Hey, Troy. Happy birthday Daniel. Happy birthday, man. Happy, uh, Monday. Happy birthday Happy birthday indeed.
Hey, we talk a lot about how tech is destroying our lives and how kids and technology and phubbing, and I actually wanted to flip the script a little bit and ask, how do you think iPhones, computers, internet, AI, how is it improving our- Mm-hmm...
children's lives? And- Yeah... our specific children are not even five yet. They're not even four. But, like, our kids' generations, they're gonna be growing up with ChatGPT. They, they won't Google things.
There's not gonna-- That's not gonna be a thing they do. They're just gonna ask their, you know, chatbot of choice, and they'll have answers effectively to all of life's questions in the palm of their hand.
You and I, we went to the library in college to do research reports. Like, that won't be a thing that most of our kids and their friends do. But it's easy to say, "Oh, it's terrible. They're not gonna know how to learn."
It's like, well, no, they'll figure other things out to learn, and they'll have hyper-focused learning. So I ask you- Yeah...
how will AI technology and how AI is improving technology, how will that improve- Yeah, yeah... our kids' lives? And I wanna focus on the, on the good stuff, because I think- Yeah, yeah... there's a lot.
Yeah, there's a lot of good stuff actually. And I think that the, it's, it's... I just think as humans, we focus on the negatives more than we do the positives. We do.
Um, and that's, and that's why we- It's a lot easier to talk about negatives... Dude, it is. It is. And like you watch the news, it's all negative. It's not like, "Hey, we found this out-" Yeah. "...
about cancer, XYZ right?" I had this whole conversation actually yesterday at a neighbor's house, so I won't get into it.
But I also think that there's a lot of positives that come from technology ado- technology adoption and AI and things like that. When I look at it, I see it like, uh, like two things.
One is connection, like just being able to have connection with anyone in the world, which sure, you can spin that in a negative way, but again, it's super easy to focus on negatives. Like, I think it's a- Yeah...
really positive thing to have immediate connection and quick connection to your teacher, your mom, your dad, your friends, your cousin, your aunt.
Like I think that's incredible and used the right way, I believe it's like something that we take for granted is like how easy it is to talk to our mom, our dad, our- Yeah... whatever, whenever we want.
And it's just so normal to us, right? Uh, especially if you're, call it, under 40. It's, it's the norm to be able to call your mom, call your dad, text anybody.
So I think, I think it, it can improve the connection that they have with friends, families, things like that. And I do think it'll actually,
like the inverse of what you said, like, "Oh, you know, they're never gonna learn. How are they gonna learn with all this information?" Maybe that's what we need. Maybe we need the stuff that...
I can go into this rabbit hole of how I think school, schools teach things wrong. Like I don't think learning is just reading books and memorizing books and then answering questions. Right.
I don't know how helpful that really is. Um, but it's been around forever, right? And so I, I think that it'll teach them to learn the things that actually matter to get through life.
Like you're going to need to learn how to change a, change the chain on your bike and stuff like that, kinda like we did. We never were able to Google, but they can and stuff.
So I think it might force them to learn the things that they have to learn, but they can just learn it easier, better- Uh-huh... faster than ever before. And I also think it just opens up like this,
this world of freedom for them. Again, everything comes with a consequence, and I believe that with everything in life.
But like for example, if you're a, call it a 16-year-old person, 14-year-old, doesn't matter how old you are, but let's just say early teens, mid-teens, and you want to start a business, you can go out there at 14, 15, 16 year old these days and go and start a business.
Ask ChatGPT, "Hey, how should I start this business? What should I name it? Create me a logo. What should I..." Everything, right? Like, "How should I start it? How do I get my first customers? How do I market it?"
And you can get all your answers right then and there, and I think that's extremely incredible. So you could be like 14, 15, 16, and whatever that age might be.
I saw somebody on LinkedIn, has a 10-year-old son who's built a company. They're like 2,500 MRR right now just because- Yeah... he learned how to do light coding and vibe coding.
So I think that, that it opens up the door for tons and tons of opportunity, things that were never once possible when we were growing up and, and beyond. So those are a few ways that I think it can improve the lives.
Um, but yeah, like I said, it's, it's so easy to focus on the negative, but I think that, I think it's also easy to, um, build things to kind of like weed out the negatives too.
Like I, I do think that there will be a time where cyberbullying, that'll always be there, but there's p- gonna be ways to probably mitigate that and things like that just as things get smarter. So, um, yeah, man. Yeah.
There's a, there's a lot of, there's a lot of ways that I do believe AI improves
the livelihood of children, and you can make an argument of screen time and stuff all you want, but I think that there's a lot of positives that need to be focused on more that we don't focus enough on.
So what do you think can also be improved in a child's life with AI and with technology? Yeah. I think you mentioned connection, and I think that's where my mind immediately goes to.
My friend's spouse is deployed in the military for like six months right now. Um, and they have some kids, and I was talking to them. I said, "Yo, how, how is that, you know? How are you able to or not able to connect?"
And they said, "You know, we try to FaceTime, you know, whenever we can, which is pretty frequently."
I don't wanna even mitigate how difficult six months deployed would be with a family, so like let's just assume that's the case. But 30, 40 years ago, if you were deployed, and deployed could be anything.
You know, you're deployed in the military or away for work, whatever it is. You're separated from your family.
You're just separated, and your option, you know, back in the day in World War II is letters, and there's like movies out there about how like most of those letters were just lost in transit. Uh, there's an entire movie.
I can't remember the name of this movie, but it was actually a very dramatic, kind of feel-good movie aboutThe mail delivery in World, I think it was World War II. Insane.
