In this week’s episode, Ismar thinks about people who think they are superior and Sebastian invites us to admire his shoes.
Transcript
Frank: What a start. Sebastian, help me. What day is today?
Sebastian: Tuesday the 13th of June.
Frank: It’s the Tuesday get together minus one. Igor is not with us. We know that Ismar is with us, but we don’t really understand him. Because we have technical problems, as they say in Broadcasting House. And with potluck number three, somebody should throw in a question. Did you have a good day today, Sebastian?
Sebastian: Yes, yes. I was in Ludwigshafen. After that, I was in Heidelberg, in Weinheim. So, a pretty nice trip.
Frank: It is, actually. Well, apart from Ludwigshafen, but Heidelberg and Weinheim, yes, it’s a nice corner of the country. And, were you successful in your ventures? Did you sell a lot of products?
Sebastian: Most of the time it’s not selling directly at the day. So, it was the first appointment was an introduction for a dealer. Because he has an event at Heidelberg Druck Maschinen the coming days. And so, I had to introduce the Smartwasher or told him what’s important about this product. Because he will place our product at the event there. So, I explained everything, and we will see if these guys are interested at the end on the device.
Frank: Okay. I suppose we could now go into a detailed discussion and explain to us what a Smartwasher is. But I think we will just let that one pass. Yeah. What are you drinking? Are you drinking something red? Are you drinking a rosé?
Sebastian: Let’s have a look what it is. Cranberry juice?
Frank: It’s cranberry juice.
Sebastian: It’s Johannesbeersaft. Is it cranberry juice?
Frank: No, it’s currant juice. It’s red currant juice. Cranberry in German is Preiselbeern.
Okay. So, Ismar, your opening question sounded very philosophical, very complicated. Keep the question simple and nice. What’s your question?
Ismar: It’s not only one question, but just one question.
Frank: Sorry that we’re laughing, Ismar, but you do have the title here of Mr. Question.
Ismar: Because it’s not possible to get to what I would like to discuss with you with just one question. But the first one is, in the capitalist system, we value much a person who has a big amount of money or any kind of other assets than the other that has less or has nothing. In your opinion, is a person who is rich or occupies a high position at his company, is he a superior person than the other that, for example, work cleaning the company or cut the grass and clean the rooms? What do you think?
Sebastian: For me, the question is, what do you mean with superior? What do you mean with that? What is superior?
Ismar: In general, much better.
Sebastian: Much better?
Ismar: Because every person is different from another person. And in some aspects, I think that someone can be superior than another one. But in general, we don’t have a system to measure it. Even if we consider a person much better in general than others, we can say with certainty that that person is better than another. Because we don’t have a system to measure it. It’s just a kind of impression.
Sebastian: I think that’s the problem. Maybe the guy in the higher position is much more intelligent in calculating or other skills. But maybe the person who’s cleaning the room has much more empathy, for example. So the question for me is how to weight this. What better or superior means? I think that is different. But if you see it in an educated way, is that correct?
Frank: Educated way is correct.
Sebastian: Then maybe the one who’s… But at the end, is somebody who’s cleaning up rooms, maybe he studied something. So at the end, the question is what is the education grade or what he did in the past, what he has learned. So I don’t know if you can judge about somebody in this way. I think this is really difficult for me.
Ismar: Let me illustrate a little more. Here in Brazil, it’s quite common, for example, if you have a quarrelling with someone. And if someone or them think that he or she has a superior position in the society, the first question is, “do you know who you are talking to?” Do you understand? It’s a way to demonstrate that you feel superior than another one.
Sebastian: But for me, that has nothing to do with superior. This is arrogant behaviour. Nothing more for me.
Ismar: Yes, of course it is. But many people, I think, maybe it’s not only in Brazil, but many people evaluate themselves as a superior person. Don’t you agree? It doesn’t happen in Germany, for example, if I have in my view met with a German person and at some point, he or she will ask me, do you really know who you are talking to? No? It doesn’t happen in Germany or in France?
