#1700 - Every Change Starts In The Imagination

In this special episode, Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros celebrate their 1700th show! They talk about how amazing it is to see how people have changed over time. This change can be seen in many parts of life, like the jokes we tell, the gadgets we use, and how we learn new things. They take us on an exciting trip to see how fun and creativity meet in our always-changing world, and it underscores the importance of accumulated knowledge and the power of education to unlock potential and catalyze change.

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Show notes:
(2:57) How far things have come
(5:51) 100-year time machine iPhone
(8:17) Invented concepts
(9:47) Accumulated knowledge compounded over time
(12:44) At NLU, we want you to win, so we’re providing tools and resources to ensure your success. Join our Monthly Meet-up every first Thursday of the month at 5 PM. https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/
(13:37) Thoughts become things
(16:43) Educational development
(24:46) Outro

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Transcript

Kevin 0:00

Next Level Nation. Welcome back to another episode of Next Level University, where we help you level up your life, your love, your health and your wealth. We hope you enjoyed yesterday's episode. Episode number 1,699,. How Comfortable Are you With your Biggest Weakness Today for episode number 1,700,. Episode 1,700, every Change Starts in the Imagination. So when Alan and I meet on Monday, we usually say hey, how was your weekend? What'd you learn? What'd you do Usually, what'd you learn, not, what'd you do? And then stuff comes from that and I said dude, I watched a movie from 1980, and my goodness, was it different In many ways Comedy ways, Moral and ethical ways, just many technological ways, many, many different ways. I said it is wild. I watched Airplane and it is funny it's from actually 1980.

Kevin 1:01

It came out in 1980. Yeah, the movie came out in 1980.

Alan 1:02

44 years, 44 years ago that's a lot can 1980. 44 years, 44 years ago that's a lot can change in 44 years.

Kevin 1:08

You know what made me sad it always makes me sad when I watch old movies is many of the people in that movie are probably no longer with us. Yeah, that makes me sad 44 years man. It's a longish time.

Alan 1:18

In technology. Years that's way more than 44 years. Years that's way more than 44 years.

Kevin 1:23

Well, it's very clear when watching this movie, because there's no computer-generated images, there's no CGI, it's all just pretty much what you see is what you get, point and shoot.

Alan 1:38

Your iPhone is significantly better than the camera 1000%, 1000%.

Kevin 1:43

It was really good, though, because it gave me a lot of perspective of how far things have come in 44 years. It doesn't it seems like a long time on one hand, but it also doesn't seem like a long time on the other hand. It really depends. So Tara and I tried to watch it's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and we watched the first episode and I was like, eh, I don't know if I I don't know if I want this, I don't know if I want to watch this, and I said isn't it wild that that was only 20, 19, 19 years ago? And she said, yeah, that is weird, but isn't it also weird how it's been 19 years at the same time? And I said, yeah, that is, that is weird. So it was a very interesting weekend of me for me going back and remember shows start off rough.

Kevin 2:32

That was a pilot yeah, but there was some, I don't know, some low-key, low-key racism in it that I was like I don't know if I I can't, yeah, I don't want to do this, I don't, I don't want to do this, I I don't want to do this. I'm not making that wrong. I think that's a good choice.

How far things have come

Alan 2:46

I know I know, I've always found it fascinating because we're watching House MD and there's some stuff in that too, of course. But the first season is tough, emilia and I I said it gets better.

Kevin 2:58

They need to get their groove. I mean, you know the deal. We started a podcast.

Alan 3:02

We eventually figure out yeah, the cast needs to get a groove going. The writers it's. We're in season four right now. Halfway through I said it peaks at the tail end of season six and then it's all downhill. From there it does. It gets worse. A lot of shows get worse eventually. I think Friends did that too. I think Friends peaked around seven.

Kevin 3:27

And then the last three seasons were kind of. I've never watched Friends Like you. Parks and Rec. The first episode, the first season, the main character, leslie Knope they almost didn't greenlight it because she seemed to I don't remember the word they used, but she pretty much didn't seem intelligent enough. I think is what the feedback they got was the actress or the character Character? Yeah, she's very intelligent. Yeah, she seems very, very intelligent. Never met her personally, nor do I know almost anything about her, but she does seem like a very intelligent individual.

