Latest / Black Box Theory Podcast / BBT #26 | AI & Entry-Level Jobs, Paramount Ate Warner Bros, and We're Losing Our Social Skills

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BBT #26 | AI & Entry-Level Jobs, Paramount Ate Warner Bros, and We're Losing Our Social Skills · Black Box Theory Podcast

• Thomas: Hey, we're back. Malcolm: Episode twenty-six, man. ⁓ you know, we're back. We're blessed. We we we we we we got some more stuff to cover today, man. As always. Thomas: Yeah, it's always a lot to cover, a lot going on. You notice the first ⁓ episode back after our previous episode. If you haven't seen episode twenty five with our guest, Wesley Grammar, ⁓ check that one out. A whole lot of free game nuggets, good information, ⁓ shared in that episode. ⁓ Malcolm: Yeah, yeah. No, no doubt, like I said, and for sort of like people that do kind of tune into any of our interview episodes, like let us know, you know, the industries and sectors you guys are looking for us to kind of like reach out to people from to have as guest on the platform. ⁓ you know, we don't want to make it we also don't want to make sure we're not too narrow and like we're only interviewing engineers or people from a HBCU. Like we want to make sure we get a wide range of guests and and topics to cover. So ⁓ any feedback you guys have, like definitely feel free to reach out to us and and let us know how we can tailor it to ⁓ To our audience. Thomas: Facts, yeah. Let us know. We ⁓ we're here to provide perspective on every you know career path, every option, just kind of learn and grow more, ⁓ which you know kind of leads to the the disclaimer before we get you know started going further. ⁓ so just so that any everyone knows, ⁓ we are the views expressed on this podcast are strictly our own and do not represent our employers or any affiliated organizations. We are not financial advisors, tax professionals, or legal experts. We're sharing our personal perspectives and breaking down these industries in real time. But none of this is professional advice. Always do your own due diligence and consult with qualified professionals before making major moves. We're learning out loud. ⁓ please join us. But the actions you take are your own. So take some accountability. And ⁓ yeah, ⁓ we we've been telling y'all some good good information for ten months now. So ⁓ man, if You missed a lot of run up, a lot of a lot of things going on in these past ten months if you haven't been tuning in, but it's never too late. Malcolm: Yeah, man. Like I said, we we we're gonna keep it going. ⁓ like I said, we ⁓ like I said, like Thomas said, we try to cover like like a wide range of topics and and and things that we think are gonna be relevant to our audience and people that are tuning in. So ⁓ I said as always like like we're across tech, AI, money, finance, politics, culture, like and everything in between. So like I said, if there is anything specific y'all wanna hear, like you can definitely go back on. Plenty of our clips that we've posted, uploaded, or just kinda like have from previous episodes, but there's been a ton of kind of gems from either us, our guest, or like just anything that we've kind of like brought up that that, you know, would probably be doing you guys a lot of favors right now. But hey, neither here nor there. We're here for episode twenty six. And we got some ⁓ some topics we we we we're gonna dig into today, man, for sure. Thomas: Yeah, let's let's jump into a first topic, man. We gotta talk about the September jobs report. So the jobs report just came out ⁓ this past Friday, ⁓ from when you're hearing this episode. And employers added about six or sixty-four thousand jobs in June and hiring seemed lackluster all summer. ⁓ the markets immediately priced out any chance of a Fed rate hike in October. And just to kind of cover a few facts, ⁓ for one, you know, they added less jobs than expected so ⁓ emplo unemployment ticked up which if anyone's on linkedin or ⁓ reddit you're seeing a lot of people are unemployed struggling to find jobs ⁓ being laid off and it's kind of it's really rough out there not even kinda rough it's rough out there ⁓ july and august revised downward by 33 000 combined so the summer was worse than than initially reported and in in terms of areas where things are strong ⁓ hiring is strongest in healthcare and hospitality, which is a story in its in itself. And factories factories and warehouses were cutting jobs. So you kind of gotta follow the tea leaves, like where where are things going? And it looks like healthcare and hospitality are important. And ⁓ you know, I just not not to just run off on a list of things, but it's I I don't know. That I I didn't hear tech in there. Malcolm: Nah, yeah, nah. It's it's kinda ⁓ Thomas: My people, engineering, tech. Malcolm: that that's a thing, right? And so like another kind of like like the obviously the the big headline everywhere is is AI, AI, AI. But in an an extension of that is just like the demand for AI skills, AI related kind of like literacy. Like that's what's in demand right now, not necessarily like ⁓ just pure engineering or tech. Like like n the thing about the ⁓ like the state of hiring right now, and we've talked about this on previous episodes before, but What it is now is that you can't be one dimensional anymore. You can't just be an engineer. You can't just be a computer scientist. You cannot just be a anything, right? Like, especially if you are in engineering in tech and software and, you know, at a startup, like you cannot just be a full second engineer anymore. Like you have to be a full second engineer with a ton of AI certs and AI fluency and understand how to use codecs and cloud code and all these other AI tools you have to understand like like you you have to like there have to be so many dimensions to ⁓ the skills that you can provide on the table or like kind of bring to the table as an engineer and as a as a builder or as someone that provides impact ⁓ at a job. So it's kinda it's kind of tough right now. And think that people are realizing that especially for early career professionals, which I think are being hit the hardest because hiring is at I wanna say like like the worst it's ever been. Especially for folks coming out of college. So you you're seeing more than ever a couple of things, right? And this these are just like a couple of my observations, but you're seeing more than ever people that are like kind of at that age where they have to decide, you know, is college the right, you next step for them or something else. Like you're seeing a a an an increase of people that are going to like to pursue a trade instead of college because a lot of people feel like it's it's a scam now, right? Like, or maybe not a scam, but it's not what it once was, right? Before Thomas: Yeah. Mm. Malcolm: This AI boom, a college degree almost certainly guaranteed a a a secure, high paying. Maybe not let me say not say high paying, but it it it secured some type of employment, right? And employ it it it gave you a sense of security, it gave you a career to look forward to. ⁓ that's not the case anymore. And that's not just engineering, that's everywhere, right? Like, like nothing is guaranteed anymore. ⁓ and we can say that's AI, we can say that's just the the hiring trends and shifts that companies have now. ⁓ but what we can say is that a college degree does not mean what it once did, you know, five, ten years ago, where it was a pretty much a guarantee to walk out with a degree, you you have a job, you have an interview lined up. that's one thing. The other thing is that you're seeing like I said, more people going to the trade route because you said earlier, you know, you know, healthcare and hospitality, like that's always gonna be around. Like so there are certain things that people are starting to realize that things like plumbing, electrician, ⁓ carpentry, ⁓ you know, people getting CDOs and trucking business people doing like starting their own businesses. And they're also an enormous a ton of people starting their own like like startups now, right? Like like people are taking advantage of this inflection point because people are realizing that this is like maybe the only time they'll have to make that pivot and make that shift from being an employee to an owner to creating an ecosystem to creating a company that can solve the hardest problems in the world and a lot of them that are being created because of AI. Like, as even though AI has created a ton of, I guess, demand for new things, it's also created a a ton of like constraints and things that we have to worry about now. A t a ton of new problems, right? Like with all these data centers and we talk about this a little bit later, but more AI means less power. That means more water being consumed. That means more pollution for, you know, that means that means, you know, there are communities out there that are getting disproportionately affected from data power data center power usage and and pollution and and how it impacts kind of like the power grids of of people that live in a community. So it's it's also establishing all these new problems that people are now creating startups to go out and solve. They're people that are Making startups to solve the GPU and and CPU AI infrastructure problem. There are people creating startups to go solve the power problem. There are people creating startups