The Diversity of Success

You go to somebody in Africa and their success is different from someone who lives in Europe and that's different from someone who lives in Asia and that's different from Anybody else.

Yeah. So people from all walks of life kind of determine what what success is in their own definition.

Alrighty folks. Welcome back to transacting value. We're we're encouraging dialogue from different perspectives to unite over shared values. Now, our theme for what is now season 4 of the podcast is intrinsic values.

So what your character is doing when you look yourself in the mirror? Now if you're new to the podcast, welcome. And if you're a continuing listener, welcome back.

Today, we're talking our January core values of determination, self respect, and accountability with Mister Joshua Weston, through all sorts of examples and stories concerning growth, influence, projection from his point of view, So folks, without further ado, I'm Porter, I'm your host, and this is transacting value.

Alright, Josh. How are you doing? What's up man? Thanks for putting me on today, Porter.

I really appreciate it. Amazing setup you got here too. Oh, I appreciate it, dude. I appreciate it. So for anybody listening, this is actually only the second recording interview that we've done in person.

So everything else normally is on a video But this is gonna be a well, a lot of bit more fluid, I think. But Joshua, again, I appreciate you making sure about your minutes. We can talk and hang out for a little Definitely. No.

I know when we discussed this originally and we talked a little bit about some of the topics that you wanna discuss, I was immediately interested because it's not like most people do a whole lot of self diagnosis a lot of the time and get really self introspective.

So it was something that immediately was interesting to me, and I think that people need to do this more often.

You know, I spend a lot of time talking to myself as you might imagine in in this particular line of work. And especially early on because people didn't wanna be on the air.

And then now there's a few other characters on the show as well or complementing the show in various social media outlets. But I think you're right. It's tough having conversations around big talk topics.

Because they're so foreign in the normal context of a conversation. Mhmm. You know, how's the weather? How's life? How's everything going? Maybe not as difficult? But what in your day today made you feel courageous?

Whoa. Yes. This is tricky. You know? But you know what, before we get into some more of the meat of this conversation, all that being said, let's start with some small talk and some relateability.

So take a couple of minutes and just break it down. You know, where were you born? Maybe what do you do now? What have you done in the past? What shaped your perspective? So I was born in California.

But my family was in the military, so I did a lot of moving around between the east coast, the west coast, and somehow we ended up in Kansas. And I think Kansas is probably where I may have pulled the most of my values.

Warmsdale? We lived in Kansas City, but all in Kansas side, So I I say Kansas City, but I grew up in Olathe, which is just a little area that's in Overland Park.

So when you break all that down, I just say Kansas City because no 1 knows where Olathe is.

Actually, Fun fact. I remember a few years ago I had a infantry platoon. We had a guy come in, fresh out of boot camp. That's exactly where he was from.

Oh, way. Yep. Justin. Justin was his name. Very cool. Yeah. But, anyway, I don't want Deepgram to try to fill it. So from Kansas -- Mhmm. -- and then, you know, what are some primary influences? What shape your perspective then?

Side of military background and family. I I would say my dad is probably 1 of the 1 of the major drivers in some of the values that I picked up when I was growing up, there was something that he said that stuck with me.

And I still say this sometimes when it comes up in in conversation, what you say, how you say it, and what you do.

I try to live by that if I find somebody that maybe doesn't live up to that exact statement, whether it's what they're saying, how they're saying it or what is it that they're doing and with their actions.

I try to understand maybe what might be going on in that person's life that makes them do what they're doing.

Then it definitely has shaped how I act when I'm out there, whether it's in public or at home when I'm interacting with my wife or my daughter.

I think it's something that's really good for maintaining a positive relationship with someone. Yeah. 100 percent. Now is gonna get a little bit tricky, and I don't wanna catch you off guard.

So I'm gonna preempt this by saying I'm about to ask you a difficult question. Yeah. Absolutely. Please do. Okay. I think in probably even into high school, I struggled with this. So I'm asking, I guess, for your input here.

