Episode 18 - The Internet is a Small Town

Welcome back to the podcast. Today, we cover a lot of topics, involving some business topics, consulting and and the challenges of being caught in your past lives, a crazy silly idea, around new websites. What else do what else do we touch on, guys?

We don't talk about anything dating related on this episode.

Yeah. Look. If you're tuning into the show for dating advice or dating not advice.

But you will be smarter after the show. You will be smarter and more worldly.

So Sometimes the show's a Rorsch test.

The intro might be better than the act no. Of course, it's not. The intro is nothing. The the the episode that follows is. Enjoy.

It's the handsome hour.

I know the real reason people are here is to discuss my weight loss journey. Okay? So Awesome. Yeah. An important an important life lesson I learned this week is that you can share your wins with the public and the people closest to you will still not be happy for you.

Case in point, I tweeted about how I lost 10 pounds and Cody weighed in and said it was only glycogen.

Glycogen my friend,

Right? Which if you're like me, you don't know what the fuck that means. That that those were that means less than dirt to me. Oh, it's glycogen. Okay.

Well, I looked it up, and it turns out that glycogen is a specific type of fat. Okay? And if you're wondering why that's relevant, it's because in Cody's mind, if the fat you lose is glycogen, it does not count. Well, there is a

well known phenomenon by which when you begin losing weight, you be when you when you enter a caloric deficit, you lose water weight much more rapidly. And so you'll this it will look like you're losing weight very fast. You'll you'll lose several pounds right away, but it's it's it's not really persistent weight loss. It's mostly water, and it's because of the glycogen depletion.

Yes. So, in case anyone here was wondering, that doesn't count. So So

what what Wes, in what time frame did you lose 10 pounds? Because, not to like twelve days. I'm gonna go out on the side of caution here and say you should be aiming for maximum one pound a week.

But then but then it's gonna take me, like, twenty weeks.

How did it work out last time you started this at a at a rapid pace? How did that work out?

Do you wanna talk about well. Okay. I no. Are you you're making the psychological yours you are saying that it's unsustainable because I I lack the willpower.

No. No. I think you I think you have the willpower. What I'm talking about is when you try to diet too quickly, your body be decides that you're in in in a in a danger zone, and it starts to aggressively fight you. So, yeah, if it takes you a long time to do two to four pounds a month, great.

I love I love Wes' argumentation style. Wes, don't you think you're going for a free lunch here? What am I gonna do? Pay for lunch?

No. Well, okay. Look. Do I look look at me right now. Look at me right now.

Do I look like a man whose body is fighting him? No. I look I look like I'm in the prime of my life. I look I look better than I've looked in a hunt in

In a hundred years.

In a years.

Dude, alright. I've gained muscle mass. I went from a nine pound eight ounce fucking pipsqueak to you know, I could bench 315 pounds. Naturally, I put on a little bit of weight. I lost some muscle.

It happens. Life changes. Right? You go through phases. You get a job.

You do stuff. You work a lot. And now I'm losing weight, and I look fucking fantastic.

And I Are there any peptides in this journey or not?

No. No peptides. If

if weight loss is a journey, you're a lost child in a mall.

Just regular pep. Just pep. Just a little motivation and spark, a little elbow grease, a little piss and vinegar. That's all you need, Stoney. You don't need you don't need imported chemicals that are probably this is a question I had.

Can they put peptides in a vape? Is it possible to vape peptides?

I think that's the best idea I've ever heard.

I I just see, I I was talking about this on our company stand up a couple days ago. It's like like, the one of the reasons I can lose weight so rapidly is because my brain is just working, like, overtime, overclocking my brain at all hours. They say, like, my brain in a regular day probably burns faster than anybody else's. No. It doesn't work faster.

That's the thing it does is it does not work faster. It

just works harder.

Yes. It works more. Right. It's part of it is an inefficiency. Part of it is an inefficiency.

It's like there's a power drain somewhere. There's, a code leakage that you need to be, like, reset, like, every few days or right. There's, a memory leakage. Right? But, you know, that burns calories.

Like, just like how if your computer has a virus, like, it will never shut off all the way because it's busy, like, you know, being a botnet for the Chinese government. So, like, you know, that's how my brain works. Right? It's like you never shut it off all the way, but, it burns more power, and that's kind of what I want right now.

Yeah. What background program are you running that's taking up all your all your brain capacity?

Just like being single and afraid of dying and, you know, just sort of like the the dread, you know, every day I walk outside and I see a million faces and I'm like, oh, man, all these people are these people are automatons. They don't have a they don't have a rich inner world like I do. Right? Just that kind of stuff. You know?

Sure. It's very hard. You you have no idea about

misanthropy.exe.

Yeah. You have no idea how hard it is being needed.

So, Wes, how many inner dialogues or monologues are going on? Now you obviously have at least one layer of of the thoughts in your brain that you don't say. Yeah. And you probably even think them as you're capable of speaking. But are you do you have multiple layers within that?

Do you have two dial two two dialogues going on? Three? What's your maximum internal dialogue?

I would say it's like a regular late night lineup. It's like, you know, there's there's there's Leno. There's Jimmy Kimmel. I've got Conan O'Brien. I've got three those are three monologues.

But but are they going all at the same time, or are they they serial?

Look. There's only so much news in one day, so they're usually talking about the same thing. So they overlap. They I don't know, dude. I don't know.

I I don't really in some ways, I don't have an inner monologue. Do you have an inner monologue? I don't think so.

Well, anytime you think to yourself, you have an inner monologue.

Yeah. See, most of my thinking happens out loud. I don't know.

I've noticed.

Yeah. Anyway, we're have some there a dating discourse. Yeah. I mean, let's see. I wrote three articles this week.

Yeah. You've been writing you've been writing articles suddenly. What's what's up

with that?

My new thing is I'm going to write one article every five times a week. One I'm gonna be I'm gonna be like a Georgia article every weekday? Every weekday, I'm writing an article.

And

This is where that brain power is going. No. I'm amazed you haven't lost more weight.

Yeah. Well, I mean, if you read the articles, you'd be even more surprised. One of them sucked. One of them did suck, but that's kind of the that's that's sort of that is why I'm doing it almost is because, like, In the I'm very much a perfectionist, right? And so my thing has always been like, I don't want to put anything out with my name on it unless it's really good.

And that is a hindrance. That is, what? What matters is consistency. What matters like I'm gaining a lot of followers, too. And like, I don't know who's reading these articles like I think they're they're good, but it's just like, I read Dave Portnoy's book and it was, he's like, you you know, just go out there and put out content every single day.

And it's like, okay. Well, I can do that. I can write an article every single day about something about something dating related. Right? And I'll have the like, every day I wake up with some kind of thought that I can write about.

And some days, it'll be boring and not interesting, and then some days, like, eventually, one of them will go viral. It'll just happen. Like, you can't you can't you know, if you have any kind of audience, you can't write every single day. And, you know, I'm finally in this position I've kind of always wanted to be in where I finally have a lot of followers on Twitter. Not that I have a lot of followers.

I have 900 followers, which isn't that many. However, the followers that I do have, I have, like, influential people following me. So I think it's like, finally, I kind of have that springboard that I've wanted to, like, actually, you know, maybe develop some kind of actual public presence. I tried this, like, ten years ago, and I was too young and retarded to, like, really say anything meaningful or thoughtful, but, you know, maybe I'm, like, slightly less retarded now. So

I also think that our merch store should sell hats that say slightly less retarded now.

Yeah. Dude, I'm I, the hat guy is not replying by emails anymore. He called me. I I talked to him on the phone, dude. I was walking down the street, and he's like, he's like, yeah.

