's his name Scott Adams he was talking a guy anyways. Um. |
| 20:34.87 | Max Shank | Scott Adams |
| 20:43.28 | mikebledsoe | Brilliant in some ways not in others but he he was talking. Yeah come on now I Well he would. |
| 20:46.30 | Max Shank | Not like you. You're brilliant in every way wait but real quick though he has an excellent Youtube video on writing just and the reason I'm plugging. It is. It's free. It's maybe a half hour long and writing. Or communication is one of the most high yield skills. There is so give give that a look in terms of securing your future. |
| 21:08.12 | mikebledsoe | It is yeah writing copywriting if you can write copy that is just you're able to write things that cause people to buy shit then you'll never go hungry. Ah yeah, so. |
| 21:23.89 | Max Shank | No way. |
| 21:28.40 | mikebledsoe | So Scott Adams was talking about somebody was challenged saying you know social interaction has gone down. He was like really seems like you know social interaction is higher than ever online and and that's why I say maybe he's not all that smart because he was making an argument for. Being we have more social interaction we ever have which is being dictated by algorithms and and you know of course humans tend to to create their own bubbles for sure like I surround myself with light-minded people where there's not a high level of disagreement. Ah, but the. |
| 21:48.92 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 21:57.50 | Max Shank | Oh yeah. |
| 22:04.55 | mikebledsoe | When there is disagreement. We can actually have a conversation and work our way through it whereas online that doesn't really happen. It just further divide is what happens and so um, you know a lot some people even people who are considered to be really brilliant like Scott Adams who who is brilliant in a lot of ways. You know he challenges that and I don't know what kind of world he lives in where he think and he may not have experienced that at all. He may have been surrounded by friends this whole time. Um, but. |
| 22:30.70 | Max Shank | Well, it also is a personality type difference and you know I've read a bunch of his books and they're very good. He's a hyper Introvert So this situation for him is almost perfect. |
| 22:41.31 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 22:47.10 | mikebledsoe | Probably been calming. He's probably been able to chill out. |
| 22:49.20 | Max Shank | He gets to he gets to hang out at home more. There are a lot less social obligations that you have to fulfill. Um, it's never been a better time for introverts and ugly people because you can stay home all day and put a mask over your face. |
| 23:05.86 | mikebledsoe | Um, well there was a did you see the study that people people now find other people more generally more attractive when wearing a mask. |
| 23:08.89 | Max Shank | Ugly introverts have never lived so good. Ah. |
| 23:18.64 | Max Shank | I mean it works in ah Saudi Arabia oh very mysterious. Ah, but you know someone like that. |
| 23:22.70 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I mean to that point I've been in the Middle East and I I was on a deployment I hadn't seen hardly any women for months and then I arrived somewhere where they're wearing the. Full facial covering all I can see with their eyes. So sexy. My imagination just fucking went wild. It didn't take very long at all couple months. No women and then full on Bura and that was it's true and I've seen I've seen some people where I've been on the airplane. |
| 23:43.89 | Max Shank | Now we're talking totally yeah, totally. |
| 23:59.66 | mikebledsoe | Like oh that girl looks pretty good. She pulls her mask down like ah. |
| 24:00.42 | Max Shank | Right? Well, it's like why guys grow beards so we can hide the bottom half of our face. It's like you don't know if I have a chin. Maybe I have a really strong chin. Ah. |
| 24:14.53 | mikebledsoe | That's right. |
| 24:16.99 | Max Shank | There are a lot of examples of what you're talking about with Scott Adams there and I think ah nasim Nicholas Teleleb is another good example where you have people who are really intelligent in 1 regard and then they just are so far off the mark in another regard and. We're so locked into this cause-effect relationship for health and we're trapped by the way that we do experiments and who runs the experiments and who pays for the experiment. So if you're. Taking everything very literally. You're only doing what is proven ah proven quote by science quote again, you're not going to recognize the value of sharing the same physical space with another person. You know you and i. Have explored that realm quite a lot where even just being in the same room as someone if you're not saying anything can be a really rewarding experience and it can bring you a lot of joy. And calmness and peace and resonance. There's a harmonization of 2 living beings and if you are caught up in the explicit and more material. Sort of thing you're going to discount the value of that and so in a sense you're right? It's it's easier to socialize now than ever through a screen ah through the telephone and it's better than nothing but it's not the same. |
| 26:07.51 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I'll go back to what you're saying like the the quote unquote proven for people who aren't seeing the video of us is anytime anyone starts talking about something's being proven to me. That's an immediate red flag. Someone goes. Oh. It's proven that that I go immediately I I Dis If if they got a Ph D beside their name or they consider themselves a scientist I in my from my perspective they just discredited themselves because any good scientists look saying the word proven. Is a marketing term. It's not a scientific term.. There are very few Proofs in Science. There's the only time you would talk about Proofs in Science is it's It's a mathematical equation. It's a it's hardcore physics. There are laws involved anything else. |
| 26:46.96 | Max Shank | Totally. |
| 27:03.00 | mikebledsoe | What I want to hear from somebody who's a scientist I Want to hear is there is evidence to suggest that http://dot.dot the problem is it's not a very good marketing.. It's not a good way to convince people of taking your side So just want to throw that out there. So as you're listening to. Quote unquote scientists out there talking about what's being proven and what's not usually if they're a bureaucrat in some way and they've got a Ph D and they start saying that I I immediately you know start questioning. Whatever it is. They're saying. |
| 27:35.54 | Max Shank | Well, it's like ah the phrase caused by cells way more than correlates with correlates with doesn't sell shit and if we don't know. |
| 27:45.70 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 27:53.81 | Max Shank | The best diet for people which we can't know because I don't know if you know this but people are different this whole idea that we should all eat the same stuff is freaking Insane yeah you and I we should all We should all take the same medication. Ah, you know. |
| 27:57.57 | mikebledsoe | Ah, no should we should We take the same medications to globally you know. |
| 28:12.16 | Max Shank | We should. We should all eat soybeans for the greater good too. Probably yeah, no correlation versus causation is probably my biggest gripe and it has to do with essentially gang mentality people are trying to protect their authority. And make these claims that x causes y when really it's just that x correlates with y and it would be a lot easier to have a conversation about that if there wasn't such a fanaticism around these things. Let's have an open conversation about correlation. Versus causation and god it's it's hard to see if you're not in the industry yourself, but the amount of people throwing $10 words around is like so unnecessary. Maybe that just irks me because. I I know what those words mean but I also know that it just makes it harder for the individual to understand and when you say something like post brandial forward ambulation. Why don't you just say go for a walk after you eat. So so it's like so ridiculous to me? well but that's just yeah, that's just it. It sounds much fancier if you use these fancy terms and that that is what sells and um. |
| 29:29.30 | mikebledsoe | Ah, well I won't I won't sound smart to the other scientists I won't be able to impress people. |
| 29:46.73 | Max Shank | You have to protect yourself from that speaking of securing your future I think making sure you can't make sure all the way but making sure you don't get swindled by the popularity paradox and the popularity paradox is something I use to describe. The fact that um things that are popular are usually only so because they're striking or different.. It's like a purple cow is going to be more attention grabbing but you probably shouldn't eat. It. |
| 30:23.29 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, that the more popular something is the more I I question it something that like I just look at Mainstream and I've had people ask me and they go. Why are you? Why are you so extreme and. So alternative in every area of your life. It seems like if I if I uncover an aspect in my Life. You will go Wow. You're so extreme or whatever and I go look if it's mainstream if everybody is agreeing on it I start asking questions. And I start looking the opposite way because I'm just looking at the results of the mainstream if the results of the mainstream were you know, ah beautifully healthy bodies financially secure and everything was going really great I would pay attention to what the mainstream is. |
| 30:58.74 | Max Shank | The. |
| 31:05.94 | Max Shank | Totally. |
| 31:16.55 | mikebledsoe | Doing and and follow suit. But when I look at the mainstream I go the results of what's happening in the mainstream are so poor that to listen to any of those people giving advice on how to live life or to do things their way. And it would just be sad and for people who understand Health and fitness the the food pyramid's a great example of of that or the most the most predominant food in the grocery store is corn and there's all these there's there's. |
| 31:39.27 | Max Shank | For. |
| 31:46.90 | Max Shank | A. |
| 31:51.54 | mikebledsoe | There are these things like the food pyramid and and the predominance of corn that bring into question is like oh should I be eating corn if that's what everyone else is eating and they look like shit and ah and should I be eating like the food pyramid because the average person. They've been exposed. That's the only information they've really been exposed to on how to eat and they look and feel like shit. So let's look at something else. So the same thing with with economics and with investing you know if everyone's doing an ira. Everyone's doing an Ira and doing ah a. This and that and s and p five hundred I I look you might be able to have your investment match inflation. Hopefully probably not this year but in previous years you you probably outperformed it just kind of depends on here and there. But. You know the average person is not making that kind of investment but even out of the people who are investing the mainstream is that and there returns the amount of money you have to to invest in order to retire if you're gonna put it into a typical ira or something like that is ridiculous. You have to start investing in your twenty s and hopefully you'll be able to take some out in your 60 s. And it just it that to me does not make any sense so I look at alternative investing strategies as well and so and to me that's where I was talking about investing in in emerging technology. So web 3.0 to me right now is the emerging technology anything that's web 3 o is interesting to me tesla stock is interesting to me there. There. Ah, there's a new. Ah there's a new. Strategy for mining bitcoin that Exxon Mobileil has put into place but there's also some small companies that have ah partnered with some some oil drilling companies that the flair. So. There's a lot of methane gas that's produced when drilling for oil and that's where you see those fire stacks and they're just letting that air out well burning up that methane and creating a lot of co 2 in fact, and they're being taxed on that co 2 but they figured out how to capture that methane. And use that as a fuel for servers to mine cryptocurrencies and so now they're going to save 50% on their taxes and they're now mining cryptocurrencies. So to me I look at that and go that's a very clever emerging technology that's based on. |
| 34:21.73 | Max Shank | There you go. |
| 34:37.71 | mikebledsoe | What's happening and and blockchain and web 3.0 and so I'm looking at all this and I go that's where I want to put my attention. Ah the majority of it for me and of course I'm I'm someone who's who's always trying to stay ahead of the curve and not be in the mainstream. |
| 34:54.63 | Max Shank | Investment Strategy can look a lot of different ways. You can get very rich selling wood pellets. Ah I I tend to do kind of the opposite of what you're talking about which is more more to look at things that are. |
| 34:56.40 | mikebledsoe | So. |
| 35:08.22 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 35:14.39 | Max Shank | Generating cash and creating real profit right now that has a bad public perception If we're talking about individual companies to invest in something that people need something that is delivered at a profit. Something that isn't going to change in the future but there are a lot of things that get publicly beaten down because they're not. They don't sound as cool. Um, so it's tricky. The truth is though if you don't know. |
| 35:41.00 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 35:50.90 | Max Shank | Ah, you can spend the time to teach yourself, but you probably would be better off investing in growing your own business I Assume most of the people listening to this own their own business. So um, investing into your own ability to generate income and then investing into a single. Property that you can live in so you're not just spending money on rent every month before you worry about investing into other companies because you can get a way better return betting on yourself. |
| 36:17.70 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 36:23.36 | mikebledsoe | Well that that's a predominant view and which which I held for a long time which is if I'm going to reinvest in my business What's what's a better place to reinvest the problem is I I lacked diversity. And my portfolio basically and so my business didn't do well which is not always in my control then now I'm fucked to so the the frame that I've I've adopted in the last year is I treat my business as an income producing asset. |
| 36:40.56 | Max Shank | Right? right? totally. |
| 36:59.67 | mikebledsoe | It's not a place to build Wealth Wealth is built by other high leverage income producing Income Producing assets and what I'm looking for is the highest leverage that means it requires the least amount of effort for me to get the highest returns possible. |
| 37:18.58 | Max Shank | So investing. Basically. |
| 37:18.97 | mikebledsoe | And so if I'm investing my own. Yeah, but if I'm investing in my own business and I'm still working in my business. It's actually not a very high leverage. But if I become a a true. Yeah, well you want to become a I don't think anything is passive. But. |
| 37:26.14 | Max Shank | Right? I see so you're talking about passive investing right. |
| 37:37.38 | mikebledsoe | Some is more active than others and so like even in the stock market. |
| 37:41.29 | Max Shank | Passive meaning you're not doing any work or management. You know you can trade certainly but right, but okay so you could hire you could hire a fund manager you could hire a fund manager I suppose would be the the. |
| 37:45.11 | mikebledsoe | Um, that's still managing though you're stopping a you're giving it energy. Yeah, you do it all the politicians do yeah so and they can claim that they they oh I didn't know I was investing in Lockheed Martin 24 hours before the war with Russia was announced. |
| 37:56.92 | Max Shank | Least effort. What's that what. |
| 38:11.39 | Max Shank | Ah, well. |
| 38:13.51 | mikebledsoe | There's ah that you Nancy Pelosi you know one of the the biggest offenders of taking advantage of inside knowledge for the purpose of investing there was a Twitter account that tweeted every one of her trades. |
| 38:19.55 | Max Shank | Um, oh yeah, yeah, what a surprise. |
| 38:30.81 | mikebledsoe | And then Twitter bandit which is a very interesting thing. Yeah, but going back to I really like to put money I think you're right invest in your own ability to create value so that you can continue to have income that produces income initial income. And then ah you know own a home so that you're not just paying rent because she does hit the fan and look my mortgage is set I'm paying the same amount. The the dollar could lose half its value which it may and. Which basically means I got a cheaper house and what good for me. But if I was paying rent. What what do you think? Rent's going to do rent's gonna go. It's gonna skyrocket. It has to so actually if you're a homeowner you almost want and and most of your stuff's in real estate inflation. |
| 39:10.96 | Max Shank | You're locked in. |
| 39:16.74 | Max Shank | Um, it has to. |
| 39:27.76 | mikebledsoe | Could be seen as ah as a positive thing hyperinflation is not because that's just disrupts the entire economy. But yeah, so and then the third one is so invest in your own ability to create value and get your property and then invest in high leverage assets things that just produce income which I think is what you were saying what you want to. Investment things that are throwing off cash now not something where I'm going to put money in and hopefully it goes up in value and I'll be able to take some out the future is that accurate. |
| 39:55.80 | Max Shank | Yeah, yes, and it's tricky too because um, if there was an investment that didn't follow the rules of risk and reward everyone would invest into it so risk and reward are proportional and. |
| 40:07.88 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 40:13.95 | Max Shank | If you buy I don't know let's say Tesla right now you're probably not going to hundred x your money over the next few years I don't see how it could happen I'm already stunned that that company is worth so much. It makes no sense is divorced. |
| 40:21.21 | mikebledsoe | No. |
| 40:33.60 | Max Shank | It's divorced from reality. Um, so we could have a separate conversation about that. But there are companies that you could purchase that can hundred x over the next couple years but they can also go to 0 |
| 40:45.19 | mikebledsoe | Um, um. |
| 40:51.39 | Max Shank | So The risk is much higher and the reward is much higher. So If you're looking to diversify your wealth then it would make sense to be really clear on that risk reward. You can. Only gain more if you risk more generally speaking if it's going to be a passive investment because you're not in control of what a cryptocurrency is going to do. You're not in control of what a company's going to do and usually the the more secure it is the less volatile it is. |
| 41:26.41 | mikebledsoe | yeah yeah I I this is where you and I differ because you you tend to go more on the conservative route and so that the 2 things I invest the 2 things I've invested in so far. Ah. |
| 41:28.55 | Max Shank | The less It has the potential to grow. So. |
| 41:36.55 | Max Shank | Is true. |
| 41:44.20 | mikebledsoe | The most heavily has been startups and the second would be crypto and I've 2 of the 3 are winners and the but 1 of them which was my biggest investment ah went to 0 in a month |
| 41:51.11 | Max Shank | M. |
| 42:01.10 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 42:02.50 | mikebledsoe | So I was just I basically just took money put it in the toilet and flushed it that one hurt and I I learned to I yeah I learned I learned to vet a little better. Um and then cryptocurrencies. |
| 42:06.45 | Max Shank | Might as well have bought a boat. |
| 42:13.37 | Max Shank | Well, you have a different skill set too. You have a different skill set too. So your investment style matches your personality type it matches your skill set. You have a lot of experience with startups I've got almost. |
| 42:21.19 | mikebledsoe | E a. Um, I Also spot Trends in the Market. Um I'm very good at seeing patterns in the market and I can tell when people are going to be interested in something. |
| 42:35.33 | Max Shank | Can you can you let me know next time you have one of these predictions nostra Daic Theta a crypt the cryptocurrency which could certainly go to 0 right. |
| 42:42.18 | mikebledsoe | Theta Theta Yeah, yeah, it's got utility. Um I doubt it because a lot.. It's a video streaming. It's got a video streaming utility and a lot of it. Big video streaming companies have already adopted it it it ah it reduces the amount of Bandwidth necessary to exchange more data I don't know how the fuck it works but it works Um, and. |
| 43:12.73 | Max Shank | Sounds like the the the company from that show Silicon Valley pied piper like takes your data and makes it smaller. That's one of the greatest shows ever as hilarious. |
| 43:20.75 | mikebledsoe | That's right I Love that show. Ah, it's a good show. Oh man. Yeah, if you if you're in the entrepreneurial world or ever been around startup ah in the startup world. It's It's ah pretty good. |
| 43:35.41 | Max Shank | You can win more by not diversifying all the richest people the fastest didn't diversify Zuckerberg no diversity. Ah Elon Musk not they're not diversifying. It's like a a spike. There's no. |
| 43:37.29 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 43:42.82 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 43:53.52 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, no. |
| 43:53.68 | Max Shank | Well-roundedness to the investment. There's no there's no pyramid of like I have some here and some here and some here and some here and you can go further and you can earn more and you can also lose everything so you just have to find the appetite for risk reward that will. Allow you to sleep at night because if you earn a little bit less but you sleep soundly every night. It's probably a good idea and there's a good phrase to be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy. And if you can avoid being too greedy. You won't be ah you know having heart palpitations when you're thirty years old because you're worried that you know all your investments are gonna go to 0 so you just gotta you gotta to match that. |
| 44:44.76 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah, what? but. |
| 44:49.68 | Max Shank | Mentality and what kind of Lifestyle you want to live and I feel like the advantage with investing and with insurance and if you want to stockpile food and cash and gold and that kind of thing. It's ah set it and forget it. You don't want to be. Thinking about it all the time that defeats the purpose of buying Insurance. You know. |
| 45:10.64 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, but this whole thing reminds me of my girlfriend and I about we had been dating for about five or six months and you know I I was heavily investing in crypto and and. She had some money to invest in something. Yeah, you might want to look at crypto I can't tell you what to invest in I'm not you know I'm just saying hey I I like my returns have been pretty fucking. Good. This is the an example of what can happen and I've been pretty conservative so in the crypto world I'm conservative. Ah. I'm not looking for I'm not looking for the unicorns right? So there's you know, really solid fundamentals and all this because well part of it is because I I look at the dot com era and I see a lot of. |
| 45:48.41 | Max Shank | Blows blows my mind. Um, yeah. |
| 46:05.97 | mikebledsoe | Similarities between web 3.0 and and http://the.comboom bust and which means that 99% of the your invest of of these companies these coins all these these nfts they're all going to go to nothing ah but 1% is going to become. You know Google Youtube Twitter Facebook you know these these new things will emerge so pay attention and invest in things and you don't have to get in that early if you want to make if you want to turn you know $10000 into a b. Then yeah, you might have to get in and when something's selling at ¢3 ah per per coin. But I'll get in when it's 10 or fifteen I don't give a shit because it's going to 500 I mean I'm gonna get a ah hundred x out of it. So um, yeah, that. Um, I'm fairly conservative. My girlfriend gets into the market and she is checking it every day and you know it's going up and she's so excited it goes down. She's she's like what the fuck freaking out and I go stop looking at that shit the only the only time you should look at it is if it's not going to. |
| 47:06.57 | Max Shank | Is it. |
| 47:15.90 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 47:21.46 | mikebledsoe | Either You have the the constitution to where it's not going to bother you. You're not getting an emotional swing out of it being good or bad or you like what you were saying is set and forget it buy a bunch of cryptocurrencies and then put it on a decentralized wallet somewhere folks not not an exchange. |
| 47:26.28 | Max Shank | Home. |
| 47:41.32 | mikebledsoe | Not on coinbase not on Voyager get on a decentralized wallet like trust wallet and or exodus. |
| 47:50.50 | Max Shank | I'm I'm waiting for Mike's investing handbook. It sounds like you have a figured out man. |
| 47:53.69 | mikebledsoe | I Ah my I'm gonna be working with my buddy he he built a course I'm trying to get him I want to interview him and then promo the course because I the the information I've gotten from him has been incredibly valuable. |
| 48:11.30 | Max Shank | Nice there you go. |
| 48:12.54 | mikebledsoe | And he knows what the fuck he's talking about he comes from the financial background so he used to be in in bait he used to be in banking and then he's and and so you know he he worked in debt and then he got into crypto so the guy the guy's been thinking about money for twenty plus years in ways that we haven't. And but yeah, set it and forget it. |
| 48:34.22 | Max Shank | You know what you were saying what you were saying earlier about your girlfriend there checking it all the time you know you wouldn't check the value of your house every single day if you owned a house. Oh my god. |
| 48:45.68 | mikebledsoe | Oh she does that too. We just bought a house. She's like checking the value the homes in the area because because because the market is actually moving really fast where we live. It's like oh we probably already made like $50000 like maybe. |
| 49:01.33 | Max Shank | Well yeah, maybe and you know, checking something like that all the time can can be good if if you're a trader if you're looking to move stuff around quickly and when you have a smaller account. It's easier to move more of your. |
| 49:12.69 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 49:20.62 | Max Shank | Percentage of your portfolio more quickly so you have more agility and you could be more nimble but it kind of reminds me, you were talking about the pelosi trading thing earlier and I was just thinking about how. We have technology like never before just based on technology Alone. We should all be working less and earning more and living healthier and living longer. But we don't and there are all these traps out there. |
| 49:46.15 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 49:56.28 | Max Shank | And people check every day like oh what's going on in the world and it's probably it's It's probably the biggest trap there is because it takes you out of the here and now the flow which is the only thing that's going to. |
| 50:01.48 | mikebledsoe | Um, that's the same thing right? Yeah yeah. |
| 50:14.94 | Max Shank | Really bring you fulfillment when you become the task. Whatever it is. You're doing um people who retire early they gotta find something to do ah sometimes the only thing they find to do is drinking themselves to an early grave. So. You get these people. Maybe they owned a chain of dental offices retire at 40 They got to go out on the golf course or learn carpentry or start a band with their other old friends at the country Club. You got to do something and you got to do something that takes you into the here and now and into that flow. And the worst thing you can do is try to stay abreast of things that have no ah that you have no chance of influencing your life in a positive way as a result of knowing these things So when I think about. The Ah Friend safety Net which is really like a psychological safety net because you should be your own. Best friend Hopefully ah, you're you're abusing yourself mentally by trying to stay on top of what's going on and oh this.? Ah. Dude is winning at swimming against the ladies and I'm outraged about it and what the fuck it's like who cares? are you gonna do something about it. No then like just live your life and it's hard because it's very entertaining I think getting trapped. |
| 51:33.67 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 51:49.40 | Max Shank | Into a tribal identity is like 1 of the worst things you can do you're like oh I identify as he him or she her or I identify as trans or maybe I I could identify as black or whatever. |
| 52:05.57 | mikebledsoe | Or even liberal or conservative. |
| 52:07.50 | Max Shank | Ah, well God Yeah, why would you want to like wear their logo on your t-shirt like are you out of your mind. They don't care about you? Um, so I think about that as being one of the biggest traps there is I think. |
| 52:23.43 | mikebledsoe | Well you you you don't have to ah those traps work because. |
| 52:25.70 | Max Shank | If Your identity is if your identity is based on. Ah if your identity is based on a group it means that your individual character is Worthless. You're like looking for something Oh I'm part of this group. Not. I'm me and I can do this this that or the other thing is just I'm on this team if that's all you have to offer is I'm on this Team. You suck as a person probably. |
| 52:54.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well, it's easy you you can stop thinking for yourself and adopt whatever somebody is telling you you should be mad about or what you should care about because you now fit into this this group identity and it's um. |
| 52:59.38 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 53:13.71 | mikebledsoe | It's really really sad. Yeah, it's really really sad, but and it's hard for us to tell people this because I've told people this before and they're like well it's easy. You're a white guy and I was like I was like yeah what did you see? did you see ah somebody posted the other day. |
| 53:13.87 | Max Shank | It's mental illness. It's mental illness. It's like it's like if you. |
| 53:26.20 | Max Shank | I'm a black lady How dare you assume my race or gender. |
| 53:33.20 | mikebledsoe | About ah the if you identify as a woman as ah as a woman owned business. So if your business is owned by a woman then you have all this access to these government grants and all this all this stuff and I was like oh this is brilliant I can just. |
| 53:44.70 | Max Shank | Amazing. |
| 53:49.94 | mikebledsoe | Identify as a woman because it obviously doesn't seem to be a problem right now and some people were posting like oh then you would get you know that would be fraud I'm like okay so do we have men and women or or are we going to reward some people for. Being born a certain way. |
| 54:08.40 | Max Shank | You know it's kind of like these otherwise healthy people are electing to participate in Schizophrenia every day by the way they're using their computers. Like plugging into the hive mind to have all these voices yelling at them of they should be this way or they should be this way and then they're yelling back into the void. No, you should be this way fucker and it's like whoa my God and look we have. |
| 54:33.26 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 54:40.49 | Max Shank | Such crazy technology. We have so much leverage potential at our fingertips and we're using it to yell at a stranger about something We don't have any nuanced opinion of we're just carrying water for someone else who's trying to blind us all to the fact that. |
| 54:52.25 | mikebledsoe | No. |
| 54:57.51 | mikebledsoe | Um, are you carrying water for Putin Oh my gosh. Um. |
| 55:00.37 | Max Shank | Ah I don't carry water for anybody. But I recognize but I recognize but I recognize that carrying water blindly for Ukraine isn't necessarily a good idea either and I have the confidence to admit that I don't know a god damn thing about North Asian Fucking Politics you know what? I'm saying it's it's crazy that everyone has such a strong opinion about these things but all it does is distract all it does is distract from you know I feel like a ah a record that's just on repeats like the only thing that really matters is jurisdiction. |
| 55:20.54 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well, it's it's funny because if you come out with no opinion. |
| 55:39.44 | Max Shank | And Authority who's in charge and when do do they get to police that authority of theirs and if you're a leader. The only thing you shouldn't do is fuck up the money or get into Wars and that's what's happening and we're all just like but what about this guy swimming. |
| 55:43.32 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 55:58.92 | mikebledsoe | Um, ah it's incredible. |
| 56:01.50 | Max Shank | It's like yes it Yes, it's stupid. Yes, it's stupid. Okay, but also there's there's not like a healthy priority list. You know I'm saying it's it's insane. |
| 56:09.91 | mikebledsoe | Oh I totally get it why why does why was that the most talked about thing for 2 or 3 days last week when. |
| 56:19.20 | Max Shank | Because it's hiding other stuff that was way more sinister. No question and look if it bleeds it leads I get it. But you don't have to participate in it. You will definitely live more angrily. If you are constantly plugging into that thing and I get really excited about it because I've coached a lot of people both ah business wise coaching training wise and as soon as you realize that the biggest limiting factor in getting what you want is you. |
| 56:39.15 | mikebledsoe | Are. |
| 56:52.74 | Max Shank | Then your whole perspective changes about everything because that's also the only thing that you have control over. Yeah I think ah. |
| 56:53.97 | mikebledsoe | But but it's much easier to blame other people for my lack come on. How am I supposed to use my scapegoats to feel better about myself for not doing shit. |
| 57:06.62 | Max Shank | You know what that makes sense I I would be so much better off if that guy wasn't swimming against the ladies. It's I think that's where the most of my problems are being caused good God man. Okay, so. |
| 57:16.65 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah. |
| 57:24.88 | Max Shank | What do we got here. We have. Um, we have a culture the the culture is sick but the technology is awesome. So if you can avoid participating in the culture at large and create a group a family ah of friends and relationships that engage in. Healthy Behavior. You essentially have the keys to the Kingdom psychologically if if you pretty much avoid the media ah and focus on improving your own life. That's also the best way to lead is. By example, you know you just live your life The way you want to on your terms. And you'll be way better off and you'll find that you have lots more time. Everyone's like oh I'm so busy I'm so busy, but the the truth is it's more of ah, a verbal tick to let people know that you're not Lazy. It's not I don't have time I'm so Busy. You're basically just telling them I'm not lazy I'm not lazy I'm not lazy right? but. |
| 58:23.93 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, or I have a I have a terrible method for setting priorities. |
| 58:30.42 | Max Shank | I Can't prioritize my life even with space age technology I can't prioritize my life even with space age technology I'm so busy I'm so busy I have no time I have no time I have no time. It's ridiculous. So ah, ah. |
| 58:41.62 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I've had I've had students come through. It's It's hilarious students come through and they're like I don't have time to do the program and they're single and living with their mom I go. |
| 58:50.64 | Max Shank | And. |
| 58:59.28 | mikebledsoe | You don't have time to do the pro. What what are you doing like you're 23 like what do you? You think you don't have time right now this is gonna be a rough one. There's gonna be a rough life for you. |
| 59:10.40 | Max Shank | It feel like we got a little off the rails there I think I I think I I think I took us I think I took us right off the rails. You know I get all fired up sometimes. |
| 59:14.18 | mikebledsoe | We did all right? Let's go Back. It's definitely all your fault. Um, so all right? So securing your future fitness we'll we'll ah we'll start wrapping here. Securing your future fitness How tos. |
| 59:31.78 | Max Shank | Walk a lot. Um, learn how to prevent falling which is stepping and lunging and learn how to prepare for falling which is rolling and falling. Is a really good example of risk and reward because the probability that you will fall is basically 100%. You're not going to live your life without falling now given a fall There's maybe a less than 1% chance that you will die or maybe a 1 % chance that you will die but a 1 % chance of death should be plenty of motivation to learn how to fall well and learn how to lunge so that you can prevent falling and that's because even though the risk ah probability wise is very low. You will kill yourself in a fall the cost of that error is total death total annihilation so because the cost is so high even if the probability is low. You want to prepare yourself for falling and then the last. |
| 01:00:39.45 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, you know what it might have been I want to interject here because it might have been you. It might have been another coach that I've been interacting with over the last decade who knows but they talked about a relationship to the ground and ah was a you that use that terminology. Okay. |
| 01:00:44.55 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 01:00:52.91 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. |
| 01:00:59.31 | mikebledsoe | And and I remember talking to you about that and I really when I started holding that frame my training shifted and I became ah I prioritized my relationship to the ground and then I anytime I came across like my. Ah, like older people in my family I would talk to their their. Yeah they well they fall into bed So The bed is about hip height so they can just like roll into bed. They can roll out and then they. |
| 01:01:22.59 | Max Shank | They're afraid of the ground they're afraid of the ground a lot of time they're afraid Chest high. |
| 01:01:35.77 | mikebledsoe | They they fall back into the recliner they fall into their car. They get out. They sit in their office chair. They fall into their office chair. It's all it's got to be cushy and they have no practice whatsoever. Getting up and down off the ground. So a lot of like older family members and things like that they asked me about how to be in better shape because I walk in they're like wow you're 40 so got a 6 pack. Yeah so how do you do that I go well at first I work on my relationship to the ground and then I teach them how to. Get up and down off the ground which basically means like let's get all the way down and then you'll figure it out but practice that and I I put my you're the same way cause I've seen your bed. The bed is on the floor because I know that if I practice if I sleep on the floor that's guaranteed. |
| 01:02:09.60 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 01:02:23.47 | mikebledsoe | I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna get down at least once that entire day off the ground if I do that for the rest of my life. It's not gonna be a problem for me whereas for most people it is so I just wanna throw that in there because that was so valuable. |
| 01:02:32.33 | Max Shank | A. |
| 01:02:39.51 | mikebledsoe | Ah, such a valuable frame for me to adopt. |
| 01:02:40.74 | Max Shank | I Think our listeners are just wondering why you've seen my bed. |
| 01:02:50.26 | mikebledsoe | I've seen his steam room too. |
| 01:02:50.63 | Max Shank | Hey now it wasn't steamy before you got in there. Ah I couldn't I can't help myself. Ah and also ah bone density being being able to support ah heavy-ish. |
| 01:02:57.40 | mikebledsoe | I Hope what else in. |
| 01:03:10.22 | Max Shank | Amount of force with your skeleton being able to carry stuff very um, important skills. Um, that's actually what my primal athleticism program is all about it's a daily practice primarily for longevity. You're not going to be. Deadlifting £600 you're not going to be cranking out 20 handstand pushups but you're going to learn how to skip and bounce and roll and crawl and fall and climb and carry things and those are some of the most important skills I think. Just because we're in the fitness industry people overemphasize certain things because it's the brand of their cult. You know people are like oh muscle wasting you got to be careful muscle wasting and it's because we're in essentially the muscle business if you're a dude right? ah. |
| 01:04:03.64 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, pretty. |
| 01:04:07.23 | Max Shank | But a lot of skinny people live a really long time. So It's really more important that you are strong and you are able to use your muscles in an adaptable way kind of back to what we talked about before the Chief attribute is elasticity which is really. About adaptability to a wide range of forces at a wide range of angles at a wide range of positions and that's what my elasticity program is all about and it doesn't have to be complicated. Um, you could probably just do TaiChi every day go for walks and. Not eat too much and have friends and live a really long time. Yeah. |
| 01:04:49.30 | mikebledsoe | Love it. So the things I would add on the fitness side is master your breath so learn learn how to breathe well into every part of your body I Like to think about my. |
| 01:04:57.73 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 01:05:07.19 | mikebledsoe | About I'm breathing through a sphere and I'm breathing into the bottom I'm breathing into my back I'm breathing into the top all of that equally I can I can breathe just into the bottom I can breathe just into the top I have control over where the air flows and I do things like tape my mouth shut. At night to make sure that I'm only nose breathing and game changer and I don't have to take my mouth shut for it to stay shut. But I Still do it just to you know, be sure and so ah for. |
| 01:05:29.25 | Max Shank | Breathe through that nose Hell yeah, that's game changer for a lot of folks. |
| 01:05:41.41 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:05:46.42 | mikebledsoe | For that if if your breath isn't handled then you know everything else will fall apart and put in a lot of emphasis. Ah after Breath Spine being able to feel and articulate at each Vertebrae I Found to be extremely useful and I found that once I. Put my attention there. My athleticism overall went up my hand-eye coordination improved all that happened when I started putting attention on the spine and I have no you know Spine pain anymore whereas I used to have a lot of core issues and. |
| 01:06:21.20 | Max Shank | Plus your chakers. We all lined up to line the chakris. |
| 01:06:25.39 | mikebledsoe | Gotta gotta align no chakra's baby and and yeah it ah it helps so those are my 2 big things in regard to movement and then obviously you just got to learn how to eat you got learn what works for you experiment. |
| 01:06:36.11 | Max Shank | The fitness side. |
| 01:06:43.50 | Max Shank | We could do a whole thing on the fitness side of longevity because you know all the moving parts are so important you know your feet taking care of your feet I don't want to drag out this conclusion too long, but there's an old Chinese proverb that says we age from the roots up and I don't necessarily. |
| 01:06:44.91 | mikebledsoe | I'm a big. Yeah. |
| 01:07:03.50 | Max Shank | Live my life by Proverbs I don't know the origin of but I think it is still good to take care of your feet. |
| 01:07:10.28 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, so ah, we're just hitting the top ones all right? Yeah, we could go on and on on that so in regard to finance and the money. What's ah overall securing your future. |
| 01:07:28.40 | Max Shank | Number 1 thing number. Yeah, we sure did I think you gave us a little mini crypto master class there ah teaser it's coming soon. Ah, get get comfortable with less. |
| 01:07:28.91 | mikebledsoe | We we I think we talked primarily about that. But yeah, just quick synopsis. |
| 01:07:47.37 | Max Shank | To start out with you know, you're not gonna find a lot of fulfillment from buying yourself a bunch of toys and being fancy. It's way better to start hungry and stay hungry. Ah eat until you're 80% full, go ahead and defer gratification. You can work for money or you can put money to work for you and people put themselves in debt trying to keep up with the joneses and it's all status games. It's totally not worth It should ah start with a very spartan lifestyle if you're already kind of in. And extravagant mode. But you're not really comfortable with your finances like you know it's a mistake you got to be able to defer gratification for later and those are the people who earn the most is the ones who can. Be a little bit more patient so that's probably the first that's probably the first thing deferred gratification. Don't get into debt. |
| 01:08:46.74 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, ah debt debt is mainstream. So ah, it's incentivized right now. Um I'm not gonna say all debt is bad I carry some debt which I would consider be good debt. |
| 01:09:04.79 | Max Shank | Like a house. |
| 01:09:05.75 | mikebledsoe | But um, like a house something that's low interest. It allows me to free up cash to put into things that are higher return, but my debt is optional if I wanted to clear out my debt right now I could do it. It's just not a financially intelligent move. Um, because where the money's at otherwise is is creating way more earnings than than what I would save on my debt payments on the on the interest. So yeah, kill the debt create Value. So always be. And what I mean by create value is be in touch with the things that other people value. So We we talked about writing as being one of the most valuable things I agree with that learn how to communicate Well ah one of my previous mentors. He wrote a book. Called last safe investment and categorized labor in the 4 categories one was physical labor technical labor creative labor and interpersonal labor and with each one of those the value goes up so labor is physical. Labor is the lowest value technical labor is the second lowest value. And then Creative labor is the next one up and the highest value labor is Interpersonal. So ah, you know writing being Creative. There's technical aspects to it of course but leadership sales things like that being interpersonal copywriting is something that bridges the creative and interpersonal. So. When you're thinking about which what type of labor you want to improve on unless you're going to be a professional athlete. Ah, you're going to probably see the biggest return on developing yourself as a leader or in your creative abilities and then last. Money for me is invest in emerging technology pay attention to what technologies are emerging that's going to be a good wave to catch. But as we talked about you know with emerging Technologies A lot of those will go to nothing. So. Choose wisely. |
| 01:11:16.97 | Max Shank | I I like it you and I have different investing strategies and and it's good I would add to the labor set well enough at all at all what you compare to um. |
| 01:11:24.96 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think we both do we both do? well. So it's neither 1 or wrong. Yeah. |
| 01:11:35.78 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I mean compare. |
| 01:11:36.89 | Max Shank | You know, ah compared to compared to dwayne the rock johnson I'm fat and broke. So it's all it's all the way you compare to but I would add to the labor side of things find at least 1 thing that has an expent. |
| 01:11:43.33 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah. |
| 01:11:55.56 | Max Shank | An exponential return on your time ah write a book make a video course do something where you can invest a lot upfront and it can continue selling forever. Um, that has been. Like a cheat code for me personally the fact that you can make something 1 time and sell it thousands and thousands and thousands of times it is crazy. No no postage required I can so like I can send electrons through the air. Basically. |
| 01:12:24.35 | mikebledsoe | It's pretty cool. That's right that that was the first thing that attracted me to doing anything digital product I go oh I don't have to the inventory is going to cost me the same amount every month. No matter what? which. You know say I I'm paying for a membership site. It's a hundred dollars a month to be able to run the site and and run my email and all that hundred bucks a month. So if I sell 1 or I sell 10000 it cost me the same exact amount of money. Perfect. |
| 01:12:44.77 | Max Shank | Right? wild. |
| 01:12:58.15 | Max Shank | It's so wild to think about what people went through before you know they would mail letters with a return envelope postage paid that sort of thing and hope that people responded and then they would have to ship them something physical afterward. It's a lot of steps. |
| 01:13:05.66 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot of stuff all right Friendships social relationships. |
| 01:13:15.93 | Max Shank | So oh you should be your own best friend and don't engage in mind poisoning groups schizophrenia if you can avoid it I know it's interesting and kind of exciting to get angry. Certainly ah use this podcast as an outlet for that. Sometimes I think they just start yelling and Mike's over there like what is going on with this guy I love it. Ah so you you should. You should be your own best friend and. |
| 01:13:38.20 | mikebledsoe | Ah, sorry folks. |
| 01:13:51.54 | Max Shank | Not engaged in things that are harmful for you. You should reach out to people who are the way that you would like to be and genuinely show interest in their lives and ask how you can help them. And it's so Cliche but giving what feels way better than getting actually especially once you've already got a bunch so I would say ah be very selective in who you are friends with because you will become like them and. And reach out even if you don't have a specific reason that's been a hard lesson for me because I haven't done that most of my life unless I have a concrete reason for calling somebody I Never just call to see how they're doing but it can be good if you want to nurture a relationship. It's It's like a garden and. Fuck Man what is life without friends. |
| 01:14:49.95 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, totally agree. Um, yeah on the on the social side on the friends you know I I've had a lot different groups of friends I've lived in different places and you know what if you move cities. You have a huge opportunity to. Make sure that you surround yourself with the right people if you're living in the same place and participating in the same things and going to the same gyms and bars or whatever. It's very hard to change that friend group I've found that every time I moved I I improved my quality of of circle. And I do stay in contact max is one of these I met in San Diego and we still stay in contact even though I moved so you did you did not everyone made it. Ah I did like an irish goodbye for the whole city of San Diego |
| 01:15:36.95 | Max Shank | Survived the mass Breakup You just you just you? you just skip town so you can like ghost. Ah yeah, ah. |
| 01:15:49.16 | mikebledsoe | Just like people were like did you leave town I was like yeah man I moved out six months ago but ah but I ah yeah I have since really gone with how I feel with people versus trying to basic think. Who do I want to surround myself with people I want to be like all that I still do that. It's very nice. It's good to do when I choose to go to an event I go to events I don't go to a hundred dollar event anymore because it's gonna be full of $100 people I want to spend at least 2 3 grand because if it's a. Business related event because I know who I'm gonna be surrounded by people who are willing to drop that kind of cash. So I do think about it in that way but also my my personal friend group here in austin iss really like these are people I feel comfortable with when I lead the conversations. I'm I'm put in a much more positive mood. Ah you know I the the people I hang out with most since I've been here I either I either walk away from hanging out with them with weight with. Almost like it's automatic, subconscious programming that improves my health my wealth or or my relationships in some way like 1 of my friends my my crypto trading friend I hang out with him and the way he talks about money and investing and the energy he holds with that. I soak it up and I become way more positive about it and I start thinking about things differently and a lot of it has to do with how he feels and how he transmits that feeling in a group and so yeah I encourage people pay attention to how you feel when you're with people and after you've been with them. |
| 01:17:22.52 | Max Shank | Ready. |
| 01:17:39.60 | mikebledsoe | And that's going to make a huge difference. |
| 01:17:41.89 | Max Shank | I Think that's a great way to close it out. You gotta trust your gut and see how you feel before during and after you're around certain people. You could say the same thing about food. You gotta trust your gut because no one else is gonna know what you should be eating only your gut knows. |
| 01:17:51.18 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 01:18:01.84 | Max Shank | So sorry I can't tell you exactly how many almonds to eat at nine thirty every morning but you're just gonna have to ah try try it out. Try it out and see how you feel and I think those are the 2 best examples of when to. |
| 01:18:08.94 | mikebledsoe | 18 |
| 01:18:20.29 | Max Shank | Really trust your gut So that's great. Awesome dude. Love you Thanks for listening everybody. |
| 01:18:20.43 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, easy my brother love you have fun today. |
| 00:00.00 | Max Shank | Welcome everybody to Monday mornings with max and Mike Today we're gonna talk about borrowed dreams what you should do about it or what you what you could do about it. We don't want to should all over you. So Mike. Thanks for joining me everyone thanks for tuning in borrowed dreams. What do we do. |
| 00:23.69 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, ah well max and I were talking talking about a story before the show that is way too common. It's very very common and I've experienced it myself as well which is ah, an example someone walks into the the gym. And they want to be able to complete a certain feat and then you come to find I know I've come to find out a lot of people go oh I want to squat £500 or I want to like I want to be able to snatch and clean and jerk this much weight or I want to be able to this many pull ups. And ah early in my career I said cool. Let's do it and then as I got older I witnessed myself and a lot of other people achieve the goal and still not be happy afterwards or sacrifice all sorts of stuff that we actually valued pretty highly. Go after this goal just to find out that the achievement of the goal created 0 satisfaction and I used to I used to be in this frame of mind that it was a human flaw that was something that we could overcome that this whole idea that. I always have to achieve more and I I actually think this idea that every time I reach a goal I immediately set another goal and I don't really get you know? Maybe there's 30 seconds of satisfaction or a day at the most talk to my friend a j roberts about setting the world record for the squat and he worked at this for years and then he hits it and then he celebrates for one day and the next day he wakes up depressed and then sets another another goal and I used to think yeah. |
| 02:08.72 | Max Shank | Was one of my favorite stories. He told that he told that story at some mastermind event I was at about having nosebleeds walking up the stairs and destroying all his relationships basically and. |
| 02:23.47 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 02:27.15 | Max Shank | You know ruining his body and his relationships and then going like oh wow that was not that cool at all. Actually I think that's probably the perfect example because somewhere he got this idea that that would make him enough or great superior. In some way and you know since you and I have so much experience with fitness. It's natural to examine why people have certain fitness goals and it's usually because someone else told them it was a good idea explicitly or. They just got rewarded with positive feedback on the way there. Oh you squatted a hundred. We. Love you. Oh you squatted 200. We love you twice as much just imagine if you could squat 300 just how much we would love you It's like ah. |
| 03:20.95 | mikebledsoe | Ah, what. |
| 03:23.97 | Max Shank | Ah, love is proportional to the pounds you can lift. |
| 03:26.96 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and and it's ah and I used to believe it was just ah this I used to think it was like a personality flaw or something like that. Where of this person is just so achievement oriented that they can't even enjoy the the reaching of their goals. And after further analysis and of course the analysis. Ah analysis. That's meaningful always starts with ourselves. It was the analysis analysis of my own life in experiencing these things and reaching goals or failing to reach goals and and then still being able able to achieve happiness even without having. Achieved it and being okay with it and so I started looking at why instead of thinking about ah am I just setting goals all the time I realized that the goals there were certain goals that I did begin to hit as I got older that. Actually created an enormous amount of satisfaction for long periods of time and the ones those goals that I hit that created a really long lasting satisfaction were they were my goals and all the goals that I had set before you know I mean if we. |
| 04:27.14 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 04:42.45 | mikebledsoe | Work our way back. My goal was to be at nationals and and weightlifting it was strong man competitions. It was squat a certain amount of weight compete at Crossfit a certain way become a navy seal like ah, whatever it was like ah graduate top my class. All these different things. None of those things whether I experienced success or not were not very satisfying in In fact, I didn't enjoy the journey of it at all or very little and then when I when I let go of that I went through a lot of growth. And I started achieving my own goals I go oh this isn't a personality flaw or a flaw amongst people who are very achievement based this is just simply a you are. It's it's an insecurity issue. It's a way of like what you were saying. Which is how do I experience. Love how am I accepted by others and the the thing that really stands out for me is my how I behaved in the world changed dramatically when my father died. |
| 05:53.24 | Max Shank | And. |
| 05:55.27 | mikebledsoe | And I realized that a lot of the decisions. It took me a few years to after that and I watched my my behavior change in a really interesting way I it was like I took a hard left turn after he passed and as I look back on it I go oh. All my goals up that point was to impress my dad like if I thought my dad was gonna be impressed by it I would fucking. Do it whether he said so explicitly or not it was It's always our own interpretation of what is gonna get us love and acceptance. So once I realize. |
| 06:20.77 | Max Shank | And. |
| 06:33.74 | mikebledsoe | I did that with my dad and then years later learning that how we you know our dad being our first love outside of ourselves because we we view our mother as ourselves when we're first born and so this father figure really dictates how you view the world and how you. Earn love from the world and so if you grew up in a situation where you were constantly setting goals to impress your dad. You're probably gonna be prone to for the rest of your life is a set achievement goals based on what you think other people want you to do and then just be miserable. |
| 07:10.64 | Max Shank | Totally totally I think ah of kids as like an ego surrogate Most of the time It's like a little surrogate ego for the parents and the ah like ah. |
| 07:10.65 | mikebledsoe | Whether you get it or not. |
| 07:23.86 | mikebledsoe | I Love it. |
| 07:28.48 | Max Shank | It's so easy to see I used to referee kids soccer games I used to also play soccer myself and you should see these parents fucking screaming these kids are 7 years old |
| 07:36.90 | mikebledsoe | Oh wow. |
| 07:42.64 | Max Shank | There are like 3 of them who are good at soccer and the rest of them are running around and like they'll kick the ball if it happens to come near them and as a referee of these little kids I'm like getting yelled at for like ruining the game sometimes if I if I do something a little wrong. |
| 07:48.60 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 07:55.28 | mikebledsoe | Oh my. My my dad. My dad definitely came after some umpires and some referees like my dad was the guy in in the backtop yelling at ah at the ummp at baseball games. |
| 08:01.99 | Max Shank | Oh yeah, so so so there's no ah I I didn't want any of my parents to come to any of my events of any kind I wanted to go there and just do it on my own and you know. But here's the thing ah that attitude makes it so clear implicitly and kind of explicitly what the mission is you know you are in that family unit. You're looking to get love. You're looking to do good instead of do bad and if winning. Is the most important thing then playing is not the most important thing and I think it's backwards because if you are doing something that brings you intrinsic enjoyment. It is sustainable. In fact, you will you will. You'll spend the whole day doing it. You'll forget to eat. You'll forget to do other stuff. You'll just be in the zone of this thing that you're doing and you can win you know and and win is such a nebulous term you can have success and. Serve and connect with people by doing what you are the best at and if you really love doing it. It will be easy for you to gain tremendous skill at it I always start with that question actually. With people when it comes to business coaching. Let's say and I'm like what would you do? if you could earn no money and no credit from doing it like what would you? What would you give? what would you do and when you take the. Ego out of it then you get into the real meat and potatoes of what brings you intrinsic joy and Joseph Campbell so calls it a follow your bliss and I think that's generally a good idea. But if you do things just for the reason. |
| 10:09.80 | mikebledsoe | By the way following your Bliss doesn't mean you're experienced bliss the whole time I want to make that clear for some people. |
| 10:17.40 | Max Shank | Right? right? right? I mean if you have good drugs. You can come pretty close but no, no joking joking. Don't do drugs kids just do the drugs that Uncle Sam says you should do ah but what I'm saying is if you take. |
| 10:24.96 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 10:36.47 | Max Shank | The idea of getting credit or the potential reward monetarily you will hone in on what you really would like to do and what you would really like to share. Ah, it's such a corny phrase but it's true. The gift is in the giving. And it required me having a pretty high degree of success myself before I got that like it's it's kind of funny how that works because for me, everything was about the result everything was about winning and. I Just thought you should tough it out for the result like it doesn't matter who cares if you're enjoying what you're doing you just do what needs to be done to get the desired result and look that can work. But if you do something that you would do anyway and then. Learn the fundamentals of monetizing that Action. You will happily do it every day and you can do it for a lifetime rather than for a shorter amount of time burn yourself out and then feel lost because you chase this goal that has its origins. Completely outside of your sense of self. |
| 11:54.98 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that makes me think about people people hear this conversation like follow your bliss and and you know do what you love and enjoy the journey and they go look. That's really sounds cute but that's not how the world works I was. I was coaching a friend recently a buddy from you know I've known for 20 years and you know I don't talk to him very often. But I was talking to Him. He goes well,, that's just not how the world works I go for you that because you believe the the Opposite. You're making that true and you're going to collect a lot of evidence to support that so I have been collecting evidence on the other side Now here's the thing. Yeah, you get to choose which evidence you're collecting so choose wisely and So. All throughout human history.. There's been a lot of have to I have to do this to survive and eat and the the more the more primitive culture is the less choice. There really is and what you get to do there's there's you know you gotta go hunt and get your food. You gotta you gotta do some stuff. |
| 12:54.81 | Max Shank | I Should do this now. |
| 13:10.27 | mikebledsoe | And through the advancement and evolution of culture. What we we came up with this idea of capitalism which has allowed people to become specialists. You know having that currency allows someone to become a specialist and not have to do all these have to things they just have to be really good. 1 thing and then other people reward them from that and we experience trade and so it's when I look at our generation. What I see is ah the highest level of get to and when I have kids one day. They're gonna have an even higher level of get to than I did and this level of get to is just so much more pronounced and shorter periods of time from generation to generation I think that's a lot of what we looked at the boomers talking to the. The gen xes and the millennials and saying you know you gotta like work hard. You gotta grind you gotta you gotta do all this you gotta do stuff that you don't like and that's actually not that true because we live in a world of. Incredible amount of connection somebody somewhere values your passion and you being able to perform that a really high level somewhere. There was a woman There's a woman in New York that fucking makes half million dollars a year I think I told you about this before selling pictures of dicks. That are dressed up in different outfits so actual dicks. So these guys volunteer shell put little address on it or she'll put like a little tuxedo on the dick take it picture? Yeah but this is. |
| 14:44.76 | Max Shank | That's funny like actual dicks. Wow I would love to know I'd love to know that customer avatar like who are the people buying these things. |
| 15:01.30 | mikebledsoe | I Love that story because it's a demonstration of how niche and ridiculous something can be but she is the best dick pick Taker on the planet. She's the the Dick Master huh. |
| 15:12.60 | Max Shank | How many have you purchased how many have you purchased personally. |
| 15:19.56 | mikebledsoe | I've got 4 in my collection. Nft's though but ah when here's here's the other thing I mean that's what I was joking I said nft but ah, we are seeing artists being rewarded people of normally associated being an artist with being. |
| 15:24.43 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 15:38.54 | mikebledsoe | Um, ah a starving artist. You know it's the common cliche you're a starving artist and there's a lot of reasons why artists are starving but ah in in the new world that we're living in. You can draw some shit up and sells an have m might take off and just because you associate it with that. So. There's there's much more sophisticated ways of funding artists now when people trade the art so say ah and this is a very the layers of tokenomics. Get very deep and very complicated and it's very hard to keep up with just just putting that out there because um, my girlfriend is deep in the comic book world with Nfts right now. So she owns a bunch she owns like this I think I might be she might. Think she owns like the seventeenth most expensive comic on the planet type of thing right now. So yeah, and so ah. |
| 16:39.28 | Max Shank | That's exciting. |
| 16:44.90 | Max Shank | It's always like you know you know people ah have all these comments about the the top 1% and there's a funny quote which is like there's always going to be a top 1% in fact it will always be 1% |
| 16:58.88 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 17:00.93 | Max Shank | And no matter what it is that you're doing whether you're an artist or a coach or an author or something like that like there's always going to be a top 1% but it kind of comes down to the comparison syndrome right. |
| 17:15.32 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 17:18.17 | Max Shank | So if you are measuring your success based on something like that like once again, if I compare myself to the rock I'm a fat poor slob but but it. |
| 17:29.56 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 17:35.33 | Max Shank | Outside of that comparison like I feel pretty good about myself like I might go jump in the pool later and I'm in good enough shape to play tennis and you know it just depends on what you compare to so this idea that you will be happier getting richer or stronger doing something. You don't. Really want to do versus making a little bit less money or being a little bit less strong but doing something that you ah are really excited about every day I think that's a major fallacy and you you're just comparing to what. You see on television what you see around you what you see on social media. This idea that you must have Xy and z to be considered successful. Once again is totally arbitrary. You know you come in and you're like hey I want to I want to lose. Ah. £5 I don't want to be one hundred and sixteen pounds I want to be 111 and I'm like why? Well just 111 sounds better. They're like why don't you just measure yourself in Kilos the number will be smaller like what what are you talking about? It's ridiculous if you want to feel really strong just measure the weight you can lift in Grams. I lifted ten Thousand grams today I feel so strong. Ah, it's total nonsense when you think about ah the intrinsic things like what do you actually like to do because most of it's. |
| 18:48.61 | mikebledsoe | I'm so yoed. |
| 19:01.92 | Max Shank | Once again, all these cliches sounds so corny but most of the best things in life are free but there is a fundamental necessity to feel safe to feel um to be fed and things like that. But it comes back to what we've talked about a lot which is value value like. |
| 19:14.19 | mikebledsoe | We know the the cocoa. Yeah. |
| 19:21.30 | Max Shank | Value is totally um, dependent on the situation right? So bottled water at Coachella very valuable bottled water ah by a fresh river coming out of a glacier people aren't that really interested so just because. Someone says what you have isn't valuable doesn't mean someone else won't think it's very valuable so it's ah it's very arbitrary. Go on. |
| 19:43.67 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well this the the conversation about the rock is really interesting because people go Yeah, the rock. The rock is more successful than max in a lot of areas but I'm just say I'm saying someone from the outside may say that. |
| 19:59.23 | Max Shank | Whoa who's saying that I I know I just said it to. |
| 20:03.66 | mikebledsoe | But just go with me just go with me and and um, but here's the thing is we you have no idea what the rock's life is like he's taking pictures on Instagram the dude is in pain all the time that. He is knee hurts like I've I've I've been able to glimpse enough to realize that he's in a lot of pain. He may be in less now but he's had to endure a lot of pain to get to where he's at probably you know he may have. Periods of time where he didn't sleep. Well there's periods of time he he was a pro wrestler at 1 point those guys are living a crazy lifestyle. Yeah, and it's just one of those things where it's like oh this guy gets put on this pedestal and then people start comparing themselves to him and I'm like man i. |
| 20:40.61 | Max Shank | You never know outside looking in, you never know. |
| 20:55.44 | mikebledsoe | I Don't want any like I would love to have the bank account and that's probably it I mean I don't know about the physique because you just started looking at the amount of sacrifice that was made that he sacrificed a lot of things that you and I value too much to sacrifice and. |
| 21:11.95 | Max Shank | Totally. |
| 21:14.90 | mikebledsoe | Who knows if maybe he did follow his heart and this is the the I bet he did in a lot of ways and this is the result of that and he we just value different things. So like that's his degree of success and this is what success looks like for us. So. Like to point that out in that we we definitely don't know the full story of what's going on for that other person's life and to and and when we when we start comparing we lose sight of our own Genius and our own self-expression and. |
| 21:41.86 | Max Shank | That. |
| 21:53.28 | mikebledsoe | And I think it happens when we start categorizing ourselves like if I were just to say I'm a podcaster or I'm a coach or I'm a this I start comparing myself to Joe Rogan as a podcaster or I might start comparing myself to Paul check as a coach or something like that and I gotta I got to back it up and even say. |
| 22:01.60 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 22:12.82 | mikebledsoe | I don't I don't want to really look at those guys as mentors I like to pay attention to what they're doing because they're smart and they're They're the best at what they do but at the same time I'm doing something That's really neither one of those I'm not it. It would be unfair to me to be unfair to the world. |
| 22:15.64 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 22:24.81 | Max Shank | Ah, right. |
| 22:30.18 | mikebledsoe | To carry a comparison between these people and try to be Joe Rogan and Paul check at the same time I'd be insane but people try to do it all the time. |
| 22:34.68 | Max Shank | That would be I'd be very powerful I think you found my new goal actually I want to be Joe check or Paul Rogan yeah Paul Rogan |
| 22:42.40 | mikebledsoe | Um I like the Paul Rogan Paul wrote yeah you go? Yeah, that's what we should have called this show and ah man we fucked up be fucked up. |
| 22:52.25 | Max Shank | Ah I Love I Love what you said because also that's where envy comes from right and people become envious but they don't envy the whole thing they cherry pick they're like oh I'm envious of the rocks. |
| 23:06.35 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 23:10.36 | Max Shank | Bank account or his eyebrow thing that he does or whatever but you don't know the full story of what's going on and envy really is the worst of all the 7 deadly sins because it's the only one you can't have any fun at so you don't want to be you don't want to be envious. |
| 23:26.76 | mikebledsoe | Um, a. |
| 23:28.48 | Max Shank | It's very silly Plus why be jealous of someone when you don't know what's going on behind the scenes you you don't know the full story like ah it Maybe it's like really not worth it. Maybe they are just remorseful all the time. Ah so so you don't want that and then. |
| 23:43.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 23:47.91 | Max Shank | The other thing that you said that was awesome was you know if you compare yourself to those guys then you are like spoiling your song or your vibration. It's like you know the rolling stones or a great rock band. But not everybody likes the rolling stones it just so happens that they'll play for massive crowds and that most people really do like them but some people prefer like ah I don't know the ramons or sublime or something like that I don't know. And I don't really know enough band names but you get my point is like just because one band is really really popular like a rogan or a Paul check doesn't mean that you can't offer something in a uniquely different way that will resonate with a slightly different audience. It's not honestly, it's not even about what's. Absolutely better because how could you measure that and I and I get into that um line of thinking quite a lot Actually myself is just as much a reminder to me as it is to anyone listening it may feel. Like someone else is better qualified to do what you would like to do but you'll do it differently enough that it might resonate with someone Better. So Even if in your mind It's like oh well,, they're just better at it. You know, just do your best. And put your um self into it and that's going to resonate better with some group of people than that other person that you might be comparing to so comparison Envy not good at all. |
| 25:35.32 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well and I'm somebody who has a I have a lot of interests lot of different interests and there are definitely some areas like I trained I trained one of my buddies ah on Saturday. Ah. |
| 25:37.32 | Max Shank | Not that healthy for you. |
| 25:53.39 | mikebledsoe | I trained him physically in my gym and you know we were He's a new friend. He he looks fit and but he's got a lot of back pain and he he says he's like. Like oh what do you do for training. He goes well tomorrow I was like you want to work out tomorrow. He goes well tomorrow's my buys and tries and I was like you know what? how about this and he was I was like tell me about your back I'm like how about this I bet I can make your back feel better while during your workout. You're gonna feel better. And afterwards you're gonna feel better and why don't you just stop by tomorrow four o'clock will smoke a little weed and then we'll we'll work out. He goes all right that sounds like a good time I blew his fucking mind for the guy who does buys and tries and ah. And and his his full time gig is crypto trader so he yeah he get an idea of who he might be right? I'm not gonna blast his name or anything like that. But he um I get him in the gym. He doesn't he's never studied fitness I mean he looks good like he he does know what he's doing. |
| 26:53.44 | Max Shank | Okay. |
| 27:08.49 | Max Shank | Higher. |
| 27:09.69 | mikebledsoe | If he were to go to Lifetime Fitness I Imagine he's and his posture looks pretty good. So it's not like he's not a mess or anything but I took him through some you know integrative functional movement and his he just mind exploded the whole time and so when I am exposed. |
| 27:13.15 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 27:28.50 | mikebledsoe | But if I were to be with train with you max I don't feel like I know much right? We're just kind of like learning I'm learning a lot from you. You might be picking up some stuff from me, but it's it's kind of like little things here and there and then I really realized what an expert I am in the field of fitness cause I've been doing it for like 20 years 25 years and sometimes it's good to expose yourself to somebody who has no very limited exposure to the topic to really see how much you know about it I walked away from that session and I've got I've got pages of if I introduce someone new to training. These are the principles because I started I spent 10 minutes talking to him before we moved so that he understood why we were doing what we were doing and so I come out with all these notes where I'm like oh I should I could put together some type of fitness program I've avoided that because I meet so many I've met so many people who are so fucking good at it. So like oh. |
| 28:11.55 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, totally. |
| 28:23.60 | Max Shank | Right? what. |
| 28:26.33 | mikebledsoe | Why would I put it together a fitness program. They could always just go to max or they could go to Paul check or they could go to you know John Wolfe and it's like and then I go oh my friend. He didn't go to any of those guys he ended up in my garage. So. |
| 28:30.88 | Max Shank | Great. |
| 28:37.81 | Max Shank | He went to you right. |
| 28:43.59 | mikebledsoe | Ah, because none of those guys really appealed to crypto traders but I like to trade crypto. So now I appeal to those people too and crypto Trader trainer. So I Um, the other thing I started this conversation or this this rant with. |
| 28:50.60 | Max Shank | You're the crypto Trader trainer. |
| 29:03.17 | mikebledsoe | Ah I view myself as someone who's got ah a broad knowledge base but not a lot of depth in 1 thing but then I realized when I was training him. Oh I do have a lot of depth in this area compared to compared to that guy. That's all it needed. |
| 29:09.14 | Max Shank | Um, compared to what that's the key compared to what and and really when you're talking about sharing something valuable or delivering value which is really what this whole. Trade-based economy is based on is do you have some value that you can deliver you want to pace the person that is reading your message the person that is seeing your message the person that is listening to your pitch of some kind. Because basically you're selling him on the idea of training in a different way First and foremost whether you're doing that in-person via video via text you are selling them on this new idea so you have to meet them where they're at so the way that you would coach someone. |
| 29:48.53 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 30:05.16 | Max Shank | Who's been a trainer for 10 years and they're looking to you know gain their you know level 5 neurophysiological functional integration pathways is going to be very is doesn't that sound nice. Ah I I created it right now. |
| 30:16.40 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah I do you have that certification yet. You have that certification. Oh oh, you should ah print it out and put it on the wall 10 k for two days with Max Shank Dot Com go right now. |
| 30:25.30 | Max Shank | Only only ten k for two days ah that's it. Yeah, ah you know so that's that's a very different clientele like you know and I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on courses over the years ah in person. Online. Whatever the whole the whole gamut and as you get more toward the end user. It gets simpler and simpler and simpler and it's like Titanic triceps and super shoulders and as you get more toward the trainer side of things. It just gets more and more fancy. You know they're like fancycier names and like we're gonna hack your nerve and look starting with the nervous system is the right idea but sometimes you just have to laugh at some of the crazy names that are being thrown around there so you have this. |
| 31:03.52 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 31:21.76 | Max Shank | Like especially cause I got so much into physical therapy which is a broad term. It's like a contest to see who can get the fastest results. So It's like you just need a more fancy secret and it's like a. An escalation of who has like the fanciest secret for how to erase someone's pain and get them moving functionally again which also is good from a practical standpoint because most people um you know exercise is not that hard like go for a walk. Carry some weights around move some weights. It's all good like you don't need to do anything dance around a little bit play a sport.. It's not not that hard. But if someone is hurting then having a methodical way to get them back to. A safe place where they can move without fear and without pain. That's really what requires the most effort and that's why I went that way myself with all of the programs I've created and all of the courses that I've taught it's much more difficult. |
| 32:15.00 | mikebledsoe | So. |
| 32:31.44 | Max Shank | To get someone feeling safe and strong again and pain free than it is to be like oh you want bigger legs. Well um, you know deadlift reverse lunge and sprint up a hill and you'll be fine like you don't need to do too much more than that like it could get fancier and fancier. But. |
| 32:49.22 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, one of the things that came to mind as you were talking is the ah the more knowledge we obtain the longer we're in a segment of the population. So you'll see this. You're have been to an nsea conference National sport and conditioning association. Okay. |
| 32:49.49 | Max Shank | You get the idea. |
| 33:05.64 | Max Shank | Now now. |
| 33:08.96 | mikebledsoe | Ah, been to a couple and I went when I was in college because it was the thing to do and we go and I mean you had to pay attention to a lot of these talks because these academics are talking to their peers. They're talking to other academics. Now were there? Yeah, the well that's the thing is. |
| 33:28.72 | Max Shank | Don't you mean they're showing they're showing off. Let's be let's be real here I've talked at conferences they're showing off That's all look how smart I am I'm gonna give you an offer at the end that you you can buy my product and I'm gonna show everyone how smart I am and why you should listen to me. |
| 33:42.46 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and so the problem is in Academia they're not selling. They're not selling anything for money. They're just selling their ideas but they they fuck up because they are not talking to their audience. They're talking to their peers and so. |
| 33:45.93 | Max Shank | Most of the time most of the time. |
| 34:02.90 | mikebledsoe | They are ah so they end up using these words that are really loaded and if you're not in the field. You will not know what they're talking about and the whole point of the nsea like their their mission statement. It basically says that we want to bridge the gap Between. Science and practical application for strength coaches and then you go to the conference where the academics like if you don't if if you're the average strength Coach. You have no fucking idea what this academic is talking about because they're talking about mtor receptors and and these really deep bio energetic. Terms that no one knows what they mean unless you're one of these 20 people and so one of the things I recognize and this happens in the classroom and in academic environments too is the instructors are speaking to impress their peers instead of appealing to their audience. |
| 34:52.50 | Max Shank | Totally. |
| 34:56.73 | mikebledsoe | And the same thing happens when we we'll use fitness as an example, but this happens in every industry is when you become very advanced at what you do when you've been steeped in the information as long as max and I have been then you you you do ah get attracted to the fancier stuff because. At times because there might be a little bit of nugget and knowledge in there. But the yeah I need a harder drug but the chasing the the knowledge the Knowledge Dragon. So The the the trap is for. |
| 35:19.89 | Max Shank | It's like a harder drug. |
| 35:26.85 | Max Shank | Chasing the knowledge dragon. |
| 35:35.97 | mikebledsoe | Max and I would be if we started talking to our peers. There's a part of me that used to when I was making posts talking a podcast putting things on social media writing emails I wanted to make sure that if my friends my peers my colleagues. Read this. They'd be impressed and I that meant I was gonna get crickets from the people that needed to hear it the most and so. |
| 36:01.80 | Max Shank | How perfect is that story. You're going to literally shoot yourself in the foot to turn off your customers to impress your peers and colleagues that's hilarious. That's hilarious. |
| 36:11.40 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I see this happen coaches are doing this all the time they're so worried. |
| 36:18.44 | Max Shank | I Hear the ten dollars words I tune out I tune out so quick when I see people with the $10 words. It's like I know a few fancy words. Okay I like to work my flactoids from time to time but dude as soon as you start with the fancy talk it. It tunes me out because I I can hear when there's. No need for it whatsoever and just on the certification standpoint you know I have people who work for me at the gym I don't require any certification whatsoever I'm like you should get Insurance. Don't don't waste. They're like what certification should I get I was like done none of Them. Don't waste your time. |
| 36:57.00 | mikebledsoe | You probably learned some shit wrong by doing that cert. |
| 36:57.10 | Max Shank | Learn how to communicate with people learn the basics well yet plus the last thing I want is someone to come in there with their own idea of how things should be done like I want collaboration and a meritocracy of ideas because I'm not always right I Love ah. |
| 37:07.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 37:16.50 | Max Shank | You know, challenging the coaches with new ideas. Um, and it's fantastic. But I definitely wouldn't waste, especially if you're just trying to like coach people in exercise. There are a lot of fundamental truths that require no certification Whatsoever. To carry out I mean we could do a whole separate thing on how to be a personal trainer. Maybe we should do that next week. How to be a good. Ah how to be a good fitness coach. But yeah, don't waste your time with the like academia stuff. That's that's like so that's so worthless for the end User. It's just. |
| 37:40.54 | mikebledsoe | I like that I like that. |
| 37:55.28 | Max Shank | Like the only thing you can do. It's like academia itself. It's like what do you do after you take all these classes. Well then you can become a teacher and teach all these classes. It's like a fucking ponzi scheme. |
| 38:04.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, ah that that that makes me think about imposster syndrome people they get out there and they feel like they have imposter syndrome I think one of the reasons they experience that is and I bring this up because. This is a common question that gets asked or we're we're talking with a coach who wants to build their coaching business. They're like I'm experiencing imposter syndrome. Okay, yeah, and an imposter syndrome I Ah believe that a lot of that comes from. |
| 38:27.97 | Max Shank | Um, it's like toxic comparison right. |
| 38:40.84 | mikebledsoe | You know, wanting to impress their peers. It's It's never about I don't feel like I'm good enough to help people because when you get talking to them. They're like why is anyone listening to me but then they're afraid to post because they're afraid of with their parents or their family or friends or people that they were in class with. Are gonna think about what they posted and so it's It's such a. It's It's not it. Yeah, it's not imposter. Syndrome. That's made up. It's you don't feel like an imposter. You're just afraid that you're not gonna look smart in front of your friends and when you you're for. |
| 38:59.29 | Max Shank | Fear judgment. Yeah. |
| 39:17.65 | mikebledsoe | Every time that you hold back and don't share because of that there are people that could have been helped by you that are not and it also impedes your unique genius from shining through which is exactly what we're getting at in this entire show. We talked about borrowed dreams in the beginning and how we live. |
| 39:23.15 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 39:37.27 | mikebledsoe | Out the lives that other people that we imagine that other people want us to live instead of living out our own dreams and that includes speaking our own message in a way that's unique and can land for the audience. |
| 39:49.38 | Max Shank | Yeah, and you should as a professional, always try to communicate in a way that will resonate with your audience the best you know if you was talking to this lady on the phone. She's really cool. Ah. I like to make ah sexist jokes to my female friends like it. It makes me laugh a lot and so I was saying you know it's like ah it's like building a motor you know I was talking about how you build like ah an online business and a funnel and there's like a flow of Gasoll. There's fuel and you got to put all the parts together. Was like oh actually you know you're a lady so it's like a recipe and there's a sequence that everything has to be put together and and I just like making jokes like that. But it's true that it is exactly like a recipe It's not going to resonate with everybody. You shouldn't compare your. |
| 40:31.12 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 40:45.54 | Max Shank | Ah, recipe for chili compared to someone else's but you should communicate things in a way that will resonate with that audience and if I'm smart and I'm targeting ladies I'm going to use a how to make a pie rather than how to build a motor. And I'm not saying that there aren't tons of ladies who know way more about motors than I do. But if I'm going to try to resonate with the most ladies possible and have a specific person that I'm speaking to why it's so important to clearly know the audience you're talking to. You should always talk to them. In a way that will make it the easiest for them to understand which means you will also make it the easiest to catalyze the desired action that you want them to take the last thing you want to do is complicate the message like you were saying before. |
| 41:36.31 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and this also makes me think about this just leads naturally into the conversation of self-expression and this desire for authenticity. You know the the online media has been I think it's showing. |
| 41:43.19 | Max Shank | E. |
| 41:56.10 | mikebledsoe | How inauthentic things are and 1 of the one of the pieces of one of the statements that I receive a lot online and in person is people appreciate how authentic I am and they talk about how rare that is in today's world which is true. A lot of inauthenticity now a lot of people in their attempt to be authentic and self-expressed fail to meet their audience where their audience is at and so I see I see this a lot, especially it seems to be more prevalent amongst women than men. Um, and that they want to express them and probably because they've there's been a suppression of self-expression amongst women at a higher rate than of men so women really want to be able to express themselves in the way they want to express themselves which is great but with the expectation that they're gonna be. They're gonna ah be rewarded for that unbridled self-expression because yeah, because what's happening is I'm gonna express myself the way I want to because I never had before and now I'm really stepping into my power and I really want to do this and then while then turning off a bunch of people or. |
| 42:57.79 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, it won't resonate as well. |
| 43:12.90 | mikebledsoe | People are like I don't know what they're talking about I'm confused which which can be good. |
| 43:12.50 | Max Shank | Which can be good which can be good to turn off a lot of people your vibe attracts your tribe. So if you do have that like insane personality type of so I mean we're all kind of insane. Um, you know you'll you'll garner. Less resonance broadly but that might be okay, but you just have to manage your expectations If you're going to be like ah you know it just it just depends on the person. You know if you have an extreme personality. You might get people who like you a lot more but less of them. |
| 43:36.20 | mikebledsoe | Right? right. |
| 43:46.91 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and the other thing I I like to warn about here is a lot of people they get into this self-expression and authentic self-expression conversation and what they end up expressing is their their emotional wounds and I. |
| 43:59.40 | Max Shank | Their wounds. |
| 44:06.10 | mikebledsoe | The way I look at is like you could either express from a place of love or you can be expressing your wounds and if you express your wounds. You have the opportunity to create more wounding or to create ah an effect that is undesired and then and you can tell if it's a wound or if it's. |
| 44:14.60 | Max Shank | A. |
| 44:25.40 | mikebledsoe | Coming from love because a wound behaves like a child. You know it. It throws things Temper tantrums Exactly it's most adults have not developed. Emotionally they got stunted in their youth and that's why you have people doing what they do I mean we see in politics. It's just. |
| 44:31.14 | Max Shank | How most adults behave. |
| 44:44.96 | mikebledsoe | Bunch of fucking children running around up there. So ah. |
| 44:47.32 | Max Shank | You would never see a discussion like that within a company that was Successful. It's absolutely Insane. The the shouting messages and the at the shouting and the ad hom and him attacks and the appeals to I mean it's. So full of logical fallacies and ranting and raving that it just makes no Sense. You'd have to be kind of stunted to believe that that is useful in some way you know, no no sane person wants to go to war and yet we let these sociopaths go to war all the time. It's. |
| 45:15.59 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 45:25.40 | mikebledsoe | Um, and then pay them to do it. Not not only that you pay you are funding this behavior and the world is broken. Yeah yeah. |
| 45:25.77 | Max Shank | It's outrageous, um and then. |
| 45:32.85 | Max Shank | Totally I yeah in a lot of ways it is but you got to just focus on ah delivering what is important to you and I think you know the word authenticity ah is another one of those. Things that feels like borrowed dreams like my my authentic self now feels totally different than it did ten years ago and when I think about being authentic, really I I just mean like being truthful because I don't have to say something. |
| 45:50.89 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 46:03.94 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 46:08.96 | Max Shank | A certain way like that doesn't necessarily make me more authentic like sometimes I curse and I go oh man did I really have to there and I'm like yeah I fucking did because I was emotional and there was like a reason for it. And I don't care if I turn off a few people but I can also understand someone being a little bit smarter and just never doing that to broaden their audience. So As long as you're telling the truth as you believe it to be I think that is what authenticity is I don't think it necessarily means. Ah you know. Having a weird attitude I think it's having a clear mission that you care about and being truthful I think that's really that's really what authenticity means more than like you know, exposing your wounds. |
| 46:57.17 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I and back on the self-expression piece I think that ah some people Also they they they haven't felt like they've expressed themselves in so long and then they get the courage to do so and then they start just. Expressing themselves over everybody and what I've found is it's very useful to have a place to really just let it fucking fly. Let it fly and that's not for the general public to be around. |
| 47:31.71 | Max Shank | Dancing. |
| 47:37.95 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 47:39.52 | mikebledsoe | Create a safe space. Maybe you have a therapist or you're going through a coaching program where there's a container that's really tight. There's there are rules. There are things that create safety because if you can experience really deep. Let it fly self-expression and a container of safety you can move all the way through it. |
| 47:49.67 | Max Shank | The. |
| 47:59.49 | mikebledsoe | Heal wherever that's coming from and then then become an adult in that area of your life if you if if you're out of control in some area of your life. It's because you have yet to heal that wound that was established in your childhood and be able to move on and now behave like an adult in that area of your life. And so I'm I'm a big fan of getting a container where you can just let it go but you cannot ah, it's a really bad idea to take that type of let it go behavior into the general public because it's not a safe space for you for 1 and for 2. |
| 48:23.86 | Max Shank | It. |
| 48:38.35 | mikebledsoe | Those people aren't trained to handle your shit. They don't know how to hold that kind of space. There's just you're gonna create a lot of bad juju out in the world. So that's my ¢2 worth on self-expression and I bring it up just because it's it's been a big topic and the. |
| 48:46.83 | Max Shank | Totally. |
| 48:57.61 | mikebledsoe | What I witness is being talked about online and um I just witness a lot of coaches who value self-expression so high when they're actually just shitting on people instead of helping them. |
| 49:08.78 | Max Shank | Totally and the same thing. It's kind of like complaining like complaining is an authentic behavior because you are feeling a thing and you are letting it out and I've only had it happen a few times at the gym where someone who worked for me started complaining to 1 of their clients. |
| 49:16.15 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 49:28.60 | Max Shank | And I was like hey what are you doing there like we don't do that. This person is paying you. You do not complain in here you check whatever it is you have going on outside at the door when you bring a person in here I don't I don't care. What your views are um, on certain topics I care that you are making this person uncomfortable and complaining all over them and ruining their day. You're trying to you're trying to be a psychological energy vampire by complaining to someone. Who is the last person in the World. You should be doing this too and this cannot be tolerated. Yeah, complaining is like the most selfish Act. So I think that is very you just change what barbers no shit. |
| 50:08.16 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, is Selfish. I Just changed barbers because of this I barbers The yeah the my barber was my barber was is so good at cutting hair. But I I got Covid So I went a little bit longer without getting my hair cut and I noticed that. |
| 50:24.90 | Max Shank | Amazing. |
| 50:33.72 | mikebledsoe | For about three weeks post covid I was at I was easy to agitate and so the what what happened was is I so I started everything that agitated me in my life went on loudspeaker and I go oh. |
| 50:46.80 | Max Shank | O. |
| 50:49.88 | mikebledsoe | There was a gift in in this because I got to change some things that were bothering me at a low level but not hard enough to change but still taking away my energy right? And so I go you know what changing that and then I didn't my hair is kind of shaggy right now probably can't tell cause a headset. But. |
| 50:54.13 | Max Shank | You're more sensitive. |
| 50:58.38 | Max Shank | Ah, then. |
| 51:09.48 | mikebledsoe | Um, I'm a little bit shaggy because I decided I was like you know I'm just gonna let my hair grow out and I wasn't thinking about not enjoying my barber but then it hit me I go you know I want to get my hair cut and I went to schedule it and I recognized I was like I don't want to go to that Barber. So I I booked ah something at a different place I can't go to the same place cause he's gonna see me there and but he's a he's a chronic complainer and it's and I took it on as a challenge I was like I was like maybe I can help this guy out a little bit. You know how how good can I be like I've got a force field. My force field is um. |
| 51:30.20 | Max Shank | Of course. Ah. |
| 51:44.23 | Max Shank | Mike Mike Mike the fixer at work during his haircut appointment. |
| 51:46.95 | mikebledsoe | Penetrable. And ah well I was just thinking about like how Jesus can I be right now you know like yeah, so I so anyways like I what one the day I went to book my appointment I go. |
| 51:57.96 | Max Shank | Well, you need longer hair for that So that works. |
| 52:08.91 | mikebledsoe | I'm going somewhere else I hate being complained at all day. So anyways, just own that in their real life example of what max is talking about. |
| 52:15.73 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's ah it it might feel authentic and it and it might be coming straight out of your gut but it's not a good idea So that's a good example of like toxic authenticity. But it's not even really authentic. That's just like wounded ah wounded child. |
| 52:33.89 | mikebledsoe | It's inauthentic when it's coming from a wound. It's inauthentic but people confuse doing whatever the fuck they feel like in the moment to with being authentic. These are different. |
| 52:35.42 | Max Shank | Yeah, right. |
| 52:46.64 | Max Shank | It's it's about like ah you don't want to give a damn about too many things you want to selectively care about certain things. More than others and and you have to like you have to put yourself First. Ah and I don't know anyone who doesn't put their family before some stranger and it's good to you know? Love this whole world. And all the living creatures in it I mean I still eat a lot of the living creatures in it and they're delicious. But I don't value the life of a cow that I'm going to eat the same as I value my own life and you can't so you can't um thrive while putting yourself last. So. It's not to care about nothing. It's not to like give no fucks. Ah, it's really about being selective with what you do give your attention and energy into and anytime that you're giving to something that isn't a net positive for both parties. That's a huge. Ah, cost that you're making because there is always an opportunity for an engagement or a transaction or a connection where it's mutually beneficial and that's why profit is so fantastic. You know profit gets such a a bad rap because some people go about it in a destructive way. But there's nothing better than a voluntary transaction where both people are happier afterward and the same thing is true energetically conversationally monetarily whatever. |
| 54:28.44 | mikebledsoe | Beautiful, Well said so going back to borrowed dreams I think we've covered. |
| 54:33.90 | Max Shank | Just give up your dreams right now just give up your dreams no dreams, no dreams. |
| 54:39.77 | mikebledsoe | But it's a good thing. Well I think where we got if I you know begin to summarize this is we talk about start the conversation with people including ourselves set a lot of dreams and goals that really aren't our dreams in the first place and we ended on. Authenticity and wounding and and that's really what it takes to be able to set your own dreams and have your own goals is you really have to go and and look at where you're still a child where your ah. Being inauthentic where you have wounding that's expressing itself itself instead of yourself as love and if you can look at that and you're setting goals not out of insecurity but out of ah out of true desire and. And for me I can feel it in my chest I feel more open I feel expanded when it's something that I truly desire that it's gonna be fulfilling for me and it it I definitely I feel very much in my head when I'm setting goals to end up being for other people. So yeah i. |
| 55:47.74 | Max Shank | The. |
| 55:51.70 | mikebledsoe | Hope this is helpful. Those conversations help people move to a place where they're living their life in better alignment final thoughts for you that I was about to call you Zach I don't even know what Zach. Yeah. |
| 56:00.93 | Max Shank | Ah, lessac I'll get I'll be ah, Zach Morris from saved by the bell now. Ah, here's what I would say first focus on being turn off everything close your eyes. Sit quietly lay down quietly doesn't matter and just get comfortable with that and if you can't be happy and enjoy doing nothing I promise you you're not going to find some achievement that provides a more lasting joy and flow than that. So start with being then look at what you enjoy doing what you enjoy doing so much that it puts you directly into a flow state what you enjoy doing so much that you don't look at the clock you forget to eat think about what activity what? verb. Makes you really come alive. Ideally, you want to find where that intersects with something that people find valuable. So it's being doing and then giving and if you can. Take a little time in each of those stages. It'll be really obvious what type of dream or vision. You can come to and it doesn't suit you to compare too much to what other people are doing because. Really it just matters if you can deliver value to anybody and kind of rethink you know ask why apply the 5 y's to what that goal is after you decide what feels good to just being get comfortable with being. Not just get comfortable but enjoy just being with no distractions find what you enjoy doing and then think about what you would really like to give and on that last point if you're not sure just help out your former self. If. You're not sure who you want to help or how you want to help them just think back to a year ago two years ago five years ago ten years ago to someone just like you who's not quite as far along the path and I think that will at least lead you to something that is um. Comfortable Congruent. It'll be easy to communicate with that person because they are former you and yeah, that's that's how I would like to sum up my thoughts on that. |
| 58:42.80 | mikebledsoe | Beautiful I think any especially the coaches out there listening to this that there's That's the best advice I've heard on how to set your goals. So thanks for sharing that wisdom max. Let's wrap this up where are they gonna find you. |
| 58:55.84 | Max Shank | Oh I am impossible to find ah you can find me at http://maxshank.com or at ma shank where can they find you. |
| 59:08.91 | mikebledsoe | I'm just gonna I'm just gonna post your your home address at some point and then ah. |
| 59:12.17 | Max Shank | You don't know where I live. |
| 59:16.72 | mikebledsoe | Um, ah you can find me on Instagram at Mike Underscore Bloodso and you can check out the http://bloodsohow.com for some other shows I've been working on and http://thesstrongcoach.com for the coaches out there that want to go go be better coaches I don't know what the fuck you know he people should just go check it out. I enjoyed it later. |
| 59:43.76 | Max Shank | Sweet. Yeah, awesome dude. Well everybody follow your dreams make sure they're yours see you next time. |
| 00:00.00 | Max Shank | Welcome back everybody to Monday mornings with max and Mike it is our 6 month anniversary this is our twenty sixth episode I'm frankly impressed that we have been so consistent because both Mike and myself. Really like our freedom and so this consistent appointment that we have on Mondays has been kind of an anchor for both of our thinking and we've shared a lot of interesting ideas gotten a lot of good feedback and we're gonna. Use this episode to talk about what's going on with us. What's going on with the world and what you should do about it. So Mike thanks for joining me once again, excited as always. |
| 00:52.99 | mikebledsoe | Ah I'm excited about today because we're gonna talk about current events and we don't do that normally up to this point we've been really good at keeping it a non noncurrent event not talking about what's happening in the world because. Ah, it can be ah, a sketchy thing to talk about that's not we don't want to avoid it because it's sketchy if you've been listening to show so far. We definitely cover some stuff that might be controversial for a lot of people. But when you get into? Yeah yeah, but. |
| 01:24.95 | Max Shank | It's clear which side our bread is buttered on. Let's just say that. |
| 01:29.56 | mikebledsoe | When you get into current events. It's um, it's easy to step in it. You know, but we're gonna We're gonna give it a shot anyway and that the things that are going on in the world right now that um, um. |
| 01:39.43 | Max Shank | Way way way wait wait before we go before we get into that. Let me just say the healthiest thing you can do is focus on how you can embody the values you believe in and deliver value. And pretty much ignore what's happening on a macro scale for the most part that is the healthiest thing you can do caveat over. Yeah I mean you shouldn't It's ah it's interesting because if you are. |
| 02:05.79 | mikebledsoe | Well now I feel like we shouldn't do the show. Ah. |
| 02:16.84 | Max Shank | Investing you want to try to ignore the news as much as possible if you are a professional you want to try to ignore the news as much as possible but there are certain realities that you have to be aware of like let me ask you a question if you lived in Canada would you have. Moved out of Canada I probably would have maybe not I don't know. |
| 02:38.61 | mikebledsoe | I have I have several friends that left I have a few more trying to figure out how to get out I mean it's um I'm listening to ah Ray Dalio's new book right now the changing world order and ah, it's. |
| 02:52.85 | Max Shank | Earth. |
| 02:58.59 | mikebledsoe | Really what I really like about books like that um is they he he takes like a 2000 year view same thing with the sovereign individual. It's really good to look at super macro over time cycles and things like that because. It definitely makes what's happening right? now seem not such a big deal like it's it's like okay this is this is really It feels very important because it's happening right now but in the grand scheme of things. It's not important Ray Dalio is somebody who's made a lot of money built a lot of wealth over. |
| 03:22.44 | Max Shank | The. |
| 03:37.90 | mikebledsoe | Over his lifetime and the the guys that do that tend to be pretty apolitical I find they they don't really take a side they because they're so zoomed out they can basically they're not getting caught up in all of the the bullshit and so he. He really he's looking at the chinese since the six hundreds he's looking at ah you know the the the dutch the british and the american currencies because they were the dutch had the first reserve currency. The British Pound was the second the american dollar was a third and when you start looking at ah at things from that that more macro perspective and realizing that that as a society we will tend to the pendulum swings from a much more. Leftist political view to a right political view and the pendulum swings pretty hard and every time the pendulum swings there is there are winners and there are losers and it's yeah. |
| 04:48.94 | Max Shank | It's like we're fish tailing out of control back and forth overcorrection Overcorrection overcorrection. |
| 04:54.57 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, and there's winners and losers along the way. But if you can see the big cycles and not be so emotionally charged by it and get caught up in it which I've watched a lot of my friends I've actually been surprised by a lot of my friends who get in the last couple years when. Super left or they went super right? and I'm just like I'm like Wow I Really thought that you had a ah larger perspective on what's going on. So um, yeah I'm glad we're We're talking about this first because I do encourage everybody. |
| 05:13.99 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 05:31.30 | mikebledsoe | That book by Ray Dahlia is really good. The sovereign individual is really good. The fourth turning that book talks about 100 year cycles and there's 4 generations in every hundred year cycle and what's typical and and that one's specific to America. What's typical um, is like when you read that and you look at what's happening right? now you go oh you can pretty much predict. What's going to happen next and some of these books have done this really well books that were written twenty years ago like the sovereign individual pretty much predicted everything that was going to happen in between two thousand and Twenty Twenty five |
| 06:08.74 | Max Shank | Five hundred year delta is another interesting one I don't know if you've read that one. It's ah it's even older and you read it now and you're just like whoa like they were they they knew exactly what was in the pipeline and the reason. |
| 06:09.35 | mikebledsoe | And this. I Haven't read that one. |
| 06:20.65 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 06:28.65 | Max Shank | Um, you can't just perfectly predict the future because you would just you know invest in the company that's going to win ah some of those things are unknowable like the general trend is maybe knowable but you can't pick the timing or the specifics. That's what otherwise they would all be. |
| 06:43.51 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I heard a good quote. |
| 06:48.32 | Max Shank | You know multi- multibillionaire trillionaires. |
| 06:50.50 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I'm ah I'm in this access I'm in this crypto trading group and ah, you know when the market when when bitcoin and a lot of other cryptos took a noseive the last couple months you know a lot of people were freaking out and. Someone came in and said remember time in beats timing time in the market beats timing the market every time and that's another reason it's good to take a macro view because if you look at economics at ah at a. |
| 07:13.85 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 07:26.63 | mikebledsoe | You know and hundred year cycles and things like that then you may not be able to pick the specific company. That's gonna win but you can kind of see you can kind of predict about what's gonna happen with the currency and and this and that and so I'm a big believer in. Ah. You know and and reading Warren Buffett and things like that these guys are it's not about picking that one company. Yeah you diversify and you you may catch a really good one or or several good ones. But you know, just just be investing in the things that are working right now is a good idea. |
| 08:00.39 | Max Shank | And before you do any of that you focus on investing in yourself like just to kind of bring us back to the practical like what do you do about it. First thing you should do is completely ignore the news. Or ah like passive investing until you have built value yourself that you can deliver on a consistent basis because there's nowhere that you can get a better return than building skills including the skill of delivering those skills. At a profit you shouldn't even mess around with trying to stay up with current events or politics and rhetoric or trading currencies until you have built that value building skill. |
| 08:50.98 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I really like that and it makes me think about you know hunt was a maybe one hundred hundred and fifty years ago the the people that the only people that had a vote at 1 point in America was people who own land and so ah. |
| 09:04.61 | Max Shank | Landowners. Which kind of makes sense. |
| 09:09.54 | mikebledsoe | They they were established they had they actually had skin in the game they they were like like likely value producing people in society and so if you think about who's gonna make the best decisions. It's probably gonna be them. Now the argument against that is they're gonna make decisions that are are best for their own good and and you know these other people aren't being represented and and what um the difference in that situation versus what we have now is right Now. It's one of those arguments of everyone needs to be represented and. |
| 09:29.83 | Max Shank | Wasn't that. |
| 09:46.64 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 09:49.11 | mikebledsoe | And that's more important than making good decisions and and and I get you know if we if if it was always the landowners that got to make the decisions then you know the the possibility of people feeling like they have a voice. |
| 09:51.31 | Max Shank | Well. |
| 10:07.76 | mikebledsoe | And being able to gain land might be difficult but it also might really encourage people to buy land which would overall be a good thing because that increases personal responsibility and all sorts of things. |
| 10:17.99 | Max Shank | Yeah I mean look how parenting works my house my rules but I think in a company. It's the same thing my company my rules the the difference with voting and why democracy is like mob. Democracy is basically just mob rule and I think it's crazy that we have a popularity contest to see which sociopath gets to wield a gargantuan stick ah like it. It makes no sense if you can convince like 51% of the voters. |
| 10:45.25 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 10:55.16 | Max Shank | To say that you're the best you suddenly have this crazy power and that's when you get imbalanced transactions like these companies would not be able to do outlander stuff without the help of lobbying so without the help of the stick. You know, enforcing things with a monopoly of violence. That's why every time you are a participant in a profitable transaction. You are actually creating wealth for both sides and that's why I come back to this idea of the pie makers and the pie slicers and the pie slicers just want to. They think it's a 0 sum game where there's one pie and if they get sharper and sharper knives they can slice it into tinier and tinier pieces. But they've never actually created any value in your life which is why I have like total disdain for politicians because it's like dude, why don't you lend a hand instead of carving up. And creating this victim mentality. It's ridiculous so making yeah right I mean making sense of things I think is valuable um, trying to make sense of what's going on but don't think for a second. |
| 11:55.24 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, but that works that works in the popularity contest. |
| 12:11.17 | Max Shank | Um, that the way our society is structured from a political standpoint or a policing standpoint makes any sense at all like don't expect it to be reasonable because it's not reasonable and there are literally hundreds of examples. The the law is too complex for any 1 person to understand the tax code is too complex for any 1 person to understand they have mountains of paper and bills and laws going through the hands of these politicians who are crooks. And they don't even read the fucking things and you have people in jail for smoking grass and you and I are paying to like house that drug user for no reason at all um public school same thing I mean we could go on and on and on but the first but the first thing you have to do is stop. Vexing it to be rational or reasonable because it's not and that's how you can avoid getting caught up in the tribalism because you'll be like you guys are stupid like the only thing that actually makes sense is to. Wipe your own ass and then help out somebody else and the only way you can do that is by having a set of values and creating and delivering value. Everything else is like pretty much mental masturbation unless you actually do want to become one of those people who. Speaks out to try to like move political action. Um, and you know there's a lot of cost to doing something like that. |
| 13:54.57 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 14:00.28 | mikebledsoe | Um, the good I You know when when I start talking to people about politics or what's going on in the world right now. Um. |
| 14:00.69 | Max Shank | Got me all riled up actually I don't need any help getting riled up to I. |
| 14:16.49 | mikebledsoe | I find that I hold ah a fairly unique perspective because I tend I try not to look at what should happen and what should not happen I look at what is happening and I think a lot of times people get a little mixed up and like they. They go oh wow, it sounds like you're an anarchist and and I go well it could sound like that because that's what we live in. We're not that's it's just what is it's not ah and it's and it's becoming more anarchist over time. And what I mean by that is when I think about the word anarchy it just means without a ruler. It doesn't mean without rules and so an anarchist is somebody who takes a hundred percent personal responsibility and is is ready to. Create their own rules for their life and live by their own standards and the the way I see things going is everything's decentralizing so I remember ah had a friend make a post while back where it was like you know, maybe censorship is good. Maybe we shouldn't. You know it's probably a good thing that people aren't telling you how to build a nuclear bomb on Youtube you know that gap ban you know that kind of shit censored so like where do we draw the line and I go I posted and didn't get a response like I got a response the first time and then we start going back and forth and then just stop is. Ah, go. It's not about what should be done or what should be censored. The truth is in the future. Nothing will be censored. So what we got to do is we got to figure out how that works how do we make the world work in a place in a time and place. When due to blockchain technology. All information is actually accessible to everybody all the time. How do you manage that? That's a different thing and so ah because once something. So. Some of this blockchain technology if someone wanted to create a Youtube that worked off a blockchain they could set it up to where it could never be taken down. You'd have to shut down the entire internet over in the entire world to take that shit down and that's where we're going and so I look at that and I go the our job. Is to teach personal responsibility teach people. How to do that because the the people that don't take personal responsibility and they're waiting for someone to rescue them and who are dependent on others they're gonna be the ones left out in the cold first they're gonna get hit the hardest the people who. |
| 16:59.18 | mikebledsoe | Already take personal responsibility want to create value in the world. They're gonna be fine. So for me, it's not about oh everything should be more libertarian more every this and that it's like no, it's just where it's going and if you want to try to argue against that. It's gonna suck for you because you're spending your time trying to. Manipulate things you're trying to manipulate this entire like billions of people all coming together and and it's a it's a fucking tidal wave that you're not going to just be able to push against and stop might as well just learn how to ride that thing. |
| 17:33.81 | Max Shank | Yeah I think there's so much wisdom in seeing the world for how it is instead of how you want it to be I think that when it comes to political action or or even like. |
| 17:42.20 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 17:52.86 | Max Shank | You know, convincing scientists. It might have been buckminster. It's like you don't you don't fight um, against something you obsolete it meaning you make a technology that's better so like fighting against something you're just going to create. |
| 18:00.68 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 18:09.33 | Max Shank | Ah there's going to be an equal and opposite force. So the more you fight the more they fight you back the more you fight the more they fight you back and that's how we have this like huge chasm in the middle because people are seeing a different Tv show basically and I think that's one of the reasons that people are so divided is. Back in the day there was propaganda. There's propaganda today there was propaganda since the dawn of time like all talking is some sort of propaganda. Basically it's just some of it is ah pretty benevolent but back in the day sound like an old guy back in the day we would. Ah. We would at least watch the same propaganda like we'd sit around the Tv and um, watch the same thing now people are choosing their own echo chamber and not only that they're having an algorithm choose their own echo chamber by. |
| 18:48.89 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 19:06.20 | Max Shank | Not what they will like the best but what will get them to ah what will be the most provocative to them what will get them to engage and fear is more ah urgent than Love. Sadly speaking I mean it makes sense from a survival standpoint. It's ah you know safety is the main thing. So yeah, yeah, you're you're done. |
| 19:29.18 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, if you don't have that you can't do other shit if you feel like that's about to be taken away. You've got to take action right now. It's an emergency. |
| 19:38.96 | Max Shank | Right? It's an emergency Well emergency Powers is how we got into this whole mess. Um, you know there's still. There's still no way to know if doing nothing would have been better than doing something and that's. |
| 19:46.40 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 19:58.16 | Max Shank | That's like almost always the case for like political action. Something needs to be done. It's the same as the fucking busybodies in the h o as right some ladies like oh you got ah your hedges are three centimeters too tall and I'm gonna report you to the it's like fuck you. Like don't you have a life so to me, it's the difference between a villain and and and a hero because a hero will be like I have set you free and the villain will be like. I have freed you by offering this new life where you do what the fuck I say and that's the core difference is confidence. This is what is best for me arrogance I know what's best for you and possibly everybody else and that's where it gets very very dark because. Heroes and villains alike believe that they are heroes The only difference is the villain feels justified in coercion which is forcing people into a certain situation. That's the only difference and if you can focus on that it'll be clear the path forward. But um, you know Thanos is probably 1 of the best villains because he was very indiscriminate. You know a lot of villains. They single out a certain population. He's like no no, no just half of you. |
| 21:26.21 | mikebledsoe | Ah, tell me me more about Thanos I don't know what you're talking about who's Thanos. |
| 21:31.25 | Max Shank | His way of saving the universe and restoring balance to the universe. He's like some fucking Marvel character I'm not a huge comic book nerd. But he's an avengers. He's the like. Oh definitely I don't know. Ah I'm sure. |
| 21:36.71 | mikebledsoe | Ah, okay I was like I was like is there some some like Greek god I don't know about I know some of those Marvel characters are based off of you know Nordic gods and almost hit. |
| 21:50.77 | Max Shank | Oh well, you know of course all the news stories are perfectly unique and there was never anything related to you know, Gilgamesh and heroes he his his solution was to just go everywhere and kill half the people which was like very. |
| 21:55.85 | mikebledsoe | I I tell us about Anos. |
| 22:07.34 | Max Shank | Ah, objective he wasn't playing Favorites. He was just saying too many mouths not enough to go around whatever he was. He was like a hedge trimmer for the ah universal population and it's it's villainous because he's appointed himself the decider. For everyone else, but it was very um, impersonal to just choose half the people. Um, so as that relates to what's going on right now is there are a lot of people who think they know best for everyone else and. In order to stay Objective. You have to be able to argue both of the extremes and you have to have some compassion for people who think the opposite of you and the only way to do that is try to argue for. Their story and it's all it's all rhetoric like everything is kind of paradoxical. You know the more you dig down into rhetoric more more you realize like it's either forced or it's not forced and that's kind of that's the line enforced by the stick. |
| 23:17.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, there's a the the technique of a steel man argument is that you build the other side up before you present your side is if you can make them feel heard and understood. They can listen to you so people tend to. |
| 23:20.72 | Max Shank | Not enforced by the stick. |
| 23:26.60 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 23:34.70 | mikebledsoe | They don't feel like they've been heard and understood then they just keep usually just keep talking. But if you can make them feel heard understood then they'll listen and so there's I mean that's so true in marketing and sales right? that's. |
| 23:43.31 | Max Shank | Oh. I wasn't even talking about how to have a conversation with them I was just talking about how to have like um you know mental peace for yourself and and not and not assume the people who believe differently than you are evil which I I have definitely been. In that situation before I'm like how can these people justify coercing other people. They must be like maniacs and the truth is like you have to be able to understand it from both sides like the whole like abortion seems crazy to me Like. Think as long as the baby is inside the woman's vagina she should be able to kill it if she wants to um, but I understand exactly why someone would believe the exact opposite of that you know what I mean I Totally understand why. |
| 24:36.28 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 24:42.76 | Max Shank | If someone is in an echo Chamber where they're getting mainlined fear that they would think forcing people to get an injection is the only way that we can all be safe I can totally understand why someone would believe that but when rhetoric is driving policy. Um, man. That's a problem. There should be some absolute truisms about coercion and non-coercion and and that's why I think the whole thing is such a crocoette basically because all of the language that we use to guide the jurisdiction and the authority of the stickholder. Is too complicated to understand it needs to be much more simple, much more clear and you're you're not going to solve it by by fighting against it directly until there's ah, a literal you know revolution of some kind where you just you know wield that power of no. To draw your boundaries and the same thing's true with any relationship you know, drawing boundaries versus being open are two critical skills and if you lack one you're going To. You're going to have a bad Time. Basically. |
| 25:55.67 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I find when I get in conversations with people that if if they hold this one view then um, I'm not going to really like like we have to talk about this 1 thing because everything. Everything seems a stem off of this 1 thing when it comes to politics and that is there's 2 there's 2 types of people in the world. You have 1 type of person who believes that people the general public people in general are too stupid to make their own decisions and they have to be taken care of. |
| 26:31.69 | Max Shank | Yep. |
| 26:33.86 | mikebledsoe | They need to be parented there. They're too stupid to to take care of themselves and they might hurt other people because they're too stupid and so that's that's a large part. That's most people that's anyone who's trying to write and this exactly. |
| 26:40.79 | Max Shank | Because no one thinks they're the stupid one. It's always for those other stupid people. |
| 26:52.62 | mikebledsoe | And this happens on the left and the right on the left people are too stupid to you know you know they're they're completely unsafe and you know the example of like are too stupid so they need to be told to wear masks outside even though we all know that's dumb as shit. But basically I had somebody on the left that was. |
| 27:08.36 | Max Shank | How dare you. |
| 27:12.11 | mikebledsoe | Had someone on the left I was talking to and they were and you know she's a doctor she goes will you know that we we have to tell them to wear it outside so they'll wear it inside too and because if they think they can if if we start changing up when they can take it where and not wear. It. They just might not wear it and I'm going. Oh you're one of the people who believe that people are too stupid um to to you can't give them complicated. You know, complex directions like where it inside but not outside and so and and the thing is is I couldn't talk to her about anything else. Until she could see that there's a possibility that people actually can learn. They can obtain wisdom and so but I would say I find myself on a side that that people are very capable of taking care of themselves except. And the reason that there's a lot of evidence to the contrary is because people have been robbed of wisdom for so long that we do have a bunch of stupid people and because they haven't been allowed to make any mistakes we've we've nerfed the world we've made the world so safe people actually I watch people cross the street in downtown Austin with their phone in their face because they just of course someone's gonna stop I'm in the crosswalk I'm like you have this is you have ah you're you're being a fool and. The problem is is that people have been made to feel so safe and they haven't been allowed to make mistakes they've been allowed to make mistakes but they they don't have to pay for them and so ah, I'm on the side of everybody hat is capable and and definitely people are different different intellectual levels. No doubt about it. Some people are. Born smarter than other people. Some people are built stronger than other people. So that's just how it is but generally speaking everybody has the opportunity to obtain wisdom and the only way you can obtain wisdom is through experience and making mistakes and. Feeling the pain of those mistakes and so I I sit on the side of the world would be a lot better place if we just let people get hurt if we just and and it and it could and if we were to transition from this everything has to be super safe to this. It might be a little harsh in the beginning I totally get that and making a fast switch might be really difficult but I do think that we do tend to swing between these 2 extremes one is people are too stupid to decide for themselves and on the other side is is radical, um, ah, personal responsibility. |
| 30:05.82 | mikebledsoe | And so those who have learned radical personal responsibility tend to be very wise and make good decisions. But I think that the people who have done that for for whatever reason have have put themselves out there and put themselves have have felt the pain of making mistakes. Ah, a really good example of this is drug use in San Francisco they they give you a safe place to shoot up your heroin or whatever it is that you want to do and it and it's like okay that's a very compassionate thing to do like okay, we're gonna give them. Safe needles and and yada yadda yadda. But then you have just an entire population of people shooting up on the street and are are you you may be saving that person's life. But how many more people are you just gonna be junkies for the rest of their life. You know. The the repercussions are they gonna come quickly or are they gonna be drawn out over a long period of time and the longer it takes for you to feel the pain of your mistake the less likely you are to to obtain the wisdom for it if I make a mistake and then five years later feel the pain of that mistake. I am way less likely to link the 2 and gain that wisdom. But if I can feel that pain of my mistake immediately say I get on the street. No one gives no one's giving me any money I'm out there painhandling I'm shooting up I'm having a hard time finding needles like think I'm gonna hit rock bottom a lot faster. |
| 31:35.13 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 31:40.13 | mikebledsoe | And one of the things I like to share with people as I coach them is don't don't the the thing that can harm people the most is trying to save them from their apocalypse and because people do need to hit a rock bottom and people's rock. Bottoms are different. |
| 31:42.27 | Max Shank | You were a heroin addict I knew it. |
| 31:58.17 | Max Shank | But that's what politicians do That's how they that's how they keep you sucking on their teat is they let they keep you bouncing right? at the bottom so that you always need them. No, it's true I mean you create ah an imbalanced relationship where there's. |
| 31:59.73 | mikebledsoe | My rock bottom. |
| 32:08.88 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah. |
| 32:16.50 | Max Shank | You who are the one who has and they who are the one who needs right? and just like you I think if you are free to reap the rewards or suffer the consequences. The result is always going to be better for everybody because then you will incentivize. Pie Makers essentially and you know getting back to one of my core values. It's incentives people respond to Incentives. You know if you if you make ah you know ah a free heroin house I don't know exactly how it's Working. You're going to attract. |
| 32:38.77 | mikebledsoe | We're here. |
| 32:54.82 | mikebledsoe | Um, well they have to have reb Rehab Centers some are dirty and some are clean. |
| 32:55.65 | Max Shank | Anyone anyone who wants to do heroin from all the areas and look frankly frankly I don't I think we should make heroin Legal I mean people are addicted to opiates hardcore. But that's okay so we really cherry pick. What the like bad things are and what the good things are alcohol cigarettes Fine Psilocybin Illegal Marijuana illegal like whoa whoa Whoa Huh and like I can I can become like ah I can I can eat fritos until I'm £400. |
| 33:25.24 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 33:33.83 | Max Shank | Ah, but and that's okay like I mean it's just we we cherry pick. Yeah I mean look ah isn't that a good way to stay. Ah, healthier is to do drugs instead of overeat I would agree I think you're way better off being like a thin guy. |
| 33:33.90 | mikebledsoe | But I can't smoke opium come on. |
| 33:43.50 | mikebledsoe | I Think so I I'll blame. Ah. |
| 33:52.65 | Max Shank | Doing Ah I mean it depends on the drug like I don't think ah I mean I don't think I'm not saying like a crack whore will live longer than an obese guy but it's possible though. Yeah, the drug episode really covers all that. |
| 33:54.79 | mikebledsoe | It does depend on the drug I. Go back and listen to our its drugs app our drugs Za go listen to our drugs episode that that that's all get. |
| 34:12.80 | Max Shank | Um, but yeah, it's just ah, the arrogance to think that you know best for everybody else and that whole idea of mob rule like majority rules and you know is it is it really a good idea to let 51% of the population rape the other 49 Just because they voted that they should be able to I mean it's just absurd. That's why it's so important to like create the life you want within the framework and create the incentives and consequences that you want like you know do a little jaywalking just look around if anyone's gonna see you and give you a ticket like. |
| 34:32.88 | mikebledsoe | Well, it's funny because the. |
| 34:49.15 | Max Shank | You know there's just the fundamental realities. But but don't buy in to the idea that it's good. |
| 34:55.34 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well the the United States was set up to be a republic not a democracy and it's a really interesting like to avoid to the mob rule. It was totally set up to avoid mob rule and because the founding fathers. They. |
| 35:01.17 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 35:13.55 | mikebledsoe | Knew that that was a bad idea. They saw how that that was not going to work and the greeks were the first ones to put a Republic in place and that worked until it didn't but the the I What what I find interesting is looking at current events is when people go. Ah, Democracy isn't working. You know it's broken and these politicians say it I'm like no man. Well a it's not a democracy.. It's a Republic and and they're upset because say one side won the majority of an election in the last cycle. And then they're complaining that they don't get to have their way the whole time and it's like yeah, the whole system was set up that you can't just do whatever the fuck you want the 40 the 51 can't abuse the 49 although that does Happen. It's just slower. It's you don't it actually helps to minimize the political swings. Although with technology right now I think that's that's some of the way things are set up right now or not working so well because due to tech information is flowing so fast there there're they's probably yeah. |
| 36:17.73 | Max Shank | When there are gatekeepers to that information. Also now they have built this I think those are the 2 things that we're basically circling around today is who's controlling the flow of information and who's controlling the flow of. The use of force and maybe also as a third who's controlling the money but that's kind of ah they go hand in hand you know the the the government. What's that oh yeah, yeah, sometimes it gets a much better result. |
| 36:43.80 | mikebledsoe | Well do you do you use Google do do you use Google I every chart sometimes I I use I use all of them and I find. |
| 36:55.59 | Max Shank | Then like duck duck go and brave. Different result. |
| 37:02.17 | mikebledsoe | The top 10 top ten twenty results on Google is so homogenous. It's is and I have a hard time finding good information. It's very watered down. It's very dumb down. It's not. It's hard to find a good essay through a Google search. It's. |
| 37:18.15 | Max Shank | Well searching is a skill that you develop you learn like what Keywords to use You don't just search for the main idea you search for some sub ideas so you can find it. |
| 37:28.80 | mikebledsoe | Well last night I was last night I was doing a lot of searching through Google and having a very hard time getting depth around a certain topic I had to go to a different search engine and and so I'm just talking about the the control of information whether it's good or bad. Everyone. |
| 37:34.29 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 37:44.83 | Max Shank | That part doesn't matter. It's like who will well who will watch the watchers I think is 1984 and now we're in 2022 and it's who will fact, check the fact checkers and it's. |
| 37:48.17 | mikebledsoe | 99% of the people are using Google and they're deciding what you get to think about. |
| 38:03.49 | Max Shank | It's so funny How the rhetoric just goes back and forth back and forth is like well it's private company. Ah free speech this free speech that and you know the the nuance of what's the difference between a platform and a publisher and you know free speech.. There's a reason that it's the first. The amendments you can say what you want you can meet up how you want ah and the second one is firearms and basically it's not Firearms. Specifically, it's just they have you have the right to be able to defend yourself with deadly force regardless of what the implement is like you can you know. |
| 38:37.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 38:42.42 | Max Shank | Should be able to own a fucking Rocket Launcher. You know the reality is everybody has a car and they don't drive through crowds all the time. In fact, it's pretty rare. So I think those are the key points is. Back to our you can go visit our censorship episode to see what we really think about that because ah, you're not going to see people who are pro censorship on the good on the right side of History. It's just not going to happen. |
| 39:02.62 | mikebledsoe | Um, well, what do you think. Now. Yeah, that's a common meme going around right now like yeah I don't remember the last time there was a pro censorship movement that ended. Well yeah, what do you think about Youtube I mean Youtube is a. |
| 39:15.10 | Max Shank | Yeah I mean it's always for your own good. It's always for your own good. Yeah. |
| 39:24.46 | mikebledsoe | Youtube is its own company Instagram Facebook these that they're I mean they're publicly held companies but they are. You know we go back to say like natural law then in my in my opinion they should be able to do whatever they want. And it it gets a little sketchy because are they classified and when when you get into the like legal legal you know, ah outside of natural law There's an argument that they're a utility company at this point and once they're utility. They're a public utility company. Now there now they fall under things like the first amendment and it's and that's the argument for it and you know there's there's other plot I'm a um, a so what do you think about that I'm just curious. |
| 40:21.80 | Max Shank | I'm certain that the the guys with the big stick Cia Fbi whatever are in close contact with those gatekeepers because Twitter is a gate Youtube's a gate Instagram Facebook is a gate. Um, when you control the flow of information like that I don't think um I don't think it's originating only within that company. Um, when I when I have watched when I have watched what's going on with. Ah. |
| 40:50.87 | mikebledsoe | That's true. |
| 40:57.28 | Max Shank | Like they do the the little dog and pony show with the the Ceo of the ah the ceos of these companies with the most retarded congressman they can find and senators who don't understand computers trying to get like a sound bite and rake them over the coals. How dare you. |
| 41:16.19 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 41:16.53 | Max Shank | So And so customer information our privacy and I'm look I don't know anything I'm dumb too. But the people that they send out to like slap these guys on the wrist is the most ridiculous dog and pony show with the most uninformed ignorant politicians. You can even imagine like if you were one of those ceos you would just have to be laughing to yourself like are you kidding me, it looks. It's It's ridiculous. It has dude that is not what's happening that is not their communication that is a show so they can get a soundb bite and be like. |
| 41:38.25 | mikebledsoe | Um, well sometimes sometimes I wonder if if. |
| 41:55.19 | Max Shank | Oh so and so senator slams Zuckerberg in a fucking congressional http://smackdownwwewwe and it's like that's not what's going on. That's they they did this dog and pony show so they could have these sound bites to show you. But like you don't think that they're being hardcore flexed on by you know, ah the government the stickholders to like do what they say like I would be shocked if that was really how the information was going. |
| 42:25.80 | mikebledsoe | Well I I also think that you know I look at say Zuckerberg going in front of congress. Whatever I i. I don't believe either way but I definitely play around with different scenarios in which case he's actually in charge of the whole show and he needs to it's a Pr move for for this to happen so people will still like like got oh we need. Facebook wants the censor so they need the government to come in and make them look like they've been fucking up their ability to censor and it's hurting the american public and so to me I go I look at that and I go maybe maybe yeah, it's a check like. |
| 43:12.77 | Max Shank | It's like a chess game. You think they're they're going back and forth. |
| 43:16.73 | mikebledsoe | The entire public's getting riled up and then Zuckerberg goes home and he goes like oh those's a bunch of idiots they fell for the whole thing and now we really get to do what we want to do so yeah, even better engagement I got a lot of free Pr you know? Yeah yeah, and so it's ah. |
| 43:20.30 | Max Shank | Yeah, right, even better engagement more more advertising. Yeah, exactly. |
| 43:35.70 | mikebledsoe | I really I've moved to the opinion that that big tech is the 1 wagging the dog these days and so it's. |
| 43:43.40 | Max Shank | Interesting. But you don't think that like they could just totally blow up their whole operation and you know say hey you are a monopoly we need to split you up or we're going to nationalize it. |
| 43:56.74 | mikebledsoe | I I think these guys have too much money we have too much money. Bezos thing about Bezos this dude is destroying a bridge to have his yacht delivered. They're gonna destroy a bridge deliver his yacht and then rebuild it. Ah if Bezos decided he's got some. |
| 43:58.55 | Max Shank | I Mean you would you would imagine like there's so much power there Huh maybe? yeah du. I mean I'm pretty sure like all of these people we're talking about could have someone murdered and not be found out like that. No what like. |
| 44:16.47 | mikebledsoe | Let it go swing. Pretty sure they probably have like I'd be I'd be so right? I'd be surprised I'd be surprised if it wasn't the case. But um. |
| 44:30.40 | Max Shank | The whole. That's why the word conspiracy like irks me so much because it just means people meeting in secret that happens all the time people are always meeting in secret to try to better their situation. Um, you know Jfk M L K if you have a 3 letter. |
| 44:36.52 | mikebledsoe | All the time. Yeah. |
| 44:49.54 | Max Shank | Ah, initials with a K at the end you're you're probably going to be murdered, especially especially if you if you are saying we should ah just all love each other and get along they fucking hate that that's like the worst thing. |
| 44:52.74 | mikebledsoe | Yeah RFK now |
| 45:05.36 | Max Shank | Like the worst thing you can say is like hey guys can't we all just get along and you know not bomb each other and crucified that guy literally. |
| 45:07.90 | mikebledsoe | Pretty sure that's what ah what? Jesus did and they they ah murdered him. Yeah, yeah, okay I want to I want to cover I want to rewind a little bit and go back to what is happening and ah. I get a little giddy at times because I think for those of us who are you know have the ability to be self-sustaining and are are really into personal responsibility when ah when you look at what's going on. It's it's a bit of a meltdown. And so a really good example of this is the truckers up in Canada these these truckers up in Canada there's just ah, an example of the way things are going no matter what you think should be happening or should not be happening. |
| 45:49.11 | Max Shank | We'll just print more money. It'll be fine. |
| 46:02.37 | mikebledsoe | And these truckers in Canada are out there protesting you know the mandates and all this the way the media is presenting. It is very different than. |
| 46:10.52 | Max Shank | I heard it was I heard it was just a couple of guys who are racists I heard it was just a couple of racists and I'm pretty sure a few of them fuck kids that's isn't that isn't that the story. All my all. |
| 46:15.54 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, yeah, well yeah, that's how it goes Well it. |
| 46:27.43 | Max Shank | All my opponents are racist pedophiles I Just want to put that on record anyone who opposes me. |
| 46:29.28 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well I just I wanna I wanna point this out is is it's the way it's being covered like I know people that are up there and you know what's being reported like boots on the ground versus what's being reported on the news. Very very different I think that. I think the same thing was happening with black lives matter. You know there there was there was what was presented and what was not presented I went to Oakland I went downtown Oakland three days after they were burning cars in the middle of the street. Ah because I had I just want I was in the area and I wanted to see it. My girlfriend thought I was crazy. |
| 47:06.46 | Max Shank | I get it. |
| 47:07.46 | mikebledsoe | Ah, but I I want I was curious man and so um I went up there and actually did an interview with a friend who lives in the building where the outside was just fucking completely boarded up and and had been spray painted and um. You know the way that that was presented versus the way that my friend who lived in the middle of the whole thing talked about it was different and then we look at what's happening up in Canada and ah, what's it called. They're called a something provocateurs it and I just want to bring this. |
| 47:31.29 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 47:43.11 | mikebledsoe | As a possibility to people so they don't get too caught up in the bullshit is the majority of people in a protest are probably peaceful. They're generally whatever, pretty peaceful and then you yeah, a lot of dead people and then. |
| 47:54.91 | Max Shank | Um, if they weren't You'd have a lot of dead people a lot of destroyed property. |
| 48:02.64 | mikebledsoe | And then what you have is you have a few people out there doing crazy shit are they are they on on their own a court are they are they cia are they are they going in there. There's evidence of like the Fbi having somebody encouraging poor behavior. Because now it gives the government an excuse to to lock down more on on this situation I don't know about Yeah yeah, false flag? Yeah well what What's interesting is. |
| 48:25.60 | Max Shank | It's like a gulf of tonkin kind of thing the false flag I think it's false flag for Vietnam like just not real basically and I always thought about that too like if you are a blue t-shirt guy. The best thing you can do. Is put on a red t-shirt and act like an asshole and vice versa like it's that's what's more effective than that. |
| 48:43.17 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, well a lot of times people people don't want to believe that's what's happening right now even though it's been happening all throughout history the ah like American media will talk about. Oh. |
| 48:54.34 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 48:59.85 | mikebledsoe | Like they're talking about it happening with Russia and the Ukraine right now they're like oh Russia is pulling a false flag so they can do whatever I'm like but that's not gonna happen in America that's not gonna happen in Canada you're saying that's not possible here but you're pointing out that the russians are bad because they're doing it over there and are they doing it over there who the fuck knows and then. So you have this whole thing up in Canada which is interesting because you know it does look like somebody put up a ah a nazi flag or whatever and maybe there was a racist trucker who's a nazi and want to do that. Maybe it was somebody from the canadian government that went up there and did that so they could. You know because the the canadian government looks really bad right now. really really bad um canadians are like the nicest people on the whole fucking planet and ah to think that there's there's hundreds of thousands of nazis up in Canada that just all of a sudden sprung up. He's like. |
| 49:51.25 | Max Shank | Everybody's got a limit. Yeah, totally. |
| 49:58.14 | mikebledsoe | Ah, it's anyone who's thinking clearly is going to see that That's probably not true, but. |
| 50:03.59 | Max Shank | But you're not going to be thinking clearly if you are just getting triggered into lizard mode right? So as soon as soon as you even see a swastika. You're not going to be like oh yeah I remember when that was a Tibetan symbol of peace. You're gonna be like those are. |
| 50:08.27 | mikebledsoe | Absolutely. |
| 50:19.98 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 50:21.77 | Max Shank | So though it's an ad hominem attack where you will justify anything. You're like oh we should kill all of these people. It's like no, we should laugh at them for having such outdated ideas but you shouldn't be able to kill anybody. That's why I think. |
| 50:34.44 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 50:40.19 | Max Shank | Ah, the definition of terrorist and hate crime are 2 of the most sinister definitions in our modern times because there should just be crime. It's a crime or it's not a crime the the hatefulness of it should not be taken into consideration and the word terrorist. |
| 50:53.67 | mikebledsoe | Agreed I agreed well here. |
| 50:58.14 | Max Shank | Is basically carte blanche to be like oh yeah, he's ah he's a terrorist which means um, all the rules are suspended. We can just fuck you up for no reason for no reason like the whole due process is evaporated with 1 word terrorist the whole due process is evaporated with 1 word. |
| 51:05.70 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 51:17.64 | Max Shank | Emergency the whole idea of crime and punishment is now skewed on its fucking head for 1 term hate crime. It's like dude this is insane. |
| 51:25.42 | mikebledsoe | Well the hate crime thing is very interesting to me because it assumes somebody else's intention. You are you are saying that you actually know you. It shouldn't matter. But the thing is is it's impossible for someone to know what's. |
| 51:34.64 | Max Shank | But that shouldn't even matter. |
| 51:44.54 | mikebledsoe | Someone else's internal experience is people you're saying oh is I hate crimes like ah so I it's the same thing as calling someone else racist now if someone says you know I am racist I'm like okay I'll believe you if you if you claim being racist I like buck it I'll believe you. But for someone else to point at somebody else and be like you're racist or that was a hate crime I'm like do you know?? what's in my heart is that is that even possible and so and you're right? and and this is why these things should be judged on the behavior alone is it a crime. Yes or no, okay, well. |
| 52:09.20 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's insane. Insane. |
| 52:24.25 | mikebledsoe | There's a penalty for that. So I'm in complete agreement. Yeah ever hear that. |
| 52:25.26 | Max Shank | The content of your character. Not the color of your skin Martin Luther King again I mean look I didn't know the guy personally he seemed pretty cool but if he like beat up a white fella I wouldn't be like oh that's a hate crime I'd be like wow he must have been really upset at that guy like it. |
| 52:40.88 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah, probably not about race. It's probably about something else. Um, well well going back to the truckers and and what is happening is I got a little chuckle out of this is. |
| 52:44.60 | Max Shank | Doesn't. Yeah, it's Ridiculous. It's absurd. |
| 53:00.57 | mikebledsoe | Go fund me. There's a go fund me operating to support these truckers. It was up to $10000000 what does gofundme. Do they steal it. They steal the money and ah at first some people thought they basically shut it down people thought oh they're just gonna refund everybody their money. No, they redistribute it to other organizations that they wanted to send the money to so so you have you have theft. Yeah, it's it's stealing. They just stole a bunch of people's money they stole the trucker's money they stole money from the people who don't I don't. |
| 53:24.36 | Max Shank | Heavy That's stealing That's stealing. |
| 53:38.99 | mikebledsoe | Like I didn't donate money but like if I were to donate that money and then they were to send it to some organization that I didn't intend for it to go to I'd be fucking furious, but here's the thing is it is theft and you know what the government may not do anything about it and you know and and. |
| 53:44.59 | Max Shank | Ah I bet. |
| 53:52.89 | Max Shank | Why would they they might have been the ones behind it. It's okay. |
| 53:58.48 | mikebledsoe | That's okay because you know what's happening now people are donating in bitcoin and they'll probably get even more and there's a really good example of the pendulum swinging or what you were saying earlier is when you when you try to push and attack something you're gonna get. |
| 54:09.82 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 54:16.80 | Max Shank | Equal and opposite force. Yeah, it's like like it's like a it's like a 2 sided trampoline where it actually amplifies back even more. |
| 54:17.73 | mikebledsoe | Ah, greater force. Yeah I mean things be equal. It's gonna be fusly because there's a motion behind it. Yeah, so ah, go fund me really just fuck themselves and. I get a little giddy about this because whenever a company does something like that where they steal and I and I don't give a fuck if the government comes down on um because it won't matter. They just fuck themselves because everyone just realized that that things like gofund me and Patreon and these organizations. |
| 54:50.80 | Max Shank | The. |
| 54:53.80 | mikebledsoe | Take a bunch of money for not doing a lot of shit and so yeah, well the the reason they work well is because they've branded themselves in a way that makes it easy for people who are afraid to ask for money. It's like it. It's like an okay way to ask for money. But. |
| 54:57.35 | Max Shank | It's a smart business. But when you talk about like stealing. That's not cool. |
| 55:12.63 | mikebledsoe | Like if I wanted to have a Patreon type thing going on I wouldn't go do patron where they're gonna take 10 twenty thirty percent of the money coming in I just like a pay bal me. Yeah, just send me the money. Yep so they do that now. Yeah, if you're well. |
| 55:17.77 | Max Shank | You do paypal you do recur. Yeah, you do recurring thing? Yeah, but it's cooler to have a Patreon it is. There's network effect there for sure. |
| 55:31.97 | mikebledsoe | And here's the thing is now everyone's donating bitcoin. So and and well there was ah the alternative to go fund me was this Christian Ministry organization So that some people they started funneling money through this this like. |
| 55:41.51 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 55:46.64 | mikebledsoe | Version of go fund me. That's not nearly as popular but probably just made a shitload of money from processing all those payments but and then you got people that are now donating a bitcoin and the not only did Gofundme fuck themselves but they just sped up a process that was already happening which is decentralization of the currency. |
| 55:48.42 | Max Shank | Um, ah yeah. |
| 56:04.84 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 56:06.59 | mikebledsoe | And people now go oh. It's not safe. It's not safe to send money through an organization like go fund me what is safe. Oh the blockchain got it. There. There are things about it that are riskier and there's other. But if you want to send somebody some money. There's no intermediary that can take that money There's not a third party that has a political opinion or an opinion about you or who you're sending it to that can stand in your way. It's it's an amplification of true capitalism where there is I can send somebody something and nobody. It's all voluntary and nobody can get in the way of it. Yeah. |
| 56:46.81 | Max Shank | That's the key word. The key word is voluntary I mean I'm a pretty strong guy I could and I'm pretty clever sometimes I could probably like I could probably I could probably like force people to do what I want Um, but that's pretty shitty thing to do I think it's not that fun. |
| 56:52.65 | mikebledsoe | Um, what do you?? What do you? bench? me? Yeah yeah. Yeah, so so. I. |
| 57:04.54 | Max Shank | Not that cool. Um voluntary is the key word voluntary. That's like maybe the most important word for everything we're talking about is it voluntary is it forced and I think if you don't take personal responsibility. You are more likely. To want to force others to not be in that position of personal responsibility either. You're going to want to put that idea upon others, it's like projecting outward. Um, one 1 question because you're right the whole idea of the decentralized. |
| 57:28.47 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 57:42.10 | Max Shank | Trading stores of value through like a bitcoin that at least now it gets to them directly and the only way is like maybe a government seizure I think that's happened a few times before. |
| 57:52.84 | mikebledsoe | They they would they they can't just go to a bank. It's not that simple there there have been so for. For instance, the guy that got arrested by silk road guy. He got arrested and they were able to seize some of his bitcoin but only a fraction. |
| 57:58.69 | Max Shank | Yeah I don't know I've just heard that it's been done in the past. |
| 58:12.51 | mikebledsoe | Because he locked the rest up in a place like only he knows the codes. You know that? Yeah, so. |
| 58:16.32 | Max Shank | I Think it's crazy that guy got arrested I Read the story about that. That's horrible. Um, it's It's another one of those things where ah you know you just realize like how careful we all need to be with. The jurisdiction of the stickholder. |
| 58:33.93 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, ah so a lot of that bitcoin. The government was not able to get to so back to the personal responsibility piece is with cryptocurrencies. As they exist right? Now you're largely responsible for the safety and security of those if you're using a bank. You know you got the fdi see. It's federally insured if someone were to somehow steal that money added the bank then the government would insure that up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars there's things like that exist when you're using us dollars and bank accounts when you're using crypto if you're really good at securing your own shit and you understand the technology government's not gonna be able to get it. Ah, but if you're you know using just a ah general digital wallet and you know like. Like coinbase or or something like that then if they want to take it. They can go to those companies because there's ah, there's ah, a saying ah ah, not your keys. Not your crypto. So if you're not holding your actual keys. You don't actually have your crypto so some of these digital wallets. You don't actually have the keys. |
| 59:43.59 | Max Shank | Yeah, this is outside my knowledge base but that sounds very similar to a saying I heard which is um if you don't own your customer. |
| 59:45.32 | mikebledsoe | You have access to the keys you have access. |
| 01:00:02.58 | Max Shank | Information You don't have any customers. |
| 01:00:03.45 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah, similar thing like building email lists. Um. |
| 01:00:08.63 | Max Shank | Or or phone numbers or addresses I mean there are a lot of ways to keep in touch with people but you know, especially as we've seen like you know I don't I don't speak out about any of this stuff really publicly because ah. Anyone can benefit from simple shoulder solution. 5 minute flow elasticity any of my excellent products and I just don't ah like I don't see the benefit like I don't think there's enough of a benefit to spouting off about that in that forum. But you and I have seen people where. |
| 01:00:38.61 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:00:46.64 | Max Shank | They may have had a big following on one of these platforms and then it went immediately to 0 it evaporated and they had not built up a customer list of their own that they owned and unless you have that you don't have customers. You just have. |
| 01:00:53.72 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 01:01:06.10 | Max Shank | Ah, platform that you are essentially renting for free that can be taken any time and so it's a good reason to build a more personal connection with those customers outside of that platform just like what you're talking about with crypto versus traditional banking. |
| 01:01:10.18 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:01:20.99 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, so somebody who's done so somebody who's done that really well is Jp sears. Um, he's he's definitely more yeah he's pivoted he's become yeah and he's he's become much more controversial which he does risk. |
