The Shintaro Higashi Show - Sensei Syndrome

Episode Date: March 28, 2022

Due to the hierarchical nature of how martial arts are usually taught, it is easy for sensei's to catch the "Sensei Syndrome." What exactly is it, and how do we prevent it? Listen to this episode to find out! Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi show with Peter Yu. Today we're going to talk about sensei syndrome. Does your sensei have sensei syndrome? You can gauge after listening to this podcast. That's right. This podcast episode is brought to you by also me, shintarohigashi.com. So check that out. There's Patreon, podcast episodes.

Now there's a scheduler on there. You could have a direct conversation with me. So please check out shintaro higashi.com spelled exactly as how it sounds massive update it's it looks very professional now you know yeah completely redone thanks to the the hundreds of dollars from the patreon money that we've been getting that didn't even make a dent in the actual cost of getting the website up and running well we still appreciate your support you know appreciate it love losing money and doing this with peter but it's okay we're doing it you know we're having fun at least yeah we're having fun we're meeting new people through this podcast and then you know all that yes all right so sensei syndrome so let's talk about what it is first

what is that what do you mean by that so i don't want to get too like geopolitical tension and all this stuff but like putin's got sensei syndrome big time yeah did you know putin is an eighth degree judo red and white belt did you know that? 8th? he's 8th? I did not know that yeah he used to be he it this got stripped but he used to be like honorary president of the IJF and that's all. yes yeah they got stripped and they always suspended him. oh they suspended him okay. yeah and the World Taekwondo Federation revoked his black belt yeah Yeah, honorary black belt. Yeah, but judo just suspended him.

Oh, okay. Yeah, and you know what? It was funny because the thumbnail for revocation of the black belt for the Taekwondo, they're all standing there wearing judo gis. And no one commented about it. Yeah, no one commented on that. He probably never wore a Taekwondo uniform. Yeah.

Definitely not. Yeah, I've never seen him do Taekwondo. I've seen him do Judo. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Apparently, he was a decent practitioner back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So why does he...

Okay, so what is it and why do you think... Yeah, Putin has it. Like, what's wrong with it? So what happens when you're the sensei, right? When you're standing at the top of the class and everyone is bound to you. You know, the sensei is bound back, but if I'm bound to the class and everybody else is bound too, it's very easy for that kind of thing to get to your head. Because it's very hierarchical. And there's not a lot of places where the hierarchy is so rigid as a dojo.

Even in the workplace, there is certain hierarchies. But the language of the American language, there is no formal speak and informal speaking. We talked about this in the cultural episode. So even if you have a boss, you could speak to each other as peers. But we learned judo from Japanese teachers who had the formalities. Yeah, from the culture. From the culture. Yeah.

And that has leaped over. Yeah. And once you kind of have this world where everyone is bowing and there's a strict hierarchy and you're at the top of the food chain all the time and people are dying to hear what you have to say, little by little you start convincing yourself everything I have to say is very, very, very important. And people won't check you. Right. People won't check you.

It's kind of your world if you want it to be. That's right. Yeah. And for a lot of people who run dojos uh in a commercial way or have a lifestyle business they do it in a way where the dojo serves them not so much the case where it's like hey i'm very businessman oriented my concern is about the bottom line uh i'm going to get into the judo business because very lucrative you don't get those types most people into the judo business because it's very lucrative. You don't get those types. Most people who teach judo or jiu-jitsu, they do it out of passion. Right.

So the business serves them. And in that world that they've concocted, it's very, very easy for them to start being, I don't want to say delusional. But it's very easy for it to gas up their ego. Right. Inflate their ego yes and then if you have like if you're like a putin and you're standing around and you know the oligarchs and all the people who are just yesing you yesing you yesing you and all of a sudden you know it's very very difficult to be corrected and you know if you do get corrected it's like okay get out or all right right and then you're sort of living in this chamber this isolated community where everyone builds you up as the king that's easy to become a dictator that's a great bit of a comparative geopolitical studies you just that's right yeah

presented you know it is right like the dojo uh the dojo could be structured in a way how a dictatorship government is shaped it is a dictatorship it is a dictatorship right right yeah i mean yeah of course yeah it's a one person running the show usually one person running the show there's a couple people working there all students right and then if you're in sort of the massage business or the soul cycle business it's a little bit more of a service oriented industry right right and people walk in there a client customer client yeah physical therapy personal trainer but when you're walking into a dojo yes it's a service business but the sensei is sensei right right right yeah yeah and i'm pretty quick to check some of this like disrespectful like hey i'm not your help man i'm not here to serve you like you're here to learn from me you know like get out of here with that

nonsense you know and i try to check my sensei syndrome but a lot of the other senseis don't have that sort of situation right and it could really get out of hand and it doesn't help that you know people who would check them yeah we act as a check would leave if the sensei because they kind of just naturally the sensei naturally filters out all the naysayers, I guess. Yes. Yeah. And then little by little, this attitude of like when you have the answers to most things in the dojo, hey, I'm right versus left inside position.

