The One Show That Taught Me How to Behave

Learn how manners shaped R.A. Thompson and why proper etiquette remains a powerful tool for expanding your personal capabilities.

This discussion centers on the specific influence of Captain Kangaroo on R.A. Thompson. We examine how the foundational lessons on manners provided by this iconic figure became a cornerstone for his success. If you are interested in how simple social behaviors can lead to significant life advantages, this breakdown offers clear insights into the practical application of good behavior.

We also explore the broader positive effects of learning proper etiquette in daily life. By adopting these principles, individuals can improve their interactions and open new doors for opportunity. This video is for anyone looking to understand how classic lessons on politeness still hold weight in modern contexts.

Subscribe for weekly personal development breakdowns, and comment below with which life lesson you find most valuable for your own growth.

Order Stair Pits below! Leave a review on the book and we may even ask you to be on the show!
https://www.unbreakableorigins.com/

0:00 Intro and Welcome
7:45 The Biggest Jump In A Lifetime
13:35 Remote Work Versus Real Production
19:20 Creativity Is Not Evenly Distributed
23:45 When Products Become Commodities
31:15 Resentment And The Myth Of Victimhood
36:35 Pay A Penny Per Page
41:50 Doomscrolling And The Illusion Of Control
49:25 The Cute Word Is Baby
51:10 Phones Ruin Real Interaction
1:00:05 Gilligan’s Island And Human Scripts
1:04:20 Outro and Buy The Book

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Who has made the greatest impact on R.A. Thompson?

SPEAKER_06 0:04

The person probably had the greatest impact on me would actually be Captain Kangaroo. Once I found how manners worked, it was amazing what I, number one, what I could do, and number two, what I could get away with. I could stop almost all internet traffic tomorrow. And the way I would do that is it just cost you one cent per page that you look at. So you're watching the movie and you take out your phone, and now you're playing with your phone to either alleviate boredom, entertain you, kill time, even though that's what this is supposed to be doing.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Yeah. Was the first purchase good? No, probably not. Terrible.

SPEAKER_06 0:41

Yeah. What you're actually buying there is control. Two-year-olds can't play with each other. They can be in the same room, and you might think that, oh, look, this two-year-old is playing with the stuffed rabbit and this one's playing with the chainsaw. They are, but they're not playing a game together. This one just happens to be satiated on the rabbit, and this other one is bleeding out because they cut off their leg. Happens all the time. Well, but the problem is if the one that's bleeding out wants the rabbit as its last dying thing, it's gonna try to get that rabbit with all of its thing, and the other kid ain't gonna give it to him. Yes. And he should recognize he just has to move 10 or 15 feet and the other kid's dead.

SPEAKER_05 1:38

Please save me from myself.

SPEAKER_06 1:50

Oh, we are. Okay, good. So next week on why you should have protein, make sure and tune in. We have a special bonus issue where uh we'll be talking to a man who is um eating fish protein. And discussing the the dimensions of Merlin Olsen. That's true. It's one of the favorite things that they do on those shows. Yes. Unfortunately, that's not this show. You should have tuned in on the other one. You should have hit the refresh on your browser and try to go back and find the other show.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Uh-huh. Yes. This is our show today.

SPEAKER_06 2:23

Yes. I'm curious if if if Welcome to the Stare Pit podcast, blah, blah, blah, buy the book. Nobody does. I don't know why in the hell we bothered to say it, but by the book, yeah, unbreakableorigins.com.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

It's out now. R.A. Thompson's the author. Okay, learn about his story, learn about his life, learn about how to be successful and overcome trials at the same time. You're reading stair pits. Very good.

SPEAKER_06 2:49

That was pretty good. It wasn't as enthusiastic as your last one. That one I kind of felt like you mailed it in a bit. But it's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

I mean, I just think I usually do my promos at the at the I usually cut promos at the end of the show, never at the beginning. I pretty much passed out in that. You know, I mean, I'm I'm a second half player. I mean that's what I mean. You've seen me play a lot of football. Yeah, no. I mean, first half I pretty much mail it in. Yeah, no, there's nobody to do that. Second half, we're picking it up.

SPEAKER_06 3:13

The answer is this that you know, people want to see the chase. Yes. That's really what it is. The lat you know, so there used to be something called for reelers. Okay. Okay. And for realers were a type of movie that would have um about 22 minutes, it used to be about 22 minutes on a reel of film. And like when you look at old movies and they have the little circle that's kind of burned in on it. Okay, so the purpose of that was the guy that in the projection room would see that circle. He'd have the other reel of film on another on another uh projector. And when that thing hit, he would then start the other one and let this one come out. So the first blip would be to see to get ready, then go on the second one, and then it would go through it. Yeah. So that's that's how it would work. So you would have those things. And the four reelers were 22 minutes apiece, so it's basically a 90-minute movie. Wow. And back in the days when um, like there wasn't television or radio or even gravity at that point, it was amazing. Like cows and shit would just be flying. For sure. Yes. Fish all of a sudden you'd count like a giant pool of water, and there'd be like fish in it. Had to be very, very careful. 100%. It was very difficult. Yes. And then they invented gra and it kind of changed everything. But um anyway, during that time, um, people just went to the movies all the time. Yeah. I mean, that was it. You just went to the movies, and if you had two 90-minute movies, that's three hours of entertainment, and you had a 20-minute intermission between them, so you could sell popcorn during that time. You could sell popcorn in concessions at that time. That's the whole purpose of it.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Were were you were you this is I'm gonna sound ignorant. I'm gonna sound like I don't know history. What year were you born? 57? 58. 58. Not 1958, 58. Oh, shit. That was it.

SPEAKER_06 5:18

When I was a kid, we used to go watch Moses and Keith Richards in their garage band. Okay. They were spectacular. Really? Oh, yeah. Keith was young at that point, looked healthy. Wow. It's really impressive. Yeah, it was pretty good. You are old. Yeah, it's really good. He used to sing the song I Can't Get No Holy Stone Tablets. Yeah. It's a hit. People loved it.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Gotcha. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

Um, were you did you know when you were younger, movies were still in black and white. Yeah, when I was first born.