to go solve like all of these kind of like problems that have come up as a result of AI being what it was. And so ⁓ I think now, like we're seeing, like I said, that kind of like split and fork in the road between people that are making that executive decision to go the trade route and people that are going, you know, trying to understand like within AI. How do they develop those AI skill premiums and and those in-demand skills that Wall Street and that companies and that hiring managers looking for? And then you know, like like like like what does that kind of mean for early career professionals that are navigating the job market who, you know, didn't expect to have to basically get pick up another degree to make themselves qualified for the job that they thought just the degree would. now there's all these extra preferred qualifications and things that you need to have done. project experience and AI experience and AI literacy and AI fluency. So it's a ⁓ it's definitely tough. ⁓ I think for our younger folks, but I think it's ⁓ yeah, I think it kinda comes down to having to essentially rebrand yourself almost, ⁓ to become like to fit that description of like that that that AI, you know, that versatile AI kind of like employee bill, which s you know, it's easier said than done because AI is not just one thing. It's not just knowing how to type into Chat GPT getting output. Like it's it's everything. So ⁓ it's tough right now for sure. Thomas: It's yeah, it's it's very tough out here. I mean, ⁓ I think to Malcolm's point, using AI, you know, a lot of people feel strongly about AI in negative ways. ⁓ and a lot of people feel strongly about it, I guess, more optimistic ways. ⁓ but I think the key thing is knowing how to take your skills and your learnings and combine them. Learn how to be a builder. ⁓ we talked about this a little bit last episode, which is the fact that you can't escape AI. Malcolm: Okay. Thomas: If no matter how much you don't like it, it's it's there. It like the people who don't like Amazon, like, it's there. People who don't like Google, it's there. There's people that don't like these services and things that we have in life. There's people who didn't like calculators, people who didn't like the internet, people who didn't like cell phones. It you have to learn how to live with it. Can you live without these things? Yeah, you can you could, potentially. But in the case right here with getting a job where these jobs want you to have some AI literacy, it's like, Malcolm: Okay. Mm-hmm. Thomas: You kind of have to, or you can go the route starting your own business company, which is difficult. Like even if you get alone, it's hard to go through the steps of entrepreneurship. Cause if it was so easy, everyone would do it. ⁓ and it's it's just you have to try to learn how to combine these skills and these opportunities in and just fill in gaps. It's where a lot of these companies that are here now, they were all startups at one point. Google was a startup. ⁓ Amazon was a star. Everything started off as something and evolved. So you just gotta figure out, you know, if you can get in somewhere and be a part of someone else's vision and ha and have a good life, have a good time, or if, you know, you gotta do your own thing. Malcolm: Yeah. Yeah. No, yes, that's a that's a good point. I think I think like I said, it's definitely a little ⁓ I don't wanna kinda just like ⁓ I'm trying to figure out the word. I don't I don't wanna like oversimplify or like try to like invalidate how some of these new grads are feeling. ⁓ especially if they got it in a degree that's competitive, right? That that that that was almost like computer science was for the last couple of years, like it was pretty much like a lot. Like you knew you were coming out making six figures. You knew you were coming out with a lucrative ⁓ you know, offer and and ⁓ kind of like, you know, like opportunity had you come out with a with a comp side degree from a from a from a good school or from a decent school, you knew you were set. That's not the case anymore. Comp side has become one of the most oversaturated, kinda like highly competitive ⁓ fields, like, you know, there is to study in college and it's kind of like changed everything, right? Fundamentally. So ⁓ I don't wanna just make it seem like it's it's as simple as just like, hey, like you just gotta figure it out. So I definitely do feel 'cause there are people who are like really, really kinda like cracked and have the the experience and have the background and are still not getting hired. So it is tough. ⁓ but honestly like what I've like I said, it's it's it's not exact for me 'cause like I said, I've been out of college for a year now, been working full time. So I can't say everything for what's looking like in the job market, but I do know that something mandatory, like you have to kind of just like be in the know. Like you have to know what's going on. You have to know, like unfortunately, whether you are interested or not, you have to know about all these recent developments and advancements in AI because every new model that comes out that's increasingly capable, every new ⁓ technology that comes out, you know, every decision that a company like Nvidia makes, like, that changes the landscape of what everyone does. It changes how companies hire. what priorities companies have, whether they do layoffs, whether they reshift, like it it changes everything. So you just kinda have to like be like constantly like in the know ⁓ and and and follow these these these these outlets and understand like what's going on in the world of AI. And there is there's so much stuff going on at all times. So I'd I'd recommend like a platform like TLDR or just reading up on like, you know, a tech blog, you know, in the morning to just kind of like get yourself up to speed and and you know get some type of idea like hey Thomas: Mm-hmm. Malcolm: This is what's happening and this is kind of where we're at. ⁓ But yeah, like I said, AI is here unfortunately, or fortunately wherever however you want to view it, but you just gotta make the try to make the best out of it the like the best way you can. ⁓ but hey man, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna move on to our to our next topic and this one. ⁓ I'm not sure if a lot of people like kind of know what this means as far as like from the media media kind of like like and this is a a whole nother topic just like Thomas: Yeah. Malcolm: subscription stuff. ⁓ but we're gonna talk about Paramount buying Warner Bros, which is the biggest media deal in history. If you aren't familiar, ⁓ the ⁓ Paramount Skydance, they closed a 110 billion acquisition. This is the thing that they were fighting like fighting in a month long bidding war with for Netflix, but they closed out its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros ⁓ Discovery this week, financing the deal with a 44 billion bond sale, the largest MA merger and acquisition bond issuance ever. So the bill beat out Netflix, like I said before, which has been in a month long, several months long ⁓ bidding war. ⁓ so like I said, ⁓ 44.4 billion bond sale launched September 28th to finance the deal. So that includes $32 billion in investment grade, ⁓ 12.4 in high yield, and 7.5 in term loans. I mean, it's a lot of debt that they're in and a pretty big risk that they're taking to take on Warner Bros. A ⁓ Yeah, it's ridiculous. I just getting to like some of the nerdier numbers here. So the high yield portion marked at nine percent interest, which is extremely expensive debt. The orders for the investment grade portion reportedly hit 109 billion, which is three times oversubscribed. So there was definitely some demand there. And the deal is expected to close October seventh, which is this week. ⁓ there's a seven million dollar per day ticking fee if it misses that deadline. ⁓ so the combined entity's debt will hit 79 billion dollars after the close. ⁓ Paramount's new CEO. Is ⁓ not trying to say his name all the way, but Yanan Krees, ⁓ former ⁓ Mattel CEO and David Ellison brought him in this week. Their bonds, Paramount's bonds fell four percent on the first day of trading and their stock followed down another nine percent. So this is tough. It's seventy nine billion dollars. So there are a couple like I guess things to discuss here, right? So a couple of things, right? So l let's actually actually I actually do want to sow something really quick. ⁓ Thomas: Well, as you pull that up, Mattel Mattel is ⁓ that's Barbie, right? Pretty sure that's like the parent. Okay. That's a that's pretty good run that, you know, that CEO was doing 'cause I know Barbie with the movies and stuff was doing pretty good over these last few years. Malcolm: Think so, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Let me 'cause I was looking at this graphic the other day. ⁓ To show you kind of like what all the like all the companies that are like under them now. Like all the the T V like shows and and and like things that are yeah, here we go. Right. So This is insane, bro. I'm not gonna lie. This is in this is in insane. Let me find it for you. Thomas: ⁓ yeah, just just for everybody, Mattel is not just Barbies, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher Price, ⁓ a few other brands. So like pretty much stuff that's like staples in children's childhood. Mega blocks, DC action figures. Malcolm: All