What is the difference then between sympathy and empathy based on what you just explained? For me, weirdly enough, I've looked into this before too because I I wanted also kind of have an understanding of that.

Empathy for me is more so where you can put yourself in that person's shoes and understand where they're coming from, whereas sympathy is you don't exactly understand what it feels however you offer some type of concern for their well-being.

Okay. So maybe off, but Well, let's let's just use that as a baseline then.

So if that's the case, for here in the context of this conversation, for anybody listening. That being said, then what you say and how you say it and what you do as far as what you described earlier, sounded a lot like sympathy then.

Mhmm. Because you can't, you know, be in everybody else's head So then how do you do that based on what your dad said?

Right? Like, how do you try to show concern? Okay. And you don't have the experiences to fall back on or the perspective to align with or whatever.

Yeah. So it really feels very shallow, I suppose. In that case because, yeah, you're never really gonna understand what where someone comes from, whatever walk of life they came from prior, but at least thinking about it's a Monday.

Nobody almost nobody has a good Monday unless it's their day off because they work the weekend.

Sure. In which case, they've already lost the weekend. So Just trying to put yourself in I think somewhat of a general baseline of, hey, you know, everybody has something that that's bothering them during some day of the week.

Whenever I interact with my wife, there's some days where, you know, she's not having as great of a day as I am. And I'm really happy to go lucky because I take most things and everything's just a grain of salt for me, you know.

Sure. I try not to take anything too hard because and actually, that's the funny thing you mentioned, stoicism is is something that's greatly driven my value set probably ever since I was in my my late teens. Yeah.

And I didn't really understand it as well when I was a teenager. But then revisiting things as an adult. I didn't even read meditations until I was in my early twenties. I mean, is that uncommon? Because I I haven't read it at all.

So do not get it because that's actually something I kinda wanted to do for everybody. I I went and ordered a bunch of Amazon for Christmas. Don't tell anybody though. Well, You just did. So Right. But no.

So I'm saying that though, it's an interesting point you bring up though because when we're talking stolicism, you know, it's it's what you can control as a focal point, like an internal locus of control as opposed to some something external that you have no effect or -- Mhmm.

-- actual control over that you can exert maybe just influence at best. Arty folks sit tight and we'll be right back on transacting value. Alrighty, folks.

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You want more value for your values. Busbrough can do that too. When we're talking stoicism, you know, it's it's what you can control as a focal point, like an internal locus of control.

As opposed to some something external that you have no effect or actual control over that you can exert maybe just influence at best.

Right? And matter of fact, funny to bring that up. We did an interview that essentially revolved around stoicism.

It was we actually closed out season 2. I think it was the maybe, yep, so 26 or something back in June where we actually talked about stoicism. But the point being, was that Marcus Aurelius, wrote meditations. Yeah.

Who wrote meditations? Yeah. And we're talking hundreds of years ago, generations ago. But it's still relevant now. And to that point, not the longevity and the time tested nature of the advice or wisdom or whatever you wanna call it.

But the fact that there's a difference, I think, when it comes to you taking care of yourself, some level of independence and ownership, budgeting your money, doing your laundry, cleaning your own house, paying for your own house, whatever.

Right? But then spiritually. And I'm not saying religiously.

But spiritually, understanding how you view the world, your perspective, your ability to interpret things has to be able to differentiate between what can you actually control and what do you really not have any I guess, interest in controlling or capability of controlling.

Right? And that's sort of the preset of stoicism.

Right? Very much so. And I'm not gonna say, like, a hundred percent, but in a way, yes. You've heard of Epictetus. Great. Great guy. Good guy. Yeah. Just the other day, he needs an Epictetus. Had a conversation about him. Yeah.

He was 1 of the I can't say, like, original stoics, but 1 of them that a lot of people will quote and people in Vietnam all the way back to the revolutionary war carried around some quote or some manuscript from Epictetus you know, somebody out there.

The things that he said were so surface level and at the same time deep, if that makes any sense. Well So in the in the sense of what you just said, he said, you know, I can't control the externals.

