Open Loop #8 - Don't Eat the Cupcake
2013-04-12
Notes & Links
- Beer: Jamie - Guiness Black Lager, Garrick - Founders’ Dirty Bastard.
- Beer Judging
- Minnebar 8
- Blocky Turtle & Maze
- Meditation & The Willpower Instinct
Transcript
Here is an AI generated transcript of this episode. This has not been edited or checked for accuracy, yet.
And my beer’s not ideal. - No. - Yeah. - That sounds worse. - So I don’t even know how this ended up in my fridge, but it’s in my fridge, so I’m drinking it, ‘cause that’s the only way it’ll not be in my fridge.
But it’s a, I don’t know, I haven’t had any yet, but it’s a Guinness, but it’s not, I don’t think, I thought this was just Guinness, but it’s Guinness Black Lager. - Oh, sure. - That’s not Guinness. - No, it’s not Guinness. - So it’s, this is Guinness trying to do something else? - This is Guinness trying to sell black and tans. - What? - Yeah. - Out of a bottle? - No, no, you get like a three pack of each. - Oh, oh, so this is them selling the, well, but it’s dark. - I know. (laughing) - It doesn’t make any sense. - It’s got roasted barley. - Yeah. (laughing) - Is there a beer that doesn’t have roasted barley? - Anything that’s not dark. - Okay. - Yeah, I mean, yeah.
Even, yeah, that’s the easy answer. - It’s okay, it’s not bad.
It’s not exciting, what are you drinking? - Founders Dirty Bastard. - I had that the other day. - Yeah. - I, where was I?
We went to a restaurant, Spoon River, at Brenda’s place. - Yeah, nice. - And they were, I asked what their seasonal beer was, they listed one, and they said something about a dirty old bastard, and I said, “I don’t want that.”
And then they said, “Oh, it’s Founders.”
And I said, “Well then, I’ll have that.” (laughing) - Why didn’t you say so? - Yeah, I mean, you didn’t say it was Founders.
I mean, if you say it’s Founders, then that’s a different thing, that’s entirely different.
I thought it was pretty good. - Yes.
Yes, I decided that.
Oh, I’ve got this, I have a plan for a strong Scotch Ale sometime, as soon as it stops being winter. - Someday. - Someday, and I thought I should have some idea of what I’m making. - Why do you have to wait for it to now be winter? - I have to be able to get seven gallons of water to boil outside. - Why can’t you just do that in your kitchen? - Have you… (laughing) - It’d take a while, you’re saying? - It would be faster outside. - So what do you think of that beer? - It’s nice.
It’s a little, so here’s the weird thing about the style guidelines, which I’m reading as I’m tasting.
It’s well within the ABV in the gravity, and maybe a little light, at least this sample seems a little light on the malt.
But the hops, or the IBUs, are like twice, twice the max of the style guidelines, and it’s listed as the fourth best commercial example. - Huh, that’s weird. - That is weird.
Do you think the beer judging stuff will make you enjoy beer more or less? - Oh, more. - You don’t think you’ll be like, “Oh, but the IBUs were too high.” - Have I told you my theory?
This is the magic that I got out of my class, that I… - No, tell me the theory. - Yeah, so I think beer is one of the only things that will tell you its entire story, if you pay attention. - Like how it’s made? - It will tell you its recipe, it will tell you its fermentation, it will tell you how it was stored, it will tell you its entire story. - A lot of people that I know that are like photographer types, will highlight, and I think you probably have this at some point in the long distant past, but as they got more and more into it, there was a point where it became not as fun. - Sure. - And you don’t think that would happen with beer.
You know why it won’t? - Why won’t it? - ‘Cause it’s got alcohol in it. (laughing) You don’t get drunk taking pictures. - Gotta fix that.
Have to fix that.
So I did a day and a half of beer judging this past weekend, and I’m really starting to enjoy how the organizers structure the categories, how they sequence the categories might be more accurate.
