LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, January 16, 2026 9am PST

About This Video

A January 2026 Friday session. Van takes viewer questions and previews new-year plans for the channel. Fresh start energy.

Transcript

Testing the mic. Seems to be working. All right. 5 minutes.

All right. I'm not sure if this is working. Let me do a couple checks here. Sorry to bore you. It looks like this

looks like I'm not seeing any comments from you guys. So, let me see. Oh, there it is.

Okay. Oh, there it is. Oh, there you are. All right. So, in keeping with tradition, the weather report.

Just a cotton shirt. Wait, maybe somebody's sending me that something's broken. Nope. something about the children. Uh the weather report. So, it's uh this is in honor of of the late great David Lynch who used to give the weather report on

one of these LA stations and they were strange. Um cotton shirt, cotton chore coat,

and uh down uh I think it's called the Fitzroy jacket unzipped and unbuttoned. the jacket's

unbuttoned on my drive down because the inside of the truck was cold and I haven't been outside yet. So, that's the

weather report. Um, all right, let's get to these questions.

Okay, from Owen, I'm just going to make sure. Yes, I guess it sounds okay. Okay, from Owen,

do you have any cool This is a great question. Do you have any cool first responder stories? any about 911 or the LA fires?

Okay, I have like kind of a sour 911 2001 Manhattan story, but I like to tell it anyway. Um, so I was with Tom Saxs, Casey Neistat, John Ferguson, and I'm not sure who else

down past the security zone in uh at the World Trade Center down at ground zero.

And this was September 12th, 2001. We were wearing contractor clothes. We were wearing like work clothes. And then we had

uh reflective vests that said contractor on them. And it was before it got very secure down there. So kind of anyone

could go down go down. I actually heard that um that uh Vincent Gallow who's a the filmmaker Vincent Gallow who's a

union welder was down there with cutting torch helping cut the beams helping cut the girders out and stuff looking for survivors.

So, uh, I mean, a couple, let me just give you some details. It was there was like

maybe an inch or about an inch, inch and a half of just dust from the World Trade Center basically once you got to around

like Chambers Street and it was unbelievably quiet as a result. Like there's no people, no

horns, no cars. Manhattan's a very loud place. It was unbelievably quiet because that dirt was or that dust was absorbing

all of the sound. And I saw on a empty street it was just us and then one other person. It was George Stephanopoulos. I

don't know if you know who that is. Um he was famous back then, more famous back then than he is now. Um anyway, we

walked down to the um to the to the ground zero and it was pretty clear that we weren't qualified to do any to help. So, we just

sort of walked around and observed. And the one thing that really stands out in my mind, and I know this is like a cynical, non-positive, counter

um, you know, counternarrative story, but one of the shops that was in the

basement across the street from the trade center, it's very disorienting down there without those buildings. It was disorienting as to where you were

because those buildings were how you would navigate your way around the city.

Oh, that's south, whatever. So, I'm not really sure exactly where we were, but this building, the front had been blown out of it. Like the doors, it was unsecure.

And it was a cigar shop. And I don't know if it was the fireman. I don't know if it was a citizen. I don't know if it

was the police, but someone had looted that store and taken like a whole bunch of their inventory and put it out. It

was a cigar shop. And put out like boxes and boxes of cigars. It probably wasn't the owner. It probably wasn't the owner of the cigar shop. Everyone was

evacuated. Um and uh they the the like the first responders were just coming up and like

taking cigars and stuff out of the boxes and it was like it was kind of it was disgusting. Um

that's that's a that's kind of a shitty one. [laughter] Um, LA Fires,

those guys and gals were just such such such heroes. Um, I didn't really interact with them. I, you know, I they

were I I didn't really interact with them. There's a brigade of like volunteers that I'm not a part of, which I should be, but um called the like

Tanga Fire Brigade, and they're just people who like direct traffic and stuff during fires um and do minor firefighting stuff. Um I

remember I regret I was at this place where I go to lunch and a fireman came in

and I don't know what happened. The timing was off or something, but I really wish he was like buying lunch.

The fire truck was parked outside the restaurant and he was like buying lunch.

And I said to him, "You're doing great work out there. You guys saved my house." And I wish I had bought their lunch, but it was like the

timing was too awkward for me to buy their lunch. So that was that was that.

Um, okay. What do you think young creatives misunderstand most about success? Oh, I love this question too

from Max. What do you think young creatives misunderstand most about success?

I'm talking about creatives specifically and it's the importance of money. And I think about this all the time. Um I

think it's kind of you have to think about the money first. Take or take care of the money first and then your creativity um can service you.

But I think your creativity can distract you from that necessity

of money. I think a I kind of I'm against art school, but

uh if it was 80% business and 20% technique, I wouldn't be against it.

Um, so I think what you misunderstand is that you're not only an artist. I mean,

I don't understand what the point is of going and wanting to have a job where someone where if you're a creative person where you have a boss and you're

just in that machine like I don't understand the point of that unless maybe you're working for in an entrepreneurial

um paradigm like you're part of a startup team, you're part of a you know a small but like to go to I don't know

widen Kennedy or something like this. I guess I understand that you get paid a lot to go to a big advertising agency.

Um, and then you you don't have to worry about the money is right is is the point. You're not you're not you're putting the money first in that case.

Um, but I think one of the things you have to understand is that you're you're an entrepreneur as well. My brother told me this, you know, a long long time ago.

You're like a business owner. You're an entrepreneur. So, you should be as interested in that stuff as you are in the creativity stuff. Maybe the time is

different. Maybe kids already, young people already have this. And I'm just thinking in my antiquated I'm beginning to feel this very much. My antiquated um

Gen X mindset because the Gen Xers, they were totally against money at all. You They never talked about Go look at all

the interviews and stuff. Go look at them all. Go look at Radio Head. Go look at Pearl Jam. Go look at Except for the hip-hop guys. The hip-hop guys have

always been honest about the money, but go look at like the the Kurt Cobain stuff. Whenever they talk about money, it's almost always in a disparaging way.

But that's not true. Those guys wouldn't have been rich if they hadn't cared about money. So maybe I'm antiquated about the way I think about this, and

you guys are already very hyper aware of that, but that's what I overlooked most, I think.

Um, do you have a comprehensive list of every tool a man should have and then an organization system for it all? It's it

depends on what I think you need to break it down as far as like you should have kind of tool kits everywhere.

Not not everywhere. I'm sorry. You should have tool kits in within your domains. Like your bathroom kind of needs a toolkit or maybe not your

bathroom, but your house or apartment needs a toolkit. Your body needs a tool kit. For me, it's it's the Tom Sachs NASA Leatherman. And then a pencil.

Oh, here it is. And then a a a pencil. And then I have a piece of paper in my back pocket. And that's basically And that's basically that's it. That's it. Phone.

You know, I have a tool kit in my Land Cruiser which has

basically all of the tools I need to do roadside repairs that I'm willing to do myself on the roadside. So, there's like

a socket set in there, Craftsman socket set, like a small 15piece Craftsman socket set. There's like vice grips,

maybe there's a little bailing wire, there's like some random bolt nuts and bolts and stuff. There's um like Allen wrenches.

um some open box wrenches and then you know I pack in my backpack

I have like an art kit that has tape, pens and pencils, white out pen. Um I could go through all these stuff but

that's how you do you just start with one and then as you're doing jobs you kind of add here and there little tool

kits like every tool tools. So like my workshop like I just have a limit. Like I'm not I'm I'm a I'm a dilotant like

handyman and stuff. Like I'm a professional filmmaker but I'm like a dill dilotant handyman. Like I'm not that great. I'm I'm just I'm not I don't

know how to do dovetail joints and I don't know like Adam Corolla, you know that comedian, he was a contractor. He knows all the different like distance

for joists and how to do butt like I don't know what it's called like the floorboard stuff and blah blah blah you know all these little technical things

that you have to learn and are finite and just standard like I don't know that stuff. So I don't have all the big tools and I'm in an office. I'm not really in

a I'm not in a workshop. We're not coded for a workshop. So my little workshop like I have a limit. No table saw. too

loud, too dangerous, too too um too too much dust. I don't have a circular saw or a chop saw, radial arm saw. Both

those saws you have access to at the source of your lumber. You can have them do your cuts for you. Um I just have a jigsaw. I used to not have a drill press

forever, but then I needed it for a project and I reluctantly have a and it's a Ryobi, which I don't like. Um but it was the only one in stock and I

needed it that day. Um, and then I really love these tool chests back here that are they're not snap-on. I just get the Snap-On stickers on them so I can

look rich and then those fill up. And then as I get older, I'm just like there's more and more. But I try to keep them all very organized. And it's about

the container really that they're in like tool kits. And in the workshop things are on the wall very carefully

and very sparingly. That's the things I use the most that I need to just grab for. But you just kind of no no no

[clears throat] no like big grand plan besides um like generally where things are going to

go. Like is this going in a tool kit drawer? Like where does it fit? So in the Land Cruiser it's in like a zip bag underneath the driver's seat.