But what I can do is control how I perceive the externals and what effect I allow them to have on me. Oh, sure. Okay. And that goes exactly into what you're saying.

Like, I can't be accountable for how other people carry out their lives, but I can be accountable for how I carry mine out. And how I react and perceive the actions of others. Mhmm. And so that's stoicism at work.

I didn't actually understand what stoicism was at first. I just I heard the word and I was like, that'd be really cool not to react to anything. Like, just shut everything out in the world and not let anything have an effect on me.

I'm picturing that scene in daredevil -- Mhmm. -- the Ben Affleck daredevil, where I think he's in the bathtub and he just submerges himself under the water.

And silences everything out. Mhmm. I don't know if it's actually applicable, but that's where my head's going as you're describing this.

Yeah. Yeah. Now To that point though, I guess, forward talking some of that stuff, this sort of brings up an interesting point. As a matter of fact, It's actually a segment of the show.

It's called developing character. No. Developing character. They're sleeping. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. Son. Here's how it works for anybody listening if you're new to the podcast especially, but obviously Josh for you too.

So there's 3 questions. From your perspective entirely as vulnerable or is in-depth as you wanna be totally fair game. But question number 1, what were some of your values that's as a teenager?

Well, and I was a teenager just like any other male teenager was. I wanted to be strong. Okay. I wanted my name to be places. I wanted someone to at least know who I was.

And I think that that changed a lot over time -- Okay. -- because when you're younger, you know, you want wanna be wealthy, you wanna be strong, you wanna be successful, whatever that means -- Yeah.

-- because you go to somebody in Africa their success is different from someone who lives in Europe, and that's different from someone who lives in Asia, and that's different from anybody else.

Yeah. So people from all walks of life kind of determine what success is in their own definition.

I wanted unrealistic expectations from reality. Well, I mean, for 1, I think that's redundant to say unrealistic from reality. That's I think what it means.

But yeah. But saying that I don't know how unrealistic it is. You know, like, you're the gatekeeper of your own future for all intents and purposes, especially what we're considering stoicism as a talking point.

So there may be something to that, but being open minded enough to understand that it's okay to change your point of view and your perspective and and grow with that.

I think leads me writing the question number 2. What are some of your values now then that you try to embody or that you hold a little bit more closely?

Now patience is a huge 1 because if I could have embodied patience when I was younger, I would have been able to take a step back and say, hey, what are you chasing and why chasing it?

And is that something that is realistically attainable right now? Sure. You see people not be impatient all the time, which it's funny when you you've driven here quite a bit -- Yeah. -- 2 64 -- Yep.

-- going east or west. Everybody's in a rush to go nowhere. Yeah. Yeah. I don't understand. You know, you get there's a line of traffic. I I don't hope, I guess. That's not fair to say to whoever might be in the accident if there is 1.

But I hope there is a legitimate reason for it to happen because 90 percent of the time you get to where the holdup was and there's nothing. There's not a single thing there. You know?

Man, at least make it worthwhile to come through here. That's probably wrong to say, but it just feels like a waste of a slowdown. It's funny that you mentioned that. There was 1 time that my wife and I were almost late to a wedding.

And, you know, someone stopped off traffic and all these cars are coming through, and I told her someone better be dead. And then at the end of this perception of cars comes a horse, and I was like, whoops.

Whoops. Whoops. Oh. I felt really bad about that. It felt nothing I can do to change it though at this point. That moment's past -- Yeah. Sure. -- around some range. Yeah.

But this point still remains yeah. There's a lot of stuff that happens here, right, where people are in such a hurry to go nowhere and it's sort of funny in parallel that you bring that up because it's easy to do that in real life too.

You know, not physically moving fast, but over the grand scheme of, call it, 85 years, you're rushing to accomplish something that you may not understand why and then for what purpose.

Mhmm. Right? So I think there's definite value in understanding, or like you said, taking with a grain of salt, being a little bit more critical, But why are you doing what you're doing?

