Hoodology

In this thought-provoking yet humor-laced episode, we explore the gritty streets we called home, reminiscing about growing up in rough neighborhoods and the remarkable journey of evolution that many people undergo. If you've ever been unsure which career path to take, don't worry; you're not alone. We'll dissect the trials and tribulations of those uncertain crossroads, offering insight of how we think about vast number of paths ahead of us.

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Welcome back to another episode of Simply Chatting. It's your boy, Noel. Your Ethan's here. Yo, it's Paul. LNOP right here. It's funny how you stick with that name. I am. I like it. I was thinking about it today. I was like, yo, we're going to record. And it's like, what about like, what is it, our fifth episode, some shit like that? Yeah. And just like together. Yeah. This is like my sixth or seventh one. You'd be learning yourself on the mic. Nah, anyway, this thing is still calling themselves. I want to be. Hey, guys, you know, I'll hear. Yeah, I'll just be talking to myself for the mirror. I'm just like, damn, are you shirtless in this or like, is it like, you know, is it like a kind of question? Is it unhinged? Why does it matter? I feel like if you have your clothes on, it tells me that you have like some like awareness of yourself. But if you like, I don't know. Are you saying that you think that I look at myself in the mirror and I'm just disgusted? No, no, no. Hey, that's not how you know. what he said. That was a projection. Oh my God. Okay. Now why did you say the other thing? Yeah. I don't know, was this man was like, Oh, you wear clothes? And I'm just like, why shouldn't I? Okay, so- I didn't say you could. Where I was going with this is basically, to me, putting on clothes shows a level of like planning. You know what I'm saying? A level of planning? You got to plan to put on clothes, nigga? You plan the outfits, you know what I'm saying? So like, so what I'm getting at is like, it'd be interesting if I- You don't ever just throw shit on? You say what? You don't ever just throw shit on? It's funny, cause he does. He definitely does throw shit on. I do, but what I'm saying is- Everything in my closet So whatever I put on, OK, this is my sense. But what I'm getting at is like, if you saw someone maybe talk to himself with a microphone and they have a shirt and pants, you wouldn't think much of it. But if you saw someone just have to walk past and see a guy in his underwear, you know, this something happening to that. I think if we walk in on the street and I see either of those scenarios, I'm thinking something of it. Now you think I'm talking into a microphone on the street by himself. Yeah, like that. Yeah, I'm like, what does this thing talk about? Absolutely a thing. Because usually that microphone is talking into hooked up to like a jack or some shit. Jack is jack. It's jacked to something. If I see a nigga talking to himself, it's a microphone on the street. I'm thinking, what the fuck is this nigga doing? Regardless of he called the naked. The naked part adds extra questions. OK, but regardless, I have questions. What would the questions be? What naked? Why is he naked? How was he still here? How long has he been out here? Is he what a police? OK, here we go. He said, Paul, hey, you. All right, that's all I'm getting. It just seems a little bit more unhinged. That's all the question was. I think you're doing okay. You're doing good. Yeah, we all about body positivity here So going back to like the calling the cop situation I was thinking about this shit the other day like I was watching this video about this dude who stepped on another dude Sneaker or whatever and I don't know and I was thinking I'm like bro. I'm at that age right now Like I want no problems like I almost I'm a snitch. I don't care. Hold on like I'm not getting into a fight with nobody, bro I don't want no problems. Okay where you like something is something you're thinking you snuffing the digger when I have shit that I care about no No, you said you're at the age where yeah, if a nigga fucks you call the cops, right? But where was that transition? So you were what is just up here? So I'm saying like I'm an agent in terms of like a mental space Like I'm 24, you know what I'm saying? Like obviously I still have energy. Like I still have some energy. So at 23, would you call in the cops? At 23, would you call in the cops? Yes. At 22, would you call in the cops? Yes. So can you please answer my question? At what age were you not going to call the cops and just snuff that nigga? Like when were you more defensive about the whole thing? Like in San Diego, when I got to San Diego. Nigga, San Diego is not a fucking age, bro. What age? 21, bro, when I was 21. Okay, okay, okay. So what changed? Well, you know, space time continuum is kind of the same thing. So we're not gonna get into that. I don't really want to talk about the space time continuum with the fucking quantum physics. What the fuck you call that shit? Oh, so basically like I was just evaluating my life, you know, as some 21 year olds do, and I'm just like damn bro, like I just think about mad shit. And at the same time I'm like, yo, I'm really not trying to get smoked. It's a middle of a crisis ass shit. Yeah, like when I'm grinding, you know what I mean? Like I don't want no problems. Like, cause you're broke. Like if you really think about it, you can have like a nigga moment whenever. Yeah. People be taking that shit to the extreme. Shout out to all the like the 40 year old like niggas hugging the blocks. That's crazy. Niggas is dedicated. Yeah, but I'm saying like even like I grew up in Brownsville. You know what I'm saying? Like the worst. like neighborhood in Brooklyn, for sure. And I see people dying, you know what I'm saying? I see people get drummed, like stabbed, like all this random shit. And like at a time, like I was just like, oh, yeah, like I'm not letting nobody touch me. But then I come to my senses and I'm just like, damn, like, you know how many friends like that passed away that just like on the 20, like on the 18, like 16? I think the youngest friend that I have personally who died was 13. Awesome. Just. But shit, you know, I mean, it's like matter necessary. Like for me, I'm just like, even if I can't avoid at that point in that situation, I there's no need to be a facade, bro. Like. Like I pay taxes, you know, like you go. I think the problem of paying taxes, I think is I think is more of a joke. Instigation, instigation. So you don't think niggas like that naturally. You think it's like. I guess I'm thinking of like you ever read the book Loaded of Flies? No, everyone. Oh, I'm a lawyer. You see, you want to say everyone has you because like it's like a high school. It was not in my curriculum. Oh, OK. It's about like the main the main question is like when you put niggas and isolate people, there's a movie about it. I feel like you guys anyway, watch that movie. This was like in the night. I was familiar before I got to high school. Did you watch it? Did you watch? I watched and read the book before I got to high school. Yes. Word. I like. OK, OK. But what introduced you to the book Loaded of Flies? My mother. Your mother. OK. The movie was on. I grew up watching film and anything. that had like a book attached to it when I was growing up. It was just like if my mom knew about it, she's like, yeah, let's go read the book to see what's better. So you would know that the Lord of the Flies is literally like social. It's like, you know, if you put