Sebastian: It happens also in Germany, absolutely. I think this behaviour is not only on your side of the world, this behaviour. I think this is really, really difficult to answer because I just give you an example. When you, just to see it at your country, maybe it’s a good idea to go into the jungle and get connected with the Indian.
Frank: The ethnic people there. The indigenous people.
Sebastian: They have not a lot of knowledge about, I don’t know, mathematics, physics and so on, but they have many, many other abilities and knowledge about the nature and so on. And I think, I don’t know if this is the case, but I think that these days many people want to get or trying to connect to these peoples, live there for a week. That also happens here in Europe to different societies and want to learn something from this special society. You know what I mean? Because they also have skills and other soft skills maybe that we don’t have in the normal society. So, I don’t know if you can weight this.
Ismar: For example, I’ve heard from some Brazilian professors when they go to a congress, maybe to have a work in group and general North American and European professors, they put away the Latin American professors aside. Then I think that they consider themselves superior professors. I think it’s possible to do. Suppose if an American professor is very famous, has some discovery that has around 100 articles published in a good news journal and a Brazilian one maybe has 10 articles. In this case, the American professor are superior than the Brazilian one. But if you live together, if you work as a team, I think it’s not a good behaviour. Even if you feel it, it’s not wise to demonstrate that you feel you are superior than any other.
Sebastian: Yes, but this happens all over the world every day. I think it’s not a good behaviour. But I think this is something that happens in partnerships that happens in companies because I think it’s a deep wrong, but maybe it is a behaviour that many people are showing. I think it’s a normal human behaviour. It’s not a good behaviour in all times, but there are situations. I think you cannot generalize it. That it’s only a bad thing, but I cannot say more.
Frank: There’s a couple of points here.
When Ismar talked about someone cleaning the rooms or cleaning a public space, it reminded me of a scene that I saw, over 20 years ago at an airport in London, London Stansted Airport. I was flying back to Germany and there was somebody who cleaned the rubbish bins in the public waiting area.
He was an elderly person, and he did this job with such dignity and pride. It was absolutely breathtaking because somebody must have told him that his job is the most important job in the airport. Forget the air traffic controllers, forget the pilots, forget everybody else. He must have been told that his job was the most important job in the airport. His shoes were brightly well polished, his movements, his actions were graceful, and he cleaned these rubbish bins with an efficiency and with dexterity. I still remember it as if it were yesterday. It was an amazing scene.
And is he a superior person if we want to rank or describe that person? I would say yes, because he cared about what he does. He had pride, he had humidity, he was well turned out. Was his job demanding? No, it wasn’t. Was he an ambassador for the airport? He was, because he cleaned the rubbish bins. He kept the place clean and tidy. And if I remember correctly, he wasn’t any foreigner, which would be the sort of person you would find doing this person. He seemed to be English.
The other thing is that if you want to equate wealth and superiority, I think we have to differentiate between the real person and the public image. And the public image these days is, you just have to go to any social media channel, and you will find lots and lots of information you didn’t know about a leading figure in the world. And from that point of view, I would say, I don’t know if I could believe all of that, because what is the motivation for somebody to post something on social media about a high ranking leading figure on this planet, so that he can put forward his own gain, his own agenda? Yeah, call it clickbait.
Yeah, I know some information about X, Y, Z. Oh, really? I must click on that. And then that motivated, that has been, you know, that the objective has been achieved. If he were transparent on how he got this information and did he speak to the particular person and did this person say this in confidence or at all?
That is another question. Yeah. So, if you go to the so-called leaders of our planet, the top 10% who really move and push something forward, then I think if you were to have the opportunity to meet the person, you meet the person face to face privately, you will probably find a completely different person as opposed to what is being displayed in the news and in any other public outlet that is available.
Yeah. So, I think there’s always been a cry for publicity. There’s always been a desire to find how the rich and famous live and so on. And I would also probably hazard to guess that those who are really powerful, who really are influential will want their privacy and their discretion and not seek the public limelight, will seek any publicity. And if you look at France and in Germany, these people are very, very private people. Yes, you will see them on magazines when they go from A to B or something like that.
