Sheep Get Sheared
Are You an Intellectual Nomad? Embracing the New Age of Nomadism
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the sheep gets shared podcast and today I want to discuss the idea of being an intellectual nomad. Now, if you don't know me, name is Austin treat. I'm glad that you're listening to the show, but we're going to talk about what it means to be an intellectual nomad. You might ask me where I came up with this concept or why we're even talking about it. Well, first, I want to say I come up with multiple different ideas on the show. All centered around the concept of understanding how you're being exploited and understanding how people are trying to manipulate you and trying to play your misunderstanding or misnomers of the world to their advantage against you. And the intellectual nomad kind of pairs up with being a biblical bachelor, it pays up with being a Ronin. And what it means to be an intellectual nomad is to understand that you are walking in the fast wilderness. I want you to, if you're able to, I want you to close your eyes and concentrate real hard and picture yourself as a man walking down a trail alone. So that's a very narrow trail going up a very steep mountain. And below you, down the mountain, you see the broad road. A lot of people are walking down this path, broad foot traffic, a lot of people seeming like they're happy, they're happy, go lucky, they're doing their thing. And you feel like, oh man, I'm taking the hard road. Why would I take the hard road when I could take the easy road? Why go the extra mile when I don't have to? Why blaze my own trail when there's a perfectly good looking trail right there in front of me? Why would I take this? Well, my friend, you're asking a good question. And good questions require answers that will not only satisfy your curiosity, but are going to give you a little further food for thought. And so that's what being an intellectual nomad is, nomads, for those of you who don't know what a nomad is, nomad is a reference to the nomadic tribes, nomadic tribes of years gone by and some of those still exist to this day in certain areas in the world where they would follow the hurts. They would never just lived in one place like how a lot of civilizations were based off agriculture, excuse me, sorry, a lot of them are based off of agriculture. Because when you're based off of agriculture, you stay in one place to grow the crops, to raise the animals, to build a civilization. Usually it's based off of a river or if you're a coastal town, it's based off of the marine life and the agriculture, but when you're a nomadic tribe, say for example, like certain the American tribes like the Lakota who followed the buffalo, this is an example of a nomadic tribe, people who never truly had one home per se, but they always traveled around. They made their home wherever they laid their hurt, wherever they were, that's where home was. And I think it's important for us to understand what it means to be an intellectual nomad if we want to know. A lot of people that don't want to know what it means to blaze your own trail, be somebody who is set apart, who is choosing to be different, not just to be different, but because they don't fully identify with any one singular lifestyle, religion, belief system or anything like that. And they feel like they have not been represented thus far by anything that they've encountered. And so what happens is then they don't know where to go. They don't know which way to turn. I mean, if you had, if you, say for example, if you were in high school and you went to the fair, the club fair and you're going down the club fair and you see the astronomy club, the science club, the basketball club, the dodgeball club, the math club and none of it appeals to you might like math, you might like playing dodgeball, whatever, but you don't want to just commit yourself to that one thing because you're not sure it fully is you. Being an intellectual nomad means that you don't just put yourself in one place. You don't just have one simple belief system that can be easily defined. You are a complex creature who's trying to find the truth. Even if you hate it, you want to find the truth, you need to find the truth. Even if there's such a thing exists and you're not completely sure that it does but you want it to be real. So what happens is you go and you look for it, you go looking for the truth because you're convinced it exists, you think it's out there, you think you're fine then you know what you're looking for but you're not sure and you're always looking for it. The same way that nomads are always looking for new pastures, new fresh game, new fresh sometimes people to invade. These are all examples that you can turn from real life examples into mental examples. You might not agree with everything I say or everything that your pastor says or another content creator or a friend or a family member and that's fine and very normal by the way. I don't understand people who agree with anything anybody ever says because to me, it's just not something normal. But being an intellectual nomad means you're not going to just subscribe to one thing like just say, oh I am this period, I am a Republican or oh I am a Democrat or oh I am, oh I don't know. It could be anything, sorry it's three o'clock in the morning here, I'm trying to drive back to the house because I took a wrong turn and because people in Kansas are so smart, they say hey you know what, you made one wrong turn on a toll road, well now you get to go 30 minutes in the wrong direction and pay the toll during the wrong direction. Anyways, this is just me learning how to adult I guess, if you want to call it that I suppose you wouldn't be wrong to say that. But my friends going back to the intellectual nomad conversation, you might have beliefs that I don't agree with just as I have beliefs you don't agree with. In my opinion, that is what makes for good conversation because it's not about being right, it's about understanding people who are different and being willing to say you know what, I agree with that or maybe I don't agree with that and being able to really wrestle with it and say hey, I want to really play with this