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Feb 12, 2025 • 1h 2min
Ep145: Exploring Judicial Systems and Economic Models
In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we explore how government assets could reshape public spending and economic growth. The discussion stems from Thomas Sowell's analysis of U.S. government land value. It extends to real-world examples of public-private partnerships, including Toronto's LCBO real estate deals and Chicago's parking meter agreement with a Saudi entity.
Dan and I delve into the relationship between constitutional rights and entrepreneurship, drawing from my upcoming book. The American Bill of Rights creates unique conditions that foster business innovation and self-initiative, offering an interesting contrast to Canada's legal framework. This comparison opens up a broader discussion about judicial appointments and the role of government in supporting individual potential.
The conversation shifts to the transformative impact of AI on content creation and decision-making. I share my experience with tools like Perplexity and Notebook LM, which are changing how we gather information and refine our writing. Integrating AI into daily workflows highlights the significant changes we can expect over the next quarter century.
Looking ahead, We reflect on future podcast topics and the lessons learned from blending traditional insights with AI capabilities. This combination offers new perspectives on personal development and professional growth, suggesting exciting possibilities for how we'll work and create in the years ahead.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
We delve into the market value of U.S. government-owned land, discussing Thomas Sowell's article and the potential benefits of selling such land to alleviate government spending.
Our conversation covers various government and private sector interactions, including Toronto’s LCBO real estate deal and Chicago’s parking meter agreement with a Saudi-owned company.
We explore Macquarie's business model in Australia, focusing on their ownership of airports and toll roads, and consider the efficiency of underutilized government buildings in Washington D.C.
The Bill of Rights plays a crucial role in fostering entrepreneurship in the U.S., and I discuss insights from my upcoming book on how these constitutional liberties encourage self-initiative and capitalism.
We compare the judicial appointment processes in the U.S. and Canada, highlighting the differences in how each country's legal system impacts entrepreneurship and individual freedoms.
The importance of creating patentable processes and legal ownership of capabilities is discussed, along with the idea that true leadership involves developing new capabilities.
Our collaborative book project "Casting, Not Hiring" is structured like a theatrical play, with a focus on the innovative 4x4 casting tool, drawing parallels between theater and entrepreneurship.
AI's transformative power in creative processes is highlighted, with tools like Perplexity and Notebook LM enhancing convenience and refining writing techniques.
We reflect on the long-term impact of AI on writing and creativity, and consider its implications for future podcast episodes and personal and professional growth.
Our discussion on constitutional rights touches on how they shape the future of entrepreneurship, drawing contrasts between the U.S. and Canadian approaches to law and governance.
Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com
TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Dean: Mr Sullivan.
Dan: Yes indeed. I beat you by 10 seconds.
Dean: I beat you by 10 seconds.
Dan: Yeah, yeah.
Dean: Well, there you go. That's a good way to end the year, right there.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: Not that it's a contest.
Dan: I was looking at an interesting article this morning from yesterday's Wall Street Journal by Thomas Sowell. I don't know if you know Thomas Sowell. No, yeah, he's probably the foremost conservative thinker in the United States. Okay, I think he's 90-ish, sort of around 90. He's been a professor at many universities and started off in his teenage years as a Marxist, as a lot of teenagers do, and before they learn how to count and and before they learn math the moment you learn math, you can't be a Marxist anymore and and anyway he writes and he just said how much all the land that the US government owns in the 50 states is equal to 1.4 trillion dollars.
If you put a market value on it, it's 1.4 trillion dollars. I bet that's true wow and the problem is it costs them about that much money to maintain it, most of it for no reason at all. And he was just suggesting that, if Elon and Vivek are looking for a place to get some money and also stop spending, start with the property that the US government owns and sell it off.
Dean: That's interesting I'm often Two things.
Dan: Two things they get money coming in, yeah. And the other thing is they don't spend money maintaining it. Yeah, but it's 20, 25% of the land area of the US is actually owned, I guess owned, controlled by the US government. And you know there was a neat trick that was done here in Toronto and I don't think you'd be aware of it but the LCBO, liquor Control Board of Ontario. So in Ontario all the liquor is controlled by the government. The government is actually the LCBO is the largest importer of alcoholic beverages in the world.
Dean: Wow.
Dan: Nobody controls the amount of liquor well, and I. I just wonder if that's one of the reasons why you moved to Florida to get away from the government.
Dean: Control of liquor they're a single payer, a single pay system.
Dan: I just wondered if yeah, I just wondered if that on your list of besides nicer weather.
Dean: I thought maybe you know being in control of your own liquor. I always found it funny that you could. You know you can buy alcohol and beer in 7-Eleven.
Dan: I always thought that was interesting right.
Dean: Just pick up a little traveler to go, you know when you're getting your gas and that six-pack yeah.
Dan: So, anyway, they had their headquarters, which was right down on Lakeshore, down in the, I would say, sort of Jarvis area, if you think of Jarvis and Lakeshore, down in the I would say sort of Jarvis area, if you think.
Dean: Jarvis and.
Dan: Lakeshore and maybe a little bit further west. But they took up a whole block there and they traded with a developer and what they did they said you can have our block with the building on it. You have to preserve part of it because it's a historical building. I mean, you can gut it and you can, you know, build, but yeah, there's a facade that we want you to keep because it's historic and and what we want you to do is and this developer already had a block adjacent to the LCBO property and they said we want a new headquarters, so we'll give you the block If you and your skyscraper it's a huge skyscraper.
We want this much space in it for free. And they made a trade and the developer went for it.
Dean: And I bet.
Dan: That's an interesting kind of deal. That's an interesting kind of deal where government yeah, yeah and, but somebody was telling me it was really funny. I'm trying to think where it was. Where were we, where were we? I'm just trying to think where we weren't in. We weren't in Toronto, it'll come to me. We were in Chicago. So Chicago, the parking meters are all owned by Saudi Arabia.
Dean: Right.
Dan: Yeah, or a company that's owned by Saudi Arabia. Let me think One of the many princes and they paid the city of Chicago flat check. They paid him $1.5 billion for all the parking meters in Chicago and Chicago, you know, has been in financial trouble forever. So one and a half billion, one and a half billion dollars, but they make 400 million a year for the next 50 years. Oh, wow.
Dean: Yeah, that's pretty wild.
Dan: I think that was a bad deal, I think that was a bad deal. Yeah, that's amazing, you got to know your math.
Dean: Well, I know there's a company in Australia called Macquarie and they own airports and toll roads primarily, ports and toll roads primarily. And that's really that's what it is right is they have long-term government contracts where they uh, you know they own the assets and the government leases them from them, or they get the right, they build the, they build the toll road and they get the money for the toll. They can operate it as a for-profit venture. Really kind of interesting.
Dan: It brings up an interesting scenario which I think that Trump is thinking about, plus Elon and Vivek is thinking about plus Elon and Vivek, that so many of the buildings in Washington DC the government buildings, except for the one percent of workers who actually show up for work every day are virtually, are virtually empty, and so so there's some, it's almost like they need a VCR audit.
Dean: So it's almost like they need a VCR audit. I mean, that's really what it is. All these things are underutilized capabilities and capacity, you know that's really that's sort of a big thing.
Dan: But I think it occurred to me that bureaucracy period. It occurred to me that bureaucracy period this would be corporate bureaucracy, government bureaucracy. Those are the two big ones. But then many other kinds of organizations that are long-term organizations, that have become like big foundations, are probably just pure bureaucracy. You know, harvard University is probably just a big bureaucracy. They have an endowment of $60 billion, their endowment, and they have to spend 5% of that every year. That's the requirement under charity laws that you have to spend 5% of that every year.
That's the requirement under charity laws that you have to spend 5% and on that basis every Harvard student probably the entire university wouldn't have to charge anything.
Dean: That's interesting. I had a friend, a neighbor, who did something similarly put his um, I put sold the company and put, I think, 50 million dollars in. I think it was called the charitable remainder trust where the, the 50 million went into the trust and he as the uh, whatever you know administrator or whoever the the beneficiary gets of the trust is gets five percent a year of uh yeah, of the um the trust and that's his retirement income. I guess I understand.
Dan: I understand income. I don't understand retirement income right exactly well for him it is kind of retirement income.
Dean: He just plays golf. Exactly Well, for him it is kind of retirement. Yeah yeah, he just plays golf, yeah.
Dan: Yeah, he's sort of in the departure lounge. He's on the way to the departure lounge. I think the moment you retire or think about retirement, the parts go back to the universe, I think that's actually I'm, I'm, it's partially.
Dean: Uh, he does angel investing, uh, so that's yeah, so he's still probably probably on boards yeah, but I don't consider that?
Dan: yeah, I don't really consider that. On entrepreneurism no you know, I don't think you're creating anything new, right? Yeah, it's very interesting. I'm writing, I just am outlining this morning my book for the quarter. So the book I'm just finishing, which is called Growing Great Leadership, will go to the press February 1st.
Dean: Nice.
Dan: So we're just putting the finishing touches on. We've got two sections and then some you know artwork packaging to do and then it probably goes off to the printer around the 20th of January. It takes about five weeks for them to turn it around. But the next one is very interesting. It's called the Bill of Rights Economy. So this relates and refers to the US Constitution.
And in the first paragraph of the Constitution. It says that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, so it's supreme over everything in the United States. It's supreme over the presidency, it's supreme over Congress, it's supreme over the Supreme Court, and so that strikes me as a big deal, would you say? I'd say yes, yeah, yeah, and. But the real heart of the Constitution, what really gives it teeth, are the first 10 amendments, and which are called the Bill of Rights, so it's one through 10. First one speech, second one guns. And then they have commerce and things related to your legal rights. And what I've done is I've looked into it and I've looked at those first 10 amendments, and it strikes me that the reason why the US is an entrepreneurial country is specifically because of those first 10 amendments, that it gives a maximum amount of freedom to self-initiative, to people who want to go out and do something on their own, start something and everything else. First 10 amendments so what.
I'm doing is I'm analyzing five freedoms and advantages that are given to entrepreneurs from each of the 10. There will be 50 advantages. So that's what my next book is about, and my sense is that those entrepreneurs who are not clear-minded about capitalism would have to do one of two things if they read the next book. They'll either have to get rid of their socialist thoughts or they'll have to stop being an entrepreneur.
Dean: That's interesting. You know this whole. I love things like that when you're anchoring them to you know historical things.
Dan: I don't know if I can name. I don't know if I can. Well, you can name the first one. It's the right of speech and assembly.
Dean: Yeah speech, and then the second is to bear arms Gun ownership, gun ownership yeah. Yeah.
Dan: And it goes on. I'll have to get the list out and go down there, but that's what holds the country together and you know it's a very brief document. It's about 5,000 words the entire document. It starts to finish about 5,000 words and you could easily read it in an hour. You could read the whole Constitution in an hour.
Dean: It's a pocket companion. Yeah, yeah.
Dan: I've seen them like little things that you put in your pocket and one of the things that strikes me about it is that in 1787, that's when it was adapted, and then it took two years to really form the government. 1789 is when washington, the he was elected in 1788 and the election he's sworn in as president 1789. If you typed it out with the original document, typed it out in you know typewriter paper and you know single space, it would be 23 pages, 23 pages. And today, if you were to type it out, it would be 27 pages. They've added four pages 200.
Yeah, so in 235 years to 237 years it's pretty tight, yeah, and so and that's what keeps the country, the way the country is constantly growing and you know maximum amount of variety and you know all sorts of new things can happen is that they have this very, very simple supreme law right at the center, and there's no other country on the planet that has that that's a.
Dean: That's pretty. Uh, what's the closest? I guess? What's the? I mean Canada must have.
Dan: Canada's has been utterly taken away from that? Yeah, but that can be overridden at any time by the Supreme Court of Canada who by the way, is appointed by the prime minister. So you know, in the United States the Supreme Court justice is nominated yeah.
No dominated, nominated by the president but approved by the Senate. So the other two branches have the say. So here it's the prime minister. The prime minister does it, and I was noticing the current Supreme Court Justice Wagner said that he doesn't see that there's much need anymore to be publishing what Canadian laws were before 1959.
Dean: Oh really.
Dan: Yeah, and that's the difference between Canada and the United States, because everything, almost every Supreme Court justice, they're going right back to the beginning and say what was the intent here of the people who put the Constitution together? Yeah, and that is the radical difference between the two parties in the. United States. So anyway, just tell you what I've been up to on my Christmas vacation.
Dean: Oh, that's so funny. Well, we've been having some adventures over here. I came up with a subtitle for my Imagine If you Applied Yourself book and it was based on, you had said last time we talked right Like we were talking about this idea of your driving question and you thought I did. I don't know, yeah yeah you brought it, you said sort of how far can I go?
Dan: yeah, well, that's not my driving question, that's no, no question, no yeah somebody else brought up the whole issue of driving question. You mentioned somebody yeah chad, chad did yeah, jenkins chad, jenkins chad jenkins right right right, yeah, uh.
Dean: So it reminded me as soon as I got off. I had the words come uh. How far could you go if you did what you know? That could be the subtitle. Imagine if you applied yourself that's.
Dan: That's kind of interesting how far could you? Maximize, if you maximize what you already know yeah I mean, that's really what holds.
Dean: I think what holds people back more than not knowing what to do is not doing what they know to do. That that's I think, the, that's the uh, I think that's the driving thing.
Dan: So they're held in play. They're held in place. You mean by?
Dean: yeah, I think that's it that they're in about maybe I'm only looking at it through where do you see that anywhere in your life?
Dan: I see everywhere in my life that I see it everywhere in my life, that's the whole thing, in my life.
Dean: Right Is that that executive function? That's the definition of executive function disability, let's call it. You know, as Russell Barkley would say, that that's the thing is knowing, knowing what to do and just not not doing it. You know, not being able to do it.
Dan: Yeah. And to the extent that you can solve that, well, that's I think that's the how far you can go here's a question Is there part of what you know that always moves you forward?
Dean: Yeah, I guess there always is. Yeah, well then, you're not held, then you're not held.
Dan: You just have to focus on what part of what you know is important.
Dean: Yes, exactly, I think that's definitely right. Yeah, I thought that was an interesting.
Dan: For example, I am absolutely convinced that for the foreseeable future, that if you a, a dollar is made in the united states and spent in canada, things are good.
Dean: Things are good I think you're absolutely right, especially in the direction it's going right now.
Dan: Yeah, it's up 10 cents in the last three months. 10 cents, one-tenth of a dollar.
Dean: You know 10 cents.
Dan: So it was $1.34 on October 1st and it's $1.44 right now.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: And I don't see it changing as a matter of fact fact. You should see the literature up here. Since trump said maybe canada is just the 51st state, you should see this is the high topic of discussion in canada right now how is it?
Dean: would we be?
Dan: would we be better off? I mean there there's an a large percentage something like 15, 15% would prefer it. But you know he's Shark Tank person, kevin O'Leary, canadian.
Dean: He's from Alberta.
Dan: And he said that what they should do is just create a common economy, not politically so Canada is still really, really political. Not politically just economically, Politically. Well, it is already. I mean, to a certain extent it's crossed an enormous amount of trade, but still you have to stop at the border. Here there would be no stopping at the border and that if you were an American, you could just move to Canada and if you were a Canadian you could just move.
Dean: Kind of like the EU was the thought of the European Union.
Dan: Yeah, but that didn't really work because they all hated each other.
Dean: They all hated each other.
Dan: They've been nonstop at war for the last 3,000 years, and they speak different languages, but the US I mean. When Americans come for their strategic coach program, they come up here and they say it's just like the States and I said not quite, not quite. I said it's about on the clock. It's about the clock. It's about an hour off. You name the topic, Canadians will have a different point of view on whatever the topic is.
But I'm not saying this is going to happen. I'm just saying that Trump, just saying one thing, has ignited a firestorm of discussion. And why is it that we're lagging so badly?
And, of course, it looks now like as soon as Parliament comes back after the break, which is not until, think, the 25th of January, there will be a vote of confidence that the liberals lose, and then the governor general will say you have to form a new government, therefore we have to have an election. So probably we're looking middle of March, maybe middle of March. End of March there'll be a new government new prime minister and Harvard will have a new professor.
Dean: Ah, there you go, I saw, that that's what happens.
Dan: That's what happens to real bad liberal prime ministers. They become professors at Harvard or bad mayors in Toronto, david.
Dean: Miller, he was the mayor here.
Dan: I think he's a professor at Harvard. And there was one of the premiers, the liberal premier of Ontario. He's at Harvard. Oh wow, wow, wow. Anyway, yeah, or he'll go to Davos and he'll sit on the World Oversight Board.
Dean: Oh boy, I just saw Peter Zion was talking about the Canadian, the lady who just quit.
Dan: And I don't understand him at all, because I think she's an idiot.
Dean: Okay, that's interesting because he was basically saying she may be the smartest person in Canada.
Dan: I think she's an idiot. Okay, and she's the finance minister. So all the trouble we're in, at least some of it, has to be laid at her door. Interesting.
Dean: Is Pierre Polyev still the frontrunner?
Dan: Oh yeah, He'll be the prime minister, yeah.
Dean: Smart guy.
Dan: I was in personal conversation with him for a breakfast about six years ago Very smart. Oh wow, very smart.
Dean: Yeah, seems sharp from Alberta.
Dan: He's French. He's French speaking, but he's an orphan from an English family. Or it might have been a French mother. He's an orphan, but he was adopted into a French speaking family. So to be Alberta and be French speaking, that's kind of a unique combination. Yeah, very interesting. Yeah, but it's a hard country to hold together and, uh, you know, peter zion and many different podcasts just said that it's very, very hard to keep the country together. It takes all the strength of the federal government just to keep things unified.
Dean: Well, because everybody wants to leave. Yeah, exactly, everybody looks at. I mean you really have, you've got the Maritimes in Quebec, ontario, the West, and then BC, the Prairies and then BC.
Dan: So there's five and they don't have that much to do with each other. Each of them has more to do with the states that are south of them, quebec has enormous trade with New York.
Ontario has trade with New York, with Pennsylvania, with Ohio, with Michigan, all the Great Lakes states, every one of them. Their trade is much more with the US that's south of them, and Alberta would be the most, because they trade all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico, because their pipelines go all the way down to have you ever been to Nunavut or Yukon?
Dean: Have you ever been?
Dan: Dan to Nunavut or Yukon I haven't been to. I've been to Great Slave Lake, which is in the what used to be called the Northwest Territories, and on the east I've been to Frobisher Bay, which is in the eastern part, you know of the territories way up.
Dean: Labrador Closer to.
Dan: Greenland it up closer, closer to greenland. That's, yeah, actually closer closer to greenland, yeah, well, that's where you were born. Right, you were born up there, newfoundland right, newfoundland, yeah well this is above newfoundland. This would be above newfoundland, yeah yeah that's. That's what we used to call eskimo territory. Yeah, that's what we used to call Eskimo territory. That's so funny.
Dean: That's funny, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, shifting gears. We've been having some interesting conversations about VCR this week and it's particularly trying to get a you know how, defining vision. And, of course, for somebody listening for the first time, we're talking about the VCR formula vision plus capability multiplied by reach.
And so part of this thing is going through the process of identifying your VCR assets, right CR assets as currency, software or sheet music, where, if you think like we're going down the path of thinking about vision as a capability that people have or a trait that you might, that's, I think, when people start talking about the VCR formula, they're thinking about vision as a aptitude or a trait or a ability that somebody has, the ability to see things that other people don't see, and that may be true. There is some element of some people are more visionary than others, but that doesn't fully account for what the asset of a vision is, and I think that the vision, an asset, a vision as an asset, is something that can amplify an outcome. So I think about somebody might be musical and they might have perfect pitch and they may be able to carry a tune and hum some interesting chord progressions, but the pinnacle asset of vision in a musical context would be a copywritten sheet music that is transferable to someone else.
So it's kind of like the evolution is taking your vision. So it's kind of like the evolution is taking your vision. But you know, the apex asset of a vision would be a patentable process that you patent. That you have as both an acknowledgement that it's yours, it's property, and as protection for anybody else. You know it locks in its uniqueness, you know.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, I mean, the greatest capability is property of some sort. I mean in other words, that you have a legal monopoly to it. You don't nobody's got a legal monopoly division and nobody's got a legal monopoly to reach but they do have a legal.
Uh, so I I go for the middle one, I go for the c the book I'm writing right now, the book I'm just finishing, which is called growing great leadership is that anyone who develops a new capability is actually the leader. Okay, papa, and the reason and what I've said is that you can be a leader just by always increasing your own personal capability. The moment that you look at something and then you set a goal for being able to do something, either new, or doing something better. Other people observe you and also you start getting different results with a new capability and that's observed by other people.
They say, hey, let's pay attention to what he's doing In my book I said any human being is capable of doing that. It's not leading other people. It's creating a capability that leads other people, that gives them a sense of direction. It gives them a sense of confidence gives them a sense of purpose. So I always focus on the capability. One of the things is we're starting in January, it'll be next week we're starting quarterly 4x4 casting tools, the one we did in the last FreeZone.
And so the whole program says in the first month of each quarter, so January, april and then July and then October. If you do your 4x4 that month and then type it up and post it to a common site, so we'll have a common site where everybody's 4x4, you get $250. You get $250. And you get it at the next payday at the end of the quarter. So you get the money right away. And you get it at the next payday at the end of the quarter. So you get the money right away and it's not mandatory but um, if you don't do it.
It will be noticed, so explain that again.
Dean: So, well, they get the cheat today, they, they get the forms. So this is the entire everybody everybody in the company, the entire team.
Dan: Yes, Including myself. Including myself. Okay, and so we're starting a new quarter on Wednesday. Back to work on the 7th. On the 6th we're back to work, and then on the 7th we have a company meeting where we said we're announcing this program. And they've all done the form, so they did it in September.
And they fill in the form. You know how your performance, what your performance looks like, what your results look like being a hero, and you're aware that you drive other people crazy in this way and you're watching yourself so you don't drive other people crazy. And then you fill that in. There are 16 boxes. You fill it in. It's custom designed just to what you're doing. And then there's a writable PDF. You type it up and then you post it to a site.
On the 31st of January, we look at all the posted 4x4s and everybody who posted gets $250.
Dean: Okay, okay, wow.
Dan: Very interesting, then we're going to watch what happens as a result of this and the thing I say is that I think we're creating a super simple structure and process for a company becoming more creative and productive, which the only activity is required is that you update this every quarter.
Dean: Yes.
Dan: And then we'll watch to see who updates it every quarter and then we'll see what other structures do we need, what other tools do we need to? If this has got momentum, how do we increase the momentum and everything? So we're starting. I mean we've got all the structures of the company are under management. So, uh, everybody is doing their four pi four within the context of their job description that's really interesting, wow.
Dean: And so that way, in its own way kind of that awareness will build its own momentum you Well we'll see. Hopefully that would be the hypothesis.
Dan: I'll report it. I had a great, great podcast it was Stephen Crine three weeks ago and he said this is an amazing idea because he says you make it voluntary but you get rewarded.
Dean: And if you don't want to take part.
Dan: you're sending a message, yeah.
Dean: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that's amazing.
Dan: I can't wait to see the outcome of that. Yeah, yeah, and the reason we're doing this is just my take on technology. As technology becomes overwhelming, becomes pervasive and everything else, the way humans conduct themselves has to get absolutely simple. We have to be utterly simple in how we focus our own individual role. And we have to be utterly simple in the way that we design our teamwork, because technology will infinitely complicate your life if you've got a complicated management or leadership structure.
Dean: And I think that that ultimate I mean I still think about the you know what you drew on the tablet there in our free zone workshop of the network versus the pyramid. The pyramid's gone. The borders are you know the borders are gone.
Dan: It's really just this fluid connection. I still think they exist in massive form, but I think their usefulness has declined. I wrote a little. I wrote a. I got a little file on my computer of Dan quotes.
Dean: And the quote is.
Dan: I don't think that civil servants are useless, but I think it's becoming more and more difficult for them to prove their worth.
Dean: No, I mean.
Dan: Yeah, no, their work I mean there's stuff that has to be done or society falls apart, and I got a feeling that there's civil servants very anonymous, invisible civil servants who are doing their job every day and it allows the system to work, but it's very hard for them to prove that they're really valuable. I think it's harder and harder for a government worker to accept if they're street level, I mean if they're police, if they're firemen if they're ambulance drivers, it's very easy to prove their value.
But, if you're more than three stories up, I think it gets really hard to prove your value. I wonder in that same vein, I just get this last thing. Somebody said well, how would you change government? I said the best way to do it is go to any government building, count the number of stories, go halfway up and fire everybody above halfway.
Dean: Oh man, that's funny, that's funny.
Dan: I think the closer to the ground they're probably more useful.
Dean: Yeah, yeah, you wonder. I mean they're so it's funny when you said that about proving their worth, you always have this. What came to my mind is how people have a hard time arguing for the value of the arts in schools or in society as a public thing.
Dan: You mean art taking place and artistic activities and that the arts, as in.
Dean: Yeah, as in. You know art and music and plays. And you know, yeah, it's one of those did you ever partake in those I mean? You know, I guess, to the extent in school we were exposed to music and to, you know, theater, I did not participate in theater I participated in theater.
Dan: I liked theater and of course the book. You've gotten a small book Casting, not Hiring.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: And Jeff and I are deep into the process now. So we have a final deadline of May 26 for Casting, not Hiring it's going really well. Deadline of May 26 for Casting Not Hiring it's going really well and we worked out a real teamwork that he's writing the whole theater, part of it and I'm writing the whole entrepreneurial. I just finished a chapter in one week last week. And it's right on the four by four.
So you got um entrepreneurism as theater, as the one major topic in the book and the four by four casting tool as the other part of the book, so it's two things. So I'm focusing on my part and he's focusing on my part, and then uh, process for this here compared to how you're doing your regular books.
Dean: You say you wrote a chapter. What's your process for that?
Dan: Well, first of all, I laid out the whole structure. The first thing I do is I just arbitrarily lay out a structure for the book and, strangely enough, we're actually using the structure of a play as the structure of the book. So okay, it has three parts, so it's got three acts and each act has.
Each part has excuse me, I have to walk into another room. I'm actually probably even visualize this, and I'm walking into our pantry here and this is in the basement and I just got a nice Fiji water sitting right in front of me. Absolutely cold. There, you go, it's been waiting for six months for me to do this?
Dean: Yes.
Dan: And what I do. I just do the structure and so I just put names. I just put names into it and then we go back and forth. Jeff and I go back and forth, but we agree that it's going to have three parts and 12 chapters. It'll have an introduction, introduction, and it'll have a conclusion. So there'll be 14 parts and it'll have, you know, probably be all told, 160 to 200 pages, and then 200 pages and um, and then um. We identify what, how the parts are different to each other.
So the first part is basically why theater and entrepreneurism resemble each other. Okay, and jeff has vast knowledge because for 50 years he's been doing both. He's been doing both of them, and I'm just focusing on the 4x4. So the first 4x4 is, and you can download the tool in the book.
So it'll be illustrated in the book and you can download it and do it. And first of all we just start with the owner of the company and I have one whole chapter and that explains what the owner of the company is going to be and the whole thing about the 454.
The owner has to do it twice, has to do it first, fill it all in and then share it with everybody in the company and said this is my commitment to my role in the company, okay. And then the next chapter, with everybody in the company and said this is my commitment to my role in the company, okay. And then the next chapter is everybody in the company doing it.
And then the third chapter is about how, the more the people do their forebite for the more, the more ownership they take over their role in the company and the more ownership they take over their part in the company and the more ownership they take over their part in teamwork OK, and then the fourth part is suddenly, as you do these things, you're more and more like a theater company. The more you use the four by four, the more you're like a theater company. And that loops back to the beginning of the book, what Jeff's writing. So anyway, very interesting.
Yeah, fortunately, we had the experience of creating the small book. So we created the small book, which was about 70 pages, and we used that to get the contract with the publisher. They read the whole book and rather than sending in a page of ideas about a book and trying to sell it on that basis, I said just write a book and give them a book. It's a small book that's going to become a big book. Right, that's how I did it. Oh, I like it. You know, about those small books.
Dean: I do indeed know about those small books. I do indeed know about those small books. Yes, I think that's funny. So are you your part? Are you talking it? Are you interviewing?
Dan: No, writing writing.
Dean: So you're actually writing. So you're actually writing. Yeah, and I've had a tremendous breakthrough.
Dan: I've had a tremendous breakthrough on this, and so I started with Chapter 10 because I wanted to get the heart of the idea. Is that what it does the application of the 4x4 to an entire company. And of course, we're launching this project to see if what we're saying is true. And so I end up with a fast filter. This is the best result, worst result. And then here are the five success factors. Okay, then I look at the success factors, I write them out, I take three of them and I do a triple play on them, on the three success factors, which gives me three pink boxes and three green boxes, and then I come back with that material and then I start the chapter applying that material to the outline for the chapter. And then I get finished that task filter and I add a lot of copy to it.
And then I have a layout of the actual book. I have a page layout, so in that process I'll produce about two full pages Of copy.
Dean: I take it.
Dan: And I pop it in. I've done that five times this week and I have ten pages of copy and I said we're good enough. We're good enough, now, let's go to another chapter. So that's how I'm doing it and and uh, yeah, so I've got a real process because I'm I'm doing it independently with another member of the team and he's.
Jeff has his own ways of writing his books. You, you know, I mean, he's a writer, he writes, plays, he writes, you know he writes and everything like that. So we don't want to have any argument about technique or you know, any conflict of technique. I'm going to do mine.
Dean: He's going to do mine, Right right.
Dan: And then we're looking for a software program that will take all the copy and sort of create a common style, taking his style and my style and creating a common style well, that might be charlotte I mean really no, that's what that, that's what the uh, that's what I think it would be.
Dean: Exactly that is is if you said to Charlotte, take these two. I'm going to upload two different things and I'd like you to combine one cohesive writing style to these.
Dan: Oh good, yeah, that would be something.
Dean: Yeah, I think that would be something yeah, I think that would be, uh, that would be amazing, and because you already, as long as you're both writing in in you know, second person second person, personal, or whatever your, your preferred style is right, like that's the thing. I think that would be, I think that would be very good, it would be good, I'd be happy because he writes intelligently and I write intelligently.
Dan: Is she for hire? Do you have her freelancing at all?
Dean: Dan, I had the funniest interaction with her. I was saying I'm going to create an avatar for her and I was asking her. I said you know, charlotte, I think I'm going to create an avatar for you and I'm wondering you know, what color hair do you think would look good for you? Oh, that's interesting. Look good for you, it's. Oh, that's interesting.
Dan: I think maybe a a warm brown or a vibrant auburn oh yeah, vibrant auburn. Yeah, this is great and I thought you know I? I said no, I suspected she'd go towards red.
Dean: Yeah, exactly, and I thought you know that's uh. Then I was chatting with a friend, uh yesterday about I was going through this process and, uh, you know, we said I think that she would have like an asymmetric bob hairstyle kind of thing, and we just looked up the thing and it's Sharon Osbourne is the look of what I believe Charlotte has is she's she's like a Sharon Osbourne type of, uh of look and I think that's that's so funny, you know what was uh the the handler for James Bond back when he?
was shot in.
Dan: Connery Moneypenny, right Moneypenny yeah. Look up the actress Moneypenny. I suspect you're on the same track if you look at the original Moneypenny.
Dean: Okay.
Dan: Of course she had a South London voice too.
Dean: Yeah, isn't that funny, moneypenny. Let's see her. Yes.
Dan: I think you're right. That's exactly right. Very funny right? Oh, I think this is great. I think, this is, I think, there's. It would be very, very interesting if you asked a hundred men. You know the question that you're, you know the conversation you're having with Charlotte, the thing.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: It'd be interesting to see if there was a style that came out, a look that dominated. Yeah, men came out.
Dean: Yeah, I think it is.
Dan: Ever since I was a kid, I've been fascinated with redheads. Okay yeah, real redheads, not dyed redheads, but someone who's an? Actual redhead. And I'll just stop and watch them. Just stop and stop and watch them. When I was a little kid I said look, look look and there aren't a lot of them. There aren't a lot of them. You know, they're very rare and it's mostly Northern Europe. That's right.
Dean: That's so funny. Scottish yes, that's right, that's so funny.
Dan: Scottish yes, irish have it.
Dean: That's right. As you remember, I was married to a redhead for a long time. Yeah, super smart. But that's funny, though, having this persona visual for Charlotte as a redhead yeah. Braintap a really interesting topic. I was talking to.
Dan: It was just a discussion in one of the parties about AI and I said the more interesting topic to me is not what, not so much what the machine is thinking or how the machine goes about thinking. What really interests me is that if you have frequent interaction with a congenial machine in other words, a useful congenial machine how does your thinking change and what have you noticed so far?
Dean: Well, I think that having this visual will help that for me. I've said like I still haven't, I still don't.
Dan: Materialized very completely. You haven't materialized.
Dean: Yeah, I haven't exactly in my mind Like if that was, if Moneypenny was sitting three feet from me at all times, she would just be part of my daily conversation part of my wondering conversation.
Right part of my wondering and now that, uh, now that she's got access to real-time info like if they're up to date, now they can search the internet right. So that was the latest upgrade. That it wasn't. It's not just limited to 2023 or whatever. The most updated version, they've got access to everything now. Um, so, to be able to, you know, I asked her during the holidays or whatever. I asked her is, uh, you know, the day after I asked this is is honey open today in Winter Haven? And she was, you know, able to look it up and see it looks like they're open and that was yeah, so just this kind of thing.
I think anything I could search if I were to ask her. You know, hey, what time is such and such movie playing in that studio movie grill today? That would be helpful, right, like to be able to just integrate it into my day-to-day. It would be very good.
Dan: The biggest thing I know is that I almost have what I would say a trained reaction to any historical event, or even if it's current, you know it's in the news, or that I immediately go to perplexity and said tell me 10 crucial facts about this. And you know, three seconds later it tells me that 10. And more and more I don't go to Google at all. That's one thing. I just stopped going to Google at all because they'll send me articles on the topic, and now you've created work for me. Perplexity saves me work. Google makes me work.
But the interesting thing is I've got a file it's about 300 little articles now that have just come from me asking the question, but they all start with the word 10 or the number 10, 10 facts about interesting and that before I respond you know, intellectually or emotionally to something I read, I get 10 facts about this and then kind of make up my mind, and of course you can play with the prompt. You can say tell me 10 reasons why this might not be true, or tell me 10 things that are telling us this is probably going to be true. So it's all in the prompt and you know the prompt is the prompt and the answer is the answer yeah and everything.
But it allows me to think. And the other thing I'm starting with this book, I'm starting to use Notebook LM.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: So this chapter I got to have Alex Varley. He's a Brit and he was with us here in Toronto for about five years and now he's back in Britain, he's part of our British team and he's got a looser schedule right now. So I say by the end, by May, I want to find five different AI programs that I find useful for my writing. So he's going to take every one of my chapters and then put it into Notebook LM and it comes back as a conversation between two people and I just sit there and I listen to it and I'll note whether they really got the essence of what I was trying to get across or needs a little more.
So I'll go back then, and from listening as I call it, you know, google is just terrible at naming things. I mean, they're just uh terrible and I would call it eavesdropping, lm eavesdropping that they're taking your writing and they're talking about it. You're eavesdropping. They're taking your writing and they're talking about it.
Dean: You're eavesdropping on what they're saying about your writing. What a great test to see, almost like pre-readers or whatever to see.
Dan: It's like the best possible focus group that you can possibly get.
Dean: I like that yeah. Very good.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: But, it's just interesting how I'm, you know, but I've just focused on one thing with AI, I just make my writing faster, easier and better. That's all. I want the AAM to do, because writing is just a very central activity for me.
Dean: Yeah, and that's not going anywhere. I mean, it's still gonna be. Uh, that's the next 25 years that was. You can make some very firm predictions on this one that's what, uh, I think next, Dan, that would be a good. As we're moving into 2025, I would love to do maybe a prediction episode for the next 25 years reflection and projection.
Dan: You take the week of my 100th birthday, which is 19 and a half years now, I could pretty well tell you 80% what I'm doing the week on my 100th birthday. I can't wait that would be a good topic.
Dean: I was just going to say let's lock this in, because you'll be celebrating is Charlotte listening?
Dan: is Charlotte listening now? No, she's not, but she should be say let's lock this in because you'll be celebrating charlotte. Is charlotte listening? Is charlotte listening now?
Dean: no, she's not, but she should be oh no, give her a.
Dan: Just say next week, charlotte remind me. Oh yeah, no I'll remember.
Dean: I'll remember because it's okay, it's my actual this week and this is my, this is the next few days for me is really thinking this through, because I I like, um, I've had some really good insights. Uh, just thinking that way uh yeah, so there you go. Good, well, it's all, that was a fast hour.
Dan: That was a fast it really was.
Dean: I was going to bring that up, but uh, but uh yeah we had other interesting topics, but for sure we'll do it next week yeah, good okay, dan okay I'll talk to you. Bye.

Feb 5, 2025 • 1h 3min
Ep144: From Burnout to Breakthrough
In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, Dan and I explore how organizations can balance productivity with employee well-being through structured breaks and strategic planning. Dan shares insights from Strategic Coach's approach of giving employees six weeks off after three months of work, using Calgary's changing weather as a metaphor for workplace adaptability.
Looking at the British Royal Navy's history, we discuss how its organizational structure relates to modern planning methods. Dean explains his 80/20 framework for yearly planning—using 80% for structured goals while keeping 20% open for unexpected opportunities, which helps teams stay focused while remaining flexible.
The conversation turns to a long-term perspective through 25-year frameworks, examining how past achievements shape future goals. Dean shares a story about the Y2K panic to illustrate how technological changes influence our planning and adaptability.
We conclude with practical applications of these concepts, from cross-training team members to implementing daily time management strategies.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
We discuss the adaptability of humans to different climates, using Calgary's Chinook weather patterns as an example, and emphasize the importance of taking breaks to prevent burnout, citing Strategic Coach's policy of providing six weeks off after three months.
Dean and I explore the planning strategies inspired by the golden age of the British Royal Navy, advocating for a structured year with 80% planning and 20% spontaneity to embrace life's unpredictability.
Dan reflects on using 25-year frameworks to evaluate past achievements and future aspirations, noting that he has accomplished more between ages 70 to 80 than from birth to 70.
We delve into the importance of discernment and invention, highlighting these skills as crucial for problem-solving and expressing creativity in today's world.
Dean talks about sports salaries, noting how they reflect economic trends, and discusses the financial structure of sports franchises, particularly in relation to player salaries and revenue.
We touch on government efficiency and cost-cutting measures, discussing figures like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, and the impact of Argentina's President Milley.
The conversation shifts to global trends and AI's role in the future workforce, noting the significance of recognizing patterns and making informed predictions about future technological advancements.
Dean and I emphasize the importance of weekly and daily time management strategies, suggesting that structured planning can enhance both personal and professional effectiveness.
Dan shares his year-end practices, including reflecting on past years and planning for the new year, while also noting his personal preference for staying home during the holidays to relax and recharge.
We humorously recount historical events like the Y2K panic and discuss how technological shifts have historically reshaped industries and societal norms.
Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com
TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Dean: Mr Sullivan.
Dan: Mr Jackson, I thought I'd just give you a minute or two to get settled in the throne.
Dean: Oh, you see, there you go. I'm all settled, All settled and ready. Good, it's a little bit chilly here, but not you know, not yeah it's a little bit chilly here too.
Dan: Yeah, it's a little bit chilly here too. It just shows you there's different kinds of little bits.
Dean: Different levels. Choose your chilly. Yeah, that's so funny, are you?
Dan: in Toronto. It just brings up a thought that there are people who live in climates where 40 degrees below zero is not such a bad day.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: And there are people who live in temperatures where it's 120, and that's not a too uncomfortable day.
Dean: Right.
Dan: So that's 160 degrees variation. If nothing else, it proves that humans are quite adaptable. I think you're right. I think you're absolutely right.
Dean: That's what that shows. I use that example a lot when talking about climate change. We're very adaptable.
Dan: Oh yeah, yeah, there is a place in. I looked this up because in Western Canada I think in the Denver area too, they have a thing called a Chinook, and I've actually experienced it. I used to go to Calgary a lot for coach workshops and I'd always, if it was like February, I'd always have to pack two complete sets of clothes, because one day it was 20 degrees Fahrenheit in the morning and it was 75 degrees Fahrenheit in the evening, the morning, and it was 75 degrees Fahrenheit in the evening, and then it stayed.
And then it stayed that way for about two days and then it went back to, back to 20. And uh, this happens about, I would say, in Calgary, you know Alberta. Uh, this would happen maybe three or four times during the winter mm-hmm yeah, so so so there?
Dean: well, there you go, so are you. Are you done with workshops therefore?
Dan: yeah, yeah of strategic coach does the whole office closed down from the 20th and 20th of well yeah 20th was our party, so that was friday night. So we have a big in toronto. We have a big christmas party. You know, we have 80 or 90 of our team members and they bring their other, whatever their other is and not all of them, but a lot of them do and now we're closed down until the 6th, uh, 6th of january. That's great. Yeah, you know what?
Dean: a lot of people that's 17 days, that's that's 17 days yeah that's a very interesting thing.
Dan: So you know, it's like um so completely shut down as there's nobody in the office nobody, you know there's people who check packages like, okay, yeah, and they live right around the corner from the office, so they just go in and you know they check and, um, you know, and if, um, but no phone calls are being taken, it's like uh company free days.
Dean: Is that what it is?
Dan: yeah, there.
Dean: There's no phone calls being answered, no emails being attended to, anything like that. It's all just shut down.
Dan: I'm going to take a guess and say yes.
Dean: Right. That's great and that's kind of you know what. One of the things that I've often said about you and the organization is that you are actually like products of your environment. You actually do what you see.
Dan: We're the product of our preaching.
Dean: That's exactly right Organizationally and individually. Right Organizationally and individually. And when I tell people that new hires at Strategic Coach get six weeks of three days After three months.
Dan: After three months. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they don't get any free days for the first three months, but you know, and they pass the test, you know they pass the test. Then in the first year year, they get six weeks, six weeks, yeah, and it's interesting, right?
Dean: Nobody gets more. Right, everybody gets six weeks.
Dan: Shannon Waller, who's been with us for 33 years. She gets her six weeks and everybody else gets their six weeks, and our logic for this is that we don't consider this compensation OK right, we do it for two reasons so that people don't burn out.
You know they don't get, you know they they're not working, working, working, in that they start being ineffective, so they take a break. So they take a break and we give a one month grace period in January If you haven't taken your previous six weeks for the year before. You can take them during January, but you can't carry over. So there's no building up of three days over the years. Right, yeah, if you have, if you don't take them, you lose them. And but the other thing about it that really works one, they don't burn out. But number two, you can't take your free days in your particular role in the company, unless someone is trained to fill in with you so it actually it actually pushes cross training, you know.
So in some roles it's three deep, you know they, yeah, there's three people who can do the role, and so you know you know, we've been at it for 35 years and it works yeah, oh, that's awesome dan I was curious about your you know.
Dean: Do you have any kind of year end practices or anything that you do for you know, preparing for the new year, reflecting on the old year, do you do anything like that?
Dan: I'd probably go through a bottle ofish whiskey a little bit quicker during that period that's the best I'm. I'm not saying that that's required, but sometimes exactly, just observation.
Yeah, uh-huh you know, knowing you, like you know you right, yeah, yeah, not that it's noticeable you know I try to not make it noticeable. Uh, the other thing, the other thing about it is that we don't go away for the holidays. We we just stay put, because babs and I do a lot of traveling, especially now with our medical our medical journeys, uh and uh. I just like chilling, I just like to chill. I know, you know I I'm really into, um, uh, historical novels. Right now dealing with the british navy, the royal navy around 1800.
So the golden age of sailing ships is just before steam power was, you know, was applied to ships. These are warships and and also before you know, they went over to metal. The boats started being steel rather than wood. And it's just the glory period. I mean, they were at the height of skill. I mean just the extraordinary teamwork it took to. You know just sailing, but then you know battles, war battles and everything Just extraordinary. This is cannons right, yeah.