SPEAKER_06 5:46

Well, they they had color.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

Did they did they did they have color in movie theaters?

SPEAKER_06 5:49

Yeah, they had well, they would allow black. I live in California, so it was never even a problem there. You know, you could have your servant come and just stand. He didn't have to watch the movie, he'd just stand in the lobby. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was pretty good. They could like shine things or something. That's great. But no, they no, they they did have black and white movies. They also had color movies.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

Okay, so there was color TV.

SPEAKER_06 6:09

But there's also no, not color. Well, they did have color television, but it wasn't for and I mean nobody, nobody could deal with it. The power and then the wavelength to do it. Yeah, I mean, it was in the development's developmental stage. Um I think I was maybe four or five when I first saw color television. But they used to have these things that you could buy, because back then they had a lot of horse operas, a lot of um they horse operas were like westerns, is what they were called. Okay. So you could buy this.

SPEAKER_03 6:39

I thought it was a stallion up there just belting. No, no, that's what it's Ame Maria.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 6:47

It doesn't smell horrible. It sounded more like Donald Duck. It's terrible. Um but so that you could buy this thing, and it was a piece of plastic that you could attach to the front of your television, and the top part of it was um blue, and the bottom third of it was green, so that if you were watching a western, the sky would be blue and the grass could be green. Really?

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 7:15

Okay. And then of course, then you have a close-up of the guy, he's got like you know, a blue forehead and green teeth. Yes. Wow. Yeah, but that was an early version of it. Okay, and back then, um, like TV would go off the air at like at around two o'clock in the morning, just go blank.

unknown 7:37

Interesting.

SPEAKER_06 7:37

No cable. You had a limited number of channels, you might only have two or three channels.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

I have a question for you, and I have no clue what you want to talk about today, but I I just have a quick question for you, kind of on this. We'll answer all questions. Thank you. On the on the subject of the of the evolution of your of your life through this point, okay. You're you're very big into technology and you're big into travel, and you're big into into into the kind of the the evolutionary aspects of the human race when it comes to the different things that we're able to develop, trying to tie this into stair pits as well. Throughout your life, up to this point, you're 67 years old, right? You're 67 this year. Where do you what do you think has been the greatest jump in your lifetime that you've seen? Has it been in travel when it comes to what cars and planes were when you were younger to now? Or would it be in technology where computers, phones, television was to now? I would guess technology, not 100% sure what your answer is, but I'm just curious kind of where you see kind of, you know, where you were, what the world was like when you were a child till right now, where have you seen the biggest jump or the biggest progress made, do you think, out of those two categories?

SPEAKER_06 8:52

I think for me, that's a really good question. I think for me, the biggest difference was when I was a kid, you know, like going into the fall season, in order to make sure that we had a good harvest, we would have human sacrifice. And so when we moved away from human sacrifice, um, I that that was huge. Because until that point, there was always the, you know, who are we gonna kill?

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Oh, yeah. I didn't know you were the you were the first Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_06 9:18

One of those things. Yeah, like you know, we you know, the answer is this. You know, you sometimes the tip on the waiter is dude, you're still alive. Yeah, there were non-cash tips. Yes. No, I think that the difference on it would be this. I would say what the biggest difference is the value of free time or spare time when I was growing up with adults was huge because people would generally work at least five days a week and sometimes six days a week, and that idea that you had spare time, that you had leisure time, was so incredibly prized that it was it was like gold. Okay, so if you think about it, back in the day, um you'd work eight hours, you know, you'd work eight hours, maybe an hour commute, so that's nine hours, right? Then when you came home, uh you had chores to do around the house or something like that. You know, mom would be, you know, would be cleaning or would have dinner ready to do something like that. But then you'd have like little honeydews that you'd have to do. Then you'd spend time, you know, have a meal, spend time with the kids, and then maybe maybe watch television or maybe read or just go to bed, right? Boom, and that's what it was. And then on Saturday, you'd get up and you'd you know, mow the lawn, or you'd do something in the garden, or do something in the backyard, or something like that. And that would take up most of Saturday, and then you'd have a meal maybe or a barbecue or something like that. And then on Sunday, you know, you'd get up early or you'd get up or whatever, you make sleep in a little bit longer, you know, uh get cleaned up, go to church, come home from church, and then so maybe from one o'clock on Sunday to whenever to whenever dinner came around, that was free time. Yeah. Okay, and that was golden. And I mean, and that was the time that you might go fishing, or you might go hunting, or you might go do something else. But but but free time was at such a premium, it was ridiculous because you had an obligation to work, to your neighbors, to your family, and then if there was anything left over, that was for you. Gotcha. And today it's entirely inverted, right? Where where is my time? What you know, where what is my time? What am I doing with my time? There's no time for me. And that I was talking to somebody yesterday who was telling me that their friend's um son quit his job because they made him go into the office three days a week. Wow. Okay, and when you're looking at it in terms of let's say in the um gulag system of the Soviet Union when people were worked to death, legitimately worked to death, to going into work three days, this was inhumane and this is inhumane. I'm pretty sure it's not the same inhumane. Probably not. Yeah. And but on the other hand, that person's need to quote work at home, which gave that person more, you know, free time or more casual time, was so important to him that he had to give up a paying job.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Yeah. Could could you have ever in in your working life, could you have ever pictured this amount of remote jobs that are now taking place where like, I mean, you know, people are encouraged to work remotely, people, you know, die if they have to go in the office, but they want to work rot, you know, everybody wants to work remote now. Could you have even fathomed something like that in in in your very successful working life?

