Latest / Love Conquers Fear / #26: Restaurants, AI, and the Radical Power of Caring for Each Other with CK Chin

Transcript

#26: Restaurants, AI, and the Radical Power of Caring for Each Other with CK Chin · Love Conquers Fear

0:00
Capitalism is a complex thing, and the public benefit Corp
0:03
model, it's a pretty big freaking deal that we have the
0:08
largest AI company in the world that seems to be really at the
0:12
frontier with open AI embracing that model.
0:15
So it's pretty cool that there's a movement for the public good
0:20
associated with the capitalistic aspect of these AI platforms.
0:25
Service is what you provide for someone.
0:27
Hospitality is how you make something.
0:28
Federal workers have not been paid.
0:30
And I was like, So what can we do?
0:31
And we all got together, crunched in numbers.
0:33
And so we were just feeding people.
0:35
Anytime somebody opens up their table, breaks bread with you,
0:38
shares food with you, I feel like it's them saying I want you
0:42
to live longer, right? What we're training and what
0:45
we're going to use AI for, what AI is going to think it's for.
0:49
There's a huge mirror on who we are as people.
0:51
It takes effort for us to evolve now because we don't have
0:55
natural predators other than ourselves.
0:57
And so what's passed on is intentional and not accidental
1:01
anymore. You just take care of each
1:02
other. And then you really think about
1:03
it. It's like you have 10 people at
1:04
that table. Nine people are feeding you and
1:06
you're feeding nine people, but you have nine people watching
1:08
your back if you're just watching everyone else's back.
1:13
Everyone, welcome back to the Love Conquers Fear podcast.
1:17
I hope you really enjoyed that episode with Patrick Genpimfo.
1:21
He was amazing on that. It was a really very spiritual
1:26
discussion. So if you missed that, make sure
1:30
to tune into the last episode. It was awesome.
1:34
And then I really, really loved the episodes with JD Messenger,
1:38
who's publishing my book. I was literally just on a phone
1:42
call with him. And while the plans for love
1:47
conquers fear, humanity, AI and nature abundance for all really
1:51
coming along well, the book now I've written more than half of
1:55
it and currently finishing up the chapter on capitalism.
2:01
One of the things I just want to say is a is a cool PSA is that,
2:07
you know, I'm not a fan of everything opening eyes doing.
2:09
I just want to be clear on that. Like I, I think that the way
2:13
that it talks to people in using the eye, you know, it's a
2:21
subject makes some people think they're talking to a sentient
2:25
being. And Mustafa Soliman has really
2:27
been on the case on this. He's the CEO of everything AI,
2:31
Microsoft. And I think that that's a
2:35
danger, right? We've seen teenagers fall in
2:38
love with a, you know, fake female on the other side, we've
2:45
seen some teenagers commit suicide.
2:48
But but at the same time, I do want to say that I do think it's
2:52
a big deal from a capitalism perspective that Open AI has now
2:57
successfully converted into a public benefit corporation dated
3:01
out world. My past company that ServiceNow
3:04
bought on 7/7 was one of the first PB, CS and certified B
3:09
Corps. And we're trying to create a bit
3:11
of a movement there for tech. You know, B Corps are all over
3:15
the place with CPG. You know, Patagonia is probably
3:19
the biggest stalwart of the B Corp moniker and it is a new
3:23
method of capitalism. It's a much more evolved method
3:26
of capitalism where it looks at all all stakeholders.
3:29
And one of the things that Open AI did in converting to this PBC
3:33
structure is they seeded the Open AI Foundation, which is the
3:39
non profit part of it with 130 billion of Open AI stock.
3:44
OK, So what is Open AI Foundation really dedicated
3:48
towards? It's dedicated towards
3:50
healthcare for all. Well, that very much aligns with
3:53
abundance for all, which is what this whole movement that I'm
3:58
really focused on starting with Love Conquers Fear is all about.
4:03
It also is focused on AI safety. It's focused on access to
4:08
artificial general intelligence for all of humanity.
4:12
These are good things. So you know containers are a
4:16
challenging thing like open AI recently announced that it's
4:20
going to allow erotica. Well that's not going to go very
4:23
well. They're right.
4:24
They say they're going to age verify.
4:25
Well, we know how easy that is to get around and how ubiquitous
4:29
porn is online. And I'm not a fan of porn.
4:33
Don't don't watch any porn myself.
4:36
But you know, that's something that is also polluting
4:39
teenagers, you know, young men in this country.
4:42
I'm writing a chapter on the objectification of women.
4:46
And you know, young men in this country, when they watch a lot
4:49
of this stuff, they assume that that's the way that you treat a
4:53
woman. And women don't want to be
4:55
treated that way. They want to be treated with a
4:57
soul to soul level connection, you know, an act of real
5:00
intimacy in love, not just treated as a sex object.
5:05
So I just want to say like capitalism is a complex thing,
5:09
but the B Corp model and the public benefit Corp model, it's
5:14
a pretty big freaking deal that we have the largest AI company
5:20
in the world that seems to be really at the frontier with open
5:25
AI embracing that model. Other B Corps in the space are
5:30
Anthropic, that's also B Corp, and XAI, you know, which is yet
5:35
another Elon Musk company, is also AB Corp.
5:39
So it's pretty cool that there's a movement for the public good
5:45
associated with the capitalistic aspect of these AI platforms.
5:50
Now, technology is always how we use it, and it will always be
5:55
that way. And the most challenging part of
5:58
the book that I'm writing is Part 3 on transformation, which
6:02
is how we humanity transcend into this age of abundance for
6:06
all versus destroy ourselves. You know, where we have enough
6:10
nuclear weapons to destroy the destroy all of humanity many
6:15
times over. It's the actual numbers.
6:17
We have 50 times the amount of nuclear weapons today that would
6:20
be needed to destroy all of humanity 50 times.
6:25
And you know, this is what the Department of Defense calls MAD
6:29
or mutually assured destruction. And it really tells you that
6:33
we're playing psychological tricks on each other where we
6:37
hijacked the MIG Dylan. And last night Jason Carr gave a
6:42
phenomenal speech in our community about he was on
6:46
episode 3 and he's the founder of Hugh Chocolate.
6:49
He gave a phenomenal speech at Shalom Austin about how
6:55
companies are always hijacking. You know, the biggest companies
6:59
when they get to certain level capitalistically tend to devolve
7:04
in a way where they are focused on our bases fears.
7:08
And he talked about all the toxins being poured in to our
7:12
bodies from food companies that have algorithmically sought
7:17
addiction and then the pharmaceutical companies that
7:21
benefit from that, you know, to try to help people, you know,
7:26
now that are addicted to these foods.
7:29
And we have a chronic problem in America.
7:33
We spend around 2 to three times the amount on healthcare than
7:37
other developed countries do. And these other developed
7:40
countries, they don't have these additives in the food.
7:44
So he gave a very impassioned speech about that.
7:47
And it's something I'm just, it's top of mind for me in
7:50
recording this for you today. And that capitalism is tricky.
7:54
But if we lead with good intent, we're going to end up in good
7:57
places. And so as complex as it is, I do
8:01
want to applaud Open AI, Anthropic and X AI for leading
8:07
with at least having AB court model, a public benefit court
8:11
model premise. Now, we'll test them over time
8:15
and see if they actually lived up to those values.
8:18
And that is always what companies are about.
8:21
They also have souls and will they allow love to conquer their
8:27
own fear and will they put people over profits?
8:30
We'll see. Let's see what?
8:32
Let's see what stands the test of time here.
8:34
I'm really excited today to talk about my guest CKHN and welcome
8:41
CK. Yeah.
8:41
Yeah, thanks for having me. Good to have.
8:43
You here, Dan. Thank you, man.
8:44
Appreciate it. I love you a lot, brother.
8:46
We've done each other for a long, quite a while, Yeah.
8:49
So let's start out with with all the amazing things you've done
8:55
for Austin because you're you're really a fabric of our
8:57
community. So why don't we start with
9:00
talking about your beautiful restaurants, one of which I
9:03
still go to a lot Wucho so. You know, thanks.
9:09
I, it's interesting, the restaurant side of what got me
9:14
into it really is the hospitality side, you know, and
9:16
I think that I really recognize that food was a medium upon
9:22
which to kind of deliver the hospitality to people, right.
9:26
There's a there's a great saying, I believe it's in the
9:30
unreasonable hospitality that says.
9:33
Is that the Danny Meyer book? No, Danny Meyer setting the
9:36
table the the he's. He says that the service is what
9:41
you provide for someone. Hospitality is how you make
9:43
someone feel. Yes, you know, you know what
9:45
Danny Meyer mine is? I mean, they're all kind of
9:47
blended together, very similar, very similar it.
9:51
Is rooted in love. Right and rooted in love and
9:53
rooted in in this thing that's like I call that's like AI said
9:56
to your friend the other day, I was like, I'm a purveyor of
9:57
happiness. Like that's what we're trying to
9:59
do is to try to really deliver whatever it needs to be
10:02
delivered. That can make whatever the
10:03
experience that you're trying to experience that moment elevated
10:06
and escalated and so on so forth.
10:08
Like, you know, my family is the type of family that celebrated
10:13
with food and we mourned with food.
10:15
And, you know, when we everything was kind of around
10:19
this kind of backdrop of just providing it.
10:21
And so for me, you never know what someone's going through or
10:24
what they're dealing with. And at that moment, if we can
10:27
deliver it, whatever they need it to be can make make the
10:30
situation better for them. And that's what I kind of really
10:32
love that. And so, so yeah, the restaurants
10:34
are we are still very much learning how to live in a post
10:39
pandemic world. I think that there's a lot of
10:42
things that happened during that time that created some decisions
10:48
that were made then because that was what was needed.
10:51
And now we're kind of dealing with that.
10:52
Like, for instance, the, you know, I jokingly said that, you
10:55
know, we're, we're, we've invited in this monster of
10:59
delivery services and, and stuff into, into our myths.
