January 1, 2026 • 35 mins
Featured on the Thursday January 1, 2026 edition of The Armstrong & Getty Replay...
- Peaking at 60...
- Judge Honey...
- Scheffler & the Meaning of Life...
- Joe's Bitterness About GOP!
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack arms Strong and Joe, Kaddy arm
Strong and Jetty and keep arm strong, yeady Strong. Happy
(00:31):
New Year.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Oh my god, I get so excited with the calendar
turning to a different year because there are three hundred
and sixty five days and just oh, I understand why
everybody is applotting last night.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
What the hell.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
You're still in bed? Let me roll over?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Who are you? I kid?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Of course I would only sleep with my beautiful bride. Hey,
Happy New Year, everybody, And why not kick off the
new year with how you kicked out the old year.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
With a little armstrong and giddy replay? Enjoy. We talked
about this a little bit earlier, but I want to
get into more of the specifics because I find this
really interesting. The headline sort of hides a lot of
the really good stuff. The headline being that you reach
(01:21):
your functional peak as a human later than they had
previously thought. Now functional functional is what we're going to
get into defining here that word as they use sixteen
different dimensions. This is a serious, like university study. This
is not I don't know, so many studies, and you
should look out for this. It's fun to talk about him.
(01:43):
So many studies that you hear that are you know
it turns out, you know, it's paid for by the
pudding corporation, And it turns out you'd be better off
eating more pudding in your life or whatever exactly, Just
dumb stuff like that. But it turns out that people
reach their functional peak in their late fifties early sixties,
(02:04):
decades later than most people assume when you figure in
all these different things. So physical strength obviously, and certain
cognitive abilities like processing speed decline steadily after your mid twenties,
and I think we all canna test. Yes, well, if
you're past your mid twenties, you're aware of that, But
a whole bunch of other things you get stronger at
(02:26):
for quite some time, but they all diminish it eventually. Intelligence, personality,
emotional intelligence, decision making. Overall functioning continues developing through midlife,
reaching its apex at around sixty years old. A twenty
five year old can process information faster, hold more items
(02:48):
in their working memory, and solve abstract reasoning problems more
quickly than someone decades older. So that stuff you're better at.
Twenty five than you are later. And that's who talking
to the other day. They were younger than me, and
they're talking about that how they forget stuff now, And
I said, yeah, I finally had to give in and
start like leaving myself notes because I used to just
(03:10):
I used to be very proud of I just I
could remember everything I needed to do and how I
was going to do it, and I just knew I
was going to remember. That worked for a while and
then it until it didn't. Fluid intelligence, because we were
talking about working memory there, holding information in your head
and all that sort of stuff peaks around twenty five.
(03:30):
Fluid intelligence, the ability to think on your feet and
solve novel program problems peaks at twenty and declines after that. Wow,
isn't that something? Huh Okay, that's probably good for you know,
a lot of your military age people and the kind
of decisions they got to make really quickly on their
(03:51):
feet and they're around twenty years old.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, man, there's a lot to this. Yeah, other terms
to understand and subtleties and the rest of Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Other vantages emerge with age that younger adults haven't had
time to develop. Crystallized intelligence, which is not a term
I'd heard, but it means accumulated knowledge and vocabulary obviously
keeps rising well until your sixties. Right that you can
call it wisdom if you wanted to. Financial literacy for
(04:20):
some reason improves into your late sixties early seventies. It
goes beyond that, it goes beyond other kinds of intelligence,
and that's something.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, But then.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Dig this one. Moral reasoning, because this all comes under
the category of you being able to function. So some
of then drop off early, some of them go later.
Moral reasoning tends to rise through most of adulthood, and
research indicates that it reverses very late in life. Your
(04:52):
moral reasoning will reverse very late in life. So I'll
rob a bank and have an affair or what's the
what's that all about.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I'm gonna have to ask my slaves if they agree.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Late in life. You're a little late in life. I
think I think you're just a bad person if you
got slaves at this point.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Well guilty, Yeah, is this thing true? I mean, it's
interesting that they came up with different terms or more
specific terms for the aspects of wisdom. I'm not sure
we need all of them. But it's interesting to hear
it broken out. I mean, you just you have so
many case studies, not only your own, but those of
(05:31):
close friends and relatives and their experiences, and you just
you're You're like a much more experienced surgeon. Yes, Michael,
maybe that's why so many old people say whatever's on
their mind, because they have no more moral reasoning.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I don't know, is the case of the efforts the
same as moral reasoning.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, or you know, combines in some cases.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
But yeah, well, Katie and I were talking earlier when
you were gone. Just some of this stuff really flies
in the face of why do we have eighty year
olds running the country? Oh? On some of these? Some
of these, But.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Right, I got a bunch of old guys running the country,
and their financial literacy appears to be there is none.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Emotional intelligence climbs through midlife before tapering off. Based on
research comparing age groups older adults, this is a financial one.
I guess older adults are about twice as likely as
younger adults to avoid the sunk cost fallacy, the habit
of throwing good money after bad twice as likely at
(06:33):
like sixty as you would be at thirty of understanding.
Now you know this turned out to be a bad idea,
Let's just move on, as opposed to well we've come
this far, we better keep spending more money, right, Yeah, yeah,
I would agree.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Again, it's a question of having lived through that sort
of thing a couple of times and realizing, Okay, this
is really disappointing, but we have to admit it's a
loser and move on.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yeah, it's interesting that they did that. They separate out
financial intelligence, where it might just be all wisdom there,
it's just accumulated knowledge. And yeah. Personality also matures with age.
Conscientiousness and emotional stability, which are the two traits that
(07:16):
are most strongly linked to career success and life satisfaction
according to this study. Have to say that again, So
the two traits most strongly linked to career success and
life satisfaction. Which I don't know about you, but having
satisfying life is way up on my list of priorities.
Who's ass you kiss? That's the most important thing. It's
not who you know, it's who you Wow. Conscientiousness and
(07:41):
emotional stability are the two traits you need for life satisfaction.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
That makes sense, but.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Both increase from early adulthood, well into your fifties and sixties.
So that's good. Researchers. Weaited these various dimensions and created
a composite intext tracking overall functioning and overall functioning peaks
between fifty five and sixty, with clear declines emerging about
sixty five to seventy. So I got a few years
left before, I mean, because I'm barely functioning now, I
(08:09):
got a few really chairs left before it really starts
to crash. True, pressure you you don't You don't get
much time to enjoy your peak, do you?
Speaker 4 (08:19):
No?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Well, we're not designed to live past that, right, Really
conscientiousness and emotional what was it? Stability? Stability? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Can that be translated as being beaten down for emotional stability? No,
I'm fine, I've been kicked before. Well, it is true
you get emotional stability.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
But I remember, God, quite a few years ago, I
was proud of some reaction I had to something, and
you you said it's just because you have lower testosterolziightfully admit,
which took all the fun out of it. But there
is you do also gain emotional stability, don't you think
it isn't low tea because of Gabe. Again, because you've
(09:04):
been through these situations before. This isn't the first time
you've had a boss shoot off about something dumb or
whatever situation, or you you get something in the mail
from the tax board that's gonna be a pain in
the ass. It's not the first time any of these
things have happens. You don't right quite get it's crazy.
