Latest / Art of the Question / Stop Caring About the Opinions of Others - Julius Moorman - #50

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Stop Caring About the Opinions of Others - Julius Moorman - #50 · Art of the Question

• Julius Moorman: Welcome back to the show. Today's guest is me. I wanted to do a solo episode for episode 50. It's been six months since I started the show. And yeah, I also did a solo episode around episode 20 to kind of recap what I've learned so far and to discuss some of the things I had planned for the show. And I had a lot of fun doing it. And I wanted to do one for episode 40 as well. I did publish some stories to Instagram and TikTok and and on YouTube as well, hopefully to get some questions from listeners. But the show is not big enough. Nobody reacted to the questions. But it doesn't matter because we did make significant progress. And I will just keep trying it until People actually send in their questions they may have. But for now, we're going to do it the schizophrenic way, where I talk about some of the questions that I made for myself. So, first ⁓ I'm going to be discussing the growth of the show, which has been pretty significant. ⁓ I wanted to talk about me starting Talking Head videos on a different channel as well. I wanted to discuss my work as a journalist. As some of you may know, I am also a an active journalist. I do a lot of writing for ⁓ Dutch media outlets, which I want to get into. I want to discuss the differences between the US and Europe and why I eventually plan on moving to the United States and ⁓ at least for fifty percent of the time. ⁓ and why it's so important to have people around you with good mindsets. Then I thought it'd be interesting to discuss ⁓ some of the thoughts I have about the use of AI. I see there's a lot of creators struggling with how they use AI, if they should use AI, and for which use cases. I also want to talk about my idea of embryo space colonization, which might might be a book I want to write. And finally, I'm going to be s discussing the future of the show, some of the guests I want to have on, ⁓ my plan to have more live episodes, ⁓ the Jamie AI tool that I've been working on, and what I should work on in general. So there's a lot to discuss there. I hope to go for at least an hour, ⁓ but we'll see how far ⁓ we go. But first, I wanna talk about the growth of the show because the last time I did a solo episode, we were at episode 20, and I basically got a few hundred listeners across all platforms back then, which was great because my goal still is I'm in this for the long run. I don't plan on it doesn't matter to me if this is an immediate success or whether I have to work years for it because I'm just having a lot of fun with it. And I get to speak to all these super interesting people. And even though this the show is still super small, I'm honestly so surprised by how many people are willing to have a conversation with me. Very big names, very esteemed scientists, professors, and that's been so much fun. So I r genuinely don't care if it takes a few years to blow up, because I plan on doing this for the rest of my life. So hopefully d I still have a long life ahead of me. And what are a few years on an entire lifetime, right? So I am in no rush to make it a success. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't celebrate growth. And that doesn't mean that it isn't nice to see growth. So other than the obvious growth of the amount of episodes, ⁓ going from 20 to 50 episodes is a more it's more than double the amount of episodes. ⁓ and that also translates into the amount of listeners I have. ⁓ I would say ⁓ YouTube is the main driver of The the listeners, the majority of the listeners are there, but we are we we currently did our ⁓ first month where I have more than three thousand downloads ⁓ across all platforms. Which doesn't sound like a lot. I mean if you compare it to Joe Rogan or Modern Wisdom, I mean those are absolute rookie numbers, but to be fair, they did have a longer runway to get there. And also compared to when I was doing it last time, I think I had a several hundreds of plays across all platforms. So the show has gen genuinely ⁓ 10x'd since the last time we did this, which is insane, and I don't expect this growth ⁓ to the 10x growth to happen every ⁓ two months, but still it's it's been very nice to see. And it also it makes sense, right? Because the episodes are compounding and because of most of the things I talk about are pretty timeless, which also they kind of have to be, because I I usually record my episodes a few weeks in advance. So the topics therefore have to be quite timeless. But the beauty of timeless content is that if someone does find an episode which they like, they they will probably listen to one or few more. At least that's how how I view content. And I think that's what's happening there. So the more content I have for people to listen to, it makes a lot of sense that the plays are growing as well. And then yeah, the most successful episode I've ever done I I think previously the best listened episode had around four hundred, five hundred downloads, and now I have one with over two thousand downloads, which is honestly insane. It is ⁓ the science of cuckoldry, which to be fair, I did expect that one to be popular because it's it just sounds so ridiculous, and it's a word we all know. It's very Apologies. ⁓ It's a very popular term on the internet. ⁓ yeah, but there's a real science behind it. So that's why I was interested in it. And Professor Todd Shekelford did a great job. I mean, what I really loved about that episode, if you haven't seen it, please go watch it because it's great. Is how honest he was. And evolutionary psychology can sometimes be a bit painful. But he he embraces it. He knows the science and he just tells you straight up how things are and why the way things are. And this is one of the interesting things about evolutionary psychology. Just because things have a good reason, it