idea of maybe I'm wrong, maybe you're right or vice versa and being able to accept the outcome but play with the idea. I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about because I might not be making sense and you might not fully be understanding what I'm talking about. So I have my gym, I have a personal trainer and he's a great guy and I like to talk to him about sports while we're working out and when we talk about sports, we'll talk about football, basketball, basketball, baseball, baseball, we'll talk about all these different things right and when we're talking about it, to me I figure the conversation was normal. For example, we'll say oh I think this guy is better than that guy or I think this team is better at this era or whatever and I'm never like oh that's stupid. I always pause and I say you know what, I'm not super knowledgeable about sports. Truth be told, I'm not a huge sports nut. So what I say is you know what, maybe you're right but let's talk about it. I could be right, wrong but let's talk about it, let's have a conversation whose you know is LeBron the best in the game right now, is was he better than Michael Jordan? Well I don't know but let's look at it, let's talk about it. I don't think not necessarily I know for certain because it's not my job to know, it's not a hobby of mine to know. So I just talk about it and I remember him saying he said you know what, often I appreciate the fact that you don't just walk into the conversation with trying to tell me I'm wrong or tell me this or tell me that like you genuinely want to just talk about it. You want to exchange ideas and not just push your agenda down my throat and I said yes, I'm glad that you noticed that because I don't ever want to come across as being that guy who's just shoving my agenda down your throat or telling you that I'm right, you're wrong and you don't know what you're talking about. Now are there times where I will do that in for example politics where I think it's extremely black and white, sure but in general I attempt not to do that because then it robs people of the ability to express their belief system in a way that maybe I hadn't thought about it before. Maybe I hadn't seen it from your perspective because I don't have your life experience and doing it and being abrasive unnecessarily I lose out on the ability to learn and grow as an individual and expand my mental horizon and when you are not able to do that not only is it extremely unattractive to people who would normally want to be in your life whether it be romantically, botanically or professionally what it does is it robs you personally of the ability to learn something, grow, expand and in doing so you have just lost out on a potential new ability to capitalize on compound interest. That is why I believe it is important to be open to the intellectual nomadic lifestyle. Now I'm not saying that you have no core beliefs, everyone has core beliefs, you get distinguishing between what you are willing to discuss and what you maybe aren't so willing to discuss but not being dogmatic, not being super definitive in a way that you are not going to at least question beliefs that you are whole true. If you are not going to put your beliefs to the test you are doing yourself a big disservice. Everything I talk about on the show whether it relates to women, money, work, all of religion all of those things I put to the test actively both currently I will in the future and I have in the past because I want to make sure that I am not full of hot air. It's my common surprise to you especially those of you who listen to the show regularly but I have doubts, I am uncertain, I am a human being, but guess what? I test my theories, I tell the stories as receipts and accountability to you, my friends not just audience but my friends who are here on this journey with me not only through the show but through this journey we call life, this adventure of life and life can be linear in a lot of ways but it can also be something that is completely crazy, unexpected, uncalled for, unsolicited, sorry I am losing my voice because I don't have a lot of water left but this is what is going to lead you down the path of being an intellectual nomad is being able to not just be dogmatic, to open your mind to something that maybe you had never thought about before and maybe you didn't think was possible but now it is. Now you are playing with the idea and you will either accept it or reject it and that is crucial, that is important, my friends I want to challenge you to be an intellectual nomad and opening your mind to being right or wrong, testing your beliefs, it is crucial to growing as an individual in my opinion, I want to do more, I am just starting to lose my voice a little bit so I will see how much longer my voice will last. My friends it is crucial for your growth as a man, a woman, alien, I don't know who you are but it is important for your growth to test your currently held beliefs to not just believe them because you want to or because you want people you like believe them but to believe them because you have actively put them to the test, you put them up against the fire of truth and you have burned out the impurities, you ironed out the insecurities and you put forward the hard, cold, honest truth that you use as a sword to cut through the lies and deception, you well encounter every day of your life. I use sword not shield because you must cut through the darkness to find like-minded people and to seek the light that will lead you to the road you have set out for yourself. My friends it is important that we have open conversations like this because if you are not willing to be intellectually nomadic to some extent, whether it is fully or partially, then you are missing out on the opportunities to expand your horizons and become someone better, greater and more intuitive than you were before. My friends you take care of yourselves, leave your thoughts, please please leave your comments in the comments below. I would love to hear what you have to say, whether you think I am right, wrong, the stare or foul, I will want to hear all of it. My friends take care of yourselves and I am out of here, you take care, peace.