But we also tend to respect their privacy, even to a certain degree, the media, but it is the less successful.
I think you can divide between old money and new money and the new money, of course, they want the publicity, they want the hype, they want to be everywhere because it’s a way of selling your own product, which is you, and gaining attention and making money.
So, I would say you really have to differentiate between the private persona and the public image. There are, of course, exceptions to this. There are a lot of politicians who play it towards the public. But eventually they get shot. Boris Johnson, UK, was a clown and he now has left British politics. What he will do next remains to be seen. But the system has a way of cleansing out these people.
Sebastian: It was really a long time in this position for that.
Frank: He was. He was. Because you have to give, you may not like him, you may not like what he says. And Boris Johnson will be remembered as a politician, as a prime minister who lied to the British public. The fact is that he’s actually a hugely intelligent person and he knew how to how to. To work things towards his advantage. Yeah. And that made him to a certain degree dangerous. Yeah. But eventually it’s it’s it just gets washed out. Yeah. What do you look at? Boris Johnson’s legacy. Did he achieve anything during his tenure? He was the country that introduced Covid vaccinations first, but. He could do that because he was not within the European Union at that time. So, the English could push forward their own programme. But if you look on the flip side of the coin, it is the country in Western Europe with the highest amount of deaths in the Covid pandemic. And that the pandemic is still rampant in the UK, is very blatant down to the fact that my wife and her daughter both got Covid in the last couple of days. So, it is still flowing through through, the system. Yeah. So Ismar, does that answer your question?
Ismar: OK. And I have been observing for a long that beautiful people tend to show themselves more than ugly people. And I suppose if the beautiful people, mainly women in Brazil, if they if they are at least not more intelligent, but maybe intelligent on an average, they can succeed. In a reasonable way. And I think that the beautiful people, beautiful women consider themselves superior than ugly women. And do we agree that when a person is beautiful, it’s easier to be a successful person?
Frank: I’m I’m going to just jump into this one before anybody else jumps in. We’re moving into dangerous territory here.
Ismar: You have discussed this subject. No, no, we haven’t discussed this subject.
Frank: But the. Any discussion that involves the I can think of the German word, but I can’t actually think of the English word now. The the putting a minority into disadvantage. Yeah. Is is dangerous.
Ismar: To women be successful. It’s when it relates to some specific kind of activity, for example, media or any kind of media. Yeah. Not everything. To get a good marriage, for example, I think it’s important to for women to be beautiful, but not for everything, I think.
Sebastian: Ismar, I think you’re right. But I think you can also say this about men and women. And when you when you are looking really good as a woman, I think you have this lead. But you maybe get some positions better than others. Because your behaviour when you are a good-looking person.
What is what is not so that what you said, Frank, that is this on the on one side, it is not a beautiful person for everyone, but the general beautiful person that you have some advantages. But as a woman. I think it’s it’s just an advantage at the beginning. Because then. You will be proved. You will be approved from men, for example, in the company. And it helps you may be coming in or achieving a middle position. But there will be I think there will be the point that you have to deliver and that you would have to deliver harder than men have to. That’s, I think, the other side of the coin.
This is this is my my, my thought about this. But I think, yes, if you if you are looking good as a woman, you have some advantages because you are. I think then your, your body language it’s different. As, for example, women, that looks not so good and although have, you know, shine not like a star. You know, because not everybody, you know, I think it depends on if you are happy with yourself at the end. But I think there is a connection between good looking people and. Success, success, job opportunities and so on. But there are also disadvantages at one at some point earlier or later.
Ismar: Now, I think it’s Sebastian or Frank time to put a question. If not, I monopolize the meeting.
Frank: So so this is probably a seamless. A seamless transition from what you started is smart to to what my question is. So if I look at the TV screen here, Sebastian, you’re wearing a black T-shirt with a with a California Dreaming picture with five palm trees. And I presume, given that it’s quite a warm day here, you’re wearing a pair of shorts. Yeah. We don’t have to see them. OK. Yes, very nice.
