1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,280
When trust between two people goes down, the energy level goes up, which means I have to work

2
00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:13,420
harder and do more things to sustain what could be there if the trust was higher. At the heart of

3
00:00:13,420 --> 00:00:21,840
who I am and what I do in anything, it's heavily influenced and shaped by what I saw and what I

4
00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:27,480
experienced in those moments. But if you come and talk to me about something that lacks complexity

5
00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:28,980
or intellectual rigor.

6
00:00:29,420 --> 00:00:32,920
I'm just like, I can't get away from the person fast enough.

7
00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:36,160
And the whole time I'm there, I'm like smiling and like nodding my head

8
00:00:36,160 --> 00:00:38,060
because I don't want to be rude.

9
00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:43,240
But deep down inside, I'm thinking this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

10
00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:44,320
Yeah.

11
00:00:45,580 --> 00:00:46,100
Okay.

12
00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:48,440
So is it happening right now?

13
00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:50,160
No, this is amazing.

14
00:00:50,300 --> 00:00:51,840
Of course, what are you going to say?

15
00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:54,220
No, I enjoy these types of questions

16
00:00:54,220 --> 00:00:58,500
because these questions have deep compression.

17
00:00:58,860 --> 00:01:00,960
These are the types of questions I never get asked.

18
00:01:01,340 --> 00:01:03,180
These are the types of questions I love.

19
00:01:03,180 --> 00:01:05,420
All views expressed by the host or guests

20
00:01:05,420 --> 00:01:06,780
are solely their own opinions.

21
00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:08,220
Nothing stated in this podcast

22
00:01:08,220 --> 00:01:09,980
should be considered a specific endorsement

23
00:01:09,980 --> 00:01:11,300
to make any particular investment

24
00:01:11,300 --> 00:01:12,860
or follow any specific strategy.

25
00:01:13,060 --> 00:01:15,940
Guys, I've got a quick favor to ask before we begin.

26
00:01:16,420 --> 00:01:17,180
Believe it or not,

27
00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:20,580
around 90% of the people who listen to our show regularly

28
00:01:20,580 --> 00:01:22,860
haven't hit subscribe or follow yet.

29
00:01:23,140 --> 00:01:24,140
If you enjoy the show,

30
00:01:24,220 --> 00:01:28,580
that one click makes sure you don't miss the episodes and guests that matter to you.

31
00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:30,740
It's free, it takes two seconds,

32
00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:34,140
and it genuinely helps keep improving every single episode.

33
00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:37,580
If we've ever given you value, this is the moment to give it back.

34
00:01:37,960 --> 00:01:40,140
And to everyone already following, thank you.

35
00:01:40,300 --> 00:01:42,700
You are the reason we've been able to raise the bar.

36
00:01:42,700 --> 00:01:46,280
Your support, whether it's a donation, a comment, or subscribing,

37
00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:48,480
helps these conversations reach further.

38
00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:52,540
It also gives us the push to keep going, keep traveling, keep preparing,

39
00:01:52,540 --> 00:01:55,420
and keep bringing you in-person conversations like this.

40
00:01:55,940 --> 00:01:59,480
If you are listening right now, take a second and hit subscribe,

41
00:01:59,740 --> 00:02:01,620
and the bell if you are on YouTube,

42
00:02:01,900 --> 00:02:05,360
or follow on your podcast app so you don't miss the next episode.

43
00:02:05,660 --> 00:02:06,360
Let's do this.

44
00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:19,880
Welcome to All in Bitcoin, Reston.

45
00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:22,440
I'm excited to talk to you about Bitcoin,

46
00:02:22,540 --> 00:02:29,060
everything you've built and what next. Let's start with my 21 takes on you and take it from there.

47
00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:32,400
Okay. Where did you grow up and what kind of kid were you?

48
00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:37,160
Oh, so I grew up in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area.

49
00:02:39,020 --> 00:02:42,520
Football, Steelers football was really big in the Pittsburgh area.

50
00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:43,980
Peter McCormick's football?

51
00:02:44,300 --> 00:02:51,500
No, this is American football. Yeah, not soccer. What kind of kid was I?

52
00:02:51,500 --> 00:02:58,480
well I guess if if my parents were here and they would describe me how would they describe me I was

53
00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:04,580
I was always kind of cheerful I would say I was always kind of very positive that was a very happy

54
00:03:04,580 --> 00:03:14,960
kid I would say academically math came very easy for me language was extremely difficult for me

55
00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:20,060
Yeah. English, I struggled in school a lot.

56
00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:22,140
But you're an avid reader.

57
00:03:22,540 --> 00:03:29,660
I'm an avid reader. And that was the other thing. In high school, I didn't really read that much.

58
00:03:29,940 --> 00:03:31,220
I didn't like it.

59
00:03:31,700 --> 00:03:32,340
And what changed?

60
00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:38,100
My frustration was in school, I had to read stuff that I had no interest in.

61
00:03:39,100 --> 00:03:39,740
Same here.

62
00:03:39,740 --> 00:03:57,160
Yeah. And I was just very frustrated. It's like, I don't want to read this book on Shakespeare or this. I just found it super frustrating. My love for knowledge and learning really happened after college, like almost immediately after college for some reason.

63
00:03:57,160 --> 00:04:22,520
You know what I think it was? I think it was I was really interested in investing mostly because it was something that I could apply the math to like after I graduated. And I immediately was like, well, who's the best in the world at investing? And I quickly saw like Warren Buffett. And then Warren Buffett was really big on reading and like expanding your knowledge. And I was like, OK, well, if that guy's doing that, that's what I'm going to do. And I just started doing the same thing.

64
00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:43,340
So that's where the reading came after college was mostly because of that. But when I was in high school, I was frustrated with respect to anything language related. And to this day, I am horrific at foreign languages. For whatever reason, in my mind, it just does not sync.

65
00:04:43,340 --> 00:04:47,960
so like when I'm around people that speak three or five languages or whatever it just

66
00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:52,660
does not compute like it just does not make sense to me how somebody could even speak a second

67
00:04:52,660 --> 00:04:57,260
language let alone a third or fourth language just doesn't make sense to me so as a kid what

68
00:04:57,260 --> 00:05:04,280
was the one thing you were obsessed with that nobody else got I don't know that I was really

69
00:05:04,280 --> 00:05:11,120
obsessed with anything I would say that I didn't really have a lot of hardship as a kid you know

70
00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:15,940
you see some kids that are shaped very early on because maybe they had parents that were

71
00:05:15,940 --> 00:05:21,980
super hard on them or they were living with a mother or a father. Like I didn't really have

72
00:05:21,980 --> 00:05:27,900
that. I had, I had great parents that raised me. I lived in a really stable area. It wasn't like I

73
00:05:27,900 --> 00:05:34,540
was, uh, like my family was super rich either, but it was just a very normal American, like

74
00:05:34,540 --> 00:05:40,980
upbringing that didn't have like any volatility in my environment. Like my environment was very

75
00:05:40,980 --> 00:05:49,280
stable. I think because of that, I really wasn't polarized into being obsessed with any particular

76
00:05:49,280 --> 00:05:54,260
thing. I was just kind of like, I had my friends. I was in Boy Scouts. I loved playing baseball.

