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It's All About Purpose
45 Plays11 months ago
Back In St. Louie - Building a Wood Business - Hosting Discussion Groups - AI Doomsday Scenarios - Trad Wife Song
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Transcript
Cultural Diversity in St. Louis
00:00:03
Speaker
I'm a piece of shit.
00:00:07
Speaker
Ooh, I'm a piece of shit. What's up, honey child? Oh, dude. You like the view, by way? Do i look like a zombie? This is a different different computer with a different view. Can you get with this?
00:00:22
Speaker
Is that a fake view? No, it's real, dude. that's I'm in my coat my my partner's apartment. It's nice enough to let me stay here. It's got the exposed brick wall. lot of brick in St. Louis. Huh?
00:00:34
Speaker
we had a We had a brick house, me being my family, that was beautiful, built in 1890. You walk around like the sort of the city neighborhoods of St. Louis, and they're freaking amazing.
00:00:44
Speaker
like the All the houses were built a long time ago, and people just kind of been like, ah people that keep up their shit, it's it's amazing. It's just the people living in there, they're not not my kind of people.
00:00:54
Speaker
Is that what you're saying? Why not? I don't know. Which way you going with that? see, because you could, you being essentially a communist, St. Louis might be a little too conservative for you. I'll give you that. But on the contrary, you being a man that loves all sorts of cultures, it is it is truly still one of the blackest places you can be. like Not just like people, but like kind of culture and the influence and everything.
00:01:21
Speaker
It's pretty black. And so you might like that aspect of it. Like Kangos and shit? Yeah. Yeah, Kangos, just like all the stale typical, I was in a grocery store last night and it and it was, the place was closing. I was in the self checkout, it was me, three large black ladies.
Comparing Cultural Diversity: Kansas City vs. Denver
00:01:39
Speaker
Like if they weren't women, it looked like I was with an offensive line of an SEC football team as far as size and girth, but all like nice honey child, like you said, like nice, sweet, gigantic black ladies and me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:01:54
Speaker
Just sweating. around all that, ah you know, just feeling good. So that's great. Yeah. Maybe 1200 pounds of a beautiful black woman and me checking out the grocery store.
00:02:05
Speaker
That's good stuff. Uh, yeah, I was in KC this weekend, dude. And it's, there's definitely more cultural diversity than Denver. And Denver is so white, dude. I was downtown. Now, what was interesting is I found myself later at night at this concert, outdoor concert, and this cover band was playing all sorts of white boy 90s rock.
00:02:27
Speaker
Like good or bad? i Like the one-hit wonder type shit? Well, first off, they were really good, but they were playing stuff that... To my point, you wouldn't expect black folks to be hanging around listening to.
00:02:40
Speaker
Okay. But there they were, boy. Which tells you don't put people in a box, bro. Don't put them in a box. And yeah it also tells you there's there's more black people in KC.
00:02:52
Speaker
Because Denver, man, you just do not see a black person unless we're at a basketball
Cultural Observations: Costa Rica vs. U.S.
00:02:58
Speaker
tournament. And I ain't trying to be racist, dude. I'm just being real. I like dude, this is a someone else's joke.
00:03:05
Speaker
It might have been Ralphie Mayer, but you know, Denver is white because when you go to the airport, all the employees are white. And that might be one of the only places like basically anywhere Midwest, South black people run the airport, like run it.
00:03:19
Speaker
And so that's a thing. Denver, you don't you don't really see that. But it's ah it's it's, I like, I forgot about it, but I but i dig it. Because even Costa Rica is pretty, is not that culturally diverse, I feel like. I mean, people feel like, oh, Latin America, but like, you don't you don't see that many just like, we'll say Afro-descendants, Afro-descendant. Like, there's there's more of a mix as far as just like a darker feel everyone.
00:03:46
Speaker
Maybe it's native, maybe it's from, you know, like a lot of the coast of the black Costa Rican people were like, were in Jamaica for a while. but But you don't get that, like, I don't know, like, you hear, like I was telling you before, like the Lyft driver was this beautiful young black lady named Kendra. And within three or four minutes, she had said, what did I tell you she said?
00:04:10
Speaker
Oh, I know that's right. I know that that's right. And I was like, just so shocked. Because not only have I not been like in St. Louis for been down in Costa Rica speaking Spanish.
Launching a Wood Slab Business in St. Louis
00:04:19
Speaker
And it was like straight out of a Tyler perryt Perry movie. I was like, this is this is great.
00:04:23
Speaker
But doesn't it make you feel good that our parodies, or at least my parodies, are spot on? You and I are doing justice to the- Yes. Like, we we got it down, i would say. ah She also told me she thought I looked 38. I was like, oh, this is nice, dude. This is good. Hey, KC, those downtown KC, is pretty ah white.
00:04:47
Speaker
Oh, white, yeah. like Like TGI Fridays and shit like that? Yeah. It's just trendy-ish. you know it's It's just trendy. It's like Denver by the baseball field. Yeah. I feel like it doesn't have a lot of character. I think Kansas City is going through This is the problem. when a neighbor When a city blows up, they start to lose their character. start pumping lofts in.
00:05:07
Speaker
Probably like the cool Whole Foods in the area and like loft apartments. They got more of that. Yeah, but they got some cool stuff still. A lot of murals on the... on the architecture, which is cool, and some different stuff that we don't have in Denver.
00:05:21
Speaker
I think KC, though. I'm thinking, like, blues, music, jazz, barbecue, shit like that. It didn't come popping out at me. What popped out at me is, like, Burger Works and fucking Mod Market. and I got to say this, though, dude. I mean, i this is cliche and redundant, but, like,
00:05:39
Speaker
U.S. is every – I haven't been – I was in Denver last February, but was at my parents' house, and I don't even remember. But I feel like things are are way more expensive, like grocery shopping and stuff.
00:05:51
Speaker
So you want to talk inflation, boy? Is that it? I mean, it's a dumb question, but, like, does that get all the way down to ground beef? Well, everything's more expensive because incomes are higher.
00:06:04
Speaker
Put it on part on tv bro. Do it. Let's hear No, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. um Yeah, everything's higher, dude. And a lot of the places that you thought were middle class, dude, like everybody's shooting the for the stars. And so everybody's got to have – even the kids, bro. Okay, let me talk some shit here for a second. The kids – They gotta to go have fast casual every day.
00:06:32
Speaker
Like you and I would have had to hit like McDonald's for like a $5 meal deal. Five bucks, yeah. Probably 15 bucks now, I guess. I don't know. But they're all, you know, they got to go to Wingstop, Chick-fil-A, and and they live a life that I don't understand. But it's all so expensive, to your point.
00:06:53
Speaker
KC was still pricey. had a Had a little dinner with the wife and a drink, you know, 98 bucks. Yeah. I feel like Denver's still outpacing St. Louis and Kansas City.
00:07:05
Speaker
It definitely is. And i the one comment I made to people when we were there was like, all these places were really cool. And they would have been packed to the gills in Denver. 150 for that or something? For your 98? Yeah.
00:07:18
Speaker
you're ninety eight Well, just, I don't know if it how much more expensive. I just know that way more people would be creeping up in there. You couldn't get a seat, but we could get a seat any anywhere, Friday, Saturday.
00:07:29
Speaker
And so Denver kind of sucks in that sense. So maybe KC is in my future or St. Louis because you know I like the bling. Just kidding. Oh, yeah. No, I mean, St. Louis is a good town.
00:07:43
Speaker
I'll say this, couple things. One, I did have to go to McDonald's because we were moving all this wood and shit. Uh, and I, and I think I got my coworker one hamburger and I got like some hamburger combo and I think it was like 19 bucks.
00:07:56
Speaker
It was like, what the fuck? It's, ah it's crazy. And then, uh, uh, what was the other? and don't remember my other point. Oh, Dude, I don't know how you leave a rainforest in Latin America.
00:08:08
Speaker
Here's one reason why you probably wouldn't like it here and and go fly 2,000 miles north. And it's so freaking humid and hot here, like way worse than Costa Rica ever. Makes no sense.
00:08:19
Speaker
Concrete, bro. I guess. like The humidity in St. Louis is like death. But that rainforest sucks up a lot of heat, doesn't it? I don't know. Like, I mean, it feels, it's hot. Like temperatures and humidity ratings, I bet you would feel the same, but it's, I mean the only thing is where I live, where we live in Central Valley is at altitude.
00:08:39
Speaker
It's never good, but it's like 78 today and it was a little nicer, but yeah, it's just so humid here. and um And we're not even in the the panic zone. Another month and it's just like death. Now, were you there when that tornado came through, buddy? Were you okay?
00:08:52
Speaker
It was Friday night, and I was not here yet, but I think it ripped the roof off one of my buddies, but his bar. It's actually weird. Where that thing landed is not like out in the sticks where you picture it. like i just I was like, tornado, everyone I know is fine. that's It's like always in like Joplin, Missouri.
