66. BONUS: Patreon After Show
2018Show notes
We decided to be very generous and share our after show that's usually only available on our Patreon backer feed. Enjoy this free episode, you filthy animals.
You can hear the after show and support Do By Friday on Patreon!
Transcript
Tap a timestamp or any sentence to play from there · machine transcribed (mlx:mlx-community/whisper-large-v3-turbo), expect mistakesMaxHey everybody, it's Max. I've got two quick items for you. The first thing is I want to tell you about the Do By Friday Patreon. You've probably noticed by now that Do By Friday is completely ad-free. We don't sell you ads for mattresses or zip recruiter or nothing on this show. And you're probably wondering, Max, other than your wildly successful card game, how do you afford to do this show for free? Well, here's pretty much how it works.
See, you guys have money, and we want your money. And you can go to giveusyourfuckingmoney.com. You sign up for $5 a month right there on our Patreon, and you get access to a whole second episode of the show every week. That's right. We record two episodes of Dubai Friday every week. There's the one you hear on this feed, and then we usually stick around for, I don't know, maybe a half hour to an hour afterwards. And we record a whole second episode, and you only get it if you're a premium member of our Patreon. Well, that brings me to the second order of business today. So I was editing this episode, and I realized that we introduced all these classic new bits and characters in the after show this week.
So I talked about this cult leader that I'm really obsessed with that I think is going to make future appearances on the show. Merlin introduces us to his new beloved character, Ty Lambeau. And so we had a little meeting, and we were like, guys, it feels wrong to deprive our normal Dubai Friday listeners of these new modern classics of bits, really. and so we decided to be very generous this week and share the premium after show with you guys on the general feed. If you like it, if it makes you laugh, if you want to support the show and help us keep ads off of here,
you know, maybe consider throwing us five bucks a month and support the show. Again, that's at giveusyourfuckingmoney.com and hey, enjoy the free after show, you filthy animals.
Alexwelcome to the after show everybody dj frost that's a handsome guy you know what i really thought that was circling circling the toilet but uh you brought it back this is this is one of the i i thought i've literally never i know i know people are gonna challenge me on this i have I literally never farted in this office unless it was in a restroom. I was laughing. That's impossible. Yes, it is.
Yes, it is. That's not possible. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. But I got very close to farting. I was laughing so hard.
MaxAlex, you're like that one guy who's like never vomits. Right. Max, you should sniff or see. No, not in a mean way. Perfect lie. It's a perfect lie. How would anyone ever call you on it?
AlexOh, because sometimes if you hold it in a real long time, your stomach starts to grumble. Like, oh. Yeah, but then you get an anus like a wizard's sleeve. You know what? My body by choice, Merlin.
MerlinWe have fun, don't we? Max, what did you want to bring us? So welcome to the after show. You gave us your money. Max, you had a problematic podcast. You guys found really good ones, and I didn't.
AlexI found much more upsetting, like sad people, manipulating people, and I was just upsetting.
MerlinI think the way we did that, I have to say, pat on the back, I think the way we did that was pretty good. What you don't get from these, unless you sit down and fucking listen to this bullshit is exactly what you said, Alex, and really exactly what you said, Max, which is this is the X in the bear trap for some kind of bullshit somewhere else. The podcast is just a total pinch loaf one-off project to like, oh, go do this, go check out my site. And when you check out my site, you learn more about my book. And when you buy my book, you learn more about my coaching. And when you buy my coaching, you learn more about my podcast.
It's just this personal self-development circle jerk that has no end to it.
MaxDid you guys read, speaking of this, I read an amazing article last night that was like totally chilling and awesome. It was called, fuck, fuck, fuck. Oh, I have to go into this tab. Hang on. I can't fucking find anything anymore.
Okay, so it was on Medium, but it was like a real piece of journalism.
AlexI like how that's a disclaimer now
Maxwhen everyone's talking about Medium. It's by this writer. It's on Medium, but it's good. Yeah, it's on Medium, but it's legit. It's by this woman named B. Schofield, and she basically profiled a cult leader called Bentino Massaro, and he's this white tech bro who has a sort of productivity, lifestyle, spirituality cult in Sedona, Arizona. Basically, the description is, Sedona, Arizona has been infiltrated by a polyamorous tech bro cult leader with a massive following.
His devotees are everywhere. They believe he can control the weather with his mind. He talks about aliens and government conspiracies, sleeps with and verbally abuses his students and believes he is an awakened god not responsible for his actions. I spent one month embedded in his group under the alias Shakti Hunter. This is my report. It was a very, very chilling good article. But basically this guy, he's just one Pokemon evolution away from the people we were listening to. Where he basically does these productivity retreats and these lifestyle retreats and he teaches you how to meditate and levitate and all this bullshit.
But then he's just actually a sociopathic co-leader. Like full blown. And there were some fucking awesome quotes, like some really David Avocado Wolf-esque quotes. So it's like here's a quote from him. This is a quote. Quote, we have bases on the moon, a bunch of slave colonies on Mars that have been mining the asteroid belt. We've been colonizing galaxies of our solar system. We haven't needed fossil fuels for the last 80 years because we have anti-gravitic mechanisms. The Nazis won the war.
The U.S. government gave up their control. This is one quote. This isn't a strung together list of things. This is one quote he's saying. The Nazis won the war. The U.S. government gave up their control, their governance, so we would not be exposed to free energy devices. If free energy gets released, We're meaning his company Trinfinity Corp working on it. It changes everything We've had free energy for 80 fucking years Don't be surprised that the aliens will meet and we will meet them look like the things that you see in movies Don't be like oh this story of this guy is nonsense because I've seen it in the movies
He just got it from the movies Well, he did get it from the movies or did the movies get it from them? The vision statement of Trinfinity is to have an enlightened civilization by 2035 that's ready for interstellar absorption It means that we reach a level of maturity to where we as a collective are able to be contacted openly without us freaking out anymore. Without it needing to be kept secret anymore, we have become our own government. Many of you are already directly connected to ET consciousness. We are going to be absorbed initially into different confederations or alliances of civilizations that are fourth density or higher.
We will be taught a lot. There will be a new type of education. This guy fucking owns. He's so cool. I want to join his cult actually
AlexChallenge Life would be so much easier
MaxIf you just got fucked by this guy And lived in his cult And you meditated Until you reached a higher density level
AlexThere's a lot of times Where I'm like Okay my faith definitely looks like a cult But it would be kind of nice To just be among a bunch of women Who are completely silent And all they eat is gruel Like that's a pretty good lifestyle for me Just be a cloistered nun Surrounded by books Oh, it's a dream. Max, what was your podcast that's going to make us sad?
MaxAll right. Well, so basically.
