Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast - I Refuse to Share my Location, AITA?

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

A few months ago, MKBHD producer Harper Makowsky had an idea. What if we did a bonus episode using the "Am I the A$$hole" format from the popular subreddit and made it all about tech? So here we are! Marques, Andrew, and David discuss everything from sharing your location with your partner to using mechanical keyboards. We'll be back later this week with your regularly scheduled episode. P.S - This is our first explicit episode so if you usually listen with children nearby you have been warned! Check out the amazing subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/ Shop the merch: https://shop.mkbhd.com Music provided by: Epidemic Sound Social: Waveform Threads: https://www.threads.net/@waveformpodcast Waveform Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/waveformpodcast/?hl=en Waveform TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@waveformpodcast The Studio: https://www.youtube.com/@UCG7J20LhUeLl6y_Emi7OJrA Hosts: Marques: https://www.threads.net/@mkbhd Andrew: https://www.threads.net/@andrew_manganelli Eric: https://instagram/com/@eric.p.v Rich: https://www.instagram.com/richontrack Adam: https://www.threads.net/@parmesanpapi17 Ellis: https://twitter.com/EllisRovin Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/mkbhd Intro/Outro music by 20syl: https://bit.ly/2S53xlC Waveform is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yeah, what's up, people of the internet. Welcome back to another episode of the Wayform podcast. We're your hosts. I'm Marquez. I'm Andrew. And don't adjust your calendars. It's not actually Friday. This is a bonus episode of the Wayform podcast.

That's how you know it's not Fridays, because you hear that not a regularly scheduled episode, disclaimer. But this is a fun one. We've got a bit of a, not a game, but a fun thing we want to try. And there's too much going on in the regular episode, so we're just going to do this as a bonus. So take it away, Ellis. Yeah, so before we get into it, we got to drop a quick disclaimer because normally week and week out, the waveform production team works hard to make sure this is a family, friendly show with no curses. However, due to the nature of this game, AITH, we will be saying the word a lot.

So get ready. This is the first uncensored episode of the Waveform podcast. All serious, maybe. Can I test that right now? I'm not going to test that. We may end up bleeping everywhere that's not asked. Anyway, more than the story is, if you have a child, listen to the music. If you have a child in the car, if you have a child in the room,

if you have a child anywhere in the vicinity of this playing, plug their ears because it's about to get wild. I'm not wondering if you should bleep that first one because you said the word before you said, tell your child to close their ears. Maybe you should just spell it out. From this point forward. From this point forward.

No kids. No kids. Yeah. I do get emails sometimes about like, I was listening with my kids. I'm like, oh, good to know. We warned you. Good to know. We warned you.

When I came out of the womb, I said from this point forward, no kids. Wow. And so I still don't have kids. Staying true to your word. Could change. Could change. So what's the segment? For those unfamiliar, Am I the Asshole is something that I would assume was started on Reddit.

Maybe it was started on 4chan or something else. But essentially it's this acronym. where you say, am I the asshole if and then you tell a story and then everyone on Reddit goes, hey, you should probably get a divorce. Boy, you didn't laugh when I made that joke earlier today. Holy shit.

That joke was brought to you by David Mell. God damn it. I tweeted that six years ago, dude. Shit. All right. So yeah, the way we're going to do this is we're just going to, Adam and I are going to throw Am I the assholes at our hosts? Tech-related ones.

They needed to be tech related? Well, I'm just making the audience understand. Why don't you say the word tech ones? We're still a tech podcast. Yeah, that's true. Nintendo Switch 2. We're locked in. Some of these will be pulled directly from Reddit.

Some of these will be just influenced or inspired by Reddit posts we saw. And some of them were made up by Adam and I. And some of them were made up by other coworkers. And for the ones that were made up by other coworkers, I will probably end up asking you which one of your coworkers do you think set it? It will not be for points. this is completely exhibition.

I'm going to try it really hard though. I will win this exhibition. This first one, I think many people have thoughts on. It comes directly from me and my own lived experience. Am I, Ellis Rovin, the asshole,

for still using Twitter instead of blue sky? No. No, I don't think so. Why not? what? Just by sheer numbers. I mean,

unless they're calling everyone who still uses Twitter an asshole. Yeah. Oh, interesting. Oh. I'm just kidding. I mean,

I would like a good justification for it, but I would say that Twitter is still the biggest text-only social media platform. It's funny because Twitter would probably hate

that you call them a text-only social media platform because they're really trying to be video and paying for everything. Yeah, they're trying to be everything, but it's like, I guess in the different,

like zones of the social media universe. I feel like there's Twitter, threads, blue sky, all the other text first. I think you're saying that is proof how nostalgic you still are for Twitter. Really? Like old Twitter? I mean, that's what it originally was.

It's just like 140 character SMS text only. I missed the old Twitter. Yeah, that was pretty original. No, Blue Sky, if you have to be on Blue Sky to not be an asshole, then I guess that's the criteria. I want David's response. There are plenty of assholes on Blue Sky, too. Oh, yeah. Sure.

I think the real answer is that there's just no good social media anymore. Like all of it's bad now. Hmm. I don't know. It's hard to be anywhere, post anywhere without. Like, if I go on Twitter because there are links that we send through Slack and whatever, and there's like news updates and stuff, so I have to read that and I've read the comments and all this stuff. And like, man, when they say that that place has turned into like a Nazi porn bar, that's what a lot of it is.

And sometimes I'll watch it. I'll like click on a video on Twitter. And it auto plays the next one and it's just straight porn. So here's what I'll say about Twitter. Why not gay porn? This is really the first uncensored episode. Here's what I'll say about Twitter. I mean, I've kept using, I still use Twitter threads.

I don't really, we post on Facebook, but I don't really use it very much. But Twitter is still the best and worst at some things. It's still the best at current events. happenings right now. When the Super Bowl is happening, when All-Star Weekend was happening, when the Blizzard was happening, it's like that was the what's happening place.

Breds is trying to be that. It's not. It's trying. It's not there yet. But that's what Twitter's still the best at. And it is also the worst at, like, all the worst people are, like if it's the biggest place.

Yeah. Like, there's assholes everywhere, but all the worst people are also on Twitter. So it's, like, the easiest for it to be terrible. There's a lot of like Karens on threads though because they're all from Facebook. That's the thing. They like unloaded a lot of people from Facebook. Yeah, it's hard.

Threads is everyone has too individualized of an algorithm. Like everyone's experience on threads is completely different. The thing that was so amazing about Twitter in the heyday and still does persist in a way on there is that there is a monoculture conversation going on where people are all talking about the same thing when like when the open cloth stuff was happening. You seem to see that at the very tail end somehow. The Open Claw stuff, yeah. It was like my entire timeline for like a week. Yeah. So there is more of a mono conversation,

and I do miss that aspect of a social media platform. Yeah. Yeah. I think Twitter, like good tweets have this, this radioactive and succinct quality that Blue Sky posts just, I haven't found. There are funny people on Blue Sky. Can I read you a tweet that I saw this morning that is still in my brain?

Is it a tweet or skeet? It's a tweet. Okay. It's from at rich decibels. SF guy eating a delicious blueberry, colon. In 18 months, everything will be blueberries. Like, that's good. That's not on blue sky.

Twitter is just San Francisco as well. That's the other thing. Everyone that posts on Twitter thinks that the entire world is San Francisco. I do think we are all in tech Twitter. And so that is the specific. you know, monoculture we see. I think if you're not in the tech world, your Twitter pod looks different than us. Unfortunately, tech Twitter is probably way too close to a lot of other Twitters that are really

sad. And that's, I don't think you're an asshole for using Twitter. I'm just way happier not using Twitter. Every time I go on it because like David said, we're trying to figure out what to like talk about on the pod, I'm 10 minutes and I'm just like, I'm so bummed out right now. And there was maybe one funny tweet like that in there in the process of me getting really bummed. Damn.

Well, it seems like we have two, yes, you are the asshole. One, no, I'm not the asshole. You'd be a happier asshole without you. Meaning, I am the asshole. Yeah. I do wish Blue Sky had that juice, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. We're all just, is this the only thing,

Marquez is nostalgic over? No, backyard baseball. Backer Baseball for sure. I mean, that's my question. I guess like I will negate everything I've ever said in my life for backyard I know I was like on nostalgia for a while but backyard baseball is worried that. All right. Here's another sticky one.