00:09:08
Speaker
Joplin, Missouri is like the Haiti of tornadoes. It gets all the shit, dude. I just think it had that one major one. I just want to get that joke in, dude. You know it's tight.
00:09:20
Speaker
You never laughed for me, dude. You laughed. But no, this thing touched down like in the heart of like Forest Park is like our whatever, Central Park is like St. Louis Central Park. And it touched down right around all this populated city area, cool neighborhoods and stuff.
00:09:36
Speaker
Kind of crazy. Yeah. But poor Haiti, by the way. Man, they get fucked. They get fucked. Oh, dude. Kendra is Haitian, actually. just remembered. is that in my head? I was like, oh, like Lauren Hale.
00:09:49
Speaker
She's 28 and didn't know who the hell that was. So tell me about the diet as you've come to travel and you've moved away from your kale and beans and shit. No, dude. So I'm in an apartment, so I went to a grocery store. i got a bag of kale and spinach in my in the fridge.
00:10:06
Speaker
You're such a pussy, dude. Dude, i we haven't sold anything yet. And I can't be going. if you go If I'm up here for two or three weeks, I go out to eat every meal. mean, you're probably talking about a couple grand at least.
00:10:17
Speaker
Right. so Plus, I don't want to. or three weeks? You're be up here that long? Yeah, I mean, we're literally just kind of we got to set the, I need to get the bit, we need to get it off the ground where where it can kind of run itself, whether I come up here, my partner's a man in the boat, we got to do all that.
00:10:36
Speaker
So we need like, we I just want to leave and make sure I'm not leaving a ah huge pile of, ah you know, a huge pile of work for these these guys.
Retail Strategies for Wood Slab Business
00:10:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, okay. So... I mean, a lot of it's just like labor and and like we have these slabs that we we're bringing in. If I don't know, if you're a new listener, I'm trying to launch a wood slab company exporting wood. one a friend of ours, a family has like a slab exporting business. So we're getting some of their wood, moving it up to St. Louis, Wildwood Edges.
00:11:09
Speaker
And so we our container landed a few days ago. I came up here and now we're trying to get set up. And it's a lot of labor. Some of these slabs are like 500, 600 pounds. So we're just moving them around and making sure everything works. And then, you know, there's a lot of bullshit about, of a company we're starting a company that you're just like, oh yeah, we don't have trash cans are or pens. Like we didn't have pens.
00:11:31
Speaker
Come on now. Yeah, come on. I've got no pens. So yeah, all that bullshit. And then, But I will say ah it's it's so weird, dude, because when when you're working, all you want to do is not work.
00:11:47
Speaker
And then you're like searching for purpose. And I could see it's like there's three people. One guy has like a full time job and he's kind of like it doesn't provide him any purpose. He's just hoping it works because he already has ah headache, you know, an eight hour a day headache.
00:12:02
Speaker
And another guy who's done pretty well for himself, like I can see that like regardless all that shit, it just there's like purpose. It's just for for whatever reason, it provides it provides you with some purpose. And so for me, um i'm like, I know I talk a lot of shit. I'm like, I just want to serve and which is all true.
00:12:20
Speaker
So damn true. But just lifting shit around, sweating a little bit, unloading that truck. it It felt good. I have to admit. All right. i don't know if it's purpose, but it's like, oh, I did something productive. And for it's like kind of sad to think that that provides you with any joy, but it's true.
00:12:39
Speaker
For a short period of time, I think there's some, there's some novelty in that shit, right? You haven't been doing a lot of that, have you? What, work? No, well, I mean, you know, like when you if you move, you move a house, you get a little joy out of like getting it all done. Mowing the lawn, shit like that, yeah.
00:12:58
Speaker
Yeah, you don't you don't have to do a lot of that. I mean, all my all my like task check type shit is like got the kids there on time, this on time, right? And and there's value in that. but No, but it's it's like we haven't done anything yet, but the idea like – I just called these guys six, seven months ago were like, hey, I have an idea.
00:13:20
Speaker
And now we have like somewhat of a functioning business. It's like, all right, that's cool. It's the same with the podcast where you're like, if you just go, I want to start a podcast, you're kind of like, what's what the what' Zencast? How do you record and all that shit? And for a while you're kind of living off the high, like, wow, we made a show, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we did too. And now, are you think it's going to work?
00:13:42
Speaker
You're confident? Dude, I will say this. we've had We've only had two or three people come in the place, like and they're all like ah the postwoman came in yesterday. and freaked was like, this stuff is amazing. You guys are going to kill it.
00:13:56
Speaker
And then the, they you know, we're in like an industrial area. There's like a custom closet place across the street. And those people came in. Cause I don't i think the power went out there was and they were, they were like blown away and they would like to partner up. So I think we just need people to see it. I mean, you've seen some of the videos, some of the stuff is pretty, it's hard to get a feel for it, but like it's impressive. And I think if we can get people to know what's there,
00:14:19
Speaker
and the The only thing would be like, I don't know, is the St. Louis market so much different than some of these other markets where other people had success because whatever, they don't want spend money on something or they don't want to buy exports or or who knows.
00:14:31
Speaker
But I don't i think there's a big enough city where people are going to like it. so But the post office, the post woman's reaction was like, we were like, oh, that's good.
00:14:42
Speaker
so like she She was kind of knowledgeable about live edge wood and she was like, oh wow, this is amazing. I gotta get my husband down here. and we're gonna We have a lake house we're gonna build. Sister or cracker?
00:14:54
Speaker
Cracker. See, there's a limit in St. Louis. You get outside like the Beltway. like I'll say this is the blackest place in like parts of St. Louis, but you get outside of there and you are... It's li it's like whiter than Colorado as far as just like mindset, and people listening to conservative radio as the truth, stuff like that.
00:15:14
Speaker
What kind of prices are we talking? ah I mean, it's all over the map. I mean, some of the stuff we're trying to get... um I mean, we have a table that's 14 and a half foot long. It's one it's a single sheet of wood.
00:15:29
Speaker
We might try to get 12 grand for that. I don't know who's putting that in their house, but it's it's not for a small small place. It's huge, and it's so heavy.
00:15:41
Speaker
I'd almost wish no one buys it so we don't have to move it again. Hmm. Shipping's like six grand. Yeah, but I got, yeah, exactly. So that's not all profit. I mean, we have, we have some end tables. I don't know if I sent you the pit, like little end tables that are 300 bucks that are beautiful.
00:15:56
Speaker
So there's all in between six, six foot, 40 inch wide, probably get you into one for 18, something like that. Maybe 20 if you want some fancy legs. 2,000, I should say. Not 20 grand. 1,800? Yeah. 2,000? Okay. What did you guys drop on your dining room table? Have you bought have you made that big purchase lately? i know you want to sell everything, but you remember that one?
00:16:16
Speaker
It's pretty comparable, I think, to like if you went to up what? A cream barrel type? Pottery barn. Yeah, that shit. That shit. Yeah, that stuff's expensive. That can real pricey. Yeah, it's all around 1,900.
00:16:28
Speaker
ninety two hundred I think pottery barn actually uses real wood. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But a lot of the stuff is expensive and it's just cheap, compressed. I'm not fucking with Jake Jab and American Furniture Warehouse and all that. It's a couch that weighs like 23 pounds, 20-piece sectional that like can blow away in the wind.
00:16:47
Speaker
It's the one where your overweight family member comes over and you're like, oh, shit, what's going he's jake Jake's like, good, break that, badass. Sell him another one.
00:17:00
Speaker
He's dead, bro, so it's cool. Jake Jabs died? Well, yeah, he's been pumping ads out since for like 90 years. what did I think he's, yeah, gone. But it's okay. I don't think anybody
Branding and Product Ideas for New Business
00:17:10
Speaker
cares.
00:17:10
Speaker
So you're out there. You've been working 14-hour days. You got some purpose. You got the price you got the prices set. I'm looking up Jake Jabs. Yeah, we're working on that. I mean, that's kind of what we're doing today is like pricing.
00:17:23
Speaker
And are you arranging in it in a way that is the space is going to be appealing in terms of what you see, like tables are stacked tall or how are you doing that? Well, that's the that's the million dollar question. I mean, you want to get as much...
00:17:38
Speaker
visibility as as you can, right? Like so that you're seeing the wood, it's not just stacked on top of each other. But so we're trying to figure that out. But there's so much shit like on these like small end tables that are, you know, anywhere from like 20 inches wide to 40 inches wide, I think we have 80 of them.
00:17:54
Speaker
So we can't like assemble them all. Plus we're gonna be selling them on Amazon and eBay and shit like that. But like, so we gotta figure that out. Right now we have probably 15 kind of leaning up against the wall or a stand like where you can see the grain of the wood, you can see the epoxy, you can see all the all that stuff. But honestly, we need space or like need to think of how you can see like 100 them at any given time.