AlexI mean, well, I should say, like, this challenge genuinely made me very sad until I got, like, real deep into the, like, really bonkers people.
MaxRemember I said I was going to find the anti-Semitic podcast where one of the hosts was revealed to be Jewish? I did find it, and I listened to it, and I thought maybe it would be funny. And, you know, it wasn't funny. And I did think still I would play it, but I just had more of a serious point to make about it, which is so. So the podcast was called The Daily Shoah. Yep. And we might have talked about it on the program. We sure did. There was that funny.
MerlinIt was your goal to make us the number one anti-Semitic podcast.
MaxAnd they were our competition. Because none of us have been outed as a Jew. I know. I remember this bit. Right. But anyway, I did listen to a little bit of it. And like, you know, I'm curious, like, so you guys know, what do you know? What's on your note card about this podcast, right? It's a group of guys, and it's the number one anti-Semitic podcast. They talk about like race science. and you know so one of the one of the guys was outed as being jewish or part jewish or whatever
Merlinwhat do you think it sounds like in your head a basic ass podcast honestly pretty high production values like but like basically a lot of guys having what sounds like a very reasoned conversation about explaining why things in the world are the way they are based on seemingly provable ways of showing that it's jews who do it but it like a like a morning dj kind of show well that's what What do you think, Alex? What's your guess?
AlexI do think it's like not quite NPR style, but maybe, you know, one of those like the Daily Show featuring, but then it just becomes like chapeau, like a normal like, oh, here's some analysis and then maybe some silly jokes and then they're done.
MaxYeah, I mean, I guess in my head what I thought it would be would be more like an alt-right rally or like a Nazi rally. And like I've actually like like I used to work at this organization called the Anti-Defamation League and they do this. They like infiltrate these groups and stuff. And I was when I was in college, I had a job where I was an investigative researcher for the ADL. And I went to some of these rallies and, you know, you go and like surveil them and take photos and stuff. So I've been exposed to some of this stuff. Like I know it's out there, but I guess I sounded thought it would sound like one of these rallies would be pretty angry and there'd be sort of fiery speeches.
MerlinAnd there's a lot of laughing and joking. Yeah, it sounds like that's how that's how the pickup artist podcasts are. The seduction community podcasts are like, it's much more gentle and like, hey, we're just having fun here.
MaxYeah. I mean, I don't even know. I mean, if you guys already know that, I'm probably not. I'm going to skip playing it because I don't want to give them like air time on the show. But yeah, that was mainly what I was surprised by was it's just guy. It sounds like they're just having fun. I mean, it's a pretty high production. Like, like it sounds like us, honestly, like just people having just people goofing around and it just made me. And you ended up liking it a lot more than you expected. Well, you made some really good points. I mean, what can I say? They're just asking the question. I've never really listened before. but no it just it did you know there is this idea of like when it comes when this comes to our
culture in a mainstream way when it when it happens in america it won't necessarily sound like a world war ii movie it won't sound it won't necessarily be like 1984 it's gonna just sound normal like it's gonna come cloaked in the popular culture of the day it's gonna be so fucking normal yeah it's that's what i thought about when i when i listened to this i was like man it just fits right in there it's probably a lot of confused like teenagers who you know well i mean and think
Merlinof like let's take this a little bit seriously for a minute and you know back to my own taste in podcasts which is excellent uh something i've said for a long time that i really believe is true is that people come for the content and stay for the voices so you end up going to a show that's about a thing that's about productivity or max or whatever. And like, if it's not some godforsaken comedy podcast, you're there because there's some content you like about it. And then something happens. What happens is you either cannot tolerate the fucking voices, even for the content that you desire, and you have to run away screaming, or you find yourself not really caring what they talk
about because you're so into the relationship that you've learned with these people. Like, I can finally suss out who the different people are on Chapo. And there's the guy who says rather. and like I know who the different people are. I know who Felix is. And like I, you know, or like again, it could be a bim bam. It could be any other show with white guys. It could be Flophouse. But you get to like the personalities of the people and I think what really seals it for me is this sounds so creepy, but I know it's true. I like being there while their relationship evolves.
It's fun. That's why callbacks are fun. That's why all of that stuff is fun. And that in some ways, so let's take it and turn it. that's what's fucked up about a show like that, I'm guessing, is that you may just really like the people. I don't agree. I don't agree with tons of stuff that people say on Chophouse. I think that their willfully bleak worldview is so fucking depressing. But on the one hand, it is a voice that I do want to hear as a POV, but I also just enjoy their bits. I wish Felix would talk a little bit less about fucking, but that's okay. But you know what I'm saying? You start to like the relation.
MaxThat gets me right in my brainstem. When he goes on one of his long-
MerlinHe does it too much, too fast, and too easy, and it's really creepy. Yeah. But you guys know what I'm saying, though. So, like, setting aside a given show, that's the thing. That's one of the funniest things in the world to me. When he does his blasting pussy stuff.
MaxYes. Like, it just fucking gets out.
MerlinThey want everyone Robert Mueller to blast their pussy. Yeah.
MaxI want him fucking hitting those back walls. It kills me.
MerlinIt fucking kills me. But like you start to appreciate like every show, you know, has a groaner. We have Alex. You can feel like one person's discomfort and another person's going too far. But you see where I'm going with this. I think that's what makes you love a podcast. If it's not one of these ding-a-ling Rita, Rita, music bad podcasts.
MaxRight. It's like you start listening to Susan Effectiveness because you want to know how to purchase groceries. Because you want to get it going now. Yeah. Well, it's like you want to know how to purchase groceries at the grocery store and not over purchase or under purchase. But then why do you stay? It's because you want to hang out with her and you're attached to the character. Because you're cranking your heart.
She's so fucking effective.
MerlinOh, my God. She's so dirty. Oh, Alex, did you ever get into... Okay, I'm sorry. I want to hear more. Max, is that the end? I have one more that I just sent you guys.
MaxThis isn't a weird podcast, but it's a weird...
MerlinI love this so much. I love this. This is the greatest thing on the internet. Have I showed this to you before? I'm so glad this exists.
AlexOh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've sent this to you guys before? Yeah, maybe not in the context of the show, but yes.
MerlinPlease talk about what this phenomenon and this channel is.