doesn't mean you agree with them, right? For example, men are much more aggressive than women. They have to be because they need to impress women and they need to f be able to fight off other men, at least when we're talking about our ancestors. ⁓ so there is a genetic advantage into being stronger and into being more aggressive, but in a modern society that translates into higher crime rates, higher crime statistics. Well, that's a fact. That's something we understand in evolutionary psychology. We can point as to why men are more prominently featured in those crime statistics. But that doesn't mean that it's a good thing. So I think that's always very important to keep in mind with these sensitive evolutionary psychology topics. They're I I find them very interesting. ⁓ in a modern society you have to be careful not to be cancelled. Even though I think cancel culture is kind of on its way out, luckily. But yeah, I did get some negative comments on it from people who weren't willing to accept the the science. That was obviously very painful for them. Maybe they accept ⁓ they maybe they recognized themselves ⁓ a little bit ⁓ when they hear heard about the science of ⁓ of cockaldry. So Some beautiful statistics there, fifty episodes strong, ⁓ about over three thousand listeners. Which again isn't the the the craziest number, but man, if you put three thousand people in a crowd, that's a lot of fucking people. I know we have such a distorted view because of how the internet works and that ⁓ many people seem to easily get millions of views every day. 3,000 people that listen to you. I mean, if if you wouldn't have if you would were to put those people in a crowd, that's an insane crowd to to speak to. So I'm very happy with those listeners. Thank you for listening. I really, really appreciate you. And also, it's different than views on Instagram and TikTok, right? I mean, if you log on to Instagram, you might view a hundred videos. I I easily watch a hundred Instagram reels when I'm doom scrolling, but I don't listen to a hundred podcasts on on a day. I might I usually listen to I need multiple days to even listen to one. So yeah obviously podcast plays are way more valuable than than TikTok views and all of that. So Happy with the growth. I've also introduced ⁓ in the last few episodes, you can hear it, a an ad break. It's not really an ad break because I don't really advertise anything other than the show. I encourage people to leave a like or a comment if they are listening on YouTube or Spotify, which obviously, if you are currently listening, please do so. It really helps out. But what I've also done is I've included ⁓ a call to action regarding sharing the show. Because I think that's a a huge potential way for the show to grow. If if everyone who enjoys a certain episode would share it with just one person, I mean that just has extreme ⁓ compounding effects. So I ⁓ I hope people do it. I hope it helps. And if it doesn't, we'll we'll keep making episodes anyway. This is ⁓ too much fun. But yeah, that was ⁓ that was it regarding the growth of the show. I wanted to get into something that I've recently started doing as well, which is I've I've started to make those talking head videos on Instagram and TikTok. I also publish them on YouTube. They are they live on a separate channel called notepad.mp4. it's basically a way for me to make content about things that are on my mind. It it can be quite personal, but it also allows me to make content about stuff that is happening more recently. Like I've just explained, sometimes ⁓ These episodes, I record them weeks in advance. So it's very hard to, if something happens in the news, to make a quick episode about it. But with these Talking Head videos, you can just share your thoughts on something that is happening now. So it's fun to also make content about things that are more recent. And I just have a lot of thoughts in general. I I journal quite a lot. I make notes in my phone. And sometimes a thought doesn't necessarily need an entire episode. And sometimes it can just be things that I learned from specific episodes. And by recording these videos, they are between 20 to 40 seconds long. It allows me to put my thoughts out there. And it's just the the main purpose of this channel is just another discovery method. For for the show, so I hope it leads more people to the podcast. But it's it's also a lot of fun. it only takes me around two hours per week, three hours per week to have daily content on those channels. I've planned it in a way that I batch record them. I for the entire week I write my thoughts down and then I sit down and then in one session I just pick up my phone and hit record and try to to communicate my message. And it's also great training, right? Because in a podcast it's easy to to yap and to go on and on and on, which is fun that it doesn't have to be so con yeah, so specific, so short, so brief. So snappy, but for social media, obviously that's not going to work. So you need to really think about your message and really think about your words. And it's part of the reason why I like writing as well. Because if you have an idea and you and you write it down or or you make a talking hat video like I've been doing, that's that just forces you to really think about what you're saying. And often it will expose gaps in your thinking. So then when I tried to record a video and I I hit record and then it the words don't really come out. That means that I didn't know I haven't thought it through enough yet. So then I have to go and do more research or or write my thoughts down again. So Yeah, it's it's also a way to to sharpen my brain, to become a better communicator, to become more eloquent. It's another ⁓ discovery method. And I mean, if you see what consistent posting can do, it's just insane. I I recently did a video about Jet Franzen, who makes the philosophy style ⁓ talking hat videos. And if there is just one single person on the internet who's currently proving that you don't