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Welcome to Technology Brothers, the most profitable podcast in the world.
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For those that don't know, John Fio, world-class ideas guy, and entrepreneur.
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Usually they go hand in hand.
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And he's very humble about it.
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I don't know if even you know this, but the guy's climbed like six out of the tallest 10 peaks in the world.
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Never once posted a picture about it.
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It's purely Yeah, the 14ers, right?
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Never once posted a picture about it. Hardly told anyone.
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And Volta he did it all without oxygen, right?
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Which is like they say that can't be done.
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So the guy's a physical specimen, but um you know, there's got to be some edge, right? Volta is that edge.
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So Volta's uh a new concept.
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We were able to get some cuz we're also ideas guys.
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And you know, wanted to be able to provide some feedback.
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So Volta's a new concept.
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They're making fresh energy drinks.
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I think you've probably had a Red Bull or a Monster or Celsius in your day.
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That stuff got made you know, months if not potentially years ago, right?
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Sometimes you crack open a Red Bull and you're like this is a vintage bull. Vintage bull.
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Actually at Centra's event this weekend I figured out a pretty interesting arb that I'll be taking advantage of next year.
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Red Bulls in this retreat center that he is hosting it at were $2.
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But if I walk down the street to the gas station, they're $6, right?
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So they call that the Centra arb.
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So Did Did you get to try one of David Centra's Jaco Go in the cherry vanilla flavor that you love so much?
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I think he was randomly drinking those.
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But he had No, it's not random. No, not random.
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He is obsessed with that.
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No, I know, but he was like the only one that had that.
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No, he has a At his events he has a dedicated fridge with just Jaco Go. Jaco Go.
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He just demands loves Jaco. It's incredible. It's incredible. Um Okay.
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Yeah, whenever I'm hanging out with him I drink one in in solidarity, of course. Yeah.
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But going forward might be Volta. Some competition.
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So the idea with Volta is to make fresh energy drinks, right?
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Fresh is almost always better.
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So in this case I'm taking some sparkling yuzu, one of my favorite little cute little beverages straight from Japan.
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And we're going to mix the uh the Volta right in there.
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It's got I won't give you the laundry list of ingredients, but caffeine, L-theanine, and magnesium, as well as uh liposomal nano molecules, which effectively delivers what Fio will say is all-day dynamic energy, right?
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So like energy that's shifting based on what you're sort of embarking on, whether you're climbing a mountain or you're you know, battling with a spreadsheet, right?
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So let's give this a little shot.
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I have no idea how to dose this.
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So I'm going to guess that um uh you know, I it's almost impossible to say was that 15 ml? Um 32 per bottle.
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So I don't know if this is um Oh, wow. Look at that. There we go.
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I don't know if this is 200 mg of caffeine or like 500. 500. But I don't know. We'll find out. Pretty good. Pretty good. It's tasty.
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I think the yuzu's doing a little heavy lifting to kind of mask the um Yeah.
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But it's kind of the the nutrient cocktail. The scientific formula.
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It definitely It definitely has a flavor that you won't forget, you know?
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Like you could be on top of Mount Kilimanjaro in like 12 years and you're on your last breath and somebody squirts a little bit of this in your mouth and you sort of like you sort of like jolted up jolted alive.
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Um and make it back to tell the tale.
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But anyways I'm sure Excel and Volta will be doing you know, numerous joint ventures in the future. Of course. Of course.
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Yeah, we need a we need a good energy drink sponsor for the pod.
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Um this was unsponsored by the way.
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Just purely an idea guy supporting an another idea guy. Let's get into the news.
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Is there anything you want to cover from the journal or should we just go straight into the straight into the timeline?
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Um Yeah, we can go into the the top story.
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Um I think we got to talk about Meta's Orion glasses.
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Sorry, I'm just reading this. The stolen file. Stolen file.
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Well, I mean that that honestly relates to what we're we're talking about.
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Like I've been sick this week and Same.
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I was thinking you know there's a lot that you can throw at it.
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Caffeine, nicotine but there's kind of a new theory that if you're sick, maybe cocaine is the thing that Right.
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will get will get you back on your game. Right. Right. And so I've heard that.
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I don't have easy access to it.
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I'm not demoing it today, but I was I was wondering if that would make me feel better.
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If I had a really important podcast, should I be doing coke?
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I I tend to think I would feel terrible if I was on coke while I was trying to podcast while I was sick.
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I'm sure people have done that.
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I'm sure even people have called into CNBC at different points for like you know, post earnings to just kind of you know, chit-chat and been on it.
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But um given that you are on track to be a public company CEO, you know, sometime within the next few years handful of years. It's hard to say.
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You have to be more market dependent.
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Um you don't want that track record with the SEC, right?
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Like you don't want you don't want um you don't want that attached to your good name, right? Yeah. It is interesting.
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I have a friend who is a product manager at a big tech company and kind of lost I mean making you know a couple hundred thousand dollars every month just doing kind of nothing, but a little bit lost and was just thinking about how to kind of get back in tune.
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A lot of people are doing the ayahuasca retreats.
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These are really popular. Right.
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Um But he was kind of worried about like you know, you go to this country and you know, maybe you get your brain rearranged and you come back as a different person. Right.
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And so he actually went on a different type of retreat.
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He went on a cocaine retreat. Right. Same concept.
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Like you're still traveling to a foreign country. There's a shaman there.
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But instead of administering ayahuasca in heroic doses you're taking cocaine.
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And so and instead of like sitting there, you know, all strung out all like messed up, you know, kind of tripping. fried. Getting turbo locked in. in. You're locked in.
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And so they you know, there's like cubicles with monitors and Bloomberg terminals.
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You know what like Do they put like a There's no beds, right?
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It's just like a pillow under the desk and Exactly. Exactly.
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It I mean it's a simulacrum of like an average Wall Street like office is actually. And that's in Peru? Chile? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
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So you fly down there to go on the cocaine retreat and and just kind of lock in and then you come back refreshed and ready to kick ass. Right. Um Yeah, I can see that.
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We've entered back into the age of um stimulants.
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Like the the 2010s, like things were so good.
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It was about how do I dumb down like this life is so good.
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How do I We're coming out of the great recession.
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How to you know, everybody's you know, becoming a software engineer making six figures overnight.
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People were trying to sort of like dumb that down.
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Whereas now people are realizing that great you know, men and great women, great people need to be on it's sort of your duty to be on some selection of stimulants, whether it's Volta, Excel, you know, a nice cup of coffee and some of the harder stuff if you're in If you're in it you know, parts of the world that allow it, right?
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It's sort of it's almost like your civic duty.
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Like if all of Peru was on cocaine you know daily or a few times weekly, it's hard to see how that wouldn't have a positive effect on the economy. Yeah.
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Which ultimately has a trickle-down effect.
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The fans really do want people to be on coke.
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I feel like the memes on on Twitter are people are projecting like a lot. Yeah.
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And they're starting to search for cocaine where there's maybe just somebody who had a Celsius. Right. Realistically. Right. But uh is it is funny. I don't know.
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I don't know if it uh I don't know how much it would be uh performance enhancing.
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I I Isn't it hard to stay jacked if you're on coke all day?
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I feel like cocaine makes you skinny. Uh I'm sure.
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I'm sure it kills appetite.
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A lot of stimulants do cuz you just have better things to do than eat, right? You're locked in.
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You don't like lock like I've got to be fasted for 48 to 72 hours to lock in eating a meal.
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You don't lock in when you're eating a meal.
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Eating a nice meal in my opinion you should have just like good chitchat, right?
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Yeah, the the weight loss thing was funny.