77
00:05:54,840 --> 00:05:58,960
I'm curious, what were the topics of conversation at the dinner table at home?

78
00:05:59,740 --> 00:06:03,060
Nothing really that stands out as that exciting.

79
00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:06,100
Politics? Religion?

80
00:06:06,100 --> 00:06:25,320
We went to a Presbyterian church every Sunday. Politics were not really a big topic in my house. My mother owned her own dance studio. She had like 200 students. So she was an entrepreneur with her dance studio.

81
00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:32,860
and then my father had made investments into apartment buildings through the years so they

82
00:06:32,860 --> 00:06:39,100
were both very entrepreneurial but not in a high risk kind of way so like I think a lot of people

83
00:06:39,100 --> 00:06:43,080
today they would hear an entrepreneur that goes out and raises a bunch of money and they do like

84
00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:48,680
these kind of like very high risk type things they were like small because it was a small town it's

85
00:06:48,680 --> 00:06:53,900
not a big like outside of Pittsburgh I think this it's a town called Saxonburg Pennsylvania

86
00:06:53,900 --> 00:07:00,480
really small town, really small town, like 300 people. They worked very hard. Neither of them

87
00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:05,820
went to college. I think I learned the hard work from both of them because they were always kind of

88
00:07:05,820 --> 00:07:13,480
grinding in their own kind of way. So that kind of came instilled in me and my sister is, you know,

89
00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:18,800
you got to work hard to make money and it's not going to just be given to you and that kind of

90
00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:25,300
mindset. At what point did you notice that the world runs on systems and that some of them are

91
00:07:25,300 --> 00:07:35,220
broken? I think when I went to combat, I went to West Point, I got a degree. I then go to flight

92
00:07:35,220 --> 00:07:43,560
school, which was two years. And then I go into, I went and flew in South Korea. None of it was,

93
00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:50,940
none of the world was looking like it was broke to me even through all of that and then um when I

94
00:07:50,940 --> 00:07:56,980
went to combat with the 101st Airborne to Afghanistan and I came back and based on the

95
00:07:56,980 --> 00:08:04,820
stuff that I saw when I was there I was just like how old were you at the time I was in my 20s but

96
00:08:04,820 --> 00:08:12,020
when I came back I was just like why the hell was I there for a year doing what I was doing

97
00:08:12,020 --> 00:08:20,540
and that's when the whole like i think everything like my worldview that was very american dream

98
00:08:20,540 --> 00:08:27,060
very just just stable i think that's the best way to describe like my whole upbringing through

99
00:08:27,060 --> 00:08:32,500
college graduation from college and then i go to combat like everything was just very stable and

100
00:08:32,500 --> 00:08:38,280
predictable and just kind of the american dream ish you know it wasn't like i was it wasn't luxury

101
00:08:38,280 --> 00:08:43,040
but it was like good steady life. And when I came back from that, I was just like,

102
00:08:43,580 --> 00:08:51,700
like, what the hell are we even doing over there? What was I doing over there? Why was I doing that

103
00:08:51,700 --> 00:08:59,000
over there? And the whole thing was just really got me thinking hard. And I still didn't think

104
00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:07,020
that, that the whole world was kind of had like, like in Bitcoin, we say like the fiat disaster,

105
00:09:07,020 --> 00:09:11,880
like all the incentives in the fiat system are broken and they're pointing in the wrong direction

106
00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:17,460
and making people have short-term interest. None of that stuff was any part of my vocabulary or

107
00:09:17,460 --> 00:09:24,440
even thinking at the time. Through all of that, I was a hardcore Warren Buffett fan and somebody

108
00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:32,700
that was reading a ton. And then the 2008 crisis also kind of played out during that kind of

109
00:09:32,700 --> 00:09:40,360
timeframe too. And I had some investments in the market and like they got obliterated in the 2008

110
00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:45,460
crisis. And I come back from the war and like all this kind of stuff. And I was like, what is

111
00:09:45,460 --> 00:09:51,380
happened? Like, it was just this moment in time where I was just questioning like almost everything

112
00:09:51,380 --> 00:09:57,160
and questioning the world around me. Cause I was, you know, I was studying finance,

113
00:09:57,160 --> 00:10:02,680
self-taught finance. I had like, I think I had one economics class at West Point.

114
00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:04,300
What did you study?

115
00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:10,680
I studied aerospace engineering. So when I graduated, I was studying investing,

116
00:10:10,980 --> 00:10:15,140
like self-taught investing and accounting and like all of that. I was just super interested

117
00:10:15,140 --> 00:10:20,140
in all of it. So the 2008 crisis thing happened and I was like, okay, well,

118
00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:24,260
evidently everything I thought I knew about financial markets wasn't true because all these

119
00:10:24,260 --> 00:10:28,760
all these companies that I owned went down. So like, how does that compute?

120
00:10:29,820 --> 00:10:35,780
And I looked at what the central banks were doing and printing all this money and buying bonds. And

121
00:10:35,780 --> 00:10:40,640
I was like, hold on, like, that's not a free and open market. Like that's manipulated. Like,

122
00:10:40,680 --> 00:10:46,020
how's that going to end? Well, you saw it that clearly at that time. Very clearly like 2000,

123
00:10:46,180 --> 00:10:51,660
2008 happened to like 2010. And I was just looking at what central banks were doing in the market.

124
00:10:51,660 --> 00:10:55,220
And I didn't have a podcast or any, I wasn't like a podcast or anything.

125
00:10:55,380 --> 00:10:56,240
I'm still in the army.

126
00:10:56,640 --> 00:10:58,140
And were you already reading the Austrians?

127
00:10:58,380 --> 00:10:59,660
No, no, no.

128
00:11:00,780 --> 00:11:10,420
I was much more just trying to understand how to value public equity to buy it on the stock market, thinking that I'm doing what Warren Buffett's doing.

129
00:11:10,560 --> 00:11:10,700
Right.

130
00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:16,920
But when I saw like how the central banks responded to that crisis, I was like, this is all just fake.

131
00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:22,980
Like this is, this is not like, there's no way this is, this is a naturally occurring

132
00:11:22,980 --> 00:11:26,120
system, but the whole system was like corrupted.

133
00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:30,460
I was like, that's, this can't be solved this way.

134
00:11:30,940 --> 00:11:35,220
As an engineer, you're trying to build something that makes life better, right?

135
00:11:35,560 --> 00:11:38,640
So to do that, you have to first assess your environment.

136
00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:43,200
You say, okay, I'm going to build something in this environment because you have to understand

137
00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:48,300
that very deeply before you build something to know that it'll be able to withstand whatever.

138
00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:52,660
And so I was just looking at the environment. I'm saying, hold on, this isn't like naturally

139
00:11:52,660 --> 00:12:08,198
occurring This isn like what we taught in school that this is a free and open market This is a manipulated market And so that really caused me to go deep down the rabbit hole of trying to learn everything I could about financial markets

140
00:12:08,958 --> 00:12:12,458
What's something you picked up in the military that never left you?

141
00:12:13,718 --> 00:12:17,498
There's a lot of things that I picked up.

142
00:12:17,858 --> 00:12:18,638
List them.

