1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,560 Hello and welcome. My name is Kyle and this is How You Level Up, a podcast that decodes 2 00:00:08,560 --> 00:00:11,180 language to help you become your best self. 3 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:26,480 All right, should we get going? Who wants to, Kyle, do you want to like lead off and 4 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:27,820 host or how do you want to do it? 5 00:00:27,820 --> 00:00:36,020 um i appreciate the offer i feel like whoever picked the book can sort of be the host at that 6 00:00:36,020 --> 00:00:46,540 for that episode um or at least lead okay all right let me think about how i want to do this 7 00:00:46,540 --> 00:00:56,680 um all right i can just just get started so breakneck was is a book by dan wang 8 00:00:56,680 --> 00:01:01,540 And I first heard about Dan on the blog he writes. 9 00:01:01,660 --> 00:01:09,520 I forget the blog name, but basically he puts out an annual letter and he's been doing that for, I think, the last five years or so. 10 00:01:10,020 --> 00:01:20,600 And he's well known in the tech industry for these letters because they're really, really comprehensive about everything going on in the tech world in China. 11 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:26,140 And so he really made a name for himself with these annual letters. 12 00:01:26,140 --> 00:01:28,940 And then he released this book. 13 00:01:29,100 --> 00:01:34,120 I think he only released it maybe a few months ago, maybe three months ago or something. 14 00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:39,220 And I just started seeing really good reviews by a lot of tech people. 15 00:01:39,220 --> 00:01:44,240 Like if you look at some of the like the CEO of Stripe, Patrick Collison has a has a note here. 16 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:46,720 Tyler Cowen is like one of the best economists. 17 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:48,440 He has a note on the front cover. 18 00:01:49,060 --> 00:01:52,440 And so I didn't really know like too much what to expect. 19 00:01:52,440 --> 00:02:01,080 I had heard a little bit about it, the kind of dichotomy of the lawyerly society versus the engineering society. 20 00:02:01,380 --> 00:02:04,900 And that was really like an interesting idea to me. 21 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:08,340 And that's one of the main reasons why I wanted to get into the book. 22 00:02:08,420 --> 00:02:13,680 So I would say, you know, really surpassed my expectations. 23 00:02:14,220 --> 00:02:22,180 It was extremely eye opening book when you when he really talks about and I thought he did such a good job of like. 24 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:28,220 weaving both U.S. and China into the same conversation. 25 00:02:28,500 --> 00:02:30,480 And like he talked about China separately a lot, 26 00:02:30,540 --> 00:02:34,860 but then he would sort of compare it and contrast it to his experiences in the U.S. 27 00:02:34,860 --> 00:02:36,580 because he's lived in both countries. 28 00:02:37,660 --> 00:02:47,000 And I just thought the, you know, the premise of the book is where, you know, 29 00:02:47,060 --> 00:02:48,500 there's two superpowers now. 30 00:02:48,500 --> 00:02:57,140 There's the U.S. and China, and we're both really great countries in certain ways, and we're both really bad countries in other ways. 31 00:02:57,340 --> 00:03:06,700 And they just happen to be like the exact opposites, you know, like we're good for the reasons they're bad and they're good for the reasons we're bad. 32 00:03:06,700 --> 00:03:22,140 And basically the premise of the book is China has mastered an engineering culture that where they've surrounded the top brass of Xi are all engineers. 33 00:03:22,620 --> 00:03:30,300 And they've been able to engineer not only cities, but also culture and society. 34 00:03:30,300 --> 00:03:38,620 right with with a flip of the of the switch they're able to control um massive uh huge parts of 35 00:03:38,620 --> 00:03:46,340 of society um i guess i'm going on for a bit but uh that was like sort of my overview we can dive 36 00:03:46,340 --> 00:03:51,460 deeper but i guess maybe doug you can get sort of like overall impressions of the book what you 37 00:03:51,460 --> 00:03:57,920 thought yeah i was really pleasantly surprised by how good it was one the writing was very 38 00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:04,860 accessible and then i thought for the first time i felt very connected to the chinese people i 39 00:04:04,860 --> 00:04:12,200 always felt like their culture was very opaque and kind of hard to penetrate and the language is so 40 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:19,100 distant from you know latin and and like these germanic languages that we're kind of accustomed 41 00:04:19,100 --> 00:04:25,360 to and the cult our culture feels so distant but i thought that he did a great job of really 42 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:33,800 showing that sort of quirkiness that is the american spirit that we consider to be the 43 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:39,440 american spirit is also kind of ingrained in the chinese spirit a little bit you know when he was 44 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:47,260 talking about like they're they're entrepreneurial they're like um kind of like they can be very 45 00:04:47,260 --> 00:04:56,860 I don't know if crass is the right word, but sort of like gaudy or corny in a way. 46 00:04:57,140 --> 00:05:03,060 I thought that was funny in the beginning of the book when he said that because I had never suspected that. 47 00:05:04,340 --> 00:05:08,860 I think the similarities for me, it really opened my eyes to China. 48 00:05:08,860 --> 00:05:33,980 But overall, I thought that dividing the book into, you know, and really detailing the lawyerly society versus the engineering society, it was a great way to, it was almost like to tell Americans or Chinese things that they're doing wrong without being confrontational to it. 49 00:05:33,980 --> 00:05:37,560 It was just like a very observational approach. 50 00:05:37,780 --> 00:05:46,580 So I never felt like, oh, hyper-criticized or anything like that, you know, from an American perspective. 51 00:05:46,580 --> 00:05:49,480 And I thought it was, yeah, it was fascinating. 52 00:05:50,060 --> 00:05:51,520 It was, I really enjoyed it. 53 00:05:52,300 --> 00:05:52,860 Yeah. 54 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:53,960 Kyle, what about you? 55 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:55,200 Any overall impressions? 56 00:05:55,200 --> 00:06:10,260 I completely agree with both of you in that the language was really accessible and it allowed me to lift the veil of, hey, we think we know what China is about. 57 00:06:10,420 --> 00:06:12,280 We think we know how their culture works. 58 00:06:12,280 --> 00:06:20,540 and in my mind, I've always thought of China as this place that can build, knows how to build, 59 00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:25,480 and what they build might not always be great, but that doesn't mean that they're not learning 60 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:34,860 along the way. I think Breakneck did a great job of detailing exactly how far they've come 61 00:06:34,860 --> 00:06:40,840 and how great they are at building, right? I didn't have all of the details of like what they 62 00:06:40,840 --> 00:06:47,560 could build. I see snippets of it on social media. I see cities that are not filled. And 63 00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:55,700 these are all part of what I now know of as political plans based on politicians being 64 00:06:55,700 --> 00:07:02,240 rotated through different sectors of China so that they can prove their worth or prove their 65 00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:07,840 ability in a different area. And by the way, I absolutely love that. To take a politician from 66 00:07:07,840 --> 00:07:13,560 one area and be like, you did a good job over here. We like you go have at it in this other area 67 00:07:13,560 --> 00:07:20,320 and see what you can do. That really forces the politician to adapt to problems that they may not 68 00:07:20,320 --> 00:07:28,900 have dealt with in their own, wherever they were elected. Um, which is a, another point that we can 69 00:07:28,900 --> 00:07:36,680 touch on. No one's elected. Right. Right. Appointed. Appointed. Appointed. Um, still the 70 00:07:36,680 --> 00:07:47,740 idea of proving your your metal in in a different area i i liked that um of course all of this is 71 00:07:47,740 --> 00:07:54,880 uh we we can dive into any points in in breakneck specifically um but i liked the idea of the 72 00:07:54,880 --> 00:08:02,800 politicians i liked the idea of uh diving into the engineering side and and focusing on we want 73 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:08,220 people who are leaders to be engineers rather than people who know how to circumvent the law 74 00:08:08,220 --> 00:08:15,600 and know where the loopholes are. Yeah. Yeah. Like not only do they appoint the people who've had 75 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:25,140 success in smaller regions, but to even get those jobs in smaller regions, they make sure that they 76 00:08:25,140 --> 00:08:31,040 have accomplished or managed something, something like in the private industry. 77 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:42,440 So every, maybe not every, but most of the leaders of cities are former heads of big companies. 