Loading summary
Transcript135 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Welcome back to Firewall. We're recording live here from PNT Knitwear. I'm your host, Bradley Tusk Day Tuesday episode. So where this is our friend and producer Hugo Lindgren. And I'm doing something that makes Hugo crazy, which is parts third wall or whatever it is a fourth wall. We're recording this on Sunday. So happy Father's Day.
- [00:25]
B
Happy Father's Day to you, Bradley. I got a message from Bradley. It was the first thing I read on my phone this morning for Bradley. I appreciated it.
- [00:31]
A
Yep. Yep.
- [00:32]
B
Wishing each other.
- [00:32]
A
Told them we needed more ice. So, yes, we did. So we're gonna do a couple of things today. One is just some thoughts on the Iran deal. Less around kind of analysis of it because that's been. Been analyzed to death and a little more politically kind of. If I were the Democrats, how I would use it. And then my daily news column ran about Mandani. And I want to just kind of walk through some thoughts around the difference between. Between a great politician and a great leader. And then the crux will be my substack that comes out Tuesday called How to Save Time. And I just kind of went through, like, the various things that I do that work for me to be more productive. And hopefully some of them might be useful to you as well.
- [01:14]
B
So let's go to Iran.
- [01:16]
A
Yeah. I was thinking about, like, one of the things that Republicans historically do very well politically is they attack their opponent's strength, not their weakness. Right. Other than Trump, who just attacks everything is not indiscriminately. Yeah. But like, overall, like. And to me, the best example of this would have been in the 2004 presidential campaign when John Kerry was swift. Voted like, John Kerry is an ass. Right. Like, it almost pains me to defend him. But he was a military hero.
- [01:45]
B
Yeah.
- [01:45]
A
Right. Like, he. If anything, part of the argument for his nomination was this guy actually is a war hero. W deferred and got out of it, and therefore that's going to really be appealing. And.
- [02:00]
B
And then was. It was a major peace activist after the war, too, which did make him controversial. And one of the reasons why the Swift Boat thing had such, like, roots.
- [02:08]
A
It did give it. Yeah, yeah. But. But overall, the Republicans did this whole Swift Boat thing to try to make the case that he wasn't actually a hero, which is not. Was. But they did it well enough to get it into the bloodstream well enough that it started to cast doubts that
- [02:24]
B
his main asset was bogus.
- [02:26]
A
Was bogus. And then also it was so brilliant because it took his sort of pomposity and self admiration and grandiosity and everything else and it brought it to another level. Right. So his worst personal quality was exacerbated by the act of seeing something he did that was truly fucking heroic and totally cast aside. Right. So I think there's two paths here. If you're the Democrats around using Iran similarly, one is for the Republican Party writ large and all the candidates and one's for Trump because they are different paths, I think. So the Republican Party would still, I imagine haven't looked the specific polling around this lately, but almost always polls better than Democrats around like, who do you think's better on military? Who would you rather have in charge during a war? You know, all that kind of stuff. Right. And this is a really good opportunity to say the Republican Party launched this war because they got duped into it by somebody else. They didn't know what they were doing. They have a mess of a human being running the Department of Defense. Trump got out of Vietnam just like a lot of other people never served. And they fucked it up completely. This is the most humiliating loss since Vietnam, probably the second most humiliating loss militarily in U.S. history. And we actually ended up with the Alamo. Maybe not, but we lost the war. Right. Because Iran is actually stronger than they were before. We have to give them $300 billion. We have no real way to take out their or stop their nuclear program. They now know they can close the Strait of Hormutz indiscriminately and control the global economy, which they did again yesterday. And we didn't have regime change. We actually put the people who were harder line in power. It was an absolute disaster. These guys don't know what they're doing. Right. And just go after them on that. So that in the competitive general elections for the four Senate seats that will determine control and then the 20ish House, 25 House seats that are competitive in the general election use that might have some ancillary benefit for some of the Democratic candidates in the 36 governors races as well. And to be clear, I'm not a Democrat, I'm an independent. And pre Trump, I sometimes gave money to and supported Republicans more Democrats still. But I did. I haven't since Trump really. But. But I hope to again hope the Republican Party restores some level of sanity and decency. But I would go after them that way and I would really make this a huge focus of their spending and their rhetoric. And they're so busy and I get it because they're trying to win most of them primaries where only the far left votes. But they're so busy talking about ice and talking about all the things Trump does that they hate. And they're not generally wrong about any of those things, but they're just preaching to the choir.
- [05:43]
B
So you think the war supersedes all that in terms of Trump?
- [05:46]
A
I think so, because people felt it in terms of gas prices and people don't like to lose. You know, part of the myth that Trump sold was that he was a winner.
- [05:55]
B
Right?