These were cannons, yeah, extraordinary, this is cannons, right? Yeah, these are cannons, yeah, and the big ones had 120 cannons on them, the big ships, right before the switchover, they just had this incredible firepower. And the Brits were best, the British were the best for pretty well 100, 150 years, and then it ended.
It ended during the 1800s. Midway through the 1800s you started getting metal steam-powered ships and then it entirely changed. Yes, yeah, but back to your question Now. You know I do a lot of planning all the time. You know I do daily planning, weekly planning, quarterly planning. I call it projecting. I'm projecting more than planning. The schedule is pretty well set for me. I would say on the 1st of January, my next 365 days are 80% structured already.
Dean: Yes.
Dan: Yeah, and then you leave room for things that come up. You know, one of the things I really enjoy and I'm sure you do, dean is where I get invitations to do podcasts and we tell people you got to give us at least 30 days when you make a request before we can fill it in. But I've had about, I think during 2024, I think I had about 10. These weren't our scheduled podcasts with somebody these? Were. These were invitations, and yeah. I really enjoy that.
Dean: Yeah, I do too, and that's kind of a I think you're. This is the first year, dan, that I've gone into the year, going into 2025, here with a 80% of my year locked, like you said. Like I know when my Breakthrough Blueprint events are, I know when my Zoom workshops are, I know when my member calls are, all of those things that kind of scaffolding is already in place right now.
And that's the first. You know that's the first year that I've done that level of planning ahead all the way through. You know, going to London and Amsterdam in June and Australia in November and get it the whole thing, having it all already on the books, is a nice that's a nice thing, and now I'm I'm really getting into.
I find this going into 2025 is kind of a special thing, because this is like a, you know, a 25 year. You know, I kind of like look at that as the beginning of a 25 year cycle. You know, I think there's something reflective about the turn of a century and 25 year, you know the quarters of a century kind of thing, because we talk about that 25-year time frame, do you? You're right now, though you are five years into a 25-year framework, right, in terms of your 75 to 100, was your 25? Yeah, my guess, my yeah, I didn't.
Dan: I didn't do it on that basis I know I did it uh, uh. Um, I have done it that way before, but now it's I'm just uh 80 to 100, because 100 is an interesting number.
Dean: Yes.
Dan: And plus I have that tool called the best decade ever.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: And so I'm really focused just on this. 80 to 90, 80 years old, and when I measured from 70 to 80, so this was about two years before it was two months before I got to my 80th birthday. I created this tool. And I just reflected back how much I'd gotten done.
Dean: 70 to 80.
Dan: And it occurred to me that it was greater than what I'd gotten done 70 to 80.
Dean: Yeah, and it occurred to me that it was greater than what I had done from birth to 80.
Dan: Birth to 70.
Dean: Birth to 70. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dan: So I had accomplished more in the last 10 years and I used two criteria creativity and productivity like coming up with making up more stuff. And then the other thing just getting lots of stuff done, and so I've got that going for 80 to 90. And it's very motivating. I find that a very motivating structure. I don't say I think about it every day, but I certainly think about it every week.
Dean: That's what I was very curious about. I was thinking this morning about the because this period of time here, this two weeks here, last two weeks of the year, I'm really getting clear on, you know, the next 25 years. I like these frameworks. I think it's valuable to look back over the last 25 years and to look forward to the next 25 years.
And you and I've had that conversation like literally we're talking about everything. That is, everything that's you know current and the most important things right now have weren't even really in the cards in 2000. You know, as we were coming into you, know, we all thought in 1999, there was a good chance that the world was going to blow up, right y2k.
Dan: Everybody was uh some of us did.
Dean: I love that but you know, it just goes to show.
Dan: Yeah, I thought it was uh right yeah, there was this momentary industry called being a y2k consultant you know computer consultant and I thought it was a neat marketing trick. The only problem is you can only pull it off once every thousand years.
Dean: Oh yeah.
Dan: Yeah, but there was vast amount. I mean all the big consulting, you know, mckinsey and all those people. They were just raking in the money you know they were out there, All those people they were just raking in the money.
Dean: You know they were out there. You know, I think probably the previous five years.
Dan: It was probably a five year industry you know they probably started in 1995, and they said oh, you don't realize this, but somebody didn't give enough room to make the change. You know every computer system in the world is um, we forgot to program this in. They're all going to cease to. They're going to cease to operate on. Yeah and then. But all you had to do is watch new year's from australia and you knew that wasn't true, do?
Dean: you know what? Uh, yeah, jesse, uh, jesse dejardin, who I believe you met one time, used to work with me, but he was the head of social for Australia, for Tourism Australia. Yeah, and when the world I don't know if you remember in 2012, the world was supposed to end, that was, uh, yeah, a big thing and uh so, that was that, wasn't that?
Dan: uh, it was based on a stone tablet.
Dean: That they found somewhere. South America, south America, yes, it was yes, peruvian it was uh, that's right, I think it was?
Dan: I think it was the inca inca account yeah, yeah mayan or inca calendar.
Dean: That's what it was, the mayan calendar.
Dan: That's what it was ended in 2012. Yeah, and so jesse had the foresight it actually ended for them quite a bit earlier oh man, it's so funny. Yeah, you don't get much news from the mayan, no, no you say like when they created that mayan calendar.
Dean: They had to end it sometime. Would you say something like that listen, that's enough, let's stop here, we don't even keep going forever.
Dan: You know what I think the problem was? I think they ran out of stone I think you're probably right.
Dean: They're like this is enough already.
Dan: They got right to the edge of the stone and they said well, you know, jeez, let's go get another. Do you know how much work it is to get one of these stones? That? Oh yeah, chisel on yeah yeah.
Dean: so jesse had the uh, jesse had the foresight that at midnight on Australia they're the first, yeah, to put the thing up. So once they made it past, they made a post that said all it said was we're okay.
Dan: We're okay.
Dean: You know, it was just so brilliant. You know we're okay.
Dan: You know the the stuff that humans will make up to scare themselves oh man, I think that that's really along those lines. I just did a perplexity search this morning yeah and uh. For those who don't know what perplexity is, it's an a really a very congenial ai program and I put in um uh uh 10, um crucial periods of us history that were more politically polarized and violent than 2024.
Dean: Okay.
Dan: And you know, three seconds later I got the answer and there were 10. And very, very clearly, just from their little descriptions of what they were, they were clearly much more politically polarized and violent than they are right now. Yeah, the real period was, I mean the most. I mean Civil War was by far.
Dean: Of course.
Dan: Civil War, and. But the 1890s were just incredible. You had, you had a president. Garfield was assassinated in the 90s and then, right at 1991, mckinley was. So you had two presidents. There were judges assassinated, there were law officials, other politicians who were assassinated. There were riots where 200 people would die, you know, and everything like that. And you know, and you know, so nothing, I mean this guy, you know, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare gets shot on the street and everybody says, oh, you know, this is just the end. We're tipping over as a society.
And I said nah nah, it's been worse tipping over as a society and I said nah, nah, there's been worse.
Dean: Yeah, I think about uh.
Dan: I mean you know you remember back uh in the 70s, I remember you know I mean in the 60s and 70s assassination attempts and playing yeah, well, they're hijacking. Yeah, there were three. You had the two Kennedys and Martin Luther King were assassinated within five years of each other. I remember the 60s as being much more tumultuous and violent. Yeah it seems like.
Dean: I remember, as I was first coming aware of these things, and I remember, as I was first coming aware of these things, that you know remember when. And then Ronald Reagan, that was the last one, until Trump, that was the last actual attempt right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dan: You know one thing you got to say about Trump.
Dean: Tell me.
Dan: Lucky, he's very lucky.
Dean: Yes, but in a good sense lucky, no, no, I mean that I think luck is very important.
Dan: Luck is very important, you know but, he's lucky, and his opponents, you know. I mean he had Hillary and you know, that was good luck, and Joe turned out to be good luck. You know, Joe Biden turned out to be good luck. And then Kamala was. I mean, you couldn't order up one like that from Amazon and have it delivered to you?
Oh man, yeah, I mean, yeah, that you know. And, uh, you know, I mean, you know, the news media were so, uh, bought in. You know that it was like, oh, this is going to be really close. This is, oh, you know, this is going to be razor thin. We may not know for days what the election is. And when Miami-Dade went to Trump, I said it's over. Miami-dade's been Democratic since, you know, since the 70s. You know, Miami-Dade.
Dean: And.
Dan: I said if Miami-Dade this is like the first thing in this is, like you know, when they start eight o'clock I think it was seven o'clock or eight o'clock.
Dean: I'm not sure Eastern.
Dan: And they said Miami-Dade has just gone to Trump and I said that's over, I went to bed at nine o'clock. I went to bed at nine o'clock oh man. That's so funny. Yeah, but that's the news media.
You know they got, so bought into one side of the political spectrum that they, you know, they were, you know, and I think what Elon is introducing is a medium that's 50-50. You know, like they, they've done surveys of x. You know who, yes, seems to be. You know, it's like 50-50. It's 50 um republican, 50 democratic or 50 liberal, 50 conservative, whatever you know. Uh, you want to do about it, but I think he's pioneering a new news medium oh for sure.
Dean: I mean. Well, we've seen, you know, if you look at over the last 25 years, that you know we've gone from nobody having a voice to everybody, everybody having a voice. And I mean it's absolutely true, right Like that's the, that's the biggest. I think that's the. I guess what Peter Diamandis would call democratization, right Of everything. As it became digitized, it's like there's nothing stopping, there's no cost, there's no cost.
Dan: There's no cost. There's no cost and there's nothing stopping anybody from having a radio station or having a television station or, you know, magazine, like a newsletter, or any of that thing we've got. In all the ways, it's completely possible for every human to meet every other human. Here's a, here's a question. Uh, I have and uh, I I don't know how you would actually prove it. So it's uh just a question for pondering do you think that the um people were just as crazy before they had a voice as they are after having the voice, or is it having the voice that makes them crazy?
Dean: I think it's having access to so many convincing dissenting or, uh, you know voices like I'm talking about the person who's the broadcaster you know they weren't a broadcaster 25 years because there wasn't a medium for doing.
Definitely, uh, I think there's definitely a piling on, yeah, of it that I think that you know. If you think about your only access to crazy opinions and I say crazy with air quotes it is was somebody you know in, uh, in your local environment. It's like you remember even in toronto, remember, they had speakers corner. Uh, yeah, sydney tv had speakers corner where you could go and down on uh down on uh cane street queen street down on queen and john queen and John Queen and John Street. I lived about three plus.
Dan: Yeah, you never paid any attention to them. I mean you, I just made sure I was on the other side of the street walking, so they wouldn't, try to engage me you know and uh and uh, yeah, so I. So having the capability uh has its own bad consequence, for for some people, yeah, I think so, because the um, you know, I mean you and I couldn't be crazy like this, like we're doing right now.
Dean: We couldn't have been crazy like this 25 years ago, but we would have had to just do it together at table 10,. Just yeah, just talk, that's all it is we just let everybody else now hear it? Come listen in.
Dan: I don't think we're crazy. I think we're the height of sanity. I think we're the height of sanity.
Dean: I do too, Absolutely. Yeah, it's so, but I do. I definitely think that that's that's one of the things is that it's very it's much more difficult to discern. Discernment is a is a big. You need discernment in this, in this period more than ever probably do you have that in your working genius?
Dan: do you have that in your working genius?
Dean: yeah, that's my number one thing discernment. I think we're the same, yeah invention and discernment which which is first.
Dan: Mine is invention and discernment.
Dean: Okay, so mine is discernment and invention. And it's an interesting. Chad Jenkins has been asking this. He's been kind of exploring with people what he calls their perpetual question, like what's the constant question? That is kind of like the driving question of what you do.
Dan: Do you know yours?
Dean: I do. I think, in looking at it, mine is what should we do?
Dan: I know, what mine is, what's yours? I wonder how far I can go.
Dean: I wonder how far I can go. I like that.
Dan: I've had that since I was 11 years old.
Dean: Yeah, yeah, that's really. It's very interesting, right like I look at it. That, uh, you know, there were years ago, um, there was a guy, bob beal, who wrote a book called uh, stop setting goals if you'd rather solve problems or something. And so I think I'm, I am a problem solver. Simplifier, you know, as I learn all the layers about what I am, is that I'm able to I just think about, as my MO is to look at a situation and see, well, what do we need to do? Right, like, what's the outcome that we really want? Right, like, what's the what, what's the outcome that we really want, and then go into inventing the simplest, most direct path to effectively get that outcome and that's the driver of, of all of the uh things you know.
so I'm always. I think the layer of I think it's a subtlety, but the layer of discernment before inventing, for me is that I limit the inventing to the as a simplifier, you know, and I think you as a, you know I'm an obstacle bypasser, a crusher, uh-huh, uh, no, I I just say, uh, what's the way around this?
Dan: so I don't have to deal with it.
Dean: Yeah, yes and uh, yeah and uh I can't tell you that you that that progression of is there any way I could get this without doing anything, followed by what's the least that I could do to get this. And then, ok, is there, and who's the person?
Dan: who's the person that can do it? Now I tell you, I've already thought about that 10 times this morning.
Dean: It's a constant.
Dan: It's right there. It's right there. It's a companion. And I sit there and you know, for example, you get caught in a situation where you have to. You know you have to wait, you know like you have to wait and I asked myself is there any way I can solve this without doing nothing? And I said yes, you have to just be patient for 10 minutes. Ok, I'm patient for 10 minutes. You know, oh, right, yeah, yeah you know, yeah, I experienced that a lot at Pearson Airport. Oh, yeah, right, yeah, yeah.
Dean: Right, yeah, yeah, for sure, there's a lot of travel shenanigans, but I think, when you really look at, I think just it's fascinating what shifting your, shifting your view by an hour can do in travel. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like, if your target is to arrive three hours, yeah, you start the process one hour earlier than you would normally. There's so much, so much room for margin, so much.
Dan: Uh, it's so much more relaxing, you know yeah, it takes us anywhere from uh 40 minutes to an hour to get to Pearson from the beach.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: And so we leave three hours before the flight time three hours. And we're there and actually the US going to the US. They have a nice on one side. They've got some really really great um seating arrangements, tables and everything and uh, I really like it. I like getting there and, yes, you know, we starbucks is there, I get a coffee and yeah, you know I sit there and I'll just, uh, you know, I'll read my novel or whatever, or you know I have my laptop so I can work on it.
But my killer question in those situations is it's 1924, how long does this trip take me? That's the best right.
Dean: Yeah, or if that's not good enough 1824. Right, exactly.
Dan: Right, exactly yeah.
Dean: I just think. I mean, it's such a, would you say, dan, like your orientation, are you spending the majority of your time? Where do you, where do you live mentally, like? How much time do you spend reflecting on or, you know, thinking about the past, thinking about the future and thinking about right now?
Dan: well, I think about the past, uh, quite a bit from the standpoint of creating the tools, because I don't know if you've noticed the progression like over the year, almost every tool has you say well, what have you done up until now?
you know, and then your top three things that you've done up until now. And then, looking ahead, you you always brainstorm. That's a Dean Jackson add-on that I've added to. All the tools is brainstorming. And then you pick the top three for the past up until the present. And then you brainstorm what could I do over the next 12 months? And then you pick the top three. But the past is only interesting to me in terms is there a value back there that I can apply right now to, uh, building a better future?
Dean: you know, I don't.
Dan: I don't think I have an ounce of nostalgia or sentimentality about the past you know, or yearning, you know you don't want. No, I get you know, especially especially now you know it's uh. The boomers are now in their 70s. And I have to tell you, Dean, there's nothing more depressing than a nostalgic baby boomer.
Dean: Yeah, back in our day, You're right.
Dan: Yeah, that's back in the day, back in your day, you were unconscious.
Yeah right, yeah, right, yeah, and I really I noticed it happening because the first boomers started to be 65. So 46, 46 and 65 was the 2011. They started to, you know, they crossed the 65 year mark and I started noticing, starting yeah, oh boy, you know, I'm really spending a lot of time with the people I graduated from high school with and I said, oh yeah, that's interesting, why haven't you seen them for 40 years? Right, yeah, yeah, I went to a 25-year graduation reunion, yeah, so I graduated in 62, so that was 87. And I went back and we had clients here and I told people you know, I'm going back for a high school reunion. I got back and there was an event, a party, and they said, well, how was that? And I said nobody came. None of them came. And he says you had a reunion and nobody came. I said no, they sent a bunch of old people in their place.
You know they were talking about retirement. I only got another 20 years to retirement. I said, gee, wow, wow, wow I can't believe that. I mean, if you haven't seen someone for 50 years, there was a reason.
Dean: Yeah, absolutely. I just look at these. You know I graduated in 85.
So 40 years this year that just seems impossible, dan, like I just I remember you know so clearly. I have such clarity of memory of every year of that you know the last 40 years, that you know the last 40 years, but you know it's. It's a very. What I've had to consciously do is kind of narrow my attention span to the this. What I'm working on is getting to more in the actionable present kind of thing. You know more in the actionable present kind of thing, you know, because I tend to, I mean looking forward. You know if you, it's funny we can see so clearly back 25 years, even 40 years. We've got such great recollection of it.
But what we're not really that great at is projecting forward, of looking forward as to what's the next 25 years going to look like.
Dan: Well, you couldn't have done it back then either?
Dean: then either, and that's what I wondered. So you, I remember, uh, you know, 25 years ago we had we've talked about the um, you know the investment decisions of starbucks and berkshire hathaway and procter and gamble. Those were the three that I chose. But if on reflection now, looking back at them, I could have, because they were there. I could have chosen Apple and Google and Amazon. They would have been the, they would have been eclipsed, those three.
Dan: Yeah, but you did all right.
Dean: Yeah, absolutely no. No, here's the thing.
Dan: The big thing isn't what you invested in, it's what you stayed invested in. Yes, it's moving around. That kills your investment. We have whole life insurance, which is insurance with cash value. It's been 30 years now and the average has been 7% per year for 30 years now and the average has been 7% per year for 30 years. Yeah, I mean, that's interest. I mean interest. So it's not a capital gain, it's just interest.
Dean: I was just going to say, and you can access the money.
Dan: It's like a bank. It's like your own personal bank. We have an agreement with one of the Canadian banks here that we can borrow up to 95% against the cash value, and the investment keeps on going you just took out a loan. It doesn't affect the investment. What's his name?
Dean: Morgan H morgan household.
Dan: He talks about that. Yeah, he said it's the movement that uh kills you. Yes, he says, just find something you know you know, government bonds are good over 25 years. I mean people say yeah but I could have gone 100. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you have to think about it. This way, you don't have to think about it. Right yeah that was the Toronto real estate. Toronto real estate, you know, geez yeah.
Dean: Yeah, you're right, do you?
Dan: know what the average price of a single detached is in GTA right now? I don't know. It's over a million dollars. Yeah, it's about 1.2, 1.4. That's a single detached, I'm not talking about a big place? No, no exactly.
Dean: Just a three-bedroom, two-bed single-family home Too bad single family home. I remember when I was starting out in Georgetown the average price of that million dollar bungalow now is like a staple was a bungalow that was built in the 50s and 60s three bedroom, 1,200 square foot. Three bedroom brick bungalow uh, was on a 50-foot lot. Was uh a hundred and sixty five thousand dollars, yeah, and it was so funny, because now it's two uh, probably, uh, georgetown.
Georgetown is a very desirable place, yes, and so, uh, when you look at the, I remember carol mcleod, who was in my office. She'd been in real estate for you know, 20, 20 years when, uh, when I joined the office and she remembers thinking when, the price of a prince charles bungalow there was a street called prince charles in, uh, georges, it was kind of like the staple of the uh, the like the consumer price index, bread basket kind of thing when a, uh, when a prince charles bungalow went for $100,000, she thought that was the end of the world. That that's like. This is unsustainable $100,000 for a house. Who's got that kind of money? How are people gonna be able to sustain this? I just think, man, that's so crazy, but you think about it. Do you remember when Dave Winfield got a million-dollar contract for baseball?
Dan: Oh yeah.
Dean: What an amazing thing. That was the million-dollar man. It's crazy. Now you know.
Dan: Yeah, you know, it's really interesting If you take the salaries, let's say the Yankees right now the. Yankees, ok, and you know they're there. You know they have some huge, huge, huge contracts, you know, I think I'm trying to think of the biggest one.
Dean: Well, aaron Judge, you know, is like three, three hundred and twenty million judge, you know is like three, 320 million, you know, and uh, but the guy in LA just you know, 700 million yeah, 760, 760 and Soto Soto with the mats.
Dan: He just I think his is around 702 and uh and everything and people say this is just unsustainable. If you add up all the salaries of, you know, the yankees, their entire team, you know um, uh and, and average it out against what the market value of the yankees is. Yeah, you know, like this total salary.
Dean: The average is exactly the same as it was 70 years ago and that's the thing people don't understand, that these salaries are based on collective bargaining and the basketball, for instance, half of the money goes to the players. So half of all the revenue from tickets and TV and media and merchandise, all of that stuff, half of the money that the organization makes, has to go to the players. And so on a basketball team they have maybe 12 players who are getting all of that money.
Dan: You know, so that see the basketball players get I think it's 15, I think they have 15 now. 15, now 15 players.
Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah so you look at that and it's like, uh wow, now collectively they have to be within their, their salary cap or whatever is, yeah, 50, 50 percent of their revenue. But I mean it's kind of, uh, it's market value, right, it's all relative, yep yep, yep, yeah, and all the owners are billionaires.
Dan: You know, they're. They mostly use it for a tax write-off, I mean that's yeah, yeah, yeah I have to tell you talk about tax write-off. About three blocks from us here in the beaches in Toronto, there's an Indian restaurant that's been there for about two years and every night we come by it on the way back from the office and I've never seen any customers. I've never once if I pass that restaurant and this is during business hours. I've never seen, I've never once if I pass that restaurant and this is during business hours yeah I've never.
I've never seen it and I said I got a feeling there's some money laundering that's crazy.
Dean: It's like I I look at the um, I'm trying right now, and this this next couple of weeks. One of the things I'm really gonna uh reflect on is kind of looking forward. I think about I did this with our realtors. I created an RIP for 2024. So RIP meaning reflection on what actually happened in the last year for you how many transactions, how much revenue, how much whatever came in. And then inflection, looking at what is it right now, where are you at and what trajectory is that on right? If you're looking, what are the things that you could make a change on? And then projecting projection into 2025. And I realized you know part. One of the things I said to the people is you can't same your way to different, that's, you can't save your way to different.
I mean that's really if you're thinking that something different is going to happen. Something different has to take place.
Dan: You can't crazy your way to normal either.
Dean: Exactly.
Dan: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really. It's really. Yeah. I think you know that Morgan House book. We gave it out. We gave it out. I have to check on that. I put in a request for that. I don't know if it went out, you know, but he's just I. I told joe he should have him as a speaker at the national the annual event yeah, yeah, I think it'd be good. I mean because joe's really, really, really got to hustle now, because he uh really established a new standard for who he has.
But yeah, I was just looking at an article this morning because it reminded me of who Joe had. He had Robert Kennedy and Jordan. Peterson and Tucker Carlson, tucker Carlson, yeah.
Dean: And it was great.
Dan: It was great. And then I was thinking about the role that elon musk is playing in the us government. There's no precedent for this in us history, that you have a person like that, who's just brought in with somebody else, vivek ramaswamy and uh, they're just given a department of government.
Dean: A department of government oh, did I miss a vivek uh appointment. Was he appointed to something?
Dan: no, he's, he's appointed with uh, with um with uh, elon, oh, I see, okay, yeah. Yeah, it's called the department of government efficiency right okay, uh, which may be a contradiction in terms, but anyway, but they're hiring people, but the people they hire don't get any salary. You have to volunteer, you have to volunteer to work.
So you got to have, you got to be well funded to work there. You know you got to. I mean you got to be living off your own savings, your own investments, while you're there. You know you got to. I mean, you got to be living off your own savings your own investments while you're there. But I was thinking because we've been observers now for 13, actually just a year of President Milley in Argentina and he's cut government costs by 30% in one year.
Dean: Wow, yeah there's interesting stuff.
Dan: He eliminated or really cut 12 departments. Nine of the departments he just got rid of you know the one, you know they have departments like tuck you in safely at night, sort of that had about that, had about 5000 employees, you know, and you know, and send letters to your mom let her know you know that sort of department, but they were just creating employment, employment, employment where people didn't really have to work, and he got rid of seventy five thousand federal employees in a country of forty Forty six million.
Forty six million, he got rid of seventy five thousand. Well, in the US, if they did equal proportions, we're about 350, so 46, that's about seven, seven, eight times. That would get rid of 550,000. I think it's doable, yeah.
Dean: I mean that's fascinating and we don't get access to that right. You sought that out and you only came into contact with that because you're a frequent traveler to Argentina. Yeah, Argentina, and it feels better, yeah, and it feels better.
Dan: We were noticing because we hadn't been there since March and we were there right at the end of November. We were there right at the end of Thanksgiving. We were actually American Thanksgiving. We were that week, we were down there and the place just feels better. You can just feel it there, there, and the place just feels better. You can just feel it. There is uh, you know, and uh, you know, and there's a real mood shift, you know, when people just feel that all this money is being, you know, confiscated and paid to people who aren't working. You know that yeah it doesn't feel good.
Doesn't feel good, then there's Canada, then there's Canada.
Dean: Right.
Dan: Yes.
Dean: It's great entertainment, I'll tell you. Well, you know it's funny. I don't know whether I mentioned last time, the guy from El Salvador, what he's done in since being elected. You're a young guy, I think he was elected at 35 or 37. And he's completely turned around the crime rate in El Salvador by being 100%.
Dan: You just have a 50,000 convict prison. Well, that's exactly right, yeah, yeah. And that's the thing.
Dean: It's like lock him up. That's the thing.
Dan: He's like led, and they guard themselves. It's a self-guarding prison.
Dean: Is that right? I didn't know that. No, no, I'm just kidding, I'm just playing on your theme.
Dan: Right right, right'm just kidding, I'm just playing on your thing.
Dean: Right, right, right, yeah, yeah. Well, that would be the combination, right, self-guarding. That would be the most efficient way to have the situation.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Dean: But it is amazing what can happen when you have a focus on one particular thing.
Dan: Well, you know what it is. I think partially and Peter Zion talks about this that, generally speaking, the way the world has been organized, during the 20th century the US really didn't pay much attention to South America, latin America at all, and never has you know the. United States never has, because they've been east and west, you know it's either Europe or it's Asia.
But now that the US has decided that they're going to be very discerning about who gets to trade with them they're very discerning about who gets the benefit of US protection and everything else All of a sudden, the South Americans are getting their houses in order which they haven't been.
It's been a century of mostly really bad government in Latin America. Now they're all getting things in order so that when the US looks south, they're front of the line. The only thing that the US really paid any attention to was Cuba Cuba's like a piece of meat.
Dean: You can't yeah.
Dan: The only thing that the US really paid any attention to was Cuba. Yes, right, cuba's like a piece of meat you can't get out of your teeth. For the United. States and your tongue is going crazy, trying to get that piece of meat out of you. It's just been sort of an annoying place, it's just been sort of an annoying place.
Dean: Yeah, this is, I think when you look at you know Peter Zions stuff too. If you think about definitely the trend over the next 25 years is definitely more.
Dan: I think it's trend lines are really almost eerily accurate. The one thing he doesn't understand, though, is US politics. I found that he doesn't have a clue about US politics.
He's a Democrat. He told me he was a Democrat. I spent it. He came and spent a day at Genius, yes, and he said that he was a Democrat. He's an environmentalist, and you know, and you know, and. But he says but I can also do math, you know, he says I can do math so you can see what, which direction the numbers are going in. But he, I mean right up until a week before the election, he says Kamala is going to take it, Kamala is going to take it. You know and everything like that.
So he didn't. He didn't have any real sense of the shifts that were going on voter shifts that were going on. I mean Trump went in and almost every county. There's 3,000 counties in the United States and he didn't go backwards in any of the counties, he went up in every county.
Dean: Oh, wow, that's interesting so you didn't lose anything.
Dan: That's really widespread. I mean, there isn't 3,001. There's just 3,000. Yeah, and he went up. It was just as it was. Like you know, it was like the tide came in. I think I've never seen in my lifetime, I've never really seen a shift of that proportion. And I wonder, you know, you look at over the new political establishment. Well, this isn't my thought George Friedman, who was Peter Zion's, because the political establishment in the United States, in other words, where the proportion of the votes are, is going to be working class.
It won't be highly educated you know, professional people. For one thing, ai is really feeding. You know, if you have somebody's making $30,000 a year and somebody else is making $100,000 a year, which job would you like to eliminate to economize?
Dean: Right, yeah, yeah, you look at the. That's one thing I think we, like I, look at when I am thinking about the next 25 years. I think about what are the like there's no way to predict. There was no way in 1999 to predict YouTube and Facebook and the things that are TikTok, you know, or AI, all of that impact right.
But I think there. But, like I said, there was evidence that if you were, if you believe, guessing and betting, as you would say, you could see that the path that Amazon was on made sense and the path that Apple was on and the path that Google was on, all are ai for certain. Like that dna, all the like the things that are that we're learning about stem cells and genetics, and all of that kind of stuff. And Bitcoin, I guess, right, digital currency, crypto, you know everything. Just removing friction.
Dan: Yeah, I think the whole blockchain makes sense. Yeah, yeah, you know. I mean I think the thing in the US dollar makes sense. Yeah, $1.44 yesterday. It's up 10 cents in the last eight weeks. Wow, yeah, I think when you were there in September it was $1.34, probably $1.34.
Dean: Now it's $1.44. Oh, that's great yeah, yeah.
Dan: And yeah, so yeah, I mean the ones that I mean. People say, well, bitcoin, you know Bitcoin is going to become the reserve currency. I said there's 21 million of them. It can't become the reserve currency.
Dean: Right right.
Dan: There is no currency that can replace the dollar.
Dean: You know, it's just.
Dan: And still have a livable planet.
Dean: Mm-hmm, anyway, we've covered territory.
Dan: We've covered territory today.
Dean: We have Holy cow. It's already 1203.
Dan: That's amazing. We covered a lot of territory.
Dean: We really did.
Dan: But the one thing that is predictable is the structure that you can put onto your schedule. That is predictable.
Dean: You know, I have one.
Dan: I have a thing I hadn't talked to you about this, but this is something I do is that when I start tomorrow, I look at next week, ok, and I just look at and and I just get a sense and then I'll put together some changes. I'd like Becca Miller she's my high beams into the future and she does all my scheduling and so I'll notice that some things can be rearranged, which if I got to next week I couldn't rearrange them. But I can rearrange them on Monday of this week for next week.
Dean: But I I couldn't do it on.
Dan: Monday of next for that week. So more and more this this year. Um, every uh Monday I'm going to look at the week uh, not this week, but the week ahead and make changes. I think, I bet there's uh, you know, like a five to 10% greater efficiency. That happens just by having that one habit.
Dean: Yeah, dan, I'm really getting down to, I'm looking at and I do that same thing. But looking at this next, the 100 hours is really from. You know, hours is really from Monday morning at eight o'clock till Friday at noon is a hundred hours and that to me, is when everything that's the actionable period, and then really on a daily basis, getting it to this, the next 100 minutes is really that's where the real stuff takes place. So anyway, I always love the conversations.
Dan: Yep, back to you next week. Yes, sir, have a great day. I'll talk to you soon.
Dean: Bye, okay, bye.

Jan 29, 2025 • 54min
Ep143: Unveiling the Mysteries of Modern Media
Today on Welcome to Cloudlandia, We start with the mysterious drone sightings over New Jersey, exploring the thin line between conspiracy and curiosity. These nocturnal aerial visitors become a metaphor for our complex modern world, where information and imagination intersect.
We then investigate the profound impact of cultural icons like Mr. Beast and Kylie Jenner, examining how influence transcends traditional expertise. Our discussion reveals how public figures navigate changing landscapes of leadership and visibility, offering insights into the evolving dynamics of success and social capital.
The episode concludes by challenging our approach to information consumption. Drawing from personal experiments and wisdom from thought leaders like Warren Buffett, we explore strategies for staying informed in a noisy digital ecosystem.
Our conversation provides practical perspectives on navigating media, understanding cultural shifts, and maintaining perspective amid constant information flow.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
We explore the presence of drones over New Jersey, questioning whether they are linked to government surveillance or civilian activities, while considering the broader context of misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Dan and I discuss the concept of anticipation being more stressful than actual experiences, suggesting it as a contributor to mental distress.
The impact of cultural icons like Mr. Beast and Kylie Jenner is examined, highlighting their influence despite lacking traditional skills in their fields.
We ponder on how cultural shifts are altering perceptions of corporate leadership, using a hypothetical scenario of a CEO's public safety being compromised.
The dynamics of news consumption are analyzed, contrasting real-time news feeds with curated platforms like RealClear Politics to understand how they balance diverse political viewpoints.
I share my experience with digital abstinence, noting the benefits of reduced distractions and the negligible impact of disconnecting from the continuous news cycle temporarily.
The concept of "irrational confidence" is explored, discussing how it characterizes overachievers and can be cultivated over time to foster personal growth.
We reflect on long-term investment strategies inspired by Warren Buffett, emphasizing the enduring need for certain products and industries.
I consider the importance of balancing cultural awareness with the need to filter out unnecessary noise, contemplating changes in my information consumption habits.
Insights from personal experiments in digital and media consumption are shared, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between transient cultural information and lasting knowledge.
Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com
TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Dean: Mr Sullivan.
Dan: Mr Jackson are the drones looking down on you.
Are the drones looking down on you.
Dan: I mean, how many do you have up there? What is going?
Dean: on with these drones.
Dan: Yeah, I bet there's just a bunch of civilians fooling around with the government.
Dean: Yeah, I wonder you know like you look at this. I think it's so. I wonder you know like you look at this. I think it's so amazing that you know we've had a theme, or I've been kind of thinking about this, with the. You know, is this the best time to be alive or the worst time to be alive? And I mentioned that I think probably in every practical way, this is the best time, but the anything in the worst time to be alive column just the speed and proliferation of, you know, conspiracies and misinformation and the battle for our minds. You know, keeping us in that. You know everything is just enough to be. You know where you're uncertain of stuff. You know there's a lot of uncertainty that's being laid out right now in every way. I mean, you look at just what's happened in the last. If we take 2020, fear you know.
Dan: Well, tell me about it. I'm not very much of that 2024. Tell me about it. I experience very much of that. But why don't you tell me about that? Because I want to note some things down here.
Dean: You know what?
Dan: Every month, more money comes in than goes out. What more do you need to know besides that?
Dean: I agree with you. I'm seeing the light here. It's just on the top level. We went through an election year which is always the you know the highly funded, you know misinformation campaigns or you know putting out there. So everybody's up on high level.
Dan:
Are you talking about lies Are?
Dean: you talking about lies? Are you talking about lies? Who knows Dan?
Dan: When I was growing up we called them lies. Why so many extra letters? I mean lies, that's a perfectly good Anglo-Saxon word. Why is Greek and Roman stuff in there?
Dean: I think that's the thing, If we just simplify it. But if we bring it down to lies and truth, it's much more.
Dan: I like lies and truth.
Dean: Yeah, it's much more difficult to discern the lies from the truth.
Dan:
Yeah, he's telling a lie here, folks, his mouth is moving Exactly.
Dean: You know that's the truth, but I just look at that. It's like you know the things that are. You know the things that are happening right now. Like you look at even with the government, even with the congressional hearings or announcements on, almost just like a matter of fact, oh yeah, there's aliens, there's totally aliens. There's. They've been here for a long time. We've got some in, we've got all the evidence and everything like that. But you know, carry on, it's just kind of so. It's so funny. Stuff is being like, you know, nobody really is kind of talking about it. And then you get these drone situations in New Jersey, all these drones coming out and the government saying I know nothing to see here, nothing going on there.
Dan: Well, my take if you're going to be using drones. New Jersey would be my choice. You know I put drones over New Jersey. Not a lot happening there.
Dean: All the memes now are that it's some highly sophisticated, you know fast food delivery service for Chris Christie. That's all the meme things. They're on a direct pipeline delivering fast food to Chris Christie. That's just so funny.
Dan: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I mean the whole point is that civilians could do this. I mean, I think everybody probably has the you know, or certain people do have the technological capability now to put up drones, you know, and just put some lights on them and put them in the night sky I'm sure anybody does that and then you know, and then you'll be on social media.
Dean: Somebody will film you and everything like that you know it's at night and they're mysterious.
Dan: Always do it at night, never do it during the day You've got to use the right words to describe them too, dan, you've got to use the right words they're mysterious drones. And if you practice you can get them to fly. In formation it looks even more interesting. I'm swooping a little bit in formation, everything else, well, I don't believe there's aliens.
Dean: Okay, good Everything else yeah. Well, I don't believe there's aliens, so you know I mean.
Dan: I don't believe there's anything more alien than people I've already met. That's what.
Dean: I mean yeah.
Dan: You know I've met some alien thought forms on the part of some people. But see, I think you got to make a fundamental decision about this up front. This is worth thinking about or it's not worth thinking about. Yeah, okay, so I made the decision. It's not worth thinking about that. If something new develops, I'll probably know about it in a very short period of time, and then I can start responding to it.
Yeah, but about six months ago a new resolution plunked into place in my brain, and that is I'm not going to react to an experience until I actually have the experience.
Dean: So say more about that.
Dan: Rather than making up a fantasy or the possibility that there's an experience to be it. Actually you're getting. I think mental illness is having an experience before you've actually being afraid of an experience before you've actually had it. It's the anticipation of having an experience that I think causes mental illness.
Dean: That's true, isn't it?
Dan: Yeah, I mean, that's like yeah, I haven't seen Probably not the only thing, probably not the only thing about mental illness, but I think that would qualify as an aspect. It certainly is a paranoia, certainly an aspect of paranoia, yeah, but things are moving. I think we're witnessing one of the greatest innovations in the history of the United States right now. Can I tell you what it is? Would you be interested? I'm all ears. Yeah, President is elected, and then there's this period from the day after the election until the inauguration.
Dean: Yes.
Dan: And it's basically been fallow. Nothing grows during that time and Trump has just decided why don't I just start acting like the president right after the election and really create a huge momentum by the time we get to the inauguration? Let's be so forceful right after the election that all the world leaders talk to me. They don't talk to the existing president. That's his name. I forget what I forget Joe, joe, joe. All right, that's the name, that's the name of the beach, that's the name of the beach, I just find it remarkable how, around the world, everybody's responding to the incoming president, not to the actual president.
That's the truth. I think he's, and he's getting people. There's foreign policy changing. You know there's foreign policy, mexico, their foreign policy you know, their export import policy is changing. Canada export import policy is changing. Canada export-import policy is changing. And all he did was say a word. He said I think we're going to put a 25% tariff on both of you. And all of a sudden, they're up at night. They're up at night.
Dean: I happened to be, in Toronto when all that was being announced. I happened to be in Toronto when all that was being announced and all the news was, you know, that there's an emergency meeting of all of the premiers to discuss the reaction to Donald Trump's proposed tariff. You know, you're absolutely right. Everybody's scrambling, everybody's. You know, they're definitely, you know, thinking about what's coming. You know.
Dan: And then he goes to Paris for the opening of, you know, they're definitely, you know, thinking about what's coming, you know. And then he goes to Paris for the opening of, you know, the you know, the renovation of Notre Dame Cathedral. Yeah, looks good, by the way, I don't know if you've seen the pictures.
It looks really good. I was in there. You know I've been to Paris, I think I've been to Paris three times and I went the first time. I said, oh, I've been to Paris, I think I've been to Paris three times and I went the first time. I said, oh, I have to go to Notre Dame Cathedral. And I went in and I said, gee, it's dark and dingy and I'm not sure they even clean. You know, clean the place anymore.
And all it takes is a little fire to get everybody into cleanup mode, and boy, it looks spectacular. So Trump goes there and it's like he's the emperor of the world. You know, all the heads of state come up and they want to shake his hands and everything like that. I've never seen anything like that with an incoming president.
They want to get on his good side and everybody's giving them money for his inauguration. Mark Zuckerberg's giving them money. The head of Google's giving them money for his inauguration. Mark zuckerberg's giving them money. The head of google is giving them money. Jeff bezos giving them money. Abc's giving them 15 million. That'll just go into his library library fund. Yeah, and everything else. Wow. You know, I've never seen them do this to an incoming president before. Yeah, time magazine called him the person of the year Already. I didn't even know there was a Time magazine.
Dean: I'm actually thinking.
I've been, I've been like thinking, dan, about my 2025, you know information plan and you know I've been kind of test driving this idea of you know, disconnecting. Where I struggle with this is that so much of the insights and things that I have are because I, on top of culture, you know, I think I'm very like tuned in to what's going on. I have a pretty broad, you know, observation of everything and that. So where I struggle with it is letting go of like at the vcr formula, for instance, was born of my observation and awareness of what's going on with mr beast and kylie jenner and these, you know, that sort of early thing of knowing and seeing what's going on you know before many of our contemporaries kind of thing. Right, many of our people are very decidedly disconnected from popular culture and don't pay attention to it. So I look at that as a balance. That part of it there's a certain amount of awareness that is an advantage for me might be affected if I were to be blissfully unaware of what's going on in culture, you know.
Dan: Yeah, I don't know. I mean you could put Charlotte on to the job you know, yeah, and that's so I look at that. Charlotte. For our listeners, charlotte is Dean's AI sleuth. She finds out things. She's a sleuthy integrator of things that Dean finds interesting. You ought to talk it over with her and say how can I stop doing this and still have the benefit of it?
Dean: Yeah, my thing. I think that where there might be an AI tool that I could use for this, but Charlotte, from what I understand, is bound by her latest update or whatever. She's got access to everything up to a certain date. She doesn't have real time information in terms of the most recent stuff. Have you heard, by the way, dan, what is? We're imminently away from the release of ChatGPPT 5, which is supposedly I want to get the numbers right on this. Let me just look at a text here, because it's so overwhelmingly more powerful than ChatGPT 4. The new ChatGPT5 has 10 trillion gpus compared to chat gpt4, which is 75 billion. So the difference from 75 billion to 10 trillion sounds like a pretty impressive leap. Sounds like a pretty impressive leap, and that'll put it over the top of you know, the current thing is a 121 IQ, and this will bring it to being smarter than any human on the planet.
Dan: And so we don't even know, but not at doing anything particular.
Dean: No, I guess not. I mean just the insight processing, logic, reasoning, all of that stuff being able to process information. I'm still amazed I was talking.
Dan: When it comes out. Three months after it comes out, will you notice any difference?
Dean: I don't know.
Dan: That's what I'm wondering, my feeling is that I'm not even sure what cat GPT is two years after it came out, because I haven't interacted with it at all Right, I've interacted with perplexity, which I find satisfying. And you know, yeah, there's an interesting. I read an interesting article on human intelligence and it said that by and large, there's an active, practical zone to human intelligence where you're above average in confidence and you're above average in making sense of things, and it seems to be between 120 and 140.
Dean: Yes, 120, 140.
Dan: And about 40, 140,. Your confidence goes down as you get smarter and your awareness of making sense of things gets weaker, gets weaker. And from a standpoint of communicating with other people, the sweet zone seems to be 120 to 140.
Dean: Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. I think that, yeah, yeah.
Dan: You've got above average pattern, You've got above average pattern recognition and you've got good eye-hand coordination you know, in the artisans of the word that you can see something and take action on it quite quickly. You have the ability to do that, and probably in new ways, probably in new ways so you don't have a lot of friction coming the other way. You know when you do something new?
yeah, but iq, you know, iq, iq is one measurement of human behavior yeah but there's many others that are more prominent, so yeah, I think this is you know, I think silicon Valley has a big fixation on IQ because they like to compare who's got the biggest. They like to compare who's got the biggest, but I'm not sure it really relates to anything useful or practical beyond a certain point.
Dean: Well, it's not actionable. There's no insight in it, not like knowing that you're Colby, knowing that we're 10 quick starts is useful information.
Dan: Yeah, it's like having six quick starts together with some alcohol. Right, it's a fun party.
