YouSaid · the spoken record

Ryan Hall

lines on the record: 201
first: 2020-09-20
most recent: 2020-09-20
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I have to be willing to have the conversation, and I have to be willing to sit down. If I can't sit down across from the most violently racist, angry, hypothetical internet, you know, conceived person that none of us have ever actually met in real life, but or hopefully not, you know, and go like, well, of course I believe that this person's wrong, but allow me to change, do my best. I'll hear them out and I'll go, no, I can go point by point and explain why this guy or this girl is wrong and hopefully bring them over to a more reasonable position where they will have better beliefs and they will objectively better beliefs and beliefs that will and they'll treat other people better. Why would I want to marginalize this person? Now I might not want to talk, I might not want to invite them to my barbecue if they're acting like a jerk all the time, but how could I wouldn't not make the world a better place if I'd hear them out and they go, look, if you're going to sit down and talk with me, we're going to have to have a discussion. I'll hear what you have to say. And if I can't explain to someone why they're ridiculous belief is wrong, then I must not be so confident in my position.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That from that perspective, could you feel how people could be deeply upset by abortion? You go, of course, looked at it from a different perspective. You say, I don't believe it to be murder. That's not how I see it. Then you go, oh, well, if that's the genesis of your thought process, then you're like, yeah, okay, now I see how we can come to a different thing. But I guess we go, well, abortion is murder, period. Therefore, if you support it, you support murder. That's a convenient way for me to tar you, right? But I guess that's kind of coming back to the Alec Jones.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That you could kill someone. I'm like, no, I haven't. But I could conceptualize someone doing that. And I'm like, yeah, okay. And you still need to go, you still need to face criminal justice as we have it in our system, or at least that's how we've decided.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I guess the idea of getting a group of people together to decide what we're not going to tolerate is a very, very tricky thing. And I think that, you know, it reminds me of law or even, you know, religion when it gets to like, what are the things that we don't like? How do we feel about rape? It's like, no, under no circumstances is that an acceptable behavior. Murder. No, that's not an acceptable behavior. Killing. Well, kind of depends on the situation. Are you at war? Were you justified? Were you acting in self-defense? Okay, so it's not, now murder is a specific type of killing. The same way, you know, other things should be a specific type of something else. But I guess we draw the line of murder. We say if you want to exist in our society, you can't do this. This cannot be done. And then we go theft. If someone said, hey, I murdered that guy, can you understand where I'm coming from? I might say, yeah, I'll hear you. Doesn't mean that I think you're right. But I'm like, have you ever been wronged so deeply that you could imagine?”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's always a sliding standard. And I find that to be more of a concern than people doing crazy things because I guess if you mention Alex Jones putting out ridiculous ideas, ridiculous theories, I think that most people don't look at Alex Jones as a credible person. Now, I'm not going to pretend to be deeply read into all of his beliefs or the things that he's trying to peddle. But there's plenty of things that are quasi-mainstream that I think with this side or that side that maybe not comparably ridiculous, but are, you know, particularly in hindsight or, you know, we're not are silly.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And it's even if people do that, whether it's literal Nazis or someone that I called a Nazi, you know, I guess what's the bigger issue? This person's ridiculous beliefs or what I'm doing. And you mentioned Hitler before and obviously Meinkopf being the outline for some of the things he did later and when the evil was it always there? Did it take root later on or flourish later on? But was Adolf Hitler a problem because he had crazy ideas or because he did things. I think it's because it's not, I think. I know it's because he did things. Now, if I'm going to start punishing thought crime, I'm going to have to start punishing thought crime. And that's a terrifying concept. Even if I'm right about the certain, about the objectively correct, about the things that I decide to call out of bounds, who put me in charge and made me arbiter of good taste, and how long until I decide that something else is out of bounds. It's always a sliding scale.