Sure. Am I the asshole for switching to Android in an iOS family or friend group? And I feel like those are two separate answers. No. No. Depends on, okay. Depends. Depends.

Everyone should be using third party messages. platforms anyway. But they're not. Well, actually, in a perfect world, RCS would actually work. Yeah. I texted David Pierce this morning, who recently switched to an Android phone, and none of them got delivered, and it said not delivered. And it said RCS next to it.

Because the iPhone was still swiping those messages. And then I messaged him on signal, and I said, hey, did you get any of that? And he said, no. And I said, when did you switch to your Android phone? He said, a week ago. So the fact that it still hasn't fixed itself, like, this is the problem. And it just keeps bringing you back. But I would say, absolutely not.

Freedom. So the reason I say it depends is if your family has a family group chat in like, if they like actively depend on it and use features from it, like FaceTimes or like I message stuff all the time, then that would feel worse. You know what I mean? Like I could still join a FaceTime for my Android phone, but breaking up the, you know, the family.

And especially now with Apple, the Apple One family plans, friends do not share ICloud storage, but families often do now. Yeah. But then I guess you'd also be freeing up ICloud storage for your... Yeah, you'd be on your own Google Photos life. Like I have an ICloud family plan with people who are just my friends. Yeah, but don't tell the world that you... I don't know, we're still siblings on YouTube TV or premium. I would say that the analogy that I would make is Shell creating the whole carbon footprint

thing to make individuals feel bad about their carbon footprint, whereas Apple is creating the problem to make individuals feel bad about switching to Android. So it's Apple's fault. Apple's the asshole, not anyone who changed over. That's a great take. Apple is the asshole. I like that take. I've just never encountered an issue with this ever.

Maybe because I've always just been on Android. maybe because I have a bunch of family who's on Android. I've just never had a person text me and be like, why are you on Android? Or ever. A friend never once. It's a one-way door. And maybe they're saying it behind my back and they're super nice to me,

but I just have such a hard time believing there's all this bullying going on. If you like switch to an iPhone, you'll see like this whole world of group chats that you're never in. It's like putting on the colorblind glasses for the first time and I'm like, oh my God, blue. I switch all the time.

and at one point when I switched from iPhone to Android, just had to make a brand new group chat with me and my family, and she titled it, Adam no longer has an iPhone. Well, hold on. It was just if you switch once, you switch every three months, you're there.

Yeah, but Adam keeps his iMessage off, though. Yeah, so the expectation is that he's never been on IMessage. Really, that's effort. I know that there's all this data that says that IMessage is not the only thing that keeps people on there. I'm pretty sure it's iMessage.

It's the main thing. It's the only reason why I'm still on an iPhone. While we're talking about Apple stuff, am I the asshole? I pay for the ICloud storage for my family, and we keep running out of space. Am I the asshole for telling my family to delete photos and videos, but I don't. No.

You're paying for all of it. You're paying for it. You're too nice. If you're going out to a restaurant and you're paying, there's a certain amount that people are allowed to order before. That's such a good point. This is me like, I got dinner tonight and then your mom's like A5 wagg you. Chill mom.

You're getting a roasted chicken at best, no drink. You're not an asshole. You're a saint. Yeah, you're paying. Well, this hypothetical. It is an awkward. It's an awkward conversation to have, though. It is.

Or like, could everyone toss me a couple bucks for this thing none of you even really knows is the real thing because photos are just getting saved to it now? Yeah. If you are in that specific situation, you have every right to ask the people participating to chip in so that they don't have to delete stuff. But if they're not going to chip in and you're the one paying, you're not the asshole. You tell them to delete some stuff. 100%. I agree. 100%. Okay, nice. Not the asshole. This one's inspired by a Reddit post. Am I the asshole for bringing my Xbox on my honeymoon? Divorce. Dependent on the person. I don't want to get into the specifics of this person's relationship that they follow. in the post so just take this as abstract

as you can. This is a person that would bring their Xbox on their hunting. They wrote so much stuff. What game were they playing? If you're like if you're married to this guy shouldn't you know how much he likes playing? I don't know. Wait, this is so bad. We can't

do this. I want to try and turn this into how do we make it okay to bring the Xbox on the honeymoon? If you have boundaries on when you're allowed. I assume there's some issue that they will have with the amount of time

that will be spent playing the Xbox versus doing other honeymoon. Yeah, just bring your steam deck, man. It's way easier. It's the portable Xbox to R-O-G-A-Ly. You got to get one of those things. The RG ally Xbox. R-G-X-L-I-X.

Yeah. Is it like, does he not sleep that much and maybe he's like, oh, I want to play some Xbox, why she sleeps a full eight hours and relax and I'm a four-hour sleeper. Sounds like you're speaking from experience here. No, dude, no.

I don't think my honeymoon had a TV in the hotel room. I do play Dodo with a guy in Egypt who just had a kid, and he plays with me when his wife goes to bed. That's fine. But did anyone see the clip of the guy who brought his Xbox to the labor and delivery room? And he's, like, getting handed the baby, and he like takes his headset.

No one? That's not a parody. It has to be parody. It has to be parody, right? Otherwise, that's an addiction. That's crazy. I don't know. How long is your honey?

How long is the honeymoon? So people go out really long honey. That's true. That's true. But I'm trying here because it's so obviously the asshole. I'm trying to give him. What if he has like a weekly meetup with like his brothers? He's got a raise.

It's your honeymoor. He's playing wow. That? But if he's playing wow and he's got a raid. He's the core. He could be the guild leader. Oh wait. It's Xbox.

Everyone changes their mind. I think he's got to be able to find a way to. How about communication? Let's start there. If you're marrying anyone other than Princess Peach or Cortana, you don't need video games on your honeymoon. Unless you're both playing,

which then you need to bring two Xbox. Oh yeah, bring a controller. Bring an extra controller. How many clothes are you leaving behind to pack that? That's a lot. It's a lot of... It's the Arrgeus R-R-G Xbox Ally X. All the Xboxes are pretty big.

The S, the series X, Xbox Series S is small. But that controller, power cables, audio video cables, headset. Yeah. Power adapter. There's a few exceptions, but you're the asshole. Probably not the coolest move to bring.

Yeah, I wouldn't. What if she loves playing the game with you? That's different. I don't think this would be in Reddit if that was clear. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. No, PlayStation. Totally cool.

Also, I just don't think people on the internet should just be speculating about each other's relationships. This one is. This one is straight from Reddit. And I'm going to read this one all the way through because this one is, Am I the asshole for connecting to the AirPods after that my niece swallowed to see if it would play in her stomach? When my three-year-old niece swallowed my sister's left AirPods, everyone started worrying right away. I was trying to lighten the situation. So I connected the AirPods to my phone and put my ear on her stomach to check if I can.

can hear it. Surprisingly, I actually did hear a little sound coming from inside her, which made the moment a bit funny to me. The people around us did not find it amusing. They all looked to me like I wasn't taking things seriously at all. I don't think you should have done that, yeah. No, that's really funny. Like, I get the invasive thought, the intrusive thought. I get that completely, but the problem was already that she swallowed a giant piece of plastic. With a battery in it. And like, you just don't know what it's going to do if you play music through it while someone has it in their stuff, especially a young.

You also, if you're just trying to lighten the mood for the kid who's potentially scared, you can just pretend you heard music. You can be like, oh, let me see if there's music playing and just you don't have to go through the whole process. Counterpoint. Connecting to it. I understand the invasive thought, though. Counterpoint.

Okay. This was a purely utilitarian. based decision. Someone has to have it in their fine my. Just in case you can't find it. What? It's already, it's the guy's AirPod already. Well, it's his girlfriend or wife's airplane.

It doesn't matter. What do you mean? They know she swallowed it or they think she swallowed it? It seems like they know she seemed like they do. Was this to confirm that she swallowed it or they're like she definitely. They already were already worried. It seems like you know it would be really funny. While all of them are like, what should we do?

He was like, I should play. music. I thought it was like, I think she swallowed the AirPods and they were like, oh my God, did she swallow the iPod? And he connected to it. That's fair. Yeah.

Totally fair. It's definitely there. Or if it was like, did they know already? Have you seen that? Maybe it's not utility anymore. Do you see I see that like TikTok, Instagram real short from video thing that was like that music for like funk for frogs with all the like, wampo, want, want, nope. No.

