What really exists is not things made, but in the making. Once made, they’re dead.

—James Gleick

So, if you’re watching the show, we are remote.

We’re in LA, we were just filming with one of our clients and we are filming in our Airbnb right now for us.

Yeah. And it’s like the perfect little studio actually.

Uhhuh, I like the spinny chairs.

I do too. I feel like we need to get some of these uhhuh crushed velvet spinny chairs with mystery stains.

I dunno about crushed vel mystery stains. This is a very clean Airbnb. It’s very

nice. No, I know. It just, things get wear and tear anyway.

There’s no mystery stands.

I know I said it, but I dunno. I like

What really exists is not things made, but things in the making once made. They’re dead.

Okay, so what the hell does that mean?

So I find it funny ’cause last week we talked about the now. Now, then. Then now. Now I found the quote. That confused me.

That you were just like, yeah.

So let me read that one and then we’ll go back. So this quote was from Charles Lamb in nine in 1817.

The one you just read,

the one I’m about to read.

This quote that you understand, 1817 is from Charles Lamb in 1817. Your now is not my now and again, your then is not my then, but my now may be your then. Vice versa.

Yeah. How does that not make sense? Because it’s all perspectives.

Your now is not my now and again, your then is not my then, but my now may be your then and vice versa.

Yeah, because it’s whatever you’re going through right now. Like my now is right now, but then your then could be mine now.

just did what you did different.

Now you get it.

It makes sense because it’s, it’s, to me, it’s what you’re experiencing. This is how I’m interpreting it.

Now. Again, that’s the beauty of being a human. We all have different interpretations, but to me, that’s what I’m experiencing right now is maybe something you have already experienced or you will experience.

Like right now, you could be going through something that I’ve never been going through. But then in the future, I will maybe go through something similar again, not everything’s gonna be the same, but it’s what. you what your now was at that time?

It wasn’t mine now, but now it’s mine now, but then it now it’s your then.

Thank you. I’m glad you could, so I think that’s why it’s confusing.

I think that’s why it’s confusing for me is I’m thinking in a temporal sense.

thinking about time, in a temporal sense where I’m thinking about time, like right now versus then, either then in the past or then in the future. So I think this confuses me because. Your now is not my now, but I’m talking about, I’m thinking about now, but you’re thinking about now as your personal experience.

Is that how you’re saying it?

Yeah. I’m thinking of it more as a, a personal thing where it’s like, well, my now is right now, but then you’re experiencing it differently from me. Whether that’s your experiencing, whether it’s like a specific moment or if it’s something that’s overall.

I don’t know.

I look anyone who’s actually watching, I look off into space when I’m trying to think. I’m not. I’m just, I

know. I do too.

you’re not just bored like the, but it’s, it’s, yeah. It feels like it’s maybe possibly about a moment where you’re experiencing this moment and it might be a little different, or it could be something along the lines of, I totally lost my train of thought.

So you’re not thinking about now as in this time and space, right? This second half. But

it also could be like, that’s the beauty of it, is if it’s. W like we’re gonna have different experiences and different perceptions of time and what’s going on. Like do you remember as a kid where it felt like the drive to somewhere took seven days to get there, even though in reality it only took 15 minutes?

Yeah, but it was that feeling like. now like, ’cause like I grew up in Arizona, so now when we went back and I remember driving from point A to point B and it felt like it took at least an hour, but we just drove it and it took 10 or 15 minutes. But when you’re a kid, that time feels so. Long and excruciating because of your perception of time.

A, you don’t know where you’re going. You don’t know what the streets are. You don’t have any context. Also, maybe you don’t wanna fucking go wherever you’re going because your parents are making you. But then now as an adult, it’s like, oh, I wanna go to this destination, or, oh, I’m seeking this out. And to you it’s like, oh, good.

It only took 15 minutes to get there. so it feels like a shorter amount of time or vice versa. As a kid, you felt like it took so much shorter. Does that make sense?

It does make sense.