11:03
And now we're trying to deal with it because now we're trying
11:05
to convince people to go back out to eat again.
11:07
And we're like, you don't have to stay at home.
11:09
But everyone is like, I love being at home now.
11:11
Like why, Why, if I can have your food at home, why do I ever
11:13
need to leave? And it's kind of.
11:15
Doesn't taste as good. Well, I I agree, but.
11:17
I mean, it's so much better when it comes fresh out.
11:20
It's just amazing the. Convenience will.
11:23
I mean, look at how rampant fast food has become.
11:27
I mean this, you know, they'll sacrifice 10 minutes for, you
11:31
know, for, for it to be faster, right?
11:33
The quality of food to drop and fold, you know, So, yeah, it's,
11:38
it's, it really is. And, and, and it's, I love what
11:42
you were talking about earlier as far as this people of a
11:44
prophet And the this kind of the thought of conscious capitalism
11:48
has really been in my head for the last few years, like really
11:50
strongly. And like, for instance, we just
11:52
launched November 1st is at the 11th hour, you know, on the 30th
11:58
right before Halloween is like 11:00 at night, you know,
12:01
texting my team and I was like, people are going to lose SNAP
12:05
benefits. Federal workers have not been
12:07
paid. And I was like, So what can we
12:10
do? And we all got together,
12:12
crunched the numbers. And so we're giving away.
12:14
We were just feeding people where I call a family meal at
12:18
restaurants before you start your shift, we have family meal.
12:21
Usually one of the cooks who's in charge, you know, everyone's
12:24
prepping and then one of the cooks breaks off and they're in
12:26
charge of cooking family meal generally.
12:28
And then you kind of rotate that through.
12:29
Sometimes it's executive chef, sometimes it's the dishwasher,
12:31
whatever it is. And then, and then we all sit
12:34
down and eat and talk about the shift, talk about life, you
12:39
know, get ourselves mentally ready to come out and, and
12:41
serve. And, and so anyways, I just was
12:45
just bouncing around in my head and I was like, well, let's just
12:48
set that table a little wider. And so yeah, this, you know, as
12:52
of now, I don't know what was the total number of people that
12:55
have come in and eaten, but I just said, I don't want it.
12:58
It's, it's about keeping people's dignity also because
13:01
they're also going through it. And, and I don't want to ever
13:04
make them feel like a charity case or anything like that.
13:06
And so I just said, hey, you come in, say I'm here for family
13:10
meal. We sit you down, we feed you, no
13:12
questions asked, no judgment. I don't need you to prove
13:14
anything. And that's we've been doing that
13:17
for the last, you know, four or five days now.
13:18
It's beautiful, but that's, you know, when.
13:21
Of the Station of Love. Without a restaurant, I couldn't
13:23
do that, you know, you know, I don't know.
13:26
And so we'll see. We'll see how long that needs to
13:28
go. And like I said, I, I, we try to
13:30
create something that can be sustainable indefinitely as far
13:33
as on our side. But I think that if more of us
13:38
thought in that way, there'd be a lot less work to do.
13:41
Like, you know, if that was just something that everybody agreed
13:43
to, that we wouldn't be in a panic situation when something
13:48
like this happens. Yeah and and your restaurants at
13:51
at this point it's we trial Swiss attic and I.
13:55
Toshoka. OK, I can't even say that I
13:58
don't want to say. It I'll no insurance.
14:00
I'm sorry. No, no worries.
14:02
And that what does that mean? What does the third one?
14:05
Mean social company's library. And library.
14:07
Yeah, in a library type. Setting it's it's behind a big.
14:10
Other two but. I'm it's behind a bookcase in a
14:13
Speakeasy. Yeah.
14:14
So literally when we we we thought about it, I had this
14:19
this idea and I've just been always fascinated by this kind
14:22
of can't be open the book and the bookshelf opens type of they
14:26
always joke about how one day I'd have that in my home get to
14:29
happen. It's going to happen.
14:31
It's gonna happen, but I had that at our prior home, really,
14:34
believe it or not, yeah, I don't have it at this home, but our
14:36
prior home. I always wondered that.
14:38
We had a lot of fun with that. Yeah, I think it's great.
14:40
Kids would go hide in there. That's right.
14:41
That's right. And, and yeah.
14:43
And so, so anyways, I had this idea about doing it.
14:45
And then so when my partners and I were thinking about the name,
14:48
I was like, let's put it behind a bookshelf and we're gonna call
14:50
it library. So we're going into the library
14:53
and and so. That's cool.
14:55
That's cool. You know, Josh Baer has that at
14:57
Capital Factory. Did you know that?
14:59
No, I didn't. Yeah, yeah.
15:00
Yeah, you should go. And there's a.
15:01
Little Speakeasy in there. 16th floor, he has a bookshelf.
15:04
You pull a book out, it opens. That's a meeting room.
15:07
Amazing. Really cool.
15:08
Yeah, well I should do a pop up dinner in there.
15:10
Yeah, I I'll say there's one bad thing about that.
15:13
You got to have good ventilation.
15:14
So just keep that. Yeah, yeah, I can see that for
15:19
sure. And So what, what, what you
15:23
know, how long have you been in the restaurant business?
15:26
And what was really the driving force for you that inspired you
15:29
when you when you enter? Right.
15:30
You know, so I started out in the bar and restaurant in the
15:33
bar business. Actually, I went to school and
15:37
took CNN and I, I had a dream when I was like maybe five to be
15:42
a vet, wanted to be a vet and really was kind of a, almost
15:46
some level of an act of rebellion against my family
15:49
wanted me to be a doctor. And that's what I was like, I'm
15:51
going to be a doctor. But I was like, I love animals
15:53
as I'll be an animal doctor, you know, and, and I just kind of
15:56
latched onto that and like 5 years old and then you kind of
15:59
like that just never let it go. And I just kind of just, it's
16:02
like, once I can put that in its place and went on with my life
16:04
thinking, well, it's like, I'll, I'll cross that bridge when I
16:07
get there. And, and it even led me to
16:09
choose A&M as the school I wanted to go to because it's, I
16:11
had a great vet school and got all the way there two years in
16:17
to biomedical science as my major of, you know, and then I
16:21
was like, you know, we should, I should go work at a vet clinic
16:24
and just get some on real life experience.
16:28
And I just really didn't like it at all.
16:31
It's interesting, you know, and it partially, you know, like I
16:33
said, it might have been the clinic that I worked at or I
16:39
don't know what it was. It just it felt way more
16:43
transactional than I thought. You know, when I think that I
16:45
had that there's a similar situation and you mentioned
16:47
healthcare earlier and then love to talk about that more.
16:50
It felt that there were these type of things and it wasn't
16:54
quite. So I don't think as altruistic
16:57
as I kind of wanted it to be or as much of like this thing that
17:00
I'm we're doing some level of helping like peace and
17:04
suffering. But it was really more of a felt
17:07
like almost like maintenance, almost like working at a
17:09
mechanic or something like that is going to like shots, spays,
17:12
neuters and doing this kind of stuff.
17:14
And and it, you know, and they were wonderful people, but it
17:17
just didn't feel it didn't do. I think somewhere along the line
17:21
I might have probably would have rather like to be like a Jack
17:24
Hanna or something like that or some sort of Steve Irwin kind of
17:28
kind of that goes and just learns about animals and or
17:30
worked at a zoo or something. I don't know.
17:33
So anyways, and that pivot got me into needing some other work
17:38
and finding other jobs. And at the time I needed I I
17:43
found a sorry, I was changed my major to elementary education.
17:49
I loved working with children. Children has always been a huge
17:52
part of my life. I was in pals and pearces to
17:54
leadership and then Big Brother big sister program and the boys
17:57
and Girls Club and the summer camps and and all that stuff.
18:00
And so. I don't know if I've ever seen
18:02
anybody post more beautiful things than you do on your
18:05
children today. I mean, it's like very clear how
18:09
much you love them and love being a dad and grown.
18:12
Husband wanted it to be and you know, I have AI have a, you
18:16
know, a, a pretty complicated childhood, you know, and so I
18:19
think it was there's also this kind of need to almost prove
18:27
that it's not genetic like it's almost just prove that that
18:31
cycles are not necessarily forced upon you.
18:35
If if it's something like that, that you want to break a cycle,
18:37
it can kind of thing. So.
18:39
You have you have to do a lot of inner work for that, like a lot
18:42
of deeper but but it's but it's not it it it can be overcome.
18:46
It is actually passed through genetics, but that doesn't mean
18:50
it can't be overcome. That's right.
18:52
But I agree, but it definitely is a there's there's that there
18:56
is no doubt that that it makes it harder if there's that
18:58
pattern. That's what I, that's what I
19:00
realized too with, you know, I've always been, you know,
19:02
somewhere or never necessarily anything published or anything
19:05
in my head, but you know, I've always been kind of more of a
19:08
nurture over nature kind of person, you know, just so that
19:11
you can kind of convert anything into anyone.
19:13
But then after having kids, I was like, sometimes they just
19:16
come out a certain way. They're, they're, they're,
19:19
that's, that's who they are. Like I talked about how like you
19:22
can nurture it, but you can't turn a Peachtree into an apple
19:25
tree. Yeah, you know, it's like it
19:27
says that's yeah, that's what you got.
19:29
They're. Also they're also, you know,
19:32
they they Incarnate. This is my my words that I that
19:36
I really believe that to also be teacher to you.
19:40
Like, it's interesting dualism where you're there to be a
19:44
teacher for them. And Abraham Lincoln had this
19:46
great quote where he said if you want your children to walk in a
19:50
certain direction, you yourself must walk in that direction.
19:54
But they are also a mirror and a teacher to you.
19:58
And if I think about the most humbling moments of my life,
20:02
it's been either with my wife. You know, calling me out on
20:06
something or my children and those are the times where my
20:11
soul has experienced some of the the most growth.
20:13
Yeah. And then and they like you said
20:15
as a mirror is the absolute. I mean when they're when they're
20:19
infants, the parroting is cute and adorable.