143
00:12:18,638 --> 00:12:27,978
you know i a lot of it came from my time at west point it was because i was at a very influential

144
00:12:27,978 --> 00:12:33,018
age when i showed i mean i was 18 years old when i showed up at west point the first thing that i

145
00:12:33,018 --> 00:12:43,198
learned there um was shut your mouth and do what you're told and you've got to learn how to follow

146
00:12:43,198 --> 00:12:49,398
before you could ever learn how to lead. That's a very humbling experience for somebody that's never

147
00:12:49,398 --> 00:12:56,758
been forced to go through something like that. So for me, I show up and I mean, the whole first year

148
00:12:56,758 --> 00:13:03,338
is just, just shut up. Like, don't open your mouth. If somebody's talking to you, like,

149
00:13:03,738 --> 00:13:10,338
you better get the job done. There's never an excuse ever. Like literally, like if somebody

150
00:13:10,338 --> 00:13:17,558
came up to me and said, Preston, why did you not complete task XYZ by 10 o'clock? And the answer

151
00:13:17,558 --> 00:13:24,978
is always no excuse, sir. Even if there was a good excuse, the answer was no excuse.

152
00:13:25,898 --> 00:13:30,518
And so what does that teach you? It teaches you to take self-responsibility.

153
00:13:32,098 --> 00:13:39,798
And I think this was a massive, massive asset for me personally, because anytime something goes

154
00:13:39,798 --> 00:13:44,958
wrong in my life, I'm very rarely looking at saying, well, that person over there caused it,

155
00:13:44,958 --> 00:13:52,678
or this thing out in my environment made me mess up. Instead, you get wired and conditioned because

156
00:13:52,678 --> 00:13:58,318
it's psychological conditioning. But in a way, it was very beneficial for me to always say,

157
00:13:58,438 --> 00:14:04,858
all right, I failed. And when I fail at something, my immediate reaction is, what did I do wrong?

158
00:14:04,858 --> 00:14:11,358
what did I do wrong 10 minutes ago, one year ago, five years ago that led to this moment of failure?

159
00:14:12,138 --> 00:14:18,838
And by personally always auditing myself first, I think you're able to deal with the reality of

160
00:14:18,838 --> 00:14:26,378
how you got to where you're at, like way clearer. And then you can take future actions that start

161
00:14:26,378 --> 00:14:30,738
with you and how you're acting in your environment to make sure you never do it again.

162
00:14:30,738 --> 00:14:36,478
so that would be the first thing i would tell you is just ultimate self-responsibility

163
00:14:36,478 --> 00:14:43,518
it's a great one for everything no matter what and this is why i think for bitcoin like

164
00:14:43,518 --> 00:14:48,518
syncs with me immediately because it's like oh you lost your keys well whose fault's that

165
00:14:48,518 --> 00:14:55,318
it's your fault you know people people will go on their you know their bank account today and

166
00:14:55,318 --> 00:15:00,498
like i lost my password it's the bank's fault the bank needs to figure out how i can log back

167
00:15:00,498 --> 00:15:08,118
in and it's like no actually you sucked at securing your password or whatever like you got to start

168
00:15:08,118 --> 00:15:14,058
with yourself first always and in bitcoin that's like the number one rule is like if you mess up a

169
00:15:14,058 --> 00:15:19,018
transaction like it's your fault it's nobody else's fault but yours what did the military teach you

170
00:15:19,018 --> 00:15:25,758
about power in people oh for all intents and purposes the military is like a dictatorship

171
00:15:25,758 --> 00:15:29,958
You get humbled when you live in a dictatorship.

172
00:15:31,358 --> 00:15:33,138
So it taught me humility.

173
00:15:33,838 --> 00:15:37,998
It taught me that there's always somebody that's higher in the pecking order.

174
00:15:39,198 --> 00:15:46,618
And you have to properly identify who that is and make sure that you don't end up on the wrong side of things.

175
00:15:46,618 --> 00:15:53,798
and I think for people that have never operated in an environment like that

176
00:15:53,798 --> 00:16:01,398
they are sometimes naive in thinking there aren't outside influence or outside actors

177
00:16:01,398 --> 00:16:05,478
in their environment that can actually shape their world pretty heavily if they

178
00:16:05,478 --> 00:16:12,158
get on the wrong side of things I would maybe argue that it that it sensitized me too far to

179
00:16:12,158 --> 00:16:17,778
the one side. And it's, I think I've learned that, but like when I was in the, in that operating

180
00:16:17,778 --> 00:16:23,778
environment, you start to like maybe pay too much attention to what everybody else is doing and the

181
00:16:23,778 --> 00:16:28,638
sensitivities of like how they can wreck your world if you kind of get on the wrong side of things.

182
00:16:29,598 --> 00:16:33,038
And I think very few people in the military would ever describe it that way,

183
00:16:33,138 --> 00:16:38,518
but that's how I ended up seeing it after observing it and having,

184
00:16:38,798 --> 00:16:41,658
being able to step away from it and looking back at it.

185
00:16:41,658 --> 00:16:52,938
Can you still be honest with yourself or have your own voice when you are so cautious about what people might think or say?

186
00:16:52,938 --> 00:17:04,858
What the challenge becomes is as you would move up in the ranks, what you find is because you have so much more responsibility in the military, you know, you do 10 years, you do 20 years.

187
00:17:05,158 --> 00:17:10,618
By your 20, 25 year mark in the military, you might be leading 40,000 people.

188
00:17:10,618 --> 00:17:22,418
And some of those people that are of the lowest ranks have an extremely difficult time being able to speak truth to power because of the potential ramifications of that environment.

189
00:17:22,418 --> 00:17:29,538
If a leader at that really high level that's operated in that specific type of environment

190
00:17:29,538 --> 00:17:36,078
for many years, sometimes their ego can just get so inflated because they're so used to

191
00:17:36,078 --> 00:17:41,998
people that are very sensitive and don't want to be on the wrong side of things that you

192
00:17:41,998 --> 00:17:48,038
create this ego dynamic that is very powerful and really strong in the person that's achieved

193
00:17:48,038 --> 00:17:50,098
these really higher ranks.

194
00:17:50,098 --> 00:17:53,518
And I'm not saying that that's the case for all leaders in the military.

195
00:17:53,718 --> 00:17:54,098
It's not.

196
00:17:54,938 --> 00:17:57,038
But would I say it's more prevalent?

197
00:17:57,258 --> 00:18:00,958
Yeah, probably a little bit more prevalent than what you would see in the private sector.

198
00:18:01,218 --> 00:18:02,038
Maybe, maybe not.

199
00:18:02,118 --> 00:18:02,658
I don't know.

200
00:18:03,078 --> 00:18:04,198
And so is it difficult?

201
00:18:04,398 --> 00:18:05,498
Yeah, I think it is difficult.

202
00:18:06,718 --> 00:18:11,098
But it doesn't mean it can't be done in a way that you stay humble.

203
00:18:11,678 --> 00:18:16,798
Even now, with the amount of followers you've got, are you cautious with what you say?