| 01:01:24.59 | Max Shank | And I think. Yeah, he's pivoted I he he pivoted He's way more. |
| 01:01:39.72 | mikebledsoe | He's had Youtube videos taken down. He's had Facebook but they haven't taken down his accounts completely and I think part of it is is he's comedy when you're listed as a comedian you get away with things. So. |
| 01:01:42.87 | Max Shank | It shows the power of Humor. It shows the power of humor yet. It's a comedy. Kind of I mean is is it kind of comedy though I mean he's clearly got an agenda for all everything he's saying. That's what makes him such a good like artist with that. That's the big change I Saw that's the big change I saw. |
| 01:01:55.67 | mikebledsoe | Oh a hundred percent but he's also building his email list if you if you watch his videos. Yeah, he he was like of follow me on you know I have you know subscribed to my email list this and that because what. |
| 01:02:11.91 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 01:02:15.23 | mikebledsoe | What we'll probably see is there will be a platform that comes up. It'll probably be blockchain-based video platform that comes up and you know it's It's interesting because what's happening right now is you have these alternative platforms for video streaming like rumble and things like that and it's kind of like a joke. Like I was like oh all the crazy people are over on that platform and and there are a lot of crazy people on that platform I'm not going to disagree with that. But I think that they're at some point there's gonna emerge a platform thats blockchain base where where video goes up. It's not going down and no one can can fuck with it. |
| 01:02:36.54 | Max Shank | Earth. |
| 01:02:53.39 | mikebledsoe | And the people who are being the censored the most are going to be drawn to those alternative platforms first but it is it is exciting that those things are probably going to happen. There's there's a group here in Austin Texas or putting together a social media an alternative social media platform. A lot of them have popped up. We'll see which ones stick but the the ones that I'm seeing that are um, I'm excited by are blockchain based and aren't owned by anybody. It's it's one of those things where you actually own your own shit out there in the and the metaverse here or you call it not not got. Decentral land and all the shit. But um. |
| 01:03:30.73 | Max Shank | I gotta say I'm a fan of the Canadian trucker thing going on. Um, you know I believe it is the largest trucker convoy in the history of the world even though even even though according to the major news sources. It's just a few racists. |
| 01:03:35.80 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:03:40.88 | mikebledsoe | By like 10 x. |
| 01:03:50.32 | mikebledsoe | A few violent racist. There's not very many of them. But the ones that are there. They're blowing shit up. |
| 01:03:50.48 | Max Shank | Ah, but what's interest a few violent racists they they're the worst it it comes back to those 2 ad hominem attack appeal to authority devil god it's this is a tale as old as time literally? Um, but. Canada is not the only place that things like that are happening France ah Hungary italy there have been a lot of places that and but but you don't hear anything about that and I think a United Kingdom just |
| 01:04:17.95 | mikebledsoe | Dude, it's gotten crazy. It's gotten crazy over in Europe. Yeah. |
| 01:04:27.75 | Max Shank | Immediately like lifted all restrictions at this at the snap of a finger. |
| 01:04:27.96 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, was funny as the prime minister comes out and he he announces it like he's like I'm gonna like he he did it like he's making a proclamation. No more masks I'm like you're the you switched fucking masks that was crazy. It was crazy and people were like. |
| 01:04:41.24 | Max Shank | Yeah, oh people have very bad memory. |
| 01:04:47.29 | mikebledsoe | And then people are like yes we're winning this I'm like are are you witnessing what just happened this dude just fucking turned on a dime on opinion like and then he's he's proclaiming it and like trying to have the win is like oh I'm gonna fucking punish you and I'm gonna lock you inside your house and then I'm gonna let you go two years later and then you're gonna thank me for it like what the fuck man what is happening. |
| 01:05:10.84 | Max Shank | It and if you're not more broadly aware. You're going to eat it up 1 crumb at a time you know I I think the people have been played like a fiddle most people. Ah if you if you've learned to ah hate your neighbor for living the way they want to. |
| 01:05:18.21 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, yeah. |
| 01:05:30.40 | Max Shank | You have failed the test. Ah. |
| 01:05:30.64 | mikebledsoe | Um, agreed ah, last last thing I want to talk about is just the whole Joe Rogan ah thing that's been going on and it's interesting because ah. |
| 01:05:41.42 | Max Shank | You mean the final frontier of free speech our our champion. The stoner comedian Ufc testosterone ball who didn't want that who didn't want this role who he didn't want this. But. |
| 01:05:46.24 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:05:53.64 | mikebledsoe | Don't don't forget, don't forget fear factor. Don't forget fear factor. Ah. |
| 01:05:59.29 | Max Shank | It's so fantastic. We have this champion who likes to get stoned and be really curious curious and ask lots of questions I mean thousands of episodes and then you know the character assassination attempt is so blatant. So flagrant so disgusting and it's like look I have said a lot of horrible things before like if you went back 10 years into my past like I say horrible things because they're funny and if someone laughs then I will go even further and I'm not even a comedian. So this whole idea that someone should be like you know oh he must be like held accountable for his work. It's like it's so pathetic. It's so obvious and all it proves is that he is this powerhouse source of. |
| 01:06:38.10 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 01:06:56.10 | Max Shank | Freedom of Speech and freedom of information and you know it goes back to the parent child thing. You are free to make your own choices based on the information or you are not free to make your own choices based on the information and if someone says like hey you should ah you know drink borax. |
| 01:07:08.13 | mikebledsoe | Well this is. |
| 01:07:15.93 | Max Shank | And paint thinner because it'll help you lose weight like you should be able to have a video that says that like I don't know like you can't police everything. Um. |
| 01:07:25.60 | mikebledsoe | Um, well the that the borax thing is actually pretty controversial because ah and you know what maybe I shouldn't say anything about that. But I do know people have you ever taken a Borax bath. |
| 01:07:39.25 | Max Shank | No, but I know that the devil is in the dosage and part of the reason we use it to kill ants is because it won't kill other things like us. |
| 01:07:43.35 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, you ah yeah, Boron is something that that is not very prominent in our soil anymore and so taking small amounts some I'm not a proponent of this I have tried it but ah. |
| 01:07:59.71 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:08:03.17 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, there there have been some people that have suggested taking small amounts. We were pretty smart people and I go online and search about it and I can't find much good about it cause everyone's so it's a because the devil isn't the dosage there. You can you can od on that pretty quick. Um, but at the same time you you need it at the same time. |
| 01:08:17.21 | Max Shank | With everything we don't have a problem though. |
| 01:08:23.17 | mikebledsoe | Um, anyways, ah so yeah, the Joe Rogan thing is actually very It's very much like the go fund me situation in that people are you know Neil Young came out and a bunch of other artists are saying you know take my shit off a Spotify unless you take Rogen off. First off Spotify is making way more money because Rogan's on their platform than any of those artists so from a financial perspective. It's not a smart move for them. The other thing is is like I mean and if they do kick Rogan off myself and a lot of other people are gonna just delete their Spotify accounts like. But that fourteen bucks a month or whatever the fuck I'm paying that that's going away. It's really the only reason I have that I have other music platforms that I think is even better. so so there's |
| 01:09:11.60 | Max Shank | Well do you think it's about those individual artists though like I I was reading that oh I think it's more. It's a it's a rhetorical thing. No, it's ah it's a rhetoric thing you know Neil Young is like a. |
| 01:09:18.31 | mikebledsoe | I'm just talking about from a financial perspective but that you also have the why you have the you have the white house giving pressure too many means to. |
| 01:09:30.14 | Max Shank | A known rock Star name I Think the fact that he has a song called keep on rocking in the free world is like the most ironic shit like you you have to laugh. It's like so Gosh dar't ironic. Um, but he recently just had half of his catalog. |
| 01:09:38.52 | mikebledsoe | It's crazy. But yeah. |
| 01:09:48.58 | Max Shank | Purchased out by you know this company within a company that has been known to do these character assassination. Hip jobs like the 1 happening to rogen right now. So it's a very yeah, it's a very coordinated assault on his character and look. |
| 01:09:57.31 | mikebledsoe | He's my blackrock. |
| 01:10:07.35 | Max Shank | Why would you do that unless there was a perceived problem by someone who has that kind of power to do that. You know nobody cared and now suddenly up he's he's shaken. He's shaking a few branches. |
| 01:10:14.35 | mikebledsoe | Not not. |
| 01:10:23.60 | Max Shank | And some of the fruit's falling off like you got to do something you got to take care of it right. |
| 01:10:25.54 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, or yeah, well and the thing that's similar to the gofund situation is let's just say that they get their way and they kick Joe Rogan off of Spotify. He's got like a hundred million plus dollar deal with Spotify. There's. If they cut him I'm pretty sure they're still gonna have to pay him that money like they're not gonna just there's a penalty right? and and and if there was no penalty I I imagine it would be he may already have already been kicked off. Um, but there's a penalty so that's 1 thing. |
| 01:10:48.00 | Max Shank | Yeah, no doubt. |
| 01:11:03.38 | mikebledsoe | So Rogan's getting paid no matter what secondarily if he leaves the platform his listenership will probably increase instead of decrease so it he would. It would so easily move with him because. |
| 01:11:12.60 | Max Shank | It would move. They would move with him I'm impressed how many people moved from Youtube I didn't think I would like he used to just post on Youtube to Spotify and ah. |
| 01:11:22.60 | mikebledsoe | What do you mean move from Youtube oh oh move from Youtube to so Spotify. Yeah dude, he's he's so yeah, he's so powerful that that. |
| 01:11:32.35 | Max Shank | I Think he's got more listeners now than he did then. |
| 01:11:39.58 | mikebledsoe | If he leaves Spotify. Not only will it harm Spotify but it will he I imagine he would go to a ah because podcasting is decentralized by nature because they were using Rss feeds that there is no central command. That there used to be like a central command because Apple owned the list that basically the library of all the things. But then the guy who invented podcasting Adam Curry he was like he he was saying he he saw what was happening goes. You know I'm gonna create my own now. Everything runs through his shit. |
| 01:12:02.10 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 01:12:07.71 | Max Shank | So I was just thinking of. |
| 01:12:17.10 | mikebledsoe | Which is a decentralize on so many different servers around the world. You podcasting is truly decentralized trying to shut down a podcast that's not exclusive to us to 1 vendor. 1 platform is not going to work and so ah. I I hate I didn't like the Joe Rogan went on Spotify because I don't like listening to podcast there I like listening on podcasting 2.0 apps I use podverse and it's ah it's way superior to Apple to Spotify all these really popular platforms suck compared to some of these these lesser known. |
| 01:12:35.77 | Max Shank | It's like that saying. |
| 01:12:50.38 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:12:54.71 | mikebledsoe | So I I would I personally would love to see that happen and and for some reasons in that I would love to see him go on a more decentralized network I'd like to see you know ah a lot of these people just have to eat their shit because all these people are. |
| 01:13:11.69 | Max Shank | We'll see what happens when the contract is up to right? It kind of makes me think of that quote too like it's all it's only like 3 years it's like 3 to 5 is 3 to 5 Um, it makes me think of that. |
| 01:13:14.26 | mikebledsoe | yeah yeah I don't know I don't know how long the contracts for this is maybe like a 5 year contract res. Okay dude give you a hundred million dollars in 5 years holy shit for for doing a podcast. Wow. |
| 01:13:28.49 | Max Shank | I mean people get paid a hundred million a year to play their favorite ball ball game sometime. So I mean it's not surprising. It reminds me of that quote though, ah read read the books they want to ban like. |
| 01:13:32.92 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, no. |
| 01:13:42.42 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 01:13:45.74 | Max Shank | Things don't get censored for your own benefit fuckers like come on I can't even read it I can't even read it. The the guy is so bad that it's so scary bet I'm not even allowed like if it was really so bad. They would want you to read it. |
| 01:13:49.60 | mikebledsoe | Um, I'm not even allowed that I'm not allowed to hear what this person has to say strange. Well they they? um. |
| 01:14:04.97 | Max Shank | And be like this is what you want to? avoid? don't do this. This is like like mine kaf everybody should be able to read that I haven't read it have you read it I have no idea what's in there My my struggle. |
| 01:14:12.10 | mikebledsoe | Now Now I've read some books I've I've read some books that are you? You really can't find them online you you have to go deep I got some pdfs of some books. Yeah, yeah, you have to go dig around. |
| 01:14:23.52 | Max Shank | Like tor or something dark web. |
| 01:14:29.45 | mikebledsoe | I Found there's this one book. Yeah I found this one book I got a pdf of it that um ah, ah well you can get a hard copy. There's there's only a thousand ever printed. So. |
| 01:14:34.13 | Max Shank | Listen up Cia this is a confession of Mike Bloodso to illegal books. |
| 01:14:46.69 | mikebledsoe | There was a thousand of these printed and then never printed again. So it's it was the name of the book. You know what? Um just I'll figure out the name of the book and then dm me people and ah yeah, just shoot me a Dm and on Instagram. |
| 01:14:48.78 | Max Shank | Um, what is it. |
| 01:15:01.45 | Max Shank | Teaser. |
| 01:15:04.75 | mikebledsoe | Ah, but I read the book and I was like oh I could definitely see Hawaii somebody who wants to hold authority would not want people to read this book because when you read the book. It kind of unwinds. It kind of shows you where you've been wrong in your thinking about authority even the people who are like. Super rebellious. Would probably you because the thing is by the end of the book. You realize there's no such thing. There's it's there's no such thing as another human being having authority over somebody else. Ah and unless unless you're granting it to them and which is the only way for that to happen and you can take that. Power weight anytime you want and so the book pretty much. Yeah, the the book pretty much outlines a plan on how americans would take their power back um in a way that would disable the government and so it's a. |
| 01:15:44.57 | Max Shank | You might be killed for it. But. |
| 01:15:58.97 | Max Shank | Was this pamphlet called common sense by any chance by Thomas Paine |
| 01:16:05.85 | mikebledsoe | Um, true people people should go watch common sense. |
| 01:16:11.50 | Max Shank | That's ah, that's that that moved that moved this whole nation I mean are you kidding me like okay so common sense with um Milton Friedman is a great ah video series that's free on Youtube. But common sense by Thomas Payne was the document that was the most wide. Oh. That's right that you're your 100% right is free to choose. Thank you I got that totally wrong. Ah, kind of means the same thing similar ideas at least but that pamphlet common sense. |
| 01:16:28.25 | mikebledsoe | In it free to choose was Milton Friedman |
| 01:16:38.55 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:16:46.20 | Max Shank | Changed the direction of this whole country because most of the signers of the declaration of Independence were on board with just like yeah we'll we'll ah we'll pay. Ah you know the British thugs a little bit more money but let's let's stay british. |
| 01:17:03.38 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:17:04.93 | Max Shank | And then that was like 1 it was I think the most widely circulated publication of all time at that time it was just like boom like almost everybody had one crazy how just an idea can change the course of history and that's and that's why i. |
| 01:17:15.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:17:24.56 | Max Shank | Think that writing and sending messages is incredibly powerful. You know you can change even if you just change like 1 person's life. It can be huge, but if you have a really good idea and that's of course why they want to silence Joe Rogan because he's not. |
| 01:17:32.73 | mikebledsoe | Absolutely. |
| 01:17:42.29 | Max Shank | Afraid to say whatever so far. |
| 01:17:42.60 | mikebledsoe | Well, the other thing is is I think I think the reason he carries so much respect from so many people is because he will come out and just admit when he's wrong like and he'll correct. He'll correct the record he'll admit when he's wrong, he will apologize. |
| 01:17:56.46 | Max Shank | Totally. |
| 01:18:01.20 | mikebledsoe | And he'll he'll give a real apology like he he gave a real apology this last week on Instagram he's been. He's been making more like monologue posts to to share what's going on and he he gave a real apology and then. |
| 01:18:09.64 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 01:18:19.22 | mikebledsoe | And shared how he could specifically improve ah his character and ah, you never hear that from politicians they're like politicians will apologize for you feeling a certain way like oh I'm sorry you felt that way if you ever listen to like Gavin Newsom give an apology. |
| 01:18:23.37 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 01:18:31.26 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 01:18:39.30 | mikebledsoe | It's like it's like a backhanded fucking like you like like I think you just insulted like it and people are going. Oh he apologized I'm like he just fucking insulted you. It's not a real apology. He's apologizing for you feeling a certain way or for you thinking a certain way. He's not apologizing for his behavior. And so whether people catch on in these things overtly or not when you watch Joe Rogan give an apology you go he is apologizing for something he did specifically and that type of apology lands with people and that earns people's respect and so I think that he is unstoppable because he's got. 3 hour interviews where real conversations are happening and they yeah has someone like Sanjay Gupta comes on who's never had a talk longer than 30 seconds on Cnn and he fucking was freaking out halfway through the show and asking how how long have we been talking because he's never had to share his own thoughts before. |
| 01:19:21.93 | Max Shank | That's the key I think. |
| 01:19:33.82 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:19:38.26 | mikebledsoe | He's only had talking points and he ran out of talking points. He started looking foolish and he also is not used to. You can't you can't fake it now some people can but way less. |
| 01:19:38.87 | Max Shank | Right? Well, you can't fake it for three plus hours really although I did watch ah Lex Friedman interview the Ceo Pfizer and it just looked really like. That that guy maneuvered him around ah but but but and and look ah full full props to Lex Friedman I think he does a ah good job. He's like the the monotonin. |
| 01:19:59.43 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, there's there's some pros. There's some pros out there. Some people can do 3 hours but if you've been trained for 30 second segments. |
| 01:20:16.90 | Max Shank | Nerd version of Joe Rogan which is fantastic. Ah I don't know if he's a robot that has learned to love or a human that is becoming a robot over time. Ah, but I yeah but I think you hit on something huge um. |
| 01:20:16.87 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:20:26.80 | mikebledsoe | Ah, well, he's rushing. So I think it's part of it. |
| 01:20:35.90 | Max Shank | It's the long format like you can you can look back through hours and hours and hours of sincere conversations. Jokes Yes, sincere questions. Yes, mistakes yes like he has built up that credibility because he's showing you. Behind the curtain whereas these legacy media sources they are you know Puppet mastering of manufactured thirty second clip to make you feel a specific way and the more communication The more discussion we have. The better. It's going to be.. You're not going to solve a relationship issue because that's what we have right now we have division. It's a relationship issue how we relate to each other. You're not going to solve a relationship issue ah by not talking about something just letting something fester. |
| 01:21:26.35 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 01:21:30.43 | Max Shank | So more discussion more honest discussion. Um, more compassion for people who think differently than you ah that that's ah, that's the key. |
| 01:21:43.25 | mikebledsoe | Absolutely let's wrap it up max final thoughts final thoughts. |
| 01:21:48.75 | Max Shank | That's a wrap final final thought it's been a fun six months ah I've gotten pretty fired up several times. It should be ah, there should be no confusion about what I think of things at this point of. Pretty much laid it all out there and said some horrible things that I I do not apologize for and if you don't like it I'm I'm not sorry you feel that way. |
| 01:22:17.98 | mikebledsoe | Ah, brilliant. Brilliant. Ah yeah I encourage people you know it it take take a more macro view and looking at cycles over time and and and understand what's what. When you're being manipulated or the way that pictures are being taken and put side by side and really keep in mind that how easy it is to manipulate information or to hide information or to present only the information you want. And be aware of that and that every one of these news organizations and social media platforms. All of them have an agenda and that agenda is not your best interest so you really, it's good to learn how. Ah, media works. It's good to learn how marketing works Propaganda Pr all these things if you know how these things work and you look at what's going on in the world. You have the opportunity to chuckle at it and and better to prepare and take advantage of whatever situations coming instead of getting. Caught up in the emotional storm and fight that happens I see all the time on on the internet. So. That's that's my ¢2 here at the end where. |
| 01:23:40.64 | Max Shank | That was brilliantly said that was just great I Totally agree with that and I would just reiterate what I said earlier which is get clear on what your values are and deliver Value. So that you can earn a profit and be part of a voluntary exchange that is mutually profitable and not one that's based on coercion. |
| 01:24:07.49 | mikebledsoe | That's how we reach utopia folks max enjoyed enjoyed you today. This is fun and then ah Instagram Mike Underscore Bloodso and I've got the strongcoach summit coming up if you just go over to http://thisstrongcoach.com |
| 01:24:10.73 | Max Shank | That's it inside out freedom. This was a lot of fun. Thanks Mike where can they find you. |
| 01:24:24.44 | mikebledsoe | You can come hang out with me in Austin we're gonna do a bunch of really cool shit if you have any questions about that again just hit me up on Instagram and we can chat about it where can they find you max I mean you already promoted your your simple shoulder solution twice. |
| 01:24:37.10 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's because both red t-shirts and blue t-shirts have shoulders. Ah, you can find me at maxank. No underscore because I have a ah real handle and then you can also find me at http://mashank.com |
| 01:24:41.46 | mikebledsoe | Um, yes. |
| 01:24:56.77 | Max Shank | Thank you guys for listening. Love you buddy. |
| 01:24:57.26 | mikebledsoe | Love you. |
| 00:00.00 | mikebledsoe | Welcome to Monday morning with Mike and max and today we're gonna be talking about high leverage habits and addictive actions and one of the things that inspired this conversation is I got to work with a friend over the weekend to help improve his mental and physical health and I realized. Man lifestyle is really the problem here and we had to do the work to figure out what was gonna be the most high leverage habits that he could instill that was gonna move the needle and that's how I like to work with all of my clients. That's how I like to look at my own life. So I'm excited that that. Talk about this with max because um, he you're also somebody who you've done a good job of instilling habits over time and and I find that we just lifestyle is not something that you just do all at once. It's. You implement 1 thing one month in the next month maybe you add a little something else change something here and there and you've done a really good job of stacking your habits in a really positive way. |
| 01:07.16 | Max Shank | Well thank you for that I I really appreciate that I think one of the smartest things I ever did was actually 1 of the easiest projects I've ever done which was 5 minute flow and really what it did is it gave people permission to. Start with less and when you start with something smaller. It feels a lot more manageable and getting people out of the idea that you have to do an hour workout for it to count is really big just the same way that lao -tzu says the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step ah same kind of thing. However I I would as a counterpoint say that one of the most interesting things about human beings is that we can radically change our lives when we adopt. |
| 01:49.91 | mikebledsoe | O. |
| 02:02.20 | Max Shank | A new self-image or if we adopt a new mission or a new role and just to introduce the key point which is motivation and a lot of synonyms for motivation are hunger and pain. So There's a fire that is fueling that behavior change and if you don't want to Change. You can't Change. You know they talk about that in like those interventions like you have to be ready to change like you have to want to change yourself. So I think that? um yes, tiny. Tiny tiny bets are much more manageable generally speaking. But when you have a really clear mission or purpose or Motivation Hunger pain. Whatever you're capable of radical transformations. Especially as it relates to. Transformation of your self-image and your selfimage is going to guide your subconscious action because it's really hard to be acutely conscious all the time and I think you know it is sort of like. |
| 03:14.94 | mikebledsoe | In. |
| 03:19.71 | Max Shank | Want to say in Buddhism or maybe hinduism I can't remember it's 1 of the isms. Maybe it's in b here now Ram Das talks about like it's like a fish jumping out of the water and that's your moment of consciousness and then you go back into the. The see of the unconscious so selfimage if you change your selfimage your role your mission. You can have a radical change across the board. Otherwise it is way more manageable to have. Ah. Little changes and everything you do is basically a bet that it will be better than doing nothing. |
| 04:00.17 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I like that I like that frame I I like to tell people that I they asked me what I believe and I like to try on beliefs oh I believe if I do this then my life will improve in this way. So I try it out. Check in a couple weeks later and if it's true then I go oh okay I'll keep this belief until you know something better comes along what I you know just have touch on a few points that came up that I want to that you you were making is just the idea being. Focused on the process versus the result and I think for when I look at my history and I look at the times in which I actually made slower progress was when I was not present with the process I didn't actually. I I wanted the results really bad but I was unwilling to be with what it was going to take to get there and so I just did a bunch of stuff that I didn't slow down I only did the stuff that was on the surface to try to get there and you know in athletics it results in injury. Um. And business it. It may result in being able to make a bunch of money but then don't know how to keep it going. Um there's there's all these all these things that I've learned that becoming more present with the process really is a practice and being. And practicing being with the process so spending 5 % of my time on the vision of what I want to be different in the future and 95% of my attention going into into just the execution of the thing and learning to enjoy the process of doing it because. This is where the a lot of people get stuck is they have conditional happiness they say I won't I can't be happy until I achieve this result and so what they do is they basically punish themselves until the result they want is true and that doesn't help you achieve. |
| 05:58.63 | Max Shank | A. |
| 06:14.36 | mikebledsoe | Result at all. In fact, that it probably diminishes your ability to get there and so one of the things I've really been working towards is practicing being in the process and and one of the things that has really been highlighted as I've taken on that practice is that. So much of the process when I'm doing I'm doing you know the same things I've been doing for 20 years which is taking care of my health building my business that these are not being in a relationship with a woman. These are all things that I have been continually striving to improve. And the more that I've gotten involved in the process of how I'm actually gonna move towards this this result that is really a moving target at times is to to when I'm more present with the process I actually understand what it takes to get there and I think. That most people and for myself I really didn't want to hear what it was going to take to get there and I think sometimes if we knew everything it was going to take to get the result we want. We wouldn't do it but we like I hear from entrepreneurs all the time you know if I knew what it was going to take to be successful. Um, would have never started. But once you get into it. You can't stop. It. So really as I've gotten older getting really ah present to what actually has to happen and being okay when something new pops Up. It's like okay. |
| 07:32.67 | Max Shank | Third. |
| 07:49.92 | mikebledsoe | I think I think I know what steps 1 through 10 are but after I complete step 2 I realized that there's 5 steps between 2 and 3 oh this is going to take longer than I thought and if you're if you're present with the process you look at that when that appears you go? Oh okay. |
| 07:58.54 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 08:07.85 | mikebledsoe | And I think just knowing that that's going to happen. Always. It's always going to Happen. You never know what the step is what the next step is going to be until you take the next step and then the next step reveals reveals itself now if it's something you have a lot of practice with things become more predictable. But when you don't know much about what it is that you're doing then it's not predictable and and so it's ah it's actually been really enjoyable to step into something and go Oh I think I know what I need to do here and it actually works and I go oh that was predictable I. Actually know what I'm doing in regard to this thing right now. But I'm also open at any moment for something new to pop up to say oh this is the next obvious Step. You should be taking don't don't do this yet. Do this. |
| 08:53.93 | Max Shank | Um, yo I agree with some of what you said a great majority of it in fact and I have some comments ah number one. So it's gonna be. |
| 09:07.20 | mikebledsoe | Perfect. |
| 09:13.18 | Max Shank | Ah, greed craftsmanship discount tire and entrepreneurial tenure and I'm going to explain how those all go together. So the first one is greed you want the result but you're not willing to pay the price and that's what hurts you athletically. That's what hurts you entrepreneurially and I think that a lot of a lot of problems people cause for themselves stem from greed and it's usually based on comparison with someone else. So then you end up doing things. You don't really love the process of doing. Just to get this result that won't ultimately satisfy you anyway. So we have greed the second one is craftsmanship so craftsmanship is what where greatness really comes from. You certainly need a desire you need like a. A role where you're like okay my my role is I make clay pots for example and you just focus everything you can do into making the best clay pot there is or like Jiro dreams of sushi. You just focus on making the best sushi boom suddenly you're like the only. You know 5 diamond or whatever the heck rated sushi restaurant on the planet and the the idea of retiring is painful to him. He's like why would I retire this is this is my identity. This is my role. This is my self image. This is just what I do. He's not doing it to try to get somewhere else. He's like I do this. You have grade you have craftsmanship you have discount tire and the reason I say discount tire is as I understand it, you cannot jump into the company like leapfrog your way into a high standing position. You have to work your way up from the bottom. So you have to understand the process from the very bottom all the way up. So everybody they promote has been on the floor they they may have you know changed a few tires. They may have made a few sales. They understand the process of how everything works. And I think the intimate knowledge of the process really makes it a lot better and then the last one is ah entrepreneurial tenure and and tenure is like the worst idea ever because it's just another example of how desperate we are to secure the future. And I understand the desire we do it with relationships like we get married so we can securitize our relationship in the future. We have social security so we can securitize the future. We even call stocks securities because we're trying to secure our wealth for the future. |
| 11:55.30 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 12:03.60 | Max Shank | And the same thing is true for the entrepreneurs you're trying to quickly get some sort of security like I got to make 5000000 I got to make ten million I got to get whatever and then I'll be happy like you are saying. It's very conditional when I achieve this when I achieve this result. Then I will be happy and it's like dude the people who do stuff like that they will come up with a new target. Maybe before they even hit the first one like it's not going to be a lasting like ah I am now swimming in an ocean of nirvana. |
| 12:34.47 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 12:42.91 | Max Shank | Now that I have made $5000000 yes, no, you're going to look at bigger houses and bigger boats and you're going to have different goals and it's it's hardly going to be a pit stop on the road trip of your entrepreneurial life. So we're trying to like lock in. That success but like you said it takes us away from the process. So I think those are definitely things that you want to consider and it does relate back to the identity. You know James clear. That's his like main angle with habits my main takeaway. Ah, from his work is that it ends psycho cybernetics same thing. It's all about your identity and self-image and what role you are actively choosing like I am this therefore I do this and once you get clear on that everything is. Pretty much derivative of that it doesn't become about greed for a specific result. It doesn't become about like securing securing the future in some way and I think that's a really good way of looking at it so you need the desire but also the. The desire to embody the identity or the character. |
| 13:59.40 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and and you've got to know who that character is I mean when we think about identity. There's you know there's there's archetypes you could if you're an entrepreneur you could say have the identity of a Ceo and what that. |
| 14:16.32 | Max Shank | I'm the fool. |
| 14:19.28 | mikebledsoe | What that what? that means what that means to you is maybe different than what it means to somebody else and so if you're going to take on the identity of something which I've done before but didn't actually know what it meant and then you get around people who were performing so you want to be a Ceo you want to get around other ceos. Performing at the level that you want to perform and that's how you understand oh this is how this type of if I'm embodying this archetype if I'm embodying this identity. This is how these people think this is how they behave these are these are the things they do. And these are the things they don't do so I'm in agreement like that that identity is likely the quickest way to be able to create new habits because it's such a core piece of it's it's who we are and so if. I am running my company and I go you know what? I'm ah I a hundred million dollar company Ceo and someone comes to me with a problem or somebody's slacking at work. Well what does a hundred million dollar Ceo do well he probably fires that person and then brings in somebody else who's who can do it or whatever it is. But. A lot of people they they're not holding that identity they may they may shrink in that that situation and and then may go you know maybe I don't want to have that identity. It. It requires ah myself to do things that I don't like or it's not me and. And that's the absolute truth if you're trying to take on an identity and you go I'm not like that. It's like that's why you're not that person you have to be like that person. So I I think identity spot on. That's that's the quickest way to to creating a lifestyle life. That's good. And then or that you want if it's good. You could take on thedent identity of a criminal but then there's purpose. You know you're that's right, you got the why you know it's it's the reminder There's there's so many hard days for me. There's. |
| 16:15.27 | Max Shank | Got to hang out with a bunch of evil people. |
| 16:28.98 | mikebledsoe | There's days where I don't feel like you know, taking care of my health or days that I I may not want to work when when my people need me to do it. But I have deep? Yeah, ah. |
| 16:39.40 | Max Shank | Um, what fraud he's a fraud you're not on all the time fraud I'm calling it. Ah. |
| 16:46.76 | mikebledsoe | Ah, and and yeah, yeah, sorry sorry to break the rain on your parade there max? Yeah, and I think the the. |
| 16:49.87 | Max Shank | But I thought you had to be on all the time to be successful was I wrong about that first. My bubble. Ah. |
| 17:05.73 | mikebledsoe | The deeper Why the purpose is the thing that that does get you through those moments of doubt you know I had doubt over the weekend I had ah there's a mixture of things that all happened at the same time and and I'm like why am I doubting myself and then I realize oh well I had these 3 different events. Each one of them by themselves probably wouldn't bother me that much but because there's a combination of these things happening at the same time you know I I have ah a day where you know, kind of freak out man and then wake up the next morning then laugh at myself for being so ridiculous. But. What helped me keep it together is knowing my why you know it's it. It. It helped it helped me through that hard time doesn't mean I was performing at my best in that moment. But I definitely I was able to to stand help myself in that way. |
| 18:00.92 | Max Shank | I can't remember who said it but it was a man with a strong enough. Why can bear almost anyhow was that vi frankl or yeah I I feel like someone else said it like young or something too might have been like Carl young. |
| 18:08.51 | mikebledsoe | Um, think that was victor frankel. Yeah yeah. |
| 18:18.29 | mikebledsoe | He might have gotten it from him who knows. |
| 18:20.14 | Max Shank | But um, yeah, maybe but it's like you have the why and you have the who so that's that's like my little joke Simon Sene has it starts with why and James clear is like it starts with who and so you said it rightly so you got to be so. |
| 18:27.75 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 18:39.73 | Max Shank | Selective with who you associate with because it's the 5 monkey rule you become most like the 5 people that you spend most time with and there's ah you know concentrations to it if you spend like 99% of your time with 1 person you're going to. |
| 18:40.86 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah. |
| 18:58.20 | Max Shank | Have a lot of feedback and become most like that person so you have to be very selective in who your friends are and who you choose as a mentor also and a person doesn't even have to necessarily mentor you um, personally. It's just if you are trying to mimic them in some way. So if they are the role model man you got to be so careful and you have to know like what it's actually like for them and if it really matches your personality type if that's what you really want like I think a lot of us Chase. Ah. You know, false ideas of better because that's the only reason we do anything is we think it'll be better if we do it than if we do nothing but I think a lot of people get caught. Um I think it's called worshiping false idols right. |
| 19:50.94 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah I Um, you know there's been people who I have become enamored with that. They're older and I go oh I want to be more like that person and then I get to know them better I get close to them and I realize that oh they. Really healthy. But holy shit. They're poor as fuck like they totally terrible with money and business and and all this and then I meet someone who's really good at business I'm like okay and then I realize that you know they spend all their time in analysis in front of their computer and I go Well I don't want that either. |
| 20:16.65 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 20:29.50 | Max Shank | Ah, they're on their fifth. The ex-wife or something like that. It's. |
| 20:29.89 | mikebledsoe | So You know there's ah yeah, that too. Yeah and so I go you know you got to be careful about who you choose to to emulate and I. You know sometimes I hang out with someone who's really wealthy and you know I just pick some stuff up and for me, it's I don't think there's ever been one person I'm like I I want to take on the identity ah similar identity to that person. It's more of. You know I'm gonna take this piece from this guy and this piece from this other guy and this piece from this other guy and and I'm gonna do my best to be me while while leveraging you know what I can learn from those people. But yeah I mean if you if you really hung out with a wealthy person. |
| 21:03.91 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 21:17.66 | mikebledsoe | Someone who's great at relationships and someone else who's really healthy and maybe you you split it up in a thirds. You'd probably figure out how to do all of those better than the average person which I think is what most people were going for So I want to move into I want to move into. |
| 21:22.50 | Max Shank | So. |
| 21:32.00 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 21:36.40 | mikebledsoe | What do you think I have my idea I'm curious what you think is the highest leverage part of your life to improve first. So what I'd like to do is for us to move through a list max and I going to and discuss what. Habits or what what part of our lifestyles. Ah we should maximize first before moving on to the next one because we really want to get to a place where we're maximizing every aspect of our life. |
| 22:07.44 | Max Shank | For me, it would have to be preparing for our podcast topics instead of being ambushed by you with this list that we're gonna make up right now. |
| 22:16.15 | mikebledsoe | Um, pretty sure I told you right before we hit record he doesn't remember folks. He's got poor memory I'll send you some new troics That's not true. |
| 22:23.90 | Max Shank | Ah don't say that that's not true. It's like a steel trap. Ah so check it out every every type of self-help which is a. Ah, pretty big category of books is based on the same thing its personal responsibility. It doesn't matter if it's ekhart tolly or David Goggins and what's fascinating to me is those guys. Both have a lot of fans. Who are saying like yeah eckhart, you're the man. My man you help me out and other people are like dude David Goggins gave me gave put a little fight in me and I'm just laughing to myself because of how monumentally different the advice is. |
| 23:17.10 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 23:19.16 | Max Shank | You know the difference between ah there there are no problems. There are only situations and I let them pass through me and you got to conquer your inner Butch bitch and run like ah ten miles a day or whatever. Um. And I know there's more to both of them than that I'm super generalizing but the fact is they both are dependent on personal responsibility and the worst thing you can do is. Assume the identity of a victim of circumstance versus an author or an authoritarian of your own life and take personal responsibility for the good and the bad and everything in between I mean ah if you don't. Take personal responsibility if you don't put yourself into the role of like the creator of your life. Um, basically you're screwed. So I think that's the number one most important thing and that's a psychological foundation that basically every. |
| 24:25.89 | mikebledsoe | Come. |
| 24:31.21 | Max Shank | Ah self-help has in common from the tollies to the goggins and the Jockcos It's all taking responsibility for your own life. |
| 24:38.13 | mikebledsoe | yeah yeah I agree that from a psychological perspective. That's the number 1 thing. Um, you know there's personal responsibility and then I think after that comes self-esteem and self-esteem. House people then create boundaries for themselves and other people. But yeah I think it does all start with personal responsibility and and getting out of that that victim identity. So we have spot on I this is what I love about Ah. Maybe not prepping so much for this because I was thinking more about habits and I love that you said that but I was thinking about all right? So we got personal responsibility on the list and I'm also thinking about daily habits the the most critical thing that I've recognized is. Are you getting good rest are you getting good sleep and to me I think that you know we we put the psychological side apart and we go to lifestyle habits that getting enough sleep is. |
| 25:40.40 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 25:54.90 | mikebledsoe | If you're if you're not getting that. There's really not much else. You can do like you could do so many other things right? But if you're not getting good sleep. It's just not going to matter. |
| 26:07.16 | Max Shank | I Would agree with that I would also say that it's interesting both personally and anecdotally that if you have more drive toward a specific goal if you're more enthusiastic. If you're more expressive and less depressed people need a little bit less sleep and they do sleep a little bit less but getting inadequate sleep. Whatever that number is for an extended period of time. Ah I mean you're like killing your brain essentially and that's what's going to. Be responsible for a lot of that higher order thinking. So I would agree hydration sleep nutrition Those are those are kind of foundational physiological things that um, they they deserve to be right in there right? After. Ah, personal responsibility and self-image or self-esteem because those are very similar. |
| 27:06.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the ah the deerration of sleep and the quality of sleep being different. You know I think it's widely known between six and a half and 8 hours of sleep is about the the right target and everybody's different by the way. Um, but I think. I know for myself when I'm in a high high motivation state which means that I'm waking up at the same time you know ready to go I'm doing my morning routine which involves exercise and because I'm on purpose I end up expending way more energy that day than somebody who's not. |
| 27:42.61 | Max Shank | The. |
| 27:43.39 | mikebledsoe | Somebody is spending their day distracting themselves on Instagram or watching Tv or or whatever it is that person's going to end their day with. |
| 27:48.93 | Max Shank | I. |
| 27:57.17 | mikebledsoe | Without having expended all their their energy and then they're gonna want to you know continue watching Tv and continue being distracted and that person's just not gonna get high quality sleep so they may need to make it up in quantity and of course when you wake up and you don't feel good about what you want to do. There's nothing getting you out of bed because bed is fucking comfortable I like laying around on bed on some days. So um, yeah, it it all does work together because if we're looking at sleep. We go well, you know if you're eating poorly that's going to disrupt your sleep if. You're not exercising that's going to disrupt your sleep. Um, and I think that sleep is you know if you're getting six and a half to seven and a half hours of sleep and you wake up fired up and ready to go and you're tired tired and satisfied at the end of the day with with your work then you're gonna the sleep is indicative of. That you have other habits in order. So there's a few things that are going to impact the sleep which is temperature of the room is it dark did you stop looking at screens for 2 to 3 hours before you attempted to go to sleep. These are all. Unquote sleep hygiene or or making sure you have enough magnesium in in your diet if. You don't have it have magnesium. It's hard to down regulategulate. So these are all things that are directly related to sleep. But again you know if you're not exercising and you're not eating well, that's also going to impact it so I like it as. |
| 29:25.59 | Max Shank | Most of that stuff's a feedback loop right. |
| 29:28.87 | mikebledsoe | As a marker. Yeah, it's all feedback loop all of it. But um I think I think quality of sleep is a really good. You can check in with that and if something's off then then there then you can start looking at other places. |
| 29:31.52 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah. |
| 29:45.77 | mikebledsoe | There was a Chinese medicine. Do I used to see in in snitas and he would ask me. You know?? Ah basically are you dreaming? Do you wake up with boners and what's your shit like and those are like the 3 things and I go. Ah yeah, you know what. As a man as you know women don't have boners. Ah,, there's ah as a lady bones. Yeah, as ah as a man if one of those things are off if you're not having dreams. You're not remembering your dreams. It probably means that your sleep architecture is messed up in some Way. Um. |
| 30:09.28 | Max Shank | They have lady boners. |
| 30:24.51 | mikebledsoe | Which is fucking up your hormones which isn't going to allow you to wake up with boners and and and then obviously how you're shitting is is how you're primarily. Well let's say it makes up of how you're eating and what kind of stress you're enduring because if you emotional stress being held in the gut will fuck up your digestion. Even if you eat really? Well So Ah these things all again, a lot of that will manifest in basically sheep you look at your sleep and your defecation habit. |
| 30:55.33 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's kind of like we have neurological housekeeping which is identity self-image personal responsibility and then we have physiological housekeeping which is promoting good sleep. Maybe you have an alarm. In the evenings that reminds you to turn the screens off. Maybe you take a magnesium supplement I mean really even if your routine is total bullshit. It might be better to have one because you're intellectually and psychologically putting energy into the quality of your sleep. You're like okay I have this routine where i. You know I'd swish coconut oil in my mouth and um, you know do eye exercises and massage my hands and feet and do a little stretch like even if it's not a very good routine just having that um psychological investment into it. Can be beneficial and that's like the ah the whole idea is that physiological housekeeping like are you getting enough water are you getting enough nutrients from your food. Are you getting enough exercise and it doesn't have to be any fancy exercise. And then what you said are you know, sort of the markers for how that's going. Ah check the poo. Do you have a boner every morning and are you dreaming and that's really interesting so we have the psychological housekeeping we have physiological housekeeping and then I think from there I would start looking at actual skills I don't know if that makes sense for you. But if we're trying to go for high leverage then really the 2 skills are. Language and movement and language is no question the most high leverage skill There is um I mean mathematics is a language in and of itself sales. And marketing are certainly language-based ah flirting wooing ah dating. That's mostly language-based There's a little bit of physical-based stuff too. So then you know you have language on the one side you have physical skills on the other side which would be like fighting. Ah, moving around with ease I think it's smart to get good at giving massages personally I think that's a really high leverage skill like if you can do ah a 5 minute shoulder foot rub and do it really? well. |
| 33:41.50 | Max Shank | My god like whatever partner you have is going to feel so loved and so lucky and you know there are love languages and shit like that. But man if you have word skills and physical skills. Ah, that's super high leverage and and really those are the skills. Worth cultivating so from a language standpoint I would say ah probably sales and storytelling is the highest 1 and then also planning and delegating right after that as far as like the high leverage. Language skills are concerned. |
| 34:17.48 | mikebledsoe | Yeah there's um, there's a book called um, your like the last safe investment and the idea is the the safest investment you can make is in yourself and that. The premise in the book is that you want to make yourself as valuable to other people as much as possible in order to enhance your ability to make money because that's the people who make the most money have figured out how to position themselves in a very high value position. So the way. That they break it down is the low value skills. There's 4 different quadrants 4 different pillars or 4 different categories of skill one being physical labor number 2 being technical labor 3 creative labor 4 interpersonal labor. So. Each one is more valuable generally speaking than the other so physical labor is you know, gardening building houses plumbing electrical. Ah this is but it's also professional athletes. So the 1% of physical labor talent plays basketball. But you know that's as a very rare ah physical labor. Yeah, you get? we get. That's an interesting take on that because yeah, the artists are really left out of this whole thing. Ah if you think it sports performance. |
| 35:37.36 | Max Shank | I Think that's a I think that's a performer. |
| 35:49.70 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 35:53.59 | mikebledsoe | Art performance. Ah all right? but outside of that and then you have technical labor these are accountants people who are you know, just man I don't even know what else fits in that category. But there's a lot of technical labor out there that is. Mostly these days being outsourced to India by the way because they're so technically oriented and then. |
| 36:18.67 | Max Shank | It's basically any labor where someone else tells you what to do, but you don't have to sweat very much. |
| 36:21.82 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and you just have to you have to like you're probably working on a computer and it's not creative work. It's I'm moving things from over here to over here bookkeeping accounting. You're just following the rules. Not really thinking too much. |
| 36:34.29 | Max Shank | Maybe even in a factory in like a factory if you're not really like digging ditches but you're moving machinery around and you're manning the loom or something like that. That's a little more technical than digging a ditch. But yeah I follow. |
| 36:39.60 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 36:46.32 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and then creative labor that may be copywriting that would be ah writing a book writing music. Whatever it is and then the level above that is interpersonal. That's leadership sales. That's things. |
| 36:53.10 | Max Shank | Writing a book creating a video series. |
| 37:05.85 | mikebledsoe | Involve relationships. That's the highest value skills to acquire and so um, it is the hardest skill because it's ah if you think about it. Ah these skills the skills that are most focused on in school. |
| 37:12.90 | Max Shank | It seems like the hardest skill to me too. |
| 37:25.61 | mikebledsoe | People are developing is really technical ability and so it's really, you're really being trained to be a worker. Not really someone who's gonna be creative. It's so funny when I hear people you know, be concerned about Homeschool kids not getting the right level of socialization but I look at. |
| 37:27.30 | Max Shank | Um, if. |
| 37:45.48 | mikebledsoe | The level relating skills that people have going to public schools fucking shit and it's like I'm like what what do you mean? their social skills. They can't lead. They don't know how to you know they don't know how to date. |
| 37:59.31 | Max Shank | They can't manage their own emotions. How are they gonna have a chance of managing somebody else's it's absurd. Don't get me started on the school thing. We'll ruin the whole podcast the worst twelve year investment you can make oh god. |
| 38:03.31 | mikebledsoe | Can't manage their own. Ah. Ah. |
| 38:13.11 | mikebledsoe | Ah, ah so ah, coming from 1 guy who who went to school another guy who didn't but um, we both agree. Ah yeah, so so I think you know with what you were saying you know there's there's skills. Was it you said Ah, it was movement skills and and verbal. Yeah, so if you look at the interpersonal if you look at the interpersonal which is the highest value you have to communicate. Well it comes down to communication whether you're doing sales or you're in a leadership position. It has to do with. |
| 38:34.71 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's verbal and physical. Basically yeah. |
| 38:52.10 | mikebledsoe | Are you able to tell people and have a conversation a you got to be a good listener and then B can you can you? then? what your your output side of the communication is that landing in a way that that is that matches your intention. Because what I find is most people they talk and then the other person completely interprets it in a way that was unintended and neither party knows what to do about it that usually is what results in most conflict. |
| 39:21.49 | Max Shank | Ah, well I call it a catalytic communication did what you did your communication yield The result that you wanted was it a catalyst for the result that you were after and if you have that it's Amazing. I mean look the average person talks like they're just practicing talking. They don't know like why they're saying what they're saying they like heard something and they're like oh it's my turn to talk for a while now and like I heard about this and like but like catalytic communication like does it yield. |
| 39:42.63 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah I think. |
| 39:58.11 | Max Shank | Result that you had intended that is super high skill and high leverage and if we think about the word leverage we have to be clear about what we mean by that. Do we mean the highest ah result or the highest benefit per unit of time. Do we mean the highest. Ah. Benefit per per per calories because that's another way way we could measure it. That's why language is so crazy because we're all just saving tons of calories. That's why we can like sleep in a big comfy bed instead of hunting will de beastenship and then you also have ah leverage for. |
| 40:31.40 | mikebledsoe | Fucking Well at least. |
| 40:37.11 | Max Shank | Money So you have leverage for time leverage for money and leverage for calories and ah language is all of those.. That's why that's what drove the dot Com bubble. That's what has driven um these different softwares because software is language and it is. A series of conditional phrases. Let's call I'm like about to leave my circle of competence here basically but basically um, intellectual leverage is when less explains more or when less can do more. |
| 40:59.49 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 41:16.54 | Max Shank | And if you have a really slick piece of software you can perform the work. You can save the calories of you know millions of people having to do the job instead and now it's replaced with a computer program which is just ah rules. Ah, using language that's incredible. |
| 41:37.50 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, and that's such a good example of how that's being utilized the there's a guy named John Vervaki I think ah, it's it's Dr. John Vervakki's ah he's like a philosopher. Ah, doctor of philosopher philosophy from up in Canada I forget which school he's got a 30 hour series on on Youtube called awakening from the meaning crisis and what's so cool about that series is he is. He walks you through the evolution of consciousness through history and so there's this handoff between basically where the hebrews and the ah like the hebrews and transfers into the greeks and say why like. Up and to that point hebrew culture was at the pinnacle of of ah of consciousness and then the greeks came along and then made a lot of improvements upon it and part of it was was that fluency increased so the style of the language actually became. Easier to understand to the average person and so there's a lot of research that that shows that if you can increase fluency you increase believability and so 1 example of this is if. If you're reading something the fluency of what's written on the page is gonna impact the believability of it so did a study of people that were reading something that was black on white and then they were reading like orange on white and they're reading. So they were tested afterwards because if there's not as much contrast on visually it decreases the fluency. It slows them down all this stuff and the believability of the statements was even when they were not true at all were rated much higher. |
| 43:38.66 | Max Shank | Oh yeah. |
| 43:48.93 | mikebledsoe | When there was more contrast and so the and so they've they've done a lot of studies where they're measuring the fluency the ability to Comprehend. What's being said and the faster you can comprehend it the more believable. It is so increasing is just an argument For. Or a suggestion towards increasing your fluency your ability to communicate in a way that others can receive it easily is going to make a huge difference. |
| 44:16.49 | Max Shank | Man and that speaks volumes to the whole idea of catalytic communication where the goal is to get the other the person on the other end of that communication to take a specific action. So if I'm talking to you I'm doing it for you I'm gonna try to gear it. As much as possible so that you can understand it as well as possible as clearly as possible and that's where stuff like eye relief comes in. You know if you have just this gigantic intimidating block of text. Ah, that's going to reduce the fluence here. That's going to reduce the understandability. Of it if you use a bunch of ah you know, fancy $10 words that's going to be a limiting factor for the other person's ability to understand so it's a big difference between writing for yourself and writing for your audience so they can take a specific action. |
| 45:11.15 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think this is a great place to talk about the people who want more authenticity like I want ah authentic Expression. You know I want to be able to go On. You know I talk to coaches. I Want to be able go on social media and speak my truth and then that's what should bring me my clients. That's what this and that and and I watch it this. This is really big amongst I'd say more often women are are wanting this more than the guys is there's this.. There's this belief that. Authentic expression means saying whatever the whatever you want. However, you want and expecting to get a result from other people and as if that's the best way to communicate and ah and I always challenge people hey authentic. |
| 45:53.10 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 46:04.46 | mikebledsoe | Expression or being sincere or genuine doesn't mean that you say whatever you is come to your mind in it in in a way that you want to be heard and understood Now you're you're speaking So the air the person can receive it so be Authentic. Don't lie be authentic, but keep it inside of the scope of how the person's going to receive that information. That's the best way to be authentic because if they can't receive it then they're not actually experiencing your authenticity. They're just experiencing confusion. And so I think that these are 2 things that need to be helped speak your truth and while also considering and taking the responsibility for how other people are going to receive it because the people who don't do that are really confused about why they may. Be isolated or they feel alone even though they're expressing themselves. |
| 47:01.16 | Max Shank | Well plus I mean should we really be so attached to this idea of authenticity I mean the older I get I swear every year I just look back and go God I was such a fool like I was an idiot I didn't know anything and. So the audacity of thinking Well I should just be able to talk. However I want to talk and like you said, expect that to convert whether it's like sales or believers or whatever let the authenticity come from your core belief. |
| 47:29.73 | mikebledsoe | Ah, no. |
| 47:36.83 | Max Shank | The authenticity is the core belief that hey you should do 5 minutes of exercise every morning boom that's my core belief but then from there don't just talk the way you would at a bar with a bunch of like old sailors or something like if you're. Clear on who your audience is communicate it in a way that will give them the best possible chance of taking the action. The authenticity is in your mission not in your like learned turn of phrase I mean most people learn how to communicate so badly. Like I said they're just waiting for their turn to talk. They just want to make noise and have people listen to it. So ah sometimes it works though sometimes ah people find it really funny or endearing or like oh yeah, that guy you know says the f- word a lot and ah. It's it's funny in a way you know sometimes that happens but man the best leverage communication is when you really understand your audience and you communicate directly to them and the better you understand the avatar of your audience and the more you speak directly to them. |
| 48:41.86 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 48:53.50 | Max Shank | The more leverage your communication is going to have. |
| 48:54.16 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and I also want to point out that a lot of self-expression that I witness when people are are I'm expressing myself is usually a wound that is expressing itself. Yeah, it's not. It's not them. It's like yeah if it was you that was expressing yourself. |
| 49:06.81 | Max Shank | It's pain body. Yeah, totally. |
| 49:14.47 | mikebledsoe | We'd You'd be coming it sound a lot more like Love. We'd be experiencing love when you spoke but ah it and and it it could be something. But if you're speaking like absolute truth a lot of people aren't ready to hear that type of thing. But. Most people who are that I hear that are really are valuing self-expression of a high degree. Usually yeah, it's their pain Body. It's a wound.. It's an emotional wound from their childhood that that's wanting to speak up and you can spot it because they actually act like a child. |
| 49:33.35 | Max Shank | Ah, yeah. |
| 49:49.95 | mikebledsoe | You know they they might stomp around they hoff and puff they may throw something. Ah you know they they they're acting like things aren't Fair. You know all you know kids do behave differently but you can now that people hear this. When you watch people interact and they get emotional just watch how childlike their behavior becomes and that's how you can spot if it's a wound or if they're coming from Love and these are you know a wound is just going to fracture love and it's and it's going to be make it unrecognizable. Um. So you know on um, on one side you have the crowd that's got self-expression as a high value on the other side and when we we cycle between the two as we develop the other one is self-sacrificed. |
| 50:33.64 | Max Shank | How about value as a high value how about values and value. You know that's what we talked about this in the school episode. You know what you want to teach someone is values and what you want to teach them how to create is value. |
| 50:48.59 | mikebledsoe | Right? um. |
| 50:50.44 | Max Shank | And if you're focused on delivering value then the last thing you're going to do is bring your own emotional garbage and baggage into it that you've accumulated over the years I mean look most adults are still children. They're old and they don't move as quick. But they they don't act any different than a child What they know a few more words. Ah and their their lives are like a little worse I mean I I get it like I I totally understand. But if you are focused on like crying out for attention rather than delivering value. |
| 51:09.37 | mikebledsoe | I I agree. |
| 51:28.45 | Max Shank | The person on the other end of that communication. Don't be surprised that you don't get as good a result as the person who is trying to be a catalyst for that audience. It's like ah yeah, don't be surprised. |
| 51:44.80 | mikebledsoe | Yeah there's ah one of my mentors I was ah ah went to one of his ah weekend workshop with him about six months ago and he said on a post it on his on his monitor. The question is what is value. And he said meditate on that and always keep that in mind it's ah it's very deep and what is value changes over time and or changes depending on situationally you know what's what's value bull. What is value. |
| 52:21.52 | Max Shank | It's bottled water at the north pole or bottled water at Coachella on the third day I mean that's that's how you figure out what value is. |
| 52:29.85 | mikebledsoe | True that I think I spent about fifty bucks one day on water at Coachella it was that yeah those mushrooms those mushrooms made me thirsty man who. |
| 52:35.93 | Max Shank | Um, and it was worth every penny wasn't it because you're still here and alive. |
| 52:45.15 | Max Shank | So I think that's a ah good question to meditate on is like what value are you delivering and if you're not delivering value in some way because look exposing like real truth that may be uncomfortable is. |
| 53:03.89 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 53:04.18 | Max Shank | Valuable but to the right audience and what's valuable to 1 audience might be worthless or actually destructive to another audience and understanding that value like you said changes based on the situation and based on the individual. |
| 53:18.64 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and a lot of things that you may value. No one else values and I see a lot of people out there that are upset that no one values The same thing they value and and can't understand why they're not making money and you. It's usually the starving artist and so you you really really need to think about what's the how do other people perceive value and then not only that I know a lot this. This is so true in the coaching industry I know a lot of coaches that possess. |
| 53:38.36 | Max Shank | Ah, the. |
| 53:56.67 | mikebledsoe | And incredible amount of value that never gets exposed to the right people and or to the to enough people and the reason is because they don't know how to communicate their value and they don't know how to connect the value that they can create to the pain and suffering. The people who need it most and there's it's really sad to watch somebody refuse to communicate appropriately and I was coaching a woman yesterday through ah we were going through a 10 year vision exercise and. She's so good at what she does and she goes but I hate sales I go how selfish of you the look on her face the look on her face was like what the fuck did you just say to me and I go wow you you just told me that. |
| 54:40.79 | Max Shank | Ha ha. |
| 54:52.52 | mikebledsoe | So many people would benefit from where and you're not willing to meet them where they're at people who need coaching people who need someone to help them out. They are so they have been sitting with this pain. They've been trying to solve this problem for so long. They can't find the solution. They've tried a hundred different things. And you're refusing to come tell them about it and and show them how it could benefit their very specific situation and so we got to turn that one around and ah yeah I hope that anyone hearing this that that strikes a chord for those who need to hear it. |
| 55:26.73 | Max Shank | I Think that's probably because I've heard that example, a lot the selfishness of not selling your solution and the hilarious part is that you are actually selling her on liking selling. So you are communicating to her in a way that will actually resonate and because usually the people who shy away from selling they they don't want to be greedy right? That's like the last thing they want they they they want to is. |
| 55:58.53 | mikebledsoe | Well, they don't want to be perceived as greedy. That's different. |
| 56:05.80 | Max Shank | Exactly right? That's a very good point. Ah, and maybe they're also afraid of being rejected but when you change that frame psychologically I mean look imagine if she puts out twice as many offers from that you know 10 minute conversation whatever it is. Think of the leverage of that 10 minutes because now she's at least doubled and is probably going to have an exponential increase rather than a linear one. So. That's that's what we're talking about is the power of leveraging language so practicing language. That's a ah, high leverage habit I don't think there is a higher one actually you know and do it low tech because we didn't even get into all the stuff that stops you from doing these good things I mean there are a million traps. There are like cute cats and tits on the screen any time that you want them. So it's hard to say no to those that there's alcohol you can get alcohol delivered to the House. You can get drug like different drugs delivered to you. Um, it's insane. Ah. |
| 57:13.33 | mikebledsoe | Um, anything is possible folks. |
| 57:17.51 | Max Shank | So I think at least for me. Yeah, if I'm hungry I Just slide my finger across my magic telephone and food arrives Can you imagine describing that to your great-grandparents eating dinner by candlelight. |
| 57:33.50 | mikebledsoe | My guys. |
| 57:36.75 | Max Shank | And then me and then me also saying how unfair life is. |
| 57:40.36 | mikebledsoe | Um I can't believe that you gave me this this place this this world we live in the baby boomers fucked us up. It's like right got pretty fucking good. |
| 57:50.21 | Max Shank | Ah, yeah, you forgot my extra ranch you son of a bitch. So Anyway, there are a lot of traps and that's why I think with. Language if you can use a pen and paper to contain your ideas in ah like a one- pageish format where you have a big idea you have some arguments of why you have. An explanation of what will happen if you take this good action because we could do a whole episode on how to craft an offer but all communication is basically that so I would go low tech high effect. Avoid the distractions get out the Notebook and a pen. Get clear on who you're sending the message to what the ideas expand on the idea have a specific call to action at the end and practice organizing your ideas that way because that's going to allow you to think better. Most communication is an argument and it's too bad. |
| 58:48.67 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 59:06.29 | Max Shank | Arguments are seen in such a negative light because arguments are actually quite fun. You have a claim and then you have some supporting evidence or supporting ideas and yeah, hopefully or. |
| 59:19.10 | mikebledsoe | Hopefully. |
| 59:22.66 | Max Shank | Or here's a big trap that I think I've talked about a million times. The only like 99% of the arguments that you see people make are logical fallacies that only attack or prop up the arguer. And they have nothing to do with the argument. Basically you have appeal to authority which is trust god completely don't even question his argument and then you have ad hom in him attack which is this guy is the Devil. Don't even listen to his argument. And if you look at the things that people argue about that's what it's usually about we trust this guy completely or we hate this guy so much. We're not even going to listen to what this fucker says. So if you can avoid those 2 logical fallacies. No the whole thing like everything everything I mean. |
| 01:00:07.69 | mikebledsoe | The entire Covid debate. |
| 01:00:16.85 | Max Shank | If I ever run for office just rest assured that my opponent is a racist pedophile and that will be the only thing I run the whole time. It will just be character assassinational because that's the world that we're living in people are living in their limbic system. They're just like. Ah I hate you? Ah I love you save me and so it it makes arguments not that fun. Ah whereas a good argument with acclaim and supporting points and a back and forth of. Ah, evaluating the ideas. That's why a cooperative argument or discussion is so exciting because instead of 2 people who are just trying to prove themselves right? I don't give a fuck if I'm right I care if we are ultimately right like if you have a great idea. I want to know that your idea is better and profit from that and that's like the the cooperative discussion conversation argument and that's where the real gold is if you get stuck with like I'm just trying to express myself yourself probably sucks I mean mine does most of the time. So. It's better to focus on what is like ultimately the most valuable rather than like just try to support what you already believe. |
| 01:01:38.68 | mikebledsoe | Love it. Feels like a good ending anything else. You want to add before we roll. |
| 01:01:46.24 | Max Shank | I Don't know I was I was enjoying yelling there maybe um. |
| 01:01:48.20 | mikebledsoe | You you're all red you were on the rip. You know what? I'll do my closing dots I'll let you do yours? You know this show is really just an excuse for max and I to get our rants out. To save our our romantic partners from as much pain and suffering as possible. Ah, you know we we walked into this conversation looking at high leverage habits and addictive actions. I only think we got no addictive actions much but high leverage habits for sure and you know the the number 1 thing. |
| 01:02:07.41 | Max Shank | I. |
| 01:02:24.72 | mikebledsoe | That ah max and I agreed on which it needs to be done first that is take personal responsibility in anything in which you don't you're not experiencing freedom or power in your life is due to a lack of of taking responsibility for that. So if there's something that's not going the way you like it. Go look at where you can take personal responsibility and from there you can you know work on you know self-esteem and creating boundaries and all that stuff and then on the ah so we kind of. We we did split it up. Max Max did a great job of this is saying there's like psychological and physiological housekeeping so that would be on the psychological side on the physiological we got into you know, sleep being one of the biggest indicators. The quality of the sleep. You're getting what you're how you're waking up. Um. And all that and then oh yeah, the last thing to mention on ah that I want to throw in there to remind everybody that I want that I got out of this conversation is ah when forming new habits really looking at the the who and the why the identity and the purpose those are the things they're gonna. Are high leverage things to ah to use when you're starting new habits. |
| 01:03:42.80 | Max Shank | Yeah that's great I think of those as the first dominoes like everything else kind of falls into place when you have your mission and identity lined up. Um I don't think I have too much to add. Actually I think you put it together very nicely. The reality is most people will not take the action and that's okay, like you you don't want to think of it as an all or nothing kind of thing if you get 10 % of the people who hear your message to take a better action toward their. |
| 01:04:13.20 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 01:04:21.69 | Max Shank | Psychological physiological housekeeping and start practicing those high-leverage skills and those are mostly language and then also ah physical like body language and athleticism and things like that. So if anyone tells you it's complicated. Definitely not. Humans are complex creatures but they are ah very tightly organized sometimes their thoughts are a little bit muddled and that makes it very difficult for people. There are unlimited distractions and drugs available to you some of them come through ah a screen full Of. Red Green and blue tiny lights that can show you all kinds of weird stuff. Some people use ah food and different drugs to desensitize ah and as far as that goes. There's ah, there's a quote I heard ah in nor Mcdonald's book. He goes I was at the psychologist psychiatrist and she said that I use gambling to avoid the realities of life and he goes. That's why everyone does everything. |
| 01:05:36.74 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, that sounds about right I Where can people find you? What do you want to tell people you're up to right now because you're always up to something. |
| 01:05:37.19 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:05:45.77 | Max Shank | Um, sometimes I'm up to nothing which is actually a big lesson for this podcast. It's okay to do nothing I feel like that's actually a high level skill now is if you can just sit quietly for 10 minutes how far we've come. |
| 01:05:50.33 | mikebledsoe | Ah, that's true. |
| 01:05:57.60 | mikebledsoe | Oh that's and that's ah I think you're right about that that is a high lever skill. |
| 01:06:05.91 | Max Shank | I'm releasing a new I'm releasing a new e course called how to sit still for 10 minutes. |
| 01:06:11.71 | mikebledsoe | I'm gonna I'm gonna do a I'm gonna hold a retreat. It's a meditation fasting retreat. We're gonna do and say nothing. Yeah, no, no, it's $10000 well but we we'll do yeah lower lowerhead for me. Ah. |
| 01:06:19.57 | Max Shank | It's a very low overhead. Oh for you. |
| 01:06:28.63 | mikebledsoe | We will. We will be in a mansion and we won't enjoy any of it because our eyes will be closed and we'll be just sitting there doing nothing. Yeah. |
| 01:06:34.60 | Max Shank | I like it. Yeah I got ah I got a few projects I'm working On. Um, if you want something habit related check out Primal Athleticism on my website. It's basically the ultimate in physical housekeeping from an exercise standpoint to. Modular daily practice. It's awesome. Um I got a few secret projects I'm working on so http://macshank.com at Mashank Thanks for listening guys. |
| 01:07:00.47 | mikebledsoe | Who mystery ah go check out http://thestrongcoach.com/summit I am holding a summit here in Austin Texas March third through seventh and I rented out a summer camp. It's gonna be part burning man part. Summer Adult Summer camp part fitness seminar part business conference I think there's another part in there I'm forgetting about but we're gonna have a really good time and I'm a big fan of creating experiences that are both educational and fun because as if you don't know already. That if you mix play into your education. You can learn up to 20 times faster that came from a peer reviewed research study so you know don't f with me. Love y'all. |
| 01:07:48.87 | Max Shank | F that peer review f that peer review. Study play is the original form of education later bro. Love you. |
| 00:00.00 | mikebledsoe | Welcome going to Monday morning with Mike and max Today we're gonna be talking about money. We. We're big fans of it I imagine you're a big fan of it too and sometimes you probably get really mad at it or maybe mad at yourself about it and ah, it's a very. Very touchy subject for a lot of people and if you can master money then your life is going to get a lot easier because money solves a lot of problems. Not all of them but a lot of them. So. 1 thing I really want to discuss by the end of this show that I want people to get a handle on is a a definition that I received from one of my teachers. She defines financial freedom as having enough passive income to handle all of your living expenses and that that passive income means. Maybe you have real estate that's income producing. That's that's rental properties that money is coming in and it's profit getting dividends from your stocks or and there's ways to do this with crypto as well where you can you can pull off profits so having. I'm sure we can talk about some other asset classes that are income producing. But I personally have many friends who have already accomplished this and and I am on my way to doing the same thing for myself. So max. You're what's ah, what do you What's your relationship to money like these days. |
| 01:39.42 | Max Shank | First off am am I getting paid for this. |
| 01:44.80 | mikebledsoe | I'm sure you'll get paid at some point down the road. Yeah yeah. |
| 01:46.74 | Max Shank | Seems like a bad business decision for me to just give it away for free like this. Ah I think that money is energy and it makes trading easier and all of the emotional. |
| 01:51.21 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 02:06.42 | Max Shank | Baggage We attach to it is something that needs to be worked through that the real key is to understand that it makes trading easier you know and to focus on delivering value because we can talk about. |
| 02:17.84 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 02:25.47 | Max Shank | Ah, money on a micro and a macro and it's best to focus on micro first which is like yourself essentially and there are only 2 ways to improve your financial situation and that's to increase your income and reduce your spending. And in order to do that. You have to be very honest about what the difference is between a luxury and a necessity and I think it's wise to really focus on delivering value on being able to scale. The value that you deliver and also being comfortable with less. You know live a very spartan lifestyle as long as you can because um, it's really not fair. Once you get ahead of the game in in money. It's like once you have a million dollars saved up you can invest it at a you can invest it slowly and 5% is still going to give you 50 grand a year and that's more than enough to live well on you can eat well, you can never have to worry about a roof over your head. You're never going to um, have to drain that nest egg and it's going to provide for you just by having it there. So I yeah very safe. Potentially. |
| 03:49.63 | mikebledsoe | And that 5%'s a very safe investment that's that's a very low aggressive. Not lowress. It's ah, whatever the safe? Yeah, not aggressive safe. Yeah. |
| 04:02.47 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah, um, and you know we can talk about specific stocks that have different dividends like usually a Verizon or something will have a higher dividend which is what they pay out and you can reinvest the dividends or you can take it out as cash. But anyway. |
| 04:08.36 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 04:20.61 | Max Shank | The the key point is realizing that money is energy getting rid of the emotional baggage focus on delivering value and scaling that value you deliver living a Spartan lifestyle and accumulating a fat chunk so that you can. Invest into securities or real estate or reinvest into your own business as well because that is that is the best investment is being confident that you can always make more. |
| 04:48.95 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think I want to hit on a point you were making and and you know living a spartan lifestyle and and only living with the necessities. It's it's a really big challenge for a lot of people and I just went through a financial course this past year and one of the things that. Was noticed because everyone in the the course together are are all entrepreneurs and when we did a survey of the room of how many the entrepreneurs that were there to learn grew up with no money or with very little money. It was almost all of us. It was was we were the majority and the teacher she one of the things that she noted was that a lot of times what happens when we grow up poor and then we make money is we buy ourselves all the things that we. |
| 05:28.45 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 05:46.95 | mikebledsoe | Couldn't have when we were a kid or when we were younger and so there a lot of people end up adopting this attitude of you know I'll just get it and I need to treat myself or whatever to make up for you know what I didn't have and and another pitfall is amongst people who. |
| 05:58.94 | Max Shank | And. |
| 06:06.70 | mikebledsoe | And this was me for a while is I'm so good at making money like so confident that I could just go make more money that the the feeling the necessity to save and invest wisely just didn't seem that important. Whereas you've got a lot of people who are making 50 to $100000 a year on a fixed salary and they're trying to max out their ira but to an entrepreneur who can make a hundred grand in a month if they really fucking put the screws to it that ah. That seems kind of ridiculous like why would I scrounge and take that money and invest it in something that's going to earn such a slow rate of return when I could just go make it real quick and so ah, for for there. There's pit for. |
| 06:43.79 | Max Shank | The. |
| 06:59.89 | mikebledsoe | And that's not the majority of the people that were my class by the way I was I was one of the few people that were like oh yeah, if I want more money I just go make it and yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah, definitely. Ah. |
| 07:01.97 | Max Shank | Yeah what's like the Richard Branson style it's good to understand the different personality types because what you say. Is like the opposite of my approach. |
| 07:18.26 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, this is a good conversation for max and I to have because we are very different in in how we've approached money in the past I bet we were probably closer to each other at this point but we'll see that but the thing I want to touch on that I learned in the class. Um, is the you don't have to be Spartan You don't have to only go to the necessities but you need you need to be real ah with your numbers and looking at and being present with the amount of money you're spending on this and that and then actually making the choice. So. |
| 07:51.60 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 07:56.30 | mikebledsoe | I Wouldn't say that I live an extremely Spartan lifestyle but I do a lot more saving these days in in intelligent investing and I like to split my purchases up into first before I just going what do I need and what do I You know? what's an option is I go What's meaningful. |
| 08:14.30 | Max Shank | The. |
| 08:15.59 | mikebledsoe | What is a meaningful purchase does this? Yeah I don't need it but does it really bring enough meaning to my life because I'm not going to wait until I'm retired to have all the stuff that you know to enjoy my money I'm going to enjoy my money along the way. So one of the things I Really ah appreciated about her course was. |
| 08:28.69 | Max Shank | Great. |
| 08:35.46 | mikebledsoe | It wasn't this like Dave Ramsey approach where where it's kind of like you know, super hard rules and like if you know you gotta do it like this or it won't work. It's more like you know here's some things that you can apply in your life and you can live life now but just realize that every. Every dollar that you spend now takes away from your future financial freedom and and and if I go is this worth my future financial freedom then? yes I'll purchase it hey if I go is this worth my future financial freedom because every time I spend. Now is money I don't get to invest in crypto stocks real estate. These are every every penny is something I can't invest in the future that that'll give me a future return so holding that frame has been a game changer for me for somebody who. Who tends to be ah you know, ah very risk tolerant and aggressive that is extremely helpful. |
| 09:43.13 | Max Shank | Well and that's the personality type I'm talking about too oftentimes like the Richard Branson type there's a survivorship bias because there's a lot of people who try his same strategy of. You know triple mortgaging his house so he can buy an aircraft engine. Ah and it goes horribly wrong and you don't hear about that guy. You only hear about the winners and you know when you're talking about saving now. You know you're listing things that have the potential to. |
| 10:06.84 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 10:17.69 | Max Shank | Lot of things that have the potential to have compound returns and that is something that is really difficult for people to understand in their mind because when you spend a dollar on something now that's not that's not going to be a dollar. In 20 years if you're willing to be patient because the compound effect is really hard to understand in the present moment what it could potentially be 20 years from now and that's why um you know you gotta find something that suits your personality type and. What you're saying sounds like you are more. You're not spartan but you're more conscious and aware of the spending and more conscious and aware of the income. So. It's an appropriate energy balance. Rather than just this like freewheeling reckless abandon like I'll just make more I'll just make more I'll just bla but da da da da da and you know I I see that from my perspective which is like you know the further ahead you can get quicker the more. That what you put away will compound and especially when you're young I assume like most of the people listening to this are going to be somewhere around like 30 year old fellas maybe 20 to 40 right? something like that. Um you know, live as simply as possible when you can because. |
| 11:44.37 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 11:53.33 | Max Shank | Part of the the keeping up with the joneses thing is such a killer on so many levels. It's this extra ego baggage that doesn't serve you and you don't see the balance sheet of those people who are trying to get into those comparison Competitions. You know why? Why are we. Trying to keep up with the joneses. The joneses are Broke. You know you want to be like ah you want to be a secret millionaire as quick as possible and have the ability to move and act and create from a place of. Safety and abundance and when you have that when you have that separate investment that Accrues income and has a compound return I mean frankly, it feels like cheating you know you you get yourself. Ah, property like a home and you invest the rest into your own business into securities and I mean if you want to do something else. There are all kinds of other options. But it's basically it's not fair like money is ah about as fair. |
| 13:07.20 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 13:11.56 | Max Shank | As nature itself. It's not fair I mean we could get into like fractional reserve banking and stuff later and go like whoa what the hell is that. But um, it's not It's not fair that a lion can tear a Gazelle to Shreds and it's not fair that if you have. 5 or $ 10000000 as long as you're not a complete fool. You'll never have to worry about money again even a million and so getting ahead as quick as possible living as spartan as possible to begin with is really good advice being able to defer that gratification for later. Same thing with creating a business for yourself. You know most of the big income I've had is through exponentially scalable things like online courses and videos and books that I've written and if you can build something one time. It may take you six months or a year in some cases sometimes 2 years projects I've been working on but I can build it once and then sell it 10000 times. Most people just aren't willing to do that and it's it's hard to it's hard to see into the future. Ah. |
| 14:20.31 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 14:27.82 | mikebledsoe | Well, you're an early adopter of the digital information product and so it's you know this is definitely when those things were being early to the game. It's easier to have a big payout your marketing didn't have to be as. |
| 14:27.88 | Max Shank | For most people that way. |
| 14:45.10 | mikebledsoe | As good as it does Now there's a lot more. It's a lot more competition in the online marketplace and a lot more noise whether it be direct competition or just like I said that and that noise that's out there. Um, yeah, and. |
| 14:56.57 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 15:01.30 | mikebledsoe | 1 of the things that you mentioned you you threw outt the number of a million dollars will give you this much. Ah income. You know say at 5% a million dollars that give you $50000 a year of income and so I I think. |
| 15:08.21 | Max Shank | At 5% yeah |
| 15:20.77 | mikebledsoe | That was one of the things that I didn't sit down early enough in my life and just realize that that's all I need is like oh if I want to have by the way. Ah, ah, most people need to make more money than they need to make and what I mean by that is due to the debt that they're holding. They actually have to make a lot more money in order to pay all all that interest and all that that past purchasing and so for the average person a hundred hundred and fifty thousand dollars is is if your debt free is a lot of money. You know my number is. Two hundred fifty thousand dollars I want to I'm a little bit I'm a little bougie at times so I look at that. Yeah I have to have you know 5% you know $5000000 and in income producing assets. That's that's just knowing that number. Just knowing that that exists and I have a frame on that and like I can. That's my target my motivation after having that realization to make money went way up and before it was again. It was about how much do I need to make it through the next month or 2 or the next year but when I started thinking more long term it became a lot easier to do that and having an actual number that was not arbitrary because one of the one of the things that I one of the mistakes that I made early on in my entrepreneurial career is that. I had bought into this like ah it's like a silicon valley thing I bought into this like okay you build this business and one day you can sell it and and like I put all my eggs in that basket and I never. I only paid myself what I needed to pay myself and I kept kept all my money in the business and then one day the business has a hard year and which means that I personally have a hard year and I didn't have anything saved up. So. My ability to make decisions in the business were was hindered because I was personally in ah in a poor position and so that happened me 1 time and I said never again. Um, and then it it um the the same teacher I learned from recently. She pointed out that the that so many entrepreneurs try to build wealth in their business. She said stop thinking about your business as a wealth creating tool. It's an income producing tool. Your business is about creating as much. |
| 18:09.35 | mikebledsoe | Profitable income is possible so that you can then go invest it in things that are asset producing ah or sorry ah income producing assets that are outside of your business and having a true having a true diversification. Yeah, and so like a lot of times. |
| 18:20.62 | Max Shank | Well, it's diversification basically is what she's saying. Yeah. |
| 18:28.63 | mikebledsoe | The argument in entrepreneurial community A lot of times is ah you know oh I'm gonna invest my money in something. What's the thing I trust the most oh my own product. The thing that I get to control and so that's that's how I used to think that's how I watch other people think. |
| 18:41.68 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 18:47.58 | mikebledsoe | And that that's a that's a high high risk game that you're gonna have you're gonna hit a pitfall at some point it's not. It's not an if it's a win. |
| 18:57.25 | Max Shank | Well I think it's important to understand that concentration versus diversification. So concentration can give you the absolute highest return but you have to guess right. |
| 19:14.77 | mikebledsoe | Ah, oh. |
| 19:15.80 | Max Shank | And if you guess wrong then it is catastrophically bad diversification. You will not make the most plain and simple the the more you diversify the more stable it is the less chance you're going to have to outperform the market. Because otherwise you should just buy the whole market and like what 4% every year or something like that depending on which timeline so it's very understandable that the people who make the most are the ones who just constantly reinvest into 1 thing. |
| 19:52.10 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 19:53.53 | Max Shank | You know they they pick the right 1 whether they operate it themselves or not Elon Musk is a good example. boom reinvest everything into his own companies and then there are some companies out there where you know they they bet big on alibaba let's say. And that becomes a hundred times bigger than the rest of their portfolio. I mean there's a company that invested in alibaba maybe like 5 % of their portfolio or something and then twenty years later alibaba was like 95% of their portfolio because it grew so much more. |
| 20:28.33 | mikebledsoe | Who. |
| 20:32.80 | Max Shank | And everything else and that was just one that was just one bet so thinking of life as a series of bets basically and you can put all your money on double zero on the roulette wheel and you will make the most. |
| 20:33.78 | mikebledsoe | Well, that. |
| 20:49.19 | Max Shank | But you also can lose absolutely everything So it's important to understand what the point of diversification versus concentration is. |
| 20:58.80 | mikebledsoe | Yeah there's um, there's ah, there's a really cool concept by the guy who wrote anti-fragile and black swan his name's Nasimm. He's ah a turkish fellow that lives in New York really great economist and. Ah, really successful investor and he has this method which is the barbell method. So which is you know invest a large portion of your money into stuff that is extremely safe. You know, gold you know? ah. Just stuff. That's that's incredibly stable. It's not going anywhere and then on the other side go into startups go into the startup world. Go go buy those shitcoins. Whatever it is that you think might hit because the truth is with a startup. |
| 21:48.80 | Max Shank | Ah, so. |
| 21:56.69 | mikebledsoe | Or with some of these cryptocurrencies. You could see a hundred X Return This is this is a possibility This is a real possibility and so um and and he says you know just spread it out that way but he's. |
| 22:09.73 | Max Shank | Yeah, there are all kinds of ways to get that. |
| 22:15.35 | mikebledsoe | He start you know state he says he he likes to stay out of the middle because that's where the that's where the majority is the majority is in the middle and the majority I mean if we if you want to get like mainstream results do that. But it's as. |
| 22:18.18 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 22:29.76 | Max Shank | Threat. |
| 22:33.67 | mikebledsoe | Who wants mainstream results mainstream is fat sick almost dead and and broke. You know it's like why would you like it's it's the it's the last place I want to be and so I really like his approach to that because it does. Scratch the safety itch and it also may if if you're like myself it scratches that you know let's throw some dice down here and see if we can make a million dollars |
| 23:02.15 | Max Shank | You know that's ah, a good strategy and you also have to know yourself and know what's going to allow you to sleep at night and focus on what you're best at too like if you want to be. |
| 23:15.56 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 23:19.39 | Max Shank | Actively investing your own portfolio and researching companies great if you want to focus on what you're best at and just create more income from your books or videos or courses or you know wood pellets or whatever you're. |
| 23:33.40 | mikebledsoe | You know. |
| 23:38.28 | Max Shank | Your business is ah you can also just buy the SAndPFive hundred and then there's no, there's like no management fee. Basically so you minimize, um your spend you also do minimize your returns but you also minimize your risk and. |
| 23:42.39 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 23:57.46 | Max Shank | It's a lot easier to sleep at night doing that than you know researching startups and things like that just to give like the other side of that coin because I think the strategy you outlined has a lot of merit to it. But I think knowing your personality type. |
| 24:03.15 | mikebledsoe | Right? well. |
| 24:15.88 | Max Shank | And recognizing how much you want your involvement to be how active into those investments you want to be same as if you want to buy real estate. Do you want to hire a property manager and eat up most of your return or do you want to manage it yourself I mean these are things that. You got to consider from your personality and Lifestyle standpoint. |
| 24:35.52 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, nasim talks about that in his book is basically that investors. Yeah, if they stayed within their logic would majority of time make a lot of money but people are so emotional. You know they can't sleep at night they can't they go to bed that night worrying about their money and if you're having that experience and investing if you're investing and you're worried about it and you can't sleep and it's the you know last thing you think about when you go to sleep and the first thing you think about when you wake up, you're in over your head and you're. You're likely going to just make poor decisions and so ah, which actually brings me to one of my rules which is I only invest in the things that I understand there's so many especially and with cryptocurrency right now. I invest in crypto I actually just sold off 90% of my my ah portfolio for crypto the other day and um and and it's because for good and I'm watching the market continue to go down right now. |
| 25:44.33 | Max Shank | For good reason right. |
| 25:50.95 | mikebledsoe | Because what I'm doing is I'm I'm just going to hold cash by the way in the voyager app by the way if anyone wants access to be able to ah look at Voyager just hit me up I've got good connections there but in in the Voyager app. If I store my us dollars as Usdc which is a which is a token tethered to the us dollar I get a 9% api on that annual. So it's ah you can't get 9 % guaranteed anywhere but you can there so there are. |
| 26:23.69 | Max Shank | Weird. |
| 26:26.54 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, there, there's I won't I don't quite understand entirely how they're able to do that. Ah, but I I do have a feeling there's aspects of it that that I that I do get but I like to invest in things that I understand like I understand bitcoin at its. At its base I understand ethereum I understand ummatic I understand these some of these currencies I understand their purpose I I get what's going on I've I've been tracking them and then there's other ones that people like like shib came out and everyone's like you got to get shit I'm like why. Or doge coin you got to get doge oh because Elon Musk I'm like whoa whoa whoa I don't understand this I'm not going to touch it and of course these things skyrocket and then they plummet and you know some people make a bunch of money. Yeah, and it's like and. |
| 27:14.72 | Max Shank | The foma will get you. |
| 27:21.55 | mikebledsoe | And I've learned to be completely. Okay with it whereas I have some friends who you know they're trying to make that dollar right now they're deep in the Nfts they're trading fucking dragons and and you know magic bears and dragonflies I don't fucking know what these people are are I get. |
| 27:37.40 | Max Shank | Third. |
| 27:40.15 | mikebledsoe | I Get what's happening I mean look the wealthy have been storing their the wealthy have been storing their money as art for a long time as a tax haven I get it and it's a very intelligent move and I do think that a lot of things that only the wealthy have done the rest of us get to take advantage of and. |
| 27:50.45 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 28:00.13 | mikebledsoe | And this decentralized blockchain world. But most of you have no idea what the fuck you're doing and so even if even when I do understand the fundamentals of something if I see too many new people flooding into it I get out and I stay out until I let the dust settle. Could I potentially miss out on making a shitload of money. Absolutely I could get in there but you know what? and this is the point you were getting at too which is I would rather spend my time producing value in the world that makes the most sense to me I know how to teach coaches how to build a coaching doesn't. So I know how to help coaches be better coaches and that's the that is the value I bring to the world that people are going to exchange with me for money. No matter if the dollar goes away if we moved totally to cryptocurrencies if we end up on the yen. Whatever the fuck it is it doesn't matter what the currency is. I'm gonna be fine because I can always create value in which people are gonna then whatever it is. We're trading at the time they're gonna give it to me and so I think I want to say first off your best investment is in yourself so invest in traits in yourself that allow you to make the most money sales being the. The most valuable skill on the planet. So if you can learn how to sell if you know how to market you know how to sell it doesn't matter what the market does. You're going to be fine and so in so a. Invest in yourself be invest in things that you understand or another way of putting. Ah, another example of this um was learning from this guy. He primarily makes money trading stocks and he was talking to a bunch of us entrepreneurs who you know I'm not. Um, not really that much of a stock guy but ah 1 of the things he said that just made a lot of sense. Super simple concept is if you use the service own the company if you do you use Amazon go buy some Amazon stock. do you watch you know do you have a Netflix subscription. Buy some Netflix like you stop using it because you don't like it. Maybe you should sell your stock like you don't have to study the market so deeply and try to run crunched numbers and sounds like look if you like like if everyone who bought an Apple Computer invested and Apple stock when they bought their Apple computer because they love it so much. There'd be a lot more wealthy people out there right now. Ah so that was a because that that's a form of understanding if you if you like a product use a product you understand enough about that company. |
| 30:48.82 | mikebledsoe | Doesn't mean that it's a surefire way and it's a completely safe thing. But I think it's a great way to if if someone's like I don't know what to invest and I don't know how to get started I don't know what do you buy. |
| 31:02.47 | Max Shank | Oh I mean I really I really like what you said before which is invest in yourself and invest in things that you understand I think um, buying a stock just because you use. The product is too small of a sample size. I think it can be a good starting point though. Like oh like I use that because I think the word price is really important to explore like how do we get at the price like there is a time where you could have owned Coca-cola for 5 20 years actually and had a zero percent return so there you can have a great company at a horrible price and you can also have a horrible company at a great price and actually either of those would probably be a mistake. Um. |
| 31:42.19 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 32:00.36 | Max Shank | And investing is very paradoxical because you're trying to balance risk and reward and whenever there is more risk There is typically more reward but the price of something is just what people are willing to pay. Um. |
| 32:13.74 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 32:20.19 | Max Shank | And that is determined by how valuable it is to a person and you know a lot of the a lot of the cryptocurrencies are Tulip Mania all over again for sure I won't say that about all of them. But if and like an Nft just because someone. Values a digital magic dragon at a thousand dollars today doesn't mean anyone will ever pay a dollar for it later in the future and so I think it's a good starting point to say what do I use but it. Doesn't necessarily make it a good investment. In fact, um, you know a good product can be ah, a bad investment from a stock standpoint and that's I mean that's why markets are that's why markets are not ah rational. That's why markets are irrational. |
| 33:08.72 | mikebledsoe | It can be. |
| 33:17.56 | Max Shank | Because people are irrational and and if you go to college. They'll tell you that markets are are rational markets are like in balance Basically but that's how could that be the case if it's people who buy the stuff. We're not rational. |
| 33:32.45 | mikebledsoe | Well in Academia we got to make sure we can measure everything there's ah, there's a there's a really good book by the way I agree the just because you use the product doesn't mean it's a good investment but it's a good place to start looking now. |
| 33:35.60 | Max Shank | At all. |
| 33:47.81 | Max Shank | Absolutely good place to start looking. |
| 33:52.19 | mikebledsoe | There's ah, there's a book that talks about tulip mania amongst many other things the the money the the history of our our current monetary system. 1 is you know the the. You alluded to it a little bit earlier fractional reserve banking that basically the modern way of banking or the modern um version of money has described really well in the book. Extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds. So. I think it was in this book I could be wrong because I don't think you were recalling it quite the same way I was and we both read the book but ah from what I from what I gather it the current monetary system is about three hundred and fifty years old and. Came out of Europe which is basically banknotes people coming up with banknotes and coming with bills. You know, getting away from coinage where there's an actual silver or a gold coin getting away from the coinage and getting into the bank bank notes that represent a certain amount of gold held by the bank. And so instead of having to lug around all this gold now I could just have this banknote and this banknote is certified by this bank and we can trust them yada yada yada and so ah, the it started off as a very trustworthy system I think it was France who did this first. Which was the king goes to one of the banks and says I'll make you the only bank that can issue notes in all of the kingdom of France and and I forget what the deal was and of course a banker. Who is in the business of increasing wealth. They they hear this and go oh I'm about to get an immediate monopoly fuck it. Let's go and ah in the book it it outlines the ah the progression over time. The king putting pressure I think maybe the king died and then his son came up or something like that but pressure was applied to the bankers to basically print off some banknotes that aren't backed by gold you know, basically fake money and. So they started diluting the money supply and the banker in in the book basically says hey that's a bad idea like talks about how the banker tried to resist it because he's like you know that. |
| 36:32.97 | mikebledsoe | I see what you want I see why you think it's a good idea, but this is why it's a bad idea. It's only gonna lead to a collapse and sure and and the thing is is. It's kind of it's kind of like one of those things that once it gets out. You know, opening up a can of worms you can't get them back in so the or what. There's a better analogy for that I forget what Pandora's box and basically the moment you get off of a representation. Ah an actual representation of value then it get you get into like really dangerous waters and getting back to that is going to be impossible with that banknote. |
| 36:53.79 | Max Shank | Pandora's box |
| 37:11.37 | mikebledsoe | So it's kind of like people think if they can get the Us dollar to be ah, go back to the Gold Standard Yeah, never gonna fucking happen. It just be how you just have to create a whole new currency. So. |
| 37:15.53 | Max Shank | Back to buy gold again. Yeah good luck impossible. Well I mean maybe if the price of gold went up by like a hundred fold or something like that I don't I don't know exactly what the numbers are I mean if. |
| 37:28.60 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah I don't know what it is either. |
| 37:33.96 | Max Shank | I Think for the average person this like banking and macro stuff. You should just avoid it until you're rich already like just from ah a functional standpoint like don't don't concern yourself ah with the economics of. |
| 37:41.96 | mikebledsoe | We mean avoid it. |
| 37:53.85 | Max Shank | Banking and fractional reserve and fiat currencies and things like that just if you don't have a lot of dough right now just focus all your attention on increasing your income and amassing some wealth first because you can go down this rabbit hole where you will become. Um. And I think rightfully so like paranoid about the ah fragility of our our financial interactions our socioeconomic situation here like ah getting off the gold Standard Huge mistake. |
| 38:17.32 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 38:31.38 | Max Shank | Um, I Understand why you would want to be able to print unlimited dollars. Nobody really understands what the cost and benefit of doing this will be and I think if you're just trying to deliver value and create wealth for yourself. Um, it's best to just accept these macro truths and not invest too much of your precious and limited attention into them because you're you're not going to be Happy. You're you're going to have a bunker full of gold and only properties and you're gonna be like ah. |
| 39:01.30 | mikebledsoe | Well yeah, have you. |
| 39:08.26 | Max Shank | You won't use Banks you'll just stuff cash under the mattress. Ah. |
| 39:10.44 | mikebledsoe | Ah, well well you know I don't know if that's necessarily completely true like if you have no money saved and you haven't invested anything I agree but for for somebody who's is like okay I have a little extra money I want to invest it in something this Ah this is my argument for crypto and and. |
| 39:18.17 | Max Shank | The. |
| 39:29.76 | mikebledsoe | Say Bitcoin is because Bitcoin is ah is is powered by electricity and it has an actual cost which means it has an actual value and it and it can fluctuate depending on the.. How much energy costs and how much how many transactions are happening and and all that which makes it a little more fluid than say gold. But ah, way easier to trade. |
| 39:56.34 | Max Shank | Way easier to trade than gold I mean trading gold like if you think about trading gold like it's really hard like first off like if you want to buy gold like I don't have a fucking gold tester in my pocket like if someone sells me gold. I'm going to have a hard time knowing if there's lead in there or not and vice versa and vice versa. You know so um, bitcoin is certainly easier to trade. It's just hard to figure out what the price should be because you can't know if something's a good investment or not. |
| 40:18.10 | mikebledsoe | Well, even if we well but that does happen. Yeah. |
| 40:35.87 | Max Shank | Ah, without understanding the price and a potential future price. |
| 40:36.37 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the the problem the problem with a lot of the crypto conversation right now is that it's all based on the Us dollar so at the Us dollar like if you log into any trading platform. It's how many bitcoins is worth how many dollars you know? and. |
| 40:53.92 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 40:56.50 | mikebledsoe | It's ah instead of it just being its own thing. But I I think that they're I think in the next five or ten years in the next I guaranteed I'll put money on it 10 years ah I don't that's a terrible thing to say not guaranteed. |
| 41:01.86 | Max Shank | How could it be its own thing. |
| 41:12.75 | Max Shank | I Think ah I think I might have a bet on my hands here. |
| 41:14.21 | mikebledsoe | Ah, but out prediction. Oh we should you want how big a bet you want to make right? We'll see I'll tell you what it is and then we'll go 10 years ah well if I'm wrong, you might be right? and. |
| 41:22.96 | Max Shank | Too big for you to cover it. What. Um, yeah I. |
| 41:31.86 | mikebledsoe | So in 10 years ah I think that that that problem is solved so 10 years the the how does how do we value it. There will be there will be some |
| 41:45.65 | Max Shank | Is it going to be a flat chart that says 1 bitcoin equals 1 bitcoin. |
| 41:49.96 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah I mean what's it for the dollar now right? So the it I mean it's the dollar is fairly arbitrary and the pricing and all that. But I think with. |
| 41:57.17 | Max Shank | Yes. |
| 42:03.60 | Max Shank | Well, the dollar the dollar is backed up by a really big stick a a huge stick wielded by Uncle Sam and it's ah and it's attached to oil which currently makes the world go around. |
| 42:07.41 | mikebledsoe | But right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's always yeah to energy itself. Yeah, so um, but I think that I think that I think that being able to say this currently is worth this much. |
| 42:22.79 | Max Shank | Yeah anyway I. |
| 42:32.87 | mikebledsoe | Compared to this currency I think that's gonna be figured out I don't I have no fucking idea how to get figured out I I imagine it's gonna require some a lot of computing power but at the same time. Um, living in Austin Texas is is pretty great if you're in the crypto. Currency conversation because so much of tech is moved here so much of crypto entrepreneurs are here and so and I know so I know some of these people they're fucking smart they're they're they're blowing me away I just. |
| 43:03.78 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 43:08.71 | mikebledsoe | Um, just like yeah um, I'm doing the best I can to keep up and I'm gonna you know make some trades based on what I'm hearing but sorry for that I don't fucking know and I mentioned that because I just see people ah coming up with some really amazing solutions that that. There's all these problems that crop up when there's a lot of transactions happening and then someone creates a new ah coin a new currency that that solves that specific Problem. It's moving in incredibly fast breakneck Speeds I can't keep up and I'm somebody who. Really loves keeping up with these types of things. It's it's It's very interesting to me and so I think I think a lot of that will be solved all right I Think let's let's get out of this out of this crypto we gotta get out. |
| 43:54.42 | Max Shank | We got to get out of the macro stuff. This is what I was saying is like it's It's not practical. |
| 44:00.72 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, we gotta get out of it. So um, let's move into this is what I get for So I get for bringing up the the modern day money I So you say you say that you see money as. Energy. Can you say more. |
| 44:18.37 | Max Shank | Yes, it's a representation of energy. It's kind of like a claim check on other people's time. Um, you know some people say ah money is the root of all Evil I completely disagree I think greed is a source of some. |
| 44:23.86 | mikebledsoe | Okay. |
| 44:37.89 | Max Shank | Unsavory behavior but money is not inherently good or evil Um, it's a claim check on other people's time and it's stored up energy The fact that you can use money to bring real physical objects into your. Life is incredible. The fact that you can trade money for food is incredible. The fact that you can trade money for a house is unbelievably cool and if it weren't for a currency like that it would make trade so difficult so it makes. Trading so easy. Otherwise you have you know if you're a baker and you want a cow you have to hope that the farmer wants some bread and a lot of it. |
| 45:24.38 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, I Really like the exchange for time conversation. That's and so I was hearing that recently from somebody else they they go. You know it's just an it's you're gonna buy your time Back. You're just gonna buy back. Ah, by buying food at the grocery Store. You didn't have to go grow that food. You didn't have. There's so much time was was purchased and so yeah, forget who I was here Ac is just a storage of time and the more you have the more time you have like oh it's very very interesting. |
| 45:58.44 | Max Shank | Yeah, well, what's interesting is you can trade your time for money you can trade money for other people's time which can save you time but you can never get time back. |
| 46:01.50 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 46:13.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 46:16.37 | Max Shank | Time time is your most precious resource by far and unless you learn how to leverage your time. Ah, you're you're gonna be stuck trading hours for dollars pretty much and that's what I mean when I say you want to find a way to scale your effort. |
| 46:34.59 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 46:35.50 | Max Shank | Basically so leverage your effort into something that is scalable exponential. |
| 46:40.29 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, this makes me think about the predictable stages of entrepreneurship that I've witnessed which is which is people get to people want to get to the point where they they have all this accrued money and and able to to. |
| 46:45.66 | Max Shank | The. |
| 46:59.44 | mikebledsoe | People say buy their time back. You don't get a bat but like you're able to purchase like you can spend your time the way you want to the more money you have and the predictable stages of entrepreneurship. The first stage being I hate my corporate gig I'll do my own thing and so many people. When they start doing their own thing and they're making enough money to get by. They feel like and I hear a lot of people say this is that's financial freedom but it only lasts for so long because. They're so excited about not doing this corporate gig in which they had built up their mind as something that they hate that they overlook the the burnout you know I think there's some type of saying that says you know as an entrepreneur you know you quit your 40 hour work week that you hate so you can take on it. 80 hour work week that you love or something like that. You know it's like it's really really ridiculous and I've watched a lot of people go into business for themselves who end up wanting to go back because I go wow I just get because I know so many people that they have their corporate gig. At five o'clock when they knock off and go home. Do you know how much they think about work. They don't they go to the gym. They go to the bar. They don't think about that shit at all as an entrepreneur after five o'clock maybe still, you're working even if you're not working. You're thinking about work. You're always problem solving this shit. Shit is real. So um, it people will over. They're so excited and I see that excitement can last about 9 to 18 months of excitement when somebody has given themselves a job. You know they have a. Self-employed. They wake up one day and they realize oh man I just gave myself a job. This is actually not any different. It's more responsibility same thing that I was doing before um and and they can either go back to their job or they can become an owner and I bring this up. Based off what you're saying is because when you turn into an owner. That's when you start actually leveraging your your time your attention money. That's when you it's when you start when you zoom out of the business. You're able to work on it. You're no longer working in it and you're you're hiring delegating systemizing. This is all the things. These are the things and the responsibilities that have to be taken on in order to have that lifestyle that people dream of when they go I want to be my own boss I want to be an entrepreneur I want to I want to run my own business I don't want to have a boss it really requires. |
| 49:45.58 | mikebledsoe | Becoming an owner and I know there's not many people I've Met. Um I'm trying to recall one now and I can't bring one to mind of someone who went straight from I Hate my corporateri gig to I'm an owner I think the only people that really do that may have been working in financial services and then. They they moved over into investing right away. But if you become a business owner then the level up from that is investor where you are at at each level you are looking at this thing from ah a higher landscape and. Are doing less of the work and more of the directing of where that energy goes if we think about money as energy I'm going to direct the energy to go this way. It needs to go that way instead of it being something that I'm I'm having to crank in order to generate. |
| 50:40.21 | Max Shank | It's like you have investing in ditch digging on opposite ends of the spectrum investing you potentially don't have to make very many choices at all I mean it's the easiest work there is and as long as you ah bet correctly. |
| 50:43.62 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 50:57.71 | Max Shank | You know you can have like ah basically no no work hours. You just have to make good choices once you become an investor and so it's like I really relate to it's funny. You said 9 to eighteen months it sounds kind of like the 2 year itch |
| 51:04.85 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 51:16.13 | Max Shank | For excitement and relationships too ah is kind of similar right? So you have this fantasy idea of what it will be like to be a business owner. Yeah, right? yeah. |
| 51:16.30 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 51:24.17 | mikebledsoe | You're on drugs you're on drugs you got 9 to 18 months to be to be in this drug and do state. You know we talked about drugs last week. So you you get what I'm saying. |
| 51:34.43 | Max Shank | Love and other drugs. Ah, and you know people don't consider what will intrinsically make them feel fulfilled right? figuring out what they want to give rather than just what they want to get and if you can figure out what you. Most want to give to people and then optimize that that's probably the best way to go to go about it because I see it as like ah maybe 2 opposite ends of the spectrum on the 1 hand you're like okay well um, I'll be a banker. Because banking has the biggest potential for me to get very rich and I don't necessarily love banking but I want to be rich so I'll be a banker and then on the other end of the spectrum you think about um who you would really like to serve like what would make you feel alive and just be intrinsically enjoyable. You pick your role you think about oh man I really like um massage or I like painting flowers or whatever and then you find a way to scale that passion. See what I'm saying so you can either start with a passion and then figure out a way to scale it or you can just pick something that is the fastest method for getting wealthy because I think a lot of people who want to own their own business. They really just. |
| 52:54.34 | mikebledsoe | So. |
| 53:05.12 | Max Shank | Ah, want to be rich and not be told what to do. |
| 53:09.19 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah, the you know as I've gotten older I'm like man maybe I should have done a little more work that I was less passionate about that get me ah more bucks in the pocket but you know that was never my style. Um well I want to talk about. |
| 53:12.43 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 53:28.66 | mikebledsoe | The reasons why people won't reach third fighttro goals and in fact to same this is the reason why half the stuff that max and I said on on this show up to this point, you never even heard it like you didn't hear it today. You went right through your head and you weren't able to grasp it and that is due to. Not because of an intelligence not an intelligence issue. It's ah it's a relationship to money issue and so how people relate to money and how they relate to wealth forms their beliefs and the beliefs become constraints on. Their ability to to do something in that realm. So if you have beliefs about money. Those beliefs are actually ah, they're serving as a constraint in some way now this constraint at some point likely served you but it's not going to make you wealthy. And this is why most people are not wealthy because the information to become wealthy to be an investor all these things widely available. You can go on Youtube and get a lot of really great advice. It's out there. You can get some poor advice too. But you spend enough time you get to sift through it and figure it out now. People's relationship to money is poor because usually we just get it from our parents we but we get these these beliefs from our parents who pass them down to us whether they did it intentionally or not. It could have been a phrase that they said it could have been how they behaved around money. You know I've I've worked with clients where you know their mom had to hide their spending from their dad and you know as a child they mate they now they have this belief that formed and and now that's impacting your life now at at a subconscious level. Which actually makes it hard for them to even hear certain advice because it flies in the face of some belief that they had built up for decades and now because it's when when you're operating from belief then ah, you're automatically filtering out some information and. |
| 55:22.25 | Max Shank | Can. |
| 55:34.90 | mikebledsoe | And accepting other information. |
| 55:36.55 | Max Shank | Man is so on point I mean I think that's the the only barrier to becoming wealthy is belief and whether or not you believe that you are not deserving of money or whether you believe. Ah. All rich people are evil which is something a lot of people believe that money is a 0 sum game and in order for 1 person to get wealthy. Someone else has to be basically stolen from or victimized and it comes back to that drama triangle right? You got the villain victim and the hero. |
| 56:08.83 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. Man The politicians love to make it look like the wealthier gonna are there to fleece you like it's their fault while you're poor. |
| 56:14.20 | Max Shank | And ah you want to hang around. |
| 56:23.93 | Max Shank | Dude no charity has done more for poor people than Walmart by by any stretch. Um and boy talk about an unpopular topic at dinner parties I'm like the worst and best dinner party guest of all time. Because I have I'm a little ass burgery and I also read a lot so it's just very It's just very fun like so yeah, it's money is not a 0 sum game. |
| 56:44.12 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that is why I s smokerk weed before I grow out in social environments that way I just keep my mouth shut. |
| 56:57.12 | Max Shank | Ah, but the the beliefs that become constraints is is so huge like whatever you believe about money is true for you and when you take away the goodness and the evilness of it and just treat it like energy. You can let it flow. You can let it stagnate. You can let it hold power over you? Um, but it really comes down to what you believe about it and. It can be tricky to get out of but it's all the more reason to be selective who you associate with because if you hang around with people who say rich people are evil and they themselves are poor. Most likely you're going to adapt. To that group so it can be very tricky to pull yourself into a better friend group and I think I even mentioned it last week you know if you hang around with people who don't think 10 grand is a lot you start to believe 10 grand is not a lot and you're. |
| 57:48.22 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, um. |
| 58:03.75 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 58:06.93 | Max Shank | You're like oh I got to step up my game and of course it just goes on and on and on too but seeing it not as ah, a means to an end or seeing it not as an end in and of itself like keeping up with the joneses. But as a means for capturing back some of your time. And using energy to promote the ideas that you really care about like a mission or a meaning or something like that. That's that's powerful I mean the fact that you can get your time back is incredible like you never have to go shopping again. If you're willing to pay like an extra little delivery fee. Someone else can go get your grocery someone else can go pick up your dry I don't have anything that requires dry cleaning. But if you had dry cleaning like ah Mitch Hedberg has it. |
| 58:50.59 | mikebledsoe | I got like 1 thing I wear every three years. Yeah I'm with you. |
| 58:59.68 | Max Shank | Mitch Hedberg has a great joke about that he goes this shirt is dry clean only which means it's dirty. |
| 59:04.20 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, brilliant. Ah yeah, you said something. It's not a 0 sum game and an analogy I like to you cause some people that's ah that's a belief that is they don't think the belief they don't think the words. 0 sum game but the belief that because somebody's wealthy means that somebody else has to be poor or it's the poor or the reason that there's somebody who's wealthy I mean we could also you know because being poor and wealthy is really just a comparison for 1 so. There's always going to be poor and there's always go be wealthy. Like the poor in the United States have flat-screen Tv's air conditioning and ah are and have an excess of caloric intake. So these people are by world standards. So if we compare them in the United States they make. Say $30000 a year. They're fucking poor right? from re exactly. |
| 01:00:02.59 | Max Shank | The comparison has divorced people from reality if the people who are called poor are dying from overeating that's divorced from reality like we're out of our fucking minds. |
| 01:00:15.00 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and but if you look at the the world population and income if you make $30000 you are in the 1% you are in the 1% of income earners in the world if you make more than $30000 a year. |
| 01:00:33.16 | Max Shank | And if I compare myself to the rock I'm a fat brokeke loser I should just go fucking kill myself. It's It's all what you compared to. But there are some realities like what you said about financial freedom before if you don't have to trade your time for food and shelter anymore. Basically. |
| 01:00:34.74 | mikebledsoe | And so. |
| 01:00:39.80 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 01:00:53.00 | Max Shank | For your expenses that that's super worthwhile. |
| 01:00:54.55 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, but the the 0 sum game there. There's an analogy here which is and I think people will grasp this which is people don't have to be unhealthy for you to be healthy right. I look I look at health and wealth the same way I can if everybody were healthy. We'd all be healthier for every unhealthy person walking around the planet they're dragging us down right? And so the if we. |
| 01:01:19.10 | Max Shank | True kill the fatties I'm just kidding I'm just kidding. |
| 01:01:29.50 | mikebledsoe | No, they just can't do it to themselves but the ah by the way, not a judgment. But if you're fat. You're you're dying faster than us. But that the the more people the more people who are healthy. Yeah. |
| 01:01:41.59 | Max Shank | How dare you sounds I don't know if that's racist or sexist I know it's wrong though. |
| 01:01:50.14 | mikebledsoe | Ah, probably both. Ah, it's not a 0 sum game. So everybody has the chance to be healthy and in fact, the more people who are healthy the easier it is to be healthy the same thing with being wealthy. Everyone has the opportunity to be wealthy are. |
| 01:01:51.85 | Max Shank | A. |
| 01:02:08.34 | mikebledsoe | Now compared to each other maybe not but we all have the chance to have a really solid roof over our head be able to travel the way we want to travel all these things and the more people who are able to accomplish having these things the it drives the price down of certain things it it creates more peace around the world. It's gonna be a lot less conflict. There's all these things but there are some people who do play the 0 sum game. They they believe it and they say I've got to make other people lose so I'm not saying that that does not exist in the world. There are people out there that they're called thieves that they have to actually take from somebody else to have for themselves. And so ah, the people who are operating out of a zerosum game are usually immoral in their practice. So if you hear somebody talking about it being a 0 ero-sum game and they're rich. They're probably immoral. In some way and the way they're getting rich is they're ripping some people off, but there's a lot of people who I'd say the majority of the people who are wealthy have created more value for others and have gotten a fair exchange in return. |
| 01:03:16.74 | Max Shank | Let me add a little bit on that because I agree and I think it's even more potent than that because I'm sure our listeners have realized by now that you and I are in favor of a little thing called freedom and when there is. |
| 01:03:21.84 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 01:03:34.85 | Max Shank | Profit and a voluntary exchange that is always a net positive that that's like if if it's really a voluntary exchange where there's Profit. You're always creating a surplus of value if I sell you a sweatshirt for $20 And you buy it for $20 The only way that happens is if it's worth it for you to buy it and worth it for me to sell it so it has to do with something called Win-win Theory which is very Self-explanatory. So Even if you don't buy into the other stuff. Realize that when you are creating a profit you are in an energetic surplus and you are promoting voluntary action I mean look at the things that work the worst it's when people are stolen from and there's no Incentive. You know there's an incentive. For a company if there's no ah, political or policing interference to create a product that people value at a price that is affordable. You know and so you are. As a company. You are essentially a slave to the customer rather than um, under taxation where you are a slave to ah basically ah, a guy with a huge stick that will punish you if you don't pay up so that's why you get a better result when there's voluntary action. So huh. 0 sum game whenever there's a profitable exchange that's Voluntary. You are actually creating wealth on both sides you are creating value on both sides of that transaction. That's huge. |
| 01:05:24.81 | mikebledsoe | Beautifully said beautifully said. Um we don't want to go from here I think we I think we should um there was. |
| 01:05:31.27 | Max Shank | We could call it there that would be my final thought anyway because I think it ah clearly I have one more at least if you focus on that. |
| 01:05:40.45 | mikebledsoe | It sounds like your final thought. Ah. |
| 01:05:51.23 | Max Shank | Like you will feel intrinsically good because it sounds corny but it really does feel the best to give if you find yourself if you start out very broke and then you become rich. Um, you do go through a phase where you buy yourself all the toys. Ah. Went through it myself I bought like every toy I ever wanted and then I realized that the thing that felt the best was like taking my friends out for lunch or getting stuff for them or bringing them on experiences like buying stuff is very hollow. But when you are. In a emotional and energetic balance. It's ah it's a profitable exchange like you are offering up so that people truly value and appreciate enough to put their money where their mouth is. You know and you also are filtering out the people who aren't actually that interested like I could give my programs away for free and people would be less likely to do them. But if I work really hard on something and I believe in it and I charge money for it and someone believes in it enough to pay for it. That is what feels good is those mutually beneficial exchanges where both people are investing ah their energy which can be in the form of time or Money. So I Think that's what actually feels the best is to give. |
| 01:07:07.26 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 01:07:24.83 | Max Shank | And if you are doing it at a profit then you are in a mutual energetic Surplus that's based on voluntary action and dude. What's better than that. That's how you promote this this freedom and love so there you go. |
| 01:07:37.31 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, so what I want to leave with is it comes down if you want to be wealthy. It comes down to mindset and skill you need both of these to be present and so the mindset my favorite way to look at that is to look at your beliefs. And the first thing you can do to look at that is sit down and write down about what your mother or what you learned from your mother about money and wealth and wealthy people and what you learned from your father. Ah these are 2 different. Journal entries these what you learn from your mother is gonna be different than what you learned from your father and it's not important what they wanted to teach you or what they try to teach you. It's about what you learned. That's the important thing to remember here. So if you want it. Any any type of money mindset training that you're wanting to do needs to start there if you're starting somewhere else. You're you're not going far enough back I mean if you want to go further back which I've actually done is I I start looking at my dad's childhood. So like how you know what was that like. And how did that form. Ah, the the lessons that got passed down to me so mindset and skill and the other part is the skill and that is simply the the people have tend to have negative emotions associated with money. They don't check their bank account. They don't budget. They don't do certain things consistently because they don't like how it makes them feel and so they just avoid doing it all together. So that's a mindset deal. But once you get past that and you're actually able to be present with your cash flow. Then the skill of managing that cash flow comes in that is setting aside up money for taxes setting aside enough money for investing for a rainy day and then and then allocating how much of that money. Are you going to set aside for meaningful expenses and and and necessities and things like that. So. Having the mindset having this skill they need to both be online and most people can't even look at the skill part until they've handled the mindset. So go do those journal entries about your parents and that's all I got for yall today you good max. |
| 01:10:00.64 | Max Shank | Ah, yeah, you're like a financial freud. Ah. |
| 01:10:05.68 | mikebledsoe | Ah, we should name the show that one all right brother. Love you see all next week |
| 01:10:09.72 | Max Shank | Ah, love you. Thank you guys see ya. |
| 00:00.00 | Max Shank | Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to Monday mornings with max and Mike Hope you're having a great start to your week so far and we're going to get going with drugs. This week we're going to talk about drugs drugs inside your body drugs outside your body when to use them how to use them and let's just start with the fact that you're probably using all kinds of drugs every day and the word drugs is almost a little bit taboo. But we're gonna break it down step by step and go through what the most common drugs are and how to use them to your advantage rather than have them use you mike thanks for joining me here. |
| 00:46.78 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I was yeah, thanks for having? Oh yeah I didn't have I had you or do you have me? we have each other. Okay I always find it interesting I I remember one of my favorite people. Ah, he's like 50 years sober and you know when I first found out he's like ah I've never had a beer I've never had a cigarette I've never had like I limit my coffee all this stuff and I was like he's like yeah I'm sober I don't do anything I'm like oh you so full of shit like year quick. It's just so funny where like people want to draw the line of like you're ah you're using chemicals all the time to change your state and a lot of people use something like sugar as a drug or whatever to say that you've never done that. |
| 01:33.75 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 01:44.36 | mikebledsoe | Is is really ridiculous, but your state is always shifting the chemicals in your body are always shifting and ah some of these chemicals are going to have a much more noticeable effect than others and and it's good to just be paying attention. To what's happening in the body and I think some people just are drawn to more intense state changes than others and there's nothing wrong with that. So yeah, I'm excited to talk about this today because I think that even people who've never done. Quote unquote drugs would get a lot of benefit from this conversation. |
| 02:24.35 | Max Shank | Well we got to start with a little definition then because what's what's a drug are we saying any substance that changes your state set is that a truck Aspirin's a jut. |
| 02:30.60 | mikebledsoe | Um, do. |
| 02:37.49 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I would for me like um. |
| 02:42.17 | Max Shank | Aspirin's a drug does it really change your state though very much I mean it has an effect. No question that is the most used like if if it meets our definition I believe that's the most commonly used drug unless you start including coffee and then I think that might be. |
| 02:45.98 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it does. |
| 02:57.39 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think coffee is probably the most widely used drug. It's got psychoactive properties. Some drugs are not as psychoactive but even Advil is psychoactive just to a degree in which is not noticeable the average person if I take something like an Advil. |
| 02:59.15 | Max Shank | Even more popular. Ah. |
| 03:16.40 | mikebledsoe | I May note I'll I'll probably notice something whereas somebody most people just would never notice that and some people are gonna hear that and go you're crazy. No not like that. But I noticed well it's like um, it's like all these people that are taking you know they they. |
| 03:21.00 | Max Shank | So you take so you take Aspirin and you see purple dragons start flying around the room. |
| 03:35.38 | mikebledsoe | They take pain killers or whatever and it's like they don't realize how much of it's inhibiting their mental state their their cognitive ability. You know I'm just killing the pain. It's like now you're killing the pain and your cognitive ability right now. So ah yeah, so like there's there's. |
| 03:41.49 | Max Shank | Moon. |
| 03:48.71 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 03:55.11 | mikebledsoe | 1 thing I want to point out too is there's no such thing as side effects like this whole like ha but side effect the idea of a side effect is such propaganda. It's such. It's such a great marketing tool to make you believe that. |
| 03:57.69 | Max Shank | Oh I was just gonna say that go on go on. |
| 04:13.14 | mikebledsoe | We don't want this to happen and it probably won't happen but it could happen. It's some fucking liability deal. It's not true. It's like and if you go into Science Science people. Love talking about science but like in science there really is no side effects. There is they're just effects. |
| 04:19.60 | Max Shank | Well, it's marketing. |
| 04:28.23 | Max Shank | There are just effects well look at look at Viagra Viagra was heart medicine the side effect was hard cock now that's the main effect. |
| 04:33.30 | mikebledsoe | Had a side effect. It's an effect. |
| 04:40.11 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, so. |
| 04:46.10 | Max Shank | The marketing department got hold of this and we're like this ain't heart Medicine guys. This is our golden ticket out of here. |
| 04:53.11 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, so ah so I think that and then there's people's perception of drugs is very interesting like I was saying in the beginning is there's like this line that gets drawn and of course there's the the personal line that gets drawn but it. It's always influenced by society's standard and so we have like this Fda thing the food and drug administration who ah the people there are responsible for telling doctors and and stores people who retail. But they can and cannot sell and also what kind of claims you can and cannot make and so a lot of times we go. Oh you know when it gets to the point where the Fda has to be involved now that's a drug or if it's a pharmaceutical now that's a drug or if it's illegal if the Dea which said. Different administration. The drug enforcement administration. But by the way was highly underfunded for decades and the only way they could make money was by stealing drug dealers money. But so their incentives for busting is a little going back to what you always talk about. |
| 05:48.78 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 06:08.30 | mikebledsoe | The incentive set up so the Dea is in charge of putting certain drugs on a with on the schedule or schedule 1 schedule 2 schedule 3 so they're in charge of and there none of them are voted into office. They're all. Ah. |
| 06:26.43 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 06:26.87 | mikebledsoe | Appointed and so you have this random group of people that are saying these are the drugs that are okay and these are the drugs that are not okay and the drugs that are okay aren't really viewed by the public at large as drugs and so people who are like oh I'm sober. Pretty much. It basically said I don't do the drugs that the Dea says not to do. But I'll drink my coffee. All you know this and that. |
| 06:56.50 | Max Shank | It's really interesting because the laws of the land or crime and punishment to certainly influence the culture to a certain effect right? and. |
| 07:06.69 | mikebledsoe | Well, some would say that that law is culture like it's It's the it's the basis of culture because it's it's using language to tell you what you do and don't do. |
| 07:14.40 | Max Shank | I Mean the chapter I mean isn't that kind of what religion is too. That's why that separation of church and State is so damn important right? because it's all what we inherited from the last guy you know it's this. It's this long chain. |
| 07:24.23 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 07:33.76 | Max Shank | Of parents and parents can be like ah a preacher ah Pope or a president and they're like this is good. This is bad behave yourself. We won't get mad kind of thing like and that's basically how it works right. |
| 07:49.33 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 07:51.41 | Max Shank | So we have this idea that there are some good drugs and some bad drugs and the best example because you got to know that there's a lot of things that are done in a very short-sighted fashion and it's really hard to. Calculate all the costs of certain things like I live in California and I believe up until like 3 to four years ago marijuana was like totally illegal right? something like that. Let's say within the last five years right |
| 08:26.77 | mikebledsoe | What was medical it was medical was it but it's been recreational flight maybe 3 4 5 years but before that was was like medical in the late 2000 yeah Yeah, 50 years |
| 08:28.16 | Max Shank | My friend who is a bouncer for. Yeah, okay, but let's say illegal for a long time and and like yeah and like a and like a pretty bad punishment I think too like you would go to Jail Yeah, that's whack yo. |
| 08:49.65 | mikebledsoe | There's people still doing time. |
| 08:53.94 | Max Shank | Ah, but my friend who was a bouncer at a bar. He said when there was a reggae concert. They would be full capacity and people would just be in a cloud of smoke and there would be no violence. There would be no car accidents and then when there was a country music band This is a guy who is bouncer there for 20 years at this local bar country music goes. Ah the bouncers are. Running around all evening. There's fights breaking out everywhere. People are beating each other up. There's drunk driving and it's like you gotta you gotta check reality a little bit because what is causing more immediate problems alcohol or Marijuana Now. That's what I'm saying. It's so hard to calculate right? because it's not.. It's not about the substance. It's about the behavior and I think that would be like a good thing to just remember regardless of whether it is a drug that daddy says is good or a drug that daddy says is bad right. |
| 10:01.57 | mikebledsoe | But but I yeah totally agree and I think that people and there's just a big problem in our society today is people. |
| 10:04.10 | Max Shank | It's more about the behavior than the substance itself. |
| 10:16.80 | mikebledsoe | Are more likely to judge something as good or bad based on what some authority figure has has to say than witnessing the results for themselves right? when it comes down to how much violence happens in regard to alcohol versus weed. It's it's incredible. The. |
| 10:20.24 | Max Shank | Of course. |
| 10:35.59 | mikebledsoe | The violent the aggression goes up with alcohol with we to go it tends to go down and ah you know I'll I'll take a high driver over a drunk driver any day of the week so I don't I don't drive I don't drive either way. But I'll tell you what. |
| 10:46.74 | Max Shank | Right? And both are fun. Um, right. |
| 10:54.64 | mikebledsoe | I'm pretty athletic when I'm high I'm not very athletic when I'm drinking and I'm pretty sure that carries over to you know maneuvering a vehicle. |
| 11:05.70 | Max Shank | Here's another here's another quotable phrase though. The devil is in the dosage if you want to do some endurance Work. You get a little high if you want to lift something real heavy. You just get a little bit drunk, not not over the top. But there's going to be a different effect. You're going to go sympathetic nervous System. You're going to go. You know, get ratcheted up into more fight or flight mode with a little booze in you a little liquid courage and if you light up. |
| 11:32.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 11:38.62 | Max Shank | The cannabinoid system by ingesting inhaling whatever some thccbd you're going to be able to push through those normal endurance plateaus that you would hit psychologically. So. There's a big difference between a. Using drugs and using drugs and that can be a fine line for some people but you know along with the devil is in the dosage and the substance is less important than the behavior you got to reconsider. Ah. Labeling some is good and some is bad and like does it really make sense to throw like a drug addict in jail or a drug user in jail I mean part of the reason you know I'm kind of switching topics here a little bit but a lot of reason that gangs have power is because. Certain special drugs are illegal and if they were legal there would they wouldn't have any there would be no incentive to go buy drugs from a you know a thug with a machine gun if you can go get it at Cvs like you got to imagine the. |
| 12:39.83 | mikebledsoe | No. |
| 12:55.91 | Max Shank | Benefit to society would be much better. |
| 12:57.34 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, people don't really think about that I I think a lot of people miss that and that making a product black market making it Illegal. You're gonna get arrested for it. It's hard to make that actually creates some some interesting variables. But. 1 of the things that it creates is it creates violence because now now you have to be secretive about It. You have to form gangs to protect Yourself. You've you've got to do all these things and then in addition to that The ah the. |
| 13:26.74 | Max Shank | 4 |
| 13:36.58 | mikebledsoe | Dosage starts getting really concentrated like cocaine becoming illegal. They were trying to figure out how do we? How do we make it more potent so that we can because shipping right? We got to hide it and ship it and so we got to make it more potent. The same thing is happening with weed over the years is an ounce today is not what an ounce was twenty thirty years ago because we can. We can you know, go further with this. So 1 thing I've noticed is when something's on the black market just becomes more concentrated a huge example of this right now. Which is in the news which is fentanyl and fentanyl I think is whether like the number one killer of ah of americans right now the number 1 or number 4 in certain age group. Okay, but it's it's in which is incredibly high but it's. |
| 14:19.98 | Max Shank | Ah, in a certain in a certain age group in a certain age group. Yeah, which is insane. No no one is thinking like I want to do some fentanyl today like. |
| 14:31.50 | mikebledsoe | It's probably because no one's thinking that but it's cheaper than heroin at this point right? So and heroin exists because Opium was yeah but. |
| 14:37.40 | Max Shank | Well and remember heroin is bad but diamorphine the prescription grade heroin totally fine, right? So it just like depends on the context huh. |
| 14:49.70 | mikebledsoe | But smoking opium was became illegal and so they had to concentrate it and make heroin and then just keeps getting more further and further concentrated because it's black market or or it's tightly controlled. |
| 14:58.25 | Max Shank | And that black market creates a lot of wealth too I mean look what happened I mean I I'm so skeptical of almost any of the history I read now because I just feel like it's ah it's a huge. It's probably a huge web of lies. |
| 15:11.20 | mikebledsoe | As you should be. |
| 15:17.54 | Max Shank | But I remember all these things that I've read anyway. So I'll just throw that caveat out there but the Kennedys weren't they huge bootleggers of alcohol. |
| 15:24.96 | mikebledsoe | Huge yeah, they were well. They were responsible for bringing from Ireland they they were like importing their big importers of ah I forget you know whiskey or whatever, whatever it is. They're they're bringing it from ah I think it was Ireland so yeah there. |
| 15:35.10 | Max Shank | That's what I'm saying. |
| 15:41.25 | Max Shank | I Mean one one. |
| 15:44.10 | mikebledsoe | And they had a they had like a a monopoly on it. So yeah, it built Ah ah, a lot of wealth. |
| 15:49.41 | Max Shank | Well and something about human nature people. Love booze that's been in our history for thousands of thousands of years we've been drinking booze and smoking different herbs tobacco ah hashish. |
| 15:57.12 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 16:07.96 | Max Shank | All these different things. So it's not like it's inherently good or evil it's it's what you do with it. It's not about the substance not about the behavior and if you have that kind of compassion for people who use drugs that you may be thought before are evil. Then you'll also be able to have more compassion for yourself when you start recognizing how many drugs you might be using that are like the good drugs or the okay drugs because frankly, if you give a 12 year old a 15 year old or a thirty year old ah, tiktok and they do a few hours of that every day that's probably more destructive than getting a little high and doing some yoga or something you know I'm saying so it's all it's more about the the context. |
| 16:56.14 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well I think we're talking about there too is the difference between exogenous and endogenous substances right? So a behavior driven as an but it's not a substance. There's an external event. |
| 17:05.94 | Max Shank | Um, well it's still an external. Yeah, that right. |
| 17:14.83 | mikebledsoe | That's causing your body to create a substance if you sit there on Tiktok for 3 hours your your blood chemistry is likely looking very different 3 hours into it than beforehand. |
| 17:24.29 | Max Shank | There's serotonin. There's like a dopamine on and off you're just in this and oh like I call it story time roulette basically because it's 1 screen at a time you shut out the whole rest of the world you develop hardcore tunnel vision. |
| 17:30.58 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 17:41.19 | Max Shank | Your vision gets where vision like is going into the fucking basement because people are looking at stuff that is less than twenty four inches away from them a lot and look I'm I'm not one to say that's right or wrong. But if you don't start. Looking at things farther away and going on walks and taking in long distances your eyes will completely deteriorate anyway to your point. Yes, if you're consuming media and the hormone cascade is the result of that I would still call the. Scrolling media the drug that is initiating the production of endogenous compounds. |
| 18:26.50 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, and the same for the the runners high. It's like when those things where I meet someone's like oh I've been sober I'm like but you run like ten twenty miles every other day or every day to stay sane right? They're like oh I gotta like you know. |
| 18:32.68 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 18:43.23 | Max Shank | Okay. |
| 18:46.49 | mikebledsoe | I Don't work out if I don't get that hot and if I can't work out hard if I can't push it I got someone gets an injury and they they're you know they just they get depressed and everything just goes in the shitter because they can't exercise I'm like you are so addicted to those neurotransmitters and those hormones. Um, and one of them being a nadoide na nadoide is this is the substance your body creates when you get into that runner's high that that what most people call endorphins. It's not endorphins. It's a nadomite and. Um, it's part of the Endo Cannabinoids system and that's it's really powerful because it's it. Ah, it's very similar and it and it attaches to the cell the same way T Hc does and so. This is why you'll find people who like to roll jujitsu or go for long endurance events and they smoke weed Beforehand or have an edible beforehand because not you get that you get that runner's high immediately. So I get running and I actually everyone knows when they slip into that Groove. It's. |
| 19:57.33 | Max Shank | Like a flow. Yeah. |
| 19:57.98 | mikebledsoe | You know you get like five miles in you get into the flow smoke some weed beforehand you'll be in flow in about 60 seconds and then when your body also pumps out the nadomite on top of that t hc that's a it's a double dose of runner's high so you know ah that that. Nothing wrong with that I enjoy doing that myself. Another example of this would be I've gone to the peruvian mountains and I fly in and immediately someone hands me a big bag of coca leaves. So just raw coca leaves which is not cocaine cocaine. Takes coca leaves and they break it down into ah such a concentration that you know it's it's incredibly higher. But I take the coca leaves I I wrap some stuff in there. It's some enzymes that basically help it break down better I chew on it and now like it does elevate my mood. And I can deal better with elevation. It keeps you from getting elevation sickness. So little little things that ah that are just I think about those 2 things kind of together because. |
| 20:58.13 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 21:11.70 | mikebledsoe | Ah, it's just a simple thing to add in. That's gonna give you more of what you already were We're gonna get or wanted. |
| 21:18.98 | Max Shank | Well and the devil's in the dosage. You know people are really fond of the term biohacker and I got to say it sounds like a really cool thing to be and I guess ah you know my. Natural state with things is one of mockery. So I like can't help but make fun of anything that sounds silly or you know people who say forward ambulation instead of walking it just like makes me laugh I can't take them serious. Ah, but the the nuance the context. Ah, using these substances to your advantage I mean imagine trying to build a business without a cell phone and imagine imagine imagine trying to build a business with a cell phone and a cell phone is another dopamine machine. You can use it or it can use you social media same thing you can use it or it can use you a little bit of Coca leaves boom mood elevator ah less sensitive to the higher altitude. Fantastic! ah. Tiny bit of booze wham maybe a deadlift pr a little bit of marijuana and maybe your best five mile runtime ever or flow state. You know, better music. Whatever um, so the context matters so much the dosage. Matters so much and recognizing that anything that is changing your state that way. It is a drug and the good and evils of it should be determined on an individual basis rather than like broad strokes with law in my opinion. You know that's that's my perspective is that the cost of having like a war on drugs which seems like it's just been a colossal failure to me is way lower than the benefit across the board. |
