I'm glad I've got three hours to play this today. What a luxury it is to have three hours to play a video game. I would hardly have any time to play video games at all if I didn't do video games for work. My wife says she doesn't like guys in a tube top or a tank top, and I'm like, you're already stuck with me. Well, she's not stuck with me — but you get the idea.
Stray drops you straight into playing as a cat, and I love the little touches. We can scratch on things here, and the controls vibrate and have a little resistance in them while you scratch — that's cool. That was enough scratching, though, because the game got real dark fast. Good thing this cat can take fall damage. It was sad losing my little cat friends right at the start — look who's all alone now. Then I found myself limping along going, I can't feel my leg! How come they're all beat up? What movie is that from? I really like how they've started this game off with essentially no cutscenes — it just immerses you right into the environment. And then, oh, I died. What happened? I know — at least my cat has nine lives.
Does Consistency Matter When Putting Out Content?
Bane asked whether consistency matters when putting out content. Yes — I would say the number one thing that matters is consistency over time, and especially if you can be as consistent as possible in what you're delivering. I've been consistent over the years in putting things out, but what I've not been consistent in over the years is putting the same kinds of things out.
Here's what I mean. If I would have just live streamed games when I started streaming games back in 2015 and 2016 — if I would have done nothing but live stream games the entire time — I imagine I would have made a lot more money, the community would be way bigger, and I literally would have just needed to live stream games. I could have spent way less money than I spent on all these other projects I tried. I essentially could have tried and stressed way less. Leaned back, had fun, showed up, and done the same thing — just play some games, whatever I want. It doesn't even matter what the game is. Play anything, but deliver a consistent experience.
That's what I'm learning, so you know what I'm going to do: indefinitely play whatever game I want every day. Just go live — don't even mess with any more pre-recorded videos. Just go live, play whatever game I want every day, and do that over and over again for years. Consistency is the absolute most important thing.
Now, it's easy to be consistent if you're doing something you love. Where consistency is difficult is when you start doing things you don't love. For example, when I was creating all these different kinds of videos, if they didn't go well or I didn't get the results I wanted, then I'd stop doing them, because I was doing it more to get something than because I just wanted to do it. In order to have consistency, what you really need is something you love — something you essentially don't need any external validation to do. I love playing video games. I don't need anybody to watch, and I don't need anybody to give me any money or subscribe — I just love playing the games, and I love talking about whatever is most useful. I love playing games and talking. That's something I can do indefinitely. And I love live streaming much better than doing pre-recorded videos, so that's something I can do indefinitely with no validation and no rewards.
All You Need Is a Number One Fan
That said, it is proven that you all do love receiving what I love giving, and that is definitely important. If you love streaming games but nobody loves watching you stream games, that is a bit of an issue. If you're truly going to do something and love it, you do need a number one fan. I mean, that's all you need. If you're wondering whether you can be a content creator or something like that, you just need a number one fan — just one person who really loves what you do. That's enough.
Meanwhile, in the game — oh, here's a little puzzle to solve. Should we test this? Should we just walk into the fan? It won't let me walk into the fan. I was about to have some cat blah — I'd have had cat spray all over, so thanks a lot for asking about that.
Yeah, I'd say consistency matters more than anything else. Where almost everybody fails is consistency, and that's because — if I look back at my own past — I often did things to get things. If you do things to get things, then when you don't get the things, you'll stop doing them. So if you're just trying to make videos to get some money, when you don't get money, you'll stop making the videos, and then your consistency will be severely disrupted. But if you're doing something out of love, because there's nothing you'd rather do, you can be consistent even when you get nothing. And if you can be consistent when you get nothing, then you can be consistent to the point when you actually do get something.
What are these things? I'm glad that back paw's working. They're launching themselves at me — this is pretty cool. How do you know me? What are these things? This is funny. Oh, cat! Good thing this cat's fast. I wonder what happens if I get caught.
The Courtesy Officer and the Fan That Took Care of Itself
My mind has often spent so much time thinking and obsessing about how to grow, and I realize that's based on the assumption that I have to do more. There's a lot of that kind of narrative in our world — that you always need to be doing more, hustle, grow, grow, grow, make it happen. What if you don't need to do anything else?
I was a courtesy officer for about a year at this apartment complex I lived at. Courtesy officer means I was the police officer — I worked as a police officer, and they gave me a big discount on my apartment in exchange for helping them out as needed. I'd get calls, and then I'd figure out what to do based on the call. One night I got a call that a fan was spinning out of control, and that if somebody didn't do something, it was just going to fall on the floor — and it was in an empty apartment. I was out at the bar at the time, and I said, "Well, that'll take care of itself, won't it?" And I hung up. The next day, there was a report that a fan in an unoccupied apartment fell down. I'm like, see? I didn't need to do anything. I just sat at the bar drinking my beer, and that handled itself, didn't it?
And yet, when I look at things like my business online, I have often had the opposite approach — like if I don't do something, nothing's going to happen. And true, if I don't show up and do my live stream, nothing might happen. But I finally had that kind of fan realization: all I need to do is show up, and everything else will completely take care of itself. I don't have to stress about it. I don't have to think about it. I don't have to plot. I don't have to optimize for the algorithm. Sure, I can check the data and see what you all are watching — if you really watch a video a lot, maybe I play that game again; if we realize you really like it when I play a new game, maybe I prioritize new games more. I do need to pay attention and listen to you. But other than that, there's not much to do except show up.
