Breaking the Monoculture, the Rise of “Premium Mediocre”, and Choosing Your Suck

I've got a theory drill, and it starts with music, but I think it kind of explains everything. Everything. Everything. Ever. Okay, not everything. But most a lot of things. Bear with me. Okay, we haven't got a brilliant or bullshit yet. We just started. We just started. It's the subtle art of not giving a fuck podcast with your host, Mark Manson. I've actually, I've gone through a number of concerts recently. One of them was a metal show, so I'm a big fan of a band called Lamb of God. Shout out to Randy, the lead singer. He's a fan of mine. I'm a fan of his. He was cool enough to invite me out to a show. Got to hang out with him. Everything. It was fun. You know, I was a big metalhead when I was young. And it was interesting going back. I hadn't been to a metal show in probably at least six, seven years. And it was interesting going to a metal show again. I'm in my 40s. Most of the audience was in their 40s. So I'm in their 50s. The bands were all in their 40s and 50s. Everybody was middle age. Everybody looked like they, you could probably catch them driving a minivan and taking their kids to soccer practice during the week. And it was really interesting because I had a similar experience. I went to an electronic show maybe two or three weeks later. Same thing. It's funny. That one I went to and I was a little bit insecure. I was like, oh, it's going to be a bunch of kids on Molly and shit. And like, I'm probably too old for this. No, sure enough. Like half the audience was probably at least my age. And they seem to be aging up. So here's the theory. I think of it as the jazification of everything. The jazification of everything. And hear me out here. So when we were young, jazz was lame. And I didn't really develop an appreciation for jazz music until I went to music school. And I was forced to study it. And then once I started studying it, I realized like, oh, this is really intricate and cool and creative. And there's all this cool stuff going on. What I also learned at music school is that jazz was cool as fuck in the 40s and 50s. 30s, 40s and 50s. And fact, fun fact, the word cool comes from jazz. It's the invention of cool. There's actually a Miles Davis album called the Birth of Cool. Anyway, sidebar. Being a jazz fan as a young person in the 2000s, it was incredibly lonely and isolating. I would go to jazz shows. First of all, they're in tiny clubs that held like maybe 50, 60 people. And it would be like me, two other music dorks, and then like a bunch of 60 and 70 year olds. It was just like, it was sad, especially because the musicians were some of the best musicians I'd ever seen in my life. And it was this weird thing we're like, okay, it had its cultural moment. And then rock happened and television happened and pop happened. And the mainstream culture just passed it by and kind of left it alone. But there was this very intense cult following. This group of people that grew up with it, and they never left it, and they just loved it forever. And at the metal show, I was like, wow, metal is becoming like jazz. It's becoming the next jazz, right? And then I went to the electronic show. And I was like, electronic feels like it's kind of becoming the next jazz. And then I started thinking about every show I've been to. And everything I've like, not just music-wise, but the video games that I'm into, or the movies and TV shows that I'm into. Every form of media and entertainment, there is a small group of super mega popular hits. You have the Taylor Swift and the Mario and Fortnite and the big Marvel movie or whatever. But everything else is like jazz. Everything else is a small subculture of highly dedicated fans. Unlike in the 20th century where everything was a monoculture. Everybody was watching the same five channels, so it was like, you know, in the 70s, disco was in, and then in the 80s, disco was out. Now everybody's into rock and glam. And then by the 90s, glam is out, and everybody's in the alternative. And everybody would kind of just jump ship to the next thing over and over. We don't have a monoculture anymore. So now everybody has their own little jazz that they're into, almost exclusively from everybody else. And it's their little subculture and you age together, right? Like I was a metal fan when I was 20. I went and saw Lamb of God. Now I'm 40. If they're still playing when I'm 60, I'll probably go see Lamb of God, right? Like it's the, we age through together. The artist's age with the fans. And it's a completely different dynamic. It's like a balkanization of culture. Yeah. You saw those two, like in the 2000s, when nerd culture kind of started to take over two. And there was, you talked about this with David Brooks a little bit, the atomization of culture that we have. And I think, is that part of it, do you think? I think that's part of it. And I think there, so there's two dynamics that are really significant. One is, is the atomization. So it's like everybody finds their own little subculture. And they're like niche, niche, niche thing that