Let’s say our drive from the airport. To me, it felt like it took 15 minutes, but to you, because you were the one driving at night after we had delays in our flights and it took forever.

Maybe the drive felt like it took 16 days to you and you’re just like, oh my God, finally.

I know. Hear me out. So I feel like it’s just. could also just be our perceptions of time. I actually like how nebulous that quote is because I feel like it has so many different

interpretations.

Yeah, that’s what I was looking for. Thank you.

different ways that you can interpret it and experience it, I think,

I think so. I think that’s why it’s confusing to me.

Maybe because it’s so open-ended, which I know you like more open-ended things, but I think maybe this.

now that I’m talking about it more, I am like, yeah, that is like a very profound quote. Maybe there is more to it, I think, and I made it feel so simple.

Is it profound or is it nonsense? I think that’s what I’m caught up on. it’s, it makes sense to you, but to me, I don’t even know if it makes sense, but I hear how you’re interpreting it and I can see it makes sense in that way, but it’s not how I thought about it.

theory and philosophical stuff.

been 1817 specifically. Yeah. Like I’ve, I’ve read a lot of 19th century theory specifically related to art, so I feel like I can jump into that mindset a lot quicker and easier maybe than you, but again, it’s. I don’t know. It’s just fascinating. I think it’s interesting.

the quote we started with,

yeah, that one doesn’t make any sense to me. So read it again.

What really exists is not things made, but things in the making once made. They’re dead.

So then how are they dead?

So I think the podcast right now, what we’re doing right now, this exists, but I think, I think we can explain it with this show.

Does it exist now or then?

So what really exists is not things made, but things in the making. So right now. We are having this conversation. So this exists in time and space. We are in Woodland. California. Yeah.

Woodland Hills.

Yeah, Woodland Hills, California. This exists in time and space right now, but the moment we’re done with this, it’s dead.

It no longer exists. There’s a recording of it where if you’re listening or well, you’re listening or watching right now. I get it. So the recording exists, but the actual thing. Being made only exists while it’s being made.

So for example, in this Airbnb, there are a lot of replicas of famous paintings. So as soon as we walked

in, I mean, why do you say replicas?

they’re shiny. That’s vinyl

gloss. No, but this would be the most expensive Airbnb on the planet.

what a bargain. I’d be like, I’m taking this Corbett with me. But there are a lot of replicas of paintings in here what did you just say?

So I said, this podcast only exists while we’re

making it.

Oh, yes. So while you’re making the artwork, that is, that is the joy is like the building of something, I guess is sort of how I’m thinking. It’s sort of like how we talk about the stages of fun. There are three stages of fun, and we completely made this up one day because we were just like, oh, this is actually really interesting.

And I don’t even know if it was on the podcast or not. No, but we just talked about it.

It was just us just talking at. Again, another Airbnb. When we were filming with someone, just us at night, after a long day, we talked about the three stages of fun. So the first stage, which is what I especially love, is the pre-planning.

So that’s where you’re getting like, what, where are we gonna stay? What are we gonna do? What are the days gonna consist of? Like all those different things, like, get us excited or Get me, I said us, get me excited. Then the next stage of fun is the in the moment fun. it is in the moment fun where you’re experiencing something and you’re like, gosh, this is a really great time.

Like I love this. Look, we’re riding on a choocho train and this is amazing. And then the final stage of fun again, according to us is the after. replaying them in your head. Yeah, thank you. My coffee hasn’t kicked in. But you’re replaying them in your head.

You’re maybe sharing it with someone and you’re like, gosh, doesn’t this sound, doesn’t this sound so gee Dolly? I know. Like, who am I today? But doesn’t this sound like so much fun? Like we had such a great time. So those are the three stages of fun.

I wanted to jump in on the middle one though, because why this became so profound for us.

I know we’re going a little off tangent, but this is perfect because the middle stage of fun is the only one we think about. Yes. So in the present moment, having fun, but then where we were debating and what I think is arid debate for this show right now,

he’s talking to you.