Uh, millions, literally millions of letters lost, uh, never delivered. And there was this entire mail crew that, like, went through crazy amounts of mail to deliver them after the fact, a lot of times after death even.
So really sad, but that was, that's what you did back then.
Now you have a cellphone and I'm sure there's a lot of rules that I'm not privy to in the military about how you can FaceTime or not, or, you know, whatever is allowed in those situations. But I think connection,
connection is what comes to mind, and I think w- we're already seeing it even in you and I's generation. You and I have never met in real life, ever. Uh,
that, that's something that I forget because we are friends- Yeah... and co-founders and- Yeah... successful with a podcast. Never shaken each other's hand, never dapped, never seen each other face to face in real life.
Sh. We, we... It feels like I have. It feels like our kids should be best friends by now. They've never met. And so I think there's a very
real effect of connection that you and I are experiencing firsthand in, in a really valuable way. You know, and I... Like, I have, I have my list of friends, you have your list of friends. You're on that list for me.
I'm like, "Who should I tell about this crazy thing that happened at work?" It's like, "Well, I'm gonna text Troy."
You know, it's like i- there's, there's a, there's a very real friendship that's, that's formed, and when I think about the generations after us, like, you and I, we're the first generation where that's the case.
The generation before us, uh, I mean, of course there's exceptions, but there's, they're not, like, like, obsessively online. They don't have real friends that they've made online.
You know, Discord chat rooms and, like, the, you know, the social medias all came during our generation. Early on in our lives, but still our generation. The generation after us, you know, Gen X...
Sorry, Gen Z, the generation after us, and then the generation after them, Gen Alpha, that's our kids, kids of millennials- Wow...
they will grow up in a online chat room native world where their best friends might be people they've never met.
And you've probably seen these TikToks, as I have, where it's people who are meeting, like, their chat room for the first time in real life. And it's, like, a little silly. Like, it's definitely- Yeah...
some t- some satire and they're, like, kind of over the top. But, like, they're dapping them up for the first time ever after hav- having been friends for, like, five years playing- Yeah... you know, games online.
Dude- Fortnite online- I love those stories [laughs]... Roblox and... I love those stories. It's so crazy. I'm like, these real friends. You... So I don't know. I think there's, there are risks.
There are so many things that technology hasn't figured out how to solve yet for those risk factors and the, the catphishings that are happening and all that stuff. But
I think our, our kids' best friends might be a combination of IRL and online. Dude, I will say, to your point, I agree. I mean, I have so many good friends through Xbox Live that, like,
I don't talk to them every day or anything like that, but, like, we chat every so often, right? Yep. And it's just like, "Hey, man, how are things going?" Yep. Stuff like that. Yep. But we, we did.
We talked every day, every night for years and years till- Crazy... 2:00 AM, 3:00. It's crazy. It was awesome. It was awesome, right? I knew all about their life, where they were living, their...
Like, just it's, it's insane. Um, which kinda leads me to, to think about the metaverse, which was a complete flop in my opinion when it tried to come out, whatever it was, three, four, five years ago.
You know Meta's still investing? Dude, they, they are. Like, like the Meta, Mark Zuckerberg's still investing and there's, like, Decentraland and there's these, like, metaverse first companies still g- growing- Yeah...
allegedly. [laughs] I don't- And that... Yeah, allegedly, but that's actually where my question then, then starts to take direction is do you think that will become the norm?
I think maybe it was too early because you're talking about- Dude... how it brings access to connection when n- we never dapped each other up. But there's these meeting rooms, chat rooms, whatever- Yeah...
you know- Yeah... whatever you can join. This is the, literally, like, the closest thing to meeting IRL in the metaverse. Is it too early? Do you think it's just a flop forever? Like, what are your thoughts on, on that?
I think it was a combination of too early and, like, technology lagging behind the idea. Mm. Like, the original metaverse, I mean, what's original in the terms of this conversation, it started before the AI boom. Yeah.
And so there was, like, Web3 and crypto and, you know, skins- [laughs]... and, "Well, if Fortnite and Roblox can do it, like, why not the whole internet?"
And, like, it, there was concepts of a metaverse, but adoption was, was silly. Like, why would I do that?
But now that hundreds of millions, or actually billions of people are using AI every day in their lives, I mean, it's crazy. It's- Yeah... I think ChatGPT said it's 750 million monthly active users or something.
Maybe daily active. I mean, that's ridiculous. That's absurd.
So now that the world has adopted en masse this technology adjacent to what could become the metaverse, I think adopting new ideas of how to utilize AI and internet and connection,
I think people are more open-minded, to be honest. Uh, it's like, you know, metaverse was just such a flop because it was like, "Why? Why would I do that?" You know, why...
Uh, but now it's like, well, you just have to attach it to something you're already doing that you've just adopted in the last 12, 18, 24 months.
Everyone, again, hundreds of millions of daily active users using AI, everyone's adopted this new form of reality, so what's one more slightly different thing? I think metaverse is...
Look, I'm not an investor in anything metaverse related, although I do think I have some shares in Meta, Meta proper. I'm investing in Mark. You can't, you ca- you can't, never slight Mark. Zuck is always doing it.
So, but I don't know. It's gonna be very interesting to see. I just, I just saw, uh, a new role go up for Decentraland. I know the people there. Shout out Decentraland on Beehive. Boom, plug. But they are hiring.
They're growing. Uh, I'm, I'm big fans of what they're doing, actually. What they're doing is really remarkable.I think it's an adoption issue. I don't even know that it was or is a tech issue.
I think it's an adoption issue, and now that people have adopted something, what's another thing? Yeah. Do you... [sighs] I hate to turn your question about how it is improving kids' lives to something negative, but-
Termina... the fear, and it's always been the fear when, with Xbox Live.
