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The Intellectual Glow Up: How To Think Deeper · Two Broke Chicks

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This podcast is recorded on Gadigal land. Always was, always
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: will be Aboriginal land.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Hey, chicks.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I'm Al. And I'm Sal. And this is Two Great Chicks,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: a show that shares life lessons and tips to help
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: make you rich in life. And today we are being
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: very intellectual in life. We're going to be talking about
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: how we want to use our brains more, attention spans,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and bringing back the yap. You know, the intellectual yap.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's what we do every week on the show.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: So we need to, everybody needs to embrace it, chicks.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Now, Sally, before we get into it, what's your obsession
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: of the week?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: My obsession of the week is kind of a throwback
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: to one of the very first obsessions or like life lessons,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: recommendations that I ever shared on this show.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Shut up. Ah.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: And it's one of my favourite podcasts, which is a
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: podcast called 60 Songs That Explain the 90s.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Ah, cool. I think this was.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: One of the first recs I ever shared on the show,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: so like five years ago. And the reason I'm bringing
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: it back up is because obviously the name is on
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: the tin, 60 Songs That Explain the 90s.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: They got through the first 60.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Songs a long time ago and then they expanded into
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: even more songs from the 90s. But they've moved on
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: to 60 songs that explain the 2000s.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: So it's like a 2.0. It's a whole new era. Wow.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: And I feel like for the girlies who listen to
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: our show, that's a lot of the music that we
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: would have grown up with. And the premise of the
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: show is that every episode they cover a different song
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: and they talk about like the history of the song,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: the cultural impact. They interview people who were involved in
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: like the production and the songwriting or people who reported
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: on it. And it's so interesting and they cover like
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: all different genres as well. So they've done already.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: They did like Britney Spears' Toxic.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: They've done The Darkness, I believe, in a thing called Love, Paramore,
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Misery Business, Milkshake by Khalees.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: What a hit.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Most recently they did Welcome to the Black Parade by
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: My Chemical Romance.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: What are we going to do?
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was literally like sobbing on my hot girl
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: walk listening to it.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Like it's just incredible.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: And the music journalist who hosts the show, Rob Harvello,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: just the references and like the personal stories that he
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: weaves into it, He's like really funny, everything's super thorough
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: and I feel like it's really good trivia that you
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: would be able to bring up like on a dinner
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: or a drinks out with the girls and like a
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: song comes on and.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: You're like, you know what, this song. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I love when people have shit like that.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Right, which I felt like kind of tied into the
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: episode of having an intellectual life because it's like you're
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: learning something but it's completely fun.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: I love that. I'm going to steal that and go
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: in a similar vein. It's something that I've referenced on
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the show. in passing but I haven't really done a
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: strong spotlight on it but it's the weekly 50 oh
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: yeah so the weekly 50 we spoke about it a
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: couple weeks back but it was very like throw out
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: little thing there but the weekly 50 is this group
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: of people they're based in Melbourne and every week they
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: write like a trending topic but also some trivia quizzes
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: it's basically a trivia quiz yeah and it's 50 questions
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: they put it out every single week I think it
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: drops on a Thursday or a Friday But my boyfriend
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: and I do it on Sunday mornings when we like
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: have a morning coffee and we like airplay it to
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the TV. Fun. And we like sit down and we
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: do the weekly 50s. Sometimes if we're going on a
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: date night on a Friday, we'll do it then. And
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: so it will have questions of like things that happened
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: that week that are like trending in the media. It
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: was like what's larger, the width of Australia or the moon? Oh,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: is it Australia? It's Australia. Yeah, big girl. Yeah, I know.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: But like I never knew that. But I'm like now
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I feel like I have a fun fact. Yeah. And
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: it's such a fun little thing to do. But then
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: they'll also have things like. You know, there are four
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: countries that end in an IA sequence, like name three
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: of those or like just little topics here and there.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: And it's just so fun because I genuinely feel like
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: I'm learning things because you're like, Rob and I always
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: get like 29 out of 50. Like we don't get
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: them all right. We're not necessarily good at it, but
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: it's just fun to do.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Good like ritual as well because it comes out every Thursday,
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: like you said.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: You can build it into like your weekend routine. Yeah,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: and I really enjoy like having a ritual or like
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: a thing. I feel very like whimsy in it. It's
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: giving like Sunday paper doing the crossword. Yes, yes, yes.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Which is like the energy that I want but like
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: realistically am I going to go buy the paper?