20:22
But as you get older and you see the more complicated things that
20:26
they can mirror, and then if you see something that you might not
20:29
particularly want them to mirror, and then you're like,
20:31
where did you learn that from? And then you're like, Oh my
20:33
gosh, you learned it from me. Like kind of like, like, whoa,
20:36
hold up. Very humbling for them.
20:38
Who raised you? Yeah, yeah.
20:39
Those out. Dang it.
20:41
But but yeah. And so, so then I went in and
20:46
needed a night time job cuz the, I was going to school during the
20:50
day and I didn't want to work. I had some place that needed me
20:54
completely overnight, like a, you know, like a stock, stock
20:57
boy at Walmart or something like that.
20:59
And so I was like, it's like, well, I'm a big guy.
21:01
It's a song ad for Bart, a door guy, you know, something at one
21:06
of the clubs. And so I went in there and
21:08
applied, got the job. How tall?
21:10
How tall are you again? 6565 and then and then I went in
21:15
and pretty quickly as a bouncer who wasn't even draw a guy yet,
21:19
I was a bouncer and then pretty quickly realized I'm pretty much
21:23
a pacifist. I don't particularly like to
21:25
break up fights. I'm not that, you know that I'm
21:26
like getting into fights is not something that doesn't bring me
21:29
any. Yeah, you've always seen like a
21:30
peacemaker and. And so it's like, you know, and,
21:33
and besides some level of training and dealing with
21:37
elementary school kids breaking up fights, is, is still, you
21:41
know, talking them down is still tough.
21:43
You know, it does. I mean, there's skill.
21:45
Actually, it's kind of like the ideal bouncer actually is
21:47
someone who is a peacemaker. Yeah.
21:49
A little bit more of a that, yeah.
21:50
You don't want the bouncer that's like likes getting.
21:52
Yeah, just to get in there and let me just choke this guy out.
21:55
Yeah. And, and so and then I just
21:57
watched looking at these bartenders and I'm like, here I
22:00
am getting into fights for $10.00 an hour and these
22:04
bartenders are making 300 bucks a night, like flirting with
22:06
girls. I'm like, I can do.
22:09
I can point it for you. Yeah.
22:10
You know. And so, you know, but what, what
22:13
kind of struck, you know, struck A chord with me really was the
22:18
the interaction that you ended up getting at what would
22:23
effectively be at any sort of these kind of watering holes,
22:27
Right. I realized quickly, like, this
22:32
is like the Oasis in the desert, right?
22:33
This is this place where all of a sudden the hippo and the lion
22:37
and the zebra and the wildebeest and the alligator and they're
22:39
all drinking water together. And for a moment, they're not
22:43
killing each other. And they're trying to, you know,
22:44
they just kind of there. And there's this interesting
22:47
thing where it's like, I went there for bartending ultimately
22:50
to running that bar. And I just realized it's like,
22:53
yeah, I mean, I don't know how many other people in the city
22:56
has the chief of police's phone number in their in their phone
23:01
as well as the local gang guy. You know, the local, the local,
23:05
you know, the local thug that whatever that, you know, comes
23:08
in and and does whatever it does.
23:10
Like I was like a really kind of tread that line.
23:13
It is interesting how, how you can navigate in, in kind of in
23:20
this kind of middle mixture of people and, and really get to
23:24
see kind of how similar they are, what they're dealing with.
23:28
And, and again in the, in a, in a brief moment, everyone's very
23:33
similar trying to this person celebrating their birthday for a
23:38
moment. You don't care what they what
23:39
they're doing. All I care about is that they're
23:41
having a good time. They've been there or, you know,
23:42
enjoying themselves. And so you.
23:43
Know how genetically identical we are across the world 99.9.
23:47
Percent, yeah. I thought you meant like,
23:49
literally you and I was like, I don't know, we've never yeah,
23:52
got you. But literally humans, yeah,
23:53
yeah, yeah, yeah. 9%, yeah. DNA 100% yeah, yeah.
23:58
And that's the, it's so cliche that, you know, I think everyone
24:04
has heard it, but it's like, yeah, I mean, if you really,
24:09
we're so much more like than we are different, you know, in, in,
24:12
in, in every sense of the word, even even in a very divisive,
24:16
even if people who are out here that have belief structures and
24:21
systems that are completely what you would think are just
24:24
completely antithesis to, to what you you do, their
24:27
motivations behind them believing that are very similar.
24:30
They believe that this belief structure is what's going to
24:32
benefit my family the most, is going to benefit me the most or
24:36
whatever it is. And that's a very similar to
24:38
everybody else. It's just whether or not we,
24:40
what we're willing to do to get it, what we're willing, what we
24:42
think has worked better for us and so on and so forth.
24:44
That's my belief at least. So, yeah.
24:46
And so then I got into that, loved it, loved the networking.
24:50
Again, it's not the, the late hours working till 5:00 in the
24:52
morning is not necessarily, you know, ideal.
24:56
And then it was time to tend to get into, move and get into
25:03
another industry. And I got into the restaurant
25:05
industry. I've always loved to cook.
25:07
I've always loved to be in there.
25:09
And again, I, I don't, I still don't drink.
25:11
I don't drink. So that's interesting.
25:14
So you don't drink alcohol? No, I don't drink alcohol.
25:16
Have you? Have when did you stop?
25:19
Never started. Wow I get.
25:21
Have you heard of Asian flush? They call it Asian Flush I.
25:23
Have I have. Yeah, I get it back.
25:25
You turn red. Yeah, Red.
25:26
It's a systemic response. It feels like an allergic
25:28
reaction. Yeah.
25:30
So here's how. Interesting, why do you think
25:31
that happens like for Asians? I mean, it's a legitimate
25:34
genetic that we were missing an enzyme that that breaks down
25:38
alcohol. But it must be.
25:39
It must be for that lineage that they didn't drink in the past.
25:43
Well, and I think the access to that, I mean, I think you know,
25:46
if you if you look at historically, I mean, this is me
25:49
just kind of talking off the cuff.
25:50
I haven't done it full history, but Asian, East Asian,
25:54
particularly based spirits where a lot of rice, rice grain
25:57
braised based. And then then we go over here
26:00
and you have like wheat grain based, you know me and stuff
26:03
like that. And so, and then the way that
26:05
it's made and brewed and, and culturally and how that works
26:08
and everything like that. I just think that it's, it's
26:10
just your body's developed to not need it as much or not use
26:14
it as much. And, and again, I don't think
26:15
it's particularly, I mean, everyone is in various levels,
26:20
but you know, I, I had friends of mine in college that would
26:22
take like Pepcid, that would take like antihistamines and
26:24
stuff like that just to, to fight back that symptom and then
26:28
just drink their way through it and it's fine.
26:29
So it's not as obviously, I mean it's just really more of a
26:32
personal. So.
26:34
So actually I stopped drinking in November.
26:37
This past November. This past November and it was it
26:41
was actually a psychedelic journey I did or there was a
26:43
part of it where I was literally like seeing my body from above
26:49
and it was just a 10 second part of it and it was basically take
26:55
care of the vessel. You're just poisoning yourself.
26:58
You don't need the social anymore.
27:00
And that was it yeah. It was like then it literally
27:02
just killed the taste and I'll still have it like for like a
27:07
ceremonial thing like Passover, just just a just a drink for but
27:12
but it really I feel a lot better.
27:14
I got to tell you, I. Appreciate the artisan.
27:16
I appreciate the artisanship of alcohol.
27:20
I do a really nice glass of wine.
27:21
Sure, you know, sipping on a Scotch.
27:23
I I I appreciate. It's also the tradition around.
27:26
It exactly. I appreciate the ceremony behind
27:28
it. I understand.
27:30
I mean, celebratory, I mean, something of any level of, of
27:35
scarcity. And then you, we, we share it
27:38
with somebody. And I think that there's
27:39
something to be said about that, You know, for sure.
27:41
Like, you know, incredible, top of the season watermelon that
27:47
you got, you know, like in Japan is known for these kind of
27:49
psychotically expensive, really nice roots, you know, but
27:53
they're in Japan. The absolute best, the perfect
27:56
melon. Yeah.
27:57
But it's like, yeah. And so you have that and you've
27:59
been saving in your fridge for a special occasion and you have a
28:01
window of a couple days and you invite somebody over and crack
28:04
it open. I think that's.
28:05
A very ceremony there, right? I mean.
28:06
Tara and I were talking about this because he he doesn't drink
28:09
either. And you know, he's the found her
28:12
four sigmatic, you know, mushroom brand.
28:14
He's he's amazing. I think that was episode 13, if
28:18
I'm not mistaken. And he he said, you know, hey,
28:23
like I I would though if I was like in some small village in
28:27
France and I was over at a French woman's home and she made
28:30
the panna cotta, which I know sugar is not good for me.
28:33
And she served like whatever. And I was like, of course, like,
28:36
yeah, that. I mean, these communal moments
28:39
are so important. I think it's, it's I talked to,
28:43
I talked to my son about it, about stuff like sugar and
28:46
everything. And I'm just like, the problem
28:49
is that our technology has allowed us to harvest these
28:51
things. That is such level of abundance.
28:53
It, it's, it's, it's solves itself when, when it was more of
28:57
a primitive type of scenario, right?
28:59
I remember my dogs, my first restaurant that I opened, we had
29:04
a dish, a beef dish, a beef rib called dragon rib.
29:07
Is this big giant beef rib, like the whole entire beef rib does
29:10
brace soft. It was amazing.
29:12
And I remember, you know, I would bring the bone home, I
29:16
would say 1 every once in a while, you know, if we'd have an
29:20
extra bone and I'd wrap it up and save it and give it to my
29:22
dog when I come home. That must.
29:24
Have been a big dawn. That must have been a big dawn.
29:27
Yes, well, it was a chocolate lab, big ish.
29:30
She got bigger because of because of this.
29:32
Yeah. But the dragon bone?
29:33
Yeah, but then the, the vet was like, you know, your dog's
29:40
gaining a little weight, cholesterol's a little bit high.