Okay. Someone knows what I'm talking about and they know that that's the only appropriate song to play in someone's like. Oh, God. I've seen a lot. It just sounds like David Blaine's stomach. Yeah. I feel like if he has the time to do all of that,

they couldn't have all been that worried of the situation or they would have already been driving her to the hospital, no? Yeah, I don't know how worried you have to be about their pod. They're probably all searching what to do. Well, it's like, should we wait for it to come out or do we have to take her? If Wayne swallows an AirPods, I'm going to the hospital. Yeah. Yeah.

so I don't know. And listen, I understand in America that might automatically mean a bill that's literally like terrifying. So maybe that's different. I would go to urgent care and get an opinion.

Okay, that'll be like $5,000. No, it wouldn't. Yeah. I'd probably let the situation. I would confirm everything safe before I start screwing around like that. Yeah. How do you even confirm that?

A doctor. A doctor. I would wait until I just the doctor tells me wait. Yes. Yeah, yeah, okay. I think you meant like while they're there trying to figure it out, you would confirm. And then the doctor's like, are you sure she swallowed it?

And he's like, yeah, listen, listen, listen. It's here? Yeah, that's definitely in there. Oh, one now. I'm sick for me. Yeah. All right. All right.

So are we agreeing he's probably the answer? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. At first. It was a poor move. I understand the intrus of thought. I do. Just in poor taste. If it was like a fake scenario with like a fake daughter, then yeah, I'd do it.

But if it was a real daughter. No, fair enough. I'm going to be a good guy. All right. This one comes from someone in the studio. You guys can guess who after this? Rich. After this.

Am I the asshole for correcting someone who said their phone has 256 gigs of RAM? Something I would do. Yeah, this seems to argue it instantaneously. Honestly, in this studio. I have my storage kind of has RAM though. If the context, okay, first the am I an asshole part. Not really. It's probably harmless that the person doesn't know the difference between storage and RAM.

As long as you didn't say it like an asshole. Yeah, that's what we find. It's just kind of a well-actually person. Nobody really likes. That's probably fine. People probably don't understand that everyone who works here isn't like a megaphone nerd. Like there are a lot of talented people here who don't do what, yeah. They said RAM.

They're right there. They're so close. I think in us telling each other when a mistake like that happens is beneficial. so we don't. I mean, we're a company that talks about tech a lot. So, yeah, say nicely. I think everyone in here knows how to say things nicely. Well, technically it is like swap memories.

Okay, what if it wasn't here? What if it was just like out and about in life? Oh. And like some random person was like, yeah, my phone. I think it was 2506 gigs of RAM. And you were like memory. I would just be like storage. I'm the asshole because I don't care enough to correct them.

Yeah, I don't know. here's the follow-up is like I think you're right it's like I understand what if someone uses the word memory when they mean storage you know there is I was thinking about that I think I don't think this computer exists but I think there at some point was a Mac studio or something where you could genuinely get either 256 gigs of storage or 256 gigs of RAM wait right isn't the Mac studio you can get like I think the minimum storage that Half a terabyte maybe. And can you also get half a terabyte of memory? But it's not, so you could genuinely. Or, right?

Well, you could get both. Oh, you could get both. But it's like, you could say it to the person and they could be like, are you sure you mean memory or storage? And that is the one computer where it actually matters. Yeah. Otherwise, it kind of doesn't usually matter. You would know that. Yeah, I don't know.

It's kind of a random one-off situation. The whole thing of like calling storage memory irks me so much, but I know that's because I'm a turd. and like I should not go correcting people like that. But there have been, I've seen Walmart like plaques in front of laptops that say like 256 gigs of memory. And it's like that's just wrong. So I guess it's a reasonable mistake to make. It's fine. I'm never correcting someone in public.

Wasn't there like a colloquial tech spec on phones that everyone used to call some spec and then it wasn't technically correct? But everyone would get upset. Is that the X-O mark? No. It was like there was some spec that we. We called it like a one-inch sensor or something? How it's not really one-inch? It wasn't that.

It was like, yeah, maybe we should just cut this. I don't remember what it is, but I just remember someone getting mad at me in the injured authority comments being like, it's not that. And I was like, yeah, but everyone calls it that. Yeah, I was going to say that that's the other thing is, are online people correcting us assholes? Not really, because you expect us to get it right and it's important.

But if it's just a random person out there, not that important. I yeah okay who in the office someone in the office corrected someone outside of the office about this came from someone in the office okay they don't specify who they corrected or anything like it's just this was anything that happened and hypothetically yeah I just kind of think it makes you a well actually kind of person the best kind of person like that person probably doesn't even know what RAM is well actually they do know what RAM is who no I'm joking oh it was Miles miles miles doesn't know where Ram is he's a he is a he's a he's a next It's 6p. Does need RAM. Where we're going, we don't need RAM. I'm going to say, kind of.

Yeah, kind of. For saying it? For just, for correcting. For being the well actually guy that nobody wants to be around. What if they're telling you, like, I'm about to go buy this thing? Then I would correct them. Then I would make sure they know. That's a good point.

This is like when my sister, like, texted me that she bought a Mac Mini, and I was like, oh, you know you can buy the higher storage one for the same price for the next week, right? You should return it and bring it back. She's like, no, I'm good. I was like, what? Oh, no. She's like, what am I going to use the storage for? I was like, it doesn't matter.

I don't know. She's like, I just go on websites. I was like, oh, my God. I guess she's fine. I guess she's fine. This is also funny because this gets kind of close to my, am I an asshole, but not exactly. Well, that's a great segue. Should I just do mine?

Yeah, do yours. All right, I brought one. All right. Am I an asshole? Am I the asshole? Tech edition. Okay. Okay.

So you know how when people are out and like hanging around socializing, just randomly having conversations? Outside. Never done that. Outside sometimes. Yeah. They'll touch grass and they'll be like, hey, I wonder like, why is the grass like this? Or like, you ever wonder this random thing?

And they'll just bring up a random fact. You ever know? And then that will be like the fodder of the conversation for like five minutes. Yeah. Every single time. just look at it. I take out my phone and I look up the answer. Yeah. Because I feel like our conversation should be about the answer instead of just kind of wandering around.

And I always wonder like, am I the asshole for that? No. No. No, no, no. I know you want to just have a conversation. This is meaningless. You don't care what the answer is. But wouldn't it be better if we have to hear you? This isn't Joe Rogan. We can get straight to the point. No, I hear you. You know, I literally have had friends be like, we don't need to look it up. We We just need to bathe in the magic of wondering. I think it depends on the conversation. But we have unlimited information.

We live in 2006. We can just say it into the air and the answer will appear. I understand the value of having this like maybe, maybe conversation. And maybe you can give that like two minutes. I was going to say, you should personally set a timer. But if you just go, what does everyone think it is? That's actually usually how it goes. Everyone will go like, man, how tall do you think that giraffe is?

Is that, like, tall for a giraffe? And before you've even finished thinking about it, I've Googled the average height of a giraffe. Because what good is the rest of our conversation if there's no basis in reality? Oh, man, dude. You know? You can tell me if I'm the asshole. I want to know.

I'm trying to ask you. I can't, I don't want to say to you that's all because I do the exact same thing. That's a thing. But I, it is kind of an asshole. We can vote the assholes. You. That's. The way you describe it is like, what is the value in continuing to talk?

I'm just imagining Marquette's like, I don't know, that's average for draft, and then everyone just sits there quiet and looks at each other. He's like, yeah, we all know it. This is exactly how the Suno CEO came up with that. People actually like making music. If you could just generate music, wouldn't you just do that? Yeah, musicians famously hate making music. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think people just like having conversations and, like, speculating randomly. Yes. But if there's like a real answer, I just, I don't think it detracts from the conversation. We could just like pivot the conversation a little. You can just stand in the corner with the knowledge and let them kind of do it.

I try sometimes. I try. I'm imagining Marquez at bar trivia. How is anyone getting this wrong? I can type this so easy. I wouldn't do this at bar trivia. I do like the idea of Marquez looking up the answer and then just keeping it to himself. I don't know.

They don't know. They don't know. I already know. I recently did that and then I waited to the end of the conversation and then I just spit out the answer. Nobody cared. It wasn't valuable. Honestly, because I would, that makes you the asshole. Just being like, in case anyone's wondering.