Well please if anybody disagrees with this.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
By the time you're playing in your third Super Bowl,
you're focused on the game. You're focused on doing your
job in a way you can't be the first time.
Think about raising kids, the second kid versus the first kid.
I mean, think about sha, yeah, the just the you know,
the first time your first kid falls down and binks
their head versus when you get to the second kid.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, they dout there, they're fine.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Getting back to the testosterone thing, though, What what you
need to remember, I think, or maybe you don't. I
don't know, is that virtually everything we sink, everything we do,
is chemicals slashing around in our brain and the spark
of the divine.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
But and I believe in free will.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I believe we have a certain amount of control over
how we're going to react and you work to develop that.
But I mean, yeah, so of course different levels of
different chemicals is going to affect the way you approach life'
it's it's obvious, it has to be.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Well, yeah, I'm just trying to claim that any any
growth I've had is not all because I have lower
tip thoughts.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Oh no, no.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Not at all. I would never say credit for some growth. Right.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Well, I think that that discretionary part I was talking
about that absolutely grows because you've gone through it once
when you lost your head. You've gone through it another
time where you didn't lose your head, and you're thinking, yeah,
I'm staying calm again this time. Yeah, and then when
he leaves for the day, I'll take a poop on
his desk and whatever it takes vengeance. Vengeance is fine.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Little sugar in the gas tank to take care of that. Probably. Yeah,
that served cold, right, you know what I'm saying. Huh,
good luck breaking down in the freeway on the way home.
That's why you had it. When you get older, the
fact that you're like super quick thinking cognitive reasoning drops
after twenty Wow, that's early in life. Yeah, yeah, So
(11:25):
kind of wrapping it up, studies. Studies cited by the
authors show that people typically earn their highest salaries and
reach peak occupational prestige between fifty and fifty five. It's
not just because you've been around the company for a
long time or blah blah blah. It's actually when you've
got the most accumulated knowledge and emotional stability and all
(11:45):
those sorts of things.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah, and shirt, you're most likely to do a good
job at it.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, exactly. Now, the fact, as it says here that
the leaders of many political countries are in their seventies
or eighties is not Yeah, these are all averages though,
of course, I mean just flat out on the face
of it. Obviously, Donald Trump's brain is different than Joe
Biden's brain, flat absolutely true. Yeah, And it strikes me
(12:14):
that in a lot of your.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Tech industries, for instance, your your tech companies, they're run
by wunderkins, these these young phenoms who are not fifty
five years old, when they have their greatest success. Is
that because there is no accumulated knowledge to be had.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
In their fields specific to that field.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I mean, management is management, dealing with people is dealing
with people. But maybe energy and willingness to work eighty
hours a week and not being tied to any sort
of quote unquote accumulated wisdom. Maybe that explains it. I
don't know, I mean because you'd think it. Sam Altman,
for instance, would hire a gray haired CEO and say,
(13:00):
I'll just worry about the innovation stuff you were on
the company.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
But that's not the way it goes. The fifty five
year old CEO would say, what are we doing? What's
the point of this?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
What is this? I I keep telling you it's AI
AI artificial intelligence.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
All right, robots. The fact that my moral compass may
go south on me and my old age, that's got me,
uh concerned. Wonder when a sort of high jinks I'll
be up.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
To how bad could it get?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
It's the arm Strong and Getty show. Armstrong Strong.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
This could have been three separate.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
But it wasn't three separate.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Let's go with what happened in the case.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
The honey or Oh my god, I'm sorry, I'm sorry
that I don't know what's I apologize.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Go ahead the question here. I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
I've just been totally thrown.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
But yeah, I can imagine I'm a little thrown by that.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Also, if I'm being honest, I don't know what to say.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Well, go ahead, you've only gone a minute and seven.
So the lawyer talking to the drops off honey. Oh
my gosh, I'm sorry. I'm a little thrown by that. Yeah,
me too.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I gotta play that for my daughter.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Oh that's funny.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
The idea that you would accidentally call the judge honey.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Is can I hear that again? Well? Just yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
This could have been three separate, okay, but it wasn't
three separate.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Let's go with what happened in the keys the honey.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Oh my god, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that. I don't
know what to say to that. I apologize.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
You just you know what that's gonna be. You turn
to the bailiff and say, let me borrow your gun
and just do the right thing. It's over.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Oh that's hilarogy.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
I'm sorry, I'm a little thrown by Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
You gotta play that for your dad, Katie, who was
a judge. Oh yeah, and the and the honey was
like in a just kind of a half condescending Yeah, yeah,
yeah very much. So, Oh honey, come on, let them,
let the men handle this.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
His only possible savior is to call his wife in
the court and say, your honor. We had a bit
of a go around this morning. I was arguing with him,
he was arguing with me. It's probably stuck in his head.
I mean, because that's.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
That is pretty funny. Yeah, the fact that he the
fact that he can't just move on.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I just, oh, he's so horrified by what he's done.
He's just got to say, your honor. I'm filing a
writ of vacation and I am going to become a plumber.
Somebody else needs to take over this case.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
I don't know what kind of trial it is, but like,
if he's defending me, I'd stand up, Hey, can I
get my money back? Or can I get a lawyer
who doesn't call the judge? Honey? Is that possible?
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Holy cow, there's gonna be an assault charge next year, honor.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Give me just a second. With this guy, I would
stand up. Did everybody hear that? See that? Do I
deserve my money back? Show hands?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
I'd raise my hand, yeah, yeah, give him his money back. So, oh,
that's funny.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
What are fridge cigarettes? I like to hip you, obviously
to new phrases and things like that, whether they're acronyms
or two words blended together or whatever, you know, staycations,
whatever they are. What kind of summer we're supposed to have,
that's right, What are we having? We had this last week?
Who was a therapy bro summer? That's what we're having.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Oh goodness, too.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Many summers and moons. Fridge cigarettes. It's your pop in
the refrigerator, soda in the refrigerator, you know, like sitting
is the new smoking. Somebody actually said that to me
the other day and said, I believe sitting is a
new smoking. And I think they weren't trying to be funny.
I think they just they were trying to pretend that
(17:10):
they came up with that on their own, and they
were presenting it to me anyway. I just let it roll.
It's fridge cigarettes. You're drinking soda. It's like smoking cigarettes
taking years off your life. That's pretty good. Turma.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
The sitting thing, Oh, I do it too much. One
of my favorite books I've ever read about politics is
The Myth of the Rational Voter. In the first chunk
of it, the main argument of it is, and it's
indisputable by the data, that there are certain economic ideas
(17:48):
and principles that people get wrong in much greater numbers
than they get right for some reason like rent control.