Like I can't work my lapel hand properly. Like what are some tips? I'm like, I know the answer to this. I know like four different answers to this. I know. Let me give you some options. And people are listening. I'm like, man, that answer to this. I know like four different answers to this. I know, let me give you some options. And people are listening and like, man, that's so smart. You're so, you got it.

Like, oh, this works so good. And then you're seeing in action, you're a problem solver. People seeking you for answers. And now all of a sudden they ask you a question. Hey, what do you think about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? And all of a sudden you read a couple of Reddit posts and you're like, yeah, let me tell you what I think. People are like, man, you got all the answers right like that's sensei syndrome leaking into a world where it's like i'm not even an expert in it but it's very easy to fool myself right into thinking i know what i'm talking about i know tons of senseis out there that are like

very very i don't say unread or not well read but people have very limited view of what's happening in the world but when they're regurgitating it in the dojo they're experts in it for some reason they carry so much authority over these people yes it's truth by authority yeah right yeah it's a type of truth right You hear this kind of stuff all the time. Oh, whatever this guy is saying must be true because he went to Harvard Law. Or whatever Shintaro is saying must be true because he went to Stern. That's right. But like, it's truth by authority. Right.

Right. I mean, it's truth by authority. authority you know it depends on the authority i guess yeah but like but you know sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't yeah and in this case yeah when the sensei has very strong political views right and they're teaching judo or jiu-jitsu and they have the answers and everyone's listening and now they bring their political views in and now it's trickling down and the people who are like oh yeah you're absolutely right about that you're absolutely right about that those people become closer and closer to the sensei all of a sudden

their inner circle of the person leading the dojo have all very very similar values right now if you think on the outside of this if you have alternative views you can't sort of enter that close circle of the center right yeah and there has a trickle-down effect you know with the little jokes that we make about you know oh you know the coronavirus cure was putin invading ukraine or something yeah i'm not saying i'm making these jokes, right? But I've heard other people make sense. Well, maybe it was someone I know. Who knows? But they make these little jokes or comments about the thing,

and there's people who laugh, and it shapes little by little, right? And then that only, only strengthens the dictatorship in the room. And it repels the opposition, and they repels like the opposition I guess opposition. Yeah. Yeah, so I think we can take a nuanced view on the the truth by authority thing because Like like I say it depends on the authority, right? So sensei's yeah Most more often than that will say truthful things about grappling because they have the authority. So it depends on the authority, but not on other topics.

Not necessarily. Not necessarily, yeah. Yeah, I'm not saying it's not at all the case, but their authority lies in the martial art. Yep. Not in other aspects. Yes. So that sets the syndrome for you so we can now we know kind of have an idea of what it is yeah and even in grappling itself though right because you competed with some sort of success and you have your views and theories about judo

or jiu-jitsu and now all of a sudden you're teaching it over and over and it reinforces the stuff that you know and there's some teachers that have this idea of like oh that all the stuff that's on youtube that don't work but it's like you never lived through the era of where that technique is being used in an active way so you've never been exposed to defending it right right therefore you actually might not even know how to do a certain technique that's sort of up and coming right right do a certain technique that's sort of up and coming right right so the classic example is the jujitsu black belts bjj black belts from the 90s and the 2000s those people don't really know leg locks because they come up through that era yeah so now when leg locks are sort of being popularized in the community and people like what about the heel hook this and that how do i get out

of it don't let them grab their foot. That's partially sensei syndrome. Don't question my information. Leg locks don't work. But it does. Even that same authority as time moves on, it can be diluted down. Yes, absolutely.

So you have to have an open mind. Seriously, it's all about the open mind. It's very hard to have an open mind. Seriously, it's all about the open mind. So we talked about... And it's very hard to have an open mind when you're always... Pampered, yeah. So yeah, like... So we know what sensei syndrome is now. And you're a sensei.

