Latest / GEL & Tell / Ep 22 - Have we optimised ourselves into boring people?
Transcript
- G: Welcome back! Nora: Welcome back everyone to Jell and Tell. I believe this is episode twenty two. G: We had an email this week. Did you see where someone said that we have released more episodes on our podcasts than most people ever do? They were trying to sell us something, but that did not matter to me because I felt like we really made it. Nora: Like, we'll take it. G: We got a cold email about our podcast and that was a real moment of we've got podcast. So yeah, quite exciting, but I'm good. Thank you. How are you? Nora: Yeah, really good. Really good. It's been a good week. G: Anything you want to share with the viewers? Nora: no, just I've got an addition to my G: For those that are listening, what are you wearing? Nora: I'm wearing a tiara. Which looks very funny with the headphone. But I don't care. I will I will wear it forever moving forward. No, I'm joking. But yeah, I I had my competition this last weekend, which was quite cool. G: Care to elaborate any further? Nora: yeah, I mean I didn't know what to expect. Came back with first place. So yeah, I'm G: Yeah, you did. Nora: still I'm still processing it. It was it was a very good weekend. Yeah. It was all very special and very emotional and I was very proud of myself and it I felt really good being on that stage and like hearing all of my people like shout from the crowd and it was just all like really, really nice. Yeah. I I can't wait for the next one now. G: that's amazing. I'm so excited for you that you're excited about doing more, but you smashed it. We are all super proud of you. It's very, very, very cool. So congratulations, winner. Nora: Yeah. G: If we didn't think it could become more of your personality trait, she's now got a tiara. Nora: Yeah. Which I have never imagined me wear more blink ever in my life. but yeah it just all came together so nice. Like the whole look I was happy with, the makeup, the hair, the bikini, the confidence I had on stage, which I never thought I would have. yeah, it just all paid off. So I'm feeling very content. Yeah. G: Good. We love to hear it. You deserve it. You work very hard. So well done. Winner. Nora: Thank you. how are you? How did your competition go? G: And yeah, I mean, I can't say I won, but I don't think that that's really the goal. Nora: You did really well. G: I did get some PBs. So I was pretty happy with my lifts. And yeah, it was good. We're booking another one for January. So if anyone wants to buy tickets for Liverpool on the third of October, I've got a mixed doubles Apex ticket for sale that I'm really trying to sell so I can go and watch. Yeah, I am. I don't Nora: We're using this podcast for selling tickets now. G: care. I am because I really want to go watch Nora and her show and it would be really shit if two of my competitions clash with yours. So I am trying to sell my events so I can come and watch you because, yeah, I need to come and see you on stage. And it's just very annoying that all the events clash on the dates. Nora: It's so random that all of your events like are the same days as my competitions. G: I know, it's Very annoying actually. Nora: But I guess it's like comp season now in all of the sports. So G: Yeah. Nora: it is also not that much of a surprise. 'Cause I think across Hyrocks as well and Athens, like all of the competitions are the major ones are now, isn't it? Like London's coming up as again in December, November. G: Yeah, so doing high rocks in December. It's more just like that. I guess they're just the weekends in the season. So they're just going to clash and because you have quite Nora: Yeah. G: a few shows in the season, like the Nora: Yeah. G: Saturdays that they fall on, I had three events booked and all three of the events for the same days as your shows. So I'm really Nora: Yeah. G: trying to sell a ticket because I would love to come and watch you because it felt really sad to be watching on my phone. But yeah, mine. Yeah, true, true, true. Nora: At least they did a live stream now. There was no sound though, which was I bet a bit annoying. G: I know, so I was guessing I was commentating in the back of the car and crying when you were winning. But it was very fun to watch. And you did amazing. Nora: There is a full documentary coming out as well. We're just waiting back from our videographer. So you'll be Yeah. Yeah. That will be so cool. G: Jesus Christ! Full documentary, that's so fun. Nora: Yeah. It was just such a special thing to document. so yeah, that's G: Are you going to document every show or just that one? Nora: Every show, yeah. G: he coming to? Cyprus as well. yeah, Nora: Cyprus, we've got Maurice filming. G: of course. Nora: And