Cortex

00:00:00 ◼   ► I brought all my good gear to the studio now.

00:00:03 ◼   ► - Oh yeah?

00:00:03 ◼   ► - Yeah, a couple of weeks ago I realized

00:00:05 ◼   ► my good audio interface, the one that I like the most,

00:00:09 ◼   ► USB Pre 2, that's been at home for,

00:00:14 ◼   ► it never came to the studio.

00:00:16 ◼   ► And I was using my Zoom kind of recorder here,

00:00:19 ◼   ► which is like a traveling piece of equipment.

00:00:21 ◼   ► So I swapped them over a couple of weeks ago.

00:00:24 ◼   ► Felt like I made a bit of a commitment to the studio

00:00:27 ◼   ► that way, which is nice.

00:00:29 ◼   ► - So you're doing 100% of your podcast recording

00:00:31 ◼   ► from the studio now?

00:00:31 ◼   ► - That's one of the reasons that made me do it

00:00:33 ◼   ► is I don't record anything from home now

00:00:37 ◼   ► unless there's like some very particular reason.

00:00:40 ◼   ► Like I recorded something really late a couple of nights ago

00:00:43 ◼   ► and so I just did it from home.

00:00:44 ◼   ► But yeah, now all of my regular shows,

00:00:47 ◼   ► they're all recorded at the studio now.

00:00:50 ◼   ► I'm here every day,

00:00:51 ◼   ► like I'm here at least five days a week.

00:00:52 ◼   ► - No, but bringing all the good equipment over,

00:00:54 ◼   ► that's an exciting final step.

00:00:56 ◼   ► - Yeah, it was a commitment.

00:00:57 ◼   ► Yeah, you're really committed to this office after only 18 months or so.

00:01:05 ◼   ► Yeah, something like that.

00:01:08 ◼   ► Well congratulations for bringing the last piece of audio equipment over.

00:01:10 ◼   ► Yeah I've got this whole thing all set up nicely.

00:01:13 ◼   ► I've got my nice yellow iMac and it sits on this like stand, right?

00:01:17 ◼   ► Because Apple refused to make the stands tall enough.

00:01:20 ◼   ► Oh yeah, I know.

00:01:21 ◼   ► The shortness of their little feet for the monitors are incredibly frustrating.

00:01:25 ◼   ► But I have a nice stand made by a company called Grovemade. You've probably come across

00:01:30 ◼   ► this company before. They make a lot of these kinds of stands and cases and that kind of

00:01:35 ◼   ► stuff. It's nice because it's made of the same kind of wood as my desk, so it all matches

00:01:39 ◼   ► in quite nicely.

00:01:40 ◼   ► Very nice.

00:01:41 ◼   ► And I have a second monitor now, which is great. I used my old Dell monitor that I was

00:01:47 ◼   ► using for the Mac Mini before. Now it just sits off to the side of the iMac, and that's

00:01:52 ◼   ► where I put all the recording apps. I'm feeling pretty settled here now. It's quite nice.

00:01:57 ◼   ► - Have you built yourself a little booth? I just realized I don't know what the final

00:02:02 ◼   ► setup for your audio was. You didn't want to build yourself a little recording call.

00:02:06 ◼   ► So I don't know what the final result was for dampening the audio.

00:02:09 ◼   ► - It didn't change. So I have two sound-insulating panels behind me and then I still have the

00:02:15 ◼   ► curtains. Remember the big curtains? I still have those on the left and right of me. And

00:02:20 ◼   ► I found that it does a pretty good job.

00:02:22 ◼   ► Actually, just before we were recording,

00:02:24 ◼   ► when I was talking to you,

00:02:25 ◼   ► I could hear an echo to the left side,

00:02:27 ◼   ► and I just adjusted the curtain a little bit

00:02:29 ◼   ► and it's gone away.

00:02:30 ◼   ► So, it's doing a good job.

00:02:32 ◼   ► They are not pretty, but it's functional.

00:02:35 ◼   ► I mean, ultimately, having been here

00:02:38 ◼   ► for the time that we've been here,

00:02:39 ◼   ► and there's still things that I want,

00:02:41 ◼   ► and there's still things that we want to do,

00:02:43 ◼   ► but we're thinking that it's ultimately,

00:02:48 ◼   ► it's kind of like a similar thing

00:02:49 ◼   ► to wanting to own our own home,

00:02:51 ◼   ► we kind of want to own our own office space.

00:02:54 ◼   ► And so I think that is probably the plan

00:02:56 ◼   ► for the next few years,

00:02:58 ◼   ► because it's very restrictive when we're renting here.

00:03:00 ◼   ► There's only so many things we're allowed to do

00:03:02 ◼   ► and we can't put anything on the walls very easily

00:03:06 ◼   ► or we have to, it's just like a whole thing.

00:03:08 ◼   ► And like the shared bathroom and shared kitchen experience

00:03:13 ◼   ► is kind of as you would expect it to be

00:03:15 ◼   ► and it's less than ideal.

00:03:16 ◼   ► So we'll probably be here, I reckon, for a couple of years.

00:03:20 ◼   ► But the long-term goal now, I think,

00:03:23 ◼   ► is to try and find something in our area

00:03:28 ◼   ► which we could acquire through the business

00:03:34 ◼   ► and own our own space.

00:03:36 ◼   ► I don't know how realistic that's gonna be or possible,

00:03:39 ◼   ► but I think that would be my ideal.

00:03:43 ◼   ► I don't really like being in a situation like this

00:03:46 ◼   ► that we can't fully control.

00:03:48 ◼   ► And I just say, I never lived in rental accommodation.

00:03:52 ◼   ► I lived at home until I was ready to buy.

00:03:54 ◼   ► Just the way I am as a person,

00:03:56 ◼   ► I kind of don't like being beholden

00:04:00 ◼   ► to a landlord in that way.

00:04:02 ◼   ► And so I was lucky enough to have a home environment

00:04:06 ◼   ► that was good for me until we were in a point

00:04:10 ◼   ► where we could buy our own home.

00:04:12 ◼   ► And so being in this kind of environment now,

00:04:16 ◼   ► it's like it's a bit weird.

00:04:17 ◼   ► It's like we want to fix something.

00:04:18 ◼   ► Well, you can't fix it.

00:04:20 ◼   ► - Right, you have to get the landlord to fix it.

00:04:23 ◼   ► - So it's like there's all these little things

00:04:24 ◼   ► that it's like, oh, you want to replace the window?

00:04:26 ◼   ► You can't do that.

00:04:28 ◼   ► Okay, will you replace the window?

00:04:29 ◼   ► No, there's nothing wrong with it.

00:04:31 ◼   ► It's like, yeah, I know, but like,

00:04:33 ◼   ► we would like a different kind of like lock on the window.

00:04:36 ◼   ► Ah, no, no, no, it's fine.

00:04:38 ◼   ► This is like stuff like that.

00:04:40 ◼   ► I think that's going to be a long-term goal.

00:04:42 ◼   ► We'll probably be in a yearly theme at some point

00:04:44 ◼   ► in the future, within the next couple of years maybe.

00:04:47 ◼   ► And it's like one of those things we look,

00:04:48 ◼   ► like see what's available.

00:04:50 ◼   ► And most commercial property stuff in our area

00:04:53 ◼   ► is all retail and you can't just buy a shop

00:04:57 ◼   ► and not be a shop.

00:04:58 ◼   ► Like it's not how it works.

00:05:00 ◼   ► An office space seems hard to come by.

00:05:02 ◼   ► - Yes, yeah.

00:05:03 ◼   ► I looked into that at one point and I was like,

00:05:05 ◼   ► "Oh, commercial real estate, this is interesting.

00:05:08 ◼   ► Oh, no, I can't do what I want.

00:05:10 ◼   ► Can I set up like a fake shop in the front?

00:05:12 ◼   ► You know, like the office equivalent of money laundering.

00:05:15 ◼   ► It's like, oh, that coffee shop.

00:05:17 ◼   ► It's only three feet deep in that retail space.

00:05:19 ◼   ► What's behind there?

00:05:20 ◼   ► Oh, nothing.

00:05:21 ◼   ► You know, it's just an office space.

00:05:23 ◼   ► - That reminds me of that 368 that Casey Neistat set up.

00:05:26 ◼   ► They had a little shop in the front.

00:05:28 ◼   ► It just made me realize.

00:05:29 ◼   ► Was that because of zoning laws?

00:05:31 ◼   ► - Boy, you know, that's an interesting,

00:05:34 ◼   ► but I mean, look,

00:05:35 ◼   ► there's a lot of interesting questions around 368.

00:05:39 ◼   ► but that's a very interesting question.

00:05:42 ◼   ► - Maybe we could just set up a very tiny cortex brand store

00:05:47 ◼   ► that is open for half an hour every three months.

00:05:51 ◼   ► - Right.

00:05:52 ◼   ► - And just the rest of it's very selective

00:05:54 ◼   ► and the rest of the time it's closed.

00:05:56 ◼   ► But then we have wonderful offices behind it.

00:05:58 ◼   ► - What's the minimum amount of retail that would count?

00:06:01 ◼   ► Could you have a like a

00:06:03 ◼   ► buy appointment only shopping experience?

00:06:06 ◼   ► - Why not?

00:06:07 ◼   ► (laughs)

00:06:08 ◼   ► - I don't know.

00:06:08 ◼   ► feel like us talking about it here makes it harder for us to realize this dream.

00:06:14 ◼   ► No, I'm not sure about that, Myke. Just because we're talking about office space laundering.

00:06:21 ◼   ► Our podcast is admissible in court is what I want to know.

00:06:27 ◼   ► Judge, I was just joking. I don't understand why you took that section so seriously.

00:06:31 ◼   ► It's a comedy podcast, by and large.

00:06:33 ◼   ► Yeah, if it's a comedy podcast, none of your words count. Everyone knows that.

00:06:38 ◼   ► [Laughter]

00:06:39 ◼   ► So yeah, I'm very happy here, but as always thinking about what my future will look like.

00:06:46 ◼   ► But I do feel very wedded to the idea of an out-of-home office.

00:06:50 ◼   ► I really do like that experience.

00:06:52 ◼   ► It's been a very nice adjustment for me.

00:06:54 ◼   ► Yeah, I just think it's funny that you have only just brought over the last piece of equipment

00:06:58 ◼   ► and already I'm hearing about "well…"

00:07:01 ◼   ► And then the next place is on the horizon already.

00:07:04 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean this was always step one.

00:07:07 ◼   ► I had just decided I had to be out of the home and we basically went for the first place

00:07:14 ◼   ► we found. Which is honestly not that different to when we bought our apartment. It was like

00:07:22 ◼   ► we want to move, we have to move now. We spent one day, we looked at four apartments and

00:07:26 ◼   ► then we just put an offer on one of them.

00:07:28 ◼   ► I didn't realise it was that fast.

00:07:30 ◼   ► Yeah, I mean, but then it took an awful long time to complete. I feel like I'm with this

00:07:35 ◼   ► kind of stuff realistic in knowing that they don't need to be dream homes because I feel

00:07:41 ◼   ► like the dream home or the dream office comes later in life. It's not the first one or at

00:07:46 ◼   ► least it's not going to be for me. I don't live in that part of the world, right? Like

00:07:52 ◼   ► if I want to stay in London, I can't get the dream. It's going to take a long time and

00:07:57 ◼   ► I'm going to have to move somewhere different probably. But I also don't know what it would

00:08:01 ◼   ► be. But like this has been a very good test case of understanding what I want. And I think

00:08:07 ◼   ► the main thing now that we know we want is we need rooms. There needs to be dividing

00:08:12 ◼   ► walls in the space.

00:08:14 ◼   ► Right. So not just setting up zones for different things, different spaces in one big open space.

00:08:19 ◼   ► You want physically separate rooms.

00:08:21 ◼   ► Yeah. And so that's, that's like a thing for the future is like if and when we do this,

00:08:26 ◼   ► rooms will be key.

00:08:27 ◼   ► I wish you luck on your search.

00:08:29 ◼   ► Oh, I'm not searching.

00:08:30 ◼   ► Two years hence.

00:08:31 ◼   ► you can wish future Myke some good luck.

00:08:34 ◼   ► He's not, I'm not in a rush.

00:08:36 ◼   ► I'm not in a rush.

00:08:37 ◼   ► Gonna set some homework for the next episode.

00:08:40 ◼   ► We haven't done a book club in a while

00:08:41 ◼   ► and I'm realizing where we are in the year.

00:08:45 ◼   ► And if we don't do one now,

00:08:48 ◼   ► 'cause I did really want to do one this year,

00:08:50 ◼   ► but if we don't do one now,

00:08:51 ◼   ► I don't think we're going to be able to do it.

00:08:53 ◼   ► Because I think I was talking to Adina about this yesterday,

00:08:55 ◼   ► that we maybe have like five more episodes

00:08:58 ◼   ► and like three of them are set, like the topics are set.

00:09:00 ◼   ► - Oh God, Myke, you're making my whole year feel

00:09:03 ◼   ► like it's just slipped away.

00:09:04 ◼   ► - It's about to, yeah.

00:09:05 ◼   ► - Oh my God.

00:09:05 ◼   ► - It really is wild when you think about that.