SPEAKER_06 13:38

I think that I think there's a couple of pieces on that where it depends upon what you're doing. So if you're in a position that requires labor and some form of production, I would say that type of job you could never have done remotely. I mean, if you were building Cadillacs, you know, and your job was to well, or it was to, you know, set the passenger side door on, then you can't do that at home. I mean, you got to go to the plant and put the doors on, and that's what it is. And I think that level, that concept of work, of production work, had to go someplace. Um I would say when so I worked very young. One of the first gigs I ever had was for a landscaper uh named John Reed. And John Reed uh I initially thought that John Reed was one of the most mean, cruel, vicious people that I'd ever known in my life. Because all he did was tell me that I was wrong and ask me if I understood English. And you took a lot from John Reed then. I really did. That's really what it was. No, he no, I mean the sad thing about it was you look at, you know, you look at the time you spend with other people. Yeah. And that concept of personality swap, you know, kind of happens all the time. Yes. And um, so yeah, John would go out and he would put in sprinkler systems and lawn, and he would want the lawn to be sloped at one and a half degrees from the house to the sidewalk. Okay, and the way you would do that was he had a little level and there was a mark on it as to where it should be, and then he'd give you a two by four, like about a ten-foot-long two by four. And you would start here and you would move to the opposite end of the property so that you're pulling the you're always walking on the back side. You never walk on the done side. So you would then pick all the rocks out and grade it out so it was at the same level all the way down, and you'd move the board, and then you'd move it back two feet, and then you do the same and do the same and do the same. And then John would come by and he would look at it, and this is without the benefit of the board. It'd go here, here, and here. Give me the damn board. He'd put the board there, and the rule was that you couldn't see under the board, but you had to see the bottom of it. Okay. So you had to see the bottom where it folded under or where it curved under, and you had to be able to see, you know, and you couldn't see under it. And sure as hell, wherever he put the thing, either you could see under it or it was a little bit high. And then you'd have to smooth it out. Yeah. Plus wherever he walked to move the board. And it took me maybe three weeks to figure out how to do it. And after about three weeks, I could do it without the board. Wow. I mean, I just because I knew what it looked like. I just knew what it would have to look like. And when I finally got to that stage, John was well, that's really good. Now I can do it without the damn board. Yeah, and that was perfect. So then he hired some high school kids, and I was like, maybe maybe 10 years old. So I've got like high school kids that I'm now supervising, and I'm just as big of an asshole as John was. I mean, it's the okay, again, we gotta have the board is here, right? It can't be anything underneath this. Watch. B. Okay, I can see under the board. What in the hell is this? Yeah. And then it's the same answer. This board, what happens is it's a pool, the grass is gonna be deaner, the water is gonna go there, you know, we're gonna be back here doing it again. You know, we can't put the seed down as before sawed. You can't put down this the topsoil and the seed until this thing is done. And then when the topsoil and seed go down, we have to get it smooth again.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:08

And that and then over well, look at here's the sprinkler is gonna be here. See, it's gonna come into this point, and this is too high, so water won't get on it, so be brown. It's not gonna work. Do it again. And the high schoolers are just like looking at me like, what kind of a goddamn Hitler spawn are you? What are you doing? Why are you doing this to us? And the and they just hated it because I could the same thing that John did. I could take the board out, I could put it down there, I could put the level on it, and it would just be, you know, I used to tell them flat out, you know, when you can do this, you don't need the board. Okay. If you would just learn how to do it versus telling me that you can't, we would be much farther along. For sure. And there's nothing worse than a 10-year-old telling that to height. I mean, I swear to God, you know, if if John would have ever gone for more than a couple hours, I'd have been beaten to death. That board would have been stuck down my throat. It would have been but you know, but it was interesting in like learning how to do that. But I did, I mean, I that I learned how to work and how to do the job right the first time from him. And when I look at the majority of the work that I've done, um a lot of it I think is more creative work, and I don't have to be any place to do creative work. I mean, like I might be taking a shower and come up with a really good idea. But I would say being around what's being done helps me see the inefficiencies of things, and that sparks the creativity in order to make something go forward. So I think that for creative people or people that can actually produce something, um, I don't think there's any necessity to be at a place other than you learn who are the people that can best uh implement your idea. Uh I think that's a value. But I don't I don't think it's there. The problem with it is everybody thinks that they're creative and everybody thinks that they can do that. And if you look at like the distribution, you look at the distribution of almost all skills. All skills are not distributed on a bell curve, they're uh distributed on a um aparte curve, which goes like this it's nothing, nothing, nothing, and then it gets to twenty percent and it goes up and it peaks. Okay, and that's the way that everybody has that's the two distribution of things. So if you look at it, I mean, so think about this for a second, right? On football teams that you've been on, my guess is twenty percent of the people were capable of make were capable of making plays. Yeah. Is that true? Yes. So you had 80% inert people and twenty percent, you know, people that could make plays. And this is how that curve works. So that gets us to here. Then the peak of the curve is when you take the twenty percent of the twenty percent, it's the exact same as this curve. That when you look at the twenty percent of people that could make plays, right, twenty percent of them could dominate a game. Right? Yeah, and then you took that group and twenty percent of that group was actually somebody that was significantly better than everybody else. Even though the guys that could make plays, he could just totally he could change the game. Right? And that's what it is. And then you take that group and 20% of all that group together, then 20% of those people get looks at the NFL. And twenty percent of those people get a contract. Yes. And twenty percent of those people ever snip the field. Right. It's amazing how effective it is. For sure. And the problem with it is that today everybody thinks that they're creative. And they're not. I mean, they might be able to do things that are clever, but in terms of actually creating something or coming up with something brand new, it's never going to happen. You know, if you look at it in terms of musical instruments, right? 80% of the people have never had a music lesson. Yeah. Okay. Then you're going to take the 20% of the people that can. How many of them played an instrument for more than two years? Okay. How many of them can even do anything today? And how many of them ever composed their own song?