So what do want the hat? He's like, this Mexican guy is like, what do want the hats to say? I'm like, it's it's gonna sound kinda silly. Well, I want them to say I am not gay. And he's like, Oh, it's okay.

He's like, It's okay. I've seen everything. I'm like, Well, okay, but like I want it. I want another half of the hats to say I am gay, right? And then he emailed me proofs.

I had to be like, No. Can we get I am gay all on one line? Because it was like it was like I am gay. It was like, no. I I wanted to I don't want any of these words to really stand out above

You wanna be understated in this hat. Subtle. Sublime.

Yes. And we have people be paying less. Yeah people will be paying less for the I am.

What font are you thinking about?

It's the they look like the make America great again hats. It is the original MAGA hats. It's the same company that made the original five panel because those are the as far as hat construction goes. Those are the best hats. Those are fantastic hats.

So

We don't need to use any particular hat. Like, there's a million companies that do this. You can just do it online.

I know. But, like, I wanna have good hats. I like, I don't I don't I'm not gonna use, like, what is that shit? Red bubble. I'm not gonna use that.

No. I'm gonna plenty

of ones that that are good.

I'm not look. This is the Handsome Hour promise. Okay? If you buy a hat from from me or from The Handsome Hour, your hat will be made in The USA. It will be overpriced, and you will spend money on it feeling obligated to wear it because of how much money you spent on it.

And and and how good the quality and construction is.

And and because it's quality construction. Right? I don't I don't seek to put out anything that sucks except for sometimes the article that I write every day.

And that's just that's just inevitable. It's not you seek that. You know? Just you're gonna take Right.

It's like I'm not gonna yeah. It's like it's part of it is like this like, the part of the thing with the article is just needing to prove myself that, like, no. You can do something and be, like, not completely happy with it and put it out. Yeah. Right?

Yeah. Because I think a lot of guys fall into that trap. It's like and and this does actually here we go. This is why you do this. This is how it aspected everything.

You don't need to be like perfect. You ever see those commercials that are like for adoption? Like, you don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent. Like, that's that's true if you were a man like but I wrote an article about this this week is like people over optimize doing like listening to dating podcasts and stuff until they're like listening. Yes.

Stop. Turn it off right now.

Turn it out. Guys just just get out. Get out

of here.

If if there are remaining first time hearing

have nothing left to learn from us. Just go out in the world and do it. But people do do that. People are like, you you if you read more than three books about dating first of all, three books is a lot. If you read more than three books about dating, like, you you are now filling your mind with ideas and, overthinking it.

Right?

Quantity always comes first.

What explain that. What do you mean quantity always comes first?

That's what we talked about before. Like, essentially, all good outcomes are downstream of quantity. Right? So

Yes. Well, but now we're speaking from the the the perspective of the listener. Right? Like, when you when you listen to too much content, when you're when you do you know what I'm talking? It's like yeah.

But that's be clear. You could I meant

Quantity of action.

Quantity of action. Yeah. I should have been more specific. You're right. So the point being that, like, listening to a podcast or reading books or thinking about it all sort of fall in the category of, like, theorization or of trying to construct, you know, a some set of mental models or some set of theories or or whatever it is that then allow you to produce quality without getting the reps in.

Right? Yeah. And the point is that, like, that doesn't work. You have to get the reps. You have to put in the quantity, and everything else is is comes after that.

You see this a lot when people wanna start a business. And for those of those of people who haven't done it before, they'll be like, oh, I need to get business cards. I need to get a website. Need to do this. I need to talk to a lawyer.

And they do all those things, but they haven't made a single dollar. Whereas you get other people who are like, I'm just gonna go talk to a bunch of people and get some sales, and then I'll worry about everything else. And those two ways of thinking, the second one will produce a much more functional business that's likely to survive.

Yeah. And and now if we could just get Stoney to apply that logic to the process of hiring a podcast producer, then maybe we could be we're if you're listening, we're looking for a producer. But, no, I think it's a lot like

talk about that more more loudly. Come produce our show.

Come produce the show. If you're watching this and you're like, the production value is, really bad and horrible, well, that's step one to being the person who improves it. And it's not because look. I could do all this myself. If I didn't have a regular job, I could produce the show.

I could produce a podcast better than anyone else doing it for a hundred years could produce a podcast. But I there's only so many hours in a week. I promise you I could. And if you were so look. If you're listening to this right now, it's not that hard.

I know it's not that hard. Okay? Like, you can do it.

We we should add. We're realistically looking for someone earlier in the early in their podcast career.

Right. Even if you're not good

for a cofounder. We're looking for a cofounder. The most important thing is agency and hustle. If you're not the best video editor, audio editor in the world, that's okay. We will teach you.

You'll learn on the job. The important thing is that you're gonna be willing to show up and do what it takes to grow the podcast, whatever it takes. And if you have that owner mindset, that cofounder mindset, then that's that's what matters.

You said that really well, Cody. Thank you.

That was really well. That was well said. And no. But, like, I I I think

That was almost as well said as West could have done it. I mean, he would have done it so well other than it's good for a hundred years.

That's not

what I But you're, like, fifty years, Cody. Like, that was as good as it can get in fifty years.

I'll take it. Listen. Not all of us can flood the zone like West does.

It was our brains are not working hard enough. We're only one one monologue, one dialogue.

Yeah. And I just realized that the show we've gone live. I don't know how this happened. We've gone live with the title, The Handsome Hour, 07/17/2026. So

That's very important. Yeah. Very important. Even know what day it is. So it's

the date it's the date, which is already the problem. That shouldn't be the title. And it's the wrong date.

We are I

also think that

We need a podcast editor who who knows what time it is or at least can ask ask AI what time what what day is it?

Oh, wait. What should the title be? I can change the title. I just realized midstream.

Ramblings July 26? I don't know. I mean, we don't even know

what we're spicy. We gotta be we're talking about something incredibly tantalizing that you absolutely must click and listen to.

Stoney's top secret. Stoney has herpes.

Thank you. We market them as cold source over here. Thank you very much.

Well, everybody has herpes. No. Let's let's let's just leave it.

That's why we marketed it as cold source.

Yeah. Well, no. Most of life is about avoiding the bottom 20% of humanity. This was a tweet that someone talked about, and I I think about this often. You know, I I I don't know about you guys.

I I know that people don't like it when I wax patriotic on the show like this, but I did have a thought as I was walking down the street today. If you look at four hundred years ago, you might say, you know, like in America, guys from Africa, they weren't really allowed to do a whole lot. I think everyone can agree on that. Like, they they, you know, they some of them, you know, couldn't even get jobs that they wanted. And now we live in a society because of the greatness of capitalism where as long as they're on an e bike, if you're from Africa, you can seemingly do whatever you want.

As far as like, you know, running over Children or, you know, running red lights or not stopping at stop signs, you can it's kind of it's kind of free free what do you call that? Free game out there. Open open season on on, you know, whether you wanna follow traffic laws or not. So if I think that's kind of the bottom 20% of humanity that we're all trying to avoid, isn't it?

Literally avoid. Yeah. Not just figuratively.

Right.

They're going 15 miles an hour careening towards you.

Yeah.

Yeah. There's a this is like a common I feel like I have a certain set of, I guess, right inclined friends. And you hear this from people like Yarvin. There's a talking point is what I'm trying to say these days. This says something like, the most important thing to optimize for is just rule following.

It's just order. It's just societal stability. Just I wanna be able to walk outside and and have there to be, like, basically perfect civil order. I actually am not in that camp. Like, I just want equality of disorder.

In other words, like, if if there are lunatics on the streets because I I'm very, like, anti authoritarian. Like, I don't want the boot on my neck telling me how I can behave and what I can do. What I want is if there is gonna be some set of like, I want if if if there's gonna be lunatics and criminals roaming the streets, then just give me the ability to defend myself from them. Like, I'm fine with self sufficiency. I'm fine with This sovereignty.