00:09:08 ◼   ► It's like you do like maybe somewhere between 12

00:09:10 ◼   ► and 14 episodes a year.

00:09:11 ◼   ► - But it's only March now,

00:09:13 ◼   ► like it can't possibly be that far into the years.

00:09:15 ◼   ► - I feel like I have something terrible to break to you,

00:09:17 ◼   ► but maybe we'll deal with that later on.

00:09:19 ◼   ► So we wanted to do a book club.

00:09:21 ◼   ► We're gonna do something we haven't done before.

00:09:24 ◼   ► Neither of us have read this book.

00:09:25 ◼   ► So we don't know what it's gonna be like,

00:09:28 ◼   ► but it is one that I've had recommended to us every time we talk about book recommendations.

00:09:33 ◼   ► This one always comes up. So there's probably a reason for that and it is thinking fast

00:09:39 ◼   ► and slow by Daniel Kahneman. Is that how you say it? Kahneman?

00:09:44 ◼   ► I think it's Kahneman. I'm not 100% sure on that either but this also was one of these

00:09:48 ◼   ► books where when we were looking through potential options. It's definitely a book I've heard

00:09:53 ◼   ► lots of people make reference to and people have recommended it to me. So I've been aware

00:09:59 ◼   ► of it for a long time. I've just never gotten around to reading it. And it's also one of

00:10:04 ◼   ► these books that I feel like I think I might never read this unless we do do it as homework

00:10:09 ◼   ► for book club. So yeah, we're going to –

00:10:11 ◼   ► That's the same for me of all of these books. I will never read them unless they're set

00:10:16 ◼   ► as a task I must complete because I've promised people I will have read it.

00:10:20 ◼   ► - Right, I guess I forgot for you

00:10:22 ◼   ► that that is the case for literally every one of the books.

00:10:24 ◼   ► - Literally every book, every single,

00:10:26 ◼   ► every book, these are all books.

00:10:28 ◼   ► I'm looking at the cover of this now on Audible,

00:10:31 ◼   ► this book, and it's fun to me.

00:10:32 ◼   ► Like, so it says, "The international bestseller,

00:10:34 ◼   ► "Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman,

00:10:37 ◼   ► "Winner of the Nobel Prize."

00:10:38 ◼   ► So Kahneman is a Nobel Prize winning economic scientist,

00:10:42 ◼   ► but putting it on the book kind of makes it seem like,

00:10:45 ◼   ► if you're not paying attention,

00:10:47 ◼   ► that he won a Nobel Prize for this book.

00:10:49 ◼   ► - Right.

00:10:50 ◼   ► - This book is a Nobel Prize winning book.

00:10:53 ◼   ► Peace on Earth because of thinking fast and slow.

00:10:56 ◼   ► - Yeah, so my understanding is it is a book

00:10:58 ◼   ► about decision making in general,

00:11:01 ◼   ► how do humans make decisions?

00:11:03 ◼   ► And so I feel like that very easily fits in

00:11:05 ◼   ► with our book club, so yeah.

00:11:08 ◼   ► And I will be happy in the future

00:11:10 ◼   ► to have actually been able to say like,

00:11:13 ◼   ► oh yes, I've read that book and I have thoughts on it

00:11:15 ◼   ► the next time it comes up in conversation, so.

00:11:17 ◼   ► So you have about a month if you want to follow along,

00:11:20 ◼   ► because that'll be on our next episode.

00:11:23 ◼   ► - Yep, get started people.

00:11:24 ◼   ► It's 20 hours on Audible.

00:11:26 ◼   ► - I'm definitely not gonna read it on the Kindle.

00:11:31 ◼   ► I'm not gonna put myself through that again.

00:11:32 ◼   ► I'm gonna listen to it.

00:11:34 ◼   ► - I forgot, what was the book that you tried to read

00:11:36 ◼   ► on the Kindle, which one?

00:11:38 ◼   ► You made yourself really miserable with one of the books.

00:11:40 ◼   ► You actually tried to read it and I was like, oh no.

00:11:42 ◼   ► - Was it, which one?

00:11:44 ◼   ► Hold on, let me log into my Amazon account maybe.

00:11:47 ◼   ► Was it the effective executive?

00:11:48 ◼   ► What is that?

00:11:49 ◼   ► - Did we read that?

00:11:50 ◼   ► I don't even know anymore.

00:11:51 ◼   ► - What is that book?

00:11:52 ◼   ► - Maybe we've been doing the book club for too long.

00:11:54 ◼   ► I have no memory of this.

00:11:56 ◼   ► - From November, 2018.

00:11:58 ◼   ► I have zero memory of this book.

00:12:00 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:12:01 ◼   ► That's terrible.

00:12:02 ◼   ► I don't remember it at all.

00:12:04 ◼   ► By Peter Drucker.

00:12:07 ◼   ► Five talents is essential to effectiveness.

00:12:10 ◼   ► This must have been one of the really bad ones,

00:12:12 ◼   ► but like not even in a good way.

00:12:15 ◼   ► I have zero memory of this book.

00:12:16 ◼   ► I remember many of the others.

00:12:19 ◼   ► Like I remember "Creativity Inc."

00:12:20 ◼   ► I remember when we did "E-Myth" and "Seven Habits."

00:12:24 ◼   ► I remember all of those.

00:12:25 ◼   ► I remember nothing about "The Effective Executive."

00:12:27 ◼   ► So probably not that effective.

00:12:29 ◼   ► - "The Uneffective Executive."

00:12:30 ◼   ► This is not a very popular business book.

00:12:33 ◼   ► - This episode of Cortex is brought to you by Fitbod,

00:12:36 ◼   ► the fitness app that provides a personalized exercise plan,

00:12:40 ◼   ► a fitness plan that actually fits you.

00:12:42 ◼   ► When it comes to fitness,

00:12:43 ◼   ► Fitbod believes that everyone can be better.

00:12:45 ◼   ► It doesn't matter if you're working out three days a week or twice a day, Fitbud has an algorithm that uses data and analytics to help you build on your previous workout so that your next workout is scientifically proven to be better than the last.

00:12:57 ◼   ► This is super impressive stuff that has been fine-tuned by certified personal trainers to bring the very best practices of strength training to you, no matter where you are or what equipment you have.

00:13:07 ◼   ► Your workout program is tailored exactly to your needs so it's going to perfectly

00:13:11 ◼   ► suit your unique body experience environment and goals because look it

00:13:15 ◼   ► can be really hard to know exactly how much you should be doing while

00:13:18 ◼   ► exercising and also what you should be doing. So Fitbod will figure all of that

00:13:22 ◼   ► out for you so you don't have to worry about under or over training or even

00:13:25 ◼   ► coming up with what exercises to do. Fitbod's then gonna mix up your muscle

00:13:29 ◼   ► groups, exercises, sets, reps and weight over time to help keep you on top form

00:13:33 ◼   ► while making sure that you stay on the path that's right for you to take the

00:13:36 ◼   ► steps that you want towards becoming a better version of yourself. Fitbod has

00:13:40 ◼   ► tons of wonderful bodyweight only workouts great for indoors and outdoors

00:13:44 ◼   ► if you have access to gym equipment they have tons of great workout options there

00:13:47 ◼   ► too it doesn't matter what you have or what you have access to fitbod is there

00:13:51 ◼   ► to help you with any exercise routine that you need. Something that's really

00:13:55 ◼   ► important to me when I'm working out or doing any kind of exercise is knowing

00:13:59 ◼   ► that I'm doing it properly like I want the instruction I want the help I want

00:14:02 ◼   ► the guidance and that's one of the things that I really value about Fitbod

00:14:05 ◼   ► fitbod.com

00:14:20 ◼   ► Fitbod is available on iOS and Android and you can get started right now by going to fitbod.me/cortex

00:14:27 ◼   ► That's where you'll also get 25% off your membership.

00:14:30 ◼   ► That's fitbod.me/cortex to try out Fitbod for free and get 25% off your Fitbod membership.

00:14:37 ◼   ► Our thanks to Fitbod for their support of this show and Relay FM.

00:14:41 ◼   ► You seemed to be kicking yourself a little bit in the subreddit thread for the last episode.

00:14:48 ◼   ► Oh no no no don't forget to-

00:14:52 ◼   ► You seemed upset at yourself with the way that you explain magic.

00:14:58 ◼   ► No no I- look listen listeners if you're ever in a position where you have to explain something

00:15:05 ◼   ► then you have to listen to a recording of yourself explaining a thing.

00:15:09 ◼   ► I guarantee you that 100% of the time you will be unhappy with that recording.

00:15:15 ◼   ► Like you'll go, "Oh, I thought I was doing a great job."

00:15:18 ◼   ► And then you hear yourself and you go, "That was terrible."

00:15:21 ◼   ► And I feel that after literally every one of the shows,

00:15:25 ◼   ► every time I listen to the recording, I'm always going,

00:15:28 ◼   ► "Why didn't he explain his thoughts more clearly?"

00:15:33 ◼   ► But I don't think I can even do this,

00:15:35 ◼   ► but we talked about magic for a while last time.

00:15:40 ◼   ► And I think I have never been more uncomfortable

00:15:43 ◼   ► listening to an audio recording of myself, I'm like, "Oh god, I'm just doing the

00:15:46 ◼   ► worst job explaining this ever." So I'm just, I'll just rank this up as like, "Oh

00:15:52 ◼   ► my god, I was incredibly uncomfortable with that segment, I just thought I did a terrible

00:15:57 ◼   ► job." But I don't know, the feedback seemed to be reasonably positive and people liked

00:16:01 ◼   ► it anyway, so...

00:16:02 ◼   ► I think people were just excited that we spoke about it more than anything else.

00:16:06 ◼   ► Yeah, maybe that's what it was. All of the Magic players in the audience were like, "Oh

00:16:10 ◼   ► "Oh my god, Gray is talking about it."

00:16:12 ◼   ► But honestly, I think I would die if I tried to do it again.

00:16:17 ◼   ► So we could just put that in follow-up of like,

00:16:22 ◼   ► OMG, that was incredibly uncomfortable for Gray.

00:16:25 ◼   ► I just did a terrible job, I don't know why.

00:16:27 ◼   ► And when I was listening to that editing,

00:16:30 ◼   ► I caught myself starting to make notes for a script of,

00:16:35 ◼   ► "Well, here's how I would explain it better."

00:16:36 ◼   ► And then I was like, "What the (beep) are you doing?"

00:16:38 ◼   ► I deleted that straight away.

00:16:42 ◼   ► I'm like, this is done.

00:16:45 ◼   ► This is done.

00:16:47 ◼   ► You don't need to have another go at this.

00:16:50 ◼   ► We can just let it lay at rest forever.

00:16:54 ◼   ► Gray still plays a lot of magic. He totally loves it.

00:16:57 ◼   ► But he doesn't need to try to make a second go at explaining why.

00:17:02 ◼   ► So you are continuing to play? It's still your game of choice at the moment?

00:17:05 ◼   ► Oh yeah, totally. I still completely, completely love it. I've been playing a lot of magic

00:17:11 ◼   ► on the couch, you know, while my wife is watching TV, and it's fantastic.

00:17:18 ◼   ► How are you feeling with your work patterns right now? I feel like this has been something

00:17:25 ◼   ► we've touched on various times during pandemic season. You know, like we were a bit all over

00:17:33 ◼   ► the place at the start and then you brought Weekend Wednesday into the picture.

00:17:39 ◼   ► How are things right now?

00:17:42 ◼   ► Yeah, it's interesting.

00:17:46 ◼   ► I was kind of thinking about this a bunch.

00:17:50 ◼   ► This pandemic year has been an interesting one, although now we are very well into the

00:17:55 ◼   ► pandemic year and a half is really what we're approaching up on, even though in my head

00:18:01 ◼   ► I do still feel like it's March, but things like there's only five episodes left in the

00:18:06 ◼   ► year.

00:18:07 ◼   ► I really go, "No, no, we're very well into 2021."

00:18:11 ◼   ► Myke, do you know the Twitter account?

00:18:15 ◼   ► It's called something like Year Percentage.

00:18:18 ◼   ► Do you know this Twitter account?

00:18:19 ◼   ► I've seen it.

00:18:20 ◼   ► It's like an account that fills up a progress bar, right?

00:18:23 ◼   ► Yeah, it fills up a progress bar over the course of a year.

00:18:26 ◼   ► So every day it just has one tweet and it says like, "We are," with a little bar.

00:18:30 ◼   ► percent of the way through the year and I don't log on Twitter very much but whenever I do it

00:18:35 ◼   ► tends to be one of the top ones and it must be it must be because Twitter knows that like my mouse

00:18:41 ◼   ► cursor always hovers over it in horror right like oh he really engages with that tweet because there's

00:18:47 ◼   ► something just totally shocking about seeing how fast the year has gone and there's something about

00:18:53 ◼   ► about that progress bar one that really gets me every time.

00:18:56 ◼   ► - 51% Gray.

00:18:58 ◼   ► - Oh no, really? - We passed it, yeah.

00:19:01 ◼   ► We're over 51% now.

00:19:03 ◼   ► - I literally cannot believe that.

00:19:06 ◼   ► - I know what the date is, right?

00:19:08 ◼   ► But still, right?

00:19:09 ◼   ► Like, but still.