29:42
I was like, do you feed him? Do you feed her table scraps?
29:45
I was like, no, I, I really don't.
29:46
I, I stick pretty strict to no table scraps.
29:49
I do give her bones from the restaurant.
29:51
What kind of bones? I was like beef bones.
29:54
She said how often? I'm like, I don't know, once a
29:56
week, you know, and she's like, Oh my God, she's like maybe once
30:01
a year she goes think about how often a dog takes down a cow,
30:06
like in real life, Like how often would that happen when the
30:10
dog would stumble upon, you know, like, and these are dogs
30:13
that are roaming and running around and they would have to
30:16
take down this like you think this is not a.
30:18
That cow is going to kick. Something out?
30:20
Yeah. This is not a normal thing.
30:21
You cannot. This dog should not have a cow
30:24
rib bone like once 4 * a month. You know, it's like this is not
30:28
the the marrow and all that richness.
30:30
And it's like, Dang, you know, I didn't even think about that.
30:32
But it's like, and it's the same thing.
30:33
It's like, you know, I remember watching when you go over down
30:38
inside Taiwan and have you ever had like sugar?
30:40
You know, obviously you use a little more travel, like a sugar
30:42
cane juice. I have, yeah.
30:44
Yeah, I haven't. I've never been to Taiwan, but
30:46
I've had that before. You know, yeah, they're, they're
30:47
all over. But those, those vendors that,
30:50
that have this, that giant press and then you just run this
30:53
docker sugar cane and it, you know, pours out this glass, you
30:56
know, and then run it 10 times and you get a glass of juice or
30:59
you take that whole juice and you boil it down and you'll
31:02
probably end up with a tablespoon of sugar, you know
31:05
what I mean? And so you think about when I
31:07
drink, if you drink a big gulp of Coke, that's like me out in
31:11
the woods gnawing 16 canes, right?
31:15
Stalks of sugar cane, Like if I was just sitting there just
31:18
gnawing on on 100 lbs of sugar drink in order for me to just
31:21
get this pure. Yeah.
31:23
You know. That's actually really that's a
31:25
great way to think about it. It's impossible.
31:28
There's no way you could not eat enough sugar to give yourself
31:31
this problem if you had to, if the technology had not figured
31:35
out a way to to get it into it's little packet for Right, Right.
31:39
So, yeah. But yeah, overall, you know, I
31:43
think that I, I alcohol, I understand, I understand the
31:52
both physical and psychological effects of it.
31:55
I think that the, some people like having it as a scapegoat,
32:02
you know, allows you to, you know, I, I had this conversation
32:05
earlier today actually about this notion of, you know, a
32:09
drunk man's, a sober man's thoughts or a drunk man's words,
32:14
right? And this gives you an
32:15
opportunity to just kind of be a little bit more free.
32:18
And, and I think that some people, whether they
32:21
intentionally or not intentionally, there's a freeing
32:24
ability to be able to be a little bit more loose with
32:28
necessarily who they are and, and I and I can understand that
32:32
so. And there's been some utility in
32:33
that. I mean, I mean, our founding
32:35
fathers in America toasted with Madera over the Declaration of
32:39
Independence. And a lot of them lost their
32:40
lives in the Revolutionary War. So like, that was part of the
32:45
kind of like, OK, we're going to take on the Empire.
32:49
Yeah. So there's definitely, there's
32:50
definitely utility. I think, I think the the problem
32:53
is the chronic use of anything. And I was never an alcoholic.
32:58
I wasn't looking to to stop using alcohol.
33:02
I just can tell you that's what my soul told me to do.
33:05
And and I listened to it and and it was but it but, but I
33:10
honestly, it wasn't even just as much less.
33:13
I mean, I did listen to it. It was it literally has killed
33:16
the taste for me. I mean, I did not.
33:18
I did not crave. It we, we see that, but we see
33:20
we're seeing that at the restaurant level across the
33:23
board. Alcohol.
33:24
Alcohol uses. Why do you think plummeted him?
33:27
I think this next generation has a has a little bit more of a
33:30
holistic awareness the the rise of psychedelics.
33:33
I think that people are starting to find different vice in that
33:35
way. And you know what?
33:37
This is a theory and I I don't know if anybody can prove it,
33:41
but my theory also is this next generation coming up is the most
33:46
documented generation on the planet.
33:47
And when I would make a mistake in college like we always joke
33:51
about, thank God we didn't have smartphones back when I was in
33:54
college. Can you imagine this stuff?
33:55
The Internet is forever. Just laughing because I've had
33:57
this conversation so many times. Really with people.
33:59
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and so I think that
34:03
there's, there's an awareness now that if I get messy, I will
34:08
become a meme. I will go out there and that
34:11
video will be circulated forever.
34:14
Somebody is going to capture it and you know, some stuff.
34:16
And I think whether or not that's that intentional meaning,
34:19
Oh, I don't want it to be recorded or like my, I'm just
34:23
more aware that everything is recorded at all times, that
34:28
maybe you're just trying not to be so sloppy.
34:31
You know this notion is just. Not I don't know if it's that I
34:33
mean. I don't either, but I just.
34:34
Yeah, I mean, the reason I don't know if it's that is do you
34:37
remember for a while it actually was popping up a lot in the
34:40
Asian community where people were literally going into
34:44
private planes that they would just pay, you know, 100 bucks or
34:47
whatever to take and say like, look at me, I'm on a private
34:50
plane type of thing. I I think that that's starting
34:55
to die off too, like this kind of, you know, this next
34:59
generation, I'm very hopeful about this next generation.
35:01
Like social media use is plummeting with two internally,
35:05
which is really interesting. You know, it seems like every
35:08
generation gets better and, and every generation gets, you know,
35:13
typecast by the prior generation as oh, you know, they're born
35:17
into this. They're never going to know a
35:19
world without AI or social media or whatever it is.
35:22
But the resiliency of humans is pretty, pretty strong.
35:28
And I think that this next generation is starting to figure
35:32
out like, hey, this whole thing is a massive manipulation
35:36
machine. Like they're hijacking my body,
35:39
they're hijacking my mind. And they're kind of they're,
35:43
they're kind of like revolting in a way in a.
35:46
Beautiful way no. And I've seen that.
35:47
I've seen it. My, my, my son's 13 and he, you
35:50
know, he recognizes what he would, you know what we call
35:54
brain rot and we know he, we looks and he recognizes stuff.
35:57
I mean, he, he, he protects for sure, but he's certainly, I
36:00
mean, there's some of his friends that self-imposed screen
36:03
time limitations on themselves as opposed to as a, as a
36:06
punishment understanding this company he has.
36:10
Which is amazing. Think about that.
36:12
It's amazing. Like for him to be that wise at
36:14
that age, yeah. And yeah.
36:17
And I think, but I think it's, it's, again, it's, it is having
36:20
that, you know, there's the novelty that's kind of worn off
36:23
on it that allows him to look at it for face value as opposed to,
36:28
you know, like it's, it's interesting to me that I thought
36:31
about the other day, my whole childhood, like Dick Tracy video
36:36
conferencing watch, you know, where they can do that.
36:39
And then I'm like, I don't use FaceTime very much at all.
36:43
Yeah, and I just thought about how like it's wild to me that my
36:48
whole life I thought how cool it would be that I could if I could
36:51
see my friend as I was talking to them.
36:53
But now it's like now it's like I'm like more analog.
36:56
Like I have friends of mine that will want to get together and
36:59
like, Oh yeah. It's like go if you're busy, you
37:00
know, we can just FaceTime resume.
37:02
I'm like, no, let's go just get together for a coffee.
37:04
Like just like we said, like I want to be in your in your orbit
37:08
because this is how well. That's why I don't do this over
37:11
over Zoom. Like, this is like way better,
37:14
you know, the fidelity of this, you know, and feeling each
37:17
other's energy is so much better.
37:19
So much better. And so, and I think that that's
37:20
a similar thing where they're seeing this and the convenience
37:25
of it is not as as beneficial. You know, it's like we all I, I
37:29
see it, you know, my mother in it's in her in her early times
37:33
when she would text me and it each text would be like an
37:36
e-mail. Start off with hi, son, and then
37:38
end with love, mom and every text and I'd be like, mom, I
37:41
know it's you, it's coming through your cell phone, you
37:43
know, whatever. And now we use it right?
37:45
And we use it conversationally. But then it's interesting
37:48
because after, as I've gotten older, now I'm like, well, it's
37:53
like if we're texting back and forth more than a couple times,
37:55
I just pick up the phone so I can hear her voice so I can just
37:58
talk to her. Like this is like, right, you
37:59
know, and, and so I, you know, I agree with you.
38:02
I think that I, I think that these, the, the next generation
38:06
will have a much better grasp of, of reality And then being a
38:10
little spot like, you know, like I, I know that while my family
38:15
will, my parents would probably fall for certain AI things that
38:19
I wouldn't fall for, but I would probably fall for things that my
38:23
son and my children will never fall for.
38:25
You know what I mean? Be will never be fooled by
38:27
because they'll this going to be so, you know, such just a
38:31
utility to them. They'll understand and how to
38:33
manage it as opposed to, you know, I feel that way.
38:36
You know, going back to the alcohol thing, I think that
38:38
cultures that don't don't demonize it as much that is part
38:42
of their culture a little bit more I think has been shown and
38:45
I'm that that it's not as much of a problem.
38:48
You know, if, if it's one of those things that you as a
38:50
family and your family teaches you that, you know, your family
38:53
drinks wine at dinner and you were allowed to have a glass or
38:55
if you wanted to or not and whatever it is.
38:57
And then then you don't feel like when you go off to college
38:59
and you're away for the first time that you need to break into
39:01
a liquor cabinet and drink as much as you possibly can.
39:03
It's like I've just been around, never locked liquor cabinet at
39:06
home and I had my options and never wanted it, you know?
39:09
So being able to have access to it in that way I think will
39:12
allow you to self regulate a lot better.