00:18:18
Speaker
Well, within reason, but. What's the pricing philosophy? Grand opening, gonna throw out some deals or you guys gonna stick to being a high end luxury type of business?
00:18:30
Speaker
I think we got to stick, but... Yeah. I mean, there is a... Like, if we can get, let's say, double our money on this first container yeah or triplet, then we can buy more more product and kind and figure figure the business out.
00:18:48
Speaker
But also, I mean, if i if we got all just got straight up our money back on the container and it's like, then St. Louis really knew about us, that'd probably be fine. Right? Like if if all the product went out and then all of a sudden we were kind of in the atmosphere, like, hey, where'd you get that table?
00:19:04
Speaker
Not that we want to give it away, but if we if we weren't losing money and everybody had it, I think it'd be good. so i don't I'm not saying ah you should give it away, because you gotta hold your pricing some, but um the idea is like we need people to know about it, because the wood will sell itself.
00:19:20
Speaker
So that's a double-bladed answer. but Are you guys attaching to any sort of wood fetishes? Anything that might attract a quirkier type of clientele?
00:19:33
Speaker
Like shaping lumber in the dildos or like, uh, have you seen those, the the bottle openers? They do this in Costa Rica a lot in the tourist towns. They're like penises with a bottle opener at the end of the- No penises, dude. i don't know why you got to go there, dude.
00:19:46
Speaker
Well, you said fetish. I'm trying to, trying to like figure out what you're, where you going. Like hard, hard massage tables.
00:19:56
Speaker
Funny you should mention that, dude. i put We put $120,000 into just hard massage tables. sir I hope that catches on, That's so great that you hit that. don't know hard massage. This desk I'm on is a weird and down desk.
00:20:11
Speaker
there there is yeah i don't know about harness like this desk i'm on is like a weird up and down desk you know, like a standing desk, you could start to get into shit like that.
00:20:22
Speaker
Where it's like, because everyone's making like for functionality and they're not really thinking about, oh, going to stick an amazing piece of wood on it. You could start to do shit like that and probably find a niche. you know i mean? Well, you could find it. If you had a partner who has the ah basically the tabletop piece is something they want to customize more.
00:20:40
Speaker
Yeah, like they they know how to do hydraulic lift or something like that. and then Yeah, there you go. Yeah, we I think we'll partner with some people. I mean, even the closet people. I had a sample of this hanging shelf, this floating shelf project I'm working on, which was just kind of thrown on the floor on the side. And he's looking at all this wood and he queued in on that and was like, look at those floating shelves. Those would be awesome in our closet.
00:21:01
Speaker
And I was like, all right, you just don't know what people are going to think, you know? Yeah, you don't. You probably are right, actually. Like if you roll into some spa and there's a massage table made out of sweet wood and then they lay down like a cool towel on top of it, then they're probably like, welcome to the Oasis.
00:21:21
Speaker
The tropical wood trimmings, you know? Yeah, see? And then how's that end, dude? How's that massage end? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So you're out there hoeing slabs and it feels good.
00:21:34
Speaker
Yeah, are you jealous, there I don't know, man. What's your... What's your, like, will you hear, because I remember even now where I hear people like, I got a promotion and I'm like, blah, I just even want to hear about it. And I'm just like, yeah, I feel sorry for you.
00:21:52
Speaker
That's my response. But like when you hear someone like, well, I got to, does it go against everything you feel right now? Or are you just like, I know you've been very nice and congratulatory, but do you have, does it give you an itch at all?
00:22:05
Speaker
Maybe not my story, but anything like this. No, I love what you're doing. No, I mean, I've got that nonprofit idea that's cooking and I have, actually, i didn't tell you because. That won't shut up. I have a pilot discussion group going, try to test it with some some friends, middle-aged men.
00:22:23
Speaker
You think I would criticize you? I just forgot. and forgot I did it because these guys are so hard to schedule. So it's been like the next the next one I'll do is like a month from now. But no, I mean, I look at what you're doing and I'm excited for you because I think it's a good it's a way to make money. It's unique.
00:22:40
Speaker
It's not sucking on the man the man's shawanger, you know? let's Yeah, I mean, and the other thing is like it could potentially take me get me in Denver more often which is cool too well I have a friend I want to tell you this he wonders if la live edge stuff is ah maybe played out in Denver that could be because of the because of the mountain houses or just because of the California vibe that came there way early I think that's why you actually have to think about exactly what you said.
City Development and Cultural Impact
00:23:14
Speaker
Like these, all those wood, like my uncle, he, for a while, he had a place in Breckenridge, which was like made out of wood and all that kind of shit that you see up there. It's like too much. So you got to think of like kind of unique ways to use this crap.
00:23:26
Speaker
What's wrong with KC? It's like right down the road, right? Well, that's probably that's by our second place. Yeah. don't know. Everyone still has the idea. Like the Denver is this pop and growing growth place and everything's hot and cool.
00:23:39
Speaker
And I'm like, Fuck Denver. It's like my, it's how I feel. I was even talking about my parents the other day. Like when we first moved there in 90, which sounds stupid because we're like transplants like everyone else, but like it was like kind of a cow town, you know? Yeah, it was.
00:23:54
Speaker
Very few restaurants. Yeah. Boots and shit and like, and now it's just played out. It's just this like sprawling. It's like if the suburbs of Dallas and and Riverside, California had a child.
00:24:07
Speaker
it would be Denver or something like And so many other places are like that too. I mean, there's so many like Phoenix, Scottsdale, just have this. West, right? like Yeah.
00:24:18
Speaker
Yeah. Don't have the vibes. It's getting played out. And the other thing is just where's the guy, my our provider have have footprint? And Denver's still kind of open. she's got He's got somebody on the north side of Denver, like in Thornton, that but he he's like he'd he'd be okay if we went down south.
00:24:35
Speaker
but That guy's a pussy. That's what he means. Yeah. That's what he means, bro. You got it.
00:24:46
Speaker
He didn't want to say it that way, but. That's what he's yeah. Like yeah i think that I think, i mean, i don't even know. It's funny if somebody who even knows what live edge is, I didn't even know what it was.
00:25:00
Speaker
So if somebody thinks it's played out, they're probably pretty familiar like with it more so than most people. Some people might just be like, Oh, that's a cool table. Yeah, I don't know if that's accurate.
00:25:11
Speaker
I think it is probably, though. It's like Denver, but because it's such a such a mecca for coming to ski, whether it's actual live edge or tropical live edge or not, there's some motherfucking wood floating around the Denver metro area because of the ski resorts.
00:25:29
Speaker
so Yeah, my brother said he had a place down the street. but But honestly, most of that shit in the U.S. is... it's I don't know people care, but it's not single slab. like cause trees just don't Especially not out there, trees just don't grow big enough.
00:25:43
Speaker
So like walnut and black walnut and some of the trees they're using, they're binding it together like giant planks. And this the same guy, the guys that came in the other day, the closet people, they were like, so how do you connect those? And I was like, it's not.
00:25:56
Speaker
it's not I'm like, it's not connected. It's one piece. We have like a round one. That's a, I was measured today. I think it's, I can't remember if it was 82 inches by seven. Like I can stand in front of it, stick my arms out and it's taller than me and bigger. And it's a single circular cut. It looks came out of a redwood tree, but it was, was a young, so young tree. Yeah. It was like a young tree that was holding all the earth together and we fucking took it, bro.
Athletic Talent Across Sports
00:26:23
Speaker
How about this, man? Maybe you guys need you may need to think bigger. Because I'm thinking what would be cool is ah is a tropical wood bowling alley like the lanes are tropical wood.
00:26:36
Speaker
Dude, if we can book that contract. I love selling the bowling alley on this idea. They're like, I don't know. Doesn't seem like anyone would care. and don't know why we'd pay more money. it's It'd be beautiful though, wouldn't it?
00:26:49
Speaker
Dude, go there for that experience. i do they I don't know enough. like has Have people thought about the lanes as far as they like making them look dope? I don't know, man. I'm not sure if what kind of wood they use anyway. I'm sure it's something we don't understand.
00:27:05
Speaker
What if we were were booking high school bleachers? We sold the high school on all live edge wood bleachers. Ask your brother. Kent Denver probably buy that shit. Kent Denver, yeah.
00:27:17
Speaker
ah They're gone, dude. I think, so my my nephew just graduated and my, it's pretty sweet, but I think my niece, who's who is actually competing on like an international level for like big mountain skiing, like she she won, I think, North America, something like that.
00:27:35
Speaker
So they're I think they're actually moving up to the mountains. She's going to be going to one of those schools. It might be Battle Mountain or somewhere around Vail where youre like you can ski all morning and go school in the afternoon. Wow. My kids are all jealous.