- [05:55]
A
Right. And he, you know, one, he's not in general, but two, he's certainly not in this case. People don't like to lose. And it's much more recent, like Renee Goode and all that was a tragedy, but it was a while ago now. And like, you know, if they just keep saying the things that the far left wants to hear and no one else, that doesn't win you general elections. So I would do that to the Republicans, but then specifically to Trump, I would less even about military and more just that he lost. Right. I would like, for example, like the Jersey Shore where they have all these planes with the banners behind. I would just endlessly have in every single beach in America where you have that just a plane with Trump lost behind it in every single one. I would have endless paid media, social media, earned media around Trump is a loser. And then you go through, he had to file for bankruptcy this many times. All these different real estate, casino projects all failed. He lost in 2020. He just lost here. Donald Trump is a loser. Nothing will drive him crazier than that. And it will exacerbate all of his worst tendencies and qualities. And consider that he's already at a historic high for his own unpopularity and for pretty much presidential popularity in modern history. It will cause more and more and more unforced errors because he will be totally unraveled. And he has a team around him that doesn't do anything but say yes. So he doesn't have any protection from himself. And, you know, look, there's still 30 to 35% that probably supports him no matter what. And we saw that in a lot of Republican primaries this year where he endorsed someone against the incumbent one. But, you know, basically this is someone for whom, when you look at the polling, there's no. No opinion. Right. It's pretty much adds up to 100. And you can get to a point where we're not far already from there. I've seen polls that have my 62% disapprove so if you add in 30 to 33, there's not that much room left. But I think you could basically capture the entirety of whatever's left into a dislike disapprove. And that will. The act of calling him a loser will cause him to just do in more and more crazy shit. And of the people who are not in that 30 to 33 ish range, their tolerance has already clearly waned a lot because a lot of them are already saying, I don't like him. You will deepen their dislike for him. If you think about the election in 24, Trump got 51%, which means that if roughly a third of the voters will always love him no matter what. There was that other 18% of the American electorate that picked him. Right. And they picked him for a lot of reasons, you know, some of which were the context of the opponent. Right. Harris was an unappealing candidate. People were livid that Biden lied to everybody. There were certainly things like inflation that people were angry about and upset about. So some of it was capitalizing on that. But some of them also were people saying, well, I don't like him that much, but they found enough.
- [09:00]
B
Not weak.
- [09:01]
A
He's not weak. He's been a good businessman this, that, you know, he might be a little over the top, but. But some of his policies aren't bad, whatever it might be. Wokeism has gotten out of control. And I think that's what put them into his camp. And I think you can basically harden all of them against him. That'll impact their votes this November and it'll impact their votes in the 2028 presidential. And then finally it will take the 2028 presidential primary on the Republican side and make it that much more treacherous for all the candidates. Because if a third of American voters love Trump no matter what, then of a Republican primary, that's like a majority, right? And so you can't attack him and distance yourself from somebody will. But overall you can, because that's not successful. But then the more and more you embrace him, the more that's gonna get thrown in your face for whoever wins the nomination. And that's going. The more that you've hardened opponent views against Trump and made him just his own worst enemy, the more that that's gonna hurt that person in the general. So I just think there's like manifold benefits to doing this, but it requires the Democrats to be a little different and unconventional from what they're used to and from what they will be told to do on Twitter and Blue sky and Everything else. So it always gets back to the same problem with the Democrats, which is do they have the balls to say no to the base and do they have the willingness to do things that might not be in their comfort zone?
- [10:35]
B
So one of the. I don't know if this is a concern exactly, but the timing of this, of Trump really desperately trying to get a deal, get out of the war, seems likely to be based on the idea that we're still several months off from the election and that he can put this safely in the rear view that the gas prices will go back down. And there was no incident in the war that burned for Americans. Right. There were no 200 Marines dead and an explosion in Lebanon, like happened under Reagan. No. 9, 11, like thing of thousands of people dead. There's like a sort of low cost feel to it for Americans. And. Or that will be certainly presented.
- [11:15]
A
What do we lose?
- [11:16]
B
What did we lose Americans? Does that, like, how does the Democrats make sure that like that message doesn't like.
- [11:22]
A
Well, one is we just lost. Right. So Americans have a culture that they like winners. Trump successfully presented himself as a winner. That's why he won twice. Right. So one is, I think just the act of losing itself is one, two people remember what they spent on gas prices. Look, it might be that this strategy works better in June and July than it does in October. You know, that's possible. Right. But also, keep in mind, you're assuming that everything's sort of copacetic over there going forward.
- [11:54]
B
No, I definitely don't assume that.
- [11:55]
A
But you're what you just did the hypotheticals, right. And you have another factor that works in the Democrats favor, which is Bibi Netanyahu is up for reelection in October. And, and he, I suspect, believes that his only shot is to have ongoing war of some kind, because his only argument is that he's a wartime president that can keep Israel safe. And so I think he will concoct shit. Now, look, I think what works well for him in this case is Hezbollah will keep attacking, right. And he'll keep responding with overwhelming force,
- [12:28]
B
and that'll just keep the war.
- [12:30]
A
So Hezbollah is effectively Iran. So then they'll keep closing the strait, which means gas prices might not settle down. And, and so the nature of the Middle east, there's a reason why no fucking president has ever succeeded there is that it's so unpredictable and it's so crazy and the downside risks are so obvious. Right. That like, I just think that the idea that nothing's going to impact Americans here on out till the election is low.
- [12:58]
B
So one of the sort of unusual developments over the last couple of weeks is that the Vice President Vance has like seemed to want to own this peace negotiation. I guess according to what you read, it wasn't just thrust on him. He wants this.