then yeah, we've got a videographer booked for the other ones as well. It's just G: Nice. Nora: such a cool thing to do together as well with Geo. So, like, we just wanna to like look back at it from years from now and just be like, you know, we did that. I think that's super special. Yeah. Let's do that. Yeah. G: Love it. Should we get into the episode? Okay, cool. So the title of today's episode is, have we optimized ourselves into boring people? So this is all about, you know, the modern world that we live in and how we now have everything faster, easier, more convenient and more optimized than ever. And the question we've got is, have we accidentally removed the bits of life that make us human and interesting? because we now have everything at our fingertips. Nora: It is the direction that we're heading into, isn't it though? It's like everyone wants to make things faster, quicker, like easier. Like easier is the most worrying part for me, rather than anything else. Cause then what skills do you develop as a human being? And like what like there's You know, with with taking the the more difficult ways at times you build a lot of skills that come with it, like resilience and like discipline and just becoming a tougher human, I would say as well, in general and being able to manage situations that come your way. G: Yeah, 100%. I think you can buy skinny now because you can just jab it in your leg. You can get information immediately because we've got AI. can literally do everything for you can even control your computer and do your work for you. You've got Google Maps. So you never get lost when you're driving anywhere. You never have to use a map yourself. You'd literally getting directed everywhere you go. What else have we got Nora? What else can we use as examples of things where we've just like optimized to the next level? Nora: Things like even small things like, you know, you need something from a supermarket, you can deliver it within two hours nowadays from like Amazon groceries or something. It's like it G: Yeah. yeah. Yeah. Nora: Whereas you could walk ten minutes down the road and get what you need from the shop. Yeah. G: Yeah, but you don't have to do you? mean, it's like yesterday, we were on a content shoot and we fancied a coffee. So rather than going and buying a coffee, we ordered coffee to be dropped off to us. Nora: We ordered one. Yeah. G: I mean, it was more efficient. But like, did that take them the joy of going and being in the coffee shop, speaking to the barista, smelling the coffee, choosing off the menu, walking back, like it would have taken us we were on a very, you know, time schedule. Nora: Yeah. We did also batch create about thirty two pieces of content within three hours. So did we really need to spend that time to go and get coffee? That was a flex, wasn't it? That was like it's fine. We did. G: Yeah, that was such a bad thing. But we did. We did. Yeah, we did that. But it is the point of like, you know, all these, we've got all these tools. Nora: We're busy CEOs who cannot afford to go around and get a coffee. G: We just didn't have the time. we do, if you think about all the things around us and everything that we use all the time, know, you've got like social media algorithms will literally tell Nora: Yeah. G: you what to watch because of what you're clicking on, what you're watching, what you're interested in. You've got smart watches, which tell you when you need to sleep or recover more. You've got phones, which we use to prevent boredom because we'll just be like, I'm feeling a bit bored. I'm just going to scroll. Like we have so much stuff that when we grew up, we didn't have. Nora: Yeah. Yeah. G: And that we both use all of these things as well. So it's not us saying we're like anti-convenience. It's the question is, at what point does making life easier make it less interesting? Nora: Hmm. I think you get to a point as well where like with all these efficiencies you crave slowing down. G: Mm. Nora: Like the ideal holiday for me would be in the middle of nowhere, by the sea, calm, no people around, you know, because because of how much efficiencies we have around us nowadays, is like It's always so busy and like everything happens so fast and we optimise all the time for us to be faster, like more efficient, more productive, more and more, more. You almost crave that, like G: stillness. Nora: yeah. G: But then do you not think the perfect thing would just be without a phone and just completely like without access? Nora: But then we rely on our phones so much for that efficiency. G: But then because I'd rather be surrounded by loads of people and not have a phone than be Nora: Mm. G: surrounded by no one and have a phone. Nora: Don't need the phone in any case. G: I think I've got a real love hate relationship with my phone. I Nora: Mm. G: get so frustrated by how I'm like addicted to it. I know I am. I have to put it in a different room if we're watching a film because otherwise I'll start checking it for no good reason. Nora: Yeah. G: Something in my brain just needs to like go and look at it just to make sure there's nothing there, nothing burning. No one needs something. I do that every morning, my alarm. Yeah. Nora: Or like checking the phone first thing in the morning when you get up. It's so unhealthy as well, 'cause like your stress levels like rapidly increase. G: Like, why do we do it? It's because my alarms on my phone. So my alarms on my phone, I turn off my alarm. First thing I do, check my messages. Nora: Yeah. G: Like, so bad, so bad. Nora: It is. G: What things do you find? So like just flipping it so we can acknowledge that like there's all this stuff that makes life easier, more convenient, reduces the amount of effort, makes things a lot more faster, which there's good things to right? Because we're saving time. But if you think back to like how life was when you were growing up, Nora: Yeah. G: Just like before we had so much technology, I think that's the key thing here. So no AI, no like smartphones. What things do you now find like a bit unbearable that used to be normal? So if you think about things that like we take for granted now, and when they're not working or when you don't have access to them, do you find like irksome and unbearable that maybe when you were younger or in the olden days were just normal? Can you think of any examples? Nora: One thing now is like, you know, is the silliest thing, but like, you know, when you order something, a delivery, whether that like that's new clothes or shoes or whatever that might be, back in the day, like especially in Cyprus, growing up in Cyprus, like, you know, it is an island. So like getting something delivered would have taken like a month, two months and you G: Wow. Nora: would be fine with that delivery time. Now, obviously living in the UK as well, you've got everything To your doorstep within a day, like Amazon Prime like can deliver anything you want within the same day at times in London, to latest the next day. And like if it you know, when like the delivery person comes and then they miss you and they they don't deliver the parcel, that frustration of like, I need to wait another day, whereas years ago, living in Cyprus, I'd be like, yeah, my parcel will arrive in like three weeks and like just living my life, G: Bye. Nora: not not worrying, like being okay with having to wait. it it's turning us into impatient people, like this convenience thing. And I don't think it's a very good trait, to be honest. G: No, do you want to know what mine is? And I know you have the same one. Nora: What G: When the Wi Fi doesn't work on the train. I Nora: it's such a waste of time. G: know well, I can't be efficient on the train because I can't get on the internet. And then my hotspots not working. So I've got no signal. And I'm just sat there and I've got no access to the internet. And I'm like, this is so unacceptable. Whereas in the olden days, Nora: Yeah. G: you'd have gotten a train without expecting we wouldn't have had a smartphone. I say old things. mean, Nora: Yeah, but like I think for us it's c 'cause we travel during the workday, right? To like go to quantum shoots and come back and so on. Like you feel like it's such a waste of time. Whereas like you wanna go home and like relax and like switch off and be with your partner and spend quality time with them and not have to think about, I've been so unproductive today 'cause I spent three hours on the train doing absolutely nothing because the Wi Fi wasn't working. it's so annoying coming back home and having that on your mind because the amount of time we both like felt defeated by the train Wi Fi is ridiculous over the last But that links to another thing that annoys me. AI chatbots nowadays, when you're trying to get to customer support and like literally whenever I see one now and I detect that it's AI and it's not a c like customer. G: Speak to human. Nora: I literally type, I want to speak to a human, please. Like don't even go into discussing what I want to speak about. I'm like, it's just we've removed all like human contact nowadays from like any services that requ like, you know, not like obviously consulting and those services, but like any customer support services. Ever everything, every website has an AI chatbot now. It's so G: Hmm, yeah. Nora: annoying. G: That really bad as well. Like I've never had a really good experience with on to be honest. Nora: Yeah. G: So Do you think because of all of these things that we have