0:00:00 - 0:00:26 All right, I wanna talk about razor blades. You can see him clean shaven, um, like to take off my beard every once in a while so I can remember what it looked like. And, um, I think that there's some lessons in this and so I'm gonna share some thoughts, um, apologize if I'm out of breath in between sets 0:00:26 - 0:00:52 here. So, um, yesterday I was shaving all this off and you see, I got a bunch of cuts on my face. I was really tempted to make a video. Then my, my face, I looked like I had been attacked by a family of badgers and, uh, there's just blood everywhere and it's not like I'm a novice at shaving, but a couple 0:00:52 - 0:01:19 of months ago I switched over to one of these razor blades and you may have seen these before depending on your vintage. And, um, what happened was, um, one day I saw an ad on youtube for some start up. It's innovation is really scraping the bottom of the barrel these days. Um, all these companies are 0:01:19 - 0:01:42 springing up around products that nobody needs and they're not any better than anything that's already out. There, they just cost more. So we're definitely circling the drain on innovation. But, um, the company made these and when I saw the commercial, I said those have been out forever. Um, I remember 0:01:42 - 0:02:03 old people when I was a kid had these and I, I thought, huh, I wonder, I'm pretty sure that someone still makes them at, not an outrageous price and sure enough, they're not expensive at all. Um, from people not putting ads on youtube and pretending to have some new product. Um, so I decided to give 0:02:03 - 0:02:27 it a shot because, um, I have very thick facial hair, um, and it grows fast and I hate shaving and I always have, I've got, uh, sensitive skin too and so this has always been a problem. Um, but the takeaway from this is that I was not looking for a solution to a problem. I didn't even have the problem 0:02:27 - 0:02:53 on my mind but when, um, something came at me that advertised this, I considered for half a second before I clicked off the ad, whether there was any value in this for me, potentially from my perspective, um, for me shaving was a solved problem because, uh, some time ago, a long time ago, in fact, um 0:02:52 - 0:00:00 , yeah, I had to shave all the time when I was in the military on a daily basis. Um, and, uh, anyway, so I did a, a big trial run of getting a bunch of different razors. And seeing what worked best and doing cost benefit because razors are really expensive and when you wear them out as fast as I do, 0:00:00 - 0:03:32 they're extra expensive. And when you have sensitive skin, it, there's greater benefit in a sharp blade because it doesn't hurt you as badly. So that this was the solution to that search. These, these green and white ones that are disposables, these worked really well. But anyway, so I know what they 0:03:32 - 0:00:00 cost per razor, even with inflation, it's been going up. Um So it's more than it was before. And I was thinking, you know, I, I would rather not throw away a perfectly good uh set up with the razor when all I really need are, are new blades and maybe I should give this a shot. So I did, I found one, 0:00:00 - 0:04:16 it was like eight bucks and it came with a blade because these have swappable blades um and the, the holder for it and uh gave it a shot and I sliced my face up big time and uh I, I spent a couple of minutes looking up how to do this online. But uh most of the time I just shave my neck and that's mostly 0:04:15 - 0:04:37 just to save time. Um So I cut my own hair and I shave just my neck and it's the same time you, I got this idea actually from Bob Ross. So you may know Bob Ross is a famous, he's deceased. But he's got the fro, he's a painting guy. He had a, a show on PBS or something for a long time. He's the happy 0:04:37 - 0:05:00 little trees guy. So, um I learned at some point that the reason he had a fro was that, um when he got out of the military, uh he didn't have tons of money. And so he had his hair permed so that he could go longer between haircuts and then he got famous and it was actually something that irritated him 0:05:00 - 0:05:17 because it was part of his brand. And he didn't like the haircut, but he couldn't get a different haircut because it was part of his brand. Anyway, I thought that was interesting. It's also how he developed his style of painting, which is very, very quick. Uh because he, he was starting to uh find people 0:05:17 - 0:05:38 who are buying his paintings. And he said, well, if it takes me forever to make a painting, I'll make less money per hour. So if I can find a, a fast way of painting that people still buy, I'll