No PhD? No Friends? [Q&A] Earnest answers to insincere questions.
16 December 2017 [link youtube]
A Q&A of sorts (with some meta-Q&A commentary). "Why doesn't Eisel already have a PhD?" & "Why didn't you keep more of your friends (from high-school, or other, earlier chapters of your life) as you moved from one chapter to the next?"
Youtube Automatic Transcription
that's the sound of a man working do it
rock that's our that's the first time we've ever blended a smoothie on this gym the first time you see the fruit smoothie blended on a ballast Co Broadcasting Corporation that's that's Melissa I'm sure you've never seen it before so Melissa you could join this to this video or not but it's gonna respond to these these two questions and you know like part of what I do on the Internet is giving reasonable answers to unreasonable questions so like this one you can see I'm gonna answer them answer them both in a reasonable way but you know there's this thing where the the overall tone of discourse in the Internet is really influenced by trolling where people trying to say provocative things and it's also influenced by anonymity and secrecy where there's this assumption that like I don't want to admit things but my four I'm not willing to talk about things that I really am willing to talk about you know I mean so one of these questions is about basically why don't I have a PhD and one of them is about why don't I have a circle of friends like still today that I used to have in high school and university and they're both stated in this really kind of needlessly insulting and provocative way I think because people feel that's the way the internet works and I think they expect me to be hostile and defensive and also kind of secretive and defending my anonymity so to give you examples for these two questions Melissa's seeing them on screen you guys aren't but do you think unnatural vegan would ever answer question I think I don't think so you know II know and that's you know a lot of these people they to some extent they talk about their personal lives or someone like a natural vegan but to some extent there's also this weird kind of barrier they don't keep it all the way real you know they're not going to talk about exactly exactly this this kind of stuff but I'm totally willing to like I'm totally done to me these are like normal talks of conversation that you've discussed in a cafe and if you ask me on the Internet in the same way you'd ask someone in a cafe I'm completely cool with talking about it you know I always feel like what's the point of being on the Internet if you're gonna be evasive or dishonest about exactly this kind of stuff so one of the questions I'm just gonna reword it to make it less but I got one question in effect saying why doesn't ISIL already have a PhD you know you know I depending on who I'm talking to you I'm talking one of my university professors I can give a longer answer getting into exactly what what decisions that I made but that the written answer I gave on the internet was quote I have a four-year-old daughter I made sacrifices so that I could have a four-year-old daughter so you know sacrifices around the time the birth of my daughter I've never heard anyone at any level claim that I'd have difficulty getting into or completing a PhD have you seen my articles quite the contrary I have many regrets in my life having a child is not one of them the kid is worth more to me than a PhD right so yes you know it's like oh why why doesn't as well PhD well for one thing at that time my life was meeting the decision I made the decision to make some huge sacrifices including moving to France so I didn't want to live in France I didn't wanna learn the French language but I moved to France and started learning French so that I could have a kid so that I could have my daughter who's now so that's now four years ago my daughter's now four years older we're going to visit her but I mean this also relates to something you and I've been talking about off-camera a bit the way planning for the future and making these decisions relates to the fact that in a lot of ways had already done everything I wanted to do in my life so I wouldn't be in a position where I felt regret like oh I never got to see the Mekong River oh I never got to do humanitarian work oh I never got to study Korea rituais or lotion or Palli in so many ways at that stage in my life four years ago even six years ago it really seemed like I had already done everything in my life I ever wanted to do I mean as you know like that was I mean oddly that was true of my father at some point when my father died people said to me like old constantly you know naturally people said oh I'm so sorry for your loss or sir and I just say back look my father did everything everything you wanted to do and like he ran out of things to do when you decided to go see rhinoceroses in Africa I remember asking him like why why did you go to Africa you never were interested in this you know I mean he'd already he'd been my father had been everywhere on planet Earth except Antarctica he'd done everything that's not why I felt that way because I I didn't have any interest in seeing renowned sources but in terms of these I really want to do with I've done them that's one part of it and another part of it really briefly is I definitely didn't feel was missing out on anything in any of those PhD programs I was not missing out on an educational opportunity so you know that's a real it's really different if you work in a field where you really feel you gonna learn something you know something to you that you're gonna that's gonna be meaningful with the rest of your life whooping in a PhD program which is true for many people at least at the start at least they've got the delusion that's one thing but for me it's like you and I were looking at the requirements one of the programs and it required me to write a 120 page essay and I was just laughing I was like look man I can do that in two weeks I'm very very good at researching and writing papers and the professor's have worked with at every stage of my life have known that about me to some extent they they don't even realize have