Yeah. How do you deal with it? How do you combat that? I'm constantly trying to tell myself, like, man, you don't know anything. Yeah. Especially when it comes to myself, man, you don't know anything. Yeah. Especially when it comes to this political stuff. I'll comment about stuff that's happening in the world, but it's like, I try to understand, as much as I know about judo, I don't know anything about what's out there, really.

Right. And I question all my news sources. We have conversations about this stuff all the time. Right, yeah. The biggest propaganda machine that we know is the United States media. Right. It's a propaganda machine. Yeah.

It is. You know, we're always quick to judge like, oh, the Russian propaganda or China. But we have a. We have a machine too. Machine as well. You know. Yeah. And so like, yeah, don't listen to anything I'm saying.

That's the goal of it and checking yourself and recognizing it right I guess we because we have conversations all the time

maybe your old friends kind of act as a check you know yeah yeah because me and Peter

have very different sort of views on a lot of things right i don't think i don't think we're like that different no not that man maybe i don't but i know i know the humble beginnings of your judo sensei career i guess that's true yeah when you first started out yeah yeah yeah tuning things and and you know how i was you know i'm not saying i like reached your pinnacle of the you know as you have but i'm just a student but you know how i was back in the back when we were like 20 something year olds yeah that's right that's crazy. I'm flying. That's right. But the sensei syndrome could really bleed into your personal life too.

Right. Right. I remember my mom used to like tell my dad all the time, he'd come home from the dojo like, and then maybe the mom would be like, you're not at the dojo. Don't take that tone over here. You know?

No, that's good. That must have been good for your dad. Probably. Probably. Yeah. Yeah, and my dad used to, when he was a little bit younger, he had like that authoritative dojo voice. Uh-huh. You know, in like a restaurant. And you know, this is a cultural thing, right?

In Japan, you yell across a restaurant to get the attention of the waiter or waitress. Right, right. Normal. Say my dad! Right? Yeah. It's a normal thing. Everybody does it.

My dad didn't know that was not really a thing here so not only was he screaming for the waiter or waitress across the room but he was doing it in a dojo voice and he was teaching you to do it too yeah i did it for years i didn't even know when i was in like college i would go to the restaurant and my friends would be like hey where's the waiter waitress i'm like'm like, I got it, guys. I got it. Excuse me! Excuse me! And then people are like, what the hell is wrong with you?

And I'm like, what? I had no clue that I was doing something socially unacceptable. That's normal, right? No one... And they were like, have you ever seen anyone else outside of you and your father

doing an American restaurant? I'm like, I guess not. Right, right. That's like a form of sensei syndrome where you're like, have you ever seen anyone else outside of you and your father doing an American restaurant? I'm like, I guess not. Right, right. That's like a form of sensei syndrome where you're like, right? You never thought about, you know, maybe that what you're doing might not be appropriate in some situations, I guess. Because no one probably corrected your dad. No one corrected my father at the dojo if my mom would check it yeah that's good like can you stop your partner yeah you know

yeah so and then so kind of going off of that i you know i think uh if i read posts about BJJ and then, you know, sensei's BJJ teacher, instructors messing things up, you know, all that people say, you know, they, they may be experts at grappling, but they're not experts at everything in their, in the life. Cause I think there's a day if a lot of people, especially people who started like the beginners tend not to know that I think but maybe because it's such a new thing it's a novelty and then people at the dojo BJJ schools seem very cool whatever doing all these things and then they

yeah like kind of believe they don't recognize that that skill doesn't really bleed into doesn't necessarily translate into everything else in life yeah i think that's uh yeah so the it's a power dynamic makes it in a way where little things can sort of potentially be viewed as abusive so you know and there's also a survivor bias when you've been doing martial arts for a very long time and you're still doing it, and now all of a sudden you're the top at it, right? Oh, I made it because personal grit.

I'm just tougher. And if you want to make it to a higher level, you need to be strong and you need to be pushed and you need to be beaten. And those kinds of things really right doesn't translate over well and you know you have like i said survivorship bias and when you're teaching from that lens right you know it can be potentially viewed as abusive you know that's also a side effect of sensei syndrome you get blind to this kind of a thing your biases right and then people won't check you and before you know i mean there's stories about like oh you know you gave up uh to a choke you know right in japan that's how it used to be it's like if you give up to an arm bar

that's okay because you get your arm broken you can't train but if you give up to a choke you know you get choked unconscious but you wake up and you're fine. There's like levels to the submission, right? Like armbar. If you tap to a choke before it was really sunk in, it's an abomination. So it's like you should get choked out. And coaches will punish that by choking the kids out. Repeatedly. Repeatedly.

