The Best Thing You Can Do Is Help Another Human

The best thing a human can do is help another human being, no more.

Hey, Explorers! Welcome back to Useful Not Famous, the show where we explore the ins and outs of running a profitable business and strive to be the most useful people you know. My name is Amara. And we have a new intro. I’m Jeff.

We’re trying to figure out that intro, but I think that’s actually good because that’s what we’re doing is we’re here and we’re exploring and through exploration is where we are discovering new stepping stones.

We really didn’t realize that that’s what we do until very recently, because you read a book that was talking about exploration.

Anti-Objectives

You read a book called, what was it called? Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned. I couldn’t remember. See, that’s why they need new branding. And the cover is hideous. However, very good book so far. I just started it and you already finished it, right?

But then they’re talking about like having no objectives. And then it’s like, when somebody puts a word to something, it’s like how the color blue didn’t exist. It was called a deep wine color. And then all of a sudden somebody was like, oh, it’s blue. And then it’s like, oh, cool, that’s the color now. And you don’t see what it is until somebody names it. And then you’re like, oh, that’s very interesting.

So what you’re saying that, but you know, there’s the possibility that a large percentage of people are like, but the sky’s always been blue. Exactly. But it was called different colors or it was talked about in a different way, but you didn’t say that’s blue. It was like well, that’s, yeah, a light green or something. Because like if you don’t have the word for it, you can’t call it that. So until you do, it’s very mind-bendy. I love that shit.

And real quick, the best thing a human can do is to help another human being no more is a Charlie Munger quote. I just wanted to give him credit right there.

Talking About Objectives

Yeah, we want to be the most useful people you know. And this whole thing is sort of like trying to always share knowledge and just explore new things.

But you just came across sort of the film history. And that was something that was interesting. Well, and it’s funny. Now this is even more meta because I was reading this with a totally different objective in mind to create a long form video because I want to get back into creating all the history content that I absolutely love because that’s like, I love history. I love art, I love history, all the nerdy things.

And I was reading this book about how Chicago was actually Hollywood before Hollywood, which is fascinating. Like I’ve wanted to make this video I’m on year four now of how long I’ve wanted to make this. So now I’m just going to be like, fuck it, I’m just going to make it. It’s not going to be great, but whatever.

So I’m reading a book and I’m reading actually two books right now about film history. And I forgot about this because I learned it in one of my history of photography classes.

The Origin of Film: Eadweard Muybridge

There is a man in the 1870s. His name was Eadweard Muybridge. He has the weirdest spelling of Eadweard. If you’re trying to Google it, good fucking luck. It’s actually a really cool spelling. But E-A-D W-E-A-R-D. Yeah, very good. You remembered.

So there was a guy who was a horse breeder nearby and he wanted to better optimize his horses. So he actually contracted Muybridge to take photos of his horses. And one of the things, one of the objectives of this, which there was an objective, was to photograph the horses and see if all four hoofs came off the ground at the same time, or whatever variation of hoofage there was.

And what happened was through like a whole series of trial and error, they finally got the photographs and Muybridge had a series of them in order. So you could see the horse going in order, like how you know, like a flip book where you flip the pages and it has each individual step that you need for your eyes to create a moving image.

Muybridge also had a zoopraxiscope, I believe is what it was called, and he put all the horse images in it. And when you spin it, it’s like a carousel. So then you look through a little viewfinder. I’m pantomiming all this. You look through a little viewfinder and you see the horse gallop. So it’s a moving image. It’s a moving series of images.

That was the first ever movie, which is what moving image is shortened to. He didn’t go out basically, the point of the story is he wasn’t trying to create film history or he wasn’t trying to invent video or what have you. But he was the first stepping stone in getting to film because then eventually people started creating their own versions. They created projectors. It was at the World’s Columbian Exposition and then Edison was already working on something and that was a whole to-do.

But I just thought that was so fascinating with our conversations about objectives that we’ve had. And there was a goal of, I need to capture this horse and see if its hooves come up, but it was a very different outcome of I just changed the world completely.

When the Outcome Isn’t the Objective

So I think that’s the thing. So this isn’t a story of no objective, but the thing that wasn’t the objective became the thing. So I think that’s and that also just sort of showcases how the greatest things we do and achieve and create will almost universally come from not having an objective, but pursuing something anyway.