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because I don't know. I feel the most intellectual
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: and in my brain when I'm doing things that I
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: genuinely am just enjoying myself. You're not being great at
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: it at all. No, when it's just for fun and
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: when it's very ritual-based that it's like, you know, Sundays
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: we like do the weekly 50s maybe a little clean,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: walk around. And then now we're like watching a Disney
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: VHS videotape to like, you're shaking your head because you
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: love it. So you're like, I hate that this is
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: happening without me. No, I'm like, this is just beautiful.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: It's so nice. I love that.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: 10 out of 10. I had no idea that it
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: was written by just a group of people from Melbourne.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And they've like updated their website so you can
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: track your like averages over the weeks and it'll tell
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: you as well, like, how many people got the answer
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: right versus you. So like if we got one wrong
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: and it's like 84% of quizzes got this right, Rob's
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: always like, that's fucking bullshit. He's like, who cheated? I
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: don't know why that's my impersonation of him. Because he's
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: a man. Yeah, he's literally like, that's bullshit. He's like,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: everyone just lies and so they got it right. I
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: was like, no, Rob, we just got it wrong. Yeah. Yeah.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: That's okay. It's character building. Exactly. He just gets so
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: into it. Well, I like that. Two intellectual wrecks. Yeah.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Should we get into the episode? Let's do it. Okay.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: So what does being intellectual actually mean? So we've seen
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: a few online posts about like cultivating your intellectual life
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: and intellectual side quests. And it's more so like a
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: self-development trend that involves using the process of slow, deliberate
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: learning to expand yourself mentally further and to develop your
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: view of the world and increase productivity. So I think
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: with this topic, I also want to like start at
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: the top being like, We're not sitting here as like
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: professors being like, now everyone must think critically and intellectually
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: and blah, blah, blah. Write your thesis, go. Yeah, like
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I also think not everything needs an intellectual lens on it.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Some things are just meant to be fun. And most
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: things in life I would actually go ahead and say
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: don't need that much brain power. I think we could
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: actually lean back on how much brain power we use,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: but I don't think we apply– our intellectual thinking to
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: the things that actually matter to us and mean something
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: to us, but we're sitting and overthinking things that really
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: don't deserve to be overthought. You know, like the perception
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: people have on us, whether or not we've gotten enough
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: likes on our Instagram posts, you know, what outfit we're
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: wearing today. Like we've used so much of our brainpower
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: on these things that there is actually opportunity to find
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: joy and happiness by applying your brainpower intellectually to other
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: things in our life. Yeah. So it's not about being intelligent.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Like I wouldn't, I don't sit here and, like, I
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: don't think I'm, like, the smartest cookie in the shed, right? Like,
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  Speaker 1: no way. For fuck's sake. The smartest, you know what
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  Speaker 1: I mean? No.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Perfect.
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  Speaker 1: Perfect. Tool. Yeah. What's the cookie one?
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  Speaker 2: I think you can be a smart cookie is what
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, then it's fine. But why is the cookie in
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: the shed? Because it was supposed to be cool. The
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: warmest cookie in the shed was another one that you said.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: The warmest cookie in the jar?
