Enough is enough, am I right? We've all been working so hard and we needed to. But now we've got to slow down and take care of ourselves. Take solace in our survival through two of the toughest years humans have collectively faced. Listen in as we go over Carl’s recent Marathon, but the point is how to enjoy life…
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Carl: How are you, Gene?
Gene: Good dude.
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: Nice shirt.
Carl: Thank you. Yeah. I wore this for two reason. One, I bought it.
Gene: Yeah. Oh, they didn't give it to you?
Carl: Okay. Maybe there's three reasons. So for those listening, I'm wearing a Philadelphia Marathon shirt from the marathon. I finished it this weekend. I started on a Saturday, ended up Sunday night, but no, I'm just kidding. But the other reason I'm wearing it's oh man, I have been through so much stuff lately with the idea of social media and community and how we help each other. And the story of this marathon, I think really kind of puts an interesting frame on everything. So Gene.
Gene: Yo.
Carl: If you would be so kind, could we make this episode all about me?
Gene: We might as well.
Carl: No, no. 95% ish.
Gene: Yeah. 98%.
Carl: Did I tell you the story of why I ran this marathon?
Gene: No.
Carl: Okay. So good. So it'll be exciting for you as well or [dollars. Shit. 00:02:55].
Gene: Or something.
Carl: It should go. Okay. Did you ever see that MythBusters where they did polish a turd?
Gene: Yeah, I saw that.
Carl: That so good. Actually you can-
Gene: I love that [inaudible 00:03:06] [crosstalk 00:03:06].
Carl: You can't Polish a turd.
Gene: You can. It turns out it's true.
Carl: So I set out this year of 2021 with a goal to run 1500 miles. Right.
Gene: That's a lot of miles man.
Carl: It's a lot of miles. I've never known over 1200. And I thought, I don't care about races. I don't care about this or that. I just want every day to be able to work on something by myself that I can accomplish.
Gene: I dig it.
Carl: And so it was like, nobody else can control this, but me. Right. I mean, I could get hurt. I could get sick. I could have to do family stuff, but still even then-
Gene: Right.
Carl: I'll be able to do this. So it looks like I'm on pace for it, which is awesome. But while I was doing this, I started noticing that a friend of mine, Will Reynolds, was also starting to run a lot using Strava. And it's interesting, because Strava is really a community, right?
Gene: Yeah, hell yeah.
Carl: You're just watching people work out, you're watching them run and you're giving them kudos. Right? You're saying, "Hey, good job," or you leave a comment or whatever.
Gene: Yeah. It's a very active community.
Carl: Really active and what's fun is you comment on somebody's thing, somebody's run. And then suddenly somebody else that was on there, like is following you now. And that's the way it's supposed to be. Right? Like you say something cool and somebody follows you and this and that, but you can't really bullshit with Strava. I guess you could, you can manually enter stuff-
Gene: Right, or you could get in your car, drive really slow.
Carl: You could. I'll be behind ya honk. And when you got this, you at this, but so anyway Will and I are doing these runs and sometimes my runs are like a little bit longer and I'm seeing that he's doing those kind of runs. And we see that our pace is kind of the same. And I just start leaving him messages on Strava saying, "Hey, great job. Nice run."
Gene: Cool.
Carl: And then he left me a message, an email. I said, "Hey, join this app, Signal," right.
Gene: Signal. Okay.
Carl: And so Signal is this encrypted app. When I joined, I saw my lawyer and my CFO on it and I'm like, oh, okay. I guess we got some private conversations coming, but it's just really kind of a cool app. And it's, it does really good with audio video. And it also kind of takes out of the main flow. You're not like in regular text messages flying in or whatever.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: So we start talking about like, he goes for a run and after the run, he leaves me a message about how the company's doing and things he's challenged with and what he is trying to figure out. And then I was like, oh, this is cool. So after a run, I would give him some feedback, Hey, maybe this, maybe that. And then I'm struggling with this. And then it became about family. And then it became about personal stuff. And this is over the course of a couple of dozen runs, right? Like we're each running five times a week or whatever. So after a few months we've done this a few times and Will says, "I wish we could run together." And so I-
Gene: Right.
