What is Netflix really costing you?

"All the answers are out there, but people still watch five hours of TV a day and complain about opportunity." —Jason Calacanis

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The true cost of Netflix

When Netflix IPO'd in May of 2002, the company was valued at a mere $300 million. Over the last 15 years Netflix has been on a rampage capturing 100 million subscribers and $81 billion in market cap (as of 2017; updated: market cap is $136 billion as of Nov-2022).

Yet Netflix has apprehended something far more valuable: our precious time.

Of course, there's a time and a place for entertainment: who doesn't enjoy getting into a good show every now and again?

However, this entertainment comes at a dear cost far exceeding the $11.99/mo membership fee. If you believe time is our most precious commodity, then we must acknowledge the massive opportunity cost that we sacrifice every night in front of the screen.

Let's start with some facts

• The average subscriber spends 20 hours per week on Netflix

• . . . That's 80 hours per month

• 70% of Netflix users binge-watch shows

• Netflix streamed 10 billion hours last month

• The Netflix catalog is approximately 115,000 hours of content (21 years; waking hours)

Sources: DMR, CinemaBlend, Variety

20 hours per week is a lot

Let's start by acknowledging the obvious: 20 hours per week is a LOT of time. In most states, 20 hours per week is considered part-time employment. With 55 million subscribers in the US, you can say that 17% of Americans have a part-time job watching Netflix (US population = 323 million). This absurd reality provokes a crucial question: is this really the best use of our time?

The importance of personal development 

The short answer is no. Watching Netflix for 20 hours per week is likely not the best use of our time. Life is short. Really short. And for life to improve, we must heed the guidance of legends like Jim Rohn when he writes:

"Learn to work harder on yourself, than you do on the job."

Side note: if you haven't read The Art of Exceptional Living by Jim Rohn, it comes highly recommended from most of the executives we work with.

Only by building the habit of daily personal development can we truly improve our personal and professional wellbeing. Netflix is kryptonite to this endeavor.

"Want to watch a show?"

The question sounds innocent enough. Enticing, even. But next time you ask—or get asked—this question, make sure you keep this perspective in mind:

• The typical human is awake for 15 hours per day, or 105 hours per week

• As stated, Netflix is commanding 20 hours per week (on average)

• 20 hours / 105 hours = 19% of our waking hours are devoted to Netflix (and/or other streaming services)

Breakdown: How we spend our time in a given week

Hours per week. Source: https://graphics.wsj.com/time-use/

What else could we be doing?

Below is a chart of Netflix binge sessions and their personal development equivalent.

On Netflix you could watch:	Or you could:	Time required
1 episode - Archer	Run 2-3 miles	22 minutes
1 episode - House of Cards	Write a blog post	50 minutes
2 episodes - The Blacklist	Bike 20 miles	1.4 hours
3 episode - Orange is the New Black	Read 82pp. of a book	2.75 hours
4 episodes - Stranger Things	Learn 5 new subjects on Khan Academy	3.2 hours
Season 1 - House of Cards	Complete Stanford's CS101 online	10.8 hours
Season 1 & 2 - Orange is the New Black	Learn how to program in C	23.8 hours
All 5 seasons - House of Cards	Train for a marathon	54.2 hours
All 7 seasons - The West Wing	Become conversational in Italian	112.9 hours
All seasons - HoC, OitNB, The West Wing	Read 34 of the 51 Harvard Classics	227.1 hours
21 weeks of Netflix (at 20 hours/week)	Build the first version of Facebook	420 hours

You are always choosing

So the next time you're tempted to binge of Netflix, keep the above list in mind. Realize that you are always choosing: a choice to watch Netflix for 3 hours is also choice to NOT learn 5 new subjects on Khan Academy. A choice to weekendbinge on 2 seasons of your favorite show, is a choice to NOT learn how to program at a basic level. 

Every decision has tradeoffs, and the more we keep this in mind, the better off we'll be on our quest for transformative personal development.

Next episode playing in. . .

You can also disable autoplay: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/2102. This one decision could help reduce your Netflix consumption by up to 50%.

I'm curious: what would you do with the extra time?

Ideas: The Currency of Your Brain

The poor farm boy from Idaho

A young man age 25 came to the sudden realization that he was unhappy with how his life had turned out. He had grown up poor in an obscure Idaho town of 5,000 by the Snake River. After quitting college after year one, he had gotten his first job, and married at 28. He quickly found himself behind on his promises, pennies in his pocket, and creditors were calling.

And then his whole life changed. . .

Six years later—at the age of 31—he's a millionaire. This is the story of Jim Rohn, and if you haven't heard it, its a good one.

What changed?

In short, Jim Rohn met a mentor (named Earl Schoaff) who compelled him to change his life philosophy. Jim learned the importance of curating a personal life philosophy, the power of personal development, and ultimately achieved massive success.

These changes inevitably caused Jim to have new IDEAS which ultimately manifested themselves in behavior and reality. Ideas, in this way, are the currency of our brains.

This tremendous reversal of fortune is captured in Jim Rohn's landmark book The Art of Exceptional Living. If you're so inclined, you can pick up the audiobook here, or read my notes here.

Ideas: The Currency of Your Brain

Today we will focus on IDEAS, and their importance to your life's trajectory. At DBT Ventures, we place tremendous value on ideas and work to nurture our best ideas to full potential. 

Ideas are so intriguing because they influence our actions, and our actions determine how life works out. Therefore, inspecting how we SOURCE ideas is a worthwhile endeavor.

Let's start with an example. Here is Elon Musk's description of an idea he had and his subsequent thought process and action:

"Historically, all rockets have been expensive, so therefore, in the future, all rockets will be expensive. But actually that’s not true. If you say, what is a rocket made of? It’s made of aluminum, titanium, copper, carbon fiber. And you can break it down and say, what is the raw material cost of all these components? And if you have them stacked on the floor and could wave a magic wand so that the cost of rearranging the atoms was zero, then what would the cost of the rocket be? And I was like, wow, okay, it’s really small—it’s like 2% of what a rocket costs. So clearly it would be in how the atoms are arranged—so you’ve got to figure out how can we get the atoms in the right shape much more efficiently. And so I had a series of meetings on Saturdays with people, some of whom were still working at the big aerospace companies, just to try to figure out if there’s some catch here that I’m not appreciating. And I couldn’t figure it out. There doesn’t seem to be any catch. So I started SpaceX."

Source: Tim Urban's blog, Wait But Why: The Cook and the Chef (warning: this blog post consumed me for a week)

Okay, let's re-read Elon's last sentence: "So I started SpaceX." Action. And it all started with an idea: thinking about rockets being expensive, and really digging into that assumption. The rest is history in the making.

Quotes

There a few quotes from Jim Rohn that really describe the value of ideas well:

• "It is because we lack ideas that we forego success."

• "If you experience a good idea, capture it! Write it down in your journal."

• "When the idea is hot and the emotion is strong. . . act. Otherwise, the law of diminishing intent will work against you."

• "Behavior is mostly influenced by ideas. Ideas are mostly influenced by education. Education is mostly influenced by the people with whom we associate."

Ideas are most impacted by two factors: 1) what we study within our own personal development, and 2) who we associate with. The good news: both of these factors are entirely within your control.

Call to action:

1. What is your personal development habit? What time do you study and read each day?

2. Take inventory of your friends and apply Chapter 8 from the book which will remove, reduce or expand the time you spend with positive associations.