people on the aisle, if you put humans together, you like strip them from society. Are they naturally evil or more specifically boys? Well, yeah. Yeah. Would you like are they like naturally evil or would they come together like form a site like how would they do? Like what humans come together, work together, like to further their existence or what they just like to isolate themselves, form groups and then try to attack each other like and extinguish themselves basically. Right. So in that point, like, like you said, you had people like growing up doing hood shit, whatever the fuck that means. Like niggas protecting their blocks over their families and shit, dying at a young age for no fucking reason, like fighting over shit that they don't own. Right. And you got to realize that you're doing this shit for no reason. And at some point you grow older and you get you enter a different mindset. And is it like the people influence you? Is it like society influence you? Is it your block influence you to like say you got to fight for this because where you come from, some shit like that? Was that just like naturally in your nature to do that shit? That's not an instigation Really well, I think everyone I don't think anyone grows up with it with the it's I think it's rare like there's a film called City of God is Basin like I guess now so it's outskirts of Brazil. We have like those There are characters out there who derive like serious pleasure from I guess No, yeah, but like just like from the danger of it the thrill of it Oh, of course, manually. So like, that's. that energy, like it feels good. It feels like especially I was I'm going to speak more about like the male experience. It feels good to feel like a conqueror. Everyone wants to be like Jacob. Is it like we're all kings in some way? Right. But like King, what makes a king a king is just like, it's not just like saying that your king is like you. You have earned some things for some reason. You already can't status. Right. And so like usually it's like I think it's like a like a dominance sort of kind of like the risk of something like Jordan Peterson, like a dominance, like hierarchy, you know, saying where it's just like a like I have earned this thing. I've conquered this thing. I've overcome this thing to have this thing. And that thrill feels good. And for some people, it's like much more of a rush than others. Like some people are just happy to survive. So they do what they have to do. Like I got to I got to hug the block to feed my family. Where some people is like, I just want the power that comes with it because, you know, taking someone out. I guess I want the power that comes with having some money. Hugging the block gives me this so I can be that. Yeah. You ever heard a term like what is it? Power, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Because like for me, like even my biggest factor with even joining the Navy, like my biggest thing was like, yo, I am tired of like constantly checking behind my back. Like that is a feeling that I was just like so fucking tired of having. I even because I was working, you know, at the airport. And I was working two jobs, making like pretty good bread. And people like I lived there my entire life. Like they know me. I didn't know what I was doing. Like they already know what's up with me. Like they knew I had money. Like, thank God, never been pressed or anything like that. But just like associate even by association of me, dapping up somebody from a block that I went to school with, like automatically pin me as like, oh, like this man, like folks with X group. You're guilty by association. Yeah, we're guilty by association. And then that wasn't the case, because I was cool with everybody. So like everybody knew, like I'm like really not fucking with nobody, but at the same time people knew like, I guess in their eyes, like I was doing something else, because I never worked in Brooklyn. You know what I mean? Like I was working in Manhattan. Looking in Queens, like sometimes not even the broads considered safer places that way. OK, you know, like even that paid more and shit. So they respected the grind. But then looking back, like it's like you see coming to it too. Right. Because like if niggas see niggas on the block every day and they see a nigga from like the same scenario they're doing, maybe even younger to making a bread that they can't make. They've been on the block like fucking 20 years or like bettering themselves or they haven't better themselves like the amount of time that you've been that they've been here. That's like, yo, what the fuck is nigga doing? Just think of the piece like that. Like creeps in. Yeah. And they just be jealous. fact that they don't like you because they think that you think you're better than them, especially like that. Yeah, which is not the case at all. Like, bro, there was one time I was working at the airport, right? And it was like, I want to say like it was like March, April time frame. And I was wearing my jacket or whatever. And so I'm coming I'm coming back and this dude stops me. He's like, yo, what's up? What's up, young boy? I'm like. was good. Here we go. Yeah. And I was like, like kind of like on edge already. And it was like fucking like seven, like six, seven o'clock at night. And I'm like, yeah, what's up? He's like, yo, I see you working at the airport. Like you always stop by at this time. Like, like, how is it over there? And I'm like, that's that is crazy in and of itself. Imagine someone coming up to you in your daily commute. You've been doing this for like a couple of months. You're like, yo, I've been seeing you a lot recently. Like you do the same shit. This time, that's why I go. What the fuck? I rarely ever take the same route more than like three times in a row. Yeah. So he's like, oh, like, And I'm like obviously like I might go I live around here. He's like, okay, like what do you do? And I'm like, yo, like I work at the airport like I do XYZ whatever and he's like, I think you talking way too Yeah, bro. I would have a completely different fucking response I gotta go like cuz like cuz this dude sits in front of my building. So you know this nigga you like recognize his face Yeah, I recognize his face. It was like some random dude like he was just like, you know, you've seen where I live that right? you know the train stations like to like to Yeah, so it's like at one of the corners where I turned to go into my building Yeah, I would think so behind Cuz niggas be just in a neighborhood just like living their life But it's still pretty weird how would they get like he would notice if you see like the same thing in the same uniform Walking every day, but I wouldn't walk up to me and be like, yo, I be seeing you all the time at this time But what you be doing? Like what you probably would be? So basically was asking me like Yeah, what's your mother's maiden name? You never learned Stranger Danger at all. You cannot finish. I want to hear this one. It has a wholesome ending. Relax. I think you need to relax. So basically, he asked me these questions. I'm like, yeah. He's like, oh, how is it? How's the hiring? I'm like, yeah, it's good. What's up? You want a job? He's like, yeah, bro. I'm tired of slinging rocks over here, doing XYZ. doesn't ever know where to apply. Oh, like you don't got it. And I was like, yeah. And he's like, no. And I'm like, OK, like, well, I use this job to look up this. And then I look up, like, I'll use this website to look at the culture of the job and see, like, which one I like. And I just applied. Do you think