Have you seen the Retro Codex? Really,

really cool website. So, it's a website

that teaches you things that you learned

in school that are now disproven. So,

you can go in and look at what year you

graduated high school

and it'll tell you what you learned in

school and have now been disproven.

Jared, can you pull this up for me? So,

um I put this in as 2000s, which would

be for me and George. Uh lightning never

strikes the same place twice. Uh

lightning has struck several places

multiple times. Empire State Building is

struck approximately 25 times a year. Uh

wearing red near a bull will cause it to

charge. Bulls may not be able to

distinguish the color red from other

colors. What triggers the bull is

movement and physical provocation, not

color. The red cape is to conceal blood

stains. Uh goldfish have a 3-second

memory. Goldfish retain memories for

weeks, months, and possibly years.

George Washington had wooden teeth. He

did wear dentures, but they were made of

other materials such as tin, gold, and

lead. Human teeth from enslaved

individuals. It's a bit gnarly.

Uh you need to wait 20 to 30 minutes

after you eat to swim or you'll get

stomach cramps and drown. There's no

clinical evidence for that. There's

another one. Go a bit further down for

me.

>> see. Oh, if you roll your eyes they'll

get stuck.

>> and folk wisdom checked on the top left.

I was like, I don't recall getting

>> Uh go down a bit more. If you pee in the

pool, everyone will know cuz it'll turn

water green.

>> Hot water washing hands is not Go back

up. than cold water. Yeah, right there.

Interesting. I'm learning a few things.

>> Water temperature has not been found to

impact the antibacterial efficacy of

hand washing. Uh I didn't even know

that. After a person dies, their hair or

fingernails can keep growing.

>> Who who who thinks the Earth is the only

planet with water? I don't know I don't

know about that.

>> But in the 2000s, might you have thought

that cuz Pluto being a planet would have

been true when we went to high school.

>> Yeah, yeah, yeah, true.

>> Uh brown sugar is healthier than white

sugar. Yeah, I just thought it's it's

nice to find and then obviously all of

this stuff with the food pyramid, that's

got turned literally upside down.

>> So, some of these will end up being

overturned, too. But yeah.

Um oh, for sure.

>> I I think when I was thinking about, you

know, the way kids are educated, I think

that schools do something that I think

in some cases it like stay at least they

traditionally that is that is maybe the

right thing to do which is you teach the

wrong story.

The simple wrong story first just to

like let the concepts and then later you

start to build the nuance and you

realize that the but that's a kind of

like you like Thanksgiving. I think it's

I I think it's I learned early on that

Thanksgiving was this like wonderful

thing and the pilgrims came and the the

Indians at the time the Indians were

like everyone was happy and they had

this nice feast and

or you know, just like Columbus

discovered the new world but like no, he

didn't but like and just like keep it

let let the basic story sink seep in and

then later you can be like actually like

that this is like an allegory kind of

for that that represents like a much

larger more complicated much nastier

story often and I think sometimes right

now what they're doing is they're you

know, out of kind of

I don't know, you know, kind of

political reasons or whatever they're

they're they're teaching kind of very

very like you know,

um

kind of a hardcore first story to really

young kids right away that um

>> They're front-loading the gnarly

version.

>> Yeah, exactly and maybe going too far

even in that direction

when

like I think I think I mean I this is a

whole other can of worms but I think

that maybe I want to

>> But but they disguise it

>> I I know I think that um

I do think American children should be

taught first all these good right things

about America. They should learn that

they're in this great country that's has

complicated they've not been perfect but

they've done a lot of great things.

Um and it's this wonderful thing and

patriotism and be really proud and then

later

later then you can learn a lot more

nuance. Or it's the same reason that I

think you shouldn't be teaching your

kid, you know, that like you think your

dad's a good person but actually you

know, he cheated when in his 20s like

you know, you know, that he like did

that you know, he got fired like you

don't do that. You start with the dad's

great of course and then later in life

when the kids an adult you start I don't

know this is part isn't controversial

anymore. You start to then say you know,

dad

you know, dad can say to you, you know,

yeah, I'm not perfect. I did this and

this but like

Yeah.

>> You don't need to front load.

>> Kids are kids and like it's a very

different kind of person to teach.

>> Well, also because I mean I remember

talking to

very close friend of mine who's got a

bunch of kids. Wonderful guy, very

successful in what he does. And I asked

him what his parenting advice would be.

And his first rule was

you need to teach your kids to be

optimists

because action flows from optimism and

agency flows from optimism, right? And

so what you're describing sort of

creates a picture that you don't want to

aspire to engage with and seems

antithetical to that.

>> two you know, second, third, fourth

graders just hammer climate change,

climate change, the your future's

destroyed. Like what why? Who thinks

this is a good idea?

>> Right.

>> Little little kids.

>> Well, then the older generations are

like, oh my god, these younger

generations are so apathetic. I'm like,

yeah, you're getting waterboarded

with

existential threat all day, yeah.

>> I guess it makes sense that the younger

you are, the more neuroplastic you are,

right? And even like statements like

that are quite reflexive. So if if you

go on if I go on the news tomorrow and

say it's it's going to be a sunny day, I

have no impact on whether it's going to

be a sunny day. But a reflexive system

is if I go on the news tomorrow and say

there's going to be a bank run.

I have an impact on whether there's

going to be a bank run. And if you go in

thinking America's a terrible country,

that's going to be quite a reflexive

thing for your entire youth. I mean,

it's quite funny listening to an not

that you were complaining

but an American talk about the lack of

patriotism in their country.

>> of funny with two Brits next to the two

of us.

>> Yeah, it's kind of like Chris talking to

me about like how he's frustrated with

the size of his forearms right now. You

know what I mean?

>> I'm like, okay,

okay, I understand but

yeah, I think it's interesting for

America to be going through that when

you're still by far the tallest

in the room.

>> Right. Totally.

>> And and by the way, there's so so much

British history to be proud of.

>> Oh, don't get me started.

>> This negative lens

>> Don't get me started, Tim. I I I

I said this to Chris previously, that we

are the most insecure

in terms of internal reputation versus

external. So, if you travel anywhere

else in the world, apart from a few

places,

they often like love the UK. Um but

internally, they often criticize

themselves the most. I'll never forget a

friend of mine um

uh came uh his sister came home one day

and she said,

"You know what?" She goes, "Britain is

the racist country on Earth."

And he paused for a second and he just

said, "Compared to what?"

She couldn't answer.

>> [laughter]

>> It's that line about capitalism, it's

the worst system apart from all of the

other ones.

>> Yeah.

>> It's just a crazy distortion, lands, and

it's so self-defeating and it's like

this crazy Yeah, I

Jack Butcher's got this great line. He

says, "Unlearning is 100 times harder

than learning."

And if you're laying down those myelin

sheets and some kids who's 5 years old,

6, 7, I don't know when you start to

understand what climate is and what

power structures look like, but

yeah, you're probably best starting off

with generalized optimism and getting

into specific pessimism or specific

scrutiny as opposed to generalized

scrutiny.

>> maybe, you know? Like maybe a little

middle school elementary school is just

is just, yeah.

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