Um, is there in the moment fun?

I can feel warm, I can feel cold. Feel happy. I can feel sad and there’s lots of other contrasts.

Can I actually be feeling fun? the anticipation of something can be fun. But can I in this moment feel fun? Or is fun merely a recollection or a future collection? A recollection or a pre-collection?

Merely a looking back or looking forward on something. We were on a rollercoaster.

is it fun in this one second?

I was gonna use the same exact analogy.

And argue your same point where you’re on the rollercoaster, you’re still on that rollercoaster, but you just had a little drop and you felt your insides move, which is why you get that feeling, by the way. But you feel that like, whoa. So the two seconds after that, you’re like, this is so fun. You’re already reminiscing about the past of what just happened.

I would argue, and this is against. Every teaching and Buddhism, mindfulness, whatever. There is no in this

momentright Now I’m talking, this is already in the past. This has already happened

Everything has already happened. Isn’t that fascinating?

But I do think I can feel happy right now because I think,

So like I think I, I think I can feel happy. So I think I like, I’m happy that second, the second, like I think the happy flows throughout,

the happiness is a reaction to something, which then I would argue that happy is an effect.

Therefore it’s in the past.

So, okay, content does content work? Like I can feel content.

I thought you said contempt and I was like, that’s a little aggressive.

But I think I can feel content.

Yes.

So like, like in the moment, like now, like I can just, I can feel content,

but still, I would say that that’s a byproduct of all these other things that have already happened where you now then feel content, but you can’t feel future emotions.

You can only feel past emotions exactly or so. So like you could have emotions right now based on future ideas, plans, whatever. You can’t have emotions about something that currently hasn’t happened yet. You can only have emotions about something that’s already happened. Therefore, your emotion, this is getting very complicated, but therefore your emotions are based on the past and they’ve already sort of happened.

What’s an emotion and what’s a state ’cause I think contentedness is a state where. Maybe happiness is an emotion.

Well, and I feel like, ’cause then you could argue that joy is a state. Yes. But it’s also an emotion.

and happy because I would say is an emotion as well. Like I feel like there are no states.

It’s purely just ’cause you always have to feel something.

And that’s so like in this exact, like every now I have. State and I think I can be content. I think I could feel overall joyous.

Yeah.

But can I, if let’s just take happy and sad out of it. ’cause that feels a little too

Yeah, too on the nose. Like specific.

Yeah.

Yeah. I don’t like content feels generic enough. Like I don’t have to really, I just feel I feel good in the space that I’m in. I think you can only feel that now. I think that’s actually now. I don’t think you can ever feel content about the past or the future because content is a state, not a men. I don’t think content is a brain thought where it’s like, that was fun.

So then is content almost like the default setting, you would say?

I think it should be like from a, like meditative, Buddhist, whatever practice.

Your default state. Like where you’re supposed to be.

Yeah.

Like ideally we should strive to feel content. So that, that I think is in the moment. There isn’t a future content and a past content. You’re either con, you’re feeling a contentedness right now, or you’re not.

I still feel like that’s a reaction though, to other things.

So I agree on the reaction.

Yeah.

Because everything we feel is even like what we think of chemical reactions, like everything’s a reaction. But I do think that can be in the moment where I don’t think fun can be in the in the instant. ’cause like you said, it’s. I don’t think fun is a feeling. I think you can say, this is so much fun. But when I say This is so much fun.

I mean, that was so much fun three seconds ago, three hours ago, three years ago. That’s it. Nothing beyond that. But I don’t think we can feel fun.

I think I agree. I’m just trying to think of any other. Instances. ’cause I do feel like, I feel like all emotion and feeling is in the past.

you can only by thinking of the future. Will you feel that?

No, I guess I’ve been having fun planning the future thing.

Yeah. So that’s right now and in the past, yeah, because I’ve been having fun planning right now. But then I still have the other fun to look forward to, and I’m excited for future fun, which is fun for me. I feel like people don’t talk about fun enough, like the, the psychology of fun.