So if his objective was to make video, the science is sort of there that he never would have. And he was interested in photography because he learned about it since it was very new. And he was like, oh, how does this work? Like, how do you make this? So there was a curiosity, an exploratory nature.

And then somebody asked him like, oh, can you actually do this for me? It’s like, how our businesses have always functioned.

Historical Truth and Verification

What is a historical record? No, just like on the record, like what you can actually verify as fact. But it’s like how you have all the stories that surround different things.

Well, yeah, just like what you know is historic, like what you know as fact, even though all of history is not really factual, but it’s story-based. So it’s like, it’s what you can verify compared to various different accounts.

So like that’s the problem with history is it’s all fake because it’s everybody’s perspective on a certain situation. So there is no truth in certain things. It’s just what’s left over at the end of the day.

I worked as an archivist, so I have a lot of historical research background, but how you would verify that something is true is essentially, if you have another first person account to verify that that’s actually true.

But that’s when it gets weird because like if I say the sky’s yellow and then you write in another letter, the sky’s yellow and then everything is wiped out before and after. And then we only have those two accounts, people in the future, if for some reason, however that would happen, they would see our two accounts and be like, I guess the sky was yellow at some point. Like, what the fuck.

So that’s what’s so tricky about history is you can’t go into it being like, this is absolute fact, but you know what somebody said based on the letters or diaries that they kept. So that in and of itself is historic fact and on the historical, like on the record essentially, because it’s there.

Like, you know that they said it because you know that this is a letter, because it has all the provenance. Provenance is essentially just the record of where it came from. So how did it get from Benjamin Franklin to this museum?

Everything Builds on Everything

But like no single creation is ever new. It just never is because it is all comprised of everything we’ve learned and experienced in our personal life.

Like, that’s the thing. Like everything that the Stoics wrote they learned from someone else. Everything is repackaged. Everything is remixed. Forever.

If you read any historical anything and you look at the footnotes, so it’s those little numbers that are like tiny, tiny, tiny by a sentence, go to the back of the book, find the number, find whatever book journal article, whatever it came from, you will then get sent to another article from that book journal article, whatever, and it just keeps going. Like everybody builds on everybody else’s work. And it’s just endless.

Like I ran into that in grad school all the time because I was like, no, I want like the first original source. It’s impossible to get to because it’s like, well, Susie said this and then Susie based it off of Bobby’s work and then Bobby based it off of Jean-Luc, whatever. And it just devolves. Like you could, you end up in like the research wormhole, like the black hole.

But that’s how everything is. That’s steal like an artist. That’s that no thing is ever new.

Having Objectives While Talking About Not Having Objectives

Actually, here comes a meta, meta thing for the episode. You wanted to talk about not having objectives. So your story was to talk about not having objectives. But when I asked you, what’s the historical record, you did give me a death stare because your objective was to tell the story of the not having an objective. Isn’t that funny?

Isn’t that sort of funny to think about, though? Because you were just like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m going somewhere with this.

I’m a very goal oriented person. I’m very type A, which I have learned the longer I have been with you. And trying to do things willy nilly does stress me out a little bit because I like to be prepared, which that’s a whole other bag of hammers to dive into.

Steamboat Willy Nilly Nelson. I want that to be my name if I ever start like a jug band or something.

Type-A vs Type-B

So you were relating it to me. Type A, and since we’ve met. Yeah, you’re not type A? You’re close. But like, what is type A? Like, I actually don’t know what it is.

Type A is somebody who’s basically nuts. Like, they need to have everything a certain way. They need to have everything a certain way. They really like being prepared for things and they very much strive for like achievements, goals, things like that. Like perfection.

You are much more relaxed with everything. Like between the two of us, who would you say is a more relaxed person?

It’s so funny because, again, truth. There is no objective truth on this. But from your perspective, I would think you’re more relaxed. I’m relaxed? Compared to me.

This is what’s funny because I know how I’m wired inside and I’m relaxed. I don’t think a single person I’ve ever met would be like, she’s the most relaxed person I’ve ever met.

It’s why we hit it off, because we’re both crazy in similar but different ways. What gets you is I am not crazy about the things that I’m crazy about don’t include time. Time. I mean, I love my watch. But timeliness. However, you are not a timely person.

I don’t place importance in like timeliness of certain things. My importance is placed elsewhere. And I am crazy about that.

Which, yeah, I don’t say type B as a bad thing. I say it more as like, you enjoy the journey, not the destination more. But it’s a learned thing.

