Some Raw Stream of Consciousness
What I've been saying on Airchat
The following is an collection of thoughts I’ve expressed on Airchat since July 2023. They are unedited and come from asynchronous conversations about various topics. I didn’t include other people’s responses or anything I said in Spanish.
I’m thankful to Sigil Wen for sending me these transcripts.
Hey everyone, my name is Jeff. I'm from the US and this is my first Chit. I was playing around with this for the first time last night and it's a smooth interface. It's cool and I really like this concept of a social network centered around voice notes. I think the simple fact of hearing people's voices can go a long way in terms of having a positive and sort of intimate feeling conversation online. And also I'm sure that Naval and the other creators considered this but I could see this becoming a phenomenal tool for improving speaking in any other language that you want to learn especially because well I'm fluent in Spanish and I'm also learning I can speak other languages but not so well and I think when people tell me because they know this when they say oh I want to learn another language they sort of give up because they don't have anyone to talk with and they don't have enough immersion they don't experience real conversations they don't listen to natives and AirChat can solve a lot of those problems so that's really cool too so yeah happy to be here and excited to see where this goes.
Okay, yeah, I just sent a message in the babble chat. Cool stuff over there. Also, the translation was really accurate. And also, Naval, I just want to say thank you for being you, sincerely. Your content has really inspired and helped me a ton, so thank you.
And about the future of languages, I have no idea, but if I had to guess, I would say that there will be fewer people who want to learn languages because it is easier to do translations with technology. And well, it all depends where you were born. For example, I think that most people in the United States and China, it is not necessary to learn other languages, but it is not the same in different places. And yes, I have thought about learning Chinese, but I don't want to learn a new alphabet.
Hey Junaid, I probably butchered the pronunciation of your name so let me know but the link above is to a beautiful Italian song that I just found and at the beginning it is a soccer game where the crowd is singing along and it's really cool but it plays the full song after it gives me chills the beginning and it's a really beautiful song and it means in Italian it will be because I love you I've been learning a little bit of Italian but I don't really know what it's saying most of the time either and I couldn't agree more that I love listening to music where I don't understand the words and if you want some other really good songs I don't know how much Spanish you know but I learned Spanish in great deal through music I mean wasn't the main reason why but it was definitely it definitely helped a lot because I just listen to Spanish music all the time so I have some other good ones there too but yeah this song is really an amazing song.
Hey everyone, the song I linked above is what I would describe as a really happy song. It's in Spanish it's by a Colombian singer named Sebastian Yatra, and it probably holds the record for the song that has made the hair on my arm stand up the most times while drinking a coffee and just give me chills and make me feel good, so Check it out if you like Spanish music.
This land is your land. Bruce Springsteen version. Absolute classic.
Hey everyone, so I've been using air chat for a couple of days and I just want to give myself a proper introduction, figured I would do it in the open chat. So yeah, my name is Jeff, I'm a 22 year old from Massachusetts and I write a newsletter on sub sack called three pointers and it is called three pointers because there's three parts to the blog, my personal essays, book summaries and a weekly curation of Maxim's three point Thursdays baby. And also because I quote unquote market it by posting videos of me nailing three pointers on the basketball court because I love ball, ball is life. So yes, what is a blog about? Anything I'm curious about? Is that a good strategy? I don't know, but I like being able to write about anything I think is interesting and I've always been a reader so I enjoy it and it's sustainable this way. I'll read anything, but specifically I enjoy philosophy, history, psychology, neuroscience, health, fitness type stuff. Shouldn't bucket that all together, but and also I post videos on instagram and youtube speaking Spanish because I love learning languages and I've even been recording some videos with some Spanish speakers that are coming out soon. So yeah, and anyways, in the meantime, I, as I hope to monetize the newsletter through more paid subscriptions, I mean the main goal is to improve as a writer, as a person of course, but also want to get some paid subscribers. Hopefully down the road, some sponsors maybe. And yeah, in the meantime, so I just graduated college and I am waiting for an upcoming interview for a tech sales job. So wish me luck. But yeah, my dream is to do internet online business stuff. I mean, I'm working on an ebook. I'm hoping I got a ton of ideas. I just keep working every day as I am. But yeah, in the meantime, hopefully this tech sales job can help me out for a little bit. And yeah, so if anyone wants to talk, hit me up. I don't, of all my friends in this world, none of them do any internet stuff. So I'm really eager to meet people online. So yeah.