- [13:14]
A
Yeah.
- [13:14]
B
Is that just crazy on his part?
- [13:17]
A
I think it's interesting. My guess is this because someone, Issa, my girlfriend last night asked me a version of the question which was why isn't it Rubio? And my answer is just my analysis, but was it Rubio has leverage right now. Well, meaning they, they can't afford for him to walk away. Right, Right. And he might be looking at everything thinking probably should distance myself. And one way to do this, obviously just this, you know, two years secretary once you get to the two year mark, okay. That's sort of a normal term for a lot of people. Right. So like he might be incentivized to do that anyway. Plus starting to prepare his presidential run. And they will look so bad if he walks away right now that I think he actually has leverage over the President.
- [13:57]
B
Right.
- [13:58]
A
And my guess is part of it is behind the scenes he's fucking push Vance and being like, I'm not fucking going, you deal with this. You know, my guess.
- [14:05]
B
So all that stuff about them being good friends and being partners.
- [14:08]
A
And my guess is that he at some level probably warned against the war in the first place because one, he's not stupid and two, he's very cautious guy, right? So he already probably has the predicate of having been right. And probably not been for the war the entire time. So one is someone has to go. So if the guy, if one guy has leverage and one guy like Rubio, if Vance has nowhere to go, right? Because if he steps down as Vice president, odds are he never holds office again. Right. He's just done politically completely. So one, why cut that in half? And two, you know, he could only win the primary by being the most MAGA Trump guy, right? And so he's got nowhere to go. And then also I think Trump can tell Vance what to do in a way that he can't quite with Rubio in the same way right now. Right. And then third, Vance is a schmuck, right, and is desperate. He's like Trump, he's so desperate for attention that he'll take it in any form possible, good or bad. And four, it's pretty clear Trump doesn't like or respect Vance, so he likes mocking him and Megan humiliating him. And so you put all that together and I Just think that's. There's no real choice.
- [15:20]
B
Do you think there's anybody, like, on the inside? It just seems like everybody close to Trump has got to be miserable. Like, it just feels.
- [15:28]
A
I'm not sure, because you're assuming rationality by them and you're assuming a standard of like, well, I'm just assuming he's
- [15:35]
B
an asshole to everybody.
- [15:36]
A
That's all true. But I think that someone like Stephen Miller just says to himself, look at me. I am one of the most powerful people in the White House.
- [15:44]
B
Yeah. I'll take.
- [15:45]
A
This is the greatest thing in my
- [15:46]
B
life comes with that.
- [15:47]
A
And this is the price to pay. And by the way, that's still looking at. From a somewhat rational standpoint, it's probably more like the I am incredibly powerful and important. And my guess is that they then treat their staff like shit. Right. And it just goes all the way down. And I think that's how it's supposed to go. Yeah.
- [16:04]
B
Do you want to talk about our mayor? Do you have nicer things to say about him than he did about Trump, or.
- [16:08]
A
No, not really.
- [16:10]
B
No, not quite as consequent.
- [16:13]
A
I mean, to me, I think part of the thing is that the debate around Mondami, both in the election and so far, is sort of a very conventional political one of like, liberal versus conservative, socialist versus capitalist, Zionist versus anti Zionist or anti Semite. And I think that's sort of the wrong way to look at a job like mayor. Right. Having worked at City hall in Philadelphia, Fred Rendell at City hall for Mike Bloomberg, and city government for the Parks Department, what I really learned is it is a very operational job, and it is a job where your responsibility are the people who live in your city and their best interests. It's not ideology. It's not politics. It is their best interests. And the difference. There's a big difference between a great politician and a Great leader. Right. 95% of people in office are somewhere between okay and great politicians. Right. And a great politician does what we talk about this podcast all the time, that they think about who's gonna run against them potentially in the next election. Mostly it's the primary that matters and who's gonna vote. And as long as they can lock in the people who are gonna vote, they'll be okay. Right. And that's why most incumbents do get reelected, is because they're smart enough to know who that is and to govern for them. A great leader, and there are not many of them, but says, I understand that some decision might not be Popular, but. But I'm going to do it anyway because it is the right thing to do and my job is the best interest of the, let's say it's mayor of New York, the eight and a half million people that I serve, and however it's perceived, so be it. What's more important is doing the right thing and knowing that, you know, Mike Bloomberg was very much the epitome of that in my experience. He really did care about how he felt about himself, but he really did not care all that much about being criticized for, for not doing something politically popular. He was a great leader and I was thinking about that in the context of Mondami and he's unquestionably great politician. His nick speech was great. He gives great speeches, he makes great short form videos, he makes funny tiktoks, he's exceptional at that. He's a generational talent. But I just kept seeing examples over and over again of him not only not putting the people of the city first, but even worse. I don't even know that they understand it. Like, I don't think, I think they think that likes. What do you mean they, Mondami and his team. I think they think that, you know, social media popularity is the end, not a means. Right, right.
- [18:59]
B
And they think that's the, that's the mark of winning.
