Playing the Long Game: Time Preference and Your Creative Hustle.

Tired of the same old, same old? In this fresh episode of the No_System podcast, we’re slicing through the fluff and getting down to brass tacks about time preference. It's all about the slow burn versus the quick fix in the creative world.

We're not just tossing around highfalutin economic theory for kicks—We're looking to the big brain moves of Eugen Böhm-Bawerk. You're an artist, not a day trader, right? So why rush your masterpiece like a two-for-one sale at the dollar store?

We spotlight legends like Banksy and Shepard Fairey to prove a point: playing the long game in art is like investing in a solid gold chain. It just doesn’t lose its shine. We're serving up the kind of content that’s meant to stick around, not just stick for now.

We're not just here to preach. You'll get the real deal—tips on juggling your need for bread with your dream of leaving a mark.

And since we’re all about that action, step up and take our challenge. Go dust off that big idea you shelved and start sculpting it into something that’ll echo through the ages—or at least outlive the latest meme.

Before you dash off to make your mark, hit up nosysknows.com. Grab some gear as unique as your fingerprint and as loud as your art. It’s not just merch; it’s a statement that you’re part of a tribe that values freedom, expression, and a good chuckle at the system's expense.

This is the No_System podcast—no gatekeeping, no ivory towers, just real talk and a good laugh, where all rights are reserved, and all lefts are celebrated.

©2023 Brian Behm Creative. 

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Take a look at No_System’s apparel and accessories at nosysknows.com ——-
Transcripts available at nosysknows.com/podcast
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Brian . I know it's been a while since
the podcast has been alive. I'msorry for the absence, but
we're back and I think I have amuch better way of keeping the
lights on. Podcasts might looka little different, but you'll
still have a lot of the sameideas. Just maybe retooled a
bits that I'm not doing. Thingslike writing 20 minutes of
music for each episode. Ifyou're still here in the feed,

(00:22):
thanks for not unsubscribing.
Today we're diving into a topicthat might initially sound like
a snooze fest. Austrianeconomics. It's a philosophy
that underpins a lot of the nosystem beliefs, but it also
powers a lot of the ideas thatthe place where I spend my days
as art director Emergent OrderFoundation. Before you hit the

(00:42):
skip button, I could promiseyou this won't be a dusty
lecture and dusty theoriesscribbled on a chalkboard. I
just feel like sometimesthere's value in old things,
and we could take lessons fromone part of the world economics
and apply that to another partof the world, like your hustle,
your art, your life. So pouryourself a cup , whatever keeps

(01:03):
you sane. Coffee, whiskey. Ifyou're a hippie, kombucha, I, I
won't judge you and let's getthe ball rolling. There was no
system. There is no system .

(01:28):
Episode eight , playing thewrong game time preference and
your creative hustle . To knowmore about no system , visit
nono com section one. Who theheck was Eugene von Bombak ?
Now, if you've been payingattention to no system at all,

(01:49):
you probably know about ourbadass of thought and action
collection. I'm actually in theprocess of building out the
next version of that projectnow and going a lot deeper and
a lot weirder. After the 2020election, I started to see
commonalities between theeconomic malaise and 1970s
London and the outsider statusof the early punk community
with the views of the early tomid 20th century Austrian

(02:11):
economists , people likeFrieder Kayak , Ted Gun , MEUs
, and their latercontemporaries like Thomas Oul
and Milton Friedman. One of thepeople we didn't focus on in
that first round was someonewho might've slipped under your
radar. He slipped under mine.
You ? Eugene Von Baur . Yeah,it , it's a mouthful, but stick
with me. He was a rockstar inthe world of Austrian economics

(02:35):
and he's got some gems to sharethat, dare I say it, are game
changers for the creativeentrepreneur in all of us. I'm
actually very curious if hecould be a, a super distant
relative. My last name is Beam,BEHM, but apparently it was
supposed to be spelled BOHM,like Bombo work . It's part of

(02:55):
the root word for Bohemian.
Now, I have no idea if heactually is, but he could be.
Babok was a a man ahead of histime. He looked at economics
not just as numbers on a page,but as a study of human action.
What drives us to make thechoices we do and let's be
real. That's the goldenquestion, isn't it? Why do we

(03:18):
do what we do and how can we doit better? So what was his
claim to fame? His primaryteaching was something called
the time preference. Theory ofinterest. It sounds complex,
but it's actuallystraightforward. It's about the
value of now versus the valueof later. Imagine you're
standing at a fork in the road.