MaxThis is adjacent to what you're talking about with podcasts, which is just I love weird YouTube communities. Maybe we've talked about this before. We've talked about Elevator YouTube. I think we've talked about it on Top Scouts. God damn. No, it's not a different show. We've talked about everything on this show already. We're done. It's probably over. But basically, I first became aware of this because I found this fetish community where what they do is they make video edits of fully clothed women in public situations, for example like they're on a talk show talking to conan o'brien but then they edit them so that they're decapitated and they're holding their head in their hands so the head is still talking
but it's detached from their head from their body and they're holding it in their hands like a basketball and it's a pretty big fetish community on youtube and because the women are fully clothed it's like youtube compatible so they basically when she's not dead or in pain she's just no she's really happy to be there and that's part of the fetish is that everything goes on like normal No one comments on it, right? It's like, yeah, you're just walking around holding your head. And that's part of the – and it's always the woman. And then she's usually talking to a man. And that's just the fetish. And so I became aware of that. And I was like, this is fucking awesome. This is so cool.
It's right here. It's like children could watch this. It's just on YouTube. And then I found all these other weird communities like Elevator YouTube. And the one that I'm really excited about nowadays is Plastic Chair YouTube. So, you know, plastic chairs, like lawn chairs, like you would get, you know, like at a patio or something.
MerlinThey're the mass market. I remember reading how funny it was that when they show pictures of Guantanamo, you would see the white lawn chair that literally everybody has owned at some point. It's like the most popular lawn chair in the world, which is not the word's extruded, but it's that like a big thing just farts out this lawn chair at scale and you buy them at Walmart. But I've seen blogs of like you see this. This is somewhat related to this. There's this one lawn chair that you see everywhere in the world. It's one of the most widely used things in the world.
So people are enthusiasts about it.
MaxCan I play a little bit of this, Max? Well, I'm going to play the one I just sent. Yeah. In terms of the extruding and how it's made. Wait, don't play it while I'm talking, Alex. I'm sorry. In terms of how it's made and what the actual interesting parts, like what Merlin's talking about, I actually do recommend it. I have a great documentary about this, which is the Gary Hustwood documentary, Objectified. It's the second documentary in his trilogy about design. and it's the best in my opinion it's my favorite one it's the best one but um i might be on netflix wait what's the third one uh urbanified oh yeah so there's one about um about helvetica and then
there's objectified which is a product design and there's one about cities and they're all strong they're all really good and pleasant and it's a style that's much copied now but um the objectified holds up really well it's a really beautiful and smart documentary i absolutely love it and they do talk about like what does it mean for these products to become ubiquitous so if you're interested in that, check out Objectified. But what Plastic Chair YouTube is about is not any of the interesting parts that we're talking about. They talk about collecting these chairs, and it's the thing that they're really into, and there's a small community of people, and they make videos for each other, and this was the one that I've found
Merlinthat I love. You're thinking maybe this might be a little bit mundane. You have no idea.
MaxYou have no idea how mundane it is. It's called the Top 5 Plastic Chairs Enthusiasts Would Die to Own. Oh, boy. Here we go. Okay, go ahead, Alex. Flip it towards me so I can see what's happening and narrate it. Hello, here's a quick top five of some chairs
Speaker Athat I said for years that I would die to own, and I finally have them.
MaxWhat you're looking at is basically still shot. The guy's not on camera. He's pointing the camera down at the chairs in a still shot and talking over it.
Speaker AThis very beautiful unmarked chair. I believe it was made by a company called Sun Terrace. I thought this was a U.S. leisure chair, but it's not. It says Sun Terrace on the back, and it looks just like that really fancy one. It's almost the same exact design. Number two, the lawnware fan back. So these chairs are in a kind of a dank basement lined up against the wall, and we're in a pretty close shot. But these two chairs right here have some significance to the industry. And originally, the Café of Vienna was strictly sold to the rental industry.
The guy at Lawnware wanted to make the ultimate rental chair, and I'd say he did. Now there's a twist coming up. Because that chair is like 30 years old. And most rental companies that bought these chairs 30 years ago, they still use them today because they were made so well. I've seen them put more than 500 pounds of sandbags on that chair and it doesn't break. And this chair here was just Capisa messing with different designs. Unfortunately, I really know nothing about this chair. It's totally unmarked and I don't know any of the history on it. The first time I saw this chair, it must have been around 2000.
My sister was taking dancing lessons and they had two of them in the studio to sit on. He delineates his life by when he saw these chairs. They've been excellently preserved.
MaxThis is so much more interesting than my train. Now, wait, pause, please. Please pause. Now, something just happened, which we need to note. Yes. So the camera pans. The camera pans, and we see, even though we've just been looking at one wall, it pans, and now we see another chamber, an antechamber, in the basement. And in this chamber, it opens up, and he has a huge basement, and it is fucking filled to the brim with plastic chairs. I mean, there must be, what do you think, Alex? 150 plastic chairs all stacked up?
AlexWell, because they're all stacked, and like, Jesus.
MaxSo keep going.
AlexOh, God. This is going to be... Let's make this the show art for the after show.
Speaker AIs this mess over here? Just look at all those double and triple and multi-stack chairs. Wow. And I still got the three stacks. And now the other side of the basement. Oh, my God. Although I brought these two down to make the video. And I brought the Lawnware Cafe Vienna down here, which I'm going to have to take all three of them back upstairs. Here's the chair I saved tonight.
MaxAnyway. So what I like about this, like, I feel like, I guess, if I'm being honest, there is an element of making fun of this guy. But it's more of like that there's things like that that I'm nerdy about. I mean, I have my Star Trek action figures and stuff like that, and I could go into equal history of what the deal is with each of these sets of action figures and stuff. It's just that it's so weird. It's just that he made this video to explain it to an audience that doesn't exist and the meticulousness of it. It's the same thing as the productivity stuff. It's like, I don't know. It's just like it's interesting, like the process of like I'm going to fucking make this thing and devote a whole YouTube channel of it and produce this thing.
Like, I don't know. There's something interesting.
MerlinIt's something. Yeah. And something kind of actually wonderful about just unbridled enthusiasm, although it is obviously kind of strange.
AlexWell, but that's the thing. I don't feel like I love this shit because it's just so it's so pure. Like there's no. OK, go go buy my book about chairs. It's just I want to make this thing because I care deeply about it. And the same thing with elevator YouTube. It's just so it's guys going.
MerlinWhat is elevator? You just people who are elevator enthusiasts?
AlexThey walk into an elevator and then they just assess this like situation, how it's like some of them. It's it's like this where they're not actually really talking about the design or stuff like that. But there is like, oh, the button feel of this. And and it's it's like that unbridled joy of like, oh, oh, here come. We're going to the next floor. And it's just it's cool. It's kind of like like I have the weird like iPhone case thing where I get like, oh, I don't like how this makes my hands feel. and the other day Maddie was trying to explain like,
yeah, my wife's got this weird thing where she really doesn't like touching certain stuff. And it made me sound, well, I am crazy, but their co-workers are like, okay, are you? I had that as a child.
MerlinI really disliked touching corduroy. It really bothered me.
