#19. 9 Psychological Questions
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What's up everyone? Welcome back to The Honest Drink. I'm Justin. So today, Howie, Eric, and I, we decided to kind of mess around a little bit. We got a little bit silly. And what we did is we went online and looked for psychological questions, these psychology tests. And we found one on brightside.me and the title is Nine Psychological Questions That Will Help You Read Anyone.

And what these tests are, are basically just a series of questions that you answer. And depending on your response, supposedly they're supposed to give you some insight into one's psychological state.

There are a bunch of these online ranging from kind of more relationship oriented questions to how to figure out if someone is a sociopath, you know, things like that. So they're really fun to do with friends. And what we did today was we answered these questions on the podcast from this one article. And some of them were fun. Some of them were insightful, but some of them were just felt kind of dumb and

So they weren't all that great, but we tried to make the most of it and we had a fun time doing it. So without further ado, episode 19, here we go. Hey.

So I have the original New York Times article. Yeah, right. So it went viral.

when it first got published on the New York Times. We can do that one. There are other ones that we can do, actually, that I thought were pretty interesting. Let me see. How do I look this up? But what we're talking about is psychology. Psychology questions, right? Yeah.

And there's one that went very viral several years ago called 36 questions. Shout out to Ling at Golden Gloves because he was the one that actually came up with this idea and told me about it. He's like, you guys should do this on your podcast.

So, but this is 36 questions to fall in love with the other person. Yes. So does that mean a love thing? Does that mean that if we do this, we may fall in love with each other? I hope not. I thought you loved me, Howie. It leads to intimacy. Yeah, because every article I see, it's all about like love, like between like, you know, a couple, right? So I don't know how this really applies to three heterosexual males, right?

in terms of friendship. I mean, I guess intimacy can also apply in that respect. I mean, some of the questions are just interesting to begin with. - Are they broad? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Okay, then I think it should be fine. - I mean, they're just interesting questions anyway. - Sure, we had our moments. - I don't think we're gonna get through all 36, so maybe we can-- - But there's another one, and this one's from Brightside, brightside.com. It's nine psychological questions that will help you read anyone.

And there are also kind of fun, interesting questions as well. Sure, let's do that then. I feel like 36 is a little daunting and it's a little... Well, they split it up in three sections. You don't have to go through all of them. I was just thinking we can kind of cherry pick the interesting questions and just go off of that. Let's try it. The article also says that it's best that you, when answering the questions, you look into your partner's eyes as you're answering the questions and asking the questions. But I'm not going to look into your eyes.

I would look in the middle of you two because you're one on my right and you're one on my left. That's how I answer. Basically, I'll be looking at the camera. Okay, let's do this one from, let's do the 36 questions next time on another episode, right? Because I think that one, we need to kind of figure out how we want to break up the 36 questions because that'll probably go over an hour. But here on Brightside website, brightside, not brightside.com, brightside.me website.

Okay, nine psychological questions that will help you read anyone. So I'm reading this website right now, and they have nine questions that are pretty interesting. So let's do that. Let's rock it. All right. How did you find this one? I just did a Google search on psychology questions, and this one came up. Yeah, Justin Googles psychology questions pretty much every day. He wants to learn more about himself. Cool. Okay. Okay.

Okay, wait, let's get to this whiskey first. Let's open that up. Jura or hurrah? All right. So cheers, guys. Cheers. Wow. I like it. I like it. That is very nice. I like it. Hey, that is actually really nice. A little bit, like a very slight peaty. It does have a peaty note, but like for me, it's bearable. It's got the slight hint of apple. It's got a little cider. A little cider-ish. Maybe a little cider. I don't know. Let's see how it develops over time. Okay.

All right, so let's get started. Without further ado, nine psychological questions on brightside.me if you guys want to take a look. So the first question. To who? To Eric. Okay, Eric, you go first. So we'll just go clockwise. Sure. You go second. And then we'll switch. We'll keep switching up. Is there any kind of parameter around the response? Do I need to keep it within X number of words? No, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. No limits. Okay, first question.

Would you open an envelope that has the date of your death inside? Wow. Yeah. No. The reason I would say no is that I wouldn't want to plan the rest of my life based on just that piece of information. Okay. Why? I think that it would be sort of like a singularity, right? It would be that one piece of information that disrupted everything, and I wouldn't want to...

you know, reconstruct sort of everything in my life for that one piece of information.

So basically, why would you say that? No, not why would you say that? But what if the date inside the envelope was like six months from now, for example, right? Wouldn't you want to know that so you can be that, use that as a disruptor to kind of recalibrate, reprioritize everything you're going to do in the next six months? I'd rather live in the moment. And it is a good suggestion or a good sort of insight, but

Maybe what we should always be doing is living our life as if we did have six months. I wouldn't want to know that I had six months, but I could probably do a better job of making the most of the time. But let's say that I knew that I die when I was like 90 or something like that. I just don't want to know that date. I don't want to operate based on a definitive time frame. I want to live in the moment. Yeah.

I completely understand that. I'm just coming from the thought that I think living in the moment is easier said than done, right? Like we all say that. We all know that intellectually we need to live in the moment, right? We always try to remind ourselves to.

