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Computers Driving Tractors Plowing Money

Ben Johnston & Scott Johnston Episode 11

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Ever found yourself chuckling at the quirks of everyday life, only to stumble upon a revelation that shifts the way you see the world? That's exactly how our latest episode unfolds, starting with a sonic enigma in my backyard and then unwinding into a discussion on the transformative power of soma bodywork and posture. As we navigate the intricacies of our bodies, from the fascia's elasticity to the surprising relief in our knees, the episode becomes a journey through personal health and the revelations that come with understanding our physical selves.

When's the last time you considered the trust you place in digital currency, or how tech moguls like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates might be etched into history? Grab your headphones, because we're taking a deep look at the value of tangible assets, the ramifications of our digital footprints, and the unexpected turns life can take—from my own switch from biology to tech by way of a programming class to purchasing eggs on an island without a single dollar in hand. Join us for a conversation that's as enlightening as it is amusing, packed with anecdotes and insights that'll stick with you long after the episode ends.

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Scott

Sorry, just let me pick down my pole farm. Hey, that's your flex.

Ben

I'm flexing Straight flexing Howdy.

Scott

We just solved, like an emergency, a podcast emergency. Before this one started there was this high-pitched whine going on somewhere. That would have been okay every time we talk about. Maybe Zoom would have taken it out, but it would have annoyed the heck out of me. So I've been searching around the backyard in the neighborhood and, uh, upstairs, and it's like it was loudest in this room. You know it's like it, a ghost. Well, it's like the piano. The piano is acoustic so it's not humming. And check the amp was off and check the computer was closed and it takes down what it sounds like just not quite that loud.

Ben

I imagine it was just kind of yeah, but it was like annoying.

Scott

It's like yeah, couldn't do anything else with that noise on, so, um, and then I went out I found it. I mean, it was the irrigation system where it's yeah, yeah, connected to the hose or the yeah when everything's opened up because, um, but under pressure, because, or maybe it's when it's watering that it's whining.

Ben

That would make sense that that sometimes irrigation systems do that the manifold sometimes.

Scott

So I told my wife I I talked to the installer. See what he had to say.

Ben

Yeah.

Scott

What do you got to say for yourself?

Ben

Oh, am I the installer? Now you were. What do you mean? I just have to get into character, sorry, um, so well, what'd you do? Did you turn it off? Yeah, stopped, yeah uh maybe there might be like a piece of dirt or something stuck in. I don't know if it's. Whereas it's probably when there's some right, it's probably during the water that it's fine, okay, right, so you have it on a timer, right, and it's the timer you know, operating and everything.

Scott

I was starting to think that I was being targeted by somebody who's been listening to our podcast, and they were sending beams in to produce noise just in this room you, whoa man, you're starting to really whoa.

Ben

I was able to talk minutes longer and you would have gone full-blown conspiracy theory.

Scott

I was able to talk myself out of that. You got off the deep end.

Ben

Okay.

Scott

No, the good story is, I talked myself out of that.

Ben

Yeah, yeah, and you talked yourself out of it and then discovered the source of the wine. Yes, you discovered the wine.

Scott

Okay, yes, we discovered the wine. Okay, yes, I had a choice of either believing that you know about to get audio bombed by the Cubans or something, and Well, good, good.

Ben

Well, I just saw that Zoom emergency and you're probably right.

Scott

Zoom probably went, so you can start the podcast. Now Cut it out.

Ben

Oh Is that my job. Okay, one sec, I have to get into character.

Scott

What character is that? One who beats his chest after he's doing pull-ups?

Ben

that's a good question.

Scott

That character is, it's Ben oh, ben the other, ben the other, dad, yeah how are you doing, I'm sorry, how? Are you doing?

Ben

How am I doing? I'm doing okay.

Scott

What are you?

Ben

doing. I had a busy week.

Scott

Why are you doing?

Ben

Okay.

Scott

Where are you doing? What are you doing?

Ben

what am I doing? I'm sitting. I'm trying to pay attention to my posture. I've been doing a lot of that lately. I always thought I had good posture and I've been doing this body work we talked about this on the podcast before this soma body work that I've been doing I don't think so it's all focused on the fascia of the body, which what holds you together?