204
00:18:16,798 --> 00:18:46,378
Yeah, I think maybe my time in the military has made me a little bit more sensitive to making sure that I'm not saying something too controversial, maybe. Because I mean, there's some people in the space that they don't care who they offend or anything. And I would say if I have to audit myself or like be really introspective in that, I would say that, yeah, I think I probably am a little bit more on the I'm sensitive to as to what how what I say, how I say it so that I don't really kind of.

205
00:18:46,798 --> 00:18:56,878
bifurcate or upset too many people. And that can be a real downfall because we really need to be

206
00:18:56,878 --> 00:19:01,958
just focused on one thing, which is the truth, and make sure that that's what we're talking about.

207
00:19:03,378 --> 00:19:04,578
It's only human, I think.

208
00:19:04,718 --> 00:19:06,918
Yeah, I think it is. Yeah, I agree. Yeah.

209
00:19:06,918 --> 00:19:12,158
If you could go back to any moment in your life, not to change it, but to relive it,

210
00:19:12,158 --> 00:19:13,378
Which one would it be?

211
00:19:14,878 --> 00:19:19,118
You know, when I was first dating my wife, right?

212
00:19:19,278 --> 00:19:21,178
Like, that was a pretty special moment.

213
00:19:21,438 --> 00:19:26,598
And it's one of those things that, like, you can only have those feelings and those...

214
00:19:28,518 --> 00:19:32,178
Even after years of marriage, like, it's just different.

215
00:19:32,178 --> 00:19:34,658
Like, we look at each other way more like friends.

216
00:19:35,138 --> 00:19:36,858
And you're raising kids.

217
00:19:37,218 --> 00:19:42,058
And, like, that spark, you know, that love spark that you have very early on.

218
00:19:42,158 --> 00:19:48,758
is, I mean, that's really hard to like re-experience again, right? I guess I'd go back

219
00:19:48,758 --> 00:19:53,178
and maybe do that all over again because it was really fun. It was fun.

220
00:19:54,018 --> 00:19:59,538
What did your 25-year-old self-belief that you right now reject?

221
00:20:00,558 --> 00:20:08,218
Well, in general, I was just really naive at 25 compared to what I am now. And I think it was

222
00:20:08,218 --> 00:20:16,818
just mostly my worldview. I bought into my patriotic duty to the country and all that.

223
00:20:17,018 --> 00:20:23,738
And I'm not saying that I don't feel like the United States, the country I'm from,

224
00:20:24,098 --> 00:20:33,738
has enormous benefits and good. I just think that I was naive to the idea that maybe some of the

225
00:20:33,738 --> 00:20:41,658
antics as it relates to things like the IMF and the World Bank and just the defense industrial

226
00:20:41,658 --> 00:20:48,538
complex and how corrupted a lot of this is, I had no idea how any of that worked at 25.

227
00:20:49,098 --> 00:20:59,298
And I totally reject a lot of that. Very simply, I didn't realize how corrupted the US dollar

228
00:20:59,298 --> 00:21:06,798
was and like what it was really kind of doing to the rest of the world because of that dollar

229
00:21:06,798 --> 00:21:12,578
dominance and the currency arbitrage that existed between the U.S. and all these. And you know what,

230
00:21:12,578 --> 00:21:20,058
even though, and I'll say that in one breath, and I'll also say that the natural laws of nature

231
00:21:20,058 --> 00:21:30,178
are going to provide, has already provided the ramifications of that to America. And what I mean

232
00:21:30,178 --> 00:21:37,078
by that is the benefit of the dollar supremacy that we had, we've already paid the cost and the

233
00:21:37,078 --> 00:21:44,218
cost is all the work and all the jobs and all of the ability to actually produce things locally and

234
00:21:44,218 --> 00:21:50,638
domestically was exported out of the country. And now the U S has a major problem because of that

235
00:21:50,638 --> 00:21:58,158
benefit that they've already received. So as I talk about that, I'm not pointing my finger and

236
00:21:58,158 --> 00:22:06,938
saying, I hate the word wrong and right, because I think that nature has a way of providing the

237
00:22:06,938 --> 00:22:12,218
ramification for the, it's almost like the advantage and the disadvantage are literally

238
00:22:12,218 --> 00:22:20,858
tethered together like a rope. And that has already kind of metastasized in a way that I'm

239
00:22:20,858 --> 00:22:25,678
not saying it was right or wrong. I'm just saying the cost has already been realized,

240
00:22:25,838 --> 00:22:30,378
whether people realize it or not. And I was totally naive to all of this. I just had no

241
00:22:30,378 --> 00:22:37,158
idea of any of it. What's a piece of advice you got early on that you ignored but later realized

242
00:22:37,158 --> 00:22:46,098
was dead on? The thing that was really impressed upon me at West Point was just your integrity

243
00:22:46,098 --> 00:22:53,638
and how important it is. I'm not implying that I wasn't acting with integrity when I was younger,

244
00:22:54,138 --> 00:22:58,798
but I think when I was younger, I just didn't really... I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it.

245
00:22:58,938 --> 00:23:03,438
I've got to be a good person. And at West Point, it's don't lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those

246
00:23:03,438 --> 00:23:08,818
that do. I mean, it is crammed down your throat at the academy and I heard it so much. And for me,

247
00:23:08,818 --> 00:23:13,318
I was like, yeah, I know that stuff's important, but good Lord, can we stop saying it so much?

248
00:23:13,478 --> 00:23:18,878
Like, geez, it felt very preachy. And I just didn't, I don't think I understood the importance

249
00:23:18,878 --> 00:23:27,558
of it at that age. When did it click? Probably in my thirties, mid thirties, I would say I started

250
00:23:27,558 --> 00:23:32,938
like, because when I started really thinking about it, I was thinking to myself, okay, so like, why?

251
00:23:32,938 --> 00:23:35,378
Like, that's a question I've asked myself a lot.

252
00:23:35,438 --> 00:23:35,878
It's like, why?

253
00:23:36,078 --> 00:23:36,818
Then why again?

254
00:23:36,898 --> 00:23:38,398
Then why three more times after that?

255
00:23:38,918 --> 00:23:44,178
When you are socially interacting with somebody and you don't do what you say, like if I tell

256
00:23:44,178 --> 00:23:50,418
you I'm going to do something and then I don't, I am reducing the trust, the social trust

257
00:23:50,418 --> 00:23:51,938
that I have with somebody else.

258
00:23:52,578 --> 00:24:11,216
And what I actually doing is I creating more volatility and variance in my own life because now that person may or may not trust me the next time I say something or do something again And there a book by Stephen Covey not the son of the Stephen Covey the five

259
00:24:11,216 --> 00:24:16,036
elements of success. But the book is called The Speed of Trust. His son's book is called The Speed

260
00:24:16,036 --> 00:24:23,656
of Trust. And in the book, he talks about when trust goes down, cost goes up. And as a Bitcoiner,

261
00:24:23,656 --> 00:24:27,116
we can all appreciate the idea that cost is actually energy.

262
00:24:27,536 --> 00:24:27,716
Okay.

263
00:24:28,136 --> 00:24:33,576
So if we stick to this rule that like when trust between two people goes down,

264
00:24:33,796 --> 00:24:36,416
the energy level goes up,

265
00:24:36,576 --> 00:24:40,956
which means I have to work harder and do more things to sustain what could be

266
00:24:40,956 --> 00:24:41,216
there.