They'll be like, oh, you went to that tournament. You got choked out and you tapped out to a choke. Come here. And then they'll choke him oh you went to that tournament you got choked out and you you tapped out to a chunk come here and then they'll choke him unconscious in front of everybody repeatedly like three or four times they would choke him out wake him up and as soon as the kid woke up and came to they would grab him and choke him out again you know like that kind of stuff they cannot go for the brain probably not but like all of a sudden like amongst the senseis it was like a thing that people did and they're ha ha ha like i choked this kid out you know because he tapped he'll never tap again you know that's also partially sensei syndrome and then everybody around it is like

oh you know all the black belts like oh i went through it you know should be fine uh no it's not okay you know it's it's abuse right i see that kind of things uh not frequently i guess but like in parents like parents who have done judo or martial arts they want their children to do it they bring them along and you know you you're kind of popular there because you're japanese like you told me like a lot of people parents will comment like hey i like that you're a japanese teacher teach my kid or something expecting them yeah that racist stuff works to my favor if they're like we're seeking out a japanese judo teacher and i've had that before but like to me that's kind of racist that you would not learn judo from a white person but you'd rather learn from me

you know just based on uh you know the size of my eyes and then they they expect you to act like the old school japanese teachers too now some of them oh yeah yeah some of them yeah we need you to have discipline you could be my child it's like i'm not doing that yeah to get the hell out of here yeah yeah well that's good you're you're keeping it in check sometimes i keep it in check but sometimes you know it gets to you it gets yeah i was like a virologist for a little while and now i'm sort of like a military strategist at this point everyone has a bit of that i was reading into all of that like where yeah where russian forces are coming in and all these different missiles right yeah yeah you know it doesn't help when uh people are like oh tell me about judo and then like what do you think about the stuff that's happening right now and uh and

then you're like let me tell you what i think about this yeah yeah um what else we got no it's pretty much it right that's sensei syndrome and even within the ranks of the senseis their sensei syndrome happening there because that's the problem that's why these organizations can't really collaborate because you have a collection of 25 senseis in a room trying to make decisions for the organization and they're all to everyone's about oh yeah yeah everyone's bound to each other but even within that there's hierarchical ranks I see it's interesting I'm a sixth on you're only a sand on your third degree I'm a sixth degree should listen and bow to me and have respect mm-hmm it's like hey buddy we're not in japan

right i wonder i wonder what the solution would be that to that not just even the interdojo collaboration but even within the dojo like do you think i mean of course i mean it's easy to say oh you got to have an open mind as a sensei y yada, yada, yada. But you think there would be a systematic way to do it? Like, do you need to have an assistant? It can't be an assistant, I guess. A partner teacher or... It's tough, man. I don't know.

Yeah. You know what it really comes down to, even at like the organizational level for local judo? Right. The person at the top has to be a benevolent dictator right i love that i love that term yeah because it's kind of hard to come by that's the that's the issue right because you get a person that's at the top and he's very inclusive and he's like hey what do you think about it hey let you know please you know give this person a chance to speak let's all talk about it you know you need that person leading it but you have a guy that a chance to speak let's all talk about it you know you need

that person leading it but you have a guy that's up up there who's has also big time sense syndrome at an even bigger scale it's very difficult to speak up and hey i don't think that's a good idea you know right it's hard to voice yourself and it's like any really you know community you know like a very bureaucrat it's very bureaucratic too because you run it in a way where, hey, let's vote on this issue. What should we do? The tournament scheduling and the calendar and this and that. There's a lot of stuff going on behind closed doors in these organizations. They're all doing their best.

They're all volunteers at the end of the day. Every single one of them have sensei syndrome to a certain degree you know and i say it like a bad thing but you know sensei syndrome it's a side effect of being a sensei really right you know everyone has some of it there's not one person that doesn't have and you need a little bit of it because if someone comes in and is a cancer to the dojo you need to be able to say, you know what? Get the hell out. Yeah, that's right. You know,

you got to do that. Yeah. Yeah. You can't all be inclusive. I mean, it's like, it's a balance act. You need to protect the integrity of your community at the same time. You don't want to be exclusive.