AlexOh, it's ugh. Yeah, no, no, no, no. Why does it?
MerlinBut I'm with you. I'm with you on the like, whatever that is that makes something feel a little like human skin. It's like It's so gross
AlexI just like when people are excited about things Can we watch my Thai Lambo video? Yeah, let's
MerlinSo this is So basically Have you ever seen the original? The original Thai Lopez video
MaxYou have to explain this to me from the beginning Pretend I don't know anything about this I'm so fucking lost
MerlinLet's start with The original video Which is amazing And then we'll watch this Cut them up That they did Give me just a second
MaxI have such a good fucking challenge this week you guys are going to lose your shit. I have the best challenge. Oh, good, good, good. Well, Merlin is finding this thing. I have a challenge that fucking owns. I have such a good challenge.
AlexI have a thing that I don't, we might have to cut this out. But, oh, God.
MaxAlex is very apprehensive.
AlexAnd I told this story to Trina. I'm like, is this something I should say on a podcast? And even she was like, oh. So I have. It's not me. No, no. In my adult life. I'm okay with it now. Well, it is. In my adult life, I've always purchased certain products that may not be legal through like a third party. I don't like having a guy.
MaxYou're saying you buy weed from one of these places where you text them and they deliver it.
AlexOh, no, no, no. Not even that. I go to a friend who uses those services.
MaxYeah, right. That's what I do. I'm not on the text service, but I have friends that are and they get me weed.
AlexExactly. um but there there was the the day just like the day like we found out tommy had cancer i was just like okay fuck it i'm gonna get oh fuck i haven't told you that yeah no my you know how everybody in my family no no no not not your tommy my my little brother has cancer the one fucking normal one uh but and jesus christ yeah uh no it's fine everything is fine i see no one be sad no one be sad everything's okay uh but it was the day the one thing you can control everyone's mood yeah well no but okay so so now that i've made everyone sad i i was like okay fuck it i am just going to
contact this person who sells this thing because i am sad and i want to be less sad and then uh so now i i make transactions with this young man and the other day he's like oh i like your haircut and i'm like what a strange thing to say but i was like oh thank you and uh as no no no no no no no
Maxno,
Alexno, no,
Maxno.
AlexGo on, go on. And then, uh, he, he, he says, yeah, uh, you know what? I, I just made, I just went to $10. So I'm, cause I'm really excited about that poster.
MerlinNo, you're kidding me.
AlexI was so happy because literally I had his number. I, I was so happy. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I don't even, I, I literally don't know his name and I was so happy cause I don't know his name. He doesn't know my, or I thought he didn't know my name. And I was like, fuck, fuck. And I was like, oh, thank you.
MaxYou're going to be blackmailed and then murder-suicided by this guy. I guarantee it.
AlexNo, but he's a wee lass.
MaxThen he's going to eat your hair out.
AlexHe's very professional.
MaxDid he come to your house? Does he know where you live?
AlexNo, no, no, no, no. Did he come to the office? No, no, no, no, no, no. What, did you meet him at a gas station? No, he had, that is the part I go to.
MaxYou went to him?
AlexYeah, I was very sad. And so, and then.
MaxWas it good weed?
AlexDon't insult. He's a subscriber, Alex. That's right. It varies. But, and I was. This show suddenly got very, very complicated. Oh my God. I'm going to cut this out.
MerlinWe're through the looking glass here, people.
AlexI have never.
MerlinDo not cut this out. This is so funny.
AlexI had, well, thank you.
MerlinI think it's a tremendous compliment and you should be very proud of yourself.
AlexI'm very happy that I still don't know your name. Let's keep it that way. But thank you for packing. My entire adult life. Okay, Berlin, let's go to, all right, Lambo, Thai Lambo.
MerlinBut $10 subscriber. That guy's all right with me.
MaxWhat do you buy, an eighth?
AlexOh, my God. Oh, my God. There's a discount. If theoretically you bought a fourth, there's a very steep discount.
MerlinDid you just call a quarterback a fourth?
AlexI don't know. I don't know. When I was in college,
MerlinI always called it a quad,
Alexbut I don't know if that's... Oh, Jesus. What do you call it? It's no wonder you guys can't afford it. What do you call it? What do you call it? What do you call it? What do you call it? What do you call it? And that's the thing. I don't even need to...
MerlinTai Lopez, a.k.a. Tai Lambo. How much is a quarter? Tai Lopez is a guy.
AlexHalf, twice as much as Dave. I don't... How much is an age? The stuff that's like 30 bucks. Like, I don't...
MerlinWhen I was in college, a quarter bag was $45. Weed is so cheap now.
AlexIt's kind of upsetting. I wish that I could- Is it really? Oh my God.
MaxI mean, I think I used to buy- I think we used to buy a quarter ounce in college for like $100. Like good stuff. Like buds. Well, the best we could get, which wasn't good. No, our shake weed was $400. But it was like a guy- You had to have a dealer who would come to your college. It was such a fucking procedure. There's a whole thing. You smoke it together. Fuck that.
AlexCan we talk about Thailand, though? How does that actually happen? Is that something you had to do?
MaxYes, yes. I had to smoke with everyone I ever bought weed from. Always.
AlexWow. Wow. Well, I'm very glad. And it was like etiquette to offer them.
MaxImagine if your pizza guy wanted a slice. Yeah, yeah. You're supposed to offer them from like your stash that you just bought.
AlexOh. Oh. Well, I'm very glad that I waited so long in life to do this because.
MerlinThank you for giving us your money.
AlexThank you. Thank you, sir. Okay.
MerlinThis is not going to be funny. But anyway, so watch the one I did here in my garage.
Alexis this the most recent thing you've sent yes
Speaker Ahere in my garage just bought this new Lamborghini here fun to drive up here in the Hollywood Hills but you know what I like a lot more than materialistic things knowledge in fact I'm a lot more proud of these seven new bookshelves that I had to get installed to hold 2,000 new books that I bought it's like the billionaire Warren Buffett says the more you learn the more you earn. Now maybe you've seen my TEDx talk where I talk about how I read a book a day.
You know, I read a book a day not to show off. Wait, please pause. It's again about the knowledge. In fact, the real reason I...
MaxPlease pause. I have so many questions. Is this real
Merlinor is this a comedy? 100% real. He has a program with three points that you can sign up for. Oh my God. And if you search him on YouTube, you will see lots of things about scams and conspiracies. He bought 2,000 books? 2,000 new books when he's got the bookshelves for that.
MaxIt's like, I don't really know I don't know if they're good or not. The key thing is that you read a lot of them. Yeah, keep going. Keep going. Oh, my God.
MerlinBook a day.