267
00:24:41,376 --> 00:24:42,396
If the trust was higher,

268
00:24:42,976 --> 00:24:49,336
you're more efficient when you're trustworthy and it requires less energy and

269
00:24:49,336 --> 00:24:50,396
you can be more effective.

270
00:24:51,016 --> 00:24:53,276
This episode is brought to you by Bitbox.

271
00:24:53,276 --> 00:24:56,016
the Bitcoin hardware wallet that guards your sovereignty.

272
00:24:56,656 --> 00:25:02,136
The Bitcoin-only Bitbox 02 Nova is Swiss-built, intuitive, fully open source,

273
00:25:02,276 --> 00:25:06,356
comes with a micro SD card and is protected by a secure element.

274
00:25:06,676 --> 00:25:10,576
So keep your Bitcoin on your Bitbox offline and safe where it belongs.

275
00:25:11,056 --> 00:25:18,676
Go to bitbox.swiss slash allinbitcoin for 5% off or use the code allinbitcoin or check the show notes.

276
00:25:18,676 --> 00:25:34,156
It might sound like I'm bargaining with why you should be an honest person, right? But I'm also trying to just look at it from a, how can you operate in your environment most effectively?

277
00:25:34,156 --> 00:25:49,696
And I would say that I think when you really do lean into this idea of don't lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those that do, and you live that kind of life, you're going to probably have a more enjoyable life because it's a little easier for you.

278
00:25:50,416 --> 00:26:00,756
But it took me a long time to really appreciate something that I think everybody just intuitively knows, but whether you actually act on it is a whole different thing.

279
00:26:00,756 --> 00:26:03,456
but I think when people start to act on it,

280
00:26:03,476 --> 00:26:05,956
they're going to find that their life just gets a little bit easier and a

281
00:26:05,956 --> 00:26:08,236
little bit more fun and a more and more enjoyable.

282
00:26:08,536 --> 00:26:09,716
I think that's a great tip.

283
00:26:10,556 --> 00:26:12,476
What's your relationship to ambition?

284
00:26:14,016 --> 00:26:15,656
Oh, that's an interesting one.

285
00:26:18,036 --> 00:26:19,736
And has it changed over time?

286
00:26:19,836 --> 00:26:21,756
Yeah, I think so. I think it has.

287
00:26:22,616 --> 00:26:25,956
I think a lot of people will just immediately like equate it to their work

288
00:26:25,956 --> 00:26:27,896
or like what they're doing professionally.

289
00:26:27,896 --> 00:26:45,776
I guess for me, I aspire to be just a good steward of raising my kids and doing good on the people that I love that are in my life, trying to be a good example, trying to be a giving person.

290
00:26:46,436 --> 00:26:53,296
I always try to give more than I take, whether that's through knowledge, monetary, whatever.

291
00:26:53,296 --> 00:27:00,336
I believe that the world around me is actually just a mirror for me to observe my own actions

292
00:27:00,336 --> 00:27:05,956
and myself. And so as I'm having these interactions, if I'm always taking from my environment,

293
00:27:06,176 --> 00:27:13,936
what I'm actually going to see is kind of a much darker picture than if I'm emitting energy and

294
00:27:13,936 --> 00:27:19,016
energy into the system. What was your ambition when you were younger?

295
00:27:19,016 --> 00:27:26,696
Yeah. When I was younger, I had like this total false sense of ambition is like, oh, yeah, well,

296
00:27:26,756 --> 00:27:33,156
if I can make some money, then I can, you know, do anything I want and I'm going to have fun and I

297
00:27:33,156 --> 00:27:39,636
can, you know, I mean, the classic, the classic blunder of anybody that's young, right? Like you

298
00:27:39,636 --> 00:27:47,616
just get wiser through the years, mostly through pain and being humbled. And yeah, so like I had

299
00:27:47,616 --> 00:27:58,216
ambitions. I never had ambitions to, uh, be recognized. Like I never had ambitions to be,

300
00:27:58,216 --> 00:28:04,736
you know, like have people know who I was. That was never an ambition for me. Um,

301
00:28:05,036 --> 00:28:12,096
I was much more, uh, wanting to have control. I think that was, I think that might be what it,

302
00:28:12,096 --> 00:28:17,336
And maybe that's because of the military piece that I wanted to have control.

303
00:28:17,736 --> 00:28:25,136
And I thought early on, well, if I can be a really good investor and I can make some money, then I can be on the controls and I won't have to answer to anybody.

304
00:28:25,136 --> 00:28:26,136
I can do whatever I want.

305
00:28:26,136 --> 00:28:30,576
I was ambitious for having the levers or the controls.

306
00:28:31,856 --> 00:28:32,076
Yeah.

307
00:28:33,036 --> 00:28:38,556
What personal values do you refuse to compromise on, even if they cost you personally?

308
00:28:38,556 --> 00:29:03,916
I don't need to make an extra buck to, and in Bitcoin, an extra sat at the expense of somebody else's detriment. Like anything that I engage in, I want it to be a win-win. If I'm winning, the person who I'm engaging with also needs the win.

309
00:29:03,916 --> 00:29:11,736
And I think that's the one thing that you see all these crypto token scam, clown coin this,

310
00:29:12,576 --> 00:29:18,276
and then for all intents and purposes, they were all just giant rug pulls that somebody was

311
00:29:18,276 --> 00:29:24,436
getting value extraction out of somebody else's loss. It was a lopsided. It was not a win-win

312
00:29:24,436 --> 00:29:32,876
situation. And so for me, that's always been extremely undesirable. And somebody could say,

313
00:29:32,876 --> 00:29:39,336
oh, well, you could make $100 million doing this thing. I was like, yeah, right, go screw yourself.

314
00:29:39,616 --> 00:29:44,596
I have no desire for any of that unless it's a win-win.

315
00:29:45,556 --> 00:29:49,116
What's the hardest truth you had to accept about yourself?

316
00:29:50,016 --> 00:29:57,976
I have a really hard time telling people no. And what it leads to, the effect of that is I then

317
00:29:57,976 --> 00:30:07,216
overextend myself. I get involved in too many things. And I think I try to please too many

318
00:30:07,216 --> 00:30:17,496
people. It does drain me. And then the effects of being drained and not, because then it wears on

319
00:30:17,496 --> 00:30:20,736
you and then you can't be the person that you want to be around the ones that you love most.

320
00:30:21,676 --> 00:30:27,216
And so I think that that side of me, and I think some of that actually comes from my military

321
00:30:27,216 --> 00:30:35,256
service too, because in the military, you just like never tell your boss, no. If the boss,

322
00:30:35,596 --> 00:30:42,896
whoever I'm working for says, Preston, can you get to the top of that mountain in 10 minutes?

323
00:30:43,336 --> 00:30:48,376
And the answer is, yes, sir. And you might not have any clue how the heck you're going to do that.

324
00:30:48,756 --> 00:30:54,476
But in the military, you're wired to always figure it out. And if for whatever reason,

325
00:30:54,476 --> 00:31:00,036
you can't figure it out, then you go back to your body and say, sir, I've done these 10 different

326
00:31:00,036 --> 00:31:05,576
courses of action. The fastest I can get there is 12 minutes. Does that work? And if not, I'll go

327
00:31:05,576 --> 00:31:09,836
back to the drawing board and try to find another 10 courses of action so I can get to the 10 minutes.

