Disruption is Not Enough: Intention and Attention Matter

What's the real cost of disruption in tech and personal growth? Can we get the benefits we want without the rupture, disorder, and upheaval that disruption causes? Yes! When we add two very important ingredients. 

In this episode, I review the resulting disruptions we’ve seen from tech companies like Amazon in retail, Netflix in video rental, TV, & Movies, Uber with taxis, Airbnb with hotels, and Tesla with automotive, along with personal disruptions people attempt each day in the areas of Health & Fitness, Finances, Career, Relationships, and spiritual awakening.

The results are often disruptive, but are they actually beneficial? Time and time again we see that the answer ends up being “No”, but it doesn’t have to be this way. What’s the answer?

Intention and Attention

I explain more about this in the episode, so make sure you pay close attention so we can end the disruption caused by ignorance and laziness and enjoy the benefits and lives we desire.

Overcome the daily grind with transformative techniques from Justin's book, 'Engineered to Love.'

These practices aren't just about finding peace—they're about reconnecting with yourself and the world around you in meaningful ways.

Access your free materials today at engineeredtolove.com/sample and start living a life filled with joy, ease, and love. 

Watch the full video episode at Justin Wenck, Ph.D. YouTube Channel!

Check out my best-selling book "Engineered to Love: Going Beyond Success to Fulfillment" also available on Audiobook on all streaming platforms! Go to https://www.engineeredtolove.com/ to learn more!

Got a question or comment about the show? E-mail me at podcast@justinwenck.com.

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Transcript

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 0:00

Today I am talking about disruption. This concept of disruption, see it especially in technology. You see it oftentimes in ways that we try to improve our lives personally. And today I'm talking about how disruption is not enough. There's something missing. So you're definitely not going to want to miss the rest of this show, because I'm going to explain to you what you need to be doing more than just disrupting the way things are. I get it. You might not like how things are going in all parts of your life and parts of this world, yet you need a couple of more things than disruption to make the kind of changes that you want. So that's what I'm going to be talking about today. So you're definitely not going to want to miss the rest of this show. First, I want to give some fun manipulates of what I've been doing. So this past week, I got to go to a couple of really amazing events where I got to go see some amazing technologies, meet some founders of some great startups, and then also see some things that maybe I'm like, yeah, this could use some work. Which was a little bit of an inspiration for this topic, for this show, is because in technology, there's always this like oh, we got to disrupt. We got to disrupt and maybe that worked 10 years ago, although I think we're seeing today how that isn't working for us. And yet I got to admit these events are a lot of fun to see people going. Okay, what's a way that I can tackle some of these big fundamental challenges of energy, of quality of life, of you know, energy and the environment, and the economy and all these sorts of challenges, and then also just getting together, connect and have some fun?

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 1:44

Went to one really large conference in the San Francisco's Moscone Center, which is a huge, huge convention area. Went to this RSA security conference and it was massive. There's hundreds of booths, many of them giant. There was one that even had a Formula One race car in the booth, and so not only did I get to learn about what's going on in the realm of security today, I also got to have a lot of fun, because there was one area where they had dogs and kittens, which was adorable. There was like free food, free coffee. There was one where they had slot car racing, which is where it's basically like a Hot Wheels track and you have a little trigger thing and make the car go around a track with loop-de-loops and things. I hadn't played with one of those since I was like a late teenager, so this was a lot of fun.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 2:38

So a couple things is that just because we're doing serious things doesn't mean you can't also have serious fun, and sometimes you can just have fun without needing to be serious. We're meant to have the whole life right. So I'm really glad I went to that event. I even got to meet the author of a book. I'm going to read the book first before I talk about it and maybe, you know, and I think, we're going to be having some cool people on the show coming up, so definitely want to make sure you're subscribed and you're not missing anything. Also, the book uh, we had the one year anniversary and if you didn't get a chance yet to get the uh free chapter and the free audios that I've made available so that you can be less busy and actually, you know, enjoy your life and get the most out of it and be very impactful at the same time, just go to engineeredtolovecom slash sample. Very simple.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 3:33