Um and then you kind of are improvising and you're going tool by tool just to make it flow and work. It's very

awesome. I love doing it. Okay. Can you speak on rec recent comments on actor Paul Do and Oh boy, sorry.

Can you speak on Quinton Tarantino's recent comments on actor Paul Do and others? I'm afraid I can't. I've heard

about it, but I don't know really. I didn't I haven't heard it. I don't know what anybody I don't know what he said.

Um, but in general, you're just you're not supposed to if you're especially if you're a creative person, you're not really supposed to publicly disparage

other people's creative um endeavors. Not supposed to, but whatever. He can do whatever he wants, Tarantino, because he's a king. Okay. Zachary asks, uh, what is one or multiple cheap products

you believe are not made like they used to that deserve to be made better and still sold at a cheap price? Example,

white undershirts and slippers deserve to be made better and still sold

at a cheap price. Okay. Um, you know who made a great video about this is um oh uh uh speed s p e d speed channel so great um and it's um

James Pumphrey who um actually I've met him and I met his guy his the guy that he works with

his other like on camera guy I can't remember his name uh might be like Jeremy or something. Uh, and he did a

great like 1975 Coca-Cola versus 2025 Coca-Cola and then like and then like he did it with a whole bunch of stuff, drill bits

and what he found was the high quality stuff is still there. It's about the same price adjusted for inflation as the high quality stuff in the olden days.

Um, but what you have now is super low quality price. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah.

you have super low quality at a not super low quality. You have a very low price and then it's um it's also lower

quality but not in proportion to how much cheaper it is I think. Um but then there's this third thing where there's

brand delution where like brands that you used to be able to trust are now

making stuff that's garbage. Like I had to return a um hedge trimmers from Makita because they were just I mean

they couldn't even cut like green thin thin thin vines and they would just jam up. I was like this is not a Makita product.

But they had a more heavyduty one that cost twice as much that I hadn't seen before. So you see what I mean? Like there's the cheaper versions that

probably didn't exist before. Um, in general, um, I mean, cars are so bad right now.

They're so so so bad. They've just gone all in on the electronics and then the compliance. They're all almost all of them are very ugly. Almost all of them.

And I'm not sure that they last very long. And they don't, nobody really has their act together whether or not they're going to be EV or they're going

to make EV stuff or no. What happens to the old EV stuff? How do you service it?

Um, I don't agree with the white t-shirts. I think that they're fine. I mean, they're super cheap. You can get tons and tons.

Then you can have all scale of t-shirts. You can get Americanmade $60 t-shirts.

Um, and you can get the Hannes. I guess the cuts a little different. They're a little bit longer now, but that's better because they it's better and it's worse

because they stick if you're wearing them as undershirts. They they you can tuck them into your pants better.

thinking like Hannes, but yeah, I was amazed at how cheap they are and they're behind glass around here. T-shirts at like Walmart. Um, so there's a couple.

Okay, Richard asks, um, okay, this is long, but I'll read it

fast. Hi, Van. I recently went through a divorce, got married to the wrong gal when we were too young. I built up a life here. I could provide I built up a

life where I could provide my for my ex and myself and still do a creative job.

But now I find myself in a situation where I have a nice cushy job in photo video production for a corporation that I do not enjoy working for. The money is

good. I have a lot of photo of video experience and skills and would rather do more creative and fulfilling work,

especially now since I have no real big responsibilities. How would you recommend navigating a huge life change like this? And what would you do to start moving from 9 to5 to freelance?

Love your work, brother. It kept me motivated during the darkest hours of the divorce process. All right, that's nice. Thank you. Thanks, Richard. Um, uh, it doesn't have a divorce.

I I don't see anything about kids. Wait, the money is good. I have a lot of photo experience. Find myself nice.

Okay, so I don't see anything about kids. So, you're kind of free. um or I don't know what your divorce settlement was. Maybe you're not free. Um

I have a friend who did this. I have a friend who um worked uh he worked for like ever at Ralph

Lauren. I want to say he worked there for 20 years, maybe even more than 20 years. And he was a producer

um which is a semi-creative job. and he was a producer at um at Ralph Lauren.

This guy is very gregarious. Everyone loves him. Okay. And he's like a super high character person. And he did this

and I'm not sure he just went client by client and then he would double dip. I'm pretty sure while he had the Ralph Lauren job and the and the benefits and

all of that stuff, he would double dip and go do these other like small jobs and build his reputation that way. Or maybe he got a severance. Maybe that's

what happened. He left, they like downscaled or something, Ralph Lauren.

And he got a severance and though with that severance, he went and built up uh clients just doing what he did that

then. And now he's making I think he's making a lot of money. He just bought a he just bought a house on the water.

[laughter] Kind of guy grew up like my oldest friend. I've known him since I was 5 years old. Uh he bought a house like on the water in Connecticut. And he

lives also in in uh in um uh it's Queens, but it's like the coolest part of Queens that's also on

the water. Um I can't remember. It's the one where the big Pepsi sign is. Somebody will write

it in the comments. Um so there's that, but that's not exactly creative. And then I think that you have

to do that. You just got get clients get people photo video production for corporate you know money is good I don't

know where you are photo video experience I would rather do more creative and fulfilling work especially now

um photo video for corporation I do not enjoy okay the money is good I have a lot of photo video experience you know I

never did it I never did that so I don't know I'm not really the person to advise eyes on that. It's not something I did.

I was never, you know, I never had a corporate like I worked at Scholastic, but that was as a as like a magazine

writer. And then I never had like a corporate film making job except for freelance stuff where I um you know

worked for for Ralph um sorry where I you know J uh I made friends make friends with Andy Spade. That that's

what you do. make friends with Andy Spade and um he you know he owned an advertising agency and he would give me

these he would get these little he carve out little tiny budgets for stuff he wanted to make and then we would collaborate on it together and make and

put it out for you know whatever Kate Spade J Crew um yeah you know people you

know people in your work go uh talk to people in advertising talk to people in production companies but have a clear

focus as to what you want to do. Um um yeah, that's that's my that's my

advice. It's all it's people. You got to talk to the people and just get out a lot and and you know, talk to people and

network. I guess that annoying word. Tom Sax said he make Oh, this is from Eric.

Tom Sax says he makes a lamp where he's stuck creatively. When he's stuck creatively. Is there anything like that

you do when you're stuck? I just clean and organize. I clean. I saw this video.

I didn't click on it, but there was like a YouTube video and it was like something like uh Buddhist monk

describes why cleaning is a thousand times better than meditating or something like this. And I

find I just love like I can just go down into a and then it's um suck creatively

for me is usually just like later in the day it's like I use all my great creative energy in the morning and then

I run out and so I'll just start cleaning, putting things away, organizing, making lists and stuff and then if I'm lucky I'll get some ideas.

Um, but that's also something I'm very sensitive about is like there's this period from when I wake up

in the morning at like four o'clock in the morning until maybe 7 o'clock in the morning where I have the best brain for

making stuff is like then for writing for making stuff is then and sometimes I have to waste that time.

Sometimes I have to waste that time on busy work or sometimes I have to waste that time on like emailing and and stuff

like that because there's an urgent email from the night before blah blah blah blah blah blah or do signing up for a doctor's appointment or something like that. Sometimes I have to waste that

time but it's really important to have whatever your block is and it's like it's very wasteful but making a lamp.

Yeah, I guess I shorten extension cords. I make extension cords out of the um excess um power cord from my Belulcon power strips. That's something I do. Um

I love to clean my car. I love to like just tinker with stupid crap on my car.

Um so those are some things. Um what's the best brand of tape measure? I'm disappointed in all of mine. P.S. I've

built a giant U-shaped desk in my office following your build instructions. It's beautiful. Thank you. Oh, so cool. The best tape measure. I don't know. There

used to be a Tajjima G-lock and if you looked at it, it just said Glock on it.

And we used to love those. Like a 16 foot one of those. They're kind of fat and stuff. I don't know. They're all shitty. You're right. I I don't know what I have like a Fat Max from Stanley.

I don't really like. It's really ugly. The new like those ones that like Tom Sachs has the Stanley Kubri is dead. The like silver Stanley ones. If you drop

them, they break. Like the housing breaks or maybe I have plastic. So, I think you're right. I don't really know.

I don't know what the good tape measure is. Tape measure is just for me is like a crappy throwaway thing that I just have a lot of junk ones of.

Um, and then I have like a vintage Stanley one that my friend Keller gave me that I love.