328
00:31:10,676 --> 00:31:17,476
And so in that, you can see how you're always trying to find a way to get something done,

329
00:31:17,536 --> 00:31:22,596
regardless of how hard it is. It doesn't matter how hard it is. You could come up with the craziest

330
00:31:22,596 --> 00:31:27,716
thing ever and hand it to me and I'd say, I can do it. Or I'm going to give it my best try to get

331
00:31:27,716 --> 00:31:32,776
that done and I'm going to come back and tell you how I'm going to do it. But with that comes this

332
00:31:32,776 --> 00:31:38,656
wiring of you're always saying yes and that you can always figure out a way to get something done.

333
00:31:39,896 --> 00:31:47,616
And so that has spilled into just like who I am and it's extreme. I know it's extreme

334
00:31:47,616 --> 00:31:49,436
and it's hard to turn that off.

335
00:31:50,316 --> 00:31:51,396
What's something about you

336
00:31:51,396 --> 00:31:53,556
that even your close friends misunderstand?

337
00:31:54,596 --> 00:31:56,256
I think most people misunderstand

338
00:31:56,256 --> 00:31:59,616
how disinterested I am in most conversations.

339
00:32:00,376 --> 00:32:00,876
Uh-huh.

340
00:32:02,096 --> 00:32:05,116
I have things that I am interested in

341
00:32:05,116 --> 00:32:08,036
and most of them are usually pretty technical

342
00:32:08,036 --> 00:32:10,816
and pretty boring to most people.

343
00:32:11,756 --> 00:32:13,156
Like when people come up to me

344
00:32:13,156 --> 00:32:16,376
and they talk about like sports team XYZ

345
00:32:16,376 --> 00:32:17,536
and like what they did,

346
00:32:17,616 --> 00:32:23,396
I am literally like, dear God, like shoot me.

347
00:32:24,116 --> 00:32:26,896
For me, it's a super brain dead conversation.

348
00:32:27,396 --> 00:32:29,556
Like I love complexity.

349
00:32:29,556 --> 00:32:32,436
I love trying to understand complex things.

350
00:32:32,636 --> 00:32:36,236
Like quantum computing is so complex and I'm like a pig in mud.

351
00:32:36,316 --> 00:32:39,536
Like I just want to try to wrap my head around how it works.

352
00:32:39,536 --> 00:32:44,696
And no matter how deep or how hard I try to understand it, it just seems to always be

353
00:32:44,696 --> 00:32:46,516
so elusive and difficult.

354
00:32:46,516 --> 00:32:47,856
until like I can't look away.

355
00:32:48,396 --> 00:32:50,236
Like if somebody wants to talk about that,

356
00:32:50,776 --> 00:32:51,636
I could literally,

357
00:32:51,936 --> 00:32:54,956
I'd become the most extroverted person you've ever met.

358
00:32:55,496 --> 00:32:57,576
But if you come and talk to me about something

359
00:32:57,576 --> 00:33:01,616
that lacks complexity or intellectual rigor,

360
00:33:02,536 --> 00:33:03,456
I'm just like,

361
00:33:03,736 --> 00:33:06,036
I can't get away from the person fast enough.

362
00:33:06,336 --> 00:33:07,536
And the whole time I'm there,

363
00:33:07,596 --> 00:33:09,256
I'm like smiling and like nodding my head

364
00:33:09,256 --> 00:33:11,156
because I don't want to be rude.

365
00:33:12,256 --> 00:33:13,896
But deep down inside,

366
00:33:13,896 --> 00:33:16,336
I'm thinking this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

367
00:33:16,516 --> 00:33:21,516
and I'm very bad at expressing that.

368
00:33:21,656 --> 00:33:23,376
Like I think most people would think that,

369
00:33:23,496 --> 00:33:25,296
oh, wow, he really enjoyed that conversation.

370
00:33:25,296 --> 00:33:27,476
But what I was really thinking was this is so stupid.

371
00:33:28,076 --> 00:33:28,596
Yeah.

372
00:33:29,816 --> 00:33:30,336
Okay.

373
00:33:30,596 --> 00:33:32,596
So is it happening right now?

374
00:33:33,336 --> 00:33:34,416
No, this is amazing.

375
00:33:34,676 --> 00:33:36,116
Of course, glad you're going to say.

376
00:33:36,316 --> 00:33:39,816
No, I enjoy these types of questions

377
00:33:39,816 --> 00:33:44,076
because these questions have deep compression.

378
00:33:44,076 --> 00:33:51,816
And for me, I love going really deep into the compression of why somebody is the way that they are.

379
00:33:52,096 --> 00:33:53,876
I love studying psychology.

380
00:33:54,136 --> 00:33:58,136
I love cognitive discussions of how the brain works.

381
00:33:58,656 --> 00:34:01,376
And these are the types of questions I never get asked.

382
00:34:01,716 --> 00:34:04,656
These are the types of questions I love to talk about.

383
00:34:04,816 --> 00:34:05,036
Yes.

384
00:34:05,296 --> 00:34:05,956
Thank you.

385
00:34:06,296 --> 00:34:09,436
What's your filter for when to speak up and when to stay silent?

386
00:34:09,436 --> 00:34:19,736
when I feel like somebody is uh being treated unjustly sets me off I have a very hard time

387
00:34:19,736 --> 00:34:25,336
filtering myself and and it doesn't matter if I know the person or not like if I'm walking down

388
00:34:25,336 --> 00:34:31,316
the street like when I'm in the presence of somebody that is clearly doing something wrong

389
00:34:31,316 --> 00:34:38,136
and unjust to somebody else and I and I know with a very high probability that they know they're

390
00:34:38,136 --> 00:34:48,096
doing it, you will have a very hard time keeping my mouth shut. Drives my wife crazy, but I will

391
00:34:48,096 --> 00:34:54,356
speak up. I will put the person in their place immediately. Can you give us an example? If you're

392
00:34:54,356 --> 00:34:59,216
in a line to get coffee. Wow. Then you have plenty of examples. It happens all the time.

393
00:34:59,336 --> 00:35:06,016
You're in a line to get coffee and somebody clearly makes it seem like they didn't know

394
00:35:06,016 --> 00:35:07,736
that the line was going this way

395
00:35:07,736 --> 00:35:09,616
and they clearly just cut you.

396
00:35:09,896 --> 00:35:12,036
Like they, and you can tell they did.

397
00:35:12,296 --> 00:35:13,696
And I only would speak up

398
00:35:13,696 --> 00:35:17,816
if I had a very high probability in my mind

399
00:35:17,816 --> 00:35:19,116
that they looked at the person,

400
00:35:19,216 --> 00:35:20,356
they're like, well, screw them.

401
00:35:20,416 --> 00:35:21,516
I'm more important than them.

402
00:35:21,636 --> 00:35:22,616
I will be relentless.

403
00:35:23,416 --> 00:35:24,836
Like, I just can't take it.

404
00:35:25,296 --> 00:35:29,596
How do you switch between introverted and extroverted?