So disruption, right. You know people want to change things in their life, right, and maybe you are a business and you want to change something in the way certain businesses are done. Right, you know, it's maybe in the personal development area. This is like taking the massive action and doing the big step. So I'm going to go over, you know, what are some big changes people try to do in the personal life. Then what have been some disruptions? And then I'm going to talk about what are some other disruptions that there are, and maybe this is not something that we should be actively wanting to engage in, or not just that in and of itself, which I think has been a big trap when we get to the tech companies. I think you're really going to see what I'm talking about.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 4:12

So you know people's personal lives, especially when it comes to, like, health and fitness, it's like, oh, yeah, it's like tired of being at this weight and not being able to do these things. Let's all right, let's, you know, go full, vegan, paleo, keto overnight, and then let's be working out seven days a week. So get them washboard abs and going to be running the marathon and yeah, it's going to be a total transformation within, you know, three months. Oh, can't wait. Yeah, let's do it, do it, do it, do it. And then financially, it's like oh, debt, they got to eliminate the debts going on a strict budget, and so we're going to be doing the FIRE program, right, the financial independence, and retire early. Fire, fire, do the FIRE.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 4:50

And you know that means that you got to cut out anything. You know that's not going to be contributing to that long-term goal. So that means you know, no eating out. That means, you know, cut all those subscriptions. So that means basically, just if it's, you better be doing that free stuff and you better get two jobs, three jobs, four jobs, career advancement. You better be out there, you better be, you know, starting a business. You better have 14 side hustles and you better be asking for that, that promotion, right.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 5:12

And then relationships, oh my gosh, it's time to bring in the one no-transcript. I'm going to know, be and understand and transcend all that there is within the next three months. I'm going to quit everything, I'm going to give up my belongings and I'm going to go to an ashram in Bali, or wait, maybe India, or wait, no, I'll do. I'll do half and half and I'm going to, you know, do all of the plant medicine. So I'm going to do ayahuasca, I'm going to do psilocybin, I'm going to, you know, do all the things, even ones that I've never heard of. What's the one that comes from a fog going to do all that thing? So that I can know God, yesterday right, done some of these, and how's that been working out for you? I'm sure it did cause some massive change and some massive disruption. How did it work out?

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 6:10

And now let's move to, like, you know, big tech companies that have been disrupting right, like Amazon, wanting to disrupt retail. They sure as fuck have done that. Like, what else have they disrupted in you know, people's lives? Because, think about it, it's not just maybe I use Amazon. There's a lot of things that are great. Yeah, you know, I do think of, like, what is it like to be a factory, a warehouse worker? What is it like being some of these independent people trying to sell their stuff on Amazon? And, yeah, they have all these risks? And there's Netflix that want to disrupt traditional video rental market, and they're like, yeah, we disrupted Blockbuster. Like there's, I think there's only one left in the world and then they want to disrupt TVs and movies, and so that came the streaming revolution. And how's that been going lately? How many subscriptions do you have to juggle now just so you can watch the show that you want to watch.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 6:58

And then Uber disrupting the taxi industry. It's definitely been disrupted. Then Airbnb disrupting the hotel industry, where it's like, oh, people can just, you know, use houses and things like that and they don't have to do the hotel industry. They sure disrupted, in fact, the hotel industry. If you don't know, it actually uses the Airbnb model, where most of the hotels you stay at they're not owned by the brand you're actually staying at. Someone else owns it. The hotel is effectively just a platform enabling you to connect with an owner of a hotel, just like Airbnb lets you connect with the owner of a house. So, basically, they get to be taking all these tastes. They don't have to put up the cash, the money, they don't have to take the risk of actually doing this stuff. And I'll be honest, from what I see, airbnb is expensive and hotels are just as expensive as ever. So is it different? Yeah, is it better? I don't know.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 7:51

Then, tesla, elon Musk, tesla disrupt the automotive industry. It's been disrupted, yet most cars are more expensive than ever before. So has this actually been benefiting? Because when we look at the word disrupt, what does it mean to actually disrupt and the definitions that I see it's to break apart, rupture, throw into disorder, interrupt the normal course or unity of something, to cause upheaval, and we let people who want to disrupt tell us what the fuck to do to be our leaders, to be our visionaries. It's just lazy. It's just lazy and it's ludicrous and it's got to stop. It's got to stop Because you know what else is disruptive.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 8:35

