Looking for a rap that people can use with friends to introduce the idea “you are asleep”? I know you’d like to tell someone, but … how to say that to a friend?
“You are asleep” is almost guaranteed to produce exactly the wrong reaction. It sounds like an accusation: I’m awake, you’re not.
Remember that the moment you accuse them of being asleep, they wake up. It’s maddening to try to catch that little weasel.
So I’d come at it sideways. Don’t tell them they’re asleep. Get them to discover what you mean by asleep and the fact that they are generally asleep.
Something like:
“Have you ever driven somewhere and suddenly realized you don’t remember the last five miles?”
“Huh? Sure.”
“Who was driving?”
“I was.”
“Okay. You stopped at the lights, stayed in your lane, made the turns. But you weren’t really paying attention to any of it.”
“Right.”
“That’s what I mean by asleep. Not unconscious. You’re functioning perfectly well. Talking, walking, driving, thinking, reacting—but you’re not necessarily present for it.”
“So you’re saying I’m asleep?”
“I’m saying we all are, much of the time. Including me. The interesting part isn’t believing that. It’s catching yourself at it.”
“How?”
“Right now. Don’t change anything. Notice your body sitting there. Notice what you’re looking at. Hear the sounds around you. Notice that you’re here.”
“Okay.”
“Were you doing that ten seconds ago?”
“Doing what?”
“Noticing that you were here.”
“Oh. No, I guess not.”
“That’s what I mean by being asleep. Nothing mysterious about it. You’re functioning, dimly aware in general, but you’re not actually fully there.”
“So what do I do about it?”
“First of all, don’t believe me. See whether you can catch it happening in yourself. Catch yourself walking, eating, talking, getting irritated, reaching for your phone—anything you’ve done a thousand times—and suddenly notice: I’m here.”
“And then what?”
“Then you’ve got something to work with. There’s the possibility of personal evolution.”
“Can you teach me how to do that?”
“Sure. If you’re interested, I can show you a few things that helped me. We can try them together.”
I especially like “We can try them together.” It avoids the superior position entirely. You’re not the Awakened One offering enlightenment to the sleeping masses, which should come as a vast sense of relief. You’re saying, I work with this too. Come along this road.
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NOTE: Here is a conversation with my chatbot, Bob:
Bob, what do we know about youtube personality “Afraz”?
I wondered the same thing, Gorby, so I had a look. He’s actually built a pretty substantial YouTube operation. Afraz Explores on YouTube currently has about 122,000 subscribers, roughly 20 million lifetime views, and 2,750+ videos. He started the channel in April 2020.
And you’re right about the astonishing regularity: recent statistics show one or sometimes two uploads virtually every day, with the channel lately pulling roughly 20,000–60,000 views per day across its whole back catalog.
So I suspect this actually may be his occupation, but donations wouldn’t be the whole story. At that scale there can be YouTube advertising revenue on both live and archived videos, plus Super Chats/Super Thanks, memberships if enabled, and potentially sponsorships or affiliate income. His enormous back catalog matters: 2,750 videos means that while he’s walking around today, thousands of yesterday’s walks can still be earning little dribbles of ad revenue.
Social Blade’s automated estimate is ridiculously broad—on recent days it gives anything from a few dollars to a couple hundred dollars—so I wouldn’t take its dollar figures seriously. But 20 million views and 122K subscribers makes this considerably more than a guy walking around Manhattan hoping somebody drops five bucks in the hat.
I haven’t found anything reliable yet saying what Afraz did or does for a living outside YouTube. That’s the interesting part of your question. I could dig specifically for biographical traces—interviews, old profiles, LinkedIn, things he’s said during streams—and see whether he’s ever mentioned a day job.
And you’re right about the astonishing regularity: recent statistics show one or sometimes two uploads virtually every day, with the channel lately pulling roughly 20,000–60,000 views per day across its whole back catalog.
So I suspect this actually may be his occupation, but donations wouldn’t be the whole story. At that scale there can be YouTube advertising revenue on both live and archived videos, plus Super Chats/Super Thanks, memberships if enabled, and potentially sponsorships or affiliate income. His enormous back catalog matters: 2,750 videos means that while he’s walking around today, thousands of yesterday’s walks can still be earning little dribbles of ad revenue.
Social Blade’s automated estimate is ridiculously broad—on recent days it gives anything from a few dollars to a couple hundred dollars—so I wouldn’t take its dollar figures seriously. But 20 million views and 122K subscribers makes this considerably more than a guy walking around Manhattan hoping somebody drops five bucks in the hat.
I haven’t found anything reliable yet saying what Afraz did or does for a living outside YouTube. That’s the interesting part of your question. I could dig specifically for biographical traces—interviews, old profiles, LinkedIn, things he’s said during streams—and see whether he’s ever mentioned a day job.
How about Hannah Ricketts?
Bob’s response:
Ah—Hannah Ricketts is a very different case from Afraz. Her YouTube channel looks quite capable of being a serious income source all by itself.
As of the end of August, she’s at about 508,000 subscribers, 80 million lifetime views, and 235 videos. More strikingly, her channel has recently been getting roughly 50,000–240,000 views per day across the catalog.
One analytics outfit, vidIQ, estimates her YouTube advertising revenue at about $13,000 a month, based on roughly 3 million monthly views. I’d treat that dollar figure as an educated guess rather than fact—but the traffic is certainly large enough that YouTube could plausibly support her quite comfortably.
And she has additional monetization routes: her link page points to an Amazon storefront and LTK, so affiliate commissions appear to be part of the operation too.
Interestingly, she apparently did have a substantial conventional career while building the channel. Older discussions identify her as having been a buyer for River Island and later working for Disney, reportedly around product/licensing. That’s less firmly documented than the channel numbers, so I wouldn’t state the exact Disney job as established fact.
So my read is: Hannah no longer needs a mysterious outside source of income to explain the lifestyle. Half a million subscribers, 3+ million monthly views, advertising, affiliates, and possibly commercial arrangements make her channel a genuine small media business.
And that’s quite a contrast with Afraz: Hannah makes relatively few, deliberately produced videos, while Afraz seems to have turned walking every damn day into the business model. 😄
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Here’s the Bardo bus now!
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See You At The Top!!!
gorby