Carl: Was like, all right. And so I went and looked at the Philadelphia marathon. This would've been probably back in August, maybe even July. And I just sent him a link and I said, "all right, it's on you MF'er," and he signed up, sent me his confirmation. I signed up. He agreed.
Gene: He doesn't seem like the guy that would mess around.
Carl: No, no, no, he's not. And you'll hear about that in just a minute.
Gene: Nope.
Carl: So we agreed. We were going to kind of go for a nine 40 pace, which is pretty for me, that's pretty fast for marathon.
Gene: Good. Fast for anybody.
Carl: And I was like, but I can do this. That pace I can figure out. So do all this stuff I get to Philly for the week, Will is doing his sleep out where he sleeps out on the streets to raise money for homelessness.
Gene: I saw that. I was like, you're doing that, the night before a marathon.
Carl: He did. It was all week.
Gene: Oh God.
Carl: And that's something he's been doing for 10 years, at least.
Gene: Right.
Carl: And so he wasn't able to get together. He wasn't able to, and he felt bad. I knew so many other people in Philly. So it was like, it was fun to get, to go see him. It was fun to do all that stuff. Saw some good friends, saw some people I hadn't seen in a while, but so Will, and I are going to meet up that morning of the marathon. Now, the night before [we met at 00:07:19] five o'clock, like I met Brett, Brett who works with the Bureau and he lives just outside of Philly. And so he came in the city and we went for a walk and got some food and stuff. And the thing that, one of the things that happens for me anyway, and I think for a lot of people who are getting ready to compete is that night before you start going, I really screwed this up.
Carl: Even before you get there. You're like, why did I have a big steak last night? I'm supposed to be carbo loading, because big steaks are delicious. That's why I did it.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: And then why did I walk five miles with Brett? That's probably not a good thing for my legs. And you're like, ah, we saw some great stuff, and then my photo with the Rocky statue come on-
Gene: Right, right.
Carl: It was fun. But then Will hits me up at like 6:00 PM. I'm sitting there watching the Gators, get their eventual loss. I know what's coming. And he goes, ""Hey, I don't know what you're doing tonight, but why don't we get together for a beer? And I'm like, I've been mostly sober for like two months train for this run. In fact, the one goal I have is at the end of this run to find the first beer I can find, I even started saying it, "first beer I can find."
Gene: Really?
Carl: Tap that vein, give that beer. So he's like asking that and I'm like, no, I'm like, I love you.
Gene: Right. This is tomorrow?
Carl: Yeah. And so I'll see you in morning. So anyway, I said, "Hey, ha, we'll get together at 05:30?" And he was like, "six," and the thing starts at seven. Right. So we're just having this little bit of back and forth. And then he's like, I end up, I crashed out at about nine. And then when I wake up, I see he's left a message, 05:45. Like he's thinking about it now.
Gene: Right.
Carl: Shit, we got to do this.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: So we get that morning. He sends me a note that the last time he ran any distance was a half and he did an 8'15 pace. And he's thinking we can do a 9'15. So he's like shaving 25 seconds off the pace. That's a sub four, I'm pretty sure. Four hour marathon.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: And I'm just like, and I also know Will in that he is a go-getter, like when he decides to do something, right. So we show up and I'm just like, all right, you know what? I'm just going to see what happens. I'm just going to go for it. So this, I think, I'm going to make this kind of an analogy about life, Gene. We're going to make this move. If you had some really cool background music, not like the shit that you play the intro, but like some really cool stuff. So we get started and you know what? There's so much energy.
Gene: Oh yeah.
Carl: Because, this is community. This is the Philadelphia Marathon. It Got canceled last year. This year, there must have been 15,000 people.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: I don't know man, but there was a young girl, probably like a early twenties and she opens up her little Fanny bag and she's got like a fricking bagels in there. So she's like opens up this runner's bag. And she's like, "would you like a bagel?" "I'm like, I'm not in on the pocket bagel, but I do appreciate the thought." But you know, it's just like, everybody's like cheering on. And at one point they said, "we got some special characters here to greet to you. As you take off. Buddy, the elf is here." And I yelled out. I yelled out. "I know him," and people start laughing. Right. Because it's like, this is just, everybody's nervous energy. And they're just ready to go and all this kind of stuff. So then, you get through, when you get started and you really kind of packed up, right.