they're like really into. And they've got this little community online that they interact with. But the other thing that's changed is that you age through life with that culture. Again, it's, it's not like you change, change out for the new fashion and the new music every five or six years. It's, you're stuck in it. Yeah, it's like, it's like the band you were into in 2010. You're still into in 2025 and you're going to be into them in, in 2040. And like, I'm noticing this with our audience too, right? Like it's, it's, when I started out, my audience was around my age there in their 20s and early 30s. Now my audiences in their 30s and 40s, like we're aging up together. And the same way my interest change over time, their interest change over time. And we, we just kind of grow together. And when I think about my favorite music, my favorite art, my favorite video games, my favorite like movies or whatever, filmmakers, it's similar. You know, it's like we age and develop together. I don't find myself jumping ship. I don't find myself being like, oh, well, I was really into Nintendo five years ago. But now I'm into Fortnite stuff, right? Like it's, it's like, no, the thing I was into when I was 15, I'm like still into now. And it just has evolved with me over time. What, what explains that? That is weird. I think it's, is it the media landscape? I mean, that's obviously a big part of it. So I think it's, there's no monoculture. So I think there's two things simultaneously. One is, is that we tend to, whatever we like when we're like, say, 18 to 25. Yeah. We tend that just kind of like seems to cement itself in us for the rest of our lives. That's part of it. The other part is, the media landscape is personalized. So it's like, everything is algorithmic. Everything is designed to like, if you like metal music, here's more metal music. And if you like shooter games, here's another shooter game. And it like people don't really, because there's just an abundance of everything. Nobody ever, there's no scarcity driving you to go find a new thing. If that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Is that crazy? No, I think I've seen it too. I've also seen it like, if I look at people who are slightly older than me. Yeah. As well. And I see them, you know, there's some of them who look like they're dressed up going to a metal concert all the time. Yeah. They're dressed up like they're going to see, I don't know, you know, a little affair or something. Whatever they were listening to back then, I don't know. So I think I've seen this as well. I haven't really put the, put a name on it like you have here though. I think the, the jazzification of everything. Jazzification is such a terrible name. It is as terrible, but we'll work on that. We'll work on that one. But I think it, it, there's a, as with everything, there's a cost and benefit to everything, right? But the benefit is, is that you get to grow and evolve an age with your favorite media and art and entertainment. The cost is that we lose that monoculture, right? Like we, we miss those cultural moments that it feels like everybody's a part of. Like when you and I were kids, you know, Michael Jackson would do the Super Bowl. And it was like everybody was paying attention. Everybody, everybody cared. Everybody was talking about it. Today, there's not really anything like that. Like the closest thing is maybe Taylor Swift, the past couple of years. But it's like, even though I know her numbers are higher than, you know, the numbers of other artists from 30, 40 years ago. But the cultural impact doesn't feel the same. Like it doesn't feel inescapable the way, you know, somebody like Michael Jackson or Michael Jordan was in the 80s or 90s. Because you literally only had like five TV channels. You could be completely oblivious to it. Like you could today. There was nothing else to watch or do. So you had to watch and do the same things that everybody else was watching and doing. Which had a side benefit of making it feel like we're all participating in the same cultural moment. Cohesiveness to the culture all the time. I do agree that that's the benefit side of that though. There are more people who feel at least somewhat included. Or seeing, you know, in some ways, like, oh, I can go find this scene of mine and be in on that at the cost of a larger cultural cohesion. Yeah. Second thought, here's my fuck for the week. - The new bunch of concerts recently. - Yes. - The fucking phones, dude. - It kills me. - It kills me. Here's the thing I noticed, and this is what I wanna talk about. I kinda understand, 'cause I do it a little bit, but I'm also just confused. It was very interesting going to a bunch of different shows. And like most concerts, you know, there's a couple of openers, and then there's like the kind of the subheadline act, and then there's the big headline act. And it was interesting watching the people around me, of course, fucking phones in the air all the time. - So fucking annoying. - It was really interesting, because in the super early opening acts that nobody had ever heard of them, you