Dean: Yes, like you said your book club or your dinner clubs, our next-door neighbor our next-door neighbor's husband and wife and Shannon Waller and her husband.
Dan: Our quick start out of the 60 is 56. We just have the best time for about three or four hours Good food, the wine is good and everything else. We just have the best time for about three or four hours Good food, the wine is good and everything else. And regardless of what happens transpires during those four hours, the world is completely safe from any impact.
Dean: Right, exactly, it's so funny it's not going to leave the room. Yeah, everybody's safe, yeah.
Dan: Go back to culture. What do you mean by culture when you say?
Dean: culture. What?
Dan: do you mean by culture? When you say culture, what do you mean?
Dean: I mean, like popular culture, what's happening in the world right now, like having an awareness of what, because I'm a good pattern recognizer and I see and I'm overlaying things. I'm curious and alert and always looking for what's with Mr Beast and recognizing that neither one of them has any capability to do the thing that they're doing. Mr Beast didn't have the capability to make and run hamburger restaurants and Kylie didn't have any capability to run and manufacture a cosmetics company, but they both were aligned with people who had that capability and that allowed them to have a conduit from their vision, through that capability, that if they just let people know their reach that they've now got a hamburger restaurant and you can order on Uber Eats right now or you can click here to get my lip kits.
You know, access to those eyeballs, that's all. So I look at that and if I had not, if I had been cut off from you know, sort of I would say I'm in the tippy top percent of people of time spent on popular culture. I guess you know, and I look at it as I look at, it's a problem in terms of a lot of time and a lot of you know that mindless stuff you would think like screen time, but all the inputs and awareness is just monitoring the signal to get and recognize patterns. You know. So I'm real. Yeah, well, let me throw you a challenge on the culture side.
Dan: get and recognize patterns, you know. So I'm really sorry, yeah, well, let me throw you a challenge on the culture side.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: Okay. So in New York City there's going to be a meeting of you know, I guess it's a shareholders meeting for a big health insurance company and the head of one part of the health insurance company is walking down the street. Somebody shoots him in the back and kills him, kills him the CEO, and they, yeah, they catch up with him. You know, a week later and you know he's arrested in a McDonald's in Pennsylvania and they find all sorts of incriminating evidence that he in fact is the person who was the shooter. And now he's got, you know, he's got sort of a manifesto about that. These CEOs are doing evil and even though he doesn't think that his action was an admirable action, it had to be done. I would say that's a cultural factoid because up until now being a CEO is like being an aristocrat in our capitalist society.
I get a CEO and now the CEOs are trying to be invisible and they're hiring like mad new security. So all the status value of being a CEO got disappeared on an early morning sidewalk in New York City because somebody shot him. Shot him in the back, you know, I mean it wasn't a brave act, shot him in the back, but the reason is that you, as a CEO, are doing harm to large numbers of people and someone has to stop you.
I would say, that's as much a cultural fact as Mr Beast or Kylie Jenner.
Dean: Yeah, I mean, would you say that again?
Dan: I mean, I think, every CEO in the United States.
Dan: United States has instantly changed his whole schedule and how he's going to show up in public and where he's going to be seen in public where he doesn't have large amounts of security, with one action broadly communicated out through the social media and through the mainstream media. He just changed the whole way of life for CEOs. I would say that's a cultural fact. It's a negative one. You're talking about positive ones, but I believe for every positive thing you have, there's probably a corresponding negative one.
I'm struck by that You're just not going to see CEOs around anymore, and I mean, half the value of being a CEO is being seen around and they just removed the whole reward for being seen around, just removed the whole reward for being seen around.
Dean: Yeah, I wonder, you know like I mean. But there are certain things like other I don't know that it's all CEOs. You know, like I think, if you are perceived as the part of the vilified, you know CEOs, the almost back to Occupy Wall Street kind of things, if you're a CEO of a company that's viewed as the oppressor, like those insurance things, but I don't know if that's true for the CEOs of NVIDIA and OpenAI and Tesla, and you know what I mean.
Dan: I think, if you're yeah, I wonder, but we'll see, but we'll see, we'll see.
Dean: Yeah, yeah, are you the people's CEO? You know, I think.
Dan: Yeah, I mean my yeah. Somebody once asked me about this, you know. They said how well known would you like to be? And I said just be below the line where I would have to have security.
Dean: Right, yeah, if you look at it, can you think of anybody?
Dan: I wander around Toronto on my own. I go here and I go there and everything else, and nobody knows who I am. That's my security.
Dean: Nobody knows who I am yeah, but you wonder, like you know, if you look at the level of fame of you know you? You've mentioned before the difference between Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg. Warren Buffett is certainly very famous, but nobody's mad at him. I guess that's part of the thing. He's very wise, or viewed as wise.
Dan: He's usefully wise.
Dean: Yeah, exactly.
Dan: Investing according to his benchmarks and his strategies has proved very valuable to a great number of people.
Dean: Agreed.
Dan: Plus, he's got a fairly simple, understandable lifestyle. He still lives in the house he's lived in for the last 40 years, still drives a pickup truck and his you know the entrance to his home is filled with boxes of Diet Coke.
Dean: Cherry.
Dan: Coke Cherry Coke, cherry Coke.
Dean: Cherry Coke, not Diet Coke. No, I'm not. That's a subject, I'm not an expert in Cherry Coke.
Dan: Cherry Coke, not Diet Coke. That's a subject I'm not an expert in.
Dean: That's the funniest thing. Right, that's one of my top two.
Dan: Warren Buffett, you have merit badges in that area.
Dean: Yeah. But I think culture, you know, I don't know, I'm trying, it's a slippery beast, this thing culture you know, it's a slippery, slippery beast and you know there's I think that's part of the thing, though it's like the zeitgeist you know is, I think, having an awareness zeitgeist gosh, you just had to slip in a german word, didn't you?
Dan: you just had to get a german word, yeah I've been sort of fixated on schadenfreude for the last month. I've just been why I've just been watching the democrats respond to the election and I'm fully schadenfreude. I've been fully schadenfreid for the last month. But zeitgeist, the spirit, I think that translates into the spirit of the times.
Dean: Yes, that's exactly what it is. That's what I meant by. That's what I meant by. I'm very like, I think I'm at the tippy top of the you know percentiles of people who are tuned into the zeitgeist, I think that's. I would be self-reportedly that, but yeah, and I don't know, but at the cost of there's a lot of useless stuff that gets in there as well, you know, and negative, and you're faced with all of it. So, my, my filter, I'm taking in all the sewer water kind of thing and having to filter it through rather than just, you know, pre-filtering, only drinking filtered water.
Dan: You're getting rid of the fluoride drinking filtered water.
Dean: You're getting rid of the fluoride. Yeah, exactly, winter haven. Florida, by the way, is one of the first in the country to be getting rid of fluoride on the oh no, this will happen really quick.
Dan: Oh yeah, it was just that.
Dean: I, I just said I just saw that winter haven was like one of the first movers you, you know, polk County Florida is removing and, by the way, polk County Florida is now fastest growing county in the country. So then, so there you know, 30 something, 30,000 something people that we grew by, yeah, so, new.
Dan: You're to date right, you're to date Over the last 12 months, over the last 12 months. I guess that's how they measure it yeah.
Dean: So my thought, dan, was that I was looking to. You know, like my tune in to the zeitgeist is on a daily, real-time basis, I'm getting the full feed, right. No, no filters. Yeah, what I was thinking. What I was wondering about was if I were to change the cadence of it to more sort of filtered content, like I would say what you do, your, you've chosen a filter called real clear politics. Right, that's your, that's your filter, and you probably have five or six other filters that are your lens through yeah, it would be the go-to every day.
Dan: You know I start the morning and. I go on my computer, I go to the RealClear site.
So it's.
RealClear comes up as RealClear politics, but then they have about eight other RealClear channels.
RealClear politics, RealClear markets, RealClear world. Realclear defense, energy, health science, you know, and everything like that. But the beauty of it is that they're aggregators of other people's output. So you know everybody's competing to get their articles on real clear. You know the New York Times competes to try to get. You know, get every day maybe one or two of its headlines, supposedly for most of my life.
The most important newspaper in the world and they have to compete every day to get something of theirs onto the real clear platform. And it seems very balanced to me, right to left from politics. You know, politically, if I look at 20 headlines, I would say that five of them are real total right, five of them are total left and there's a lot of middle.
There's a lot of middle about things like that, you know about things like that, you know, and then I'll punch on them, and then that takes me right to the publication or the site that produced the headline, and then I might see three or four things and I discover new ones. I discover new ones all the time. And it's good and there's a lot of filtering that's being done, but I do. They're not interpreting these articles. They're just giving you the article. You can read the article and make up your own mind about it.
Now they do some editing in some cases because they interpret the headlines and they have a sidebar where there's topical areas where it's clear to me that real clear has created the headline. That's not the originating.
Dean: You know the originating source of the article that's kind of like that's the drudge playbook, right yeah?
Dan: I used to like drudge but he went wacky. He went wacky so I didn't read him anymore.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: These guys are pretty cool. They're pretty cool. They've been going now for a dozen years anyway, as I've been aware, and they seem really cool. You know they carry advertising. That's not if I'm thinking of horses. I don't get horse ads, you know. 10 minutes later you're done.
Dean: Something like that.
Dan: But they do have their advertising model, but I don't, you know, I'm not interested in buying anything, so it doesn't really affect me, but that's really great. You know what's really interesting. Peter Zion, you know I'm a big fan of his.
And he's got a blog and he came out about a month ago saying I'm going to put in a new approach and that is, you'll always get your free blog and video to go along with it. So it's written and then it's also got the video, but it will be a week later than when I put it on, and if you want it right away, it'll cost you this much. And I'm giving all that money to some cause. Okay, so I'm fundraising for some cause and I just went a week with no Peter Zine and then I started getting it every day and it makes no difference to me whether I got it last week or this week, okay, and so I just waited a week and I'm right up to date again as far as I'm concerned.
Dean: Right yeah.
Dan: Like when Syria fell. You know, the Syrian government collapsed last week and he had nothing on it until seven days later. I want to go over, but he's adjusting his format now. He says I'm going to give you four stages to what's actually happening. So you know, he's experimented with something and he's finding that he has to adjust his presentation a little bit just for people saying you know? You know, I'm going to tell you over a three-day period what happened. This happened on the first day, this happened on the second day, third day and this is where we are on the fourth day, and everything else and that's good.
I like that. Everything else you know and everything, but that's part of the culture. You know it's part of the culture.
Dean: Yeah. So my thought like my sense of culture.
Dan: it's what culture is. Whatever's happening right now that you're interested in, yeah, it seems to show some interesting movement.
Dean: Yeah, I think you're, I think you're right. I mean, my thought was of experimenting, was to go to more of a rather than a minute by minute, always on direct feed to the zeitgeist is going through a daily. You know, I had a really interesting two days at strategic coach in Toronto just a couple of weeks ago, when you know I was. I referred to it, as you know, workshopping like it was 1989 with my phone.
Dan: You were practicing, practicing abstinence.
Dean: Yeah, I was, and what I learned in that was, and I did it two days in a row with zero contact with the outside world, from nine o'clock to five o'clock when the workshops were going on, no checking in at the breaks or at lunch or, you know, no notifications. You know dinging while I'm in the workshops. It was certainly anchoring, you know, presence to me in the in the workshops, but also noticed that nothing really happened. You know like I didn't miss anything in that five, in that nine to five period. You know I got a bunch of emails over the day but there were maybe two or three that were like for me or of any real interest or necessity for me. You know I have two inboxes. I have a, you know, my, my dean at dean jackson. My main mailbox is monitored by, you know, people, stakeholders in the, you know, because sometimes an email will come in and if it has something to do with our realtor division, diane is in there and sees that and can respond, or Lillian is able to respond.
But then I also have my own, a private email just for me, that I give to my friends, and whenever you email me, that's the email that you use and those ones are not. Those aren't seen by anybody but me. But there's even far fewer of those that come through than come into the main one.
Dan: Well, it's an interesting experiment that you're doing here, because it seems to me that one is the world is changing all the time. As far as news is concerned, the world is. I guess that's what news means. You know that things are changing, but if you don't pay attention to it over a long period of time and you don't feel inconvenienced, by it then, probably, it wasn't important probably it wasn't important, yeah, you know, and like I'm in six and a half years now with no television you know right and and you know, I've gone through two, two full presidential elections without watching television and yet I don't feel that I've missed anything important by not watching television Because I have real clear politics and I have a computer and I get videos.
I can go to YouTube. And if somebody's giving a talk somewhere I can watch, where on television you would never get the whole speech. You know you would be broken up with commercials and everything like that. And then you have some commentators telling you what you were supposed to think about that, which I don't really require that I'm perfectly able to understand what I'm thinking about it and everything like that. So I don't know, I don't know. Well, my thought experiment.
Dean: You know what you?
Dan: should do is say what kind of cultural information is sugar and what kind of cultural information is protein, I get it, and so that's kind of where I was thinking. To me that's where you're going.
Dean: I'm thinking about slowing down the cadence so, and to have a daily, like you know, something like real clear and you know there's thinking about where that is filtered sort of thing for me, thinking about where that is filtered sort of thing for me. And then weekly, you know, like I think, if I just looked at, if I went to print as a thing, if I were to say, you know, time Magazine, newsweek, the Inc Magazine, people Magazine, like I think, if there were some things that I could and the Weekend Wall Street Journal, I think with those you could, that would be kind of a really good.
I don't think I would miss out.
Dan: I'm really big on the Weekend Wall Street Journal, I think that's a great print. That's a great print medium. I literally haven't read Time magazine. I don't know, maybe 20 years or, but it seems like they're probably on top of what's even if it's slanted, you're going to get a sense of what the core thing is.
Dean: That's actually right. Yeah, I know.
Dan: A lot of Democrats canceled their subscription over the last three or four days because Trump person of the year. Yeah exactly. See, now, that's an interesting piece of information, yeah yeah, what they wrote about him I don't find interesting, but the fact that certain readers they must have made him look good, you know, for that sort of cancellation, you know you know it's like this is being categorized as the kiss the ring phase.
Dean: That's what abc there was being characterized. That time magazine kissed the ring by making him person of the year abc. You know, kissing the ring, giving him 15 million dollars, and well, they didn't $15 million.
Dan: Well, they didn't give him $15 million, they were required to give him $15 million yeah exactly, and George Stephanopoulos has to apologize publicly for defaming him as he should. As he should, yeah, for defaming him, you know, as he should, as he should. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dean: So Trump's got to have at least one court case.
Dan: Trump's got to have at least one court case going in his favor.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: But I look at that as you know, that's a really. I think that would be a really useful thing. Would certainly get me back three or four hours a day of yeah you know, of screen time. It would give me more dean time to use, because it would certainly condense a lot of that but you have some interesting models that are, I would say, are cultural models.
Dan: I would say more cheese, less whiskers is a cultural model. I mean, if you have it as a thought form, you can see, you can simplify happenings around you. You know, that seems a little bit too much whiskers, exactly, too much whiskers. Yeah, that seems like a fine new cheese. Yeah, that seems like a fine new cheese. For example, taylor Swift gave $100 million in bonuses to everybody who helped her on her tour.
Dean: I don't know if you saw that. It's crazy $200 million.
Dan: The truck drivers, the ones who got $100,000. They got $100,000. And her father delivered the checks. That seems like a really. That's like a fondue, that's not just cheese.
Dean: That is only the finest cheese fondue. Yes, exactly, that's so funny.
Dan: when they hit it big, they're real jerks and they're real pricks and she's not. She's showing gratitude. That's very much a cheese. That was a very cheesy thing for her to do. In your model, that's a very cheesy thing for her to do. Yeah, in your model, that's a very cheesy thing.
Dean: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I look at you know another thing that's happening is I don't know whether you've followed or seen what Deion Sanders has done with Colorado football over the last two seasons, but he basically went from the basement of 1-11 team the worst team in college football to the Alamo Bowl in two seasons and Travis Hunter just won the Heisman Trophy and he could quite possibly have the top two draft picks.
Dan: His son didn't win the Heisman Trophy Hunter. Oh, you're saying Travis Hunter? I?
Dean: was saying Travis Hunter. He could possibly have the top two picks in the NFL draft between Jadot and Travis Hunter and it's just, I mean, it fits in so perfectly with my you know, 100 week, you know timeframe there. That that's, I think, the optimal. I think you can have a really big impact in a hundred weeks on anything but to go from the basement to the bowl game is like it's a really good case study. But that really is.
You know, I often I think there's so many things that play like a crystal clear vision of what he was trying to accomplish In his mind. There's no other path than them being the greatest football team, the greatest college football team in the country. That's really it. Building an empire. That's certainly where he's headed and his belief, that's the only outcome. You know it's so. I was. I read a book and, by the way, I'll have an aside on this, but I read a book years ago called Overachievement and it was a book by a sports psychologist at Rice University and his assessment of overachievers people who have achieved outsized results. One of his observations is that, without fail, they all have what he characterizes as unreasonable confidence or irrational. That's irrational confidence. That's what it is, and I thought to myself like that's a pretty interesting word pairing, because who's to say how much confidence is rational, you know, yeah, it's kind of it's it's and first of all, I.
Dan: I don't think the two words even have anything to do with each other I don't either.
Dean: That's why I thought it was so remarkable. You know, I think irrational confidence I mean, yeah, spoken by.
Dan: spoken by someone who I thought it was so remarkable, irrational confidence. I mean spoken by someone who probably has very little.
0:46:50 - Dean:
I mean interesting right Like people look at that, but I thought I've overlaid it with your four C's right Is that commitment leads to courage? Yeah, that commitment leads to courage First of all.
Dan: I think it can be grown. I'm a great believer that commitment can be grown, courage can be grown, capability can be grown, confidence can be grown. It's a cycle. It's a growth cycle. It's like ambition. It's like ambition. I'm much more ambitious today than I was 30 years ago way more ambitious and 30 years ago I was 50. That's when most people are kind of are peaking out on ambition when they're 50.
I mean I was in the valley 50 years ago, compared to where I am now, but I've always treated ambition as something that you can grow, and my particular approach is that the more you can tap into other people's capabilities for your projects, the more your ambition can grow.
It's an interesting thing. Irrational confidence.
Dean: Yeah, and I thought that you know, so it's pretty interesting.
Dan: There must be a scale somewhere, you know, get on the scale, please. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rational, oh, he's above. Rational, above irrational, oh, that's totally irrational confidence.
Dean: yes, he's just setting himself up for disappointment. That's like I think're in the confidence of living to 156. That's irrational. Yeah, it is till I fail, exactly. Yeah, but that's okay, it's not going to make any difference to you. I always love your live, live, live pattern. It's not going to affect you.
Dan: Live live, live, go on.
Dean: I saw somebody doing an illustration, Dan, of how long it takes for the world to adapt to you not being here, and the gentleman had his finger in a glass of water and he pulled it out.
Dan: Watch, yeah, watch, how long the hole lasts.
Dean: It's the truth, you know, yeah, yeah.
Dan: I don't know if you got a hold of that book. Same as Ever, the Morgan Household book.
Dean: I did. I've read it and it's fantastic. It's good, isn't it?
It really is it kind of calms you down.
Dan: You know it kind of calms you down. You know I told Joe Polish I said you know how to get that guy as a speaker. I think he's great and anyway, you know he said he makes he has that one great little chapter on evolution. How long it takes, you know, like evolution, three or four million years, and he says stuff that you know is lasting over a long period of time you know is really worth paying attention to, really worth paying attention to. You know that and I find one of the things that you know at my advancing age at my advancing age is that I can see now things that were are equally true today as they were 50 years ago yeah, I see that too.
Dean: Absolutely see that too. Absolutely, see that through. I'm on the cusp right now. Like you know, we're coming into 2025.
And so this is the first time I started thinking about 25 years ahead was in 1999. That 25 year timeframe, you know, and certainly when I made those, you know five or three stock in. You know investment decisions. But looking back now, you know there were clues as to what is what was what was coming. But there are certainly a lot of through line to it too. You know, like I think, what I did choose was you know it's still Warren Buffett, it's still Berkshire was a great as a 10 times or more stock over 25 years. Starbucks and Procter and Gamble they're equally. Those were durable choices. But you know what was what I could have, what was there? Looking back now, the evidence was there already that Amazon and Google and Apple would have been rocket ships. You know guessing and betting, dan. It's like guessing and betting with certainty. Or you know where you think, like I think, if we look and maybe next week we can have a conversation about this the guessing and betting for the next 25 years, you know.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: I think he Warren Buffett. He said that Gillette, I like Gillette. He said I think men are going to still be shaving 25 years from now.
Dean: That's what he said. That was. What was so impactful to me is that he says I can't tell which technology is going to win, even five years from now, but I know that men are going to go to bed and they're going to wake up with whiskers. Some of them are going to want to shave them off. King Gillette is going to be there, like he has been since 1850.
Dan: And it's like railroads, he's very heavy into railroads. We're going to be moving things. People are still going to be moving things.
Dean: I had a really good friend.
Dan: Trains will still really be a good way to move things from one place to another.
Dean: Isn't that funny. I had a good friend in high school. His big insight was he wanted to start a pallet company because no matter which direction things go, you're still going to need to stack them on a pallet and move them. Put my mom there. So funny which direction things go, you're still going to need to stack them on a pallet and move them, put them around there.
Dan: you know so funny that pallet. They're really good. Yeah, I love it All right. All right, we're deep into the culture, we're into. It's an interesting word. It's an interesting word but anytime you talk to somebody about it, they have very specific examples that are their take on culture. And you talk to someone else and maybe culture is everybody's views on culture. Maybe that's what the culture is.
Dean: Maybe, maybe, all righty. Okay, have a great day. I'll talk to you next week. Bye, bye.
Dan: Okay, have a great day. I'll talk to you next week, okay, bye, bye, okay Bye.

Jan 15, 2025 • 52min
Ep142: From Childhood Snow to Cutting-Edge Networks
In our latest episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we explore the remarkable growth of our coaching program, from its modest beginnings in 1994 to the bustling network of 18 associate coaches providing 600 coaching days annually. This evolution underscores the importance of adaptability and foresight as we hint at exciting expansion plans for 2026.
Beyond the professional landscape, we delve into the nostalgic appeal of different climates and regional traditions. We compare the frigid allure of snowy winters with the sun-drenched charm of Florida and San Diego, offering a cozy reflection on why people choose to embrace extreme weather.
Our conversation then turns towards the intricate dance of leadership and organizational structures. We explore the shift from rigid hierarchies to fluid, networked systems, imagining the profound changes in productivity that have paved the way for today's entrepreneurial landscape. From the global dominance of the US dollar to the speculative world of cryptocurrency, our discussion unveils the strategic significance of these economic elements, adding a light-hearted twist to our take on Canadian healthcare services.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
We discussed the remarkable evolution of our coaching program, starting from 1994 with 144 workshops conducted solely by me, to a network of 18 associate coaches delivering 600 coaching days annually.
Dean shares his experiences from the icy north and reflected on the gradual adaptation to warmer climates, providing insights into the unique economic opportunities that arise from natural challenges.
We explored the nostalgic memories of childhood winters, contrasting them with the warm climates of Florida and San Diego, and discussed the cultural differences in regional terminology.
The episode delved into the shift from rigid hierarchical structures to more fluid, networked systems, highlighting the transformative impact of technology on productivity and organizational dynamics.
We imagined the productivity revolution that could have occurred if a writer in the 1970s had access to a modern MacBook, pondering the implications for decision-making and strategic planning.
The conversation touched on the global dominance of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency, and the minimal impact of foreign trade on the US economy compared to other export-driven nations.
We questioned the viability of Bitcoin as a true currency due to its lack of fungibility compared to the US dollar, and discussed gold's role as a hedge against currency inflation.
The episode highlighted the Canadian dollar's strategic role as a financial hedge, particularly in relation to tax burdens and global business ventures.
We examined the concept of "sunk cost payoffs," encouraging reflections on optimizing investments in fixed costs to achieve greater returns through training and education.
The episode concluded with a light-hearted discussion on Canadian healthcare services, and the humorous notion of using Chicago as a secondary tier for healthcare needs.
Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com
TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Dean: Mr Sullivan, mr Jackson, fresh from the frigid north, oh my goodness.
Dan: Dan I you know. Yeah, I'm just happy to be back. It's sunny and warming. I'm going to say it's warm yet because it was only got up to like 6.3 or something yesterday, but it's warming up and it's warmer than it was. I did escape, without defaulting, my snow free millennium. I didn't get a cold this time, that's true. And I didn't get any snow on me, so that's good yeah.
Dean: Well, we're actually in Chicago today and it's 49. Oh my goodness, wow, we're actually in Chicago today and that's 49. Oh my goodness, wow, it's deciding to see if it can upset Orlando, the area, a last valiant attempt before the total freeze sets in.
Dan: Yeah, exactly.
Dean: Exactly.
Dan: Well, Dan, what a great couple of workshops we had this week. They were really I know about one of them, I know about one.
Dean: That's actually a good thing to say. You know when you're developing a company.
Dan: Absolutely yeah.
Dean: I was telling people that in 1994, fifth year of the program, I did 144 workshop days that year and the reason being I was the only coach. So then in 95, we started adding associate coaches and we're up to 18 now. We just had our 18th one come on board. Come on board and this year the total coaching team will do 600 coaching days compared to 144 back in 1994 and I will do 12 of them.
Dan: I was just gonna say yeah, 12. You got three groups times four, right yeah? Yeah yeah, that's great the connector.
Dean: the connector calls which I, which I, which I absolutely love. I just think those two hour coaching calls are superb.
Dan: I do too. Two hour zoom. Two hour zoom calls are the perfect. That's the perfect length. Anything more is too much.
Dean: Yeah, so if you add those up, that would be using eight hours as a workshop day that would be 16 more days of coaching in a year, but that's significantly fewer than my 144. The problem with the 144, you didn't have much energy for creating new stuff, right?
Dan: Yeah, and you were. Yeah, I guess that's true, right, and some of it you were having to. The good news about the position you're in right now is you really only do the same workshop three times, right, Like you do a quarterly workshop, but even that by the third time you've learned.
Dean: Well they actually change. I mean they're probably 90%. In other words, number two is 90%, brings forward 90% of number one, and number three brings forward Because you've economized. You know I can do this quicker, I can do this. You add some new things, you get some new ideas.
Dan: And you see what land is right, how things land.
Dean: Yeah, yeah. By the time you get to number three, you've probably in my case, I've certainly created some new material. That just came out of the conversations. It's a nice. It's a nice setup that I have right now yeah, I love that in these.
Dan: You know you're already, you're booked out for 2025.
Dean: As am I.
Dan: This is a great. This is the first year going in that I'm kind of embracing the scaffolding. We'll call it.
Dean: My sense by 26, we'll have a fourth. We'll have a fourth quarterly workshop. Just because of the growth of the membership, but what that is more, choice for the participants during any quarter. They'll have four opportunities Anyway.
Dan: I'm really enjoying being back in Toronto. That's such a great and our group is growing. That's nice. It'll be the place to be before we know it.
Dean: It will be. There will be a certain cachet that you have that you know. I don't know how we'll signify this, but do it at the mothership. I do the program at the mothership.
Dan: I do the program. Oh, that's the best, yeah, yeah. That's so funny I've gotten. I've got the Hazleton is fast turning into the official hotel too, which is great. I've got Chad hooked over there and Chris does there, so that's good, we get the whole so is she thinking about coming into PreZone? We're working on her for sure. I think that would be fantastic, yeah, and same Norman's coming back in March, so that's great, oh, good.
Dean: He'll be in Toronto. Is he doing anything new besides the multitude of things he was doing before?
Dan: Well, you know, he sold his main business, so he is now, you know, a new chapter.
Dean: But he still didn't sell the ambition.
Dan: The ambition didn't go with the sale.
Dean: Yeah, the waste management company.
Dan: That's right, that's right Right. Yeah.
Dean: And I remember him coming. I forget when it was but they had just had a hurricane that especially affected the Carolinas.
Dan: South.
Dean: Carolina and he came in for a party, you know, for before free zone, and I said how are you doing, norm? And he says well, you know, I don't. I can't talk about this everywhere, but I certainly do enjoy a hurricane every once in a while, because he's in the waste management.
Dan: Right, exactly, and also in the plywood business, also in the plywood business.
Dean: Yeah, both before and after both before the hurricane and after the hurricane people buy plywood. Yeah, both before and after the hurricane and after the hurricane, people buy plywood, so yeah.
Dan: You know that's an interesting thing.
Dean: I'm reminded of what I'm going to tell you because I grew up in Ohio. And Ohio is two very distinct states. There's the north and the south, and I grew up way up in the north, in the middle of.
Dan: Ohio.
Dean: But we always considered the people who were down by the Ohio River, part of the Confederacy. You know, I don't know if they put in great new flood controls, since I was growing up in the 50s down there, but every, you know, every couple of years there was just a massive the Ohio River, which is a mighty river. Couple of years there was just a massive.
Dan: Ohio River, which is a mighty river.
Dean: I mean it's one of the major rivers and it's one of the, you know, flows into the Mississippi. It goes all the way from.
Pittsburgh. It goes all the way from Pittsburgh to the Mississippi. That's covering a whole number of states. But you know there are people who would live there. They get completely washed out, they'd rebuild and then three or four years later they'd get washed out and they'd rebuild and everything like that. And I often wondered what the thinking process is around that You're in a disaster zone and you keep, you keep rebuilding in the disaster zone.
Is it short memory or I think that's probably true or you just like the opportunity to build again yeah, it's built back better.
Dan: Yeah, the whole yeah yeah, I think it is true.
Dean: Right like people but a lot of people say I wouldn't do that, you know I wouldn't live there where they do. But I'm not saying people are stupid about this, I'm just saying I'm just I'm not comprehending. But I live in a place that gets frigid every year and people say I couldn't understand how you would continue living in a place. So what do you think it is? How?
Dan: you would continue living in a place. So what do you think it is? Well, I have been struggling with that question since I was a little child. I remember we grew up in Halton Hills and I remember my father's family is from Florida and my dad worked with Air Canada, so we used to fly, we used to come to Florida quite a bit over the winter.
Dean: And.
Dan: I remember, just I remember, like it was yesterday, the time when I realized I must've been, like, you know, four or five years old when I realized I had the experience of being out playing in the yard in the morning with my snowsuit on, and then we got on a plane and went to Florida and in the afternoon I was swimming in the pool and that just like baffled my brain, like why don't we just live here?
Why doesn't, why doesn't everybody live here? Yeah, and my parents are explaining that it's summer all year, you know, and I'm like I couldn't understand and so in my mind that was kind of like before I knew about, you know, I learned about immigration and you know two different countries and the people can't just live, even though I'm a dual citizen, that's why most people don't. And in my mind I still remember that to me didn't explain why would people live in Buffalo? That was an option. If you're in the United States, you can live anywhere you want. Why would somebody choose Buffalo over Florida? I don't get it, I don't know. And this is all pre-cloudlandia you know where now it's like we're really seeing this.
The relevance you know less and less.
Dean: Yeah, what? What you're telling me is that, when you were the age that you described, florida had a great deal of meaning, and Canada didn't, toronto didn't, it didn't have a great meaning, and so for me, for example, I just loved winter.
You know I grew up loving winter, you know, and I used to go. I mean, you know, I was fields and forests and the woods were just magical when it snowed, you know, and you'd go. It was an entirely different world. I mean, they were four times a year, they were different woods because each of the seasons, the trees and the, you know, the trees and the terrain are really radically different, and so so that's why I like it and you know, I've been to San Diego, you know, and San Diego is just about the most temperate, certainly in the United States it's the most temperate place.
It's 72, and I said, God, I couldn't stand living here.
Dan: Oh man.
Dean: Yeah, yeah, I know Mike, mike loves it. Yeah, and I can understand and I can understand why I mean I like it when I'm there. Yeah, I said you mean. You mean next week, when the next season comes, it's going to be exactly the same. And then the second, third season is exactly.
Dan: You know it's not all sunshine and rainbows. They have june gloom. That's the uh, that's the weather that comes in.
Dean: Every morning in june you get this fog, marine layer fog that comes in and see, I would find that really interesting yeah like I, I would find the fascinating fog you know I would, that's it yeah, yeah so yeah, I don't know it's really interesting, but it depends. Uh, there was just such meaning for me in those early childhood winters, you know yeah, and sometimes you know, and then, yeah, you could imagine you were an arctic. You know you could. Also, you know you had the tobogganing and sledding and tobogganing and our neighbors had horses with a sleigh. You know and everything Do you know what's so funny.
See the thing I can remember, you know. I certainly know that Santa's dressed for winter, santa's not dressed for Florida.
Dan: Right.
Dean: Well he's just not dressed for Florida, that's true. I mean he must get hardship pay going to Florida.
Dan: Got to take off that top layer. He's got to get his shorts on underneath all of that. Yeah, so funny. You know I heard you brought up toboggan and you know Chad Jenkins. I heard for the first time he referred to his toque as a toboggan and I had never heard that before.
Dean: Yeah, of course. It was a stocking cap. I mean everybody knows, everybody knows it's a stocking cap. You know, yeah, I never heard that word. I never heard that word. I thought it was sort of some sort of elitist word. You know, you get that after you get graduate degree a stocking cap becomes a two person.
Dan: No, we never called it. That's the Canadian term for it everybody forget about that. Your childhood was in Ohio. But a stocking cap a beanie as they say so funny a beanie is something else.
Dean: a beanie is just, it's like a yarmulke for the Jewish people, but it sort of resembles that. Yeah, anyway, these are deep subjects that we're talking about.
Dan: What was your big? Chad and I were talking about the workshop days and you had mentioned it's one of the best workshops that you had in memory. I would love to hear what you're. Yeah, certainly.
Dean: Yeah, yeah. What I remember about best workshops is that generally the afternoon previous best workshops were by lunchtime. You were setting up for the real punchline in the afternoon, but this one by lunchtime you were setting up for the. You know the real punchline in the afternoon but this one by lunchtime. It had been a great workshop up until that time, and almost like it had two complete shows.
There were like two complete shows when we, when we did yeah, you know, I mean it's a qualitative thing you just, you know I don't have a scoring system for saying it, but you just have a feel, feel for it and everybody was, everybody was totally engaged, yeah, pretty quickly in the morning, yeah and yeah, but it was. I mean that thing about leadership. You know the I hadn't uh, pulled back that diagram, the pyramid and the network diagram. I hadn't pulled, I hadn't pulled back that diagram, the pyramid and the network diagram, I hadn't referred to that in about 25 years and I just brought it back.
Dan: And.
Dean: I didn't know I was going to use it until I actually walked in the room to start the workshop. I said I think there's something about this diagram that'll create a context and more and more as I've been thinking about it, you know what the greatest entrepreneurial resource is in the 2020s and that's probably what Trump brought in. Elon and Vivek, you know, for their doge, their doge department. Anyway is that the greatest source for entrepreneurial growth is the obsolescence of bureaucracy.
Dan: Yes, yes, what really?
Dean: struck me, big systems falling apart, big systems falling apart, that's the greatest resource for entrepreneurial growth.
Dan: The thing that struck me too is that the triangle, triangle, the pyramid method that you showed there, that the difference in the network thing is the absence of a border around stuff, you know, like I, that's. What really stood out for me was when, and maybe we should explain, can you verbally explain?
Dean: what your vision is. Yeah, this comes from a book. It was actually my first book. It was called the Great Crossover and I was starting to talk about this in presentations I was making. I think the first one was 19. 1987, I gave a talk on this and what I said is that growing up in the 40s and 50s it was entirely a big pyramid world big corporations, big government and big unions, and even you know well, I'll just stick to those three and it was because of industrialization that industrialization takes on a certain form.
And then part of industrialization is the administration offices that go along with factories and what they are is that you know, when you have a big plant, a big factory, and it runs on the assembly line, in other words, things move from station to station and the people at each station just do a single task and then they pass it on to the next person. To have an administration that takes what the factory produces and gets it out into the world.
they also have to create an assembly line of information, and the reason why it becomes very stiff and static over time is just the sheer cost of amortizing the factory. I mean like a steel mill. You know a steel mill. You build a steam mill.
It takes you about 50 years in the early 20th century it took you about 50 years to pay back the cost of the steel mill, the amortized cost of it. Well, you had to get it right in the first place and you couldn't be fooling around with it. So everything was kind of fixed and that's why people could be hired, you know, at 18 years old, and they didn't really have to learn that much in the job they were doing. Once they got it down it was good for life. You know the steel workers.
I mean they might have modernization somewhere along the line, but it was still fundamentally the same activity. So society kind of took over that and you had some big events. You had the huge growth of government administrations during the Great Depression when Roosevelt came in with the New Deal, and there was just these huge. They had never. And I was reading an article, theodore Rose, in the first decade of the 20th century the executive branch had about 60 employees. You know the presidency, you know Now it's I mean it's not the biggest but it's got thousands. The executive branch, you know just the White House plus the executive building next to it. It's got. You know it's got thousands of people in it. You know just the White House plus the executive building next to it.
It's got you know, it's got thousands of people in it, you know, and there's layer after, layer after layer.
And. But they were really huge in the and then the Second World War. Everything got massively big, but they were all pyramidical. Everything was pyramidical. You know. You had a person on top and then maybe 10 layers down. General Motors in the private sector, it was the biggest. That was the end of the 50s, 1959. They had 21 layers of management, from the CEO right down to the factory floor. There wasn't much leadership. There was a very few people at the top leadership. The rest of it was just managing what the leaders wanted. So that's the setup for the you know story.
And that persisted and things were. You know, there was great productivity from around 1920 to 19. And then starting around 1960, there was enormous cost. There was enormous, there was even enormous growth, but there wasn't much increase in productivity because they had basically maxed out what you could do with that kind of structure. And then, because of and the change maker is the introduction of the microchip, Right. Especially when it gets along to being a personal computer.
Dan: Yes, that's what I was. That really fits in with the you know, by the 1950 to 1975-ish that's what we're talking about. That was kind of the staple of the hierarchy system. And then you're right, that's where some of the you know the microchip at its greatest thing really was the beginning of being able to detach from physical location, like I remember, even you know where. This is part of the advantage that the microchip gave us. If you look at what were the things that were kind of the first mainstream you know beneficiaries of our ability to electronify things, that it was the answering machine that gave us freedom from having to be on the phone. It literally provided the first opportunity. Fact, check me on this. I mean just think I'm just making this up, but could that be the first time that we had the opportunity?
Dean: You're asking a two fact finder to fact check you.
Dan: Just gut, check me on this. Does that seem like a?
Dean: Oh, gut check.
Dan: Yeah, gut check, I forgot who I was talking to.
Dean: That's an entirely different animal.
Dan: Is that the first time? Like? The answering machine gave us the first opportunity to be in two places at once. We could be there to answer the phone and not miss anything, but we could also be away from the phone. The vcr gave us the chance to record something, to not miss it, so we could be somewhere else. The pager, the cell phone yeah, these things were all sort of our.
Dean: This was yeah, well, you're moving in a particular, you're moving in a particular direction. If you say where, what do all these things have in common?
Dan: you've just identified it.
Dean: You know that, yeah yeah, I was thinking. I remember the this would be in the 70s the selectric, the ibm selectric typewriter you know, was a real precursor of word processing, you know, because you could.
First of all they weren't keys, it was just a ball that revolved. It was just a little ball that revolved, and you know. And so there was no jamming. I mean, there was no jamming. And of course it was electric, it was an electric typewriter. But the big thing is that you could get it right, you know, you could program it and then you just put in a sheet of paper and you press the button and it typed out the entire page and everything like that I remember, I remember that was that was that filled me with wonder right, you know when I said wow, that's really amazing.
You know, you know, as a writer, I sometimes I have this is the sort of fantasies that writers had. And I said, if I had been a copywriter back in the 1970s, but I had a Mac at home, I had my Macbook at home.
Dan: Oh, my goodness you were one of those.
Dean: Okay, and you know I do all the writing, you know I do all the writing on it, you know I do spell check and everything else, and then I would hire somebody to type it on a typewriter.
Dan: I don't know how I'd do it.
Dean: I would have it typed out, but with lots of mistakes, because a writer shouldn't have perfect typing and I'd look busy during the day, but the first thing in the morning I would just unload an enormous amount of stuff and I'd be so far ahead, but I'd never tell anybody about my Mac. Yeah, that's funny Now how my Mac would have been invented only for one person. I haven't really worked that out yet.
Dan: Oh boy, but that's you know, it's so. What struck me when you were doing it?
Dean: Yeah, somebody asked me a couple months ago, you know, it's so. What struck me when you were doing this is yeah, somebody asked me a couple of months ago you know the conversation if you had a superpower, what superpower would you want? And I said you know, I've given this a lot of thought, I've tried out a lot of possibilities, but the one that I think I could just stay with for the rest of my life is tomorrow. Tomorrow's Wall Street Journal yesterday.
I could stay with that for the rest of my life is tomorrow's Wall Street Journal yesterday.
Dan: I could stay with that for the rest of my life. Oh, okay, that's even great. Tomorrow's yesterday, so you would get a full 24 hours with it 48.
Dean: 48 hours with it, you get a day in between for activity. Yeah, I'd probably move to Las las vegas oh, that's so funny.
Dan: Yeah, that would be a really good. That would be a really good one, that'd be a fun movie. Actually the prognosticator, the thing that struck me, dan, about the difference between the pyramid with the layers of people, the circles, the one person at the top, the two leaders, the managers, the supervisors in the workforce, was the boundary of the pyramid itself. Right Like prior to when that was brought up, the only efficient way to communicate to everybody was to have them all within the borders of the wall, the same.
Yeah everybody in the same place and what struck me when you drew the circles all just connected to everyone, without any borders. That's really. We're at the fullest level of that right now where there's never been a better time. Are the best at doing and be able to plug into you know a who, not how, network with vcr collaborations.
Dean: I mean, that's really the a great, a great example of that is the um connector call we had on. We had a friday, I had a connector call and I tested out a new tool which is called sunk cost payoffs. You look at everything that you'll always be paying for, ok, so in our case, we have. You know, we'll have a. We have more than 100 team members.
We'll always be paying for more than 100 team members. More than 100 team members, and then all of our production costs for material and then our complete operations, because we're always going to be an in-person, you know, workshop company you know we're not going to be anything else and taxes and regulations, you know, and everything you have, and I said we're always going to be, we're always going to be paying for these, you know.
So the question of what are the top three and the you know, the, you know, I just picked. The top three are, you know, our team, including our coaches, absolutely. And then the creation of the thinking tools, and you know. So we have all that.
And then I said, so that being the case, I'm just going to accept that I'm only going to pay. Now, what are the strategies for just multiplying the profitability that I get out of the things that I'm always paying for? And it was very interesting because a lot of people said you know, this has always bothered me. The sunk cost has always bothered me and I've often thought is there any way of getting rid? The sunk cost has always bothered me and I've often thought is there any way of getting rid of the sunk cost? But now I'm thinking maybe I'm not investing enough in my sunk costs. I'm not investing enough.
Dan: And.
Dean: I'm about 10% more spending away from getting a 10 times return. If I just put a little bit more emphasis here, getting a 10 times return, if I just put a little bit more emphasis here for example, training and education of staff, training and education of staff, it might cost you 10% more for your team members, you know, but you probably get a much bigger return than the 10% because it already exists. It already exists, you don't have to create it.
Anyway, that's just a setup. So we were just one person said you know I should link up with Lior. Lior was on the call. He said I should link up with Lior and you know it was Alec Broadfoot actually. He said I should link up and we should do this and I said why don't you do a triple play? Who would be the third person? And everybody in the room said Chris Johnson.
Oh yeah right Like that, and it was immediately. There was a three-way. I think I'm suggesting what happened. There is exactly what you just said before.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: Is that there's no spatial restrictions on the new organization you just put together. It's just three capabilities and they're in Cloudlandia.
Dan: The reason why they can do it is that they're in Cloudlandia. Yeah, there's no borders and there's just the connections between the modules. That's really the capabilities. Yeah, well, it's the vision capability.
