Ep135:Navigating Personal Bonds and Political Views

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, Dan and I have a thought-provoking discussion on balancing political views with interpersonal dynamics.

Dean shares delightful tales from mingling with influencers in Toronto, like Joe Polish and Evan Carmichael.

The intersection of politics and entertainment is examined using Taylor Swift as an example to explore the idea of keeping various domains of life separate.

Dan emphasizes the growing importance for political figures to focus on their designated roles.

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS

• We discuss the balance between political views and personal relationships, sharing anecdotes from our own experiences and the importance of keeping these domains separate.
• Dean shares stories from his recent social gatherings in Toronto with influencers like Joe Polish and Evan Carmichael, highlighting the social dynamics of such events.
• We explore the intersection of politics and entertainment, using Taylor Swift's political expressions as a case study, and reflect on how public opinion can be influenced by celebrity endorsements.
• We examine the underlying economic factors driving societal changes, emphasizing the costs of money, energy, labor, and transportation as key drivers beyond political discourse.
• Dan highlights the resilience of the entrepreneurial spirit in adapting to political landscapes and the role of the U.S. Constitution in shaping American society.
• We take a nostalgic journey back to the 1950s, discussing cultural elements like TV dinners and the Mickey Mouse Club, and how these shaped our personal stories.
• We reflect on dietary changes and the shift towards healthier habits, sharing insights on the enduring freshness of certain foods and the importance of sustainable eating practices.
• We emphasize the importance of building good habits, using personal anecdotes to illustrate how small, consistent changes can have a profound impact over time.
• We explore the concept of accountability buddies and consistent routines in managing personal health, highlighting the significance of protein intake and balanced diets.
• We conclude with a philosophical reflection on human nature and the challenges of making lasting lifestyle changes, underscoring the importance of long-term vision and ethical behavior.

Links:
WelcomeToCloudlandia.com
StrategicCoach.com
DeanJackson.com
ListingAgentLifestyle.com

TRANSCRIPT

(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)

Dean: There we go, mr Sullivan. Ah, much better. Okay, great that was my AirPods for some reason. Or, staticky, you're not the first one to say it, so I'll just put it on. We'll go old-fashioned here, just on speaker.

Dan: Yeah, yeah, sometimes old fashioned here just on speaker.

Dean: Yeah, yeah, sometimes old fashioned works, you know, sometimes yeah, I can give you an example.

Dan: I can give you an example Oxygen you know, been around for a while. Most people don't give it a thought. Most people don't give a thought, and yet, and yet, it's.

Dean: I find I appreciate it, you know of a thought and yet, and yeah, that's yeah, I find I appreciate it. You know well, I have, you know, as you know, I have a new appreciation for oxygen, whereas a couple of years ago my lack of oxygen was a problem.

But yes, yeah I fully appreciate oxygen. We were saying how we just so everybody knows we had a little false start on the cast. We had static, so the first minute or so was we decided to switch over to this mode here. But we're saying I'm in Toronto right now, as is Dan. We had a nice brunch yesterday and I was sharing with Dan that. I had dinner with Joe Polish last night and Evan Carmichael and Chad Jenkins and Krista and I can't remember her last name, dan, but she lives in Vancouver and South Africa. Yeah, she's in 10 times.

Dan: Well, anyway, I was noticing, I was just looking. They've been doing the polls on Taylor Swift coming down on the side and it's made absolutely no difference. It's made absolutely no difference. One way or the other, it hasn't made any difference, and what it tells me is that the vote is sort of locked in for the presidential.

Dean: Yeah, it was locked in.

Dan: Yeah, it's made a difference for her in that there's a lot of people who are getting rid of their Taylor.

Swift tickets and get off. When you get off the trail you're in the weeds, get back down as much as you can. You know, and it's not particularly anything to do with this particular election, but my sense is there's a there's a growing desire on the part of people that if you're in one area of life, stay in that area of life. Don't come and, you know, don't make all of life a political stew you know, like you know everything else.