in way too much? I think a lot of people don't even think about the culture of a place. I think he's trying to find a job. Like, yeah, it's like getting in a space. But it's different. He's probably coming out of high school and shit. Right. But this is something that's like trying to survive. Like, he probably don't know. Obviously, he doesn't know how to get a job. Yeah. I don't know if I can apply. I want to fill that out and cut you off. I think it's interesting how... So like how some things are such a foreign concept, you know, for me, I guess I take it for granted the fact that I have the knowledge that like, yeah, just go on indeed and make a resume where a lot of people is never even a resume is such a form. Like they think that that's like a maybe a racial thing. Like, oh, man, I don't want to be a white person getting a resume. That's weird. No facts. That's like that. I saw some people be and I was just there like, all right. So like explain it to him, the whole process or whatever. And I connected them. different spots, like he was asking me about like, Oh, what do you think about this? I was a chill like that. And it turns out like this dude has been in my building for like over 20 years. Like he was there when my mom like first moved into the hood type of thing when he was like six or seven. And he noticed me like growing up and shit. And he's like, Oh, like he even know my brother who was like, who went to the army. You know what I'm saying? He did his 12 years, moved to Texas and he still remembered him. Like my own family. So I was just like, oh, this is like a family, like a family like member that you didn't know you had. Yeah. That's awesome. I can see that. Yeah. And I was like, what the fuck? So then every time, like me and him chilling and all. And I went home for one Christmas and I almost got pressed in my building. Like there was dudes like, oh, who the fuck you are? Like that. And I had my sea bag and everything. Like because I didn't have a luggage case because I was going to go pick it up. And they're like, oh, like He brought some fucking promises on the third. And him and a couple of the old dudes who I seen around the neighborhood pressed him. He was like, yo, what the fuck you doing? You don't know, leave this man alone. Obviously he's doing some shit. This on the third, and he's just protecting me. Even then, I still get calls from my mom because she checks, he, she already knew of him, but because she figured out that me and him talked, it bridged the link to open conversations. So she's always asking me, I'm I doing to tell him he's always asking about me and I and then he always tells me like oh like I be making sure like mom's good or whatever, you know, I'm saying like shit like that and I was like Well, I was thinking about this shit like yesterday and like in my car because you know, like I'm doing like a lot of different shit in my life and The main the main question I had in my mind was like, yo Like imagine if this man had different intentions. You know what I mean? Like immediately I brought it up to y'all and y'all was instantly like, oh, like they not talking too much and shit like that. But to me, nigga, I was just like, yo, why can't I just help him out? You know what I mean? No, I agree with that though. And then everybody's mentality is always like, oh, like fuck this nigga, like fuck this bitch. Like I'm gonna do this, this and this, like hating. Or like why can't we just uplift each other? Like in such a like dog eat dog world. like at a certain point, like people forget the fact that like none of us did this shit by ourselves. You know what I mean? Like. Well, when I was raising the question, I didn't mean it from a fuck this nigga type of mentality. I'm like. From the from the way, because obviously we none of us were there in that situation at that time, we didn't. I promise you, I was exactly how you imagine. I imagine that shit happened. But it's like a lot of factors, because you said you knew the nigga, right? And like. To some degree. Yeah, you recognize this. Like if I know anything, I'm going to be a lot more or a lot less hostile to a nigga that I don't know. Right. Like if I've never had a car. Like I've never seen talk to my mother before. I probably am not your mom. I'm not like I've never seen you even talk to my like family. You know, I don't know, you know, like any of my siblings. I'm not I'm not spinning your face, but you say I'm not just I'm going to be restrictive of what the info about me that I give you. You know what I'm saying? I'm not going to be so engaging for real. I'm honestly I'm the kind of person like I don't care how rude it looks. I'm like, no, I'm good. Like, I'm sorry. I'm not buying what you're selling. Like, whatever. You could be asked me what time it is. I'm like, yeah, I don't know. I have no idea. I have. Now, that is great. I'll be so tight, bro. Yeah, because I don't want I don't want you to even say as fucking. I'm like, it's like funny. It's just more like damn, they go like even if you have an Apple watch or something, you can't be like, I literally I give people. I make sure I look at people that I don't know. Like I'm talking like on the street. And if we make I can say I like I shake my head of stare like don't try whatever you think about trying like if it's like to ask me where the nearest block is even if it's right in front of us look around he's on you with not me it's funny because I'd like have you ever like had an experience with like something like walking up to ask like random questions or something like having a random interaction like somebody's downfall some shit like that I'm asking the element of P yeah I've had it before there's not so Not something, nothing that sticks out. I'm sure I've had more where I thought, this was like kind of sketchy, but like, I try to care myself respectfully, you know what I'm saying? But for me, the bit, the... You know, before I even start going on a tangent, give me the question that you're trying to ask. The reason I ask the question is because a lot of people base their behaviors on past experiences. Yeah. To protect themselves, you know, like that. So I'm like, OK, you do this, this and this or because of the culture, right? Because like me being from New York, it's like I'm about my business. I'm going where I'm going. If I bump into a nigga, I say, yo, I'm sorry. And I can see people. I only wait to see that nigga now. Yeah. But in general, I'm like about my business. A nigga like come up to me and I don't know him. I'm like, no, like, shit like that. Shit like you said, it's like a culture type thing. Here's what I think. Yeah, go ahead. It is I think there's things such as vicarious learning is a term that I learned in the one semester that I took psychology and I think vicarious learning plays a big part for a lot of people. There's there was this experiment I don't remember the name of the experiment where maybe it was a thought experiment, but the scientists basically had a group of monkeys and like a generation of monkeys is crazy a generation of animals if you feel better, but You know this generation No, so listen, they had these primates in like an enclosure of sorts. And something there was there was some amount of stimuli that they would give the primates if like things that you like they were building rules for the monkeys without actually telling them anything because you can't really communicate. There's no it's not like they were silent signing at them. They were only like the monkeys were learning in the human and the experimenters. The