didn't see any phones. - No phones. - Everybody's actually watching the show. And thinking about, like that part was kinda good, or like, oh, this song's okay, you know? As the acts got a little bit more popular, and people got more into it, the phones started coming out more. And then by the time you got to the main headline act, people just had phones in the air the entire time. - When I went to the like electronic show, the headliner was like a big name DJ. And there was a guy next to me who, at some point, I actually thought he was live streaming the show, because his phone was out for a good 30 or 40 minutes straight. And finally, like, I kinda like craned my neck back and looked, and it's like, no, he was recording, just a video, just a video. Like, dude, you're literally recording half the show. And to me, there's like, there's something paradoxical there of the more meaningful, the moment, the more people remove themselves from the present moment by pulling out their phones. - Yes. - Which kinda makes no sense, but then it's like also very, like every concert or event I go to, this is what happens. The more meaningful the moment, the more everybody just whips out their phone and turns into a little filmmaker and removes themselves from experiencing the moment. Explain this to me. - Help me out, you're true. - Well, I don't use my phone in that way, but I do experience this in some different ways. Just very recently, I was standing on my back porch, and I have this, there's like this beautiful little hay field across the street for my house, and like a couple little mountains and stuff. And it's to the west where I get really pretty sunsets, you know, and I kinda glanced down, I was like, "Oh, it's really pretty sunsets tonight." Immediately grab my phone, walk out on my back porch, take a picture, look at it, it sucks, 'cause it's the picture, you know, never captured it. - And I just turn around and I walk inside. (laughing) And then I got inside and I'm like, "What the fuck am I doing?" I'm gonna go enjoy this sunset for real. And so I, you know, go back out and I enjoyed the sunset as it, as God intended it, as well. And so, I mean, that's a small little sliver of the same type of thing, but it is, you look at that screen after, you know, whatever it is, a concert, or a sunset or whatever it is, and it's just never as good. Do you put the phone right back in your pocket and just walk away, or do you sit down and enjoy? That's what I've trained myself to do, is be like, "Oh, put the phone away and just enjoy this." - So I thought about it. So I actually thought really hard about this, because I do occasionally pull out my phone. Like, for instance, when the headline act comes out and they like start playing their big song or whatever, and the crowd's going crazy. Like, yeah, I'll pull out my phone for 15, 20 seconds, be like, "Oh, cool, let's capture this moment here." And I asked myself, why? Like, what is the impetus there? Like, why, what scratch am I, what itch am I scratching? - Right. - And the conclusion I came to is that, because it feels like a special moment, I want to be able to remember it and relive it at some future point. - Sure. - And my sense is that it's really all I want to do is just capture enough that I remember how it feels to be here, and I can get that in 20 or 30 seconds, because past 20 or 30 seconds, I'm now removing myself from experiencing the moment in the first place, right? So now I don't have a memory. If I like, sit there and record for 30 minutes, like the guy next to me, I no longer have a memory of the moment, because I spent the whole time recording. But then I asked myself, I'm like, okay, let's think about this for a second. Out of all the concerts, all the fucking sunsets, like how many times have I ever gone back through my phone? - Yeah. And that's what I can relate to. - And that's what I can relate to. - And sat there and been like, wow, remember that show, that was such a cool show? I never do that ever. Like maybe once every three years, I'll go back and look at a handful of things, but it's very rare. So I don't know, it just seems like the effort reward is completely off here. And, well, do you think that people who are pulling their phones out of concerts, do you think they're thinking that same thing? Like I want to remember this later. Cause I'm not sure that's what it is. - I, so, I think it's, I want to post this on social media so I can be a part of this jazzification. - Yes. - Of everything. - Yes. - And show that I'm a part of it. That's a huge part of it. So I, it's funny cause I spent like half of this show just sitting there and like watching people trying to figure out why they were doing this. - They weren't watching the concert in the moment. - Yes. - Which is why you were just taking your time. - I was ignoring the concert so I could figure out why the fuck these people were recording the concert. There was a lot of Instagram going on. For sure. There was a lot of that going on. There was also one thing I noticed too is that drunk people were doing it a lot more, which is