Dean: And you know I wonder if there's any examples where that has worked out for people in anyone I was mentioning yesterday at the brunch that you know reminds me of the dixie chicks debacle in 2001. Yeah, and the documentary you know that came out afterwards. Shut up and sing but what, uh?

Dan: and that was before.

Dean: You know that was really, that was before the internet and cancel culture. So that was mainstream media driving that.

Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just say, you know, I like my categories distinct and separate. I don't want the you know, I don't want them all mixing up with each other and you know, and I by the same token, in the political realm, I would prefer that the politicos, you know, the people who run for office and run office. They don't attach themselves to other areas of life. You know, just do your politicking and, you know, be good at it and when the time comes, get out. And, you know, work on your handicap. You know.

And yeah, it's interesting, you know, and yeah it's interesting, and I think what it is? It's the technological, the easy technological means to mix things together. You know, I mean you see a series of five second flashes or two second flashes and it's like everything that's important is everything else and nothing means anything more than anything else, and that's not really true, you know. I mean, that's not true for any person. There's definitely things that are more important than other things, and I just don't like being told that you should mix everything together.

Dean: I agree, I mean the whole yeah, it is. Yeah, I think you're right, Stay in their lanes. We don't want everything, yeah all, becoming moral issues or anything you know.

Dan: Well, they all become political issues. The problem is, everything is reduced to a common denominator, that everything has a political meaning, and you know there are those who you know who do that. But I don't do that, you know I have great friends who I know I have great friends that don't vote the way that I do and the way they vote has no bearing whatsoever on my friendship with them.

Dean: Yes yes, I agree A hundred percent.

Dan: As long as they don't bring up the subject.

Dean: They don't try and convert you Exactly.

Dan: No.

Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I find that same thing. That's really. I mean remember it used to be more you know. It used to be like a private matter kind of thing. Right, like people would. You'd never really discuss it, but now it's like everything. Everybody's got a megaphone and everybody's very especially on the polls. I think we're definitely more polarized than I remember us being.

I just remember the debate the other night. Watching the debate was just such a series of you're a liar, no, you're a liar. No, you lied about this, you're a liar and the whole. I mean, that's all it was. My favorite ever debate moment was Obama-Romney in 2008. Obama was responding to Romney suggesting that under his you know, maybe it was 2012.

Dan: Yeah, probably it was McCain in 2008.

Dean: Yeah, because under he was proposing that under Obama the Navy had less ships than they did in 1910. And Obama, just without skipping a beat, said yeah, that's right, and there's also less horses and bayonets. I don't know if you noticed, but they have this new thing called aircraft carriers where we can actually fly the planes right off of the ships. I mean it was just so funny that bring, there's less horses and bayonets. I mean that's pretty funny.

That was probably prepared for. You know you like to think that's off the cuff, but I think that had to have been what could possibly mitt accuse us of, or maybe he said no what?

Dan: what I suspect is what I suspect is that uh mitt had tried to line out previously in some other situation yeah, and you know, you know which goes to show. You only try your lines out for the first time, right?

Dean: Don't do it for the second time.

Dan: Right, yeah, yeah, so anyway. But I think what happens is that I was noticing that there's a real distinction between Trump, on the one hand, and Obama. Is that everybody feels they know Trump? And very few people feel they know her and even after 90 minutes of a debate, you still don't have a handle on who this person is. You know who is she is, you know and, and yeah, and I think that in the end they're going to, they're going to vote for the known quantity Risky.

Dean: It's going to be various things that I'm seeing. That's my take.

Dan: I mean, you know, that's my take anyway.

Dean: The things I'm seeing now on my algorithm. What they're presenting to me is the I saw, you know, side by side or above and below video of her saying one thing, you know in 2020 or 2022 or whatever it was in the past, saying taking a hard stance on something, and then, in 2024, saying exactly the opposite of what she said in the you know in that time, and so very well done of letting her, in her own words, show how she's flip-flopping.

Dan: Yeah, I mean, I'm a straight ticket voter. My first election was 68, and that was. They changed the voting age when I was 24, the in 64, so I was 20 years old and the voting age at that time was 21. And then they changed it in the next four years, so I the first time I voted was 68 and I've been straight ticket ever since then you know, why tell you know, why Tell me, you know why I'm straight ticking. It's simpler.