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I think I texted you this the other day.
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I hadn't at Senra's event I hadn't been on I don't have a scale at home.
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I hadn't been on a scale in like 3 months and I step on a scale and I was like I honestly laughed cuz I in 3 months since since having um uh my daughter um my wife had stopped um she stopped cooking.
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She's taking care of the baby.
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She's breastfeeding like it's literally almost a 24/7 thing.
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So stopped cooking and so that period of time I also was extremely locked in and the combination of being locked in and Sarah not coming in being like hey like you haven't eaten in 6 hours like 8 hours like here's some food.
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So I just every single day 24-hour fast and dropped 12 lb in 3 months like completely unintentionally.
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Not even like less not even less body fat just less muscle. There's less everything.
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Um and somebody said Yeah, right.
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Yeah, somebody said to me like dude what happened to you like you look super skinny and I hadn't seen a scale so I didn't know.
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Um and I was just kind of offended and then the truth was presented right before my eyes.
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Um Anyways, we got to talk about we got to talk about Zuck and I feel like you should probably launch into a to at least a 10-minute monologue on launching products.
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Uh Man, there's so many things here.
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Yeah, it's it's such a such an interesting story.
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I mean people are So yeah, Meta launched these Orion augmented reality glasses.
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They're look just like normal sunglasses or or normal glasses, but they project holograms over on top of the lenses.
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So instead of doing the passthrough like what the Apple Vision Pro does where you're using cameras and then reprojecting that onto a screen, you can just see the real world so the the resolution's essentially infinite.
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It's the same thing that the the the Microsoft HoloLens did and that one company that didn't do very well and Meta or I mean there's been so many cracks in this.
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There's Google Glass too.
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Google Glass was a little bit of that.
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It was kind of just like screen in the corner, but yeah.
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But um it there's just like a million different weird things going on with this where the the reaction from everyone that Meta invited to their like developer day to experience this, everyone was like so excited and was like this is amazing. This is incredible.
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But if you look back at what happened when all of the same influencers got tours of the Apple Vision Pro, it was the same thing.
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They were all like this is incredible.
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This is finally the breakthrough.
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I'm definitely going to daily drive this and I always think back to you you you know the Pepsi Challenge? You remember this?
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Like Pepsi versus Coke this whole thing this whole ad campaign they did where they would just go on the street and have people try Pepsi and try Coke and people would overwhelmingly select Pepsi and the and the trick was that Pepsi was sweeter and so they give you a 1 oz shot and over 1 oz people would prefer Pepsi, but over 16 oz people would prefer Coke.
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Because the sweetness would actually get to them.
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And so of course like the market is actually roughly 50/50 between Coke and Pepsi, but over 1 oz people overwhelmingly prefer Pepsi.
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And so I'm just always worried with these VR demos that they they set you up for an amazing 20-minute experience and they don't let anyone try one for a month straight.
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Because I mean Ben Thompson was And was like Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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But but you give it to him for 30 minutes and he's like this is incredible, right?
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And so I'm always I'm always hesitant about that until like at this point if they want me to be stoked, I need to see them give the product to someone for a month straight and then I need to know were they still using it?
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Were they still daily driving it after a month?
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Yeah, cuz I had the I got the Meta Oh, nice.
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So I got these and I got these and I was like these are cool mostly for the video capture stuff and I took them out of the box, put them on, set them up, went and drove my Ferrari, posted a video on social media and
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within like 30 minutes local mom was commenting like very angrily saying like uh don't ever drive like this around our house like stuff like that and ended up starting a bunch of drama and that was the last time I used my Meta Ray-Bans. So I had sort of a bad
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So I had sort of a bad Did she see the video?
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She saw the video in which the odometer speedometer was um I thought it was I thought I thought it was fairly controlled.
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Everybody has their own Everybody has their own perception of speed, right?
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I mean I you told me I haven't used them since then. Yeah, yeah.
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You told me that you use them for a drive.
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So I actually I kind of like unboxed these while I was driving and just threw them on and was hoping that I could just like put them on, press a button and just start recording, but you can't.
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You have to set them up and this is something that always frustrates me about these Meta products is that they just assume that you're like the biggest Facebook fanboy and that you have like oh yeah, I'd love to log in Oh yeah, I know what my Facebook is.
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Yeah, it's like let's be realistic.
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Not everyone wants to log in with these things.
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They should let you just turn them on, take a picture and then say hey don't you want to log in to get your photos?
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Like push it down the down the road a little bit know who these I don't know who that that recording functionality is for other other than like the guys on Instagram that are like hey what do you do for a living?
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I mean I I I'm going to try and use these around the kids and and the dogs and stuff and see if that's cool and see if that works.
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I I I think there could be something there where it's like they are they really are like as light as just normal Wayfarers.
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So if if you know if you're if you're going to the beach, why not just have this on there?
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And I do think there is something legitimate about the the sunglass and the glasses being like the next computing platform the next major consumer hardware category because if you look at the the the evolution a lot of times the devices that have gotten really popular have been just like iterations of things that we've already come to expect and love.
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Like Oura Ring is I think doing $500 a year.
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And it's like why is that doing so well and the pendant companies aren't doing that well at least not yet.
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I think it's because people just wear rings.
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So they just understand it.
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The Apple Watch it's like I already wear a watch so like I'll just throw on a watch. I get it.
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And then like a lot of the The question is it'll be interesting to see with the glasses market cuz I I am convinced I think we're both convinced that it is the next or at least a complimentary computing platform to your other devices.
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The question is does it become like the smart watch market where there's just sort of like the dominant Fang players?
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And then kind of no one else.
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Like you still like you know wear a regular you know it's not like an actual replacement for what a lot of people use like watches for.
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It'll be interesting to see if companies like Meta continue to integrate with like existing silhouettes like you know Ray-Bans or if they go into the Orion route and it's just like no we're we're the platform, we're the device, we're the brand.
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This is the only thing that matters cuz like I can't see myself wearing that frame, you know, the Orion frame like ever.
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But if you went to I would start to get Why are you pronouncing it that way? It's Orion. All right. Orion. Orion? O- Orion. Orion? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't I don't know. Orion Orion's Belt. Yeah, Orion's Belt. Sorry, sorry.
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I mean the frames were like kind of like built up to be like a dev kit basically.
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Like they're not shipping that yet and they will wind up shipping in like a Ray-Ban frame.
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I mean they have a pretty significant partnership with Essilor the company behind Ray-Bans Yeah.
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which is like this incredible monopoly.
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It's like a $100 billion Wait, so imagine the feeling of ripping a Volta, putting it in an Excel and then putting on aviator versions of the Orion glasses and just locking into day at work like um and you're just at work.
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You're just firing on all cylinders typing on a holographic keyboard just firing off emails. 3 years away. 3 years out.
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Yeah, if we got invited to demo day it could have been last week or 2 weeks ago.
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It is yeah, it there's there's so many the Luxottica the Luxottica CEO like reached out to Zuck apparently to be like hey we should do a deal. This was years ago. Years ago.
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It was kind of like like you have somebody on my team check this and like somebody on his team was like no like you need to talk to this guy.
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That's how they did the deal. So they just re-upped.
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I think they have a 10-year deal.
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It's exclusive and Luxottica is the like the sole hardware like Well, so they're completely vertically integrated.
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So they they own Ray-Ban.
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They bought I think they bought Ray-Ban in the 90s and then they jacked up the price and stopped selling it in gas stations and became this like luxury brand.
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They they bought a whole bunch of other I think they own Persol and a few other brands.
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But then they own everything from the manufacturing to like The lenses and yeah how they grind the lenses all of that.