Hey Brett, nice to meet you too, and I'll check it out. I've actually been consuming your content for a while. I can see you're clearly very intelligent, very well read, and also an eloquent speaker too. Although it might just be your accent that makes you more persuasive. I'm kidding, but yeah, James has some great stuff too, so nice, exciting, and really cool to hear from you, and looking forward to talk again soon.
Hey Keith, thank you for your kind words. And yep, proud masshole here. Go Sox, go Celtics, go Pats. Love drinking Duncan's iced coffee on the Cape Cod strong arm. And yes, El Jefe, that is not a self-proclaimed nickname, I swear, but it means the boss in Spanish. And I like it because it represents wanting to be the boss of my time and my aspiration for true financial freedom one day. So yes, very nice to meet you and looking forward to talking more.
Hey Aiden, nice to meet you, and thanks man. Learning Spanish is so fun, isn't it? I've always been inspired to share ideas because I grew up around books. I never thought I would do internet stuff until a couple years ago. I was working this soul-crushing job, and I had never drank coffee or listened to a podcast until this point, and all day during work, I would do exactly that, and that's when I discovered Naval and all the amazing people on Joe Rogan, Lex Friedman, all the good podcasts. And between that inspiration and hating the job so much, it really got me dreaming to want to do internet stuff for the long term, to meet people, and do all the incredible things you can do online. Although it took me a while to get started because I was nervous. And yeah, I've always been into fitness because I used to be really skinny and I still have this unlimited drive to Not be skinny and get jacked. I also grew up playing sports So it's sort of built in wanting to get stronger and more athletic and the neuroscience psychology stuff I Just find endlessly fascinating and I think if you learn the right stuff and apply it it can improve your life in every way So, how about you man? I see you're 18 if you're already thinking like this and I mean, I'm only 22, but That's awesome that you're already doing stuff like this, how about you man? What can you tell me about yourself?
Hey, Nicholas. I'd say it's definitely well-respected. One of the books in the series won the Pulitzer Prize, and him and his wife won the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And although I'm definitely biased towards absolutely loving these books, because I have old versions of the series that my nana had passed on to my dad, and that I now have that I've just always skipped around because they're long books, but just an absolute joy to read.
I liked the Oriental Heritage one. I mean, maybe there's problems with it. It was written a long time ago and he's a Western person, but it was fascinating. I actually just thought of this famous line at the end of the Japan chapter where, I think it was published in the 30s, definitely before Pearl Harbor, and he said, by all historical precedents, her next act will be war or something like that. Wild.
What's up? Alright, the following chits are for anyone who's flirting with the idea of learning a language or is actively doing so. I want to show you how I became conversational in Italian in a relatively short time, about three months.
So to define being conversational is not being fluent. Fluency is having the ability of natural creation, thinking, dreaming in the language, being able to express yourself in all your weirdness and explain your beliefs with nuance and tell stories and make jokes in a smooth way. Conversational is memorizing lots of typical exchanges and becoming skilled at understanding questions asked to you, getting to know cab drivers, having a solid back-and-forth while ordering coffee, things like that.
The disclaimer here is that I was already fluent in Spanish when I started learning Italian and they are hilariously similar thanks to their mother language. But the counter to this disclaimer is that both of my parents are monolingual and I actually used to have a speech impediment when I was younger and wasn't conversational in Spanish until I was 19 years old. So if I can do it, you can do it!
So here's exactly what I did. I sat down with pen and paper, Google Translate, and literally would just think about things that I want to say in the language. Things I say all the time in English. Type them in in English, see it in Italian, and then save them, and then use this feature, where you hear the pronunciation, and then just saying it over and over, questa canzone e bellissima. No, you're not crazy for talking to yourself. People do it all the time to learn a language, and then just writing all the phrases that I would enter in down, over, and over, and over.
So the last two chits are definitely what's most important, but also very important is supplementing this with listening and reading. So Easy Insert Language is a great organization that has podcasts, YouTube channel that you can listen to, and also I very unsuccessfully tried to read The Divine Comedy, but if you have a Kindle it has a great built-in translation feature. So yes, more exposure and immersion in these ways.