interesting. - A lot more. - Yeah. I noticed the drunk people, like the selfie thing, the, oh my god, this is the best moment of my life. Like they're drunk people, the phones were out constantly. Constantly. - There's a group of drunk girls in front of us and it would like the amount of selfies it reached hilarious proportions. It was like, I don't think you guys got enough. I think you got to get another one. Let's go for number 81. - All right. - Yeah, I think there is some sort of social signaling thing going on with social media. But then it's like I think about the guy recording like 30 minutes. I couldn't help but think it was almost like, this is gonna sound really condescending. But it was some of the people. It felt like they were afraid that just fully enjoy it. It was a way for them to feel like they were enjoying it without having to expose themselves emotionally without having to like lose themselves and lose control and show like how excited or ecstatic they were. It was a way to. - They don't have to acknowledge the temperamental nature of it. They don't have to acknowledge the fleeting nature that this isn't going to be here in a second. So I need to somehow reconcile that. They're definitely, I couldn't help when I was watching people. I couldn't help but feel like there was some sort of weird avoidance thing going on. Which again, strikes me as so strange. Like you've spent fucking hundreds of dollars and you get nice tickets to a show and you just spend half of it looking through your phone. - Well, we just had, I mean, we had Near Eye all on recently and he brought up the term, which other people use as well, the digital pacifier. - So to me, this is the concerning thing, right? It's like, it's never been easier than ever before to alleviate discomfort. It's always in our pocket and that alleviation of discomfort does not, will reiterate, it does not just happen in painful moments. It happens in joyous moments as well, which is arguably an even bigger problem. Also, the jazzification of everything is in its own way an avoidance of discomfort, right? Like it's, there was, and now maybe I'm just waxing the nostalgic, but I do remember pre-social media, pre-mobile phone. There was, when the culture shifted, when it's like the new trendy music changed, it kind of forced you of like, okay, well, this is the new thing. So you need to like start getting used to it and learning it and understanding it and at least decide if you like it or not. And I think as long as we all live in our own little kind of cultural bubbles with the thing that we've loved for decades and we're gonna love for the next few decades and we don't ever have to like change our minds about it or try new things, we kind of lose that cultural discomfort that like being nudged or pushed into experiencing different things or different stuff that maybe isn't, that we don't necessarily like the first time. I see, so you're saying we age with that as just that this is our comfort lane here that we're gonna age along this subculture. - Yeah, like I don't feel like I remember when I was, again, in music school, right? Like I had no interest in jazz and then I was forced to understand jazz from an artistic perspective and I started really appreciating it. I had a very similar experience with hip hop at a certain point and I had a similar experience with electronic music at a certain point. These days like I don't, not only do I not feel compelled to like go try to understand like a different subgenre of music, I just, I don't even get exposed to other subgenres of me. Like I don't even know if there are other subgenres of music being invented anymore. Like I haven't heard anything new in at least 10 years. Like I can't remember the last time I heard something and I'm like wow, that's different. - And there's a good chance it's because you've been siloed off into this metal EDM. - Jazz. - A huge, weird, this weird, it's weird melting pot of taste. But like, yeah, part of it is being siloed and then I think part of it is that because everybody siloed. The game for the artists, for the creatives, is to milk the long-term relationship and not innovate and not do the new thing, not be the new person, not invent the new subgenre. It's capture people when they're young and then just age out with them over decades and decades. Yeah. I think you see that. You've kind of always seen that, I guess, with certain bands, maybe not whole entire genres or anything like that, but you've seen that, there's always that tension between doing what's worked for me creatively versus trying something new. Trying something new and the kind of destructive nature of creativity. There's always been that, right? Yeah. I don't know. Anyway. I don't know where we live. This was weird. This was weird. This was weird. We'll be back with another weird theory, right after these messages. All right, we're back. I'm excited for this brilliant or bullshit. This was one that I put on the docket. This is an old, old theory, well, it's not that old, but probably ten years old or something. The internet age, it's