need a high production budget, that you don't need to care about the opinions of others. if you just consistently post and show up in an authentic way, it's incredible what it can do for you. I mean this guy started posting videos literally a year ago. From his basement. And now he's been featured on the Jack Neal podcast and on Modern Wisdom. I mean, that's the fucking dream, right? So yeah, I'm I'm very, very inspired by this guy. And I mean, obviously I don't want to copy him. But yeah, it's really a testament to what showing up every day and What not caring about the opinions of others can can do for you. And I mean, he's not without its critics, right? People call him a LARPer, people call him a fake philosopher, that he doesn't know what he's talking about. And to be fair, I have seen some videos of him where he genuinely had no idea what he was talking about, and it was just generally a a horrible take because ⁓ he d hadn't done The research obviously has some of them maybe a bit bit of a stretch, like the Tro Trojan horse video. He had seen the movie Odyssey, he had seen the Odyssey, and then all of a sudden he saw Trojan horses everywhere. It's like, yeah, now you're just trying to tie something newsy and relevant to It it felt a bit fabricated, some of them, but let's be real here, dude. Like if you're going to be posting every single day, not every video is going to be a banger. You're going to be wrong. I mean, I I've been wrong in in articles I wrote all the time. I've written articles that were published that I wasn't really happy about, but that I just needed to post. And I think just hitting post without thinking about it too much and then going on to the next. Is just such an incredible way to see progress. And it's also one of the things that I would encourage everyone. I I have this from Rogan. He always says, post it and ghost it. So if you post something, don't look back, don't don't read the comments because they will make you miserable. And I feel in general on YouTube that danger isn't really there so much. But dude, like Spotify. can be or Spotify Instagram can be brutal. So yeah, if you were to read all of your Instagram comments, that'd be very depressing. So the way I go about it, I already told you that I was batch recording these and scheduling these, but I have a tool. This is not sponsored, but I use a tool called called Post Bridge. And it allows me to post all of my videos across all channels. This is how I do the podcast clips as well. So with one click, I publish to LinkedIn, I pu publish to YouTube, to spot ⁓ to Spotify to X to TikTok. Literally every social media platform is in there. And it's such a game changer, not only because it saves you so much time, but you don't even have to open the app to post. So it makes not reading the comments very easy. And the only thing you need to do is just Focus on the videos themselves and just think about what you want to say, think about what you want to post, hit record and publish, and go on to the next. I really genuinely believe that this is the way to go. yeah, I'm I'm having a lot of fun with it. The funny thing is that I hate recording content. At least I love recording the pod, but a solo episode like this or or my talking hat videos. I'm always dreading it before I start recording. But as soon as I hit record, I'm actually having a lot of fun with it. So that's something I have to keep reminding myself. yeah, people also s often say is that is it smart to start yet another channel where some of your energy goes and Wouldn't it be smarter to just focus on the podcast only if you want to grow it? Which I think would be fair. And it's what I've used as an excuse not to start making these videos sooner. However, I think there's a beautiful synergy with the the pod and these talking hat videos, because by doing these talking hat videos. I become a better podcaster because it forces me to think about my thoughts in a better way. And by doing the podcast, I become more interesting in the Talking Head videos because I have much more ideas to talk about because I speak to so many interesting people every single week. So I think there's a beautiful synergy there. And also the way I'm currently doing it, it doesn't take much of my time. So I I'm very happy with this decision. I think the biggest thing, and this is what the higher up wellness challenge ⁓ I think the the higher up wellness challenge in case you're unfamiliar in case you're unfamiliar with it, it's ⁓ I forgot his real name, but it's a guy who started ⁓ a challenge to encourage people to do to show up every single day. And to become a better communicator. And people started doing the higher up wellness challenge where they started posting for a 30 day straight or a hundred days straight or even a year sometimes to just see the difference in how they show up, how they sound on camera, the confidence they're getting. And that's all great. I've I've been doing it for two months now. But for me, the biggest difference is the The not caring about the opinions of others. Because all my content that I've ever made, whether it's a written article, whether it is doing the podcast, whether it's the documentary videos I used to make, they all had a ⁓ they were all behind a kind of shield. Like if I'm doing a podcast with someone, it it feels less personal because The content isn't really about me, it's about the guest and making the guest look as good as possible. But we did with these videos, it's just you. ⁓ the barrier to to entry was just so high. I I thought ⁓ what if my friends see it, and what if they think I'm cringe, ⁓ and what if girls see it, what if they think I'm a loser? I just started postponing it and postponing it, even though deep down I knew this is the right move for me and this is what will eventually lead me to be successful in this whole content thing. And as soon as I started posting and doing it every single day, this confidence of not caring what people think of me. It started to to translate