Like that con Man immunist, the communist, if you will,
zoron Mumdani in New York is trying to pitch you
hit people young people with rent control. They will, in
(18:10):
overwhelming numbers say that's a great idea. But then a
little edumacation, a little life experience, they understand. Oh it's
a terrible idea. It's like the worst idea. But generation
after generation people fall for certain economic arguments over and
over again. It's kind of interesting anyway. I'm reminded of
(18:30):
that when thinking about what we're going to play for you,
believe it or not, it's a golfer at a press conference,
what Scotti Scheffler, Who is the greatest golfer on the planet?
And more on that in a minute. But when it
comes to what will make me happy? I think a
(18:50):
lot of human beings, most of us, are like those
youngsters who think rent control is a good idea. Generation
after generation, we chase the wrong things. Yeah, this segment
is about life satisfaction.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Not about golf.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Yeah, yeah, oh it's not. Oh my god, I was
going to go into a long discourse over the draw
versus the fade anyway, those are golf terms anyway. Yeah,
it's about life satisfaction. And so Scott Scheffler, who is
the greatest golfer on the planet currently and very very
well liked because he's very normal as a dude, happens
(19:31):
to be a fairly devout Christian and a family manager.
You're about to hear very much, not like Tiger the Assassin.
He's a great competitor in the rest of it, but
he's kind of a different guy.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Anyway.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
They're asking him about his superachievements this year and previous
years at a press conference, and this is what he said.
We'll start with sixteen go from there.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
Michael, Yeah, I think it's kind of funny. I think,
you know, I think I said something after the Buyer
this year about like it feels like you work your
whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for like a
few minutes. It only lasts a few minutes. That kind
of viewphoric feeling. And I like to win the Buyer
Nelson Championship at home. I literally worked my entire life
(20:16):
to become good at golf, to have an opportunity to
win that tournament, and you win it, you celebrate, get
to hug, hug my family, my sister's there. It's such
an amazing moment. And then it's like, Okay, now what
are we gonna eat for dinner? You know, life goes on,
go ahead, roll on. Is it great to be able
to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have
in the game of golf? Yet, I mean it brings
(20:37):
tears bisers to think about because it's literally worked my
entire life to become good at this sport. And to
have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think is
a pretty cool feeling. You know, to get to live
out your dreams, it's very special. But at the end
of the day, it's like, I'm not out here to
inspire the next generation of golfers. Don't I'm not here
to inspire somebody else to be the best player in
(20:57):
the world, because what's the point.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
You know, this is not a fulfilling life.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
It's it's fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it's
not fulfilling from a sense of like the deepest, you know,
places of your heart. You know, there's a lot of
people that make it to what they thought was going
to fulfill them in life. And then you get there,
and all of a sudden you get to number one
in the world and they're like, what's the point?
Speaker 1 (21:18):
And you know, I really do believe that. I think
I think most everybody has had that experience or has
that experience. At some point you get the whatever it
is you've been wanting to get and okay, hmm, the
satisfaction of that didn't last very long, and you have
(21:38):
to wrestle with what am I? You know, what what
am I doing? Or what do I enjoy? Or why
am I? Why am I getting up every morning?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
And it's the process and just the daily life. My
dad was always really good at this and just you know,
you just use the example of taking out the trash.
People don't like to complain about doing this and that,
and that's what life is. Life is taking out the
trash and doing the dishes, and getting up and going
to work and raising your all the things that you
do that seem like they're in the way of your
(22:07):
That's what life is, right right, Let's throw along. You know,
what is the point?
Speaker 5 (22:12):
You're like, why do I want to win this? Tournament
so bad. That's something that I wrestle with on a
daily basis. It's like showing up with the Masters every year.
It's like, why do I want to win this golf
tournament so badly? Why do I want to win the
Open Championship so badly? I don't know, because if I win,
it's gonna be awesome for about two minutes, and then
we're going to get to the next week and it's
gonna be like, hey, you want two majors this year?
(22:33):
How important is it for you to win the FedEx
Cup playoffs? And it's just like we're back here again,
you know, So we really do. We work so hard
for such little moments, and you know, I'm kind of
sick o. I love putting in the work, I love
being able to practice. I love getting out to live
out my dreams. But at the end of the day,
sometimes I just don't understand the point, you know, because.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I don't know if I'm making any sense or not.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
But am I not.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
It's just it's just one of those deals, you know.
I I love the challenge.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
I love being able to play this game for a living.
It's it's one of the greatest joys of my life.
But does it fill the deepest you know, wants and
desires of my heart. Absolutely not. I mean, I love
playing golf. I love being able to compete. I love
living out my dreams. I love being a father. I
love being able to take care of my son. I
love being able to provide for my family out here
(23:23):
playing golf. And you know, every day when I wake
up early to go put in the work, you know,
my wife thanks me for going out and working so hard,
and when I get home, I try and thank her
every day for taking care of our son. It's just,
you know, that's why I talk about families being my priority,
because it really is. You know, I'm blessed to be
able to come out here and play golf. But if
my golf ever started affecting my home life or whatever
(23:44):
affected the relationship I have with my wife or with
my son, you know that's gonna be the last day
that I play out.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Here for a living.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
You know, this is not the be all, end all.
This is not the most important thing in my life.
And that's why I wrestle with why is this so
important to me? Because you know, I would much rather
be a great father than I would be a offer.
You know that at the end of the day, that
that's what's more important to me. So just to summarize,
(24:09):
I think a lot of us and I mean us. Oh,
let me put this aside. Yeah, the money's pretty good.
He's made a hell of a lot of money. He
lives a great lifestyle.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
He doesn't have to worry about money ever again, which
is a big deal if you've ever or are currently
worried about money.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
I get that. But having said that, I think all
of us.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Think happiness is the like the triumph or that's what
we're looking for, or the falling in love, or the
big win, or the fame or the congratulations from the
crowd or your contemporaries, your colleagues even but it's it's
not there.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
So one thing that popped into my mind is it
reminded me of Woody Allen talking a lot in his book.
Woody Allan is a movie direc one of the most
famous movie directors of all time. If you don't know
who he is anyway, in his autobiography that he wrote
a couple of years ago, he loved making movies the
way this guy loves practicing. And you know the process.
But like he'd finish the movie and be like, you
(25:15):
just see what he's done and move on to the
next one. He's like, no enjoyment in the finished product.
He'd never watch him, he would never pay any attention
to the reviews. It was just the process was the
only thing that there was an enjoyment, the thing that
most well, I don't know most people, but a lot
of people think would be where you get the enjoyment.
The finished product or the winning the tournament or becoming
(25:37):
the top salesman or whatever is not what you think
it was gonna be.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, you can get quiet satisfaction out of it, like
he was talking about. But the idea of like constant
joy is that the right word, you know, happiness slash
euphoria slash cheerfulness slash excitement. That's just that's not what
we need to chase because it's illusory. It goes way
(26:03):
so quickly, you know, it was kind of it passed
by so quickly. But I can relate to and it's
a great description. So he wins a super giant golf
tournament that millions of people around the world just dream
of being good enough to win that tournament. Having the acclaim,
getting the check, blah blah blah, and then you know,
half an hour later it's like, what do you want
(26:24):
to have for dinner. That's a pretty good description of
the way life really is. Yes, it's about the people
you care about. I mean, isn't that just the bottom line?