| 23:21.85 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I mean the the intentions of the war on drugs I mean there's a lot of speculation that you know had more to do with just suppressing minorities and and things like that and it's a great excuse to put people in Jail maybe shut up protesters. You know that went after psychedelics in the. |
| 23:32.45 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 23:41.22 | mikebledsoe | Sixty S because of the Hippie movement And yeah, there's a lot of that going on and the other thing. Um. |
| 23:45.80 | Max Shank | I mean it seems it just seems crazy that there's a such thing as a nonviolent crime in the first place but to have nonviolent crimes like go to jail instead of like compensate who anyway the whole thing is like. |
| 23:55.68 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 24:04.71 | Max Shank | Crazy to me. Yeah. |
| 24:05.20 | mikebledsoe | It's insane. It's insane. Well, the other thing is I wanted to mention this earlier which is prohibition people don't if we look at prohibition of alcohol that happened you know a hundred years ago in the us ah, it created Al Capone and all these gangsters and. All this and they were having shootouts with the cops they lift prohibition on alcohol. What? what happens the gangs just kind of go away like like they they may still be operating but they're not nearly as violent. Maybe they they probably moved to a lot of them that were in the business of trafficking. Alcohol probably moved into opium or something else that was illegal. I mean if you watch narcos which is based on true story. But you know obviously it's hollywooded up. Ah you know they basically go oh the weed's not paying enough. We'll move to cocaine and so. Those types of people who are always looking to play at the edges are always going to go there no matter what the substance is that that is black marketed. |
| 25:09.64 | Max Shank | No no question. It's hilarious that phrase crime doesn't pay but when you define something as a crime it pays handsomely like who's who's who's more wealthy than a Colombian Drug lord. |
| 25:17.60 | mikebledsoe | Ah, crime pays when you don't get paid Just don't get caught. |
| 25:29.59 | Max Shank | I mean unless you own a pharmaceutical company then you have legal drugs even more widespread use and you're even richer like those are some of the richest people on the planet. You know you look at you look at the different. Okay so is Netflix a drug is watching. |
| 25:39.83 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 25:47.96 | Max Shank | Media for hours and hours a drug. Yeah I mean there's no surprise that people gravitate toward maximum curiosity and maximum safety simultaneously. It completely satisfies our 2 most primal desires. Ah, that define human beings we want safety so you're inside your house or wherever you're in your own little world looking at your telephone or watching the screen and then you see the most outlandish you know game of thrones narcos like ah people like. Raping and killing each other and you're like I'm safe at home and I'm watching this like crazy dragons flying around everywhere. It's it's makes sense to me and look what are the the top companies in the world right now. It's ah like Facebook Amazon Apple Netflix. What's the g fang can't remember right now I should know that Google thank you I guess I could have googled it and figured that out. But that's so isn't that incredible. |
| 26:49.90 | mikebledsoe | Google. |
| 27:00.84 | mikebledsoe | That's now a definition in the there's else Google now made the dictionary by the way. |
| 27:03.90 | Max Shank | Well I mean what's incredible about that is that they have avoided um, being considered a monopoly that's that's incredible. We're gonna get too far off track I take it back. We'll save it for another time. |
| 27:21.71 | mikebledsoe | Alright I'll bring it back but let's get back the drugs so I like the classified drugs in the 2 categories. So when I talk to people and they get they they want to challenge me on like yeah I'm like. |
| 27:21.84 | Max Shank | We we can't do this. We have to stay on drugs. Um. |
| 27:40.57 | mikebledsoe | On on drugs and by the way I had someone on Instagram the other day just posting trolling me in the comments telling me I was ah was addicted to drugs and shit and it was pretty comical. They got blocked fuck them but they I mean you can talk a lot of shit to me in the comments I'll I'll respond back I enjoy. Back and forth. But when you just start when it starts getting ridiculous and there's not actually a conversation you're getting blocked. This person is probably listening to this I have a few trolls that know way too much about me which is which is a little creepy but um. |
| 28:04.53 | Max Shank | So. |
| 28:10.62 | Max Shank | Um, ah must make you feel pretty special. |
| 28:17.83 | mikebledsoe | not not the kind of special I want to feel but ah when I get talking to people and they go ah, you know they they start lumping in say alcohol and heroin and with lsd in the same category of drug and I go. These are not the same. They're the opposite of each other to to put them in the same category and the category is drugs and I think it's good that we're using that name for this show and using it in this way because it really should be normalized I think the only way is to do it is to say drugs are. Fine and we need to talk about the drugs inside this context when you're growing up. There's like don't do drugs and all these things fall into the same thing so we're programmed to drop everything in the drugs category and there's 2 different types of drugs. There's drugs that make you feel less and there's drugs that make you feel more. And there's a lot of those are just like two sides of a spectrum. It's a concept. There's so much in between I mean when I think about using drugs I think of myself inside of a sphere and I can go not just three hundred and sixty degrees but three hundred and sixty degrees times three hundred and sixty degrees go in any direction I want to push my state into but there's largely. There's feeling less drugs and feeling more drugs and the feeling less drugs would be heroin alcohol these things that sedate you in a way that that it it. Keeps you from having the full human experience right? right. |
| 29:56.79 | Max Shank | Reduces your sensitivity and others increase your sensitivity like alcohol and weed are the perfect examples that I think most people can understand. |
| 30:03.78 | mikebledsoe | And so most people I think they associate or I'll talk to someone about having mushrooms and they go why I don't want to like you know I blacked out once on alcohol and I'm like this is you're not going to black out on mushrooms for one and but you're. Your awareness on alcohol is being so depressed and your awareness on on mushrooms is being if you've never done it if you've never done any psychedelics. It's It's an expansion that you'll never you'll break through multiple levels of expansion of consciousness that is indescribable. And the to to put these 2 things in the same category I think is a a huge disservice and it's a great way to just not learn about it. You know people just they just would rather not know shit about it and just. Avoid it because someone told them to yeah, it is easier. Okay, um. |
| 30:59.36 | Max Shank | Well, it's easier to do that. Also right drugs are bad. Okay, you know, ah I mean the less nuance and context there is the less clear your understanding is going to be the more likely you are to just follow the closest. Authority figure. Um, so this this idea that we go into an a a meeting and then out in the hallway you got chain smoking and donut eating I mean look if you if you're an alcoholic and you. |
| 31:19.82 | mikebledsoe | Accurate. |
| 31:37.67 | Max Shank | And you like having that term attached to you and maybe you used to like beat your get drunk and beat your wife every night and now instead you chain smoke and eat donuts I think that's an improvement. Okay maybe we can do better but it's still a step in the right direction but this this whole idea. Of like substituting 1 addiction for another and that could be a whole um, different thing I've had some great talks with people about addiction and the hardest part is to define. It. The best definition I've heard is ah. Repeated behavior that gives you an outcome. You don't want that That's my favorite definition for addiction. So regardless of what the substance is go for it. |
| 32:16.51 | mikebledsoe | E. Well I would say yeah people are one of the things I've noticed in my coaching with people is they get addicted addicted to emotions you know they they get addicted to to guilt. And because they're addicted to guilt I mean just experiencing guilt a terrible outcome. But yeah I think was it a? Ah, What's his name toll. |
| 32:46.91 | Max Shank | It's like the familiar pain versus uncertainty a lot of people go into that. |
| 32:57.87 | mikebledsoe | Be here. Not be here now that's Ram Das Ah not Ram das the power of now. Well he talks about the pain body and basically there's certain things that you're basically getting addicted to this is I associate this with being accepted or loved or whatever it is or. |
| 32:58.60 | Max Shank | Ram Das Tolly is a power of now. |
| 33:06.41 | Max Shank | Threat. |
| 33:16.22 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 33:17.83 | mikebledsoe | This is how I learned to survive when things became stressful or I'm afraid that I'm not going to be loved so now I need to respond in this way and so we we get addicted to there's this emotional pattern that is wreaking Havoc on our lives and so we're addicted to it So there's it Oh fuck. Yeah. |
| 33:23.85 | Max Shank | Right? Well you ever met someone addicted to drama. You know what's you know? what's funny I've never heard. |
| 33:37.74 | mikebledsoe | Get away from them. But we're all dick. But. |
| 33:42.42 | Max Shank | A group of people who says I don't want any drama more than people who are addicted to drama like ah a person who's not addicted to it a person who actually doesn't want trauma doesn't even use that phrase but a person who's addicted to it. |
| 33:59.97 | mikebledsoe | Totally totally. |
| 34:02.10 | Max Shank | Always uses that phrase. It's one of the most and and I I'm like addicted to peace I like like drama is uncomfortable like I want to avoid it at all costs I don't mind a little confrontation but I don't want to. So for me I was just like whoa. This is insane that someone could actually want this like this and continue to either consciously or subconsciously manifest these situations of hardcore drama. |
| 34:34.76 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well we're we're all addicted to drama I mean if you if you buy into any narrative at all. It's because you enjoy the drama of it people watch Tv because they enjoy drama yeah, where what. |
| 34:36.34 | Max Shank | Very exciting. |
| 34:48.98 | Max Shank | You. |
| 34:52.42 | mikebledsoe | What is the character they are playing in that story. They may be a more dramatic character. They may be emotional emotionally unstable. They may pick more fights but we're all living in a drama but you know what character are you playing in that drama and so. |
| 34:55.36 | Max Shank | So. |
| 35:02.42 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 35:12.25 | mikebledsoe | You're kind of like the sit back and probably only step in when it's absolutely necessary kind of character whereas Karen Karen is out there just yeah and then you got Karen out there picking fights in the parking lot. |
| 35:16.69 | Max Shank | I try to be like a Buddha guy. |
| 35:25.83 | Max Shank | Well and and that can make you feel like you are solidifying your self image or your ego right? So a lot of these back to drugs. |
| 35:34.96 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, all right? Let's get back to drugs. Um. Ah, the eye roll I don't think so I. |
| 35:41.98 | Max Shank | If we had just done some cocaine before this. We'd be more focused. Yeah I've never I've never tried it but I've heard. It's really fun. Um. |
| 35:52.25 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, ah and a handful of times. Ah I don't think the the repercussions aren't worth the fun compared to other drugs. Other drugs are just superior. It's kind of like when you start doing mushrooms. Why people start eating mushrooms like. |
| 36:01.15 | Max Shank | Oh. Yeah, ah. |
| 36:11.28 | mikebledsoe | Why was I drinking so much you mean on Friday night I could have eaten some mushrooms instead of drinking 12 beers. Wow the next day is that's pretty cool. |
| 36:16.96 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah, the the when you when it comes time to pay the Piper mushroom certainly seems a lot kinder than alcohol. Ah, how about? So I mean. |
| 36:30.61 | mikebledsoe | Ah, just about anything's kinder than alcohol. |
| 36:36.86 | Max Shank | Ah, is sex a drug. What do you think there are sex addicts out there also known as males. |
| 36:40.20 | mikebledsoe | I Mean we're talking about it causes ears out, you know. Um, well you know, Ah, there's a certain chemical response happening in the body when you're having sex and you know sex with different people is going to give you different responses as well. So You know you might be addicted to a certain fetish or. |
| 37:06.27 | Max Shank | And. |
| 37:08.96 | mikebledsoe | Something like that. Yeah I mean I know people personally who identify as sex addicts and you know it was giving them a result they did not want and there's I shit man I I've had some sexual experience a lot of sexual experiences that ah. |
| 37:14.35 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 37:28.19 | mikebledsoe | Would put in the psychedelic category of a lot I if you would ah if if you pulled the what's happening to my my dick out of the equation and I would say I don't know if I'm having sex or if I'm having a dmt experience. It's it's It's very. |
| 37:30.83 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 37:46.99 | Max Shank | Sublime. |
| 37:48.80 | mikebledsoe | Very similar Actually the older I get the more similar they become which is actually really exciting because I can just take get a little hit. Yeah well part of it is learning how to channel that energy. So most dudes are just. |
| 37:51.59 | Max Shank | Um, it's an in intersection. That's pretty cool. Well, it's kind of like the meditation and mushrooms. Ah convergence right? like you were saying you can be. |
| 38:06.31 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 38:09.88 | Max Shank | On mushrooms can get this like crazy effect. But um, it's kind of like a shortcut in a lot of ways where you could get there with lots of meditation and releasing the ego and really being here now and being present. It's just that most people need a jumpstart of some kind. To allow themselves to get there to cut through all of the ego and trauma and things like that and that's why um, there are such big changes after just 1 experience right. |
| 38:41.48 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, huge benefit. There's most psychedelics and I like you you brought up meditation because you know you got this guy this monk sitting on a hill meditating for 30 years to achieve a state. Come back with some wisdom to share or just keep to themselves because I mean most of that's just for you anyway or you know I spent I spent a decent amount of time in South America with |
| 39:03.44 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 39:15.49 | mikebledsoe | Ah, the Ayahuascaros and what chimaro like healers down there is how they they go by by the way. The word shaman is ah is a northern europe like siberian word. It's not even south american so sometimes people give me like a shaman like you're appropriating I'm like no. |
| 39:27.16 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 39:33.98 | mikebledsoe | You're appropriating. Are you from Siberia no all right shut the fuck up. But anyways, ah it's funny what it's it's mostly like white. Ah ah, whatever they call. Ah. |
| 39:40.20 | Max Shank | Where do you find all these people good god. |
| 39:48.92 | Max Shank | Hey I'm not white I'm pink Dude don't look at me. Yeah, um, yeah. |
| 39:52.28 | mikebledsoe | You are definitely pink. You're not white I'm pink too. Ah now the ah ah new ages. It's like all this the new age crowd. You know they it's like oh so worried about appropriating I'm like you're appropriating shit left and right more than anybody just chill out. |
| 40:11.70 | Max Shank | Um, isn't it isn't appropriation just called a appreciation or or sharing I mean like what if it's if it's good. It's good. |
| 40:11.11 | mikebledsoe | Ah, but ah, it's pretty. Yeah I'm like I'm like anytime and when I when I hang out with we'll we'll say quote unquote shamans in South America because that's what people are are gonna I think understand better when I hang out with them and I'm like oh I'm like I'm gonna take back what I learned to. So where I live and they're like perfect bring it back to where I live show people like oh you're appropriating I'm like the only people we should be caring about is the people who I got it from and they're telling me to spread the word like this is how culture works this is how evolution works evolution works by appropriating what someone else has created. And then making it your own so people ah people people get upset because some people are really good at making money off of the thing they learn from another tradition and those people are poor I get that that's a whole other but it's it. That's such a deep conversation. Maybe. |
| 40:56.14 | Max Shank | I Mean if you like it I think you'd probably do it. |
| 41:06.84 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 41:13.97 | mikebledsoe | Maybe we just do a show on appropriation later. But ah so but I go down. Yeah yeah, but ah, you go down to South America they've been sitting with this medicine as thousands of years it at least if not longer thousands of years |
| 41:16.74 | Max Shank | Expect a lot of eye rolling for that one for me. |
| 41:33.21 | mikebledsoe | And you know they it's ah I equiate equate them that the knowledge that they get when um when a lot of these South American Healers have been introduced to Concepts of Buddhism and hinduism a lot of that they were completely ah ignorant of. Those philosophies of those religions and practices until the last couple decades because while the internet and people started traveling for these things and brought their own. They're like they like oh what we're doing down here is the same as buddhism like it's the same. |
| 41:58.70 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 42:10.39 | mikebledsoe | The the same wisdom is being accomplished in a much shorter period of time and ah, it's very interesting that people will will put meditation on this pedestal while using all sorts of drugs unknowingly and but. Using psychedelics as something is like oh you, you want to lean on that like human beings have been leaning on and evolving alongside psychedelic medicines for you know, probably tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years so the idea of like. Not using this tool that we've been using for so long that's going to expand my consciousness seems kind of ridiculous. |
| 42:52.41 | Max Shank | Well, it's all ridiculous because everybody is trying to alleviate a pain that they're feeling and the most primal pains are ah hunger sexual desire. The desire for safety and then as human beings. It's even a greater challenge because we have to harmonize this concept of meaning and mission and perhaps legacy and so that's why there's such a huge amount. Written passed down for generations. You know you have the bible. You have the doo de jing you have the book of the buddha you have these ah shamans in different parts of the world. I mean we have been trying to figure out how to live for a very very long time. In a way that is is comforting that pain that we feel and that discomfort is the fire for achieving your goals also and if you squelch that fire with ah. You know, tiktoks or heroin. Well I mean I guess that's where you're going to go I mean there's no worries. That's just it's going to work out differently than someone who uses that fire of discomfort like ah a Martin Luther King right and he does he goes the complete opposite way and he takes that pain and he transmutes it into something that he can share with the rest of the people and and that's why the word appropriation makes me laugh so much because it's all about sharing. Ultimately, the reason we write stuff down is so we can share it and the different pains that people feel may have different specific origins but they'll they're all rooted in some of those primal desires your ah desire for acceptance. You know, childhood et cetera growing up attracting a mate like all these different things like how can you um, use that pain for action rather than just quench that fire in a destructive way right? So it's it's very It's very interesting to see why people use drugs and really how they use them. |
| 45:27.25 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and this is why it's very important to pay attention and this is why I like psychedelics is because Psychedelics taught me to pay attention and in days after a mushroom experience and. Being concerned that I was going to lose whatever wisdom I had had ah received in that first ceremony and then days later still paying better attention to my state than I ever had before and that's that's part of the point of meditation too. |
| 46:00.96 | Max Shank | 20 |
| 46:05.43 | mikebledsoe | Especially if you look at something like Viposana Meditation it's all about being present with the sensations in your body being and that would be sight smell hearing as well and so most people when they start meditating me do eyes closed. But there's also eyes open meditation but it's ah it's a more advanced thing. Yeah, it's it's pretty advanced. Ah. |
| 46:22.72 | Max Shank | You can meditate with your eyes open that sounds pretty advanced. Maybe you can put a training course together for that level one. How to sit still with your eyes closed. Level 2 How to sit still with your eyes open. |
| 46:39.77 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, yeah, So the the point is the point isn't the ceremony. The point is not when you're sitting in Meditation. The point is bringing that level of awareness and that ah being present with. Your body the the world around you and yourself and all these things as you move throughout your day and so noticing I'm not that familiar with Karma yoga. |
| 47:04.93 | Max Shank | That's karma yoga right? isn't that karma yoga. That's you as I understand it's bringing the awareness of meditation to every task that you do and the first time I really got it the first time I really got it was |
| 47:15.20 | mikebledsoe | Um, oh you're right. |
| 47:21.25 | Max Shank | When I was ah cleaning the leaves out of my pool with a long skimmer and I'm not proud of it. But you know just days before that revelation I had considered killing my neighbor's tree. So The leaves wouldn't fall in the pool I was like I was like what I was like why is this happening to me and anyway I didn't kill the tree I just started to really I I know it's ridiculous. It's all relative isn't it only absolute is relativity but I was really annoyed. |
| 47:47.20 | mikebledsoe | Why is this happening to me. Ah. |
| 47:58.55 | Max Shank | That the leaves were falling into my pool and the indignance of it all was in retrospect quite hilarious and so instead of like you know, murdering a tree. Ah I started to really enjoy the process of skimming the leaves out of a pool so it was like my little water Zen Garden and. |
| 48:13.51 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 48:17.59 | Max Shank | The more you can bring that awareness to everything you do the more clear you get on who you really are and what your mission is what you stand for you know what your value and values are the easier. It is to bring that level of awareness to all that stuff you do and. It's no surprise that we have figured out a lot of this stuff in the last several thousand years and I think if you can if you're looking for wisdom I would look at stuff that has lasted a really long Time. So if you take ancient, wisdom and modern Tools. You'll probably be at the most peace and very wealthy if you take modern, wisdom and ancient Tools. You will probably mess yourself up. Pretty bad. |
| 49:04.37 | mikebledsoe | Agreed agreed. Yeah so paying attention helps to know what drugs you may be taking whether it be caffeine or shallow or deep breathing or whether it's lsd. |
| 49:21.17 | Max Shank | A. |
| 49:22.60 | mikebledsoe | You're gonna if you're paying attention to your state from moment to moment you're gonna you're gonna know what you should do more of in less up or when you should do things and when you should not do things but I to me takes a lot of practice ah paying attention while intentionally putting yourself. |
| 49:41.25 | Max Shank | The modern tools can help my my favorite addiction I mean look food sex. Yeah I'm all on board. But Youtube is 1 of my addictions because you can have a true expert on. |
| 49:41.26 | mikebledsoe | And these state changes. So ah, the modern tools mean out. |
| 50:00.46 | Max Shank | Nearly any topic take you through their whole thought process on anything I can I can go down the Youtube Rabbi a hole for hours and hours. That's why I use the modern tech to ah, click it off at a certain timeframe. |
| 50:05.16 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 50:18.58 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 50:20.31 | Max Shank | So you know when I'm on my phone. Ah 5 minutes only if I'm on my computer I get 15 minutes and that's it and at least that pause will allow me to. Ask the question of is this really what I want to be doing right now. So that pattern break alone can be tremendous. That's why I was telling you before we got started here um on the door of the pantry in the kitchen There's a little sign that says pattern break. |
| 50:38.56 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. Yeah, yeah. |
| 50:56.39 | Max Shank | So before you open the pantry with all the snacks in it. There's a little sign that essentially reminds you intention before ingestion like is are you going here because you're hungry. Are you going here because you're sleepy. Are you going here because you're bored. Are you going here because you're deeply uncomfortable. And I think food is the most difficult drug because you cannot practice abstinence permanently like you cannot quit cold turkey cold turkey you must continue eating food. So like you could quit heroin forever. But you can't quit food forever. There's there's a give and take there. So the fact that you always have to have a toe in there makes it very challenging and look It's no surprise. What do we have like over half of the people obese ah something like that I get I get it I get it hey we we won the game of life. |
| 51:47.30 | mikebledsoe | Something like that insane. |
| 51:55.94 | Max Shank | We're dying of being too fat instead of underfed in this country that's look we won nice job. Everybody now let's consider how how we can swing the pendulum back a little bit. Food is tough. Food is a tough one but it all comes down to a few of those basic principles. |
| 52:05.41 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well said. |
| 52:15.40 | Max Shank | Intention before ingestion. It's not about the substance. It's about the behavior. Um, you had a couple good ones too. But it's community matters a lot I think who you associate with the the 5 |
| 52:30.76 | mikebledsoe | Um I I yeah I've noticed in the last couple years the impact of community because I I'm ah I'm a very social person by nature. But. |
| 52:33.58 | Max Shank | The 5 monkey rule. |
| 52:49.29 | mikebledsoe | Um, a very social person by nature and I've also just like the downfall of that is being too open at too many different energies and and a lot of times like I almost feel guilty about not almost I do there are times where I feel guilty about. Denying people my my attention knowing that by giving them my attention. It's bleeding me dry and ah yeah, just over the last few years I'd say I'd say like the last four years I've gotten |
| 53:11.00 | Max Shank | And. |
| 53:24.89 | mikebledsoe | Very intentional about my community and the people I surround myself with and not only does it change my experience from moment to moment as I'm in those communities with those people and and having my cup filled but my behavior that comes from being and and community with certain people is just. |
| 53:43.43 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 53:44.77 | mikebledsoe | I Like how I am I like who I'm being I like my behavior much better when I place myself in certain communities and I so you know work with a lot of people and the thing that I've noticed you know people like I want to solve my. |
| 53:54.30 | Max Shank | Um, totally. |
| 54:04.90 | mikebledsoe | Financial problems by doing all these things I need more systems and business and I need no marketing and I'm like yeah you do need to know all that stuff. But you're not going to really be able to implement it if you're if there's no Community. You're not going to loan wolf your way into the good behaviors. There's There's some people that may be able to accomplish what they want as a lone wolf but it's not gonna be as enjoyable and and it's and it it may not they may accomplish their thing but may not be happy at the end. |
| 54:31.39 | Max Shank | Also Also, you don't get extra points for doing anything all by yourself as I once thought there are no extra points or Credit. You're given at the end I always thought if I did something all on my own people would be like wow. Look how amazing he really is he You don't get any of those extra points at the end. It's total waste. |
| 54:52.82 | mikebledsoe | No okay community is a huge leverage point I mean we see this in the gym people come in to lose £15 but they stick around why community they want to be around people who are like minded we have similar goals. |
| 55:09.10 | Max Shank | The the. |
| 55:10.83 | mikebledsoe | Have similar values and you know I like putting myself in community where they value something that I want to value more you know, ah people people say they value things They don't actually value. They. They they tell you they value things they want to value but most people if they haven't reached their goal if if their values were already aligned with their goals. They have had accomplished that or beyond such a trajectory reaching it. They would be obvious that it's just happening. But people want to be different which means they have to change their values. You have to change your values to reach your goals. So Yeah and I yeah you just go in their House. You can see and so community I like to choose to hang out with people who value. |
| 55:50.00 | Max Shank | Um I think actions speak louder than words in that case, you're hundred percent right like it's easy to see what someone really values. |
| 56:05.81 | mikebledsoe | Something more than I do that I that I want to value more and so I use community to shift my values because you know I hang out with people who make more money than me they they have spent more time valuing dollars than I have. |
| 56:21.19 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 56:22.58 | mikebledsoe | They spend more time thinking about it and they think about it in ways that most people don't and so just by putting yourself in that environment. You don't even have to be talking about money. But you're just like it's the way they're being. It's there's an osmosis going on. |
| 56:26.89 | Max Shank | Oh my God oh. |
| 56:41.13 | Max Shank | Dude, that's so true I remember that was the first you were the person who mentioned that to me and it stuck with me was ah you know don't necessarily just listen to what people are saying notice how they are being. And I thought that was ah, an interesting distinction that I'd never really considered before and the atmosphere or the climate in the company you keep is totally different and money is a perfect example because you got to be so careful. Um. Hanging out with people who have a scarcity mindset around money like you probably want to hang around with people where five ten grand is not a lot of money if you want to be wealthy like if ah if people are telling you all the time about the thing they bought for. |
| 57:22.14 | mikebledsoe | Down. Yeah. |
| 57:31.70 | Max Shank | $5 off coupon I mean I'm not saying that makes you bad it just means that there's still like ah missing the forest for the trees or pennywise pound foolish kinda thing going on there like you don't want to be in that environment of scarcity versus abundance. |
| 57:40.21 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, when this goes back to yeah and this applies to you know drugs as well drug abuse. So if you around a bunch of drug abusers. You're gonna keep abusing. |
| 57:57.00 | Max Shank | Totally. |
| 57:58.20 | mikebledsoe | And the the money one I think is a good one because people can almost everybody can they understand it. They experience it and. |
| 58:04.52 | Max Shank | And. |
| 58:10.32 | mikebledsoe | I think I may have lost it. Maybe it'll come back. Oh yeah, that changed that that changes people's state Incredible. Go check your bank account. What's that experience like. |
| 58:12.61 | Max Shank | Well money is kind of a funny, a funny, a funny drug too like I see I see money as energy. |
| 58:29.50 | mikebledsoe | For the average person. You know the average person. Some people they they don't want to go check their bank account. They're afraid to look at it. Some people are excited to look at it. It's having an impact. |
| 58:37.83 | Max Shank | I Like to look at my bank account and whack off. Ah I'm joking that I don't really do that. But I actually try to look at it as little as possible to still know the direction that the ship is going because I I don't. |
| 58:53.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 58:57.39 | Max Shank | I never wanted to have to like make sure I had enough in the account to buy something essentially but you know you get to a certain point I don't know I think like by today's values or something like that if you make over a hundred k you basically have as good a life. |
| 59:01.57 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 59:16.88 | Max Shank | As the top 1% in terms of like the basic needs like you don't have to worry about food going out guacamole on your chipotle that sort of thing and then beyond that then it's just this new game like trying to trying to be a billionaire. |
| 59:29.61 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well that. |
| 59:35.29 | Max Shank | Unless you have a solid mission that you want to use that fund those funds for like that's got to be some form of mental illness now. It's a very constructive. It's a very constructive mental illness. It's like how you think that you deserve love. |
| 59:44.14 | mikebledsoe | There's something else going on there. |
| 59:52.97 | Max Shank | You know I have that thing like people want love power attention in that order and so some people don't think they'll ever really deserve love because they hate themselves on some level or their mom did which is kind of like that you get the whole idea. So They think I'll just get as powerful as possible. And then people have to love me or fear me or whatever. So It's ah it's a very funny thing the different way we could do a whole thing about about money that would be kind of fun. Maybe we'll do that after business next time but that's a. |
| 01:00:22.31 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, we should definitely do that. Yeah I'm put in the notes right now I remembered we'll close this up soon. Ah, the the it came back to me the what I wanted to say about the money in community is. |
| 01:00:28.69 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:00:39.46 | mikebledsoe | I What I witnessed a lot of people struggle with is they need to find new community so they can take on these new habits and behaviors. But they feel guilty about leaving their old community behind they're like oh you know and and then your old friends are gonna call you a sellout and this and that and like. |
| 01:00:55.24 | Max Shank | Totally. |
| 01:00:58.10 | mikebledsoe | And so so many people are afraid of of leaving that community and like leaving them behind but the reality is is they're leaving themselves behind now they're they're happy where they're at you want to change, you got to jump ship and people are gonna judge you no matter? what. |
| 01:01:13.89 | Max Shank | No doubt. |
| 01:01:16.65 | mikebledsoe | And ah yeah, the more successful you become the more prominent you become the more of a target you become and so I have to say the more popular I become the more people I have to turn down to hang out and they may talk shit about me but I've only got so much time. |
| 01:01:24.57 | Max Shank | No question. |
| 01:01:36.27 | mikebledsoe | And the day and my energy is important to me and I'm gonna I'm gonna keep it that way. |
| 01:01:36.44 | Max Shank | Yeah questions. And that's great to hear from you because it sounds like you are just learning how to draw boundaries in the last few years that sound right? Yeah and it's funny. |
| 01:01:49.15 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, I'd say the last four years say it's been about yeah yeah about 4 years now it's been ah I had to like I did cut a lot of people off a lot of people are mad at me. Yeah. |
| 01:01:58.91 | Max Shank | I'm just learning how to be open. Yeah, Ah yeah for me I'm like coming from the opposite end of the spectrum you have like this super social like Chimp energy and I feel like I have this cat like a tiger type of energy where I like just. Have such hard boundaries drawn that if someone doesn't like it I'm like ah tough shit Basically but that also shrinks your circle so much. So finding that balance point or creating that balance that you really like is ah it's fun. That's why I like when we chat. |
| 01:02:21.57 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:02:28.47 | mikebledsoe | Mm. |
| 01:02:34.28 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:02:36.48 | Max Shank | Because we come at it from such different angles. But interestingly enough we still seem to agree on like almost everything because we really focus on the nuance and the principles and there are very few absolutes and that's what makes it so interesting. Same with drugs. There's no, there's no absolutes. It's like you either use them. |
| 01:02:48.62 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:02:56.25 | Max Shank | Or you abuse them. But I guarantee you're using them. |
| 01:02:59.98 | mikebledsoe | Yep yep, any final thoughts. |
| 01:03:03.41 | Max Shank | Maybe just that everybody uses them some people abuse them. |
| 01:03:05.89 | mikebledsoe | Sound are good. Ah, ah 1 thing I want to mention is set setting and dosage. So the set being your mindset. What What's your state of mind the setting. What's your environment like. And the dosage those are your 3 variables to pay attention to with everything but in regard to drugs set setting and dosage are the 3 most important things to focus on if one of those things are off. You may have a poor experience. |
| 01:03:30.95 | Max Shank | No. |
| 01:03:42.19 | mikebledsoe | You make sure that all 3 of those things are dialed in you're in for a good time and I'll leave it with that where do they find you max. |
| 01:03:53.60 | Max Shank | http://maxshank.com or at ma shank. |
| 01:03:54.77 | mikebledsoe | Excellent and I've got a strong coach summit coming up and marching go to http://thestrongcoach.com/summit and I imagine some people be doing drugs there as we listen to music at some point during the weekend. So if you want to hop in there come on over. |
| 00:00.00 | Max Shank | Welcome back to Monday mornings with max and Mike Hope you guys had a great weekend today. We're gonna cover a topic that I think I have the most expertise in as you know I've just been flying by the seat of my pants talking out my ass for the rest of these topics because. Ah, have no authority on them whatsoever. But today we are going to talk about the vulcan plan how to live long and prosper and there's going to be no bs here. It's not going to be a low salt diet. It's not going to be limiting the amount of eggs that you eat. We're gonna get right to the. Things that really make you live a long time and also enjoy those years the most I'm once again joined by my trusty co-host Mr. Mike blood so. How's it going mike. |
| 00:53.18 | mikebledsoe | It's going great I'm excited about this topic. You know there's a lot of information out there and as you were alluding to you know we won't be saying you to telling you to stop eating the egg yolks or whatever I know that everyone's. Probably so by this point seen the on Instagram or somewhere online the picture of the New York Times one month talking about how eggs are bad for you in another month how they're great for you and it's a prime example of just you could you can find evidence to support. Any health claim that you want to make 1 way one way or the other. So ah, what's exciting about that is that's ah, that's a huge opportunity for coaches and there's a necessity for coaches in the world because a coach our job is to help. Create the context we take the context of your life and then we take information that we've learned about such a ah topic that has an infinite amount of information and then distill it down for the individual. So I hope we can do that for you here on this. Show and it it's it can be It's a it's a heavy topic but the solutions are so simple I think that's what you're going to discover by the end of the show. Yeah. |
| 02:16.63 | Max Shank | But they're not going to be sexy. Yeah I got ah I got a lot of ideas about that. This is probably what I write about the most um because everything else trickles down from your physical and mental health. Which those together combine for your health and you can certainly have success in 1 area without being healthy necessarily. But that's not really a goal I would like to help people achieve. So I think about this a lot. You already mentioned one of the big problems which is infinite information and along with that information you have a whole bunch of people who have a certain authority and they want to maintain that authority um. You know? For example, the physical therapists and doctors want to maybe ah keep the personal trainers off their turf like we don't want you guys doing any corrective exercise. That's our territory and. There are stories about like the medical doctor boards trying to block acupuncturists and chiropractors and chinese medicine and things like that. So. There's kind of an authority give and take where everyone's trying to promote their specific solution to this. Health thing. So there's infinite information and you also have these different entities who are trying to prop up their authority whether they have the best solution or not and then another big one. We have talked about before is the difference between causation and correlation. It's it's really tragic because I have actually seen a news piece that said salt excessive salt causes. 10% of all deaths in America now that is outrageous to make that claim and I looked at the studies they were citing to do that and it was just a total embarrassment. It could be. That having a higher salt diet is correlated ah because a lot of junk food has high salt but it is just so ridiculous to say that 10% of all deaths in America are caused by salt I mean it's ridiculous. So getting back to. |
| 04:52.80 | mikebledsoe | And go. |
| 04:57.85 | Max Shank | What you said before which is that it's simple solutions. That's where I have this idea called the popular paradox and things need to look really fancy for people to buy into them. You know I realized as I've been. Promoting my own products and developing some products behind the scenes that people will do something that looks cool before they do something that is good for them if it doesn't look cool. |
| 05:26.98 | mikebledsoe | I think part of that is is that people when they when they think about their own problems. They've had such a difficult time solving their problem and so you know I've had this problem my whole life. The solution can't be simple. It's got to be complex and I really think that that's something that plagues people as they go you know I go well have you do drink is the first thing you drink in the morning water and do you go for walks every day. |
| 05:52.19 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 06:04.56 | mikebledsoe | Ah, go? Well no, but you know I'm doing the you know I'm monitoring my Hrv and I'm ah you know doing all this really complicated on this crazy training program and okay, well unless we and and and people you know just refuse to do it I think well there's 2 things is. Think that because they they haven't been able solved the problem yet that it must be.. It's going to require some Genius solution. That's just they could never have imagined so they're gonna again look for the authority just to tell them what to do whoever they assign that to be um, the other thing is I think that. In our youth for a lot of us. We associate effort with reward and a lot of people never outgrow that and so they think that it has to be hard if it's going to be effective and I think that if we. |
| 06:55.59 | Max Shank | A. |
| 07:00.97 | mikebledsoe | We take the approach that most solutions are simple and we put our attention on how to be effective versus the amount of effort we put into it people would would go a lot further. |
| 07:21.94 | Max Shank | You just said 2 things there that were really awesome. The first is the desire for a complex solution because if the solution is simple. They're like oh god I'm so dumb like how did I not know that if you say. Ah, yeah, double your water intake and walk for an hour every day they're gonna they're gonna go oh that's like I shouldn't pay you for that solution. That's like too simple, but if you have them. |
| 07:53.42 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 07:59.50 | Max Shank | Get if if it's true if you have them get blood work done and you're like oh you're ah you're allergic to cashews or something The problem is you're eating too many cashews. Ah then it feels like. |
| 08:13.25 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 08:17.85 | Max Shank | Oh how could I have known that you know what I mean it feels like okay that they didn't figure it out themselves. So they're not afraid to feel dumb. Ah so complex solution else I'm dumb and then the next thing you said was. |
| 08:22.91 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well I think I think that's a. |
| 08:34.47 | Max Shank | That effort is proportional to the reward. But. |
| 08:40.71 | mikebledsoe | Are you are you? okay. Are we on? Ah are we on a lag. Okay, what if your internet's just crawling I think I think it might have caught up. Sorry go ahead, go ahead cause I said something and then it took you like 10 seconds to. |
| 08:45.66 | Max Shank | Was that? yeah. |
| 08:55.39 | Max Shank | Maybe. |
| 09:01.59 | Max Shank | Oh man, it's possible. Oh. |
| 09:05.26 | mikebledsoe | Respond go ahead. |
| 09:11.16 | Max Shank | Oh no, yeah I just stopped talking. But yeah, basically then the second idea is that effort is proportional to the reward that you get. |
| 09:20.33 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, yeah, it's ah what it works it works for a yeah, it works it works for a while. Yeah I think our our shit's catching up. Um. |
| 09:29.90 | Max Shank | Ah, it's hard to tell if we're on pace right now. |
| 09:38.74 | mikebledsoe | Everyone listening I think we're having a little bit of a internet lag issue. Um, yeah, yeah, well you know I I know you and I both spent our youth living in a world where effort did equal reward and I think that there's like a. |
| 09:42.21 | Max Shank | Technical difficulties. |
| 09:58.59 | mikebledsoe | And and I think that in fitness, especially that definitely proves to be true until a certain point and ah you only know your own body for and so if you if you've been in fitness your whole life like max and I have been It's probably until the age of like 30 that. It almost didn't matter how what the quality of our exercise was to our knowledge from our perspective and then after 38 things start showing up for sure. But ah. You know going back I I look at myself and I and I can say oh I could have trained way more intelligently way more simply had fewer injuries and gotten a lot stronger and I'd be a lot stronger and healthier now. But yeah I there's no way I could hear that message when I was younger because every time I put in effort I got a reward and I didn't know that the reward could have been better but you know it was a reward nonetheless. So I think that I witnessed this and and entrepreneurs have a fitness or military background and. Usually they they choose the hard path a lot There's like a lot of hard path choosing in with in over time the harder the path the lower the reward and so there there's ah a point in time where it's you got to switch tracks. But the the thing that you were getting at or the thing you mentioned with the like the food sensitivity and so needing someone outside of yourself to tell you what it is is is interesting because these food sensivity tests aren't going to test for everything and then they'll tell someone like. |
| 11:28.21 | Max Shank | Well. |
| 11:45.12 | mikebledsoe | Food sensitive tests would tell me that dates are fine for me. But every time I eat dates I fart for two days they're not fine for me but like if I only but people will will take a test and then they won't analyze their own shit in a toilet and be like oh I'm fine I got the test I don't need. You know to watch my my intake of you know dairy you know every time it I eat it. It bloats me but the test said I'm fine. So but that's that's 1 thing I guess ah I'd like for people to take from this is. Tuning into your own body and knowing what you may have a sensitivity to how do you respond to all these different types of stimulus and it requires a little bit of living a little like habitual and systematic because if you don't systemize anything. |
| 12:32.30 | Max Shank | A. |
| 12:40.31 | mikebledsoe | You know, doing anything Systematically, you can't really improve it. You got to it. There's a way of decreasing the amount of variables in your own life. So that you can make those systematic improvements. |
| 12:53.79 | Max Shank | Man There's a lot to unpack here. Um number one effort is not proportional to reward but effort does bring reward so one of the big risks I think is you will. |
| 13:04.77 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 13:13.45 | Max Shank | Put in effort and you will get a reward and you will conflate more effort with more reward but in actuality the way the body works for athletic performance which I think is the most rational way to train. You want to give yourself more athletic ability more springiness more elasticity more resilience to injury. Um, you're not going to improve your athleticism. When you go into excessive effort. In fact, you're actually going to start taking away from your athleticism with excessive effort. You know the best athletes in the world are the ones who can cycle between tension and relaxation at the quickest interval and it's not about. Maximum effort. It's about maximum skill so you're far better off hovering around that you know 50 to 80% effort level most of the time. So the whole idea that effort is proportional toward is like ah basically a form of masochism. Essentially like if I'm not ah in some sort of physical pain then my workout which is another silly name is not giving me the results that I'm after so that's ah the the myth of effort is ah a huge one. For athleticism and for training in general and then touching on the nutrition thing. Ah there's a ah couple pages in Paul check's book where he shows like a. |
| 15:05.46 | mikebledsoe | The poopy police. |
| 15:04.54 | Max Shank | The the poopy lineup I don't know if you remember that one the poop. Well yeah, the poopy police and the poopy lineup is like what the different ones look like and what likely the problem is and that there's just there's just one. |
| 15:10.79 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 15:19.93 | Max Shank | On the next page which is just this basketball player who's this like gigantic log which is the optimal ah defecation essentially so being willing to like pay attention to that very obvious metric and. Ah, just accordingly is basically the type of thing that we are trying to avoid most people want to avoid paying attention. They just want someone to tell them how many almonds should I eat at nine thirty in the morning. should I have for lunch what should I have for dinner and the reality is people are just trying to get out of the responsibility of having to think for themselves and pay attention to what the fuck is going on and your body. Can survive on like bone marrow and bugs like our bodies are so crazy. Adaptable. We are omnivores. We have these sharp canines we have these grinding molars we have stomach acid. We're able to survive on a huge variety of things I'm not saying you should eat garbage every day. But if you did you would probably still survive as long as you didn't eat actual poison so trying to be perfect with nutrition. Silly, but um, you don't see a lot of obese people make it to ninety years old and we don't need any scientific study to show us that being too heavy is harder on your body like you just won't live as long so you're almost. You are better off eating more rich food that is to let you know a bagette and butter and lasagna. Whatever else gets labeled as bad now as long as you don't eat too much of it and as far as training is concerned. Ah, try to make it as effortless as possible and do something that you enjoy that gives you an expanded range of abilities so you have more options because if you're having fun doing what you're doing. It doesn't require any of that extra willpower. Um, you know that's a little suspect to your mood and the weather and things like that. But if you're really excited about something. You don't have to really think about it. So with the nutrition and with the exercise piece I would say um. |
| 18:09.47 | Max Shank | Consistency and effortlessness with your movement so approach it like a skill for movement and then with nutrition is like ah you got to pay attention to how food makes you feel and it's it's easy to want to outsource that to someone else just tell me. How many grams of chicken breast I need to eat. It's like that's not how it works man like you gotta pay attention to your bowel movements and check the color of your piss like if you don't drink enough water and go for walks. You shouldn't expect to get a good result with what you're doing and I actually wrote an article. A while back called are you healthier than a plant and it was one of my better performing ones because I gave people like four levels of health and plant level was the first level and it was are you getting adequate water and sunshine. And if you have made that level then you go to the next level the next level is like I think it was dog like are you getting water sunshine and going for walks and then like the last level was like a ah monkey like are you do you play? Do you do things like that and there are four I can't remember off top the head. But. Should Google it. It's a good little read. Ah, it's not complicated and you shouldn't feel like you have to find a complicated solution to health. You know we we were able to live a long time and happily long before the. |
| 19:44.00 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I want to dig into here in a moment by the end of the show at least I want to dig into what it is that you're doing and what I'm doing that is that we because I you and I have both simplified over the years. |
| 19:43.49 | Max Shank | Infinite information of the internet. |
| 20:01.74 | mikebledsoe | Ah I used to take a much more complex approach to things. Um and and you did too from what I understand but you know I want to really get to the remind people of the point you're making of it. It needs to be simple. It needs to be easy. It needs to be fun. And 1 of the things that I've been able to do in my life is create a lot of structures in my life that support the the habits that I that I want to put in place I tell people a lot you know I'll be at a party and there's brownies out on the fucking island. Counter and I put away more than most people at the party but and I'm also when a few people walk around with a 6 pack but the difference is is I don't have that at home because I don't I actually have a life where I don't have to practice that much willpower. There's a few things I have to practice willpower for but Jesus there. There was a time in my life where that was true when I was in my twenty s it I powered through everything I I did start creating structures that support me. |
| 21:01.35 | Max Shank | Imagine if you did. |
| 21:20.45 | mikebledsoe | But most of it was was I think being just a bachelor in some ways like at ah at a fucking heavy bag hanging in my living room and you know girls that come over and be like oh you got mats in a heavy bag in your living room. Okay weirdo um, but. When I like like putting those structures in place have been super super helpful and then it really does come down to lifestyle and the more I look at the the health problems in the world man there is. There are some habits that somebody could change like I think about my girlfriend's mom and you know we were talking to her about when she was here for Christmas we were talking to her about you know? are you going for walks. How much water are you drinking. You know, are you supplementing with magnesium before bed. You know there's you know I had to remind my girlfriend. She's like I want to have a ah really good impact on my mom while she's here I'm like okay, let's be happy if she leaves with like 1 or 2 things that she can improve. We don't need to go nuts because you have to restructure. |
| 22:29.84 | Max Shank | A. |
| 22:35.17 | mikebledsoe | Your entire life to just change one habit you move 1 thing and then that 1 thing moves something else and it's ah it's a big deal to create a new consistent habit and so I'm a big fan of seeing how effortless you can you can. Make a habit you know something like going for a walk in the morning is you know, put your change of like this this was advice. We used to get people that wanted to train in the gym in the morning, put your gym shoes and your change of clothes at the foot of your bed before you go to bed when you wake up, you know you got your. |
| 23:08.60 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 23:12.44 | mikebledsoe | Bottle of water on the counter you you walk out of your bedroom. You're wearing your workout clothes and you pick up your bottle like the next obvious step is you go to the gym or you you know you go for your walk or your run or whatever it is but I look at the society but then we're talking to her mom. And you know we had all these ideas about what she could do to improve her health and in in conversations I find out that she's in an office with no windows under fluorescent lights nine to eleven hours a day. |
| 23:35.65 | Max Shank | A. |
| 23:50.22 | mikebledsoe | At work and so she like she says why I do go for walks I get out of my office for like 10 minutes and then go for a walk and I go wow you know what? like that walk is actually not that like it's good that she's doing it. But it's not the highest leverage thing. And her arsenal. You know, just just putting a window in her office would be would be like a huge improvement and so it it does become very situational in a way but when I look at what's wrong with the health of. |
| 24:10.20 | Max Shank | Um. M. |
| 24:28.11 | mikebledsoe | Average American and then I hear stories like that and you know I try to think about what it's like to work at the grocery store when I go to the grocery store. What's it like to be a barber when I go to the barber a lot of the way these people are living their lives is just it's a lot of screens. It's a lot of artificial light. Um, and so I think that you know if for us to have a ah turnaround in Public Health. It's gonna require a pretty big shift in society at large and I well I was gonna say I don't want to discourage anybody because. |
| 24:58.24 | Max Shank | Um, well it's like addiction. It's just ah. |
| 25:07.32 | mikebledsoe | You do you do change the lifestyle one habit at a time but it's there. There's if you change one habit a month a year later you've got 12 new habits. Do you have a totally different lifestyle. That's that's very very possible. |
| 25:09.27 | Max Shank | The. |
| 25:20.10 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, boy you said a lot of really good stuff. There. Um, it's like addiction right? because 1 of the reasons I bring people back to fasting is not because it's the. Cure all um for every illness although it does seem to have like some of the best results in the cheapest way. It's funny that people keep looking for the fastest way to lose fat and it's literally called fasting it costs zero dollars |
| 25:58.37 | mikebledsoe | I knew a guy who was charging thousands of dollars for a fasting retreat I was like ah you your main thing that you do is you don't eat. |
| 25:58.80 | Max Shank | And people just keep looking for other things. But. |
| 26:05.45 | Max Shank | Amazing. Did he also provide free room and board. |
| 26:17.89 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it's like a three day retreat thousands of dollars but you you know you're you're getting the equivalent of like one hundred and fifty dollars room but ah yeah. |
| 26:18.83 | Max Shank | Ah, ah. |
| 26:25.59 | Max Shank | Amazing. But that's exactly it is you need to the reason I say it's like addiction is um, what could be easier than to you know, stop drinking booze or stop doing heroin. Whatever it requires no effort whatsoever but the whole idea of being addicted to screens and you're substituting or you're using all of this time and all of this energy for things that don't love you back. Essentially. And I think of it like an intervention. The person has to be ready to accept that change first and foremost and there are other things that can help new lifestyle changes stick better. You can do it with somebody. That's huge, having someone that you go on walks with is definitely better. You know I have a standing ah exercise. Um. Session that I do with my friend Anders I have a standing weekly tennis session that I do with my friend Carson so it makes it a lot easier when you have someone else that you are ah doing it alongside your your vibe attracts your tribe right? So if you hang around. |
| 27:49.32 | mikebledsoe | M. |
| 27:52.91 | Max Shank | With people who tend to do more athletic things you're going to be more athletic yourself and if you hang around with ah food critics or something you're probably going to spend a lot of time eating too much so it's how do you get someone open. |
| 28:06.27 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 28:12.78 | Max Shank | To that change and then how do you make that change. Um take the best. How do you get it to stick. |
| 28:21.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I like this social component I I do a weekly workout on Tuesday mornings with some friends where it's been years since I've I've done a decent amount of intense exercise. But I rarely like pick up the heaviest thing possible. Or like or or push my ah my aerobic or anaerobic capacity very hard. But once a week I go train with a group of guys where everyone has got ah a decent fitness background. So no, one's moving poorly. But we're going to go in and push ourselves. And you know half the time. It's a crossfit style workout and I I get in there and I and I go do that workout because if I work out at home I'll just be moderate all the time I'll push it less frequently. But I go there and I push it really hard and that that. Is really a check-in with myself because I'm a decade older than almost all the guys at the session. So it's it's actually nice to go do that. So having that social component to do something you knew I think is is awesome. Um I'm curious. What is what are some of your like how does your week. Do you have like ah a typical week and do you have your week structured in a way sounds like you got you know that workout with anders and you got a tennis lesson. What's happening. What do you schedule in your week that. Set you up for success and and your day as well. |
| 30:22.67 | mikebledsoe | Can you hear me. |
| 30:32.55 | Max Shank | Hello hello can you hear me we should we should pause. Let me see if I can fix the the inner all right? So basically my weekly routine is what you were saying. Um. |
| 30:33.87 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 30:52.18 | Max Shank | Have my appointments that are set 1 training session with a friend one tennis session with a friend and my goals are longevity and tennis related right now. I was laughing the other day because I was watching a little tennis and I saw this guy there this professional tennis player and I was like oh my god that guy's got an amazing body for tennis and this guy is so skinny is like 6 2 1 70 meanwhile I'm five nine and I used to walk around £200 just like a jacked little like brick shit house essentially and that was how I wanted to be I wanted to be ah buff to the point where I was intimidating that was my that was my fitness goal at the time. |
| 31:37.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 31:47.99 | mikebledsoe | Ah, sounds familiar. |
| 31:49.32 | Max Shank | So My my training reflected those goals heavier weights more weights. Lots of food move bigger weights faster all that stuff and now my goals are completely the opposite. That I want to be able to move around quickly. I don't want to be carrying around a ton of extra weight and it's kind of the same thing that I tell people as far as my morning routine is Concerned. It's like my morning routine would kill you my exercise routine. Would probably not be what you want because you have different goals than I do So I exercise every day I go totally based on feel I'm still you know stronger than. 99% of people in most ways I find that if you don't push to your absolute Limits. You can handle a tremendous amount of frequency when it comes to training you mentioned that you have a heavy bag. |
| 33:02.40 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 33:01.92 | Max Shank | Or had a heavy bag in your living room I mean my house is full of various gym equipment like I have a huge like Monkey Bar Stall Bar gymnastics setup in the backyard with several. Ropes and pulleys and a sled and all kinds of stuff and then in the garage I have different isometric trainers that I've built and balance beams and platforms and all this Stuff. So I mean I. Am an experimenter when it comes to this kind of stuff. So a lot of the stuff I do is just experimenting on myself. Um, that being set. |
| 33:46.50 | mikebledsoe | But sounds like you've created an environment where we're practicing movement and improving your skills is just so easy. There's there's no friction between you and jumping on the balance beam with a club. |
| 34:02.30 | Max Shank | Totally um I do hill sprints about once a week and it's not the most fun. Um, it's about 1% as fun as playing tennis but I still do it anyway. So I guess I do occasionally. Exercise a little bit of willpower. Um, frankly I think most of the exercise plans that people do really don't take into consideration the actual goals they want. It's kind of just parroting what the last guy said when it comes to exercise. I think people want to be able to move around. Um athletically and quickly that's the most important thing because that gives you the opportunity to try more things I think it's important for be. People to be able to carry something kind of heavy. You know a sandbag bear hug Carrie throw a sandbag on 1 shoulder other shoulder do a couple squats with it I don't get down with the super heavy squatting. Don't think the risk reward is really there I don't think it's appropriate for most people I think like a body weight sandbag squat for 10 to 20 will take you pretty much as far as you need to go in that type of leg strength. Frankly I see the squat as more of a resting position than a position that should be loaded extremely heavily the deadlift and sprinting are far more appropriate for loading up the legs single leg deadlifting as well. |
| 35:50.82 | mikebledsoe | I agree with that. Ah I've cut out I've cut out squatting I mean I might do some cattlebell squats. But yeah, the load you know it's single arm catabell Squat load is low Sandbag squats. But yeah, pushing on deadlives pushing on on sprints. |
| 35:53.51 | Max Shank | Ah, pushing pulling the sled and. |
| 36:10.35 | mikebledsoe | And just different plios I'm with you on that. |
| 36:10.99 | Max Shank | It depends on what you're trying to get right? What are you trying to get out of it. Um, you know I think of the said principle primarily specific adaptation to impose Demand. That's how you're going to adapt and you're looking for a couple things. You're looking for the actual tissue to adapt so muscle bone Ligament Tendon. So That's the stuff and then you also have. The neurological efficiency which is recruiting more motor units. That's why gymnast and Olympic weightlifter can do greater feats of strength and create more force and more attention more torque even with the same amount. Muscle So they're able to do more with less because of the neurological efficiency and then you have ah motor control which is also specific to the task. So um. Balancing ah targeting like boxing another good example I know you're into marksmanship so being able to hold steady while you move your body around is a pretty good skill as well. So There's the skill aspect. |
| 37:33.66 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 37:39.90 | Max Shank | And there's the stimulus for the adaptation of the tissue and the neurological drive. Let's call it like how much muscle can you recruit with your thoughts which is kind of a trip so to keep things pretty simple. Try to focus on isometrics explosive movements and then the pump which is not necessarily trying to get as crazy of a pump as possible but it's more about trying to maintain tension on what I'm working. For at least a minute plus so I'm not fully locking out. Let's say or I'm not resting in between repetitions. So. There's not really a rest spot. Yeah, exactly So Those are. |
| 38:27.59 | mikebledsoe | You getting that time under tension. |
| 38:34.72 | Max Shank | Essentially the 3 big things that I try to focus on as far as the type of stimulus is concerned. Um, it also maximizes risk reward so the safety is very high on all those. |
| 38:40.24 | mikebledsoe | On that that also. Yeah, listening to you makes me think about the the concept of minimum effective dose and like anytime I Yeah yeah, well, you're talking about. You know the the sad principle and. |
| 38:51.88 | Max Shank | Oh yeah, like I'm ah fully autistic with it now. Yeah. |
| 39:05.24 | mikebledsoe | Anytime I hear that I think minimum effective dose I look back on my weightlifting career and how many times did I do 2 or 3 more sets necessary to make an improvement between day one and day two and I actually. Diminish the amount of results I would get because I was again going back to what we were saying earlier in the show effort more effort equaled more reward and what would have been a lot better is a little bit of effort for fewer for less volume would have given me a much bigger bang for my buck. Yeah, and so like now when approaching exercise is did I go a little bit harder or heavier than last time. Okay, cool if I did I don't need to go another £10 I just did better than last time chill out I think I think the wendler. |
| 39:40.54 | Max Shank | The. |
| 40:00.30 | mikebledsoe | System actually does a good job of teaching that. |
| 40:03.70 | Max Shank | Yeah I think it really depends on the goal if you are professional then it might be worthwhile to sacrifice some of your health for performance you know sumo wrestler offensive lineman in the Nfl. You're not going to live as long but you'll be a professional athlete and get all this glory. But if you are an amateur that's a huge advantage you can do it for fun and if you are playing the long game. You won't put. As much pressure on yourself with each training session. You won't say oh I have to leave the gym in a wheelchair after leg day and like look the reality is if you exercise for 10 years you're going to be very strong. |
| 40:46.37 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 41:00.67 | Max Shank | As long as you are getting the stimulus ah required for a little adaptation and on the other side of that coin a lot of the strongest hands I've ever seen are attached to plumbers. |
| 41:17.99 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 41:20.60 | Max Shank | Because they just like use their hands all freaking day they're like twisting pipe on and off and using a wrench and they're like doing hard stuff all the time and then you know there are all these myths that we perpetuate to try to maintain our. Authority somehow they're like oh you're overtraining and I'm like this guy just did 5000 repetitions of the arm exercise that you said the person should only do 3 sets of 10 on like it makes no sense. It's all relative to the individual and you know this nuance. |
| 41:49.50 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 41:58.49 | Max Shank | Is what people are trying to avoid right? They're like don't make me think just tell me how many squats I should do on Monday Wednesday and Friday okay, and then we have all of these studies that come out which are fucking embarrassing where it's like oh. |
| 42:04.26 | mikebledsoe | M. |
| 42:15.40 | Max Shank | We proved that squats were better than leg presses. It's like over a fiveweek period like what are you kidding me like we didn't measure lunges. We didn't measure ah sled pushing. We didn't test sprinting and how are you measuring leg strength are you on the fucking leg extension machine or some shit like that. And what are these people doing when they're not in the and like I understand the desire to do that. But the most difficult cost to understand in anything is opportunity cost. It's very difficult. It doesn't matter whether you're exercising. Or whether you are investing. It's very difficult to say what should I invest in should I invest into ah you know Microsoft or Apple in the you know early two thousand s or something like it's really hard to say like because. You know opportunity cost is about the cost of everything else. You could be doing instead of that thing and that's how I became so hardcore in this philosophy that I've developed which is like what am I sacrificing by doing. Heavy back squats. What am I gaining from doing heavy back. Squats is this applicable to the broader population is it a good risk reward and what could I be doing instead and when you ask what could I be doing instead. It is a mind-blowing experience because you're like man I could like work on my footwork I could lunge I could pull a sled I could do step ups. You know, step ups are another exercise. It's like a friend zone exercise I called it in an article back in the day it was like side planks. And step ups and single arm rows. It's like so ah, that kind of leads me to my upper body training right now is like 80% um, pushing and pulling a cable or a band from a lunge position because it's very athletic position. It gives me the maximum carryover to being able to use that skill from a standing position and wouldn't you know most of the time. |
| 44:28.65 | mikebledsoe | M. |
| 44:44.66 | Max Shank | You need your strength when you are standing so it's shocking actually like I get some buff dudes coming in sometimes ah and they might bench like a lot of weight or something like that. But I put them in a lunge position. And do band presses at like a 45 degree and they have no rotational stability. They have no integrity through the foot and ankle to connect that entire kinetic chain and I mean we're talking like you know. £50 of force for one arm and they're like stumbling all over the place. They can't hold that position. They can't generate that force through the foot through the kinetic chain and finish it in their hand so being able to. Ah. Hold that athletic stance and shift the weight from a standing position while you push and pull with the upper body and it gives you a good opportunity to explore a diverse set of angles. That's that's like really sweet but it doesn't look that cool and it's. A little harder to measure like if someone says I yeah I benched you know 2 25 or 3 15 or whatever. There's like ah a certainty to it. It's like very cool if I'm like yeah a cable pressed £70 from a lunge position for. 1 minute using a sixty beat per minute metronome people are like I don't really know what to I don't really know what to make of that is that hard is that good and I'm like yes I also did some isometrics from that position earlier and the load didn't move at all. It's like. |
| 46:36.59 | mikebledsoe | I I did so good. |
| 46:39.54 | Max Shank | It's just not. it's it's it's um it's not quantitative in a way that is very satisfying so people usually avoid that and the same is true. Um in investing also a lot of the time the stuff that's really boring. Just. Quietly outperforms the market by like 20 to 1 you you get that kind of thing sometimes so ah, kind of went off on a good one. There. But basically there are fewer and fewer exercises that I gravitate toward. |
| 46:58.84 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 47:15.20 | Max Shank | In the light of athletic carryover and overall efficiency. But I I train a little bit every day because I recognize you don't have to like smash yourself to elicit that adaptation. And since I'm playing the long game. It's It's very psychological if I just train every day There's no confusion I can do what I want to but I'm not not doing nothing unless I feel really banged up which is. |
| 47:50.68 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, um, over the years I've I've gotten more into whole body training each day training for like like you athleticism and you know when you're training the whole body and you're you're approaching it from a minimum effective dose. |
| 47:51.24 | Max Shank | Pretty rare. |
| 48:09.86 | mikebledsoe | Perspective then you're going to get wrecked way less often and because you're not just blowing out 1 group of muscles which means that you can your your movement patterns are Goingnna maintain integrity if you got a wheelchair yourself out after leg day like you were saying. You're you're probably damaging your motor patterns for athletic ability because how many days are you gonna walk weird when you could have been walking walking normal but to get yoke bro. |
| 48:41.94 | Max Shank | Well and why are you doing that in the first place. It's a it's no, it's a but that's a trap like we think that. Ah, if we get all these muscles then the ladies are going to be like oh my god your muscles are so big. Ah you know, whatever, but that's not how it works at all. |
| 49:01.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 49:01.93 | Max Shank | Like nobody cared. It's only a small section of the other like we're talking to mostly dudes I would imagine to this but we've probably scared away but was it se twenty second episode we probably scared away like most of the ladies I think. |
| 49:10.75 | mikebledsoe | Um, I I so well I got ah I got a Dm the other day from a woman who listened to our our show on relationships and the one that I think we probably several times during the show said well now that all the women have left. |
| 49:22.73 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 49:29.53 | mikebledsoe | She loved it and sent it. She's like I'm going to send this to every guy I go on a date with like I ah. |
| 49:35.84 | Max Shank | Whoa That's amazing. There must be something wrong with her. No I'm kidding if you're if you're listening. You're probably really great. Yeah, that's awesome. |
| 49:49.50 | mikebledsoe | She's listening for sure. We appreciate you. |
| 49:53.39 | Max Shank | Ah, no like if we're talking to dudes mostly like girls don't care about that like that is the trying to build big muscles to attract ladies is one of the worst cost benefit. You could do. It's gonna take so much effort to build muscle. And it's gonna have almost no impact on your love life. It's gonna have you should exercise because exercising makes you feel better about yourself. It makes you more physically capable but exercising specifically for larger muscles is. Ah, trap. You're not going to be as athletic and quite frankly, a lot of the way your muscles look is going to come down to your genetics anyway, I've seen some crazy examples where you get a gymnast I think he was the number 1 pommel horse guy. Can you think of like a more insane upper body exercise than the pommel horse like the pommel horse and the rings those guys are like freaks this guy can't remember his name I have it somewhere. Ah dude he couldn't sell protein powder on Instagram. |
| 50:56.94 | mikebledsoe | So crazy. |
| 51:09.23 | mikebledsoe | He. |
| 51:11.52 | Max Shank | His arms were so scrawny he looked like the before picture for a protein powder ad for like some high school kid but he was so crazy strong and I'm just thinking like man all these programs out there that are like trained like a gymnast and it's like. Now, you're doing pushups and pullups on the rings and that's going to that's good to suddenly turn you into like this jacked gymnast body and you know I understand it's the ah progressive promises of advertising. Right? not not 8 minute abs 7 minute abs not 7 minute abs 6 minute abs 4 minute abs and then it's like you're going to build £10 of muscle in a month and I'm like if you're hitting puberty and doing steroids at the same time that might be possible. But. You know it's just these ridiculous expectations and that's another trap too is don't expect like an 8 to twelve week solution for you know, athletics and muscle building like even the idea of that. Is. It's just crazy to me like if you want to have long-term success. You have to like go into it thinking I'm going to make a lifestyle change and I'm going to train until I'm dead. That's that's the smart play there not like I'm gonna try to you know. |
| 52:42.28 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, why that but the the further we look out and the further we set our goals the better. Our decisions will be from day to day you know people are setting a twelve week |
| 52:47.35 | Max Shank | Whatever in eight weeks I mean I could just go on a good one here but go on. |
| 53:01.77 | mikebledsoe | Goal which is you know? ah in twelve weeks I want a pr or I want to achieve this thing if you're always in a if you're always in a twelve week block and that does work when you're younger for sure. But if you're always thinking in twelve week blocks and you're not thinking about. |
| 53:08.37 | Max Shank | Can be good. |
| 53:19.14 | mikebledsoe | What about 3 twelve week blocks from now you're going to and you know you pick up well back in the day when I was a kid you know picking up a magazine. It's like you know a 6 weekek program or twelve week program to bigger pecs or whatever it is and if you're always training like that then you're. |
| 53:27.64 | Max Shank | 7 |
| 53:37.48 | mikebledsoe | You're not going to age well. But if you go what is my 10 year goal like I have I have an end of life goal I'm working 100 years into the future and I say I'm training for 100 years from now. And my my goal is to be able to wipe my ass until a day I die being able to get enough thoracic rotation and be able to stand there and wipe my ass. That's a lot of old people can't do it. They cannot wipe their own ass and so. I um, yeah, yeah, well you know I'm 40 now sorry my my goals have become more practical but ah these the setting a goal that's ten years out you know I look I go what am I gonna how do I want to be when I'm 50. |
| 54:13.53 | Max Shank | It's a very practical goal. |
| 54:31.80 | mikebledsoe | And it it's and I train how I want to be when I'm 50 I train like that today. Yeah I'm moving towards that which really takes the stress from off of trying to be in a hurry to achieve anything. Yeah, if you're if you. If you're trying to make improvements in twelve weeks you're go to be in a hurry. You're probably not going to abide by the minimum effective dose rule. You are going to give yourself a maximal dose you may value intensity over frequency. I find that having a longer term goal when I when I turned in my short term goals for longer term goals. Um I started seeing the value in frequency over intensity I saw it's like oh I would rather squat every day a little bit. Then to squat a lot a bit one day and then be too sort of squat for a week so um I really like that's another thing that really comes with longer term planning is like you were saying you work out every day you yeah you have a movement practice every day I have the same thing I move. Every day. Um I'd say about once a month I take a day where I just I get up and I don't move I just completely just let it all go which is fine. Um, which I think is pretty healthy. But yeah I value frequency over intensity and I think that. |
| 56:02.52 | Max Shank | Become the couch. |
| 56:05.89 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and then that does I think that is impacted by having a longer term goal I'm like look I got 10 years this is more about and it's also a little bit easier for us because we're maintaining a pretty solid base so there's like um if I am as good as I am. |
| 56:21.64 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah. |
| 56:25.32 | mikebledsoe | Now in 10 years I'm fucking excited about it. So there's also something to be set for that. No. |
| 56:30.90 | Max Shank | Right? Yeah, lots of good stuff there too I think pretty much hurrying or being greedy is what hurts people the most that might be the only thing that hurts people. |
| 56:44.60 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 56:49.50 | Max Shank | They're greedy for more range of motion. They're greedy because they're not willing to wait for the results that will come if they're patient. That's true with so many things very novel concept. Um. |
| 56:55.50 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 57:05.50 | Max Shank | However, I would say that just the same way. You could take a year long goal or a 5 year goal and break it down into steps I think it can be beneficial to have a twelve week goal sometimes if you're approaching it with that patience in mind. |
| 57:20.53 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I mean I'm I'm a big fan of breaking down 10 years into 3 year to 1 year to twelve weeks same in in business. Um I just when I was younger I didn't have 10 year goals yeah I didn't have 10 year goals when I was 22 I I wanted to make it to. |
| 57:24.81 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah, exactly I figured you meant that too. Yeah. |
| 57:39.87 | mikebledsoe | To get to national championships this year and which meant that I needed to qualify you know this year for for that and which means I need to boom boom boom and definitely wasn't planning like i. |
| 57:53.77 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 57:56.25 | mikebledsoe | In my head I'm like yeah I'll still be doing this in 5 years but I had 0 fucking plan on how to be how I was gonna be doing that 5 years ah yeah |
| 58:04.46 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's tribalism usually that leads us toward these very artificial goals like the whole idea that your self worth is somehow going to be influenced by the amount of pounds you can lift. Is one of those absurd things that would be so difficult to explain to an alien. It's like wait. What? like Yeah yeah, if I I if I lift ah a weight in this certain way then the members of my tribe will love me quite a lot more and I will be revered for this. And here's the funny part that 100 % happened with me 100% um, and I felt good and people were like wow max you're so good. Not verbatim. They didn't say that but essentially that was the message. Wow you're so good and I was like wow you know. |
| 58:44.82 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 59:01.23 | Max Shank | Feel really good now and I was like how about if I lift a few more pounds Next time they're like then you would be even more good and so it's just this self-fulfilling Prophecy even better. Ah yeah, ah well, it's like sometimes. |
| 59:08.23 | mikebledsoe | You be even better Will love you more. |
| 59:21.14 | Max Shank | When I'm doing Hill sprints I go I'm not even chasing anything or anybody like what am I doing out here shouldn't I be chasing something ah when I'm when I'm doing Sandbag carries. |
| 59:28.66 | mikebledsoe | Um, I used to I used to a warm up where I would chase my dog around the gym. |
| 59:36.97 | Max Shank | I'm doing Sandbag carries I'm like shouldn't I be building a wall. It just feels like very silly sometimes so that's if I'm going to be training if I'm going to be exercising. It should be extremely efficient. |
| 59:39.62 | mikebledsoe | Maybe maybe you should be. |
| 59:56.43 | Max Shank | You know I should be maximizing the amount of force that I can create and minimizing the risk of injuring myself otherwise I should like go play something that requires no willpower. That's fun I mean playing games. Like tennis or wrestling or something like that is like way more fun than lifting weights. But I just know that there is still a value in that minimum effective dose of training. |
| 01:00:25.68 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, it's actually kind of nice because training doesn't have to be as hard as it used to be getting getting in the gym is a lot easier when when you're thinking through that minimum effective dose mentality. |
| 01:00:33.97 | Max Shank | So what is it. |
| 01:00:40.16 | Max Shank | Oh my God Well I mean it depends What tribe you're part of dude. Yeah I mean depends which tribe you're part of if your tribe reveres a soul crushing effort. |
| 01:00:45.31 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it's true. Yeah I'm part of a tribe where I don't really ah I'm I'm one of the most fit people. Yeah. |
| 01:01:00.97 | Max Shank | Well and our society already doesn't really revere people who are physically strong as much as people who are mentally capable who can deliver value right. |
| 01:01:12.91 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, why I I Um I've been in conversations with some people and I could tell that they really value I think we're our lag is fucked up again. |
| 01:01:20.16 | Max Shank | So. |
| 01:01:42.10 | Max Shank | All right? ah closing thoughts here's what I got if you want to live long and prosper. It's important to have friends. It's important to have. Ah, reason to get up out of bed. We didn't talk about that very much but it's very important exercising is important. But if all you did was walk and do taichi that would probably still allow you to live a very long time. It just wouldn't give you tons of options. For high level athletics like tennis surfing etc. As far as nutrition is concerned. Ah there aren't too many fields that have been more abused with misinformation outright lies and those damn statistics. And nutrition so I would focus on eating food that you like examining your bowel movements and just don't eat too much drink enough water get some sunshine not complicated stuff the more you. Engage with a tribe who also exhibits these healthy habits the easier it's going to be so don't make it complicated but try to make it as attractive and automatic as possible. Ah don't rely on your memory. To think of going for a walk if you are sitting in a desk for a long period of time set a timer like we have this divergence of people who have learned how to use the pocket supercomputers and people who are being used by. Pocket supercomputers so set an alarm 5 minutes is more than enough ah to break whatever pattern you're in to move lymph around There are all kinds of problems that are caused by the lack of lymphatic flow. Cause it doesn't have a pump I mean I could go on and on but I'm gonna go ahead and leave it there today. This is of course all the stuff we're talking about is the philosophy that I have had in mind as I've developed my training programs. So if you want. A more complete understanding of the athletics side of things then you can check any of them out at http://mashank.com. |
| 01:04:12.23 | mikebledsoe | Right on? Ah yeah, my my closing thoughts on this is have ah have a 10 year plan for your fitness goals and for your health goals and really avoid being in a hurry. So take your time go slowly I'd say 80% of my training is done moderately at a at a slow pace and then 20%. It's probably more like ninety ten but that ten or twenty percent is done. You know high intensity with some speed or something like that. |
| 01:04:31.53 | Max Shank | A. |
| 01:04:50.17 | mikebledsoe | And I found that to to treat me a lot better over time and one of the things I didn't mention that that I think is super important is one of the things that I do is I book myself first on Monday morning. So every day i. Log into my computer to look at what he and do for work but on Monday morning. The first thing I do is I book out what I'm doing for my training and what I'm doing for recovery and what I'm doing for my fun so I know and I block it on my calendar. No one can schedule anything during those times and so that ah. You know we do tend to live by the supercomputer in our pocket and I I will program in there like I don't take meetings before ten I don't take meetings after 5 and I have all my social activities scheduled in there and I have. You know I go do my sauna and cold plunge in the evenings and I've got that scheduled in I know what day I'm gonna go to the float tank I know when I'm doing what and if for some reason I mean I I can't remember the last time I sacrificed something that I had put on the schedule. So um I I become. Very protective of it over over the years and so I think that that's if I could advise people to do anything that I think is gonna have the biggest impact is put something in the schedule on your calendar that you're gonna do for yourself. Ah. Check in with that every single week and you're gonna make a lot of progress in that area. So thanks for joining us today really enjoyed having this conversation. We're gonna dig more into this in future shows and yeah. Your coach I've got a a live event coming up the strong coach summit and go to http://thestrongcoach.com/summit and check that out. We'll be doing some movement nutrition stuff there as well. I'm trying to get max out there I haven't gotten a definite answer from him yet. Yeah. But thanks for joining us today. Thanks for joining me max. Love you brother and we'll see y'all next time see you' all next monday. |
| 01:07:05.52 | Max Shank | Thank you buddy! Love you. |
| 00:00.00 | mikebledsoe | All right welcome to Monday morning with Mike and max Today we're gonna be talking about education and you know what this is a bit of a taboo subject because when I get in the conversations with the average. Person and I make certain comments about the education system a lot of people get very protective of it and they they get a little little scared around it and they want to reject things and and 1 of the things that I have to remember in those conversations is that. I am standing from a perspective that's very different than the perspective that they're holding and when that's the case we really need to stare step people into the conversation versus just saying well that's stupid so max and I are going to take a ah. |
| 00:47.90 | Max Shank | KA. |
| 00:54.75 | mikebledsoe | Stab at the conversation of Education. Hopefully we can help ah expand people's ideas about this and maybe change perspectives and maybe you're listening and you share the same perspective and we're able to help you put it into words more clearly so that you can share with others. As well and this was this conversation was inspired by the show we did last week where max was talking about how he would do things different with Education. So We decided to go deeper with it. Good to have you max. |
| 01:32.76 | Max Shank | It's great to be here Mike I think what I'd like to start off by saying is that there is a monumental difference between school and education education is the process of learning. Which is essentially like cheating. That's how humans have been able to become so dominant because we've been able to ah compound our acquired knowledge intergenerationally over long term I think schooling. Especially public schooling and even university has been a colossal failure in almost every way does more harm than good and I think the reason that people get so triggered and defensive when you make a comment like that is because they don't want to feel. Silly for having wasted their time having gone through that system themselves and especially if they have kids that they have put through that system. They don't want to feel like they have abused their children which they probably have so those are the 2 main reasons that people get charged up. When you make a comment like school is probably 5% efficient use of time. There are a few things that are useful about school but most of it is done in such a destructive manner for both the body and mind of a child. So those are the reasons that people get triggered schooling itself is a colossal failure education is the most powerful tool you have to increase your leverage which is going to allow you to have a greater impact in life with lower effort or less work There's a great. Mark Twain quote that says I never let schooling interfere with my education and I think that describes perfectly what we're talking about so there's a big big distinction big difference between school and education. So. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to educate yourself. It is your responsibility to educate your kids and then it is their responsibility to educate themselves beyond that and I think tying into our concept of freedom and personal responsibility. That's. 1 of the biggest errors is when you outsource your education you are priming yourself for propaganda and brainwashing and just essentially you end up in obedience school is what it becomes rather than an actual education that allows you to be more. |
| 04:19.91 | Max Shank | Self-reliant and contribute in a constructive way. |
| 04:24.29 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, when I think about I mean there's a few other distinctions to make here. So the distinction between education schooling you've made well another one that um stands out to me is Dr Andy Galpin he he always says that. Know the difference between education and training and the what he witnesses is the average student walking through the door at cal state is expecting training from a college university whose job is to educate. |
| 05:00.43 | Max Shank | A. |
| 05:01.88 | mikebledsoe | And and the point of education especially like a liberal Arts education is to is this is this is the way it was set up is that the wealthy would send their kids here so they could broaden their horizons. They could broaden their their scope of knowledge into many different areas. And then after they attended University They then entered the workplace and they were able able to enter the workplace being more cultured having more total information but not necessarily going to school unless you're going to become a doctor or lawyer or or something like that. Ah. |
| 05:37.18 | Max Shank | No. |
| 05:39.13 | mikebledsoe | A lot of so a lot of people have basically ah in in regard to college. They've confused education with training and it's not training and so some of these expectations around. Oh I'm going to go to college and then I'm going to get a job that's paying me close to 6 figures. |
| 05:46.42 | Max Shank | H. |
| 05:58.46 | mikebledsoe | You have 0 training All you have is education and so it's ah the the learning is going to happen when you start training or when you start actually doing so I like to have that as a distinction. As well. The just because so many people think they should should have that job and yeah, you're gonna have to get your training after college and which also brings me to ah a. A phrase. That's really stuck with me for a long time which is learning is behavior change and there is ah there are so many the education system the way that people have been educated have been really rewarded for memorizing and regurgitating. And they've mislabeled that as learning. So What I notice is a lot of people. They'll you'll start talking to them. They go I know I know I know we know this because max and I are both Educators. We tell somebody and they go I know I was like why aren't you doing it if you know it. And it's because they read it and they know it and so they almost get they the problem with education system is it rewards you with good grades a pat on the back like you did something good by memorizing it and then you go Oh I should get a reward for memorization. |
| 07:27.81 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 07:29.45 | mikebledsoe | And so people are very confused about why they're not getting a reward in the real world for just knowing shit and you be if you really live your life which I've really taken this on for myself that learning is behavior change if your behavior didn't Change. You don't get to say that you learned it. |
| 07:47.70 | Max Shank | Um, yeah I Really like that a lot I think the collapse distinction between training ah and education was that what you said between education and training. |
| 08:01.19 | mikebledsoe | Education and training. Yeah. |
| 08:05.32 | Max Shank | That's huge. That's huge um because you can go to welding school and you will learn a craft and you are now trained as a welder but the concept of broadening your horizons or as Charlie Munger calls it. The mental lattice work which I really like so you can borrow. Different ideas from a variety of topics and subjects and sources is really beneficial to your overall knowledge. But I also like the concept there of if the behavior doesn't change. You didn't really learn and it. Kind of makes me think of bf skinner classical conditioning right? If you if the behavior changes then learning has taken place. But if the behavior doesn't change then it has not ah that's. |
| 08:55.64 | mikebledsoe | Right? And and going to your point in the beginning is the school has become Ah, it's ah it's obedient school because what's the primary thing that people are learning. And they're learning to follow directions. They're learning to be at a specific. Yeah, be here at this Time. Don't do all these things do all these other things. Ah yeah, there are like you. So. Also said there's 5% of it is useful information. |
| 09:14.86 | Max Shank | Repeat What I say when I say it to you. |
| 09:33.78 | mikebledsoe | And I think that people tend to focus on the 5% because they want to protect I mean their identity right? because if you come out and say hey you you got screwed over by this education system which you believe so strongly in. |
| 09:41.13 | Max Shank | Exactly. |
| 09:52.00 | mikebledsoe | Because it's the only thing you know? Ah yeah, it could be. It's It's a blow to the identity Ego does not like to have that conversation and I'm curious max. What was what was your education. What was ah what was your education experience like. |
| 10:02.62 | Max Shank | Yeah, and. |
| 10:11.12 | mikebledsoe | Growing up. |
| 10:11.25 | Max Shank | Oh hellacious of of or pertaining to hell. Ah it. It was awful. Um, you know when you're a child the last thing in the world you want to do is sit in a desk and listen to someone who you don't like. Try to teach you something you don't care about for long long periods of time so it was horrible I almost got held back for bad bad handwriting ah made me think I was stupid and I mean once again I don't remember. 95% of the stuff I learned because that's not how that's not how memory works you know, even if you read a book and enjoy the book. You're not going to remember most of it unless you start using it and applying it in your everyday life and it is a tough pill to swallow. To recognize that you may be wasted 12 years of your life having your creativity and critical thinking skills essentially beaten out of you on some level but conversely. If. You don't accept that then you won't change your behavior so you have to sort of accept that before you can move on in a new and more constructive way. That's like that sunk cost fallacy. Oh well I did this for so long. Let me just do it a little bit more. So. Elementary school. Ah really traumatizing high school all the way up I did go to college before dropping out and it was it was really smart I didn't even have much left. To finish my spanish and economics degree. But I'm really glad I dropped out because it just proved ah how true that sunk cost fallacy is and it was almost better in terms of my actual learning and belief in that reality like. Am I going to spend another semester and a half to finish this degree when I have no intention of using it and I realized no so I went full hog into the career that I did enjoy that I was enthusiastic about and the gym that I had opened up. |
| 12:28.50 | mikebledsoe | Beautiful. Oh we boat dropped out of college to run a gym and. |
| 12:30.89 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah, yeah, well and I I you know I I bought my house Thanks to book sales but I also failed English in high school. |
| 12:46.90 | mikebledsoe | You know? yeah I think that um. |
| 12:48.60 | Max Shank | So clearly I don't know how to write. |
| 12:52.71 | Max Shank | And the incentives the incentives are backwards right? So we've established that it's obedient school but there's no incentive for the teacher to do anything other than get you to behave yourself while in class and repeat back through rote Memory. Wrote memorization what she taught you. There's no advantage.. There's no incentive there for her to teach you. How to think critically because of the way that we measure is kind of like ah yeah, whatever, whatever way that you measure is. Going to affect the tactics that you employ. So if you're measuring Memorization. You're not really going to be incentivized to build critical thinking skills or expansive questioning. Um same as the incentive for college. You know there's no incentive for them to ensure that you get a good paying job and actually the only incentive there is to continue to increase the price of college because student loans for college are one of the only things you can. Get a person that young with that bad of credit to engage into a contract in I mean they're essentially like raping kids of their future by getting them to take out huge student loans that they can never default on due to bankruptcy So The incentive structures are. Um, completely backwards through the entire schooling process. |
| 14:31.67 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, by the way if if it sounds like we're just doing a lot of bashing we we do have solutions for each one of these things that we're gonna discuss we want to. We want to get all the problems out there first and one of the things that struck me is you know. The the rope memorization regurgitation is a really strong focus on what to think and as you were saying you know critical thinking skills. That's more about how to think and how to work your way through problems and we have an entire society that. Is easy to control because they're just told what to think if you if you log into Google Apple Facebook watch television listen to radio. They're repeating to you what to think about, but they're. Not telling you how to think about it. It's usually ah telling you what to think and then why you should worry about it and why you should be afraid of it and so this is it's a very fear drivenve experience in our culture right now and recognize this with. |
| 15:34.92 | Max Shank | 11 |
| 15:47.32 | mikebledsoe | My girlfriend especially she. She's got a master's in psychology and she's a certified you know, Psychotherapist and she did all the education racked up the student loan debt and she's very good at what she does like there. There's there's a lot of benefit out of it. But she's also since since her and I met and she's been swimming around the world of coaches who may not necessarily have finished their degrees which I know some coaches that were psychology majors but then just decide not to you know, go all the way or whatever it is and so. |
| 16:14.74 | Max Shank | And. |
| 16:25.44 | mikebledsoe | Um, now we get into this realm where people don't have you know certifications that fall under a board of ethics run by a bunch of academics and there was so much she I've heard this from her and many other people who have ah. Ah, ah, not certifications. But they have these credentials that could be taken away by a board. You know like a medical board or this or that and so what she shared with me is being in college. There was so much emphasis on. |
| 16:52.30 | Max Shank | Right? well. |
| 17:02.73 | mikebledsoe | You could lose your license for this. It's license not certification. You could lose your license for this lose your license for that like all the she said there was just so much fear and there was like if you don't follow these very specific rules then you're gonna lose your license and then you won't be able to work ever again and then she starts meeting everybody who. |
| 17:04.23 | Max Shank | Small cut. |
| 17:20.96 | mikebledsoe | Nobody has a license and they make good money and they get great results for their clients and she experienced ah ah quite a bit of frustration around that and ah, you know and there's so many things that she has because she went through. Like it was the perfect way for her to go she needed to go through that for many reasons part of it is you know, no one in her family had gone to college and her finishing at College made a big impact on the family you know and and there's there's all these. There's all these. |
| 17:42.67 | Max Shank | No. |
| 18:00.30 | mikebledsoe | Cultural narratives that really drive that but what I'd like for her to get to and I think she's getting there which is being really appreciative for the education she received but also recognizing it that its limitations and and going beyond. Ah. |
| 18:09.42 | Max Shank | And. |
| 18:17.97 | mikebledsoe | Where those limitations were at which which I've witnessed her due and I I hope that most people can do that? Um, yeah. |
| 18:24.12 | Max Shank | That's a tricky thing is changing resentment into gratitude when you know, full well with the benefit of hindsight that there was a much better way. But if you're not feeling that way your whole life. You're probably not paying attention. Like if you can never think back and go like there was a better way I could have done that than I want whatever you're having this can you imagine. |
| 18:46.70 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and one of the things that I also see missing in school that that really occurred to me after I got out of college was I remember taking a counting class in my first semester back to school after I was in the Navy and. I got a quarter away of the way through and the and the drop date was approaching and and I dropped the accounting clause because I was gonna get like a d in it or something and I had never gotten such a poor grade on anything and then um I go and i. |
| 19:16.44 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 19:25.56 | mikebledsoe | Go on to physics you know a couple semesters later and do just fine which if you talk to most people accounting is way easier than physics for for most people. What I recognize when I look back? Ah what I really enjoyed about physics was the there was so much Context. This is why we're doing this. This is the practical application of this This is why we're learning this and when I sat down in the accounting class I was like all right. These are credits and these were debits. There was no and this this this teacher was so this accounting teacher was so. |
| 19:55.71 | Max Shank | Context. |
| 20:02.48 | mikebledsoe | Ah, popular for having it being a difficult class or you he was like pride prided himself on weeding people out of business school and I look back I was like it's just a bad teacher like come on you So proud of you Idiot like. |
| 20:11.72 | Max Shank | What an asshole. |
| 20:20.93 | mikebledsoe | A good teacher would be educating their students really well and giving them the tools to succeed but this is I think this is one of the dangers of you know I met a lot of ah I'm not saying that they're all like this but I met a lot of people who were. In the education department so they went to school specifically to become a teacher so we have to remember that the education system. It's not one of those things where we could just introduce new curriculum into the system and it would solve it because part of the problem is the teachers grew up in a. Memorize and regurgitate environment. They don't have the critical thinking skills in order to pass them down and I think that's at the core is really the problem. Um, you know there's a lot of problems but like. You can't expect the teacher that doesn't have critical thinking to be able to teach critical thinking. |
| 21:20.83 | Max Shank | Right? And unfortunately because the system is so entrenched and there's 10 year and there's um teachers who do really well actually become ostracized by the rest of the teachers. And I think the core problem with schooling the absolute core problem is the lack of incentive because if we talk about what the purpose of education is which is what the purpose of schooling should be It should be that you are. Self-reliant able to contribute understand value and values and because there's no connection. There. There's no incentive for the teacher to be able to do that. There's no incentive for the college to. Do a good job. Once they've gotten your tuition money. That's the biggest problem is there's ah, no incentive or sometimes there's actually a backwards incentive so you need to allow competition to happen with education. And there was actually a really good um thing that John Stossel did about education with regard to letting the free market help elevate the best teachers to the chop and I guess there's this. I want to say he's like a south korean guy. Um, who is a multi multi-millionaire I think like tens of millions of dollars because his lectures are so well attended both in person and online and actual learning is happening and. So that's part of it. But also if there was some correlation to how well the students do afterward. Um, just like if you offer coaching I'm sure you've offered coaching with a guarantee before hey I guarantee and yeah I mean that like like ah right. |
| 23:20.33 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah, yeah, it's a conditional guarantee so you have to show us the work you did that we prescribed. Otherwise you're not getting your money back. |
| 23:28.54 | Max Shank | Yeah, right? But imagine though like that is that's an insanely good deal like if you pay me five k for coaching I guarantee that if you do what we say that you will get 10 k back like whoa. Are you kidding me. You have all the incentive to do a great job. They're bought in so they have all the incentive to do a great job I mean talk about a win-win and so that's my core point is the incentives are backwards and people respond to incentives more than anything else and that's why I like the. The ancient ah Roman ah bridge builder having to stand underneath the bridge when the first guys drive over it and they're like ah carriages I think that's that's essentially. |
| 24:16.42 | mikebledsoe | Seeing him. |
| 24:22.94 | Max Shank | How everything should be done. Is there needs to be an incentive for the people who are doing the work and the reward needs to also go to those who are incentivized to do so that's the core problem across the board. |
| 24:34.20 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, on your point 1 more out which is cost and the cost is soared and the quality has diminished over time I think it's at least in the the college university experience. The the government came in and basically subsidized through grants and they ah they stood behind loans. They guaranteed loans so that these banks would start lending money to people that have poor credit scores or have no credit. |
| 25:10.34 | Max Shank | Their children their children. |
| 25:10.60 | mikebledsoe | Or just too young to even know what they're getting themselves into yeah and so the education loans are predatory in nature for one they predatory loans I everyone I know that's got over $ $100000 in debt when I talk to them about. Experience of going into the financial aid office. It's always the same They're just always trying to max them out and the people in the financial aid office. They don't know any fucking better either. They're just doing what they're told they're not thinking they didn't they weren't taught to critically think they don't understand what's going on. They think they're doing a good thing. |
| 25:41.83 | Max Shank | It was just following orders. |
| 25:46.66 | mikebledsoe | Um, and and the the ah the cost as skyrocketed because these are guaranteed by the government. You can't be Bankrupt. You can't bankrupt your way out of these. So It has incentivized the schools to raise their rates because more people can get loans so simultaneously. Yeah, so the schools have raised their rates without actually making improvements to the education at all I Imagine it's just made the administrative. |
| 26:12.73 | Max Shank | Guaranteed. |
| 26:22.73 | mikebledsoe | Portion of the school much fluffier. Um, there's tenured professors that are in ah in a fluffy environment and in some way due to these things. So The football teams are probably getting you know, really great stadiums built who the fuck knows but um. Yeah, the the cost is to me is really disgusting in how much people are spending on education with what they get out of it and that is just long term debt. So it's. Pretty sickening. |
| 27:00.87 | Max Shank | Predatory is the correct word I think use the word predatory I think that's exactly what it is I think the guy Mike Roe who hosted dirty jobs and now has a foundation called micro works. Really has done a good job in illuminating the destructive cultural expectation that says oh going to university means you're good and if you're a welder and electrician that makes you bad and I'm falling back to the same examples. But. You know plumber there's nothing wrong with being a tradesman shoot I knew a guy who became a truck driver when he was 18 by the time he was 27 he owned like 3 or 5 semi trucks and he was basically retired you know so this whole idea that you need to be part of the intelligentsia is. Such a fallacy and it's very destructive because of course children they just want to be loved they want they want to get positive attention. So um, kids will do whatever gets them positive attention I mean the more interviews you listen to the the great people. In their fields. It's usually that they got positive attention for whatever it is they were doing. |
| 28:19.63 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and another part of um, you know the the grants and the guaranting of the loans has basically made it possible for people who would not normally go to college to go to college and. With that has been the lowering of standards for accepting people to schools and so college education hasn't become special and it used to be special and now because everybody's going and the standards are lower. It's just kind of. It lowers the overall experience of what colleges it no longer stands out like the batch but the Bachelorsard's degree is what the high school diploma used to be.. It's It's not. It's not anything that's gonna make you stand apart and so we end up with just people that are in school into their mid 20 s or. Early 30 s just putting off actually getting their life started. |
| 29:19.15 | Max Shank | And with the exception of a few careers. It's totally worthless. It's for most careers, you'd be better off working and earning money when you're like 1412 1416 you know you can you can become an apprentice. For something when you're in your teens and by the time you're 18 have lots of money saved up and have a valuable skill and if you have a good mentor a valuable skill that you know how to sell and there's no better security than that. Ah, valuable skill that you know how to sell. |
| 29:59.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah,, let's let's get into that So What are the now. What I want to do is I Want to talk about the important things that are that we should be learning So What should exist and. Education and then after we talk about the different things that are important. We can roll into how we would design an education system that included these things and excluded all the bullshit. So. What do you got Max. What are the important things for us to learn. |
| 30:30.96 | Max Shank | First off I just want to reiterate why? what? What were you trying to learn. Why is it important we have self reliance and contribution. We have value and values and we have physical and mental health. I think that pretty much covers what you would hope to learn right? Is there anything else. You can think of I think that's basically it. |
| 30:56.42 | mikebledsoe | Um I like that as ah as a context I started thinking about the things that like specifically when I think about what's commonly thought of being created in school is reading writing arithmetic. Ah. |
| 31:10.90 | Max Shank | O. |
| 31:14.38 | mikebledsoe | If you can if you can read and write you can you're going to be able to and if you can comprehend what you read at a high level you become more literate so that the more you can comprehend the better. You can comprehend the more literate you become which allows you to grasp information at much faster speed. But also be able to produce it and share it. So um, the reading and writing are super important there if you can I Really think I mean this this trumps math if you can read, you can learn anything. You can go anywhere if you can read really? well. Um, that's. |
| 31:46.49 | Max Shank | Agreed agreed. |
| 31:52.67 | mikebledsoe | To me is the primary thing I'm a little biased I'm sure because like I I have ah a super high reading comprehension but I look at my life and I see how beneficial that has been It's probably because I was homeschooled. And basically around seventh or eighth grade I was learning everything on my own so it was was kind of like forced into reading comprehension. Um. |
| 32:15.72 | Max Shank | Whole words usually make or break your life your ability to communicate with other people and cooperate with other people is totally dependent on your ability to express and interpret both. Ah. |
| 32:20.81 | mikebledsoe | You know. |
| 32:35.49 | Max Shank | Actual language and body language. So it it is the ultimate skill and we are the ultimate social emotional creature. So there's no question that word is important I have it split up into word number and movement basically and. |
| 32:49.63 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 32:54.10 | Max Shank | That will give you the mental and physical health that will also allow you to understand the concept of value and if you understand the concept of value. You know that value is relative to the individual like you know, bottled water at Coachella. Is very valuable but bottled water on you know, an iceberg is is next to a ah pure stream is not that valuable at all. In fact, it might even be detrimental. You'd pay nothing for it. So that's really the the crux of it. So. With number I have it split up into economics engineering and music is how I would teach numbers econ so you can learn about risk reward cost and benefit. There's some accounting in there of course and then engineering. Would be where like physics and geometry and structures would come into play. So I think that covers most of the practical uses for numbers and I'm sure that our listeners would have other ideas of how that work I think music is. Ah, really good thing to ah teach people because it's actually pretty easy and the amount of effort required versus the benefit you get both ah psychologically and physically is very high so that would be number and then for words. You would want logic and rhetoric history to know what worked and what should be done differently Ww and Dd and then ah learning about programming. Learning about how humans are programmed learning how to program yourself using language learning about the power of stories and storytelling and maybe most importantly, learning how to craft an offer and sell that offer. And I think that really covers a lot of the word skills that a person might need. And lastly we have under movement I have meditation under movement because it's sort of the um I think stillness is actually a pretty useful. Exercise and then we have wrestling striking gymnastics and Ballgames and I think that would cover like 95% |
| 35:41.39 | Max Shank | Of what you need in order to be able to deliver value which allows you to be self-reliant and contribute and it would also enhance your mental and physical health and still leave lots of time left over for. Recreation and leisure and rest and play which I think are also non-negotiables. |
| 36:06.61 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, one thing I would add to that be law I think there's yeah, no manmade laws. The um, those. |
| 36:13.36 | Max Shank | Law like physical laws or so so crime crime and punishment. |
| 36:25.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, really I mean people people be don't understand how law works They don't understand I mean going back to because that falls under the the word category for you because law is just an opinion. |
| 36:38.94 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 36:44.32 | mikebledsoe | By a certain group of people that they then Hire Policy. You know they create a policy Hire Policy enforcers to make sure that everybody complies. Um. And most people are very confused about the law so it leaves it leaves law in the hands of very few people people people get involved politically in ways that they don't understand. |
| 37:11.36 | Max Shank | O. |
| 37:18.77 | mikebledsoe | Don't understand the implications of what's going On. Ah and they don't know how to make a change. They don't know how to how to change the law or take advantage of the law or to interpret the law and I think this is something I started learning some of that when I was in high school. I was I was blessed enough to have been exposed to constitutional law and take that high school and I was homeschooled so I got to study a bunch of shit that other people never I talked to anyone who went to public school. No one talked about constitutional law. Even though that's the entire basis of our culture So culture is made up of language in the most concrete version of culture is the laws that are written down and people are going around enforcing those laws I mean it doesn't get more concrete than that outside of. |
| 38:12.54 | Max Shank | Or else That's a strong incentive. |
| 38:15.79 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, or else. So I think that I think that law is is really powerful to to learn and another thing is most of the things that people avoid in this world that keeps them from being wealthy I had this conversation with one of my friends this weekend. Is people are scared to learn anything administrative in nature people due to avoiding administrative load ah remain poor They they don't engage with what's happening financially with and with their taxes. They don't know how to. |
| 38:49.31 | Max Shank | So. |
| 38:52.36 | mikebledsoe | They're afraid of it and they just you know whatever the accountant says I don't really know how to how to engage in that administratively and a lot of people confuse law with Administrative. There's a lot of administrative stuff going on if you just do these things that you're not going to be subject to certain laws because you went through these. Certain administrative Processes. So this happens with real estate this happens with what what we're seeing in the the crypto markets right now there's a lot of there's a lot of really complex and sophisticated administrative things that are built in a society right now that. |
| 39:11.40 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 39:28.85 | mikebledsoe | The only people who really get the benefit of it are the people who are willing to engage in that administrative load and are willing to learn the complexity of it and so I see the administration falls under government and governance and law. Whether it's coming from a government or the governance is coming from a smaller institution. These things are all important to know about if you want to participate in society and make a difference in it. |
| 39:50.27 | Max Shank | The. |
| 39:58.98 | Max Shank | It's like how you want to? It's like how to manage your life. Basically right? because you know don't hate the player hate the game better yet. Just ah, don't hate anything just ah play the cards you're dealt. But you're right I mean law is so deliberately complex to obscure the truth accounting rules are so deliberately complex to obscure the truth tax rules, etc. But you can complain about how it's unfair. Which it is or you can learn the language of those pursuits and I think the fact that we don't teach kids about accounting and taxes and law in high school is a frigging crime. |
| 40:50.69 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well be too many people learn it. They might get they they might start thinking for themselves. That's a problem so we won't go. |
| 40:59.71 | Max Shank | Well, they might realize how bad everyone's being screwed I mean that's why we also that's why we also don't get ah a transparent pie chart with a list of how tax dollars are being spent because we would all go like are you fricking kidding me. Like you couldn't you couldn't imagine a more egregious misappropriation of funds. But once again that is taboo because people are under the fantasy. That it's being spent well if their tax dollars are going to a good cause and so in order to come to the realization that they're being catastrophically mismanaged wasted or maybe even ah used for ah sinister acts. |
| 41:51.57 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 41:53.53 | Max Shank | Right is horrifying. |
| 42:00.63 | mikebledsoe | So horrifying. Alright, so we know we know what we want to learn so I don't have children yet. But I'm planning on it. Um I was homeschooled I feel very blessed for that I think. 1 of the things that people are mostly concerned about and it comes homeschooling is you know the social interaction piece and I said this last week is you know the 3 big things we want to learn that the reason we want to learn things is so we can benefit our health our wealth and our relationships. And ah, you know a lot of times people think about you know, homeschoolers being isolated and and I had plenty of opportunity I my parents hired tutors along with some other parents. So I would go to a latin teacher with 3 other guys once a week we would study latin. Um I had an algebra tutor I had a spanish tutor and I was getting little social engagement in these small groups throughout the week so I wasn't without a social structure. It was just different and I think I actually developed very well because of that because I actually spent more time. Amongst adults that I did with kids who are my own age who probably weren't as mature and had I been in that environment I would have behaved less maturely as well. So I had ah I was able to mature pretty quickly due to that. Um. And I know one thing that's really emerged. That's really exciting is this past couple of years. The kids weren't allowed to go to school and they all had to sit at home and and ah, they're basically being homeschooled. |
| 43:46.12 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 43:54.49 | mikebledsoe | By parents who may not even be interested in it or they're having to work a job and can't give them the attention and it just created this this whiplash in a way and you know they they started letting kids go back to school here in Texas and Florida you know the kids. Everything's pretty much back to normal when it comes to going to school sometimes I have mass sometimes they don't depends on the school here in in Texas and ah, but my friends in California who have children what they've done because California laws are so insane. Ah. Is ah a lot of these teachers have left these these really great teachers have left these amazing schools because they're tired of all the mandates as well and these parents have gotten together and they go oh there's 6 families. Getting together. We're all going to contribute $20000 to this teacher for the year the teacher gets paid more the kids get more attention that the ratio of parent a teacher is just right? The parents are in a constant conversation with the teachers. And there's not just one teacher to 1 group of kids. There's multiple teachers that have specialties and different things and so these kids are are and it's and it's very it's become very communal and what we're gonna what we're gonna be witnessing over the years is there's a ah decentralization of. Everything everything's being decentralized and so a lot of people are not going to like that because it's so different than the way it's been but education is becoming decentralized and it's gonna be very community oriented and when things decentralized things tend to become tribal and what I mean by that is. There are small cultures. There's these subcultures that start forming these bubbles I'm part of a subculture where I live we all have you know we we all share the same beliefs and all that kind of stuff and when you know we have kids and bring them up through that culture that's going to be that way. And we need to be good with other people having their own bubbles and their own beliefs and their own cultures. That's perfectly fine. That's what makes this world such a beautiful place. Um, but what I I see in the future is the reason this teacher can get paid much more. You know it could be making 6 figures and. Not working for the school. So the teacher makes more money it costs the parents less money to send their kids to school because're not paying for all this administrative bullshit and the administrative bullshit basically gets in the way of having a direct relationship with the teacher and it gets in the way of community because it's sets a centralized humane and control. |
| 46:35.28 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 46:42.61 | Max Shank | And no direct incentive either yet, you need to have um, correlated incentives. Otherwise you're always going to get a worse result. You're always going to get corruption. You're always going to get. Ah. |
| 46:47.34 | mikebledsoe | And the incentives are yeah are broken. |
| 47:02.44 | Max Shank | Like lobbying. For example, we're we're going to. We're going to convince the rule breakers to give us better rules I mean that's just that's just crazy. |
| 47:05.19 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 47:13.45 | mikebledsoe | so so I started throwing out a solution. that's that's 1 big broad solution. We didn't talk about how kids should be school choice. |
| 47:19.84 | Max Shank | School choice. Yeah school choice is the ultimate solution because if you want to send your kid to public school and you have what you consider a good public school and you're well-informed then hey you know more power to you but you have to have that choice. Which allows for competition so that the let's just say like the destructive schools don't have a monopoly on the hearts and minds of kids. It's ridiculous. |
| 47:49.98 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, how would you handle the 8 hours of sitting in 1 spot as a child. |
| 47:57.10 | Max Shank | You you don't I mean what could possibly be worse than sitting in a chair that is horizontal with a desk that is horizontal. It's catastrophically bad. You're looking straight down all the time. Or you're looking at the teacher talk. Ah I think for the body. It's awful. You know you could you could do you could do 100% of schooling outside if the weather was good. You could do most schooling outside depending on the weather just with like a. A notebook or a tablet of some kind I mean it doesn't have to be a fancy ipad or anything like that. You know we forget that you pay a premium for a luxury brand like that. But you could go to Walmart today and for like eighty bucks get a tablet that can connect to the internet. And write notes and has a little pen on there. So. |
| 48:55.83 | mikebledsoe | For all my friends kids were the school gave them Macbooks once covid hit like all the kids got macbooks I know well you're welcome kid. |
| 49:05.43 | Max Shank | Wow you and I paid for those. Ah, yeah, and obviously someone won big on securing that contract too. So that that's that sort of ah backwards incentive is par for the course and a lot of it has to do with transparency. |
| 49:18.51 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah, for sure. |
| 49:29.19 | Max Shank | I think that's the main attraction of cryptocurrency. For example, especially like blockchain technology is that it's so transparent. Ah there isn't anyway, we don't want to get on that topic too much but when it's transparent and you know where everything's going. It's really difficult for there to be those. Dirty dealings behind the scenes and those backwards incentive structures. So I think that sitting in a desk, especially ah a single desk most of the day is. 1 of the worst things you could do to a kit to their posture to their eyesight to their skin to their body I mean it's horrible. You know if you don't see it as child if you don't see it as child abuse then you like don't understand physiology. |
| 50:12.84 | mikebledsoe | Well, the other thing is is. |
| 50:21.37 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and the other thing that I've done a lot of work in the emotional realm and one of the things that I recognize is the emotional body and the physical body are so intertwined These are not different these are and. |
| 50:21.90 | Max Shank | At all. |
| 50:41.36 | mikebledsoe | And if you put kids in an environment where they cannot move and they're experiencing anything emotional that they're not allowed to express because you're not allowed to express yourself emotionally in class you gotta be quiet. You can't you know if you're crying. We're gonna. |
| 50:53.91 | Max Shank | And right? yeah. |
| 50:59.33 | mikebledsoe | You You know, get rid of you somehow or get you to settle down if you're if you want to be happy and Laughing. You can't do that either. So Not only is there this retardation of physical movement but ah of being in touch with the emotional body. So What I see. Problem with the desk is it's yeah, it's the the emotional body also gets stunted in this so you get the the physical body and the emotional body are suffering by being in this and while the physical body and the emotional body are being minimized. |
| 51:17.99 | Max Shank | Eq goes down. |
| 51:35.57 | mikebledsoe | We are then putting most of our attention on the memorization and regurgitation and so we end up in honoring and really I guess holding on a pedestal. The. The intellectual part of being human as being the most valuable so we've got 20 years of education telling us that what's in our mind is what's truly important and that our body and our emotional body are not as important you won't be valued in Society. If you have that So what we have is a bunch of people who have very poor development physically poor development Emotionally who have an overdeveloped psyche in a lot of ways that is that they identify as who they are and that that. Creates a very controllable population. It's a very,. It's very easy to create sheep in that in that case. |
| 52:41.60 | Max Shank | All being taught by an obedience teacher who has no skin in the game for how well they do in life. |
| 52:51.11 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 52:52.80 | Max Shank | Even even with the best of intentions I've I've met teachers who are amazing I've also met teachers who couldn't be worse and even if you have really good intentions. It doesn't mean that the action is good I Think that's. |
| 52:57.84 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 53:11.00 | Max Shank | Something that I've really come to think about a lot as I study history as I Observe what's going on in our culture Good intentions doesn't doesn't make the action good if your intentions are good. It doesn't mean what you're doing is good. So Even with the best of intentions you can like horribly abuse a lot of people. |
| 53:29.65 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 53:35.33 | mikebledsoe | The the truth is in the results I talk to people about this which is somebody wants to start getting defensive of you know I speak frequently about the the medical system being fucked up and you know what people refer to as the health care system. Being fucked up and they're like well you know and they want to defend it I'm like all we have to do is look at the results I don't want to hear about why you think this is a good idea or not or people want to defend very specific actions when I go look I don't I'm not look. That action. You know was a good theory and it was put in place and all that but it didn't work out the way we wanted to work out. You know the american healthcare system is failing. How do we know? record breaking diabetes cancer mental health the heart disease people. That ah number one killer in the United States right now. Fentanyl overdose. So ah, prescription drugs. |
| 54:37.86 | Max Shank | Number 1 even above and beyond like heart disease that would surprise me. |
| 54:44.30 | mikebledsoe | I I Saw a new thing I think it became number one definitely beats Covid but um. |
| 54:50.44 | Max Shank | Maybe number one? No well, there's ah, there's a lot of iffy numbers around testing and things like that and the amount of deaths and cases there but we don't want to get ourselves censored. |
| 55:01.35 | mikebledsoe | Everything? Ah yeah, all arms. Ah yeah, if you're getting censored. |
| 55:09.50 | Max Shank | That's always a good sign by the way if ah if someone's trying to censor certain topics. They're probably doing it with good intentions. |
| 55:16.98 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, so so we really got to look at the results and so anyone who still is hesitant to agree with us. Ah just look at the results you know or the results of the education system. What kind of what kind of people are going out into the world. Seems pretty chaotic to me at this point. Um, what I mean I too many too many kids to one teacher these classrooms with 30 kids 1 teacher. What? What's the number you'd like to see. |
| 55:46.28 | Max Shank | I well here's the thing I think if the structure were different that would be fine that'd be fine if if kids worked with each other in groups and they were learning things that were useful. Things that were important and interesting to them. Um, then you wouldn't need to have that teacher giving one thirtieth of her attention to everyone all the time it could be done in more of like a ah circuit style. |
| 56:20.70 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 56:22.54 | Max Shank | So I think the number of students to the teacher is relevant but it can work a lot of different ways. Ah no question, no question if you have ah a 1 on 1 relationship you're you're gonna get more. |
| 56:29.36 | mikebledsoe | You. |
| 56:41.19 | Max Shank | Information transmitted there you're going to get more direct and immediate feedback which can be very beneficial. Um, ah so I think 1 to 30 is not necessarily a problem but it is a problem especially with the structure that we have it in. You know everybody in an individual desk. We got 95% fluff. The rest of it is not really um, taught in a way that is principles based It's more rote memorization based so um, yeah, part of the reason that's no good is. Because of the structure we have in place ah school school choice though is the solution and unfortunately the worse we like dumb down the. |
| 57:20.81 | mikebledsoe | Got it? yeah. |
| 57:38.17 | Max Shank | School system the more ah like pork belt barreling the more like fluff we throw in there due to lobbying and teachers unions and stuff like that and the less incentive at play you just create are ah wider wider and wider chasm between the haves and the have-nots because if then. You know going to public school is actually worse and worse and worse for a child that makes the gap between that and a private school or a free choice school bigger and bigger. |
| 58:09.43 | mikebledsoe | yeah yeah I think about how I teach and we break you know Um I'm teaching adults so they learn the information on their own. They they try to apply it. Um, but then they also meet with a pod I put people in groups of a pod of 6 and that pod of 6 is led by 1 of my coaches and you know they're usually got more than no more than 25 or 30 people they're managing at a time but only 6 at a time. |
| 58:32.57 | Max Shank | This. |
| 58:48.20 | mikebledsoe | Is what they're managing and so I really like that that group of 6 I I grew up learning in in groups of 6 or or less I see a lot of value in that I do like what you were saying you know one teacher could be handling 30 kids if there was a certain rotation going on. But I think most teachers are managing like 150 kids and 30 at a time. So I think that and and the other thing we have to also think about is you know the age if you're if you're 3 4 5 6 7 eight years old you probably need that constant supervision. There needs to be a teacher all the time present or most of the time present you know I think it's really silly for thirteen fourteen Fifteen year olds to be under constant supervision of a teacher for 8 hours a day. It's I'm a big believer in. |
| 59:31.71 | Max Shank | A. |
| 59:45.69 | Max Shank | But. |
| 59:46.61 | mikebledsoe | Like let's sit down for 60 to 90 minutes to focus on a topic as a group and then go go fuck off for an hour. You know, go go ah go to recess. Go move your body go play. Do something you enjoy. If you want to study more if you want to learn more about it and continue to have the conversation. Great. But I'd like to see an environment where like as kids get older that they get more autonomy over their time and how they spend it and. Giving them the space to research and learn about things that they're curious about instead of having this need to cram all this useless information in your head so that you know the teacher can meet their quota the way to pause it real quick. |
| 01:00:31.50 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, sure. Yeah, so what we need is interest and incentive. Basically. |
| 01:00:40.12 | mikebledsoe | Hear the door knocking go. |
| 01:00:49.19 | Max Shank | Like if if you're interested in something and you're incentivized. You'll do it. That's that's what I've noticed with coaching adults as well is if you're interested and incentivized. There's no limit to the energy and enthusiasm that you'll have and if you. Reinforce that sense of ah contribution that good feeling you get when you share with others. It allows you to have this abundance of psychic energy which I think you and I agree you and I would agree is 1 of the main roadblocks. For adults in success in their business. It's not because they don't know how to do arithmetic. It's because there are personal blocks. Ah psychologically and emotionally right. |
| 01:01:42.64 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, absolutely absolutely. Um, how how do you approach teaching children to we. We talked a lot about memorizing and regurgitating as as not learning, but just as it is what it is. |
| 01:01:54.65 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 01:02:00.54 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 01:02:02.19 | mikebledsoe | How do we teach like what would be your idea of how to teach kids. How to think for themselves. |
| 01:02:07.31 | Max Shank | So I have ah I have a very controversial method. What I do is I have a pocket full of marshmallows and then I carry a long stick and if they do something I like then they get a marshmallow and if they do something I don't like then I hit them with the stick and I'll. I'll trick them. Ah, into just blindly believing what I say and if they do blindly believe what I say then I hit him with the stick and if they ask for context then they get a marshmallow I'm a little bit old school. Ah no I mean I. |
| 01:02:45.13 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 01:02:49.75 | Max Shank | I Think ah, encouraging curiosity and question asking is very valuable. Um I think relating everything back to how you're going to be able to liberate yourself and contribute. Is very important there needs to be context with the content. You can't have just content. You want to reinforce how learning to read will allow you to learn anything Else. You have to reinforce how ah economics and accounting are. Going to help you become wealthy so you don't have to worry about living paycheck to Paycheck. So I think having context with content and encouraging curiosity are probably the most important things when it comes to teaching kids. Um. The other thing is trying to have something physical in the world rather than just ah, verbal or visual something that they can hold in their hands I think is really valuable and making it a little bit more kinesthetic. |
| 01:03:58.40 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, there's ah ah well the the interesting there is um I read I read this book last year called Metaphors that we live by and it Yeah, do you. |
| 01:04:11.60 | Max Shank | I have that book. Yeah. |
| 01:04:15.61 | mikebledsoe | And it does a really good job of mapping out how the the mind works in Metaphor. So ah, the when we when we talk about if we talk about inflation the way that it's structured in a sentence. Makes it out to where we're creating inflation as a person you know inflation is bad and it's gonna come get you and all these types of things just as an example and so we tend to take Concepts and we we say the mind is a. Is an engine or a machine.. It's like that's not actually True. You know we we could think about it as a process but most people don't That's too conceptual So Most Concepts are made that we make sense of those concepts by ah, assigning Them. Ah. |
| 01:04:58.40 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 01:05:13.25 | mikebledsoe | It's a metaphor to something we can physically see and touch and and feel and all that kind of stuff and so to your point if there is a lack of of 3 D experience if there's a lack of what's going on then. I Think these when you when you're learning Concepts and you don't have the metaphors locked in well enough you you are going to you. You run the risk of just living in the conceptual world which I call the fifth dimension and. |
| 01:05:49.10 | Max Shank | Yes. |
| 01:05:51.19 | mikebledsoe | World of concepts the fourth dimension being our 3 dimensions that we exist in in this particular moment and then add time and for the fourth dimension fit dimension being concepts and so what we end up with is a bunch of people who are lost in their heads. |
| 01:06:10.34 | Max Shank | And. |
| 01:06:10.71 | mikebledsoe | And just doing you know mental masturbation that never know how to to practically apply these things and I have suffered from that a bit myself. So I I get it. But that's something that I think you're spot on I think the solution to that is a lot of hands On. Learning like I learned geometry and trigonometry in my high school years but the real application which was way simpler than what I was learning in the books by the way was going on the job site with my dad and renovating houses and having to cut pieces of wood that were going to fit. |
| 01:06:45.50 | Max Shank | Okay. |
| 01:06:49.79 | mikebledsoe | This angle over here and this angle over there and we were doing the math it Trigg made so much sense to me being on the job site. You get me in a book and all of a sudden. It's stop it. It doesn't it doesn't mean as much but again because I have the I have the carpentry background. |
| 01:07:05.69 | Max Shank | It's not rich. |
| 01:07:09.11 | mikebledsoe | I do understand trick really well I was able to get into physics really well because I I so I can take the conception when I and I've had practice making it practical. |
| 01:07:19.84 | Max Shank | Well and you know you bring up a really good point like pract I'm one of the most practical people I've ever met because I tend to think that if something is superfluous. You can do it for fun but otherwise it should be. Cut out like there's no reason for any of that unless you're specifically like trying to just have fun. So when I have the 3 categories of you know, word move and number there's a lot. You actually still have a lot of time left over so you could have part of schooling be woodworking and plumbing and learning a little bit about electric circuits and having these very practical schools like how about cooking and once again, we don't want to. Rely 100% on the state to teach your kid because they will ah do the worst job possible because there's no incentive for them to do a good job so having practical skills acquired that are not only. Ah. Applied in that moment but also applied for the rest of your life is hugely valuable. So I think um, that idea of no content without context would be. Like 1 of the most important things because you need someone to emotionally and intellectually buy in and apply that knowledge once they've realized that it's valuable. |
| 01:08:59.99 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that also solves the problem of the fluff. The the useless information that is made important when you have context I think about history and how much history is taught and it's like. |
| 01:09:10.34 | Max Shank | A. So much fluff. |
| 01:09:17.62 | mikebledsoe | This battle happened at this point and whatever and you know on the test you got to make sure that you got the right battle in the right year and all that kind of shit and it just makes no sense and um. |
| 01:09:24.18 | Max Shank | Right? It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. It's rote memorization with no idea for like why are we learning this. It's so we don't repeat the mistakes of history and history is all about how human beings clump together and cooperate or. |
| 01:09:35.26 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 01:09:43.56 | Max Shank | Or don't cooperate how they resolve their differences How you know that that kind of thing I agree. |
| 01:09:47.79 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and so we could study the the purpose of studying history. The the grand context there which isn't taught school is yeah, don't repeat the mistakes and what's made us better. How do we do more of that and how does this. Why are we learning what we're learning today. How does that apply to today's environment and where we're going and what what are the pitfalls and and I I would you know when I have kids that conversation is gonna it's gonna be a conversation. You know what do you think about how that applies to what's going on in our world right now. |
| 01:10:10.44 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 01:10:23.52 | Max Shank | Hello text. |
| 01:10:24.85 | mikebledsoe | This and that and and talk it through. |
| 01:10:29.89 | mikebledsoe | Um, how would you incentivize creativity. What do you? What are you laughing about. |
| 01:10:42.50 | Max Shank | I'm just thinking about ah the the teachers who hear this who are going to hate my fucking guts and yours too probably, but but they'll hate me more after I say this next thing is it doesn't seem hard. It actually doesn't seem difficult at all. Once you add context to every piece of content and once you cut away all the fluff. There's not that much. You need to know to understand value and values and when I say value and values I Basically just mean understanding that value is relative understanding that you have to deliver value. To be able to exist within this societal framework and values to me essentially means like volunteerism like non-coercion Morality like we talked about before like if you if you don't like someone that's fine but don't punch them in the face. |
| 01:11:28.89 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 01:11:39.20 | Max Shank | Ah, however, if they attack you then ah go ahead and make sure you win that battle in some way, don't steal. Don't lie like it's very simple stuff. But. |
| 01:11:46.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:11:53.29 | Max Shank | It's not a lot of stuff. It's more important to reinforce those things with practical application and context. That's what I was laughing about. |
| 01:11:58.12 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I on that I want to make sure that we have ah some type of solution for each thing we we named as a problem we we're talking about ah the the school system is stifling creativity. So. |
| 01:12:06.54 | Max Shank | Yeah, can you repeat it I I was off in my own little world. There. Those are the. |
| 01:12:17.28 | mikebledsoe | What? Ah how would you enhance? what would you do to help enhance creativity in children you were teaching. |
| 01:12:22.66 | Max Shank | I Suppose asking leading questions to how you could apply something. You know that seems unrelated to something that we're learning right now would be a good way to do it. |
| 01:12:38.70 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:12:42.10 | Max Shank | Um, asking what other ways could you try to solve this problem. Um I think music and art would be Useful. Creativity is a tricky thing because. If we try to nail down a definition. What does creativity really mean um, like an unexpected solution like if you say in sport someone came up with a really creative play. It would be something that you haven't really seen before it would be. Something that maybe you've seen elsewhere applied in a new way right? So I I think encouraging knowing what that means and then encouraging that behavior and recognizing that's what innovation is would be useful. |
| 01:13:24.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, one one of the ways I like her. |
| 01:13:35.59 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, I like the idea of well you know I train entrepreneurs I train people to be entrepreneurs basically and an entrepreneur is just a problem solver at the end of the day is. |
| 01:13:44.50 | Max Shank | Right. Yeah. |
| 01:13:53.49 | mikebledsoe | A problem in the world and you're gonna create a solution. So I really like the idea like creating an environment where creativity is enhanced by putting problems in front of them without the without saying solve it inside of this context but obviously. |
| 01:14:10.74 | Max Shank | 2 |
| 01:14:13.24 | mikebledsoe | This problem solving this problem it. The problem itself creates its own boundaries and so if I'm solving a very specific problem then I have to take all this creative energy that might be going in random directions and then focus it down into this one solution and I think that. |
| 01:14:25.85 | Max Shank | The. |
| 01:14:32.62 | mikebledsoe | Being able to approach different types of problems and then apply all this other knowledge that that exists in other Contexts and then see the the principles overlap and the relationship of those principles into this New. Ah. New context if you can do that then you're you're gonna be really well Off. So It's I think putting a I think putting problems in front of kids and letting them work it out in their own way and just see what happens also allowing them to be. |
| 01:14:57.69 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:15:08.12 | Max Shank | That's that's a great point. |
| 01:15:10.69 | mikebledsoe | Kids just allowing kids to be curious and study what they want I mean ah the way I've thought about approaching is like you know what? I'm gonna make sure that my kids do math for like twenty thirty minutes a day I'm gonna make sure they read and write for twenty thirty minutes a day. It's like reading writing arithmetic. |
| 01:15:12.84 | Max Shank | Right? okay. |
| 01:15:20.39 | Max Shank | The. |
| 01:15:28.18 | mikebledsoe | And we'll cover some other stuff along the way. But you know what do they want to do you know? Let's ah, spend the first couple hours studying and on the stuff that I want them to learn they they may not want to but after that is like oh there's a piano right here. There's there's some guns over there. There's. Ah, you know we could build something over there. But there's a whole library of books like is there a topic that interests you and I think letting the kids explore get a lot of reward while learning for themselves is. |
| 01:15:50.60 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 01:16:04.67 | mikebledsoe | Is going to help improve creativity as well. |
| 01:16:05.71 | Max Shank | Just giving them the space and less coaching with these things I thought of ah you know how would you encourage creativity. You give them a problem. They solve it and you say okay could you solve it in a different way. |
| 01:16:09.54 | mikebledsoe | Okay. |
| 01:16:21.65 | mikebledsoe | Um, on her name. |
| 01:16:22.89 | Max Shank | Like that's one way you could do it? Okay, could you solve it in a different way and then also just giving them a task with no coaching whatsoever like I just had this vision of giving each group of like 2 or 3 kids like a huge rock and like asking them to move it to the other side of a field or something like that. |
| 01:16:39.18 | mikebledsoe | Man. |
| 01:16:42.37 | Max Shank | And you know just trying to figure out like how they could do that like what tools could you use? what? how could you get that to happen if you were teaching like a physics class and you wanted to learn about ah force and mass and friction and work. |
| 01:17:00.10 | mikebledsoe | Beautiful. Sounds like the school we would design be a lot of fun for a kid to attend So what's easier than a job teaching kid. Oh yeah. |
| 01:17:07.54 | Max Shank | I would kind of want to go there. It's way easier than a job if you do it right? going to the school that we're inventing. |
| 01:17:19.57 | mikebledsoe | You know to my point last week you know I think there's I was hanging out with some ah crypto entrepreneurs this weekend and a handful of guys who ah who understand blockchain way better than I do And yeah, the. I Mentioned the dow last week and I still like it's still hot on my mind. There's there is a way to create a decentralized education system that ah where we get to learn best practices. Best practices are kept and shared. And worst practices are just removed from the system altogether but there's always choice. So for me the bottom line for education is it's It's much more than Schooling. Ah. Kids who tend to be pretty bright. This isn't always the case. Some kids come from from pretty rough backgrounds all the way around. But you know the education's happening in the home. It's not very little education is happening in school aside from the obedience training which kids are also just getting at home. And ah so it's to me. It's about what's happening in the family unit. What's happening communally I know that when I have kids they will have a lot of aunts and Uncles not not blood aunts and Uncles but they will they will go hunting with my buddy manzel who who is a. |
| 01:18:47.42 | Max Shank | A. |
| 01:18:54.29 | mikebledsoe | Who is the best hunter I know and they will go. You know wherever with who like there's gonna be a It'll be a community thing and I imagine some people will. It'll be an official role for them and for other people it'll just be like oh yeah, he's really good with plumbing over there. So. Make sure to go to spend a few days with him and really putting putting them in the the world of of really amazing men and women to me is the the future and the big win got a last. |
| 01:19:27.37 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:19:29.64 | mikebledsoe | Last thoughts on this max. |
| 01:19:34.46 | Max Shank | Incentives drive behavior. It's it's not that complicated actually and when you have the incentives in the wrong place things go really bad. Ah, you don't need to know that many things to live well you don't need to know that many things to be self-reliant and contribute. So ah, lastly accept the reality that school is. Mostly a waste of time mostly obedient school but don't be resentful of it be appreciative of the experience and recognize that education is an ongoing process recognize that if you're learning about something that you are truly interested in. And incentivized to learn. You will never feel a lack of energy I mean unless you're deeply sick. But even people who are deeply sick if they are enthusiastic about what they're learning and enthusiastic about the prospect of getting better better. Getting better and sharing that information then then you will create a surplus of enthusiasm which is essentially psychic energy. You know when you're interested in a project you work on it all day. And suddenly it's 10 pm and you're like oh I forgot to eat today and if you're doing stuff that you don't want to do you will jump at any opportunity to go mindlessly eat some snacks and I'm I'm the same way by the way this is not like a. |
| 01:21:17.10 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 01:21:18.59 | Max Shank | Pointing the finger I'm pointing the finger at at myself because I know that within my own self I'm a collection of stories and sensations and I have that 3 hree-tiered mind the lizard the mammal and the wizard and I am I'm part. Neocortex wizard able to imagine different probabilities for the future and I'm also a half retarded monkey who just wants boobs and snacks. So I respect. That reality and try to engage with things that I'm both emotionally invested in intellectually interested in and also incentivized by it. So if you care about something then you will do whatever it takes to learn it. I mean just an example I was reading a eo wilson textbook on genetics and it was fascinating I spent like 2 hours yesterday morning reading and watching this interactive textbook and it it was fascinating. Because I was interested in it because I'm incentivized within the context of my career. So ah, develop a love of education enhance and nourish that love of education. But um, bring it back to. Context so content and context go together interest and incentive go together and everything should help you live better and be able to contribute more That's it. |
| 01:23:04.56 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well said well said where can people find you. |
| 01:23:10.48 | Max Shank | You can find me at http://mashank.com or at Macank where can they find you. |
| 01:23:16.73 | mikebledsoe | They can find me at Mike Underscore bloodso on Instagram and http://thestrongcoach.com I also want to remind everyone that I have the strong coach summit coming up March third through Seventh. So if you want to go check that out. Go to http://thestrongcoach.com/summit and you can get your tickets there. Thanks y'all. Love you max. |
| 01:23:38.97 | Max Shank | Thanks! Love you buddy. |
| 00:00.00 | Max Shank | Welcome back folks to Monday mornings with max and mike hope you are kicking your week off the right way I'm excited to have you here I'm excited to have my buddy mike here with me today. We're gonna talk about something which I think is a pretty cool thought experiment which. Will lead to your greater action. It's what would you do with a billion dollars and 1 of the things that's useful about this is that it gets you to think about mission instead of business it lets you think a little bit bigger and then. Ideally, what you'll do is once you have a clear set up for how you're going to use that billion. You redo the thought experiment on a new sheet of paper with what would you do with 1 million. What would you do with 1 hundred thousand. And you work your way down into what the core importance overall is and then what the core important thing for you to work on right now is so thank you for joining me mike what's up. |
| 01:07.55 | mikebledsoe | Yo? Yeah, ah this is a fun is a fun thought experiment. It reminds me of a similar thought experiments I've done in the past and usually it's at a conference where there's some speaker on stage that's trying to inspire you to to. Higher action and it works um another couple other questions I've heard is it that are in the same vein but are different so we're gonna run with this but a couple I'll throw out there is what would you do? if you couldn't fail and then what. |
| 01:41.22 | Max Shank | The. |
| 01:45.39 | mikebledsoe | On the flip side of that. What would you do? if you were going to fail no matter what? So if you were going to fail no matter what? what would? what would you do? and so I think a combination of these questions really can fill in a lot of gaps around. |
| 01:50.66 | Max Shank | Well. |
| 02:03.70 | mikebledsoe | You know what you stand for and what you're excited about and I especially like the 1 you know what would you do? if you were to a billion dollar question is really fun because I think as kids we we all thought about you know what? if I won the lottery. What would you do with the lottery winnings you know I remember doing that as a kid. |
| 02:18.22 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 02:21.99 | mikebledsoe | And ah, but the if you're going to fail no matter what is like well now you really have to go after what? what? you just truly enjoy So Not as dark of a. It's not.. It's much darker than the billion-dollar question. |
| 02:40.72 | Max Shank | I Mean what would you do? if you couldn't fail I mean I suppose I would appoint myself God King of the earth and then ah everything else would just boil down from that pretty naturally. |
| 02:55.13 | mikebledsoe | It's it's kind of like the you know if you had 3 wishes first wishes and limited wishes. Ah problem solved. Ah yeah, so what would you do with a billion dollars max. |
| 03:00.94 | Max Shank | Right? That is kind of like a top out. |
| 03:08.40 | Max Shank | Well, ah you know of course you have to set aside some of that for filling your yacht with the venezuelan gymnastics team. But then there's still plenty of money left over to. Ah. To invest into Steady. So this is where the practical mind comes in right? Is you you put you got to put some of it away and you figure out what percentage you're comfortable with ah in my case I would say you got to I would probably take 1 hundred million of that. So ten percent and I would invest it into. Um you know power companies food water maybe some sort of technology as well and probably I would have that managed by someone else. So I would have like that investment professionally managed and then beyond that the question really gets me thinking about what I can give to the world and usually what you think you would like to give to the world stems from what you think is wrong. The world and so the things that come to mind are sustainable communities and also schooling because if anyone has listened to any of our shows so far I think it's pretty clear which side my bread is buttered on. When it comes to schooling especially public schooling especially K through 12 or specifically K through 12 because I think it is such a colossal failure and such a waste of 12 years of your life. So I start thinking about how I could. Implement a different system of schooling that would be based on using simple language and learning about values and creating value and I would really have to rebuild it from the ground up so that kind of goes. The reason I don't do that now is it's a tremendous amount of work that requires a huge amount of capital. But I think as a kid you probably need to do more playing you need to do more wrestling you need to do more basic movement and gymnastics I hand coordination. I'll tell you what you would not be sitting in a desk for long periods of time. No chance you would learn history only within the context of why history is important. You know I think that history is done so badly because it's just a bunch of. |