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: The warmest cookie. I've said that before. I think so. Yeah,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: but I like that. I'm not the smartest cookie in
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: the shed. Perfect. But, like, you don't have to be. Oh,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: but evidence right here. Evidence right here. People are going
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: to fucking think I've like put it on. Yeah, exactly.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: They think it's a bit. But genuinely it's just who
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: I am. No, this is the best. I love beating
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: a dead horse's bush, you know. I love that one. Yeah,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: that's a good one too. Literally the amount of people
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: that have sent me like jokes on TikTok about people
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: that can't get their idioms right. I'm like I'm just
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: an idiot. Yeah, not idioms, idiot. No idioms for idiot, okay.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: But sorry, where was I? So intelligence is related to
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: quick processing, learning new information, while intellect is more involved
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: with like deep critical thinking, reasoning, contemplating abstract ideas, understanding
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: different perspectives, understanding when things don't involve you or the
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: nuance of things, like being able to say, you know,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: that's not for me but I really like this, like
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: that's intellect. It's being able to kind of zoom out.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and understand yourself a little bit better, which means you
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: understand other things a little bit better. It's like there's
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: a very helpful saying that it's like emotions are information,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: not instructions. Yeah, I like that. So like knowing and
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: I think emotion and intellect is very closely related. Like
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I actually feel like the term like emotional intelligence really
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: kind of refers to what we're talking about, that it's like,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: you know, emotions are information is not instructions. You know
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: how to feel, you know how to process things. And
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: that's about building that muscle. And as someone who has
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: been a very like reactive person their whole life, like
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: if something upsets me or makes me sad, like I
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: get really sad or cry, you know, have a whole
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: hell of a blue. But it's like, that's definitely been
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: something that I've worked on, you know, as I've gotten
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: older to be like, okay, this is how I'm feeling.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Maybe like, and half the time, you know, I don't
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: think anyone's had the intention to make me feel that way.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: So let's like zoom out. Let's not react. Let's not,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: you know, take these as instructions. Let's have a pause.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: And I think that's really important part of this intellect
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: conversation too yeah.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Totally it's also like intertwined with empathy and perspective because
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: you can understand like where somebody else's perspective may have
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: been and how that might not align with yours and
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: then also how that's like perhaps triggered you or made
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: you feel a certain way which.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Is freeing to be like nah pass like to not
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: take things and not run with them and not Beat
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: the dead bush's horse weight.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: A big part of intellect and what has been in
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: the conversation around intellect a lot recently is attention span.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: And there is a lot of commentary right now about
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: how attention span is a new currency. Alexis Fernandez, who
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: you cheeks probably know, we've had her on the podcast
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: a bunch of times, has spoken about this. She actually
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: did an interview with Forbes and she said that our
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: ability to concentrate is disappearing. partly due to like the
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: never-ending distractions and connections that we have due to social
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: media and technology and all of that jazz.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: But research from Dr.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Gloria Mark also shows that our attention spans are shrinking considerably.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: So I think a lot of us like probably have
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: noticed this anecdotally, but there is science that actually proves it.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: So our median attention time is 40 seconds and that's
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: down from 75 seconds in 2012.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: That's wild. And two and a half minutes in 2004. Whoa. Yeah. Yeah.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: So our attention spans have shrunk by almost two minutes
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: in like 20 years.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: What's it going to be in 20 years time?
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Girl. Zero.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: In the minus.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: In the minus. My name's Alex. Hi, my name is Alex. Dory. Seriously. Yeah.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: So a steady attention span is actually an increasingly valuable
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: skill that should be developed and maintained.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: And I think that's the thing.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: Like Yes, these numbers and these stats are scary to hear.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: And it can be like, oh, well, I'm fucked. Yeah.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: You know, that can be an easy way to look
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: at it. But also it's important to remember that your
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: attention span is a muscle that can be retrained and rebuilt.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: And the sooner that you kind of focus on it
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: and give it attention, ha-ha, is.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Like the better it will be.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: So do you feel like your attention span has decreased? Yeah.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: I'll ask you. Do you think my attention span has decreased?