405
00:35:30,256 --> 00:35:31,636
For me, it's just like

406
00:35:31,636 --> 00:35:33,616
whether I actually have an interest in the topic.

407
00:35:33,836 --> 00:35:34,116
Okay.

408
00:35:34,116 --> 00:35:44,036
It could be somebody I don't even know, but if they're talking about something that I find intellectually stimulating, I will be super engaged with that person.

409
00:35:45,816 --> 00:35:56,836
But if I feel like the conversation is not intellectual or that there's learning or complexity to it, I'll just be nodding my head and not saying anything.

410
00:35:57,256 --> 00:35:58,116
I am introverted.

411
00:35:58,396 --> 00:36:15,254
And for me it really difficult I can see the injustice in the world but for me it really difficult to speak up When I in the presence of somebody that is parasitic I have no problems letting them know that I think they parasitic

412
00:36:16,814 --> 00:36:25,574
And I think that goes to just the core essence of what I believe in, which is helping other people, always finding the win-win.

413
00:36:25,574 --> 00:36:36,754
And so whenever I get around a person that is clearly breaking that rule of life and they're just being selfish, I think that's what it is.

414
00:36:36,754 --> 00:36:40,154
I can't stand selfish people.

415
00:36:41,034 --> 00:36:42,554
Cannot stand them.

416
00:36:43,994 --> 00:36:48,974
And it comes out in full display when I see it happening very overtly.

417
00:36:49,274 --> 00:36:53,434
I have no problem telling them straight to their face.

418
00:36:53,434 --> 00:37:00,634
in a very descriptive way. But I want to say this too. I want to say this too.

419
00:37:00,994 --> 00:37:09,934
I also have an appreciation for not pulling certain people into my sphere of my gravitational

420
00:37:09,934 --> 00:37:17,134
pull because I understand that they can pull me into their parasitic nature. So am I going to

421
00:37:17,134 --> 00:37:22,094
super engage with somebody that I think is just a degenerate parasitic person?

422
00:37:22,094 --> 00:37:28,214
I might fire a shot to let them know that I think they're a parasite, but it's not going

423
00:37:28,214 --> 00:37:32,474
to be much more than that because I quickly want to disengage and have nothing to do.

424
00:37:32,614 --> 00:37:35,074
They cannot be far enough away from me.

425
00:37:35,814 --> 00:37:35,994
Yeah.

426
00:37:36,454 --> 00:37:39,374
You've built your brand on asking great questions.

427
00:37:39,854 --> 00:37:41,594
What's a question that's haunted you?

428
00:37:42,794 --> 00:37:49,474
So when you say the word haunt, fear immediately comes to mind, right?

429
00:37:49,474 --> 00:37:55,894
And I like to think that I'm not too fearful of too many things.

430
00:37:56,614 --> 00:37:58,474
Fear is the opposite of hope.

431
00:37:59,574 --> 00:38:03,074
Fear is a very dark thing.

432
00:38:03,994 --> 00:38:07,914
And I think my time in combat, I mean, I saw some pretty scary stuff.

433
00:38:08,974 --> 00:38:10,614
I saw some pretty dark stuff.

434
00:38:11,114 --> 00:38:18,894
And my core takeaway from when I came back alive from that was I'm not going to be scared

435
00:38:18,894 --> 00:38:19,414
of anything.

436
00:38:19,474 --> 00:38:27,654
I'm not going to be scared of anything because we're all here for a reason. And we're here to

437
00:38:27,654 --> 00:38:37,294
to inspire, to give hope, to create value for others and not just ourselves. Right. And so

438
00:38:37,294 --> 00:38:44,654
going to this haunt, like what haunts me or the question, like I just, all I, all I hear in that

439
00:38:44,654 --> 00:38:51,074
is fear. And I like to say, I would look fear like straight in the eyes and give it the middle finger.

440
00:38:52,134 --> 00:38:59,194
What I'm trying to discover is truth. And so the questions that I'm asking are all different

441
00:38:59,194 --> 00:39:06,914
vectors to try to unlock or express the truth out of something that seems to be somewhat difficult

442
00:39:06,914 --> 00:39:12,154
to understand what the truth is. So like you look at the global economy, like why am I studying this

443
00:39:12,154 --> 00:39:18,194
super complex machine that, you know, I think everybody would argue is impossible to properly

444
00:39:18,194 --> 00:39:23,254
define. And the reason why I'm asking the questions from all these different vectors is so that the

445
00:39:23,254 --> 00:39:30,274
truth or like some semblance of the truth can kind of pop out of that with respect to some mental

446
00:39:30,274 --> 00:39:35,854
model that helps us define our environment. And I think that's also where it comes from is

447
00:39:35,854 --> 00:39:45,814
If I can properly define my environment, I can now most effectively operate inside of my environment, which maybe goes back to this idea of control.

448
00:39:46,454 --> 00:39:46,974
Right?

449
00:39:47,294 --> 00:39:50,014
When I prepare these questions, they are very personal to me.

450
00:39:50,174 --> 00:39:54,154
And for me, I think the question is, is Bitcoin going to make it?

451
00:39:54,154 --> 00:40:08,234
I look at it as we are participants in the idea of Bitcoin, which is a sound money alternative to this blob of a parasitic system.

452
00:40:08,974 --> 00:40:22,174
I think the way I would maybe reframe that question is, am I doing enough, going back to this idea of taking self-responsibility, am I doing enough to make sure that Bitcoin is successful for humanity?

453
00:40:22,174 --> 00:40:30,934
And a lot of my love for Bitcoin comes from the fiat system incentivizes violence.

454
00:40:32,234 --> 00:40:37,694
Because at the core, you have countries that have incentives with their local currencies.

455
00:40:38,774 --> 00:40:45,454
And when you're in this global race of fiat currency debasement, one of the easiest ways

456
00:40:45,454 --> 00:40:50,774
to print a bunch of money and the populace to get behind it is through patriotism, war,

457
00:40:50,774 --> 00:40:51,574
and violence.

458
00:40:52,174 --> 00:40:59,234
And so as a person who literally, you know, experienced that on the front lines, getting

459
00:40:59,234 --> 00:41:05,734
shot at as I'm flying missions, there is nothing, in my humble opinion, there's nothing more

460
00:41:05,734 --> 00:41:13,374
important in my lifetime than ensuring the success of a money that doesn't create this

461
00:41:13,374 --> 00:41:20,094
friction between the governments in the countries around the world and that everybody's operating

462
00:41:20,094 --> 00:41:26,514
off of the same unit of settlement. So what am I doing? What is Preston Pysh doing to ensure the

463
00:41:26,514 --> 00:41:34,654
success of that? Because we are working together collaboratively as a human race to usher that in

464
00:41:34,654 --> 00:41:41,794
or to not usher that in. What's a topic you're dying to explore but haven't yet?

465
00:41:42,474 --> 00:41:49,334
I've explored most of the topics that I have an interest in on the show, especially now that I'm

466
00:41:49,334 --> 00:41:58,254
covering tech more recently on the show. But I would argue that my understanding of AI and just

467
00:41:58,254 --> 00:42:04,414
cognition in general is extremely weak and something that I could spend,

468
00:42:05,254 --> 00:42:10,754
I'm sure, more than a lifetime studying and still wouldn't be able to fully grasp.

