To be a 'Googler' or a 'Discoverer,' which will you be?

I went to bed slightly agitated this week. The next day would include me making a 3 hour roundtrip drive as part of a business meeting in Lufkin, TX. It’s not the meeting I dread so much. Meetings can actually, if done correctly, be productive. This one usually is. I enjoy the company of the attendees. It always seems to lead to something better for a later date. I don’t dread the meeting at all.

However, the getting there is what wears me out. It’s so much downtime, and I haven’t figured out a way to justify a full-time driver. I’ve actually considered one. The problem with this is I’d feel like I had to talk to the driver all the time. I have a hard time just ignoring Uber drivers or cab drivers. It’s most likely because of some psychological deficiency It’s probably something from my childhood that leads me to believe it’s my job to make everyone around me feel good.

If you’ve ever driven me and I didn’t make you feel good or carry the conversation, don’t tell me. You will only add to my already apparently jacked up insecurity in this matter. Thank you for understanding.

Then there’s the problem of what the driver is doing while I’m in my meeting. I have a friend who was tasked with driving a very high level elected official one night. The elected official and his wife were having dinner at the home of a very well known media personality. My friend was instructed to just wait outside…in the car! For three hours he sat while all these people had a 3 hour dinner. I’m sorry. I’m just not wired to pull something like that off. Do they ever once at the dinner ask, “I wonder how Dan is doing out there?”

Then there’s the fact I’m not the top hat guy from Monopoly. That guy definitely had a driver. I’m not Miss Daisy. So famous was her driver he’s an Academy award winner. Luke Duke had his cousin drive him everywhere. Generals have drivers, but it’s usually in the desert and in an armed vehicle. Noel Gallagher co-founder of Oasis has a driver, but he’s a rockstar, and he’s NEVER driven a car—true story.

That leaves me having to drive. So every time I get in my car I endeavor to find some way to make the trip beneficial to my brain. I first have to get past the fact I will be sitting idly for so long, which thanks to reading so much about physiology and health makes me believe I’m destroying my health by sitting for long periods. If sitting is the new smoking I guess I’m knocking off at least a pack. That’s horrifying!

All that’s really left is to listen to podcasts and books I believe will feed my brain. On this particular day I had a breakthrough. James Altucher produced an episode of his podcast titled “How to be smart.” With a title like that, I’m in. Lord knows I need all the help I can get. “Teach me James. Maybe you’ll teach me how to be smart enough to be worthy of a driver.”

It was at the very end of the podcast James started to discuss information as a commodity. He argued there is so much information out there now it’s just a commodity. This is very true. We have more computing power at our fingertips than was used to manage the Apollo mission. There are 5.6 billion Google searches performed per day! Why? There is so much information out there that’s why. It’s free for the taking. It’s an information gold rush. The problem is there’s no mining for information like mining for crypto with Google.

Instead you have to actually use the information. This is what separates the Googlers from the Discoverers. When I heard this I was like, “Well crap! Just listening to these books and podcast and filling my head with all this information doesn’t really make me any smarter. How can I be someone who wants to discover?”

I couldn’t ask my driver to help. He doesn’t exist. It was all on me. Then like an eco-friendly LED lightbulb going off in my head I had an idea. In executing my knowledge of how to create a podcast I’ve discovered it’s pretty darn easy. To produce a really good one both technically and creatively is difficult. But just getting some audio recorded and out the door is not hard.

How did I discover this? I did it. I wanted to know how to create a podcast three years ago. So I Googled something to the effect of “Tim Ferris podcast setup..click” Within less than a second a YouTube video was delivered with, you guessed it, a link to a video of Tim telling me everything he used at the time to create his podcast. The information was just a commodity.

I had to discover how to use it. I did. I went on the Amazons and purchased everything he used. I then set out to start my podcast.

Now, let’s jump back in my chauffeur-less car on the way to Lufkin, TX. Because I had discovered how to create a podcast the lightbulb was able to brighten. I decided to create a special episode of The Jason Wright Show. I always have these amazing ideas when driving down the road. Why not capture this one and release it as a show? I know how to do it. Why not discover if it’s actually beneficial to my audience? If nothing else the lesson is worth putting out there.

Standby for the first episode of “Ramblings from the Road” episode of The Jason Wright Show. You now have the back story for this little experiment.

What will you endeavor to discover? Don’t just memorize things, discover something. When you Google to find out how much a celebrity’s net worth is (don’t act like you haven’t) learn a story about them. Did you know Jack Nicholson’s mom was actually his sister? Yup. That’s right. I learned that by finding out how many Academy Awards Jack had won.

I challenge you to not just be someone good at reading maps but be someone who can tell me the best BBQ joints along the way. This will help with these dreaded long drives for which I’m stuck driving myself! This can only happen by being someone who has discovered them.

J Dub out…