The Shintaro Higashi Show - Catching Up with Shintaro and Peter

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

How's it going everyone? In this episode, we're switching gears a bit and catching up with Shintaro and Peter: What are they reading? How's training for them? How are their personal lives? What's new? Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

hey guys how's it going it's shintaro higashi with peter you at the shintaro higashi show was that terrible it's okay we'll keep it rolling it's a it's a catch-up episode anyway it's a social episode so we'll keep it authentic and relaxed that was good i mean you could right you put a little twist in it so yeah i mean uh we're trying to be more, maybe more personal, not so much about, you know, judo business. Yeah, we don't want to be too judo specific and, you know, not catered to a wire, right, demographic. I'm not saying that, but I definitely want to make it a little bit more personal.

Yeah, that's what it's about, right? So let's hear from you, man. What are you reading? Reading. So unfortunately, I'm not reading as much. that's what it's about so let's let's hear from you man what are you reading reading so unfortunately i'm not reading as much i used to read a lot in new york city because um when i i've i would commute by subway and so but you don't get any cell service uh no one bothers me so i'll whip out my kindle and then this must be pre-covid yeah that's right exactly this must be pre-de blasio

yeah it was all pre-covid yeah when everything was relatively normal i guess um yeah so but i am so i'm trying to i'm listening to more podcasts but i am trying to read this book called doom it's a sci-fi book there's a movie movie coming out with Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya. Oh, yeah? Yeah. I don't know who those people are. You're not a Gen Z, I guess. They're the hottest ones right now.

Really? They're hot? Yeah. Really? Let's see. Zune? Zendaya. Oh, the Dune.

What's the name of this? D-U-N-E, like a sand dune. Zendaya. Yeah. All right, let's see what this person looks like. Zendaya. And if you watch, she's in the Spider-Man movies. She's new.

Oh, man, this is what you're reading? MJ. Is this like a sci-fi? It's an epic sci-fi. It's like a very famous book. It's quite long you know you're you you know you're getting old when like none of this stuff appeals to you you know it's like wow this is not marketed for me anymore no it is the the the sci-fi itself is

pretty like dude it has a lot of politics in it and it's an epic yeah i've been meaning to read it until but you know i knew they were living in the desert yeah so it's uh it's in uh uh it's planet called i don't even know how to say or something but anyway it's a the setting is that it's a very it's a desert planet where water is very precious but they do have this material called spice they call it spice it's very important in this universe and interesting what does spice do you know i uh they haven't really told me what it really does i think it's related to how they interstellar um okay travel or something anyway so yeah but but it's it's a lot of a lot of it is i mean the setting is you know kind of star wars-y like universe is there water like so people drink water like how do they get water if it's so there's water but like imported yeah they

import it from out and i think there's some polar caps or something oh and also they use they wear this suit i forget what they call bodies there's some polar caps or something on also they use they wear this suit I forget what they call bodies supply chain constrictions and yeah actually yeah a lot of a lot of like a lot of those issues because the planet is like very arid and then you know there's a lot of politics involved so it's very interesting but okay I'm not too far into it. I'm just reading. But I heard that... You're looking through it. You know, lots of photogenic people. That's right.

The movie is supposed to cover only half of the book because the book itself is really long. She reminds me of Selena Gomez a little bit, this woman. Yeah, yeah. I can see the resemblance. Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, like that kind of a, you know. She's a model. Yeah.

Oh, is that right? She looks very tall. She sings too, I think. Oh, she's a singer. Yeah. I think so. Very talented woman. Interesting.