78 00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:50,600 And so you never have a situation there where it's like, and this is a good and bad thing, right? 79 00:08:50,600 --> 00:09:00,300 Like it's good that they're able to appoint really smart people, but it's bad that the people don't, the actual citizens of China have no say. 80 00:09:00,300 --> 00:09:07,460 right because some of them will there's just no democracy there it's not it's not like we have here 81 00:09:07,460 --> 00:09:14,300 where everyone's elected um which sometimes results in in really good people being in power 82 00:09:14,300 --> 00:09:19,120 but a lot of times it results in people who have no experience at all but they're just good at 83 00:09:19,120 --> 00:09:26,300 campaigning right and they're just good at social media videos and good marketers right but they 84 00:09:26,300 --> 00:09:32,620 actually haven't they don't have any managerial experience um are you talking about anyone specific 85 00:09:32,620 --> 00:09:44,860 but no it happens a lot but um doug to your point um yeah like i i agree it was nice to 86 00:09:44,860 --> 00:09:51,800 get a deeper and kyle you touched on this too but like just get a deeper understanding of what's 87 00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:57,800 the hell is going on in China because, you know, we only hear, yeah, like snippets or like news 88 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:06,060 clips and propaganda. Really? Yeah. Yeah. It's very selective. And yeah, this book and it's not 89 00:10:06,060 --> 00:10:10,700 it's not like we know that much about what's going on, but we definitely know more than we did before. 90 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:18,840 And it's it's interesting that most of what we hear as Americans are it's pretty negative about 91 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:26,480 China, I would say, like, for the most part about, like, how authoritarian it is and, you know, 92 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:33,200 whether it's like whatever. And it's and I had heard snippets of this, too, but it's really 93 00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:40,640 interesting to go further on the fact that there's this tradeoff that's been happening in China where 94 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:48,420 the people, you know, there's no democracy and the people don't have a say. But at the same time, 95 00:10:48,420 --> 00:10:53,700 the government is building things for them, for the people, right? And the government is producing 96 00:10:53,700 --> 00:11:01,180 and making life better for them and driving a lot of people out of poverty and, you know, 97 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:07,280 driving a lot of manufacturing jobs and high speed trains so that everyone can get across the 98 00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:13,000 country or especially so rural people can get into cities to work jobs and housing, you know, 99 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:19,920 housing development is insane in China where housing is so cheap. And so there's this interesting 100 00:11:19,920 --> 00:11:25,620 trade-off where like, and it's not like they had a choice, the people didn't have a choice, but 101 00:11:25,620 --> 00:11:29,880 the Chinese government is very authoritarian, is going to do what they want to do. 102 00:11:30,300 --> 00:11:36,280 And in exchange for sort of like obedience from the people, the Chinese government promises to 103 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:45,000 deliver on those results. And yeah, it's, it's, it's, so, so there's a lot of, you know, 104 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:50,560 good things I would say that has been happening in China over the last 30 years, 30, 40 years. 105 00:11:51,420 --> 00:11:57,080 Obviously, like we can touch on some of the, some of the horrible things, starting with 106 00:11:57,080 --> 00:12:06,160 the, the one child policy, right. Which also was, was things we all, we've probably all heard about, 107 00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:10,640 before but we didn't really know what actually happened so it was really interesting to learn 108 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:16,960 the specifics of that policy and how it came about with the with the scientists um like the army 109 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:23,120 scientist who instituted it for ma uh was it no it wasn't for mao it was it was the guy after mao 110 00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:31,520 um yeah dung jiao ping because mao was actually very um pro-population growth 111 00:12:31,520 --> 00:12:43,020 He believed that a higher population would result in just better military, more flourishing and more jobs and everything. 112 00:12:43,260 --> 00:12:45,200 So or just better economy. 113 00:12:45,700 --> 00:13:00,060 And and then under Deng Xiaoping, he promoted this military scientist who got into like cybernetics and, you know, went to some conference in Switzerland and learned about cybernetics. 114 00:13:00,060 --> 00:13:06,560 and looked at some data that showed that population growth was going to be out of control 115 00:13:06,560 --> 00:13:12,040 and that the country couldn't handle that kind of population growth. 116 00:13:12,540 --> 00:13:17,960 And they made a very, very drastic decision to institute one-child policy 117 00:13:17,960 --> 00:13:21,140 where every family in China can only have one kid. 118 00:13:22,840 --> 00:13:25,720 And like, Doug, we talked about this the other night, 119 00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:29,380 But that was the most brutal chapter of the book. 120 00:13:29,500 --> 00:13:32,420 I mean, by far, it was the most brutal thing I've read in a long time. 121 00:13:32,660 --> 00:13:35,100 The ways that they instituted this policy. 122 00:13:37,060 --> 00:13:44,860 They did everything from like forced abortions to like kidnapping, kidnapping little babies 123 00:13:44,860 --> 00:13:59,788 and sending them off to other countries like really really brutal stuff Do you want to talk about that Yeah I was gonna say um that was for sure i agree with you that was one of the most brutal i read a lot of 124 00:13:59,788 --> 00:14:05,648 about the horrors of like world war ii and you know there's a book called the rape of nan king 125 00:14:05,648 --> 00:14:12,228 that's i recommend everyone read but it's about what the japanese into the chinese and you know 126 00:14:12,228 --> 00:14:18,268 from, I guess, a literary perspective, I thought that's when the book, I was very shocked at his 127 00:14:18,268 --> 00:14:27,128 writing ability. But even more shocking was sort of, not sort of, was the methods that were employed 128 00:14:27,128 --> 00:14:37,428 to, you know, see this policy through. And also, I thought what was crazy was the behavior of the 129 00:14:37,428 --> 00:14:43,268 of the populace. I was wondering, and I think I asked you this, Scott, the other night, is if 130 00:14:43,268 --> 00:14:48,128 they implemented something like that in America during the same period, let's say, let's even give 131 00:14:48,128 --> 00:14:56,748 it, you know, like the grace of time. Do you think, I don't think people would have gone along with 132 00:14:56,748 --> 00:15:03,328 that in the same way. Yeah, I mean, a point that he makes is it's probably unlikely that would 133 00:15:03,328 --> 00:15:10,848 that would work in America because of our system, our legal system. It wouldn't have passed our 134 00:15:10,848 --> 00:15:19,068 lawyerly society. There would just be so many legal battles and it would go to the Supreme Court 135 00:15:19,068 --> 00:15:24,548 and it just would never get passed. And that's the kind of the key difference between China and the 136 00:15:24,548 --> 00:15:30,168 US for both good and bad reasons. The fact that China can basically get anything done very quickly 137 00:15:30,168 --> 00:15:35,188 is good in some ways for building trains and bridges, but horrible in other ways when they 138 00:15:35,188 --> 00:15:40,868 have terrible ideas, when the data, you know, steers them the wrong way. And that happens, 139 00:15:40,868 --> 00:15:46,348 like even with COVID that happened, right? The data steered them the wrong way and, or the data 140 00:15:46,348 --> 00:15:53,228 that they had that they thought was correct steered them the wrong way. And so, I mean, 141 00:15:53,228 --> 00:15:59,108 I guess we did have, you know, lockdowns and stuff in the U.S. and we did have forced vaccine 142 00:15:59,108 --> 00:16:06,408 mandates, but that was, you know, only in certain states, right? Like, I don't think we'd ever have 143 00:16:06,408 --> 00:16:15,928 kind of like a federal, you know, federal mandates like that. I hope not. I think it would 144 00:16:15,928 --> 00:16:24,068 have too much legal issues. What do you think, Kyle? I think that some might argue 145 00:16:24,068 --> 00:16:33,368 the idea of abortion being accessible on the federal level is an equivalent in America to 146 00:16:33,368 --> 00:16:41,748 the one child policy in China. And I wouldn't draw that conclusion. Like if somebody brought 147 00:16:41,748 --> 00:16:46,288 that up to me as an argument, I would argue against it. But I think that based on people's 148 00:16:46,288 --> 00:16:52,468 beliefs in thinking that abortion is wrong, they might say it's very similar. 