make a lot more money. So this is all relevant. Um We're, we're gonna hit like 50 points on here. Uh We, we've 0:05:37 - 0:05:59 already hit about 10. So I gave the razor a shot and I cut up my neck, but I didn't quit because I thought, well, this is a totally different way of doing it. I'm gonna take some time to practice this. I asked myself, how long am I willing to cut myself for before? Um, I, I say I obviously can't figure 0:05:59 - 0:06:23 this out. Uh, what's it worth to me? Um, and so I, I came up with a time frame and you'll, you'll notice, actually, I'm, I'm getting ok at it, but I've had a wound here for the last two months or something because I just couldn't figure out the Adam's Apple. I just kept slicing myself on that. Um, so 0:06:22 - 0:06:44 I was getting better and I was cutting myself less frequently and it was great. Um, and this does give you a way closer shave than anything else that I've tried. Um, the blade lasts longer, it stays sharper for longer. And, um, after the initial trial run with the blade that came with it, I decided it 0:06:44 - 0:07:02 was successful enough even though I still cutting myself too much. Um, to go ahead and buy more blades. And instead of just buying one blade, I thought, well, the cost effective way of doing this is to get a multipack because you usually save when you buy these things in bulk. As I did a search on Amazon 0:07:01 - 0:07:26 and I found a 10 pack of 10 blades. Uh, and there were six cents a blade or something, six or seven, I think. And so I went ahead and bought tons of blades and for me with, as infrequently, I shave about twice a week. It was something like a 10 year supply of blades. So, um, you could consider that a 0:07:26 - 0:07:46 pretty all in investment, but we're talking something like seven bucks or whatever. So it was no big deal. And, um, when I switched out the blade, I noticed that the other brand that I got because it's a different brand than the, the actual razor. And the, the sample blade was not at all as nice as the 0:07:46 - 0:08:03 original one. In fact, it was, it was so different that I was joking that the blades come pre dulled because these new blades dull, feel like the old one. Sorry, the new blades new feel like the old one did dull. And so that was unfortunate, but I kept going because I said, well, I've got 100 blades 0:08:03 - 0:08:24 to use. So let's just keep rolling with this and we'll evaluate if I need to consider those blades a loss and switch to a better, uh, brand that's a little more expensive. Uh, because I know how much the disposables cost and I'll still be saving money. Ok. So, um, and then, and then yesterday I did another 0:08:24 - 0:08:46 test because I don't normally shave above my chin. And, um, I don't have any practice with that with this new blade. I cut my face like crazy and, um, it was not convenient. Uh I'm sure I could get faster at it with time. And so what does any of this have to do with anything? Um, it's a little thing 0:08:46 - 0:09:06 , but it's actually a really big deal. The principles here are a big deal. So let's run down a few of them. I already mentioned. I didn't know I had a problem. I wasn't thinking, oh, I have a problem but my mind is constantly scanning for greater value than I already have. And so if you find greater 0:09:05 - 0:09:24 value than you already have, you do have a problem unless you have a super good reason why you don't already have that value. Like you have something better that it conflicts with. And I didnt, you could argue. Well, you have an uncut face or had an uncut face isn't that valuable, more valuable than 0:09:23 - 0:09:50 saving a couple bucks on razors. Um, anyway, so I gave it a shot and most people would say, well, I don't have a problem. I don't care, skip the ad, move on. You don't even think about it. So, um, another principle here is how to evaluate benefit because you might say these razors, I don't remember offhand 0:09:49 - 0:10:13 exactly how much they are now, but they're like 75 cents a piece or something. That's not exactly breaking the bank. So, what's the big deal? Well, um, for starters, a 20 year supply of those razors is gonna take up a lot more space than a 20 year supply of a double edged razor blade. Um, that's for 0:10:13 - 0:10:36 starters. If you care, it's a whole lot of plastic to throw in the trash um, but monetarily here's the deal. It's really funny how we evaluate value with money because yes, it's less than a dollar per razor, I think. Still, um, I don't know exactly because I have a stockpile of these. Right. So, actually 0:10:36 - 0:11:03 I haven't purchased them in quite a while. But, um, as a percentage, what's