71. What If Success Is The Unmeasurable Part?

Send us a message.We open with a 93-year-old woman who ran an oil pump valve repair business and a boutique until she was nearly 100, and what her life says about the post-WWII metrics we've organized our sense of security around — the 401k, the house, the college fund, the car in the driveway. We dig into EM Forster's observation that the novel is sogged with humanity, and what happens to a life when the humanity gets exercised out of it in favor of the spreadsheet.That leads us to a visit with a former fighter pilot and lawyer in Plattsmouth — a man with signed baseballs, original paintings, a wall of 14,000-foot summits, and no visitors. We talk about legacy anxiety, what it means when your life's work has nowhere to go, and why the things that actually give this sliver of time any quality are exactly the things that resist being measured. We end somewhere near the question AI keeps raising: why are you doing this in the first place, and what happens if the answer isn't good? -AiSupport the show If you enjoyed this episode, please consider giving us a rating and/or a review. We appreciate and try to read all of them. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode. Links To Everything: Video Version of The Podcast: https://geni.us/StudioSessionsYT Matt’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/MatthewOBrienYT Matt’s 2nd Channel: https://geni.us/PhotoVideosYT Alex’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/AlexCarterYT Matt’s Instagram: https://geni.us/MatthewIG Alex’s Instagram: https://geni.us/AlexIG