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, probably. Mine definitely has.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: I can't watch like a TV show without automatically looking
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: at my phone.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Like if we go back to 10 years
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: ago when we first became friends, like versus now I reckon,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: I think what's happened is I think everything moves quicker now.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: I think the reason why attention spans have also decreased
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: so much is due to the increase of hurry sickness. Oh,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: my God. And so hurry sickness is this thing where
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: we constantly feel that we need to utilize every second
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: of the day and that everything is urgent in a rush.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: that like, you know, being in traffic or standing in
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: a line is like the worst thing that's happened to
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: you that day. Or like if someone says, Hey, do
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: you mind doing this? You have to drop every single
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: thing and do it immediately. And I think that's got
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: a lot to do, obviously social media, the rise of
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: short form content and all of that jazz is definitely,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I would say the main, you know, reasoning, but I
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: do think this rise of like maxing and productivity and
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: how to like date seven guys in one day and
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: all that shit. Like, you know, it's all the things
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: to do, a million things at once and like the
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: busy girl boom of like, you know, how that's been idolised.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: It's actually ruining our attention spans. Like the need to
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: be productive all the time means we're not being as
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: productive as we could be because we can't focus on anything. Yeah,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: what's the rush, people? Yeah, I remember we had this
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: really weird lady come in to– a workplace we used
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: to work at and she put in all the, and
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: now I'm kind of like Slate, and she made a
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: rule that if someone had headphones on at their desk,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: you weren't allowed to ask them a question. Do you
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: remember this now? Not really. She made rules about interrupting
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: people's focus. I love that. Yeah, but at the time
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: everyone was like, what the– like it was really, really
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: weird to people. I always had my headphones on so
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I probably was like, good, back off. Yeah, but it's
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: like if people had headphones on, you weren't allowed to
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: talk to them. Like you weren't allowed to go to
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: their desk because she was saying how it takes 20
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: minutes to get back into like a flow state.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: And so, yeah, it was actually like at the time
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: everyone was like, okay. But it was like– She was
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: onto something. Yeah, she was really onto something. Yeah, I
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: like that.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Okay, so why is it important to build an intellectual
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: life right now?
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: There's research that suggests that girls are less likely to
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: enroll in advanced math subjects.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: For example, in 2025, only 36.5% of higher math students
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: were female and further studies show the biggest cause of
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: girls opting out of math is is because of how
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: they perceive their own mathematical ability.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Well, maybe this is like a wake-up call for me
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: as well. That's how I'm feeling.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly how I felt, as well as their
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: lower interest in the subject, which can be influenced by
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: family and community messaging. I think a lot of us
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: can call back to crying at the kitchen table with
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: your dad trying to teach you how to do long division.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: That's the only way I got my animal crossing, is
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: I had to do my math homework and the I
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: had to sit there and I still didn't even finish
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: it but my parents were so proud of how much
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I tried. They gave me my Animal Crossing Nintendo DS game. Yeah.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: That's how I got my first My Chemical Romance T-shirt
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: for like actually studying and putting in the effort for
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: a maths exam I was so anxious about.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Mum was like, here's your carrot. Yeah. And I think–
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: and that's the thing.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: I'm like some of these things it's making me be like, fuck, like–
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: actually having some introspection.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: I'm like, am I bad at maths? Or have I
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: just been ingrained?
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Conditioned to think that, like, girls aren't good at maths. Also,
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: it doesn't necessarily come naturally to me.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: But also, I'm going to stop saying that about myself now. Yeah.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: I'm actually going to stop because I feel like I've made–
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: and I'm wondering if maybe I've made that, you know–
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: and I've never, ever, ever, ever made that joke about
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: anyone else but myself in terms of, like, you know,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: I'm not good at maths. But, like, and I've– we'll like,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: that's not where I stand. It's more like a, but
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: have I been covering up that, you know, maybe insecurity
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: with the self-deprecating humor that I'm like, no, maybe it's.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: And like, I think as well, I'm so deep in
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: this cause it's about maths, but like, Like I wouldn't
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: even try to work it out because I'd be like, well,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: I'm just bad at maths. Exactly. So like I'm not
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: even going to try and work out, you know, what
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: this cost is or like blah, blah, blah. I'd just
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: be like, well, I'm not good at it. Yeah, you
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: use it as like an excuse almost. And I think
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: that's the thing.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: Like women miss opportunities to study and set themselves up
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: or even put themselves out there and try, whether it's maths,
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: whether it's sport, whether it's like a field that's typically
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: dominated by men.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Because we're taught like women aren't good at these things.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: But it's scientifically not true. Yeah.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: And there's also like scientific studies that prove that the
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: more you tell yourself something, the more you believe it
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: and it becomes true. So it's like, yes, if you've
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: been telling yourself your whole life that you're shit at maths,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: why would you ever be good at it?