00:19:11 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:19:14 ◼   ► - Oh my God, that's awful.

00:19:16 ◼   ► So yeah, we're officially to like 18 months

00:19:19 ◼   ► of pandemic time.

00:19:22 ◼   ► So yeah, I think it's, there's been a lot like, sort of nothing has changed over the

00:19:27 ◼   ► course of this time, but also there's been so much change.

00:19:31 ◼   ► And I think the way that I would describe the past, I guess, two months.

00:19:37 ◼   ► Oh my god, great.

00:19:39 ◼   ► I just got lost on his Twitter account.

00:19:41 ◼   ► They make a Mac app, a menu bar app.

00:19:44 ◼   ► Oh, yeah, that shows percentage of day, month, year, and you can also put life in which is

00:19:49 ◼   ► horrifying.

00:19:51 ◼   ► So there's like the people that make that account they have an app for the Mac which

00:19:56 ◼   ► does this.

00:19:57 ◼   ► I just sent it to you.

00:19:59 ◼   ► I was like you need to send me this link.

00:20:00 ◼   ► It's called progress bar.

00:20:01 ◼   ► But also I don't know if this is a good idea.

00:20:03 ◼   ► Oh so the one that's life you can choose your own deadline.

00:20:06 ◼   ► They put life in there because I guess that's kind of funny but.

00:20:09 ◼   ► Right yeah.

00:20:10 ◼   ► Your deadline with death.

00:20:11 ◼   ► It's actually quite a cute little app actually.

00:20:12 ◼   ► Oh man.

00:20:13 ◼   ► I think I'm because this is like.

00:20:18 ◼   ► God damn it Myke. This is one of these things where I am not going to be able to resist

00:20:24 ◼   ► installing this.

00:20:25 ◼   ► I've just bought it.

00:20:26 ◼   ► And I'm going to hate it every day.

00:20:28 ◼   ► I just bought it. I own it now.

00:20:30 ◼   ► Yeah. Okay. Great. Are you going to put your life in there or are you going to put the

00:20:33 ◼   ► year in there?

00:20:34 ◼   ► I don't know what I'm going to put in there. Maybe now I'm going to put in like fully vaccinated.

00:20:40 ◼   ► Hmm.

00:20:41 ◼   ► I think I might put that in there.

00:20:43 ◼   ► That's much more cheerful.

00:20:44 ◼   ► Widget Smith. I have a page of Widget Smith right now where there's like three countdown

00:20:50 ◼   ► widgets. I have like a page on my home screen. One is countdown to my second jab, then it's

00:20:56 ◼   ► countdown to fully vaccinated, and then countdown to a hopeful holiday that we would like to take.

00:21:04 ◼   ► B: How confident are you feeling about that?

00:21:06 ◼   ► You gotta give me odds here, Myke. Percentages.

00:21:11 ◼   ► M- Fifty-five.

00:21:12 ◼   ► 55% that you will take the vacation?

00:21:16 ◼   ► Yeah, it's going down though.

00:21:18 ◼   ► It's going down though, okay.

00:21:19 ◼   ► It's going down.

00:21:22 ◼   ► So the vacation that we want to take, we want to go to Hawaii.

00:21:26 ◼   ► And things are moving in some level of like favor for us, because like Hawaii had its

00:21:32 ◼   ► own completely separate "you've got a test process" like than the rest of America.

00:21:38 ◼   ► No, Hawaii was not screwing around.

00:21:40 ◼   ► - No, I think great, you go for it Hawaii.

00:21:42 ◼   ► But they've actually just changed it.

00:21:44 ◼   ► So now all you need to do is just prove

00:21:46 ◼   ► your vaccinated status, right?

00:21:48 ◼   ► So some things are improving.

00:21:50 ◼   ► The issue we have right now is just,

00:21:52 ◼   ► legally I cannot go to America.

00:21:55 ◼   ► - Oh, right.

00:21:56 ◼   ► - That's the issue.

00:21:57 ◼   ► - Right, I forget this.

00:21:58 ◼   ► - As a non-US citizen, I legally cannot go, so.

00:22:03 ◼   ► - So yeah, that's gonna be--

00:22:04 ◼   ► - That's really gonna kinda mess it up.

00:22:07 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:22:09 ◼   ► [laughter]

00:22:11 ◼   ► Yeah, that's gonna be a problem.

00:22:13 ◼   ► If you want to take a trip to Hawaii, for sure, that's gonna get in your way.

00:22:18 ◼   ► [laughter]

00:22:21 ◼   ► I mean, I could go for you, but we all know how I feel about Hawaii.

00:22:25 ◼   ► So I'll pass on that, but...

00:22:27 ◼   ► So that's why your percentage is creeping down day by day.

00:22:31 ◼   ► - Because there's zero news on it. - Right. Yeah.

00:22:35 ◼   ► [laughter]

00:22:36 ◼   ► I'm sorry. I'm sorry to hear that. It's only at 55%. But this is like, okay. But so this is you have encapsulated exactly how I have been feeling for the past two months, which is in my head, I finally coalesce this under, oh, I've been living in the season of uncertainty.

00:22:55 ◼   ► That's what the past couple of months have been.

00:22:59 ◼   ► And some kinds of uncertainty are easy to deal with,

00:23:02 ◼   ► but I have found the current types of uncertainty

00:23:06 ◼   ► in all areas of my life just infuriating and frustrating

00:23:09 ◼   ► and very difficult to deal with.

00:23:11 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think we got used,

00:23:14 ◼   ► so there was like a lot of uncertainty, right?

00:23:16 ◼   ► Like we were dealing with just an obscene amount

00:23:18 ◼   ► of uncertainty for a long time.

00:23:21 ◼   ► Then it felt like things kind of calmed down for a while

00:23:24 ◼   ► and it felt like I know what this is all about, you know,

00:23:29 ◼   ► we just got to hunker down, settle in.

00:23:31 ◼   ► - Yeah, and also I would say like my experience

00:23:33 ◼   ► at the beginning was what I mean by like different kinds

00:23:36 ◼   ► of uncertainty.

00:23:37 ◼   ► My feeling at the start was, okay,

00:23:39 ◼   ► there is a lot of uncertainty about the pandemic,

00:23:42 ◼   ► but I am very certain that I'm not going outside, right?

00:23:47 ◼   ► So like, there's a way in which that's very easy

00:23:50 ◼   ► to deal with, like, cool, I'm just gonna stay here.

00:23:54 ◼   ► You're totally right, like things did level out eventually into just this is the routine

00:24:02 ◼   ► of life, but even at the start when uncertainty was high, I still felt like this is uncertainty

00:24:07 ◼   ► that I can deal with very easily.

00:24:09 ◼   ► Like my personality is tailor-made for this kind of uncertainty because part of it is

00:24:14 ◼   ► certain.

00:24:15 ◼   ► now that we're in the reverse of that, the coming out uncertainty I just find 10 times

00:24:25 ◼   ► more frustrating in every possible way. And also all of the things in my work life have

00:24:32 ◼   ► conspired to be uncertain difficult things to deal with as well. I don't know how you're

00:24:38 ◼   ► but I just, I find the planning, any kind of planning,

00:24:42 ◼   ► is just killing me.

00:24:45 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah.

00:24:46 ◼   ► - I don't think we talked about it on the show,

00:24:48 ◼   ► or maybe I mentioned it in more text briefly,

00:24:50 ◼   ► but it like, it even just started with

00:24:53 ◼   ► trying to get my vaccine ended up being

00:24:56 ◼   ► just a real nightmare of a process

00:24:59 ◼   ► for like reasons I will not totally go into

00:25:01 ◼   ► 'cause it's just nobody cares that much,

00:25:03 ◼   ► but I had messed up NHS records

00:25:06 ◼   ► and so I just wasn't able to book a vaccine appointment.

00:25:09 ◼   ► And they were like, "Well, we'll see if we can fix that in the system."

00:25:14 ◼   ► Who? Who's the we? When?

00:25:16 ◼   ► And they literally would tell me like, "I don't know, come back in a week and we'll see if it's fixed."

00:25:21 ◼   ► - "We'll just ask nicely." - Yeah, like, who would have been fixing it?

00:25:25 ◼   ► Like, I don't even understand. Like, I totally know you're either trying to get me off the phone

00:25:30 ◼   ► or when I went to my doctor to pester them in person.

00:25:32 ◼   ► Like, you're trying to get me out of this office. Like, nothing's going to happen.

00:25:36 ◼   ► I did eventually get that solved in like a weird, shenanigans kind of way, but like whatever. So

00:25:42 ◼   ► even just that of like, "Can I even get this vaccine?" was incredibly uncertain

00:25:46 ◼   ► and it like threw off all my timelines and then just like with your trip, I've had a bunch of

00:25:53 ◼   ► these things that are existing out in the future timeline of like, "Oh, maybe this will happen."

00:25:58 ◼   ► It's like, "Oh, there was a conference that was supposed to happen that I was really kind of

00:26:02 ◼   ► forward to, and it just kind of kept getting inched back and

00:26:06 ◼   ► inched back of like, Ooh, it won't quite happen now.

00:26:08 ◼   ► Maybe not quite happen now.

00:26:10 ◼   ► And then suddenly bam, four months in the future.

00:26:12 ◼   ► It's like, Oh my God, all of that stuff.

00:26:15 ◼   ► I just, I find so psychologically hard to deal with in, in a way that like, I

00:26:23 ◼   ► know it's disproportionate because nothing in my life has actually

00:26:27 ◼   ► changed on a day to day basis.

00:26:30 ◼   ► But this is definitely the part that I just have a much harder time with.

00:26:35 ◼   ► I just like to know, "Okay, when am I going to be traveling if it's on the horizon?"

00:26:43 ◼   ► And, "When am I gonna go see my family in America?"

00:26:46 ◼   ► It's been in my head under this vague category of "soon...", right?

00:26:53 ◼   ► But even now, as we currently record, there's a lot of questions about this new variant that seems to be spreading like wild.

00:26:59 ◼   ► and it's like "oh, okay, uh, you know, Myke don't count on the borders opening up anytime

00:27:06 ◼   ► soon to anyone from the UK going anywhere." So yeah, I don't know, I don't know about

00:27:11 ◼   ► you but like I've just found that really hard to deal with. It bizarrely just like disrupts

00:27:17 ◼   ► my regular time in a way that it totally shouldn't, but it just, it does, like it puts me in a

00:27:23 ◼   ► like a weird kind of mental chaos.

00:27:25 ◼   ► it was easier when it was harder in a way.

00:27:29 ◼   ► Like, mentally at points, I was able to kind of resign myself to this is just it for a long time, right?

00:27:40 ◼   ► Like an unknowable amount of time.

00:27:42 ◼   ► Like back in the time when people were like, "Hey, there might not be a vaccine for four years," or whatever, right?

00:27:49 ◼   ► Like, which is pretty early on.

00:27:50 ◼   ► And that was like, it friggin' sucked,

00:27:53 ◼   ► but I felt like I was at least like,

00:27:56 ◼   ► well I'm in this, this is it, this is what I'm in.

00:27:58 ◼   ► And it is that like, you feel like it's on the horizon,

00:28:05 ◼   ► but then the horizon just keeps moving.

00:28:09 ◼   ► Like we had this like when we were waiting

00:28:11 ◼   ► to get our first shot, which was,

00:28:15 ◼   ► it felt like it was for about six weeks,

00:28:19 ◼   ► it was always gonna be by the end of next week.

00:28:22 ◼   ► Like it just felt like surely it's gonna be

00:28:24 ◼   ► by the end of next week that we'll be able to book.

00:28:26 ◼   ► Oh no, oh okay.

00:28:27 ◼   ► Next week though, right?

00:28:28 ◼   ► Like, no, all right then.

00:28:30 ◼   ► Like it just felt like that kept going on

00:28:31 ◼   ► and on and on for a while.

00:28:33 ◼   ► And now it's like, okay, we now know the day

00:28:36 ◼   ► that we'll be like fully vaccinated.

00:28:39 ◼   ► But that kind of doesn't mean anything.

00:28:41 ◼   ► Just like you might be able to do all the things

00:28:45 ◼   ► you wanna do, but does the rest of the world

00:28:48 ◼   ► think you can or should.

00:28:49 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:28:50 ◼   ► - We'll find out.

00:28:51 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's a weird thing to say,

00:28:55 ◼   ► but it totally is true that I've, you know,

00:28:57 ◼   ► rewind two months ago and I started to have the feeling

00:29:01 ◼   ► like, oh, this is all gonna be over soon, cool.

00:29:03 ◼   ► I can start making plans.

00:29:05 ◼   ► And then like, just like your trip to Hawaii,

00:29:08 ◼   ► day by day by like, oh, I'm 90% confident

00:29:11 ◼   ► this will all be over soon.

00:29:13 ◼   ► I'm 89% confident this will all be over soon.

00:29:17 ◼   ► I'm 88% confident, oh and a thing got canceled that I was planning on, oh okay well so then

00:29:22 ◼   ► that's not gonna happen that changes everything.

00:29:25 ◼   ► 82% confident, like god damn it, it's so much worse.

00:29:32 ◼   ► You know where is it where is at the start where people were talking about oh they you

00:29:34 ◼   ► know we'll have a vaccine soon I was like what are you crazy I give it a one percent

00:29:38 ◼   ► chance we'll have a vaccine in five years.