Mas K. Do you have any advice for people who struggle with procrastination, especially when it comes to creative work? I'm 42 now and sometimes I feel like I haven't gotten any wiser about

it, and now I have an eight-month old daughter. It feels more important than ever to use my time slots. Well,

um I think Tom Sax and I had a conversation about this and I think we did a chapter in the studio manual book that we still haven't finished, but we

will finish. um God willing if we don't die. Um that there's like the constructive

procrastination time wasting and then there's the destructive procrastination time wasting. Destructive procrastination time wasting is

scrolling through phone, scrolling through Netflix, that kind of garbage.

Um and constructive time wasting is like cleaning um you know oiling your guns [laughter and gasps] um you know uh organizing like I was just telling the last person.

So I you know I don't know that's kind of do you have anybody when it comes to creative work you know I don't I don't

have that I have a compulsion I have a creative compulsion and it's the other stuff gets in the way the other my creative compulsion is how I

procrastinate the rest of life that I'm supposed to be doing and I've just somehow been able to finagle being a

professional at it. But for me, the creative stuff is the procrastination and the other stuff is the stuff that I

don't want to do. So, um I don't know. I hate emails.

And what do I how do I make myself do those? I don't know. I just wait until it's absolutely like mission critical and I have to reply. Uh yeah,

creative uh struggle with procrastination. I also like to listen to podcasts like really interesting ones of very smart people

um or just super compelling stories while I'm doing the physical thing, while I'm making the thing. I just

really love that. I'm kind of addicted to it. Any plans for the suspension of the Land Cruiser? Funny you should ask. This is from Duke. Funny you should ask.

I just went through a whole thing. I need new shocks. It already has a one and three/4er inch lift kit from stock on it.

And it's just leaf springs, you know, no coilovers, which you can do, but I just don't want to. I like leaf springs. And

I needed new shocks. So, I got old man emu. And they're kind of hard to find.

And I used AI, and AI kind of steered me in the wrong direction. So, I had to re I got two sets of rears, but the rears and fronts are different. So, I

returned. So, LA. So, yeah, I got old man emo. Yeah, old man emu. I got the rear shocks in the back right now. And

then I got the front shocks coming. Um, I just need to replace the whatever crappy ones that um I think it's called

I want to say it's called K&H is the name of the Land Cruiser place around here that specializes in Land

Cruisers for like non-rich people because then there's Oh, no. TLC moved.

They're in the Carolinas now. They used to be TLC 4x4, which is Jonathan Ward's outfit. Um, I heard John Oh, here we go.

I heard from Decom. I heard Jonathan Ward of Icon on a podcast say that a lot of great artists are poor businessmen and that it is really hard to be able to

do both. How do you handle the business side of things? And do you have any words of wisdom for monetizing your craft? Oh my god, it's my struggle.

Thank God. That's a great struggle to have because it's kind of fun. Like, I'm glad that's my struggle is money. um handle the business side of things.

Okay. So, my general Okay. So, the thing about creativity, right, is that it's a couple things like

one of the things is like it makes it allows you to make your life a little less annoying because you know how to manipulate things that annoy you like

physical things that are like the the way the seat belt comes out of you know how to take it and and put a hook on it. So, that's one of

the things it does. And then another thing that creativity does is it allows you to solve problems in an um original

way that capitalizes on your specific skill sets and gifts. And that is a huge

mistake when it comes to business because when it comes to business, the smartest people in the world go into

business and all of their little advice and the things that work. I'm talking about the successful ones. I'm not talking about Joe Blow business. I'm Joe

Blow business. I'm talking all those little techniques and precedents and so forth like compounding interest and index funds and s and things like that.

Um, I mean, oh that's more investment like don't be creative with that. Maybe have a little creative portion of your

10% be creative with, but just precedent. It's all out there. There's all there's people who know how to do all of that stuff. One thing is don't

don't be extremely paranoid about doing partnerships. Don't ever do a partner.

Never do this. Never do a partnership where oh, he's the business guy. I'm the really creative guy. never do that.

You've got to be a shark on the creative side. You've got to be a shark on the You can have that as part of your organization, but you got to be on top

of it. You got to be a shark and understand what's going on. You know, you don't have to micromanage it, but like people get robbed. They rob themselves because they're not careful.

Um, do contracts, even if they're just shitty ones that you do written contracts, even if they're just like

text messages, and I don't mean formal contracts that are notorized and stuff.

Just like, what is the job? What is the deliverables? When, how much, and just, is this look right to you to whoever

you're dealing with? I mean, I am just the the I am just the I'm the wrong person to talk to about this. my brother's the right person to talk to to

to do this. So, um yeah, I have a new person I'm working with that's doing some business stuff for us.

Uh and then I just watch out for blind spots, you know, but I'm not a very good

person to talk to about that. But my my uh advice is don't in reinvent the

wheel. It's all It's all out there. All that stuff. Oh, and get an accountant and a lawyer. Have an accountant and a lawyer.

Um I've Orion I've come to the realization that since COVID and graduating college, I've been a really lousy friend to others. Friendly with a

lot of people, but lacking deep connection. Any advice for being a really good friend? Geez, I'm the same.

And it's like kids, too. It's like the ultimate excuse. And just um advice for being a really good friend is like call and do things with f with your friends.

And don't worry, nobody gives a [ __ ] that it's been eight months since you called or a year since you called or whatever. I mean, very few people do,

but screw them, you know? Um, that's like a screening process.

Um, so if you call people out of the blue, hey, let's do D, and then have like not let's, hey, let's do something sometime. I miss you. Let's get

together. Uhuh. Uh, uh, uh, [laughter] uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, nope. No. two o'clock Wednesday

um kings let's have lunch can't do Wednesday you know and then from there after that lunch you can be

like yeah let's get together again and do something sometimes but not for the like reconnecting but yeah it's just

it's it's worth it to do I know it's hard to do but um I just find people are not resentful when it's been a while and

you've been a shitty friend I've been a terrible friend but Um, it's okay.

Hunter, recently got engaged. I'm in the throws of wedding planning. Looking to get a jump on making tokens of appreciation for my groomsman. Any

suggestions for the project type or type of project? Still have plenty of time to get things underway. Trying to find the balance of sentiment, practicality about

being too much in either direction at the cost of either. You got to give a budget. What's your budget, buddy? How much? Thousand bucks. Eight bucks.

What's the What's [laughter] the What's the budget for your groomsman? How many of them are there? Um,

making tokens of okay time trying to find a balance center without bearing too much costing me to sell plenty of things. Any suggestions?

Yeah, don't make it bigger than their hand. If it's a physical object, make it nice and small.

Um, geez, I don't know. This is a tough one because it's so personal.

Uh, you know what would be cool is like a switchblade for everybody. Go to some state where you can buy switchblades. if

you're in a bl state where they're illegal and it's just like a bond like oh we all know we each have this illegal

like felonious weapon [laughter] and you can maybe like get a um a wood burner $10 wood burner from Harbor

Freight and like engrave their names and fill it in with um uh Deco Art

um extra fine 7 millimeter paint pen with the date and the guy's name. That

would be kind of cool. You can get them in Oregon. You can't get them through the mail. Or can you? Maybe through eBay. Oh, I got illegal something. What

did I get that was illegal and I just bought it on e I couldn't get it because they didn't sell on eBay because they didn't sell it ship it to my state and

oh, paintball gun. I bought a paintball gun on you can't buy them like like from Amazon like illegal to ship to your state, but I went on Amazon and bought a paintball gun and they shipped it to me.

So, I don't know. Maybe, maybe it's just like an unspoken thing, the guy sending it to you, whatever. [snorts] Um, that's

the only thing I can think of. Five switchblades, like the kind, not the out the front kind,

which is like, you know, the kind that goes chunk. The kind that's like a like James Dean like shink that opens like

standby me that opens like this. The um what was the name of the Kefir Southerntherland guy? and and stand by me. It wasn't eyeball. I can't remember.

It's some lame name like snake. Uh that would be a cool pro present and also like be like really hard to get. It'd be

a story. Um I think Nevada you can get them. Just look it up. I don't know where you are, but just look it up. And oh gosh, what

if you're in Europe? If you're in Europe, forget it. I don't know what to tell you. [laughter and gasps] I don't know what to tell you. Okay. Annie asks,

"What music are you listening to in the studio or Land Cruiser?" Yesterday, I started listening to the

great a few of the great I'm old. So, something happens to your brain where you just don't want any new music or you

can't make it doesn't fit in your context. Like, it doesn't make any sense.

um for me for me and I hear this other people so I'm really bad about music but I just went and like revisited some

Kanye stuff and uh yeah like Jesus Walks is unbelievably great through the wire

is great but then I'm like you know what looking through looking at him through the lens of like the $8 million

Super Bowl ad to sell a swata t-shirt I'm just like, nah, I don't think he's that great. He's okay. I mean, he's great, but he's not he's not monumental.