Dean: It's simpler.

Dan: This is who I am. Yeah, it's like we're wearing the same clothes every day Having the same uniform. But the whole point of it is that I vote on the basis of entrepreneurism. Which party seems to be more supportive of entrepreneurism? And it's definitely one and not the other, and it's been that way for 32, 56 years. It's been that way for 56 years. So that's my criteria for voting. It's the same thing here in Canada. You know, because I voted both countries, because I'm a citizen of both countries.

Dean: Oh, very nice, and you are too, and you are too, and you are too, I am too.

Dan: Yeah, yeah, if you care to exercise your vote. My franchise, they call it.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: Your franchise. Yeah, but it's Peter Zion who I'm a great fan of and he said you know, the United States as a country, as a landmass, you know, given their position in the world geographically and looking at their demographics, have so much going for them that Americans are the only people in the world who can treat domestic politics strictly as a form of popular entertainment. Domestic politics strictly as a form of popular entertainment. And you know, and that's what I get, is that there's, you know, and I wrote a book about two quarters ago called the Great Meltdown, and what I said is that probably politics is secondary to the cost of four things the cost of money how much does it cost to have money? Interest rates, you know, what kind of return on money do you have? The second thing is energy cost of labor. So that's m e, l, and then t is transportation, and in every case the united states has the lowest cost on the planet and that means that that's going to determine things.

Those four costs money, energy, labor and transportation are going to be the dominant factor and I think that politics is a dog that's being pulled together, pulled forward by those four, you know, by those four factors in society. People don't really, they don't experience them necessarily that way, but they experience that things were better four years ago than they are today.

You, know, somehow they have a feeling about that, and so you know. So it's like the ocean. Everybody talks about the waves and the wind, but really it's the current that makes the difference. And I think economic factors are not winds and waves, they're the current. Oh, that's interesting. The news is about waves and wind and storms and everything else, but that's not what determines things.

Dean: That makes a lot of sense. Yes, yeah, the currents are what goes underneath, as always moving in a direction for sure. I remember when Oliver Stone did the movie on Putin, where it was like an interview type of series. I don't know whether we've talked about that or whether you saw it, but his whole he was saying, you know, because Putin has seen so many presidents come and go all the way since the first Bush, right, he's just been the constant.

And his analysis was that he sees all these men come and they have, you know, the desire for change and they have ideas for change, and the people, you know, they present those ideas and the people vote for them. But as soon as they get into office, what he called the men in the suits come and tell them how it really is, and then there is no change, and that's the current I think that you're talking about is, and then there is no change, and that's the current I think that you're talking about. Everybody would talk about the deep state or the you know the thing, the behind the scenes, the big picture stuff that you know it's mostly the whoever's at the helm is really winds and waves, you know yeah.

Dan: Do you think that this was truly an understanding of the united states or he was just reflecting what was true?

Dean: in the Kremlin, maybe I mean, but it seems so Because my theory is that there's bureaucratic families in Russia today.

Dan: You know they're the result of intermarriage over a century. They were the behind the scenes people when the czar was there. They were the behind the scenes people when the czar was there they were the behind the scenes people, and they don't have political views, they just have a way of getting things done, you know, like and, and the survival of their family is the most important thing.

Remember I'll switch countries here remember that guy who went on a murder streak in Norway and he walked into the parliament and he shot up the Norwegian parliament and then ran out and then he took a boat over to an island where he really did some damage and I think he killed a large number of sort of teenage children, and these were all the children of the people who were the bureaucrats. They were. You know they were upper echelon people, but they were government bureaucrats. They were sort of faceless people.

Dean: You didn't know them.

Dan: And he says you don't make any change unless you kill the bureaucrats. He says you don't kill the politicians, you kill the bureaucrats, they're the. You don't kill the politicians, you kill the bureaucrats, they're the ones you want to kill. Yeah, and kill the next generation. And the Norwegians, of course, don't have death penalties. So he's up, you know, working on his rubric cube or something. But it's really interesting. A lot of people don't think of that. I bet in Washington there's families who were upper echelon people in 1900, and they're still upper echelon and they intermarry like aristocracy.