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah? So, and get I get well. I guess the
ultimate point would be you have to enjoy the process
of life, not making a movie or becoming a golfer
or whatever or whatever it does you do, just process
of life. The daily grind, which is what it feels
like a lot of times, is what life is, and
you gotta find it. If you're waiting for the payoff,
(26:58):
it ain't coming.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Oh, folks, that was the payoff. The payoff is there's
no payoff, Kirk Bluie. That should be taught more. I
think that that's not I think that's the opposite of
what our culture tends to tell us, right right right.
The movie doesn't end. There's no end to the movie.
(27:25):
Your part is just written out. Now. If you want
to get it metaphysical and talk about religion and life
after death or whatever, that's a completely different topic. But no,
you don't win. You never win. You just keep playing.
Maybe that's how I would sum it up. And if
you enjoy it the best you can.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Well, I think part of the reason that a person
like you know not to bring it back to golf,
but you could apply this to anybody. A guy like
Tiger Woods goes off the rails. I think he was
probably convinced that the payoff was going to be the
payoff and the thing, and it wasn't enough, and so
he needed all women in the and whatever all of
other weird things he was doing.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
To try to get the high that he needed. Yeah,
he wanted that fist pumping, yelling moment to like last, Yeah,
that was the gold.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
So to the idea that there is no payoff, here's
here's the you know, here's the key thing to know
about life. There is no payoff. Can how many of
us can you look at the day today and I've
got a very mundane routine day, work, got an appointment
with something, somebody's gonna come fix something on my car,
blah blah blah, take care of the kids, meal for
sam Uh? Can I can you get up every day
(28:36):
and think today is the payoff? This is the payoff.
Today is my payoff? That motivation is hard. That is hard.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I blew my own mind.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
The great philosophers of the world have concerned themselves with
this very question, and they've come up with different answers.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
I may have mobilized myself. I mean, I might not
be able to function the rest of the day. I'm
gonna lock up and they're gonna carry me out of
here on a gurney. Ironic. Yeah, that would be unfortunate.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Jack Armstrong and Joey Armstrong and Getty show. This is
the reason I'm disgusted and embittered.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
This is the most sausage ye of sausage making.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
If you're familiar with the old reference to politics, here's
your headline from the Wahpole. I'm gonna read you just
a little bit because it's kind of revealing of at
least a couple of things. Trump's tax and immigration bill
clears Hurtle after late night vote to the House Budget
Committee passed a massive tax and immigration package central President
(29:38):
Trump's agenda late Sunday, overcoming opposition from hardline conservatives, overspending
for fiscal conservatives all deficit hawks aligned with the old
truck conservative House Freedom Caucus change their vote to present
allowing the legislative monstrosity I injected that package to be
(29:59):
recommend did favorably to the House by a vote of
seventeen to sixteen.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
But their hesitance to vote for.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act out of committee is
a reminder that the far right flank of the Republican
Conference remains skeptical.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
It's interesting they call these people ultra conservative of right
wing when not very many years ago you would have
been the center of the Republican Party. I mean that
would have been I mean as like what the Republican
Party was.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
It was.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
It was a term you would have used to define
the party. Being fact, it was so.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Intrinsic to the Republican Party you'd feel silly even repeating
what you just repeated, right that the no need bisically conservative.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
But I suppose in reality, given where most of the
party is, they are ultra a right wing or ultra
conservative because the bulk of the party doesn't care apparently
and apparently not voters.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
So spending your children, grandchildren into tax and spend oblivion.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Well all right, Well, this story got repeated a lot
over the weekend that we got downgraded on one of
our credit scores by one of the major organizations that
does that sort of Thingiz.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Yeah, And.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Over the weekend it kind of got put out there
that it was like a Trump thing because of tariffs
or whatever. It was basically around the fact that our
debt is just so high. It's just like the would
happen to you if you go to the bank and
they take a look at your well you've got with
your car payments. Now you bought like eight cars and
two houses, and you're you're just overmaxed. So we you
(31:32):
have eighty thousand dollars in credit card bills and you
only make ninety a year, right, right, So these dong
grady because you just spend more than you make. That's
what happened. That didn't happen just in the last one
hundred days under Trump. We've been building this for a
long time.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
And the final reason I am completely embittered about the
Republican Party in politics and America and democracy and life
on Earth is.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
The fact that, and it's it's a two part horror show.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Part number one is that there are a bunch of
swing district Republicans from big blue states California and New York.
Most notably, who are not only trying to defend the
idea of the salt deduction, the state and local tax deduction,
they want to raise it from ten thousand dollars to
at least thirty thousand dollars and maybe fifty thousand dollars.
(32:25):
Meaning if you live in a tax and spend lunatic
state like say California, all of those incredibly high taxes
you're paying, you can deduct from your federal tax return.
So the other states will subsidize the tax and spend
lunacy of New York and California. So my brothers in
Kansas pay some of my taxes because I live in California.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
That makes sense.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Yeah, you get a giant subsidy from the other states,
You pay a lower federal tax rate significantly lower depending
on how much money you make than folks in fiscally
responsible states, and is indefensible morally. It's indefensible as a
for Republican reason, not the party, but the idea of
(33:11):
we have a federal system than states, and the states
can do what they want, and they should do what
they want.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
You're fine.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
If Massachusetts wants to have a sixty five.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Percent income tax, go ahead. I'm not living there, but
go ahead.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
But then to transfer that profligacy to the other states
is it's a horror. And as a conservative slash Republican,
he says, trying not to vomit because of my embitteredness.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
The idea that that is a plank of the Republican Party.
I'm done. It's it's hard to swallow. I mean, you know,
it would help Joe and I if this happens financially,
but it's awful, absolutely awful. You I believe you can't
defend it.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
No, it's it's I am horrified. I don't care how
much it would benefit me. God bless me. I have principles.
It's really held me back in life. Jack too, I
just I'm done. I'm done.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Yeah, it's well. Like I said last week, Sarah Isger
of The Dispatch, I heard her on a podcast. They're
having this discussion about party and she said, there are
no political parties. What are we talking about here? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (34:25):
I need to seek that out because I think she
nailed absolutely, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
There are no political parties. There's just whoever emerges as
the candidate, cycle by cycle, and then whatever they believe
the party goes along with and it's through on both sides.