- [19:00]
A
That's the mark of winning and success. And I don't think they even understand it. And so my daily news column was sort of for examples that particularly struck me as evidence of him either understanding it, not caring, or I think even worse. I don't think they even get it right. And so the four one was, we talked about four, the E bike thing where I had worked with Citi Bike and with Mayor Adams team Randy Mastro, specifically to require age verification for E bike rentals. Because Lyle, my son Lyle and his friends were hoping, flying about their age, it was very easy to get around their thing and hopping on E bikes and recklessly racing all over the city without helmets. And you know, that was just indicative of kids overall doing it. And it was easy enough to put in some sort of age verification that would just prevent them from doing that. That's it. Not the most complicated thing in the world. And Citi Bike spent six months building a system that was very good. I've been walked through it. And then at the last minute Mondami revoked it and said, oh, facial recognition is racist and collecting personal data is wrong, so we can't do it. Now. Those are, you know, very much dsa beliefs what the problem is facing.
- [20:13]
B
To think how much data is collected everywhere else.
- [20:15]
A
Well, that's the first thing these fucking idiots like, they. You can't use cash during a city bike, so they're already collecting data on you because you have to use a debit card or credit card to pay for it, to even get it.
- [20:26]
B
Yeah.
- [20:26]
A
So the idea that they're not number one. Number two, you can collect data and then destroy it immediately. So it's not like, oh, for now, in the system, we're tracking everyone. Number three, the same people they're worried about are on Facebook and TikTok and all these other things. Constantly and endless data is being collected about them. And so, like a drop, not only did they kill a system that will save kids, and by not having it, it will. Kids will die. When I went through the Citi Bike solution, you can even not do the facial recognition. It wouldn't be as good, but it'd be, say 80% is good and still do it. And you can delete whatever data is collected so you could meet the Mondami ideological goals. And they refuse to even do that. They just don't care. Like, all that cares is the headline.
- [21:16]
B
Or is it they just wanted to
- [21:17]
A
block it because facial recognition is racist.
- [21:20]
B
Right. So that's.
- [21:20]
A
They live in a world out there,
- [21:22]
B
therefore they're gonna see.
- [21:23]
A
Yeah, that's it. So that's 1, 2. Last winter was the coldest winter in New York in 45 years. And you have a lot of homeless people in New York. And the DSA does not believe in breaking up homeless encampments. You have a right to sleep on the street. And Mondami, eventually, he reversed this after tragedy happened, but refused to allow the NYPD to break up homeless encampments. And 20 people and 18 specific to this, froze to death because of his policy. Had he just done what Adams and other mayors had done, those men would be alive today. And he killed 18 people because he put his ideology ahead of actual human beings. And if I were the families of those people, by the way, I would launch a class action suit against the city and say, you recklessly endanger the lives of our brother, son, father, whatever it is, and you must be held accountable for that. Not that Mondami would care because it's city money on his own and. But nonetheless, I would. I was too, if I were them. And then again with Ken Griffin. We've talked this on the podcast before, but you know, Mondami's desperation for raising income taxes, which is controlled by Albany is the product of two things. One, he has no idea how to balance the budget without just getting more revenue. And two, raising income taxes on the 1% is really important to his base because his base are people who feel like their failure to be in the 1% because they were close enough to try to. And they didn't make it based on either the career choices that they made or their inability to succeed in those professions mean that the people who did are inherently corrupt and evil, and they must be punished. And that's what social justice is to them. Mondami failed miserably in getting Albany to do it.
- [23:11]
B
Hochul.
- [23:12]
A
This was the one year where she would have needed him. She's up for reelection, and she still didn't do it, which means his leverage is gone completely now.
- [23:20]
B
And
- [23:23]
A
so to throw him a bone, they said, how about a pied a terror tax, which is. We discussed, just a much higher property tax on people who have second homes in New York valued at a certain amount of money. And Ken Griffin is one of those people. And he has a $238 million apartment, which is beyond insane to me, but, okay, he has it. And Madame did a physical protest outside of. Outside of Griffin's home to publicly humiliate him when he didn't have to, because it was already going to pass. Like the tax was in. The bill was in no way controversial.
- [24:02]
B
It was just to score social media points.
- [24:03]
A
And it was to do that because he failed so miserably on his income tax increase and his corporate tax increase
- [24:10]
B
that just wanted to win.
- [24:11]
A
He needed a win. But he needed, because it's such a meager, tiny little thing, he had to make it seem a lot bigger than it was. And so he deliberately picked this fight. Wasn't an accident. It was deliberate. And he picked this fight knowing that if it was Mondami versus Griffin, the media would jump all over it, which they did. And he so publicly humiliated Griffin that Griffin, who was looking at a $6 billion project that he was going to do in New York City, now may do it in Miami instead. And that's 15,000 jobs. And by the way, it's not hedge fund traders. It's construction. It's security. It's it. It's graphic design, it's secretaries, it's all that other regular people, you know, you. You imagine that you Mongolian ran for office, you're a New Yorker, said, you know what? It really isn't affordable here. And so you support him, and then he makes it impossible for you to make a living I mean, the best way to make New York affordable is to let people make money. And he blocked that and hurt 15,000 real people in order to take a tiny win and make it seem bigger so that his base would think he delivered. And then finally, when this comes out, will be the day of the congressional primaries in New York. The way Congress works is it's a seniority system. So the House is likely to go back to the Democrats this November and there are incumbents who are facing tough primaries. And if you are a mayor, all you should care about is, is the ability of your congressional delegation to deliver more federal funding for your city. That's it. And so Adriano Espiat, who is congressman from upper Manhattan, I think probably parts of the Bronx, and you can like him or not like him, I mean, whatever, but he has seniority. He's been there for a while and he's being challenged by like an ultra, ultra, ultra left person who Mondami is supporting and helping. And if she does win the primary, when the Democrats do have control of the House in January, she's going to be among the most junior members, both in the delegation and in the House, which means her ability to direct any appropriations is zero, whereas Espiat would have meaningful ability to direct appropriations for New York and bring money back to his district and bring money back to the city. Dan Goldman in Brooklyn hasn't been there that long, but longer than Brad Lander will be. And Lander's very likely to win this primary. Unfortunately, Dami supported land.