And also, the main lead is also, he has a French name, but he was born in New York City. Talented actor, Tim timothy chalamet anyway interesting go check it out uh if you are into sci-fi stuff well i think it's kind of like a game of thrones vibe too actor he was in homeland well he's from new york city born in de. That's right Interesting interesting, you know, I always like it when I see people like I was born in New York City and I'm like, oh man Me, you know, oh yeah Oh, yeah, New York where and then I always look him up and it's like sometimes you see, you know Cuz my cousin went to like Trinity High School So I want to like that all private school over there or I know somebody from over there

I don't like he lived in Hell's Kitchen. I'm like, I know Hell's Kitchen. Did you ever live there? Hell's Kitchen? You lived on like East Village and Turtle Bay. No, but I spent some time there. I dated someone in that, you know, area. And, you know, when you date someone in an area of Manhattan,

you spend a little bit of time there and you get familiar with the restaurants. And when you guys inevitably break up, then's like oh man inevitably you don't want to go eat at that type place on 47th street because they're hard to want to bump into somebody or oh it wasn't that you you had so much emotional value to the restaurant yeah maybe yeah that's what i'm up yeah that's what i'm reading how about you man i'm reading the book think again by adam grant it's about you know changing your mind right it's like a rethinking book so it's like uh you know it's like if judo told me anything it's that i don't know you don't know what you don't know right and it's like i'm constantly like being bombarded uh with these

headlines and these news articles and i'm forming opinions but i'm not really reading like primary sources right i'm not writing like the research papers i'm not looking at sample size and i'm not really doing a deep dive i'm just kind of like oh apple news let's scroll and boom boom boom reading it and i'm like forming these like very base layer sort of surface level opinions yeah i know this about myself myself. I'll pretend like I know something. It's so easy to repeat the isms of the people that you care about and you respect. It's like, oh, I respect this guy

and it becomes this truth by authority thing where like, this guy's smart, this guy's intelligent, I respect him, I like him and he's talking about this and now all of a sudden without knowing, you're sort of mimicking all the stuff that he's saying about certain issues right i see and it's only concretized by you know the scrolling and the articles that you see and you're you know you're so busy these days right it's like yeah are you really deep diving and learning about stuff no so i understand that about myself and i realize that's like yeah are you really deep diving and learning about stuff no so i understand

that about myself and i realized that's like all right how do i break through some of these uh right you know these biases that i've probably formed you know that's a good attitude to have yeah well what are the some what are some of the things the book suggests to combat like recognizing like desirability bias so if i'm like reading something or if i'm scrolling through right the news feed on uh you know apple news i subscribe to like the apple news plus situation and it's like i'm looking for things that you know i'm probably constantly clicking on similar material all the time and apple's shoving those things uh confirmation bias yeah confirmation bias desirability bias you know

now I'm into like crypto a little bit it's like they're always pushing crypto articles of course I'm going to only get like the the ball case because that's the one I'm going to click on you know what I mean you're what yeah you're bullish a little yeah okay so Solana and you know this platform I'm going to take over a theory I'm like let me click on that right so how do you when you do that what how do you balance those uh biases out what are you just is it is it enough to be aware of it i think being aware of it is like the first and foremost thing yeah you know and uh they were talking about, like, how do you argue against, you know, certain, you know, hot button issues and, you know, first finding common ground, you know, and not arguing too many different points.

Because if you have one weak argument, then the person picks up that weak argument. And now all of a sudden your entire position is blown up. Right. And that's something that I, you know, I've done in the past many times. Right. Argument one, argument two, argument three. Look at all these arguments. It really doesn't work like that.

What I heard about that is, you mentioned this too, we have a platform culture. What are they called? Platform culture? Basically, these figures go around and basically lecture give lectures to people yeah but instead now because there's so much information you use that kind of format used to work because it was so hard to disseminate information yeah but now it's so easy to disseminate information that there's so much information out there yeah good and bad so now that people are saying it has to be more conversational a dialogue in a way yeah yeah so does the book talk about that maybe like oh try to talk to an expert multiple experts

in a dialogue setting but you know experts can be wrong too yeah well what is who is an expert i guess that's yeah who's an expert you know it's like uh yeah you got to learn how to critically think you know use logic and yeah really deep dive yourself and honestly if you really care about it you would you know go after the primary sources and understanding how to really look at statistics and all those different things you know what i mean it's like i don't have time to deep dive into certain hot button issues i just don't you know so i'm probably just going to recite the last article that i read i read i mean saw a podcaster talk about it on on this podcast uh but yeah so that's that that's what i'm reading