So the idea that there are parties that stand for something,
we need.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
To all move past that from my hero hl Menken,
every election is a sort of advance auction sale of
stolen goods. That's always been true. There was a time
when a certain party had certain principles that I do.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
You have time is past. You know what.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
My my high school sweetheart, college sweetheart, my wife of
forty years is when she's not turning tricks, she's killing
people for the mob. Okay, she's not the woman I
felt at This is, by the way, fictional illustration has
nothing to.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Do with my beloved bride Judith.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
She's not the person she was.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
You can forget it.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
It's over, So move on, Get up, Get an ai
girlfriend like a normal person and a love bod or something.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
My girlfriend like a normal person. Jack Armstrong and Joe,
The Armstrong and Getty Show
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack arms Strong and Joe, Kaddy arm
Strong and Jetty and keep arm strong, yeady Strong. Happy
(00:31):
New Year.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Oh my god, I get so excited with the calendar
turning to a different year because there are three hundred
and sixty five days and just oh, I understand why
everybody is applotting last night.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
What the hell.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
You're still in bed? Let me roll over?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Who are you? I kid?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Of course I would only sleep with my beautiful bride. Hey,
Happy New Year, everybody, And why not kick off the
new year with how you kicked out the old year.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
With a little armstrong and giddy replay? Enjoy. We talked
about this a little bit earlier, but I want to
get into more of the specifics because I find this
really interesting. The headline sort of hides a lot of
the really good stuff. The headline being that you reach
(01:21):
your functional peak as a human later than they had
previously thought. Now functional functional is what we're going to
get into defining here that word as they use sixteen
different dimensions. This is a serious, like university study. This
is not I don't know, so many studies, and you
should look out for this. It's fun to talk about him.
(01:43):
So many studies that you hear that are you know
it turns out, you know, it's paid for by the
pudding corporation, And it turns out you'd be better off
eating more pudding in your life or whatever exactly, Just
dumb stuff like that. But it turns out that people
reach their functional peak in their late fifties early sixties,
(02:04):
decades later than most people assume when you figure in
all these different things. So physical strength obviously, and certain
cognitive abilities like processing speed decline steadily after your mid twenties,
and I think we all canna test. Yes, well, if
you're past your mid twenties, you're aware of that, But
a whole bunch of other things you get stronger at
(02:26):
for quite some time, but they all diminish it eventually. Intelligence, personality,
emotional intelligence, decision making. Overall functioning continues developing through midlife,
reaching its apex at around sixty years old. A twenty
five year old can process information faster, hold more items
(02:48):
in their working memory, and solve abstract reasoning problems more
quickly than someone decades older. So that stuff you're better at.
Twenty five than you are later. And that's who talking
to the other day. They were younger than me, and
they're talking about that how they forget stuff now, And
I said, yeah, I finally had to give in and
start like leaving myself notes because I used to just
(03:10):
I used to be very proud of I just I
could remember everything I needed to do and how I
was going to do it, and I just knew I
was going to remember. That worked for a while and
then it until it didn't. Fluid intelligence, because we were
talking about working memory there, holding information in your head
and all that sort of stuff peaks around twenty five.
(03:30):
Fluid intelligence, the ability to think on your feet and
solve novel program problems peaks at twenty and declines after that. Wow,
isn't that something? Huh Okay, that's probably good for you know,
a lot of your military age people and the kind
of decisions they got to make really quickly on their
(03:51):
feet and they're around twenty years old.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, man, there's a lot to this. Yeah, other terms
to understand and subtleties and the rest of Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Other vantages emerge with age that younger adults haven't had
time to develop. Crystallized intelligence, which is not a term
I'd heard, but it means accumulated knowledge and vocabulary obviously
keeps rising well until your sixties. Right that you can
call it wisdom if you wanted to. Financial literacy for
(04:20):
some reason improves into your late sixties early seventies. It
goes beyond that, it goes beyond other kinds of intelligence,
and that's something.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, But then.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Dig this one. Moral reasoning, because this all comes under
the category of you being able to function. So some
of then drop off early, some of them go later.
Moral reasoning tends to rise through most of adulthood, and
research indicates that it reverses very late in life. Your
(04:52):
moral reasoning will reverse very late in life. So I'll
rob a bank and have an affair or what's the
what's that all about.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I'm gonna have to ask my slaves if they agree.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Late in life. You're a little late in life. I
think I think you're just a bad person if you
got slaves at this point.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Well guilty, Yeah, is this thing true? I mean, it's
interesting that they came up with different terms or more
specific terms for the aspects of wisdom. I'm not sure
we need all of them. But it's interesting to hear
it broken out. I mean, you just you have so
many case studies, not only your own, but those of
(05:31):
close friends and relatives and their experiences, and you just
you're You're like a much more experienced surgeon. Yes, Michael,
maybe that's why so many old people say whatever's on
their mind, because they have no more moral reasoning.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I don't know, is the case of the efforts the
same as moral reasoning.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, or you know, combines in some cases.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
But yeah, well, Katie and I were talking earlier when
you were gone. Just some of this stuff really flies
in the face of why do we have eighty year
olds running the country? Oh? On some of these? Some
of these, But.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Right, I got a bunch of old guys running the country,
and their financial literacy appears to be there is none.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Emotional intelligence climbs through midlife before tapering off. Based on
research comparing age groups older adults, this is a financial one.
I guess older adults are about twice as likely as
younger adults to avoid the sunk cost fallacy, the habit
of throwing good money after bad twice as likely at
(06:33):
like sixty as you would be at thirty of understanding.
Now you know this turned out to be a bad idea,
Let's just move on, as opposed to well we've come
this far, we better keep spending more money, right, Yeah, yeah,
I would agree.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Again, it's a question of having lived through that sort
of thing a couple of times and realizing, Okay, this
is really disappointing, but we have to admit it's a
loser and move on.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yeah, it's interesting that they did that. They separate out
financial intelligence, where it might just be all wisdom there,
it's just accumulated knowledge. And yeah. Personality also matures with age.
Conscientiousness and emotional stability, which are the two traits that
(07:16):
are most strongly linked to career success and life satisfaction
according to this study. Have to say that again, So
the two traits most strongly linked to career success and
life satisfaction. Which I don't know about you, but having
satisfying life is way up on my list of priorities.
Who's ass you kiss? That's the most important thing. It's
not who you know, it's who you Wow. Conscientiousness and
(07:41):
emotional stability are the two traits you need for life satisfaction.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
That makes sense, but.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Both increase from early adulthood, well into your fifties and sixties.
So that's good. Researchers. Weaited these various dimensions and created
a composite intext tracking overall functioning and overall functioning peaks
between fifty five and sixty, with clear declines emerging about
sixty five to seventy. So I got a few years
left before, I mean, because I'm barely functioning now, I
(08:09):
got a few really chairs left before it really starts
to crash. True, pressure you you don't You don't get
much time to enjoy your peak, do you?
Speaker 4 (08:19):
No?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Well, we're not designed to live past that, right, Really
conscientiousness and emotional what was it? Stability? Stability? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Can that be translated as being beaten down for emotional stability? No,
I'm fine, I've been kicked before. Well, it is true
you get emotional stability.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
But I remember, God, quite a few years ago, I
was proud of some reaction I had to something, and
you you said it's just because you have lower testosterolziightfully admit,
which took all the fun out of it. But there
is you do also gain emotional stability, don't you think
it isn't low tea because of Gabe. Again, because you've
(09:04):
been through these situations before. This isn't the first time
you've had a boss shoot off about something dumb or
whatever situation, or you you get something in the mail
from the tax board that's gonna be a pain in
the ass. It's not the first time any of these
things have happens. You don't right quite get it's crazy.