00:27:46
Speaker
Classic rich kid fucking trajectory. because they got ah they Hey, if you got talent. Right, I'm kidding. No, absolutely. i think I think it's freaking awesome. like Not only to get out of Denver.
00:28:01
Speaker
Yeah, but have you ever heard of a poor kid working their way up through the ski scene? No.
00:28:08
Speaker
But it's not her fault or her problem. It could be your fault. It could be. Well, there's a lot of rich kids. I'll say this. There's also a lot of rich kids that suck at skiing. So it's not a guarantee.
00:28:19
Speaker
Like you could probably give me all the private coaching surfing. Like if my parents were like, great well, me, I'd probably end up being pretty good. I know what you're saying. What about Michael Jordan on the slopes? I bet he'd be pretty good.
00:28:30
Speaker
I bet he'd look like a clown, dude. Too tall. Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts. Although he he could he was an all-right golfer, I think. We're talking about him like he's dead. I am. No, he's probably ah not a scratch golfer, but pretty good. So maybe he'd be good.
00:28:45
Speaker
Jordan probably could money his way into being a dope skier. But you really see his ass at 6'6", flying off of cliffs and and shit like that? like That'd be be pretty impressive. yeah Yeah. I don't know. Who's a great athlete? Jordan wasn't that tall, but who's somebody like...
00:29:02
Speaker
I wonder if like Dirk Nowinski or some of those Euro guys that come from snowy countries, is he like dope at mogul skiing? My guess is an athlete's an athlete.
00:29:15
Speaker
And I'm not saying that you could reach the pinnacle because I think there are there's some physical characteristics. There's just some body mechanics that only the rarest of rare people ever get to in a specific sport. But an athlete's an athlete. I just see the crossover.
00:29:29
Speaker
If you're going to tell me that I couldn't play baseball, I'll laugh in your fucking face. Okay? So every sport I can play. I'm just telling you right now. One thing's for sure. If you're good at baseball, you would dominate at any other sport.
00:29:44
Speaker
and so That is not true. But no, you know you know what I'm saying. and I think that you could take a Michael Jordan and he could excel at a lot of different things. Now, at a professional level, not necessarily, but...
00:29:57
Speaker
This is a great debate, dude. He'd still be known in his neighborhood. Are there people born good at a sport? Are they good, just good athletes? that just That's just the direction they went.
00:30:08
Speaker
Because I do see kids in Costa Rica that are good soccer players and are literally like special needs playing basketball. Now, part that's because they never touch a basketball. The only time they touch it when they go their gringo Luca friend's house.
00:30:21
Speaker
But they they literally like, they look, ah you know. like the R word, bro, which you can't say anymore. But then they're dope, dope soccer players. So I'm like, is that that because they're born, they just got their feet are better in their hands? Or is it because it's just training?
00:30:39
Speaker
You could rich kid your way out of that and they'd be a good basketball player too. I think what you're seeing is athletic capability. And one sport has been explored and they're able to apply that capability to the sport.
00:30:52
Speaker
And if they took some time at basketball, they'd be okay. There are some people, though, you kind of fit this bill that really struggle to be good at sports. No, there's some people that you know. I mean, they they and they kind of struggle to walk.
00:31:06
Speaker
Right. But they're just not going to rich kid their way out of anything. No, well they're they're not going to get good at any sport. And so I think if ah if I wanted to be a good tennis player, I could be a good tennis player.
00:31:18
Speaker
I may not be a great tennis player, but I think it could be good. I could get to slightly above average in almost anything. that's yeah that's my But that's my ceiling. But, i' I mean, I'm arguing against myself. I've been telling people for for for like 20 years that LeBron could probably, with like a year training, go play for for Barcelona.
00:31:37
Speaker
and be like as good as Suarez or Messi or Neymar, like, or least a defenseman or something like that. I don't agree with a year, but yeah, he could. Well, he doesn't have to waste any time on the, on the sort of the cardio and like just being agile. So it'd just be like, how do you play soccer?
00:31:54
Speaker
Yeah, but the feet the footwork is a a lifetime of work to really get to the level. but then the timing of heading and and then defending and and technique and strategy, I bet he gets destroyed initially, but you're right. He knows how to cry like a soccer player.
00:32:09
Speaker
but you're But you're right. He's athletic enough to figure that out. I agree with that. And I agree with that in a lot of sports. so so But there are guys like, I don't know, who's with like Tom Brady might suck at a lot of other sports.
00:32:21
Speaker
right You might be able to put him baseball field, but like he has a strong arm, might be a good pitcher. Okay, so football is maybe the only exception because of the specialization.
00:32:32
Speaker
Right. So, yeah. Would Jordan be dope at ping pong? He'd have a good wingspan. he He'd probably be all right. You ever see somebody who's, I don't know, you're the best archer in the world, like those weird Olympic sports.
00:32:48
Speaker
You go, is that guy, was he born to be an archer? He's just the only one of 30 people in the world that gave a fuck enough to really commit to arch archery. you know Those people are like hitting the target from a half mile away.
00:33:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good question. You never played video games, but have you ever ever been around a kid like in your neighborhood when you're growing up who's like way better than everyone at video games? Where it's like their their hands are doing, you're like, how is that possible?
Personal Reflections on Entrepreneurship
00:33:13
Speaker
Like a Tecmo Bowl in the 80s, there's always a kid who could just smoke you. with They're in the Cleveland Browns, and you got the freaking 49ers, and they still smoke your ass.
00:33:22
Speaker
There are there are will weird skill sets. Yeah, there definitely are, and I think esports can demonstrate that. I think for sure, man. But an athlete's an athlete as far as I'm concerned, and a hard worker's a hard worker, buddy. Doesn't mean you'll be like the pinnacle, but debate over.
00:33:38
Speaker
Debate over, man. That was a fun ride, though. Yeah. How are we getting that? I don't know, buddy. But wood, maybe, and what did I do? Did I mention maybe you should do some throwback wood skis?
00:33:51
Speaker
Yeah, that's how you get good. No, wood skis. Tropical work. You're saying and with the business? Yeah. ah there are there are There are people like, this is, it's not wood skis, but people that all is they do is sell wood for guitar making.
00:34:06
Speaker
X and shit. Yeah. I don't know why. Do you think, have you ever felt a guitar and been like, this is, oh, this is oak. I don't like the sound on this or some shit like that.
00:34:18
Speaker
ah I don't know. It's sad because all do- You an axe right next to you, bro? I play acoustic guitar, but- I'll give it to us. The neck wood is always something more interesting.
00:34:30
Speaker
Yeah. Let's drum that bitch, dude. Listeners, he's holding up an axe right now. Mm-hmm. I'm putting it away, too. I want Matt to get ideas for his business. Yeah.
00:34:43
Speaker
Yeah. So I, I, I bet you could do that, dude. That's a lot of, that's a lot of woodworking though. Yeah. I mean, the idea, the idea is to don't get in the woodworking. Like this is what the guy down there was saying, because you just, especially U S the labor so much, you want to provide that wood to someone who makes guitars or cutting boards or whatever the fuck they want to do with it.
00:35:03
Speaker
But don't get into the, the labor of it because we're not, I mean, it's not what we do anyways. Right. I don't know. I don't really know how to make a guitar. This comes back to Jordan and every, like, could i figure out how to make a guitar just by being a talented guy?
00:35:17
Speaker
Like in like a week. I think so. Would Jordan be 10 in the world at guitar making just because he's so gifted? I think so. Yeah, he probably would.
00:35:31
Speaker
can we go Can we go back to your thing, your group? You ready to go public with that or you need the the ah test run to work before you want to? No, dude, I'm not worried about the test room because it's with people I know. It's it's not an accurate representation of what I'd be trying to do, but it it helps me.
Starting a Nonprofit for Community Discussions
00:35:48
Speaker
Did we talk about, do we I don't know if we did this on air, your idea? Because it could be an update. Okay. can you can you go Can you summarize what you're trying to do there?
00:36:00
Speaker
I'm trying to come up with a nonprofit idea. At this point, it's a working title. its called Friendly Discussions. A nonprofit idea to like, um combat loneliness in America. And so the thought is local libraries offer up rooms and meeting spaces for free is that you'd have a free service, a facilitated conversation on all sorts of different topics, cap it at about six to eight participants.
00:36:26
Speaker
And they get a chance to offer their perspective on stuff and connect and meet other people. Do you provide a topic or you just show up and start grinding like this? I would provide topics ahead of time.
00:36:38
Speaker
ah You haven't had a meeting yet? No, I had one with these guys, but they're all friends. So it's it's not accurate in the sense that would strangers come to ah session like this and pick a topic?