It’s interesting because you describe the me that you know, not the me who this, again, this is so crazy. The me who I know I am inside because I’ve never been the calm, relaxed person. I’ve always been the crazy kind of thing.

Well, that’s what’s funny is you know the evolved version of me. Isn’t that interesting? So like, I still am that, like, kid who is worried about every little thing.

Stoicism and Worry

So the only difference is you’re the version of me post stoicism where like, I say there’s no utility in worry so much, not because it was just like wired into me. It’s because I found how important that is for me, like maybe 10 years ago or 15 years ago.

We only met 10 years ago. So like 15, 16 years ago when I found stoicism and I was just like, oh, yeah, these are the same problems people have dealt with for 2,000 years, now 2,025 years. A lot of years.

It was the same problems always. And back then, it was all the philosophers say, and there’s no utility in worry. When you worry, you’re simply suffering. And then if the thing happens, that’s when you would suffer. If the thing doesn’t happen, you suffer needlessly.

So this is something for me that, like I say it a lot, only because it’s so important because I’m like, I was always the worrier about everything.

Expectations and Objectives

So now here’s an interesting thought. Going back to objectives, I feel like part of where worry comes from is because you have an objective or what we’ve said before is having an expectation of what you want to happen.

So let’s say there’s somebody that, you know, you hang out with. They’re kind of a downer, but you’re like, well, I’ll hang out with them anyway. And hopefully it’s going to be a good time. You’re going in with an expectation, which could also be an objective of how do I make this a better time? Or how do I make it end quicker?

And I would even say more than likely, it’s, this is going to suck. Because that’s what you have conventionally said. All the time. But like, that is sort of the sentence that you would say.

And I, so expectations. And then I would be like, okay, how do I make this better for me? Because like they’ll have a good time because that’s just what they like to do is complain about every single thing under the sun and that’s fine. But then I’m like, okay, how do I make it a better experience for me, which is normally food related?

But yeah, that’s interesting. I just wanted to say real quick because you said expectations, objective and like, we haven’t connected those two, but I do think that that’s very directly. Like maybe they’re synonyms?

It does feel like it because then what is worry? Like where does worry come from? And you’re worried, like, you have worry because, yeah, you’re living in the future and already sort of trying to predict what’s going to happen, I believe.

It’s time travel, basically, where you’re not even, I was going to say trying, but you are just going into the future and you’re like, this is what’s going to happen. It’s going to be terrible and I don’t want to do it.

Everything’s Made Up and Nothing Matters

So I think, like for me, the no utility in worry does help. Because I feel like this is a very common issue for a lot of people. Well, yeah. It’s like, okay, well, now I have to deal with Uncle Bobby, who’s a creep. Like, how do I get out of that? Yeah, like whatever it is.

When I started saying everything’s made up and nothing matters. The number of people who actually were like, that’s really good. Like, not anything, but just how they hadn’t thought about it that way was interesting to me because that’s sort of my interpretation of stoicism is because literally everything’s made up.

Like our names are made up. The pavement we walk on outside and drive on is made up. There isn’t places that just have soil, just whatever, probably not even grass, depending on where you live. The sounds that we’re making right now are made up. It’s made up in a way that we understand what they mean.

But the only thing that, there’s only a few things that aren’t made up. See, this is the weird thing. So what’s objective truth? Like, a watch measures time. But does it?

Well, this is the thing. Like, time is passing. We call the passage of moments time. So a watch measures it, but we’ve chosen the frames of measurement.

Does time actually exist? Because it doesn’t, but there are math equations to suggest that there is time. So, and I would say even if you’d pull math out of it and go further back, the sun going up and down and things that we would just observe like that does measure passage of time.

But how do we know that the time is changing with it? I guess seasons, that helps because you know, okay, now it’s getting colder out. So this is a different part of the year that we’re in. Hence why people started timekeeping, making calendars and things and tracking celestial bodies.

So there is, I guess truth that time passes. However you want to measure it is subjective because there are like tons of different calendars and then different ways of keeping time. Now, obviously, with globalization, everything’s almost exactly the same across the world.

But that’s the weird thing, though, so objective truth. We believe in time. Like, truth and beliefs are two different things. So, like, we believe in time. We believe that. But time is passing.

