Sam and Shaan answer a listener question about what random tools, apps, and media they’re currently into. Sam covers YouTube Premium, Audible Originals, and the Libby library app; Shaan covers iMessage voice notes, a compound interest calculator app, and the 10k Diver Twitter account. Sam closes with fitness picks: a lacrosse ball for trigger point massage, goat milk for protein shakes, and walking backwards for knee health.
Speakers: Sam Parr (host), Shaan Puri (host)
Listener Question: What Random Things Are You Into Right Now? [00:00:00]
Shaan: Hey, Sam and Shaan — this is Colby from Woodbridge, Virginia. It seems like you guys are always finding cool stuff, whether that’s media or cool tools. So anyway, my question is: what have you been into recently? Thanks.
Shaan: Okay. So the question for One Question Friday was basically around what random things are we into? We seem to be into really random things. What are some of these random things that we’re really into right now — stuff that we really like? It could be a podcast, a video, a book, an app, a tool — anything like that. What are we into? It’s kind of like our info diet, or the tools in our tool belt that we really like right now. So, Sam, what do you got?
Sam’s Picks: YouTube Premium, Audible Originals, and Libby [00:00:40]
Sam: All right, I’ll run through all three of mine because they’re all related. These might sound a little obvious, but hear me out.
So, YouTube Premium — are you a subscriber?
Shaan: I am. Long-time YouTube Premium subscriber.
Sam: Most people aren’t. I actually unsubscribed from Spotify, so I don’t use paid Spotify anymore. I only use YouTube. And the reason is: A, I watch all my TV on there, but B, you can listen to any music, they make playlists for you, you can lock your phone, put it in your pocket, and listen. It’s way better than Spotify because they have live versions, unreleased versions — you know, things that aren’t officially released. So I like YouTube Premium.
The second one: Audible. Do you ever listen to Audible?
Shaan: I’m not an audiobook guy. I always found it boring and a little slow — I kind of tuned it out.
Sam: So there’s this thing called Audible Originals. First of all, there’s Audible Plus, which is a subscription that gives you access to a ton of free audiobooks. I’m always clicking around. They have some that are as short as 30 minutes — short stories, short classes. But then they have Audible Originals, and they’ll do things like whole Stanford lectures. Remember iTunes University? It’s almost like that. I just click on one of the lectures and listen for a few minutes.
Or they do these huge productions where it’s an audiobook but with famous actors — multiple of them — so it’s almost like a play or a movie, but audio only. And it’s free if you’re a subscriber. So I like that.
Sam: And the last thing — all related. Have you ever used the app Libby? Have you heard of Libby?
Shaan: Never heard of this.
Sam: Do you have a library card?
Shaan: No.
Sam: Okay. So if you go to your local library and get a card — which is free — you can enter your library card into this app called Libby and access unlimited ebooks and audiobooks, as long as your library has them.
Shaan: Only from one library?
Sam: No, no, no, no — it’s like everything. Anything you could imagine is likely there.
Shaan: Yeah, but listen, there’s one major downside, right?
Sam: Which is — some popular titles are only allocated a certain number of copies, like 10. So there’s this book called Catch Me If You Can that I wanted to read — it was pretty popular — so I had to click “Request Hold” and then I got it like three days later. So you just request 10, 20, 30, 50 things, and each thing is released every couple of days. It’s not always instantaneous, but a lot of times it is. It’s called Libby — free audiobooks, free ebooks. It’s pretty sick.
Shaan: That’s kind of amazing. I had never heard of that. I feel like nobody knows about it.
Sam: So they won’t be all checked out when you go do it. At least where I’m from.
Shaan’s Picks: Voice Notes, Compound Interest App, and 10k Diver [00:04:10]
Shaan: Okay, I’m going to give you a few things I’m really into right now. I’ll go quick because none of these are super revolutionary — they’re just things I like.
Sending voice notes in iMessage. I went from never sending a voice note — I was like, “Why is this feature even here?” — and I heard that people in China and Asia love it because it’s slow to type there. But now I’m a dad. I’m always on the go, not by my computer. I’m holding a kid in one arm and trying to type with the other. I have gone all in on voice notes. It’s basically how I run my business now. I’m just sending voice notes all day to my team.
Sam: Dude, I hate voice notes. I hate them.
Shaan: You hate receiving them.
Sam: I hate receiving them. So if you and I are in friend mode, I’m not listening to one. If we’re in work mode — well, I mean, if me and an employee are in work mode, I expect they’re going to listen to mine if I’m the boss. So I get why it’s cool. But if we’re peers and you send me one, I just automatically default to “yeah” as the response.
Shaan: It’s definitely an F-U to the receiver. It’s like, “Sit here and listen to me talk slowly and ramble for a minute.” But hey, that’s kind of what this podcast is, so — whatever.
Shaan: All right, second thing. This app called — I think it’s called Compounding, or Compound. You use this too, the personal finance one?
