While advising banks in Tokyo, Richard Werner discovered something curious:

Whenever he’d ask questions about foreign investments, real estate, or credit policies, he’d receive the standard, boilerplate response. But often, after these meetings, someone would pull him aside and whisper, “That was the official story. Let’s grab dinner and I’ll share the real story.”

See, in Japan, there are two portrayals of the truth: the one that’s said in public, and the one that’s said after a few drinks.

That’s, of course, the case everywhere. But usually it’s more opaque. In Japan, it’s baked into the culture. In fact, it’s why the Japanese tend to work such long hours. After 6 p.m., you can finally say what you mean — over drinks, off the record. They even have specific words for it:

We’re all shrewd enough to understand that most narratives from corporations, government, or coworkers are a facade. That doesn’t mean it’s malicious. It’s how we maintain order and civility. In America, we might call these “white lies.” But in Japan, they’re established norms with centuries of etiquette behind them.

At first glance, this system feels deceptive and quite frankly, a bizarre way to live. But there’s an odd virtue in their prudence. The line between narrative and truth is explicit (unlike American politics). Perhaps we can learn a thing or two from applying a bit more honne in our lives.

Oliver Burkeman famously pointed out that the average human lifespan is only 4,000 weeks long. But here’s something most people don’t think about: even if you read 20 books a year, you’ll only get through around 1,000 in your entire life. That’s why it’s worth being picky.

Here are some books I think are genuinely worth your time — based on their timeless wisdom, practical application, diverse perspective, mental models, and expert consensus.

We all love those quirky foreign words that have no direct English translation — like hygge (Danish coziness), tsundoku (buying books you’ll never read), and my personal favorite, schadenfreude (the joy you feel when your friend spills a drink all over their nice shirt).

But much less appreciated is the English language’s batch of weird, wonderful words that don’t quite translate in other languages. I’d never seen a list of such words, so I decided to do some digging. Sure enough, we’ve got some gems too:

And let’s not forget the regional stuff. American English alone is like 50 dialects duct-taped together. You’ve got “y’all” in the South, “wicked” in New England, and “mate” in Australia and the UK.

When I’ve traveled abroad, it’s always obvious which words are uniquely American — stuff like “cool” or “sick” to show approval, or the classic “dude” or “bro.” Europeans just can’t quite land them. Hearing a French guy say “bro” is like a boomer saying “on fleek.” Shut it, Pierre.

You may recall the viral moment from the NFC Championship game this January in which Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown was caught flipping through the pages of a book on the sidelines (during a playoff game!). That book turned out to be little-known self-help book Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy.

At the time, Jim Murphy was struggling. His book sales were low, and his bank account was even lower. So when his phone blew up with texts urging him to tune into the game, he knew his life had changed.

Was it as good as the first movie? Obviously not.

Anytime they try to make a sequel of an iconic comedy movie, it inevitably falls short — or just flat out sucks [see Anchorman 2, Dumb & Dumber-er, Zoolander 2]. But given Adam Sandler's post-2002 style of corny feel-good family comedy, I wasn’t exactly expecting this one to blow my doors off.

Granted, I actually thought the first half of the movie got off to a good start. Cameos from John Daly and Travis Kelce were well placed and not executed in a cheesy way you’d expect. But the second half of the movie was where the wheels fell off. It felt like it was just an excuse to squeeze as many celebrity cameos and hacky one-liners as possible.

So was it worth the watch? I’d say so. If you loved the first Happy Gilmore, don’t mind watching a mediocre two-hour comedy that might provide a handful of belly laughs, and already pay for a Netflix subscription, go for it.

Keith and Kyle sit down to discuss the benefits of running and the pros and cons of the current biggest brand names in the sport, the Epstein controversy, the origins of Lacrosse as told in the fascinating book The American Game and why it's in everyone’s best interest to do as they do in Copenhagen and smoke some weed, drink some alcohol and go for a bike ride.

📚 Books discussed in this episode:

Follow us: https://observeandrapport.com/ | IG: @observeandrapport @keithsullivan_91 | X: @observeandrapport | TikTok: @observeandrapport @keithsullivan2 | Produced by Keith Sullivan

Thanks for reading!