And thinking through it, does that actually work for you now? As a counterpoint to that, There's a lot of people I see on social media all the time and here on the news and talk radio even.

Quitting my job, because it just doesn't align with how I view the world or I don't know. My boss is an asshole, and so I'm leaving this job. Or I deserve better treatment.

You know, it's weird, call it 30, 40 years ago, I think, maybe even late eighties, early nineties where what I remember hearing was that sort of allegory tied to celebrities or Hollywood, the drama queens the debutantes of their day, you know.

I am only going to be there if I have this, this, and this in my dressing room.

I deserve to be treated this way and have these caliber of roles and and whatever. And if I don't get it, I'm not working for you, mister DeVille, type things.

But now, It's very similar at least conceptually, but it's based on values, it seems like. Where I can't be my authentic self in this place of work, and our values no longer align, so I'm quitting. Okay?

As earlier referenced, the counterpoint I brought up being, well, sure, but understand that It may not align with your way of thinking now, but does it provide you with time to be able to focus on learning something that's gonna get you where you wanna go.

Does it provide you with money to finance that? Does it provide you with an alternate perspective to keep you balanced?

The workplace environment may not align with your values, but it doesn't make it toxic either. And so there's a certain level of self awareness that has to incorporate sacrifice.

Because time is fixed. To that point though, what we're talking time, not to get too far ahead of the conversation here contextually, but Question number 3 of developing character.

We talked about your values in the past. We talked about your values at present. How do you see them changing in the future?

That's a really good question. So I just had a daughter November of last year. She just turned 1 year old on the seventh. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah. No. It's really fun. I did not know that I'd be here at this point.

And, actually, when I mentioned 1 of the things that I've developed, the way my values have shifted, like, everything came crumbling down. It was a building that was collapsed and then what was rebuilt was the foundation was patience.

I'm not really following up with you. My value set. Sure. Sure. If my value set was, you know, like, a building that I had constructed over time -- Uh-huh.

-- and it had all those different things inside of it. I basically collapse that whole building, and the thing that brought back up at his foundation was patience. Well, you, I mean, you don't have a choice.

No. You really don't know. Oh, well, 1 year old is not gonna interpret what you want them to on your schedule. No. And it's weird because it's not like 1 of those it's not like I force myself to be patient.

With my daughter, it's just so easy. And I think that me being patient with her also helped me be more patient with my wife and also with my friends.

You know, and even business partners, anybody else. It's been a roller coaster man. Like, everything got busy as soon as I moved to this area. Yeah. And, you know, I I can't be more fortunate.

As far as my value set changing in the future, I I think what I hope, anyway, is that my ability to be patient is better. I hope that I'm able to to kind of do that at a greater capacity than what I'm doing now.

Yeah. And I I hope to continue going down the path of more self introspection. That's something that I need more of. I think that overall society could probably benefit from that?

Because right now but you said like the workplace environment not being toxic, there's a lot going on in different workplace environments where I think that something like that could benefit, you know, workers that are out there.

You what's going on with Twitter right now. That's an interesting 1. I'm actually kinda curious not to -- No.

-- sidetrack us, but I'm curious what your take is on the the Twitter takeover from Elon Musk and how a lot of the Twitter workers or some of them are kind of frantically leaving their job or getting fired.

It's an interesting shakeout to say the least. Well, it's a business. Okay? And the short succinct answer, it's a business.

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It's a business. And if it's not profitable, you've got to make changes to make it profitable.

And that's 1 aspect. I think the other aspect, again, objectively, is it was debt financed the purchase. Right? There was debt accrued in order to make the purchase and close the deal.

So now you've gotta repay that. And this is totally maybe my naive to take here, but I'm pretty sure somewhere around 13000000000 dollars is difficult to repay without a paycheck.

If you don't have cash flow, you can't make those payments. And I'm sure interest is more than 6 percent. Right?