in everyday life, and even though none of the videos have really gone viral yet, ⁓ I I feel much better in general. I I feel more confident and I generally don't worry about what people think of me so much, which is great, which is a great feeling. I I think once you are able to let go. Of your ego and just try it's going to suck, right? Everyone that has a million followers started with zero followers, literally everyone. And maybe not Cristiano Ronaldo. When when he made a YouTube channel, he got like I don't know how many million followers within 24 hours. But I mean, regular People, normal people who start social media have to have to go through this cringe phase. But I actually think that's super, super valuable because the barrier to entry let's assume for a second that literally no one thought it was cringe to post content. It was just completely normal. It was like breathing, it was like walking down the street. Imagine the fucking competition. There would be if every if nobody cared. So the competition would be much, much higher. But also it wouldn't be as valuable. The whole reason why it's valuable for brands to sponsor content in the first place is because not everyone is doing it. I mean, obviously, it's about reach and about how many people see it, but there's also something about Having the balls to show up. So if you are questioning whether you should start making content. I would do it. It's so empowering. And like I said, not just not none. I think the most watched videos like a hundred K, which is don't get me wrong, is a fuck ton of people. But the real power is in not caring anymore. The real power is in becoming more eloquent. And and the real power eventually will be in that friction. The fact that there is that you experience friction is exactly what makes it valuable and that's why it's the reason you should do it. In case you wanna do it, of course. If you don't wanna do it, not not everyone likes to post content. It is not for everyone, I would argue. But if you are thinking about it, I think you should. So keep that in mind. And don't make a plan. Also, my my I'm I'm making ⁓ My brother wants to make videos as well. And to be fair, he's extremely busy. ⁓ but he's showing like all of the classic signs of of overthinking that people usually have and wanting it to be perfect and yeah, just making it way too difficult. Just if you want to start posting content, just grab your iPhone, record yourself and and press post. It's really not that difficult and It will be the best thing you've ever done. If you've been thinking about it. so yeah, that was ⁓ the the talking hat videos I started. ⁓ my work as a journalist, I think this is very interesting to talk about because as you may or may not know, I used to be a tax lawyer, I worked at Deloitte for three years. I studied tax law. I had great colleagues there, but I just felt that there was more out there for me. I wanted to do something more creative. I wanted to do something more entrepreneurial. And I just didn't want to be in a corporate environment anymore, right? So I quit my job without having another job. I had to become an intern again, even though I already had worked for years. at this company at Deloitte and had had to start all over to become a journalist. Ended up working for the Dutch News eventually. And then I decided that I wanted to make my own media, which I which is why I started making documentary style videos. Eventually I quit ⁓ because I got burnt out from from doing so, ⁓ which I discussed last time. But I still am a journalist. I am a freelance writer for Quote magazine, which is the Dutch equivalent of Forbes magazine. So it's about money, it's about entrepreneurship, it's about some lifestyle things like beautiful cars, beautiful yachts, beautiful holidays, crazy houses. But it's about business, most of all. Sometimes I write a lot about lawsuits, but ⁓ the the thing that I like most about it is the amount of entrepreneurs I speak on a weekly basis. Because I think entrepreneurs I love to speak to scientists because scientists dedicate their entire lives to become super knowledgeable about a single topic and they have a very singular focus, which is something I really respect and admire and Wish that I would have more of. But entrepreneurs are I love hanging out and talking to entrepreneurs because they just they're delusional in the best sense of the word. If you start a business, you actually have the audacity to think that you can change the world. People who are entrepreneurs are by definition very high agency people, meaning that they believe that by undertaking actions they can Generate a certain outcome. And that mindset is very nice to have it in business, but I think it's also you have to be an optimist. I think there are literally no pessimistic entrepreneurs. Like it is just not going to work. If you aren't an optimistic person, you won't be a good entrepreneur. Now, don't get me wrong, there are There are many optimistic people who aren't entrepreneurs, but there are zero entrepreneurs who aren't optimistic. So, in general, they are such I I love being around optimistic people, and I love people who bring me up and and make me feel like anything is possible, really. Because That brings me to my next point, ⁓ or or a one of the points I wanna discuss hereafter is the difference between Americans and Europeans and and the mindset that they have, which I'll I'll park that idea for now. But ⁓ I I do a lot of writing for this magazine. I do it ⁓ they they have a website, ⁓ they have an an actual magazine still. ⁓ And I I do that like two to three times a week. ⁓ I I usually go there as well ⁓ to to work with with other ⁓ journalists and it's a lot of fun and the thing that's that's cool about it I I suppose is it is a sip of water. that's better. What's really cool about it is it's one of the it's a very esteemed name in the Netherlands, right? It's a very prestigious media brand. And it's if if Quote magazine features you, it can be huge