There's bureaucratic aristocracy and they intermarry and everything else, but they're never seen. They're never seen. You never know who these people are, but they do have power really in any way.

Dean: And you know, I just look at how little, and I don't know. This may be ignorant, but how little it seems to have an impact on my life in a way that I can do anything about it. You know, and that's where I think entrepreneur, capitalism like as long as capitalism's allowed and we're allowed to pursue our self-interest, that's really the biggest driver of everything.

Dan: Yeah, we're making money on election day, right Personal agency right of our own outcomes. Yeah, you know, and I've been talking. You know there are people who are just the opposite of you and they're intensely involved in it and they said you know what happens if all the people we don't like get elected? And I said you'll have a good, you'll have a good entrepreneurial year.

Dean: It's being adaptable. Right, You've got to deal with what the situation is, what the current is.

Dan: Yeah, but my take is that if you spend some time reading the Constitution, and there's a lot of neat videos, educational videos Probably the best source of this is Hillsdale College. It's a college in Michigan and their whole thing is that America is a unique country because of the Constitution, and so they put a lot of effort, they put a lot of money, they put a lot of time into making sure that the students really comprehend what the Constitution really does.

Dean: And.

Dan: I've not been there but I've. You know I became interested in it because it's not much bigger now than it was when it was enacted in the 17th, and you know it's not. It's changed very little. It's changed very little. I heard the phrase that, if you typed up the Constitution in 1789, I think is when it was enacted a single space so a single space typed, it would be 23 pages in 1789.

Dean: And if you were to do it?

Dan: today it would be 27 pages. They've added four pages in 230 years, almost 250 years, and in the very first paragraph of the Constitution it says this is the supreme law of the land. Okay, so the Constitution, that document, is the supreme law of the land.

Nothing else can be higher than the Constitution. And then they put in a whole set of rules where it becomes very difficult to change the Constitution. So if you have an amendment to the Constitution, you got to get two-thirds of the House of Representatives to vote for it, two-thirds of the Senate and then three-quarters of all the state legislatures, so roughly, you know 37 states. The legislature would have to vote for it. And it better be a persuasive amendment.

Dean: Better be compelling.

Dan: Yeah, exactly, yeah, that's you know, and everybody tears their, you know, and everybody rips their clothing and tears the thing and they said, yeah, but it's a bunch of white guys in the 1700s and I said yeah but they did a good job. You know there was about. There's maybe about 3 million of them you know, total population 3 million and they were just the Atlantic seaboard and look where it is now. I think they did a good job.

Dean: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think you're absolutely right. That's kind of the thing. At the underpinning of it is the individual pursuit of it's all about the individual.

Dan: It's all about the individual. Yeah, the whole thing is geared to give individuals unique freedom to develop themselves. Yeah, so I'm kind of for that and that helps.

Dean: That's kind of like you know, that's appealing to entrepreneurs yeah, I'm I the direction that's going in.

Dan: I'm inclined toward that direction. I kind of like that direction yeah. And so my sense is there isn't much that will happen in any election that's going to alter a 250-year momentum in a particular direction. I just don't think there's much. I mean it might be useful for entertainment purposes and everything else, and I vote. I always make sure I vote, but I go to bed at 9 o'clock. On Election Day and I just check the results in the morning Three weeks later to see who won.

No, I get up the next morning and I check in.

Dean: In any case, the last few times it's been. You know the real. No matter who won air quotes, it's always some question and contested and you know it'll be weeks before the final decision is made, kind of thing.

Dan: Well, I just think it's a poor career choice where you get paid for being outraged.

Dean: Yeah right.

Dan: Yeah, I think you know I really haven't developed this thought very much, but I think so much of the complexity of society today is that there's just so many of us and we're electronically empowered.