Sam: Yeah. It’s basically just one app that lets you plug in basic metrics: if you started with $100K and it’s compounding at 6%, in 10 years it’ll be here, in 15 years it’ll be here, in 25 years it’ll be here.
Shaan: And the reason I do this is not because every day I need to run a compounding interest calculation, but every day I should — as a reminder of the power of simple compounding. Warren Buffett has said compounding interest is the eighth wonder of the world, or something like that.
Sam: 100% true. And compounding interest basically breaks your brain — it’s very hard to foresee how a simple difference between 5% and 8% matters over a 10 or 15-year period. But it matters in a big way.
Shaan: Yeah. It’s really fun. I just have this compound interest app. That’s all it does. But it’s simple, and it’s my reminder that slow and steady wins the race — because I’m pretty ADD when it comes to investments, ideas, things like that. So I need to remind myself of the power of compound interest over the long term.
Shaan: Okay. Related: there’s a Twitter account that everyone should follow. I never give Twitter accounts this kind of shine, because we’ve got that influence and it’s going to blow them up. But this person deserves it. Their name is 10k Diver. Have you ever seen this account?
Sam: I love them.
Shaan: 10k Diver is just basic — not personal finance — basic financial knowledge. They’ll do things like: “Hey, if you’re ever looking at a company, have a cup of coffee and sit down, because this Sunday we’re talking about balance sheets — how to look at them, what to learn.” And they just break it down so simply, so beautifully. Every basic finance concept being broken down by this person. They’ve shot up — they have like 250,000 followers now, and after this they’ll have at least 252,000. This account is one of my favorite high-signal things. I normally hate Twitter threads. I love this guy’s threads.
Sam: I find a lot of benefit in reviewing the basics — or learning them for the first time — of something I didn’t really understand. So 10k Diver is my next one.
Shaan: Shout out to that guy Jack — did you see he did a mock thread on these? He goes, “There are 26 letters in the alphabet, but most people don’t know how to use them. Here’s my favorite letters and how to use them. A — A is an awesome letter.” He did this and got like a hundred thousand likes.
Sam: I sent it to him right when he did it. I go, “This is amazing.” That thread did over a hundred thousand — maybe two hundred thousand.
Shaan: That’s hilarious.
Sam’s Fitness Picks: Lacrosse Ball, Goat Milk, and Walking Backwards [00:09:50]
Sam: All right, next one. The trigger point massage ball. When we were at Camp MFM, I had an Achilles problem. You were like, “Hey, you need to use this gun to loosen it up,” and this other guy was like, “Yo, use this” — he threw me a lacrosse ball — “use this to roll out your calf.” And I did. I went from not being able to play to actually being able to play, just because that thing loosened it up so well.
And I forgot to give it back, so I ended up bringing the lacrosse ball home. Two things happened: one, I kind of started loving having a ball in my hand at all times. Like, when I was walking through the airport, I was just bouncing it around. I’m like a little child — having a ball just makes my life 15% better. I love fiddling with a lacrosse ball. It’s amazing. I had it through the airport, on the airplane, I have it at home all the time.
And I’m also using it for trigger point massages — fascia release, or whatever they call it. This thing helps you feel more limber and loose.
Sam: Okay, I have another fitness one that might sound gross, but for somebody out there this might be helpful: goat milk. Do you drink goat milk?
Shaan: Not much. I eat a lot of goat cheese, but no, goat milk has kind of grossed me out.
Sam: Well, goat cheese is the crème de la crème, we all know that. Goat milk — most people are a little grossed out about it, or they just don’t know about it. I got put onto this by my trainer. He said if you want to put something in your smoothies or protein shakes instead of regular milk, use goat milk. For most adults, you’re able to digest goat milk better. And I think the enzymes in goat milk don’t block the protein enzymes. So if you’re drinking a protein shake with normal lactose-based milk, there’s some inhibition where it doesn’t work as well. Goat milk doesn’t have that. So it tastes good and actually works better. Goat milk has been a little trick for me.
Sam: And my last fitness one: walking backwards. This is from the Knees Over Toes Guy’s playbook. I have had knee problems — torn my MCL on both sides, dislocated both kneecaps. I do not have good knees in general, and I’m trying to work on that. One of the things that’s helped me feel better and run better is doing what they call regression movements — basically going in the opposite direction that you normally go.
So let’s say you always sit hunched over at a computer. You need to do specific exercises going in the opposite direction to counterbalance the movement you’ve been habituated to. Most of us only run and walk forward. So back-pedaling is an amazing way to strengthen and push blood flow into the parts of your body that need it. I feel better doing a five-minute backwards walk every single day. Looks goofy as hell walking around the neighborhood backwards, but it’s a thing I’m doing that I enjoy right now.
Shaan: Chad Perry, you’re talking about lacrosse balls and goat milk — god damn.
Sam: First name Shaan, middle name Tucker. I’m here all week.
Shaan: All right, well — that’s One Question Friday.