This is the really interesting thing about the debate around abolishing prisons. And everyone acts like that's a bad idea, and I I would largely put myself for the that's a bad idea camp. But once you've abolished prisons, you've effectively legalized vigilante justice, and that might lead to some rather interesting results. So I'm I I don't I don't think the people who want to abolish prisons have really thought through this, but but that would be an interesting situation, Cody, where we're living in a society where there are no prisons, everything's allowed, but you run the risk of anyone killing you at any time. So that's the kind of rule enforcement.

Wes, not that any of us would ever condone this, of course, but Wes could pop off a few of those ebike marauding, you know, hooligans Right. Without any consequence.

The problem with that is that, like, if you're a libertarian and if the this is the the fault that all libertarians have is that they assume everybody is, has like an IQ similar to theirs or that they think that everyone is as smart as them. So it's like, Oh, you know, maybe you can think that a Paul, you know, humanity can just be self policing, and we don't need prisons. And it's like, well, okay. First of prisons are humanity self policing. That's just what that is.

Because in the absence of that, in the absence of having some sort of order behind it, then it's not going to be me shooting the guy who cuts me off on the bike and runs my foot over. It's going to be 50 of those guys who get together and say, Hey, you know what? We can do whatever we want. As long as we have the guns, and it's it's not going to be like, you're not gonna have a world where, now I'm like, you know, the the, Andy Griffith out there with a gun just sort of being like, well, missus Maple, like, you know, did

you Yeah.

I agree. Who stole your kumquats? Right? Like

Wes, well, I agree it wouldn't start that way. Sure. But once we had 50 of the ebike guys running around with guns shooting people, I think you would immediately self arm, and then we might find the tables would turn.

Yeah. Yes. Because, yes, you're you're maybe right. Maybe the best thing is for me to die in a gunfight. Maybe that's the best thing.

So Yeah. Be so skinny, they won't hit you. You'll be like

I think this is Episode.

This dimensional. You just turn sideways, and the bullets were just, like like, matri not even matrix style. It's like shooting a piece of paper. Just

No. No. They'll bounce off Wes's muscles that he benches 300 pounds with.

I don't bench 300 pounds anymore. Anyway, Cody, what were you gonna say?

No. I was gonna say, like, you know, to be clear, I don't think this is a prescription for the a maximally well functioning or maybe even functioning society. I don't think there's any real solution. Like, there's no fundamental solution to, you know, the problem of basic human inequality short of, you know, radical discrimination and things that are very unpleasant to the to the modern mind. But, and even that's not a real solution.

It's a local solution. It's not a global solution. There's no global solution. So, like, what I'm saying what I'm saying giving, you know, saying that, it's more of like a it's almost like a like, here's the thing. Okay?

This might be this might not lead us anywhere in terms of interesting conversation. But, like, I I don't think about or care about at all like politics. And what I mean by that is, you know, poll every everybody's so fascinated by politics, and they love to engage in the political discourse. And politics is the attempt to, you know, make prescriptions at the social level. Right?

And I just firmly believe that that's a futile endeavor for many, many reasons, which I'm happy to delineate. But there's so many reasons that's just a stupid thing. I only care about the individual. And I don't care about getting things right on a social level. I don't think it's possible.

I don't think it's a good use of brain effort or anything. And so it's like, when I say that, like, I don't, you know, I don't I'm not saying that's gonna work for society. I'm saying I want it, and I want it for myself and for those around me. It's like I grew up on you know, my heroes were, you know, Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly, Han Solo from Star Wars, the the rogues, the rebels, the guys who are always sort of just outside the reach of the law. Those are criminals, but they're like criminals with their own moral code.

So it's like, yeah, that's my sort of, you know, that's my sort of north star. It's like, I just wanna be that guy. And there's no universe in which that guy is in which, like, the world works. Like, the the universe only works when, like, at the local scale of, like there's no way to generalize that. Right?

There's no universe in which, like, Han Solo is just, a regular upstanding, like, citizen and, like, society just works for him.

You mean you mean we can't have too many Han Solo's? Or what exactly are you saying?

I'm saying that, like, Han Solo is cool because

some ways to rebel against.

Well, no. It's not about the rebellion. He's cool because he is a self contained thing that is, like, like, he has what he believes in. He and he just does what he wants, and he just he just operates as an individual. And if that happens to be not aligned with, like, the social structure that he's a part of, fine.

Then he's a criminal. If it does happen to be aligned, then, like, okay. Like, I guess he's a participant in this society, but he's not a citizen. He's not a part of this thing.

I'll see if I can jump in here. Even his occupation of smuggling is looking at the world and saying there are two parties that wanna interact. There are two people that wanna engage in traditional sales, and the government is gonna get in the way, and I'm gonna help bypass that. So even as he breaks the law, this is the Al Capone defense, he is providing people with what they want. And he's not really waxing about the morality or lack of morality.

He's just doing it. He's just seeing a a place that he can generate value for himself. He can make two parties effectively engage in a transaction, and he's going for it. And he's actually not doing it in a way that really necessarily hurts anyone other than maybe the empire's tax revenue. And I don't think anyone wants to support the tax revenue.

Sure. Yes. But my deeper point is just that, like, it would be silly to call Han Solo a libertarian or an anarchist. Han Solo which I guess is maybe what you're saying. Han Solo doesn't have political beliefs.

That's a ridiculous notion. Right? And and when he and, like, obviously, I'm this I'm talking about Han Solo and, you know, A New Hope. Because later on, he, like, you know, joins the alliance.

We're also using

That's his

we're also using Han Solo. You're we're losing we're using Han Solo as the avatar of an archetype. We're not literally talking about Han Solo. If we're gonna call it like Han Solo morality or whatever, it's like, yes, he has a noble code. Like you say this about Batman.

Okay? There's a lot of fictional characters who, like, embody this archetype because I think it is like a very masculine urge because, you couldn't. There's no way to institutionalize that type of morality. There's no way to that's right. There's no way to take like what Batman believes or what Han Solo believes is right and institutionalize it because it, Because it doesn't lend itself to rule making right?

There's no

right. It doesn't scale. It's it requires intimate knowledge of every situation that you encounter and being able to say, like, being able to say Oh, well, the rules that were created to govern this exact situation actually don't apply to this exact situation. And you know if the court was looking at it, they would understand if it was a good court, they would understand the exception. And that's sort of the court's job is to, interpret the laws in hindsight, where it's like, you know, the man was holding a gun to my daughter's head.

It was my I had to shoot him. Shooting him in that case was the morally correct thing to do. And then what you get is like, you know, if you try to institutionalize that type of morality, then what you get is like these absurd laws, and they try to do it where it's like castle laws or stand your ground laws where it's like, Oh, well, you're only allowed to shoot someone in your home if they are facing you, and you are backed into a corner, and it's like that's just an example of why create like why that type of morality doesn't scale is because trying to define a set of rules under which it's appropriate to shoot someone invading your home. It you just have to be there and you have to be the one seeing it, and it's going to be different in every situation. So I think that's kind of what

we're touching. That's right.

That's the right

way to say it. It. There's no way to institutionalize any truly correct morality. And so, yeah, that's kinda my point. It's like, this is why my vision of, like, the best case scenario politically is you just have you allow people to like, people should just absolutely deontologically adhere, like, whatever the deepest set of morals that arise from their soul is.

And then they should naturally just sort of self sort into, like, little city states or whatever based on who is similar in those ways. Like, I just go hang out with the people who have similar sort of intrinsic call like, moral calling that I do, intrinsic cup internal compass that I do. And then you just let those city states, like, just sort of compete or be an ecosystem, and each one has their own naturally rising bottom up sort of emergent normative order. And that's, like, the best case scenario. And almost certainly that means, like, the psychopaths win in the end because, like, they just, like, they kill and destroy everybody else.