So that was the strategy and it was about repeating it and repeating it and repeating it and repeating it each day and by the Time I went to Italy I had people telling me you speak Italian very well Parli bene l'italiano and you can experience this amazing feeling in whatever language your heart desires If you practice like this every day for a sustained period it requires a bit of discipline and obsession, but it's effective So hopefully this was helpful And if anyone has more specific questions Especially about learning Spanish in particular in which I am much more skilled I can help you.
I see there's many people here who speak different languages, nailing the somehow overlooked reality that to acquire another language you have to actually speak with native speakers. Like junior and senior year of college in Spanish classes, some classmates were frustrated, embarrassed, whatever, about their lack of fluency and speaking ability when they never actually committed to talking to native speakers.
Which is mostly because of fear. Fear that you're going to sound funny or make mistakes. But as many of you know, it's part of the process. And it helps so much to be able to laugh at yourself and not take it so seriously. It's more fun that way too.
Random message, but if you suffer from annoying persistent knee and slash or low back pain as I have through playing tons of basketball and not stretching enough, I want to show you how to overcome it.
for one of the most frustrating things of all time, the chronic low back pain, it's four main factors. It's exceptionally tight hips and hamstrings and weak core and glutes. So focusing on strengthening your core and your glutes and stretching your hamstrings and hips, particularly through the pigeon stretch for your hips and using a resistance band, putting it around your foot, laying down and pulling it towards you, your hamstring will be shaking and it'll hurt, but it will be so nice when it all loosens up and the low back pain goes away if you repeat this continually.
Hey Mattia, thank you for sharing that. That's incredible. I'm glad you were able to overcome that pain through his practices. And yeah, the sled work is great. I haven't done any of the Tibialis stuff though. Maybe I'll look into it. Good stuff though.
Hey, if you're addicted to your phone, in other words, if you're a human in 2023, it's understandable. There are some intriguing things on the wizard metal, especially on this app. But the reason I'm sending this is if you want to cut down on your screen time, go to settings, color filters, grayscale. It really does make it less addictive. And when you turn it off, you'll see why. Have a good day.
All right, here's a hack for doing pull-ups. People probably know this, but if you don't this is a bar Of course put around it like this Then the thicker the band the easier will be you put your knee in it like this while you do the reps.
I used to not even be able to come close to doing a single pull-up but I did them with bands for a really long time and now I can pump them out even with weight chained around my waist. It's so helpful at the beginning for sure.
I recently read David Deutsch's refutations of some of the main ideas from the book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond and I'm so glad I have this software update for my brain because when I first read Guns, Germs, and Steel about three years ago I was fascinated and also found it very convincing but this counter-argument I find even more convincing and I think it pokes some really important holes in some of the widely celebrated theories of that book.
Yeah, it was fascinating to see him stress the importance of viewing history through the lens of ideas and not of the mechanical effects of biogeography as he describes diamonds theory, which I now realize really does deny human agency.
This denial i see is now somewhat implied in the subtitle of the book the fate of human societies where he uses biogeography as the ultimate explainer for why europeans explored and took over different parts of the world the america's africa and why their societies have been wealthier etc so all right now i'm gonna say my understanding of diamonds theory.
all right got my globe here so the biogeography talks about in terms of geography he points out how Europe and Asia are more east-west and the Americas are more north-south and in terms of biology that here there was more domesticated animals here not as many and that when you combine these two factors it was easier for people over here to develop more complex society stopping no matter come together is because it was not as difficult to travel east-west terrains clients climates different differ more north to south and combine that with having more domesticated animals they developed agriculture at a much faster rate which led to the snowball effect of more people more people more complex technologies bigger cities bigger everything more complex civilization and that this compounding effect basically gave Europeans this head start with their advantageous biogeography
So Diamond's making the point that because people in Europe had agriculture developing in more places at a faster rate with domesticated animals, this enabled them to develop more complex societies, more densely populated areas, faster and in more places. And it just led to this compound effect where this was the driving force behind them taking over.
But Deutsch says this view reduces all the great philosophical and political and scientific ideas that people have came up with that people have created as mere blips that were somehow inevitable because of these biogeographical advantages, which doesn't really make sense as he said not the landscape didn't cause the Enlightenment.