researchers were recording this, right? So after a certain point, maybe this generation of monkeys had learned the rules. If you pick up this amount of bananas, you get a light shock or a heart shock, who knows? If you pick up this amount of bananas, you get nothing. You get the bananas, right? I'm botching how the experiment actually went, but what I'm saying is, as time went on, that generation of monkeys had been removed. And then another generation of monkeys would come along. But they would maybe leave a monkey from the previous generation. there. What they would do, what they would notice is that monkey would tell the other monkeys basically the rules of the place that they were in. And so as time went on, when that monkey eventually dies or they remove that monkey from the enclosure and another generation would go on, even though the generation had never experienced a negative stimulus from, like they had learned from the first generation, those monkeys would just... what behaviors as though they had already received that experience, even though they never did. You know what I'm saying? Now that you talk about that, I do remember that exact same experiment. It was a it was specifically a pile of bananas. Yeah. And if they touched any of the bananas, they were shocked. Yeah. And it wasn't like you were saying, it wasn't until we don't endorse animal cruelty. Yeah. But it wasn't until the original group was fully replaced. except for one member, to continue the A, don't touch the bananas. No one really realized it. So just to get to the point of the experiment, it's like, don't touch the stove. It's like you learning to not touch the stove before burning yourself. Yeah. Is the is the entire purpose of the experiment. It's like why? And I want to add, I'm not sure if that falls under the umbrella of vicarious learning. It just it feels similar in that way where it's like I if I'm walking on the street and I see I'm walking in a town that I don't that I'm not familiar with, but I see something occur to someone else without them having told me that, you know, what happened? I can make some level of inference. Okay, well he was walking down walking down the street and he was doing this So I'll make sure to not do exactly what he was doing because I don't want that whatever negative thing that happened to him That happened to me. You know, I'm saying yeah, I think that falls around the lines like the culture I was talking because I yeah vicariously literally means like learning through someone else Yeah, putting yourself someone else shoes like experience their life And yeah, like through culture like, you know, like to do a certain thing a certain way and then you can get through life It will be easier shit like that. Yeah, and that's why people I guess in New York or wherever you're from They like interact with people differently like they see different experiences. They like, okay I won't be so friendly to someone I don't know. Or I will be friendly to someone. If you grew up in Utah, like the South. The South seems like a friendly place. The South is very friendly. Very friendly place. Like, help your neighbor, love that neighbor type stuff like that. Like a complete sidebar. Like even when I was younger, I would say like 1920 or whatever. Like, obviously, I've been experiencing like a whole bunch of like different shit happening around my hood. And like people said, people can jump. I even for when like regular like Jordans that are beat up like just to snatch them off their feet type stuff. And I remember specifically like just like having like brand new J's like Gucci belt, like a fire trench coat, whatever like Nike Tech. And I'll walk from like Williamsburg all the way to my hood. like at fucking two o'clock in the morning, not giving a fuck. And then when I went back recently, like probably like a year ago, like obviously I had my camera had like more expensive shit. And then I was just there like, why the fuck did I do that? You know what I mean? Because I guess like I grew comfortable in that scenario that was just like, like whatever if it happened, happens like now, because I couldn't avoid it. Like that's where I live. But now that I like remove myself from the situation, I'm a lot more cautious of like shit that I do now. Well, maybe you have more now than you did before. Perhaps. I mean, there was a second line there. Well, I guess what I'm saying, I think that and maybe also, like you have, like a lot of things that you have, I'm not talking for everybody, but I feel like a lot of things that people have, especially in the West, even people who are in a lower socioeconomic bracket, a lot of things that you receive are from your parents. You don't necessarily earn anything necessarily as a child, per se. You can't legally work as an eight-year-old. You can't technically, I mean you can get a permit if you're like 14 or something like that, 15, but for the most part, a lot of the things that people get, they receive as a gift at a young age. And so maybe those things, and then a lot of things that you receive depending on where you're from or how much money's flown through the household, a lot of the things that you receive don't really have that much value. So on one end you have people who grow up, and maybe they grow up maybe poor, and so they feel super duper protective of the stuff that they have. and maybe people who still grow up or they... They don't feel as protective of the things they have because they don't even the value of the thing isn't that valuable to them. I mean, I've been paying for all my shirts since I was 15. Right. So, you know, maybe I'm 14. Yeah, I think it's funny. Not that I keep on. Oh, no. For me, no, I was I grew up a lot of stuff that I was everything that I ever owned has always been a gift. Grandmother, you know, saying my mother, you know, work really hard. So my parents worked really hard to just give me gifts and everything wasn't perfect, but it was always a gift. of value in those things, but I guess I'm a little bit different. I can't really use me as an example, but I feel like... Things that I have now, like my car, like I purchased my car. I'm much more ready to like defend it because it's I earned it. I worked hard to get it. You know, you know what I'm saying? Whereas like maybe someone else might not feel that way if it's like if it's given to me, you know what I'm saying? What I'm not. I'm sorry, country. I might be crazy, but I have a theory about that. Like as you get older, things that you work for become like more valuable to you. Right. Because I think like when you're younger, you don't really have a sense of time, right? Like when you're like 15, like I was saying, you always want to grow older. Like, yo, when I get to this point, I'll be like this, this and this. Like, what do you see yourself in like five years type shit, right? But if you really think about it, when you're younger, like, like I said, you don't have that grasp of time like you're getting older and older and older. Right. So like, say you said you ask your parents or like mostly stuff was like a gift. Right. So I never asked. I never asked for anything. It was more like there's more like, hey, you can't walk out naked. So we're going to give you clothes. You know, you know, yeah, I got you. I got you. But it was like, OK, I got this. Now this is mine. And now I'm walking around with it. like I think it threatens me like, yeah, it's not worth my life. I'll give it up. Right. Well, as you get older, you like start working, right? Like you work for your money. You put in time, you