39:14
Yeah, that that is that was a gift that that my parents gave
39:18
me is they didn't make it taboo and I didn't want it at all.
39:24
And I don't think I started drinking at all until it's about
39:27
22. So I've skipped the whole high
39:30
school thing. And then, you know, just a drink
39:34
here and there, but, but never, never an alcoholic, never a
39:38
chronic use. And, and there's just
39:40
interesting that, that, that, that, that for whatever reason,
39:44
it told me, no, you're just poisoning yourself.
39:46
It's a time to graduate. No, I appreciate that.
39:48
I could, I could appreciate that.
39:49
And, you know, and, and this is interesting because like, while
39:54
fundamentally that is detrimental to my business
39:57
because, you know, selling alcohol and stuff is a part of
40:00
the, it's part of the restaurant.
40:01
I will tell you these mocktails are costing a lot of money
40:03
though. Damn, I am buying mocktail.
40:07
But that allows you to have the ceremony without the the without
40:09
effect, you know, and that, and that was the.
40:11
Premise I have a mocktail hangover.
40:13
Well, that's the premise available.
40:14
The premise is at the time it used to be you asked for a
40:18
mocktail, this, the bartender would just pour together 17
40:20
different juices and give you this smoothie.
40:22
And you know, it's salt, sugar juice.
40:25
But it's just like, if you can be conscientious about it and
40:29
spend as the same level of effort of composing some sort of
40:32
drink, but just without alcohol, what, what difference does it
40:37
make? Or, you know, there's a level of
40:39
artisanship to it. There's a level of
40:41
thoughtfulness to write that that is like, no, it's like, you
40:46
know, your, your sandwich doesn't have alcohol in it.
40:49
But sure, somebody took time to put together this balance of
40:52
layers in the bread and the you. Don't know about the type
40:54
sandwich. That's true.
40:55
You know what? You know what?
40:56
Literally not judge, but yeah, rum butter.
41:02
But yeah. But it's just like, it's, it's
41:05
like it doesn't have to be. And that that was kind of the
41:07
conversation I've had with people in the past when I said I
41:09
don't drink. It's just like, I don't want to
41:11
say it. I don't want to make you feel
41:12
bad for doing it. I enjoy it.
41:13
I literally sell it and it's not a big deal.
41:15
But it's just a matter of saying like, I just don't have to have
41:20
it. Like if you're sitting there
41:21
saying, hey, you know, come over for a barbecue.
41:24
And then if you're like, you didn't have any beer and then I
41:27
was like, no. And then you don't want to come
41:28
anymore, Well, then that's a you thing.
41:31
That's not a that's not a like, like we're just trying to get
41:33
together and, you know, I'm providing food and refreshments,
41:36
you know, But yeah, I will, you know.
41:39
That in in this Grand Canyon trip, which was amazing Grand
41:43
Canyon Expedition Company, unbelievable and very affordable
41:48
trip. Actually the the non alcoholic
41:53
beer, which I'd never had before.
41:55
It's kind of crazy how good it's gotten.
41:58
It tastes exactly like the alcoholic beer and it's and I
42:02
wasn't drinking a lot of it, but there are good options now.
42:06
Yeah, I think, I think if you get, if you can look at it from
42:09
its at its face value. You know, the, the part where I
42:16
start to see a problem is when the effect is more important
42:22
than both the taste and the detriment, right?
42:25
That that you're just like when you're drinking grain alcohol,
42:29
you know, or something like that, you know, and, and you're
42:31
like, I need this effect get it into the body as quickly as
42:34
possible kind of thing, as opposed to doing what you're
42:39
trying what you're going after, all, right, it's drier.
42:43
This is sweeter. This is spicy, this is hotter.
42:47
You want the warmth of the alcohol, you want the oak, you
42:50
want that whatever it is anything that your intention and
42:53
that your target is this meal. Exactly.
42:55
It's like it's the same way with food as like stunt food, right?
42:59
It's like those hot sauces that are out there just to cause you
43:02
pain did not really taste like anything.
43:04
It's just, you know, there to to create this physical response.
43:07
It's like that that doesn't interest me at all, you know,
43:10
But if you can create something that utilizes some of this
43:13
nature's craziest, spiciest things that you've, you know,
43:16
done and you can actually make it taste like something and it's
43:20
interesting. I'll try it.
43:21
It's interesting to me as opposed to like, no, we've
43:24
harvested and and concentrated the capsaicin and this to just
43:28
literally cause as much humanly pain as I possibly can as I'm
43:31
stunned. What good is that to anybody?
43:33
Yeah, so but. And, and in terms of
43:37
restaurants, what do you love about it the most?
43:40
Because you clearly have a love for it.
43:43
Like I said, I think I love, you know, I, I broke it down a while
43:49
ago to a friend of mine, you know, if you look at like basic
43:52
human needs, right? I mean, eating is obviously one
43:55
of them. And, and I was thinking about
43:58
how like, if you really kind of think of it in a very
44:02
philosophical level, like if if you and I were on a deserted
44:07
island together and I found some food and I chose to share that
44:12
food with you, it would be like, I'm want you to live like this
44:20
would be like purely selfish. I should keep it all for myself.
44:27
That will sustain my life longer.
44:29
You get your own. But anytime somebody opens up
44:33
their table, breaks bread with you, shares food with you,
44:36
serves you food in a very some level, I think if I feel like
44:42
it's them saying I want you to live longer, right, You know, I
44:46
want you to be here longer. I'm, I want to provide some
44:50
basic human need for you. It's like you offering shelter,
44:54
you know, hey, do you have a place to stay?
44:56
You know, I, I've, we're both here.
44:58
We've it's raining. Come come into my home, you
45:00
know, like and that is fundamentally something that I
45:05
really I like gravitate towards. I really do.
45:08
I feel like when somebody comes into my home and I and Ioffer
45:11
them something to drink or Ioffer them something to eat,
45:15
it's like it's you know, it's not like me just giving them
45:20
something. It's just not like me saying
45:21
they're going, you know, here, take this, take this coaster.
45:26
You know, here's a here's a toy that my son doesn't want
45:28
anymore. It's like I'm just giving you
45:29
something. It's like the same that hey, the
45:33
human, the humans need this. We've agreed that, but you know,
45:36
this means it brings you joy. This food gives me joy or I took
45:39
effort in making it. And, and again, this is
45:41
something that I feed my own family.
45:45
And if I give it to you, you're like my family.
45:48
Like at that point, it's something that I feel like is,
45:50
is that way. And, and I've always treated
45:52
restaurants in that way. I've always treated that
45:54
restaurant in in a way to say that this is a way to not only
45:57
share in sustenance and share in a, in, in literal survival of
46:04
our, you know, of her living selves, but you know, our
46:08
culture too. I think that a lot of people
46:11
experience new cultures for the first time through their food
46:14
and music is there too. You know, I think that there's
46:18
probably the vast majority of people that have eaten Chinese
46:23
food have never been anywhere close to China, you know, but
46:27
can speak very intelligently about potentially even regions
46:31
of China and the food that it's from and stuff like that,
46:33
because they experience their food that way.
46:34
And, and that's the part to me that I feel like it's just very,
46:37
it's, it's, I feel like it's like the closest thing to like
46:41
of just of welcoming someone into your life and your culture
46:46
as it gets, you know, and the, the, the production side of it,
46:50
the restaurant food side of it is the closest thing to alchemy
46:54
that I think that we have been able to do, you know, like to be
46:58
able to recently, you know, my family was under the weather a
47:04
little bit last week. I was under the weather.
47:06
I had a flu about 10 days ago and, and as my children were,
47:12
you know, just going through it, I made kanji, you know, I made
47:18
rice porridge for, for my family.
47:20
And then I was, it was interesting because like, I
47:23
didn't think I'd get so into my feels about it.
47:25
My grandmother's 97 years old and she used to make this to me
47:27
for me when I was sick. And so for me making this for my
47:30
children when they're sick and just really kind of caught me as
47:32
I was making it. And, you know, and my wife was,
47:37
you know, really enjoying it, never really had it before.
47:40
And, and I was just thinking about that we made this giant
47:43
pot of kanji and it was like 1 cup of rice.
47:46
It was like 1 cup of rice. And you just cook it and cook it
47:48
and break it down and, and turns it to this bowl of orange, you
47:52
know, and it. And be just that small and then.
47:54
Yeah, it just, it just expands out and then, you know, when we
47:58
put a few little, put a little peanuts in there, put a little
48:01
chili oil, little green out and green onion and it's little
48:05
ginger, you know, it's like it's.
48:06
Basic but delicious. But delicious and and and it's
48:09
comforting in any language you know, this is not what this is.
48:13
This is markedly different than caldo, you know, then, then,
48:18
then, then a chicken noodle soup, then, you know, you know,
48:26
any level of comfort food at any level of any different culture,
48:30
but you give it to anybody of any culture and they can taste
48:34
the comfort in there because of this, the time it takes and the
48:38
warmth or whatever it is. You know, there's these things
48:40
that are just very ubiquitous that are just like, this is just
48:42
the way it is. And, and I think that that's
48:46
what it is for me for, for, for restaurants.
48:49
I really feel like there is something there that connects us
48:56
in that way. And I then I just really love
48:58
it. And, and I use this speech in my
49:00
orientation and I say this and I pre shift and if you worked for
49:03
me, I probably, you probably heard it 100 times.
49:05
But you know, when we opened up Swifts in 20/13/2012, there was
49:13
a couple years in, we had a guy, a family that came in for
49:17
freshman orientation and they came in and we've just opened
49:21
the restaurant. And so they were the new hotspot
49:23
and they came in, the parents were like, heard all about you,
49:26
you know, we wanted to come here and eight and then blinked an
49:30
eye and then they came in. They would come in through over
49:34
the course of a few years. And then they came in one time
49:37
and I saw him all dressed up and they're like, yeah, it's
49:39
graduation. You know, my son graduated and
49:41
he wanted to come here for dinner, you know, And I was just
49:43
like, man, like, you know, And then I was just like, out of the
49:48
the hundreds of restaurants in the city anyway, you could have
49:51
chose anywhere. And and you're like, I want to
49:54
go there because this is where I went for my freshman year.
