Relentless
01:37:37 · Brian Armstrong, Ty Morse
[01:37:37] S0: Yeah. I mean, you literally might help create thousands of companies. And then I think you're right. It's important to just, like, give value and not... Like, you don't have to, like, necessarily require it immediately, some compensation. But some of those companies are gonna come back and they're gonna want you to invest. They're gonna want you to help get their message. Something is gonna go... Good is gonna come out of it. [01:37:57] S1: Yes. And that's the that's the funny thing about ads is I think of them as, basically, you're harvesting the goodwill that you created. And so if you really wanna maximize for goodwill, you just say no. And you just say like, has there ever been a single scenario where I was watching a video and I liked the ad in the video? Like, it added to the content, and I haven't come across a single one except for Between Two Ferns. If you've ever watched Zach Galifianakis [01:38:17] S0: What was the ad though? I don't remember [01:38:19] S1: the ad. He was interviewing Hillary Clinton. And then it's kind of like a bit, and it's like a five minute video. And mid interview, he says, and just a quick ad break, and it was [01:38:29] S0: a Donald Trump ad. [01:38:32] S1: And that was hilarious. That added to the comedy was very funny. On a slightly more serious note, you seem to me to be a very disciplined person. Like, what is your biggest advice? What is the thing that you can't stop doing even though you know it's bad for you?
01:38:45 · Brian Armstrong
[01:38:45] S0: I think you're right. I actually have become quite disciplined as a way to make work sustainable over time. So when I'm in work mode, I I can be a little bit rigorous about these things. So, you know, I I I really... I wear, like, the same thing every day when I'm in work mode. I try to get up at the same time, do the same exercise. I I vary the exercises, but do do exercise and then get after it. And, like... So even what what I'm eating, you know, you can get very efficiency opt... Like, focused and optimized, which which I like in terms of... Especially once you have a little bit of money, can, you know, you can have a driver. You can have every meal made for you, like, making sure your macronutrients are dialed in. Like, you can really go pretty far with this. And I think that's good. And I also think there's times, on the weekend or if I'm taking time off with, you know, my family or whatever, I'm just, like, try to not be so rigorous all the time. So, you know, wear something crazy or fun or whatever. So I I definitely try to balance that a little bit, but I'd say overall, I'm pretty disciplined. You're asking what my advice is. I mean mean, I do think actually, like, is a form of addiction. Right? I would say, like, probably have a healthy degree of workaholism. Okay. So early on, I thought of what it is. Actually, I think, like, early on, I found that my brain was just, like, very drawn to certain, like, video games and, you know, like Starcraft two or Polytopia or some of these things where you're, like, collecting resources and building things and harvesting and moving to the next thing and, like... Or Managing
01:40:18 · Ty Morse
[01:40:18] S1: an economy and managing the growth of the civilization sort of thing?
01:40:21 · Brian Armstrong
[01:40:21] S0: Yeah. Actually, the game civilization, highly addictive to my brain where it was like... That was one of the only times in my life where I was like, the sun would be coming up, and I'd still be playing. And I'd be like, oh, shoot. Like, I have to go to class in a few hours or whatever. So what I realized is, like, okay. If my brain is just hyper drawn to certain things before I can become fixated on it, how do I channel that into something positive in the world? Because I didn't necessarily wanna become like a pro Starcraft player or something like that, although that's fine if people wanna do that. But I wanted to, like, try to say, okay. What could I... How could I do this to try to build something cool in the world? And so actually business does a lot of that same thing in my brain that the game civilization or Starcraft does where you literally are, like, you're harvesting resources, investing it in a new thing. There's some competitive aspect of it, but you can actually... You can win. Anyway, the timelines are longer in business. Like, might invest in things which take years to pay off, decades even, whereas the game can give you, like, a quick hit. But I've noticed, like, I just feel a little guilty or lazy. Like, if I'm if I'm just playing games too much, then I'm like, why don't I actually try doing this in the real world, which is, like, the ultimate game? You know? And so I think that's been a healthy reframe. But I I... You know, just the final thought I had in this is, I actually think a lot of people are born with predispositions to different addictions. And unfortunately, a lot of them are like the unhealthy ones that we think of, right, and like drugs and alcohol and like whatever social media and all these things. So I think some people are lucky enough to be born with an addiction that outputs some kind of value in society, and part of that is luck. But it's also you can try to take the things which are vices and turn them into strengths in some cases. I don't wanna say everybody can do that. That sounds like it kinda trivial... Trivializes it, but I think in some cases, can take something that your brain is unhealthily drawn to and try to channel it into a positive thing. Like, there's a doctor I was talking to recently. He's like, I have OCD, and it's, like, really detrimental in my personal life.
01:42:14 · Brian Armstrong, Ty Morse
But, you know, he's a dermatologist, so, like, in his professional life, it's, a huge asset. Like, his patients love it. He has so much attention to detail. Like, he'll make sure everything little thing is perfect or whatever. So you can try to channel these weaknesses into strengths. [01:42:28] S1: I I find that so funny to say that because, like, for a vice, that might be you're consuming a bunch of content. You're watching a bunch of movies, a bunch of shows. And I was thinking to myself as we were building this probably a week ago, we were just setting everything up. I was like, I have got to be the only person that's ever prepared for an interview by watching Game of Thrones. Watched the first three seasons of prep. Yeah. Yeah. And then [01:42:51] S0: we did a bunch of it. You know, what? Listened to a bunch of your interviews. Yeah. [01:42:54] S1: And then you don't you don't have to know that much. It's interesting to see how people spend their time because normally, I would think it's absolutely nuts to build this this sort of set for something like this. But then you just look at how people spend their time, and it's like, they clearly love stories. They love to see real things. You
01:43:12 · Brian Armstrong
[01:43:12] S0: know? Have you ever watched Band of Brothers? No. Okay. Great TV show, HBO. Anyway, I I feel like I've learned a bit about business from watching that show strangely enough because there's certain moments where you have to, like, go deliver hard news to this person that, like, they're not gonna be the one leading it... Leading this invasion, and their their their skills are needed elsewhere. Right? Which is kind of a polite way to say them, like, you're not up to the job. Or going and telling, like, this group of people, you know, I'm about to ask you to do something which is terrible and unthinkable, but you need to get it done. Like... And then, like... So as a younger person kinda watching this show, I remember think... Watching it and thinking, wow. Okay. That's a... That's how you have that conversation. That's a moment of leadership. How would you say it? And, like, you don't wanna be, like... You know, you're not in a movie in real life, so you can go too far with these things. But there are certain scenes of, like, negotiation in films where I'm... Like, I remember watching that. And Game of Thrones has lots of stuff. I don't know if there's a specific one I took took inspiration from. Probably not. But, yeah, Band of Brothers is great. You should watch that.