for your business. A great example of this is a guy I recently interviewed. This is this happened many more times, but this is just a recent example. That I wrote a story about, he has an online clipping business. So you know how clipping, ⁓ how that's being used by many streamers in the US currently to get their name out there and to have as much people as possible see their face. ⁓ there's a guy who recognized the gap that there wasn't such a company in the Netherlands, and he spotted the opportunity. and started a clipping business. So I wrote an article about it ⁓ because immediately, right from the get-go, the business was doing very well. It's blowing up, and and it also marked the beginning of this new marketing trend hitting the Netherlands. So that was an interesting story in general. but after after that article was published, it literally he showed me a screenshot. He got like 20 different emails in it within a few hours of people that wanted to work with him. I think he tripled the business over over that single weekend just after one article I wrote. And many people know this. Many people know how much of an impact it can have for your business if you're a featured for this magazine. So I'm not saying like I enjoy having this. hour or something that that may sound the wrong way but it's it feels honorable that you have that you can have such a huge impact and obviously you're only going to make stories that you think would be interesting for a larger larger audience to read ⁓ you don't want to like unnecessarily promote businesses so it really has to be an interesting angle but Because of this, and because so many people know about what it can do for their business, they are very eager to talk to you. They contact you, they want to get in touch, they want to have lunch, they want to have dinner with you, they they wanna pitch their stories to you. So just by virtue of doing this, I get to meet so many interesting entrepreneurs. ⁓ yeah, I think what they all have in common is just this. Huge sense of optimism and belief in their product and and believe that they can achieve great things in life. And this is what brings me to my next point: ⁓ the difference between ⁓ Europe and the US, because it's something ⁓ that has been on my mind quite a w for quite a while. I'm also planning to do an episode about this topic ⁓ very soon because I love the Netherlands and I love Europe. But what I'm very sad about is the state of Europe and not so much the state as the trajectory of it. Europe used to be a continent where entrepreneurship daring Optimism was second nature. Like we, and I'm not saying like slavery and and all of the horrific things that also were a part of this era are good. Not by any means. It was normal for that time. in Africa, terrible things happened in the Middle East, in Asia, like the entire world was barbaric, right? So Europe and Europeans were also barbaric. Compared to modern standards. But with that caveat out of the way, we used to sail across the entire planet in order to find a business. Literally, the Dutch invented the stock market and they invested they invented shares. The the VOC was the first company in the world that that private investors could invest in. And then hopefully see a return when the ships returned with all the goods. ⁓ the entire city of Amsterdam was built on on money from that era. And again, I'm not saying that everything was was good, but in in the wake of the the the golden age and and in industrial era, the the companies that were coming out of of Europe and the Netherlands were We're we're insane. Unilever, Philips, Shell, such huge, incredible names. And there are still a lot of great entrepreneurs in the Netherlands, but we are just making it so fucking difficult to do business here, man. I mean, we are just drowning in all the legislation that keeps coming from from the U ⁓ from the EU. And The saying America innovates, China imitates, and Europe regulates is just so true, man. I mean, what the fuck? The only like serious company, which is an insane company, let's be fair, it's pro arguably the most important company in the world right now, which is ASML. Okay, that is Dutch, granted. But other than that, The most innovation coming out of Europe is is fucking attaching bottle caps to plastic bottles and and having our borders wide open and giving away ⁓ free money and and obliging Apple to have a USB-C charger, which again it's nice that I can now use a USB-C charger for all of my devices, but Is that really the the innovation that we're striving for? I don't think so. And this is just and I'm just only talking about legislation on EU level right now. ⁓ but if you talk to the general European person here in the Netherlands, if you tell someone that you want to become a millionaire, Or that you wanna have the biggest podcast in the world, or the top 10, or whatever, or that you want to write a Ferrari or whatever. The first thing that people will say is, do you know how difficult that's going to be? Are you sure? Because I know someone who tried and they failed. Do you know what you should do? W wh why aren't you happy with what you already have? Isn't your life already good enough? Why do you need more? Just be grateful and thankful for what you already have. ⁓ the exact opposite. Well, this is a generalization, but they are generalizations for a reason. Like on average, I mean. If if you if you go into the US and you tell someone I wanna have the biggest podcast in the world, or or I wanna become a millionaire and drive a luxury car. They will t fucking tell you, dude, I'm I'm rooting for you. Go for it. That's awesome. And you know, my uncle, he's in the same business as you, and you should give him a call, and maybe he can help you. And they are thinking in opportunities, and they are rooting for you. There's this saying that I really love, and that is that Americans root for you in case you become successful, so they they hope that you'll take them with you. And Europeans root