Speaker AIs that it's a reminder, a reminder that dreams are still possible because it wasn't that long ago that I was in a little town across the country sleeping on a couch in a mobile home with only $47 in my bank account. I didn't have a college degree. I had no opportunities. But you know what? Something happened that changed my life. I bumped into a mentor and another mentor a few more mentors I found five mentors and they showed me what they did to become multi-millionaires
Maxwhy is he rotating?
Speaker Aagain it's not just about money it's about the good life the cars, the book the cars, the book and so I recorded a little video it's actually on my website you can click here on this video and it'll take you to my website where I share three things that they talk three things that you can implement today no matter where you are
Maxwho's hungry for honey, bitch?
Speaker Anow This isn't a get-rich-quick scheme. You know, like they say, things sound too good to be true. They are too good to be true. I'm not promising you that tomorrow you're going to be able to go out and buy a Lamborghini. But what I am telling you is it can happen faster than you think if you know the proven steps. So I record a little two-minute video on my website. Like I said, now it's not the most professional. I just shot it here with my iPhone. Unlike this one? Nobody can argue. This is my true story.
And I'm gonna give you the three most important things you can do. You should. You should. So click the link. Go there. It's completely free to watch it. It's just a couple minutes. Invest in yourself. Always be curious. Don't be a cynic. I hate this. Okay?
AlexAre we done, Merlin? Yeah, now scroll up and watch the other one.
MerlinThat's for somebody else.
AlexAll right. Don't listen.
MerlinSo I've seen that one three times. And the one that you're about to watch, I watch three times a week.
AlexAll right. Here we go.
Speaker AI just bought this new Lamborghini here. It's fun to drive up here in the Hollywood Hills.
AlexI've never seen this. Oh my God.
Speaker ABut you know what I like a lot more than knowledge? This new Lamborghini here. But you know what I like a lot more than the new Lamborghini here? My TEDx talk where I talk about this new Lamborghini here. In fact, I'm a lot more proud of these seven new Hollywood Hills that I had to get installed to hold 2,000 new Lamborghinis.
Beat. Beat. Uh, it's like the Buffett or a billionaire says, the more you earn, the more you drive up here in the Hollywood Hills. In fact, the real reason I keep this Lamborghini here is the real reason I keep this Lamborghini here is that it's a reminder. A reminder that dreams are still possible because it wasn't that long ago that I was in a little Lamborghini sleeping on bookshelves in the Hollywood Hills with only $47 billion in my bank account. And only 47 Lamborghinis in my Lamborghini account. And only 47 Hillel in my Hollywood account.
And only 47 TEDxToss where I talk about Warren Buffett in my TEDxToss where I talk about Warren Buffett account. But you know what? Something happened that changed my life. I bumped into a Lamborghini. And another Lamborghini. And a few more Lamborghinis. I found five Lamborghinis. I don't call it money anymore, I call it fuel units. You must have enough fuel units. You must have enough Lamborghinis. You must construct a digital pylon. I'll see you on my website. It's a quick video, and you'll see there absolutely nothing.
MerlinOh, my God. Is that a Vince Berger? Merlin. I don't know, but it's so good. It's so special. So, Alex, if you ever heard us talk about Ty Lambo, that's who we're talking about.
MaxHave you ever seen Sir Lawrence Olivier for Diet Coke by an old comedy group called the Radio Free Vestibules? Alex, put on Sir Lawrence Olivier for Diet Coke.
AlexOh, my God.
Speaker BHello. I'm Lawrence Olivier. I've been dead for over two years now, but through the marvelous technology of tape editing, I'm able to speak to you from beyond the grave. What you are listening to right now was made by cutting together things I said in my many films and interviews. Although I never would have endorsed a product like this when I was alive.
My estate has determined that if I was alive, I would really want to tell you how much I enjoy the taste of diet Coca-Cola. I think diet Coca-Cola is really excellent, dude. It's awesome. I wish I could have some now, but I can't because I'm dead. But take it from me, Laurence Olivier. maketh thy mouth alive with
diet. It's everything you want it to be.
AlexSo I'm curious, Merlin, could you hear the stereo mix of that? I'm not sure.
MerlinWas it heavily separated?
AlexYeah. Oh boy. I didn't hear a stereo mix. I got a mono mix.
MaxShould have spent another $10,000 on the studio.
AlexYeah, I think that's the...
MaxCould you bring up my headphones? All right. Are we done now? Oh, wait. I have to say the challenge.
AlexOh, that...
MaxIt's my challenge, right? Dig it, dig it, dig it. Challenge, Max. Here we go. Are you guys ready for this? Maybe. Not really.
MerlinAll right. I thought I was ready, but I'm pretty definitely not ready.
MaxWell, gird your loins because here it comes. Lucky me. All right. What is wrong? Here's the challenge. Here's the challenge. I'm going to propose a weather challenge. What this means is you have to pick something about the climate. and monitor it for one week. Oh, fuck yes. So you could pick barometric pressure. You could pick humidity. And I'm going to throw in a couple of different twists and turns. Are you ready? You have to buy some sort of device. Not a problem. You have to buy some sort of device. I literally bought a new weather station last week. Okay. I don't want to know what it is.
You're going to talk about it next week on the podcast. Okay? So everyone is going to go out there, and you're going to buy some sort of device, and we're all going to come back, and then you're going to do a little climatology report on what you're tracking and how it affects you and what you learned and what sort of gizmos that you bought.
MerlinI love this challenge, and I've just sent you a link. I don't know if you're as into Weather Underground as I am, but once you visit that page I just sent you, which is for where you are, you will see how many different kinds of shit you can be monitoring with regard to the weather, including allergens. You could be looking at the UV index, air quality, pollen, Alex.
AlexI know.
MerlinDid I get your zip right?
AlexYeah. Oh, yeah.
MaxThis is for Lincoln Park, not Wicker Park.
AlexOh, you're talking about over there on Michigan Wacker? Yeah.
MerlinYou call that a Philly cheese thing? Yeah, so you can see your barometric pressure, your visibility. You got clouds, dew point.
MaxSo should we put a budget on this so that we can spend some of this out of the podcast money?
MerlinI have been yes I've been angling for a while to get a Jason Snell style full on fucking weather station can we can we put I think you need what does that cost you need to attach it to a PC 50 bucks um I would go higher than that 100 bucks but
AlexI'd say 170
Max170 dollars
Merlinwhy don't we say oh I want an internet of things one why don't we
Maxwhy don't we say let's each pick some some some sort of climatology monitoring device in the $100 range and just get it. And we'll talk about what we learned and we'll review it and go through our experiences over the next week. Alex, are you into this as much as I am?
