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Start your free trial at Shopify.com/AU. Welcome to the daily stoic podcast. Designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. Here, I'll give you this one by the way.
Now, this is the ghost town one. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, thank you. You can find this China town book. So this guy is actually living...
Yeah, he bought. He was my assistant. Really?
He basically sent his life savings on this 300 acres above this lake.
Above the lake from China town. He stole the water. Oh, my gosh. Really cool. He's restoring all these old buildings and... You know, he goes down in the mines.
Really? Yeah, he's just that not dangerous to lake.
“Where did the audio book for this at 900 feet below ground?”
Oh, Mike for the thing. Whoa, it's really cool. So he thought it was going to be this that cold resort thing. And it became, it's like a YouTube channel. It's just popular as a YouTube channel.
That's really interesting. Okay, so this is about China. Oh, thank you. Yeah, because this is awesome. You got Rob Levin's.
Yeah. When we plant ski, you get Jack Nicholson.
The directions you get to go off in studying China town is pretty incredible.
Well, another thing is, again, because I was just watching it on the plane, it's like, there's the things that they do that you can't do in Moot. Like, you don't understand what's going on for like the first 30 minutes. It's kind of got a Raymond Chandler thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's basically like sells itself on attitude and like atmosphere. It's also insane that you would like make a hit movie about like stealing water. Yeah, because I'm editing sense. Yeah. There's a, like, the other one is like, uh, to think like, um, who framed Roger Rabbit is about the building of the 110 freeway.
That's what that means. Is it really? The movie is about them ripping out the streetcar to replace it with highway.
“Yeah, I, you know, I did not remember that.”
So like, great, really great things have like sort of sublimate. Yeah, yeah, that's really fun. My favorite, have you read Ask The Dust? No. My favorite NLA book of all time. No, the last book that I read in the story.
So John Fontaine was this, um, counter struggling writer. He lived in punk or hill like all the big buildings in L.A. used to be the sort of Victorian mansions like San Francisco. Yeah, they tore down to build those built buildings. Anyway, so he writes this beautiful novel and then the story is,
the year it comes out his publisher, uh, publishes an unauthorized, uh, unredacted edition of Minecraft. Well, because Hitler is like 33, so Hitler's this, it'd be like if you published Putin's book or whatever, but, uh, H.M.H. Account and Mithlyn owned the copyright to Minecraft.
They were Hitler's U.S. publisher. And so they sued and bankrupted John Fontaine's publisher. And so the book is lost to history until Bukowski discovers it in the Los Angeles Public Library. Really? And Robert Town discovers it. And he's the one, and he makes a movie of it like all these years later.
Oh, this is awesome. Hicked up the same copy of this obscure book that
no one wrote. Yeah. My all-time favorite writer. And it's a novel about a writer. It's incredible. Oh,
man, thank you. This is going to be awesome. Can I ask you a question about, um, because I noticed you guys have all the, like, LBJ stuff? Yes. So do, do, do people, like, because you're in Texas, do people want to buy books about Texas? Is that like, yeah,
“I mean, I've run a lot about Texas. I think Texas is fascinating. And those are,”
those are three of the, what is it for? How many on there? I think those are some of the greatest by this ever, I mean, it's just a master at work, but, um, but I noticed also the sun, like, there's like a-- Honestly, I don't know. Okay. How, um, you as an Austin, he's very popular. Yeah. So we have some good, we have, like, Texas books that are popular. But I kind of, I sort of see, like, Texas, Mississippi, you know, with all that kind of stuff all together. Yeah.
This is really fun.
It's like a Mexican restaurant. Really? It was built in the 1800s. Uh, that was a, these are three
buildings. These are built in the 1800s. Huh. Uh, they've been a billion different things. That was
a barber shop in the street. So these were built in for several years. But like, so there was, uh,
“there was a bar here. Oh, wow. And this is the kitchen of the restaurant. Oh, really?”