And, like, there's no so there's just no like, there's no real

I don't agree with that

short term. I don't

I do not agree with I agree with the I I agree with your prescription. I don't believe in the telology that you assume for it.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna do this kind of cut this both ways. Heliology. One of the interesting things about your archetypes that you're talking about is they appear to be really bad at large scale organization building. So all of these people do great individuals. At no moment do you see Han Solo leading a committee.

The flip side of that, though, is if you look at institutions that operate completely outside the the legal code, and this would include the pirates of of either well, I guess, Somalia or even, you know, Captain Jack Sparrow of the pirate movies. Or if you look at, you know, you watch Narcos on Netflix and you look at the Colombian or the Mexican leaders of the drug cartels, they're operating completely outside of any semblance of legality. There's no HR papers they have to file. They don't pay taxes. They don't do anything with the government, but they still can have incredibly well run systems with long durations.

So I actually think that people are completely capable of self organizing, selecting hierarchical leadership, and working towards a common goal without any any, governmental involvement. In fact, against the government.

Well, I I doesn't it just I I feel like I'm a little confused because doesn't that just become a government at some level of scale?

No. And I don't have a better response.

It does. It does, and it is. And I think that the part of, like I wouldn't really be afraid to be the president of The United States, but I would be afraid to be the the head of a drug cartel. And it's not just because of, you know, the state's going to kill you. I think it is, like, I do think that if there is something to be admired about drug cartels, it's that, they rule by violence and force.

And what that means to me is that like if you are if you are El Chapo, you you you're probably never going to be able to disappear, right? I mean, I guess he did disappear for a short amount of time. But like once you are that drug lord, you are that drug lord for life. And if you You know, you can rule by an iron fist, but you have to rule at least well enough so that everyone isn't pissed enough to, you know the guys close to you like, let them kill you right like you do have to take care of people in some respect. Or you're going to murder, right?

Like I think it's almost more respectable to be the drug lord himself than, like, one of the people in the Mexican or the Colombian government or whatever that he's, like, you know, implicitly paying off to be allowed to run his empire, you know, free of free of, interference.

I'd also say against both of you guys, you say that they're eventually turning into a government. Whereas the reason I would disagree with that is that they are entirely in a permissionless organization. You do not have to ask for permission. Or if you do, you have the opportunity to kill everybody above you. And if you succeed in that, congratulations.

You know? That's you you've won. So you are operating in a permissionless society much like world governments operate in a permissionless society. You know, there is no higher authority. We have to get the UN to approve.

Sadly, if you want to invade a country, there's nothing stopping you other than the risk of someone fighting back. Got it. I have a good story that I'm potentially able to tell. So this starts as a business story and turns into a dating story. So we wanna hire a consultant to do some partner networking for us.

And the the LinkedIn looks pretty good at first. Everything this person's that she says look sounds about right. But there's something in the back of our mind. Our spidey sense is tingling, and we're we're all like, something's not right here. So I start to go through the LinkedIn profile and I start to Google.

And very quickly, I realized that this her history effectively starts at 2022. There's nothing on the Internet before 2022. Nothing. And all the companies she lists in her LinkedIn profile don't really appear on the Internet. They don't they may never have existed.

The countries they should have the states they should have been incorporated in don't exist. Things just start to not add up. And we're like, how do you not have a history for a supposed functioning person with zero results? So I'm like, alright. I'm gonna go to one of those sites where you upload a photo of the person and it does a face search of the Internet.

And I do this and instantly all porn. All hardcore porn. Now just to be clear, I'm too cheap to pay for these things. It just shows picture of still frames and then the site URL, And the site URLs were not you know, they were all porn. But then it's like then we we had an interesting conversation among ourselves.

Like, what's the moral thing to do here? You know? Like, are we are we just gonna exclude this person for their prior life choices? And what we settled on is that we almost don't have guaranteed not to have her legal name, and we don't wanna get into a business relationship with some sensitive financial data involved of someone who we don't even know their legal name. That's our assumption anyway.

So we're just kind of moving on, but that's that's my that's my story. And then I was talking to my daughter and, you know, she was asking a couple questions and I mentioned this and I was like, and this person had a history on the Internet despite my daughter only being 12 and hopefully now doesn't know what I'm talking about was immediately like, oh, and I was like, great. My daughter does know what I'm talking about. There we go. This is what happens if have a smart daughter in New York City.

So, anyway.

How what does that have to do with dating? You said it becomes a dating story.

I guess the question is how often are we showing up on dates not having done face search? I mean, the number of women with OnlyFans is only growing. And, also, as a guy, I think this is, like, this is an issue. Like, and also as a woman, when do you tell a guy, oh, by the way, if we ever get married and have kids, someday, our our eight year old is gonna be bullied because they're gonna find pictures of me doing hardcore crazy stuff online. Maybe it's not a dating story.

You guys can find.

I mean, my kids are already gonna get bullied because their friends are gonna find this. If you face search me, the this is gonna come up, and this is probably more embarrassing than getting fucked on camera. Maybe. I I don't is it? I don't know.

I think that

I I don't think teenagers are gonna sit and listen to all of the episodes and critique your children for the political and social positions you held.

Yeah. No. They're they're they're gonna not no. They're gonna not listen to the episode, and they're gonna call me gay anyway. That's that's what's gonna happen.

Maybe in twenty years, being a a podcaster will be seen, like, just the same as having an OnlyFans.

Well, I feel like I feel like I feel like I I could I dated a girl who had an OnlyFans. I I think that that is I think that wave has crested. I think that I think that I I don't think it's true that more and more girls are starting OnlyFans now. I think that I think it's so unprofitable that I think what's going to happen this is what I hope happens. Someone someone's going to hack into OnlyFans, and they're gonna release everything.

Right? And then everything's gonna be out there for free. And then it's gonna be like, well, no need to subscribe to only fans anymore. Right, guys? And then the reason guys are doing that actually isn't because they want the content.

It's because they want like the simulation of, like, relationship with this person, which is pathetic, and it's, you know, guys fault for doing that, and we can't blame guys for the world being the way it is. But

Well, the the trajectory was always gonna be that, yeah, of course, more and more you'd get the never ending September, and more and more women would join OnlyFans. And then, you know, via market dynamics, the it'd be harder and harder just to compete. And so it was never gonna be the case that, obviously, like, every woman could be a, you know, an influencer or whatever, barely, you know, just just purely

Every by woman could ruin not ruin their life, but every woman could expose themselves to the world. Yeah. Which is which is the worst thing possible.

Well, there's there's two yeah. Exactly. That's kinda where I was going at this. But

I sullied my name for $30 a month.

Yeah. All of that was was was prior to a big but, which is that there's two big horrific equilibriums that I've been sort of forecasting for a long time. One is exactly what you're saying, Stoney. It's like, well, it doesn't preclude every woman from making the attempt, and that's still horrific. But also, it what you could arrive at is just the like, the essentially, like, the residue that remains is just the complete transactionalization of relationships.

Right? So it's like, what is what are men paying for in OnlyFans? Most of them are paying for, like, the girlfriend experience. Right? And that's sort of personal attention.

So you could totally see, like, as the as the number of, you know, as the number of women that are are sort of participating that goes to a 100% or whatever, like, asymptotes or whatever, They're like, what that really means is that it's just it's just we return to the previous dynamics that we have, but now they're they're fully explicitly transactionalized. Right? And so it's like, we still have boyfriends and girlfriends, but now it's explicitly like, I mean, not that it you know, it it was it was some level of explicit before, but now it's, like, fully explicit that it's just like, well, this is a transaction I'm paying you for this. It's mediated through some kind of app or broker, which

is,

you know, bad. That's that's just dystopian to me.