| 05:59.89 | Max Shank | Random facts to remember with no reason why we're remembering them because history horrifically bad right? It's not practical. You know, ah a pie Chart fractions percentages. Ah you know eat That's like ah. |
| 06:03.44 | mikebledsoe | Well mathematics is taught the same way. Yeah. |
| 06:19.32 | Max Shank | Even with how you would invest. You know? what's the yield on what you put in versus what you get out and that should be applied to how you use your time how you use your money all of these different resources. Um, how to interact with other people. The difference between. Voluntary action and coercion. These are things that are like really really important and of course the purpose of turning a child into an adult or the difference is that an adult can take care of themselves and a child is dependent. Essentially so. |
| 06:51.80 | mikebledsoe | I Like to say it as it. Ah, you're not an adult until you can parent yourself and that's that's who's parenting you. |
| 06:57.30 | Max Shank | Ah, well then I guess I'm not really an adult. Ah anyone ah I'll take anybody. Ah no, 1 ne's been able to do it yet. Um. |
| 07:12.90 | mikebledsoe | Well the the education thing is interesting because the there's 3 categories in all of ah, the capitalist world that are the most that people spend the most money on as Health wealth and relationships And. Ah, So if you're for instance. Ah a coach. There are coaches for those categories and and the reason is is because well the fastest way to learn anything in my opinion is to hire a coach to teach you and the a good Coach. Ah. And the reason these categories are so popular if you're if you're a health a wealth or relationships Coach. You can charge premium dollar and the reason is is because no 1 was taught that shit in school and if they had that edge. Yeah. |
| 08:02.30 | Max Shank | And those are the only important categories like what else is really important. |
| 08:08.64 | mikebledsoe | Everything that you learn in school should be in should ah be ah the context should be set by Health welfare relationships I don't think there's much else in that context is missing. |
| 08:18.81 | Max Shank | It should be yet. It should be clear what the value is of what you're learning like we're learning this because blank blank blank in your life is going to improve your life in this specific way. So just to. Wrap up what I was saying about history is history is the story about how humans clump together pretty much how they group together and then they divide apart so with regard to history like most of it is a waste of time. The specific examples should be given. To reinforce principles and I think principle based learning is what's actually important because then you'll have a framework for where to put all of these examples the difference between anarchy and totalitarianism and the pros and cons of both of those things. So it would really I would want to prepare more for this conversation to specifically lay out how I would change schooling but that would be how I think I could make the biggest. Improvement because I think that the only the only like true war or the only true battle is within the hearts and minds of people. You know everything else is a result. Of that lost battle. The fact that a person can't sit quietly for ten minutes means they're going to be easily um, distracted by something else. The fact that a person can't think critically is the reason they're going to get easily swindled and the more you look to an authority. To compensate for the fact that the individuals are let's say stupid or gullible or whatever instead of buy or beware and a fool in his money are soon parted now. You have this gargantuan bureaucracy who. Only will grow in size and that's where that's where like all of the evil stuff actually happens. It's not jeffrey dahmer it's the stalins and the mao's and the things like that like no no serial killer even though it sounds like viscerally bad has. Even come close to the damage that authoritarian governments have done to people. |
| 10:52.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, they're responsible for the murder of the the most amount of people homicide outside of War is minuscule. |
| 10:57.76 | Max Shank | Um, and not just murder not just murder like huge amounts of suffering like a lot of people survived, but it was horrific suffering. |
| 11:07.33 | mikebledsoe | Right? right? Yeah things that people should learn. You would you would improve the education system come. |
| 11:11.78 | Max Shank | So that's what I would do to 1000 million hundred I would create a new 1 I wouldn't try to repair the old 1 I I don't think there's a chance to repair the old 1 There's so much. |
| 11:22.11 | mikebledsoe | That's ah, that's a good idea Buckminster fuller would agree with you. |
| 11:29.63 | Max Shank | Ah, special interests at play and so many Palms being greased through Nepotism I don't think Prussian you told me this. |
| 11:35.42 | mikebledsoe | Well you know school was I think the the the modern school was ah russian. Yeah yeah, and yeah, the the yeah the King at the time was. |
| 11:45.48 | Max Shank | Convince the troops to go to war. |
| 11:51.15 | mikebledsoe | Was trying to figure out how do we get these peasants to fight for us because every time we try to recruit them to fight for us. They kind of just run away. They don't really care. Um, and yeah, if you can indoctrinate somebody from as early as the age of five I mean I know I know parents that put their kids in school 3 or 4 years old |
| 12:08.74 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 12:10.29 | mikebledsoe | Just the you know I'm ah I'm a patriotic guy I love I love american values and principles I believe that the you know the the founding documents and philosophy that the United states was founded on are extremely sound I don't think we're really. Anywhere near what was intended. Um, but when I look at schools and I see people you know pledge allegiance to the flag. You know it's very very interesting because you can go all over the world and find them doing that in every school to their flag and. If you do that every day you're programming the mind to be in agreement with whatever the government says so it doesn't I think I think the education system you know, ah people always say that. Ah you know the the. Children are the future and we need to invest in them. Ah, but I don't think really people people don't actually understand what that means they usually just think that they need to throw more money at the situation but the reality is is yeah something completely new needs to be built because yeah, there's a. It's a system of memorization and regurgitation versus the actual understanding of of principles and the beautiful thing about principles. Yeah yeah, well how would you incentivize better learning. |
| 13:29.31 | Max Shank | Well the incentives are in the wrong place. |
| 13:38.32 | Max Shank | Um, there has to be some correlation with the performance of the students to be able to take care of themselves after the fact. So if you focus on those important skills and then you demonstrate like let's say you know. |
| 13:48.99 | mikebledsoe | So but. |
| 13:57.48 | Max Shank | Ninety percent of our graduates are self-sufficient by age 18 ah, that's that's really something because there are a lot of ways to make a dollar I don't understand why it's set up so you you just enter the workforce at eighteen rather than. Like you could become an electrician in like six months if that's how you want to go about it and right now there's such a bougie ah disdain for crafts and trades not everybody has to be like a ah. Professor of some kind you know what I mean so I think the the idea should be helping kids become valuable teach them about it's it's really value and values and so that would probably be the best way is if. There was some sort of and incentive structure based on the ability of the students to be able to be self-sufficient and something like that I'm just riffing here. But um, you need you need incentives. In the place of those who are responsible for the actions. |
| 15:13.83 | mikebledsoe | Beautiful. That's how you do with a billion dollars. |
| 15:19.30 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, ah a yacht with the venezuelan gymnastics team ten percent professionally managed put in safe investments and then the rest of it to develop ah sustainable communities and better schooling and that could all kind of. Work together. But I think it so the reason I think that way is I think most adults are too far gone to like really change. Um, they're like a little bit too stuck in their existing beliefs and it's it's just a harder battle. You know, um. I think Dr. Seuss realized that he started out with political cartoons and then switched over to children's books he has a lot of funny political cartoons about world war 2 that are worth checking up if you haven't seen him. Ah yeah, oh yeah. |
| 16:02.19 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 16:09.39 | mikebledsoe | Interesting. There's there's a there's a company called tuttle twins that you can check them out on Instagram I invested in 1 of their movies at or it's a tv series. Ah yeah, yeah, ah they they teach. Ah. |
| 16:17.39 | Max Shank | Very cool. Yeah. How cool. |
| 16:29.21 | mikebledsoe | Kids the value of capitalism and how to thrive in this world and and and and ah educates them on the dangers of communism socialism and things like that. Ah, anyways, anyone should go listen. Go follow their Instagram account they put out really good stuff. Yeah, but I saw that and I go this is this is something I believe in I don't know if I'll get my money back them being capitalist I bet I will but the I find it really cool that they're there. Breaking these concepts down into picture books and cartoons and things like that that kids can can digest because I mean I'm fortunate enough that I was I was raised by a father who had he understood principles and so ah. |
| 17:06.73 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 17:18.81 | Max Shank | H. |
| 17:22.78 | mikebledsoe | Didn't matter the topic that came across my plate I understood what rights were and what rights were not and I was able to smell bullshit from pretty far away because of that. |
| 17:33.75 | Max Shank | Yeah,, that's pretty cool I think there are so many lies told all the time and you need to understand that every interaction between 2 people is either going to be a win win a win lose or a lose lose. And when you have voluntary action. It's always a win-win. Otherwise the person doesn't make the choice like if you get to say no, That's essentially what freedom is dependent on the freedom to say no or yes. |
| 17:59.63 | mikebledsoe | Right? but. |
| 18:07.80 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, if everyone has that power then the world's a much better place but most people don't even know they have it. |
| 18:13.42 | Max Shank | And and you get a lot more variety too. I mean think of all the wonderful different types of cuisine. There are think of all of the different types of exercise that you can do you can dance you can do Pellotis you can do Crossfit you can do Kettle belt I Mean. You have just a much wider range of choices and and you also have more um agency you know like the locus of control is something that's closely correlated with ah happiness and meaning and things like that and if you are. |
| 18:36.40 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 18:51.93 | Max Shank | In control over your resources which are both um, energetic time financial. Um, you'll feel a lot more empowered and you'll feel a lot less hopeless. So. |
| 19:03.92 | mikebledsoe | Um, you know. |
| 19:08.45 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's kind of like teaching someone anything you know if someone tries to learn a language as an adult. It's a little harder. It's possible. But if you learned it as a kid. It becomes a bigger part of you. Yeah. |
| 19:18.73 | mikebledsoe | Absolutely less less deprogramming needing needed. You got to unlearn a lot of stuff start a religion. |
| 19:24.75 | Max Shank | Maybe your religion would be better. Maybe your religion would be better. Maybe I'm like ah yeah, maybe school is not the right word for it. |
| 19:34.50 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, it's got to be a whole new. You know, just create a new word I Think that's the way to go? Yeah, new word for a new system. Yeah yeah. |
| 19:38.72 | Max Shank | Yeah, and a new word. Not a school or religion. Okay I like that off to think about that a little bit anyway. So That's my my billion dollars is about safe investments a splash of hedonism and then the lion's share to. Writing what I believe are the wrongs which seem obviously wrong and pretty easily Solvable. You know, physically mentally spiritually things like that. So anyway, what about you? mike. |
| 20:04.00 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 20:11.54 | mikebledsoe | Oh mean I we're aligned quite a bit but um you and I are aligned on a lot of things. My approach would be a little bit different and ah so I would take ninety percent and put into to save investment so 900 million dollars. |
| 20:15.66 | Max Shank | You and I think. |
| 20:30.63 | mikebledsoe | And a safe investment something that would guarantee at least a ten percent return |
| 20:31.29 | Max Shank | Um, you greedy bastard are. |
| 20:37.47 | mikebledsoe | Ah, well I've got a good explanation. Why so. |
| 20:43.10 | Max Shank | Ah, explain to the folks at home. Why you're such a greedy bastard. |
| 20:48.94 | mikebledsoe | Ah, well because if I invest ninety percent with a guaranteed ten percent or greater return. That means that I'll have a Hundred million dollars deposited to me each year is is what's possible. So ah and I doubt I would need. |
| 21:00.70 | Max Shank | To the. |
| 21:05.45 | mikebledsoe | All hundred million dollars every year so some of that would compound and so um I would well the thing is is I think I would have a hard time even knowing what to do with 100 million dollars. So billion dollars seems a little outrageous ah but i. |
| 21:22.16 | Max Shank | That's the whole point. That's the whole point is it's supposed to be. You can't just be like I would invest nine hundred and ninety million and I would spend 10 million on a ranch where I teach kids how to raise cattle. |
| 21:26.46 | mikebledsoe | Me. |
| 21:31.96 | mikebledsoe | No, no, no, but this there's there's a strategy here. So the strategy is I may I may dip into that money. But here's the thing is 1 thing I've learned in business is if you can't manage a business that's doing a hundred thousand dollars a year well |
| 21:38.46 | Max Shank | Um, like. |
| 21:49.44 | mikebledsoe | You're not going to manage a business that's doing a million dollars a year will and it's better to make the mistakes and learn things with a small amount of money and and have all the it's a less expensive expensive lesson if you do it that way. So I would want to do a lot of innovative things. And so tying the money up and something ninety percent of the money and up in something that's going to guarantee me a Hundred million dollars. A year is very very attractive because with 100 million dollars I could do a lot of things 1 of the things that I would would do that 1 hundred million dollars with the if I if I achieve. Massive success and having more money helps us move faster I'll start sweeping that money that's invested and is something that is so I have more direct control over. But yeah billion dollars in my account I would I wouldn't do anything but I would I would start. Interviewing the the best financial consultants and and create some type of accountability with those things because people get shady sometimes um and have it invested safely but take the other 1 hundred million would buy a home I'd get like fancy. Fucking penthouse here in austin texas just overlooking the City. So I'd be 1 um, and then I would get a ranch outside of town about forty five minutes away then I would get a home in the mountains maybe flagstaff arizona get a home in the mountains. And then get a beach house in in Florida and probably some type of property down mexico probably somewhere like wahaca or something like that. So ah I would get I would have my four new homes and then and some some rovers at each 1 and pools and indoor pools and all that stuff we just go into I mean I get I could talk for hours about what I would put in my home but we'll leave that alone and. |
| 23:56.31 | Max Shank | Full of all the adult toys. You could possibly want. |
| 24:00.63 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that So that's my that's my hedonistic desire is is multiple homes different locations being able to fly private to from 1 place to another seems like the way to go. Ah. Yeah, just like basically like Swedish spas set up at every single 1 of them and and then I would I would invest in Community I would buy properties for the purpose of of putting ah people that I that I hold dear and in the same location. Ah, and ah be self-sustaining. |
| 24:35.70 | Max Shank | So a concentration camp for friends and family. You group them all together. Ah. |
| 24:40.84 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, whether they want to or not, they're coming. Yeah so I would I would do that and and for the purpose of um, what I'm really interested in is I as I look at the world is how do we decentralize. Food distribution. So 1 of the things that have become very apparent to me in the last couple years and and I've gotten on the phone and discussed this with you before max which is there's a there's a lack of high quality food distribution and so we have a. Ah system set up where due to subsidies. It makes it more difficult for someone who's doing good farming work to get their food to market and it makes it easier for shittier product to get to market and so it it makes some food. Ah, artificially. Inexpensive and cheap and it makes other food artificially expensive and so what I would really like to see is to empower people who want to get into sustainable farming and sustainable regenerative farming practices. Creating land for that giving them a place to do that I would love to invest in Blockchain technologies for the purpose of removing a lot of the administrative load that that comes with food distribution and yeah would I would. Like to create some type of crypto token that people could use to buy their food and and fund the farms and things like that. So I imagine to kickstart a project like that you really need. Farmers and some land and distribution channels set up first. So that's that's 1 of the things I would like to tackle when I look at when I look at the world I'm 1 hundred percent with you on the education front like when I have kids they're gonna be homeschooled and they're gonna be learning from a very principal. Perspective and always having context and they're gonna be my kids will probably be adults by the time they're 12 so ah, the that's the plan who knows until you have kids I don't think you can really tell. But. Education's important, but like you were noting trying to get adults to change behaviors via education extremely difficult. They're they're very entrenched in what they want and 1 way that I've seen to make both adults and children move but especially adults. |
| 27:27.27 | mikebledsoe | Is just economics. There people are driven by this exterior environment of economics where things are incentivized and certain things aren't incentivized so I would really like to go to work on how to create an economic structure. That is that will Improve. People's ability to make good decisions. So Good decisions around food would become easier and more convenient because the the reason a lot of people choose what they choose is because simply convenience so that would be. |
| 28:03.90 | Max Shank | Oh really I don't know if I agree with that I know that people choose based on convenience but I would argue that it's maybe even more convenient to buy in bulk and eat healthy. |
| 28:06.33 | mikebledsoe | That would be that would be my main. You don't think people choose based on convenience. |
| 28:22.54 | Max Shank | Than it is to eat crap at the drive-through. no no no no no I think both like I think um, if you if you put like 6 or 8 cups of rice in an instapot with some. |
| 28:24.80 | mikebledsoe | Well I mean short term convenience. Not. |
| 28:41.55 | Max Shank | Bulk chicken. It requires no effort but you have you know, maybe 10 meals available for the average person and requires no extra dishes or anything like that I think it's kind of a fallacy that eating healthy is more expensive. It's just that you have to learn the skill of cooking and back to the economics point I think that's where seeing the difference. Like cost per meal and cost per calorie.. There's actually a funny website I can't remember the name of it off the top my head but this ah this really? um, Clever nerd. Put together this whole website that was like cost per calorie cost per gram of protein and he took like all these different foods and put them in like a big old ah spreadsheet and it it was really illuminating to see how you could. Eat the cheapest and then there are different levels in terms of how much you want to spend so I I think food is ah crazy important because we need food and in fact, we are food so it's it's 6 what?? What's a more important lesson. |
| 29:59.57 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well I think the drive throughugh is more convenient I mean if you have to cook either the the energy cost of of cooking people don't have the foresight. |
| 29:59.71 | Max Shank | Than that. |
| 30:08.95 | Max Shank | But it will require you less time it will require you less time and less money like you just have to show the math to someone you buy an instapot at 60 bucks. 1 time you buy 25 pounds of rice you buy twenty pounds of chicken at a time and you throw it in the pot. And you slather it in spices and maybe cheese and it's delicious and it's much cheaper per meal and it's less time investment per meal but it does require? Yeah, but I mean it's still going to be a better result. It's just like a savings account. It's the same idea. |
| 30:35.59 | mikebledsoe | Big guy playing ahead. |
| 30:46.68 | Max Shank | As a savings account. Are you going to save the money. Are you going to spend the money on bullshit. |
| 30:49.24 | mikebledsoe | Are you definitely going to get a better result and and I remember. |
| 30:53.13 | Max Shank | But is all I Just want to be clear that it is cheaper timewise and it is cheaper moneywise to eat healthy if you buy in bulk than it is to do the allegedly cheap convenient thing. |
| 31:07.33 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I was at a nutrition seminar once where 2 people left the ah the the venue at the same time 1 went to go get a fast food item another 1 popped in the grocery store the closest grocery store picked up strawberries almonds and. And some meat some deli meat because they were they were going for. You know the convenience and not having to cook and they show back up and ah the woman who was getting healthy food showed up just a couple minutes before you know it was a little bit faster and the price was the price was about the same. |
| 31:40.46 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 31:46.00 | mikebledsoe | And because you so I bring that up because I mean you're not wrong, but the idea that I think the the thing that's expensive to people is that they have to think in order to to make their own food. Get their stuff so education has to be a component to that. |
| 32:00.40 | Max Shank | Earth. |
| 32:05.42 | mikebledsoe | Because if you do just get people healthy food at ah at a better price then you know they still don't know what to do with it I mean they put I remember I was studying in school I was taking like ah 1 of those health classes like Health For. Um, what they called like health administrators people who who try to impact the health of entire populations cities and stuff like that. There was an experiment done where they put a lot of really healthy produce into the poor part of town. They go Wow. All these all these. |
| 32:32.46 | Max Shank | Yes. |
| 32:43.86 | mikebledsoe | Poor people are in this food desert and you know when you go into the convenience store where they're doing their grocery shopping. There's no produce. There's nothing healthy, no hot healthy options available and they put a bunch of produce in there and it went rotten and. People just chose not to buy it and I think a large part of it has to do with a lot of people just don't know what to do with food. They don't know how to prepare it. They don't know um and the idea of having to learn how to do that or the fear of screwing it up. Is is really huge. |
| 33:20.27 | Max Shank | Well and of course that's not 1 of the subjects that's taught in school and you know if you blame there's no end to the blaming. But if somebody has a problem ninety nine percent of the time. It's the parent or whatever authority figure taught them beforehand right? so. |
| 33:36.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 33:40.90 | Max Shank | If You don't have the understanding of food like look you can eat garbage food and as long as you don't eat too much. You won't be obese you might not be healthy, but you you can eat the worst possible. You could eat big Macs every day. And not be obese as long as you don't eat too many of them like there's there's a it's like I say all the time you know 99 percent of people's problems come from having bad security at their lips. The words that get out and the food that gets in. |
| 34:00.87 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, what. |
| 34:14.63 | mikebledsoe | I yeah, that's very true. It's very true. Yeah, so I think that yeah you say you bring up that good point. Lot of it's education is not necessarily not cheaper or less convenient. Um, and I think that some people are just Goingnna be That's just where they're gonna be they're they're never going to change. Yeah and and. |
| 34:41.42 | Max Shank | And I don't think it's wrong to let them choose that be obese eat fritos and big macs all day like you you die in a blaze of glory like chris farley on cocaine with a couple of horse like there's no shame in that game. |
| 34:56.78 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, so I think that. Ah yeah, I'm not here to save the world but I do think that there's there could be ah I look at the landscape of what's happening in the food industry and I see you know. These really big corporations that make really port food and do a lot of gmo and they're they're robbing the soil of minerals and and they're doing a lot of mono cultural crops and it's just not good for the soil. Um and some people suspect. That you know we're just creating deserts here in the United states and a lot of deserts around the world. There's been um, stories of there was a huge agricultural boom that preceded it being a desert. So. |
| 35:53.77 | Max Shank | Huh. |
| 35:55.59 | mikebledsoe | Places in like egypt and where there was a massive amount of people a lot of monocultural farming going on so I don't know here's the thing is we don't know if that's actually true or not but it's ah it's a compelling story. And I can tell the difference when I eat food in other countries versus the Us. So I really? Ah what I see is we're going into a dangerous zone of having too much monocultural farming happening too many pesticides being used all these things. |
| 36:18.82 | Max Shank | E. |
| 36:33.71 | mikebledsoe | That are harmful to the the soil and the environment at large which we live in that environment so we're going to poison ourselves. So I think that systematically creating 1 being decentralized is important because you want. |
| 36:38.46 | Max Shank | Ah, right. |
| 36:52.42 | mikebledsoe | You don't want a single point of failure with your food system and decentralization will allow people to have more to be more empowered to make the food choices that are good for them instead of being given the limited food choices that are delivered to them I think it also put people more in touch with their food. Um. People people who who tend to shop local when it comes to food and other other items too tend to be more they care more about the product that they're getting and so I think that there's a really cool incentive there in and making it decentralized and local. Ah, and I would really like to proliferate the regenerative farming movement as a whole to offset some of the the bullshit that that I see as bullshit going on and I think also a lot of young people want to get into. |
| 37:38.23 | Max Shank | The. |
| 37:49.73 | mikebledsoe | They they feel the same way they want to get into regenerative farming and want to be closer to nature and things like that. But they don't have the money to buy the real estate and the way that the economic system set up right now is about to get very difficult to come by real estate because the big boys are. Buying it up as the interest rates will be going up next year |
| 38:10.79 | Max Shank | Oh we'll see how that goes. Yeah I got a friend in Montana actually who's working on some of that regenerative farming including like a little power plant. That's the centerpiece. It's like a biological power plant centerpiece. |
| 38:22.40 | mikebledsoe | I Know a guy is doing it wyoming I don't know no Evan. Ah yeah. |
| 38:28.42 | Max Shank | His name Eric Oh well, we should link him up then ah yeah I agree with you I mean look I think ah farm subsidies are bad just like ah most things with good intentions. Ah, end up being destructive I think having lots of options is always better. Um, some of the best meat some of the best produce we get now is from Walmart so just being attached to a big corporation. Doesn't mean the quality has to go down In fact,, um, yeah. You know, certified organic Grass-fed Beef grass-fed bison at Walmart That's organic I mean that's um, pretty cool I think um I think food is such a big part about the health of these society So I'm definitely with you on that and it does. Come back to education I Like the idea of like I I guess crowdsourcing or crowd investing ah with with the sustainable agriculture would be a really cool idea. I Could totally get behind something like that. |
| 39:43.48 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, 1 of the things I've been looking at closely are Das daos decentralized autonomous organizations and um, when I first learned about ethereum the cryptocurrency and I started understanding what smart. Smart contracts were I started imagining what may be possible that now that that I didn't there's no way that I with my knowledge base I and going to go in there and be able to create something off the backbone of Ethereum I'm not that level of engineer I'm not sure I'm any level of engineer. |
| 40:18.19 | Max Shank | Um, doesn't seem like it. |
| 40:22.38 | mikebledsoe | But the ah no I you know I'm an audio engineer I can engineer audio and that's about that's where that that ends I'm a relationships engineer like that. |
| 40:32.11 | Max Shank | Um I can make noise is that the same thing audio Audio engineer. |
| 40:40.73 | mikebledsoe | Ah, ah so ah like I can play with audio and postproduction that's about it that would be an audio engineer. So. |
| 40:48.81 | Max Shank | But you could find an engineer to help you with that if you if you so desired. |
| 40:52.80 | mikebledsoe | Totally but 1 of the things that's happened with these daos that have come out is there's a platform called aragon where you can start your own decentralized autonomous organization and then now what they have is like oh do you want it to be a membership. Oh. Do you want it to be. Ah, ah to build your reputation in the market. Are you doing fundraising so they've got about 6 different categories of really popular tas that you can start and then basically um, it works with Nfts so I'm sure. Everybody's heard about and nfts at this point and the a lot a lot of how these das work is you have to buy an nftt in order to say it to membership because that's what I've been looking into the most is how do you create a membership dao. And people would purchase. There would be a limited amount of tickets to be a part of the dawo and say I'm looking at starting 1 with 100 and fifty members. There'll never be another once these 1 hundred and fifty nftts are Meanted. There's no more. And nfts that will be created and if you want to be a part of this club or whatever it is you buy this nft. It might cost 25000 dollars but it's a lifetime membership if you ever want to sell it in the future you can sell it on the market and the idea is that you could purchase a membership to be a part of a club. |
| 42:16.40 | Max Shank | P. |
| 42:22.92 | mikebledsoe | And you can also and an investment You can also sell that later so you own a part of the ideas you own a part of the organization. You're not just you're not just purchasing membership. You're you're purchasing ownership in a way. So yeah. |
| 42:35.87 | Max Shank | So it's kind of like a corporation selling shares a little bit. Yeah. |
| 42:42.42 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and so what it what it allows for is things that would if if done by a business by with with typical technology would be a really heavy administrative load there would to account for everything. So. |
| 42:56.75 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 43:00.88 | mikebledsoe | The the cool thing about the blockchain and smart contracts is you can create a lot of if then rules in the real world and and as these things are met things like accounting like the modern accounting like what we're using in like the conventional accounting and baking when you look at what's possible with blockchain seems very ridiculous. |
| 43:05.74 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 43:19.79 | mikebledsoe | Like Wow this is really antiquated by Comparison. So when when I think about accounting and well when most people think about Accounting. It's like Okay, what's the what are the financials and that's usually what's being accounted for but true Accounting. Um, a more global accounting is are you accounting for everything. Are you accounting for things that may not necessarily be monetary in nature even though you know. |
| 43:42.33 | Max Shank | Well like a farm for example, right? like the whole idea of let's say having 1 hundred and fifty shares of a farm and having a bunch of if then rules so conditional rules for if this then do this? um. |
| 43:55.88 | mikebledsoe | Me. |
| 44:01.70 | Max Shank | You know that it it probably does get pretty tricky like you have to be very clever to figure out how to run that organization. Um, autonomously and you probably can't account for everything which is funny like you can't account for all of the um potentials. Well and that's um. |
| 44:09.39 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and I Think. Now we can try. |
| 44:21.37 | Max Shank | You know it kind of shows the evolution of computer science in the beginning there was if then and ah, it's very similar to the way that law has developed from the code of Hammurabi which was if you blind a man's eye then. |
| 44:26.84 | mikebledsoe | And. |
| 44:41.18 | Max Shank | Then your eye shall be blinded as well and I don't know hardly anything about computer programming. But I know that if you relied only on if then it's kind of like a caveman style programming where it's going to be so many conditional statements. Rather than the more elegant and sophisticated rules and algorithms and operations that they have available Now. So um. |
| 45:07.81 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, Well yeah, and that's the 1 thing I see about the dao is like I'm I'm watching and I'm not hot to get in right now because I think that a lot of people 1 of the the really big mistakes that I'm seeing being made in the. Consciousness of a lot of people who are excited about this and taking action on it as they go decentralized autonomous Organization. We don't need hierarchy anymore. There's just gonna be. We're gonna be able to vote on everything and I'm going. Oh you guys are go for it and you know watch us watch this go? um. And I had ah I had a woman that was wanting to do ah a dow that was wanting to do community and all this I'm like cool I'm interested and then she was like all right and we don't need any hierarchy and I was like whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa. Ah, you're defying nature. |
| 45:55.25 | Max Shank | Impossible. |
| 46:01.22 | mikebledsoe | By by saying that we're not gonna have a hierarchy. You trust me, you don't want to define nature she will slap you like a bitch you got to ride what is right? So yeah, there's somebody needs. |
| 46:13.11 | Max Shank | Someone needs to have the call someone needs to be able to make the call. |
| 46:20.32 | mikebledsoe | There needs to be response and and um. |
| 46:23.31 | Max Shank | Roles and responsibilities operating agreement. You know a lot of the things from more traditional. Yeah more a lot of these things from right? but a lot of these things from traditional organizations still ring true. Um. |
| 46:25.73 | mikebledsoe | Well they think they can have a lot of that without without the hierarchy. |
| 46:40.69 | Max Shank | For something that is as autonomous as possible like I think you might agree that a lot of the role of a leader or manager is to delegate and automate and. The more you automate the less you have to delegate but it still has to be somebody's Responsibility. You know, even when you're putting together a phone call script or something like that. It's going to be if this then this if this then this and the more you can automate that process. |
| 46:57.84 | mikebledsoe | Most. |
| 47:12.95 | Max Shank | The more you can multiply that process that you've created and that's why computer software ah has such a huge premium because the exponential val the exponential return is so high just the same as um. You know selling ah a program. You know it's it's no coincidence that it's called a fitness training program when I write 1 I think about I am literally um, uploading a program and you are installing it into your brain. And you are executing that file. And for example, if you execute the ultimate athleticism program you're going to get better at handstands deadlifts airborne lunges front levers that sort of thing if you execute the primal athleticism daily practice. You're going to get better at bouncing rolling. Um, carrying things crawling climbing these you know wider array of things. So it's no surprise that it's called a program because that's literally what you're doing is you're implanting a program and that's also why it's so Scalable. You know I can sell. Um, a million copies of simple shoulder solution and there's no extra administrative cost to doing that. It's still just a few percent for the the credit card fee essentially so that's why software so is so powerful and. |
| 48:44.38 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 48:50.69 | Max Shank | It can be code or it can be like a written program. You know even religion you can think of as a program. |
| 48:54.55 | mikebledsoe | Now. |
| 49:01.62 | mikebledsoe | You're gonna freak some people out. Ah so totally it is. |
| 49:02.18 | Max Shank | I mean it. It is a program is it not I mean some of them are some of them are effective like I think mormonism is an effective program. It even has like a built in um generator which is the mission that they go on. I mean look mormonism is what like a hundred ish years old more less, not sure 200 can we get a fact check around this. Okay, so let's call it 2 hundred. Let's call it 1 hundred and 50 years right yeah please |
| 49:27.30 | mikebledsoe | I'm not sure I think it's the late Eighteen hundreds. No I'm not yeah, there's a mormon listening please let us know. |
| 49:41.19 | Max Shank | Yeah, we can't google right now. Ah that religion has more members than judaism and judaism is like 10 times longer. Okay, and it's because that that program is more geared toward. |
| 49:52.68 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, like twenty or 30 times longer. Yeah yeah. |
| 50:00.84 | Max Shank | Toward Growth. You know what? I'm saying So Um I think both of those religions are yeah are typically like pretty effective at making people wealthy so that program is effective from that standpoint it. I'm not saying it will necessarily make you the happiest because Mormons seem a lot happier than Jews but I Also don't think they're as funny and this is these are just my ah, ah blind observations right? Jews seem funnier Mormons seem happier. They both seem pretty Wealthy. So I just look At. Whether the program is constructive or destructive right? So Religion Fitness training program. Ah actual code or a dao or something like that. It's all it's all programming humans school. Programming humans and if you're able you said that an adult is able to parent themself. Maybe that's also a good analogy for the master slave if you are the administrator of yourself then you can program yourself as well and that's. Really high level. Um adaptability. |
| 51:16.57 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and you can't program yourself. You can program your own subconscious mind these are there's countless techniques for doing that I think it's the most effective way of making progress towards what you want is if you're not if you're not doing something. |
| 51:24.12 | Max Shank | Tap. |
| 51:32.65 | mikebledsoe | To program your subconscious mind. You're really missing out. Ah oh I brought I brought the dow up because I brought the dow because we're talking about what would we do with a billion dollars and the. |
| 51:38.39 | Max Shank | Absolutely. |
| 51:47.14 | Max Shank | Is that what we were talking about I forgot. |
| 51:51.40 | mikebledsoe | Something like ah so so it got me if this takes me back to a conversation you and I were having a year ago or or more and how do we have a a community and and. Decentralized communities that can interact with each other so they're all, there's these sovereign little cities and they can interact with each other and do trade with specific cryptocurrencies and all that and what I what I'm seeing with the dao is the real possibility because before I was thinking. I would need a billion dollars or I would need a hundred million dollars in order to start this project but now with the these fundraising dows and and all what I'm seeing emerge I don't know if it's quite ready for what I want to do with it yet. What I'm seeing emerges. Maybe if you have a solid enough vision and you have a good enough program then you can get your investors and now you can make it you can make it happen so it's very exciting times a little bit different than a business. |
| 52:55.76 | Max Shank | Oh yeah. |
| 53:02.92 | mikebledsoe | Ah, typical business that gets investors I think that there's a lot of excitement around right? This is just like it's the future. It's how things will be managed in the future will primarily be through blockchain and so I think if you do something in blockchain people are more likely get on board. The other thing is. Ah, you're less likely to have ah, it's a lot easier to have visibility of what's going on and there's a lot less opportunities for Fuckery. So I think it it makes it for an easier thing for people to invest in because ah. Things are so transparent with a lot of the blockchain technologies so you can set things up where everything's just very visible. So I think that raising money for those types of ventures are a lot easier, especially when you look at some of the you know what's happened in the last couple decades with. |
| 53:46.79 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 53:58.83 | mikebledsoe | You know enron and that guy who was it that did that ah Bernie madoff and he had that dude that the fire the fire festival guy. Ah, who actually did some time but all all those things had had it existed in. You know a dow instead. |
| 53:59.91 | Max Shank | Bernie made off made off with all their money. |
| 54:18.83 | mikebledsoe | Would not. It would probably just wouldn't have even happened because people would have been able to spot it and I think that there's gonna be a lot of people and people have done this with cryptocurrencies they they write a white paper and they launch it they get investors and then disappear. So I'm not saying that that there's no fraud. |
| 54:35.71 | Max Shank | Oh yeah. |
| 54:38.63 | mikebledsoe | There's no fraud in these things but over time what I see happening is the fraud will will become minimized because people will know what to look for and there's also the the ability to create transparency where it's necessary is also going to be there. |
| 54:54.23 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 54:59.73 | mikebledsoe | So yep, crowd crowdsourcing that's the way to go. |
| 55:03.87 | Max Shank | Yeah, if you have a good enough idea and a clear plan. Um I don't think it's difficult to get investors. Um. |
| 55:12.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, all right? Well it sounds like it. We don't need a billion dollars for ideas. So we just need to create it now you get? yeah, get you start working on yours I'll start working on mine. |
| 55:18.33 | Max Shank | Now you just need other people to have a billion. |
| 55:32.61 | Max Shank | It's interesting. How a lot of it comes back to education a lot of it comes back to it doesn't necessarily need to happen in a school but a lot of it comes back to educating people. And a lot of similarities with food I think we both realized just how important food quality is not having a single point of failure having um you know that decentralized decentralize is a way better word than. Not having a single point of Failure. It's much more exciting right? now is decentralized. Ah. |
| 56:10.30 | mikebledsoe | Um, but decentralized means a lot of different thing like it. It encapsulates that plus many other things yeah increase in choice. |
| 56:14.95 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, um, so as far as how to execute this strategy for our listeners. Um, what's a good way to go about it. |
| 56:37.28 | mikebledsoe | Ah, you know I think I think write write down what you would do with the billion dollars and I would also there you go. |
| 56:44.99 | Max Shank | And then maybe write down what you do with a million after afterward I think that's the way to do It is start out with a billion so you're like in the blue sky version and then you snap back to a little bit closer to reality with the million unless there are any ah billionaires. Listening in which case ah get in touch with us. We have plenty of ideas for your money. |
| 57:07.69 | mikebledsoe | My mike at the strongcoach dot com is my email. Yeah, yeah, and I think it's also worth you know do the I like doing the pie in the sky first billion dollar million dollar and then what would you do? if you were guaranteed to fail no matter what you did you were gonna fail. What would you do so. |
| 57:31.44 | Max Shank | Ah, what I don't understand the question but I do like it I I don't even know how to if I was guaranteed to fail Fail Why would I do it at all I Would if if I knew I was going to fail. |
| 57:38.67 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 57:45.26 | mikebledsoe | Ah, well a lot of things you wouldn't do Well I think that gives insight into what you enjoy not necessarily what your purpose or mission is but what what you like is like all right if I was gonna fail I might as well just set myself up in baha on the beach and surf you know, like if I'm guaranteed to fail. |
| 57:50.40 | Max Shank | I Would do nothing. |
| 57:53.97 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 58:04.63 | Max Shank | So so what? what would I do if I'm guaranteed to fail is more like what it. What would I do if I could do like nothing ah professional is that is that what it is like how would I fuck off. |
| 58:04.91 | mikebledsoe | Least I'll you know live life like that. |
| 58:17.97 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, yeah, that's where my mind goes when I hear that question. Well yeah, what would I do if I was guaranteed to fill. |
| 58:26.67 | Max Shank | I've never heard that question before um, maybe it what it really is what would you do? if you could never work again. Does that sound like ah the spirit of the question. |
| 58:33.75 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, doesn't sound as exciting. Yeah, same spirit but the other 1 seems a little more jarring. |
| 58:43.33 | Max Shank | Well, the first 1 I would do nothing the first 1 I don't understand it makes no sense to me. What would I what would I do if I knew I would fail if I knew I would fail I would not do the thing like the only reason you would do something is if you thought it had a percentage chance of success and that's. |
| 58:59.70 | mikebledsoe | That. |
| 59:02.15 | Max Shank | That's human nature that's desire. That's hunger. That's that's hope that's the only reason anyone ever does anything is because they think that there is at least a chance that it will be better if they do that thing. So if you know you're going to fail. You would never do it to. Non -question as far as I'm concerned. However I'd be happy to replace it for it. I think everyone will agree with me on this 1 um I think I think what would you do? if you could never work again. |
| 59:22.99 | mikebledsoe | Ah, it hit me up. Let me know let's see if everyone else receives it that way. |
| 59:39.56 | Max Shank | Is a good way to identify how you like to spend your time though. Um, and and do it detached from the result as much as Possible. You know, maybe you would sing. Maybe you would do some woodworking. Maybe you would do. Ah you know you would just surf all day. Maybe you would play music something like that I think that's a really good. Um I Think that's a good way of looking at it is like what would you do? if you couldn't work and what would you do. If ah, you could only pick 1 career and do that those ah those extremes feel like a good way to sort of surround your your truth. You know what? I mean. |
| 01:00:16.12 | mikebledsoe | Um, like that. |
| 01:00:29.80 | mikebledsoe | Ah I don't have a truth. No. |
| 01:00:30.94 | Max Shank | You don't have a truth I mean I think the truth is that we're the most adaptable creatures so you can change any time. It's just scary. It's just scary. That's that's the truth that I live by. |
| 01:00:41.93 | mikebledsoe | Our graph. |
| 01:00:48.71 | Max Shank | You know I see people do it when they're under huge amounts of strain they change dramatically and unless provoked that way they often don't people just ride the momentum and that kind of goes back to that programming thing because what we're doing is we're talking about programming ourselves for. Ambition essentially with this question and we're setting that ambitious intention and if you are able to program yourself every single day but you choose not to then you are relegated to. |
| 01:01:09.69 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:01:27.51 | Max Shank | The momentum of whatever the stories and stimuli that you've had and believed up to now. Yeah, anything you'd like to ah yeah, anything you'd like to add. |
| 01:01:34.70 | mikebledsoe | Well said wrap this bad boy up. |
| 01:01:47.28 | mikebledsoe | Ah I Love this exercise. What would you do with a billion dollars, get this dream. Big can be fun, especially if you're looking at the hedonistic aspects of what you can do with it. But when you get into the purpose and mission of Things. Ah. And like what max said going from a billion dollars to what we do with a million dollars and then looking at Wow is is this something that enough you know it being 20 coming into 2022 ah it being something that. You might be able to fundraise through a dao. Ah you know, maybe it's possible. So Hopefully this inspires you to do something that that ah excites you and and helps other people. All got how about you any final thoughts we good in. |
| 01:02:40.90 | Max Shank | Cool. Um, program yourself or pick a good program I think the exercise will help you discover where your ah truest desires really are and yeah, that's about it. You can find me at maxshank dot com at Maxshank. Mike you work and they find you. |
| 01:03:05.11 | mikebledsoe | Ah, mike underscore Bletzo on Instagram and the strongcoach dot com. Ah yeah, and you can jump in my program if you want if you want to program your business there. You go all right brother. Love you. |
| 01:03:18.00 | Max Shank | There you go Awesome! Thanks brother. Love you Bye everybody. |
| 01:03:24.39 | mikebledsoe | Enjoyed the talk. |
| 00:00.00 | Max Shank | Hey, everybody welcome back to Monday mornings with max and mike hope you guys had a lovely weekend today we are going to talk about the greatest invention in the history of mankind which. Is the written word. It allows us for intergenerational communication that compounds over time that sentence is insane when you think about it that is the reason that we were able to jump out of the food chain. Entirely it is because of the compound effect of our acquired knowledge and the fact that we were clever enough to write it down. Ah orcas for example, have their own language but they have to teach it from scratch every generation and. Are limited by what they can store in their brain and of course they have the second largest brain in the animal kingdom as I understand it and their brains actually are more wrinkly they have more folds ah than ours which is an indicator of ah more. Neurological connection. So imagine if they had thumbs and pen and paper they would probably have overcome us at some point so today we're going to talk about books why you should read how to read a book what you should read and maybe maybe even when to read so. Mikey. Thanks for joining me again. I'm looking forward to this as always. |
| 01:27.65 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah, I'm excited about this topic I I was actually I suggested this topic and 1 of the things that inspired me was the my marketing team wanted the the top 10 books I read in the last year and ah that I that I'd be willing to talk about in an email or or something like that and so I go to make the list and I go I don't know if I read 10 books I ended up reading 14 books and I was actually surprised because I didn't feel like I was reading that much. And I think that happens when you and you're enjoying yourself. So ah yeah, I've not always been somebody who is an avid reader I used to go months without reading books I would read a chapter out of a book and then forget that I was reading it and it was. It was something that I stayed away from when I got out of school so coming from a place where you know in school we have to do a lot of reading if you're if you're actually doing the work which I'm 1 of those crazy people who who is a good student. And I was so sick and tired of reading and I my experience of reading was that I did not enjoy it and what I realized is a few months after I got out of college so I had I had done high school went in the Navy for 4 years |
| 02:45.69 | Max Shank | A. |
| 03:00.10 | mikebledsoe | Then started college so I got into reading a bunch of stuff I didn't want to read and I had this experience both times where I got to read some stuff I enjoyed and then when I started reading things that I had to read I stopped reading so much so I I did realize at 1 point I go oh. |
| 03:10.80 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 03:18.57 | mikebledsoe | I I love reading when I'm reading what I want to read I don't like reading when I have to read it because it's signed so having been out of college for shit 13 years now I've i. Learn to really enjoy the process and sometimes I like to listen and sometimes I like to to read with my eyes depending on the topic usually. And yeah, it's it's been 1 of the biggest I mean you you hit the nail right in the head. It's a great way to gather information. And knowing which information to keep and which to throw out and being able to apply it to different contexts that is that is the skill in a time where information is at an all time high. So I imagine as we go through this. This conversation today. Some of what we'll be talking about is ah you know when we talk about how to read a book. It's how do you apply? it? How do you consume it? How do you digest it and how do you make sense of it because it's the it's the sense making. |
| 04:31.61 | Max Shank | No doubt I liked what you said about how many books because when I first came onto the scene as a fitness entrepreneur. |
| 04:31.87 | mikebledsoe | That is such a big challenge these days. |
| 04:44.82 | Max Shank | I Wanted to hang out with that cool crowd of people who are also fitness entrepreneurs and they were like hey I own a gym and I was like hey me too hey I wrote a book hey me too and we would like you you know that whole thing where everyone's like comparing what's going on. Oh I've been doing this many seminars. Ah I've been. I Read this many books I Just remember a conversation I was a part of where it it was like um it was like a dick measuring contest for how many books we had read and I just remember that it it struck me that I was like right right in there with that game. Um. |
| 05:09.82 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 05:19.51 | Max Shank | And it's interesting because that idea of more books is better is totally ridiculous because in order to succeed You don't need to know that many things and in fact, you're probably going to make more forward progress if you. Use what you know rather than getting more information I think almost anybody listening to this would agree that they know enough to be probably twice as successful or maybe even 3 to 10 times as successful as they are now. It's just that they don't. Ply those things So I remember when I was I Just remember when I was speaking at a seminar ah over the course of a weekend and it was a bunch of really smart guys and at the end there was a panel and we're up on stage and they're like what. |
| 05:56.86 | mikebledsoe | Got go ahead. |
| 06:14.65 | Max Shank | What book would you recommend we read and everybody's got their book recommendation and I'm listening to these recommendations and I was like oh hey us? Yeah I like that book too. That's pretty nice and then it got to me and they're like well max what book would you recommend I was like I would recommend that anyone who attended this seminar not read anything. For between thirty to ninety days because the whole reason you came here was to listen to our summary or our synthesis of everything we know so the last thing you want to do is deviate from applying what you've most recently learned and I like. Reading for entertainment as well. But it's important to realize that when you're reading something you're not living your own life either. So the amount that you read is certainly a good shortcut and I have read ah a ton because I'm naturally a curious person and I like. When things are synthesized and summarized in a very cohesive way. It's 1 of the reasons I don't listen to a lot of podcasts actually because it's very meandering and I would rather have the nice concise block that is the let's say summary. Of you know a 50 year career in psychology or training or something like that and that's where you get the huge leverage from a book. |
| 07:41.78 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think it's a great point I remember hitting a point myself where I I had a I was in a meditation and there were no substances involved I know everyone's wondering. Ah, and I was in this. |
| 07:47.58 | Max Shank | What. |
| 07:58.98 | mikebledsoe | Meditation I was doing a bunch of ah Joe dispensive meditations actually and I was weeks into it and I had this meditation where I where I got a peek inside of my own mind and my own mind was a library with really high ceilings and just rows and rows of books. And it was dusty and there were cobwebs and it was hard to get around and it it was ah it was a movie that I was watching inside of my own mind it was I was in this observer state and I kick over 1 of the shelves and it hits another shelf and. It clears out the entire room the entire library just collapses and the dust settles and I have this incredible sense of relief that I I don't need to know anymore I don't need. |
| 08:49.16 | Max Shank | And. |
| 08:57.66 | mikebledsoe | There's nothing else I need to learn and I realized that the majority of the knowledge I had accumulated at that point I'm a very curious person as well. But there was also something else driving that. Um, which was I wanted to appear smart from when I was a little kid I. Wanted to avoid appearing to be dumb so because I because I felt like I was an idiot and I was homeschooled on top of that So I didn't have anyone actually compare myself to there was no reality check it was ah it gave me an opportunity to. |
| 09:18.26 | Max Shank | Same oh. |
| 09:34.32 | mikebledsoe | To really go deep into feeling like an idiot because I didn't know if I was smart or not and I I overcompensated and I read a lot and I think that that I already had some curiosity built in because that was my compensation. You know some people feel like an idiot and they. |
| 09:37.29 | Max Shank | Hit the. |
| 09:53.20 | mikebledsoe | Just go all in on being an idiot and decide not to learn anything. So what I what I realized in that moment was oh Wow A lot of what I've been studying is stuff that I don't actually enjoy learning about because I. |
| 09:54.14 | Max Shank | The. |
| 10:11.38 | mikebledsoe | I Think it's something that would be really good for me to know just in case. So I can appear to be smart. So I ended up studying a bunch of subjects that actually didn't matter to me at all and after that moment. Um, well I'd gone deeper into a lot of. |
| 10:19.68 | Max Shank | What were they? what were they. |
| 10:30.56 | mikebledsoe | Ah say exercise physiology I had gone deeper in a certain subjects where like I was I was pounding the same subject even though I already had what I needed to know to be able to operate the you know I needed I knew way more than I needed to know to do the thing like it'd be like ah. |
| 10:31.76 | Max Shank | Ah, yeah, right. |
| 10:45.74 | Max Shank | Totally yeah. |
| 10:48.68 | mikebledsoe | Being an astronaut and learning not an astronaut being ah being ah, a fucking you know single prop pilot and you know going and learning about what it's like to fly in space cause yeah, it's like it's like you don't need that I'm just flying around you know from City to City not to the moon. |
| 10:59.54 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 11:06.27 | Max Shank | Yeah I totally relate with you because it's almost as if in my experience the male ego maybe female ego also being stupid or not knowing feels vulnerable. |
| 11:07.52 | mikebledsoe | Or Mars or whatever. So. |
| 11:20.10 | mikebledsoe | M. |
| 11:22.61 | Max Shank | So it's like you're you're suddenly in the dark you're like in deep water and you're like oh my God I I don't know what I don't know what they're talking about I'm going to look so stupid and then I won't have any respect and then no woman will ever love me. Whatever it is right. |
| 11:35.18 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well in the and the result the result after that was I didn't read anything for about a week and then I started I go oh I want to read this book on. It's a spiritual book I want to read this. |
| 11:43.97 | Max Shank | May. |
| 11:50.76 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 11:53.60 | mikebledsoe | And before I wouldn't let myself do it because I didn't you know I was like ah had a lot of practical applications should I really spend the first hour of my day reading this thing that like's not going to make me more money when you know that's where I was focused at the time. |
| 12:03.20 | Max Shank | How dare you how dare you read something. That's not going to make you more money. How dare you but. |
| 12:09.34 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, and at the time I was studying you know it was all about business and strategy and all the shit. So I um the result was I ended up reading after that and books I enjoyed I just went with whatever I enjoyed and what I what I. |
| 12:16.40 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 12:28.42 | mikebledsoe | What I noticed is I did end up coming back and reading some business books I did come back and end up reading some books that ah were scientific and and around exercise and round things I already knew a lot about but it it my approach to the reading shifted. Ah. Tremendously and so I enjoyed it more and then I look back and I go you know what? I probably read more since that moment than before that moment and and before it was work in order to read and afterwards it became pure enjoyment to read. |
| 12:55.25 | Max Shank | And. |
| 13:06.11 | Max Shank | Um, it sounds like it was curiosity driven instead of fear driven. Yeah I I relate. |
| 13:07.68 | mikebledsoe | And ah, yeah, just yeah, yeah, exactly yeah in this past weekend I was um I was in some training I took a gun fighter training course and which is basically. Ah, training with nine millimeter pistols and carbines for you know worst case scenarios you know inside a house getting out of your house in your car and we actually did some some shooting as a team it was it was a lot of fun and 1 of the things that. Ah, 1 of the guys afterwards 1 of the older guys. He pulls me aside and he goes he goes you really? I'm really impressed by how you learn and I go oh well, how is that like how are you perceiving you know how I learn. And he was like yeah you just you ask lots of questions you don't care about looking dumb and and you're incredibly focused on what you're doing and and I I go yeah and it got me thinking about oh I when I look at the people I was training with. I I do think I was probably learning a little bit faster than than a lot of them. Although everyone advanced from wherever they were at they advanced tremendously the the coaches we had over the weekend were amazing. But I I definitely ah had more energy at the end of the day. Everything seemed a bit easier for me and and it's not because I already knew what I was doing it had everything to do with you know I was only concerned about learning what was right in front of me and I didn't care about how I looked if I made them. You know the only mistake you don't want to make in those situations is shooting somebody. Like as long as I'm not shooting somebody or making making you know making it. You know you don't want to flag somebody. You don't want to point your gun at anybody whether you you don't want to do that either. That's a safety violation. So inside these boundaries of. |
| 15:17.19 | Max Shank | There's a more sinister mistake too though. There's a more sinister mistake of being afraid to ask questions. That's it I Think that's a mistake for sure. |
| 15:21.62 | mikebledsoe | There There is that 1 that that is a mistake and so yeah I was I was in high communication with the instructors the whole time I didn't care how I was perceived by the group is whether I was smart or not and. I I could actually see that in some of the other people you know they would shoot their guns and then they would look over their shoulder for validation and I actually coached the guy the next morning afterwards because him looking over his shoulder for validation was causing him to flag people with his pistol and I and I go I go look. |
| 15:45.44 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 15:54.23 | Max Shank | Oh my god. |
| 15:59.00 | mikebledsoe | Like because I mean it's 1 of those things where like he might have been get asked to leave the range and I was like I was like hey man, let's talk through this and I give him some coaching tips and after that he he improved tremendously. Um, but yeah, that was 1 of the things too I noticed is like this. It was very loud in that experience of of this guy's seeking validation as he turns around to look for it His fucking weapon is being drawn across 5 people and everyone's going Whoa I Go Wow that that seeking validation thing. |
| 16:33.33 | Max Shank | Yeah, that his insecurity. |
| 16:33.44 | mikebledsoe | Could kill somebody in this scenario. So yeah, his insecurity. So um, that's another thing. Yeah I think we've been dancing around that topic basically is yeah, there's Insecurity Driven education is. Is going to be really slow and difficult. It's It's just yeah. |
| 16:51.97 | Max Shank | It's fear based and it's fear based rather than curiosity based I think part of the reason you're so jazzed up and energized after the fact is you're legitimately interested. You're engaged. You're interested. You're not going to fatigue in that state. But if someone were trying to teach you something you don't want to learn in the first place it made you sit in a chair all day. Of course you're gonna feel fatigued I mean I'm I'm very similar in learning except I actually think I learned a little bit slower. Um, but I usually get. |
| 17:13.74 | mikebledsoe | Move. |
| 17:26.83 | Max Shank | Private lessons for stuff and I shy away from group classes because I don't want to hold up the flow of the class too long but I I hear this phrase a lot when I'm taking lessons. Wow I've never heard that question before because I'll just keep digging. |
| 17:28.69 | mikebledsoe | Ah, so. |
| 17:43.71 | Max Shank | To really figure out like why am I actually doing this and sometimes even a very experienced teacher it it kind of goes back to well that was what the other guy said so learning like if I don't know why I'm doing it just it's hard for me to buy in the same way. |
| 17:55.46 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 18:03.39 | Max Shank | So I think that's 1 of the huge advantages of learning in person is you can't ask those questions unlike a book. |
| 18:11.27 | mikebledsoe | But yeah, well I think this next point will get to the book as well. Which is ah I had fantastic instructors. 1 of the things they were saying the whole time was ask me why I will never get mad at you for asking me why we're doing something and. |
| 18:23.65 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 18:29.82 | mikebledsoe | They were more interested in teaching us how to think about situations and in a tactical sense than to just teach us how to do these maneuvers so 1 of the things that I think is really the thing we need to look at first when you're selecting. What you're going to read is who wrote the book. So for me over the past weekend my instructor I go who is going to train me oh a 20 year command master chief navy seal who's done you know a dozen deployments and had a pretty long kill list like oh. If I ask that guy why we're doing this maneuver or whatever it is. We're doing. He's going to give me a really good answer and he was also open to being challenged. so I think but when when I so when I choose to read a book I like to think about who that person is what their life is like. And what it is that they're actually an expert in and what they're not an expert in because I've watched authors ah be an expert in 1 field and then stray outside of that and I go more into maybe something I know a lot about I go ah, you know what you were right? when you were over here. But when you got over here, you kind of. And it's good to be aware of who this person is. |
| 19:44.54 | Max Shank | It's tricky though too because then you also can fall into the appeal to authority or the ad homineym fallacies right? because a lot of the time. In fact, 1 of the books that I'm going to recommend today is an author. But he's also very intelligent in a lot of other areas and so it's kind of like in ancient egypt they would hold trials in the dark because they didn't want the um arbiters to be swayed by what the person looked like which I have this little phrase. Ah. How can you take something at face value if it's attached to a face. So I think really good ideas can stand alone regardless of who wrote the idea. |
| 20:22.62 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 20:30.73 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well when we're when I agree that and when we're swimming in in an infinite amount of books to read I'm gonna I'm gonna choose based on you know, well 1 1 of the things is who who are we learning from? yeah. |
| 20:39.81 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, totally you want to learn from the best right. |
| 20:49.50 | mikebledsoe | And 1 thing I Want to mention before we dig in because I want to dig in but I I wish I remember who there was a story being told recently and I heard this and there was somebody was sitting in this really intelligent guy's office and looking around his library Ph D type thing. And they go Wow. Your library is vast I've never seen a personal library So Big. You must have a lot of knowledge and then the guy responds This is not a sick. This does not signify my knowledge it signifies my desire and. |
| 21:23.53 | Max Shank | Peace Boom again. |
| 21:24.44 | mikebledsoe | A library is a signifier of desire not of knowledge and when I heard that story I said I said to myself. That's that's spot on. You know youre if you got a I've got quite a few books haven't read half of them. But. Maybe I will at some point. |
| 21:44.23 | Max Shank | It kind of makes me want to point out the tool Belt knowledge analogy again versus the toolbox knowledge tool beltt knowledge is something you can whip out anytime anywhere you know it forwards and backwards left and right. |
| 21:52.47 | mikebledsoe | And. |
| 22:04.13 | Max Shank | If something comes up in conversation. You're like Boom I know this bit of information and then there's toolbox knowledge where if someone jogs your memory about it. You have a familiarity with it and when it comes to reading books you have to accept the fact that even if you're. You know some sort of insane memory What do you What are you gonna retain 1015 percent especially if you only read it once. So as for myself I'm reading a lot of books multiple times I will often read a book and then. Go right back to page 1 and read through it again without going to a different book I'll read book 1 and then I'll finish the book and I'll be like huh that was really good I'm going to read it again right now while it's still fresh and see if I can get this information to concreize. But the truth is. If. You don't apply the knowledge. It goes away and you can't you can't remember a whole bookshelf. It's impossible. |
| 23:04.82 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well quote I like to use frequently too is learning is behavior change. So if you don't put it to use. You didn't actually learn it. You just you may remember the words. |
| 23:15.81 | Max Shank | Hello. |
| 23:24.58 | mikebledsoe | Because that's all your that's all you unless you've applied it. That's all you have is you remember the words you remember the order of these words. Other than that, you really don't know shit so ah in order for to be in your tool belt like you're talking about it. It's something that has to be implemented. |
| 23:30.33 | Max Shank | First. |
| 23:41.14 | Max Shank | Well and you can never step in the same river twice because it's not the same river and you're not the same man. So I'm sure you felt the same way you read a book 5 years later you read the same book and it feels completely different. You're picking up totally different things. You're like whoa. Where was I when I read this last time I don't remember any of this this didn't resonate with me at all and now it's like like blowing my mind. |
| 24:09.57 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah, yeah, there's a several books I've I've read a couple times that that I will probably keep reading every 2 to 3 years for for couple more decades who know all right? So let's dig into what? ah. Let's just go book by Book. Let's have you share a book and then we'll ah love to basically like do a mini interview with you about. |
| 24:34.33 | Max Shank | Should we do a why why? Why read? you should read to change your behavior or for entertainment and if and if you're reading a book that doesn't change your behavior then it was just entertainment and why are you bothering. |
| 24:43.11 | mikebledsoe | Love it. |
| 24:52.33 | Max Shank | That's that's why it's difficult for me to recommend books to people because I think the whole point is either to be entertained or to actually yield some behavior change. Ah otherwise like you know why are you reading 1 hundred business books shouldn't like. 2 be sufficient or or 1 good 1. |
| 25:10.16 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I like reading for entertainment I'm gonna I'm gonna list some books off I read for entertainment but got massive practical ah practical advice from the book. Basically and I noticed that I thought about things differently when it's an autobiography. So was autobiography for enjoyment. This is Mark twain's yeah autobiography um, you know and he wrote it I guess I'll fucking jump I was gonna I was gonna ask you first year book but I'm gonna start. So um, the the book. |
| 25:30.49 | Max Shank | So nonfiction. Oh Mark twain's okay, cool. |
| 25:39.16 | Max Shank | Ah, you start you start. |
| 25:48.22 | mikebledsoe | Ah, my favorite book that I read this year for pure entertainment was mark twain's autobiography. Ah, it's called roughing it and the story of his life is hilarious. There's just there's just tons up. You know we think back to Mark twain and 1 of the. Greatest literary artist american literary artists right? He was like the first american writer is is how he's commonly referred to and and I think a lot of times people think about huck finn and and all this in the Mississippi river and all this stuff when they think about Mark twain. But I'm reading his autobiography and he he's he goes to the west coast to mine for gold like he goes to Nevada he goes to california and he has the worst of luck just there's a story after story of him getting shit on and it's hilarious because the way that Mark twain writes is he can. Use very few words and you can picture the scene in your head and he says it in a way that you've never heard it before and it and it immediately causes visions to come so super super enjoyable and 1 of the benefits I got out of that book is just. |
| 26:54.42 | Max Shank | The. |
| 27:01.31 | mikebledsoe | Listening to his hardship and how much failure he had was a good reminder that. Ah, even if we experienced a lot of failure early on there's nothing to say you can't beat end up being like 1 of the greatest writers of all time or the greatest of anything of all time and you know the the thing that stuck out to me is. Even when he was mining and stuff like that he was picking up reporting jobs. He was always writing he was always. He would always go back to that and do some writing and he might he had this dream that he was always going to fucking strike it big and he was going to be. You know he talks about his ego in the book and how like when he had a lot of money. Cause there were times where he had a lot of money and he would blow it. He would just be like yeah I bought these fancy suits I would go to these these operas that I didn't really enjoy but I acted like I enjoyed them and and he's like I don't understand what the fuck is going on he eats all this fancy food and then like a month later he can't even afford a piece of bread. You know and that was it was that was Mark twain's life and this was during a time where like there wasn't homeless shelters. You know if if you fucked up in carson city Nevada ah you you know someone might take some pity on you but like you're out there in the. It was the wild wild west so I really enjoyed his book. In fact, there's about fifteen percent of the book I've I've yet to finish I've just been consuming it chapter here chapter there and whenever I need to relax the mind and get some chuckles in but it's it's. For me. The practical application has been just having a lot more ease in my life because sometimes something comes up and I go I just think about the story I read last night about Mark twain and how he almost died out in the cold because they got lost 10 feet from you know the hotel and it's just. Anyways, so that that 1 I highly recommend is just a lot of fun. |
| 28:58.43 | Max Shank | Ah, to check that out. You do it on audio or reading it. Yeah. |
| 29:01.72 | mikebledsoe | I got I my I'm I'm reading it? Yeah ah things I want to read slowly I Just ah I read that? Um, but yeah. |
| 29:10.80 | Max Shank | I like being told a story on Audiobook but if it's something that I'm going to reference a lot I like to read it with my eyeballs. Um, cool. Yeah, it kind of goes to show how much stories shape our reality i. |
| 29:16.19 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 29:29.76 | Max Shank | Sure I sound like a broken record but stories and stimuli are what shape us simple is that forces on our body. The things that we remember how we frame those experiences. That's what shapes our reality and a lot of writing if it. I Hate say only if it only eases your suffering That's huge actually because when you are in a state of fight or flight. You're not healing yourself So you're You're not going to be able to get into that you know wizard level Cerebral. Or Neocortex ah thinking and planning and conscious action rather than ah instinctive reflex out of Fear. So That's huge so those stories can permeate our being Or. Just be an easing of our suffering for a short time. |
| 30:30.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, how about you? What's what's ah but but you want to start with. |
| 30:36.90 | Max Shank | Um, well actually the first 1 is ah by a comedian named norm mcdonald and it's his book. Ah based on a true story a memoir and what's really interesting is. He was a huge fan of Mark twain. He talked about Mark twain a lot and he will he in the book or I should say in an interview he said it's not facts, but it's truth which I thought was really funny so he didn't. Just write a story of his life. He wrote about the truths of life that he had experienced that weren't necessarily factual. Um, because as he said you know most of my life has just been finding and consuming food. And it doesn't make for a riveting read and um, he's my favorite comedian I think he's so Funny. He's so Smart. He always pretended to be really dumb and would you know get interviewed and say yeah I've read like about 6 books in my life. Meanwhile he's like. You know, dostoyevsky and reading like all of these like gargantuan tombs about life and death and religion and philosophy and just total genius but you never knew it because he didn't want it to take away from the comedy anyway, his book. Based on a true story is hilarious I've listened to it a few times. It's 1 of those that's actually read by the author and it's it's so funny. It just makes me laugh and it makes me think about. 1 of the things I like about comedy is it lets you think about the most horrible things in a lighthearted way and it sounds like that's what twain does also like he makes ah being like totally poverty stricken or on the ropes essentially. |
| 32:36.71 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 32:47.16 | Max Shank | Ah seem kind of okay and I think that's 1 yeah, it's it's 1 of the things that um gives us the power to carry on. You know that that hope and. |
| 32:50.80 | mikebledsoe | Comical. |
| 33:01.67 | Max Shank | Taking things with a light heart when you said the first american writer I kind of thought maybe that's what the essence of that is um and I'm I'm not well read enough with other. Ah. International authors to really understand the difference but it seems like there's more of like a sardonic and ah comical and quiplike kind of american irreverence that goes along with that to me. So. |
| 33:31.76 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, well I mean the the west Love it. Love it And yeah, he's ah well he spent a lot of time on the West Coast and the West coast is known for being irreverent. |
| 33:36.45 | Max Shank | Anyway, nor Mcdonald based on a true story hilarious I've listened to it several times. |
| 33:49.50 | Max Shank | All right? My key book to. |
| 33:51.60 | mikebledsoe | That's ah, that's 1 of the benefits of it. Ah, all, let me all right book 2 I'm gonna go with the Sovereign individual. So the first 1 is entertainment I've got my my book list and in. 2021 in the 3 categories is philosophy business or enjoyment and the sovereign individual falls under philosophy which for me is entertainment but again a lot of practical application there because with philosophy what I like about these philosophical books is. They're taking a generally take a macro view of of how the world works and a lot gives us space to know how to position ourselves. Well I'll say this for myself reading the Sovereign individual. It really informed me how to position myself as time goes on in this book. What they do is they wrote it in the they was published in the year 2000 it with the intention of predicting what was going to happen between the year 2000 and 2025 and as I was reading this book I got chills I got hairs were standing up on my neck. It was incredible. How spot on they were and they opened up the book because what's funny is if they knew that people were going to be reading this in 2021 they wouldn't have to give as much explanation as they did at and the beginning of the book first half of the book is really dedicated to the previous 2000 years and it looks at 500 year cycles and looks at big shifts in. Ah, power being centralized and decentralized and they they really look at the when the berlin wall fell. Ah, it was really the falling of the nation state. So this idea that these governments are in charge and so on and so forth they made the comparison to. |
| 35:40.49 | Max Shank | And. |
| 35:57.87 | mikebledsoe | Well you when you ask somebody ah world history and you go you know when did the roman empire fall that was a lot of people say you know four 1080 but it really it really when we look back on it. We could say it really lost. Steam around 500 a but but people were acting like it was still. You know in full force an 800 a d even though it was just kind of very surface level. It was still going but it didn't hold the same power and so they really painted a picture of. Nation state losing power due to technology decentralizing ah safety the protection of assets especially when assets become digital There's just this whole There's this whole um era coming and is we're we're in the the. Infancy stage of this decentralization and ah they they talk about in the book they call it cyber currencies so you know year two thousand bitcoin didn't arrive in what oh 8 till eight zero nine I think maybe oh 7 is when it. You know the founder started figuring it out. But ah, you know they they call it cyber currencies in the book. But the way they describe how these currencies will behave and how they'll be autonomous in some way ah was very predictive and in fact. what they described and what is reality the reality of cryptocurrencies at this point is is way more sophisticated than they were predicting because of course it didn't exist so how could they be? How could they comment too far on it but they did. They did note the results of there being ah cryptocurrencies. Ah, they predicted um, ah that there would be a bacterial or viral pandemic and that the media would behave the way it did they predicted race riots and wars. Um. And the context in which they talk about these things is what gives you chills. It's like yeah anyone can predict these things like there's gonna be pandemics. There's gonna be riots. That's that's part of human history. You don't have to be a genius to say. Yeah that's probably gonna happen. But the way in which it happened and the way they described why these things will. |
| 38:10.47 | Max Shank | And. |
| 38:26.92 | mikebledsoe | Happen the way they happen is pretty incredible and 1 of the things that they talk about in the book is ah governments because they're losing power and they lose control over the currency will you know government rules by 1 mean 1 method and that is violence right. Do as I say or else I'll put you in a cage or kill you and so ah, yeah, that's how it enforces there's There's no other like that when when it gets down to it. They have a monopoly on you know that that entity has a monopoly on violence and so be. |
| 38:49.60 | Max Shank | Um, well, that's how it enforces. |
| 39:05.17 | mikebledsoe | When you have an organization that that's always the last resort well as as it as it gets closer to losing more and more power. It's just going to become more violent so 1 of the things they talked about was you know there'll be a lot of smaller communities and h oas will include security and they they basically. Also noted that since the 80 s the amount of private security being employed is way up. Private security is a huge industry and you know if someone goes oh when are we going to start having to have private security. It's you know the reality is you already have it and um and. Or you may not have it personally. But it's probably you you it you get the it's prevalent and you're you're probably enjoying it I mean when I went to a store last night. There wasn't 2 cops sitting in front of the grocery store with guns. It's 2 security guards you know, ah the the the local government is supposed to hire police in order to. |
| 39:47.12 | Max Shank | It's prevalent. |
| 40:03.40 | mikebledsoe | Keep crime down but you know they can't do that well enough so they got to hire private security. So no, so um, anyways, they basically outline that they talked about the steps ahead and and that book was actually very. |
| 40:07.75 | Max Shank | A can't be everywhere all at once. |
| 40:22.70 | mikebledsoe | Relaxing for me to read in a lot of ways because it was I'm watching the world go through this chaotic thing and then it really did a good job of saying look look back 2000 years we're looking forward 25 years and maybe a little beyond that you know this is really just ah ah a frame. In history. It's not It's not the rest of your life. It's not this and that and and also it really instilled. You know we're not going back. We're we're definitely just progressing forward towards something and these are all the things that are going to happen as we we go there and. It may not necessarily be an easy path forward. But the thing you really have to because of the way what technology is an impacting culture the necessity for personal responsibility is at an all time high I mean that's what the the book is called the Sovereign individual is because if you if you don't want to be a slave. And the future you have to be sovereign and in order to be sovereign means that you have to educate yourself on technology. You have to educate yourself on protection and security physical protection and security. You have to educate yourself on these things or else. You're subject to like the government's not going to protect you anymore is basically what they're saying like you're gonna you're gonna have to create your own little tribe and you're gonna have to use technology and all this stuff to take charge of your own protection. So um, 1 of the things that motivated me to do the training I did last weekend this past weekend is I go. |
| 41:56.60 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 41:58.86 | mikebledsoe | I'm looking at the book and I go yeah it could ah you know ah America in this time is actually a very safe place. Still um, it's relatively if you look at human history lot less murder a lot less a lot of things. Um I think in the last couple years |
| 42:07.71 | Max Shank | Relatively? yeah. |
| 42:16.45 | Max Shank | Yeah, super rare still well and what's funny about that? Well what's interesting about that I guess it's not funny about that is the dramatic difference. |
| 42:18.60 | mikebledsoe | Um, homicides are way up, especially where awesome tax is up 1 hundred and seventy five percent homicides this year |
| 42:33.67 | Max Shank | Between how many people kill themselves versus each other I mean whenever whenever anyone wants to talk to me about how like a place is dangerous I'm like dude like what people kill themselves with fritos people kill themselves with a toaster in the tub like it. |
| 42:35.51 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 42:51.80 | Max Shank | And you know like I said sometimes fast sometimes slow but people kill themselves like way way more. So if anything we should be like more afraid of ourselves than we should be of other people If if we're going to like follow the statistics right. |
| 43:02.41 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well well well a good example of this. Yeah, you're right is yeah I like to go down to columbia and columbia is not necessarily the safest country in the world. Um I've encountered a couple things down there I mean I've been down there maybe a total of. |
| 43:11.47 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 43:20.56 | Max Shank | A. |
| 43:20.56 | mikebledsoe | 3 or four months at this point I've made 3 different trips and yeah I've run into a riot I've had some people follow me I have you know there's there's been a few times where I thought I was gonna end up in a fight um and it was really just cause I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and you know after you're there for a bit you learn how to you know. |
| 43:33.12 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 43:40.15 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 43:40.70 | mikebledsoe | Navigate yourself to avoid those things but um, you know there people at home are going. Oh you gotta be careful and's like it's like this is the same person who is overweight eating ice cream before bed watching Jeopardy or something like that. It's just they're not like yeah but you're not living like you're. |
| 43:54.65 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 44:00.30 | mikebledsoe | Like to your point probably killing yourself slowly whereas I'm just taking a little bit of a risk over here. |
| 44:02.89 | Max Shank | Yeah, right? And who's who's to say that it's It's better to live like a really really long time sadly than a short time Happily you know that's it's hard to quantify. |
| 44:14.53 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah I think Ellenlan Watts Alan Watts has a tough thing about that and if aen said it then it's it's true. |
| 44:21.55 | Max Shank | I mean he was a hardcore alcoholic but I like a lot of his ideas I mean that's why you you got to take everything with a grain of salt and that's why um a certain book. Might be the opposite of what you need to hear like a certain book could be fantastic for you. It could bring you to better action and I could read the same book and it could be devastatingly bad if I believe it because you and I are different people So to your point earlier. So. |
| 44:54.82 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, context matters. |
| 44:59.47 | Max Shank | Sovereign individual read it so you can defend yourself and when I think about um situations like that I think there are really only a couple important things you need to be able to defend yourself physically. Um, you need a community. Of people you know, love and trust and you need to be able to create value and that and that's a big 1 because no matter what the economy does if you are valuable then you'll basically always be okay. |
| 45:28.50 | mikebledsoe | Many. |
| 45:34.47 | mikebledsoe | Absolutely absolutely. Ah, um, by the way just on the on the notion of value just so this book out there the last safe investment I didn't read this this past year but to max's point the last safe investments all about how to it. |
| 45:38.70 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 45:53.83 | mikebledsoe | It talks about 21 I think 21 or 22 different types of labor that you could develop yourself in that would be valuable and they they basically steer you away from the ones that are not that valuable and steer you towards the ones that are super valuable for example, copywriting is in there as 1 of the most valuable. So. Max you write and to that book's point ah the most valuable thing that you can have and when it comes to financial. It doesn't matter what the currency is or what's going on in the world if you can produce value for other people. Yeah, you should never go hungry. |
| 46:27.75 | Max Shank | Yeah I mean bitcoin and gold could both go to zero bullets probably won't though I don't think Bullets ever go to zero. Um all right shall I do 1 you did 2 books in a row by the way. |
| 46:30.95 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 46:36.73 | mikebledsoe | Um, Bulletin seeds. Yeah yeah, what's your next book. Yeah, let's go now I just do 1 in that wasn't when I read this year it doesn't count. |
| 46:46.23 | Max Shank | It's not fair. Ah I just threw an extra 1 in guess your opinion is more important than mine trouble in Paradise over here folks. We made it nineteen episodes. |
| 46:54.69 | mikebledsoe | I I look I'm older than you I'm allowed to do these things I. |
| 47:02.37 | Max Shank | Oh nice appeal to age authority very good I think you might be losing it though time is ticking. My friend time is on my side. Um, okay well I'm gonna do 2 books then also and I'm gonna really. |
| 47:10.56 | mikebledsoe | Of course I'm losing it. |
| 47:20.66 | Max Shank | And I'm going to relate them together because they're similar but ah, monumentally different in the same way. So I read a book this year that is actually out this year called how to live and it is 27 conflicting answers. And 1 weird conclusion I really like the format of this book because each chapter says you know this is how to live and then the whole chapter is about that and it's by a guy named derek sivers who started a cdbaby. He also wrote a book called anything you want. I really like the way he writes and his his chapters for how how to live are do nothing think long term master something pursue pain do whatever you want now. So they're all conflicting ideas. But that's how life is. |
| 48:15.50 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 48:18.73 | Max Shank | It's a bunch of paradoxes but he spent 4 years working on the book and it's it's a short read, but it's beautifully done. It's very concise. It's exactly what I am looking for in a book I get to essentially consume his suffering to make it concise. So I can get these ideas in their most purest form fully refined. Um, no wasted words. So I loved it. I think it speaks to me personally because the question of how to live is very conflicting. And it depends on the individual. some people are so over the top arrogant that they're going to burn themselves and some people are so um insecure and lacking confidence that they're never going to take that step forward. There's going to prepare prepare forever. So. Everybody needs to hear something a little bit different I thought these chapters were fantastic I'm interested in juxtaposing that book with another book that I re reread which is tools of titans which is a gargantuan book. Full of some of the top performers in the world in different areas, physical feats business feeds technology. Um, and there's a lot of differences. In their advice and I think that's what makes it good and that's what made me think of that book in relation to this book how to live because it's stories that you can relate to and be like oh that's how that guy did it and it's just little bites and books. As I mentioned should inspire some sort of action. So whenever I'm writing something it should inspire action I don't really like writing if it's not going to inspire action. Frankly I find writing kind of painful sometimes anyway so if it's not going to. Inspire action in somebody I'm not going to bother I'm going to go take a walk essentially so I think the the stories um the chapters in how to live by Derek sivers are fantastic I think it will make you think differently and. |
| 50:35.40 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 50:49.98 | Max Shank | It's each chapter is its own little book and it's really beautifully done So how to live by Derek sivers and that's ah with an s s I V E R S That's a great book. Very easy read to. |
| 51:04.74 | mikebledsoe | Beautiful. |
| 51:09.92 | Max Shank | Now we're even 3 each now we're even I'm keeping score by the way I'm also keeping score of how many minutes each of each of us talks. So we get equal time because we believe in equality here folks. |
| 51:11.47 | mikebledsoe | Now We're even all right I'll go Okay, good. Well I'm um, um, I'm curious. Are you taking notes about are you taking the time down when I say something brilliant so we can cut it out for a video. Ah yeah, that was a softball all right? ah. |
| 51:28.15 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 51:33.76 | Max Shank | I'm still waiting for you to say something brilliant I do have my pen here though. |
| 51:42.33 | mikebledsoe | We've got my my um, my favorite business book of the year was incredibly practical and that is 1 hundred million dollars offers by alex hermosi now I want to I want to say this alex hormosey also wrote a book called jim launch secrets. He comes from the fitness industry and you know I learned about how he did his his tactics and I'm not really a big fan of the tactics he used and growing gym memberships and things like that I think that? yeah. That's all I'm gonna say about that I just want to I want to throw that out and to max's point early in the show if I were only going off of what I had already prejudged the author on I wouldn't have picked his book up because I already had a judgment about how he does things and then and and. Ah, 2 people 2 really intelligent friends of mine in one week they suggested to read his book so I pick it up and this is the beauty of having a kindle is I can usually get books at you know, half the price or maybe even a quarter of the price and I don't have to wait for it and I can. Lot of times I can read the preview ahead of time and that's what sold me on this I I got to read the first chapter and I go. Okay, this is going to go somewhere that book 1 hundred million dollar offers I have never seen anyone after reading it I realized that I never consumed a resource on offers by themselves. I'd study a lot of marketing I'd study a lot of business and offers usually fits inside of this marketing chat. So. It's like a chapter in a marketing book or it's a it's a module or a week during a marketing course and alex where Mosey is the guy's ah a fucking genius and he's built. I think over five companies at this point over 100 million dollars and and different industries at that and so um, it's 1 thing for someone. Um, you know, build a business that makes 1 hundred million dollars. But it's another thing to do it to do 5 and I think he's with 32 or 33 years old so really young guy. Um. Super sharp and 1 thing I really liked about his book as well is he had a an online course. Companion. So if you if you get the book. It's got little link at the he does a little lead magnet type thing. Um technically not lead magnet because he doesn't even collect your email address. So um, anyways I read that book and it really helped me and it was just perfectly packaged in the right order it. It's you just follow from chapter to chapter and by the end you're going to have a solid offer and you're going to understand what it is you offer your customers and your customers are going to understand. |
| 54:28.64 | mikebledsoe | But you're offering them and they're going to feel as though you're solving their problem which is exactly why they're going to hire you or they buy a product anyway. So hundred million dollar offers by alex or Mosey favorite business book of the year |
| 54:41.27 | Max Shank | That is 1 hell of testimonial and it's also a testament to how information is still valuable even though it's ubiquitous or even though it is everywhere information is free. It's everywhere. But you can still make information extremely valuable if you put it together in a format that is really easy to digest. Nice. |
| 55:06.19 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the beauties and the packaging. All right, You're up. What do we got? He's looking around. Yeah. |
| 55:15.95 | Max Shank | I'm up. Ah another book I read this year was I have ah I have like a little list here but I also have a couple of books I'm trying to decide because I don't want to? um I want to do too many because I know we're getting close to the wire. But um. |
| 55:30.54 | mikebledsoe | Why you probably just running out of books you read this year |
| 55:35.80 | Max Shank | You know what. |
| 55:38.99 | Max Shank | I can only I can't read actually I only listen to audiobooks ah now I'll recommend um I have 2 more that I really want to recommend so the travels by Michael crichton. |
| 55:50.28 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 55:55.67 | Max Shank | And I reread it every year since I had a recommended to me by a good friend of mine and it's amazing travels by Michael creton. He's a um, super prolific author he covers it all. Travels he talks about um, you know going to medical school and seeing like the psychiatric wards and traveling to all these different places and nearly dying several times and um, he's. Just a fascinating individual. He goes into the ah physics and metaphysical plane and he just dives right in it kind of reminded me of richard feynman's book a little bit surely. You must be joking Mr. Feynman but travels by Michael crichton. Is absolutely fantastic. He talks about the travels externally and travels internally and relationships and science and I know I've recommended some of his stuff in the podcast before especially his. A little lecture called the state of fear which talk about prophetic for for what's happening right now. But michael crichton travels excellent book worth reading worth rereading. He's awesome. |
| 57:20.91 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, you recommended a video for me to watch of his a lecture. He gave an hour long presentation that was just not only was it enjoyable but it was it was kind of kind of like the sovereign individual is relieving in some way in some ways and. |
| 57:37.47 | Max Shank | Earth. |
| 57:39.89 | mikebledsoe | Really pointing out really where a lot of bullshit exists in the world and the media and and how he really explains how things get out of control. Um, and so as far as how narratives get out of control and yeah. |
| 57:43.87 | Max Shank | Oh yeah. |
| 57:56.53 | Max Shank | Yeah, he goes over it in such a calm way too. There's like humor in it and he's like yeah of course then this happens and you know he's just talking about like horrible things. Ah that are happening but he's doing it in a very lighthearted manner which I like. |
| 57:59.43 | mikebledsoe | Super cool. Yeah, he's chuckling the whole time. |
| 58:12.91 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's It's really nice to have someone who's ah like an M D Ph D That's confirming some of ah your biases. But. |
| 58:15.51 | Max Shank | It makes you feel a little bit less alone doesn't it. |
| 58:27.45 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 58:31.62 | mikebledsoe | Um, let's see we'll do a couple more books and then I'll ah we'll put the rest on the blog that doesn't exist yet. So but I may if it if it does exist and you're listening to this I'll put it here at the end. |
| 58:44.94 | Max Shank | It after. |
| 58:50.58 | mikebledsoe | I haven't bought the domain yet I don't think. |
| 58:51.48 | Max Shank | You don't want to read too many books either. You want to read a few good ones and then reread them and take good notes about them and write in the margins I mean here's a quick intermission you got to rewrite these ideas in your own words if you want to remember them. |
| 58:58.79 | mikebledsoe | That's true. |
| 59:07.93 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 59:10.61 | Max Shank | Go ahead and and make notes inside of the book too. That's what those little margins are for it might not be what they're for, but that use the margins to highlight things and yeah exactly I used to try to keep them really pristine now I just write all over them because it makes you. |
| 59:19.20 | mikebledsoe | It's your book. You can do whatever you want. |
| 59:27.52 | Max Shank | Ah, helps you remember the information a lot better. |
| 59:28.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, um, yeah let's do 1 more each and then we'll call it a day ah and outwitting the devil was would be ah another 1 at top of my list and outwitting the devil. Is by Napoleon hill he wrote how to think and grow rich. Ah rich. You know that's what he's most known for because that book was published maybe in what the thirty s or forty s and it's been commonly referenced if I go to a business networking. |
| 59:57.97 | Max Shank | Something like that long time ago. |
| 01:00:06.27 | Max Shank | It's still a good buck. It's still a good book. |
| 01:00:06.83 | mikebledsoe | Event. It's people are referencing it all the time and it's practically a hundred years old. And yeah, so that's thing and grow rich is what he's known for. There's a book called outwitting the devil that he wrote back in the thirty s |
| 01:00:11.94 | Max Shank | Hundred years later almost amazing. |
| 01:00:26.60 | mikebledsoe | Early forty s and never was published until 2009 and when you read the book. You'll understand why it wasn't published and in fact, it required him passing and I think 1 of his children passing before it could. |
| 01:00:26.70 | Max Shank | Um, ah, whoa. |
| 01:00:45.85 | mikebledsoe | See the light of day and so the book is called outwitting the devil and it is quite the commentary on human nature and on culture as a whole and how ah groups of people. Um. Behave and how the majority of people are just drifting through life and if you're just drifting the devil has got yeah and talks about how to think for yourself and has warnings about different things to come and. Which there's some. There's a lot of really insightful and interesting things in that book I enjoyed reading it every book I've mentioned so far I smiled I giggled I I I got excited as I read these books so I hope you do too all right? come by. But your last 1 max. |
| 01:01:45.14 | Max Shank | Outwitting the devil out outwitting the devil itself sounds kind of like outwitting yourself was the first thing I thought when you even said the title. Um, so I read ah I read a comic book. It was ah I think it was the the the prehistory of the far side by Gary larson. The guy who did the far side comics. Um, it was just funny is hilarious I thought those comics were really good. |
| 01:02:12.15 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 01:02:21.31 | Max Shank | I Think that the fact that he frequently switches the roles between humans and animals is really funny like when you have animals doing human-like things. It seems very absurd and quite macabre. Also and I thought that was really funny. Um another but an actual book I liked was guns germs and steel which I doubled down I doubled down ah guns germs and steel because it gives you. |
| 01:02:47.53 | mikebledsoe | Oh now you're now you're now you've got 1 up on me. |
| 01:02:58.77 | Max Shank | A little I mean I don't know if it's more honest like where I'm at as far as history is concerned is it's just his story like whoever wins the War writes the history books So I don't really believe too much of. |
| 01:03:08.78 | mikebledsoe | Are. |
| 01:03:16.22 | Max Shank | What is told about what happened but I liked guns germs and steel because it gives a reasonable explanation for why things are the way they are now. And why some places advanced and why some places didn't I didn't agree with everything in the book. Um, but it was a really good. Ah it was a good follow up to another book I liked which was called Power Sex Suicide Mitochondria and the meaning of life so it kind of just goes. |
| 01:03:48.26 | mikebledsoe | Me. |
| 01:03:52.10 | Max Shank | Along that logical pathway and I think that sort of stuff is is just fun. It Also I don't know about you but it makes me a little more compassionate toward others especially with what we're talking about with. Outwitting the devil and there's so much pressure to fit into the group and I used to be I'm still pretty hard on myself which is fine I Guess Ah, but I used to also just think everybody was a malicious idiot and now I realize that it. It's just very uncomfortable to have this unique existence and try to fit into a group and that there's usually a reason why people are the way they are. You know if you get really good positive feedback for doing well at School. You're probably going to get good at school if you get really good positive feedback. Playing Basketball you're probably going to keep getting really good at basketball and so on and so forth so seeing things from more of a historical thing which is guns germs and steel and then seeing things from a cellular and biological standpoint power sex Suicide I think is ah. I Guess it's comforting for me to know this backstory but at the very least it's entertaining. |
| 01:05:10.22 | mikebledsoe | Love it. Yeah, 1 things that you said ah brought up for me is everybody is suffering and it's it's just something to remember your your suffering is actually not unique and people tend to to think it is. |
| 01:05:25.79 | Max Shank | Would you write a book if you weren't suffering. Why would you write a book if you weren't suffering. Yeah, that's what I'm saying like that that. |
| 01:05:29.63 | mikebledsoe | Once you realize that it's. |
| 01:05:34.35 | mikebledsoe | If you're not suffering. Why would you do anything. |
| 01:05:44.95 | Max Shank | You hear me I'm like a broken record I'm talking about hunger pain and desire all being synonymous with each other. So um, every book I've written was to ease the suffering of others because the suffering of others. Ah, is quite irksome to me I don't I don't like it when other people suffer it it hurts I'm a very empathetic person I'm like oh man, there's no reason you should be suffering like this like you don't even know why you're doing this exercise you're doing this exercise because he saw it in a magazine you haven't even considered what a human body. |
| 01:06:04.54 | mikebledsoe | Here. |
| 01:06:12.75 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 01:06:23.24 | Max Shank | Can and maybe even should be able to do as you as you age, you're just like copying the dance moves that you saw it's ridiculous. So That's ah, that's kind of where I come at I mean everything I've written was to. Ultimately ease suffering and I think that's why people write stuff at All. It's a very compassionate thing that we do and I think that compassion is what um ties us together intergenerationally and that's what allows us to write these things and have. Have a hope that they will ah be useful to our our family right. |
| 01:07:05.69 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah let's let's wrap it up. Um I'll go first and you know what make sure you're reading things that you enjoy because you probably already know enough of what you need, um, and. Ah, don't worry about how many books you're reading enjoy the process digest it learning as behavior change implement before going and consuming a bunch of new information. Um, understand why you're reading the book. Why are you picking it up understanding that intention is. Is ah very necessary to get the most out of it even if it's enjoyment. So yeah, that's all I go to say about that what reading contest which want. |
| 01:07:51.15 | Max Shank | Well there goes our reading contest we were gonna do I joking we were gonna see who could read the most books next year it's not that funny. Okay, minus 1 that just. |
| 01:07:59.89 | mikebledsoe | oh oh oh oh yeah I mean ah I would just pick up a bunch of Seth godin books whop your ass eighty pages tiny 10 words per page. |
| 01:08:10.32 | Max Shank | Super short super short books I just read every Dr. Seuss books on you um fiction fiction books can help you make better decisions. That's that's a big 1 it doesn't have to be nonfiction. It doesn't have to be boring. It doesn't have to be a business book to understand. Value and scarcity and desire and human nature fiction. Books can tell a lot about that sort of thing as well. Um, read a book more than once if you like it read a chapter of a Book. Doesn't have you don't have to read the whole thing. You can just open up to a random page and you might get a spark of insight. You don't have to read the whole damn thing if you're reading a book and it sucks stop reading it? ah. |
| 01:08:59.46 | mikebledsoe | That's a big 1 I probably started more books than I finished this year |
| 01:09:03.41 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's good. Why not I mean why? why should you have to? um, rewrite the ideas in your own words. Don't don't just copy verbatim unless you're copywriting then it can be really useful and then you can ingest later from there. But. Rewrite the ideas in your own words and it's like the difference between um, just Mimicry and learning the principles. So yeah, don't get don't get caught up in how many books reread books over and over that really that you really like. Um, consider the source of course but really good ideas should be able to stand alone and. |
| 01:09:57.85 | Max Shank | That's it. Yeah, you don't you don't need to read a lot of books probably most of us have enough information. It's better for us to spend time synthesizing um and organizing the information that we have already consumed as it pertains to your own life and. Um, maybe it's time to write your own book. Even if you don't think you should. |
| 01:10:19.18 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, all right up if you can find me on Instagram mike underscore blood. So and you can go over to I have a summit coming up in March here in austin texas you can find out more information about that at where they go. Destrongcoach dot com slash summit max. |
| 01:10:41.39 | Max Shank | I am max you can find me in maxshank dot com or at Maank sometimes I hope you guys have a lovely rest of your week see you later. Love you bro. |
| 01:10:52.70 | mikebledsoe | Later. Love you bro. |
| 00:00.00 | Max Shank | Hello everybody welcome back to the max and mike Monday morning podcast today I'm pretty excited because we're going to talk about choices. We're going to talk about the difference between a mistake and an error and we're going to talk about the difference between a good choice. And a good outcome and you might think those are the same thing but actually they are not. You can make a good choice and have a bad outcome. You can make a bad choice and have a good outcome and if you want learning to really take place. It's very important to understand the difference between those. So. If you listen up today I'm confident that we're all going to make better choices that give us the result that we're looking for so thanks for tuning in mikey good to see you. |
| 00:48.15 | mikebledsoe | Good to see you? Yeah 1 of the reasons we chose this topic and by the way we usually choose the topic about 5 to ten minutes before we hit the record button and um, yeah I did a a mushroom ceremony a few days ago where. I was basically shown all the mistakes that I'm still paying for in my life right now. So as max had ah guessed accurately was I had my own personal hell for about 3 hours and it was. |
| 01:06.73 | Max Shank | Um, now. |
| 01:23.48 | mikebledsoe | Even though it was my own person at hell for a few hours it was really enlightening and and getting very ah getting to be at peace with what I had was witnessing as mistakes I'd made that I was currently paying for and also ah. Experiencing a lot of sadness around it and then by the next morning feeling a little better about it by the next the morning after that feeling even better and having an action plan on how I can more methodically pay off those. Mistakes or errors more quickly so I can get on with my life because yeah, as much as we would like to for me, it's it's as if I I've learned the lesson that came with oh that was i. |
| 02:03.19 | Max Shank | A. |
| 02:20.38 | mikebledsoe | Did not get the outcome I was looking for there that was not what I wanted to happen and I learned that years ago, but my bank account is still having to you know is money's being siphoned off for those mistakes. Even years later even though the lessons been learned so it's ah. It's an interesting life process that we're all in where we usually pay for those mistakes a little longer than we'd like to. |
| 02:48.17 | Max Shank | Always longer than we like to ah personally I want no negative consequences for any of my actions. But I think you bring up a good point because making choices is actually the only thing that we do. Everything is outsourced from choice making right? So. The only thing that we personally do is make choices even if that choice is to raise your arm up in the air you are making the choice but then your body It's getting outsourced to your body and then your body does that little task and. You know I'm pretty critical of all forms of media including podcasts because I think most media is a colossal waste of time now. That being said I think you can basically split up content. Into 2 categories better choice making which would be learning and entertainment and that's all if what you're consuming informationally content wise is not helping you better make better choices. Then it better be entertaining at least Otherwise what the hell are you doing and since that's entertainment.. That's that's 1 hundred percent ah mental masturbation like I don't like to watch horror movies but tons of people do so. |
| 04:07.71 | mikebledsoe | So I just want to be scared. Yeah, that's true. |
| 04:19.24 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 04:22.32 | Max Shank | Once again I'm not really into Kink shaming So like whatever you want to do to get your rocks off. But I think it's important to not pretend. It's something different and there's a lot of time invested into mental masturbation and if you think about. Differentiating between. Okay I'm going to consume this information so that I make better choices or I'm just going to flat out entertain myself. So It's important I think to not confuse those 2 things and for me. It's actually quite liberating because that itself is a valuable decision that enables me to be more mindful with what I'm doing.. There's no pretension for me when I'm consuming information I'm either consuming this because I think it's going to help me make better choices in the Future. Going to give me more of the results that I'm after or I'm just entertaining myself and it doesn't matter. Ah what your flavor is, but it's entertainment and then you also don't feel like oh I'm always I'm always trying to. |
| 05:29.24 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 05:35.82 | Max Shank | Learn new things. It's like yeah you know some of the stuff I learn. It's not really practical right now. But of course you never know. |
| 05:43.21 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I mean what you're getting at there is ah your you're intentional. You're intentional about oh I'm going to sit down and be entertained. Um, yeah. |
| 05:55.57 | Max Shank | And there's no shame there. There's no shame there. Whatever you like. |
| 05:59.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, my my intention a lot of times is to is to play. My intention is to let loose have a good time and play you know sometimes you know in the the plant Medicine Psychedelic World Community There's always this. |
| 06:06.25 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 06:18.99 | mikebledsoe | There's this heavy emphasis on setting an intention before you you take your get into take your substance and get into your experience and for years my intention was always to learn something and to get something out of it and then over time I go oh my intention. |
| 06:31.44 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 06:38.85 | mikebledsoe | 1 of the things I learned during during a ceremony is I go oh I can ah my intention could to be to enjoy myself and to play and that is just as valuable as anything else. |
| 06:45.70 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 06:51.76 | Max Shank | That in itself is a very valuable decision. Um I was mentioning to you before we hit record that I've been really getting into tennis a lot lately. I actually have a lesson on Wednesday with a guy who trains at my gym. Juan. And he's awesome and 1 of the most valuable pieces of information I learned about tennis is that there's a very important decision before you hit every ball and so we played we did this drill. And it was called offense defense and before you start your swing that is the first choice you have to make am I going to hit this ball offensively or am I gonna hit this ball defensively. And now when I'm playing matches I notice if I make a mistake with that choice right away I'll be like ah that should have been a defensive shot where I'll go oh I had time for that to be an offensive shot so that has been a huge improvement. |
| 07:57.29 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 08:06.53 | Max Shank | In my overall game because now there's no confusion as to the first choice that needs to be made I need to quickly decide. Okay do I have the opportunity to attack this ball offensively or is it important to. Hit a defensive shot so I can keep the rally going so I have time to maybe get an offensive opportunity later because tennis is 1 of the few. Yes, definitely tennis is 1 of those few sports where if you make an error. Ah your opponent gets a point. |
| 08:29.47 | mikebledsoe | Or a better 1 |
| 08:41.14 | Max Shank | You know in a lot of other sports if you make an error you don't necessarily get punished with a point loss immediately. But if you miss a shot in tennis your opponent actually gets a point so you speaking of paying for mistakes you pay for every error that you make. |
| 08:56.77 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well 1 of the things you said before we hopped on as well was ah we don't make mistakes we only make choices and a mistake is something that we can only look back on and notice and go oh and then which which. Occurs to me as you're just judging the choice because you didn't get the outcome. You're looking for and then that yeah, it's labeled retroactively and then ah going and then you continue to say something else, but this ties into what we. |
| 09:19.90 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's labeled retroactively. |
| 09:32.97 | mikebledsoe | 1 of the things we were talking about last show and that is making the right choice. None of is the last show or 1 of the previous shows making the right choice may not result in the desired outcome and so so. |
| 09:46.68 | Max Shank | Exactly. |
| 09:51.49 | mikebledsoe | You know, ah putting all the weight of a single choice for a specific outcome is is probably it experience. You're probably experiencing a little bit of tunnel vision because there's so many things that contribute to the outcome where outcomes. Ah and it's ah yeah, just. Got me thinking more and more about okay I've made choices which didn't give me the outcomes I desired and now I'm paying for them and and my judgment of those is to call it a mistake but it's also good for me to look back and go yeah that was I won't make a choice. Ah, all all. When I'm making choices that are like this I'm going to have to consider all these things that it becomes more obvious the things I didn't consider as I made those choices. |
| 10:38.80 | Max Shank | Absolutely and it also speaks to the heart of where I've been able to actually find some compassion because I used to think most people were just Evil Idiots. Ah, which is not like the most positive way to view the world. But I realize that everybody is always doing their best based on how they think and feel at the time. So based on the information they have available to them and based on their current state of mind. They're always making the best choice they can think of now a lot of times people make. Choices with their lizard brain only So they're not maybe using their full faculties but based on the tools that were available to them in that Moment. We're always making the best choice we have available and it's easy to. Judge other people because we don't really know their experience. So I think that I think that's really huge like you will be able to live a more comfortable life If You realize that people are doing the best with the faculties that are available to them. |
| 11:54.32 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 11:54.53 | Max Shank | In that moment and then you'll also be a lot more forgiving of yourself because um I can certainly speak from my own experience. But I think a lot of people who try to be high. Achievers are often very hard on themselves. And really, um, relive every mistake lots and lots of times because you're like oh I Just don't want to make that mistake again. I don't want to make that wrong choice again. So You'll be more forgiving of yourself. You'll be more compassionate of other people. And if you do that then you're going to be more in ah a love vibration instead of a fear and maybe even loathing vibration and of course then you also get to make better choices because as I said people always make the best choice based on how they think and feel. At the time. So if you feel afraid if you feel hateful if you feel judgmental you're not going to make as good a choices you're going to make Lizard brain choices. |
| 13:00.92 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 13:07.63 | Max Shank | Um, as far as the right choice but wrong outcome. Um I'll use tennis as another example so you have 2 things you have deployment and execution deployment is. What you choose to do and when you choose to do it. Execution is how you did it. So if I try to deploy an offensive shot at the right time. But I Miss. That would just be a problem with my execution. So the the way I did it wasn't very good. How I executed that decision was wrong and if you break up these choices into deployment and execution. Then you know where to correct it for next time. Because it's a totally different thing to make an error in deployment which is making the wrong choice versus an error in execution which is the skill that you used was inadequate to capitalize on the on the correct choice. |
| 14:15.50 | mikebledsoe | Go when I hear when they hear you say deployment I think strategy that it's the Ah how am I going to accomplish this this goal. |
| 14:28.48 | Max Shank | It's what you choose to do and when and the execution is the how you do it. So if you if if you deploy ah a punch at the right time if you choose a? ah. |
| 14:32.55 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 14:44.17 | Max Shank | You know the correct punch and you deploy it at the right time but you you do it too weekly or something like that or you do it too slowly or you're just off Target that would be an error. And the execution even though the choice that you made was correct. So I think of it as deployment is what and when and execution is how yeah. |
| 15:01.29 | mikebledsoe | Ah e. |
| 15:09.43 | mikebledsoe | I like that I like that well going back to that thinking about the high performers I imagine there's quite a few high performers that listen to this and going back in and dwelling on Mistakes. Ah. I I think ah so it can be a gift because that that can create a hyper performer and you just hyper analyze things. The drawback to that is all the emotional experience that comes with that or usually the emotional experience that drives that it's this It's this dwelling or this addiction to feeling that guilt and I know that's something that I dealt with at 1 point where I overindulged in feelings of guilt and ah which is really strange because if you were to ask you know people on. And a quick survey. You know, do you dwell on guilt or happiness more like wow it makes sense to dwell on being happy. But that's not necessarily the case and so there was a time in my life where I I dwelt on guilt and that. That was what was driving a lot of the the dwelling on the mistakes from the past and making sure I didn't make those same mistakes twice. So it's 1 of those things where it really was had a negative impact on the quality of my life in the moment but for but it did. Turn into a productive ah exercise now. The trick is and 1 of the things that I've learned over time is yeah, there's a lot of gifts that were given from these emotional states that cause a lot of stress or maybe aren't really that useful in in them in a. And themselves. But the product is good and so what I've learned to do better now I wouldn't say out I'm really great at it. But what I've learned to do better now is let's go okay, that was a mistake I can feel sad about making that mistake if I haven't felt it all the way through yet. But instead of instead of dwelling on it because I feel like shit but going back and being analytical and and feeling happy and feeling really excited. So 1 of the experiences I've had over the weekend is I'm really excited to put some changes in my life in order to avoid. Ah, you know making those mistakes in the future and it's you know you're doing it well because if you can get out of that lizard brain and go into the wizard wizard brain then you can come out with very ah, let's say. |
| 17:57.28 | mikebledsoe | Ah, practical things that you can do. They're going to ensure that you don't have to experience that again and then you can skip that and enjoy the success that you're looking for. |
| 18:07.94 | Max Shank | I Think you said a phrase that really speaks volumes which is you are indulging in feelings of guilt which it sounds like a ridiculous phrase. But but if you have ah. |
| 18:16.25 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 18:25.46 | Max Shank | Ego self-image that thinks of yourself a certain Way. You're going to reinforce those currently held Beliefs. So I think that's extremely common, especially if you think of yourself as someone who does make good choices. And if you think of yourself as someone who is smart and conscientious and aware of things. It's going to hurt twice as bad if you make an incorrect choice. |
| 18:57.70 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah, well yeah, because now you know you make yourself pay for it in ways that you don't They're completely unnecessary. |
| 19:05.73 | Max Shank | And it kind of comes back to the emotion side of things I think of enthusiasm as social energy enthusiasm is a power in and of itself. You know there are you have force equals mass times acceleration you have work ah force times distance powers ah work over time you have all these different physics equations but enthusiasm which comes from being possessed by Spirit. Is an energy that is completely unique and it's the catalyst for a higher level of action because Hunger is the ultimate motivator right. And pain is a form of hunger so you can be operating from a place of deep hunger or even fear perhaps but when you're enthusiastic It's almost the same sort of desire which is another synonym for pain. But it's got to love. Vibration to it. So when you're operating from an enthusiastic place. You're look I don't know maybe you're gonna triple your output. You're gonna light a fire in other people like you wouldn't otherwise um. You're definitely 1 of those people who gets people excited about things like you're ah you're definitely an idea machine and you know you've called me several times over the years and I'll be like god damn that's a dumb idea and but but but even so. And you've also come to me with like a lot of brilliant ideas too. Don't give me ah, don't get me wrong here. But um, what I notice is the level of enthusiasm is contagious like I feel myself getting excited. |
| 21:14.35 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 21:15.33 | Max Shank | You know what I'm saying so that enthusiasm comes from being in a good place emotionally and as far as you know reliving the hell of your bad choices. Um, it is kind of like how we said. Depression is a luxury too being sad is a luxury like all these things are luxuries that are only available to you if you actually have all your physical needs. Met so ah. |
| 21:33.94 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 21:46.56 | Max Shank | You know the same thing if you can get to that place where you're enthusiastic. Which means that you're not punishing yourself for the past and letting your past ruin your present and future and if you find something where you can be enthusiastic about. You know sharing what you have with others you're going to make better choices and even if the choices um maybe aren't as good now I I still think. Ah, Overall you're going to make better choices if you're enthusiastic about it. You know you don't want to act too rashly I guess that would maybe be the only consideration ah with hyper enthusiasm. |
| 22:29.32 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think there's yeah well I'll speak of my own personal experience. Ah I am I'm a very enthusiastic person I I do get excited about a lot of different. Things and I get excited about my own ideas I get excited about other people's ideas or projects and um because of that I I attract a lot of people coming to me with their ideas and and looking for help and 1 of the things that I've noticed over the years is the majority of my. Some of my ideas are bad. Some of them are good and some of them are bad just because they're not for me to do I think I think a lot of my idea probably most of them are good just not for me. They're good for somebody to do ah and. |
| 23:14.32 | Max Shank | Right? um. |
| 23:20.58 | mikebledsoe | 1 things I've had to learn is that because it's easy for me to influence other people's enthusiasm and their behavior and getting them involved is there's been times where I have people on my team I get enthused about something I start talking about it. And I'm not telling anyone to do anything about it I'm just sharing the idea and then a few days goes by and I have a check in with the team and they've taken action on whatever it is I was I was discussing an idea with them and I and I was like fuck. We just wasted a few days of work because I actually didn't want. |
| 23:51.15 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 23:58.54 | mikebledsoe | Um, never even intended for you to take action on this was even my intention and now we are here we are going down this track and so I've I've had to learn how to um, be enthusiastic find specific people in my life I can share those ideas with that are not. Working for me or with me ah and to flesh them out and then I've also gotten a lot better about having ideas come in and go yeah, we'll just let that 1 I'll write it down the book write down the journal and then ah maybe I'll come back to it. You know, 2 or 3 days go by and I go. |
| 24:31.66 | Max Shank | And. |
| 24:37.50 | mikebledsoe | Yeah,, don't really want to do that. But it was cool to to dream about it. So That's just ah, yeah, little little little things that I Found. It's also good to remember for people who may not share the same trade I have but do get enthused by other people. Somebody who has a lot of Charisma comes by and gets people all hyped up and for something for an idea. It's also good to check in with yourself is like is this is this the idea that I'm supposed to be involved with right now or am I just getting caught up in the enthusiasm and in The. Charisma of this person. |
| 25:17.20 | Max Shank | Yeah, and I'm almost the opposite like 1 of the services I offer is dream killing because I think that you can spend you can waste a lot of time going for something that isn't really a good fit for you or a really good. Ah, overall idea if you're overenthusiastic. However I come back to enthusiasm being social energy and who better to use and as as an example than Richard simmons sweating to the oldies like. When I was in my early twenty s I would like make fun of that sort of thing but dude richard simmons has helped more people get up off the couch than I have probably by a factor of a thousand or more. |
| 25:53.68 | mikebledsoe | Me. |
| 26:08.10 | Max Shank | And it's because he's just so Enthused. He's so excited about them dancing around in their living room and sweating to the oldies and so you can have what I would argue is a suboptimal product. But if you have that charismatic enthusiastic. Um, leader It doesn't even matter. In fact I would rather be invested into that business than someone who's got all of their kinesiology doctorates in order. Doing the perfect exercise. |
| 26:45.77 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I've I've witnessed that I ah ah traveled to travel the world finding the best of the best and kind of really figuring out that a lot of the people who have the best product or service. |
| 26:50.31 | Max Shank | Oh yeah, yeah, I've seen it tons of times. |
| 27:05.60 | mikebledsoe | Get very little attention and people who get the most attention you know will have a mediocre product or service. |
| 27:05.98 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 27:12.37 | Max Shank | They're in the basement pouring over the research papers while the ah dumb guys giving out high fives. Ah, after every set of burpees. You know it's like people people are like that people are like that. |
| 27:27.50 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well this why I like them I like to partner with people who are on the other side of the spectrum because if you is where partnership comes in really really handy is if you have if you have 1 person who's ah. |
| 27:37.56 | Max Shank | Huge. |
| 27:44.82 | mikebledsoe | The Enthusiast and the other person who is the what what would you? How would we want to categorize this other person. |
| 27:50.00 | Max Shank | Well I think I'm the other person so it's like how would I want to categorize myself. |
| 27:54.65 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that sound like you were calling yourself the dream Killer but. |
| 27:58.48 | Max Shank | The other guy the Dream Killer Sometimes Dream killing can be the absolute best thing a person needs like I will happily support a dream where I can see the benefit from it. But I think you you want both you want someone? you know my 1 of my friends used to say I was a sharpshooter That's what he would call me like I would just look at every potential flaw or weakness in the idea and do that with myself too. So It's not like I'm just a sadistic. Dude like trying to do it to I'm not just kill I'm killing most of my own dreams too mind you? Yeah yeah I Guess it's just. |
| 28:39.90 | mikebledsoe | He's also a masochist. |
| 28:48.49 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's It's the same way that I train myself and my clients like a lot of it is looking for weak points and not just reinforcing strengths. |
| 29:01.69 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I mean that goes would use so talk about deployment versus defense. Are you some is that right? not defense. Ah no, no, no I'm thinking about ah offense versus defense otherwise mixing those up. Ah. |
| 29:13.20 | Max Shank | Deployment versus execution offense defense. |
| 29:20.95 | mikebledsoe | So offense versus defense would you would you consider yourself somebody who is more naturally geared towards thinking of defense before offense sort of sounds like to me. |
| 29:31.31 | Max Shank | Yeah, 100 percent um 1 of the axioms I kind of live by is why risk what you need for what you don't need and I am 1 of those people who will be I can be really patient. |
| 29:39.71 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 29:50.50 | Max Shank | Um, so I'll just wait for the right opportunity now when the right opportunity comes up I will attack it so aggressively that it's kind of startling in fact, but I don't feel a need to be. Dynamic all the time or attacking all the time because I've recognized that if you are patient enough just like in jujitsu position before a submission like I'll just wait and wait and wait and when the opportunity comes then I'll go for the submission. But unless I'm just messing around with a friend I'm not going to be trying for any type of fancy aggressive Stuff. It's going to be slow methodical control control control don't risk losing position. Wait wait wait. Okay there's the position. Now boom super super offense all of the sudden. |
| 30:50.13 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I'm more naturally geared towards being on the offense I look back on my sporting career and yeah in sport and life way more on the offense ah lot of lot of swing for the fences. |
| 30:57.19 | Max Shank | No doubt. |
| 31:09.48 | mikebledsoe | A lot of failure but but also some success and I've I've noticed over the years ah is the thing that helps me out the most is to slow down and go on defense and it's it's ah it's a difficult choice for me to make to go in defense. |
| 31:19.75 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 31:27.62 | Max Shank | Not the. |
| 31:28.40 | mikebledsoe | It's not what I want to do but when I do it I So That's when I usually see really great progress or and I've learned to wait for that that moment to Strike. Ah, but when when it is time for that moment to strike there's you're saying that it's startling. How how aggressive it may come out as because I've got a lot of practice being aggressive. |
| 31:51.96 | Max Shank | Right? And there's kind of another thing to consider here too which is um I've heard it described as the strategy paradox where what works for another person would be like the worst thing you could do for yourself. |
| 32:08.76 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 32:11.50 | Max Shank | So you could be 1 of those people who wants to value invest and just purchase um shares of companies where the financials are strong. There's steady growth and you don't really go outside of your comfort zone. You're probably not going to lose all your money doing that on the other hand, you're probably not going to become very wealthy very fast because risk and reward are usually proportional to 1 another. However, if you are you know. Buying options on penny stocks with borrowed money you have a chance to maybe 10000 x your money. But you also have a chance to lose all of your money times 10 so so ah and that kind of goes along with another bias which is survivorship bias and the best example I have of that is Richard branson if you've ever read his autobiography to a more defensive minded person like myself and methodical. Just gave me like heart palpitations because every every other chapter he's like mortgaging his life away and borrowing another millions from the bank and shit's going wrong and you know he's got a music company and everything's finally going well for him. Everything's finally going well like he never had like a lot. It was always just reinvest reinvest and then things finally go well and he's on the board at virgin music. They got a ton of artists and he's like yeah so I'm gonna I'm gonna start an airline I got to buy a. An airplane and I need another 1 hundred million dollars. So I'm going to start selling stock and borrowing and his partners in the music company wanted to kill him they they hated him they hated him. He's like they hated me and. |
| 34:16.78 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah. |
| 34:21.28 | Max Shank | The first test flight ah he like hit a goose or a duck so he needed another fifty million dollars to fix this plane like a 7 forty 7 or something like that. So now he's he's. You know he owes 1 hundred million or something to the bank of England or whatever it was I think it was like the Royal bank of england and he's just like begging them to give him more time and it worked out for him. But anyway, that's the survivorship bias just because it worked out for him. There. Ah, 110000 guys who made similar choices who lost everything so you can't necessarily mimic that and think that you're going to get a better result, especially if it doesn't match your personality type either. |
| 35:05.49 | mikebledsoe | Well you you got to consider you know Richard branson he he likely thrives in chaos and so having that that stress is something that that causes him to to get shit done that needs to get done whereas. A lot of people would collapse. Um, there's ah, there's there's 2 other personality types. This makes me think about and 1 is ah when when if 1 personality is which is which is me if you're really far ahead. |
| 35:25.42 | Max Shank | And. |
| 35:44.16 | mikebledsoe | Plenty of money's coming in. Everything's going great all that I have this tendency to want to take my foot off the gas I celebrate the victory. It's like okay life is good. Let's let's do something with this money. Let's let's you know, chill out and. The other personality is somebody who who is ahead and that's motivating like oh we're ahead. Let's get more ahead and more ahead and more ahead. But the flip side of that is it. This is probably where Richard brenson and I have something in common which is if you're behind the 8 ball That's when shit's getting done. That's what I'm making moves highly motivated logging the hours I need to be hyper focused on the things that actually matter not all this other bullshit in the business that that may be just a waste of time. |
| 36:25.60 | Max Shank | Further. |
| 36:38.56 | mikebledsoe | Um, really gets hyper focusedcused and then that person that really enjoys being ahead and is really motivated when when things are going well a lot of times that personal collapse in that space and they they're just kind of like give up and so I've been in situations where um. Been on teams where ah things are going when things are going well people are unhappy with me like why isn't mike doing more to help us keep getting ahead and and then when she hits the fan. They're like mike what do we do and I'm like okay I'm taking over everything. |
| 37:01.96 | Max Shank | That. |
| 37:13.95 | mikebledsoe | Um, now it's like command and control. There's a military operation. We're gonna We're gonna make these moves and so in in the funny thing is is part of me hates putting myself in those positions but the other part of me loves it. It's exhilarating. |
| 37:16.49 | Max Shank | The. |
| 37:31.90 | mikebledsoe | It's like ah this is what life is about like let's fuck shit up. You know so it's it's a very interesting thing to keep in mind and also know who you are in those situations because 1 of once I got hit to that knowledge I started saying oh I don't need to put my. |
| 37:33.49 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 37:48.81 | mikebledsoe | Business partners and loved ones through this stress I may find it exhilarating but they don't fucking like it and it's not good for them and it's probably not good for the business either. So really learning to honor both types and use both types when necessary and not needing to get. |
| 37:55.50 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 38:07.96 | mikebledsoe | Really far into the extreme of 1 or the other um and that's probably what leads to getting into an extreme or 1 or the others you go too far to the extreme of 1 and then the pendulum will swing so going right back to doo de jing right? like the middle way. |
| 38:18.72 | Max Shank | You know you know it makes me think of something I believe is very important which. I think is hard for people to understand and if you are locked into a mission. You're trying to figure out how much you can do. And if you're looking for a retirement business or an income. You're trying to look for for financial Freedom You're trying to find out how little you can do and that is a huge difference and. Tying it back to choices. Maybe it's not that hard to understand. Actually maybe it's simple to understand if you have a clear Mission. You're gonna be trying to do as much as possible with that mission. If you are just looking to free yourself Financially, you're going to be looking to do as little as possible and if you have a clear mission choices will come much more easily because they should all be pointing in the same direction and that's where that. Ah, enthusiasm which is possessed by spirit comes in even more handy is now everything every decision you make is pointed toward that singular point of focus and it goes back to what we were saying about having your focus be dissipated. Into more of a lantern versus a laser beam where you're hyper focused on 1 thing. So I think that's a huge distinction is um, mission versus ah, let's say a financial goal because with that you're going to be trying to do as little as you can. Um. |
| 40:19.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, but. |
| 40:25.33 | Max Shank | Like that's my goal for investing of course like I'm not trying to do as much as possible I'm trying to do as little work as possible but have as clear and consistent a reward as possible versus our mission here to enable people to free themselves and make better choices. Which has a network effect. That's more about seeing how much we can do right? It's totally different. |
| 40:48.69 | mikebledsoe | yeah yeah yeah I um spend the majority of my life on the mission side and it it was interesting. It's been interesting because hearing you say that. How many times I set financial goals because I just felt like we're supposed to set financial goals and the financial goals revolved more around if we do this much then we can make this much impact in the way that we want and in the last few years it's become much more become much more on the. |
| 41:09.49 | Max Shank | The. |
| 41:17.40 | Max Shank | And. |
| 41:24.10 | mikebledsoe | How can I do less and ah make as much money as possible doing as little as possible and so I think the the balance there's a balance on those 2 as well is can can you be conducting and. |
| 41:24.35 | Max Shank | Okay, the. |
| 41:30.60 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 41:42.87 | mikebledsoe | And activities conducting activities with as little effort as possible that have a meaningful outcome and that way you can check both boxes which is the financial freedom box as well as the mission box and I see that a lot of people have ah. Don't see how they can do both and a lot of people walk away from a lot of money because they want to be more purpose driven and they actually associate the the making of money as something that's taking away from their purpose which you know. |
| 42:03.10 | Max Shank | A. |
| 42:19.54 | mikebledsoe | Their attraction to it might be the thing that is but but I'm a firm believer and what I've been experiencing is high high mission orientation but also holding at the same time. These things could be. Ah, paradoxical to some people which is ah you know, being on mission and how do I create financial freedom for myself. My family and work as little as possible. |
| 42:48.90 | Max Shank | I think the best way to get to the heart of that discrepancy is to focus on even trades like a win-win situation because if you put yourself into a position where you're just sacrificing. There's not going to be It's not a 2 way street. Basically so if you are dedicated to a mission but you're also selling that service for a price that you believe is worth it to you and makes it worth it to them. That's where you can have mission and financial goals kind of coincide I think. |
| 43:32.39 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, you got it I mean I've been in the place where I invested reinvested all my money into the business and wasn't looking out for myself at all and and turned into a lot of sacrifice which just turned into ah an unsustainable way of living because. Moment The business didn't do well I wasn't doing well and it's hard to make good business decisions when you're experiencing financial scarcity and yeah, yeah, so. |
| 44:02.85 | Max Shank | And gambling they say you're on Tilt so you make bad choices I always take half my chips off the table before I move on to the next thing I never but but also I'm I'm limiting how much I could earn so. |
| 44:10.44 | mikebledsoe | So I That's a good idea. |
| 44:18.66 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 44:22.33 | Max Shank | It's just you got to figure out your appetite for risk and that's a whole that's a whole other thing. |
| 44:25.44 | mikebledsoe | Well 1 thing I noticed is when I started looking out in taking care of my own position better I made so much better decisions for the business or businesses if I'm comfortable I can make good decisions if I'm not then then I may make. You know something that makes more money in the month this month but doesn't set us up for success in 1 2 3 years |
| 44:47.85 | Max Shank | I Only ever wanted freedom from the time I was very young kid I didn't realize I also wanted love but I didn't really just I didn't see that path So I want love and freedom and money is really just a means to buy freedom. |
| 45:04.39 | mikebledsoe | Is. |
| 45:06.97 | Max Shank | And I think you you can have ah the most important thing is is fuck you money where you just have the freedom to say no to anything you have the freedom to say no to opportunities to requests to threats to. To whatever you're just like ah no and you don't even have to be ah like smarter once you get to that point you just it's like playing home run derby at that point. But there's no penalty for not taking a swing like you are just doing everything from that position of fuck you. So you don't have to um, be blinded by the lizard brain. You can really just let the wizard take charge there when you're in that fuck you money type of position now. There's another level which is fuck me money which is where you can like Torpedo. Yourself your street credibility. You can literally just say whatever you want, you can get excommunicated from society and then you'll like still be okay, um, and that's that's a whole other thing where people where people have so much. They're just like yeah I'll I'll totally destroy. Ah. Myself full on character assassination because I just don't care. |
| 46:25.72 | mikebledsoe | Who was it Um, the guy who did all the virus software. Ah, ah, the kaffy I think I think he experienced that fuck me. Ah I mean I mean he did end up in he then and end up in jail. |
| 46:34.33 | Max Shank | Mccaffy. Yeah yeah, guy was an animal that was a scary thing. |
| 46:45.34 | mikebledsoe | But ah as a very interesting and anyone wants to go look up his story I don't know where to look it up because I've I've been following it from many different perspectives. But ah yeah, he's 1 of those guys that made fuck me money was living abroad and was. Pulling all sorts of shenanigans and even after his death. It looks like he's pulled some shenanigans. There's been things are being released in the wake of his death. So It's a. |
| 47:05.00 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 47:12.45 | Max Shank | Yeah, apparently he had like a lot of information that was very incriminating about certain things within the United states and the the powers that be. |
| 47:16.99 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 47:30.79 | Max Shank | As they say yeah. |
| 47:32.89 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, so yeah I like that. Well I think um, you know, maybe that should be that could be a course fuck you money is ah it's a. |
| 47:42.89 | Max Shank | Fuck you money I'm surprised. That's not already a thing because if you think about it. There is no other reason to get it like you people want security. Yeah, but freedom is the ability to say no, That's all. That's what freedom to me. That's how you could boil it down Freedom is the ability to say no because if you're addicted to something it means you're enslaved by it means you can't say no to it anymore whether it's a substance a person which is like a different type of codependency. Um, whatever. If You can't say no, you're enslaved and we're enslaved by all sorts of things and it's okay to be enslaved by you know I'm a slave to Oxygen and water and food. But I Really think the. Core of freedom is the ability to say no. |
| 48:41.43 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think that's that's a spot on I mean there's. |
| 48:46.55 | Max Shank | We could call it. No thank you money if we wanted to have it be like a little bit kinder. |
| 48:51.24 | mikebledsoe | If we can if we if we want to run ads to it on facebook. |
| 48:55.58 | Max Shank | How to how to get? No thank you money. |
| 48:59.74 | mikebledsoe | Ah, doesn't have the right ring man I'm not sure that's going to stick. Yeah, that's ah, that's an important thing and ah that freedom is the ability to say no, it's that's that's an extremely powerful comment. |
| 49:03.59 | Max Shank | It's not the same as fuck you money. |
| 49:18.91 | mikebledsoe | That's because it's not just about money having enough money to say no to anybody. That's that's definitely a lot of Freedom. The the freedom to say no somebody you know is wanting to do something to you or asking you to do anything the ability to say no is freedom if if you're being. If you if that the ability to say no is is removed then yeah, you're a slave makes perfect sense. Yeah. |
| 49:47.16 | Max Shank | Substances and peep substances relationships too right? You know you get a you get a craving for the demon rum and you can't say no then you're not really free of it. |
| 49:59.16 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well, this also makes me think about boundaries and and ah and you know the word sovereignty comes up and it used to be that the only sovereign beings that existed on the planet were royalty and so there was. |
| 50:15.11 | Max Shank | Center up. |
| 50:18.20 | mikebledsoe | There's a couple of you know there's a family that were all sovereign which meant the rules didn't really apply to them and then there was everybody else that that was underneath them like that like the Queen of england still doesn't follow doesn't the rules don't apply to her to even to this day. So. Ah. |
| 50:37.16 | Max Shank | Wouldn't it be amazing if she just started like a Jack the ripper like serial killing spree in England or something like that. She just went out and started murdering. |
| 50:45.16 | mikebledsoe | I think she's on her last leg I don't know if that's gonna be possible, but ah, the well the idea of like I mean that was the the idea of the founding in the United states was more of bringing sovereignty to the individual and. When I think about. So yeah, it's all about saying no. |
| 51:05.18 | Max Shank | It's all about saying no, it's all about resolving. It's all it's all about resolving conflict on an individual basis like the free speech is basically the right to say no firearms is basically the right to force the issue. No. |
| 51:15.58 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, yeah, and well I think about Sovereignty I think about royalty and 1 of the things that that kings and. |
| 51:26.38 | Max Shank | Even the third amendment even the third amendment is no. You troops can't stay at my fucking house. The fourth is no. You can't search my shit. The fifth is no I don't have to say a god damn thing like it's all about. |
| 51:32.63 | mikebledsoe | Right? right? yeah. |
| 51:43.28 | Max Shank | Freedom is all about no. |
| 51:43.36 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right beautifully said so I think about Sovereignty I think about kings and queens and what do kings and queens have is they have a territory and they have boundaries and and those boundaries is. |
| 51:56.79 | Max Shank | M. |
| 52:02.55 | mikebledsoe | Are set and if you cross those boundaries you're going to suffer a consequence whether those boundaries be physical boundaries as in a physical wall around a kingdom or the boundaries of of we do this and we don't do though that you know if you break this rule if you pat cross this. Conceptual Boundary then you're going to experience some type of punishment and so ah I incur that I think a lot of people don't experience freedom or the degree of freedom that they could have simply because they don't know how to they don't even recognize their own boundaries. Ah, usually they don't recognize that their boundaries been crossed until after it's been crossed and it was crossed because they didn't know it was a boundary and so they never communicated it So It's it's your duty if you want to be free. It is your duty to. Communicate those boundaries in a way that people can hear them and then if they cross them after you tell them don't cross this boundary and that is impeding on your own on your shit then you know the use of force is is what may be necessary and is. |
| 53:12.13 | Max Shank | Where do you think we got the phrase draw a line in the sand That's literally drawing a boundary as an actual line that you are drawing. |
| 53:16.89 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, is there? Yeah yeah, you've crossed this line I'm gonna punch you in the throat. So. |
| 53:29.14 | Max Shank | And what you said there is key to because it's not just for physical. It's for energetic stuff too and I'm I'm sure I've talked about this a few times most of the stuff you hear me say that sounds. Really wise or something I've probably written down like a Hundred times. So. It's not like I'm just coming up with this stuff off the cuff be like oh wow that guys. no no I just write down a lot of stuff. Ah energy vampireism. You know where people are trying to get free psychic energy from you from. Unloading all their problems on you trying to get sympathy or complaining or whatever. Ah, just like the mythology of um, actual vampires. They cannot come inside your house unless you invite them in same thing with energy vampires. Unless you invite it in they can't get any of that free psychic energy from you I'm notoriously bad at listening to complaining because I don't tolerate it I draw a boundary to it because on the 1 hand. Yes. Every complaint is a request. But if you actually have a request then it's not complaining anymore. You're asking for help. You're asking for advice I'm 1 hundred percent down to get with that. But I'm not going to be the I'm not going to be the victim of. |
| 54:59.19 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 54:59.44 | Max Shank | Energy Vampurism and I think a lot of people don't draw those boundaries because they're afraid to they're afraid to just say stop. You know like I don't want you to keep talking at me like this because they're afraid like oh they won't like them anymore or whatever. |
| 55:15.91 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, a lot of people I've had to learn how to draw boundaries people don't complain to me either. Um I've had family members start to complain to me. Ah, and I remember a few years ago I got very. Strict around the boundaries around that and there' was a couple of my my family members had reached out or I was having dinner with somebody and I was like I'm just not gonna talk about this? Ah, ah, yeah, I'm not gonna sit here and listen to um, gossip and and they go. You know of course and like I'm not gossiping I'm like it's gossip and I'm not gonna I don't participate in it and ah it it was jarring for them. Especially if you start setting boundaries that you did not previously set. |
| 56:08.61 | Max Shank | That's gonna be a shock to the system. Whoa Whoa Whoa Man What changed I did I'm not sorry, but. |
| 56:13.65 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, it's people will people have have cast you as a character in their movie and they expect that character to behave a certain way and when that character does something that's out of character it it ah causes a little. Little rift is it's like the glitch in the matrix. It's like they they start to see oh this is my movie just got fucking ah just jumped the frame I don't know what's going on and I feel threatened. You know a lot of people feel threatened by it because. |
| 56:50.73 | Max Shank | They're totally hooked expectation exactly they're hooked on predictability. It's like that quote the only reasonable man I ever met was my tailor because he took my measurements anew every time he saw me. |
| 56:51.38 | mikebledsoe | Their expectations aren't being met. |
| 57:03.86 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 57:06.50 | Max Shank | Versus everyone else. They just have their memory like oh Mike acts like this and then you're like hey I don't act like that anymore and I'm like oh my God My illusion is shattered like I don't because your brain is such a prediction machine. |
| 57:08.91 | mikebledsoe | And. |
| 57:18.36 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, it makes me think about ah the time I saw I every once in a while I'll spend some time with my ah buddies from high school I'm in ah I'm in a text message thread. But with these guys and the lives that we're living are. Very different I won't I won't say they're as different as they as they could possibly be but they're incredibly different I've I've grown a lot in a different direction and sometimes I hang out with them and I can and they want to hang out and I go hang out with them and it's it's ah it's awkward. For them. Ah a lot of because I'm comfortable with me but they start treating me and talking to me about things that I used to care about or um, they they expected me to relate to them and in an agreement on things and then I don't agree. Ah. And I want to have ah a different com. You know I take the conversation in a surprising direction and I can just watch the discomfort seeping in it's like now that they they want to hang out but now they're looking forward to me leaving. |
| 58:29.47 | Max Shank | I mean it sounds an awful lot like Gossip mike um I'm sure that I'm sure that. |
| 58:35.95 | mikebledsoe | I bring it I bring it up I bring it up to like these are these are things to expect when you set new boundaries or when you experience growth and. |
| 58:44.63 | Max Shank | Um, well when the tribe says yes and you say no, they're gonna go huh and so that's it's just another layer of freedom am I Free to say what I want am I free to do what I want and people are actually. |
| 58:50.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 59:04.56 | Max Shank | Shockingly free we are we are part time enslaved because we got to work for the man ah percentage of the year but overall historically speaking we're like crazy free. |
| 59:18.44 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, more more free than than ever before. Yeah, and then there's the yeah, the the ability to choose your freedom is extremely high. The amount of people that even understand how to choose that. That's. |
| 59:20.15 | Max Shank | As free as you choose to be really. |
| 59:37.56 | mikebledsoe | Seems to be pretty low. |