Ben

yeah, it's the stuff that holds you together. It's, yeah, just it wraps all around, all around your body and I'm doing this body work that is focused I'm. I am a person receiving this body work.

Scott

Would you say, it unifies your body.

Ben

Yeah.

Ben

Under one ruler, I would say it integrates your body. Okay, and a lot of it too is like movement education, so that I'll work with a particular sort of set of fascia one week. This past week, for instance, they focused on my adductors, which is kind of just the inside of your leg, from your groin all the way down to like the inside of your knee, all the way down to your ankle, and, uh, it really just like get, they wake up, all the different, all the different muscles and connective tissue throughout your body, and when you, when they finish a session, you feel like you really feel the difference in terms of how your body is really just holding itself differently, and there's movement education associated with it. So I learned that like what I thought was relaxing my shoulders was really like putting pushing them way too forward, like I thought like, well, that's, you know, that's what it means to relax your shoulders, but really your back muscles.

Ben

As humans we evolved to kind of have them pulled back and then so when I actually relax, you actually are kind of puffing your chest out a little bit. I'm like, oh, okay, well, well, I can actually, you know, when I go around shirtless, I can go off and puff my chest out a little bit and not feel like a douche, it's just. Oh, this is the way it's supposed to look.

Scott

Yeah, I have a lot of thoughts about these words.

Ben

Okay, I'll just add, before you get into these thoughts, about these words I didn't say I was going you get into these thoughts, about these words I didn't say I was going to get into them okay, okay. Well, that's fine too, I guess uh with the adductors learning there.

Ben

It's been amazing with uh that I'm working on my knees, because my knees have been such a problem point since I've uh been in high school I got injured in high school and yeah, so they just continue to give me grief, but it's, and that pain has sort of evolved and it shows up differently through different activities and stuff and learning how to, and learning how to force my knees together as I stand and walk and like really focusing on that Pay attention to where they are.

Misalignment, Fascia, and Currency

Ben

Yeah, pay attention to where my knees are and paying attention to what sort of muscles I'm activating as I walk. Except, it's more than that. It's even more subtle than just activating them. It's like getting in touch with like, oh, that's what it feels like to use my adductors to help me stand up from a sitting position. It's like get in touch with that feeling and see if you can cultivate those neural networks more often.

Scott

What's it called when your knees are like not aligned?

Ben

misalignment. I don't know. They're not tracking.

Scott

I don't, I'm not sure misalignment, she won some beauty pageant misalignment?

Ben

yeah, she was very well aligned, or not? Yeah, she was very well aligned.

Scott

Or not. So you don't want to share. We're not a beauty pageant. Sorry, let's pretend this is 2024. Okay, we'd be Ms Alignment.

Ben

Or is Ms a?

Scott

thing, never mind, back to your fascia.

Ben

Back to the fascia the fascist. It's been cool, am I a fascist? Yeah?

Scott

Do they?

Ben

derive from the same word. Really, what is that original meaning? What is the etymology? Those two words, I don't know, are you. Is this another time? You're just making the assumption, like when you uh, where you stop to get your coke on your way further north.

Scott

Yeah, okay, band or doorframe.

Ben

And that's what fascia is.

Scott

So it's a doorframe, which means, or a band which a band holds like a barrel together.

Ben

Oh, sure, okay.

Scott

And the etymology of fascist is uh come the word comes from latin and uh denotes yeah, I knew this denotes a bundle of rods, um, tied together, including okay. So yeah, but that's um, that was a particular thing the romans did. They would show up with these rods and these axe blades in town, you know, in some town somewhere around the mediterranean, and say, hey, we're in charge here so they were named for their bundles of rods and axes.

Scott

That was their symbol of yeah, there's a Roman, because they're just carrying around these rods with an axe coming out of them.

Ben

It more or less just means that they're a. But bundle is Bundled by your ashiya Right, but bundle Strongman what's?

Scott

that Bundle, because you're bundled by your Ashiya Right.