I’m wearing a pair of long beige trousers and a white shirt.
Ismar, What are you wearing today?
OK, that’s really effective. We have it in the debris cells in here.
OK, so that’s that’s really effective because we only put this thing out as an audio podcast, not as a video podcast. So so so any anybody who might actually listen to these things is going to be very impressed by the style, the grace, the beauty of your clothes. But it doesn’t actually help them. What are you wearing? You’re wearing a tracksuit top, a T-shirt.
Ismar: I’m using a sportive long sleeve kind of jacket over a T-shirt because we have 10 degrees Celsius here.
Frank: OK. Do you have heating? Do you have the heating on in your in your apartment?
Ismar: No, in Brazil, it’s not common to have heating at home. Sometimes it’s possible, not a central system, but it’s possible to install a particular equipment, but I don’t have it here because I’m allergic.
Frank: OK. All right.
Sebastian: So you’re sitting in your room at 10 degrees without the heating system.
Ismar: Then I think it’s not too much. But if I will be outside, probably if there is wind, I think you to be very uncomfortable, but not inside. But you’re you are below 15 degrees in your room.
Sebastian: Below 15. Yeah. Wow. OK. That’s that’s that’s hardcore. OK. So because no, I think no one in Germany or in France would would would would live in a room under 15 degrees without a heating system. Frank, can you talk about this?
Frank: I mean, I know we can because I don’t know what it was like over in Germany, but here when winter started back in November, the directive out of Paris was don’t heat your houses above 19 degrees and theywill people will come and check your houses. So, I think the last bit was just a bit of false propaganda. But the general directive was don’t hit don’t heat your your house above 19 degrees. And certainly, public offices and public spaces, I think, were set at 18 degrees. And the howls of protest. Oh, this is so cold. This is unacceptable. They echoed all around Europe. Yeah. Because we have, we have reached the sort of level of luxury that we want to have our houses heated at 25 degrees so that we can run around in shorts and a T-shirt when it’s minus 10 outside.
Sebastian: Yeah, but we are sitting in a room with 10 to 15 degrees.
Frank: So, yeah, yeah. So so maybe we should go to Brazil in winter.
Sebastian: Ismar, I have a question. Is this, is this a normal behaviour in Brazil or are you the only person that sit into a room without heating?
Frank: One of 220 million people.
Ismar: Where I live, people, I think they feel more temperature than me. For example, my mom, my sisters here. I suppose that if you have 22, there are some people using that wear a jacket. I think it depends. But if some people have some heater at home, I don’t have it. My sister, my sister has.
Sebastian: OK. And what is what is the average temperature in the room for her? What do you think?
Ismar: I suppose that she used something around 22.
Sebastian: OK, OK. So, you had the exception.
Ismar: No, no, I think not. OK, but but if I wouldn’t be allergic, I use that device because it’s possible to to heat the environment, the room or to refresh it. For example, when we are in the summer, 30, 35, 37 here, it’s terrible. But I have some allergy and it’s not good for me.
Frank: OK. OK, so now that we’ve covered the weather. So we spoke about this yesterday, Sebastian. My mother and I were in a concert on Sunday afternoon in Baden-Baden. And Baden-Baden is a filthy rich city in the southwest of Germany. It has a casino. It has a very nice climate and a lot of it’s it’s it’s architecturally and and sort of the the the the the the vistas, the the the the buildings, the town center. It’s it’s it wasn’t destroyed much during the war. So it is architecturally a very nice place to be.
It has the cafes. It has a very nice lifestyle. It offers a very nice lifestyle and it’s a fairly old place as well. A lot of old people and rich people like to settle in Baden-Baden. It is also a spa town which, which helps. That means you can go there and partake in thermal treatments and go into spas and so on and so forth. A couple of very good hotels. So, if you have a lot of money. That is it’s a good place to be. So, this is Baden-Baden. I get to the point that I’m trying to make. So, at this concert on on Sunday evening, there’s a department store in Baden-Baden called Wagner. And they kind of sponsor the program guide of the concerts that that we go to, or you can go to. And it’s a fairly, like everything else in Baden-Baden, it’s a fairly exclusive place. Good quality, high prices, but OK. And they had a slogan for their, for their fashion departments. They had a slogan that the key to happiness or luck is good clothing.
