0:00:00 - 0:00:21 The first vacuum cleaner. My wife and I had, um, we got shortly after getting married and moving in together and we picked it up at a yard sale. Um, we just saw it on the side of the road as we were driving, we were like, uh, we, we bought it, we were broke at the time. So it was really nice to have 0:00:21 - 0:00:44 an expensive vacuum cleaner and then it broke. And if I recall the facts, um, when it broke, I think we had picked up a second one because it was left behind in the house that we bought our, our first house, the crack house as we, as I call it, I'm not sure she's ever called it that she picked it. So 0:00:44 - 0:01:09 I think she's partial anyway. So I fixed it, she picked it, I fixed it. So I get to call it the crack house. Um, anyway, that vacuum cleaner was great. If again, if I remember the facts. But, um, you know, it, it, as vacuum cleaners tend to do it got clogged up. And long story short, uh, my wife and 0:01:09 - 0:01:34 I became vacuum cleaner surgeons and we accumulated experience in troubleshooting. What was wrong with this thing? And we've, we've had various vacuum cleaners since we, we have a lot of, uh, dogs and a bunch of kids. Not as many as some other people I know, but more than most. And uh between that there's 0:01:33 - 0:01:54 a lot of dirt, whatever. So here's some, here's some food for thought, vacuum cleaners have parts that are accessible and parts that are not so accessible. And uh thankfully, most of the time when something breaks, it's something you can get to. Now, we've had a lot of belts break. Um, and that's a part 0:01:54 - 0:02:13 that you can get to. It's kind of a routine maintenance part and it's not too expensive to fix, which is great. And so you can have these outward signs that your belt is broken. It's kind of obvious when the Beater bar isn't turning. That's a fun word to say by the way. Um But sometimes things go wrong 0:02:13 - 0:02:31 and you're not really sure what's going on and it could be something inside the motor. And if that's the case, you really don't have a choice other than to buy a new vacuum cleaner. These days. In the old days, you could take it to a place and have it repaired in a cost effective manner. So there's a 0:02:31 - 0:02:57 third kind of malfunction where we've had this happen multiple times where for example, the, the handle comes off or the upright part won't snap and lock into place and so it always falls down and, um, some of these things like it always falling down, you can just put it away in a place where it's leaning 0:02:57 - 0:03:19 against the wall and it's dysfunctional, but it doesn't really matter. You can work around it and achieve all the purposes you need to. It might just be a little annoying. Um, other things like, like, let's say that there's a splice in the, a split in the wire and you have to splice it back together 0:03:18 - 0:03:42 or the handle comes off. This has actually happened to us and I just took a screw and with my drill, I just screwed a screw into it so that it wouldn't come off anymore. It wasn't the prettiest solution, but it was functional. So sometimes when you fix problems, there are scars from that, but the function 0:03:41 - 0:04:12 persists. So that's good. Other times, um the solution is going to detract from the quality of what is sought. Ok. So what does this have to do with anything? Well, um I want to talk a little bit about this idea of wine and bottles and patching garments and I'm not gonna really dive into the scripture 0:04:12 - 0:04:37 references for that. You could look those up if you'd like. But assuming you're well enough versed in those, I just want to spend all the time applying it. So um it turns out that there are insufficiencies that you can hit in life where there's no way to sort of duct tape, what you've already got to 0:04:37 - 0:05:04 make it work. There are also many situations where you can and, and in some cases, at least when you fix the problem through tweaking or extending what you already have, whether that's in resources, beliefs, lifestyle actions, relationships, it doesn't matter everything, the full domain of human choice 0:05:03 - 0:05:27 you could tweak, tweak it such that the new form fits perfectly well into the old format, right? And so like a vacuum cleaner belt, it, it looks the same, it works the same. There's a component that got switched out, but the new component was the same as the old basically might be a different manufacturer 0:05:26 - 0:05:52 . It's definitely gonna be newer, but it works the same, right? And then you have this gradation of change that goes through sort of the Frankenstein phase into, you just need a new vacuum cleaner. So um you could ask this is, this is a narrative trope, you know, how many components can you replace before 0:05:52 - 0:06:17 ? It's not the same and you can't say it's the same. But stepping over all of that, I think an important question is um how do you know when you need to throw it away and get another one? Um Because we have a tendency as humans, we have a bias towards keeping what we already have uh at least ideologically 0:06:16 - 0:06:42 in the, in the wealthy nations of the world materialistically, we do have a tendency to throw things away that could absolutely be fixed, but in a cost effective way. But, um, ideologically, humans are very prone to holding on to things for too long. So