So now if that's all the case, comes back to money. So not to say that the employees weren't working, but to say that paying those employees isn't working. So, you know, you've got to be able to have enough cash flow to offset the debt.

Now based on the leverage and I don't mean financially, I'm talking about of people workforce based on the leverage of how many people and I don't know the numbers or anybody listening, but of how many people are currently working their vice, how many were a couple months ago.

I think it's easy to say that the people that are working there now are probably viewed as the more quality workers.

I don't know based on what merit either. Mhmm. But you don't get rid of comparably top performing people or more into people or more skilled people when you're trying to make up a 13000000000 dollar deficit on your investment?

So there may be something there where it was just over inflated or inflate traded, I guess, also.

So that's all the objective assessment. The piece that I'll put to that in my opinion, not to steamroll the conversation. But specifically, to drive it back to our theme of values and character based decisions, not on behalf of Elon.

Yeah. I can't forecast what he's thinking. But as far as the workers are concerned or I guess the former employees are concerned of Twitter, there's I think 2 key lessons that that comes down to.

1, if you took the job because it was easy and you were chasing money, then you already sold yourself short.

So you sort of got what you deserved, not to say that you deserved to get fired, but like, you deserve to have something that was easily removed because you didn't work really that hard for it potentially.

You know what I mean? The more effort you put into something as a skill set, as a perspective, as a whatever line of effort, generally speaking, you're gonna leave there with something of value.

And I don't mean a Tesla. Right? I mean, perspective. I mean, the ability to have a positive mental attitude, the ability to understand it's a setback, but I'll recover.

You know, I think it was Gary Vanderchuk, who said, and Gary, if you hear this, feel free to call him in. But I think it was Gary Vanderchuk who said, It doesn't matter.

He was talking about a conversation with his dad and how he was early on in his career working at the wine shop with his dad and he was telling people about these marketing ideas.

And his dad said, don't tell people, we're gonna take your ideas.

And he said, they could take my ideas, but they can't take my brain. They can't take me my perspective. Right? And so there's a certain amount of resilience and self awareness.

I think that comes with that level of ownership. Like, yes, I got fired. Twitter here being the example, but Yes, I got fired or yes, I quit. But so it's still just a company. It just happened to be more popularized.

I mean, so there's some lessons there, I think, where and we'll see how people respond to that, those workers specifically. But Yeah. Resilience goes a long way. And how do you handle loss? How do you handle failure?

How do you handle setback? Economics aside, but spiritually as a person. I think counts for a lot. And Unfortunately, now tens of thousands of people are gonna have to atone and figure that out if they haven't already.

So to your earlier point back to this conversation, saying that, it's important to know who you are and what you bring to the table prior to sitting at it. And if you don't, maybe consider not grabbing the chair just yet.

Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. It's really fascinating when you bring that up. There's this kind of inverse of, you know, like, the workplace, not necessarily the values within the workplace, but you mentioned quiet quitting at 1 point.

Mhmm. And that just makes me wonder, like, if there's employees that are out there that are thinking, like, is this job matching with my value set? Or I have too much self respect for my job that I don't think I should stay here. Sure.

So with the quiet quitting aspect of the workplace, I don't know exactly how that's gonna shake things up here in the near future because that really seems like it's gonna be something that a lot of workplaces are gonna be either losing more employees or we're gonna start to see people that are working that are unhappy at their jobs.

Like is a productive workforce a happy workforce or is a happy workforce a productive workforce? Yeah. I mean, that's the what?

Timeless comparison. In any country, in any region around the world, it's always the same case. Right? Like you said, if you've got people that are happy, does that mean they're actually doing well in any sense? Maybe not.

But if they're not doing well, does that mean they're unhappy? Not necessarily either. But again, to what is just the modern example. It's just the most recent example, but businesses close all look at the last I don't know, 3 years.

All sorts of businesses closed from little mom and pop restaurants all the way up to franchises and then conglomerates and chains and mergers and acquisitions throughout the world are still taking place.

You know, ask any antitrust attorney or any other case study. You know? So I think, yes, for that reason, it's a trend. I don't think that it's new.