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But then they also own the retail distribution. They own LensCrafters.
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And so they have more I think there's more LensCrafters stores than there are Apple stores.
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And so the and Meta I think they bought 5% of Luxottica.
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And so you could see a world where Meta winds up buying Luxottica.
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Luxottica also owns Supreme.
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And so there's this theory that like oh Zuck loves hypebeast culture so he's like being but he clearly does love fashion and so there is something there.
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Yeah he's working I didn't realize he's working on his his new like kind of cringe clothing is with Mike Amiri.
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No I didn't know that actually.
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Very like sort of hypebeasty like you'll if you listen to a rap song every 10th song will talk about like Amiri jeans or whatever.
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But I think so that the interesting thing Meta versus Apple with the next gen computing platform and let's just ignore Snap because they're going to continue to drive returns for their employees. Yeah.
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Um but um which is kind of antithetical to everything that we believe in. Yes exactly.
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But uh so this is the ultimate match up of founder mode versus manager mode right which is like Tim Apple Yeah.
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you know um you know Apple headsets like trying to just sort of like iterate towards something great like who knows would Steve have would Steve Jobs have put out that uh that product or would that have been an internal product for another 3 years before you could get to this platform right?
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Um and Zuck who's basically been his probably only insecurity besides uh that he's just deep down always going to be a nerd uh is that he doesn't own the platform right?
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Like that's what keeps him up at night so that's like a you know basically like multi-decade effort to own the next computing platform and own the hardware right? yeah.
22:05
Um And I think glasses are a reasonable bet.
22:09
he's like The problem is is that the there's just this weird like kind of I don't know user hostility when you set up one of these products.
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It just doesn't feel like I'm in it feels like I'm in conflict.
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It feels like I'm sparring with Meta when I set something up like this.
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He just wants to make it It asked me to allow notifications on my phone for this thing twice just before I could take a picture.
22:35
It's like I I remember I I was testing the the Meta Quest I think it was the second one the Meta Quest 2 and I was like I just want to go back to the time when you could take an N64 put in a cartridge turn it on and it would go blink and then you just be playing Mario Fully basically analog yeah.
22:54
And basically immediately. Yeah.
22:56
immediately. Yeah. Um the with with with the Quest onboarding even after you've all set it up you have to log in there's six different logins now because I have a Facebook password a Meta password Instagram password and Oculus password and
23:14
Wait what if what if the what if the the Meta Ray-Bans is just his way of trying to get to convince Wall Street that people still use Facebook cuz like I had to like I had to remember what my Facebook password is or whatever just to like get get it working. if he can sell every Facebook user a
23:29
if he can sell every Facebook user a $300 pair of glasses I think he's going to do it but yeah but uh there was just this like it was like the the demand for like it has to be social features there you have to be logged in you have to be in their store you have to be doing all this stuff.
23:47
It just like took the surprise and delight completely out of it and and I feel like with this I mean it wasn't as bad but it was still like like you could just tell it it it was almost like I'm I'm interacting with two devices that are like a divorced mom and dad right?
24:07
Because it's like the the Apple phone is like trying to kill this as hard as possible so it's like hey just so you know they're going to track you so do you want to track or no do you want to track?
24:17
Oh they're going to want your contacts so like do do you want contacts or not?
24:19
Like be careful like this company's trying to [ __ ] you so like be very careful.
24:23
And these guys are like well we don't want you to use the phone at all but like also you have to install this app to use our thing so we want to like get our hooks in there but then it's just so adversarial and like I just feel like I'm like torn between Well the core the core issue is that the Meta PM who is making 200k a month the day bef the day before one of their most important sprints he got like a 50% sleep score so he was all thrown off.
24:50
And he comes into work he's pissed off right?
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He's only had 7 hours of sleep.
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He starts chewing out the whole engineering team chewing out legal and everybody's just kind of like oh like you know let's just ship it meanwhile you know with an Apple product like the designers just like meditating for like 12 hours and then it's just like let's just uh don't need just remove that part of the flow and then let's remove that part of the flow.
25:17
Let's just keep let's just keep removing until you can just swim through at the user can just I mean it's just there's just so much like I I maybe my expectations are too high for these companies but it's like you're a trillion dollar company why do I have to do a day one update? Yeah.
25:34
Like I had to install a software update just to use it the first time.
25:37
It's like just ship it with something that works basic and then let me upgrade later like once you've converted me.
25:41
And it's not even that it's not even that like an extended setup process of like 2 hours is going to be bad for for immediate conversion because like I'm going to get over that but it's just going to leave a bad taste in my mouth of like this product doesn't care about me.
25:56
I remember one of the most magical things was when the iPhone started shipping and they were fully charged. Yeah.
26:01
And now you go and you buy an iPhone and it's fully charged.
26:03
And so you leave the Apple store and you're like wow this is awesome.
26:06
It just feels like they went a little bit farther.
26:09
That's got to be a little bit trippy right?
26:11
also improved over time like don't you remember when it was like you were like oh I'm switching phones like it's going to be such a huge hassle and now it's like you know they basically do it in the store. Yeah yeah yeah.
26:19
Um the one thing that'll be interesting with with glasses is glasses are always going to be a fashion statement of sorts.
26:28
It's literally sitting on your it's like it's it's the window to the eyes right?
26:33
And not that that doesn't look fantastic but you probably if we're wearing glasses all the time are going to want to have Is it recording?
26:43
It looks like yeah you are recording right now.
26:47
Um no so I think that it's possible people might have four or five different pairs of glasses.
26:52
They might have sunglasses.
26:53
They might have you know like Yeah but if I mean if Meta owns Luxottica Yeah exactly.
26:57
They're going to own all of the good brands basically.
27:01
But I think Apple would be able to come in.
27:02
And I mean that's the big question that a lot of people have is like okay so Meta announced this Orion prototype.
27:07
It costs 10k to produce right now per unit and it has like a like maybe 2-hour battery life.
27:15
Like there's a lot of problems that they need to iron out.
27:18
And so when Ben Thompson pushed Boz it sounded like 2027 maybe it's a consumer product.
27:26
And so the question is like does Apple have something that's adjacent? Yeah.
27:30
Uh so here's here's my big issue with headsets and um I I already have tin foil on the inside of my hat so I'm all good but um basically last time I checked deep in the Apple iPhone terms of service there's stuff that literally says like don't hold this device like up to your head like hold it here.
27:52
It's really for health reasons.
27:54
Um there is proof that like the radiation even though it's non-ionizing or whatever that that your phone emits is not something that you want that close to your body right?
28:03
It's why you know it's why there's a bunch of brands popping up that are like we're like EMF proof underwear cuz if you're putting your it's a big big possibility that having your phone next to your reproductive organs could be contributing to the fertility crisis like other down range issues.
28:20
So for me I'm looking at it as as what I don't know if there's anything that will ever be able to mitigate that right?
28:31
And so if I'm not comfortable I never I haven't taken a phone call with my phone up to my ear uh I'm like you know that the the [ __ ] with um wired headphones wired headphones or if I'm in a public space I'll put it on speaker and just keep it quiet um because I just don't seemingly like unnecessary risk to have your phone like slapped here.
28:50
your phone like slapped here. So that's my big thing is like okay if this is the next computing platform like how do we ensure that we all don't get like turbo brain cancer then you know um and that that feels like a very unanswered question that historically both the cellular networks and consumer product
29:11
consumer electronics companies have completely ignored um except they tend to bury stuff in their terms that say like don't use this for 3 hours straight or whatever because it like it will literally like heat up the inside of your of your brain like deep into your brain if you just hold it up there. Um
29:32
Um And so that again that's like a big question that I have and um I think it's worth somebody funding like an entire documentary on cell phones because there's so much emphasis on how cellular device like the things we do on our devices are bad for us, doom scrolling, you know, the dating apps and things like that, but
29:54
there's actual like the physical like physical potentially um risk of the device and constantly being attached to it because we're sort of electrical beings that are absorbing a lot of different types of radiation at all times, but you know, basically absorbing really concentrated doses of it can, you know, is a risk factor. Yeah. Yeah.