the cost difference between seven cents and 77 cents, you know, or 70 cents, whatever it is. It's somewhere around 10 fold. So, is that a big deal? If I gave you a, a magic button? And I said, if you push this button, you'll 0:11:02 - 0:11:22 be 10 times better as a person than you are. Now, would you press the button? You should ask. Well, what does it cost? And what else happens? Because like if you turn into a toad or something, maybe that's not worth it. But, um, and yes, you can have a toad that's 10 times better than a person if you 0:11:22 - 0:11:45 know the right kind of people and the right kind of toads. Um, anyway, so, um, tenfold value increase is enormous. It's absolutely enormous. What if I told you that? You know, let's say you're thinking about buying a house. And I said, well, I've got this form that if you include it in your mortgage 0:11:44 - 0:12:04 application, they'll give you a 90% discount and it doesn't cost, it costs you, uh, three minutes of your time. There's no, no strings attached or being more realistic. It costs you three minutes of your time and for a couple of weeks you're gonna cut your face when you try to shave. So you, you probably 0:12:04 - 0:12:26 go for that unless you're an idiot or you have some bleeding problem, you're on blood thinners or something and you'll, you'll die if that happens. But these, these, um, this discussion might seem ridiculous but it's not at all. This is actually the stuff life is made out of because, um, there are situations 0:12:25 - 0:12:48 where people are on blood thinners and they will bleed out if they get a little cut a me. But by and large, there are also massive, massive sources of untapped value in your life that, that probably have nothing to do with money. But my and they're everywhere and you don't even see them. Part of the 0:12:48 - 0:13:10 challenge in life is that we do not see things. Part of the challenge in life is coming to see what we do not see and to see more accurately what we do see. So for better or for worse. So if you don't get excited about a 10 fold increase in value, um, you and I reside in different places, at least in 0:13:09 - 0:13:34 , in states of mind that differ widely from one another. Um, so in absolute terms, 10 times whatever the annual savings on this might be like 10 bucks or something or 20 bucks, you say like, ok, well, you're saving $200 over the course of a year on razors and you're saving some plastic from a landfill 0:13:33 - 0:13:56 and you've got souvenir stainless steel razor blades that you can melt down and use for something or make ninja stars or something. Um, I had an older brother who'd always make ninja stars of utility knife blades. Um, so, um, 200 bucks isn't nothing, but here's the deal. Here's why it actually matters 0:13:56 - 0:14:24 because the principles you follow in the little things are also the principles you follow in the big things because that's what makes it a principle is you live that in, in, uh, generically across the board, what are the greatest expenses that we, uh, undertake in life, financial expenses? Um, it turns 0:14:24 - 0:14:47 out that because, because it turns out that we pay very little attention to the little expenses and very little attention to the giant expenses. Um, some people at least do ok in between, but it turns out that these little things they add up and they make an enormous difference and the big things make 0:14:47 - 0:15:07 an enormous difference right out of the gate. So the biggest expenses are probably one who you marry, that one might surprise you. But if divorce rates are higher than 80% and especially if you're a man, because not only is it most likely that your wife will be the one filing the papers, she's also going 0:15:06 - 0:15:28 to be, um, strongly advantaged in whatever settlement comes out of that. Uh, it's going to cost you a heck of a lot more than it costs her. Um, in fact, she'll probably be in a better position as a result of the divorce, which is why many people have said recently, why would you ever get into a contract 0:15:27 - 0:15:52 that rewards bad behavior? And that's what modern marriage is for a woman. Anyway, so you're talking about losing half of your stuff that you've accumulated over the most productive, say 10 or 20 years of your life. That's really expensive. Ok. What's the second biggest cost? Probably kids. Uh, especially 0:15:51 - 0:16:10 depending on whether you're one of these modern types that pays for their tuition at some uh, overpriced college and a car and all these other fancy i gadgets. Um, but kids are expensive no matter what, even if all you're paying for is their food, shelter and clothing