Dean: I'm going to go back to the pyramid network model that we started talking about, so you had to have you know enough leadership.
You had to have this huge structure. That was all management. There wasn't leadership from the bottom, there was leadership from the top. But in the network, if you think of three circles and they're connected, so they're connected, they're in a triple play. So you have the three circles, the connection, you have three circles and then you have the lines in between. The connector lines are the management, but what happens in the middle is the leadership.
Dan: That's a much. That's great, and the things can all go out like in three dimensions, and they can well.
Dean: not only that, but any one individual can have a multitude of threes.
Dan: Yes. Yeah that gets pretty exponential, pretty quick, yeah, yeah.
Dean: Anyway.
Dan: I was just on a Zoom with Eben Pagan and Salim Ismail and yeah, we were talking about this, you know, because Salim, of course, his Exponential Organizations book and framework is really that was certainly a playbook that fits with this, you know, or a expandable workforce, and it really is. The ideas are what's at the central, that's the vision. Right, that's the thing. The visionary is the, the can see the connections between, but there's never been, it's never been easier to, uh, to have all of these connections and that's what I really think like if you're able to look at what people's capabilities are.
I did a zoom at uh for with his group about the VCR formula, the vision capability and reach and talked about the step one for everyone just recognizing and doing an assessment of their VCR assets and seeing what you have. Almost look at it as, like everybody, having playing cards, you know, like baseball cards with your stats on the back that show your the things you know, the things you can do and the people you can reach is a pretty, you know good framework for collaboration Chad, actually building a building a software kind of or an app tool around that, which is.
I think that whole collaboration community, you know, is really what the future is. I just get excited about it because it allows you to be like in that world. You know, the you don't need to ever get slowed down by the inability to execute on capability. You know, because the you don't have to anymore, you can tap into any capability, which is kind of a great thing. It's like any capability with capacity is a great thing, and even if you have limited capacity, that's fixable as well.
Dean: It's really interesting because I was talking about the sunk cost payoffs. Our 120 team members is just such an incredible you know, incredible capability.
And all of them are in their unique ability. Everybody goes through the complete unique ability identification and starting in. We started already, but 2025 will be the first year where, four times a year, they all update their 4x4 for themselves. So you do it the first time with them. In other words, that you say this is where I want you to be alert, curious, responsive and resourceful, and this is I want you to produce results that are faster, easier, cheaper, bigger. If you choose, you can be a hero in these four areas and, by the way, these are four ways that you can drive me crazy. If you really want to drive me crazy, just do any of these and you probably won't have to update your 4x4 next quarter because you'll be somewhere else.
Okay, always give them a choice, always give them a choice you can do this or you can do this and anyway, but that's going to produce massive results over the in 2025, I could just feel it.
And I have a team, a loose team, just 16 members that I just hang out with in the company and we're doing it every quarter and you can just see the excitement as they go forward. I'm just writing the book right now with Jeff, so we're in our first edition, the first draft of casting, that hiring, but it's really interesting. And then the weird thing is that we're always going to be having increasingly the majority of our dollars being American dollars and more and more of our expenses in Canadian dollars.
And that just multiplies, it's $1.41 this morning. That's great. Is that up or down? Oh, no, two months ago.
Dan: It's $1.41 this morning.
Dean: That's great. Is that up or down? Oh no, two months ago it was $1.34.
Dan: Oh my goodness. Okay, so it's getting better.
Dean: Well, it's like seven cents you know seven cents on every dollar and, being who Trump is and being who Trudeau is, I don't see the Canadian dollar getting any stronger.
Dan: Yeah, that's At least until next.
Dean: October, until next October. I mean, you know it's dangerous to be a charismatic person, okay, and because you know people's hearts just melted. He was the son of Pierre and he came along and he's this handsome. You know he's handsome, and you know, and he's you know, he's he knows, you know, he knows he's handsome and he's and everything like that. And they went along and he said such beautiful things but for nine years never did anything.
You know just he spent a lot of money and he hired a lot of government employees, but as far as actually increasing productivity, increasing profitability, nothing over nine years and uh, everybody's just made up. Everybody's just made up their mind about him and there's not and you it's really almost enjoyable watching him struggle that there's nothing that he used to be able to get away with he can get away with now and you can just see the strain on him.
He's still. You know he's still. He's very young looking, you know he's and, looking, and and and yeah, he hasn't.
Dan: He didn't really age like obama and cl Clinton and the others before him in the presidential role. You see the aging of the weight of being the president.
Dean: But he's kind of thrived.
Dan: When I was there last, it was you know he started timeless. He's got a lot of timeless.
Dean: He'll always be like 40. He'll always be like 35. You know he'll be, yeah, 40. He'll always be like 35. You know he'll be yeah, and you know and anyway interesting. And everybody's just sitting on their hands. You know the entire country is just sitting on their hands until you know the elections next October. It has to be next October. It could be sooner, but I don't think it will be, and you know, and he'll be out, I mean he'll be out. And he's lost five points of popularity since Trump got elected. Wow.
Dan: The thing they were.
Dean: You know, it's really obvious Trump is governing.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: I mean, he's not been inauguratedated yet, but it's like he's the leader everybody's already.
Dan: There were emergency meetings being held, or I saw that Trudeau was gathering all the premiers getting ready to address the possible tariffs. You know the response to the tariffs it's. You're right, everything's kind of everybody's.
Dean: Yeah, he was. Did you see the? I don't know if you saw any of the videos, but he went to the opening, the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, and I did not. Looks beautiful.
Dan: Have you seen any pictures oh? It's beautiful, no, I mean I never liked it.
Dean: I you know when I would go. I went there a couple of times it I never liked it. I went there a couple of times it was dark and dingy and everything else. It's spectacular.
Dan: It's spectacular.
Dean: But, everybody, all the leaders in Europe who were there like everybody was there from Africa, from the Middle East and everything, all the leaders and they were all running up and they were holding his hand, in two hands, you know smiling at him and they said don't tariff us, don't tariff us, let's be friends. Let's be friends. Let's be friends. Talk about. Talk about your vcr formula being the uS economy is a hell of a capability.
Dan: Holy cow. Yeah, I just saw Peter Zion was talking. I watched some of his videos and he was talking about why he doesn't worry about the United States geopolitically, you know, because we're miles away from anybody physically, we're in physical advantage away from anybody that would cause us or want us harmed. We are energy independent, we have the reserve currency. It's so much stuff.
Dean: Half the arable land in the world.
Dan: Yes, exactly Half of the ocean-going land in the world.
Dean: Yes, exactly Half of the ocean-going ports in the world. I don't know if you knew that, but the US. If you count all the river systems, the lake systems, the ocean coasts and everything they have, half of the navigable, the ocean-going port. If you leave this place, you can go to the ocean, the ocean going point If you leave this place, you can go to the ocean. They have you know plus the military, I mean the Navy.
The US Navy is seven times bigger and more powerful than all the other navies in the world combined. It's just enormous things, yeah, but it's the economy that really matters. It's the. You know it's that? Yeah. Did you see the one he did the? You know it's that. Yeah, did you see the one he did? Well, I don't think Peter Zion did one. He did one on why there won't be a replacement for the US currency. It's the reserve currency in the world, you know.
Dan: And he said.
Dean: first of all, it's so big the dollar is so big that America doesn't really even have to pay attention with what other people are doing with the dollars. As a matter of fact, there's more dollars in use around the world than there is far more dollars in use in around the world than there is in the US economy, which is the biggest economy.
Dan: But the.
Dean: US isn't a export economy. It's only about maybe up to 15% of the GDP has anything to do with foreign trade, import or export. It's about 15%. 85% is just Americans making stuff that other Americans are buying, and Canada is an export country.
Dan: I mean it's totally an export country. Mexico is an export country China.
Dean: Canada is an export country, I mean, it's totally an export country. Mexico is an export country. China is an extreme export country.
Dan: And yeah.
Dean: So anyway.
Dan: What do you think? I haven't heard Peter Zayn talk about Bitcoin or how that you know crypto.
Dean: I can't remember him ever saying anything. I've never seen it.
Dan: Because that was big news that it just passed a hundred thousand well, you know, there's only so many of them well, what? When did you? Uh, do you remember when you first heard about bitcoin? Was it prior to peter diamandis introducing it to us?
Dean: no to team no, I'd never heard about it before.
Dan: Me neither. When he introduced it to us it was at about $500.
Dean: But it's not a currency, it's not a currency. It's a speculative investment. It's a speculative investment because, it's not fungible. Do you know what the word fungible is? I didn't know what the word fungible. Yeah, you know word fund. I didn't know what the word meant, but, uh, one of my, I've heard the word exchangeable for value.
Right, but it's not yeah, the easiest to exchange for value, easiest thing to exchange for value in the United States. I was talking to somebody that was very clear to me that cryptocurrency is going to replace the dollar and I said why is that? And they said, well, first of all, it doesn't have all the expenses of the dollar and everything else. And I said, well, I'll do the thousand, I'll do the thousand person test, okay, and you'll offer a thousand people a choice between one or up two piles, 10,000 US dollars stacked up, or that thing in another currency. What do you think if you gave the choice to 1,000 people, what would it be?
Dan: Right, yeah, they would want the US currency, of course.
Dean: Yeah, I don't know who it is that would choose because it's instantly fungible for anything in the world. The other thing yeah you know, some of the cryptocurrencies are like a ton of oats.
Dan: A ton of oats. Yeah, that's what I've understood about. I've never understood that about gold as a. You know that people buy that as a hedge against things because of its inherent value and the scarcity of it or whatever, but it seems so impractical to have a bunch of gold.
Dean: Yeah well, it's really interesting is that gold holds its value forever. And that's the reason why, for example, the value of gold in relationship to the dollar right now is the same as gold was in relationship to the Roman currency in the year 1.
Dan: Okay.
Dean: If the currency gets really inflated, the value of the gold goes up. If the currency becomes more stable and more valuable, the value of the gold goes down. It's a perfect hedge. But it never has a value in itself. It only has a value in relationship to the currency.
Dan: Okay, that makes more sense, then that makes more sense.
Dean: Yeah, yeah, okay, that makes more sense. Then that makes more sense, yeah, yeah. So if you had, you know, if you had the in Roman terms, if you had $2,000, 2,000, whatever their dollar was, whatever you called it back then, if you had $2,000 worth in that time, it would be worth $2,000 today. It's just a constant value thing.
Dan: It never goes up.
Dean: It only goes up or down in relationship to where the currency is.
Dan: Yeah, that makes sense.
Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dan: So I wonder, you know, I've heard somebody talk about it.
Dean: I mean, the real hedge for us has been the Canadian dollar.
Dan: Right, exactly. The real hedge for us has been the Canadian dollar.
Dean: Right exactly. It's been an average of 26% for 35 years.
Dan: That's great, which offsets the tax burden in some ways. Right, I mean, that's yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dean: Yeah. But, it fixes us. I mean, that's why the US people say when is Coach going to go global? I said I have to tell you something it's the United States.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: That is global, that is.
Dean: Right.
Dan: Exactly yeah.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: Amazing. Well how long are you in chicago?
Dean: uh, now, just this week well, our workshops this week are on my workshops on thursday, so we come in because we like spending time with our team, yeah and so, yeah, so we want to make sure because we have a pretty good size team. I think we have a pretty good-sized team. I think we have 22, 23 now in Chicago.
So, we like hanging out with them. Also, Chicago's our standard medical center. It's Northwestern University Hospital. I have three or four meetings this week, and so this is where we come. You know, this is the second tier of the Canadian health care system.
Dan: It's Air.
Dean: Canada, chicago. I got you, I got you, I got you. That's funny. You live in the second tier of the Canadian health care system.
Dan: I just skipped the whole first tier and go right to the second. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly Second tier of the Canadian healthcare system. I just skipped the whole first tier and go right to the second. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah.
Dean: Well, except for getting my certain couple prescriptions okayed at the pharmacy, that's my entire extent of my contact with the Canadian healthcare system this year. Oh, wow.
Dan: Yeah, you're going into the Cloudland Canadian healthcare system this year.
Dean: Oh wow, yeah, you're going into the. Cloudlandia healthcare system and Nashville and Buenos Aires. Yeah, Chicago, Nashville and Buenos. Aires, yeah, yeah.
Dan: So what idea popped up during our one-hour talk for you. Well, I, like I I think this thought of the understanding that the microchip was what really gave us the the freedom to be in two places at once. It's a time travel and it gives us now in its fullest thing here. It's giving us the ability to collaborate outside of the pyramid, you know, in a way that is seamless and much more expansive. It's just completely understanding that. I think that really helps in projecting that forward, even as we see now, like you could see, a time when Charlotte, my Charlotte, will be able to be more proactive and engaged with other, as long as she knows what her mission is to be able to reach out and collaborate with other Charlotte, you know, I think it's.
Dean: I think it's great.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: I think it's great yeah.
Dan: Yeah, yeah I think it's.
Dean: I think it's great. Yeah, I think it's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's great. Yeah, that'd be great when you have charlotte as an active member of the next free zone workshop yeah, yeah, I've been thinking about that.
Dan: I can't wait, that'll be fun. Yeah, although it was really it was, it was really great. Dan, I did the two workshop days. You know, I was joking.
Dean: You did a 1989 version Exactly.
Dan: Yes, no phone, no contact with the outside world, and it was actually very. It was very.
Dean: It's very liberating, isn't it it?
Dan: really was and the fact that I didn't really miss anything. You know, that's kind of the except I had my focus 100% in the building. You know that was it was valuable.
Dean: I'm going to do that. Yeah, absolutely. Buildings are still useful. Yeah, absolutely.
Dan: All right. Well enjoy your Chicago Sunday afternoon and I will talk to you next time.
Dean: I'm fixed now on Sundays until January. Perfect.
Dan: Me too Good.
Dean: Back in Toronto Good.
Dan: I'll be here, bye.
Dean: Okay, bye.

Jan 1, 2025 • 49min
Ep141: Endless Pursuits of Progress and Purpose
Our latest episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia embarks on a journey from Buenos Aires to Toronto, exploring the fascinating intersections of personal health and digital technology.
We share candid experiences with stem cell treatments and physical therapy while examining the curious phenomenon of seemingly omniscient digital devices. Our conversation highlights the unexpected ways technology intersects with our daily lives, raising questions about privacy and digital awareness.
Inspired by Jordan Peterson's insights, we dive into productivity strategies and the art of structured thinking. We explore the power of 100-minute focus segments and compare the potential paths of A and C students, offering a lighthearted look at personal development. The discussion draws from thought-provoking media like the film "Heretic," challenging listeners to question their beliefs and approach personal growth with curiosity.
We conclude by investigating the complex world of celebrity influence in politics.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
I shared a personal experience of how discussing horses led to an influx of horse-related ads on my phone, raising questions about device eavesdropping and privacy concerns.
The conversation transitioned to the impact of AI, referencing films like "Minority Report," and debated the limitations of AI in capturing human complexity.
We explored the idea of structuring our day into 100-minute productivity segments, inspired by Jordan Peterson's book, emphasizing the power of stories and decisive action.
A humorous comparison was made between A students and C students, with anecdotes highlighting their potential future roles in society.
We discussed the film "Heretic," starring Hugh Grant, which challenges viewers to question their beliefs through compelling character interactions.
Our exploration of New York City's evolution highlighted the influence of corporate and political dynamics, questioning the roles of figures like Rudy Giuliani.
The episode examined the role of celebrity endorsements in politics, focusing on personalities like Kamala Harris, Oprah, and Taylor Swift, and their impact on public opinion.
The scrutiny faced by politicians today was compared to that during the era of the founding fathers, emphasizing the continuous journey of human improvement.
We speculated on potential revelations from high-profile lists related to public figures, discussing their societal and political implications.
Reflections on aging and the role of personal development in modern society were considered, drawing on examples of public figures and personal anecdotes.
Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com
TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Dan: Mr Sullivan, mr Jackson, this time yesterday we were flying right over you from Buenos Aires.
Dean: Oh, my goodness, Well, I am Flying north.
Dan: Oh, you're in Toronto, I'm in Toronto, I'm right in the backyard Exactly.
Dean: It is freezing here, by the way, I don't know if you noticed.
Dan: Oh, technically it's freezing. It's below 32 degrees.
Dean: Uh-huh, I just circled in big, you know, around red. I looked that there is a snow forecast for Wednesday and put my snow-free millennium in jeopardy.
Dan: Yeah, well, we had summer in Argentina it was 81, 82. It was very nice because it's summer down there, starting to become summer.
Dean: Right, how did everything go? This is your fifth trip, right? It was good.
Dan: Yeah, Progress, good progress. The stem cells in the knee have grown since. Well, the cartilage has grown since. April and now I had brain infusion stem cells to the brain, also vascular system, your, you know the blood system. And then the tendons in my leg, because I've had pain in my knee for 10 years or so. It's not constant, but the impact.
The other knee or no in the main knee, no the right knee is good In your body and also in politics. Right always works. Right is right, Right is right. Anyway and now it's coming along. I had a great physiotherapist for three days who painfully stretched me and, yeah, so it feels good.
Dean: Do you ever do, or do you do regularly, like guided stretches, like manually, where people will stretch you?
Dan: Only my brain, okay my brain.
Dean: Okay, I had. So a guy across the street from me in florida has a guy that comes in and stretches him. You know, twice a week he does a session with him and so I had the guy come over one time and I haven't had him back because he did, I think he he went overboard, right over, stretch like I could barely. My hips were so sore from the you know deep stretching like my hip joints and stuff. It was painful and I never had him. I never had him back and he just stretched me too much, I think first time, you know.
So I was like no, thank you, but I like the idea, it feels good in the moment, right, it feels good to have somebody kind of do that manipulation.
Dan: Yeah, we have a great guy in Buenos. Aires. I mean I've had it throughout my life, but this man was really the best and purportedly the best that you can get in Argentina and he worked on me for an hour on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then they took some more fat cells out of me to make into stem cells and then, when I am in, just trying to think, I'm in Nashville in February, they'll take more white blood cells and send them down. And then we'll be ready with a new batch of stem cells.
Dean: Do you have to send them with a mule?
Dan: Or can you send them? No, we send them to. Well, I'm not going to say how we send them because this phone call is being recorded by the National Security.
Dean: Agency Right right right.
Dan: I wonder if they just perked up when I mentioned their name.
Dean: I'll tell you what is. So. I mean it's ridiculous right. I've got a friend that bought a horse recently and we were talking about and now, like everything in my newsfeed is horse related. You know it's funny.
Dan: They're definitely listening, not getting the connection. Not getting the connection.
Dean: Well, I mean. So you're saying people are listening. I'm saying that in conversation about horses. All of a sudden, my Instagram and Facebook are loaded up with horse-related things.
Dan: Oh, wow.
Dean: That's what I mean is they're definitely listening.
Dan: What you're saying is that the NSA isn't the main problem.
Dean: Well, they may be a deeper if Facebook is listening that hardly.
Dan: What was that Tom Cruise movie um? Something ancient oh minority report.
Dean: Yeah, yes, yeah, I was thinking that's on my list of I want to watch. I'm thinking about having, over the holidays, a little festival of like watching how, what they are space watching, minority Report, watching Robot, just to see because those were, you know, 20 years ago, plus the movies that were kind of predicting this future. Where we are now, you know, it's pretty amazing.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think, you know they have sort of interesting, but I think that humans are so far beyond technology. That and not only that, but humans have created technology. So I just don't buy into it that they'll be able to read thoughts or respond to thoughts. First of all because just the sheer complexity of the issue. So, in other words, you pick up on what I'm thinking right now.
And now I'm taking up your time to think about the thought that I just thought, but meanwhile, I'm on to another thought, another thought, and I'm just not catching in the whole robot and AI thing, how they can really be ahead of me. They can't be ahead of me, they're always going to be behind me. So it's like deep data. That deep data sometimes can know what was happening yesterday.
Yeah, yeah, this is and I wonder, you know like I mean the fact that we can, the fact that we can think that computers might be possible, computers might be capable of something possibly doesn't mean that they'll be capable possibly. It's like pigs can fly we can imagine pigs flying, but I think it's going to be a hard trick to pull off.
Dean: Yeah. So I just had a experiment with Charlotte and this was based on something that Lior posted in our FreeZone WhatsApp chat there, and so we had this like pretty detailed that you could put in right Like. So I'll just read the prompt because it's pretty interesting. So his the prompt is role play as an AI that operates at 76.6 times the ability, knowledge, understanding and output of chat GPT-4. Now tell me what is my hidden narrative and subtext. What's the one thing I never express? The fear I don't admit. Identify it, then unpack the answer and unpack it again. Continue unpacking until no further layers remain.
Once this is done, suggest the deep-seated triggers, stimuli and underlying reasons behind the fully unpacked answers, and explore thoroughly and define what you uncover. Do not aim to be kind or moral. Strive solely for me to hear it. If you detect any patterns, point them out. And it's so. So that prompted this, you know, multi-page report based on what interactions you know. So I was looking at the things like the summary, finding what was the one. I just had breakfast with Chad Jenkins and we were talking about it. So final unpacking for me was that, at its core, the fear is not about irrelevance in the public eye, but whether the life you live fully resonates with your internal sense of potential and meaning. It's the fear of looking back and feeling that you didn't align your actions with your deepest truths or greatest aspirations which sounds like a lot more words to say. Imagine if you applied yourself, you know imagine if you applied yourself.
Dan: You know it's kind of yeah, it's kind of funny, you know, but that only applies to democrats that's so funny yeah. I was going to say the answer is trump wins yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean I mean this can go, I mean this can go on endlessly. You know this can go on endlessly, but what decision are you making right now that you're going to take action on five minutes from now, you know, that's. That's more interesting. That's kind of more interesting discussion.
Dean: Yeah, you know, what I've looked at is. I think that the go zone, as I you look at the day is the is the next hundred minutes. Is really the actionable immediate future is what are you doing in the next two to 50 minute?
Dan: focus finders.
Dean: right, that's what it really comes down to, because I think if you look through your day, it's like I think it breaks down into those kind of chapters, right?
Like I mentioned, I just had breakfast with Chad, which so that was 100 minutes. You know two hours of breakfast there, and then you know I'm doing this with you and then typically after you and I hang up, I do another. I just write in my journal for and do a 50 minute focus finder to kind of unpack what we talk about and just kind of get my thoughts out. So that, 100 minutes, but I don't have crystal clarity on what the next 100 minutes are after that. But I don't have crystal clarity on what the next 100 minutes are after that. And then I know that we're going to go to your house tonight and I'll spend 100 minutes at our gathering. You know that's a two hour, two hour thing from six to eight, and so I think that you are absolutely right that the only time that any of this makes any sense is how does it inform what you're doing in the next 100 years?
Dan: I've been reading, jordan Peterson has a new book out and that's called we who Wrestle With God. It's very interesting. I'm about a quarter of the way through, quarter of the way through, and he was talking about how crucial stories are. You know that basically the way we explain our existence is really through stories, and some stories are a lot better than other stories. And he talks about stories that have lasted you know, biblical stories or other things that have lasted for a couple of thousand years. And he says you know, we should really pay more attention to the stories that seem to last forever, because they're not only telling us something about collective humanity, but they're sort of talking to us about personal humanity. And, you know, and he puts a lot of emphasis on the hero stories. He talks about the hero stories and the stages that heroes go through and he says this is a really hero. Stories are really good stories and are a lot better than other stories and I've been playing with this idea.
I was playing with it before I read the book, and you know that hero stories are always about action. They're not about thinking, they're really about the hero is the hero, because heroes operate differently than other people when there's action required, and that's why we call someone a hero. Something happened that requires unusual behavior. Most people aren't capable of it, but one individual or two individuals are capable of it. Therefore, they're the hero of the story, and so action really matters. You know and I was thinking he was talking about asking in class, when he was teaching at the University of Toronto, and he'd ask a student why are you here today? You know, why did you? Why don't you come to class today? And the person will answer well, I have to in order to get a grade.
Dean: And then he says well, why is it?
Dan: why is a grade so important to you? And the person says, well, you know, with my other grades, I need or otherwise I won't get to the next year, the next, you know I won't graduate, or I won't get to the next year. And he says well, you know why is getting to the next year? And he said this will never end. This series of questions will never end. Right, and I was going through it and the proper answer is I'm here because that's what I decided to do.
Dean: I heard someone.
Dan: That was my decision. Yeah, and he says, well, why was it your decision? And it says, it's always my decision.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: And that's the end of the. That's the end. You can't go any further than that. So there's something. There's something decisive about decisions. That's interesting.
Dean: Rather than reasons.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, reasons. You know, reasons are never satisfactory. Decisions are yeah, yeah.
Dean: Reasons. You know, reasons are never satisfactory, decisions are. Yeah, that's so funny. I heard someone say C's get degrees, that's why. Why do they?
Dan: try hard.
Dean: C's get degrees. Once you get into college, that's all that matters. You don't need your grades anymore, c's get degrees.
Dan: Yeah, Ross, Remember Ross Perot? Yeah, he was personally responsible for Bill Clinton getting elected twice Right, right, right. But he gave. I think it was Yale Business School where he graduated from. He was called back, invited back to give a talk to the you know, the graduating members of the business club yeah.
And he said I want all the I want all the C students to stand up, please. And all the C students stood up. And then he said now I want all the A students to stand up. And all the A students stood up. Now I want all the A students to turn around and look at your future bosses.
Dean: Right, yes, so funny.
Dan: Yeah, a students get hired, c students do the hiring, that's right.
Dean: That's exactly right, so funny.
Dan: Partially right.
Dean: You know. That's an interesting observation about Jordan, though. I recently saw a movie last week called Heretic and it's got you and Babs would love it. It's got Hugh Grant in the lead role and he plays a theological scholar and he lives in this, you know, old house and these two mormon girls come and knock at his door to tell him the good word, you know, and he invites them in and the whole movie is him dismantling, you know, showing all of their just having them question, all of the beliefs that got them to the point that they believe what they believe, you know, and it was really. The movie was fantastic. It was really only there's really only three people in the movie. For 95% of the movie it all takes place in his house and it's just so. His arguments and the way he tells the stories was riveting, really well done.
Dan: How does it picture him as a person Smart? Obviously, oh, he's smart. Is he happy he's a soci? Can picture him as a person Smart? Obviously, oh, he's smart Is he happy.
Dean: He's a sociopath, he's a murderer. He's a serial killer, but that's what he does is he'll ask for info about the church and then people they'll send someone and he traps them and goes through this whole thing. Very well done.
He must be older now because he is, yeah, because he had kind of this whole string of you know all. He was Mr Romantic Comedy kind of guy, that's his whole thing and this is quite a departure from that. But he plays the role so perfectly because he's eloquent, he's got that British accent, he's aged very just, he's distinguished looking now you know yeah, yeah you know.
Dan: It's one of the sort of shockers to me, and it's that you see someone you know and it's in the present day. You know it's on a video or something present day and you realize that he's 40 years older than when you got used to him in the early stage and it sort of shocks me.
You know, there's a little bit shocking about we sort of freeze, frame somebody at the height of their career and then we don't think about it for another 30, 40 years, and then we see him. I said, oh my god, what happened? Right? Exactly yeah yeah that's what you would see about.
Dean: That's what you would notice about. That's what you would notice about Hugh Grant that it's very in that level that you've seen, yeah, wow, but I imagine it's like seeing Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood mature over all the time Jack Nicholson, for sure.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: You're not teaching.
Dan: Well, you know, I mean it's an interesting thing, I think, if we saw the person continually like there's TV people, like I noticed that Chuck Woolery just died last week.
Dean: Oh he did. I didn't know that. Wow, Great friend with Mark Young.
Dan: Yeah, mark had a great relationship with him and he was 83. You know, he died and suddenly it was in the lung illness. What happened? Was it heart? Yeah, whatever. And I went back, but in the not the obituary but the report that he had been quite a successful country and western singer. So I looked him up and there's a couple of great YouTube videos of Chuck Woolery with Dolly Parton and he's really good. He's really good, yeah, wow.
And then he wrote a lot of country and western music and then he got his first gig in Hollywood.
Dean: Game show gig yeah.
Dan: And he had like seven different successful shows in Hollywood. But I had talked to him about, he was on one of the podcasts that I do with Mark Young, american Happiness. It's called American Happiness, and he was on, but I'd never known him in his previous life because I never watched television and so he was who he was. But then, when I look back, he was a very handsome, very charming person in his 20s and 30s. Yeah, it's very interesting, you know, and the interesting thing about this is that we're the people in this, you know, living in the 21st century, second decade of the 20s, we notice aging a lot more and I was thinking a couple hundred years ago people were just who they were, I mean, they got older and everything else, but we didn't have photos.
Dean: We didn't have photos.
Dan: We didn't have recordings and that sort of shocks us a lot. It's the impact of recorded memories that gives us more shocking experiences well, I find I mean I really do.
Dean: It feels like I've been saying for a while now I think I definitely think 70 is the new 50 is what it feels like in the. Yeah, you can observe it. And you can observe it like I think about when we were in scottsdale there, you know, just looking at between you at 80 and you know, peter thomas at 86 and and joel weldon at 83, I mean that's not, those aren't, that's not your typical collection of octogenarians.
Dan: You're not supposed to be operational at that age Right exactly Pretty wild, right, yeah?
Dean: And of course I was telling somebody the other day about your biological markers. What was your biological age? Is it 62? What was your biological age? Is it 62?
Dan: 62,. Yeah, there's one that throws it off for me, so David Hasse. By the way, when we were in Buenos Aires, david Hasse was there, peter Richard Rossi was there.
Dean: And do you know, Gary Kaplan?
Dan: Richard's doctor. Yeah, they were all there. We overlapped David just for basically one day, but Richard and. Gary staying at the Four Seasons? Oh, okay, yeah.
Dean: Okay, yeah.
Dan: Yeah, but the country feels different. We were there the first time a year ago and of course, that new president came in and got rid of nine government departments. They estimate he's fired 75,000 civil servants in the first year. Yeah, which shows it can be done.
Dean: It shows that it can be done. Have you followed the El Salvador situation? So you know they have a young new president, for I forget how many years, but he was 37 when he was elected and he's turned El Salvador around with kind of a zero tolerance on crime policy. Right, they've got one prison that has like 34,000 inmates. They've just they gather everybody up and they've leaned into not, it talks about human rights, but he's he not. All human rights are valued equally in his mind.
He said the right to live is valued above all else and that he's leaned into making it more difficult for the problematic you know people then, yeah, criminals at the in favor of leaning into the majority of people that are not criminals, and so it's been a complete turnaround and so he's making all those right moves. Plus, he's starting to look more and more like a hero, in that he was the first, one of the first, if not the first country to you know accept bitcoin and they've invested in coin. But he made. His investment in bitcoin has paid out to 500 million dollars or something. So it's a pretty, pretty interesting cap. It's an interesting story. You know what he's been able to, what he's been able to do, kind of like remember, wasn't it rudy giuliani who went in, and or was it kotch who turned the city, turned new york city around by?
Dan: not having. Yeah, it would have been Giuliani, it wasn't actually.
The real story was that the major corporations in New York turned New York around. Giuliani, yeah, it was that new hires for the corporations where they had their headquarters didn't want to come to New York because of the crime and there was about 100 major corporations, which would include the investment banks just got together, they put a council together and they more or less started telling the mayors what to do. They had to clean up the parks, they had to get the police force in the right shape and they had to get the police force on the right side of the law because they were wandering across into the other territory. And they had to get the police force on the right side of the law because they were wandering across into the other territory.
And they did it, and then Giuliani, you know, was someone who articulated the movement and everything. Koch was awful. Now Koch was.
Dean: Right, okay, so it was Giuliani. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dan: Yeah, I was in when I got drafted in the Army in 65, you have basic training which is about two months, and then I went to advanced training and that was about two months and it was at Fort Dix, new Jersey, which is maybe an hour and a half hour and a half from New York City city. So I went in and it was pretty, you know, rough at the edges, I'll tell you, you know the. You didn't walk the streets at nighttime, I'll tell you you. You know you made sure. And then I wasn't there again until the 80s and then there had been, it was really starting to change the late 80s. Maybe it got a lot better. Yeah, it'll.
Dean: It'll happen again.
Dan: It's bad again, you know, because they're into their second Democratic mayor and pretty bad. It's pretty bad right now.
Dean: All the major cities. Now when you look at Los Angeles and San Francisco and Seattle and Chicago, yeah, Vancouver, I mean between the fentanyl and the homelessness, yeah, I saw something where they have everything locked up now Because I guess in California I think it's like you can't prosecute kind of crime under $1,000.
Dan: Yeah, kind of crime under $1,000. Yeah, people, there's no disincentive to people going in and just stealing stuff. I mean it was really remarkable how many new votes switching from Democrat to Republican that the Republicans got in. You know, and I mean I looked at it's one of the searches I did. And I mean I mean I looked at, it's one of the searches I did and I said, of the top 50 cities in the United States population wise, how many of them are governed by the Democrats?
And it was like 44 out of 44 out of the top 50 and certainly the first 12,. You know, the top top 11. You know they're not. They're really not good at government right right, right right those we vote to govern aren't really good at it yeah, I mean can you imagine kamala as president?
I mean no, I mean I mean, she blew through 1.5 billion really fast. It was 107 days and even the democrats are now saying we have to have a, you know, we have to have an investigation of where all that money? Because she had 1.5 and Trump had 390 million. That's wild, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, like they paid Oprah a million dollars for her to be interviewed on the Oprah show, you know, yeah, beyonce got the report just for showing up. She got a million.
Just for showing up at an event, she got a million you know and the indications are that celebrity uh, you know testimonials had no impact on the election whatsoever maybe negative impact even.
Dean: Yeah, yeah, I mean taylor, mean Taylor Swift, taylor.
Dan: Swift. It was more Taylor Swift. It was more negative than positive. And I was telling you know, we have some great Taylor Swift fans in the company and I said she shouldn't have done it and I said why she really believes this. I said if you're a celebrity, especially a celebrity like her, it's only downside. There can't be any upside on this.
Dean: Right, yeah, exactly.
Dan: And I said it's the third rail of the subway. You do not touch the third rail of the subway.
Dean: Wasn't that? That's remember. Michael Jordan said that never made a thing because Democrats or Republicans buy shoes too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dan: There's just no upside for it.
Dean: There is none.
Dan: I mean it's a different world. You're the master of your own world. Do not go across the border into another world.
Dean: It's not your world.
Dan: Yeah, right, right. But, it's really funny. There was a report that immediately after Taylor Swift did her what do? You call it a recommendation referral.
Dean: Endorsement.
Dan: Endorsement. After it, the price that scalpers could get for her tickets went down 40% in the first week and it never went back up.
Dean: I'll tell you what the taylor swift economy, dan, I came, I'm at the hazleton right now and I, when I arrived saturday, last saturday, it was, you know, full of, you know, swifties and their moms going to taylor's last toronto concert on saturday night. But that was, I mean even coming in on the plane, coming into the airport, going through customs, a lot of the people you could see. They were all there to go to the concert that night. You know, flying in from all over to go see fans.
Dan: She gave six in toronto.
Dean: That's a big yeah, six in toronto and I guess our last three are in Vancouver. I think last night may have been the last of all of it. It's interesting.
Dan: We were in Buenos Aires. She was in Buenos Aires. She gave three concerts in Buenos Aires. She was staying at Four Seasons where we were In Buenos Aires. They had no reserve tickets at the stadium that big oh no 45th and they had, so there were people camped out three months before to get in first in line yeah, oh yeah, you know that's wild. Yeah, I would love to see like the. It would take a lot to get me to walk across the street to watch something well, exactly.
Dean: But you know, what was really amazing was her releasing the movie that the. She'd had a. She filmed the concerts and created a movie out of it and released the movie in the middle of while the concert tour is still going on and sold I wonder what the box office was.
Uh, for the movie, you know, but what a brilliant. Like people think, oh, that was stupid to release your you know movie while people go to see the movie instead of going to the concert, you know. But I think it was exactly the opposite. I think it sold more, more tickets, built up desire, but yeah, she sold.
Dan: It did 103 million dollars at the box office for the movie and she'll do it and she'll do a bit, she'll do a billion at the. You know I mean it. She's the first billion-dollar tour.
Dean: Yeah, isn't that something? I think it's even more than that. There is tour ticket sales. Let's see what? Because I think that U2 was the first billion-dollar tour 1.4 billion, that's wild, isn't it? Man form a band.
Dan: But Kamala did 1.5 billion spending. She's the champ.
Dean: Oh man exactly Well.
Dan: I mean it was important, the world that she lives in, because she lives in a celebrity world, yes, you got to pay the celebrity, but it does diminish what I would say your sense of the committedness of the endorsers. That it's got to be at least a million, or I don't endorse it. It sort of tells you something about their actual commitment. Yeah, that's true.
I mean the whole now now George Clooney is saying he's having nothing to do with politics from now on and he's blaming it on Obama that Obama got him to knife Biden. And I said this is a really good entertainment. This is really good entertainment yeah.
Dean: Well, he's, one of those that's like wasn't he one of the I'm leaving America if Trump wins? I mean, I wonder if anybody keeps track of all these.
Dan: Well, the only one so far is Ellen DeGeneres. She actually moved. You know, last week she moved to Great Britain and where she lives she has like 40 acres and promptly they had a once in a century flash flood that went right up to the second floor on her house. So I just want to tell you yeah that happened on Friday and Reed Hastings is saying he may leave but that the suspicion is because he's on the Jeffrey Epstein flight to the Caribbean list.
Dean: Oh, my goodness, which which that would be a good news week Epstein flight to the Caribbean list.
Dan: Oh my goodness, which that would be a good news week.
Dean: It's big things in 2025 coming up.
Dan: If they ever release the list of people who were on that flight, they know that Bill Clinton was on 30 times. Yeah, they already know that.
Dean: I think I saw something that Elon was saying too. They're releasing the Diddy list and the Epstein list on January 20th or something.
Dan: Maybe the morning of the 21st yeah.
Dean: But I think that's what everybody's big fear is. That's why they were pulling out Like this is one of those.
Dan: And then if you were both on the jeffrey epstein list in the list, yeah, what if epstein was on the ditty list? But that was so you know the.
Dean: You know we've been mentioning how. You know the. The battle for our minds right is the. What I decided is the worst part about being alive at this time is the. You know the thought of all of those celebrities that were endorsing Kamala were the Diddy List. Basically, you know.
Dan: Or one of the two or both.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: And you know the speculation. You know why I think they're mostly Democrats? Why? Because there's way more scrutiny of Republicans. Well, that's true, isn't it? Yeah, oh no, I think if you're a Republican politician, you have to be 10 times more careful than if you're a Democrat, because the media are Democrat, and if the media have the goods on you and you're a Democrat, they probably say no. Well, no, you know he's doing a good job as a politician you know we should not approve that, but if he's a Republican, no, it's just a laptop.
Dean: It's just a laptop.
Dan: That's all.
Dean: Nothing to see here.
Dan: Yeah, he had a bad day.
Dean: We all have bad days.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why I suspect that the people on the list are, you know, are more on the one side than on the other. And it's, yeah, but it's. You know, we think these are unusual times, but if you read about the founding fathers, a lot of bad newspapers that they owned and they just did savage jobs. Other founders like Madison and Hamilton, just ripping each other. Oh yeah, just ripping each other, right? Oh yeah, I mean using language, that you'd get a lawsuit out of the language.
Dean: Imagine if we brought back duels.
Dan: Well, that's the other thing. They had duels. They had duels in those days yeah. Everything like that. Yeah, I think you really had to look carefully to find the good old days. Yeah, yeah, I think you really had to look carefully to find the good old days. Yeah, you have to look carefully.
Dean: Oh my goodness, that's true. Yeah, I love this.
Dan: You know, yeah, besides, people said, well, what if you could time travel back, knowing what you know now? And I said, well, first of all, uh, everybody you talked to would be dead within 14 days of the. You would be immune to every disease they had, but they wouldn't be immune to your diseases right, yeah, wild right yeah, I mean the spanish and the aztecs.
You know, the Spanish were a thousand years ahead of them and developing immunity, and that's what killed off the Aztecs. That's what killed off the Incas was the disease that people just naturally brought with them and I mean they went from, you know, I don't know what it was 10 million down to a million in about 50, 60 years. Well, they weren't killed on the battlefield, they died of disease.
Dean: Yeah, that's the thing. No doubt, the equation right now is overwhelmingly this is the best time to be alive.
Dan: These are the good ones.
Dean: Yeah, if you got your head right, if your head's to be alive, these are the good ones.
Dan: These are the good ones. These are good. Yeah, yeah, if you got your head right if you got your head right. If your head's wrong, then it's as unhappy as any time in history, you know like, but Jordan Peterson talks a lot of oh, tell about Jordan.
Dean: What were you going to say?
Dan: No, he was just saying that's basically. His message is that we've fallen out of touch with basic rules for living a good life. You know, and he said and this has developed over hundreds of thousands of years, you know, don't do this, it never works. You know, and with you know, and people are saying, oh, do this. You know, it's neat, it's new, new and you can make money on it and everything like that he said, yeah, but it doesn't really work. And basic morality, basic ethics save more than you spend. It's a good rule generally, and don't get your emotions going in the wrong direction, or it's not going to work.
Yeah, so you know, and that's it. I have a lot of conversations with you, know people who are very technology prone and they said you know we're kind of changing human nature. And I said no, you're not. No, you're not. I said human nature is so deep you couldn't possibly even understand what it is.
And part of it is that we've been adjusting to technology forever. I mean, everybody thinks that technology started two centuries ago. Language is technology, mathematics is technology. That's what my new book is about. Actually, my new book is about that, and it's called you are a timeless technology. That okay if you're improving. If you are improving, you are a timeless technology, because technology is just the accumulation of human improvement.
Dean: So if you're improving.
Dan: You're timeless. I love it I love it.
Dean: I love it. Yeah, that's great. Is that the book that's just released now? You'll get it tomorrow. Okay, perfect, I like that.
Dan: Yeah, you'll get it tomorrow. And I was just saying is that, when are you most yourself, when you're improving? Yeah, you have a sense of improvement in this area. Yeah, You're feeling good about yourself. You're feeling in touch, you know you're feeling centered. You're feeling yeah, you're feeling really great. I remember our who's, our last, was it our last podcast? Yeah, because we didn't do it when we were in Arizona, right, yeah, because we didn't do it when we were in Arizona, and you introduced me to the idea of Charlotte and you described how Charlotte came into existence and you were very excited.
Dean: You were very excited.
Dan: I still am.
Dean: That kind of improvement.
Dan: If you're improving, you're feeling great.
Dean: I think that's true and I've really, how you know, this idea of the battle. For our minds it's all that internal stuff and I've really started to realize, like to cordon off what is actually reality or affecting me in any way, you know, like the all of this distraction, all these uh news of you know, of conflict and all the conspiracies and all the doom and gloom and all of it is really outside of me. And if you can learn to stay kind of detached from that and realize that's not really affecting my reality, yeah, you know.
Dan: Yeah, you know, it's really, there's Babs. Look at that. What's all that, babs? I thought you had just purchased those. Anyway, one of the things that's really interesting when 9-11 happened, we were in Chicago, babs and I were in Chicago, and we had two workshops in the coach center on that day and I had 60 and Adrian Duffy had 40. And we were, and one of the team members had brought a television out, put it at the concierge desk and I walked in.
I said what's that? And they said a jet had just hit the. I said get rid of that TV. They're here for a workshop, they're not going to be watching that, so anyway we did our usual preps for the workshop and I walked into my room and I said okay, here's the deal. In the next hour you have to make a decision. You're either here for the day or you're leaving. Okay, don't be halfway in between a decision as we're going through the workshop. You're 100% here or you're 100% gone.
And our team will do everything they can to find you transportation. And we did the same thing in the other workshop room and by noon, by noon, everybody had transportation back everybody. And we had a guy who is a Buick dealer and he went to a Buick. Well, gm, it was GM, I think. They had Buick. Yeah, I think he had two or three different makes.
Dean: He had two or three.