Deutsch's summary of this chapter was history is the history of ideas, not of the mechanical effects of biogeography.
So yeah, I found that all very intriguing and obviously geography is still extremely important and influential in how societies develop But I think it was the important Distinction here is that all the great ideas that Western civilization has come up with were not inevitable they were not inevitable just because of these biogeographical advantages they people still had to come up with these amazing ideas that changed the world and Make everything better.
That was my takeaways. Anyone, let me know what you think or if I butchered anything. I'm still wrestling with the beginning of infinity. I actually haven't even finished it. I just happened to open up to that particular part recently and was captivated. I do that sometimes with books just open up to a random part. But yeah, I haven't stuck with this book, although I've had it for a while. But the Airjack community absolutely loves this book. So I would love to hear what people have to say and learn more.
Martin Luther King jr. Said I have decided to stick with love hate is too great a burden to bear.
It's fascinating to think about for how long humans were passing along stories and ideas Strictly through an oral tradition before writing was invented. It's hilarious in a way and I'm not sure my mind has properly stretched to grasp and comprehend how long the earth has existed and how long The process of evolution has been developing for it is absolutely insane to think about deep time and and pre-civilizational humans and What the hell has been going on? How long it is? It's so crazy to think about and of all the times we exist where we're talking into an iPhone on air chat.
Yes, and I try to never take for granted all the magical technologies we enjoy nowadays. And while I understand why people idealize the past, yearn for it, even think it was better to live at a different time throughout history, it wasn't, right? Like it just wasn't. And I was reading that part in the beginning of infinity recently where David Deutsch was writing about how humans do this, like the Garden of Eden effect, this imagined perfected past that, in fact, never existed. And in the words of Thomas Hobbes, I think, was, in reality, nasty, brutish, and short.
Last night I watched the movie Life is Beautiful. It's an Italian movie, La Vita e Bella. Would definitely recommend it. Really funny, really sad. Not too long. Good watch.
Hey Elias, I love that book. Seneca writes some inspiring stuff. You probably already read it, but there's another one from him too that I really enjoyed called Letters from a Stoic.
The picture above is a book that I revisit all the time. It's called The Bed of Procrustes, Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms by Nassim Taleb. Such a good read. Awesome stuff in there.
Did anyone ever read these Percy Jackson books? This is what made me fall in love with reading when I was younger. And I want to give them away to a younger kid because they're entertaining and actually teach you a ton about Greek and Roman civilization.
Hey Vincent! Sure, he talks about this idea of cumulative culture and how it makes us smarter and he uses an analogy of an orangutan rowing a canoe down a river and points out how most humans would find that extremely funny. Although we are, what he says, in the same boat metaphorically speaking. Most of the technologies we use every day, we don't know why they work, we don't know how to make them, but nonetheless we use them effortlessly. And I just thought that was a cool and funny way to look at it.
Probably needless to say, but I don't pass negative judgment on you just because you use weed and of course it has really helps people That's you. That's great but I get so fired up about this because I used to be addicted to weed and people go it's not addictive and this is an insane lie, and I know it's not just my experience where you Feel that craving for it. What is that? Is that not addiction? Nevermind people I know who haven't stopped and it's almost heartbreaking when you look in their eyes You hear them speak you watch how they spend their time And it's like it's like they're not even there. It's like they not even have no ambitions or goals or anything They became a plant.
What I got that day was Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb and she asked me what kind of book is that and I said, I don't know. Two other books that have been on my mind because I was flipping through the highlights and also preparing another one for a blog post. Classic Tao Te Ching, not sure if that's how you say it, by Lao Tzu and Essays and Aphorisms by Arthur Schopenhauer. A bit dark, but very insightful.
Checked out this Alan Watts book after you mentioned it. Here's a great line I liked. If my happiness at this moment consists largely in reviewing happy memories and expectations, I am but dimly aware of this present. I shall still be dimly aware of the present when the good things that I have been expecting come to pass, for I shall have formed a habit of looking behind and ahead, making it difficult for me to attend to the here and now. If, then, my awareness of the past and future makes me less aware of the present, I must begin to wonder whether I am actually living in the real world.