Anything where you can just meet people online, there's always like that, that kind of like that ick behind of like, are there older guys, older people trying to, men, women, doesn't matter, trying to lure my child.
So with the, like the Metaverse, and even, even as your kids get older and older and they do meet friends, uh, you know, not in real life, but over the internet, video games, whatever that might be, how do you plan to
monitor that? Or is it you just get a list of all their friends and, and- Yeah... micromanage them when they play games? Or what, what do you think?
There's this, there's this thought experiment that I spent an egregious amount of time using in college when I studied philosophy, and the thought experiment goes like this.
You have a chair, a chair with a back and four legs and a seat, and you go to the chair, and you need to replace one of the legs. You take the leg off, you put a new leg on. Is it the same chair?
And the thought experiment goes, "Well, yeah, it's just you replaced the leg." Okay, let's take the same chair, but you have to replace three of the four legs. You put three new legs on. Is it the same chair?
Well, it starts to get a little gray. Okay, well, let's take that same chair, you replace all four legs, you replace the base, you replace all the spokes on the back, and you refinish the wood top to bottom.
Is it the same chair? And you keep asking the question over and over and over again until eventually it's like, well, no, that's a completely different chair.
But the gray area between the definitely the same chair and no definitely new chair is drastic, and it, it really elicits these types of conversations that people have as like, when is something that was no longer?
And so the reason I bring up this thought experiment, I think this idea of catfishing and masquerading as a different person online and fooling people, you could say the same thing about IRL.
When I present myself to a room of people in a restaurant or a party or at some event, am I actually who I say I am? And when I say I am, meaning the, the way I come across in a party. You know, I'm...
People say I'm like the extroverted, like, life of the party type person. I'm so introverted. I get so exhausted by parties. I have to go home and take a nap. But when I'm there, I'm, I'm live.
Like I'm, I'm, I'm- Yeah... I'm hype. I'm having a great time. That's just my personality. I am alive, and then I gotta go take a 12-hour nap. [laughs] Like I'm just exhausted.
But like would you say Daniel is lying about who he is in those instances? Is he, is he giving, you know, the, the type of,
"Well, he's not really a 40-year-old man, he's a," or you know, or, "He's not really a 21-year-old woman. He's a 40-year-old man." It's like well, no, he's being a certain version of himself that aligns with the setting.
I'm telling you, this, this thought experiment is very similar. Well, what version of yourself for that specific setting then becomes so different than who you are- Mm... that it's no longer you? Honestly- Yeah...
put it in the Louvre. That was a great conversation. We should end the episode right here. That thought experiment makes me want to go get another degree in philosophy. That's an awesome question.
Dude, and, and I went to the gym this morning, and I randomly was like, "I should ask Daniel the question..." This is super funny because we, we didn't talk really much at all before this episode.
Um, and I was like, "I should ask Daniel if there's ever been a time in life where he didn't really act like himself to essentially blend in with the people that he was with."
So I know some people, they have friends that are really successful, do really well, and then this person might not be doing really well, but they go out and spend all their money on like a Beamer and like nice things, and they're like in- internally they're struggling, but they're like, "I have to keep up with my friends."
And that's a big thing that people run into these days. And I see it all the time. For some reason this, this age that we're in is so obsessed with impressing others versus like focusing on- Yeah... just like themselves.
Has there ever been a time where you've done anything like that? And if not, that's fine. But how do you think that- Oh, for sure. Okay. Tell us. Yeah. I,
before college, just because I didn't have time probably or the body to do it, I used to be a huge skateboarder. Skateboarded for like 10 years. Um, you know, every, every weekend was at the skate park.
Everyone I hung out with was through skateboarding. What was your best trick? I wasn't super good, so like kickflip and, you know. Okay. Just your, your basics. Yeah, yeah. Just like, yeah, yeah.
Just like, you know, just your basic stuff. I was more of like a park. I would love to go to like a half pipes and do like- Okay... very simple stuff. But I just had a great time. Yeah. But it's always fun.
I wasn't like super... Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You know, jump like a three or four stair. Like there was some- Yeah... some small stuff that I was proud of, but I wasn't like, I wasn't crazy. Yeah, yeah. Okay, same.
But I had a great time. Same. Yeah. Um, had a great time. But the crowd I hung out with because of skateboarding was definitely like not the crowd I look back on like 20 years ago.
I'm like, eh, I probably like wouldn't have done that if I wasn't into skateboarding and, you know, like this was what... U- okay, I'm, I'm an early teen, so like 2000s, like early 2000s, early mid-2000s. You know, uh,
like dude would pick a, take out a pack of cigarettes, and I'm like, "Whoa, like I'm, I'm 13. Like I shouldn't be doing, like smoking cigarettes." It's like, "Might as well."
Like I'm, I'm, I'm with the, the crowd- Mm-hmm... that's doing it. It's like, here, I'll... You know. Yeah. Or like snowboarding. You'd be snowboarding. They went hand in hand, although I still snowboard, and I love it.
It's my favorite sport by far. Dude, it's amazing.
But you're on the mountain with like a bunch of high schoolers, and they're, you know, 13, 14, 15 years old, and no one really knows their left from their right, and someone takes out a pack of cigarettes, and you just smoke one.
And it's like, well-Why would I do that? You know, I'm 13. Like, first of all, that's wrong. [laughs] Yeah. [laughs] A 13-year-old shouldn't be smoking cigarettes. But like- Yeah... y- I don't know.
I, I'm like, "Well, I'm gonna do it 'cause all my friends are doing it." And- Yeah. Yeah... I think that's like, you know, that's one example of probably 100 that I could think of, but I think peer pressure to
perform and belong, I think back, back then, big problem for teenagers. Right now, 100 times larger problem for teenagers, and it actually, it scares me.
