Adam Has a Podcast Episode 25; Fun

*intro*  Hey, did you know that fun is quantifiable? I didn't until I came across an article on ri.com that described the fun scale. They broke fun down into three categories. Type one fun is plain old, good fun. Type two fun. is fun, that is fun in retrospect. Maybe it's something that's difficult to get through, but when you look back on it, you say, that was fun. And type three fun is something that just wasn't fun at all. Not in retrospect, maybe it wasn't even fun sounding going into it. Now, in the article, they talked about these types of fun in relation to mountain climbing. And I felt like that intrinsically made a lot more sense than  when trying to categorize everyday fun. But the scale does relate to everyday fun. So I spent the last couple of weeks and months trying to figure out where would everyday activities fit in this fun scale? And what I figured out pretty early on is that fun is pretty subjective. Everybody's personal preference towards what is fun may be slightly different so I thought it would be fun and interesting to do this one Dora the Explorer style where you follow along with me as I make a V diagram and fill it in with the different types of fun. When we're done, you can email it to me at adamjcapello.info at gmail.com. That's ADAM JC.P L L O at gmail.com Or you can send it to me on some kind of social media. You can text it to me or you can just choose to listen along. So, a V diagram makes the most sense because I feel  like in the different types of fun, there are overlaps. And there's definitely a triad in there where there's something that seems like good fun. It might have, you know sounded like it would be fun in retrospect, but then it just ends up not being fun at all. So let's start out here. I have a glass, a big circular glass, and I'm going to trace around it to make my first circle. And then I'm going to move it to the side a little bit so I can make an overlapping circle towards the left. And then I'm going to move it towards the right, but make sure that that triad is right there in the middle. They all overlap. Okay. Cool. We have three almost perfect circles. Now I'm going to label the top one type one. and that's good fun and I'm gonna label the right one type two that is I'm gonna label it fun in retrospect. That's a good title for it. Retro. RETRO SP EC CT in case you didn't know. And then the third one is type three, not fun at all. and as I was filling this out, not only is fun a matter of personal preference, it's also like a matter of maturity and age, because as I was feeling this out, I realized there were some things that I would have called good fun that ended up being fun in retrospect. But I also discovered kind of a flaw that if you're trying something new and it ends up being fun, that's type two, right? But then if you do it again and again and again, doesn't that make it type one because it's just good old fun at that point? So I think type one and type two kind of have a lot of overlap in them. And I actually would label in the middle of the two, like an equal sign, maybe, because they're pretty equal to each other. So I would say when you are filling this out yourself, anything that you would put into type two fun in retrospect should be questioned against its repeatability. How often do you do do it? And if you do it, you know, more than once or twice a month or a year, if it's something that you do quite often, even though it might be kind of grueling to get through, I would maybe put that into type one because that just might be good old fun to you. That's what it is. To this, everything is pretty personal. So to you, my type one, good, fun might be your type three, not fun at all. I also feel like not fun at all is an easier place to start. So I'm going to start with Type 3 fun, not fun at all. And I think that something like traffic would definitely go into type 3 fun. I was in traffic the other day. Oh my God. I, my God. I tried to have fun. I tried to like listen to music and shit, but after a while, like the music was too much and I was just like hot and bothered, bro. And I would also maybe put Looking for Park. That is definitely not fun or at all. Those two things suck, bro. And on the website, they were like climbing the most difficult mountain ever, like climbing mountain Everest. I get that might be like not fun at all for you, but I ain't the type to climb mountains. Anticipation also, I guess, would go in there. I don't like anticipating things. That's not really fun to me. When I get too much anticipation, it makes me anxious, and I'm like nervous and I can't think straight. So I would say anything that makes me anticipate too much, not fun at all. I almost don't want to do it. But the square root of type three fun, I feel like the real nitty gritty of it is that you're just incompatible with the thing that you're trying to do. It's not in your wheelhouse of things that you enjoy. You're just it's not with you. So I think that is a great way to transfer over to type one fun, which is just good fun. And that would be anything that you're compatible with, right? Anything that you just enjoy, like drawing, I'll put drawing in there. But anything that you are innately inclined or compatible with doing, that would be like type one. Anything that you're just like, I like reading. Reading would be in the middle of type one and type two for me. Because sometimes I read a book and it sucks. And I'm like, that sucked. Actually, so then wouldn't that make it type three if it wasn't fun at all, reading the book like Catcher in the Rye sucked through and through but reading as a whole, I remember reading Diary of a Wimpy Kit books. Th really fucking fun as a kid. But then I also remember reading things like Hatchet and Percy Jackson. And sometimes Percy Jackson was a little bit difficult to get through. But afterwards, I had