Carl: It's like, everybody's packed up. You can't really get moving and then it opens up and then Will's ready to go and I'm like, I'm just not going to look at my watch. I'm just not going to look. I'm just going to go. We'll see what happens. And then Will probably like a half mile in, Will looks down at his watch and he kind of smiles and I go, oh man, I don't want to know. I'm not going to, I'm just going to... So I just decided I'm not going to look at this. So we keep going about three or four miles in Will looks again. He goes, "don't look at your watch." I was like, dude, I can, I know, I know what we're doing. Yeah. Like, and even as a Florida runner who is used to a lot more humidity and stuff, like I can run better in Philly than I can in Florida, because I train here.
Gene: Yeah. Obviously. Yeah.
Carl: So we're going and it keeps going. And then all of a sudden we come into the first crowd, right? Like there've been people along the way cheering in this, but now we're coming into a group of about, we're probably coming up on mile and it's probably coming into a group of a few hundred people. Everything fades away. I don't notice it anymore. I don't think about how fast am I going? What's going on? I just see the people. And then I see one of the first cameras that I've noticed and suddenly I'm like, I'm trying to look on the outside. Like everything is great. And you know what? It was pretty good. But I thought to myself, I wish there was a camera behind this. So you can see how fast people faces go from this crazy smile to, oh my God, what have I done?
Carl: To see just the melt of the fake happiness. And I don't, I hate to say it like that, but we're trying to capture this moment and we know somebody's going to take a photo. And that's what social media is, right? It's like, except we get to take the fucking photo.
Gene: Right.
Carl: Or put it out there and I've shared this before, Steven Gates saying that, "social media is where we compare other people's outsides with our insights." And that's why it's not cool. Right. So we so will and I keep going and he sees a friend of his, Adam, super nice guy. I think it was Adam might have been Andy. Anyway, super nice guy. And he's talking about how he ran a marathon in like 9'05 or something. And these guys start speeding up a little bit right now. Here's the thing Will, is about probably 10 years younger than me.
Carl: Adam. I think his name is Adam is about probably five or six years younger than Will. He's worked with, Will at the company at sea for like a decade or 14. I think he said 14 years. Right? So they're like pumping each other up and getting going. And then at one moment, just somebody way up ahead, yo, let's go. And then I just felt myself do it. I was like, "let's go." And it's like mile 10 and I'm running faster than I should be running. And I look at my watch and we're doing like an 8'55 pace. And my brain goes, you can't do that. Now if I hadn't looked, I don't know. Right. Like, I mean, we weren't going to keep that anyway, that wasn't going to, that we were in the crowd. But what was weird was when I did that yell, like everything else went away, I did feel better.
Carl: I did have that surge of energy. I did feel like I was okay. So we keep going around mile 18. I swear to God. I saw a friend of mine who died like 20 years ago. I'm not kidding you. He looked like a Paul Figueroa. He was my landlord. He looked like him. He and he yells. And because, and the thing is if you've never run a marathon or half marathon or any of these better organized races, everybody yells out your name, because it's on your bib.
Gene: Ah, got you.
Carl: It's like your number and then Carl really big and other stuff. And so this guy that looks like Paul looks at me and goes, "go get him Carl." And I'm just like, "okay, Paul." What the hell is that? Right?
Gene: Like who's Paul.
Carl: So I'm not hallucinating, dude. I'm telling you, and I know it wasn't him.
Gene: Right.
Carl: But we freak, and this guy was very unique looking. He fricking looked like him. So now I'm starting to think about this friend of mine who got a brain aneurysm and a blood clot in his brain and was like super happy and doing stuff one day and gone the next. In a forced coma or whatever you call that. This guy was a guy who was an electrical engineer and decided to become a photographer. And he was horrible for like four years. And then he became pretty good. And then the next thing you know, he is doing the coffee table book for West Coast Choppers. Right. And I remember when he came back, I said, "so was that a fun gig?" And he goes, "come in the studio." He got paid with a chopper.