until the, and doctor bills until 0:16:10 - 0:16:31 they're 18, that's so crazy expensive. If you homeschool them, that's a lot more money per year with curriculum and things. But, um, and the opportunity costs because the whoever's staying home to, to teach them isn't working and getting paid, uh working outside the home just saying that before the tomatoes 0:16:30 - 0:17:03 start flying. Um, obviously it's work in the home. So, um, kids are probably number two, house is number three and then a car and I had one more than I had thought about. Anyway. Here's, that's, that's good enough. Now, here's my question, what person do you know, um has spent as much uh meticulous attention 0:17:02 - 0:17:28 to any of those things as I did on choosing what kind of razor to buy. Because you probably don't know anyone. At least not more than maybe one person, maybe two who has done that much due diligence career might be the other one. Obviously that's going to massively impact uh maybe college was it. But 0:17:27 - 0:17:50 you, we'll just wrap that together your career. choice and preparation is obviously another massive one. So, do you know anyone who has spent as much attention or rational evaluation or experimentation, um, with, uh, who they marry, how, how many kids they have when, and, and how they raise them in particular 0:17:49 - 0:18:09 ? Because that seems like people just, it's like they paint their windshield black and drive down the highway at 100 and 20 miles an hour and then get surprised when they hit a pole or a person, um, because they're so mindless about and passive about how they raise their kids. Um, and then, uh, where 0:18:08 - 0:18:33 you live and in what house you live and what the timing and, and circumstances of buying your house or renting whatever your situation is. Um, and then, uh, your career choice. I don't really know anyone who does that. Why? Because they don't do it in the little things either because they dismiss this 0:18:33 - 0:18:52 kind of process for a razor as ridiculous and over the top and who really cares, but they live that way with a bunch of other things in their lives, especially at the top end. But they get no pun intended. They get cut 100 times on the middle stuff too and they wonder why they don't have any money, even 0:18:51 - 0:19:10 though there's a lot of money coming in, it's going right back out the door. I wonder why. So, but none of this is particularly about money or even just temporal things. It turns out we're supposed to be thinking about this stuff. We're supposed to be using these marvelous brains that God gave us to 0:19:10 - 0:19:37 actually sort out what has value and what it's worth and what costs, what and what are the options and what are the, the, the benefits, what are the costs and how those relate? So, um now let me dive just a hair deeper, sorry, I'm full of puns today. Uh Just a hair deeper on. Um I cracked myself up but 0:19:37 - 0:19:57 I'll tell you I was withholding several jokes like I was gonna say, you might be wondering why I shaved my beard off. Uh It's because your wife says I look better that way, but I thought that'd be a little too irre irreverent. So I didn't say it. So um I was gonna substitute your mom, you know, whatever 0:19:56 - 0:20:23 . Um I thought it was funny anyway, um just uh going hair deeper with this um when it comes to evaluating value or, or any kind of potential choice that we have someone quoted on a video the other day, they quoted um something I said, I think in the glory of God is intelligence about the connection between 0:20:23 - 0:20:48 intelligence and the um the content of what God can teach you. And it turns out that you have to develop sophistication in order for God to have the canvas onto which he can paint everything he wants to show you. Um I knew a guy once and one of his favorite phrases was explain this to me in crayon because 0:20:48 - 0:21:14 I need it at that level. And it was always funny. But um there's actually a lesson in that too, but we'll skip over that, I guess. Um It was always funny but the fact is that there are things that God cannot explain to you in crayon. He, he needs to write 1000 page book and, and this is obviously all 0:21:14 - 0:21:36 analogous is not necessarily literal, but there are things that God has taught to me that he needed to use 1000 type pages for that's not his limitation, it's mine, but that's how far away we are from Him. It, it, it can take quite a bit of effort to um figure things out. A whole lot of things require 0:21:35 - 0:21:56 a whole lot of effort. And so if you live in this, in this uh simple minded life where if, if the truth can't be expressed