It scares me because I know my kids are gonna be teens some days, someday, and like, what, what is the e- equivalent of peer pressure gonna look like? I don't know. I, I, it- I don't know, yeah...
things that I don't understand scare me the most because I'm like, what is the peer pressure equivalent in 2035- Yeah, yeah... when my kids are in their early high school years? Like, that I couldn't even tell you.
I mean, there's AI glasses now. [laughs] They're... Like meta glasses. They're awesome, by the way. I'm gonna buy some. They're 500 bucks. They're way too much money.
I'm totally gonna get them so I can, like, record myself running. It's so sick. Anyways, like, what...
There's so much stuff in technology that's causing new forms of peer pressure and social pressure and social anxiety and depression. Yeah. So I don't know. Um- I, I don't know how it's gonna look either. Like, I- Yeah...
I couldn't even guess. I couldn't even give you a good guess on, in 10 years, what will it look like when Liam's 13.
What I will say is, going back to our first answer, is, like, connection and access, that also can become a negative. And something that I've seen, I, I hope this takes a, a turn, but
similar to you, I, I kind of got in the friend group of, like, skaters and stuff like that, and loved skateboarding, thought it was super fun, but, like, it got to the point where I was in, like, ninth grade smoking weed.
And I was like, just, like, for some context, I had a huge panic attack. I hate it, and ever since then I've been, like, an anxious guy. Not super anxious, but I never had once had any anxiety in my life.
Had a panic attack, and then senior year, I didn't smoke ever again until senior year of high school where my friends were like, "Come on," like, "You haven't done it in so long. Just try, like, an edible or whatever."
And I tried it again. Same thing. Panic at- panic attack. I, like, ran home. Wow. It was, like, a complete episode. And ever since then, I've never done a drug, will never do a drug again in my life.
Like, even this weekend, I had buddies drink, like, THC drinks 'cause they didn't wanna get drunk, but they wanted to, like- Yeah... you know, be in the vibe, whatever. And I was like, nope.
I will never have anything that... I'll drink alcohol- Yeah... which is probably even a worse drug, to be honest, but, um- I don't even know if you can compare the two... yeah, man. It's hard to compare the two. Yeah.
We're not gonna open up that can of worms, but- Yeah... and I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what... It kinda scares me. When I graduated high school- Yeah...
it's like the generation younger were like, maybe this is TMI, but, like, they were having, like, sex younger. They were doing drugs, like coke and stuff. Mm. Like, in high school. I'm like, oh, my gosh. Yeah. Yeah.
Like, I wasn't even thinking of that. Like, so I, I don't know. It scares me. It, it does scare me. I think- And I hope, I hope we have so much studies that come out where kids are just like, "I don't need to do that."
Like, "I, I can just go have friends and have fun." I don't know.
I think moral compasses are shifting, where what was just emphatically and widely accepted as crazy in, let's be extreme, like, the '70s, or, uh, maybe not the '70s, the '80s, the '90s.
Y- our kids and their kids' friends and, like, it's just, like, the moral compass of right and wrong is so highly questioned. Yeah. And there's so many,
there's so much bureaucracy and politics at play where, you know, you might act a certain way to rebel against what everyone thinks is acceptable or not acceptable, and I think that's always how kids have been, but what is acceptable is so starkly different.
And I think i- it's the cop-out answer for someone to say, "Well, every, every generation talks this way," like, "The generation after them is crazy." No. No.
This right now has never happened as rapidly or with such drastic changes month to month and year to year in the history of humanity.
You think of, like, the most, the craziest shifts in soci- society and culture and, like, you think of, like, the train, the locomotive, like, that was huge because things could travel city to city.
You think of airplanes because of, like, globalization. Now I can just go fly to Europe if I want. You think of technology, like the computer, internet.
I think what's happening right now with AI and the shift of the world to either latch onto or repel is the same magnitude of those things, like the printing press of society. And so
yeah, the moral compass is, is an interesting one. I, I am responsible for my kids' moral compass. That is my belief. Yeah. Yeah. Their moral compass will be a direct reflection of my own.
But their friends' moral compasses and their friends' friends' moral compasses and the internet's moral compass, I mean, shoot, I, I have to turn my internet, not my internet, my phone, my device off all the time because I'll just be scrolling
loosey-goosey, having a good old time, when I come across someone having sex with someone else right in front... I'm like, whoa, like, I'm on freaking TikTok or Twitter. Like, I don't wanna see that. Or- Yeah...
someone dies. Like, oh, another shooting. There's freaking 10 people dead on my screen. Like- Yeah, dude... don't show me that. I don't- Yeah... want to see that ever. But- Yeah... what do you do?
I mean, I think it's like you either constantly risk seeing that, or you don't ever scroll social media. I feel like the, there, there's, like, there's nowhere in between right now.
It's like, oh, just put your privacy settings on different. It's like, I have. [laughs] I've already done that. [laughs] What else do I do except just delete my account entirely? Just set a timer.
Set a timer on your apps. Like, yeah, but, like, I keep hitting ignore. Like- It's so annoying. It's so annoying, dude.
I don't- I'm like, the internet's such a dark, rough place.I was, dude, literally was just having this conversation. Just met my neighbors yesterday, and it was just talking about... My wife watches the news.
I come in from the gym, the news is on, she's watching it. It's never ever anything positive. This person died, drunk driving, school shooting, church burnt on fire.
Like, in the last, I think in the last, like, 24 hours there was, like, three mass shootings. It's, it's, it- It's- Absurd. It's- Horrible... it's crazy. But, um, yeah, I, I don't know.
And what, something that I've gotten really good at, and I apologize to you directly right now because there's times where I don't answer my phone, and I know that sometimes I, I haven't answered you, so my, my bad.