His legacy will be that Nazi shirt, by the way. That's what everybody's going to remember him as. Um,

yeah, he went for cheap attention. And, uh, he got it. Okay. So, I'm sorry that's a terrible answer. Uh, what else?

Okay, I'll tell you what. In the car with the kids, I put it on Seven Nation Army on Spotify. I just picked that and then all the random things that come

with it. So, it's all like 90s and 80s like acoustic. Not acoustic, but analog rock.

So, I listen to that with the kids and they kind of love it.

Hey Ben, when we're in our early 20s, we're told to spend them wisely. Some interpret that as taking work seriously and others to have fun, but potentially

both come with later regrets. any guidance on the topic? Yeah, you know, I've been thinking about

I don't know about all this hype about with Europe and all these this footage of all the immigration stuff and all the

pro you know like oh Europe sucks now and they're probably very resentful of Americans now because of the

you know essentially what I'm hearing from the finance guys is that you Europe is just a sacrifice zone as far as the

alliances are going like we're aligning as much is you hear about war with China. We're not going to war with China. We're we're the the the the

polarity. It's a multipolar power dynamic in in the world now. America used to be by far the number one and

everyone just sort of fell followed suit except for the Russians and their allies. But now it's like there's going to be Middle Eastern kind of power.

There's going to be the Western Hemisphere power which is America. Then there's going to be the eastern hemisphere power which is um basically

China and maybe a little Russia. But Europe is like a sacrifice zone. Like the president said, you know, you guys can fight Ukraine yourself.

Anyhow, my point is I think there's a lot of resentment for the West. You know, the president's saying he's going to take take Denmark. So like if you're

an American and you're going you don't not Denmark, sorry, Greenland. If you're an American, you don't want to go to Denmark. I don't know. I don't know though. I haven't been to Europe since 2018.

So my point is I'm really glad that in my 20s I went to Europe a lot a

lot when I was in my 20s and and it was like the 90s and early 2000s when our relationship with Europe was grand and

it was really wonderful there. It was really great. Like Greece was still rich. Greece was still like uh you had all the services that ended up

bankrupting the country. Bankrupting the country. Um so I think the advice is make your

travel and make your adventures part of your work somehow. Do something work with it. Do like don't just bring your

phone and shoot shoot footage and be like well I made videos blah blah blah.

Bring your phone shoot footage. store them chronologically in folders according to the date on external hard drives and maintain those hard drives.

You know, write a journals every day. Meet people. Go like for your whatever your work is. If there's people somewhere far away, go see them. You

know, that is affiliated with your work somehow. I don't know where you are with your work. Go see them. But really, I would concentrate on my work. Like I was

listening to Tony Robbins and like he was talking about how life has its seasons and in your 20s to your like 21 to 41

that's spring. That's when you got to plant all the stuff that you're going to that you're going to harvest. And like

41 to to 61, that's harvest. That's when you got to get all your you got to get

all your money and all your jobs and all this stuff, all your relationships, everything that's going to feed your career. I'm talking about career right

now, not talking about family. You got to do that. 21 to 41. And then 41 to 61

is like winter and you got to like, you know, you got to gear up for the for for

I guess it's fall. It's Wait, you harvest in the fall, right? Yeah, you harvest in the fall. Summer is when it all grows.

So that's um you got to plant it 21. Is it 21? I don't know. Download. It's on the diary of a CEO. Just listen to it. It's on the newest Diary of a CEO, Steven Bartlett with with with what's his name? But

yeah, don't waste your 20s. It's insanely important and you will never get that energy back. It's not coming back. You're going to get strong. You're going to get some you're going to get

some real endurance when you're in your 30s, but the energy, the easy energy

where you can just go go and you're enthusiastic and you're full of interest, that goes away. That goes away. So, you know, combine the two.

Combine your career with your uh with your um having fun. Don't be a ski bum unless it [clears throat] services a career. That's a kiss of death, man.

those people are. So, I remember going and seeing those guys in my 30s, in our 30s. I remember going to like Vale,

Aspen, um, Telluride, and meeting the kids, the guys who are now like 30 and

they had pissed their 20s away being great skiers without adding a career to it. And we, Casey and me, were like, we

were there on for work. We were doing this big movie called Respectability Tour. And I had never I don't I had only

ever seen the other side of it being 18 in college in high school and being like, "God, I would love so and so is moving out to Veil to just snowboard all

winter for like, you know, and then when I was I was like, well, I'm glad I was in New York cuz here I am with these guys snowboarding. I'm an okay

snowboarder. It's like I'm going to Aspen in three days and then we're going to Tellide after that." Um,

all for work, all shot it. And then those ski guys are just the ski guys there. And then they're just talking about the work that they want to do. Oh,

I would I, you know, I'm thinking about, but I was like, guys, it's too late.

It's not really, but you you can't have both. So, I I realize I went a long time on that question, but this is stuff I think about a lot. What movie prop would

you like to have displayed in your studio? Oh my gosh, what a crazy question from B. Smitty. What movie prop would you like to have displayed in your studio?

Um, oh, I know the axe. The actual shiny chrome axe from um The Shining. That's

what I would want. They like nickelplated that thing. Um, that's what I would want.

Owen asked, I'd love to know the five things you think a person should do and or achieve as a person or in life by the age of 30. There's another awesome speed

about this where it's like 21 or 41 or 40 another episode of speed that's 40

things a man should know how to do or person should know how to do and like for the first like 20 of them I was like I can do it I can do it I can do it I can do it I know how to do it I know how

to do it and then he gets to play an entire song on a musical instrument and I was like okay there we go I don't know how to do that and then there's like a

few more of those things five things a person should do and or achieve as a person in life by the age of 30. You

know, time frames is like it takes everybody a different amount of time to do everything. You just have to be on the you just have to be, you know, age

of 30, all that stuff. That's for magazine covers and websites and clickbait and [ __ ] It's not real. Just you have to be on the thing. Like I'm a

slow guy. I mean, it took a long time for me to learn that. It takes me a really long time to do the things that others I'm a slow adapter. I'm a slow

learner. So I think uh just things five things that a person should do. I mean

okay so go visit before you're 30 go you have to go to see

five um foreign countries where English is not a primary language. So England doesn't count, Ireland doesn't count,

Australia doesn't count. You know those like super easy just exactly like America but with a with a British style

accent accent. No. Go to five hard questions, hard places, use their public transportation to get around, you know.

So that's one. Um do and or achieve as a person or in life by the age of 30. Um,

move to you got to like move to a plate and move to a city where you want to live or

Yeah, I think everyone should like kind of live in New York City. [gasps] I kind of think that should be like a final exam for, you know, high school or

it should be a requirement. Um, live in New York City. Um,

oh, I don't know, man. I don't know. Uh [gasps] just all the basic stuff. You should know how to tie a knot. You should know how to change a spare tire. You should know, and I mean you've done it before,

not like theoretically you know how to do it. Like do you know where to put the jack? Do you know that you have to unscrew the lug nuts a little bit before

you jack the tire all the way up? You know, all that stuff. Um

um what else? Five things you should a person should do and or achieve as a person or in life by the age of 30.

Um know how to cook a meal like oh you should know how to cook your favorite meal. You should know how to make your favorite meal even if it's super

complicated. The more super complicated and hard the better. And then don't be a cheater and be like, "My favorite meal

is just a piece of cheese." No, your favorite like complicated meal, not a hamburger. You know, know how to cook

your favorite meal. Okay, next one. Did you get a chance to see Marty Supreme?

If so, thoughts. Josh invited me to the Director's Guild screening, which was huge, and literally stopped traffic. There were people yelling at the venue.

It was the director's guild theater saying, "You guys need to get more or organized because the people in this neighborhood when you have your screenings, they can't park. They can't

move around. They can't get access to their apartments." Um, I went to that screening. I rode my motorcycle so I had easy parking. And then I didn't know

what I was headed into. Normally when I go to these screenings, there's a little screening room like with Josh. It's a Josh and Benny. Um, it's a little

screening room and then Josh greets you at the door. He's talking to Adam Sandler. He's talking to, you know, there's all the people around him, but he'll make time for you and you have a

conversation and then you just kind of wander into the screening room and sit down and it's like a little mini screening room that that's what I thought I was doing. Director's guild

theater. Oh, no. This was like this is like a mega like an entire block in New York City. Director's guild. They have tons of money. And I went and it was

just a super huge line. And I went to the front of the guest line and I wasn't they wouldn't let me in. So, I was just

like, I'm not bothering Josh. He's on stage. You know, he's here with Tim Shalamé. He's here with um Gwennneth

Paltro and with uh Adam Sandler. I'm not bothering him. He's getting a million phone calls right now. So, I just got on my motorcycle, rode home, and then he

was like, "Did you go?" And I was like, "They wouldn't let me in." And he sent me an invite. He said, "Come to this one." He's like, "This one's great." and he invited me to not the director's

guild screening but the costume designers guild screening which was so cool. So it was all the costume

designers you know uh people in different unions they get invites to these things. So the whole audience was costume designers and Josh had his

costume designer uh was there and Josh and her did a little 20 minute little

talk in at the front of the theater and it was so so so so cool. I loved the movie. I loved it. I loved it. I saw so

much of Josh and in Shalomé like in that character like just how and I saw and it was really about the burden of dreams.