Ben

Keeps everything else all bundled up. Yeah, had any conversations recently with conspiracy theorists.

Scott

No.

Ben

There's a good amount of them out here on the island really, yeah, other other than your, other than your grandmother?

Scott

no, no, but she's like a, she makes up her own.

Ben

So it's not a conspiracy. It's not a conspiracy what is that then?

Scott

you need two people for it to be a conspiracy I mean that's just psychosis.

Ben

No, it's definitely not. What's going on with her?

Scott

she's no it's theory what it is? It's a conspiracy theory of. One is just a theory.

Ben

She just likes to philosophize.

Scott

Yeah, yeah.

Ben

No, I. Oh. Yeah, it's interesting. You meet a lot of people on the island and you start talking about anything. I bought some eggs. I bought some eggs from someone that I dance with every Sunday and I didn't have cash on me and he said you can still take them.

Ben

I'm like but I don't know like I'll try to get cash, but it's just so not. It's just not a habit of mine, it's just not habitual for me to go around with cash anymore. Okay, so he's like it's okay, you'll pay me back, it's all good. I'm like do you take venmo? And he's like no, I don't take venmo. Okay, fine, because to me I get in.

Ben

And it's funny because I did withdraw cash this last week but I ended up spending all that money on plants. So then it's like oh crap, I don't have any money left for the Eggman. Okay, well, I'm still going to dance. And so during dance he's like okay, like, do you have your cash? I'm like no, oh, he hit you up for that. I have your cash, I'll get it. Though Keep reminding me. He's like cash, cash is good. Okay, okay, because if we don't use cash and we keep doing all this electronic stuff we are so vulnerable to to attack and I'm like I know that it's true and that doesn't make him a conspiracy theorist, but I know enough about this guy for other reasons, but he's just like I don't know. It's this point where me using, I don't know. What do you do at that point. Do you just hide all your hide all your money under your bed?

Ben

yeah, you just keep everything in cash and gold bars yes or do you just? I guess the important thing is you just people.

Scott

People did that during the depression, once they'd seen that the banks could lose all their money.

Ben

Right, so should we do that now.

Scott

The FDIC means you're not going to lose your last, whatever quarter million. So now the rule is what?

Ben

happens if the banks actually fail, like they won't have a quarter million?

Scott

Well, as long as all your accounts are small enough in different banks and the united states doesn't fail, you'll be okay because it's insured fdic insured by the united states.

Ben

Yeah.

Scott

Yeah.

Ben

Which is like $30 trillion in debt. At that point, I guess the question is if the United States fails, then cash isn't going to help you anyways, because then the US dollar is just going to be meaningless, right?

Scott

Yeah, property will be more useful and resources and resources and.

Ben

Bitcoin Nope. Oh boy, dad, you just probably just made a lot of people mad by saying nope, I don't need to.

Scott

It's a currency based on I don't know. I wonder if there's backdoors in it, since it was created by an anonymous person, and you know. But what do backdoors enable? Does that make it? And you know?

Ben

but what to backdoors enable. Does that make it? Does that make it?

Scott

somebody who could provide the perfect code or use the easter egg and all of a sudden it's all theirs yeah, right, that's what I was thinking.

Ben

it's like well, maybe it's open source, maybe just a bunch of code, then it doesn't. Maybe it's.

Scott

I don't know, I haven't looked in. It must be open source, otherwise would any. Why would anybody trust it? So people have analyzed whether those backdoors are there, I would think.

Ben

Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, I bet I mean I know I'm talking way about my paying rate at this point, but I mean it's just to get bitcoin. You just do more and more computing right and the more and more computing you do, I imagine that, yeah, never mind.

Scott

Those are the two downsides, it's waste energy and it supports money laundering. You know, neither of those are really good for the world.

Ben

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Scott

Unless you're pro-money laundering and pro you know burning fossil fuels. If you're pro both of those, it's a great thing. If you're a fascist Undermining democracy.

Ben

Yeah.

Scott

I can see why the Koch brothers would be into crypto.

Ben

Are they?