uh-huh how's training you training at all yeah i mean not as much as i used to uh phd pro phd is very busy um i will talk about that later but um i try to i haven't gone past two weeks just because i've i've been so busy and I've also I've been traveling too but I but I do try to go to once or twice a week that's great kind of there's a judo gym here I like working on it there I was specific for judo and BJJ yeah I'm not like consciously I don't have a like a goal right now i think my goal is to just show up uh as much as i can that's fine yeah and well i guess bjj is a little new so um i've done some nogi stuff because the school i go to uh primarily does nogi so i you know it's fun and there's a lot of good athletes so yeah it makes me learn anything like anything you learned recently

um not much that's what they don't wear geese i know that's that's a problem i try to because uh like i do certain things right like uh Like the over-under pass or just little pass here and there. And then I usually do the top game and takedowns. I just do judo. So I guess I should try to learn new things. Maybe I should pick up. Yeah, try to learn new things, yeah. Yeah, but right now, I show up and I try to get a good workout in.

And because of that attitude, I just stick to what I know, I guess. Yeah. Which I should break out of that. I mean, you wrestled already too, right? So you wrestled back in the day. So it's like, why don't you go top position body lock and stuff? Yeah. That's a common thing that these wrestlers are learning.

Right. It's similar to over under pass where you're're restricting the opponent's hips from moving. Oh, my God. It's like hand fight, shoot, lock. Body lock as in like a parterre position kind of thing? Yeah, but you're an open guard from top. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, so it's like you're changing levels.

You're almost looking at wrestling. You're taking a drop step and taking a shot almost. I i see yeah oh like from the yeah from the stand-up position yeah and then you're like crowding the legs so then obviously you don't you know you're not like walking into close guard right right right right yeah i see something you could try that yeah maybe i'll like go back to pick up more wrestling again but yeah that's about it once or twice a week, not much. Yeah, good. Yeah.

That's something. Yeah. How about you? Yeah, what am I working on? Working on this no-turn judo system. That's my, I think, I'm going to try to make that my next judo video out there.

Can you elaborate on what that is? Like you don't... Easy, no-turn judo. You don't turn. You don't turn your back. Take all the stuff, the classic stuff, and you take it out. But there's plenty of judo to be done without turning at all. So a lot of foot sweeps.

I know a guy, this guy, Vinny Mancuso. He's one of my closest friends. Oh, I know. Yeah, Vinny. Yeah. I mean, we're not so close anymore because it's just so much time has passed. Right. But back in the day, we used to wrestle together all the time.

Uh-huh. Right. The New York Athletic Club. And he was a phenom. Just he was a monster he's massive massive yeah yeah he won sambo panams he's a wrestler great guy so nice great guy nice but he's one of those guys he just trained his whole life uh he's amazing no one knows him because he doesn't go out there and compete uh-huh he took fifth at u.s nationals in judo after like training judo for like two years or something oh dang but he's one of those guys he's a freak right and he's great and he's learning judo he's a black belt but then he's like i don't want to turn my back like he

wrestled for so long and when i took leg grabs out he's like dude i'm not i'm not doing judo if there's no leg grab and you have to turn your back like that just doesn't work for me uh-huh right and you just couldn't get over it mentally right right i don't know maybe now he is but and i've always thought man maybe you can just do judo and he did do judo without ever turning his back so that's what i'm kind of like thinking about working working on now sasai both sides deashi kochi ochi still haven't turned right and then you go on tomonaga sumigaishi face to faceto-face. I mean, look at Reko. You go belly-to-belly. Right, right, right. You throw belly-to-belly. You do back arch.