I feel like that should be something we dive into in a future episode.

we come back to fun 1 0 1.

Fun oh one.

We’ll do, we’ll do fund 4 0 1 next week. It’s the, upperclassmen level.

Yeah, we’re talking about all the funds, funnel cake index funds. All the things.

Name one more.

I was trying to think.

funnels.

Yeah.

you already said Funnel Cake.

Funnel Cake is different than a funnel, a marketing funnel.

Fun fundamentals. These are the fundamentals of fun.

Ooh, that sounds fun.

We’re starting with funnel cakes. I know.

I have an emotion of anticipation.

Um, so back to this quote, what really exists is not things made, but things in the making once made there are dead. So this podcast episode can only really exist here to us.

Oh yeah. That’s where we were going.

Yeah.

Have it in its existence, but they can relive it. Like we looked at fun, they can relive what happened here, but not really. That’s already dead and past. So just like the paintings on the wall

stuff. I was just gonna say artwork specifically. Paintings are the perfect. Like example of that quote, because the artist had an idea, which was part of the fun.

They were planning it out. Planning out the artwork, making the artwork. And then now that is so fascinating, seeing it as something dead, hanging on the wall. Like there’s actually something very poetic about that where it’s like, it almost feels gross then going to a museum now because, not that it’s made by people who have been dead for a hundred, 1,000 years, whatever, but that it has.

So this is something that Walter Beamin talks about in his piece, the mechanical art and the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, and it’s about the aura of the artwork. So the difference between seeing this reproduction on the wall right now is like drastically different than seeing it in person because you’re missing that aura.

You’re missing the fine details of what make it have energy and life to it. it’s a totally different experience. But then now does it still have energy because it is sort of a dead thing hanging on the wall?

Well, and do you want it when it’s alive as the philosopher A JBJ said JBJ, um, I’m wanted on a steel horse.

I ride I’m wanted dead or alive.

Mr. John Bon Jovi.

it’s done.

It’s not in the making anymore. Wesort of throughout history don’t commission an artist to be painting. And when they’re done, we’re like, okay, bye. Thank you. And then you’re done. And everything leaves. You commission the dead work that it’s not their hand doing it, it’s their hand having done it.

Yeah. It’s almost like the proof you have, the receipt of the process.

weird to think of it like that. Like a receipt of someone making art.

Yeah. You have a receipt of the process. Which is very interesting.

It’s very weird.

Yeah. Like I just, I find that really fascinating. So, and this also is like, it doesn’t exist other than when it’s being made. So like this doesn’t exist because this is a moment.

Yeah.

The video exists.

Don’t wink at our listeners or viewers.

The video exists.

Yeah.

Because that’s something else.

What the video represents doesn’t exist anymore.

Correct. Like this moment we are creating will be dead in the future, which is really weird, like, not like bodily, but just the actual creation and the moment of it.

Our conversation about fun is already.

Yeah. I already forgot about

that. It’s not in the INE anymore.

So it no longer exists.

that is a very interesting quote. So now I do understand it a lot better. ’cause when you read it to me

first and now you, you now understands it. You’re then, because my now is your then. Then now, now then

my now understands it. Because your then understood it, huh?

Huh? It works. I got very excited.

He looked like Beaker from the Muppets,

just Oh, that is very interesting. Where did you find that quote again?

Um, that came from James Gly and Time Travel.

Okay.

So it’s a book about the history of time travel, and it was just one of the things that he said in it,

oh man, time travel.

Then talking about this topic. Holy hell. Time travel is so. Mind bendy. I’ve been reading a lot more physics books lately because it’s something that I’ve always been

I know I am

a big fucking nerd, but like also when you say reading physics books, I feel like that gives, not like textbooks, but yeah, it gives the vision of a textbook.

well, no, it’s more like quantum physics and things.