00:29:41 ◼   ► I was like I was way wrong but that kind of planning is much simpler.

00:29:45 ◼   ► - But the one way I try and console myself a little bit

00:29:48 ◼   ► is like things change and have been changing so fast

00:29:51 ◼   ► in all directions.

00:29:52 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:29:53 ◼   ► - Right, so it's like, it does feel like it's a bit bleaker

00:29:58 ◼   ► at the moment, especially in the UK,

00:30:00 ◼   ► it feels a little bit bleaker right now,

00:30:03 ◼   ► no matter what everyone else seems to be saying.

00:30:06 ◼   ► But things, they swing in all directions

00:30:11 ◼   ► and it is that like I remember the vaccine, right?

00:30:14 ◼   ► where it was like everyone just had their own opinion

00:30:16 ◼   ► as to whether it was gonna happen or not, if anytime soon.

00:30:18 ◼   ► And I remember I was a bit more optimistic than you.

00:30:20 ◼   ► We would talk about this, right?

00:30:23 ◼   ► But it was still like, there was just for a long time,

00:30:25 ◼   ► like, all right, we've got people working on it,

00:30:27 ◼   ► but who knows?

00:30:29 ◼   ► And it ended up, I think,

00:30:30 ◼   ► exceeding people's expectations on time

00:30:33 ◼   ► of when these things would be available.

00:30:36 ◼   ► And that was great and it's working great

00:30:38 ◼   ► and everyone should get one and it was awesome.

00:30:42 ◼   ► but now it just feels like it's closing in again.

00:30:47 ◼   ► It's uncomfortable.

00:30:49 ◼   ► This episode of Cortex is brought to you by Squarespace,

00:30:53 ◼   ► the all-in-one platform to build your online presence

00:30:55 ◼   ► and run your business.

00:30:57 ◼   ► From websites and online stores

00:30:59 ◼   ► to marketing tools and analytics,

00:31:00 ◼   ► Squarespace has got you covered with the all-in-one,

00:31:03 ◼   ► one-stop shop for everything you want

00:31:06 ◼   ► for building a website.

00:31:07 ◼   ► You get unlimited hosting,

00:31:09 ◼   ► you get top-of-the-line security,

00:31:10 ◼   ► you get 24/7 customer support,

00:31:12 ◼   ► You don't have to patch anything, you don't have to upgrade anything, they take care of

00:31:15 ◼   ► all of that for you.

00:31:17 ◼   ► Squarespace combines cutting edge design with world class engineering, making it easier

00:31:21 ◼   ► than ever to establish your home online, make your ideas a reality.

00:31:25 ◼   ► Whether you want to put your business online, whether you want to show off your art in a

00:31:29 ◼   ► portfolio, publish a blog post, promote your business, announce an event, it doesn't matter

00:31:33 ◼   ► what you want, Squarespace has got it.

00:31:35 ◼   ► You can create something really beautiful, really modern, you start with a professionally

00:31:39 ◼   ► design template, use drag and drop tools to make it feel like your own, you customise

00:31:43 ◼   ► the look, the feel, the settings, the products you have on sale, yes you can sell stuff so

00:31:46 ◼   ► easily on Squarespace, it all just takes a few clicks and it's going to look great on

00:31:50 ◼   ► every device.

00:31:51 ◼   ► They also will let you quickly and easily grab a unique domain name, take advantage

00:31:55 ◼   ► of SEO and email marketing tools, they really have it all and that's one of the reasons

00:31:59 ◼   ► that I have been a very happy Squarespace customer for like 10 years now.

00:32:03 ◼   ► Go to squarespace.com/cortex and you can get yourself a free trial with no credit card

00:32:08 ◼   ► required. Then when you're ready to launch use the offer code "CORTEX" and you'll save

00:32:12 ◼   ► 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at squarespace.com/CORTEX and then

00:32:17 ◼   ► when you sign up use the offer code "CORTEX" to get that 10% off your first purchase and

00:32:21 ◼   ► show your support for the show. Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of Cortex

00:32:25 ◼   ► and Relay FM.

00:32:26 ◼   ► [Music]

00:32:27 ◼   ► So the reason the reason that I'm calling this like the season of uncertainty though

00:32:32 ◼   ► is because it's just been like, you know,

00:32:36 ◼   ► you ask how I'm doing work-wise and it's like,

00:32:38 ◼   ► work-wise these past two months have just been the worst

00:32:43 ◼   ► of the last 18 months.

00:32:45 ◼   ► And it's because the uncertainty of the outside world

00:32:48 ◼   ► has also conspired with the uncertainty

00:32:51 ◼   ► of just like the stuff that I'm working on

00:32:53 ◼   ► and it's just, it's been so infuriating.

00:32:57 ◼   ► I was trying to look over my video catalog earlier today

00:33:00 ◼   ► And I was thinking about the last classic Gray Explains kind of video that went up was the metric paper video a while ago.

00:33:10 ◼   ► And that video was a big project. And after that went up, I was very conscious about, "You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna pick a couple nice easy videos."

00:33:21 ◼   ► Now of course, I know that I always think this and I also know that I'm very frequently

00:33:28 ◼   ► wrong about what will be an easy video.

00:33:30 ◼   ► I actually had a friend basically laugh in my face the other day when I told them about

00:33:34 ◼   ► like, "Oh, I'm gonna do this thing and it's gonna be an easy thing."

00:33:37 ◼   ► And he's like, "Do you know how many times I've heard that?

00:33:39 ◼   ► You're gonna pick an easy video?"

00:33:41 ◼   ► It's like two years later, you're still working on that thing.

00:33:44 ◼   ► Like I know that this is just a thing that happens, but looking over my video catalog,

00:33:50 ◼   ► I think I can confidently say that I have never been more wrong twice in a row about

00:34:00 ◼   ► this will be an easy video and it's the sharks video and then it's the one that I'm currently

00:34:05 ◼   ► working on trying to finish which I was maybe one of the most confident I've ever been would

00:34:11 ◼   ► be like, "Oh, this will be a nice simple video.

00:34:14 ◼   ► Look, this topic is already well known and you can just write your take on this little

00:34:19 ◼   ► thing and then it has exploded into literally going through hundreds of pages of medieval

00:34:28 ◼   ► documents and it's like oh no.

00:34:30 ◼   ► Do you not do this yourself though? Like did you have to go that far? Like if everyone

00:34:36 ◼   ► knows about it and it's simple like why not just put why not just restrain yourself?

00:34:40 ◼   ► Okay okay you know why Myke? Do you wanna know why you have to go this far? Because

00:34:45 ◼   ► look.

00:34:48 ◼   ► Because the abyss of what is true lies underneath every page of every book.

00:35:01 ◼   ► This is also why it's been the season of uncertainty.

00:35:04 ◼   ► I've complained about this kind of stuff before, but you think like, "What is true?

00:35:12 ◼   ► How do we know that a piece of information is true?"

00:35:16 ◼   ► part of the reason why these things always explode into much bigger projects, or I should say very

00:35:21 ◼   ► frequently, you know, sharks exploded into a whole other thing for different sorts of reasons.

00:35:25 ◼   ► But the current thing that I'm working on is totally like, what is true explosion?

00:35:31 ◼   ► Because I can't just let it go. Because I'll read about a topic and there'll be some sentence and

00:35:35 ◼   ► you'll go, "Huh, that's really interesting." And then one of two things pops into your head.

00:35:42 ◼   ► How do they know that sentence?

00:35:44 ◼   ► Right?

00:35:44 ◼   ► Or I would like to know more information about that sentence.

00:35:48 ◼   ► And that's, that's all it, that's all you need to start falling into the abyss of,

00:35:52 ◼   ► wait, how does anybody know anything?

00:35:54 ◼   ► And he just like, okay, let me give you an example.

00:35:59 ◼   ► I would love one.

00:35:59 ◼   ► This will need to be a little bit abstract because I don't want to give away the topic,

00:36:02 ◼   ► but I think I can make it clear enough.

00:36:04 ◼   ► So I'm trying to track down when was the first time a thing happened, right?

00:36:11 ◼   ► You go like, "Okay, things happen. When was the first time this thing happened?"

00:36:16 ◼   ► And there are a bunch of articles that will go like, "Oh, this thing happened in the Middle Ages."

00:36:22 ◼   ► "Oh, that's interesting. When? When in the Middle Ages?"

00:36:25 ◼   ► The Middle Ages is a range of time that's like 600 years wide.

00:36:30 ◼   ► So what year in the Middle Ages? How do you know? When did this occur?

00:36:34 ◼   ► And so you start to try to track it down. And when you try to track it down,

00:36:41 ◼   ► you immediately will run into references that go nowhere, or references that don't say the thing

00:36:47 ◼   ► that the original article says that it says. Which is always a particular delight, especially on

00:36:52 ◼   ► places like Wikipedia. I find it horrifying how many times you click the link that's the citation

00:36:56 ◼   ► link, it's like, "the webpage doesn't even mention the thing that this is citing." Like,

00:37:01 ◼   ► okay, I don't know how this citation got here, but it, you know, it looks like in school when

00:37:06 ◼   ► I would just fraudulently populate citations in my essays after I finished writing the essay.

00:37:11 ◼   ► You know, it's like, "Oh, the teacher needs citations.

00:37:13 ◼   ► I'm gonna bet they're not gonna check my citations, so whatever!"

00:37:16 ◼   ► You know, here's just a bunch of stuff.

00:37:19 ◼   ► So as an example, just trying to track down one thing in history.

00:37:24 ◼   ► When did this happen?

00:37:26 ◼   ► When was the first appearance of this thing?

00:37:29 ◼   ► Find that it's supposed to be sourced in this book that's in the Middle Ages.

00:37:33 ◼   ► It's like, "Oh, okay, cool.

00:37:35 ◼   ► Well, we'll track down this book."

00:37:37 ◼   ► But you can't find any originals of the book.

00:37:40 ◼   ► It turns out the originals of the book like don't really exist anymore.

00:37:44 ◼   ► And what you have, the only thing that exists in the modern world is like an annotated version

00:37:50 ◼   ► that some guy in the 1700s wrote.

00:37:54 ◼   ► And the thing that's supposed to have happened in the middle ages isn't in the book at all.

00:38:00 ◼   ► It's actually in a note that the editor made in the 1700s.

00:38:06 ◼   ► And so this is the problem.

00:38:08 ◼   ► You go, "Oh, wait a minute.

00:38:10 ◼   ► So all of these places that say this thing happened in the Middle Ages, the source that

00:38:14 ◼   ► they're pointing to never mentioned it.

00:38:17 ◼   ► It actually didn't show up until some dude like annotated the book hundreds of years

00:38:21 ◼   ► later.

00:38:22 ◼   ► And just like this is why I have particularly such a hard time with history because I cannot

00:38:30 ◼   ► tell you how often this occurs.

00:38:33 ◼   ► Where it's like, where did this come from?

00:38:36 ◼   ► A person said it.

00:38:37 ◼   ► Where did they say it?

00:38:38 ◼   ► in this book and you go to that book. Oh, somebody else said it is what that book said. Oh, okay,

00:38:43 ◼   ► cool. Let me find that book. Oh, yeah, a guy told me. Great. Who's the guy? Oh, I don't know.

00:38:49 ◼   ► When did he tell you? Oh, this is the primary source and it's a hundred years after the event

00:38:54 ◼   ► occurred. Fantastic. It's just like, I've really fallen down another one of these frustrating holes

00:39:00 ◼   ► And this is why it can't be easy, because then what happens is, okay, sure, I could

00:39:09 ◼   ► write another one of like this topic, like several people have written little articles about it.

00:39:14 ◼   ► It's why I thought it would be nice and easy. Sure, I could write a little script that covers

00:39:20 ◼   ► the same kinds of things, except that I would know now that it's full of total f***ing bullshit.

00:39:25 ◼   ► The things that they're referencing just aren't true.

00:39:28 ◼   ► Because I bothered to try to look.

00:39:31 ◼   ► Like, that's the thing that kills me.

00:39:33 ◼   ► Right, but you see, I understand where you're coming from.

00:39:36 ◼   ► You can stop, though, right?

00:39:38 ◼   ► Like, you can--

00:39:39 ◼   ► I cannot look? Right? That's what you're saying?

00:39:41 ◼   ► No, no, no, you could be like, you could look so far,

00:39:43 ◼   ► realize you're going down one of these holes, stop that,

00:39:46 ◼   ► and then when you're in the script to say, "It is said,"

00:39:49 ◼   ► it is argued, you know, you could--

00:39:50 ◼   ► But I know you don't want to do that.

00:39:52 ◼   ► That's the coward's way, right?

00:39:54 ◼   ► That's so cowardly.

00:39:56 ◼   ► If I would say efficient, because ultimately when you get into one of those

00:40:00 ◼   ► situations, it doesn't matter anymore anyway, because like, how would you ever

00:40:04 ◼   ► find the true, the actual answer?

00:40:06 ◼   ► Like once you start down one of these rabbit holes, you can't trust anything.

00:40:11 ◼   ► So like, why would you ever get to a point where you're able to trust something?