When we talk about, guys paying, subscribing to OnlyFans to have, like, a, a simulacra of human connection, I think that this is probably one of the very few stomach, like topics in the world that just fills me with, like dread and pity and like Same like fear like there's I needed. What I need to do is I need to go talk to a retarded person because that is the one in the stay with me. That is on the opposite side. If, dude, if nothing softens my heart faster than, like, running into someone with, like, a mental disability.

So you're saying this is just pure bleach. Like, they're just

getting No. That is like not and it's not it is not in, like, a shot and Freud way. It's like, it makes me wanna, like, love and be kind. Right? It makes it nothing else makes me like, literally nothing makes me wanna be kind.

Right? Like, except for, like, just, like,

the Puppies and people with Down syndrome.

Dude, even puppies are like, it's an animal. You know? Like, it's not like to see a human being in, like, that state of neediness, but, like, able to be like, dude, if you if you show me like a retarded guy watching soccer and loving it, I'm like, it makes me feel bad for anything bad I've ever said about soccer because it's like this can give someone so much joy, right? Like I remember being like Imagine, dude, if you're if you're retarded, you the way you see the world is like, remember when you're a kid and like the new Pokemon game comes out or like the new whatever thing whatever thing you're obsessed with as a kid that you're looking forward to. Dude, if you're retarded, that's what every day feels like.

It's like, Oh, boy. Like, you know, the the soccer games on today. I get to put on my jersey and watch it. It's like that's what life is about. You know?

I I think those are the the ones that I think there's some survivorship bias there. I I've known some disgruntled, angry, and mentally handicapped people, but I think the the ones that are golden retriever, like, are the ones that break through and yeah, I I'm surprised there aren't influencers. There aren't, like, Down syndrome influencers.

I was there there's a great cooking show where these two or three guys with Down syndrome cook, and it's it's really entertaining. And I don't even mean, like, oh, we're making fun of them. No. It's just it's it's fascinating watching these guys who clearly have a friendship. Sure.

They're struggling a bit with the cooking, but then again, who doesn't?

They're struggling a bit with the it's relatable, dude. It's like, I did. I burned the shit too.

I'm not Martha Stewart or, who's, the famous French English whatever.

Marie Curie? No. Julie I get I get Marie Curie and Julia Child.

Julia Child. Thank you.

Julia Child. I get those ones mixed up. I don't know why.

I I relate a lot more to the Down syndrome guys struggling to cook than to Julia Child who can whip up a beef bourguignon.

Yeah, dude. Yeah. Well, it's like, yeah, I get Marie Child.

Congratulations to Marie Curie for being the one woman in history.

Yeah.

Was she a good chef? I mean, you know, there there we go.

No. She was too too that way.

She also, I think, got some serious radiation poisoning. Yeah. But I'm not even sure she stood on her own two feet. I mean, wasn't she dating or married to one of the guys?

I don't know. Let's not

Whether that was her access point or her her her coasting. Who knows?

I mean, that's Yeah. Her always Stealing credit from women hour.

Is these last five minutes have gotten us to cancel about seven times over.

Yeah. I don't think we've said anything really bad. Well, down down I I tweeted a really successful band.

And deleted it.

Oh, no. I saw that, dude. I wanted to talk about that, though. I I think I retweeted it.

I think you did. And and Matt

You can't delete that one.

You know how I knew it was over the line? Our maybe I shouldn't say his name. Matt f. He just texted me. He goes, incredible tweet, l m a o.

And I was like, alright. That means it's too far.

He had a good he had a good take. I don't maybe we this is he said that all men given enough idle time just become race scientists. That's like I thought I thought That's so good. Always thought that was funny.

I do appreciate that all the other words that end with I s t are generally denoting an expertise. Pianist. Well, okay. Maybe not that one. I was a go with pianist.

You know, someone who's highly acclaimed on the piano.

Right. Right. Right. You're really if you're a if you're a racist, you're just really good at at noticing racial Okay. Here, maybe I can maybe we can talk about what I tweeted, but maybe that'll maybe I can maybe I can couch it more in the context famous last words he said before being hauled away.

Yeah. I understood your meaning, by the way. I understood Of course. I look. Okay.

Me preface this because I I do wanna hear you explain. Let me preface this. Okay. When I read that, I was like, I understand exactly what he's saying. I thought it was a brilliant tweet.

That's why I retweet. I almost never retweet you. I thought it was a brilliant tweet because I'm like, I understand exactly what he is trying to say, and he's couching it in this controversial language that's like meant to get engagement and attention because it sounds like he's saying something bad, but it isn't actually bad what he's saying. And then I guess he worse yeah. I don't know.

You can

That's right. That that was the shtick. Yeah. So thank you for appreciating it. Yeah.

So okay. So maybe I should I probably won't say the exact language that I used. But the basic idea was, like, it's like I feel like we had this moment in the sun in the two thousands. Basically, like, the the controversial part was I basically opened by saying, like, look, I'm a two thousands bigot. And the idea was, like, okay, in the February, we had it right.

Like, I was raised on, like, South Park and, like, you know, shows like this where the prevailing sentiment we had was it was it was post nineties. Like, we we we had the nineties had this feeling that we had kind of solved things as a society. Right? Like, I didn't notice race until I was taught about racism. There were I I literally did not even, like it didn't even compute in my second grade brain that, like, there were members in my class that were, like, different colors and that, like, mattered in some way.

I had to be taught that, like, remember, don't hate your classmate because he's black. And I was like, wait, what? That that didn't even occur to me. And I think that was most people, like, roughly our age, you know, my age. This is experience.

Like, that was, like and so and then the two thousands came along and they were kinda, like and then, you know, the people of, you know, our age and, like, slightly older sort of came of, like, came of age and started making content. And our content was, like, almost, like, ironically, like, you know, race aware or sex aware or group aware. Right? It was, like, it never deep in our hearts, we're liberals. Like, there's no there are no real conservatives that are 33.

We're all actually liberals because, like, we were raised in the end of history or whatever. Right? We had, like, be taught these things. And so we, like, adopted this iron like, the media from that time has this, like, ironic stance where it's, like right? Where it's, like, Isn't it funny when South Park, like, makes fun of Token for being black and he's, like, the token black kid?

And, like, the under the joke is, isn't it absurd to be race aware? So it's actually a deeper like, it seems like it's being racist, but the it's actually deeply egalitarian like, it the the deeper point is right?

You're making fun of the thing that you're saying, which is most humor, by the way. And it's like, you know, there was a point in time because I used to be very good at racial humor, and I used to really and I don't wanna say really good at it. But like I, you know, I do think that like often that is the funniest type of stuff. And it's like if you watch the show Family Guy and Peter in family guy who's this oafish character? He's you know, he's very stupid.

He says something sincerely. You're not trying to be like, what does he really mean? It's like, no, the thing that he's doing is he's saying something that's obviously wrong and stupid and absurd, and you're laughing at the absurdity of it. So if you can be like, you know, when you're like, I don't know. Like when you're like, we make some sort of comment about whatever racial group or like you were talking about, like the race relations or something.

And you do it in like a flipping and silly way. You're actually like you're you're minimizing the differences because you're saying that the differences are so trivial and so like, you know, you can just laugh at it, right? That is egalitarianism. What's not egalitarianism is treating like there's certain things that are sacred and that you just can't mock or make fun of because it, like, it gives those things like a credibility that that it is supposed to be taken out of them through humor. Right?

Well Exactly.