It's funny how a thousand years ago it was the greatest of all privileges to have access to literature, to know how to read. Oh, if I could only go to the school and receive an education! Now, a couple taps, a couple bucks, a couple days, the most brilliant minds and ideas and stories of all time arrive at your doorstep. Or instantly. Kindle.
Last night I was re-reading Kindle highlights of Discourses by Epictetus and Maxims and Reflections by Johan Wolfgang von Goethe I don't know if that's pronounced right The famous polymath Both so, so good.
Yeah, Goethe's intellectual range was astounding, to say the least. When I first read Maxims and Reflections, it was when I was studying abroad in Barcelona, and I was going from cafe to cafe with it in a notebook, just jotting down quotes and ideas from it, learning so much and also enjoying it so much because it's a fun read.
A lot of fiction classics are like that though, sort of a dark story. Because they contain some sort of warning, you could say, for society or for your mind.
I saw a great post on Substack Notes the other day that Not reading fiction only reading nonfiction is like not listening to music only podcasts and they may be an extreme analogy But I love the point Also shout out to Parsa for the recommendation of Kurt Vonnegut I'd seen some of his quotes before but now actually diving into one of his books Slaughterhouse-Five.
The Eureka moment when reading a book? Ecstasy.
This morning I read the transcript of the Argentinian president's speech at the World Economic Forum. Had me fired up. Thought it was excellent.
There is something so oddly thrilling about reading very old books.
I was rereading Siddhartha last night, overflowing with wisdom. Thank you. Thank you, Siddhartha.
The picture I sent above is a church in Barcelona, Spain called La Sagrada Familia, and it is really beautiful.
I have all my senses. I'm not sick or injured. My mom and dad and brothers are doing well. Life is good.
I couldn't agree more with this. So often at random moments throughout a day, by myself, I'll just start laughing from feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude being born in this era, never mind in the United States, and just having the opportunity to discover and connect and learn from people on the internet and all the amazing technologies that we have and that we can continue to take advantage of and just feeling so lucky about all of that.
Happy Thanksgiving to the great people of AirChat. I hope you all enjoy a fantastic feast and Time with your loved ones today. I am genuinely thankful for this app. It's been extremely fun Listening to learning from and having conversations with all the smart thoughtful interesting people on this app. So yeah, thank you For this and yes, I am so thankful for life this mysterious strange existence.
I saw one of the many, many great Latin aphorisms on Twitter today. It said, Solvitur ambulando. It will be solved by walking. And I say it in here because I always feel so much gratitude when I go on a walk and think about this bizarre, mysterious, beautiful miracle of an existence.
Daniel for sure, I agree. In college, even just going to play pickup games at the rec center of basketball, the camaraderie and flow state and intensity sometimes that would go into that really makes me feel alive.
The original Godzilla theme song gets me fired up.
There are few better feelings than when a song makes a shiver go through your whole body and the hair on your arm stands up, you get goosebumps. It's blissful. Let us all get the chills from some beautiful music.
To the great AirChat community, Merry Christmas, Eve, Happy Holidays. Here's some music of the season that is great. If Every Day Were Like Christmas by Elvis Presley, Step Into Christmas by Elton John, Oh Come All Ye Faithful by Pentatonix, The Little Drummer Boy by Bob Seger, and many others. I hope you enjoy this special time with your loved ones.
Here's a classical music playlist I've been putting together. I've been sending you some friends that I shared here featuring Bach Mozart Beethoven the civilization 6 soundtrack Hans Zimmer and more
Just put together this playlist, all great stuff from Akira, the Don. Music has a powerful influence on the mind. Here are some really positive ones
This Italian song has had me dancing. I just got some new headphones too that have made the experience bellissima.
The video above I recently took, and it's my brother and I dying laughing at Rocky Balboa, Rocky part 6, because he's like 70 years old and he's still scrapping in the ring.
Hey Spencer, I would send them on an investigation to get as close to the truth as possible regarding The possibility of aliens visiting Earth, although it would almost certainly end up in disappointment. It would be worth a shot.
Or, more broadly, if they could get secrets relating to war or spying from intelligence agencies like CIA, French, British, Israeli, Chinese, Russian, that would be fascinating and also horrifying.