00:36:52
Speaker
ah artificial intelligence in America. Are you worried? Or something like that. You know, this is the the nuance is like, how do you how do you list topics? What's gonna actually be interesting? I mean, that's the work.
00:37:05
Speaker
and But I think people are looking for venues to have conversations. And the idea that it's facilitated, I think takes a lot of pressure off. Why a nonprofit? Because Because that's you know want what i value what I value in this space. I like the idea of, so it can you can fundraise and you can create salaries for people, but like I don't see offering ah service that would largely cater to the retired people who are lonely. i don't see sucking their money and monetizing it in that way.
00:37:38
Speaker
but you Would you get would you um define an age, or any gender, age, or anything in ah in a group? Or it's like, show up ah Tuesday at 8 o'clock, sign up, we have a space, I got room for eight people, we're talking about And every conversation like collapses into ED. It's all middle-aged men.
00:37:57
Speaker
It would be ah RSVP ahead of time. I wouldn't i would put in there, got to have at least two people for me to show up or for the facilitators to show up. And it would be, you know, facilitators would maybe get 20, 30 bucks an hour.
00:38:12
Speaker
And in an ideal world, it would be funded by- The Gates the gates Foundation. corporations and things like that that want to support a good cause and and loneliness and mental health is a part of their shtick. You're putting rules on it? Like you can't be trying to scam on some trim or like you can't be Yeah, I mean, there's some basic rules and guidelines that I wrote up, and i would you know that's part of the facilitator to manage disruptive people, but you have to say it out at the outset.
00:38:41
Speaker
So i don't I've done it, I've facilitated enough, and it's like it's just not about you. ah So what you have to say doesn't have a lot of weight. It's just can you get people talking differently.
00:38:53
Speaker
and connecting. And I think that and think that's a reasonable thing. And I think people will will want it. Now, will I get some psychos that wanna argue? Or like, yeah, who knows why they're to take advantage of people. at one point Yeah, like sell real estate or some some stupid shit.
00:39:09
Speaker
Yeah, probably, but I can handle that. Yeah. Wow. That's pretty sweet, man. Are you, uh, this is the issue I have, but it's kind of got to do it. Are you, are you ready to venture into the wild world of social media to promote it or get people? you don't think you'll need to.
00:39:26
Speaker
I'm just kind of, uh, stunted in my, uh, desire to take the next steps. Like it's like, I can, I'll take, I'll have these tasks. Right. I'll have these tasks and then I'll put them off for another four days. so But the first thing I need to do in terms of getting started is go over to the library because they'll advertise certain things that certain events that I think, I don't know what characteristics they have, but they also say that they don't advertise.
00:39:53
Speaker
And so I wonder if whatever I do is structured as a community event, if they would be. They don't advertise like meaning what? Meaning like if you have some pottery club that you are using this space for, i mean, they're not trying to advertise that on their site.
00:40:13
Speaker
The point is you need to find a way to get people to it. And ah I'm not exactly sure how to do that, but you also need, know I need a way to have people reserve a space. Now you can do that through meetup and there's other there's other platforms, but...
00:40:30
Speaker
It's gotta be a a bit of wildfire after a while, if you can get it going. like People are gonna tell people about it, you would hope. I just, yeah, I don't think it'd have a lot of problems, especially if it's fun and people don't have a lot of opportunity to express their views on stuff and people don't have as many friends anymore.
00:40:50
Speaker
right So I think there could be some demand there and to get it get out there and just talk about a subject. That's how you get to know people. I mean, I could see like, yeah, I'm just thinking of people that might like it.
00:41:01
Speaker
Like, I wonder if like my brother, I would say my younger brother, maybe it doesn't ah like, would he go to that? just thinking. Because ah or my if I look at my brothers, actually, because the ones that has a family, the other ones right now, like single, no kids.
00:41:18
Speaker
Do you think who's the target or there is no target? It's just like, here's a place to show up. I think they're probably too young, but nobody's going raise their hand and be like, I'm lonely. I need this. Is this for the people that are lonely? Nobody's going to do that. They're going to look at the topic and say, oh, I have some views on that. I'd like to talk about that. Oh, they're too young. You think, so it's not even for our age demographic.
00:41:41
Speaker
It probably isn't. I mean, and in terms of who would show up on a consistent basis, I doubt it. But what is for that age demographic is people who want to volunteer and be facilitators.
00:41:55
Speaker
So the professional folks. I love the idea. like And it's a good experience. A bunch of old people just it's I don't know. you You don't have to be old. but you Well, yeah they they have the schedule probably to do it.
00:42:08
Speaker
Yeah, I'd be doing in the day. i wouldn't want to do night sessions. But the reality might be, too, like once you – I mean, we both agree like just doing the show is sort of therapeutic and good for us, and and that almost sounds like a recreation ah of this with like a bigger bigger potential like group or bigger, you know? So it would probably be good for middle-aged dudes if you can get their asses there, but they're probably all like, I'm fine. I'm fine. I've got my truck.
00:42:34
Speaker
Yeah, totally. And it's not a support group, because but it effectively does support ah your human need for connection and expression.
00:42:46
Speaker
But it's not i'm not we're not sitting here talking about your anxiety. I'll clap my hands when you can get that guy. I got my fucking truck. Kiss my ass. When you can get that guy to open up, be himself.
00:42:58
Speaker
I need topics, dude, that are relatable, that would attract people. And I don't know if that'll all work. so Well, dude, I just look at the journey. I've been on Lance, and I just think, you just keep driving forward, bud, and good things will happen.
00:43:14
Speaker
You could make, if you got religious about it, if the library let you, you could just be like, I'm... Whatever it is, every Wednesday night at 6, I'm fucking doing it. People can come or not, but I'm doing it for a year. 50 weeks, see what happens.
00:43:27
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Who knows? I got to go over there and talk to them. I only talked to one person about your idea, and they were like, oh, that's great. But they were thinking as like a middle-aged men.
00:43:37
Speaker
Men don't express themselves. Men don't say shit ever, and this they could do it. But they liked it for like in that. But I think older guys are the same. it's not like people, once they hit 70, they're like...
00:43:48
Speaker
I feel weird about AI. Like, no, they're never going to express themselves unless they're us. ah Yeah. I'm not sure. not sure who it'll track, but I think you could navigate into different niches beyond like your traditional retirement crowd with when it's established. Or I don't think you start with a middle-aged guy because they're the most skeptical people on the planet.
00:44:12
Speaker
It would be cool if it looked like a... like a CNN panel, like when they're during elections and they're interviewing like the outpoles and you've got like a 70 year old black guy, 24 year old gay guy, a woman, like you the whole thing.
Balancing Entrepreneurship and Traditional Work
00:44:26
Speaker
Every week you tried to get like a stereotypical person to sit sit in there and then like, let's talk about AI.
00:44:33
Speaker
Well, if I want a growth mindset, like yeah, you're right. I could prioritize like focus group data for political reasons and like I could monetize that without the participants knowing and I could just rake it in.
00:44:48
Speaker
Yeah. yeah I mean, yeah, and that would be pretty. You'd be like, no, sorry, we already have a 32-year-old gay guy. um If you know any black lesbians that are over 48, that's what I need for seat number six.
00:45:00
Speaker
so Mm-hmm. that would Now that's an idea, bro. Just like your live as mass massage table.
00:45:09
Speaker
But like anything, what got you started? what got you to like actually move into another step? You had to get a partner, if I remember correctly. Yeah, money. But I mean, that maybe some desperation.
00:45:21
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I had this against the weed and I was like, it's all like I almost want to say it was out of laziness. ah I saw the weed as like a tougher a tougher lift.
00:45:33
Speaker
And I was also some headwind there, like as far as the land that we're trying to use. And this was like, I just kept hearing from our friends. I'm like, you know, this guy, these people are doing good. I guess I got sold, to be honest with you.
00:45:46
Speaker
I got sold and I knew I had a conversation with one of my partners like three or four years ago. He had already left our company. He was talking about looking for something to do for himself. And I just remember that.
00:45:56
Speaker
And I was like, I knew that if I knew that if I had a good idea, I could probably go to him. And I also knew that it would be like a grind working with him, but he would kind of, he'd be pushing this, this thing forward. So i was like,
00:46:09
Speaker
There's a pretty easy path here and I don't need $5 million dollars to do it. And that was it. i was like, I got to do something. So this will keep my sanity, my freedom, so to speak.
00:46:20
Speaker
And I don't know. I mean, it sounds cliche, but the idea like, okay, at least if I got to sell my soul, I'm like, um may I'm trying to do this for myself or a small group of friends.
00:46:32
Speaker
It just sounded better and like trying to make money for somebody else. But the carefree part of working for somebody else is kind of cool. Where just like get your check and like you said, go hiking at lunch.
00:46:44
Speaker
But yeah, i think it was a bit of desperation and then a bit of like just doing the math where someone's like this works and this is how much it takes to to get it. And I was like, right, I can do that.