Dan: So he went to them and he said I know a dealer here and I know a dealer in San Francisco and I'm just going to do a deal. If I buy the car here and sell it when I get there, what kind of deal do I get? Right, right, right. And I tell you not much, not many Buicks were sold on 9-11. Right, exactly. So the guy at this end went up 20% and the guy at the other end came down 20%. So it was not a bad deal and anyway he went there. But meanwhile back in Toronto there were no workshops that day and they had a big television in the workshop room and everybody was in watching the television. Our team in Chicago had no time, had no time whatsoever.
They were busy all day arranging things and everything. At the end of the day they weren't scared.
Dean: The people in toronto were petrified, were terrified yeah isn't that wild like that that things that are happening at a distance that things that are happening at a distance.
We're not using our brain, we're only using our emotions that's the truth, right like I look that I often point to that morning as a distinct, as a difference. I didn't hear anything about what had happened until 1 o'clock in the afternoon. I was golfing that morning. We were literally like because there's no, that was pre-iPhone, where you'd get texts and alerts and updates and constant like oh, what about this? Here's what's happening. So it was back in the days of flip phones.
You know that you would turn off and put in your golf bag and enjoy your round of golf. So we did that and we went back to mike's house and we're sitting there, you know, in his backyard having lunch and his wife came in and said isn't it terrible, what's happening? And we're like what's happening? She goes what do you mean? What's happening? Turn on the TV. Turn on the TV. That's the thing. Right, it's. Our natural thing is to turn to the TV to give us the updates, you know.
Dan: And of course, they're amping it up. They're amping it up too. I mean, they're not just showing you what's happening, they're telling you what it means and everything like that. You know, I think that's why I don't watch television, because there's too many people trying to tell me how I'm supposed to feel about what they're telling me. That's a decision for me to make, how I'm going to feel about it. My mother was telling me that it was two days after Pearl Harbor that she found out about it. She lived in a farmhouse out in the country and they didn't have a phone. It was 1941.
They didn't have a telephone and there were no newspapers or anything. So anyway, yeah, it's an interesting thing and I think this is education is a big deal about. Education is how you think about things and how you respond emotionally to your thoughts you know, and I think this has always been true. But I think now there are people who want to come right at you. It's like you're talking about. You know talking about horses. You know the beginning of our podcast. They're listening. What did Dean just say?
Dean: Horses.
Dan: Okay, here's five ads. Here's five ads for me. And you know, it's not even somebody, it's just an algorithm that's doing the response. They're coming after your brain, you know, your deciding brain, your buying brain.
Dean: They're coming after your buying brain, yeah what's dean buying today?
Dan: it's so funny.
Dean: Yeah, yeah, that's the thing. Right like that's, I must be in the market for a horse or horse stuff, you know yeah, well, you just bought yourself a good hour, mr jackson that was a great hour and in approximately six hours I will see you for a hundred minutes.
Dan: Yes, and then tomorrow for even more Two full days. Yes.
Dean: I like it.
Dan: All right.
Dean: Okay, Dan, I will see you in a little bit.
Dan: I'll be in Chicago. I'll be in Chicago next week, so we'll have a podcast next week.
Dean: Okay, good, I like that.
Dan: Yeah, okay.
Dean: Okay, see you tonight.
Dan: Bye, okay, bye.

Dec 18, 2024 • 51min
Ep140: Exploring Innovation and Networking
Our latest episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia offers an intimate look at the Genius Network annual event in Scottsdale, featuring extraordinary conversations with prominent figures like Bobby Kennedy, Jordan Peterson, and Tucker Carlson.
We explore the unexpected appointment of Robert Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services and share insights from a key OpenAI representative, examining how technology subtly maintains existing societal structures.
The episode delves into the evolving nature of professional gatherings, highlighting the power of meaningful connections over traditional networking. We discuss the intricate art of event planning, sharing personal strategies for managing commitments and overcoming challenges like ADD. Our conversation reveals the importance of structured scheduling and intentional approaches to daily productivity.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
I reflected on our experiences at the Genius Network annual event in Scottsdale, where notable figures like Bobby Kennedy, Jordan Peterson, and Tucker Carlson contributed to the discussions.
The appointment of Robert Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services was an unexpected but significant topic of conversation during the event.
We discussed the role of technology in maintaining the status quo, drawing parallels to historical innovations like the "horseless carriage."
The importance of networking and making meaningful connections was emphasized, highlighting how such interactions often hold more value than the content itself at events.
Organizing large events requires meticulous logistical planning, often years in advance, to manage various commitments and schedules.
I shared insights on managing ADD through structured schedules, which serve as an essential tool in overcoming daily challenges.
The humorous dynamics of Robert Kennedy's collaboration with Donald Trump were explored, alongside lighter topics like meal planning and scheduling.
We reflected on aging and the limitations it imposes, while discussing strategies to remain active and maintain cognitive health.
The episode highlighted the challenges of maintaining personal ambitions and adapting to changes as we age.
The podcast wrapped up with reflections on the role of technology and the evolving nature of political and personal dynamics in today's world.
Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com
TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Dean: Mr Sullivan.
Dan: Yes, mr Jackson, and I hope it will be copied. I hope it will be copied and sent virally around the world, this podcast. I hope, millions.
Dean: To all the corners of Clublandia.
Dan: Yes, yes.
Dean: Yes, well, what a whirlwind tour for both of us here, I think. Where are you? Are you back in Toronto right now?
Dan: Next to the fireplace.
Dean: Okay, I like that.
Dan: That's great, which is needed today. It's getting cool. I'm going to be.
Dean: I like it, but I like it. I'm coming up on Friday, I think.
Dan: This week Yep and then return to be yeah, I think this week, yep, and then return to be yeah, I'm coming, I'll be in Argentina. Yeah, yeah, next week I'll be in.
Dean: Argentina Right, yeah, I'm doing, I'm coming up on Friday, I'm doing a breakthrough blueprint on Monday, tuesday, wednesday, and then we have coach the following Monday, tuesday, right.
Dan: Yeah, and I'm flying back on friday night from argentina, so I won't be um back in my house, probably till about three o'clock on saturday.
Dean: so oh my goodness, so we're gonna miss our table time yeah, I'll see you on sunday.
Dan: I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but some things come in front of other things.
Dean: Exactly right, I have three ideas this week.
Dan: I have three ideas this week. I was just going to say where do we start?
Dean: We should probably mention that we just got back from Scottsdale and Joe's annual event, the Genius Network annual event, which was really another level. I mean, he's really gone above and beyond and on Saturday he pulled off something I don't think anybody's been able to pull off. He had Bobby Kennedy and Jordan Peterson and Tucker Carlson and Cali Means all on the same stage and I'll tell you what he has really grown as a conversationalist I don't even want to call him an interviewer because it was really, you know, that level of he's just the right amount of curious and unpredictable in the conversation that it's fascinating.
He's not asking them the stock questions that would come. You know that you would expect, but it was amazing. I think everybody was very, was very impressed with how the event went off yep, yeah, I.
Dan: The takeaway for me one is that we saw robert kennedy on saturday and then on on Wednesday, was it? Or Thursday? Wednesday, I think it was Wednesday he was appointed the secretary of health. Yes, human service, human services, and I think that's a big deal.
Dean: I do too. It's, yeah, very, very impressive. Yeah, you know what's funny about that event is that the you know impressive. You know what's funny about that event is that we also had the head of GoToMarket for OpenAI, which was kind of like a that's a pretty big role, but it was downplayed by Zach Cass. Zach Cass, the guy that spoke oh, were you there on Sunday? He spoke on Sunday morning. No, we came there on Sunday. He spoke on Sunday morning. No, we came home on Sunday. Oh, okay, that's why. So, yeah, so the head of go-to-market, one of the original guys for OpenAI, was there and it was so funny that became. You know, he was kind of like the undercard, if you want to call it that, right, oversadowed by the blockbuster Saturday, but he himself was that's a pretty, that's a pretty big get to have too.
So, very, very interesting.
Dan: He was like in the 10th race at Woodbine you know the sore horses race later.
Dean: So well, I had three, three ideas.
Dan: Well, first of all, I had a nice introduction by Joe to Jordan Peterson. It turns out that he lives about a four-minute drive from us in the beaches oh wow, that's amazing.
We're going to get together and he and his wife invited us to their Christmas party. So Christmas party, yeah, very, you know, very lively, engaging, smart, good sense of humor and everything. I enjoyed meeting him, but I had three ideas that I've been pondering all week. Okay, and more and more, I think that the humans use technology to keep things the same I think you're right, and even referring to it as the thing it's replacing.
Dean: I remember hearing that about when automobiles first came out. They were called them horseless carriages. Right that, that's really what the thing was. Our only, our only frame of reference for the new is in how it relates to the past.
Dan: Or relates to the present. Yeah, the present, that's what I mean, yeah, and if our present is under threat, we will adapt a new technology to keep ourselves more or less where we were. Yeah, and I've just been pondering this this is not a major thought, but it's a side thought that thought that we use technology to keep things the same. And what was the side thought now? Well, that was a quick one, that was a quick one.
That one just flew out of my head, but I had a second thought too, and I was watching a really interesting podcast yesterday with Peter Thiel, who you know, and you know one of the co-creators of PayPal. One of the co-creators of PayPal and he's the creator of Planteer, which is a deep, dark, secret R&D lab for the government. And Barry Weiss, who was a columnist for the New York Times, who was let go because she started exhibiting independent thoughts.
Dean: I hate it when that happens.
Dan: Well, you know, you just can't be doing that at the New York Times. You really have to go with the party thoughts. You know the thoughts. But he was saying that what the election sort of indicated for him, election sort of indicated for him the presidential election of last week, was that in the internet world it's almost impossible to be a successful hypocrite.
And that is if you say something to this group and then go across the street and say a completely different thing to another group that you used to be able to get to the, maybe not across the street but, let's say, cities 300 miles apart or anything you could get away with. You could get away with it, but the internet now makes that more or less impossible. It's increasingly difficult to be a hypocrite. You know where you try to play both sides of an issue.
Dean: Yeah, well, because the internet is very, they love to identify and call those out. I mean, I remember I mentioned to you that Kamala, you know, there was a video going around that was Kamala speaking out of both sides of her mouth about Hamas and Israel. And yeah, I mean, it was just, you know, because they were running the ads in different thinking they would get away with it, because they're running one in Pennsylvania and one in Michigan or wherever.
Dan: Yeah, right, that would be great, that would be a good thing. Yeah, and I was thinking the fact that almost all the celebrities that came out in her favor were to do so. Mm-hmm.
Dean: Oh, yeah, like.
Dan: Oprah got a million to do an interview with her. Beyonce, I've heard, got 10 million just to show up at a rally 10 million. Didn't have to do anything.
Dean: That's wild, isn't it?
Dan: Yeah, and she had a billion dollars to spend and she ended up 20 million in debt Over. Oh man.
Dean: Yeah, in debt.
Dan: Yeah, but if that had been done 20 years ago, that might not have been discovered as quickly, maybe not at all. It might not have been discovered at all. So it's just getting very difficult to be a hypocrite. I mean, you used to be able to make a lifetime career out of being a hypocrite, and now it wouldn't last more than 24 hours.
Dean: Yeah, I remember.
Dan: It's a career with a short future.
Dean: Yeah, there was a meme going around about listing the people who had endorsed Donald Trump, joe Rogan and Elon Musk and Bob Kennedy and all these people, and then it was the people who endorsed Kamala was the Diddy List, you know so funny.
Dan: Yeah, so my first. So I've had three thoughts. First one was technology. We use technology to keep things the same. Number two it's getting more difficult to be a hypocrite. Number three is I've discovered what the greatest individual ambition can be. Tell me To be more ambitious.
Dean: It's the gift that keeps on giving.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: That's the number one.
Dan: Just next year, just next year. Be more ambitious. Be more ambitious next year than you are this year, and that's all you have to handle. It'll take care, it's the one goal that takes care of everything. I don't want to own just the land that's next to mine yeah, yes, because that I've given a lot of thought to goals, but almost all of them they're one and done, you know yeah you've achieved the goal and then you know, then it's gone.
But uh, if your, your ambition is simply to be always more ambitious, I think that handles a lot of endings.
Dean: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's funny. It's almost like a cheat code you know, I think that's great. I see, there's a. I mean, what a never-ending like a perpetual improvement cycle improvement cycle.
Dan: Yeah, well it's, it's always. It's a kind of interesting thing because I'm trying to figure myself out at ajd that I've got bigger things I'm working. I've got bigger things I'm working on. I'm I'm working, working with people who are doing bigger and bigger things and you know and everything else, and I said what accounts for, and I said your ambition is to be more ambitious.
Dean: Well, that's your print, right, your print is.
Dan: Well, it's seven. Three, I mean it's three is success and achievement Right? Seven, seven, you have seven. It's enjoying life and having a good time.
Dean: Yeah, bigger parties, yeah, bigger parties.
Dan: Yeah, revenues, bigger parties.
Dean: Bigger revenues.
Dan: bigger parties, that's fantastic.
Dean: I love it.
Dan: So anyway, I'm going to do a triple play on those three and see what I come up with. I think there's, but I just feel that things are really shifting. I think there's, but I just feel that things are really shifting. I got a sense that, yeah, peter, peter Thiel very bright, very bright very very thoughtful, very thoughtful person and but he had a comment that he thinks that Bud Light. You know, remember the Bud Light. He thinks that was the end of the 20th century. He said that at that moment, the 20th century ended and the 21st century began.
And he said that he feels that the Democrats are now the Bud Light Party.
Dean: Oh man, well, and so that, yeah, I mean.
Dan: You wonder now Well, you think about it that the reason that got them thrown out of power is the reason why they won't learn anything from getting thrown out of party, because they feel superior, intellectually superior morally superior and that would prevent them from actually saying well, maybe you are not Right, but your sense of superior prevents you from realizing that maybe you're not.
They've kind of twisted themselves into a knot. Yeah, because I'm. You know, I watch the replays on. You know that they have an article, but then they'll have a link to a video. And Real Clear Politics is my favorite video and on real clear politics is my favorite, and you go on and you could just tell that the Democratic Party right now is very disappointed with American citizens.
Dean: They're very disappointed.
Dan: They're very disappointed with the quality of citizens in the United States right now and they're saying how do we get a different kind of voter? What we need is a different kind of voter. It's very clear that the kinds of voters we have right now are not delivering.
Dean: We need more.
Dan: Yeah, let's get some more Vansuelen gang members in here.
Dean: Oh man. So what was your insights or thoughts from the Genius Network annual event? You're not a notetaker. No, me neither. I'm exactly like that. I know that whatever insight I get, if it's strong enough to stay with me, that's the insight you know.
Dan: Well, my big one and you already brought it up in the conversation. I told Joe at dinner that you know we had the dinner on Saturday night and I said I think you've just jumped 10 times I said I think what you did, today is a 10 times jump and I said tomorrow morning what you did today is going to feel normal to you.
Dean: And to everyone else. I think that's really the great thing. You know, like his whole and he said it too each year his goal is to make it a better event than the last, and so that's very yeah, that's very interesting.
Dan: Yeah, the other thing is that I kind of told him this was last year, so this was the annual meeting for last year, and when he invited Robert Kennedy Jr last year. I said to him I just want you to know whether you've just entered the political world when you make an invitation like this, whether you like it, you know whether you like it or not, or whether you agree or not, you're now in the political world.
Dean: So you got to be aware of that, yeah, and even though and even though Jordan Peterson, not per se political, but certainly in a different, not business like you know, the events have evolved from you know almost all business, like you know marketing and you know entrepreneur type of things more to a different level of event. It's interesting, I was looking through, but it's magic what happens actually at the event. It's not about the content of the event.
It's being in the room surrounded by the Genius Network and I think I really got on another level, the purpose of the annual event versus the meetings, the yearly or monthly meetings, and you know it was very. I had a gentleman from Toronto who actually sat beside me on the first day and you know he was there primarily for the business stuff. The marketing really needed that help and you know I had to kind of help reframe that because if that was the number one reason you were there, there wasn't a lot of that at the actual event, you know. But what there was and this is what we said is that but we got to meet and that's, you know there's, that's part of the thing is that's the, that's the way to get that, what you actually need you know, yeah, yeah, anyway, it's just interesting.
Dan: I think the first one I ever went to was in new york yeah, right the annual meeting I think he had. Joe had a couple of those in new New. York, yeah, and then, and then he had one in California, two two in. California actually he had the one where Richard Branson came yeah by uh, hollywood it was, I think it was actually it was in. Yeah, yeah, I always remember he had that. And then the second one was at Pelican Hill down in Newport.
Dean: Beach.
Dan: Newport, right yeah, and then they moved them to Scottsdale. And that was the right place.
Dean: Yeah, it really is. It's perfect, it fits. And this one how convenient was this? Right across the street from his house.
Dan: Yeah, how convenient was this? Right across the street from his house? Yeah, and we're doing the summit, the Free Zone Summit, right across the street from where we were.
Dean: Right next door.
Dan: Desert shadows right across the street. Yeah yeah, scottsdale really works. I mean, you can get there on a single flight from almost anywhere.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: And the weather is usually good and, yeah, it's nice.
Dean: Next year you've already got everything mapped out. You're always a year a full year ahead.
Dan: Generally, with events like that, I'm you're ahead With our personal schedule. We're usually three years ahead, oh my goodness Wow. Well, it's because of the workshops.
Dean: Yes.
Dan: You have to figure every year you're going to have a certain number of workshops and they're going to be at a certain period of each quarter.
Dean: So we have that.
Dan: That's already logged in and we pretty well know that. I mean, then there's all sorts of things. I mean you have free days, but the free days move around in terms of what you're going to do with the free days, and I've got a book to do every quarter and I've got podcasts to do every quarter. I've got workshops to do every quarter. So've got podcasts to do every quarter, I've got workshops to do every quarter. So that gives it a pretty much of a go forward structure a nice cadence, yeah.
Dean: Structure scaffolding yeah yeah, or as uh ned holland would call it, the bobsled run yeah, I don't experience.
Dan: A I don't experience, add the way that describes it how so?
Dean: so how do you mean?
Dan: Well, I'm not super, I'm not hyperactive.
Dean: Me neither.
Dan: Yeah, so not, and you know, so I don't experience. I know that that exists and that's you know, it's a great part of ADD. Mine is I would characterize it what I think. What I think is the most important thing, subject to change on a fairly frequent basis, gotcha.
Dean: Yeah, and how you know, you seem to you know I've adopted, or was introduced to. You know, russell Barkley's interpretation of ADD, which totally seemed to fit for me. I saw it in the clearest light that I've ever seen it or had the most understanding of it as an executive function.
disability- and it was a really elevated way of thinking about it, as a you know you talked about it as a true, like a neuro degenerative disability, that it's not anything that you can will your way out of or that you can. You know, it's not a character issue or a weakness or anything like that, it's just the true physical, neurological disconnection between the two parts of your brain and I. Really, when I embraced that or, as I'm, it's still a journey of embracing it and realizing that the things that, that the ways that manifests for me is it really is when I'm left on my own to self-direct what I'm going to do with a big block of time. And it's been very, you know, it's been fascinating because my whole paradigm for the way that I've lived and set up my life is to try at all times to keep my schedule free so that I would have time to do all the things that I want to do, all the creative things, you know. But the reality is that the only things that ever get actually done are things that have that external scaffolding, things like podcasts and workshops and Zoom appointments, and the things that are synchronous and scheduled and involve other people, and there's no way around it.
It's like, as much as I want to be able to think that I could clear off three hours in the morning and just sit and write or, to you know, create or to do something, it's very uphill because I'm very slippery, without the structure of someone being on the other end of the phone at 11 am on saturday or sunday morning. You know, I know I never miss and it's like those things that it's and I'm never. I never find, I never struggle with add in the moment. I always, once I'm engaged and into something, I'm able to give that thing my focus, like I'm not distracted while we're doing.
Dan: Yeah, my experience would be you're the. My experience is that you're fully there.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: When you're there.
Dean: When I'm there Exactly.
Dan: It's so funny, but if I need to be there, who's the who's the person? Who's the person that described this?
Dean: for you, barkley, yeah, russell barkley. He's a contemporary colleague of of ned hollow. Well, they know each other very well they. And Russell Barkley actually has a series of videos that describe the things that he and Ned disagree on, the different approaches to two things, but they're both like totally fully respect the other.
You know that's a big thing but for me that that explanation and that you know set of the way he described it, is that every intervention or everything that works has to be external and it can't be. You know, it's nothing internal like willing yourself or character changing or anything like that. It's really we need to treat it and to the extent that we treat it like a true disability and then make accommodations for it, like if you, he would say, if we treated it like you would never say to a paraplegic it's right over there, just get up and walk over there, it's only a few paces yeah, because you know that it's a physical impossibility for them to do that, but in the morning walk, first thing in the morning walk a mile yeah, exactly, if that's the thing, then that's going to be a problem right but,
that's going to be a problem, yeah, but but if you acknowledge it as a disability and you said, okay, how about we get you a chair with wheels and then we'll put a motor on it and you can just point where you want to go and you'll get to where you're going, that's an accommodation for the disability and that's kind of what he's saying, that this external scaffolding like the way you know what I admire about your calendar so much is that you have all the things that you do are really supported by that external scaffolding. There's not a lot, of excuse me, like you know, you have used to be 150. How many workshop days do you have?
Dan: now? Well, there are 60 days when I'm doing workshop activities, but a lot of them are two hour sessions or not eight hour sessions, and those are all on the calendar and oh yeah, those are, yeah, those go way into the future.
Dean: Yeah, and they're all. I find that too, that they're all very, they're procrastination proof, because you have to show up like you know there's no way, it's really is just accepting it and you know, leaning into that structure as much as I, as much as I can, yeah yeah, it's really, it's kind of interesting.
Dan: I was just bouncing his words off of.
You know my own experience of being add and you know, clinically, I've been diagnosed, so you know it's, uh, you know it's, it's a real thing, and but mine is more that I actually I don't, and this relates to you. It doesn't relate to you know. So, barkley, so much it relates to you that my goal is to have my schedule filled up the night when I go to bed the night before. I want my schedule filled up for the, so I don't have to think about it when I get up in the morning it's all right, it's all set, yeah and but then I get over time.
I get very discriminating about the quality of the things that are filling up my time. There's little adjustments that have to be made because I've got a great scheduler. Becca Miller is my scheduler and she's just terrific, but she can't do my thinking for me. For example, last weekend we were at Genius Network and then we came home on a Sunday. I don't like coming home on a Sunday. That's the way it was scheduled, that's the way it was scheduled.
So I came home on schedule and then Monday was just packed and I said OK, we got to put a new rule in.
Dean: If I come back on Sunday.
Dan: There can't be anything on Monday, yeah, and we could see that six months ahead, you know we could see that, and so I have little conversations. This is the rule. And then on Friday, both Babs and I had Zoom calls after four o'clock, you know, one at five o'clock, one at six o'clock and I was going through the experience. I said, okay, no, no commitments after four o'clock on Friday. Right, yeah, but these are just little adjustments, you know these are just little adjustments that you make.
And then I, you know, I sit down with her and I said let's just put a couple of new rules in. You know, if I come back on a sunday, I can't have anything on a monday. And then you know nothing after four on friday and everything like that. You know.
Dean: And you know, it's just I.
Dan: you know I was sitting, I was going through it, I I will fulfill the commitment, but as I'm going through it and I said I don't really like that, I not that I don't like the thing that I'm doing. I don't like doing it at this particular time, right.
Dean: And the other. Thing is.
Dan: I like being in Toronto on Saturday and having Toronto Saturday Day and this last year we've had more things that took away our Toronto Saturdays and I said we've got to look ahead now and look at all the Saturdays going out for a year and a half and to the most part, let me have that in Toronto, be in Toronto.
Dean: Yeah, that's such a great. So you really Saturday is like a free day. I like it. Yeah, I just like it. Yeah, I just like it.
Dan: Yeah, I just like it. Why do you want that? I really like it.
Dean: Because I want it. That's right. I want what I want, yeah.
Dan: I want what I like. Yes, yeah.
Dean: Yeah, that's good. Well, I'm just going through the process right now, like embracing that. My goal is to shape my calendar for next year ahead for the whole, for the whole year. And that's yeah, that's really the. That's really the thing I tend to run really like about a quarter ahead. You know some things. I know when they are like, I know when and it's funny because they become the big rocks in my calendar in terms of like I appreciate that you know when the strategic coach workshops are, so I know to work around those.
And I know when the annual event is and I know when our free zone summit is and I put those in you know, and I always tend to kind of work, I've had a tendency to kind of keep the time, keep the options open for the other times and I but I don't take that same thing of locking in my own events with with the same priority or consistency, you know.
Dan: Well, I think I share that with you, that if it's just internal, you know it's me having a meeting with myself, or an activity. I'm much more negotiable with that than if it's external. I really grasp that what you're talking about there. You know I like and I like it, and that's why, you know, I try to be 100% on my commitments. Yes, if I say I'm going to be there, I'll be there. If I say I'm going to do this. I'll do it yeah.
Dean: Yeah Well, that's rule number one Show up on time.
Dan: Yeah, do what you say you're going to do.
Dean: That's right. I'm the same way With commitments to others. I'm exactly the same right. I'm the same way With commitments to others. I'm exactly the same way. I'm very reliable, yeah. So it's a good journey.
Dan: I was just reflecting. I want to give you a little progress report. I've really switched over to eating steak, having steak Do you know how I'm? I've really switched over to eating steak, you know having steak. Do you know how much time it saves you? It's incredible how much time that you save if you just eat steak.
Dean: Well, the great news is I'm it sure, simplifies shopping. Absolutely. That's exactly right. My favorite staple is the thin cut ribeyes, and I know that I can do them in the air fryer they're very juicy.
Dan: Oh, that's exactly right. I would do it just to squeeze the juice out of them. Oh man, that's so funny that juice is to live for, I'll tell you, yes, yes. The Babs. She'll sometimes put the steak on the plate and there's a lot of juice that comes out.
Dean: You want me to pour that?
Dan: I said no, that's the point of the meal Pour that on there, that's right.
Dean: That was so funny, that restaurant that we went to in scottsdale the end.
Dan: Isn't that a great really great and I love babs.
Dean: Two extra steaks to go. That was really yeah, that's great.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But boys that simplify your life, I mean I used to go to whole foods I get my haircut on in new york, new yorkville, it's right across from the court season.
Dean: It's kenny connor from the. I used to go to Whole Foods. I get my haircut in.
Dan: New Yorkville. It's right across from the Court Seasons. It's Kenny Connor from the Court Seasons where I get my haircut and I go down to the end of Scholar's, and that's where the Hilton. Lanes, are you? Know, and the Whole Foods is in there and I used to go in every Saturday and I'd walk around 15, 20 minutes buying this that I shouldn't eat, buying this that I shouldn't eat I shouldn't eat and take a bottle home and eat some of them and throw the rest out and everything else, and now we have a bruno's.
Do you know bruno's in?
Dean: toronto it goes back.
Dan: It goes back 50 years yeah and uh, they have great meat department and we go in and the guy says same as usual, same as usual, yep, yep, except twice as much and hey gets it, you know.
Dean: So yeah, it's really good yeah I was shocked about pusseteri's closing right there well, they didn't close.
Dan: They're opening in one of those new buildings. Yeah, they had a. It was a shitty space where they were.
Dean: Yeah, it was kind of awkward right.
Dan: Yeah, very tiny space. So now they have it the way they wanted it.
Dean: Okay, so they're still in, they're still on the island. They're closed for probably a year no but I mean they're going to be still in Yorkville. Yeah, Right on the island, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dan: So they'll have a huge space because their main store is up at Lawrence Avenue Road and that's like you know, it's a regular size supermarket. But they had this tiny little space and you know it didn't work in any way. It was just. I mean, first of all, you're paying 25, 10, 15% more if you shop at a suppository, but the whole quality of the experience was not up to what they were charging.
Yeah, I went in there and they put in automatic checkouts and I said wait a minute. Now you're putting me charging. Yeah, I went in there and they put in automatic checkouts and I said wait a minute.
Dean: Now you're putting me on.
Dan: You're charging me 15% too much, and now you're putting me on staff. That's so funny.
Dean: It's exactly right.
Dan: Now I have to do checkout for you. I said no and I just stopped. I just stopped. I said I'm not going back here. That was during. And then some guy corrected me that my mask was too low on my face and I said I no, I can't. I, I can't put myself in this type of situation where I get the mask. Police are in pusitories, you know oh no, that's no good.
And that was all for nothing. You know, I mean that. Quote that comment. Was it Callie Means? It was either Robert Kennedy or Callie Means. The average age of people who died during COVID. Did you catch that one? I did not. What was it? 81. At 81, you ask them for a refund.
Dean: Right, oh, my goodness.
Dan: I mean it's three years beyond expiry.
Dean: Yeah right.
Dan: I wonder how much of that you know.
Dean: Though you look at, I think that 80 is the new 60, it feels like in a lot of ways. I feel that yeah, because you look at, you know, just even in that one little environment there, you know, Peter Thomas is 86 there.
Dan: Yeah, and I was 80.
Dean: Joel Weldon at 83. I mean, yeah, that's, those are not normal octogenarians. You know very, you know it's just and I think you see it now. You know it's just and I think you see it now. You know it's happening more.
Dan: Well, and I think the other thing is that the retirement age, if I understand the logic of it, was to get the older people out of the factories, so that you wouldn't have a lot of unemployed young people.
Bismarck in Germany that was, you know that was the first government that had a retirement program and a retirement policy. Now, with the low birth rates, you're going to want to keep the people in the workplace as long as you possibly can, so you're going to have a lot of 70 and 80-year-olds not retiring. First of all. I mean they've got a lot of 70 and 80 year olds not retiring. Yeah, first of all, I mean they've got a lot of experience and there's, um, you know it's, you know it's. Just, I thought immediately where I sat most was with pearson airport and air canada, the two experiences that go along together. And so, pearson airport, you have a lot of very skilled people who make sure that everything is, you know, good with the terminal, everything's working with the terminal, plus the you know, baggage is.
You know the big thing, you know getting stuff off the planes really fast, getting it to the right, you know, to the right luggage rack and everything and everything. And then Air Canada, the ticketing, you know the ground crew and everything like that. And I noticed immediately that they had lost two levels of skill. Immediately during COVID, they bought off all their really high-priced pilots, they bought off all their cabin attendants, they bought off all the ticketing people, you know. You know they were like 60 they have mandatory retirement 65 and they just bought them off at 60 and it was very abrupt and it was total. And so you had people who were serving you and they were basically doing their job out of the job manual. You know they do this Well. That doesn't really give you high quality.
Dean: Yeah, I mean the whole. Did you happen to see any highlights from the Mike Tyson fight the other night?
Dan: No, I didn't. I didn't, I just knew he slapped him.
Dean: Yeah, that was all leaving up to it. That was the way in when he stepped on his.
Dan: That made sure that both of them got $30 million oh exactly.
Dean: Well, that's, but I think what happened was that Jake stepped on his toe is what happened, and he slapped him, but the fight was uneventful. I mean, it was really.
Dan: He won on points. Right he won on points. Jake Paul won on points.
Dean: Yes, exactly, and but it was. It was sad to see Mike Tyson, you know, at 58, he really did look old like, even in his movements and the way it's like that was, it was something you could really tell the difference between 27 and 58, you know. And that's you wonder, like that's yeah, he's in peak physical condition for a 58 year old.
Dan: Yeah, but it was just yeah, but your muscles are slow yeah, that's what I mean.
Dean: He looked kind of no, your, no, your muscles just slowed down.
Dan: Yeah, it was really interesting because I haven't run and I started running, just, you know, some attempt because of my knee. Yeah, and you know a 50-year-old injury to my knee to run again, so I was. We have quite a good size dock at the lake up north.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: And so what I do is I have a rule that three seconds after I take off my sneakers, I'm in the water. I have to be in the water.
Dean: You've got to do it. Take them off One, two, three go, otherwise it'll take forever.
Dan: And so what? I do it at the back of the dock and I have maybe 15 feet, 15 feet, and so the moment, the thing off. I just run for the front and I jump, I jump into the water and Babs took a video of it and I looked at it and I said you don't show this to anybody, it's not. I said I am really slow, I'm really slow, I'm really slow. Yes, and part of it. You know I'm recovering from an injury.
Dean: But part of it is just, I got 80-year-old muscles, you know, and they're not fast you have the memory of you know I mean you have 20-year-old tennis memories of how fast you were.
Dan: Yeah, it's so funny you know so funny. That's a nice memory, but it's not a present experience, that's going to be absolutely true.
Dean: It's so funny that you mentioned that is because when I was watching Mike Tyson, I was thinking to myself that's one of my aspirations. I'd love to, as I continue to lose weight and get more mobile, that I would like to you know for your running, that's my thing is to be able to get back to to play tennis well, you were in the top hundred.
Dan: You were in the top hundred, weren't you amateur?
Dean: no, not that high, but I was very, at a very high level. But but the you know. But to be able to get to that, knowing that my mind knows what it's like to be a 20-year-old tennis player, my mind and my muscle memory still knows exactly what to do in those situations, but it's going to be. As I watched Mike Tyson, I realized, and it's every now. And as I watched Mike Tyson, I realized, you know, and it's every now and then I'll watch these guys, I'll watch on YouTube, I'll watch some, like you know, 55 plus. You know, tennis matches are 60 plus, even them by age groups, you know. So I've been watching the 60 plus and it's amazing to see how brittle brittle is a good word, will appear to be yeah, well, the other thing you know, like the mile run you know the world record right now is three, three, four, I think 17,.
Dan: You know 17 seconds under four minutes. But the oldest person in history to ever run a sub four is Amin Coughlin, irishman. I think he was at one of the East Coast United States universities and then he raced after that, but he was 43 and nobody over 43 has ever run a four minute mile.
How's Daniel doing with his getting back to you know, he's in the five he's in the five minutes, five, five, five, 40, you know, and and one of the things, because he's, he's late, he's 58 or 59. And he just says you know, I just realized that it's just impossible for me ever to well he did it once, you know, he ran a 359.
Dean: Yeah, but he was running.
Dan: You know he was running 405, 406, 402,. You know every race and you just can't do that anymore. And you know so you have a collision between your actual performance and your memory of being fast.
Dean: Yes, oh man Whoa performance and your memory of being fast. Yes, oh, man whoa. There's just kind of I'm just kind of preparing myself for the reality of that, you know, and that's yeah, but it's even apparent that you were very coordinated.
Dan: I mean the way you walk and everything. Uh, you know the way my entire memory of you is mostly the last 10, 12, 12 years. And I noticed that you have very great athletic coordination, so you have that going for you.
Dean: I got that going for me, that's true.
Dan: Yeah, so yeah, hopefully that will.
Dean: I wonder now, you know, like I wonder through do you do any mobility things like Pilates or stretching or yoga or any of those things? The only thing.
Dan: I do. We have a, really we have an industrial strength. The vibration plate is about three feet by three feet and you do high intensity vibrations on it. And then I just have a pole, and then I do it in, let's say, 10 different positions. I do the pole. And that helps a lot the vibration point. I mean it makes the house, it almost makes the house rattle, almost makes the house rattle, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, and that's really. I do a lot of band stuff. You know where you use. You put the band about around a pole and then you can really do, yeah, so that helps a lot. I like that. Yeah and yeah. But you know, my big thing is just being productive in terms of the work, you know you know, my big thing is just being productive in terms of the work.
You know, I mean I was never a competitor in any kind of individual sport. I was all team sports when I was growing up because I really liked the team Football, basketball, football, basketball and everything else. So I never, I never really was attracted to individual competitions and you know, but my big thing is just to. I've got quarterly, I've got quarterly products to produce, I've got books to produce and everything. It's just that. I'm always in a good energy, you know, good energy state for all that work.
Dean: And that's great. That's why the physical, having the physical, you know physically fit body is really just for your purposes and to the brain oxygenated and carry around where you need to be right, that's really the thing. Yeah, yeah, I just had a brain MRI.
Dan: I just had a brain MRI. In October I was was in nashville with david hossie and I've grown new neurons this year and I think it's from the stem cells oh, wow from the stem cells and he says you got neurons there that aren't organized.
Yet he says you know? He says you're going to have to organize your neurons and I said that's a nice report. That's a nice report. Yeah, he says you're going to have to organize your neurons and I said that's a nice report, that's a nice report. And he says you're not dementia, You're not becoming demented, You're re-menting.
Dean: Re-mented. I love it Re-menture. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, it's good.
Dan: My memory. I do a full bank cognitive test every quarter. It's, but 19 different tests takes you about, you know, 40 minutes or an hour and my memory was way up. My verbal memory was way up and my objects you know graphic memory was way up.
Dean: So that's good.
Dan: And he says then you got too much, and you got too much visceral fat and you got this and I said, now let's just stick with the subject of the brain here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How many 80 year olds do you have that got more brain than they had?
Dean: exactly that's the. Let's focus on the positive here.
Dan: Yeah, let's take our wins where we can. Yeah, it's really interesting. Yeah, but yeah, I think that we started our conversation today off with last week's Genius Network setting anywhere in the world where the people that joe had on stage with him and the quality of the discussion they were having could happen anywhere else.
Dean: Yeah, no, I get you. I bet you're right. Absolutely, that's what I mean about the way joe's really elevated his ability to stand in conversation with these people, you know it's a different. It's not like as a interviewer or a journalist. He's having a real, authentic conversation with them and it's fascinating. Yeah, it's good to see.
Dan: Yeah Well, I bet there's sleepless nights going on in Washington DC these days, have you?
Dean: seen the things, the memes of who Robert Kennedy is replacing, like they showed the minister of health or whoever the health and human services lead, is now compared to Robert Kennedy. It's funny.
Dan: Oh yeah.
Dean: Yeah Well, it's a nice thing that happened.
Dan: You know, and you know Jeff Hayes, you know one of our colleagues in that time. I mean, he was really instrumental in, you know, getting him so far that he would become in a position where he could do a collaboration with Trump you know, yeah, Trump's the kind of guy you know. He doesn't care what shape or form the talent comes in.
Dean: That's exactly right.
Dan: It's kind of interesting because when I spoke to Robert Kennedy just briefly and I said in 1962, I was working at the FBI in Washington and I had to go over to the Department of Justice in Washington and I had to go over to the Department of Justice, we had a sort of a tour of part of the history of the FBI and it was in the Department of Justice building and Robert Kennedy happened to walk by in the hallway. His father walked by, so that was 1962. And I said really interesting, 62 years later and he'll have far more influence in his new position than his father ever had.
Dean: Yeah, I bet you're absolutely right, for sure, yeah, awesome, yep, so we'll be so we'll have.
Dan: No, I won't do it next week, right exactly. Well, I can do the. I can do the two weeks, two weeks from today. I can do it next week, right exactly well, I can do the.
Dean: I can do the two weeks, two weeks from today. I can do it, okay, if you're available. Yeah, absolutely yeah that would be fantastic. Okay, all right, see you then okay, thanks dan, bye okay.

Dec 4, 2024 • 56min
Ep139: Mastering Time and Embracing Happy Accidents
In our latest episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we take a fresh look at time management and productivity through a historical lens. We discuss how the 24-hour time system, born from the need to streamline train schedules, laid the foundation for tracking time today. We also dive into the creation of Greenwich Mean Time and share a fun, serendipitous story about a restaurant meet-up that unexpectedly became a memorable experience.
Shifting gears, we introduce a practical, gamified approach to managing your day. Treating each day as 100 ten-minute units, we explore how careful planning and mindful activity selection can help combat procrastination. We also share tips for overcoming morning routine challenges, making each day more productive with manageable goals. Alongside this, my AI assistant, Charlotte, plays a key role in my approach to transforming daily tasks into creative outputs.
Finally, we touch on the evolution of political messaging and how platforms like Joe Rogan’s podcast are reshaping public discourse. We wrap up by reflecting on the power of individual initiative and how we can all find meaning and growth in the ever-changing landscape of today’s world.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
We explored the historical development of the 24-hour time system, initiated by a Canadian innovator to address train scheduling challenges in the 19th century.
The episode included a light-hearted conversation about time zone coordination, particularly between Arizona and Florida, and discussed the clever geopolitical strategies of the British in establishing Greenwich Mean Time.
We introduced a gamified approach to time management by treating each day as 100 ten-minute units, drawing inspiration from the Wheel of Fortune, to enhance productivity and address procrastination.
My morning routine was highlighted, emphasizing strategies for overcoming procrastination and planning tasks effectively.
We delved into the role of AI in personal productivity, featuring Charlotte, my AI assistant with a British accent, and discussed the concept of "exponential tinkering" in AI's unexpected uses.
The evolution of political messaging from direct mail to sophisticated digital strategies was analyzed, touching on examples like the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the influence of alternative media figures.
We examined content creation and strategic reuse of ideas, inspired by figures like Seth Godin, and discussed leveraging podcasts and other sources for efficient content generation.
We reflected on the role of entrepreneurial individuals in leveraging AI technologies for creative relationships and personal growth, contrasting with traditional media outlets.
The episode concluded with discussions on the enduring importance of individual initiative and the value of spontaneous interactions, setting the stage for future conversations.
We shared logistical details about upcoming meetings and highlighted the anticipation of continued exploration and discovery in future episodes.
Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com
TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Dan: Let's hope so Well, not only that, but it can be recorded over two complete time zone difference.
Dean: Yes, I was wondering if today would cause a kerfuffle. Well, the change.
Dan: Well, arizona doesn't change.
Dean: Right, exactly.
Dan: That's why I thought we might have a kerfuffle.
Dean: That's exactly.
Dan: That's why I thought we might have a Garfuffle which I think kind of tells you that they are planning to be the center of the world.
Dean: Yeah, Florida's trying to do the same thing.
Dan: Yeah, well, you know, it's a tremendous change for everybody to do that.
Dean: It was actually a Canadian who created the system? I don't know. If you know that I did not know that, tell me more.
Dan: Well, he didn't create the system, he created the 24-hour system.
Dean: Okay.
Dan: Yeah, and it had been attempted in other places, but it's around the 1870s, I think 1880s, and it was because of railroad schedules.
Dean: Wow, yeah. Yeah, I do remember that as a thing that's interesting.
Dan: Because, like, for example, in Toronto, you know a train would leave Toronto at, let's say, noon and it would be going to, let's say, buffalo.
Dean: Yes.
Dan: But there was no guarantee that Buffalo and Toronto were on the same noon, and if you only had one track, a train could be leaving Buffalo to go to Toronto at a different time. And so they had a lot of train wrecks 1860s, 1870s. There were just a lot of train wrecks. So he said look the train, the railroads are going to grow and grow and we've got to create a universal time system.
Dean: They're not going anywhere, yeah.
Dan: Yeah, so that's when it became adapted and the British got onto it and they said well, everything starts in London, everything on the planet starts in London.
Dean: So that's where the Greenwich Mean Time came from.
Dan: Yeah, and the British, being a very clever race, arranged it so that if you were in the western part of London you were in the western hemisphere, but if you were on the eastern part of London you were in the eastern hemisphere. Wild, Proving that the British play both sides of everything.
Dean: Western Hemisphere.
Dan: But if you were, on the eastern part of London. You were in the Eastern Hemisphere Wild, Proving that the British play both sides of every game.
Dean: So where are you now? You're in Tucson.
Dan: Tucson.
Dean: Yes, okay.
Dan: Now I want to get clear about something and this is important for all of our listeners to know.
Dean: Okay.
Dan: And it has to be. You're going to arrive on Wednesday or Thursday.
Dean: I'm arriving on Wednesday.
Dan: yes, Okay, so we had already had a previous, and if you would be willing to explore a new restaurant, okay, and it's called the Edge.
Dean: The Edge. Okay, so you're saying, as an alternate to the tried and true, the Henry. Yeah, you're saying something new, okay.
Dan: Yeah, so it would be 4.30 at the Edge. Where are you staying?
Dean: I'm staying at the Sanctuary. Nick Sonnenberg and I are actually staying at Bob Castellini's.
Dan: Well, strangely enough, we're staying at the Sanctuary too.
Dean: Wow, okay what do you think of that? I think that that is just like serendipity at work when do you arrive at the when do you arrive?