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'll agree with you. I felt like that was. That's why I picked on that. That's the trick you find a group of people that nobody likes. We're good here. All right, that's the move. But yeah, that's a creepy thing, though, because that is the creepy thing. It's like people are always looking for, groups of people are always looking for, and I find this really deeply disturbing. Like, hey, so who's the guy that we can all get away with, you know, just treating like dirt? Who's the guy that I can be addict to? I can just walk up and punch in the face and no one's going to say anything.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm very, very wary of, I think, being where you mentioned Alex Jones being wary of power and people with it. That's a lot of times there's a lot of truth and validity to crazy things that people say. It's the conspiracy theories that stick are the ones that sound credible, at least quasi-credible in some aspect. And it's almost like it seems to me like an anchor in people's mind. And it is also funny to me, obviously, the Bill Gates, it's a funny guitar people with things like pedophile, racist, rapist. Like these are things that we're basically trying to pick words that no one can ever support someone who does these things. And that's... And that”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I would, and I feel very strongly about this, honestly. Well, I think that it's an interesting thing. And I would just say a lot of times I can understand very, very clearly why people would take issue with the idea of, I guess, what they perceive to be amplifying this man's voice, this man's reach, you know, as a demonstrable negative. But I think, you know, when you take a step back further, The cure is more damaging than the disease and significantly so. I guess I think that”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, what is this going to say when it goes public? So, how can I couch what I'm saying, or how can I word this in a way that's going to get people on my side or use the right buzzwords or not use the wrong buzzwords? And it's just neat to see people, you know, in their own way flip the bird to that because I just think that that's just not how a human being is meant to think or interact.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No matter what. You don't have to kowtow to these weird powers that be and whether you're at this level or at this level, but you can live your life the way that you want. And as you mentioned, talk shit with your friends, hang out, be happy. And it just so happens that that resonates with people. It actually reminds me of like speaking to MIT and being in Boston is like Google hunting. You know, like, again, what did he really want to do? He could have gone this way, could have gone that way. And it was an interesting story, but it's like this person wants to hang out with his buddies and wants to do other things. And again, happens to be brilliant and happens to be able to do all these other things. But there was, I guess it's like, at least in my mind, a story of authenticity as well. And it was both the same thing in the Robin Williams character. And I just think that that's a message because watching things occur on the internet as they do now. So many things playing out in the public eye. I feel like so many private or otherwise, formerly private discussions and disputes and interactions now become, they all have a”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And it reminds me of like Dave Chappelle. And again, I don't know, I've never met Dave, but it's neat to see someone that's clearly, again, authentic in their own way doing their own thing. And because of that, they're above the corporate nonsense. But what's funny, I think the message behind all of it is, hey guys, we all are. I can't promise you that I'm going to have money. Joe couldn't promise you that he's going to have money. Now it ended up working out. He was above that nonsense from the jump. And he just continued to be above it by never giving it any mind and just going like, yeah, I'm going to be a reasonable person. I'm going to try to learn. I'm going to try to grow. And if I say something annoying, you can come and talk to me about it and get to the bottom of it. And I'm like, if I need to say my bad, thanks, appreciate it. You know, I will. And if I don't need to, I'm like, hey, I still appreciate the talk. Thanks, man. Shake your hand and we carry on and we go our separate ways and hopefully I'll treat you with respect. You treat me with respect. And that's about it. And I guess I think it's a lesson that it can work out.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That this is the guy who has been successful. And then you go Why are they successful? Like I said, true to what they're doing, they haven't changed. They're the same as they've been. And I remember I got to TriSar in 2012, and George was already George St. Pierre. But I remember watching and talking to people, and they're like, oh man, George is the same as he's always been in this neat. I see him in the gym training now and again giving advice now. And it seems like Joe has always been consistent. And it's neat to watch someone not compromise on their values and not change who they are. The periodically like, you know, again, we all make mistakes. Like you have a bad day or this or that, and an apology needs to be issued or even my bad or this or that. And you're like, yeah. And they just move on. They're not afraid to be themselves and they're not afraid to be wrong. They're not afraid to make a mistake. As you mentioned, open-minded. So what are the correct beliefs to have about this that I know going in, everyone's going to be okay with what I'm saying, which is usually the beginning of a conversation that's going to go nowhere, right? And it's neat to see the things, I guess, that he's created on his own as a result of the authenticity that's there.