Stephen

Dan, last time we talked about, you know, in the 1970s there being this very popular conception of native people as being inherently environmentalist. And I think in a lot of ways, we've sort of moved past that. And I think from a historical perspective, we recognize that not all human actions on the landscape prior to European contact were environmentally sustainable.

But then in this lecture, you describe a long swath of time that does appear to be relatively stable or sustainable. And I wonder, not necessarily asking if it was sustainable, but more sort of how you begin to untangle the contradictions there.

I think when I was looking at this episode, it's an episode about a long period of time from the Pleistocene extinctions up until first contact, essentially. And it treats it almost as a whole. And I think that has a lot of explanatory power. But also there's moments in it where you can drill down and say, like, Cahokia.

You know, there are these stories of these rise and fall of civilization, which on its own is sort of this epic historical tale, right? Even if we don't have all the details. But I kind of wonder how you think about that, the big...

Oh, yeah. No, and I didn't mean that to be a question of like, why didn't you do this or why did you leave this out? But it's more like that story... is comprehensible read at a certain level. Right? And then, and you gain a lot from the big broad sweeping history, but, um, Yeah, there's also all of this drama that sort of lies beneath the surface of that.

Or is there something particular about the North American story that makes it possible, possible in North America?

Hey, so just I've got a statement here. But first, I wanted to thank you for Hamfest. It was amazing. It was the first time I'd ever come and really experience that kind of energy. Looking forward to coming back next year. I want to talk about the justice system, and to me, completely broken.

I grew up believing in the rule of law, the fundamental rights granted to Americans, that we have the right to a speedy trial, the right to face one's accuser. For those of us that just kind of common folk with no power, influence, or wealth, what recourse do we have to push back against injustices when loved ones are incarcerated unjustly for years without due process?

There's a confusion about China, and let me at least give you my opinion. The popular conception is that companies come to China because of low labor cost. I'm not sure what part of China they go to, but the truth is China stopped being the low labor cost country many years ago. The reason is because of the skill. And the quantity of skill in one location and the type of skill it is.

Like the products we do require really advanced tooling. And the precision that you have to have in tooling and working with the materials that we do are state of the art. And the tooling skill is very deep here. In the U.S., you could have a meeting of tooling engineers, and I'm not sure we could fill the room. In China, you could fill multiple football fields. It's that vocational...

Who's shaking up everything you think about wealth and how to achieve it.

I feel like the guy that you experience on camera is very close to who I am when I'm in the hotel room alone at night. However, it doesn't mean that I still don't have those childhood bruises and that they can't be pressed by various things.

And so it's this sort of... Because when we say these words like insecurity and shame, you'd think that I walk into the green room over there and I'm like, oh, that's not my life. But when I... Where I know that there's still something there is I go, how the, why are you still driving like this? Exactly. When you are so well aware that it will not lead to any more happiness in any context.

Like, I'm so logically aware that becoming more will not have any impact on the things that matter yet anymore. Here I am still building businesses. And this is the constant thing I battle with. So I go, okay, well, there must be a force that you're consciously unaware of that's making you go, go on, go on.

100%.

Yeah, I was laughing because it's so true. Yeah. I was laughing at the fact that when I go to Bali, that's like where I end up writing a book.

To myself or just to the world?

I'm an entrepreneur. I am a, I guess I'm a podcaster now. And I am, I was going to say a Manchester United fan.

Okay.

I know it's weird. No, but does that, because we tend to look for solutions that involve action. Like, you know, buy that thing, make that list, go to that meeting, watch that thing. It's all about action, action, action as a solution to our problems.

So I was expecting you to tell me that the solution to everything we've discussed here is like the seven-step process of like, write this thing down, say this thing, and, you know.

For me?

No.

Yeah. And this is why it's so complex because what you've just said is so unbelievably true, but it's where the misconception happens because I don't go home and I'm not like insecure or I'm not unconfident. Like I think like when I'm on my own, I'm very, very okay with who I am, with myself.