Well please if anybody disagrees with this.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
By the time you're playing in your third Super Bowl,
you're focused on the game. You're focused on doing your
job in a way you can't be the first time.
Think about raising kids, the second kid versus the first kid.
I mean, think about sha, yeah, the just the you know,
the first time your first kid falls down and binks
their head versus when you get to the second kid.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, they dout there, they're fine.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Getting back to the testosterone thing, though, What what you
need to remember, I think, or maybe you don't. I
don't know, is that virtually everything we sink, everything we do,
is chemicals slashing around in our brain and the spark
of the divine.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
But and I believe in free will.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I believe we have a certain amount of control over
how we're going to react and you work to develop that.
But I mean, yeah, so of course different levels of
different chemicals is going to affect the way you approach life'
it's it's obvious, it has to be.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Well, yeah, I'm just trying to claim that any any
growth I've had is not all because I have lower
tip thoughts.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Oh no, no.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Not at all. I would never say credit for some growth. Right.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Well, I think that that discretionary part I was talking
about that absolutely grows because you've gone through it once
when you lost your head. You've gone through it another
time where you didn't lose your head, and you're thinking, yeah,
I'm staying calm again this time. Yeah, and then when
he leaves for the day, I'll take a poop on
his desk and whatever it takes vengeance. Vengeance is fine.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Little sugar in the gas tank to take care of that. Probably. Yeah,
that served cold, right, you know what I'm saying. Huh,
good luck breaking down in the freeway on the way home.
That's why you had it. When you get older, the
fact that you're like super quick thinking cognitive reasoning drops
after twenty Wow, that's early in life. Yeah, yeah, So
(11:25):
kind of wrapping it up, studies. Studies cited by the
authors show that people typically earn their highest salaries and
reach peak occupational prestige between fifty and fifty five. It's
not just because you've been around the company for a
long time or blah blah blah. It's actually when you've
got the most accumulated knowledge and emotional stability and all
(11:45):
those sorts of things.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah, and shirt, you're most likely to do a good
job at it.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, exactly. Now, the fact, as it says here that
the leaders of many political countries are in their seventies
or eighties is not Yeah, these are all averages though,
of course, I mean just flat out on the face
of it. Obviously, Donald Trump's brain is different than Joe
Biden's brain, flat absolutely true. Yeah, And it strikes me
(12:14):
that in a lot of your.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Tech industries, for instance, your your tech companies, they're run
by wunderkins, these these young phenoms who are not fifty
five years old, when they have their greatest success. Is
that because there is no accumulated knowledge to be had.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
In their fields specific to that field.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I mean, management is management, dealing with people is dealing
with people. But maybe energy and willingness to work eighty
hours a week and not being tied to any sort
of quote unquote accumulated wisdom. Maybe that explains it. I
don't know, I mean because you'd think it. Sam Altman,
for instance, would hire a gray haired CEO and say,
(13:00):
I'll just worry about the innovation stuff you were on
the company.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
But that's not the way it goes. The fifty five
year old CEO would say, what are we doing? What's
the point of this?
Speaker 3 (13:09):
What is this? I I keep telling you it's AI
AI artificial intelligence.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
All right, robots. The fact that my moral compass may
go south on me and my old age, that's got me,
uh concerned. Wonder when a sort of high jinks I'll
be up.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
To how bad could it get?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
It's the arm Strong and Getty show. Armstrong Strong.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
This could have been three separate.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
But it wasn't three separate.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Let's go with what happened in the case.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
The honey or Oh my god, I'm sorry, I'm sorry
that I don't know what's I apologize.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Go ahead the question here. I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
I've just been totally thrown.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
But yeah, I can imagine I'm a little thrown by that.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Also, if I'm being honest, I don't know what to say.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Well, go ahead, you've only gone a minute and seven.
So the lawyer talking to the drops off honey. Oh
my gosh, I'm sorry. I'm a little thrown by that. Yeah,
me too.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I gotta play that for my daughter.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Oh that's funny.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
The idea that you would accidentally call the judge honey.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Is can I hear that again? Well? Just yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
This could have been three separate, okay, but it wasn't
three separate.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Let's go with what happened in the keys the honey.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Oh my god, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that. I don't
know what to say to that. I apologize.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
You just you know what that's gonna be. You turn
to the bailiff and say, let me borrow your gun
and just do the right thing. It's over.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Oh that's hilarogy.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
I'm sorry, I'm a little thrown by Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
You gotta play that for your dad, Katie, who was
a judge. Oh yeah, and the and the honey was
like in a just kind of a half condescending Yeah, yeah,
yeah very much. So, Oh honey, come on, let them,
let the men handle this.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
His only possible savior is to call his wife in
the court and say, your honor. We had a bit
of a go around this morning. I was arguing with him,
he was arguing with me. It's probably stuck in his head.
I mean, because that's.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
That is pretty funny. Yeah, the fact that he the
fact that he can't just move on.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I just, oh, he's so horrified by what he's done.
He's just got to say, your honor. I'm filing a
writ of vacation and I am going to become a plumber.
Somebody else needs to take over this case.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
I don't know what kind of trial it is, but like,
if he's defending me, I'd stand up, Hey, can I
get my money back? Or can I get a lawyer
who doesn't call the judge? Honey? Is that possible?
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Holy cow, there's gonna be an assault charge next year, honor.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Give me just a second. With this guy, I would
stand up. Did everybody hear that? See that? Do I
deserve my money back? Show hands?
Speaker 3 (16:20):
I'd raise my hand, yeah, yeah, give him his money back. So, oh,
that's funny.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
What are fridge cigarettes? I like to hip you, obviously
to new phrases and things like that, whether they're acronyms
or two words blended together or whatever, you know, staycations,
whatever they are. What kind of summer we're supposed to have,
that's right, What are we having? We had this last week?
Who was a therapy bro summer? That's what we're having.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Oh goodness, too.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Many summers and moons. Fridge cigarettes. It's your pop in
the refrigerator, soda in the refrigerator, you know, like sitting
is the new smoking. Somebody actually said that to me
the other day and said, I believe sitting is a
new smoking. And I think they weren't trying to be funny.
I think they just they were trying to pretend that
(17:10):
they came up with that on their own, and they
were presenting it to me anyway. I just let it roll.
It's fridge cigarettes. You're drinking soda. It's like smoking cigarettes
taking years off your life. That's pretty good. Turma.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
The sitting thing, Oh, I do it too much. One
of my favorite books I've ever read about politics is
The Myth of the Rational Voter. In the first chunk
of it, the main argument of it is, and it's
indisputable by the data, that there are certain economic ideas
(17:48):
and principles that people get wrong in much greater numbers
than they get right for some reason like rent control.
Like that con Man immunist, the communist, if you will,
zoron Mumdani in New York is trying to pitch you
hit people young people with rent control. They will, in
(18:10):
overwhelming numbers say that's a great idea. But then a
little edumacation, a little life experience, they understand. Oh it's
a terrible idea. It's like the worst idea. But generation
after generation people fall for certain economic arguments over and
over again. It's kind of interesting anyway. I'm reminded of
(18:30):
that when thinking about what we're going to play for you,
believe it or not, it's a golfer at a press conference,
what Scotti Scheffler, Who is the greatest golfer on the planet?