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But one of the things that I always appreciate, and again, I barely know Joe, than to shake his hand. He interviewed me after the briefing in the ring after the BJP fight. But one of the things that I've always admired about Joe is that I think he had fucking money from the start. I think that zero dollars is fucking money for Joe. I think, and that's something I respect about him a great deal. Because as you say, it's interesting to watch. It's like you hope that George St. Pierre is like this. It's really neat. I'm not super close to George, but we're teammates at TriStar, and he's never been anything but a gentleman. He's one of those people that if you didn't know George was famous when you walked into the gym, you'd have no idea. He's not holding court, not doing it. He's just, you know, training and he'll help out an amateur doing this. If you have a question for him, he'll help me. Like, I'm nobody, man. He would give me advice and train. It was super cool. And he didn't kill me, which I really appreciated. He's a gentleman. But, you know, it's like you meet someone and you go, man, I'm so, it's so cool that this is the guy who's the best.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, Joe's always, I remember watching Joe on Fear Factor when I was a little kid, which is cool. So I've actually gotten a like from a bird's eye view watch, you know, his kind of just path through life. Yeah.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Give me a Jan silent Bob strike back. They find out a movie is going to be made about them and people are talking shit on the internet. And they're like, what's the internet? And then someone shows them and they're like, what? And they go to a message board and they go to Hollywood to try to stop it from being made and they eventually get money for their likeness and they use the money to buy plane tickets and fly around and beat the shit out of all the people that talk bad about”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You mentioned forgiveness as well. Like you said, forgiveness. Like, I guess back to the original Holocaust survivor scenario where you're like, oh my God, like, you think of the ultimate, like, I've never experienced one billionth of that level of pain and horror. And it's like, and I can't let this little thing go. You know, I guess that's an interesting thing. I think you're just making the point in your personal life, I guess, the same way, right?”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, again, going back and going, hey guys, Grace, like, I don't expect it's not fair for me to go. I fight UFC. Why doesn't this guy who came in as an attorney understand how hardcore this needs to be? I'm like, how could he? And at the same time, though, if I'm using the language of someone that is interested in at least performance from a martial arts perspective, I understand how that could be off-putting, let's say, for instance, someone that all of that would be out of bounds in their normal workplace. But if they think of the gym as my office, then whether they agree or disagree with what's going on, they go, okay, I hear why I see why that might have happened. Let's talk about this. And we can, again, all push forward in a positive direction that benefits, I guess, everyone's journey throughout the activity.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Which frankly I understand. It's the sort of thing that is now way more effective than anything else I could really reasonably expect to have. But there were times when both of us were justifiably annoyed at the other because of crossed wires. And sometimes, you know, you just have disagreement anywhere or misunderstanding anyway. But again, I coach some of my friends. I coach my friend who I've known since I was four years old. You know, sometimes I don't go, hey, buddy, how you doing? Sometimes I are you doing? Put your hand over there. How many times we talked about this? And then you walk away and you can see him look at you crooked and you're like, oh, crap. Oh, yeah. He thought I was talking to him as his friend. Yeah, well, all right, we need to talk this one out, hashing out, and not he's wrong. How could he possibly think that way? Like, oh no, I totally understand that. But if I was 22, doesn't he know I'm a purple belt? Some nonsense like that. And it doesn't come from a bad place, but it's just, I guess that comes back to society, to anything people only had the perspective that they have and the awareness that we have.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly But it can be tough, and that's something we've had to work through a lot. And it's like looking back, and it's like now being where I'm at now. And it's easy for me to say that because she's in the room and I don't want to stab me, just continue to slowly poison me over time.