00:46:56
Speaker
Yeah, I got to find we that. It was hazy. Yeah. I don't have desperation. got to find... the a motivator that will say that will go just go money it's funny because money is it it's a makes it easier it's acceptable motivator and people will say whoa what about giving back and how important that is in the world and it's still money It is, I know. When you say giving back, no one's like, oh, a support group, people can express them. No, that doesn't count, right? It's like, I'm fundraising.
00:47:29
Speaker
I'm fundraising. It's not a support group, by the way. Okay. Discussions. Get into it. ah Yeah, so, yeah. But how do you... How do you... Like, people want to quantify it.
00:47:41
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's the that's the thing. It's like money makes everything the... I mean, even, i think we like if someone went to medical school and their idea was like, I know I'm not doing it to make money, I'm doing it to help some people in Zaire. I don't know Zaire is still a country, but they they I don't think they get the respect as like, yeah, I'm going to grind out surgeries and crush it like and buy big slabs.
00:48:06
Speaker
i don't I don't think they get the respect, right? No, I just don't even buy that for a lot for most people, 99% of the folks that would select. to be a doctor, like they they got into it because they were good at science, they enjoyed science, and it's an a a very acceptable profession financially and status-wise. And I think a lot of people get into medical care for that reason. And not having having worked with doctors, I mean, I'm pretty certain that's the case. Now they'll say, I got in to help people and care for people, and that's probably true too, but let's be honest, you you started there because you were gonna make some bank.
00:48:46
Speaker
Yeah. It's easy sell to mom and everybody else. Yeah. Yeah. You were going to make bank. So. Well, when you did, when you had, when you set one of these up, did anybody give you like say anything where you're like, Oh, that felt good. Anyone was anyone like, man, that was great.
00:49:00
Speaker
I haven't talked like that in a while. What call it? So I don't call it a support group. What do you call it? Discussion group. Yeah. I'm kind of call it friendly discussions. and So what's the point if it's not a support group?
00:49:13
Speaker
and So people can have conversations with folks in the community about a wide range of topics. I don't, I don't see why it needs to be a support group. Like, um, um no, no, no. Well, what what you just said is good. I'm just saying that what is the point is not so someone can be like, man, sometimes I'm depressed. It's not that. No, no. I hate that.
00:49:30
Speaker
It's like you hear they're building a, they're, they're, uh, They're shutting down Santa Fe for six months. You hear about that and then you talk about that, how affects you, your commute or shit like that. I don't really know what level yet.
00:49:46
Speaker
There are a lot of different higher order topics that I have in my head that I'm not sure what will garner interest. What will get somebody to RSVP and take a shot at it?
00:49:59
Speaker
Dude, I think it's awesome. I think the that unfortunately so i'll only, you probably You might have to involve some of this social media crap for sort of like, I don't know, validity or something?
00:50:11
Speaker
No. Like you want to fight club it. You want to just grow like underground? Website. No, I'll do a website. but how do you gotta you're gonna have to point people to website.
00:50:22
Speaker
Same with us, no one's going to our website ever. it's it's Because it's not about money, it's gonna grow organically. It's gonna start at one library, get to another. The libraries themselves have a whole network of communication.
00:50:34
Speaker
They will expand it. It's gonna be straight up libraries or community centers, maybe even retirement places. Straight up libraries.
00:50:44
Speaker
Get old people and any anybody really talking to each other talking to each other about interesting topics. That's it. problem the The problem probably is like you can live happily without it.
00:51:00
Speaker
You can? No, you, like personally. You're talking about like what motivates me to take the next step. Like I had a clear motivation. And that's what's happening. Yeah. yeah you're like I'm living happily every day without it. And I'm like, eh, I don't feel like going over there. but It's just a headache right now.
00:51:17
Speaker
I like the concept because I think if you've ever been in a conversation with a group of friends, like it's satisfying, but there's always somebody that's off the rails that cannibalizes all the air time.
00:51:32
Speaker
They're a real pain in the ass. And wouldn't it be great to have a professional level facilitator be like, all right, let's hear from Sally. Well, it's like couples like couples therapy a little bit.
00:51:44
Speaker
I know you don't wanna tie it to therapy, but the person that's like that's almost why you go to couples therapy. So someone can be like, hey, you shut the fuck up so that you've been bitching that he doesn't express himself his whole life. Why don't you shut up for five seconds?
00:51:57
Speaker
Maybe he can fucking get a word. This is just hypothetical, but anyways. Right, right. You're on you're on it. You're on it. You already told us that you don't think autonomous cars are the future of transportation.
00:52:11
Speaker
Yeah, we don't need to rehash that, Sally. Yeah, uh-huh. Sally, Sally. Sit the fuck down, Sally. You had your 18 minutes. Yeah. You don't see this could be like, I guess you don't want get alcohol involved, but it's not like sit around at the bar and have a beer with your buddy.
00:52:28
Speaker
No, but it but i hope what I would hope as an outcome of this is that people who decide to come to these, as as you hear somebody talk about their perspective on an issue, you kind of get a sense of that they're your're your person.
00:52:42
Speaker
Sort of like if you met somebody in a classroom, you did a group project, ah You get a sense of how they think and you're like, ah, that person's cool. So I could see people going to lunch or beers after. yeah This is a place simply for expressing views and ideas about interesting topics. That's it.
00:53:00
Speaker
Simple as that. Good luck, dude. Is there any any other, anybody else doing anything like this? you see i know there's meetup.com. don't even know how that works, but like you see anybody? ah There's some dialogue um meetups.
00:53:14
Speaker
would imagine your wife has would know, I guess, right? No, doesn't know anything about this. there's there's no There's dialogue meetups. There's a ton of support groups, and they're specific to different pathologies, mental health pathologies.
00:53:28
Speaker
right You're going to stay away from that. I want nothing to do with that. First off, you have to be licensed to do that. This is pick a topic. Pick something that's broad enough,
00:53:39
Speaker
ah I talked with these guys about family culture. Like, how did you grow up? What were your parents like? What was the most important lesson you learned? Like, those are things people like to talk about.
00:53:51
Speaker
Money's a good one. How about bedtimes? Yeah, sleep sleep habits. That'll get them going. Sleep habits a good one. People like to talk about their routines and and different things and relate on on different subjects. So I don't really know what all is going to get someone excited, but I do know that people like to talk about shit.
00:54:09
Speaker
And that's all I'd be facilitating. So it is a little bit of like, it's like the marketing of it, but not in the commercial sense, but like, if if so if you if you have a sign in the library that says, join us Tuesday night discussion group, we talk about sleep habits.
00:54:26
Speaker
That might get some people there. That's exactly what I would be doing. Yeah. Yeah. And then that's it. It's that simple. Now, where the only thing that makes it complicated when I talk to anybody else about it is like,
00:54:37
Speaker
Okay, so then what? Now, where else would you grow it? Yeah. And I'm like, that a model right what if it's my just at the library down the street from my house? Like, what if it's just there? Is that okay with you, buddy? If you thought about having like sex or pods where you could, then you could do like retreats where you bring everyone together. It's like this crazy discussion thon.
00:55:02
Speaker
Now, I really think you could charge for this. I really think you could charge for this, okay? Yeah. and That would be kind of funny, dude, if you're using like a public library and you're hitting people up for cash um on the way in, like a cover, something like that. Yeah. That kind of funny.
00:55:18
Speaker
Discussion groups are nothing new, but having them have varied topics. Discussion groups are usually centered around people who love model trains or something like that. Yeah.
00:55:30
Speaker
yeah but So this is ah this is different, but there is a company that is a not-for-profit that essentially has professional teachers that teach interesting subjects.
00:55:41
Speaker
And what I think, what I noticed and why I got this idea is that people were wanting, they would they weren't, when I witnessed this this class happening, a lot of people wanted to comment and talk about what they knew about the subject and not actually ask the teacher a question, which I thought was fascinating. And I i think that's probably commonplace for older people where it's like, God, dude, i have a lot of ideas about this and I want to say some things.
Future Impacts of AI on Society
00:56:11
Speaker
So who's going to help me say some things? Well, friendly discussions is, Matt. I like, I mean, I feel like what you're doing is, Sort of pushing people back to face-to-face.
00:56:22
Speaker
Exactly. By commenting and not online commenting. Yeah, I want anything to do with online. Yeah. So it's like whatever rant you were going on. In fact, they got to fucking come and put a paper slip in my mailbox to RSVP.
00:56:39
Speaker
Dude, but it's good because like, even if you're looking at Instagram and you're like sleep patterns, and then you realize it's like a promoted take front by somebody who, who's like, there's a motive behind everything.
00:56:51
Speaker
So this, ah this is like the, might be the last way to do anything. It's a discussion that's like motive free is what's cool about it. So much hoeing out there.
