Fleshing Out the Demotivational Podcast

I was taken aback a little by the popularity of my previous idea list on podcast ideas. The idea of a "Demotivational Podcast" was especially popular, so I decided to expand on the concept a bit.

1. Premise

A "demotivational" podcast that debunks popular self-help advice and instead suggests unusual and unconventional techniques and strategies for productivity and happiness.

2. Why?

Too many people in the world believe they need to be pumped up and psyched out to do what is unpleasant, but necessary. On the other hand, if you worked on what you already liked, you would need very little motivation to do it. If you generally worked on what you liked, you wouldn't have to pump yourself up so much to do the tedious tasks that make the enjoyable tasks possible.

There is too much emphasis on extrinsic motivation. No matter how hard I try to imagine, I just can't see people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Floyd Mayweather, or Elon Musk going to a motivational seminar. Yes, they had role models and mentors from whom they learned from, but that is completely separate from binge watching motivational videos on YouTube.

The most successful leaders of any industry are self motivated.

3. Self-Help Fallacies

There are many ideas in the self-help space that are considered sacred, but it seems that few people really evaluate if they deliver the expected the self-appointed gurus claim they do.

For example, many gurus claim that writing your goals down leads to a more successful life. How do they know? They cite the 1953 Yale University Study which allegedly never happened. Does writing your goals work? If you believe they do.

4. Once Impeachable Psychology Studies Were Revealed to Be Flawed

One notable example is the Milgram Experiment devised by Stanley Milgram in Yale University during the 1960s. I'm sure many people reading this list learned about this experiment about authority and control during their Intro to Psychology course back in college. Many of the participants caught on to the fact that the actor pretending to shocked was just acting And that's just one of the many flaws that plagued the study.

5. Unusual/Unconventional Techniques and Strategies

Scott Adams pioneered the concept of systems vs goals in "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big." This was the idea that implementing systems of learning and improvement were more important than setting grandiose goals.

Tim Ferriss tells his audience to study the people who excel in a field who conventionally shouldn't succeed.

James Altucher's "Idea Machine" concept led to the creation of this website!

6. The Hook

To stop this from becoming another generic self-help/motivational podcast, every episode after the first must debunk an alternative technique or strategy from a previous episode. If a concept is worth practicing, it will stand up to scrutiny.

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