Gene: Oh, wow.
Carl: Yeah. That's who he was. Right. Like he-
Gene: Right.
Carl: He lived life. And he always was like, "just don't do something stupid and make sure it's something you want to do," and all these types of things. So anyway, keep going. Will's hamstring messes with him. Now, this was his big concern the whole time. And I heard him go, "Ugh." And I was like, "are you okay?" You know, part of me is like going, I do not want him to be hurt. First of all, I do not want him be hurt. But if this slows him down a little-
Gene: Then you're okay with it.
Carl: It's got to be better for me, because I'm just trying to be somebody else.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: You know. I am not running my race, but at the same time, I'm like, maybe I can do this. So the challenge is great and I'm so glad that will, and I did this. Right. And so we, we go through and then we come down to main street and dude, it felt like there were thousands of people. I sped up. I'm high fiving people on the sides. I'm like, they're dogs barking, we're barking.
Carl: You know, it's like, everything's happening. You never know when you're going to, when the turns going to come, because you're heading back. But you see people coming back the other way. Like, it can't be much longer.
Gene: Right.
Carl: All these things are happening. It's super exciting. And then you see another one of those cameras and I'm just like, I'm going to smile for this one. And you know, I saw a shot of myself and this a picture that Will took, or somebody took of Will and me. Will saw the camera. I did not, Will looks amazing. I saw Will, when he hurt his hamstring, I saw how he was, he was looking like me, but he saw that camera man.
Carl: And he like, he pulled it up and he's like, ah, and then I'm in the background going, focusing on my breathing, trying not to die, trying not to lose him, to watching him go. Then his friend shows back up his friend's just kind of running around, helping people. He's got gels and water and Gatorade and all that kind of stuff. So he's just kind of, he's not a volunteer, but he just decided to come out that day and help people. Super awesome. Right.
Gene: Cool.
Carl: So he, and Will start going again and Will has that inner energy. That's why his company's so successful. That's all those things.
Gene: Right.
Carl: And he's really good at presenting that stuff and I'm pretty good at it too. Right. But at that moment, I'm just like trying not to lose. I'm not losing sight of them. They're only maybe like two people, three people ahead of me and it's pretty broad. It's pretty spaced out. So we're going, and then you come to mile 20 and you're like, oh, we're almost there. This is a short run for me on a regular week. And you try to figure all this stuff out. And then I saw Paul again, the guy I thought I saw on mile 18. So I must be seeing him now, because we've looped back. And he just went on the other side and he's just smiling at me like in a weird way. And I think it's cause I called him Paul and he's like, there's that that guy-
Gene: Guy who calls me Paul.
Carl: There's the guy that calls me Paul and I did looked at him and I went, "Hey Paul." And he was like, "Hey Carl." And he just went with it. Right. And it was just this amazing, weird, bizarre thing. But I think you get towards the end and you're barely going. And I was almost like, there was part of me that was like I could pass Will. I think he would come right up on me. But I also knew he was starting to have some stomach trouble towards the end.
Carl: I was having weird. My right arm was really sore, which is this the thing, because like you're doing something faster and further. So we ended up finishing, I had 11 personal records. Right. Like, and it was obviously I only did one of the marathons, so it was fastest marathon I ever did. And it was like right around a 4'06. It's ridiculous. Right. And depending on, Strava or Garmin, think it was Strava, because they gave me a few extra seconds.
Gene: They are one's faster.
Carl: It was like a 9'22 pace. And so it's like, yeah. And afterwards Will like, we get across Will puts his arms around. He goes, "we did it, man. We did it." He didn't say, man, he drops man in there. And then I'm like, "yeah, we did." And I see this one, volunteering goes, "are you okay?" I was like, "keep an eye on me." So I told Will, I was like, "got to keep walking, got to keep walking."