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: So it's maybe more about like rebelling against that idea
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: because your brain will rely on evidence. So like, For me,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: for example, and again, I'm realizing this all in real
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: time right now. I know. Is like, you know, your
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: brain believes things about your identity based on the evidence
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: you give it. So by me, like not trying and not,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: you know, and you can actually apply this to anything,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: whether you think, you know, you're not good at sport
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: or you're not good at art or whatever category you
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: want to pull it in. We're obviously using math just
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: as the example because that's something. Our personal experience. Our
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: personal experience with it. That it's like rather than me going, oh, well,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: I can't do it because I'm bad at it. It's
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: like sitting down and even though it will probably take
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: me longer than someone else, but giving my brain the evidence, no,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: you can do it. You just actually have to try.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: And I think that's the whole idea is that crafting
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: your intellectual life is that education should be accessible and
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: it's for everyone.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: And it also can look different.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: For everyone, you know, like you don't, that doesn't mean
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: that you have to go and get a degree or
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: like start doing maths lessons.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: It's more just like, okay, I usually would have used
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: a calculator for this.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Can I try and use my brain, you know, or
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: even like a budget or like looking at things like
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: that or like what's the cost per where that I
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: would get out of something.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Like are there little.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Like things that you can do that you maybe just
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: never would have done before because you're like, oh, well,
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: I'm bad at maths so I just won't bother.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Yep. Yeah. Give yourself a chance. Give yourself a chance. Okay,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: so how to build an intellectual life. Apply the CEC acronym.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: This is a concept from a creator called Grow With
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: Hardy and it basically goes through how we can more
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: deeply engage with the things that we're absorbing. This is
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: something that I would like to do a lot more
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: in my life because I feel like I watch things
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: or I save things to watch later because I'm like,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: that's a really interesting thing. I want to learn more
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: about that. And then I'm like, What was it? Yeah.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Who are you? Yeah. Where'd you go? I don't know.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: I forgot because hurry sickness, attention span, blah, blah, blah.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: So it mainly takes us from learning to also intellectualizing. So.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: this stands for C, critical thinking. Question things, ask, is
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: this true? And check the other side of the argument.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Look for historical context of how things came to be. E, education.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Be informed, aware, and capable of having a real conversation
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: and sharing your thoughts. Make little swaps instead of scrolling
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: for 30 minutes. Use that time to read, listen to
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: an audio book or solve a puzzle. And C, curiosity.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Ask for the why on how things work and why
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: people think the way they do. Try new things, investigate
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: opinions you don't necessarily hold to understand alternative approaches to
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: your own. And that's like a really famous quote from
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: a philosopher called Walt Whitman. And he famously said, be curious,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: not judgmental. like seek to understand seek to kind of
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: find new perspectives or if you don't know something that's
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: not necessarily the end of the line yeah you can
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: be like why does that work that way like yeah
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: yeah well I think a lot of us are embarrassed
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: to admit when we don't know something so then that
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: even like stops the curiosity in its tracks yeah whereas
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: you can be like I don't know so I'm gonna
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: find out yeah even just being like I don't know
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: what that means what does that mean Yeah, exactly. Especially
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: in like, I don't know, work, sometimes people are throwing
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: around like acronyms or like marketing terms and I'm like, mm-hmm, yes.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: What's that? What's that? Yeah. And like especially when you're
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: doing that, not starting the question with, this might be
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: a dumb question. Yeah, which I always do. But like
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: because it's not a dumb question, you're not dumb for
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: asking a question, you're actually incredibly smart for asking a
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: question that's going to make you smarter and identifying– there's
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: something that you don't know about, like having curiosity. I
