It’s not enough to criticize all the things that are wrong with the world. Instead of just complaining, we should create better products or better ways of doing things if we want to improve the world.

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Here’s a transcript of our conversation:

Brittany: Hi, Emma.

Emma: Hi, Brittany.

Brittany: So, today I wanna talk about something that I really love, and it’s called Criticize By Creating it is one of my favorite, favorite sayings ever. And what does that mean? Criticize by creating, well, criticize of course, means to like, be critical or give, I just use the same word to describe it. I’m trying to think of a, a good word too. That would be a synonym or a word that’s similar to criticize, but, you know, giving, giving some, I was gonna say critical again, what’s the word? Help me out here, Emma. I was gonna

Emma: Say critique, but even that is like the same root word. Maybe.

Brittany: Maybe I don’t like something , you know, or I don’t like

Emma: Yeah. Contradict

Brittany: Or contradict our brains are not working today. So criticize, bike, creating. So let’s say, well, not just, let’s say there are a lot of things that are really messed up and and wrong in this country, not only with the government. I think that would be an endless, you know, we could talk about that forever. but also businesses, right? Maybe you don’t like the way, target does something, which is not true. Cause target’s perfect. maybe you don’t like, you know, something Whole Foods does or, or whatever that is. But instead of just complaining, cuz I think a lot of people just like to complain. Like they literally just, oh yes. Like to sit and complain about everything. Instead of doing that, the more productive thing is to, to criticize by creating. So let’s say, let me give an example by this. So let’s use Steve Jobs.

Like, let’s say Steve Jobs was, no, he was dissatisfied. He didn’t like the way phones worked or he didn’t like the way computers worked. So instead of complaining about it, what did he do? He created his own, you know, empire with Apple and he made a bigger phone or better phone. He made better computers. So it was, it was, that is the cool thing to do, right? With government. Yeah. Lysander Spooner, who I’ve talked about, a lot of times he, he talked about, oh my gosh, I just lost my train of thought today guys. I’m getting, I’m getting so frustrated. The postal service. The postal service, yes. Cause I love

Emma: That he did that.

Brittany: Right. Exactly. Thank you for keeping on track. I’m like, you guys, my brain is so fuzzy today. So yeah. So he created an alternative to the post service because, or postal service, because he said like this, first of all, it’s just a terrible agency. It’s only gotten worse. I wanna do something better. I don’t wanna be forced to pay for it. Private schools I think are another good example of this. private schools have said, okay, our public school systems are failing our children. What are we gonna do? Oh, okay. Let’s create better alternatives. So I kind of wanna talk about that today and maybe just even throw some different, you know, examples out there. Because this is one of my favorite things. And I think also, I think I used to do this a lot too until my friend Max Borderers, who we actually had on, the program I think like a year ago he is a big conference where he used to talk about this, it was called Voice and Exit. Cuz he talks about like, you voice your opinion and then you leave the system or you create alternatives. But he was really big on this concept of criticized by creating. And it was one of those things where I was just like, oh my goodness, my mind is blown that’s so perfect. But Magatte Wade Who we also had on the podcast. She’s an entrepreneur and that’s her big thing that like, I’m not just gonna sit and complain and point out what everybody’s doing wrong. I’m gonna show them and lead by example. So, Emma, I don’t know if you have some examples cause we could go on I think so long for this. If you wanna give some examples of how you did this or how other people have done it.

Emma: Yeah, I mean, I can’t said a little thing to.

Brittany: I put you on the spot? Sorry.