I let you peasants run in your frivolous little circles. You know how they say that the argument's never about the dishes? The conversation's never about the answer. That's exactly. It's just about the connection. It just depends also like if you're in the middle of a conversation about, I don't know, philosophy or something. And then someone's trying to quote this one philosopher, but they can't quite remember the name. But that's not like important to the point.

I think it makes you to asshole to really quickly Google that philosopher and be like, well, actually, to your point, it was this person. But I, but continue. Right. You know, like that. Yeah, it's about the broader conversation. But if it's just like who is that guy that said this thing, then yeah, just. It'll usually be a conversation. where the conversation is guessing about a fact.

Like, how far away do you think that mountain is? It looks like it's so far away, and I'm already on Google Maps. It's not like we were going to have the conversation of being like, well, it's super tall, but like usually buildings look really tall when they're like far away, but when it looks like the size of the entire state building, like they were going to have this whole conversation and I sort of just, we could skip the whole talking. thing we can just move on.

Double tapped on the right side of the screen. Yeah, I just fast forward. I feel like Marquez is arguing for us to call him an asshole. I like this one because it's so nuanced. This is so good. The problem is I do this too. So if you guys decide that it's an asshole thing. I do this too.

I think you're aware enough that makes you not the asshole. I just can't stop. It sounds like you're going to search no matter what. You want to know the answer. It sounds like you are aware enough in the conversations to know when to bring it up, which in itself, as being polite enough for everybody. Sure, yeah.

But now anytime we're talking, if I see Marquez just looking like he's gonna like, do you know the meme where the guy's like veins popping out of his head? Yeah, that's Marquez with the answer. I have an extension of this that I realize that I'm kind of an asshole for doing, but I want your guys' opinion. Okay. Okay, so it's when like one of my friends says something,

and I just don't think it's true. And I immediately look it up. And I'm not like, I do this all. the time. I'm like, I don't really think that's... I literally did this to you on the podcast this morning. When you said, I was using Final Cut 7. That's different. I was trying to be fact-trial.

I was trying to be... Sure, that was for trivia, but just prove that. Yeah, I just did it. No, and so, like, I've had, they will mock me now. Every time I'm like, every time I'm like, they're like, I don't think that's quite right. It's complicated. You got to, like, bring it up tactfully, you know? I'm like, I'm sorry.

But if you don't do it in that moment, then when it's eating away at you later, it's way worse to call them at 9 p.m. And be like, you were wrong about this and just hang the phone up. It's like here's my version of this is like when someone you know post something on social media that you know is factually inaccurate or worse, miss slash disinformation. I would text them and say this is wrong. Because someone I know did that. And they posted something on their story that was like so obviously like that person did not say that. And I wasn't like. I haven't posted it a while so I think I'm okay.

Yeah. It wasn't anyone in this room. Okay. But it was someone who works here. Oh. On social media, if I like really like them and know it was probably by accident, I'll throw a message. If I know it's probably misinformation, I probably just unfriend them because I'm so tired of that on social media at this point. always at least bring it up.

I did not. So I guess that makes, I thought I was not being the asshole by not bringing it up. But it sounds like I was the ass. That sounds like there's so much nuance to it. Yeah, there wasn't nuance. Yeah. Yeah. And the relationship with the person, yeah.

It's, do you think that the misquote was like, you don't think it was intentional? I know it wasn't intentional because the commentary about the quote was like, can you believe this person said this? To which I was like, no. They did. I cannot believe that this. And then. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, you know. I'd bring it up to them. I think facts are important, so, you know, that's why I tend to Google things way too soon. Stayed in the corner, let people talk. Well, I think on that note, it begs the question, am I the asshole for taking us to a quick ad break and letting every known know that we'll be right back? I'm going to have to look that up. Nah.

Well, while you look that up, here's a word from our sponsors read by us or maybe someone else. All right, well, we're back. Welcome back to, all right, I'm not doing that voice. This one comes from blank in the studio, so you guys have to guess who it is. But I just find it funny. Am I the asshole for saying nice to e-meat you? Yes. John-O.

I don't think John would do that. No? I was like Eric. I bet that was Eric. Nice to E. That's my least favorite. Is this rich? No, no.

This person, sorry. This person is asking if they're the asshole for him. hating people who say nice to leave. Oh, no. No, I hate everyone who says that. Yeah. If I see the email and it says that, I delete it immediately. I don't go that far, but it's immediate sour taste.

And I almost assume they do not care about the email. Yeah, like, who are you, Vince Surf? Like, did you just receive the first email ever? I swear to God. Is that, do you guys see it differently as the opening email to you that says it? Or when someone gets added to an email where a conversation's been going on and the other person, like, feels kind of awkward coming into the conversation. They're like, oh, hey, nice to meet you. Just say meet.

I don't care. Yeah, it's just meet. I feel like is fine. Meet or just like be introduced. Yeah. I had like an in-person version of this recently. So fun fact, when we went and shot the Rivian R2, we went up to California, me and Miles. And there was a couple of other YouTubers was there.

Went up and said, hey, Doug, good to see you. He said, nice to meet you. I was like, we haven't met. You guys have never met in real? And I, in that moment, realized we'd never met. And I, I do this to other people all the time where I'll go, hi, good to meet you. And I'll go, good to see you again. And I'll go, shit.

Well, it's because good to see you. You're the assholes. Yeah. So I don't know if you've met. Exactly. So I've just erased nice to meet you. And I never say nice to meet you ever to anyone. I just say good to see you.

That's a strong move. That's the strong move. It's the power move. Yeah. Yeah. So nice to e meet you is kind of weird. I often say it's great to finally meet in real life. Or just nice to finally meet you is like a.

We, like, yeah. I'm surprised I haven't met you. What if we met already? And you don't remember. Then I'm an asshole. What if you already e-met them, but not, you know, not IRL meat? Yeah. Yeah.

There's obviously a difference, but you don't have to say e-meat. That's my. I'm not mad if someone says it, but I'm not like. I don't like it. Yeah. It's whatever. Farmers e-meat.com. I prefer saying, thank you for gracing my digital sanctum.

Jesus. That's, never mind. Say, e-meet. Please say EMEA. No, EMEA is awful. Do you want to guess who is so pissed off

by the phrase nice to EMEE that they felt the need to Maria? I would guess that that point is Jono because he just has the most emails. It's not Johnno and it's not

Mariah. I don't think Mariah gets that pissed off about anything. Nice to email you. I feel like almost everyone would hate that. Did Eric hate that?

I could see Eric doing the like some of Seinfeld joke about it at lunch. Is it Vin? It feels very obvious to me but it's because I know the answer.

No. Who gets emails? Harper. No. Wow. Who's love? Who hated that? Michael?

No. Nice to meet you? I wish it was Marquez saying this. Tim. Tim. I see you. I could see that. Tim and I get annoyed at the same thing.

Everyone email Tim and just say hi. I guess the E meet you. Tim and I'm going to slack him that later. Here's another one from inside the house. That was bad. That was a bad job. It's coming from inside that. That was so bad.

Would I be the asshole for checking my phone while watching a movie at home with someone without getting a notification first? Yeah. Okay. So. You're at home. Yeah. You're at home. You're just checking just checking just to see.

You're just checking because phantom limbs are. Describe checking. Describe checking. Just like unlocking locking. This person is. Because everybody mentioned you are not scrolling. You're just addicted. You are unlocking.

Yeah. You're unlocking. See no notifications. Turned it off. Put a face down again. Sure. I don't think it makes you an asshole. because it's like we've been accustomed.

We're just a modern human. Yeah. You're checking the extension of your body. Aren't all modern humans assholes? We're just alive in 2026. I mean, everyone like unlocks their phone, unlocks it, being like, what the heck am I doing all the time? So I don't think that that makes you an ass.

I think the fact that during a movie, you put the phone down and went, am I an asshole? I think that's enough that you're not an asshole. Looking up something, awareness is key in a lot of these. I don't know, like just using an app separately from the movie. I think you're kind of an asshole. I think you're not the asshole, but I think if you're thinking about it, you've realized that like, man, I need to work on my phone behavior. I'm willing to die on this hill.