30:20
I think there's there's definitely something to be said for like there's just like this generational change of like some sort of pollutant that we find out later.
30:27
Like in the '70s it was like lead.
30:29
Yeah, and then asbestos Yeah.
30:30
Yeah, and like lead made everyone I mean there's this theory that like lead made everyone insane and like aggressive and that's why there's like a crime wave and a murder spike.
30:40
And then it's like maybe we cut out the lead and we increase the plastics and then everyone gets really docile kids and people and so it's like balancing these toxicants over time.
30:47
Well, the funny thing with lead is that lead uh actually stops a lot of electromagnetic radiation.
30:56
So, if you had lead paint if you had lead paint in your house, you probably wouldn't get cell service. Interesting.
31:01
I think we're actually going to see a trend back towards using lead paint in bedrooms because if you want to create an environment in your room that is um you know, doesn't have to there's other ways to build a Faraday cage if you want.
31:12
Yeah, but it's actually pretty efficient to be like let's just paint all the walls then you get lead poisoning.
31:18
I don't know if I don't know if it's actually been proven that the lead from paint it's like gets into your blood.
31:25
the whole like kids are going to eat the paint chips or whatever, Yeah, you could maybe And there's other ways to do it.
31:29
You could paint one layer of lead and then paint over it, right?
31:34
Um so, anyways, I'm going to get into the lead painting business.
31:39
We're bringing back lead.
31:39
You're going to get some leaded gasoline.
31:41
Oh, consumer electronics are out with lead gasoline.
31:45
I For some reason I don't think lead is coming back.
31:47
I think I think that the answer may be still isn't it still isn't it still used in in x-ray?
31:54
Like when you're getting an x-ray? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
31:56
Yeah, like a lead vest has never left.
31:57
It doesn't need to come back.
31:59
It's always been been with us.
31:59
And it is it is insulated in It's the anti-hero, you know, it's it's it's sort of I mean people used to chew like pencil lead.
32:08
Like kids used to be like you know, nervously chewing a pencil and The original Excel just gets you more and gets you more angry.
32:15
And like you become a murderer or something.
32:19
Um should we talk about that MKBHD app? Yeah.
32:24
I thought it was too cheap. Too cheap? Too cheap. 50 bucks a year.
32:29
It's like For that quality wallpaper? to go higher. Yeah. You got to go higher.
32:34
Uh no, it's funny like my I I was seriously thinking like why is everyone complaining?
32:40
Just don't buy this, you know?
32:42
Like yeah, it's 50 bucks this is the thing.
32:44
But it's because he is a critic and so there's this like people like criticizing the critic and that's why they're so excited about it.
32:52
Um but did you have a did you have a hot take about it?
32:55
It was it was kind of interesting.
32:56
I mean yeah, here's my thing.
32:58
Anybody whose job is to criticize is the number one target for all criticism, right?
33:03
It doesn't matter if you are like a poster who is posting, right?
33:09
And you just like have hot takes all the time, even hot takes, but I think he's just built up such a reputation of doing takedowns and usually they're I think they're very fair for the most part. 100%.
33:22
Like the the the Fisker Ocean it literally doesn't work anymore.
33:25
I think the I think the only criticism is just that it seemed like to be a pretty poorly made app.
33:33
Like I don't have any issue with him coming out and I don't have any issue with him coming out and trying to sell usernames for 50 bucks a month or sorry, not usernames. It's wallpapers. Wallpapers.
33:45
No issue with that at all.
33:45
It's just like I don't know.
33:48
Like have some good taste in, you know, dev shops or partners, right?
33:52
Like there's sort of this aesthetic issue with it that I have which is like you review technology and you put out a shitty app. Yep.
34:00
It doesn't matter that I think the product's also pretty like to me the product's shitty.
34:02
I'm never going to do that.
34:04
You know, family man, we have there's only one thing that should be on your wallpaper, your wife and children, right?
34:10
Or the office and like office.
34:14
Yeah, or like or your your super evil mega corp is that logo.
34:19
You got to remind yourself that. Yeah, yeah.
34:20
During the daytime, you know, and then when you get home, swap it back.
34:23
Um no, so I just think that I have like sort of a general issue with the aesthetics of being the tech reviewer that puts out a poorly made app, which it was.
34:34
Like it got completely torn apart.
34:38
Reverse engineered, everyone stole everything.
34:39
And then also just like the the the implementation of the ad flow was just that has always clunky. It had an ad?
34:48
Yeah, so basically you would you install the app and then you browse for wallpapers and there are some that look nice. Like they look fine.
34:57
Uh you can actually just screenshot them and zoom in. It's very weird.
34:59
Because like they're they have to show them to you so you can just screenshot them.
35:05
They you don't get the full thing.
35:05
It only shows you like 3/4 so then you have to zoom in a little bit, but it's fine. It's weird.
35:11
Uh but the the weird thing is that if you want standard definition which is like low res which I think is actually HD.
35:20
Uh so, people were weirded out about that because his whole brand is MKBHD HD like high definition and he's selling a standard definition product instead of giving you the high definition then having you upgrade to the 4K version, but if you want the standard definition you click and you have to watch two ads and the and that's why they were asking for location targeting because if you don't have someone's location, the ad rates will plummet. Right.
35:44
And so, you need to know where people are roughly.
35:48
Just the coarse locations what's important, but they asked for fine grain.
35:51
So, they it was kind of like a sloppy implementation, but just if you're in an app and an ad pops up, it it feels like there's this iOS like widget basically a lot of mobile games use and a lot of just kind of like cheap apps that you download to do like one thing.
36:09
Like oh, like like there's the difference between like some app that just like puts subtitles at the bottom and like the captions app.
36:15
Like the captions app is like venture funded, it has a subscription, it's expensive, but it's the highest quality and it's like crafts it it's like it's a beautiful app that works really, really well. I use it all the time.
36:27
And and the reason is if if they just like popped up an ad, I would be like this is like so annoying and it's like this unskippable thing and like the x's in the corner and you got to go find it and it's all blended in and stuff.
36:38
And so, that that was just kind of like a like a mediocre experience and then and then and then I think once people like started digging in and they started digging into every little thing.
36:46
And they found that like one of the artists on the app had put up a wallpaper that was just the color orange and it's like you don't need to pay for that at all because you can just make that in 2 seconds in any thing.
36:57
Take a picture of an orange and just zoom in and that's it. Exactly.
37:00
There's like a million different ways to just make your background orange if you want.
37:04
I think something that's funny is it feels like a very like vintage app.
37:06
Like this is the kind of like quality and idea that should have dropped the year that the App Store opened. It's a flashlight app.
37:17
They're definitely yeah, flashlight app.
37:19
It feels kind of like that.
37:21
I think the better MKBHD has done some smart partnerships. I Yeah, Ridge Wallet. Ridge Wallet Fantastic.
37:31
close friends with Shawn and and Connor the CMO.
37:33
I think that was like a very smart partnership from both sides for them to come together and He's like 8 sleep advertiser.
37:43
Yeah, a great job with those. Yeah.
37:43
Um how can you not, right? It's fantastic.