Emma: I haven’t built like, you know, a hugely successful business or a private school or anything like that. I mean, honestly, I think a really good example of this is the Tuttle Twin series actually, where Connor Boyack, who wrote the main book series and has done all sorts of fun projects. He basically started that by being really dissatisfied with the kind of curriculum that was out there for homeschoolers and just, you know, dissatisfaction with the education system in general. Where he, you know, he had kids that he was homeschooling and he was thinking, well, how can I teach them about the ideas that really matter and talk about things like, you know, civil rights and liberty and economics when there’s nothing out there that exists. So rather than just complaining about it, he actually started writing books and what do you know, there were, you know, thousands of other people, millions of other people who felt the same way and said, Hey, yeah, I’ll buy that book. And that’s kind of how the Tuttle Twins was created. So if any of you guys have stories of how you came across our content and our books and stuff, let us know because I think that’s super interesting and I always love hearing how people came across us, but that’s kinda the first one that comes to mind. I definitely think school alternatives in general are a great example. Like you said, Brittany, the public school system is just so messed up in so many ways. It treats all students the same. We’ve talked about it quite a bit and, you know, rather than parents just complaining about it, which you know, is understandable because they’re being forced to pay for it through their taxes. I get the complaining part, but you kind of have to take another step if you wanna fix things in your own family. And they’ve said, well, we’re gonna try homeschooling or unschooling or start a charter school or a pod or whatever that might look like for you. And private schools, like you said are a great example of that. But I think within education there are so many cool examples of people saying, we’re gonna do something else. The stakes are way too high. We can’t afford to just complain when it’s our kids’ education that we’re talking about. And I really admire that and I admire all the people who have gone through a lot to make it work and to, make sure that their kids are getting a good education. It’s a big deal.

Brittany: No, yeah. I think that’s a great example. Another one that comes to mind is, the founding of the United States. You know? There was a big, they weren’t just gonna be like, let’s complain. You know, when they aired their grievances and the Declaration of Independence, they weren’t just airing their grievances. They weren’t just saying, you did this, you did this. They said you did this, you did this. That’s unjust. So we’re gonna do our own thing. Like we’re gonna create, you know, what was called later a more perfect union. I think we all know that our government is far from perfect. Even, James Madison said, you know, if I can’t remember the exact quote, but basically the two long didn’t read version of the quote is, government is not made of angels. That’s why we need, you know, restrictions. So no one is saying our government is perfect. But it was so great that our founding fathers and our framers, they didn’t just complain even though they had so much to complain about. I mean so much to complain about. They said, oh yeah, we’re gonna do something better. We’re gonna innovate the system of government that we’ve been living under. You know, this tyranny from the king and we’re gonna do something better. And another thing that comes to mind or maybe it, and I don’t, I think we could all do this, is in our own lives, you know?

Emma: Yeah, absolutely.

Brittany: We could criticize by creating, when we look at things, maybe we need to do better. And I do think it’s easy to get really down on ourselves. I think it’s easy to only focus on the negative things. Like I know I always used to be really self-conscious cuz I talk a lot and I would be like, oh, I talk a lot, you know? No one’s gonna like me. And I don’t necessarily think that needed to be switched, Cause I just, that’s just who I’m, but you know, maybe not getting so excited that I interrupt people or something like that. You know, like to criticize myself in a way where I’m just creating better habits. I’m creating, you know, new things that I can do better instead of just complaining all the time. Put you on the spot again, Emma, to see if you have any more examples.