And more on that in a minute. But when it
comes to what will make me happy? I think a
(18:50):
lot of human beings, most of us, are like those
youngsters who think rent control is a good idea. Generation
after generation, we chase the wrong things. Yeah, this segment
is about life satisfaction.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Not about golf.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Yeah, yeah, oh it's not. Oh my god, I was
going to go into a long discourse over the draw
versus the fade anyway, those are golf terms anyway. Yeah,
it's about life satisfaction. And so Scott Scheffler, who is
the greatest golfer on the planet currently and very very
well liked because he's very normal as a dude, happens
(19:31):
to be a fairly devout Christian and a family manager.
You're about to hear very much, not like Tiger the Assassin.
He's a great competitor in the rest of it, but
he's kind of a different guy.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Anyway.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
They're asking him about his superachievements this year and previous
years at a press conference, and this is what he said.
We'll start with sixteen go from there.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
Michael, Yeah, I think it's kind of funny. I think,
you know, I think I said something after the Buyer
this year about like it feels like you work your
whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for like a
few minutes. It only lasts a few minutes. That kind
of viewphoric feeling. And I like to win the Buyer
Nelson Championship at home. I literally worked my entire life
(20:16):
to become good at golf, to have an opportunity to
win that tournament, and you win it, you celebrate, get
to hug, hug my family, my sister's there. It's such
an amazing moment. And then it's like, Okay, now what
are we gonna eat for dinner? You know, life goes on,
go ahead, roll on. Is it great to be able
to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have
in the game of golf? Yet, I mean it brings
(20:37):
tears bisers to think about because it's literally worked my
entire life to become good at this sport. And to
have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think is
a pretty cool feeling. You know, to get to live
out your dreams, it's very special. But at the end
of the day, it's like, I'm not out here to
inspire the next generation of golfers. Don't I'm not here
to inspire somebody else to be the best player in
(20:57):
the world, because what's the point.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
You know, this is not a fulfilling life.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
It's it's fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it's
not fulfilling from a sense of like the deepest, you know,
places of your heart. You know, there's a lot of
people that make it to what they thought was going
to fulfill them in life. And then you get there,
and all of a sudden you get to number one
in the world and they're like, what's the point?
Speaker 1 (21:18):
And you know, I really do believe that. I think
I think most everybody has had that experience or has
that experience. At some point you get the whatever it
is you've been wanting to get and okay, hmm, the
satisfaction of that didn't last very long, and you have
(21:38):
to wrestle with what am I? You know, what what
am I doing? Or what do I enjoy? Or why
am I? Why am I getting up every morning?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
And it's the process and just the daily life. My
dad was always really good at this and just you know,
you just use the example of taking out the trash.
People don't like to complain about doing this and that,
and that's what life is. Life is taking out the
trash and doing the dishes, and getting up and going
to work and raising your all the things that you
do that seem like they're in the way of your
(22:07):
That's what life is, right right, Let's throw along. You know,
what is the point?
Speaker 5 (22:12):
You're like, why do I want to win this? Tournament
so bad. That's something that I wrestle with on a
daily basis. It's like showing up with the Masters every year.
It's like, why do I want to win this golf
tournament so badly? Why do I want to win the
Open Championship so badly? I don't know, because if I win,
it's gonna be awesome for about two minutes, and then
we're going to get to the next week and it's
gonna be like, hey, you want two majors this year?
(22:33):
How important is it for you to win the FedEx
Cup playoffs? And it's just like we're back here again,
you know, So we really do. We work so hard
for such little moments, and you know, I'm kind of
sick o. I love putting in the work, I love
being able to practice. I love getting out to live
out my dreams. But at the end of the day,
sometimes I just don't understand the point, you know, because.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
I don't know if I'm making any sense or not.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
But am I not.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
It's just it's just one of those deals, you know.
I I love the challenge.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
I love being able to play this game for a living.
It's it's one of the greatest joys of my life.
But does it fill the deepest you know, wants and
desires of my heart. Absolutely not. I mean, I love
playing golf. I love being able to compete. I love
living out my dreams. I love being a father. I
love being able to take care of my son. I
love being able to provide for my family out here
(23:23):
playing golf. And you know, every day when I wake
up early to go put in the work, you know,
my wife thanks me for going out and working so hard,
and when I get home, I try and thank her
every day for taking care of our son. It's just,
you know, that's why I talk about families being my priority,
because it really is. You know, I'm blessed to be
able to come out here and play golf. But if
my golf ever started affecting my home life or whatever
(23:44):
affected the relationship I have with my wife or with
my son, you know that's gonna be the last day
that I play out.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Here for a living.
Speaker 5 (23:49):
You know, this is not the be all, end all.
This is not the most important thing in my life.
And that's why I wrestle with why is this so
important to me? Because you know, I would much rather
be a great father than I would be a offer.
You know that at the end of the day, that
that's what's more important to me. So just to summarize,
(24:09):
I think a lot of us and I mean us. Oh,
let me put this aside. Yeah, the money's pretty good.
He's made a hell of a lot of money. He
lives a great lifestyle.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
He doesn't have to worry about money ever again, which
is a big deal if you've ever or are currently
worried about money.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
I get that. But having said that, I think all
of us.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Think happiness is the like the triumph or that's what
we're looking for, or the falling in love, or the
big win, or the fame or the congratulations from the
crowd or your contemporaries, your colleagues even but it's it's
not there.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
So one thing that popped into my mind is it
reminded me of Woody Allen talking a lot in his book.
Woody Allan is a movie direc one of the most
famous movie directors of all time. If you don't know
who he is anyway, in his autobiography that he wrote
a couple of years ago, he loved making movies the
way this guy loves practicing. And you know the process.
But like he'd finish the movie and be like, you
(25:15):
just see what he's done and move on to the
next one. He's like, no enjoyment in the finished product.
He'd never watch him, he would never pay any attention
to the reviews. It was just the process was the
only thing that there was an enjoyment, the thing that
most well, I don't know most people, but a lot
of people think would be where you get the enjoyment.
The finished product or the winning the tournament or becoming
(25:37):
the top salesman or whatever is not what you think
it was gonna be.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, you can get quiet satisfaction out of it, like
he was talking about. But the idea of like constant
joy is that the right word, you know, happiness slash
euphoria slash cheerfulness slash excitement. That's just that's not what
we need to chase because it's illusory. It goes way
(26:03):
so quickly, you know, it was kind of it passed
by so quickly. But I can relate to and it's
a great description. So he wins a super giant golf
tournament that millions of people around the world just dream
of being good enough to win that tournament. Having the acclaim,
getting the check, blah blah blah, and then you know,
half an hour later it's like, what do you want
(26:24):
to have for dinner. That's a pretty good description of
the way life really is. Yes, it's about the people
you care about. I mean, isn't that just the bottom line?