What the constant should be, in my opinion, and obviously, I'm biased to this concept. But what the lesson there what the constant should be is understanding that you still have value even though somebody else doesn't see it.

Or if you don't see it in you in that place, you still have value. You know what I mean, you don't have to agree with everybody, but there's still something you bring in the table that makes sense.

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A foolish man, large from his own. What the lesson there, what the constant should be, is understanding that you still have value even though somebody else doesn't see it or if you don't see it in you in that place.

You still have value. You know what I mean? You don't have to agree with everybody, but there's still something you're bringing in the table that makes sense.

And actually, that brings me to a a good question I've got for you. So in your life day to day as a family man, as a working professional, as a random dude, and a button down plaid shirt, whatever you wanna take this as.

How do you align your values with your personal life? Or professional life? I honestly kinda do mine the same in both facets. How do I line my values? Yeah. So for example, you mentioned patience.

You mentioned earlier on, obviously, recognition as well. And strength to whatever degree being applicable now present day. But you brought up those values as on some level within your character still being relevant.

So as you go throughout your day, what actions do you take to ensure that those remain a part of your active lifestyle? Clearly I take time on things. Yeah.

Try to bite on something and, like, you know, chew it, try to make sure that I'm understanding it correctly before taking action or saying something or things of that nature. With patience, I'm definitely more patient with other people.

Mhmm. I'm not a big ego person. I know that's something that's kind of crazy for some people to believe. When I was younger, man, I was just old testosterone knives, I would make actions based on egotism alone.

Sure. So then, I guess, is it is it a fair sort of assessment or or assumption here that, matter of fact, there's a saying, make haste slowly is more your motto now. That's 1 I probably should have domed.

I usually So again, and going back to stoic philosophy, I guess that's kind of where I've started to derive more values from. So, yeah, meditations. And I I can't wait to give this to you pretty soon.

Mark Aurelius, in layman's terms, like, I'm just gonna paraphrase what he said. Sure. He said, you know, tomorrow is not promised. So let that guide the way that you act, think, and speak.

So just in that sense, I don't really I try not to get entitled to anything. Yeah. I try not to get entitled with the promise of tomorrow or that I even owed anything in response to doing good works.

Yeah. Well, I think to your earlier point though, that level of ownership over what happens well, not what happens, but how you perceive what happens in your life, I think is really freeing.

You know, I mean, it helps you build your own self reliance and self esteem and confidence in your capabilities no matter how shitty they may actually be.

You're more at peace with them. Mhmm. I think it's is a a really interesting point, actually, that you just brought up? No. Aside from meditations or pea Epictition philosophy, what books do you recommend?

Let's say for somebody maybe more our age. Right? The millennial generation for anybody listening shout out to you, but maybe you're like me and you're not a big reader on Marcus Aurelius or stoicism or what, Roman Classics.

What books, what outlets, then do you recommend to be a little bit more familiar? So I'm looking at all these books that you have here -- Mhmm.

-- and you, of course, know who general mattresses. Yep. So there's 1 thing that he said I think he was having talk with a bunch of officers, and he said pick up any book that you can.

Sure. And it's weird because before I had heard him say that, not me specifically before I've read about him saying that to a group of officers, just pick up any book in every book that you can.

I kinda dabbled more in, like, US history. You know, I kind of stayed in that realm. And after he said that, I started just picking up books. Because it really didn't matter to me after the fact.

When we're talking about a specific generation, I I don't really mean to go against that. School thought that, like, generations have specific books that they should be reading. Mhmm. But I go along with that.

I encourage reading anything and everything that you can get your hands on because the more that you read, the more that you start using those types of words, there was someone that you're familiar with Von Campbell's every time that I ever heard him talk, I would write down words that he said.

And I'd say later, I'm gonna go and look up what that means. Yeah. Yeah. And it's probably gonna be really important because this is for a homework assignment.