a little time I'm putting into those papers just over I'm doing it but I have a long career of doing original research and writing up so nothing there is intimidating to me and sure there have been various options at different stages in my life for me to do PhD work and now we're going back to Canada again and I think we're gonna ask those questions again and again sure but you know real life we all make sacrifices I might make the same choice again so let's say four years from now Melissa wants to get pregnant have a baby I may make the same decision again and it'll probably be for the same factors to be like well I would value having a child more than having a PhD PhD is never gonna earn me any money which was true in the past to talk about getting a PhD in Buddhist philosophy talking at a PhD in Cree in a jib way linguistics you know Cree language education or some of this that's never gonna make any money and so on you're really doing it and in most of these programs maybe I'll find an exception most these programs that look at them it's like well these people in this program they don't really have anything to teach me they're really just giving me an institutional setting where I can research and write a paper so four years from now I might again decide not to get a PhD with all the same all the same considerations okay so I got another question here this one again a minutes not even a thinly veiled insult so I'm gonna reword it to be less insulting but he's asking me well he says you have said in the best I have said in the past that I don't today have a group of lifelong friends from high school college or from my work life and he asks you know are you just a terrible person of course I'm I keep I keep telling you I keep reminding my audience I'm a terrible person Doce is an accusation I completely own being a terrible person I'm not not any to know about that but this kind of insult I find I find stupid and nevertheless I'm giving a serious answer to a two hundred stupid questioner I said I said reply no I moved to Cambodia I moved to Laos I moved to Taiwan I moved to France I moved back from France to Taiwan etc and this list is omitting many other places that were there along the way you and I and Sri Lanka's Saskatchewan it's just geography I had plenty of friends and he wearing everywhere that I lived for a significant period of time but I kept moving warily staying in the same place for two years during my whole adult life it's degress here funny example this so you know I only ever had one Asian girlfriend buy one Asian girlfriend ever that was when I was living in Laos and I remember she approached me she said oh you know like you don't have any friends here and I remember I asked her I said well you know I've been living here in Laos for less time than you have she was living there real life and I started counting off all the friends I had in Laos so at that point I'm probably living lost for a year and a half or something I was able to count off people had really personal relationships with including David including some people you you know though right but people who work on a you know deep lifelong friend type of people and I said how many friends do you have because I knew it's lie same with you like I know how many friends you have basically and she basically had her sister she had one sister she was close with and she had like one friend that was it and I don't even you know think love but a lot of people like that you know a lot of people you know thought I don't have a whole lot of friends you know what I mean and I said you know what it was just there it was like well I've only been here for a short time and I got a lot of I got a lot of good friends but anyway sure it's a different story in different places I mean it's it's harder to make meaningful friendships in Hong Kong big big city everybody's busy than it is to make friends in Laos but you know I've you know I really can't complain that way but sure it was sad for me when I packed up and left Laos which was unexpected I got death threats from the government I got xl's in the country death threats and I left with nothing but my backpack and blah blah blah so dramatic situation when I left Laos I lost those friends and sure I would prefer if those people had stayed and doesn't your bets now what happened so if you keep moving you keep losing friends every time you move that is my experience in life and of course it wouldn't be the same if you were just moving from Detroit to Philadelphia you know we're talking about leaving Laos and moving to England and then moving from England to Cambodia these are big big dislocations and you know also my career my line of work changing with each of those relocations and dislocations alright so let the guy know look this this is uh this is an offensive you know his question was really stated in an offensive and insulting way and I said look if you watch my channel you know my reasons for being on the internet I'm here fundamentally to make connections with other vegans who can cooperate me in the future of the vegan movement so these kinds of games what you're playing here I don't play and that's how I feel but I think in a lot of ways I'm still out here doing real talk I've had so many negative experience in the internet I mean you know I'm not shell-shocked I'm not self pitying but sure I mean I've suffered the slings and arrows of defamation from durianrider and all this crap but fundamentally I mean somebody's got to keep it real and the rewards for my keeping it real include by the way that I met my wonderful girlfriend Melissa you know for real the when I first met Melissa you really knew who I was and you knew from my youtube videos and you knew from reading my essays and you knew from you know it's not like there's an illusion and then you get behind the illusion and finally who I really am know this is who I really am and I think I think it's people like me we risk the most on the internet but we also by far get the best rewards on the Internet and if you're using YouTube if you're using the Internet itself I encourage you to keep it real and even if you get questions that are really just insults even if you get this kind of harassment do your best to offer serious answers to silly questions and try to improve the tone and caliber of our discourse here in the digital fecund demi-monde I'm out