So there were just under 700 beers, and I judged like 40. - Okay, wow.
At first I thought you were gonna say you did 700. - No. - Okay. - Like 40. - So you can– - Describe this.
So when you’re judging these beers, what does that mean if you judge 40 beers? - That means you’re at a table, and the table’s held, and you’re paired with somebody.
So you’re paired with somebody who is– - It’s like a buddy system. - Yeah, so I’m a young judge or a newbie judge, and so I was always paired with somebody who’s more experienced, national, grandmaster, something like that, right?
At least one rank better than me.
Each table had a category, so each, like I had Stouts or German Wheats was another category that I judged. - Can you request a category? - Yeah, you can.
And whoever does the, and then you’re labeled a jerk. (laughing) - Pain in the ass. - Right? - You’re not day hard. (laughing) - Just judge your damn beer. - So you’re at the table, and you’re paired with another judge, and the steward brings by a beer, and all you have is the main category, the subcategory, and it’s like entry number.
And then you have a score sheet in front of you, so you crack it open, you pour a little ounce or two sample of the beer for you and your other judge, and then you go through the process of smelling it, and tasting it, and looking at it. - How many judges are at this? - How many judges are at this?
Let’s see. - You did 40 beers of 700, so there’s what, at least 20? - Yeah, at least 20. - 20 groups, right? - 20 groups of pairs, so at least 40, yeah.
Which 40’s about right.
There was probably 40 judges. - And what was the event? - Round one of the 2013 National Homebrew Competition. - And so was this judging beers in this region, like in Minnesota, or? - So in this sort of upper Midwest region, yeah. - Okay, yeah. - And you get about 10 minutes to judge a beer, and come up with a number between 13 and 50. - 10 minutes for each beer? - Yeah. - On an ounce or two? - Yeah. - Wow. - And come up with a number, and be within, this contest was be within five of your other judge. - What does that mean? - That means if I scored a beer a 30, the other judge I’m with can score as low as a 25, or as high as a 35. - So what if they don’t, what if he’s a 20? - Yeah, then we have to have a conversation. - Oh, then you talk about it. - Right. - So it’s like secret, and then you reveal, and it’s like, you know what that’s like?
That’s like scrum planning. - Yeah, oh yeah, like estimating. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, totally, totally. (laughing) - Exactly, except you’re not drunk. - Well, right, ‘cause you’re usually drunk when you do scrum planning. (laughing) It would make it go so much smoother. - So much easier.
So you have to be within five, but then if you’re not, you just debate and arm wrestle, and then get within five. - Yeah, exactly, yeah. - Okay, so it’s not like you’re invalidated. - No, no, usually it’s like, you know, it was times where I was like, well, you know, there’s, I’ve judged enough beers to know when I’m missing something.
And it’s those points where I’m really flexible on my score, and I sort of look to the other judge to say, did you pick up something, ‘cause I obviously missed something, and then we’ll sort, ‘cause it’s usually gonna be a massive fault that I don’t yet have, that I’m not yet able to define. - So would you, so I can imagine that wine judges, right, would be like, you know, there’d be somebody who’d be like, I only do reds. - Right. - And they wouldn’t even drink whites, ‘cause their palate is whatever.
So do you have that with beer?
Guys that would just like, I only do this type of beer? - For sure you could, and you know– - You’d like specialize in that. - I don’t know if you could do that in a contest, in a beer judging contest, because most of the ranges are pretty wide.
You would be, you know, maybe you could specialize in light lagers. - Right. - But– - But this is, so in a beer contest, this is like a dog, like this is like a dog competition, right?
Like there’s a reference black lab. - Yes. - Right, so there’s a reference everything, and then you’re, how close are you to that? - Exactly. - So perfection is that. - Totally, totally abides by Sturgeon’s Law.
Where only 10% of the stuff is, you know, good. - Oh, right. - Right. - So do you have to, were there beers that you were just like, this is gross? - Yeah, yeah, this is a German wheat beer that is not cloudy and has no head.