That's on me. But I- It's all good. It's all good. It's all good...
I, like, and I don't know if it's subconscious because of this podcast because I talk about it so much or what, but I have gone, I've become really, really good at just completely detaching from the entire world on the weekends to spend time with my wife and my kids to the point where, like, I don't know what's going on in the world, good or bad.
I finally, like, last night I went to bed, I scroll on TikTok a little bit, and that's when I found out that there was three mass shootings.
I was like, I was like, "What the he-," like, three in, like, the last 24 hours? That's absurd. But, yeah, I think I've gotten- Yeah, it's-...
really, really good at just completely disconnecting from digital life for the most part on the weekends. Mm-hmm. And I'm not, I feel like I'm not doing it intentionally, but I'm glad that it's happening, you know? Yeah.
But, like, how do you teach someone who hasn't done that to do that? 'Cause I, I... Correct me if I'm wrong, y- that's just kinda how you are, no? Have you been super intentional about developing that practice?
Or are you just like, "Eh, I'm just gonna disconnect"? Um, I think there's- Like, you have an X factor to be able to do that. I, I guess. I don't know. I think that, like, as Liam has gotten older,
I've, he's, just so whoever's watching this, like, Liam is, is my oldest son. He's three, three and a half, around there.
It has been so fun watching him, like, actually interact and develop just, like, full [laughs], like, full sentences and, like, thoughts on his own. So I took him to swim class like last week on Wednesday.
I take him every Wednesday. And we get out of swim class, and he goes, "Thanks for taking me swimming, Dad. I had so much fun." I like, I teared up. I was like, "Oh my gosh, dude. Like, I had a lot of fun with you, too."
And so I think now, i- as of, like, the last six months, I have
just realized, like, how much fun I'm having with my kids 'cause there was a time where I was like, "Oh, like, this isn't fun," and, "This is more stressful than fun," blah, blah, blah. But I don't know.
I don't know if it's just 'cause he's getting older and I'm having a, a better time, and it's much more engaging or what, but, um, I haven't intentionally done it, but I'm glad that whatever has happened kind of just like, "Yo, Troy, you don't need your phone on weekends."
And I'll use it, of course. Yeah. Like, I'll use it when I need to. Yeah. But I'll probably not respond to your text. I'll probably not know what's going on- Yeah... if there's something crazy in the world going on.
I'm just, what, whatever's happening is happening all in the background. So I don't know. Yeah. I've, I've talked about Opal on this podcast a few times.
I have, I have it blocked 9:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday, w- uh, my phone, which is great.
And I, you know, if I'm, like, going and getting a cup of coffee or, like, eating lunch or something, I'll, I'll, I'll unblock it, but, like, for the most part, um, I ha- I actually had a stat.
I think I've reduced my use of technology for the next, or for the rest of my life, you know, it takes your age and how much you're expected to live, from 44 years total, which is insane- Nuts... to like 21 years.
So in a month- That's crazy... I've reduced it by more than half. So I'm, like, actually pretty encouraged by that. I'm like, awesome. Like, that, the first number was egregious.
The second number is, like, still pretty gross, uh, but I'm going the right way. Um, but what I do is on Saturdays and Sundays block it from 7:00 AM to I think 11:00 AM or, or noon.
So it's just like I wake up without my phone on those days and am directly present with my family for the first, like, five, six hours of the day.
And I think that habit, it's almost like they say, like, making your bed first thing when you wake up is, like, the right thing to do to develop, you know, healthy habits because you, the first thing you do is productive.
That's how I've started to feel on Saturdays and Sundays.
Like, the first thing I do is not my phone, so the, the propensity to use my phone throughout the rest of the day is actually lowered because I'm, like, well, I haven't been on it in the last five hours, and it's been great.
You know, I- Yeah... we've talked about this as well, but
how technology is going to start shifting toward our own adoption of it or lack thereof, and what I mean here is the, the, like, Silicon Valley tech gurus of the world are all, like, pretty, like, zero tech homes.
They're like, "Oh, my kid won't have a cellphone. My kid is gonna go to a private school where they don't use laptops." Like, it, it's very ironic. Like, you- They are...
created Facebook, Netflix, Apple, all that stuff, but you're not even letting your kids use it. Do you think kids
in middle school, high school who are being given laptops and stuff will actually start to develop a disdain for the, for the, for the technology and even start to rebel against technology use similar to how we in our school years rebelled against reading a book?
Like, "I'm not gonna read that stupid book." Like, like, their stupid book is actually gonna be using a, a MacBook. [laughs] You know?
It's like, will they rebel against the things that are tech-based and, like, reverse back to books? I don't know. I'm interested- Yeah... in seeing how this all, how this all kind of comes together. Yeah.
Actually, I've never thought about that because I definitely rebelled against my homework and my books, and now, yeah, schools are giving out Chromebooks and things like that for people to do work, and I think,
yeah, I, I, I feel like maybe they would rebel against educated technology use. Mm-hmm. But that's a school-given device, right? Yep.
So when you get home, you probably get your own device, and you're like, "Ooh, I get to use this for social media- I know... and gaming."
And so I think they would rebel, not against screen time in particular, but definitely, like, ed tech screen time. I think they would rebel against that. Um, and I'm sure it's already happening. They did.
I bet you there's... I know when we were, or at least when I was in college, there was Blackboard, and, you know, you submitted your- Yep... homework and stuff through there. Stupid Blackboard. I know, stupid Blackboard.
They already started doing plagiarism b- you know, breakdowns. Like, you know, the per- percent copied of yourSurvey, I don't know. I mean, I, I'm sure it's way more advanced now because it's been 15 years, but crazy.