old. Yeah. By internet years, it's quite old. Old blog called Ribbon Farm had an article about a concept called premium mediocre and ever since I read about it, it's one of those ideas is just stuck in my head ever since. And there's probably, I probably never go more than six months without something happening in my life. I'm like, oh, this is totally premium media. Yeah. Give us a brief synopsis of what it is. Yeah. So, Vancatash Rao, he wrote the, I think that's how he say his name, right? Vancatash Rao? Is it Rao? Yeah. I think that's how he says name. Yeah. He wrote this blog post in 2017 called premium mediocre. What premium mediocre is? It describes product services and lifestyles that appear exclusive but offer only superficial luxury or quality. Okay. So it has an irrelevant touch of premium that doesn't really improve the essential mediocrity of the experience or product. Let me give you some examples. Okay. Some that he used anyway. Cupcakes and frozen yogurt, like, okay, truffle oil that's not made from real truffle. Okay. That's a great example. He also uses avocado toast. Yeah. That's a special case but it's still premium mediocre. Certain types of lists. [laughter] Check it out. That's great. Well, obviously iceberg lettuce is not premium mediocre but what's the leafy green I'm blanking completely on it. I have no idea. Oh, that's not for personal lettuce. Yeah. You don't need vegetables. [laughter] I don't cook my own food. Certain types of lettuce, K-pop popularity in France, that list goes on and on. You've spot these things. Once you understand what premium mediocre is, you spot the thing I always think of is the pumpkin spice latte. Pumpkin spice latte. Right. Because it's seasonal, it's exclusive, it's only available for a limited time and it's just a fucking commodity. Like, fast casual dining, like, a lot of, you know, maybe Chipotle was like an early version of it. Right. You know, but now, I don't know if you ever go to Kava, like, I love Kava. It's like this big chain restaurant that's supposed to be healthy Mediterranean but it's premium mediocre. It goes on and on and on. So, it's a fun concept, he plays with it for a while, but I love how the philosophical depth that he goes with it is really interesting because-- Very big attach, yeah. His explanation is actually really interesting, which is that, you know, 100 years ago, 200 years ago, access to things with scarce, right? And so, the way you improve society and the way you sold things and made money is that you just got access to things. It's like, okay, we'll go dig up the oil and we'll sell it to you or we'll go, you know, line the ore and we'll sell it to you or we'll grow the lettuce and sell it to you. At a certain point, there became an abundance of stuff. And I think his argument is that, as the first generation that grew up within an abundance of stuff, that the first generation, the millennials in particular, who were no longer impressed by the simple access to scarce things because there is no scarce thing. Those demanded something else that felt scarce and special. And so, what companies started doing is they started essentially putting, like, luxurious packaging on borne commodities. Right. It's mediocre products. Right. So, it's instead of just being a coffee with a little bit of pumpkin spice in it, it's an exclusive seasonal pumpkin spice latte with an extra dollop of, you know, serve the way you want it, you know, because you deserve a special morning at Starbucks. It's got a little heart-drawny. Yeah. Your name's written on the cuff. Like, it's the most premium mediocre thing in the world. It feels, it is completely designed up to feel like a special, exclusive experience and it's just a cup of mediocre coffee. Right. And when you look around, you see this all over the place. Yes. You see it at sporting events. You see it at, you know, VIP access to certain concert venues. You see it, you know, being a premium economy seed on a plane. Yeah. Right. A premium economy. That's a perfect example. It's the most premium mediocre seed on an airplane. You can, you see it in subscriptions, the things like magazines, you know, you can get the, like, the digital plus, which is essentially you're just paying more to have a piece of paper since your door. Like, it's the same thing you would have paid for anyway, but like, you know, they just add a plus at the end of it, send you a bunch of emails and you're supposedly like having a more premium experience. It's, I think it's, I think it is both the cause and the effect of a lot of the jadedness of the 21st century. Yeah. It is the effect in the sense that humans crave scarcity because our perception of value is based on scarcity. And so when most things in the world are no longer scarce, marketers, business people, they have to create a perception of scarcity. The problem is is that people aren't dumb and on some level, you know that the pumpkin spice latte or the avocado toast or the digital plus subscription to the New York Times. There's nothing premium about it. It's like the same fucking thing just with a fancy name