a lot of like knowledge in my head and it and I had a lot of enjoyment that I was able to squeeze out of the novel. So I would think maybe that would be our first triad, actually, was draw a little arrow and put reading in the triad, because that is one thing that can be all three. And actually, reading is just a form of media. So maybe like all media should go in the middle because you have those movies that you could watch over and over and over again. Those are good fun, but then you have those movies that suck and you never want to see them again. That's type three fun. But then you have a movie like Amus, which, for the first time from me watching it, I was a little bit confused. But then afterwards, I was like, damn, that was a really good movie. I'm going to watch that movie again. And I guess that's like the conveyor belt from type two to type one is if you're doing shit repeatedly, it's now becoming type one fun. But we have everything in a category for the main category except for type two. So let's work on type two right now, which fun in retrospect, maybe something like trying a new workout would be fun in retrospect. Let's write that in trying new workout because sometimes going to the gym is daunting. You don't want to go to the gym, but like, and maybe like the day after your arms really hurt or whatever. But then, like a couple days later, you go to pick up something that was, you know, maybe a little bit heavy to you beforehand and you find out that that gallon of milk is like picking up a feather now. I think that's the real fun part of working out is seeing how far your strength has progressed or your stamina or your endurance or whatever. It's afterwards you get to really feel the improvement that all of that hard work made possible. But also, that would only really, maybe trying a new workout actually would go in between type two and type three because what if you try a new workout and you don't like it and it like tears a muscle on you? It's just like wasn't the workout for you, you know, incompatibility again. It's just some people, you know, they can't work out in the same ways that other people can because of injuries or whatever have you. So then you try a new workout because you think it'll be good for your injury and it ends up hurting. I think that would be not fun at all. Dang, fun in retrospect is kind of difficult. Fun in retrorospect. What would be. Oh, okay, so maybe doing these podcasts, for me, I could put podcasting in there. Because it is always nerve-racking, at the beginning. It is always difficult. It is always.. Like soon as I press, record, I always get a little fluttery and nervous, but as soon as I actually get into it, it's fun. But you know what the thing is, though, no matter how many times I do it, it is still kind of daunting to me at the beginning. Each time I have a new idea or I go into a new episode, it's still daunting. So I think that might be the barrier for good fun, something that no matter how many times you do it is still a little scary to you, but then you would go and do it again, that would be like fun in retrospect, but definitely not good fun at all because you're making yourself nervous beforehand. Maybe that would be like something like bungee jumping. I've never gone bungee jumping I I would like to if anybody knows anybody that can get me bungeied on the cheap and is highly rapidable. I don't want to go to the cheap bungee that has like fucking 20 year old elastics that are ready to snap. Maybe bungee jumping is the one thing that you should spend some money on. But, yeah, bungee jumping, that seems like something that'll be fun in retrospect, because I think no matter how many times I get up on that ledge and I know that the wire is attached to me, I would still be nervous as shit. There's been times that I've been jumping off of shit. I've always been, like, terrified, even though I've jumped off of like way higher stuff, and I know that it's going to be okay, I still get like,oh. It's just scary jumping off of something. That's why Batman is so cool 'cause you could just run across them roofs like it's nothing.. What would be in between good fun and not fun at all? I think, like, I'm just going to put the word preference.. Discovering preference, maybe. when you try something new, that's definitely like. a possibility for all three categories. So maybe trying something new, trying new stuff should go in the middle with media into the triad. New things, I'm just going to put, because it's a very small spot. New things. Because all new things have a potential to be in any category, but your preference is what dictates it from being good fun to not fun at all. So for me, good fun, going to the movies alone. That is really enjoyable. I'll put that right in here. Movies alone. That's type one, good fun for me. But for you, that might be type three. That might be not fun at all. That might be something that is like terrifying to you. And like, you just, I can't do it. I can't even even fathom thinking about going to the movies alone. It sounds terrible. It sounds like a bad time. Don't have anybody to fucking tell jokes to. Don't have anybody to cheer or chat in the theater. But it's fun. You get to pick out all your favorite snacks, and then you get to the theater, you, you know, sitting in the middle of strangers. You could still make jokes. Sometimes I've gone to the theater and I've made jokes in the middle of theater. Jokes have been so good that people next to me laugh. I've been just sitting there by myself. Do you know how much confidence that takes a ridiculous amount? Because you start thinking about it in your head and you're like, "Nah, man, just stop thinking about it, say it." That's always been like my my area that I've needed work on is learning when to be more spontaneous and learning when to put the spontaneity away. But in the podcasts, it's, you