- [26:36]
B
Does it surprise you how, I mean, that Dan Goldman turned out to be so weak in his reelection efforts?
- [26:42]
A
No, I mean, I just think that what happened to him is Brad Lander's such a. But he's popular in his area and he is supportive Maimouna and he is very willing to capitalize, even though he's Jewish, on all the anti Semitic momentum in the Democratic Party. And you know, so look, Goldman, I think just is suffering from a bunch of macro factors that just he probably wasn't able to overcome. I don't think it's really him per se. And look, to his credit, talking about leaders versus politicians, he knows who votes in his primary and it's not people who love Israel and he does believe in the strength of Israel and has said so and is going to probably lose his seat over it. That is principled.
- [27:31]
B
Right.
- [27:32]
A
But nonetheless, he would have more seniority than Lander will.
- [27:36]
B
Right.
- [27:36]
A
And he would be able to bring more funds back to New York than Lander. Well, plus Lander such an annoying guy that like his colleagues in Congress are going to hate him and it's not going to help him.
- [27:46]
B
He doesn't seem like a legislator type.
- [27:48]
A
No. And I again, I don't know that madame even understands any of this. Right. Like you don't think he understands, but
- [27:55]
B
somebody, somebody close to him is talking like this. Right.
- [27:59]
A
Either no one is because he's only surrounded by 24 year olds, or no one is because he's trumping in the sense you're not allowed to say no to him. We don't know.
- [28:07]
B
Do you think that's true that he,
- [28:08]
A
like that he just, I don't know, shuts down? The number of mistakes he keeps making is so significant that you wonder. I know everyone talks about Dean Foulihan, who's very old and is the deputy mayor, but you know, because full hands qualifications are your for de Blasio and Shelley Silver, just because you're old doesn't mean you're good. And just because you're old doesn't mean that you have the balls to tell the principal no. Right. And so maybe he does, I don't know. But like, I'm not willing to just assume that he's got a team of rivals around him simply because Dean Foulihan is there. And so look, again, I don't know if Mondami knows all of this and chooses to still ignore the best interests of New York for his own kind of politics or if he doesn't even realize it. By the way, I don't even know which one's worse. But either way, it's the reality of it. And when you judge Mondami, it shouldn't be how do you feel about socialism or Israel or the far left? It's is he a leader or is he a politician? He's a politician.
- [29:11]
B
Well, it's interesting that he's sort of championing like the actual Democratic socialists over the progressives, which might well have the effect of pushing the progressives more to the middle, right?
- [29:19]
A
I mean, maybe, yeah, maybe. But I don't again, I think for him it's all optics. Right? So it's the likes on the TikTok video. And by the way, I don't even know for him if the likes, if it matters whether they're from New York City or from somewhere else.
- [29:37]
B
Right. So those are some of the races we'll actually talk about. We're going to have Chris Coffey on Thursday. You talk about the results of the election. So we can obviously revisit all of this. Once we know.
- [29:50]
A
Yes. So, look, I think as listeners, this podcast now, I'm pretty productive. I've got multiple businesses and foundation and content, all that kind of stuff. I think I'm a pretty engaged father and son and brother and boyfriend and friend. You know, I work out every day. I go out and do lots of stuff. I read lots of books. Like, I'm pretty productive. And I was just thinking about, like, what are the things that I do that kind of help me save time? And the point of this column is not about optimization. It's not about maxing. It's about just trying to cut out things that waste time so that you have more time for whatever matters to you. And what matters to you could be anything, right? It might be being, you know, using more time for work.
- [30:35]
B
I don't think you mentioned that you're also a serious Mets fan too, and go to a lot of games. Games.
- [30:39]
A
Did you mention it? No, but I do. Yeah. Between Knicks and Mats, I probably go to at least 60 games a year. So, you know, whatever matters to you is more important than almost all the ways that you waste time doing the things I'm about to talk about. So my hope would be that of the 20 things on here, some of them might be things you haven't thought of before that you want to give a shot. And, you know, not everything on here will work for everyone. And there are things on here that are, you know, for a reflection of the fact that I have the money to spend to save time and I choose to do that with my money. Right. Is to buy my time back.
- [31:12]
B
You're not buying the $238 million apartment, right?