They have credibility is why you can't say them. You know, no one's gonna stop you from saying the world is flat. No one's gonna cancel you for that. No one's gonna cancel you for saying that Kyrgyzstan's navy can beat the United States Navy. You can lie all day long on the Internet, and I can't think of a single person who's been canceled for saying falsehood.

Pretty much, you're only canceled for saying the truth. So when you talk about credibility, the canceling is the kind of proof of credibility.

You think so? I I think that I mean, like, maybe sometimes, yes. But, like, I'm trying to think of a good example of what I mean. It's like, I I I I think that there was a point in time where you could just be like, like, okay. I grew up in somewhere where, like, somewhere, like, everyone was white except for, like, a few kids.

There were black kids, but you would never like we would be like Yo, Alex is black. What's up, Alex? Like you and you make fun of him for like doing stereotypical black stuff, but he never did that right? Or like you'd be like, you know, like there was a girl. I worked with a black girl in the grocery store, and she cornbread every day for on her lunch break would be like, oh, there there she goes again with their cornbread.

Yeah.

But you were never like you didn't like it. You weren't like diminished. You you were like, that's funny that you do a stereotypical black thing every day.

Right?

And it's like, we're not, like, you're This is my point. Friends with you.

Right? Like This is just that's just my my point. This is this is exactly my point. Is that, like, the the correct equilibrium is, like, okay. So I open I'll say what I said, but I'll put it in quotations.

This was a joke. This was a joke. I was saying, like, yes, I'm I'm, like, I'm raised I'm I'm a bit I'm a bigot, and I'm but I'm a two thousand's bigot. I'm all the things. I'm racist.

I'm misogynist. I'm homophobic. Like, I'm I'm I hate every group. But I and that was a joke. But I but I acknowledged the, like, spark of divinity in the eyes of every individual.

And, like, this was the stance that we had arrived at in the February, and this is correct. It's like, yeah, you make fun of your black friend for being black, but you're still friends with him. Like, the correct thing is, like, we don't we don't have to pretend that group differences aren't a thing. We don't have to lie. We don't have to pretend like we don't see them.

We can acknowledge them and we can jokingly even like like, humor is the vehicle by which we can, like, be conscious of them. But that is supervened by the acknowledgment of the priority and irreducible sacredness of the individual. And that, like, all of that is it's like, if if you can be pals with your with your black friend ever, but if he does something bad, you're not gonna be friends with him anymore. You're judging him on as an individual on his actions.

And On the content of his character.

Or something like that. And he can make fun of me for being white and cracker and whatever all and like and like that's it's all like right? It's it's it's that that is obvious. We we had that figured out for like a brief window. And so I that way I said it is like, yeah, I hate all groups and I love individuals.

Well and it's because the reason the reason we're nostalgic for those times is because, you know, it's like, okay. You have a a couple of black guys in the group, and it's like you make fun of them for being black, and they make fun of for being white. But, like, that's also not the only thing you make fun of each other for. You're just guys hanging out. You're going to find lots of things about each other to make fun of each other for and what I don't like about trying to ban like that one specific type of humor or try to say like, these things are off limits is because in a world where nothing's off limits, it's like everybody's equal in a world where just this one type of conversation, this one type of like ribbing is off limits.

You've now taken that and you've made that the social like North Star behind what guides our interaction because before we were just a couple of guys hanging out, giving each other shit and talking about whatever and also that lends itself to be able to have like an honest conversation with someone different from you about this stuff like those are two sides of the same coin. So now by saying like, Oh, you have to be super sensitive about this one thing. Well, that's like the only rule of the interaction, basically other than don't kill each other and don't rape each other. And so now now you're making me think about that all the time, and it's like the same thing with like affirmative action or something. It's like it's not to say that maybe there's like some good, you know, intention behind something like affirmative action.

But I heard someone describe this to me and it like it made total sense is she's like, well, okay. She's like going to, you know, she's gonna have a baby and she's like, Well, now when I go to a gynecologist if he's black, if in a world without affirmative action, I could just be like that's a qualified gynecologist In a world with affirmative action, if I see someone who's a minority, I have to I have to wonder if they are qualified to be there where I wouldn't otherwise. And so it's like it's like just it's making me be racist, basically. Right. Totally different.

It's like it's a world with it. It's like yeah. It's like if whatever. Yeah.

A world with race blind merit based accomplishment, we would presume that the people who have accomplished something, I e becoming a doctor, did so based on merit. When you remove merit as the primary decision factor, then anyone trying to fly in an airplane with a pilot who got that by merit, anyone trying to be treated by a doctor who's a doctor by merit, you're gonna say, wait a second. There's some groups of people who had to achieve that by merit and some groups of people who didn't have to achieve that or by not as much merit. Any rational actor is gonna pick the group that had to achieve it by merit.

Right.

I don't think there's any Koreans who coasted into medical school based on their race. In fact, the exact opposite.

And anybody who's not aware of that like, it's the same thing applied to individual interactions. It's like, if I meet somebody and they tell me that they're not a racist, I go, oh, so you're a liar. It's like Yeah. The those are the options, bro. I'm sorry.

Oh, did you did you pick Baltimore for its low housing prices? Because it has low housing prices.

But it's the same thing. Like, we we get this weird fixation on, like, a a couple of groups, like race and a couple differences. The point is that that same framework generalizes to other things. It's like the tragedy is that as individuals, we are subject we are bubbles on the tide of empire. Right?

We are subject to the world, to institutions, to groups, to distributions and statistics. And, like, that's what we're calling attention to. So it's like it's like, yes, you should hate the fact that you are subject to statistics of all kinds, race, financial, geographic, everything. And if we are unable to acknowledge that because some things are sacred and some can't be talked about, that is only perverts our ability to navigate that landscape. And so Yeah.

Like, and we obviously have this weird stupid, you know, fixation on on on on a couple categories. But, like yeah. So it's, like, the same thing. It's, like, the correct thing is to, like, is to, like, be racist. And that's all that's only just the it's we just only have that term.

All what that really means is to be statistics aware. And then Yeah.

As I say, my my my definition of racist is being willing to read out loud FBI crime statistics.

Well and then but to make that subordinate to a value system that cherishes, you know, individual relationships.

Move on to the next topic because we this is a sense

of Alright. This is a business topic. So Wes and Cody together were joking about an idea for a website, and I really liked it. And I happen to own the domain sales boner. And my business idea is that people will initially spend, say, $10 to be the sales boner award of the day.

So you could submit any of your colleagues just $10, and they will be the sales boner winner of the day, and then we'll do month and then year. And as this kind of fills up, we'll gradually increase the price until it's, you know, a 100 or even more. So I just wanted to say, what do you guys think about this crazy idea? And maybe I'll get one of my developers to whip it up. What are your what are your thoughts?

I think it works better with my domain that I bought.

Your domain, though, if you redirect it, you won't get any attention to the original domain. That's your challenge.

Oh, that's true. No. I can't blame it. I don't understand.

So if if Wes rents out the ability to redirect what was the name of the domain?

It's world's biggest retard.com.

Yeah. And and I would I would register quickly world's biggest retards as plural, cause you don't wanna miss out on an opportunity. But anyway, if Wes redirects that

for a fee If it was just a pure redirect, sure. But you could, you know, make it a screenshot of there.

He'd have to do a five, ten second redirect with, like, about us and company page and and redirect for money that shows up, and then it redirects to the final site. Whereas mine is a non redirect is a little bit more permanent.

Yeah. Well, I think what we should do is we should just buy a bunch of these domains that are saying something about someone, and then it use it like a link shortener, And it's just like the whole company is like, you know how everything used to be bit dot l y. Well, now it's just like, you know, Oh, today you were the world's biggest retard. You know, every day there's one and I get to decide who it is. And you go to world's biggest.