And I think there's a lot of Russians that kind of fight this style already. But it hasn't really been brought to the forefront of people's minds yet. That's what I want to do. I see. I want to sort of explore it, and I'm exploring it. And then I'm going to make it into a video. Oh, okay. Put it on youtube

a little series yeah yeah can you imagine no turn judo system you never have to turn your back ever because that's one of the criticisms for all the grappling martial arts coming into because you give up your back yeah learning curve you miss you give up your back it takes a very long time develop a powerful powerful turn though that nobody can stop but during that entire time you're giving up your back you're giving up your back giving up your back right it's like what if i were to tell you you don't have to turn your back ever judokas hate this one little trick yeah one little trick i saw a video actually youtube video and this is another jujitsu thing that i used to think about and i'm not trying to take credit for someone's work but a defensive jujitsu system where you're doing no waza like

you're doing judo where your goal is not to take the person down or improve position but you're staying in turtle staying in turtle i watched that video the defensive jiu-jitsu pressure testing or something right yeah yeah it's like they did it in a competition yeah this guy i forgot his name i should figure out this name uh-huh i could give this guy some credit so this guy goes into a competition goes you know what i'm gonna turtle up defense and then when the person's behind i'm just gonna roll into leg locks that's it and he had seven matches in the black belt division he's like i'm pressure testing my defensive bjj system and i was like oh shoot this is exactly what I was thinking about the other day,

you know, while I was doing... All right, here it is. What is this guy's name? So you're trying to... Are you thinking specifically about this defensive system because it's so pretty close to some of the judo elements of judo newaza? Yeah, kind of.

So it's like, this is not new. You know, none of this is new this is uh sambo does this all the time you know bottom position drops in agi turtle rolling knee bar rolling knee bar rolling knee bar you know even like they'll do like sumi gaeshi rolling knee bar they've been doing this uchimata rolling knee bar oh so like when the person's behind you rolling into a lead lock that's been been done a million, million times over by the Russians. You know what I mean? But what if you were to create a jiu-jitsu system where most of these guys aren't very good at taking people down.

And then you go for a shot and you don't really know how to shoot, you get guillotined. It's a long road to learn how to defend your neck while you're going for a double. A lot of people don't even learn a proper double. They say, hey, I'm just going to do a single because there's no neck exposure. So that was sort of the mentality. And this guy's name is Raul Aldo, Amsterdam. And there's a channel called Defensive BJJ.

Zero relations with these guys. I'm just literally, this is sort of off the cuff yeah conversation that we're having but yeah so that's another idea you know and uh i started thinking a little bit more about this defensive stuff uh uh because i'm you know a couple of my judo guys are competing and i was trying to teach you know all these other the judo related nirwaza and you just don't simply have time right right right to create openings because openings will not be given because getting hooks in doesn't matter so people won't go for hooks people won't go for certain things there's no action reaction because all the person on bottom has to do is stay still yeah stay tight force stalemate in five seconds that's it yeah you're

out of it because the rest of the stock get back to your feet right right right right so you're are you i was thinking a lot about this defensive thing a lot and i wasn't even googling it i was just talking about it at the dojo and long and behold google's someone's someone's thought of it and was listening to it I see the uh Are you told are you thinking more about like what to do when you're in a turtle position like exploit that or? How to I'm not working on this defensive Okay, I'm working on no turn judo system. Okay okay i'm teaching judo nirwaza specifically for competition because new york state championships two weeks away for some of my guys oh wow nice that's a fun tournament that's yeah you you took third or second or

something right third yeah i mean it's just like we kind of everyone from who trained. Yeah, that tournament was just Eugene, Anthony, Patrick, and me who are on the podium. The exact same guys that were training on the mat on Friday went to the tournament and then all placed in that division. Yeah, in the 73. Weren't you guys all training last night? Yeah, exactly. That was fun. Yeah. Love that. Yeah, that's what I'm working on i see i'm jealous man i i you know my phd is like so it's consuming my life

so much that yeah tell me about that how's that going it's uh yeah it's i i would be i'll be like if i'm not under a lot of stress but uh it stress, but it is fun and very stressful at the same time. So now I guess a lot of people may not know how the whole process of getting a PhD works. it's not really about taking classes and it's more about um learning how to become an independent researcher they say how to which involves how to find the right problem and then how to find the right solution and then finding the right problem to solve is actually the more important part interesting anyway so it's not really about taking classes so what happened what usually happens in the states is uh that you when you get in you're not you're what they call a pre-candidate or they just call a student so you you get more or less two years to