Yeah. Yeah. I don't... And so I don't know, I think they'll rebel against that. I think they'll rebel. It's, it's gonna be the same thing just with technology in their hands.
So maybe it's even worse now they have even more technology. Mm. I, I don't know. I don't know. But I do know that, yeah, these, these rich people, they... And rich people don't take that in a, in a bad way.
[laughs] But yeah, they, uh, they build crazy tech companies and it's like, all right, you're going to private school, you can't really have any contact with the outside world besides the other really rich people.
Um, super rich thing, but, um- Yeah... yeah. Yeah, yeah. I don't think they'll rebel against tech. I, I think it's too hard. I think it all boils down to your environment.
If you're in an environment where your friends, your family and things like that are just really centered around tech use, you're probably gonna be centered around tech use. And if you're friends with like,
let's just call it like hipsters and things like that, you're probably gonna just go out, go...
Like, I, my, my wife's brother, big hipster, super cool guy, but like dude just like he goes on hikes for three months and doesn't have a, a single piece of technology on him- That's so, that's so sick. I know, I know.
It's, it's crazy. And so he does that, and then he's always like camping or whatever.
He's always just doing stuff where he's disconnected from any sort of tech, um, besides his, his Garmin watch, where that's what we track when he goes on these long hikes. But- Nice... it's sick. Like, that's awesome.
I'm g- he doesn't have kids or anything- Yeah... so it makes it a little bit easier. But, um, I don't know. I don't know. I, I don't think that, uh, I don't think kids will rebel against technology unless...
I think there has to be like a paradigm shift, like that technology is bad, and I don't think people think technology is bad. And it, and it's not. Yeah. It's good, but also bad.
So with technology and parenting and the shift, we're starting to see AI used, AI being used in like pediatrics and,
you know, we're not talking like silly overuse of a phone, not to undermine how bad overuse of technology is, but like direct effect of children's health because of what AI or technology does or doesn't suggest.
And there's a study that Frontiers did, uh, to investigate parents' understanding and attitudes toward the application of AI in pediatric healthcare. And I think what's happening right now with healthcare is we are...
I mean, we as end users are scratching the surface of how healthcare can be, y- you know, how you can actually learn more about your body and, and science and biology from AI. Doctors have been...
I mean, health- hospitals have been using technology like this for, for forever. But I guess when does, when does technology get so good that our need to go to the doctor is effectively null?
I mean, we're not there yet, but we're already seeing even like the, the, the meme of like someone shows up to a doctor and the patient basically gives the doctor the diagnosis- Pro tip...
and the doctor's like, "Yeah, why are you even here?" Like- Yeah... I mean, but like there's a, it's, it's a meme. It's not real yet. I mean, a lot of doctors still know way more than the technology, but I mean- Yeah...
can't we just learn with tech? I, I don't know. Eventually that's not, that's just not gonna be the case or tech- or doctors are gonna have to learn so much more above and beyond what a chatbot will be able to do.
But like I have to believe AI is gonna get good enough to just- Tell you what's wrong... go. I mean- Do you, do you not think Google was that for... Do you think... 'Cause you would Google that pre-AI.
You would say, "Hey, I have a headache and three stubbed toes, and I can't walk straight," and then it would tell you like, what's wrong with you. Are you saying that because- No, I think-...
we can get immediate answers and having, have full conversations with a robot, it'll almost eliminate the need to go to the doctor?
I think what Google did, I mean, this is what Google did, is it just curated what other people have said about a topic. I mean, that's all Google was.
Now Google's starting to, you know, put AI into their responses as like a TLDR on top. Isn't AI the same thing though, where it's essentially just scraping what everybody's already created? No.
AI actually has its own thoughts based on what others have said. Totally different. You know what? You know that it doesn't actually have its own thoughts.
It actually predicts what the answer should be versus- But that's-... have its own thoughts... that's what a doctor- It's super- That's what a doctor does. [laughs] Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what a doctor does.
So [laughs] you're right. But- The doctor ingests- Yeah... all the information in the world and then gives you a prediction based on... Like- So-... that's exactly what doctors do. Yeah. Yeah.
To, to answer your question, I think it's when you need literally like s- immediate medical attention, go to a doctor. Right. Like surgery.
When you need, when you need a prescription- Like life-saving surgery or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
There will be like, who knows, maybe Mark Cuban will do this, where there's like, he's got his like make, you know, make prescription medicine pretty cheap. Um, what is it called? Yeah. Yeah. It's something RX.
Cost, Cost Plus? Cost Plus? Cost Plus? Anywho. Something like that. Um, maybe there is an, a, maybe there's a world in which it becomes so smart that like
from a, a regulatory perspective, something passes where it's like, hey, if this is the circumstance, you can, you can just go and get prescription meds by yourself. If ChatGPT diagnoses you with XYZ.
You know, like maybe- Mm-hmm... it's strep, maybe you can get... But then, then again, when I go to the doctor, I, I have to take a strep test. Like how, how, like how are you gonna do that at home?
Are you just gonna carry like a COVID test? Who's gonna... I don't know, dude. I, I have no idea. But- Yeah, I don't know either...
when you need surgery and when you need prescriptions, I feel like at least for the foreseeable future, that's still going to have to be a thing because there's an easy way to, to do that the wrong way and just go get prescriptions just 'cause you want like Xanax and not necessarily 'cause you have anxiety or whatever it might be.
So yeah, I don't know. I don't know. There's, uh- It's really interesting to think about... the startup The- Theranos, I think is how you pronounce it, Theranos, I never knew, by Elizabeth Holmes. Yeah.
I mean, a huge, obviously, you know, uh, big deal. She's in prison now from, you know, uh, investor th- fraud and a lot of stuff. So-She has a Twitter.