I was actually pretty amazed that that domain was like up for the taking.

Yeah. I believe you you could have a ton of these novelty domains, and then I feel yeah. I feel like people would totally pay. Namespace is one of the things that is not going to be eliminated by AGI. Right?

Just owning namespace as a it's like real estate. And so, yeah, I think this could totally be a business. You just own a bunch of novelty domains, and then you pay to have for people to redirect from them or to fill them with something.

Yeah. Well, I need someone to pay for it because right now it goes to my Twitter page, and that's not cool. So

He doesn't really.

No. But I was thinking about doing that.

Jason Jason Calcanas did something similar. I think he had the website or something like that, and he would redirect it every week to whoever he felt was the biggest disgrace.

That's pretty funny.

That's a good bit. Yeah. That's that's that is a good bit. I think I was gonna use it. I was gonna use it for one particular person.

Maybe we should do something like this for the Handsome Hour. Maybe we should get, you know, we should get a relevant dating domain, and then every week, we based on whatever we're talking about, we we we change it.

But I I think yours will work great, Wes, as long as you had a five second delay to the redirect.

So you

could see history, how to how to how to and let people bid on it. Let people buy it for a week, so to speak, or or buy the redirect for a week.

Think it's We could whoever, like, whoever, like, retweets us or something becomes, you know, the the hot girl of the week or handsome man of the week or something.

World's smartest person.

Yeah. World's smartest person. We're we're we're defining the top and the bottom. Where everyone else is in the middle is like, you know, on any given day, you can know you're not the worst. You can know you're not the best.

That's that's providing a very I think it's providing comfort

to us. We're the authoritative just to, you know, decision makers here, which we're willing to sell for the right price.

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's right to outsource that kind of judgment. Sales bonus is a good one, I guess.

Do we have any dating topics this week that we just you know?

No. Well, the one I was talking about this is to tie it back to the original because we did have a dating topic that we started to go into, and then we changed the subject. We actually had two dating topics that we started to go into, and we changed the subject both times. The first one was just about like there is an iatrogenic quality of consuming dating content where, this is this is the metaphor to think of, or the analogy or the simile, whichever I don't I get those ones mixed up. But, consuming dating content, like most episodes of the show, not this one, teaches you how to lift with proper form.

Okay? It tells you how to hold the bench press. Right? And maybe you need someone in there to watch you a couple times so you get the muscle memory of how to do this correctly. But it reading fitness forums cannot replace going to the gym.

And once you're fluent in going to the gym because you've been doing it for a period of months or years and you're comfortable in there, then, there does become a point where consuming dating content, listening to podcasts, reading posts online, reading books, does start to it's a little bit like trying to change your golf swing while you're already on the course. Right? Like, you're just gonna fuck up your game because you are thinking too much about it. So the point of something like this show, is to entertain you, and hopefully, we entertain you long enough that you keep listening to it after you stop needing our advice, and maybe the show will just become not a dating show because we're already struggling with that currently anyway. However,

I think the point of this show is not to be advice I mean, we we will give advice. We'll pepper in advice. But I think the point of the show is actually not to fundamentally, the first priority is not to give advice. It's to stabilize people's emotions around the topic of dating dating. Meaning, like, everybody is just inundated with insanity content that is designed to trigger them and make them feel like they're insane and make them feel angry and upset and black billed.

And it's nice to just, like, for a while, hear the other side of that, that, like, there is a there are people who are, like, sane and thinking about things, like, reasonably. And, like, it just makes you go, like, oh, yeah. Okay. Like, maybe this is tractable.

And and who are those people, Cody? Do you have any

We're working on

finding that.

We're trying to the search is on. And if you know

what challenges those people you described to the the the ones inflaming the inflaming the conversation, They might be more viral. They might be more marketable. They might be more clickable. So there is something to be said, or, unfortunately, there's something to be said for their approach.

Yeah. Well, obviously, it's adaptive. Yes. That's but we're trying to fill a niche. So, you know, it's this is a classic frequent called a frequency dependent strategy in evolutionary biology.

Right? There's a reason that there's a reason that psychopaths are a stable 4% of the population because that's the equilibrium that it settles on. The market has settled on the equilibrium of people saying inflammatory retard content around dating, and that means that there is probably a niche in the market for the opposite, and that is what we were trying to fill. Probably, we are never gonna be fresh and fit because, you know, that is clearly the the equilibrium of the market. It rewards them more.

But may but if we can have, you know, 4% of the dating market, we'll take it.

Are we going for the psychopath? Because your choice of 4% for both of those was an interesting one.

Well, no. The point is that perhaps in this space, it is inverted, and the psychopaths get to have 96% of this space, and we are gonna slurp up the measly 4%.

The old 9644% rule, like the eighty twenty rule. The psychopath count. Yeah. I'll I'll take it. I'll take 4% global dominance of the podcast world.

Yeah. That would be nice. Yeah. So if you look at my personal dating life, you probably shouldn't take my advice, quite frankly.

Aren't you dating somebody who haven't you had some this might this is probably what we should have talked about. This probably should have been the the premier topic, which is that aren't you dating somebody who you have recently found out has a lot of like, you know, people that she has dated or something?

Yeah. Should we not talk about that? No. We can talk about it. I'm happy to talk about it because that's kind of over too.

I think it really is Probably it's over this time by my volition. It's just it's just, you know, I knew that relationship never made sense. Wasn't. It was like, you know, not a long relationship. But, yeah, it's it happened once a few weeks ago.

It was like, I know that she's like, oh, you know, mentioned someone, and I'm she's like, do you know this guy? I'm like, oh, yeah. I know that guy. And she's like, oh, yeah. We dated.

We went on a few dates. I'm like, okay. Like, that's interesting. What a small world. You know?

New York City is not a big play or it's a New York City is a big place. How which I don't know that many people here. How interesting that you've dated one of the people I know here. And then it happened again, and she's like, Oh, I saw this guy follows your company on Twitter. I dated him.

And I'm like, What the fuck? Like, okay. The reason I don't It's not someone I know super well, but it's someone that I don't like. And this one was like this one shook me a little bit because I'm like I don't want to be in the same category as that guy. I don't want to be I it it really bothered me.

It and it's it didn't bother me because of jealous. I don't get jealous. I really don't get jealous.

What is the term for, like, six degrees of separation, but it's like degrees of Eskimo, bro?

That's what you have going on. Yeah. It's like the yeah, dude. Like, I'm probably it it is kinda crazy to think that, like, if How many degrees of heads on

Eskimo, bro do you think you are from a Barack Obama?

I was just thinking about that. Like, probably not many. Like, I don't know. That's a good question. That's a really good question.

We should

be question is, is that an even number or an odd number? And I'll just let our listeners mull over that one for a few seconds.

That's that's gonna be above everyone's head, but but I think I get it. I think I get good

one. Yeah.

It's good. No. But I think that but, no, that doesn't necessarily mean I'm gay. It would still be an odd number if it was just one girl who was a bisexual. Right?

If I if there's just one in the entire chain of, relations, if there's just one girl who's bisexual that it can flip to an odd number. Right? Yes.

Yes. Yes. But that was not exactly why I was

The joke is that I am gay. No. Oh, okay.

The joke is about Obama. Yes.

The joke oh, the joke is that Obama's gay. I'm I'm zero degrees of separation from Obama and

the Eskimo, bro. That would be our Obama. We

might have said this before, I'm wrong. I Stop me if we've said this before. But this is a pattern that we see all the time with Keeper. It's shocking how small the dating world is. Like, people who you do not think should have interacted or know know each other at all have dated or have almost dated from across the world, different cities, etcetera.