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: think people that believe they know everything there is to
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: know in the world are probably the dumbest people. Yeah.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Because like what you're saying, you get to like 40
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: or 30 or 20 and you know everything. Like that's
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: never the way I want to live my life at least.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: I want to be 80 being like, tell me about that. Yeah.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: Well, even like doing this show is an exercise in that, like,
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: you know, listening back or thinking back to, episodes that
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: we recorded in the past and I'm.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Like oh my god there's probably so much shit I
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: disagree with or and like my opinion on that has
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: changed I would hate to sorry interrupt.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: No but no that's completely what I was gonna say
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: and I think that if we didn't that would be
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: a problem I think if our values fundamentally shifted that
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: would be kind of odd but I think for the
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: most part we should be able to look back on
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: things that we've said or thought a year a two years,
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: three years, et cetera.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I'd be like, I don't really align with that as
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: much anymore. Yeah. Or my opinion changed. That's a good thing. Yeah, absolutely.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Anyone saying to you, you've changed and that's why, that
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: is not someone who has your best interest at heart. Boo,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: that sucks. Boo. I was going to say, boo, you whore. Boo,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: you whore. That's a bit harsh. Say it, say it. Boo,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: you whore. Boo, you whore. Okay. Okay.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: Another step to build an intellectual life is use first
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: principles thinking. So this helps you break down complex problems
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: with one simple step, which separates what we know to
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: be true from anything that is an assumption.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: And then this only leaves behind the essentials.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: This basically teaches you the complex intellectual skill of breaking
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: complication down into the most basic truths, which makes a
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: good springboard for further understanding to be developed. And it's
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: also great for formulating your own opinions on certain topics
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: and issues as well because, and we do this all
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: the time, I think a lot of people do, like
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: when you're thinking about something you're also taking on like
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: what you've read, other people's perceptions, other nuances that you've
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: heard and it almost like informs your opinion before you.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Have even made up your own mind.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: There is a lot of value to be gained from
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: simply developing an understanding of a topic that is maybe
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: like one or two levels deeper than the average person
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: And you also don't, like, I think there's a lot
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: of pressure to feel like you have to be an
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: expert on topics. So, you know, there's like, we talk
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: a lot about the gender pay gap, right? Yeah. And
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: for a long time. I wouldn't like– I'm talking like
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: way back when, like early, early baby days because I
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: didn't feel like I was an expert on it. I
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: didn't feel like I could win the argument, right, that
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: people would be like, well, where did you see that?
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: I didn't have a Rolodex of statistics up my sleeve
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: to be able to join into a conversation, to be
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: able to say what I thought and there is this
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: pressure to feel like you have to be the most
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: intelligent person on a topic that to be able to
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: speak to it, which I really don't believe anymore. And
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: there's this pressure to feel like you have to get
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: it all right and you have to know everything, which
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: you absolutely don't. And, like, you can, like, still be
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: in a conversation and get things wrong and learn as well. Like,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: you know, there'll be people that'll be like, actually, like,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: this and blah, blah, blah or whatever.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: I think that's so true, especially for the average person, like,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: that you're not, like– creating a TikTok video that's going
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: to go viral on a topic. Like you're not spreading misinformation.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: You're just having a conversation with someone. And I think
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: people feel like they need to have all the stats,
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: all the information, and also like every single backup for
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: every devil's advocate that someone might play. Yes. And that
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: a lot of the time is really paralyzing and will
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: make you be like, well, I'm just not even going
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: to say anything because I don't want to get it wrong.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: But I think it's where you're coming from as well.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: Like if somebody's like, oh, but have you thought about this?