- [31:15]
A
I would rather have the time. I couldn't afford that anyway. But, but. So that's it. So, number one, no social media. So I don't think anything more I can tell waste more time these days for people than just infinitely looking at Instagram or TikTok or YouTube or whatever it is. I just don't use it. I have a couple of accounts, I think a LinkedIn and Instagram that Corey manages. I don't even know the passwords. If I want to do something on LinkedIn, I have to ask him to do it. And I just don't use it. It is not part of my life. And as a result, I think I save massive amounts.
- [31:49]
B
Just go in. Someone must send you links of things every now and then. Do you not even look at those?
- [31:53]
A
Nope. Okay, if it's an article, I might look at it. But if someone sends me a TikTok or an Instagram thing. I just. Yeah, no doom scrolling, no TV news, Right. So, like, obviously to do this podcast, more important to do my actual job that makes money, I have to know what's going on in the world. But there's a big distinction.
- [32:09]
B
Sometimes it can feel like doom scrolling, right?
- [32:11]
A
Yeah, but there's a big distinction between either watching MSNBC or Ms. Now, or they call it now or Fox or whatever, cnn, whatever it might be, feeling like somehow you're doing something virtuous and you're learning and you're somehow therefore contributing to the solution, which of course you're not, but you're not. Right? Like, that is the least efficient way to know what's going on. Reading is a lot faster. And so I read a couple of newspapers a day. I listen to a few podcasts that I find interesting. Occasionally I'll check a headline, but that's really it. And then doom scrolling. I think there are people that find it like they think they're being noble. Like, look how much I'm suffering because the world is terrible. You know, nail me up on the cross. And it's like, it's not noble, it's an addiction. It's like you're a drug addict or a gambling addict or a porn addict. Like, that's all it is. Don't fucking do it. Third, answer text and email immediately. So if there's something that I need to respond to, if I at all can, I just handle it immediately, right? I don't let things pile up or linger. And if there's something I can't deal with immediately, you know, depending on what email program you use. But I use the star function on Google and I have a list of start stuff and I go back to it at the end of the day and I don't finish the workday until I've dealt with it. But at the same time, number four would be being, being decisive about what not to respond to. Right? So we all get spammed. But putting that aside, you know, I just get tons of calls and emails and texts of things that don't require a response from me. I'm cc'd on it, or it doesn't merit a response, or I don't want to get into a long back and forth with someone and I will choose not to. And I choose then and there. Now occasionally I probably choose wrong, but overall, you know, I don't.
- [33:56]
B
But you're also pretty responsive to stuff overall too. I mean, more than probably a lot of people who have as Many employees.
- [34:01]
A
But that's in part because, you know, I'm productive, but it's also in part because I just do it immediately. Right. And so people who I think feel like I'm super responsive, it's that it might be the amount that I write back, but it's also the fact that they just get a response right away. Right. And I think that sort of feels really good to most people. Number five is get stuff done in writing rather than calls or meetings whenever possible. So I think people just default to, like, let's have a zoom. And, like, sometimes you need to. But oftentimes an email or a memo or whatever it is can take care of it. And fewer meetings is better. Like, again, you're not accomplishing things by having more process. People really refuse process and results, and they think that by having a lot of process, they're somehow working hard. You're not. You're just sort of, you know, wasting everyone's time. And so sometimes you have to have a meeting, but a lot of times you can resolve it without having one. And whenever you can, you should. And you should think about that next is that meetings don't have to go the whole time. So if a zoom is scheduled for 30 minutes or 60 minutes or a meeting is scheduled wherever it is, and you've accomplished what you need to accomplish in halftime, just end it. Right. Okay, we've done what we need to do here. Let's give everyone their time back again. I understand that basically every meeting I'm in, I'm in a position to do that. And most people might not be, but, you know, there are ways to suggest it politely. And also, you may have a boss that just loves wasting time and process and is not a particularly productive boss. That's totally possible.
- [35:34]
B
But if there's a lot of those.
- [35:35]
A
Yeah, yeah. But you might have a boss that wants the time back, too, and is happy to have someone suggest in a polite way, like, hey, I think we're good, you know, next, outsource as much as you can afford to. So, again, I recognize that this is a place where having money helps, but I don't do shopping. I don't do reservations. I don't do dry cleaning. I don't do scheduling. I don't do laundry. I don't do apartment cleaning. I don't pay bills. I don't cook.
- [36:03]
B
What's the one chore that you do like to do? Is there one that you just. It just makes you feel like a human just to.
- [36:08]
A
I mean, shine your shoes? No, with Cleaning. It's like, I mean, the cleaning lady comes once a week and I clean the rest of the time.
- [36:16]
B
Right.
- [36:16]
A
I don't scrub toilets usually, but like, you know, take out the trash and do the dishes and all that stuff I obviously do every day, you know, takes.
- [36:24]
B
But there's not one that makes you, that you just like doing
- [36:28]
A
that's totally unproductive. No. Because if you're doing it, it's because you like it more than the things that you, your hobbies and things you actually like.
- [36:36]
B
Right.