how do you know when you need a full replacement 0:06:41 - 0:07:08 ? It's a really good question. One answer perhaps is to ask yourself what you're using the thing for in the first place, what is the intended purpose? And then if it can no longer serve for that purpose, you have to throw it away and find something new. Um, I remember in the military dealing with supply 0:07:07 - 0:07:31 sergeants and I don't really remember all the nomenclature for, for, um, for these ideas there. But, but there was definitely this concept of whether something was serviceable or not. So, if you had a canteen, there'd be tests and because it's the army, I'm sure these were written down in some manual 0:07:30 - 0:07:51 somewhere, but there'd be these tests for whether it was good enough to keep or not. And when you, you get stuff from the supply office and then you'd return it back after you were done with it and whether you change units or whatever. But, um, you wouldn't get issued equipment that wasn't serviceable 0:07:51 - 0:08:12 , but almost all of it was used. So it, it was rare to get a canteen that was brand new. But, um, you know, when it was turned in, it had to be clean and they wouldn't give it back out to anyone else. If it was busted and take me to like backpacks and whatever else, my sleeping bag. So if it was broken 0:08:12 - 0:08:34 , they, they might try to fix it. But, um, there was a threshold where they would just buy a new one and then you get, someone would get a new one. Um, so it's really important to keep in mind what the purpose of the thing is and to define tests as to whether or not it's serviceable. This all sounds 0:08:34 - 0:08:56 like, well, duh. But so many things in life if you don't actually go through and think about them, if you're guaranteed to not do the right thing. So, on the flip side of that, so many wrong things that are done in this world can be fixed just by thinking about them. And then people say, oh yeah, ok 0:08:56 - 0:09:19 . That makes total sense. And it, it's, it's not this begrudging, drag someone along into a better life. It's like, no, no. What do you want? Great. So, so actually formulate it right now, go get it. This is like this isn't my idea. It's what you're saying. You want now go get it and then someone can 0:09:18 - 0:09:42 say, well, maybe I don't want this after all and that's still a victory because what we're trying to achieve is to have what you want and want what you have. It's not heaven otherwise, right? Maybe you haven't thought about that, but it's true. So, to have what you want and want what you have. So if 0:09:42 - 0:10:04 you sit down and you say, hm, why am I doing this or why do I want this or why do I think this or why do I have this vacuum cleaner? Um, there's a reason, there's a set of reasons and then you can go through and you get as detailed as you'd like with this, then you can go through and say, well with these 0:10:04 - 0:10:32 certain limitations, is this still serviceable? Is it still meeting that need? Sometimes the answers are clear. No, then you've got options. Sometimes the answer is yes. But then you have to ask, is it the best way I have available to do this thing? Right? So for example, um thinking of a story, I heard 0:10:32 - 0:10:55 once of a, a drywall um technician, I guess you'd say a, a contractor who did drywall and he didn't have any of the equipment. There are so many whiz bang gadgets for drywall. It's crazy, but they all cost money. And so you have to have a high volume business to recoup that cost. And he was just a one 0:10:55 - 0:11:15 man show. And so he didn't have any of that. And so he was a lot of these tools are, are time saving. Uh But, but many of them are also ergonomic and they make it so that you're not going to destroy your body so quickly doing jobs like this. He didn't have any of them. He got the job done. But the problem 0:11:14 - 0:11:35 was, it took him so long to do it, that his margins were atrocious. And so at the end of the day, you have to ask, well, why are you doing all this? And the answer is to make money. If you're a drywall person, your objective is to make money, you're probably not doing it as an art form. So you have to 0:11:35 - 0:11:58 look at what you're doing and why you do it and say, ok, well, I feel like I'm saving money by not buying this specialized equipment. Maybe I'm justified in not getting all of it, right? But is there one thing I could get that would be totally worth the cost? Can I bootstrap this over time? Etc again 0:11:58 - 0:12:21 , this seems like a well done, but you could make a very long list of people in the trades that don't think this way. Ok? But now let's bring it home and think about your life. So go through everything you do in life and think about what's your purpose in doing this now, hopefully, all of these things 0:12:21 - 0:12:44 fall under a transcendent purpose that you have defined and written down and live according to a life contract with yourself, if you will. But whatever the case might be, even if you have to look at this piecemeal, you can make a lot of progress in your life by thinking about why you're doing what you're 0:12:44 - 0:13:11 doing and then what you're doing to fulfill that way and just flip them around until it all reconciles and you feel like you've done your due diligence. This is not a once in a lifetime thing, you have to repeat this