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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Sheep Get Sheared podcast and today I want to

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discuss the idea of being an intellectual nomad.

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Now if you don't know me, my name is Austin Creed, I'm glad that you're listening to

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the show, but we're going to talk about what it means to be an intellectual nomad.

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You might ask me where I came up with this concept or why we're even talking about it.

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Well first I want to say I've come up with multiple different ideas on the show.

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All centered around the concept of understanding how you're being exploited and understanding

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how people are trying to manipulate you and trying to play your misunderstanding or misnomers

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of the world to their advantage against you.

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And the intellectual nomad kind of pairs up with being a biblical bachelor, it pays

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up with being a Ronin.

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And what it means to be an intellectual nomad is to understand that you are walking in the

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vast wilderness.

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I want you to, if you're able to, I want you to close your eyes and concentrate real

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hard and picture yourself as a man walking down a trail alone.

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So it's a very narrow trail going up a very steep mountain.

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And below you down the mountain, you see the broad road.

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Lot of people are walking down this path, broad foot traffic.

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Lot of people seeming like they're happy, they're happy go lucky, they're doing their

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thing and you feel like, oh man, I'm taking the hard road.

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Why would I take the hard road when I can take the easy road?

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Why go the extra mile when I don't have to?

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Why blaze my own trail when there's a perfectly good looking trail right there in front of

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me?

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Why would I take this?

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Well, my friend, you're asking a good question.

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And good questions require answers that will not only satisfy your curiosity, but are going

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to give you more further food for thought.

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And so that's what being an intellectual nomad is.

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For those of you who don't know what a nomad is, nomad is a reference to the nomadic tribes.

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Nomadic tribes of years gone by and some of those still exist to this day in certain

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areas in the world where they would follow the herds.

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They would never just lived in one place like how a lot of civilizations were based off

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agriculture.

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Excuse me, sorry.

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A lot of them are based off of agriculture.

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So when you're based off of agriculture, you stay in one place to grow the crops, to raise

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the animals, to build a civilization.

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Usually it's based off of a river or if you're a coastal town, it's based off of the marine

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life and the agriculture.

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But when you're a nomadic tribe, say for example, like certainly an American tribe, like the

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Lakota, who followed the buffalo, this is an example of a nomadic tribe.

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People who never truly had one home per se, but they always traveled around.

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They made their home wherever they laid their herds, wherever they were.

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That's where home was.

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And I think it's important for us to understand what it means to be an intellectual nomad

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if we want to know a lot of people that don't want to know what it means to blaze your own

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trail.

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Be somebody who is set apart, who is choosing to be different, not just to be different,

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but because that they don't fully identify with any one singular lifestyle, religion,

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life system or anything like that, they feel like they have not been represented thus far

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by anything that they've encountered.

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And so what happens is then they don't know where to go.

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They don't know which way to turn.

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I mean, if you had, if you say, for example, if you were in high school and you went to

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the fair, the club fair and you're going down the club fair and you see the astronomy

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club, the science club, the basketball club, the dodgeball club, a math club.

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And it would not have been appeals to you.

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You might like math.

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You might like playing dodgeball, whatever, but you don't want to just commit yourself

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to that one thing because you're not sure it fully is you.

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Being an intellectual nomad means that you don't just put yourself in one place.

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You don't just have one simple belief system that can be easily defined.

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You are a complex creature who's trying to find the truth, even if you hate it, you

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want to find truth.

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You need to find the truth.

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Even if there's such a thing exists and you're not completely sure that it does, but you

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want it to be real.

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So what happens is you go and you look for it.

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You go looking for the truth because you're convinced that exists.

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You think it's out there.

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You think you're fine, then you know what you're looking for, but you're not sure you're always

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looking for it the same way that nomads are always looking for new pastures, new fresh

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game, new fresh sometimes people to invade.

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These are all examples that you can turn from real life examples into mental examples.

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You might not agree with everything I say or everything that your pastor says or another

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content creator or a friend or a family member, and that's fine and very normal, by the way.

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I don't understand people who agree with anything anybody ever says because to me, it's just

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not something normal.

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Being an intellectual nomad means you're not going to just subscribe to one thing, like

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just say, oh, I am this period.

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I am a Republican or I am a Democrat or I am, oh, I don't know.

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It could be anything.

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Sorry, it's three o'clock in the morning here.

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I'm trying to try to drive back to the house because I took a wrong turn.

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And because people in Kansas are so smart, they say, hey, you know what?

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You made one wrong turn on a toll road.

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Well, now you get to go 30 minutes in the wrong direction and pay the toll going the

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wrong direction.

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But anyways, this is just me learning how to adult, I guess.

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You want to if you want to call it that, I suppose you wouldn't be wrong to say that.

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But my friends going back to the intellectual nomad conversation, you might have beliefs

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that I don't agree with, just as I have beliefs you don't agree with.

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In my opinion, that is what makes for good conversation because it's not about being

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right.

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It's about understanding people who are different and being willing to say, you know what?

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I agree with that.

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I mean, you know, maybe I don't agree with that and being able to really wrestle with

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it and say, hey, I want to really play with this idea of maybe I'm wrong.

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Maybe you're right or vice versa and being able to accept the outcome, but play with

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the idea.

