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And you're good at doing this, which is you identify these lifestyle trends.
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You like pick up pretty quickly on like there's a group of people that are deciding to like live under a different paradigm, a different motto or creed.
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And actually that's always like one of the best ways to build a business around that lifestyle because you can speak to that audience and you can differentiate a product super easily to that crowd.
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Dude, have you ever been inside factories?
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You probably have, but I think most people have.
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Have you been inside like a any kind of factory?
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you think that I've been in a factory?
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You're going to be like, I don't know, like my [ __ ] cousin Bubba has like a bubblegum factory.
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You're going to be like I went fishing for I went fishing recently with my father-in-law and he's like, "Hey, so how do I set this hook up? What do I do?"
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I'm like "Dude, I don't know.
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I've never gone fishing."
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He's like, "Why did Why did you just assume that I know how to do this?"
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Dude, you seem like a guy.
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You just look like a for sure like a guy who just goes fishing.
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I've watched documentaries on it.
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Do you Do you or do you not have a favorite place to fish? No, of course not.
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I don't have a fishing hole that I go to.
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Um but no, I've I've I don't think I've been to a factory. Not really.
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Like what type of factory? Doesn't matter. Any factory.
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Whatever factory you go into, it's [ __ ] mind-blowing how like even to go to a warehouse.
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Like go to a You've been inside like an Amazon warehouse or like a like a food warehouse, like the how the food gets to restaurants.
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Um it's insane in the same way that like going to a farm is like slightly crazy and I eat these?
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These I eat these animals? Like, oh wow.
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Uh you know, that doesn't seem right.
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But like basically a factory is this kind of stunning.
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Like if you take any object on like okay, I I'm holding this microphone.
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This is sitting on my This is the foam cover of a microphone.
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There's some like huge factory that like is churning them out.
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If you just go back to trace the process of how this got to my desk.
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So, okay, I just go on Amazon, I just microphone I don't know, maybe this one.
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I click that, I buy it, right?
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So, it goes from an Amazon warehouse onto a like Amazon warehouse packs it into a carrier, carrier brings it to my house, puts the package on my doorstep. Okay, great.
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How did it get to the Amazon warehouse?
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Well, first it was in probably like another warehouse before it even got sent to Amazon.
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Before that warehouse, it was in a factory being made by human beings. Oh, no, sorry.
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Actually, before that, before it got to the warehouse, it was on a boat in a container like sailing from [ __ ] China on a boat with human beings just living on the boat as it sails for months, you know, 2 months to to the coast.
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And then it gets like un you know, like docked and separated out of a container ship and like human beings are there.
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In the factory, there's human beings, you know, I don't know how how many, you know, small children died making this foam cover, but it's like the amount of work that goes into everything that's sitting in our house just arriving there is insane to me. Like just the materials.
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So, where did the material for this foam come from, right?
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There's like a you know, if you have cotton, right?
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That starts in a field somewhere, gets plucked it gets plucked and it gets pulled and it gets processed and it gets shipped and then it gets it gets manufactured and then it gets printed and then it gets manufactured again.
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It's like that is insane where stuff comes from.
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And to the point where I'm kind of like we're kind of ruining the earth and also people's lives.
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Like, you know, like to get a $5 t-shirt my Amazon Prime membership.
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I was like, "Man, I feel guilty."
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I order something and it's like so much energy behind the scenes went to ship this.
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Of course, I only see they ship a dongle to a computer, a small ass thing with bubble wrap in a huge box.
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And I'm like, "Oh, this is horrible."
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It's and then I have to pay money to pay a truck to come pick it up because I it's too much, you know, boxes for my uh Yeah, and then the the truck, you know, burns gas and then takes it somewhere else and [ __ ] dumps it somewhere and then someone else's problem, right?
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Like so it's just kind of like on one hand, I'm amazed that the system even works.
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Like the fact that the package gets from the factory in Vietnam to the warehouse and then you go to the warehouse and there's like an unbelievable number of boxes and then they get sort, you know, picked and packed into package and then that gets shipped and then you if you ever go to the post office, like if you go to the post office and you you should just ask them, be like, "Hey, can I see what it's like behind the the door there?" They'll be like, "What?"
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Well, I'll be like, "I just never seen a post office." They'll open the door.
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It is like Santa's like, you know, elves factory basically.
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It's like the most unbelievable number of packages and you're like, "Where's the system?
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Like aren't there conveyor belts?"
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And they're like, "Nah, we just got these like trolleys and then we just kind of keep them like, you know, the ones going over there, they stay over in this area and then we we hope we don't lose them."