available to us and because of all this, you know, the way that the world is now, do you know what it's like to be bored? Nora: Think. G: Or do you think you've possibly forgotten how to be bored? Nora: Possibly, yeah. I think we try to fill our days with so much. G: To be optimised. Because you time blocked. Fuck. Nora: Yeah. That yeah, I time block everything. When I'm eating, when I'm going to the gym not to that extent. G: I'm shitting. Morning poo. Nora: I think that is probably the only thing that I do not time block. it's also so like G: Thank you. Nora: frequent nowadays is how much water I'm like drinking that how you cannot die time block going But G: If you think about like boredom as like you would have known it as a kid and like you would have maybe like gone out and played with friends or like done loads of different activities and things like that. Nora: Yeah. G: For us now it's like you know you're on a walk maybe you're listening to a podcast you're you know scrolling looking for something if there's a pause there's adverts on the tv you pick up your phone you're stood in a queue you get on your phone Nora: Mm. G: you're watching probably TikToks whilst watching TV at the same time, you're not giving your brain as much space to like wander. Nora: Yeah. I have tried to actively slow down a bit in terms of like my day to day. So like for example, going to grab a coffee whilst I'm working or like going to like fill up fill up my water bottle and stuff. Like in the past I would like rush and like come back quickly, even though I'm working at home on my own company. Like, you know, like somehow like because of how optimized everything is in our lives, like I would stress myself out. I need to be back on my desk urgently. You are like that as well. You're like, yeah, rushing. Even though we we G: I know, I brush all the time. Nora: this is our business. Like we can do what we want at the end of the day. But both of us are like so I've actively been like, Okay, it's not like I would go and spend time doing other things, but I wouldn't like there were times I would literally run to the kitchen, make a coffee, come by and Nora, what are you doing? G: But it's a race, but I find myself doing that not even in a work capacity. But I am always in a rush to get ready to go somewhere. And the reason Nora: Yeah. G: I'm rushing is because I leave it to the last minute. So I'm always on the nose arriving somewhere. I'm never really early and I'm never really late. But Nora: Yeah. G: the reason is because I've calculated and optimized exactly how much time I need and exactly what time I need to get ready, but only if I'm rushing. So like Nora: Yeah. G: I wouldn't like casually get ready for an hour before going somewhere. I would decide, Nora: Mm. G: okay, I need 15 minutes to get ready and I'm leaving at this time. So exactly 15 minutes before the time I need to leave and then getting ready, which means I'm then rushing because I'm so optimized. But like that makes no sense. It's Nora: Yeah. Yeah. G: so weird, but I do feel like I only do things if I'm in a rush. Nora: You don't have a lot of patience as a person in general. I G: Do think that's maybe why it is? Nora: think so. Like an example, we were in Greece. I was straightening your hair. Like I wanted to do a really good job. And I know that if I straighten your hair and it's very like glowy and nice and like you would love it. And honestly, guys, like she would turn every five minutes. Are we done? Like, Dora, are we d G: It was lovely. I just really struggle sitting still for so long. Nora: I know no, no, you were just the f you always rush. You d just always wanna do the next thing and I'm like, just chill. I I feel like I'm more chill than you are at certain things. Sometimes it annoys you. G: but then you're also very not chill in a lot of other things. Nora: Ignore their things. Yeah. G: I just can't handle like being too slow. I get so frustrated. Yeah, I just don't like Nora: You get frustrated, yeah. And at times you take that frustration and be Yeah. Hm. G: Sorry. I find that at the gym as well. Like I don't like, if I'm training, I am training. Like. Nora: Yeah, but like what's gonna happen, G, if you take a bit of a like, take a minute. What what's the worst Okay, let yourself G: Bored. Bored. Nora: be bored. G: But then I'm pacing up and down. Nora: But you need like but your nervous system needs to calm down at times during the day, you know? G: That's what marijuana is for. Nora: my god, you did not put that in the colour cats. G: we can. Okay, right. Nora: No, and cut. No really. G: okay, so talking about algorithms, I think this is an interesting one, because it's almost like when you think about like social media and how you engage