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:01

And then have composed their own song, had it recorded, had it played on the radio, made money from it. Yep. Right. And that's just, I mean, that's not to say that people are useless. People have incredible skills, they have incredible abilities to do things. But in terms of pure creativity, you either have it or you don't.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:23

And it's pretty obvious. And so I think that, you know, going back to your initial question on what things changed, I think that the premium on free time or on leisure time or whatever it would be has turned into becoming the single most important thing. And if you look at commercials, like pull up a TV show online from the 1950s or early 1960s that still has the commercials in it. Okay? And the commercial for the car goes like this: safe, big, engine size, fuel efficiency, mechanical competency, blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, it's nothing about the everything about the car, right? The actual physical things about the car fits a family of five, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. Look at a car commercial today. Four women get in the car laughing, looking at their phones, driving someplace, getting out, looking like a million bucks, and going into a high-end restaurant or, you know, night spot. Do you have any idea the size of the engine?

SPEAKER_03 24:39

Don't care. Yeah, don't care. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:41

They had fun. This is a car you can have fun in. Has nothing to do with it.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:48

You know, the same and the same thing. It's like we've commoditized it. And I get it at a certain point where nobody asks the cook at McDonald's, like, what's fresh, or is there a special, or you know, at what temperature do you cook the hamburger? Nobody cares. It's a fast fruit hamburger. Nobody gives a rip. Yes. And so you don't care. It's just McDonald's. And if you're asking those questions, you just I mean, dude, you're wasting the time. First of all, the person isn't going to be able to answer the questions. And second of all, it's a waste of time. I mean, that's not the question you have at McDonald's. But I think we've gotten so many things, have reached a point where the distinguishing characteristics between the bottom and the middle of the middle of the bell curve is virtually indistinguishable. Right? I mean, that's what it is. I mean, you might think, I mean, if you look at it in the terms of like F-150 trucks are great, but every other truck that's underneath there, it's not an F-150, it's who can get it to me cheapest. Mm-hmm. Yes. I mean, you know, if if you know it's going to be a RAM or it's going to be whatever the Chevy truck is, the Chevy truck is going to go into it. And if one of them's going to give it to you for five grand less, then that's when you buy.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

You've been one of the more influential people in my life, hands down. I'm sorry for that. You world should have treated you better. Tells you how horrible my life's been. Truly is. But yet you don't play the victim, which is nice. Hey, you try not to. That's you know, some days I definitely do. Um, you get to pick one person, Robert, and you've done a you've done an amazing job as stair pits portrayals um of learning on your own, teaching yourself, raising yourself. If you had to pick one singular person, who has been the most influential person in your life and made the greatest impact on you, for better or for worse, right? Because you've had a ton of negative experiences that have raised you up and made you a better person and taught you more than maybe a positive experience would have. So you get to pick one singular person who has made the greatest impact on R. A. Thompson to have you sitting in the seat that you currently sit in today.

SPEAKER_06 27:21

Um I would say the person probably had the greatest impact on me would actually be Captain Kangaroo from the T Now you've never seen Captain Kangaroo. Heard of it, never seen it. Okay, so before Captain Kangaroo was Captain Kangaroo, it used to be Clarabelle the Clown on Houndie Duty. Wow. So Captain Kangaroo had like a kid show. This is when there weren't like kid shows. And Captain Kangaroo sat behind this counter and he wore like a vest and it maybe had stripes on it that might make you believe that he was a you know a captain of something. Now, what he was a captain of was never really identified. Gotcha. But he would be there, and Captain Kangaroo's big messages were say please and say thank you. And that was it. And then like he had a friend named Mr. Green Jeans, who was a partner who would occasionally or friend who would occasionally come by, and he had like a puppet called Bunny Rabbit who would come around, and he had Mr. Moose who had like move his mouth like this. Yeah. But the whole idea of watching that show and just being told to say please and thank you constantly gave me, I think, the capacity to do a lot because I had manners. You know, there weren't a lot of other things that were maybe consistent in the world, but I knew that if you should say please and thank you on things. And that looking at it when um when you've been with me at Starbucks, you know, I always ask the barista, may I please have? Yeah. And, you know, I don't think people say that to people anymore. I don't think people say, May I please have when they go to a store, or excuse me, could you please help me, you know, if I'm looking for help, that I try to be polite on being able to deal with that. And that once I found how manners worked, it was amazing what I, number one, what I could do, and number two, what I could get away with.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 29:28

And that's kind of a weird version. So I say Captain Kangaroo probably gave me the most valuable skill that I had in terms of interacting with other people. I would say um Auntie, my great-grandaunt, showed me what love was. I didn't understand it, but she showed me what love was, and she showed me what sacrifice was, and she showed me what reverence and devotion to God was. And I don't think I understood that until much later in my life. But once I got to the point that it had meaning, it made it great meaning to me, but that seed lay dormant for an incredibly long period of time. Um I think that the clients, the people that lived across the street from me, also showed that you could, in fact, just be happy. I mean, the the fact that they could legitimately be happy in the world was kind of amazing to me. And then as I learned their backstory, it was also a little bit amazing. And then when I was got older and could understand the weight of their backstory, um it was even more amazing on what they could do. My uncle was extremely funny. He taught me how to be funny, or he taught me how to tell jokes. I don't know if he taught me how to be funny, but at least he taught me how to recognize comedic timing. Um I think that my stepfather showed me the folly of power without authority. I mean, the fact that today it's a really good question. Today everybody looks at things as being, quote, power in balances. You either have power or you don't. And if you have power, then you're using it incorrectly. And if you don't have power, that somehow is a virtue. Right. Or if you've been exploited, you're somehow a virtue. And if you look at it in terms of and God loving, God forgiving, God, please try to speak to these people's hearts. But you look at people that went to quote first-tier academic universities, and they're spending between $40,000 and $100,000 a semester to get a useless degree. Okay. So somebody either through a grant, a scholarship, their parents, or whatever, you know, let's say we'll use a halfway point between $40,000 and $100, we'll call that $70,000. So somebody dumped a quarter of a million dollars into their education. And now they're well, I knew this guy in Oregon. He had a double major in um French literature and poetry from Reed University in Oregon. And the guy worked not as a shift supervisor, but as a barista. Really? Now, he could have got that job when he was still in high school. For sure. Okay. But for whatever it was, let's say back then maybe it was $40,000, somebody spent $160,000 for that guy to get a minimum wage job plus tips.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 33:13

Okay. And was he pissed off at the world? Totally. And why was he pissed off at the world? Because he had spent five years of his life going to school and studying these things with this illusion that at some point somebody was going to pay him, you know, back then 60 to 100 grand a year in order to be a, you know, French literature poetry person. Yeah. And I think the only people that actually hire poets anymore are like Hallmark for cards. Yes. And they're not looking for advent garde poetry. No. They're looking for, you know, they're looking for doing this. You know, mother like no other and love from above. Okay. And that's that's what it is, because Mother's Day is sell a lot of cards. And as long as you can rhyme mother with no other and your love like something from above, or from above came your love, my dear mother like no other.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

Yes. And you don't you don't even need poets for that these days. You just you just need somebody who can rap. That's not so somebody who can just back.