That's due tomorrow. So maybe I should figure out what this means soon. And that that was something that I tried to embody, you know, after the fact from Vaughan, that I still take with me to this day.

And that's something that really meant a lot to me then is just being able to understand and comprehend things and he'd he'd always walk out and be, you know, I'd be remiss to say, you know, and then you go on a diatribe of something else after giving us a little bit of information.

So I think anything and everything. And I I love how you have all these really old books up here that just look like they belong to someone generations ago and Yeah.

That's why they're up high because I don't wanna touch them so they don't own more. Yeah. No. That makes a lot of sense. No. No. I'm getting some of them more. Pretty old. And some of them are actually falling apart.

Well, I think that might be able to set you up with someone that can repair old books like that. Have you ever seen that that TV show you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he it's a buddy of mine that I met out in California.

He repairs books just like that. Which part of just like that. He takes them all apart, puts a new Just the book part. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. No. That's I I didn't know if you meant, like, the other part Like that's No.

I hope not. Yeah. I'll probably stay away from that guy. Yeah. I would stay away from that guy too. You know, he's a great guy though. Good friend of mine. So I like how you have poetry there.

That would be a strong go to. Like, I would absolutely recommend reading There's all sorts of stuff out there for everybody listening. Obviously, you can't see my bookshelves, but I've got a bunch of real estate books.

I've got some congressional books, common sense in the rights of man. I've got Richard Kepling. Mhmm. I've got also season 1 of Andy Griffith, but that's either here or there on the bookshelf.

Yeah. That was 1 of my mom's favorites. Yeah. Speaking on that, values from back then were very different. I think that Are they? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, from Andy Griffiths.

Yeah. Well, I mean, different hell. Because in my opinion, they're the same. You think so? Yeah. I think the application and the breadth of that application has changed. I think the publicity of those values has changed.

And the popularity of talking about those values has changed, but the values are still there. I think the values are the same. I don't know what you think Well, I mean, I'm I'm not claiming to be right.

I just think that things are a little different nowadays. In a lot of ways, I think that things have changed to where a lot of it's more public, so people see it, they hear about it. And like you said, they talk about it more.

But you don't wanna be judged? No. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think anybody does. I don't think anybody likes that feeling. And I think that's the problem. Because now everything is more public or more publicized, I guess.

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But you don't wanna be judged? No. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think anybody does. I don't think anybody likes that feeling. And I think that's the problem. Because now everything is more public or more public sized, I guess.

It's sort of the ethics of social media use, you know, back to that debate where It matters now more because it's on a phone and it can be anywhere around the world where strangers you've never met are judging you.

Because they're watching the video and they're gonna leave a comment, maybe not. But they're gonna leave a comment or a thumbs down on your video or whatever. And then you become vilified.

By people you've never met before, cast in stones, so to speak. So -- Mhmm. -- before, you didn't have to worry about it. The 7 farmers that were within your 7 mile radius is all you needed to care about, you know.

So make sure you're good with the sheriff. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. But it's not that small town anymore. I think it's the same people. I think it's the same human nature, but I mean, human spirit is the currency.

I think that we don't transact in anymore, and that's the problem. I think generally speaking, we rely more on, I don't wanna say, fiat currency like paper that's out now, but fiat currency like what's popularly used.

And I don't think that includes character as often as it used to. I think it could. You know, but how do how do we do that? Well, I wanna write that down to come back to that.

I have 1 for you, and this 1 might take a bit for us to pick apart what if value has changed in the modern day to what you want people to perceive your values as with the use of social media?

So let's say that Oh, yeah. Sure. Editing. Yeah. This is something that I have seen a lot where you see a video and it's someone that's going out to help somebody.

And then you don't think about it at first maybe, but I've seen so many of these videos. You probably have to that at this point, when I look at it, it feels very hollow to me when you see someone doing a very kind act.

It's like, well, do they have to record that or could they just do the kind act without anybody ever knowing? Well, okay. So then the flip side is if the tree falls in the forest.