469
00:42:11,854 --> 00:42:17,554
I find that really fascinating right now. I find the humanoid robotic stuff, as an example,

470
00:42:17,554 --> 00:42:25,774
like a question I have asked myself and I think any human has asked themselves quite a bit is like,

471
00:42:25,774 --> 00:42:31,194
okay, so like, what's the real deal here? Like, why are we here? Like, what's this all about?

472
00:42:32,354 --> 00:42:38,974
And, um, I find myself as I'm studying AI and humanoid robotics and like partitioning

473
00:42:38,974 --> 00:42:46,974
intelligence inside of a, you know, a humanoid robot to actually maybe somewhat answer like

474
00:42:46,974 --> 00:42:51,254
life's like greatest question, which is like, why the hell are we here? Studying those types of

475
00:42:51,254 --> 00:42:57,894
things for me is a frontier that I would love to cover more. I'm also really interested in just

476
00:42:57,894 --> 00:43:03,234
like longevity and biology in general. I like studying that. And it just all goes to this idea

477
00:43:03,234 --> 00:43:09,494
of like, they're super complex and really difficult to, to understand the truth of like the matter of

478
00:43:09,494 --> 00:43:15,454
like, what is all this? So that's why I think I, I love going into some of those areas, maybe a

479
00:43:15,454 --> 00:43:22,514
little bit more in the future. Yeah. What are you more drawn to building something new or fixing

480
00:43:22,514 --> 00:43:30,594
what's broken? I look at it more from what will create the most value to the most people possible.

481
00:43:31,534 --> 00:43:37,154
And if it's something that just needs to be fixed that already exists, then do that. But if it's

482
00:43:37,154 --> 00:43:40,894
something that needs to be built from the ground up because it's never existed before, then let's

483
00:43:40,894 --> 00:43:47,714
do that. But I'm looking more at the end state of what is going to have a larger impact to the most

484
00:43:47,714 --> 00:43:53,114
participants to bring value to them. And do I need to fix something that's already there? Or do I

485
00:43:53,114 --> 00:43:56,994
need to build something completely new? And then that's how I would make the decision. But it would

486
00:43:56,994 --> 00:44:00,534
be more focused on the end state than- It's the mind of an engineer.

487
00:44:00,934 --> 00:44:01,294
Yeah.

488
00:44:01,734 --> 00:44:06,754
How do you explain the idea of sovereignty to someone who has never questioned the system?

489
00:44:06,754 --> 00:44:19,194
I suspect when you get around somebody who's never questioned the system, it's probably more correlated to the pain that they've experienced in their life.

490
00:44:20,694 --> 00:44:34,834
So people that grew up in a country with just severe oppression and the government's taking from them, they inherently know exactly what sovereignty is.

491
00:44:34,834 --> 00:44:36,254
They don't even have to know the word.

492
00:44:36,574 --> 00:44:37,994
They know what that is.

493
00:44:39,274 --> 00:44:44,674
For a person who grew up, I mean, based on the conversation we had earlier in the show,

494
00:44:44,794 --> 00:44:52,734
my upbringing does not really prepare you for really truly understanding what sovereignty

495
00:44:52,734 --> 00:44:57,154
is all about because you've lived a pretty stable, good life.

496
00:44:57,794 --> 00:45:03,634
So for me, I would really argue sovereignty is much more of an academic idea than something

497
00:45:03,634 --> 00:45:06,174
that I was able to experience firsthand.

498
00:45:07,994 --> 00:45:10,674
And I feel very fortunate

499
00:45:10,674 --> 00:45:12,894
that I've been around the right people

500
00:45:12,894 --> 00:45:16,274
and read the right authors and things like that

501
00:45:16,274 --> 00:45:19,914
to somewhat grasp the importance of it.

502
00:45:20,094 --> 00:45:22,374
What I would tell people that are maybe listening to this

503
00:45:22,374 --> 00:45:23,854
that have lived a pretty good life.

504
00:45:24,054 --> 00:45:25,514
How would you explain it to them?

505
00:45:25,514 --> 00:45:31,354
I would tell them sovereignty is when you have control

506
00:45:31,354 --> 00:45:38,714
of your autonomy to go out there. And if you want to go wherever in the world,

507
00:45:38,714 --> 00:45:45,114
you don't have to be relying on anybody else to grant you that right. You can just do it.

508
00:45:45,614 --> 00:45:51,754
You can take full control yourself to do whatever you want. And that's the sovereignty

509
00:45:51,754 --> 00:45:56,674
that everybody thinks they might have. If you don't move right or left.

510
00:45:56,674 --> 00:46:03,094
But sometimes they find out maybe they don't actually have that sovereignty when they would try to make that decision.

511
00:46:03,094 --> 00:46:13,254
And unfortunately, a lot of the times when people try to make that decision in a dire setup, that's when they uncover that they actually never did have sovereignty.

512
00:46:13,494 --> 00:46:13,674
Yeah.

513
00:46:14,094 --> 00:46:14,354
Yeah.

514
00:46:14,794 --> 00:46:17,634
What keeps you grounded even when the noise is loud?

515
00:46:17,994 --> 00:46:18,854
Oh, this is easy.

516
00:46:19,174 --> 00:46:19,554
Okay.

517
00:46:19,674 --> 00:46:20,254
My family.

518
00:46:20,734 --> 00:46:21,414
Your family.

519
00:46:21,814 --> 00:46:24,374
They have no problems putting me in my place.

520
00:46:24,374 --> 00:46:28,814
so what's something about you that's completely misunderstood

521
00:46:28,814 --> 00:46:39,354
i don't think a lot of people understand how polarizing combat was for me

522
00:46:39,354 --> 00:46:45,834
um they don't understand how that shaped me morally and ethically

523
00:46:45,834 --> 00:46:53,494
in that i will not compromise my values for for anything because of that experience

524
00:46:53,494 --> 00:46:56,654
because it was so like disgusting.

525
00:46:56,654 --> 00:46:59,774
I mean, it was pretty much the most horrific

526
00:46:59,774 --> 00:47:05,254
like human experience, pitiful human,

527
00:47:06,414 --> 00:47:08,334
just, it was just disgusting, right?

528
00:47:08,934 --> 00:47:14,874
And seeing that for literally two years of my life,

529
00:47:15,294 --> 00:47:17,034
it shaped me pretty heavily.

530
00:47:17,854 --> 00:47:19,514
And I don't talk about it

531
00:47:19,514 --> 00:47:23,314
and I don't really ever get into the details in interviews.

532
00:47:23,494 --> 00:47:33,134
but um at the heart of like who i am and like what i do in anything it's heavily influenced

533
00:47:33,134 --> 00:47:38,434
and shaped by what i saw and what i experienced in those moments that's where i left it with

534
00:47:38,434 --> 00:47:44,674
preston part two dropping on march 18th goes somewhere i didn't expect and he reveals something

535
00:47:44,674 --> 00:47:49,694
i didn't see coming follow subscribe and hit the bell you want to hear this one

536
00:47:53,494 --> 00:48:14,774
Outro