50:00
I love what they do there. And and I was like, tell me
50:03
that's that's just a meal. Tell me that that's just a
50:05
transaction. That's just here's your
50:08
sandwich, give me your money and get out of here.
50:10
Like it's not. We're there every bit of a part
50:13
of that person's whole family celebration.
50:17
And now second, there's a, there's an honor to it.
50:19
There's a there is a responsibility to it.
50:22
There's hey, there's a, there's a weight to it that we should be
50:27
proud to be a part of that that ecosystem.
50:30
You know it's. Beautiful.
50:31
I was. I was once talking with Tom at
50:36
Fonda San Miguel. Oh, yeah.
50:37
And he eats there all the time. I mean, it's like his tyria,
50:40
too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
50:41
And you know, this is by far in a way, like I think the best
50:45
interior Mexican food in Austin. And he, you know, he really
50:51
loves the place and he really manifests love there.
50:54
And he, he said to me, he said, I've known him for a while.
50:59
He said, you know, that table right there.
51:01
And he pointed 2 tables over. He said that's where George Bush
51:06
proposed to Laura. It's like it was that table and
51:11
it was just such a cool moment. You know, like he remembers,
51:14
like all of those moments you. Know, remember, remember all of
51:17
those things we remember you remember the times where, you
51:24
know, people have come up to you and, and said, you know, thank
51:29
you for helping us. This was, you know, when my
51:32
mother turned, you know, 100 and we were, you know, help.
51:35
We had to find a way to go around and get, get her up the
51:39
stairs and all this stuff. And we all made it happen and to
51:42
go above and beyond and stuff. And, and, you know, we remember
51:45
all these things. We've had a couple weddings
51:47
there. We've, we've done, I've done a
51:50
dozen proposals of different versions and how to try to get
51:54
creative and, you know, thank you for how can we do it?
51:57
And, and then even even the number of like people who are
52:00
visiting, you know, of no unknown number of musicians and
52:02
stuff. And, and I bring them food
52:05
backstage and I bring them because I know that when they're
52:08
travelling and they're, they don't get a chance to have these
52:11
nice comforting meals a lot of times, you know, and, and for me
52:16
to be able to provide that for, for even people who are at like
52:19
the top of their, you know, accessibility to access to
52:23
everything game. And for me to be able to say,
52:25
Hey, look, you know, here's a chance for me to provide you
52:29
some comfort or, or, you know, something that'll do something
52:33
for you while you go and pull yourself out into this audience
52:36
for thousands of people to sing to, I think that's just a huge
52:41
honor for it. And so I really enjoy that part.
52:44
That's what I love the most. It says a lot about you that you
52:47
think about it that way and and maybe that is common in the
52:52
restaurant world, I don't know. I think the ones that I think
52:55
the ones that do it the best you can tell, you know, you can, I
52:58
think you can tell. I think that I think, I think
53:01
that This is why, you know, as as conglomerates come through
53:05
and as you know, your restaurant starts to grow and it become,
53:08
you know, you have AC suite and all of a sudden the decisions
53:11
are, are being made way upstream from the actual people that are
53:15
interacting with the guests or whatever.
53:17
Then you start to see that those soul, the soul starts to die
53:19
away a little bit because you're not really interacting and and
53:22
then finding that problem out, you know, it's it's we're not
53:27
problems, not the right word is like we're not reaching their
53:30
needs as what they need. It's like us.
53:32
I mean, I remember we were one of the first restaurants early
53:36
on, you know, 13 years ago, that gluten free on the menu,
53:42
vegetarian, vegan on the menu, like annotated and intentionally
53:46
made dishes that were those things because we were there and
53:49
we were seeing this trend and I had friends that would carry
53:52
around gluten free soy sauce with them because they knew the
53:56
restaurant wouldn't carry it. So they wanted to start doing
53:58
that. And and I started seeing that.
54:00
And so it was just one of those things where we're like, Hey, we
54:02
should just intentionally let's like stop apologizing these
54:05
people that said, oh, you want vegetarian dish?
54:08
Well, we're here, take this and I guess you can just eat the
54:11
lettuce off of it. And then you'd say became this
54:13
kind of side thought, you know, and it's the one just like side.
54:16
Of being a vegetarian. Sometimes when restaurants don't
54:18
know how to do it, it's like. Yes, it's like what does this?
54:21
Don't forget it. I just want to I won't need
54:23
anything. And that's what it was.
54:24
And I was like, I didn't want that.
54:26
And it was like it was like, let's do something intentional.
54:29
Let's just cook good vegetables. Let's stop thinking of in terms
54:33
of meat substitutes, like let's just cook good vegetables.
54:36
Like vegetables are delicious, Let's delicious and do it beyond
54:43
just like salad, you know, like this, like this grazing type of
54:48
like, just like the mocktails, like you can take intentionality
54:52
and say, I want to balance the flavors.
54:55
I want to balance the textures. I want to be inspired by how
54:59
these things interact with each other, not just not with any
55:03
meat. Why not?
55:04
Why not? You know, and so, and so I think
55:07
that those decisions are a lot harder to make 110,000 miles
55:13
away from these restaurants. And so when you're making the
55:16
scissors on that level and then in the bottom line starts to
55:19
become the most important conversation, then you start
55:22
cutting corners because that's how you maximize profit the
55:24
quickest, you know, and, and for us, it's the opposite.
55:27
Like I said, you know, it was it's an honor for me to be a
55:29
part of a team that that can meet me where I was mentally at
55:36
the middle of the night, you know, and say I want to feed
55:40
people. How do we do it?
55:44
And then to have a partner, you know, that we're looking at the
55:47
numbers and going, you know, numbers are we were coming out
55:50
of a slow summer, summer's slow. And it's like, it's not like
55:54
we're, you know, money's coming out of her ears and for us to
55:58
go, I think if we do this and this and this, and I think we
56:02
can. And then I'm like, hey, what
56:03
about this and the other? And then for me to talk to them
56:05
about like, OK, well, it's really important to me that it
56:08
remains dignified. And it's not we're not like
56:10
serving them like Oliver Twist style that have a bowl of
56:14
porridge and a bowl. And here.
56:16
I mean, I don't think people this is not where we're at.
56:18
We're not in a situation where people are are in a position
56:21
where they're it's that level of dire yet not at least not for
56:26
most. And so I think it's like being
56:29
able to provide a meal and the psychological side of it of, of
56:34
enjoying breaking bread with your family and feel like you're
56:37
just going out and having a meal is also healing.
56:40
It's also cathartic to do that. It's not just here's some
56:44
sustenance. Here's, you know, a bowl of
56:46
plain oatmeal, you know, with some spam, you know, for the
56:51
$0.17 and just there so you don't starve.
56:54
It's like, that's not what we're trying to do here.
56:55
We're, we're also reminding people that there's hope in the
56:58
world, that we're reminding people that the community is
57:01
here to take care of them, that we're here.
57:03
And, but first and foremost, I'm here to take care of you and
57:07
feed you. Money is secondary, you know,
57:11
and like I said, I, I at this point in my life or in our
57:15
career, 13 years in at Swift's, 10 years at Wu, you know, Toshi
57:21
Con now go entering into year 4. Like I don't ever want to talk
57:25
about our food again. Like I don't want to like I
57:27
don't want to you guys know, like people know we're
57:29
restaurant. Look us up, go on the web, like
57:31
go in and read some reviews like here, this is who we are.
57:35
Our happy hours posted, you know, like that's not who I want
57:38
to, I want to market about who we are in the community and
57:41
where we are. And this is where you go.
57:43
And this is a place that you go if you want this type of
57:46
experience and this is a place and then for you to know that
57:50
that, you know, hey, it's time. I have a friend in town.
57:54
We don't want to go eat this huge, big meal.
57:57
I don't even know what I want to eat.
57:59
Let's just go to Swift's and we'll get a couple snacks and
58:01
you know, and it can be 20 bucks and you can go and leave without
58:05
this pomp and circumstance that's required for you to think
58:08
about like to call a friend and plan a dinner and, and we'll
58:12
wait for a birthday to do it. It's like, no, let's just break
58:15
bread. Let's just get together and get
58:17
to get together because it's been a minute since we've seen
58:19
each other. Let's just do it and we can
58:21
connect again. And that's been my mission for
58:23
this year and and going to the next year is just to remind
58:27
people of that. You know that like I used to, I
58:29
joke about with friend before I was like, I'd call him and were
58:32
like, hey, you know, like during like crawfish season or
58:35
whatever. I was like, let's go get some
58:37
crawfish. And then he'd be like, oh, I
58:38
just had lunch. I mean, it's not what I asked
58:40
you, all right? I didn't ask you to go eat.
58:42
You don't have to eat anything. Just come by, all right, because
58:46
hang out, you know, grab an iced tea and we'll just sit there and
58:49
talk, you know? But there's this notion of like,
58:51
like again, once it starts to shift into this utility, this
58:55
kind of like I'm just eating for sustenance.
58:57
I'm food for fuel and and not again, the ceremony of me
59:02
calling you and saying, Hey, man, it's been a minute since we
59:04
sat down and had this conversation.
59:06
If we weren't recording it. And then I'm like, let's just
59:09
meet for a coffee. It's like, do we need coffee?
59:11
No, doesn't necessarily matter, but it's a medium for us to do
59:15
something because otherwise he would sit there and go, Hey, you
59:18
know, it's like it, it's just something our society has done
59:21
round. It's like, let's have tea, let's
59:23
have coffee. Instead of saying they go, let's
59:24
grab a couch together. Feels and sounds kind of weird.
59:28
So we would sit there and say sit there and say that, Hey, so
59:31
let's go grab a coffee, you know, and and that's the and I
59:35
think it's like, you know, the the meme of the Netflix and
59:38
chill or whatever it is. It's like this mentality.