But I think it takes maybe something as powerful and significant as knowing what day you're going to die to actually put it into action and execute on living in the moment. I think we all, everyone goes around saying, you know, live in a moment, live in a moment. But I think hardly any of us really do, at least on any consistent level. And maybe it does take a catalyst, like knowing when you're going to die, to really push it into action.

make it become reality and actually live in the moment right maybe you know that that's that's the argument at the moment i don't want that manufactured moment that's my response fair enough okay what about you howie um my initial risk like immediate response was no i don't want to know either

Yeah, I just don't want... Like, for example, if it was a six-month kind of thing, then my immediate reaction probably for a week or two was probably going to be like, what the fuck? And that's just a waste of time. I don't know. I think you do make a point where depending on how long it is that death day, you may be able to realign the way you live and reprioritize. And going back to what Eric says...

well, you should be living as if you only had six months anyway. But I just feel like it's always easier said than done. And it's just like whenever anybody reads or hears or learns anything that

I don't know, betters their life, whether it's forming better habits or being nicer to people or be more thankful or et cetera, et cetera. That's only, I think that's only viable during a small set of time. And if you don't keep reminding yourself, it's just going to disintegrate anyway because, you know, day-to-day life gets in the way. So I don't know. I don't think you can really live for six months.

you know, technically, like in general, I think, I don't know, but I guess going, going back again, no, I probably wouldn't want to open it. Okay. Fair enough. So I would, I would want to know if there was an envelope, someone, I mean, I'm not going to go out of my way to try to find what they, but if someone handed me an envelope and it had date of my death, I'd open it. I don't know, because I think for me,

I would need that push. You know what I mean? I would need, I would almost welcome it. You know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be like, oh my God, what the fuck? Unless that date was like tomorrow, I'm going to die. Then I'll be like, yeah, what the fuck? Right. I'll be freaking out. But if it was something like, let's say it gave me 20 years to live, I would, I think I would use that information to better my life, to better my decisions and to push into overdrive, uh,

a lot of things that maybe I would have just put off or not even done. And it would give me a new outlook on the way I live my life that I think I would appreciate. I think that would, that would change my life very significantly and, and give me the best chance to live without regret. Yeah. Yeah. So I would use it. I would use it as a tool. Sure. I mean that. Yeah, I can see that. Okay. So that's two versus one.

You guys both don't want to know. I would. Let's move on to the next question. And how will you answer this one first? All right. Would you be friends with yourself? Hell yeah, I would. I would be friends with myself. So talk about yourself as a stranger or not a stranger, as just a third person. I mean, I would be friends with myself. I would think that if I was friends with Howie, I mean, I know that he would probably, he's not very...

proactive and in hanging out and stuff like that or making conversation but once that happens he's a fun guy to be around and he's pretty open-minded and yeah I just I think he's a he's a good guy to be around for me yeah I'd be friends with myself for sure why would you be friends with yourself

You know, I don't take anything too overly serious. I feel like I'm easy to get along with if you know me. You know, at first, I'm kind of an introvert. Well, I'm very much an introvert, but I can, at a flip of a switch, I can become an extrovert. But it's draining for me to be an extrovert. Is it a flip of a switch or a flip of a cup?

Flip that. That's a good one. That's a good one. Wow. Strong, strong. Yes. At a flip of a cup, I can be an extrovert. Oh yeah. But I don't know. I just feel like I can get along with almost anyone, no matter what kind of personality type you are. You can be like very outgoing, very forward. And I can handle that. Or it can be like very quiet, very passive. And I appreciate that too. Like I don't, I think one of my biggest, maybe if I were to think of myself in a third person sense, I,

that I would find good in a friend would be, I'm very non-judgmental. Well, at least I try to be. I try not to judge. I judge myself, but I don't care or bother to judge, go around judging other people. I don't find any utility in that when there are so many things within myself that need to be worked on.

I just don't pass judgment and I take you for what you are, you know? So that's always something I always try to do. I think I've always done naturally growing up. So I think that would be one of the biggest attractions for me in terms of being a friend of myself. Sounds like you really want to be friends with yourself. Yeah.

Actually, I really do because in many ways I hate myself. So I would love to actually be able to be my own best friend. Because he wouldn't have to talk to himself because they're both introverts. You just sit next to each other and just sit there. How about you, Eric? I'm not as certain in my answer on that one. I would be friends with myself. You have to think that you would be friends or you would...

someone like yourself. How much would I like to hang out with myself? I don't know. It's a tough one. It's a good question. It's a good question. I know that you guys have commented on, you know, a lot of the similarities between me and my mom. And I, you know, of course I would be friends with her. I don't know how much if I could hang out with her every day though. She's pretty intense.