with stuff, and we obviously see things a lot on socials Nora: Yeah. G: that you're engaging with. Because of the way the algorithm is built, and it's showing that you certain things, it's almost optimizing what you see based on your behaviors and what you're interested in. So because of that, Do you think that it's making us more predictable, less interesting, because we're less likely to discover random stuff? Like how often do you go out of your way to search something totally outside of the stuff that you normally look at? Nora: Right now, not very often. G: Hmm. Nora: But I think it's just because of where I am in life. And like obviously I'm prepping, that takes a lot of my time. We're very busy in the business. I think like if I was at a different stage in life, possibly. G: But then would your algorithm not adapt to the stage you're at? So say you had kids, you'd Nora: Possibly. G: get loads of like mom related content. Nora: Get a lot of dog content and I'm I'm not a dog owner. I love them. G: But you like dogs. Yeah. So this is a thing, right? I feel like we get shown the things that we already like, we already Nora: We won't, yeah. G: see. So then we're more likely to have similar opinions to what the algorithm wants us to have. And like only see that stuff because we're not pushing ourselves to find and discover Nora: Yeah. G: new things, which is a bit scary really. Nora: It is. Yeah, 'cause you're not exposed to. G: other stuff. Nora: Yeah. But then the other stuff is there should you want to be exposed to it. That's the thing, right? Like 'cause like you you could argue the same thing like years ago. You would never have access to all this stuff to be exposed to it should you want to. G: No, you wouldn't. But it's more of a case of we've just got so used to just scrolling and Nora: Yeah. G: like our algorithms optimized to us. So then you just kind of end up in the same thing. And Nora: Yeah. G: you don't necessarily like go and find whereas you might have in the olden days, I call it the olden days, so rude, gone to like the library and found a book on something different or like gone and done something different to find other interests. But we kind of just see what's in front of us because of what we look at. It's just a weird one. that's really quite profound. If everything you consume is based on who you already are, how do you discover who you could become? Nora: Okay, so when it comes to like optimizing everything and becoming more efficient, I think potentially the risk of that is that self-development falls to the side. So, like, G: Mm-hmm. Nora: for example, something that I've noticed with me personally and is something I want to get back to because it actually does make me a bit sad that I've stopped doing it, is I used to read a lot of self-development books like all the time, and I would listen to a podcast once a day at least, when I would be doing my walk. I've not done that in two years, possibly. G: Mm-hmm. Nora: I would l like, I loved self development books. Like like understanding the brain, like challenging my thoughts on things, like And I find the busier I get, the more that falls to the side. It's not a priority anymore. And is that like restricting me from like having new opinions and like new things that I wanna develop as a person on. G: Mm. Nora: I do think that's possibly the case. So like I do think efficiencies do restrict you from having new opportunities to like explore other areas in life and like yeah, just become someone else as well. Like or develop who you are. G: Thing is that with I mean, I know you like self development books a lot, whereas I've read quite a lot. And I just don't, I just feel like you're what you live and what you do and the effort that you put into difficult stuff, like building a business, getting on stage, like going through prep, like that took tour and teaches you so much more about yourself and how to grow and self development than any book could ever teach you. And Nora: Yeah. G: you're developing so many interesting like mindset things and perspectives based on your lived experience that don't believe a book could give you. i think that books can give you that if you're not pushing yourself into new things but like the effort and the difficulty that you're putting yourself through is Nora: Yeah. G: the best self-development lesson you could ever have. Nora: Hundred percent. I don't think though because you leave an experience you necessarily become very self aware of it. So like books give you that clarity and the understanding of how your brain worked at going through a specific G: Hmm. Nora: time or like, you know, get you to understand like how to manage emotions or like, you know, just I think self-development put books