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: And so we're doing all that and you know, it was amazing and, but we get to the end of it. And all I can think about is I want a photo to show people that I did this. Is that right? Is that what I should be thinking? I mean, we're doing this episode right now and I'm talking about the thing, right. And I'm wearing the shirt, which you buy before the marathon, by the way.
Gene: Right.
Carl: All the finisher shirts, you could just go to a bunch of marathons and buy the finisher shirt. Right. But I think that the thing after anything you've done in your life, that was a big goal. And it's over, we've talked about this with post event depression for organizers. Right? First of all, I felt great. I literally was on a plane about four hours after we finished, because I wanted to meet my daughter in the Atlanta airport who was coming in from LA and surprise her and you know, flying the rest the way home and all this kind of stuff. And it, and it was great. There, there were a couple other people in the airport. I did find that beer.
Carl: I also found bacon on a stick. Thank you, Philadelphia. That was glorious. The guy I said, "is this, is this baking on a stick good?" He goes, "it's bacon on a stick,"-
Gene: Bacon on a stick, fool.
Carl: And I was like, yeah, I will gladly take that. He goes, "and I'm going to give you an extra one." So he like he gave me an extra there.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: And so I'm talking with people at the airport about, because they're flying back to Chicago or heading back to Pittsburgh or doing whatever. And I just started thinking about it. I saw my daughter and then I get home. I'm in a really bad mood.
Gene: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Carl: You know? I'm like, I'm thinking about all these things that I haven't done, because I was so focused on this and now I got to get back to that. It's like, my life has changed and now I got to go back. You know what I mean?
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: Have you had that like talk, I was thinking about this with the gym, right? Like you go through and you do, or with the dojo where you go through, when you have everybody test for stuff and then it's over and then do you think, oh shit, I didn't change that light bulb. It could be something as simple as that.
Gene: Oh Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean you're on the other side of bit too. So you start thinking like, oh, they're going to quit now. You know, they've achieved, you see, you start overthinking everything, you start overthinking everything.
Carl: So we get through this and I'm looking at all the things that I've put out there on social media about it. And I'm watching all the things come in and I'll say this Strava is a community. Right. It's still social media in a way.
Gene: Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah.
Carl: You're sharing photos, you're doing that stuff, but it's a community.
Gene: Yep.
Carl: If I had not finished, if I had, for some reason just blinked the thing, I would've probably gotten twice or three times the love. Right. I got a lot. I got a lot of love, but a community picks you up. Right. They see you struggle with something and they want to help you.
Gene: Yep.
Carl: Right. It could be by sharing an experience. It could be by saying that sucks. It could be by saying, I've got some friends, let me check with them or whatever, but you fucking do it. And then social media is where you, how have to put on that, that happy face, because the one time you said something real, what happened?
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: Gene, if you go out there and say, "worried about my mom," on social media, people send you thoughts and prayers. They send a shit ton of stuff. And then what happens? You feel bad, because now you took the fricking party time, happy angles and filters. Look at me at the beach.
Gene: Right.
Carl: And you've turned it into a pity party. Do you ever feel that way?
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: I mean, have you ever said something real? And then suddenly it's like, oh shit.
Gene: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah. I mean, that's what happens? You kind of expose yourself a little bit. You open up. You get a little vulnerable and you worry about it.
Carl: On social media. It doesn't seem to be a good call. Right?
Gene: Well, yeah. I mean, I think it depends on, it depends on how you use it, but yeah. I think over overwhelmingly you're right. I mean, that's not going to come off well, because everything else is either advertisement or-
Carl: Yeah.
Gene: That's what you are. You're advertising yourself.
Carl: You're advertising your life. You're like out there doing that and you know what, that's a choice we all opted into.
Gene: Oh yeah. That's the game.
Carl: We don't have to do that. You know, we don't have to publish the thing that we did. And then thank everybody for all the praise is on the thing like this damn marathon, which was amazing. And I loved it. I'm so glad I did it. And now I'm looking for what the next thing is going to be. Right. I got to fricking finish this annual goal, but there's something about, there's something about genuine happiness versus posing for the camera and it's just, I'm really in this moment right now where I don't think people need to cancel their social media. I think we just need to change how we use it. And if the company is a bad company and you don't want to be associated with it, then that's totally something you should do.