Let me give you a list of some other things that are very, very highly disruptive. Natural disasters and earthquakes, disruptive Floodings, disruptive Hurricanes are disruptive. Cancer, being sued or going to jail, being addicted to drugs and economic crash is a disruptive. So is war, a car crash, being shot in the chest with a gun, having a heart attack, being expelled from school for whatever reason, losing your job that's disruptive. Rape is disruptive, and then the ultimate disruptor is death.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 9:08

Yeah, these are all changes and we know that change sometimes is going to be painful, yet we don't have to be doing change in a way that is the most destructive, harmful and lazy and just lacking intelligence and consciousness. That is something that any child can do. I don't have any children. I've read about them, I've seen them, I'm aware and there's a lot of things you don't let a child do, because they're going to fucking disrupt it, and not for good. They are just instruments of change and that's why there is usually an adult to help mitigate, because they have these couple of things that are very important.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 9:48

To make the changes in a way that are of benefit, because you know to change Well, that's going to just happen anyway. And to change without benefit, that takes no effort, that really takes no forethought, it just takes a lot of. It's just effort and energy, which is there. Yet why not use that in a way that is going to be of benefit, that is going to serve people, serve this world, serve humanity? And you might be going like, holy shit, justin, this is a downer, and I get it because I want you to see what's going on.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 10:23

And you might be starting to wake up and going like, oh, I think I see why the world is the way it is because we've been sold this load of lies, this load of bullshit that disruption is a good thing. There is nothing that I can see where disruption on its own is a good thing. Change can be great when we're changing something that no longer works for us, right, but it's. How do we change? And that's where I want to come to one example where I think there's disruption, yet it's done with a couple of things that I think is necessary and it's no longer an option. It's no longer nice to have, it's no longer good, it should be necessary. It's no longer an option. It's no longer nice to have, it's no longer good, it should be necessary.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 11:02

We should not allow someone or companies or entities to disrupt anymore unless they include these two important things and same thing with your life. You shouldn't disrupt your life unless you include these two things as well. And it's totally possible, totally doable, and there's plenty of people here. If you don't know how to do it. You don't know how to get into these things. There's so many people available and wanting to help and so many resources that there's absolutely zero excuse anymore. There's no excuse. You know it's. This is kind of like, well, there's not enough adults, so you just let the children run wild. It's like no, there's plenty of adults, plenty of adults to have children be supervised. We've been doing it for thousands, hundreds of thousands of years adults supervising children. It is now time to bring this to how we change our personal lives and how we change our business lives and our businesses and our economy and our governments I'm serious everything.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 12:00

So what's the one company that I think is the best example? I'm not saying they're a perfect example, and you might be thinking like, oh my gosh, justin, didn't you do another podcast where you mentioned this company and you kind of liked what they were doing better than other people? Yes, because there's really only so many. There's not a ton of large companies that everybody knows about, and to me at this point there's not a lot that are less horrible. So I'm going with the best, which still could be better, and that company is Apple. So, love them or hate them, to me they make big changes. Yet for the most part, the changes they make do seem to try to mitigate any challenges and ultimately improve the lives, although, let's face it, there are sometimes going to be missteps, there's going to be some harm done, because sometimes things just aren't always perfect.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 12:50

So what has Apple done? They've disrupted the music industry, right? Remember it used to be. You would have to. The only way to get music was to go and buy a record, buy a CD, you know, for a large amount of money. And then Apple came along 99 cents you can buy, you know just one song, right, just to buy a single MP3 from the. And then also they had the iPod, so basically being able to have hundreds, thousands of songs in your pocket and you only paid for the music you like, you know.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 13:21

So there was, and they also wanted to ensure that artists would still get paid, right. So they came up with that. So it was okay. People want music, but they don't want to take all the music that they don't want and they want to have their music on the go more easily. So they disrupted that and they kind of thought about a lot of things. And also telecommunications with the iPhone, with, you know, having something that people could have in their pocket to be able to communicate, whether it's through text, voice video Again, you know there's nothing perfect about that. And then disrupting computing with the iPad, where it's like now a way that people can have a more powerful compute device that's just easy to take around with them anywhere, everywhere. It's easier than a laptop, right?