Sebastian: This is a statement.
Frank: And I’ve been thinking about this ever since, which is why I’m going to throw it into the discussion round. So now what what did we wear at this concert in Baden-Baden? So it was in the Festspielhaus. So that’s a disused railway station. It was used to be the main station in Baden-Baden. So, they refurbished it into a concert hall. It’s come out quite nice. The acoustics are very good. The concert wasn’t that brilliant.But. And it was a very warm day, about 29 degrees, and the majority of people wore what I’m wearing now, pair of just ordinary trousers and a short sleeve shirt.
And I actually in the summer, I refused to wear socks. But on this particular day, I had shoes and socks on because you have to do that. But there were people who were dressed in evening splendour. They had, a they had a bow tie. They were wearing a tuxedo. The women’s were, the women would were dressed to the hilt. I mean, there was they were dangling with jewellery, et cetera.
Sebastian: And. But Frank, I think that’s that’s, that’s, that’s ,one reason why we once a year visiting the casino, you just sit there and look what the people are doing and the so-called rich people and how their behaviour on the playing table is when they want to bet, want to place a bet that they, you know, just. Throw people away from the table and want to take the bet. Yeah. And so on and so on. But it’s nice to see that and to have this experience. But yeah. Yeah, it’s a nice it’s a nice town, you know, or a nice city.
Frank: It’s nice to visit. I think I could live there. But but the question is, Ismar, we’re going to throw the googly back to you.
The key to happiness is your key to happiness and luck, good clothing. Now, this is a loaded question because, of course, your idea of good clothing is going to be different to everybody else’s. Yeah. So so first of all, what do you consider as good clothing? And secondly, does it make you happy and does it bring you luck?
Ismar: I partially agree with that, because, for example, if I were very cold here and I didn’t have a coat to heat me, to warm me, I think I would be in a very terrible condition. But as I told you, I don’t believe in happiness. But the best thing in life is to have food when we’re hungry, to sleep when we’re sleepy and to drink water when we’re thirsty and go to the bathroom when we need. I think they are the best things in life. But not exactly some expensive and brand clothes. I think you need the appropriate clothes when according to the weather, according to the place we are, we need.
For example, it’s not good for a worker that put some weeks under the 35 degrees Celsius Sunday, just using a beachwear. I think he needs some protection, clothes protection for his body.
Frank: So, so, so, you equate good clothing with appropriate clothing. Not whether it’s the latest fashion or the the monokini or whatever you want to. I mean, you want to you want to describe what Haute Couture is so. So, for you, it is appropriate clothing. Yeah. And that will make you make you sexy. That’ll make you happy and bring you luck. Yeah.
OK, now, Sebastian, if I if I remember correctly, some conversation that we had many, many, many, many moons ago. You collect. Trainers, isn’t it? Trainers,
Sebastian: sneakers,
Frank: sneakers, sneakers.
Sebastian: And I bought a new one four weeks ago. But but, last year, I decided to stop buying. Every I don’t know. Every second month, a sneaker, a sneaker, because it’s just a short effect, you know, you buy it, you are happy. But then, you know, I’m not able to wear all these sneakers.
Frank: OK, so can, we can, I just interrupt you? Let’s get down to basics. How many how many pairs of sneakers do you own?
Sebastian: It’s it’s not massive. But I think, you know, at the end, I have more shoes than my wife has.
Frank: So that’s quite a statement.
Sebastian: Yeah, that’s a statement. And, and, I like them. But I reduced this addiction. You know, at the end and but, but, at the end, I will show you this sneaker. I know that’s that’s, that’s the problem when you are when you are on Facebook, on all these new media’s new. But now these guys are so good that they will show you every time the right product that you want to buy. And this is the mighty of data,
Frank: the power of the power of data.