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I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about because it might not be making sense

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and you might not fully be understanding what I'm talking about.

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So I might, Jim, I have a personal trainer and he's a great guy and I like to talk to

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him about sports while we're working out.

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And when we talk about sports, we'll talk about football, basketball, basketball, we'll

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talk about baseball.

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We'll talk about all these different things, right?

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And while we're talking about it, to me, I figure the conversation was normal.

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For example, let's say, oh, I think this guy is better than that guy or I think this

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team is better at this era or whatever.

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And I'm never like, oh, that's stupid.

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I always pause and I say, you know what?

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I'm not super knowledgeable about sports.

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Truth be told, I'm not a huge sports nut.

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So what I say is, you know what?

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Maybe you're right, but let's talk about it.

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I could be right wrong, but let's talk about it.

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Let's have a conversation.

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Who's, you know, is LeBron the best in the game right now?

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Is was he better than Michael Jordan?

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Well, I don't know.

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Well, let's look at it.

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Let's talk about it.

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I don't think I necessarily I know for certain because it's not my job to know.

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It's not a hobby of mine to know.

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So I just talk about it.

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And I remember him saying, he said, you know what?

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Often, I appreciate the fact that you don't just walk into the conversation with trying

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to tell me I'm wrong or tell me this or tell me that.

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Like you genuinely want to just talk about it.

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You want to exchange ideas and not just push your agenda down my throat.

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And I said, yes, I'm glad that you noticed that because I don't ever want to come across

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being that guy who's just shoving my agenda down your throat or telling you that I'm right.

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You're wrong.

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And you don't know what you're talking about.

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Now are there times where I will do that in, for example, politics where I think it's extremely

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black and white?

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Sure.

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But in general, I do I attempt not to do that because then it robs people of the ability

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to express their belief system in a way that maybe I had thought about it before.

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Maybe I hadn't seen it from your perspective because I don't have your life experience

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and doing and then being abrasive unnecessarily.

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I lose out on the ability to learn and grow as an individual and expand my mental horizon.

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And when you are not able to do that, not only is it extremely unattractive to people

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who would normally want to be in your life, whether it be romantically, botanically or

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professionally, what it does is it robs you personally of the ability to learn something,

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grow, expand, and then doing so you have just lost out on a potential new ability to capitalize

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on compound interest.

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That is why I believe it is important to be open to the intellectual nomadic lifestyle.

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Now I'm not saying that you have no core beliefs.

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One has core beliefs.

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You get distinguishing between what you are willing to discuss and what you maybe aren't

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so willing to discuss.

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But not being dogmatic, not being not being super definitive in a way that you're not

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going to at least question beliefs that you're whole true.

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If you're not going to put your beliefs to the test, you are doing yourself a big disservice.

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Anything I talked about on the show, whether it relates to women, money, work, all of religion,

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all of those things I put to the test actively both currently I will in the future and I

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have in the past.

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Because I want to make sure that I'm not full of hot air.

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It might come as a surprise to you, especially those of you who listen to the show regularly,

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but I have doubts.

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I am uncertain.

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I'm a human being.

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But guess what?

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I test my theories.

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I tell the stories as receipts and accountability to you, my friends, not just audience, but

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my friends who are here on this journey with me, not only through the show, but through

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this journey we call life, this adventure of life.

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And life is can be linear in a lot of ways, but it can also be something that's completely

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crazy, unexpected, uncalled for, unsolicited.

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Sorry, I'm losing my voice because I don't have a lot of water left.

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But this is what's going to lead you down the path of being an intellectual nomad is

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being able to not just be dogmatic to open your mind to something that maybe you had

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never thought about before.

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And maybe you didn't think was possible, but now it is.

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Now you're playing with the idea and you'll either accept it or reject it.

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And that is crucial.

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That is important.

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My friends, I want to challenge you to be an intellectual nomad and opening your mind

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to being right or wrong, testing your beliefs.

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It's crucial to growing as an individual, in my opinion.

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I want to do more.

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I'm just starting to lose my voice a little bit.

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So I'll see how much longer my voice will last.

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My friends, it's crucial for your growth as a man, a woman, alien, I don't know who you

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are.

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But it's important for your growth to test your currently held beliefs, to not just

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believe them because you want to or because you want people you like believe them, but

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to believe them because you've actively put them to the test.

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You put them up against the fire of truth and you've burned out the impurities.

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You ironed out the insecurities and you put forward the hard, cold, honest truth that

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you use as a sword to cut through the lies and deception that you will encounter every

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day of your life.

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I use sword not shield because you must cut through the darkness to find likeminded people

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into seek the light that will lead you to the road you have set out for yourself.

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What friends?

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It's important that we have open conversations like this because if you are not willing to

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be intellectually nomadic to some extent, whether it's fully or partially, then you're

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missing out on the opportunities to expand your horizons and become someone better, greater,

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and more intuitive than you were before.

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My friends, you take care of yourselves.

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Leave your thoughts, please, please leave your comments and thoughts in the comments

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below.

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I would love to hear what you have to say, whether you think I'm right, wrong, the stare,

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or foul, I want to hear all of it.

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My friends, take care of yourselves and I'm out of here.

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You take care.

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Peace.