in 255 characters or less or we can't um exchange ideas through text messages. If it's, if it can't be expressed in a text message, I'm not interested. If you can't put in a Tik 0:21:56 - 0:22:20 Tok video. I don't care if you have that attitude in life, you are cutting yourself off from massive, massive, massive value that you don't have guaranteed in your life. So uh you gotta be open to all sources. You have to be open to massive investments because cost is coupled to value. You can't separate 0:22:20 - 0:22:41 the two. Mercy gives you a little wiggle room and I won't get into that, but it's just a temporary thing. It's not a replacement. And so, um if you're, if you have limitations in the price that you're willing to pay, you can guarantee that you cannot receive the full value of what God has to give you 0:22:41 - 0:23:04 . You have to be as unbounded in your willingness to pay as he is in his willingness to give or else you're setting up impediments between you and that's no good. It will absolutely cap to the, the degree to which he can fulfill his intent to give you life and more abundantly, you shut that down that 0:23:04 - 0:23:34 aperture with your limitations. So, um, as I was shaving the deal changed, the initial commitment was I'm willing to drop eight bucks or whatever it was to get this. Um I wish I had a word for this, this metal thing. Um I mean, it's a razor but there's surely it's a reusable razor holder thing. But the 0:23:34 - 0:23:54 blade, this guy right here, um, I, I only have one hand but it unscrews and then you can replace the, the blade. Um, and it's not nearly as dangerous as, as it seems. Um, uh, one blade came with us as a trial run and I tried it the first time, the first time I tried it, I was shocked by how close of 0:23:54 - 0:24:15 a shave I had. It was awesome. I was also shocked by how much blood came out of my neck. And I, I came out and my roommate Brock, who's AAA male, my same age, he's, he's six months older actually, which I always rub in his face. Um I'm like, this is awesome. You gotta get one. He's like, I'm good. I 0:24:15 - 0:24:33 was like, you gotta try it. So, um, he, I, I have not been able to persuade him. Um, I freaked him out with all that blood anyway, but the blood got better as I got better and I was willing to give it time because I thought, well, just because I'm not good at using this doesn't mean this is not good 0:24:32 - 0:24:59 . Did you catch that? So sometimes the goodness of something extends beyond its intrinsic value. It can be conditioned and often is on your skills and ability and wisdom. Sometimes things are very useful in the hands of, of some people of certain calibers and qualities and aren't for others. So, speaking 0:24:59 - 0:25:22 of calibers, um, like if you have an elephant rifle, that's not something a kid can use very well because it's heavy and it's big and it's gonna knock them flat at best. It might really hurt them or someone else, um, particularly an elephant. But, um, for, for a large man say, who knows how to shoot 0:25:21 - 0:25:43 if you're going to hunt for elephants, that's probably what you want is an elephant gun. Um So that, that can matter right there, there's a such thing as intrinsic properties and there's a whole lot of good and evil and value and cost and benefit that, which are basically all the same thing. Um That 0:25:43 - 0:26:08 , that strongly relies on the user, the, the perceiver. And so, um, the deal changed several times because II, I first I had to improve my skills on the blade that I had, then I had to pick another blade. And so we have this nested decision process where originally it was just one thing, this weird new 0:26:08 - 0:26:31 old razor. Is this a good idea or not? Is this better or not? And then all these sub questions formulated as I dug into that and as I dug into my neck and then, um, there's one of these sub choices was do I get the same blade because it's a little pricey compared to these budget ones? And the budget 0:26:31 - 0:26:50 ones were not a good idea. It turns out, but the budget ones not being a good idea did not poison the, well, it didn't make the choice bad, just like slicing up my neck real bad. The first time didn't make the choice bad. It just indicated that I needed some skills that I didn't have. I need to learn 0:26:50 - 0:27:12 something that I didn't know how to do yet before I could even know if it was worthwhile to do. So, because you don't need any of those skills when you're using this, it's really hard to hurt yourself with one of these. So um unintentionally, I guess I should say so. Um I don't know, we could, we could 0:27:12 - 0:27:33 drone on about this