Uh, she came back on Twitter after like 10 years, and I, I'm 99% sure it's her, and I'm 99% sure the tweets are being written by someone not in prison, 'cause I don't actually know how that would work.
But I mean, like, wouldn't put it past her to have a phone in prison. I think some people do. But she's in prison, and she's tweeting pretty regularly, and people...
She did like an AMA at some point, and people were like, "Hey, like, you know, with AI now, could what you did actually exist? Was Theranos, Theranos, whatever, just before its time?"
And, and for those listening, Theranos, I'm just gonna use that as its pronunciation, was like a blood test that were, you know, would effectively verify
potential diseases, you know, propensity to have a disease, like life, life-changing blood test work with one drop of blood for like 110 different tests.
And, uh, you know, it didn't work, uh, allegedly, because that's why she's in prison for fraud, a lot of that stuff. But like, it wasn't that far-fetched. Like if we're being honest- Yeah. Yeah...
with what we know now, five or 10, 10-ish years removed, I believe from, from that, seems like that's just like, oh, yeah, that'd be, that'd be sick.
That seems like a actually valid use of AI and bringing that into a real-world setting where you could actually test actual biology with, with it. I'm like... So anyways, when's the next Ther- Theranos gonna start?
It, it seems like that's just like someone should just go do it. Like, it doesn't seem far-fetched anymore, and I think maybe she was just before her time, which is probably why there was some fraud involved.
I don't know why, you know, what all the fraud was about, but surely she was stretching the truth about things you're not allowed to stretch the truth about. She, she said fake it till you make it. True. Like for sure.
Right. Yeah. And she's like it's- You're not allowed to do that... maybe, [laughs] maybe it was ahead of her time, right?
Maybe she was literally trying to fake it till she made it, and she knew like at some point it would come. So I wouldn't doubt if there was something being created very similar right now. Yeah. Right? Like- Yeah...
I think- Sure. It probably, probably is... I, I think that there's so much going... I, I don't know. I think the way technology's advancing right now is so crazy, and there's so much going on- Mm-hmm...
that we don't know about, which is like- Mm-hmm... awesome and kind of scary. I was actually thinking- Yeah... this morning like where the job market will be in like five to 10 years.
Like, there's, for example, Perplexity came out- Yeah. Who knows?... with a browser comet. Comet like just creates AI agents for you, like through the browser. Mm-hmm. You don't...
Again, like right now, companies are creating agents for other companies. Like consultants are creating agents for a company, and they use those agents.
But at some point, my assumption is you'll just be able to say, "I want an agent that does this." Something is created. Now you can, you know, eliminate a third of your employees 'cause you can just talk- Yeah...
and say, "Here's the agent I want. Go build it." So I don't know. I don't know what the future of work's gonna be. Never in my life have I ever wanted to be, have some sort of trades business more than now, to be honest.
Yeah. Like, just go, go buy a landscaping company. I don't know. Like, just run with it. I'm telling you, that's, that is my fallback. Like, if everything fails, I will do landscaping, and I will do it well. Yeah.
It's, it's, it's a tried-and-true model. There's always needs. It doesn't have to be a bank-breaking service that you offer. I pay my guy $50 every like 10 days 'cause of just the speed that my lawn grows.
I'm like, he does it in, no joke, 25 minutes. He comes in going like the speed of light on his riding mower, he edges, and then he's out.
Like, usually by the time I get a Venmo request, he has both shown up and finished before I noticed he was here at all. Yeah, yeah. He's just so fa...
And I'm like, dude, if I can like dial in, and I'm not saying landscaping is easy. The people that do it well do it really well. It's a, it's a skill for sure. But like, I did my own lawn for 20 years.
Like, I, I can definitely figure it out. Uh, so- Yeah, yeah... yeah, services, there will always be needs for services, um- Yeah... landscaping being one of those...
hey, question, I saw your LinkedIn post this morning that you signed up for a, I think a half-marathon on November 8th or November 9th. Yes. Is that- Yes. Um, yeah. You training? I am.
I did, uh, seven, uh, 6.7 miles last night. Nice, dude. Went well. I- Yeah, it feels good... and I'm signing up, I'm signing up today for a half-marathon in November. And so- The Madison one, right? The Madison one.
I was supposed to sign up weeks ago, and I was like, "Yeah, I don't think I wanna do it." And then today I was like, "Ah." I was very tempted to come up and do that with you, but, uh, just- It would've been sick...
I know. That would be, that would be sick. It just, logistically, it's not easy. It's not. It's not, it's not easy.
If it was a full marathon and this was like six, seven months out, I would do it, but I can't, I can't travel like that for a half. But we do need to do something IRL pretty soon. Yeah, we will. But yeah, I'm excited.
I, I haven't ran in a long time. I think I've ran maybe- Yeah... this whole year after. So I did the half-marathon last year. I've probably ran 15 miles this year. Kinda just stopped running. I mean, that's not a lot.
[laughs] You need to probably, uh, you need to probably train a little bit more. I will. You, you could definitely- I will... you could definitely get injured.
Yeah, I don't wanna hurt my little, my little feetsies or anything like that, or my knees, but, um, I will. I'm gonna start...
Today I'm actually gonna go on like a three or four-mile run to kinda knock the rust off because Daddy can't run right now. I suck. Hm. I tried to run- Hm... two miles the other day, like weeks and weeks ago.
I was like, "This sucks." You don't wanna hop into a half without having run at all for hope. Yeah. I mean, you're just gonna, you're gonna pull something or just be out of breath, and it just won't be enjoyable.