149 00:16:54,248 --> 00:17:02,448 One of the, what I was thinking about constantly is like, while reading the book, is that 150 00:17:02,448 --> 00:17:10,908 there are so many edge cases that the lawyerly society has to account for because anybody 151 00:17:10,908 --> 00:17:15,108 can sue in the United States and a suit is held up. 152 00:17:15,108 --> 00:17:42,248 And when you try to build a product for edge cases, your product gets fucked. Like you have this thing that needs to account for every single scenario and it never can work as a fluid system when it does that. You need to account for the majority of cases. And then the edge cases can go find a different product or fall into the system that is generated for them and use it as it was intended to be used by the developers. 153 00:17:42,248 --> 00:17:56,468 We account for edge cases in American society all the time. And that is the lawyerly society coming forward and like hampering our development, hampering our progress to do great things. 154 00:17:56,468 --> 00:18:16,968 I would say, you know, as like to steel man the case against what I just said, we also have the example of Elon Musk, who can build really great things, has organizations that his end goal is to build a livable space on Mars. 155 00:18:17,748 --> 00:18:19,548 With his companies, he can do that. 156 00:18:19,548 --> 00:18:26,508 That doesn't exist inside of China because China, the moment anybody gains that much power, they cut them off at the knees. 157 00:18:26,708 --> 00:18:34,808 They're not going to allow you to control that many organizations who have that many contracts with private companies, with military companies. 158 00:18:35,468 --> 00:18:38,408 It's just not something they would allow. They would take over those organizations. 159 00:18:39,108 --> 00:18:46,928 Right. Yeah, it would be too much power at the hands of a private citizen for China to handle. 160 00:18:46,928 --> 00:18:55,408 because China's whole thing is government is like the way of life there. 161 00:18:55,568 --> 00:18:59,668 Like everything is run and dictated by the government, right? 162 00:18:59,668 --> 00:19:06,328 Government has all the power, all the say, and it's a massive government, right? 163 00:19:06,408 --> 00:19:11,508 Like it's massive in terms of just their influence on society. 164 00:19:12,448 --> 00:19:16,508 You know, they control every aspect of society there. 165 00:19:16,928 --> 00:19:34,588 And so, yeah, like the examples of Jack Ma, you know, of when Jack Ma was getting too, you know, too much money and too much power and too much fame, they basically kneecapped him and made him basically, they didn't let his companies grow any further. 166 00:19:34,588 --> 00:19:36,028 And I think he just left the country. 167 00:19:36,028 --> 00:19:47,408 um but if i if i can something else that um when reading that chapter um it was serendipitous that 168 00:19:47,408 --> 00:19:54,168 i came across a post on social media about um china's population i don't know if you guys saw 169 00:19:54,168 --> 00:19:59,828 this i thought it was just crazy to be reading that chapter and then to see this post on social 170 00:19:59,828 --> 00:20:06,228 media, which was about a Chinese dissident. So somebody who left the country and, you know, 171 00:20:06,368 --> 00:20:16,188 analyzes China, having lived there. And when you look at the numbers of when the one child policy 172 00:20:16,188 --> 00:20:21,768 was enacted, and the population at the time, and you try to account for how many children 173 00:20:21,768 --> 00:20:28,008 does every couple need to have in order for them to go from the population that they were at 174 00:20:28,008 --> 00:20:32,248 back then and the population that they're at right now. It's actually not possible. 175 00:20:33,868 --> 00:20:41,448 Two things about this, which is China's population is comparable to India. India did not implement 176 00:20:41,448 --> 00:20:49,448 a one-child policy, and India's population grew drastically. China had this, what they say, 177 00:20:49,448 --> 00:20:56,088 is a very successful policy, and yet their population still grew rapidly. The numbers are 178 00:20:56,088 --> 00:21:02,008 about, you had to have had per couple, four children in the decades that the one child 179 00:21:02,008 --> 00:21:06,368 policy was enacted for them to have a one point whatever billion population today. 180 00:21:07,368 --> 00:21:12,388 So do I think that having seen this post, not doing any research on my own, do I think 181 00:21:12,388 --> 00:21:17,028 that there is a chance China's population is not 1.3, whatever it is? 182 00:21:17,368 --> 00:21:17,668 Yeah. 183 00:21:18,048 --> 00:21:19,508 Like maybe a really high chance. 184 00:21:20,068 --> 00:21:25,988 And I would account that percentage of it being correct to the percentage of America's 185 00:21:25,988 --> 00:21:34,528 GDP not being what it actually is because Palantir had an agreement with OpenAI and 186 00:21:34,528 --> 00:21:37,888 OpenAI had an agreement with Microsoft and Microsoft then paid Palantir. 187 00:21:37,888 --> 00:21:42,388 You're just moving billions of dollars between three companies who are paying each other. 188 00:21:43,228 --> 00:21:48,588 And then you think to yourself, oh, GDP is now $300 billion if they all pay each other 189 00:21:48,588 --> 00:21:49,028 $100 billion. 190 00:21:49,148 --> 00:21:52,208 It's like, no, all you did was move money between hands. 191 00:21:52,808 --> 00:21:53,328 Nothing actually happened. 192 00:21:53,328 --> 00:21:58,648 Kyle, on the population thing, I mean, you might be right. 193 00:21:58,648 --> 00:22:03,328 Actually, he mentions in this book, like, you can't really trust any of the numbers coming out of China. 194 00:22:04,208 --> 00:22:10,548 But it's not that their population would collapse now. 195 00:22:10,728 --> 00:22:17,128 It's just that their demographics, their growth rates, so they have an aging population, right? 196 00:22:17,148 --> 00:22:22,408 So they still have a ton of people, but most of the people are all old, right? 197 00:22:22,408 --> 00:22:30,068 And the younger generations aren't having enough babies to maintain population growth. 198 00:22:30,848 --> 00:22:38,548 So once all of those old people die, which will be in the next 10, 20 years or whatever, they're going to start to really crater. 199 00:22:39,208 --> 00:22:43,768 Right. So that that I think is the main point about population. 200 00:22:43,768 --> 00:22:47,768 They're fine right now, but it's the projections, right? 201 00:22:47,848 --> 00:22:53,068 Like the growth rate is, and it's the same in Japan and South Korea, right? 202 00:22:53,188 --> 00:23:00,068 Like fine populations now, their economies are good, but it's that next generation out 203 00:23:00,068 --> 00:23:06,648 where once the population hits a certain rate, the growth rate, and if it's below a certain 204 00:23:06,648 --> 00:23:14,168 number which i think it's like one point something it's eventually the the country 205 00:23:14,168 --> 00:23:20,628 will just collapse right they'll just not be enough people right um but still you may be right 206 00:23:20,628 --> 00:23:25,928 i saw the same post i 100 agree they're fudging their numbers just thought it was i'm sorry guys 207 00:23:25,928 --> 00:23:33,228 i'm not on camera but i just my phone's about to die i'm looking for um tile 100 these guys are 208 00:23:33,228 --> 00:23:40,988 lying through their teeth no i'm kidding i'm kidding um i wanted to say the one thing i will 209 00:23:40,988 --> 00:23:48,148 say just in case my phone dies and i can't locate a charger because i'm at the studio um i wanted to 210 00:23:48,148 --> 00:23:52,248 say the one thing i was a little frustrated that i thought he didn't dive into enough 211 00:23:52,248 --> 00:24:02,788 was you know the reports of china stealing ip and i i thought that that was a kind of a big 212 00:24:02,788 --> 00:24:12,368 oversight on his part because in order to get where they they are well one if they're stealing 213 00:24:12,368 --> 00:24:17,428 if they are stealing ip which a lot of american companies claim that they are and that they have 214 00:24:17,428 --> 00:24:24,968 no legal recourse within china for ip theft if that's true that means that they're the quote 215 00:24:24,968 --> 00:24:34,948 engineering society is sort of built on a fallacy which in order to in order to be to invent let's 216 00:24:34,948 --> 00:24:43,128 say the net what's coming next if you're relying on stealing stuff it it seems like your society 217 00:24:43,128 --> 00:24:50,768 can't make very large lateral movements let's say you know and and you could very if someone 218 00:24:50,768 --> 00:24:52,948 tamps down on your ability to steal IP 219 00:24:52,948 --> 00:24:55,208 or if we disconnect from China 220 00:24:55,208 --> 00:24:56,688 or the world disconnects from China 221 00:24:56,688 --> 00:24:59,848 and they lose access to the inventiveness 222 00:24:59,848 --> 00:25:01,308 of the rest of the world 223 00:25:01,308 --> 00:25:05,888 that people aren't being rewarded for 224 00:25:05,888 --> 00:25:08,768 who are inventing this stuff in other countries 225 00:25:08,768 --> 00:25:12,628 those products aren't making money for them 226 00:25:12,628 --> 00:25:13,368 in China let's say 227 00:25:13,368 --> 00:25:17,648 you might see a blow up of the quote unquote engineering state 228 00:25:17,648 --> 00:25:20,168 you might just see the ugly aspects of it 229 00:25:20,168 --> 00:25:26,468 really come to rise, which is like a, you know, kind of a boot on the neck scenario, 230 00:25:26,768 --> 00:25:28,288 if I'm making any sense at all. 231 00:25:33,168 --> 00:25:41,548 Yeah, one point about that is, I thought the same thing, but slightly different. So he mentioned 232 00:25:41,548 --> 00:25:49,308 that it happens, right? He didn't deny the fact that China has stolen a lot of 233 00:25:49,308 --> 00:25:56,568 intellectual property patents and just trade secrets, whatever, from the U.S. He didn't deny 234 00:25:56,568 --> 00:26:04,068 that. What he did do was he downplayed it significantly. He said he claims, yeah, he 235 00:26:04,068 --> 00:26:11,568 claimed that it just wasn't a big deal because like we hear that as Americans, we hear it in the 236 00:26:11,568 --> 00:26:16,048 news and whatever, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, China. For many years, we heard that, 237 00:26:16,048 --> 00:26:26,368 Right. Less so lately, less so in the last few years. But for a while, there'd be an article of, you know, China steals Boeing's, you know, plans for the new plane, whatever. 