Alan 3:54

All right.

Kevin 3:54

So why are we doing this episode? Because Alan had a when we were talking about this. He said oh, I did something in book club very, very similar to what you're talking about the time perspective thing. Things change imagination. And I said, all right, let's do an episode on that. And I said I can connect the fact that I watched a couple older shows for context. But why did you want to do this episode?

Alan 4:17

in book club I. It was awesome. We had probably 15 people there 15 000 people. You hear that 15 000 members of book club?

Kevin 4:23

no, I think there was 15 people there, 15,000 people.

Alan 4:24

You hear that 15,000. 15,000 members of Book Club. No, I think there was 15 people there, which was awesome because again, the psychology of money by Morgan Housewell I thought was going to be a dud. It is not a dud. I love the book, but it tends to be more Wow. It tends to be Morgan. It tends to be boring.

Kevin 4:40

I did say, morgan, as you were saying that, I was just saying, morgan, if you're listening, we apologize. Alan apologizes for calling your book a potential dud. He does.

Alan 4:49

I love the book, but I don't think most people will find it exciting. It is boring material at times. Okay, so in book club I said all right, we're in the Zoom room, all of us. I want you to imagine this Zoom room, just this room. We're going back in time 100 years right now and I said it's 1924.

Alan 5:12

Okay, and we're going to show this iPhone 14 to random strangers on the street. We're just going to hey, how's it going? My name's Alan. Hey, how are ya? I don't know why I get obnoxious and fake things. Have you ever seen this? The new iPhone 14? And they'd say iPhone, what's an iPhone? And you say you know the iPhone. They go no, you know Apple.

100-year time machine iPhone

Alan 5:46

The fruit, yeah, the fruit, the apple, the fruit. Well, what is it? It's a phone. So you call people with it. Really Interesting. You call people with it.

Alan 5:59

Okay, you know apps. You use like apps on your. What's an app? Well, it's a web. It's connected to the internet. Well, what's the internet? Well, emails. You do emails, electronic mail. You know how you get mail and it's like that, but through the waves of the space and time, okay, and text. You text your friends, text what's text? Well, you use a keyboard. What's a keyboard?

Alan 6:33

You just couldn't explain anything, because all of these are invented concepts. And so what's the point of this episode other than Kevin and Alan just talking about a bunch of nonsense? The truth of the matter is, all of those things are invented concepts, and what I was trying to get to land in book club is this idea that the iPhone was always possible, we just didn't know how to create it. Yet Electricity was always possible. We just didn't know how to make it. Yet Amazon was always possible. Amazoncom was always possible. We just didn't know how to make it. Yet Amazon was always possible. Amazoncom was always possible, we just didn't know. So accumulated wisdom, accumulated knowledge, accumulated learning. So everything you see around you, the camera that I'm on right now, the web service stream yard, the lights in this office, my whiteboard. All of this was always possible, but human consciousness needed to learn how to create it, and so why does any of that matter? I said this in book club. I'll say it here. Excuse me, I have to burp, I have to burp.

Invented concepts

Alan 7:42

I remember growing up and no one, not no one. I was always the most curious. That's been a theme in my life until I met Emilia. She is more curious than me, hands down. She needs to know everything. She has to know everything. It's she wants to know how everything works. I'm very similar. We, when we first met I, we made a joke of I, I don't just want to know. When we first met, we made a joke of I don't just want to know, I, effing need to know. And, kev, I'm curious. You know that I'm always asking you stuff. Always, I ask you more things than anyone else ever has. I probably ask you more questions than anyone else combined. To be honest, I would say so, all the other people combined.

Alan 8:20

The reason why is I have to know everything? Now, is that a defense mechanism? Is that because I want to be smart? Is that because I want to be significant? Is that because I want to add value and change the world? Is that because I want to contribute and have impact? I think it's all of it. I think it's all of it and I want control over my own life, and if I don't know how things work and why they work, I don't have control of anything.