SPEAKER_03 34:20

Before the days of rap, they used to call it poetry. For sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

Yeah, rap rap artists have have replaced poets in phrase.

SPEAKER_06 34:30

So yeah, but I would say that that person had no chance of ever getting a job. And was that person pissed off? Absolutely. Did that person hate everything about their job? Yeah. The reality is they couldn't admit that they made a mistake. I mean, when they were at Reed, maybe you could have gotten a degree in something that you might be able to teach. But the worst thing in the world would have been had he gotten a degree in French literature, then he might have taught other people French literature, and then they would be in the same box that he's in. Yeah. You know, and at some point his parents had to say, you know, Johnny, I know you love French literature and, you know, whatever it is, that, you know, somebody in your French literature department has obviously caught your eye, and you know, you have sex with them or you want to have sex with them, and you're chasing that person for something other than French literature. Um turn it off and just say, no, study accounting. You know, you don't need to do that. If you want to do that, you know, here's, you know, here's $160,000, go to France, get a library card, and, you know, work there as a barista. At least there you have an infinite, you have much greater exposure to French literature and you could deal with it. And I think that that level of resentment that those people have just leads to this craziness that their decision wasn't bad. Society is bad. Society doesn't respect or doesn't value their knowledge. And they're highly educated and they have no money. They have nothing. And so they're pissed off. And they're unable or unwilling to recognize that they're pissed off. Yeah. Or that the reason that they're pissed off, they can't do it at that point. And I think that it it comes down to I think we may have talked of this before at one point when we were ripping on Doom Scrolling, but it comes to the same general concept of it of that I could stop almost all internet traffic tomorrow. And the way I would do that is it just cost you one cent per page that you look at. And if you did that, you'd be amazed at how internet traffic would dry up. Yeah. Right. And look at this as a thought experiment. So let's say well, let's back it up for a little bit to kind of get a sense of an idea on it. Um if you wanted to get ice cream, okay, you wanted to get ice cream, would you go to Home Depot, Stephen Wade, or um Baskin and Robbins?

SPEAKER_02 37:44

You know, I'm not a big Baskin Robbins fan, so there's a chance that if Steven Wade happens to have an ice cream machine in the back to where I'm heading, you know, and again, I go to the movies a lot. I I I support Megaplex, and I've learned down here in southern Utah, you haven't made at Stephen Wade. No, but you don't have the you don't have the cheesy to Steve.

SPEAKER_06 38:07

I think you actually look happy versus like you just told somebody a piece of crap.

SPEAKER_02 38:11

I think I just got some new show sponsor here. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 38:15

You've got made it Stephen Wade. No, but no, but yeah, but basketbasket bottles would be the obvious choice. Right, but that's what it is. So that idea that if you were going to look to acquire something, you would go to a place that that sold it, right, that had it. And if you take that concept and extend it from stores to people, right? So if you looked at every person as a store, okay, and that person had things that they could you could get from them. You could you could trade for, right? So you could you're bringing X, you're bringing a need or you're bringing curiosity to that person, you're pulling something to that person, and then you're going to trade with that person. And let's call the currency that you're trading with is time. Okay. So if you have 168 hours in a week, that means you have, by the time you sleep, you know, do everything that's necessary in there. Let's call it, you have 100 hours to use that aren't designed to sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, right? Clean yourself. Um, so you've got 100 hours over seven days, is about 14 hours that you can throw away. Okay. So of that 14 hours, let's say you have to do something to support yourself. So let's take that 14 and knock it down to six. So now you have six hours that you're going to invest. Where do you invest it?

SPEAKER_02 40:05

Yeah, it's just depends on what you got to do, I guess, or whatever what you want to do.

SPEAKER_06 40:08

But you want to do it. At that point, you have six hours to invest, right? So of that six hours, sometimes people might be wanting to come to you for something. People might hit you up to do something, or you might be hitting up other people to do things. But what you're doing is you're both investing one of your six hours that day to do something. And what what are you trying to accomplish with that six hours?

unknown 40:39

Right?

SPEAKER_06 40:40

With that one, you're both investing an hour, you're both investing 30 minutes, you know, 60 minutes, whatever time you're investing into it. And what what did you come looking for? What did you come looking for? What did the other person come looking for? Was it even remotely a match? And was it a trade? Was it something that you would do again based upon the satisfaction of the experience? Right. And that's a really interesting thing to look at. Yeah. Because if you went and looked at watching, like one investment you might make is I'm going to put, you know, I'm going to stream a movie. So you're going to stream a movie, let's say the movie is two hours. So of your six hours, you've now taken a third of those hours and you're going to stream it watching the movie. So are you watching that movie to kill time, to appreciate the actor's craft, to be entertained, or to eliminate boredom? Or is it a combination thereof?

SPEAKER_02 41:45

I was going to say for myone, it's a combination of all those.

SPEAKER_06 41:48

Right. Okay. So then this shows you how let's think about that purchase a little bit more. So you're watching the movie and you take out your phone, and now you're playing with your phone to either alleviate boredom, entertain you, kill time, even though that's what this is supposed to be doing.