Dean: Well, you hit it on the head right there that there's so many of us with a megaphone, that everybody has the megaphone, everybody has reach to all the others and you can collectively get on a you know, collectively gather momentum with you know what everybody is saying. You and I were talking at brunch yesterday. I've been reading the Same as Ever book by Morgan Housel that she recommended and it's fascinating. It really is interesting and yeah, that kind of you know. All of this is the same as ever.

Everybody's been the winds and the waves have always gone in one direction, but the current is everything. Have always gone in one direction, but the current is everything.

Dan: Yeah, yeah, I mean he makes a really great case for evolution. He says you know, evolution. He says it's roughly about 3.8 billion years that we can from the early, I guess the earliest cell life.

He's using that as the starting point and he says you know, a lot of things have gotten worked out over 3.8 billion that you probably can't reverse. You know 3.8 billion. So it would behoove you to pay attention in what direction evolution is going and basically how it operates. Basically how it operates and it's you know, and it doesn't have to make big changes at any point along the way. It just makes, you know, thousands of little changes, little alterations, but they're not reversible, unnoticeable, yeah yeah, yeah.

And you know and I can appreciate that, being in my ninth decade, I can appreciate that that I made decisions when I was 12 years old that were good decisions, and I'm profiting from these decisions 75, 80 years later.

Dean: Yeah, that is so funny. Yeah, it's amazing if you think all the way back like that. You know the decisions when you were 12 years old were in the heart of the 50s Right, the golden.

Dan: Yeah, yeah it was. That was a golden era Boy that was a TV's in every car and every drive, yeah, tv dinners, yeah, yeah, especially, especially the TV dinners. Yeah, especially the TV dinners. You know, that was a big deal. And you know Mickey Mouse Club you know Right. I mean and that.

Dean: What more do you?

Dan: want. Right, mine was what's her name? Last name was Tracy, oh, doreen, tracy, doreen.

Dean: Tracy, okay, yeah, yeah.

Dan: Apparently, she was the most popular and she's the only one I met. I spent about three days of her traveling as a USO show in Korea in 1966, 1910. It was neat, you know, just having her. She was you know, she was 10. She was, you know, 20 and everything else. She was 10, she was 20 and everything else. But a nice person, very talkative and really self-reflective. I sense that this is a person who thinks about things very deeply. And she said you know, this is my last entertainment event, what we're doing here in South Korea with the USO show, which is the nonprofit organization that provides hospitality and entertainment for US military. And she said you know, I'm not.

I was as talented at 12 as I am today and said I haven't gotten any more talented but, I was more talented at that time than other 12 year olds. So she said I got to be a mom. But she says I, you know. She says I've hit my head on the ceiling of being talented, and now I have to.

Now I have to go back and I have to start a new career and she went back and she became a talent manager for Warner Brothers and she was from that period, you know, when she went back, when she started doing that, right straight through until she was 65 and she was well regarded as a, you know, a really first class talent manager. She had Frank Zappa. Frank Zappa was one of her. You know assignments? Okay, yeah, because he was with Warner Brothers. He was with Warner Brothers recording.

Dean: Oh wow, very interesting.

Dan: Yeah, but I found her a very, you know, very upbeat, very positive person, very engaging sort of person. You know, just three days about five shows and that was it. I never thought about it again until the Internet came along and I you know, just you know, I just looked her up and yeah, she had done that. And then when she retired from Warner Brothers she started a jazz and blues club in Hollywood and then she died about eight years later, she died of cancer.

Dean: Oh yeah.

Dan: But it was for someone I was. You know, I was right in there with Mickey Mouse Club when I was 12 years old.

Dean: Yeah, you were. That's who the show was for. Yeah.

Dan: Right, yeah, yeah, I mean you had Pepsi, you had chips and you had Hostess Twinkie. I mean you had Pepsi, you had chips and you had Hostess Twinkie.

Dean: I mean it's a balanced meal. Yeah, a balanced meal. Wow, twinkie's been around that long, yeah, yeah.

Dan: I'll tell you something. I talked to a nutritionist at Canyon Ranch about the Twinkie. And he said if you had a Twinkie from 1956, you had never opened the package. And he said you went down to the supermarket right now and you bought yourself a this year's Twinkie. And you opened them up. There's no difference. They taste the same the one from 1956 is just as fresh as the one that you bought this afternoon.