AlexI hate how much I'm into it. I knew you guys would love this.
MerlinYou can become Marcia Roderick. You're going to become Climate Girl. Weather Station. Let's go look at Weather Station.
AlexAll right.
MerlinI have a law school test. Oh, yeah. Look at this. Look at this. I got a new lacrosse.
AlexGood luck on your – oh, I'm going to read Max's paper. he sent us because it's underscore paper is a quick quick question do you how do you turn in papers max is it a physical situation or like some bad software there's really no paper changes hand
Maxand well they got to be able to run the algorithm on it oh yeah oh my sound just went away oh so i don't know if i'm able to generalize based on what what's happening what my experience is in law school to like what what happens in college is broadly now but like the big changes for me between being in college, you know, whatever, eight years ago and being in school now, there's really very little physical paper. You know, a big part of my life in college was that I had a backpack and it was full of papers and I had folders. I had 43 folders and they were all full of, um, they were all full of assignments and I had like, you know, like stickers and grid paper
and highlighters. And there was all this physical shit that you would have to like, to, to make
Merlinmark, to accept words from books and make marks on paper. Right. And I was always a computer guy
MaxAnd I mean, this was well, and I'm not saying that like it was weird. Like we were living in, this was 2005 to 2010 were the years I was in college. And so it was like clearly a computer world, but still a huge part of my undergraduate career was like typing shit from a book into the computer or typing shit from a handout into the computer. And there just wasn't like, like OCR sucked. Like there wasn't a good way to do it. It just, you just had to sit there and do it. But anyway, now I would say like it's largely a PowerPoint based economy. So like a lot of what you do is like the teacher sends out a PowerPoint and then you just sit there and they read the PowerPoint to you in class.
Oh, shit. Really? Yes, yes. Is that as bad as it sounds? It's pretty bad. I mean, I kind of zone out. It depends on the class.
MerlinI mean, are they good at communicating the needed information? Are they well-made slides?
MaxYeah, they're okay. They're not the best, not the worst. It depends a lot on the teacher. But, you know, the worst version of this is one where they're almost verbatim reading the slides. And then it's like, but you have to go. The attendance is mandatory at the class. So it's like I sit there. But, you know, most of them you can have your computer. So I just sort of zone out and answer emails. And then, you know, I catch up on the – I flip through the slideshow later. And I'm getting good grades. So it's working out. But, you know, like the best classes I've taken are the slideshow plus.
Like, you know, you do stuff in class that actually makes you understand it.
MerlinHow many, about how many students are in there?
MaxI've had a, my smallest class had maybe 20 students and my largest class has probably had more like a hundred. Oh my God. My college had a nine to one student faculty ratio.
AlexWell, you went to a hippie school and also it was undergrad.
MaxWell, I would, I mean, my undergrad was tiny, tiny classes. I mean, I had, I had one class with three students in it and we, all we did was read Descartes. We read, we would.
MerlinI had one class with four teachers. No.
Maxall we all we did was it was an entire class with the cartesian circle and every week we would read a different paper about the cartesian circle and if you didn't do your reading you fucking busted when you want you had to i worked
Merlinmy ass we had written evaluations for every class so like if you didn't do it you really heard about it yep our uh the lady who brought our room service one of the ladies who brought room service to our room over the weekend that was i was she was like oh uh i like your haircut i'm here to fix dina cobble she uh she comes in and like she has just walked in she's got a bunch of tattoos i'm like and i actually said in front of my daughter whole i said holy shit is that a kurt vonnegut tattoo she had if you've ever seen the doodles his famous doodle of course is his
asshole but she there's a doodle he does of himself kind of stylized with the big hair and then his signature under it and she fucking lit up she was like yes i was like oh i met him when I was in college.
AlexAnd I totally made it about me. And then we went out to breakfast.
MerlinBut I'll tell you, she's a baller. I said my favorites were Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five, obviously. You know what her favorite is? Sirens of Titan. Oh, deep cut. She's hardcore. Yeah. And I said, well, we read 14 books in seven weeks, so I'm not exactly sweating it.
There will be no tip.
AlexMax, go to school, and Merlin and I can gossip about you.
MerlinYeah, yeah. Bye, buddy.
AlexWait, you guys talk about me after I leave? No, no. I just have an inbox here.
MerlinNo, we have a whole Slack channel for that. It's called air conditioning. Pounce line air conditioning. Keep your air off my pussy. Keep your air.
MaxKeep the air conditioning over 78 degrees.
AlexAre you doing Trin? Is that Trin? God damn it. no it was all it was a bunch of the men in the office yeah it was all dudes most of the women
Maxi talked to were like no it's like what they were like 72 68 to 72 is the right range i just want to be respected and i was like 61 maybe 59 yeah it was a lot of concern i mean it was a good amount
Merlinis that the official polish girl temperature we are we are large with hair mini hair is to create the heat for the Rubenesque woman. It is nice for me to have temperature down near the 60 degrees. I don't know what that is in chaos, but for me it's important. Child-bearing areas get very, I'm suddenly German. I don't know why.
AlexI was like, hmm. Really, got to suggest to all lesbians, convince your partner to transition so that when they're on tea, they're much less cold, and then you can keep the air conditioning. Yeah. Trans life hack. I need to get... That's a lifestyle adjustment
Maxjust to have a better temperature in your house.
AlexYou know what?
MaxGet her done. So I was trying to do this tweet of like, remember when someone did that article of Twitter where they're like, the reason we can't deal with Nazis on Twitter is because it's written in Rails, which was very funny. Oh my God, that was so dumb. And then I started thinking about- That was like one source, this one ding-a-ling with an axe to grind. What a terrible article. Anyway, I just started thinking of like, you know, I should really save these excuses for the next time people get mad at me
for something I say. And the ones I came up with were, number one, I just ate a big bowl of chili. Number two, it was a heated gaming moment. Number three, built on Rails. And then the fourth one I was going to say was, come out as trans. Like if people get mad- No, no, no, I told you trans. You said come out as gay And I suggested trans Oh well because I was doing A Kevin Spacey thing But trans is funnier It is It is funnier I can't say that on Twitter though Right No people get mad Right they'll get more If someone gets mad at me And I'm like Actually I'm trans
AlexHere's the thing Literally no trans person Will get mad They'll think it's very funny Right
MerlinI know I said Typical distortion by Jew Run Media Just wanted to trigger libs
MaxJen came up with the best one of all But she gave it She sent it to me the next morning After I made the tweet But she was like Number four Haven't processed 9-11
Merlinoh man too soon
Maxnever forget I have a good story I can tell that we can put in the podcast oh tell your 9-11 story so we're well you know as we know we all got a message the day before so it didn't go to work anyway so we're going to this convention this is George Soros we're going to this convention C2E2 in a couple months and it's like the comic con type thing in Chicago and they want us to buy some fucking we're doing like a comedy theater and some stuff and they want us to buy some fucking sign for four thousand dollars and they they kind of sold tom our events
manager on it but tom's been pushing pretty hard for this sign and we're trying to come up with something to say on the sign and i was like like having a big sign at a convention like you know i'm talking about a big banner like those big ass signs i was like hey four thousand dollars is kind of ridiculous like i mean that's an insane amount of money to spend on that but also like just i I mean, who the fuck notices those things? Because the thing is, there's a million signs. Like, it doesn't help. You're just, like, yelling into the wind, right? It's, like, not...