It's, why is it not hard for me to work hard? Because it feels good to work hard? Absolutely.

First one when I was very young, but we won't count that because I didn't register the company. So the first one that was registered would have been when I was 18.

Across the platforms, maybe 10 million.

I mean, it's ridiculous when you get into it because, you know, I don't know anything about it. My mom didn't talk to me about it. When Tricia started describing her symptoms to me, I know that if there was symptoms anywhere from really annoying to, you know, debilitating over a course of, you know, there's tens of millions of women in the United States alone who are going through this.

There would be a pill. There would be some kind of salve or poultice. Something would be figured it out. Yeah. Yeah, if it was a men's problem, we'd have this solved already. So it was really hard to, you know, again, just support Trish as she went through it just to figure it out.

Yeah, I mean, it's really, well, and a lot of it's hidden from us, right? So, you know, Trish is a strong mother. She's doing things all the time. She's super energetic. And so a lot of it's hidden. She's, you know, she kept her symptoms to herself. When we started to talk about it, the thing that kind of triggered for me is she goes through periods of, I would call it weariness. She's not tired.

She's weary. Like we get to the end of the day and that's it.

It's it's over. And so that's really the thing that struck me the most about it. But as Trisha and she's really open with me about it, which has been great just to understand her and see if I can support her some way. But it's really it's it's hidden to to men for sure.

Hello, I'm doing all right. How are you, Dave?

So I'm in a bit of a situation that I'm looking for some guidance on. My wife and I just started your program about six months ago. We're $43,000 worth of consumer debt down so far. Good. And I just lost my job a few days ago.

Yeah, that was pretty exciting to get a layoff right before Christmas.

Construction, superintendent, so I was making about $160,000 a year. I've got a job lined up to start again in January for $170,000. Well, this worked out. kind of manipulate your system a little bit for my own peace of mind. And my wife and I are debating. I want to stop baby step two right now because we have two vehicles in our house. That's all that's left.

And I want to do a six-month emergency fund and then go back to attacking everything.

Theoretically, just two.

It definitely makes you nervous.

Well, for a long time before I took this job, I... tried to out-earn my stupidity, and that didn't work. So I took the job, and like I said, we got pretty serious about it six months ago. I don't know. What does your wife make? Nothing. We're a single-family income family.

So you just keep going back to the cars and then move on to it?

Well, that's the reason for the call. Yeah.

Okay. All right. so we're not bad.

Here's the kicker that we've been waiting for that hasn't happened yet. I own a little bit over a million dollars worth of real estate that's been on the market between eight different houses. And when interest rates spiked, sales stopped. So we've kind of been waiting for one of those to sell to just go ahead and pay everything off and be done.

Mm-hmm.

In fairness, I do have...

Merry Christmas. How are y'all?

Okay, so here's my situation. I'm 20 years old. I'm engaged and I'm planning on getting married in June. And that being said, we're looking to get an apartment together in June because that's what you do. You move in together once you get married. I'm completely debt-free. She has a little bit of student loan debt, but that's kind of beside the point. The question for me is,

is my grandma opened up a credit card for me to use strictly as a gas card. And that's my only credit card. And she always pays it on time. But that being said, I have credit.

That was her way of saying that she wants to support me through college. That was her gift to me. Okay. And so I can totally afford my own gas, but that's just the gift she wanted to give to me. Good.

but i know that i want to get this apartment and i really like the sound of what y'all talk about of letting your credit score roll over to nothing but i'm afraid that if i say hey grandma thank you but let's close this card i appreciate the gesture i can pay for this um that my credit score will plummet but it won't flip and disappear before that time in june when i'm trying to get an apartment honey you don't have to have a credit score to get an apartment

Awesome. I did not know that. I was under the impression that My credit score would plummet and that might jeopardize whether or not we'd be able to move that.