This is the kitchen of the restaurant. So do you guys do the run out of yourself? Like, yeah, sort of, uh, we, I mean, obviously, we did, we didn't do it. Oh, this is awesome. Um, yeah, it was, uh, it was cool. And then actually, there was a bar from the 1800s, uh, like a runesuit bar in that building. I'll send you a link to it, but we moved it to the ghost town. Huh. So because it, that's when it dates to. Oh, wow. We put it there. But, uh, yeah, we're just kind of
that tree, uh, fell down on my ranch. So we threw you the thing. And then, um, this is really cool.
And then how did you guys build the, this is, I was noticing it in your studio. This is amazing.
Yeah. Uh, it's just a bunch of books. And then some of this one, you cut a lot of them. So it's not the full weight of the book. Okay. That stacking on top of each other. It would be way too much. Yeah. So you cut a bit chunk of them. But they're, the fireplaces built. So they're just, they're just like, just like arranged around them and then glued in place. Yeah. So it's what, uh, it's, it's 2,000 books, 4,000 screws, six gallons of glue in that way. It's so cool. Yeah.
We just wanted something that kind of makes a statement. Yeah. But yeah, we're just coming, the first thing we want to do is take a picture in front of it. Oh, really? And so kind of,
“yeah. It's like, so if you, I think in the world of social media, you want something that you share”
about the thing that you did. Yeah. Yeah. Totally make sense. That's that run around too. And like, that they're probably like the second most. It was a lot like things. You know? That's super interesting. Yeah. Well, the thing that I like about it, too, is it's very, um, like, unlike most Instagram things, where it's like, pink background. Like, it looks actually distinct. Yeah. Yeah. It's, uh, it's been cool. In the fireplace doesn't work. So it, it. We probably is a good thing. Yeah,
I mean, it was like, it's like, sort of, you can't take it out. And it doesn't work. Yeah. We were going to do, if you've been to the last book store in downtown Los Angeles, they have this cool, when you walk up this fire stairs. And then, it becomes like, if it's a, they, they clearly just took like a metal bar and then drilled a hole in the books and slid it on there. But if you walk through like a, like a large tunnel, yeah, it's cool. It's over the stairs. So we're going to do
something like that. And then the fireplace served being there. Yeah, that's awesome. You know, um, I want to read Cal Newport's new book. I haven't, I haven't gotten a coffee over yet.
“Oh, yeah. Where is it? Slow productivity. Yeah, is it good?”
Right. Oh, did it? Yeah. Okay. He was here before the week before he came out right now. No, he's great. Uh, yeah. You guys are both on the, at the viewer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's on, it's such a smart, like, it's such a smart way to come at productivity, too. Oh, he's the best. Uh, his deeper book. I think he was incredible. Yeah. Yeah. The range, which you're talking about. Yeah. He's great. What do you, what, so what's,
what sells it's surprising? Like what's the thing? What sells? It's, like, what, what, what do you write this by? Um, oh, that's a good question. I like to find, like, oh, this is probably this. Uh, told story wrote a page of daybook. Really? Yeah. It was the, like, the last thing that he wrote. It's just a collection of his favorite quotes and, like, sort of, meditations on them. And then it, it, it, it was suppressed by the Soviet after his death, most of his very religious. Oh, interesting. And so it's been, it was totally
forgotten until, like, the 80s or 90s. And you people buy this? And it's probably, like, I loved it. So I started talking about it because I obviously, I've read it when I was doing the Daily Stoke, just like, other books and that's, yeah. And then, yeah, it's probably, there's a handful of books, like, that where, like, weird, like, one of the only places that's selling them. Right. And so, like,
the publishers always running out. Like, so, okay, so let me ask you, because I am very curious,
because your books, like, your books are based on so much research as a, and I obviously do interviews, but not like the same way when you're doing, yeah, I don't know, most of the people in my books are dead. So yeah, so how do you structure, like, like, how do you structure your time? Because I use the interview to basically help you material. To get my material, but also to help me know when I'm ready to start writing, because I start hearing the same thing from different people. I just, so I just,
I'm usually, uh, I have, like, a theme or a topic, and then I'm reading about it and researching about it for a long time, and then, are you, like, keeping no cards or, like, what do you do? It's a physical,
Okay.
and they're all laid out. Like, so I've just started, I'm doing a series now in the cardinal purchase, like a courage, and interesting. Just this comes at next, and then I just started wisdom.