And yeah, it's a tough act, you know, tough, tough job. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting though,

isn't it? It is interesting i'm trying to think if there would be a systematic way to like combat that i guess it's it that requires so much more manpower yeah right we'll do like a black belt democracy like board yeah like i'm wondering like we have to form a committee and then yeah you know what let me tell you something i will crush that i know i don't i don't think it will work practically and i don't think it would ever be popular i mean it there'll be i don't know if there will be a solution even yeah it's a really crazy thing you know that's why when you're looking for dojos you have to shop around right and you have to be an educated consumer and it's crazy because

the dojo business is not regulated at all whatsoever zero regulation yeah you don't have to have a black belt per se to open up a judo i mean judo a little a little tough to do without oh because you need to get insurance for the usjf or usj judo kind of thing no that's easy to do oh it's easy oh really but it's one of those things it's like all right let's work out it's easy to be oh outed as a fraud right right as opposed to karate or taekwondo and i can't punch a kick because i'm too old now but let's do forms yeah right oh you know show me that you can fight it's like no we don't really spar in here or right right you know you're not allowed to or you have a community of people who take falls for you

that's partially what happens to a lot of these guys who teach judo for a long time you know uh they start fooling themselves and they're thinking like they have these superpowers because everyone's taking falls for them yeah that's why I see these no-touch knockout stuff. Right? That's easy. Right, right. Yeah. Think about it.

Like if you're doing tile and you're slamming people and now all of a sudden you're getting older. You're 55 years old, 60 years old and you're teaching. And now all of a sudden people are like, oh, I shouldn't blast the sensei because he's 60. Let me work out with him. Let me take falls. And you've been good at judo your whole life and you slowly decline in physically, but you're still throwing everybody. It's easy to fool yourself into thinking my technique has hit a new level where I can still throw 25-year-old black belts at will. And then all of a sudden, you're doing less and less and it's

becoming more and more effective because people are falling over for you and then all of a sudden you're teaching this stuff like ah you know i guess it works because the position of my pinky and the energy flowing through it is proper and now all of a sudden you're teaching nonsense well we'll check check in with you at when you're 60. Yeah, I'm going to be teaching no-touch knockouts then. Let me channel my chi through my hands and knock this person out with one swooping technique. I call it the Higashi technique. Speaking of stern, you mentioned that by authority and all. Did you guys talk about this kind of problem i'm sure

it's not you know in businesses you know the like uh you know founders myth you know culture personality all this stuff happens in business too and how to combat that like did you guys talk about it yeah we had like lots of like leadership and management classes and it's like what is a good leader what makes a great team right right everybody's kind of an alpha and talking over each other it doesn't work you know google did a research study about all right what are the most effective teams the person kind of leading the thing make sure everyone has a voice everyone feels heard right there's no things like hey i have an idea you know oh man that's so stupid now the next great idea will not be voiced in the room because that person is fearful of criticism. Right, right.

So making sure – we've had classes like that. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's interesting. So sometimes I'll be like, hey, man, what do you think about it? What are you teaching? Trying to make that person heard. No, not even when I'm like when I'm sitting on the side of the mat just sort of develop a sense of hey everyone's really there yeah even though that's not really the case you know because I have

my biases yeah you know I'm a very I play I do a little bit of favoritism you know I know this and I'm okay with it because the dojo serves me it's yeah the sensei syndrome you know it's you got to check yourself and yeah it's too easy to you know fall into that trap of you know being a crazy person and you know how many years can you teach judo and be the master and beating the hell out of everybody and you know you're an expert at everything how many years of it until you become sort of just a crazy person right oh you know uh yeah how many years that's i'm knocking on that door already and 110 000 people on youtube saying man you're so good and you know what are your thoughts

on it it doesn't help that's another way yeah that's another thing you have to be careful particularly for you i guess we'll call it influencer syndrome that's my right oh i'm sure celebrities have this too it's like what does ja rule think about right chappelle did a bit of this like what does yeah what does ja rule think about right chapelle did a bit of this like what yeah what does ja rule think about this issue you know that's so funny that i think um yeah that's that definitely happens because when millions of people adore you hundreds of thousands of people yeah i remember like watching something it was like a rod you know who played baseball and you know he has his own reputation and his branding. It's like,

what do you think about this very complex issue happening in this world right now? And he's like, well, you know, let me tell you what I think. And it's like, dude, sick to baseball. Seriously.