SPEAKER_03 42:09

Yeah. Yeah. Was the first purchase good? No, probably not. Terrible. Yeah. Right. Absolutely terrible.

SPEAKER_06 42:16

For sure. And then the fact that you're looking at the secondary purchase, right? I mean, the secondary thing that you're doing, the fact that you're flipping through whatever you went to purchase on the phone, whatever you had invested in on the phone, the fact that you're flipping through it like this means whatever you purchased there is even less valuable than what was up here.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 42:39

And so as a result, or let me ask this, is as a result of that, what you're actually buying there is control. Yeah. Or the illusion of control, right? Yes. Of the fact that I'm not getting what I want, so I'm going to keep doing something until I get what I want. And that the way I'm investing in this thing is I'm not investing, I'm not investing the dollar for any value that it might have long term. I'm investing this hour because I want some immediate gratification. All I want is immediate, I want stimulus, I want response, I want immediate gratification. I don't want to wait. And it has to be very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very high grade distraction or stimulation. Okay. What is that call? I'm not sure. It has a name. An addiction. No, an addiction is much more pathological. I'm not sure then. You know what it is. Now sadly. This is what it comes down to. We haven't played this game enough. Okay. So when um a friend of ours, when she was young, when Abby was young, I would ask Abby questions and she would say, I don't know. And then I would ask her three or four more times.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

I knew the game you were trying to get to. Yes, right. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 44:19

And you hate this game. Everybody hates this game.

SPEAKER_02 44:23

And everybody see how quickly I died and get and gave it. No, no, no. The fact is, I'm just excited. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 44:28

But I know you hate that everybody hates this game. But the answer is I don't accept that as the answer. I see that. The only answer that you guess, then you have to tell me what you think it is. 100%. Because see, and let me ask you this why do I make you do that?

SPEAKER_02 44:42

In order to generate thinking, learning, progress. No clicks. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 44:48

I don't give a shit about that. Whether you learn anything or not means nothing to do. All about the YouTube video. Yeah, that's all yeah. As much as I hate it, I'm just, you know, I want to be a guy that just just what is he making the poor guy do now? This is horrible. Well, hey, our greatest social media clip is that.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

Yeah, this is basically. Sad but true.

SPEAKER_03 45:05

100%.

SPEAKER_06 45:06

So anyway, so what is so what is it when your entire being is based upon continual and uninterrupted stimulation that needs to constantly be satiated and if not, results in disaster.

SPEAKER_02 45:24

So I kind of said it in sarcasm, but I mean, wouldn't that be an addiction? I mean, where you're you constantly need stimulation, you you crave it, that's your being. But then if you don't get it, there's another name for it. If you don't get it, then your whole thing collapses. Doesn't it fit in that sphere, please?

SPEAKER_06 45:39

But there's a more specific name. There's a cuter name for it. A cuter name. A sociopath. They are in fact sociopathic, but it's a cuter name than that. Okay, ready? I'll give you a hint. Four letters ends in Y.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

Four letters ends in Y. Um I can think of a couple five-letter words that end in Y. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 46:02

Like ducky.

SPEAKER_02 46:03

Yeah, that's the one I was thinking of. Yep, you got me on that one.

SPEAKER_06 46:05

That's like an old joke. Yes. What begins in F and ends in U C K. Uh-huh. Firetruck.

SPEAKER_03 46:10

There you go. Yes. People. Dirty, filthy mind. That's exactly what it is.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

Yeah, but hey, here's the clip you wanted too, right? Where you you give me, you know, what's what do you say? A four-letter word that ends in Y? Yeah. And I'm not gonna know it, and this is gonna get clipped on social media, and we're gonna blow up again. You've done it, sir. No, I think it's it's it's you figured out the algorithm. That's it. As a 67-year-old man, you've cracked the social media code. Yeah, plain scrabble.

SPEAKER_06 46:34

That's all it comes to me.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

You got because it's because we're gonna have all sorts of, you're gonna have thousands of comments, people guessing what the word actually is. Right. And I'm gonna look like an idiot. Um but let me ask this Mallory, do you know what it is?

SPEAKER_00 46:46

I was gonna say crazy, but that's no, that's too many words.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:50

So I'm stumped just as much as Max is.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

Um, four letters ends in Y. And it's cute.

SPEAKER_06 47:00

See, the problem when you make me think under the bright lights, here's the hint it never commit murder. You will snap. You will just snap.

SPEAKER_02 47:11

If I'm in an MPI interrogation, dude, I'm I'm done. All my accomplices, done.

SPEAKER_06 47:16

Roll over on them immediately.

SPEAKER_02 47:17

100%. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 47:19

Max the big rat Christian.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

Exactly. Immediate witness protection, whole 90. I'll tell you whatever you want to know. You shine a bright light in my face.

SPEAKER_06 47:29

Yeah, when you're going there, let me tell you what my witness protection requirements are. Yes. Believe me, I am ready to roll on you.

SPEAKER_02 47:36

Oh, yeah. Um, dude, like, see, and I'm see, and it's gonna be so obvious, and and I'm like, what are four-letter words that end in why?

SPEAKER_06 47:46

Golly, that are cute, that are cute, and basically that are cute and sociopathic.

SPEAKER_02 47:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:52

Um and addictive. And one way of looking at it would be no capacity to control their impulses. No, but that's a good word, but it's not. Um no capacity to control their impulses, constantly uh demands new attention, new stimulation when fixated on one particular form of stimulation. If it happens to dry up, the person goes into absolutely an apopleptic tantrum.

SPEAKER_02 48:32

See, now I'm just running through every four-letter word that I know, and most of them don't end in y. That's true. So you're aware. E is one of the most I know a lot of four-letter words that that are probably not kid friendly either, right? But none of them, not most of them don't end in the in the letter Y. Um I want to give you a guess. I do. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 48:51

Um But see, the thing that's great about this is it shows how when people look at it and know what it is, yeah, they don't think of it in these terms. It's like when you're thinking about this thing, you these aren't the terms that you that just these are the terms that actually describe it. Yeah, but they're not the terms that are used to describe it.