37:48
Uh 8 sleep if you're listening sleep on a regular organic cotton mattress, so um we're always open to our sleep partners.
37:59
At the world's most profitable podcast.
38:01
But but I I I think what I think what happened with like it it's weird because there there is a there is a correct way to introduce a $50 a year subscription wallpaper app, but I think it's the Call of Duty method.
38:17
Have you ever played any of those games? Yeah, of course.
38:18
Okay, so like Call of Duty Core mem that I basically spawned into Rust Exactly.
38:22
I basically spawned into it.
38:25
I just like have no memories and then I'm 360 no scoping off of the tower. Off of the tower. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
38:34
So, so Call of Duty the monetization like has ramped up a ton, Yeah.
38:36
but they reset the like the shittiness of the monetization every single cycle. So, Yeah.
38:44
they're on an annual cycle essentially.
38:46
Every year they come out with a new game and every year you buy the game and it's $60 and there's no pay to win mechanics, there's no battle pass, there's nothing you can pay for Yeah.
38:56
and everyone's like oh, thank god like this one isn't pay to win and everyone's like good like I just got all the content that I wanted and I get to and I get to you know, make the decision of like what do I get and what's the price and is it good or bad and everyone's like oh, it's a 7 out of 10 every time and people play it.
39:09
But over time what happens is that like the normie Call of Duty person comes on, they play the campaign and then they play a little bit of multiplayer.
39:18
Maybe they like get to the prestige level one, they unlock all the guns and then they're kind of done after like a month.
39:24
They get like burned out.
39:26
Those people kind of fade off, but the really hardcore fans will play the full year until the next one comes out.
39:30
And the really, really hardcore ones will stay on for an extra year on the game that they love.
39:36
And so, the monetization just keeps ramping up during that time and they sell more and more skins and more and more stuff.
39:43
And so, if you if you go and look at like the like a review a day one review of a of a Call of Duty that came out in 2020 or something like that.
39:55
Like the new Modern Warfare.
39:55
The The reviews from the day it launched will be like this is this is this is a reasonable monetization program. Yeah.
40:03
But if you talk to the influencers that like stuck with it, they'll be like it's the worst thing ever.
40:08
It's paid away and there's you know, you can sing there's loot boxes and gambling now and they've added all this stuff on and and but they do that very deliberately because they only introduce it to people that are already in the ecosystem and sucked in. Exactly.
40:21
They're like I've spent three grand on this game.
40:23
I'm I'm going to spend the next $200. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. funny.
40:27
I used to worry as a kid I was I was like are we running out of wars they can make games about, right? Right?
40:35
Cuz it felt like they went from like they did World War I and they did World War II. Yep.
40:39
And then Black Ops Vietnam. was Vietnam, right?
40:41
And then when do they introduce Well, they did the future wars.
40:47
They did the future ones, but eventually it seems like here's a here's a here's a take. Yeah.
40:52
Do they do Operation Iraqi Freedom like in the next 10 years?
40:57
Like Oh, in Call of Duty? That would be crazy.
41:00
I don't think they've ever done that, right?
41:02
They've done Modern Warfare and it's like in the general area that's too offensive. abstract. Like it's too like yeah.
41:09
If you did a war from within the last 20 years, it would it would be but ultimately that would probably be the best-selling version of Call of Duty.
41:17
Yeah, it is crazy because they'll do ones where it's like oh, you're fighting terrorists in the Middle East, but it's not just like straight-up used to I used to enjoy the missions, you know, in the context of my great grandpa was like a fighter pilot and got shot down like multiple times and I used to be Multiple times. Yeah, yeah.
41:39
He was he was How do you know that?
41:42
So this this guy is a legend.
41:42
He Pearl Harbor happens, he enlists, lies about his age to get in.
41:50
Small dude becomes a the rear gunner in like B-52 bombers.
41:56
Does two tours, gets shot down twice. Wow.
42:01
Um makes it out and then is trained to be It's a P-51.
42:06
What's the like What was the best fighter jet? Yeah, the Mustang. The Mustang, yeah.
42:12
Trained to be a Mustang pilot and is in route to the Pacific theater when the war ended finally. wow.
42:19
Um anyways, tough tough tough bastard. Yeah.
42:22
So so to bring it back to MKBHD, I think what he should have done is he should have just launched with something just just go for just the installs.
42:31
Just free, no ads, no tracking.
42:35
Just get everyone to install this thing and then see where you're at and then and then and then once you have everyone's email and you've captured everyone and and you know who actually likes it, then you you you no longer have to message to your whole YouTube community cuz he put this out on he did a he did basically like sponsored read on his own YouTube channel introducing the app.
42:56
That goes out to 12 million people or something like that.
42:59
Yeah, and But but there's probably a subset of like 100,000 people that are actually down for this and I and I mean Nikita here was saying that he's going to make like 3 million a year off this.
43:07
Well, yeah, and the funny thing is I mean the good thing is when you have a really big audience like that and people generally like you, you get multiple chances.
43:15
So he'll probably still get to that end state. Yeah, yeah.
43:17
But 3 million a year for somebody who makes probably 15 mil I I have no idea how much money he makes, but I'm a large organization at this point.
43:26
Yeah, and I'm sure that Dell would be like we'll give you $5 a year to cover us a few times or whatever.
43:32
That might erode trust more than this, honestly. At least this is trying.
43:38
but regardless yeah, he could have gotten those Jesus.
43:40
Like the guy reviews iPhones and Android phones.
43:43
Like Yeah, but the whole That's the thing with the being creators, right?
43:47
If you get big enough, you have to sell out to keep to keep the mon to keep growing, right?
43:55
there is something to to for for like Yeah, you want to own your own product and and and that's clearly where he's going with this.
43:59
And he did say that he wants to like add some other stuff to it and maybe it won't be just like a wallpaper app forever, but What if you could AI generate a family?
44:06
So if you're an incel, you you On on the Panels app? That's where this goes?
44:14
Well, I'm just that's just what I associate with wallpapers. I'm Oh, yeah.
44:18
Because it's always supposed to be your family. Um Yeah. This is very very odd. Wait. Uh What? This is great.
44:26
I just want you to You're just going to see this email on last. Look at the subject. Oh.
44:35
Um Well, should we talk about another kind of iffy launch Pair AI?
44:42
Dude, these guys' response was honestly um really good, I thought.
44:46
Like they kind of did what they needed to do.
44:49
They just posted through it and sort of like reclaimed their honor, which was like they had posted I think it was sort of disingenuous the way they said we you know, we forked this and didn't mention that we also had forked this other thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
45:06
Um but they had put out a video three months prior to this launch oh, really?
45:10
saying saying exactly what it is. Yeah, yeah.
45:15
So it's not like there was a history of misleading people about what their product was.
45:22
Yeah, and I mean in the in AI there have been a number of those where there where later there's been a question about like who owns like Stability AI went through a whole thing with this with like who owns the IP and what where does this sit and what's the relationship?
45:33
Like this seems pretty simple.
45:35
It is kind of silly because it's like we just forked this. Yeah. I mean I don't know.
45:41
I don't I mean I guess there is a question about like you know, literally the licenses.
45:47
Like certain licenses you can fork them, but then you can't sell what you're forking and that's the problem.
45:53
But I mean there are big businesses that like Red Hat is a huge huge multi-billion dollar company and it's a fork of Linux. Like it's it's Yeah.
45:59
that that's the Red Hat strategy.
46:02
And then there's a few of those and I could see I could see a company winning in open-source AI in that way.
46:08
I don't think that that's that crazy.
46:11
I don't know about this Yeah, I don't know.
46:12
I'm I'm kind of I'm it's funny.