against you in case you you become successful and you leave them behind. And I think it's so true, man. And the the American dream is real. I mean, it might not be real in the sense that everyone that lives in the United States has equal opportunity and and has enough opportunity to make something happen, even though I think in most cases they do. But it's real in the sense that people believe it. It's almost like a religion. And if you drive a fancy car in the US, people will congratulate you and they will ask you what do you do for a living? And if you drive a fancy car in Europe, they'll fucking scratch it, you know? And I'm so I I feel that I'm I'm that's why I love traveling because I I love being here. I want to be close to my parents as well. But I'm just not sure if this is something that I can do for the rest of my life. You know, I want to be constantly surrounded by people who are optimistic, who believe in you, and who believe in in opportunity and in in hard work. And that's just something I I often miss here. I so many of my friends they have have Great jobs, you know, they're doctors, they're lawyers, which is good, but a lot of their ambition is confined to the organization or game that they are a part of. So yeah, they they want to become successful, but they want to become successful within the structure of how the system around law is currently built up. So maybe they want to become a partner or or a doctor, whatever. Surgeon. Which is fucking great, but I mean we need those people. But I I like to be surrounded by people also who have entrepreneurial dreams and who just generally believe everything is possible and and and help you. And I just don't feel like I have That many people around me at the moment who who are doing that and who can do that for me. And I just know how powerful it is to be in an environment where this is the case. ⁓ when I went to Bali, for example, where I lived in in houses with entrepreneurs, ⁓ recently got invited to some dinner with ⁓ some some some entrepreneurs. So I know it's out there, it does exist, also in the Netherlands. Maybe I just have to look harder, but I think just the general vibe of it is ⁓ something I'm not sure that I can ⁓ live the rest of my life, at least not permanently. So I am planning to go to the US ⁓ next year probably. I haven't been there in forever. I used to go there a lot actually, but it's just pretty expensive to go. So maybe if the business goes well, I might be able to afford some some trips there. I would love to go to Austin, Texas. I'm going to do an episode about Austin, Texas soon. ⁓ because I'm just really interested in the city. And from all of the videos I've seen, it just seems like ⁓ like a great place to ⁓ to be. Obviously, you can't really judge a place by just looking at videos on on Instagram. So I think I really have to go there. And I also I know it's important that when I do go there, that I have to live my life like I would if I actually live there. And what I mean by that is people often go on a holiday to a place they enjoy, and then they they when they come back they think, holy fuck, this is such a nice place. I I wanna live here. ⁓ the city was so beautiful, I could live there, and the people were so friendly. I I I I could see myself living there. And then I'm like, yeah, but did you work there? Because that's so different. Oftentimes when we are traveling, we are very ⁓ in a very relaxed state because we are on a holiday, that which means that we don't have stressful meetings, we don't have to think about our work as much. So It's very naive to think that you want to live somewhere if you've only lived there while you were on holiday because it's just not comparable. It's the same reason. You know how people ⁓ fall in love during holidays, that you meet someone during a holiday and you are crazy about each other and everything is perfect, and then you get back home, and nine out of ten times the relationship fails. It's because you associate each other with these positive experiences of not having to work, of drinking cocktails every day, walking down the beach. Like it's not realistic of real life. It's not it's not representative of how it's actually going to be when you when you would move there. So I think I want to go to the US for a couple months next year, see a bunch of different cities. And actually work work there, see what it's like. so yeah, that'd be sick. That'd be my dream. And then hopefully I can keep my my house in Amsterdam as well because I do like to be here during the summer. I want to see my parents quite often as well. But that's something I I envision and I I I plan. I think it would be great. I think it would be awesome. ⁓ yeah, one more thing when we are on the topic ⁓ of the differences between the US ⁓ and Europe. ⁓ as you know, I I I did the career ⁓ change, and still many people come up to me ⁓ asking me if they are questioning whether they should stay in their job or not, or when they want to make a career change themselves. They Ask me how did I do it? How did I make the switch? Wasn't it scary? How did you go about it? What would you advise me? And recently there was a girl that I know from my days in university. We were in the same fraternity together, and she's had a concussion. And because she's had a concussion, she wasn't able to work for a few months. And She's slowly reintegrating. I believe she's now working like twenty five percent of the time again. But by being out of her regular life for a couple months, she wasn't really happy anyway when when the concussion happened on her during her work ⁓ with with her work. ⁓ but being out of it for for a few months, it really allowed her to zoom out and reflect on on her life. And she's made the decision that she doesn't wanna work. She she is also a tax lawyer, actually. So we have very similar stories there. And she started to ask me some advice and and ⁓ w she she's now looking at whether journalism can be something for her, whether that's interesting