SPEAKER_02 49:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 49:17

Ready?

SPEAKER_02 49:21

Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_06 49:22

No, that's what it is. The word is baby.

unknown 49:24

Really?

SPEAKER_06 49:25

Two-year-old. What does a two-year-old do? Okay. A two-year-old is con I mean, look all two-year-olds do is two-year-olds have the ability to look, they have the ability to move, they have the ability to vocalize, they have very limited language skills, and whatever they see and are interested in, they want with all of their body. I mean, they want to grab it, they want to hold it, they want to look at it. And then the second that something else comes, they want that, and they don't give a crap about this. They want X, and then they want Y, and then they want X, and then they want Y, and they want X, and they want Y, and then they want to be left alone for five minutes. If you disturb them when they're left alone for five minutes, they freak out. Yeah. And that all you do with two-year-olds is tell them no. Because they're either too loud, too soft, too silly, whatever it is. If a two-year-old is goes into a hysterical fit of laughter, the kid can't stop laughing. And telling them to stop laughing doesn't work. Yes. And for some strange reason you have to tell your child, don't be happy. Right. And the same thing. If the cat if the if the kid is pissed off that he can't look at the pretty dog anymore, and the kid has a fit because he was really enjoying looking at the dog, you can't say, Don't worry, we'll see a dog tomorrow. Yeah. Because that doesn't mean anything to them. Right. And if you look at the behavior of the people that need stimulation on top of stimulation to compensate for the stimulation that they tried didn't achieve anything. Didn't achieve the desired results. What that is, is they're being a two-year-old. And if you take it away from them, right, find some eight to seventeen year old and tell them that you're going to take their phone away from them.

SPEAKER_02 51:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 51:23

Okay. And at that point you get a tantrum similar to what happens when you take the two-year-old's favorite animal away from them.

SPEAKER_02 51:30

And I think you can jump the age up much higher than 17. Oh no, yeah. For to get a tantrum out of someone for taking their phone away.

SPEAKER_06 51:37

Oh no, absolutely just go absolutely, you know, uh, let's just put it this way explosive diarrhea would be more desirable to be around.

SPEAKER_02 51:46

Because there's some people, I mean, there are a few events left in the world where you can't have your phone, right? Augusta at the Masters, right? Certain comedy shows. They they they make you put your phone in a bag and they lock it away somewhere. And some people, some people say, I can't attend this event because I can't have my phone. Some people have turned down, not golfers, of course, but just spectators, have turned down invitations to the masters because they can't have their phone on them, right? They've turned down opportunities to go to comedy shows because they can't have their phone on them. It's like if it's if they can't have it strapped to them as another appendage, it doesn't work.

SPEAKER_06 52:24

So, but then if you look at that, what are they buying? They're buying recognition, they're buying control, right? And does that mean the reason that they have to do that is the rest of their life that out of control that they need additional control? Is that how they demonstrate it? Yeah. And that's and I think that's I think that's what it is. Or that there's no they're not getting satisfaction from whatever it is that they're doing. Well, if you're not getting satisfaction from what you're doing, then by all means just do something else. Yes. And you know, that people go into this whole like nilist thing of like, oh, well, nothing means nothing, everything means nothing, no one can win, everybody loses. I'm a hideous victim, life is horrible, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, the answer is maybe you're just boring and useless.

SPEAKER_02 53:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 53:16

I mean, that might be the answer. It might not be the world is wrong. It might be that you're boring and useless, and that you don't do anything, and that you offer nothing to anybody, and no one has ever come to you and said, Hey, I'd like to, you know, would you like to do something with me? Yeah. And that answer of you know, you're you're doing something with somebody and you recognize that that person's going to spend 70% of the time on their phone, do you bother to do anything with them? Yeah. You know, and I I feel that I'm that I'm pretty good with it. When I'm I mean, like the time that I'm with people, if I'm taking out my phone to do something, it's it's either to show you something, you know, but I rarely, if ever, look at my phone when I'm over.

SPEAKER_02 54:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 54:12

And I think part of that is it's a respect for the other person, but the other answer is that I'm not if I don't want to be with you, I won't be with you. Yeah. And that I want to do something with you, I want to explore something with you, I want to have some engagement with you, that there's something that the people that I spend time with, I feel that we can create or we can explore something. And that as a high value thing for me, or I might want to share something with somebody at that point. But it would never occur to me that what I'm doing isn't going to be good enough for that person to actually pay attention when it happens.

SPEAKER_02 54:51

Yeah. It is funny to see, you know, two or more people or even a group of people all hanging out together. Right. All of them are on their phones. Yeah. Right. Where you walk past a group of people who are clearly all together, right? And not one of them is conversing with the other. They're all just looking at their phones, going through whatever they need to.

SPEAKER_06 55:10

Right. But to me, that just comes into the example of people not knowing. Well, like, for instance, um, I have this friend slash co-host who didn't think that he liked vegetables or fish. The reality is um he does like vegetables and he does like fish. They just have to be done right. They just have to be the, you know, on the high end of things.

SPEAKER_01 55:34

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 55:35

And everybody's thinking, oh yeah, dude, the black dude's into dope. Oh, dude, he's high. No. He just meant like more expensive. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 55:43

They they have to be top of the line vegetables and fish.

SPEAKER_06 55:46

Right. But but the answer is that you do like them. You just hadn't had them done the right way. Yes. And so I think that there's there, that difference is that you look at the people that together and be with their phone. Again, it's two-year-old, right? Two-year-olds can't play with each other. They can be in the same room, and you might think that, oh, look, this two-year-old is playing with the stuffed rabbit and this one's playing with the chainsaw. Well, you know, they are, but they're not playing a game together. This one just happens to be satiated on the, you know, the rabbit, and this other one is bleeding out because they cut off their leg. Happens all the time. Okay. Well, but the problem is if the one that's bleeding out wants the rabbit as its last dying thing, it's going to try to get that rabbit for all of its thing, and the other kid ain't going to give it to him. Yes. And he should recognize he just has to move 10 or 15 feet and the other kid's dead. But, you know, and as long as he doesn't go get the chainsaw, there's a good chance he could keep the rabbit until he finds, you know, something that's purple in the corner that he wants to go play with. 100%. Right. But that idea that these young people don't understand how to interact because they've never had to interact. It's easier to have the safe interaction of this versus a I might miss a Q interaction with somebody else.