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: And they have, you know, like a genuine argument or
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: something to back it up and you can go, okay.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And sometimes it's not even like an argument. Sometimes
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: it's just a conversation.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, totally. Totally.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: I think it's that ability to like maybe ask the questions,
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: question why you might have thought something initially but also
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: being open to like other people's perceptions and also that
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: like you can agree to disagree sometimes on some things.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: 100%. Last but not least is to intellectualize the things
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: you already enjoy. You don't need to give up the
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: hobbies you already like to make time to become more intellectual.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Some of my favorite hobbies in the world are the
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: things that I might turn off my brain. Thank you.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: I actually don't want to be an intellectual right now.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I just want to exist. And then there are things
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: that I'm like, oh, I actually want to learn a
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: little bit more about that. Like I love reading fantasy books.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: I love reading like my fantasy smart, but I also
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: love like the mythology behind things. I love learning about
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: like actually where things came from. The lore. Yeah, the lore.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: So this year I like started listening to more historical
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: podcasts just about mythology because that's so interesting and so fun. Yeah.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: And I feel like that's how I've turned something that
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: like is very much I could turn my brain off, goodbye,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: just for fun hobby because thinking everything needs to be
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: something that makes you smarter is like the quickest way
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: to make everything feel like a chore. But like what
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: are the things that genuinely interest you that you can
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: learn a little bit more about to feel like like
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: you're embracing that side of your brain a bit more. Yeah,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: I really like that.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: My sister and I have been talking about how we
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: want to start doing commonplace journaling, which basically is like
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: you pick a topic and it's something that you're interested
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: in and you just go and learn about it.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: And then you write down the different facts and things
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: that you've learned.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: And then, you know, you can put in like stickers
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: or pictures and it's like a mix between like journaling
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: and research. But again, it's one of those things that
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: You're not being graded on it. It doesn't have to
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: follow any particular structure. It's not there to like prove
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: any sort of point. It doesn't really have to have
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: any like super positive or life-changing impact. It can just
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: be like whatever topic that you like.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So that's something that I definitely want to lean
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: into more. I love that. I feel like it would
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: be fun. There's this chick on TikTok that does like
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: niche things to research this week. And her lists are
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: always so good. I'm going to find her page and
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: I'll link it in the show notes. But they're always
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: so cool in terms of like how mermaids existed.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like they're topics that truly pique your curiosity.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she'll have like the lost library of Alexandria, banned
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: books that became classics, like where did mermaids come from,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: like all these really niche things that I'm like I
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: want You're like, I want to know the answer to that. Yeah.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Because honestly a lot of the time, well, they do
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: say that like the truth is stranger than fiction. Like
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: so many things in history or like things that are
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: built in lore or.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Whatever are so, so fascinating. And like we love fantasy,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: but I think. I know all my examples like tie
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: back to that. I'm like. Well, I mean, it's real.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: It's genuine. Yeah.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: Like you said, it's doing something that actually aligns with
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: like things that you find.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: Enjoyable.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, do the things that you find fun. So whatever
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: that is for you. Exactly.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Well, that's a wrap. That's a wrap. It's a fun
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: episode if I do say so myself. Love it.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: And I want to hear.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: How you chickies are going to start building an intellectual
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: life in the comments.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: We always love to hear from you. And also don't
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: forget to check out our YouTube. We do cut down episodes.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: if you're more of a visual learner. And it's kind
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: of like the best hits from the episodes. So definitely
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: check it out. We'll put a link in the show notes. Yeah.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: And if you haven't reviewed us on Apple Podcasts or
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Spotify yet, five stars plus. Yeah. Always helps the show grow.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: If you enjoy listening every week, we'd love to hear
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: from you. If you don't enjoy listening, don't worry about it. Yeah, exactly.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: You can keep that to yourself. I don't want to
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: hear it. Thanks for having us in your ear holes, chickies.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: We love to be here. Bye.