MerlinEverything at those shows is so crazy and inflated, and it's, like... It's one of those Mr. Wonderful type things. I love weddings and funerals because people spend irrationally. It's the same thing with a convention. You fucking pay somebody to empty the garbage can that you're paying to have and then guard it at night. It's fucking insane.
AlexThey always try to sell Wi-Fi, too, and it's, like, $600 for five up. I'm like, uh, no.
MaxYeah, it's a totally irrational market. But anyway, I'm just, again, I'm sort of anti-sign at these things because I think, like, no one reads the signs and remembers them. Like, it's the worst. It's like, you know, you imagine it like a sign, like, on the street, but it's not because there's five million signs. Like, and everyone who's there and they're fucking busy and going to meetings and stuff. Anyway, so we're, Tom's trying to sell the sign. And I was like, all right, if we can think of something funny, I guess we can do it. So we brought it to the partners and we had a big brainstorm. And the best thing we could, you know, is like, what do we put on there? Like, come to the Cards Against Humanity, like, comedy theater or, like, you know, comedy happening in this room.
And it was just like, I don't know. I didn't want to do a big fucking ad in people's faces. But anyway, so we had a big brainstorm. And we came up with something really funny, which is just black banner, white text, you know, looks like Cards Against Humanity. And it just says, breaking news, President Donald Trump has died of diarrhea. And then underneath it says, it would just say, come to the Cards Against Humanity Comedy Theater in room, you know, 431 or whatever. So that was the pitch.
And we sent it back to CTV2. And we were like, fine, we'll buy your fucking banner. Here's the joke we want to do. And it was making us all laugh. And they came back. And they were like sweating, like pulling their collar. Oh, my God. Oh, actually, you can't say that. And so the first thing they tried to say was we weren't allowed to say the word diarrhea on a banner. And that was such bullshit. That was so insane. So it was like, all right, well, what about like he pooped himself or whatever. And they were like, well, the other issue is like it can't. They were like, well, our policy is it can't just make fun of one person. because that would be bullying the president. So they were like, you could have multiple white cards
where maybe it's like President Trump and Hillary Clinton have died of diarrhea. That's funny, right? Like twice as funny. So we were just like, fuck. We were like, God, fuck this. And so Ben came up with one of the funniest things I've ever heard in my life, which is to just do a huge red, white, and blue banner, like an American flag. And we just put on it, C2E2 is a proud supporter of President Donald Trump.
MerlinNo, don't mention us at all. Oh my God.
MaxAnd then the other thing we would do, we could do is we could do something like, I was like, well, Tom, I was like, what if we just do something like C2E2 wouldn't let us make a joke about Donald Trump? And he's like, oh yeah, he's like, they actually suggested that as an option.
AlexI was like, well, fuck. Tom, fuck you if you're listening. I suggested that.
MaxNo, C2E2 came up with that. So they were like, well, you could say, you could do a funny thing making fun of us. and I'm like fuck well that's like playing right into their that's hegemony don't tell me to do that because then it's not rebellion
Merlinright
Maxit's like your parents like giving you a can of shaving cream on Halloween and being like why don't you go tear up the neighborhood come on now it's lame let me play video games have some wine
Alexthis company hates us so much
Merlinin looking through seduction community I found the it's called the subreddit for seduction it's called r slash seduction and it makes me really wish I could do Max's droopy voice because I want to read every one of these text me one and I'll do a little reading
Maxand then I gotta go
Merlinwhy dating apps are killing your game
Maxideas for a girl
Merlinwho lives an hour away
MaxI don't want to use your goddamn app stop it
MerlinWait, what do you... Oh, you want me to just read the titles? Well, just pick out some good ones that would be good for a drippy voice. How do I reconnect with girls I knew in high school or college? Which one? Oh, no, that's so sad. Which one? These are so sad. These guys are so sad.
MaxGod, the logo was top. I mean, they're transitively and intransitively sad. Which one should I post? They are pathetic. What's one that's going to be just the right amount of sad? um they're all there's so many max just pick one you like they're all the wrong amount of sad they're either not self-aware enough or too self-aware i can't tell if other vegans here
Merlinis real my simple advice on how never to be in the friend zone
Maxyeah these are really bumming me out to be honest i'm kind of losing my
Merlinkind of losing my boner here depressed had an absent father figure growing up i don't know how to catch up why did this girl lose interest these guys are real operators oh my goodness wow we didn't get to my rant anyway we'll cover it
Maxnext time. Oh my god, they're like long fucking drawn out stories. Jesus Christ. Oh, they're so sad. Here we go, here we go. How do I reconnect with girls I knew in high school to look out?
Hang on. And this is my user nocargf.
Speaker AOh god.
MaxAlright, I have to stop laughing. Don't laugh, please. Alright. Oh my god, so his His username involves the question? I never had a GF in high school, and I didn't have one in college until the very end. Every girl I went into was taken or a lesbian, or I wasn't assertive enough to ask her out. So another guy got to her and started dating her first. Alex. Alex is dying. No, no, I'm fine. Everything's fine? By the way, every girl he knew-
Droopy, are you still awkward? Every girl he knew in college was not a lesbian. They just said that so that he would stop talking to them. Oh, I'm trans.
MerlinActually, Drew Pia, I would love to go out with you, but I have the herpes.
MaxI am now no longer as awkward. And I see some of these girls often when I visit home. How do I message them to meet up or message the girls I don't see too often? I did know them in high school or college, but I wasn't assertive enough or they had boyfriends at the time.