but you, you probably get the point right. So even simple things to extract every ounce of value out of them, you probably have to kick them up to a higher degree of sophistication. And that's like really stressful for people because they say, look, I'm overwhelmed with normal life 0:27:32 - 0:27:52 and you want me to dive in even deeper. Yes, I do. And you know why? Because you will always be overwhelmed with normal life until you dive in deeper. Here's a secret and you learn this really quickly. If you're a good programmer, uh bad programmers never get here because they just get given all these 0:27:52 - 0:28:11 uh these uh hold aside projects that no one really cares about and they're really easy. But if you're a good programmer, you will always get the hardest thing there is to do for your team. That's always the way it works. And what you have to do is get used to being uncomfortable. You have to get comfortable 0:28:10 - 0:28:33 being uncomfortable. And that's the secret is also one of many secrets to life because I'm lifting weights right now. If you want to get comfortable bench pressing whatever £100 or something, the only way is to lift heavier weight or bands press the same way, way more times than you're used to. Either 0:28:33 - 0:28:56 way you have to do more than you did before. And so it's only in retrospect that things get easier, the things you've overcome get easier, but they only get easier because you've moved on to focus on something harder. You're still facing hard stuff that overcomes you. It's just, you've raised the bar 0:28:56 - 0:29:21 as to how difficult those things are. You've willingly embraced greater difficulty in order to make lesser things easier to you. And you will find that applying all over the place. And so for me to do this, you, you could call it research, whatever this experimentation on this razor, I use like 0.0002% 0:29:20 - 0:29:44 of my brain power for like three seconds. That's probably why I cut my face so badly. Pay attention more, slow down. Um But it was a break from all the other stuff that I do, right. It wasn't this stress Me out thing just like when I cut my hair. I'm overdue for that. Um When I cut my hair, it's not 0:29:44 - 0:29:58 like this thing, I do put it on a to do list, but it's the thing I do when I'm stuck on the stuff that really matters. That's why it, I cut it. One of the reasons I cut it myself is because I can just take a break with what I'm doing. Go cut my hair real quick and go right back to whatever I was doing 0:29:58 - 0:30:17 and it doesn't disrupt anything. It actually advances whatever I was working on because it gives me a context break and I could jump back into it. And my wife keeps telling me, you gotta let me fix your hair because you have tiger stripes, you miss spots. Um but it doesn't fit in the convenience structure 0:30:17 - 0:30:36 because you know, she's not just hanging around with the buzzer for, you know, some random day and time where I go cut my hair, but that's how I do it. I put it on a list and then sometime during the week I get stuck on the right thing that going to cut my hair. It, it is a mutual benefit. Both problems 0:30:35 - 0:30:59 get solved better. Um So anyway, when you structure your life like this and you really start thinking about value and you really open your eyes to the implicit expectation of greater value all around you then doing things like this becomes the easiest thing in the world. It's not weird. It's not stressful 0:30:58 - 0:31:21 . It's, it's, you're just riding the gravy train because everything in your life you're always testing to see if there's anything better. And the second you find something, you pull it right in and run with it, just like I made a video the other day about my son, Steven's birdhouses. Um, we went all 0:31:21 - 0:31:39 in because that's what made sense and it was just a hypothesis. We're still running the experiment. We'll see how it goes with this razor. I, I'm pretty sure I bought 20 years worth of razor blades. Right. And I don't want to use them because they're not as nice as the other ones, but I still have 20 0:31:39 - 0:31:58 years worth of razors. And that's ok. It was $14 or something for 20 years. Um, and I can use them, someone else can use them whatever. I don't, I don't really care. It's 14 bucks. But, um, the, the, so a bunch of things that have to come together, a person who lives by this principle either lives by 0:31:58 - 0:32:13 it all the time or does not. So $14 is very inexpensive price to pay for all the benefits to come from living this way. And that actually rhymed. So we'll leave it at that and we'll see you at another time. Take care.