process as necessary to integrate new information as it arises. So now just getting 0:13:11 - 0:13:40 down to specific examples, um if you're a young person and you're dating, think about what you're after and what you're doing to achieve that. Obviously, this has impact on the finding problem, but it also has impact on the inner relationship problem because there are a ton of people who are in relationships 0:13:39 - 0:14:10 that they know are not what they will choose long term and that's really not good. And so this is a case just like several of the other examples have talked about where sometimes the best option is to vacate the option, in other words, to empty yourself so that you're open for when something better comes 0:14:09 - 0:14:34 . So some things in life that's really hard to do, like, like uh whatever way you're earning an income, it's extremely costly to leave that open. Even though like with these many other examples, there are lots of situations where that's exactly what you need to do to get something better because many 0:14:34 - 0:14:59 options won't compete with something pre existing. So with relationships obviously, um if, if you're expecting a better person in your to come into your life and you're dating someone, those are basically mutually exclusive because if you dump who you're with for someone better in the moment, if that 0:14:59 - 0:15:17 person really is good, they're not going to want you because they don't want someone who doesn't know what they want and lives according to that and is just going to dump them for someone better if they come along. Right. Everyone wants to feel like they're the one that the other person chose, not just 0:15:17 - 0:15:39 the best option they had access to at the time, right? So do unto others as you would have them do to you. But with jobs this, this can be the case as well. Um Sometimes the new career is something that requires your exclusive preparation for some time. And that's why people don't usually do major career 0:15:39 - 0:16:02 changes later in life because when you're young and uh you're living with roommates and, or at home and you're broke anyway, it's not that big of a sacrifice to spend even years continuing to be all those things. But once you have a family and once you have bills to pay, um it's, it's a different story 0:16:02 - 0:16:29 because the cost for doing that explodes and the benefit for doing that shrinks because you're older and so there's less time to recoup your investment. So anyway, those are some thoughts on serviceability and thinking about when um new paradigms are needed, not just slight tweaks to existing paradigms 0:00:00 - 0:00:21 The first vacuum cleaner. My wife and I had, um, we got shortly after getting married and moving in together and we picked it up at a yard sale. Um, we just saw it on the side of the road as we were driving, we were like, uh, we, we bought it, we were broke at the time. So it was really nice to have 0:00:21 - 0:00:44 an expensive vacuum cleaner and then it broke. And if I recall the facts, um, when it broke, I think we had picked up a second one because it was left behind in the house that we bought our, our first house, the crack house as we, as I call it, I'm not sure she's ever called it that she picked it. So 0:00:44 - 0:01:09 I think she's partial anyway. So I fixed it, she picked it, I fixed it. So I get to call it the crack house. Um, anyway, that vacuum cleaner was great. If again, if I remember the facts. But, um, you know, it, it, as vacuum cleaners tend to do it got clogged up. And long story short, uh, my wife and 0:01:09 - 0:01:34 I became vacuum cleaner surgeons and we accumulated experience in troubleshooting. What was wrong with this thing? And we've, we've had various vacuum cleaners since we, we have a lot of, uh, dogs and a bunch of kids. Not as many as some other people I know, but more than most. And uh between that there's 0:01:33 - 0:01:54 a lot of dirt, whatever. So here's some, here's some food for thought, vacuum cleaners have parts that are accessible and parts that are not so accessible. And uh thankfully, most of the time when something breaks, it's something you can get to. Now, we've had a lot of belts break. Um, and that's a part 0:01:54 - 0:02:13 that you can get to. It's kind of a routine maintenance part and it's not too expensive to fix, which is great. And so you can have these outward signs that your belt is broken. It's kind of obvious when the Beater bar isn't turning. That's a fun word to say by the way. Um But sometimes things go wrong 0:02:13 - 0:02:31 and you're not really sure what's going on and it could be something inside the motor. And if that's the case, you really don't have a choice other than to buy a new vacuum cleaner. These days. In the old days, you could take it to a place and have it repaired in a cost effective manner. So there's a 0:02:31 - 0:02:57 third kind of malfunction where we've had this happen multiple times where for example, the, the handle comes off or the upright part won't snap and lock into place and so it always falls down and, um, some of these things like it always falling down, you can just put it away in a place where it's leaning 0:02:57 - 0:03:19 against the wall and it's dysfunctional, but it doesn't really matter. You can work around it and achieve all the purposes you need to. It might just be a little annoying. Um, other