00:40:15 ◼   ► Well, at this point, me and my assistant, who has done a tremendous amount of work

00:40:22 ◼   ► in multiple languages, I'll just comment on this topic.

00:40:26 ◼   ► I think we have found the answer, and so that's why, right?

00:40:30 ◼   ► Maybe sometimes you can actually find an answer.

00:40:32 ◼   ► You think.

00:40:33 ◼   ► To a thing, yes.

00:40:34 ◼   ► I'll put it this way, at the very least, we have been able to establish a very early date

00:40:40 ◼   ► for when is the first time this thing occurred.

00:40:42 ◼   ► It's like, great.

00:40:43 ◼   ► Okay.

00:40:44 ◼   ► Right, so this is the problem.

00:40:46 ◼   ► It makes me think a lot about, it's just a general problem of knowledge work, right?

00:40:52 ◼   ► you can't estimate very well at all how long a knowledge work project will take.

00:41:00 ◼   ► And I think that that can be something like writing, it can be something like programming.

00:41:04 ◼   ► There's lots of jobs like this where you go, "Oh, how long will it take?"

00:41:08 ◼   ► Well, it might take two weeks if everything goes right. But if it doesn't go right,

00:41:12 ◼   ► it might take two years. And there's just no good way to know ahead of time when that's going to

00:41:18 ◼   ► occur. I think I have learned a little bit of a lesson from this one, which I've tried to formalize

00:41:26 ◼   ► as a policy within my company, which is, "Hey everyone, the next time I say this topic is going

00:41:34 ◼   ► to be easy, if the topic in any way at all is related to history, tell me no. Like, I'm not

00:41:44 ◼   ► allowed to do that. Well this is a minute ago I was going to say to you if you have this problem

00:41:49 ◼   ► why do you make history focused videos? Like if you don't like dealing with sources well then what

00:41:55 ◼   ► are you doing to yourself? Well I think part of it is there's a way in which it's not always obvious

00:42:02 ◼   ► if something is going to start relating to history. Like you just sort of think oh a person wrote in a

00:42:06 ◼   ► book about this thing that happened and it's like oh cool oh let me just double check right and then

00:42:10 ◼   ► it's all over. Let me just double check and it's like, oh no wait, there's no- history isn't real!

00:42:14 ◼   ► Like this is all just full of lies. So I do think that that is a thing that I have

00:42:20 ◼   ► like newly established as a please remind future me of this because I know that I will forget

00:42:27 ◼   ► and also there may be ways in which to other people it is much more clear, you know, this might

00:42:33 ◼   ► end up, you know, being history related in some way. Maybe don't, maybe don't pick this one.

00:42:39 ◼   ► - I don't think that this system's gonna work for you

00:42:42 ◼   ► as well as you think it will.

00:42:44 ◼   ► Because if you haven't realized it,

00:42:46 ◼   ► someone will say it to you,

00:42:47 ◼   ► and you just say, "No, it'll be fine."

00:42:49 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:42:51 ◼   ► Unless someone can actually stop you,

00:42:54 ◼   ► I don't think that this system--

00:42:54 ◼   ► - No one can stop me, Myke.

00:42:55 ◼   ► - Well, there you go.

00:42:56 ◼   ► So this system's not gonna work for you.

00:42:58 ◼   ► You'll be like, "Oh, I'm gonna make this video

00:42:59 ◼   ► about this thing, it's gonna be super easy,

00:43:01 ◼   ► this one's simple."

00:43:02 ◼   ► All they need to do is just find this,

00:43:04 ◼   ► and then someone's gonna say to you,

00:43:05 ◼   ► "Hey, no, this is a bad idea,

00:43:07 ◼   ► because you're gonna get stuck in this forever,"

00:43:09 ◼   ► and then you just say, "No, no, no, this is an easy one."

00:43:12 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:43:13 ◼   ► There isn't, there's no checks and balances in this system.

00:43:16 ◼   ► - Yeah, I mean, Myke, here's a literal thing that happened.

00:43:18 ◼   ► How difficult can it be to find the skull of a person

00:43:21 ◼   ► from the year 1300, right?

00:43:23 ◼   ► How hard can that be? (laughing)

00:43:25 ◼   ► - Incredibly hard. (laughing)

00:43:28 ◼   ► How is this a question that you can just pose?

00:43:30 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:43:32 ◼   ► - So anyway, that's the kind of thing that pops up.

00:43:34 ◼   ► (laughing)

00:43:36 ◼   ► So like, here's the thing.

00:43:37 ◼   ► I do know what you're saying.

00:43:39 ◼   ► I get it.

00:43:40 ◼   ► But I also think this sort of thing exists everywhere.

00:43:45 ◼   ► I just, I'm a bit of a glutton for punishment

00:43:49 ◼   ► with the history stuff and it makes me so mad.

00:43:51 ◼   ► Like I can't even begin to tell you how angry it makes me

00:43:54 ◼   ► when people write history books.

00:43:55 ◼   ► And it's like, none of these sources check out.

00:43:58 ◼   ► Like what are you even,

00:43:59 ◼   ► why are you writing a history book?

00:44:02 ◼   ► But all topics have this exact same thing.

00:44:05 ◼   ► Like even I think something like my beloved personal opposite of history, you take something

00:44:11 ◼   ► like physics, and even there, very quickly, you can start running into this exact same

00:44:16 ◼   ► problem of, "Well, what do you mean by that word?"

00:44:20 ◼   ► Right?

00:44:21 ◼   ► Or just like, you know, the metric paper video, how do you want to phrase the state of knowledge

00:44:26 ◼   ► around here?

00:44:27 ◼   ► It's a little bit better on the what is true dimension, but it still butts up against the

00:44:33 ◼   ► same kind of problem and like what is the way that you talk about it? How confident

00:44:38 ◼   ► is your ability to talk about it in this way? So I just think there's almost nothing that

00:44:43 ◼   ► doesn't come against this in in some way and yeah it's it's just been part of this like

00:44:49 ◼   ► season of uncertainty that the Sharks project was filled with a lot of uncertainty for different

00:44:54 ◼   ► sorts of reasons and the current project has just been real frustrating where it seems

00:44:59 ◼   ► like, "what an easy topic!" I was like, "oh god, none of this checks out!" Even the very thing that

00:45:04 ◼   ► I thought was like, "oh here's a definitive statement that someone in the modern day said

00:45:08 ◼   ► about a thing!" and it's like, "oh let me look up what she actually said!" Oh, she didn't say the

00:45:12 ◼   ► thing all the articles say that she said, which started this whole thing like, "god f***ing damn

00:45:15 ◼   ► it!" It's so infuriating. Also, just as a sidebar here, which we don't need to get derailed by, but

00:45:23 ◼   ► when I'm in the middle of all this stuff, I can never help but think, I can't believe that people

00:45:28 ◼   ► just want companies like YouTube and Facebook to be able to decide what is true and remove

00:45:34 ◼   ► untrue things from their platforms? Like, do people have any idea how difficult this is as

00:45:39 ◼   ► a problem to solve? You're like, oh, I just like, they should just remove the things that aren't

00:45:43 ◼   ► true. And when I talk to people who think that it always ends up that what they actually mean is,

00:45:47 ◼   ► well, I know everything that's true, so Facebook should just remove the things that I don't agree

00:45:52 ◼   ► with. And it's like, oh, god damn it. This is like the seed of the issue I was having a while ago

00:45:57 ◼   ► with news. Because a lot of the time, truth is defined by what people's belief system

00:46:05 ◼   ► is, and that's super tricky. It's like, when I say everything that's true, it's everything

00:46:11 ◼   ► I believe and agree with. If two sides of a thing both believe something's true, it

00:46:17 ◼   ► can be really tricky to point at truth. You have to point at logic and I don't know, it's

00:46:22 ◼   ► messy.

00:46:23 ◼   ► I think it goes deeper than perhaps you should think about, you know, on that question.

00:46:28 ◼   ► But it's also why I just find it outrageous when people are like,

00:46:31 ◼   ► "Oh, I just want YouTube to remove misinformation."

00:46:34 ◼   ► It's like, "Oh, cool. I didn't know YouTube had the canonical truth about everything in the universe.

00:46:42 ◼   ► Boy, we should ask YouTube the answer to all of the questions that we don't know about.

00:46:46 ◼   ► Like, boy, they should have just told us everything about the pandemic or whatever.

00:46:51 ◼   ► Like, everything about the current political state in every country in the world.

00:46:55 ◼   ► Like, YouTube knows that? Wow! That's incredibly impressive.

00:46:59 ◼   ► What a fount of knowledge they are. Great, Facebook could just take all the things that

00:47:03 ◼   ► aren't true off their platform. What an incredible gift to humanity Facebook can perform.

00:47:09 ◼   ► Or, wait a minute, is this like an incredibly difficult problem that really comes down to

00:47:16 ◼   ► individual people making calls that they like, right? Or that are what most people want them

00:47:27 ◼   ► to make. Like that's a very different kind of thing and so I'm always just- I'm just

00:47:31 ◼   ► shocked at how quick people are to join the like "Oh, just remove the untrue thing."

00:47:38 ◼   ► - And this is super different, like this conversation, because I think people hear these things in

00:47:42 ◼   ► in certain ways, like we know what we believe to be true.

00:47:46 ◼   ► That's not the question.

00:47:48 ◼   ► It's like, but then is what is the objective truth?

00:47:50 ◼   ► And what about when things change?

00:47:52 ◼   ► And what about when we don't know all of the things

00:47:54 ◼   ► that we think we know?

00:47:55 ◼   ► And like this pandemic is like the perfect example of this.

00:47:58 ◼   ► Where like at the beginning,

00:47:59 ◼   ► people were told not to wear masks, right?

00:48:02 ◼   ► And then we were told it was transferred by surfaces.

00:48:06 ◼   ► And then it turns out, oh no, that was wrong as well.

00:48:08 ◼   ► Human understanding only goes so far

00:48:10 ◼   ► we pick up things and we learn and adapt over time, so trying to ascribe truth to everything

00:48:16 ◼   ► all the time can actually be an incredibly hard thing to do when we're still learning.

00:48:20 ◼   ► B: Yeah, oh yeah. This is also season of uncertainty, like, many things are really uncertain,

00:48:26 ◼   ► but it's alarming how fast people are willing to jump on the like, "Oh, this is- we know this now,

00:48:33 ◼   ► right? So you can't- you can't say anything that's not this thing." It's like, "Oh, okay,

00:48:37 ◼   ► boy, I hope we got it right the first time. It's absolutely shocking. So it's just one of these

00:48:43 ◼   ► things that floats through my mind as I'm just trying to work on some like what I thought would

00:48:48 ◼   ► be innocent and fun little video and just get infuriated with sloppily written books or articles

00:48:54 ◼   ► on a thing and you know that all just repeat each other in a circle and no one went to go look at

00:49:00 ◼   ► the book that they all think they're referencing. I don't even know how this happens. It's so

00:49:04 ◼   ► so infuriating. But yeah, I just feel particularly frustrated because, especially after sharks,

00:49:10 ◼   ► which was just very hard, which was supposed to be an easy video after metric paper, which

00:49:15 ◼   ► was like two years in the making, or 10 years if you want to count like developing it from

00:49:20 ◼   ► one of the lessons that I taught, it's like "Oh, I'll have something easy!" and then

00:49:23 ◼   ► it was sharks. It's like "Oh, that was terrible. That was a terrible experience."

00:49:27 ◼   ► And they're like "Okay, I know this one will be easy." And it's like "No, you

00:49:31 ◼   ► lose again. You lose so hard. And also, here's your monthly dose of falling down the into

00:49:39 ◼   ► the abyss of what is true dimension. Like, oh, great. Here we are again in this situation.

00:49:46 ◼   ► So yeah, it's not been an amazing two months work-wise. And it's been on my mind now that

00:49:54 ◼   ► maybe all of this is coming to an end, but maybe not. I'm just trying to think about

00:49:58 ◼   ► stuff like, you know, Myke has his cool office space.

00:50:02 ◼   ► One of the things I was doing at the start of all of this was

00:50:05 ◼   ► investigating office spaces.

00:50:06 ◼   ► And it's like, is that a project that I start again?

00:50:08 ◼   ► So this home office has been fantastic to me.

00:50:12 ◼   ► I think, I think I've literally done some of the best work thus far in

00:50:16 ◼   ► my career in this home office.

00:50:18 ◼   ► It's been amazing.

00:50:19 ◼   ► But do I want to be in this home office indefinitely, forever?

00:50:26 ◼   ► No, I definitely don't.

00:50:28 ◼   ► but you know I just I find it impossible to plan or to think about like what would it mean to try

00:50:35 ◼   ► to find another office space and I don't know I'm just kind of bummed about that because I'm just

00:50:39 ◼   ► not in a I feel like I'm in a no-win situation for trying to find an office space so that's just kind

00:50:46 ◼   ► of frustrating it's like oh I don't want to only have my home office as the working space but

00:50:50 ◼   ► there's just no good solution for finding something outside of my home space even if I was comfortable

00:50:57 ◼   ► like going out and checking out office spaces right now, which I'm still not quite comfortable

00:51:02 ◼   ► doing, so I don't know. That's just like a whole other thing.

00:51:05 ◼   ► I mean it probably is a good time to look.