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sometimes I had the wrong hat on. You were talking to me as Lex the guy. I didn't realize you were talking to me. I thought you were talking to me as Lex the guy. I didn't realize you were talking to me as Lex the martial artist. I'm like, oh, crap. I was talking to the wrong person. So it's almost like if you had run my gym with my wife, she's a black dog. So she's my wife. My peers as a martial artist in jiu-jitsu.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Interesting thing, obviously, you know, being running a martial arts school as you're principally an athlete is sometimes I don't pay enough attention to what people are doing. I just go, oh, okay. You say X, Y, Z. I'm like, Roger, that I believe you're cool. I will now put you in category X. And whether rightly or wrongly, like maybe this person didn't understand what they were asking for or I didn't express this or the other. And it just, it caused crosswires. And then most of the times you hash it out, you have a discussion, you figure out, you get to the bottom of what people are trying to do or what they want. But if I was paying more attention, I think I could have been a lot more effective. Or if I had more experience, and sometimes maybe I'm not sharp enough or I don't perceptive enough to be able to see what's going on and maybe with years more down the line, I'll be able to have a sharper perception. But I think that's another one of those interesting things that sometimes I would caution or not caution, but just inform a prospective martial arts student, depending upon where you're going. Both you and also your coach or other people in the room, they wear many hats.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But it's fun. It's all in the same body. But it's like all of us are like that, right? In various different directions and recognizing that's okay. It's just. Are consequences to all every choice that we make as a consequence. Sometimes there's like objectively wrong or objectively right, but at least in my mind, that's a pretty small box. Everything else is just as a consequence of that. Do you like that consequence? Do you not? And who do I want to become? What do I want to try to hone myself or anyone else into? And also like this is something I've screwed up as a coach plenty of times, you know, like if someone says if like I come to like Lex, I really, really want to take research very seriously like, okay, I believe you. Now I haven't shown you that, but I believe you're like, okay. And now me not showing up to research or to study or not being up until three in the morning thinking about this is no longer acceptable. There was a time like five seconds before me making that statement that if I went to bed without reading the book that I needed to read, no worries. But the second that I made that statement, your expectations for me changed. And maybe it's something that's something that I've screwed up a whole bunch of times in my as a teacher.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Has benefits and it has drawbacks. You know, when you stare into the abyss, it stares back. And I think that that's an important thing to understand. You know, you stare long enough, you can become something that you don't would be sorry that you did. You don't look enough and you don't have perspective either. And I think that that's an interesting thing. I can speak to someone who's relative to being someone who's relatively articulate and reasonable. I try to be reasonable. But, you know, I'll say inspiring. If people get crazy with me, they get a warning and then I'm going to crack them. What did they expect? Oh, they hear the guy on an interview, but who did they think they were meeting? Because there's also the guy in the ring.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't need to be sweet to you if you're screwing up, if you're dropping the ball. And in fact, recognizing that I'm not doing you a favor or the team a favor by being permissive of that type of behavior, I think is important. Everything in its context and at its time is important. And I guess I can think again of the times that I've been put or had put on me like a great deal of pressure to do X, Y, or Z or to succeed or to push for success. I can't look back fondly enough on those times. They were tough at the time, but without that, I'm not sitting here. Without that, I don't go from growing up in a very nice family in the suburbs to fighting at the highest level in Jiu Jitsu, Gi, Nogi, and now in mixed martial arts, starting a career at age 27. It just doesn't happen because people, generally speaking from that background, don't get pushed hard enough physically to be able to make that transition.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You're going to see what things are like when it's entirely performance based. Go to wrestling room at a high level. Again, there's left and right limits, and there are such things, obviously, as abuse, of course, and that should never be tolerated. But it's not a commercial entity.