things like, like, let's say that there's a splice in the, a split in the wire and you have to splice it back together 0:03:18 - 0:03:42 or the handle comes off. This has actually happened to us and I just took a screw and with my drill, I just screwed a screw into it so that it wouldn't come off anymore. It wasn't the prettiest solution, but it was functional. So sometimes when you fix problems, there are scars from that, but the function 0:03:41 - 0:04:12 persists. So that's good. Other times, um the solution is going to detract from the quality of what is sought. Ok. So what does this have to do with anything? Well, um I want to talk a little bit about this idea of wine and bottles and patching garments and I'm not gonna really dive into the scripture 0:04:12 - 0:04:37 references for that. You could look those up if you'd like. But assuming you're well enough versed in those, I just want to spend all the time applying it. So um it turns out that there are insufficiencies that you can hit in life where there's no way to sort of duct tape, what you've already got to 0:04:37 - 0:05:04 make it work. There are also many situations where you can and, and in some cases, at least when you fix the problem through tweaking or extending what you already have, whether that's in resources, beliefs, lifestyle actions, relationships, it doesn't matter everything, the full domain of human choice 0:05:03 - 0:05:27 you could tweak, tweak it such that the new form fits perfectly well into the old format, right? And so like a vacuum cleaner belt, it, it looks the same, it works the same. There's a component that got switched out, but the new component was the same as the old basically might be a different manufacturer 0:05:26 - 0:05:52 . It's definitely gonna be newer, but it works the same, right? And then you have this gradation of change that goes through sort of the Frankenstein phase into, you just need a new vacuum cleaner. So um you could ask this is, this is a narrative trope, you know, how many components can you replace before 0:05:52 - 0:06:17 ? It's not the same and you can't say it's the same. But stepping over all of that, I think an important question is um how do you know when you need to throw it away and get another one? Um Because we have a tendency as humans, we have a bias towards keeping what we already have uh at least ideologically 0:06:16 - 0:06:42 in the, in the wealthy nations of the world materialistically, we do have a tendency to throw things away that could absolutely be fixed, but in a cost effective way. But, um, ideologically, humans are very prone to holding on to things for too long. So how do you know when you need a full replacement 0:06:41 - 0:07:08 ? It's a really good question. One answer perhaps is to ask yourself what you're using the thing for in the first place, what is the intended purpose? And then if it can no longer serve for that purpose, you have to throw it away and find something new. Um, I remember in the military dealing with supply 0:07:07 - 0:07:31 sergeants and I don't really remember all the nomenclature for, for, um, for these ideas there. But, but there was definitely this concept of whether something was serviceable or not. So, if you had a canteen, there'd be tests and because it's the army, I'm sure these were written down in some manual 0:07:30 - 0:07:51 somewhere, but there'd be these tests for whether it was good enough to keep or not. And when you, you get stuff from the supply office and then you'd return it back after you were done with it and whether you change units or whatever. But, um, you wouldn't get issued equipment that wasn't serviceable 0:07:51 - 0:08:12 , but almost all of it was used. So it, it was rare to get a canteen that was brand new. But, um, you know, when it was turned in, it had to be clean and they wouldn't give it back out to anyone else. If it was busted and take me to like backpacks and whatever else, my sleeping bag. So if it was broken 0:08:12 - 0:08:34 , they, they might try to fix it. But, um, there was a threshold where they would just buy a new one and then you get, someone would get a new one. Um, so it's really important to keep in mind what the purpose of the thing is and to define tests as to whether or not it's serviceable. This all sounds 0:08:34 - 0:08:56 like, well, duh. But so many things in life if you don't actually go through and think about them, if you're guaranteed to not do the right thing. So, on the flip side of that, so many wrong things that are done in this world can be fixed just by thinking about them. And then people say, oh yeah, ok 0:08:56 - 0:09:19 . That makes total sense. And it, it's, it's not this begrudging, drag someone along into a better life. It's like, no, no. What do you want? Great. So, so actually formulate it right now, go get it. This is like this isn't my idea. It's what you're saying. You want now go get it and then someone can 0:09:18 - 0:09:42 say, well, maybe I don't want this after all and that's still a victory because what we're trying to achieve is to have what you want and want what you have. It's not heaven otherwise, right? Maybe you haven't thought about that, but it's true. So, to have what you want and want what you have. So if 0:09:42 - 0:10:04 you sit down and you say, hm, why am I doing this or why do I want this or why do I think this or why do I have this vacuum cleaner? Um, there's