Backlighting & Friction Maxxing

Summary

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Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: "Backlighting & Friction Maxxing"

iHeartPodcasts | January 28, 2026

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Overview

This episode of Armstrong & Getty On Demand explores two timely lifestyle trends: "TV backlighting" and "friction maxxing." The hosts—Michael, Joe Getty, and Katie—kick things off with a lively discussion about the surprisingly immersive effect of LED TV backlights, then segue into a deeper conversation about modern convenience, technology-induced stress, and the intentional embrace of "friction" in daily life to build resilience and human connection.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. TV Backlighting: Immersion on a Budget (00:14–03:36)

• Michael introduces a New York Times article lauding TV backlighting as a "powerful upgrade” to home entertainment experiences.
  • LED light strips, especially popular since the pandemic, are now cheap and easy to install.
  • “They burn out… we went and got brand new ones for a total of like $11. I mean, they're just so cheap. And you can really make your room look cool… you can run it off your WiFi and change the colors from your phone” – Michael (00:45)
• Katie shares her practical experience setting up backlights for her partner:
  • “It sticks to the back of the TV, and then it has this little contraption… it’ll do this light sequence that lights up the whole wall behind the TV along with what's happening. And it is so cool.” (01:49)
• Joe Getty remains skeptical but starts to come around:
  • “It could be something like... it includes what you're seeing in front of you in your more peripheral vision, which is the way we perceive the world...” (02:58)

Notable Moments & Quotes

• “All I know is now this reviewer and you. That's two people that say you can't believe how cool this is. So I'll just kind of take their word for it and get it myself. And it's cheap.” – Michael (02:43)
• “I don't think I get the appeal exactly… Are you on mushrooms right now?” – Joe Getty (02:10)

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2. Friction Maxxing: Rediscovering Inconvenience (03:39–13:29)

What is Friction Maxxing? (03:47–07:10)

• A social media trend encourages people to intentionally embrace life's minor inconveniences, such as not sharing locations, buying physical cookbooks, or inviting friends over without tidying up.
• “Friction maxing is the process of building up our tolerance for, quote, inconvenience. One way is to stop sharing your location… stop using ChatGPT… buy a cookbook… invite people over without cleaning…” – Podcast Host (03:47 & 06:47)

The Case Against Hyper-Convenience (07:10–12:10)

• Joe Getty draws parallels to the "slow food" movement, urging people to experience ordinary tasks—like grocery shopping or ordering takeout—without technological shortcuts.
  • “Don't order your groceries and have them delivered. Go to the grocery store and walk around and get them.” (07:10)
• Katie is wary of some suggestions (like turning off location sharing or not cleaning before guests), especially regarding safety and practicality.
  • “If someone asks, where are you? And I have been murdered and no one knows where I am, it's going to be hard for me to answer. So I'm not turning off my location.” (07:44)
• Michael relates with examples from his own life: washing the car by hand as friction maxxing, using a map instead of GPS, and the strange discomfort modern people feel over phone calls.

Phones, Social Stress, & Lost Communication Muscles (09:16–13:21)

• The hosts riff on the modern aversion to phone calls, with Michael admitting he feels "attacked" when someone calls instead of texts:
  • “Somebody called me... I had the reaction, but it's—oh, my God... Am I in a position to take a call here?... It was obviously better... The fact that we were going to continue to text over this is insane.” (08:42–09:16)
• Katie finds unsolicited calls intrusive and stressful:
  • “If you're just having like a random conversation and then all of a sudden your phone rings... That's mean. You've cornered me. I feel trapped.” (09:25)
• Joe Getty laments generational changes:
  • “The phone used to ring, and you'd go pick it up... there was zero, zero nervousness or anticipation about it. Like zero.” (10:40)
  • “We have let the muscles of this will be fine go completely lax.” (10:40)
• The group agrees that modern tech is making people less comfortable with basic social tasks, from ordering food in person to having phone conversations.

Notable Moments & Quotes

• “It's annoying [when people aren't watching the show with you]. You're supposed to be having a communal experience, a shared experience, and they've opted out in front of you.” – Joe Getty (05:50)
• “Nobody is ever invested in what they are doing entirely, which is where the joy is. But you know what, you people, good luck. It's me and Joe Getty's in woods mellowing the F out commune. If we're doing one thing, we're doing that thing.” – Joe Getty (06:06)
• “The absolutely inescapable unhealthiness of the whole smartphone thing is making an impression on people and they're realizing it.” – Joe Getty (12:10)
• “These poor kids will never know what it was like to make a good crank call.” – Katie (13:21)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On TV Backlighting:
  “You can't explain until you have seen it how magical it is and what it does to the whole immersion TV experience…” — Michael (01:41)
• On Friction Maxxing:
  “These are just like things that we used to do all the time but that now we have really tried to replace with technology.” — Podcast Host (07:02)
• On Phone Discomfort:
  “It's so strange. I don't even know what's going on in my own brain, but it was some sort of apprehension.” — Michael (11:20)
• On Social Flexibility:
  “We have let the muscles of this will be fine go completely lax.” — Joe Getty (10:40)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:14 – TV Backlighting introduction and personal experiences
• 02:58 – Joe Getty theorizes about the immersive effect
• 03:39 – Transition to friction maxxing
• 03:47 & 06:47 – Definitions and examples of friction maxxing
• 07:10 – Parallels to the slow food movement
• 09:16–10:14 – Phone anxiety and generational shifts
• 12:10 – Hopeful note on younger generations putting down phones
• 13:21 – Nostalgia and “crank calls” punchline