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's dangerous for, so if I want to put my finger on the scale, I can understand the desire to do it. I'm like, hey, guys, let's break it up. And that may be the right thing at the time, but at the same time, I'm not sure. So I think back to all of the times that, you know, that, like you mentioned, your coach is pushing you very, very hard. And then other times going like, hey, let's put it in perspective here. I think that's an interesting thing for high performance. And I think that we're seeing that again societally, you know, now, or at least maybe that just pops up on my internet feed periodically. But coaches shouldn't be allowed to do this or yell at this person to yell at that person. Like, well, have you ever been go to a boxing gym? It's not a commercial entity, not really. A real boxing, not LA boxing, not a USC gym. Like a real place.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Short of it going to a place that's just out of bounds. I don't know who's right here. I don't know who's wrong, and I don't know what phase of this things are in. So I guess”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And reading the Wikipedia article about the movie, not the place. But it's a hard, brutal place. And was there benefit to that? Like, absolutely. Was there drawback to that? Absolutely. Is it sustainable? I should think probably not. I mean, granted, it hasn't sustained. But I mean, that type of a thing, it burns too hot almost. It destroys the host at a certain point. And I guess that type of unforgiving nature. But entirely permissive has its own issues. And I guess coming back to what your description of like describing a toxic relationship is a very dangerous and tricky thing because it's almost like bird's eye view me. You see, let's say a husband and a wife arguing. You're like, all right, well, sort of somebody hitting somebody, I need to keep myself out of this because I have no idea what I'm seeing something, but I don't know what's going on or why specifically.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I've heard we'll see. We're hoping for the best. But basically, I'd say, hey, we started our first initial world, Agent Smith, says to Neo, he's like our first world was a utopia where everyone was happy and nothing ever went wrong. He's like your primitive cerebrum rejected it. And I think that there's obviously, I mean, what do I think? But I guess, well, I'm here, so I might as well say what I think. But I guess, you know, Great things are fantastic, a kind, gentle place is fantastic. And this is, again, why I love Dune, because I think Dune does such a great job of expressing, Frank Herbert does such a great job of expressing, again, the reciprocal nature of these ideas. You know, look at Sparta, for instance, or at least what I understand Sparta from the reading and also watching 300. And reading in the”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that's a really interesting thing that you're describing that I guess it kind of brings me back to a lot of the other things we've been discussing is just almost like the reciprocal nature of everything where no pressure, that's great. Everyone's happy all the time. Let's use the example of sci-fi movies. Let's say the Matrix, which of course the first one was amazing. And then each subsequent movie made the series worse. But basically,”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Bargain that's being made, like commitment by the instructor who becomes a coach, commitment by the student. There's a financial transaction. There's a lot of things going on there, but I feel very fortunate to have had not just instructors in my time, but coaches. And that means sometimes we've butted heads. And sometimes I look back and I think I was right. And other times I look back at my own. No, they were definitely right. But there was always the trust with the exception of one time that I feel that trust was greatly betrayed. Rightly or wrongly, whether mistakes, mistakes will be made, but everyone is attempting to do the right thing under no circumstances would I intentionally do anything malicious versus, hey, I might have burnt your house down, but you can be darn sure it wasn't on purpose. And I think that as long as there's that mutual understanding and mutual belief of goodwill, which again doesn't just magic up out of nowhere, I understand. I think that that's when great things can happen. And I look at all the athletes that I know, you know, the guys and girls that I've watched become fantastic.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Same way doesn't work. I think the difference between a coach and an instructor. And a lot of times people think they want to coach, but they really want an instructor. I'm like, hey, Lex, tell me what to do, not how to do it. And then other times people think they want, you know, an instructor and they really want a coach. I'm like, man, this guy's just giving me information. A coach is so much more than an instructor. And that's a huge leap. And that's something that I think that people need to understand when they're going into martial arts. And I understand, and I can totally grasp why they don't, because how would they know? But I think about this a lot. Like me giving you $150 for a month, which is not nothing, that's for sure. That does not, that pays for instructor, really. Coach is a relationship that gets developed. Because can you imagine like just the amount of emotional investment and time thinking away from like, oh, Alex didn't hear anymore. What can I do to help him? What does he need? Like, that's serious. And that's the difference between that's oftentimes the difference at getting over the hump in various situations. So it's an interesting, you know.