238 00:26:27,568 --> 00:26:42,388 He yeah, he downplayed it. He said that we hear it in the news and we think that and we have politicians who, you know, talk about it a lot and try and maybe like fear monger a little bit of like China stealing all our stuff. 239 00:26:42,388 --> 00:26:45,628 and maybe they are stealing our little stuff, 240 00:26:45,728 --> 00:26:48,988 but he kind of suggested and had the theory 241 00:26:48,988 --> 00:26:52,168 that it may have helped them, 242 00:26:52,268 --> 00:26:55,308 but it's not like there were so many other factors 243 00:26:55,308 --> 00:26:57,508 that had them, you know, 244 00:26:57,548 --> 00:26:59,408 that made China become a world power. 245 00:27:00,888 --> 00:27:03,348 I think if I could add to what you're saying, 246 00:27:03,588 --> 00:27:05,448 he really harped on the idea of 247 00:27:05,448 --> 00:27:10,288 because China has so much manufacturing power, 248 00:27:10,288 --> 00:27:17,628 like they became the manufacturing hub of the world when we offshored all of our manufacturing 249 00:27:17,628 --> 00:27:23,928 and so their process knowledge grew exponentially and so when you have a whole bunch of factories 250 00:27:23,928 --> 00:27:28,988 that are all in the same area he was like look you're gonna have a manager who's getting drinks 251 00:27:28,988 --> 00:27:33,868 with another manager from a plant that's across the street and they might scout him out and like 252 00:27:33,868 --> 00:27:38,868 hire him and take him and he has all of this process uh process knowledge that he then just 253 00:27:38,868 --> 00:27:40,308 unloads at the new factory. 254 00:27:41,008 --> 00:27:53,256 And I think that a really good point I don think it discounts the stolen IP Yeah Just wanted to add that in Yeah yeah No it a good point I think he downplayed it 255 00:27:53,656 --> 00:27:55,496 I'm not sure if he's right or wrong. 256 00:27:55,696 --> 00:28:02,276 I don't think any of us can say how much of a difference stolen Chinese IP has made for their economy. 257 00:28:02,496 --> 00:28:06,396 I think it's really, really difficult for us to know that. 258 00:28:07,496 --> 00:28:08,896 But yeah, I agree, Doug. 259 00:28:08,896 --> 00:28:11,796 I think that when he wrote that, I was like, really? 260 00:28:11,996 --> 00:28:14,776 Like, you really don't think it made that big of a difference? 261 00:28:15,016 --> 00:28:25,876 Like, it's years of work, years of like toil and sweat of somebody, you know, that they that they. 262 00:28:26,436 --> 00:28:29,456 Yeah, I felt that I did feel like he downplayed it. 263 00:28:29,456 --> 00:28:35,936 But to your point, Kyle, and one of the things that was really interesting is he says America was once like that. 264 00:28:35,936 --> 00:28:44,876 Like we had, you know, manufacturing, we've had these plants and we had experts in those different processes. 265 00:28:46,076 --> 00:28:51,116 And, you know, there is there is the case to like you look around at our infrastructure. 266 00:28:51,116 --> 00:28:51,936 It's obviously deteriorating. 267 00:28:52,696 --> 00:28:55,436 You look around at certain aspects of our society. 268 00:28:55,876 --> 00:29:04,376 You know, for example, like working in real estate, I am astounded every time I walk through New York that it exists. 269 00:29:04,376 --> 00:29:15,916 Like I can't believe with all the zoning laws, with all the, you know, the cost to build now that this place even exists, but our society built it at one point. 270 00:29:16,216 --> 00:29:25,376 So that was, you know, kind of taking what I learned out of the book and applying it to our life. 271 00:29:26,396 --> 00:29:29,236 We definitely did have that ability at some point. 272 00:29:33,236 --> 00:29:34,236 We did. 273 00:29:34,376 --> 00:29:35,336 Yeah, absolutely. 274 00:29:35,556 --> 00:29:41,596 In the 19, starting probably like in the 1920s, like New York when we built the Empire State. 275 00:29:41,596 --> 00:29:42,476 No, it was a year. 276 00:29:42,636 --> 00:29:44,276 It was 13 months. 277 00:29:44,556 --> 00:29:45,716 13 months or something like that. 278 00:29:45,716 --> 00:29:48,836 But by the way, to build that building today would take you like nine years. 279 00:29:49,316 --> 00:29:49,576 Okay. 280 00:29:53,476 --> 00:29:53,916 Yeah. 281 00:29:54,316 --> 00:29:54,916 Yeah, it would. 282 00:29:54,916 --> 00:29:59,196 And yeah, it was just, it was a building culture then. 283 00:29:59,356 --> 00:30:03,576 And there wasn't that law early society yet where everything was getting bogged down. 284 00:30:04,376 --> 00:30:08,196 there wasn't a political party that, you know, 285 00:30:08,336 --> 00:30:11,796 got in the way of everything that you want to do, right. 286 00:30:11,796 --> 00:30:15,956 Whether it's, um, you know, for, for reasons like, 287 00:30:16,036 --> 00:30:20,996 like unions or, um, environmental regulations, um, 288 00:30:21,076 --> 00:30:25,156 all these things contribute to, to our decaying infrastructure. 289 00:30:25,156 --> 00:30:29,776 And like the best example is the high speed rail in California that has been 290 00:30:29,776 --> 00:30:34,356 like the biggest, um, failed project, I think probably of all time. 291 00:30:34,376 --> 00:30:40,216 it's like a hundred billion dollar over budget they've barely built anything by the way for like 292 00:30:40,216 --> 00:30:47,576 15 i'm sorry to interrupt you but i i think it's we should clarify that that project is not only a 293 00:30:47,576 --> 00:30:54,776 stain on america it's a stain on human history like as far as failed projects and ideas go 294 00:30:54,776 --> 00:30:59,536 it should be known that that is so disgraceful that you should be up there with like 295 00:30:59,536 --> 00:31:04,916 you know throwing bodies over the wall with bubonic plague or something like that is 296 00:31:04,916 --> 00:31:10,076 an equal act of destruction yeah and you know what's interesting 297 00:31:10,076 --> 00:31:16,016 and you know what's interesting about it too is no one's been held accountable 298 00:31:16,016 --> 00:31:22,756 right no one's been held accountable for no one's lost their job um and as we've read in this book 299 00:31:22,756 --> 00:31:28,676 like and i'm not suggesting this is a good way of doing it but like the people who fuck up in 300 00:31:28,676 --> 00:31:36,316 china with their infrastructure they you don't see them again like they go they they get demoted 301 00:31:36,316 --> 00:31:41,576 whatever they they you know they go to jail in some case some i think in some cases they might 302 00:31:41,576 --> 00:31:48,816 be killed which i'm not suggesting that but the point is it's like you know you're held accountable 303 00:31:48,816 --> 00:31:56,036 um if if you if you make mistakes and sometimes maybe to a too like like too high of a degree 304 00:31:56,036 --> 00:32:06,956 Because like there was that example of the guy who just built a ton of stuff in some city and it ended up just being he went overboard. 305 00:32:07,116 --> 00:32:13,376 He built too much and he still held accountable, even though like he was just trying to impress, you know, the higher ups. 306 00:32:14,036 --> 00:32:17,516 But he was he just like, I guess, was was too extravagant. 307 00:32:17,516 --> 00:32:28,616 One interesting thing to learn about the Chinese government, which I didn't know before, is they're not really... 308 00:32:28,616 --> 00:32:34,076 I mean, they are communists, but the name of their party is the Communist Party. 309 00:32:34,696 --> 00:32:42,056 But they're not really about redistributing wealth, which is one of the main tenets of communism, right? 310 00:32:42,056 --> 00:32:49,256 Like there's a passage here. Rather than redistribute resources from the rich to the poor, the state builds infrastructure. 311 00:32:50,116 --> 00:32:57,676 Lenin used the term commanding heights of the economy to refer to the strategic sectors like power generation and transportation. 312 00:32:58,916 --> 00:33:03,516 In Guizhou, the commanding heights may well be seen from its tall bridges. 313 00:33:03,516 --> 00:33:07,476 So they're not taking money from the end. 314 00:33:07,616 --> 00:33:12,416 Taxes are very low, too, right, in China, which is super interesting. 315 00:33:12,556 --> 00:33:13,656 Like, I didn't really know that. 316 00:33:14,216 --> 00:33:18,576 I would have thought taxes, especially for like the wealthy, would be very high. 317 00:33:18,636 --> 00:33:19,836 It's a communist society. 318 00:33:20,036 --> 00:33:23,036 But it's really not like their name communists. 319 00:33:23,296 --> 00:33:28,056 I'm not sure is that valid anymore because it's low taxes. 320 00:33:28,796 --> 00:33:30,896 It's not redistributing wealth. 321 00:33:30,896 --> 00:33:36,976 It's just taking money from taxes and building things, right, and building infrastructure. 322 00:33:37,496 --> 00:33:39,896 And I thought that was interesting. 