rock that's our that's the first time we've ever blended a smoothie on this gym the first time you see the fruit smoothie blended on a ballast Co Broadcasting Corporation that's that's Melissa I'm sure you've never seen it before so Melissa you could join this to this video or not but it's gonna respond to these these two questions and you know like part of what I do on the Internet is giving reasonable answers to unreasonable questions so like this one you can see I'm gonna answer them answer them both in a reasonable way but you know there's this thing where the the overall tone of discourse in the Internet is really influenced by trolling where people trying to say provocative things and it's also influenced by anonymity and secrecy where there's this assumption that like I don't want to admit things but my four I'm not willing to talk about things that I really am willing to talk about you know I mean so one of these questions is about basically why don't I have a PhD and one of them is about why don't I have a circle of friends like still today that I used to have in high school and university and they're both stated in this really kind of needlessly insulting and provocative way I think because people feel that's the way the internet works and I think they expect me to be hostile and defensive and also kind of secretive and defending my anonymity so to give you examples for these two questions Melissa's seeing them on screen you guys aren't but do you think unnatural vegan would ever answer question I think I don't think so you know II know and that's you know a lot of these people they to some extent they talk about their personal lives or someone like a natural vegan but to some extent there's also this weird kind of barrier they don't keep it all the way real you know they're not going to talk about exactly exactly this this kind of stuff but I'm totally willing to like I'm totally done to me these are like normal talks of conversation that you've discussed in a cafe and if you ask me on the Internet in the same way you'd ask someone in a cafe I'm completely cool with talking about it you know I always feel like what's the point of being on the Internet if you're gonna be evasive or dishonest about exactly this kind of stuff so one of the questions I'm just gonna reword it to make it less but I got one question in effect saying why doesn't ISIL already have a PhD you know you know I depending on who I'm talking to you I'm talking one of my university professors I can give a longer answer getting into exactly what what decisions that I made but that the written answer I gave on the internet was quote I have a four-year-old daughter I made sacrifices so that I could have a four-year-old daughter so you know sacrifices around the time the birth of my daughter I've never heard anyone at any level claim that I'd have difficulty getting into or completing a PhD have you seen my articles quite the contrary I have many regrets in my life having a child is not one of them the kid is worth more to me than a PhD right so yes you know it's like oh why why doesn't as well PhD well for one thing at that time my life was meeting the decision I made the decision to make some huge sacrifices including moving to France so I didn't want to live in France I didn't wanna learn the French language but I moved to France and started learning French so that I could have a kid so that I could have my daughter who's now so that's now four years ago my daughter's now four years older we're going to visit her but I mean this also relates to something you and I've been talking about off-camera a bit the way planning for the future and making these decisions relates to the fact that in a lot of ways had already done everything I wanted to do in my life so I wouldn't be in a position where I felt regret like oh I never got to see the Mekong River oh I never got to do humanitarian work oh I never got to study Korea rituais or lotion or Palli in so many ways at that stage in my life four years ago even six years ago it really seemed like I had already done everything in my life I ever wanted to do I mean as you know like that was I mean oddly that was true of my father at some point when my father died people said to me like old constantly you know naturally people said oh I'm so sorry for your loss or sir and I just say back look my father did everything everything you wanted to do and like he ran out of things to do when you decided to go see rhinoceroses in Africa I remember asking him like why why did you go to Africa you never were interested in this you know I mean he'd already he'd been my father had been everywhere on planet Earth except Antarctica he'd done everything that's not why I felt that way because I I didn't have any interest in seeing renowned sources but in terms of these I really want to do with I've done them that's one part of it and another part of it really briefly is I definitely didn't feel was missing out on anything in any of those PhD programs I was not missing out on an educational opportunity so you know that's a real it's really different if you work in a field where you really feel you gonna learn something you know something to you that you're gonna that's gonna be meaningful with the rest of your life whooping in a PhD program which is true for many people at least at the start at least they've got the delusion that's one thing but for me it's like you and I were looking at the requirements one of the programs and it required me to write a 120 page essay and I was just laughing I was like look man I can do that in two weeks I'm very very good at researching and writing papers and the professor's have worked with at every stage of my life have known that about me to some extent they they don't even realize have a little time I'm putting into those papers just over I'm doing it but I have a long career of doing original research and writing up so nothing there is intimidating to me and sure there have been