So, it's a good question. It's a good question. That is interesting, right? Because from your perspective, I mean, maybe you would clash with yourself. I think so. Not to change the topic on this one, but the way that you guys just described yourself is probably the reason why I enjoy being friends with you guys. That you have characteristics that...

are different than what i have so i probably am a little bit more judgmental or a lot more judgmental than both of you guys you know so it would be interesting to see if i could deal with myself

Well, let's talk about judgmental because I'm not going along the line of not being judgmental. I'm not judgmental that you're judgmental. You know what I'm saying? But like, what is the, for you, what would be the, do you find yourself being judgmental by choice?

or is that something you just can't help or like innate yeah or or is it a choice do you find maybe a utility in that maybe you find it as a tool like you you it guides you and who you should spend more time with or who you shouldn't be i don't know like like what do you find it useful for you is it a choice thing or is it just something innate it's a little bit of all of that probably um

A lot of it's unconscious. So I'd have to really think about whether there was utility. All those were really good questions. Some of it comes from just having standards around things. And that's just innate. I mean, that's something that probably picked up from my family growing up. But I do have...

this notion of standards around a lot of things. And I think that subconsciously kind of gets me worked up sometimes when I see something in a certain way that, you know, isn't consistent with what I like it to be. So I suppose it's good to have standards, but I suppose you also want to be able to

suspend, you know, your personal judgment in certain instances as well. Well, that's the question, right? Are they one in the same? Is having standards the same thing as being judgmental? Is that, and there's overlap there for sure, but is it the same? It's not the same. You're right. I don't think it's the same. But when I break down like

It's different. It's like different layers of things, right? What can being judgmental isn't necessarily a negative thing, but if being judgmental causes you to be emotional and causes you to act, speak or engage with others in a negative way, then it can be negative. Then you think about, well, what's the root cause of being judgmental? Okay. Well, someone else is different than you or someone else's standards are different in a certain area, right?

So, you know, it's, it's, it's, uh, there's, there's a bit to it. Yeah. I think standards is just like a measuring, measuring stick in a way. Right. And then the next step after that is judgmental. Right. Okay. Do you meet that measuring stick or you do not? And then how do you feel about that? That's where the judgmental comes in. Yeah. Okay. That's a deep question.

I like, okay, let's move on to the next. Yeah, that is a deep question, but let's, let's move on next question. I really like this one. Let me read this for you so you can just react to it, even though I don't even have an answer yet. Okay. Ready? Justin, if you could see a measuring scale above people's heads, what would you want the scale to measure their status in society, their level of happiness, their wealth, et cetera. So basically the question is, if,

if we can like almost live like in a, in a video game where there's a mirror. Yeah, exactly. Right. There's, um, a measuring scale above everyone's head. What would I want it to measure about that person? Um, God, man, that's a, that's a good question, right? What would I want it to measure about that person? Botanical factor. Looking at you. Maybe, I don't know, off the top of my head, maybe, um, something in terms of, um,

a trustworthiness kind of credit score, not a credit score in terms of the traditional credit score, but a credit in terms of like your overall, like how trustworthy have you been throughout your life? You know, have you been, have you been, have you lied? Have you cheated? If you, if you cheated and you lied before the damages that score, right. But if you always stayed true to your word and came through on your promises and, and,

you know your handshake agreements or whatever right then that boosts your score so maybe something where it measures like how trustworthy is this person kind of credit you know socially i don't know i think that would be i think that'd be really helpful but that's kind of i don't know that's kind of like that's kind of ridiculous though right why why is that ridiculous

Actually, it's not because if there was that score, it would push everyone to try to be more trustworthy because you wouldn't be able to get away with anything. Right. So maybe as a society, as a whole, everyone just would be more honest and not fuck each other over.

Maybe. Unless it's like the score just kind of happens overnight and all of a sudden you did not realize your whole life has been being calculated. Yeah. Yeah. That could be a good TV show right there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All of a sudden you wake up with a score above your head. Yeah. You don't even know what the score means. So you got to pay for all the shit you've done in your past. You know what I mean? All comes back. Gotta write that script. That was a good one. What do you think?

I had to think about this one a little bit. But back to the trustworthiness, you know, it seems like there have been societies that have tried to assess people's maybe faith or loyalty in that particular society. And that's kind of gone the wrong direction as well, you know.

Yeah, because it can be used as a weapon. Yeah, or what if you... Because you know that with every score, it's hard to create a score that precisely measures the behavior that you want to see. Because once people recognize there's that type of score, then they try to game it. Some people will actually intrinsically or innately try to be more trustworthy. And then some people will figure out a way to manipulate the score. Yeah.

And of course this is all just a thought experiment, right? But yeah,

typically in like reality um things aren't ideal there's always some way to manipulate things you know i'm saying like even in a company or whatever right like you don't have a score per se but it's like the word of mouth of this person but then people do things to manipulate that score so in a way it's kind of a good metaphor for what actually happens on a day-to-day basis and if you were to say okay is there a perfect system then that's kind of unrealistic so it's

less interesting to talk about that perfect scenario where there really would be a system that was perfect. Then it's ideal and then people just behave in a certain way. If I were to think about some type of measure, I don't have a specific one in mind, but I had the thought of what if the measure was more relevant to that person's need for

So like rather than looking at it externally, sorry. Like what if we could see that that person's their level of suffering and their

Not to use it in a negative way, but let's say I could see a person's emotional suffering, then we could use it as a way to maybe help people. Help people. That's really interesting, actually. It's more of a thought. I don't know if that's ultimately what I would want to see, but it was something that kind of popped up on the benevolent side of me. Yeah. The non-judgmental side. That's a really interesting one. That's a really interesting one. Yeah. Yeah.