323 00:33:40,776 --> 00:33:46,536 Let me add to that because it stood out to me too, which is, this is an excerpt from the book. 324 00:33:47,816 --> 00:33:53,576 Xi has forcefully pushed back on the idea that China needs more generous welfare. 325 00:33:53,576 --> 00:34:07,776 In a major speech in 2021, he said, even when we have reached a higher level of development, we should not go overboard with social transfers, for we must avoid letting people get lazy from their sense of entitlement to welfare. 326 00:34:08,696 --> 00:34:17,636 Worrying that welfare could make the population lazy is one of those instances where a Communist Party leader sounds like Ronald Reagan. 327 00:34:18,416 --> 00:34:19,336 Yeah, yeah. 328 00:34:19,676 --> 00:34:21,536 Yeah, it's interesting. 329 00:34:21,536 --> 00:34:24,536 you can't put a label on the Chinese government, right? 330 00:34:24,556 --> 00:34:26,636 They have aspects of the right, 331 00:34:27,016 --> 00:34:28,416 they have aspects of the left, 332 00:34:28,516 --> 00:34:30,016 of communism, socialism, 333 00:34:30,176 --> 00:34:33,396 but also of like free markets and capitalism. 334 00:34:33,896 --> 00:34:36,336 So it's like, it's weird in that sense. 335 00:34:36,496 --> 00:34:37,336 You know, in America, 336 00:34:37,336 --> 00:34:39,436 we like label everything left or right 337 00:34:39,436 --> 00:34:42,236 or, you know, or centrist. 338 00:34:43,036 --> 00:34:44,736 It's kind of tough to do that in China. 339 00:34:44,856 --> 00:34:47,356 They just have these different policies 340 00:34:47,356 --> 00:34:49,396 that aren't really grounded in anything. 341 00:34:49,396 --> 00:34:52,396 I think it's just what the leaders think is the best route. 342 00:34:53,256 --> 00:34:53,996 It's really interesting. 343 00:34:54,136 --> 00:34:56,416 I saw an interview with this guy. 344 00:34:56,516 --> 00:34:57,316 I can't remember his name. 345 00:34:57,456 --> 00:34:59,016 I want to say it's Werner something. 346 00:34:59,376 --> 00:35:00,616 I think he's Austrian. 347 00:35:03,716 --> 00:35:05,296 It's Werner Herzog. 348 00:35:05,656 --> 00:35:06,816 Herzog? Werner Herzog? 349 00:35:06,896 --> 00:35:07,636 Do you ever see that? 350 00:35:07,936 --> 00:35:11,796 Speaking of Werner Herzog, do you ever see the Arctic documentary 351 00:35:11,796 --> 00:35:13,996 where he films the nihilistic penguins? 352 00:35:15,916 --> 00:35:17,796 That is the funniest thing ever. 353 00:35:18,216 --> 00:35:18,776 I haven't seen it. 354 00:35:18,776 --> 00:35:23,636 He like films a penguin separating from the herd and it like just go walks towards him. 355 00:35:23,636 --> 00:35:26,676 He goes towards the mountain away from. 356 00:35:27,136 --> 00:35:28,556 Anyway, it's neither here nor there. 357 00:35:29,156 --> 00:35:31,076 But I saw this interview. 358 00:35:31,176 --> 00:35:31,836 He's an economist. 359 00:35:32,516 --> 00:35:45,216 And he was saying that the Chinese, the way that they built their economy and that they actually became, quote unquote, more capitalistic is they decentralized. 360 00:35:45,836 --> 00:35:47,296 So they were hyper centralized. 361 00:35:47,296 --> 00:35:49,896 I think they had one central bank under Mao. 362 00:35:50,816 --> 00:35:54,816 And, you know, most of the people were in like mired in poverty and it was horrible. 363 00:35:55,296 --> 00:36:01,796 But they went to the Japanese, which was like a very humbling thing to do because the Japanese tortured them in World War II. 364 00:36:02,396 --> 00:36:08,836 And they asked the Japanese for the secret to finance because the Japanese were so successful financially. 365 00:36:09,076 --> 00:36:11,636 I think during the 80s or whatever. 366 00:36:11,776 --> 00:36:13,196 I can't remember what year this was. 367 00:36:13,556 --> 00:36:16,256 And the Japanese asked them, how many banks do you have? 368 00:36:16,256 --> 00:36:39,176 And the Chinese said, we have one. And the Japanese basically were like, no, you need to localize banks and open as many as you possibly can. So imagine in the banking system, there's, let's say, let's say it's 20 people in the central bank of China making decisions how to distribute money, you know, how to invest the money. 369 00:36:39,176 --> 00:36:45,816 The Japanese were like, rather than that, open up local banks and the banks will make those decisions locally. 370 00:36:46,236 --> 00:36:56,496 And you'll have more, not wealth redistribution, but you'll have more distribution of wealth because the bankers are deciding who to invest in. 371 00:36:57,256 --> 00:37:03,936 And if you actually look at our current system, we're currently centralizing banks more and more. 372 00:37:03,936 --> 00:37:18,596 Like after 2008, more banks – how many banks closed? I forget the number of them of local banks that closed and those assets got bought up by J.P. Morgan and these sorts of banks. 373 00:37:18,596 --> 00:37:36,536 So we're going reverse direction, which, you know, I think that to your point about political systems, communism, things being kind of in between and far removed from what we think of as communism or fascism or this. 374 00:37:36,536 --> 00:37:44,076 I think a lot of it has to do with the monetary system and the underlying principles that are applied to the marketplace. 375 00:37:44,076 --> 00:38:02,776 Like if the Chinese have a communist government, but they have people at a local level that are making decisions, you know, they're still quote unquote communists, but they're operating in maybe a more free market way than we're currently operating, you know, with banks becoming more centralized. 376 00:38:02,776 --> 00:38:13,596 And, you know, I feel like that's almost like sacrilegious to say living in the U.S., but, you know, maybe we're looking in the wrong place for where the danger really lies. 377 00:38:13,596 --> 00:38:33,616 I personally believe communism is dangerous. That's me. But maybe the danger really relies in how money is distributed throughout an economy via decision makers rather than, you know, if you have 20 people making decisions for a billion people, it's impossible. 378 00:38:33,616 --> 00:38:42,796 But if you have hundreds of thousands or a million people making those decisions inside of banks, you have potential for success, maybe. 379 00:38:44,556 --> 00:38:59,236 So, yeah, but this book, excellent, really opened my mind to different perspectives and ways to view something that I think we've been propagandized to view one way. 380 00:38:59,236 --> 00:39:03,236 And I think that Kyle's point was excellent when he said it's propaganda. 381 00:39:03,436 --> 00:39:05,196 It is propaganda the way that we see them. 382 00:39:06,256 --> 00:39:09,516 And, yeah, I thought it was really eye-opening, man. 383 00:39:09,556 --> 00:39:10,816 I'm so happy you picked it, Scotty. 384 00:39:15,856 --> 00:39:16,436 Thank you. 385 00:39:16,716 --> 00:39:16,876 Yeah. 386 00:39:18,416 --> 00:39:19,296 Yeah, that was a good one. 387 00:39:19,756 --> 00:39:22,616 Anything else, Kyle, that you want to talk about? 388 00:39:23,336 --> 00:39:26,756 Yeah, just let me add some thoughts. 389 00:39:26,756 --> 00:39:30,176 because I looked it up the moment that you said it, Doug. 390 00:39:30,376 --> 00:39:33,336 There were over 500 banks that closed 391 00:39:33,336 --> 00:39:38,076 after the 2008 financial disaster in the US. 392 00:39:38,936 --> 00:39:43,316 And there are also near 4,000 commercial banks 393 00:39:43,316 --> 00:39:45,376 currently open in the United States. 394 00:39:45,556 --> 00:39:48,096 So there's still a lot of banks that exist, 395 00:39:48,396 --> 00:39:52,056 but how much centralization of the banking system 396 00:39:52,056 --> 00:39:55,496 will we allow for before we say, 397 00:39:55,496 --> 00:39:59,556 okay, here's this bank that is taking too much, 398 00:39:59,676 --> 00:40:02,936 controlling too much, and what are we going to do about it? 399 00:40:04,176 --> 00:40:05,916 I think another part of this, too. 400 00:40:06,056 --> 00:40:07,476 Yeah, you're like shuffling. 401 00:40:07,656 --> 00:40:09,616 It sounds like you're shuffling a deck of cards. 402 00:40:09,816 --> 00:40:11,496 You're about to... 403 00:40:11,496 --> 00:40:14,316 This guy's playing mahjong with a Chinese ant 404 00:40:14,316 --> 00:40:15,416 that he picked up in the park. 405 00:40:16,236 --> 00:40:16,816 Because it wasn't. 406 00:40:17,576 --> 00:40:17,836 Sorry. 407 00:40:17,836 --> 00:40:30,256 so how much will we allow people and this by the way is a very like slippery slope of a question 408 00:40:30,256 --> 00:40:36,916 where how much will we allow one entity one organization to begin to control more 409 00:40:36,916 --> 00:40:43,676 and dictate the path that americans take because that question leads to well let's do something 410 00:40:43,676 --> 00:40:48,176 about it and let's get the lawyers in there and let's take down that big organization because 411 00:40:48,176 --> 00:40:51,296 they're not allowed to exist because they have too much power and we should be afraid of them. 412 00:40:51,996 --> 00:40:59,696 And that's what diminishes our ability to progress. And yet that's also what China does. 413 00:40:59,696 --> 00:41:07,076 They redirect their energies towards things that they think are beneficial. They can make very 414 00:41:07,076 --> 00:41:14,116 rapid left-right turns at 90 degrees, whereas it takes us five years to make a left turn because 415 00:41:14,116 --> 00:41:20,576 we've got to go through every circuit court and all the way up to the Supreme Court just to make 416 00:41:20,576 --> 00:41:27,316 a decision on whether or not we should do a thing. Yep, yep, exactly. We move just way slower 417 00:41:27,316 --> 00:41:46,684 as a society as a government And again it hard because there really good things about that too right Yes Like nothing can change that drastically with a new president or a new you know whatever with a new government 418 00:41:46,684 --> 00:41:51,064 but it also really comes back to bite us in the ass 419 00:41:51,064 --> 00:41:53,824 when it comes to innovation and technology 420 00:41:53,824 --> 00:41:58,184 and infrastructure, housing, 421 00:41:59,184 --> 00:42:04,544 new laws to be more modern about AI and whatever. 