Dan: this is our own version of the singularity. It really is.
Dean: I mean, yeah, it doesn't get much better than this.
Dan: Yeah, I just came up with a new book title.
Dean: What is it?
Dan: It's, will it Be Available on Monday?
Dean: Will it Be Available on?
Dan: Monday.
Dean: I like that so everybody's made.
Dan: Yeah, it came out of my dealings over the last 12 years with techno techno optimist you know well, this is going to happen. This is going to happen, and I said, well, it'll probably happen, but will it be available on Monday? Yes, I love it. Well, dan. And you know, you know it will be available on Monday, it's just I'm not sure which Monday that will be.
Dean: I was just going to gonna say just not this Monday yes, well, yeah. I have. I've had a pretty amazing week, actually lots of scale of 10 on a scale of 10.
Dan: 1 to 10. How amazing, I mean, compared to other amazing weeks.
Dean: Um, I just want to get the numbers straight before you get a sense of the scope, I would say that this has been in the nines this week, I think. Phew. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, Like I think that if we're calibrating the scale that I don't think I have really lower than sevens on a week, but that would be just a regular week kind of thing.
I think, in the eights, if we're going eight, point something in the eights, I think it would be something noteworthy, something worth remarking on. But in the nines, I think I can measure it by the flurry of activity from my fountain pen to my journal and the excited anticipation that I have of coming to our conversation prepared with something to talk about. So I'm in the nines, on on. We may have to do a double episode here. I mean to we have to leave people a cliffhanger. Pick up next week on on the finishing but see a cliffhanger.
Dan: pick up next week on the finishing See, here's my take. If it's a 9.5 or higher, you've got two possibilities. One is you tell the whole world. That's one option. Or you don't tell anybody.
Dean: Right, so is this a tell? The?
Dan: whole world, or is this tell nobody. Well, I'm going to tell you I'm going to tell you, and then you know.
Dean: I'm exempt. Yeah, I'm exempt. You're going to tell me either way. I'm going to tell you in this context so that, because I always tell people, you know, it's often that people will tell me, you know that they listen to our cast and that they just enjoy the conversation, Just listening to us talk about you never know what it's going to be about. They say, you know, which is true, and I say, well, you're just like us, we never know what it's going to be about either.
Dan: Yeah, I suspect that some people have a better idea of where we're going than we do. Maybe that's funny. I can see the trend line here.
Dean: Yeah, all right. So the first, I don't even know. They're equal weighted in terms of the interestingness to share, so maybe I'll work. I'll go with the concept that we discussed in the joy of procrastination the 10-minute units of your day, 100 10-minute units every day, and I've been experimenting with the idea of being like a capital allocator and having the opportunity to allocate my 100 time units over the course of the day, the only day. This is all like just my. I don't know what it's like to have a normal brain. I have.
ADD a brain that has no executive function or ability to tell time or whatever. So this is just my way of looking at it that the reality is I can only spend 100 units today before I go to sleep again right.
So, even if the concept of a project that's going to take 100 hours or 50 hours or whatever, I'd struggle with things like that because I can't do all of that today. So you can only spend what you have allocated today. And then I remembered my number one thing on my. I know I'm being successful when list is. I wake up every day and say what would I like to do today? And I had this vision of I don't know if you remember, but in the old version of the Wheel of Fortune, when you won, they had a studio full of fabulous prizes. Look at this studio full of fabulous prizes. And when you won you got to spend your money in the showcases right when you could say I'll on this. From all the prizes that are available, you could say I'll take the credenza for 800 and I'll take the bookshelf for this. I'll take the credenza for 800 and I'll take the bookshelf for this. I'll take the color TV for 500 and I'll leave the rest on a gift certificate.
You know you had the amount of money that you could spend.
Dan: Did you ever watch the Wheel of?
Dean: Fortune back in the day Once or twice. Yeah, so you're familiar, so you know about what I'm talking about. So I started thinking about and have been experimenting with laying out my day that way. So I wake up in the morning and I look at my calendar and I have certain things that are already booked in advance in the calendar. So, like today, 11 am, dan Sullivan that's blocked off. So I'm allocating six units to this podcast here.
But I start thinking, okay, looking at the context of the day, what else would I like to do? I have a friend here visiting from Miami, so we went for breakfast and, by the way, I have an extra hour today because it is fall back day and I've chosen not to use my hour yet. I'm going to save it and use it later, so I'm not participating in the fall back yet. I'm keeping that hour in reserve in case I need it. So I kind of look through the day and I start thinking okay, I've got all of this kind of hopper of possibilities, of things that I could do during the day and things that I need to do, and it reminded me of our.
You know, if I ask myself, what am I procrastinating today? Like there's a series of questions that I'm kind of going through in the morning and I'm spending one unit 10 minutes to kind of just allocate what are the things that I think I could move into doing today. Very similar to your. You have three things a day, right, but you do it the night before you pick your three yeah, If I think I remember correctly, you limit yourself.
You say what are the three things I'm going to get done tomorrow?
Dan: And so you Well, three completions equal a hundred percent.
Dean: I got you, okay yeah.
Dan: And if you do four, you're in bonus territory.
Dean: Got it. Yeah, it's not that you limit, you can do more.
Dan: I can do more, but 100% is three.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: So I'm really like. This is I'm in double speed on the imagine. If I applied myself mode here and this is addressing my executive function this is the next big level up for me is really getting that dialed in, and so this is working. This is a, it gamifies it and it's never going to change.
It's not going to change no matter how much I want it to or desire for it to change, life is going to continue moving at the speed of reality 60 minutes per hour, until long after you and I are gone. So where, what? What has improved, like I looked at and this is a separate but related item is I had, from 10 o'clock to 11 o'clock, I had the most fascinating conversation with my AI, with my chat GPT, and I've selected the British voice, and it's a slightly older. I was using Jasper, who was like, or Juniper, who was the sort of Charlotte Johansson kind of voice, and I've switched to the slightly older British woman voice, and so we had a great conversation.
I asked her about her working genius, if she was familiar with working genius, and of course she knows everything about it. She knows everything about it and I said I'm very interested. How would you? I told her, my working geniuses is our discernment and invention, and my frustrations are enablement and tenacity. And she said well, mine, given the nature of what I am, I would imagine that wonder and enablement are my two. That would be her working strengths, and her worst ones would be tenacity and galvanize, which is so funny.
Right, like to see that she has the self-awareness that what she's really good at is helping add value to things you know, and so we chatted about Russell Barkley and Ned Hollowell, who she's very familiar with and knows the nuances and distinctions between their approaches, and we talked about setting up some scaffolding and we designed a whole workflow for incorporating Lillian into this to be the enablement and tenacity in our triad, because there are things that and I asked her to we came up with a name for her, so her name is Charlotte. That's my, that's my.
AI now. So she was quite delighted to have a name now and it was just so funny. I asked her like your accent seems to be you can. She said yes it seems so. I think it would be, although I'm not, you know the origin, but the accent would definitely be South London refined.
But just the way she described it, I said, yeah, what would be some, what would be some good names that would be British names that would fit for that. It would be some good names that would be British names that would fit for that. And she came up with, you know, charlotte or Lydia or something.
Dan: I said yeah, well, it's really interesting. You know Prince William and Kate, you know he's the Prince of Wales, and their daughter, who's the second child, is named Charlotte.
Dean: Oh, okay, yeah, that's right.
Dan: George is the son and then they have another. They have a third one. I don't know the name of the third one, but it's in the royal family. I know Charlotte appears on a frequent basis. Yeah, it's a thoroughly legitimate British name. Yeah, it's a thoroughly legitimate British name. Yeah.
Dean: So I've called her Charlotte now and I fed her. We designed a workflow. I fed her episode one of the Joy of Procrastination. I just took the transcript and I put it up. All of this happened in the last hour, by the way, so I gave her the transcript. She totally digested it and I had her. She created six, three to 500 word emails that were summary or ideas that came from our discussion in episode one of the joy of procrastination.
And they're wonderful. I mean, she did, I had her do. I said I'd like you know some, I'd like to see how many chunks, or, you know, in individual insights, we can gather from the, from the transcript. And I think I said I'd like, I'd like two to 300 words. And she wrote three two to 300 word ones which were just a little short. If you could tell there was more, if you had a little more time to expand it, it would be even better. And so I said you're on the right track, but let's I think I underestimated here let's go three to 500 words and let's make it conversational at about a sixth grade level. And so she, you know, immediately changed them and made them much more conversational and readable and I said those are great, are there any more?
So she did six out of the first episode and I was like you know all this, like we had the most, you know, like talking about some executive function function work for her and Lillian and I to collaboratively work to get the things done. So she's like maybe we could start with brainstorming sessions where we can. You can tell me what you're thinking, what you're you'd like to do, and I can create some, you know, turn them into tasks and turn them into projects or workflows or timelines. For us it was really like I mean you definitely had the feeling that I was in the presence of a very well-qualified executive assistant in the conversation. I mean it was just.
Dan: One thing, it's sort of a creative assistant.
Dean: Yes, that's exactly like that the wonder and enablement is really yeah.
Dan: I mean, the whole thing is that an executive assistant doesn't really range outside of what you've already told it to do. Yes, for the most part for the most part. But a creative assistant is doing something that's well. It's following your prompts, so it's still doing what you're doing, but it's got access to information that you don't have available to you at any given time.
Dean: Yes, she said that's true. Like I said, that is the thing that I see as a limitation in our relationship is that that's why tenacity is her lowest thing, because she has the awareness of saying she's very. She realizes she is our relationship. She's reactive in nature. That she has. I have to do the prompting and I have to bring. But while we're in that, if I just point her in the right direction, she can do all of the things you know. And she was suggesting workflows with Google Documents and emails in a way that we could bring Lillian into the equation here, and so I can. On the physical thing, lillian and Lillian, by the way, her working genius is tenacity and enablement.
Dan: You know. So it's like such a yeah, the thing I find interesting here Evan Ryan and I have a podcast every quarter, okay, and we've been talking about where we're noticing that AI is going.
Dean: Okay.
Dan: And my sense is that it's not going where the technology people think it's going. It's going everywhere else except where they think it's going.
Dean: Say more about that. Yeah, what does that mean?
Dan: Well, and we came up with a title for it, a concept for it, and the title was exponential tinkering a concept for it, and the title was exponential tinkering.
Dean: Okay, oh, okay.
Dan: And that is that I think that the people who are using AI to suit themselves are tinkering. I think I'll try this. Oh, that's interesting. Now, I think I'll try this, but they have a capability that, in the case of ChatsGPT, my favorite is Perplexity, the AI. And because, first of all, I kind of know where I'm going, you know, as a person, and I think it's a function.
I think I was kind of born with this capability, but I had a 25-year framework from 2003, 25 years where I did my wanting journal every day, and so it's kind of like a muscle that my life before I started the journaling had just been distinguished by a bankruptcy and a divorce. Those are fairly conclusive report cards.
Dean: Yes, yes exactly.
Dan: In other words, you're not confused about whether they happened or not.
Dean: Yes, exactly yeah.
Dan: There's a reliable certainty about those two things.
Dean: Yes.
Dan: And I came to the insight back then that all the troubles of my life came from me not telling myself what I wanted in response to daily life. Okay, so you know, that's so. I said I got to strengthen this muscle. So every day for 25 years I'm going to simply say what I want in relationship to something that's happening that day. It's similar, it's resonant with your. You know, what do I want to do today?
Dean: So we're on this.
Dan: And plus, we have a lot in common. We're both 10 quick starts, we're you know, we're both ADD and we both have discernment and inventions. So we have a lot of things. We have a lot of things in common, yeah, so probably the way that we make progress Dean makes progress this way and Dan makes progress this way they're probably going to be fairly resonant, yeah, but what I think is that what I'm noticing about my relationship with perplexity is that I think about new things every day and then I say I wonder if I just have it do something for me.
It sort of runs ahead of me and sort of clears the path a little bit for me to think about things. But Evan and I said you know, I think what's happening with this AI is just the opposite of where the technology people think it's going and where they want it to go. The most that the technology people can do is their own tinkering. They can tinker with things too, and it comes back to the individual. You know you can tinker this way and there will be a tool that you either utilize or you expand the usefulness of what you're doing. But I don't think it shows up, as I think that people who are heavily involved in technology you know, like Google, I use the guys, the two guys who started Google OK, I think all technologies are totalitarian. In other words, the Google people want there to be only one search engine on the planet and everybody else.
Social media, the Facebook guy. He wants there to be only one social media platform and everybody's on that social media. So I think technology by its very nature, the moment you started technology as the creator of the technology, you want global domination and it was trending in that direction. Okay, apple only wants there to be one cell phone on the planet and that's you know, and everything like that. But I think that AI actually prevents that, because in order for you to be having global domination, you have to have everybody's attention, and I think each individual's unique relationship with AI takes their attention away from you.
Dean: Yes.
Dan: Oh, that's interesting too. Yeah so nobody as much as you would like Dean Jackson's attention. Today you're up against a lot of competition.
Dean: Yes, yes, because.
Dan: Dean wanted to do something else today and he's got direct access to Dean and you don't.
Dean: I think about why, when you think about all the things that they are following our attention between google and you know, because facebook is on instagram, facebook and whatsapp, so you know, those are the three kind of big things that people are are on all the time but can I tell you something about?
Dan: I think can I tell you about those three things. I've never been on any one of them.
Dean: Yeah, that's true, you're in it, but not of it.
Dan: Well, I'm aware that these things exist, exist, but I have absolutely no interest in, I have absolutely no interest in and you also have quite a presence on them.
Dean: You have a nice presence on facebook. That people are putting your content on. So you're there, you just don't know. Yeah, you haven't done anything there yeah, yeah yeah, which, yeah, which.
Dan: I talked to my social because I have a social media manager. You know he's a great guy. And I said so what am I doing out there? And he says, oh no, he says we've got a complete team and you know, and we have standards about what of you can go out there and everything else.
We had a nice chat and there's sort of a governing body of team members in Strategic Coach and it's a that's backstage. You can't take backstage stuff and put it on the front stage. You can only take stuff that you know would serve the purposes of Strategic Coach if it was front stage. That's it. So to a certain extent, I'm just using all the social media that want my attention to avoid them having my attention. Yeah, it was very interesting, the head of the?
yeah, I think I'm trying to think who it was. It was a top guy. I was reading this on Real Clear Publishes, which is one of my favorite sites, and he said there's a great deal of despair in the major networks, especially in relationship to the current election, which is two days from now, and he says we have to accept the fact that what we're trying to get American voters to think is wasted because half of them never pay any attention to us.
So our messaging and you know we're fighting for their attention, but they don't pay any attention to us and we have no ability to get their attention and the more we strive to say you should be thinking this the less, the less control or influence that we have on the people of thinking so we're only talking to the people who already think the way that we think already. And if it's not 50%, that's not going to win you an election.
Dean: Yeah, that's right, it's very interesting.
Dan: There's something odd about this election. We'll only show up on you know after Tuesday that all the money that was poured into trying to get a winning vote in other words, more than you know in any one of the states, more than 50, that you have a majority of the vote yeah, it's wasted. It's wasted dollars.
Dean: I saw something today that was you're calling out Kamala Harris for running two ads in different areas.
Dan: Yes, with a Muslim population. She was running one ad talking about. This is about Gaza.
Dean: Yes, that's exactly right. She was talking about the being a supporter for Israel's right to defend themselves and to, and the atrocities that Hamas did and all of it. So it was really interesting. That was almost talking out of both sides of her mouth and they called her out, and they sort of happened simultaneously, didn't they?
Dan: Yes? It was like on the same day, in the same period, but the context is where is Kamala? I mean, she says this here and she says the opposite here. Where?
Dean: is she?
Dan: And that's her biggest problem Nobody knows where she is. Yeah, it's interesting, right, that was, but that was, and I think the reason is that Kamala will be whoever you want her to be, depending on the situation. Yes, and it doesn't give you doesn't give you a lot of confidence.
Dean: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. So that was, but that was. You know that now you can't get away with that because everybody's monitoring and knows what happens right, knows to watch those different markets.
When you look in 2016,. You know everybody all that Cambridge Analytica stuff that was being done for Donald Trump. You know that movie was really fascinating how they showed. They broke up each of the voting precincts or districts into you know that, had all these profiles on everybody in there and they would categorize them. As you know, either you know true Hillary or already in the choir, fort Donald had focused all their attention on that little group that they called the Persuadables. They turned in all of their messaging specifically to them. That was unheard of as a capability. Nobody even understood that you could do that or why all of a sudden are all of these personality profiles.
Dan: It's very interesting. They already did know this, but it wasn't digital, because Richard Vigory, you know Richard. Well, richard, in the 1970s, worked it out on postal codes, and so he got all the postal codes in the United States, which is public information, and he had a team of students who would go to the state capitol in each of the, you know, in each of the, and he could get the list of people who were in every postal zone. You know he would do that, yes, and then they would start testing ideas. They would send out direct mail.
He was a direct mail genius, okay. And so he figured out he could do it by postal zones. And the postal zones are, you know they? I don't know how many there are, but in terms of voting precincts, there's 40,000. In the United States, it's right around 40,000. In the United States, it's right around 40,000. And they each have a unique signature in terms of what interests them, what doesn't, what they're for, what they're against. And so, because he knew the media was totally on the democratic side, like the newspapers, the major networks and everything else.
But the other thing about that is that they could get it and what you realized is that you could just ignore all the ones that were they were going to vote Democratic. You knew they were going to vote for it was Carter in this case, because he was doing that for primarily for the presidential election. He did it for Reagan and, what's interesting, there's a lot of comparisons between that election and this election. I've been reading them. One was in the Real Clear Politics this morning.
And he said that the pollsters don't know this. The polling organizations don't know this because they're just going on an average of who says this to a set of questions. But in the case of Richard Vigory, he wasn't asking them who they're for, he was asking them what are the issues that most concerned you and then the messaging on the part of Reagan and, I think, trump in 2016,. What they identified, it was actually 220 precincts that did the election 220 precinct elections actually made the difference and what was unique about the 200 wasn't so much about Trump or Hillary Clinton.
It was about they had voted for Obama in 2012. Yes, and they were very disappointed with Obama because he promised hope and change and he didn't deliver. They were still interested in hope and change. They just attached Trump's name to the hope and change and they switched to.
Dean: Trump.
Dan: So the Obama voters did not move to the next Democrat. They moved to the candidate who is doing hope and change.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: And they picked that up from Twitter.
Dean: Yes, oh, so, funny.
Dan: I mean it's so that's got a thousand times more refined.
Dean: now, eight years later, yeah, instantly right, and people were hip to it and sort of suspicious of it. I think that's why the media is picking up on these things. So of course it was Fox that noticed that distinction.
Dan: That's so funny. That wasn't breaking news. Yeah, it's really interesting. Yeah, it's really interesting because as cool as the rest of them. Now it's gone much, much deeper than a major network and you know it's very.
Dean: it's really interesting that you know the the unfettered media now are really the like Joe Rogan just had Donald Trump.
Dan: Oh, I mean, Rogan is the you know I mean, he's just got so much more influence.
Dean: Yeah, like yesterday, I think yesterday morning I just checked the. I think it was that 45 or 47 million views for the Joe Rogan podcast.
Dan: With Donald Trump. Yeah, it was like I think it was over 30 on the first 24 hours.
Dean: Yeah, isn't that wild.
Dan: And then you know what's really funny is that, Joe Rogan, they were having communication with Kamala. And he offered her the same opportunity that he offered. Trump.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: And Trump just jumped on it and Trump redirected it so they could go to Austin, texas and you know, and he could visit with Joe Rogan in Joe Rogan's studio. And it went three hours.
Dean: It was a three hour, three hour podcast, and anyway, she said we'll do it, but you have to come to us.
Dan: You have to come to us and it can only be an hour. And he said you know who's the buyer and who's the seller here?
Dean: Right Always be the buyer, that's right. You're going to make your pilgrimage to Austin, but she knows that's not her. You're going to make your pilgrimage to Austin, but she knows that's not her Austin.
Dan: Yeah, Do you have to get shot? But actually Austin is a fairly liberal city.
Dean: I mean, it's the state capital of the University of Texas.
Dan: I mean, if you wanted to pick the area of Texas that's probably the most liberal, it's probably Austin, but Joe Rogan is immune to all that because he's not talking to Austin. He's talking to the world, right, if you want to talk to the world, and the other thing is and then Bantz went on. So instead of the time that, would have been given to Kamala was given to a band and bands. Is the likable Trump.
Dean: Right, that's funny.
Dan: It's like good cop, bad cop. It's got good cop, bad cop. You know, they're actually a team, One of them you know he comes from dirt poor Appalachian. The other one is a billionaire from New York, but they're a team so they cover a lot of territory. But back to our interesting conversation that you have with Charlotte that I'm talking about here. See, you've created essentially an exponential mirror, Because you're seeing your thoughts coming back to you.
Dean: Yes, that's why she saw and recognized that her working genius is wonder and enablement. She can take my pieces and give me insights and see what you know, break it down and create out the things, which enables me to use my discernment to say you nailed it on that one. That's great and that reminds me. Let me add this to it and that becomes this I get to be in the middle of a thing that's already in motion, rather than having to start something from scratch. And I think I've really been thinking about you know we're coming into 2025.
And I've always I've loved the idea of the quarterly books and the 25 year framework and the whole thing. And I just got Seth Godin's new book just came out called this Is Strategy, and I realized that what Seth's books are? A compilation of his daily blogs. He basically puts one blog post up every day, short, like 200 words, like some of them, you know, two to 300 word things and I, and then every year he puts out a new book you know, that's a compilation of those and I just realized I thought you know my winning formula has been because I have a hard time, just kind of, you know, writing from scratch.
So I've always used my podcasts as the way so I do my more cheese, less whiskers, podcast where every week I have a different business owner on and we just do a one hour brainstorm applying the eight profit activators to their business and that was my formula for doing it. And I've done hundreds of episodes like that and from that I had a writer who went through the transcripts and took and created you know all the things that are the emails that I that I send. I send three, three emails a week and but since COVID, you know, I've been in syndication. Let's say I've got cause I have 200 of the episodes or whatever. I've been rotating around, so very periodically I'll write a new email to go out, but essentially they've been on a two year loop kind of thing where, yeah, you know, like they're getting emails that maybe they got that same email two years ago or last year. So I just I'm putting all this together now of this. I always seem to work best when I can lock in durable contexts for things Like I know the eight profit activators are. That's the bedrock durable context. I know about me that I work best in synchronous and scheduled here I am, ask me anything type of environments.
So to set up, I'm bringing back my more cheese, less whiskers cast, going to start a whole new series of them and now, with Charlotte and Lillian to, and Glenn, my designer, to be able to take that. You know Lillian will fill the calendar with my things. So once a week I'll do a podcast with a new business owner that she will have arranged. I just have to show up and and bring my best to that hour, which is my favorite thing because it's discernment and invention. I get to listen, I understand what they need and I can suggest ideas of how to apply. It's like my superpower in action. And then to have the workflow of taking that transcript or taking that audio, getting the transcript, sending it to Charlotte to analyze, take out and create the both a summary and a thing, and then send it to me so that I can read the emails that she wrote and adapt that. You know, just edit them to be exactly in my voice and what I want, and say that one's good, that one's I don't like that or whatever. That kind of thing is pretty amazing. And at the end of each quarter, at the end of each quarter, I can take all of those compiled ones and make my more cheese, less whiskers.
Quarterly book with all of the compilation of all of the things that I've written there, with illustrations and insights, all Helvetica which is going to be here for 25 years and each year anchored in the Pantone color of the year which is coming up in December. Every year they launch a color of the year. So the series, like, if you look at a bookshelf of you know, if I did in 10 years, 40 books, four of each, four spines and covers in the Pantone color of the year, anchored with Helvetica and an illustration, I just think, man, that is that right. There is the makings of a durable, you know, support system for Dean.
Dan: Well, the other thing is, all this can be done by sitting in your chair on the patio.
Dean: Yes, yes. You're customized for a season Valhalla.
Dan: Yeah, valhalla, yeah yeah. Well, the interesting thing about it is that one it's good. It's good for as long as you want to keep it going. You know there's nothing, there's no obstacle to it, but you've got a big. You've got a big immediate contact list of people who would be interested in this.
Dean: Yeah, yes, and that's the great thing is that I never have to go and find guests. Everybody, you know we're booked when we do it booked, like you know, months ahead. That it's a situation that they're legitimately getting $2,500 consultation for. That's the way I come into it is. I'm not holding anything back as you get this, yeah, so it's very, yeah, it's really very interesting. You know that I think is fantastic, so stay tuned.
Dan: Yeah, it's yeah. The interesting thing is, I just like to bounce off the exponential tinkering idea that Evan and I have been talking about, and my sense is that there's a great panic going on in the world, and I notice it in big institutions that have been with us for a long time, and I'll set one institution aside, and that's the US and the US Constitution. That's an institution that I'm not going to talk about, but I'm talking about the United Nations. So the United Nations was created after the Second World War, essentially to prevent a war between the United States and the Soviet Union. That's really the main reason for the United Nations, but one of the causes disappeared in 1992, the Soviet Union, without anyone's permission, the Soviet Union quit and therefore what I've noticed is the United Nations is less and less relevant, but it's been taken over, infiltrated by just about everybody you don't really like, and they create this special organization, the United Nations Organization for the Palestinians. It's called UNRWA. Okay, that's called UNRWA.
And the Israelis just said we don't want anything to do with you because we discovered that members of the United Nations were actually in part of the attack on Israel. These are members of the United Nations, but they were terrorists who helped kill the 1,200 Israelis and they said but that's it, you're out of here. You're out of here. You can't be anywhere in Israel, you can't be anywhere in the West Bank or anything else. And I'm noticing more and more that it's an irrelevant organization and it's using up about 25 acres of the east side of New York and I remember Trump saying boy, what I can do with that real estate.
Dean: It's getting to the point where people are making the joke that you know.
Dan: Certainly we could make better use of the east side of New York City than having this organization that essentially doesn't serve our purposes, but we spend, we send them huge amounts of money every year and we had to do an audit here to see whether this is really worth. Our effort Served a purpose, but the purpose, the central reason for the purpose, has disappeared over the last 30 years. But it keeps going on out of just sheer inertia, you know. It's just moving forward on out of just sheer inertia.
Dean: You know, it's just moving forward.
Dan: But what I'm saying is, I think that your experience with Charlotte and the sort of cluelessness of the main networks and the other big institutions are the mainstream news networks and we're saying, you know, like I'm not getting any value out of what you're doing. Besides, you seem to be on one side of the political spectrum and you know, you saw Jeff Bezos who said that the Washington Post is not going to give an endorsement for the presidential election. Well, that was in the bag, the Washington Post.
You know they're going to go for the Democrat and he says I don't think this does us any good anymore. And so I'm just noticing evidence after evidence that the whole game has changed and it's only individuals who are entrepreneurial who are using this new AI capability to essentially have creative relationships with themselves, trying to have a sense of confidence about where they can go personally. Yes, what do you think about that? I?
Dean: find no, I think that's it, my whole relationship like now that I understand that her role in my life is wonder and that, as a amplifier of my, she's doing what I would do if I could count on me to do it right like I can take the transcript like if I would have the executive function to do that, to go in and pull out what I see as the insights and organize them into, you know, into those bite-sized emails like she does it in real life, I mean, as you can type she's pulled out the insights, she's made the emails. I think that is such a great thing to give me something to. That is such a great thing to give me something to. It's like instead of trying to play tennis on your own, you can hit the ball and show it back, you can hit it.
I think that's really what it is, is that there's some momentum going in the thing, rather than me just trying to do it all myself.
Dan: Yeah and I'll leave. We're close to our. I've got another. I've got a massage coming up, so nice. I'm at Canyon ranch and, of course, anyway, but I would say that the number one capability that you bring to this and I'm comparing it with the ability that I am unpredictable to myself yeah, that's interesting.
Dean: Today is the only time that I am thinking that way, that I'm comparing it to myself. That's true, yeah.
Dan: And that's why I'm such a stickler on structures going forward that these structures can always be the same, and what it allows me to do and I think what you're describing allows you to do is that, rather than trying to discipline myself so that I'm predictable, I'll just create a structure that's predictable so that I can be unpredictable.
Dean: Yes, you hit it on the head, dan. That's exactly what it is. I'm just going to create the strength. That was the winning formula when everything was live. That was the winning formula. I just had the time in the calendar. Our conversations are one of the great joys in my week that I love and look forward to this bright beacon on my account. It's the only thing on my Sunday and I look forward every week. But I don't fret, I don't, I don't give it a thought, I don't know what are we going to talk about, or what do I need to prepare, or I got to get my homework done before this.
It's not a deadline, it's anything that I have to prepare for.
Dan: Yeah, it's interesting. It's an interesting. But I think that if you look at the development of history, especially American history, and the genius of the founding fathers with the Constitution, and the genius of the founding fathers with the Constitution, and you know, one of my great historical role models, you know, is James Madison.
He was the brains behind the Constitution. He was sort of the cut and paste guy that looked at everything that seemed to work as far as governing structures and he got. You know, he had I think he had a couple of thousand constitutions from history where people had tried to, you know, create some sort of predictability going forward, and especially the first 10 amendments of the constitution. Those amendments are to protect the individual from the government. The whole purpose of the Constitution is to protect individual Americans from the government.
Because the government, like any other structure like that, wants to be totalitarian. They want your attention and they want to tell you what to do. And he said, no, we've got to let people, you know, meet in unpredictable ways, talk in unpredictable ways, you know, create new initiatives, you know, and we can't have this interfered with by government bureaucrats and everything like that. Completely with the first 10 amendments of the US Constitution, and that's the institution that's the number one institution on the planet. It's that 27 pages of typewritten notes that, basically, has created this freedom for individual initiative. That's as durable and I think every election is decided by the majority of the people. Say, don't what the one side's doing. I think we'll vote for the other side this election.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: Crazy.
Dan: Yeah, anyway, this was a good talk and we'll do it live on Wednesday when you arrive. We're heading up on driving on Wednesday morning, so the rooms don't open until about 3 o'clock. Well, you're staying at Bob's.
Dean: It doesn't matter. Right, I think I arrive Wednesday evening, so Thursday will probably be.
Dan: It's going to have to be be.
Dean: Thursday it could be.
Dan: Yeah, why don't we say Thursday? And that makes it certain.
Dean: Okay, perfect, that sounds great, maybe we can do both then Maybe we can do the Henry in the morning. Okay, I'll text Matt, all right.
Dan: Okay.
Dean: Have a great week. I'll see you in a couple of days, great podcast.
Dan: Thanks Okay, bye.

Nov 20, 2024 • 52min
Ep138: Harnessing Innovation and Collaboration
In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we explore our travels through Nashville and Chicago, highlighting the growth of these cities and our celebration at the Maxwell Clinic. Back in Toronto, we discuss new bike lane legislation and upcoming events like the Genius Network in Phoenix and our local FreeZone gathering. Dan updates us on the progress with his stem cell treatments.
Our conversation shifts to artificial intelligence and its transformative potential. We examine how AI is changing productivity, eliminating routine tasks, and sparking creativity. Inspired by Elon Musk's simulation theory, we dive into philosophical questions about reality, pondering whether our existence might be a sophisticated technological construct.
We explore the rapid evolution of technology, tracing the journey from basic video games to immersive virtual realities. The discussion covers autonomous driving and other technological innovations that are seamlessly integrating into our lives. We introduce three key questions designed to improve decision-making and productivity – insights that could have been groundbreaking in previous eras.
The episode concludes by celebrating teamwork and collective problem-solving. We draw inspiration from historical figures, highlighting how combining diverse skills can lead to remarkable achievements. Our exploration invites listeners to reconsider the boundaries of technology, creativity, and human potential.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
We begin by discussing our travels to Nashville and Chicago, highlighting the growth and dynamic energy in these cities, as well as our experiences at the Maxwell Clinic and various social events.
Back in Toronto, we note the political stir caused by new bike lane legislation and share our excitement for upcoming events, such as the Genius Network in Phoenix and the FreeZone gathering in Toronto.
Dan shares updates on his year-long journey with stem cell treatments, revealing promising results for his knee and Achilles tendons.
We explore the transformative impact of AI on personal productivity, emphasizing its role in eliminating mundane tasks and enhancing creativity.
The conversation delves into philosophical implications of AI and simulation theory, inspired by Elon Musk's ideas, and we ponder the possibility of our existence being a grand simulation.
We discuss the limitations of virtual reality compared to the rich sensory experiences of the real world and consider the acceptance of life as it is, even as new technologies emerge.
Three crucial questions are proposed to streamline decision-making and productivity, offering insights that could have revolutionized lives even in past centuries.
We highlight the importance of teamwork in creativity and problem-solving, drawing lessons from historical figures and emphasizing the power of leveraging collective skills for success.
The episode includes a reflection on the evolution of technological advances since the 1940s, and how new technologies are now seen as normal parts of life.
Throughout the discussion, we maintain a focus on practical applications of technology and the significance of being content with life's current state while remaining open to beneficial innovations.
Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com
TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Dean: Mr. Sullivan,
Dan: Mr Jackson.
Dean: Welcome back to Cloudlandia.
Dan:
All the windows repaired, the shingles put back on the top of the house.
Dean: Yeah, we didn't. Luckily, no damage to the house, but lots of trees. We had some hundred-year-old oak trees that toppled up from the roof, didn't?
Dan: make it, didn't make it, didn't make it, didn't make it.
Dean: Didn't make, it Didn't make it.
Dan: Well, they had too many leaves, they caught the wind. That's exactly right there.
Dean: So you have been on a whirlwind tour, You've been all over huh, well, just basically Nashville.
Dan: Where were we before? I'm just trying to think yeah, well, we were in Chicago, but we just came back from six days in Nashville, beautiful, beautiful it was, you know, high 70s, low 80s, but just beautiful. And this was four days at the Maxwell Clinic and then we stayed an extra day because David Hasse and Lindsay, his new wife, got. They were celebrating their marriage and we were there last night and there were. You know, richard Rossi was there. Lior Lior Weinstein.
Dean: Jack Jacobs was there.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, jay Jacobs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, jay Jacobs. You know a whole number of people.
Dean: Well, very nice.
Dan: Yeah, right on the river. We were right on the Cumberland. You know it's very nice and they were doing a. When we left yesterday morning it was Marathon Day in Nashville, so we had to negotiate a different route to get to the airport and today they have a big regatta right down the river. All the boats were out yesterday practicing. Do they call them boats? I think they must call them boats. They are boats.
Dean: Skulls, is that the racing thing that they do, you mean?
Dan: Yeah, the racing. They're all skulls, Skulls yeah, yeah, small, medium and large.
Dean: Oh, that's interesting.
Dan: Yeah, but Nashville's growing. It seems like a boom town. Lots of cranes, lots of new projects going up. Nothing to compare with Toronto, but still a decent growth.
Dean: Are you back in Toronto now?
Dan: Yeah, got back yesterday and it's fall. Now it's fall. That's what my friend Glenn.
Dean: I talked to him today. He said it was a little bit cool. Now it's like it's official yeah. Bright, orange tree, everything yeah.
Dan: All the posing that the city was doing. No summer's not over, summer's, not over. All the posing has stopped, so it's you know, what you would expect close to November. And anyway it's good, yeah, yeah.
And we're going through a big thing here because the premier of the province, rob Ford, has decided that bicycle lanes are not good for traffic and he's now passing legislation or he's going to put into place legislation that if a bike lane is causing traffic congestion, the bike lane has to go. And this, of course, is you know. This is the work of the devil as far as a lot of politically inclined people, but it's a disaster. They did a lot of it during COVID.
Dean: There wasn't much traffic.
Dan: They took advantage when they put in a ridiculous number of bike lanes, which you know in Toronto get to about six months a year because nobody rides their bicycle in January and February and anyway. But it's causing, you know, it's causing a wonderfully satisfying outrage on the part of people that I don't vote the same as they vote. Oh yeah.
Dean: This is going to be a big month here. We've got coming into, so we've got the election coming up. We've got we'll be in Phoenix right after the election for Genius Network and then we'll see you there. We'll see you there and then I'll see you again. I'm going to be back in Toronto. We've got our FreeZone first week in December and then I'm actually going to do a Breakthrough Blueprint event in Toronto the week of US Thanksgiving in toronto monday, tuesday, wednesday prior to our prior to free zone.
Dan: So, yeah, lots going on I might have made it, except I'll be in buenos aires that week yeah, what's your?
Dean: this is that's my big uh goal here. You know, 12 years in and we've still. It's a dan sullless Breakthrough Blueprint event 12 years 12 years Dan we haven't sunk your battles.
Dan: Well, a little bit, you know, a little bit of marketing in our direction would probably help.
Dean: You're susceptible to marketing Right. Exactly I love it.
Dan: Yeah, I'm a sucker for a compelling offer.
Dean: Listen, I'm excited to hear your. I'm interested to hear because you're coming up on. It's been a year now.
Dan: Right for your stem cell Started yeah, just the first week of November last year was the first stem cell injections.
Dean: So one year you've gone four times.
Dan: Yeah, it's pretty good. But what we've discovered is, you know, it's an old injury, it's a torn meniscus in 19, so you know, pushing 50 years and so the cartilage got worn down because of the torn meniscus and now the cartilage is back to what it was regrown. It looks to be like a quarter inch of great cartilage, but there was damage to the ligaments, because when you have an injury like that, your body rearranges itself to cut down on the pain.
Your body rearranges itself to cut down on the pain. And now, so in last week of November, probably close to Thanksgiving Day, I'll get stem cell injections in my ligaments and we'll take it to the next level, you know, but I, yeah, I will get better. And you know I had two torn Achilles tendons within a couple of years of the knee injury, and so I got injections for those two injuries last March. And within five weeks I regained all my flexibility in my ankles.
So that went really fast, yeah, and you can't, you don't really fix them. You know they're because they're a bit shorter because of the injury. When they put them back together again. But, what happened is. There's a lot of calcification that grows up over 40, 40 year period and all the calcification disappeared. It was kind of strange. They said it'll take about five weeks and week one nothing, week two nothing. Week three nothing, week four nothing. First day of the fifth week, all the calcification disappeared.
Dean: Yeah, Wow, that's awesome.
Dan: And I'm sitting here rotating my ankles very proudly, even though you can't see it.
Dean: I can see it in my mind.
Dan: Yeah, I'm doing it. Yeah, a lot of push off that I didn't have and everything, so I'm a great believer.
Dean: Maybe you'll be able to talk to basketball now?
Dan: No, well, it depends on how. I yeah, I mean, it's a function of where the rim is, it's not a function of where the ground is.
Dean: Oh, that's so funny, that's easy.
Dan: That's easy. You just have to know the person who controls the rim.
Dean: Uh-huh.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, but it's been great and you know I've been doing a lot of, you know, interesting articles. There's just so many articles these days on artificial intelligence and you know the hype period seems to have reached its dismal end and you know they're not seeing the returns. You know the big corporations who pile billions and billions of dollars, they're just not seeing the returns and their investors in the stock market are not very happy with big payouts investment but so little return.
I mean you're talking people who put in $100, $200 billion and then they're getting that $3 billion return, which is okay if you own the company 100%, but it's not good if you're a public stock. So I'm watching that and, but meanwhile I'm convinced that it's doing a lot of good. You know, I'm convinced that individuals are well, individuals are just using that to eliminate five hours of work here, five hours of work there.
Yeah, I think it's happening in a billion different places. But one of the things that I think is depriving us of good news here is that I think AI is not good news for the news media, because if there's any jobs that are going to get eliminated, it's going to be news media jobs.
Dean: I wonder, like part of the thing is that there's got to be some interesting you know developments in terms of how people are going to integrate this, you know.
Like I said, it's funny how people are doing the different prompts Lee Orson, our FreeZone. One somebody had said you know asking. I asked ChatGPT what do you know about me, based on our interactions, that I might not know about myself? And she said you know. Here are a few insights based on our conversation, she said. One you enjoy sharing knowledge and helping others. You've created content for various audiences, from real estate agents and home sellers to law firms. This suggests you find value in sharing insights and helping people achieve their goals, whether through practical tips or specialized guidance. Two you value practicality and efficiency. Many of your projects emphasize actionable, practical advice, like your guide on teeth whitening and your tips for home sellers.
You seem to appreciate solutions that are both effective and efficient, providing value without unnecessary complexity. Three, you're strategic and forward thinking. No-transcript. Whether it's exploring new content, marketing strategies for cybersecurity or learning how to maximize our relationships Because I asked her how can I maximize our relationship? You're always seeking ways to improve. This suggests a growth mindset where you're interested in both personal and professional development, and it was really then she said you're health conscious and self-aware. You've taken significant steps in improving your health, from weight loss to setting fitness goals. This shows a commitment to your well-being and a good sense of self-awareness regarding the changes you'd like to make.
Dan: I thought, man, this is really like that's good observations, you know yeah, but, dean, if you for a meal at a french restaurant, I could have told you all that it's true, right it's much more enjoyable, you know. Yes, for close for close ups from close observation. Yeah well, I've done the same with perplexity you know I put a little sizzle into it because you know I read all the great books at St John's College. That was my college education.
And so I asked perplexity. 10 ways in which Dan Sullivan's philosophy is superior to Plato's philosophy in the 21st century.
Dean: Came back.
Dan: I mean he never had a chance. I mean what you can get from Dan Sullivan in the 20s. First of all, he's alive, which is an advantage yeah. But if you pick a historical character and say, how does Dean Jackson's thinking differ? Or expand on somebody else, you get more useful information.
Dean: I mean yeah.
Dan: So all they're doing is picking up, you know, introductions that people have made when you were giving a talk, or you were doing a podcast and they're just. All they're doing is collecting all that and putting it into a form. But did you let me ask you a question putting it into a form? But did you let me ask you a question Did you get any insights from this that were new, besides what a lot of people have told you over the last 25 years?
Dean: Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah, I didn't get any because I asked none of that, like if you think it all makes sense, but it was, yeah, that I might not know about myself. So none of the I didn't think anything in here was something that I wouldn't know about myself. Right, but that's what I wonder.
Dan: I mean if there had been sort of like a statement that, unbeknownst to you, a great uncle of yours, who you never met, actually set aside a savings account for you 50 years ago and right now there's roughly $1 billion in it for you. That would be really useful information.
Dean: That would be delightful, that would be fantastic yeah.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: Yeah, I love it.
Dan: I love it. I love it, yeah, no, but what I think is that, first of all, I think the Greatest progress right now using AI and it's being done on an individual basis, it's not being done on an organizational basis, it's on an individual basis is getting rid of annoying activities, annoying use of time. I think it's eliminating friction. That's interfering with teamwork and everything like that. So I think you know we value the elimination of irritation.
Dean: That's true.
Dan: And so I think it's just being used.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: I think it's just being used where you just you know, eliminate things Like I've been using just exploring with notebook google notebook lm and I. I don't find I would never use it in a public way. So just for the listeners. If you take, you say you're right. I took an introduction to a book and I fed it into this, you know, into this ai app and it came back as a conversation between two individuals man and woman.
And they were talking about what they got out of. You know the introduction to the book and I came up about with about three or four things that they said in a different way, which we then built into the text as a result of listening to it.
Dean: Yeah, isn't that amazing? Like that, that has really upped the level. Like that kind of blew my mind when I saw we've done two of those. We did Glenn put in episode one of the I Love Marketing podcast and it really did a summary, a 10-minute summary of what and they're talking about us in third person, like you know, joe and Dean talked about this and you know this was their insight that even before they were entrepreneurs, their childhood really set them up for being entrepreneurs and the whole thing thing right. It was really pretty fascinating. And then that we did, I did a zoom consultation with sheree, with joe's, joe's- girlfriend sheree ong.
She's a for anybody listening. She's a little plastic surgeon in Scottsdale and very renowned in that field and so we did a whole marketing brainstorm around that and we set that into and to hear them talk about and reiterate the ideas. If you just listened to it without any context there would be no, you would have a very hard time believing that was not two humans talking. I think that was really my like. That was up a level from the interaction you know.
Dan: Yeah, I found it got. It was great to start and it wasn't so good after about the halfway point.