| 59:37.91 | Max Shank | Well people enslave themselves with destructive behaviors way more than other people enslave them I mean I'm I don't I guess I'm not a hardcore libertarian I'm really more of an objectivist. I guess but I do believe in free choice being a better result than centralized control. Ah 99 percent of the time just because the risk reward's not good. Um, and where was I going with that saying that we're Better. Ah. Yeah, we are way more enslaved by our own choices within our own lives than we are by some external authority like we're slaves to food. We're slaves to media. We're slaves to a dopamine loop. Within our own mind. We're slaves to a cultural norm that probably sucks. It's like oh I've been conditioned to believe this is good. So now I'm going to sacrifice a lot. To get this result that I've been told is really good. Ah college student loans. Ah the concept of ah traditional marriage has positive and Negative. Um. It there. It just goes on and on and on and on and on and so it's tricky because drugs or addictions are a type of enslavement and it's where your choice gives you a result that you. Intellectually don't want but practically you can't avoid that whether it's um, scrolling Instagram or pornography or actual like heroin or crack or something like that. Never tried crack but I've heard It's really good people sacrifice a lot so they can keep doing crack ah food. |
| 01:01:48.43 | mikebledsoe | I've heard. It's really good too I told I had someone once tell me, you should try a crack sometime just don't know where to get it more of it. You want to make sure that you only have 1 dose because if you know where to get more than you're fucked. |
| 01:02:02.63 | Max Shank | Yeah, you and I are certainly not clever enough to find crack. Are you kidding me. |
| 01:02:17.85 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 01:02:17.93 | Max Shank | I would have like a I would have like a boulder full of crack within 2 hours if it was like really the best thing ever a crack boulder but with food food and choice. That's why look I have this video. Ah. Does fasting solve everything and it's all about what we're talking about because food is the most interesting of all the drugs because it's the only thing you cannot completely abstain from like you cannot quit cold Turkey Cold Turkey It is impossible to have. |
| 01:02:48.90 | mikebledsoe | Well. |
| 01:02:56.49 | Max Shank | No food whatsoever. So you're always having some food imagine if you were like trying to quit heroin but you had to have like 1 hit a day just to survive that would be insane. So. |
| 01:03:09.54 | mikebledsoe | I Think that's how it works after you get addicted. You can't go cold turkey with it. You have physical withdraws. Yeah yeah. |
| 01:03:15.98 | Max Shank | Ah, heroin you mean I mean you can. It's just painful but like you could quit heroin cold turkey and never do it Again. Same thing with opiates same thing with ah like booze and stuff like that I mean it depends how far I'm not a doctor. So. If You're currently a heroin addict and looking for my medical advice then I would say look elsewhere. But. |
| 01:03:37.30 | mikebledsoe | I Think there are other things you can do to win yourself off other than just stopping I think that's there's a safer. |
| 01:03:42.44 | Max Shank | Yeah, oh totally. But it's possible to stop doing heroin completely once and for all like once you get to zero but you can't do that with food and that's why I have this video called does fasting solve everything because. |
| 01:03:50.26 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, right. |
| 01:04:01.14 | Max Shank | It's the core of hunger and it's the core of decision making and as I mentioned Hunger is synonymous with desire.. It's synonymous with pain right? So if you can get that choice under control I think it. Gives you the foundation to get all your other choices under control because it changes your relationship with hunger with pain with desire with motivation. |
| 01:04:32.76 | mikebledsoe | Got it makes perfect sense. Go watch that video folks where is that video ton you? What do people search for does. |
| 01:04:43.98 | Max Shank | It's on Youtube does fasting solve everything. It's on my youtube channel. |
| 01:04:51.17 | mikebledsoe | This fasting solve everything anything else. You want to mention before we go. |
| 01:04:54.64 | Max Shank | Um. I Mean we talked about a lot of stuff I I think I think we kept it pretty close to choices. Um, what are some of the big important things that we talked about we talked about. |
| 01:05:01.60 | mikebledsoe | We did. There was a broad subject day. |
| 01:05:18.87 | Max Shank | Ah, the difference between a good choice and a good outcome. We talked about the difference between deployment which is what you choose and when you choose it versus execution which is how you do it. We talked about offense and defense. We talked about being in. |
| 01:05:33.25 | mikebledsoe | Offense and defense. |
| 01:05:38.50 | Max Shank | Lizard Brain versus the Wizard Brain. We talked about how compassion is best found when you understand that everyone's doing the best they can based on how they think and feel at the time including yourself so you can forgive and accept yourself including all of your past decisions that. Retroactively you might label as mistakes I Just think ah. |
| 01:05:59.40 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, we call ah and and the courses I teach I call that honoring self and honoring other honor yourself and and give yourself some grace and give yourself what you need in the moment so that you can show up the best you can possibly be honoring other is ah. |
| 01:06:05.77 | Max Shank | Oh that's nice. |
| 01:06:19.90 | mikebledsoe | Not assuming that you know what's actually happening in their experience and and and understanding they are doing. You know that they're probably doing their best and so you've got to give them the benefit of a doubt and when that happens it opens up communication to find out. Ah, to get to get more accuracy about what is their experience and usually once that door opens the understanding is a lot easier to come by. |
| 01:06:47.64 | Max Shank | Man That's good. It kind of reminds me of something else which is wisdom is knowing yourself and acting accordingly and arrogance is thinking. You know what's best for other people. |
| 01:07:01.74 | mikebledsoe | Simple, very simple. Ah and I like that like that a lot anything else I'm feeling I'm feeling complete this is ah. |
| 01:07:04.10 | Max Shank | Simple. |
| 01:07:12.52 | Max Shank | This was a lot of fun I'm feeling complete you complete me. Ah. |
| 01:07:21.45 | mikebledsoe | Ah, ah, feeling complete. Yeah, we didn't have a we didn't have like a target to hit at the end of the show so going going off a feeling here. |
| 01:07:28.19 | Max Shank | I I What are you talking about? what are you talking about? we spent an hour. We hit so many valuable points for how to make better choices. Are you kidding me. |
| 01:07:36.19 | mikebledsoe | I agree I agree but I usually have in my head this this final target. We're gonna land on. He's like where well it's we. |
| 01:07:44.43 | Max Shank | What do you want me to say what do you want me to say. |
| 01:07:49.28 | mikebledsoe | We didn't plan it so there's no way to know it's that's I'm saying I have to go off a feeling at this point, there's no predetermined target. |
| 01:07:54.73 | Max Shank | Um, I don't even I don't even know how we would come up with a target for the choice making podcast. |
| 01:08:03.26 | mikebledsoe | I Know that's that's that's why we're here we we have to just choose in the moment. |
| 01:08:08.82 | Max Shank | All right? Well you got so I'm I'm really noticing our mistake in our pre-show planning here so in order for you to feel fulfilled in order for me to satisfy you I need to know what you hope to achieve at the end of each podcast. So next week be sure to let me know exactly what you would like me to do for you by the end. |
| 01:08:29.35 | mikebledsoe | Ah, he ah perfect. |
| 01:08:35.10 | Max Shank | Um, ah ah you can find me at mashank dot com. How can they find you. |
| 01:08:39.39 | mikebledsoe | All right? Where yeah we're besides that Youtube video where can people find you. |
| 01:08:48.60 | mikebledsoe | Ah, on Instagram mike underscore bletzo and a reminder that I have the strong coach summit coming up in March the strongcoach dot com slash summit will get you more information. |
| 01:09:01.58 | Max Shank | Boom. Thank you guys for listening. Love you. Mikey. |
| 01:09:05.42 | mikebledsoe | Let me max. |
| 00:00.00 | Max Shank | Ladies and gentlemen welcome back to Monday morning with max and mike today I'm very excited because we are going to talk about how to be your own scientist. This is a subject very near and dear to my heart because unfortunately there are. No shortcuts. It would be so nice if we could just all be told what exercises to do and what foods to eat at what time but we are unique individuals and there's no way that you're going to put a broad. General piece of advice that works for everybody. You cannot apply the same solution to everyone so that is why you must take responsibility to be your own scientist and today we're going to talk about that mike nice to see you again. |
| 00:53.66 | mikebledsoe | Good to see you max. And yeah, I'm excited about this topic because um, I'm somebody who's very comfortable experimenting on myself I know you are as well and so. A lot of times when I look around at the world and people are confused about something. It's it's hard for me to understand why they're confused I go well why don't you just try it out and then find out if it works for you or not in the way you want it to work and yet people are still waiting for there to be. A mountain of evidence or their favorite journalist to make an article about a single study that's going to convince them that this is the way to move forward and 1 thing I want to mention is you know we we're doing this because we. Well I'm doing this because I want to warn people of the dangers of going with the flow of the rest of society and if we're going to take a really broad view of ah science I mean science is really about discovery. Um, people are looking for things that are true. Ah and truth hides in plain sight as results and so ah, most scientific inquiry isolates and really goes deep into a single thing. But if you want to zoom out and you want to use the scientific lens to just say what are the results that exist in the world today then you would get that you may not find out everything that contributed to creating those results but you could at least be present with the results and that's 1 of the things that i. I see is missing in our society is just this this lack of acknowledgement of what is so ah I won't say science is failing because science is just a tool It's what we use but I I think as a society we're failing. Because even though we supposedly have the most advanced advanced science on the planet. At this point we have the most widespread obesity diabetes mental health challenges everything that science claims to have answers for and ah. Science doesn't claim anything because it's not a person but people like to claim that they represent science and then and then make bold claims for everybody. It's a really sad state because what we see is the the general result is mainstream understanding. |
| 03:38.60 | mikebledsoe | Ah, and you don't want to go with that if you want to be average look at the average they're they're sick and almost dead. Ah then go for it. But if you don't want to be average. You have to be your own scientist. |
| 03:51.90 | Max Shank | Well I generally agree with what you're saying I think it's important to define our terminology a little bit and there are 2 things that really stuck out to me there number 1 is you either mean science as a field. Like there are the sciences. There are physical sciences, social sciences and actually that's the main problem that we're in. So if you remember anything about this first bit. It's that our physical sciences have advanced astronomically literally astronomically. But our social sciences are retarded in in the most literal sense of the word, our social science progress is in the basement that progress has been slowed down or retarded when. You think of science what you probably are referring to is the scientific method which involves number 1 observing what's going on around you to a hypothesis which is basically a guess so all science starts with paying attention. And then guessing and then you run an experiment and you record the results and that's the scientific Method. It's supposed to inform you based on a repeatable experiment when unfortunately right now right. The word science is used more like a political tool or a persuasive tool just the same way if some guy is in a long white lab coat. You are maybe more likely to believe what he's going to say so it's important that we don't conflate or. As mike says the collapse distinction between the science and the scientific method. And yeah. |
| 05:43.87 | mikebledsoe | Well I think yeah Science I think using the word scientific field is good because that refers to a group of people who may identify as scientists and then they they collaborate in some way but because it's a organization or or ah, a. There's a large large organization. There's subsets of organizations and some are recognized more widely than others but the scientific field is wrought with ah policy so inside there there is um. Policy is driving so much of what what research is being conducted. What research is published. There's There's all these things ah science that there is not a there is a governor that is being put on science by policy and So. Ah, the the it's fueled by dollars. But but the reason we have an I R B We have a ah ah review board is to make sure that we're not inhumanely experimenting on people or or something like that. But that same review board. |
| 06:40.72 | Max Shank | Well, it's fueled by dollars right? I mean just like anything else. There's an incentive. |
| 06:55.26 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 07:00.27 | mikebledsoe | On The flip side may also limit ah research that a lot of times limits new research because if you want to if you want to jump into something that's too far of a gap between what's already being studied. Then a lot of times that won't get moved forward. |
| 07:18.81 | Max Shank | Yeah, and you don't have to only think of what are traditionally scientific fields like physics and chemistry and computer technology. In fact, 1 of the. Best books I've ever read is called scientific advertising and he approaches advertising in a very methodical and scientific way using the scientific method hence the name. So I think 1 of the things that we're talking about today is applying that scientific method. To as many parts of your own life as possible and it doesn't need to be such a heavy word either. It really comes down to paying attention and reviewing what the results actually were for you right. |
| 08:06.79 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I I was at a talk this past weekend I went to and a conference and first conference I've been to in a couple years it was it was a lot of fun. Ah, but what we got talking about was the well. What. 1 woman. She gave a presentation about how to how women need to be experimenting on themselves because the majority of research that's been conducted has been on men and then not only that ah the fda up until ninety ninety 3 made it they they. Made it where there was going to be no clinical studies on women who ah were pregnant or had who had gotten pregnant during any of the research trials and so it's basically illegal to conduct clinical research on pregnant women and then. Because women could get pregnant. No 1 wanted to do research on women because they could just lose all their subjects and I've been a part of of studies before research studies and just getting the subjects for your study are is difficult enough. So the majority of that's been done for men and so. |
| 09:21.12 | Max Shank | 1 with women. The hormone fluctuations can be so dramatic throughout a month due to the natural cycle that they have to throw that data out anyway. |
| 09:23.20 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 09:32.15 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it's a 28 day cycle whereas men have a 24 hour cycle. Um, and there there is variation over I think a seventy 2 hour day period for men but it's so small by comparison. Um, so man, why was I getting into that. |
| 09:46.59 | Max Shank | Um, for me. |
| 09:52.30 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 09:52.31 | Max Shank | How how they make the measurements how they do the scientific studies difference between men and women. |
| 09:58.41 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, there was somewhere I was going with that and I I lost it. It'll come back. |
| 10:06.70 | Max Shank | I think we can kind of segue though into the ability to decipher. What's going on in these scientific studies I think the number 1 thing with any new piece of information. Absolutely number 1 thing doesn't matter if it's an article, a new story scientific study. You got to look at the incentive is who is to gain the most from this bit of information and unfortunately. You can prove almost anything with statistics. In fact, 1 of my favorite quotes is a mark twain quote you have lies damn lies and statistics and oftentimes you can set up the study itself. To prove exactly what you want to prove like I could easily prove that leg presses are better than squats or vice versa depending on what I decided to measure so it's very interesting to look at the way that people use. Scientific studies to back up their argument and it makes sense because as far as persuasion is concerned. It is 1 of the best things 1 of the best ways to persuade is to say this is proven to work and that's actually the main reason why most people aren't willing. To take a scientific approach to their life. They want to outsource that science to somebody else because if I say hey mike you know I got this? Ah great exercise plan. there's ah there's a good chance. It's not going to work for you. But by the end of it. We might have an idea what will work for you versus. If I say mike I have this scientifically proven plan if you just follow it. You are guaranteed results because you know sixty percent of other people got results. But. |
| 12:02.87 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think I think a lot of people don't don't are not friendly. Experimenting on themselves because of their association. Well, there's no guarantee but there's no so there's an association with not getting the desired result. |
| 12:12.43 | Max Shank | There's no guarantee. |
| 12:21.90 | mikebledsoe | With failure instead of really being able to view it as a test I don't think that yeah that people are people our our culture has been raised and educated in a fashion that makes ah not getting the desired result. |
| 12:25.33 | Max Shank | It's the fomo. |
| 12:38.14 | mikebledsoe | And it makes you a bad person like there's there's this, there's this association with that and they don't know what we do is We have a whole culture of people who don't know how to test what works for them because they don't It's It's so much safer to go with the mainstream I mean. Ah. |
| 12:39.52 | Max Shank | He failed. |
| 12:57.40 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I mean who yeah, it's safer just to be the average kid in the classroom. Yeah, you'll fit in. |
| 13:01.39 | Max Shank | What you'll fit in right? It's fascinating because most of the study and I'm just going to use like exercise and nutrition as examples most of the time you can easily prove that 1 thing is better than another thing. But it's so so difficult to prove with any kind of randomized control study that something is better than many other things so you end up with these studies that are very um, we'll just call it like tunnel vision. For lack of a better word right? So it's like we have proven that squats are better than leg presses and I'm I'm sure we could pull several of our friends. On this podcast and they would conclusively be like yeah dude squats are way better than Leg presses I mean this has been put to bed and I'm like for who though and over what period of time because it's so difficult to get participants to do something for a long period of time. Usually these studies are like. 12 weeks at the longest. It's really difficult to figure out what's going to be overall best for strength and longevity and plus as you and I both know a lot of the strength gains come after years and years not after just a few weeks so there are so many considerations here that it should inform your experiment but you should not believe that it is going to provide you with the same result because in fact, no matter what the odds are. It's still pretty much going to be a coin flip about whether squats or leg presses are going to be better for you as an individual because there are 2 outcomes that it could be either. Squats will be better for you or leg presses or a combination of each right? but we can't test that because it makes the research too complicated. So you might have a person who would be way better off doing leg presses but the study showed that only like ten percent of people do better with leg presses. You follow what I'm saying here and then. |
| 15:18.89 | mikebledsoe | Me. |
| 15:22.95 | Max Shank | Of course this doesn't take into consideration at all that sled pushes and lunges might have been better than both squats and leg presses. So you end up getting tunnel vision because now you have put your belief. You've put your faith into this study. So now you may plug away because. I I believe this the scientists are correct. They obviously have no incentive other than informing me of what is true. So now you are going to be because you're going to stop looking now, you're going to stop doing your due diligence and the same thing is true with nutrition. Because peanuts are either a protein packed health food or instant death depending on the severity of your peanut allergy so you have to do your own experiment because the same thing is true with with any substance and we haven't even gotten into the less. Tangible things that are more qualitative like what exercise do you enjoy doing like the reality is if even if Backsquats are better than tennis I'm I'm just not going to do years and years of back squats like I don't care I find it boring i. |
| 16:39.63 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, go ahead? yeah. |
| 16:39.86 | Max Shank | Don't want to do it and I'm a pretty motivated guy so you gotta look at you gotta look at what will work practically for you rather than trying to be more absolutist about which is better than what because it's gonna be different for you. As an individual so there's no way to get around it unless you're willing to accept a worse result for yourself. |
| 17:05.14 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the something you said that really stuck out to me is talking about Tunnel vision. Um, that happens another other thing that contributes to tunnel vision in regard to research 3 things I want to cover is ah. And meanalysis outliers in isolation and so ah, when research is being conducted when a single study is being conducted. Ah if there's an outlier someone who falls. Ah so far enough outside of the bell curve. They just cut them out of study altogether like it just aren't even there and so ah and it will not make it into the published study. It's not even acknowledged how many people may have been cut due to being an outlier. Um. |
| 17:43.82 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 17:59.89 | mikebledsoe | And it's really up to the scientist who's conducting the study which as we know humans you know tend to be biased and by by many different things and so 1 is we must be aware of the outliers and you you got to understand that you may be the outlier. |
| 18:17.70 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, peanut might kill you. |
| 18:19.51 | mikebledsoe | So peanut might kill you might make a hundred other people stronger it'll you'll die. Um, the other 1 is the other thing I want to talk about was well isolation science is really good at isolating something but as you were talking about. |
| 18:23.26 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 18:37.66 | mikebledsoe | You're going to be able to find a study that compares back squats to leg press. But you're not going to find a study that compares back squats to leg press which the when the back squat was combined with the lunges and the leg press was combined with the sled push and. |
| 18:53.24 | Max Shank | Can't control that many variables possible. |
| 18:54.77 | mikebledsoe | Too many variables. So like the whole point of this like the scientific method by its design because it was designed by human beings by its design is really good at isolating incredibly good isolating and this is something I I really want people to understand. Is if you want to isolate. It's it's the best. But if you want to integrate it you you have to start making a lot of guesses and this is where the the N equals 1 comes in the the self experimentation because ah, you. You're the only 1 that's going to log that much care and time and into the research of yourself I mean what max was saying too the majority of studies are only 12 weeks long because it it gets really expensive for 1 to to be able to pay people and. You know that just whatever it just gets expensive energy wise time wise and then yeah who's you know? and so now if you want a longer term Study. You're gonna have to have a lot more money. Um. |
| 19:52.83 | Max Shank | And that's where the incentives come into play too where who's funding that study. |
| 20:02.89 | Max Shank | How many people how many people out there just have free cash and are like let's honestly just see what happens with it I don't I don't care if it disproves my strong incentive. It's so rare for that to happen. It's almost never going to happen. |
| 20:16.58 | mikebledsoe | So yeah, no, No so ah, it's yeah, incredibly good at ah yeah, the the the isolation I mean Also yeah is. Is. It's a small window in time twelve weeks if we talk about just fitness because that's all the research that I was involved with was all fitness based and I it became obvious to me that it was such a short period of time. How are we really getting the results. We're looking for. Um, and. |
| 20:51.48 | Max Shank | It should only inform your guess it should only inform your hypothesis for what you do yourself and there's a huge difference between the scientific method in terms of ah, proving that. Electricity and magnetism are the same Force. You know the the stuff that we the science that is done to build a telephone that can wirelessly transmit video in real time is very different than the. I I don't even like to call it science that we do for ah random control trials because these trials end up having to be interpreted in statistics and that's where you can very easily. Fabricate a different reality than what is going on So There's a really big difference between doing the experimental science where it is repeatable to the point where you get the same result every single time you know like buoyancy is so clearly Measurable. Electric Force Magnetic Force electromagnet. That's so measurable and so repeatable and so consistent. But this whole idea of getting a big group and then being able to very easily manipulate statistics to your advantage I mean that's. That's like pseudoscience to me and I'm sure a lot of people would really hate to hear me say that but it's so easy to manipulate statistics under the guise that you have done good science. |
| 22:35.86 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, so I want to differentiate something here. Um, and that is a single study versus a metaanalysis and so ah the when I when I was in school I went through ah a scientific methods class. |
| 22:45.58 | Max Shank | This. |
| 22:55.36 | mikebledsoe | Um, and between that class and another class I had in grad school I I created 2 lit reviews and which was which is basically ah a metaanalysis and that is I looked at over 1 ah hundred studies on a specific subject and then. I basically told a story about what it means. That's what ah, that's what that is and so something very interesting happened is well once I got into the studies themselves I realized it really became apparent that. |
| 23:16.64 | Max Shank | 1 and then i. |
| 23:31.90 | mikebledsoe | Finding consistency between studies was not as easy as I would have liked to have been um and then ah I conducted I conducted the analysis. I wrote the lit review and in 1 of my classes someone did a lit review on the same exact thing ah on the same exact topic and I'm telling you what I put some time into this some effort I was I was. Honest about it I wanted to impress my classmates I wanted to impress my professor I wanted to do it right? and I bet you the other guy did too the results incredibly different, incredibly different on what we've. Our suggestions on how this research should be applied between the 2 of us there's over 200 and fifty different studies that were cited and we came up with different meaning because that's what we that's it's it's sense making of. |
| 24:29.88 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 24:36.50 | Max Shank | Um, did you meta did you me analyze the same studies. Ah, that's the 1 interesting thing about meta-analysis because you can say we we evaluated. |
| 24:40.47 | mikebledsoe | Ah, no, no, but it was the same. |
| 24:51.90 | Max Shank | 3 hundred studies and they all proved the same thing meanwhile there are 7 hundred other studies that they just didn't evaluate that proved the exact opposite thing. |
| 24:56.91 | mikebledsoe | Well well that was that was the thing is I I was under time constraints. You know we're doing this in a single semester I found over 1000 studies I could have referenced but I just couldn't I just don't have the time to do that and that also happens in science. It. |
| 25:04.50 | Max Shank | Murder. |
| 25:14.38 | Max Shank | What are you a slow reader or something you can't read a thousand studies like you don't care about the results man. |
| 25:16.54 | mikebledsoe | And what. Ah, well and here's the thing is it's cherry pick and it's always cherry picked and whether it's an intentional cherry picking based on Bias or it's cherry picking based on just saying I think this is the best ones to choose from because we have a. |
| 25:26.67 | Max Shank | Of course. |
| 25:37.59 | mikebledsoe | Have a specific limitation which life is limitation and so that's not going away maybe with quantum computing that could that could change. Ah so I I really like that that really highlighted to me is when I when I started looking at the studies and then. Not only that the studies that I chose something that I learned during that process were studies and of course I believe my shit was more accurate but the studies that I end up choosing had methods used that I felt were applicable to. Athletes and so I wasn't just randomly selecting studies I was like look if I'm gonna be looking at weight lifters I'm not going to be looking at a leg press I'm gonna be looking at a squat instead. So um, so that's that's another thing that really got highlighted to me was. |
| 26:26.96 | Max Shank | Right? um. |
| 26:36.75 | mikebledsoe | Ah, the methods matter and most people only read the summary they may read the abstract which is the explanation of the the big picture paragraph about you know how we're conducting this study and all that and then there's the summary. Most people read The. The abstracting summary and they probably don't even read all of that and then they come up with some type of conclusion and so huh it is hard. It's hard I mean it's it's not is it. |
| 26:59.63 | Max Shank | To be fair, it is really hard. It's really hard like I've I've gone down I've gone down that rabbit hole man reading those studies is so difficult like I I want to poke my eyeballs out. |
| 27:13.68 | mikebledsoe | So yeah I probably read yeah I've read over yeah I read over 1000 I I know I've read at least a thousand and and yeah, it's I have no interest in. |
| 27:18.88 | Max Shank | With a fork by the time I've read like 10 of them. It's like ridiculous. |
| 27:30.81 | mikebledsoe | I don't I don't enjoy it but I still have to look at research at times because I go I gotta know I gotta know but what I what I realized is ah in inside of that I started I started paying attention to when Journalists would write an article about. |
| 27:35.35 | Max Shank | It's horrible. It's horrible. Yeah. |
| 27:50.48 | mikebledsoe | Ah study and that it it was it was after that class and I remember reading. Ah you know the eggs were bad for you in the New York times. Yeah, and but I read it and I go I go. |
| 27:50.17 | Max Shank | Oh god. |
| 27:59.29 | Max Shank | Oh no, not this again. |
| 28:07.60 | mikebledsoe | I'm probably the only person on the planet's going to click the citation and look at the actual study and I remember clicking the study and reading it and going. Wow these people really we got I got back down to the isolation thing which is. Ah, you know?? Ah, they weren't even talking about nutrition in the study they were just talking about they were testing something else and it is ah it was a huge extrapolation ah in order There was this huge gap in logic that needed to be crossed. |
| 28:37.80 | Max Shank | Oh it's crazy. |
| 28:45.25 | mikebledsoe | In order to come up with a summary because the scientists do this. The fucking scientists will they'll have a solid everything and then they get it a summary and I read the summary and I and I go I don't even know I'm not I'm reading it I'm going I can tell this scientist is Biased. So so we got this. So we we look at this is how how's it like to your point how is it funded. What are the other biases that might be with the scientists we've seen this a lot with like plant-based diet advocate science scientists. Ah. |
| 29:04.48 | Max Shank | I think. |
| 29:22.28 | mikebledsoe | How many what other biases might they have then they which may influence what data they include in the study and what they don't then not only that all they gotta do no matter what the study actually shows what they put in their summary is probably gonna get. The the most amount of attention and then you go from a scientist with biases that then makes it to a journalist who knows squat about they don't know shit about science or the scientific method and then they write an article based on their bias and so there's this. |
| 29:57.74 | Max Shank | It's all cuts the C word I think we know no ah it's the now causation and correlation I think that is the big leap. |
| 30:00.14 | mikebledsoe | What's the C word. |
| 30:04.76 | mikebledsoe | I. You know. |
| 30:13.64 | Max Shank | That's the biggest leap I see in these ah these I'll tell you these guys are real jerks ah who confuse correlation with causation because that is such an unreal difference. Between correlation and causation because even something like cigarettes and I I don't smoke cigarettes I smoked 1 menthilated one half of 1 menthilated cigarette in my whole life and it was okay and I wasn't like dying to do more of it. But this whole idea. Like when you really like dig into it. Cigarette smoking is just correlated with death from like cancer heart disease and things like that they haven't actually proven that it causes it and the difference between causation and correlation is so freaking. Huge. Because you look at something like cigarette smoking people who smoke cigarettes are less likely to exercise cardiovascularly they're more likely to make poor food choices. They're more likely to overeat they're more likely to be stressed out. There are all these I don't know if that last 1 is actually true. |
| 31:16.90 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 31:28.43 | mikebledsoe | It take any more sugar I imagine I mean just you said poor diet but I mean sugar is a huge inflammatory. |
| 31:29.28 | Max Shank | I take that 1 back. |
| 31:35.67 | Max Shank | Right? So what I'm saying is it's that leap from correlation to causation is like 1 of the most evil things that is done because you like you said you might have a perfectly legitimate study beforehand and then they're like. Coming out with this article that says Salt kills ten percent of americans I'm like or ten percent are you that was an actual article by the way Salt kills ten percent of americans meanwhile you go to Korea they have like triple the salt consumption and way less death. So how do you harmonize. Those 2 inequalities right? So that I think that's a big ah key point correlation versus causation. |
| 32:21.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I mean I'm I'm gonna go ahead and put it out there because I know you know we we will dance around it but like the died with Covid versus died from Covid it. It's the the correlation. |
| 32:32.66 | Max Shank | I Know it's horrifying. |
| 32:37.61 | mikebledsoe | The correlation is spelled out in the like title of the report and is ah people are people are believing that it's causing it and so someone's yes, right. |
| 32:44.54 | Max Shank | Whoa. |
| 32:49.79 | Max Shank | But that doesn't help with the death counter that doesn't help with the huge death counter in the side corner. |
| 32:56.66 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the depth that yeah, it's It's not as sensational I know but ah well and here's the thing is lot anytime I I bring this up with certain people and they have just tried to fire hos me with all sorts of shit after that I'm like look look I'm just saying it's it's I'm not lying like I'm not making this up I'm just saying. This is the actual report and this is what they've been saying on even on the news like like but then they go Yeah, but it's caused I'm like no no, no, no, no with not from and it's um, and then the politicians picked it up now if you're a scientist who's studying this shit. |
| 33:19.67 | Max Shank | Ah, it's insane. |
| 33:32.63 | Max Shank | Oh god. |
| 33:35.83 | mikebledsoe | If you're a scientist that's studying this and you're getting paid to study. It would do you think maybe you would have a bias. What do you think? what do you think? what do you? which scientists think do you think are getting paid the best right now. |
| 33:44.41 | Max Shank | We all do man. |
| 33:52.40 | Max Shank | But probably the ones reminding people to drink enough water and get sunshine. It's highly highly Monetizable Strategy hey you know all that stuff that's free that you don't do start doing it again by the way that'll be zero dollars. |
| 34:00.20 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 34:10.65 | mikebledsoe | Ah, here. |
| 34:10.21 | Max Shank | Like what it's ah no, it's It's totally insane. Um that that has been allowed to happen and like I I could talk about this I I mean we all are right? um. |
| 34:19.46 | mikebledsoe | Well who's allowing it to happen. Yeah, it's this is this is the general population it. It is because because they're not trying to hide it. They're saying died with and and yet the average the average person is just not educated well enough. |
| 34:28.87 | Max Shank | The the now. Well if if science if the science that you're doing or the scientific method that you're doing is ah dependent. |
| 34:38.96 | mikebledsoe | Think that's part of it. |
| 34:46.13 | Max Shank | On Inflammatory rhetoric and like a constant bombardment of propaganda you should probably go back to your fucking research phase and do a different experiment because it's not ah, it's not really working and actually I think that. Ah. |
| 34:50.10 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 35:04.10 | Max Shank | I heard 1 of the most ridiculous phrases I've ever heard in my life in the last little bit of history which is ah trust science or even trust the science now that is ridiculous because that only means ah well 2 things is funny about that. Number 1 that means trust the scientists who are talking right? It doesn't have anything to do with trust the science because you would have to be trusting the result of the experiment and you would have to understand that experiment to be able to do that and the second funny thing is um. The whole reason we do science is because we don't trust the whole purpose of science is to verify like it's the most meaningless ridiculous rhetorical phrase I've ever heard in my life has no bearing in reality whatsoever and you hear um, stupid people parroting it back. |
| 35:46.30 | mikebledsoe | You know. |
| 36:01.55 | Max Shank | Like they know what the fuck is going on. It's because no 1 wants to just say you know what? Ah gosh I don't really know and it it makes sense because we want to stay part of the tribe and we don't want to seem stupid right? So it's like. |
| 36:16.27 | mikebledsoe | You know so. |
| 36:20.42 | Max Shank | No, no, no, not yeah I trust that what what are you anti-science anti-vaccine and of course those are broad generalizations that it has to do a little bit with attention inflation like we talked about a little bit before how. If I say there's an imminent hurricane. That's a more exciting weather story then it's going to be sunny today and you'll probably click on the like imminent hurricane. So it's this race for the most outrageous deadly stuff but the same thing is true in America we're talking about right. The same thing is true in America that was true before is the biggest threat to your health is yourself like if you look at all the ways that people die um suicide beats murder like 4 to 1 maybe even 5 or 8 to 1 now. It's ridiculous like we kill ourselves way more than each other directly. With like ah, a bath with the toaster or whatever and not only that all of the ways that people die. It's like so ridiculous to like to fight heart disease like how are you going to fucking fight heart disease like who are you going to punch like it's ridiculous The whole thing is like fighting sickness isn't the same as promoting health and all of these things like we're gonna battle Diabetes. We're gonna battle heart disease and it's like no dude that person has been killing themselves for 20 years by eating shitty food not exercising. Not expressing themselves authentically not having a close group of friends that promotes that sort of healthy active behavior like it's not fucking rocket surgery here. It's no ah, it's no surprise that people are dying a little prematurely but we get so. Honed in on these ways that people die kind of like where you're taught we like to isolate. We're like we got to fight hard to so then you know suddenly the egg with cholesterol is like going to kill you the egg that's be afraid of eggs of all the things to be afraid of you should be. Terrified of the damage that you are doing to yourself not of a fucking egg. |
| 38:38.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well you know fighting a war on something is super super popular and was that okay we got out so far all right? so that what there used to be a war. Well well we used to have a war. We used to. |
| 38:43.79 | Max Shank | Even profitable Also Profitable war on drugs I think that's ah we lost. |
| 38:54.90 | mikebledsoe | Have Wars with other countries. It was like Kings we're having Wars with other kings and then it was it was countries were having Wars with each other and then ah yeah, and then and then we had to get really creative and start having Wars on ideas like the concept of drugs the concept of. Terrorism The constant is like like you can just ah fucking you can attack anybody at that point if you convince people that that we're fighting a war on terrorism all got do is say that there are terrorists. We're gonna fight the war on Covid we're going to that makes you might be an enemy if you get put into the Anti-vaxer ah category. Ah you. |
| 39:36.59 | Max Shank | Um, isn't the war on terror hilarious. What's scarier than that the war on terror is fucking terrifying. There's there's no greater terrorist organization than the media. No 1 has terrorized more people than the media. |
| 39:43.49 | mikebledsoe | Um, well the problem a problem with no greater. |
| 39:54.15 | Max Shank | They scare people into promoting a war. We should not be in they scare people into being like oh yeah, you better frisk my asshole before I get on the airplane like Jesus there's nothing scarier than like the constant but like the war on terror is such an epic failure. The war on drugs. |
| 40:04.79 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 40:12.45 | Max Shank | Such an epic failure I mean there are real actual problems in the world and we're like hey are you are you smoking grass. Well let's put you in prison for that like the war on. Are you kidding me? Meanwhile we're going to sell trillions of dollars in opiates. |
| 40:25.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 40:32.39 | Max Shank | Because you know the way that we practice medicine here isn't that we talk to you about a more active lifestyle or um, you know, physical therapy type exercise maybe putting your feet in the dirt. We're just going to drug you like of course like there's no There's no money in it. That's why you got to fall on the incentive like you know all of this gets erased by a simple phrase which is buyer beware and the truth is there are people who are going to swindle you. There are people who call up an old lady at home and they're like ah you're. Daughter needs a thousand dollars to get bailed out of Mexico you better wire it right away and you know what the lady does it. There are people out there to swindle you on the low level and there's a great big swindle at the upper levels too. So it's your responsibility as a consumer. To decide what you believe like it's no, it's no surprise that buy and believe are synonyms like if someone tells you a story that you don't believe you say I don't buy it so that's that's the whole thing is like it's up to you to decide what story you're going to put faith into. And quite frankly, you're better off believing basically nothing you hear and just being a little bit more of a scientist yourself to see what the results actually are and I know that's harder it is harder. You get a better result, but it is harder. |
| 42:04.57 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, there's ah, there's also I mean this this brings me back I'm I'm going to rewind a little bit here but the we've talked about the victim villain Hero the Drama Triangle and people. |
| 42:06.92 | Max Shank | Also watch out for eggs. |
| 42:19.90 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 42:24.27 | mikebledsoe | People want there to be something to demonize something to villainize something to vilify so that yeah and so I mean ah you know Covid's the enemy. So now the scientists are the heroes. |
| 42:29.50 | Max Shank | So they can be the hero. |
| 42:39.29 | Max Shank | Um, I'm the Hero eggs are the enemy also Salt but my breakfast is just out to get me. |
| 42:42.25 | mikebledsoe | And ah, eggs are the enemy. Yeah yeah, so whoever figured that out. Um, yeah, eggs and bacon I'm fucked man and ah constant barrage. Ah yeah, but it's it's interesting that these Wars went from ah these countries fighting each other which is really just governments in disagreement. |
| 42:53.76 | Max Shank | Um, ah. |
| 43:10.48 | mikebledsoe | Convincing the population to go fight for them. Ah, and I was 1 of the suckers. So I'll be the first raised my hand and ah and then we go from like ah yeah, the war on drugs the war on poverty. Ah that that fucking I think this. |
| 43:16.60 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 43:25.23 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 43:29.98 | mikebledsoe | People in San francisco been fighting the war on poverty harder than anybody they've got more money doing and yes, they they got the worst homeless population. Ah we haven't won a war in a while. It's been a. |
| 43:33.00 | Max Shank | Um, when was the last war we won I don't think we've ever like won ah won 1 of those wars with the like a nebulous enemy like poverty is kind of a nebulous enemy. |
| 43:48.20 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it's not. It's not really the the last the last thing the last time we had a war with anything was what and they didn't we didn't say it was a war on this person because it would be against geneva convention rules. |
| 43:51.85 | Max Shank | Like how would we even know that we won how would we even know that we won. |
| 44:07.10 | mikebledsoe | But the United states waged war against osama bin laden and it was the first time in history that a country waged war on 1 person and they called it terrorism because they wanted to make it look a lot bigger than it was because they had a hard time getting him. So. The are. |
| 44:25.52 | Max Shank | that's um That's amazing that's like I'm not a I'm not pro-terrorism from anyone but but if you have like a whole country you wage war on you. That's like remember grand theft auto. When you would get like five five stars five cop level at at you you know I'm talking about you know that game having it was it was just like an increasing amount like if you just like. |
| 44:46.25 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, Matt not actually I didn't play that much I know what the game is though. |
| 44:56.75 | Max Shank | I don't know punch a hooker or something and get like a half a star and the police are kind of looking out for you and then if you like Rocket launcher a helicopter or something you get like a lot of so you get like 5 star. So that's when you got like the whole swat team coming after you I played this game like 5 times but this is all I remembered I just wanted to get as much havoc as possible. |
| 44:59.90 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 45:16.30 | Max Shank | If you're 1 guy and you have a whole country declare war on you. You know you've done something to get their attention. |
| 45:22.47 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and it's and it's curious I won't go into it. But if you if you look into someone Bin. Laden's history it's ah there it's it's a ah, if you want to go down and wrap a hole go look that shit up. That's all I'll say um, but it's interesting. |
| 45:38.82 | Max Shank | Well revisionist history is like a good ah like talking point for this because um, the biggest consistency in history is that it's been very carefully selected lies to get people to Believe. A very carefully selected story I mean the losers don't get to write a history book really and look I only I'm a huge ah fan of. |
| 46:06.57 | mikebledsoe | They're dead. |
| 46:16.20 | Max Shank | North korea and history not North korea exactly but the history of North korea is very interesting just to clarify I'm not like ah but anyway the guy kim ilsung who started. |
| 46:25.00 | mikebledsoe | Um, dude I heard it's popular to be a communist right now I think we get more listeners just just claim it. |
| 46:30.90 | Max Shank | Finally I can be popular. It's what I've always been looking for oh god no but what I found out is okay so there are 2 great stories. There are many more but my 2 favorite are the ones where Kim il-sung goes to war with like. Ah, usa and south korea and gets like 85 percent of the buildings are destroyed like some crazy percentage of the population is killed and he has the testicles to come back address his people. And say everybody we won that was what he said he he just he got held a catastrophic loss. He just went back and told everybody that we won and we're gonna we're gonna get revenge on the american terrorists. Basically. |
| 47:24.12 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 47:26.59 | Max Shank | Then I found out he had a huge like mass I think it was like a benign tumor on the back of his neck but you never see it because every single picture of him is from a certain angle so you can't see it so it's so easy to hide something if you are the 1 who's. |
| 47:29.82 | mikebledsoe | And. |
| 47:37.65 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 47:45.26 | Max Shank | Selecting how history gets portrayed and look believe whatever you want I guess but like look at the war on people's minds over the last 2 years I mean it's crazy I've never seen anything like it I think more people. Have been snapped into reality which is probably why people feel very jaded about the media because like how many times does someone need to lie to you before you're just like you know what? I don't I don't trust that guy anymore like if you were in a relationship. And your girlfriend lied to you every day for years and years would you keep believing what she said I don't think so. |
| 48:27.74 | mikebledsoe | No I think it's interesting that we we started off talking about being your own scientist Now we're often to politics but it makes very it makes a lot of sense and it it. It's all it's all correlated. Ah because because you can't. |
| 48:41.78 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 48:46.32 | mikebledsoe | The the problem with the way that people are interpreting science now is through the lens of policy and politics and so it has to be addressed now I want to bring it back to how do we be our own scientist. How do we? How do we. Do these experiments for ourselves. How do we make choices. Maybe somebody's only done things that have been that they've outsourced to their doctor or they've outsourced ah took you know whoever about their life and what how they should live it and they want to start experimenting. What are some of the ways that you have you experiment for yourself. Max. |
| 49:26.78 | Max Shank | Fast fasting is a really good place to start because then you are bringing a little bit of honesty into the equation and then reintroducing foods after a fast can be very illuminating because you can be aware of how they affect you personally. I think that's 1 of the best ways to do it I think having um, an exercise plan that you follow through with is another really good way to do that and there are a couple sayings like what is measured is improved I've heard. |
| 50:02.74 | mikebledsoe | What what gets measured gets managed. Where's ah fuck singing. Ah yeah, sometimes what you can measure is not the most important thing so you got to keep keep that in you got to keep that. |
| 50:03.49 | Max Shank | Saying before I can't remember who said it there you go maybe that's the 1 I'm thinking of. |
| 50:17.46 | Max Shank | Well definitely not well that that reminds me of Goodhart's law which is as soon as a measure becomes a target. It's no longer a good measure. |
| 50:22.64 | mikebledsoe | And mind. |
| 50:30.53 | mikebledsoe | And that's that's happened a lot in regard to heart health. It's like it's like ah cholesterol is bad all right? What foods can you eat the lower cholesterol and then you know 20 years goes is by and they go. |
| 50:33.65 | Max Shank | And then what right right? what. |
| 50:49.70 | mikebledsoe | Well, it's not really the cholesterol. It's the inflammation but there's all this momentum running with cholesterol and it's like you pick up the box of cheerios and it says it lowers cholesterol and it's got a ah heart drawn on the box and ah. |
| 51:03.65 | Max Shank | That serial money can pay for a lot of scientists I'll tell you what. |
| 51:08.70 | mikebledsoe | Well yeah I mean the the ingredients are subsidized with tax Pi payers money. So why? not? That's why it's subsidized. Um. |
| 51:15.51 | Max Shank | It's also 1 of the cheapest foods you can possibly make I think the packaging is more expensive. Yeah yeah, it's absurd and here's the thing like you don't have to believe that these scientists are evil because no 1 thinks that they're evil. Everyone thinks they're the good guy in their story but just because their intentions may be good. Doesn't mean that the result can't really fuck you up, you know, like the. |
| 51:40.39 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, I Well here's the thing is scientists I know a lot of Ph Ds I know a decent amount of scientists and they they are very well versed in a very narrow field and some of them know it and some of them don't but. The the job going back to the job of the scientist is to isolate and to be a human being to live a fully optimized life. You need to Isolate. You need to integrate and then from there you can improvise. And no scientists are Improvising. It's not their.. It's not their strong suit. Their strong suit is to Isolate. It's up to you to integrate ah to to test and isolate variables. |
| 52:17.94 | Max Shank | Um, so. |
| 52:25.20 | Max Shank | You know. |
| 52:33.20 | mikebledsoe | And then see what you spec works in combination with your lifestyle integrate it into your lifestyle. This is why fasting is such a good idea is because it's It's a way to reduce variables. Um, and then you integrate it and you keep paying attention and then after you've integrated something far enough into your life then. You become like you start to improvise I see this with Ido partol talks about this when he's teaching movement. He says isolate integrate improvise and ah the idea is a lot of times people see a master improvising. And they try to copy the improvisation as and this happens with you know this happens in in everything that that's going on in our lives people try to improvise ah copy someone's Improvisation. It's in business or something and then it doesn't work for them and so. |
| 53:14.20 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 53:31.40 | mikebledsoe | It's ah it's something to remember is on on 1 side. You have people who are only look at integrate at ah isolation just acknowledge science and scientists for what they're doing. It's isolating practice integrating and then. Recognize the masters who are already improvising and recognize it as improvisation and then and then talk to them about how they did it and I think that's that's a ah key to maximizing your own potential. |
| 53:53.84 | Max Shank | The. I Think honest record keeping is probably the most important thing for for being your own scientist is honest record keeping. |
| 54:03.50 | mikebledsoe | Okay. Yeah, writing shit down is great because our memories tend to get very selective. There's a lot of research to support that I don't know where it's at right now but you know I think you should believe me. |
| 54:29.30 | Max Shank | It's very true I mean it's hard to determine causality or correlation as well and I'll give you a good example that I like which is have you ever heard of oil pulling. |
| 54:42.92 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah I do it? Yeah man I sometimes I'll do it every day for like a month or 2 and then it'll be like once a week on and off. |
| 54:45.99 | Max Shank | Gotta have heard of that you do oil pulling every day sometimes. |
| 54:54.23 | Max Shank | Okay, so you're a bad scientist that's fine. No big deal just I'm just kidding you. You seem a little triggered there. Ah no so here's the funny thing about oil pulling. |
| 55:00.33 | mikebledsoe | I've done it long enough frequent enough. Okay, okay, max come on not I don't get triggered I don't get triggered. |
| 55:13.39 | Max Shank | So you do it for like five minutes right throw some coconut oil in your mouth. Wish it around at least that's what I've heard 10 to 20 You're an animal that means you're twice as good as those five minute oil pullers at least twice as good. Oh it's compounding benefit. No kidding. |
| 55:18.10 | mikebledsoe | Do 10 to twenty minutes but okay at least at least? well it's compounding. So it's it's an exponential. Yeah. |
| 55:33.15 | Max Shank | Yeah wow little statistic right from out of the ass. Ah, here's what's funny about oil pulling because there are 2 things going on with oil pulling that could be potentially very good number 1 you are nose breathing only. And for the average person just breathing through your nose is like is like magic because breathing is the bridge between your conscious and subconscious. You go Boom sympath ah parasympathetic state unless you have a stuffy nose then you'll go sympathetic and you'll feel like you are drowning. But the cool thing about oil pulling is it's really impossible to figure out which of those is benefiting you the most. But here's the deal if your record keeping is good then it doesn't matter which is the benefit for you if it's the fact that you have oil in your mouth. Or the fact that your nose breathing for five minutes if that ritual helps you observe observably so you're in the right ballpark now if you're a hyper Nerd. You can take a step further and you can do ah a more controlled experiment. You could do ah 2 weeks with oil. And you could do 2 weeks just with your mouth closed for that long or you could do water and so that would be a way that you could get a little bit more clarity on which of those things is beneficial to you but the point is if you find a habit. That actually improves your life then it's really good to repeat it and give it a chance to give you those long-term results same thing with exercise like there's no best eight week exercise plan because the results that you get in eight weeks will be dwarfed. By the results that you get in 2 years like it's way better if you do something that is super half asked for 2 years consistently than if you do the most optimized balls to the wall Eight week ultra gains program right. |
| 57:42.23 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I ah but made me think about the knowing why something works can be very beneficial. Ah but it can also be very limiting and that a lot of times people. Want to know why the oil pulling is working and and and what you're talking about is oh I'm just getting the these I do this action and then I get these benefits but I don't know why I'm getting those benefits. Ah I want to get people permission and to know that it's okay. You don't understand how it's working or why it's working all you gotta know is that it's working and and you're paying attention now. That's good enough. However, if you understand the mechanisms for by which it's working and you understand the principles now, you're gonna be able to bank. Better guesses at maybe you can be able to extrapolate that to another guest or you're able to um, ah know its limitations and and it's gonna help you conduct other experiments. But again, don't get hung up on why it's working the. I guess what I'm saying is don't stop doing something that's working just because you can't understand why it's working I think a lot of people. They don't even a lot of people won't even try something out because they they want to understand it first and my buddy had this really great saying which is don't let you? Yeah, he said? ah. |
| 59:04.22 | Max Shank | Um, I think that's good. |
| 59:12.21 | Max Shank | Right? It's like they want permission. |
| 59:18.91 | mikebledsoe | Don't let your understanding get in the way of your knowing and so you're gonna throughout your life. You're gonna know a lot more shit than you understand So like that. No. |
| 59:20.55 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 59:29.68 | Max Shank | And nobody really knows it all either. That's the thing you know like you ever do ohms I Love doing ohms. Ah um, and there's like ah. |
| 59:37.10 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 59:43.48 | Max Shank | Four separate cycles the ah the ooh the umm and then the pause and then you go through that cycle Now What's interesting is it depends who you ask why? those are good. Are you liberating your throat Chakra are you ah activating your vagus nerve. |
| 01:00:00.45 | mikebledsoe | Yes, all of it. |
| 01:00:02.34 | Max Shank | Are you simply warming up your vocal cords and and what's what's interesting is I have a diverse set of people that I've met in my life and I'm I'm really easy to get along with. And what's funny I think I am maybe maybe I shouldn't be the authority on that I have no idea Actually I think I'm fun to be around. Ah. |
| 01:00:25.88 | mikebledsoe | I haven't seen you hang around very many people. So if I'm just going to look at the results. However, I find you easy to hang out with yeah. |
| 01:00:30.93 | Max Shank | Ah, ah yeah I mean the data would the the data would suggest that I'm hard to get along with actually um I know people who would hear me say the word chakra and they would just go. Ah. Really really you think there are chakras and I'll be like I guess not I guess I'm stupid. Ah, ah. Meanwhile I could give the vagus nerve explanation to someone and they'd be like ah no, that is just restoring the flow through your kundalini and opening your heart sha or you know whatever. So yeah, just to add to your point of maybe it's beneficial to understand the principles. Behind certain things like it I think it's valuable to understand how different tissues grow and regrow at different rates. You know the lining of your intestines regenerates replaces itself every couple days whereas Bones can be like on a 2 wo-year cycle. It's big difference. Um, but you don't you don't have to know exactly what's going on in order to harvest the benefits from it and I think that maybe is a good way to segue into the placebo and nocebo effect. |
| 01:01:44.66 | mikebledsoe | What's. |
| 01:01:54.76 | mikebledsoe | Well I want to I want to mention 1 thing before we go there is ah there's a lot of like people people only value value the latest science it seems it's like if the study is more than like a few years old it's people don't even really want to pay attention to it and I see ah a lot of these Yeah yeah. |
| 01:02:16.94 | Max Shank | Did you say a few years mean like 24 hours it's got to be brand spanking new. |
| 01:02:24.40 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, there's this, there's something about people valuing things that are newer over what's older and when I say well for instance thing about Kundalini yoga that shit is old as fuck. Ah. I don't care what words they're using to describe what's happening there. There is something happening there that is ah that enhances my experience as a human being in a way that nothing else can and so whether they call it chakras or whether we're we're. You know, tickling the vagus nerve or whatever the fuck it is it is ah it's doing something that I like and that's okay, that's totally okay, but I think a lot of these ancient traditions are using language that people. I mean this happens a lot with chinese medicine. You know they're talking about this or that and then next thing you know there's some type of scientific research study that that says something and people go did you hear about this new study and like well that really sounds like the meridian system from chinese medicine. You're like no no, it's this new scientific like okay, cool. You know what. |
| 01:03:36.67 | Max Shank | Number. |
| 01:03:38.92 | mikebledsoe | I'm gonna go with an old Chinese dude over here cause I think he knows more about this than someone who just made a discovery and has come up with a clever way of explaining it. So I'm I'm a I'm a big fan of I'm a big fan of honoring tradition and really also looking at the science and. |
| 01:03:46.47 | Max Shank | Well I call it go ahead. |
| 01:03:57.68 | mikebledsoe | I enjoy when I see science and tradition. You know there's a melding and there's ah, there's ah ah, a modern explanation that that more people are willing to accept when a lot of that like more ah the older traditional explanations for things seem like that's kind of silly. I mean happens to like old russian women too talk to these old russian women and they talk about their mothers and grandmothers and what they did how they treated their food and their medicine all this stuff and 30 years ago I would have thought man that's crazy like what but now I go oh this all makes sense like oh yeah, like this old russian woman I know. Yeah, my my mother would always we drink a ah a shot of vodka every day for health I go what are you talking about? how is alcohol going to be good for your health. Well it doesn't get mentioned that they're they're soaking these ah these really magical herbs like Rodeola or ginseng. In the vodka for years and then they break it out. It's it's high quality tinctures so things like that are happening anyways. So it's it's worth paying attention to your elders. |
| 01:04:59.84 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 01:05:09.94 | Max Shank | It's good to honor tradition and then also to challenge it honestly and I think that there's there's a whole I call it n y m It's not yet measurable like there are so many things that are true that are just not yet measurable by us. |
| 01:05:12.65 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 01:05:27.39 | Max Shank | Right now with the equipment that we have available and I think the the arrogance of people getting so pigeonholed into what is currently measurable using the equipment we have is such a limiter into that person's well-being or their ability to help somebody. Because there's a lot of stuff in isolation that may be true and then in integration may be false like for example, um, people can do research on how different frequency electromagnetic waves affect. Ah, cell right? and then can say okay this electromagnetic wave did not affect the cell negatively therefore it is safe but that has nothing to do with whether or not. That frequency of an electromagnetic wave would be safe for a whole person to experience. So when you have it so isolated like that you're missing the whole integration and the wholeness of the organism in how. It responds with that interaction. |
| 01:06:44.68 | mikebledsoe | Yeah there's there's a quote that my girlfriend posted I think I think I'll quote her put it on Twitter and to be healthy is to be whole health is english. Health in English is based on anglo-saxon word hail which means whole wholeness is necessary to live a fulfilled life. Ask you? What are you missing that prevents you from living a whole and healthy life. Yeah, and just makes me think about that is is looking at the whole person because integration is only gonna take you so far and I want to. Um, want to point out it. It may sound like we we did like there's a science bashing here I imagine some people could listen to this and be like oh they spent more time talking about how science does not apply than or where the limitations of it are than where it is and um I imagine that's. |
| 01:07:39.29 | Max Shank | Well we know what the advantages are there are obvious event we're we're having this conversation on computers in different states like of course it's it like works. But that's not see here's the thing because I'm gonna hijack what you said Mike and I Mike and I. |
| 01:07:43.39 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well I. |
| 01:07:58.31 | Max Shank | Are looking out for your health mentally physically financially and we're going to point out the things that are most likely to fuck you up and the reality is most of the benefits of science need no rhetorical argument. They need no explanation. Phone. It just works like if it's really scientific like it just works so getting the rhetoric out of the scientific method getting appeal to Authority and ad hominent attacks out of the scientific method. That's what's going to help you actually live the best. Because if you don't identify those for what they are which is huge traps you're going to get messed up. |
| 01:08:41.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well said thanks for hijacking me I love it. Let's let's shut this bad boy down last last words for the the listeners. |
| 01:08:54.22 | Max Shank | Eat lots of eggs and Salt I don't I don't know it takes more time it takes more effort to figure out what's going to work best for you. I personally followed. The worst exercise plans for my individual body for a really long time and I did it because of how I would measure up to other people and that's once again getting into that like I like saying that. |
| 01:09:16.71 | mikebledsoe | But they did. |
| 01:09:30.75 | Max Shank | Whatever measuring stick you use is also the 1 that's going to administer your beating so whatever you are measuring. It should be for an important reason and the more I think mature you get like you were talking about child adult the less you're going to care. About impressing other people with how many pounds you can lift and whatever else the more you get in tuneed with what makes your body feel the best and the strongest and the most elastic and that's actually been the biggest. Shift in my training philosophy is I used to really focus on super high level athletics and I still do. But my approach is much more about elasticity and I think that that is the ultimate. Athletic attribute is if can you bounce around without breaking because ultimately no 1 cares. How much you can squat. You don't care how much you can squat um, the amount of pounds on the bar is going to matter less and less and less the older you get and most people eventually come around. To the realization that they just want to be able to move quickly smoothly. Ah with accuracy dexterity agility without hurting and I guess that's that's basically it is it takes more effort to figure out what's. Good for you individually, but it is very well worth it. |
| 01:11:08.85 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, you know I think about this whole conversation I think about being your own scientist is really you know we can talk about being your scientist for a lot of things but for your own physical body. Um, your and your. Your internal state too. Not just your physical body. But your your mental emotional spiritual state is really just a practice of and a methodical practice of self-awareness by applying the the scientific method to yourself is to me a a spiritual practice and so ah. |
| 01:11:34.74 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 01:11:45.25 | mikebledsoe | Really pay attention to the results because in the results are the truth and so if you look at any area of your life if you look at your internal state your your physical body. Your cultural environment. The people that you talk to and hang out with and. Ah, your your physical environment. These are the these are the four different things I really look at to go is what I'm doing getting the results that I want for myself in my life and if there's a result that I don't like then it's time for me to be my own scientist and and conduct that research. If somebody's life is in Shambles I can almost guarantee you they are a very poor scientist. So even if they have a ph d so you've got to apply these things in a practical world. Not just on paper not in a laboratory. Ah, good. Scientist is able to bring this into their own life. That's so I got match where do they find you? Thank you. |
| 01:12:49.17 | Max Shank | Boy I Really like that summary. It's ah it's very I Really like the correlation you made with self-wareness because that's really what it is. It's self-awareness with good record keeping and that's how you're going to find the truth. That's also how you're going to gain wisdom. |
| 01:13:03.99 | mikebledsoe | Me. |
| 01:13:07.76 | Max Shank | Because wisdom as we described before is knowing yourself and acting accordingly. So. that's that's huge um you can find me at Macshank dot com slash elasticity for my latest program which ah is the result of about. 15 years what we just talked about today. So that's where you can find me. |
| 01:13:26.25 | mikebledsoe | So by the way folks his programs are always good. Always good. Um, yeah that your five minute flow was good for me I enjoyed that 1 |
| 01:13:39.99 | Max Shank | That was very ah, successful Shockingly so it was almost like people needed that reminder to wiggle for five minutes and drink a cup of water in the morning and and look very. |
| 01:13:53.22 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, yeah. |
| 01:13:59.45 | Max Shank | Scientific. It was a guess and that's where it all starts. |
| 01:14:02.93 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, good work. Ah find me and on Instagram mike underscore bloodtso and I have the strong coach summit coming up in March you can find more details about that at the strongcoach dot com slash summit. Thanks join us. Love you brother. |
| 01:14:20.55 | Max Shank | Thank you Love you. |
| 00:00.00 | mikebledsoe | Welcome to Monday mornings with mike and max and today we're gonna be talking about choice how to choose Better. We're gonna start off with a quote from Dr. Victor frankl and the quote is between stimulus and response. There is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response and our response lies our growth and our freedom. |
| 00:25.18 | Max Shank | Oh So when I think about this I always use fasting as a way to get people into this mode of thinking because we're so conditioned to. Eat whenever we feel that spark of a stimulus like oh I'm hungry and usually that Stimulus gets confused because you're not physically Hungry. You're just ah, chronologically hungry. Like it's time to eat or I'm bored so you reflexively go after the food and I think this concept of taking a pause so you can choose with your neocortex or what I call the wizard brain is maybe the.. The only important aspect for living a better life because if you're using your lizard brain to choose you have no control over what happens it is valuable to make Lizard brain reflexive choices when there is. Imminent danger but the rest of the time you'll probably get the worst outcome possible and you're certainly not able to see the big picture. In fact in the book Dune which is probably my favorite fiction book the test they do to Determine. If. The young lad is human is they put his hand in a box that gives crazy crazy pain and simultaneously the proctor of this test is holding a poisoned needle at his neck and says if you take your hand out of the box I will kill you. So. The whole idea is being able to suffer the pain of your hand feeling like it's melting off for the big picture of survival and that's pretty much the key to better choices is. You have to be willing to sacrifice what you want now for what you want most and if you don't take that Pause. You have no chance. |
| 02:41.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I Also think about the the response without without taking any space. You know there's no space. There's just a ah a reaction. A response is something that's done consciously. Your reaction is. Is unconscious and ah most of our behavior is a reaction. It's unconscious and a lot of it. It's trained over time and ah 1 of the things that I've noticed is that we tend to be ah, very. Very poor at recognizing which reactions or unconscious ah ah reactions we have ah are man my brain's freezing on this 1 Ah. They're not serving us anymore. We don't recognize when they're not serving us anymore a lot of times and so. |
| 03:38.32 | Max Shank | I think it has to do with the subconscious self-image. So whatever Selfim image you truly hold subconsciously that's going to be the driver of those reactive or reflexive or unconscious decisions. |
| 03:53.69 | mikebledsoe | Say more. |
| 03:56.76 | Max Shank | Okay, so you have this version of yourself this story of yourself that you believe that you are comfortable with remember the eco's top Priority is to sustain to keep things status quo to get as much control as Possible. So. Whatever your self-image is like your subconscious will reflexively choose to reinforce that Position. So If you're not giving yourself well, you need 2 things a you need to take that pause if you would like to choose consciously. And B which proves quite a bit harder is you have to alter your selfimage which takes conscious practice and I think writing down what your target self looks like I know James clear ah talks about how. You make up an identity and then you'll choose to be your choices will be congruent with that identity. So That's 1 way of looking at that. |
| 05:03.59 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and well an identity is is built up like what's connected to identity is is beliefs what you believe about yourself. But Also what you believe about the world and if we want to look at this from a ah physiological perspective. There's a lot of neural connections. There's actual physical neural connections that that either support or don't support ways of viewing the world and so a lot of that has to be done and this is what they look at with Psychedelic Medicine Why it so helpful is because it. At a physiological level changes those neural connections or allows those neural connections to to change and so the more repetition you have an old identity or in an identity I won't say old in an identity the the more physical Connections. You're going to have so it it takes. There's a bit of work that has to be done in order for someone to change how they view themselves and how they they view the world and what they believe about those things. |
| 06:07.57 | Max Shank | Big time you gotta be willing to like this like a snake that doesn't shed its skin will die So You have to be willing to shed those dead layers in order to embrace that new identity and. That can prove very difficult because you have to basically suffer a partial death in order to do that. |
| 06:31.61 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that that identity is from from my view is largely formed from avoiding certain feelings. So kids at a young age. They they. They experience something. They have a feeling they don't like it they decide hey I want to avoid feeling this ever again. So I will behave in a way that allows me to avoid feeling this way and if I ever start to feel this way then I'm going to change my behavior and that really shapes. The identity that shapes that or what we could call personality so that shapes personality that shapes identity and that ah that identity stays away from certain things and indulges in other things and ah. You know we talk about you know parts of that that ego or that identity that's going to die and it doesn't want to die. But I think a lot of it is is the the self doesn't want to have that experience it doesn't want to experience that feeling that that feeling that feeling to a child is like death. You know you ever watch a 4 year old just go to fucking pieces because someone took his favorite logo lego you know or or toy car he is acting like it's the end of the world. Yeah. |
| 07:52.27 | Max Shank | Well it is because he has the inability to see the big picture I think that's 1 of the things that I've noticed most um is that for a child It's either the best thing ever or the worst tragedy that has ever befallen them. And there's not really an in-between because they're purely present and in fact, their brain waves are basically similar I think it's theta brainwave to psychedelics. So everything is new and different. Everything is right now. So there's no there's no attachment to. Last week and there's no understanding of next week it's just what's happening right now I skinned my knee it hurts I'm going to scream Bloody murder or what's happening right now I'm chasing a butterfly and running around and this is the best butterfly I've ever seen. |
| 08:42.92 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and so a lot of behavior comes from what that 4 year old chooses and that those neural connect connections are made. There's feelings that are judged as to wanting to avoid all these things and so that that starts creating a lot of that. On a macro scale. The unconscious patterns. The unconscious reactions. Ah, and so ah, that that's why I say the majority of how we behave is is unconscious. |
| 09:09.47 | Max Shank | Um, it's not. |
| 09:15.14 | Max Shank | And it's not just avoidance right because we're always naturally moving toward pleasure away from paint. So would you say it's both. |
| 09:21.94 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well,, there's there's things we avoid and there's things we indulge in ah and I mean I've known people. Well I'll talk about myself. Ah I used to indulge in guilt and so someone would think well you're crazy. Like well if you want to know what you tend to indulge in is just where do you spend the majority of your emotional space. Where is you know? Maybe you're playing a video game or you're working and your mind is fully engaged in something else. But that moment that you break from that. And you get that moment with yourself What kind of memories. Do you pull up? you know, do you pull up memories that make you feel joy Happy Sad Guilty you know, Ah, whatever it may be and so I think that it would be good for for anybody to do an assessment and go. Ah, what is it that I indulge in and then also what are the emotions that I rarely experience or maybe maybe I start to experience them and I figure out a way to ah ah avoid Them. You know there's where a lot of addiction comes from is. Ah, the addictive behavior is an avoidance you know people are addicted to video games or porn or yeah substances and it's because they want to get away from something. So Ah yeah. |
| 10:45.29 | Max Shank | It's all escapism right? it it doesn't matter what lever that you're using. It's more about what are you trying to escape and if you don't go through that then you'll just pick up a new addiction if you happen to quit 1 It's like chain smoking and donuts at an a a meeting. |
| 10:58.34 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 11:02.99 | Max Shank | Like ah this so much better and maybe for some people. It is a lot better. |
| 11:04.75 | mikebledsoe | We will get addicted to exercise I Watched you know I'm sure you do too you we we both own gyms and there's people that come in that are I don't know how many people there were. They're basically alcoholics and chain smokers before they they came to work out. |
| 11:10.68 | Max Shank | Oh yeah. |
| 11:17.30 | Max Shank | And right. |
| 11:22.97 | mikebledsoe | And then they found Crossfit and which cross Crossfit I think got popular amongst those types of individuals. Ah yeah, they because the thing is is if you if you if you push yourself under heaviest loads possible. |
| 11:31.26 | Max Shank | Masochists. |
| 11:41.30 | mikebledsoe | Or you go to the extreme and get into these glycolytic workouts or you get into these high endurance workouts where you know you start getting into this place where your mind really has to be focused on the present or else you get fucked up. So if you're squatting 500 pounds and you're not present. |
| 11:54.16 | Max Shank | Further. |
| 11:59.87 | mikebledsoe | Guess what it's you're gonna hurt yourself. You know you're you're going for time and all you're trying to do is breathe and that's the only thing you can think about is breathing and feeling your body Even if it's not enjoyable. It's still better than you know, having that moment with yourself. So I think that I think that particular. |
| 12:05.84 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 12:16.45 | Max Shank | Um, the. |
| 12:19.19 | mikebledsoe | Exercise protocol lends itself to people who who want to escape. |
| 12:23.89 | Max Shank | I Think it's good to like the idea of Escape is we don't avoid things we avoid feelings. That's what's so interesting and when it comes to the identity. You also want to consider the role and you have to look at. |
| 12:30.46 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 12:43.51 | Max Shank | A couple things neurologically so neurons that fire together wire together and Neuron neural pathways are just like So basically the more you fire nerves along a pathway. |
| 12:47.27 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 13:02.96 | Max Shank | The more efficient you get at firing that same neural pathway which is why sometimes people feel a familiar pain pattern like in their shoulder or whatever. Even though there's no problem there anymore. It's just been so reinforced because what happens you get this fatty. |
| 13:14.18 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 13:21.52 | Max Shank | Tissue called Myelin which is called a Myelin sheath it wraps around the Axon and it's basically like insulation. So The conductivity is Greater. There's less signal Loss. So It's like it's basically like going from a dirt hiking path. To a superhighway. You know the more you go through that same neurological firing pathway. Ah the more efficiently that you can go through there and there's definitely less resistance which is another electricity term. It's funny how there's all these. |
| 13:58.19 | mikebledsoe | Well it is a it is an electrical system. |
| 14:00.74 | Max Shank | Similarities. It is electrical exactly so you got to recognize that the more that you have fired a certain pathway. It's probably going to take um, an equal and opposite amount of counter. Action action or counteractivity to form a ah new pathway because you will subconsciously or reflexively gravitate Toward. What is the lowest energy cost and most familiar. |
| 14:31.85 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and going back to the quote from the beginning is that that ah that time in between is ah the time in between stimulus and response that space is our power to choose. |
| 14:38.90 | Max Shank | The. |
| 14:50.54 | mikebledsoe | And at least our growth and freedom and so there are what you pointed out before the show there are there are times where you want a reaction so you know Imminent Danger Imminent Physical Danger. You usually want to rely on reactivity If you. Know you know what? I'm just going to take 3 breaths and gonna I'm gonna think about this when you're dead right? And so yeah, flinch is a man Ah Tony Blauer Ah went to 1 of his courses and ah. |
| 15:09.94 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, while a ah punch is coming at you and you should have just flinched. |
| 15:27.46 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, he he bases everything off the flinch because he goes look. We could train you in all these crazy tactics. But you're not going to train it enough like I'm not going to train you well enough in a weekend. So let's just go up. Let's let's start with the flinch and then. |
| 15:28.47 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 15:43.29 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 15:45.91 | mikebledsoe | After you flinch. What do you do next because the flinch is actually a good reaction if somebody goes to hit you or you're being shot at or you know, whatever it's and you're not going up. You're not going to untrain that flinch and so. |
| 16:00.60 | Max Shank | It's like reflexive piggybacking right? He's taking this reflex that already happens and you're reinforcing it in a better way. |
| 16:07.73 | mikebledsoe | Right? right? And so um, so some we're not saying that everything. Every reaction is a poor reaction but I do want to point out is um, having been myself I've done some tactical training in the military and the whole point of that tactical training is that you're going to repeat the same behavior. So many times that it becomes a reaction. They actually when you get into a firefight. You don't want to be in this. You do want to try to remain calm. |
| 16:35.94 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 16:45.37 | mikebledsoe | And you do want to breathe easy if you can but at the beginning of ah of a situation when a situation breaks out. You're not gonna start off calm you're gonna go in this heightened state and then you've got to calm yourself down with breath from there but that that 2 to 3 hree minutes that takes you to calm down. That's. That's when you get killed and so you gotta the the whole idea is there what what? I'm pointing out is there is a way to there's 2 parts here. There's a way to take a breath and train yourself to have greater. Time to consider your choices for the best response possible but there's also the ability to train yourself situationally to where you don't have to have that time to respond in order to make the best choice possible so in both cases. |
| 17:37.57 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 17:40.31 | mikebledsoe | We're trying to maximize for best outcome by either reaction or by choice and your reaction can only be decided before the situation occurs and the ability to respond is something that can happen in the moment. But only if you're not put in to as long as you you can remain downregulated to a degree. So if someone comes in your house and starts putting a gun in your face your ability down regulates not going to be too Great. You're better to go with your reaction until you can downregulate into a better state. |
| 18:14.68 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, maybe I think um, what use. Ah you know you can make the right choice and still get a bad outcome I Think what you're touching on. There is really valuable because it's. |
| 18:18.73 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, maybe is the right answer. Ah. |
| 18:28.40 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 18:33.87 | Max Shank | You're practicing 2 different things. The first thing you're practicing is the ability to stay calm under pressure and when I was competing and fighting. We would basically 1 guy would get in the corner of the ring and he was not allowed to throw punches and he was not allowed to move. And he would just get punched at any who the the practice was to watch all of the punches come. You know we were allowed to keep our hands up, but the whole point was don't think about anything else. Just let the punches come and try to keep your eyes open so you don't go into this. Flint response. So that practice is calm under pressure which is giving you the ability to use your higher order thinking and then the other thing you're talking about matches the different stages of learning so you have. At the very beginning when you're learning a new thing. It's pure cognitive stage like juggling or music at first you are thinking about everything that's going on. You're thinking like okay I have to throw the ball here and then I have to throw the ball here and then I have to move my hand like this and then basically you get to the. Autonomous level which is so it's like cognitive associative. Ah, sometimes there's like more steps than that basically but the end result is that if you practice something enough. It becomes very automatic. So that's the second thing that you're talking about is you train something so much. That you have implanted a new reflex. |
| 20:09.33 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I mean you're you're reminding me of the the quadrant of ah the unconscious incompetence conscious incompetence conscious competence and unconscious competence. So the stages of learning being that so I'll repeat everybody. |
| 20:19.83 | Max Shank | Unconscious competence. Yeah, exactly. |
| 20:28.24 | mikebledsoe | Starts with unconscious incompetence. This is you're not good at something and you don't even know how to improve at it and you may not even know that you're bad at it until you're put in the situation then conscious incompetence is I know that I suck at it and I may be trying to get better at it. But I'm having to think about it and I'm still not that good at it. |
| 20:37.50 | Max Shank | The. |
| 20:47.79 | mikebledsoe | Conscious competence is I have to think about it in order to be good at it if I become unconscious during the process I'll slide into old behavior old patterns and do it poorly and then unconscious competence which is ah which is I have I've intentionally trained this behavior and now I. Become competent at this skill or whatever it is um even in an unconscious state and so I I think that the idea is to move through that with as many things that you find Valuable. You know your your values are going to Dictate. Ah, what it is that you're going to become competent at. |
| 21:24.27 | Max Shank | Well and what's really interesting about this is you can ah build really bad habits going through the same Way. So That's 1 of the values of having a really good coach or a mentor and 1 of the dramatically bad costs. Having a bad mentor is you might build bad patterns like let's say you're learning how to exercise and you learn exactly the wrong way. But you get better and better at the wrong way and that's why it's so valuable to have someone. |
| 21:56.56 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 22:02.77 | Max Shank | Pay attention to you like in some of the dance classes I've taken. Um I Really appreciate when the teacher will call out a mistake right away. So I don't reinforce that bad pattern. It's just like you know I'm doing my thing and I'm trying to keep up I'm doing this like African dance shit. |
| 22:14.54 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, um. |
| 22:22.76 | Max Shank | And you know of course I'm coming from a little bit of fight background but also a lot of just robotic exercising and I just hear like this guy yelled no and I'm like startled but I really appreciate it because the last thing I want to do is reinforce a destructive pattern. |
| 22:40.74 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 22:42.54 | Max Shank | And make that the autonomous thing So I like I like where we're at right now so we have reflexive or reactive and then we have conscious choice which can be um, improved upon it allows us to use the neocortex and I think. Unless you have something else to add the next logical place to go is logical fallacies where you are operating from your wizard brain but you are ah basically being tricked to make. A destructive or ah, a wrong choice because of 1 of these like psychological or logical fallacies like ah the sunk cost fallacy if you're familiar with. So yeah, tell folks at home about the sunk cost fallacy. Well. |
| 23:30.25 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, go it? Yeah tell tell tell us all. Yeah. |
| 23:38.73 | Max Shank | The sunk cost fallacy is like you have put in a lot of effort already. So even though you should not put any more effort because it's a lost cause you'll keep putting more in just because you've invested so much and the easiest example is if you're playing poker and. You put in more chips and you put in more chips and you put in more chips and you see the final card and you don't you don't make your hand that you are trying to make you don't have a good winning. You don't have a chance at winning. But you still put more money in the pot just because you've invested so much and. It's hard to tell the difference between getting crushed by the sunk cost fallacy and grit like sometimes you should persevere and follow through and sometimes you should cut your losses so. It's really hard for people to. Notice the sunk cost fallacy and if you're operating from like your lizard Brain. It's nearly impossible to because you'll be emotionally locked in. You'll be emotionally hooked with that fallacy. |
| 24:50.16 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I mean you hit on a good point there which is I think a lot of people a lot of entrepreneurs run into that is ah you know because it's getting difficult. Is it something that am I not meant to do This is it supposed to be easy am I not supposed to do this should I change industry should I. Is my product. No good but whatever it is and then ah yeah on the other side is and you hear you hear ah coaches and consultants and speakers recommend different things. Yeah on 1 side you got the the people going if you don't love what you're doing then you should quit and then. |
| 25:27.27 | Max Shank | The 1 |
| 25:29.33 | mikebledsoe | On the other side which by the way I'm a pretty good quitter. Ah, the other side is you know now you got to grind it out and this and that and so 1 of the things that I've learned how to ah make this choice because I've quit a lot of things but I will also will also grind um and I've had to learn. There's a lot of grinding I did where I should have walked away sooner and there are things that I got lazy about and didn't put a lot of effort into because I ah thought it should ah should be easier. Um, and sometimes it was ah but I've all you know I've stuck with things longer than I should have and I've I wouldn't say I've ditched things before but there's there's been times where I spent a lot of time contemplating whether I should quit something while while grinding through and. Really finding that what I what I like to do is go look I will grind I've actually worked more this past I'd say like 6 seven months than I Haven in a very long time I say the last 3 years it's been 3 years since I worked this this much and I've worked hard but. |
| 26:41.49 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 26:45.85 | mikebledsoe | Ah, but the thing is I'm inspired so I'm doing I'm working a lot of hours. Um, figuring out how to be as productive as possible I've done a lot of shit this year with my business that did not work I get I hit like roadblock after roadblock I the business. Ah. Almost ran out of money at 1 point there was I hit a lot of things that there that some people would say man. Maybe maybe like if you look at the year before the business was doing twice as good What's what's going on now. Maybe you're just not supposed to do this and and that crossed my mind for a moment but. What I really experienced was like I'm still inspired to do this I'm not working because out of desperation I'm not working because like I need to make a dollar like I could I know and and part of it is is like I've been around long enough that I can make dollars a lot of different ways like I've done it a few times |
| 27:33.55 | Max Shank | Ah, what. |
| 27:43.66 | mikebledsoe | Ah, exactly yeah, super easy money. Ah, it's really it's easy hard money. But ah, the. |
| 27:43.92 | Max Shank | Prostitution For example, easy easy money for you. |
| 27:52.74 | Max Shank | Well I Like what you're saying because it requires wisdom to know if you have a tendency to quit early or a tendency to um, get emotionally involved in a decision. That's not good overall and. What I noticed part of the reason 1 of the many reasons I enjoy chopping it up with you is because you and I approach things very differently like I really have not taken a lot of big risks I've never really laid out ah a large amount of Capital. Into anything I've always been like the the slow cooker type of mentality. But I'm also able to try more things and I'm able to um, like cut those losses a little bit more easily and. |
| 28:31.65 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 28:46.81 | Max Shank | I Know we've mentioned in a podcast before but you got to recognize that anyone who's done Well whether it's like the more like long slow or the you know company just blows up and makes a ton is basically every success story has a lot of failures. |
| 29:05.14 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 29:06.30 | Max Shank | Along the way and you're not going to know which thing people will like the best and and what people like the best has nothing to do with how much effort you put into it either. Um, and then the last thing that you said that I liked was. |
| 29:19.68 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 29:25.65 | Max Shank | You feel like purpose or passion. Maybe I'm maybe I'm the 1 who came up with the word purpose there. But if you are if you feel like you are satisfying a life purpose or following your bliss as Joseph Campbell Puts it. You won't find anything difficult like you'll just keep putting in more time you won't find yourself wishing you were doing something else because you're like I'm doing what I'm supposed to do I'm Doing. It's like ah a hammer hammering nails like this is the intended purpose I am a hammer. My purpose is hammering Nails. So If you're doing something that you're really interested in ah then you'll be able to get through those moments where things don't seem to go right. |
| 30:16.20 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, ah 1 of the things that's really helped me out ah is I'd say more recently I used to get really hung up on um, the purpose or passion conversation and. I noticed that when I was younger and I see this with a lot of young entrepreneurs or new entrepreneurs is they get caught up with a thing like they're passionate about you know a type of coaching or they're passionate about a method technique. Whatever it is and because. Probably because it made an a large impact in their own life and for myself. Um, when I started my latest business. The strong coach. Um, actually it's not the latest build it business. It's the latest business I'm still running ah the strong coach. I started that business because I loved coaches and I put coaches First I had all these ideas of what I want to teach them how I want to teach them all these things and then I started with my beta group. My first cohort back in 2018 and I realized they needed no a bunch of shit I had no intention to teach and I wasn't as interested in teaching it but I already but I had the information so I I needed to give it to them. Um, and I noticed that. Because I was so passionate about helping coaches with whatever they needed to be successful in getting their own clients results because I was so passionate about that that I didn't care if I was teaching business or leadership because I was more passionate at the time if I were to if I were to choose a passion around a thing that I wanted to teach. It would be around leadership and personal responsibility and and and a lot of personal development topics. Not um, as much about business even though I I had taught business before. |
| 32:17.00 | Max Shank | So you got clear. Ah you got you got clear on who you wanted to serve more than anything else. |
| 32:25.94 | mikebledsoe | It's about who and who and so like 3 and a half years later I am more passionate or I I would say I carry the same amount of passion now as I did 3 and a half years ago and that's because I did I found. Group of people who I want to help the most the people who I would surround myself with the the people who like I don't I can't solve all the world's problems. Um I I want to make people as healthy as possible and make people on the planet healthy. But I know that. That people aren't gonna do what I say and I don't know how to do everything I don't know what the right answers for everything I'm not going to create something that solves all the problems but I know huh I'm sorry you're you're doomed but I but I go you know what though like I look at things and I go look I am. |
| 33:09.35 | Max Shank | Damn it I hoped you would I hoped you would. |
| 33:22.91 | mikebledsoe | Uniquely positioned to help coaches and coaches are uniquely positioned to help people in ah in an era where there's an over too much information to sift through and so it takes someone who's going to be an expert in something and and hold someone's hand and guide them there. So um, so like you know sometimes sometimes there are moments where I'm like man am I really doing something that's making the difference in the world I Want to make um and then you know I remind myself of that So when it gets when it gets. What I know is what I'm doing now is what I know how to do best. That's gonna make the the most positive impact for others and myself and and and the thing is is I read this book mastery by Robert Green I know I've brought this up on the show before but he talks about having you know. |
| 34:08.76 | Max Shank | So when when. |
| 34:20.80 | mikebledsoe | People who create really innovative things in the world that make a big difference tend to have mastered up to 3 things and it could take 7 to 10 years to master something so a lot of people don't come up with their greatest innovations till they're in their forty s fifty sixty s because they needed time to master a few things and. And I look at it and I go am I going to do this forever I have people go how long are you going to coach coaches and I go as long as long as it's obvious that I should keep doing it and the way I'll know it's obvious to do something else is when something else comes along that just completely. Ah, feel feels bigger and more expansive than what I'm ah, currently doing and for someone who I'm someone who really loves having their options open. You know I have yeah, that's ah, that's a personality trait that you know on 1 side of the coin you have people. Who if they make a commitment to something in a month from now is like on on Friday the twenty ninth I'm going to be at this person's house doing this thing man that makes them feel so good that would drive me nuts because I'm like oh. Like is there a better opportunity going to come up is that go to be my favorite choice that night. how I don't know how I'm going to feel the week leading up to that I'm somebody who likes that I feel more relaxed and better about having ah many choices up to the last minute so there's different different personalities and so because. |
| 35:35.94 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 35:46.75 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 35:51.54 | mikebledsoe | I Have this thing where I don't really I prefer freedom over over the the illusion of certainty The the yeah I do prefer a little more chaos over order. But ah the some. |
| 35:56.47 | Max Shank | Over order? yeah. |
| 36:09.75 | mikebledsoe | Thing I keep my mind is well if this isn't what I'm supposed to be doing because I coached a lot of coaches. So I this is the kind of the thing I get from them. It's like oh I don't know if this is what I'm supposed to be doing I'm like who cares just do it and it doesn't you can always change it later and and everything you're doing right now. |
| 36:20.79 | Max Shank | Try it and see yeah. |
| 36:27.16 | mikebledsoe | If if you're meant to do something else when you get to that thing. You're meant to be doing the big pie in the sky thing which probably doesn't exist ah is like raining on people's parades ah is that you're practicing everything you've been doing up into this moment is getting you prepared for that. So. For me if I'm if I'm getting better at business I'm like man this is great getting better at marketing copywriting creating offers making social media posts podcasting. It's all like even if I'm not doing a thing that I'm quote unquote supposed to be doing in 5 years none of those skills are going to be bad to have accumulated in order to to achieve that and I've I've had moments in my current life where I go wow I had to go through you know all this bullshit. What seemed like bullshit at the time so that I can be effective at what I do now and having a lot of gratitude for it. |
| 37:21.91 | Max Shank | Are. |
| 37:25.49 | mikebledsoe | And I I bring this up because I I want people to be able to put themselves wholeheartedly into the choices that they're making in this moment and get as much out of it as possible learn as much as you possibly can and. While holding this perspective has really helped me to achieve peace when in the face of uncertainty. |
| 37:50.73 | Max Shank | Well, it probably makes a lot easier because it makes it easier to choose when you have a clear purpose because then you will choose congruently with that purpose if you have a clear role or identity and a clear purpose then the choices are going to be easier. So The other thing that you mentioned is you're going to change your mind like if you are are waiting to make the last decision you will never make 1 You know what? I mean like I just want to. But yeah, ah because that's also me like i'm. |
| 38:18.79 | mikebledsoe | Um I like I like how you said that if you're waiting to make the last decision. Yeah. |
| 38:29.51 | Max Shank | Ah, naturally very patient. It's easy for me to not be dynamic when there doesn't seem to be a need for it. I mean charlie munger says about you know patience and prudence in the past and then betting big when the the time is correct and that's really more. My style like I I've recognized that in life. You know, even like growing up broke. Ah, you don't have to make a lot of decisions. You just have to bet big when the time is right? So you don't have to be racing around on a wheel all the time. So the whole idea of like decision fatigue sounds like kind of funny when you realize how few decisions you actually need to make it's just that when you make them you have to really? um, do so heavily when the odds are heavily in your favor. |
| 39:22.22 | mikebledsoe | I Think a lot of people. Also they they make a choice and they start questioning their choice instead of giving giving their the choice they made their full attention. |
| 39:23.94 | Max Shank | And. |
| 39:33.92 | Max Shank | Yeah, and it's good to like evaluate your choices so you can make better decisions in the future but you want to um, give things a chance to work before you you quit on them I think and the fact that you bring up coaching is perfect because. |
| 39:46.66 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 39:52.63 | Max Shank | What what is the job of a coach if not to help you make better choices now the tactic for how you do that you can ask leading questions. You can point blank give them a recipe and say like hey I have this recipe for putting together an offer. So if you follow it. And you fill in the blanks your offer will probably be a lot better than whatever you come up with on your own that's like 1 way that you can coach someone is you can teach them a formula and the other way that you can coach people is you can provide Feedback. You're doing well this you're doing not so well you should change this. You should keep doing this um and then you can also answer questions. We talked last week about the difference between support which is answering questions and accountability which is I'm asking you questions. Um, and it's all it's all about how to make better choices and I think that's a perfect segue into authority which is another logical fallacy that people fall into as well. So you have the authority of a coach you are going to put. More weight into what a coach says just the same way. You're going to put more weight into what your doctor says because they allegedly know more than you do about health and they may in some ways know a lot more than you do about health. But if it's tricky because. Authority is how we get comparative advantage. So comparative advantage is an economics term. Basically if I can earn 3 hundred per hour coaching then I pay an electrician 1 hundred per hour. Um, the overall gain is better. Because I couldn't that's an hour that I couldn't spend coaching if I tried to do the electoral myself even if the result was just as good which it wouldn't be but you have to ah give the authority to that electrician you have to trust that he's going to. Make the right choice for you and so our whole society is is based off of that type of authority in different areas and it gets tricky when you start. Um. So like Authoritarianism I guess is where we'll come from there and I hope I didn't like gloss over too many things but basically authoritarianism is where 1 person makes all the choices for everybody else and controls the choosing and that's not what we have done in ah America for a long time. |
| 42:41.42 | Max Shank | In most cases. Um, but we do selectively have um, centralized control and people argue politics all the time but the only argument really worth having is. Who is the authority and what is their Jurisdiction So who decides and when do they get to decide and we've all kind of agreed that if somebody murders a guy and the judge says guilty then we take away that person's freedom and throw them into Jail even though they would. |
| 43:18.83 | mikebledsoe | Right? So yeah. |
| 43:19.32 | Max Shank | Not choose that right? So That's that's basically the only argument worth having is who's in charge and when do they get to decide. But of course you know if you watch the news people are arguing about stupid bullshit all the time like nobody is talking about. Authority and Jurisdiction. Even though those are the only important arguments to have. |
| 43:40.44 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and Authority is is not something that somebody can just assume Authority is granted by the individual or a group of individuals. So if you hire a coach you're choosing for that person to have authority. Um, and. And it's not absolute authority with a coach because they're making suggestions right? It's not like they're not going to I want to meet the coach that uses the stick just just put a ah shot collar on your balls. |
| 44:02.36 | Max Shank | Right? That's how I do my coaching. |
| 44:16.51 | mikebledsoe | And every time you do something I don't like I'm going to zap you. |
| 44:18.22 | Max Shank | I Have a farm out in the middle of nowhere where people have to give up all their worldly possessions and then I beat them until they're great coaches. Ah so the other the I. |
| 44:28.45 | mikebledsoe | I Um I just I just got uncomfortable I'm like ah too close to the truth. No I'm just kidding. |
| 44:37.60 | Max Shank | The the other side of um, the logical fallacy of appeal to authority which is um, it's a way to say that my choice is inarguable if I say I'm the doctor I'm the scientist I'm the ph d. Ah, you have to trust me then that is an appeal to authority which is another logical fallacy and you're very likely to be coerced into a bad decision. The other um side of that is an ad hominem attack. Which is where you're attacking the individual and you are trying to disqualify what they have to say so you know you have a person a and person b let's say person a is an authoritarian and let's just say we'll just call him doctor science because those are really good authority tags. And then we'll have person b we'll call him a conspiracy nut job and the whole idea here is if you focus on the authority of these labels then you're not going to be evaluating or choosing based on the content of the arguments. So if someone who has lots of authority makes a bad argument and you just respect their authority. You might walk into a trap similarly if someone is labeled as a nutjob or a wacko or whatever. You're not even going to give any credence to what their argument is even if it has a valid premise and a logical thought process. So. That's why it's really important to not um, Blindly follow an authority or blindly ignore someone who's been labeled as like bad. |
| 46:26.36 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah I mean you got to think for yourself, you got to you got to be able to take the information and and process it but people people that's not an efficient way to do it right? There's it's like ah cultural neural pathways are set up. |
| 46:27.13 | Max Shank | Or dumb essentially. |
| 46:44.45 | mikebledsoe | To just say all right? Whatever this person says we'll just do it I don't have to think about it's It's culturally, it's a cultural unconscious pattern that's been built in. |
| 46:53.24 | Max Shank | Well and it's responsibility. It's the difference between a child and an adult and a big part of growing up is you are no longer ah blindly following what the parent or the Authority says the whole concept of freedom itself is about choice. |
| 46:58.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 47:12.11 | Max Shank | The only difference between sex and rape is Choice. There's no, there's mechanically.. It's like the Same. It's just about whether you have a choice or not so it's really important to understand that your freedom. Lies in your ability to say yes or to say no your ability to choose freely is what freedom is all about and I can't think of a more important concept and like you said Authority is given. |
| 47:30.72 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 47:47.20 | Max Shank | Right? We have these rules in our society. The rulers rule with rules and really we have crime and punishment which means we have labeled something as a crime and we have a consequence that follows it so you are sort of accepting. Those consequences for your actions and when you accept responsibility for your actions then you also have power over your choices part of the reason a lot of people don't want to do that. Ah, myself included for a long time is then you also are taking potentially the blame for those choices. But it. It really is the difference between ah the child role and the adult role if you are willing to accept the risk then you get the reward and and reward is just a type of consequence. It's like what happens consequently what happens next after you. |
| 48:45.50 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, and 1 thing I want to point out is well I think I think you said you you talked about the word. No and just the the ability to say no ah is highly underrated. Um. |
| 48:46.16 | Max Shank | After you choose. |
| 49:04.94 | mikebledsoe | Not used and the thing is is no matter how someone's labeled if they don't honor your no if if someone is trying to do something to you and they and you say no and they don't they don't you know they still push the moment that you're. There's physical interaction. It's called violence and that's immoral so to not honor. Someone's note to to not get their their consent is ah is violence. Um, whether that be ah for sex or for a vaccine. It's. Both of these are violence if it's forced upon you? Yeah, So well if if it's well I would say violence is the initiation of force and force could be We could I like to put violence in the category of. |
| 49:47.74 | Max Shank | It's coercion right? because Violence violence isn't always immoral is the only slight disagreement. |
| 50:01.41 | mikebledsoe | You initiated the the physical interaction. The force and a defense is just using force like if someone comes into my house and tries to Rob me and I shoot them I didn't conduct violence I I used force and so. |
| 50:09.31 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 50:14.86 | Max Shank | Ah, that's why yeah I thought I I would say the opposite I would say you responded violently but you were right to do so so and I think you you and I do a good job of being semantically precise or at least clarifying what we're talking about. |
| 50:22.85 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 50:33.20 | Max Shank | So that we understand what the other person is saying. |
| 50:33.17 | mikebledsoe | Right? Well and coercion is the threat of violence. It's It's the it's and or the the threat of you know you're never gonna work in this town again or you're you You can't you know. |
| 50:38.14 | Max Shank | Well, that's 1 way. |
| 50:52.13 | mikebledsoe | To take away your livelihood or whatever. So that's coercion. Either way. |
| 50:53.94 | Max Shank | So coercion as I've understood it to be defined is the deliberate interference with property using fraud or force. |
| 51:05.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, ah Wikipedia says coercion is is compelling a party to act in an unvoluntary manner by use of threats including Force. It involves a set of various types of forceful actions that violate the free will of an individual to induce a desired response. For example. A bully demanding lunch money from a student or the student gets beaten. These actions may include extortion Blackmail torture threats to induce favors or even sexual assault in law coercion is codified as a duress as a duress crime such actions are used as leverage to force the victim. To act in a way contrary to their own interests. So ah, yeah, yeah I think I think that for for both of what we said that that summarizes it is it really really well and so. |
| 51:45.37 | Max Shank | That tracks. |
| 51:56.80 | mikebledsoe | I point this out and part of this conversation was inspired by a dm conversation I got on Instagram with somebody who was very emotionally triggered by a post I made and to be told the post was supposed to cause people to think and connect some dots. |
| 52:14.14 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 52:15.88 | mikebledsoe | Um, and you know I imagine a lot of my followers were able to connect those dots because I got a lot of people who liked it and then I got 1 person who did not like it and ah she was extremely flustered and even admitted you know in in the the dm she said. |
| 52:24.80 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 52:33.81 | mikebledsoe | You know every fiber of my being says this is wrong. It's like there's this admission of like this emotional hijack or a version of logical fallacy and um, you know I think we we got to be careful of those things. Um and and this is why. Ah, the United states was set up as a republic and not a democracy. Ah the the founding fathers recognized democracy as ah as a dangerous as a dangerous way of doing things the greeks the greeks started off as a republic and then they deteriorated. |
| 52:54.10 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 53:10.90 | mikebledsoe | Into democracy thinking you know all the while the story the narrative that was told and the story that's being told now is that democracy is an democracy is an evolution when in fact, it's ah, a devolution from a Republic and a Republic is set up in a way that that reduces. The amount of Authority a single person can have it really dilutes. Ah this ability to create violent action or coercion against a certain population of people it it creates a lot of checks and balances. It's why there's an electoral college. Ah, for voting most people don't really understand how that works. Um, yeah so um. |
| 53:52.27 | Max Shank | Yeah Mob rule. Otherwise right I like that you called it a demockery that's kind of hilarious I know that was like a freudianlip or something but I I think a demockery it's mob rule if. |
| 54:00.69 | mikebledsoe | It was it was but I'm using it from now. Well like you said a democracy is my role. Yeah. |
| 54:08.94 | Max Shank | If I get if I get fifty one percent of the people to say that. Ah we should be able to Rob and rape the other forty nine then it's legal to do So is that fucking insanity or what like that's crazy. |
| 54:19.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well. Ah, my buddy who has probably more racial ethnicities in his background than anyone I know he's he's as as mud as they come. You know he says ah and I quote him because he he can speak on this. Like the greatest minority on the planet is the individual and in a democracy. The individual is not honored at all democracy and and communism have more alike than a Republic and and democracy and So. Ah,, there's yeah. |
| 54:59.51 | Max Shank | That's where all the evil stuff happens too like people are like oh jeffrey dahmer he's so it's like like yeah sometimes that happens but we know him way more and nobody talks about like chairman mao and stalin and Mussolini and all these fucking that racked up. Way bigger numbers I mean if we're really to yeah I think a hundred million under mal okay like. |
| 55:18.15 | mikebledsoe | Millions tens of millions of people more more people have died under Royalty Royal commands and communist demands than any other no other individual has ever. Caused more harm than people who are in charge of Communist countries. |
| 55:39.28 | Max Shank | Right? Because there's no um, agile rebalancing you know when you're able to vote with free choice a you're not gonna have interactions that are net loss you and I would only choose to do business if. What I have is worth it to you is worth at least a little more than what you pay so when you have a society that's based on win-win or profit. Um, you can rebalance you have that agility. So there's going to be um that the food supply. For example, you're not going to have some central planner make a mistake about how much food there should be because there's gonna be opportunity for people to choose lots of different foods and there will be this. Competition and collaboration and um I think that's 1 of the most important things is that we're allowed to rebalance and vote with our dollars I mean look we could go down a deep rabbit hole about how the fed has really fucked up the. Value of money through quantative quantitative easing which is just a really finesse way of saying like we're fucking with the currency. Um, but look the reality is if you're free to choose. That's great and if you're forced to obey that's usually not great and I don't want to make such a ah broad generalization. But the whole reason we have free speech as amendment 1 and um, use of violence or right to bear arms. Number 2 is because those are the only ways that we can interact with each other to resolve conflict we can resolve conflict with our words or we can resolve them with violence and of course we would preserve to do it without. Ah. Physical violence. But sometimes there's no other choice and that's why that's baked into this idea of individual freedom. |
| 57:53.69 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and I I think we would we We have to mention I mean now that we're down this track if we're we have to talk about ah capitalism and so ah to me. Ah. |
| 58:05.67 | Max Shank | Stop. Um I I Wish we I wish we had capitalism in this country? Cronyism um. |
| 58:12.50 | mikebledsoe | Decentralization I Wish we did too. Yeah, but we have um I don't know if this is I don't I don't know if we have like the greatest expression of capitalism Currently there is and we do have cronyism. |
| 58:24.28 | Max Shank | No, we have cronyism. It's horrific. We have we have lobbying we have all of these special. It's fucking look. It's It's not the worst but it's really deviated a lot from the concept of what capitalism should be. |
| 58:40.22 | mikebledsoe | Well the the concept of capitalism in its purest form has never been. You know the only time this existed is when probably in the old west when the the reach of government really couldn't get out and. Impact people's lives in say Nevada I mean ah I read Mark twain's autobiography and he traveled all over he he seemed to be fairly unfettered by anybody to do any business that he he would like to do um and paid no tax. So he um so I think that. |
| 59:02.11 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 59:17.93 | mikebledsoe | If we like zoom out on a macro scale. This idea of capitalism like it's always existed to some degree anytime. There's an exchange of services and goods in an exchange of value for those things that's ah, that's a capitalist endeavor when when choice is involved. Where where it's a voluntary and interaction and and pure capitalism like you're like you're alluding to is is where there is no. Ah there is no friction between voluntary interaction. There is no force. There is no coercion being brought in by a third party ah, third party butting their nose and say you're and my business so to voluntary adults creating an exchange if you read it's voluntary. This is what this is all of this is getting down to and. |
| 01:00:05.75 | Max Shank | That's the key word is voluntary. That's the key word. |
| 01:00:13.90 | mikebledsoe | There's a really awesome series I Bet you've watched it ah which is called ah, free to choose or freedom to choose by Milton friedman. It's free on youtube milton friedman ah he does he does such a good job of talking about. |
| 01:00:19.38 | Max Shank | Fuck. Yeah I've seen it. It's free on Youtube folks thomas souls on there too. |
| 01:00:31.80 | mikebledsoe | How Capitalism has led to the point where we have all this innovation like it's what's responsible for the ability to have all the goods and services that we have at our disposal now. Um, no thanks to government regulation. The thing about Capitalism I Think about Capitalism and there's been times where it's exploded and there's times where it's It's been retracted I think we're in a ah phase of Contraction. We're contracting on capitalism right now for various reasons and and I think yeah. |
| 01:01:04.33 | Max Shank | Fear I believe isn't that the only way that freedom gets eroded is through fear I'm pretty sure. |
| 01:01:08.66 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, so fear is doing that. But if we think about capitalism what it creates if you look at what Milton friedman describes in that in that series is It's really a decentralization of authority. So. The more voluntary interactions that we have in the world the more the individual gets to practice their own authority that they are the authority of their own life. Um I call that sovereignty if you if you have sovereignty that means that you are the authority of yourself and. And Sovereignty being a word that only used to be used according to royalty because they were the ones that were above the law right? They they could basically break all the laws and nothing happened to them and there were sovereignty with yeah exactly and so like the idea of sovereignty. |
| 01:01:48.72 | Max Shank | Ah, right? like. |
| 01:01:54.99 | Max Shank | Right? Kind of like our politicians now. |
| 01:02:03.10 | mikebledsoe | Ah, individual Sovereignty was something that was also ah very at the forefront of the forming of the republic of the United states and when the declaration of independence was drafted the constitution a lot of this was based on individual sovereignty as a. A philosophical backbone and so capitalism is something that has to exist in a free society because it is the epitome of voluntary interaction and you can tell if something is is capitalist or not because what max was saying at the beginning. But we have is cronyism or crony capitalism and there really isn't there. There are companies that are leveraging the government and to use violence and coercion. Ah you know disguised as in the words of regulation um to. Ah, basically force companies out or or force companies to do things a certain way. It. It creates a lot of involuntary behavior and when we have involuntary behavior that creates conflict and so if we want to have a a world of peace and without conflict then we. We really need people to to practice their own authority over themselves and realize that they are um, they are their their own ruler. So um, and which brings me to like anarchy the word anarchy all it means is without a ruler. |
| 01:03:33.95 | Max Shank | A. |
| 01:03:35.84 | mikebledsoe | And a lot of people you know Anarchy has been associated with with chaos. Ah, and it's a really good propaganda play to associate anarchy with chaos because most people have been tricked into believing that humans are evil. |
| 01:03:40.55 | Max Shank | Have. Right. |
| 01:03:55.77 | mikebledsoe | And that they they want to be violent and that you need to be made safe by somebody else when the truth is is most people are peaceful loving just want to get along I don't want to pick a fight most people will avoid those situations. |
| 01:04:09.28 | Max Shank | The chance of killing yourself versus someone else killing you is like a Hundred times more because there are different like even just pure like suicide outpaces murder by such a dramatic amount. It's like. |
| 01:04:27.64 | mikebledsoe | M. |
| 01:04:28.41 | Max Shank | 4 times or something like that. Maybe even more maybe 8 times people kill themselves way more than they kill other people. So This idea that your neighbor is dangerous is the only argument that can be made to take away. That sovereignty and it's like we talked about you know people who trade freedom for security will lose both and deserve neither. |
| 01:04:52.78 | mikebledsoe | Well I'll also say no 1 can take away your sovereignty like you are a sovereign being you do have the authority of your own life. If and if anyone else has authority over you. It's because you gave it to them now if. |
| 01:05:02.35 | Max Shank | What and there are consequences Totally no. |
| 01:05:09.87 | mikebledsoe | If you do something and someone who says that they're the authority over you they come and cause violence on you. That's an amoral action and so that's something that most people just won't be able to wrap their heads around and that's okay, but ah because. Most people are brainwashed into believing that you know the government or what they deem to be the Authority really is looking out for their best interest even if they make a mistake the overall. Ah the overall idea of it is beneficial. |
| 01:05:44.45 | Max Shank | I Think part of the reason for that is once you realize the opposite it like shatters your illusion of reality so it is so ah surreal it. It is a reality shattering experience to recognize the fact that oh. |
| 01:05:46.18 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 01:06:03.76 | Max Shank | Wow 12 years of school is a really bad investment for a child. Oh Wow look at how the tax dollars are squandered Oh Wow Look how many soldiers have been sacrificed in fucking Pointless Wars Oh Wow look at all these politicians flexing their power and taking away our freedom so they can grease their own pockets. Oh and it just goes On. And on and on and on and people like oh well, the media wouldn't lie to you and the reason they the reason. Yeah exactly Well. The reason people don't do that is because you have to like shatter your previous comfortable version of reality. Even if it is. |
| 01:06:27.91 | mikebledsoe | Um, the media is just 1 big advertisement. |
| 01:06:42.42 | Max Shank | Even if it's wrong. It's familiar so you can keep your ego intact if you're just like no no, no, they they know what's best they're doing What's best for everybody and you know a lot of the time. It's just impossible to say after the fact but I feel like we've gotten a little too far down. |
| 01:06:45.80 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:07:01.63 | Max Shank | Or maybe just appropriately far down the rabbit hole of ah choice within a societal framework or within the state. But I think we can easily bring it back around and kind of. |
| 01:07:10.42 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 01:07:19.64 | Max Shank | Wrap up the idea that if you are what you said earlier really resonated if you figure out who you want to serve just ask them like if you're not sure what to do just ask the people that you want to help. And they'll tell you what they want, you know what? I mean like then you're you're very likely to make the right make a constructive choice. |
| 01:07:40.56 | mikebledsoe | Yep, like. |
| 01:07:45.49 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, spot on spot on. That's that's the 1 of the biggest things that ah that I teach is if you're ever confused about what to do next go ask your clients. Go ask your potential clients. |
| 01:07:49.37 | Max Shank | I think. |
| 01:08:02.74 | mikebledsoe | And ideal customer. |
| 01:08:05.12 | Max Shank | It's kind of like you know you and I tend to resonate with male entrepreneurs around 30 years old for obvious reasons like I understand it I don't understand women I've tried to I've done a lot of I've done a lot of work in the field. |
| 01:08:10.37 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, like. |
| 01:08:22.10 | Max Shank | Trying to understand women but I'm still pretty confused. |
| 01:08:24.89 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that's that's a code yet to be cracked and I think it's not supposed to be cracked because it's ah the the mystery is a big part of the attraction in my opinion. Yeah. |
| 01:08:37.60 | Max Shank | Yeah, we we like things that are different but familiar wasn't that weird. |
| 01:08:44.52 | mikebledsoe | What let's close this down any ah, any final thoughts on this. |
| 01:08:51.20 | Max Shank | Final thoughts on how to choose better take a pause. Be aware of the so you take a pause then you are able to use your wizard brain Once you take a pause Then. You will likely get trapped by logical fallacies If you're not aware of what they are and if you're not sure what to do? Um, just try to make your choices align with the identity and the purpose that you want not necessarily the 1 that you have. Because your subconscious self-image can lead you toward the same life. You've always been living but of course the whole idea is to let go of that so you can make room for a new and better 1 and then. Once you make a choice. Don't be afraid to quit if it's wrong. But Also once you make a choice make sure you give it a chance to actually work so really test it out in the field and the other thing I would say last but maybe not least is. |
| 01:09:56.12 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:10:08.14 | Max Shank | If We're talking about a choice for Business. You have no clue and people will lie to you until you offer it up for sale whether it's a service or a product or anything like that if you're like hey I got this thing and you tell your friend they're like oh that's really cool. No no, don't ask their opinion. Ask if they want to purchase it like that. That's what really ah tells the story. |
| 01:10:33.37 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, just no skin in the gain with an opinion. Ah yet. |
| 01:10:38.10 | Max Shank | No skin in the game. We've been talking shit for an hour. No skin. It's easy to talk. It is cheap. |
| 01:10:44.98 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, that's why I say talk is cheap. Ah yeah I yeah I'd say like the big takeaways from me that I'd like people to leave with is um, you know. You can you can choose. You can get better at choosing now in the moment by learning to downregulate yourself. Ah when when faced with something that's stressful and you can also choose in the past or you can choose in the present the train for the future by ah, training yourself. To acquire skills that you you imagine you might need in the future like you might need to acquire the skill of taking a gun out of a holster and shooting a piece of paper that may be something else down the road but the going from unconscious incompetence looking at the area of your life where you want to make improvements. And looking at where you're incompetent and then choosing the the number 1 thing that you want to do and then train that with conscious incompetence be okay with being incompetent. It's something that you're trying to get good at and then watching yourself go into conscious competence and then getting the point of making it. Ah, unconscious competence and if you really take that perspective when you when you step into learning I find when I did that that I I started learning a lot faster because it was kind of strange the more patience I had with myself in realizing where I was at in the process. Allowed me to down regulate which allowed me to learn more quickly and then the last thing I want to mention is a lot of the principles that we talk about are happening on an individual level and according to 1 of the hermetic principles as above so below as within. Is without and basically what that means is whatever' is happening in this context and what I mean right now is whatever is happening for someone on an individual level psychologically the way they approach things is the same you're going to see the same manifestations happen in large groups of people in society whether it be. |
| 01:12:51.47 | Max Shank | A. |
| 01:12:53.99 | mikebledsoe | Ah, school City or an entire nation or the whole world. There are pieces of this individual psychology that applies culturally and so when you learn ah when when you learn 1 really deeply when you go to connect the dots to the other. It. It makes a lot of sense So worth paying attention to so if you're ever confused about why an entire society is behaving a certain way I'll just look at why individuals behave that way when when they're left to their own devices. So. |
| 01:13:25.78 | Max Shank | Oh man, that's good. It made me think of 2 more things actually which I think are really important 1 is that you can choose now about the past so framing your experience might be the most important choice you ever make. Because if you frame your experience as 1 of gratitude rather than 1 of resentment or victimhood then you are basically dooming your future based on your past. So I think that's 1 of the most common problems I see people have when they continue to make choices that are self-destructive is. They have not framed their experience in a constructive way. You know if you were beaten as a child and you say oh I'm a beaten victim versus I was beaten as a child clearly my parent wanted. What's best for me and clearly they cared about me. They just didn't really have a good way of showing it and regardless of all that it made me the person that I am today so framing your past is a very important choice that is worth putting on paper and that leads to the second thing which is your state of being. Physically and mentally will strongly influence your ability to make decisions. So if you are seeing the world with abundance. Mentally if you are um, exercising regularly if you have adequate blood flow. You're going to make better choices if you are stagnant. Your chi your blood All that stuff is stagnant. You're going to make worse choices that are more contractive and so I think between the choice of framing your past and your present to help your future and also changing your state. Can be crazy beneficial and sometimes it's better to sleep on it before you make a decision sometimes better to go for a walk or run because your state of being will heavily influence your ability to make a choice. |
| 01:15:27.98 | mikebledsoe | Absolutely Ah, anything you want to mention besides Maxsank Dot Com for finding you. |
| 01:15:38.20 | Max Shank | Yep Maxsank Dot Com and if you'd like to outsource all of your decision makingking to me I would be happy to enroll you in my Authoritarian program. You don't need to worry about choosing for yourself anymore I will just assume all your earthly possessions and I'll I'll tell you what to do from here on out. |
| 01:15:55.40 | mikebledsoe | Ah, perfect. 1 thing I want to mention by the way I've been getting messages from people that they're listening and enjoying it so I want to let all the people that are listening know that I have the strong coach summit coming up in March. |
| 01:15:55.51 | Max Shank | So. |
| 01:16:12.49 | mikebledsoe | And so if you want to check that out. Go to the strongcoach dot com slash summit or you can just hit me up on Instagram I'll give you the link so just want to let you all know about that so that you don't find out about too late and then you're mad that I didn't mention on the show and then. You know people get upset with me a lot. So. |
| 01:16:29.65 | Max Shank | By the way I was just joking I ain't your mom I don't want to make your choices for you. |
| 01:16:35.34 | mikebledsoe | Ah, it's like a fake plug in front of ah, a real plug and it's like ah ah all right? Good show. Let me brother. |
| 01:16:44.48 | Max Shank | Love your brother take care. |
| 00:00.00 | mikebledsoe | Welcome back to Mondays with mike and max and help'm coming to you from mephis tennessee I went I went home for thanksgiving and that's where I'm hanging out where you at Max you're still a home I can tell on the camera. |
| 00:14.98 | Max Shank | Yeah I'm home I'm home in ents need is California. It's pretty nice here. It's winter time but I still get to go on walks with no shirt on so it's great. The sun goes down probably around four 30 I want to say. |
| 00:25.25 | mikebledsoe | The sun just goes down earlier. |
| 00:32.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, I Ah um. |
| 00:34.23 | Max Shank | 35 very exciting. We're talking about the weather this is good. The the pleasant treat. Why don't you tell the folks at home. What the weather's like over there. |
| 00:41.54 | mikebledsoe | Well this is this is what happens when you master a life of ah of ah balance and get rid of all all excess the weather becomes interesting in the sun Sunset time becomes interesting. |
| 00:55.61 | Max Shank | Spare spare me your inane platitudes. Let's get down to business. |
| 01:01.77 | mikebledsoe | ah ah yeah so we do ah we want to talk about excess today. Um, and you know max and I have both experienced a lot of excess in our lives and there's a lot of benefits to it. But there's also some pitfalls and ah. We're going to dig into what those may be and how to what you can do to navigate these waters of life because I do think that we're all drawn to excess in some ways. What are some of the what are some of the ways you were drawn to excess. And your in your youth max. |
| 01:38.94 | Max Shank | Oh gosh I think it's important to have a distinction between surplus and excess which seems very similar. So for me I just always wanted a surplus of cash and. Like everybody else I wanted to be loved so I wanted love power and attention in that order which is something we've talked about a lot and I think having a surplus is a natural inclination for people. That's why. People set up retirement accounts. That's why they have a savings account That's why they get married so they can lock in their relationship and you know with excess you might eat too much food I mean I definitely did that. When I was a kid and still I just exercise enough that it doesn't matter so I'm not really overweight but when I was a kid I was fat and it was because I just ate too much food I consumed too much television and later too much video games and then. Um, it's it's just an over concentration or an imbalance in 1 area and I think it's really common because the only way you can improve your situation is to increase your means which is get more. You can reduce your needs which is needless or you can change your attitude about it and those are really the only 3 ways that I think you can improve your situation so I was hyper focused on increasing my means which is gaining more power. And early on I really just was so focused on getting more and spending less because I was living a very Spartan existence and is because I was very focused on building up that Surplus so I would eventually feel. Secure financially because that was probably the biggest insecurity I felt when I was young younger I guess. |
| 03:55.53 | mikebledsoe | Well, what? what was? Ah, What was some of the things that you were that was you build up a surplus but what what did you experience in excess I Mean well you talked about food ah video games all these types of things. Did you experience. Um, excess and fitness or anything like that. |
| 04:17.24 | Max Shank | Oh yeah, Absolutely um, crazy excess and it was because it was so positively reinforced right? people. We think we've talked about this before I would do a strong thing and people like oh yeah, we we really love it when you do this strong thing and in my head I'm like okay so this is how I get love now is I do a strong thing and then I just layer more and more on top of that without really pausing to think about the big picture. |
| 04:36.14 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 04:47.39 | Max Shank | Of the life I'm trying to live So I think I was excessively concerned with how I appeared to others and that probably drove a lot of the destructive behaviors. |
| 05:00.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think um I mean when when we first brought this up what I thought of was excess leads to being desensitized and putting ourselves like in extreme situations. |
| 05:12.65 | Max Shank | Um, what. |
| 05:20.94 | mikebledsoe | Repeatedly over time will desensitize us so ah, exposing yourself to extreme amounts of sugar over a period of time will desensitize your your cells to insulin and your ability to produce insulin may be reduced. Um. And you stare at the sun too long in excess your eyes will become desensitized to be ah ability to sense light and so I think that I think and then the the first thing that really came up to this I think what led to this was the talk about porn. |
| 05:58.39 | Max Shank | No. |
| 06:00.16 | mikebledsoe | And how porn can is porn in itself to me I've gotten to the point where just any porn at all seems excessive around Sexuality. So I mean if I want to say excessive. You know there's there's porn and then there's excessive porn. I'm sure it can be consumed in a way that is beneficial or helpful or maybe not so bad. But if we look at if we zoom out and look at the the whole picture of sex I think consuming porn does lead to a desensitizing of. Men and women alike I think men are more susceptible to it. Ah get deep. They get desensitized to ah just what they think a sexual experience should look like the you know. |
| 06:39.93 | Max Shank | Less imagination too. |
| 06:53.21 | mikebledsoe | You're more than likely not going to be picking up that girl that looks like the porn star you were looking at Yesterday. Ah you know, ah that you were saying ah you know the volleyball team's not going to just you know? Yeah yeah, like. |
| 07:03.30 | Max Shank | Wander into my sex dungeon. Yeah, exactly like it's just very unrealistic expectations and pornography is interesting because there's no clear definition of what it is like we don't know what it is just the same the same thing with ah addiction. We have ideas of what it is addiction. You could say is a repeated behavior that gives you an outcome that you don't want right? that could be 1 definition but there's a lot of dissent There's a lot of disagreement. About what addiction really means there's a lot of disagreement about what porn really means because I don't know if you've ever checked out the fitness hashtag on Instagram that that is like soft core pornography like that that'll get me going. No worries now. |
| 07:57.16 | mikebledsoe | That's true. Well yeah I've had ah I've had to unfollow so many people because ah I don't have the problem now because I I put a stop to it. But yeah, there's I'm on Instagram I'm following this girl and then next thing I know I'm like. |
| 07:59.93 | Max Shank | Back in my heyday. |
| 08:12.13 | mikebledsoe | Oh shit, you know I got to go finish this. It leads it leads me next thing I know I'm I'm porn up you know. |
| 08:17.71 | Max Shank | Well like you said there's a way to appreciate visual and audible stimuli. In a constructive way and there's also the shameful slow destruction of your soul as you just watch like more and more depraved stuff and frankly you know I'm not into kink shaming. You know some people really like um pottery. And some people like hooking their nipples up to a car battery and it's not for me to say which of those is like the best way to spend your leisure Time. You know what? I mean if you like what like who could who can say what you do with your leisure. But. |
| 09:09.30 | mikebledsoe | I'm with you? Well I I would say this that the longer I go without porn the more interesting My actual sex life becomes. |
| 09:16.70 | Max Shank | And I mean I don't know if you still whack off. But if you use your imagination for that. It's kind of like you're you're flexing a muscle a little bit practice practicing your imagination. |
| 09:27.77 | mikebledsoe | What do you mean flexing what flexing ah flat flexing the imagination muscle. |
| 09:34.22 | Max Shank | Yeah, exactly so rather than being dependent on this stimulus that you may or may not feel shame about and once again, like you said it's just a ah slippery slope into something that is more and more stimulating just the same way that serial. Has become more and more sugary where it started out as like oh it's honey Nut cheerios. We're going to put like a little sprinkle of honey in there and people are like yeah and then before you know it, we got cookie crisp which is a bowl of tiny cookies like how the fuck did that become cereal. |
| 09:59.60 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 10:09.37 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 10:11.74 | Max Shank | And it's just like ah it's an arms race and excess is what kills most people in America there's no question about it. Excess food creates stagnation. You never have time to clear out all of the um. Energy all the sugar or the Metabolites. So the byproducts of these reactions and um excess I refer to the creation consumption ratio. So if your creation consumption ratio is just wildly out of balance. You're not going to feel a lot of authority over your own life and that's what's so fun is the word authority has the word author right in the middle there. So the more time you practice being an author. Rather than a reader you're going to feel more agency over your life too. Otherwise you're going to just be fully addicted to the dopamine machine and it sort of doesn't matter what lever you're pulling whether it's a porn lever or. A social media lever or ah, different consumable drugs. You know it's it's hard to say what's going to be more destructive for a person. Um, you're probably better off having. Ah, few cocktails every single night then spending many hours scrolling through social media and getting into the excessive comparison because now it's like if I compare my professional success and aesthetic appearance to dwayne the rock johnson. Just going to feel like ah a pile of shit every day I'm going to feel so far behind the 8 ball I'm like what am I doing but it's not natural to compare yourself against the top fraction of a percentage of mutants. Of 7 billion like it just it just makes no sense so you get in that comparison. |
| 12:24.41 | mikebledsoe | Well, you're also comparing yourself to you know photo shoots and best days you like I'm not I don't when I'm having a down day I'm not posting the fucking Instagram I'm not I'm not posting the the 7 hours I sat at my desk and ran. |
| 12:30.76 | Max Shank | Yeah, all that stuff. |
| 12:44.35 | mikebledsoe | Ran numbers to talk about. You know how cool entrepreneurship is I wait until I wait I mean I Even even I'm someone who tries to like be as real as possible on on social media. |
| 12:46.45 | Max Shank | We We should do that We should do a whole series of like the lowest moments he ah ah. |
| 13:02.50 | mikebledsoe | And I still like it's like oh yeah, I've rented this dope car and I'm driving across these cliffs and this is what entrepreneurship looks like but you know there was also 5 other days. Yeah everything I got paid for it. |
| 13:08.61 | Max Shank | That was all I did that was all I did I It was fully curated I Only showed you a specific angle of snapshots of my let the best ones too and people. We're under this idea that I was just racking up. W's every single day like it couldn't be easier I'm like doing all this amazing stuff man his whole life must be like that. It's like are you kidding me. |
| 13:38.66 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, or it's like a lot of people will go man. You're doing so many things I'm like well I'm involved with a lot of things I'm not actually doing a lot of things. Ah but I could see how that looks like it when you when you're looking online. |
| 13:55.44 | Max Shank | Well oh. |
| 13:56.93 | mikebledsoe | And yeah, you're comparing yourself to my online image again. It's yeah it won't be helpful but I like what you're saying the excess comparison because I mean avoiding comparison Altogether that's that's difficult. But. |
| 14:03.19 | Max Shank | Yeah, conversely. |
| 14:14.80 | mikebledsoe | Social media has created an experience where excess comparison is very easy and you are you are comparing yourself to the best on the planet I mean the benefit of the internet is that look when I have kids I'm not just having them learn from any math teacher. |
| 14:19.63 | Max Shank | Yeah, oh. |
| 14:33.93 | mikebledsoe | Um, probably gonna enroll them in the khan academy which is absolutely free online. Ah and have 1 of the world's best mathematics teachers teach them. It makes sense but the flip side of that is is that the excess comparison. It also is made available. |
| 14:36.19 | Max Shank | And. |
| 14:51.76 | mikebledsoe | And comparing ourselves against people who are the best in the world at a thing. |
| 14:55.58 | Max Shank | That's what allows us to do better. Um, it's kind of like the 4 minute mile. No 1 could break it no 1 could break it 1 guy broke it. He showed it was possible and because news traveled so fast. Everyone's like oh man so that's how it works. |
| 15:00.12 | mikebledsoe | M. |
| 15:12.28 | Max Shank | And the same thing's true with all kinds of stuff like you can watch hours and hours of fight film or sport film to really evaluate what the best in the world are doing I think the you know I tend to be my own harshest critic. Which is why I Also don't really care what people say because like I've already been as harsh as I can toward myself about the truth of what I'm doing well or not doing well and I think as long as you can do that in a like a kind way. |
| 15:42.23 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 15:49.72 | Max Shank | You can be kind to yourself. That's probably the best way to go about it. |
| 15:51.65 | mikebledsoe | Well I think what you're getting at what I'm hearing in all this is It's is long. You want to make sure that you're it's staying useful. So your comparison can be useful ah and and pushing you forward. |
| 16:09.74 | Max Shank | Discernment. |
| 16:10.67 | mikebledsoe | It's probably not going to create a lot of joy for you but it may create. Ah it may create drive and for for accomplishment and and whatever the things that we tend to value as ah westerners. Anyway. |
| 16:17.50 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 16:23.84 | Max Shank | I think you want to have discernment um with regard to actions rather judgment of the person and I think that would be best applied to yourself and to other people like if you. Safe something stupid which I mean I think that's happened a few times on the podcast already. Not today maybe also today I'm not saying that you're a stupid person by by Judgment. You know what? I mean but. |
| 16:55.84 | mikebledsoe | M. |
| 16:58.43 | Max Shank | Just the same way I would think that oh I said a stupid thing I wouldn't judge myself as stupid because of that you know I'm saying so it's really important you have to be discerning Otherwise you're you're like living in fantasy land and you're never evaluating behavior so you never have a chance to learn. |
| 17:02.81 | mikebledsoe | Um, well yeah, there's um. |
| 17:14.71 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it's a gift I What I mean recording my my thoughts and then putting them online for everybody to hear talk about a personal development tool I Almost every show I leave saying you know what. |
| 17:31.52 | Max Shank | So just. |
| 17:32.25 | mikebledsoe | I'm not even sure I Really believe that thing I said or or what I said man, there's so many holes in that I haven't really I really haven't thought about it from every angle. So I like talking to somebody else on a podcast and they can poke holes and I go Wow I was running around. |
| 17:43.62 | Max Shank | And here. |
| 17:51.34 | mikebledsoe | I Actually haven't thought this all the way through or from from as many angles as I would like to if I'm going to speak about it and so ah, ah I Invest a lot of time in learning because I don't want to be. Ah, hate being wrong like people that's 1 of the things that most people almost nobody want ah as like ah the biggest 1 of the biggest fears of people is to be wrong. So with the the problem is is most people they don't want to be wrong. So bad that they'll just dig in and and. |
| 18:10.00 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 18:28.92 | mikebledsoe | Ignore any information that is going to challenge their confirmation. Bias. |
| 18:34.37 | Max Shank | They'll create a fantasy that makes their wrongness right. |
| 18:36.56 | mikebledsoe | Right? But on the other side of that like I'm I don't want to be wrong. So I got to make sure that what I say is the right thing versus trying to make the thing that I believe the right thing and convince people of it and I don't think there's any way. |
| 18:45.10 | Max Shank | And. Right. |
| 18:54.62 | mikebledsoe | You know where human nature is to do a little bit of both but there is there are some people who are really far on 1 side and then there's other people who are really putting forth conscious effort to to do it in a way that's that's actually useful and I think it's obvious when you run into those people. Because when you get talking to them. They they're what they're talking about is well fortified with with things that are hard to disagree with. |
| 19:21.21 | Max Shank | I agree complete that's part of why I like our conversation so much is we get to test out our ideas against someone who is fairly objective but also pretty kind about it so you don't feel like we're in a dangerous place. We're going to judge each other personally which it feels safe to me like I don't go fuck. Ah, what's interesting. You mentioned before whenever I've released anything. |
| 19:41.25 | mikebledsoe | It's a safe space. |
| 19:54.66 | Max Shank | Whenever I've finished a podcast whenever I've finished and sent out a book whenever I've completed a course I've never come away thinking that was perfect. My very first response is like going through an inventory. All the stuff that I messed up all the stuff that I wish I had done differently. What I wish I had included what I wish I had excluded and I think that's a big part of what makes you better. It can go too far though. So. |
| 20:27.36 | mikebledsoe | Well this is this I mean I I teach people how to do this most people are so afraid of looking bad that and looking like they're wrong that they they won't ever launch their their coaching program or their course. |
| 20:43.60 | Max Shank | Man. |
| 20:46.21 | mikebledsoe | Or whatever it is and I think 1 of the benefits that I've had I imagine you're similar in this way because I I know this is just um, ah an attribute that a lot of successful people have is it's 80 percent good enough. So I'm going to launch it and so I think. |
| 21:00.20 | Max Shank | Um, right. |
| 21:04.57 | mikebledsoe | Most people and whether it's 1 hundred percent or 80 percent is likely a feeling because there's too many variables to be able to say you know you either feel like it's right or you feel like it's not. It's it's hard to come up with objective. Um, ah. |
| 21:12.23 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 21:23.60 | mikebledsoe | An objective measure of the quality of a content or whatever, especially when it's coming from yourself. So so what I like is like look get it 80 percent there as soon as it feels like 80 percent launch it. But after that continue to improve it. There's no reason to just. |
| 21:25.58 | Max Shank | I Think that. |
| 21:41.68 | mikebledsoe | Let it be but don't not launch it until you know, don't wait till it 1 hundred percent to launch. It. So like I spent the last ten months rewriting all the curriculum for the strong coach and it it is much much better, much much better for having done that. But I will finish the upgrade by the end of the year so I will have spent 1 year upgrading the content and I won't need to teach touch it for 2 or 3 now that I've done it to this degree? yeah. |
| 22:14.89 | Max Shank | Unless you learn something new wishful which will likely happen and I think that's part of the reason that's part of the reason I bring it up too because. |
| 22:21.50 | mikebledsoe | Definitely gonna happen. but but I even wait I will learn something new I won't I won't go in there and change it immediately. All I'll wait 6 months I want to I want to learn like 3 new things before I go and update all my curriculum because it changes. |
| 22:26.72 | Max Shank | Great. |
| 22:33.53 | Max Shank | Right? You don't need to have a third edition just because you learned 1 new paragraph I think the reason I bring this up is people get the idea that my stuff is like really good. |
| 22:38.49 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 22:51.65 | Max Shank | The courses, the books, the videos the podcasts that I do um but the reality is I've never felt like perfectly happy with it once I've let it out there so kind of just know that going in. That you're not going to be like oh now it's perfectly ready and don't don't buy into this fantasy that once you do launch it that you're gonna be like ah Perfect. It's It's exactly perfect I'll never need to look back at that Again. So So don't kid yourself into thinking. It's gonna work out. Exactly Perfect. You will think of things that you wish you had done differently and that's just the nature of how it goes even when things on paper go crazy good like thousands of buyers. Ah you know, basically no refunds. |
| 23:47.80 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 23:47.64 | Max Shank | That kind of thing. |
| 23:57.72 | Max Shank | Some excessive silence here for a podcast. |
| 24:03.17 | mikebledsoe | Ah I mean if you don't if you don't remember it it. Ah I got the software set up to cut out the the long pauses. |
| 24:08.78 | Max Shank | Oh not I Remember. So what do you think? excess food from here. |
| 24:19.33 | mikebledsoe | Well, you know I I um I wanted to circle back on something you said earlier which is being the the author you know Authority has the word author in it and I think that there is a. |
| 24:28.82 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 24:38.74 | mikebledsoe | Ah, in excess of outsourcing your authority and when I think about author I mean 1 1 way people could look at it is. You're the author of the story of your life that seems a bit conceptual I like it. But. |
| 24:54.26 | Max Shank | I Want man. |
| 24:56.80 | mikebledsoe | It's it. You know when you say that to someone like oh yeah, yeah, I'm the author of my life. But. |
| 25:00.23 | Max Shank | Well, you get to put this you You are the spin doctor. You are the propagandist of your own life. You know So I think it is. It's the frame of the picture right? You remember things a certain way. But that's based on how you color. |
| 25:07.44 | mikebledsoe | Totally. |
| 25:17.78 | mikebledsoe | Well, this is what I want to point out is that what does an author do an author just doesn't tell stories an author writes they take pen to paper or they they type word and they write the story out and. |
| 25:18.54 | Max Shank | Those experiences right. |
| 25:30.62 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 25:37.28 | mikebledsoe | Ah, most people don't take the time to write out their story. They'll dream up their story and from what I can tell is if you leave your authorship up to just what's happening in your own mind and you're not. |
| 25:41.14 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 25:54.62 | mikebledsoe | Putting a lot of symbols outside of yourself by you know, writing then you're going to be more subject to other people's authorship. You're going to be more susceptible outside Authority because the the you know who who? ah. |
| 26:05.49 | Max Shank | Totally. |
| 26:14.30 | mikebledsoe | Are the best best authors on the planet that they they their their authorship creates the most power they have the most power as authors. |
| 26:17.10 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 26:24.43 | Max Shank | Um, I would say either lawyers or ah, the media people who are yeah. |
| 26:30.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah Lawyers I would say lawyers because they they will write something down. They'll create a law and then people will have to follow it. Not only that they convince these these lawmakers slash policymakers they convinced these these police. These policy enforcers to be willing to kill people in order to enforce this law that they authored they authored it out of opinion. They wrote it down and then they convinced a ah segment of the population. |
| 26:56.75 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 27:07.69 | mikebledsoe | That it's okay for them to go out there and enforce this on enforce other people. |
| 27:08.32 | Max Shank | And that's where the media comes into play right? because they need to um, put it to a vote in the court of public opinion for people to have a positive frame of mind around it in order for it to to get through. |
| 27:21.56 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well, that's how they that's how you got to let people know about the laws you got to let them know about it somehow and the the news is here just to inform you about what is and ah. |
| 27:25.75 | Max Shank | Right? Because they're moonline. |
| 27:34.30 | Max Shank | I Know you don't believe that but it just sounds so chilling anyway. |
| 27:41.82 | mikebledsoe | Ah, so it's um, so. |