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 14:07

So there's all these instances where Apple has disrupted industries in a way that kind of thought about like, okay, what could go wrong and how can we mitigate this? And there was always an intention to make the lives of the people that they are serving better. Is that always done flawlessly? Absolutely not. Yet it seems like there's people and you know, if you've learned about Steve Jobs, he did actually a lot of meditation, he did a lot of, you know, personal development, a lot of these things, and I think he had a lot of awareness. Again, there were some things about him that I would not agree that should be done today. Again, he was from a different era. So I think we can learn and do even better, and we're seeing that Apple did better than previous companies and we can do even better than Apple.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 14:55

And that's what I hear about and that's why I'm doing this show, and that's what I hear about and that's why I'm doing this show and that's why I work with who I work with is so that we can have a world that has better than Apple in the areas of, you know, retail and the areas of living, in the areas of finance and whatever areas, the areas of food. So what is it that Apple has done and that I think we can have in all of our lives and in all of our businesses that go beyond just disrupting? To me, these two qualities and you want to pay very special attention. This is awareness and intention. So awareness, right, is what? What you know? Okay, there's this, I want to change something, but why do you want to change it? And then, when you get into thinking of like, okay, I think I have a possible change, being aware of what are the consequences intended or not.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 15:49

So an example of this is one of the startups I saw that I thought was like really cool is basically, hey, a large amount of the world's energy, which an energy usually goes with pollution and carbon dioxide emissions. One of the biggest sources of energy use is the buildings that people live and work in. I think this founder, she says like something like 40% and she's like I've got, I think she had an architecture background, you know, really awesome. I think she had an architecture background, you know, really awesome. And it's like so, so my what, what my technology is here to do is to collect all the data about the use of all that energy and then to be able to, you know, do some automations and some recommendations of ways to minimize the the use of energy or maximize, you know, the efficiency of everything. And it's like oh, my gosh, that's amazing. That's incredible.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 16:42

I had a chance to ask and I was like, have you considered, like you know, what if the unintended consequence of what, if somebody's like, oh okay, well, these elevators take energy, this air conditioning in the common areas takes energy? What if I just turn them off in the middle of summer? Or just turn them off completely and make people use the stairs? Cause, fuck these people, I want to save money, I own the building, I don't care about these people and I, you know, I was thinking about the movie toll recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger, where he goes to Mars and the.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 17:19

You know this might be alarming news to some of you, but the conditions on Mars are not super hospitable to humans, so they have to enclose everybody and then pump oxygen and things like that. Because it's pretty entertaining in the movie where if somebody does end up blown out into the surface of Mars, their, their eyes explode, basically, or they freeze to death and their eyes explode, something like that. But there's a part in the movie where there's a group of people, the poor group of people, and they're rebelling because they don't like their conditions and the leader of Mars goes like turn off their fucking oxygen, let's see how they do without any oxygen. So I have that in my mind. I think a lot of sci-fi can be very instructional for how things could go and then, as being conscious, adult humans, we can choose to do better. So I asked her about that and she's like oh, I hadn't thought about that, which to me is something that should be thought of. Uh, so that you can figure out, like you know, if you don't want that to happen, then you figure out how you either design your product, or who you sell to, or where you sell it, so that you're benefiting the earth and people and humans, and not just making a lot of money in a way that's going to be harmful, it's going to make life even more miserable for people.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 18:43

So, having awareness of what the change might do and then figuring out how to mitigate anything and this goes to the second thing which I've hinted at it before is intention. What is the intention of the change? Because between any decision and action there's intention. So it's like I might decide that, okay, it's time for me to get up and make a change, but before I actually make those actions, that's where intention is the bridge. And so if we're intending to serve people, to improve their lives to have a net benefit to this human experience. If that is built in, then that's gonna have a huge, huge, huge impact on the decisions that are made and the resulting how this is actually done and then the end result that people ultimately get to experience.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 19:38