Right? So if you do it and it never gets recorded, And how do you spread the value of it? And that's I guess that's very subjective because to 1 person a lot may matter. So then to a lot of people, something might not matter.

Yeah. Well and there's 2 parties. Yeah. Buckmister Fuller was an engineer among other things up until the eighties when he passed away. But 1 of the sayings that he had, a general principle is what he called them.

But 1 of the sayings that he had was unity is plural, but at least 2. And so to have any common point of reference, you have to have a minimum of 2 anchor points. This conversation to have anything in common.

I can't have things in common with myself. It's unified. You know what I mean? But to have things in common with somebody else means at least 2 different perspectives. And now you've got a point of unity. Right?

So that was the theory there in that principle. But the point being, if you videotape it or not in this example is irrelevant, But if somebody helps somebody else, well, that person helping can be online or on a video or whatever.

Sure. But the person that gets helped, maybe they're humiliated enough and don't wanna be shown in that light to everybody else. But did you ask permission from the homeless guy to film him first?

At what point are you infringing on somebody else's essentially civil liberties -- Yeah. -- just to be on camera if they don't wanna be. Mhmm. You know, especially seen in that life. I don't know.

It may not apply to everybody or in every instance, but I think it's a similar consideration. And again, like, it's not for me to decide what's right or wrong because I also agree. I think that sharing those values is a great thing.

I do think that that is, however, a difference in how values have changed because back then, they didn't have the ability for anybody to really see that same way, except if it ends up in the paper maybe.

Yeah. Well, so then there you go.

I mean, has it really changed? Is it any more false than it was before? Because then people just lied to your face if they wanted to. Yeah. Now they can lie from a distance. You know? Yeah. It's a lot harder to not catch the loss.

Eye now than it was back then. But Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that, you know, this honesty, this is genuine. It's human nature too. It's the opposite side of that spiritual coin, and I don't know that it's a really a big deal.

You know, I think it's more important from an accountability perspective to understand that it's gonna be a part of your perspective either way. Mhmm. But do you align with it regularly?

Well, I'm tempted all the time to a lot of people. Maybe and this is hypothetical. Right? But maybe it's Hey, how's your day? It's great, and it's not. Yeah. You know? Oh, man. Martha, you look great today. How's everything going?

I don't care to listen. Right? So that's just as disingenuous as being dishonest in those parallel concepts. And so that doesn't make me any less of a person, any more flawed except now it's caught on video -- Mhmm.

-- you know, or I'm the 1 recording. So I don't know that the values have changed necessarily that much. But I think now people are more aware of them.

Interestingly, they're just not as big of a conversational topic. Mhmm. But Saying that. I I understand you have to go. So we can turn this into another conversation again at a different point in time too, which is totally cool with me.

I would really like that. Yeah. Something like this, you know, this is something that I think I would definitely like to come back to again, and I'd be interested to listen into more of what other people have to say too.

Well, good news. Season 4 and 5 are scheduled out for 20 23. So feel free to jump in at any point. And to anybody listening, you can do the same. Obviously, reach back out is seasons 1 through 3 transacting value podcast dot com.

But saying that, Josh, I appreciate the opportunity, man. And thank you for coming in and just talking for a little bit. Really appreciate it, Porter. Thank you so much. Yeah. No worries, dude.

And folks to everybody listening in, thank you for listening to our core values of January of determination, accountability, and self respect. Also like to thank even though he's never gonna hear this Epictetus Marcus Aurelius.

But for anybody else who's talking about Solacism and just fostering that conversation because I'll submitly, it became the inspiration for this dialogue, which is pretty legit.

So thank you to you guys for your inspiration and to our show partners, Keystone Farmers Market. Hoping clicker farms and bus bra for your distribution.

Now folks, if you're interested in joining our conversation or want to discover our other interviews like I mentioned, Check out transacting value podcast dot com and follow along on social media while we continue to stream new interviews every Monday at 9AM Eastern Standard Time on all your favorite podcasting platforms.

So until next time, that is transacting value.