I think it can be easy to get into this mindset with your finances, too — that if you don't do something, nothing will happen. Well, what if you just spend your money responsibly, think about how you want your finances to be, and ask for help? Something may just fall right in your lap, and you won't even have to do anything for it.
I Got Robbed — or I'm Just Generous
Somebody pointed out that I paid 30 bucks to pre-order this game. I got robbed! Hey, you can say you got robbed, or you can think of yourself as a generous person who's got money to spare. I dropped 30 bucks to pre-order Shredder's Revenge on Nintendo Switch, and then I see today that it's on Game Pass. I'm like, well, that was nice of me to put an extra 30 bucks into it — and I'm going to remember to always check Game Pass in the future for stuff.
I'm glad I've learned that with my finances, the best thing I can do is set a general intention — like, I want to do work I love that other people enjoy, work that makes a big difference in their lives, in your lives, and I want to have enough money, plenty of money, from doing that work. And then from there, control my expenses. Because I don't control how much money I make, but I do control how much money I spend.
Prevention Instead of Treatment
For example, my massage therapist canceled for today, so I did yoga instead. I know — I've got a real tough life, right? But I have the life I've made. In my experience, it's worth paying for prevention instead of treatment. So I get a massage, and I go to yoga. I spend thousands every year on massage and a thousand a year for an unlimited yoga membership, and those things have helped me not need medical attention. I personally would prefer not to have health insurance, but my wife does not agree with me on that — and she gets health insurance partially provided through her job. What's really cool is that my wife gets a health savings account, so she actually pays for my massages. Which is funny, because she trolls me about my massages so much, and now she pays for them.
It's funny how often, irrationally, we want to give to people who don't really need it, and we want to withhold from people who really do need it — like that homeless person asking you for money on the street. Yes, they might just be pissing it away on alcohol and cigarettes and killing themselves. Still, they really do need the 20 bucks you could give them.
Enough Money Is the Magic Number
The most important thing financially, in my experience, is just to have enough money. As long as you've got enough money, that's truly the magic number, because that's really the only place your finances can be: enough money or not enough money. In the worst financial situation I've ever been in, I realized that I still had enough money — even though I had a lot more debt at much higher interest rates than I have now, I still had enough money for everything, even for things you might think of as a luxury, like massage.
If you're wondering why I talk about money so much: I think it helps a lot to talk about money in very clear, detailed terms. I think we've been raised not to talk about certain topics — we've been raised to get into shame, and we've been raised not to talk about some of the exact topics we really do need to talk about. To me, money, health, and sex are topics we really need to get comfortable discussing.
Money, health, and sex are topics we really need to be comfortable talking about. And that's the thing with the numbers, too — they're all just numbers. They don't really matter that much. There's probably somebody else out there who has a net worth of negative $150,000, and they feel like they're totally broke all the time. Whereas my net worth — my wife's and my net worth together — is around negative $150,000, and I feel like I live like a king, even though I don't spend that much. I just feel like I have everything I want, and I could have anything I wanted. If I wanted to go to Europe right now, I could go to Europe right now.
Meanwhile, in the game: how do I get this bag off my head? How do I get this dopey bag off my head? Thank you.
Like I said, I could go to Europe right now. I think about all the ways I could spend my money. I could go to Australia right now. I could go to Canada. I could buy a Tesla right now — accumulate more debt and put out some of my cash — but hey, I could do that. I don't want to do that, but I could do that.
A Nice Cry and a Nice Hug
I'll put the kids to bed tonight, which is nice — I like putting the kids to bed at least once a week. Oh, and I had a nice cry today. My daughter came up and gave me a nice hug, and it's just nice. With my kids being six and four, it's really nice to appreciate my life and not wish I was somewhere else or doing something else. It's really nice to just really love and enjoy life the way it is today, and not think, oh, it'll be so great when they get a little bit older. It's great now. Things are great now. I'm really happy where my life is at today. Everything's going to be okay. I'm going to be just great today.
What Was That Code?
Back in the game — wait, what was that code? Oh my goodness, what was the code? I'm running off looking for this thing, and if I could, I'd love to get the door open first. What was the code? I guess I could scroll back in my live stream. Dang it, I ran out of the bar too quick. Where's that bar at? It was right over by grandma's, wasn't it? I'm at the bar with her — yeah, this is it, isn't it? Yeah, that's it. What's this code say? Nice: one, two, eight, three. All right, where is that safe at? That's a pretty cool game. Where is that safe, though? It was in some corner by something. Dude, I just barreled head first into something. Can we get this safe open before we sign off?
What the heck was that thing that just rolled by? I'm hitting run now so we can run around this thing. No, wait — what was the code? Was it one, two, eight, seven? I ran around there already. Where is the thing to unlock it? I don't think there's a map in this business, is there? Oh, it's down here, isn't it? One, two, eight... oh, don't put random numbers up there. Ah, crap. What the heck was it? I'm about to go back in the replay and look at it — I'll be able to zoom right back to the moment I saw it. One, two, eight, three. Okay, one, two, eight, three — got it. And all that was for sheet music! I did all of that for some sheet music. Okay, you want to play sheet music? Okay, I'll play it with you. Say hello to my little song.
Today we've had fun, we've learned, we've grown, and we've enjoyed our time together, and I'm extremely grateful. If you enjoyed this adventure playing as a cat in a cyberpunk open world, you can find plenty more gameplay like this in my Games playlist. I'm going to go hang out and put the kids to bed, and thank God for another day. I hope y'all have a wonderful day, my friends.