get your bread, you spend your bread on this shit. Now you get this shit. This shit is worth a lot to you. Yeah. So it's like a time turning into like a possession that you own. And like that is like. It's like the more time you spend trying to get it, most might the more time you try to get it. It's like the more valuable it's here. And as you get older, your time is like more valuable. It's like you're getting older, right? I don't know if you're closer to death or but you see your effort getting greater and greater according to an actuary you would be. Yeah. OK, nigga. But anyway, yeah, as you grow older, your time becomes valuable to you and you spend more time to make your bread and get the shit that you want. So like over and over, you see like you see more often how your time is turning into the shit that you own. And if you get that shit like threatened, or you get it taken away from you like, damn, I just wasted my time. You know, it's crazy. I think like I definitely get what you're saying. But I feel like I'm sometimes in an anomaly to what you just explained. So check this out. Are you build different? No, no, no. Not like that. But basically, right. The same the similar thing where he's saying like you buy all your stuff. Like I bought every single thing that I own, obviously. Right. But like for me, for example, like sneakers and like I wear like five hundred dollars pairs of sneakers. shit off on like slippers, like easy slides. Like the first day I got them spent two hundred. Immediately went on a flight to the yard and then went dirt bike riding on the side of a mountain straight into a river. And they want not imagine these shits got fucked up. Yeah, but it's like it's still yours at that point, right? No matter how much you fucked them up, it's still yours. But imagine if you if you just bought them shits. No, I'm just saying I just bought them that day. Got them in the box. But yeah, you own them, right? But like, imagine you got in on your way to the airport. Niggas stopped your cab. This is like a complete dumbass situation. Niggas stopped your cab, robbed the cab, took them just off your feet. And you had to go to the airport like without without. And you couldn't even go there by getting on them to shit. You never experienced anything with them. You just got your shit. And I'll be tight. But you know what I'm saying? Like, I still make use of all my shit. Like at a certain point, bro, if I'm getting robbed at gunpoint, I don't go for it. Your life is more important. Yeah. That's the age that I'm telling you, like I just don't care. Like all the shit that I buy is literally I viewed as like either gifts to myself or shit to entertain myself. But maybe there's a threshold. You know what I mean? Yeah, I actually understand that. Maybe there's a threshold. So to your point, Ethan, it's like I feel like we. the time part, right? Like we can only exist as we are, as who we are. And the time that we use, a lot of the time is spent working and we use, in exchange for our time, we were working, we received some money, right? So like we put ourselves into those things. So when we ever we buy stuff, houses, cars, clothes, it's like, it's an extension of who we are. So that's why I feel like people become guarded about that. They're more protective of those things because these things are representative of me. You stealing this from me is like stealing a part of me. A lot of people get really defensive. But on the other end, this happens that you get older. On the other end, or like the other side of the spectrum, or as we hit there's a threshold where as you get older, also things matter less to you. Not that things necessarily matter less to you, but what matters to you and those values tend to fluctuate very drastically over like it's been like every 10 years, let's just say. Yeah, I feel like I feel like a good example that would be like when you were like around like 14, 15, you put on like your best fit the mall, you know what I'm saying? Try to impress somebody. But like, once you get older, you're like, bro, I'm finna go to the mall and like, do slides or shorts or some shit, you know what I'm saying? I'm just trying to get some shit. I mean, I feel like that's a good example. And I feel like the whole concept of time, like to go off like the concept of value in regards to time, it's like, when you were younger, if you think of it from a fractional point of view, Right. You you have like you. As like if you're younger, you've spent like the fraction is small, like larger, you know, saying, you know. But as you get older, you've spent more time. That's why I feel like time flies faster because you've already, you've lived through more life. You have more experience. So I feel like due to the amount of experiences that you've had as you've gotten older, you tend to value and appreciate certain things more. Hmm. But the fractions become like larger, like in value to you. Like the bottom line is like, yeah, as you as your years go on. I'm just honestly like I'm thinking of it like mathematically. I actually feel like, you know, I'm not this hard, bro. No, but I'm saying like I'm thinking of it like a derivative sort of. Yeah, it's exponential. That's literally what I'm thinking of an exponent curve. And I just thought it was. I was just trying to make sure I have the concept. Yes. Yeah. Calculus, man. Yeah, we've been talking a lot of deep shit, bro. I love it. This is good. This is for this for the nice. Thanks. Appreciate it. I just remember before we started recording, we talked about like nigga shit. You know, I'm talking about. No, I don't. Yeah. You know, what was he talking about? This was a start on that conversation. Like what? people do like past times. I feel like we weren't talking about anything heavily ignorant though. I mean, nigga shit doesn't have to mean like ignorant. The term actually literally almost means. Oh really? The term nigga in the dictionary means ignorant. You can look it up. What? Let's look a nigga in the Oxford dictionary. It's gonna say like it's a racial epithet, but also like the term is used to. describe someone who's ignorant. How do we get here, though? How do we get? I think we're talking about like, oh, I'm talking about how do we get from like, how did he was? No, shut the fuck up. I was talking. We was talking about Oprah, right? And then we was talking about Lord of the Flies. And then we talked about our possession. Then we talked about the mind. Yeah. And then there was like a story that came out of this. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like how people how people's behaviors in like towards it's right. I think I think going on a more lighthearted note, I feel like the like the best way to summarize this whole thing. It's a J. Cole outro. And it's like it's like someone else talking. And it's like the whole concept is like, look, if I got my plate in front of me with my food and you got your plate. Why are you worried about what I'm eating when you could be yourself? Yeah, that's like, you know, you know, you know, I get the song. I fit the song. I feel like it's just a that should look good over there. That's why I'm worried about it. OK, but we both got the same plate. No, I mean, it's different for different things, but if I got the fuck out a different plate and I'm looking at nothing like, you got ribs, all I got is chicken. How do ribs taste? How do ribs taste? All right. They both protein, you know, saying you get you. You know what I'm saying? Speaking of ProZ, I'll be in the gym. Do y'all think it's workout? No, I'll be working out sometimes. I'm about to get in like for real, for real. What you about to get into? Like once I get back? Yeah, like what is your goal? in terms of like work, because people work out for different days. Some people want to be bodybuilders. Some people want to be the strongest thing on a block. Some people want to just like look good for females. Like, what's your motivation? It's mainly just to have fun and look good. What's your motivation? I feel confident with how I look, but it's mainly like for the fun of it, because like I'm trying to get into like Olympic weightlifting. Well, you think you want to be an Olympian? No, no, no. Why? Like powerlifting? Yeah, not necessarily powerlifting, but it's like sweeps. like cleans yummy. Do I probably the pilot? You know, so I was there just said, but just yes. You say I'm not I'm not I'm not trying to like. Short term, my goal is thousand pound club, maybe like 50 hundred pound club. Very easily done. You know, I agree for some niggas. Everyone at the table could use a thousand pound club. I agree. I agree. I agree. But but like my point is I'm just trying to have fun with it. Yeah. And I'm just trying to get to the point where like where when I'm older, I can look back and be like, yeah, I did. I reached my potential. I was that nigga at one point. I was that nigga. It's like, you know, it's like because I feel like if you don't reach a limit at like, quote unquote, the peak of your life, I feel like you kind of kind of you wasted some time. What would you consider the peak in your life, though? Like everybody is everybody at this table is on the 20 in their 20s. Right. And I think I read an article that was like, oh, yeah, the peak males like males reached their peak at 26. Right. Or like they're I thought it was like towards 30, to be honest. To a study. I mean, like I only believe in that, though, to be honest. I mean, I know I'm sure it's like a biologist would probably say otherwise, but I really don't agree with that. There's so many, like, OK, for example, Chris Kyle, Rest in Peace, you know, American sniper, he had to get a waiver to become a Navy SEAL. To be a Navy SEAL, like the qualifications for that, a lot of people who are young like by 10 years, like a lot of a lot of special forces guys on average are like the youngest man might be might be 18 because maybe he's a phenom, but usually they're like 25, the average youngest person and everyone else. On average, I talk to a guy. I talked to a guy who was a EOD. And he said that he was 28 years old or 29. He had gray in his beard. He was very rugged. And he said that he's the youngest person, like everyone that he he's an instructor. And the people that he teaches are 32 or 33 on average. Word is this is because, yes, the physical aspect is very rigorous and very challenging, but most of that shit is mental. And for to. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Because like most of that, most of the training is in a is in a controlled environment. They just increased chaos and stress. Yeah. To compensate for the. the hazard of the occupation later on. Yes, it is somehow. Yes. So you feel dangerous. Yeah. But what I think is just like to what you're saying, you know, like I have heard like, oh, yeah, people you usually see. I've heard people say like after 18, after 21, I've heard people say after 25, at the 30, usually 30. And I think 30, 35. And I think I'm going bullshit on it. To be honest, I feel like you I don't think that you can go out and fly because you believe that you can fly. But I do believe that I do. that if you push yourself to your limit, you will find limits that you never thought existed. Well, it can also be a thing where like they're thinking about, OK, your physical peak, if you were to start at this point, would be higher. If you started at the other point. So your physical peak at 25 will be higher than your peak at 30. I'm not saying niggas can't reach a peak. Like people could do incredible things at any age, right? If you put your mind to it. But I think the point of that whole, like statistical, what people say is your physical peak is like you can reach your highest. people on average, reach their highest height at this age. I understand that. I just think because it's the same thing with intellect. There is an astrophysicist that worked with Richard Feynman, famous physicist and mathematician and thing, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, all those guys. And he wasn't a genius through high school. He decided to become a physicist midway through, I think he was raised in New York, midway through. Yeah, midway through, he never... He decided, he told his father, who was like a butcher, I think. I think I want to do physics. And his father being an immigrant and a butcher, he's like, I don't know what that is. Be a lawyer or something. You know what I'm saying? And now he's intellectually on par with some of the greatest minds that have ever existed, as far as his contributions to science. Albert Einstein, I was watching a channel on YouTube, and they were saying, they were asking, the question was, how common are geniuses and are geniuses? Something that's necessary, not necessary, I'm sorry. our genius is something that happens like, is there like a prime age or prime whatever, like environment? And basically there was some study saying that between the ages, like there's a point where the likelihood of you becoming a genius just kind of is reduced. And there's a lot of factors, like how much interest you have in the thing, all this other stuff, motivation, the energy to go to school, all that stuff. So you're more likely to find like genius level activities or like, you know, like, you know, a higher mass or higher science minded people between the ages of let's just say 16 to 23, 24 maybe. But after that you kind of start to, you have already, you should have already published some papers or something like that. And I'm probably misquoting it, but all I'm saying is things like physical ability, mental ability, I don't believe in that there is a limit. I think whatever limit you put on yourself. So my thoughts on this is basically like. We, like in our fields now, right? A lot of people don't go to college. Either they go to college or they dropped out and then do the job that we do. Yeah. But when we leave, all everybody talks about is going to college. You know what I'm saying? At a certain point, I feel like you hit that maturity level where you start taking shit a lot more seriously. Because when you're younger, right, you don't give a fuck, right? Like you're 18, you do whatever. it your 21st birthday, all you want to do is go out club, like do X, Y, Z, and then you hit a certain point in life and you're like, hold up, I cannot be dumb. You know what I mean? There's a lot less distractions I feel like. When you're older. You've already done everything. You know what I mean? But it kind of ties into, I don't want to cut you off, but it kind of ties into you like the material thing. Like when you're older, the things that you care about start to become, you know. wider in some sense, like in more narrow in others. You put more value into things that I guess society would see important. As you get older, you're like, OK, I got to buy a house. Yeah, I got to get these things in order. Because if I know X, Y, Z degree or like I have to do X, Y, Z job, I have to be on a certain positional level at X, Y, Z job. Depending on what experiences you might have, like I said, using the physics is like, you know, you might realize midway through, you