But if there's never any intention of, yeah, we're going to make it so that anyone who needs a place to sleep, wherever they are in the world, they can do it affordably, while ensuring people that live in those communities have affordable housing, don't have to give up their home or don't have to move somewhere just because they can't afford. If that was the intention of Airbnb from the beginning, do you think that we would have the situation where we are now, where so many people can't afford to live where they grew up because they're vacation towns and investors come in and buy everything up, jack up the rates and then now nobody can afford to live where they get up, and probably it's going to result in a giant crash and all sorts of things, whatever, I don't know, but could you imagine if there was the intention to ensure that from the beginning, what decisions might be done differently, if there was also the intention you know, like for Uber, if it was like we're intending to make it so that people can get around in an affordable way and that the people that provide that service are taken care of, that they're able to get good wages, that they're paid for actually what they do and that their time is honored. And then also we're trying to minimize the number of miles that need to be driven, and so we're going to do this efficiently because we care about using resources and the environmental impact of driving and transportation. Can you imagine if that was the intention of Uber? Do you think that you'd end up getting a driver where it's like, oh shit, you want to go to the airport. That means I'm going to end up being an hour from home oh my gosh. And then I'm going to not get paid to drive that hour because there's a chance I could get taken even further away.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 22:28

People basically needing to make sure they make so little money that they can get public reimbursements and all going all these programs, because if they make too much money, they actually lose money Like these are actual things that happen for your Uber drivers, your Uber Eats, your debt or dash. Because why? Because the intention was just we're just going to disrupt the fucking taxi industry. They did it. It's broken and effectively we're ending up with just another taxi industry where it just it. Just, we just have an app right, the prices have gone up. You know the, the people doing it. They're, they're amazing. Yet whenever I go the games that get played with this app where it says like oh, but whenever I go to the games that get played with this app where it says like, oh, the ride's going to be there in six minutes and then the cancels or whatever, it's just it's nonsense, it's not, it's not actually any better anymore. It's this and shitification. That is the peak of capitalism. Technology, where this is something that can look up.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 23:27

But if the intention was not just to do a thing and make a lot of money at it, but it was to do a thing in a way that serves, that improves and has awareness, then could you imagine the world that we would be living in. And this is what I want you to be thinking about. You know, in your own life, because think of you know just how are you changing something in your own life, like physical health, like, are you really? Do you only just want a better body? Because I've had a better body where in six weeks, I lost like 20 pounds. I could just about see my abs, yet I wasn't doing it in a way that was actually healthy and sustaining. I got a great body, yet I didn't have great health. So the intention is to have a better looking body that feels good and sustainable and is healthy and enables a long life to do the things that matter to you. Then you're gonna make some different fucking choices in your life, right With that.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 24:20

I'm really curious. You know what you're getting out of this, what you might do differently in your business, what you might do differently in your personal life if you include awareness and intention. So, yeah, you can change, but don't let it just be disruption. It's good to be an agent of change. Change is necessary, change is part of life. Yet how we change is up to us, and we also don't have to change alone. So I'm here, I'm available to help you personally, help your business, because I want you to have an incredible vision for your life and for humanity and for this world, and I want you to be able to scale that as large as you can imagine. And that intention, that awareness and that drive to change is what's going to power that and make it happen with ease and joy and love for everybody.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 25:12

So I'd really love to hear what you're saying. Maybe I'm crazy, maybe you're just like Justin I don't get it or don't. Hey, let somebody else worry about it. I think that time is done. It's time. It's time for all of us to worry about it, and those that aren't worrying about it, we go sorry, you're not allowed to drive the car anymore. I'm taking your keys. You don't get to be in charge. It's enough. It's enough. It's time to demand better. We all deserve better. You deserve better, I deserve it. Anyone who wants it deserves better, and anyone who doesn't want it. They don't have to have the fun. They don't have to have a great life. They don't have to have all the amazing benefits that we're going to enjoy. I don't want to take anybody's misery away from anybody, but the time where we allow a few individuals to put misery onto other people, that's done. So with that I'm about done.

Justin Wenck Ph.D. : 26:05

Would love to hear what you think about this episode. Find me on social media. Do check out the free chapter that's available at engineeredtolovecom slash sample, where you can get some guided audios from me, where you can, like you know, relax and get to know yourself a little bit more easily, and that will really help you with this awareness and about knowing your intention. All right, and then you can have change and a way, more enjoyable way, funner, more funner, more funner way than you could ever imagine, so that then it can be like, more often than not, you're going to like a really cool event and there's cookies or whatever the healthy food is for your transformation, and you're getting free stuff and having all these cool conversations and learning things and it's a blast and it's tons of fun and it's a beautiful day and things are getting better. Because they are. They are getting better. You just got to start looking and you got to start intending it because it's happening. So with that, I thank you and good day.