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Tone and Style Notes

The episode is filled with characteristic Armstrong & Getty banter: skeptical, self-aware, and irreverently humorous. The hosts mix cultural criticism with personal anecdotes, all while maintaining an informal, conversational style that lets listeners feel like part of the discussion.

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For anyone curious about backlit TVs, frustrated by modern tech's impact on human connection, or interested in lifestyle trends that push back against convenience culture, this episode is a punchy, insightful listen with plenty of laughs along the way.

Transcript

[Podcast Host]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Michael]

Guaranteed Human friction Maxing. What the hell could that possibly be? It's one more thing.

[Katie]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

One more thing.

[Michael]

Before we get to that, New York Times had this article. I knew TV backlighting was cool. I didn't expect it to be such a powerful upgrade. I had not heard of this concept. Now, LED lighting, as this guy writing the article talks about, really got hot during the pandemic for some reason. I think it was like the technology just happened to meet it up at a time when everybody was stuck at home.

[Joe Getty]

Time to change their light fixtures.

[Michael]

But they got super cheap. Like these light strings, LED light strings. I mean, they're so cheap. My son has them all around his room. He's at them for a couple years. They burn out. The other day we went and got brand new ones for a total of like $11. I mean, they're just so cheap. And. And you can really make your room look cool. Different colors, and then you can have them, you know, for an extra five bucks, you can run it off your WI fi and change the colors from your phone or all kinds of different things.

[Joe Getty]

What am I, a hippie?

[Michael]

In this scenario?

[Joe Getty]

I've got lamps like normal people.

[Michael]

Dude.

[Katie]

The TV ones are. Must have.

[Michael]

Okay, so interesting, this backlighting thing. He says for very little money, you get these LED strips that you put behind your tv and. And then they change colors with, like, if your TV goes to a dark scene or a red scene or a light scene, whatever the general color is, the lights light up in the back of the tv. And he says, you can't explain until you have seen it how magical it is and what it does to the whole immersion TV experience on your. Your big screen TV till you get these backlights. And so you've done it, Katie?

[Katie]

Yeah, I did it as a surprise for Drew.

[Michael]

Cool.

[Katie]

And it is like you said, it's like the string, it sticks to the back of the tv, and then it has this little contraption that just barely comes over the of the tv so it can pick up the colors on the screen. And as you're watching, it'll do this light sequence that lights up the whole wall behind the TV along with what's happening. And it is so cool.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Okay, two questions. Are you. Are you on mushrooms right now? Are you. Answer the question. All right, so I don't. I don't think I get the appeal exactly.

[Michael]

I don't.

[Joe Getty]

Is it that the whole it's real and you're there with it or what?

[Michael]

What's the deal?

[Katie]

It just in. I. And I really can't expl either other than it just enhances what you're watching.

[Michael]

That's a word this guy used. An immersion. You're just more immersed in the.

[Katie]

I mean, even when you're watching sports, it'll change. You know, it changes color with the court or the field. And it just.

[Michael]

All I know is now this reviewer and you. That's two people that say you can't believe how cool this is. So I'll just kind of take their word for it and get it myself. And it's cheap. Most. Most examples I had, they were pretty cheap.

[Katie]

Cheap and easy to.

[Michael]

Cheap and super easy to put up. So I'm going to do it this weekend.

[Joe Getty]

So, yeah, I totally believe that. I'll appreciate it when I see it. It occurs to me it could be something like. It includes what you're seeing in front of you in your more peripheral vision, which is the way we perceive the world. I mean, if I'm looking at a green football field off in the corners, where I'm not really perceiving much at all is a green football field. So it's more immersive.

[Michael]

I don't know. I will explain on the Monday because I'm going to get it this weekend and try it out and my kids and I will really dig it.

[Joe Getty]

What do they call it? Back of the TV led.

[Michael]

He called it LED backlighting. TV backlighting is what he called TV backlight.

[Joe Getty]

Fair enough.