Scott

I don't know, I'm not sure. I mean, I think they're like fighting lat the last war of, you know, conservatives against liberals, not the future war um they're not there.

Ben

What's happening, uh, with bill gates and his millions of acres of land in the Midwest? What's going on with that? What's happening? Let's see, let's see.

Scott

He led his wife.

Ben

What's going on, marvin Gaye?

Scott

His ex-wife is covering is whatever she's like, taking care of women, like she got half the money and she's putting it into women's issues. What is Bill Gates doing? Buying up farmland, trying to avoid being smitten by?

Ben

his past associations Giving millions of dollars to the farm, the public school systems.

Scott

I assume it's kind of like he just wants to like toy, it being like profound, having profound impact on agriculture.

Ben

Yeah, no, that's exactly right.

Scott

He's trying to just yeah, no, that's exactly he's trying to just he's like oh, if we just get rid of these individual decision makers around farms and replace them with something that's glamorously organized, with AI on the internet we're going to save.

Ben

We're going to feed the poor people if we can go full tech with farming, then there will be enough food for everybody. But he fails to realize that the issue is not that there's not enough food.

Scott

When someone tells you who they are, believe them. And one day in 1985, in a high school in Bloomington, minnesota, bill Gates told me who he was, and I believed him. He's a monopolist.

Scott

He said that Said that to you. He basically said that Microsoft Windows was the only operating system and that you know his goal was to have it like in every household in the world and he was like completely discounted the history or background that led to him being in that position and he completely discounted all his competition. And he's the one computer science luminary that I got up and walked out on. It's like I didn't. I didn't walk out on Steve Jobs. It's like no, I'm watching this.

Discussing Land, Tech, and Johnsonville Bratwurst

Scott

When he introduced the Macintosh in Boston when we lived well, it was the second introduction he did it in Silicon Valley, then he went to Boston. Wow, that was what were we talking about before. When I prepare these podcasts, I have to keep notes.

Ben

We're talking about land, land, you buy land. What do you think he's doing? Pretty much what you said, just just saying just going full tech to, going full tech man to to yeah. Ai performing what he did for what he tried to do with computers. He's a monopolist, yeah. Yeah, I think there's more to it than that, but yeah um, yeah, and I think in the long term.

Scott

you know, in middle school, a thousand years from now, you'll learn that steve Jobs invented the computer and Bill Gates solved AIDS, and that'll be the middle school version of the history.

Ben

I think we're actually about learning.

Scott

Even a hundred years from now, I think Steve Jobs will be the only one people remember of the technical Are they going to?

Ben

Yeah, we'll see. It'll be interesting because, well, there's such a major culture shift that's happening, because right now, what you read about in history books and stuff, there are people that had these big inventions, or people or politicians that came in and you know, yeah, we're 45 minutes in, 40 minutes in.

Scott

we need a sponsor. Who are we sponsoring this week? Who are we sponsoring?

Ben

this week. Who are we sponsoring? Is that what we decided? That we're the ones sponsoring?

Scott

As soon as they pay us money, we'll reverse the wording.

Ben

Johnsonville Bratwurst. It's starting to get sunny out. Here my friends are grilling. I'm not sure I'm going to be there because I'm real tired, but they're probably eating Johnsonville Bratwurst.

Scott

Are people in Washington State sold on the monopoly of Johnsonville Bratwurst?

Ben

outwurst?

Scott

uh, not to the same extent that they are in wisconsin but they don't think about it that much.

Ben

Okay, doesn't mean a thing to them.

Scott

No, no, you remember when the johnson did you see the one in johnsonville like, um, it was a truck, like it would be tanker, except the tanker was split in half and it was a barbecue grill and you know it's the size of a normal, you know semi truck and it was parked in front of Safeway in Redwood City and they were like cooking this tanker, sized you know the oil tanker do not remember this yeah, maybe you weren't there I feel like this is something I would have remembered as a child yeah

Scott

wow johnsonville damn that is that bill bratwurst.

Ben

When I remember the first time I ever ever ate a bratwurst it was was a Johnsonville bratwurst and I slathered that thing with barbecue sauce, put it on maybe a whole wheat bun, I can't really remember. It was when I was just starting to expand my horizons with food in general. I had had a hamburger, probably just a month or two before, for the first time.