Like almost like a depression factor kind of thing? No, not like suffering. Just like a general suffering, right? So they can be suffering emotionally, mentally, physically in many ways. And it's just an overall scale in terms of like a degree of their suffering. It also sounds like a pretty private thing, right? Like if I'm suffering, I don't want people to know. You don't think people's like credit score is this private thing too? I know, I'm just saying.

But I don't know, like, but to Eric's point, I mean, if you're suffering a great deal, yes, that is a very private thing, but I think most people would want help. And, but see, then we're just assuming that people are going to help you, right? We're assuming that we're living in a society where people are just going to be helping people who are, see their suffering, right? And that's a big assumption. That's really a big assumption. Yeah. It, part of this thought, thought exercise is,

to what your objective is. So it's not so much the measure that you're looking for. It's kind of like, what's your objective? What's your goal? What's your purpose? And then that drives what you're looking for. Yeah. And also like we were, I think I know I am, but I think we also fall into this trap because we're on a podcast and we're falling into this trap of like, okay, so what's, what's the best answer I can give for the betterment of like, let's say society, something, a really noble goal.

cause like that, right? But when it comes down to it and the privacy of ourselves, if we were to really like, what would we really want to know? It might not be something that, it could be for a selfish reason, right? It could be something that we would find like amusing or fun or whatever it is, right? So it's very easy for us to kind of go

the more diplomatic route and be like, okay, well, it's something that will better all society. - Are you saying that I'm trying to be diplomatic? - No, no, no, no, but I'm saying like I might be, right? I might be, I don't know. Maybe the trustworthiness thing is maybe I really believe it, but maybe at the end of the day, will I really choose that? I don't know. - Well, the other one would be,

Because we're not actually choosing, right? I wouldn't want to choose. I don't actually want this. I'm just answering the question as a hypothetical question to talk through the different scenarios. I don't want to see someone stumping above their heads. I'm not interested at all. Just like the, I don't want to know when I'm going to die or whatever, this and that. But what if it was like how much that person liked you? Yeah.

You can see like, so you're looking at like, I'm looking at Justin and it's like a one out of 10. I'm like, fuck you motherfucker. All this time you've been just fucking faking it. How awkward would that make all these conversations? You're just having like a one-on-one conversation with a guy that clearly doesn't like you. Or, okay, let's say that you couldn't see what they felt about you because that would be kind of,

you know, you'd feel your feelings would get hurt, but you could find any two people and you could see their rating for each other. Ooh, that would be an awesome one. So I could see like how Howie feels about you and how you feel about Howie and if it matches or not.

That would be fucking interesting. I think that's more going along with what you're saying, Justin, about, well, let's not be noble about this. What do we really want to see? More fun stuff. Less consequence on society, more about the personal...

What does your boss really think about you? And of course, there would be one that would be interesting. Were we single? Of course, we're not. We're all in very committed relationships. Just shout out to the women. But for those who would be single, I could imagine, not myself, of course, but others, you could see what others of the opposite sex thought of your particular looks, for instance. You could see.

Yeah. Something like that. Or like how good you were in bed. You know, like you have like a rating. Yeah. Like how good is this person in bed? You know what I mean? Yeah. Or how good they think that you would be in bed, hypothetically. Like how good they think you would, not even actually how good you really are. Right. Because you haven't, you know, obviously we don't have that much experience either. Okay. Let's move on. What about you, Hal? You didn't answer the question, did you? No, not outright, I guess.

Well, okay, I guess, though, the first initial reaction after hearing that question, without diving down to think about why I thought that, but it just popped in my head, was kindness. And I don't know why I thought that, but, like, I just wanted to know, like, you know, I guess I get frustrated a lot day to day. Sometimes you just meet some really bitter, shitty people. Mm-hmm.

And but whenever I meet someone really kind or really nice, it makes me feel really good and makes me want to go above and beyond to be kind back. So I guess to me, kindness is pretty important.

I just thought of one kind of linked to what Javi was saying. What if you could see if someone was having a bad day or not? Yeah, no, I was just thinking that. So like it's not a permanent thing. It's always fluctuating, right? Because just like your mood during the day, right? Like your mood during the day is always constantly fluctuating. So is this meter, right? It's not like a constant score. It's

It's a meter, right? And it goes down, it goes up, you know, at any given second, it's fluctuating. And yeah, maybe it's something like, you know, what mood are you in or something like that at that very particular moment. Yeah, because you wouldn't want to sort of profile people because like there's a lot of, there's kind of this determinism

Or whatever you want to call it. If like you knew this was their identity, then you would always just kind of like for the people that, you know, you could blacklist people, right? It just wouldn't be have a positive sort of consequence. What if it was a lie detector? So whatever they said, you could like...

And it would be like the level of truth. Then it would be more powerful than even if someone likes you or not. Because you could just ask them the question. Be like, hey, what do you think about my new film? What do you think about the commercial for the tech company? That would be awesome. Yeah. Kind of a lie detector. There's a bunch of ways we can go with this one. Yeah. Cool. Okay.