SPEAKER_02 57:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 57:16

Right. And I think that's the big difference to it is um, you know, the the perfect example of it is Eskimos, where they um they have virtually no words for time and many words for snow. Yeah. Because if you're living that far up on the planet, time doesn't mean that much. It's either light or it's dark. And it's going to be light or it's going to be dark soon. So you don't really time is not that much of an issue. However, what kind of snow it is is a matter of life and death.

SPEAKER_02 57:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 57:54

So there's many different ways of looking at snow. Time isn't as important. And like an example of being married is um Susan has probably about 15, 16 different ways of saying fine or okay. And some of the fines mean fine. Yep. Some of the okay's mean okay. And some of the fines means what kind of an idiot, you know, couldn't make the bed right. Okay, and and I know what that fine sounds like. Absolutely. And I try to blame it on the servants. But you know, it's it's she's you know, it's one of those things, but it's how come you don't fire that servant? Well, she's hot.

SPEAKER_04 58:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 58:42

You ever watch the way she makes the bed? Uh-huh. Yes. It's really pretty exciting. Absolutely. So no, yeah. But no, but the answer is that, you know, I can tell, I can tell how fine that fine is. And sometimes that fine means pay attention to me. Sometimes that fine means I'm get out of here, don't bother me. Yeah. You know, so but that idea that until you can understand the intimacy of those words and what that tonation is, your capacity to act out is minimal. But then on the same standpoint, if this is what you're doing, it would be um it's just it's a it's a natural self-limiting thing that they haven't bothered to deal with it. And then when they do interact, this unfortunate conversation that they have to have, then they drop back into like you look at these poor people that you just have to pray for, that will scream that they're, you know, victimized by something.

SPEAKER_02 59:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 59:48

And the something that they're victimized by them is them.

SPEAKER_02 59:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 59:54

You know, and it's like, okay, well, you know, the polite way of saying that is I never socialized. I mean, the correct phrase is I never socialized, I never looked at how people could do things. You know, I would say another person that probably influenced me a lot was Sherwood Schwartz, who wrote Gilligan's Island, was the producer of Gilligan's Island and the Brady Bunch, and then the Gilligan's Island was comes down to one of my personal things that I believe is true, is that there's only have you ever seen Gilligan's Island? Yes, yeah, right. So how many episodes of Gilligan's Island are there?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:30

No idea. Two.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:33

There's only two episodes of Gilligan's Island. The first episode works like this something is introduced to the island that might get them off. Then they sing the song. Okay. Then Gilligan runs through the jungle, the skipper hits him with a hat, ginger walks by in an evening gas rest, Marianne bakes something, Professor makes something, and you see how much money the howls have. Then, in the eighteenth minute, whatever was going to get them off the island is then destroyed or removed by Gilligan. Okay. Then they're not off the island, they forgive Gilligan, and they sing the song again. Okay. That's episode one. Yes. Episode two. Something is introduced to the island that will hurt one or all of them. They sing the song. Gilligan runs through the jungle. The skipper hits him with his hat. Marianne makes something, the professor, you know, Marianne bakes something, the professor makes something. Ginger wanders by in an evening dress. The howl shall you have so much money? In the 18th minute, whatever was going to hurt them is neutralized or removed by Gilligan. Okay. Then they praise Gilligan for doing it and they sing the song again. What a synopsis. But that's everybody did I miss an episode? No, I think you're good. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly how it works. Yes. Right. So every episode, Gilligan is a net sum gain of zero, right? Because he keeps them alive and he keeps them on the island. When you look at people's ability to interact with each other, do they have more than one way to interact with each other? And if the amount of time that they spent dealing with on their phone, let's say they had to um the person that they were watching on whatever it was they were watching was in the room with them. Could they respond to that person in an appropriate way? Because think about it this much. If the person was there, and every time you decided to flip, you know, you're flipping, and that flipping meant the person had to leave your presence and the new person came in. Yeah. Man, people wouldn't flip. Yeah, very true. Right? I mean, that's what it would be. It people would not flip. And I think that the solution on many things comes down to recognize what you're getting. You know, what with the six hours that you have every day that could, quote, be free time. What do you what do you invest that time in? And then what do you get out of it? And does it lead to anything else that might accidentally increase your capacity to interact with other people? I mean, do you do anything that allows you to become more valuable? Like using the version of a store. If, you know, I'm going to invite, you know, you know, I'm going to invite Terry. And see, Terry's a great name because it could be Terry or Terry. Yes. Right. So it could be Terry or Terry. So, um, but you know, so if I'm going to invite Terry to something and Terry is going to spend 70% of the time on the phone, then the first question is, why am I inviting Terry? Yeah. Okay. If there's the comp if there's the capacity that Terry might spend only 50% of time on their phone, do I feel good that I'm somewhat better than the regular amount of rudeness that Terry shows? You know, maybe I'm still not interested in that. I mean, what what thing could Terry and I create or explore if I'm have to compete with nothing? And that's what it is. So I think that's I could beat that dead horse for a long time.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:29

Beat the dead horse for a long time. But no need to beat the dead horse. Why? We don't have a dead horse. Now, great, yeah, exactly. Great answer. And also, he's written stair pits. There's no reason for him to beat this dead horse. It's right here in the book. Learn how to learn by yourself. Learn how to protect yourself. Learn how to not be a victim. Yes. UnbreakableOrigins.com out now. Stair pits by the book.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:00

By the book. That's it. Thank you very much. Thank you for how you for working on the board. Caleb, we miss you wherever you are. Come back. We shouldn't have taken your phone from you.