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah? So, and get I get well. I guess the
ultimate point would be you have to enjoy the process
of life, not making a movie or becoming a golfer
or whatever or whatever it does you do, just process
of life. The daily grind, which is what it feels
like a lot of times, is what life is, and
you gotta find it. If you're waiting for the payoff,
(26:58):
it ain't coming.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Oh, folks, that was the payoff. The payoff is there's
no payoff, Kirk Bluie. That should be taught more. I
think that that's not I think that's the opposite of
what our culture tends to tell us, right right right.
The movie doesn't end. There's no end to the movie.
(27:25):
Your part is just written out. Now. If you want
to get it metaphysical and talk about religion and life
after death or whatever, that's a completely different topic. But no,
you don't win. You never win. You just keep playing.
Maybe that's how I would sum it up. And if
you enjoy it the best you can.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Well, I think part of the reason that a person
like you know not to bring it back to golf,
but you could apply this to anybody. A guy like
Tiger Woods goes off the rails. I think he was
probably convinced that the payoff was going to be the
payoff and the thing, and it wasn't enough, and so
he needed all women in the and whatever all of
other weird things he was doing.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
To try to get the high that he needed. Yeah,
he wanted that fist pumping, yelling moment to like last, Yeah,
that was the gold.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
So to the idea that there is no payoff, here's
here's the you know, here's the key thing to know
about life. There is no payoff. Can how many of
us can you look at the day today and I've
got a very mundane routine day, work, got an appointment
with something, somebody's gonna come fix something on my car,
blah blah blah, take care of the kids, meal for
sam Uh? Can I can you get up every day
(28:36):
and think today is the payoff? This is the payoff.
Today is my payoff? That motivation is hard. That is hard.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I blew my own mind.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
The great philosophers of the world have concerned themselves with
this very question, and they've come up with different answers.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
I may have mobilized myself. I mean, I might not
be able to function the rest of the day. I'm
gonna lock up and they're gonna carry me out of
here on a gurney. Ironic. Yeah, that would be unfortunate.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Jack Armstrong and Joey Armstrong and Getty show. This is
the reason I'm disgusted and embittered.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
This is the most sausage ye of sausage making.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
If you're familiar with the old reference to politics, here's
your headline from the Wahpole. I'm gonna read you just
a little bit because it's kind of revealing of at
least a couple of things. Trump's tax and immigration bill
clears Hurtle after late night vote to the House Budget
Committee passed a massive tax and immigration package central President
(29:38):
Trump's agenda late Sunday, overcoming opposition from hardline conservatives, overspending
for fiscal conservatives all deficit hawks aligned with the old
truck conservative House Freedom Caucus change their vote to present
allowing the legislative monstrosity I injected that package to be
(29:59):
recommend did favorably to the House by a vote of
seventeen to sixteen.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
But their hesitance to vote for.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act out of committee is
a reminder that the far right flank of the Republican
Conference remains skeptical.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
It's interesting they call these people ultra conservative of right
wing when not very many years ago you would have
been the center of the Republican Party. I mean that
would have been I mean as like what the Republican
Party was.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
It was.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
It was a term you would have used to define
the party. Being fact, it was so.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Intrinsic to the Republican Party you'd feel silly even repeating
what you just repeated, right that the no need bisically conservative.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
But I suppose in reality, given where most of the
party is, they are ultra a right wing or ultra
conservative because the bulk of the party doesn't care apparently
and apparently not voters.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
So spending your children, grandchildren into tax and spend oblivion.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Well all right, Well, this story got repeated a lot
over the weekend that we got downgraded on one of
our credit scores by one of the major organizations that
does that sort of Thingiz.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Yeah, And.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Over the weekend it kind of got put out there
that it was like a Trump thing because of tariffs
or whatever. It was basically around the fact that our
debt is just so high. It's just like the would
happen to you if you go to the bank and
they take a look at your well you've got with
your car payments. Now you bought like eight cars and
two houses, and you're you're just overmaxed. So we you
(31:32):
have eighty thousand dollars in credit card bills and you
only make ninety a year, right, right, So these dong
grady because you just spend more than you make. That's
what happened. That didn't happen just in the last one
hundred days under Trump. We've been building this for a
long time.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
And the final reason I am completely embittered about the
Republican Party in politics and America and democracy and life
on Earth is.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
The fact that, and it's it's a two part horror show.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Part number one is that there are a bunch of
swing district Republicans from big blue states California and New York.
Most notably, who are not only trying to defend the
idea of the salt deduction, the state and local tax deduction,
they want to raise it from ten thousand dollars to
at least thirty thousand dollars and maybe fifty thousand dollars.
(32:25):
Meaning if you live in a tax and spend lunatic
state like say California, all of those incredibly high taxes
you're paying, you can deduct from your federal tax return.
So the other states will subsidize the tax and spend
lunacy of New York and California. So my brothers in
Kansas pay some of my taxes because I live in California.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
That makes sense.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Yeah, you get a giant subsidy from the other states,
You pay a lower federal tax rate significantly lower depending
on how much money you make than folks in fiscally
responsible states, and is indefensible morally. It's indefensible as a
for Republican reason, not the party, but the idea of
(33:11):
we have a federal system than states, and the states
can do what they want, and they should do what
they want.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
You're fine.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
If Massachusetts wants to have a sixty five.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Percent income tax, go ahead. I'm not living there, but
go ahead.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
But then to transfer that profligacy to the other states
is it's a horror. And as a conservative slash Republican,
he says, trying not to vomit because of my embitteredness.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
The idea that that is a plank of the Republican Party.
I'm done. It's it's hard to swallow. I mean, you know,
it would help Joe and I if this happens financially,
but it's awful, absolutely awful. You I believe you can't
defend it.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
No, it's it's I am horrified. I don't care how
much it would benefit me. God bless me. I have principles.
It's really held me back in life. Jack too, I
just I'm done. I'm done.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Yeah, it's well. Like I said last week, Sarah Isger
of The Dispatch, I heard her on a podcast. They're
having this discussion about party and she said, there are
no political parties. What are we talking about here? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (34:25):
I need to seek that out because I think she
nailed absolutely, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
There are no political parties. There's just whoever emerges as
the candidate, cycle by cycle, and then whatever they believe
the party goes along with and it's through on both sides.
So the idea that there are parties that stand for something,
we need.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
To all move past that from my hero hl Menken,
every election is a sort of advance auction sale of
stolen goods. That's always been true. There was a time
when a certain party had certain principles that I do.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
You have time is past. You know what.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
My my high school sweetheart, college sweetheart, my wife of
forty years is when she's not turning tricks, she's killing
people for the mob. Okay, she's not the woman I
felt at This is, by the way, fictional illustration has
nothing to.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Do with my beloved bride Judith.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
She's not the person she was.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
You can forget it.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
It's over, So move on, Get up, Get an ai
girlfriend like a normal person and a love bod or something.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
My girlfriend like a normal person. Jack Armstrong and Joe,
The Armstrong and Getty Show
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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