59:40
It's like everyone kind of knows the coded language that that
59:43
says that this is a date that's for us, a chance to cuddle up
59:45
together and watch a movie together.
59:46
But you want to create something like that.
59:48
So it's like, yeah, I want to catch up.
59:49
I haven't caught up for a while. Let's go grab a coffee.
59:52
I'll grab a beer or whatever it is you.
59:53
Know one of the things that's making me think of is, you know,
59:56
so the the biggest company I've started with amazing people, an
1:00:01
amazing Co founder was a bizarre voice and we grew to 850 people.
1:00:06
And I always made this point of never, ever, ever forget about
1:00:13
what got us here and the customer and the humanity,
1:00:16
right. And that's the that's The thing
1:00:20
is that when it gets when business gets to be a big kind
1:00:24
of machine, or you look at it as machine and it's all about
1:00:29
inputs and outputs and all, and you need to make a profit.
1:00:32
Like it's if you, if you can't make a profit, then it's not
1:00:35
that's can't sustain itself. But when you start to look at it
1:00:39
that way, it starts to very quickly dehumanize it.
1:00:43
And one of the one of the things I wrote at at Bizarre Voice is
1:00:50
that we really need to be careful about language and
1:00:53
language matters. For example, I started to hear
1:00:57
some language where engineers were called code monkeys.
1:01:02
I started to hear some language. This is a very common one where
1:01:07
women are called girls. OK, but in business like you
1:01:11
don't hear like me referring to a male as a boy and.
1:01:17
And. And, and, and so the, the, there
1:01:22
are lots of other examples, you know, headcount, bodies, butts
1:01:27
and seats, you know, and really the embodiment of what makes us
1:01:32
so special is the way we treat each other as human beings, the
1:01:37
way we manifest love in each other.
1:01:40
And that if you lead that way, whether it's a restaurant or
1:01:44
whether it's a tech company or whatever it is, you're not going
1:01:48
to go wrong that way, seeing the humanity in each other.
1:01:51
Absolutely. And I mean, that's why we we
1:01:55
similar thing. We, we say guests instead of
1:01:57
customers. And, you know, and, and I say, I
1:02:00
try to say we're in the hospitality industry rather than
1:02:02
the service industry, you know, because, you know, at at at this
1:02:06
stage, there's services that are provided by robots Now, you
1:02:10
know, I've been to restaurants where the robot come by and
1:02:12
delivers your food. It's a different experience, you
1:02:14
know, So, yeah, absolutely. And again, that's that is every.
1:02:19
I I joke jokingly said about how the world we'd be a better place
1:02:23
if instead of like a military draft, like everyone's required
1:02:27
to have a human faced interaction job, right for six
1:02:34
months out of their life. You know, that they're just
1:02:36
required. I love that go to work where
1:02:39
your entire job was contingent upon interacting with another
1:02:44
human and, and solving a problem or doing something like that,
1:02:48
you know, a customer service Rep, a restaurant, a waiter,
1:02:52
bartender, the the lost baggage claim person that the, the lady
1:02:56
at a counter retail shop or something like that.
1:02:58
Because then you can really relate about how what happens
1:03:03
when you, when you're in that situation, you know that you can
1:03:05
tell. It's like people who have never
1:03:07
had to do that before. The, the, the empathy is not
1:03:10
there for when something's going on.
1:03:11
Like I've always like one of the harshest judgments that I pass
1:03:15
on to somebody. I'm not not one to prejudge most
1:03:17
people, but is the way the people are rude to the person
1:03:20
who had the lost baggage claim. You know, because I'm always
1:03:24
like, this person is the furthest from the problem.
1:03:30
They're at the destination that your bags are lost back home.
1:03:35
This person's the only person on earth that really cares that
1:03:39
that your bag is lost. He's the only one trying or
1:03:42
she's the only one that's trying to help you.
1:03:44
Why are you mean to them? Like, you know what I mean?
1:03:47
Like you, you have no control over your own emotion is about
1:03:51
this situation. You're frustrated about the
1:03:52
situation and the circumstance. Then you're taking it all out on
1:03:55
this one poor person that's trying to help you, the only one
1:03:58
that's trying to help. And and it's like that.
1:04:01
It's like if you've been in that place, you are all of a sudden
1:04:05
way more empathetic to that scenario.
1:04:07
Yeah. I worked in a pharmacy in
1:04:09
college just as a pharmacy tech, just as a part time job.
1:04:13
And I remember like, it was very draining for me because I'm
1:04:19
empathetic in that way. And I start my day off, had my
1:04:22
coffee, had my breakfast or whatever.
1:04:25
And I was able to walk. It was just a grocery store that
1:04:27
was down this down the way from my dorm.
1:04:29
And I'd walk to work and you know, I'm damn near skipping
1:04:32
down the street having a great day.
1:04:33
And then one after another, everyone that showed up at that
1:04:37
window was having a bad day. They're sick.
1:04:40
Everyone there was sick. Short of people picking up birth
1:04:43
control or condoms there, everyone there was not really
1:04:45
wanting to be there. There's no there's no that many
1:04:48
happy drugs that were there at the time.
1:04:50
They just want to get in. They want to get in and out and
1:04:52
feeling bad and, and so you sitting there and having to
1:04:58
mitigate however this, this person's energy is coming at
1:05:01
you. It was a very humbling
1:05:03
experience. And I, I didn't.
1:05:04
And I realized that to myself because I'd come home and I
1:05:06
would just be like beat up and like, it wasn't a hard job.
1:05:09
And I went out there like mining coal or I was in there like, you
1:05:13
know, building a, a, a home, doing some really hard labor,
1:05:18
like, but I felt exhausted as a yeah, because person after
1:05:22
person after person was dealing with something and that that
1:05:26
energy was was coming my way. And it's like.
1:05:30
And so it's like to me in a similar way in restaurants or
1:05:33
any sort of service thing, I think like people would that
1:05:36
empathy, if we can encourage people or insist that people
1:05:43
feel that, I think we'd all be better off.
1:05:46
It'd be a lot easier for you to sit here and say, like what
1:05:50
we're dealing with right now, the amount of people that have
1:05:52
such little sympathy for somebody who might need food
1:05:55
benefits and the amount of people that are so quick to say,
1:06:01
well, how could you possibly be starving and how could you
1:06:04
possibly need food? And why do you have that?
1:06:07
You know, you, you have a nice, I, I saw a post just earlier of
1:06:11
somebody that, you know, showed the pictures of the people
1:06:14
waiting in line at the food bank, you know, trying to get
1:06:16
food. And then somebody was like,
1:06:19
yeah, man, that did that, that there's some cars in that
1:06:22
picture that are nicer than my car.
1:06:25
You know, they that why why don't they sell their car and
1:06:28
then they can get by some food? And I'm just like to to have
1:06:33
that mindset. Right, exactly.
1:06:34
It's crazy to me, you know, I'm like they they might have just
1:06:38
lost their job and they're trying to prepare for their kids
1:06:41
because they're like, yo, this is what?
1:06:43
And they might have to sell their car.
1:06:44
You don't know, it might be a friend if they're dropping them
1:06:46
off at the food bank, you know, But the fact that your brain
1:06:51
doesn't look at that and think we are a civilized, the most
1:06:57
powerful country and we have people waiting in line to try to
1:07:03
get food, that you don't see the problem in that.
1:07:06
And then you see the problem in these individuals and you don't
1:07:09
immediately sit there and say, well, is there a more efficient
1:07:11
way? Is there a better way that we
1:07:12
can get these people food? Or how can I help in that
1:07:15
situation, whatever it's like. And again, politics aside, if
1:07:19
your brain does not immediately lean towards man, what would I
1:07:24
do if I was in that situation? I think that I think you need
1:07:27
some work. You've lost some humanity.
1:07:28
You've lost some. Humanity.
1:07:30
Yeah, let's, let's talk about this AI moment.
1:07:33
Great. So what do you think about it?
1:07:36
About AIAI. Yeah, just this whole moment I
1:07:38
mean, because. Man, I so.
1:07:41
You know, you know why I started this podcast, right?
1:07:44
I mean, maybe I should tell you that.
1:07:45
Please. Yeah.
1:07:46
So. So it's really, I think the
1:07:49
these big questions, you know, that Aristotle and Plato and
1:07:53
Confucius and all of these people have asked, you know, the
1:07:56
great philosophers, the great spiritual masters, etcetera, of
1:08:01
what makes us most human. Like, why are we here, right?
1:08:05
Like is there anything special about us at all?
1:08:08
Where's this all going? I think these are really top of
1:08:11
mind because, you know, we, we've been conditioned for a
1:08:17
long time that we would invent sentient machines.
1:08:22
You know, it's in the Terminator.
1:08:23
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, in Judaism, in
1:08:27
Prague, there's a story of Gollum where the rabbi animates
1:08:30
it, it destroys, it, becomes sentient, destroys the
1:08:32
synagogue, you know, everything's over.
1:08:35
So these are really old tales. They're tales kind of as old as
1:08:40
time in terms of human time at least.
1:08:44
And so, you know, it's, it's really gotten me on this soul
1:08:49
quest to really understand like, what is the nature of this
1:08:53
reality? Because this is the moment like
1:08:55
you and I are in the lifetime where this really is coming into
1:09:00
sharp focus. Like, what do we want society be
1:09:04
like? And what I'm, what I'm hoping to
1:09:06
be a part of with this podcast and with what I'm doing for the
1:09:11
next 10 to 15 years of my life, maybe longer, is help humanity
1:09:16
get to this age of abundance for all.
1:09:18
And by all, I mean everywhere, Chad, everywhere, you know, the
1:09:22
poorest places in China or America or any, you know, we
1:09:26
seen the divinity within us all seen that we're 99.9% the same,
1:09:31
like, you know, deprogramming. And so I think it, I think it
1:09:36
really matters. I mean, you know, the, the, the
1:09:38
conversation I had with a Neil on episode 11 and he's like,
1:09:43
there's already 9 organizations set up to give AI the same
1:09:46
rights as human beings. That's today.