46:14
I'm I'm sort of generally bearish on the company purely because of the the space that they're in and how competitive it is and how it it's hard to imagine that that um you know, I I think that like there's a a huge willingness to try new tools right now cuz everybody's everything's changing so quickly, but um is the YC company with 500k and like a bunch of haters going to actually win now?
46:41
Cuz like I think having the part of why part of why developers love Stripe is cuz they have a lot of respect and ad admiration for the Collison brothers and so is the average developer like I kind of want to back Pair just to spite the haters. Yeah.
46:59
But I'm not like but I think it's like these founders are probably going to be very successful.
47:03
Will Pair AI be successful?
47:07
Yeah, there is an interesting question about like What type of organization does does need an open-source AI code editor? Yeah.
47:15
There are lots of places where it's like okay, why why would you want open-source in that particular part of your tech stack?
47:21
Like well, you know, it's flexibility around a specific thing. Yeah.
47:26
Avoiding lock-in to a specific thing.
47:28
Like what what why why go with you know, Postgres as opposed to Oracle database?
47:33
Well, like there's a lot more flexibility that comes with that.
47:36
But in the in the code editor space, it's like that's usually more on the on the developer side. Like individual Yeah.
47:44
like developer decision kind of unclear, but Yeah, I think one factor is it's not like everybody like this next one.
47:51
I guess we're doing turbo I guess we're doing turbo [ __ ] Gen Z founders now.
47:55
It's like this is not new.
47:58
YC has always backed I won't use that same language.
48:01
Always backed young technical founders that were just like very ambitious that were going to do whatever it took to win. Yeah.
48:09
And the model is like proven beyond a doubt, right?
48:12
There's been a lot of like fud lately on people being like oh, YC's lost six batches.
48:18
There's not that many unicorns. It's like okay.
48:19
Like I don't think there ever was like that.
48:21
You know, sometimes you get breakout companies or whatever.
48:25
But I think the difference now is tech is so mainstream that these guys are coming in.
48:29
They already have a YouTube channel that's super active.
48:31
I think I printed out that Darian tweet below, which is which is really really really interesting, which is like yeah, like when when when the for you page and the algorithm like these guys know how to go viral.
48:44
That's clear from the way they wrote this tweet.
48:46
I just quit my $270,000 job at Coinbase.
48:48
Like this is clickbait and they got a ton of attention. Yeah.
48:53
But even if you wrote this tweet you know, 10 years ago, you would not be the front page of the internet necessarily for your start.
49:02
It was it would be much harder to break through.
49:05
I'm trying to see if this guy has a cardiac crash on, which would be like a crazy piece to just have on cuz it's it's basically like you I don't know.
49:15
You'd have to spend like the entire Yeah, yeah, yeah.
49:19
Um but um Yeah, they definitely seem like you know, they they definitely understand going viral. Yeah.
49:27
I'm bullish on these guys, bearish on Pair AI. Yeah.
49:30
Um and we'll But who knows where they're where they will wind up.
49:33
Like Yeah, if they're it's a if it's a real YC company, they'll pivot twice more. Exactly.
49:38
They'll be a closed source code editor.
49:42
Hey, actually, we didn't like being so open about what we're working on.
49:43
Like we're just going to build We're just going to build software.
49:46
I mean, all bets are off.
49:48
You can be nonprofit and then be worth 157 billion, you know?
49:53
You don't need to People people fudding Y Combinator as if OpenAI is not a YC company. Yeah.
50:01
Like Came directly out of YC. Yeah.
50:03
Yeah, you got to include that in the recent in the recent history. Yeah, yeah.
50:10
It's like the most important technology ever. Yeah.
50:12
I mean, like You can say whatever you want about the the financial ownership or whatever, but like it's clearly like like they made something cool that everyone uses and is awesome and like a lot of people have built other things based We love the economy, so we love a for-profit organization, right?
50:32
I am I am so much happier now.
50:34
that if every convert every single nonprofit into a for-profit.
50:38
that is doing homeless related work in LA into a for-profit and I I guarantee you it it solves the solves the homeless the homeless issue in in 2 weeks. Seems reasonable.
50:51
Um What else should we do? Should we do this? The longshoremen?
50:56
Yeah, we can talk about that. I don't know.
50:57
I don't really know that much about it.
50:59
I know that I've seen stuff stuck in the middle of the ocean. Yeah.
51:03
This is not about being informed.
51:03
This is about this is about sharing opinions and you don't need to be informed to have an opinion. That's true. Put that on the record.
51:12
Um Yeah, I mean, this guy just had I mean, he he looks like he's a character out of out of he's like the the the villain out of a movie, you know?
51:25
Where like the next stage of this mutiny is like they just rebel like like secede from the union and like the ports the ports become, you know, the beginning of of of like the new you know, America riffs, but not in like you know, um but anyways, I think this is like a pretty Somebody compared it to to the organized crime and I think that's like pretty on point where it's effectively just um I mean, who who knows, right?
51:59
I think from his point of view, he's doing his job.
52:02
He gets paid like about a million a year to represent his people.
52:07
you I mean, people quote-tweeted and were like, "This guy makes 780k."
52:09
But it's like that's not that much.
52:11
That's less than like a Fang like level one new grad these days.
52:16
So, it's like is this guy really this I I don't know.
52:21
I'm not I'm not really buying the whole villain thing.
52:22
I think it I think it ultimately backfires in a big way, right?
52:24
Because everybody's like, "Oh, yeah, we actually really do need automation.
52:28
We shouldn't be dependent on like seem like a mess.
52:30
Yeah, we don't we shouldn't be dependent on a bunch of angry uh you know, value extractors that basically have a monopoly.
52:41
Yeah, I I I I do wonder how it how it fits in with the election.
52:44
Like the strike began October 1st. Election is in November.
52:51
There's some sort of Taft-Hartley thing that the that the president can do to kind of force them to go back to work, which would like alleviate it for 4 weeks, which could time up like perfectly so that you're not feeling it when you're voting essentially.
53:02
And then you start feeling it right when it's done.
53:06
So, it's just like it's just like odd timing, but Yeah.
53:08
I mean, Ryan seems like he's like pretty pretty bullish right now on it ending soon or like, you know, optimistic that that it will it will resolve.
53:19
But Yeah, I think Ryan Peterson has uh needs to verticalize and own the ports.
53:30
You know, otherwise he's just going to take like 20 years off his life from all the stress, you know?
53:34
Like he needs to own he needs to own all the land within 100 miles of of the water in Yemen, right?
53:42
Like he needs to own the boats.
53:42
He needs to own he needs to privatize the navy.
53:47
He needs to privatize the ports. Yeah.
53:49
Uh just so he can get a good night's sleep.
53:51
Yeah, let's get Flexport a navy for sure.
53:55
Uh I think we can probably skip this one.
53:56
I I don't feel the need to like throw this kid under the bus.
54:00
I did think like this is my least favorite form of of ad right now is like AI generated slop.
54:04
It's not AI generated, though. It's not? No.
54:11
It's literally just normal editing. Really?
54:14
Just the goofy clips and stuff, pictures.
54:16
Yeah, but for some reason it for some reason it felt so wack. It felt so wack.
54:21
Compared to the Excel was doing like hand-crafted editing.
54:27
Did you see the other one that launched yesterday?
54:30
The one that was like developers, developers, developers, developers. Did you see that one? No. It was Resolve AI. Did you see this?
54:41
This one was This one was good. See, this is good.
54:55
Yeah, this is good, right? This is the same format. It's just real.
55:05
See, this is the same format, though, as the original Founders Fund hyper real, which we copied at Capital and then a bunch of other people and now it's in the zeitgeist and now the format's dead. It is.