It it was really about how hard it is to do something hard. And for Josh and for me, it's like this. I mean, Josh makes movies, it's even harder, but just

making a living at making these like motion picture things. And that's what the table tennis metaphor thing was. And like the length he had to go through,

that's real. That's really what it's like. The Oh, I don't want to give anything away. I don't want to give anything away, but the the the scene

with Kevin Oolir, and you know the scene I'm talking about, it involves a pingpong paddle. Um, that's like real,

man. like not literally real but metaphorically the humiliation of that

you have you know that's part you're sac you're sacrificing everything to get this little goal thing including your dignity sometimes but you're using this

thing also to because of your dignity and your integrity and so forth. Anyway, I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. I'm going to see it again. Um, Spencer, if

you could change anything about the Klein tool pouches you use, what would you those changes be? Um, that's Hold on a second. I think I have one right here.

So, if they're not still made in the United States, I'd have them made in the United States. Oh, and they fix the problem that they used to have. Where is

this one made? Made in the USA imported parts. So, I would want it be made in the USA of American parts. It used to be

that um they have they were like kind of furry on the inside. Maybe that's not true from this from the seams and like

they were furry under here and it would get caught in the zippers. But maybe that's not true anymore. I don't think I would change anything. I think they're perfect. I think that they're perfect.

Perfect size, perfect everything. The colors they come in are perfect. So, probably nothing. Probably nothing. Oh,

I guess the the zipper pull. I change the zipper pull every time I It comes with like some other kind of zipper pull, but I put I put mine on there.

Higher visibility. Um, what's the temperature of the conversation around AI among you and your artist friends and mentors? Okay.

Video coming out on Monday YouTube. I used um how many I I should I

I think 23 seconds of AI. Want to see if you can spot it. Not visual. Oh, that's a clue. You're going to figure it out now. Never mind. Forget it. So, I think

it's like anything else. If you use it in, it's like sauce. You can use a little tiny bit of it or maybe it's like spice. If you really need it, it's okay

to use it. But as far as this like um there's this all these engineers, right,

these nuts and bolts engineers guys like Peter Diamandis. So annoying that dude.

Um they talk about they like are like dude you just you just prompt it just be like I want to I

want to see Back to the Future part A you know like and it'll just make it for you and it's like and I guess like well and it's just going to totally

revolutionize creativity and artists or like it's going to be totally no I like making

this stuff that's what I do with my life. This process of sitting and and rendering and coming up with the stuff is the thing.

It's it's more than just the end product. Um, so I think that it's like another tool and there's really annoying things that

you can get with this tool that is much harder to get if you don't use this tool. I don't know. It's like nonlinear digital video editing. It's that's it's

the same. It's like that I think and uh the conversations that we have is that we want hybridized AI stuff. We want

things to we want to like keep our some of our process and then have AI be the be the more

be eliminate the really annoying parts of our process. Like Final Cut should have more AI in it. But like why don't you just learn my preferences? Apple,

how about you put a little AI in every single time I open a folder, I want it in a certain it's probably you can

change it all in setting. I want it in a certain way to open in a certain way. I store all of my files exactly the same.

Like just learn that and just do it, you know, whatever. That's all. It's a tool. I'm like, that's what it is.

Conversation around AI and your artist friends and mentors. Um Tom Sachs, I don't think this is a secret and I want

to do this too. Tom Saxs is buying a um No, they're gifting him. Um Nvidia is gifting him a server for a to to train

all his data on. So he has his own private offline not accessible um data server to train so that it can

make stuff I guess in his style of writing maybe because he although he does have a bunch of movies he's he has a film department at his studio but mine

oh my gosh I I I want to I think I will end up implementing one of those and getting um all of my I have hund I have

26 years of footage putting it in there and then Being able to compose stuff from that footage would be incredible.

Being able to prompt because like I know all the footage I have. I just don't know exactly where it is. Like I know it was 2014

it, you know, like like really specific hyper specific things like um

uh finding an old iMac in the garbage like it was at night. There's nothing specific about it. Was it 08? Was it like, you know, there's hundreds of

thousands of shots per year. Anyhow, um that's and then we all use it in one way

or another. We all use it in one way or another, but I don't use that. What's it called? Not predictive AI, but not constructive AI, but uh the AI that like

makes the thing whole cloth. I can't remember what it's called. Um like Sora.

I don't know. I also think the AI models are have super bad taste. Although I've

seen some AI applications that um have very good taste.

Um what's the price of art, film or otherwise? What's a recent piece of art film or otherwise that you witnessed and found motivating and excited to try something new in your own creative projects? This

is also a great question and the video on Monday is about art. Um, there's a recent piece of art that you witnessed

and found motivating and excited to try something new in your own creative projects.

You know, I'm mostly just listening to I, you know, I'm really really really blown away by um by uh by um Pluribus.

Maybe because it's not I'm not a TV guy. Like I I tried to do The Wire, too boring. Tried to do The Sopranos, too boring. Tried to do um Game of Thrones,

too confusing. Um so I'm not like a TV guy. And also like through my 20s, 30s, and 40s, no television because I was

living in New York City. Um so I missed a whole I missed like three day decades of of television. Uh oh no, I guess my

40s I've been here. Um, so my point is like uh Oh, I also tried

to do Breaking Bad and I couldn't get through it. I couldn't get through like I got to maybe season three and it just devolved into like family stuff and I'm like I don't care.

But Pluribabus, it's just so great and I just love the high concept of it and it's such like a

the idea. That's like ah [sighs] I wish I could think in these like super high concept ideas like this. I love it.

I love it. Um so that Plurbus is great. B I work from home in Los Angeles as a video editor. I'm building a YouTube channel and have been wanting a studio space for a while now. I've been hearing that hearing you say this David Lynch advice that you need a space dedicated to create things.

At what point is it okay to justify renting studio space for my art? I can technically afford it, but I'm hesitant.

I feel it would encourage my creativity, enable me to get out of my home office more. Any advice on this matter would

help be helpful. Thank you. If you can pay for it with the work you're doing in

it, get it, man. Get it. I mean, I don't know if I can even afford this place,

[laughter] but somehow every month I have enough money to do it. Um, just do it. And also, this is a really good time for you're in Los Angeles.

This is a really good time for office space because like work from home and AI and all this stuff like the the market's

really good. You can get really good deals on office space. Make sure you pick something that that sings to that like you kind of love and maybe doesn't

have annoying neighbors. Uh but yeah, just do it and oh and no more than 10 minutes from your house or 15 minutes

from your house and you know conceivably bicycleable from your house and you want

it near like you want it near services food because you got to eat. Um, but yeah, as soon as possible, as soon as

you can afford it, do it. Um, yeah, it's also good if you're creative

person to kind of put your back against the wall. Um, Andrew asked, "What are your thoughts on cruises? Have you ever been on one?" I went on one for my dad's

60th birthday. Casey organized it and it was like Casey had just gotten like rich so he got some crazy like captain suite

like at the top of the boat and with like a crazy view and everything. I had no money so I just rented like some

whatever the third um uh cheapest thing was and it was okay. It was like a, you know, I had the view of the water and

there's a little deck there and everything. And um the cruise, let me think, they had this thing on the cruise

called a flow rider. And we ended up renting it one night just to the three of us so that we could just keep going

and going on. And it's like this, it's like a reverse, it's a wave that shoot, it's like a pool that shoots water up a ramp, right? It shoots water up a ramp.

And then you can use this little like kind of skateboards surfboard thing that's maybe this big, no bindings or

anything. And you can ride on this water on this ramp. And the really good kids can do like 360s and can go up and ride a long time. And I man, I thought that

thing was so so so cool. I found a public park here in California that has one, but of course it was broken when I

went with the kids. Um, I loved that. I loved that we sat down at night with all the with the family

with the with um for the meals and they like how do I say oh by the way I did like a

regular one like um I don't Norwegian I did like I didn't do look I know fancy people who do queen the queen Mary and

stuff I'm not talking about that stuff I know people who do the Alaska one I know people who do the one where you go down to Antarctica I'm not talk we're talking

about Caribbean celebrity, whatever the those cruises, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about the everyday American cruise stuff or

Norwegian cruise lines. We're not talking about the fancy stuff. Um, and I loved that. Uh,

there was like all this and [snorts] yeah, I'm from New York. I'm like I grew up in New I didn't grow up New York, but

I became a man in New York and I've just been everywhere and I've had a variety of experiences. I've seen very very very

fancy things and um the fanciest dinner is the I haven't been to the fanciest dinner that

humanity provides. The fanciest dinner that humanity provides on planet earth that you can possibly go to is the Nobel Prize dinner. Nothing fancier than that.