know, your 20s, like, oh, I really this is what I'm actually interested in. I would. college for a brief very brief period and I chose a school based off cultural influences and then I chose my degree based off what everyone else, I kept hearing everyone at that school say business, because that's what everyone does. I don't know about business, I don't really care about money to the point where I would like to study even the economy. And I took those courses and I wanted to pitiful them, but I also just wasn't interested in them. It wasn't until like five, six years later that I'm in the field that I'm in now where I said, oh, I think I like math, or I think I like engineering. I think I'm interested in those things. you appeal more to who I am as a person. But were you were you actually interested or was it just another thing you were going along with? Do you think at this point we talk about engineering? Yeah, yeah. Um, no, I think, uh, I think, I feel like it's like, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Sort of like, uh, I want to I want to butcher this in like a broad sense. What can feed me? like realistically, like give me a career field that can feed me consistently and give me a life that I think is comfortable and also engage me, stimulate me intellectually. So what would you do that is at this point in your life? So again, what do you what would you think would do those things at this point in your life? Like not as you like, you like going to college. You're in the field that you're in now. Right. So like, but you're like still at it like I guess I would say a turning point in your life. Right. Would you say what would you say is that thing you're looking towards now that you think can fulfill your needs? and comfortability. Short answer, engineering. But I think that honestly, I think that's true for everyone. I think everyone, I think being an engineer will be equivalent to being a mechanic today. In the next 20 years, it'll be, being a mechanical engineer will be like being a mechanic. Especially with the advent of like AI and the advancement of technology as it is. I think that more engineers will pop up more and more. It'll just spike. You know what's crazy? Like kind of like piggybacking on what you were saying about like nowadays. to be something more sustainable or whatever. Like for me, it's the complete opposite. Like doing my field now, like, bro, I was set. I'm like, I'm going to get an aeronautical engineering degree because I love playing tough, like playing enthusiast all the way or just not as before or after you before the Navy. And I was just like, you know, I want to do aerospace engineering and aeronautical even electrical engineering, because I was good at like my electronic shops. You know, I'm saying when I went to school to be an aircraft mechanic and I was like, every time I joined, like I was thinking about it. But then I got to the fleet, got to the ship, started doing like a front end of maintenance. y'all like people designing this shit. And like people spending a lot of time, a lot of math, a lot of calculations. And I realized bro, like I don't wanna do none of that shit. I'm like for me, like I like doing electrical stuff. You know what I'm saying? I like managing people. Like I like doing those things. Those type of things. And now I completely shifted like my mindset from like not being an engineer, but being like more of like a project manager, operations manager, you know what I mean? like heavily in the like electrical field just like a completely different turn to it. I think that's an interesting phenomenon because I think it I mean it's everyone for the most parts is uh play sports I mean obviously this is broad very broad general thing to say but a lot of people play sports a lot of men play sports and I think a lot of men have dreams going to pro football player pro basketball player pro whatever else other sport you think of to do it and they get like just at the door of it and they decide, I don't really like it like that. They get to the college level, which is just like, we'll say not the door, but it's literally like in the driveway. So like a D1 school. They go to D1 school, they even, they're like, they're doing well on the team and then they just decide midway through, I don't love it, I'd rather do music. Or I don't love it, I really just don't wanna be on a team. I'm good at it and it's fun, but that's, it's not fun anymore, it was more fun when I was eight. going off that topic. What I'm going to talk about is like specifically like towards basketball. But I think it could apply to most sports. Usually at a collegiate level, things are things are ran differently. Like I heard this NBA All-Star, I forget his name right now. But he was he was talking about how like playing basketball from high school to the NBA felt like that whole transition, like you know, all that time. And he said that playing in the NBA felt more like playing basketball in high school as compared to college, because they in college, they in the they mainly like the coach mainly wanted them to play their position. And that was it. Well, rather like in on a high school level, typically the coaches were. less rigid and we're more OK with you being fluid in your dynamic on the team and what you brought. And I feel like you could you can kind of see that in the NBA. I'm not that big of a NBA fan, but I can definitely I definitely know it enough to the point where I could be like. positions don't necessarily matter as much as they did 20 to 30 years ago. That might be a cultural, culturally, everybody, everybody shooting right now. You know what I'm saying? But I think also because that's like the cultural evolution behind what the cultural and just athletic evolution, you know, like before you had people like Magic Johnson, who was just like for his size to be as fluid as he is, as he was revolutionary. Yeah. But now and the people like Shaq was like, seven feet, I just don't have to do nothing. It's still he's still powerful for his side. But now everybody is kind of a phenom. It's kind of true. But like becoming a phenom really doesn't have much weight anymore. And that's why I feel like because like sometimes like you'll hear older cats say like, oh, it's not nearly as aggressive, like any sport. It's not nearly as aggressive as it was. One, you guys didn't know about CT, but to long, long. The longevity game wasn't something that people thought about. Everything was very finite and fleeting. I think this is probably the more important factor in it. Everyone, the game has evolved such that where everyone kind of has this sort of understanding that anything and everyone is replaceable and that everyone's sort of kind of positions are very fluid. Like they just understand that because of the evolution athletically, you know? Because everybody like now, like I was watching a marathon. Like I know I was talking shit about marathon videos. But like this was like a while ago, but this was some dude who was running like an entire marathon and like, I think it was like a 430 minute mile. Was it a was it a was it a African? Can you do short guys? You know, Elliot and he had a team and the way they did it was like they had a dude or somebody run in front of him to break the wind resistance. That way he could have like pretty much no shout out. Elliot Kipchoge. We love you. That was great. So, you know, the exact thing I know, I know exactly. I mentioned him last. I brought in a world record. Dude is a made up sub two hour. Crazy, so crazy. Basically, going along with