Emma: Yeah, I like that you’re talking about doing this on a personal level. Cause I hadn’t even thought of that, but I think you’re so right where, you know, there’s a great book out there called Atomic Habits that maybe some of the older kids would enjoy reading. but it’s a fantastic book and one of the things, I think the author’s name is James Clear, but one of the things that he talks about is, not just cutting out a bad habit, but actually replacing it with a good one. So if your bad habit is watching TV at night, don’t just turn off the TV and say, well, I’m just gonna sit here and do nothing. I’m gonna read a book instead and read a book that I enjoy as much as I enjoy watching TV and kind of, hacking the thing in your brain that craves a certain thing that you know you shouldn’t be doing. So I think that’s kind of a cool way of comparing with this idea we’re talking about today, where it’s like you don’t just complain. You don’t just point out what’s bad, but you actually create something that’s better. So I think, you know, habits are a great way of sort of implementing this in your own life. I definitely try to watch less tv. I’m trying to eat less sugar and like cookies and sweets and stuff like that cuz they don’t make me feel good and they make me tired. So instead I have, you know, some healthy snacks that I really enjoy eating. And when I’m craving something that’s not so healthy, I’ll eat the slightly healthier thing because I know it will, you know, make me feel better in the long run and nourishes my body more. So I think that’s like a super small example, but there’s a million ways you can implement this in your personal life that I think are super positive and will help you kind stay on track with what you wanna do. But then also, like you said, when it comes to criticizing, you know, systems or businesses or things that you encounter in your daily life that you don’t enjoy, you know, we can’t always make our own version of the post office , but yeah, because Congress will shut you down and it’s ridiculous , which, which is what happened to Lysander Spooner. But anyway, you can always be thinking of creative ways to get around your problems. And it’s not always easy when it’s something as big as the government. But you know, if there’s a business that you are, you know, you think is really not serving people well, you could be the one to start a competitor business someday and actually like fix the problem. And we’ve talked so much about entrepreneurs on this show and you know, what caused them to have their inspiration and their ideas and I think a lot of them saw problems and were just willing to work hard and try and fix them. So my encouragement would be, even if it seems kind of impossible to fix a problem, don’t just write off creating a solution because it seems too big. You know, we would have no Tesla, no Amazon, no. You know, you could go through a whole list of awesome businesses if people all thought that way. So don’t limit yourself. That would be my advice.

Brittany: That’s a great point. And back to, I told you that conference I used to go to every year before the pandemic, cuz I don’t think they’d do it anymore, that it was really cool because all these innovators came together to create or to propose solutions. And it was really cool because you had people who offered new climate change solutions, you know, instead of the government getting involved, why we could, you know, have these private sectors who are doing these really interesting things to help make the environment cleaner. So it was really fun to see people, you know, putting this into action and taking all these government properties or these problems in the world and saying, here’s a non-government solution. You know, John Mackey who invented Whole Foods is there, and he talked about he didn’t like, you know, how bad, you know, processed food and all that was. And so he started Whole Foods to make it, to give people more options and make things better. And so it was really fun because for three days you had all these people. Another one, my friend Joe Kirk who, he started Sea setting, he’s like in charge of one of the sea setting companies. And so he was there and Seasteading is, there’s, you can’t really escape government, but if you build like a, your own kind of island, but it’s like a, like a house on stilts. You can build your own thing in international or outside of international waters and be literally sovereign to be a free person without government. So he’s kind of, he’s like, has this whole business, it’s really cool where he’s teaching people how to do this. So it was stuff like that where it was like all the most innovative minds ever coming together. And, you know, we have problems with this because the reason people get angry with things like Twitter and Facebook is because they’ve gotten so powerful and they have so much influence and it’s actually really hard to create alternatives. Yeah. So that’s a really interesting point to bring up that some people have made it harder to innovate. For example, yeah, when people tried to create alternative sites like Apple and Google, they wouldn’t allow people to download it on their phone. So there are a lot of people that wanna stop the creation of new ideas, which isn’t great. But I think one of the most important things we need to realize is, one, there is so much to criticize and there’s so much to be, to be disappointed with the way government and the wave and some, you know, businesses work. But if all you’re doing is complaining, if all you’re doing is going on Yelp and writing, you know, a 500 word review on everything that made you mad, you’re not gonna be changing the world. And I think we all kind of wanna change the world or at least make it a little better. And so the thing you should do is to create better solutions. So that’s my final thought.

Emma: I love it. Yep. It, there’s always a way around, there’s always a way to be creative and resourceful, even if it takes a hundred years of activism to get the post office to not be so crummy at its job. But, there’s always a way and we should always be creative. So we will wrap it up there today, guys. Thank you so much for listening and we will talk to you all again soon.

Brittany: Talk to you soon.