That's the very top of our human culture. But I've been pretty close. And

um most people don't have access to that stuff. Most people don't have access to that fancy schmancy, super expensive,

you need to know super uh you know connected and uh aristocratic people. So

it's like a little faximile of this. I mean, the people who own those the people who own Celebrity Cruise Lines or

Royal Caribbean or whatever they're called that, you know, they know they know the fancy stuff and like it was pretty cool. It was pretty cool

approximation there. Oh, here's one thing I didn't realize. There's like dudes that get plaques on the wall because they've done so many cruises.

Like there was a dude there, he was in his 60s or something, retired guy and he like lived on the celebrity cruises and

he had such [laughter] he had such like swagger. He was this like skinny guy. He had just such swagger and he had like his plaque and

he was like had his own flow rider board. Like he didn't use the one there.

He didn't use the rental. he like had his own and uh I don't know that whole thing like the cruise culture was a you know supposedly fun thing I I'll never

do again but uh I you know it was great being with my brothers and stuff really good to be there with the family um and

my dad my sister and my dad's wife and my twin sisters it

was pretty cool anyway um Jacob do you always try and repair things yourself or are the things you have learned are worth hiring this is a great question.

Was this ever a struggle? It's a great question. Um, there's a whole world of things I don't fix myself that I like to

give the money. I want the professionals to have work and I'm either too lazy to do it or it's such a specialty thing like shoes. I don't do shoes. I don't fix shoes unless it's super crazy.

Broken shoelace, you know, something new insoles, stuff like Yeah, I'll do that.

But, uh, no, I don't fix shoes. Those go out to a person who's a shoe shoe a cobbler or whatever. Um, lot of car

stuff. Like if I have to crack the engine open, nope. Even if I know how to do it and I'm capable of doing it with car stuff, I'll just bring the car. I

don't want to get dirty and I don't like being under there and I don't like all the fluids and [ __ ] Um, and the heaviness like I do. I have a whole

bunch of guys. Like I have an engine guy because my engine's three years old now. Now it needs I need to do service stuff.

So I have an engine guy. His name's Jerry. I've got a like a um nonland cruiser specific um mechanical guy.

Um he's going to be doing the shocks. His name's uh his name is Lorenzo. I love

him. And then I've got a Land Cruiser specialist who does like Land Cruiser specific stuff like the interior and

things. Um, used to be the engine, which um, actually you could kind of get the engine done at other places. Jerry would do that that old engine, but Jerry's

specifically a diesel guy and he knows Cumins really well. And this Cumins he knows um, I keep complaining about it and he's

like, "No." He's like, "This is an incredible engine. This thing is great." Um, but uh, yeah. What else is What else

is there? All the home like somebody's building step. They're building the the masonry. They're building steps are

steps like lawsuit waiting to happen from Amazon and all that stuff. Like our steps were rotten the wooden steps. So

they're being replaced with like stone stone steps. Um

I would never do that. Um what other kinds of repairs?

Just big stuff. big stuff that involves like cranes and heavy equipment and forklifts and things like that. No, I don't want to deal with that.

So, that's it. And uh was it ever a struggle? Yeah, it was a struggle I think when I just didn't have any money

and I had to and I wanted to have these things and I had to do the I had to had to do them myself. Um you said that when

you were living in your city, you used to waste a lot of time due to weed. Once soiety kicked in, how do you feel about the productivity that came in with it?

How much time did it take for you to reach a productivity level at satisf No, I don't know. I must have I don't know when I said this, but looking back on it

now, I wasted a lot of time in a very good way that I wish I was capable of wasting time now.

Oh, or maybe I was talking about Okay, there's two kinds of wasting times. There's wasting an era, right?

Like I've always been super duper productive even when I was on weed all the time, right? I've always been super duper productive. Um, but you can waste

an era on weed. Like you can waste 10 years shouldn't have been on weed. But I wasn't, you know, so I think maybe

that's what I did. I should have quit like 10 years before that and then I would have not made so many dumb

business mistakes and I would have understand how I would have had a whole bunch of cuz you know maybe being in the program being in AA I would have had a

bunch of people to bounce my terrible ideas and ego-driven ideas and stupid [ __ ] off of and they would have said no no no I I don't think you should do it

that way whatever. Um, and so one of the things with sobriety was just I had to learn to be less

productive and just kind of how important the other things in life are.

How much time did it take you to reach productivity level that was satisfying to your needs? Oh my god. Like till October

like [laughter] I don't know October 2025. So uh 25 years I guess or 25 and a half no almost 26 years I guess. I don't know.

Um, but then now I'm like doing other stuff. So, I'm trying to like dial back as I get have less kind of less and less energy. But then I'll get reach a point

where hopefully I'll be have enough means to employ a regimen of trainers and diet and diet people and

doctors and supplements and time to have all that energy back like Tony Robbins style. like he's in his he's almost 70

and he says he's in the best physical shape of his life and I believe him. I believe him. I mean besides the wear and tear stuff like the knees and

everything. Um okay, here's this. My son is about 18 months old and our next son will be born this summer. Congratulations. This is

from Lane. Any advice for a relatively new father on fostering a spirit of independence and creativity in my sons?

I give you one little general advice and I don't know if it's as genetic.

probably the thing is I think that they're all like they're who they are, man. I just think they are because I have two now and I'm like oh okay but my

kids are brave both of them and uh thank God but that was I wanted that the thing I wanted to impart is my

priority to because I don't think parents have much I think they have maybe 20% influence on the kid um but the things that I want to impart is um

courage and I'm sorry strength and courage I want to impart those values onto my kids, strength and

courage. So, I let my kids climb. My kids get hurt. Let them get hurt. Sorry.

Let them get hurt. And you get to say to people when you're in grocery stores and stuff cuz they say what they mean is, I

don't want to I am I don't want to get yelled at cuz your kid is horsing around. I'm an employee of this grocery store. I don't want to get yelled at by

my manager cuz your kid is horsing around. What they say is, cuz they're so virtuous, I just don't want to see them get hurt.

And what I say to them is, I'm their father. You think I want to see them get hurt? And then they shut the hell up after that. So, I'd say, you know, you

kind of got to let them get hurt a little bit. And it's freaky. And like it's freaky. And like

my son is a little too bra is like uncomfortably brave for me. Like it's uncomfortable now. Like I we we went to

Eagle Rock which is this big this mountain here in Tanga and there's this scary I can't even talk about this is just like a thousand foot or 500 foot

drop off and he's just too two two cavalier around the so you have to kind of be the focus say that word I say that word a lot focus focus

like when uh they're walking on a stone wall or something or walking on like a beam over water focus because they'll

get cocky Hey, I let my son climb to the roof of this gigant when he was like two or three this roof of this thing at the community center that's like I don't

know 20 feet up 15 feet up and he got up there and he was so psyched that he started getting cocky and I just kept

saying focus focus um and then exposure like the bicycle thing

you can never fall like I my daughter rides rides on my dirt bike now and my dirt bike goes 60. I don't ride at 60 with her on it. She wears a little

helmet and she loves it. But once she sits on where the tank is, right? Once

my son had just crashed and uh I like parked the bike, I put the kickstand down and the ground was soft and the

whole bike while she was on it fell over. And now she's like paranoid when I kick the put the kickstand down that the bike's going to fall over. and she just

like needs to get off the bike if I'm getting off the bike. And that was my mistake. It was just cuz I was trying to help my son and I was we were in I mean

it was really soft. It was soft and that's why the kickstand fell in. So when she she like slow motion fell to the ground on the bike but it freaked

her out. She didn't get hurt. Um so that's it I think. Um let them get hurt and then uh there's that YouTube video

or TED talk called like five dangerous things you should let your children do.

light fires controlled. Don't don't let them treat it like a drug because they'll burn down Tobanga Canyon. Um,

okay. I'm really interested in your thoughts on building a sustainable creative career based on the feedback you've received from the community. What

have you learned about maintaining a long-term creative rhythm?

Specifically, how do you plan to organize your content to stay productive and keep enriching the community while ensuring your process remains balanced

and joyful? I'd love to hear your perspective on how to grow as a creator without falling into excess, keeping the

work fulfilling for years to come. Gosh, this is a heavy one. That's a hard one.

I'm really interested in your thoughts in building a sustainable creative career. I don't think it is creatable.

Sustainable, man. I think it's I think it's find what you love to do and let it

kill you like Bukowski said. Um I mean I think this is a question about

money. This is we're talking about money here I think.