So, like, we believe that right now it’s 3:02 if I know how to read a watch. So we believe that. Is it true? Because we have defined that this means that right now, based on all the different things, based on the atomic clock and all the things that connect, that it’s true that it’s 3:02 central time. But it does stem from a belief.

Mindset vs Philosophy

So objective truth, there sort of is no objective truth. Everything’s made up and nothing matters. So why worry?

So this gets down the path we don’t like. It gets sort of into mindset because like, so for us, mindset is step one. Like, just know you can do whatever you want to do.

And to clarify, we don’t like mindset when that’s what somebody’s trying to sell you when it’s very much just, you can do it on your own. And that’s also somebody who, but then they don’t even believe in what they’re saying also. Like you can tell it’s just a cash grab. And that is what we absolutely can’t stand.

People selling mindset. And not even like actually embodying it or really believing it too. So both of those things. It’s so, it’s easy to sell. Like, just believe, like The Secret and stuff. They just believe and it’ll happen.

We wholeheartedly agree like we both agree on it, that whether you think it’s possible or not is true. If I think I can’t possibly achieve something, there’s no way I ever will, because I don’t have the belief to push through the obstacles that are going to be in the way.

And like, that is such an important thing, even though it’s mindset, we’re not selling it. It’s free. Free of charge. That’s for you. Just if you know you can do it, which anything is possible.

Steve Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field

And I feel like you have your, you have an example and I can smell it. Well, I was just going to say, what you know already, that in the Steve Jobs biography that I read by Walter Isaacson. He calls it, which I don’t remember if it was somebody on Jobs’ team or Jobs called it that himself, but it’s called his reality distortion field. For Steve Jobs specifically.

So Jobs would be like, oh, we can absolutely make this happen. Or like, which I talked about on another episode, how he got the iPhone glass hadn’t been made since the 1960s. He told the person, no, you can absolutely do this. And they’re like, we can’t do it. That’s too short of a time to get it out, blah, blah, blah. And he’s like, no, you can.

And like they got it out in a very short amount of time. So it’s all about that kind of a belief of like, no, I can. How do I make it happen? Like, how do I get there? And taking action then.

Because the guy didn’t just sit there in his factory and he’s like, all right, well, maybe the machines will figure it out. Let’s see how this goes. I believe. Yeah, that’s the shit that I can’t stand. But if you’re actually taking action, and yeah, it’s going to be chaotic and maybe not fun, but you can get it done. It’s just, you got to do it.

The Laws of Physics

As long as doing something doesn’t disobey the laws of physics, which maybe we’d even say physics is ultimate truth, but then there’s still theories. But it’s still subjective, though. That’s the thing.

But like, say the speed of light. If to do something, if you want to get to Neptune, you can’t unless you can actually break through the law of physics that say, nothing goes faster than the speed of light. Like you just won’t live long enough to get there.

And maybe Neptune isn’t the right one, but I know there’s certain spots where it’s impossible for a human to get there without breaking the barrier of the speed of light.

But basically, if you don’t have to break the laws of physics, it’s possible. Which there are very, very few things in our every day where you touch on physics.

Time and Timeliness

So see, this is why I don’t worry about being on time places. Because of physics? Yeah, because I don’t have to travel at the speed of light to get there right around the time when we planned.

You somehow, you take the longest showers out of anybody I’ve ever met and we still leave only like 10 minutes later than I wanted to leave. Like the other day when we were going to the largest corn maze in the world.

I was like, okay, we’re leaving at five. You got out of the shower at like 4:58 and I was like, I’m going to kill you. And I was laughing hysterically because when I get mad, I just start laughing because it’s the other option.

When you get mad at me, it’s just that giggle because you know how silly it is even to be mad. Like I was actually mad. That was funny because I was eating an apple. It looks like you were hiding behind the fridge. You just looked around the corner. You’re like, we need to leave.

It was 4:33 and you had said, oh, I’m going to jump in the shower. And I looked because I was writing out my ideas. And then I looked and I was like, it’s 4:33. He’s not in the shower. He takes like 30 to 40 minute showers.

And see that, so this comes back to stoicism. What’s the worst that can happen is we get there a little later. And we still had such a great time. We got all the checkpoints. Yeah, this corn maze is very cool. It’s huge. It’s 33 acres and 10 miles of corn maze, and we literally went through all of it, basically.

Wrapping Up

This has been fun. I think we should wrap right there. I have so much more to say. You do. But I’ll save it for the next episode.

Bye, Explorers.