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It's like, "Wow, this is insane that this system even works."
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It's like an incredible achievement.
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It's crazy you can mail something from California and to New York for like 45 cents.
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And it gets there like 4 days. That's what I'm saying. And pretty reliably.
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So I'm like it it is on one hand amazing and on the other hand is horrifying the amount of like I forget the environmental side, right?
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I'm not even that environmentally conscious.
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It's not like something that I think about all the time or I feel super guilty about.
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I actually feel more like the human energy and labor and just the amount of effort and resources it took to get this thing to me.
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It makes me think like, you know, we had that guy David Freeberg come on the pod.
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You you weren't there for that one.
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for that one. But the thing he's doing which is basically like, "Hey, he's doing the same thing as the drink industry which is like instead of, you know, putting 20 L of water to grow grapes, then crush the grapes, turn it into wine, add sugar, add alcohol, pack it
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up, put it to a, you know, send it to a bottling factory, then send it to a warehouse, then put it on a shelf in a store, and then drive it home, and then put it on a shelf in your home like he's like why don't you just like manufacture it in your home using this little printer that will print a drink for you. And um
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And um and it's like oh yeah that cuts out like 90% of like the you know this like energy and like kind of resources and and time and effort that goes into to bringing this drink to my you know you know to be able to drink this drink.
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So I just feel like more than ever there was like that was the big wake up call.
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That was my going into space moment was realizing for every single product, every shirt, every pair of boxers, every sock that I own how much god damn like effort, labor, travel, resources goes into it and realizing that that's not going to be the way.
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Um that's not going to be the way forever and like this kind of like 3D printing, you know like sort of basically like manufacturing just in time at the end point and cutting out a whole bunch of these like factories and warehouses and all that other stuff that needs to happen was my big wake up call.
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I want to ask you about then what else is there that you can do that for but before that have you ever gotten into the buy it for life movement?
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You have I told you about that?
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Um no but I think I understand it from that. What is it?
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It's like a eco-friendly way of like buying a bunch of stuff?
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It doesn't have to be rooted in eco-friendly.
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It's not for me but it's a perk.
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There's a subreddit that I subscribe to it's called buy it for life and what you do is the the idea is just how do you just consume less stuff and how do you just buy the best of something that hopefully can last forever.
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So an example Do you remember as a kid did your mom ever have a KitchenAid mixer? Yes.
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Okay so a KitchenAid mixer KitchenAid's a brand and the mixer like it's the thing with the bowl underneath it and like the arm that goes above it and spins.
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Those are like $600 they're really expensive.
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But they're famous for lasting like a lifetime.
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Like you can use an antique one and it works just as good.
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And another example is if you're going to buy like a a coat like there's like um you can maybe buy a really fancy leather coat and you're willing to spend $2,000 as opposed to buying a $300 one because it could like last forever as long as you fit in it.
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Or Patagonia actually does that, too.
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They'll fix your stuff forever.
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Or, um, there's like a bunch of furniture, there's a bunch of shoes, like different type of of shoes you can buy instead of them whenever they wear down, instead of throwing throwing them away, you can just get them fixed.
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And so it's the idea of like how do you buy one thing forever and it hopefully can last forever.
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Or buy one thing one time and it will last forever.
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I feel like you do stuff like this, Ben.
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Do you Do you have like objects that you, uh, stuff that you buy that's like meant to to sort of last? I don't know why.
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My hunch just tells me you do.
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The funny thing is my dad does this but not out of like, um, like environmental justice ideas but just like because he's crazy that way of like he drove the same car for 22 years and just like couldn't bring himself to buy a new car and always shines his shoes cuz he's owned the same shoes for like 40 years.
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And so that like kind of got ingrained in me as like a good way to live and so I do do this a little bit. It's awesome. It's fun.
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It also like some of your [ __ ] as you wear it and it patinas, it actually looks cooler. Right.
8:56
And you're good at doing this, which is you identify these like lifestyle trends.
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It's like, do you know there's some people that are like, you know, not eating food anymore?
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They're just drinking whatever, uh, Soylent or, you know, like You know, you know there's people that just microdose LSD every day?
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And like these are kind of famous examples now but I feel like you've told me about like 30 of these in the time that we've been friends and they're like, "Dude, have you seen this like, you know, subreddit called, you know, Fat Fire or whatever?"
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It's like you always have these like you you like pick up pretty quickly on like there's this weird I don't know, not even weird, it's just like there's a group of people that are deciding to like live under a different sort of like paradigm or different motto or creed.