Very, very, very well written books about these topics that are interesting. Like I’m reading about the history of time travel Uhhuh and where it came from and how everything looks at it from fiction and then also like science, which is interesting, but it’s not like a textbook.

You’re not written a quantum physics textbook.

I love it. Isn’t that in Men in Black where he can tell how the little girl is an alien because she has like a physics textbook or something.

Maybe,

I think that was, but it was like the training, he’s like, well, he was just lifting weights. He was just doing whatever.

and then she’s discovered it. Hold on a second.

Okay, good.

Who are you?

Why am I in this lovely home?

Um, yeah, thanks for being on the show. I appreciate your time.

Could you imagine waking up like that just in the middle of something that was like in, well, spoiler alert, but in severance. What about it? When she woke up? She’s like, oh my God, what is this?

If you haven’t watched severance, you need to, yeah, I’m not gonna

spoil anything.

It is funny ’cause it’s like, when does a spoiler alert, run its course? Boy, it’s been

out for years

now. It’s been, yeah. But if you haven’t watched Severance, highly recommend watching

it. I hate when people spoil things, when something’s been out for like 50 years and it’s like you had any time to watch it.

But then they say the ending and then I’m like. Well, I was gonna watch that eventually. I just haven’t gotten to it.

our priorities are the things that we do, not the things we say we’re gonna do. Yeah. So you have not prioritized watching that old movie, have

you? No. ’cause I’m reading physics textbooks, but it is really fascinating ’cause it’s something that I’ve always been interested in, but in school it just sucks.

A lot of teachers don’t have the passion for it, which is fine. You don’t need to, it’s just a paycheck, but. I really think that people who are teaching should a hundred percent have the passion for it as much as you can. Obviously I know children are terrible, but it just, if somebody doesn’t have the passion for it, then you also don’t have the passion for it, which kind of sucks.

But anyway, I did love my physics class in high school. I learned a little bit, see life physics. I liked it, but I just, it wouldn’t quite click with me because also it was the memorization, which we always talk about that we absolutely love. I

was a pro memorization.

I wasn’t, I didn’t care enough.

I like that. No, that was the thing. I didn’t care. So I memorized exactly what I needed and learned nothing.

I didn’t, I wrote it on my shoes and then I cheated on my tests. It worked

Well. I don’t wonder it on another, tangent ’cause I can’t see the screen from here, but I think we’re probably at about time.

29 minutes.

Yeah, we’re at about time, so I think we’ll wrap here. Yeah, go. Thanks for, joining us here in Losan, basically Los Angeles.

I didn’t cheat. I should clarify. I didn’t cheat on all my tests. It was just a few of them

that, I mean, I don’t think there’s any, um, I stipulation on time so you can. Okay.

No, I earned it fair and square. I had to pass that math class because otherwise I wasn’t gonna graduate. I had, a’s in all the other classes that mattered.

it was specifically pre-calc because I didn’t give a flying fuck about it, and I was like, when am I ever gonna use this to this day?

Never touched it and. I don’t need to, which is the beauty of needs to talk. I know. So then I was like, well why am I wasting my time with this one? I’d rather go have fun and do all the other shit that I actually wanna do. So it was only in math class. I need to clarify. It was only in math class. How can you cheat in science?

It’s like so complex and everything builds upon itself. Anyway, the point being, I am reading physics books right now and I find that endlessly fascinating. So endlessly fascinating.

Okay, I think we’re outta here. Hope you enjoyed this episode.

Okay, with that, I think we’ll wrap. Thanks for tuning in. This is useful. Not famous.

Um, this is Useful Not Famous. If you enjoyed this show

If you enjoyed this show, share it or something. Actually go on our MySpace. See if you’re in our top 10. That’s all we need to do.

what was it, Friendster? Is that something?

Okay, I think we’ll wrap here.

Maybe we’ll have something more useful. I think these conversations are a lot of fun though.

Oh, I think they’re very interesting. ’cause it expands your brain. And then next week I’ll teach everybody how to cheat on their tests like a pro.

We’re still here. I broke him