All right, let's move on to the next question. What was the next question? Okay. To Eric. Eric, what do you do differently from other people? It's a very vague and general question. My first thought is that I don't know. Like, do I do things differently than other people? I really don't know. To, you know, to make that assumption, you kind of have to have some specific scenario. So I don't know if I do things other than other people. Yeah.

you know i think uh but it's like it's it's hard to under even understand the question like like what does it really mean yeah you know what does that question really mean what is it really trying to get at get at like what do you do differently than other people so the way i took it is that like stuff that i think is normal when other people observe that particular behavior they think it's odd

And there is definitely instances of that. Okay. Where like you might say something and you think it's totally normal. And then people are like, oh, that guy just said something really strange. You know what I'm saying? So that's a good one. I think it's really vague. It is very vague. I don't know. For me, I don't know. But I think I have an answer. But I don't know if this is different. Like that's the thing. Like...

Like what I may think is different, there might be a whole population of people out there that think just like me. Yeah. That I just never met. Right. Or don't meet in my bubble. Right. But something that I haven't really felt from other people as much that is really almost like a daily thing for me is that I'm constantly feeling how trivial everything is on earth.

You know, it's like, it's weird, you know, like every time, like when I was in Greece, right? Cause like the skies are really clear at night and all the stars are out. And every time I look up because I've always had a fascination with like astronomy, cosmology, stuff like that. Right. And so every time I look up into the sky and I see all these stars,

And I'm thinking, fuck, man, each star. And there's so many fucking stars out there, right? And each star has its own planets orbiting them. And the light that's hitting my eyeballs right now are probably, some of them are like probably millions of years old, right? Hundreds of thousands of years old. So I'm looking back in time at these stars, right? Because that's how long it takes for these to like to travel here. And these stars are so fucking far away, but I'm looking at them.

I'm just thinking about how big the fucking universe is. And I can't help but think like how fucking trivial everything is here. And I don't want to think that way. It's not healthy for me because I end up not doing shit because I just feel like, well, what's the fucking point? You know?

Because I just feel like everything's so trivial. Like it's just, okay, I started a business, I do this business. This is all just so fucking fleeting. And in the bigger scheme of things, we are nothing on this earth. And so it hurts me in many ways when I think about that. But I think about that constantly. It's always something in the back of my mind. - So you know what this reminds me of, Justin?

And I was actually going to ask you a question, but you answered it. So this reminds me of the term that Neil Tyson Degrassi uses, like cosmic perspective, I think. He's written a couple of books around it. So it sounds like you view it in a maybe less positive sort of way because it's like, okay, why bother, right? But on the other hand, the cosmic perspective can also inspire you to do things as well, right? Because once you see...

you know like the the scale of everything then a lot of the noise and just the bickering and you know just the day-to-day sort of in trivial things then you can kind of just wash those away and then you can really focus on like you know your family or the things that really really matter no exactly you know so it's like like there's a fine line between nihilism versus um you know i guess uh this recent book i read essentialism you know so interesting but i think i lose sight of that i'm

I actually appreciate your ability to kind of zoom out a little bit because sometimes I just zoom in too much and I get caught up into the details and the nitty gritty. So it's important to be able to kind of zoom back out, zoom in again to see. Because like if you zoom out too far, then you become insignificant and then there's no point. So then you, I guess, have to at some point zoom out to see the bigger picture, then zoom in to see which parts of your life are relevant that you can make better.

you know, changes and make that important. That's a really good point. That's a really good point. Now your mic sounds soft all of a sudden. Really? Okay, now it's good. Okay. What about you, Howie? I don't know what I do differently from other people. I think you do everything differently from our perspective. No. Yeah. I don't think so. I really don't know. I really don't have an answer. Do you have a superpower? I do. Can you talk about it? I read minds.

- Anyway. - Anyway. - This is getting out of control. - I think his super power is making inappropriate comments. - Do we wanna do this next question or should we skip that one? - Skip it. - Yeah, I don't like that one. - If you guys are listening and you're curious enough, you guys can go on the website, brightside.me and you guys can see which question we're skipping.

Let's move on to that. It just shows you our fear of certain people. Well, by skipping it, it almost answers the question. Okay, so do you ever get the feeling that the current day has been repeated a hundred times? Never. Yeah, me neither. I never get that feeling. If anything, I get the feeling that...

this unique day has just gone by and maybe, I mean, some days I take advantage of it. Other days I feel like, fuck, I just wasted it, but I don't feel like it's a repeat. Okay. You Eric? I get the, I get the feeling sometimes that I've repeated myself and some sort of behavior over and over and over. So not, not exactly like the question, but I kind of get the point, you know?

I feel like it's just like Groundhog Day, right? You're doing the same thing and you're not really moving forward. I definitely have that feeling. If you really reflect on your life sometimes and rather than look at the feeling, you objectively evaluated it.

what you did from day to day to day to day. It would be very repetitive. It would be repetitive. And then you ask yourself, did I actually make any progress on that day towards what my goals are? And I would say maybe there's... Maybe I've repeated the same day 100 times without actually making any...

you know, movement, positive movement. But so you, but you consciously feel that you've been repeating the hundred, like, I don't, the feeling isn't that strong, but I feel like I need to be more thoughtful and think about this question from an objective perspective. Does that make sense? So like the way the question is phrased, like, do you get the feeling? Um, not so much a little bit, right?