| 27:44.48 | Max Shank | The news is to get you to think not only a certain way but it's to distract you from thinking about a different way and that's that's probably the worst part about it is. There's an excess of data points. You know. |
| 27:52.43 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 28:01.59 | Max Shank | We're basically fixed on what we can focus on and every day there's something new and it's tugging at your emotions and the people get played like a fiddle. So I don't give any credence to what people believe I understand that they might feel a certain way. But the fact of the matter is that people are are told what to think about and that is actually maybe even more sinister than being told what to think it's like hey this happened so you should think this way about it like the the main thing is hey everyone think about this today. Everyone think about this today hey think about 1 dude who died in a state that you don't live in. You're like wait. What like that's what we're talking about that's what everyone is talking about that is insanity. |
| 28:52.26 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the amount of focus that they're able to bring so many people's awareness into into a single focus while while the entire world. There's other things happening and then only that bring your focus on something that actually doesn't matter to you. |
| 29:00.80 | Max Shank | Ah, hope. |
| 29:07.99 | Max Shank | And it's so it's excessive new things and it's excessive focus on things that don't really matter because if we were trying to think about what matters politically there are only 2 things that matter who's in charge and what's the extent of their authority and everything else is total bullshit. |
| 29:09.90 | mikebledsoe | It's not impacting your life. |
| 29:27.52 | Max Shank | I would feel really comfortable arguing that point with just about anybody quite frankly, but all of these other little little nitpicky things like doesn't matter. It's just ah, an illusion. It's a smokescreen. It's a distraction. It's misdirection. |
| 29:30.33 | mikebledsoe | What. |
| 29:41.48 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well we have an think people are more susceptible I mean the propaganda is interesting because what we have like if you if you look at old propaganda people who wrote about propaganda decades ago. Um. There's 1 guy can't remember his name right now he said true propaganda can only exist in a country where ah like a place like North korea where they have total control over information. |
| 30:12.77 | Max Shank | What's the difference between propaganda and true propaganda I don't know you're saying the only place that true propaganda can exist is a place like North korea. |
| 30:15.69 | mikebledsoe | What do you mean? Oh true, but where where where they where they have absolute control over how you're gonna think what you're gonna think about oh we do? Well what I'm saying is like this was during a time where. |
| 30:27.44 | Max Shank | You don't think we have that in America you don't think that. |
| 30:35.65 | mikebledsoe | Um, where they were doing a lot of comparison I think this was like this is probably ah propaganda to get you to believe that communism is is worse. Um, which I think it is but the yeah exactly. |
| 30:37.18 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 30:49.15 | Max Shank | It's worse for everybody except the people in charge. |
| 30:53.62 | mikebledsoe | The did you know that Jackie chan is a communist. He's he's part of the ccp he is chinese yeah. |
| 30:58.40 | Max Shank | He's Chinese right? You got basically no choice I don't know what I don't know what he actually believes but the incentive to not be disappeared is probably pretty tremendous. So. |
| 31:03.22 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, but but but he but he but he could but he could have he? yeah. Ah. |
| 31:14.44 | Max Shank | Like if I were chinese guess what I would be a communist too like hey and and hey look just in case things go south. Yeah yeah, and just look just in in case things go south here in America I just want our soon to be overlords to know that I believed in them the whole time and I swear my fealty to you. |
| 31:18.85 | mikebledsoe | Ah, you'd be the best communist. |
| 31:34.33 | Max Shank | You know, whatever it takes look I Knew you guys could do it. Ah. |
| 31:34.42 | mikebledsoe | Um, I was over here. You know I was helping out over here the whole time you couldn't see it. But yeah. |
| 31:41.61 | Max Shank | If you compare to different parts of history like I don't know that that's the funny thing is there are um places in America where it's like really harsh to live and I was talking to someone the other day and they were talking to me. About my childhood and their face was 1 of like pity and sadness because they knew me growing up and they knew what my childhood was like and I don't think of it that way I think of I think of myself as like pretty lucky guy because I compare it to well. |
| 32:09.52 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 32:18.95 | Max Shank | You know there are some villages in Africa where twice a year they steal all the children you know like warlords just come in and steal all the children and and I'm thinking to myself. Yeah, like you know I wasn't so bad to to help out with the rent when I was twelve you know what I mean it's like it's. |
| 32:31.56 | mikebledsoe | Right? I mean yeah, a lot of people will say that's a yeah, well some people say that sad. But what's the long term benefit of that like who that that formed who you became yeah I was roofing houses when I was like 1213 |
| 32:36.12 | Max Shank | It's not so it's all what you compare to. |
| 32:40.82 | Max Shank | Who knows who knows it's too. It's too early to tell like the yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's like dude the the whole concept of like giving a ah like 6 year old the grade of an f right? like it's. Oh that kid's failing like we don't know what that kid's gonna grow up and do like we have no clue he his his head isn't even hard yet like he's still got a fucking soft skull like Jesus christ people like we we just try to you know we. |
| 33:03.58 | mikebledsoe | Bright. |
| 33:10.49 | mikebledsoe | That's not even are yeah. |
| 33:20.16 | Max Shank | Excessively Homogenize and that's why we always end up with a worse result and the more you allow people ah just trying to like push everybody into the same square mold because it fits better. |
| 33:25.54 | mikebledsoe | Can can you explain a homogenous what homogenized means for everybody. |
| 33:36.41 | Max Shank | Like that's what school does it teaches you to be obedient and to fit in not necessarily um how to live the best life for yourself. How to understand learning how to understand value versus values. |
| 33:50.62 | mikebledsoe | Well that there's an analogy to this would be ah say homogenized milk like the the milk that you go buy at the store you go to the grocery store in America and you go get the 2 percent or the whole milk. Whatever it is that's homogenized. |
| 33:55.21 | Max Shank | Exactly. |
| 34:01.54 | Max Shank | I hope. |
| 34:06.48 | mikebledsoe | That that milk was taken from a lot of the the same type of genetically modified cows and put into the 1 big vat and mixed all together. You're not getting. You're not getting milk from 1 specific cow and the homogenization that ah coupled with pasteurization which is trying to kill all the germs. |
| 34:13.40 | Max Shank | My. |
| 34:26.90 | mikebledsoe | Has basically made milk undigestible to so many most people. But if you if you what would be the opposite ah hetero Zeni is that or heterogenous. Horogen is out of ah, no, That's not the right word. Um, now that the the opposite of that being? Yeah yeah, individual variable um, is gonna create like my more biodiversity. |
| 34:47.59 | Max Shank | I Don't know probably just variable. Yeah different unique. |
| 35:00.76 | mikebledsoe | If you're consuming that milk it me I healthier So like I liked it and it might be but that whole huge vat might be poison too and the difference. |
| 35:02.70 | Max Shank | And it might be poisoned and it might be poisoned. True. But if you but if you boil it 10 times. It won't be and that's that's kind of the argument for trying to make things as safe as possible rather than as free as possible and that's an argument a lot of people. Ah. |
| 35:21.14 | mikebledsoe | Well should we talk about excess safety excess safety versus excess freedom. Ah. |
| 35:27.66 | Max Shank | Like. |
| 35:32.37 | mikebledsoe | Ah, Max has beaten his head against the microphone. |
| 35:38.32 | Max Shank | Out it that that's like I get it. We can think so far into the future that we're like. And need to get my four ah 1 k I need to get my ira I need to get married I need to do this I want to lock in and secure the future and we're so obsessed with that because we're manic paranoid fuckers and I understand the sensation because I also tend to take a. 30000 foot view and look at the big picture and try to project really far forward into the future. So I can avoid traps and also find the greatest treasures that will give me whatever I think will give me fulfillment even though fulfillment is probably more of an attitude. That you have here and now and just thanking your lucky stars that you made it this far but there is that quote that says people who trade freedom for security will lose both and deserve neither I think it is Benjamin franklin it might be Thomas jefferson but i. |
| 36:43.21 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I mean it's a Benjamin franklin. Yeah yeah, those get those guys were all writing a lot of letters to each other and those those are some very interesting letters. |
| 36:51.61 | Max Shank | It's 1 of those guys those. You know what's fascinating about that whole situation is right before the declaration of independence got signed like months before the vast majority of those guys had every intention to stay with England. And as I understand it it was because of Thomas paine writing common sense that flipped them over the edge and started getting them to think about what it's like to be the authority of your own life instead of accepting that authority from outside. |
| 37:27.28 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 37:34.50 | Max Shank | And if we want to talk about security or safety versus freedom I think it's important to recognize that weak people are going to be the most susceptible to that. Because not only will they accept whatever abuse their ah savior brings them. They will also feel justified in weakening their neighbors so that they will feel more safe. |
| 38:06.62 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 38:09.38 | Max Shank | And and that's what's really sinister about it right? like it's 1 thing to be weak yourself, but it's another thing to vote to basically rape your neighbor because you are not strong enough yourself and that's why they they weaken people divide and conquer and people. Feel more fragmented less United. It's very very interesting. We could explore the psychology of that but it does just throw people right into. Ah the phrase limbic hijack. So you just get thrown into your lizard brain where all you care about is safety and you. Can't use your mammalian brain which is love and community or your neocortex which is big picture thinking and problem solving and that's that's 1 of the evils of the propaganda as it takes you out of your wizard. |
| 38:54.67 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 39:04.44 | Max Shank | Brain the neocortex and just pumps you into the lizard brain. |
| 39:07.42 | mikebledsoe | Well Ah, what? what came up for me is thinking about ah people who who value safety. Um, when people are being sold safety outside from outside and someone else is going to provide the safety I think I think providing. |
| 39:21.62 | Max Shank | Where. |
| 39:26.20 | mikebledsoe | Putting a lot of attention and and having a surplus of safety built up that you're responsible for that you you have control over you know this may be having a certain amount of money in the bank gold bars in your safe guns Ammo Seeds land. All those things. |
| 39:31.50 | Max Shank | M. |
| 39:45.69 | mikebledsoe | Ah, that is that safety when I but but the problem is is that's hard. That's it takes work to do that. You have to you have to think for yourself. You have to learn new things. Ah, and you do have to think ahead. |
| 39:56.16 | Max Shank | It's really hard. |
| 40:04.77 | mikebledsoe | But then somebody comes along says you know what I got you I got these guys that are policy enforcers they'll make sure that no 1 robs. It kills you. You know what? if if you run out of money I got you I'll give you some money. Ah, and. |
| 40:05.88 | Max Shank | I got it. |
| 40:19.71 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 40:23.86 | mikebledsoe | You know what? if you run out of money and food then you know what? ah you can at least get milk and bread homogenized though homogenized. So ah, it's and I think that's what Benjamin franklin was getting at with you know, it's not actually safety when someone else is providing you safety that rug can be pulled out from you. |
| 40:28.85 | Max Shank | So. |
| 40:43.77 | mikebledsoe | Underneath you in any moment because it's not yours. Yeah, yeah, so I think that what ah people really desire to be is anti-fragile and so to me. |
| 40:47.32 | Max Shank | It's dependence versus Independence That's all. |
| 41:03.26 | mikebledsoe | That is where ah true safety lies and so's to be Anti-fragile there's 2 things that I see have to be available and that is planning for the future in a way that you understand that there are things that we can do. To to mitigate risk and at the same time hold adaptability and be able to change in the moment and ah to me That's what leads to a good Anti-fagile state and that's what people actually want but they're so unaware of how to. Create anti-fragile systems in their life that it is like you know what just fuck it. This is a ah complex issue I'll outsource that. |
| 41:47.36 | Max Shank | Well, it's about exposure that's the key word I think because you can either expose yourself to stress and become more adaptable to the stress that will come in life or you can. Reduce the exposure and what happens if you reduce the exposure is eventually you end up in a tiny lockbox you completely eliminate exposure So at the extreme ends you have training. Um. Injecting yourself with small amounts of poison. So that if just in case, you're poisoned. You will have built up ah an immunity to it and then on the other hand you have I'm never going to touch dirt I'm never going to leave my house I'm only going to drink homogenized milk. |
| 42:33.84 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 42:44.55 | Max Shank | That is provided to me by someone else. So I'm not going to expose myself to any risk whatsoever and it works better if people get to assume their own risk because you need to have the um. Person who is making the choice ah suffer or experience those consequences and that's when you get the most evil shit is when the person making the choices is not experiencing the consequences case in point. Um. People who vote on what crime and punishment or laws are to be in place for our medical system. Don't use that creation. They use something separate that is better right? So You shouldn't have. |
| 43:37.50 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 43:41.89 | Max Shank | Ah, bridge build like in in ancient Rome I think we talked about it if you were a bridge builder soon as the bridge is Done. You sit down underneath the bridge while they drive shit over it because you need to have the incentive and the risk and the choice. Like all in the right place and yeah, exactly oh I Actually really like because we we probably talked to a lot of coaches. Also the difference between support and Accountability. So accountability. |
| 44:01.74 | mikebledsoe | It's accountability Ultimate accountability. Yeah. |
| 44:17.16 | Max Shank | If I'm a coach and I want to provide you with support that means I'm going to answer your questions if I want to provide you with accountability that means I'm going to ask you questions and I think both of those are super valuable. So the difference between support. |
| 44:27.72 | mikebledsoe | But e. |
| 44:33.81 | Max Shank | And accountability from a coaching standpoint I think is really useful. |
| 44:36.78 | mikebledsoe | I Like that like that distinction I was also thinking about ah you you you were going off on stress and I got me thinking about excess stress ah and ah stress in excess is called distress. |
| 44:47.79 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 44:55.94 | mikebledsoe | And the ah the stress that's actually beneficial that is going to provide you with enough stimulus that you can adapt to and learn would be u-stress and so I really like to keep that in mind when I'm training or when I'm learning a new skill or I'm. I'm doing anything in my business and ah 1 really good sign to see if you're in excess of stress is how you're breathing. So if you find yourself holding your breath a lot. You can be sitting at your computer running some numbers if you're holding your breath. You're experiencing distress. Your. |
| 45:25.74 | Max Shank | Um, normally. |
| 45:35.69 | mikebledsoe | You're not pumping out the hormones and and neurotransmitters that are conducive to learning. But if you're breathing nice and slow and you know semi-deep you're you're going to be your body's going to be filled with neurotransmitters hormones that. Are conducive to learning new skills and staying sharp and and not getting too much tunnel vision. So you you can hold the big picture while while focusing in on something. So I I Want to put that out. There is just like a that's something. That's that's useful that you can check in with yourself. If you're if you're experiencing ah that that excess of stress that's 1 way to figure it out and there to me. There's a way of expanding that that zone of youres ah or or the growth zone and that is by expanding your capacity to stay calm in the midst Of. Of chaos. |
| 46:33.46 | Max Shank | That's what I was just going to say is the skill is really being relaxed under stress and the more you expose yourself to it and dose it appropriately the more. |
| 46:37.96 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 46:49.19 | Max Shank | Effective. You will be the more resilient you will be the more useful. You will be people want to be useful you know and if you're weak and dependent. You're not useful and that might sound kind of harsh. But you're really, you're not doing any faith doing anyone any favors. |
| 47:07.16 | mikebledsoe | What. |
| 47:09.14 | Max Shank | In fact, in our current culture. You're you're really harming people. |
| 47:13.46 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think that that is the job of that that is 1 of the definitions I like to identify and define. What makes an adult 1 of my definitions is you're able to parent yourself. You're either. |
| 47:27.76 | Max Shank | Any independent. |
| 47:31.41 | mikebledsoe | You're you're able to mother and father yourself emotionally but also physically in the world but the other part of being an adult your job as an adult and it doesn't mean that if you haven't done if you haven't found the thing. But if you're on the path to finding a thing that. Is most useful like it's it's your job as an adult like a true adult that's contributing to society. They have made it their job to be Useful. You know where am I most useful in the world where am I most useful to society if if you were useful. Um, so useful that people in ways that other people find valuable. They're going to give you a lot of money for it and so I think that a lot of people who ah are struggling with money. They really just. |
| 48:13.94 | Max Shank | Further. |
| 48:25.17 | mikebledsoe | They're usually focused on themselves in a way and they're not actually focused on how they can be most most useful and and if you want to have a lot of money be useful at things at really expensive things be useful at things that people find incredibly valuable. So. Either solve a big problem for a few people or solve um a small problem for millions of people or billions of people and it really to me. That's the question I ask myself over time is is this the most useful use of my time for me is it the most useful. What? Ah, what are my my talents. My strengths my skills that are most useful to society. How can I contribute how can I package this in a way that I find to be beneficial and other people find beneficial too and I think that that leads to more of that that peace and contentment. |
| 49:19.56 | Max Shank | Well, there's something quite beautiful because as you and as you know I'm all about choice and freedom as the and love as the really important pillars for a society to function. Well when you offer. Something to somebody and they voluntarily purchase it. There's something really nice about that when you order someone to do something under penalty of stick. That's not that cool if you ask me so I'm I'm more about carrots. And if you are delivering something if you are offering something and delivering something that is truly valuable and you are not excessively spending. You'll never be poor. It's impossible and there's something very honest about the Market. That determines what people actually want and I think rather than getting caught up in the fact that it's numbers because the numbers are just about accounting. But if you offer something to someone that is really worth it for them. They're always going to take it. You know. So I think the fact that free choice is based on voluntary action rather than forced action and that there is a truth to someone paying for your product or service. It means they actually do want it I remember reading. Long time ago in the four hour work week how your friends will lie to you about your idea, you'll be like hey I got this idea for a widget What do you think and your friends are like oh my god that sounds amazing. You're so smart I love you ha ha and then you're like great I have a bunch in the trunk. Do you want to buy 1 and they're like ah no actually i. |
| 50:57.67 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 51:14.30 | Max Shank | So so people will lie and say oh that's a great idea when in actuality they they don't really believe that otherwise they would put their money where their mouth is. |
| 51:22.96 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that that's 1 reason I I advise a lot of times coaches want to give away their thing for free or at such a cheap rate early on I go like ah this just for research I'm like that's not research, you're researching people who don't care about your shit and. Until you get and then or or they'll launch them like oh I've got a hundred people that are interested I'm like okay and mean that doesn't mean shit either. Ah and it doesn't mean it shit until money's in the bank because that's that's the true indicator of of whether people value it or not. |
| 51:49.72 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 51:59.25 | Max Shank | Is that don't count your chickens before they've hatched. |
| 52:02.67 | mikebledsoe | Oh my God It's all man these ideas have been around for a long time. |
| 52:07.71 | Max Shank | Those old sayings are probably all you need to succeed if you actually paid attention to them. Ah, people people do accept people. Do people do excessive thinking excessive learning ah like that's 1 of my kinks that I'm into. |
| 52:12.77 | mikebledsoe | I I agree I agree I come back a lot of that shit. |
| 52:26.11 | Max Shank | I Like to learn about stuff that won't help me at all and I recognize that it's entertainment I understand you know mental lattice work Framework Blah Blah Blah Whatever but I recognize that it's it's recreation Basically the amount of stuff. |
| 52:38.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 52:41.77 | Max Shank | That you need to really focus on and pay attention to in order to live happily and in some level of abundance is so minimal you know most people kill themselves I think I've said this before on the podcast in America most. Death is self-caed because you could cherry pick and be like oh no, it's heart disease or no, it's diabetes. It's like what are those diseases about those are diseases of excess right? like you are either responsible for eating too many fritos and watching. |
| 53:10.82 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 53:19.67 | Max Shank | You know too many episodes of the Jersey shore or you're not but the problem is if you blame. There's no end to the blaming right? if you see a fat kid with fat parents. You'd be like oh well, that's of course the parent's fault and it's the parent's responsibility. |
| 53:32.96 | mikebledsoe | I Thought it was genetics. |
| 53:39.30 | Max Shank | Anyway, So yeah, it's Monkey See Monkey do is more like it and I think. |
| 53:43.45 | mikebledsoe | It is what it is Yeah because yeah, you go far, you go far enough back in that family lineage they weren't fat eaten potatoes during a famine. |
| 53:54.52 | Max Shank | Exactly and I think once again, we can be excessively looking to blame rather than effectively looking for responsibility and I think the difference between fault or blame and responsibility is a huge 1 because it's so easy I mean I lived with a chip on my shoulder for years and years and years and was like in my mind thinking about all the people who had wronged me. You know that kind of destructive thinking but the reality is is that here and now none of that matters. |
| 54:23.31 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 54:31.28 | Max Shank | If You can thank your lucky stars that you're alive and probably literate and you have all of these advantages. There are stores full of Food. You probably have a refrigerator a telephone a magic telephone that can teach you anything you have so many advantages. And whether it's your parents' fault that you're fat or lazy or whatever or not kind of doesn't Matter. It's your responsibility now to decide what you'd like to do from here on out and that's where you take back that Authority that's where you take back that authorship and like you said you put the pen down on paper. And you're going to clarify your thinking to an enormous level and I I do that every morning even if it's something that isn't directly related to me earning more dollars but it usually will help me make more sense of the world. |
| 55:24.74 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah I I Um I would say I'm on the excessive thinking as Well. The but I mean I appreciate your excessive thinking because what you just said was probably. Product of that have you read the book mastery by Robert green. Yeah, 1 of the things I Really like about that book is um the thing that really stood out was how he highlighted. Ah how? Ah, some of the most innovative people. |
| 55:45.95 | Max Shank | Yeah Robert greene. Yeah. |
| 56:02.68 | mikebledsoe | Are a product of having mastered 3 things and it taking about 7 to 10 years to develop mastery around a topic or a subject and ah I up until I read that book I tended to judge myself for going from. |
| 56:04.52 | Max Shank | The. |
| 56:21.72 | mikebledsoe | Being really good at 1 thing and then just completely changing industries and going. Oh I was into this but now I do nothing but this and then I did this other thing I go oh it's like you don't know so you know, excessive thinking or excessive collecting of information. |
| 56:24.68 | Max Shank | Right? Up. Ah. |
| 56:41.30 | mikebledsoe | I think that I think it's good. You point out it's entertainment but that entertainment is something that's I find to be very useful in just helping my mind relax so that when I do get back to the things I'm focusing on. Um, it's it's my I come at it with ah with a new mind but also fast forward 5 years you know that that information may come useful most of most of my excess thinking in my my youth has been around philosophical topics and how to think and all these things which have been useful but probably the most useful it's become is having conversations like this which people will now listen to and get some benefit from. |
| 57:03.56 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 57:20.75 | mikebledsoe | So we both tend to collect what may seem like trivial information but at some point these dots connect into something that's useful. |
| 57:28.43 | Max Shank | And that's usually where innovation happens too. I have a super diverse set of interest. Um I have a 3 ring binder. That's full of study guides ah from different topics that range From. Electricity to chemistry and physics and biology and it's basically like study guides for tests but it just happens to be the highest concentration of information about these topics and I like peruse through these things and you know peruse means study deeply. |
| 57:58.86 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 58:07.30 | Max Shank | Rather than like a quick look over most people misuse that word peruse Peru Yeah, most most people use peruse as like a quick scan but ah, it's just the opposite and if they had perused a dictionary they would they would know that. Ah so so. |
| 58:10.53 | mikebledsoe | Really I did not know that. |
| 58:26.69 | Max Shank | Ah I play a bunch of different musical instruments I have a huge diverse set of interests and then my friend is really into investing and that's like all he studies and he's all about sharpening that 1 blade and we talk about how? ah. The Japanese culture is very much that way. There's not a lot of innovation but there is a lot of refinement so they will perhaps not invent the sword but they will take the invention of the sword and refine it into the best sword ever. |
| 59:02.55 | mikebledsoe | Well, they did it with cars. |
| 59:04.46 | Max Shank | So there's right, they wouldn't innovate something like that. But once they have it now they they refine it and that's 2 ways. Absolutely. |
| 59:10.54 | mikebledsoe | What toy toyota is known to be 1 of the most dependable vehicles and it's because of their manufacturing process is they they revolutionize manufacturing through the 6 sigma. Yeah that what they they're basically did they invent the 6 sigma system. |
| 59:20.27 | Max Shank | Um, that's top down from the culture. |
| 59:27.42 | Max Shank | Have no clue. Yeah. |
| 59:29.34 | mikebledsoe | Or yeah, it's they either invented or or again probably refined it. |
| 59:33.67 | Max Shank | So you could argue that they're spending an excessive amount of time to just refine something rather than being like hey it's good. You got a car already. What's the big deal. So ah, excess is kind of like beauty. It's in the eye of the beholder and. |
| 59:48.95 | mikebledsoe | Well, that's that's that's also the beauty of capitalism right is somebody the japanese could be excessive and and that whereas the west coast of the United states is excessive and and trying new creative things most of which will never work. Ah. |
| 59:52.39 | Max Shank | Typically. |
| 01:00:05.94 | Max Shank | Right? well. |
| 01:00:08.45 | mikebledsoe | And so the California makes Japan possible and Japan makes california possible. |
| 01:00:15.10 | Max Shank | Yeah,, there's a big interrelationship between going wide and expanding your focus out or narrowing your focus down. It's kind of like when we talk about focus I say you have the lantern and the laser beam and the lantern is like a soft radiant Glow. In 3 hundred and sixty degrees and the lasers focusing all same amount of energy all onto a single point. |
| 01:00:40.10 | mikebledsoe | Well this is why you're not going to have a lot of Ph Ds running companies and because they have spent so much of their time focused in on a single subject and in fact, don't know a lot of times. Not all Ph Ds are this way but a lot of Ph Ds I've met. |
| 01:00:50.68 | Max Shank | A. |
| 01:00:57.68 | mikebledsoe | Ah, very smart and is 1 area. Not very smart in a lot of other areas and you take somebody who is you know a serial entrepreneur someone who may be ceoing different companies and their focus is much broader. They know a lot. Know a lot of different a little bit about a lot of different things more like ah a swiss army knife or Jack of all trades and is what I've seen. |
| 01:01:22.40 | Max Shank | Like a concentration of a portfolio like we talked about I think we talked about it last week you know if you put all your eggs in 1 basket. Don't put all your eggs in 1 basket you can earn a lot more but you could also lose all of them. |
| 01:01:36.36 | mikebledsoe | How many how many of these sayings revolve around chickens and eggs and because you got ducks in a row too. We haven't brought that 1 up I mean yeah, there's something about foul. Yeah. |
| 01:01:46.77 | Max Shank | That's a good point. A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush. That's not true anymore that did I already mention that because a bird in the hand has got to be worth like fucking a Hundred in the bush because think how shitty people are at catching birds like I wouldn't be able to catch a fucking. |
| 01:01:54.53 | mikebledsoe | Now. |
| 01:02:04.64 | Max Shank | Bird in a bush. Ah. |
| 01:02:05.78 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, but if you got but our ah bird shot right? Go you might get five? Yeah, all right I think we're we're starting to become unfocused I don't know if that's actually true I think we've been whatever. |
| 01:02:08.79 | Max Shank | Bird shot. Yeah, a way better chance. |
| 01:02:21.70 | Max Shank | I Think we explored excess to a good amount. |
| 01:02:24.60 | mikebledsoe | We're we're explored a lot now. We're getting off another subjects which is great. Yeah, we don't want to excessively discuss excess. So I how does greatness happen. Oh yep. |
| 01:02:33.53 | Max Shank | That's how greatness happens f y I just to close if you're excessively focused on 1 thing I was talking to someone the other day he dropped by the gym and he trains with his buddy in the garage and he said yeah my friend is always referencing your Stuff. He's always saying oh max says this or max says that he he really? Ah, um, you know he really buys in to what I don't remember exactly the phrase he used but I was like yeah you know I basically just got lucky that I found something that I was crazy interested in. |
| 01:03:07.87 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:03:10.40 | Max Shank | Because that's the the big mystery is that I just happen to be really interested in human movement and fitness and pain and psychology and I see that as the way to liberate yourself and. |
| 01:03:15.20 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 01:03:24.63 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:03:28.56 | Max Shank | I'll totally eat your lunch if you're just going to be a casual observer of exercise If you're just casually interested in exercise you have no chance to compare to me because you're not taking it to that excessive level. So. |
| 01:03:40.95 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:03:47.77 | Max Shank | If you want to be great at something. There's something to be said about total immersion and I think that if you really immerse yourself in a topic. You can be top ten percent in 2 years maybe even less and top ten percent you're still eating lobster at that point. |
| 01:04:03.42 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, all right I was thinking 1 percent I don't think it takes that I was it. Um, what was the figure if you read 5 books books on a subject you're you're in the top five percent something like I know if that's actually true but that that was like 1 of those. Ah sayings I picked up on is like if you read 5 books on 1 subject because most people never do most people read 1 book on a subject and then they they go. Okay I move on ah on to something else. That's True. That's True. A lot of. |
| 01:04:22.13 | Max Shank | Sounds like um. I mean it depends on the book. A lot of books suck. They might actually make you dumber about the topic even if the person is smart even if the person is smart. Did I tell you about my favorite Author Lee's favorite book Flow have you ever tried to read that book by. |
| 01:04:38.84 | mikebledsoe | Popular books are that way. |
| 01:04:44.40 | mikebledsoe | No oh yeah, we've talked about this chicks and me high. |
| 01:04:49.74 | Max Shank | Mi high chick sent me good god it's like it's unreadable. Um, and I'm excessively obsessed with the flow state where decision making is easier. Athletic performance is higher. Mental peace is higher mental performance is higher. All these things are better I'm like so interested in the topic and I'm trying to get through this book I'm like this guy doesn't know how to communicate an idea like is driving me nuts. |
| 01:05:13.67 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, ah, let's close this bad boy up I um, you know I think my big takeaways here is ah monitor. What's useful for your life and your goals. If you feel you're you're going getting into excess and as max was saying excess is ah very useful if you want to be really good at something but it is probably not the thing that's going to bring you a lot of peace and joy. |
| 01:05:50.94 | Max Shank | It might if you really like it. |
| 01:05:54.56 | mikebledsoe | Well I think that ah you know, maybe if you're enjoying the process. |
| 01:06:00.19 | Max Shank | Yeah I would say that just to wrap it all up with an action point try fasting take a couple days off of food take a couple days off of Media. That's the easiest way to. Get back in balance or at least the fastest way and just write stuff down with pen and paper and write down what you want how you think you can get it what you're grateful for I mean we could go on and on but basically just ah, take a fast from all forms of Media. And put your cell phone away in the drawer turn it off and just get out the pen and paper and see what's there because you probably don't need to read any more books or watch any more videos you just need to organize what you already know and focus it down into something that's useful. |
| 01:06:53.63 | mikebledsoe | Excellent. Love you too later. |
| 01:06:56.80 | Max Shank | Thanks Mikey! Love you buddy later. |
| 00:00.44 | mikebledsoe | I'm gonna try oh welcome to the max Mike or them. Oh no, no no oh I Totally screwed it up already do over do over. Okay, welcome to yeah I'll edit it. Yeah well. |
| 00:03.90 | Max Shank | That's how it works when you try. Okay, we got to do it over. We got to do it over just start start over fuck that wait wait wait. We're still recording though the whole time. Yo no, you won't just start the whole thing over. |
| 00:19.65 | mikebledsoe | I had it every time. Yeah. |
| 00:20.97 | Max Shank | Really oh, that's cool. |
| 00:27.30 | mikebledsoe | Ah, welcome to Mondays with mike and Max or if max is saying it. It's max and mike and today we're gonna be talking about learning. We want to teach you how to be a genius and you know. I would say that max and I are both geniuses at certain things I wouldn't say across the board but we have gotten really good at a few things apiece and ah and and things that we were not good at as children. So it's not 1 of those things where we just became good at it. Because you know our dad did it or anything like that. So we have both put a lot of attention into learning how to learn and that has taken us pretty far I would say most people would say that we're happier and more successful than the average guy. |
| 01:20.13 | Max Shank | Sound really happy right now. No I Guess we're probably just happier than the average person. That's good. |
| 01:21.90 | mikebledsoe | Our age Do I do I fuck I didn't think so. |
| 01:30.80 | mikebledsoe | Um, well I'm happier than I'm happier than ah I used to be I can say that. So um, um. |
| 01:35.84 | Max Shank | Happiness is a state of mind folks. |
| 01:40.34 | mikebledsoe | Ah, maybe um, but you can also learn to be happy. So yeah, holding a perspective and being able to stabilize that state. Yeah well. |
| 01:45.13 | Max Shank | Oh yeah, meditation is a state of mind too. Meditation is a state of mind you can practice that as well hundred percent. |
| 01:58.13 | mikebledsoe | 1 thing that was brought to my attention when it comes to learning is there's a difference between accumulating facts and being able to regurgitate them or to be able to know how to do a certain thing and there's another. It's another thing to hold us. Ah. Hold a perspective so wholly that the knowledge that's necessary to make things happen or to have a conversation just comes with a lot of ease and it's more of ah, being able to stabilize that perspective but people who are into. Ah. Obtaining a lot of knowledge what they'll do is they'll they'll they'll tap into that perspective for a moment and then they'll slide back into their current perspective and then over time you accumulate enough Data Points. You can you can solidify that and then the conversation becomes very very easy when. |
| 02:56.36 | Max Shank | I Call it Toolbelt knowledge I say if you can access it immediately and you use it with some regularity then it's in the tool belt and then you have something That's maybe like toolbox knowledge. Where for example I speak. |
| 02:56.37 | mikebledsoe | Discussing a certain topic. |
| 03:14.96 | Max Shank | Ah, fluent Spanish but there are some words that I wouldn't be able to think of out of the blue. But if someone said it to me I would understand what they were saying and so I think that's more like in the tool like I I can't like you I don't use it all the time and there's been some deterioration. |
| 03:25.16 | mikebledsoe | What. |
| 03:34.10 | Max Shank | But I would understand it like I would know what you're talking about and so I just think of it like you have tool belt knowledge which is readily available and more importantly, you use it with some regularity because there's ah, there's a half -life or there's a shelf life I guess on. Information and if you don't use it. You lose it. That's a big thing for learn for learning. |
| 03:54.66 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I guess similar to the perspective conversation is if if it's it's looking through a specific lens and if you're looking through that lens regularly you're it's in use in it and it stabilizes if you're not looking through it regularly. It gets dirty. |
| 04:13.95 | Max Shank | Perspective is a huge thing. Um, it's hard to even say where to begin with something as important as perspective because perspective is a locale.. It's like are you zoomed in. Are you zoomed out. Are you looking into the past. Are you looking into the Future. What's the the tint on the lens you know that saying ah seeing the world with rose-colored glasses or through rose colored glasses and some people see the world as a ah, very dark and mean and nasty place and they see themselves. As ah, unlucky. For example, but that's just a matter of what you focus on and that whole comparison syndrome that we get into is really the only thing that colors how lucky we feel or don't feel. So. It's all what you compare it to because you can't define something in isolation you have to compare it to something else same with distance same with mass same with ah the way you live anything it all is what you compare it to. |
| 05:23.80 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, was they say the ah comparison is a thief of all joy I find it to be a bit easier to learn things when I'm happy um and can learn more than them. Ah, there's I remember looking at a study at 1 point that said that. |
| 05:27.86 | Max Shank | Um, I've heard that. |
| 05:43.24 | mikebledsoe | If you add play into what you're learning then you can learn up to 20 times faster. So. |
| 05:50.62 | Max Shank | Well play is 2 things you said recently play is the first form of training which is practicing which is learning. That's what animals do like big cats. Small cats too other predators they play. As their first form of killing. Basically so um, play is the first form of practice or training or learning if you want to call it that and then the other thing you were saying about being happy is for true learning to occur. |
| 06:11.39 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 06:28.49 | Max Shank | You need to be interested so you need to be curious and you need to be motivated. Um, you can learn something but you won't truly like learn it and own it if you're doing it just because you must like. For example, school and we could do a whole podcast. About how school is the most colossal misuse of time and abuse of children that I can think of but we'll skip that for another time my point is I mean look it's it's bad but we don't need to belabor the point. Ah yeah. |
| 07:05.42 | mikebledsoe | I'm in agreement by the way I'm not so the the listeners if I'm laughing because I I know where max is coming from not because I think he's ridiculous. |
| 07:07.41 | Max Shank | I'm not gonna change. |
| 07:13.60 | Max Shank | I mean I've taught people stuff in ah in a three day seminar that actually increase their income and their physical health. There's 3 days like that's not long and in 12 years they like don't remember what Sacajawea did they just know that that's a word fuck that shit. |
| 07:20.71 | mikebledsoe | Right? 3 days that. |
| 07:30.63 | mikebledsoe | And they're probably they're less healthy in no better position to make money. |
| 07:31.45 | Max Shank | Ridiculous. |
| 07:35.16 | Max Shank | Yeah, you sit in a desk for a really long time. You're like looking straight down. It's horrifically bad anyway, all all that. Ah, ah, torture of children aside the reason that people don't remember it is because a it's not in the tool belt because they're not using it. And b they're being coerced into doing it like you must remember this or you will fail and be Bad. It's like okay like I'll do it but I'm not going to not going to do as good a job I'm not going to be as excited and enthusiasm about it and enthusiasm. Comes from ah the root for being possessed by spirit possessed by the Muse. So enthusiasm is really the the energy. That's why you can see people who have very little knowledge actually. Be extremely successful because they're very enthusiastic about the little that they know. |
| 08:34.94 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I've been talking to my girlfriend about that a bit is she? ah. |
| 08:49.37 | mikebledsoe | Ah, Max is red with laughter. Ah now I've been talking about ah but well I noticed that there's a lot of people who make a lot of money in real estate. So we've been talking about getting more aggressive about. |
| 08:52.81 | Max Shank | Ah, ah. |
| 09:06.81 | mikebledsoe | Investing in real estate and I and it's ah it's a new I know a bit she knows a bit we need to get deeper into it if we want to be good at it. But I go I look at it I go I know a lot of people who invest in real estate or and have been very successful and they don't ah. Occur to me to be the most intelligent people on the planet. They're not.. They're not some type of Genius They they're they Found. They are some type of Genius They found a way to do something and they just repeat it and because that's what works in real estate you find. |
| 09:27.28 | Max Shank | And. They are some type of genius. |
| 09:43.37 | mikebledsoe | Find someone who's really successful in real estate and you'll you'll find that they they do 1 or 2 things and they just do it over and over and over and over again. It's it's a bit redundant, but it's also very exciting to watch your your personal wealth climb. |
| 09:58.28 | Max Shank | Yeah, and you can also lose your shirt in real estate. You can get totally burned by buying a property at the wrong time and not really predicting or preparing for an income decrease I'll just. |
| 10:03.73 | mikebledsoe | Here. |
| 10:17.45 | Max Shank | Just remember seeing this house in del mar near where I live and it was ah sold for 18 million a couple years later they put it on the market for 21 million and then I watched them progressively lower the price all the way down to 6 million. |
| 10:36.24 | mikebledsoe | Whoa. |
| 10:37.16 | Max Shank | So the value went from 18 million to 6 million and you know there were like all kinds of crashes and stuff going on but this was like on the bluffs like right by the beach in del mar probably that because there are 3 rules in real estate right? location location location this was a. |
| 10:53.43 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 10:57.13 | Max Shank | Primo like Crown Jewel of real estate. It was massive had tennis court. Its right on the beach was ridiculous but they they got taken to the cleaners because they bought it the wrong time and they couldn't survive through the liquidity crisis. Basically like there's that saying that markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent which is kind of a good thing to keep in mind. |
| 11:23.87 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, Well I think ah great. That's a great point is that that's not likely an intelligence issue as much as it is um, ah, people in what I've seen with people who do make mistakes in investing is. They let their emotions take over and they're afraid that they have a fear of loss and then that's why or they're a fear of missing out or a fear of loss and which a fear of missing out is just fear of future loss and or potential loss and and. |
| 11:59.32 | Max Shank | Yeah I think go ahead. |
| 12:03.54 | mikebledsoe | And people they break their own rules like they have this rule around how to invest in real estate or they have a rule that they that's been passed down and if you follow those rules it 99 percent of time you probably can be fine. But then you see a spike in the market or you see a dip in the market and then you you freak out and you react or you you break your own rules or you break the rules of the people who taught you and that because of an emotional experience and that's when people that's what I see when people lose their shirt. |
| 12:35.70 | Max Shank | Well, it's risk reward right? if you concentrate your bet into 1 thing like let's say you put all of your money on Alibaba 15 years ago, you'd be like really really happy and if you put all your money in blockbuster Video. You'd be really really sad and if you diversified you wouldn't have returned as much as if you had concentrated all of your money into 1 big bet. But you're also limiting how much you can lose. So. I think with life and with investing the thing you want to understand is that it's usually pretty ah clear risk reward ratio and you want to try to aim for things that where you have 2 ways to win and no way to lose pretty much and there's another saying I like which is. |
| 13:27.13 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 13:31.91 | Max Shank | Why risk what you need for what you don't need and that's why you know you hear a story about someone you know, buying some unknown cryptocurrency and they like 10 X their money and then you're like feeling greedy yourself, you're feeling that fear of missing out. So you might catch it at the very top and then and then catch the falling knife as it goes down whereas they caught all the upside. So We we try to use the past to predict the future but it doesn't always go that Way. So if you. |
| 13:55.77 | mikebledsoe | Yep. |
| 14:11.80 | Max Shank | Plan for the fact that you will sometimes be wrong it. It works out. Okay. |
| 14:19.70 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that's that's the point of anti- fragile the book by is it Nicholas taleeb nasim he he wrote black swan anti-fragile. There's a new 1 that came out that I want to on a read next. And yeah. |
| 14:22.65 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 14:37.87 | mikebledsoe | The whole concept. He's ah he's a great investor himself. Ah and his perspective on strategies for investing is pretty much saying you know shit will go wrong. So how are you set up for that whereas most people like. |
| 14:51.59 | Max Shank | Well. |
| 14:56.10 | mikebledsoe | You know they're watching the crypto markets right now and I mean I mean this applies to the learning conversation we get because if. |
| 15:01.23 | Max Shank | Yeah, you don't have to be smart to do well in investing like um isaac Newton famously said something along the lines of he could predict the movement of celestial bodies but not the madness of crowds and he like lost all of his money. Investing in the East india trading company he like got taken to the cleaners lost every I mean obviously a very intelligent fellow. |
| 15:20.51 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah, so. |
| 15:26.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well well let's just take bitcoin for instance I've been paying attention to crypto markets since 20138 years which is over half the amount of time they've been in existence. So. |
| 15:34.44 | Max Shank | The. |
| 15:44.18 | mikebledsoe | I've been through some booms and buss already and what I know because I've been in it long enough is I go Yeah, just you buy a bunch and then you hold it and then you watch everything go up and down and watch everyone else freak out and then you just keep on holding it and you keep on holding it and you keep on holding it and you take some off here and there. Um, there is a strategy for for when to take some out and but most people aren't playing that game. Well, that's the thing It is simple. It is very very simple. Ah, but when the people who who suffer and I've got many close friends who. |
| 16:06.70 | Max Shank | Make it sound so simple. You make it sound so simple. |
| 16:23.40 | mikebledsoe | The market starts going up and they start dumping money in or the market starts going down and they start pulling money out and I'm I'm going Whoa Whoa Whoa Just just chill the fuck out just consistently put money in consistently pull money Out. Don't you know. You're not going to.. You're not going to see the wave coming if because if you can see it then everyone else can see it and sometimes that does drive the market up a bit but again long term strategy I've had I've had really big returns from that that simplicity just. |
| 16:55.86 | Max Shank | So what you're saying is you are an investing genius. |
| 17:01.39 | mikebledsoe | Um, well are we gonna be playing comparison here. Ah you know what I'm in the 1 percent I'm in the 1 percent for crypto I'll say this I'm in the 1 percent of crypto trading. Ah when it comes to investing in general. No. |
| 17:11.15 | Max Shank | Um, okay oh that's good. |
| 17:20.10 | mikebledsoe | I'm I'm not I The crypto thing is huh How does what differ I Oh crypto trading versus investing versus. |
| 17:20.98 | Max Shank | How do they differ. How do they differ. Ah well I mean it's they're both and they're they're both investing I think the big mistake people make with investing Probably the biggest mistake is they invest money. That they might need soon. |
| 17:41.00 | mikebledsoe | Well,, there's that 1 and then they invest money in speculation versus Value. So 1 of my rules in investing is what value is being generated in the world by this product or by this service and So. Do I Find what they're creating to be valuable Tesla For instance, do I do I think that those cars hold out. Absolutely they're creating something valuable some of these cryptocurrencies that are you know a 2 page white paper and you know they just. |
| 18:02.43 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 18:18.76 | mikebledsoe | Fleece everybody and they don't have any specific when I when I read about what the purpose of that cryptocurrency is and it doesn't make sense to me and it doesn't seem valuable to me I don't touch it. So. |
| 18:30.82 | Max Shank | Maybe that's lesson 2 of investing is invest in things that you understand. |
| 18:35.35 | mikebledsoe | Invest in things you understand, but ah I think invest in things you find valuable and Beyond beyond the dollar. |
| 18:40.48 | Max Shank | Well, that's not necessarily. Yeah I mean that's not I disagree because if you invest in something that's valuable at a price that is unreasonable then you still lose money on your investment. |
| 18:56.13 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it's got to be worth the value that it's demanding. |
| 18:59.64 | Max Shank | And that's really hard to determine. You know you have price-to earnarings ratios you have identifying trends and there are all these ways that we try to get clear on what something will be worth later. Will it be worth more later and there are all kinds of things like. |
| 19:13.19 | mikebledsoe | You know. |
| 19:17.89 | Max Shank | There was a 20 year period where coca -cola returned a zero percent return to its investors and you'd think like man coca -cola is valuable. Their brand is worth billions by itself. But it it all depends on what you pay for and that's the same thing with real estate. Um, unless you are holding real estate for 50 years the profit is in the buying. Yeah. |
| 19:40.61 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the deals made and or the the value is in. It's in the buying it's when you make the purchase. Um that that's for sure and that's ah, that's a big reason why and I haven't tried to touch anything in the last year is everything's so hot it is cooling off a bit. The markets are cooling off a bit but it's been so hot that and people are like you could better get in I'm going get into what I'm gonna get in at the peak. So I can come crash with the rest of you now. |
| 20:07.53 | Max Shank | The the Fomo the Fomo hard to know if it's the peak. That's the tricky thing about investing I mean there are a lot of ah big institutions buying lots of real estate right now and it's um. |
| 20:17.98 | mikebledsoe | M. |
| 20:26.21 | Max Shank | Apparently this is now an investing podcast. So if you're tuning in this is investing tips with max and Mike ah. |
| 20:33.71 | mikebledsoe | I Always try to stay away from investing tips too because. |
| 20:36.89 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's the worst like this is not a recommendation I think everyone listening should just go by tulip bulbs as many tulip bulbs as possible fill your garage with Tulip bulbs. That's the tricky thing about times like ah. Like what we're seeing right now is some things just go absolutely meteoric they go insanely high so fast and if you are investing in something more steady. Let's say like real estate perhaps usually more steady. Ah, you're getting blown out of the water by some kid who bought dog coins so in the short term. You're just getting absolutely murdered if you're really looking at value which is. |
| 21:17.17 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 21:27.27 | Max Shank | About Theio ah about the Price-to-arings ratio like what's the prospect. But also what's the priceturnings ratio Anyway, the whole point is if you are not going to take a lot of time to make investing your career. You probably are better off just buying the market overall and minimizing. |
| 21:47.14 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, which did really well this last year but I mean if we adjust for inflation and a few other things probably just did okay. |
| 21:47.20 | Max Shank | The risk like just by the S and P five hundred. Yeah, yeah. |
| 22:04.50 | Max Shank | It's a tricky thing because it all comes back to opportunity cost and I use these analogies for exercise quite a lot.. It's like our you know our heavy squats. Good. It's like well maybe. A for who and B can I do something better with that Energy. You know what? I'm saying so the same thing is true with investing. It's not is this good. It's is this better than the other stuff I could own and that's that's why it's so tricky because. You know you look. There are a lot of good companies that you can own that create value that are profitable. There are a lot of companies that you can own that are not profitable and so it's purely based on a prediction that they will create more and more value in the future. |
| 22:46.33 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, um. |
| 22:55.54 | Max Shank | Above and Beyond what is already priced. It's very tricky stuff. Anyway, if you you're not going to make it tool belt knowledge. You shouldn't ah fuck around with that. |
| 22:57.25 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 23:04.38 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. Back to learning. |
| 23:14.59 | Max Shank | You'll learn your lesson really fast if you invest money that you shouldn't a fool and his money are soon parted. |
| 23:20.46 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well the 1 thing I notice I'll say one last thing on investing. Ah when you're you're talking about opportunity costs I I watch people try to invest money when they're in credit card debt. So they. |
| 23:35.82 | Max Shank | Don't do that paid pay down the debt that's stupid. You get the interest tax free. They don't understand money. Yeah, exactly. |
| 23:39.50 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the the amount of people that tell that tells me that someone doesn't understand how the numbers work. Yeah, you just don't understand money because your best investment is to not have credit card debt if you have credit card debt. Nothing nothing's going to be that 10 to twenty percent interest you're paying on that. |
| 23:55.15 | Max Shank | Crazy. Yeah, that's ridiculous I would say pay down the credit card debt and then after that invest in your income you know invest in building a customer list building a product setting up your service-based business more effectively because you can get. |
| 24:03.69 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 24:14.74 | Max Shank | Hundred percent 2 hundred percent thousand percent returns by investing in yourself. But if you get a fifteen percent return year over year in the market. You'd be like Yay. So. |
| 24:23.32 | mikebledsoe | Well, there's something about money going in your bank account that you didn't have to do shit for I get I got some cheap thrills out of that. |
| 24:28.99 | Max Shank | Totally yeah, but if you set up ah an online library of products that'll that'll bring in money without any extra effort to plus you plus you own your customer list. |
| 24:44.34 | mikebledsoe | That's true. That's true. |
| 24:48.74 | Max Shank | And that's huge I mean you see right now. Some people are are losing their instagrams and facebooks and Youtube accounts for saying things that they I I suppose shouldn't have said because Papa Papa Youtube Said. Ah. Wasn't okay to say those things and you know if you are dependent on another entity entity to store all of your customers for you. They can go away so you got to have your own you got to own your customer list. |
| 25:23.60 | mikebledsoe | Just made a post about that the other day email is not dead so many who are focused on social media when ah, that's right again if you're looking investing that's ah. |
| 25:24.97 | Max Shank | That's so important you got to own that customer list. No it works it works until it doesn't. |
| 25:42.30 | mikebledsoe | That's 1 that's got a ah a black swan event. Ah as a possibility and and that is black swans occur when you're least expecting them and the event that does occur that brings a downturn is not something you ever imagined would happen. |
| 25:44.53 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 26:00.42 | Max Shank | And. |
| 26:01.83 | mikebledsoe | Just 1 day you wake up and shit hit the fan and so that can happen if Facebook youtube instagram decides or google decides to to stop featuring your stuff you know shadow banning is 1 1 way where it's not. Overt you didn't see you get blocked but all of a sudden your traffic goes to nil and and I've got several friends that's happened to not just in the last couple years but over the last 3 4 years there's ah there's a very clear. |
| 26:20.82 | Max Shank | Um, wild. |
| 26:38.69 | mikebledsoe | Ah I Guess attack I don't know I hate using the word attack in this sense. But there's a clear diversion of attention away from things and people that are actually helpful towards big corporate desires and. And wanting people to adopt more main you know Mainstream corporate services and products. |
| 26:59.75 | Max Shank | Well. Um, hey man ah censorship is an admission of guilt if you ask me? Yeah, yeah, So as long as we're on the learning subject. |
| 27:09.46 | mikebledsoe | I like that I like that censorship is an admission of guilt. |
| 27:23.97 | Max Shank | We can we we um problem maybe ah what is rewarded is repeated. That's ah, that's a big thing about learning. So there's. |
| 27:25.75 | mikebledsoe | I think we've talked about learning for 5 out of twenty five minutes so far. |
| 27:40.30 | Max Shank | Conscious learning where you're like oh I'm going to learn to play the piano or I'm going to learn how to speak german and then there's unconscious learning it could be conscious also but where you adapt to certain patterns. You know your phone. May notice that you prefer watching animal videos at night. But you prefer watching news videos in the morning I know that was that was what I noticed interestingly enough when I was just still logging in. To youtube instead of using a separate browser and not being logged in and just searching for what I want and it would give me like you know would give me like John stossel and all these different guys who I actually trust and then at night it would show me more like. Animal videos like learn about the peacock spider and things like that so you will um basically be guided throughout your day by algorithms that are digital or otherwise. And you develop these patterns that are repeated over and over again. So it's very difficult to get out of those patterns once you're in and that's why having a pattern break is so valuable. |
| 29:02.35 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well, it's Interesting. You come out the unconscious learning and I read this book called Spiritual enlightenment. The damnedest thing by Jed Mckenna have you read that 1 okay. I Think you really enjoy it total. Yeah yeah. |
| 29:20.99 | Max Shank | I've only read like 4 or 5 books in my life total. Yeah, that includes Dr. seuss books. The loax was good. |
| 29:31.70 | mikebledsoe | Ah, so in that book he talks about how the mind is built and he says that people like to visualize the mind like it's this beautiful web and I've got this thought over here this belief or this idea and it's over here and then ah and. String goes across and it connects over here and this is beautiful intricate web that just it's infinite in Nature. That's how I used to think about the mind and the fact that he outlines that in the book tells me that other people think about the mind similarly and. He talks about how how ah language is laid out when as we as we get older and the order in which we learn words impacts how our mind works and what those words mean to us at that age and how that impacts the mind and. But he what he finally gets to in this explanation is that people think that mine is this beautiful integrated web and it's really just a rat's nest. It's just all jumbled up you and I could be born at the same time same place same parents in our interpretation of. The world is gonna be different and and you only need 1 interpretation early on kind of like the butterfly effect right? He's like you've got this butterfly over here that causes a hurricane on the other side of the world. Ah, there's 1 1 instance where you interpret something your mom or dad did at the age of 2 that shape your personality in a way that the impact the lens that you look through for the rest of your life and so you completely neglect certain pieces of information and you collect the evidence to support your your lens. |
| 31:25.90 | Max Shank | Is confirmation Bias right. |
| 31:25.63 | mikebledsoe | Over here, right? and nobody is nobody is safe from that confirmation Bias we we all do it and so that's 1 thing that when we if we're talking about learning needs to be acknowledged is that. Much of what we we believe to be true just is not true and it's good to question those be able to question those thoughts and and do some unlearning because learning something new I I found to be a lot easier to learn new things. When I look at what must be unlearned and that's not necessarily an easy task. So the way I look at it is ah it's easier to to write on a if we're thinking about a. Ah, a hard drive I want an empty hard drive and I want to be able just put things on top of that or what may be better is up. Yeah, or or you got a page you're you're writing you're writing your thoughts on a page with a pencil and. |
| 32:30.10 | Max Shank | Empty your cup like that ah martial arts example. |
| 32:42.41 | mikebledsoe | Ah, you're just having to rewrite So you've got these thoughts that you believe to be true and you're trying to overwrite them So you're just trying to make the words on top of those other words darker and thinking that you're going to be able to change those thoughts and at some point those darker words may overshadow. |
| 32:51.17 | Max Shank | The. |
| 33:01.11 | mikebledsoe | Words that were previously on the page. But why don't you just use an eraser first using erase or era words then write. It'll be much more clear it. So it it may take a little more effort in the beginning but long run it's way easier or if you start with a blank page instead of a. |
| 33:06.78 | Max Shank | A. |
| 33:19.59 | mikebledsoe | Page that already has writing on it. These are the things that this is how I think about the mind and when I'm learning something new I ask myself? what do I need to unlearn before I learn this. |
| 33:31.89 | Max Shank | I think part of the reason it's hard for people to let go or erase or burn ego death is because they identify so much with it whether it's ah good or bad or neutral. It's familiar and we gain a lot of our sense of stability through our self-im image and so if you have a self image that is maybe harmful to you. You know some people are ah shoot all kinds of things anorexic. Self-loathing whatever there are all these manifest obese. Um, you know to protect yourself. So for example, a lot of people are really overweight just because they never want to have a chance to be rejected in the first place but if so if they're just this big fat person. No 1 that'll never even happen. So you get so identified with this identity that it blocks out any potential for change and that's why any kind of change requires some sort of removal of material like you have to chip away. At the ego in order to make room for something new and different. |
| 34:51.53 | mikebledsoe | You know. |
| 34:57.42 | mikebledsoe | So aside from chipping away the ego and unlearning First what are some? What are some things that you put into a place I'm a big fan of your your five minute strategy. |
| 34:57.74 | Max Shank | The. |
| 35:11.97 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, yeah, there's sort of a quantum effect of 5 minute blocks because it feels easier to start psychologically and it's it's so easy for me to. |
| 35:13.44 | mikebledsoe | For learning new things. Can you explain that 1 |
| 35:31.81 | Max Shank | Just jump around from thing to thing and put stuff off. So if you do like usually five minutes the word just comes right before it. Oh it's just five minutes but ten minutes feels too long and with my mobility program I did five minute flow I get. So many versions of the same message which is hilarious which is you know I started doing five minute flows. But now I can't keep them under ten minutes I can't keep them under fifteen minutes and yeah |
| 36:05.94 | mikebledsoe | I've got a problem. How do we fix this? ah. |
| 36:08.90 | Max Shank | Right? Exactly? No, That's that's exactly the thing. It's a scam and I tricked. You guys. So haha I tricked you into getting started which is where the inertia is and once you start moving then it's really easy to keep going with regard to learning you don't. Want to practice a skill poorly. You're better off to take a break and come back and do it Again. Probably the biggest fallacy with this is within like the fitness thing. It's like you're pushing through. The the pain or pushing through the struggle or like you know, but you wouldn't do that if you were practicing shooting baskets or hitting golf balls. You would try to stay as fresh as possible and that's really 1 of the key elements for optimal learning. Is you. |
| 37:03.39 | mikebledsoe | I think. |
| 37:06.39 | Max Shank | Go in you do the thing total focus and then you pull away from it and then you go back in total focus and then you pull away from it and if you've ever done something where it requires total focus like tennis or fencing or fighting. Um, or even like ah a video game where you have to constantly either like move left or right let's say to avoid obstacles the ability to focus and not break that focus for a long period of time is something that you can practice as well. But you will. Improve that ability better if you take some small breaks. |
| 37:48.26 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the the increasing the capacity for focus the way that I like to approach that is I can tell when I'm losing focus. So. Um, working on I like to work on 1 task at a time I think that's important if people are trying to multitask they're they're so unfocused the whole time. They don't even realize when their their capacity for focus is going down because they just are starting so low already and what I like to do is set up a timer. And so I know that I can work if it's before noon I can do a ninety minute work session completely focused I use brain fm I use a bi neural beats type of thing to help me focus and my phone's on a timer. So the music will stop. When I'm supposed to stop my work and so most the time if it's before noon and I can work in ninety minute sprint I don't move out of my seat I'm in front of my computer and I am I am knocking out whatever needs to get knocked out and then the afternoons I noticed that. I don't have the same amount of juice might be seventy five minutes as the day goes on my my amount my periods of time of work separated by a break becomes shorter now. |
| 39:12.53 | Max Shank | So that's wisdom is knowing yourself and acting accordingly. |
| 39:16.92 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and what what got me there was I got into ah started getting into deep work zones which can take twenty thirty minutes to get into the the space of deep work the the amount of. Focus that you have is basically what I'm describing and that that level of focus can be achieved a lot sooner I can achieve that focus a lot sooner now because I've done it so many times I've gotten into that really deep work zones. So frequently that my my brain knows how it goes it says oh this is what we're doing now shut everything else out focus on this 1 thing and so when you get into this deep work zone enough. You can tell when your mind is starting to leave it. So. |
| 40:08.77 | Max Shank | Free. |
| 40:10.99 | mikebledsoe | when I when I'm reading something and I read the same paragraph 3 times you know I have to reread the email that I am going through or I you know I basically just start making mistakes mistakes or needing to repeat things to try to remember or whatever it is. Ah. I can so I'm watching my mind begin to drift and so what I've done is is instead of working through that empowering through that. What I've done is I go oh I gotta take a break I go for a walk I go check my mail which is you know quarter mile away I go. Take a nap I ah you know, go play with someone's dog. Whatever so. Ah, match gave me a good look. Ah so I I know when to take a break because the mind works very much so like muscles in the body and and you know in the fitness industry. It is very interesting that people have this tendency to. Push through the pain and basically practice shitty movement they practice moving poorly and they practice getting injured is what they're doing and so ah I think ah I think a large part of. That reason is because there are certain benefits to pushing to that point of failure but they are overemphasized in the fitness industry and then in addition to that people people just don't understand. What poor movement is and what good movement is and they don't understand they're they're practicing to get injured and then of course if you throw in something like Crossfit now you have this competitive competition component that is going to drive people to do things that they don't really they don't really have the capacity |
| 42:07.66 | Max Shank | Well, we've we've learned a false image of fitness I think so that's something really interesting about the things that you learn is you may very well have learned a false premise. So even if you do everything. |
| 42:08.40 | mikebledsoe | To do so. |
| 42:15.37 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 42:27.29 | Max Shank | Allegedly, correct if the entire if it's built on a false Premise. You're totally Screwed. You have like no chance of optimizing the amount of effort that you put in so with fitness For example. If Your athletic capacity is not increasing from your health and fitness practice or your movement practice. Whatever you're probably wasting your time I mean a lot of people use fitness as a way to burn Energy. With no rhyme or reason it's like putting too much gasoline on your in your car like overeating and then putting your car up on blocks and just running the engine. So It doesn't overflow. That's like 1 of the worst things you can do um because just like with investing. What you're sacrificing for doing that Bs is the chance to do something that could improve your overall capacity your ability to fight your ability to run your ability to play I mean Ah, that's the tricky thing about opportunity cost is you're sacrificing. Everything else you could be doing to do this. So If you're not enthusiastic about it. It's like dude, why? why bother there are plenty of good options and you know getting stuck into the whole thing about aesthetics is ah is another tricky thing. That's just based on. |
| 43:49.84 | mikebledsoe | Go. |
| 44:02.99 | Max Shank | What we've learned you know like I always joke about the aztec aesthetic which is like a big fat guy at the top of a temple watching the heads roll down like he was the best thing you could be a big fat guy and then you know over time sexy lady. Has changed from fat lady to thin victorian era plump and then we went through like the Ninety s or something where the supermodels weighed like 85 pounds and now we're kind of coming round to like thick is good again. So it's all. |
| 44:39.33 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 44:42.50 | Max Shank | It's all a matter of that individual perspective and that's why you can think of your focus like a lantern or a laser.. That's what I usually tell people is you can soften it like a lantern and that's for a martial artist may have heard the term soft eyes before. Like sometimes I'll practice while I'm juggling and I won't look at the balls I'll juggle but I'll be trying to take in as much other stuff as Possible. So I can focus right in your eyes right now or I can step back and I can be as aware as possible of everything else in the room. |
| 45:09.17 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 45:20.51 | Max Shank | And it's a really big difference in terms of how you focus so being able to cycle between those is extremely valuable because you don't want to always be laserfocused sometimes you want to have that wider perspective. Of what's going on and that's usually where joy and gratitude can come from is when you see the big picture rather than like oh my god my my life sucks compared to that guy over there and I hate that guy. He's got a nice, whatever and you know you get stuck. |
| 45:59.36 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 45:59.65 | Max Shank | Ah, tunnel vision right? So being able to zoom in and zoom out and realizing that your concepts of good and bad good and evil are are learned. You know, ah lions don't worry about that. Lions don't have a concept of good and evil they have a concept of danger from like other lions and they have a concept of hunger and that's it they don't have a concept of good and evil it's ridiculous. It's like totally a human invention I mean there are a lot of. Old stories that talk about that. What's that the wasn't that where eve ate the Apple wasn't it. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil so that the whole thing is just having this awakening that's crazy uncomfortable that. |
| 46:41.45 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 46:53.50 | Max Shank | Your whole idea of this is good and this is bad is just implanted from from the last guy |
| 46:59.48 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, are yeah I mean anything that's conceptual in nature that is that that we can't point at physically is usually passed down from from somebody else and. |
| 47:14.59 | Max Shank | Yeah, so if you focus on things that are intrinsically enjoyable then you will find the things that will make you the most enthusiastic you will naturally put more time into learning you'll. |
| 47:17.61 | mikebledsoe | Very interesting. |
| 47:33.24 | Max Shank | Be interested in learning the finer details. You know I sometimes I say it's not exactly true. But I think the sentiment is right? The only difficult thing is something you don't want to do if you want to do it then it doesn't matter. |
| 47:47.39 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 47:52.80 | Max Shank | Like you you would just want to do it and if you don't want to do it then it's probably going to be more difficult. So. |
| 47:53.43 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 47:59.67 | mikebledsoe | It's why people look at people doing a crossfi workout and go I can't I don't know understand how you do it? How do you push through whatever not realizing that that person is doing that workout loves doing that workout for whatever reason or they've at least learned to love the workout. |
| 48:11.80 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, um, well and sometimes you can sacrifice the temporary feeling for a bigger picture win like I actually never um, enjoyed lifting weights that much as weird as that might sound. Just did it because I wanted to be the most Alpha guy Possible. So now that I'm in a place where I'm a lot more honest with myself about what I'm doing just to get a result or what I'm enjoying I do a lot of weird stuff at the like I enjoy like explosive things like heavy lifting is like okay. Do some but I can play tennis for like 2 hours and I'm dying to play more tennis because it's so Fun. It's so engaging I'm using all these different skills. So That's intrinsically enjoyable to me but you know the idea of doing like a Crossfit workout. |
| 48:56.40 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 49:09.73 | Max Shank | I Don't even see the point of it for example so you change over time. |
| 49:11.51 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I Want to go 1 thing I Want to ah point out I mean you said a lot of really good stuff. There 1 is how you how you use your focus and how you can go from laser focus to that soft focus and I think about that as contraction and expansion. And if you spend too much time in contraction then you won't be able to expand very much if you if you spend too much time in that expansion. It's gonna be difficult to to concentrate that that attention. But um, being able to cycle between the 2 is gonna give you more capacity for each. So. The same way then analogy with um, you know somebody who's really athletic their muscle needs to be able to contract incredibly fast but also be able to relax incredibly fast so you got to be able to snap that muscle and it's got to be able to snap back into. |
| 50:01.41 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 50:08.33 | mikebledsoe | And to just relaxation and those are the people who are the most athletic have the most endurance all these things um and the same thing with with attention. Can you play? Can you go that soft focus. Can you go that that laser focus and I think about it just like breathing. You got an inhale and you've got an exhale. Got to spend time in either. So I do want to hit that and then the other thing you talked about is the false premise and it's very interesting because that's 1 of the things that I I see creates a lot of disagreement in the world is well 1 is. Which we talk about regularly which is semantics people just are they don't even realize that they're in disagreement about the meaning of words and so they think the word that someone else is using means something than what they intended it to be so um, it's that that's number 1 I think number 2 is and what we've witnessed over the last couple years is the premise in which people are coming from are different and they're arguing about stuff that's at the surface or they're focused on what's on the surface and not looking at the premise in which everything else is based. So. Ah, it's what's that's a term in Mathematics. Ah for for assumptions I forget what it is maybe it'll come to me but basically it's it's ah the premise that you know 2 plus because 2 plus 2 equals four then. All this other things and mathematics must be true because 1 plus 1 equals 2 that then means and so what I've what I've witnessed especially in like say so the scientific world and is ah. |
| 51:45.39 | Max Shank | Um, right? or. |
| 52:00.53 | mikebledsoe | We see these big shifts in how science is viewed when someone comes out and questions the validity of the premise in which we've been operating from and so ah, there's. |
| 52:14.57 | Max Shank | Often Those guys get burned at the stake historically speaking. |
| 52:18.95 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, they get historically speaking it. You do not be want to be the 1 that that ah challenges consensus. Yeah yeah, well, ah well that that's the other thing too is be be aware of of ah. |
| 52:25.51 | Max Shank | Um, don't kill the messenger I think we've heard before. |
| 52:38.25 | mikebledsoe | Consensus group think and anytime anyone uses the word is it Ah, who was it. Ah, the guy who wrote Jurassic Part Michael Crichton I you. |
| 52:46.69 | Max Shank | That guy is an animal I recommend anybody go listen to some of his talks Michael criton is a fucking animal. That's a genius. |
| 52:55.65 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, he you you sent me a video of his and I is an hour long talk and I ate it up. It was so good but he talks about how Consensus science is not science. It's. |
| 53:05.67 | Max Shank | Yo, ah. |
| 53:12.84 | mikebledsoe | Anyone who starts using the word Consensus science is actually anti. It's an anti-science concept. You can't state of fear is talk. Yeah, so you know just throwing that out. There is a warning anytime anyone starts using consensus science. Ah. |
| 53:17.75 | Max Shank | Um, it's called State of fear. That's the name of the talk I think I think so yeah. |
| 53:32.56 | mikebledsoe | That's that's when you know you should turn around and run. |
| 53:33.61 | Max Shank | Well, you got to consider the source. He also introduced me to a concept called gelmon amnesia which is where like you're an expert in fitness so you open up the paper and you read a fitness article and you're like this is totally false. This is ridiculous. But then. You forget that that was totally false so you read the rest of the paper as if it's true. It's like wait a second like fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me. |
| 53:56.45 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 54:02.42 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, but we have we have a whole world of people running around with false premise theyre running around with um that this is I'm not going to say that I know how all this works but there's 1 thing that I've noticed. |
| 54:09.61 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 54:21.90 | mikebledsoe | But you know I listen to people who are healthy so people who are healthy and have spent a lot of time thinking about these things long before the pandemic those are the people who I like to talk to and think about what they say but 1 1 premise would be germ theory versus Terrain Theory. And ah germ theory is a false premise because it's not even being considered a it's considered to be a fact versus the way it's being treated is it's not being treated as a theory. Ah, and that's 1 thing I'm noticing in society as a whole is that people are treating theories as if they're facts I was just I was just ah and this is how far I'll take it is I was watching a ah. My girlfriend was watching like an animals show is basically like Discovery Channel you know, looking at these cats and it starts off with eleven million years ago this predator descended into this region of the world and I go. Are they fucking serious. They just state that that like it was a fact I'm going I'm going No fucking wonder adults are running around the world acting like things are facts that are theories or that are just ideas presented by other people. Yeah, you may have a lot of evidence to suggest that but it's still a theory and so what we're experiencing right now is we have this mass adoption because because traditional or I'll say conventional medicine in the United States is based on germ theory When. Ah, the when if you were to just look through this pandemic through the lens of of terrain theory Everything that's being advised for people to do sounds insane. But. |
| 56:26.81 | Max Shank | Yeah, of course you got to be careful who your mentors are like with kind of bringing it back to learning like who do you trust? what's hilarious is that so many more people trust Joe Rogan than they trust any of the other people allegedly reporting on what's going on. |
| 56:29.76 | mikebledsoe | But if you. |
| 56:43.89 | mikebledsoe | M. |
| 56:46.27 | Max Shank | And there are so many premises that we've been talking about here's ah okay, like obesity for example, obesity rates are like through the roof so you could argue that most people kill themselves because obesity is like the easiest way to die quicker. From all causes whether it's diabetes, Heart disease etc like all that stuff. Um, if you're weak and fat. You die Faster. There's no question about that. But I think the biggest false premise is that we should run people through the same filter. That's exactly 1 of the reasons why school is so catastrophically bad like I don't think ah ah like about some things I'm like really dumb but about ah like I almost got held back in school like that's crazy when you think about it like I'm not like too dumb you know what? I'm saying. |
| 57:34.22 | mikebledsoe | M. |
| 57:41.46 | mikebledsoe | You're 1 of the smartest people I know so that. |
| 57:41.77 | Max Shank | So the whole nah I mean but I've only like read a few books isn't that all that matters. No I think smart is about how efficiently you can live the way you want to live like if you're living the way you want without expending a lot of energy then you're smart. Most people just want to. Ah, peer Smart I don't frankly give a flying fuck how I appear to people as long as I can live in an efficient and effortless way as long as I can move in efficient and effortless way and I think that's why people like fighting that's why I like it because it's very honest, you got a winner and you got a loser. You know I like playing tennis because it's honest I can't be like ah that ball was in no it was fucking out you missed bitch like try again. Ah so the the whole the whole premise that we should be run through the same filter is ridiculous. The whole premise of health is ridiculous. The whole idea that we should just blindly follow what a few people say we should is ridiculous like there's like a list that goes on and on I don't have it right in front of me but I wrote a bunch of the stuff that I thought was wrong about it down. But. I mean it's it's the same um as anything else. There are so many false premises out there that will lead you down a path because you can have a valid thought process and those are the 2 pillars of truth right? You have a true premise or false premise and you have a valid thought process. Or an invalid thought process. So a lot of the time you have a false premise with a valid thought process so it looks good. You're like yeah that that does like make like the logic make sense but because the premise is false everything else just goes completely out the window and that's. Kind of where I tie it back into where you put your faith or where you put authority into because when it comes to learning 1 of the quickest ways 1 of the best ways to learn is through a good teacher. But if you choose the wrong teacher. That is also a sure-fire way to fuck you up, you are going to inherit all of his ego bullshit I mean look have you ever seen youth sports probably like the parents and the coaches. |
| 59:54.20 | mikebledsoe | Here. |
| 01:00:03.44 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 01:00:10.84 | Max Shank | Are doing a lot of harm to those little fuckers especially if they're trying to live out their dreams or like how about how about like a beauty Pageant Mom I mean when it comes to learning you got to really consider who you try to emulate like there are people out there who seem very healthy, Very joyful. |
| 01:00:11.35 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 01:00:30.39 | Max Shank | And loving relationships and maybe they're not behind the facade so you got to you got to do some digging to really see like do I want to try to emulate. Do I want a monkey see Monkey do that person's life. It's a big deal. |
| 01:00:44.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that is a big deal. Ah so I I sat down on an airplane on Saturday and this really old indian guy that's down next to me. |
| 01:01:01.65 | Max Shank | Dot or feather. |
| 01:01:03.48 | mikebledsoe | And dot and ah he sits a real indian he sits down next to me like from India ah, he had the accent and everything you know he he spent some time India and pakistan and. |
| 01:01:11.84 | Max Shank | Yeah I get it. No, you're right. |
| 01:01:20.77 | mikebledsoe | Sits down he starts talking I mean he was referencing something things that were happening in the sixty s so this is how old this guy is and do you have to go? Oh maybe it was on my hand. Ah I think late. Anyways. |
| 01:01:28.30 | Max Shank | That wasn't on my end. |
| 01:01:40.32 | mikebledsoe | Um, I sit down. We start talking and I come to find out. He's a ah substitute teacher and in Florida and I was asking him all these questions about does he enjoy it. So um, by the way this guy had a stroke the month before so he was he was being a He was a little slow so I actually spent the flight helping him do things like open up his his chips and getting him to the bathroom and all these things but he sat there and just taught me shit the whole time. So. Ah, my girlfriend was blown away. She's like why did you like that guy I was like he was teaching me the whole time. Ah so 1 of the things he says is he goes you know what the problem with kids these days is I say don't know how to think they only know what they know and he says ah that. They believe that 2 plus 2 equals four which is true but they think that that's the only thing that equals four they don't realize that 3 plus 1 equal 4 this is the analogy he was using. You know they don't realize that 4 times 1 equals four. They only know that 2 plus 2 equals four. He says. |
| 01:02:50.40 | Max Shank | It's kind of. |
| 01:02:52.63 | mikebledsoe | They only know what they know they don't know how they got there and and and. |
| 01:02:56.58 | Max Shank | I Know exactly what you're talking about.. It's like a reflexive fear-based reaction to like hey don't worry I know don't worry I know they're like regurgitating stuff that they learned but they don't have like any kind of logical. Thought process that can help them discover something different or New. They don't have a set of tactics that can help them learn something better. |
| 01:03:23.95 | mikebledsoe | Right? So he said that and I go Wow. That's such a really simple way of explaining critical thinking versus whatever, whatever, not critical thinking would be but being a dumbass. Ah, is and so ah, yeah, if anyone been. |
| 01:03:47.61 | Max Shank | What's more important. What's more important you own a business I own a business. What's more important if you're going to hire somebody that they already know a bunch of things or that they have the ability to learn new things. |
| 01:03:54.80 | mikebledsoe | What. |
| 01:04:01.22 | mikebledsoe | Oh definitely the ability to learn new things. Um, well, there's there's 2 different types of employees. You got the people that that Mcdonald's is shopping for which is we just want people to be able to follow the steps. Yeah, we want robots. |
| 01:04:10.45 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:04:17.62 | Max Shank | Automatons. Yeah. |
| 01:04:20.35 | mikebledsoe | Um, and then you have you know Google executives Those people are hired because they're not going to. You know they're going to create the rules they're going to think of new things right. |
| 01:04:27.94 | Max Shank | They can see the big picture they can. They can think of what to do. It's like the difference between being a ah Master chef and a soou chef where you're just preparing the diced vegetables. |
| 01:04:40.20 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and the the problem is is we're we're closing out 2021 here in the next couple months and ah, all those jobs can be that don't require creativity are going away. They're being replaced by robots. Ah, those amazon jobs won't be around much longer truck truckers won't be around in 1015 years that won't be a thing and that makes a but lot of people that's a lot of employment so you know that we're 60000. |
| 01:05:16.63 | Max Shank | We'll probably go to more service business. |
| 01:05:18.99 | mikebledsoe | You know we're now 60000 ah truck drivers short in the United states as part of the you know? yeah I read. |
| 01:05:23.57 | Max Shank | I I didn't know that I met a guy who I thought was really dumb but he was actually really smart because he was like a pretty young kid when I was doing Moyai and he owned like 5 semi trucks by the time he was twenty 2 Did n't graduate high school and he started driving a truck and then he bought another truck and then he bought another truck and he just he was like retired he was like 25 years old is like it was great but he sounded dumb and about a lot of no, he really did. |
| 01:05:51.19 | mikebledsoe | Wow brilliant. |
| 01:06:00.36 | mikebledsoe | Well, he found his strategy. |
| 01:06:02.16 | Max Shank | Ah, nice guy exactly That's what I mean like you you don't want to compare everybody with the same measuring stick because however you measure yourself That's also going to be the same stick that you beat yourself with basically well which if you're into that I mean that's fine. But. |
| 01:06:08.13 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 01:06:19.37 | mikebledsoe | I've always thought of myself as quite the masochist so works out. |
| 01:06:25.54 | Max Shank | That's why we get along so well I'm a little more sadistic and you're a little more masochistic. |
| 01:06:27.42 | mikebledsoe | Am Yeah, you're the dom fits. |
| 01:06:31.64 | Max Shank | I Think everybody knew that already. |
| 01:06:38.24 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:06:38.28 | mikebledsoe | Ah, alright, let's wrap this bad boy up any any closing thoughts. Yeah. |
| 01:06:43.66 | Max Shank | On learning. Ah when it comes to learning the most important thing is that it's important to you that you use it and that you continue to use it and. When it comes to learning movement. Probably the thing that people miss the most is going super slow like even a super slow walk across the room. Super slow walk across the room with your eyes closed take the normal movements you do close your eyes try to do it as slow as possible. Try to do it as fast as possible. Try to change the angle a little bit and deliberately go outside of that normal range and there are a lot of other ways but I'll just keep it brief I would say maybe changing the speeds is like 1 of the most powerful ways. Especially really slowing down and. Consciously moving through the entire movement and then just be careful who you choose as a mentor for overall learning. |
| 01:07:44.74 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, love it. Yeah, stop listening to our show. Um, now you so. My my final thoughts are what what are your be intentional. So the best way to learn is to be intentional with each moment that goes by and that's something that's practicing itself but ask yourself why you're doing something so as max was talking about. Um, learning a new skill. Why am I why am I squatting today you know am I doing it fast am I doing it slow. Why always be in the why why you're doing something and the more time you spend in the intention and understanding the why. But when you're doing anything. Probably find yourself take more time take more care and the quality of that go up I think that quality is definitely the result of learning so that's all I got Appreciate. Conversation today max where can people find you. |
| 01:08:58.41 | Max Shank | Thank you brother I can be found at Maxshank Dot Com or at macshank everywhere you can Also Google me, there's also there's a ton of stuff out there. |
| 01:09:06.35 | mikebledsoe | Whatever you do don't get google my name. Ah it'll be you get a mixed bag of things you find me find me on Instagram at mike underscore blood. So and. |
| 01:09:15.46 | Max Shank | Don't really. If there was ever way to make people want to Google you that was it. |
| 01:09:25.00 | mikebledsoe | Ah Shh telling him my secret later yall love me max. |
| 01:09:31.43 | Max Shank | Love you buddy. |
| 00:00.00 | Max Shank | Welcome back to the Monday morning podcast with max and mike today we are going to talk about relationships because I don't know mike I've noticed that most people ruin their lives with just 1 or 2 bad relationships or maybe it becomes a pattern but. I think 1 of the biggest traps is to fall into the common way that people relate with each other especially with romantic relationships I'm sure you have some experience and have seen that as well. |
| 00:30.70 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think most people have we go back to their first relationship. They had their first girlfriend or first boyfriend. Whatever it is and probably for most people every person they've dated since that person has just been a new iteration of the same thing. They they'd likely relate to them the same way. They they find a lot of things that are in common in the beginning. It's really easy to overlook the the all the bad things. All the things that that may have gone south in your previous relationship because well you're. |
| 01:02.63 | Max Shank | To name. |
| 01:08.48 | mikebledsoe | You're on drugs when you're in love I'd say the first six months and. |
| 01:10.20 | Max Shank | No doubt so you think the first relationship sets the tone for all the rest of them. |
| 01:15.13 | mikebledsoe | I Think you I think your relationship with your father sets a tone for all your romantic relationships because when you're when you're born. |
| 01:24.32 | Max Shank | That explains why I go for beefy guys with big mustache. I was wondering what that was. |
| 01:32.20 | mikebledsoe | Ah, well this this is the framework I've been operating from over the last few years when when looking at relationships and that is when you're born you are. Ah yeah, it's your first love the so your mother. |
| 01:43.53 | Max Shank | I remember you telling me this you said your father is your first friend first relationship outside yourself. |
| 01:51.85 | mikebledsoe | When you yeah when you're born and you come out of your mother's womb you you were inside of her and then you should at least go to the breast pretty early after after being born and you really associate with your mother. So your mother really. Teaches you how to have a relationship with yourself and then your father is the first person outside of yourself that you have a relationship with so whether you're a man or a woman. He really sets the stage for ah how you relate to people and not necessarily just romantic relationships. Um, and ah I've also heard paul check talk about this which is you're usually ah attracted to a woman who has a similar body type to your mother. So if your mother had big breasts you probably are attracted to big breasts and so on and so forth I don't think that's always true but I imagine it's a fair. Fair assumption. So. |
| 02:48.95 | Max Shank | So so basically what you're saying is that the relationship you have with your dad and the physical appearance of your mom guides a lot of your selections in choosing a mate. |
| 03:04.82 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I would say people yeah people who haven't done a lot of work are more likely to just fall into those patterns. That's so I'm not saying this is an absolute. It's comfortable. It's safe. |
| 03:07.24 | Max Shank | From a very young age. |
| 03:14.00 | Max Shank | It feels comfortable. It probably that that makes sense it would feel what would feel more comfortable than someone who acts like your dad and looks like your mom. But. |
| 03:25.82 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah. Um, yeah, yeah, well well people people hate change right? And so well what they do is your parents really teach you how to relate to other people. They they teach you? How love looks you know people who grew up in a home where the parents are fighting all the time. Maybe there's physical abuse. |
| 03:30.77 | Max Shank | I mean I guess it's familiar of god. |
| 03:50.35 | mikebledsoe | And then they get an abuse of relationships. It's like well they don't They aren't experiencing love unless that experience is happening. Um and what's that. |
| 03:56.73 | Max Shank | I Think that takes us to the next phase really well which is how your parents romantic relationship looks to you because you're going to. You're going to probably copy that to a certain extent or you're at least going to say oh that's normal. |
| 04:08.41 | mikebledsoe | That's true. |
| 04:15.87 | Max Shank | So whether your parents are very cold and standoffish and not very affectionate toward each other or whether you live with a single dad who's just a casanova taking home a different lady every other Night. You're probably going to just mimic. That instinctually I guess or naturally you're going to mimic those behaviors. |
| 04:36.83 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and it's really interesting because a lot of people don't think that they are but they're out they the people on the outside looking in are going. Oh that's totally what you're doing but because it is so normal to people they don't They don't even see it. Ah yeah, it's ah. |
| 04:55.62 | Max Shank | Well you see ah some couples like look almost like carbon copies of each other too. You see a guy in a gal who look almost the same they look like they could be brother and sister. They're not in the cases that I'm talking I mean I know that happens sometimes but. |
| 04:55.64 | mikebledsoe | It's fascinating stuff. |
| 05:03.48 | mikebledsoe | Yet. |
| 05:12.62 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's ah, there's a name for that that I've seen a chart somewhere. It says like the different types of coupling that can occur and. |
| 05:14.38 | Max Shank | And the cases I'm talking about they just find someone who looks like them. |
| 05:26.85 | Max Shank | Man. |
| 05:29.39 | mikebledsoe | A lot of times if that type of coupling is occurring then you know there's likely ah a repetition of patterns. There's likely like gonna you're gonna feel really good about the relationship in the beginning but over time you may find dissatisfaction and I say may a lot here because I I don't. |
| 05:42.63 | Max Shank | Anyone. |
| 05:46.87 | mikebledsoe | There's no absolutes with all of this and ah 1 thing I Want to point out too is we're talking about what people learn from their parents which is different than what your parents taught you So what? a teacher intends for you to learn and what you receive it. These are different Things. So I like to keep that clear too because max said you said something that really stands out which is how you perceived your parents' relationship as how you're gonna be behave So as an adult what can happen a lot of times is. We intellectually look at our parents relationship or we look at the past and go oh that was not a big deal or I you know you can reason it away you can create reasons for and against why things were a certain way. But if you dig down deep enough which I've I've done a lot of that type of work where we deep dig. Deep down into what happened emotionally at a young age and people end up what we end up discovering is oh I learned this thing and I as I got older I intellectualized it away but it. But even though I intellectually intellectualized it away. |
| 06:51.96 | Max Shank | And. |
| 06:59.65 | mikebledsoe | It was still a pattern that was dominating my life. So I like to just bring that to people's awareness. Yeah, a lot of subconscious behavior. |
| 07:01.52 | Max Shank | Um, subconsciously subconsciously I think it's really important to distinguish between instinct and intellect. That's 1 of the main things I like to communicate with people is that you have these instincts that have. Basically nothing to do with your Upbringing. You're going to have an instinctual desire If. You're a man toward a female most of the time and so you're going to find a lot of ladies sexually desirable and your intellect is. Able to override your instinct but not all the time right? So you have things that are instinctual. |
| 07:41.73 | mikebledsoe | Well it depends on if you're It's probably how stressed how stressed you are in that moment or how much fear you're experiencing dictates the instinct versus intellect. |
| 07:51.28 | Max Shank | So it's like the pause between Impulse and action I guess because some things are instinctual and then some things are ingrained like I think beating your spouse is not an instinct but I'm I'm guessing. But if you. |
| 07:55.20 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 08:03.39 | mikebledsoe | No. |
| 08:09.39 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 08:09.86 | Max Shank | If you see your if you see your parents beating each other then that's going to be ingrained into you right? So you have the the pure instincts which is sexual attraction and ah probably ah, there's a sense of family there as well. Maybe. |
| 08:16.29 | mikebledsoe | Right? right. |
| 08:26.57 | mikebledsoe | Just me. |
| 08:29.12 | Max Shank | More nurturing on the side of females generally and then you have behaviors and patterns that are ingrained where you have these roles that each participant in a relationship plays and you're going to.. It's like you were saying you know you don't. Necessarily do what your parents tell you you don't do what your teachers tell you you just either copy them or you try to do the opposite mostly right, right? What what you see. |
| 08:53.77 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, it's what you learn from them. Not what they try to teach you? Yeah all right? So we covered super early development in regard to relationships which is a good foundation. |
| 09:05.20 | Max Shank | I Think it's good. We have we have like a right? So then we move on into relationships should we go to relationships because that's probably I think we don't need to go into like. |
| 09:17.88 | mikebledsoe | I want to let everyone know we're we're ten minutes in his show while them know we're gonna talk about how to pick up chicks at some point in this just ah so people keep paying attention. |
| 09:24.91 | Max Shank | Oh yeah, so here's what you do you? Ah you spend like 10 years getting into really good shape and getting really rich and then the rest of it doesn't matter or or another option. |
| 09:39.71 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 09:43.41 | Max Shank | You can just ah, go up and and talk to girls that you're interested in and actually be interested in them. |
| 09:50.20 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that's the key. Well I think most guys I'm gonna talk about guys because I think we're more of an expert on men than we are women. |
| 09:57.87 | Max Shank | Are we gonna talk about are we gonna talk about the pedestal today. We we we got to talk about the pedestal today I can tell I you and I are on the same like wavelength I've been there I've done it too. |
| 10:02.62 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, we can talk about the pedestal. We got to talk about the pedestal. Actually I what I was about to say kind of leads into that. Yeah. |
| 10:17.84 | Max Shank | I've put ladies up on this high pedestal. Not healthy, not healthy to do that. |
| 10:18.43 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well now I forgot what I was gonna say so yeah, well when we get in our our first relationships ah man women are just so ah I would say a lot of. What got me in my first relationships is me me trying to. |
| 10:38.16 | Max Shank | Like holding the pause button women are so oh God What's even do. |
| 10:47.43 | mikebledsoe | Um, so like when I when I first started why it totally didn't know it at the time but I looked back at my childhood and and the girls and it was it was all about you know. Making myself feel loved like I wanted to feel loved. So I you know would go after I like need to go after the prettiest girl I wanted to go after the same girl that everybody else was going after. Um, there was yeah yeah, then everyone would worship me which is not completely inaccurate. |
| 11:17.60 | Max Shank | Then we would all like you. |
| 11:25.32 | mikebledsoe | I Mean if you date if you're with someone that a lot of people want to be with that does raise your status I've witnessed this I've I've had that experience. |
| 11:30.10 | Max Shank | You get a lot of fifth bumps from strangers. Um, you like my man get look at hit him. |
| 11:39.95 | mikebledsoe | Actually I was like I had that experience forty 8 hours ago or you know 36 hours Saturday night I was out. Yeah, my my girlfriend gets up from the table. He gives me a fist bump like yeah and. |
| 11:49.20 | Max Shank | Right? You automatically get street cred and why is that it's because women are Judgmental. That's I think that's the word you are looking for is women are very Judgmental now before before I'm crucified. Let me qualify that with that's just. |
| 11:59.81 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 12:08.42 | Max Shank | The way of animals generally Speaking. We do a little dance show you our pretty feathers and we're like hey look at this nest I Made what do you think and you're like they're taking notes like okay, he's got a 8 out of 10 on nest building. Nice flowers. Nice feathers I like your bird song. Okay I'll accept your your dna we can name so that's but that's the same word. That's the same thing but but. |
| 12:31.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it well they have ah they have discernment. For instance, my my girlfriend she is yeah similar I think Judgment judgment carries. Ah to me that if we're getting in the semantics as we do. Ah ah. |
| 12:46.57 | Max Shank | We have to. |
| 12:50.19 | mikebledsoe | Judgment comes with it a making wrong a it. It becomes so um, a moral a moral issue whereas something may not be good enough for this specific thing but it doesn't make you a bad person for instance like I'm not in ah I'm not in ah to blonde women. It's not. |
| 12:53.53 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, pass or Fail. Um. Um, so I feel like yeah. |
| 13:09.86 | mikebledsoe | Because blonde women are are bad. It's just because it's not my I discern against that for what that's a poor example I should probably pick something that's more of like a behavior trait and a look but women are discerning Well I say that I say that because my girlfriend is way more discerning than I am. |
| 13:14.14 | Max Shank | Right? I think I think discern. Yeah I think discernment is a good word. They discriminate. Women are way more discerning than men are generally speaking I don't think that I'm telling any tales out of school with that comment I think most of the things totally but wouldn't you say that most of the crazy things that guys do are. |
| 13:28.50 | mikebledsoe | And social situations. |
| 13:33.17 | mikebledsoe | Well this is this is where being being with a woman and listening to her is a superpower keeps me out of lot of trouble. |
| 13:45.13 | Max Shank | Mostly to attract women I mean nobody yeah no, that's what I'm saying nobody's this is like the core of the thing for all the fell is listening I mean the whole reason. Ah, you try to get 6 pack abs is because you want some lady to go oh look at him I like that whole reason you buy. |
| 13:45.96 | mikebledsoe | Almost everything. |
| 14:04.89 | Max Shank | A crazy fancy car is to you know, convince or Persuade or appear to a potential mate as if you are, you're qualified. You meet the parameters for like yeah I'll get with that guy. Otherwise why would you be getting fist bumps. And it's weird because guys are usually valued on what they can provide and girls are usually valued on what they are. |
| 14:32.52 | mikebledsoe | I like to look at it as men are are valued for ah hold value for success and women hold value for Beauty is is what I've typically noticed which is similar to what you're saying. But. |
| 14:49.44 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 14:52.42 | mikebledsoe | But I think those are the primary things that people are like men are judging women on Beauty and that's why you see so many old rich dudes with with young hot girls. It doesn't go the other way around. Yeah yeah, so it's um, you know for young men out there. |
| 14:55.60 | Max Shank | Here. |
| 15:01.81 | Max Shank | It's because it's because wealth compounds and Beauty deteriorates. |
| 15:11.63 | mikebledsoe | It might be a little rough. Um, but I don't think it has to I Just think it it tends to be. |
| 15:13.78 | Max Shank | I I don't think so I think if you have I think it's probably the best time to just be a little bit courageous because I would say that by and large men are becoming very weak very fragile. Emotionally. And if you're just willing to have the courage to ask for what you want and ask ladies out and be that male masculine Archetype it. It'll be like shooting fish in a barrel I think. |
| 15:47.54 | mikebledsoe | It it really is when I was living in San diego um I was living in a part of town where it was a very like just had a feminine essence. You actually you live there so you know, um, but I'm taught. Yeah. |
| 16:00.51 | Max Shank | I Do I live in a very feminine place. |
| 16:05.61 | mikebledsoe | It's ah ensonnitos california very feminine. It's very laid back easy going a lot of the men there I think max max and I were probably 2 of the 2 out of maybe five masculine men in the whole town which does which. I wonder how many guys in Nsonitas are listening to this show which does make it feel like shooting fish in a barrel because I know I know for you I I imagine it's fairly easy to find good looking women and I know I definitely had that experience when I lived there. Um, and it was easier there than say awesome texas where there's a lot of there's a lot more bravado here. There's more masculinity here. So if you're going to out masculine another dude like you know you better have 5 million in your bank account in a and a fast car. Yeah. |
| 16:57.78 | Max Shank | Just got back from a bull riding competition. You got a 10 pound belt buckle that sort of thing. |
| 17:03.67 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, you need guns and trucks and land. These are the things and big houses. But ah yeah, it's different. So like if you just have if you just and and embody that masculine energy like you're saying. |
| 17:09.60 | Max Shank | Right? It's totally different thing I think that. |
| 17:21.51 | mikebledsoe | Most of society has gotten soft and so if you're able if you're if you're a stronger not just physically stronger. But you're emotionally strong Mentally, you're developed. You're if you're developed in these ways in a in a masculine way. Yeah, women will come flocking. It'll be hard to keep them away. |
| 17:41.38 | Max Shank | Um, well and I think the the biggest thing in my opinion is ah approaching it from an abundance mindset instead of a scarcity mindset like if you ask a lady out and she says no and you get emotionally crushed to the point that you don't ask any more ladies out. That's not good if you get into any relationship at all just because you're afraid you won't be able to find anyone else who likes you. That's not going to work at all That's going to be a scarcity mindset too and I think the same thing happens with guys. Staying in relationships is because they are living in a scarcity mindset where they're like oh I'll I'll never find anyone else and so you have to become resilient to the word. No. Because it's not just about getting every lady to say Yes, it's about having your request be like a filter so you find someone who resonates with you and I'm talking more about like who you actually want to spend time with than just sex I don't think. I Don't think it's too valuable for for us to just like teach people how to like hook up with random people at the bar I think that's simple and straightforward enough. |
| 19:03.51 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and with all the apps out there now I think it's pretty easy and if you can write some good copy on your tinder account I think you'll be just fine. Yeah. |
| 19:11.58 | Max Shank | Right? Just buy a puppy and be rich and you're be fine. |
| 19:19.63 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, so being in a satisfying relationship. That's interesting. 1 thing I want to cover that I'd like to address here is ah and if there's any ladies left by this point that this would be. They're gonna love hearing it but the way I the way I look at it is women pretty much. |
| 19:32.87 | Max Shank | They're gone. |
| 19:38.47 | mikebledsoe | Drive We We already said this drive all male behavior like women are in charge when women start complaining that that men are in charge home going. You lost you don't you don't see what's going on here men make money because. Want to attract women all these things but I think it comes From. It's an evolutionary thing where you know it used to be the biggest strongest guy was the 1 who got the woman and it was the you know got to where it they you started being judged on your intellect and I think that. |
| 20:03.98 | Max Shank | Um, a. |
| 20:15.19 | mikebledsoe | That's there's a big argument for that's what's driven the evolution of consciousness is the more you can develop your intellect as a man the more more valuable you'll become and the more status you'll have So it's I think so I think so but but. |
| 20:26.94 | Max Shank | Um, is it because you can provide more though I think so too. |
| 20:34.27 | mikebledsoe | And which way can you provide big strong can kill shit protect or do the same exact thing because you're you're loaded with a bunch of money and and you know how to use it. |
| 20:43.26 | Max Shank | Way more. The latter nowadays you know like your your martial arts capacity is like the last thing on most ladies minds number 1 |
| 20:48.26 | mikebledsoe | Nowadays. Yeah, that's where we got. |
| 20:59.31 | Max Shank | A guy with 20 years of martial arts experience will lose to a guy with 1 day of firearms experience. So there's almost no point in being big and strong from a self-defense standpoint whatsoever and the likelihood of any physical violence is so low you can create way more. Force and power you have more power just being able to write a check and being able to use language. Well. |
| 21:22.75 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, people want to get along people deep down they they avoid conflict most so I I don't mind conflict I I find it fun. It's like a little bit of. |
| 21:38.47 | Max Shank | I disagree on you're wrong. |
| 21:41.52 | mikebledsoe | I fuck with it a bit and I noticed I noticed that a lot of people there. A lot of people are not that way. Ah y'all start I'll step into a conflict and people fold really quick. Um, and I'd I'd say I run into ten percent of people out there. Okay, with conflict other people. |
| 21:53.49 | Max Shank | The. |
| 22:01.39 | mikebledsoe | They they just want to avoid it at all costs I think I think you're right like it's it's safety in 2021 physical safety. It's pretty. You know, not saying that violence can't happen but have a gun there. You go no. |
| 22:13.14 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's rare. Yeah, you don't need to be like super buff. Most ladies don't care because that has changed right? The aesthetic over time for women has changed the desirability of men has totally changed. |
| 22:29.29 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, they like skinny guys now like being skinny is in which was when I was a kid that was the last thing you wanted to be. Yeah. |
| 22:38.14 | Max Shank | Not no, you were so it was called Scrawny back Then. And and ladies I mean it used to be. They were supposed to be plump like Victorian Era type of thing and then we had some stuff happen a little thicker well and then it. |
| 22:52.92 | mikebledsoe | Ah, well up until Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe was she's a thick woman and then. |
| 23:05.25 | Max Shank | Swung back around to like the supermodel phase of the Ninety s where you have 6 with tall women who weigh 1 hundred pounds and you're like oh my god like it looks like skeletor right? and then now I think it's kind of circled back around to the thick ladies. |
| 23:13.69 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 23:20.56 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I'm loving that I yeah I need a little I don't like him too skinny I tried I tried the 2 skinny ones didn't wasn't as pleasurable. Be honest, got to try it all out. Yeah yeah. |
| 23:33.22 | Max Shank | You got to find out what you like you got to find out what you like that's it. Um, it does sort of circle us back to if you're ready to talk about how to choose the right person I mean we can. |
| 23:40.36 | mikebledsoe | Take a 1 more little meat on her bones. You know. |
| 23:48.20 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah, we should? Yeah, we we just. |
| 23:52.64 | Max Shank | We could just talk about what ah physical traits we like in ladies but just watch all the female listeners just slowly go away if you're a lady and you made it past me saying women are judgmental then I so. |
| 23:57.74 | mikebledsoe | Ah, all right, all right? Ah I'll let you. |
| 24:11.92 | Max Shank | really support that thank you that's really nice ah yeah thank you for the support. Ah so it comes back to that scarcity idea. It's possible to just date 1 lady and have her be the 1 and. |
| 24:13.10 | mikebledsoe | Thank you for the support ladies. Yeah. |
| 24:31.12 | Max Shank | Get married and have a family would you say that's a little bit risky. |
| 24:36.41 | mikebledsoe | Boy it doesn't sound like you're diversifying your portfolio seems like an all eggs in 1 basket. |
| 24:40.48 | Max Shank | well well I mean all your eggs in 1 basket is more like the argument for being polyamorous I just mean like sampling sampling different personality types. |
| 24:54.97 | mikebledsoe | Ah, ah before you before you go into a marriage. |
| 24:59.85 | Max Shank | Yeah, because I think having ah a relationship can be 1 of the best things ever or possibly the worst thing ever. That's why I think it's such a good topic because there's that saying behind every ah. |
| 25:09.64 | mikebledsoe | Well. |
| 25:16.37 | Max Shank | Great man is a strong woman I'm guessing a woman came up with that quote had to have been right? but but also behind every like broken suicidal man is 1 or many women who made his life miserable now it's probably his own fault. But I'm saying is. |
| 25:30.31 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 25:35.78 | Max Shank | Both ways. Male female. A relationship can be like a crazy boost that defies the laws of physics or it can be ah like a poison that you take every day. |
| 25:50.68 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, totally agree. |
| 25:52.60 | Max Shank | I mean I've seen it I've seen it both ways and how can you choose? Well if you don't interact with multiple types of person. |
| 26:04.80 | mikebledsoe | Well this is this is a really big challenge because I don't think people really appreciate how long we as human beings have been choosing our marriage partners. It's like 100 years old I think prior. The further back you go the more arranged marriages you're going to see and americans I think have probably been on the cutting edge of choosing your your mate ah to the rest of the world. Ah, and ah the wealthy. You know I think kept it around longer than the poor I think the poor were more into choosing than the wealthy the wealthy were you know is all part about it was playing a role in joining together families. And yeah, political and financial. So so this idea of you choosing a mate. |
| 26:51.95 | Max Shank | It's poor political. |
| 27:01.43 | mikebledsoe | Is is very very interesting because it's it's new it choosing your mate is new and then not only that the amount of choices I went on bumble and it's it's overwhelming I mean I I would sit there and I could swipe through. Ah, hundred women in five minutes and you know rewind a hundred years or further back ago and that might have been how many women you've ever met in the first twenty years of your life. You know you may have met your. |
| 27:33.60 | Max Shank | That there are times where you wouldn't meet a hundred women who weren't your family members. |
| 27:39.00 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, and so like this idea that we now get to choose a mate and previously it was like you know what you get the the cards you were dealt. It's kind of like your looks right? It's like oh your face looks like that you're stuck with that rest of your life. Think that's how ah marriage was probably seen back then is yeah, you're just going to marry this person or you know you get out of these 3 women. You're probably going to you know, end up with 1 of them might as well start courting and so I only bring that up because. You know if we look at the generations if I look at all right? My dad definitely picked my mom and they met from different sides of the country. Um, they came together in 1 spot but were were nowhere near each other they they had a lot of options but then I look at my my dad's dad grew up in a town of four hundred. my dad grew up in a town of four Hundred he's like fortunate like he was on that cusp of he left his hometown in his late teens for adventure and found my mom now my grandfather was a town of. |
| 28:48.69 | Max Shank | I. |
| 28:54.18 | mikebledsoe | 400 and married a woman from that talent at 400 right so he probably his the amount of choices he had was probably you know a dozen you know. |
| 28:55.18 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 29:05.72 | Max Shank | It's probably a lot more clearly defined gender roles within a marriage at that time too though. |
| 29:09.96 | mikebledsoe | That as well and if you look back at his father who the fuck knows like they they had such so I only I bring all that up to to create this context and give ourselves a little bit of grace for. If we're if we seem like we're not not max and I I mean we can give us grace too but give yourself grace if you're fumbling around in relationships a bit because most of the things that are happening in relationship are new choosing a mate for yourself. That's new without having parents heavily. Ah. |
| 29:49.53 | mikebledsoe | Influencing it. So yeah I just bring that up because give ourselves some grace and we're all learning and I think it's a skill that you're gonna have to get even better at in the future because choice is only going up. |
| 30:01.35 | Max Shank | Well I think that is a really good point that you are always learning and so people change within the course of a relationship and that relates to what we're talking about with arranged marriages like right now. I'm pretty sure you could fact check me on this I'm pretty sure that right now it's still common plaque common practice in some parts of india to marry off your 12 year old daughter to a 30 year old dub. |
| 30:30.61 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, was it up? Well yeah I think so well I saw a news story Yesterday a girl in Afghanistan was a 12 year old girl was sold for two thousand dollars in afghanistan and you know it's probably propaganda from cnn basically. Trying to make the taliban look like a bunch of dicks which they probably are a bunch of dicks. But um, anyways I don't think that's specific to the taliban I think there's just a bunch of dudes out there a bunch of dicks. But ah. |
| 30:49.93 | Max Shank | That seems really cheap. |
| 31:01.26 | Max Shank | Well I think that's ah sort of what we're talking about you know? ah a lady has that intrinsic value. You couldn't sell like a boy for that price. Probably. |
| 31:17.43 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, women are gonna be more expensive are gonna cost more has more value there. So. |
| 31:24.80 | Max Shank | So okay, we're into arranged marriages which is like hey this is just how it is and there was no concept of divorce and then you know the story of King James King James bible. |
| 31:42.34 | mikebledsoe | Nah. Thanks! So yeah, please tell it? yeah. |
| 31:42.88 | Max Shank | 1 of my favorite stories ever he but you know he's a he's Good. Ah Catholic guy I Want to say Catholic Christian something like that he was He was hip with the bible and then he was married to this lady. He's like fuck I got to get out of this thing and they're like sorry church doctrine says no go and he's like we're gonna have to rewrite this book and so and so they did now you have the the King James bible which is like yeah divorce is okay Now. And I think that's hilarious I think that it's okay to play it either way. It's okay to want to stick it out and try to make it work and it's also okay to be thankful that for the time that you had with somebody. |
| 32:21.67 | mikebledsoe | To what. |
| 32:36.62 | Max Shank | And and move on with your life I think it's I think it's important to understand that people do grow in different ways. So this whole idea of till death to us part is like a really good idea. It. It seems meaningful but also I mean people do. Change people go through midlife crisis people go through just constant evolution and people grow differently sometimes sometimes you grow the same get intertwined and sometimes you grow in polar opposite directions and you have nothing left in common anymore. |
| 33:08.22 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I'll throw in my ah I'll throw in a vulnerable share of the day. So the ah so I was made for 9 years huh |
| 33:19.90 | Max Shank | You're bisexual. What's that huh. |
| 33:25.50 | mikebledsoe | I was married for 9 years and so greedy bunch of bastards just pick aside. Um so I'm actually really jealous of of people can go both ways. Oh yeah. |
| 33:30.17 | Max Shank | Bisexual is just greedy so greedy double dipping not cool man. |
| 33:43.57 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, it's greedy. It's amazing. Yeah. |
| 33:45.22 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, they have double the opportunity. Yeah so I was made for 9 years and ah, you know we we so parted ways about 2 and a half years ago now. Um. Ah, when when I got married I don't think she's gonna listen to this I'll I'll over share a bit but we'll see yeah, ah, when we were first married like. |
| 34:10.80 | Max Shank | This will be the first 1 She listens to no question. |
| 34:21.83 | mikebledsoe | We were a certain type of person I I know ah she was full of Insecurity I was full of Insecurity I was ah fairly I was very stressed out all the time I was ah yeah I was. I was fearful around relationships specifically I had a scarcity mentality I you know I I look back and and you know I made some decisions based on the wrong reasons and the reason I did that is because nobody can I never heard anyone tell me the right reasons you would want to be married. |
| 34:57.87 | Max Shank | And. |
| 34:59.60 | mikebledsoe | Like I I remember growing up in church and hearing things but like now that I'm forty was married for 9 years and I'm in ah, a really ah relationship I'm stoked about for a year and a half and now I can see I can see things so much clearly now and. And the advice that I would give somebody who's 25 or what was I was 27 when I got married twenty eight the advice I would give that person is no 1 gave me the advice I would give me now and but so some of it has to do with. Who you're surrounding yourself with and this before podcast before I get all enlightening shit. But ah so so enlightened. Yeah, yeah, that's usually it. Ah so ah. |
| 35:42.46 | Max Shank | So enlightened. That's what all the enlightened people say I'm I'm just so enlightened. |
| 35:56.82 | mikebledsoe | So I look back and go Wow! It's just a lot of core wounding. There's like a lot of lot of emotional wounds. A lot of insecurity that was driving a lot of the decisions during that time which made us a perfect couple we were we were meant to be together. We matched lock and key. |
| 36:08.73 | Max Shank | You matched Harm eyes. Yeah. |
| 36:14.25 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, like she she had like the ways in which I showed up for her was probably how she wished her dad would show up for her and and so on and so forth and so over the years the relationship it was 1 of those things where as we. Healed a lot of those wounds and didn't have the same insecurities popping up and and a lot of that just didn't matter anymore. You know, certain things didn't bother me anymore and I and I was open to more of my own desires versus what I was scared of losing and. During that time. We also improved our communication skills. We went to workshops and improved how to communicate I attended relationship workshops I did a lot of a lot of my personal development was how to improve relationships in general and so while. While I was in a relationship that what bound us together began to dissolve I also was getting better at relationships. So it was. It was like the relationship would get hard and then would get easier and so I was in this I was in this relationship I was like oh that is really hard. Don't know if I can make it. |
| 37:15.17 | Max Shank | Live. |
| 37:30.00 | mikebledsoe | And then I learned some way new way of relating and I changed something about myself and then like oh now we're jam and this is great and then we'd hit another hard stop and it really I got to the point where I go oh that that the core thing that has been binding us together for so long that's gone and. |
| 37:45.92 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 37:48.77 | mikebledsoe | Now it's about just trying to make this relationship work because we've been in it for so long and so yeah, yeah, and um, you know and when I when I left that relationship there. It took me. |
| 37:54.23 | Max Shank | Sunk cost policy. |
| 38:07.79 | mikebledsoe | It's been 2 and a half years it has not been that long for a nine year relationship 2 and a half years is not that long. So I still It's like every day that goes by I experience this less. It's almost nothing. It's probably a few times a week at this point, there's this guilt that may come up it. It. Kind of like this question comes up with could I have done something differently or could I have been a different way or I see myself in my current relationship where I'm doing things for her that my ex wanted me to do for her but I just didn't do. |
| 38:39.77 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 38:43.87 | mikebledsoe | Or I was for for some reason I was incapable in that moment and even though I tried and now I'm witnessing myself. Do it with ease and then I feel a little bit of guilt like oh why is it that I can do this so easily now it's so difficult then um, and so it's It's a very interesting thing to have. |
| 38:50.94 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah. |
| 39:02.44 | Max Shank | That's a big deal. |
| 39:03.58 | mikebledsoe | Been and yeah, been in a nine year relationship and be able to look at it and go oh yeah, and and I'm very fortunate because when I left the relationship. You know there was there was a good year where a little over a year we were working on it before we split like we was we we knew that we this was a possibility. |
| 39:16.11 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 39:22.73 | mikebledsoe | And ah yeah, what I what I made sure of when I loved that relationship is I didn't want to bring any of the bullshit into the next relationship or go you know what I need to make sure that I'm I like clean here I don't want. Ah. |
| 39:33.12 | Max Shank | Whatever. |
| 39:42.38 | mikebledsoe | Even though we we still ended up splitting I had to make sure that it wasn't me. It wasn't like something that was 1 hundred percent me that was that was the problem because I knew that that would just show up in the next relationship and I don't want to do that to somebody else and so ah so i. Um, in my my experience I largely did that and then splitting up I had a year where I really focused on myself and I did date a little bit but man a lot of lessons there too. |
| 40:12.71 | Max Shank | Yeah I think that guilt that you were talking about is really um, it's nice that you feel comfortable sharing that I've definitely felt that myself. Basically every relationship I've ever been in is I Always think what I could have done differently whether it's a. |
| 40:27.76 | mikebledsoe | Um, a. |
| 40:31.51 | Max Shank | Business relationship or romantic relationship. Ah professional project was just telling someone the other day that as soon as I finish teaching a course I think of like 10 things I wish I had done different as soon as I finished launching a product I'm like oh God should have done this this and this different as soon as the relationships. And I'm like oh man I could have done this this and this and you you got to be kind to yourself and recognize that you're doing the best you can with what you got based on how you think and feel at the time you know and so it's important not to drag any of the Bs along with you. |
| 40:52.23 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 41:03.28 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, so. |
| 41:10.22 | Max Shank | But you still want to remember those lessons So I'm really appreciative of all the relationships that I have had and I try to keep the lessons that I've learned and I try to focus on the things that I did like because then you also have a good frame of reference. For whatever relationship you're in now and you know you don't want to get into like comparison syndrome or something like that. But it's good to know. Um what you like and what you don't like and get comfortable drawing drawing boundaries and saying this is what I'm willing to um trade off or sacrifice. For what I'm willing to give what I'm willing to get out of a relationship. What I'm looking for in a relationship and I think that maybe the most important thing to realize is if you can't say no then you're basically a slave like if you can't say. You can't say no to something then you're you'll just be eroded over Time. So You're not really yourself. |
| 42:10.41 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, that. |
| 42:26.23 | mikebledsoe | I'll find the thought. |
| 42:38.44 | Max Shank | Yeah I think it's natural to judge ourselves especially when a relationship ends any anytime something finishes I think it's normal to say like oh what could I have done different. It's also probably common to viciously attack the character of the other person and say it's all their fault. |
| 42:48.71 | mikebledsoe | Well probably. |
| 42:56.90 | mikebledsoe | I Think that's the most common. Yeah, that's more common than yeah I mean's a mix of both I'm sure but you know we we can judge our previous self harshly because we've learned the lesson now we didn't know then where we didn't know it well enough then. |
| 42:57.47 | Max Shank | So you don't want to get into that trap either. |
| 43:09.21 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 43:14.10 | mikebledsoe | To take action on it or you didn't know how to do it. But after the fact you look back and go I know how to do that and then that's another reason to to give yourself a little bit of grace but you were digging into boundaries and um, yeah, the boundaries has been 1 of the most important things. Oh yeah, what I would that remind me of. Is well we can talk about boundaries later. But what I want to dig in here based on what you were just saying is when I said hey I want to I want to reengage with my dating life again and which I mean in my first marriage I was also dating other women. |
| 43:45.80 | Max Shank | The. |
| 43:52.29 | mikebledsoe | It was completely open. We were completely transparent about it. It was so it wasn't like I had gotten back up now the way I approached dating was very different. It felt very different from you know when I was married it was just like okay I'm gonna go have fun with this person when I was single it was like. |
| 44:02.75 | Max Shank | The. |
| 44:11.38 | mikebledsoe | I Had this experience of oh this could be something more and so it's like the pressure went up on it to a degree where which was surprising to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was actually interesting to watch myself. Ah, yeah, Wow I actually desire to be in a relationship. |
| 44:17.56 | Max Shank | Right before it was a play date before it was a play date Now you're playing for keeps. Basically. |
| 44:29.37 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 44:31.27 | mikebledsoe | Ah, and so ah, what I did was I I was sitting with my coach at the time he's actually in Encinitas and he says to me. Ah well,, you're very interested in women even though you're you're newly divorced and. All that you seem to attract women pretty easily and you like being in a relationship you like to be with women like yeah, that's all Accurate. He goes well I would write down what it is you want in a woman and because basically. I was working with him during you know all that leading up to my divorce and afterwards and what he saw was when you're when you're breaking away from a relationship. It is very difficult to see what it is. You do want you? you primarily see all the things you don't want or what you don't like. |
| 45:25.87 | Max Shank | The. |
| 45:27.76 | mikebledsoe | Like I want out of this I don't want this anymore and so it was I remember it was very hard for me to shift the gears into focusing on what I did want from a woman or maybe not from her but ah of a woman versus what I didn't want. And the list of didn't was so you can translate this the the list of don't wants can really inform you your do wants you can make all your list of like I don't want this this and this and go what's the opposite of that. So um, that's how I started I started I was like you know what? I don't want all this shit. |
| 45:59.55 | Max Shank | 10 |
| 46:06.70 | mikebledsoe | So I do want this and what I did was I swung really hard and I went to the other side of the spectrum and and then dated a woman who was the opposite of my ex and in a lot of ways. Um, and. |
| 46:19.40 | Max Shank | And. |
| 46:23.69 | mikebledsoe | And my coach even I remember got a chuckle at it's like dude you you just went the other direction hard like how's that going I'm like I'm loving it and then crash and burn is like no I don't love that and I realized that there were a lot of traits that I thought were valuable and this is going back to your your point early on which is. |
| 46:27.61 | Max Shank | No. |
| 46:42.76 | mikebledsoe | Good to try out a lot of different types of people when dating and looking at different. You know what type of personality traits all this stuff. There was a lot of things that I imagined that I desired. But for instance I desired a woman that was ah like financially independent I wasn't going to need to take care of them all this kind of stuff. So I ended up dating a woman who made like 2 to 3 times the amount of money I was making and it was It was really exciting I was like oh cool like I don't have to cover everything and she doesn't mind this and that and I get to go have lavish experiences and. |
| 47:14.42 | Max Shank | And. |
| 47:19.66 | mikebledsoe | Fivestar hotels and all this shit Ca Bana Boy Mike Yeah, so and I make good money so like ah for her to make triple like she's banking. She's you know? and so I but then I was like oh the emotional availability of this person is just nothing. |
| 47:21.45 | Max Shank | Cabana Boy mike. |
| 47:39.10 | mikebledsoe | And I was like oh I I didn't have that written down because it was just a like to me I think it was probably a given but I wasn't focused on it consciously so I wasn't choosing it. So then I go you know what I don't care. She doesn't have to be filthy rich she ah because I actually put down the intention I Want to date someone who makes more money to me. |
| 47:44.38 | Max Shank | And. |
| 47:56.93 | Max Shank | I Thought that was gonna be your advice for the listeners is just marry a rich girl. Ah. |
| 47:59.50 | mikebledsoe | And. Um, yeah, well, you know if she's self-made that could be a good thing if she's not good luck. Um, because I've I over the years I I dated some ah some rich girls when I was younger I was like in my teens but ah what a pain. So what I did was I kept refining my list I kept refining and writing down like what I wanted in a woman and then I got to a point where well I then went celibate for seven months. The first hundred days was on purpose and then. The rest of the time I was sell that was due to covid. So I basically I was gonna end my Ninety my hundred day was gonna be like the beginning of March like I was like about to get back in the game covid hit and then so I had to wait another few months to get back in. But um, yeah, during that time lot of reflection. |
| 48:41.90 | Max Shank | And. |
| 48:49.40 | Max Shank | Avenue. Ah. |
| 48:59.36 | mikebledsoe | And so when I did meet the person I'm with now she really does check all the boxes and I I think it is part of it is I did the work of finding Out. What is it that I really want somebody and things that I thought were valuable like. Aren't as bad but like I I value emotional development over money for sure. |
| 49:26.64 | Max Shank | It's really valuable to write those things down and what's interesting is I've done the same thing. The list of things that you want is also the best way you can show up in a relationship. |
| 49:39.25 | mikebledsoe | Show like. |
| 49:42.90 | Max Shank | Like it just turns right back on you, you're like dammit This is like how I can best be in a relationship too. You know it's not just like ah okay, ah, pretty lady here's a list of things I want from you and she's like great. She hands you the list back and's like yeah I want that too and you're like fuck. |
| 49:46.47 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 49:59.41 | mikebledsoe | I Well I think there's I think there's some I think that's partly true. Ah, you know, kind of like the treat ah treat others the way you want to be treated. Um, but really the. |
| 50:02.41 | Max Shank | Ah, yeah. |
| 50:13.33 | Max Shank | Oh I don't think that's true. Yeah. |
| 50:16.51 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, you want to treat people the way they want to be treated so like in a relationship that probably is the ways in which you could show up better but also be on the lookout for what is it they want and how they like for me I I could I could do with less touch and my relationship like. |
| 50:33.54 | Max Shank | Well. |
| 50:36.37 | mikebledsoe | Um I I love touch I'm a high touch person but my girlfriend's even more so so like she has to remind me like are you gonna touch me I'm like oh okay, yeah, and I appreciate the reminder. But if I touched her as much as I wanted to be touched. She would not be satisfied. |
| 50:41.16 | Max Shank | Um. Right. |
| 50:52.68 | Max Shank | As long as you're both willing to communicate that then it can work out. Okay, and as long as you understand what's going on there then it's okay, but like I think shying away from direct Crystal clear communication. |
| 50:57.13 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 51:11.60 | Max Shank | Is maybe perceived as not very sexy sometimes but also it's the main reason that people quietly suffer in a relationship they're like in their head I'm not getting what I want but I'm just gonna I'm just gonna keep things really smooth and it's like no, that's not. |
| 51:15.48 | mikebledsoe | It. |
| 51:30.66 | Max Shank | That's not going to work Meanwhile if you have like 2 gay guys and they're both tops. There's no confusion there because no 1 is going to be happy in that situation. You need a top and you need a bottom and you know you understand what I'm saying like they're they're not going to. Well. |
| 51:45.83 | mikebledsoe | I get it I do it I know how I know how gay people do it? yeah. |
| 51:50.23 | Max Shank | I've met a lot. Ah I've met a lot of gay guys. Um, yeah, what? Ah what a fun bunch of fellows. Um, but yeah, there's no, there's no mincing words there is what I've noticed. It's like I am ah I am a top I am a bottom. Ah great. |
| 52:01.62 | mikebledsoe | Is what it's what. |
| 52:09.87 | Max Shank | Um, a bottom. It's not going to work. There's no,, There's no compatibility there and the same thing is true with asking for what you want out of a relationship and being clear on what the expectations are and I think of a relationship. Ah, like a romantic 1 is really a lot more like ah, a business partnership than anything Else. You are building a life together and you need to have more or less an operating agreement just as just like you would need in any other business like. You know I'll get the food and you cook the food and you do this and I'll do this and this and you know we have our responsibilities So There's no confusion about who's responsible for what and there's none of that um lack of clarity that can make people start to. Quietly Harbor resentment which is a huge problem. So if you don't ask for what you want and you get resentful. That's on you. |
| 53:13.35 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah I think for a lot of people. They don't even know what they want so they I I yeah. |
| 53:20.32 | Max Shank | Yeah, we'll shoot. Don't most people choose partners just based on how pretty they look by the way I think that if you prioritize that above everything else, You're probably going to have. Ah, relationship that is really challenging at some point. |
| 53:41.43 | mikebledsoe | I've never seen anyone who valued that over everything else have a ah long happy relationship. |
| 53:46.59 | Max Shank | Well because a relationship you know, even if you're doing a lot of sex. It's still like four percent of your day. It's an ah, an hour is four percent. The rest of the the rest of the time there's got to be other things that keep you interested. |
| 54:02.63 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, I'm not remembering who who told me this but ah, probably some relationship guru. Ah and which is sex is there to bridge the gap so that you have time to build the. |
| 54:05.28 | Max Shank | You know what. |
| 54:09.27 | Max Shank | Um, and. |
| 54:21.29 | mikebledsoe | Foundation of the relationship and if you make sex the foundation of the relationship. It's not going to last because like I said the beginning of the show. The first six months of relationship you're on drugs you're high. You're not, you're not thinking straight your hormones and. |
| 54:22.23 | Max Shank | Are. |
| 54:29.10 | Max Shank | Yeah, right? no. |
| 54:40.77 | mikebledsoe | Neurotransmitters are firing very differently than they will be in a year from now. Ah when you're relating to the same person so sex is a you know great sex I think for me isn't I need great sex I I will if I if I'm not getting that i. Begin to wander pretty easily. Um I mean I got high sex drive or something. |
| 55:02.50 | Max Shank | I Don't think there's anything I don't think there's anything wrong with that I think recognizing that things are changing in a way that you don't like is extremely valuable and it kind of correlates back to another important point which is if you're not. Comfortable by yourself. You probably won't be able to make the right choice for a relationship. |
| 55:29.60 | mikebledsoe | That's true. Yeah I the relationship I'm in I was I actually went this whole process where I was because I didn't know what was going to happen with a pandemic I'm like oh maybe I'm single for the rest of my life. Maybe there was a moment where that was like in the first the first month of it. |
| 55:43.40 | Max Shank | Oh yeah, what. |
| 55:47.10 | mikebledsoe | Was going world seems pretty chaotic I don't know if I'm gonna find a mate anytime soon. It might be a while I might as well enjoy me and without a partner. Um, yeah, what was I saying before that feel like we jumped tracks I was on to go back. |
| 55:51.70 | Max Shank | Um, ah. |
| 56:05.70 | mikebledsoe | Um, and my memory is not go ahead. |
| 56:07.47 | Max Shank | What you're the you you were talking about that. Um, you have a certain level of touch desire. Your lady has a slightly higher 1 Great sex is important to you but it's not the only thing you said sex is the bridge to build the foundation of other stuff. |
| 56:21.71 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah, yeah, the. But yeah, the set sex will hold 2 people together long enough to build that foundation. But if you don't spend time building the other aspects of your relationship aligning your boundaries aligning your values your vision of the future together. If. You don't take care of that in the first six months you probably won't it probably won't last and if you do make the choice to stay in a relationship and you don't have those things I would I would challenge you to look at whether you're with that person out of insecurity versus. |
| 56:56.80 | Max Shank | Um, it's really more like codependence and you're not willing to cut your losses even though it's the right choice I mean that is 1 of the most common fallacies in relationships is the sunk cost fallacies. Well I've been with this person it. So I'll stay with this person and it's like. |
| 56:58.77 | mikebledsoe | Out of true desire. |
| 57:04.43 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 57:13.18 | mikebledsoe | In here. |
| 57:16.80 | Max Shank | No, it's the same as ah, owning stock or owning possessions. It's not what I keep this. It's would I buy this today brand new again and if the answer is no then like what are you doing like yeah. |
| 57:32.20 | mikebledsoe | That's. |
| 57:36.79 | Max Shank | Oh man, it really is That's why I was so interested to talk about this and it's funny how you and I were just both thinking about the same thing because the whole concept of I know we both just were like how about relationships because it is I think the. |
| 57:44.37 | mikebledsoe | If we didn't know what we were gonna talk about 2 hours ago. You know. |
| 57:56.24 | Max Shank | The number 1 greatest thing ever is having ah like a loving romantic relationship or even just loving relationships in general and the worst thing is to have a relationship that is ah the source of Resentment. You know the source of settling for for less and it it can be really really good or really, really Awful. So It's probably the most important choice to make. |
| 58:18.67 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think. |
| 58:27.21 | mikebledsoe | I would say there was a there was a ah early my relate. You know my previous relationship there was I would work to get away I would I was always wanting to travel you know business conference signed me up. You know, just a little bit of relief here and there. |
| 58:39.61 | Max Shank | The. |
| 58:45.81 | mikebledsoe | And but now I find myself now wanting to like I want to work to provide for the the family like I want to set things up so that we can spend more time together and when we travel apart. |
| 59:01.59 | Max Shank | Yeah, perfect. |
| 59:03.60 | mikebledsoe | Um, like I miss her and like it's it's it's oh I wish she could be with me instead of you know, whatever so and she actually has been traveling more than me which is ah that's a first as well is well that's not the first time I've been in relationship where they they were traveling more but it's ah. |
| 59:12.68 | Max Shank | And. |
| 59:21.36 | mikebledsoe | In a relationship that's lasted this long being with somebody who travels as much as she does is like okay. |
| 59:25.45 | Max Shank | So when you were a little younger you were traveling a lot and not ah not getting too attached kind of so it's really funny like because you know I traveled a ton for work and I think I also. |
| 59:32.23 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, okay. |
| 59:44.60 | Max Shank | Had this idea that if I was desirable to women then that was the best thing so I wouldn't want to be in a relationship I would just want to be like coveted which sounds pretty like twisted I guess but that's just the way I was so I wouldn't even I wouldn't even date people who lived close to me they had to. Live like really far away so it was like totally clear like hey we're just we're just having fun. There's like nothing to because I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. But I also thought that my worth as a person was directly correlated. Whether. As to whether as to how I was judged by women if I was desirable isn't that funny. |
| 01:00:24.38 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, have a similar experience which is ah I was married and then like I just I wanted to be seen as desirable. So I had to walk I know a party with 2 women on my arms like instead of just 1 ne's not enough. |
| 01:00:37.90 | Max Shank | Yeah, right. |
| 01:00:41.63 | mikebledsoe | Have 2 I got to show that I got to show everybody that I'm desirable I'm good enough. |
| 01:00:44.70 | Max Shank | And that's what I would come in with 3 and that's when I would come in with 3 because that meant I was 1 lady better than you. |
| 01:00:54.89 | mikebledsoe | I wish that scene actually did go down like I walk in with 2 I'm like you walk in with 3 like fuck man. He beat me again. |
| 01:00:56.94 | Max Shank | It's like that would have been. Then Jay-z walks in with 21 of them is beyonce and we're just like I guess he wins it's It's funny. Ah, how direct that message is. Like popular culture and especially music like it's all about like cars and planes and hoes and that's like the value of a man is like how many hose he has poolside and his mansion and what kind of plane. |
| 01:01:26.72 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:01:35.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, is a thing 1 thing occurred to me in this conversation which I'm I'm having a lot of appreciation for myself and that I never thought I'd be as good with women as I am today? Um, um, ah I did become quite the ladies man I can I can work a room. I can pick up women I can ask them out on dates fairly easy. And yeah, when I was younger I was terrified that I would never be attractive or be able to talk to women with confidence. So just conversations allowed me reflect on that. So it's. |
| 01:02:11.79 | Max Shank | I think I I did the same thing I put them up on a pedestal like they were some sort of otherworldly creature and they are in a certain sense. It's interesting because what we like about women is that they're different than men. But also what we hate about them. |
| 01:02:12.24 | mikebledsoe | Pretty cool. |
| 01:02:31.78 | Max Shank | Is the way that they're different from men most of the time. So So it's ah it's interesting. That's what makes relationships. Um fun I think is the differences but it's also what makes them challenging because you can't know what another person's. Life experience is like and you know I think maybe 1 other thought that is important is it's never personal like no 1 Ne's ever personally rejecting you? No 1 Ne's ever personally attacking you no 1 Ne's ever. |
| 01:02:52.23 | mikebledsoe | No. |
| 01:03:09.75 | Max Shank | Like lashing out at you. They're just in a state where their lizard brain has taken over because they feel afraid or they just want something different, but it's never personal to you as an individual what someone else does and I think that's that's probably pretty hard for. |
| 01:03:23.34 | mikebledsoe | So. |
| 01:03:29.74 | Max Shank | Most people too believe but it's true. |
| 01:03:31.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, not taking things personally is huge I think in general but in relationships yeah, that's in romantic relationships if you can master that 1 then that'll that'll help you out I mean my my girlfriend I have gotten into we've had 1 fight. |
| 01:03:49.50 | Max Shank | Or. |
| 01:03:50.91 | mikebledsoe | Many disagreements but were able to work it out 1 fight where I raised my voice and regretted it but um and quickly mended that is 1 of those where like the the switch got flipped. There's 3 o'clock in the morning you know I'll make up all sorts of excuses why it happened but ah. |
| 01:04:05.98 | Max Shank | Here Come the excuses. |
| 01:04:10.57 | mikebledsoe | Ah, ah, but now I forgot what I was talking about all the shame came rolling in. Um, yeah, so what was I talking about. |
| 01:04:16.73 | Max Shank | Yeah, you should be ashamed of yourself for losing control for 1 minute. |
| 01:04:30.30 | mikebledsoe | I took nootropics this morning and I think they backfired my memory has been terrible on this show. |
| 01:04:32.87 | Max Shank | Oh gosh I am also cutting you off more than usual because I wanted to say a few things today. |
| 01:04:38.86 | mikebledsoe | Ah I think it's good I think I think it worked out my lack of memory here. It's perfect. Perfect I hope you got a lot of words in today. |
| 01:04:47.10 | Max Shank | yeah yeah I did I got in more than usual, um because that's you know how we assert our dominance in this conversation. Maybe maybe the folks at home can vote on which 1 of us is the dominant 1 in this podcast. |
| 01:04:57.30 | mikebledsoe | It's not. It's right? it. |
| 01:05:05.77 | mikebledsoe | Ah, we should just be a vote for every show you know who won who won this who won the match. It's like it's ah it's a podcast fight you know, um. |
| 01:05:08.73 | Max Shank | Yeah, yeah, who. |
| 01:05:20.70 | Max Shank | That's actually 1 of the things I like about our conversations and usually I find this is more true with talking to women as they don't interrupt and steamroll as much and they're better at listening. |
| 01:05:31.84 | mikebledsoe | And. |
| 01:05:34.14 | Max Shank | And I'm not trying to compare you to women at all I think I also have a more feminine conversational style where I feel comfortable just letting someone talk for a long time but it's very difficult to make any headway in a conversation if you are only talking with people who want to win the conversation. |
| 01:05:51.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:05:53.91 | Max Shank | Right? That's ah, that's a huge um handicap to your development if you don't have conversations with people who are good at listening and also thoughtful in the way that they respond. |
| 01:06:08.15 | mikebledsoe | Well the um I did a thousand I've done over 1000 podcast interviews where I've interviewed other people. Yeah, so in a lot of those podcasts for 2 to 3 hours I'd say they're between they range between ninety minutes and and 3 hours. |
| 01:06:13.70 | Max Shank | What. |
| 01:06:27.69 | mikebledsoe | So 1 of the things I note as 1 of the as something that was huge in my personal development was just doing the interviews just being interested in somebody else in a way that I know the audience would like so. |
| 01:06:37.50 | Max Shank | Okay. |
| 01:06:46.53 | mikebledsoe | Satisfying some of my own curiosity imagining the curiosity of my audience and making sure that those questions were asked. Um, you know there's a few times I talked over people I was interviewing and I got feedback that was being a dick um, and. |
| 01:07:01.11 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:07:05.17 | mikebledsoe | I was called names a couple times and they were right? Ah so it's I think it's a matter of reps because I grew up in a home where it was about winning the conversation. There's a lot of yelling over each other and all that. |
| 01:07:20.80 | Max Shank | It takes a special kind of confidence though to be silent for a little bit longer I would say it's more valuable in conversations that are off the air like person to person conversations where you're not recording it for some interview. But. |
| 01:07:35.47 | mikebledsoe | But in. |
| 01:07:40.28 | Max Shank | Taking a pause to really consider what you want to say to that person is crazy valuable and ironically or surprisingly people will listen to you more attentively if you do that rather than just. |
| 01:07:54.88 | mikebledsoe | Or yeah. |
| 01:07:59.24 | Max Shank | But but but but but but words words, words are so when you're on a podcast. It's tough because part of what you're doing is you're like showcasing what you know right? So you want to be talk talk Talk Talk talk hey like I know about this hey I know about this hey look how smart I am look at all these things I remember like I can say these big fancy words. |
| 01:08:05.11 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:08:15.96 | mikebledsoe | Well that that also reminds me of um how I approach new relationships just not romanticic. But when I meet new people I've noticed this a couple times in the last month where I was in a car with somebody knew somebody I hadn't. |
| 01:08:18.75 | Max Shank | Ah, what. |
| 01:08:25.21 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 01:08:36.20 | mikebledsoe | Spent much time with I'm in a car with them 1 on 1 and I just don't say anything who sit there in silence and see what they do and then it's it. Most people will start small talk like ah so you know the weather. |
| 01:08:41.35 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:08:55.14 | Max Shank | Because silence is uncomfortable. |
| 01:08:55.27 | mikebledsoe | Or my dog or super uncomfortable. So there have been a number of times where I'm with somebody and I'm being silent and then five minutes goes buying the go. Wow! This is really nice like yeah it is and it's like okay we can be friends like it's going to be a lot easier to be friends and. You're just trying to ah if you're feeling so uncomfortable that you have to just say shit. So. |
| 01:09:20.12 | Max Shank | You can enjoy a person's presence without words and without a touch either. You can just enjoy that a person is there with you and I think that's a great indicator that that person is comfortable in their own skin. |
| 01:09:36.47 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:09:38.59 | Max Shank | That they're comfortable around you I think that's a very good point is very telling babbling My ah my girlfriend was hanging out with somebody and she was. |
| 01:09:42.38 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 01:09:56.97 | Max Shank | She she calls me up afterward and she was like she just wouldn't be quiet. She it was just constant constant just spewage of words like any silence would be just crazy uncomfortable and sometimes you don't notice it. |