In public I would like to see more people speaking to each other, making eye contact, not being afraid to go meet someone new, whether in the gym, the park, the bar, wherever, as opposed to being glued to your screen like a zombie.
One of my favorite videos is of Jocko Willink where someone asks him, what do you do on the days when you just don't feel like it relating to work or exercise? And he goes, what do you do on those days? And he goes, I do it anyway. No further explanation just says to not rely on motivation and just commit to being disciplined. Do it anyway.
Hello friends, if you ever convince yourself that you don't have time to work out, realize it's a lie. You can get off AirChat right now and within 20 minutes do 5 sets of 10 push-ups, 5 sets of 20 air squats, 30 sit-ups, something like that, and bam, your day's better.
Jack, I like what you're saying here. I would say though, in basketball, if you've made a few shots in a row, take that dumb shot. Take that heat check. Always. Because if it goes in, it's a stab in the heart to the defense. They start thinking, man, he's making that. And it just breaks their spirit. And you can keep getting hotter and hotter.
It's so inspiring to see my 87-year-old grandfather, who in the last 15 years has had a major knee and brain surgery, still hitting the gym multiple times per week. Like, my grandparents live near me, and I'll go and pop in on them, and he won't be there. He's at Planet Fitness. It gets me so fired up. Brooklyn built. He is
And that was with a great friend who I'm so thankful to have because I really want to soak up his habits, and I have. Like, he's worked as a personal trainer, I met him freshman year of college, then we lived together sophomore to senior year. How many times he dragged me to the gym when I was making up excuses, and then we would go through a terrible workout. So thankful. I cherish having someone because there actually aren't that many, at least right now in my life, who always reward the behaviors that I know make my life better. As opposed to, for example, people who would say, Why are you not drinking? Oh, you think you're too good? What happened to you, man? Something I've heard a billion times the past two to three years.
The best weightlifting heuristic, if you're not sore the next day, you didn't go hard enough and you're capable of so much more.
By wearing headphones on your walks outside, you are doing yourself a tragic disservice.
Be a bookworm and a gym rat. Be a jacked nerd.
Happy Saturday some more variations of my jacked nerds phrase that my friends love ripped scholar and curious athlete Be obsessed with learning and lifting reading and running.
I've been thinking a lot about the quote of Julius Caesar saying Do you not think it is a cause for sorrow that Alexander at my age had already Conquered so many peoples and I have yet to achieved such brilliant success or something like that And who knows if he actually said this but I like the idea and there's a couple Ways to interpret this idea on one hand. It's like oh even Caesar was never satisfied, you know, keep let's go Etc that type of thinking attitude and that's great But I've also been thinking of it as even mighty Caesar the Emperor of Great Rome was still comparing himself to someone, you know, like revealing that universal human of it's never enough and just being able to stop if even for a second and just Appreciate things and celebrate your wins and give yourself some credit and just relax And then getting back to work, of course never stop trying it's driving of course, but with this idea you will be refreshed.
Love this analogy it instantly made me think of in the gym if there's a certain workout where you know there's a rep ranger weight that you're capable of that's the standard that's the Mario Kart ghost going by you that's to keep striving to hit and get past.
When I read articles, I almost always start at the end, see what their closing remarks were in the final paragraph, and then start working my way back or just stop reading it.
When I read books, I'm never afraid to destroy them in the sense of making highlights and taking notes in them. And when I go to re-read them, I can flip through, see these, and it's a cool feeling. And it's also really good for actually retaining the information. Like, books that my dad gave me where he made highlights of these kinds was really special to see. And I hope I have kids that I can give my books to and they can experience the same feeling.
I've been thinking a lot about what Sam Harris was saying on Chris Williamson's podcast recently about how a big part of wisdom is simply being able to follow your own advice ones that you would give to a friend or a loved one and it made me think of King Solomon's paradox the guy who gave the best most useful advice to everyone that would improve their lives But his own life was always in disarray.
I'm grateful that I woke up today life is weird and also hilarious and there's a lot of bad in the world but there's also a lot of good there's a lot of love and there's a lot of laughter Walt Whitman wrote to me every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle I agree Walt.