right. So I want you to look at this. I'm about to share the screen really quick. And I want you to just look, take a look at what this like what is actually rolling up under Skydance now. So this is more than just like it being like a crazy deal or you know, something like that. So you seeing this? Thomas: Yeah, yeah, I can see it. Malcolm: This is everything that Skydance owns now. So yes, I just talked about all those numbers and all those like crazy like debt that they're going into to like own it. But let's think about everything that they own now. They have Paramount, Warner Bros. DC Universe, CNN, Paramount Plus, CBS, Nickelodeon, HBO Max. And so you may like you may be familiar with like the like overarching kind of like, but but like, bro, beneath that. They have Discovery, Pluto TV, HBO, Comedy Central, ⁓ Showtime, Harry Potter, Nickelodeon, ⁓ Paramount Sports, The Food Network, CNN, which is a a new like let's think about let's think about this. CNN, a major media news outlet, Cartoon Network. They have New Line Cinema, they have BET. BET is that not ⁓ black black and ⁓ hey, like I said, hey, HCTV. You have like you have like pretty much Thomas: Yeah. Malcolm: Every angle of media and and and and like like television, like pop, bro, like bro, they own everything. And I don't know if you guys, like I say, I don't want to get too ⁓ too, you know, ⁓ radical, maybe the word. I don't want to get too like like off the walls here, but like you guys know what it means when when you own enough of these media outlets and you get to decide the type of things that are portrayed Thomas: They own everything. Right. Malcolm: and put into the homes of people that subscribe to these media outlets. You you understand the power that you kind of hold and the type of things that you can the type of propaganda and messages you can send to like people that watch these these things, right? Like so like people that own these media outlets and you can do your own research to understand who those families and who those specific people are and what type of political parties and and and just type of things that they stand for, the type of like stuff that they like, you know. portray and and put out constantly. That's another story in itself, which we won't cover today. But one company having all of this rolled up to them gives them in in this kind of like insane advantage. And let's also think about what this means for for the future of of subscription based pricing. If all this is rolled up under Paramount, they essentially have a monop that when we talk about monop monopolies, this is like a a these are literal monopolies. And I was watching a video the other day If you think about it, everything in America is a monopoly, bro. Everything, every, every all of our favorite things are ran by a monopoly. Our favorite, allegedly, right? Like everything comes down to our every plane that we ride is manufactured or like either two types of, it's it's either ⁓ 737 or an Airbus manufactured by the same company, same two companies in the world, right? You have everything that we want to buy for e-commerce, you go to one website, Amazon. Thomas: Allegedly. Alleg allegedly. Malcolm: All of our phone products we get from either Apple or Android. All of our ⁓ freaking like all of our like like like food comes from the same like it's everything like a monop everything is like, but as far on the media side, this is a little different because we've already seen kind of like how outrageous some of this pricing has gotten and how comfortable some of these companies have gotten. Like like Netflix has steady been increasing their subscription price for the last couple of years. They think they slick but because they add on like an extra dollar ninety nine cent, but they've been getting a little bold recently. like jumping like four dollars in the subscription pricing. So now you have given a company news, cartoons, movie, superhero, cinematic universes. You've given them you've given them new you've given them the news coverage angle from C B S and C and then you're given them the the movie side with you giving them children's cartoons with Nickelodeon. You're giving them, you know, everything in Warner Bros, DC, Paramount. What's stopping them from from starting to make $40 a month subscriptions, $50 a month subscriptions? Because it's they can argue, hey, this this is bundle pricing. You're getting all these script streaming services in one thing. You guys think you guys think they did this deal to make your subscriptions cheaper? Like, I hope nobody thinks that. I hope nobody thinks that they they they went and took on 79 billion dollars of debt to make your subscriptions cheaper. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So what this means is that like, Thomas: Yeah. A that's Malcolm: Once again, now it's two companies that control well let me not say two. We can call it let's say we can call it three companies that pretty much control all things media. You got YouTube, you have Netflix, you have Paramount. Everything is here. Everything is here. Thomas: Google so that's what Google, Netflix, Paramount 'cause who no one owns Netflix, right? Netflix is its own entity. Malcolm: Yeah, N Netflix is his own is his own entity, their own like I said, they are like I said, like Thomas: Three giants, bro. Malcolm: Three giants that control everything that we watch, everything that we see. And we have obviously the news, you know, platforms that are on, but like so we're talking about like actual monopolies that own like several, like Netflix has everything. ⁓ Meta Mess owns nothing. Meta owns all the social media. They own like the like three billion people use the meta ecosystem every day across WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. That's half of the world every single day on Meta's ecosystem. And they own all the ads that we see. That's that's the pr they've been their primary source revenue for years. We are cooked. Thomas: Well meta say meta is look. Malcolm: We are cooked. Thomas: That's that's so crazy. Like, I just wonder, and that's why things are gonna get even more fragmented because for I don't know if anyone else deals with these issues, but if you want to watch a sports game, if you want to follow a playoff series, like you you can have games around 50 different channels. You got some games on Amazon, some games on Netflix, some games on ⁓ you know, YouTube TV, Sling, whatever other thing you get that have the channels on there. Stuff is getting it it's been out of hand, but It's like there's too many cooks in the kitchen, but at the same time, it's good when you have options. And I think back in the day you had options, like different like ⁓ television providers, but they you still had access to the same shows. Like if you had ⁓ Tom Warner Cable or or Dish or I think Direct TV is a part of Tom Warner Cable. ⁓ but it's like you still got the same channels. It was just a matter of like who you got them through. Like Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Directivity, yeah, yeah. Thomas: And and now it's it's like it seems like the way things are gonna go, you might not have access to Cartoon Network shows if you're not using, you know, ⁓ Paramount or a Cartoon Network approved partner, ⁓ paying possibly a premium. So it's like I don't know, this is just something to be aware of for sure. Like people need to that that I don't know what that subscription a month is gonna be for everything. This is gonna be crazy. Malcolm: be something crazy, but man. That's what I'm saying. I ain't gonna lie, gang. I'm I'm staying on ⁓ I'm staying on my folks Netflix as long as I can, bruh. I'm not gonna lie, gang. Like that's it's about to get outrageous because all it's gonna do. Another thing too is like companies are not like companies are not just gonna sit around and let another competitor increase their price and they don't take action. That's never that's never been the case. A comp there isn't there are very few companies that will look out for you. The only company I've seen that consistently looks out for us when everybody else raises their price Thomas: No. Malcolm: is Audi, the grocery store. When everybody else makes their chicken, thirty dollars, Audi's gonna Audi's always gonna have that seven fifty eight dollar ground beef, ninety three lean, seven fat. Audi's always gonna have the the the everything from one to ten dollars, my man. Like it's ⁓ Thomas: Actually, yeah. Malcolm: You know what I'm saying? So, but there are very few companies. Like, I promise you, if if if if Paramount come out with a with a wild subscription, ⁓ Netflix is coming with something crazy. Pause. Netflix is about to double that, bro. I promise you. Netflix is about to double that. And they they're about to make it something they're about to make it something crazy, bro. So do do do do not think that just because one of these guys, and I promise you, you you increase the Paramount subscription, Netflix gonna come right behind. YouTube TV gonna come right behind. Like it's it's gonna be like a all right, bro. Thomas: The size, yeah. Yeah. Malcolm: It's gonna be like a chain reaction. It's gonna be a cha chain chain reaction of subscription pricing increases. And that's another thing too that I I really have started to know. Everybody is taking like everybody wants to make everything is a s a subscription model now. Even