55:18
So, sorry to whoever Did you edit that video for Founders Fund?
55:21
No, it was Mike Petriello.
55:21
Yeah, Mike Mike did a great thing. We remixed it.
55:26
a Yeah, he created a monster and then it just like yeah, it's dead.
55:30
I mean, it's it's a very fun format.
55:30
I just wouldn't do it as a company today.
55:35
Yeah, I mean, I guess the question is like how do you break through?
55:36
Cuz like the I mean, this launch for this like what what's it called? Rewind or something? Um Yeah, Resolve AI.
55:45
It It's I mean, it's like it'd be pretty hard to get a million views on your launch video otherwise or like your launch something.
55:53
So, like what do you do other than just like a vibe reel that can go viral on ads? It's hard. Build something great. Yeah, takes time. Copy and open source.
56:06
Yeah, create a controversy.
56:06
Uh honestly Yeah, no video needed.
56:09
Yes, yeah, be the villain. Be Yeah, the heel.
56:11
Be the heel or not the face? It's funny. Oh. I don't know.
56:19
Okay, do we want to talk about the David Sacks event? Yeah. Where was it? So funny. So, Austin, Texas. Yeah.
56:27
Uh amazing space that was basically it's basically like a hotel that is kind of like I mean, it it has sort of like some some continuous use um for some I think foundation out there, but um Founders Podcast and Business Breakdown hosted an event.
56:50
There was like 120-ish people there.
56:53
Uh no other people on the property, which was cool.
56:55
So, you just be like, you know, Yeah.
56:57
doing something random at the gym.
56:59
You strike up a conversation, et cetera.
57:00
Um amazing uh amazing group of people.
57:07
Um I would say felt like at least 10% of the people there had a net worth of over a billion dollars, which is like hard to get in the same sort of like, you know, acre that often unless you're in Davos. Yeah.
57:21
Yeah, I mean, I think um and the funny thing, this story came up a few times, but um I I at Capital, we were one of the first advertisers of Founders Podcast. Really?
57:32
Um and at the time, it's so funny what like 2 years does.
57:34
I think we paid him like 5,000 for the quarter. Wow.
57:38
And now it it's it's like you need to be doing like a seven-figure multi-year deal to even enter the conversation and he's probably going to be like, "Yeah, it's not a fit."
57:50
Um But anyways, David's amazing.
57:51
Um Matt, the other host, is awesome, too.
57:57
Um it it was an interesting situation because it was clear like like there were some really great panels, but it was almost like the panels were just like dead time because the second you'd leave a panel and you start talking, there were so many great people.
58:12
Um and David kept saying like, "I I want to do a conference with no panels.
58:16
It's just like the space."
58:21
Which I think is is great. It works well. Yeah.
58:23
And um Yeah, ultimately, I think David left the weekend being like, "I'm not I don't even I don't think he's ever going to do one again."
58:30
But it was funny because cuz he just would rather host a group of people I think I I think the retreat with no content is fine. Yeah. Yeah, maybe.
58:39
But it was almost it was I I I I told him, "You should have a retreat for your audience and don't even go."
58:48
Because it's there's so much value in just connecting with other people that are like-minded.
58:52
And so, you you phone in and do your panel.
58:55
"Hey, everyone, I'm so happy that you guys are all together."
58:59
Um he's on the he's on the Venetian Islands or whatever.
59:03
Because the challenge is it's really enjoyable for everyone except for him, who's, you know, basically like 48-hour 48-hour period where people are grabbing him and all this stuff.
59:11
But anyways, I mean, people were generally respectful and um It was good.
59:17
It was pretty funny like uh almost, you know, people that I was hanging out with um Jackson Dahl, Bryce from Indie VC, Justin Mares, Jeremy Giffon, David Perell, like Jorgensen, people like that.
59:36
I don't think any one of those people like had more than like a single one or two drinks the entire weekend even though there was an open bar like the entire time.
59:43
So it was interesting to to really see like the death of alcohol like pretty you know um pretty pretty plainly.
59:52
The only people that were getting up absolutely hammered was um uh was some of the old guard which was fun.
1:00:00
I was I was asking them you know this this guy's like borderline like blacked out.
1:00:03
Only person that I think was truly like drunk in the whole event on on Friday night and I was like how does it feel to just be old and just loaded you know and he's just like laughing.
1:00:16
And he's like yeah like dude you you like busted your ass for four decades.
1:00:20
You deserve to be the only person that's blacked out here and I actually appreciate it. Yeah yeah.
1:00:28
Nobody's got time to be hung over tomorrow.
1:00:33
But yeah fantastic event and David when you listen to this uh host a retreat where you're not there.
1:00:42
Call in from the Venetian Isles.
1:00:42
I think you I think this community would appreciate it.
1:00:45
I know a lot of people came out of it.
1:00:47
I mean I was in the it's funny at the very end I was staying an extra night in Austin to see a portfolio founder the next day and this guy's like hey does anybody want to split an Uber um and I'm going downtown.
1:01:02
I was like sure let's do it and we get in the car.
1:01:05
It wasn't really like you know we I'd never met the guy that weekend.
1:01:11
We were talking about what we what um what what each of us do and he's like oh yeah I run like a $6 billion hedge fund you know in London you know.
1:01:21
So it's like that that quality of people.
1:01:24
But anyways if it happens again I'll I'll be back.
1:01:28
Um there needed to be everybody there was very Excel curious already already an active user. Um a DAU.
1:01:36
We should we measure our customer base in DAUs not a not traditional sales volume um but uh yeah that was great.
1:01:47
The other thing over the weekend I feel like I kept opening my phone and people would be talking about uh uh Excel in my mentions.
1:01:52
Do you want to talk about that? Screenshot I sent you. Let me see that.
1:01:59
Um so um So anyways we got our first honest review of Excel nicotine pouches from Capital Cowboy on X.
1:02:10
He says for anyone curious here's my honest review of Excel better smoother flavor than any Zyn I've had last significantly longer too.
1:02:22
Had my cousin that can't handle nic upset stomach at 3 mg try these and he said that he got all the buzz without the stomach issues.
1:02:30
So um that is the power of Excel.
1:02:36
Obviously I asked him um have you noticed anything different with your returns?
1:02:40
Most users report report uh improvements after using Excel and Cowboy said I actually got a promotion after using Excel no joke.
1:02:51
And uh he said his buddy Mark uh got a promotion as well and Mark said using it and got a promotion a week after switching to the brand [ __ ] works.
1:03:01
And I said uh all it did all it did was make you more you right?
1:03:07
Cuz you on nicotine is you on your best day right?
1:03:11
You on 100% sleep score um you know fully locked in.
1:03:15
So anyways the reactions have been um reactions have been great.
1:03:21
If you're a user and you have any comments feedback product suggestions or if you're interested in debt financing through the Excel brand reach out. Yeah sounds good.
1:03:39
Uh should we do this viral chain letter?
1:03:41
I think this thing's so funny. Yeah yeah yeah.
1:03:45
So I have to start by saying I I I don't actually don't know if I have a copy of this one.
1:03:51
So a bunch of celebrities have been sharing a a copy pasta text meme on their Instagrams and it says goodbye Meta AI.
1:04:02
Please note an attorney has advised us to put this on.
1:04:04
Failure to do so may result in legal consequences as Meta is now a public entity all space space all members must post a similar statement.
1:04:15
If you do not post at least once it will be assumed you are okay with them using your information and photos.
1:04:21
I do not give Meta or anyone else permission to use any of my personal data profile information or photos.