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And actually that I think you just like cuz it's interesting but that also is like one of the best ways to build a business around that lifestyle because you can speak to that audience and you can differentiate differentiate a product super easily to that crowd.
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And I seek the I seek those things out.
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So there's a bunch of things that I I don't agree with or I don't I don't want to live my life that way, but I love just like seeing it.
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I like seeing how basically I love freaks. I like weirdos.
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I consider myself a weirdo and I and I I love a good freak show.
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I just love how see it like I remember I the first time like 3 years ago I went to my friend's house and he didn't have a microwave. I'm like, "What?
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You don't have a microwave?"
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He's like, "Well, it's bad for these reasons."
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And I was like, "You're a freak."
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Like Mike what We all have microwaves. You're the weirdo.
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And then I used to start thinking about it.
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I'm like, "Well, okay, tell me why are you Why do you think you might be right?"
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And I'm like, "Okay, there maybe there's a point there."
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Or like uh my friends a lot of my friends now refuse to use plastic Tupperware or plastic anything that you eat with.
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And I'm like, "Well, why?
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I just put my thing in microwave. Who cares?"
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And so like there's a bunch of little things like that that I love learning about.
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Yeah, I remember when Justin Myers came on you you were like, "Let me guess.
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You don't have a microwave in your house." He's like, "Yep."
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And I was like, "That's a [ __ ] weird spot-on question to ask somebody that I don't think you knew the answer to ahead of time."
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And then that got me thinking about that this this exact lifestyle you're talking about.
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In fact, Moiz So Moiz started Native Deodorant which was around one of these trends which was people wanted an all-natural paraben-free aluminum-free deodorant.
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And he saw that on Etsy that was like a really high-selling item, but it was like in that Etsy kind of handmade artisan goods like bubble.
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And his bet was that people once you kind of speak to that value system of like not having X, they might be willing to pay more and be become a like switch deodorant brands if you like build a brand around it.
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He recently tweeted something.
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He goes, "Billion-dollar idea.
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Water that has not touched plastic."
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So it's a water brand that has only been like in glass containers or like you know, basically like from the whatever like the mountain that this was was gotten, it hasn't touched plastic until it's reached your lips.
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And um and I thought that was funny.
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It's like this this plastic thing is is uh real.
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A lot of people are anti-plastics.
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Uh but so that that means like for every product where plastic is core, there's going to be a alt product where plastic is not not like not used.
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So, whether it's Tupperware or like for me, I drink water out of you know, we get those big 5-gallon jugs or whatever delivered to the house out of a dispenser.
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That's That's a plastic container it's sitting in the whole time until I drink it. Right?
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So, it's just a giant water bottle.
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And so, there's like there's there's these trends where you can look at okay, where is there like if there's anti-plastic trend, where is there plastic and can I create an alternative?
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If there's a plant-based vegan trend, how do I make alt milks, alt meat, alt whatever, right?
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That becomes like a a blueprint to building a great business.
12:36
So, there's a few companies out right now.
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You might know their names.
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I'm going to try and look them up, but basically uh there's this trend amongst products that you use daily that you run out of.
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So, like toothpaste, laundry detergent, uh Advil bottles, things where the bottle isn't is just like a way to get it to you, but it's kind of [ __ ] that you have to throw it away.
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And so, they're making all these products where they send to you one package and then they send you like whenever you need it just a something to refill it like or like like literally something you pour into it.
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Um do you know what they're called?
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Do you know what I'm talking about?
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No, but I've seen this for toothpaste.
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Um and I think it's a great idea.
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I think this is a great business idea.
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Um And I at first I thought it was small.
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I think Moiz was the one who told me, I'm pretty sure he said it's like killing it.
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Um you don't know what I'm talking about. I forget what it is.
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Uh No, I don't know the name.
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Uh I'll have to look up what it is, but it it they're crushing it.
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I know there's like um for cleaners, I think there's one called Blueland.
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I think Doesn't Blueland do this? Is it Blueland?
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Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
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Yeah, and it it's like chemical-free containers and then they send you one container and then they you you order something and they I don't know exactly how they send it to you, but you just like pour it into the thing. Right.
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They send you a plastic pouch that you throw away.
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Yeah, yeah, I think it's like less less bad.
14:06
Um By the way, speaking of these kind of like niche crazy people, I got two for you.
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So, one is We talked I think about um anti work the r/antiwork.
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Did we talk about that on the podcast?
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I don't know if think we talked about it, but it pisses me off.