Carl: But the other thing for me right now, I'm so sick of checking in on everything. So frequently. Well, what do you do when you first get up, because I actually, and I see you as somebody. That's going to be, oh my God. It's being recorded. I think you got your shit together.
Gene: Thank you.
Carl: You're welcome. I'm wrong all the time.
Gene: I don't fully, like yeah.
Carl: But when you get up at like, what is your morning routine when you first wake up? Like, what do you do?
Gene: I don't check social media. I don't get my phone.
Carl: Do you look at your phone though?
Gene: No. No, no.
Carl: What do you do?
Gene: I actually, I used to have an actual alarm clock that wasn't a phone.
Carl: Okay.
Gene: Until it stopped working. But now I use the apple has like the sleep function.
Carl: Yeah, yeah.
Gene: It's not just an alarm. It's the whole sleep thing. So I use that, turn it off and I get up, make my coffee, then go, start getting ready? Just take my time. I get up like 45 minutes before I need to.
Carl: Okay.
Gene: So I can take my time, check, get my coffee. I don't check social media.
Carl: You check the weather?
Gene: Yeah, I do. By looking outside, like literally-
Carl: See! That's what I mean by you have your shit together.
Gene: Well, I have to let the dog out. The dog gets up with me and she has to go out. So-
Carl: Right. I check the weather coming into this marathon. Like I was checking the stock market and all my money was in it.
Gene: I don't like to look at the phone first thing, man, because I feel like it owns me and I get very... I don't know if I'm probably the opposite of what you're thinking for me. I think it's [crosstalk 00:26:59]-
Carl: No, no. You're doing what I think. I think you're a role model for this.
Gene: I don't like to be told what... See, it comes from a different place though. I don't like to be told what to do. So when I feel like the phone's controlling me, I get angry at it.
Carl: Yeah. I think that's fair though.
Gene: I don't even like the watch. I've got an apple watch and I have it worn it in like a week, because I'm like, I don't like the fact that the message, the text comes to the watch. And I leave my phone on the other side of the room and the text follows me around.
Carl: And I mean, I can't stand it when other people look at their apple watch. If we're together and we're doing something and I do the same thing though, I'm just as guilty. I'm not calling anybody out. I mean, it is like, this is what I do too. But Simon Sinek, when he was on the podcast with us, do you remember him going off on that?
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: And he said, "he can't stand it when people look at their phones and tell you there's someplace else, I probably would be having a better time."
Gene: It's gotten so bad. Yeah. That the interpersonal communication, but it's gotten to where people can't even work out without recording it.
Carl: I saw people fucking texting while they were on the marathon.
Gene: Yeah, and it's not real unless it's being recorded by your watch or whatever. And it's like, oh, you can't even come in the gym and lift weights without like wearing your watch. So you can tell your heart rate.
Carl: Are we the old guys in the Muppets? Are we telling people to get off our lawn? Because here's the thing they at least were at the show and watching it.
Gene: You know, I can't help, but think that we might be, but you know what, God, you need to listen to us, because I think that you are hurting your ability to actually enjoy the moment that you're living in. Right, because what other reason do you have to be attached to that device other than you're worrying about the future. You're worrying about what you're going to do with this information in the future. You're worried about how you're going to look in the future. You're worried about how others are going to interact with you in the future. You're not here right now, breathing and enjoying and living and doing the thing that you're doing right now. You're thinking about this device.
Carl: And it's not just one device.
Gene: Oh, it's connected to the internet.
Carl: What? Nobody told me that, oh my God, is that how this works?
Gene: Its crazy. Yes.
Carl: So, but I mean, it could be getting on a scale every morning to see what your weight is.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: You know, it could be... Okay. It's pretty much just the phone. That's all I got is the scale, which is also connected to the internet by the way. And updates my phone.
Gene: Mine is too. Yep.
Carl: But why did we become so in just enthralled with all of these metrics, what's about everything.
Gene: It's so cool.