Right? It's like, what is this? You know? It's a freak show. If A-Rod put in the work and actually studied and, you know,

talk. Yeah yeah i will take his opinions but he's an influencer right it's influencer syndrome uh-huh and yeah i think it that's a thing it bleeds over to different areas and then we kind of have to be careful with that yeah it's like how is kim kardashian making a difference in ukraine right now like let's see what she's doing. Let's just follow that and then do what she's doing. I don't know if she has time for that right now. She seems like she's got a handful.

Yeah, she's got a lot of stuff going on. You know, Kanye said this thing. It was hilarious. This is completely off topic. But he's bitter about Pete Davidson. Like, I know what his accent is. He's going around telling everybody like, you know, did you guys know Pete Davidson has got AIDS?

He said that? I don't know how true it is, but I read that and I couldn't stop laughing. I was like, man, that's so childish. I hope he gets the help he needs. You know, Kanye, he probably doesn't listen to this podcast, but if you do, you know. Can you imagine he comes up on Discord? He's like, yo, what are you doing, man?

Talking about me like that. Well, I hope he drops a, you know, he gets the top tier, you know, benefits, the sponsor. He's got the means to do it. We got to create a new category for that. Yeah. We'll call it yay. Yay tier, yeah. Yay tier.

It's like a rainbow belt. Right. We'll put anything he wants on it. His own face on the belt. What is our price? $20 million. Oh, yeah. We can start with that.

If you guys know Kanye, Kanye's contacts, just give him a holler. Tell him to join here. Let me tell you another factoid about the sensei syndrome that I personally experienced. What's up and it just reminded me because we're talking about yay we're kind of joking around i remember like uh you know at the dojo telling a couple of jokes about something uh getting a laugh everyone's laughing having a good old time and i was in the nba program at the time and it's like all right man it's friday i'm gonna go to school and it's like during one of our 20 minute breaks we're

sitting around the back of the class and i tell the same joke dude crickets people like oh that's actually not funny and it's kind of offensive what the lady said to me and i was like but everybody at the dojo thought it was hilarious you know and it's like kind of like i guess like it's not the same audience you ain't hurt you ain't hurt sensei i guess that's right man so that's another example of sensei syndrome gone awry it's it's good that you went to stern i guess you know that's one of the benefits you got out of it you have your own set of peers that could you know keep each other in check yeah i don't need that

what was worse was like my first master's with the teaching and education because you're amongst you know 90 of the room is liberal women uh right i mean it's a demographic i'm not going to say anything about that demographic but it's yeah saying like it's you know that's a complication we don't need to touch yes you know like the triggers for our humor are very different right right right you know if you're not a grappler you know and it's different you know a wrestler put each other in a headlock ah you know like hilarious you know it's like different type of you know yeah yeah i mean i wasn't like a sensei back during that time period but right you know coming from the

grappling community to that you know oh let's teach kids english situation very different crowd yeah i mean also you're good you're a successful competitor at the time so maybe you got a bit of an influencer syndrome in that way before the influencers i guess that's right influencer syndrome that's a real thing man yeah yeah you know this i think um i think it's an important issue we talked about um a hope you guys found this helpful. Maybe we have some senseis out there who would listen to this and maybe reflect upon themselves, as I have to, too. I'll tell you this, though.

I like being corrected in sort of a polite way. I've had smart people at the dojo who were like, whatever, right? They're an expert in the field, and it's like, you know, and I've had smart people at the dojo who were like, you know, whatever, right? They're expert in the field and it's like, after the fact, you know, it's like, oh, sensei, by the way, remember that thing you said about, you know, like, oh, so I'm actually in that field and you know, this is what I think about it.

And you know, in like a private setting. Oh. And I appreciate that. Can't let that happen in front of that happen how dare you question my uh jesus i see oh that's good yeah that's one yeah i guess new york new york's a good setting because there's so many different experts that come through. Yeah. Anything else?

No, man. That was fun. We digressed a little, but I think we're trying to, as we get better at this, I think we're going to try to weave in and out of things more naturally. Hope I didn't say anything bad to get me cancelled. I don't think so. I'm kind of that police here.

All right. Thanks for listening, guys. And stay tuned for the next episode.