put on it. And you, there's a certain amount of cynicism that develops, right. And he talks about that as well, that there's just like a deep, the most defining quality of the millennial generation is their cynicism and it's like, a lot of it is generated from this sense that everything is a little bit of a lie. Like nothing is actually what it's was promised. Right. We know it, but we're also playing along at the same time too. Yeah. He pushed that out as well. And it's funny, they're, I mean, they're, again, the list goes on and on, the premium mediocre vacations. It was funny. I was just in Spain on vacation and there are whole sections of Madrid and Barcelona and Abiza that you might as well just put on Google Maps, like circle it and put on like premium mediocre tourist area. It's like everything is designed to feel exclusive and special and catered just to you. And it's like, people are just heard it through like cattle and things, premium mediocre things tend to be overpriced. I think that's another cause of the sense of premium price on it. Yeah. Like there's this, there's a disconnect between the promised value and the actual value. Right. And I don't know, I just, it's one of those things. I remember reading the article. I loved it. I was like, wow, that's so clever. And then as the years go on, I just keep seeing it more and more and more. I would argue we have premium mediocre politicians. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like you, again, back, if you go back and watch debates of like, I don't know, Reagan and Bush or Clinton and Bush, you see very smart, educated, well-rehearsed men who clearly studied and thought deeply about policy and can explain their policy positions and argue against each other's policy positions coherently. If you look at our politicians today, it's just a fucking word salad of emotions and essentially just telling us that we're special and they're special and we're all going to be special together because we're all premium mediocre together. Yeah, it just, it feels, it feels ever present. Yeah. I would argue most media like Netflix, most Netflix shows are premium mediocre. Yeah. They are the same story regurgitated and new packaging that feels exclusive and special and unique, but it's really just cliff hangers and hooks and audience manipulation. And that movie theaters, I think about that, modern movie theaters. Yeah. Like now they have these like fancy seats and, you know, they're not that fancy, but they were fine. They were fine. You're paying like $30 for it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely premium mediocre. We live in a premium mediocre world. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm a premium mediocre girl. In a mediocre world. Put that on my tombstone world. Oh God. Vegas show. He, he, he does connect this. to like the larger kind of economic forces that are behind it. So he says, premium mediocre is, it's aspirational to some extent too. Even though we know it's mediocre, even though we're still participating in it and playing the game, it's aspirational and we're trying to at least signal that hey, we're trying. Yeah. Like, we might not be able to buy a house right now, but I can afford a nice pumpkin spice latte and an avocado toast. But he also kind of, when does that down to a certain demographic? What he calls Maya Millennial. Okay, he's got Maya Millennial, Molly Millennial, Max Millennial. There are kind of these three different segments and Maya Millennial is all about the premium mediocre. She knows she's indulging in it and it's okay because one day she's gonna have the real premium. Yeah. Whereas like a Maya Millennial, who he calls kind of like the artist wing of our generation and economic block, I guess, is kind of resigned to the fact that they're never gonna be rich. So they're just gonna work at the coffee shop or art shop or whatever it is and do their thing. Max Millennial on the other hand, he went to Silicon Valley and he's trying to make it. And he's making premium mediocre products. Right. These are backpacks or some piece of software that's supposed to whatever it is in some sort of premium mediocre packaging. I think he talks about this too. I think that the key characteristic of a successful premium mediocre product or service is that it effectively kind of doops you. It signals the people that you are aspiring. I think we work as a great example, especially since what's happened last five years. We work is it's literally just desks in an overpriced real estate, right? Like there was like nothing rational about that business model and-- Or new. Or new. And everything that was promised and packaged around it that you're not just joining a co-working space. You're joining a community. We're striving together and we're going to build a new world and blah, blah, blah. It's like the core of premium mediocre. But there was a hot minute, probably three to five years where it was cool to be part of a we work. And it's signified of like, oh man, he's got like a we work desk, he's working his ass off. He's grinding on weekends. It