But if I really want to objectively look at my life the last couple of years, then maybe there are certain days that were repeated. I mean, I think it really depends on the person. So when I first answered the whole, no, I don't feel that, I think I'm answering it from a very present perspective because...

I mean, for the past few months, I've been very busy with different projects. And every day has been pretty hectic. I don't even know what I'm doing sometimes because I'm just working, working, and doing this and doing that. But when I'm not on a project for a period of time, yeah, maybe I might answer it differently. I might be like, yeah, I feel kind of repetitive because I'm waking up. I don't have a job in front of me, and I'm just...

going through the motions almost. Yeah. And I'm maybe, you know, not getting closer to my goal.

You know what I mean? I think it really just depends on the actual period of time you're in and what type of life you live and all that. Well, I think there's a difference, right? I think most of us are definitely living repetitive lives in reality. The difference is whether or not we feel we are. I mean, we might feel differently about it. But like Eric said, if you look at it objectively, everything we're doing on a day-to-day basis, it's very routine. Right.

We're creatures of habit. We generally do the same things. We go to sleep, we wake up, we eat a meal, we go to work. It's the same pattern over and over and over again. So in reality,

if you were to watch us as a species, you know, if you're an alien came down and looked at us as a species, we would be a species of repeating pattern and habit, right? But do we as individuals consciously feel like we're stuck in the same day over and over and over again? That might be different because on our level, well, because we're immersed in our own lives on our level, we're going to notice all the little things that

Not on a macro level, but on a micro level that makes all the difference for us each day. Right? Like, yes, you still get up. You still have a meal. You still go to work. But the things that happen at work may be changing every day. And you're dealing with different things. So on a macro level, yes, you're doing the same thing. At the individual level, you're really not. I also want to add in one other thing that I've, that it just bothers me sometimes when I think about it.

I bet that there's a high percentage of people out there, and you might not even know who you are, that live this repetitive life and have no idea they're doing it. Because they never question it. They don't question their life. They don't question, you know, why am I living? They don't question, how do I become better? They don't question, you know, things that we ask ourselves, you know, especially on this podcast sometimes we talk about.

you know, for sure. For sure. And it just, it just blows my mind that there are many people out there that just, you know, live their routine life and that's it, you know? Well, for a lot of people out there, what would be the benefit of questioning it? If, if they may not, I mean, what would be the benefit of questioning that if they're, if they're, if their life is providing them a certain degree of quality of life and paying the bills and,

you know, for the family and putting food on the table, all that stuff. I mean, is it to their advantage to question their routine? So this is a big topic. So I'll try not to expand the conversation. So we have a couple more questions. A couple of things came to mind. One is comfort versus challenge. And we've talked a little bit about comfort zones and things like that. And it's kind of how you're wired, right?

Some people are probably wired a little bit more towards staying in the comfort zone and they're happy with that. It's kind of like the matrix, if you remember the matrix. And like Joe Pantoliano's character ultimately decides that he wants to be, you know, in that comfort zone and have steak every day. And I respect that. I get that. And then there's others that want to challenge themselves a little bit more. And to your point, if aliens saw us, would they notice us?

any changes in our daily routines. And that's the intentionality piece. That's the growth piece. And a hundred days is not, you know, a hundred days or whatever this question is, a day repeating a hundred times is probably not the right timeframe. But imagine five or 10 years and you look back and nothing's changed in your life. That's like a midlife crisis. So, so I think that

You know, I get scared of that. And the downside of being in your comfort zone is that the world changes. So yeah, like if you could be guaranteed that you would just be comfortable for the rest of your life, great. Some people might opt for that. But...

Things are always changing. Like you might lose your job, right? The industry that you're in might be completely disrupted. So even for those who want to stay in their comfort zone, they probably need to think a little bit about being more intentional because it's not taken for, you know, it's not for granted that they could stay in their comfort zone.

right? Because the world changes. And so like you could get sick, like someone in your family could get sick, like all these things are happening. So the reality is that you actually have to,

kind of push yourself out of your comfort zone because if you don't someone else will some circumstance will um in the context of us i think we just you know it's the intentionality it's like in five or ten years i don't want to look back and regret anything you know how you've had this conversation where like a couple years ago you pursued your dream because you don't want to get into the routine where you get comfortable and then five or ten years later you realize like nothing happened

your life and that's a scary thing because you see people who that's happened to they don't change and adapt to their circumstances where people who are successful are they're they're they're added every day every day constantly they you know they make change a routine right every day they're pushing pushing pushing so it is a routine in a sense but there's something new about it and they're pushing and then after pushing hard enough one day their life changes in a positive way so that's

what I aspire to be, but I know there's the danger of not doing that. And so, yeah, sometimes I wake up and I'm like, man, today was just like yesterday. I got to get out of my rut. Yeah. I agree with you a hundred percent, but I'm trying to think about it from the voice of...