422 00:42:04,824 --> 00:42:08,784 It's hard to keep up with a slow, lawyerly society 423 00:42:08,784 --> 00:42:10,544 in a fast-paced world. 424 00:42:10,964 --> 00:42:13,644 And it's a huge challenge for us, I think. 425 00:42:16,684 --> 00:42:29,344 Just real quick about the COVID section. I thought that was really interesting. Also, just getting the insight into what happened during COVID years in China. 426 00:42:29,344 --> 00:42:37,484 like you know they they did really well at first I mean it's crazy like it started in China which 427 00:42:37,484 --> 00:42:43,644 is crazy they contained it when it started and then they did incredibly well once they contained 428 00:42:43,644 --> 00:42:53,764 it after starting and they controlled society right they had lockdowns way more intense than 429 00:42:53,764 --> 00:43:01,344 And then our lockdowns here, you had an app where you had to show your app everywhere to get in places, which we also had here. 430 00:43:01,344 --> 00:43:05,444 But they had to, you know, a bigger, more of an extreme. 431 00:43:06,804 --> 00:43:10,104 And then I think everything changed with that Shanghai lockdown. 432 00:43:11,144 --> 00:43:18,244 All right. Because the Shanghai, and I didn't realize this fully, but Shanghai is their one city that's pretty Western. 433 00:43:18,604 --> 00:43:21,424 You know, there's a lot of there's a lot of Americans there. 434 00:43:21,424 --> 00:43:41,924 It's very, as he talked about in the book, there's a lot of streets that look like you're in Paris. And once, you know, Beijing, as he says, which is the government, focused their time, their effort on lockdowns in Shanghai, that's when the people there were like, holy shit. 435 00:43:41,924 --> 00:44:00,604 You know, this is a this is something that is really scary because there were there were food crisis. Right. There was a food crisis. They couldn't get the amount of food that they wanted because everything was was locked down. They couldn't leave their apartments for weeks on end. They had to get tested, you know, every day, I think. 436 00:44:00,604 --> 00:44:07,604 Um, and, um, that, that was, that was interesting to, to read about. 437 00:44:07,944 --> 00:44:11,924 Um, and I think, I think that was a big shift, right. 438 00:44:11,964 --> 00:44:17,724 In, in, in the way that people who wouldn't normally care about what the government is 439 00:44:17,724 --> 00:44:19,904 doing, where it really affected you. 440 00:44:19,904 --> 00:44:20,204 Right. 441 00:44:20,224 --> 00:44:27,744 And you're really like, this is, you know, this is not good for, for my life or my health, 442 00:44:27,824 --> 00:44:28,084 whatever. 443 00:44:28,924 --> 00:44:30,544 Um, do you guys have any thoughts on that? 444 00:44:30,544 --> 00:44:42,364 want to go ahead kyle you go ahead yes yeah yeah i think that they're the lockdowns that they had 445 00:44:42,364 --> 00:44:48,444 i didn't start seeing it until covid but because of the extreme lockdowns that china had it was 446 00:44:48,444 --> 00:44:56,664 a one two-step into what are called 10-minute cities where you're not allowed to travel outside 447 00:44:56,664 --> 00:45:03,584 of a certain area unless you have certain credentials or approvals. And I don't know 448 00:45:03,584 --> 00:45:08,764 enough about the 10-minute cities in China, but when they started to try and implement those in 449 00:45:08,764 --> 00:45:16,584 the UK, there were a bunch of vigilantes that started to destroy the hardware that would stop 450 00:45:16,584 --> 00:45:21,804 someone from leaving a 10-minute city. So I think it's very interesting that when it comes to China, 451 00:45:21,804 --> 00:45:27,024 they make these 90 degree left-right turns on policy, they can implement a 10-minute city, 452 00:45:27,184 --> 00:45:33,464 no problem. The moment that you start to apply that to a more Western country, you have people 453 00:45:33,464 --> 00:45:38,124 go, I'm not going to stand for this and I'm going to do something about it. And that something about 454 00:45:38,124 --> 00:45:44,264 it is destruction of the property that the citizens believe inhibits their ability to be free. 455 00:45:44,264 --> 00:45:50,024 It's crazy because going back to the one child policy, that's how I felt. If someone tried to 456 00:45:50,024 --> 00:45:56,744 implement that here like hey you're not allowed to have uh well you can only have one child and 457 00:45:56,744 --> 00:46:03,404 you know even if you saw somebody like getting rid of a little girl or something people would 458 00:46:03,404 --> 00:46:09,284 lose their minds in this country people literally become hyper violent and start fighting each other 459 00:46:09,284 --> 00:46:15,884 like it would get crazy you know it's not like you just oh yeah sterilize me i'm up next you know 460 00:46:15,884 --> 00:46:19,544 So it's like, I don't know. 461 00:46:19,944 --> 00:46:23,104 But yeah, the COVID chapter. 462 00:46:24,244 --> 00:46:26,244 How about, you know what was crazy about the COVID chapter? 463 00:46:26,364 --> 00:46:30,044 Was that like hippie town up in, what was the province? 464 00:46:33,464 --> 00:46:34,744 Yeah, it was in the mountains. 465 00:46:34,744 --> 00:46:37,144 It was like outside of the cities, which confirms. 466 00:46:37,584 --> 00:46:43,564 I've suspected for a long time that in like horrible countries that you, 467 00:46:43,564 --> 00:46:45,944 like not everything is horrible 468 00:46:45,944 --> 00:46:46,804 everywhere. 469 00:46:47,344 --> 00:46:49,184 Like for example in Russia 470 00:46:49,184 --> 00:46:51,824 even in communist Russia 471 00:46:51,824 --> 00:46:53,664 I'm sure the cities were absolutely 472 00:46:53,664 --> 00:46:55,344 god awful like 473 00:46:55,344 --> 00:46:57,864 terrible you're getting mugged you're getting 474 00:46:57,864 --> 00:46:59,684 beat up by KGB 475 00:46:59,684 --> 00:47:01,524 whatever but I feel like in the countryside 476 00:47:01,524 --> 00:47:02,824 people were kind of chilling. 477 00:47:04,304 --> 00:47:05,904 You know and I'm sure the same 478 00:47:05,904 --> 00:47:07,184 is true in Venezuela 479 00:47:07,184 --> 00:47:09,144 like I remember 480 00:47:09,144 --> 00:47:11,904 this guy I used to work with 481 00:47:11,904 --> 00:47:17,564 he said he went to cuba in the 90s and he was in the city and they told him like do not go outside 482 00:47:17,564 --> 00:47:25,344 at night in in havana and so he went outside and he said literally all the lights were off in the 483 00:47:25,344 --> 00:47:30,524 entire city like they shut the power grid off he said it was horrifying it was really scary he's 484 00:47:30,524 --> 00:47:34,784 like but i made it back to the hotel and then i got he's like i wandered out of the city the next 485 00:47:34,784 --> 00:47:41,224 day and i got lost and i like was really lost and these people he's like there was no food in the 486 00:47:41,224 --> 00:47:46,964 city either i was eating like terrible terrible food he said these people found him and he was 487 00:47:46,964 --> 00:47:52,144 like he speaks spanish so he was telling them like oh i'm so hungry i'm on vacation here and 488 00:47:52,144 --> 00:47:56,844 they were like really you're on vacation like you want to eat with us and he said they walked to the 489 00:47:56,844 --> 00:48:04,124 beach and they had a feast like literally like lobsters and and fruit and he's like it was like 490 00:48:04,124 --> 00:48:10,884 like a paradise out you know in this communist country so i thought it was kind of cool to see 491 00:48:10,884 --> 00:48:12,444 in China, you have these sort of 492 00:48:12,444 --> 00:48:14,384 outside of the 493 00:48:14,384 --> 00:48:17,044 big cities, you have these mountainous areas 494 00:48:17,044 --> 00:48:18,584 and these people are like, you know, 495 00:48:18,644 --> 00:48:20,864 they're like people here that live in the 496 00:48:20,864 --> 00:48:22,944 forest. They're another type of creature, 497 00:48:23,144 --> 00:48:23,504 you know? 498 00:48:26,264 --> 00:48:29,004 And the government 499 00:48:29,004 --> 00:48:30,044 has less 500 00:48:30,044 --> 00:48:33,064 authority in those places, 501 00:48:33,304 --> 00:48:35,004 right? They're not able to 502 00:48:35,004 --> 00:48:36,924 instill 503 00:48:36,924 --> 00:48:38,944 so much control in the mountainous 504 00:48:38,944 --> 00:48:44,704 regions so they kind of those people kind of just it was like when uh in covid the guy at seti he 505 00:48:44,704 --> 00:48:50,864 went there during covid to get away from like the lockdown craziness or like being have you know the 506 00:48:50,864 --> 00:48:55,824 government stomping on your head and i did the same thing i flew to mexico i was in the mountains 507 00:48:55,824 --> 00:49:06,224 i was hiding out there like i related to him he's a this is a great canadian man yeah i wrote this so 508 00:49:06,224 --> 00:49:20,524 yeah yeah i think uh one other um you know i guess i guess last last thing for me maybe to 509 00:49:20,524 --> 00:49:27,264 talk about is like the i i thought the end of the book was really interesting with um like where he 510 00:49:27,264 --> 00:49:32,964 talked about okay kind of what we talked about earlier where we used to have this mentality that 511 00:49:32,964 --> 00:49:38,204 we can we can build things and we can and i thought it was really interesting that he brought 512 00:49:38,204 --> 00:49:47,784 up robert moses um in new york the new york city guy um yeah it was what like was that like the 40s 513 00:49:47,784 --> 00:49:56,664 or 50s or something um where or maybe maybe 60s um where he did have this mentality of like 514 00:49:56,664 --> 00:50:03,344 I'm going to build as much as possible, as much infrastructure as possible, and you're not going 515 00:50:03,344 --> 00:50:08,444 to get in my way. And if you do, I'll, I'll beat you or whatever. Like I'll, I'll take you down. 516 00:50:08,444 --> 00:50:13,704 And there wasn't like a super strong lawyerly society at that point. And he was able to 517 00:50:13,704 --> 00:50:19,344 accomplish a lot. Now, I think he also might've went a little bit overboard. I mean, I've heard 518 00:50:19,344 --> 00:50:29,064 people call him like super racist for, you know, for like building in poor areas or I'm not, I never 519 00:50:29,064 --> 00:50:35,384 read the biography, but, but yeah, like the end of the book, it talks about him and it talks, 520 00:50:35,484 --> 00:50:40,364 it talks about like, we need to have that mentality again as, as Americans, you know, 521 00:50:40,364 --> 00:50:45,884 especially in positions of power of like, I'm going to build this and like, there's nothing 522 00:50:45,884 --> 00:50:52,364 you can do to stop it. And like, we're able to make tradeoffs here, like there's going to be, 523 00:50:52,364 --> 00:50:56,184 you know, maybe it is not great for the environment to build a huge new building, 524 00:50:56,184 --> 00:51:03,024 but it's worth it for housing prices to go down, right? Housing prices, in my view, 525 00:51:03,204 --> 00:51:09,364 and like we just saw this with the recent mayor election with Momdani winning is like, 526 00:51:09,644 --> 00:51:15,404 housing prices, I think is the key issue of our time, especially for younger people. 527 00:51:15,884 --> 00:51:26,044 Right. Where it's really, really hard to buy a house right now, especially in cities and especially like New York and San Francisco. 528 00:51:26,044 --> 00:51:30,544 And Kyle, even where you live, I'm sure that's really hard. 529 00:51:31,084 --> 00:51:36,104 And yeah, like he talks about how there's tradeoffs you can make. 530 00:51:36,204 --> 00:51:43,104 But like we have to get in this mentality of building and engineering and not being so bureaucratic. 531 00:51:43,104 --> 00:51:52,004 And, and to me, like that was all well and good, but like, I didn't leave, I didn't like finish the book being like super optimistic at all. 532 00:51:52,464 --> 00:51:55,144 Cause in my head, I'm just like, it couldn't happen. 533 00:51:55,244 --> 00:51:56,124 How would that happen? 534 00:51:56,124 --> 00:51:56,504 Right. 535 00:51:56,524 --> 00:51:58,044 Like how would we all of a sudden? 536 00:51:58,984 --> 00:51:59,424 Yeah. 537 00:51:59,524 --> 00:52:00,084 It couldn't happen. 538 00:52:00,084 --> 00:52:03,004 You literally, society would literally have to collapse. 539 00:52:03,004 --> 00:52:11,644 and then like the uh like let's say a city would literally have to collapse and then you'd have to 540 00:52:11,644 --> 00:52:18,864 rebuild like rehire the entire you'd have to have some you know visionary that goes in there and and 541 00:52:18,864 --> 00:52:29,364 cuts like every position except for three and just i i i don't think like for example the the best i 542 00:52:29,364 --> 00:52:35,064 think scott we were talking about this the other night 40 or 44 of all the buildings in the city 543 00:52:35,064 --> 00:52:42,804 new york city right now are illegal according to the zoning laws you know you couldn't build them 544 00:52:42,804 --> 00:52:48,244 but they're because they're not far enough from the sidewalk or they're whatever whatever it is 545 00:52:48,244 --> 00:52:57,104 it's like it's so ingrained the the zoning law book is like this it's it's um yeah i'm not sure 546 00:52:57,104 --> 00:53:02,684 you can do it unless you collapse and because the government can't afford to pay workers they 547 00:53:02,684 --> 00:53:09,704 literally get dissolved and then you start again like i i literally don't see any other way because 548 00:53:09,704 --> 00:53:17,244 i don't know even the way that people are our voters are making decisions based on the information 549 00:53:17,244 --> 00:53:22,224 you know information available to them or what they're being propagandized to believe is like 550 00:53:22,224 --> 00:53:30,324 anti-solutions it's making it worse you know it's like let's put more people let's centralize things 551 00:53:30,324 --> 00:53:35,404 more and give more power to these people who are just trying to collect a paycheck and are like 552 00:53:35,404 --> 00:53:41,204 scrolling twitter for 90 of the days and then last minute deciding what type of lighting poles 553 00:53:41,204 --> 00:53:44,504 you're going to use on your property that are going to cost you like three million dollars 554 00:53:44,504 --> 00:53:47,924 Literally, I just went through that exact scenario. 555 00:53:49,964 --> 00:53:58,984 What government agency that you use publicly for citizens works efficiently? 556 00:53:59,884 --> 00:54:03,404 And if you can name 10, that's success. 557 00:54:03,984 --> 00:54:06,404 If you can name five, that would be great. 558 00:54:07,064 --> 00:54:08,364 But there isn't five. 559 00:54:08,944 --> 00:54:09,504 Yeah, exactly. 560 00:54:10,444 --> 00:54:11,164 Can you name one? 561 00:54:11,164 --> 00:54:17,744 And giving more power to the government, which is inefficient already, makes more inefficiencies. 562 00:54:18,644 --> 00:54:18,824 Yep. 563 00:54:19,544 --> 00:54:21,384 But people don't realize that. 564 00:54:22,764 --> 00:54:27,804 People don't, you know, like, why did Mamdani win, right? 565 00:54:28,264 --> 00:54:31,024 Because 12% of the population voted for him. 566 00:54:31,584 --> 00:54:37,584 There was a 20-some, between 20 and 30, voter age population turnout for that election. 567 00:54:38,204 --> 00:54:40,364 What do you mean 12% voted for him? 568 00:54:41,164 --> 00:54:52,084 The amount of people that voted for Mamdani that allowed him to win the mayor seat, it was 12% of the voting age population of New York City. 569 00:54:53,084 --> 00:54:54,364 That's not enough. 570 00:54:54,604 --> 00:55:03,744 Like, we need to have a blockchain technology on voting that everyone has on their phone that you can vote from work. 571 00:55:03,964 --> 00:55:05,404 It has to be easy. 572 00:55:09,164 --> 00:55:10,984 Yeah, this is kind of a different topic. 573 00:55:10,984 --> 00:55:14,424 but Peter Thiel wrote a really good piece recently. 574 00:55:17,444 --> 00:55:18,504 No, I agree with Kyle. 575 00:55:18,704 --> 00:55:20,044 I was thinking about it. 576 00:55:20,284 --> 00:55:20,724 Go ahead. 577 00:55:20,864 --> 00:55:21,004 I'm sorry. 578 00:55:23,684 --> 00:55:25,984 Well, he wrote that – 579 00:55:25,984 --> 00:55:27,944 Of course he does. 580 00:55:28,064 --> 00:55:28,764 He's a psycho. 581 00:55:29,364 --> 00:55:30,404 That guy's a psycho. 582 00:55:30,404 --> 00:55:31,364 Which is very – 583 00:55:31,392 --> 00:55:44,732 what's his reason for it he thinks higher voter turnout um is is means that there's more chance 584 00:55:44,732 --> 00:55:50,772 that like like the the the stakes are higher essentially so we had very high voter turnout 585 00:55:50,772 --> 00:55:59,352 um relative to other elections in new york and that's a bad sign according to him because 586 00:55:59,352 --> 00:56:04,912 because that means that like there was something important on the line if you know if we lived in a 587 00:56:04,912 --> 00:56:09,992 society where it's like it shouldn't it shouldn't matter that much right like because he's a 588 00:56:09,992 --> 00:56:15,632 libertarian too so like his belief is like the government shouldn't like it shouldn't be that 589 00:56:15,632 --> 00:56:20,592 consequential because the government shouldn't have that much authority and power anyways 590 00:56:20,592 --> 00:56:28,912 i i agree with that sentiment i don't agree that we should have low turnout because we should have 591 00:56:28,912 --> 00:56:33,632 the highest possible turnout. That would be a true democracy. But what about lower and lower? 592 00:56:33,872 --> 00:56:38,632 But there's a whole class of people who are classified as low information voters, right? 593 00:56:38,752 --> 00:56:42,732 Do you want, do you really want those people voting where they don't, they don't know, 594 00:56:42,732 --> 00:56:48,672 like anything about either, either candidate, right? Is that, is that better than the current 595 00:56:48,672 --> 00:56:55,672 really, really good question. I think if we look at Mamdani and knowing that he won with about 12% 596 00:56:55,672 --> 00:56:58,632 And they're all what I believe. 597 00:56:58,752 --> 00:57:00,532 They're all more educated. 598 00:57:00,792 --> 00:57:04,332 I think the people who voted for Mamdani are higher education. 599 00:57:04,872 --> 00:57:05,512 And wealthier, yeah. 600 00:57:05,892 --> 00:57:08,872 And maybe wealthier, but they definitely have a lot of school. 601 00:57:09,212 --> 00:57:13,552 They've been exposed to a lot of what is the possibility of socialism? 602 00:57:13,712 --> 00:57:15,272 What is the possibility of communism? 603 00:57:15,872 --> 00:57:21,932 And I don't think more education means that you have the ability to make a smarter decision. 604 00:57:21,932 --> 00:57:29,032 And I think more information, right, this is where it correlates to more information does not make it better, make you better as a voter. 