The Importance of Truth and Debate

You know what? That's a good question. And I don't know if I can actually answer that because most of the people that I learned from, they're all like no bullshit type of people and they don't really buy into the pseudoscience and the woo-woo stuff and all that. But I guess if I'm going to have to give you an answer and I don't give her enough credit, it would probably be my mom. So education was a huge thing with my parents, especially with my mother. And man, looking back at it, if my mom hadn't... My mom taught my sister and I how to read when we were three. So reading and searching for the truth and that type of thing and being a champion for the truth was always something that we were taught from a very young age. and I've always carried that since then. And she obviously taught you to question stuff as well because that's a big part of, I guess, what you do is to, not just to learn but to question why something's taking place. Yeah, 100%. 100%, like one of the, probably one of the, what I feel is probably my best attribute that I got from my mother is being very stubborn and always searching for the truth and being someone who never backs away from a debate or an argument. If I think that somebody's throwing out some bullshit, it can be a huge character flaw, but it's also a huge positive bonus if you know how to kind of harness it and move it in the right direction So I think my wife would probably not say the opposite of that of what I telling you but it been a huge driving force for me because for me the truth is all that really matters. Yeah, but that's obviously been a big thing for you, I guess, online as it creates a little bit of a stir online because you'll call out someone And you'll say, you know, and I think that's probably part of the reason for, I guess, your success in Muscle Nerds, creating sort of that, I guess, buy-in from people and seeing that you're able to sort of question those people. Yeah, but, you know, here's the thing. Like, I sit back and I say, okay, if I say something stupid, I absolutely 100% want people to call me out. So it doesn't make you the most popular person in fitness when you're calling people out. And I try not to put names to anything. And anytime we say something about something that someone's doing anonymously, we get like 8,000 emails of hate mail of somebody thinking it's about them. But it's probably not. If you think it's about you, it's probably not. But if you think it is, then maybe you should start thinking about the things you're doing. But yeah, it's a weird position to be in because I didn't really want that. But I hate the drama. Sometimes I secretly love it. But for the most part, I hate it. And I don't really want it. But it's kind of part of the job. And when you're in the position that we're in where you are, okay, we're like we are teaching young coaches how they need to be looking at science and searching out for the answers and all that and how they need to be conducting themselves. And if they're going to be idiots about things and say things that aren't true, then they're probably going to expect to be called out. And that's not a bad thing because if we don't call each other out, then we're never going to look, we're never going to find where the truth actually lies, you know? So we're huge into having discourse with people. That's totally fine. And debating, and there's been a lot of times where, you know, I've gotten on my soapbox and preached something and somebody showed me where I was wrong and I had to kind of go out in public and say, hey, I was wrong. So this is what the actual truth is. And so, you know, we're not above criticism. You know, nobody is, and that's the way it should be. Yeah. And that's obviously how you learn as well. If you make a big mistake, that's obviously going to be a powerful teacher. Oh, huge. Yeah, absolutely. And that's how we learn, right? So you say, hey, this is what I believe. And someone else says, well, actually, this is the way it really works. And then you go, oh, yeah, you're right. Okay. I'm not going to teach that anymore. That's how it should be, right? Yeah, exactly. Can you just speak about Muscle Nerds and sort of how it was created and how it's become, I guess, a positive online community for coaches to go and the resource that you provide?