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They'll push you Oftentimes, where you would have stopped yourself, right? Which is great. And hopefully they know if they're paying attention and they're still a person, they can make mistakes, but they'll push you further than you would have gone, but not so far that it's not facilitative, right? That's something that I can say like Farazahabi, the head coach at TriStar, my head coach for MMA, Kenny Floren, one of my other head coaches for MMA have both been phenomenal influences. Paul Schreiner, who's one of the assistants at Marcel de Garcia's Academy, coached me in Jiu Jitsu for a long time, brilliant instructor. They've all been able to do that. And I think what's interesting about all of those guys, they're very sharp, but they're very intuitive as well. And I think that for us, actually, you know, told me about some of the John Wooden said, John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach, just a simple philosophical idea. He said, some people's life is a bull of shit. It needs some whipping in it. Some people's life is a bowl of whipped cream. Needs a little bit of shit in it just to balance it out. And it's an interesting thing. Coaching everyone.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I've said this to people in my gym. I'm like, you know, we're in the service industry, man, but I'm not at your service. Don't get it twisted. I will absolutely do my best to help people. I'm there to do my best as a martial arts coach, but I'm here to do my best as a martial arts coach. And I'll do my best. Periodically, I make mistakes and I own apology or two, and I'll try to give them out when I can. But we're not McDonald's. It's not, oh, you gave me $100, so you do whatever you want in here. This is my house. This is my gym. This is my doger. This is the martial arts. This is not a basketball team.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At a place where my coach was able to transition roles and do so comfortably. And I think that that also was probably a factor of the fact that where he'd done some of his training prior, like there have been issues with the coach there. We're like not supporting, not having the support, you know, feeling like, hey, like I'm going to hold on to my students. I'm going to hold on to my best guy or my best girlfriend, even if I can't take them where they need to go. So that was an interesting thing. And just recognizing also, though, that the people, like the same way you're an individual going into a gym and you don't know what you're getting into, your coach is a person too. And he or she, you know, they may have been doing this activity longer than you, but they're not. They're not some weird little, you know, all-knowing God. They don't know anything. They may say something that pisses you off. They may yell at you. They may help you. They may inadvertently cause you some sort of issue. And just being able to recognize that even though I say this to people.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was super tough. And they were like, again, just a tough group of people. It was great. And then I remember when I decided after like four or five months, my men, I really want to try to take this seriously. And I told Christian about that. And he's like, well, hey, I think you need to do the following. And it was, you know, like, hey, here's, there was a guy named Jeff Ruth who was Purple Belt at the time, which was a much bigger deal than it is now, but it was 10-0 as an MMA fighter. A lot of amateur body spirit, super tough dude. And Jeff was the best person at that time that I'd ever trained with. I just got squashed, Christian used to beat me up too. But Jeff would just absolutely kick the crap out of me. And I was like, this is awesome. And this was back when I was at home. I went home for the summer for that. And Chris was like, hey, I think you should stay because I told him that's what I was thinking. And this was a coach that, you know, when it's like, when initially was exactly what it needed. And then he's like, well, hey, that's not what I'm doing here. Maybe they're going to be able to help you onto a path that's kind of commensurate with your goals are at the moment. And then that was an interesting thing. And I really got, I feel that I was fortunate to start.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Place for people to train. But I think what was right for me at the time was I stumbled into like a two-person elevator up and found a place where six people trained at that time. And I had someone that I could give me some in addition to martial arts advice, like personal guidance. And that made a big difference. And then when initially we would have like competitions or like intra gym competitions with the sambo guys, we would roll with them. And like, again, it was great because they were just a bunch of like Russian dudes from like Brighton Beach and they would come down and then we would all fight and then everyone would train and we'd all drink tea and then go home. And anyway, what was the Russians?”