various options at different stages in my life for me to do PhD work and now we're going back to Canada again and I think we're gonna ask those questions again and again sure but you know real life we all make sacrifices I might make the same choice again so let's say four years from now Melissa wants to get pregnant have a baby I may make the same decision again and it'll probably be for the same factors to be like well I would value having a child more than having a PhD PhD is never gonna earn me any money which was true in the past to talk about getting a PhD in Buddhist philosophy talking at a PhD in Cree in a jib way linguistics you know Cree language education or some of this that's never gonna make any money and so on you're really doing it and in most of these programs maybe I'll find an exception most these programs that look at them it's like well these people in this program they don't really have anything to teach me they're really just giving me an institutional setting where I can research and write a paper so four years from now I might again decide not to get a PhD with all the same all the same considerations okay so I got another question here this one again a minutes not even a thinly veiled insult so I'm gonna reword it to be less insulting but he's asking me well he says you have said in the best I have said in the past that I don't today have a group of lifelong friends from high school college or from my work life and he asks you know are you just a terrible person of course I'm I keep I keep telling you I keep reminding my audience I'm a terrible person Doce is an accusation I completely own being a terrible person I'm not not any to know about that but this kind of insult I find I find stupid and nevertheless I'm giving a serious answer to a two hundred stupid questioner I said I said reply no I moved to Cambodia I moved to Laos I moved to Taiwan I moved to France I moved back from France to Taiwan etc and this list is omitting many other places that were there along the way you and I and Sri Lanka's Saskatchewan it's just geography I had plenty of friends and he wearing everywhere that I lived for a significant period of time but I kept moving warily staying in the same place for two years during my whole adult life it's degress here funny example this so you know I only ever had one Asian girlfriend buy one Asian girlfriend ever that was when I was living in Laos and I remember she approached me she said oh you know like you don't have any friends here and I remember I asked her I said well you know I've been living here in Laos for less time than you have she was living there real life and I started counting off all the friends I had in Laos so at that point I'm probably living lost for a year and a half or something I was able to count off people had really personal relationships with including David including some people you you know though right but people who work on a you know deep lifelong friend type of people and I said how many friends do you have because I knew it's lie same with you like I know how many friends you have basically and she basically had her sister she had one sister she was close with and she had like one friend that was it and I don't even you know think love but a lot of people like that you know a lot of people you know thought I don't have a whole lot of friends you know what I mean and I said you know what it was just there it was like well I've only been here for a short time and I got a lot of I got a lot of good friends but anyway sure it's a different story in different places I mean it's it's harder to make meaningful friendships in Hong Kong big big city everybody's busy than it is to make friends in Laos but you know I've you know I really can't complain that way but sure it was sad for me when I packed up and left Laos which was unexpected I got death threats from the government I got xl's in the country death threats and I left with nothing but my backpack and blah blah blah so dramatic situation when I left Laos I lost those friends and sure I would prefer if those people had stayed and doesn't your bets now what happened so if you keep moving you keep losing friends every time you move that is my experience in life and of course it wouldn't be the same if you were just moving from Detroit to Philadelphia you know we're talking about leaving Laos and moving to England and then moving from England to Cambodia these are big big dislocations and you know also my career my line of work changing with each of those relocations and dislocations alright so let the guy know look this this is uh this is an offensive you know his question was really stated in an offensive and insulting way and I said look if you watch my channel you know my reasons for being on the internet I'm here fundamentally to make connections with other vegans who can cooperate me in the future of the vegan movement so these kinds of games what you're playing here I don't play and that's how I feel but I think in a lot of ways I'm still out here doing real talk I've had so many negative experience in the internet I mean you know I'm not shell-shocked I'm not self pitying but sure I mean I've suffered the slings and arrows of defamation from durianrider and all this crap but fundamentally I mean somebody's got to keep it real and the rewards for my keeping it real include by the way that I met my wonderful girlfriend Melissa you know for real the when I first met Melissa you really knew who I was and you knew from my youtube videos and you knew from reading my essays and you knew from you know it's not like there's an illusion and then you get behind the illusion and finally who I really am know this is who I really am and I think I think it's people like me we risk the most on the internet but we also by far get the best rewards on the Internet and if you're using YouTube if you're using the Internet itself I encourage you to keep it real and even if you get questions that are really just insults even if you get this kind of harassment do your best to offer serious answers to silly questions and try to improve the tone and caliber of our discourse here in the digital fecund demi-monde I'm out