Dean: Like Pop-Tarts. That's what Jerry Seinfeld said they never go stale.

Dan: they can't go stale because they were never fresh they were yeah, okay, the prize is find an organic part of a twinkie.

Dean: There's nothing organic about this treat joe was just telling me about this research that's all coming out now about seed oils and things that he's talking about. I think there's a book called Dark Calories I think is what it is but some crazy amount of our calories in the normal American diet like over 30% of our calories come from these oils?

Dan: Yes, exactly, yeah, you know like corn oil canola oil. Yeah, and all the. You know the difference. Yeah, I mean, that's one thing. That Babs got on about a year ago Only butter. Either olive oil or butter? Yeah, butter. And that steak yesterday was good with the butter, wasn't it it?

Dean: really was. Yeah, so we should tell we found a new. For years we have been going to the same two places Jacques here in Yorkville, or Le Select Bistro for our Saturday, and we tried for the first time in frenchie, frenchie in, which is essentially in the lobby of the hilton hotel in the business district, in the business yeah, so we had some interesting experiences, but that steak was really well was the steak was really good yeah, yeah, and it was medium rare, it was perfectly medium rare, and I particularly, and they knife selection ceremony steak knife selection yeah, and he brought a box of this.

Dan: This is kevin brought the steak knives and he opened it up and and I said there were six of them, and I said do you, kevin, do you recommend one of these which?

Dean: one do you recommend?

Dan: he said I think this year, I think this was a good year, so I think I picked up one of them, you know I over tipped him because he was responsive.

Dean:
He was very, very responsive. He really was responsive.

Dan: Yeah, because they had a rule that breakfast ended at 11, but lunch didn't start until 1130. And I said so do we have to wait? And he says no. He says do whatever you want Order whatever you want and I'll take care of it, but anyway, it was really good. And I'm really hooked on steak. You're the. You're the fault of this.

Dean: You know you're the cause because you convinced that it's my inch, I got you on blue t-shirts and now steaks. This is all, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah I'm working on fountain. I change your direction.

Dan: I change in your direction slow enough that you don't get a big head about it.

Dean: Right, oh, that's great. I love that. Slow enough that I don't get a big head about it.

Dan: That's right yeah.

Dean: That's funny.

Dan: No, but I'm not seeing a huge difference. I mean I never got in trouble. I mean, like I'm not someone who huge difference. I never got in trouble. I'm not someone who is in big trouble physically and everything else, but the weight goes up over time. Right now, I'm about 15 pounds heavier than when I graduated from high school and I was in good shape because I played three sports you know all four years. I was always in a sports team and during the summers I caddied at the golf course.

Dean: So that kept me in good shape.

Dan: Yeah, yeah, and but the thing about it was I eat very well at meals. It's between meals that get me into trouble. And that's because of that's because of cravings. And I noticed that if you eat a lot of beef, you don't have cravings. That's the truth.

Dean: That is absolutely true. The satiety is high.

Dan: Yeah.

Dean: Yes, yeah, I find that too. But I also find, dan, like I've been, you, doing, uh, carnivore for the last little while here, and I noticed a difference, like in terms of that. But there have been times. It's not a, it's not a straight path to the moon here. There's some veering of things and I noticed that even the slightest little. You introduce something into a thing and it gets a foothold. You're right that the cravings and the easy to veer off path for a little while Low enough that you don't notice it.

Dan: There's a part of us that has to be a watchdog. There's part of us that has to be vigilant. You know, and and you know and I think they're good habits. Basically, the watchdogs are good habits and and you know that it's an interesting thing about people who have good habits and they're, you know, using other descriptions about them they're ethical, they're moral you know they're law abiding, and what they found is that those people have the best sense of a long future.

They find that morality and legality and everything that we admire in people is actually a function of how long their future is, how far they can see, and they can see that something they do today either supports their positive long future or it would undermine it. And one of the tests they've done is inner city children who are members of gangs Okay, robbery of some sort and what they find is that their sense of the future is never more than 24 hours. Is that their sense of the future is never more than 24 hours? And so they say, if I do this now, can I be in trouble in 24 hours?

