Selling Plastic and Rubber to Buy Wood and Stone

There’s an old saying you may have heard in some business circles.

“You Sell Plastic and Rubber So You Can Buy Wood and Stone”

It means that people sell a product/lifestyle that is new, untested and possibly harmful to the masses but they use the money from selling it to live a lifestyle that is healthier, time-tested and less obsessed with novelty.

Today we see more of this asymmetry than ever. Probably because there are just way more products being sold now. Way More different lifestyles to buy into. Anything you can think of is being sold. But the people who are selling it aren’t necessarily using the product or lifestyle.

Once you start noticing it, you’ll see it everywhere.

Last week, Tucker Carlson, a media giant with a nearly three-decade career on TV and social media, revealed on Rogan that he avoids modern technology. While trying to send Rogan files, Carlson admitted he doesn't use email, or the internet or have a TV. “I do text. I don’t go on the f—ing internet, I don’t have a TV. I’m not into that. That stuff is bad.”

Joe Rogan was shocked.

He is using the money he makes in media to live a different lifestyle. Tucker Carlson lives in a beautiful estate up in Maine with his kids and his wife.

Or take the example of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Last week he said social media is dangerous because it is programming us and manipulating us. He called it a real threat to our free will. I’m sure he’s right. He created Twitter and sees from the inside what it does. He got rich off of this product.

Jack Dorsey isn’t the one being programmed here. He isn’t sitting on social media all day. If you look at usage rates of Twitter. it’s mostly people sitting during work hours looking to be stimulated/educated during the day.

This isn’t anything new in tech. Many tech executives limit their own children’s use of the very products they create. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs limited screen times for their kids. Today, even Sundar Pichai the current CEO of Google, limits technology use for his children.

Influencers Who Give Up

Another version of this phenomenon pops up now and then. Someone sells a product or lifestyle, gets rich, then abandons it for something else.

Tim Ferris was one of the first leaders of the productivity maxxing movement. His first book, The 4-Hour Work Week, was a best seller. He wrote more bestsellers, had a hit podcast, and kept pushing efficiency and productivity. But now, he ditched that ideology. He thinks too much emphasis on productivity is bad for your soul.

Or take Marie Kondo. She became famous in the 2010s for preaching a minimalist mindset and throwing out things that don’t spark joy. She sold millions of books. But after having kids, she realized this ideology is ridiculous, and now her house is messy.

@hierohero

Marie Kondo has given up! She is now messy and no longer focuses on keeping things clean after her third child. The illusion has fallen… #... See more

The same thing happened to the Tiger Mom lady. She got famous and rich with preaching a tough asian inspired parenting style. She regrets it now. She doesn’t think you should do that.

Or take the example of Daft Punk. They quit electronic music and embraced acoustic instruments and an orchestra. They said the violin will outlive all the music they made. They’re probably right. But they got rich selling electronic music, not orchestral music.

In This Newsletter

1) Examples of Hypocrisy From Twitter: Twitter is a large marketplace where people build brands and then if they have a large following start selling products. But often times, they are selling you something they themselves are not doing. Let’s look at a few fun examples.

2) Why Do We Accept It Today? For most of history, people really cared about whether someone who sold a product or lifestyle used it. "You who caught the turtles better eat them," goes the ancient adage: Ipsi testudines edite, qui cepistis. Today, we don’t care as much. What changed?

3) Elites Do Not Practice What They Preach: It's not uncommon today to see elites who live traditional, stable personal lives promote more liberal, permissive lifestyles publicly.

Fun Examples From Twitter

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