1:04:30
And then the amazing thing is that is that uh Meta has has appended CY fact checkers say this is false.
1:04:39
They they added the fact check like like modal like over it to just be like I'm just so you know this is misinformation.
1:04:46
It's just so funny Tom Brady posted it. Really?
1:04:49
Yeah Julianne Moore and a bunch of other people.
1:04:51
And it's just so funny it's so boomer.
1:04:53
I remember this happening like like at the dawn of Facebook like maybe 10 years ago.
1:04:57
And it's still happening.
1:04:59
It'll be like they changed the terms of service.
1:05:00
One gets our person posts this like ramble.
1:05:06
Somebody posts this like an absolute ramble and then it somehow picks up and I only saw it on honestly shout out to the people that I follow cuz I only saw one person post it. Oh unironically? Unironically.
1:05:17
And that guy formerly ran a public company.
1:05:25
So that was a bit concerning to me cuz I cuz I um yeah I honestly um yeah I It's just like like I get being a boomer and not understanding how the internet works and being confused and stuff. I would just rewrite it.
1:05:40
Well yeah I I rewrite it but be like like Is there any is there any scenario as a public company where you know it's like this is like the equivalent of I don't know like like holding up a sign outside of the outside of the White House and just being like I want you to you know Yeah it it just it just makes no sense how this would be like legally binding or any sort of like on an ephemeral story. On an ephemeral story.
1:06:07
all the way that you interact with a company right?
1:06:12
It's like it's like leaving a review on a restaurant and and expecting that to be like legally binding.
1:06:16
And it's funny cuz if if people are scraping your profile for data which they are to train models the AI like the scraper like shows up on John @johncoogan.
1:06:28
And they just start like sniffing around.
1:06:32
And they're like and then they see like oh you you added a story highlight and three months ago he posted this and the scraper goes hmm okay. Let's get out of here.
1:06:45
Or Meta is just like stores the data.
1:06:49
Yeah oh yeah we we don't want to train on people that under that yeah that could really open up some liability.
1:06:55
No but but Meta who who already hosts all your data and tracks every single thing you do on the app to use um and they're they're like yeah yeah this guy's big big no no on this guy.
1:07:08
At the same time like the fact that this keeps happening does say something about say something about humanity but also it's like it should be somewhat of a wake up call to Meta and like the actual employees there but like your consumers don't understand you at all.
1:07:27
You need to probably do better to educate them about how things work.
1:07:32
Which is which is why I'm long on Zuck's personal conquest and value creation and I'm a fan of him.
1:07:43
I'm short on his public image because I think him getting cocky again and and and wearing shirts that say Zuck is inevitable and Meta still being like basically at going to be at the epicenter of all this drama around AI and you know generated content and all this stuff is like very short his public image.
1:08:05
I think he enjoyed like a sort of temporary sort of you know basically two-year period where want him to mix it up because it's like so he's this like fashion god now and is wearing like streetwear and like baggy t-shirts.
1:08:22
But uh but like there is a way for him to wear like an impeccable suit. Yeah.
1:08:27
And and and apply the same the same pro thought process to looking fantastic but it's just in a suit. Yeah.
1:08:38
Just do I mean we just say that cuz it'd be good for But like like like it it's it is interesting that like he's he's applied like I I now take fashion seriously but I only apply it in this one very narrow like like section of fashion.
1:08:57
Like I want to see him look as fashionable but also in a suit or also in a variety of things.
1:09:01
Yeah just like dress your age you Just like have yeah yeah have some more like reach and some and I think if he broadens out a little bit he can class it up or or dress it down and he'll have more flexibility there.
1:09:17
There's an algorithm he's literally like an algorithm he's like wow they liked when I wake they didn't like when I wakeboarded with all the sunscreen.
1:09:27
But when I wakeboard and I hold a flag, people like that.
1:09:30
He's in a little bit of a filter.
1:09:32
I'm going to I'm Okay, then if people like flags and wakeboarding, they probably like beef.
1:09:39
I'm going to show them my cattle ranch, right?
1:09:41
And then And then they're like, "Oh, I wore a watch." And they like that.
1:09:46
So, I'm going to get a more expensive watch.
1:09:47
Like an even even bigger hitter of a piece.
1:09:52
But that only that goes so like that that you eventually get a negative reaction to that sort of doubling doubling down on everything. Yeah.
1:10:01
I wonder where that will come from.
1:10:05
I mean, he's done a fantastic job of being a political To me to me the the shirt the the Amiri shirt that says "Zuck is inevitable" is It's like, "Dude, you're obviously inevitable. You're a force." Yeah.
1:10:22
You don't need to if you telling people you're inevitable is cringe, right?
1:10:27
People will already say that behind your back.
1:10:28
Yeah, it's like a victory lap. Like for what reason?
1:10:32
Just Just deliver deliver deliver returns without logging into your account. to shareholders.
1:10:43
That's the only thing that when the stock eventually drops people will be um they'll they'll take pictures of that shirt and make it say like you know, uh $500 billion market cap is inevitable, you know, down from Do you think it was like just a funny joke?
1:11:05
Do you think there's something to that? Is it funny? It might be funny.
1:11:10
The If you got to ask yourself is it funny? It's probably not.
1:11:16
Every time I say if I take something too far, I I break character.
1:11:18
So, so what I think that there's always this layer of humor that is different when it's coming from like someone as powerful as Zuck or Elon.
1:11:32
Like I keep thinking about for for years I was like, "I love Elon, but man, these childlike the child the childlike humor is just not hitting with me."
1:11:44
The 69 420 is just not funny to me until he was in this interview with the BBC reporter and he says, "Do you like BBC?"
1:11:53
And And And it was so stupid. It's such a stupid joke.
1:11:56
But he was laughing super hard and I was like, "This is actually hilarious."
1:12:02
Not because do you like asking a BBC reporter, "Do you like BBC?" Is that funny?
1:12:06
It's It's funny because it's the world's richest man who's super powerful asking a reporter that. The The context matters.
1:12:12
And so, yeah, I this one I'm not sure if that's funny.
1:12:18
Here's what would be funny to me.
1:12:20
If Zuck was on his hydrofoil wakeboard you know, doing his thing in his meta glasses and then in the scenery and he's in Kauai or whatever. He's in his retreat.
1:12:33
And on the hillside behind him, it's literally like using a lawnmower like carved into the grass it says like "Zuck is inevitable."
1:12:40
And it's not like so front and center.
1:12:43
That would be funny cuz it's seeing that image of him just like riding his little like hydrofoil thing and then you're like, "Wait, did he he carved it in like a football field of grass like Zuck is inevitable?" Like that's that's cool. That's ridiculous.
1:12:56
Make a monument, you know?
1:12:59
Or Yeah, so anyways, Zuck when you listen to this make monuments.
1:13:08
He He I mean, he made a monument in his backyard of his wife. Oh, yeah. That was a piece. Yeah.
1:13:15
So, he's he going to do some stuff. I don't know. I think I respect Zuck. Yeah.
1:13:21
I I don't know where There's There's just a difference though in like what I'm talking about is like respect versus likeability. Mhm.
1:13:25
And I'll always respect him. Yeah.
1:13:32
I've gone through periods where I sort of like him and I don't like him.
1:13:39
And not that it not that it matters, but for him he clearly cares about what people think about him. Yeah.
1:13:43
So, my advice would be you know dial it back and and I just think people, you know, he has like a PR team around him and like image consultants and stylists and stuff like that.
1:13:56
It's like just be more be more creative, you know? Yeah.
1:14:02
Definitely needs more breadth to the to the stunts and whatnot.
1:14:08
More and more more humor. And more fun. More fun.