And you know, you stop some kid on the street, you force him to take off his sneakers or his jacket.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: Are you going to get in trouble in 24 hours? Probably not, wow.

Dean: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah, so you're being moral and being ethical and being law abiding is a function of how clear you are about a longer future, where today's actions really matter.

Dean: Yes, well, that brings you know. That's funny. That kind of ties in with what you. We were talking in Palm Beach six months ago about this behaviors right. Bringing bringing their here, meaning just identifying what are the. It was just kind of funny that the timing of it because I was sharing with you that I had looked at the. You know, if you look at here and look backwards and say what are the behaviors and habits that got me to here, I heard somebody say one time if you look around, just take it all in, look around you and everything that is a reality in your life right now. This is what all of your past decisions created, right. All your past decisions and behaviors led to this moment, everything you have right. And I thought, yeah, when you shared with me the bringing there here is looking forward and identifying if this, if I could describe the here I want, the now that I want, what does that look like in the here, what are the behaviors that support that future?

Dan: Yeah, yeah. And I think the big thing is what are your habits today? That would be the habits you would want 20 years from now. Which habits do you have already formed? And then that picture of you 20 years from now. If you look at a day in the life of you say, well, I want this habit. And then you have to say, well, if I'm going to have the habits, then I might as well start those habits today.

You know, you know yeah, and and that what I mean habits is that you do the right thing without thinking about it yeah, and the cape, I mean the things, it's.

Dean: So I was had, uh, breakfast with joe this morning. We were talking about, you know, six, six months ago I really had no idea how to cook, or it's hard to say. I see you that you got you know 57 or eight years into my life and never really learned to cook or anything. And now, you know, between my instant pot and my air fryer, you know I'm cooking up a storm here, making delicious steaks and chicken and salmon, everything. What a life changing like skill and it's just a natural thing.

Now I know I've got the whole process. It's a habit. I know I've got the whole process. It's a habit, you know. Once you know the habit, it's the. You know the process. I do it all kind of in to preheat for three minutes and while that three minutes is happening, I'm seasoning the steak with salt pepper and just a little bit of Montreal steaks rub and then by the time I get that done, the air fryer is preheated. I just put it in for, depending on how thick it is, three or four minutes per side and then it's done. So the whole ordeal is, you know, 13 minutes from the idea of having a steak to your first bite.

Dan: And so you know, and now you're becoming an internet influencer yeah, that's exactly right, that's right, that's exactly right. Yeah, yeah, rabbi jackson. Oh, there's rabbi jackson again. Yeah, but you know, this is how we learn from each other you know yeah, I mean he doesn't mention it. Morgan Housel, in the book you're reading, same as ever, but I've seen it many times that the two main habits that humans have that move things forward are one imitation see something that somebody else is doing, and then repetition you get a good thing going and then you just repeat and repeat.

And it's so interesting. I saw a little. I was going through the news programs this morning and there was a commercial and it was Bill Gates was a commercial, and it was bill gates, and and you know, and here's bill gates, you know, and he really is truly boring, he was born boring. He's a very boring, he's a very boring thing. But you know he's boring with 50, 50 billion or 100 billion, whatever the amount of money he has.

Dean: But now he's saying sorry, go ahead. I said sorry, go ahead.

Dan: Yeah, I think that. And he's saying there's no question now, we just have to get rid of fossil fuels. Yeah, he says we've come to the point now and it's just. And then he brings in all sorts of people who are talking about the breakthroughs that will be possible, and Anthony Fauci is one of them on the program and everything like that.

But the question is, Bill, you were using fossil fuels to go to Jeffrey Epstein's island. What was that all about, oh boy? What was that all about, oh man? What was that all about, oh man? I don't know if he ever went to the island, but he hung out with him in New. York City.