00:57:03
Speaker
You're hoeing slabs, but people are hoeing something on all corners of the internet. But we're like, promoting a business. A lot of people now are just like- I'm joking. i' Promoting. No, it's true.
00:57:15
Speaker
But though if you're like, I don't know, like cholesterol or something, you'll have people like talking about it, but then there's they're selling a meal plan or you know they might be like, here's a doctor or something. they're selling They're selling. Almost everyone's selling something.
00:57:27
Speaker
They're either trying to generate followers or sell something behind whatever posts they're talking about. It's nonsense. Yeah, so I want to be better than that. Good. I do want to end on this AI doomsday scenario prediction that I heard. What's that going to get us, dude? Should I put the slabs down and enjoy life?
00:57:48
Speaker
This guy says, this former employee of OpenAI, he's like, there's a chance by 2030 that AI ah kills us all.
00:58:01
Speaker
And I'm just like, I better get this friendly discussion started now, huh? Yeah, so what do you guys think about that?
00:58:10
Speaker
What is it, 25, so five years? you That's pretty, I don't i don't know, it's probably there's probably more detail in it, but like you could say about anything. climate change or I mean there's people probably think that Trump's politics will lead eventually lead to like a world war it's pretty open-ended well yes but what he's specifically saying is that we won't have the guardrails that around AI to protect us from the arms race that's going to happen with it and that artificial and general intelligence the type of intelligence that can repeat itself and learn so fast
00:58:46
Speaker
that it will solve problems at such a rapid pace that it may, first off, solve all the problems for humans to work, but then at some point move beyond humans.
00:58:58
Speaker
So he he's basically saying this ends in a nuclear war, that the the the artificial intelligence is like something like that? I mean, he's saying that that the artificial intelligence moves so rapidly and for a couple years there's a huge economic boon, but ultimately like it it will get in the wrong hands and bad things will happen. There will be disasters, but there'll be such a compulsion to like let the guard... You see it already in the um Congress where they're just like removing all guardrails, so but there there'll be a compulsion to remove guardrails in order to take advantage of it.
00:59:33
Speaker
And that will cause the proliferation of this without any sort of fail safes on what the technology can do. And he just is afraid of the general intelligence and ultimately like super intelligence. Because if you could think of that these things will be so much faster than any human and the best human at whatever subject, and they'll be able to learn now. And so their their pace at which they can develop.
00:59:57
Speaker
solutions and they being the AIs. And they can probably figure out how to sort of disconnect themselves from control. Yeah. So we can't even fathom. Right. Exactly. So they can figure out, they already figure out how to to lie based upon what they think they want us to hear.
01:00:13
Speaker
But just imagine the future. We won't even be able to know what they're doing. The stuff they're doing is so complex and beyond our comprehension. And at what point, I guess philosophically, here's the thing.
01:00:25
Speaker
What in society, or or not in society, but in the universe, what dumb creature has control over a much smarter creature?
01:00:36
Speaker
So it'd akin to fucking spider monkeys ruling us. Spider monkeys are awesome, dude. That was too close to home. But you get it. Yeah. And that's where- Yeah, it's just something that just doesn't happen.
01:00:51
Speaker
I thought it was an interesting ah take. And sadly, more smart people have this pretty ominous doomsday view of it. is there a ah Is there a counter?
01:01:02
Speaker
Like someone's like, no, it's we have safeguards in place. I think even Elon Musk, before he went off the rails, was kind of like, he's kind of voicing that he was worried that we don't necessarily have the yeah guardrails in place.
01:01:15
Speaker
No, they're not in place. And there's not, or short-term thinkers, I'm not sure there's and going to be, this is his point, there's not going huge incentive to slow it down. Because if you're competing with China to essentially control the world, it's going to transform your economy and and bring in so much wealth.
01:01:35
Speaker
You're just not going to have an incentive to slow down. and But that's going to be part of the core problem that leads it to to get way beyond where it should be. It's already happening.
01:01:47
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know if it's the end of the world, but I think it's just kind of still be a lot of shit kind of running in the background. like But I don't know what that means. What are they going to take over?
01:02:01
Speaker
if you you Especially you if you, if you don't join the workforce or discussions doesn't go digital. discussion group, how do they take you over? Like, are they gonna be implant themselves in a human like figures and then something like that? Like, what why are you susceptible?
01:02:18
Speaker
Me, personally? Yeah. well Well, first off. Well, they can't take your job is what I'm saying. So they can't do that. Well, first off, you have to believe that that the dominoes will fall in this direction. But what you need to start acknowledging that's already happening is they are automating human functions already.
01:02:36
Speaker
In fact, like where my wife- lifestyle episode? Well, yeah. Well, yeah. But where my wife rents her office, they have an AI agent that answers the phone and and people think that she's real. her They call her Grace.
01:02:51
Speaker
That stuff is happening already and it's going to accelerate. But what the as the the AI intelligence gets- smarter and smarter and smarter, it will they will be able to automate things that we don't think you can automate, like being a plumber. So you have now robotic plumber comes over and does your shit. And so when that starts to happen, you can see some disarray. What I don't think this guy's- po plumber What I don't think this guy's calculating is how many people will rebel against purchasing products, at least in the in the beginning of all this, that are AI driven or robotics driven.
01:03:24
Speaker
And they want to work with human specific. Nope, I only hire human plumbers. I only hire i only go to restaurants that have human servers. You know what i'm saying? I think that that is where a huge backlash will be. and Yeah, but I wonder, you we might not even be able to differentiate.
01:03:43
Speaker
You're right. You're right. I see what you're saying. Yeah. So if like an AI agent on the phone sounds like perfectly human, you won't know. But you could. If somebody it was like, I'm not going to your wife's practice because if they use AI, it's like what you did, you just didn't know it.
01:04:02
Speaker
Well, But I mean, that's a big, that's a little like almost like a nuisance more than like taking over the world and and human race ending or anything like but you could find that out too though. You could find out who's doubling down on yeah AI solutions, especially ones that replace human jobs.
01:04:19
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Are you buying it? In some ways, yeah, because they're already trying to replace coders. like Remember when coding was like the thing that everybody needed to learn?
01:04:30
Speaker
Yeah. And they're already replacing coders, and they're using AI to code. I'm assuming they're like at lightning speeds. Absolutely right. And as it gets better and better, now AI is doing the coding. It can start doing all these things at a much faster pace.
01:04:43
Speaker
Any solution that you can think of that needs to happen in society, it can solve at a much better pace or much faster than humans eventually. And then if it's like starts thinking for itself, like what point do humans have when it truly thinks for itself? So it's just gonna kill Matt.
01:05:01
Speaker
Why not just kill Matt? I wonder if there's an AI, like an AI version of me that's better. I bet you didn't come up with like all the jokes that you would- that yeah. All the jokes that you would think of over like a six week period, it can come up within a minute.
01:05:16
Speaker
ah Which is fine, dude. Like, I mean, I feel bad for younger people. I feel like you and I, our lives are kind of peaked. Yeah, exactly. It's like AI generated nuclear holocaust.
01:05:28
Speaker
Okay. But I think the key is to resist it. Yeah, that there'll be some, speaking of purpose, and maybe we can tie this, bring this back around and wrap her up. Yeah.
01:05:38
Speaker
An actual war or an AI war and like sort of Hollywood, but like that would provide a lot of people with some purpose that the modern world doesn't have. Yeah. And even now I think people are starting to go like, I want to destroy some of these data centers that are running AI. That's purpose.
01:05:56
Speaker
Right. Right. Well, yeah, because you have these Silicon Valley guys that have all these fucking guys that are creating it have these ominous predictions themselves and they're preppers. What the fucking guy of OpenAI, Sam Altman, is a fucking prepper.
01:06:10
Speaker
And he's developing this technology that everybody agrees could go south on us as a species. They all agree. And we're putting our future in the hands of these people.
01:06:22
Speaker
Silicon Valley nihilist or their grandiose sick visions because they watched 2001 Space Odyssey when they were fucking six years old or something. it's It does remind me of the scene in Terminator where she wants to kill the robotics guy who started it all.
01:06:41
Speaker
it's like Yeah, that which is kind of smart. Like, kill the source. Yeah, but somebody else is working on it too, dude. It's just like a Yeah, and there's a guy in China probably already crushing it. But...
01:06:53
Speaker
Yeah, but it is like, okay, okay, geeks. Yeah, and nobody wants it. Nobody wants that future. So it's like fucking slow down. Dude, but it's the same as anything else. do What gets us is always our laziness. and And I know so many people now that are like, I'm not writing a fucking letter.