Carl: And I know it's super cool. I get that. I mean, I think where I'm at right now is I worry so much. I check all these metrics about the community. I check all these metrics about the financial side of the bureau to make sure we're sustainable. I'm constantly trying to figure out all these things and I don't fix little in my life that would make every day better.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: I made the joke about changing the light bulb. There's one light in the kitchen, over the kitchen island, this little string of lights and we don't have the right light bulb. And I just got to go get one. I go buy the place every day. So fucking fix it, or the things that constantly are going to need doing, like cleaning the pool or whatever. And these are such privileged fucking things. I said that the light in over the kitchen island for God's sakes, right. I just, I think to me, and this gets to the bureau and it gets to community.
Carl: Gene, are we going to have a Hot Take?
Gene: I'm going to have one.
Carl: Oh dude, just get back to the burning thing you were telling me about earlier. It's never supposed to burn Gene, either front or back. Never supposed to burn. So Hot Take, social media can be a support. It can be about support people, people saying nice things and saying that you did great and all that. And you know what? And I posted that run in the runners world community.
Gene: Right.
Carl: I don't know that community as well, but I think social media can be about support, but community is about safety. You know? It's like, there are things. If I'm worried that work, like when the pandemic hit and the bureau lost $70 grand, I wasn't putting that on social media. I wasn't saying, "Hey, everybody pandemic hit. It's lost $70 grand."
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: "Please check out my Kickstarter." No, in the community with some people I was saying it, because you know what, they weren't going to make a judgment. They were going to fucking help. They were going to find a way to do something. That's when all those videos came out with people talking about with the bureau meant to them, right.
Gene: That's your community.
Carl: That's the community. And so community is, I mean, it gives you that connection. It gives you that belonging. It gives you a chance to help other people. And does anything feel better than that, than helping other people than... I mean, back to the marathon, there were some people that were like on the side, that those last six miles like miles zero to 20, is 20 miles. Miles 20 to 26 is another 20 miles.
Gene: Feels like it, doesn't it?
Carl: Like that last six miles. Oh my God.
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: And you see people falling out. They were going and then you see other people that are run by going, you good. You all right. You see the medical staff, you see the community, you see all that kind of stuff. The people who came out just to cheer. Well, there's people who came out to cheer and they came out to volunteer that's community. Right. They're like out there and they see you. Even if you're smiling for the camera, they see you. They know who you are. They know when you're struggling and God that's community. Right?
Gene: Yeah. It's beautiful.
Carl: Why are you laughing at me motherfucker.
Gene: Beautiful.
Carl: I dropped it. Oops.
Gene: I wasn't the first one.
Carl: It wasn't.
Gene: Nope.
Carl: I mean it's community not only gives you connections, which are important and help you avoid issues and grow faster and stronger, but they just, they give you a place to hang out where you can relax and not have to keep checking-
Gene: Yeah.
Carl: How you're doing. You can just see how somebody else is doing and help them. And to me, I think we've lost that a lot. I don't think we need to cancel social media or any of that shit. I think we just need to use it no more real way. I can't even say authentic, because they bastardize that term. But just be real, like get out there. I'm not saying share that you lost a loved one. Although that's cool. If that's what you want to do, I'm just saying go out there and maybe no filters or, let's just show this [shinaz 00:34:00] for what it is for once.
Gene: Let the light hit your [shinaz 00:34:04].
Carl: Gene. Holy shit sorry about that.
Gene: Got that out. That's good, man.
Carl: Yeah. Yeah.
Gene: Bringing the thunder today, my friend.
Carl: You can't stop the thunderbolt.
Gene: No. All right.
Carl: You remember that?
Gene: I don't.
Carl: Ready to rumble. You can't... That was Afro thunder. You can't stop the thunderbolt. Gene, next week we talk all about you and my friend.
Gene: Oh no, I don't have anything to say. I'll come up with something. I've spent a week with family, so we'll have plenty to talk about. We'll need some serious therapy.
Carl: That'll be good. All right, brother.
Gene: All right, man.
Carl: Thanks, [strive for the MF'ers 00:34:41] everybody.