Like, you're gonna hate yourself for 13 miles, which if that's the goal, that's fine, but- But I'm, but I'm math-ly... feels like you should probably enjoy it. I feel like I'm, I feel like I just,
I feel like I need to l- I, like get leaner, actually is where I'm at with my head space. Yeah. I feel like I got too, too big, which sounds like so, like, uh, uh, interesting to say out loud.
No, I mean, Zach Pograb, Zach Pograb, he's the founder of, uh, ShareAura, and he's awesome. You can follow him on Twitter. He's got like 1.3 million on Instagram. Great guy.
But I've been using his app, and it's just an overlay for like your stats, so you can... It's just c- it's, it's a design app, pretty cool to show your, your workout and your running stats.
He did a 255 full marathon at 210 pounds, and- Wow... you think that's impressive until you really think about how impressive that is. I mean, he's like 6'4", 6'5". He was just like- Bulking... thick. Yeah.
Yeah, two ti- just screaming. I mean, that's like 6.47 mile, I think, average. So splits are nuts- Yeah...
to get under a sub-three when you're that big, butYou know, didn't you do your last half, like a 9:30 pace or something? Like 9:50. 9:50. But- I mean, that's fast. That's fast. I don't know if it is. Is it, though?
Is it fast to us? It is. It is. Like, if you're a marathon runner listening, is that fast? Like, I feel like maybe that's not that fast. That is fast for someone who never runs. Does it? And just- Yeah, I don't run.
I hate running... doesn't. Yeah. No. Yeah. No, I know. Uh, that's fast. I couldn't do that. I can run that pace for a few miles, um, but not for 13. I mean, I could probably work up to it, but that's very fast.
You could do it. Like, I did six, six, seven, like 12 minutes last night, 12-minute pace. Yeah. Which is slow, which I know, but like three-minute difference per mile, that's fast.
So when you say it like that, it sounds fast. But like a 12-minute pace is, that's very chill. Like, that's a nice run where you can actually enjoy it- I know... and not like- Yeah... hate yourself out there.
No, it's super chill. I don't know about that. I was hanging out. I'm just like out there hanging out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then, um, this morning I had my protein. Yep. I had my collagen peptides, Momentous.
Shout out Momentous. Go to livemomentous.com, use code TWODADS for 35% off. I've been using collagen peptides since I learned about them from Mark Zuckerberg when he guested on Joe Rogan's podcast.
Big deal, especially for people with chronic back and joint problems for me. So, you know, I deal with that all the time. What's an extra collagen peptide? Always gonna- Yeah...
put it in my smoothie with, uh, with the protein just to, to make sure I'm recovering fast. Dude, honestly, I like... Well, one, I use them every day now. And then two- Yeah...
it's like 15 grams of protein for like 60 calories or something like that. Like the- It's amazing... the, the protein to calorie ratio is absurd. So, yeah- Yeah, no, it's ridiculous...
I throw it on, I throw it on my yogurt every morning now. Yeah. Yeah. Um, creatine right before my workout, and then I get home, have a yogurt, throw some collagen peptides and then I don't even taste it. Just snack.
Yep. And if you're looking for AI to help your workflow at work, if you work in tech sales, check out Tango AI.
Uh, it's a great kinda CRM wrapper that's gonna help you just totally automate your workflow as a salesperson.
It is end of quarter for me right now, and so, uh, anywhere that I can automate my workflow to do more outreach, get more tasks, get more quality in the pipeline and generate more revenue, I mean, that's just gonna be icing on the cake.
I need it. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. Icing on the cake. It is. Speaking of icing on the cake, as you check out Tango AI, I DoorDashed a tiramisu the other day. My wife- Why?... was out of town.
Because check it out, my wife was out of town. Never before has my youngest been without her mom for a single night. Um, he just recently- Ooh...
he just recently started sleeping through the night and let me put him down. So the last like month, this has been a total transformation. So she went out of town, uh, Friday night through Sunday, uh, evening.
I had a great time with both kids. It was a blast. Both of them did so well. It was a really eye-opening thing, like, okay, they can do it now. Like, they don't...
I mean, my oldest I already knew, but the youngest doesn't need his mom every single night. He's not gonna lose his mind. Where was I going with this? Oh, Friday night, put him down. I was feeling good.
I was feeling, I was feeling a little, a little single, you know what I'm saying? Like, oh, wife's gone. Like, I'm gonna DoorDash a freaking tiramisu, and I did. Did you eat it all?
It was like 25 bucks for a, a slice of tiramisu because it was a DoorDash and they add a fee on your fees for everything you think about, but- Dude... it was delicious. I will do it again when given the opportunity.
And you ate it all, one sitting? Oh, immediately. I mean, it was a slice. It was just, it was a slice. It was like a- Yeah, so like- Yeah, yeah. And- Yeah, that'd be dumb to not eat the whole slice.
If I DoorDashed a full tiramisu. [laughs] That would be so... Oh, man. Your wife would walk in and there's just a box. Like, yeah, it's Friday night. Yeah, it was. That- that's Friday night.
Troy, where do, uh, where do they find us? Oh, you already know. It's twodadsintech.com, spelled exactly how it sounds. Uh, go to twodadsintech.com. Five stars on Spotify and Apple, please. That really helps.
Yes, please. Subscribe on YouTube. Um- Tell your friends... where else can they find us? Yeah, tell your friends. Daniel Burke, Troy Munsen, LinkedIn, that's where we post a lot. I think you're- Yes, please...
pretty active on Twitter, too. I am. Yep. I think that's it, man. I think that's it. Thanks for listening, everyone. This is, uh, we're coming up on a year, which is crazy. Uh- It is crazy...
we'll have to do something crazy for the 52nd episode, but, uh, thanks for listening. Thanks for subscribing. You guys rock. You're the reason we keep doing this. See you next week