Apple, right? You've seen like the I don't think we talked about it, but like the lease program they're having, where like we can lease products for a subscription pro everything is a subscription now. And like low key, low key, this all comes back to Fortnite, bro. Fortnite started all of this, bro. Thomas: Ha ha ha Fortnite changed every there was subscriptions before Fortnite, bro. There were subscriptions before Fortnite. Malcolm: the the the nah I'm trying to tell you but nobody bro when I tell you Fortnite started this this like yeah there were subscriptions before but Fortnite made battle passes that this is from a video maybe a video game aspect but like Fortnite every game has a battle pass or ⁓ some type of subscription with add-on ad in game content that you can earn through the battle pass or through the you know subscription tier thing. They ⁓ they normalize that. They have normalized that. And it may not seem crazy or may not seem like as ⁓ applicable because it's a video game, it's a child, whatever you want call it. But I promise you, there are real companies that have like copied Fortnite's model, business model, and made that into something that like every now think about it now. Every NBA 2K has some type of subscription pass now. Every call of duty, when's the last call of duty you've seen without a battle pass? Without a without a the battle without the the the tier pass. Thomas: PlayStation. Malcolm: Every game has some type of subscription-based model now. Every game has some type of locked in-game content now. And the same thing is happening with these streaming and these media companies, bro. Like everything is Thomas: A minute. It's not even just just those. I'm not gonna lie. We're seeing it in movies now. Cause you know, Marvel with the whole like re-release thing. Why why I gotta get DLC to find out what's happened between now and the next why I gotta see a movie I already paid to see one time to go watch additional film. Like that we we getting real life DLC for the movie theater. Like they saying if you wanna understand Doomsday, you gotta go rewatch Endgame and now they're saying with ⁓ Malcolm: Yeah. Yes. Yeah, ex ex bro, it's Like, come on, bro. Thomas: Brand new day, there's gonna be new a re-release with additional footage for that. And it's like, yes, it's not the exact same thing, it's not a subscription model, but it's like if you wanna know what's happening, ⁓ you know, legally, you gotta go wa well pay to watch it, or someone gotta tell you, which means someone has to go pay to watch it again. It's it we we live in some some trying times. I mean, before we know it, man, they're gonna make us say you can never own a house, never own a car. never own anything. The clothes on your back gonna be rented. Like, hey, you can borrow these these jeans for five years, but you gotta give ⁓ up. After that we'll give you a new pair. Malcolm: Telling you, bro, like it is like it it is scary times ahead of us, bro. Like, we are Yeah, we are in subscription hell. ⁓ and it's not getting any better, man. So yeah, it's kinda cooked. ⁓ yeah, it's kinda cooked, I ain't gonna lie. ⁓ Thomas: ⁓ I don't want physical media, bro. Like people don't understand either. Like all this, this the AI subscriptions, all of this stuff relies on power, right? Like if you're you're screwed if the power ever goes out and you live in the modern day, bro. Like it's a shame to say being in a power outage back in 1995, you would fare better than being in a power outage in 2026. You would think 30 years we would have improved, right? You Malcolm: Yeah, ⁓ Thomas: improved, we're actually going backwards, bro. Like if the world lost power, if like anyone who's seen Leave the World Behind, I'm not gonna spoil anything there, but watch that movie, you'll see physical media is key because if anything ever happens, you can't, you're cooked. Like if the let's say if you if if you have kids or you know whatever the case is, snow day, can't go to school, then boom, power goes out, what you gonna do? Sit around all day. A lot of people these days unfortunately don't Have the aptitude to play a Candyland, you know, play a board game, ⁓ read a book, like literacy rates are declining at crazy levels. So people fall back to media. But if you you don't want to kill your phone battery, scrolling, ⁓ Instagram threads, whatever. ⁓ you know, you can't you can't watch a movie. Like I remember growing up, you had the little flip-through thing of ⁓ DVDs. Like, just gets Malcolm: Yeah, bro. Yeah, we I I think we still I think we still got like a like an old fashioned number. I I remember the last time I've seen a D you remember the what are they called, bro? You remember the ⁓ because me and my my my my ⁓ my family used to always get these. ⁓ remember like the red boxes? Like the the the red boxes, like the little D V D rentals. I think they they they went bankrupt in like twenty twenty four. I remember the last time I've seen a Blu ray disc. I remember the last time I've seen a I remember the last time I didn't think I've s I haven't seen a D V D player in person in forever. Thomas: Yeah, a little red box rentals. Malcolm: Like I mean everything is just Thomas: You gotta get one. Get get get a D V D player. Like I get people don't want to do D V D's 'cause like, ⁓ but I I watch it, I get tired. Blah blah blah. Realistically, bro, most people, no matter how much TV movies you watch, you have those movies that you can watch. Movies, TV shows you can watch again. Like like classics. Like just get some classics. And that's also how you control what happens. Like realistically, we're talking about a future where people are still gonna have children, hopefully. Your your kids Malcolm: Uh-huh. Thomas: You give your kids access to the internet and the media and these applications, you can put ⁓ on kid mode all you want. They have uncensored access to all these things. The only way to really make sure they're watching what you expect them to, physical media. Like otherwise, if your kid's smart, they can just flip through, go on YouTube, turn stuff off, switch accounts. It's not that difficult, man. These kids are different these days. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Nah, I agree. And that's that's an I've I've had this, ⁓ that's a whole nother segment. But like I've ⁓ I've had I be having I'll be getting to actual arguments with people about this about like the age in which I'll allow my future children to like have like access to devices and internet and and people be like, ⁓ well, yeah, I'm gonna let I'm just let my child have a phone at like five or six or wh whatever. I'm like, bro, may maybe I'm just too strict, but by the time I do have children, And I'm just thinking thinking about when I was a kid, the amount of stuff that even with like the parental controls and the locks that my parents used put on my phone, even with like having, you know, to turn on my phone by a certain time or ⁓ just by like just all the like type of things that my parents put in place to keep me safe. I there was I still found ways at like twelve, thirteen years old to get and find the things I wanted to do. Because children like people like thing is like like I as we continue to like like there are generations that are going to grow up without knowing And to your point earlier about like ⁓ you know, faring better back in the day with a power outage, every generation, I mean, frankly, we grew up the same. We I think we're we're one of the last kind of like like years where we had at least a period of time where we were not all the way reliant on technology how we are. We had we have glimpses like from elementary school to early middle school where like technology was not necessarily a well, let me not say I mean it's tough to say, 'cause we kinda do because we Whether you want to say that we didn't use technology or not, we've always had we've always had an Xbox, we've always had a PlayStation, we've always had like a phone. We may you may not have gotten a phone until like later on, but you've hadstead of a phone, you've had you had a DS, you had a you had a PSP, you had a movie player, you had a Wii, you had a TV at your house, you had all these things. But I do think that there was more ⁓ there wasn't like that type of like addiction to the point where it's like you don't you don't even want to go outside. Kids now don't even want go outside, bro. Kids do not want to go outside, kids do not want play sports, like. And that's another reason why I think it's good. I don't I don't not not even on the peripheral controls, but I think there is a I want to limit. There are going to be times or like from from the point of like them going to school where they need to be able contact me or their their their mother or their parents in case of emergencies. Yes, that I won't forfeit. But as far as like I want my child to know to experience childhood, I do not want their childhood to be engulfed in an iPad. I don't want their childhood to be them sitting inside in the dark. Not going outside and creating like because the thing is, like, and people don't realize this, but all I have to if anybody ever forgets, all I have to refer back to is think about the amount of social skills that we that adults lost during the COVID period. Think about how many social skills people lost and became significantly worse at because of the time that we spent aloof on technology