Merlinoh god that's the thing is like the one of the bars and so you guys heard that uh free release uh secret episode i said yeah you know you can get a whiff from somebody about when they're dispensing advice or whether it's about productivity or girls or whatever it's like there's a certain kind of advice which is like i want you to get over whatever hump you're having right now and then go do a thing and there's another thing that's really just about i want you to like tie on a fucking feed bag and tear off tear off the knob and i want you here all the
time doing my grocery store affirmations and it's like this this shit is like dude just go out there and meet people like go out and be a person don't ask other men for advice on how to meet women just
Alexgo out and be a fucking human being that that's you're you're talking to the wrong like these men have considered that option and are like oh no that's that i'm not ready yet i need to buy more handsome man that's that's for the guys with money you know what's what's so tragic about
Maxthis is all these guys get into the seduction thing and i like i knew guys in college who are super into this and they bought books about it and would give each other tips and shit very immersive it's super it was like totally my generation too that i think this really blew up because people had access to it on the internet and stuff like that but what basically the ultimate tragedy of it is that these are guys who have like no confidence they feel really bad about themselves and so then they think oh if i could only get a bunch of fucking tricks and hacks to trick girls into sleeping with me like oh yeah that'll be good for my confidence right like i'll get these girls but in the back of my mind like that that's the sad self-defeating thing about it
isn't that even if it works best case scenario these fucking mind games and tricks they actually do work at best case scenario you always know in the back of your head that it was some fucking trick that got this girl to sleep with you right it's like it's not it's only gonna ever make you feel like a bigger and bigger piece of shit about yourself even in the best case scenario so many of
MerlinSo many of these different things, this is so true with the seduction community people. I think it's true with the political, like the show of things, is it's a cult of personality about the people who are doing the talking. Where you see this confident guy who's peacocking and has lots of rings and he hypnotizes you with his goatee. And like that seems really appealing to you because you see something in that that you lack.
MaxBut the people and the people who are really good at this, so that the show of guys, the pickup artists, like probably cult leaders, like the David Avocado Wolf figure that I was talking about. But it's not a coincidence that they're in these areas because they find the people who are really hurting. They're in a lot of pain. You have to be in so much pain to Google seduction tricks to pick up women. You have to be hurting so much. And then you find some really charismatic guy who tells you everything that you want to hear. And it's very attractive. And that's where you get these cult leader, cult of personality guys.
MerlinAnd the pivot to productivity there is like I didn't even get to a whole bunch. You see it in notes. But I was going to talk about things that I actually did find useful. didn't i think what we did turned out great but like i was going to suggest like go listen to hypercritical go listen to you are not so smart like go listen to dan benjamin's excellent series discontinued series the pipeline like go listen to actual people talking about stuff but like go listen to you are not so smart and learn to doubt yourself more but doubt yourself in like a in like a productive way right instead like there's all these fucking patches and hacks for how to basically
keep your same broken fucking model for the world, but then just graft on a couple new tricks that are going to make it better. And like, that's what makes you addicted.
MaxYou know what's interesting about, so there's a lot of the productivity people who do this for a living, who that's their racket. They're not very productive. Like they don't actually get a lot done other than like talk about productivity. And I think it's probably pretty telling that the people who actually are really productive and they actually do. They don't have time to do a podcast. Well, it's not that they don't have time to do a podcast. So the people I'm thinking of who I'm like, that person actually does get, they're living like three lives. They're ungodly. They manage a lot of bullshit.
They usually have a lot of very anachronistic and old-fashioned and janky habits. So an example is some of the most productive people I know who really crank shit out, they write HTML websites by hand or they use PHP or something like that. They're not using a bunch of modern tricks and hacks. It's like they learned it once in a way where it's always going to work, and then they don't learn every new JavaScript library that comes out.
MerlinBut that's also a side effect of expertise in general. It's expertise or even it's like little brother. Just having access or exposure to something that you think you know about is so illuminating. It's like there's so many people. My classic bit is always, again, about lawyers or attorneys, where it's like, why don't you go spend a week just hanging out at your friend's attorney office and see how you feel about that environment? That might really tell you a lot about how much work you want to put into that. But instead, I'm not trying to make a straw man here, but I just think that's one example. There's lots of things like this where it's like,
until you've actually been exposed to what doing this job is like, you're going to try and apply all this bullshit to it that feels like the thing you need to do. You have no fucking, if you've never actually fixed a car, like how do you know that you want to be a mechanic? If you're not naturally interested, If you were good at that and interested in that, you'd already be fixing cars.
AlexWell, that was the best. I was lucky enough in college to, like, I really thought that I wanted to be a journalist. And then I was lucky enough to be like, oh, wait, I fucking hate this. This is the worst. I also don't like most journalists. And then, and I was that desperate person. And there was this show, Back to Work, that didn't feed on the fears of the youths, but was very helpful and good.
MaxYou know what's crazy about back to work is it's not like you guys don't really talk about you. How do I it's like you're not really giving like you're not talking about new technologies and tricks and shit.
MerlinIt's more I mean we talked about this in that episode with Syracuse that I sent you which goes up tonight. But like the by the time I was doing back to work I was kind of coming out of this dark period of working on the book and feeling guilty about not finishing that. And like I'm not allowed to do anything good not allowed to have fun. But it was really back to work to me started out as a tonic or an antidote to or even even a kind of like apology in some ways about like, I'm sorry if I got you hooked on productivity stuff.
That was sometimes I think I was good at what I did. I think 43 folders was a very good site. And most of what I posted was pretty good. With that said, I did know that it was addictive. And I also knew that there was this bigger anti pattern. like I talked about that show, you probably heard it, Alex, which is like the exact kind of tick and personal deficit that leads you to need all of these life hacks is the same thing that's going to keep you from ever knowing when to stop. You're just going to be addicted to a less productive thing. And it feels so fucking productive when you're moving your contacts around and all that shit. It feels like you're really doing something. And like nobody ever shakes you and says, guy,
like if you, is it like sort of like Syracuse has said, if it's that hard for you to do your job, Should you have that job? Yeah, the same thing. And if you have to have that job, how do you motivate yourself? And when do you get out of needing this mecha suit
Maxto get fucking anything done? The same thing that makes you a cock with women also makes you buy boner powder from some sort of cult leader. Thanks, Max. Go to class.
AlexOh, boy. Now I'm thinking about...
MaxTwo hours, 33 minutes. It is funny that Merlin's like the most prolific podcaster in the world, and you record more good podcasts than any other person, and you do it in like the worst, dumbest way. You just like hit record on call recorder and like talk into the microphone with no edits.
It's like the, I mean, it is the only way to fly. But I'm saying like, it's like, you know, there's probably something to that.
MerlinI was actually, we talked about it with Syracuse where it's like my first podcast I did often was MacBreak Weekly. And there was never any hope of an edit on that because that's not how they would do it. And I think everybody should have to do that for a while. Like before you really get into the editing, in the three, two, one shit. You should do some shows where you act like it's live and you will get so much better at it. I'm not against editing. I'm just against needing
Alexediting. I think we are much, much better about it.
MerlinOh no. Our show is very, very good.
AlexAlright, we're done.