Hello, Priyata. Forgive me if I'm mispronouncing that. Thanks for inviting me to speak. Mexican restaurants. That's my answer. I love Mexican food and while I've given up drinking indefinitely since graduation, which by the way is my new quote-unquote rich life because I feel awesome. So much energy. I did used to enjoy hammering margaritas with my friends and getting tons of delicious food at Mexican restaurants. So yeah.
I imagine and good stuff for me. It's only been two months of no drinking, but I feel fantastic right now and It's been giving me a sense of purpose in a weird way not sound dramatic, but I'm 22. I've been a big-time drinker since I was 15. I've been involved in all these drinking cultures I'm Irish So, you know what that means relating to alcohol it's true and saying no and feeling like I'm overcoming all of that and going in a different direction and being disciplined and focusing on my work and everything It's making me feel really good apart from the obvious benefits.
For anyone who saw Oppenheimer, I'm interested to hear what you thought about it. The fact Christopher Nolan directed that, and Interstellar, Inception, The Prestige, the Dark Knight series, and some other crazy movies, it's insane. He's the greatest director of all time in my book.
Hi, Diana. I enjoyed the movie, although I didn't like how much time was devoted to the Louis Strauss kangaroo court red scare stuff, although that was interesting to learn about. For me, I just like thinking, wow, this actually happened. People really did this. Everyone else was saying that too, but it's just fascinating. But yeah, I don't want to spoil too much for people who haven't seen it. What do you think the connection was between his movies?
I read that Stanley Kubrick encouraged people to make their own interpretations about 2001 of Space Odyssey, so anyone willing to share theirs, I'd be interested to see what people have to say about this.
I re-watched No Country for Old Men recently. So good. Anyone seen it? I'm sure people have.
Treadmills are bad. I understand why people use them. Better to walk or run outside in nature or experience the flow state of playing sports.
The reward you feel after sports is the best, even if it's casual. I was on a trip recently, and I wanted to get a sweat in at the hotel. So I asked some workers for a basketball so I could go to the court. And they were giving me a hard time and said I had to play them for it. And as I was walking over, I told my friend to look out the window and he caught this cool video.
Although painful, it is a great feeling when the day after or multiple days after you worked out your legs, you're still waddling around. Even when you got tons of protein and enough sleep, if you're still sore and uncomfortable going upstairs or whatever, you know you went hard.
This is great. Kettlebells are underrated and extremely versatile. A fitness hack for me has been working out with no headphones. Really focusing on the movements being present. And really listening to the voice in your head that tells you to stop when it's burning. And continuing. And also, letting your mind be free and letting ideas come to you during that time. It's magical.
Stop complaining get under the squat rack.
Recently, I saw someone say that mouth breathing is the root of all evil. They might not be too far off. For a while, I've been using mouth tape while I sleep. And it's got me in the habit of nasal breathing, feeling way better. And also having deep, restful sleep, feeling rejuvenated, and accompanied with powerful, vivid dreams.
Speaking of which, if anyone has any articles, books, podcasts, whatever, about dreaming, go ahead and share them. I'm curious, fascinated.
A good omen. I recently had a vivid dream that I was out and succumbed to peer pressure, and got really drunk, and then bad things started happening, and I felt super disappointed in myself, but then I woke up.
Hello AirChat peoples. All right, first room I've made. Who are your heroes? I'm curious. If this is weird for you to answer because you're older, I get it. Maybe say who were your original heroes as a kid?
Other than my father and my older brother my earliest heroes were Tom Brady Because you can only watch a man lead a game-winning drive so many times before you start to idolize him World War two paratroopers because I watched Band of Brothers series a billion times Batman because he's Batman Kevin Garnett anything's possible After they won the championship he screamed that it was really cool And probably more than any one Rocky Balboa.
I'm so with you. Although re-watching Rocky is sort of like a comedy now. When he's like, come on, hit me, hit me! And the fights, they're just absolutely killing each other. Like, I remember the first time I saw a real boxing match, I was so disappointed.
It's funny you say that. Before seeing your message, I had literally just seen a clip of him pop up on my YouTube from Modern Wisdom Podcast with Chris Williamson. Full episode must be coming out soon.
Hey Nicholas that Modern Wisdom podcast with Eric Weinstein I was talking about I Got sucked in and listened to the whole thing It was really long. But if you go to Chris Williamson on YouTube, he Sorts the chapters very well by topic so you can skip around It was great stuff.