pass this prelim exam to become qualified they call quals or whatever once you pass that you become a candidate and then then only then you can form a committee for your thesis and then you can work on your dissertation and then you defend in front of the committee and you get your phd so you get one paper published usually when you go through a phd or something right that's really dependent on your feel some fields you know like a lot of the humanities they they write long long papers so maybe one or two maybe thesis might be the only paper they publish how many people get to be on the published article uh dude if you look at some of the papers google publishes it's like there's so many names and i

because there's i've read google scholar like i've been on that little database uh yeah google scholar is amazing yeah but some of the big papers they have like tens of people on it it depends yeah dozens yeah dozens of people yeah i wouldn't say like gets the hundreds that would be ridiculous but are you in there so like it's like hey man my name goes first because i did more than this project like how do you how do you guys determine whose name yeah so that's must be a thing in my field so it depends on the field the convention is different but in my field, the first author is the one that is driving the whole project. That's his or her project. And then the last author is usually what they call the PI,

the principal investigator, usually the professor or the head of the lab who is kind of sponsoring the project and then advising the project. So it's not the person that did the bare minimum goes last? No, no, no. I think some fields do then but my in my field I don't I can't really speak for other fields but in my field the last one is the principal investigator so the second from the last is the person that did the very bare minimum you can say that yeah how do I get on that how do I get on that? How do I get there? What kind of bad minimum do I have to do?

You actually, that's a very, it's not a precise definition, but you have to make a, they say a significant contribution. You can't be just like, oh, I just talk to you about my idea and then bounce some ideas off each other. That's not enough.

It has to be like a concrete contribution. Did you help write code you could be on it but i've sent you youtube videos of uh coders and their lifestyles and productivity workflow and desk setup so yeah maybe that was enough to be on one of your papers i think you could go on to acknowledgement for that yeah that's so funny yeah nice man that's pretty good that uh so you're in you know i remember you were finding a question and you were like, all right, you abandoned that first initial idea. So, uh, then right now, so, so I'm kinda, so what happened was, so I'm a pre-kinder,

so I've got to pass my prelim and I had this idea. Um, I thought it was a pretty good idea, but then I kind of got stuck. I mean, it's just the nature of research because I'm supposed to do something no one's ever done before. So I thought about giving it up and whatnot, but there's finally... So because of COVID,

I didn't really have a chance to like... Usually what happens is you talk to your lab mates or advisors and then kind of when you're stuck you know you ask for help and whatever but because of because i started during covid i i didn't really during the height of the pandemic i didn't really have the opportunity to get integrated into the lab as much as i would like to so but now i'm i'm i'm actually commuting to campus and meeting people socializing with my lab mates more so i have peers who can help me so i've been talking to some of my peers about my idea and then they think it's actually still a good idea and then they made some suggestions on how i could get unstuck, so to speak.

So I'm going to give that a try. I don't think it's going to take that much time to try these new suggestions out. Interesting. So I'm going to go back to it. And I put a lot of work into it. It seems glamorous, too, a little bit. In what way? I don't know.

Just like a PhD. Sounds so cool. It's a lot of grind. And thesis. I'm sure it's very stressful for you. I mean, I know it's very stressful for you, but... Yeah, it is. From the outside, looking in, it's like, man, this guy's really on the forefront of...

I think, yeah, I don't want to be too cynical about this but that's what draws people in yeah but a lot of people get burned by the actual the grind it's pretty rough especially in a field that moves so quickly yeah because it's hard to keep up it's you're always kind of i mean you shouldn't think this way but you're all sometimes like worried that someone will publish it before you call it's called scooped getting scooped so i mean that's why you you it's important to be part of a lab because collectively you can you know you can't keep up with everything by yourself so what happens when that happens like it's like all right hey guys i'm here to defend my dissertation and it's going to be about this thing and they're like hey johnny just did that two weeks ago so yeah that's why you gotta be part