I don't think you can pull your phone out, even for one second, even for one frame of a movie and still say you watch the movie. There's not a sing. I think the movie should be better and I shouldn't want to pull my phone out. If you're watching a movie. There's no slow parts of movies. I'm not saying you can't like blink. No, but it's, dude, the amount of times I've been like, y'all, I'm really excited to show you this movie. And someone pulls their phone out for two seconds.

And there's just, there's not a single two seconds that I would say like, yeah, you could miss those two. You know, so that nothing, man. It's like when I'm having a conversation with someone and they just start texting someone. And I'm like, damn. Oh, I do that all the time. I know. We're all cooked with these. Oh, yeah.

Oh, so I'm totally watching this movie. Yeah, well, if you tell someone to watch a movie, but they're wearing their meta-Oryan smart glasses. Should we do that next? Because that's also, wait, real quick. So you are an asshole for pulling your phone out. I'm overriding you. Am I an asshole for, for any reason during the movie?

Am I an asshole for owning meta display, smart glasses? Yes. If we're at your house and we're watching a movie that you wanted to watch, you can pull out your phone and do it all the time. But if I'm watching a movie. I will say movie theater, dark, tons of other people. people don't pull your phone out at all. Like even just the real quick look at it is like a flashbang going off, I feel like.

Don't say life hack, which last time I said life hack, someone put it in a clip and said, David's top productivity apps, which is insane, because I'm not a productive person. And it was literally making my bed in the morning. They turned into a YouTube clip for some reason. Anyway. When you were like, I feel so much better to have your bed made. Yeah. And then someone made a YouTube short.

That's actually something that takes more. activity hack. It's not a... Anyway, I think people should be... should use Do Not Disturb way more than they do currently. I am so liberal with that

Do Not Disturb button. As soon as I start watching a movie with a friend, do not disturb. Yeah, these phones over here, do not disturb. Go to dinner, do not disturb. I saw a screenshot on Twitter of someone who in their email signature, like the automatically generated email signature,

it said, I only respond to emails on Tuesdays between 7 and 8 and 3. Thursdays between 7 and 8 p.m. Which was like... That's great. It looks like I'm not emailing that person. That's sick. I could never do that, but that's sick as hell to just be like, listen, you're going to hear from me. Like, I'm outside of your house trying to deliver this package.

Where are you? Sorry, I'll just email. Just email. I like that because if you don't, then you know, okay, I sent this email. Oh, it's Tuesday at 9 o'clock now. I ain't get an email back. You've lost already. That's a good policy for someone who doesn't get that.

that many emails. I'll say. But Marquez, you did bring up a good thing. So I want to talk about VR headset usage because so many of these VR. So many of these things got past, or AR, XR?

I'm talking about the glasses or the headset? Talk about the headset. The headset. Okay. Someone in the office asked. Vision Pro on the airplane. Would you be the, yeah, would you be the asshole for end of the day

bed scroll with your partner doing it in a vision? Yes. This is, that's, It's just like the Apple ad where they're just like watching the movie on the Vision Pro together. Well, is your mouth open or closed when you're doing this? Hey, hey, but you're in bed with your partner.

You want to watch something there asleep inside of it? No, no, that's not the best. You said bed scroll. That's true. Yeah, I think it sort of imply that it's a, that your partner's awake. It's a group activity. Oh, okay. I was going to say, because there's so many times I'm watching TV while Claire falls asleep.

And in that scenario, the TV is on and the whole room is bright because I'm watching the TV. So using a VR headset might be the more polite way of doing it. I've seen that argument. Unless she wakes up and sees me in a VR headset and then it scares the ever-living piss out of her. I've also seen the argument of, well, if you're like late night gaming or like doing or watching a movie, for example. You're on your honeymoon. Your partner's trying to sleep, but you want to watch a movie, you have the headset on and the headphones on so that you're not waking up the person sleeping.

That is the opposite of being an asshole. It's pretty courteous of you to put a headset on. Yeah, but it's still creepy. But what you're describing, which is a group activity, the late about to go to sleep scroll, where you show them something and you're like, laugh, laugh.

Then I think you have to take the headset off. You can't share that with them. Unless you have, what's the feature where they can see the same thing? Share spaces. Unless you're doing that, then you're a really moderate. I don't think anyone has ever done that outside of the Apple campus. I do once a year for the briefing. Yeah, for the briefing.

And I'm like, oh, we can play chess in Vision Pro. And then I'm like, I play chess in real life. A lot of these relationship ones can usually be done with just talk to your partner before you do the thing. It's probably way easier. Or before you do the thing, yeah. I have one that's inspired by our very own Ellis. So Ellis, you cannot partake in this one. Okay.

My packages keep getting stolen from my apartment, so I installed a ring camera. My neighbor then complained that he doesn't feel comfortable because it's pointed right at his front door, but I refuse to remove it. Am I the asshole? Yes. No. Isn't Ellis saying this from the position of his neighbor? What? No, I wrote this.

Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. I'm saying it's inspired by Ellis's story he told a couple weeks ago. Okay. What I'm the thing is, even though this literally happened to me, like I am literally that guy, was that guy. That neighbor no longer is my neighbor.

but so none of my current neighbors ever better put up a ring camera because it'll happen to you too you'll also be a former neighbor but um but uh I'm not even sure that they're the asshole you know I think if the explicit problem

was their packages keep getting stolen then that is a valid attempt at dissuading or solving or getting a that's like the best way to like get a picture of the person It's pointed at your door it happens to also like an apartment in my situation

it's a like where it's sort of like the corner of a hallway. And so there's two doors perpendicular to one another. So their doorbell being like on their door. Faces right at your door. Faces right at my door. I am realizing this moment they could have gotten one of the angled holers. So it goes across their door perpendicular and then we'll look at a wall. So maybe.

Yeah, but what's it going to stop if it looks at a wall? Yes. What's a ring camera going to stop? Or not stop, you're going to see who's stealing it. Yeah. But you know there's a 50% chance they think you're stealing the package. Right. Look at me.

I mean, it does kind of sound like, hey, they take out your ring cam. But first of all, I just want to say, there's proof at how ridiculous all this is. They still got all of their mail stolen with the ring cameras.

But now they have a photo of the person. I know the guy was like, like, no one would ever commit a crime when those cameras everywhere. A plus. That was my dumb guy accent. Yeah. Sounds very New York.

I think that if I was, if I was that in that neighborhood, shoes and I was like, dang, my packages keep getting stolen. And I don't, I'm going to keep getting packages. What is the most productive thing that I can do in this case? I can't, like, prevent the packages from being stolen if they keep getting delivered. But I can get a literal photo of the person who's stealing the packages and then maybe get that to the police or something.

Like, I can do, I can do something here with a ring camera. I was that a trap. But then if your neighbor comes, okay, Mark Rober. But then if your neighbor comes and says, like, hey, this bothers me. Then he could be like, hey, neighbor. I understand this bothers you. What's been bothering me is all my packages getting stolen. So maybe we could collaborate here on like a solution that works for both of us.

Man, I know you said I'm not allowed to chime in. And I'm not really bad because I, no, I. Yeah. It's like, it's just mine. You can put a ring camera, you know, facing not my, like there is a, there is a way. That's a good collab. I should have, I should have proposed that. That was on me.

Also, I live in the same building. and I just don't ship stuff there. Yeah. I was going to say... Not everyone has that benefit of being able to get it to their work or something like that. Depends on what you order.

There's ways to figure this out. Yeah, yeah. If that guy was stealing that person's... This guy definitely thinks he was stealing the package. I really hope these neighbors, these former neighbors, who were really, really great neighbors, don't hear this. If I had my packages stolen,

put up a ring camera, and immediately my neighbor was like, you take that camera down. I would be like, oh my God, I know who's doing it now. I'm definitely losing it up. Yeah. I'd be like, oh, it's a fake camera. And then it'd be on and then I'd watch Ellis steal my packages. That's what he's probably hoping.

He's probably shocked when it wasn't Ellis stealing the packages. It's a tough one. I think also in a situation where you're living in like an apartment complex or whatever, where doors are so close, it's like it's tough to figure stuff out like that. But I still wouldn't. I still, even though. I was the one aggrieved by the situation, I still would not say you're the asshole for doing that. Maybe it's just because I like these people.

But, um... Oh, backtrack now. You're just threatening them 10 minutes ago. We just know that they're not... Listen, I love them. All their packages were great. I didn't steal any packages. If it's all about intent, then I would say the intent is, is not bad.