00:51:07 ◼   ► [sigh]

00:51:10 ◼   ► Yeah, I know what you're saying, but the problem that I'm in here is that I just don't think

00:51:17 ◼   ► I can reasonably work in the kinds of offices I've worked in the past in the future. I think

00:51:24 ◼   ► my needs for private and separate space are just too high at this point, and where I am

00:51:32 ◼   ► there's just, you know, there's just no office space that's like that.

00:51:35 ◼   ► Yeah, you're not gonna get something like that within any kind of reasonable budget

00:51:39 ◼   ► range.

00:51:40 ◼   ► Yes, that's the key thing.

00:51:43 ◼   ► It may exist for many orders of magnitude more than I am able to spend on office space

00:51:49 ◼   ► and still be able to turn a profit on the business.

00:51:52 ◼   ► So that's one of the other things that's just been in the back of my mind and sort of frustrating.

00:51:56 ◼   ► It's like, well, I know there's no good solution to this, but it still is like this little

00:52:01 ◼   ► thorn that I keep thinking about of, I do want to work outside of the home, but what

00:52:06 ◼   ► does that mean?

00:52:07 ◼   ► What could you reasonably rent to do something like that?

00:52:11 ◼   ► Oh, nothing.

00:52:13 ◼   ► Is there something that you could buy like Myke and maybe buy an office space at some

00:52:16 ◼   ► point in the future?

00:52:17 ◼   ► It's like, uh, no.

00:52:18 ◼   ► It's gonna be worse for you than it is for me.

00:52:22 ◼   ► Oh I know, yeah, it's hilariously impossible.

00:52:26 ◼   ► Again just where I am centrally located it tends to be like, if you want to purchase,

00:52:30 ◼   ► you're purchasing the floor of a skyscraper or nothing.

00:52:35 ◼   ► Like that's what it is.

00:52:37 ◼   ► So yeah it's just I find that just like a really frustrating extra level of uncertainty

00:52:41 ◼   ► that I just really have no idea what to do about so...

00:52:44 ◼   ► - It's time to consider the outer rim.

00:52:46 ◼   ► (sighs)

00:52:49 ◼   ► - I know.

00:52:52 ◼   ► - So it's the only thing you can do.

00:52:54 ◼   ► I'm in the outer rim and I'm struggling,

00:52:56 ◼   ► if I look around there's barely anything for me.

00:52:59 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:53:00 ◼   ► - You're never gonna find,

00:53:01 ◼   ► and I'll tell you right now,

00:53:03 ◼   ► you will never get a private office in central London

00:53:06 ◼   ► within a budget range that you're willing to accept.

00:53:08 ◼   ► I will tell you this categorically right now.

00:53:11 ◼   ► It's never going to happen for you.

00:53:12 ◼   ► - Right, but also Myke, I don't wanna move

00:53:16 ◼   ► out of central London.

00:53:18 ◼   ► - You don't have to move.

00:53:19 ◼   ► Like commuting is a thing people do.

00:53:22 ◼   ► That is an option for you.

00:53:24 ◼   ► - Right, but I know how far you are out

00:53:26 ◼   ► and that's not a daily commute that I want to do.

00:53:30 ◼   ► - I'm not far, but also like you can get to one of the

00:53:35 ◼   ► major train lines that take you into different parts

00:53:38 ◼   ► of London.

00:53:39 ◼   ► As long as you get the train at the right time,

00:53:40 ◼   ► You could be there every 15 minutes or whatever.

00:53:44 ◼   ► - Maybe.

00:53:45 ◼   ► Maybe that, maybe like-

00:53:46 ◼   ► - How fast you can get to the airport.

00:53:48 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:53:49 ◼   ► I'll get an office at the airport.

00:53:52 ◼   ► - There you go.

00:53:53 ◼   ► Easy, I'm sure that's the justice check.

00:53:54 ◼   ► - Cortex listeners, if in the future

00:53:57 ◼   ► you suspiciously hear a plane every 15 minutes,

00:53:59 ◼   ► you know what I've done.

00:54:01 ◼   ► - Greg Gotti's airport office.

00:54:03 ◼   ► - Yeah.

00:54:07 ◼   ► I mean, maybe-

00:54:09 ◼   ► I think you need to start taking a look at train lines and then identify some areas around

00:54:15 ◼   ► train stations that are outside of central London and then start trying to look in those

00:54:21 ◼   ► areas.

00:54:22 ◼   ► Right.

00:54:23 ◼   ► But isn't that also just silly and absurd?

00:54:25 ◼   ► Like isn't there something that's just ridiculous about that?

00:54:28 ◼   ► I think that feels ridiculous.

00:54:30 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:54:31 ◼   ► What's ridiculous about it?

00:54:32 ◼   ► It feels ridiculous because in some ways it's like, dude, just move.

00:54:38 ◼   ► this weird reverse commute is just ridiculous. It seems like a silly thing to do, like you

00:54:44 ◼   ► should just move closer to where you are.

00:54:46 ◼   ► I mean, yeah, but it depends on what you're looking for. I think that this would probably

00:54:52 ◼   ► be the start of you considering moving, which is like a similar thing to what we're going

00:54:57 ◼   ► through because we're also thinking about moving, right? Like we always had planned

00:55:03 ◼   ► to be in our apartment for five years and then we wanted to get a house and so to get

00:55:07 ◼   ► that we're gonna move further away from like still in South London but further

00:55:12 ◼   ► away from Central is the plan because then you know the further you are away

00:55:16 ◼   ► the more your money can get you right yeah and so that's the thing that we're

00:55:22 ◼   ► starting to consider the last year and a half is kind of proven to us that that

00:55:26 ◼   ► would be perfectly fine because like we don't actually need to go into London

00:55:29 ◼   ► for anything we can just go whenever we want but we're looking to kind of stay

00:55:34 ◼   ► on a main train line so it's easy enough for us to do it but like I think it would make sense for you

00:55:39 ◼   ► to try and get an office in a different part of London to then realize why you might want to be

00:55:46 ◼   ► out of central London or what the benefits to you would be for being out of central London.

00:55:50 ◼   ► Yeah I know you're right I know you're right but there's some part of my brain which goes

00:55:55 ◼   ► oh if you move out of zone one because it's cheaper why don't you just move to Wyoming

00:56:03 ◼   ► Like, there's some part of my brain that just says that.

00:56:06 ◼   ► - I've been having this thought recently too.

00:56:08 ◼   ► - Okay, tell me your thoughts on this.

00:56:09 ◼   ► - So I've been thinking about the things

00:56:12 ◼   ► that I think are, like I find important.

00:56:14 ◼   ► What I consider as like the things that I hold

00:56:18 ◼   ► to make me feel comfortable and what I would like.

00:56:21 ◼   ► And what I would like is more space

00:56:24 ◼   ► and I really enjoy peace and quiet in my home life.

00:56:29 ◼   ► I don't like to be bogged by other people.

00:56:33 ◼   ► I don't like outside sound.

00:56:35 ◼   ► I like kind of when I'm at home

00:56:37 ◼   ► to just be secluded in a way.

00:56:42 ◼   ► So when we're looking to buy,

00:56:44 ◼   ► I kind of want to try and find a home

00:56:46 ◼   ► that's not like a terraced house.

00:56:48 ◼   ► We have a lot of terraced houses here in London.

00:56:51 ◼   ► Because you've got people on both sides of you.

00:56:53 ◼   ► We've been very lucky in our apartment building

00:56:55 ◼   ► that we've actually, we haven't had any problem neighbors

00:56:58 ◼   ► or anything like that.

00:56:59 ◼   ► But this is a thing I've experienced in the past.

00:57:02 ◼   ► And so I was kind of thinking about this recently,

00:57:05 ◼   ► of like, what if we just moved to the middle of nowhere

00:57:10 ◼   ► kind of places?

00:57:12 ◼   ► Again, it's just something I've had in my mind.

00:57:14 ◼   ► I don't think I want to do it yet.

00:57:16 ◼   ► I think it could be maybe something

00:57:19 ◼   ► that I would try and bring to the family council

00:57:24 ◼   ► at some point in the future, like much later in life,

00:57:27 ◼   ► if it's something that I still want,

00:57:29 ◼   ► to be in a more secluded part of the world.

00:57:33 ◼   ► I feel like this is maybe just a thing

00:57:34 ◼   ► that a lot of people get into as they get older.

00:57:37 ◼   ► But yes, to echo that point, yeah, why not just move to,

00:57:41 ◼   ► I don't know why we picked Wyoming,

00:57:42 ◼   ► but why not just move to Wyoming?

00:57:44 ◼   ► - Because it's beautiful

00:57:45 ◼   ► and you can go there and be a cowboy.

00:57:46 ◼   ► - Okay, cool, I mean,

00:57:47 ◼   ► I don't really know anything about Wyoming, honestly.

00:57:49 ◼   ► - Myke, their slogan is, "Forever West."

00:57:52 ◼   ► Come on, that's amazing.

00:57:54 ◼   ► - None of that really means anything to me.

00:57:58 ◼   ► Again, like, just you saying Forever West, it's zero to me.

00:58:01 ◼   ► Like, I have no attachment to this.

00:58:04 ◼   ► - You don't culturally understand.

00:58:05 ◼   ► - No, it doesn't, I don't really get it.

00:58:07 ◼   ► But so, you could do that,

00:58:09 ◼   ► but that's maybe a bit too extreme

00:58:11 ◼   ► when there is an opportunity for that kind of middle.

00:58:15 ◼   ► There is a middle opportunity,

00:58:17 ◼   ► which is like, you can still be in and around the thing.

00:58:21 ◼   ► I mean, why do you even want to be in central London anymore?

00:58:25 ◼   ► Like what is the thing that makes you want to be there?

00:58:28 ◼   ► - It's an interesting question.

00:58:29 ◼   ► And I can't answer it any better than simply to say,

00:58:34 ◼   ► I really like it.

00:58:35 ◼   ► I really like living in central London.

00:58:37 ◼   ► I've talked about moving and the ultimate thing is just,

00:58:41 ◼   ► I like it and I'm not ready to go.

00:58:44 ◼   ► Like I would be sad if I left.

00:58:46 ◼   ► And that's not an amazing reason.

00:58:49 ◼   ► There's nothing specific in there.

00:58:50 ◼   ► Like if you're making a pro and con list.

00:58:52 ◼   ► - It's emotional, you can't explain it.

00:58:53 ◼   ► and that's important.

00:58:56 ◼   ► So this is why I maybe recommend

00:58:58 ◼   ► thinking about that reverse commute

00:59:00 ◼   ► and seeing how that feels.

00:59:02 ◼   ► 'Cause there are lots of pockets of London

00:59:04 ◼   ► that have some of the benefits that you'd be looking for,

00:59:07 ◼   ► like nice places to walk around in,

00:59:10 ◼   ► there's interesting things,

00:59:12 ◼   ► but they're just not skyscrapers.

00:59:14 ◼   ► - I think maybe part of, if I try to coalesce it,

00:59:18 ◼   ► I feel like one of the nice things about London

00:59:21 ◼   ► is that the interesting density is very high just geographically.

00:59:28 ◼   ► You know, like that's always the advantage that a big city has is

00:59:31 ◼   ► like interesting density is high.

00:59:33 ◼   ► But that's probably about as well as I could put it.

00:59:36 ◼   ► But I think that's, this is partly why my inclination is, has always been

00:59:42 ◼   ► like, I don't like middle way solutions.

00:59:45 ◼   ► I like to min max stuff.

00:59:47 ◼   ► So it's like, Oh, the city is great because interesting density is very

00:59:51 ◼   ► high, I just like it. A city is a very particular kind of way of living. You have to minimize

00:59:58 ◼   ► a lot in order to do it, including your ability to save, like it's very expensive, like

01:00:03 ◼   ► there's a whole bunch of really good reasons not to live in a city, but you're maximizing

01:00:07 ◼   ► the benefits that you get out of a city. But it's why when I think about "oh, moving

01:00:13 ◼   ► out a little," my brain goes "yeah, yeah, no, no, min-max the other way, right? Go to

01:00:19 ◼   ► place where you can get the maximum space, right, where you could have a house that is exactly the

01:00:25 ◼   ► way that you want it because you can just get a whole bunch of space because land is really cheap

01:00:29 ◼   ► and like min-max in the opposite direction if you're going to make a change, I just

01:00:35 ◼   ► temperamentally don't love the middle solution. So I think that's part of the reason why like

01:00:42 ◼   ► I'm also resistant to leaving because I'm not ready to min-max in the other way right now.

01:00:50 ◼   ► And so I think that's, if I'm trying to articulate it, it's partly why like, oh, the office space

01:00:56 ◼   ► that's the reverse commute feels a little bit like the middle path, but maybe you're right.

01:01:01 ◼   ► Maybe I should just give it a try and see how it is.

01:01:03 ◼   ► - Well, you can't min-max the office.

01:01:05 ◼   ► - What do you mean?

01:01:06 ◼   ► - You can't do the min-max of an office space.

01:01:09 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah, I mean, I can get the minimum amount of space

01:01:13 ◼   ► with the maximum amount of money is the kind of--

01:01:15 ◼   ► - I actually don't even think that this option

01:01:17 ◼   ► is available to you.