the people we're talking about. Like let's say you don't change, right? So I'm trying to, going back to like the judgment thing, right? I'm trying not to judge and pass on what we feel, what we would do as like, oh, this is the right thing to do and everyone should be doing this. No, because when you're talking about the danger of not doing it, there's also the danger of doing it. Because when you do challenge yourself and you push yourself out of your comfort zone and break your routine,

there is an inherent risk involved in that, right? There's risk. That's why it's scary for people to do. It's risky. You can achieve great things by doing that, but you can also fail miserably and end up being worse. - And lose a lot. - And lose a lot, right? So what I'm saying is personally, yes, I wanna challenge myself every day. I wanna be able to adapt. I wanna take that risk. I individually am willing to take that risk.

but I cannot apply that philosophy and tell others that they have to, because I don't really know their situation, right? And they may have different responsibilities. They may be considering a lot of different things than I am. I'm married, but I don't have kids. Another person might have three kids, whatever, right? And so they have to take all that into account. And they may not be willing to take that risk, right?

And that's a personal decision on their part that I can't pass judgment on if they say, no, I'm not willing to take that risk and I'm just gonna live this routine forever or whatever. I can't be like, okay, well, you just fucked up. I can't say that because who knows? Maybe if they did take that risk, what if they fail and then they lose everything and then they end up homeless or I don't know, they can't pay for their kid's tuition, whatever, right? Or it could be very good, but we don't know. And all I'm saying is-

At the end of the day, it's not a philosophy that I think is like we can preach. It's just a question you have to ask yourself individually because of the risks involved. Totally agreed. It's very, so I mean, you know, what it sounds like, and I think the areas I agree are number one, it's personal and it's that person's decision.

I think number two is for people, I mean, the circumstances are infinite, right? They're so varied. We can't, we're not talking about anything specific, but there are threats that come about that are not internal threats. And so we know that like for businesses, for people, et cetera, et cetera, like change is always happening. So there is a word of caution that if you want to stand still, even if you want that,

No judgment on that, but there are external threats. And I think the final point is that we've...

kind of built this show around people who want to change, who want to get better and want to grow. And, and we feel like that's a core value of, you know, our potentially our audience or people who are considering that, you know, and making changes doesn't mean you make like drastic changes, making changes could just be like, okay, I'm just going to decide to journal every day, or I'm going to decide that I don't like my job right now. And I'm going to try to

find something that's going to really make me happy or I'm going to eat more healthy. So they don't have to be like drastic things. I think you can also do things that have low risk and high upside as well. But I agree, it's very, very personal and so we're not trying to be preachy on this. Cool. All right, let's, the next one is yours, Justin. I'll read it. Eric, do you want to read it? Okay. So if women and men...

lived on two different planets what would happen to each of these planets it's kind of a dumb question right that's pretty dumb like that's serious blue balling yeah serious blue ball i think it's stupid let's move on yeah i think it's pretty stupid yeah i don't i don't know like i don't know what would happen

i just it wouldn't yeah what they what they want to want us to say be like oh yeah the men's planet is going to be really blah blah and the women's planet is going to be no no we're not going to yeah we're not going to take the bait well one thing that would happen was the human race would die out or they would have to build spacecraft for conjugal visits oh that'll be really fun you know

I suppose, like, without getting into it, maybe we can leave it at this, is that there are certain societies that have been very patriarchal, and there have also been smaller number, but, you know, societies that have been matriarchal, and that's an interesting one to kind of think about. Yeah. Whatever. Let's move on to the next question. All right, so, Justin. Okay. If you commit a crime to feed your hungry child, are you a bad person, or did you commit the crime out of necessity? So, that's an age-old question, right? That's a question that's always been posed.

I think it depends on the crime and the nature of the crime. Right. So if I stole a candy bar to feed my kid who is, let's say, you know, starving or out in the streets and you need something to eat, I steal a candy bar. No, I don't think I'm a bad person for doing that. I don't think anyone's necessarily a bad person because my standard of bad behavior

is is that that does not cross my the threshold of what i consider a bad person right it's a it's a wrong thing to do to steal but it doesn't necessarily make you a bad person like for me bad people are people who do real truly terrible things that's bad all right so let's up the ante a bit you steal the candy bar and it's a very expensive candy bar right and and

Well, let's not use candy bar. Let's say like, you know, I don't know. You steal a whole shitload of really high quality steaks. And let's say the store, right? Like that puts the store out of business.

Because it's like that's the only high-quality steaks they had, and you just stole. Well, what if... Okay, go on. Sorry. I'm just upping the ante a bit. It's not a candy bar. I'm guessing this is where Howie wants to take this, and I think maybe we can frame it this way, that you commit a crime to feed your hungry child, but then 10 other hungry children starve to death because of the actions you took. Okay, so this is a very philosophical question in that

For me, I have like my moral lines are there are I differentiate between bad acts, bad events, bad actions to intention. Right. I draw those like so if you're a bad person, morally corrupt and bad, evil, whatever. I think that has a lot to do with the intention of that person.

They can commit a bad act, but maybe their intention wasn't for all these kids to die or to put the store out of business. That wasn't their intention at all. They never even thought about that. Their intention was just to feed their kid. But they did something bad and it had consequences that they never imagined. That's a bad thing to do, but I wouldn't consider that a bad person unless they had the intention.