Um because there is no if you if money is not an issue. There's no this is no

problem. You just do it. You get up every morning and you just do it. Um I guess take care of the money is the

sustainable creative career. kind of have a system that where you can keep doing I

your respon you have a gift and your responsibility is to kind of honor that gift I think or to serve

the world with that gift right like that is your gift is not just for you it's a gift for everybody but you're the kind

of the vessel that can distribute the gift to people and in order to do that you have to maintain you know you have

to keep your body strong. You have to keep your life, your personal life kind of stable. And that doesn't mean

predictable or anything. That just means not that it won't suck all of your time from your work away to like

being broke. Being broke is like a is a career. It's so demanding. You have to do so, you know, you can't afford a washer and dryer in your where you live.

So, you got to go to the to the laundry mat, which means you got to be there with the clothes while they're drying, which means you got to get quarters,

which means you got to carry the things up and down the stairs, which means, you know, that's your whole Saturday basically is doing laundry, you know, that times every single thing.

So, um, yeah, I mean, I don't know. I did it the dumb way. I just and I did it in a time where it was

probably the easiest time in human history to do it, including now. It was easier than it is now. There was tons of money in the system. We were in between

these two eras. We were in between this like film analog era. I happened to be in the in a medium that was motion picture and I had a extreme edge being

an early adapter of digital video. I had an extreme edge on the marketplace because I wasn't shooting on film. I didn't need all those personnel. I didn't need a sound guy. I didn't need a

a a magazine loader. I didn't need a developer. I didn't need this, an assistant director. And I'm renting cameras and all that. I didn't need all

that stuff. I just there was still a marketplace. People needed things to be made. And then the cameras got better and better and better and better. And then at some point, it was like around

2010 or something. They're kind of indistinguishable from 16 millimeter like super 16 millimeter like Bolexes

and Raflexes and stuff. pretty much to the market they were pretty much to the artist they weren't indistinguishable like to Josh Safy they weren't

indistinguishable but to the to Jay Crew they were so I don't know so it's hard to advise but

yeah I think um this the Patreon thing is a blessing and

the that's nice if you connect there's a bunch of people that will help support

you and make you make you allow you to be responsible to your thing, whatever

it is. Matteo, hi Van, I was wondering how you can manage the actual making/fixing stuff and filming. I'm rebuilding from my audio recording

studio this month and I'm trying to film the whole process, but I struggle with the urge of making things with my hands and can't film as I wanted. Thanks a

lot. Yeah, prioritize the making and not the film making. I'm also this like

it's 26 years, [laughter] you know, this is year 26. I have a ton of experience.

I'm very good at this. I'm very good at the shooting stuff. I've had everything go wrong. I know all the car cameras to to get and the systems and all that.

I've have it all in place. So, the techni the technique I almost always use is just kind of whatever's easiest.

What's the easiest way to get this objective done? So, that's, you know, timelapse is pretty easy. You know, the probably the GoPro one is the best one.

Do time warp if you're moving. If you're moving the camera, do time warp because the other thing's just too shaky. Um

um and yeah have a you know the cameras are cheap so have families of cam have your like studio camera which has lenses

and dials and stuff and then have your sidearm camera which is just your GoPro or your I phone. I [snorts] don't really

like the iPhone that much because it's a phone [laughter] and it's like hard to start and uh you know I don't know and it falls over and everything. I guess you can get this

stuff but it's great image. So yeah, concentrate prioritize the thing you're making and it's just it sucks. I don't

like it. I hate it ruins both. It ruins when I'm making something and filming it. It ruins the [snorts]

the making of it and it also ruins the filming of it because it's just too hard to figure both out

while you're doing it. Anyway, that's it. Uh, this has been the

torturing my Okay, sorry. The the wire for this camera goes right down the middle of my screen, so I can't I can't

read some of the words. Oh, wait. I can move the window, dude. Come on. What are you doing? Okay. Hi, Van. I love your

videos and thanks for Oh, no. Sorry, Rob. This is Oh, there's Oh, no. Not many more left. Okay, this is This has

been torturing my mind ever since I watched all of the videos about your Toyota project. You show in one of the videos that the engine is so loud you have to wear hearing protection. Does

that completely destroy the whole serene experience of driving such a beautiful car? And would you have done the whole transplant of the Cumins engine? Should

you have should you have known about this beforehand? I'm a car enthusiast and have misphonia. I don't know what that means. Hence the question. Keep up

the great work. Your videos are experience for me. Nah, it's just another thing I have to do. It's I just have to do it's called um oh uh it's

called uh Dynamat. It's called Dynamat. And then there's other stuff. It's just a it's another it's a part of the implanting the new engine

that has to be done. And um you know the the manual transmission is louder than the

engine. It's not that loud. The thing is like when you're going 80 those things is like when you're on the free when you're in Texas or something going 80

like driving around town it's fine. It's not that loud. Um you can have just normal conversations but when you're driving and it's speed limits 80 and

you're in Texas or out here out west in a lot of places and you're going up big hills and stuff and you got that sucker just pinned basically. It gets pretty

loud and the wind. Um, but you know, around here, speed limit 65 on the freeway, it's pretty fine. It's It's

okay. But I am I do intend to tear out the entire interior and whatever. And I don't know what else you have to do, but

you have to like dynamat the whole thing and then you put more like stuff on top.

I don't know. But that's when I'm when uh I don't know. When I have a certain amount of money, I'm going to do that.

Um, I love your videos and thanks for such Oh, this is from Toric.

Um, uh, love your videos and thanks for creating such awesome content. My question is, what's your experience or opinion about fishing? I have seen you

do some adventure videos with your son and I was wondering if you ever thought of going on a fishing trip together.

Okay. My son likes fishing because we went to uh Midway City, Utah, and he joined this

little fishing camp that was going on while we were there. And he was with all these kids and they were having a fishing content contest and it was a stocked little pond and he caught like

three or four um bass or trout, I don't really know. But um normally when I go

fishing to me is al is kind of like computers. Um normally when I go fishing with people, they're like, "I don't understand. This is the worst fishing day I've ever had. I've never not I've

never come here and not caught like 11 fish. I don't understand what it's me.

[laughter] It's it's me. Like I just I ru I just I don't like it." And that's what and you know um I just don't have an experience.

I don't like boats. I don't like the water. I don't like I don't know. I love fish. I love to eat fish. Um but yeah, I

don't I don't get it. I don't really get it. Um I have so much of that hands-on stuff in

life that I don't need a thing to go out in nature. I like dirt bikes out in nature or like mountaineering out in nature.

Uh yeah, fishing just doesn't do it. I think hunting I could get into. I just I don't like being wet. Um

but yeah, I'm imagine we'll go on a fishing trip together. Having said all that, um how do you handle the Oh, Tom, how do you handle the process of screenwriting and storyboarding? I feel

like being able to draw is a huge advantage for storyboarding, but I certainly don't have that skill. You don't need it anymore because of AI. You

can there's uh software. I don't think I can talk I don't know if I can talk about it yet. Sorry. It's not mine. Is that true?

Um I'm working with somebody who's has um screenwriting software that basically takes your screenplay and makes the

makes the storyboarding. So don't worry about that. I don't use them. I don't use storyboards, but I don't work with other people. So, you need storyboards

if you're working with other people so they know. It's like pictures worth thousand words. So, they know what you are thinking about for the frame.

So, that's helpful. Funny, I I watched that Scorsesei documentary and from the get-go.

Scorsese did very excellent. I'm talking about from the age of eight, excellent storyboards, very specific every single

thing. But I think he was sick and he he wasn't allowed to leave the house. So that's why he was that that's one of the

re that was a contributing factor to him doing such focused specific work. But I

don't need to use them because uh I I I'm going to shoot and I just write down the shots. Um

screenwriting is um I listened to Josh Safy. He had a um he was on a A24

podcast came out a few days ago with the guy I don't know his name, but he he wrote and directed Anora. So he's a he's

a Academy Award best picture winner. And they just were so eye to eye on by far

writing is the hardest part. He's like you never you never know when you're over. He's like the shoot is the shoot.

You've got this day scheduled blah blah blah. He was like by far the right and also the writing is the thing. Writing is the thing. I was talking to Otto

yesterday and he was like yeah you know he shot his first feature film on a it's called Tangerine. He shot his first feature film on a uh iPhone and that was

his claim to fame. I was like, "That's cuz he's a writer." Tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of people did that. Thousands of people did that. But he's a writer. That's why he that's why

his worked and his got attention and got into festivals and stuff. Be the writer.

That's the king of the thing. You can just Now, if you're a writer, you can just describe it to AI and it'll make the thing for you, you know? So, the screenwriting, it sucks up the time.

It's super duper duper duper slow. It's it's uncomfortably slow. Um, but um,

it's the most definitely definitely definitely the most important part. You can save yourself so much time and money if you're very careful with the writing.