signals the people like you're on your way up. But ultimately it's a little bit of an empty lie. He's not trashing premium mediocre necessarily. Obviously, there's problems with it. But he counts himself among the people who partake and premium mediocre. Of course he do. I do all the time too. And there's a difference between premium mediocre and middle class fancy that he talks about. And all of us have you're going back to we have these arcs that we kind of get into these lanes we get into. And I don't think he's really necessarily trashing it. He's just pointing it out and observing it. And that there's larger cultural forces around it. That's his point. Absolutely. And I think it's like many things. It's not the issue. It's the lack of awareness around it. That's the issue. If you aren't aware of the game you're playing, then the game is a problem. But if you're aware of the game and you like playing it, then play it. You know what I think is a problem? Is the focus on creating all these products or services that are premium mediocre? So go back to the maximalennial. It wants to be an entrepreneur. And so and and thinks he wants to take over the world by making a whatever it is, a backpack company, or whatever it is. And I saw this. I think about this time. So this was 2017, I think when this first post on this, he's posted about it a lot. But he started in 2017 posting about it. And about that time I remember thinking, God, are we going to make anything useful? Like, you know, there's all these apps we're coming out, all these like weird products that we're solving a very like minor problem in our lives or something that we're going after some minor convenience. And that was kind of a premium mediocre thing. You still see it today, though, too. You see it with, can we stop with the fucking headsets? Like in the glasses? I was just thinking about the Vision Pro. Vision Pro. The meta, whatever they call it, what's the meta? The, what do they call it? Source of the know. Yeah, it starts with an O. Jesus, whatever it's fucking called. But then they just came out the glasses, too. You say you came out these like nerdy looking glasses, like these are high tech, cool. I'm like, nobody wants this shit. We want you to like solve some real fucking problems here. And I think that's the biggest drawback from the premium mediocre is that it's sucking resources. Well, it's an easy business one. Yeah, it says you don't actually have to create. It's easier to create the perception of value than to actually create something valuable. And I think we are at a place technologically where innovation in the physical world is just extremely difficult at this point, and extremely costly. And whereas innovation and software is comparatively speaking, relatively cheap. And you can also package it in a way that feels like it's new and innovative. And like, oh, here we'll put this bell and whistle on it. And it's basically the same meditation app you've had 20 times. But this one feels different. And it's a premium mediocre product and it probably makes a couple million dollars, sorry. Such as life, it is. I get that. I don't know. I'm grumpy about it, though. You grumpy? No, no. All right, we'll be right back. All right, we're back with our premium mediocre podcast. What's our premium mediocre question of the day, Drew? This is a premium mediocre question, for sure. I came in through YouTube as well. If everything we chase, like money, a partner, or fame, has benefits and costs attached to it, why chase anything at all? It's kind of a bullshit question, but I think it's one we do need to answer, yeah. I mean, I get it. I mean, yeah, yeah. So this is something that I like to think of as the nihilist paradox, which is not caring about anything is still caring about something, okay? Not chasing anything is chasing something. And you can't really escape that. And so my answer to this question is like, yes, there are costs and benefits to pursuing anything in life. There's also costs and benefits than not pursuing anything in life. So no matter where you go, there are costs and benefits. That's just life. You can't escape it. It is the fabric of our experience existence. So you might as well pick something, right? Pick something that you think the benefits outweigh the costs. And it's fun to get all feels offical and try to find a loophole here or there, but it doesn't really work. Yeah. Yeah, the drum you beat on to is you're always going to have pain. And everything, there's an associated suckage that comes with everything. Yes. Everything sitting around at home, you've said this before, sitting around at home doing nothing like you said, why tried anything? Well, that has cost to it. Yes. That's real cost. You're going to be in a lot of psychological pain from that and physical pain and your health that's going to deteriorate. Working out of the gym though and eating right, that sucks too sometimes. Being lazy sucks, working hard sucks, being healthy sucks, being unhealthy sucks. Just choose the suck you want to have. There's better forms of suckage than that. Choose the suck that you either think is worth it or you enjoy having. Because there is some suckage that you actually do enjoy having. Like there's some, one of the ways I used to frame this question back in the day was, what kind of massacus are you? Because there's like, everybody has something in their life that they kind of enjoy the pain of it. They kind of enjoy the struggle. Yeah. And no matter what it is, like you have to figure it out, figure it out and then try to lean into it. 