| 01:10:04.71 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, for. |
| 01:10:10.83 | mikebledsoe | My ah the. |
| 01:10:16.18 | Max Shank | Until you're ah you have the juxtaposition of someone who's very comfortable saying nothing and someone who would be like in physical pain if 5 seconds go by without words being said. |
| 01:10:25.52 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, the damn. My memory really is fucked today. |
| 01:10:35.34 | Max Shank | Yeah, you're off today. It's it's all the it's all the shame associated from your checkered past. |
| 01:10:42.97 | mikebledsoe | I did just I did bring up about fifty percent of my pain on the in the last hour so |
| 01:10:48.99 | Max Shank | You laid it you laid it all out I I was like ah leaning back feeling very freudian I was like oh yes, now Michael telling me about your muzza. I feel like another half hour. We'll dig up every little bit of archeological pain. |
| 01:11:07.47 | mikebledsoe | Mark yeah well ah, what you were saying reminded me of ah something mark england from Vocabulary he has this he has this term he calls transcribing and it's when somebody starts telling you about something that happened. And they're just walking you through what happened with no there's no story. It's like and then you know I woke up this morning and they did it and they just like tell you about their day. You're like okay like and there's nothing to talk about. |
| 01:11:28.66 | Max Shank | And. |
| 01:11:41.65 | Max Shank | Isn't it merk with no purpose though I mean maybe a purpose of just getting attention because it depends how the story is framed right? I mean. |
| 01:11:49.58 | mikebledsoe | Well yeah, but it's not a story. It's just ah, it's a listing of things that happened and in chronological order which technically is a story. |
| 01:11:56.67 | Max Shank | Well it it. Yeah, it is a story because they're retelling it so that makes it a story. What I find is when people do that. It's usually because they're trying to paint themselves as a hero or a victim right. |
| 01:12:10.89 | mikebledsoe | A a. |
| 01:12:14.45 | Max Shank | Like oh I did this and then oh my god you won't believe what happened to me I was waiting in line and then they closed the line and I was like what you got to be kidding me so then I had to go to a different line and it took me ten minutes and that was late to pick up my kid. Oh I got I just can't handle this shit anymore and you're like oh gay all right like I get it. Oh. |
| 01:12:24.21 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 01:12:30.52 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the the things that some people tell stories about like oh if that that happened to you or me we wouldn't think anything of it like oh the line closed and there was no emotional upset so we wouldn't even remember to tell that story later. |
| 01:12:46.66 | Max Shank | Yeah, because it's not. It's not really valid and your life is your collection of stories that you bring with you and the stimuli that you experience and the more you retell a story the more gravity it has in your. |
| 01:13:01.89 | mikebledsoe | Like. |
| 01:13:04.90 | Max Shank | Life and in yourself. So I'm I'm really I would say careful to elect which stories that I perpetuate is so it's so important. |
| 01:13:14.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, agree and be considerate people. Don't want to hear that shit people don't want to hear like like tell me good stories tell me something with a point you know I. |
| 01:13:20.80 | Max Shank | I Hate it. |
| 01:13:28.97 | Max Shank | Well, it doesn't it doesn't need to it doesn't need to have a point but it should maybe be funny at least? yeah so I think of it like I think of it like this I think of it I've told you about an energy vampires. |
| 01:13:30.54 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, just be considerate. That's how I got said well that would be a good point is the humor humor. |
| 01:13:45.29 | mikebledsoe | I'm gonna have I'm gonna have friends listening to this me like oh my God have I been inconsiderate This might think I'm a dick for like no everyone everyone everyone stops talking to me like I'm afraid to talk to him. He's judging me. |
| 01:13:49.81 | Max Shank | Yeah, no wonder he never calls me anymore. He must hate me. Yeah, the leper now. Um, it's like an energy vampireism right? People are trying to get. |
| 01:14:04.65 | mikebledsoe | Is. |
| 01:14:08.71 | Max Shank | Some energy from you for for just a story about how they are sad. Let's say in some way for simplicity's sake but it's just like with regular vampires if you don't invite that in they can't come in. No 1 if you draw a good boundary. |
| 01:14:12.89 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:14:26.48 | Max Shank | No 1 can do that to you and I think right now. Um, maybe it's just more front and center. But I've never seen more like victim stories told and retold I even felt myself doing it ah last year and I ah put the kaibosh on that because. It was easy for me to go like oh you know like f this is not fair. They can't like close my gym blah blah blah blah blah and you know all this all this stuff and I was like man max you gotta stop being such a bitch. Why don't you just focus on what you can do and stop telling that story and sure enough it did make things. |
| 01:15:03.54 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:15:04.55 | Max Shank | A ton better. So don't don't don't don't retell stories where you're the victim because you may get you probably will get um some psychic energy boost. You'll get some likes you might even get a hug or something like that. But the the cost is not worth. |
| 01:15:23.51 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well I think we'll close it up there I think we we did a good job talking about relationships. So I say that like it was a question I think there's a lot of nuggets in there. There's a lot of things that I can think. |
| 01:15:24.34 | Max Shank | That benefit. |
| 01:15:32.16 | Max Shank | Yeah, we were all over the place I liked it? yeah. |
| 01:15:42.11 | mikebledsoe | I'm sure tomorrow I'd go oh there's 20 other things I could talk about so maybe there'll be a part 2 to relationships. |
| 01:15:47.24 | Max Shank | Yeah, we could get some feedback from the from the folks at home I mean hopefully by now they understand that the most important thing is just to marry a beautiful idiot. |
| 01:16:02.23 | mikebledsoe | Ah, oh and if you didn't get that joke man you were doomed max where can people find you. |
| 01:16:03.17 | Max Shank | Ah, yeah, do the yeah, do the opposite of that do the exact opposite of that um maxsank dot com I'm also at Maank although I'm not really using. Social media. |
| 01:16:22.37 | mikebledsoe | But he may in the future who knows ah you can find me on Instagram at mike underscore bloodso and if you're a coach and doing the coach thing. The strongcoach dot com that's all I got see you next week levy max |
| 01:16:25.39 | Max Shank | I might. |
| 01:16:34.58 | Max Shank | Thank you folks! Love you buddy. |
| 00:00.56 | mikebledsoe | That's how you already canceled you're bulletproof. |
| 00:01.76 | Max Shank | It's okay I already canceled myself so well, it's like I found I was putting so much of my identity into this illusion that I had masterfully crafted. On the internet I was like the dark night of fitness I was professional I was like once in a while a little bit funny I used all the big fancy words and I only showed people the exact slice of my life I wanted them to see and I was really good at it too and then I was like man this is a. Probably probably not good long term like this whole this whole reality that we've created where people think oh, that's just that's just max all the time I'm just out there. You know going on vacations and lifting huge things all the time and it's not really.. It's not really very honest. So of course I think we all do to fit in I think that's kind of normal and the best friends you have are the ones you don't have to fake around and truthfully. |
| 00:57.30 | mikebledsoe | Or you are censoring yourself. It sounds like. |
| 01:15.83 | Max Shank | I don't really hang out with too many people that I have to um, fake it around which is why I say some horrible things that are also really funny like if you've ever played the game would you rather? that's a really, that's a really good 1 Are you played would you rather. |
| 01:20.66 | mikebledsoe | Four. |
| 01:30.62 | mikebledsoe | No. |
| 01:34.00 | Max Shank | So here's it's a hypothetical game. So for example, would you rather have sex with a goat and have no 1 know about it or have a video of you having sex with a goat that's totally fake, but everyone thinks you did. |
| 01:47.44 | mikebledsoe | Oh that's a good 1 Yeah ah I'm gonna censor myself on that 1 actually I'm I'm having a hard time because yeah I think I might be on the same page as you on that 1 Ah. |
| 01:56.14 | Max Shank | I would have sex with the goat. |
| 02:04.99 | Max Shank | Is because there's still such a social stigma against bestiality right now we're not really enlightened about that. |
| 02:07.50 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it's and. |
| 02:13.34 | mikebledsoe | Ah, well, it's interesting. What you're discussing is self-censorship is ah I hear people say they want to be more Authentic. You know I talk to a lot of people who want to express themselves on the internet and because I think people witnessed me do it and then they're like how do you do it I Want to do it too. And and and I'm definitely somebody Who's who's got a history of censoring myself less So these days than and earlier. But I think people deep down they desire not needing a sensor sensor themselves. They they want to. They want to be widely accepted by everybody but they think that the only way that can happen and it's probably true. The only way you can be popular with everybody is to censor yourself depending on the audience you're talking to and the person you're talking to. |
| 03:03.58 | Max Shank | It is the most important thing to fit in with the group that you're a part of to fit in with the tribe I mean little kids go Rob seven eleven s and murder people so they can be part of a gang people say things that they don't mean people lie I mean I was a kid once I used to lie. |
| 03:16.69 | mikebledsoe | Yep. |
| 03:22.26 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 03:22.93 | Max Shank | Did you ever lie I was great at it I had like think I had like 50 grandparents die as far as teachers knew growing up. Oh I decided I didn't do my homework a grandparents diet or something like that you know like when your're kid and you find out that lying is a. |
| 03:29.54 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 03:42.50 | Max Shank | Like a ten second uncomfortable experience that can save you like weeks of trouble. Potentially it's it's natural that you would do it and if you're talking about how to like fit in better. Oh my god of course we all do that. |
| 03:49.94 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 03:57.67 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, but would you say that everyone on of about everyone. But I think that everyone gets to a point at some point in their life where they don't want to have to censor themselves anymore and I think that they. When they are at that point the language they use to describe what they desire is they want to be free I Want to be free to express myself and ah and what ends up happening is when someone starts exploring how much they want to express themselves. Find out that they're the only ones that are censoring themselves based on wanting to be accepted by the tribe and the likeability and so I've witnessed a lot of people including myself go through this process where a slowly saying fuck it I don't give a fuck What people think. I'm going to be more honest and then watching watching the polarization happen where some people get become more distant from me the more honest I am and other people getting a lot closer because of how honest I am and it's a it's a filter and it's and it's. |
| 04:57.20 | Max Shank | And. |
| 05:02.56 | Max Shank | Well, it's just filter. It's a good thing. It's like panning for gold. |
| 05:09.20 | mikebledsoe | And it's really served me in a way where I experience my experience of my life is ah very enhanced. It's it's unreal at times. Um, and my sister she came to my birthday party a few weeks ago. And she got to witness my community and she was blown away. She didn't realize that people could be like that. But it really is a result of censoring myself less and attracting those people who and then giving permission to other people. Censor themselves less because I think you and I both say things that in. Probably me more publicly but say things that people turn their heads at and go well that's a crazy thing to say I've never heard anyone say that before or put it that way. Um, and I think I think it gives people permission to go oh if he can do it I can do it too. |
| 05:58.42 | Max Shank | Totally and. Well and there's something to be said about a frictionless experience like if you're in a situation where I guess what I'm saying is it's easy to put other people at ease with the way that you communicate. Like you don't have to draw attention to things that are like if you see someone who's really overweight. You don't have to draw attention to their fatness. You don't have to just speak whatever you instinctually think so we're always choosing what to say as if. |
| 06:32.71 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, it doesn't mean doesn't mean that. |
| 06:40.10 | Max Shank | It's important or not important. |
| 06:40.61 | mikebledsoe | Well I would say it's um, yeah, censorship is a form of filter but it's not the only version of Filter. There's There's the the filter of of ah of response you're being responsible with your words and how people receive them. And so it wouldn't behoove me to go out there and tell everybody exactly what I think and the way that I want to say it now. What I do is I say things say what I believe and what I think in a way in which I know it can be received because there's no point and if I'm just saying. You know if I'm just dropping the truth. Ah the way that I want to be heard and understood I'm just going to sound like a crazy person. |
| 07:27.50 | Max Shank | Well, you just touched on something that I was thinking which is a good communicator doesn't just communicate the information as simply as possible. He considers who the audience is so it will resonate with them the best. So. |
| 07:40.68 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 07:46.26 | Max Shank | The examples that you use or the language you use I mean you and I both understand the the power of communication and getting a resonant message if you and I were writing an exercise program. For 20 year old men or 50 year old women. The program itself might actually look the same but the way that we present that offer would be monumentally different or at least it should be monumentally different. So it's not just about. |
| 08:18.78 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 08:23.98 | Max Shank | Oh I'm like speaking my truth. It's like well why are you talking at all unless you care about the message being received. |
| 08:30.28 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well that but that makes me think of like like ah it it it requiring you to have good communication to get your point across in a way that they can receive it is that is ah a good sense. That's good. Ah. Leadership. That's good communication to have good leadership. You have to have good communication and what I think we're witnessing in our society right now is um, it's laziness I see that that censorship when when censorship is being heavily used. It's ah it's a form of laziness. And it's also um, on that note, what we were just saying too is you have to fit it to your audience. So what ends up happening is the larger the audience the harder it is to be good at communicating with that audience. So we we take the United states of America and there's 3 hundred and fifty million people. You now have to create ah get to communicate the narrative in a way that that impacts all 3 hundred million people is that even lowest common and nomin and is that possible and so. |
| 09:35.80 | Max Shank | Lowest common denominator. |
| 09:42.63 | mikebledsoe | And then that's why I mean lowest common denominator is the exact reason why any time the average per we look at what's happening with Mainstream I go they're going right? What's left. They're going left. What's right? Okay, what's going on here because when there's being to the low and lower. Low is coming denominator if you want to be average. That's the that's the perfect advice to take that's the perfect information to consume and to believe if you want to be above average. You have to go the other way and that that can be very uncomfortable but to me I look at the difference between good leadership and and. And poor leadership is that ability to communicate effectively and I just see a lot of laziness and when people say do this because I said so is like okay, you just lost it. |
| 10:29.41 | Max Shank | Well and the other side of that is that you could say it's not laziness. It's just efficiency because you have to trust like. For example, if I get a plumber over at my house. And I don't know anything about plumbing I have to trust that he's going to do a good job and there is an incentive for him to do good job and maybe there's a contract that says if the pipe explodes he's on the hook for it. So I don't blame people for seeking answers outside themselves because it is way more efficient. However, while it is more efficient. It is also so I think about it in terms of concentration of Power. So if you concentrate power into a single point you can get more penetration which means you can do things much faster like a dictatorship but the trick with concentration. Is. You also give leave yourself open to the fast track for concentration Camps. So it's It's ah it's just exactly so. |
| 11:29.88 | mikebledsoe | Yeah,, but there's also single single points of Failure. So if you if you concentrate your supply chain and everything's going through 1 2 3 ports or something like that. It only takes 1 person to do something Dumb. And the entire population suffers. |
| 11:51.40 | Max Shank | Investing is a good example too. You know you have your investment portfolio say you have a million dollars or something like that. Do you put equal amounts into 10 companies equal amounts into 1 hundred companies or do you put it all into 1 company and. If you put it all into 1 company and that 1 just happens to do the best you have made the most that you can possibly make. But if it goes to zero. You've also lost everything so it's a real. It's it's tricky with with concentration of power and I think that's really what this all comes back to. Thomas soul I always go back to because he said what we do is not important. It's who decides what we do who decides? what information should be censored and what information should not be censored and that's that's a worthwhile conversation to have um. I think when it comes to the overarching idea of what is the role of government I like the phrase. The role is not to protect people. It is to protect freedom from coercion. Essentially so we're trying to keep people free. To pursue happiness right? Life liberty and pursuit of happiness that doesn't mean you buy food for everybody. It means that you prevent stealing and coercion and fraud and things like that. |
| 13:18.38 | mikebledsoe | I think I think it's referred to as negative rights is that the the government and ah you know most people in the world and and Americans are included in this unfortunately the assumption is that they have no rights and all rights are granted by the government and. |
| 13:23.60 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 13:36.86 | Max Shank | It's just the opposite. |
| 13:38.60 | mikebledsoe | And a place if you're looking at from perspective. What's called well I didn't even hear this term until recently and they go oh yeah, negative rights I go okay that actually makes sense and that is you have the right? you have the right to do anything you want as long as you don't impede on someone else's rights and. Ah, the government's there just to ensure that we don't trample over each other's shit and that means not inhibiting. Someone's pursuit of life liberty happiness upholding um ah property rights essentially so the government is it. It was it was there to protect you know in the very beginning. |
| 14:11.97 | Max Shank | It's really all it's for. |
| 14:16.80 | mikebledsoe | Started off with people that knew how to fight and had weapons would protect farmers and they made deals with the farmers so they wouldn't get robbed by these thieves and then they demanded you know a five percent of their rations and then of course that's now if you're an american that's up to 30 something percent. Um, are your rations for to pay for your protection. Um, so it's ah that the benefit that the government gets from from censorship but I see is it's ah just a maintenance of power. So if you're if your job. If you're that person that comes in and says I'm going to protect you and ah and then there becomes there's potential competition for protection then ah you know they've got to do whatever they can do to squash that because they don't they don't want competition for being able to. Ah, protect your property and your life. |
| 15:11.39 | Max Shank | Right? So kind of tying it back into censorship which is the core discussion today. What are the advantages ofor censorship. How is it good for everybody. |
| 15:23.52 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, so I went online and I did a search and so I found I found 8 that's right fucking? Well you know that's why I use. Ah, that's why I use a duck duck go. |
| 15:30.23 | Max Shank | And and somebody chose what results that you were able to see from that search. |
| 15:42.12 | mikebledsoe | With a vpn so I actually so I take steps personally to reduce how much censorship I'm experiencing from Google That's true. That's true. Yeah. |
| 15:49.21 | Max Shank | Sometimes the results aren't as good though. That's the problem right now. Sometimes they aren't as good and I I try it with both because I do the same thing. |
| 16:00.83 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I agree. Ah yeah, so these these are I'll go through the list. Ah 1 is hate speech censorship allows us to reduce hate speech number 2 is protect children which is the ah to me is the number 1 excuse for censorship that. Anytime censorships gets questioned. It's like the last stand you know when you used to? yeah we mean privacy. Oh yeah, yeah, but I think that people want privacy from the government. So. It's kind of like if they're the ones censoring that's people are more likely to. |
| 16:21.90 | Max Shank | Or privacy. Yeah. |
| 16:35.20 | mikebledsoe | Give their information to Facebook and they are to government. |
| 16:35.28 | Max Shank | Oh but what I'm saying is if you convince everybody that it's for the sake of protecting kids from getting raped that they have to look through your phone every day then some people will be okay with that is pretty high level persuasion. It's always kids. |
| 16:45.50 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, so yeah. |
| 16:53.69 | Max Shank | Always you know, take away the guns cause of the children take away your privacy because of the children take away free speech because of the children won't somebody think of the children. There's a there's a sign in my neighborhood quick tangent that says drive like your kids live here. |
| 17:01.42 | mikebledsoe | Right? I Wonder how the kids. |
| 17:12.51 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 17:12.68 | Max Shank | You know there is There's a road to speed limit sign. But there's this extra sign that someone has put out that says drive like your kids here and what I want to do is put up my own sign that says teach your kids. What a road is oh. |
| 17:30.14 | mikebledsoe | Ah I. |
| 17:30.83 | Max Shank | Like what like oh my god that's just ridiculous I understand the concept some helicopter Mom is like worry that their kid will run out in the street. But really if her little kid runs out in the street and it's it's too young to know the difference then she's a bad mom. And if it's old enough to know the difference but she doesn't communicate that then she's also a bad mom. So. Either way, it's that parent's fault just like if you see a fat kid. That's not the kid's faultest. Parent's fault |
| 17:53.83 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well. Yeah I want to get in I want to get in the who's who's responsible because I think responsibility is is a good way to ah segue this and into some some actionables by end of this show but I want to hit this the rest of this list so hate speech protect children. Reduce conflict in society which I'm not sure that's actually working ah security to a country's government. Actually what was what was on the internet was security. What was it. Ah. |
| 18:41.54 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah to a country's profile censorship can provide another level of security to a country's profile. Um, which to me again, it's they're not trying to censor and that's basically censoring sensitive. Government documents from being exposed like a wikileaks type of conversation. So Um I I like to point out that a lot of people confuse. Ah your country with your government and these 2 things are separate um and it's interesting to run into a blog where they. And make that collapse distinction ipe. Oh yeah, what was it. |
| 19:18.00 | Max Shank | Mark Twain had a quote about that a man should be loyal to his country all the time and loyal to his government when they deserve it. |
| 19:28.79 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, beautiful Mark twain 1 of my favorite authors. Um I p I p for artists and inventors so intellectual property copyright so you can't rip off someone else's work. Ah. |
| 19:32.53 | Max Shank | No, it's funny guy. |
| 19:40.96 | Max Shank | And then. |
| 19:45.53 | mikebledsoe | By the way I think I p the idea of I p is not that old I think it's about 1 hundred years old or something like that. Well at least the modern day I p um because we can copy shit now whereas before it wasn't an issue. Um. |
| 19:50.38 | Max Shank | Are. |
| 20:04.20 | mikebledsoe | Stop false content. That's 1 that's probably the most popular 1 that's out right now fake news ah improve quality of information. Basically they said improve ah their exact words for like. |
| 20:07.30 | Max Shank | Fake news. |
| 20:23.40 | mikebledsoe | Improve a person's knowledge that 1 kind of made me chuckle. Um and and reduce identity Theft. So All these things sound good at face value Hate speech. Protect children reduce conflict in society security to a country's government I P for artists inventors stop False Content. You want just break each 1 of these down. |
| 20:46.80 | Max Shank | Sure we could I mean Hate Speech is funny because who who decides where's the line. |
| 20:52.36 | mikebledsoe | Why I think when you jump right to the end max I think I think that um I mean all this all this comes down to who decides on all these topics is and just so you were saying about Thomas so so soul |
| 21:01.16 | Max Shank | That's what I do. Um, yeah. Soul Oh My God He's the man you should watch ah the out never mind I'll tell you later it's He's good though. |
| 21:11.96 | mikebledsoe | Haven't read a ship before I have to check it out. Ah so. |
| 21:20.27 | mikebledsoe | Cool. Ah yeah, it's like who who decides and I think that ah people tend to treat people who are in office as some type of superior being that knows better than them. And I get talking to people about this and the way they talk about it I'm going Wow You really believe that there are people who I I understand there are these people who are experts but ah the people that you've decided to trust are just people who happen to be in office or were appointed by people who were in office. And're not necessarily. They're the best policy makers. They're the best at creating policy which is making rules for other people to follow, but they're not the best that really anything else. They're really good at control. Oh yeah. |
| 22:06.66 | Max Shank | I Disagree I Disagree I think they I think you can either do good or you can do well and I think the people who can do well who can play the game who can be charismatic sociopaths who are hungry for more power and willing to distribute it. Are the ones who are in Charge. Definitely not the people who are best at making policies that are effective in improving. Oh well I mean yeah, that's. |
| 22:31.36 | mikebledsoe | Well I'm not saying good policies I'm just saying ah the creation of policies is about control. |
| 22:41.25 | Max Shank | True and what I'm saying is the people who hold those positions of power aren't even necessarily the ones who are writing those policies. It's just the ones who are the most power hungry who then hire like lawyers and there's lobbying and stuff like that. So when we ask. Who decides? That's 1 of the big problems mean lobbying is a crazy bad problem right? and we don't have time. We don't have time if I mean if you look at how that works you would. It's almost enough to blow your brains out and be like this is game over like how did this happen. |
| 23:06.95 | mikebledsoe | Insane. |
| 23:16.84 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 23:19.32 | Max Shank | But ah now as far as who decides it's always the people who are the most power hungryngry because by definition they're going to have the biggest incentive to get that power because if you're in that situation. It's painful to not have. That level of power and everything comes back from pain being the primary motivator hunger desire pain all Synonyms. So. It's no surprise that the biggest incentive actually is to maintain that authority and the other. Authority is basically just you must trust me Blindly and it goes back to our 2 common rhetorical fallacies or logical fallacies which are appeal to authority and ad homism attack and they're the 2 arguments. Totally disregard the argument and instead focus on the arguer and this is this is where we get into why it's efficient to just trust somebody else like hey doctor science you you make my health decisions for me. |
| 24:19.55 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 24:33.62 | Max Shank | Is load off my mind so much easier I can understand the desire to do that and it's also so much faster to just write somebody off Oh that guy that guy max he's fucking Crazy. Don't listen to him don't even listen to anything he says he's just a. Crazy Conspiracy Theorist Nut Job Jerk I don't know you get it. |
| 24:57.35 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, amazing thing about ah I've also got a list of which I want to hit I started a list of basically overt and covert censorship and the the labeling of things is. |
| 25:07.40 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 25:15.47 | Max Shank | Um, how about essential how about essential. |
| 25:16.61 | mikebledsoe | Ah, very interesting right? Yeah yeah, it's yeah I'd say I'm putting down labeling as censorship I Hate speech. |
| 25:34.25 | Max Shank | What about it? Ah no, it's not nice, but I don't know people basically will dig their own grave by being hateful. |
| 25:35.72 | mikebledsoe | Is there anything wrong with it. |
| 25:50.63 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that's a very wise place to sit from what about for the fools out there. |
| 25:58.30 | Max Shank | But for well I don't hate the fools I like fools. Um, once again I don't think there's a problem with ignorance. Nothing wrong with that I'm ignorant about most things arrogance which is like I know what's best for you. |
| 26:00.49 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 26:17.34 | Max Shank | Instead of I know what's best for me. That's rather problematic and yeah I don't understand the the need or even the definition of hate Speech like could I could I call you a homo but not a fag Just for example. |
| 26:29.38 | mikebledsoe | Um, well, um, yeah. |
| 26:36.69 | Max Shank | I like homos frankly I think they're a really exuberant bunch. It seems like they almost ah get a. It seems like they crack the code. You know what? I mean like they get like the mail. |
| 26:50.90 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 26:55.29 | Max Shank | Sexual energy. But they also get the feminine like exuberance and they seem a little bit more liberated like it seems like pretty fun Actually I'm not sexually attracted to dudes. But if I were I would have had it would be so easy. |
| 27:03.58 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 27:09.79 | mikebledsoe | You be so good at it. Yeah, so it's um, well I'm reading this book right now the cuddling of the american mind and 1 of the things they talk about is ah they talk about this view that that. |
| 27:13.70 | Max Shank | And be such a good homo. |
| 27:29.43 | mikebledsoe | Words are violence and that you know if you so yeah, yeah, well this is this is what's going on in up and they're looking specifically at colleges and academics in academic settings where people are being. |
| 27:32.11 | Max Shank | Sounds like a collapse distinction. |
| 27:46.61 | mikebledsoe | Are invited to come speak and then people basically come out and say that this person is causing violence because they're saying something that causes an emotional trigger inside of them so there is this. Ah, there's this thing where people believe that. Ah, how. |
| 27:55.47 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 28:06.15 | mikebledsoe | How they interpret your intention is your intention you're doing this to hurt me. It's like well I'm just speaking words and and so people have have confused ah emotional pain with physical injury. |
| 28:23.11 | Max Shank | I Think people should be forced to wrestle and do a little boxing growing up so they can understand the distinction between physical violence and I don't actually think that but there's definitely a common nominator in people I've met at least. |
| 28:23.12 | mikebledsoe | These these are 2 different things. |
| 28:42.00 | Max Shank | Those who have some experience with martial arts boxing Jujitsu Judo something like that seem to have a much more realistic perception of the world. They seem to have less of this. Fear based lashing out for things that other people just say there's a big difference. Well and don't didn't we like blame Grand Theft Auto for for violence or something like that. |
| 29:04.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, cause they're they're more in touch with cause and effect. |
| 29:18.68 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah. |
| 29:20.81 | Max Shank | Haven't heard about like the hooker murder epidemic that resulted from that probably still way more people die as a result of alcohol but we try to we try to Cherry pick these things and I don't know we're always like fighting each other for a new reason you know the whole. |
| 29:28.49 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 29:38.98 | Max Shank | Idea of hate speech is where do you draw the line like let people say what they want let people um self- select their friend group. You know if if you say ah you know anyone with red hair should be ah shunned from Society. That's that's your opinion. Probably you won't be really popular with red-haired people. But it's like who cares. |
| 30:01.57 | mikebledsoe | yeah yeah I had this conversation. Um I've had this conversation with my girlfriend a couple times which is like you know she I I ah I'm a fan of freedom so much that sometimes hurt like she's like having to catch up with me. |
| 30:18.33 | Max Shank | Her her. |
| 30:18.79 | mikebledsoe | And understanding how how it works and you know and she goes Well, what do you think about like people being able to discriminate on you know who's allowed in their store or not or or ah should someone be able to get fired just because of you know their race and I'm like yeah. I mean people are suing companies for getting fired so but they don't really actually want to work there but you want to work for somebody who's racist but like I think these policies that put people together that would normally not get along. |
| 30:45.10 | Max Shank | But I. |
| 30:56.15 | mikebledsoe | Doesn't cause them to actually get along. It's basically forcing people to interact who would who would normally voluntary in voluntarily not interact which could be an argument for reduction in total violence if people just go look you guys are gonna stay over there because I have this worldview and I'm going to stay over here because I have this worldview. |
| 30:56.47 | Max Shank | The. |
| 31:15.89 | mikebledsoe | Then Ah, we'd have a lot more peace but I think that. |
| 31:19.40 | Max Shank | It's like the chess club and the bat the baseball club don't really hang out. |
| 31:21.27 | mikebledsoe | Right? And so like this this idea that like because that government caused segregation and then all of a sudden ah government becomes the cause for integration and it's in both cases it causes violence. And so I think if you just let people if the government was responsible for segregation which it was and then they just said you know what we're not going to cut no more rules around Segregation Society would a piece of peacefully integrated I believe a lot more quickly and peacefully. Then what we witnessed. Ah, it was extremely violent because it went it just swung from 1 side of the pendulum to another inside of this idea that the government is in ultimate control over who we interact with. |
| 32:11.84 | Max Shank | Well, and ultimately you can't have a conditional statement for every eventuality back to the whole computer science thing of if this then this if this than this you would just have an even bigger. Book of rules and really the only thing we should be concerned with is coercion right? like it doesn't matter if um, you are a racist like think how hard it is to be a racist you got to carry that hate with you every day. Or or even worse just imagine if you were a pedophile that would be probably like the worst luck of the draw ever and as long as that person doesn't act on that. That's probably just like okay you know what I mean like even. In India for example and I'm just using this example because it's the 1 that is the most inflammatory but in India you have arranged marriage between 30 year old dudes and 12 year old girls all the time that's common practice. But this idea that. We should um basically like minority report people for what they say is problematic like if someone feels a certain way. That's not a crime if someone coerces another person then it is a crime and I think. Extending the jurisdiction. Beyond coercion is a real mistake and that's where you get this more like hive mind Mentality. You get an over concentration of power and no question. There are advantages. To a concentration of power but they're also extreme disadvantages just the same if you are going to put all your eggs in 1 Basket. You know I just remember this video of Mussolini giving a speech and he just raised his fists in the air and goes 1 country 1 decision and everyone's like. Yeah they're so excited that they don't have to make any decisions anymore because he's gonna do all that hard work for him and that is a natural sentiment. We. We want to get we want to get more for less. We don't want to do anything. It's very natural. So. |
| 34:32.56 | mikebledsoe | Well I think I. |
| 34:41.50 | Max Shank | We want to be as efficient as possible, but there's a huge cost to that you are putting yourself at risk of total loss rather than diversifying that power along all the people. That's why it's so important to vote with your dollars. |
| 34:57.84 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, did you listen to that you listen to that rogan I don't listen to a lot of rogan but every once in a while something comes on my radar that that North korean woman. Did you listen that whole episode. Yeah, ah 1 of the things that really struck me with that was. |
| 35:00.85 | Max Shank | It's an it's a self-correting. |
| 35:08.69 | Max Shank | Um, yeah I did. |
| 35:17.63 | mikebledsoe | And think we even talked about this now that I'm thinking about it is she said that when she was exposed to freedom. She had a hard time she if she there was too many choices. There are so many choices to make that within five minutes she had become physically fatigued and mentally for. |
| 35:29.81 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 35:37.53 | mikebledsoe | Fatigue from being exposed to choice because she didn't have any because Kim jong un was making all the decisions for her. Ah her entire life. So as a 13 year old is just oh what do you want to eat well how many options do I have oh a dozen. |
| 35:45.14 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 35:55.76 | Max Shank | What What do you want to watch on Tv tonight you can pick from any of these four hundred thousand view options. Yes to it's too many choices. So that's kind of that's the positive side of distributing those choices. |
| 35:55.97 | mikebledsoe | Okay, this is this really got difficult. |
| 36:01.89 | mikebledsoe | Oh my God I can't watch Tv because of that. |
| 36:15.90 | Max Shank | Like part of the reason family units have often worked so well in the past is because you have what's called comparative advantage. You know the lady um will just alienate all the ladies now too. You know back in the day. The lady would take care of the house and. As a homeowner myself I think that's a super important job taking care of a house is is its own job. Especially if you have kids around women are naturally better at nesting and nurturing the guy goes out. He just focuses on 1 thing which is going. And bringing home the bacon whether he's a farmer or a hunter or ah, a businessman of some kind so divvying up the responsibilities based on ability is super beneficial. So it's natural that you would want to. Get the people who are best at what they do to do the job for you. |
| 37:16.58 | mikebledsoe | Agreeing. Ah, one last note I want to make on the hate speech is 1 of the things that I've noticed is well yeah, um I think if you say something racist is is the number 1 thing. |
| 37:21.91 | Max Shank | I Still don't even know what that means was it mean naughty words. |
| 37:33.30 | Max Shank | Shut up Pinky Shut up pinky. |
| 37:33.28 | mikebledsoe | Or homophobic or something like that. What's that? yeah so that what? um, well yeah, but well my ah my buddy danny who's from Wahaca he's mexican and they. |
| 37:40.87 | Max Shank | Um, we're hardly white. Definitely definitely Pink. There. |
| 37:53.17 | mikebledsoe | He's like I don't know why we're called colored people and you're white you guys change colors all the time you get red you get white. You get like you like you're always changing colors like I'm the same color all the time you're the colored people. Ah but the the thing that's made me. Ah, anytime. |
| 38:01.53 | Max Shank | Like moon. Yeah. |
| 38:12.60 | mikebledsoe | Somebody in the last couple of years you know racism has been such ah a prominent conversation in the last couple years is people go oh that person's racist and I go well why? and then ah ah, a lot. Ah a lot of times. There's not a specific instance. They just. |
| 38:24.32 | Max Shank | It's an ad hom attack. So easy. |
| 38:29.98 | mikebledsoe | It's become the common narrative that that person's racist and then they'll take words out of context for instance like Trump people say Trump's racist. |
| 38:31.37 | Max Shank | Um, but the. Or how about any of the many things that I've said on this podcast. There are enough 5 to ten second clips on here that could have me pilloried. Ah. |
| 38:43.51 | mikebledsoe | And so it's people will go Oh there's there's there's like plot for Trump For instance I'm not a Trump fan didn't vote for him. So ah, that makes me good. Well this is There's my caveat to the this my argument here. |
| 38:53.72 | Max Shank | That makes you good to to most of the listeners. |
| 39:02.65 | mikebledsoe | Which is I Also don't think he's racist I don't think he's so many of the things that the media made him out to be and ah and because he did a lot of things that if you look at it policy wise he did a lot of things for the black community if you look at it ah at black and white. On paper. He did more than Barack Obama did for the black community and yet he got painted a racist because who the fuck really knows why that that he was. He's unpopular amongst the elites. That's that's what makes me curious about that guy. Again I'm not a big fan I'm not a Q Andon Person. Ah and it has been interesting to watch people go really pro Trump as much as you know is when they I just feel like there's a big opportunity that was missed and that people are they just shift. Who they think should be the Authority instead of realizing that it's that the authority is ah is a artificial construct. But ah. |
| 40:05.98 | Max Shank | It's. |
| 40:11.45 | Max Shank | It's all a means of disqualifying the argument of the individual or hyperqualify hey you know trust Doctor science ah fuck this racist pedophile guy I mean if I ever. |
| 40:17.11 | mikebledsoe | Oop. |
| 40:22.54 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 40:26.32 | Max Shank | Started if I was ever in a race for office I would never discuss the policy of my opponent I Would only say I can't believe that I have to run against such a racist pedophile with a dog fighting ring in his basement I Don't think the American people. Want to have a racist pedophile dog abuser in office am I right? people I would never I would never I would never talk about policy people don't care I would only attack the worst things this guy could do ever. |
| 40:56.98 | mikebledsoe | Well I mean that this is what happened the narrative in the last election was the Democrats are pedophiles and the republicans are a racist. It's pretty much like that it was just if you really take a step back. You go? Oh yeah, that was. |
| 41:07.92 | Max Shank | Um, it's just name. It's just name calling. Yeah. |
| 41:16.80 | mikebledsoe | That was except the only thing was was it was alternative media that was pumping up the pedophilia conversation. It was mainstream media that was pumping up the racist conversation up. Yeah Abc Nbc cnn. |
| 41:24.10 | Max Shank | Well, what's mainstream just the big the big names. What's funny if you look at the amount of actual viewers now and the amount of traffic people like Joe Rogan actually have way more. Ah. |
| 41:39.25 | mikebledsoe | Joe Rogan has more gets more downloads than I think all the major news agencies have combined. |
| 41:46.95 | Max Shank | Well I was talking to a good friend of mine and even he agrees because very mainstream guy you know watching all the different news stations and he's like you know Joe Rogan We agreed has just built up so much credibility because he has done so many hours and so many hours where. |
| 42:06.62 | mikebledsoe | Um, no yeah I wouldn't want to fight the man. |
| 42:06.69 | Max Shank | He's not arrogant and I mean maybe about fighting sometimes but he does know a lot about fighting too. No no, no, no, no, no, definitely not I Just mean about like knowing about styles of fighting like he knows so much and sometimes you're like oh really? okay. |
| 42:20.21 | mikebledsoe | Right? right. |
| 42:26.70 | Max Shank | But he doesn't Lie. He doesn't try to hide Anything. He's very open about everything so he's actually built up this crazy credibility and that's something super powerful and I'm sure he has some awareness. The clout that he has developed but that's got to be such a ah scary thing at the same time knowing Yeah, it's amazing I Hope he wins. Yeah yeah I Hope he wins. |
| 42:44.50 | mikebledsoe | Oh I'm sure. Well you hear he's ah he's suing Cnn Yeah I Hope he gets a lot of money out of them. Yeah, but of course Cnn just has a budget for that kind of shit. So. |
| 43:02.20 | Max Shank | Um, well it's probably being funded by our taxpayer dollars and money that is printed out of thin air I mean you look at the way that well you look at the way that. |
| 43:09.48 | mikebledsoe | Well pharmaceutical companies I mean yeah, the money the money's going the money's going from them printing it off to the pharmaceutical companies to the news media. That's that's the line of information. That's how the information is flowing right now. And you can tell because Pfizer is fucking advertising like crazy I I can find a super clip where someone put together that super clip which is basically how much Pfizer is advertising on the news where people are going to get information about. |
| 43:32.50 | Max Shank | I saw. |
| 43:45.94 | mikebledsoe | How they're going to live their life basically ah and make decisions and what they believe and then everything is advertised. Do you think that if you were 1 a top Journalist for cnn is there any benefit to you ah talking negatively about vaccinations. That's right. |
| 44:01.19 | Max Shank | Only if I want to lose my job mike. |
| 44:05.87 | mikebledsoe | So it's sponsors in a way can be a form of censorship. So if say we say we took on a sponsor and this yeah. |
| 44:14.60 | Max Shank | Of course flaming hot Cheetos get at us. |
| 44:22.45 | mikebledsoe | We're never going to talk shit about Cheetos if that happens we're only going to talk about how many cheetahs we had over the weekend. How tasty they were. Oh yeah yeah. yeah |
| 44:26.67 | Max Shank | We might even invent a fat loss diet based on flaming hot cheetos which would be easy to do I think you could eat a diet of like forty percent of your calories. From flaming hot cheetos and still lose weight as long as everything else was dialed in. |
| 44:40.98 | mikebledsoe | But ah, something something just jumped into my my awareness here that the conversation we've had so far has actually been very dense even though you know you and I are just having fun but I can imagine somebody says hey you need to listen to this show. Check out this show on censorship that mike and Max did and when they're listening. They might if this is the first time they're exposed to this type of conversation could be getting overwhelmed and going oh shit I don't believe anything and I say that because I've I've been in conversations where before where I can. Watch people physically start to contort their body because they realize how much they don't know they they begin to yeah, they begin to realize and what ends up happening is like you can't unknow what you know ah at ah. |
| 45:23.29 | Max Shank | Well, it's very uncomfortable. |
| 45:33.67 | Max Shank | If you drink enough booze you can. |
| 45:35.36 | mikebledsoe | For certain things. Yeah, it's true. But ah you you can't unknow this shit and people get uncomfortable because it it you begin to realize that 1 hundred percent of the responsibility is on your shoulders when you thought that it was on someone else's Shoulders. And that that responsibility is scary and when you take on the responsibility of developing your own Wisdom. It's a lot of work and going back to your efficiency thing. You know people are become very accustomed to a high amount of. Efficiency and um I mean some could blame capitalism for that and because there's this this level of comfort and not having to think and then all of a sudden we lay something out there. So I I bring that up because I want to acknowledge it for anyone who's listening and just say. You know it's okay, it's okay, you go fuck I don't know what to believe anymore. All the information is false. Um, yeah I mean just and I think that way you got to get to that point is understanding that most of what you think is a lie and yeah. |
| 46:47.75 | Max Shank | I'll simplify it down if you if you don't mind. Yeah, it's I like to take things to the extremes I don't know if you've noticed that about me. But. |
| 46:50.98 | mikebledsoe | Please. |
| 46:56.53 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, I'm not accustomed to that type of lifestyle. |
| 47:01.94 | Max Shank | You're you're more of a middle ground type of guy. Ah, okay, if you had to choose between believing everything you read and see and believing nothing you believe and see then it would be safer to believe nothing so it's safer to believe nothing. And you can be sure that there's always an intent behind every message that you see to persuasion just to get you to buy to try to cry to laugh. Whatever and my my personal it goes back to once again, computer science which is. So heavily logic based I so I still know like almost nothing about it but the concept of trust but verify and that verify is your responsibility.. It's always your responsibility to verify for yourself and you. |
| 47:58.19 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well well, there's there's been Ah, there's been a trick played on the common person and that ah ah, the fact, the fact, the fact checkers. The fact checkers. |
| 48:10.15 | Max Shank | You can't possibly know. |
| 48:16.16 | mikebledsoe | Are playing the role of verify people think they're verifying by doing a Google search and seeing fact check in the title and then go. |
| 48:21.97 | Max Shank | No, no, it's your responsibility to verify. You're right though that is a trap. |
| 48:26.72 | mikebledsoe | But people people think they are verifying when they do that because people will Google and they go well fact check I'm like really yeah. |
| 48:32.20 | Max Shank | But that's just that's just trusting another guy like so whenever you're thinking about these things. It's best to try to reduce the number of parties involved. So for example, if there are 3 of us you me and some other guy. And some other guy says hey mike if you give me a hundred bucks now I'll give you a thousand next week and then you're like hu and let me verify that and you ask me and I'm like yeah you can trust him that's like basically the same thing it doesn't change anything right. So you have to keep it always does come back to that responsibility is upon the individual and if you take the responsibility which is your ability to respond also away from the individual then you are opening the door for totalitarianism which. There are advantages and disadvantages. You can move much further much faster I think china has gotten a lot more people out of poverty in the last twenty years than before under a form of totalitarianism. But. |
| 49:46.29 | mikebledsoe | Ah, totalitarianism combined with capitalism. |
| 49:48.28 | Max Shank | With that concentration right? That's very good point So we have capitalism combined with we have Crony capitalism. |
| 49:57.96 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 49:59.32 | Max Shank | Unfortunately, which is where you're allowed to lobby and make rules that are not the same for everybody and all these backwards incentives. But my point is there are advantages to concentrating power and there are also huge disadvantages and if you blindly follow something you are opening the door. For a very small minority to call the shots for everybody and that's basically what slavery looks like and you might be a happy little slave but you're still not free or responsible for Yourself. You got to follow the money with all this stuff. That's the best. That's the best. |
| 50:28.64 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, yeah. |
| 50:37.20 | Max Shank | Paper trail or trail crumbs to find out. What's really going on is how's that money changing hands. And yeah, you know what? I've I've gone through a similar thing just back to what you're saying. It's it's super uncomfortable to realize that. Most of what you taught you were taught was a waste of time and most of the information that's been passed off as news has been flagrant lies with only the intention of making you more dependent and ah obedient. You know by Bye bye trust trust trust. |
| 51:14.63 | mikebledsoe | But ah, 1 of the things you're talking about you've been talking about you know? Ah, it's trusting someone else creates efficiency but also leaves door open for abuse and 1 of the things that I tell people. |
| 51:15.96 | Max Shank | Right? It's uncomfortable. But. |
| 51:33.50 | mikebledsoe | When we start talking about where are you getting your information talking about the verify piece where are you getting your information while I'm getting it from this person. My great and you know say they're talking about something like a virus. It's like yeah I'm not a virologist you know I am not going to know a lot about that I would say that I know a lot about health. |
| 51:35.31 | Max Shank | My. |
| 51:52.30 | Max Shank | I would say so I'll verify that you know a lot about health fact I fact checked you? Yeah check mark. |
| 51:52.90 | mikebledsoe | Which I think is really all you gotta know? Ah, yeah, thank you thank you listen to Max folks. He's smart guy. Yeah fact, check complete. So um, my my thing is when I start talking to people about who I listen to so. Yeah I I don't pretend like I've gone out and obtained all the knowledge and wisdom in the world. But what I do is I listen to wise people and ah and I qualify those people is what's the advice they've given over time which I think people have all our time. Even running that filter people don't really remember their their attention spans pretty fucking short. So what is their track record. That's my first thing when it comes to verifying is is what's their track record. Not not what pieces of paper. They've got not what credentials not what are not what are the letters behind their name. My question is. |
| 52:33.20 | Max Shank | Everybody man 1 |
| 52:42.36 | Max Shank | Community not. |
| 52:49.12 | mikebledsoe | What's their track record how sort of I'm listening to somebody about Health I Go What's their health like this is why I listen to Paul Check people go you know? Ah, ah you Know'm I'm gonna listen to this person or this person because they have these credentials and I go yeah but Paul check is is a. Great example of this. Not only has he mastered his own health The dude 60 years old and I'm pretty sure he can outlift me ah and he he ah he moves Well he has you know. |
| 53:16.54 | Max Shank | Ah, well you you don't really prioritize lifting. But that's true. He could. |
| 53:26.98 | mikebledsoe | Is sex life is vibrant from what I can tell the way he talks about it anyway. Ah the guy. Ah but all the Paul Trek fans are gonna laugh there. Ah but there. |
| 53:30.98 | Max Shank | Um, I thought I thought you had participated never mind. |
| 53:45.28 | mikebledsoe | I think we share a lot of the same audience. Um, but but he's got ah, he's got a track record of helping other people and he's mastered in himself and like who else am I who else has done that at 60 |
| 53:46.82 | Max Shank | I Think it's right What you're saying is right? It's about track record. |
| 53:58.13 | Max Shank | So he walks the walk. He has a track record that you have seen develop over time and also the other thing that I would add to that is the incentive. |
| 53:59.90 | mikebledsoe | You know Andy's older and he's got. He's got the wisdom on its side that time. |
| 54:14.37 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 54:15.31 | Max Shank | What's the incentive. So when you're trying to um, decipher a new bit of information and part of it is just reducing the total bits. Otherwise you're going to be bombarded with a fire hose but who is to gain from what you're hearing that that is the number 1 question. So take everything else off the table who who gains from this message that you're hearing that is the number 1 thing is incentive and then because that's just about the argument and then the second part is consider the source. So that's where you start seeing. Okay well this person has led me led me the right way for a long time meanwhile the laundry list of lies and misinformation about health from these allegedly trusted entities. Is a mile long I mean how about eggs and it doesn't matter if the intentions are good even intentions. Good bad doesn't matter. It's more about what is the result of those things. So if if you're afraid of fruit because it's got too much sugar. |
| 55:23.79 | mikebledsoe | What's the outcome does it this kind of goes in and I hate Speech this goes in the hate speech thing because like what people say what they do are different but this where outcome outcome is ah very important here. |
| 55:29.84 | Max Shank | Yeah, of course like why would we? Well you know for Healthcare like why would we let the people making the decisions about Healthcare have a different plan than they agreed On. That's insanity. That's crazy. They so the people who create policy for Health. Don't use that same plan. Yeah, that's insane. That's insane like where is the Incentive. So. |
| 55:50.00 | mikebledsoe | That can you repeat that. So the people Oh oh you talk about the medical care. Yeah. |
| 56:06.42 | Max Shank | Incentive is the number 1 thing considering the source is probably the number 2 thing and then maybe the third thing is just an overall reduction in the amount of bits that you take in and this is tough because Dopamine is all about an external thing. You take in. You're like oh something something from out there to add in to my my self here and it takes you away from potentially creating really valuable projects and the the thing is you don't need to be. Plugged in all the time you don't need to be absorbing every new bit of misinformation out there. In fact, all it does mostly is distract you from what's really important in your life which is nurturing the relationships that you care about or nurturing the projects that you care about. And creating and expressing yourself in different ways and I I really like the simple idea of if you don't express you will feel depressed simple as that and it doesn't matter if you paint or play music or. |
| 57:16.54 | mikebledsoe | If. |
| 57:23.70 | Max Shank | Chat with a friend for a few hours or an hour. There are lots of ways to express yourself? Um, but if you're constantly seeking that the feed from outside you're going to become like mentally obese and it's going to be full of toxic bullshit. |
| 57:42.60 | mikebledsoe | A a. |
| 57:43.54 | Max Shank | Right? So just to recap its incentive source and then probably reduction would be like the third if I had to pick 3 |
| 57:52.27 | mikebledsoe | I like it. It's a good that's a good ah order to go in you'll you'll ah I think by just applying the first 2 you'll reduce the amount of people you're even looking at or piece information you're you're paying attention to. |
| 58:04.66 | Max Shank | Oh yeah, people would say that I'm crazy for how little I trust anything I read or see but not nuds. It's true because. |
| 58:12.44 | mikebledsoe | Um, well I I think that if you've ever gone through the process of questioning what you believe and what you think I think if you've never done that which most people have never sat there and analyzed their own thinking and gone is what I believe actually true. Once you believe once you have had the experience of realizing that most of your thoughts are complete bullshit then you should then understand that everyone else's thoughts are just they probably have the same amount of bullshit running around and most people are just expressing. They're bullshit all the time and the majority of what's flying around is just bullshit. There's very little truth very little truth in there. Totally unintentional. |
| 58:53.92 | Max Shank | And it's not ah and and it's often not intentional. You know for a long time I I was told the knees should not cross the toes during a squat if you're bending over your back should not bend. |
| 59:10.31 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, right? yeah. |
| 59:12.36 | Max Shank | In fact, basically your back should never bend under load is this thing I believed and some people still believe that some people believe the exact opposite of that and and that's okay too. But oh yeah, oh yeah I mean. |
| 59:21.88 | mikebledsoe | Have you seen this knees over toes guy on Instagram his shit is good and his whole his whole his whole the name of his Instagram is controversial and he's blowing up. It's good. |
| 59:31.36 | Max Shank | I. Right? It's it's brilliant as brilliant marketing I think it looks mostly sound. Obviously it's not the way that I would approach overall health and fitness. But I think the message is overall good. Which is you're not fragile and it's good to bravely explore these ranges of motion. Um I got did I tell you about the third round monkeys third round monkey rule is perfect for this episode. |
| 59:59.80 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:00:07.35 | mikebledsoe | No. |
| 01:00:12.70 | Max Shank | Its really short. It's not that short, but it's short enough. Yeah, sure. |
| 01:00:13.14 | mikebledsoe | Do you want to you want to take this show an hour and a half by the typical hour because I I think we have might I've covered like half of what's in my fucking Notebook right now. |
| 01:00:23.80 | Max Shank | Well, let's let's let it ride but here's an important thing to realize and it's about Mythology. So Third round I have all these that I try to organize stuff. So it's simpler to remember so I have this 1 called Third round monkeys which is about a scientific study. They did. With monkeys in a room with a ladder and a bowl of fruit at the top and so they had like 6 monkeys in there and 1 starts to go up for the fruit and the researchers immediately hose off all the Monkeys. With a fire hose all of them. Not just the 1 who climbed up for it and so then they all stop doing that so they're all just sitting around not going near the ladder because they know they'll get the hose and then they take out half the monkeys and replace them. With new monkeys. So now you have a combined group a and group b 1 of the new monkeys starts climbing up the ladder and 1 of the older ones are the all the older ones start beating it up because they know that if he does that they're all going to get the hose. So then once again, you have this group of like 6 monkeys or so doing nothing then they take away the first monkeys and they add in the third round monkeys same thing. 1 of the new monkeys. Sees a bowl of bananas or fruit or something up there starts going up the ladder and the second round monkeys beat him up mercilessly and so now you have like 6 monkeys not going near the fruit and none of them have seen the fire hose. They don't know why they don't know why they're beating. They're beating these new Monkeys. They just know that if you go up the ladder you get beaten and that's how a lot of information gets transmitted. It's just I was talking with ah my friend victoria. |
| 01:02:31.56 | mikebledsoe | Bunch of hearsay. |
| 01:02:34.98 | Max Shank | The other day and we were playing this game called ah fuck that last guy high five that last guy because so many things from the past are amazing. It's incredible and some things. We're just like oh fuck that guy that guy sucks like he really ruined it for everybody else and that's sort of how we have gotten to this point some things you blindly believe but we don't We don't really know why. |
| 01:02:52.94 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 01:03:08.53 | mikebledsoe | Probably most things so lot lot has just been passed down. |
| 01:03:15.45 | Max Shank | I'm kind of I'm becoming more and more and of of ah, an objectivist but there's a caveat to that because objectivism is like just believing what you can experience firsthand but I also believe there's obvious be way more than that. |
| 01:03:25.25 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, but also. |
| 01:03:32.18 | Max Shank | That is beyond my sensory perception. |
| 01:03:33.54 | mikebledsoe | Well I think I think that the I would say this the way I'm very objective is the way I operate is is I I Really do my best to believe only what I can verify with my own senses and ah everything else. |
| 01:03:52.70 | Max Shank | Yeah, that's tricky. |
| 01:03:52.13 | mikebledsoe | Just take with a grain of salt which like maybe maybe and then also you know the way that I think you and I both live our lives is we have done enough reflection to create our ah philosophy and principles in which we live our lives and which means that. I don't have to know that much information you don't have to know that information to make good choices. Ah, and so for instance, the idea of what we see what we witness in nature is what happens anytime we isolate something. We isolate a cell from being able to talk to other cells in the human Body. What happens the cell starts to replicate in a way that causes cancer right? when it can't communicate with the other cells. Yeah it it dies but and and it's. |
| 01:04:40.15 | Max Shank | Or it dies right? I mean depends on the environment. |
| 01:04:46.35 | mikebledsoe | And it's attempt to live on it will replicate unhealth in an unhealthy way. Yeah, it'll die or it'll replicate in a cancer way right? has no direction right? It's not getting the right inputs. Um, what's a. |
| 01:04:50.49 | Max Shank | Um, in in an in a way that is that has no direction. Basically it's like growth without direction bingo. |
| 01:05:05.40 | mikebledsoe | But guy who described this. He's a really he used to work in cancer and now he he's ah he's 1 these really great docs to listen to. Ah, he's is my name maybe his name will pop into my head here in a minute but ah, ah, but when things are integrated when you integrate something like. A lot of what happens with health is how well things are integrated with each other and in systems support each other and everything is whether the cell or an organ or your joints if you so if you've studied health and you really recognize? oh. And you witness what are the results of isolation and what are this the results of of integration and then you watch that happen socially to what are the results of isolation and what are the results of integration and. Not force integration but just allowing things to integrate naturally. |
| 01:05:58.30 | Max Shank | No system works in isolation is a phrase for health. |
| 01:06:02.30 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and so I don't need to understand all the details of how these people theoretically think this virus works by the way. It's all theory. The basis in which. The virologists are making decisions. It's based on a theory which is called Germ Theory ah that was the 1 Yeah. |
| 01:06:21.75 | Max Shank | Ah, crap we're gonna get censored now fuck that was it that was the that was the 1 thing you're not allowed to talk about I said fag earlier we were probably gonna be okay with that. It's because those guys can take a joke. |
| 01:06:33.90 | mikebledsoe | Ah, we definitelin? Yeah, so but ah, you know people people. It's 1 of those things I get in conversation with people I'm like why are you operating from germ theory or are you more familiar with terrain theory. And then people go I don't know what you're talking about I go oh well, do you believe that you know just being exposed to a germ is going to make you sick and like well yeah, that's that's what's happening they go. Okay, then then you're a germ theory person. You don't even know it and yet that's the postulate in which. All these arguments are being made from the idea of isolating yourself. Don't go outside wear a mask stay 6 feet apart. These are all isolated. This isolation makes sense inside of germ theory. But even the person who founded germ theory. Ah, with his name Louis pasture was 1 of the the people who really put germ theory on the map at the end of his life of saying I made a fucking mistake. You know he was the 1 that was in charge of pasteurizing milk. Best of intentions but seti made a mistake so you got this guy that everyone praises for for inventing pasteurization. |
| 01:07:40.77 | Max Shank | With the best of intentions. |
| 01:07:50.14 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:07:50.77 | mikebledsoe | We passed here and yet at the end of his life. He says don't do what I said earlier stay away from it and yet no 1 listens to that. so so um everybody governments medical boards. All these things bought into germ theory and ah. |
| 01:07:56.64 | Max Shank | What how tricky. |
| 01:08:09.80 | mikebledsoe | I go back to? Well, what's the result of our medical system operating from ah germ theory. Well what are we produced. We have record breaking Obesity diabetes cancer. We have record breaking all these sicknesses and mental health as well. There's a lot. |
| 01:08:22.42 | Max Shank | Well, there are a lot of things involved in that right. |
| 01:08:27.76 | mikebledsoe | There's a lot but it is the result of how things are and and 1 of them is the result of Germ theory. Yeah, and so going back to I've done a lot of philosophical thinking you've done a lot of philosophical philosophical Thinking. We're studying principles of things I don't have to understand. What type of spike protein is on this virus to understand that I do not want to isolate myself I do want to breathe a lot of different air I do want to get sunlight I do want to exercise I do want to. Um, improve my mental health which is gonna improve my physical health by being social and having community and um and it. |
| 01:09:06.35 | Max Shank | And you're willing to take that risk yourself because that is what risk you feel comfortable with taking but the tricky thing is the false argument that. Following The narrative will be better than doing nothing and the trick is there's no way to test for that Now. Um, and everybody is arguing about like oh you know? Well Scandinavia did this and China did this and these people did this and you know Ultimately, if. You are not allowed to decide what risks you take? You're not free if you're not allowed to say no then you're not free and anytime it starts getting back into that um appeal to Authority or ad hom and an attack. It just opens the door for all kinds of evil shit to happen and we don't really know what the cost of this alleged solution will be and you know just to go back to the germ theory thing. There's a buckminster Fuller quote I like which is there's nothing in a caterpillar. That says it's going to be a butterfly. |
| 01:10:27.35 | Max Shank | There's there's nothing in there. There's no, there's no clue that that is going to happen. Nothing would indicate that that but it does does happen over and over again and the same thing is true with an individual's health look. |
| 01:10:35.10 | mikebledsoe | You know. |
| 01:10:42.30 | Max Shank | We we start talking about the obesity thing right? Holy lord there are a lot of fat people is it their fault. No is it their responsibility. Yes, and that's a big distinction that also helps people overcome the shame because. Probably you don't know what their life is like you don't know what kind of trauma they've been through they probably had fat parents so in a certain sense. It's not their fault but it is their responsibility. Um, and I think that's the only way that you break a cycle right? If you look back with resentment. And blame you don't break the cycle. You just perpetuate that cycle. That's why all this like racism shit is so fucked because all it does is perpetuate the cycle and it only seeks to incentivize the ah. I'll just call them folks who who benefit from all of that kind of strife and disarray. You know the race-baiting type of people people whose career is to like cry racism people whose career is to cry sexism people whose career is to cry. Oh you know. Tax the rich, whatever it's like so ridiculous, but it just goes back to the importance of incentive. |
| 01:12:02.92 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it's great to look at that. Um, damn we didn't get very far in the list of talking about but I want to mention I think I think that what we've been. We've been addressing this topic from a very principle based. Perspective and so that list of that I I made earlier in the show I think that is all a lot of things we mentioned pretty much explain why it might you know. Those things are arguments against it but from more of a principle base without having to get into the details of each 1 because we just would use the same argument over and over for for most of these that we started with hate speech on but I want to talk about the different types of censorship because there's overt censorship and covert censorship. And so people who are experiencing censorship a lot of times don't realize they're experiencing it because there is not this organization called the propaganda machine that or the the censorship administration that is ah that is. Single source of information like it is in North korea and even those people don't realize because they don't know anything outside of that that they're being fed propaganda like they just yeah, how would you know? So um, yeah, not their fault and in the united states what we have. |
| 01:13:20.54 | Max Shank | How would you know? no, it's not their fault. |
| 01:13:31.39 | mikebledsoe | Is that what what I would say is a the illusion of freedom is largely at play and that you have access.. There's ah you have more options right? but your options always they they only fall inside of this this fairly narrow range ah and like people. People talk about you know they associate democracy and freedom I'm like democracy is better than communism. But it's not really that much better.. Ah yeah, a true democracy which we don't live in a true democracy. |
| 01:13:59.22 | Max Shank | Democracy is majority rules right. |
| 01:14:08.27 | mikebledsoe | Ah, we live in a Republic in the United states. But yeah, the the idea of a pure democracy is majority rules terrible terrible I mean if anyone wants to stand up for the minority. The that is democracy is the worst possible scenario for minorities. |
| 01:14:12.90 | Max Shank | Ah, majority rules is a horrible idea. |
| 01:14:24.98 | Max Shank | Of course it almost seems self-evident. |
| 01:14:26.39 | mikebledsoe | Um, and yeah by by it's it. Yeah, oh trust me, it's not I've dropped that on people and they go what do you mean? Yeah, like well if you only you know I need fifty 1 percent to tell the other forty nine percent. What to do. |
| 01:14:43.43 | Max Shank | Well I mean think of it this way if you live in a cul-de-sac with 2 other folks and they both vote to take your house. Do you have to give it to them like that's the kind of thing that we're talking about here that is insane and when you shrink it down to. |
| 01:14:55.66 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah. |
| 01:15:02.78 | Max Shank | Smaller groups like that. It's easier to understand what's really going on because so fuzzy. It's fuzzy. |
| 01:15:04.45 | mikebledsoe | Well, yeah, when it gets when it's in that large group. It's people's people's ability to comprehend just goes out the fucking window. Plus they were taught at a young age that this is how it works and I guess believed it? Um, yeah, so we have overt and covert. Ah, 1 is ah is like I said sponsors having sponsors is ah can be ah, can create ah censorship. Another 1 is shadow banning which is something shadow banning came to my attention. Just a few years ago when it started happening to a few of my friends who are health advocates and they have had a long history of doing a lot of good for a lot of people and spreading a lot of good information about how to be healthy in regenerative farming and all these things. |
| 01:15:43.69 | Max Shank | Um, and. |
| 01:15:51.29 | Max Shank | On here. |
| 01:15:56.50 | mikebledsoe | And all of a sudden they go from 30000 views in a month to a thousand and what happened was was the Google or whoever um, started shifting the algorithm to exclude them from being the top search results when people are trying to figure out how to be healthy. |
| 01:15:59.69 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 01:16:15.70 | mikebledsoe | And as you can imagine what ends up on the first page is a lot more traditional things that again, we go back to incentives. Wow there's a lot more things that are backed by pharmaceutical companies and yada yada yada and so like health line is is now a trusted source of medical advice. Versus you know, somebody who has you know and again and then it ends up being these these organizations that don't have a face to them. They're faceless organizations like who am I actually listening to here. Oh it's cnn who the fuck is cnn so um, the. Shadow banning is basically something that happens I'm sure there's a version of it. That's gone for a long time but in the age of information and and google searches and stuff like that. Um is basically these tech company using using algorithms to hide information and to. Highlight other information. So it's not 1 of those things where it's completely taken down. They're just and and all the algorithms are secret so you don't know how they work it's that's 1 way that these companies compete with each other but because there's no transparency about Algorithms. This is top secret information. There's no way to know that they are if you really do only rely on google searches to get your answers. You are being heavily heavily censored because they're choosing what you see and the information you take in forms your thoughts. And so if you're a person who fucking picks up your phone first thing in the morning and checks your email gmail is actually deciding what you what? you? What information you're seeing and you know there's little ads in there's little There's little things and it's not just your email that you see when you open up. Gmail. There's other things so on your phone I think it's a little bit cleaner but you you log online and wherever whatever you're opening pages so Facebook or Instagram is the first thing you check Instagram and facebook is deciding what you what your first thought of the day is. |
| 01:18:21.40 | Max Shank | Well and they're deciding I mean I basically don't touch anything electronic for the first hour or 2 every morning depend or or later it just depends and I get out the. |
| 01:18:23.70 | mikebledsoe | You think that's going to have an impact on the rest of your day and the rest of your thoughts up so fucking lootly. |
| 01:18:32.97 | mikebledsoe | Same. |
| 01:18:39.18 | Max Shank | Old school pen and paper here and it's very sneaky because it's not I don't think it started out sinister and probably it isn't even sinister because everyone thinks they're good. No 1 thinks they're the bad guy really. |
| 01:18:40.28 | mikebledsoe | Um, if I yeah. |
| 01:18:58.80 | Max Shank | So we have this phenomenon where Google Youtube for example, has built up such a monumental library so that everybody wants to go in there and it's still it's still their library. |
| 01:19:13.00 | mikebledsoe | Want to. |
| 01:19:18.70 | Max Shank | So in a certain sense. They can choose what they want to show on that library. What they want to highlight on that library. Um, but I mean it's it's kind of tricky if you are a. Takes you back to the responsibility of the individual you have to decide for yourself. What trough you are going to drink from basically like are you going to put all your eggs in that basket and you know personally that's um, that's why I just. I do self-censor because I know that the the risk is not worth the potential reward and it's important to own your customer list as well for that very reason I mean just like you mentioned there are people who have been had their businesses taken down by like ninety percent or even. Ah, hundred percent because they have said the wrong thing and it's legally it's very tricky because if you are. A platform does that mean you can edit things and if you edit things does that make you a publisher which means you're responsible for all of the content that is being published on that site. So it's very. It's very tricky legal thing. That's why I think the simpler way is just to have. Freedom of speech and let people um, choose what they want to choose um just from a business standpoint though I would say you have to control your customer list because you never know how things are going to change from a user stand from a user standpoint none of these. |
| 01:20:53.26 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:21:00.28 | Max Shank | Have your best interest at heart they only they only have 1 incentive which is to maximize your time using their service and they may have ulterior motives. Um, that are. |
| 01:21:00.50 | mikebledsoe | What. |
| 01:21:16.30 | Max Shank | Maybe like more sinister like gaining power or political backdoor dealings and stuff like that. So you just have to understand that reality like when I use youtube for example I have it a distraction free which means it takes away the comments and the. Suggested video bar so it just looks totally blank and there's just like a little search bar in the middle because I still I still use this 1 of the best resources around so you got to just take responsibility for once again, what's the incentive consider the source and. |
| 01:21:40.72 | mikebledsoe | E ire. |
| 01:21:53.76 | Max Shank | If there is 1 more message I would send out to our listeners. It's um, like you you don't know either to like tell people what they should say and shouldn't be able to say and you might feel really dumb later I I sure have. |
| 01:22:04.79 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:22:12.30 | Max Shank | Sure have I've told people things that I've found later to be completely wrong and I said them with such confidence that they believed me. |
| 01:22:16.70 | mikebledsoe | Ah, ah, same same Another example that I I saw thing was this morning or or yesterday which was ah and I forget exactly who it is someone who's really well known they have wikipedia has a page on them. And they got a bunch of happy Birthday texts the other day. Ah because wikipedia got their birthday wrong and so a lot of you know, a lot of people think wikipedia is is you know 1 of the best sources of information because they work off donation which. I trust donation based organizations for information more than I am sponsored. However, they may be getting large donations that are sponsorships from people for 1 um, but also it's it's not infallible right? Ah wikipedia. Is is ah you know they've censored a bit and are ah in charge of shadow banning and things like that because most of the information on wikipedia is is ah created by the users. So similar to social media. But even. Even they get it wrong even though that's something that they would probably not intentionally try to get wrong. But even even that was wrong. |
| 01:23:33.85 | Max Shank | Yeah, the path to hell is paved with good intentions and if you don't speak up. You'll be led like a lamb to slaughter I Thought that was a George Washington quote turns out that's actually biblical. |
| 01:23:44.28 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and ah, 1 the other. |
| 01:23:52.82 | mikebledsoe | Ah, now. |
| 01:23:53.60 | Max Shank | You know that it was way before it but see that's just the thing for a year literally until this morning I thought that was a george washington quote about about free speech but it actually is from from roughly 2000 years ago |
| 01:23:59.58 | mikebledsoe | O. |
| 01:24:08.73 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 01:24:10.49 | Max Shank | And just for like rules of engagement. That's all we have folks, we can talk it out or we can fight it out that's amendment 1 amendment 2 That's that's the way we can sort out our differences so we can sort them out with language or we can sort them out. |
| 01:24:22.79 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, have you. |
| 01:24:29.27 | Max Shank | With so words or Swords basically. |
| 01:24:31.34 | mikebledsoe | That's an interesting point. You know I've always thought you know the second amendment is there in case, the first amendment doesn't work out because are the words of ah Dave chappelle but the in while I was encouraging black people to go buy guns. Um. |
| 01:24:35.82 | Max Shank | Per her. |
| 01:24:48.20 | mikebledsoe | But what was I saying oh yeah, it's like if you take away Speech people will resort to violence because people do want to be able to express themselves and if you say I'm going to limit your ability to express yourself verbally It's only Goingnna heighten. Ah, and in 1 direction. There's only 1 direction to go from there. Ah. |
| 01:25:07.35 | Max Shank | Do you think you'll talk more with a mask on or less with a mask on what no way same Huh What? I mean that was like in didn't they like usually um. |
| 01:25:11.93 | mikebledsoe | Oh less. Yeah. Ah, oh man. |
| 01:25:26.82 | mikebledsoe | I don't know yeah up I ah but when they first so when I was in California last summer |
| 01:25:27.50 | Max Shank | Gag the slaves like that I think it's pretty important. You don't want them to like talk back. You don't want them getting any ideas about getting ideas. What I tell you about having ideas Year. |
| 01:25:45.50 | mikebledsoe | And I first sat down started going back to restaurants. Yeah, after you know I think we were like Month 3 of the pandemic I started going back to restaurants and you know we wear a mask into the restaurant and then we sit down and we can take it off and the servers are wearing masks and it took me months. To stop feeling weird about me not wearing a mask and a server's wearing masks because my experience in that environment was that I was better than them I was having this experience of like I don't have to wear my mask you're but you're serving me, you're my servant and you you better fucking wear your mask and so like. |
| 01:26:16.48 | Max Shank | Well. |
| 01:26:21.74 | mikebledsoe | It in it and it went from like this like I usually engage with my server and we joke around and we're having a good time. That's usually how I do things and then when the mask came on that that went away like my I just kind of like they became a robot. It became this faceless person who is there just you know. |
| 01:26:27.72 | Max Shank | Ah, fred. |
| 01:26:33.42 | Max Shank | That. |
| 01:26:41.73 | mikebledsoe | But my fucking food. So ah, um, wouldn say my attitude changed that way but I actually there was like ah I had an experience of guilt of just sitting there and then having that experience of separation and thinking I'm better I wasn't actually thinking I'm better than them. But I'm like I can see how this turns into that. |
| 01:26:42.39 | Max Shank | Well and all of that was based. |
| 01:26:58.43 | Max Shank | Well and it's funny because this whole premise was that it would be better but there was no proof that that was the case and so that actually brings me to a really important. Ah simple truth. Which is the way to determine if something is true is a true Premise. So in math. It would be like the assumption and a valid thought process so you have 2 pillars essentially so you can have a true premise. And an invalid thought process or you can have a false premise and a valid thought process which is both of those would still be wrong and so this whole idea that it will be and once again, you know like I'm not trying to say I know any different but all of the. |
| 01:27:39.95 | mikebledsoe | It is. |
| 01:27:54.62 | Max Shank | All of the weird rules that have come about like you you wear your mask to trot across the restaurant and then you sit down none of those are based on any kind of real valid thought process. Or a true premise. They just don't make sense. They're just very confusing and I'm sure part of that look I'm not trying to say they're like really sinister things at Bay here. But the reality is if someone has power. They only want more of it. They never want less of it. So. |
| 01:28:27.59 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:28:29.73 | Max Shank | So So it's just it's so tricky because I'm even in our talk about this I'm tiptoeing around what I might actually fully think is true partially because I'm not so confident in it myself. And partially because I want people to absorb and receive the overarching message rather than just immediately say like I'm a witch and I must be burned at the stake because if you say something that makes a person I mean. |
| 01:29:00.73 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 01:29:07.71 | Max Shank | Honestly, um, in england can I bum a fag means can I have a cigarette please. But if you say it here it means something totally different and there are some people listening to this maybe who heard the word fag and were just like oh my god that Max. I will never listen to another thing he says again and I feel sorry about that sometimes because I think there's a lot of stuff that you and I say that is extremely valuable basically magic for your body and mind and helping you. Find the real treasures in life like love and expression and creation and avoiding the traps like comparison and envy and greed and all these different things so that's that's part of why I self censor is because I do want to make sure that. Good stuff. Reaches people who might not be in the same place we're at yet where they recognize that you know sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me and I think that should be ah like the whole theme of this discussion. |
| 01:30:19.86 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, ah I like you were saying about like I like to approach the conversation where I at least pretend that there. It's not a sinister person like you know bill gates. |
| 01:30:23.24 | Max Shank | amendment 1 amendment 2 |
| 01:30:37.28 | mikebledsoe | You know, a lot of people want to paint him as this evil person who's you know, basically like a a comic book criminal or whatever and I think that that's a great way to lose people if you say oh,, there's this the illuminati is coming into people go. Okay, he's fucking crazy. Because I don't know if that's true or not like there's There's a lot of things that make me think there are evil Ah, there's an evil Axis of power that that is you know, creating the scenarios but I don't actually know that to be True. It would be an assumption that could be false So I don't like the lead with that and it's I think that. |
| 01:31:07.13 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 01:31:16.23 | mikebledsoe | You're going to get a lot more people to listen you go look their intentions are good if you just say look I believe everybody's intention is good. You know you can't not for dead people not not those are just dead people. But. |
| 01:31:23.72 | Max Shank | Hitler had good intentions. He was trying to end suffering. He was trying to unite people by the way I don't like hitler. No fan. Great speaker though. |
| 01:31:35.98 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, not a fan. Ah but yeah, incredible. But it you know are people really really sinister why it's like when I talk about Hitler I go I go man he was ah a really great leader and people were like appalled by that and go well. How many does do you have more followers than him are he had the most he had a shitload of followers. He's a leader if if you're being Followed. You're a good leader. Are you a moral leader? No but he was good at the leadership thing. Ah anyways I like to say I like to say like ah. I try to stay away from talking about yeah trend setter but just got canceled ah but is it but I like you know like I like to approach these arguments from the conversation of look. Um. |
| 01:32:12.64 | Max Shank | Also a very sharp dresser. |
| 01:32:32.44 | mikebledsoe | I Believe their intentions are good even with good intentions. Let's look at the results and and that that takes away this like thing where people a lot of times want to they associate with some ah leader they associate their own identity with this leader and if you talk shit about the leader now you're talking shit about them. And people shut down in that conversation. So when I get in that conversation I go look you know you know Joe biden's a really good guy. He's doing his best job and you know there's nobody. You know, no shadow monster behind him pulling the strings. He really is an autonomous human being and. You know? Ah, but but you know he's kind of fucking up. They go oh well, you know what? yeah I believe he's a good guy and he's trying really hard. But yeah, he did fuck up Afghanistan's like okay, cool. We can agree on that. But if I talk about him being evil they completely shut down never hear anything I say and true dot and. |
| 01:33:22.61 | Max Shank | The path to hell is paved with good intentions. |
| 01:33:28.94 | mikebledsoe | Um, and people also tend to project their own intention on who they follow like I have good intentions and I like that guy so he probably has the same intentions that I do ah and and so this goes back to you know is it true or is it useful. So. |
| 01:33:39.54 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 01:33:47.81 | mikebledsoe | It may be true, but there's a lot of things we may we may filter ourselves on this show and even though it may sound like we don't We may filter ourselves on this show but that's because we are filtering ourselves in a way that we're attempting to be useful. We We want the conversation to be useful and true at the same time which means that we're not going to just divulge everything we think because we're smart enough to know that not all of our thoughts are true and we would. It's much better to have a conversation where I hope I cause max to think more. Critically I know that I have had to think more critically during the show and I I Hope that anyone who's listening has has thought more critically as a result of this and will view the world through a lens which empowers them more to to. Make better decisions for themselves which in turn makes better decisions for humanity as a whole. |
| 01:34:47.39 | Max Shank | Yeah, we want you guys to be more free, not less and you know part of what I do is I help people abandon their goals for better ones. You know I realize that ah I often don't help people achieve their goals. |
| 01:34:56.51 | mikebledsoe | A I like that. |
| 01:35:04.92 | Max Shank | Ah, usually talk with them until they come up with better ones. No no, no, no, it's a great. It's a great thing. It's It's the best thing for you. It definitely it definitely sounds bad I'm I'm good. Ah. |
| 01:35:07.87 | mikebledsoe | Don't don't don't tell people that you're gonna lose you're gonna lose clients. Ah I do I do I do the same thing. Yeah, you got to trick them. You got to trick and and go like I can help you reach your goal and then they start working with you and then you. |
| 01:35:22.85 | Max Shank | Um, I'm gonna help you by convincing you to give up your dreams. No, it's because they're secondhand not necessarily. They're stupid. It's just you haven't really thought about like and then and then what happens I mean I know I didn't. |
| 01:35:23.75 | mikebledsoe | Help them change your goals. |
| 01:35:28.97 | mikebledsoe | Um, your dreams are stupid. Well they don't Yeah, they don't They're not their goals right. |
| 01:35:42.68 | Max Shank | But like the reality is most of the things that we pursue are just so we create this illusion that we hope other people will like and. |
| 01:35:49.73 | mikebledsoe | Well I think like most men they their goals are are set up to impress their dad until their dad's not around anymore that was true for me. Yeah yeah, well my dad got ladies I figure I can press my dad you know. |
| 01:35:56.38 | Max Shank | I Thought it was too to impress a lady Also right. What if your dad doesn't get ladies though, Then What do you do. |
| 01:36:06.84 | mikebledsoe | I Don't know man I don't know what that experience is like so um. |
| 01:36:11.83 | Max Shank | Um, I think I think ah, it's important like that's just there are so many burdens that people carry and I know we could just keep going on about this all freaking day. But the the burdens of trying to impress upon other people. Or trying to impress other people is quite heavy. So if you can alleviate yourselves of the burden of like trying to know what's going on like you can't really know what's going on all the way through that's why this whole idea of like. |
| 01:36:33.25 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:36:48.18 | Max Shank | Trust science is so ridiculous because science is all about verification trusting the news. You shouldn't trust them either but look the reality is you don't have to what you can do instead is you can create value and share it with people who are interested. In reciprocating for that value you you don't even have to get involved in this Stuff you know that's why this whole principle-based thing that we're talking about is I think so crazy valuable because you you don't try to be an alpha. You just be an omega which is like the very bottom but it's also there's there's no, um, there's no like pressure there. You don't feel like you have to be a certain way. You just focus on. Making the best art that you can or creating the best value that you can or just doing your job and then being able to let go of that thing and I think that's going to give you a better result than getting stuck in like what is essentially name calling. |
| 01:37:56.60 | mikebledsoe | Ah, well speaking of name calling there's there's 1 more couple more things I want to cover before we go and just because I want to cover in this show and I I have ah I have a hard stop in ten minutes but um you know another way, another form of censorship is changing definition which also. |
| 01:38:04.89 | Max Shank | Um, laid on me I can go all day. |
| 01:38:15.61 | mikebledsoe | Um, which also like falls in the same category with labeling changing the labels of things and or and and saying ah yeah, it. It just takes me down the path of of the book nineteen eighty four. |
| 01:38:22.19 | Max Shank | Are. |
| 01:38:33.55 | Max Shank | That's what I was thinking to. |
| 01:38:34.77 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, because they they reduce the amount of words that are being used which we're witnessing in our in our society right now there's less lots of collapse distinctions which causes confusion which causes conflict when anytime there's confusion. There's conflict or ah. |
| 01:38:41.82 | Max Shank | That's collapse distinction at its finest right. |
| 01:38:53.80 | mikebledsoe | There's a lack of definition where we're max and are using the same word, but it means different things to each 1 of us and so that creates conflict um and any time there's conflict. It's easy to control people who are in conflict because they're focused on something that's not the person controlling. |
| 01:39:04.62 | Max Shank | And. Right? They hate They hate the other guy with the different colored t-shirt instead of the kink. |
| 01:39:11.26 | mikebledsoe | Um, um, yeah, and so this is this is why like? ah I don't know exactly why other people get a little flustered with the pronoun conversation but this is a good example of the labels and. And changing of definitions is there was a was a news I think it was a health line article that went up recently that basically said can men someone ask a question like can men get pregnant and the response was well first we have to look at the definition of a man. You know there's a lot of transgender and is like this is ridiculous. This is. |
| 01:39:50.72 | Max Shank | Whoa Whoa Whoa I Think that's pretty hateful I think this conversation is so important I will not rest until we know what to call a man look I Know there's a lot of coercion and sex trafficking and just. Generalfuckery going on. But I think we should re-examine What the word man means that is the most important thing. |
| 01:40:16.58 | mikebledsoe | Ah, case in point. very good. very good thank you for that I think that's all we gotta say about that but beware of changing definitions and then when things are labeled up in 1980 four a lot of things that they say it's this. It's actually that um I picked up a book on. |
| 01:40:19.88 | Max Shank | That's fucking retarded. |
| 01:40:35.79 | mikebledsoe | Anti-racism 1 day at the health food store had to thumb through it was 1 of the most racist things I had ever seen and so when you got you gotta to be Careful. You gotta you gotta step back. Take a breath look at these things from ah ah. Try to be objective when looking at these situations and are are we promoting segregation or we promoting integration and the final note I want to leave on I'm gonna let max close us up but all right I'll let you go with anti-racism and then and then I'll. |
| 01:41:05.10 | Max Shank | I Want to say something about the the anti-racism. Just no, just real quick. It's real quick for every force. There's an equal and opposite Force War on drugs Total Disaster War on terror total disaster. |
| 01:41:13.17 | mikebledsoe | Will these some final words correct. |
| 01:41:22.70 | Max Shank | No, nothing is more nothing is brought more terror to the people of America than the american media the whole idea of being anti-racist is of course going to be racist because anytime you fight against 1 thing you're you're getting pushback from the other side. That's what I want to say so war on drugs war on terror. |
| 01:41:37.19 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, so even if the intention is less racism being anti-racism being anti-racist is likely to create more racism. |
| 01:41:41.48 | Max Shank | On racism. |
| 01:41:48.15 | Max Shank | You could only be in favor of equal opportunity. Everything else would be wrong I think. |
| 01:41:54.91 | mikebledsoe | I agree. Ah, final words from me look I when I look at censorship I really see a robbery of wisdom and what I mean by that is that. The only way that we accumulate Wisdom is to to test knowledge against reality to to put it into play and to get the result back and anytime anyone's controlling the knowledge that we can have access to they're controlling our ability to develop wisdom and so. What we're really sitting in right now is a wisdom crisis and it's the the answer to that is taking responsibility for the information you take in and being able to ah put it through the filter and ask good questions and. And try to be objective about what's going on and to stay away from some of these because you say rhetorical fallacies or if you're experiencing an emotional if you're having a ah strong emotional experience in your body when you hear things is being with that emotional experience. Recognizing as such and still being able to hear the information coming in these are these are ways in which you can take in better information and ah practice your own wisdom and develop your own wisdom. |
| 01:43:19.20 | Max Shank | Yeah I would say who is to gain from what you're hearing that's number 1 consider the source number 2 and then just as an aside. Censorship may be done with good intentions. But the result is never positive and if you support censorship then that is just your ego transplanting into the ego of some authority. And you are essentially giving him your power and yeah, maybe her? Yeah guess ladies are pretty evil too. |
| 01:43:57.60 | mikebledsoe | Or her or her well I think Hillary clinton's behind you know Biden if she's actually in control now I'm just kidding. Ah. |
| 01:44:08.64 | Max Shank | Really I mean they both. They both seem so mentally sound. Ah I love how all all of the like smartest people in the in business are like ah. You know 30 to forty mostly and we are only choosing from like fucking 80 year olds for who runs the country I don't think they could even get a driver's license. Ah, but anyway the the whole idea is supporting. Censorship is really just supporting. Ah, unilateral authoritarianism so you are essentially um, putting everybody at the mercy of the few and without free speech. We will be led like lamb's to slaughter. So I think there's a reason. It's the first amendment there's reason it's the most important thing you know the main difference between a pig and a man is the fact that we can talk and we can only resolve our differences with talking or with violence physical violence real violence and I think. It behooves everybody to become adept in both verbal ah dialogue as well as physical violence. |
| 01:45:31.38 | mikebledsoe | Ah, you sound like you're a a greek philosopher or something good shit match. Ah, where can people find you if they go looking. |
| 01:45:42.45 | Max Shank | If you Google me I'm pretty much everywhere but maxshank dot com. |
| 01:45:48.22 | mikebledsoe | Dope and you can find me on Instagram at my underscore blitzo feel bad just saying that I need ah I need a more conci I am working on my substack. |
| 01:45:55.80 | Max Shank | I hear I hear it kills you on the inside when you say underscore every week I think I've thought about that so many times mike underscore blood. So just like fucking kill me. |
| 01:46:07.73 | mikebledsoe | I Mean you have to hit the keyboard change button twice just to get there all y'all? Yeah so hard. All right. Love you to later. |
| 01:46:14.70 | Max Shank | That's 2 keystrokes. Love you brother. Love you guys. Bye. |
| 00:00.83 | mikebledsoe | Today we're talking about language. Some people may say that's boring and the reason and and ah I won't name the show language probably for that reason. Well, we'll say something clever on this episode between max and myself. And and then name it that but we wanted to really talk about it because we found it to be a very important subject for us to focus on I know for myself. It's helped me to ah. Not only communicate better with other people I think most people go oh you're better at language you could probably communicate better and in ah in an effective way that other people will will hear what you have to say in the way you want it to be received but also just for myself just for. Deliberately using language to reduce the own confusion I have in my own mind to work things out to become more certain about ah how I am approaching things and about what's going on in the world and I think anyone who does not put their attention into language. Um. Is going to be extremely limited in their ability ability to be productive and effective in the world today. So I always think about language is a major component in the expansion of consciousness and if someone's interested in that and they leave that part out then there are. Ah, they're missing out on on a huge huge piece Max. What? what got you into focusing in on language and going. Wow this is something important to pay attention to. |
| 01:45.43 | Max Shank | It's the only tool we have for interaction other than physical touch which can be violent or nonviolent or body language. So everything. We communicate to ourselves and 1 another is done with this framework of language you have the deeper stuff which is ah feelings which don't necessarily need language to exist like you can be afraid or you can be aroused or you could be a little bit of both. For example. Um, I feel like the way that we are taught language is probably the worst way possible. So it almost sets you up for failure and you know I've always wanted to get as powerful as possible. And you realize at least I realized I was spending like hours and hours and hours in the gym and in a fighting gym doing kickboxing and Moai and kravmiga and all this stuff and you know you realize like that's not very practical like the. The likelihood of a violent interaction is really low Plus if you really want want to be good at that. You should just get a a weapon and get really good with that and then take it a step further. It's like ah some guy will just write a check and like win. Everything. |
| 02:59.86 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, as. |
| 03:16.10 | Max Shank | Like if you're able to communicate really well and put deals together and organize a group of people toward the same goal. That's where that pen is mightier than the sword comes from. So yeah, exactly So the the whole ah premise of getting. |
| 03:24.10 | mikebledsoe | You can just hire somebody to beat somebody up, you know at that point. |
| 03:35.47 | Max Shank | Physical power is like ridiculous ninety nine percent of the time now I do think it's very worthwhile to cultivate physical strength and mental strength can stem from physical challenge like if you carry a pack up a mountain. It's going to be. Physically challenging but that physical challenge is going to give you a huge mental challenge as well. Um, with communication There's only 1 goal really which is to transmit the message you intend. And that's I think the first place that people get gummed up is they don't even know what they're trying to communicate and you have to consider the audience so there needs to be just like a computer There's a sender and a receiver and it has to be. Um, understandable and in order for a human being to understand it has to be communicated to them in a way that resonates with them has to be communicated in a language that they clearly understand and you can't have too many bits. In a short amount of time. So like for example, when you download something off the internet. There's a download rate essentially and you can't go beyond that because the computer will start to miss things like you can't give too many bits. Per unit of time and so if I tell you hey mike remember this sequence of numbers. It's a 4 7 q l 1 2 3 8 11 b 1217 you're going to be like I don't know what the heck you're talking about now. |
| 05:23.80 | mikebledsoe | She. |
| 05:26.10 | Max Shank | If I stretch that over a much longer set of communication I can probably get you to remember all those things especially if I tell it to you in a story but by and law which is why? Ah so many stories were just. Told they weren't even written so we can go like way back like the way before we had written language we had spoken language so you have to be really clear on what you're trying to communicate and you can't give too many bits. Otherwise it gets lost So that's. I think 1 of the big things I've noticed both professionally and personally is people try to say too much and their core message gets lost right. |
| 06:14.83 | mikebledsoe | Right? Well I think um, 1 of the key things that you said there is that I'm not going to repeat you verbatim. But basically what I heard was people don't people aren't considering. The result of their communication before they communicate or while they're communicating my experience is that most people are trying to satisfy a feeling if I when I speak I Want to feel a certain way. |
| 06:37.85 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 06:51.73 | mikebledsoe | And it might be ah exactly the yeah, the feeling the the desire to be heard and understood is ah is a very common 1 when we study sales and marketing we go. Oh if you can just make the customer feel heard and understood. |
| 06:52.14 | Max Shank | Like a desire to be heard kind of thing. |
| 07:08.27 | Max Shank | Right? totally. |
| 07:09.83 | mikebledsoe | They'll buy almost anything from you. Even if you know as long as they if you people feel hurt and understood so infrequently that if when it happens it's a standout experience and there they they then. |
| 07:23.37 | Max Shank | And that's. |
| 07:28.69 | mikebledsoe | Get into this place where they know like and you know they like and trust you at least in that in that situation but 1 1 of the things I've come to ah realize is so many people are communicating for to solve for short term insecurities. They don't understand the long-term consequences of their communication most of which is there just communicating things that are like you were saying confusing people are confused by it and ah 1 of the ways that I that I have improved. My ability to communicate is really thinking. What is what is the result I'm trying to achieve with this information and the the more knowledge I've accumulated the the less knowledge I tend to lay out for someone to take on at a time. Spread it out as you were saying you know I could give you everything that you need to know in a weekend to to run your business effectively. But your ability to grok that and then put it into practice. It's just it's too much too Fast. It's not. Not going to get the desired result. |
| 08:43.34 | Max Shank | Yeah, So if you're communicating for self-gratification instead of conversion I think it's a really big mistake and I think it shows a lot of insecurity people tend to use a lot of 10 dollars Words. Or twenty dollars words it doesn't matter how much the words are but complicated words that people don't really understand as well and the more confident you are the less you feel a need to talk just to talk. And the less you feel a need to fill up the gaps in silence because you're like oh I'm I'm afraid the other person will start talking and then I'll lose my turn. So. |
| 09:25.75 | mikebledsoe | I used to do that I used to I would like I would throw a lot of ums in there. So I could stretch out what I was saying so no 1 could interrupt me I was signaling. Oh don't don't speak because I still have something to say. |
| 09:40.71 | Max Shank | And if you're smart It doesn't come out as an um, it's just another bit. You may not say um or Hm or and ah ah you it may just be I start talking about something else. So I keep the the conch shell right? the. |
| 09:44.70 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 09:59.40 | Max Shank | The the talking stick. Ah, if you don't have a ah goal. It's fine. You know you don't want to like over analyze your whole life like I do in every word you say. But if you're just having um, if. You're communicating with someone. There should be a goal like I have a little checklist actually I can pop through real quick. So um, step 1 is who are you sending this to which is your audience step 2 is what do you want them to change or do which is the call to action. Ah, why should they which would be the benefits plus the supporting Features. What are the consequences. So the heaven or hell how will you inspire hope which are stories and steps make it feel easy and possible and how much. Time effort and cost will it take so what is the cost of what they're doing and when you realize that basically every bit of communication is you're you're trying to get someone to take a specific action at least when you start getting into ah writing and sales. Which is persuasion relationships are the same thing like I think you should take out the trash and I will do this instead and there are all kinds of ways that you can break it down. But if you don't know what you're trying to achieve at the very outset then it's it's fun. It's a conversation. It's a stream of consciousness boom boom boom back and Forth. There doesn't have to be a clear outcome involved. But I think that's where writing gives you a lot of clarity because you start structuring your ideas with. Supporting arguments. You know you have a premise like I think you should exercise in the morning for x y and z and here's the benefits that you get from it and you realize that you can't put. Too many bits in there and it forces you to consolidate your ideas into something that is digestible. |
| 12:08.98 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and you said you said maybe you should not do what I've done which is put your your communication and and thoughts through constant analysis. But I found a lot of successful people. They may not be doing. Putting their thoughts through constant analysis currently or or putting a lot of attention into it. But I think going through a period of time where that happens ah a little a little thing that I've done and and I've challenged other people to do is to. Get rid of words in your vocabulary for a period of time and a word that gets Overused. So if you're using over usinging a word a word that I I think I still overuse. But I've got a lot better which is the word like. Which is extremely common for our generation. There's a lot of likes and you cut that 1 word out and you go well, that word's useful, but then you start when you cut it Out. You realize the majority of the use of that word that I I use it for is not Useful. It's wasted space. |
| 13:23.37 | Max Shank | It's filler. It's filler. |
| 13:24.36 | mikebledsoe | It's filler and and it can be confused if any filler creates more confusion by the way. Ah, and yeah, and so by removing that sometimes when it is useful I then have to go search for another word. And it's in its place. So 1 of the ways that I I train myself is I put a rubber band around my wrist and if I if the word slips through my lips I take a little band and I snap it on my Wrist. So I give myself a little little feedback. |
| 13:49.14 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 14:01.70 | Max Shank | Do you worry that? um, you'll have to eventually upgrade to a shot collar just to get the same sensation. |
| 14:01.39 | mikebledsoe | On that. Ah. |
| 14:07.59 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, I've thought about that I actually was thinking about taking 1 of those shot collars and just putting it on my my nether regions in that just to really you know drive the point home now. How far does it go? ah. |
| 14:14.21 | Max Shank | Oh wow. |
| 14:20.32 | Max Shank | It um, it only goes 1 way typically. |
| 14:24.50 | mikebledsoe | Ah, well the the rubber band The rubber band is good because I've also been in I've been on stage before and snap my wrist. Ah and people go you know and I point out this is what I'm doing so it it becomes a social thing too is. |
| 14:37.69 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 14:41.77 | mikebledsoe | Oh I'm I'm showing everybody that I'm I'm making this mistake it. It brings it. It brings more of like a social awareness say I just said it a social awareness around what's going on and which brings more attention to it which causes me to be better about it. |
| 14:53.22 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 15:01.63 | mikebledsoe | So. |
| 15:02.50 | Max Shank | What's also fascinating is that when you appear more fallible people like you more like the thing that people hate most is the perfect guy. So interestingly enough so if you use. |
| 15:05.59 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 15:18.30 | Max Shank | Language like the common man and you go and um, you know what is that word? Oh yeah house like what's a you, you just? um, kind of develop that persuasion through affect. Rather than just having the simplest and most direct message possible because usually you are talking about persuasion of some kind you're persuading them to buy to try or to cry or to laugh or something like that. There's ah, there's a goal there. |
| 15:48.94 | mikebledsoe | Well people really value your intent I think a lot of people value intention over results. So even if you are fallible and you're you're going at least I'm trying people go oh you know, give you a little golf clap. |
| 15:51.36 | Max Shank | And just having. |
| 16:04.25 | Max Shank | Well whatever they believe your intention is right? So I think for your own psychological organization. You want to have the most clarity possible. |
| 16:08.26 | mikebledsoe | No. |
| 16:21.64 | Max Shank | Like essentially you want to have a triangle your triangle describes the main point and then each point of the triangle is the 3 like sub points of that. So. There's ah, a really solid clear precise structure to everything you're saying. But just communicating something in the simplest way possible isn't necessarily the most persuasive using stories and analogies that really make you feel certain things can be really beneficial even though they might seem. Superfluous or unnecessary like that word superfluous is a fun word to say but the fact that it means unnecessary and it's unnecessarily complicated is really hilarious. |
| 17:21.77 | Max Shank | These long pauses are really good for podcasting. You told me. |
| 17:24.77 | mikebledsoe | I did but then zencastr put this this little thing in the production where it cuts out anything over 1 point, 2 seconds it cuts it down in 1 point, 2 seconds. So it makes makes the pauses actually. Okay. |
| 17:38.90 | Max Shank | Whoa. So the folks at home won't get the full experience of that awkward pause. |
| 17:46.96 | mikebledsoe | Ah, 1 thing I find very interesting is when I when I started getting hip to the power of language I ah was really disgusted At. You know, maybe people aren't doing it on purpose. Maybe they are who knows yeah I was I was disgusted with well I stay disgusted about this. So. It's not like it's not as if this was a new feeling about this but education the the systematic government run. |
| 18:05.94 | Max Shank | It's a really strong emotion. |
| 18:22.50 | mikebledsoe | Education system really focuses on spelling things correctly and grammar. But what I notice is there's a ah lack of focus on definition of certain words. |
| 18:29.41 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 18:41.90 | mikebledsoe | Ah, it's more about can we make it look pretty or are we following the rules of of ah you know don't put this word in front of this word and don't put this word at the end of the sentence and while completely leaving Out. You know how words shape our thoughts which shape our mind and and which words are helpful and which words won't be might be harmful and if you put them. You know if you follow this word with this other word. What's that doing to your mind and you know it. That hits me along with you know we teach algebra which no 1 hardly ever uses once they get out of high school. But no 1 knows how to balance their books. No 1 understands money the thing that they're constantly surrounded by so my my experience of language in regard to education is similar to that. |
| 19:23.74 | Max Shank | So so. |
| 19:36.71 | mikebledsoe | Mathematics and that ah you learn how to jump through all these hoops for the purpose of getting a good grade. But how are these things impacting your your life and being successful and so most of what I learned I was a very like reading and writing was. Was what I did. That was my best subjects and math was you know a little bit tougher for me but I look at all that and I go as as much as I learned about reading and writing and I was gotten these amazing grades. |
| 19:57.70 | Max Shank | So. |
| 20:13.53 | mikebledsoe | It wasn't until I was in my thirty s that I really started learning language in a way that was actually helpful for me. It's not complicated. |
| 20:20.37 | Max Shank | And it's not complicated. Good good communication either. I think what you said at the beginning about understanding how language shapes thought and that's the truth is language shapes thought. And of course your thought shapes the language that you use so it's a feedback loop but what I tell people is that everything about you that is not an animal is laid out with language. So every. Concept above your instincts is language driven. What is okay to do and what is not okay to do what is good to do what is bad that whole ah knowledge of good and evil thing that's all that's all language. That's it's basically. Anti-instinual pretty much so everything that we do that is not just pure animal instinct is laid on a foundation of language so you have to be really or you don't have to be but it's good to be very considerate of what language. You accept I mean we've talked about it I think in a past podcast even the concept of slavery is heavily based on the definition like that is a possibility so every every like thing we have and everything we have in place. Is laid out using words. It's conditional phrases if this then this every law is there's no such thing as ah laws. It's more crimes are defined. And punishments are also defined and sometimes they're left up to the discretion of the judge or something like that. But usually we define a crime we define a punishment we define a contest and we define a prize for that contest but everything. Outside of your base instincts is language so getting clear on how you would like to be and realizing that it's all just your perception that colors the world outside of instinct so you have instinct and then you have your. Individual perception. That's a that's a huge revel is revelation. That's enough to make anyone go crazy. Basically. |
| 22:54.44 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, and and there's language shaping thoughts. So first I think most people think about language and they think about communication and but the the shaping of thoughts and really. Going inwards and go what is the language of my mind. How is the language of my mind playing out when I sit quietly when I say quietly and I notice oh these are not words that are coming out of my mouth but these are words that are running through the mind. What is. |
| 23:28.44 | Max Shank | Right? what. |
| 23:32.30 | mikebledsoe | How is that shaping my perception of this moment. What is what feelings? What feelings are associated with those words those words create a feeling um and and being curious about that and anyone who starts diving into how language shapes their thoughts. |
| 23:35.27 | Max Shank | Totally. |
| 23:51.85 | mikebledsoe | And you start making small tweaks. Oh I'm going to remove this I'm going to add this a game we call Play is with our coaching is the 1 word game is bring up a a common thought that comes up in your mind in this situation Cool What if we just changed 1 word. And we have them write out the thought right now write it out with 1 word change does that change how you feel and almost every time someone goes. Yeah I feel different because I took the not out of that is it accurate. Yes, or no, maybe yes, maybe no okay. |
| 24:12.43 | Max Shank | And. |
| 24:31.27 | mikebledsoe | What's the next word we would have to change to make this a more accurate statement. So what we do is we if if I I think a mistake that happens with in coaching that I see a lot of times as people go, you're doing it like this. Why don't you just try it like this and it's like and it's as if you changed 10 words of their. |
| 24:33.35 | Max Shank | Have. |
| 24:50.36 | mikebledsoe | Thoughts all at once going back to what you were saying before giving them bits giving them small bits so large and so shaping the mind 1 word at a time I'm going to use a piece of sandpaper to get us there instead of an axe and. |
| 25:06.49 | Max Shank | Like challenge change to ah but opportunity. For example, that's ah, that's a good 1 Yeah feels different. |
| 25:08.33 | mikebledsoe | Ah, exact. Yeah, exactly. So yup, that feels different when you say and then all of a sudden the ability to see opportunity opens up whereas challenges that word tends to focus possibility and. And just vision so really getting in the practice of recognizing how these thoughts shape how we think which shape how we perceive the world and and what our options may be and then we have language outside of ourselves which was I think about the thought of culture. |
| 25:47.24 | Max Shank | Spot Then what. |
| 25:48.11 | mikebledsoe | So all these concepts that I've used to look inwards in my own ability and then you know communicating with people who are closest to me in relationship. But then I start looking at the thought of culture. What are the what are the memes that come and. Not the memes you see on Instagram I mean those those do qualify those are a a version of these memes but a meme is a is it is a snippet of narrative. There's a meme in our culture of this and that and this yeah. |
| 26:06.91 | Max Shank | 1 |
| 26:17.81 | Max Shank | Like sorry tourette's sorry to write oh sorry? Sorry oh I'm sorry I'm sorry oh my god Jesus like is everyone really so sorry, all the time I used to do the same thing I have now gone. |
| 26:24.21 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe. |
| 26:37.81 | Max Shank | Completely the other way where I'm really cautious anytime I do say that because I'm not sorry like really. |
| 26:45.61 | mikebledsoe | No well I had someone recently is that I don't mean to cut you off, but and then and then just start kept talking I go I stopped him and I said yes you did and they go and there's a ah group of people in they go. |
| 26:55.89 | Max Shank | No yeah. |
| 27:04.76 | mikebledsoe | I Did what you meant to cut me off and they go and they kind of go. Ah, you said that and then you just kept on talking and they go oh shit I go I Go don't feel bad about it I'm just bringing this to your awareness you can cut I cut people off all the time but I don't tell people I don't. |
| 27:09.95 | Max Shank | Right? You know. |
| 27:20.71 | Max Shank | Um, right. |
| 27:23.95 | mikebledsoe | Started off by saying don't mean to cut you off cause like it's bullshit. |
| 27:28.76 | Max Shank | I'm not sexist but ladies are way better at cooking. |
| 27:33.39 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, so so I start thinking about the thoughts of culture. Ah you know in the last year and a half it's been very. It's been on loudspeaker on social media. The the memes that the Instagram memes are are somewhat like those are cultural memes as well. |
| 27:39.53 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 27:50.33 | Max Shank | No doubt. |
| 27:51.74 | mikebledsoe | Ah, and I think that if we when we go down to the core of culture. We actually do find law and those are the words that are laid out. They're not. It's not really law I Hate calling it law. It's it's policy So a group of people got together. |
| 28:08.29 | Max Shank | Crime and punishment. |
| 28:11.37 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the kind of punishment conversation. You're having they they create a policy and you know they argue about which words we should use and what order and and we put them on this piece of paper and then and then we'll convince these policy enforcers that will tell you that they're here to protect and serve. But. |
| 28:19.89 | Max Shank | Her. |
| 28:31.28 | mikebledsoe | Really their job is to enforce policy and what you end up with is people don't really I don't think they actually recognize how important how our law is the foundation of culture and. |
| 28:46.63 | Max Shank | Ah, it's weaponized language. |
| 28:50.92 | mikebledsoe | Exactly I like that it's policy slash Weaponized language. |
| 28:55.62 | Max Shank | I Mean there's nothing.. There's nothing more ah like sneaky and coercive than drumming up these ah rules with punishments attached. In a language that the average person can't understand and when you think about how people have tried to control each other it really did go from the stick to the pen. You know the big guy with a big stick was like ah so like suppose I'm. Like a 200 and fifty pound monster with a club and you're just whatever your size is what are you like 1 sixty or something. Okay, so so suppose I'm like a yeah suppose I'm like a viking monster and I'm like hey there Mike ah I was just thinking I would I would take your house and your wife. |
| 29:38.28 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, 5 8 1 sixty not a big guy. |
| 29:51.87 | Max Shank | And ah and if you're not cool with that I'll I'll hit you with this stick until you're dead and for a long time that was how it worked basically. But then 1 day you were very clever and you were like hey hey hey whoa you don't want to do that because then you'll burn in hell forever. |
| 29:58.25 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 30:10.38 | Max Shank | I Mean you've heard about fire right? It's really hot burns it hurts and plus if you if you don't kill and murder then you go to heaven which is the it's the best I mean what? what do you like. |
| 30:13.90 | mikebledsoe | Ah, well this is this is what the catholic. |
| 30:21.27 | mikebledsoe | Well, this is how the Catholic church got a hold of the Knights The Knights were an unruly crew. So the. |
| 30:28.66 | Max Shank | I mean you would be too if you had ultimate power to stick somebody anytime. |
| 30:33.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, they the Knights ah a knight on a horse with armor could take out a Hundred peasants with ease. Ah and there's um, there's a. |
| 30:44.23 | Max Shank | A Hundred I think if those Hundred peasants had stick hundreds a lot I don't think so. |
| 30:54.54 | mikebledsoe | There's ah I was surprised by the statistics I was reading in That's to say he's on a horse a Knight a knight on a horse with let's say like a broadsw sword or something like that like most peasants aren't gonna touch him. He's gonna. |
| 30:57.50 | Max Shank | Maybe it feeds on a horse. |
| 31:05.90 | Max Shank | Ah. Most will run away. That's true. That's what happened with the the I think it was the Incas or something. It's a big It's a big difference I was talking about this at a party. Yeah. |
| 31:11.35 | mikebledsoe | Run right through him anyways, even if we say 25 whatever to huge difference so difference between like ah having a gun and a tank. |
| 31:28.28 | Max Shank | I Mean the difference between stick and no stick is actually pretty huge already. So it's just an arms race. But then we have this now instead of the rules of engagement of physical battle. It's the rules of engagement of stories and that's how we got to cooperate in. |
| 31:43.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, look yeah and and going back to what you're saying is the well what I was saying is the ah you come about making up a story of you're going to burn in hell. |
| 31:47.00 | Max Shank | In such big groups. We believe in the same tree spirit or something like that. |
| 31:58.60 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 32:00.49 | mikebledsoe | Which is basically what the catholic church did the catholic church came to the Knights and said hey you guys are doing a lot of raping and pillaging we got to get us under control so they created what's it called ah chivalry. |
| 32:06.00 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 32:16.50 | Max Shank | So so. |
| 32:18.51 | mikebledsoe | They created Chivalry so Chivalry Chivalry is a narrative like oh you want to be a chivalrous Knight because if you're chivalrous then you'll get the reward that you're looking for well being ah having Chivalry is the modern day citizen. |
| 32:21.79 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 32:29.78 | Max Shank | It's like ethics right? we were talking about a few podcasts ago. |
| 32:36.86 | Max Shank | Um, ah. |
| 32:38.48 | mikebledsoe | So being a chivalrous knight is the same thing as being a good citizen today. Oh aka good slave and so the yeah, an obedient slave. |
| 32:42.37 | Max Shank | A good citizen right? right? obedient I Think yeah yeah. |
| 32:54.98 | Max Shank | I Mean you don't want a disobedient slave that like totally defeats the purpose if you can't see the value of owning a slave then you're just kidding yourself I mean I can totally understand everyone has tried to enslave not everybody. But. |
| 32:59.62 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it makes they're difficult hard to. |
| 33:14.68 | Max Shank | Ah, so many so much slavery in the history of mankind. It's like hey do I want to do this work or do I want to sit on a horse with a whip while this other guy does the work I get it I get it. |
| 33:24.45 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, if you look at Western Society We have the least amount of slavery where I'd say we have the least where we're sitting in the in a world of like the least harsh slavery in all of human history. |
| 33:36.25 | Max Shank | And probably best for women's rights ever I mean you know about the bros before hose amendments. That's what I That's just what I call them So it's easy to remember we gave. |
| 33:43.55 | mikebledsoe | Now. |
| 33:53.30 | Max Shank | We're really losing her female audience right now. Ah we gave ah black guys. The ability to vote before women before white women and I just I just find that pretty funny because just before that black people were enslaved here. |
| 33:59.86 | mikebledsoe | Oh that's right. |
| 34:11.90 | Max Shank | But women were not enslaved but we just fast-track dudes to like yeah you can you could call the shots with a not you ladies though, you ladies no no and so you think about how that has accelerated so much and then in other parts of the world like I don't know. |
| 34:11.48 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 34:30.17 | Max Shank | The middle East For example, it's very clear pecking order right of who's in charge. But I think there have been some costs of that like for example, like ah in the. |
| 34:33.27 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 34:48.32 | Max Shank | Normal hollywood stories. Let's say the simpsons you know Homer simpson is an oaf married with children al Bundy is an oaf. So I think 1 of the things that is quite harmful and a little bit insidious is this. Male weakness where he's like always trying to like get sex with the lady and he's a dumb guy and he's like I mean even at the highest level we do this weird thing where presidents will be like oh well I got to check with the wife first to see if it's okay and you're like whoa this is like. What is going on here like this weak. Ah male figure is probably pretty destructive to the hearts and minds of our culture. |
| 35:39.22 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I ah um, will get away from such touchy subjects for a secondc I'll make it maybe a little more palatable here. Ah yeah, 1 of the. |
| 35:51.94 | Max Shank | I Think that's what you're here for. |
| 35:57.96 | mikebledsoe | But we ah if we want to look at the power of narrative if we look at tv shows we look at ah what happens in Tvs and movies who's always the oaf it like that. It's the personal trainer if you're the personal trainer. The coach you're you're dumb. He's a dumb meathead. |
| 36:14.92 | Max Shank | I am. |
| 36:17.52 | mikebledsoe | But then they make entire television series about these Genius doctors that are saving. People's lives in the Er emergency room but and so and on what the narrative is personal trainers are dumb miaheads and on the other end is these doctors are are complete geniuses. |
| 36:26.31 | Max Shank | Um, ah but. |
| 36:37.29 | mikebledsoe | And so we have an entire culture that doesn't want to listen to people who are telling them how to be healthy but will do anything somebody Lab coat will have on and it's really how it's been played out. That's the narrative but the yeah and. |
| 36:49.51 | Max Shank | Um, that's the appeal to authority that's that's 1 of the 2 main fallacies that we make appeal to authority and ad hominem attack and that goes right back into our language conversation because those are the 2 main things you see. |
| 37:00.49 | mikebledsoe | Well well couldn't the narrative be couldn't the narrative be that people who are say health coaches are fucking geniuses and they have the authority and you should listen to them because they know better. And medical doctors are are there just in case, you don't listen to the Health Guys. You know, just in case you were you were making poor decisions Now you got to go see this guy. You dumb Ass. So what? Ah what would it take for that that narrative to be painted. |
| 37:30.60 | Max Shank | Well. |
| 37:36.83 | mikebledsoe | And I mean I think we go back to law right? There are laws regulating Medicine way much more heavily than they are the health industry. So I see that I see the health and well there's ah, there's a way. Ah, okay, let's get into semantics here right? until we have yeah. |
| 37:44.72 | Max Shank | Oh yeah. |
| 37:54.79 | Max Shank | That's all we've been doing. |
| 37:56.47 | mikebledsoe | The Healthcare care industry right? people talk about Healthcare industry and then you know people go? Oh it's not the Healthcare care industry. It's the sick care industry and which is more accurate. Um, and people don't want to hear that they they like oh that's true, but they don't really dig into it. |
| 38:06.35 | Max Shank | No. |
| 38:16.50 | mikebledsoe | But ah, the way I've been thinking about more lately is we have a medical system and then we have a health system where we have a health industry and then we have a medical industry and the medical industry is not the health industry and the health industry is not the medical industry and the medical industry is getting all the attention it gets. People are listening to medical doctors are listening to all this but the the health industry has got if anything ah a more diminished voice ah over the yet last year and a half people like people who are more health oriented and preventative like. |
| 38:36.26 | Max Shank | And. |
| 38:55.50 | mikebledsoe | Mercola or rob wolf or abel james all these I I have many personal friends who have been censored and ah, what's it called shadow band. |
| 39:09.42 | Max Shank | We could do. We could do a whole show on censure censorship I think it's always bad though I think that is such a slippery slope because as Thomas Soul rightly Puts its. Not about what will we do? It's who will decide what we do so who gets to be the arbiter of what is true and what is not true and just from ah an uncommon sense standpoint What is the gain. |
| 39:35.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 39:49.11 | Max Shank | From silencing people why why would that happen in the first place |
| 39:56.73 | mikebledsoe | You don't want competing narratives. |
| 39:59.83 | Max Shank | Yeah, you have to protect your authority right? because the reality is people are very uncomfortable taking responsibility for their own lives. We've been taught from a young age. Let's put that responsibility on someone else, but. Where goes the responsibility also goes the power. So the reality is in America most most death maybe like 80 percent is self-caused by ah by a variety of things and that's a really high number. People commit suicide directly way more than they murder each other which I think shows how kind we ah really are at heart we would rather kill ourselves way higher. Yeah, it's like four x yeah, it's like. |
| 40:46.30 | mikebledsoe | We have a higher suicide rate than a murder rate is that what you're saying um I'm not familiar with these stats I'm not familiar with murder rates. |
| 40:57.50 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's not high. It's really low like we barely murder people at all relative to how much we kill ourselves directly with like a toaster in the bathtub or a bottle bottle of pills. |
| 41:05.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think we've lost more more soldiers in the united states more soldiers to suicide than than battle in the last twenty years |
| 41:14.74 | Max Shank | Yeah war seems really really tough and then so I have to add on to that statistic people would be like wait 80 percent of people get self-destruct yeah because if you sit on a couch for. 40 years and eat tons of cheetos or whatever your snack of choice is and you become very very fat like you're responsible for when you get diabetes didn't kill you you killed yourself and diabetes was just the way that you ultimately died. So. Most people kill themselves with their choices and there's a distinction I want to make and it's between fault and responsibility because I think if you see a fat kid. That's the parent's fault for sure. But if that. Fat kid grows up to be a fat adult then it's still their responsibility to decide whether or not they want to get healthy so it may not be their fault that they were set up in that situation I mean a lot of people have challenges or opportunities and. |
| 42:17.85 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 42:29.61 | Max Shank | Think it's going to be tougher. No question but you still have to accept that responsibility and once you realize that most people kill themselves quickly or slowly you start feeling that responsibility once again. For your own life and I think that's extremely valuable in terms of how how you live. |
| 42:54.41 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the the fault and responsibility distinctions. Great. That's something um you know at our previous Conversation. We talked about collapse distinction and what you're saying there is people that there what I What we've seen is a collapse distinction around fault and responsibility. And ah, it's a common phrase I've used in coaching which is and may not be your fault but it is your responsibility and I think's I think it's good for people to hear that because fault comes with a lot of times associated with guilt. |
| 43:21.50 | Max Shank | Great. |
| 43:32.70 | mikebledsoe | Um, it's my fault now I feel guilty about it when someone stuck gets stuck in and dwells in guilt. They usually have a hard time making the change necessary because now they start now when guilt arises a lot of the behavior that comes out of guilt is punishing 1 ne's self and. |
| 43:49.21 | Max Shank | You know for 1 |
| 43:50.97 | mikebledsoe | You're going to punish yourself by either making it worse or not changing so you have to get to a place of like looking at fault even if it is your fault is getting to a place of of forgiveness and then that way you can move into being responsibility and I think about responsibility as. Simply the ability to Respond. Do you have the ability to respond yes or no, okay, well then you're responsible now you can choose whether you're going to respond or not, that's that's up to you but again, we're back at choice and so I I think what you said was really important for people to hear is. |
| 44:15.22 | Max Shank | Great. |
| 44:27.97 | mikebledsoe | Fault and responsibility because when we look at if I look at Politics. For instance, there's a lot of people. What what? you'll hear them say is when something goes wrong. They we need to figure out who's responsible but they don't actually go look for responsibility. Because they would all have to look at themselves what they do is they they start looking at who to blame? Yeah, so it's like now they're looking at whose fault it is and who they can blame so they can they can ah externalize the shame and guilt so that they can then. |
| 44:49.44 | Max Shank | The whipping Boy. Right. |
| 45:04.66 | mikebledsoe | Keep doing whatever the fuck they wanted to do in the first place and while making the public at large you know angry at somebody and manipulating them. So so it's yeah. |
| 45:11.69 | Max Shank | Doesn't work. It doesn't work once you once you blame,, There's no end to the blaming. That's it. It's 2 Thousand year old book says that we it's It's not that we don't have access to the information. It's that. We let our ego get in the way we want to find retribution. We want to put the responsibility onto somebody else. We want to get ourselves as far away from the bad thing as possible because we want to think of ourselves as good and. That's also the primary barrier to change is we get so attached to the story that we've built up for ourselves I'm good because X Y Z or even I'm bad because X y Z people tend to hang onto them just as tightly which is so. |
| 46:00.42 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 46:05.39 | Max Shank | Fricking Weird right? You are stuck in this story of you and you are trying to get as much permanence as possible. That's what people mostly chase is they want permanence.. That's why um. When we're Dead. We Want little condos for ourselves. Still we want We want to like sit in a graveyard. We're like I'm still here I'm still here hey story of me still here not going anywhere I will last as long as this funny shaped rock and it's a crazy thing that we do So Everything comes back To. Story Story Story. The mass behaviors are story driven everything that we do professionally is often just to find Love. That's what's so funny if I show. That I can protect which in our era now is a house car and a retirement fund and you know you go up a boat a plane an island. |
| 47:12.49 | mikebledsoe | I'll tell you this yeah, that's accurate and when ah when ah dating my my girlfriend. Ah when she first saw me with with firearms and she saw how good I was with them. She was like oh my god I'm um. Just so turned on right now and I yeah, ah okay I was just I'll just trying to show you how to shoot. But. |
| 47:37.18 | Max Shank | That's very natural desires to be feel protected and I think that would you say that's the primary reason that ladies go for a wealthier. Dude It's for protection. It's for safety. |
| 47:48.89 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well, there's there's but there's protection and then there's provision as well as so ah and they go hand in hand First you got to protect? Yeah, but well. |
| 47:51.36 | Max Shank | You know that's the that's the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy |
| 48:01.18 | Max Shank | We don't want to collapse distinction. Those. |
| 48:07.63 | mikebledsoe | You protect first and then provide second you know yeah, all that all that comes down to safety. Yeah. |
| 48:08.74 | Max Shank | Um, well we could just call it safety Can you keep me can you keep me safe. Can you keep me safe and well you know the more simple language we can use in this particular case the better it is and. |
| 48:23.90 | mikebledsoe | Well, there's ah I've also ah gone on the other side of that which is looking at not so much about ah a lot of the safety he has to do with what we want to avoid but also ah how you were how you experienced love as a child. So some people. |
| 48:38.75 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 48:41.48 | mikebledsoe | Especially the the experience with their father whether you're a man or a woman your experience of your father. What was his how did you experience him? What was your fondest memories of him right? So ah for me. Ah I first. |
| 48:52.28 | Max Shank | Here. |
| 48:59.50 | mikebledsoe | Remember my my father as as a teacher whereas I noticed some people they saw their father as a provider or a protector and so that's how they show up in relationship so they'll show up because that's how they experience love so on the safety side that's well, it's about avoiding things but on the love side. |
| 49:00.78 | Max Shank | Earth. And. |
| 49:18.89 | mikebledsoe | About what we want to move towards and so if you can create safety then the next thing we we look at is well how did you experience your father and ah, how did you experience love from. How did you know that your father loved you like I know that my father loved me because of the way because he taught me and here I am I become. My primary role in my my work is to be a teacher and that's that's my way of showing love and so I also recognize the women that I date tend to be teachers in some way or or they lead in some way instead of I don't care if they make a lot of money because I Never really saw my dad as like. |
| 49:40.16 | Max Shank | Earth. |
| 49:56.88 | mikebledsoe | The primary role in him his life wasn't to provide for me but I'm not a lady in a lot of women I talked to that's how they experienced their dad as oh they provided me protected me all that and so that's what they look for. |
| 49:58.77 | Max Shank | But you're also not a lady. |
| 50:09.10 | Max Shank | Right? That makes a lot of sense I think we should call our podcast traps and treasures I really do I thought about it a lot I think that's the best 1 we have and it describes look. The reality is. |
| 50:20.47 | mikebledsoe | I Think it is too. |
| 50:27.90 | Max Shank | The average person could never listen to another podcast again and live totally well like that's what's so ironic about this experience for me is a lot of the time I feel like people just need to stop taking in so much input just just sit there. Quiet. With a piece of paper and think about what you really want like what is what is treasure mean to you? What does trap mean to you and that's what's so interesting about nurturing is we're implanting watch out for this look out for these. You're going to like these These are really bad. |
| 50:50.69 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 51:05.20 | Max Shank | And as I've said before for Gorillas it's so simple because they're like don't eat this green plant do eat this green plant and it's just do this Don't do this do this don't do this so that's what learning that's how learning can let you skip the line a little bit. Otherwise you have to experience every pain and fire Firsthand. That's the the big advantage of learning secondhand hey if you touch the fire you'll burn your hand now you can believe me. You can burn yourself on the fire and learn for yourself and I think we would agree that you do learn better through Firsthand experience but some things you don't want to risk you don't want to risk it for that traps and treasures. |
| 51:55.79 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, we now have the name the show traps and treasures now that's right, it's not it's not mike and Max or does a Maxim mike which 1 of us was first. Um. |
| 52:02.31 | Max Shank | With max and mike with Max and mike by the way I will um I I quit I quit unless my name is first. |
| 52:14.70 | mikebledsoe | Ah, um that's okay that's okay um I actually don't care that much I I care like I care like 1 percent. Yeah I like 1 percent. Maybe yeah. |
| 52:24.81 | Max Shank | He cares? he he cares. He just wants to look cool. He cares. |
| 52:33.78 | mikebledsoe | If I if if you didn't care at all my name First you care if you care 2 percent like I fucking give it to them. Um, so we got to subtitle this there's got to be like what's our. What's our mission statement here. |
| 52:34.28 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 52:49.47 | mikebledsoe | Is for traps and treasures. Yeah, who's the audience. What are we helping them with. |
| 52:49.79 | Max Shank | For for traps and treasures. |
| 53:01.96 | Max Shank | I mean maybe we can think about this a little bit before we just kill our airtime today. Yeah, let's do some more long awkward pauses I like it. |
| 53:06.29 | mikebledsoe | Um, it's the best way to end the show and the show with that. We're gonna do some ah research on this if anyone has any suggestions fire him over. So um, yeah in it. |
| 53:20.83 | Max Shank | That's ah I was thinking that you know there are there are traps and treasures within and without we can go into what to look out for. In a business partner or a romantic partner and we can also look out for what kind of thought patterns that we engage in and how we communicate with ourselves and how we I always talk about framing the experience. How you frame the experience. So for example, it's pretty windy and cloudy today in Southern california but I like it and I appreciate a sound such like a hippie but basically I really appreciate the the difference I like to see the. The wind blowing the leaves around and it looks very textured and cool and it's it's a nice change of pace and then the other experience the other frame of that experience is oh it's it's cold and I I hate this cold weather and it's so windy today and I think. The way that we frame our experience with language is really the only way to be happy ultimately because happiness is sort of like a fleeting feeling and it just depends on what you compare it to probably a better. Goal would be to remove as many of the ego barriers as possible and just flow with the natural rhythms of nature which is what we talked about last week so I think the traps and treasures within and without are. Totally framed by language so it can be languages like a knife you can stab yourself with it or you can perform surgery and save life. |
| 55:30.23 | mikebledsoe | Beautiful. |
| 55:31.69 | Max Shank | Language is also the ultimate leverage tool of human beings more than anything by far because it's allowed us to transcend space and time with our ideas and build upon them progressively. So if you want to learn how to use the best. Leverage tool we've ever come up with that's probably a good return on investment for your time. I mean if you just practiced your ability to communicate really practiced for like 2 hours a day within a year you'd be in the top five percent. So no matter what your personal interests were. You could be successful at them. I mean that's how that's how powerful it is I mean you don't need to do anything else you you can have the little phrase you can tell or be told. |
| 56:15.32 | mikebledsoe | You'd probably be in the top 1 percent. |
| 56:29.46 | Max Shank | And if you want to dig a hole That's great, but wouldn't you rather come up with a good plan and tell someone else where to dig the hole. But either way you got to tell or be told that's language. |
| 56:35.15 | mikebledsoe | Um, but you know the highest paid highest paid positions in the world would be salespeople and ceos job. |
| 56:47.10 | Max Shank | Because they can move people. |
| 56:50.49 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and well the job as Ceo is to communicate a vision that enrolls people into gets them excited to do a thing to create the future which he made up with his words or she and then the same with a salesperson I mean sales is just a conversation. |
| 57:00.93 | Max Shank | Ah. I Love that in a lot of companies. The person who sells the most gets more than the Ceo because that a lot because that is the most important thing and once you realize that that interaction. |
| 57:12.47 | mikebledsoe | That happens a lot. |
| 57:24.87 | Max Shank | With the customer I mean you and I have some experience in salesmanship and marketing and what's correct I bet you do ah the the value of being able to. |
| 57:31.76 | mikebledsoe | I Crush sales now. It's so much fun. |
| 57:44.15 | Max Shank | Put together a message that converts that you can leverage is crazy because it's not something that everybody can do ah language everybody most powerful tool We have. |
| 57:52.77 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, it's rare. Yeah yep, or we'll call it there call it there make sure to go to Maankank Dot com. |
| 58:02.24 | Max Shank | Available to us. Call it there I like it. |
| 58:12.37 | mikebledsoe | And Max shank and all the other platforms. |
| 58:15.74 | Max Shank | Make sure you check out mike underscore blood. So on Instagram thank you for joining us for traps and treasures with max and mike. |
| 58:20.54 | mikebledsoe | I Sure that's me. |
| 58:30.45 | mikebledsoe | Um, later. |
| 00:02.36 | Max Shank | Welcome back. Everyone to the max and Mike Podcast Hope you're having a lovely day. We're talking about long-term Strategy V versus short-term Burnout. There's a quote I like from the daw. Which is the flame that burns brightest burns half as long and I think that's a natural that's a natural method for super masculine guys. Anyone who's like trying to prove themselves or trying to achieve. A lot in a short amount of time. It's It's really common to experience some burnout I know I've experienced some burnout I would imagine that most of the people listening also have Mike I'm sure you have experienced some. Ah. |
| 00:58.34 | mikebledsoe | Few times. Yeah. |
| 00:59.80 | Max Shank | Burnout in your life a few times. So yeah, well I'm reminded of another quote from the dow I'll just quote the dow this whole episode because it's it's it's my favorite book. It really did. |
| 01:08.50 | mikebledsoe | Perfect. Well it makes sense to quote the doubt for this topic. |
| 01:18.28 | Max Shank | Put patience in a ah strong light and the the quote that I'm thinking of now is nature does not hurry and yet all is accomplished and kind of makes you start focusing on. Process rather than the result and it's a bit of a paradox because if you don't have a clear target in your mind you are maybe less likely to achieve it. But if you are so chaotically just maniacally focused on the result you won't. Appreciate the process of how to get there and you might have a little less craftsmanship. So it's kind of that balancing of the pain and the desire to achieve a certain goal versus the peace and presence of being where you are. And focusing on what you're doing like a ah Master craftsman. |
| 02:21.45 | mikebledsoe | It's so much more enjoyable to be in that craftsman space and being in that I guess we could call it like the craftsman versus the visionary and or like being to me a visionary is someone who who sets a ah. |
| 02:30.87 | Max Shank | Ah, what. |
| 02:38.26 | mikebledsoe | Ah, plan for the future but in a way that is clear where you also have the daydreamer So the visionaries like the the healthy way of seeing the future but the daydreamer is somebody who spent waste time. |
| 02:49.59 | Max Shank | What? but. |
| 02:55.47 | mikebledsoe | Thinking about what could be in the future but doesn't actually execute. But yeah I like the idea of having like the visionary is is 1 thing and the craftsman's on the other side and ah I've spent a lot of time in the visionary role and 1 of the things that i've. |
| 02:58.30 | Max Shank | Ah, but. |
| 03:13.53 | mikebledsoe | That I've needed to do because I grew up a daydreamer and then I started shifting that consciously into creating a very specific thing I would narrow my focus down onto. We're going to accomplish this and I noticed it what I've adjusted over time is the amount of attention I. |
| 03:15.58 | Max Shank | A. |
| 03:33.13 | mikebledsoe | Put into vision and the amount ah amount of attention I put into being the craftsman have shifted so I spend so when I I put a lot of attention into being a visionary I'll ah so I'll wipe an entire day on my schedule and once a year |
| 03:39.24 | Max Shank | Something like. |
| 03:50.94 | mikebledsoe | And I'll envision the next year for my business for instance and then yeah and then you know I create in every ninety days I meet with my team for a few hours to create the ninety day plan and every month we meet for like an hour to make sure that that month is squared away and so that's. |
| 03:55.18 | Max Shank | It's like chunking. |
| 04:09.41 | mikebledsoe | But rhythm that I found. That's really helped me balance out that visionary with execution and it's allowed me to really just focus in on the execution be a craftsman because I trust that the plan that I'm working towards that. What I what I've planned to execute. Is actually taking me to where I want to be and now when I'm executing I'm not thinking about the result I'm just thinking about doing the best job I can with a thing that's right in front of me right now and it's created a lot more patience and things have become yeah like life has been. More enjoyable I don't try to squeeze too much in too little time. Um, but you know hey I turned forty last week so this is definitely something that comes with age. |
| 04:50.95 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 04:59.90 | Max Shank | Well, some people never get there right? They live and die without really honing that skill of I just call it time travel skills. You know you look back to your books on the wall which is like your memories. You look forward into the crystal ball. Which is the future and then you have the ability to be super present here and now like ram dos style and if you're able to do that consciously like I am going to project myself into a potential future and. Iron out those details and clarify that vision. That's a superpower and if you're stuck there Forever. You are just swimming in anxiety and if you're going back into the past and you're able to do it expertly. That's how you learn and I mean. You know nostalgia is kind of like a dangerous thing too. I think but if you if you stay in the past too long. You can get depressed. You can get hung up on all of the stuff you did like oh I should have done it differently I mean I always think that way. |
| 06:10.13 | mikebledsoe | Or there's also like people who who they they they have the nostalgia of the past and then they are comparing it to the present moment and then and in a way the where the present's not as good as the past that doesn't happen as much with our friends probably. But. |
| 06:24.72 | Max Shank | Yeah, totally I mean. |
| 06:29.89 | mikebledsoe | If you look at the average person. The average 35 year olds probably like me in high school man that was when I was having all the fun. |
| 06:35.78 | Max Shank | Well, the only absolute is relativity. You can't describe something without describing something else first and when I think about the the stressors that I experience now here's a story that will make everyone hate me. And it will paint like a really good picture like so ah first it'll it'll make you like me and then it'll make you go fuck that guy so first I remember that my my mom left and my dad and my brother got really depressed. And I was doing all the work basically and my outward frustration was like nothing like I was upset about it but it was like whatever the other day 1 of the speakers in my steam shower stopped working. And I was like what the fuck and like 1 of those is like obviously worse like for a child to shoulder the burden of supporting a family is like way more than I mean I still had 1 steam shower speaker that was working right. Like it wasn't like a whole thing but it but it just goes to show that that like relativity you have this idea based on ah the past, but you also have um, kind of like feature creep. You know people don't like to go down. In Lifestyle chris rockt is like a hilarious bit. It's like women don't go down in lifestyle and he says he does like this whole thing where like once you get to a certain level. You never want to go the opposite way. So it's all it's all what you compare it to and if you get stuck. Like what you're talking about you either are looking back at the past as better than right now or you're looking back as like oh I I was bad then or I did something wrong and then you pull it you pull it with you into the present. So. |
| 08:43.40 | mikebledsoe | Um, a lot of people end up punishing themselves for a past behavior in the present moment which then just creates creates more negative future moments. |
| 08:49.81 | Max Shank | Being able. |
| 08:54.74 | Max Shank | Dude. It steals the potential joy and peace out of the present and I I did a ton of that like I would um, you know who knows exactly why but when I I would like rehearse and prepare for a conversation. Even. |
| 09:14.44 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 09:17.41 | Max Shank | And be like okay this person might say this and then I can say that and then I would also look back to times when I was like a child and be like oh so stupid for saying that that was so mean or that was so dumb and so I think it's it's normal. |
| 09:29.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 09:36.97 | Max Shank | To have those feelings. It's just whether or not you can let them go so that you can be present and you can also project forward with a with a powerful positioning like I can influence my life in a constructive way. |
| 09:39.91 | mikebledsoe | What. |
| 09:54.68 | Max Shank | Here's my future plan that is better and also I can come back to the present and do that deep work because if you're thinking if you're just thinking about the pot of gold If you're just thinking about the result you're probably not going to do as good craftsmanship. |
| 10:09.54 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, absolutely the way I look at ah emotions and memories. Ah, there are everyone has emotions they dwell on and emotions they avoid and you know. |
| 10:23.71 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 10:27.32 | mikebledsoe | People Probably a lot of people probably hear that and think yeah people dwell on happy you know, positive emotions or what's perceived as positive emotions and avoid negative and that's not necessarily true I know that for myself I used to dwell on guilt The the emotion of guilt and. |
| 10:38.77 | Max Shank | The hurt. |
| 10:46.46 | mikebledsoe | Like it. It was deep down in my gut and like I just felt guilt from like when I was a little kid. It just felt guilty a lot and then I got older and I felt guilty a lot and and the benefit of it of guilt is that you'll change your behavior because you're you're guilty about how you did something. |
| 10:54.74 | Max Shank | Are. |
| 11:03.74 | Max Shank | In here. |