(03:38):
One path leads to a quick win,immediate satisfaction, but
nothing much after that. Theother path, the longer and
filled with challenges, leadsto a treasure trove that could
change your life forever. Whichone would you pick? That's what
Baba work wants us to thinkabout. He's saying, Hey, life's
short, but not that short.

(04:00):
Don't sell yourself short for aquick thrill when you could be
building a legacy. And that'snot just economic talk, it's
life advice, but it's wrappedin the language of supply and
demand make of bombo work isthat wise Elder who's seen it
all? He's our obiwan in theJedi journey of life choices.
So why does this matter to you?

(04:22):
The artists , the designers,the rebels of our no system
community? Well, each choiceyou make in your creative
journey is like a mini economicdecision. Are you investing in
quick disposable content that'sas fleeting as yesterday's
news? Or are you pouring yoursoul into a masterpiece that
could be your legacy? Bombowork challenges us to be the

(04:43):
architects of our destiny, andI'm here for it.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Section two, your two choices are art versus
content.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Okay, time to get our hands dirty in the nitty
gritty of daily life, picturethis, you wake up not to an
alarm clock, but to one ofthose light bulb moments.
You've got an idea for a designthat's so off the charts
incredible. It could be yourSistine Chapel. Here's the
kicker. It's gonna take time. Alot of time, weeks, maybe even

(05:13):
months of intense focus inlabor. You're basically giving
birth to a creative baby, andthat's not a weekend project.
At the same time, your billsaren't gonna pay themselves and
your social media followers areas impatient as a cat and
you're an empty food bowl . Yougotta feed the machine so you
whip up some content stuffthat's good enough to keep the

(05:34):
likes and shares rolling, butnot epic enough to be carved
into the annals of history.
It's your creative fast food.
It's quick, it's satisfying,but ultimately it's
forgettable. Bomba work wouldlook at this situation and
basically say, okay, you've gottwo paths, or He's Austrian, so
I , I'm not even gonna try anddo an Austrian accent. One is

(05:58):
the shortcut to instantgratification, and the other
path is the scenic route tosomething far more valuable.
And you know what? The dude'sspot on your epic design.
That's your investment in thefuture. Your moon landing, your
legacy in the making. It's whatpeople will talk about when
you're not in the room, but thequick content pieces, that's

(06:20):
your pocket change. You're hereand now you're 15 minutes of
fame. It's like eating a bag ofchips when you're hungry, it
fills you up, but it's not agourmet meal. Don't get me
wrong. We all need some chips,but it can't be the whole diet.
You also need meat and potatoesand vegetables, and if you work
for an industry that is tryingto push some sort of product,

(06:42):
you'll adjust the pyramid andthen you'll eat much more of
that. I digress. So askyourself, what are you cooking
up in your creative kitchen?
Are you the short order cookflipping burgers or are you
meticulously crafting a fivecourse meal? Bomba work wants
us to weigh our options and foronce maybe opt for the path

(07:03):
that requires a little morespice and a lot more simmering.
Here's where it gets real in mylife as someone juggling the
hat of a designer, anentrepreneur, a dad, a husband,
a full-time employee, I've hadto grapple with that dilemma
myself. I've been investing alot more time in social media
this year, and to be superhonest, it's been a mixed bag.

(07:27):
You can't sell if you don'tbuild a community and you can't
build a community by justselling. Every day we post a
photo of someone in a piece ofmerch and every day we post a
piece of advice. I'veexperimented with a whole bunch
of things, but with someplanning and practice, this
schedule has seemedsustainable. At the same time,

(07:48):
it has taken me away fromfocusing on the work. First
generation of this podcast wasone of those longer roads
bomber work talked about. Ithought it was important to put
it out into the world, and inthat case, the T-shirts were
the thing that was the dopaminehit. In hindsight, I bit off
more than I could chew and withthe other obligations we had at
the time to other clients, wewere spending as much time on