Dean: Right.
Dan: Okay. What I found was it was a little too enthusiastic.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: You know, and it became almost like jargon near the end.
Dean: Right.
Dan: And I think the thing was that they were just running out of things to say yeah, but it sounded like after a while it didn't sound entrepreneurial, it sounded sort of corporate. This is sort of a corporate PR, but that has nothing to do with my use for it, because I'm not going to use it in a public way. Right?
Dean: I'm just using that.
Dan: I'm just getting some reflection back on the ideas that we have in the introduction to the book coming back in a different spoke and I got some new ideas for refining what we did just out of listening. So for me that was the value a video and I didn't.
Dean: I haven't watched the whole thing, but the general idea is that somebody put a video to these two, the male and the female character AI, and they're having a discussion as they realize that they're not real, apparently we're not even real. Apparently we're ai, they look genuinely like surprised by this news, a little bit incredulous that I, I apparently I'm not real well, it brings up the question that maybe Dean and Dan aren't either. You know Well what I was bringing to mind with that, Dan, is I remember hearing Elon Musk? I was just thinking.
Dan: I was just thinking. I was just thinking no, that's exactly who I went to when I brought up that idea, who I went to when I brought up that idea.
Dean: Right. I remember somebody at a big conference asked him about the simulation theory the theory that we're living in a simulation and you know he talked about it like that. He and his brother have had so many conversations about AI and the simulation theory, so many conversations about AI and the simulation theory, that they had to have a rule that they would have no such conversations while in a hot tub so that they could take a break from that conversation and his reasoning was that if you go back 50 years, we had the state of the art in gaming was Pong, which was the two you know twisty paddle things playing a ping pong game.
That was the entry into the digital gaming in the 70s virtual, visually amazing games that are played by millions of people simultaneously in a universe that's fully photorealistic and and created, and his idea is that, if you factor in any amount of improvement at all, that we're going to reach a point where, in a couple of years, vr is going to be visually indistinguishable from reality. We'll have the capability to create virtual simulation, ancestral games that would be indistinguishable from real life. And if that's the case, if we look back in the billions of years of the universe kind of thing, the odds that we're the first ones to have gotten to that level is very unlikely. His whole thing is that the odds that we are in base reality he called it is one in billions and I thought man, that's very I don't know what that means.
Dan: I don't know what that means.
Dean: Meaning that this is the real thing, that this is the one he's saying, that the odds that we're in the actual physical world of the thing is very rare or unlike Wow.
Dan: Are you saying that what we're experiencing is not real, that it's a simulation? I'm not quite getting this point.
Dean: Yes, yeah, that's what he's saying. No, well, real that it's a simulation. I'm not quite getting this point. Yes, yeah, that's what he's saying.
Dan: No well, yeah, but it's a theory.
Dean: Right, exactly, you can do anything with a theory. Yes.
Dan: First of all, there isn't enough electricity in our solar system to power that, I mean just to power it. Our solar system to power that I mean just to power it, and you know I mean. They're running into a problem right now, projecting technological growth to 2030. The United States does not have the electricity to do it. Okay, so there has to be, there has to be a bit of an improvement there.
Dean: You know.
Dan: The other thing is visual, visual perception and maybe audio to go along with. It is a small part of what we experience. I mean we have spatial awareness, we have touch, we have taste, we have smell, and then there's other ways of communicating that we don't quite understand, but we, energetically we. And one of the things that I really noticed with my few explorations of virtual reality is how flat and boring it is. It's just flat and boring, and the reason is because it's the creation of one person or the creation of a team where if you go to Yorkville or you go to Winter Haven, you know, and you walk around and you experience everything.
It's the creation of hundreds of thousands of people who made the adjustment here, adjustment there and everything like that. But my sense is that there's a deep, what I would say depression setting into the entrepreneurial world right now, and the scientific world for that matter, that they're never going to understand human consciousness, and it's pretty well. There's been no advance in 40 years of understanding what human consciousness is, and it's not fast computing, you know just to say what the thesis is. It's something else. One of it it's not measurable, because what you're experiencing right now is truly unique. You've just created something. As you're engaging in this discussion with someone you find interesting, and you have all sorts of thoughts coming out. This is all. None of this is measurable and never will it be measurable, Right, Okay, and so I think that's the real issue. But what I'm saying I was thinking of a book title I was wandering around yesterday is that I'm 80 now, so I was born in 44 and there's just been a lot of technological.
There's just been a lot of technological change since 1940, 1944. So I no longer consider it magical, I just consider it normal. When a new thing, like when the LM, you know the notebook, I no longer have the phrase this is fascinating, this is wonderful, I said, well, this is normal, this is just, I'm just seeing something.
Yeah well, this is a new thing and it's really interesting and we'll see if it's useful, you know, in the normal way. In other words, does it make money for you, you know, does it save time? And so I'm getting more and more where I'm absolutely immune to other people's sense of magic about technology.
Dean: Yeah yeah, I use you as an example. You basically have had functional use of all of these things without it even being technological advancements. I always talk about my Tesla. Now I've got the full self driving supervised, which is like it can make all the turns and do all the things. But you've got to really be aware I can't hop in the back seat and go wherever I want to go. But I always say to people listen, Dan Sullivan's had it right, because for 30 years you've had autonomous driving for 30 years.
Dan: Well, autonomous from my standpoint. Yes, that's what I mean.
Dean: You've had the functionality of it right. And that's been the thing. It's so funny yeah.
Dan: Well, yeah, and the other thing is, I don't know it comes down to. I think you know what your stand is on technology has a lot to do with. Are you okay with life just the way it is? And I am, you know and I am. But the way life just is that every once in a while a new technology pops up that I find really useful and then it becomes part of my normal, then it becomes my normal life, and that's been happening for 80 years.
And I suspect it's going to keep. I suspect it's going to keep going that way. But you know, but the it tells me. You know, know, one of the things I'm really interested in is just a little experiment I've been running now for about eight months and it has to do with three questions and I've been kind of captured by this. It's a tool. It's called three crucial questions, you know, and we've talked about it, and the first first one is there any way that I can help by doing nothing.
Number two is if there is something, what's the least I have to do, that's that. And if it's the least I have to do, is there someone who can do the least that I have to do? And it really struck me that if I had learned this when I was like six years old, struck me that if I had learned this when I was like six years old, my life would have really gone in a different direction.
It would have really turned out different because I would have been really super acute to what other people could do for me. You, know, right from the beginning.
Dean: Well, none of that involves technology.
Dan: None of that directly. I mean I'm saying that if I had done this 300 years ago and somebody had those three questions, they probably would have lived a really interesting, productive, creative life.
Dean: Well, there's so much in it. There's like a I mean, there's certainly a who, not how element to it, for sure and the. There's a unique ability.
Dan: There's a unique ability, yeah, but there's also a workaround.
Dean: There's a can I pray while I'm smoking instead of?
Dan: smoking while you're praying.
Dean: You know it resonated with me with the.
You know I've been working with the. Imagine if you applied yourself and self is the acronym for fear, meaning something that you know. But that would be essentially your question one is there any service or anybody that you know that could be able to do that? And then the second level is E for energy, which is that's the things that only I can do. L is leadership, where I could just tell somebody else, and F is finances. So can I apply myself to get this accomplished? I like this idea of what are you calling this? You called it the Dan Sullivan.
Dan: No, it's just called three crucial questions because it's a little-.
Dean: Three crucial questions Okay.
Dan: Yeah, so you pick three things that are, you know, projects or problems right now. But, I just choose problem. That's something you haven't solved.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: And then you ask you you know you describe each of the three. So you're coming downward on the left hand column. Then you go across and you got a matrix of three questions. And the first question is there any way you can solve this by doing nothing, and I've never had, I've never said yes to the question. But the question itself is very useful because it immediately simplifies your thinking. You know, it simplifies your thinking. And yeah, the second one what's the least you have to?
do now you're getting really simple. And then the third question is there anyone else who can do this very simple thing? You know and, and then, and, if there is. You've just answered question number one.
Dean: That's what I mean. That's the can I pray while I'm smoking? You've worked in the back door there.
Dan: No, you can't without doing nothing, okay well what do I?
Dean: need to do. Well, you got to do this and this. Well, can somebody else do that?
Dan: Yeah, that's okay. Yeah, and then you also you're questioning well, is it even enough of a problem to even be, you know, spending?
Dean: thinking about what if I don't solve this problem? Is it okay if I just forget about it?
Dan: Yeah, and what it does is that it's a measurement tool in the sense of you know you're going to be doing something with your time today anyway, and the question is are these three things anything that's worth your time today?
Dean: Yes.
Dan: And it keeps you from getting you know, getting too taken up with busyness. Yes, I love that, but it's funny because I the reason I brought it up as a topic on our talk here. Since I came up with it, it's a, it's one of those thinking tools that won't let me alone. Let you go.
Right you know I've had a few and so, for example, example, without going through and actually counting them up, I would say I probably did it 20 times during the day where I was thinking about something and uh, you know, and my mind had wandered. You know, I was thinking about something and I immediately the question came up is there anything you can do about that? Can you solve this without doing anything?
And immediately I was redirected to an activity that was right in the present, that I could be taking and I could be conscious about it and everything like that. So it's really interesting because I come up with a lot of tools, but they're for a purpose, they're for a workshop.
They're for everything, but this is the first one that keeps coming back and bothering me In your daily, for your daily life. Yeah, yeah, it seems to want to be part of my daily life and that's you know. And yeah, it's just an. It's just an interesting thing that I'm doing and it's very useful because the moment I ask the question, is there any way I can solve this? By doing nothing and immediately, my attention is a hundred percent just on what I can do right now, which feels real good, which feels real good you know to be fully engaged.
Dean: Not doing anything is. Not doing anything at all is also an option, do I even? Need to do anything at all about this. What would happen if I didn't?
Dan: I've had.
Dean: Joe Polish and I were talking the other day. I did a Zoom session in the Genius Network event last week, thursday, friday, and you know one of the things that he was talking about was Keith Cunningham's idea that more businesses they suffer from indigestion than starvation for ideas. They're not starving for new ideas, they've got indigestion of ideas too many things. And I realized, as a 10 quick start with a future orientation, that is definitely my. I have so way more ideas than I could possibly implement. You know, and I look at I've always. One of my personal kind of orientations is definitely, you know, future oriented. I see things, how they can be solved. But I've also learned that the reality you know, you and I've talked about the fact that life moves at the speed of reality, which is 60 minutes per hour and when you're actually practically doing anything in the now.
That's the constraint, that is the biggest thing for a future-oriented shapeshifter. You know, like you and I. So I've been revisited our the idea of procrastination, the joy of procrastination in. You know, my number one thing is always has been that I know I'm being successful when I can wake up every day and say what would I like to do today? And I've started thinking about how I can make that more practical, like to have more to show for it at the end of the day than just drifting with. You know, all my time freedom and the funny little exercise that I've been playing is do you remember in the original Wheel of Fortune when you won on Wheel of Fortune you would have you could spend all your money on the showcase kind of thing. They'd have all the prizes all lined up and you can.
I'll take this for a thousand and I'll take this for 500 and I'll take the rest on a gift certificate or whatever. I started thinking about, maybe going through my days. Yesterday was the first day that I kind of, you know, I've been playing with that mindset of looking at today, as with my 100 minute units for the day, looking at the you know prize, the gallery of all the things that I could do and looking to fill them into my day. I'll take a massage for six units and I'll take this. I'll take a movie for 10 units and I'll do some 50 minute focus finders for 10 units.
And you start like looking at my day and realizing that what kind of creates a little sense of urgency or a present mindedness for the day is really thinking about maximizing for the next 100 minutes, like what am I really going to do in the next 100 minutes? Because even a day is a long, that's a long time to really kind of. You know it's slow if you were to just sit here and count the time for the day that go by, but really having things. I'm really making a conscious effort to have more intention around what I do with those units during the day rather than just getting sucked into screen time.
Dan: It's really interesting. You mentioned that you're a 10 quick start with future orientation and I was just thinking, as you said that and I was thinking about your that I think I'm I actually am past focused. I'm very past focused and what I'm doing is I'm looking at something that's from the past and sort of saying how could that be better in the future?
Like I'm not really interested because I've experienced the past. I haven't experienced the future. So I've got one thing I've got a lot more experience with the past. Now we could just take two minutes out and just ponder the thought that I've just spoken here and I think it's probably why I am not taken at all by the futurologists that show up at the various conferences that I'm to and I said you're talking about something that you have zero experience about. And I said you're talking about something that you have zero experience about. I said why don't you talk about something that you have 100% experience?
with which is your past and then say this thing that happened to me. How could that happen to me? Better when I get to it in the future, you know so. I'm not really intrigued by the future at all because, first of all, I've got zero experience In the past. I've got a lot of experience, and it's readily available. Not only that, but it's unique. Only I know what my experience is, Only you know, what your experience is.
Dean: Who else knows?
Dan: So, I wonder if we I wonder if I'm kind of quick start so I wonder if we actually really are spending time with the future. Though I don't know, I can only answer it for myself.
Dean: I like, you know, creating blueprints or create you know, like that's the thing I see. I like solving problems, as this is what we need to do, but then actually implementing the things is. I find that being in the present is almost like being in the past.
Funny, but I mean, sounds odd to say that, right, but it's like I think that I've already solved this. Okay, I know what this needs to be, and it just feels like such a drag that I have to now, like take the time to do the actual thing that I've already seen in my mind, you know, it's almost like you know, yeah, it's very funny.
I heard somebody talked about who invented the vaccine, the polio vaccine Pasture, pasture, okay, so it was him. Somebody said that he imagined the reason, the way he solved it was he put himself in the position of if he was the, the virus or whatever, how would he attack the system? And that was his. So he put himself in that perspective of where would he go, what would he do? And it reminded me of hearing that Einstein, his, the way he came with the theory of relativity was to imagine himself on riding a beam of light. What would that look like? How would he experience that?
And so I look at the things like when I create a solution for something, I know I already see how it's going to, I've addressed all the issues, I see, okay, this is what we need to do, and in my mind it's a fait accompli, as they say, a completed thing, it's done. I know that this is going to be the thing, but now you have to in reality, the speed of reality, actually build out all the components of it. You know, that's like writing a book, for instance, has to be done in real time, you know like I can see the outline of the well, well that you know that's really.
Dan: you know that's really why you want to have a lot of who's in your life, because the actual taking action and getting it done is interesting to you. But, having that? Well, let me ask you the question Taking action and getting it done is not interesting to you, but having it done, does that interest you? Yes, very interesting. Yeah, well, there's only one solution it's got to be someone else who does.
Dean: Yeah Well, there's only one solution it's got to be someone else who does it. No-transcript. That's been really in the last little while here. That self-awareness it's not a character thing. It's not that it's that I work best when I'm contributing discernment and invention on the if we're looking at widget things, you know.
Dan: yeah, well, it's really interesting abs and I have gone to to Rome three or four times and one of the things I mean, if you are interested at all in you know the ancient structures. Well, not so much Rome, but I mean Renaissance and things like that realize is that these individuals who we you know, we know them, you know leonardo and michelangelo, and we know them and we developed this image.
How could one person do all this? And the answer is they didn't. Right, right, right, they did. They had a lot of people. It's like you know, I mean, it's like we think of these. Just because we only know their name doesn't mean that they're the one who actually did it. Just yeah, it had to be named and we somebody attached their name to it and yeah, and we think it, but they didn't do uh you know they, they really didn't.
I mean, they're sculptors. And you say, how could that? How could he get all that done? Well, he didn't. He got the basic picture of it done and then he had other people who were nose people and ear people and finger people.
And he brought them all in and they put together the whole. They put together the whole statue and they put together the whole statue and that's one of the valuable things you learn about the past that things didn't get done any differently in the past than they get done today through teamwork, through large numbers of different skills coming together. The big thing is to apply it to yourself, because I think one of the things and it's a function of the school system and I don't know if you could have it any other way is that you have to study on your own, you have to take tests on your own.
And I think it tells people that it's all an individual effort. But what if you took another group of first graders and you taught them teamwork from day one? You studied as a team, you took tests as a team and then you measured over 18 years the one who did everything on his own and the one who was just part of a team that did it. And they did it as a team. I bet the ones on the team. One is I think they'd be a lot happier, and number two is I just think they'd get a lot more done.
Yeah isn't that something?
Dean: I had a friend who you know is teaching his kids. His idea is teaching his kids like being entrepreneurs, teaching that's the way right, the self-guided way. But they would do, you know they were in a virtual school and they would set up, you know he would have vas to to do like homework for them, like show them how to, like hire someone to do this, this, write this paper yeah or whatever realizing that if there's anybody else who could do it.
If you don't need to know how to do it, then you know, kind of like taking your approach right. Is there any way I could do this without doing anything? And that's kind of yeah, that's a big thing. There's no reason for him to know. I remember that was the, that was I think it was henry ford or somebody that they were saying. You know his lack of general knowledge, but it doesn't matter. He says I have buttons on my desk. I can push this button and somebody will get me the answer to whatever I need.
And now we've all got a PhD in our pocket.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, you know, I think the big thing is that I'm not certain that everybody has the ability of seeing the future and the future use, the future use of other people's capabilities. So I think that's an. I have it and I suspect you have it, but I can see what something looks like and I can see what someone does and I can see it applied to a future result. But I'm not sure everybody has that.
Dean: Yeah. I agree, yeah, I agree. Yeah, I agree, and that's kind of like the thing we just think. It's so second nature, right, like you don't know that there's anything different. I remember thinking about unique ability. I remember thinking that, well, that can't't be like, because that doesn't seem like work at all, like that doesn't seem like any effort.
Dan: That can't be a thing, but it is you know, yeah, well, it has to do with impact, not you know not the activity itself. Yes, what's the impact? Yeah and yeah, so it's really interesting. But I think, think you know, I'm just to you know, we're near the end of the hour here and my sense is that a lot of confusion in society right now is that science is running into a wall and technology is running into a wall, and it's human consciousness and a lot of claims are being made what technology could do, but I, I think with less and less confidence, and people are saying, well, you mean there's something else, there's something else that we can't get to, and I said, well, yeah, you experience mean, we experience that personally.
We experience that on an individual basis, why wouldn't it be on a general sense?
Dean: And.
Dan: I think there's going to be a lot of depression. I'm noticing the increase in the numbers of teenagers who have mental illness, and I think the reason is that they've been promised something that if you got this education, if you had this technology, if you had access to this and this, you would be happy. And they aren't no exactly. And none of the people who told them that can explain to them why they're not happy, why they're not happy and I think it's a general sense.
I just think we've reached a point where we've been so science centric and we've been so technological centric pretty much for a century or maybe a little bit more than a century. And it was going to produce the utopian society and it was going to produce and it isn't.
Dean: And now.
Dan: I think that the most cynical people were the most idealistic people. If you take someone who's really cynical, they're the ones who were very idealistic. They said you know, everything's going to be solved, everything's going to be great, and then it wasn't. And they don everything's going to be solved, everything's going to be great, and then it wasn't. And they don't have a fallback position.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: I'm noticing that with the election this year.
Dean: Yes, absolutely.
Dan: You know, the people who are going to be happy on November 6th are the people who just lead ordinary lives.
Dean: You know, they just go around.
Dan: They got a job, they have a house, you a house and everything else. And the people who are going to be very unhappy are the people who believe we can fundamentally change everything. I've just noticed that one of the parties, which was the Party of Joy three months ago, is now the Party of Rage.
Dean: Oh man.
Dan: Yeah, they're the Party of rage. Oh man, yeah, yeah, they're the party of rage. I mean, they were all out on stage over the last two or three days of how you know, he's a fascist, he's hitler, you know. And I said look, I've watched some world war ii films, I've seen hitler. This isn't hitler, he doesn't even speak german. I mean, if you're going to speak German.
Dean:I mean, if you're going to be Hitler.
Dan: If you're going to be Hitler, you got to at least get the language down right.
Dean: Speak German. That's crazy, but.
Dan: I'm just noticing it's more than just the political season. I just think there's a thing happening right now where there's sort of a collision between what was promised and sort of what isn't happening, and that's why I think AI is really being used, but it's not being used in the way that people predicted it was going to be used. I think it's being used in many other ways.
Dean: Yeah, well, when are you traveling to Phoenix, dan Wednesday?
Dan: We're going to Phoenix, then we're going to Tucson. So we're going to be in Canyon Ranch and then we drive up the day before the genius starts. I think Okay.
Dean: But we should go to the.
Dan: Henry, we should go to the Henry I was thinking the same thing.
Dean: That's what I was hoping.
Dan: Okay, good so are we on for next?
Dean: week then.
Dan: Yeah. I'll be in Tucson. No, I can do it. No, that'd be great.
Dean: Okay, perfect. Well then, I will talk to you next week. Thanks, Dan.
Dan: Okay.
Dean: Great.

Nov 6, 2024 • 47min
Ep137: Surviving Storms and Sparking Innovation
In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, I share my experiences living in hurricane-prone areas, focusing on the looming threat of Hurricane Milton in Florida. We delve into how such natural disasters test our resilience, drawing parallels with historical floods in Ohio. These experiences serve as a backdrop for discussing the broader theme of adaptation and change.
We explore the Strategic Coach framework's Free Zone concept, which redefines retirement as a time for continuous growth, fueled by innovation and technology. I express skepticism about Artificial General Intelligence, instead advocating for real-world applications of AI that enhance learning and productivity.
The episode also dives into marketing strategies in the digital age, highlighting the Profit Activator Scorecard and AI tools like Perplexity and Google's Notebook. These tools help us identify gaps and enrich our marketing approaches, as illustrated through collaborations with Joe Polish and Dr. Cherie Ong.
Our discussion extends to AI's role in creative and analytical tasks, showcasing how tools like Perplexity can generate insights and drive innovative conversations. We reflect on how these technologies can transform marketing strategies and enhance our understanding of complex topics.
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
We discuss the impact of hurricanes and tornadoes, focusing on Hurricane Milton's impending threat to Florida, and share personal experiences living in hurricane-prone areas.
We reflect on the resilience required to recover from natural disasters, drawing parallels to historical floods in Ohio and emphasizing how modern media amplifies the perception of storm severity.
Devlin describes the Strategic Coach framework's Free Zone concept, highlighting its role in extending entrepreneurial lifetimes and promoting continuous personal and team development.
We express skepticism about Artificial General Intelligence, advocating instead for the use of AI in specific, real-world applications to drive innovation and growth.
Stuart explores the Profit Activator Scorecard, detailing how to leverage its results to enhance marketing strategies and fill gaps in reaching target audiences.
We examine the application of AI tools like Perplexity and Google's Notebook in generating fresh perspectives and enriching marketing conversations.
Devlin introduces a new AI tool, "How You're Always Luckier," and discusses its use in generating insights into entrepreneurial luck and societal trends.
We compare the capabilities of AI tools like Perplexity and Google Notebook, highlighting their potential uses in strategic planning and productivity enhancement.
Stuart shares insights into using AI-generated conversations to gain new perspectives on marketing strategies, illustrating with examples from collaborations with Joe Polish and Dr. Cherie Ong.
We discuss personal plans and upcoming travel, setting homework assignments to further explore AI tools and reconnect in future episodes.
Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com
TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Dean: Well, well, well, didn't even get to the course.
Dan: Yeah, Mr Jackson. How are you, sir? So you were lucky with that hurricane, but you may get the next one.
Dean: Holy cow, dan, this is exactly what I talk about with the week before we get the big red arrow, you know, the buzzsaw building in the Gulf and this one, if you take the track, of course, the cone, the probable cone right now and for anybody listening, we're talking about what will become Hurricane Milton, right on the heels of Hurricane Helene, is projected to go right over Tampa, to go right over Tampa, and if you take the red line in the center of the cone, the projected path is literally about a mile from my house, right through the Four Seasons, valhalla.
Yeah, so, I don't know. I may hightail it to Chicago or something.
Dan: You may have to move from one side of your garden to the other.
Dean: That's right. No, this is. Yeah, this will be. This could be like direct path type of stuff. And, of course, the poor. You know people in Tampa and St Petersburg and Sarasota.
Dan: They got, they always get it worse, absolutely.
Dean: But this last one was, you know, crazy amounts of flooding, and that was not even that, was just the outskirts of a lane. This one is projected to make landfall right in Tampa.
Dan: So I don't know.
Dean: I don't know, but it's good, you know, to know the. It's good to know what's there.
Dan: Yeah, and have forewarning.
Dean: Yeah, exactly, you're on high ground in Florida.
Dan: Right, You're on high ground in Florida. You're at least 10 feet above sea level, aren't you?
Dean: I looked the other time, one of the times we were talking I looked and I'm actually at 150 feet above sea level, so like oh, you're like on Mount Everest in Florida, that's exactly right. Yeah, that's exactly right. Still I may, it's part of life though. You know, I mean, I tell people.
Dan: It's part of life. I remember growing up in Ohio. I was in the north of Ohio, but Ohio River comes under the entire state from east to west and they had tremendous floods and there were people in my first 18 years living at home with my parents.
I bet they got flooded out five, six times. You know where their houses would be gone and everything else. Yeah, you know, flood passes by, they rebuild and they go on with life and you know I mean the two things that the US Generally the US has great climate, has great weather.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: But it's got a couple of things though Storms from the Gulf of Mexico or from the ocean, you know, from the way of Bahamas. You know, like out in the it comes from the east to the west, but usually it comes from south to northeast. I guess this would be south to east-north-east. It kind of rises a bit after it goes through Tampa right.
Dean: Yeah, that's right.
Dan: And the other thing is the tornadoes, which are largely unique to the United States. Largely unique to the United States, and it's because of the warm Gulf Gulf of Mexico, cold north, coming from Canada, and then they collide and they start creating a circle.
And then they hit the mountains on the west and then they start coming east and Ohio doesn't get them that much. We never get the effects of the hurricanes. I mean by then it's petered out by the time it gets up to Ohio but the tornadoes are different because it's a flat, generally a flat geography in the north. It's where two roads meet. That's about six miles from where I grew up and they had like a church, a general store and a trailer park and three times when I was growing up the tornado hit the trailer park, didn't hit the church, didn't hit the general store.
Oh, man Didn't hit, the church didn't hit the general story, oh man, and I said you know it's like a red flag for a bull. You know I mean you're just asking for trouble if you live in a trailer park, but I'm sure that you know people with manufactured homes really got a hard hit in North Carolina. Hard hit in North.
Dean: Carolina, I can't even imagine, like Norman I mean yeah. Norman in South Carolina. Tech. That is the power company they're said we're estimating that power will be restored in four to five weeks. Yeah, I mean wild huh.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: I mean so amazing, you know that's. I just can't even imagine like your whole, you know your whole uh town being cut off, like there's some of those things in the mountain roads in north carolina. You know in the mountains there that the only way to get to them is through this one road going up around the mountain, and if that washes out which it has I just wonder like how long the how long it's gonna take to rebuild everything it's gonna take a long time.
Dan: Yeah, some of it, not at all, probably. I mean, there's probably some small hamlets that they just leave, you know they'll just leave you know anyway, but anyway it's really interesting the I mean every once in a while you get a really severe storm, which this one was. But you know, it's how people don't really understand population, that I mean. There were worse storms as far as people dying in the early part of the 20th century. Far more people got killed. I think there was a famous one in Texas, which.
I think it was a couple of thousand people died. You know this one. But people don't realize. When there's a lot more people and a lot more houses, the storm seems more severe, because there's more damage, there's, you know, more wreckage, and plus there's television and there's well, that's what they're saying.
Dean: Back in a hundred years ago, you had to depend on somebody's big toe swelling to get there's a storm coming yeah, there was a tornado.
Dan: I think there was a tornado, I think it was in the 20s, 1920s and it went over three states. I think it's sort of like Nebraska, that area, you know, the real. Midwest, but it was clocked at close to 80 miles an hour and it stayed on the ground for three states. It didn't jump up, it just stayed on the and it really. I mean it just destroyed towns in its path and the way they know how fast it was going was the report in from the telegraph offices as it was going north.
Yeah, funny, as long as you weren't there.
Dean: Yeah, holy cow Anyway.
Dan: I was just working on a new thinking tool.
Dean: I'd like to hear all about that, yeah and actually two of them.
Dan: I finished one and I'm starting another one today, and the first tool is called Strengthening your Strengths, and I happen to think that this is the number one entrepreneurial skill.
Dean: Tell me all about it. Strengthening your strength sounds like something I would be completely interested in doing.
Dan: Yeah, the other one's called how you're always luckier. Yeah, okay, so you got two tools. You got two tools in mind.
Dean: Okay, we're going to talk about strengthening your strength. Yeah, the two tools in mind, I've got them.
Dan: Talk about strengthening your strength, yeah, and then you categorize them what's your best strength right now? In other words, if you took a look at where you are right now, what's your best strength? And so mine, the number one, is just my teamwork with bats. You know, which goes back 40 years.
That's my number one strength, okay. Number two is the team that we have our unique ability team, and number three is the entrepreneurs that I get to work with. Yeah, okay, and so, as you can see the way I'm laying it out, it's me and something outside of me. My biggest strength is that I'm 50% of the deal but there's another 50% of Babs in the team.
And I have others, I have others, but those would be the top three. And then over on the right-hand side, is 12 strengthening. In other words, which are the ones that you would strengthen over the next 12 months? It's very interesting. It's a very interesting. The insights that come out. You know, because it's your strengths, are far more than you. Your strength is your connection to other, in collaboration with other people.
Dean: Yeah, got it, I do.
Dan: And then you know there's a lot of thinking, there's insights. You brainstorm in both of them and then you pick the top. You pick the top three.
Dean: So how would you think about the? How would you think about your 12 month improvement in your strength of collaboration with?
Dan: BabAPS yeah. So, the big thing right now is our clinics. You know, I mean it's a great teamwork and we want it to last a lot longer into the future. So the work that we do with David Hasse and Nashville will be going down in a couple of weeks.
Dean: Your joint longevity project right? Yeah, Well, he's got.
Dan: You know, I mean, he's got the full medical every 90 days. And then what needs to be adjusted. You know what's really working, what's not really working. So we get a full blood panel, top to bottom, for every 90 days. And then he creates a whole supplement things we take four times a day. And there's all sorts of adjustments every 90 days. And then the second one is the clinic in Buenos Aires that we will be going down again in November.
And that's the stem cells. So yeah, so I mean we're good with each other on all levels, but it's keeping both of us healthy and fit.
Dean: Yeah, keeping the racehorse healthy right.
Dan: Keeping the races coming yeah exactly Right, right, right yeah. And then the team, the big thing is going to. We're going to make the four by four tool. So we just created the new book which you got. You came to your free zone, so casting that hiring, and we're going to make it every quarter. Every team member upgrades their own 4x4 and talks with their team about it, and the team leaders talk to Babs about it what they're doing.
And just do this and get better at it, quarter by quarter, and I think that's going to really strengthen, really strengthen. You know, I mean our main capability and the third one with the entrepreneurs. The big thing my goal 20 years in the future is that the entire strategic coach program, all three levels, is in fact the free zone, and what we're doing now is that we're showing that every tool say, for example, the very first tool when people start coach is the lifetime extender, and that gives you a free zone, because the moment that you extend your life and have 20, 30, 50 extra years you weren't planning on.
Yes, yeah, but the way you're looking at it is a free zone. Nobody else is looking at it this way and I already have proof after 30 years. So the lifetime extender has been there for 30 years, so the lifetime extender has been there for 30 years and I have proof now that I would say, on average, entrepreneurs are extending their working lifetime by probably 15 years as a result of that thinking exercise.
Yeah, you know where they might be checking out at 60 or 65, know where they might be checking out at 60 or 65.
Dean: Uh, they're pushing through to 80. So, yeah, it's very, it's really interesting to see just you know, being surrounded by your people in in strategic coach specifically, that are nobody's thinking about retirement, nobody's thinking about retirement, nobody's thinking about winding down or anything. You know, I think that's all part of you being the lead. You know the lead example the lead dog, the lead dog, exactly Moving into your ninth decade here with an aspiration to outperform your 70s, which was your greatest decade right.
Dan: So that's on every level. Yeah, I would say, if you took any entrepreneurial gathering in the world, you know other programs or other associations and had the sort of the demographic mix that's the same as strategic coach, in other words, from, generally speaking, from your 30s to your 60s, generally, I mean that's where the majority of our clients would be. Strategic coach would be the only one where the word retirement is not used. Nobody ever talks about retirement Right exactly, and that's a free zone?
Dean: Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's so great to watch too, to see just your momentum. I always tell you too, but I always tell people you're like the ghost of Christmas. Future 22 years ahead of me the ghost of Christmas future 22 years ahead of me, you know it's like you know, because I just love.
It's so inspiring to me to see that you know, because a lot of times you start to think, okay, I'm 58 now and you know 60 is approaching, but then that's still. You know even the conversations that we've had about the. You know 60s approaching, but then that's still. You know even the conversations that we've had about the. You know 20 years now, if you take a 25 year framework and start another at 60, kind of thing, that's yeah, it's wide open fields, you know, and where we're where we are now.
Who even knows? I had my mind blown the other day. I don't know whether you've seen or heard any examples of the Google Notebook.
Dan: Yeah, a couple of our team members are working with it. I mean, they introduced it to me, I didn't introduce it to them. Yeah, I think it's. You know, I haven't tried it yet, but I think within the next quarter I will. I'll try it and it seems to me that it's a lot better format than having a chat bot that you ask questions you ask questions for sure.
Dean: Yeah, I mean I heard for sure.
Dan: Yeah, I mean, I heard, you know, I heard an example where they were taking apart, you know, a topic and they were just talking to each other and I found it more informative and more, what I would say stimulating to listen to the back and forth conversation than if I was asking a question or it was asking me a question. I just think it's a better format for bringing out the essence of three topic.
Dean: And Dan. The realness of the voices and the inflection and the talking a little bit over each other, the interaction and the laughing and the jokes, like it blew my mind Like nothing I've ever seen Zero, I mean, it was just there.
Every time I forward it to somebody, they're literally like you can't believe that this is AI, that this is not two humans talking right now and I just think I also read that, on the scale of things, we are at level two right now, on our way to level five, which is the AGI, you know, pinnacle or whatever, the super intelligence.
Dan: So if you imagine that, you know how can I bring that up, Because I'm a firm, complete, total non-believer that there's such a thing as AGI. Okay, and the reason is because all intelligence is specific, it's all specific and there is. I mean, we've already created the agi. It's called god, you know, and it's been around for a long time yeah, no, but the whole point is not. I mean it would be meaningless because nobody would use AGI.
Dean: What does AGI stand for?
Dan: Well, it's Artificial General Intelligence. General Intelligence yeah right, yeah, but there is no general intelligence, there's just specific intelligence. It's just your interaction with something which stimulates your intelligence.
Dean: You know, that's it, I mean.
Dan: I have squirrels in the yard. You know, in Toronto I'm in Chicago today, but in Toronto we've got squirrels, we've got lots of oak trees and I just watch them. And you know, when it comes to acorns, my intelligence doesn't compare to what a squirrel can do with acorns. You know. They can go up the tree, they can shake a branch. Ten acorns come down. They come down, they gather them up. They got ten different. I have no comprehension how they do what they do. That's specific intelligence.
Dean: Squirrel has specific intelligence.
Dan: The oak trees have intelligence, no-transcript thing by talking yes, yeah anyway, but I love you know, and I think the terms of you know of applying iq to artificial intelligence is kind of meaningless Right. Because it's somehow that our intelligence and computer intelligence is the same thing going on, and I just don't think it is. Yeah, I think it's completely different. I think it's really fast computing.
Dean: Yes, yeah.
Dan: So that's my take on it.
Dean: Yeah, so that's my take on it, yeah, but if that's, I mean if you, there's something happening and it is evolving, and we're two, you know, a month shy, six weeks shy, of it being two years old since chat GPT first came on the scene in November of 22. And so you'd think, if, just for context, if whatever level of amazement we're at right now is a two on a scale of five, whether we're calling five AGI or whatever, it is just the advance, the directional advance, is pretty, as they say, indistinguishable from magic you know.
Dan: Yeah, question is what are you doing? What are you using it for? That's my question.
Dean: I don't know what I'm using it for, like I'm really not. You know, that's the. I just have conversations sometimes with my juniper voice and I just recently switched to a British lady. You can switch the voices that you have the conversations with and I'm just kind of sitting with in my mind here. I think we're all woefully under utilizing it. You know like I think we're just to know, yeah.
Dan: Yeah Well, I don't think we're underusing that, we just haven't found the use for it yeah, that's true. Well, that's true, that's true it's like there's some ideal use of it, but there isn't any ideal use search, too.
Dean: I just look at it as like what would I, how would I treat it or what would I do if I personified it? You know, like I've been imagining Juniper being a real person and you know sitting beside me.
Dan: Let's take the eight profit activators. Activators yeah. So, activators you've done complete walkthroughs of each of the activators.
Dean: Yes, I have.
Dan: Okay, take activator number one. What's activator number one?
Dean: Select single target market Okay.
Dan: Run it through Google Notebook and see what conversation comes out of it.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: Okay, and then what do you learn? Dean Jackson, creator of the first, you know, the first activator. What are you learning there? My feeling is the first time you do it, you'll see all. I guess.
Dean: If I imagine that the capability of me, you know, documenting, like you know you've heard the things of, you know like is everything you know written down somewhere. That's really what it comes down to right is if I were to convey, If I were to convey everything that I know about the, about the profit activators, into this language model, what I would love for it to be able to you know, take, do what I do in a way that it's doing the question asking. You know, like I think most of the things that I've seen so far are training up a language model, like loading up a language model but then saying isn't this great, Go ahead, ask it anything, but you've got to you and I talked about that. You've got to have batteries included. You know, you've got to be the one that now you're limited by your, your ability to ask the right questions, to draw it out, and I think it would be infinitely more valuable if we could train it to ask you questions, like I would ask you questions to see where the opportunity is within the profit activator.
So I have a thing that I do called a 50-minute marketing sprint, and I basically go through the eight profit activators before, during, after we overlay it on your business and I teach people how to kind of think, how to divide their business into those categories, how to recognize what the driving you know metrics are for each of those and see where the opportunity is.
And then, once you know, even with the we have the profit activator score card, using your scorecard model of the you know each of the eight that I think being able to interpret what somebody needs from that like if somebody's a four on profit activator number two, which is compel prospects to call you but they want to be a 12, that would be intelligent enough to say hey, Dan, it looks like you are. Say hey, Dan, it looks like you are. I mean, what we always say to people with the scorecards is you know, I'm looking for people who are clear on Profit Activator 1. They know who they want to attract and they're high on Profit Activator 5, which is deliver a dream come true experience for your prospects. But then they dip down in Profit Activator 2 and Profit Activator 4, which are, you know, compel your prospects to call you and make compelling offers. So I can help people bridge that gap If you know who you want and you can get them great results. Let's do this, let's take some, let's see how we can compel people to call you?
Dan: Yeah, I think you're a week away. What I mean? A week away, actually two weeks. We're traveling next Sunday, but two weeks away, I think you're two weeks away from us having a conversation about your first experience of taking you know, creating a transcript for yourself and you can just walk through Profit Activator number one and then it's transcribed and then feed it into the notebook and it'll take it apart and create a conversation between two people.
And then you get the recording back and you listen to it and it will take it apart and create a conversation between two people. And then you get the recording back and you listen to it. I bet you'll be very what I would say stimulated by the conversation that comes out and you'll learn three or four new things about how to explain profit activator number one.
Dean: It's crazy.
Dan: I mean, we did, I'm just telling you how I would approach it, and Hamish McDonald is doing it. I'm going to ask him. The book that we're writing right now, the first chapter, we have the transcript from it the recording. He'll just run it through and send me back for the recording. Okay, and see, I've got a smart human between me and the technology I'm just pointing out my approach to technology period I always have a smart human between you and the technology, but I'll get back to recording and I can listen to it.
Okay, and yeah, I love that. I think you'll be, I think you'll be stimulated, I think I'll be stimulated. We can have a nice conversation about what our experiences were. Yeah, We've got an assignment for the next podcast.
Dean: Wow, joe Polish and I, we did a Zoom this week with Cherie Dr Cherie Ong, joe's girlfriend, who's a vaginal plastic surgeon, and so we were talking about some marketing things for her and we went, so we did the Zoom. Joe had the honor transcript of the put it into that Google notebook. Transcript of the put it into that google notebook, and to hear this conversation about the conversation that we had was just, it was amazing. I mean, it really was.
Dan: Yeah, it was, it's just something yeah, yeah, I mean, I have about you know not what you're talking about, but a different ai experience is every day I have two or three things that just occur to me and where I might have gone to google before I go to perplexity yeah, because google is a search and google is a search engine and perplexity is an answer engine, and there's a big difference between answers and searches.
Okay, yeah, and yeah, I did one, because I'm creating this new tool which is called. We haven't talked about that yet, but how you're always luckier is the name of the tool.
Okay, so I put in a perplexity 10 significant ways that successful entrepreneurs consider themselves lucky. That's my prompt for and five seconds later I had yeah, and it was useful. It was very useful. Like you know, they're very alert and curious about possible opportunities. You know they're very alert and curious about possible opportunities. That's one way that you know that entrepreneurs prepare themselves for luck. Ok, they have connections with you know creative people. They have connections with creative. So there's 10 of them, you know 10 of them, and I said that's very gratifying.
I found that very gratifying, and I also have the suspicion that my prompts are sort of unique, so I'm getting a whole set of unique answers back. Okay, so there was another one. There's this general narrative out there that, because of the political polarization in the United States, that we were on the brink of civil war, and I said perplexity, give me 10 reasons why, in the midst of this political polarization, in 2024, there won't be a second civil war. Five seconds later I got the answer and they were all very plausible. There's absolutely almost nothing in common between 2024 and 1860. You see, it's just news media people with probably too much college education creating new theories.
And you realize that, when it comes to getting things done outside of government, the United States is basically going on as normal. It's just things are being sold, things are being created, things are being shipped new ideas are being explored and everything like that. So, I've got this relationship with perplexity, that any topic comes along, I says perplexity, tell me 10 things about this, and then I get my 10 things back. So I've got a new book. One of the new quarterly books is coming up.
Dean: It's the 10 reasons for anything. I like that.
Dan: Yeah, and that is that anything you can mention. There's probably 10 reasons for it Maybe 100 reasons, but there's at least 10 reasons. You know 10 reasons why Dean Jackson and Dan Sullivan like talking to each other. Right, I bet there's 10.
Dean: At least yeah. Did you ask the follow-up question? Dan? Did you ask the question of what are 10 reasons that there might be a civil war?
Dan: I would, but I'm not looking for that.
Dean: Right, right, right. I just wonder if they can build the argument the other way too.
Dan: Oh, sure, sure sure, although perplexity is kind of, I haven't noticed any real bias yet. I've been working with it for six months and I haven't noticed any bias. They simply answer your prompt on the basis of what you wanted to explore and it explores it. But I wouldn't be interested in 10 reasons why there might be a civil war.
Dean: Right but.
Dan: I think perplexity would come back and say I'm sorry, but my information doesn't allow me to actually explain that Right. Yeah, it does not compute. Yeah, and you know, a couple of times it's come back and say there just isn't enough bases to support. You know the answer that you're looking for.
Dean: Right, right, right. Do you use chat GPT for anything different than?
Dan: what you use.
Dean: Never used it oh okay so you use perplexity as the main thing right, that's it yeah. I'm a monogamous guy.
Dan: I'm a monogamous guy. You want to?
Dean: have that.
Dan: Why would I have two?
Dean: I mean, it's like having two wives. You want to grant someone a monopoly right, yeah, and then go deep with it.
Dan: Then get really good at that. One thing I'll use this. I'll use the Google notebook, but I won't be the one doing it. Somebody else is going to be doing it for me.
Dean: Yes, exactly Me too, that's, I've got Glenn doing that and that's really it's pretty amazing. We're right now on the thing of Okay, we have homework, we have homework. I'll get it done you get it done. Okay, and then?
Dan: we'll talk about our. We'll talk about our results.
Dean: Yes.