Sebastian: So that yes. To come to come back to your question for me, a basic or a basic selection of of normal good clothes. I think it is important for for for a person or to to, you know, to to to to to to live or to.
To to go into the society to appear there. But it’s I think this but the statement is also leaves you with a really wide range of interpretation at the end. You know, for someone, it could be that that you have to buy all the new stuff and always have to wear what’s in at the moment. But on the other side, it could be also just, yeah, basic stuff you buy and feel good. So not I think at the end, it’s not a bad statement. When you when you mentioned the first time, I thought, OK, this is not a good statement, but yeah, it’s not bad.
Frank: It is actually a very clever state, a very clever statement,
Ismar: because I’m curious. Sebastian, you didn’t answer Frank’s question. How many pair of shoes do we have? I’m so curious, too.
Sebastian: I just I just want to. What is.
Ismar: Just guess.
Sebastian: I think 15 pairs of sneakers, something like that,
Frank: one five or five zero one five, 15 pairs.
Ismar: I met a Brazilian guy, a professor, a mathematics teacher, then he told me that he had 15. And I thought it was something like crazy than the same number as you. But I had a girlfriend and I told her, oh, you spend too much money with shoes. Oh, she said, oh, I don’t have many. Oh, let’s count. We counted 49.
Frank: It’s now so that this there is the the the the horrible side, the provocative side coming out in me now. But I’m going to leave that one till the very end. So. So, Sebastian. It’s an addiction, but I find that 15 pairs of sneakers and you said you have more pairs of shoes than your wife does. I actually find that hard to believe, but maybe I’ll have the opportunity to ask her and we can do we can do an inventory of of of your shoes.
But is what is the attraction? Is it the beauty of the shoe? Is it the is it the feel good? Is it an aesthetic reason or is it what is the attraction to to to to collecting these things?
Sebastian: I think overall, it is a combination of each of this mentioned things. So. It is. The style of of the shoe. It is that it makes you happy when you buy it. But that’s also so.
And additional that the problem is that I that it’s not like when I was a kid, you know, and you just have to to shoe. And a pair of shoes and you wear it every day. So now I have these shoes there. There is a pair. It’s, I don’t know, 12 years old, you know, and it looks like never, never work. Never worn. Yeah. Never worn. Yeah. So, I reduce it a little bit, but I have a friend and he, he always buy, buys specials, also special sneakers. And, you know, there was, there was he bought a pair of Jordans from Nike. And that was something we talked about, I don’t know, three or six months ago.
And he said and we said, oh, no, it’s too expensive to buy it. And then there was a special offer and he bought it. And I said, fxxx this nice shoe, you know, the red ones. I don’t know if you if you ever saw it from Michael Jordan, the red one that Nike produced.
And 15 years ago and they they paid every I think they paid for every game. They had to pay a penalty because there were two too much red. In the whole shoes, there was a rule in the NBA, but they said they decided that was it’s a long story, but that was the point.
They decided to just focus on. To focus on Michael Jordan, he was new or a coming a coming star at that time. And, and they decided to have a brand with just. This was just his athlete, and that was the first time. A brand did that. And this is what happens. You know, they I don’t know the figures, but it was, you know, they planned just a few millions. And at the end of this, it was it gets amazing. It was since today. It is an absolutely success story.
But so I grew up with this with this guy and I played streetball and all the things. And so it was the time when, you know, you don’t have the money to buy a Jordan for, I don’t know, 120 euros. So when I was at my grandmother from my father’s side, they bought this shoes for me. You know, when I was there and now you can buy it by yourself and maybe it’s it’s a kind of kid.
Frank: OK, so so so so when you’re when you’re on a couch, it would be Sigmund Freud saying, well, actually, it’s not your fault. It’s your parents, not even your parents. It’s your grandparents fault.
Sebastian: And I would like to direct it to this side. Yes.