- [36:36]
A
Right. And so. No, I don't think so. Next is hire the best people and keep them. Right. The hiring process itself is a huge time consumer. And so when I find good people, I really try hard to hang on to them. I don't micromanage people try to have a culture that makes people want to work for us and to stay. When people are not fitting into that culture, we try to now get rid of them as quickly as possible. Because you're just going to waste more and more time trying to make people something that they're not. And if you have a team that you truly trust, it makes it a lot easier for you to change your focus to something else and take on new projects. Next one is use time pockets wisely. So if I have a few minutes between meetings, like, I don't scroll social media, I don't look at YouTube, I answer emails and texts. I might even, you know, sometimes I'll write a column in five minute increments between.
- [37:33]
B
Yeah, sometimes. Or maybe an episode of a TV show.
- [37:36]
A
Yeah, whatever. But like, but if you, you might say to yourself, oh, it's just three minutes, just seven minutes, whatever it is, if you use them productively, consistently, it really adds up.
- [37:46]
B
Yeah.
- [37:47]
A
Next is travel efficiently. So for flights, I only care about the best departure time. I don't care about status, I don't care about miles. I don't even fly the same airline to and from necessarily. Right. It's whatever fits my schedule best. Again, that's probably one that works better for people who have enough money. They don't need to care about things like miles. But overall, I really do think that there's, there are just more efficient ways to travel next, make to do lists and know what needs to get done. So for years I just wouldn't end the workday until every call, every text and every email was dealt with and the next two next days to do list was written. I actually stopped doing a to do list about two years ago because I felt like I was living too Much to just cross things off the list. And it was keeping me from living in the present. But at that point, the. The habits were so ingrained, didn't matter. Right. And so if you are not ultra productive, I would say to do lists are.
- [38:39]
B
Start with the to do list.
- [38:40]
A
Really important. And I think the idea of not ending your day until you've dealt with everything from the previous day and you've made the to do list for the next day is a good habit. Next, establish and stick to routines. I mean, routines work for a reason because they forced you to do what you need to do. So like, I work out every day. It's typically around the same time or six days a week. And I make sure there's room in my schedule for it. Because if the more chaotic your approach is to your routine or your schedule, the more chaotic your life's going to be. Next one is, sleep is productive. Right? It took me a very, very, very long time to understand that. I really wore that, like, I'll sleep when I'm dead thing with a badge of. As a badge of honor for way too long. It was a terrible idea.
- [39:21]
B
What age did that happen at, like last five years, ten years?
- [39:24]
A
Yeah, yeah, last five, probably, you know. And did I get a lot done? Yeah. Did I have a lot to do? Yes. But at the same time, I leaned into it and the truth is, had I slept a little more, I probably would have been more productive and more important, happier. Right. Like, your mood determines your happiness in many ways and sleep dramatically impacts your mood. So just from an ROI standpoint, it is extremely worthwhile. Next, write things down. When I have an idea or realize something I need to do, if I can't do it then and there, I write it down so that I know I'll come back to it and I don't forget. Next, get help when you need it. No one is perfect. No one's infallible. We all struggle in different ways. And when you need help, white knuckling it instead is usually not the right approach. Seek it out. So for me, that's weekly talk therapy. It was marijuana anonymous for a while. It's different for everyone, but there's lots of forms of help out there and for different things, and it's ultimately far more productive to take advantage of it. Next, Know the activities that you really enjoy and prioritize those. I think people might say, like, all the time. People say, well, I love to read, but I don't have time. That's not true because I read a hundred books last Year. And I guarantee anyone who said to me doesn't have as much going on as I do. Right? And so what they do do is they waste time on all the other shit we've just talked about, and therefore they don't read. If they're more productive, they'll have more time. And then you have to prioritize it again. Just like you use those five minutes between meetings to answer emails or write or do actual work. You know, you use the pockets of free time you have. Maybe it's longer than five minutes for reading, but sometimes it's not for me, by the way, to read. Like, one of the things I do do is I have my Kindle on my phone, and when I'm on the subway, if there's not work to do, I just read whatever I'm reading. And it might be five stops, but, you know, it might be two pages that I read, but it's still two more pages, so whatever that is, Right. It could be traveling for me, it's, you know, reading, going to Nets, Mets and Knicks games, traveling, going to museums, wandering around cities, trying different restaurants. Like, those are mine. Someone else might have a totally different list of hobbies. Mine tend to not involve nature or anything like that, or even physical, right? Like, I work out, but that's not a hobby. I just do it because I need to do it. So people might have a totally different list of hobbies, but whatever they are, they only happen if you prioritize them and just being wistful about it is not actually doing it. Next, proactively work on relationships. So, as we say on this podcast constantly, the two things in life that are proven to make people happy are relationships and unconditional love and support and things that you do that give you meaning and purpose. And I keep a list of the 50 people most important to me, and I go through it about once a week, and I reach out to people I haven't spoken to recently and just, hey, how's it going? And you know what? No one's ever responded with, why are you bothering me? Right? Worst case is, hey, great, nice to hear from you, hope you're well. Best case is we end up making plans to actually do something together. But I, you know, relationships are like anything else. It's like going to the gym, right? You have to put the work in. And if you do, you will have better relationships. And if you have better relationships, you will be happier. Next, spend your time editing. I'm curious your thoughts on this one, but I truly believe when I'm writing something, the best thing I can do is just get my thoughts on paper as quickly as possible. It really doesn't matter how the quality. And then use all the time I have between after that to whenever I have to put out editing. Because the magic is in the editing. The work is in the editing. Pieces get better.