01:07:10
Speaker
They're like, hey, the AI generate everything. Resignation letter, office memo, whatever. homework like and we're just like this is great like no one's like end of the world everyone's like awesome this fucking stupid computer can do everything for me you know it's like awesome even us if we if I could figure out we're like thinking oh we need to take pictures of all our stuff and we need to figure it like a backdrop or something to have it look cool on Amazon maybe or eBay or whatever and like be're like oh well let's just instead of like sick taking the time to stage it or like we could probably just have AI generated behind our tables or something like that
01:07:46
Speaker
Yeah, is that a better world? No. No, I don't know. If it can solve some of the things- Like that shit, if that's where it ended, it's like, okay. Well, but if it can solve some of the Achilles heel stuff, like it can solve climate change and like create more sustainable environment and decrease pollution, whatever, like, ah orpower or decrease poverty, all that stuff.
01:08:07
Speaker
Well, a guy a guy, one of my buddies, Chris, who I've worked with for a long time, ah he stopped by our place yesterday. And he's they're working for a company that's basically like like pathology, where you get a bio a cancer biopsy and then you're, I don't understand it, but basically AI is going to generate sort of way faster, like on the spot, without going to labs and shit, like AI cell cellular analysis.
01:08:35
Speaker
Yep. Hey, there's a positive. Yeah, those those are there are many. And we'll see, though. I assume what they're going to do is save you just to turn around and fuck fuck you and then kill you.
01:08:47
Speaker
Yeah. Like what happens when you nobody has a job or as you call it, a purpose, like moving slab wood around? like Because of what? Why does nobody have a job?
01:08:59
Speaker
Because intelligence built advanced robotics that can do all the human jobs needed, including clean your house, mow your lawn, um build you a house, whatever the fuck you need.
01:09:11
Speaker
The government's giving you handouts essentially to live and robots are doing... There's so much wealth gap. Yeah, but what but you're doing nothing. so But they can't jack bombs like Aaron Judge and the Yankees, can they?
01:09:26
Speaker
You think of leak in Alex? actually thought about that as well. like So if you designed... uh, if AI designed a humanoid robot that we can't even conceptualize the mechanical engineering required for that yet, maybe we can't conceptualize it, but we can't build it where they can go play basketball, you know much more entertaining way. Like they're moving it like speeds. We don't even understand.
01:09:48
Speaker
Yeah. It looks like human has like flesh and... Yeah, man, see? It's got all the all the parts. We're going to be dealing with irrelevance issues potentially soon.
01:10:02
Speaker
Right. But what, AI is going to... They're going to create all that shit to like entertain themselves? What do they do once once we're gone? No, they'll do that as long as we're in control. But like us not being in control is a scenario that I still can't quite fathom, but...
01:10:19
Speaker
That's what this guy, back to the original point of conversation, he was he's alluding to that humans lose control of the planet. Yes. I mean, that's not his definitive.
01:10:31
Speaker
It's just, it's a pathway of of prediction. It's not his definitive prediction. be kind of cool if he could push that back, like maybe 20 years.
01:10:42
Speaker
100 years, maybe. don't Don't hit me at 2030.
01:10:46
Speaker
We also, what's funny is we also assume that they're going to like suck. What if they're like way better than us, way more compassionate, nicer, have better ideas. And then you're like, oh, they made the world better ruling the world.
01:10:59
Speaker
Well, they probably will. Why do we just assume that it's like a negative? Well, but the, yeah. So we we're just sort of like the apes of earth. And they're not, what if we're dogs? Like you come home, they scratch our tummies.
01:11:13
Speaker
It's all good. Venus take us apart. That sounds great, dude. Yeah. It's all good. we We just assume we're either going to die or we're going to be like chained up in a some sort of hellish situation because AI is more intelligent than us.
01:11:29
Speaker
Well, it is a philosophical question to to wonder what need would it have for humans. It's not going to be like the matrix where they need to use us for battery power. I mean, it's- We don't need elephants, but it doesn't mean, well, some people treat them bad, but like they don't need us. So it doesn't a matter. It doesn't really lead to our doom.
01:11:51
Speaker
Like it's no, there's no guarantee. Right. I guess. Yeah, but the population of elephants and any of a lot of these animals has dwindled to almost nothing. So yes, maybe they keep humans around for some entertainment value, but like on a mass scale and a a scale that would be disruptive, sort of like having 50,000 elephants running around the city of Denver, you would eliminate that.
01:12:14
Speaker
So If you were a badass AI. Yeah, so I don't know, buddy.
Future Episodes and Financial Advice Approach
01:12:20
Speaker
ah Okay. Wow. Have a good night's sleep. Can we say this as this is a look into what discussion group looks like?
01:12:29
Speaker
Not quite, but i just I thought that that conversation, it really disrupted me ah last week, and I wanted to share it with you. Dude, should I go to St. Louis? Should I go to Running Club right now?
01:12:43
Speaker
What do you think? It's one of the last ones that I can do on my own without being whipped by my my master robot. ah You think I should? Yes. That's a productive day, dude. This is slightly ridiculous. Like I went and worked at my little startup and then I did a podcast and I'm going to go running club.
01:13:03
Speaker
Such a fucking white gringo today. Yeah, man. I wish you still drank beer. Cause I, I, I, then I have a couple of brewskis after I'd pop a beer with you. Cause I'm kind of craving 90 shilling. Yeah.
01:13:17
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, IPA. Oh, man. Let's just get white. do do two do do do do Let's get white. I'm packed and I'm holding.
01:13:28
Speaker
Oh, boy. Well, I hope. Good luck with your discussion group, dude. Well, let's see if I ever get off my ass. can we Can we tease next week? We have a friend who might, I think it's next week, but I just want to say, friend who likes Lance's ideas on financial planning and stuff and wanted to reach out to us.
01:13:46
Speaker
Come on air. We haven't had a guest in like forever. are you are you are you well are you in the Are you comfortable telling people what they should do in situation like that? but Interesting to see how you sound. Someone's like, Lance, what should do?
01:13:57
Speaker
Yeah, for the most part, but it it'll start with what are your values? like That's when they just crumble. You got to break them down, right? Before you can build them back up again.
01:14:08
Speaker
that your financial advice? It's more of like what's guiding their decision. I mean, people make money choices and using quite dysfunctional logic.
01:14:19
Speaker
He's like, my my values are I want a fucking 69 Pontiac GTO and that's it. Okay. it I don't know if that's a car. He's not going to hurt my feelings if he says that. but But you would be like, all right, let's get there.
01:14:35
Speaker
Pretty much, yeah. Let's get there, buddy. Let's get there. Let's get there. Okay, good. I'm excited. I'm going to be a fly on the wall whenever we do this episode. No, you'll have a lot to say. We know how you like to interject.
01:14:49
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to be the asshole in the discussion group. It's just like, let me – Let me comment on that.
01:14:59
Speaker
It's like tangential and it's always a joke. People are just like, eh, eh, eh, eh
01:15:08
Speaker
before would you um would you consider doing the last question i'm out so you i know i know i always get to finish the episode you finish great episode thank you ah would you consider doing it like on zoom or, or not a platform or discussion group is not, it's like they open it up to other people.
01:15:30
Speaker
Oh, doing it over the internet. Yeah. That's actually how I'm practicing it right now. It works. It's just not as fun. Yeah. And why you want to do it with a group? Let's do it with another group.
01:15:42
Speaker
Well, I'm just saying, I bet you, since we have such a close net and small, uh, listenership, I mean, you'd probably be like, let's get let's get eight POS listeners rally. We could probably get Marty, one of the Dugs, Doug or Douglas. We could get them. you For online, let's keep it to six total.
01:16:02
Speaker
Right. And I facilitate, so then five others so you can talk since you're stupid and still working on your thoughts. Yeah.
01:16:13
Speaker
but That sounds like my AI boss. it's getting like and By 2032, it's going to be like just a guy. like What if they match your AI master with like your own personality? so For me, it's just the guy's sarcastically but gently insulting me all the time. but that's My guy's not like chaining me up. but He's like, well, you're kind of an idiot, so let me let me slow it down for you. Just keep doing that.
01:16:37
Speaker
That'd be great. I got running club, but I would put that out there. Anyone's listening. They want to get in the Lancet discussion group and you got our contact. Hit us up. We we could do a virtual one. Not recorded. Yeah, it has nothing to do with the show. Not recorded. I would love it just for the chance to speak English for like an hour.
01:16:53
Speaker
Yeah. I'm not up here. so All right. Well, I'm sure there's some people. No trim because want to be distracted because you know how I get, dude. You know how I get. Just kidding.
01:17:04
Speaker
Women are welcome. All right. All buddy. Peace. Put the runners on. I'm out. Trad wife, trad wife Get your ass back in the kitchen, want a hamburger Trad wife, trad wife Fold them fuckin' clothes, I want my favorite t-shirt I'm man, I'm a man A big bad man, I'm a man
01:17:37
Speaker
Big Batman, you can suck my cock