They're not an asshole. Oh, this is the asshole. I can throw mine out if we're already. for another one. I had a hard time thinking of mine because I think I'm extremely unconfrontational, so I'd rather just not be the asshole. Sometimes not being the asshole makes you the asshole. Well, probably.

I also say I can't think of anybody, but that doesn't mean that no one else can think of one. Because Marquez thought of one immediately, which is I don't. I think people in this room will agree with me I'm not the asshole, but I think the reason they'll agree with me probably makes me more of an asshole. and I'll explain that in a second. Marquez said, well, you do use a mechanical keyboard inside the studio with other people who work here. You're the asshole.

A lot of people online call me the asshole for that. I think the reason you guys might not is because I've probably convinced all of you guys to also use mechanical keyboards in the studio, which makes me a bigger asshole because now lots of people use mechanical keyboards. There's no such thing as silence in this studio. There's already enough sound pollution all the time that it just kind of fades into the background. It's true.

There's like a din of the studio. now of like the HVax and mechanical keyboards and the dog footprints or whatever the pitter-patter. It's just kind of like always a little bit of no. There are only like five of us. It was like, you're really quiet sometimes. You'd be like, you know, doing this on your desk. And I'd just be like typing and be like, nobody's talking. It's super weird.

I can't talk to Adam. Yeah. You would just text me like, what do you think they're thinking about? You can know when someone's really in the zone too because it's just, yeah. I'm picturing, what's that Apple TV show, Severance? You know, like a workspace like that where it's like just stark and like one person has a mechanical keyboard?

That would be pretty bad. That would feel like you're making too much noise. So I am not the asshole because I gave you all enough keyboards to make it not solely my fault anymore. You helped increase the noise floor enough that you didn't, you weren't such an outlier anymore. So it's, yeah, you're not the asshole. Yeah. I have a feeling out of everything we've, talked about in the comments I'm going to get shit on the most right now people

really get all the studio videos we've made about mechanical keyboards is a lot of people being really mad at me for even thinking about using one in the office it's very satisfying that's like the see every hobby has this it's like people who like loud cars it's like well all your neighbors hate you but if all your neighbors had loud cars you'd all be chill the thing about a loud car because I am one of those neighbors that hates loud cars is don't it's the time of day if it's 2 p.m. I'm running to the window to see what car it is. Sure.

If it's 2 a.m., you're an asshole. Yeah, that's valid. That's valid. Hot take, that's how I feel about people who play music out of speakers on the subway. They're all, oh, what? People are like, oh, like, it's so disruptive. It's sort of like. Not if it's a bang.

I'm like, yeah, do you hate music? Yeah. Like, what is wrong with you? What about? Is it 100% asshole if you're the music on speakers on a hike guy? Yes. I was ready for that. Oh, that's 100%.

Especially in, like, a national park that's like. you're probably spending a lot of money to vacation there. It's like if for the serene sounds and then there's just creed playing like in the distance, you know. My like favorite part about national parks is how many times you can be in a scenario where like, I don't think anyone's within miles of me. And then, yeah, if it hits the switchback coming up, it's just a shitty music. It's not like I want to hear the subway, you know, like. Am I the asshole for intervie?

interrupting you to take us to another ad break. Oh. No, I think that means you're writing. Trivia. Misinput. Misfire. We'll be back after these messages. All right, welcome back.

I have one that has plagued people for generations. Probably only one generation because that's about how the technology is. Okay. Location sharing. This is a very widely debated topic. This is. If you don't want to share your location with your partner, and they really want you to.

Does that make you an asshole? The simple question is why? That is the only question. I mean, for me... You're saying why do you not want to share? No, why do they want it so badly? Interesting. Well, maybe that's just me asking that.

But here's the crazy thing is like, the reason I don't like sharing my location really with anybody is just because I just don't think anyone has the right to have my location ever, just as a principal's thing. Except that he Google? Well, that's what I wanted to ask. Is, is, Sergey Brin, you know I am at any time. Come on, Sergey.

Hit me with your drone. Reasoning is like giving apps the approval to like track your look at, which I guess they kind of are. Apps are not a person. I just don't like the idea of, like find mine, like find friends or whatever. I don't, yeah, because there have been scenarios before where someone, I like the plausible deniability, you know. Don't use that as your reasoning. That's not my reason. That isn't my reason.

But I just want to keep the option there. No, that isn't my reason. But just imagine, I mean, there's a lot of reasons, okay? I just don't like anyone being able to just, like, open their phone and be like, oh, David is right here, right now. There's, yeah. I just don't like that. I'm with you.

I think there's very much two types of people, and I've observed both types. Type one is like, they open the thing and there's a map and there's 40 dots on there, and they're like, let's see who's doing what? What is that happening? Yeah. And then the other half is like, don't ever look for my dot on a map. That's insane. Yeah.

Yeah. One thing worth bringing up here, though, is that for me personally, I know a lot of women in my life like using location sharing because it's like a safety thing. Absolutely. So in that case, it could be that they're asking for like, because that's how they think about location sharing, you know? So that's one way. Can you do it one way?

Yes. Okay. Yes. So that would be, that's one thing. That would be like, I would like someone like my friend to know my location for this amount of time or for whatever whatever for as long as they want that's cool it's someone else requesting my location and me not wanting to yeah but see here's the problem if it's your partner and your partner says i want you to have my location all the time i'll then you're kind of

are you an asshole for being like but i don't want you to have mine it's not you try to go it doesn't look great i can tell you that i don't know the forest i'm just saying like i'm just saying like what's the big deal here no because i don't i just it's just a principles thing you know generally I will say it's very much like the yeah it's I think it's safe to say if the answer is ever it's a principal's thing and this is coming for someone who's a pretty principled person if it's ever it's principal's thing you're probably the asshole no there's another version of this which is like I don't want these companies spying on me to give me good ads like and it's very much just like the only benefit to that is better more targeted ads for me but it's a principal's thing

I don't want the company to know all this information about me. And it's not shady. And they'll always go, oh, well, what's the worst I could happen? What are you hiding? It's like, I'm not hiding anything. It's just a principal. I don't want you to know anything about me. But now when we flip it, it's like, I don't, it's a principal's thing.

It's kind of the same thing. I'm not hiding anything. Yeah, you're not wrong for that. Yeah. Yeah, like on the iPhone, when you log into a new app and it's the ask ads not to trap or track or allow like more discreet targeting. Yeah. And it's like if you do not.

like ask ads not to track. It's really just because of your principles. Yeah, I just hit it by default. I would say you are the asshole, but you are also right, if that makes sense. Interesting. Like you're allowed to be right and be the asshole

in this situation. I like that nuance. I think it's insane that we have as a society just completely normalized, like always know where everyone is. Like that anonymity is a blessing and it's insane that we have gotten rid of that. But now because so many people have bought into it,

you become the friction point. if you are the one that's like, you know? Yeah. Claire and I never did it until we had Lane, and now knowing the other person might be with Lane in a scenario, now we both have location tracking on in case it's like, Claire and Lane went out to do this, and I haven't heard from them in a little while.

That's a good one. In terms of doing it previously, we never asked, I would just be really embarrassed by it, because Claire would probably be like, he's a f*** Taco Bell again. Like, goddammit, I was making dinner tonight. Yeah, yeah. I'll say I used to be a just like never, never, never person.

I have slowly started like just giving people access to my location. I think there's a level to it too. How long have you been with the person? Like if we're on date two and they're like, let's turn on the location track. And I was like, oh my God. Yeah, no. I mean, yeah, no, no, no. Okay, question for you.

Because I haven't been on iPhone in a while. Can you set, like, can you give them permission for a certain amount of time? Yeah, you can. You can do it for an hour until a certain time or indefinitely. Because I know you can do it in Google Maps. I'm not sure if you could do it in... One hour, 24 hours or indefinitely. No, it's one hour end of day indefinitely.

So you can't be like, here's my week. So could you... You have to turn it on every week or turn it off after a week of indefinite. Yeah. Which is, you just look like that guy. Yeah. Exactly. You do indefinite and then it's just like...

I would say if you're going to ask... somebody to turn on their location tracking for you, you should probably have a somewhat of a reason why you say it. Like if you're going to be the person to go out and ask, you should be like, can you turn your location tracking on? Or like, do you mind if you turn it on? It'd be nice if I saw you were in traffic on the way home.