- [42:59]
B
I think they're both work, but I totally endorse the thinking behind it. But I think for me, the editing comes much more naturally and it's actually the other part that's harder.
- [43:10]
A
Okay, but, but, but either way, I would say where work improves materially is going to be in the editing. It's not laboring endlessly over every sentence to the last possible.
- [43:21]
B
Oh, for sure. I agree with that.
- [43:24]
A
Next, know what doesn't matter and just stop wasting time chasing it. So society tells people to pursue things that just often don't matter all that much. So status is fleeting and generally useless except in your head. You certainly need enough money to live on and do what you want to do. But beyond that, you know, if you're focusing on like I want to have a certain number of level wealth, that's just fucking dumb. Nobody cares. And by the way, if you're associating with people who do care, you got the wrong friends. And the ultimate thing would be, you know, chasing likes on social media. I hope so. Ran into this. And then the last one is know what you can and can't control. So this is kind of like the AA Serenity prayer. But if you can understand which things you can control and what you can't, you can stop wasting time and energy on things that you can and you focus on the things you can. And that's true for anything, not just, you know, dealing with an addiction. And the more that you can on the front end, figure that out, the more that you can then use your time efficiently and productively. And then finally there are just, you know, life goes up and down and there are periods of life that are just exhausting. Right. You know, when you. There's a reason why people's happiness is usually at their lowest in their 40s. And it's obviously not universal, but it's because it's oftentimes when people have younger kids and they're really trying to build their career, 30s too. But I think kind of just the shifts in society have pushed that a little later. And those are hard, you know, so let's say 35 to 45. Whatever you want to say is like you're just going to be tired and you're going to be frustrated and stressed. And, you know, now that I'm in my 50s, it gets easier. So you just also have to accept that depending on where you are in life, sometimes it's just going to be harder. And that's how it goes. So, look, these are things that work for me. Doesn't mean these will work for you. Doesn't mean all these are realistic or affordable or useful for you. But if you do feel like you don't have enough time, then, you know, some of these ideas might be worth considering.
- [45:09]
B
Nice. Well done. I think I'm going to. As I'm listening to you, I think I'm going to do. I'm going to live like Bradley Tusk for a week. I'm going to. I'm not going to take every single one of those, but I'm going to
- [45:18]
A
like making the limitless.
- [45:19]
B
No, I'm going to where I'm going to report back on it. I'm going to take six. I'm going to pick six that are actually the ones that are most unlike anything I do.
- [45:25]
A
Do you remember the Seinfeld with George, stop somehow stop thinking about sex? And he like learned like eight languages and it all went away.
- [45:31]
B
But like, yeah, yeah, I'll give the presentation in French. So you're off to. You're off to San Francisco this week.
- [45:39]
A
Yep.
- [45:39]
B
And then we're going to do. We're going to do. You'll be on a remot recording with Chris to discuss the results of Tuesday's election.
- [45:46]
A
Yes.
- [45:47]
B
Primary election in New York City. You have a recommendation?
- [45:51]
A
Oh, yeah. This is a super local one, so it only works if you live or visit New York City, but went to a Mexican restaurant in Ridgewood, Queens last night called Hellbender and it was just, it was great. The food was great. It was nice to not be in Manhattan.
- [46:03]
B
What kind of restaurant is Hellbender?
- [46:04]
A
Mexican.
- [46:04]
B
Right. What kind of Mexican?
- [46:06]
A
Like, is it Mexico City style? It wasn't Oaxacan or Yucatan or Pacific. So I guess that by default would be kind of interior. Urban Mexican. Urban Mexican. And the food was great. The crowd was. It was just vibrant. It was fun. And it's also just fun, especially for those reservation there.
- [46:27]
B
Did you have to wait?
- [46:28]
A
No, I just went on Resi and got it. It was pretty easy. And then I would say for those of you who live in Manhattan or even parts of Brooklyn, that, yeah, if you live Brooklyn, you're not far from Ridgewood, probably depending given where most sort of like people who probably listen to this podcast would live. But for those of you who live in Manhattan and just kind of like, never leave Manhattan, like, you're really just wasting this amazing opportunity. Like, New York's an incredible city. It's got incredible stuff throughout the five boroughs. And it's fun and it's interesting and it's great. It's often cheaper to just go check out a borough, go check out a neighborhood, walk around, you know, see something you don't normally see, try something you normally wouldn't try. Like, it's really one of the things that makes New York great.
- [47:13]
B
Yeah, I love Ridgewood.
- [47:15]
A
Yeah, you've always been a Ridgewood fan.
- [47:17]
B
All right, good trip, Bradley. I'll see you next week.
- [47:22]
A
Firewalls recorded at my bookstore, PNT Netware, located at 180 Orchard street on the Lower east side of Metro. We'd love to hear from you with questions, feedbacks, or idea for a guest. Just email me at Bradleyirewall Media or find me on LinkedIn. And to keep up with what's on my mind in my latest writing, please follow my new substack@bradleytus substack.com. thanks again for listening.