This is not a German wheat beer.
But that’s what they answered it as, that’s what you’re judging it against, that’s your job. - But were any of them just bad? - Oh, yeah, some of them were, hmm, this is asparagus and onions. (laughing) - How does that get in there?
Seriously. - I put together a little diagram of common faults and what their causes are, because one of the, one of your functions as a judge is to say, these are the characteristics I’m picking up, and this is what causes them, in terms of the fault side of things.
Here are some suggestions for remedying that.
And I didn’t have vegetal on that list.
So I had to go back and figure out, okay, what is vegetal?
Group it with everything else, it’s unhappy yeast.
It’s really unhappy yeast. - What was the, was there one beer, can you even talk about it, or was there one beer that you were just like, that was amazing? - Yeah, it was amazing.
There was a bourbon barrel coffee stout that was amazing.
Everything was evenly balanced, it smelled amazing, it tasted amazing, it was– - A bourbon barrel coffee stout. - Yes. - That’s too many things. - Yes, and it wasn’t the only one I had, but it was the only one that was yummy. - That sounds like a lot. - It was a lot. - Yeah, but it came together. - It came together beautifully. - So is there another one of these, or is this like the deal, and then now it goes someplace else? - I think now it goes to someplace else.
But there’s another one in May, and then there’s– - You gotta pay to do this, or what?
They pay you, or how’s that, or nobody pays anybody?
Where does it work? - The entrance pay. - So they pay to be judged.
And then you volunteer your time to do the judging. - I get paid in experience points. - In points. - Yeah. - They should pay you in bitcoins. (laughing) - So yeah, so hopefully, one of the reasons that I did this is, this particular contest at this particular time is that it was enough sessions that it could bump me up to the next level. - Right. - So I could, which means at some point I’ll be on the other side of the table, which would be kinda cool. - Oh, okay, right, right, okay. - Yeah. - Yeah, ‘cause you missed mini bar. - I totally missed mini bar. - Mini bar eight.
It hurts, it’s like missing Christmas. - I know.
That’s not the first one you missed, is it? - No, this is my second one I’ve missed. - All right.
I still have a perfect record, I’ve never missed one.
I don’t know, I think I get a shirt or something for that. - And a pin. (laughing) - I should.
Should be a pin.
Maybe at the 10th mini bar we’ll do that.
Have special pins made for people that have been to every one. - Yes, yes, yes. - I think that’s a good idea.
Well, so since you weren’t there, let me tell you, it was awesome.
As always.
But it was, you know, there were a couple of things that were new awesome about it.
So one of those was that I felt like there were more people there.
I mean, the same, like we’ve been kind of at this plateau, not because there’s not more demand, but because the facility really can’t accommodate a ton more people and the style of event that mini bar is can also– - Best Buy headquarters? - Yeah. - And also, you know, I mean, I don’t know if you can do it on conference like mini bar with 4,000 people.
And so, you know, there’s only so many people.
But I think we had a better show up rate.
Because I think the organization– - Was it crowded outside? - Well, it was terrible.
Yeah, the weather was an absolute, it was a mini bar miracle ‘cause the weather was cold and rainy and sucked.
And the other, and people did a better job canceling their tickets who couldn’t come.
So more tickets got cycled back through, which helped.
And then there were, like, I thought the sessions were well done.
There was a wide variety, more variety than, like, I think in other years I’ve seen, you know, there are a couple, two or three things that get kind of all of the attention, but there was a bit more variety.
There were a lot more women this year.
Like, that was, and I’m not sure why that was.
Like, we did do some specific outreach, but there were notably more women this year than there have been in previous years, which is really good.
And we had pizza again, which was a nice upside.
Geeks don’t like fancy food. - Those sound like all good things. - Yeah, yeah.
And a number of the sessions had just kind of, you know, people falling out the rooms.
I mean, they were so oversubscribed.