that, like the dudes I was talking about, it was like, you know, this shit was impossible. like 50 years ago. No one thought about it. Yeah, because nobody actually trained like for it. Like now we have like dedicated technologies like Nike's running shoes. Yeah, VO2 max and all that. Like people have gas masks. Yeah, or even like basketballs are different than they were like even 30 years ago. Like it wasn't made from whatever, you know what I mean? Fundamentals don't really mean the same thing anymore. Yeah, like the fundamentals have changed, but then people change with it. Cause now instead of doing the show in the past time, like even back in the day, like when the Olympics first started, like there were people that were like, doing like meal deliveries, you know what I'm saying? That we're like delivering milk and shit. It was like being a truck driver and then your part time job is also big. Yeah, but now everybody's baseball. Yeah, like everybody's full time job. Like if you're an athlete is to be an athlete, literally to push the boundaries of whatever it is in your field of sport, I guess. I feel like a lot of niggas have to ramp up no matter what. Like. I don't know. You started you started at a certain point, right? But after a certain point, think it gets stacked. And right. Just like at a job and you start a new job. Oh, I feel great. It's a new thing. I'm learning new things. I'm doing new things. Yeah. But if you go on, you get like you feel like you're in a rut. You say so it has to ramp up. You have to get something new. We have to feel like you're doing something. You have to do something as one up in the day you were doing before. So in that way, OK, athletes are like. At the end of the day, all like sports and shit mostly are entertainment. That's why it's a big business. The NBA is entertainment. That's why I generate so much revenue. People are buying tickets. People are doing stuff. They're filling stadiums, yada, yada. They're doing streaming services so like people can watch them online. And it's entertainment is building revenue. And that's why people need to do. more things like you say every everybody's a phenom right now. Right. So everybody needs to like this. A level of competition that wasn't there before. Really? Like Shaq was a dominant person. He was on the court. He was getting to the basket. He was doing things he needs to do to excite the crowd. Do a showtime like you should like that. Breaking rims. Hakeem Olajuwon, bro. He's doing a skyhook every time they get up on them. I boom, boom. I do my move. I do my thing. The crowd goes crazy. Right. And then people want to see that and they want to see more. They want to see LeBron driving to the rim. They want to see fucking Curry shooting threes and fucking half court. So yeah. And then eventually that'll get And they just have to keep going crazy and crazy and crazy as a result. But I also think just like to Paul's point, like the high school feeling, I think maybe that person might be a little bit embellishing a little bit or maybe he's a little bit of an anomaly just because I feel like if it does feel like high school is probably because he played. you know travel ball with those guys growing up and so it might literally be these people were like he went to high school or His high school would have gone against them or it gets that point Where you can see it and like sometimes the players even though they're phenoms and none of us could play with them for them It for us watching it looks so easy It looks like they're not even engaged in the game because they probably aren't like they're I mean I'm sure that they you know you have those you know mama mentality People you know like you know shout out to Kobe RMP RIP But is you know you have those people who are hard charges I've tried hard for everything and they have a level of intensity. But also at the end of the day, you know, everyone's going to go home to do the thing. You know, it's not that serious. It's not it's not. For example, I think LeBron kind of broke this and maybe even a little bit for this. When he traded up to go to Miami Heat, right? That was like a big thing for it. I remember it like it was outrage. It was outrageous because back in the day, back during that time, it's crazy to say back in the day, but really like your team was that was it forever. that your team is your family and you betray them if you went anywhere else. Either you got traded or you got fired. You don't trade yourself. You don't like start moving teams around like that. But now since we're bonded, that what would happen next? The next big thing, Katie. Yeah, I was going to say that. I was going to say Katie was like the biggest like outrage of teams. People are burning their jerseys. Remember? I hate that to this day. Fuck that. Yeah. I said, you know, and people, people really were like on the on the cases. But now as time is going on, it's like these are business decisions. So yeah, of course it feels like you're playing high school ball. Oh, we're not. That's not it. Probably feels more like they're playing in the backyard. Like these are just my coworkers. It doesn't feel like they're playing for life in my city. You watch like the twenty sixteen or like twenty eighteen seventeen warriors. That makes a little bit of having a fucking YMCA shoot around, bro, because I think it's don't even like what can't even have court. They didn't try, bro, because they were they were running numbers on things. I've been trying, bro. No, I would say that they're not trying right now. It's because it's because they don't got pressure on them. Yeah, that's a thing. Muffins don't play defense. I it's to a point where sports. So I can't. This is not going to turn into a U.S. Oh, I don't watch sports. I can't wait to get to the point where I'm trying to say, oh, it's like mufflers are not playing defense because the more points they make, it correlates to how much they get in pay. Yeah. So no one playing defense no more. So now the scoreboard is looking like 100 something to 100. Yeah, that's why there's no position. That kind of go back. That's why there's no position. If you're a center that can shoot. Perfect. Great. You can be a powerful. You can be a shooting guard. I know that position exists. Right. OK, cool. So like, you know, you know, but I have the foot. No, but seriously, man, like, it's just it's just one of those things. Yeah. So basically at the end of the day, we talked about mash it. Talked about culture. We talked about motivation. We talked about how time elicited possessions, how you value the culture. Talking about Lord of the Flies. You know, read, nigga. Yeah, I completely read. I'm going to need you to announce it. What do you do to say? He said, read. OK, read. You can read a page out of Harry Potter book. And they get the 50 cent. So basically, this was a pretty a pretty deep, deep depression out of the norm, I guess, for. For the previous podcast episodes, but I hope you guys enjoyed it No, I think it was good. Yeah, it was really good. No, then you all I'm saying is you need to do a lot of little deep things. You can do a little shout thing. This is a good thing. Yeah, but this is but you never know what we're going to talk about, honestly, because this shit is not scripted at all. Yeah, because we know what we doing. We simply chatting. We just chatting. With that being said, if you guys made it this far, I greatly appreciate y'all. Like I said, every other time, let us know what you guys want us to talk about, like to start it off or whatever. And yeah, see you next time.