Advice, Portrayed by a Dimwit

Jack brings us list of thoughtful quotes from philosopher Carl Yung.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Life advice from the world of philosophy is portrayed by Dimwitz.
It's one more thing I'm strong Andy. I guess I
should have said at dim Wit, because I'll be reading
it Joe might be able to portray it in a
fully lit way, not a dimly lit way. Dimwit will.

(00:25):
I came across this Twitter thread the other day. I
don't even know if it's accurate, but it's this guy
Tim Denning who had just started following on Twitter, and
he's got a lot of life advice from different quarters,
and he's very judgmental about it, but I agreed with
most of it. Anyway. He's picking on Carl Jung spelled
with a J j U n G, the uh psychologist, psychiatrist,

(00:46):
philosopher dude from the early twentieth century. And I'll go
through some of these through the thread and we'll see.
I think there are the opportunities for conversation here. Some
quotes from him, thinking is difficult, that's why most people judge.
I don't even I'm not sure I even know what
that means. But it goes on to say, where your

(01:07):
fear is, there is your task.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Huh.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
And again I would like to know more and the
explanation of this from this person, This is why the
work life balance and self care movements help people become losers.
Discomfort is where the opportunity is. Find what you fear
and look it in the eyes. Otherwise you become mediocre
and the rewards are terrible. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
I have a fair amount of sympathy to that point
of view, partly because I've read I need to keep
reading about it. But about stoicism, one of my favorite
books is called The Obstacle is the Way, meaning that
obstacles are not supposed to be there. That's exactly what's
going to happen. Of course, it is embrace the obstacle,
don't act surprised, and don't cower in front of it.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
That's what was supposed to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
And so yeah, yeah, the idea that well as he
expressed it, I think there's a lot of truth to that.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
I like the That's why the work life balance self
care movements help people become losers. Discomfort is where your
opportunity is. Of course, that's a fairly judgmental way to
put it. Most people I know who use the term
self care are way over the top, self indulgent, people. Yeah,
just in my personal experience.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
At the same time, though, to poo pooh work life
balance I think is a mistake. Oh of course, it
depends entirely on your circumstances. But you know, killing yourself
to make a few more bucks for a corporation who cares?

Speaker 1 (02:36):
That is true. But again, the people I here use
it the most are people who don't work very hard.
It's just like people I've known who say a work
hard and play hard, really really play hard and don't
work That just in my experience most of the time. Yeah, right,
So the concepts aren't wrong, it's just that the people

(02:58):
that tend to use the conceptsuse them. I loved him.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
I loved the concept of self care until it started
getting overused.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah it became sense. Yeah, you got it. You got
to include yourself and the whole list. But again, most
people I know who use it are really self indulgent people.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah here's another one for you. I spend quality time
with my kids. Right, Yeah, that's somebody who doesn't spend
much time.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
At all with their kids. Yeah, that's exactly right. Man.
Seinfeld had some good stuff about that his most recent
podcast tour, where he was I wish we'd had him on.
He was like on every podcast in America for an
hour and a half. He is, at age seventy, really
willing to speak his mind about a lot of things,
and he had a lot of opinions about because he
didn't become a parent too late like me. He was
even older than me. I was forty five. I think

(03:42):
he was forty eight. Uh. But anyway, he talked a
lot about that. No, no, no, that it's it's the
sitting there in front of the TV. You're both eating
a bowl of cereal. Those are the unbelievable moments you
have with your kids. It's just the being there and
the time and everything. Anyway, I didn't want to get
off on that track. Here's some more from the guy

(04:04):
Oh on that same topic. How to apply it, figure
out what you fear, set challenges to face the fear,
and as you face more fears, your confidence increases. I
don't doubt that that's true. After you go through a
certain number of obstacles, it becomes less daunting.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
The world will add This is another one from Carl Jung.
This is a pretty good one. The world will ask
you who you are and if you do not know,
the world will tell you that's true. Oh okay, yeah,
whether you're a I don't know, back to being parent,
whether you're a good parent, hard worker, whatever, the world

(04:47):
will the world will let you know at some point
in your life what you were where you were on
on those topics.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, that's that's a tough one because I grew up
in a family where there was a fair amount of
discussion of what our principles are and what, you know,
what it's like to live a principled life as opposed
to not a principled life. And I suppose if you're
in a situation and you don't need to be told
that verbally, you can see it as a kid, I mean,

(05:15):
what you observe is so much more powerful than what
you're told. But if you grew up in a culture
of family without real principles, it'd be tougher to develop
him on your own, no doubt, and then the world
will tell you who you are.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
I'm guessing with a dad as a judge KT who
had a lot of God principles and guidance, Yes, quite
a bit.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Did he ever at the dinner table hold you in
contempt all the time?

Speaker 1 (05:43):
Still does did he regularly? Did he ever, like you know,
something's gone haywire in high school and he says, we
need to talk. I'll be right back, And then he
goes and he puts on the robe and he comes back.
That would have been hilarious if he did. I wish
he did that. Are you kidding me?

Speaker 3 (05:57):
When I was getting in trouble, I was my room
was at the top of the stairs. And my sign
that I was just absolutely in deep. You know what
was his sound of his feet coming up the stairs.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
Boy, Oh, I am so screwed. I picture him in
the living room saying, please approach the easy chair.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
I'd picture him bringing the gavel to the dinner table.
You know, it's exactly this meal is over. Bang bang.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
My favorite thing on his desk was something. It was
a It was a grenade. It was a metal grenade,
and it said complaint desk, Please pull a number, as
if you were pulling the pin out of a grenade.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Got it.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
I got one more of these and then we'll call
her good. This is very, very long. We could do
these for an hour. But the word happy would lose
its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. That's
another Carl Jung, saying the word happy would lose its
meaning if it were not bounced by sentence. That's obviously true.
Christopher Hitchins wrote in his book when he was dying
of cancer that you know, if we were all immortal,

(06:55):
everything would lose its meaning. Nothing would be special. So
you know the fact that there's an end date makes
gives meaning to an awful lot of things. Anyway, on
this head so heavy, it is heavy. Uh. The word
happy with lose its meaning if it were not bounced
by sadness. This guy interpreting it said, darkness is a superpower.

(07:17):
Rock bottom is where you find your potential. Dark times
lead to amazing comebacks.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Sometimes my experience is all those things, all these things
are so much easier to believe in when you're not
in that situation. Oh yeah, it's easy when things are
going well, or to tell somebody else.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, that's how you react to failure.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
That is the key, and then all that And that's
all true. It's just that when you're in it, in
the failure, it's not as easy to absorb.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Which is why you internalize thoughts like that before you're there.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
I just write him down on a piece of paper
and then I get in a jam. I'm like that,
and I think I know I wrote it down somewhere.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
It's pot where's my jam bucket, my bucketed jam thoughts
there it is? Don't give up, come back to your
wonder Oh right, right, right.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Right, right, right right. This is the true test of
who you are. Okay, good.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
Could you imagine feeling like you're at rock bottom and
somebody going, you know what rock bottom is?

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Where you find your potential? Oh? Shut up? Yeah, that's
kind of the old do you want to be helped
her hugged?

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (08:25):
And then the famous Shakespeare thing from uh, I don't
remember which one it's from King Lear. I believe this
is not the worst of it, as long as we
are here to say this is the worst of it.
In other words, until you're dead. Yeah, it can always
get worse.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Oh yeah, you think this is rock bottom uplifting, Well,
I guess that's it.