just nothing but technology during COVID. Those two years or so, whatever the however the time period you want to define COVID as, but but Even we can say distinctly that 2020 to 2021 period of just being alone, isolated with nothing but technology cooked everyone's and especially the next generation of like if you if you do some look looking into the the the literacy rates, the the the like the literacy rates, math and reading scores at like pretty much everywhere in the country and look at like them before and after COVID, and everything is cooked. Like people's ability to think, to learn. to s hold attention in like classes and lectures are cooked because of COVID. That transitional period from like us being on Zoom where kids didn't have that supervision and ⁓ that type of like face to face learning, cooked everyone's ability to one, be receptive to like in person learning, to became an like established an over reliance in technology in the sense that everyone just used the internet to cheat. And now with AI being something that some kids some kids are going to be born without knowing like without AI ever not being a thing. That's and that's what I mean as far as like Yeah, we had to but at least you can think about our first two years in college. There wasn't AI. There was there wasn't you you still needed the check subscription to figure out how to solve a problem, bro. You still needed to you still needed to like actually do some like some type of digging to to to to get to where you were looking to. But our first two years of college were like, okay. There was still like there weren't there were not enough there was not a technology out there that was powerful enough as it is now to literally eliminate the need for any type of like critical thinking. We still had to Thomas: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Malcolm: We we may have found the answers online. We still had to understand how the answers got there. The numbers more ⁓ nine times out of ten probably weren't the exact same. We had to still work it back and solve the problem again, right? So it's like whether it was the right way to go about it or not, we still had to do some work. Now you can literally j I don't even know how I I I couldn't I don't even know how how teachers are making assignments now. I don't even know what where y'all are getting this from because Claude already solved it. Claude solved it before you even made the problem. Claude has solved every problem you could possibly throw. Kids, I don't even know what. Thomas: Yeah. Malcolm: current college kids are doing, I think now, like bro, like those literacy rates and those like that ability to think critically and to socialize, like those skills are being like eroded as technology continues to evolve. And yes, we're advancing technology, we're increasing capabilities, we're cut we're creating more capable models. But what is that what is the long term what are the long terms affect that? And that's another thing I'm scared about with AI. People talk a lot about the fear of AI as far as like job displacement and you know cost and going into debt and and power grids and and data centers and stuff like that. Thing I'm I'm really scared about is that AI has not been, well, AI in the sense of what we know it like as a collective since 2023, has not been around long enough for us to do any type of long-term studies about how it affects our brain, our ability to critically think, our dependency on it. Like all these actual, like, like psychological and like like brain processes that we have an idea of, AI has not been a long around long enough for researchers to really like study and get like like really like extended test results. Like they're like AI has not been around for like decades for people to see like. Thomas: Mm-hmm. Malcolm: There are I'm sure there are plenty of research papers about like what our the phone has done to our brains over the course of the last 20, 25 years. That's for sure out there. The same I can't say the same about AI. And we don't know that because we're just keep we just keep on building it and building it and building it and building it at this speed of light for a reason that I don't even know. We're making it like why are we actually advancing AI so quickly? Why? Like what is the like the goal that we're rushing to? Isn't like we don't even need to be moving as fast as we are. ⁓ we're just doing it because it really comes down to low key anthropic and open the eye just trying to continuously one up each other and being like, and I think it's become situation now where it's like anthropic has this mantra of like, okay, well, we have a feeling that this could probably like make us all extinct, but we want to be the first ones to get to it because I think that we can figure out how to be, you know. Thomas: Yes. Malcolm: make the safest decision with it and we don't want the Dex guy to get it. And up AI is like, ⁓ yeah, we just want to get AGI. Like, bro, it's like, what are we actually making this this as quickly as we are for? So I do have my concerns about AI, which I think are more like down the future and down the line than just like the current concerns, which I think are also extremely valid. But ⁓ yeah, there are a lot of I think angles that that we aren't considering as well. ⁓ for sure. Thomas: No, it's it's it's a lot of stuff to think about. And you know, to go back to your point about the kids thing, a lot of people say, Well, ⁓ your kid's gonna be the odd one out. A that that it it takes a lot of people to do the right thing. ⁓ so if if someone's kid is gonna be bullied or the odd one out because they're not scrolling TikTok or whatever the thing at the time is, ⁓ I think the other parents are failing their children because ⁓ kids and adults should be doing different things. ⁓ another thing with the whole AI thing. I think the reason why things are moving so fast is the same corporate problem that permeates corporate just in general is the constant push for better margins. We need to imp improve our our value every year. We need to improve our earnings every year. We need to improve every year. And it's like that's not like feasible. Nothing can improve year over year. Nothing can increase in value year over year. in perpetuity. That's just not realistic unless it's incremental, like small increases. But these but the stuff we're seeing now, massive increases, massive revenues and AI, same thing is like it's just increasing. Not even year over year at this point, week over week. But the problem is, like I said, going back to corporate, people are so focused on what's next. It's like, okay, when do we just improve what we have now? And then move forward to the next thing and and stop just iterating for the next new thing every chance we get. Like if you look at human history, there was long periods of time where things didn't change that much. There's like hundreds of years where things didn't change that much. And people might look back at the last to us, the last hundred years, we might have seen some of the biggest growth in every area except for ⁓ value of human life in human history. ⁓ we might have seen that the The most innovation except for ⁓ bigotry being erased over the last hundred years in than in human history. ⁓ you know, but to that that might seem like it to us, but who's the no people in a hundred, two hundred, three hundred years are gonna look back on it? They might look back and say, yeah, they were stagnant. They wasted all their time doing nothing. They, you know, they they just kill themselves essentially with what they were doing and and stress themselves out. I hope people look back at way we live now and be yeah, they they stress themselves for no reason. These people are were losing their teeth, losing their their hair, losing their lives over ⁓ paychecks in us in societies that that force that. ⁓ but it's like you need to stop focus on putting out new products, putting out new things. How do we improve what we have? I mean you look at a lot of things that are out now how many people use them because they actually like it versus they have to think about where you work. Think about what your job makes you work on, work with. If it was up to you, would you use that service? Would you use that platform? Or is it just because your job is like, this is what we have, you got to use it. Right. And then when you look at the platforms and things you're using, are those companies improving the platform or are they focused on AI and the next thing and just putting in AI, adding slop on top of slop on top of slap rather than improving the foundation? So I just think it's like a You're building a tower, a like a Jenga tower, and and if you don't strengthen the foundation, it's all gonna fall down at some point. ⁓ so people just need to slow down and like how do we improve what we have now? It's like as a country, there's a lot that needs to be improved before you, you know, do more. But people don't wanna they just wanna keep going for whatever reason. Same thing with AI. Malcolm: Yeah. Nah. Yeah, you made you made so you made some great points, I ain't gonna lie, bro. ⁓ I don't know. Like I think another thing, ⁓ that we we we look on like a like a like a like a tough ten, then I gonna lie. Like I said, I this next topic was kinda like a I won't say it's it we I think we kinda covered this already but like the