know, that's kind of the place where you're allowed to be as spontaneous as possible and come up whatever the fuck you want to say. But looking at it, it looks like we pretty much have all categories filled up with at least one thing except for in between type two and type three. So find retrospect and not fun at all. I think the sim I'm going to put like how I did in between one and three, I put like the similarity between them. More the major difference between them. I think that the major similarity between fun and retrospect and not fun at all is looking back you have to look back in order to tell if something was fun in retrospect or not fun at all and I think that has a lot to say for trying new experiences before you are sure about how you feel about them, keeping an open mind, essentially. And the main similarity between type two and type three is that you have to keep an open mind and keep trying new things that you haven't done before and looking back to see how it made you feel in the moment or after the moment to say whether or not it was not fun at all, or actually that was kind of fun in retrospect. Thinking about it something like a haunted house would probably go in between type two and type three and I think that is no matter what, because the point, I'm writing it in, of a haunted house is to scare you. So if you are so scared that it was just not fun at all, then technically the haunted house did what it needed to do because it scared you. This isn't fun. It's scary, and you're scared. Boom, you got what you wanted, but it wasn't fun. Maybe you're traumatized or whatever. But when you're in the moment and you're getting terrified, it's not really fun. because you're like, oh my God, you have your adrenaline spiking and you're full of fear and you're in your middle of your flight fight or freeze response. But then soon as it's all over and you look back and you say, wow, it was really fun, you know, getting my heart rate up like that, getting startled like that. But I would say that that does not go in the triad for me personally, because I don't see haunted houses as like good fun. To me, it's just always something a little bit daunting and just uninteresting. And that's where you get back to like compatibility a little bit. I'm not really compatible with haunted houses, but like I said, you got to keep your mind open and I would try it. And there have been ones that I went to in the past that I was like, that was fun at retrospect. But now that I'm a little bit older, I'm like, it's not really fun at all. And that's where I say maturity plays a lot into what you personally feel is fun. Because when I was younger I was like, yeah, that was really fun. But now that I'm older, I'm like, I don't ever want to go to a haunted house again. Those are just rife with fucking lawsuits and worker violations. I don't want to do it. I don't want to deal with it. I don't want to even contribute to that type of market. Fuck that. But fun is a personal preference. So you might put haunted houses in type one. and looking at it, definitely thinking of like preference, something like skating skateboarding would go in type one for me. That's just good fun for me. Because it's like a comfort activity. Me personally, whenever I'm like stressed or I need to clear my mind a little bit, I like to just go for a nice little skate, work off some energy, and, you know, clear my mind a little bit. But for other people, that would probably be in like type three, not fun at all. Or maybe in the middle of good fun and not fun at all or maybe fun in retrospect. That would be maybe in a completely different category for another person. But for me personally, skating is a comfort. And I think that relates into a broader category for type one fun anything that brings you comfort I wrote down comfort and type one fun Anything that's comforting you is good fun watching a TV show that you enjoy hanging out with your pet, maybe writing. I don't really particularly know specifically, because comfort is kind of like an overarching topic that can include a lot of different things. What's comfortable to one person is not comfortable to the next. That's where we also get into personal preference. Once again. You can also see why maybe I want you to do this a lot with me because a lot of these things, it is true for me, but it can't necessarily be true for you. And it would make it really fun and interesting to me. just to hear other people's perspective. So maybe in type one fun, I would put it's good fun to hear others voices/ opinions/ preferences It's interesting learning other people's preferences or opinions because you can determine compatibility with them and then that person can either be put into type one compatible and comfortable or they can be put into type three, which is non-compatible, incompatible, not fun at all But for me, it's less about categorizing people into my fun scale and more about being genuinely entertained, hearing other people's opinions. It's nice hearing all other people talk. It's nice hearing what they got to talk about. Lots of people got lots of different things to talk about. And it's genuinely good fun to me to sit there and listen to that stuff that they got got to talk about. Sometimes, maybe that could actually have a little arrow that points towards the middle middle of between type three, not fun at all in between type one, good fun. Sometimes I'll get stuck in those conversations in the middle of the street and it's like, I want to walk away. And sometimes I do. Most of the time I don't, because I don't want to be mean or rude. And these are people that seem like they've just had people be mean or rude to them their whole life. And I'm like, they don't need more of that. But sometimes it's like I am not your guy. I can't do this. I can't be there. Can't listen to this. Can't be part of it. So maybe that's when