(08:10):
the dopamine hits of servingour partners as we were
neglecting the long-term workof building no system. I do
think social media can bepositive though, and we don't
have to throw the idea offeeding the machine out the
window. We can use it to shareour journeys. We're going down
the longer road and sort ofaccomplish two things at the
same time. We can capture thehighs, the lows, the messy

(08:31):
middle of creating somethingtruly epic. And while you don't
have to share all of thesecrets, giving people a
backstage pass to the creativeprocess can be a positive
thing, can help people feellike they know you. It can help
people who feel like they'resupposed to be an artist know
that it's something actuallyattainable and it can help
people get more interested inthe work we're creating. I'm

(08:52):
still wrestling with how much Ishare and how much I hold back.
Having to lay the no systemstaff off earlier this year was
definitely one of those thingsI held back at the time. I
didn't help build the rightinfrastructure and tool set ,
yay ADHD , and that ended upimpacting everyone on the team.
That's precisely where Bombawork comes back into play. He

(09:15):
reminds us that each decisionwhether to post a quick doodle
or share a painstakinglydetailed work in progress is a
choice between the now and thelater. Between quick
gratification and long lastingimpact. It's a constant tug of
war and trust me, it's okay tobe torn. At the end of the day,

(09:36):
if we're aiming to be more thanjust a flash in the pan, we've
gotta make room for the kind ofwork that builds a legacy. And
if sharing parts of thatjourney helps others see the
value in it, well that's awin-win. In my book.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Section three, the no system approach to time
preference.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
If you've been following me or the brand for a
while , you know that my goalis for no system to be more
than just some shirts or alogo. I really want it to be a
whole philosophy, a way oflife, a secret handshake among
rebels and anyone who daress tothink different. And that's why
our buddy Bomba work is like aspirit animal. Bomba work

(10:16):
wasn't just spewing economicjargon for the sake of it. He
was laying down thefundamentals of what we breathe
here at no system. The freedomto choose the audacity to be
different and more thananything else, the courage to
build something that willoutlast the Twitter trends.
When you invest your time andsoul into creating art that's

(10:37):
not just a flash in the pan,but a blazing comet in the
night sky, you're not justmaking an economic choice,
you're making a life choice, aa freedom choice. You're
basically flipping the bird toanyone who says you have to
follow the herd. It's yourpersonal declaration of
independence. But instead ofbreaking away from a country,
you're breaking away frommediocrity, from the ordinary,

(11:00):
from the system. So when you'repondering whether to invest in
something meaningful where youchase the quick buck, you gotta
remember choosing the path ofsubstance over flash isn't just
smart economics, it's livingthe no system philosophy. It's
saying, I'm not just here for agood time. I'm here for a long,

(11:21):
I'm epic game-changing time. IfBomba work were around today, I
hope he'd be a no system kindof guy.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Section four, the real world

Speaker 1 (11:32):
Impact for a dose of reality. Let's talk about
artists who've made the Bombawork playbook, their Bible,
talking about the Banksies andthe shepherd fairies of the
world. These guys didn't justwake up one day and decide, you
know what? I'm gonna be aninternationally renowned
artist. They played their gameon a much longer timeline. They

(11:52):
also played it in a way wherethe idea was more about the
message that they were puttingout into the world than
marketing. They invested yearsinto honing their skills,
experimenting with differentmediums and getting their hands
dirty sometimes, literally inthe messy process of creation.
If we were thinking about thisin economic terms, this would
be their artistic capital aterm that should absolutely be

(12:14):
a thing if it isn't already.
They went all in on their ownunique style and the gamble
paid off big time. Now we alsohave to switch gears and look
at the other side of thespectrum though . One hit
wonders, people who burst outtathe scene with a piece that
went viral, they had their 15minutes of fame and then, maybe

(12:35):
they were selling squirrelNFTs. Maybe they invented the
piano tie. Either way, the workthey were doing was disposable.
They vanished into the blackhole of obscurity. It's kinda
like they built a house ofcards, they looked cool for a
hot second, but it couldn'twithstand the test of time.
What sets the banksies and thefairies apart from these flash

(12:58):
in the pan artists is the depthof the investment in their
craft. They didn't just aim forthe low hanging fruit they
climbed to the top of the treeto get the best pickings, even
if it meant a few scrapes andbruises along the way. I guess
it boils down to which club doyou want to be a part of? The
legends or the lost 'cause ? Ifit's the former, you're gonna