Alan 8:39

To me, intelligence is the most important thing. Let me prove it. If you are unintelligent, aka you don't know anything, you are in control of nothing. If you don't know anything, you don't know how to drive a car. You don't know how to build a house. You don't know how to change your tire. You don't know how to connect to the internet. You don't know how to use a keyboard. You don't know how to type. You don't know how to learn. You don't know how to read. You don't know how to read. You don't know how to communicate effectively. You don't know how to be vulnerable. You don't know how to use your iPhone. You don't know how to buy things on Amazon. You don't know how. If you don't know how to do anything, you are completely controllable.

Accumulated knowledge compounded over time

Alan 9:17

I don't want anyone to feel out of control in their own life. So I set out on this mission to empower people through knowledge. Knowledge is not power, it's potential power. But it is potential power and I'd rather you know and not do it than not know and not have an option. So some people are just ignorant, they don't know and there's no one out there teaching them and they're powerless because of it, and I can't stand that and that's why I believe in something called open source knowledge. Nlu, next Level University is open source knowledge. All of this is free. We are literally donating our time for free for anyone on the planet who has an internet connection, who knows how to listen to a podcast. I think of that kid who needs to know more about how life works, needs to know more about themselves, needs to know how technology works and where the economy is going. Half the reason I talk about the economy everybody jokes on the NLU team. Here's Alan talking about the economy again.

Kevin 10:17

The global economy.

Alan 10:19

The global economy. You need to know the reason why is your future will not be bright if you don't have knowledge. And the whole point of this going back in time thing 1924, no one had any awareness what an app was, what a keyboard was, what the internet was, what a phone is. Maybe they did have I don't think phones until the 50s, I don't know. We'll find out. The point is, brother.

Kevin 10:46

Yes.

Alan 10:48

Accumulated knowledge, compounded over time, is what has made everything we enjoy today possible the AirPods you're listening to this in the iPhone, you're listening on the app of Spotify, the app of iTunes, the LTE that you're using on your phone or the Bluetooth in your car all of those are invented technologies. By what? Smart people creating things? Very last thing, on my wild soliloquy, I used to say this in my speeches Kev, I'll never, ever get rid of this.

Kevin 11:23

Please. I know what it is.

Alan 11:24

You do know what it is. Cars were created and imagined when there were only horses. Airplanes were created and imagined when there was only cars. Space shuttles were created and imagined when there was only planes. Imagine what we're imagining now. There are people out there right now that are imagining things. Kevin and myself included. We've talked about things behind the scenes that you haven't seen yet. We've talked about new apps. We've talked about new ways to do sales prospecting. We've talked about the future of NLU. We've already created things in our imagination that no one else has ever seen before, and when those come to fruition, you'll see the physical.

Alan 12:11

At one point, the Dreamliner was just a dream.

Alan 12:16

At one point, this was just an idea in our heads and we had to learn how to create it, and everything in life is like that, and so if you can get that and you can understand that being intelligent and learning knowledge and learning is the key underneath, that underpins everything that you create you will change your entire future.

At NLU, we want you to win, so we're providing tools and resources to ensure your success. Join our Monthly Meet-up every first Thursday of the month at 5 PM.

Alan 12:38

There are people who start from nothing and they change the world, and that is possible. It's possible, and the only way it's possible is by the accumulated curiosity, compounded over time, of learning how everything works and why it works that way and that's what Next Level University is about is how do we empower as many people as possible to create a bigger, better, brighter future through the accumulated wisdom that we've all learned over time. And fortunately, the world is becoming more and more and more open source, whereas in the past, a lot of the haves and the have-nots quote-unquote, a lot of the people at the top quote-unquote were hiding or hoarding for lack of a better phrasing the knowledge and only the Ivy League schools had the knowledge. Not anymore. You can take MIT courses for free.

Alan 13:27

Yeah, how cool is that I told somebody that the other day. Yeah.

Kevin 13:30

Yeah.

Thoughts become things

Alan 13:30

I remember I told Kev you need to learn some math and he took an MIT course. I'm like dude. I don't know if that's where you should start.