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Couldn't agree with you more. And what you need may change over time, right? Maybe what you needed today could change six months from now or a year from now. And that's something that I experienced. I'll use my first coach Christian, again, as a great example of someone who I really look up to and respect and someone who helped me a lot. Like at a time when I really needed some guidance and needed to learn martial arts, but get into Henzel Gracie's gym was right down the street from where Christian was teaching. And Christian was a blue belt at the time. He was teaching at a place called Fighthouse, which is this awesome 90s, early 2000s, you know, warehouse area down on Fashion Avenue in Manhattan, off of like between 7th and 8th. And it was like two basketball courts. Why, but like there's the Sambo guys over here. There was the collie guys over there. There was a wing chun over there. There was jijitsu in the corner. And Henzas was one of the most famous academies in the world at that time, still is. And I just didn't know what Henzo Gracie was. And I mean, it's a great gym and it's a fantastic.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A sign of growth, right? Like if you're not having to feel those things, you're probably in your comfort zone, which is fine, but that's not your growth zone, right?”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On the corner because that person's rough and they beat you up, and they're like, okay, but. Is this a big hurt or is it a little hurt? If it's a big hurt, okay. If it's a little hurt”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So you are taking a leap of faith into a world that you're going to be a tiny fish. And you got to hope that the people who are guiding you in that journey are going to have, I can't say even say your best interest at heart because they don't even know you, but they'll try to do no harm and they'll try to help you in the way that they would understand. And I guess that's, for instance, that's what I would try to do with anyone that comes into my gym. I would try to help them in the way that I understand they need as best I can and as safe and reasonable a way as possible. But sometimes in a way that's going to make them uncomfortable, particularly if physical combat and it's not something they've done before. If they've a lot of people go in without even having played contact sports. And so that can be a big jump. And you have to understand if that's where you're starting from, no worries, but you're going to have to kind of work your way to it. And it's going to be uncomfortable. And that's okay. It's part of the process. And you're going to have some bumps and bruises. And you're not going to want to roll with that.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If they don't trust me, I wouldn't trust me either if I were them. But at the same time, someone has to take that leap. And one of the things that I've noticed as a martial arts instructor that's the biggest struggle with dealing with adults, which is why a lot of people like to teach kids is because kids don't argue. Now, that also means there's all sorts of pitfalls with that sort of thing, and that can be an issue. But, you know, I guess a lot of times people get to a point in their life, you know, in their 20s, early 30s, where now I'm a manager now. I know what I'm doing. No one talks to me like that. First, it's like, hey man, you go join bootcamp. I don't care if you are Elon Musk. They're going to tell you to shut up and do push ups. And that's what's great about it.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I know this is going to be challenging, and we'll see what happens. And that means that getting beat up, and I didn't get like hurt, but getting roughed up and getting my arm bent this way or that way, getting choked. I was like, well, this is all supposed to happen. That's no big deal. It would be like going and joining the army during peacetime and then going, oh, I'm just doing this for college education. You're going like, okay, that's cool, man. And then all of a sudden, war breaks out and they want to send me somewhere. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn't sign up for that. Actually, you did, whether you realized it or not. You may have thought that you did, but you did. So getting your mind right and just going, what are my expectations for this activity? What is it that I'm looking to do? And of course, you know, you're going into a gym. You're going into a place that you don't know people. You probably don't know people and you don't know the coach. And even if you do want to, hey, how you doing? Shake your hand type of level, you know, 95% of my students don't know me. Not really. You know, I try to be polite and not annoy them too much, but they don't know me and I don't know them.