But it's kind of feels like it's never over. Okay, Nikolai, in one of your videos, you talk about anger and shouting. You also about not taking your

anger out on your family. Do you ever do you have any strategies for dealing with anger and annoyance? You kind of got to quit whatever it is you're doing that's

that's driving that and just let it go for the just like kind of get your head around to it. I don't know. I still struggle with it.

It's that energy that you get from it that you need to accomplish whatever the task is at hand. But I've just let it go. Like the house is messy now and I'm

just like letting things go. It's really sad and sucks. But I have to find another strategy.

Um, that's kind of it, you know, meditation, diet, exercise, sleep, rest, all that.

[laughter] Uh, your organization, oh, from Anthony, your organization philosophy video has a significant has had a significant impact on my own strategy along with putting the date on everything including genes.

First order retrievability is a game changer and finally puts a name to something

that intuitively feels right. Do you have any other life hack philosophies that just make sense but are not commonly used understood or applied by

others that you think may give you some of your uniquely sharp edge? Oh my god, so many. It's so hard to like work with

other people because I'm just like, "What? What are you crazy?" Um, so this is organization philosophy.

Okay. So, what else besides organization philosophy? Now, I I think I've done videos about most of them, but like the time, the being on time thing is you

just have to be on time. You have to make an art out of being on time, even if the other person isn't on time. And then, you know what you do? If the other

person is um late and they're consistently late, just send them my video. Just send them um

your tardy friends suck with the Goomemer pile from sucking his thumb with his pants down. Just send them that

like while you're waiting for them. And you got to give them five minutes. But like that thing that's that's one of them. That's a life hack. Be on time for

things. Oh, I heard that guy Scott Green Galloway. Scott Galloway just say don't [ __ ] up the easy things. Be on time.

Return phone calls. Don't reschedu. Like say do what you say. Don't screw up the easy things. Don't screw up the easy

things. Do all the things those those things that you have control over. Do them. Um

uh life hack philosophies. Um when you lose something, start cleaning and organizing, but don't take the

garbage out. Like if you lose a physical object, start cleaning and organizing.

I'm also that's one of my skills. One of my gifts is I'm extremely good. My daughter has this too and she's two.

She's better than her mom and she's better than her brother. Like where is where are your shoes? Where is such and such? Cuz she thinks in pictures. Can't

talk. [laughter] She's two but she can't talk. But she can find whatever you know

if she's seen it. And I'm the same. And then I have like weird Yeah. And I've refined it. So that's another thing. And

the thing is you close, you don't have to close your eyes, but it's going to be wherever it is, it's going to be the first thing that comes to you.

And sometimes the first thing that comes to you is extremely inconvenient and you just don't want it to be there. So you

look in other directions and pretend that that's not where it is, but it is there. It is at the bowling alley and it's still there. or or or or

it's outside the grocery store in Ohhigh and guess what? It's still there.

Ohigh's like 90 minutes away. Guess what? It's still there. I left ex's little pink scooter. We went in one door

of the grocery store. It was We were on the way to the car to go home. We got a whole bunch of groceries, right? And then we went out a different door.

I went back I think it was the next weekend and I just imag I was like, "Oh no, I know where it is." Because I could see

it. It's It's in there. I went back the next week. It was exactly where we left it cuz guess how many kids in Ohigh ride little scooters to the grocery store?

Thousand. Hundreds and hundreds. So that's a thing. Finding physical objects. Um

I don't know. I'm just Some of this stuff is just madness. I'm starting to think. Uh oh, okay. Here's the last one.

I recently got laid off from a well-paying job and at a decision point where I can either return to jobs like

that or make pivot towards more creative work. An artist I spoke with recently said, "The best setup is probably a

well-paying job that still gives you time to do creative stuff for fun." Yeah, I think that's right. I feel my pragmatic self agrees. But if I follow

that, will I ever truly be satisfied or always curious what a commitment to the creative work would lead to? Have you

balanced these decisions? You will never be satisfied no matter what. So you're never going to be satisfied. You could

win the Nobel Prize and you won't be satisfied. So the satis satisfaction is your priority, you're doomed because it doesn't exist really.

uh the the opposite is equally valid or the contradiction is equally valid.

Um there's that great line in um I think it's called Two-Lane Blacktop or Vanishing Point. It's one of those car

movies and Owen Warren Oats at the end he says he's talking about the car he's

lying but he's like yeah I built this car up from scratch and he's like and I race it all over the country and I make money and he's like some satisfactions

are permanent and that's true too like god thank god I did this but you know can I just say

something I want to say something now so you have you have I'm going to say the I'm going to go practical versus romantic, right?

So, you have the the top-notch when I was younger, the top-notch my peers, the top-notch creative people with top-notch

creativity, a lot of them went into advertising. Okay? And they got paid from the word go. They got paid. They were relatively hard to get those jobs, to get an advertising job. Not that hard. and they

got paid from the word go. Okay. And then some of us went the other route and I don't even know what that route is. I

guess it's like audience supported route as opposed to corporation supported route, right? Which the corporation has

audience too because if your ad does well, right, if it's a hit, blah blah blah. And so now those guys that I knew

back then, they, you know, they come to the studio and they'd be like, "Oh man, this is what I always wanted." Right now

it's 30 years later, right? Those guys have a house in the Hamptons. They have a house in um Maine.

[gasps and laughter] They have a house in Tanga. and they got kids and they got a family and they provide it for everybody and they have freedom

and they're still doing the same job at its at its it's the same job I have to,

you know, to make stuff from scratch and sell it, but they have all that stuff

accumulated. And I'm like, uh, like I go to their houses now. I'm like, man, this is what I always wanted, you know, like

a big giant 10,000 square foot house with a view of downtown from Tanga. Uh,

this is what I always wanted. So, I don't know. I think you probably can't lose, [laughter] but

um I'd like what your friend said, get a job that doesn't take too many hours and still do creative stuff for fun because

who knows? We don't know. It's like you're probably going to have to be to the the like digital video of now is AI.

How much fun how much fun is that? How how much do you enjoy prompting learning new AI driven software and all that stuff? How much do you like that?

Because that's what your things probably that's what's going to be successful if you go out on your own. That's probably where the direction you're probably going to have to go. But I have no idea.

All right, guys. Thank you so much. Um, have a good weekend and a new video coming out on YouTube on Monday. And I

really like this one. I just just finished it. I have to do the BetterHelp ad for it now. All right. Thank you guys and have a good weekend.

Products & Tools Mentioned

• Tom Sachs NASA Leatherman essential — everyday carry body toolkit
• Pentel pencil essential — everyday carry
• Craftsman socket set (15-piece) uses — in Land Cruiser tool kit
• vice grips uses — in Land Cruiser tool kit
• Ryobi drill press uses — bought reluctantly, only one in stock
• Toyota Land Cruiser essential — Van's vehicle
• Klein tool pouches essential — perfect tool organization, made in USA
• Makita hedge trimmers mentions — returned because cheap version was garbage
• Stanley Fat Max tape measure uses — has one but calls it ugly
• Tajima G-Lock tape measure recommends — used to love these, 16-foot version
• Snap-On mentions — puts stickers on non-Snap-On tool chests
• Deco Art extra fine 7mm paint pen uses — for engraving fill-in
• Harbor Freight wood burner ($10) uses — for engraving names
• Old Man Emu shocks uses — replacement shocks for Land Cruiser
• Cummins essential — Land Cruiser diesel engine
• Dynamat recommends — sound deadening for Land Cruiser
• GoPro uses — time-lapse filming recommended
• iPhone uses — camera but dislikes it for filming
• Sony ZV-1 mentions — discussed in camera context
• Belkin power strips uses — repurposes excess cord into extension cords

People Referenced

David Lynch, Tom Sachs, Casey Neistat, John Ferguson, Vincent Gallo, Quentin Tarantino, James Pumphrey, Adam Corolla, Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie, Timothee Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Adam Sandler, Kevin O'Leary, Scott Galloway

Films & Media Referenced

• Josh Safdie film, Van saw at costume designers guild screening, loved it
• TV show Van is blown away by ('Pluribabus' in transcript)
• tried to watch, found too boring
• tried to watch, found too boring
• tried to watch, found too confusing
• got to season three, couldn't finish
• Academy Award best picture, director on A24 podcast
• Sean Baker film shot on iPhone
• Warren Oates quote about permanent satisfactions
• confused with Two-Lane Blacktop
• wants the chrome axe prop
• YouTube channel, 1975 vs 2025 product comparisons
• White Stripes, plays for kids on Spotify
• Kanye West song, 'unbelievably great'
• Kanye West song, 'great'

Related Videos

• LIVESTREAM: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2022, 9am PDT
• LIVESTREAM 8.22.25
• LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 9am PDT
• LIVESTREAM FRIDAY, 8.26.22, 9AM PDT
• LIVESTREAM: FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2024 9am PDT