01:01:19 ◼   ► Even the minimum amount of office space

01:01:21 ◼   ► that would be acceptable to you

01:01:23 ◼   ► when a walking distance of where you live

01:01:25 ◼   ► would be outside of the budget that you could afford,

01:01:29 ◼   ► not even would want to.

01:01:30 ◼   ► Just 'cause of like, it will be even rarer to find,

01:01:35 ◼   ► so someone with more money's already got it.

01:01:38 ◼   ► - Yes, exactly.

01:01:39 ◼   ► And so this is what, like the min max of the office

01:01:43 ◼   ► is probably what I'm talking about.

01:01:45 ◼   ► Right, because this is still a thing

01:01:48 ◼   ► like having any kind of like private space

01:01:52 ◼   ► is really expensive anyway.

01:01:53 ◼   ► No matter where you are in London,

01:01:56 ◼   ► 'cause everything is trying to find it,

01:01:57 ◼   ► it's impossible to find it.

01:01:59 ◼   ► Unless you wanna open a tiny little store.

01:02:02 ◼   ► - Right, unless you wanna commit fraud.

01:02:04 ◼   ► - I feel like we need to look into this.

01:02:07 ◼   ► Is this feasible?

01:02:10 ◼   ► I feel like I need to get an answer to that.

01:02:13 ◼   ► Because we technically do own a retail brand now in a way.

01:02:18 ◼   ► So we have stock.

01:02:20 ◼   ► - This could be the fun start of a long battle

01:02:22 ◼   ► with a local council.

01:02:24 ◼   ► That's the way this could go.

01:02:26 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:02:27 ◼   ► - That's exactly what we've been looking for.

01:02:29 ◼   ► - Right, how much of a store is a store?

01:02:33 ◼   ► We can have this be a philosophical question.

01:02:35 ◼   ► (laughing)

01:02:36 ◼   ► We could have two outlets, Ethan, you know?

01:02:38 ◼   ► - Yeah.

01:02:39 ◼   ► - I have an outlet and you have an outlet, perfect.

01:02:41 ◼   ► - Yeah, that could work.

01:02:43 ◼   ► I will tell you, there is one real definitive advantage

01:02:46 ◼   ► that I can mention with being in central London,

01:02:49 ◼   ► which is that it makes traveling everywhere super easy.

01:02:54 ◼   ► Like, I do really like that.

01:02:56 ◼   ► I feel like London is an amazing jump off point

01:02:59 ◼   ► for going to lots of different places

01:03:02 ◼   ► because London has direct flights in the world

01:03:04 ◼   ► like everywhere and also living on GMT makes traveling to lots of places very easy to do

01:03:11 ◼   ► as well as long as you're willing to hold the time zone.

01:03:13 ◼   ► I don't know how far you think South London is. Add 30 minutes to the journey. That's

01:03:21 ◼   ► all it is. If you're gonna travel for nine hours an extra half an hour is not that bad.

01:03:28 ◼   ► No, that's the killer one.

01:03:30 ◼   ► I don't know what you think, like, is happening here.

01:03:33 ◼   ► [laughter]

01:03:35 ◼   ► Myke, like, once you're off the plane, it's like you wanna be done, right?

01:03:39 ◼   ► That's the plane travel is the only travel, then that's it, like the...

01:03:43 ◼   ► -Mm-hmm. -...the traveling across the city

01:03:47 ◼   ► and then down south afterward? Forget it. -Down south.

01:03:50 ◼   ► I don't wanna do that. [laughter]

01:03:54 ◼   ► You act like I don't know where you are. I know exactly where you are.

01:03:56 ◼   ► [laughter]

01:03:57 ◼   ► I've been out there.

01:03:59 ◼   ► We pack supplies.

01:04:00 ◼   ► - Oh my god.

01:04:01 ◼   ► [laughter]

01:04:02 ◼   ► - No, like, all joking aside, I mean this in the sense of why do I want to stay in London

01:04:10 ◼   ► just full stop, right?

01:04:12 ◼   ► I'm not like seriously saying no South London thing.

01:04:15 ◼   ► This is the why not travel to some place with like local.

01:04:18 ◼   ► - But I as a subscribe to all of this, like, I'm totally in on this.

01:04:22 ◼   ► And like even when I talk about moving out to more space, London's really big.

01:04:27 ◼   ► Like it's bigger than you think, like than a lot of people think, and you can still like

01:04:31 ◼   ► quote be in London and live in a very different set of circumstances.

01:04:36 ◼   ► Yeah, it is it is something that for people who visit the city, you just don't realize

01:04:40 ◼   ► that the geographical area of this like the geographical area that the tube covers is

01:04:45 ◼   ► huge.

01:04:46 ◼   ► Like it's like the the actual area is much bigger than New York City is like it's the

01:04:51 ◼   ► same number of people but they're just spread out over a much larger area.

01:04:55 ◼   ► And yeah, there's a lot of different kinds of living situations within the city.

01:04:58 ◼   ► I just meant it in terms of, "Oh, if I move to Wyoming, it'll be a lot more difficult

01:05:03 ◼   ► to travel to places."

01:05:04 ◼   ► That would be a real inconvenience.

01:05:06 ◼   ► Yeah, because then you connect in flights.

01:05:07 ◼   ► If you've got to get connected in flights, then we're into a different…

01:05:10 ◼   ► You know, it's like I felt like, what would it be like to maybe move to a different part

01:05:14 ◼   ► of the United Kingdom?

01:05:16 ◼   ► But that's further than I'm thinking even would consider right now.

01:05:20 ◼   ► Much love to the rest of the UK, but then we're in that problem of like, do I need

01:05:23 ◼   ► to connect to Heathrow to go to somewhere, right? And it's like, I don't want to do that.

01:05:28 ◼   ► And the answer is yes. The answer is 100% of the time, yes.

01:05:31 ◼   ► Yeah, you always need to connect. I don't like connecting flights, not because of the

01:05:35 ◼   ► time, just because of the aggravation, the stress, you know?

01:05:38 ◼   ► And the uncertainty. I can make that connection.

01:05:39 ◼   ► That I hate that feeling. I mean, this is, I mean, this all stems from the first time

01:05:43 ◼   ► I went to America, I missed my connecting flight.

01:05:45 ◼   ► You've been traumatized ever since.

01:05:47 ◼   ► So like I have this inbuilt trauma of being stuck in Philadelphia and I had no idea what

01:05:55 ◼   ► I was doing or where I was going in the hotel.

01:05:58 ◼   ► It was like a whole mess, just like a big mess.

01:06:01 ◼   ► So like I've experienced it and it's horrible so I try to avoid it and having to connect

01:06:06 ◼   ► before I've even gone over the Atlantic feels like horror to me.

01:06:11 ◼   ► Yeah, that's not a great situation to do that.

01:06:16 ◼   ► Scotland. You don't want to live up in the moors? But this is I think Scotland's beautiful and I

01:06:21 ◼   ► guess like this this again this other thing of like even going to another big city right that's

01:06:27 ◼   ► not London but it's still just not it's just not what I want. Yeah this is the season of uncertainty

01:06:33 ◼   ► it's just it's just very frustrating trying to make any kind of plans and thinking about the

01:06:39 ◼   ► future and I feel like I'll be very happy to fast forward two months.

01:06:47 ◼   ► I feel like maybe I will live to regret these words but I feel reasonably confident that

01:06:52 ◼   ► in two months time the uncertainty level will dramatically drop.

01:06:57 ◼   ► We'll know more about the state of the world.

01:07:00 ◼   ► Without a doubt the current video project will be published and I will 100% have correctly

01:07:07 ◼   ► chosen. Finally, a nice easy video to do after the current project. There's no way that I'm

01:07:14 ◼   ► going to make a mistake in that selection. Hopefully some travel plans will actually

01:07:18 ◼   ► be set in the calendar so I can know what my life looks like. So yeah, I'm confident

01:07:26 ◼   ► that two months from now, the season of uncertainty will 100... 85%, maybe 60% be over.

01:07:35 ◼   ► I just made a note for myself for episode 120.

01:07:40 ◼   ► Check Grey's statements at the end of the uncertainty discussion.

01:07:46 ◼   ► I think that's a really good thing to do.

01:07:47 ◼   ► Like I'm a big fan - I'm sure people who listen can hear it - but I'm a big fan of trying

01:07:53 ◼   ► to express things in bets and percentages and I also think it is - it's not always easy

01:08:00 ◼   ► to do but I do try sometimes to write down the like guesses at certain points in time

01:08:06 ◼   ► and I think it really it's really helpful to like sharpen your thinking and it's it's

01:08:11 ◼   ► something that I've done really starting this year is to try and be like make a note of

01:08:17 ◼   ► what probability you give to a future outcome at a certain period in time and I think I

01:08:22 ◼   ► think it's an interesting and new sort of way that it feels like to me to connect your

01:08:28 ◼   ► future and past selves again, you know, a bit like having a notebook at all. So I like

01:08:33 ◼   ► that you are you're making a note there to check in with me on is the season of uncertainty

01:08:38 ◼   ► over in two months. Very confident it will be. I can't wait to find out what my future

01:08:46 ◼   ► video project will be then. Nice and easy.

01:08:49 ◼   ► Nice and easy. No history.

01:08:52 ◼   ► No history.

01:08:53 ◼   ► This episode is brought to you by DoorDash. Hey, did you forget that thing at the store

01:08:58 ◼   ► so you just come home and you're ready to settle in for the evening,

01:09:01 ◼   ► but you forgot that all important snacks for your movie night.

01:09:04 ◼   ► Well now you can get snacks, drinks, household essentials in 30 minutes with DoorDash.

01:09:09 ◼   ► You know that DoorDash will connect you with the restaurants that you love

01:09:12 ◼   ► right now and right to your door, but you can also now get those grocery essentials too

01:09:17 ◼   ► with DoorDash all delivered in under an hour. Ordering is super easy, you just open the DoorDash

01:09:22 ◼   ► app, choose what you want from where you want, and your items will be left safely outside your door

01:09:27 ◼   ► with their contactless delivery drop-off setting. With over 300,000 partners in the US, Puerto Rico,

01:09:33 ◼   ► Canada and Australia, you can support your neighbourhood go-to's or choose from your

01:09:37 ◼   ► favourite national restaurants like Popeyes, Chipotle and The Cheesecake Factory. I know for

01:09:42 ◼   ► me sometimes I'm working late and I really just can't be bothered to cook something and I love to

01:09:47 ◼   ► be able to just get something brought to me and what makes it even better is when I can get that

01:09:51 ◼   ► burger from my favourite place or I can get those tacos from the place that I love across town.

01:09:56 ◼   ► This is the stuff that you can get with DoorDash. You can get those fun meals, the things that you

01:10:00 ◼   ► really want to eat, delivered right at home, in the comfort of your own home, on your own sofa.

01:10:05 ◼   ► For a limited time, listeners of this show can get 25% off and zero delivery fees on their first

01:10:11 ◼   ► order of $15 or more when you download the DoorDash app and enter the code "CORTEX". That's 25%

01:10:18 ◼   ► off, up to $10 in value and zero delivery fees on your first order. Just download the DoorDash app

01:10:23 ◼   ► in the app store and enter the code "CORTEX" one last time. That is the code "CORTEX"

01:10:27 ◼   ► for 25% off your first order with DoorDash. Subject to change, terms apply. Our thanks

01:10:32 ◼   ► to DoorDash for the support of this show and Relay FM.

01:10:36 ◼   ► So I have a #AskCORTEX question that I actually think dovetails quite nicely with our uncertainty

01:10:42 ◼   ► to discussion. It comes from M55 who says "Has the pandemic made you feel less motivated

01:10:49 ◼   ► in your work?"

01:10:51 ◼   ► How would you answer that?

01:10:52 ◼   ► - So I recently had a feeling and stated it out loud

01:10:57 ◼   ► and felt it a little bit since then.

01:11:01 ◼   ► And I don't know if it's related to this,

01:11:03 ◼   ► but it is something that I've noticed

01:11:06 ◼   ► where I think that right now

01:11:09 ◼   ► I am doing the best work of my life.

01:11:11 ◼   ► - Really?

01:11:12 ◼   ► - I feel like right now in a lot of the projects

01:11:15 ◼   ► that I'm doing, I think I'm putting in as much work

01:11:19 ◼   ► I've ever put in them, if not more. I think the output's good and I feel like I'm split

01:11:27 ◼   ► across a few different areas that are all going well and are making me feel good about

01:11:32 ◼   ► them. I don't think that this is necessarily because of the pandemic, but I have been,

01:11:39 ◼   ► because of it, nudged in certain directions. And this is kind of how I've come out. I think

01:11:45 ◼   ► I'm doing right now, like some of the best stuff that I've done.

01:11:50 ◼   ► And I don't think that that's something that I necessarily feel like it's just

01:11:54 ◼   ► because of time and experience. Cause I haven't always felt like I can look back

01:11:58 ◼   ► at different times in my professional career and feel like some things were

01:12:02 ◼   ► better than others at different times.

01:12:04 ◼   ► But right now I feel like by and large the stuff that I'm doing is as good as

01:12:08 ◼   ► it's ever been.

01:12:09 ◼   ► When you say nudged in certain directions, like what do you,

01:12:12 ◼   ► what do you mean by that?