And you know, and yeah so, so anyway, but you know, I think we're coming back. I just have a sense. Maybe it's just me that I'm becoming aware of something, but I have a sense because the things that are being talked about, like the Morgan Household book you know there are some things that you can bet on are always going to operate in a certain direction. You know, and I get a sense, we're getting there, I mean. But I'm, you know, I'm into new things. You know I'm creating more new things at 80 than I was at 50, and I'm involved in more new things at 80 than I was at 50.

And I'm involved in more new things at 80 than I was at 50. So I don't think it's just my sense of what's happening to me. I get a sense from reading the news and everything like that that it's not so easy to change human nature.

Dean: Yeah, I think you're right, but it's also yeah, that's why it's when you make these gradual changes, natural selection of better habits kind of thing, make a big impact. You know like I think, yeah, yeah, the natural selection, yeah, I mean I never got.

Dan: You know, I've been influenced basically because I get full medicals, you know, with David. Hasse, I mean top to bottom medicals and you know, he says, you know you're carrying too much weight, you've got too much fat. And I said, and he says, you know, think about this, think about that. And I said I'm not going to do anything where my weight loss is more than a pound a week and so I started the steak.

Steak diet you know, yesterday I had steak for breakfast, steak for lunch, steak for dinner. Other things too, you know, had some small potatoes. I had broccoli and French fries with you.

Dean: And anyway.

Dan: and but I mean, if you look ahead 20 weeks and you're 20 pounds down, that's a big deal. I don't want to take on an unnatural diet for a period of time and then go back to my old diet. I want my entire habits of eating to change permanently of eating to change permanently.

Dean: What I've learned from JJ Virgin is that it really is about the protein first, of getting the amount of protein for your target weight, kind of. That's the thing. That number one priority is getting 180 grams of protein, you know, and then and then adding on whatever, while staying in that your caloric thing. But I find that, man, if you're eating that amount of protein, the protein is the satiety thing that it just is the gift that keeps on giving. You know, you don't get those. It's the most.

Dan: Even burning, yeah and it's where the, where the muscle comes from yes, exactly, yeah, yeah, so well, that's interesting.

Dean: That that's a really good. Do you measure? Do you wait? How often do you weigh yourself?

Dan: every day, every morning yeah okay, I've got a little journal and I log in.

Dean: I've got a little journal and I, yeah, yeah that's been a big thing. I have the the. You know my JJ has really been my accountability buddy in all of this. I chart everything that I eat and chart my weight every day and my sleep score and my steps.

And I, you know, send a little photo, photo story to her every day and that, yeah, it's good to chart and see the the progress you know I had an interesting and a friend who has maintained his weight at a in a you know five pound band for band for as long as I've known him and he shared that at one point. He stays between 178 and 182 or three as the band that he's in constantly. And he told me he got up to 230 pounds at one point, wow yeah, and then he lost all the weight. He got up to 230 pounds at one point, wow yeah, and then he lost all the weight, got down to 180 as his ideal.

But he weighs himself every day and he uses a green light, yellow light, red light system that if he's 178 or 179, it's green light, he can eat whatever he wants. If he wants to have dessert, fine. If he wants this, whatever, fine. And if he's 180 or 181, he's yellow light and it's like, just, you know, caution kind of, for taking it easy. But if he gets to 182 it's red light and he has to go, stay on the path until he gets back to 178. So he's never had to lose more than five pounds, you know. So it's a really interesting thing. If he knows he's going on a vacation or something, he'll get to 178 and then do what he wants on vacation and maybe he gains five pounds on vacation, but comes back and immediately on the straight and narrow. Slow and steady wins the race.

Dan: Yeah, this is Dean and Dan having a deep philosophy hour. This was the Sunday philosophy hour with Dean and Dan, that's right.

Dean: The double D philosophy hour. That's right.

Dan: Yeah, the Calry philosophy hour. Anyway but that's great. Then we'll be able to chat again this evening Over some meat, Over some meat. Yeah you you're gonna have to do with burgers tonight that's right, familiar.

Dean: But anyway. So all you guys are more or less coming together, I guess right probably well, joe, yep, joe and me and chad, I think we'll all be over together. All righty, it's all very exciting, dan, I will see you in a few hours.

Dan: Thank you okay. Thanks, dean.