[Michael]

So check that out now. So now you know what that.

[Joe Getty]

Love some shrooms. Damn hippies.

[Michael]

Now we know that it. That is. But do we know what friction maxing is? Let's listen to this.

[Podcast Host]

Friction maxing is the process of building up our tolerance for, quote, inconvenience. One way is to stop sharing your locations that you have to ask where are you? Stop using chat.

[Michael]

Stop it again. I had this problem earlier in the show. We played it. I don't know how you tick tock people haven't killed yourselves already. If this is what all TikTok is like, the pace makes me nutso.

[Katie]

They speed them up. There's. There's a feature you can.

[Podcast Host]

But why?

[Michael]

Why do you want to be made nutso?

[Joe Getty]

Well, it is making people crazy.

[Katie]

Yeah, it's making them crazy. But people have to watch your videos a couple of times.

[Michael]

Oh, that's right. You pointed out earlier, if I can't catch everything the first time, I click on it again and then again. And so I click on it three times. To get the information, and they got three clicks, so that might actually be the point. Okay, I'm gonna really try to focus on this.

[Joe Getty]

Well, that's the young people. They got the attention span of a gnat. So you can't even pause for a second lest they say, I need more.

[Michael]

Input, more stimulation, more endorphins. I had that experience you were talking about with one of your daughters or one of your kids. I was sitting there. We're watching something on tv, me and my son. And he's like. He's got his phone in his hand. He's looking at his phone and me and occasionally the tv. I said, aren't you interested in this? No, I'm interested. Well, you're not watching it. Yeah, I am. Okay. It looks to me like you're looking at your phone and me and other things just as much as the tv. That's just the way I do it.

[Katie]

Okay, then you do the woman thing and go, all right, well, then what just happened that we're watching?

[Michael]

That's a good one.

[Katie]

You have no effing idea.

[Michael]

Can I use that tone of voice?

[Katie]

Totally. Why not?

[Michael]

But, like, were you making your husband watch some sort of Jane Austen drama pick? I can't remember what we were tuning out on that.

[Katie]

Yeah, I can't remember what we were watching. It was something he picked, and I looked over, and he was on his phone every time I looked over, and I was like, do you. Should we just turn this off?

[Michael]

I'm watching it.

[Katie]

And I went, all right, well, then what just happened?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, that's what happens.

[Michael]

There is something annoying about you're sitting down to watch a show with somebody and they're not watching it.

[Joe Getty]

Well, yes, it is, because you're supposed to be having a communal experience, a shared experience, and they've opted out in front of you.

[Michael]

Right. And then I'll laugh or I'll say, oh, my God, or whatever, and they don't react because they weren't watching.

[Joe Getty]

Right, Right.

[Michael]

It's annoying.

[Joe Getty]

And nobody is ever, Lord, forgive me for using this phrase in the moment. Nobody is ever invested in what they are doing entirely, which is where the joy is. But you know what, you people, good luck. It's me and Joe Getty's in woods mellowing the F out commune. If we're doing one thing, we're doing that thing.

[Michael]

Right? And you have to read your pamphlet before you join where the joy is. And you go there and get your joy on.

[Joe Getty]

And the disclaimer form is long, by the way, hold Harmless.

[Michael]

Still don't know what friction maxing is because this person talks too fast. But I'm gonna really try to listen this time.

[Podcast Host]

Friction maxings is the process of building up our tolerance for, quote, inconvenience. One way is to stop sharing your locations that you have to ask, where are you? Stop using ChatGPT. Buy a cookbook, text your friends for advice, go to the grocery store, invite people over without cleaning, babysit for someone. These are just like things that we used to do all the time but that now we have really tried to replace with technology.

[Joe Getty]

It reminds me of what's the trend? Slow something or other. Slow food. Slow food. Yeah, the whole don't order your groceries and have them delivered. Go to the grocery store and walk around and get them.

[Michael]

So is the friction just the. It's a bigger task, more annoying, but it's better for you in the long run. Is that where the friction comes in? Like more. Add more to your task to get more out of it?

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Michael]

Okay.

[Katie]

Two of those.

[Michael]

I think I kind of get that.

[Katie]

Two of them annoyed me. One Joe pointed out earlier, inviting people over without cleaning first. That doesn't prove. And as a female, if someone asks, where are you? And I have been murdered and no one knows where I am, it's going to be hard for me to answer. So I'm not turning off my location.

[Joe Getty]

Well, Right. And my wife and I have our locations on all the time and I don't want to bother her. Yeah, you know. Hi, what's up? Yeah, I just wanted to know where you are.

[Michael]

Well, you don't like those examples. That makes sense. But how about just the concept of.

[Katie]

I like the cookbook idea?