Kevin 13:38

No, no, I started at the very basics. I found the very basics and I started there. Well, yeah, I found the very basics and I started there.

Alan 13:43

Well, the one you showed me was, I think, advanced.

Kevin 13:45

Yeah, that was over my head. Yeah, advanced limits.

Alan 13:48

But anyways, the opportunities are out there and not all of us have the same potential, but we do have potential and the only way to maximize it is through learning, and I think that learning underpins everything, but we don't give it the credit that it's owed. If people weren't learning, this iPhone wouldn't exist Nothing would exist.

Kevin 14:10

In 1890, 1% of US households owned at least one telephone. Well, a majority did by 1946. And 75% did by 1957.

Alan 14:21

Okay, so they did know of a telephone.

Kevin 14:24

But most people didn't have it.

Alan 14:26

In this case it was 1924. So right in the middle of the Great Depression is the analogy of 100 years ago. A lot changes in 100 years.

Kevin 14:33

Well, here's the other thing too. In 1890, 1% of US households owned it. But did anybody else know about it? Some people probably didn't even know about it.

Alan 14:42

Yeah Well, the only way information spread back then was through books and newspapers and the word on the street, the word of the word on the street. Let me.

Kevin 14:52

So two things. You're very passionate about this, which I'm grateful for. I can tell this is one of your favorite things in the world and I knew that. That's why you wanted to do the episode. I think, going back to the episode that we did on fear of oh, the monster in the closet isn't actually a monster. Learning and education is just like fear when you learn.

Kevin 15:14

So let's say, you learn how to use a microphone. You know. Now you know how to okay, I know how to use this microphone. I know how to record something. Now I can do voiceovers. Now I can do a podcast. Now I can make music. Now I can read audio books. I can do ASMR videos. I can do voiceovers. Now I can do a podcast. Now I can make music. Now I can read audiobooks. I can do ASMR videos. I can do anything that this is a byproduct of, or is a byproduct of this.

Kevin 15:34

Then, if you learn how to use a video camera, you can record music videos. You can record yoga, meditations, you playing video games, whatever you want. Then, if you learn how to edit the video, you can be a producer. You can do this, you can do this. But it all starts from that one thing. And then you grow and grow and grow. That's one thing. First point. Now, I don't want you to take all day on this question, okay, and if you take more than a minute, I'm going to can the entire episode, okay. What, from your perspective, is the greatest invention of all time? Besides me, not from you, that goes without saying that's so hard.

Alan 16:24

You have two seconds.

Educational development

Kevin 16:29

I have a good time on these episodes written language that's okay. I thought you were going to say the internet. I think it's fire. That's not really an invention, but no, it's the written word no, no, I think it's fire.

Alan 16:45

I would say that that's no, it's the written word. No, no, I think it's fire.

Kevin 16:48

I would say that that's a very important invention. You ever been out in the cold before you think written word helped anybody? Fire did, son. You know what I mean. You can have your words, that ain't it Fire.

Alan 17:00

Thank you. That's how knowledge is transmitted is through the written word.

Alan 17:05

I've heard that I know we gotta go. There's a great movie called Gifted Okay and it's a neurosurgeon based on a true story love movies based on a true story. And the mom it's 1970s and it's a young boy who is very wildly mistreated as an African-American boy in this white school system and he bootstraps his way through school. It's such an inspiring film. It's called Gifted Hands. Who's the guy? Gooding Jr, cuba Gooding Jr yeah, plays it. It's, it's magnificent.

Alan 17:48

But the mom is a housekeeper in a professor's estate and she goes into his library and it's filled floor to ceiling with it's the most inspiring library ever. And she said, excuse me, he comes over and he's I've never seen my floor so clean. Thank you so much. And she's like, well, your last housekeeper just didn't do a good job. He said you're looking at him. That was me so. But she said, did you read all these books? And he said, yeah, most of them. And she was so inspired by that because she can't read. She was never taught how to read, she. It's just so inspiring.