hearing others' opinions. When it's just way off fucking bass, that makes it not fun at all. Way out of touch with reality, not funny. But if you got, you know, a compatible, maybe that's where the compatibility of what they're saying plays into whether it will not go into type three or type one. But I'm looking at the Van diagram and I am thinking that maybe in between type two fun and retrospospect and type one, good fun needs a little bit more fleshing out. Like I said, anything that you do repeatedly, so maybe I'll write down repeatability is what determines repeatability. Like I said, I earlier, if it's something that you're doing every day of the week, even though it might be a little bit grueling, I think that would just end up being good fun. But if you're doing it like once a year, that would maybe be fun in retrospect. how often you repeat it huh I'm trying to think of something more applicable to me that would go in between type two and type one to just kind of give a better example for you guys filling in your own Venn diagrams. Freedom I don't know why freedom came to mind. Let's try and unpack that a little bit. Freedom. Freedom is good fun. You have the freedom to express whatever you wanted to do, but then you have the freedom to do things that may not be fun. Hmm. No, that's not it. That can't be it. Um. I have one that's just for plain old good fun again, thinking about it, trying to fill in that in- between category. Something that is personally just plain old, good fun for me. And I think that other people should try it out. This is going along with keeping an open mind. Going through the car wash, that's good fun., but listening to classical music to classical music and not just any classical music. If you are going to try this, I want you to specifically listen to to Mozart's Requiem in D minor K626 part three sequencia lacrymosa. Slam that shit on soon as you're lining up your tire and slamming your car into neutral. Bruh. Bruh. I don't. Mozart must be a time traveler because the way that that song lines up with almost every car wash that I've been in, mte bissim. It's very beautiful, very magical. You should try it. It's just fucking crazy. It's mind blowing, it's good fun. If you're a stoner, you know what to fucking do when you're going through that fucking car wash. All you other people enjoy it, man. It's fun. It is just. absolutely awesome. Very fun, good fun. Every time I go through a car wash, I slap on that song. It plays out almost exactly to the end. And then you drive off and it's like, you feel like a completely changed person. That's good fun. That goes into like keeping an open mind and trying new things. And I think that actually reminds me why I might have said freedom because when you have the freedom to choose that helps determine whether it will be fun in retrospect or good fun but but you know what I think freedom might go in the triad freedom is fun, but not if others are abusing their freedom to do stuff that's not fun for you and that might just be as simple as eating a tuna fish sandwich in a very closed office space. Somebody had the freedom to do that. It's good old Type one. I love tuna fish sandwiches, comfort food for them. But it's just not fun at all for you who, you know, might be a little bit queasy and doesn't like the smell of tuna fish sandwiches on a hot summer afternoon But we all have the freedom to feel that way and to make these choices. And when you're really thinking about it in correlation to fun in retrospect, I think sometimes when you're expressing that freedom, it can be a little bit daunting in the moment, but then you look back at it and you're like, well, that was just absolutely amazing. And something like that can be just as simple as like skateboarding down a hill. You have the freedom to choose to skateboard down a hill and you go down that hill, and it's very fun, and it's terrifying, you're afraid that you're gonna hit a bump and wipe out, and then you make it to the bottom, and everything's cool, and you're like, dude, that was fun. in retrospect right there. That was a little bit hairy, scary to get through, but we made it. Now I have the adrenaline rush of a lifetime. um And I think with that, I think kind of pulling it all back together to that freedom point, I think I'm going to express a little bit of freedom here myself. And I'm looking at it. It's getting kind of cramped, getting kind of, you know, running out of space. I'm going to call it here. That's me expressing my freedom in a good old fun manner, because I think we've reached a point where it's it's in type one. This podcast has been all type one. It has been good old fun. But if I keep trying to think of things and keep keep going, it's going to push it into type three, not fun at all. And that is a matter of preference, which is dictating, which way the scales will tip. But yeah, this was relatively fun for me. I had kind of a fun time trying to figure all this out and like put it into a digestible form that maybe others can follow along with. If you can follow along with this, drop a like or a comment, let me know how good or bad I did. And if you make one of your own, I seriously, I seriously want to see it. It is really interesting to me. It is good old fun to see what other people are doing, what they think is fun. Send it in to me at adamjcapello.info at gmail.com. If you go to www.adamjapello.org. You can find all my social media. If you're diligent enough, you can find a phone number. I'm not going to advertise where it is. Those are for the lucky few that are smart and able to find it. And if you do find it, send me a picture of your fun scale V diagram. I would really, really enjoy that. But I think for this week, I'd like to cut it a little bit short. I'd like to say that's all. And that would be fun for me. This was fun. I hope you had fun. Keep it easy out there. Have fun, and