It turns out I I mean, this is this is what we see. It's like that when you set up the Drake equation of your filters, it rapidly sends your potential number of potentials towards zero. If you just are looking for something

that's like Through one girlfriend alone, I am directly connected oral, not directly, but through her one ex girlfriend, I am directly connected to the founder of Postmates, and also another person who's a incredibly well known business podcaster entrepreneur. So it can be a little bit shocking what I can do with just one actual friend.

Yeah. Yeah. The well, I I I there's like sort of this arc in my life of like my maybe my wealth and shong, which is like I remember being a kid and being on a cruise with my dad. I was a little kid, and he was embarrassing me not doing anything outrageous doing normal dad stuff that you know you a dad would do. And I remember being like he's like, we're never gonna see these people again.

I'm gonna like, No, like you will see some of these people. Eventually you're going to see someone you're gonna send. It's gonna cost you. And that and, of course, like I was just being a shitty kid. Like if I was if the if the roles were reversed, I would I would do the same things.

But, And then I remember being like, kind of like gravitating towards Oh, well, you know, world's actually so big. You can kind of do whatever you want and probably face no consequences in a lot of situations. And now I've looped back around to like, Oh, no, the world's incredibly small. I see the same people I know everywhere. It's not like and it's not in ways that's just like, Oh, those are my social circles.

It's just like you like things loop back around and loose ends tie themselves up. And you there are these like it's sometimes like life does just feel very scripted the way some random interaction from several years ago will come back and then come to either bite you or to be like very fortuitous in a way that you just did not expect. And I think I have like maybe some crazy examples of this from my life, but the world is so much like it, and it just does like the sort of I think that the sort of like the white pill there is just that, like, actually being kind to people and being good to people and treating them well, like can accrue, not just in some, like, vague karmic sense Like, that shit can, by direct cause and effect, accrue back to you very quickly in a way that, like, is enough to make you should make you wanna do those things.

Yeah. I've I've been in into some industries for over ten years, and people absolutely know your reputation. And this is something I was talking to our developers about. One of the reasons you see lack of ethics in certain industries, and I'm not accusing any used car salesman directly, but if as a used car salesman, you screw over a customer, they're not coming back for three to five years anyway even if you're ethical. So the downside of being unethical as a used car salesman, especially where there's tremendous amounts of hidden information, chances are the unethical used car salesman will start to make more money than the ethical one.

Whereas in b to b software, particularly when you're selling on a monthly basis, if you're unethical, the person will cancel after a month or two, And especially if you spent a year's worth of their subscription acquiring them as a customer, the unethical person will go bankrupt. And so you have the situation where in some industries, b to b recurring software being one of them, it's actually better to act ethical, even if you're unethical, because that's the long term greedy decision. And it's very odd that people would say why is being ethical greedy, I'm not saying it necessarily is. I'm just saying that people only following the money can still choose to do the optimal long term ethical strategy. And I I like b to b software for that reason.

I like podcasting for that reason. I I think that the I think that something happens when, you know, this has happened in over the last thirty years or so is like, you know, your your reference group used to be. You know, I grew up in a small town or, you know, even if you're in a big city, it's like your community, your direct community, the people you're working with on a day to day basis, and there is this like the game theoretic concept of iterative play where it's like, you know, I'm not going to renege against, you know, if it's a one off prisoners dilemma, I'm going to renege because that's my best strategy in this one. But if I know that I have to interact with you over and over again over the course of many years, like, no, I'm going to do the correct things. If I screw you over now, you're going to screw me over next time the shoes on the other foot.

So you know, as the world becomes digital and the because it's such an anachronistic thing to say, But like as as like your your reference group never changed from being the small town. It's just now that your small town is coexisting aside a million other small towns, and they're not geographically co located. Whatever you choose to do with your life, you're going to be interacting with the same people just naturally no matter what. And even if you're even if you even if you say, oh, it's only 10% of The US population, that's my relevant reference group, that's still so many people, You're gonna see the same people. Like, you're gonna run into the same people, and you're going to be if you if you make like, there's a reason that, like, screwing people over unless you're very, very good at it.

And, like, you can kinda pull people like, you can't do that to people over the period of time for a long period of time. You just can't. Or maybe you can. I don't know. Maybe I'm

not sure I actually agree. Like, I do feel like there's a like there's a thing where actually the modern world has made it. Because, yes, reputational enforcement is the main way that, you know, sort of morality is, you know, operationalized. But I I think that the modern world has made it more more possible than ever for the amoral sort of psychopath types to essentially cook the books on their reputation. They can, you know, lie on their LinkedIn.

They can change companies. They can change social groups. They can sort of perpetually evade the the reputational ramifications, by constantly slipping in between the cracks in in the in

the But that's even hard, but but even I mean I mean, yes, to an extent, maybe. But, like, Sodie just told a story about the person on LinkedIn who he, you know, she had no history. She tried to do exactly what you're talking about, and she was not able to escape that.

Sure. I mean, this is there are obviously some exceptions and, like, the permanent record of the Internet if you've done porn or something and broadcasted it on the, like, that is one of the ways that it's

To to to split the difference with both you guys, and I agree with both you guys, is I think you're both right in the sense that the Internet has made it easier to either evade that or delay being caught by that. And there are of those psychopaths, maybe one to five percent of the psychopaths are so good that they can continue to get away with it. But by and large, you know, people I've worked with who were fundamentally decent people but just willing to cut corners in a slightly less unethical way, not even that bad, their reputation caught up in the middle over long enough. You know, it's just it's really hard to fool all the people all the time.

Yeah. Sure. I think unless you're very small scale. Right? Like, think have to be mugging people on the sidewalk.

Sorry West. What?

Yes Yes. No, that's that is you have to be able to, constantly cover your trails and hide it, and you have to be very like And it's like at that point, the stress like just just cooperate. Like, just cooperate because the the the the unless you are like, you are not who's the fucking guy from Catch Me If You Can? Nightingale.

Amusingly, supposedly Nightingale. Made that up. So his scam artist is tricking everyone to think he was a scam artist.

Really? What's that guy's name? It's gonna bother me.

Leonardo DiCaprio played him

Frank

Frank

Abagnale. Abagnale?

Yeah. There we go.

Florence Nightingale. Who's Florence Nightingale? She invented the Red Cross. Is that it? I don't know.

This is the famous woman hour. Anyway The next on the next episode on the next episode, we're gonna get to the bottom of Marie Curie for Florence Nightingale. And who's this cook lady?

I wanna go into Marie Curie's radiation poisoning. That's a good story. Okay.

Yes. We'll we'll see how that applies to dating. And

Alright.

On the next episode, we'll talk about dating. We'll talk about the recent allegations against Stoney. Bombshell

all these. The dolphin was unharmed. Yeah. That was that was from The Simpsons. I don't if you guys know this, but I what was the, I think he was Troy McClure, the, the famous actor.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Had, like

I'm Troy McClure. May remember me from such nature documentaries.

They wanted to give him a really dark sexual past, but equally something implausible. So he was barred from SeaWorld due to his proclivities around, you know, fish. So whenever I'm accused of something, I always nod towards Troy McClure.

Why did God give him blowholes? If if God if they didn't want me if if God didn't want me, why do you think Moby Dick? Why do you think, captain Ahab?

So you're saying you're saying that they're not asking for it, but God is on their behalf.

We don't know if they're asking for it because they're animals. They all we hear when when whales communicate, all we hear is, no. You know? And that could be whale for put it aside me, daddy.

By the way, if ever want to go to YouTube and see whales have sex, that stuff is crazy.

I'm good. Alright. I'm good.

Yeah. Actually, I'm gonna check it out. But

There we go.

Yep.

Let's end on that one. Alright, audience. We, we love you. We thank you. It's the handsome hour.