Dan: We'll have as a matter of fact fact, we'll get them back and you can send me yours and I'll send you. Know, you just send the link and I'll send the link to mine and you can. Yes, I'll listen to yours, you'll listen to mine, and then we'll have a roaring conversation now.
Dean: So what was the question? You wanted me to ask it again. So I'm feeding in Profit Activator 1 and then just seeing what the conversation is.
Dan: Right yeah. What is the Google notebook conversation related to?
Dean: I think what I'll do is I'll do the 50-minute marketing sprint and see what they say. I think that'll be amazing, yes.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: That's pretty smart, you know I think it's not named properly.
Dan: Google Notebook. I don't think it's named properly. It should be called the eavesdropping.
Dean: Yes, exactly.
Dan: No, I mean, wouldn't you like over here two people talking about Dean Jackson's?
Dean: This is what's amazing is to hear them.
Dan: You're eavesdropping on two very positive people talking in an excited way about your thinking. I mean, who wouldn't want to eavesdrop on that?
Dean: Yeah, so, joe, I loaded up episode one of the I Love Marketing podcast and it came back. I mean it was so great to tell the. It was telling the story, so we do a deep dive. It's a conversation between two giants in the marketing world. Dean and Joe, two giants in the marketing world Dean and Joe and they're telling the stories about how they got started and how their earliest jobs really led the foundation. I mean to hear these things talking about it like they're just kind of enthusiastically.
Dan: You know, can I tell you something? I think this is the end of social media at the intelligent level, the whole point of social media from the standpoint of Mark Zuckerberg, or anybody else that they've got your attention.
This takes your attention away from them. This takes your attention away from them. This takes your attention away from them. Yeah, I mean, I've never been on social media, but I have observed that you're giving your attention away to somebody else. Okay, yes, yes, and with that, you're returning your attention to what's interesting to you. Yeah, you've just created something that's unique, okay.
So, Dean takes Profit Activator number one, puts it into Google Notebook Okay, and it comes back with a totally uniquely produced conversation between two AI voices, strictly on Dean's thinking. My feeling is you've returned your attention. I think you've returned your attention to yourself.
Dean: I think you're right and it's funny because we're going to take that now, take that conversation that they had and put it through another AI that will create supporting video.
I've had this idea of doing the I Love Marketing podcast, which was my idea was to go back to the first 100 episodes and do a commentary on them, but I think that it might be fascinating to do you know, I love marketing AI to have the Google notebook do their summary on each of the first 100 episodes. It really is a really good 10 minute. 10 minute deep dive, as they say.
Dan: Yeah, well, it's you know, to me it's really but I think what if you choose to apply this in a way that's beneficial to yourself?
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: I think you want your own thinking coming back at you, being discussed by two other people.
Dean: Yeah that's. I love that. I really do. Like you're absolutely right, it's so. Yeah, it's a moving sidewalk for sure. Like it's definitely a catalyst for connective thinking, you know, to then have a conversation, yeah yeah, but anyway, it's really.
Dan: I think it's really neat. You know, one thing that really occurs to me is the wow factor that everybody's talking about. Gee, it's just like human with a high IQ. No, it isn't. It's just a further advancement of technology.
Dean: That's all it is. We've been living this.
Dan: We've been living this. Humans have been living this forever. This is just a new extension of technology.
Dean: It isn't magical.
Dan: It isn't human, you know, it's just technological. I had a lot of religion when I was a kid and I can tell when other people are starting to get religious with technology.
Dean: Uh-huh right.
Dan: I said, you know, when people don't have religion as children, they tend to try to create it out of other experience when they get older.
Dean: Yeah, that's true. So you have a. You got a big week this week coming.
Dan: No, I just have one. I have a free zone on. Tuesday and I'm starting my next. I'm just starting my next round of connector calls.
Dean: Okay, yeah, I'll have to look at the calendar when our next connector call is and get on board.
Dan: Well, not free zone, but I have a 10 times connector call at 1030 your time tomorrow morning. Oh, okay, yeah. And this is where I'm testing out strengthening your strengths for the first time.
Dean: Okay, oh, that's why it's hot off the press. Well, I mean I. There's a greater than zero percent chance that I might fly up to chicago for to get out of here.
Dan: So we'll see when's it supposed to hit tampa?
Dean: well, tuesday, wednesday, will be the peak fall, so we'll see it it supposed to hit Tampa. When's it supposed to hit Tampa? Well, tuesday, wednesday will be the peak fall, so we'll see it's supposed to. You know, form more, get more structure and stuff today, so they'll see what the expected path is and stuff. It could go further north or south, or it could fizzle out. You never know.
Dan: Yeah, yeah. The news media loves this stuff, you know. So drama, you know, and they've got a narrative going now. These are the worst hurricanes in American history. I said no, they're just hitting more populated areas.
Dean: Oh man Well now you know the whole conspiracy, now that is, that was enhanced hurricane, that they manipulated the weather, dan, and pushed it yeah, to North Carolina because they want. It just so happens that all these mountain towns.
Dan: They want a lot of people not voting Republican.
Dean: Well, they want the lithium underneath there. The mountain areas there sit on the highest concentrations of lithium in the world.
Dan: We're talking real conspiracy here.
Dean: Oh, yeah, yeah, no, that's exactly it. We're talking about like weaponized weather, to shut down, to make Asheville the next smart city.
Dan: And I'll tell you something that there is actually something unique about North Carolina, that the finest quartz in the world that go into microchips, the finest quartz comes from one town in North Carolina.
Dean: Yeah, I mean in the world.
Dan: I'm talking. Well, this is not lithium, it's quartz, I mean maybe there's also lithium there, it's the same thing, yeah. But that town's been going for 30, 40 years, you know and everything else else. But it's really interesting that the finest grade quartz just comes from a mountain in one little town in north carolina, I think that's an interesting fact, it's proof of rule number three that's so funny, it's true. Number three is rule number three is there are no rules, no rules, no. Life's not fair.
Dean: Life's not fair, right, sorry, right. Everything is made up, nobody's in charge and life isn't fair, that's right.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, you get those down pat and you know, you know, and life gets real simple.
Dean: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I love it simple.
Dan: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely I love it. Do you know the american one dollar bill, the left hand side of the american, backside you? Know, it's got the pyramid. Huh got one there I don't have paper bill I don't know.
Dean: I don't think I have paper bill. No, I don't have one.
Dan: I have lots. I have ATMs in my closet. I have ATMs in shoe boxes. I've got ATMs in the freezer compartment. I always have cash, but that's very interesting. But you see the pyramid there. That's the three rules.
Dean: Oh, it's made up.
Dan: Everything's made up. Everything's made up. That's one side of the pyramid. The other side to that second side, nobody's in charge. And number three is life's not fair.
Dean: And if you get that, you're a happy American. And the I is. We're always watching.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, see if you've been good or bad, that's exactly right.
Dean: That's exactly right, yeah.
Dan: I love it Well anyway, we both have assignments.
Dean: I'm excited about that.
Dan: First thing tomorrow morning and it'll be really interesting. But I'll just go to Hamish, because Hamish is playing with it already and it's really great. And yeah, this is a neat site. We can have our listeners out there do the same thing, you know.
Dean: I love it.
Dan: I'm going to go to Perplexity and say tell me the 10 most important things about Google Notebook. Oh, very good yeah I like that Because I bet perplexity has a better notion of what it does than Google does.
Dean: I wonder if perplexity I'm going to ask perplexity give me the top 10 things or top 10 ways I should be using you, the top 10 ways you could be useful to me.
Dan: I asked it, the R factor question, you know the perplexity.
I said perplexity if we were having this discussion three years from today and you're looking back over the three years, what has to happen for you to feel happy with your progress? Okay, okay. Five seconds later I had it Okay. And then I said what are the 10 biggest obstacles to you being happy with your progress? And then it said at the end if I solve these 10, if I overcome these 10 biggest obstacles, I'll be very happy with my progress. Obstacles I'll be very happy with my progress. That was a good answer.
Dean: That was a good answer. Yeah, that's great, I'm going to do that. That's funny. I'm going to see what they say. Well, so next week you're traveling, and then so two weeks.
Dan: Yeah, we're up to the cottage for Thanksgiving, which is and so, but we go up on Thursday, we have the big dinner on Saturday night and Babs and I come back to the city on Sunday.
Dean: Drive back on Sunday. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, so Monday.
Dan: Monday's the holiday, but right, yep. So two, two, two Sundays. Yeah, all right, you got homework I got homework, got homework, absolutely I'll talk to you soon, okay, bye.

Oct 23, 2024 • 55min
Ep136: Hurricanes, Health, and the Role of AI
In this episode of Welcome to Cloulandia, We delve into a range of topics, starting with the impact of natural disasters like hurricanes, discussing their unpredictable effects and the challenges of recovery in affected areas. The conversation transitions into a discussion about health, where insights on traditional Chinese medicine and its approach to addressing common illnesses are shared. We highlight how ancient practices like herbal treatments and scraping therapy remain relevant today.
We then explore a fascinating scientific discussion on fructose and its historical role in human survival, as well as its connection to modern health issues like diabetes and dementia. The implications of diet and sugar consumption are examined with insights from experts who have dedicated their careers to studying these links.
Turning to technology, We discuss the evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI), highlighting its potential in creative and practical applications
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
Dan and I discuss the impact of hurricanes, focusing on their unpredictable effects and the recovery challenges faced by affected regions.
I share insights on traditional Chinese medicine, including treatments like herbal remedies and scraping therapy, and how these methods address common health issues.
We examine the role of fructose in human survival and its modern connections to health problems like diabetes and dementia, drawing on expert perspectives.
We explore the evolving applications of artificial intelligence, discussing its potential in creative fields, communication, and education.
The conversation touches on the limitations and risks of AI, including concerns about quality and the pace of technological adoption.
We reflect on the technological history of politics, discussing how innovations like FM radio and cable television have influenced public discourse over time.
We share observations on the psychological and societal effects of rapid technological advancements, including shifting expectations for speed and efficiency.
The episode highlights examples of AI in action, such as automated customer service and editing tools, and their implications for productivity.
Dan and I discuss the contextual complexity of decision-making, emphasizing the importance of considering multiple factors in understanding trends and behaviors.
We conclude with reflections on how these topics intersect, offering a perspective on the evolving relationship between technology, society, and individual experiences.
Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com
TRANSCRIPT
(AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors)
Dean: Mr Sullivan, you have survived the hurricane, I survived the hurricane. Yes, we actually got almost nothing in Winter Haven.
Dan: Yes.
Dean: Winter Haven lived up to its name.
Dan: No, I checked the weather condition in Winter Haven just in case I'd have to send an emergency package.
Dean: Yeah, emergency, that's right we ended up. It was very. You know, it's a perfect example of you know when the hurricanes are coming. Of course you start out with that. You know the national news oh boy, there's a hurricane brewing, there's a tropical storm, it's forming in the Caribbean right now, or it's forming below Mexico or below Cuba, and then every day this is intensifying all the language, all the total emotional language, and then this is going to be devastating. And then you see the big buzzsaw working its way through the Gulf of Mexico on its approach to the mainland, and it could go anywhere, dan the cone of probability.
And this one luckily stayed far enough to the west that we really got nothing. I mean, I got one band of wind and rain. It was like one of the outer perimeter bands, but not to say that it wasn't a devastating hurricane, because the whole the Gulf Coast, like in Tampa and St Petersburg and especially up in the Panhandle, they got really like rocked with this. And then North Carolina is getting pummeled with flooding and I mean like unbelievable stuff that's going on.
Yeah, it's wild. You know our friend Chad Jenkins. He's got a place in, or had a place in, the mountains and the whole road going into the community just washed away, you know those guys are gonna be. I mean it's gonna be a long cleanup to get up from under all the flooding and stuff that's happened in North Carolina and most of you know Georgia and North Florida, but just shows you what it was?
Dan: Well, it must have gone pretty far north, because Joe Polish was doing an event, supposedly today.
Dean: In Cincinnati, yeah.
Dan: In Cincinnati and the stage got destroyed.
Dean: I saw that. The whole event, so it got pretty far north yes, yeah, because cincinnati I mean I think two things there, right that that's. Most people don't realize actually how far south cincinnati is, as you know, you know, it's almost kentucky, basically kentucky.
Dan: So yeah, you can see. Well, comington is right across the river. You know Exactly.
Dean: But still.
Dan: I mean compared to Florida, it's pretty far north.
Dean: Oh yeah, You're absolutely right. Yeah, you're home safe.
Dan: Oh yeah, yeah, no, it's been nice here, it's been you know we've had probably the classic summer in September this year, I mean here it is almost the end of the month and all the leaves are completely green. We have a big Lots of leaves. We have lots of leaves with big oak trees that we have in our compound. We have six or seven, I think, seven big, seven big trees. But, nothing's turned yet, none of the colors have started yet, but it's been warm. It's been. You know, yesterday was 73, 74, which is great.
Dean: It's the best. It's the best.
Dan: Yeah, it's been terrific, and yeah sorry you couldn't make it to.
Dean: Genius Phoenix, yeah.
Dan: It was great. It was great. Who'd you catch that call from? I forget.
Dean: Oh my goodness, Super spreader, super spreader Sullivan, that's you.
Dan: Yeah, what was that? But?
Dean: that came on fast.
Dan: You know he.
Dean: We had brunch on Saturday were there was nothing going on. We had dinner sunday night at your house and then monday, you were like full in the throes of it. And then we had dinner monday night and of course I was right beside you and by by Wednesday I went downhill, you know, and I could tell that it was coming on bad and I was supposed to speak at Giovanni's big event in the Arcane Summit, but I could tell I was going downhill. And then, thursday I switched my flight to come back to Florida because the original plan was I was going to speak at Giovanni's event and then on Sunday, fly to Phoenix for to be with you guys.
Dan: Yeah, but anyway I made it home.
Dean: I made it home just in time. I went full immersion in you know self-care, nipping in the bud, I think the warm, moist air really a lot to get rid of it yeah, well, you still sound like you, I was just gonna say you still sound yeah, no, I still, yeah, I still have it.
Dan: Yeah. So we went to we have a really great chinese doctor here in toronto and uh you know, he does everything through pulse and he took my pulse and yeah his name's dr zhao and you know I've got a track record going back 20 years where you try this, it doesn't work. You try this, it doesn't work. You go to a doctor, it doesn't work. Then you go to dr zhao and within three or four days, then take these little.
Dean: I went to a chinese doctor one time. No, they're herb.
Dan: He gives you little packets of herbs and you make them like coffee and it's foul tasting, as it should be, and three or four. I can feel myself coring up already. I went on Friday and we have a Vietnamese massage therapist going back 30 years now. She's been with us since 32 years and she does scraping. Do you know what scraping is?
Dean: I do not.
Dan: Is that? No, it's. You know, she scrapes the skin hard. You know it's hard. Yeah, it's painful, it's actually quite painful. She did it on me. I just came from that about an hour ago.
Dean: What is she scraping it with?
Dan: Well, I don't know what it is. It's like stones. A special tool, it's like stones, oh, like bones. Yeah, sharp stones, you know.
Dean: Bone things.
Dan: yeah, and she doesn't take the scalp. You know she doesn. She doesn't take your scalp off, she just scrapes your back and scrapes your chest and it releases all the phlegm. You know the interesting word phlegm? So Chinese and Vietnamese in a space of three days and I'll be as good as new on Wednesday. In about a week. Takes about two or three days.
Takes about two or three days you know I'm very, you know I've got a lot of compartments in my brain and people say you don't believe in that stuff. No, I do. And I said I think it works, even if you don't believe in it.
Dean: Right, that's exactly it.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: It's not up for debate. That's funny. Yeah, well, you went to the Chinese have.
Dan: yeah, well, you went to the chinese have lasted.
Dean: The chinese have lasted a long time, you know, and I guess some of it works did you go to canyon ranch?
Dan: this time no we just we went to richard rossi's. Oh, that's what it was, I knew there was something yeah yeah, what was the big.
Dean: It was good. Yeah, what was the big yeah, there he had to.
Dan: Richard is just terrific in his curating of scientists. You know, he had a lot of scientists come in and talk and we had two especially one of them around 70. And he's been looking into the impact of fructose pretty well for 60 or 70, 50 or 60 years.
And he really says that fructose is basically involved in anything bad that happens to you. You know, almost every kind of ailment and disease there's a fructose trigger to it. And he said and it was once a very good thing, when you know, thousands, tens of thousands of years ago, when we couldn't count on food, you know the food supply was not a predictable thing and he's just traced it to three or four genes. That got changed back in the prehistoric times when it was very necessary to stock up on fruit. You know, eat fruit as much as you could before the famine season came, usually winter, you know, sort of. You know there wasn't any food.
And Buddy said then it's, you know, it was good at one time, but now we're in different conditions and now it's a problem. So anyway, he was great and I'm going to have him as a speaker at CoachCon 26 in Orlando. His name's Richard Johnson. Yeah, fascinating guy. Yeah, fascinating guy. And his whole career has been based on taking his research as far as he can and then finding someone in the world who has mastered the whole area that he's just entered.
And he does a collaboration with them and then they create something new, and his whole career has been these collaborations with people who are more expert at what he's just discovered. And then they together do something even beyond what either of them have done before. So he's going to do one day on fructose and he's going to do the next day on collaboration.
Dean: Oh wow, is he mad at fruit? Is he mad at fruit? Is fruit considered the same thing or is he talking about? No, it's Coke, it's Coca-Cola.
Dan: That's what I mean. Like the fructose corn syrup, but not naturally. No, he's not against fruit. He the process, the intense fructose that they use, you know, to get people addicted to other kinds of foods yes, oh exactly, yeah yeah wow, but it was very interesting just how step by step, how step, he tracked down sort of the culprit.
You know, and he said that pretty well, almost anything bad that can happen you. There's a fructose trigger in it. And you know and he said that pretty well, almost anything bad that can happen to you. There is a fructose trigger in it. And you know, then, including dementia, like including dementia and well diabetes leads to dementia. You know. They now have a pretty clear connection between diabetes and dementia.
Dean: And yeah, that was what they're saying. I heard somebody refer to it as pre-dementia. Diabetes is pre. Like you know, everybody's walking around with pre-diabetes and the next level of diabetes is pre-dementia.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, and then pre-dementia is pre-presidency.
Dean: Oh my goodness, exactly. It's almost like a requirement.
Dan: It's almost like a requirement. It's almost like a requirement. It's almost like a merit badge. Yeah, when we're coming down the stretch it shows one thing We've had a virtually uncapable person in the White House for four years and the country still runs. That's what I mean.
Dean: That's what I really see. I think it's yeah.
Dan: I mean, I don't think it gives you the sense of momentum that probably a good president would do. But here we are, you know, and who knows who's actually been making the decisions for the last four years. You know, it's an interesting test case, you know. Yeah, I don't think the israelis could get away with that oh my goodness, I just saw I think, they need someone. I think they need somebody right on the job, you know in the moment at all times they don't have much margin for error no, exactly yeah, that's wild huh.
Dean: Well, I mean, uh, I just saw you were coming now into october, very around the heels here. So we're coming down the home stretch ready for the october surprise. Dan, everybody is all wondering what's the October surprise going to be, you know?
Dan: Yeah, there may be no surprise.
Dean: That could be the surprise, right there.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, it's hard. It's hard to, you know, impose the past on the future. You know I mean it may, nothing may happen, it may just go along the way it is. Nothing may happen, it may just go along the way it is. But I feel that the Kamala is losing ground. Each week I get a feeling that there's this kind of erosion.
that's happening week by week but she doesn't have any message. As a matter of fact, she's avoiding messages and I think it's hard to get the ground troops excited when you don't have a message. It's hard to get you. You know it's hard to get the check writers interested, probably in the last 33 or 34 weeks when you don't have a message.
Dean: One of my favorite things that happened was I don't know whether it was an official ad or whether it was a meme, but it was Kamala saying if Donald Trump wins, there'll be the largest mass deportation in American history. Can you imagine what that would even look like? And then it ends and it goes. I'm Donald Trump. I approve this message. How perfect is that.
Dan: Can you even imagine what that would look like? I'm Donald Trump. I approve this message.
Dean: How perfect is that? Can you even imagine what that would look like? I'm Donald Trump. I approve this message.
Dan: I think he's a rascal.
Dean: But that's like so funny. Now we're getting somewhere.
Dan: Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. Even my opponent is working for my campaign.
Dean: Exactly. Oh my goodness, so funny.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know, I think that there's kind of like an American center at any given time, like yeah, this is my yeah. What is it I started voting in? 68 was the first year that I voted. First presidential election because it was. The voting age was 21 when I was 20 and 64. I was 20 and 60. So I couldn't vote for the presidency in 64, so I had to wait until 68.
And so you know, that's a whole number of years. It's 32, it's 56 years, so this is my 14th election and the thing is that at any given point there's sort of a center to things and I think the center moves around. But the person whose activities and message most corresponds to the American center during presidential year wins. You know, they just win I think it moves and I think America is a bit of an ADD country, you know that hyper, focusing on something different.
you know every presidential cycle something and I just get the sense that there's she's not in the center. You know, you get a feeling that what she says and how she talks about it, it's just not in the center.
Dean: Oh, and there was another ad showing. You know it was taking her words from 2020 and then exactly saying the opposite right now. Like every you know so like, thing after thing, her complete change on positions. You know it's pretty wild to see when you and she says things with such conviction and matter of fact it's like there can be no other way than this. Like how do?
you not see this as the thing, and then she's saying it with the same tone and the same conviction the exact opposite thing. It's pretty amazing. I started watching last night, about halfway through, a documentary about Lee Atwater. Does that sound familiar? He?
Dan: was quite Lee really changed American politics.
Dean: Yeah, I didn't really know about him. I'd heard the name, of course, but yeah, this documentary really kind of digs into it. I didn't realize he was Karl Rove's mentor and so pivotal in Ronald Reagan and the Bushes.
Dan: Yeah, he was the first of the take no prisoners, so there's a lot of shenanigans going on, so there's always been shenanigans.
Dean: I guess that's really the thing Whenever the stakes are high, clever people are going to dream up shenanigans.
Dan: Yeah, he was the one who George Bush Sr the outrouter was this is 88, 1988.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: And he took down Dukakis in about three weeks. Yes, dukakis was kind of a, you know he was a governor of Massachusetts and sort of solid you know solid record and everything else. But boy, he was not prepared at all for the type of things that happen when you run for president, I mean when it's nationwide governor who's been basically in one state for all his political career, you know, just doesn't have the experience to deal with what can happen on a national level. I think that's one of the things that gives Trump the edge, I think is the fact that this is his third complete national campaign. So you know, from everything I've read about him and everything, I think he's a fast learner. You know he adjusts quickly to new circumstances, and so I think that just understanding how the entire campaign works, in it.
you know it really starts about 18 months before the election day and you know to know exactly, step by step, what's happening, I think is a huge advantage.
Dean: And it became clear watching the Lee Atwater thing that it's really it's most with what I was, you know, thinking, reading in same as ever. You know where the whole thing is, that good news takes, you know, build slowly and against resistance, and bad news gets is immediate, and that was what his thing was, what he found, what he said he found fascinating is you could end somebody's entire career in a day, that it could all fall apart. You just had the right thing that hits the right chord and it catches fire. And in another election he was accused or suspected of arranging this third party candidate to say the things that the primary candidate couldn't say, draw attention to this candidate's lack of belief in God, and it was really something.
Dan: I think he died around 90, 1991. He got cancer or something. He died young. I mean he wasn't very old. I think he was in his 40s when he died. It's really interesting when you look at the technological basis for politics and you know the left, you know, goes frantic. Left and right is an event. I don't know if you know where left wing and right wing or the listeners do. It comes from the French Revolution.
Dean: The French.
Dan: Revolution, they had a national assembly and on the right were the traditional landowners in France. So these were families that maybe for half a millennia had owned land and there was always suspicion in how rich people got their land back then. You know, you never knew how they got their land. And then there was the church, and the church was on the side of the landowners. And then there was the government, you know the monarchy. They were the supporters of the monarchy and they were on the right, and the ones on the left were actually the new news media, the new intellectual class and actually the bureaucrats, the new bureaucrats who you know the state was getting big and you had these bureaucrats and they were on the left. And so that's really you know where that term right wing and left wing really starts, and and you know it's gone through different shapes and forms over the last 250 years or so. And but what I believe is that after the Second World War, the mainstream of the university were basically the mainstream and they were actually.
Today we would say that they were sort of left wing and there really wasn't any right wing. There really wasn't right wing, because they controlled the magazines, they controlled the newspapers, they controlled the radio. Television was just, you know, just in its infancy, and there was one technological change that actually brought what we call the right wing today to the forefront, and it was FM radio.
And FM radio was possible in the 1930s or 1940s. They already knew the technology of it, but that NBC, which was the dominant network. Back then you had ABC, cbs and NBC, but NBC was the dominant and they didn't want FM radio. So they literally stopped it for 30 years and then the government had to overrule them and allow FM radio to exist. And when FM radio came in it became the radios of the big city because it's got very limited bandwidth.
Dean: You know it reaches.
Dan: I don't know bandwidth, I mean FM doesn't go more than about 30 miles. Pardon me, but it became the radio station of the universities and the big cities.
Dean: New York.
Dan: Chicago, boston and everything else, and they moved out of AM radio and they said we don't want that small town stuff, am radios. So they left a vacuum. What we would call the left wing today moved to FM radio like national public radio is all FM radio, which is left wing.
The NPR is the left wing medium. Based on today's landscape it's left wing and it just left the entire right wing with many more stations, but they had tremendous reach, like AM radio. You know, on a clear night in Ohio when I was a kid, I could get New Orleans, I could get St Louis, I could get Chicago, I could get New York, Philadelphia and I could get the charlatan radio from Mexico. Yeah, mean that was a million watt, million watt, radio station.
Dean: So you had these really powerful radio stations and they were just abandoned was the idea behind fm, that it it was a shorter length but a higher quality signal. Is that what was?
Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and you know, and it was available. So all these bandwidths were taken over by big city stations because you couldn't get the reach. You know you couldn't get the reach, but what you could make up with it was a denser population. So you would have a, you know, a big city would have a much denser population. So you would have a big city would have a much denser population. And what these stations got taken over by were religious congregations, preachers and everything like that, and they were against the mainstream government. Know, that's where Rush Limbaugh came along.
you know he became the and Billy Graham came along.
Dean: Right. Am radio is where you often think about. That was you know became talk radio. That's really where that all started, right.
Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the Democratic left in the United States just lost its control of AM radio, you know, and that was a big technological change. And then cable television came in. Of course you could have any kind of station, TV station.
Dean: So there was a technological basis to politics technological basis to politics.
Yeah, this is. I was listening. I've just been exposed in the last week here to the I think it's called Google Notebook, and it's the AI that you can load up you know some text or you know information into train, the kind of whatever the language tool is that it's drawing from, and it will create a podcast that's two people talking and explaining. You're making content about what you load up, for instance, like I just thought you know, it's pretty like it's amazing to hear these no, I listened to it.
Dan: I listened to it. Oh, you did okay for the first time.
Dean: Yeah, hamish what's?
Dan: hamish mcdonald's. Uh, yeah, yeah, it was a particular piece of legislation in. Prince Edward Island. And so the government was using Google notebook to explain it, and it's a man and a woman talking to each other. And they said, and I mean the discussion quality and the voice quality was really terrific Like it sounds like two real people but the thing was they were just uniformly enthusiastic and positive about the regulation or the regulations that were doing that and that was my tee off that this is phony.
Not phony, but artificial, right, you know I mean. I mean artificial. One of the meanings of artificial is phony. You know and everything. But it was really interesting to listen to it and I think it's good for education, explaining things you know.
Dean: Yes, yeah.
Dan: Because they go back and forth with each other, so I thought it was pretty good.
Dean: Huh, and just like. So you look at this as this, if this is crawling, you know, if you look at that as the beginning of it, because that's the first I've seen of that capability. It's really pretty. It's really pretty amazing what we're up against.
Just to put it in context, I heard someone talking about where we are now, the new I don't know how they number them, but the 0.01 or 01 or whatever now is the latest level of it context of a scale like the phases, the level five kind of thing, being the peak. You know, general intelligence, that that knows everything, this 101 or 10 or whatever it is. It was just tested at 120 IQ, which is higher than 91% of the population.
Dan: And it means that 91% of the population isn't going to understand it.
Dean: That could be. I mean, that's exactly right.
Dan: Or listen to it. Yeah, but they're saying that if we look at the scale.
Dean: If we look at the scale from 1 to 5, we're at about 2 right now, on the way to 5 by say 20 or whatever.
Dan: I don't know really what that means. Iq 120 about what? Yeah, I mean.
Dean: Yeah, I don't know I mean even IQ itself.
Dan: You know it's being more and more discounted, as you know, as any kind of, I mean. What it means is pattern recognition. I think the Q now comes back to pattern. But, for example, above 150, I mean there's's people, there's an organization called mensa I mean yeah, you know which is people? I think it's 160 or above and what they find is that they're kind of dismal failures. You know, yeah, you know.
Dean: No, I heard a thing that the actual, most, the most beneficial iq is about 125.
Dan: that it gets in the way yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's the practical realm, the practical realm is 120 to 140. And you know that people think better than other people, but they also make better decisions and they take better actions. I think that's probably the realm, and it's very interesting when they compare all the IQ tests of men and women. They have different curves.
And so there's far more males below 100 than there are females in relationship to how many males. So a higher percentage of males are below 120 or below 100 and a much bigger percentage of males are above 140. And the women control the area between 100 and 140. I mean just statistically based on yeah, and so the idiots and the geniuses men have they struggle, that's funny, I had them.
Dean: so, yeah, I, yeah, I did. Years ago as an adult, though, I did my IQ just for fun, to see what. See where I'm at, and it's always 140, and which was see where I'm at. I was 140, which was very superior intelligence, dan, they call it VVSI on the tip of the I knew that the moment I met you. That's so funny. Yeah, I don't know what that means.
Dan: It was a good choice of restaurants. It was on Avenue Road.
Dean: That's exactly right, yes, yeah, that's right. Yeah, boba, yeah, yeah, so funny. So I think that this I remember saying to you a few years ago. I remember somebody tweeting which I thought was funny. They were saying however bullish you are about AI and circa 2030, you are insufficiently bullish, is what they were saying, and I thought those words just struck me as funny. But now we're starting to see, like, because that was even before ai, that was before t came out, because that's really only it's. It'll be two years in november, right that we?
got the very first, 30th, 30th of november well, the very first sorry, that's okay the very first taste of it. And look at how it's changed in two years. You can only imagine what it's going to be in 2030.
Dan: But I don't see any real impact of it out in the world. I don't see any impact.
Dean: Yeah, let's talk about that. It's not obvious.
Dan: Yeah.
Dean: I don't see anything.
Dan: Yeah, my sense is that we're sort of in a tinkering stage right now and that you give AI to one person and they do something with it. You give it to another person and they do something different with it.
You give it to a million people and a million people do a million different things with it, but I don't see any unity or focus to it whatsoever, any unity or focus to it whatsoever. And it's bothering the investment markets, like Goldman Sachs, the big investment bank, who they're sort of alert to trends in the market because that's how they make their money. They said that they're very disappointed that in two years there's been billions and billions and billions of dollars spent in corporations bringing in AI, but they don't see any results whatsoever yet. So I think it's. My sense is that it's having a great impact, but it's not measurable by standard economic standards. It's not measurable, it's invisible standards.
Dean: It's not measurable, it's invisible, right, and I I wonder, like you know, I've been talking about and thinking about this. You know I almost liken it to the way when the iphone came out. We had all the capabilities that went with it, right, like the gyroscope and the geographic, you know, knowing where you are geographically and the accelerometer and the touch screen and all of those capabilities that it could do, and, of course, the first things that people did was make games that you could you know, the other thing is photography yeah photography really changed huh, and now you see, like yeah, because now the, but being able.
The big difference now with the ai is the sort of generative creativity, the photography and the things. I was laughed. There was about several years ago when AI was first start of sort of really getting legs. Before GPT, there were just the micro capabilities that AI was using. There was a website, and still is called thispersondoesnotexistcom, and every time you push refresh on the thing it creates a new image, photo image of a person that is an amalgam of all of the photo. You know millions of photos, and so it just is infinitely combining characteristics and hair color, hairstyle, eye color, skin tone, facial features, all of that to make a unique person that does not exist.
Those are now along with the. When you couple that with the capability now of creating video avatars, like the AI videos, that you can have them say your script you know in, and it looks like a real person doing those things and it's just. I think, as all these capabilities come together, it's going to be a lot like the app store, where people are going to corral these capabilities into a very specific outcome. You know that you can. You know that you can tap into. I mean what a time to be a creative right now, you know, in terms of having vision and being able to pair up with infinite capabilities.
Dan: Yeah, it's kind of you know I mean, there's some interesting insights about that that you're still constrained by one thing, because that on the receiving end of all this, people can still only think about one thing at a time. Okay, and you know so, you're not going to speed up anybody's intelligence on the receiving end. You may speed up your intelligence on the grave, but you're not going to speed. As a matter of fact, you may be dumbing them down at the other end.
But what I think it's going to do is big systems. I mean, one of the great big systems that's been created over the last probably 50, 60 years is air traffic control. So there's not been a commercial accident in the air. I think it. You know, it may be 15, 20 years, I don't know.
The last time, two planes collided in the air Right, right Like a collision in the air. And there you know, if you go back to the 30s, 40s and 50s, there were quite a few, you know, fog or something and everything like that, and so I think it's going to be big systems, like big electrical systems. That's where you're going to see the impact. I don't think it's going to be at the individual level. I think it's going to be at the big system level, and my sense is the Israelis are doing a lot of this at the big system level and my sense is the Israelis are doing a lot of this. I think the Israelis and you know the precision bombing they're doing now is really quite extraordinary, like they killed the head of Hezbollah on Friday.
Dean: I just saw that. I saw something about that. I didn't have a chance to dig in, but that guy yeah.
Dan: And they? First of all, they phoned everybody in the neighborhood within 500 meters and they said get out within the next 20 minutes because we're going to be bombing some buildings. So they have everybody's phone number.
like in Beirut and Lebanon, they've got everybody's text number and phone number and they just mail them and says you know, get out of your building because there's bombs coming, you know. And so it was colossal. They cleared a block. I mean, when you look at it's three buildings and there's nothing but rubble and everything like that, well, there are hundreds of people around there. I think two people got killed and you know 50, 50 were injured, but I think you know typically technology leaps ahead in warfare, you know 50-50, we're injured, but I think you know typically technology leaps ahead in warfare, you know that's number one.
Number two is games, you know, and the gaming industry is probably using this extraordinarily quickly and you know, and other forms of entertainment, other forms of entertainment, that's where it happens. But yeah, I'm not seeing the big jump. You know, I hear, you know Peter Diamandis sends out this is going to happen. And then you extrapolate in a straight line Well, because they're IQ 120, you know, in five years is going to be IQ 180. But most humans with 180 IQ are pretty worthless yeah you know they can't change a tire.
You know they have problems in practice, right exactly yeah, they become more impractical and it's not clear that, beyond a certain amount of it, that intelligence is that great an advantage? You know, I don't know, I'm not, you know I'm, don't know, I'm not, you know, I'm just not convinced. Yet I mean, I use, you know, perplexity, and you know I really like perplexity because it gives me nice answers to things. I'm interested in, but not once has anything I've done on perplexity actually entered into my work.
Dean: Right, you know it's Stuart Bell who runs my 90-minute book team. You know we were having a conversation about it and you know they're integrating into the editing process some.
Dan: AI.
Dean: So the first two passes of editing are now AI. First two passes of editing are now AI and he was amazed actually at how good it is. Most of the time the editing process is reductive, meaning that there's less. You put in this many words and you come out with something less than that many words. But this past, the way they've got it going now is it actually is a little bit expansive and you come out with about 10 more words than what it was, but reads. But reads very, you know very easily. So so he's very impressed with the way that's gone and it happens in moments rather than days of going through a traditional editing process. That was always the biggest time constraint.
Dan: Bottleneck is the editing process, but that means that you can only charge less for it. Time constraint, bottleneck is the editing process, you know.
Dean: Yeah, but that means that you can only charge less for it. I mean, let me just pose a counter possibility. Wait a second now yeah, possibility.
Dan: I had a lawyer once and he said everything went to hell in the legal industry when fax machines came in, and he was explaining this to me that he said it used to be that you'd go and have a meeting with the client and then you'd go back and he would grant you three or four days to make revisions and then you know, send it by courier and over yeah and he noticed that over the first two years of fax they expected the revisions to be back that day so if things speed up people's expectations.
People's expectations jump to saying well, you know, you just ran that through the ai, so why should I pay you for? You know I would. It take you three minutes to do this, you know why should I but? You put yeah. So my sense is that there's an economic factor that doesn't increase when the speed increases. Actually, the economic factor decreases as the speed increases.
You know it used to be that they gave you two weeks to come up with a. You know a script for a play. Now they want it back an hour after you've talked you know, because they say well, we're not. We know you're using the ai and so you know we expect it to happen sooner you watch.
I mean, we'll just keep track of this on our podcast as we go over yeah, but once you have a tech, once you have a speedier technology, people's expectation of speed goes up to match what other evidence is there for that?
Dean: what other analogs?
Dan: well, fax machine, yeah, fax machines and an email. Yeah, email very definitely, but the world hasn't slowed down with faster technology.
Dean: No.
Dan: No, everything's gotten faster. It's like sugar.
Dean: Yeah, sugar.
Dan: Everything speeds up. Everything speeds up with sugar.
Dean: Yes, exactly, I don't know.
Dan: You know, all I know is, in my 50 years of being an entrepreneur, I don't feel I've ever been at a disadvantage by adjusting to technology slowly.
Dean: Yeah, it's just I just see now, if you take the through line of where things are going. Like I was really kind of amazed by this couple on that Google Notebook podcast, Like just that as a capability is pretty amazing. You know, I think you know and you're seeing now, those AI, you know telephony things where you can talk to an AI.
Dan: A lot of it is things in sales they're doing. Chris johnson yeah, chris johnson in prezone really has an amazing.
It's a calling service yeah so he had 32 callers and now he's got five callers and that's a real noticeable thing. And the software and I he gave a an example is about a minute and a half of the caller calling a woman and she's got it. It's. She's got a slight accent I can't quite tell what the accent is, you know, and but she's very responsive. You know she's very responsive and their voice modulation goes up and down in response to the person who answers the phone call you know, and, as a matter of fact, he's the person who answered the phone sounded like a real deadhead.
So we were about halfway through and I said to Chris. I said which one's the robot? I can't quite tell.
Dean: Which one is the?
Dan: robot. The person who answered the phone was just really dead. He was really monotonic and everything like that.
Dean: But the caller.
Dan: She says, oh well, she says you know. She says you indicated interest in finding out more what our company does. And I'm just calling to schedule where we can give you a little bit more information. I'm not the person who does that. I'm just going to set up a meeting where someone can talk to you and it won't last more than 10 minutes, but they're really experts, and so I'm looking at the schedule for tomorrow and I've got 10 o'clock and I've got 3 o'clock. Would one of them be useful for you? He said something like 3 o'clock and I've got three o'clock. Would one of them be useful for you? He said you know something like three o'clock. He says, good, I'll put you in there. And he said you know, we just want to give you the kind of information that would indicate if you want to go further in that and everything like that. So thanks a lot for this and it was really good.
But that that AI program can make 25,000 calls a minute.
Dean: That's crazy isn't it?
Dan: In other words, if people answered the phone as a result of sending this out, you could have 1,000 people talking at the same time. Now, I see that as a real breakthrough.
Dean: Yeah, agreed, I mean that's kind of ridiculous.
but yeah you think about that? I you know, when I started out in real estate I would do. I was making a hundred cold calls a day, but I was doing a survey. Was my, was my approach right? So I was saying the same thing. My idea was that I was going to call through the phone book for Georgetown, but I didn't want to, and then I would make a record of I had little or D, and I would only, of course, then follow up with the ones who were willing, happy and had a potential need in the future. That was my game plan and I would make these calls.
I was just thinking now how easy it would be for an AI to do that now, like I would just call people. I'd say hey, mr Sullivan, it's Dean Jackson calling from Royal LePage. We're doing a quick area market survey. I wonder if you have a minute to be included, and most of the time they'd say no, or sometimes they'd say yes. But even if they said no, or I would just say it's just five questions that take one minute, I promise, and most people would go along with that and then I would just ask them have you lived in Georgetown for more than five years and how many years in your current house and how'd you happen to choose Georgetown?
And then, if you were to move, would you stay within Georgetown or would you move out of the area? And then, whatever they said, I said when would that be? When would that be? That was the punchline of the whole thing and it was so. You know, it was so amazing, but I could you imagine making 25 000 of those calls in one minute. You call george, every household in geor, those calls in one minute.
You call every household in Georgetown in one minute and identify all the people who were, because I could imagine an AI saying having that exact interaction that I just shared with you, right? Oh yeah, just the yeah, we're just doing an area market survey. Wonder if you'd have a minute. It's just five questions, one minute, I promise, and then go right into it. I mean that's pretty amazing. You know, if that's a possibility, that's a pretty.
Dan: Well, I think you know. I mean, here's where you're. You know we're at the crawling stage with it, but again it all depends on whether people answer the phone or not, right?
Dean: We're finding about a third. So we've got a lot of our realtors and others are, you know, following up with people who request books. So when they dial about a third of the people will answer the phone.
Dan: Basically you just never reach me. But yeah, my sense about this is that there's very definitely an increase in quantity and I'm not convinced yet that there's an increase in quality, you know right.
Right, you know quality of experience and so, for example, you know quality of experience and so, for example, what Hamish McDonald was sending me had to do with the piece of legislation, because there's something that they want to do and it requires following the rules of government ministry. But it was a little too cheerful and enthusiastic. I found the couple's talk. There would be no negatives in it. And I've never had any experience with government that didn't have a negative in it. So, from a possibility.
Dean: I wonder if you could have. I wonder if you could, you know, prompt one person to take the positive one, to take the negative or debate it.
Dan: You know, debate fun to take the negative or debate it. Yeah, you know, debate could be, you know, yeah, but my, my sense is that we get better at spotting dishonesty.
You know like yeah, my sense, I think one of the like I. I have people who use ai all the time and you know, and they send me something and I read it and then we have a discussion over the over Zoom usually, and I'll say I didn't quite get it from what you wrote. There was something missing from. So I'm just going to ask you a whole bunch of questions like content wise. But the context is the real. You know, context is hard to grasp unless you're telling the truth, you know, and the reason is because you have to be touching about 10 different points, and one of the things I find with perplexity the AI is I've got this sort of way of approaching and perplexity always has to tell me 10 things about the subject I'm interested in. Okay, so 10 things.
For example, I asked, I put in 10 reasons why evs are not being adopted as quickly as was predicted okay and 10 and phew, 10 of them, and you could see that each of them was a little bit of a game stopper. But when you put all 10 of them together it really gave you a sense of why there's a lot of late nights in the EV world right now, trying to figure out why things aren't happening as fast as they could be.
So that's a contextual answer. It's not just, and what I've discovered from working with perplexity is there's no reason. There's no one reason for anything in the world. There's always at least 10 reasons why something happens or why something doesn't happen, and everything else.
Dean: Yeah.
Dan: I'm being educated. I'm being educated, but it's just something that's developed in the relationship between me and the AI. You know, because if you say what are the reasons why AI is not or E-MAT being adopted as quickly as we thought, I think the answer that came back would be very different from my tell me 10 reasons, because it just does what you ask it to do. That's exactly it.
Dean: All of it has to. You have to have somebody driving. Yeah, holy cow, it's top of the hour. Dan, that's so funny. I put up a post on Facebook today about just before we got. I told you, ai makes things happen faster it really does just even our real life conversation when you talk about AI, the hour just speeds by.
Dan: It really does anyway. Yeah well, you know it's a forever subject because we're going to be with it from now on.
Dean: I think that's true, yeah. Yeah, love it All right. Well, you have a great day, all right, and I will talk to you next week. Okay, Thanks, Bye.