Josh Allred's Blog

When Taylor Hawkins suddenly passed, that was the end of Foo Fighters as we knew it. Of course, they added Josh Freeze to step in and try to fill the shoes of Hawkins. The band continues on in a new way.

Separate from that, you had NOFX play their last show on October 6 this year. They knew the day had come that it was time to retire after a 40-year run.

The point is, we never know when the last time we will do something is. The last day of high school is a known thing. But the last live show? Maybe that is uncertain. And perhaps you won’t get there.

We don’t always get to choose to say goodbye. Therefore, it is a privilege. We focus on so much of the negative aspects of getting older, but we don’t see how lucky we are to be in a spot like that.

In a society that prides itself on economic growth, it becomes natural to ask what you do to contribute to this.

The thing is, most of us have a job that we don’t actually take pride in. It’s a means to pay bills and sustain this standard of living. There is no pride in working on Monday, like when your team takes the field on Sunday.

We then elevate these jobs by discussing social capital or taking pride in what your paycheck can purchase. But for many, we become even embarrassed to talk about what we do because it provides no status in money or making a difference. These are most jobs, however. Because no one grows up saying I will be a bank teller. You become one because one decision led to another, and the opportunity sprung. This only further pigeonholes us to be creative in what we do.

Worst, it is reported that many workers are only productive for less than three hours a day. This means over a 40-hour standard work week, you are spending your time pretending to work. Making it even harder to find that meaning we all seek.

People want to make a difference. People want to fill needed. A job in a capitalist society doesn’t provide anything more than a punch clock. What we “do” has to evolve further than where we sit between the hours of 9 and 5.

Most forget that selling out was a big deal in the 1990s. Punk had become radio-friendly. It had perhaps never been easier for any band to sell out under the guise of the next Nirvana. Here’s a contract to sign for anyone who could play three cords.

I have always admired how the legendary punk band Fugazi handled their business. Selling tickets for five bucks. Turning down major headline festivals. Not signing the million-dollar contract.

Fugazi simply chose what kind of band they wanted to be instead of letting the market dictate. They could have made a more poppy record, but we probably wouldn’t remember them. At least not in the way we see them today. Because the metric they chose to care about wasn’t money or fame. They decided to make a difference in their music.

What you are aiming for will change the direction to go.

Only when you are emotionally or physically overwhelmed will you understand your limits.

The limit, it turns out, is usually much further than we realize.

When we think we can’t possibly take another step, but then we do. Or thinking that I can’t go on, yet the next day comes, and you get out of bed. Feeling like you can’t go to work one more day, and then you do.

When faced with adversity, we often choose to keep going. We just don’t give the credit where credit is due.

The past is easy to look back on and learn from because “knowing what I know now ” But it can also make us sure in the present, too.

However…

Looking into the future, we only operate in ambiguity. A space reserved with our imagination.

This drives us crazy because we are so anchored in certainty.

It’s why we stay at a lousy job longer than we should–we know what we are in for.

Only when we move to this space of risk, uncertainty, and exposure do we get to look back at the choices we made through the eyes of “knowing what I know now.”

…

Going forward, the question we get to ask is, “What will I learn then?”

A wishlist is different from a plan. Our hopes, dreams, and desires are great when they are realized, but having a plan for everything might be a sign that you feel unsafe.

Much better is to have a process. A posture. Creating resilient systems will trump a map.

I think the most interesting thing about this idea of AI rising to take over the world is that it says so much about us as humans. That this machine we built will act like humans have in the world today and in the past. Colonization, murder, wars, discrimination—Yes, of course, we are worried. Look at the history of how we have treated people, the earth, and the animals in the past.

In the middle of the night, when you are lying in bed and the place is quiet, that is when your deepest worries will become their loudest.

You can’t control yourself to go to sleep; it happens naturally. So, in the meantime, when you are stressed, write down what you are worried about and what you will do about it in the next two weeks. If there is nothing to do, then rest easy. If there is, you know you can get to work in the morning.

I have found this so helpful on the days that it is hard to turn it off. Try it.

The thing is, in our modern world, isolation has never been easier to maintain. With a few clicks, your food can be ordered and delivered, Amazon can send everything you need, and the online sphere can feel like a community replacement. Houses are built to be separated. Jobs are too far by foot for most. On and on, you can see a world built to isolate ourselves.

The problem is that your internal narrative can run rampant when gone unchecked without other people around. If you tell yourself a story without anyone to share it with, you can learn to believe anything.

The spotlight effect is this idea that one believes they are being noticed more than they really are. We are the center of attention, and the world revolves around us. It is an inaccurate assessment of how people view us. We can become paranoid and blow the story up, thinking what we are going through is unique, or become selfish in our thought patterns. (Me, me, me!)

This idea that everyone is watching us can be detrimental in a world that shames us for making mistakes. The thing is, even the most popular books are not by 99+% of the population. So are the biggest movies or the most viral Tic Toks. Despite all these channels, most people will never see our work. The mistake we can fix is doing our best, knowing that if we do make a mistake, we get the right to try again. And we can do this floating in a world that most people will never notice. We just need some people to notice.

This is a problem with imagination. On one hand, it can unlock a door of what could be, but on the other, it ignores what is.

When we live in denial, we are fully engrossed in the story we tell ourselves. Cherry picking bits of data to keep reinforcing the narration.

This makes the hard moments even harder. Because what we might be doing is delaying the inevitable.