So, none of mine, but other people did. (laughing) So, yeah, it was great.
It was great. - Well, congratulations. - Yeah, it was fun. - And you had a huge session on doing amazing things with MediaWiki. - I had a moderately well-attended session on building ridiculously advanced websites with MediaWiki where I used WikiApiary, which, oh, so long ago, the last time we did one of these open loop sessions I talked about, and that was fun.
You know, it was hard.
The sessions this year were 40 minutes. - It’s so tight. - It’s really fast.
And particularly if you’re gonna engage the room, right?
It’s just not a lot of time.
So, yeah, I did a session on how to build really advanced websites with MediaWiki that I think was pretty good.
Got some good feedback on.
And WikiApiary, by the way, I mean, you know, ‘cause you’ve looked at it from time to time, but I mean, it’s doing very, very well.
I mean, the last time we talked about it, I had just put it together, really.
And since then, now it’s linked to from, one of the big things that happened is that the MediaWiki.org site, the main MediaWiki site, which hosts the kind of repository of all extensions, now links to WikiApiary to show version and usage information.
And that drives a bunch of traffic.
And like every day, two or three new people who have wikis sign up and add their own wikis or claim a wiki that’s already in there and continues to get additional kind of features.
And that’s fun.
It’s serving a unmet need in the MediaWiki ecosystem.
And doing it well, so. - That’s fantastic, yeah.
Nice success getting linked to off the MediaWiki extension site. - Yeah, and, oh, and then the thing I just added was, I’m actually doing a little clustering and grouping.
I guess it’s not clustering, it’s identifying relationships.
So now, when you look at an extension, it’ll do the, kind of like Amazon, people who bought this also bought this.
It’ll say, like, wikis that use this extension also use these extensions, which is a pretty cool feature to facilitate discovery.
So yeah, it’s continuing to plug along, doing cool stuff. - Great to hear. - And it’s got me writing Python that’s non-trivial. - Hey, I just went through the Python for Kids. - Oh yeah, we had that a while ago, didn’t you? - No, just picked it up. - Oh, I got it. - Okay. - I’m– - I thought, or maybe I’m gonna, like, learn Python the hard way or whatever. - Yeah, I have that one.
I don’t know if I’ve even cracked that one open.
I’m a little afraid of it. - It’s hard. - Yeah, the hard way. - Exactly. - But the Python for Kids is fun.
You make a game.
But the biggest win is that it seems to have a turtle in it that makes sense, which has been one of my quests as of late, is to find a– - You love these turtles. - I have such fond memories of messing around with the turtle as a kid. - Yeah. - And it was on an Apple IIe, and it’s probably easier to find a turtle than an Apple IIe these days. (laughing) - Did you ever go to the Minnesota Science Museum, Minnesota, when you were a kid, and when they had a real turtle that you could program? - No. - Yeah, they did. - No, really? - Yeah, a little turtle on a grid.
I don’t know what was running it, but you could sit there and then program, move forward this many, then turn, then do this, and then you’d hit run, and it would run and do it. - Nice. - It was pretty cool. - Very cool. - So is this Python turtle graphical? - Yeah. - What modules are you using? - Turtle. - Of course. - Yeah, import turtle, right there at the top. - And that’s it.
I mean, that’s actually how you write almost every Python application, by the way.
That’s pretty much how you do it.
You just say, import do everything now, and then you say, I equals do everything now. - Yeah, that’s what it looked like, right there. - Yeah. - It was weird coming from Ruby, ‘cause we’ve been working on the Hackity Hack turtle, and there’s a lot of parentheses in there. - Yeah, yeah.
So there was this comic that was on the net I found the other day that just made me laugh.
It was exactly that.
It was like doing your homework in different programming languages, and the Python one, the response was, you can’t just say import. (laughing) - Right, right, yeah, ‘cause, you know. (laughing) Import and require, seems like, at least with require, there’s a level of work that still needs to be done. - Exactly, no, not with Python. (laughing) So are you teaching the kids how to write some code? - Yeah, we’re working on it.