a reason, there's a set of reasons and then you can go through and you get as detailed as you'd like with this, then you can go through and say, well with these 0:10:04 - 0:10:32 certain limitations, is this still serviceable? Is it still meeting that need? Sometimes the answers are clear. No, then you've got options. Sometimes the answer is yes. But then you have to ask, is it the best way I have available to do this thing? Right? So for example, um thinking of a story, I heard 0:10:32 - 0:10:55 once of a, a drywall um technician, I guess you'd say a, a contractor who did drywall and he didn't have any of the equipment. There are so many whiz bang gadgets for drywall. It's crazy, but they all cost money. And so you have to have a high volume business to recoup that cost. And he was just a one 0:10:55 - 0:11:15 man show. And so he didn't have any of that. And so he was a lot of these tools are, are time saving. Uh But, but many of them are also ergonomic and they make it so that you're not going to destroy your body so quickly doing jobs like this. He didn't have any of them. He got the job done. But the problem 0:11:14 - 0:11:35 was, it took him so long to do it, that his margins were atrocious. And so at the end of the day, you have to ask, well, why are you doing all this? And the answer is to make money. If you're a drywall person, your objective is to make money, you're probably not doing it as an art form. So you have to 0:11:35 - 0:11:58 look at what you're doing and why you do it and say, ok, well, I feel like I'm saving money by not buying this specialized equipment. Maybe I'm justified in not getting all of it, right? But is there one thing I could get that would be totally worth the cost? Can I bootstrap this over time? Etc again 0:11:58 - 0:12:21 , this seems like a well done, but you could make a very long list of people in the trades that don't think this way. Ok? But now let's bring it home and think about your life. So go through everything you do in life and think about what's your purpose in doing this now, hopefully, all of these things 0:12:21 - 0:12:44 fall under a transcendent purpose that you have defined and written down and live according to a life contract with yourself, if you will. But whatever the case might be, even if you have to look at this piecemeal, you can make a lot of progress in your life by thinking about why you're doing what you're 0:12:44 - 0:13:11 doing and then what you're doing to fulfill that way and just flip them around until it all reconciles and you feel like you've done your due diligence. This is not a once in a lifetime thing, you have to repeat this process as necessary to integrate new information as it arises. So now just getting 0:13:11 - 0:13:40 down to specific examples, um if you're a young person and you're dating, think about what you're after and what you're doing to achieve that. Obviously, this has impact on the finding problem, but it also has impact on the inner relationship problem because there are a ton of people who are in relationships 0:13:39 - 0:14:10 that they know are not what they will choose long term and that's really not good. And so this is a case just like several of the other examples have talked about where sometimes the best option is to vacate the option, in other words, to empty yourself so that you're open for when something better comes 0:14:09 - 0:14:34 . So some things in life that's really hard to do, like, like uh whatever way you're earning an income, it's extremely costly to leave that open. Even though like with these many other examples, there are lots of situations where that's exactly what you need to do to get something better because many 0:14:34 - 0:14:59 options won't compete with something pre existing. So with relationships obviously, um if, if you're expecting a better person in your to come into your life and you're dating someone, those are basically mutually exclusive because if you dump who you're with for someone better in the moment, if that 0:14:59 - 0:15:17 person really is good, they're not going to want you because they don't want someone who doesn't know what they want and lives according to that and is just going to dump them for someone better if they come along. Right. Everyone wants to feel like they're the one that the other person chose, not just 0:15:17 - 0:15:39 the best option they had access to at the time, right? So do unto others as you would have them do to you. But with jobs this, this can be the case as well. Um Sometimes the new career is something that requires your exclusive preparation for some time. And that's why people don't usually do major career 0:15:39 - 0:16:02 changes later in life because when you're young and uh you're living with roommates and, or at home and you're broke anyway, it's not that big of a sacrifice to spend even years continuing to be all those things. But once you have a family and once you have bills to pay, um it's, it's a different story 0:16:02 - 0:16:29 because the cost for doing that explodes and the benefit for doing that shrinks because you're older and so there's less time to recoup your investment. So anyway, those are some thoughts on serviceability and thinking about when um new paradigms are needed, not just slight tweaks to existing paradigms 0:16:28 - 0:16:38 . Um I'm going to separate what I could have combined with this into a separate video.