for me gave me perspective on situations. I G: a different perspective. Nora: do think, you know, this prep has really developed me as a person, for sure. I'd be interested to see like five years from now what I think about me prepping. maybe my opinions will change. Maybe maybe I'd be a completely different person tonight, I don't know. But definitely giving me a lot of G: Hmm. Nora: yeah So I think you're right. G: So I think that effort and difficulty do make life better because then things feel more fulfilling and meaningful. Nora: Yeah. G: Whereas when things are so optimized and convenient and just handed to you and like all the information is just there or like, or you can just click your fingers and it's done or you can just stab yourself skinny. Like Nora: Yeah. G: when you get skinny or you get smart or you do whatever, it's just like, how meaningful is that? Like you didn't put yourself through Nora: Yeah. G: any hardship or difficulty to get there. So it doesn't feel very valuable. Nora: Yeah. G: And I think about all the best things you've ever done or achieved. Nora: Mm. G: Like you probably did have to go through some hardship and difficulty to achieve them. Nora: Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean it the feeling that you get when you actually achieve them is so much more worth it. Like I G: Bye. Nora: was on that stage and they called my name and I gee, I could not believe it. Like I looked down at my number because they set my number and I didn't clock that it was me. and I looked down and was like, What is happening? You know? and that to me, like that's why I'm saying I'm still processing it, 'cause like when you go through the motions day by day. For seven months almost now that I've been prepping. It's quite a long time. to then finally all of it like pay off. Cause I didn't know, did I expect to come first on my first show? Absolutely not. Like I was telling you, like a few weeks later we had a conversation. I was like, I'm scared, you know? I'm scared. What if I can't do it? What if what if I can't actually step on stage? I was terrified. G: Yeah. And now you're buzzing for the next one because you're a champion. Nora: Yeah, because like that feeling that I got being on stage and knowing that I've overcome that like self-doubt, because it wasn't the training, it wasn't in the nutrition. I'm good at that. Like I am I've gone through that before. But it's quite a big thing to overcome confidence wise as well. being in your bikini, being judged on your appearance like physique, essentially. next to other women, in an audience of hundreds of people. So the feeling that I got, that self-fulfillment, I cannot explain it. Like whenever I think about it, I I feel a lot of pride. because G: You should. Nora: like it's just like it's just so much more fulfilling. And going back to the show day, one thing that I loved about what I did. I did not have my phone with me. I I got my brother to text you when I was going on stage because from the start of the day I just wanted to be fully present and just absorb the whole thing. whereas I could easily be on my phone, be on socials, like try and distract myself and I just like let it all yeah, be and it was so beautiful. so yeah, you are right. Anything that you achieve, you do go through hard things and the feeling is so much better when you do achieve them because you've taken the hardest option. G: Yeah, exactly. Even though we may have got used to like convenience and instant gratification and everything being super optimized, that human fulfillment and pride that you get from something that you've worked hard for like cannot be beaten by an algorithm or AI or tech for sure. Nora: Yeah. G: So what's your takeaway of the week? Nora: mm Even when it feels uncertain, keep doing the work. 'Cause you don't necessarily see the return now. You will see it in a month, two months, three months time when it G: Nice. Nora: starts when that consistency starts adding up. G: Boom, love that. Nora: Yeah. How about you? G: being yourself and being human in content, in business, in decision-making is always gonna benefit you more in the long run than like taking shortcuts or using AI. So like AI slop content is just falling flat on its face and humans are back on the rise. So Nora: Yeah. G: don't doubt yourself, be you and you're gonna get much more from it in your business and in your socials. Nora: Love it. G: And that might be harder, but that's okay. Cool, well, this has been a lovely quick yet. Nora: Amazing. G: Great to see you. If you enjoyed this, make sure you drop as a follow for more content like this and give us a five star review. And we'll see you next time for more gel and tail. Nora: Woo, see you next time guys. Bye. G: Bye!