605 00:57:29,032 --> 00:57:42,172 That's true. I agree with that. I don't I don't think I think. Yeah, I think I think Kyle, the real problem is they started slapping degrees like they opened up degrees to the marketplace. 606 00:57:42,172 --> 00:57:55,874 and basically a bunch of like people who should have been you know moving rocks in like northern Alberta even though those guys are probably geniuses Yeah 607 00:57:56,434 --> 00:57:59,214 They thought that they were, you know, they should be, 608 00:57:59,574 --> 00:58:02,414 they basically gave these people the belief 609 00:58:02,414 --> 00:58:05,354 that they should be re-engineering entire societies. 610 00:58:06,674 --> 00:58:10,534 Like, you're so smart, you need to re-engineer everything. 611 00:58:11,274 --> 00:58:12,354 And you're like... 612 00:58:12,354 --> 00:58:20,954 there's there's a couple of things that we could do if if i could snap my fingers we could fix a 613 00:58:20,954 --> 00:58:28,354 lot of the u.s government but not all of it will ever be it will ever be accepted and a lot of it 614 00:58:28,354 --> 00:58:33,734 is guys if i'm more if i may before i have to jump off but i just want to give you guys a quick 615 00:58:33,734 --> 00:58:42,334 story so one night i was trying to have lucid dreams and uh it's going to relate to what you're 616 00:58:42,334 --> 00:58:47,834 saying um i was i was trying to have lucid dreams and finally i achieved a lucid dream so 617 00:58:47,834 --> 00:58:53,854 i go to sleep i have a dream that my brother and sister are behind me and they're really little 618 00:58:53,854 --> 00:58:59,794 like they're little kids and somebody's breaking into a building that i'm in and i have a knife in 619 00:58:59,794 --> 00:59:07,934 my hand and i feel like the guy's gonna kill us and i became so scared that i woke up in my dream 620 00:59:07,934 --> 00:59:11,074 and force push this guy through the door. 621 00:59:11,434 --> 00:59:12,534 I was aware. 622 00:59:12,974 --> 00:59:15,014 I realized, oh my God, I'm dreaming. 623 00:59:16,034 --> 00:59:17,154 I'm like, what am I going to do? 624 00:59:17,234 --> 00:59:18,934 I go outside and I'm like, 625 00:59:18,994 --> 00:59:24,354 I'm going to build the perfect brownstone apartment. 626 00:59:25,034 --> 00:59:25,474 Beautiful. 627 00:59:25,614 --> 00:59:27,514 I'm going to make it as beautiful as I possibly can. 628 00:59:28,194 --> 00:59:29,994 I'm doing this consciously. 629 00:59:30,894 --> 00:59:33,314 I start lifting up from the ground, 630 00:59:33,494 --> 00:59:35,314 raising a brownstone and boom, 631 00:59:35,314 --> 00:59:38,554 This perfect brownstone pops out of the ground. 632 00:59:38,914 --> 00:59:40,874 And then I get a weird feeling. 633 00:59:41,734 --> 00:59:45,174 And I lean over and I look behind the brownstone. 634 00:59:45,414 --> 00:59:48,074 And I leveled the entire city. 635 00:59:49,494 --> 00:59:51,214 And I destroyed everything. 636 00:59:51,214 --> 00:59:54,414 I literally must have killed millions. 637 00:59:54,594 --> 00:59:55,674 Millions in my dream. 638 00:59:56,474 --> 01:00:01,514 And sometimes I think if you think that you can snap your fingers and make everything right, 639 01:00:01,514 --> 01:00:17,676 You like I going to do this one little good thing You might crumble You might crush everyone Yeah Mm Yeah Well then I share one which is a thing that talked about in the public sphere a little bit more now 640 01:00:17,676 --> 01:00:32,036 which is if politicians want to pass a regulation, a law, a bill, single item, it covers one topic, pass that one topic, then move on to the next. 641 01:00:32,036 --> 01:00:34,436 Don't throw 300 topics into a bill. 642 01:00:34,736 --> 01:00:35,156 Okay. 643 01:00:35,436 --> 01:00:36,756 You snapped your fingers. 644 01:00:36,936 --> 01:00:38,136 You got away with that one. 645 01:00:42,036 --> 01:00:42,556 Yeah. 646 01:00:43,156 --> 01:00:44,296 Yeah, they do. 647 01:00:44,456 --> 01:00:52,636 They jam everything into a bill knowing that most people, like, it's to hide what they're doing, right? 648 01:00:52,636 --> 01:00:59,236 Because then the bill will be 100 pages or even 1,000 pages and no one's going to actually read all that crap. 649 01:00:59,236 --> 01:01:17,816 And and they can just kind of sneak in, you know, the things that they want for their, you know, whatever, for their donors or whatever, whatever stuff they're doing. Right. Because if they were really, you know, being upfront about what they wanted to accomplish, yeah, they would just they would just be a simple bill. 650 01:01:17,816 --> 01:01:21,776 and all that, you know, it's kind of back to the lawyerly society, right? 651 01:01:21,796 --> 01:01:28,536 They have these lawyers draft up extremely complex bills and agreements and contracts 652 01:01:28,536 --> 01:01:34,156 and that kind of obfuscates, you know, what's actually going on. 653 01:01:34,336 --> 01:01:35,836 That's, you know, lobbyists too. 654 01:01:35,976 --> 01:01:36,856 That's another big one. 655 01:01:37,356 --> 01:01:40,356 That's just people trying to shove in whatever they got paid to shove in. 656 01:01:40,956 --> 01:01:42,516 But guys, I really have to run. 657 01:01:42,596 --> 01:01:43,096 I have to get out. 658 01:01:43,176 --> 01:01:44,876 I have to clean up the studio and then get out of here. 659 01:01:44,876 --> 01:01:53,056 But before you head out, we're reading the Technological Republic text. 660 01:01:53,056 --> 01:01:54,736 I got it. I ordered it. Do you want to read it? 661 01:01:55,796 --> 01:01:56,276 Correct. 662 01:01:57,556 --> 01:01:57,836 Okay. 663 01:01:58,296 --> 01:01:59,336 Yeah, I ordered it. 664 01:01:59,396 --> 01:02:00,276 Is that what we're reading? 665 01:02:01,176 --> 01:02:01,776 Yeah. 666 01:02:02,776 --> 01:02:05,656 I started it just to warn you guys. 667 01:02:05,916 --> 01:02:11,016 Like it has like some similar themes as this book. 668 01:02:11,016 --> 01:02:18,016 It's definitely not as approachable as this book. 669 01:02:18,016 --> 01:02:38,158 Alex Karp is very philosophical and very educated and he kind of like Peter Thiel where he has more he has more of like he in tech but he also like kind of a philosopher So he has sort of complex some complex ideas 670 01:02:38,338 --> 01:02:39,618 But I don't think that's a bad thing. 671 01:02:39,658 --> 01:02:42,498 I just I think it's a little bit harder to read than than breakneck. 672 01:02:43,618 --> 01:02:52,078 But and it has some of the same themes of America sort of like decline, being in like very stagnant and like a little bit of a decline. 673 01:02:52,078 --> 01:02:54,378 and how we can fix that 674 01:02:54,378 --> 01:02:57,398 and how Palantir is addressing these problems. 675 01:02:58,658 --> 01:03:01,298 So I'm only like 10 or 20 pages in, 676 01:03:01,358 --> 01:03:02,778 but it's very good so far. 677 01:03:03,858 --> 01:03:04,858 Palantir to the rescue. 678 01:03:04,858 --> 01:03:05,698 It should have never sold. 679 01:03:05,878 --> 01:03:06,878 Yeah, yeah. 680 01:03:07,418 --> 01:03:11,278 Can we please, 681 01:03:11,658 --> 01:03:14,178 because we skipped over the fiction book, 682 01:03:14,558 --> 01:03:16,558 can we please after this? 683 01:03:16,558 --> 01:03:19,038 I don't want the responsibility to picking 684 01:03:19,038 --> 01:03:20,958 after I picked the American establishment. 685 01:03:20,958 --> 01:03:22,378 I'm not reading 686 01:03:22,378 --> 01:03:24,578 I am not reading any of Doug's books 687 01:03:24,578 --> 01:03:26,718 or sorry 688 01:03:26,718 --> 01:03:28,918 I shouldn't say that I'm vetting Doug's books 689 01:03:28,918 --> 01:03:29,518 very highly 690 01:03:29,518 --> 01:03:32,898 I know what I took out of that book 691 01:03:32,898 --> 01:03:34,338 you guys might have taken nothing 692 01:03:34,338 --> 01:03:36,418 but that was a life changing book 693 01:03:36,418 --> 01:03:38,678 did you? 694 01:03:38,858 --> 01:03:41,158 I took something I did a whole episode on it 695 01:03:41,158 --> 01:03:43,258 geez coach that was a tough one 696 01:03:43,258 --> 01:03:44,518 that was a tough one 697 01:03:44,518 --> 01:03:45,258 it was so hard 698 01:03:45,258 --> 01:03:47,258 it was so tough 699 01:03:47,258 --> 01:03:50,018 so after this book then 700 01:03:50,018 --> 01:03:51,178 I'll pick the next one. 701 01:03:51,578 --> 01:03:51,878 Do it. 702 01:03:51,878 --> 01:03:52,898 I'm going to pick a fiction book. 703 01:03:53,598 --> 01:03:53,998 All right, guys. 704 01:03:54,518 --> 01:03:55,778 Scotty, I'll text you. 705 01:03:56,238 --> 01:03:57,118 I really got to run. 706 01:03:57,278 --> 01:03:57,678 What kind of fiction? 707 01:03:58,938 --> 01:03:59,438 I'm going to be – 708 01:03:59,438 --> 01:03:59,658 Okay. 709 01:03:59,938 --> 01:04:04,078 This guy is going to walk in with, I don't know, Christina Aguilar or something, and I'm going to get yelled at. 710 01:04:05,998 --> 01:04:06,398 Jesus. 711 01:04:07,578 --> 01:04:07,898 All right. 712 01:04:07,998 --> 01:04:08,358 See you guys. 713 01:04:08,518 --> 01:04:08,698 Bye. 714 01:04:14,418 --> 01:04:16,558 Thank you for listening to How You Level Up. 715 01:04:16,558 --> 01:04:20,358 If you're enjoying the show, subscribe and give a five-star rating. 716 01:04:21,038 --> 01:04:25,938 There are new episodes each month asking questions about timeless communication lessons. 717 01:04:26,958 --> 01:04:33,778 Language is a medium for sharing, and the knowledge unpacked here can be applied to anyone, anywhere, facing any challenge. 718 01:04:34,258 --> 01:04:40,518 If there's a question or topic you'd like me to dive into next, send a note to any of my connected social media accounts. 719 01:04:41,058 --> 01:04:43,418 This is all about how you level up. 720 01:04:46,558 --> 01:04:48,558 Thank you.