Scott

So it's the thing that stabilized you as an omnivore.

Ben

Yes, johnsonville bratwurst, stabilizing omnivores since 2004. Oh, earlier.

Scott

We're not getting paid enough to be accurate.

Ben

Yeah.

Scott

It's a town in Wisconsin where a lot of people made bratwurst locally. A lot of people made beer locally. Everybody, every town, had to have their own bratwurst and beer maker. Now things are not quite that way, but Johnsonville- Bratwurst was founded in Wisconsin.

Ben

Oh you didn't know that. No, no. I didn't know that we ate a lot of them in Wisconsin.

Scott

Well, it's like these are all future sponsors. It's like Jack Link's, you know. It's like they take an activity that was local and done by one store and somebody in the state figures out how to go big like spotted cow. Except you can't get spotted cow outside of wisconsin anyways. Johnsonville bratwurst.

Ben

I'll buy them.

Scott

They're from Wisconsin. That's why I will buy them.

Ben

And if you're not an omnivore already, they might make you one.

Scott

Yeah, little bits of fat and pork wrapped in a casing.

Ben

We're losing the vegetarians here. Honesty truth in advertising.

Scott

True, yeah, there's not much of that, though I'm not sure we completed the exception you stopped me from talking about the casing, so that's good, yeah yeah, yeah, Right, We've said enough.

Ben

Yeah, why do you? Why do you decide to uh become a? Why'd you stop doing biology in school?

Scott

because, um, the only biology, um person with a biology degree that I knew was running the frozen food department at the grocery store. I was working as a carryout, as a yeah that's not the most inspiring and and and when I finally let's see did I tell this story already.

Scott

I took fortran programming as a sophomore or maybe a freshman, and I didn't like it. It was a cookie cutter, just didn't make any sense to me. So I did hear decades later, that me working on the teletype um in the dorm lobby room was what impressed my future wife. But I didn't like it.

Ben

An intro to programming class.

Scott

They used Fortran, which is like the second high-level language in the world. They hadn't figured out everything but it worked. But it was kind of clunky, or maybe the third behind COBOL, basic and FORTRAN.

Ben

So you doing your homework for an intro class is what convinced your wife that you were hot shit.

Scott

Well, I was one of the cool computer programmers down there in the lobby. Not everyone in that dorm was a computer programmer.

Ben

Yeah, he was like oh boy, that guy, that guy took me through med school.

Scott

But since you brought up the story, then I talked to my dad one morning one morning and, like he was, he never got up till like 10 in the morning, left for work at CDC at 11 or something, oh really, he was still in bed and I like went in, talked to him, told him about you know, didn't know whatever what I was doing in college, doing in college. And he said, well, do you ever think about Pascal, which is a guy, the next generation of programming language, which was geared toward teaching it, and the structured concepts of how you do programming? And so I tried it and I loved it and, and because of the dopamine rush, when, uh, the program starts working, it's like, wow, this is cool, I could do this and get and get paid. Okay, the two came together.

Scott

But now. I hate computers Not really Love hate. I just want to use them for the things I want to do and I do not want to use them for those other things as in the programming those other things.

Ben

As in the programming parts of things.

Scott

Accounting.

Ben

What about Twitter?

Scott

Yeah, so that's for another podcast.

Ben

So you do want to use it for accounting.

Scott

Yeah, I just don't.

Ben

Because, yeah, for the last number of years, you've loved the systems you've made, your accounting systems that you've made when it all started, I was like a small individual, you know, thinking about putting these small things together and like oh, cool look they'll run around and that's cool.

Scott

Yeah, right, and that's all the computing power there was, and now it's like you know, just oh yeah and it's changed parts of our life. Well, the bottom line is I like physical activity more, yeah, or creative mental activity.

Ben

Yeah.

Scott

And computers are just a tool in making those better. Yeah, that was a good question. We could change the podcast name to that.

Ben

That was a good question, and now what do we talk about next?

Scott

oh, we can cut it off anytime.