“That's why I had the chapter on the question. Right. Question. So I wrote something down that you said about,”
like, retire me on, like, questions that get an answer that's not prepared. Right. I think more, I would have to say, oh, that's great. So I'll write that down in a no card. That'll go in the tab of question things, and as I put together that chapter, it'll go in that problem. But, like, wisdom is so, the Morphist, like, how do you have that? So, so, like, I wanted to write a book about humility. That was what you know was, but then I found a ego is the way in. Like,
what is the thing that makes it not a Morphist? So, right. So, the actual virtue for the Stoics is, is temperance, which they illustrated with a person watering down their wine. Well, that's a super boring idea. You can't write a book about temperance. So, I wanted to read that. Like, even moderation, though, I wanted to read a book about it. Right. Because most of what people
want is the extreme. They want to be extremely successful, extremely rich, extremely powerful.
Like, you know, it's like you could selling a book on positive body positivity. So, it would be really tough, right? Because, like, people actually want to be jacked. Yeah. Even though they need to be bogged. They want to be skinny and they want to be jacked. And they want, they want to believe that if I give you the answer, like, you can do it without a word. You got to figure out what is the thing that's made. No one wants to read a book about a thing that they're not right.
And climb to do, you know? So, so, make, I made that book about self-discipline, which is a, of a rendering of temperance and self-control. So, so, for me, it's all about, yeah, what is, what it, and I am still figuring it out because I'm fit in the book. Yeah. What is the thing that makes that accessible and interesting and then also, like, compelling to share? That's super interesting,
“because I think for me, I do the same thing, but it's this, I have to find the story. Yeah.”
Like, until I know what this, the anchor story is, the narrative that I can't actually figure out how to structure the chapter. So, for me, it's what's the theme. Like, in this case, like, I'm not, I didn't decide, I decided to do a book on the Cardinal Virtue, or it's series on the Cardinal Virtue. So, I don't pick the virtues. I've, what's, what's, do I think is the most compelling about it? And then it's not, what's the story, I have to go, like, who are the characters and
what are the main story. So, like, the discipline book that I do, Garygs, the physical manifestation of discipline, Queen Elizabeth, is the, like, sort of temperament or emotion. Yeah. And then the last one I talked about, Mark is really, she has unlimited power and, you know, it's sort of
fusing the physical and the temperamental discipline together. So, yeah. For me, it's first what's
the thing, then, like, who are the guys? Right. That's super interesting. Yeah. It's the best. Yeah. But, solving the puzzle part is fun, and then finishing is fun. It's the middle part of the, yeah. Yeah. And it's literally, like, the middle part of the middle, where you're just, like, you feel like you're, like, turning the crank every single day, and you're like, yeah, I'm getting closer. Like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, if you work on it enough, and then you're,
like, oh, wait. When I put it all together, it's decent. Yeah. Like, yeah. So, which stage are you about right now? Are you at this? No. So, the justice one, like, I'm just, I'll get galley. It's like, now. Okay. So, that's, like, done done, which is, it's hard to be done done on one thing, and then,
like, deepen the shit on the right thing. Like, I'm, I'm, like, the intro's half written. The first chapters
have, I'm doing, I'm, like, all the easy parts. Yeah. And then I have, like, I'll just have to go all, I'm mostly just, like, just trying to find a little tractor here, a little tractor here. I totally, I have this, basically, I trick. So, what I'll do is I'll, once I do all my reporting, and I put everything on no cards. Yeah. Then I'll just sit down and I'll write my editor, an letter explaining what this chat, how this chapter is going to work. And the letter is, like,
four or five thousand words long. I read a lot. It's sort of my job. You can't write it without reading. For almost 15 years now, once a month, I send out an email with my favorite book recommendations for that month. Books that I've been reading books that I've been going through books that
“changed my life that inspired me, that I think connect to what's happening in the world, and you could”
sign up right now at RyanHolyday.net/ReadingList.