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To be taught into everything a lot of times I'll talk myself out of it. And I think that a lot of times this is the thinker's disease. You want to figure out what's going to happen and what you should expect to have happen before you get involved versus going using the old Bruce Lee saying, again, it's like no amount of thinking or training on the side of the river will teach you how to swim. You have to jump in. And there are risks associated with that. And I guess psychological are usually the biggest ones. That's the biggest hurdle and physical. But the biggest thing that I guess I would suggest anyone to say, well, why do you want to do this? You're like, well, I want to challenge myself. I want to learn. I would like to learn to fight. I want to learn to fight so that I could protect myself. And if anything else, other people, if only when an arms reach, I perceive that if I had some small degree of power, I generally wouldn't use it, which is why I was like, okay, I'll give it a try. I'll try to be reasonable. And hopefully if I make a mistake, I'll apologize to people. But basically said, yeah, I'd like to have.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is almost imagining what is it that I'm getting myself into? Because I love the martial arts. Martial arts has given me everything in life. And I'm so thankful I wouldn't be sitting here without that experience of that journey. The people that I've met, the places that have gone, I could never, ever, have, ever imagined. And I'm just unbelievably thankful for that. But I think that the thing that helped me most of all was starting with, you know, my mom said something to me one time and she said, you know, there's two types of people in various situations. There's why and there's why not. And it's understandable to have questions, concerns, things like that. But maybe sometimes it's a little bit easier when you're younger to just trust people or just say, I don't know, you know. But we go, hey, you want to climb that rock? I'm like, yeah, why not? Let's go. Hey, you want to jump in that river? Yeah, why not? Sure. Versus if I have to reason my way into everything.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The first thing you can do is simply ask yourself why you want to be involved. And I remember the first day that I walked into Ronan Athletics in New York City to train under Godfather, my son now, Christian Montez. And I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I played baseball through high school and I was at Manhattan College in the Bronx and I wanted to go and learn martial arts because it was always something that was interesting to me, but it was never something that I knew was accessible. And it definitely wasn't really around in Northern Virginia where I grew up. Whereas then you stick yourself in Manhattan and there's stuff everywhere. So anyway, I guess I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if I was going to get beat up, if people are going to be nice, if people were not going to be nice. But what I began with was, I think expectation management. And I think that that's something that I would, that'd be the first thing that I would start.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I think that it's an interesting trap that I think is a very human trap to fall into, but it definitely happens early on. It's, I mean, it's a joke in the Jiu Jitsu world, right? Like, oh, the blue belt that knows everything. Well, initially, it's like, what? I know nothing and I at least think I know nothing. Then I learn a little bit and I think it's a lot bit. And then, you know, the more you learn, the more you go like, I don't even know what I'm doing. Yeah.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Racism expression of that political affiliation, the expression of that, all of these things that can go in really uncomfortable directions. People are looking for, hey, where do I plant my feet over here? Where's the thing that I know is right? And we can all agree on the following. And I think that we see that in martial arts. We're like, oh, I do this style. I do that style. I do that style. It's like, hey, man, we're all just pushing forward in a certain direction here, trying to do our best. And I understand why you feel the way you do. I may have felt like that at one point too. You know, I'm just trying to learn and understand versus I've already acquired enough knowledge. Let me cross my arms and start to look who's fucking up around here.”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Self expression and find your voice so that you fight the same way that you speak, the same way that you write, the same way that you think in a way that is uniquely you, that will also ultimately allow you to understand other people being uniquely them. Because even if you can only conceptualize, and I think about this a lot for society stuff, right? Well, this is how I feel about this, but am I objectively right? Maybe about a couple things, but that's a small box that I have to be very, very careful about what I think is objective versus what's not. And I have to be open to the possibility to all the things that I think are objectively correct may or may not be. And that should allow me to have some degree of compassion or consideration for other people, both in their martial arts journey and in their journey as people, as human beings, because I understand that they're on a, we're all on a path, it's all, again, an iterative process of eventual self-expression, but I think that's one of the things that we see having trouble when we see tribalism, which, I mean,”
2020-09-20 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #125 – Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source