Ben

You know we're, you know how long has this meeting been going? I said it was 40 minutes, now it's.

Scott

I am. I don't know. I thought we'd last about 45. Maybe it's 50. Before it I got you.

Ben

It's down there. Yeah, that was a good question. I was just wondering. I just found myself wondering that the other day. Wow, just wondering. I just found myself wondering that the other day. Wow, dad and I grew up having the same favorite color as dad and we almost ended up getting the same degree in college.

Scott

Interesting almost almost you know, you, you well you are. But the joke is you got a degree. We both have a degree in science. I have a degree in science, except it's computer science. So yeah, science.

Ben

I should really think about getting a guest from over here on soon been thinking about it, think it'd be fun.

Scott

I'll have to ask the question well, I like the fact of practicing without guests. I mean we already tried it out. Yeah, I think the polls are fun scene without guests.

Ben

I mean we already tried it out, you know.

Scott

Yeah, it's kind of more freeing not to worry about it.

Ben

There are a lot of things that are just easier to do because you don't have to worry about it as much. Does it mean that it's the most you know? I don't have to worry about it as much. It doesn't mean that it's the most you know, I don't know. The most. There's more marrow to be had sometimes in doing the things that are.

Scott

That's not easy.

Ben

Sometimes the restrictiveness can breed good stuff. Yeah, the things that aren't easy. Yeah, I'm in a puzzle. What do you think my friends are grilling stuff. It's like the first weather.

Scott

Nice yeah, oh wow. You're back, you're back.

Ben

Yeah, I'm wondering something. My friends are grilling stuff. They're over there now Ask me if they could throw something on the grill for me. I'm tired, 15 minute drive there, 15 minute drive back later in the day. It's kind of like what do you in terms of like what's what's hard versus what's easy? It would just be so nice to go there eat a burger, eat a Johnsonville brat brat. Hopefully they have pickles.

Scott

I'll have to ask if they have pickles, because if they don't have pickles and it's yeah, totally you're, you're, you're, uh, looking for what you want, and so you have to tell this story of visiting your friends where they'll help you be tired, you know yeah, right, right when you get there, you don't have an obligation to stay any longer than you want to, you know right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ben

And then the question is uh, there's also. I've been working really hard, I've been using my body, went for a long walk this morning, then I went to dance, then I just planted like a bunch of things. I just worked with a bunch of high school volunteers and they just like, oh gosh, there was just so much in my head and I feel like I just need to just decompress. Yes, and you?

Scott

have a hard time doing that. The group of people.

Ben

No, this is a group that I feel pretty pretty good around, so a lot of the time that is the case. Yeah, yeah, but I have a coaching session tomorrow and I haven't done much prep work so I don't know what I'm going to talk about. So it's like do I spend the extra time to prep for that? Have a really good coaching session tomorrow morning, keep keep going, spend more mental energy doing that or just go eat some broths.

Scott

I think you who sponsored the show today yeah, it's true, I have to kind of answers the question, doesn't it?

Ben

yeah, the monopolists, the bratwurst monopolists, know what I must do. I know what I've got competition.

Scott

as long as there's competition and the rules are, don't allow.

Ben

Name one competitor.

Scott

Well, the Coburn Brothers make their own brats and run several grocery stores across northwestern, northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. Okay, they're marketplace foods in Rice Lake, northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. Okay there, marketplace Foods in Rice Lake. Hold it, did we just start another ad?

Ben

No, That'll be for another time. Yeah, that's true. I guess grocery stores and the companies that own them make their own broths.

Scott

Not all, not all Not all of them.

Ben

You're right Less than a minute the Zoom tells us. Less than a minute, okay. Sometimes these work out well. I'm going to open up the seltzer to celebrate. Okay, another podcast. Well done we just hit 50 downloads this last done, thank you. We had just hit 50 downloads this last week. Thank you, we're on the up and up. Much love to you all. Yes, I'm hicking up. I'm hicking up. Bye. Dot and Ben are signing off.

Scott

Until next time, okay now nobody has to say anything. Tell it time to go, bob Bye.

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