[Michael]

Don't know if I can think of an idea. Would it be like, wash my car with a bucket and sponge and water instead of hire someone to do it? That'd be friction maxing and that's somehow better. Yeah.

[Katie]

A lot of map instead of gps.

[Michael]

Talk on the phone versus text.

[Katie]

Oh, God, no.

[Michael]

That one is so weird. And every time I do it, my experience. Maybe yours is different, Katie. Every time I do it. Somebody called me the other day and I. I had the reaction, but it's. Oh, my God. I was texting them something and they called me back and said, take it back. And I said, ah, I know. Am I. Am I in a position to take a call here? I. I guess I could. What might they say? I don't know. So I pressed the green button and I answered it. And he answered this somewhat complex question. I had for him on the phone I had a file. It was fantastic. I mean it was. It was obviously better. It was obviously the smart thing to do. The fact that we were going to continue to text over this is insane.

[Katie]

Oh, okay. That, that situation makes sense. But if you're just having like a random conversation and then all of a sudden your phone rings and you know it's going to be just a chit chat.

[Joe Getty]

Nope, that's.

[Katie]

That's mean. You've cornered me. I feel trapped.

[Joe Getty]

Wow, how interesting. Yeah, I know what you mean. But.

[Michael]

Well, and you can't let it go to voicemail. I've been in that situation before because.

[Katie]

You know my phone's in my hand.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

You know, I'm free enough to. To. To text, but you can't talk to me.

[Podcast Host]

Oh, okay.

[Michael]

I have trapped you. I. I'm in surgery right now. I was texting but you know, I totally get that.

[Joe Getty]

And.

[Michael]

And.

[Joe Getty]

I was texting right before I went into surgery. They're cutting on me right now. I'll talk to you later. Click TT well, but that feeling of stress. This is some serious now. That feeling of oh my God, what are they going to say? How long is this conversation going to be? Whatever that. That has never existed before.

[Michael]

No.

[Joe Getty]

In the history of humankind. And it absolutely. If you extrapolate that to young people being nervous and like upset and unsure of something that ought to be as routine as anything can be.

[Michael]

That's why everybody's so stressed.

[Joe Getty]

It is weird. Unable to cooperate and can't order a pizza. And the rest of it we have let the muscles of this will be fine. Go completely lax.

[Michael]

Well, we're the last generation that will be able to say this because we'll be dead and there'll be won't be anybody left who's had this experience. But the phone used to ring and you'd go pick it up. You didn't have the slightest idea who.

[Joe Getty]

It was or who they were calling for with other people.

[Michael]

And there was zero, zero nervousness or anticipation about it. Like zero.

[Joe Getty]

Unless you're a girl called you. But that's a different thing now.

[Michael]

Somebody I know is pick is phoning me and I know what the topic matter is. I'm so.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Michael]

Is this a good time for a call? I don't know. This seems really weird.

[Joe Getty]

Okay. You're literally already communicating with them right now. Yep.

[Michael]

It's so strange. I don't even know what's going on in my own brain, but it was some sort of apprehension.

[Joe Getty]

It's Unhealthy as hell. It felt, it really is.

[Michael]

Like, I don't know if I felt attacked, but it did feel a little like, wow, you're really getting into my space here now with this car. It's like, yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, oh, great. Now I've got to make time for you. Oh, wait a minute. You're my friend. I hold you dear. I love you. Oh, right.

[Michael]

I texted you. Ask a question. That is so weird. And again, those of us who can only compare the past to now will be gone. And everybody else would just think, well, this is the way it's always been. Always been scared to death of any communication with all other people.

[Katie]

So you got your phone. Why are you calling me.

[Joe Getty]

Hell?

[Michael]

Very funny, Michael.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Although the kids in increasing numbers are putting down their phones, that is a serious trend among the young. I think there is at least some hope that the absolutely inescapable unhealthiness of the whole smartphone thing is making an impression on people and they're realizing it.

[Michael]

Yeah, I got, I got one kid that thankfully is perfectly okay with, you know, walking up to the person at the restaurant and ordering the food and all this. Does. Can't understand why that bothers somebody. But I got another kid that's like a lot of young people today. It's like, oh, can you order for me? I just, I don't want to. I don't feel like I'm in the mood to have to. Yeah, to go up there and say, I'd like a quarter pounder of cheese and fries.

[Joe Getty]

Okay.

[Michael]

But I know, I know some. I know some full on grownups with like, jobs that pay the rent that really hate the idea of having to walk up there and order a cheeseburger. I don't know what we're doing to ourselves. It's like, did you get attacked once you order a cheeseburger and they came over to the register, Just came right.

[Joe Getty]

Over the counter, you mother.

[Katie]

These poor kids will never know what it was like to make a good crank call.

[Michael]

Oh, well. Well, I guess that's it.

[Podcast Host]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.