(13:18):
have to dig deep and put in thetime. And maybe just maybe take
a page out of Bomba Works book. Before we wrap this segment
up, let's talk about somethingso dripping with irony. It's
like a Philly cheese stick , aparadoxes, shepherd Ferry . The
the man behind the iconic ObamaHope poster and the Obey

(13:39):
Campaign is an artist heavilyinfluenced by Marxist and
constructivist themes. What'sironic is that whether he
realizes it or not, his careertotally embodies bomber's time
preference. Theory ferry , whenhe's at the Rhode Island School
of Design starts spreading.
Andre the Giant has a posse,stickers. He wasn't even trying

(14:00):
to do anything. He was justamused. They were anonymous and
they spread. Nobody knewexactly what was going on.
There was an era of mystery,and because of it, that built
curiosity. As his art expanded,he spent years refining his
style, exploring sociopoliticalthemes, and basically investing

(14:20):
in his artistic capital. Andthis long-term investment paid
off. His work is really amongthe most recognizable modern
art, whether he is aware of itor not. Fairy's playing into an
economic model that's moreAustrian than Soviet. So if
Shepherd Fairy can unknowinglyembrace a concept that might

(14:42):
run counter to his ideologicalleanings, what's stopping us
from leaning into the wisdom ofBomba work ? Even if you're not
big on economics, the realworld application is
undeniable. It's like findingout your favorite punk rock.
Anthem uses the same fourchords as a cheesy pop song,
different genres, sameunderlying principles, and

(15:03):
spoiler alert, there's actuallya lot of crossover between the
DNA underneath the pop and apunk song. Even outside of Pop
punk section. Five practicaltips, balancing the present and
the future. How do you actuallyjuggle the immediate needs with
your long-term vision? Speakingfrom my own playbook here at No
System lately, I've beengeeking out on building tools

(15:26):
that help me see the bigpicture. For instance, those
bite-sized pieces of wisdom Idrop on Instagram. They're
actually not just for likes andshares, although those are
nice, don't get me wrong. Thoseposts actually serve as a
feedback loop for my othercontent, like these monologues
and my tos. When they resonate,it's a sign to double down on

(15:47):
those themes in my otherprojects, sort of like homing
beacons if something resonatesand put more homing beacons in
that area. Earlier this year, Iboosted a post on Instagram
that just said, you know morethan you think you do. No sales
message, no call to action.
Just, Hey, I bet you're smarterthan you think you are. That
little bit of positivity hashelped a couple of hundred

(16:09):
people to follow and startseeing all of the other
messages that we're puttingout. The other thing is that
those instant posts are craftedto stand the test of time.
Someone's scrolling through myfeed five years from now will
hopefully, hopefully find themjust as useful. It's a win-win.
I'm feeding the short-term needfor engagement while also

(16:31):
building a long lastingrepository of wisdom. Took a
while to get there, and I'msure there will continue to be
changes, but I'm happy thatI've been able to post more
bits of good out into the worldand be able to bring more
people back to the biggerthings I think have more value.
So be your own creativestrategist. Use your quick wins

(16:52):
to inform your long-termprojects and vice versa. It's
not just about balancing yourportfolio, it's about making
each piece work harder for you.
And when you get that right,it's like nailing the perfect
chord progression into punkrock anthem. So time for a call
to arms, or should I say a callto art over the next month?

(17:14):
Pick one project that you'retruly passionate about. I'm
talking about something thatpushes you outta your comfort
zone and has the sweet, sweetpotential for long-term glory.
Don't just take my word for it,try it out and let me know how
it goes. Whether we know it ornot, we're all building
futures, futures that ourpresent selves will not

(17:36):
approvingly at. Well , sippingon some good coffee. And that
fellow conspirators just wrapsthings up. Remember, life isn't
about the likes, the shares, oreven the immediate applause.
It's about the art you create,the legacy you leave and the
impact you have. The dailygrind. It's just the stepping
stone. Your futuremasterpieces, it's your

(17:58):
stairway to the stars. So goinvest in your own epic saga
and let's create art that'sworth more than just a scroll.
'cause at the end of the day,

Speaker 2 (18:08):
There is no system.
To know more about no system,visit noy nos.com .