| 11:05.78 | mikebledsoe | But the problem is is if any emotion. But even if it's joy if you're dwelling on that instead of just allowing that emotion to move because they they tend to move unless you suppress or or just um, start creating start. |
| 11:14.60 | Max Shank | Hit a. |
| 11:24.76 | mikebledsoe | Remembering stories that you associate with that feeling and you end up in a perpetual loop like oh everyone likely can understand this or go oh I do do that is thing about ah something you were you felt guilty about or bad about in the past and then you'll have that feeling. And then you'll have a thought of something else. You're guilty about and something else. You're guilty about and and so then you just end up having a bad day right? Yeah, this 1 thing triggers a memory which triggers the feeling and that feeling triggers more memories and so we end up practicing being in this. |
| 11:44.85 | Max Shank | Here. Right. |
| 12:02.37 | mikebledsoe | This pattern um like ah ah, a guiltridden pattern and yeah, they're just wasting so much energy and time being in a pattern versus just going like you were saying letting it go and to me the key to letting it go is to feel it fully go. You know what. I Don't really look at guilt as a negative thing. It's like it's a gift and I get to learn from it and I go look I am totally present with this emotion I Love it. I accept it I Love it and I got my lesson from it and then if you can do that. That's that's a superpower. |
| 12:39.64 | Max Shank | Ah, oh yeah, once you shine a light on it. It's no longer. Ah scary. It's no longer lurking in the shadows. There's a french phrase ah to know all is to forgive all never heard that 1 I like that 1 a lot. |
| 12:39.71 | mikebledsoe | Very few people can do that. |
| 12:44.75 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 12:54.33 | mikebledsoe | No. |
| 12:59.22 | Max Shank | I Mean it's That's my translation. It's in French but I don't speak French Currently So um I mean I might I might later? Yeah, um, but when you think about your self. |
| 13:05.10 | mikebledsoe | But used to maybe or in the future. Yeah later. Okay. |
| 13:18.54 | Max Shank | Recognizing I mean I still am like this with myself you got to realize that you're a combination of different instincts and stories and all kinds of things where how could you not be more forgiving of yourself. You know like I I know so little still and you know I do this thing on my birthday where I just think man I've accomplished so little I don't really look at it as like a positive thing because it's more like feel like I'm a little bit behind ah my schedule which probably just From. Setting really high goals. But if you don't like forgive the fact that you are a monkey just trying to figure stuff out in some sort of Cyber Punk Weird Ah Lifestyle It's going to be really. Painful for you I mean the the whole reason that people do great or terrible things is because they're like deeply dissatisfied with the way things are right. So if you're not deeply dissatisfied with how the way things are ah you'll you probably do very little. You'll just Enjoy. So I think you said it best is you don't run from that emotion. You don't ignore that emotion. You experience it fully and I think Curiosity is the best way is like the most constructive ah mentality to have about it where you don't take anything personally I think that's 1 of those four agreements is do your best. Don't take anything personally. Um. |
| 14:51.65 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 15:08.68 | Max Shank | So yeah, getting getting curious about the emotion and accepting it and accepting the the fact that we are very emotional creatures if not the most emotional creatures and that'll make it so you're able to forgive yourself which is kind of a precursor for letting that stuff. |
| 15:17.89 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 15:27.84 | Max Shank | Go that doesn't serve you. |
| 15:28.20 | mikebledsoe | I Think that the taking ah I think we get further define taking things. Personally, this is a this is something that I see people get hung up on a lot and I had a ah a big breakthrough around. My thinking around taking things personally are you familiar with the concept of collapse distinction collapsed collapsed distinction. Okay so collapsed distinction is where ah the human mind. |
| 15:53.29 | Max Shank | Um, class distinction. No. |
| 16:05.47 | mikebledsoe | We'll take 2 words and they've collapsed them into the same meaning and so and people start behaving that way. 1 example is ah, there's a collapse distinction for ah, most mothers they have collapsed love and worry. |
| 16:21.97 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 16:23.38 | mikebledsoe | So it right? It makes sense right? Your mom the way she expresses love she doesn't if she's not worried about you. She doesn't feel like she's loving you and yeah, exactly and so. |
| 16:34.16 | Max Shank | She might feel guilty that she's not worried. |
| 16:42.58 | mikebledsoe | Um, in in Mothers learn this from their mothers. So this is something that's happened for a long time and so it's like there's a collapse distinction because if we look at but but for us so I'm a son you're a son. If our mom we get on the phone with arm change. Oh okay, the daughter. yeah yeah I think you should just go with the queue. That's what I do yeah I'm I'm ah questioning all the time. |
| 17:04.70 | Max Shank | I'm thinking of changing actually to daughter or or undecided. Perhaps I think I might be a tree actually. |
| 17:19.52 | mikebledsoe | Ah, so ah, was it somebody somebody so somebody somebody did somebody did I was like you was like well um I fall into the que category I'm I'm definitelyquet like once I realize the Q stand for questioning I go if you're not questioning what are you doing like. |
| 17:22.61 | Max Shank | Sorry for the derail. |
| 17:38.30 | mikebledsoe | And then somebody was like almost founded offensive that I would identify as questioning I go like you're straight I'm like like ah now you're questioning my identity So like like all of a sudden I'm not allowed to yeah, it's it's funny. Ah, anyways, let's get back to it Collapse distinction. Love and worry. |
| 17:51.30 | Max Shank | That's hilarious. |
| 17:57.50 | mikebledsoe | Ah, and as a son if my mom over the years has expressed worry for me. It's I don't experience. Love I'm experiencing. It's annoying. Yeah, yeah, it's fear which is a lot of people say those are opposites. |
| 18:06.80 | Max Shank | Fear fear which is a fear and love are are good opposites. Yeah that that once again that the distinction is important right? How you use those words. |
| 18:15.75 | mikebledsoe | Ah, but um. Yeah, and so we've collapsed something that is fear based with something that's love based and so ah, you know all we got to do is pull up these 2 definitions and what's the definition of love. What's the definition of Worry. These are very different things and don't even belong in the same category together. |
| 18:26.65 | Max Shank | Brutal. |
| 18:40.17 | mikebledsoe | So ah, that's ah, just as an example of a collapse distinction and so now now that we all have the awareness of there's something called collapse distinction that exists and the consciousness of Humans. We can then look for collapse distinction and the more distinction you can create successful distinction. That's the expansion of consciousness because we can look at at 1 aspect of consciousness is is built off of our vocabulary which is the structure of our thoughts and or ah the building blocks of our thoughts. Yeah well,, That's a whole. |
| 19:12.29 | Max Shank | Probably most. |
| 19:17.99 | mikebledsoe | We can go down that rabbit hole sometime. Ah, but we should define consciousness. |
| 19:18.70 | Max Shank | I Mean everything that's not instinct everything. That's not instinctual is a artificial creation Thanks to language. |
| 19:27.68 | mikebledsoe | Yes, yes, so 1 of the things that I 1 of the the collapse distinctions I stumbled upon a couple years ago was ah being sensitive and taking things personally so what I noticed is people would say. |
| 19:42.31 | Max Shank | A. |
| 19:47.51 | mikebledsoe | Oh You're just being sensitive when they really meant you're taking it personally I go. They're not being sensitive. They're taking it Personally, they're actually being insensitive by making it about them and so to me taking it personally means that. I am taking whatever is happening in the world and I'm making it mean something about me. Usually it's a very selfish thing to do and or it or it can be in a positive way still be.. You're still taking it personally. |
| 20:09.39 | Max Shank | And usually in a negative way talk totally totally well it well what it is is. It's putting yourself into a victim role and taking it. It. It's funny because it is literally taking you are taking it. |
| 20:24.20 | mikebledsoe | But it's usually negative. |
| 20:34.29 | Max Shank | And you are making it personal to yourself so that you can adopt that victim mentality and take on that victim role which is super effective in getting you attention and I think the word is conflate. You don't want to conflate. |
| 20:43.83 | mikebledsoe | Ahead. |
| 20:50.64 | Max Shank | Being sensitive with taking things personally because being sensitive is actually a huge advantage if you want to be successful in life. It's very useful to be sensitive to all sorts of things and there are all kind of different sensitivity like for. Ah, developing really good feel in your fingertips. You can lay a hair in between 2 pieces of paper and you can try to feel that single hair between the 2 pieces of paper. So If you're trying to become like a body worker having that sensitivity is a huge Advantage. Advantage being sensitive to someone's body language I mean using the 5 senses that's sensitivity you're hearing so sensitivity is crazy superpower if you can pick up on a person's energy. |
| 21:36.50 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 21:45.58 | Max Shank | And dogs are of course good at this because they're not so encumbered by a lot of the language things right? So There's all kinds of senses and sensations and sensitivity that we have that is crazy powerful. Ah so it's important to not conflate that like you said with taking things personally. Which is just like um the crying ego trying to get attention for no reason. |
| 22:09.13 | mikebledsoe | Well that there's this is what is 1 things that made me notice it is people I would hear people go Oh I'm I'm an empath I'm very sensitive and then I hear them talk about their experience of the world and I go. You're just taking everything personally, you may be sensitive if you're both sensitive. And you take things Personally, you're in a bad spot. That's that's a rough life to live like you're picking up on everything and you're making it all mean something about you. That's Hard. So I I Tell people all the time is like people go people go Well, you don't know you're not really that sensitive I go. |
| 22:38.10 | Max Shank | Um, I Totally yeah oh yeah. |
| 22:48.15 | mikebledsoe | Oh I'm very sensitive and and ah and that's why I don't take things personally is because like you're not going to see me get triggered because I know that it's not about me like I It's not that I believe it. It's just I know it's not and so ah. |
| 22:54.47 | Max Shank | Um, right. |
| 23:07.22 | mikebledsoe | The way that people are treating me all this I was like it has nothing to do with me. It has it's it's them and it's if you can be both sensitive and you don't take things personally now that's a superpower. But if you're somebody who's sensitive and then you tend to make everything that you're perceiving about you. |
| 23:19.56 | Max Shank | Agreed. |
| 23:26.88 | mikebledsoe | You're you're on the opposite end you're fucked. So I think a lot of people. They don't know how to not take things personally so they end up trying to desensitize themselves because it's just too much. |
| 23:39.70 | Max Shank | Yeah, Wow. It's so true and I think subconsciously um some people want that they want to take on that role. It's like ah some people like to whip and some people like to be whipped and. |
| 23:53.85 | mikebledsoe | Here. |
| 23:57.53 | Max Shank | You know if you don't have a physical whip handy. Maybe you can just engage in a little psychological self-torture anytime. So it's it's fascinating and I've never heard that collapsed distinction before. |
| 24:03.47 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah. |
| 24:12.23 | mikebledsoe | Okay, okay. |
| 24:14.74 | Max Shank | I Think conflate means something almost similar like you either. It's like you confuse and combine words I'm pretty sure that's what it is yeah come. |
| 24:21.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well yeah, um, yeah, maybe I need to I need to look it up. |
| 24:28.44 | Max Shank | combine it's combine 2 or more ideas or words into 1 Yeah. |
| 24:30.82 | mikebledsoe | Perfect I think that's that's good. Um, the reason I used the words collapse distinction I've not heard I've heard it from a couple people it's not widely used. Um I like it because ah, there's an opposite to collapse distinction which is just. |
| 24:40.26 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 24:49.52 | mikebledsoe | Distinction whereas like conflate. It's like well what's what's the opposite of that. There's what what happens after we stop conflating whereas with ah with a collapse distinction I go Well, there's distinction and then there's collapse distinction. So ah. |
| 24:49.52 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 24:54.91 | Max Shank | Specific right? Distinction. We really should do a whole topic on language 1 of these days because that's 1 of the roots of pretty much every problem a person has right. |
| 25:07.98 | mikebledsoe | Anyways. |
| 25:20.26 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 25:23.42 | Max Shank | You know, even Ecker tolly would say you know there there are no problems. There are only situations and all of this is just based on how we frame our experience with language and the whole concept of semantic precision which is using language. Where both parties agree on the definition. That's where most miscommunication happens like my my feeling in the world is like I Just want to like yell stop to everybody I Just want to like put my hands up and be like hey whoa. I Think there's been a misunderstanding whoa This got out of hand like I think we're just not understanding each other properly. You know. |
| 26:04.26 | mikebledsoe | Um, well. |
| 26:12.25 | mikebledsoe | That's ninety Nine point nine percent of the time. Yeah I mean I if you I and and the phrase that drives me nuts to someone someone goes. Oh that's just semantics and I go what. |
| 26:25.68 | Max Shank | That's the only tools we have to argue you want a fist fight. That's all we got. |
| 26:28.19 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah people you're like oh that's just semantics I'm like I'm like whoa whoa Whoa If you're somebody who goes that's just semantics and you are likely missing you. You actually don't know what's happening in the world like in you, you not can be able to communicate it. |
| 26:42.45 | Max Shank | Well, you don't even know what's happening you don't even know what's happening within your own structure of your own ideas because the whole purpose is to get both parties to agree on what the definitions are so that you can have a distinct. Discourse or a precise discourse where everybody's like yes, this is what conflate means this is what collapse distinction means this is what love means you know like even even in something like marriage right? You know people are so nebulous with ah. What they're looking for in a relationship and then they're like I'm not getting what I want. It's like well did you specifically ask and did the other person agree to that and they're like well no, it's like embarrassing and I'm like oh well, um you you brought this on yourself like yeah, right is. |
| 27:33.53 | mikebledsoe | Good luck, Good luck with life. Ah. |
| 27:39.25 | Max Shank | It's so brutal I mean that's why like a lot of the first language was um, keeping tally of agreements like the most of the the um ancient texts are like. |
| 27:45.70 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 27:54.60 | Max Shank | I don't know I'm going to show my ignorance here I don't exactly know. But I think it's like sumerian or something like that where it's like you know Bob smith that's not the name like but Bob smith owes you know Joe blow 3 cattles and a bushel of. You know acorns or something like that I don't know I'm not super hip with it. But that's basically what the first what the oldest written language we have is. |
| 28:14.42 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, right I got I give you my daughter and exchange you get me 2 walks and fifty had a goats and yeah. |
| 28:22.20 | Max Shank | Ah, right right? Fifty Silver so shekels or something like that. |
| 28:32.66 | mikebledsoe | Ah, all right? Let's let's bring it back to the rhythm when we got off on a language tangent which is great because I actually think we'll we'll likely do that a lot in the future and I already wrote down the put language and all that for the for the next next episode let's get back to rhythm. Um I'll bring it back in. |
| 28:43.35 | Max Shank | Yeah, should just make that our next 1 come come nice and prepared. Yeah, so. |
| 28:52.47 | mikebledsoe | Little bit of a hard left. But I think it's necessary ah is ah 1 of my buddies he once we once got started talking about cycles. So we if we talk about um I think about seasons and cycles when I think about rhythm and. |
| 28:56.00 | Max Shank | It's good time. |
| 29:06.88 | Max Shank | Um, threat. |
| 29:12.21 | mikebledsoe | Ah, because I think sometimes when I just think about rhythm by itself I think about a song.. There's a there's a beginning and an end and there's ah a cadence but with seasons of course it's circular and ah so it's it's predictable over and over and over again. But. I think we can all see the four seasons and ah so my buddy brought this to my attention. At 1 point he goes. Okay so you have your daily cycle and then you have your like if we look at real cycles in nature outside of ourselves We have the sun. The. |
| 29:43.79 | Max Shank | Sun Moon. Yeah. |
| 29:48.71 | mikebledsoe | Lunar cycles which is about 13 of them in a year um which basically the gregorian our calendar is totally fucked but um, it's not lined up with nature necessarily. Ah so it's close. |
| 30:03.30 | Max Shank | It's pretty close with the solar cycle. What propose a better 1 mike ah I'll meet with you 3 moons from now. |
| 30:07.40 | mikebledsoe | They have to make it Well we talk about that later, but ah, um, you could just go off the moon but the the yeah but ah, well, there's the Mayan calendar which is which follows the lunar cycles. So I know someone who runs their business Ho The lunar. |
| 30:21.99 | Max Shank | The. |
| 30:26.94 | mikebledsoe | Have the Mayan calendar but ah, she's far out there? Yeah yeah, yeah. |
| 30:29.72 | Max Shank | It's pretty far out I like it I think you got to respect those cycles I think temp I think tempo um and cycles are are very similar I don't think tempo or Rhythm necessarily means a song i. |
| 30:43.44 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 30:45.82 | Max Shank | Have this time time is illusion but Tempo is real is this sort of thing I have going on in the back of my head because the whole concept of linear time is just based on our singular perception of it and our memory are. |
| 30:48.96 | mikebledsoe | A b. |
| 31:02.24 | mikebledsoe | Me. |
| 31:04.46 | Max Shank | That's that's all it is memory and prediction. That's our only evidence that there is a such thing as time but the tempo of these different things like the sun and the moon and the seasons those are very concrete and they're circular. They're not. |
| 31:21.89 | mikebledsoe | Right? Yeah, so we got we got the sun. We got the moon and then you you start expanding out into the universe and there's there's a cycle happening in our our well just in the cosmos in general and then you get down to you know I think it's easier to see in women. They have their. |
| 31:22.55 | Max Shank | Ah, linear. What. |
| 31:41.34 | Max Shank | And. |
| 31:41.68 | mikebledsoe | Monthly cycle. That's happening internally and you know their training and their nutrition is going to shift based on you know if you're an athlete will will shift based on those things and and. |
| 31:52.95 | Max Shank | They usually leave them out of studies. A lot of scientific studies. They cut women out of because they have the huge change during a monthly cycle which is fascinating. |
| 31:56.41 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 32:02.43 | mikebledsoe | I think men have I think it's a seventy 2 day cycle that is more subtle so it's over a longer period of time and it's not so drasstic. So just not as noticeable. |
| 32:09.67 | Max Shank | Are. |
| 32:16.85 | Max Shank | That explains why I've been so grumpy this I think I'm on I think I'm on my man period. |
| 32:21.21 | mikebledsoe | I've had that happen I go ah, that's right? Ah so I look at these cycles and look at the seasons and and 1 of the things that really ah I really started appreciating my thirty s and I actually think living on the water. And san diego in a house that had a lot of ah, a lot of natural light helped me understand the seasons much better. 1 is being on the water allowed me to see the sun move across the sky I watched the sunset almost every day. |
| 32:45.00 | Max Shank | And. |
| 32:57.60 | mikebledsoe | And so it moved from from North to south and south to North ah across the west coast ah line and then it also was you know in the in the middle of the Summer. It's nine zero pm or little later setting and in the winter I mean it's four fifty and it's dark outside. |
| 33:10.59 | Max Shank | Okay. That was a great house. |
| 33:15.89 | mikebledsoe | And great house and I miss it. Ah and it was during that time that I really started honoring the seasons because prior to that I was. When I was living in memphis tennessee and I was running the gym like I was up at the gym at 6 a m no matter what time of year it was and I was under fluorescent lights. There was no I was killing all the natural cycles and and I wasn't done till nine zero p m and I'd get home and and everything was the same. |
| 33:45.22 | Max Shank | Are. |
| 33:52.36 | mikebledsoe | All the time and I was worn out and I didn't know why and then a few years into living in the San diego in this environment and I noticed that I worked less in the winter a lot less like probably half half the amount of time during the day in the winter I would I noticed that I would. Consume weed at night in the winter and and I would do movement at night and then when it started getting warm in the summer I would do my movement sober in the morning and so like I I now adopt that so in in the winter I start I train in the evenings and. |
| 34:15.80 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 34:20.48 | Max Shank | Um, her. |
| 34:29.54 | mikebledsoe | Summer I trained the mornings so I just witnessed my personal preferences based on I really got sensitive I was practicing sensitivity to the season and I also noticed that and in the summertime there's more parties it. |
| 34:29.63 | Max Shank | Interesting. |
| 34:38.57 | Max Shank | And. |
| 34:46.69 | mikebledsoe | Ah, people are celebrating um I work a lot more I stay up later I get less sleep I get like 7 hours of sleep on average in the summer and the winter I'm getting 8 and a half to nine and I go to less parties and I I read more in the winter. It's the winners all about reflection. |
| 34:53.36 | Max Shank | A. |
| 35:05.56 | mikebledsoe | About consuming. It's about resting and and more of just being and the spring hits and it's like oh you know I'm starting I'm almost tired of doing little and reflecting I've learned a lot I've reflected on what happened last year I'm ready to kick this year's ass and you spring in the action. And in the summer you're rolling and then the fall you know is the harvest and and by you know it's october now. So now. My experience is ah is I'm going oh man I'm so glad the parties are ending. So glad the sun's going down early because. |
| 35:39.14 | Max Shank | Simply. |
| 35:42.79 | mikebledsoe | I'm really feeling the desire to read and reflect and and get more sleep right now and so having that sensitivity to the seasons has really allowed me to ah just in all areas of my life. You know we can look at business and then the winner is just as wait. |
| 35:48.58 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 36:02.40 | mikebledsoe | I've got a lot more strategy going on. There's less less doing and in the summer it's you know you know? Um, um, there's a lot more execution happening and less strategy. So it's um, it's welcome and it's enjoyable and it keeps me interested in life. |
| 36:12.35 | Max Shank | And. |
| 36:19.55 | mikebledsoe | Having those seasons. |
| 36:21.69 | Max Shank | There's some wisdom there too and I see wisdom as knowing yourself and acting accordingly and it sounds like you are really honoring your natural tendencies rather than fighting your natural tendencies because. Whether it's a macro cycle like ah the periods in your life where we're going to be at different places right? I mean I'm um, I'm in a pretty different place now at 34 than I was at 21 right? I'm in a different kind of position and different situation. |
| 36:52.10 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 36:58.52 | Max Shank | And even throughout the day. Everybody's going to have a different rhythm to when they're feeling more energized when they're um, more likely to do a certain type of work I mean I've fought it for a long time because I. Want to be on a Circadian rhythm but actually I do my most interesting creative work at night when it's quiet and you know I would I love ah the idea of going to bed at 8 o'clock and waking up at four o'clock and when I do that. |
| 37:21.69 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 37:32.90 | mikebledsoe | They have. |
| 37:36.64 | Max Shank | Get even less done. It's it's just way worse. So ah, you know I'm good I always turn the screens off at 8 o'clock but I don't necessarily go to bed around that time and that makes a huge difference. So anyway back to what I said about. |
| 37:45.42 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think I mean for me the way I The the way hit me for that is I I just I turn my screens off when the sun goes down so it's like instead of it instead of it being at a specific time I go Oh it's getting. |
| 37:59.56 | Max Shank | That's even better. Yeah. |
| 38:05.21 | mikebledsoe | Dark I try to live in homes where it's natural light during the day and I'm not using any artificial light. So when the sun goes down it becomes obvious. |
| 38:07.92 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 38:13.30 | Max Shank | Well and it's that built in rest from those things right? I mean what is it even god rested once a week even god rested on Sundays or something like that and to use ah a fitness analogy. Um, you can't you can't sprint. |
| 38:21.37 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 38:32.91 | Max Shank | All out all the time. All you're going to do is make the result worse and start running a lot slower. So if you ride the waves you're going to get a lot more out of it and you're going to expend way less energy doing it. You know if like. I'll use jumping as an example, if I had you jump a Hundred times by the hundredth jump if you did it all in a row. It would be horrible looking jumping a Hundred times really high. But if I had jump 3 times every minute. Like you could probably do thirty minutes of jumping and be a little better and even 1 step ahead of that if I had to do 3 jumps every minute for ten minutes three times a day then it's going to be even better than that. So this whole idea of trying to grind through. Rather than draw some boundaries and set yourself up so you can ride that momentum I mean look the reality is like you don't even have to do that many things to be wildly. Successful. But you can do it the the hard way or you can do it the easy way. And if you respect those rhythms and respect your nature It's so much easier, but that does require that ability to see the big picture which is the visionary mode and then also get into the the craftsmanship mode. |
| 40:03.87 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, there's a word you use that I find to be very important that is boundaries and most people have very poor boundaries. You're good. You're good. You're good at the boundaries I'm a lot better. |
| 40:09.52 | Max Shank | I Am That's my best skill I got the fastest know in the west I'm good. Yeah some people call that unfriendly. |
| 40:22.52 | mikebledsoe | Ah, max du an asshole. Ah yeah I've had people in my life. You know they'll they'll be like if he doesn't want to do it. He's not going to do it or if I do want to do something I'm going to do it. |
| 40:26.50 | Max Shank | I Just I just love myself. That's all. |
| 40:36.70 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 40:40.77 | mikebledsoe | It's It's more about like negotiate like if I'm know whoever I'm dating so turns into a negotiation about how it's going to happen versus if it's going to happen or whatever it is or not going to happen. Yeah, so. |
| 40:49.80 | Max Shank | If you can't say no, it's not negotiation. Can't walk away. It's no negotiation at all. |
| 40:58.85 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, but I think the boundaries conversation. You know I see there's internal boundaries and external boundaries and people are constantly crossing their internal boundaries. There. You know they go Oh I'm going to turn off my screens when the sun goes down or or whatever it is and then they don't do it or I'm going to stop. You know, binge watching television and cracking a beer when I get off work and they just cross that boundary and over and over again. They end up hating themselves for it usually projecting that anger on to you know their job or a relationship or yeah to kick the dog or whatever it is and. |
| 41:20.73 | Max Shank | The. |
| 41:30.99 | Max Shank | Take the dog right. |
| 41:37.84 | mikebledsoe | So There's like the the setting and the maintaining of boundaries is really really Important. Ah for for growth and the way I look at it is if we study archetypes if we look at like masculine archetypes the King sets the boundaries. The King has a kingdom. And says these are the edges of my kingdom. This is what I will and will not do and this is these are the rules that we live by in my kingdom but the warrior their job is to maintain those boundaries and so what I see a lot of a lot of men who end up in this like really flowy place is they have no boundaries. |
| 41:59.26 | Max Shank | The. |
| 42:06.10 | Max Shank | Is. |
| 42:15.17 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 42:16.66 | mikebledsoe | Because they're there even if they want to have boundaries their warrior is so weak that they they just fold to their internal boundaries all the time and so there's a lot of guys running around acting tough who have zero warrior energy being directed at. |
| 42:23.67 | Max Shank | And. |
| 42:36.24 | mikebledsoe | Ah, maintaining boundaries and so ah and if you can't maintain your internal boundaries. You're not going to maintain healthy external boundaries and a lot of people on the external boundary side people. They don't um. |
| 42:36.94 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 42:55.35 | mikebledsoe | First off, most people don't communicate their boundaries as boundaries. They may communicate it but they don't use the word boundaries I find that if I use the word boundary with somebody it catches their attention they go. Oh he's being serious because it's just not a common word and ah so external boundaries usually aren't communicated. |
| 42:57.31 | Max Shank | Um, right right? Yeah, ah. |
| 43:15.70 | mikebledsoe | And again someone else crosses our external boundary. What happens if you cross my external boundary and I didn't communicate it to you I usually get angry. You know people get angry. They're like but the fuck and you're going what happened I don't know um and so ah. |
| 43:24.91 | Max Shank | Lash out and right off. |
| 43:33.37 | mikebledsoe | Learning to communicate boundaries effectively All the time will create a lot of respect from other people and it keeps things really really clean and if something if something does need to shift in a relationship and you've been communicating the boundary as being broken over and over and over again. |
| 43:41.73 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 43:52.36 | mikebledsoe | And it's an easier thing to to satisfy to to move away from it's like oh we have Ah, we've documented that this boundary's been crossed a dozen times like you're not honoring my boundariary. So yeah, we're gonna We're gonna shift this relationship. |
| 43:58.12 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 44:06.80 | Max Shank | Well and you draw your own line of what you're going to tolerate or not and it's It's fine to compromise as long as you know what? you're getting for what you're giving. Um I think I think fasting is really good for drawing those boundaries. |
| 44:16.22 | mikebledsoe | Now. Yeah. |
| 44:24.55 | Max Shank | I mean I don't want to label myself. Um, but I usually don't have 1 of something I have like zero of something or I have lots of that something and I think fasting is really good for drawing. |
| 44:37.27 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 44:44.12 | Max Shank | That critical boundary of your intake and I made a little video about it and I talked about how the main benefit of fasting to me is going from um, compulsive to conscious behavior and that's. |
| 44:59.49 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 45:03.69 | Max Shank | Really at the core of what we're talking about and when I was on this other show I got asked like what's the way to get rich and I said deferred gratification and they said anything else I'm like not really like if you're able to defer gratification until later and you provide something. Valuable. It'll it'll eventually work out if you can see the big picture and stay focused then the other stuff will sort of happen organically I think and look you can go. We can go into way more detail as far as how to get rich and stay rich which would maybe be another. Good topic for a show because we have similar but different similar similar and different strategies on that. Um. |
| 45:41.79 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah, like that 1 |
| 45:48.37 | mikebledsoe | Well I've ah ah we we come from. We have different personalities when it comes to our approaches to business and wealth building but we also have agreement on a lot of Concepts so it'd be. It'd be interesting. |
| 45:56.90 | Max Shank | Totally right. Right? Yeah, it flows so easy. |
| 46:07.20 | mikebledsoe | I Mean that's why we have these conversations because we we've come to. We've come to similar conclusions from different points of view all right. We'll do the get rich stay rich. |
| 46:18.58 | Max Shank | That's that's what we like about other people too. We like that they're different but similar right? Um I think for tying this rhythm thing back into business I think the value of. |
| 46:21.24 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 46:35.58 | Max Shank | Putting together a campaign is quite valuable and having it be. You know I'm not just like doing x y and z all day every day there's the visionary comes up with this plan and then we have this. Execution that lies on a bit of ah, a tempo or a cycle. So like let's say you and I were going to start a new business and we didn't set any boundaries for when we're going to, um, you know do the brain. Swarming I call it I don't I don't call it brainstorming I call it brain swarming like it's everything all these different things kind of coming together and moving as a unified unit. But if we don't have like a stop for that phase. And think it's easy to imagine that you and I would just stay in Dreamland brainswarming forever and be like oh and what if we did this and what if we did that and if you have this sort of tempo. For that campaign where it's like first we're going to do this and then we're going to build and then we're going to delegate and then we're going to build and then this is going to be our follow up tempo and touch points and that's the same thing with coaching is how often am I going to touch base. How often am I going to reach out to you. What's our. |
| 47:57.70 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 48:01.79 | Max Shank | But's our tempo for it and for me weekly is really good. For example in my experience. That's the best of course if you have someone who can check in with you every single day. That's probably going to give you an even better result. Something like coaching hey you know how to go Yesterday. What's the plan today boom boom boom and you kind of work through it and clearly that there's a benefit to that. Otherwise no 1 would need a coach but the reality is ah. |
| 48:27.78 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 48:39.25 | Max Shank | Ah, Coach often gets you to do something. You know you should. |
| 48:40.62 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, I also see the the necessity for creating our own you know and I think about this I think about creating your own structure because that creating that rhythm that tempo is a structure. Um and is. |
| 48:50.59 | Max Shank | So. |
| 48:57.64 | mikebledsoe | I Think there's also why coaching is is becoming really important right now is because more and more as as the world decentralizes people are becoming more and more responsible for their own schedule and you know we saw this with Covid people started working from home and there was. |
| 49:09.16 | Max Shank | Um, now that's tough. |
| 49:17.50 | mikebledsoe | Ah, go oh wow people. Ah first I was like people probably won't work that much and then I start hearing reports that people are working way more because there's no boundary set up for them like oh you show up to work at this time and then you leave work and so they were just like working all the time at home like whoa and so um. |
| 49:22.17 | Max Shank | M. |
| 49:31.56 | Max Shank | Well. |
| 49:37.50 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, there's a lot of factors there. But as the Covid just sped things up. They were already there which is the world is decentralizing more people are going to work from home. There's gonna be more freelancers less employees and like more contractors and if you're a freelancer. |
| 49:38.78 | Max Shank | What and the. |
| 49:49.90 | Max Shank | The and. |
| 49:55.76 | mikebledsoe | 1 of the beauties of being a freelancer is you have control of your own schedule and that is a new thing for people. |
| 50:07.14 | Max Shank | I've always wanted that that was like the really since I was a young kid that was the only thing I wanted is the freedom to live on my own schedule. You know I felt like something was taken away from me as soon as I had to start going to school I'm like this is awful I don't want to do this I Want to go out and play with the stick. |
| 50:13.64 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 50:24.80 | Max Shank | But and I think kind of to borrow your term again. Um, collapsed distinction with the work and home life I think that's 1 of the um. |
| 50:41.47 | Max Shank | Challenges or opportunities for entrepreneurs I've certainly noticed that myself I mean the reality is I I did work tons and tons of hours getting to where I'm at now and that number has significantly decreased as I've gained more skill and drawn better boundaries. But if you. Are suddenly thrown into this scenario where the place you work is the same place that you eat and the same place that you also have a computer where you can see anything anytime you will get that collapsed distinction. Where now everything is just always happening right here at the console I'm working and then I'm in the kitchen eating cookies and then there are boobies on the screen and you're just kind of like this everything everything all at once where you don't have that clear. |
| 51:37.83 | mikebledsoe | Yeah work. |
| 51:38.78 | Max Shank | Distinction of when it's work time and when it's relaxed time and I think that is a very just as valuable. Maybe as being able to consciously rather than compulsively project your thinking into the future project your thinking into the past. |
| 51:45.73 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 51:58.38 | Max Shank | And also bring yourself directly into the here and now and just go for a walk and let your ah conscious mind be alleviated of all of these you know, urgencies and emergencies and problems and all of these labels. We attach to. |
| 52:16.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah now. Yeah. |
| 52:18.18 | Max Shank | Things trying to ask you for your time but you still have the power to draw that boundary and say no. But if you don't if you don't It's game over like people will infringe on your boundaries and they will respond to. However, you train them to respond. |
| 52:35.50 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 52:37.58 | Max Shank | Basically um, which is kind of weird I don't mean that in a derogatory way at all. But you know if someone complains to you and then you respond to them favorably favorably. You're in inviting them to do that more if someone says hey can you can you stay. You know 3 hours late or come in and work on Sunday and you just always say yes, well, they're just going to always ask you to come work on sunday. |
| 53:01.77 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I like the thing about it as you're a character in a movie and or if you've ever studied you know fiction. You know you basically create a character and then the character. Based on their characters how they respond throughout the story or the movies like oh that was it would be weird that'd be at a character of this character if james bond you know, walked away from you know a hot woman. It would be it would be at a character like no james bond like. |
| 53:21.61 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 53:31.11 | Max Shank | That would be out of character right. |
| 53:36.70 | mikebledsoe | He orders a martini. He chats her up at the bar. Ah, and so we are all characters in a movie and we have this script playing all the time and. |
| 53:45.72 | Max Shank | God am I the villain or the hero I'm not even sure if I become a villain I would be a hell of a good Ark though. |
| 53:54.64 | mikebledsoe | And and ah, what ends up happening is people are casting us as characters in their movie and ah if you start making 1 of these changes. For instance, you go you know what? I'm going to shift my character I'm going to develop my character. By creating boundaries that I communicate now it can be jarring for other people because now they have this expectation of the character in which they perceive you to be and now you you aren't that and people tend to dislike change. So Now you're throwing a wrench. |
| 54:20.61 | Max Shank | Um, then again. |
| 54:34.33 | mikebledsoe | And their their consciousness and they go but but but and a lot of times it comes out as Anger or disappointment or whatever it is and so for me I I really make sure that my first impression with people is you know it's an anchor experience. They're now this. Moment in time. How they how they're interacting with me now is how they're gonna end up treating me in the future because changing that over time can be difficult so I'm very good at holding the boundaries from from the very beginning. They know my boundaries. They're not gonna think anything of it. They're not gonna be mad about it. The people are gonna get mad at. |
| 55:06.60 | Max Shank | Like. |
| 55:13.78 | mikebledsoe | My new boundaries are the people who I've already got very established relationships with and now I'm creating something new. |
| 55:16.49 | Max Shank | Well, it's like momentum. Well it's physics right? If you have momentum in a certain way and people expect that certain thing if you change there's going to be a new acceleration or a Jolt and a jerk and that's going to be really uncomfortable. |
| 55:30.96 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, so yeah, and summary for that is it I think a lot of people are going to get out of this is to be more conscious of their internal boundaries external boundaries notice. |
| 55:34.84 | Max Shank | No. |
| 55:49.60 | mikebledsoe | The rhythms that that exist in the world and with themselves and being able to honor that and making those changes to honor your own rhythms and the rhythms of the universe are going to make your life a lot better but in the short term making those changes and and experiencing that. Change in acceleration can be a little jarring and just realizing that hey this short term difficulty and making these ah changes for me and and others will be worth it. Long term because once you get them set and you're rolling life. Gets a lot better. |
| 56:28.43 | Max Shank | I Think it's also yeah I would agree with what you said completely I would also suggest people start timestamping their start and stop times when they're working on stuff and notice for themselves when they're doing their best work. |
| 56:38.56 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 56:44.20 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 56:46.55 | Max Shank | And when things start to deteriorate and you know the whole point of what we're doing really is to liberate people from the false realities that have been programmed into them from a huge variety of sources and it's natural to want to get. Ah, greater effect for less effort. There's nothing more natural than that we want. We want to be as efficient as we possibly can. So if you do respect those boundaries if you do draw those boundaries if you do um draw a clearer. |
| 57:13.90 | mikebledsoe | Me here. |
| 57:22.77 | Max Shank | Distinction rather than a collapse distinction between work rest and play. You're going to get a way way better result with way less effort I mean who would not want to spend less time working but get better results like what? what seems more obvious than that. |
| 57:41.56 | mikebledsoe | Yep. |
| 57:42.70 | Max Shank | But if you don't draw those boundaries. It's basically impossible and you know you can't worry I mean this is easier said than done right? because we're the most social emotional creatures ever. You can't worry what it's going to do for someone else like breaking your own boundaries to make someone else feel better. Is not doing them a favor. It's just willingly participating in your own energy vampireism essentially and I really like the the lore around vampires because it perfectly describes energy vampires too. So with. |
| 58:16.42 | mikebledsoe | Oh. |
| 58:20.20 | Max Shank | Real vampire I was going to say real vam I mean maybe there are who knows with real vampires or the story. They can't come in your house and let see you invite them in with energy vampires. It's exactly the same thing you don't have to let anyone suck any of your energy. Unless you deliberately and directly invite them in so it's very important to just realize how much power is in the word. No. |
| 58:47.28 | mikebledsoe | Someone say it's the most powerful word there is. |
| 58:52.71 | Max Shank | Um I would agree maybe maybe yes Also but yes and yes implies that no is an option. |
| 58:59.29 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, can't have a yes without a no as a possibility I Want to mention in summary I Do want to mention 2 tools that I use that that you made me think of ah is I use a tool called Marduck which is ah. Have my entire business put in there. It's it's ah it's ah the most advanced task management system ever seen I'm go. Ah I'm a Beta user for it. My buddy designed it. We're gonna be rolling that out to my clients. But also if anyone wants to use this. Ah. This software that basically you put your entire business in it and then it tracks how long you're doing certain tasks and helps you focus I would say I've been using it for five months my productivity if I to guess 3 X I work less and get way more done. Um, and I enjoy my work so he he's figured out a way to gamify ah work. So you program it around your business and then it gamifies it and there's rewards and all sorts of stuff. Um, but what I do is with the marduck system when I start a task I hit play and it starts tracking my time. When I hit stop and when when I hit play it closes down all the other things that I need to do that Day. So I'm not getting distracted when I hit stop I Then it prompts me to put in what I did like like a little summary of what I completed and then the difficulty of. On on a number scale of how difficult that task was for me to complete and ah that helps me, um, check you know I'm consciously choosing to do a task and then I I complete it and then I do a check In. Um. |
| 01:00:28.66 | Max Shank | Um, um, how can. |
| 01:00:44.59 | mikebledsoe | And then so I use that tool in combination with another tool called Brain Dot fm. |
| 01:00:46.44 | Max Shank | We should. We should get Marduk to sponsor this episode that was amazing. |
| 01:00:50.94 | mikebledsoe | Oh yeah, thanks. Ah yeah, I'm gonna be slinging some marduck well like I said up. Um I'm giving it to all my clients starting at 2022 ah but anyone even if you're not a client if you want to get access to it. You just dm me on the instagrams. |
| 01:01:00.98 | Max Shank | Cool. |
| 01:01:10.66 | mikebledsoe | And ah, brain fm is the other 1 which is a binaural audio program that basically helps your brain it basically tunes your your brain to the frequency of focus while you're getting stuff done and what I like about brain fm is. There's 30 sixty and ninety minute. Ah. Ah, amount of time you can put on there and so the music just plays helping you focus? Um, and then after thirty sixty or ninety minutes however you program it it stops and that's what I know to take a break and so I noticed that I can do two ninety minute sprints if if I'm working before noon. |
| 01:01:40.48 | Max Shank | Smart. |
| 01:01:47.22 | Max Shank | Who. |
| 01:01:49.70 | mikebledsoe | So I'll do ah a ninety minute sprint and then I'll go make myself some breakfast take a thirty minute break go for a walk come back. Do another ninety minute sprint in the afternoons I like to do sixty minute I can do 1 or 2 sixty minute sprints and then I'm done I'm done for the day and so ah, that's that's been a really great. Those are great tools that have. Help me raise my awareness around what I'm doing how I'm doing it creating boundaries. ah so I'm ah I'm a big fan of I like to say I have very little willpower but I'm hyper ah hyperactive as 1 yeah, but I'm um. |
| 01:02:20.15 | Max Shank | Active. |
| 01:02:25.90 | mikebledsoe | Hyper vigilant around setting up structures and systems to kind of basically I bump into things I go Oh yeah, I'm so it's a stop right now. Otherwise I just keep going. Oh yeah, thank you, Thank you. |
| 01:02:37.74 | Max Shank | That's wisdom. That's knowing yourself and acting accordingly. That's really smart. That's very wise. Yeah, you bet. |
| 01:02:45.68 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, anything else you want to mention in summary for the show. |
| 01:02:49.00 | Max Shank | No love you. Love you guys. Thanks for listening draw good boundaries and don't fight the flow ride the wave. |
| 01:02:59.60 | mikebledsoe | Dope you can find max at ma shk dot com and everything ma shk and then find me at ah mike underscore Bloodso on Instagram and the strongcoach dot com on the interwebs. Thanks y ' all. |
| 01:03:04.90 | Max Shank | That's it. |
| 00:02.80 | mikebledsoe | Fear and goals this comes up a lot lot of people are I talk to people all the time and who are interested in developing themselves and 1 the common things that come up is. Yeah, ask them. You know what's holding you back from you reaching your goals right now and they'll be they'll just say fear or go. Oh well, what are you afraid of and ah and then they go oh I haven't thought that far. Ah. And so we start naming them off. So ah I'm excited to talk about today's topic which max suggested which is fear and goals identifying fierce sateers of goals. So ah, oh oh. |
| 00:53.44 | Max Shank | Spoiler alert there's only 1 fear. |
| 00:58.74 | mikebledsoe | We're not going to tell you what it is until the very end though so you got to stick around. |
| 01:00.38 | Max Shank | Ah, it's not much of a spoiler alert thing. Is it. |
| 01:06.12 | mikebledsoe | Ah, the no no, it's not. |
| 01:10.75 | Max Shank | It'll make sense too. Once I say it people you'd be like oh yeah, of course, there's only 1 thing that we're really afraid of. |
| 01:15.70 | mikebledsoe | Ah, so what we were talking just before we hopped on about people feeling safe and how most people in order to feel safe try to make enough money and if I make enough money then I'll feel safe. You know then I'll be able to live a good life and then ah people make the money and then you know now they they realize that they're responsible for their own health or their own physical protection and so they start investing in that next. Ah, but ah, the way I think about it is you know you can always just decide to feel safe and then because there's always gonna be something to do next in order to feel safer. |
| 02:10.92 | Max Shank | It's kind of the it's there's a parallel between how evolution first ah like prioritized armor in fish like bony. Armored fish and then they just got faster and faster so speed was king and since we have this pretty far out ability if you pardon the pun to see pretty far out into the future. The. Fastest speed ever is preemptive. So once you settle or um, swaddle maybe like 1 fear you like make yourself feel safe. Then you just think forward on to the next 1 and usually the people who make the biggest waves in their lives are the ones who are never satisfied with where they're at they're thinking on to the next thing and on to the next thing and on to the next thing and I mean I was definitely that way. It was always. Onto the next thing and once you get ah 1 thing ah locked in because that's what people really want because we can think forward. We think like okay if I have this much money for retirement then I'm like locked in to safety if I get married then I'm locked in. To a romantic relationship and you know you have all of these ideas. So um, security can span usually does span. Well beyond security in the present moment which is really just a reflexive reaction to danger rather than fear which is a preemptive prediction of what could happen in the future. |
| 04:09.93 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, because it's not true until it happens so fear fear is and is born out of imagination. |
| 04:15.88 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 04:21.58 | Max Shank | Right? And it's effective to preempt um situations like so a squirrel saving nuts for the winter is making a prediction of how many extra nuts to save up. In order to go through the season where there aren't going to be any growing on the trees. So. It's effective and that's like ah I heard this term the other day about attention Deficit which is a warrior. |
| 04:42.43 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, the. |
| 04:56.47 | Max Shank | In a farmer's world or maybe a hunter in a farmer's world and I thought that was I thought that was 1 of the best ways I've ever heard it described it just says so much you know a lot of folks who would be amazing hunters like as soon as they see the tracks. |
| 05:03.69 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, that makes sense. |
| 05:14.99 | Max Shank | They're on it and they won't let go of that track and they'll just grind through and push and keep walking and keep going and hunt that thing down Maybe don't have the patience to hoe a field and like plant a bunch of seeds and you know plan that whole thing ahead. |
| 05:26.63 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 05:32.49 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah, not projecting as far out into the future I was listening to a guy guy named Matt john vervacki he did a a youtube series of sixty 1 hour lectures and I forget. |
| 05:33.78 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 05:51.27 | mikebledsoe | Something about the meaning crisis is the name of the lectures and he talks about just the word project comes from projectile. Yeah, like the the hunters when they got they evolved far enough to start being able to go. |
| 05:52.89 | Max Shank | A. Project. |
| 06:11.27 | mikebledsoe | This target is moving in this direction at this speed and I must predict where it'll be as I let go of my spear and project it into the future because once you let it go. You know it's gonna land in the future and I was really. |
| 06:21.30 | Max Shank | Who. |
| 06:27.88 | Max Shank | Love it. |
| 06:30.79 | mikebledsoe | Really really fascinating as he said was saying that I go and the word project is used in business to with a series of targets in which you're going to hit to accomplish a specific goal at the end and I go man. This is so brilliant So he's so spot on. So. |
| 06:42.60 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 06:50.32 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, hearing you talk about? ah yeah, projecting in the future made me think of that. |
| 06:57.21 | Max Shank | That's 1 of the most challenging things for people today I think is to be an active participant in selecting their time period that they're going to be in so you have ah the crystal ball which is projecting forward. You have the. |
| 07:07.55 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 07:14.84 | Max Shank | Book on the wall which is looking backward and then you have Baba ramdas be here now and then the future and the past just dissolve into this moment and if you're able to, um. Consciously instead of compulsively choose where you are then you're essentially some sort of superhuman. You know if you're constantly in the future. You're probably going to be in a very anxious individual. And you're not going to experience a lot of peace but you may. |
| 07:50.10 | mikebledsoe | Or or you could be just ah, a lazy daydreamer if you if it's a positive if if you're thinking about things positive in the future all time. But you're not taking the action in order to make it happen right now. That's not gonna you know. |
| 07:54.81 | Max Shank | Yeah, that's true. |
| 08:05.43 | Max Shank | Right? I I think dwelling. Yeah well, it's ah anxiety is like a fixation or you're stuck in the future depression is usually you're stuck in the past |
| 08:07.65 | mikebledsoe | That happened I seen that happen a lot too. But most people get anxiety. |
| 08:22.22 | mikebledsoe | Okay, in. |
| 08:24.78 | Max Shank | And everything's a gradient right? Everything is absolutely relative to your experience which is a funny term that I like absolutely relative but I like the I like the I never thought of ah project and projectile which is funny because it reminds me of. |
| 08:39.26 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 08:43.46 | Max Shank | 1 of my favorite scenes in any movie ever which is in 2001 a space odyssey where the Monkey man learns that when he's holding the bone in his hand and when it falls it creates like a bigger impact in the pile of bones. |
| 08:47.94 | mikebledsoe | Where. |
| 09:03.20 | Max Shank | And it's this dawning realization that there's an extension of his ah will let's say through the bone that increases the level of Impact. So What's funny is um. Like chimpanzees ah fight a lot. A lot is also relative. But what's interesting is when they're doing ah a display of a oh yeah. |
| 09:29.66 | mikebledsoe | They have full on wars between the tribes. Not not just 2 champions chimpanzees fighting. There's like a tribe over here in a tribe over there and they go to war and they'll eat each other or bit bit cannibalistic as well. |
| 09:37.83 | Max Shank | Ah, it's gnarly. Ah, oh yeah, yeah, cannibalism is not reserved for humans Apparently a lot of animals do that and not just the female. |
| 09:49.49 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 09:56.87 | Max Shank | Eating the male after mating which is crazy common too. Anyway, my point if I. |
| 10:04.16 | mikebledsoe | Thank God I'm human that's not and that's not I might have to be afraid of my girlfriend eating me. |
| 10:08.91 | Max Shank | No, no, no, they don't they don't like literally eat you. They just ah and I I'll save that for I won't offend our last 3 female listeners. |
| 10:16.58 | mikebledsoe | Ah, you. |
| 10:23.52 | Max Shank | Ah, ah so anyway, the chimps they during displays of dominance will pick up huge tree branches and swing them around like they can hold it in their hand. They'll swing and they'll It'll be like Holy Lord that. |
| 10:34.81 | mikebledsoe | So a. |
| 10:42.88 | Max Shank | Monkey that chimp just swung a fucking like 4 by 4 sized cylindrical log through the air with insane speed but they never hit each other with a stick that. Amount that amount of extension. Ah cerebrally doesn't exist for them. So even to go from hand to stick to projectile is a huge ah extension of your will. |
| 11:20.67 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, someone call that expansion of consciousness. So yeah man I'm not the guy who wrote power versus force remember him what's his name man he had a quote which is ah. |
| 11:20.94 | Max Shank | Into the future. |
| 11:28.70 | Max Shank | It's a good word for it. Yeah. |
| 11:33.21 | Max Shank | No. |
| 11:39.94 | mikebledsoe | Ah, there is no passage of time. There's only an expansion of consciousness and something to it's so it's a good. It's a good meditative quote to consider I've found. Ah so I'm curious since we're gonna be talking about. |
| 11:43.40 | Max Shank | So. |
| 11:50.81 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 11:58.83 | mikebledsoe | Talk about fears and goals and you and I are both 1 of the reasons we do. This show is because you and I have both accomplished a lot of goals. You know, a lot of people set out to do things and they don't do them I know that you and I have both set out to accomplish goals failed out them. We've also succeeded at them and then realized we didn't want the thing that we thought we wanted but it was good that we accomplished the goal so we could learn that we didn't care about that. Ah, and so we've gotten very good at reaching goals which means that we've also. Been able to overcome a lot of fears in the process. So I'm curious for you. You know I'd love to know what your biggest fear was as you were developing as a young man and you were trying to achieve goals. What was the thing that. |
| 12:50.39 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 12:55.65 | mikebledsoe | I know what mine is I'm wondering if you you know, but that there was like 1 primary fear that that held you back maybe in business or in athletics or something like that. |
| 13:04.80 | Max Shank | I mean I actually just wrote them all down the other day um, trying to trace him back as far as I can't for me, it was ah the fear that I I wouldn't be like physically safe. Um. |
| 13:09.32 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 13:19.60 | mikebledsoe | Um. |
| 13:23.19 | Max Shank | The other thing was ah, not not being good enough I think these are really common fears but they'll relate back to the same ah single point of fear which is ah the death of the ego. The reason people fear their physical death is because they fear the the death of the Ego. So when people are afraid of Judgment. They're afraid of what that means for their story for their ego when they're so everything relates back to. |
| 13:53.14 | mikebledsoe | So that. |
| 13:59.60 | Max Shank | Can you move past the fear that the story of you will be harmed in some way so 1 of the things I've noticed is that. |
| 14:10.22 | mikebledsoe | What do? what do we want to do we want to find ego sounds like you've given it somewhat of a definition and I know that when people hear ego. There's cool I like that I. |
| 14:19.26 | Max Shank | Let's just call it. The story. The story of you Yeah, your identity your identity your self image story of you So when you're thinking about like how do I protect myself physically. Yes, That's a natural instinct and it's also because the thought of not existing is like really scary to the ego I mean the reason people want to be good. Parents is they want to be thought of as good parents and they want to set up their loved ones. But it all it all relates back. To the fear of the identity being tarnished and that leads back to ancient cultures where it was thought of as way worse to be exiled than it was to be killed and you can even look at ah. Less ancient cultures where you know they have hara kiri where if you you know, shame your family or shame yourself you you disembowel yourself with a samurai sword and your buddy will chop off your head as an act of Mercy. After that just to make sure the job gets done and that's a way that you don't bring shame to your entire lineage so that multigenerational or intergenerational ego or identity is preserved even though the life. Of the physical body of that individual. Um, you know was caught in momentary shame and that's how you sort of save Face. So. It's really interesting to see what lengths human beings will go to to preserve. Story They'll kill themselves. They'll kill other people. Um, yeah, you know how dare those other guys believe in a different deity than us We have to kill them. |
| 16:15.63 | mikebledsoe | They'll kill for it. Yeah. |
| 16:31.83 | Max Shank | What. |
| 16:31.85 | mikebledsoe | Ah, you said 1 thing which was you had a fear of not good enough I've always thought about that fear I come across that a lot in coaching and you know it's a good blanket because it that is the phrase. That runs through someone's mind I'm like oh I'm not good enough to curious what you didn't feel like you would like what are the things you were afraid you were not going to be good enough at you weren't going to be good enough to do what. |
| 16:58.59 | Max Shank | Well initially I just struggled really hard with school I mean I almost got held back in several grades I failed Classes. You know I'd be there sitting in the desk just fucking suffering. Thinking back to the old days where I could just run around outside and play with a stick then you know ah not being able to pay attention and so I would get really bad grades and really Behind. On everything so I was just always behind um with regard to what I thought was everybody else learning all these things that you know I was made to believe were were really important. Of course that's not. Not really the case like memorizing factoids and obeying Authority turns out is not actually that useful for overall overall life Success. So. |
| 18:03.85 | mikebledsoe | That's not learning. Yeah well 1 of the things I I tell people early and in my courses is learning has been Misrepresented. You were. You weren't actually taught how to learn you were taught how to I don't I leave the obey part out because I don't want to trigger people too bad, but ah, not early on but why I like that it's it's a gradual trigger system. You know I start with like 1 that they can palate and then. |
| 18:28.49 | Max Shank | You don't want to trigger people too bad. That's funny. |
| 18:40.50 | mikebledsoe | Make it palatable. Yeah. |
| 18:40.53 | Max Shank | It's like Scientology. It's like scientology at first it's like you just got to get your thinking clear and then level 10 is like the evil alien overlord is making you sad and you're like whoa. If you had talked about this on day 1 I might not have stuck around. |
| 18:56.50 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, Ah, but you know ah in in our education system people are taught that being able to memorize and regurgitate is learning and so they. People become adults and they listen to podcasts and they make notes and they think they're learning but you don't you didn't learn anything until you've actually gotten the benefit of the learning which is you've changed a behavior. So I I like to define learning as Behavior change. |
| 19:29.51 | Max Shank | And. |
| 19:34.38 | mikebledsoe | I Don't want to hear from any of my students that you learn something until you've done it because until then it's still just an idea in just because it came from me doesn't mean it's right, You got to test it out for yourself. |
| 19:43.99 | Max Shank | Oh man I couldn't agree with that more because not only that if you don't apply something even if you did learn it and use it once. It's not going to stay I mean that's 1 of the it's probably an advantage. Um, emotionally that we don't remember every single thing that happened to us all the time if you take in some information and use it 1 time.. It's probably not going to really permeate into your identity or into your life. It's only the stuff that you use with some regularity that stays in the in the tool belt which is what you have access to all the time. |
| 20:28.47 | mikebledsoe | You know all right? So you you fell you weren't gonna be good enough. You didn't do well in school. |
| 20:35.44 | Max Shank | Yeah, so I mean the main thing really was just I didn't feel ah safe financially and you know we got foreclosed on evicted a couple times and bumped around like that. Oh yeah, i'm. |
| 20:48.57 | mikebledsoe | When you were a kid. Oh wow. |
| 20:54.00 | Max Shank | I mean I've had a job straight through since I was twelve I start ah contributing to the the family unit which I actually see as a pretty big advantage in a lot of ways. Um because you just get more experience. |
| 21:05.43 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 21:13.40 | Max Shank | With the concept of value generation which I think is the absolute most important thing. So It's um, hunger pain and desire are all synonyms. And I think that's 1 of the most important things to understand if you're looking to pursue some goals or overcome some fears fear is like ah a psychological pain almost.. It's a fear of a feeling more than anything else or you're just pre-empting some sort of. |
| 21:43.19 | mikebledsoe | No. |
| 21:49.40 | Max Shank | Loss. Um, and ah, it's a feeling right. |
| 21:49.94 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, most of the time when we're avoiding a situation. We're avoiding a conversation. We're avoiding it having a feeling. It's not the situation. It's how it's gonna make us feel and 1 of the things that's created the most freedom for me is. Taking on the you know made it made I've made it a goal to accept love and eventually become comfortable with all feelings that come Up. You know so that the the feelings I used to avoid because I I didn't like them. |
| 22:19.31 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 22:27.50 | mikebledsoe | I Can I can now love sadness. You know where whereas I couldn't love it for I dwelled in guilt where now I just get to be with what I felt guilty about and then move on whereas yeah there was just. |
| 22:33.18 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 22:43.77 | mikebledsoe | Were things I would indulge in and things that I would avoid and it all came from fear and getting to know that that which I'm afraid of Intimately has created a lot of freedom for me. Um I call it emotional freedom but you know that radiates into. |
| 22:45.31 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 22:57.61 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 23:02.36 | mikebledsoe | All my behaviors. My psychological freedom my physical freedom all of that I found that if you if you manage the emotional fear and you become friends with it then it loses its power. |
| 23:05.35 | Max Shank | M. |
| 23:17.72 | Max Shank | I would have to agree I mean and as you well know a lot of our fears and pains are psychological but they manifest physically so you may have I mean that's why. |
| 23:31.41 | mikebledsoe | Me. |
| 23:36.27 | Max Shank | Low back pain is 1 of the I think it is still the most common pain even in sedentary workers. So workers comp. It's ah it's full of people with low back pain who don't lift anything and it's not.. It's not just because they're. Weak is because they're sad and that's the that's a funny revelation. Especially if as I did I started approach I started my approach to physical freedom with get as strong and fast as possible. |
| 23:55.38 | mikebledsoe | Um, you know. |
| 24:12.56 | Max Shank | Circled back to oh wait, everybody hurts all the time. So then I became like a ah body mechanic and was like oh well your knee hurts because your hamstrings are weak and your quads are tight now tell me I'm smart or something like that. Ah. And it gets like more and more complex into the nervous system and motor unit recruitment and all this stuff and if you don't respect the reality that psychological pains can manifest as physical pains. Your. Gonna have a really hard time treating that whole self right. |
| 24:51.46 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah I watch people when I when I started getting hip to the emotional um emotional energy and whether it's being whether it's flowing or suppressing. Ah once I got hip to. Oh. |
| 25:05.89 | Max Shank | A. |
| 25:11.11 | mikebledsoe | Ah, like I had some emotional energy moved from my my pelvic region and like I really felt it move like it was a brick that moved out of my body all of a sudden I had flexibility in my hamstrings that flexibility in my hips. My back stopped stopped hurting ah and. |
| 25:20.50 | Max Shank | A. |
| 25:29.81 | mikebledsoe | And I really went down a deep rabbit hole with that and then I would walk into a gym and talking to people and they're having to they're wrapping themselves with bands and doing all sorts of crazy Mobes before they work out and you know I come to find out they have to do that. |
| 25:40.29 | Max Shank | Who. |
| 25:47.75 | mikebledsoe | Every single time before they squat I was like oh you can't just do like a simple five ten minute warm up and then squat without pain. It's like this is not a this is not because you're not wrapping yourself with enough bands. This is. |
| 25:48.50 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 26:02.50 | Max Shank | Just need a few more bands I think it's just a couple more you're like 3 bands away. |
| 26:06.26 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, yeah, was like it's like wow you know, um and I remember bringing this up years ago when it was first dawning on me and you know having a popular podcast and talking about it. Publicly people are like mike's lost his fucking mind. |
| 26:24.42 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 26:26.23 | mikebledsoe | And I was like okay I think now I think it took me some time to learn how to explain it better. But I also think that generally our culture is has become more hit to these ideas as well. Not everybody but I would say. |
| 26:41.16 | Max Shank | Now some. |
| 26:44.76 | mikebledsoe | More I come across more people that that immediately agree with that I get less pushback than I used to. |
| 26:50.19 | Max Shank | Well, the purpose of pain is to get you back into safety. The the reason for pain is it's just an action signal but it's not specific. So if you feel a pain in your knee. That's not necessarily where. The problem is it's just saying do something different. That's all very nonspecific, but the purpose is is to protect you and protection and safety and security. Once again, they're all synonyms like we're all you know we're framing. |
| 27:11.76 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 27:28.34 | Max Shank | These fundamental realities of life as slightly different things. Hunger pain desire safety security. They're all very very similar so you have to I you don't have to but I I think it's helpful to recognize which are which are synonyms. So you can sort of start grouping them together and discover what the underlying sensation is right? and it's like we talked about a few episodes ago. Ah with the 3 levels of your brain you have to secure the lizard love the mammal so you can free the wizard which is the. Reptilian mamma alienlian and neocortex and if you are just living in a state of fight or flight which you can send yourself there just by watching the news. It's game over you'll just be constantly like I'm I'm afraid and you have no ability. To use your Neocortex. It's like an abused dog who just bites anyone that comes close. |
| 28:35.76 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 28:36.67 | Max Shank | Ah, it's ah it's It's a tricky thing I mean we're really emotional creatures but that's also our strength because we want to share um the bounty we want to share the load. We want to alleviate the suffering of our of our fellows. Um. You know Lizards don't really do that I'm not trying to like ah bad mouth Lizards or something like that I think Lizards are great creatures as Well. It's just a different strategy. |
| 29:05.34 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, you believe in the lizard people. |
| 29:10.14 | Max Shank | I Believe some people exhibit lizard-like characteristics. but but I also usually can see different traces of animals in people. |
| 29:22.78 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 29:25.26 | Max Shank | Like I'll see someone be like oh that person looks kind of giraffe-like or that person looks kind of bird-like you know what? I mean. |
| 29:29.60 | mikebledsoe | Ah, ah yeah, there's something about women who wear like pointing masks that like I see a woman with a pointing mask at the grocery store and I want to get I Just want to go? Ah, ah. |
| 29:38.16 | Max Shank | Ah, that's that's a bird. |
| 29:47.73 | Max Shank | Well I think in ah the U K they I think in the Uk they're called Birds ladies. Yeah, yeah, these birds were down at the pub that sounds right? doesn't it. |
| 29:47.86 | mikebledsoe | No woman wants to be called a bird I don't think what are women oh really? Ah well I well I know that. What was that tv show always sunny in Philadelphia they ah, they always called the woman in that show a bird and she hated it. D. |
| 30:11.49 | Max Shank | D yeah, yeah, she hate it. Yeah of course. Well, that's America it's different in ah in the u k you can also walk up to a guy on the street and say hey can I bum a fag and that's it's a totally normal thing to say. But if you said that here. People would find that offensive it means can I borrow can I borrow or have a cigarette That's what that means. |
| 30:29.43 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, or you might yeah exactly I'm glad you cleared that up that that might have eluded some people. Ah 1 of the things I the pain like having knee pain may not meet. Mean and it usually doesn't mean there's a problem with your knee it it means there's a problem somewhere else, but it is a sign to change Behavior. It says hey let's do something different. Um, 1 of the things that I I ah try to be. |
| 30:54.36 | Max Shank | Um, yeah action. Signal. |
| 31:07.70 | mikebledsoe | Because again, if you're in this game very long. You realize that any pain in your body probably isn't because of that thing Specifically it can be but the best way to be is is to be curious and to start asking like hey what should I be what have I been doing that might be contributing to this. |
| 31:15.33 | Max Shank | And. |
| 31:26.55 | mikebledsoe | All right? do experiments to try to change it. Ah because really it comes down to you're you're responsible for your own health and you know, Ah, ah someone else can help you figure some things out and start pointing in the right direction. But. It's really up to you at the end of the day to figure out what's actually going on with you. |
| 31:48.13 | Max Shank | That's ah, that's a super wise and powerful tool is curiosity I Even think the word curiosity is probably as close as you can get to a medicine for fear. Because Fear is also about the unknown rather than the known like you're afraid of what might happen to my story. Oh My God What if people hate me because once you know for sure that people will hate you. It's not really like a ah. You're not afraid of it Anymore. You're just like oh well,, That's what's going to happen Now. So Curiosity is also you don't know what's going on. So. It's also the unknown but it's just in a positive light. So you're bringing light to the unknown instead of. |
| 32:25.70 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 32:43.26 | Max Shank | Being stuck hiding from the darkness. So I think that that is probably if there's a big takeaway about Fear. It's that curiosity is the opposite it. It puts you right back into Neocortex it puts you right back into. Conscious takes you right out of compulsive fear spiral so fear and and curiosity. Um, you know you'll of course be afraid of things and really afraid of um. What may come to be right because you don't know exactly what it will be but curiosity same unknown but a totally different frame of reference. So that's that's huge I think of goals. |
| 33:29.42 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 33:40.20 | Max Shank | And I think of action. So I always think of whenever I create a message of some kind I always start with what do I want who to do exactly. So. |
| 33:54.40 | mikebledsoe | Hey. |
| 33:56.51 | Max Shank | Who am I talking to and what exactly do I want them to do ah quite frankly, ah the time where I just write something so people read it is is long gone and it's not enough for me to get off my ass and do it's it just doesn't feel worth it. Which is exactly what I want to talk about now which is the pain to prospect ratio. It's an estimate that we make consciously or unconsciously about is the juice worth the squeeze and people. |
| 34:27.53 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 34:31.63 | Max Shank | Especially with exercise are very bad at estimating they think oh it's it's just not worth it to do ah a ten minute exercise session or movement session because they're ah it's too much. Yeah, too much effort. Not enough payoff. Right? The pain is too great. The cost is too high. The benefit won't be high enough. So. |
| 34:51.90 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah I don't think they realize the accumulatative effect people have a hard time projecting positivity in the future. |
| 34:59.40 | Max Shank | What? Well you have to be able to defer gratification because in the short term exercise makes you weaker. Ah it depends what you do I mean there's ah. |
| 35:09.67 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 35:18.33 | Max Shank | Like a curve right? If you do a little bit of exercise. It makes you much stronger that day. But if you do a lot. It makes you much weaker that day and it's probably you know like most things kind of Bell curvish. But you have to be able to see long-term and defer gratification till later just like. Investing just like working on a long project. Um, some people maybe write books in 1 day but that's probably not very many people. The reason more people don't is you have to string a lot of. |
| 35:46.62 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 35:53.37 | Max Shank | Writing sessions together and in my case, the hardest part for sure is editing writing is so easy editing is is way ah way tougher I think ah but in order to do anything you have to meet a catalyst. |
| 35:57.67 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, yeah. |
| 36:13.30 | Max Shank | In your pain to prospect ratio which so I have a pretty weird motivational technique which is I don't I don't I'm not a good cheerleader but I just kind of point out the obvious and say look you know you can do this. And if you don't it just means you don't think it's worth it yet. That's all that's okay, like if you write in your journal for fifteen minutes every morning for 2 weeks. It means that you're probably taking this um mental practice that we're trying seriously and then. At the end of those 2 weeks. We'll have an idea of whether or not this is ah giving you some benefit and what you've gotten out of it and here are some tools of course like um, fill in the blanks type of stuff can be really beneficial for help. Ah I call it ah mind mining. |
| 37:08.60 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 37:09.20 | Max Shank | Like you're a minor with like a little pickaxe so you help people ah mind their minds and the reality is ah hunger is the motivator hunger pain desire all synonyms ambition same thing I didn't even really consider the fact. That I named my gym ambition athletics which is basically a synonym for desire athletics and is just so funny like thinking back into it and it is the desire to achieve something and you need to experience some sort of pain. With the status quo even if it seems like very love-based like I want to I I Love the I Love Children. So I Want to save the children. It's like yeah you want you feel pain right now that they are suffering. Basically so everything relates back. To whether or not the pain to prospect ratio prospect being like what you predict the outcome will be is sufficient of a catalyst for your action. That's true for basically everything. |
| 38:17.60 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah I agree with that Always always calculating the um yeah tote. |
| 38:28.48 | Max Shank | Um, even unconsciously. |
| 38:34.79 | mikebledsoe | Probably mostly unconsciously. |
| 38:36.90 | Max Shank | Like oh I'm I'm uncomfortable. So I'm going to eat a donut. It's worth it. It's it's only 10 feet away that's 10 steps eat a donut that's well worth it. But the. |
| 38:40.86 | mikebledsoe | Exactly yeah. Yeah I don't I don't get this much anymore. But I've had people I'd be somewhere and they're like you want to eat this food and we go now and then it's usually somebody overweight who goes he goes. Oh you're you're 1 of those people that punish yourself with. |
| 38:59.14 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 39:09.58 | mikebledsoe | I'm like I go no I just I realized that if I eat this in an hour I'm gonna feel like shit and if I eat this repeatedly I'm gonna just my whole body's gonna feel like shit not in the five minutes while I'm eating it. But. Every other moment after that's worse so like it's just and it's funny. How like I just remember people trying to guilt me into joining them and making poor decisions that way. Yeah, yeah. |
| 39:41.60 | Max Shank | It's like drinking. It's like drinking drinking alcohol. The trick though is we. |
| 39:46.35 | mikebledsoe | Just have a beard just relax. |
| 39:49.61 | Max Shank | I Remember when I was in my early twenty s we used to show how tough we were by having a little competition to see who could drink the most poison. |
| 39:59.38 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah, you too? Yeah, but. |
| 40:02.97 | Max Shank | Ah, oh yeah, I was the toughest guy there was and then I was vomiting in the gutter where I then passed out So I mean have you ever like I think isn't there like a euphemism for you know my life was in the gutter I hit like rock. I've literally like woken up in a gutter before that's not a proud moment but the problem is yeah that means yeah I have good friends with you at least that's silver Lining. That's good. |
| 40:23.99 | mikebledsoe | No, no yeah I've I've been peeled off the sidewalk and carried home. Yeah I did I did they didn't leave me behind. |
| 40:38.94 | Max Shank | I would just wander off. Ah, um, the problem that most people have though is not only is there estimate of the effort required ah sort of fallacious and driven. By the law of least action which is we always want to preserve energy. But we also have no clue as to what all the variables are you know algebra and math is usually very clean like 2 x equals y plus four. You know, even that is like fairly cut and dry. But when you start thinking about all of the variables involved with whether you decide to exercise in the morning and tackle a writing project for the next sixty days. There are so many variables that you can't imagine. Another example is. Ah, investing like how do you choose what company to invest into and you know 1 of my absolutely closest friends for a really long time is really, he's like so sharp and we talk about investing and you know i. Kind of like to ah go with it and I talk about the ah fundamentals because that's all I know about businesses I don't study ah like business numbers and sales and all that stuff I just think about what? ah. Value is being provided essentially and I think about like the human aspect of it but in order to look through. Let's say even a thousand companies and pick your favorite 10 is so crazy. Because there are so many variables that you're not aware of so you take that level of complexity and you apply it to your own life. The difference in the like probability of how your day will go of starting with. You you know thirty minutes of exercise or thirty minutes of tiktok is pretty dramatic but you can't possibly know what you're going to experience in both of those situations right? So the variables get way too complicated to have. Ah. |
| 42:59.75 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 43:06.86 | Max Shank | Perfect prediction so you can't expect to be perfectly ready and that's why you know I I like ah Perfectionism is a sophisticated form of procrastination and so you'll. You'll try to get all the variables lined up but just the understanding that nobody ever gets all the variables lined up and usually the people who do the most things are the ones who go way before they're Ready. It's like they used to frustrate me a lot because. |
| 43:40.16 | mikebledsoe | M. |
| 43:45.15 | Max Shank | Ah, used to have you ever been envious. Anyone anyone out there. Envy is is really hard to not to not be envious, especially when you're young and you fancy yourself smart and you see. |
| 43:50.58 | mikebledsoe | Ah, oh yeah. |
| 44:04.50 | Max Shank | Very very successful. Successful people who you recognize as very very dumb at what they're doing and it's not a personal attack. It's just Wow people are are buying this line of B S. Are you kidding me like this is a. How is this guy so popular like and and it's because they just go go go way before they're ready and so there's ah, there's a balance there with the the craftsmanship of. |
| 44:22.90 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 44:41.20 | Max Shank | Refining that skill and there's also that advantage to being a little too ignorant to know that you're not ready and just going anyway. So finding finding that good balance is. |
| 44:53.96 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 45:00.10 | Max Shank | Is quite helpful and a lot of the stuff that I've done actually I went before before it was ready and it worked out really well. |
| 45:08.44 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, I think that's 1 of the things that have helped me achieve the amount of success I have is I I was a little delusional when I was younger about how good I was gonna be at something i. Just didn't think about all the potential variables I Just go oh I had like this this faith that I would figure it out like oh yeah, I know what I'm doing and then I get into it and I realized that there was a million things I had no idea about that I now have to figure Out. Um. So I think a little bit of delusion early on was helpful that delusion is faded I now know that I don't know a bunch of shit. But 1 thing I've learned is that I have the ability to jump into a project and I'll figure it out I don't I don't care what it is. |
| 46:01.87 | Max Shank | Will you need that faith. |
| 46:03.53 | mikebledsoe | So as long as I want it if I want it I go you know what? I'll figure it out I mean my whole thing is is I will figure it out or I won't either way I've got to try and if I don't then I'll just move on to something else because there's the the micro in the macro. |
| 46:15.95 | Max Shank | Um, right. |
| 46:22.10 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 46:23.47 | mikebledsoe | Like oh I want to go up this 1 thing I go after I go Wow The cost of reaching that goal is actually not worth it to me anymore now that I'm now that I'm aware of all the variables and like you know what? I'm okay to walk away from this because I actually desire something else more that I'm willing to to sacrifice. Right now in order to get there. So It's ah that's really been beneficial for me and I do see a lot of people get caught up in that this like fear of they talk about fear of failure and there's a fear that ah they're not gonna get not get it right? I agree and that's. |
| 46:58.37 | Max Shank | It's fear of shame. |
| 47:02.63 | mikebledsoe | That's actually that was ah my biggest fear when I started in my business was I didn't want to look like I tried hard and then like like I either had to act like in the beginning I act like I I didn't care ah because if it didn't go well and I. |
| 47:05.36 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 47:22.50 | mikebledsoe | And I looked like I didn't care. It didn't mean anything about me. But if I yeah but if I try hard and I fail that means I'm dumb you know and and and for me like my my big 1 of my biggest fears was like being seen as as. |
| 47:25.70 | Max Shank | Isn't that funny totally or bad. Yeah. |
| 47:41.67 | mikebledsoe | Dumb because I deep downwn believe that I believe that I was dumb when I was a kid and so I had to overcome that so I had to prove to the world that I that I was smart I was trying to prove to myself that I could be smart and but yeah, 1 of my biggest fears was was looking dumb. |
| 47:41.69 | Max Shank | Um, same. |
| 47:57.56 | Max Shank | I feel that 1 |
| 48:00.78 | mikebledsoe | And I didn't want to look like I tried hard. Um, but even then like you know, ah raising my prices in my gym to be at ah at the appropriate price was very difficult because I was afraid of what. People who I was going to charge that amount of money to were going to think of me for charging that I didn't want to be seen as greedy so I didn't want to be seen as dumb I didn't want to be seen as greedy. It's Funny. He's like oh I don't want to fail but I'm also don't want to be seen as a greedy person. |
| 48:22.66 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 48:36.25 | mikebledsoe | And then there's this box of like limitation around success that gets they gets built. It's like okay well I don't want to be seeing this greedy I don't want to fail and look dumb. It's like Wow What do you get? where do you go from there you there's very little to go from there. |
| 48:38.98 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 48:52.40 | Max Shank | There's no wiggle room whatsoever. |
| 48:54.24 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and so there's these conditions that we put on our in place because of yeah that that perceived shame that people will shame us and then we'll feel guilty and ah yeah, yeah. |
| 49:06.56 | Max Shank | You'll feel less. You'll feel less than and it goes back to that same eat. It goes back to that same like your your story is tarnished it always comes back to that judgment shame and shame I've heard is the single most. |
| 49:11.63 | mikebledsoe | Loss. |
| 49:15.65 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 49:24.18 | Max Shank | Ah, powerful visceral emotion. There is which you would imagine that our evolution would select for that based on our dependence of cooperating together in groups you touched on something though which is like. |
| 49:35.96 | mikebledsoe | Right? right? definitely. |
| 49:43.68 | Max Shank | You just had to believe you just had to have faith that it would work and you need that because there's no guarantee that anything will work. You know, even someone? Um I I Really like to have all my ducks in a row. Ah before I start something. Try to limit the risk as much as possible but you can't take any action without having faith and I'm sure that's part of the reason that religion has sprouted so much is in order to have that. Forward thinking of like this is what the future could hold and understand that there are so many possibilities it can be an advantage to have faith that everything will go well or or perhaps that a um, a deity of some kind. |
| 50:34.70 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 50:41.56 | Max Shank | Has ah a grander plan where it does all work out. Well I mean that's that's ah, quite an interesting way of assuaging those fears. |
| 50:50.70 | mikebledsoe | Well, ah, human, they they did a study and humans generally think that the future will be better than the present and that's that's another challenge to investing either. You know in. And exercise in health or investing money in something is because people believe that they're gonna make more money in the future. They're gonna they believe they generally believe things would just be Better. There's an um overall optimistic thing going on. Not for everybody. But for. Vast majority of people. They they do think things that they believe that things progress to be better in the future and which could be true I think it generally is true. But when yeah, it's very relative and. |
| 51:41.72 | Max Shank | Bet Better is super relative right. |
| 51:46.49 | mikebledsoe | People Um, a lot of times because they believe things are going to get better. No matter what they don't take action. They don't do what it takes for things to be better, especially and is where religion can get funny a lot of times because. |
| 51:58.26 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 52:05.00 | mikebledsoe | There's something outside of themselves that is going to save them. There's something outside of themselves that's going to make it better and a ah lot of people I think get caught up in that belief structure and then just fall into inaction. |
| 52:20.52 | Max Shank | A. |
| 52:21.86 | mikebledsoe | Or don't see the role that they're going to play in creating that future. |
| 52:25.61 | Max Shank | Yeah, sometimes I get caught in exactly the opposite which is I predict all of the horrible stuff I predict based on ah all of the horrible stuff I've been made aware of and I just assume that ah me doing. |
| 52:30.96 | mikebledsoe | And he. |
| 52:44.22 | Max Shank | Anything will be like trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon and it won't really make a difference Anyway, I'm like hey everybody it's ah time for your morning Mobility Exercises Meanwhile there's like you know all kinds of lobbying going on and all of the you know. |
| 52:49.39 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah. |
| 53:03.40 | Max Shank | Whatever you know I don't want to get too far down that road. But I think ah safe to say that we do a lot of stuff exactly the worst way possible in our current setup of organizing large groups of people so thinking that what you do will have some sort of. Benefit that is meaningful to you so that belief that faith has to um, be the catalyst for any action and that's that pain to prospect ratio. |
| 53:33.10 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I feel good with this anything else. You want to add. |
| 53:39.82 | Max Shank | Ah, so we talked about ah goals and fears primarily and then we talked a little bit about sticks and stones which was pretty fun in the beginning I think with regard to fear. It's important to understand that it's just your attached to your story and all of the um, the most wise stuff that I've read from throughout the Millennia of people trying to feel more at peace in their. Selves and hearts is about ah connection without attachment which is such a trite thing to say it seems so simple right? But it's actually extremely difficult to connect with everything around you without getting too attached and latched onto it. And so fear man we didn't even talk about ah like feeling physically safe and you know like having ah some food and some marshall capabilities. But yeah, if you can accept. The impermanence of your story. You won't be enslaved by the fear of tarnishing that story like the shame or the failures I mean I really like the phrase The only failure is to not try at all. |
| 55:12.41 | mikebledsoe | You know? ah. |
| 55:15.40 | Max Shank | Because you can I think you probably would agree that part of your success just like for mine is just that I simply tried lots of things and I you don't know which ones are going to work and I Also. Didn't get stuck in the sunk cost fallacy where you keep pouring more energy into something just because you've already poured a lot into it. You know it's It's good. You you stop doing that thing and you try something else. So It's good to try lots of things because you don't know just like investing. |
| 55:38.78 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 55:50.38 | Max Shank | Ah, Diversification. You don't know which 1 Ne's going to be awesome. But if you have 10 that have a really good chance of being awesome then hey that's pretty good I mean I'm not I can't predict the future. So yeah, there's that which is. You have to accept the impermanence of the story and then everything else is sort of a domino effect after that and. |
| 56:13.89 | mikebledsoe | I Like the impermanence of this story because after you die your story is I mean it. It contributes to the cultural story and gets passed down anceually. But. |
| 56:26.26 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 56:31.15 | mikebledsoe | No stories are ever told accurately. So just the the knowledge the knowledge that your story is going to be skewed no matter what? ah to me brings a lot of levity because I know that other people are going to write my story about me. |
| 56:33.33 | Max Shank | Now. |
| 56:50.43 | mikebledsoe | From their perspective. However, they want It's none of my none of my business really and once I stop making my business and how other people are gonna interpret my story. The easier got to just live out my own life The way I want to live it and yeah like this weekend I had my. |
| 56:51.63 | Max Shank | Um, right? yeah. |
| 57:09.88 | mikebledsoe | My birthday my birthday party and people were telling me all sorts of amazing things about me but that's not even the story I would tell about myself and and so it's It's a good demonstration of yeah that I think that this. |
| 57:18.44 | Max Shank | Yeah, of course, not. |
| 57:29.61 | mikebledsoe | The story we're telling about ourselves is is greater than what we think other people might tell a story about us. |
| 57:37.92 | Max Shank | Yeah, and subconsciously your self-image is going to guide your behaviors. Maybe even more than you're conscious. So if like subconsciously you think you're dumb and lazy. No amount of like trying to grit through it is actually going to. |
| 57:56.47 | mikebledsoe | Your yeah your behaviors may change it create a difference in your life. But that story is going to remain the same. |
| 57:56.84 | Max Shank | Help you do that So you have to. |
| 58:03.14 | Max Shank | Right? So that's why I think at least for me what makes the um, most sense is to not be too attached to any story because I think you you mostly just are what you do and the more attached I am to a certain thing. The. |
| 58:12.34 | mikebledsoe | On there. |
| 58:22.31 | Max Shank | The less the flow of energy is through me as like a conduit and so with regard to fear you are accepting your physical death and your the death of your story and and also the fact that your story could be. |
| 58:24.43 | mikebledsoe | Move. Ah. |
| 58:41.11 | Max Shank | Completely tarnished I mean Oedipus did a lot of great things. But no 1 remembers What those things are because he killed his dad and fucked his mom and that's all we know about oedipus right. So with like if you let go of the story thing then you won't fear Shame. You won't fear Judgment. It's like a top-down type of effect if you accept the impermanence and then with regard to goals. It allows you to seek goals outside of your um, extrinsic judgment of those things like a lot of people become doctors and lawyers not because they want to. Be a doctor or a lawyer just because it's ah it's an esteemed position. It's a position of power and wealth. They don't really want that they just want to be seen as Good. So if you can get your self out of the way you'll be able to choose a goal. |
| 59:41.50 | mikebledsoe | Right. |
| 59:46.57 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 59:57.46 | Max Shank | That is more conducive to what you really feel and I may have even mentioned this in a show before I'm sure I have but ah simon sinek has his it starts with why and that's good and james clear has his habit formation about. Starts with who like you choose your identity and then everything comes from there which is also good. It's kind of in line with the psycho cybernetics idea and then I just think about what I would want to have done if I could get no credit. If I had to be totally anonymous and that seems to be the truest ah goals that I have it takes into consideration. What my strengths and weaknesses are and it takes the um it takes the ego kind of out of the. Out of the equation a little bit and it helps me get more aligned to what I actually think is important versus what is just another ah power play like ah people will people will love me more and then my story will be vast and then I will have a. |
| 01:01:04.15 | mikebledsoe | Sir. |
| 01:01:13.27 | Max Shank | Gigantic tombstone. No I'll have a mausoleum that's when the ego goes beyond your physical life like the last thing I fucking want is gigantic mausoleum. It's so ridiculous. Um, hey I'm you know, no offense to the people with. |
| 01:01:32.17 | mikebledsoe | Mauselums. |
| 01:01:32.39 | Max Shank | Mausoleums and stuff like that. It's just it's just not for me. Ah, So there's the relating to fears relating to goals or perhaps a mission very valuable to get other people who feel the same way and then the last thing is just your. Physical safety which is your health your defensive power and um financial health to I would say you have like safety nets. It's like a health physical health physical mental Health Safety net. Ah, social safety net and then financial safety net and. |
| 01:02:13.98 | mikebledsoe | Was the 3 categories of personal development is health wealth and relationships was it. Those are that yeah those are the 3 things that people need to master in order to to live a good life. |
| 01:02:22.27 | Max Shank | That's right, pretty much everything is those. |
| 01:02:33.50 | mikebledsoe | You know I think what we call a good life in this in our current society and those are 3 topics that are not taught in our education system. |
| 01:02:34.18 | Max Shank | Oh. |
| 01:02:41.25 | Max Shank | Yeah, the only important things are not taught that's kind of relate. that's that's 1 of the things that makes me feel like I'm trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon sometimes is I'm like man 12 years we don't even teach the important stuff. It's out of control. But yeah, you're right. |
| 01:02:50.51 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 01:03:01.13 | Max Shank | You're right? It's those 3 things and combine that with the acceptance of the impermanence and you'll probably live your fullest life I know like live your best life is like a ah hilarious Hashtag ah, but yeah. But I think that's pretty good. Pretty good way to be there's there's no question reality about having financial. Well-being physical. Well-being and then social wellbeing. |
| 01:03:21.78 | mikebledsoe | I like it. Yeah. |
| 01:03:37.78 | Max Shank | I mean I feel super fortunate that over the past. However long this whole ah business has been going on that I've had close friends and um, plenty of Reserve capital and I live in a place where there's lots of sunshine and I. Went into it very physically healthy and if you're missing 1 or all of those you're going to have a bad time. |
| 01:04:06.15 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, this ah this show to me I'm gonna have my students listen to it because this has ah been packed with a lot of really useful Information. So The the 1 thing I Want to remind everybody is is. Thing that's made the biggest difference for me is learning to be to love and accept those feelings which I tend to avoid and from there a lot of other wisdom has come online for me and ways to live just because of that 1 1 thing That's ah once you get to that point it opens up channels of information which you didn't have access to before. |
| 01:04:56.97 | Max Shank | That's so good because it also opens the door to being compassionate for other people and it also it also closes the door of being envious of other people because you don't know what's going on on the inside right. |
| 01:05:00.49 | mikebledsoe | It does. |
| 01:05:07.56 | mikebledsoe | In here. |
| 01:05:11.29 | Max Shank | We we like to envy like Cherry we like to do cherry pick envy we we like to envy the rock's body you know dwayne the rock johnson that guy but we don't envy like his. |
| 01:05:22.97 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:05:29.14 | Max Shank | Daily routine. Probably we don't envy the fact that I mean who knows what his home life was like but yeah I think if you can love and accept yourself and then still um, you know, not. |
| 01:05:29.30 | mikebledsoe | No. |
| 01:05:43.23 | Max Shank | Not feel shame for feeling those emotions but just get curious about them like you sagely pointed out earlier. It really will open the door for a a love-based change of self-image. Rather than a shame-based change of self-image and like I said it also makes you more compassionate and less Envious. So I think y'all I would like to re-listen to this 1 a couple times myself because a lot of things that you and I just say in the flow. Ah, are it makes me want to start jotting down notes and I think. |
| 01:06:21.10 | mikebledsoe | Ah, yeah, I'm um like I added a couple things that I need to write about from this conversation. |
| 01:06:27.00 | Max Shank | Um, well make sure you share those with me I was thinking that part of the reason these conversations are going so well. What is this the ninth episode or something I think ah. |
| 01:06:36.71 | mikebledsoe | Number nine. Yeah. |
| 01:06:42.86 | Max Shank | Ah, 1 of the reason it goes so well is you and I have zero consideration for who said it. We only care that it gets said so we're trying to make the like the result of it. Good. And like I don't care if it was like you said the thing or I said the thing so it's a very um, unencumbered melding of. The experiences that we've had which are unique and then also the experiences we've been exposed to secondhand which is like the reading and the learning from others and I think that's that's what makes a body of work. Great is when you get the. |
| 01:07:32.20 | mikebledsoe | Agreed agreed well brother where can people find you he that he forgot he forgot. |
| 01:07:32.33 | Max Shank | Junk out of the way. Yeah man. |
| 01:07:42.50 | Max Shank | Maxshank Dot Com at Ma shank. Well I was just thinking. Yeah I I was just thinking I'm actually pretty hard to find like physically but on the internet I'm the easiest to find ever if you Google me I'm all over the place. |
| 01:07:47.54 | mikebledsoe | Air. |
| 01:07:54.17 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah, same ah hit up at mike blood. So mike underscore bloods on Instagram and the strongcoach dot com if you're a coach and want to do some cool shit all right? Thanks for joining us today. |
| 01:08:12.32 | Max Shank | Love you brother take care. |
| 01:08:12.97 | mikebledsoe | And you max Love you. |
| 00:00.-3 | mikebledsoe | Animal facts. We're gonna talk about masculinity and femininity I hate that femininity How it I'm always always feel like I'm adding an n in there I think I am masculine feminine makes it way easier. |
| 00:10.7 | Max Shank | Femininity masculine and feminine. |
| 00:19.4 | mikebledsoe | So ah, yeah, we discussed talking about this last week because we we began to touch on it a bit so max you wanted to dive into the animal kingdom. Do we want to do that first. Yeah. |
| 00:33.7 | Max Shank | Yeah I just want to do like forty minutes of animal jokes if possible. But I think I think before we kick that off though we should draw attention to the difference between male and female and masculine and feminine. |
| 00:38.5 | mikebledsoe | Right? We'll see. |
| 00:50.9 | mikebledsoe | Um, yep. |
| 00:52.8 | Max Shank | Because those are 2 kind of different things. Um, it's funny I have the whole ah yin yang symbol behind me which is the masculine and feminine and there's ah, a drop of the light in the dark and there's a drop of the dark in the light and I think that's a good. Metaphor for what we're talking about. It's not just I am 1 hundred percent masculine or 1 hundred percent in a female is not going to be 1 hundred percent feminine. It's going to be a gradient and there are going to be different identities and personalities wrapped up into. Where someone is masculine and where someone is feminine and that's going to be instinct or genetics as it's manifested through the nurture through the learned behavior. So. That's why you get some. Guys who are way more feminine and you get some women who are way more masculine and I would probably argue that right now we have more feminine men. And more masculine women than we've probably had maybe ever in the history of humanity. Would you agree. |
| 02:16.5 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, from what I've studied in History. It does seem that that's that is the case I think that the the state of the the amount of wealth that we enjoy the amount of ah time we get to. Have for ourselves that the world is not as demanding. We're not demanded into a role as much. So I think there's a lot more choice. Men aren't necessarily expected to be more masculine and and I think it's worth bringing up the. Different traits of masculinity and and femininity. Ah the you know masculine is is normally the ah the what on yeah there they. |
| 03:02.5 | Max Shank | Light on light on active. |
| 03:13.0 | mikebledsoe | Usually are protectors producers. It's it's about production. It's about what doing penetrating? Ah, it's It's a lot of action and. |
| 03:25.5 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 03:28.3 | mikebledsoe | Thoughts could be thought of as a masculine trait whereas feelings is more feminine and and feminine is and masculine is on the on the giving side whereas feminine is more on the receiving side much more nurture nurturing more Accepting. Ah. The way things are versus trying to change them a masculine feature is yeah yeah, and I think it's an example I Really like to use here is if we're going talk about masculine and Feminine. We can talk about being paternal or Maternal. So. |
| 03:50.2 | Max Shank | Send and receive yes and and receive. |
| 04:04.7 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 04:07.2 | mikebledsoe | Eternal behavior is masculine and maternal behavior is feminine and ah if we look at you know I'll give an example that I think you and I will be able to identify with and probably a lot of people in the audience is. When you were a kid and at a baseball game you were playing and you struck out the what was what's the response from the typical mother if you strike out. |
| 04:34.4 | Max Shank | Ah, it's okay, you'll get him next time right. |
| 04:37.3 | mikebledsoe | Exactly What's the typical response of the father in that situation. |
| 04:43.8 | Max Shank | Ah, you're ah a worthless piece of dirt if you had if you had listened to me this wouldn't have happened now probably here's probably here's what you should do differently like here's how you fix it. |
| 04:51.6 | mikebledsoe | Well, there's varying degrees. Um, yeah, so like ah and it's funny. You mentioned that that first example because there's healthy and and unhealthy expressions of both so the the healthy expression of of of paternal. Ah, healthy expression would be oh yeah, let's ah, we'll get them next time. Let's make sure we go to batting practice. You know I'm going to take you out tomorrow and we're gonna they're going to paint a picture of the future that's different than what it is right now whereas. Yeah, the maternal is like you know it's all good. You could keep striking out. It's not a big deal. Yeah yeah, I also think about the the masculine as holding the vision of the future and wanting to create progress. |
| 05:33.4 | Max Shank | Um, it's like it's like fixing versus accepting. |
| 05:48.6 | mikebledsoe | Where the feminine is is more ah is more accepting of just the way things are currently so both both are both are absolutely necessary. Is 1 thing I want to point out. |
| 05:54.2 | Max Shank | Yeah, and. |
| 06:02.0 | Max Shank | No question and if you if you slide the bar all the way to 1 side or the other you become ah impossible to live with.. Basically you can't You can't be 1 hundred percent. Ah, feminine traits and you can't be 1 hundred percent masculine traits like it just doesn't work. Especially right now right. |
| 06:25.0 | mikebledsoe | Yeah there's a lot more flexibility. Um, and but you know we have more choice for sure. But there's a book. Um that I read a while backed by a guy who I'm not remembering his name right now. It may come to me but basically he wrote 1 book called integral relationships and ah and that was that book was specifically written for men and then which brought another book which it might be on my bookshelf over there but I'm not seeing it. Um. Was written for men and women which is a very like thick dense book on you know relationships now. Ah the the name of the book I read the first 1 I read of his is integral relationships and that was um. If you know, ken wilbur's work. He he's the guy who who you know really pushed forward Integral theory. So a lot of what this guy talks about it's a very intellectual approach to masculine feminine and and relationships. And he takes the integral approach which includes spiral dynamics and so spiral dynamics is basically a model for viewing stages of development of human development and consciousness and how we perceive the world and how we behave in the world. And really, it's a predictor of values and how those values can change over time and evolve over time and if your values are this today we can expect that your values when they change are going to change into this next thing and so 1 of the really cool things that this book did was it was showing how. The the ah men so we were talking earlier about being masculine and feminine is not necessarily gender specific. It's not men and women. However, historically men have been associated with being more masculine and women have been associated with being more feminminine. So in this book 1 of the things that he talks about is there. Are you familiar with spiral dynamics much almost not at all cool. So basically ah. |
| 08:35.8 | Max Shank | Um, almost not at all only from what you've told me. |
| 08:44.4 | mikebledsoe | All of society is going through a stage of development and Consciousness. So We all experience these stages of Consciousness development as individuals. So What it looks like when you're a baby all you care about is yourself is a very individualistic and then it's about the parents and the family. And the most important thing when you're a kid is that you're you're fed comfortable and you're taking shits and then you progress and you social things become more important and you progress and you. Just follow the rules because these are the rules and then 1 day you realize oh these rules are made up and they work for a specific amount of time but after amount of time I Want to become an individual I don't want to follow these rules anymore you know and everyone goes to this little bit of a rebellious stage. |
| 09:37.1 | Max Shank | A. |
| 09:39.0 | mikebledsoe | And then they become more about the collective the we and then ah after be after day like max out and they get tired of being an individual they go well how can we work together and then after that there's there's other stages of of development and so when. People who look at this what they say about society as a whole especially we could say look at America specifically it's in a phase of moving from orange to greens so that is from a very individualistic capitalist type of mindset into more of a. A we type of of place where it's more of a collective mentality and there's a lot more self-sacrifice when we're in the we whereas when we're in the eye an individual It's less self- sacrificerifice more self-serving and more self-expression. Not caring what other people think about my expression whereas when you get into the we. It's more about Belonging. You don't want to stand out too much. You want to blend in and so what a lot of these people are saying is we're moving into this we um and. The the average american like there's enough people, especially the people we hang out with are you know they're in a personal development. They've been actually consciously choosing to develop and so what you end up with is as men go into this green phase of more of ah carrying. By the way if I were to look at both you and I we've we've gone beyond the green meme that that the hippie ah we stage and have been able to integrate all of it. Ah, but what he talks about in this book is when men go into this. And to the green stage the we collective all that kind of stuff they end up becoming much more feminine like they they adopt a lot of feminine traits and 1 of the reasons is because when someone moves into the the we stage into that green meme when they look back on the previous stages of development. They look at it with disgust and so it's typical for a man to get into this phase look at his previous stages of development see it in disgust and want to to not have anything and do with it and then um in culture. A lot of times those traits are associated with being masculine so they they want to throw off what they were before and a lot ah spirituality becomes an important topic for these people a lot of times when they hit the green stage and if you look at the spiritual communities and you look at. |
| 12:22.7 | mikebledsoe | Like like if you look at immature spiritual communities. You'll find a lot of men who lack masculinity and have taken on being feminine and so ah, these. Men are way more nurturing way more compassionate all these things we've we've all witnessed that and then for the women when they hit the stage of development. They they hit a stage of development. Ah the independent stage they actually cross over from being feminine to Masculine. At a stage previous to the men so it actually throws off society and so 1 of the things that he notes in the book which is interesting is that ah that when when men and women are in the stage. They're never going to be able to stay in a relationship very long. So if you look at our culture as a whole It seems like there's ah it's hard to stay in a relationship longer than a year and a year and a half and after that there's there's some friction in the relationship and then it and then it dissipates and so. That's that's extremely common and people stay single longer until they hit a certain stage of development because this is where we're at in society so women cross over into this very independent masculine traits when they hit that independence phase and throughout the green phase of development and. Women in that in those phases look at men who are ah in a stage of development under them with with like they're they're just children. They're not interested in that and then the 1 that is at the equal stage of development that green meme that those men discuss them. Because ah, the polarity is flipped and whereas they may be able to start a relationship with those men. They're not going to be satisfied over the long term and so ah in the Book. What he talks about is then after the green meme people move into. Ah so ah. Like a tier 2 consciousness and this tier 2 consciousness is when you get to integrate everything from before and when you do that when you look at you know when you accept the the we I care about the earth the planet everybody I also accept the independent me the 1 that wants to achieve and compete. Also accept the the tradition and what got us here and maybe even look at religion differently and look at warriors differently like seeing a place for all these There's always a place for tradition. There's a place for being a warrior. There's a place for independence and achievement. There's a place for. |
| 15:04.3 | mikebledsoe | We in the collective and so um, in this place when someone gets to this tier 2 consciousness and they've integrated all that their ability to be flexible between the masculine and the feminine becomes way more possible. And it can be flexible from moment to Moment. So Um I Forget why I explained all that but I imagine it could be helpful. |
| 15:33.0 | Max Shank | I Mean it sounds like it's quite complex. Not necessarily complicated but complex I Always think of that journey as like ah me we all I just call it me. We all and you go from me to we to all. |
| 15:45.9 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 15:51.6 | Max Shank | And everybody goes through that at different times if you look at different cultures I think of asian cultures specifically where the last name is spoken First you would be blood. So mike I would be shankoax and I think that. Dedication to the legacy of the family puts them more in that perspective from the very outset so that culture really breeds that concept of legacy right. |
| 16:25.0 | mikebledsoe | Well, there was um, there's legacy. But then there's also ah I know about um what I've learned about the South korean my buddy lived there for a while and he said that everybody always knows where they're at in the pecking order in the room and it's by age and if you're the youngest 1 |
| 16:39.1 | Max Shank | Um, yeah. |
| 16:44.7 | mikebledsoe | Ah, like everyone is aware of where they're at in the pecking order at all times and they know if someone should be serving them or if they should be serving somebody. So if someone's older they're serving them So there's this constant awareness and vigilance in a culture about. |
| 16:47.6 | Max Shank | Yeah. |
| 17:00.8 | mikebledsoe | And who everybody else is and who they are in that context whereas here. That's ah, that's not so common. |
| 17:09.0 | Max Shank | It's sort of debatable where you are in the hierarchy for most people and I think that's also what makes cooperation so difficult. That's why that's why a well-trained military with a hierarchy is going to beat down a band of nomads where nobody's really in charge. |
| 17:25.0 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 17:26.9 | Max Shank | Right? So that that understanding of hierarchy is crazy valuable and 1 of the things that you said that I really resonated with was the fluidity and I'm not talking about gender fluid. But I'm talking about the being able to change between masculine. And feminine traits and if you're not able to do that. You're not really going to be able to succeed in every part of life. You might be able to succeed in some parts of life but you won't really be expressing your ultimate manifestation. Of what you can be if you're not balancing the 2 and that's why that yin and yang symbol has that dynamism to it that spiraling of the light and the dark you know spinning around chasing each other basically and. |
| 18:17.9 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I mean when you look at the graphic when you look at the symbol it. It appears to be still. But if you let it move over time. Yeah, it's something spiraling. |
| 18:30.2 | Max Shank | Yeah, it's ah it's a dynamic ability to alternate between masculine and feminine and you know if you read ah art of seduction by Robert Green which is a gigantic book. But it's really good you you see all the. |
| 18:43.8 | mikebledsoe | Good book. |
| 18:48.7 | Max Shank | Um, you know the casan novas which I think I think that means catch a new 1 casa nova catch catch a new 1 at least it sounds like it. Ah I haven't been I've been able I haven't been able to find a confirmation but casa means catch in spanish and. |
| 18:55.6 | mikebledsoe | Ah. |
| 19:08.6 | Max Shank | Nueva means New So That's kind of funny Anyway. So ah, seduction is about balancing those masculine and feminine traits and seduction is actually a very so it's active right? seduction. So It's masculine. But. The actions are very Feminine. You know Femininity is about being like an attractor even the egg right is secreting these ah pheromones basically or hormones I guess for the sperm to find their way. Up to the egg and it's such a. It's such a wildly different process and um, most. |
| 19:50.6 | mikebledsoe | And anyone who's in a relationship will recognize. There are times of the cycle in which you're more attracted to your woman if you're a man than others and a lot of that it has to do with what's happening with that egg. So. |
| 19:58.0 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 20:04.3 | Max Shank | Well and if you just look at the structure of the 2 objects right? You have the egg which is this glorious little sphere wrapped in all this ah nutrition stuff in this little. And this little River getting carried along by Celia down the Fallopian tube. It's this very like elegant single unit and then on the male side. It's like a squadron of Jet Fighters like up to 500 million of them. All trying to basically seek and ah impregnate that same Target. So Just that experience itself says so much about the difference between masculinity and femininity. |
| 20:58.6 | mikebledsoe | I Want to point out that some people may be listening to this and go hang on you just switch from from masculine and feminine conversation to male female. Um, and ah the what? what? What? um. |
| 21:14.7 | Max Shank | Don't don't Misunderstand I'm set I'm saying the action is masculine. It just happens to be attached to the male. |
| 21:17.2 | mikebledsoe | What I want What? what? what? I want to point out the action is masculine. Well I would say I would say a lot of what we Ah what we see as masculine has biological. |
| 21:35.8 | Max Shank | For yeah. |
| 21:36.1 | mikebledsoe | Manifestations masculinity manifests physically in certain ways and being feminine manifests in certain ways. 1 is you're talking about sperm and egg. But also the penis and the vagina 1 is penetrating and giving and 1 is receiving. |
| 21:51.1 | Max Shank | Um, exactly and it's it's different with different animals. |
| 21:54.5 | mikebledsoe | So there's I think a lot of people want to separate out and and 1 ah hundred percent separate biology and and and I guess what we call it gender and. |
| 22:06.7 | Max Shank | Well I mean gender and Masculinity or femininity are totally different things and that's that's why I bring up that point like if you want to be a good seducer. Fellas. You need to actively. Matt young. Do some feminine things to maximize your seduction capabilities right? Ah and you know you look at the Animal kingdom. It's almost always the male with the pretty feathers. |
| 22:27.9 | mikebledsoe | Um, your attraction. |
| 22:43.9 | Max Shank | Like look at the peacock. For example, like he's just you know So what's more flamboyant than a peacock. It's just ridiculous. So it's all trying to um you know, show off, they're pretty colors and then with humans. It's. |
| 22:52.1 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 23:03.6 | Max Shank | It's kind of the opposite. The ladies are showing themselves as sexy and the guys by Ferraris and mansions to show that they can provide So it's just a different kind of like I just call it peacocking essentially men and women are always. |
| 23:17.7 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 23:22.6 | Max Shank | Peacocking and pee henning and the reality is we just we just repeat what we think? Ah, what we think works like I would say if if there was no um, incentive for a man to be. Like financially successful like almost no man would do it. They would just live um like if it didn't matter how well off they were in terms of their ability to get ladies because that's what we love the most as men. We love ladies. But. |
| 23:56.2 | mikebledsoe | Whole world revolves around it. |
| 23:58.5 | Max Shank | We Yeah, it's like how do I get in there like that right exact like we would all just live in like fraternity houses and everybody would pay like. |
| 24:03.3 | mikebledsoe | I got I I go I go ah hunting So I can provide for her me. Yeah. |
| 24:16.0 | Max Shank | Ah, hundred dollars a month in rent and there would be pizza all the time like it would it would be like total debauchery nobody would try that hard to ah do all these crazy things if it didn't have a serious benefit to getting ladies and. When you realize that it's kind of shocking like the lengths that we go to to do that. |
| 24:42.4 | mikebledsoe | I've had this conversation with many women where where um, we'll be they'll be talking about. You know how men are in Charge. You know they'll be complaining about something and I look at him like are you insane women have been in charge the whole time. And they're go. They're going. What do you mean is like the it's like every and yeah, y'all are the reason we do everything like like we build we build companies because of you we. |
| 25:05.3 | Max Shank | Wars have been fought and Empires have fallen over women. |
| 25:17.4 | mikebledsoe | Do this and that everything we do is is for you like you're You're very powerful I've I've had this conversation with many women and and we go back and forth and they realize that they they have some realizations with that. So it's that they. |
| 25:35.3 | Max Shank | But that's their job. |
| 25:37.2 | mikebledsoe | There There have been a lot of people that say that like ah the women are responsible for the development of consciousness because it went from who could be the the biggest brute in order to get women to intelligence became more important for the purpose protection and for. Ah, production and so men we as men recognize oh we need to advance our intellect and our ability to make money and this and that to serve for women so that requires us to have more intelligence and so that's driving. |
| 25:58.6 | Max Shank | Yep. |
| 26:15.2 | mikebledsoe | Us as well. So I think that even though there are ah unhealthy expressions men men are a lot of times confused about how to get women and I think that's what creates upset and and causes Wars and all this kind of stuff. |
| 26:33.9 | Max Shank | Yeah, and up. |
| 26:34.8 | mikebledsoe | Um, because they're confused about what women actually want and the more men can they can figure out what they want what women actually want. They probably have a lot more peace and just you know more production. Actually yeah yeah, well. |
| 26:47.8 | Max Shank | Wouldn't it be crazy if we just asked women what they wanted. It's weird. It's it's funny though because that's that's a feminine job is to be Judgmental now I can already hear. Ah, the like grinding of gears and all the lady brains who just heard that but it's actually a very important role like you have to determine if our feathers are pretty enough if we have like a nice enough nest or whatever. So I'm not surprised that. Women are more judgmental and that has its positive qualities and its negative qualities like how many men judge other men based on the clothes they wear. It doesn't really happen right? Yeah, mostly just right? exactly. So. |
| 27:34.9 | mikebledsoe | Mostly just the feminine men. |
| 27:42.9 | Max Shank | It's important to have that discernment which is a nicer way of saying judgmental and we have all these trigger words that make people really really upset and I think that's a huge detriment because it limits our ability to have clear communication. |
| 27:47.4 | mikebledsoe | E. |
| 28:01.7 | Max Shank | And use simple language. |
| 28:03.0 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I want I want to dig into hierarchy because you you did you used the word earlier I meant I mentioned being paternal maternal. You know I think people start thinking about. We just talked about. |
| 28:14.3 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 28:20.3 | mikebledsoe | Ah, how women are really in charge and and they there's this conversation that's been circling society for the last decade about patriarchy and so and I've got a disclaimer for this real quick. My girlfriend's a psychotherapist from the Bay I ah I have had this conversation with with someone who is has been steeped in like feminism femininism femininism feminism. Ah so it's. Um, it's it's something I think for us talk about what's what are you laughing about my ability to say it. Ah. |
| 29:04.4 | Max Shank | Just because it's part of how we make things so extra complicated right? The the words that we use words really should just be there to. |
| 29:14.7 | mikebledsoe | What's that Oh yeah. |
| 29:22.0 | Max Shank | Make the communication have greater precision not to like obscure the facts of life and I think that unfortunately what happens is 1 way to get like 1 up over on somebody else which is like power in the hierarchy is to. |
| 29:27.1 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, my. |
| 29:41.7 | Max Shank | Um, camouflage What you're really saying and to hide the reality with language and that's kind of goes back to our um, previous statement about it. Went from who has the big stick in the big muscles to who can tell the best story. |
| 29:45.6 | mikebledsoe | In. |
| 29:59.5 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah. |
| 30:01.6 | Max Shank | And who can use language to get the job done and I think that's kind of what's happening right now with the you know the assault on the patriarchy because all these ideas are they have an intended goal and. It sort of has to go against nature when you create these new stories. The whole reason is like you're sort of going against what would naturally happen in these roles and if you come up with a good assault on a certain ideology. Whether it's true or not ah doesn't really matter like here's an example of what I'm talking About. We need to search. Everybody's phone so we can catch the pedophiles now I think the word pedophile is the fucking scariest front page word. There could possibly be and I just want ah you to think about So It's totally wrong for people people to be able to search our phones right? But if you come up with an emotional enough argument for that like okay. |
| 31:08.8 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah. |
| 31:18.8 | Max Shank | Raping Kids has got to be the worst thing there is right? So How do you say that? the church is 1 hundred percent bad. Well they you know, raped these kids now I think teachers by sheer numbers rape or fuck more kids than priests do. But. And maybe doesn't make as good a headline I don't know Anyway, my point is this if there's if there Well what I'm saying is it's all about the story so you bring up that comment about like the patriarchy and femininity and feminism and. |
| 31:39.6 | mikebledsoe | I Love This is our topic now. |
| 31:52.7 | mikebledsoe | Which is feminism and feminity are are different things and that's worth talking about too. |
| 31:55.3 | Max Shank | It's totally different things like I mean we could try to. We could come up with a nice clear definition of feminism. But I think saying that men are worse or women are worse is ridiculous like. That that doesn't get us anywhere just the same way that saying oh well, you know because of this horrible thing we need to do an even more horrible thing. So. It's just like using a story to justify why it's okay. |
| 32:28.0 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I think it's a good foundation for for moving forward. Um, well,, there's the the story of patriarchy is that men are in charge and men have been in charge and I've been making all the decisions and you can tell because they're primarily the ones that are in office. Political office. They're the ones that are running the companies. They're the ones that are you know all these things like they're they're in positions of quote unquote power and women ah have traditionally been at home and ah. |
| 32:47.2 | Max Shank | M. |
| 33:03.8 | mikebledsoe | There has been a story told that there is no power in that position that there that the men are actually powerful and and the women are not when they're ah playing out the traditional gender roles and ah. When I remember having this conversation with 1 of my buddies danny and he was talking about how he was growing up and how his his dad was was largely absent. He would just come in and out he was dating all these different women and he grew up and i. Ah, home full of it was women the grandmother the mother the the ants and everything it was a highly matriarchal home he was he was brought up. He was raised by women. He was not raised by men and he. You know it hit him 1 day goes is like oh I was like raised in a matriarchy so at ah at the family level if you look if we're looking at traditional gender roles at the family level. The woman carries most of the power she spends most of the money she makes most the purchases. She chooses the food you're going to eat that the activities the kids are going to do the the father is usually so ah busy needing to make money to provide all the things. That the the family needs and wants and maybe what he wants for them. But also what the woman wants for the family and the kids but she's women are if we're looking at traditional gender roles are largely dictating the development of children and to me there's nothing more powerful than that i. Don't care who's running the businesses or running the countries and things like that. That's that's illusory in a way people men are being um so there's when I look at feminism complaining about patriarchy what I what I witness. Is that there is a feminist is somebody who says that the traits of men are more valuable than the traits of women and in order for men and women to be equal. Women need to be able to have all the traits they desire that that men typically fulfill and and for instance you know, like equal pay for for jobs and and being able to be ceo as a company and congresswomen and the president of the United states and all that stuff. |
| 35:46.7 | mikebledsoe | Which I have no opposition to whatsoever I Think that's I think that's great if women want to do that Then that's that's a great place to be. Yeah, it is already possible. So but it it. |
| 35:54.4 | Max Shank | That's already possible though. It's just about the blame game really like it's already possible for any man or any woman to make any amount of money as long as they deliver the value there is. Ah, the only privilege there really is is who your parents are and who you know because if my good friend. Ah if I'm the president and my good friend who is a woman wants a job. She's going to get a job even if there's a dude who's probably more qualified. Because that's how the world works you want people that you know and trust maybe even more generally than who is the best 1 for the job but the key with all those points is like who polices that ah concept of of fairness right? So it. All those arguments to me just make no sense because it goes completely against ah that whole Martin luther king idea of you know it's more about what you have on the inside than what you are on the outside and anything that divides people up, you know. Especially male and female like how is there going to be the the idea is we should communicate and figure out who naturally likes to do what and I think that's why you have certain relationships that work where there's a man. Who doesn't earn as much as the woman but he's a more ah nurturing type and she's more of a power type and that doesn't happen all the time but it happens sometime sometimes so I think it's more about finding someone who's a good match for your particular dna. Rather than for this like blanket statement that like men bad women good or or vice versa. |
| 37:50.6 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, and the roles that they typically play you know, being better than other roles I I think about roles versus hierarchy. Um, and so I mean this is what I've been circling a bit in that. Ah, there has. |
| 37:58.2 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 38:08.1 | mikebledsoe | When I look at say the feminist movement. There's this, they're saying that that career is the more important thing and. |
| 38:14.7 | Max Shank | We should just let him have all the jobs and stay at home for a few generations like I want to I want to do it like lions where there's like a male lion and he's just like lounging around and the ladies are like we're going to go hunting again. Do you want to come. He's like no no no I got to protect the pride. And the lady's like yeah you got to protect the group of lions from all of the crazy predators that are going to attack us right? He's like yeah pick me up some zebra if you can I'm going to be here resting up for when it's mating time just wake me up when you get back. |
| 38:46.1 | mikebledsoe | Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm into it. Um, but but I just want to bring up like ah because there's this importance put on career if it over say family. Whatever, Ah then ah, there's this I think there's this confusion that that hierarchy like having a career is better like making more money is actually better that doesn't make you better or higher up on the rung um than if you're at home. Raising children for instance, like there's to me what I What I witness is like an even partnership between people. But there's been a ah story. That's been has been painted that the man is and you know he's the 1 that's in charge and if we look at. |
| 39:26.8 | Max Shank | Well. |
| 39:32.7 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 39:40.4 | Max Shank | Um, well merit a merit. |
| 39:44.1 | mikebledsoe | Masculine Feminine traits like we look at the sorry the paternal it is painting a picture of the future for them to live into and and the mother may be in that that role may be the more accepting and and nurturing of what already is it may appear as though there is a. There is this the man is Leading. He's leading in certain areas of the relationship and and of the family but the woman is also leading in certain areas and these areas are not necessarily more important than the other areas and I think that our society has gotten confused about that. Yeah. |
| 40:13.9 | Max Shank | Yeah,, that's the yeah, That's the crazy part because a marriage is really a business partnership marriage has nothing to do with Love it has to do with a business arrangement like we are going to now enter into this business agreement where. Our mission is to either like reproduce or at least work together to handle this family enterprise and it's kind of like saying that the Chief ah marketing officer is more important than the Chief Financial officer. |
| 40:49.4 | mikebledsoe | Right? right. |
| 40:51.0 | Max Shank | Right? Yeah, the chief marketing officer is out there making all the money and you know he's out there and he's like you know wheeling and dealing and he knows all these people and then the cfo is sitting in an office and saying to the Chief marketing officer. No you idiot we can't afford that. Right? That's what cf is supposed to do I think and so right exactly and you know if you're if you're on your own you probably need to have ah some of both of those traits but it's ridiculous. |
| 41:09.0 | mikebledsoe | Ah, that's ah, that's what the good cfos I've had have done for me. Yeah yeah. |
| 41:25.7 | Max Shank | To say that 1 is more important than the other right? um and look. It's only true in like 99 percent of animals that the females are the nurturing ones and just from my firsthand experience. Ah. |
| 41:28.6 | mikebledsoe | You know. |
| 41:45.2 | Max Shank | Women are way more nurturing way more like who could even argue that that's great. Ah, there are a few examples where the male does the nurturing you know what? a casso area is. It's like that. |
| 41:58.3 | mikebledsoe | No. |
| 42:03.1 | Max Shank | Blue faced dinosaur bird with the little thing on top. It's about the size of an ostrich. It's like the second largest bird. Yeah, they're gnarly they have these claws anyway like usual, the females are about twenty five percent bigger and the females. |
| 42:06.5 | mikebledsoe | Now a fart. |
| 42:22.7 | Max Shank | Go around and mate with as many males as possible and then the male sits on the nest and raises the kids and what's and what's crazy is when the female. Well. |
| 42:29.6 | mikebledsoe | So They get all the sex and then the responsibility. We were born the wrong species. |
| 42:41.6 | Max Shank | I still think I'd rather be a lion that seems the best ah but what's crazy also is she makes literally all the decisions even like whether it's mating time or not like I saw this crazy documentary where the female comes back. To the same male as before and goes it's mating time so you're going to have to let that little kid go because he's got 1 baby left that he is literally nurturing right? and it's her baby and she's like ah. No, no, no, it's it's mating time now you got to let that kid go and look for some new eggs and he's like no and she's like yes and so of course he just does so he like abandons this kid that he has been nurturing and then ah you know has sex with the Bertha big bertha and then just sits on another pile of eggs because she said so I mean that's rare is my point. It's rare that the male is the 1 who nurtures and I think with. Because we're mostly talking about people I got a million examples about animal facts but it like can't we just use a little bit of common sense and admit what we like and what we don't like you know the reason that women don't get into. Um you know. Some of the scientific fields as much and engineering is probably they just don't like to is that okay to say I mean I don't know possibly I mean culture has a lot to do culture culture has a lot to do with it too. I mean I think it goes. |
| 44:19.0 | mikebledsoe | Possibly Yeah I don't know I haven't haven't run the survey. |
| 44:29.8 | Max Shank | Even deeper. It's like what is rewarded is repeated so what? Ah Monkey see Monkey do what is rewarded is repeated. These are like very simple fundamental realities of how we become the people that we are and rather than like. |
| 44:32.6 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 44:49.6 | Max Shank | Blame 1 gender or the other It's like if we look into the past with any kind of like magnifying Glass. We're going to see a lot of very evil shit. We'll see a lot of good things too. But we'll see a lot of very evil things too. It's like oh man. See what's so crazy is I think of things and then I'm like I can't say that because everyone will hate me but didn't We have a hashtag Once that said, believe all women wasn't that a thing for a while about about the me too thing now I've never known a woman to lie. |
| 45:18.1 | mikebledsoe | I Think so yeah, oh yeah. |
| 45:26.0 | Max Shank | Ever. But but believe all women I mean come on like that any any of these like divisive things are just compounding compounding compounding the problem. Yeah, it's ridiculous. |
| 45:34.3 | mikebledsoe | Or yeah, the absolutes It's like this is an absolute thing. It's like this is always you know that the absolutes are always never anytime anyone starts using absolute language fucking red flag just start going up and what but yeah, you've bought into a story and it's. |
| 45:46.5 | Max Shank | Ah, oh my god yeah, it's ridiculous. Yeah, all all this divisive stuff like we're we're human beings first and foremost like if we can't if we can't like get together on that front. |
| 45:54.3 | mikebledsoe | You're full of shit. Ah. |
| 46:06.2 | Max Shank | Then all of these other arguments are taking us further and further away from the truth. Basically I don't think any progress can be made when we try to blame black people or white people or men or women or gays Or. Catholics I don't know why I've grouped those 2 together but you get the idea like it. It just is wrong to do that. |
| 46:31.5 | mikebledsoe | Yeah anytime I mean we talked about this before the the victim villain hero the the Drama triangle. Yeah anytime that starts coming into play it it create creates division and what it really I think. |
| 46:37.0 | Max Shank | Right. |
| 46:48.1 | mikebledsoe | Instead of division I think a better word for this and what's more accurate is conflict. It creates conflict like yeah division but division without division. Ah you won't get conflict if everyone's together and unified that reduces the conflict. |
| 46:52.3 | Max Shank | Oh yeah. |
| 47:03.8 | Max Shank | Um, right. |
| 47:05.7 | mikebledsoe | But when someone thinks that they're different than somebody else when they believe that thought that max is you know he's doing me wrong in some way because yes because he has something and I don't then you know that that doesn't It's not any good for Me. And how I may end up treating you because I believe that's not good for you and then that that creates conflict and even if you never receive in the impact of that the person who believes that someone else has an advantage over them. They're the ones that suffer the most from that belief. |
| 47:39.3 | Max Shank | Totally it's us and them mentality. It's like ah you know, eat eat the rich basically kind of thing I mean it takes ah it takes no subtleties or nuance into consideration and that's 1 of the big. Um. |
| 47:48.0 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 47:59.1 | Max Shank | Growing pains that we're having right now because what catches the most attention is something that's like under 10 words and super inflammatory. So if you don't look at the big picture and be like well you know? Ah yeah I I can't say the picture in 10 words but you get the idea is. |
| 48:15.1 | mikebledsoe | Um, well I think I think the ah like language is is the language is people's thoughts what they say is what they're thinking. There's a lot of things that they don't say that they're. |
| 48:17.4 | Max Shank | You just become at odds. |
| 48:34.7 | mikebledsoe | Thinking. But if you reduce the vocabulary or if you reduce the amount of of words that are being used then you start removing Nuance and when you start removing Nuance it. It actually starts. Killing people's ability to critically think as a whole. So if you have the same narrative going all the time or it's just headlines and people aren't Discussing. You're not allowed to or it's not popular to discuss Nuance You can tell who's not thinking critically because they're not. |
| 49:07.0 | Max Shank | No. |
| 49:12.1 | mikebledsoe | And a nuanced conversation If you're entering into a nuanced conversation where we're getting a good understanding on what things are recognizing. It's not absolute.. It's not black and white. There's ah and it's not even gray. It's just everything is ah this unique. Ah. Thing that we get to discuss and we really want to discuss and understand all sides of it and semantics matter here as well. And so I think that like when we look at any of these things that causes conflict We have all these people that that are making groups of people. And then creating absolutes about those groups of people and leaving out any nuance and um, you know I hate to use the word brainwashing because I think brainwashing is is actually you know if if we took it literally to to wash the mind would be a good thing is to get rid of some garbage. |
| 50:04.6 | Max Shank | Well, it can be. It can be good or it could be horrible. It depends on what you put after. |
| 50:08.4 | mikebledsoe | But the but what we see here is just like it's ah it's a dampening of consciousness when you start when if you lack nuance and you reduce the vocabulary the book nineteen eighty four by george orwell 1 of the things that was a common. Ah. |
| 50:21.0 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 50:26.4 | mikebledsoe | and and george r wells a fucking genius and understood language deeply and 1 of the things that was part of the book was that there was I think it was on the they were on the ninth edition of the special dictionary that the the people were to use and that culture and each book got smaller. |
| 50:40.8 | Max Shank | The. |
| 50:46.4 | mikebledsoe | Each dictionary had fewer words and words started to be outlawed. Oh you can't say that it's replaced with this or instead of saying and and everything just got shorter and shorter and shorter because people who have the inability to because what you're able to. |
| 50:47.2 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 51:06.0 | mikebledsoe | Process becomes diminished when you when you don't have as good a use of language and you start missing nuance because this word means twenty different things instead of just this 1 thing and it's um, when people are confused. They're easy to control. And it's It's a very interesting thing to witness right now with with the division conflict and the absolute language being used and the inability of certain things or people to be able to use certain language or even discuss certain topics. It's.. It's a very sad state of affairs. |
| 51:44.2 | Max Shank | Well controlling language is controlling thought and you have censorship through self censorship which is basically through the the collective will shame you and then you have actual censorship where ah, you are legally not allowed. |
| 51:54.5 | mikebledsoe | So and. |
| 52:02.0 | mikebledsoe | Aka Fact checkers. |
| 52:03.9 | Max Shank | It legally not allowed to say something or ah, even beyond that where you speak up and you suddenly have committed suicide or you become suicided and the ministry of truth. Yeah, totally. |
| 52:15.2 | mikebledsoe | You're suicided. Well we I think we should just call. Ah the fact checkers the ministry of of truth or yeah. |
| 52:23.1 | Max Shank | Well Ah, what's that saying who will police the police even Thomas Sowell has a saying ah the the big question is not what will we do? It is who will decide what we do and that and that's that's a core question and the answer should be. |
| 52:34.8 | mikebledsoe | Um, like. |
| 52:43.1 | Max Shank | The individual 99 percent of the time. But if you convince the individual that they're not capable of making that decision then they will hand it off to somebody else and that's where like I just have this image in my brain It's a video of Mussolini saying. Ah. 1 country 1 decision and this huge crowd goes. Yeah like they are so excited they're they're they're like they're more like rocking and rolling than ah I don't know. Ah, foo fighters concert or something like that. They're just like going bananas I've never been to a foodo fighters' concert that was the only thing I could think of I'm like they're popular right? shows you? how much I know? Ah, but they were excited about 1 country 1 decision and. |
| 53:24.6 | mikebledsoe | I. |
| 53:35.0 | Max Shank | In order to get to that point you have to make those individuals believe that the result would in fact, be better and you can even take that idea back to slavery so you know terrorism is using fear to control people right. And the greatest terror organization I know of is our own media because they literally emit the most fear and control the most minds. Ah I don't I don't think ah any of those like Arabian fellows have even like come close scratch the surface. On their terrorism compared to the you know media here. But anyway so you use fear to control so you use fear to control people and think about Slavery. For example, you know I've heard some people ask the question. Well why didn't they just fight back. And it's because the thing that we all want most is to not die. That's so deeply primal and you would think like slavery slavery would be impossible if everybody just stopped working and would ah like fight back. But of course that didn't happen. |
| 54:37.5 | mikebledsoe | A. |
| 54:52.4 | Max Shank | Because a intellectually they didn't see that as a viable option and that's where the brainwashing comes into play because Slavery is a lot about definition. So if you are told that story of slavery and you believe that it's possible and I'm not just talking about slavery in the usa I'm saying. You know slavery throughout the history of mankind. It's almost every people have been enslaved. |
| 55:18.7 | mikebledsoe | There's usually more slaves than there are masters. That's basically how it works. |
| 55:21.0 | Max Shank | Yeah way more?? Um, and it it all has to do with the the fear of death right? or maybe because we're such compassionate creatures. You know we're afraid of them killing someone else like I say hey Mike you better. Get back to your slave labor I'm going to kill your lady friend over here and you're like okay, fine master I Will you know submit to you or whatever. But it's it's fascinating how the fear of death and the language- driven ideas are really what. Enable slavery as a whole and there are different. There are different types like some people are just slaves to their telephone right now they believe whatever comes out of their telephone. They check it all the time they're constantly plugged in and that's another thing that makes it difficult to think clearly. Is that you've now built up this addiction which is a you know form of enslavement. Basically where ah it's kind of unprecedented to have the world in your pocket all the time talking at you. |
| 56:31.5 | mikebledsoe | Yeah I spend the first four hours at least sometimes the entire day the first four hours not consuming any any content any media because it's um. |
| 56:45.5 | Max Shank | That's really smart. |
| 56:49.9 | mikebledsoe | There's so much for me to create and to consider and to be with that I don't need any outside information to pollute my mind I I wait till the second half of the day to really engage with other people's agendas. |
| 57:02.7 | Max Shank | Ah. |
| 57:08.6 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 57:09.0 | mikebledsoe | What they want me to do ah you know that means checking my email. Maybe even checking text messages. Ah, you know there's there's a lot of things that I just that that that habit and really recognizing at first was I want to be on my own agenda and I stopped checking my email. |
| 57:25.1 | Max Shank | Ah, the. |
| 57:27.9 | mikebledsoe | First thing of the day really really set the dominoes up to be at a place where like I'm not listening to music with lyrics in the morning I I am going to journal I'm going to be alone with my thoughts I'm going to write um and it's ah. It's created a lot more peace in my life I've become much more effective so you know for anyone who's listening a great tip that I'm um, bestowing on you now is ah 1 way to brainwash yourself in in a positive way is to spend more time with. Your own thoughts and writing them down and actually seeing if they're your own thoughts or not ah usually not and if you do that long enough. What's being put out in the media and what's being said by a lot of people you know people at large when I go out and talk to people. I can smell bullshit so much faster than when I was younger and I think it is because of the amount of time I've spent reflection and recognizing that most of my own thoughts are bullshit and you know if most of my thoughts are bullshit and I try hard to to know the truth. Then the majority of other people's thoughts are bullshit too. They're not better than you people people are generally just full of shit. |
| 58:51.0 | Max Shank | Yeah I mean that is such a valuable piece of advice that probably ninety percent of people will completely ignore and just move on to the next thing. Ah. It's difficult though because there's this hunger. There's this feeling like I need to learn more I need to know more and I just remember I was on a panel at a seminar and everyone's like what's ah, what's a Book. You would recommend. And so I'm up there with like maybe 10 or twelve presenters from this weekend of things and you know everyone's got their examples I'm like oh yeah I like that. But and I'm like near the end of the line right? and like oh yeah I like that book too and then by the time it got to me I was like. Listen everybody you just paid like 7 hundred bucks so you could hear us synthesize everything we know for the exact thing you're trying to do the last thing you should do is buy another Book. You should spend the next ninety days and deliberately not read. Any other book and just implement what you learned because that's where most people mess up is in the doing what they know it's not that people don't know what to do? It's just that they don't do what they know and the same thing goes for the creation consumption ratio. Um, journal out your thoughts on your life journal out. Ah why you think certain things write out your your plan write out a strategy for getting more customers or for getting more clients or for wooing a few more ladies. I mean when you give yourself up to the consumer archetype then that's just what you are and that's okay, like being a consumer is really fun. It's a devil's bargain like I can hardly resist I'm a curious guy I'll just watch national geographic. And like bbc earth like all day if it were out and just eat casead ideas or something I don't know, but but but if you you know when I kind of like you if I don't eat in the morning and if I don't consume stuff. Something good will happen. You know you just have to give yourself that space and that's that's the yin side. That's the feminine side is the space to create and that silence and that's where you're going to find peace of mind and if you're hyper young, you're not goingnna. |
| 01:01:20.5 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, um. |
| 01:01:26.3 | mikebledsoe | Yeah. |
| 01:01:36.8 | Max Shank | You're not going to find that peace of mind you're going to be looking or oh I got to find the next thing I got to do the next thing and it's like probably not. |
| 01:01:40.2 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, well it takes a little bit of masculine energy to create boundaries and uphold those boundaries and being in that space is more of a feminine aspect if we won't. |
| 01:01:49.6 | Max Shank | Ah, well yeah, and if you are like most guys afraid that people will call you a homo if you do anything that is like closely resembling femininity then you're basically shooting yourself in the foot. To please people who probably don't even like you I mean is or don't care is is so ridiculous. But. |
| 01:02:13.6 | mikebledsoe | Ah, oh yeah, most people don't care about. They're not thinking about you as much as you think that they're thinking about you Well that your this is an anomaly. |
| 01:02:19.7 | Max Shank | I mean I think about you a lot. |
| 01:02:27.1 | Max Shank | Ah, it's it's very liberating to realize like no 1 ne's thinking about you. They're just thinking about their own life and the the sooner you can let go of the attachment to masculine or feminine and just. |
| 01:02:33.0 | mikebledsoe | I Got the hour shut. |
| 01:02:46.2 | Max Shank | Use both when it's appropriate. It's like what's the best tool a screwdriver or a socket wrench. It's a stupid question like what's the best gender male or female. It's a stupid question What's the best. Ah. Type masculine or feminine. So another stupid question. What's better lightness or darkness they're they're all really really dumb questions that shouldn't even cross your mind. You should just learn when to use which trait like when is it appropriate to be more masculine and. Stand your ground and be an aggressive monster because look I'm a pretty feminine guy actually most of the time because it's it's more fun I like talking to ladies and when it's time to be Masculine. You should be a devastating monster. |
| 01:03:27.4 | mikebledsoe | But yeah. |
| 01:03:40.0 | Max Shank | And you should lay waste to any barriers that might enter your path and if you get stuck in 1 or the other you just won't be as effective. So I that would. |
| 01:03:48.6 | mikebledsoe | Well I think I think that it builds capacity for if you want a more have more capacity or range or'll call it range if you want to have more range and your masculine if you want to be able to be very masculine if you're trying to redline your masculinity all the time. |
| 01:03:56.5 | Max Shank | Range. |
| 01:04:08.4 | mikebledsoe | You're going to blow an o ring right? But if you if you allow yourself be in that feminine place and retract you got expansion and contraction if you allow yourself to come out of that then when it's time to really lay waste as you said you actually have the energy to do it. |
| 01:04:23.3 | Max Shank | Um. |
| 01:04:27.9 | mikebledsoe | You actually can show up and do it because you've been you've been waiting for that. But the waiting is not a masculine thing. It's a feminine thing so I've I've noticed that in my own work I've become much more feminine over the years and that is there's a lot more relaxation a lot more waiting a lot more patience for. You know things to line up and I've had moments where it's time to do a lot of work. We go. Oh we got 3 weeks where we're gonna fucking put our heads down or I have a retreat and I've got my team there who they I just wear them out. Like how's this guy who's older and doing this and like how does he have so much energy. It's like oh it's because I was waiting I went covid hit I I had was like peak feminine for myself when covid hit and hits I go oh we're going to change some things in the business I'm glad I've been resting. I can I can really do a lot of work now and everyone who had been in their masculine the whole time leading up to that then they had like push harder into their masculine and they just didn't have the juice there. |
| 01:05:22.2 | Max Shank | E. |
| 01:05:28.1 | Max Shank | O. Yeah I think the range is key but I'm afraid people won't think I'm tough unless I'm masculine all the time. |
| 01:05:36.6 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, yeah I. |
| 01:05:43.9 | mikebledsoe | Yeah, just just so you guys know that's not going to get you laid I think we already covered the tough the tough guy ah podcast I think that's when 1 of our previous episodes I'm sure we'll cover it again. Any last word, you want to leave people with were. |
| 01:05:55.6 | Max Shank | Um, yeah, that's good stuff. |
| 01:06:03.4 | mikebledsoe | Over an hour now. |
| 01:06:03.8 | Max Shank | Ah, well just just look how many ways it can work in the animal Kingdom you know humans are just really weird animals I think the most important thing is you don't get caught up in. Your identity being based on whether you're a man or a lady and you recognize that masculinity and feminity are just our extensions of Yin and Yang and understand that there's an appropriate time to use both. When you're tired sleep when you're hungry eat. Um, when it's time to go hunting. Go be go be a monster and and do your hunt. |
| 01:06:47.3 | mikebledsoe | Beautiful. That's all I got I'm gonna leave it at that. Yep for max go to Maxank dot Com and what else what else you got just. |
| 01:06:53.9 | Max Shank | Sounds good. Thanks everybody. |
| 01:07:03.2 | Max Shank | Max shank I'm like the only 1 named that yeah just look me up. |
| 01:07:05.0 | mikebledsoe | Ah, search ma you are you are like the only 1 named that yep, find me on Instagram mike underscore Bloodso which Instagram's down today actually so we'll see maybe they all'll stay down dude I tried to get into Facebook earlier. |
| 01:07:15.2 | Max Shank | What are what are we gonna do I'm gonna start doing crack. |
| 01:07:23.7 | mikebledsoe | I think that's that next logical step. Yeah when Facebook goes down. Yeah, probably not ah so yeah and the strong coach for you coaches up there. That's all we got and until next time. |
| 01:07:25.6 | Max Shank | Might not be as destructive mentally. |