3 MINUTE MONDAY

Hi friend,

Today I released one of my favourite things I’ve ever put out on Modern Wisdom.

Introducing the new series: Mostly Wise. Episode #1 is 3 hours with Matt McCusker, Andrew Huberman & Tom Segura.

These hangout multi-guest episodes are so much fun for me - I really hope you’re enjoying them too.

Watch now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Lemme know your thoughts in the comments!

I have a new theory that I think is true…

It’s hard to be cancelled unless you become cringe.

A real cancellation says “here is a bad person”.

A cringe cancellation says “here is an uncool person”.

A bad person that’s still cool can survive for way longer than a bad person who’s cringe.

In fact, until the real cancellation convinces the masses that this person is also uncool as well as bad, the impact can be pretty minimal.

For instance… Mike Tyson got real cancelled.

He went to prison for sexually assaulting a woman, among other things. Awful.

But Mike never really became cringe.

He always had aura. Sure he was a bad guy and he had to ride out the real cancellation, but eventually he came back with even more hype after he starred in The Hangover.

In a different example, Will Smith got real cancelled AND cringe cancelled.

He slapped Chris Rock which wasn’t just literal assault but also, and maybe most importantly, super uncool.

Far less serious than jail, but apparently much more lame.

His brand cred was wobbly pre-slap after his wife admitted to having an affair with someone young enough to be her son while Will sat opposite her just nodding along on a podcast.

Then post-slap he attempted to revitalise his rap career with some really bad shows while only releasing one good movie which was a just-about passable Bad Boys sequel.

This was simply not enough to stem the tide of negative public opinion. Game, set & match - victory for the cancellation.

James Corden on the other hand never got real cancelled, but he did get cringe cancelled.

Sure, there were rumours of him behaving rudely to serving staff in restaurants and perhaps being grumpy, but that isn’t typically cancellation-worthy.

What was far more damning were the rumours that he had a big ego and was a diva to work with, may have contrived some of his Carpool Karaoke videos more than the audience had believed, and stole entire joke sequences from other comics.

Even though he’d done nothing which was particularly “bad”, the audience seemed to fall out of love with him as he’d lost aura. He left his late night hosting job and headed back to the UK.

Another W for the cancellation.

“But what about The Rock!!!” I hear you say.

Yes. He got cringe cancelled after a run of podcast appearances where his media training made him look stiffer than a politician with a butt plug in. People complained that he was trying *too hard* to win an Oscar, and he got stick for being way too over-exposed by starring in every big Hollywood blockbuster for a decade.

But crucially… he has MoMeNtUm.

Momentum is cancellation’s condom.

It protects against both real cancellations and cringe cancellations.

You see, the general public all have a degree of respect for someone who’s crushing it *right now*.

Momentum is a measure of your popularity in this moment. And that’s kind of like having an aggregate public consensus that you don’t suck.

Even if YOU think that this person is super uncool, or maybe a bad guy, everyone else still seems to like them - or else how could they be so popular!?

We can think someone is bad, we can even think someone is uncool, but if they have MoMeNtUm, it’s really hard to take them down.

Trump is a perfect example of this. Properly real cancelled a ton of times and has had some attempted cringe cancellations, BUT has insane momentum. So he survived. Momentum condom.

Dana White got proper cancelled for seemingly hitting his wife in a Vegas nightclub, but he's still cool and has a business that absolutely rips. Momentum condom.

Kanye West essentially real cancelled himself like 10 times over the last 5 years, but didn’t fully become cringe, and can sell out SoFi Stadium in LA on a moment’s notice to put on an insanely good live show. Momentum condom.

Ultimately, if you’re uncool, I think you’re living on borrowed time.

Once the momentum slows, the scrutiny increases. Lots of people get exposed when the hype around them dies down.

"When the tide goes out you see who's swimming naked."

And if you’ve been a bad guy too, the knives will really come out.

Perhaps it’s got nothing to do with your cool or your talent and it’s just which way the winds of public opinion are blowing due to the unseen forces of mass consensus - like a conga line all moving in unison because the rest of the crowd is moving that way too.

No matter what it is, this explains why everyone cares more about optics than ever before.

You are not what you say you are, you are what the critical mass of the internet says you are.

PS - Have I overthought this? Yes absolutely. It was a long flight to NYC today ok and I had no wifi.

MODERN WISDOM

I do a podcast where I pretend to have a British accent.
​

This week’s upcoming episodes:

Monday.
Matt McCusker, Andrew Huberman & Tom Segura - 3 hours of erectile function, fap naps, AI exes, lawsuits and Love Island. Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Thursday.
Chase Hughes - one of my favourite episodes on communication. How the police interrogate you, why your body language makes you look insecure, how to get someone to own up to a lie. Really good.

Saturday.
4.2M Q&A - me vs me on settling down, being a feminist, fighting with the internet, whether you should sleep with your ex, Harambe and much more…

THINGS I'VE LEARNED

1.
​MisogynistAI.

“Women make up 47% of the total workforce, but they comprise 83% of people employed in artificial intelligence-vulnerable occupations.”

I’m calling it now that this sex difference in AI job displacement will be one of the biggest culture war flashpoints of the next few years. It's gonna get really ugly.

2.
​What’s the harshest truth every young man must eventually learn?

“Everyone is always rooting for you.
Your parents want you to be a great son.
Your wife wants you to be a great husband.
Your boss wants you to be a slam dunk hire.
Every first date you’ve ever been on they’ve been rooting for you to get laid.
Every time you started to tell a joke people hoped it would have a hilarious punch line.
Your proximity to anyone is a reflection of themselves, meaning the deck is never stacked against you, and your failures are completely your own.” — Denzel Rust

3.
​The ultimate relational pattern to deconstruct.

“Your nervous system will always choose a familiar hell over an unfamiliar heaven.” — Kathy Overman

LIFE HACK

FaceTime Audio.

I can’t believe people still ring each other using the standard network.

This is like going from your grandparents CRT television to 4K.

It’s simply a superior form of communication.

I’m a proud FaceTime Audio supremacist.
​

Big love,
Chris x

Try my productivity drink Neutonic.
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PS
I worked hard to make that thing happen today. Enjoy!!