Frank: You would be you’d be traumatized by your grandmother. Yeah. OK. So my my very horrible questions and this is going to close the loop back to close the loop back to Ismar’s opening thoughts.
So, you have 15 pairs of sneakers. You collect them. They might be an aesthetic. They might be an investment. We never know what the pair of sneakers that you recently bought might be worth in 20, 30 year’s time. Do you wear them? We don’t know. So does this make you does this make you a superior person that you are a collector of sneakers? It’s a horrible question, and I apologize for it, but there is a certain individuality and a certain differentiation. Does that make you a superior person or the image of a superior person?
Sebastian: Let’s let’s let’s answer it this way. Give me a second. I will collect two models and then we.
OK, so this is OK. So while Sebastian’s leaving his office, Ismar, I heard from Rosii today that yesterday was Valentine’s Day in Brazil.
Ismar: Yeah. Yeah.
Frank: Did you get a card from anybody, or did you send a card? No, I don’t like this kind of celebration dates because I think they are only commercial. Fair enough. Even if I have a girlfriend, I don’t celebrate it, but mainly women like that.
Frank: So I see a sense of lack of romance because last week or the week before, Igor said, well, getting married is a fairly routine sort of thing. There’s no romance. And you ask the question, can I get married? You pop down to City Hall, sign a few documents and go. You don’t send a Valentine’s card to you to your other half. Oh, dear. The Brazilian men. At least two out of 220 million.
OK, Sebastian, you’re back now for the sake of the the the one listener on this planet of seven billion people. You’re going to have to describe these because I’m not I’m not sharing the video, I’m just sharing the audio.
Frank: But I think I show you two models. So, this is the new one. You know, this is also so really similar to the Air Jordan. It’s also a Jordan. So it’s I don’t know if this is really special, but I saw it and I saw this black one here and I just love the colour. And another one is, you know, this is it. This one fits really good to my lawn. See that? Oh, yeah. OK, so this this this one is so what are we looking at?
We’re looking so you had a high you had a high boot like sneaker, the first one and just two colours of blue. But this was actually more a traditional sneaker has yellow shoelaces and it has the Nike symbol. But it has a red, a red back part, a turquoise front part in a marine blue or a light marine blue top part with a white sole. It’s colourful. It’s suede. It’s suede leather, isn’t it? If I can see this correctly.
Sebastian: Yeah, I decided to buy it because it’s not the standard. And coming back to the question, maybe it is not to appear in the society like everybody appear. Maybe, maybe. But maybe also don’t accept to getting older because you are you when you’re when you’re wearing these kind of shoes, you’re looking younger. Maybe. I don’t know. I’ve never thought about this in detail, but but this is the place to do it now.
Ismar: Sebastian, do you prefer Nike brand or do you like all of them, for example?
Sebastian: No, no, it’s that I have many, many nights, but the other brand is Reebok. But that is something that is a shoe I bought from Reebok because it’s also old school design. So, yes, I have many NIkes, but but also Converse and Reebok and so on. So I’m not. But yes, a lot of Nikes. Maybe I like the brand.
Frank: So, Sebastian, would you wear the second pair of shoes that you that you showed us the multicolored one? Would you actually wear them on a professional business trip if you’re visiting a customer or somebody like that?
Sebastian: No, but now I have to stand up again and pick up the one I wore today.
And just to give you. A hint. I saw and that was the reason I said, OK, it’s time that that I can wear such a shoe when I’m on the business trip was that I saw it that a politician.
From the Bundestag, where such where this shoe in a in a in a talk around, you know, that was just decided to
Frank: So so a superior. So this is such a horrible discussion. So so a superior person, a member of the German federal parliament wears sneakers to to a media event. OK, so we believe you got Reebok. Well, they’re fairly standard white.
Sebastian: No, not not really. Yeah. I mean, yeah, there’s there’s nothing that they don’t stand out here. But this politician wears this shoe with a with a. A suit, a suit. Yes. And I thought, OK, if this guy is able to wear it in a talk show officially, then I then it’s time that I change it, too, because there should be any. Yeah, I think. Yeah, I said, OK, now, now, you can do that. It’s it’s, and I’m you know, I’m 20 years younger. So additional top on this.