'Cause that's where your advantage is going to be. Like what's the thing that most people can't bear but you don't mind so much? Follow that. Right. Do you think to this kind of modern form of nihilism that we do see in a lot of places? Is that also like its own form, it is its own form of avoidance too, right? Like we just talked about earlier. Absolutely. This is also a form of avoidance. Oh, nothing matters, so I don't have to try. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. It's an excuse. It's a very philosophical excuse, you know. And it makes you feel smart. It makes you feel very smart. It makes you feel like nothing matters. Like you see, see something, nobody else sees, but here's the thing is, if nothing matters, so why do do anything, you could also say, nothing matters, so why not do anything? Right. If nothing matters, do everything. Do everything. Yeah. Like go accomplish all the things that you want to accomplish. Like go take all the risks, try all the things, build the stuff, talk to the people. Like there's no reason not to either. So you have no excuse. An idea I'm playing with that I'd like to bring up at some point in the near future probably too. We've talked a lot about how a lot of times we overindex on happiness. Yes, right. And so a lot of people will realize that they're like, okay, I'm trying to order to be happy. Let's go for meaning instead. Yeah. And then you can like overindex on that too. Like I heard it recently put this way that, you know, a lot of people what we end up doing is, we look for the meaning and fulfillment during the week and then we look for happiness on the weekends. Interesting. And there's no balance to even be struck there because it's not the right formula or question even that we're asking. Yeah. Are we over indexing on meeting in a lot of ways too? I feel like we are. I feel like is it possible? over index on meeting. Yeah. I don't know. I go back to like the premium mediocre thing is meeting like a premium mediocre. Well, similar to, similar to happiness, it probably comes down to where you're finding it, right? Like happiness itself is great, but you can find it in a lot of really terrible ways. Right. And so pursuing happiness for its own sake is not, that's not the goal. And it shouldn't be the goal. And I think you could probably make the same argument about meaning. Like if like you can derive meaning in your life by, I don't know, compulsively posting photos and videos of yourself on Instagram, especially during concerts when you're standing next to fucking me. Right. Like if that's where you're getting your meaning in your life, like that's not a really effective way of doing it. And it's, again, similar to happiness, some ways of pursuing happiness are more sustainable. They're more healthy. They have less social consequences. The same thing is true with meaning. There are ways to pursue meaning that are not sustainable. They're very short-lived. They have negative externalities. And they put you on a treadmill. So I think if anything, what premium mediocre is pointing out is that marketers have found a way to give us little bite-sized pieces of meaning in very superficial ways. And that by itself can become its own kind of addiction. Right. Like you feel like you need to be like part of the cool thing and try the new product and know this brand's hot right now. And so it's like you get, that becomes another treadmill. So yeah, my answer to you is yes. I do think you can over index for meaning. But again, it's not like it's not a question of too much meaning or too little meaning or too much happiness, too little out. It's like where are you choosing to get it? Where are you finding it? I would agree with that. Tune in next week. So be sure to subscribe to the podcast. If you want to submit a question, you can email us at podcastmarkmanetsand.net. Join the newsletter. You can go to markmanetsand.net/newsletter, send it out every Monday. It's free, free advice every Monday. It's like it could be life-changing. Five minutes at a time too. Seriously. Nice advice. Five minutes to read. We have had, I think, over 12,000 breakthroughs from the newsletter. So next one could be you. Check out our premium mediocre newsletter. This is just going to go all day. I'm just getting everything. I'm just going to put premium mediocre in front of you. That's all folks. Thanks for tuning in. We will see you next week. The subtle art of not giving a podcast is produced by Drew Burning. It's edited by Andrew Nishimura. Jessica Choi is our videographer and sound engineer. Thank you for listening, and we will see you next week.