Plates work through some turtle stuff, and what they’ve both enjoyed so far a lot is this Blocky.
Especially, well, the Blocky has a turtle in it, too, which is– - This is the website that you sent me. - Oh, the website I sent you, yeah.
But really what they’ve enjoyed most is solving these mazes. - So share how those work. - Instead of having to type out turn 90, it has a block, a little graphical block that you can drag and drop that says turn left.
Or, and it has a little pull down, and you can change it to turn right, but there’s also a turn right block.
And the idea with Blocky is that instead of having to write out code, you just, you can read what the block says and drag and drop it in the order you want.
Which for, my thing has been, I want the kids to understand how to make computers do stuff, but I’d like them to learn how to write their name first.
Or I can be able to write with their hands before they learn how to type.
And so this Blocky drag and drop stuff they can do, and they don’t need to get worried about, concerned about typing slowly and finding the keys.
Most of the times I would be typing out the turtle stuff, and then I found this Blocky, we can just drag and drop and we can do that together, that works out pretty well.
You sort of attach them, they’re like jigsaw, the blocks are like jigsaw puzzle pieces that you snap together. - Yeah, they kind of click together, yeah. - And then you hit run program and it goes through that sequence of jigsaw puzzles, pieces.
The maze side of it, there’s a little like Google Maps, Street View guy, a little Google Map pointer.
And your job is to get the guy to the pointer through this maze, it’s a grid, right?
And putting together these blocks of turn left, turn right, move forward, if path turns this direction, do X else do Y, putting those sequences in, there’s a repeat loop. - So there’s conditionals and looping. - Yep, exactly, exactly.
So you can put these all together.
And I’ve walked through, both kids have asked for it separately over the past week.
And yesterday we went through level one to 10, me and the two kids, two big kids together.
And then after I put Waverly to bed, Cooper went to work through the whole thing himself. - Very cool. - There was a couple that he was struggling with and his blocks weren’t as efficient as they could be, doesn’t really matter, but he was able to get almost all but two to work on his own. - They weren’t as efficient as they, you should tell them there’s bonus points for refactoring.
If you can refactor that algorithm, you get an extra star.
That’s really neat. - Yeah, it’s really fun. - Why do you think they used the Google Maps? - I think ‘cause it was easy to find. - I thought that was weird.
Do you think they paid a license fee for that? - So Cooper and I went through the Python for Kids book tonight and they had a turtle in there.
And then so we talked and then talked about conditional statements.
And we talked about the if statements, conditional statements in Blocky.
And he talked about loops and we talked about the repeat and tills that were in Blocky and he seemed to get the difference. - Cool.
Have you done Lauren Mibson, that book, Lauren Mibson? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Did you tell me about that? - I may have, I may have.
That was a fun book.
My favorite is, at one point Cooper stood in the middle of the hallway and started asking his siblings for their password. - That’s awesome. - So yeah, good. - Have you finished that book? - Yes. - All right, so I’m still, I’m halfway through.
What’s the name of it?
It’s Willpower– - Willpower Instinct. - The Willpower Instinct.
But I wanna talk about the very first chapter. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Which we talked about a little bit.
But in the very first chapter, so this book is about, how would you describe it?
It’s about understanding how to manage willpower, maybe?
Or understanding what willpower is?
It feels like it’s tools for you to know better. - How to deal with yourself. - Yeah, and it reminds me a lot of thinking fast and slow.
But with the difference being that thinking fast and slow was more specific to understanding decision making, whereas I guess willpower is also about decision making, but it feels a bit different. - I have read and been evangelizing the power of full engagement, which is all about self-managing your energy.
And the tools, which is all about paying attention to who you want to be and what your long-term goals are.