And I know not to start it. It'd be like stuff like that. If they can give a legitimate reason, then it's really hard to say no to. And then you look. I did. That is squirming over there. Just the thought of sitting in my car

and someone looking at my location. without me knowing. Would it be funny if your phone just lit up blue every time someone looked at your location just like boom, someone checked your location. At least I would know. Yeah. I would be okay with it actually.

It's like in Japan how they mandate that your phone makes a really loud camera snap noise when you take a photo to stop people from peeping. I wish it did that because I just, what I don't like is not knowing that people are looking at me. Yeah, the color of the light is the person who checks your location.

So if it's blue every time, you're like, oh, that's my spouse. That's totally fine. Wait, I'm gonna-a-vive focus tonight. I just thought we were talking about only your like significant other right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. I don't understand why everyone wants to have all their friends on my. Me neither.

My girlfriend and I share our locations with each other. And for Valentine's Day, I like cooked her this big dinner. That was a surprise. But this funny thing did happen where she was like, she texted me. She was like, like, I was going to a butcher to go get ribs, like really nice. Why you had a butcher? Damn. Really nice for it.

Well, no, it's because it's like I needed them cut a really specific way that I didn't have the tools to do myself. So I needed to go to a butcher that was nice enough where I could be like, listen, I need you to, you know, handle this for me. The butcher. Anyway. Anyway, she texted me. She was like, what are you doing tonight? And I was like, oh, I'm just going to go home and work out, blah, blah. And then she was like, then why are you here?

I was like, This is what I'm talking about. It's for a surprise. That's like, why do you use incognito mode in browser? So I can surprise my spouse. I think it's cute to me like, oh, I wonder what Alice is up to.

And then she's like, oh, he's a New Jersey again. Yeah. Yeah. Damn, you came to Jersey? No, no. Yeah, I don't know. I just come to Jersey like most of every other day. I'm just saying like all, yeah, I don't know.

There's a lot of things, too, that it's like if I had a spouse who was to, who was the kind of person who wants to like look through my text or something, I would never give them access to, well first of all I would never date someone who would look through my text. I also feel like that's a little different. That's the other thing.

Okay, here's the B side of this. Okay, continue. Continuation, right? Okay, B side. I have another disclaimer. Never take any any at all relationship advice for a technology podcast. I repeat.

true. Ever take any relationship advice ever from a technology podcast. Okay. Here's another principle. Get all of your relationship advice from Brian Johnson's Twitter. That's also a technology podcast, but... All right. Here's the B side to this.

Is the if your partner asked to look through your phone, even if you had nothing to hide, would you let them do it? Claire has all my passwords. I give just all my passwords and everything just in case something happens. There's like, no, but like it's the same. So she can delete my history. It's the same thing. I just need a why. That's all.

It's like, why do you want my location? If you have a good why, then sure. Like, why do you want to look through my phone? If you have a good why, then sure. Well, for me, it's less like they've looked through my phone, more like we were driving at one point and she had to go through my phone to get something. Oh, that's different. So if I give her the phone, I'm not going to then change the facts.

David's after you and like, yeah, she just has it. Yeah. I think David's saying like an accusatory, like I need to look through your phone. Then that's the why. And I know it makes you look worse. But your principal. It's a principal's thing. I mean, it does make you look worse.

It'll make you look great and them bad when they look through it. And the thing they're accusing you of does not happen. Yeah, it makes them look bad. That's true. That's true. If they're accusing, that's tough. I don't know. I'm very thankful I have a gun into any of these scenarios.

I've also never. been in the scenario. It's an interesting mind. Okay, what about a scenario we've all been in? What I be the ass... Taking a bath. What I be the asshole for confronting my friend for sending me too many reels per day. Okay, so I'm making this joke, but for a while, I definitely was that asshole to Ellis. I sent him so many reels.

I think it was because when I first deleted TikTok, one of the first reels I probably ever sent to Ellis was probably some insane food one. and then Instagram was like, I got you. I'm only going to send you really weird memes about like meat and cigarettes and like Creed. And I was like, I have to send every one of these to Ellis. And then after a while he stopped responding and I was like, I should get off Instagram. Physically, I'm 12, but spiritually I am like a divorced dad. You know, like Creed, cigarettes and meat, maybe.

It does seem like, I don't know if this was in our interview with Adam Misery, but like when he said before that like the share button is one of the strongest signals in Instagram reels. It really feels like when I share a reel with someone Instagram goes, I got a lot more of that. And if I sent something then it starts sending me more

of the thing that I sent to someone. Hoping that'll send it to more people because it's something I would share. So I think yeah, probably once you sent that first one they were like I got more of that. If you flip that on its head are you the asshole for never liking the reels that someone just keeps sending you?

And just like scene zoning. That would make me a pretty big... I would say, like, you got to... There's a little give and take on both of these. Like, clearly if people are sending reels to each other, they think it's funny and are genuinely thinking about them. But if you're sending five or six and not getting a response back, maybe you've got to tighten up the parameters of a shareworthy reel

and then make them hit home. Maybe you're not there for the 100% engage rate. Maybe you're just there for the open rate. Quantity over quality is a total. Totally a real thing. Waveform has 300 episodes. There's probably like seven good ones. We're proof.

Here's something that's crazy to me is that there are not like DM group. Like there's group chats, but there's not like DM lists, right? Where you see a reel, you hit send, you can send it to a list and it individually sends it to all those people. Right. And yet, I have an acquaintance from college that I had like a class with. We have not spoken in a really long time. and he still sends me reels. And I have not answered in six years.

Does this payback because you won't be on his fun, my friends? I'm just like, so he has to find my name and send it to me? And like, we haven't spoken in six years. But every time he sees a reel and he's like, Dave's going to like this one. How? How do you even know who I am at this point? We're very different people.

Anyway, it is crazy. I'm never going to call the person the asshole for sending all of it because I appreciate thinking of me. I think it's even better. I start feeling bad when I don't respond. But the question is, are you the asshole for confronting them about it?

No, no, no. Oh. You're just going to be like, hey, man. What's confronting? Is it like, hey, man, stop sending me those reels or is it like, I'm sorry, dude, I just don't have time to watch all of them. Whatever it means to you, whatever it is in your heart.

Not the asshole. I think a confrontation in this situation. Confrontations means mean. It is sort of, but I think I'm, I probably, and I guess this does. make it the asshole move. But I feel like in that situation, I probably would be like,

dude. That's it. That's the whole thing. What are you doing? Here's the thing. If they're, if they keep sending them and don't get responses back

and they keep sending them, they don't care. They obviously don't care. So like, yeah, I'm not hurting anyone. If all I have to do is then click red every time.

If they sent you a bunch of reels and you didn't respond, and every time I saw them, they were like, hey, man, you didn't. answer my reels. That's weird. That's the weird one. Yeah. Don't do that. Yeah. But if they keep setting it even when you don't, when you just scene zone them, then they've eclipsed shame already. They're just going to keep doing it. Yeah, they just want to send you a real. Yeah. I think for most people, the act of consuming reels is so brainless that also like sharing them is like. Oh yeah. Like two taps. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which actually, you know, your right mark has like it literally is designed to just be like tap tap and then like you share the real. That's funny that that's the most powerful. on Instagram.

It's because it's social. Well, but that's because Reels is so little brain power that those two taps is 800 times more engagement than anything else you would do with scrolling and liking. Yeah, I'll toss a like to a random reel, but if I thought it was funny and specifically, that's why they start surfacing more. It's because I engage two layers deep with this reel. I liked it so much that I thought of a person who would also like it and I sent it to them. And that that person's going to watch it. That's a pretty good signal.

pretty good signal. Yeah. So I got 30 more of those reals. Here you go. All right. Let's do a few more. Yeah. I'm going to wrap it up.

This first one, Am I the asshole for making my friend's guess whether a given G fuel flavor is real or not more than once? I think for us. No. For Vergecast, yes. Yeah, Dan Sefer was not happy with us. And he still whooped me in it. Okay.

Guys, would I be the asshole? a little switching it up. Would I be the asshole for using ChatGPT to write someone a birthday card? Yes. No. Not by default. Not by default.