next thing we were gonna talk about was just like AI just now being like the most valuable skill on Wall Street, which I think most people can presume. ⁓ like the just kinda like quickly as a ⁓ Get some context here, like we won't go into detail, but demand for AI related skills and finance jobs has jumped one thousand seven hundred twenty-one percent year over year. A century stock jumped fifteen point eight percent this past week at the reported record AI bookings. And the finance industry is restructuring faster than a lot of people realize. ⁓ and that seventeen twenty one percent number comes from s ⁓ as per C N B C data. ⁓ yeah, it's it's it's it's it's crazy. So like just another couple of things, right? So ⁓ AI is this AI revenue surge is a leading indicator. They're the firm that implements AI across corporate America. JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley are all deploying AI agents for tasks previously done by junior analysts. Meta launched Muse this week, which is a personal AI agent that can shop and complete purchases on your behalf. Broadcom is raising $60 to $100 billion in debt to fund the AI chip infrastructure for Anthropic and others. ⁓ and the ad bill is being financed through debt markets, not equity. And then Anthropic's quarter two revenue, which they are targeting a two trillion dollar valuation, I believe, which is insane. They're qu with a revenue of 11.5 billion, which is up 787 million from the earlier year. So 14x year over year growth. ⁓ yeah, unfortunately, you may get tired you may be tired of it. You may be annoyed by it. Just keep hearing AI over and over again, but it's here. ⁓ it's not going anywhere anytime soon. So you either have to like like I said earlier, like stay on the no and find ways to rebrand yourself and make yourself more versatile and like Yeah, honestly, like it I don't want to sound like a broken record, but hey man, this is where we're at. And ⁓ nothing's changing. So until then, we just wanted to figure it out, man. ⁓ but yeah, another thing, man, before we we we do, ⁓ wanna move into our second, another tech company we're all familiar with. ⁓ talk about Tesla. So Tesla, they have recently launched their cyber cab business and they had a rocky first month. So Tesla lost the cyber cab in Austin, Texas. On September 3rd, and a cyber cab, if you aren't familiar with, it's a two-seat robo taxi with no steering wheel, no pedals, purely for autonomous driving. And a month in, it has been bumpy. ⁓ so it it started in in Austin as an invite-only event, and public rides began on September 4th. ⁓ it's a two-seater with Goldwing doors, wireless charging, no manual controls. At launch, Tesla registered 420 autonomous vehicles in Texas, and only 45 were cybercabs. ⁓ the service is limited to very specific zones in Austin only. And the broader Robotaxi network still runs on Model Y in five Texas and Florida cities. they Tesla they use dynamic pricing, but they haven't disclosed the specific rates. The the original target price for buyers was under 30,000, but Tesla has not set a consumer purchase price. And then ⁓ Waymo also, I'm sure you guys are familiar with the actual like probably like the face of like autonomous driving vehicles. They already operate in multiple US cities with the more mature safety stock, ⁓ I'm sorry, more safety, more mature safety track record. I'm sorry. And then ⁓ yeah. So they had a Rocky first month in Austin and then hard part now is obviously expanding. So and I know ⁓ like I said, you had talked about this link in our group chat, but about like ⁓ some of the cybercast stuff you had seen. I wanted to ask kind of like what your what you kind of seen when you're in so far, but ⁓ the gap between Musk Musk is Elon Elon Musk vision and operational reality. 45 cyber cabs at launch versus a storm of cyber cabs and this fleet of cyber cabs he was talking about is obviously distinct, very, very different. and also another angle, just kind of like autonomous with autonomous vehicles and jobs. What does that kind of mean for Uber drivers, delivery workers, and the gig economy long term? ⁓ as people kind of push towards this autonomous, these autonomous vehicles and deliveries and stuff like that. Thomas: Yeah. Man, I think it it's it's weird. You know, I just rewatched ⁓ iRobot recently, and ⁓ you know, actually in there they had cars that it was 2035 was the year it was based in, which I don't know if we're quite there yet. But it's pretty much like Elon's world is based on like the things I've seen from Elon Musk and what he's trying to do. ⁓ but they had the cars with no steering wheels, the cars with no pedals, but they gave you an option to manually drive your vehicle, unlike these taxis. So for me, I've seen a couple, I haven't had a chance to like, you know, look at ⁓ up close and really like drive next to one or like see how they perform. But I personally, maybe this will age like milk, but I'm not a fan of a car with no steering wheel, no pedals. Malcolm: ⁓ no. I'm with you. I I'll never feel safe in that. Never. I don't care I don't care how many algorithms you have in that car. I don't care how many frickin' tests you've done. If I don't care how at the end the day, there is no way and there is just no way that you have run every possible simulation ever for things that can happen on the road. Because at the end of day, bro, this isn't even about how smart the engineers are that are behind the autonomous driving. Well the one thing I would never be able to I I don't think anybody can predict. Thomas: Has some Malcolm: Is the stupidity of other people on the road. And that is just not something I think you can un unfortunately capture in a simulation. ⁓ no, no matter how many scenarios you run. Cause I just see some stuff on the road every day. And I'm just like, bruh, how do you have a license? Why do you have a license? Who allowed you to purchase a car and drive on the same road as me? Because, wow. I mean, I don't know. And that's the part I'm scared about. Thomas: Mm-hmm. I it's a lot of I've seen a lot of questionable people running stop signs, red lights concurrently. It man, it is look, I I don't I don't trust it. But like even if it were a world where everyone had a you know a a self-driving vehicle, like everyone, like I think that's the safest way you do this is that everyone's car is on the same track. But it's still I wouldn't have want to be in that world because Malcolm: Uh-huh. Thomas: There's a hu that's a huge safety risk, bro. Not even giving me the the opportunity to manually control the car. Like I don't even have the choice. It's crazy. Like, what if something happens? What if I need to get out of situation? Like, well we you know, ⁓ for example, we all saw not maybe not everyone knows, but you know, a rapper was was ⁓ killed in his Tesla in Chicago few ⁓ last month. And like I granted people are saying, ⁓ he should have pulled off, he should have this, could've done. Malcolm: Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. Mm-hmm. Thomas: It unfortunately that's not what happened. And you know, let's just say if you're in your aut your your autonomous vehicle, it's not able to detect something coming or a person who's trying to do you harm or someone's keying your car and it's sitting there. Malcolm: Yeah. Actually, th th this brings up another thing I have seen. I did see that I read somewhere that at Waymo they had actually ⁓ they had did like this identification scan on this person. I don't know if you saw but like they had did this these two guys that got in the car, they had scanned if see that there was a ⁓ the gun on them and they locked them in the car and did not let them get out until the authorities got involved until like nine one one pulled up. So it's like that's another angle that these autonomous vehicles could go. Like what's stopping them from partnering with Thomas: I know what you're talking about. Malcolm: Police agencies and government, the Department of Defense, to like become like these like cars that are like traps for people almost, like unsuspect. You know what I'm saying? Like, I have no idea. No, yeah, no, no. Yeah, I I know what you're talking about. I know what it's called, but like that's what I'm saying. Like that's another angle too. It's like not having that control over everything in my car. Cause like, let's say I have like my concealed carry and I am legally permitted to wear, keep a keep a gun on me and have it on me, but Thomas: There was a show about that. What was what was it called? Was it trap car? You know what's up where they would set the traps for people like to go steal a car and they get locked in? Malcolm: I am going somewhere and Waymo freaking scans me and stops me for thirty minutes and wait until nine one one comes just for me to explain to them that I I was supposed to have this. I can I'm allowed to have this on me anyway. Right. So it's like it creates an enti another kind of like set of angles and and and things that could go wrong or right. ⁓ I don't know. I mean I understand it. I do think it also I think at the end of the day, I don't think they care about any of this. I think this is a way to not have to pay people. 