Alan 18:26

But I had that moment african-american female in the 70s who can't read. Think about how little opportunity she actually has without that one skill. If you can read and you can write. You are in the beginning of being able to, and the only other thing that I do think is more important than reading and writing is arithmetic, which is just mathematics. If you learn math, you're good. If you learn computer science, if you actually sit down and learn computer science, you're good. I mean, the whole world needs computer scientists. So just be smart about it. And, yes, I'm passionate about it because I want to see everyone have a bigger, better, brighter future. This is the answer. Education and learning is always the answer. What else are you going to do?

Kevin 19:12

Do I have time for a rebuttal for fire? Of course, warmth, cooking and warmth Very important. Is it considered an invention if you discover it? No right, nobody invented fire.

Alan 19:29

In a way, though, isn't it all discovery? You discover how to ride a horse you didn't invent horses, you discover how to build a car. Somebody had to put down the, the letters of the language that's fair it's all invented it's all uncovered in a way, but that's a whole nother episode you imagine.

Kevin 19:48

Imagine I think about this often. Okay, imagine the first person to ever fall asleep and then wake up. Imagine what they were thinking when they drifted off. You know what I mean. Imagine they must have thought to themselves. It's taking me. It's taking me.

Kevin 20:10

And then they woke up feeling refreshed. Imagine they were like Alan. Alan, trust me, hey man, I know this is going to sound weird as hell. This is all you got to do. This is it? You know how you're always I'm crying because I'm laughing sorry. You know how you're always so tired. You know how you're always I'm crying because I'm laughing sorry. You know how you're always so tired. Go lie down, close your eyes and just wait, and then tomorrow you're going to wake up and you're going to be refreshed as shit. And then you do the same thing that night. And then you just do that forever every night. You just sleep. We're going to call it sleep. Imagine that.

Kevin 20:44

Brother, babies sleep a ton Babies, don't know. They're sleeping Fair, debunked right there. You remember when you were sleeping, when you were a baby? Absolutely not, but honestly, that is definitely a hole in my. I didn't even think of it. You didn't think of it In my story. This person was 30 years old at this point and they had never. They had never slept before so I appreciate that by the way they'd be dead I appreciate you.

Alan 21:13

I think what is the record?

Kevin 21:15

18 days without sleep and you die, or something I appreciate you poking holes in it, because that's actually going to be an important thing for me to be able to to push back back on in the future. Okay, sounds good.

Alan 21:25

Don't quote me on the 18 days thing. I don't know how many days you need to go with. I don't know how many days it takes without sleep to die, but I know it's not 30 years, I'm certain of that.

Kevin 21:34

Definitely lower than that, for sure. Yeah, okay, anything you want to add?

Alan 21:39

Learning is everything.

Kevin 21:46

It just doesn't seem like it. I I'm serious when I've never thought of that person as a baby.

Alan 21:48

I'm not kidding. I can't believe you think about that period. I gotta be honest yeah, yeah, no, I do you, be you and I love it.

Kevin 21:54

Yeah, but I've never thought about that once well, yeah, but you and I are different people. I know you ever thought about gravity. Taking a day off?

Alan 22:00

never, right, no gravity is never going to take a day off. You, you don't know that.

Kevin 22:05

I do know that you think you know that Physics Look, people used to think a lot of things that they don't think anymore. Who knows, dude, if I'm telling you, if gravity takes a day off, I'm going to be cursing at you as I float off into the universe. I'm going to be saying, yo, you were wrong. That's fine with me, my friend. All right, we got to go. We got to go. This is good. I enjoy this.

Alan 22:28

Tomorrow for episode number-. I knew I should have lassoed myself to this poll.

Kevin 22:33

I'm going to lasso myself to you For episode number 1,701, tomorrow's episode what you say you value versus what you actually value. We talked about this on the meetup, but I also had a conversation with somebody about this recently where I can imagine it was very empowering for them to admit what they admitted. So we will talk about that tomorrow. As always, we love you, we appreciate you, grateful for each and every one of you, and at NLU we don't have fans, we have family. We will talk to you all tomorrow. Keep on learning.