or not. And I told her immediately, like, yes, of course. ⁓ I'd be happy to Have a coffee, and I'll I'll explain to you how I went about it. I can tell you what a day in the life actually looks like when you're a journalist. all these things, right? And she told me, I saw her recently again, she was so inspired after our conversation, and she told her family, she told everyone. That she spoke to me and and how she's super inspired to maybe become a journalist now. And this is what I'm talking about. This is so fucking typical. Everyone, her family, her fucking sister, her parents, her people in her, her friends, everyone told her, ⁓ no, I I wouldn't do that. That's it's it's it would be a horrible choice. You won't make any money as a journalist, and ⁓ it's going to be very difficult to make the switch if you have no experience. ⁓ it's it's not it's not a good option for you. It's like She spoke to someone who obviously made it happen. And even though it took some effort, it's definitely not impossible to switch it up. And to me, that's just so depressing that all these supposed friends that are supposed to have their best interests in you, right? That they are this encouraging someone from following their dreams and and trying to improve their lives. I I think it's really, really shameful. And it really enrages me. ⁓ it's just such a confirmation again about the the toxic ⁓ and my the the narrow mindedness of of many people here in the Netherlands and and Europe in general. ⁓ But also something interesting that I noticed as I as she told me this, I was immediately trying to remove all of her limiting beliefs. And I told her, You shouldn't listen to these people. Like what the fuck do they know? Like, did they ha do a career? Did they switch careers or are they working still working their their fucking job like thirty years after the fact? Did they ever pursue their their dreams? Like in If you do what the average person does, you're going to be fat, you're going to be poor, and you're going to be fucking miserable. Because that's what the average person is. So if you want to have an interesting life, you should, by definition, not do what everyone is doing. And I got really fired up about it. And I'm very this is something I'm very passionate about. And I noticed in myself that I was getting fired up and that I really enjoyed doing this. And for the first time in my life, like I'm not planning to become a guru or something or a motivational speaker whatsoever. But I do understand the appeal of it now. It it it was so interesting. I do understand the appeal because I just every word I was saying, I could see in her eyes the The shift happening, the the the the hope slowly coming back after it was destroyed by her family, and believing in a future and and believing in her own agency again. And that felt really good, man. That felt so good. I mean, that was it was awesome. And I really hope she she does something with it. That's up to her, of course. But I know I I understand why people would get addicted to this feeling and why people want would wanna do more of this. Because if you can actually change the beliefs of someone for the better, of course, that's very powerful. If it's something you truly believe in, it it it felt great. ⁓ again, I'm I'm not I I don't wanna ⁓ do a career change, but I I did notice that it felt very good to Try to remove those limiting ⁓ beliefs. So yeah, that was an interesting observation that I don't know if if that's something I'm going to do anything ⁓ with. We are going for quite a long time already. Let me have a look at the time. It is currently I'm already going for 55 minutes. That's crazy. And we haven't even touched on. Two of the topics that I wanted to touch on. I think ⁓ finally ⁓ thoughts on using AI. I think we can cover that one. yes, thoughts on using AI as a creative. Interesting, right? Because the entire process around creativity has has changed quite a bit. People are getting exposed by using AI. Creators are, there's all these tools trying to 11 laps, trying to sell, like clone your voice, and you never have to record your own content again. And like, how fucking depressing is that, dude? Like the whole point of of doing this, of of recording this, of making this content, is to show my voice. To to let my voice be heard and I'm I I would never want to use AI for that. And just a lot of big YouTube channels are also complaining about YouTube just being flooded with AI generated content and that it's like hurting their reach, apparently, which I don't really understand how, because if you make good enough content like yours should come out on top still. So I don't understand how that works, but I guess the barrier to entry has gotten so low that now just many space channels, for example, are competing. A lot of the space channels are faceless. So it's much easier to like copy one of the more popular channels if you do faceless stuff. However, if if you have a look at like high quality channels of History of the universe or something, those are written so well. Like AI could never. but I thought it would be interesting to show the way how I use AI in my workflow as a creative. So I use AI for a bunch of things. I use AI to select. Help me select the clips after I have an I have a clips channel, separate clips channel, and I record full episodes and then I create subtitles. So by generating the subtitles, I'm I'm using AI for that. Of course, I'm not going to manually create those subtitles. I ⁓ have them select clips based on those subtitles. So which are the most interesting parts? That could live on Instagram or on YouTube, for example. So and then I still make the creative decision. So it it does it does a lot of suggestions. Like here are like 10 of the key moments from the episode. sh do you agree? And then we can switch it around. And I also Use AI for my guest research. So I have I write down my thoughts that I have. I write down the topics I want to make. And sometimes I write a specific