'Cause I don't know if you see but like like like even like like one of the reasons that the Uber didn't want Mam Mamdami as New York City mayor because of this this crazy dispute they had to pay with not paying their their drivers the right rate. Like all these big companies Uber lit like they're taking more out of their share of the rides than they should be, ⁓ than that the drivers are actually earning, right? So it's like this is their way of like having to remove the need to ever pay drivers at all. Right. So ⁓ I don't know, scary, like I said, I I I Thomas: Yeah. Malcolm: I'm not in a city where I see those often. ⁓ but even if I was, like I said, I I I I I'll take my chances with me behind the wheel over a whoever robot person controlling it from some lab somewhere. ⁓ I'm okay, bro. I I'll I'll I'll I'll drop it myself, man. I'm good. But ⁓ yeah. ⁓ I don't know. Like I said, the technology is just continuing to be what it is and and ⁓ yeah. Mm. Stuff, man. Thomas: Everyone out there who's who's doing Uber driving, lifts and all that, ⁓ consider consider getting together. ⁓ seeing if y'all could do a human certain you're already using your own vehicle for this stuff, you know, may consider getting a LLC. I'm not saying to stop doing driving for Lyft Uber and you know other things, but there I I can see in the future there's gonna be a real balance between ⁓ Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Thomas: human versus AI driving. ⁓ unless the government just says, hey, you know, by twenty forty, everyone needs to be in an electric vehicle. ⁓ we're gonna help you all get these electric vehicles. Yeah. I just I don't know, man. It's scary. They already talk about AI AI flying planes in DC. Malcolm: Yeah. That's insane. That's insane. That's insane. Like, I don't know. Hey man, before we ⁓ before we close out, man, we wanted to touch on another or last topics for today. ⁓ this one is a little bit of a shift from our AI jargon. We've been don't want to call it jargon, but unfortunately it's always gonna be AI in this show. I mean if you're not reading the news, I mean you're gonna have to hear it from somewhere. So hopefully we are your news. But ⁓ yeah, next one. We got ⁓ want to talk about the in having some intentionality with your inner circles. A conversation Thomas and I had were having before we actually started, we hit the record button. And it was something that kind of like was was so kind of like practical for us. We've talked about this a bit before. but the angle that we wanted to cover for today was just like specifically kind of like, you know, we're in our twenties, ⁓ and talk about the the process of managing relationships in our twenties, right? And so Your 20s are when your social circle naturally starts to shrink and stratify. You start to make business decisions about who's really in that inner circle, who's in that outer circle, who are the type of people that you want really around you at all times. ⁓ and the people that you keep close, how do you invest in those relationships and keep them like, you know, fruitful? How do you keep them active? How you keep them, you know, ongoing? Right. And so how do you manage the the the inevitable drift as you and your closest friends start to go down your own career paths? And your own lanes and you guys all just start to kind of like, you know, just naturally kind of like pull apart from each other. ⁓ like that management is something that nobody really, I think, teaches you. There isn't really a formal way to go about it. And a lot of people kind of figure out when it's too late. so there are some facts that kind of go and through, right? It's interesting, right? So the average American, and I want you guys to think about yourself as you listen to this, but the average American has fewer than three close friends. That number has been declining for two decades. Ratio is consistently shows that social connection is one of the strongest predicators of long term health, career success, and happiness, stronger than income or status. Your 20s are one of the or the last period where friendships form organically. So we're talking about school, dorms, organizations, teams. After that, they all require active effort to build and maintain. Think about everyone that you have met after college, after grad school. Are you how many friends are you like actual friends are you really making? You may run into someone at a run club. You may have colleagues that you consider your friends, but are they really your friends? You may have people that you meet at networking events and organizations and parties and bars. Are they really your friends, though? The friendship recession is real. And also, there's another thing that me Thomas are more. They disproportionately affect men. Studies show that men are less likely to initiate or maintain emotional and intimate friendships. ⁓ the geographic spread accelerates in your mid-20s. People move for jobs, grad school relationships, and most friendships don't survive passive distance. The difference between a friend and an inner circle friend. An inner circle friendship requires mutual investment, not just history and how long you've known someone. And this is something I can attest to. There are plenty of guys and people that I know that I've known for years. I'm talking about decades. But just because we've known each other for that period of time does not necessarily mean that we are close friends. We've just known each other for a while. But if we aren't actively talking and renewing that friendship, and you know, like I said, like my closest friends are friends I've known for forever, right? Like Thomas included, you know, Brendan and Brian, like all of our kind of like Like my main, like closest people. Yeah, we've known each other for for a long time. But the reason that we're still friends is because, dude, we we were college roommates for pretty much all all college and we still talk every day, like even now, like a year postgrad. Like we may not talk every day like how we did in college, but we still are constantly kind of like reaching out to each other, checking in, having conversations, and we're kind of like constantly renewing that that friendship that we always knew that we had. So we wanted to talk about like a couple things, right? So what does intentionality when it comes to friendships actually look like in practice? Is this schedule calls? Is this visiting people on purpose? Is this not waiting for the right time to reach out? And how do you identify who belongs in your inner circle versus who you've just kept out of habit or proximity? And then like, how do you handle that natural drift between friendships and relationships without making it dramatic? And people can grow in different directions. That not that's not necessarily a failure or indicative of your guys' relationship not being as strong. But I think it's just that's just how life goes. ⁓ so yeah, curious to hear ⁓ Thoughts. Thomas: Friends, man. ⁓ friends, how many of us have them? That's A. If that's even the lyrics. But she Butch what you what you Hey. We we move. It is what it is. Hey, somebody signed me, man. Motel Records. I'll just play. ⁓ but yeah, no, no. I think I think friends, man, it's important to keep a close ⁓ circle. I think you you kind of are what you hang around or you are what you like are brought around. So I think as you get older, life life gets serious. ⁓ having those close people, like people you can actually consider like friends, family. Like to me personally, it's hard to say that I even have Friends, because people that I say friends, I like to think of as like family. Like it's it's really levels to it, man. And and I think that everyone should be like that. Yes, you can have a lot of associates, you can have a lot of people you're cool with that you can talk to, that you can do things with. ⁓ but when you really talk about a friend, like a close friend, those should be people you trust like with Malcolm: Yep. Mm-hmm. Thomas: with your life, man. Like obviously hopefully you're never in a situation where you literally have to have that type of trust. But like life is short and we live in some trying times. But you you need people and I think it's important to make sure you keep those people close. You don't have to talk every day, especially, you know, I I'm not a not a woman. Maybe this is something where we could have a you know woman on here to have a latest perspective on, like how that is for for women. But as a dude, it's like you don't have to talk all the time. You don't have to ⁓ talk every day. You don't have to Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Thomas: you know, just let let each other know about every little thing going on in life. But it it's an understanding. Like, that's your boy, like y'all are there and you let each other know y'all have like big accomplishments or even things you just want to talk about. You should there should be people you can talk to about anything, ⁓ realistically. ⁓ well an anything that's that's appropriate. You know what I mean? ⁓ there's there's time and place for everything. Some stuff you gotta keep between you and the Lord. But ⁓ you know, it's like Yeah, I would just say, man, is the tw 20s are important, especially like in our case where it's like for me, I'm kind of far away. Like I'm in a strange place. I'm in like I might as well be on Mars, man. ⁓ and and I haven't I don't see people all that often. But yeah, I mean that's kind of my I I don't even know if I answer the question, bro. I just it's important to have friends. ⁓ average person only having a few friends. Like that that is facts, bro. You don't need a whole lot of people. People that have a whole lot of friends. Like people that they can say, ⁓ that's my friend, that's my friend, that's my friend, and you're an adult. That's questionable. 