I'm going to do this and I don't care if these fucking kids die. I don't care if this store and this family goes out of business. Like they're aware of it and they still do it anyway with the intention. That's where I draw the line and be like, okay, that's a bad person. Because everyone's made mistakes. Everyone's fucked up. That doesn't make you bad. We are not the sum. We are not our worst decision, right? We cannot be summed up by our worst mistakes. You know, I don't believe in that, right? So...

I think intention has everything to do with it. When you're deciding morally, is this person bad? Even though the action might be a bad action.

Right. So if so, so this question is obviously very vague because it just says crime. So there's petty crimes. I mean, I've stolen shit. Right. Like when I was a kid, like I don't consider myself an evil person for doing it, even though it was a bad thing to do. Right. I mean, we I'm sure we've all committed petty crimes here and there. Everyone has, you know, like, but so again, it depends on the intent and the nature of the crime. Have you ever had done a petty crime before? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, when I was a kid, I shoplifted. Yeah, I think we all shoplifted. I think we've all done that before. So it's just like, are we morally bad people? I mean, because we did that. And we didn't even do that to feed anyone. We just did that just, I don't know why. Like we were kids, right? We didn't know any better. So a person who does that same thing, but their intent is to feed their child. I mean, if we're not bad, then they're obviously not bad. Because we did it for even less of a reason.

What if the impact was higher though? Right. To Howie's point. I get what you're saying. If it, if you know, if it's a choice between feeding your kid and then something just like harmless, right? Like just against the,

some small economic loss but what if it was truly like a big impact where you know it impacted other people in a very very negative way like what if it's either your child dies or you have to kill somebody or like five other kids so like where do you draw the line oh no no i think to make it more like an eye for an eye kind of thing or an even like even equation is to you have to kill somebody and if you don't kill somebody your child's gonna die

You have to murder someone to save your child. There's a gun to your head kind of thing. Because that's a life for a life. That's a direct trait. Stepping back and looking at it objectively, there's no emotional tie if you're not connected with that kid. So it's a life for a life. It's even. Are you a bad person if you as a father have to kill somebody to save your child?

An innocent person. And that is the only choice you have. To save your child. And there is no way out. I'm just adding more stipulations to this. I mean, where do we draw the line morally, right? For that. Do you kill an innocent person to save your own child? Yes, I would. I know. I think many people would. I think a lot of people would. But does that make you a bad person?

Makes me a person stuck against a wall. It just makes you a person. That makes it, that has to make a decision. I don't think it makes you a good or a bad or whatever person. It just makes you a person. Because ultimately this just reflects what maybe most people would do in that circumstance. Mm-hmm.

but it's a hypothetical question. I think the value is more about what decisions have been made over time where there was like higher levels of impact, right? What, what decisions did people make people with some level of influence over the outcomes where there were sacrifices made? Cause the people are always making these types of decisions and it's,

like a trade-off between like protecting my own versus others right like war and things like that i mean we're not you know we're not like incorrigibly violent to the to the extreme of we're going to exterminate everyone right like there are still circumstances where countries or nations or tribes say we're not going to fight because that would create greater damage right

Right. So there's, you know what I'm saying? Like, like where like two, two tribes agree to call a truce. There are also lots of, lots of numerous, you know, innumerable circumstances where people said, no, this is worth fighting for. And like people die on both sides. It's like, it's like the, also the debate of like, do you kill the few to save the many? Right. And that's always been a question that's been posed. And, and yeah,

Like, for example, this is going to be a stupid example, but it paints this thing. Okay, so Avengers Endgame, right? Avengers Thanos. In my mind, Thanos was the fucking hero. Like, I thought the Avengers were the bad guys. Because, like, I sided with Thanos in terms of, like, killing the few, you know, to save, ultimately save more people, right? And...

And the fucking Avengers are fucking trying to get in his way, being annoying, you know? I don't know if we're going to be friends anymore. No, I'm just kidding. Well, you know, things are not always that black and white. So I think we... Luckily, we don't have to make those choices. Luckily or unluckily, we don't have to make those choices. But, you know, you have things like climate control and this and that. So I think there's a lot of pressing issues. I mean...

food shortages, all this stuff where people, there are people looking at long term whereas we just look at like day to day. We're looking at today, tomorrow. We're in the frame of reference of the immediate and there are people that are, you know, that are worried about what's going to happen in the future and so there are these sort of trade-offs that people are thinking about. So it's a worthy question. Yeah. It's fine. I mean, these questions got a little stupid at the end. They did.

And then, I don't know, we just kind of struggled to answer them at the end too. Like we didn't really know how to answer these. But I think this is a really fun concept. I want to start doing more of these kind of psychological, like psychology tests on the podcast because like when you do find like that right question, it brings up a whole discussion, right? And we can even have entire episodes just centered around one's good question.

Right. And it digs a lot up. So anyway, we'll stop it there, guys. That's it for today. Let us know if you guys have any questions you want us to answer. As usual, you guys can always contact us, email us at thehonestdrink at gmail.com. We're always welcome to start that conversation. So I hope everyone enjoyed this episode.

I do. I did, as usual. So we're signing off. I'm Justin. I'm Eric. And I'm Howie. All right. Later, guys. Peace.

Bye.