Explain. However. How would you make it not an asshole move? So writing someone a birthday card is already a very high effort thing to do. Not a lot of people get birthday cards. So if you're going through the effort to not just like text them happy birthday

or write on their Facebook wall because Facebook told you it was their birthday. You're mailing them a card. That's already eclipsed the threshold of effort to not be an asshole. And if they never know that you used AI assistance in this, then it is perfectly acceptable. You're not just my best friend.

You're my best best friend. I assume you're using AI, not because you have zero thoughts on how to write a happy birthday card. You're probably looking for a little extra fun or like a rhyme scheme or for something extra to make it a good card. I don't know.

I feel like you're using AI because it's too much effort. It's too much effort, but you're writing and mailing them a card already? Yeah. I think you're trying to take it to the next level with some AI assistance. Well, my thing is, if you're already doing it, just do it. Like, if you're going through the effort to get the letter and mail it out, like, just write the letter then. I think it's potentially true that adding AI assistance made it more work and made it. better. Okay. Here's it. Here's an asterisk. How much time would you have to spend conversing with

this LLM about the nature of your friendship with this person? That's a good point. For you no longer to be the impersonal asshole. Yeah, don't so it's like what part of the letter are you getting help with? Because I don't know what the letter is. It could like is the letter like, oh, this person is like my one of my friends and my fantasy basketball like group and like I'm mailing him a card because I'm whooping him this week, and I thought it would be hilarious if we got a card. Help me write something that's, like, funny and relates to basketball. Like, you're going the extra mile to mail them a specific card,

and you're getting help with the guy. I would say, let's say, let's say, we never. Not everyone's. Marquette's examples don't seem that bad. I just, like, I'm just not willing to default 100% like the guy in the woods with the speaker. This is a podcast talking about Reddit. We're supposed to default 100% on something.

I think you can use AI. to help write someone a birthday card and mail it to them in a very high effort way that does not make you an asshole. So I'm not gonna go 100% on that one. Are you writing with your hands? Yeah, you're going through all that mailing effort, but you gotta chat GPT to give you like a haiku scheme

so you could be better at making a high-kut or something out now. Yeah, when I was a child, I would get irrationally angry and I would still get irrationally angry at like when some random family member that I never spoke to on my birthday, would send me a birthday card that was literally just the card that they bought at Walgreens. Yeah, that's, that's more. I was like, I understand there's ever involved here, but like, you're mailing it in so hard. Yeah.

You're mailing your feelings in. You're, you're distributing. Thank you. Literally mailing it in. You are, you were, like, outsourcing your brain and your feelings to some Walgreens writer. That's a great point. What's worse? It's not that different.

The Walgreens written one, that's definitely impersonal. or the, I use AI to make one. I think Walgreens is worse. I think a pre-written card from Walgreens is worse, to be honest. Because it is, it's copied. It's generic. You know that other people got the same card too. Yeah, that's what makes it worse.

At least for the LLM, you're giving it context. Yeah. I'm just, do you guys send cards where you don't write anything else in it? Sometimes I get them. I have gotten those. That's crazy. I think those, that's crazy. They'll just sign their name at there.

Yeah. This is a principal one. This is like, yeah, Marquez, you're right. Like, yeah, I see what you're coming from. Marquez's thing makes it sound like I'm trying to be creative in a way I'm not creative and I want to put the extra effort in, which I don't think is the, like, when we're talking about this specific, am I the asshole? It's like, I don't have, I want to make it look like I have, I want to trick them.

You did in one point say, if they don't know it's AI, what's it better? That was kind of an asshole mood. I guess in the case of the Hallmark card where it's, pre-written, you know it's pre-written, so you know that there's zero effort. In the case of, like, the handwritten letter, you don't know how much effort there was. Maybe this person's really clever and wrote a clever thing. Or maybe they had help. I don't know. A central plot point of the movie, her, is that the titular character, titular character, the guy her, the main character. The main guy. The her guy. The Joaquin-Feed-Fee-Fee-Lewan guy.

Yeah, he is a, he is a greeting card writer. Yeah, he's a greeting card writer. That's his job. He He writes greeting cards for rich people who don't have time. I guess you knew a guy. Why would he have to do that when they have AI? I know a person who sort of moonlight writes for PR statements for like CEOs. Oh, never mind. I thought it was like personal writing. Mr. Deeds also a greeting card writer?

Oh, God. Am I the asshole for liking old Adam Sandler? Oh. Yes. Oh, oh. Ultimately, I think the effort ladder, like the effort ladder is you wrote it completely yourself. That's the highest. You wrote it with the help of an MLM, MLM with all the context of the person.

Right below it. You wrote it just with the MLF, LLM with no context at all. And didn't edit it at all. And then Hallmark card is on the bottom. Of lowest effort. Yeah. Even lower below that is just a text. I think when you're getting to the point of mailing them something.

No, but text is not prewritten by somebody else. So it's actually higher than Hallmark card. Oh, interesting. That's interesting. to use your own brain to do it. I just think the threshold of I am buying a card for you to put in an envelope and write your name and address on and mailing it to you to arrive around your birthday is already a lot of effort. I know it's effort, but it's like it's more of a formality. It's like when your mom says, we have to do this and you say why.

And they said, because we've always done it that way. Like you're not using any of your own, you know, critical thought. Call your home. Call your homies, man. Call them on their birthday. You know what I was just calling me. Please never call them. Please don't call me.

We should all. Are you an asshole? Don't ever call me. Please. There's a new AI for that, bro. You get open clod to call your homies on their birthday. With Twilio. Okay, this is a good one to end it on.

Yeah. Okay. Yes or no, are you an asshole if you just cold call someone in the middle of the day? No. Yeah. No. No. No.

No. No. No. No. No. He's calling you for your birthday. No. It's 4.30 in the afternoon, they're calling you right now.

Even better. If it's your birthday, no. No, never. But if it's a regular Tuesday, don't call me. Yeah, don't call it. No, I totally disagree. Especially because we all have caller ID, and if you, the person doesn't want to pick up,

you all don't have to pick up. No, because if you never call me. If you never call me, and now you're calling me at 3 o'clock on a Tuesday, I think something's wrong. I'm picking up. Yeah. You pick up, you freak out, and then I say, how's it going? That's the asshole.

That specifically is the asshole. How's it going, man? What? Why'd you call me? I like getting called out of the blue by friends that I don't talk to that often. And if they just want to chat, even if I'm not free, I'm like, oh, sorry, dude, I'm not free right now, but we should catch up. It's just catching up. Give me an out.

Send me a text. Hey, can I call you later? Let me say nothing. I need to mentally prepare for a conversation. I can't just pick up the phone and start talking. After the last three answers, I'm convinced Marquez is the guy bringing his Xbox to the honeymoon. I don't want to talk to you right now. I'd rather stare at a screen.

Yeah. As someone who gets like 300 emails a day, I guess. That's fair. Calling me is like, it's got to be a certain urgency level. I just want to say I'm proud of you guys during the over the course that I called all three of you because I thought it would be really funny. And you guys are all either on airplane or do not disturb. D&D. I don't think I'm made any of those things.

Well, I am watching the Olympics. I am watching Team USA play quarterfinals right now. Am I the asshole? I'm on a podcast with you, but I'm also watching the game. Is that cool? Is that fine? Listen, I've been waiting 14 years for this Olympics and the NHL. Sorry.

Yeah, to be honest, I've been waiting 14 years for my new Strelay manifest album. If I dropped in the middle of the pod, I'd have my earphones then. Fair enough. Well, guys, you did an excellent job. Is you getting this? It seems like the only two things you can do and not be an asshole in your eyes are... Everyone sucks. Ask your family to take their old photos off of ICloud and switch to Android.

Can we have like... Hey, let us know in the comments if you agree or disagree with any of our... Or maybe present some more and then we'll do another episode because this is actually really fun. And I want to know whether situations you guys have that we can agree with or disagree with. So A-I-T-A-A-I-T-A. Hit us up. You can officially bring your children back in the room. Yeah, we're back.

We're going to censor stuff from here on now. Back to your regularly scheduled programming. See you guys soon. Censure ship is coming. Wayform is produced by fucking Adam Alina. Wayform is produced by Adam Alina and Ellis River from a partner with Box Media Podcast. Now we're going to interact your music was created by Vainzill. Bingo.

Bingo. Go. Why do you think there's so many chickens? Hmm. How do they get here? I can go to that right now.