01:12:13 ◼   ► I think I've accelerated some projects out of fear.

01:12:17 ◼   ► And I've also had a unbroken amount of time

01:12:23 ◼   ► to put things in action.

01:12:25 ◼   ► I was meant to mention this when we were talking

01:12:28 ◼   ► about working life patterns and stuff,

01:12:30 ◼   ► which is like, I have not taken a vacation

01:12:33 ◼   ► since January, 2020.

01:12:35 ◼   ► It was the last time I took a vacation.

01:12:37 ◼   ► So that has its own problems,

01:12:40 ◼   ► which I am looking to address.

01:12:43 ◼   ► But other than vacation, it sounds a bit harsh.

01:12:46 ◼   ► I was thinking the work travel, right?

01:12:48 ◼   ► Which is probably a better point to mention here.

01:12:50 ◼   ► - Yeah, yeah.

01:12:51 ◼   ► - That I haven't had these big chunks of the year

01:12:53 ◼   ► that have been broken up because of me having less focus

01:12:57 ◼   ► on not being able to put the same level of focus

01:12:59 ◼   ► on something 'cause I'm somewhere else

01:13:00 ◼   ► doing a different thing.

01:13:02 ◼   ► And I think that that has helped,

01:13:05 ◼   ► but I don't think it's because of that, but it's helped.

01:13:07 ◼   ► And then it's stuff like all of the membership content,

01:13:11 ◼   ► it's just additional things that I'm working hard to try and make as good as it can be.

01:13:15 ◼   ► Yeah, I feel pretty good about the stuff that I'm doing and the areas that I'm

01:13:21 ◼   ► working in.

01:13:21 ◼   ► And so I would say probably like the pandemic has helped in my motivation.

01:13:28 ◼   ► And I think some of that motivation, as I say, came from like fear and uncertainty.

01:13:33 ◼   ► But right now I feel pretty content with the stuff that I'm up to.

01:13:36 ◼   ► It's interesting that you, yeah, I just think it's interesting.

01:13:38 ◼   ► you don't think that it's because of the pandemic,

01:13:41 ◼   ► but like the pandemic is a facilitating event, I guess.

01:13:46 ◼   ► Yeah, and you sure we're busting your butt

01:13:48 ◼   ► over the membership stuff at the beginning of all of this.

01:13:51 ◼   ► - Yeah, it's good 'cause this is,

01:13:52 ◼   ► I don't think any of the things that I'm doing

01:13:54 ◼   ► are things I wouldn't have done.

01:13:56 ◼   ► But they probably wouldn't have all started

01:13:58 ◼   ► and happened at the same time.

01:14:00 ◼   ► Like it was like an acceleration effect.

01:14:04 ◼   ► - And so you just feel like also just the,

01:14:06 ◼   ► like the podcasts that you're making are better?

01:14:08 ◼   ► Like when you just say it's like the best work of your life,

01:14:11 ◼   ► is it content wise and business wise?

01:14:13 ◼   ► Is that what you mean?

01:14:14 ◼   ► - Yeah, I think that, I mean, this is always,

01:14:17 ◼   ► it's difficult to say, right?

01:14:18 ◼   ► 'Cause people are gonna have different opinions.

01:14:20 ◼   ► Like I have no doubt that there are people like,

01:14:22 ◼   ► no, Myke's shows used to be better.

01:14:24 ◼   ► 'Cause that's just how it is, right?

01:14:25 ◼   ► Like I want the old Myke back,

01:14:27 ◼   ► whatever that might have been, you know?

01:14:28 ◼   ► - Right, whatever that might have been

01:14:29 ◼   ► in that person's memory as well.

01:14:31 ◼   ► - Exactly.

01:14:32 ◼   ► - Is the point.

01:14:33 ◼   ► - And I have no doubt about that.

01:14:34 ◼   ► and that doesn't bother me honestly.

01:14:36 ◼   ► But for me personally, my own sense of satisfaction,

01:14:40 ◼   ► I feel very happy with what I'm putting out right now

01:14:43 ◼   ► across all the different shows that I work on.

01:14:45 ◼   ► I feel very good about the work.

01:14:49 ◼   ► And I don't always feel good about the work, right?

01:14:53 ◼   ► But I do, I feel good about the work

01:14:55 ◼   ► and then I feel like my other ventures are going well, right?

01:15:00 ◼   ► I feel like Cortex brand is going really well,

01:15:02 ◼   ► like we're in a better position than I think we thought

01:15:05 ◼   ► we would have been at this point.

01:15:06 ◼   ► Plus, I'm feeling like I'm learning so much

01:15:10 ◼   ► and having that feeling of feeling a bit more confident

01:15:15 ◼   ► and in control of stuff than I did before.

01:15:19 ◼   ► And then even kind of like my hobby type things, right?

01:15:23 ◼   ► So like the Twitch streaming, I'm like really enjoying it

01:15:26 ◼   ► and it's going great for me.

01:15:28 ◼   ► I think they're all coming together pretty well.

01:15:31 ◼   ► - That's really good to hear.

01:15:32 ◼   ► Maybe this is something you shouldn't say out loud, you know?

01:15:34 ◼   ► I'll find out, I suppose, but it is how I feel about my work right now.

01:15:39 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah. It can be difficult to talk about this stuff.

01:15:43 ◼   ► Like, especially when you just, you know that there is the inevitable

01:15:48 ◼   ► judgment by the audience about, like, their own feelings when you say,

01:15:52 ◼   ► "Oh, I'm making the best stuff that I've ever made."

01:15:56 ◼   ► Like, you will hear from everyone who disagrees.

01:15:58 ◼   ► Yeah, but my feeling is that I read these comments all the time anyway.

01:16:03 ◼   ► So like, but it hasn't changed my opinion.

01:16:05 ◼   ► That's good. Like I'm glad to hear that as well, because that's the kind of thing that you need as the creator,

01:16:10 ◼   ► is to be able to separate yourself from that a little bit.

01:16:12 ◼   ► Yeah, it's interesting.

01:16:15 ◼   ► I think about that because like, as much as I have complained about it,

01:16:19 ◼   ► I think that sharks video of mine is maybe one of my favorite videos that I've made in a long time.

01:16:23 ◼   ► Oh, it's so good, man.

01:16:24 ◼   ► It just came together exactly the way I was hoping.

01:16:28 ◼   ► Like there's a couple minor things that I would tweak, but, you know,

01:16:32 ◼   ► most of the time when I make a video, I'm like, "I never want to look at that again."

01:16:35 ◼   ► But I actually have re-watched the shark video a few times.

01:16:38 ◼   ► I'm like, "No, that came out great."

01:16:39 ◼   ► Like, "I'm pretty happy with that."

01:16:40 ◼   ► And like that definitely wouldn't have happened without the pandemic for sure.

01:16:46 ◼   ► I wouldn't say that the pandemic has made me feel less motivated in my work.

01:16:51 ◼   ► I feel...

01:16:52 ◼   ► [sighs]

01:16:54 ◼   ► I think I feel...

01:16:58 ◼   ► some combination of...

01:17:01 ◼   ► more motivated.

01:17:02 ◼   ► I think in the past year I've been, like...

01:17:05 ◼   ► just been thinking about potential future projects a lot more intensely than I have

01:17:12 ◼   ► in the past.

01:17:13 ◼   ► So I don't know, I feel like there's more of a motivation to get things done combined

01:17:21 ◼   ► with a little bit of this frustration as always of like, "Oh, I just work slow?"

01:17:28 ◼   ► But also a kind of acceptance of that.

01:17:31 ◼   ► But I don't know, I feel like that's also just been my arc for like the past two years

01:17:37 ◼   ► in general.

01:17:38 ◼   ► I don't know, I don't feel like the pandemic has really changed my feelings one way or

01:17:47 ◼   ► the other.

01:17:48 ◼   ► With a few things that I wanted to work on, it disrupted plans, but I think I'm just

01:17:53 ◼   ► on the same kind of arc that I've been on for the past couple years, and the pandemic

01:17:57 ◼   ► hasn't really affected things one way or the other.

01:18:00 ◼   ► S: Louis had a question about the sharks video, actually.

01:18:04 ◼   ► Gray mentioned how he avoids unnecessarily referencing dates in his videos but in sharks

01:18:09 ◼   ► he says you must go see them this month. Was this intentional or was it unnoticed?

01:18:15 ◼   ► B: There's nothing in the videos that's unnoticed like that I'm saying out loud.

01:18:19 ◼   ► E; Yeah yeah everything's intentional.

01:18:21 ◼   ► B; Of course except for the things that are unintentional.

01:18:23 ◼   ► E; In the podcast there can be things.

01:18:25 ◼   ► B; Yes.

01:18:26 ◼   ► E; Because they're different because it's like Stemporaneous versus very well planned

01:18:30 ◼   ► and edit it and edit it and edit it and then record it and edit it and edit it, you know?

01:18:34 ◼   ► It's different.

01:18:35 ◼   ► B: Right, yeah.

01:18:36 ◼   ► Or again, if I had my way with the podcast, I would have just re-recorded that entire

01:18:39 ◼   ► section of me talking about magic and go "No, that was awful.

01:18:42 ◼   ► I'm gonna re-record all my lines explaining it again."

01:18:46 ◼   ► And that's why podcasts can exist.

01:18:47 ◼   ► Yeah, it was funny because when we were talking about that, I already knew that that line

01:18:51 ◼   ► was going to be in the video.

01:18:53 ◼   ► I was aware like "Oh, I bet people are gonna pick up on this when it actually comes out."

01:18:57 ◼   ► cortexins who are paying attention.

01:18:59 ◼   ► Like, my whole thing about timeless content is about

01:19:04 ◼   ► thinking about if you need to reference a specific time

01:19:08 ◼   ► and my annoyance with content that needlessly places itself at an exact moment in time.

01:19:16 ◼   ► And the sharks video was intrinsically about that exact moment.

01:19:22 ◼   ► And there are dates all over that video.

01:19:25 ◼   ► every time I'm showing the past competitions you can see like, "Oh, this was the 2020 winner. This was the 2021 winner."

01:19:31 ◼   ► And I could have gone and tried to scrub all of that stuff out, but it's like it doesn't matter.

01:19:38 ◼   ► And the fact of the sharks being there now, but if you want to see them you have to go this month.

01:19:46 ◼   ► I feel like that's part of the content of the video.

01:19:49 ◼   ► And sure, I could have phrased it in a different way, like if I wanted to. I could have said,

01:19:54 ◼   ► "Oh, you need to go see the sharks super soon!"

01:19:59 ◼   ► But I just don't think that would have had the same impact on it.

01:20:03 ◼   ► And I'm also okay with it because I was thinking, well, in the future, most of the, you know,

01:20:09 ◼   ► for most of time, the sharks are not going to be at this location.

01:20:14 ◼   ► Like I was pretty confident that they were actually going to get moved.

01:20:18 ◼   ► So I'm actually very fine saying you must go see them this month because it in a weird

01:20:25 ◼   ► way it makes it true in the future that the viewer knows oh they're probably not there.

01:20:31 ◼   ► But I also like that it just it introduces a little bit of doubt so I don't know if this

01:20:37 ◼   ► will really happen but I suspect that there's a way in which that going forward will get

01:20:45 ◼   ► people to investigate on their own a little bit, "Hey, what happened to those sharks?"

01:20:50 ◼   ► In a way that if I said, "Soon," I feel like it's not as obviously motivating when someone's

01:20:56 ◼   ► watching it in the future. They go, "Oh, okay, they're not there. Where are they?" instead

01:21:01 ◼   ► of just not thinking about, "Are they there now or not?" So it was a very deliberate decision.

01:21:07 ◼   ► If there was some universe in which the story of the sharks was not time dependent, I would

01:21:12 ◼   ► have written it that way, but like that was not the story of those sharks and I also just

01:21:18 ◼   ► wanted to let people know like you really need to go see them now and lots of people

01:21:22 ◼   ► did and I was very happy to see like messages from people from everyone who went out to

01:21:27 ◼   ► investigate those sharks. My personal favorite is there was a guy who was getting married

01:21:34 ◼   ► and went out to see the sharks before his ceremony. I was like that's amazing, like

01:21:37 ◼   ► stuff just warms my heart. Some people who clocked that like, "Oh, these are other people who've

01:21:45 ◼   ► watched the shark videos." So I found that just delightful. I absolutely love that stuff. And I

01:21:51 ◼   ► think it is much more motivating the way that it is phrased to get people to like, for real,

01:21:56 ◼   ► go right now. Are they gone? They are gone now. Like huh, okay. Yeah, it's very, um,

01:22:04 ◼   ► oh god it's exhausting to even say for the thing that I'm currently working on

01:22:09 ◼   ► I was trying to find someone's grave and so when I was doing that

01:22:14 ◼   ► Indiana Jones over here you're looking for a skull a grave look at you

01:22:21 ◼   ► I happened on my way to trying to find this grave

01:22:25 ◼   ► cycle past the location of the sharks and happened to hit them as they were being removed

01:22:32 ◼   ► which was just very surreal. It was a surreal experience. So I know from first-hand accounts

01:22:39 ◼   ► that the sharks were taken away because I saw them get taken away in the process of

01:22:46 ◼   ► going somewhere else to try to find a thing.