And the Willpower Instinct felt like the third in that series. - So did you find it complementary to that other reading? - Absolutely. - Okay. - There was much overlap on Willpower Instinct to both of those other two books. - Well, would you still wanna read all three, or would you be like, no, I’m good with this one? - No, I think you should read all three.
Yeah, ‘cause they have different approaches, and they go deep on different sides of things.
So the power of full engagement is all about daily routine and making sure that you make time for recovery.
And the tools is all about continually checking yourself and making sure you’re doing the things that will help you achieve long-term success.
This feels like the Willpower Instinct is much more immediate and tactical, like emergency room.
Like, I need a, like, how do I fix this now?
Here’s nine strategies that could help you right now. - Like as you’re at the brink. - Exactly.
Like, okay, you are about to jump off a cliff.
Hold on. - Yeah, stop. - Stop, try this. - Yes.
Don’t eat the cupcake. - Yeah, don’t eat.
Don’t think of the cupcake.
Oh, you’re not there yet, sorry. - Yeah.
Remember you’re married. - Right, right.
Simple things. - So I’m like halfway through it, so I don’t know the end.
I will be done shortly though, ‘cause my book club meeting is next week, so I will be done.
But the first chapter, so the very first chapter was about meditation. - Yes. - And which kind of, so I have to say, so I have a little bit of history with meditation.
Tammy and I took a class, I don’t know when that was, three, four years ago, maybe longer.
You know, I think it was longer than that, maybe five or six.
Anyways, it was in the warehouse district, of course, ‘cause I mean, if you’re gonna take a meditation class, it’s gonna be in a warehouse district or in uptown.
So ours was in the warehouse district.
And hardest thing I have ever, I mean, I’ve done some reasonably difficult things, and that was so hard. - Yes. - I could not even believe it.
The only time I successfully meditated was when I fell asleep.
And I did every time we went.
‘Cause at one point in the class, you’d meditate, and you do all these different types of meditation, and then at the end, there was this type of meditation where you lay down, and I just remember, you should say lay down, and then you start with your fingers, and it says relax your fingers, then relax your hand.
I never got to my shoulder. - I had a PE credit in college. - Doing that? - Yeah. (laughing) I was able to fulfill my college PE requirement with a class on relaxation.
And that’s what we did. - That’s brilliant. (laughing) - I got my 45 minute nap in. - So, but the thing that blew me away was in this first chapter of the Will Powers thing is that it actually, she describes in there a really specific benefit of meditation that is more like, hey, if you run every day, this will happen.
And she was like, if you meditate on a regular basis, this will happen in your brain, which just kinda, it was the most relevant call to action I saw and why I would wanna actually work through this and make this happen. - After a lot of trial and error, it has been a regular meditation, which I’m looking at my calendar, and I’ve probably, it’s sort of regular every other day, or I miss a day here and there, but every day, every other day, somewhere in there. - That you’ve been meditating. - Yeah, for 20 minutes. - 15, 20 minutes. - Yep. - First thing in the morning? - Nope. - Different times? - Different times.
When I do it, it is because I don’t know what else to do.
Right, I feel like I’m being pulled in so many directions, I don’t have clear focus. - Wait a second, don’t you just go to Twitter then? - Right. (laughing) - Exactly. - Exactly, right, so behaviors that I’m trying to change.
So instead of destroying an afternoon on Hacker News or Facebook, I walk away from the computer and close my eyes and focus on my breathing for 20 minutes.
It’s worked better, what comes after has been more productive after that 20 minute meditation than a cup of coffee, than a nap, than almost anything else. - Wow. - Either meditate or write three pages longhand.
If I don’t do either of those, I am guaranteed to have a shitty day.
Guaranteed.
Like I didn’t do that on Sunday, shitty day.
So I see, so for the last three weeks I’ve been getting up and spinning most mornings or lifting weights.
Which is, as I know, but forget often, is a great way to start the day even when I don’t want to do it.
It definitely gets you in the right place.