of a lab that will read a lot i mean most of course all pretty much all labs do this but you have to read and then inform each other like there are a lot of reading most of course all pretty much all labs do this but you have to read and then inform each other like there are a lot of reading reading groups and you know all these sessions so you have to keep up with what's going on in the field and you have to find an opening so i mean it it does happen i think but you could frame it's not everything is lost because you can kind of frame the problem differently and then tell a different story because it's like research publishing a research paper is not really about producing results it's more about like participating in this conversation dialogue that's happening within the community research community yeah that's what the

peer review thing is yeah so it's not like this paper is good that guy's paper is bad so i think a lot of a lot of those elements are lost when research papers are you know summarized and aggregated by some of the journalists because when the when the researcher published the paper it's not like a definite answer. Like, oh, hey, it's not like, it's more like, hey, there was this problem. I tried this. I got these results.

I think this is a way to go. What do you think? And then all the whole discussion happens around it. And then. Yes. And then you'd be like, oh oh the sample size wasn't big enough yeah yeah yeah yeah it's really nice and interesting and then the journalists take it and be like you know what that's what it is you know like right side company want my company takes

this position and i should take this position and my boss wants me to write this article and i need a lot of people to click it yeah yeah exactly so i i think important one important thing to understand is that yeah the research is more conversational and eventually some of the findings big uh stand up to the test of time and then they become knowledge i guess like more like laws and whatever interesting but yeah i mean once as long as you're aware of it you can kind of see oh things could change opinions change scientific findings that's what's supposed to happen yeah yeah anyway so that's what i'm going through hopefully i can you know produce the results yeah at least i i finished the requirements to get a master's degree so at least i'll have that

if all fails mastering out right that's the term mastering out yeah yeah which is okay i used to be not okay with that idea but i realized that was stressing me out too much that's something yeah yeah anyway so yeah that's what i've been up to yeah nice man yeah awesome dude it was nice seeing you the other day too all right so guys i have to i have to you know he's such a so i was stressed out i was kind of complaining to him about it and one day he shows up to detroit for half a day just to like cheer me up yeah and it was so nice like i never do stuff like that too so don't i hope people don't think i'm actually that nice of a person just for me well he planned it out all out with my wife and my wife like dragged me out uh because i was like

and i didn't want to go because it she said it was like a work like a work friend he was pouting too he's like i don't want to go to brunch with these people yeah and i was like she was like oh it's a couple's event so you have to show up and i was like all right all right i'll go and then lo and behold shintaro is there at the restaurant that's right we had a nice lunch yeah yeah that's right i couldn't spend too much time you know just because you know i have a three-year-old daddy issue yeah but in and out of you daddy duties yeah yeah and then uh you came back to go to a wedding in new york just like twice in the last few months that's

a nice little thing right yeah when new york you know yeah we went on a little drive did all the touristy things yeah we hung out me you and george people know george yeah they watch his uh right they watch my youtube channel the chiseled guy he's a monster and my brother was there so channel the chiseled guy he's a monster and my brother was there so um it's good day good yeah good day yeah me too it was like kind of situation i haven't done anything social in very very long just right it's busy busy busy me neither work work kid and it's like how much more can you fit into that so it's good to be able to just kind of focus on what you're doing at the moment yeah living in the moment you know yep all right so that was getting personal with shintaro and peter it's got a nice little situation a couple different plugs here

um patreon we have a patreon with zero patrons what a thing right no one has signed up for it zero yeah zero love yeah give us some love if you can love it's okay you know you guys don't have to i mean what do you really get what is the value behind it right you get to talk to us but yeah you know i guess if you if you like us enough and if you don't like us i don't know but yeah so we have that you know i have a bunch of videos and teachable stuff and yeah you don't like us i don't know but yeah so we have that you know i have a bunch of videos and teachable stuff and yeah you know it's probably in the way that you know we present this material too that's preventing a lot of people from signing up but you know we don't really have time to deep dive into optimizing you know use your interface and pipelines for people to go

you know it is what it is you know what i mean yeah at least we mentioned it we got it out there yeah if someone really wants to they can join us and have a conversation with us yeah so that's that thank you very much for listening anything else peter that's it yeah easy day listening today thank you guys yep cool all right see you uh stay tuned for the next episode bye