This is a great clip, such a classic movie. Made me think of the bar scene at the beginning, one of my favorite parts of a movie of all time when Matt Damon comes in and he goes, of course that's your contention. Be a running joke with my friends and I whenever we disagree or we'll just randomly go, of course it's your contention. You're a first-year grad student, first you're reading some maxi and historian. To what, impress some girl? Show up my friend?
Hello air chat peoples creating this room so we can discuss the art of comedy.
Obviously, it's great that there's comedians who can make you laugh until your stomach is in pain, but I've become increasingly fascinated with the role a comic plays in a free society and how they are beacons of free speech.
Increasingly fascinated in realizing how many great comedians are philosophers in disguise. There's a Charlie Chaplin quote that his strategy for making people laugh is telling them the plain truth of things and makes me think of the Nietzsche quote from Zarathustra where he said, not by wrath but by laughter do we slay and just how important that is for getting to truths, comedy, and jokes, and laughter.
So feel free to weigh in or send anything from a comedian that you think is important or just hilarious, I'm curious to see. For me, Tim Dillon and Bill Burr, in particular their podcasts and Netflix specials, have me gasping for air.
Hi Andrea, thank you for sharing this. Yeah, Larry David is great. I used to always watch Seinfeld with My parents when I was younger and I used to always think this is such good writing the way they tie together all these different stories within the episode.
I agree, and I have so much respect for people who have the guts to be a stand-up comic, never mind say some of the things that they say. Especially when they're lingering on a topic that is an uncomfortable truth, and it's weird because you almost want them to stop, but you also want them to keep going because it's hilarious and they're just hammering away. It's amazing how some stand-up comics do what they do.
Exactly! I've always been amazed by subtleties in communication and how you can say the exact same thing but depending on your body language, facial expression, gesticulation, your tone of voice, everything, get completely different reactions. We're strange creatures in that how you say something is just as if not more important than what you even say.
Thank you, Parsa. The thing is, I'm most funny when it's something that naturally comes up in the moment. I think Aristotle said that the secret to humor is surprise. And I think it's also surprising myself where something just comes up. As opposed to, whenever I have something loaded in the bank, I don't do it very well with a joke.
Making people laugh really hard, though, is definitely one of the best feelings ever. It's a beautiful experience. But I don't usually do it through memorized bits. More just being myself or telling stories.
Recently some friends and I were watching I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson and it might have just been because we hadn't seen each other in a while but we were howling laughing at this show and I'm not sure if there's any underlying philosophical messages but we were dying. It is office, dry, awkward type humor.
Hey Nicholas, that's a good distinction between the very rehearsed and the improv sides of comedy. I found that, on the podcast at least, sometimes I can't tell, and of course some of it's rehearsed, but I would guess more of it's improv? I don't know. I'm jealous that you saw Tim Dillon. His podcast in particular has me uncontrollably laughing, often just smacking the table. And please say more. What would your critiques be of the comedy scene?
I just watched Ricky Gervais' recent Netflix special Armageddon. Bloody brilliant.
That must be wild and yeah, my goodness I recently discovered that show kill Tony if you've heard of it and talk about some people who take big swings and misses It's genuinely painful to watch but you can't look away sometimes. It's like weirdly fascinating But it's also the flip side in which is cool Is that some people go up there and they kill and then they become super successful comedians.
I love watching stand-up, that's mainly why I made this room. Although, I've only been to a live comedy club a single time, but that'll change. And yeah, Chappelle has a new special too. I was watching it with my dad last night, I didn't finish it, but... Absolute legend, obviously.
Key and Peele is classic. In college, a late night with your friends, flipping through YouTube clips of them, hollering, laughing. So good.
That's good stuff, Omik. Hey, well, best of luck in your endeavor getting back to the stage. And I can tell that you really have a passion for comedy. And I think you make a really good point that there is so much wisdom from comedians. And that was a big reason why I made this room.
Hello Asmita welcome. Thank you for hopping in you have been to some fantastic shows you just named and I'm sure I'm not alone saying this for of my favorite comedians, especially Tim Dillon his podcast often has me in physical pain laughing.
To Be Continued in Part II
"I can think, I can wait, I can fast . . ." What more do we need?