Frank: OK. But I suppose there’s also maybe the beginnings of a trend that I’m observing that we’re sort of moving away from this relaxed, casual dress code to something a little bit more stylish and formal. But that might take another 20 years.
So, what did we talk about? We talked about wealth and secur.. and superiority to clean as it stands at airport to Sebastian’s impressive sneaker collection. Maybe, Sebastian, you can, you can send me a picture of the three shoes on display so that I can put them onto the onto the.
Sebastian: At the end, we everybody knows everything about me. Nothing, nothing. Hide. It’s not able to hide something in our group.
Frank: Well, this is the problem. My wife says I never listen, but I do. I just. Yeah. And I remember that’s that’s she says that’s the problem. I always listen to the wrong things and I remember the wrong things.
Sebastian: Yeah. OK. It’s not that’s her perspective.
Frank: Yeah, of course. We live in a democracy at home. Everything that anything that she says is perfectly correct. And anything I say is totally wrong. Ismar, you have the closing word for our Tuesday get together today. What is your closing word?
Ismar: Here in my country, many people say that, oh, you are superior than other people. I think that it’s not possible to know if you are superior or not someone. But we are not equals. We are superior, maybe something. But it can be inferior to some other characteristic or some other activity.
But it’s not possible to measure people, quality, values. But of course, we aren’t equals. A man is not equal to another one. But it doesn’t give us the right to, to put another one that we think you know more, or you have more in a fair position and to make that anyone else feel bad. We don’t have just right, I suppose. And some words for Sebastian. There is a TV presenter here that collects sneakers as well. I don’t know how many he has, but the most expensive costs around fourteen thousand American dollars. Fourteen thousand. And I hope that you haven’t spent so much money as him.
Sebastian: Yeah, there is. I saw a documentation, just a short remark on TV that there’s also a community here in Germany or in Europe. And they travel to the special shops where these limited editions were sold or are sold. And so, at the end, when you are able to catch such a sneaker or to buy such a sneaker, it’s like an investment. But yeah, but I don’t buy it. I don’t spend two hundred or three hundred euros for a sneaker. But maybe I thought about this thing, buying it and just deposing. Just hold it in a carton and sell it ten years later for I don’t know how many times.
Frank: So, I’m just trying to figure this one out. So when you and Claudia go out, do you have discussions on who’s going to wear what? And do you try and outbid each other and Claudia will say, well, I’m going to wear this, that and that. And you say, well, actually, that doesn’t match with what I’m going to wear. No, no, that’s not the discussion we have when we are leaving the house. But I think about what suits to the rest of my outfit at the end, but nothing more. And when she said, oh, this is please, can you can you wear the sneakers that I wear the other ones? So we have such a kind of discussion, but not the one you mentioned.
Frank: Wow. OK, now that puts the fear of God into me. Next time I visit you, I’m going to have to start rummaging through my substandard, inferior, low quality wardrobe.
Sebastian: This is this is the addiction of myself, you know, this is my addiction and not yours. And not everybody has to do the same that I do. But otherwise, you should start carrying a nice lawn, you know, or building up a nice lawn.
Frank: Well, I live on public property. It’s not my problem. But I just imagine this, I imagine this discussion on this in our household. Oh, we’ve been invited to Claudia and Sebastian. I have to buy a new and I’m going to tell my wife I have to buy a new outfit. Yeah. OK.
Ismar, thank you for your provocative question. We managed to to close the loop with Sebastian’s sneakers. I look forward to seeing you all at our respective times next week. I think this time we actually have a short, a normal weekend, a two-day weekend, nothing excessively long.
We have to do some work. Gentlemen, thank you for your time and I’ll see you all next week.
Ismar: OK, gentlemen. Thank you.
Sebastian: Thank you very much.
Frank: Take care. Bye bye.