'Cause like how many people of those people really have your back? How many of them are really gonna like support you if something comes out, someone tries to slander your name? So you know, how many of them are gonna stand up for you when you're not around, speak positively on you? That's who you wanna keep around. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Nah that's that's that that's exactly what it is, but that's one of the core things that I define as a good friend. What is how do they act? How do they defend you? How do they protect your name when you're not in the room? Like like what does that look like, right? And so, I think Yeah, man. I think like it's a little different. I I can't speak all the way to like dynamics with women, but I know for guys, right? Like it's not as I think guys aren't as they don't require, I think, the same type of like constant like needing of the relationship as women do. And I think that that's partly just like men are just naturally like just less emotional kind of like creatures. Like we don't we aren't always invested into like these type of relationships. But I think we're also like 'cause I I know like bro, think about the amount of girls that you know that have literally cut their friend off cause they like came to their birthday dinner. They didn't come to their birthday dinner or they wore like a dress that made them look like they was the birthday girl instead of them. Like it's it's like stuff like that, bro. A guy I you know I'm saying like a guy would never do that, right? And it's like not to compare, but like speaking from my own experience as far as like ⁓ you know, how to identify who belongs in the inner circle, I think for it's just like it's a combination of obviously history Thomas: Birthday dinners. Malcolm: that we've had. And just like for me, it doesn't take much for me to see like character in people. ⁓ and just like for me, like that means more to me than just like the years. I've known people, it's people that I've known for maybe just the four years we had in college that I trust and I'm closer with. And I'm I'm I can confide in them more than people that I've known for 10 years. Right. And that's not because like years don't automatically become like the the sole factor into becoming inner circle and not inner circle. But it's just like What type of relationship and dynamic do we have? Right. Like what type of experience have we share? What type of history do we have? What type of things have we been through together? And how close are we really? Right. Like, like how often do we talk? How often do we check in on each other? Right? Like how often do we like run like you what I'm saying? Like stuff like that. And it's like, I'm also not the type of person that that thinks that or believes that I need to talk to you constantly to like for us to like validate our friendship. ⁓ yeah, I dudes I mean, I got my my some of my closest friends I don't talk to for months at a time. And we like when we do see each other, we like we catch it right up from from where we left off, right? So it's like it's not that. But it's just like there are just certain things, like things like like like like are you really someone that's gonna be there for me at my absolute worst? At my highest in an emergency, someone I can call on, like someone that's like that's always gonna have my best interest and support me, like regardless of anything that they get out of it. Right. Are you someone that's gonna like have my back, defend me when I'm not in the room? ⁓ and just like I said, like anybody that does that for me, I I can I you know that for sure, like it's going to be the same with me. Like it's not a one way street for friendship. Like anybody that I consider a brother, ⁓ or they consider a brother out of me, it's just it goes both ways, man. So I think, ⁓ I say unfortunately, not unfortunately, but realistically, like it's not many people that fall into that category with me. Because I think that that that inner circles something that you do have to be very intentional about and you do have to be very aggressive. With the selection and just like the the process that goes into considering someone a close friend or not a close friend. And that that doesn't mean that like people that aren't so close friends can't you stand kill like super cool with them. That's not the case. But there does need to be like there at the end of the day, like you're a close friend for a reason because there's a level of information and access that you have to me that I don't give to everyone else, which is what makes you a close friend by definition. However, that is something that you need to protect because everyone cannot have that access to you. Thomas: Yeah. Malcolm: 'Cause at the end of the day, everyone does not have your best interest at heart and everyone you can't trust, right? My close friends, I know if I told them something that I don't want to get out, it's not gonna go, it's not gonna go past that. But when you when you aren't intentional about who's your close friend, that's how things start. That's how rumors get spread. That's how, you know, friendships start to start to destroy and and and and you know, erode over time because you let the wrong people get close to you and it cooks stuff, man. Like so I said I think like your twenties is a very, very, very important time as well. Because like like I said earlier, like this is one of last periods of time where we are really going to meet people organically in a college or a school or team or an organizational setting. So it's like you really have to kind of like nurture and take care of these friendships because how many how many like how often do you think you're gonna really start just running into people and making new friends? I'm not gonna say I'm not a friendly guy, but I'm not necessarily going out of my way to to to go look for new friends often, right? Like I'm cool where I'm at. Thomas: Mm-hmm. Malcolm: And ⁓ yeah. So I think there are a lot of angles that I think it's also dramatically different like between men and women, but ⁓ I think between both regardless, like ⁓ Thomas: Yeah. Now it Malcolm: in the day like that that that intentionality and like purpose driven type of relationship building should be ⁓ should be the same for both. Thomas: Gotta be exceptional. Nah, 100%. And and I'll just want to add, like, unl maybe this is the type of person you listener are, but if you meet someone who's overly friendly when you meet them or like they're too like they seem eager to like try to be cool or your friend or like just start texting you, calling you, and like like those type of people that are just like a little bit too easy to get along with to where it's uncomfortable. Something's typically wrong with those people. ⁓ I'm just gonna be blunt with that. Something is is typically they're they're usually a leech, ⁓ a snake, ⁓ have are are deeply disturbed. or I mean they could be rare, but it's like I d I don't think anyone could be genuine and be giving every single person they meet that like ⁓ you know just that type of energy all the time. Like if someone meets you for the first time and within a week or two they're already acting like y'all best friends. That is a red flag. They have ⁓ Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Thomas: Dis discovery ID, discovery documentary, whatever, murder documentaries about those type of people. So ⁓ be careful. And that's how we're talking about this. Is like everyone's not your friend. ⁓ your friends will often be the people you get into it with the most who keep you honest, who keep it keep it a buck. Anyone that's just saying yes to everything or acting like everything's peaches and cream, run. Those are not good people to be around. Malcolm: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. And yeah, like I said, I I encourage everyone to kind of like think, Like just start to think about like what that inner circle and what your relationships look like. And just really evaluate them. Like, are all your close friends really your close friends? Are you intentional about them? Like, you know, how's that how's that look like for you? but yeah, man, that's ⁓ I think I think that was a ⁓ that was a good that was a good chat for today, man. Wouldn't you agree? Thomas: ⁓ facts, a whole lot of yeah, no, I agree. Whole whole lot of whole lot of chatting, whole lot of chatting, man. Appreciate all y'all, man. Shout out to everybody in the US, shout out to everyone in Austria. Y'all y'all listening over there in Austria. I don't know what's going on. I I don't I don't know what they say, but I I know Germany's pretty close. So Guthenthog, ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. Don't no one take offense to that, man. This it's called a joke, man. It's called a joke. Scott a joke, man. Malcolm: Thank you for ⁓ for the clarification, man. ⁓ I appreciate that. But hey folks, ⁓ appreciate y'all tuning in as always. You know where to find us, black box theory pod on Instagram. ⁓ we'll be back again. Appreciate y'all tuning in as always. Much love. Thomas: Appreciate y'all. Peace. Malcolm: Peace.