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So, there's r/antiwork which you should explain that and then I have another one that's the the counter to it.
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So, first explain r/antiwork.
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I don't even entirely know how to explain it, but it it was I'll tell you the background from what if I remember correctly, it was started 8 years ago, but uh like in the last 3 years since the pandemic is when it really got popular.
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It was made up of a lot of people who were waiters and waitresses and they were pissed off at how they were being treated and it started out as like a labor move-movement thing.
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Like we need higher wages, we need this.
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Now, it's like got 8 million, 10 million subscribers on on this subreddit and it's people complaining about like, you know, my manager said that like they fired me because I told them I was busy when I needed to come in and they just basically [ __ ] on anything where it's like demanding of of workers.
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And so, I think So, so here's their here's what I think their stated thing.
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Ben, you tell me if if I'm being too harsh on it.
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If you find a more generous explanation. But here's what it says.
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It is a subreddit for those who want to end work, are curious about ending work, and want to get the most out of a work-free life.
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The subreddit has cracked over 1.
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4 million members by the end of 2019, which has got to be a lot more than that by now. It's 8 million now.
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And it went I'm sorry, 1. 8 million. Oh my god. Sorry.
15:39
It went viral viral after a warehouse worker posted a screenshot of a text that they sent their boss, and then that basically made other workers the other workers like kind of like saw that, were inspired, did the same, and it was part of this like, you know, the great resignation that people were talking about.
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And there was like this funny clip where they put they took a mod from r/antiwork, and they went on Fox News.
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I don't know if you Have you seen this clip?
16:01
Yeah, and this the person got destroyed. It was embarrassing.
16:04
Yeah, it's like antiwork person gets destroyed by, you know, Fox anchor is like the video. Which I didn't like. I didn't like.
16:09
I mean, they I hate when they do that.
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This person clearly like is not that smart, I think, and like they it's very easy to set them up to look silly in that in those cases.
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The subreddit also didn't like it, cuz they were like, "Dude, horrible representation of us on TV.
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Um did not articulate our points.
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And um you know, why did you go on there?
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Like this movement is not about you getting your personal fame, you know, to like do this.
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Um we kind I think they had some rules around like we're not going to do appearances or speak to the media unless we kind of agree on what the message is.
16:43
Um and so this person went rogue, I guess, and and did that.
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But it But they basically embarrassed themselves, where they were like, "Yeah, I just don't want to work."
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And the guy's like, "Okay, also like, you know, do you don't want to work at all?
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Or like, "No, like I want to be able to do what I want to do."
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So he's like, "All right, what do you want to do?"
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He's like, "I want to teach people I want to be I want to be a teacher."
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And he's like, "You want to be a You want to be a teacher?"
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You know, should we Should we let you teach?
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Basically was kind of like the the end point that they were kind of making.
17:06
But anyway, so this There's antiwork, which went viral.
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Then there's Have you seen r/overworked? No, what's that? It's the exact opposite.
17:13
It's people who are using the pandemic, the kind of remote work lifestyle to be like they call it having the multiple jobs at once.
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So like they'll their lingo is like oh yeah my J1 which is like my job one like J1 has great benefits and so I'm just picking up my J2 and J2 I'm just going to do 10 hours a week with this this and this and I'm going to use that to invest in these things right?
17:36
It's so it's people scheming together about how to work multiple jobs at once in as remote workers often times it seems like without the employers knowing that there are other jobs so they're like being simultaneously employed without being super overt about it.
17:52
I think that's the message.
17:53
I could be wrong on that.
17:56
And it's it's people who are trying to get to financial freedom faster by saying like yeah like actually I have the capacity to do like multiple jobs you know instead of sort of spending 40 hours a week on one job it's like I can actually do a good job in 20 hours a week on two jobs and get paid double.
18:15
that that's the optimistic way to look at it.
18:16
The probably realistic way like I'm looking at the top title and it says J my J3 job forgot about me today and they say I started my J3 yesterday and by started I mean I was giving an orientation on Zoom and no one showed up.
18:30
So now I'm just sitting here on the payroll. Right.
18:33
Yeah yeah there's tons of people who are like yeah let's beat the system and so there's like a basically a counter movement but that kind of always happens.
18:41
There's like a there's like the movement and then there's the counter movement that comes shortly after and like it kind of polarizes and then there's the mainstream which just does things the way they've been doing them and they don't really pay too much attention to this stuff.
18:51
And so you know that that's kind of common for for many many many many of these movements.
18:58
I think subreddits are a great place to look for that.