But I do find lifting weights first thing in the morning really hard because my brain isn’t in the right spot for that.
One of the things I like about spinning is at least how I do it is, it’s in a dark room, I don’t need my glasses, somebody’s yelling at me what to do, all I need to do is follow those instructions. (laughing) I don’t need to really think. - Yeah, I did it at home on my own.
So that mainly means I put on the Foo Fighters really loud and then go. - That works well too, same thing.
But I have thought of getting up even earlier, like at five or 5.30 and doing, trying to fit meditation in as well. - That works out pretty well for me. - I worry that I would fall back asleep, but even if I’m sitting up. - It’s been close.
It’s been close.
‘Cause that’s what I’ve been trying to do, get up at 5.30, 20 minute meditation.
For me anyway, it’s 20 minutes and I’m like, okay, let’s go, let’s do this.
I am more alert than I would have been otherwise. - You know, when I was riding a lot and when I went down to Texas and rode all week, we rode 100 miles every day.
And I’m even in my best of shape and at my lightest, I am way too big of a guy to go up hills.
But occasionally you gotta go up a hill.
And I was going up this hill and this guy that rode all the time was next to me and he’s like, I was breathing pretty hard, and he’s like, you need to just stop breathing.
And I was like, are you insane?
Are you looking at me?
I’m gonna die over here.
And he’s like, no, when you get in that situation, you need to hold your breath for a count of five.
‘Cause your body is freaking out and that’s causing your brain to freak out.
And if you exert your brain over your body and tell it, no, we’ll breathe in a few seconds here, it relaxes you and gets you back under control.
And I’ll be damned if it didn’t work. - The breathing technique for meditation is applicable in I think almost any stressful situation.
And I think that’s the biggest thing that came out of willpower.
For me it was, oh, hey, I can even use this technique in more places than I was anyway. - Yeah, like when your kids are screaming at you. - Yeah, just breathe. - Just breathe. - Just breathe, just breathe. - What was your biggest takeaway from the Willpower Walk without, hopefully you don’t spoil it.
I don’t think you could spoil that book.
Having read it all. - Just breathe. - Just breathe. - In and out, focus on your breathing. - Yeah. - I think she closes with that. - Really? - Yeah. - That’s the call to action. - The call to action is just focus on your breathing.
I find, like I said, I’m in the middle, but it’s really interesting.
I’ve had a couple of really kind of interesting thoughts around the supposition that what happens if you have a large society that is all systematically deprived of its willpower?
It made me think about things like how some things have trended not so well in recent years.
I’ve never heard anybody suggest that perhaps environmental aspects have changed that have, without us really knowing, changed how we manage our willpower or what willpower we have left, which has resulted in kind of systematically less optimal decisions. - Totally agree with that.
Absolutely, 100%, yes. - I mean. - Here’s what I thought was super interesting.
Are you, the bit about the news and the panic and the fear instilling TV and the compulsive eaters, are you that? - Nope, not there, not there. - I was thinking about that, and I was thinking how much I really dislike the giant flat screen TVs at the gym that are tuned into Fox and CNN and Care 11 and– - I gotta agree with that, that’s horrible. - It’s horrible, but it’s right in front of the bikes and the treadmills.
And after reading the willpower book and that section about TV, I thought, oh, this is fine. - Why is it fine? - Her argument is that if you are exposing yourself to this sort of panic-inducing media, you’re going to reach for the nearest thing that can provide comfort and release to that stress. - You’re already on a treadmill and a bike. - Right, pedal partner. - Right, it’s, oh, I go to the gym now and I think, eh, it’s probably fine.
I can’t see it anyway, I don’t have my glasses on, it’s probably fine. - It’s just more inducement, right? - Exactly. - All right, it’s been too long since we did this.
We’ll do another one soon. - Let’s do that. - I mean, the coupe season is starting up. - Hey, by the way, you just triggered the record. 30, what, 52 minutes of recording before the word coupe came up.
Shocking, shocking.