person down, but usually there are questions I have, art of the question, hence the name. And then I want to find a person to help me answer that question, right? ⁓ what I'll do is. Every now and then I write down all of these questions that I want to do an episode about, and then I have AI look for the most relevant guests. And I have a very specific research prompt because obviously I can't invite everyone that I'd like to because the show is just pretty small at the moment. So not everyone would agree. So I have a bunch of things like they have to be media savvy, but they can't have a million followers. And ⁓ preferably they are native English speakers unless they are like perfect, would be perfect as a guest. I don't prefer to have Dutch guests because I think it's just kind of cringe to speak English to a Dutch person. I don't know why, but that just feels weird to me. So I have all these rules, and then I say. Find me five guests for this topic that I want to do an episode about. And then it will go on the internet with these limitations that I gave it. And then it will find some of the most interesting people for me. So every creative decision I make is still mine. But it is a huge time saver to do it in such a way rather than just googling everything myself. So I think that's a very good way of using AI because it saves me a lot of time. And and this is why it I'm able to do two episodes a week because I am using I'm I'm getting help from AI. I don't have an assistant at this point, so I need all the help I can get. But I think it's very different than actually using AI to generate content or to generate footage or to fucking clone your voice. I think that's a very dystopian path to go down. I think eventually there will be two economies because not for every product. AI, ⁓ this is a great take from from Kat ⁓ GPT. That's I'm I'm going to explain this take and then I'm going to wrap it up for today. Her take is AI is only useful if the the result is verifiable. So you can have all the information you want, but if you can't verify whether the outcome is correct, it's fucking useless, right? And secondly, whether people care if you used AI or not. So she gave an example of coding. Coding is a great example because you can easily verify how it works. Because if the code doesn't work, it'll give you an error. And you can run the code, you can use the website or the app, and if it works, it works. So it's easily verifiable whether AI did a great job or not. But secondly, it's also do people care whether AI was used during the process? So, for example, let's say I sell posters of my artwork. Well, I would never never ever hang something AI generated in my house. I I think that's fucking soulless. So in this case, we can verify the outcome. We can look at this piece of art and say it looks good. But then there's the second element to it, which is do people care whether AI was used in the process? And I think for our work is obvious that not everyone, but many people do care. And and a lot of people, including myself, Would never hang something inside of their homes that was generated by AI. So art doesn't work, but codes, I don't give a fuck, dude. Like if you if you build something, an app, like do do you really care whether whether your your your your app or or your game or your website that it was gener that the code was generated by AI and that it wasn't made by written by a human? No, of course not. Like maybe 0.001% of people would care, and and they might be like very old school programmers or whatever. But even even programmers, like even all programmers, are using AI. So I think code is a great example ⁓ of something that is verifiable. So if we bring it back to how I use it, is can I confirm that AI is doing a good job? Is it verifiable? That AI is doing a good job when it's finding guests for me? Yes, because I have a look at the guests it's suggesting. I look at their LinkedIn pages, I look at their websites, I look at their books, I I look at their papers, I go through the list. So it's verifiable. And then do people care when they listen to a podcast episode that the reason how I initially encountered the person was Through an AI deep research? I don't think so. I mean, I still then verified it, had a pre-discussion with the guest, went back and forth over email with the guest, and then have an actual discussion with the guest. There's nothing dystopian or or mechanical or artificial about that. That's just human communic communication after that. So I think correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's a great use of AI. I think it is a a good way. It it it's doesn't take away from from the human creativity and it makes my job more fun and more easy. And there's probably many more examples like this, but yeah I I do understand why ⁓ why those faceless channels are struggling. That sucks. But that's why I think Podcasts and and ⁓ authentic content like Jet Friends and the talking head videos like I discussed in the beginning are so popular right now because people are longing for authenticity and in a world where everything is artificial, real art will prevail. At least I I hope so. That was episode 50, you guys. I mean my my throat is is ⁓ starting to act up. I've been talking for over an hour now. always a lot of fun to do these. Hopefully the next time I do these, ⁓ please send in some questions. I really would appreciate it. You can also email me at info at juliasmormonmorman.com. Info at juliasmorman.com. ⁓ if you want to send in questions, you can send me DMs on Instagram, on TikTok. many ways to do so. so it would be nice to have a more interactive ⁓ way rather than just coming up with my own talking points because ⁓ yeah. But of course I have to be patient. Not enough people are listening yet, and we'll just keep doing it until you are. For now, I thank you. ⁓ keep listening to the show. Keep sharing the episodes with ⁓ people you think would find it interesting. And yeah, let's ⁓ let's see you in the next one.