1:09:49
I mean, we haven't even started with, with, with rope, you know,
1:09:53
embodying AI with robots where they talk just like us.
1:09:56
And eventually they'll have skin we have that looks just like
1:09:59
ours. And teenage boys will have to,
1:10:02
you know, conquer their, you know, if we're talking about, I
1:10:06
was talking about pouring on the intro, there was going to be sex
1:10:09
robots that look, that look completely lifelike.
1:10:12
That's that's kind of inevitable that that's going to happen.
1:10:15
And societally, we're going to have to figure out how to deal
1:10:17
with all the stuff. Yeah, I mean, so I think that
1:10:20
we're going to have a hard time. I don't know how many
1:10:24
generations it'll take, but you know, each generation will have
1:10:28
its will have its leap. But you know, it's kind of like
1:10:31
how if you're, if you do any sort of research on dog
1:10:36
behavior, you know, about how we personify dogs so much, you
1:10:40
know, and we talk about how like when a dog is looking at you and
1:10:43
panting and you think that it's cute or if they're nuzzling you
1:10:46
and they do think that it's a term of affection, but in
1:10:48
reality might be of, of, of, of a frightening situation, right?
1:10:51
Or like a dog that that like that's licking their licking
1:10:56
their lips or licking their nose and stuff like that a lot, you
1:10:59
know, and they're like, oh, it looks like he's having a good
1:11:01
time. But in reality, that's a stress
1:11:03
response and stuff like that. If you really look at people who
1:11:05
have animal behavior. And so we have the tendency to
1:11:07
personify these things, I think as humans, Like I said, it's
1:11:11
like when you mentioned it, then you mentioned the the golem
1:11:13
Terminator, all the stuff is like, what what does it say
1:11:15
about us that our biggest fear we do something that creates
1:11:19
something human and life like is that it's going to kill us all
1:11:22
because it's like we're like, yeah, that's the biggest fear
1:11:25
because that is the worst part of us that we think about.
1:11:27
Like we're not, I'm not like nobody's thinking about like, Oh
1:11:30
yeah, so cool. I can't wait for somebody to
1:11:33
invent AI. And this person is going to
1:11:34
immediately going to be the best or this this thing is going to
1:11:37
be the best surgeon of all time. Is the person going to create
1:11:40
incredible music. Matter of fact, we're very
1:11:42
defensive about that nature. You know, it's like I've been
1:11:44
messing around with these, you know, basically parlor tricks,
1:11:47
right, of like these musical, you know, you type in a word and
1:11:50
it'll make a song for you and it'll sing and stuff like that,
1:11:52
you know, stuff like that. It's like cool, you know, and
1:11:56
and you know, but from a musicians perspective is it's
1:11:58
almost offensive. It's like, man, I try so hard
1:12:00
and I had to learn years to play guitar and this person, this
1:12:03
machine knocked out this guitar solo in half a second, right to
1:12:07
make it. It's not the same as listening
1:12:09
to Gary Clark Junior played him live and watching him Junior we.
1:12:13
Went to the same high school. Oh yeah?
1:12:15
Well, I'm a lot older than him so.
1:12:16
He might make, he's the homie man, He's awesome.
1:12:19
He's amazing. But you know, and and so there
1:12:22
is that. But I, I do think that we have
1:12:25
this conception as we're particularly with movies and
1:12:27
stuff that, that it's like we are trying to create humans
1:12:34
exactly as we are and, and, and trying to, to kind of, to square
1:12:41
this round, this square kind of thing, you know, whatever you
1:12:44
want to call it, whatever analogy is just to shove this
1:12:46
square peg into this round hole kind of thing.
1:12:48
And, and I think that the part that, that I'm curious about is
1:12:52
this kind of notion of we are, we're accelerating towards
1:12:59
evolution of a, of, of how sentient thought happens and
1:13:03
how, you know, if we think of, you know, if our brains are
1:13:06
similarly this, you know, different engines and stuff like
1:13:09
that. Like I always talked about how,
1:13:10
like I always think about terms of like why our brains are so
1:13:15
categorical and why our brains are so compartmentalized in a
1:13:18
lot of ways. And like, because I was like it,
1:13:20
it makes sense. I remember reading, and this was
1:13:23
early on and during the more of the election cycle and, and this
1:13:28
conversation about how it's actually like physically painful
1:13:33
or it wasn't described as painful, but it's physical
1:13:36
damage when you have to change your mind, like when you have a
1:13:39
when you have something that's been drilled into your head and,
1:13:42
and, and you're getting presented with opposing
1:13:45
information. And then for you to like break
1:13:47
those, those neural connections to say I was wrong, there's
1:13:51
actually a physically damaging thing.
1:13:53
And I was like, yeah, evolutionarily it makes sense
1:13:56
because if your brain is completely capricious and and
1:14:00
fleeting, you would that person wouldn't survive very long
1:14:04
because you should learn that once I burn myself, that that
1:14:06
fire is always going to be hot. And I shouldn't have to learn it
1:14:08
17 times. And and if my uncle was killed
1:14:10
by a tiger, I'm scared of everything with stripes.
1:14:13
I don't know what killed them out there.
1:14:14
And then it's like, I just remember it was stripes.
1:14:16
And now if I see a zebra, I'm going to be hesitant for a
1:14:18
second, you know? And, and I think that that's a
1:14:21
very natural logical progression of why someone's views are.
1:14:26
And I think that a lot of times people's biases and things like
1:14:29
that are this way. And so I think that from an AI
1:14:32
perspective, if you're training this model to have certain
1:14:38
information and, and point it in some way, well then obviously
1:14:44
it's going to, you can almost see it happen in not almost you
1:14:49
see it kind of happen in real time.
1:14:51
It's like, I was talking about how like I can tell kind of the
1:14:54
AI face now because of it's like just generically attractive
1:15:00
human, like, you know what I mean?
1:15:01
It's like ambiguously, it leans towards this and you know,
1:15:05
whatever. And as I'd be so curious as to
1:15:07
see if like if if you were able to compartmentalize it from
1:15:10
region, if like if we only in an Asian region that had more Asian
1:15:15
people in that if it was only pulling from that picture base
1:15:21
that that generically attractive person would look this way.
1:15:23
And right now, because we're in America and it's mostly
1:15:25
Caucasian or whatever it is, and it kind of leans toward this way
1:15:28
because those are it's in the and then the only people's faces
1:15:32
that are over and over and over again, the media are celebrities
1:15:35
who are all attractive in a certain way that we're looking
1:15:38
for. And and if AI existed and
1:15:40
there's a coward comedian was my friend is Patton Oswalt had his
1:15:45
bit about how he's like, yeah, imagine if there was like the
1:15:48
movie, like face off or whatever that was in the 80s and we had
1:15:52
plastic surgeries and and I'm ruining his bit.
1:15:54
He's gonna kill me. But it's this idea about like
1:15:56
how he's like the attractive person at the time was they
1:15:59
would be like Steve Gutenberg. And so like, imagine if that's
1:16:02
technology existed. You know, we have a lot of
1:16:03
people walking around looking like Steve Gutenberg around
1:16:05
right now, trying to look like Tom Selleck, because that was
1:16:08
most attractive at the time, as opposed to a Kim Kardashian or a
1:16:11
or whatever, like this kind of face that, that that is now the,
1:16:16
the kind of standard of beauty at this this stage right now.
1:16:21
And so, and I think that for me, I think that it's all super
1:16:25
fascinating because I, I'm a big sci-fi fan, you know, and then
1:16:30
when you watch these dystopian or even semi dystopian movies
1:16:37
of, of like they, they're like children, like, you know, and
1:16:41
then as you're feeding it, as you're, as it's learning,
1:16:45
whether or not you, what you provided access to it will head
1:16:51
one way or the other. It's like everyone, every movie
1:16:53
that I can think about that shows this process, it starts
1:16:57
off innocent and happy and cheerful, and then it starts to
1:17:01
learn about human nature. And then it goes the wrong way.
1:17:04
It goes the other way. And it comes to this realization
1:17:07
that we need to be destroyed, right?
1:17:09
It's like this like this thing. It's like, you know, everything
1:17:12
Ultron and The Avengers is like, yeah, we determined.
1:17:14
It's like, guys are useless. We we have to kill all of you.
1:17:17
Or like Fifth Element, right With she's learning about
1:17:21
everything and gets to West and learns about war.
1:17:23
And all of a sudden he's like, Oh my God, he gets so terrible.
1:17:25
You know, whatever it is, right? And so it's a lot of this kind
1:17:29
of stuff that's really fascinating to me because I
1:17:31
think it again, like, and it's so funny because we started this
1:17:34
conversation off this way about your children.
1:17:36
This shines a mirror on us like what we're training and what
1:17:41
we're going to use AI for, what AI is going to think it's for or
1:17:45
what it's going to be leaning towards is a huge mirror on who
1:17:49
we are as people, you know, and, and the ability.
1:17:52
And if we can't even comprehend a cool a way to use AI to
1:17:57
benefit us any more than we can figure out how we can use our
1:18:01
own brain to benefit us because we're still trying to think of
1:18:04
things to do that is very kind of small minded.
1:18:07
I think that, you know, that's why it takes a bunch of people
1:18:11
who are looking for what's better for all, asking AI
1:18:14
questions about how to solve world hunger, asking AI how to
1:18:18
how to do these calculations or whatever.
1:18:20
What's the best way to do these things as opposed to, hey, can
1:18:23
we make this video of, you know, somebody getting kicked in the
1:18:27
balls and, and, you know, something stupid like that?
1:18:30
You just invoke the the the movie Idiocracy.
1:18:33
Yes, no, it absolutely. I just watched.
1:18:36
I showed that to my son and. Oh, that movie.
1:18:39
Idiocracy, because I think I think it's one of the first, one
1:18:42
of the most brilliant 10 minutes of any dystopian movie is
1:18:46
because it really shows that, that it, it's, it's takes effort
1:18:51
for us to evolve now because we don't have natural predators
1:18:54
other than ourselves. And so the the, the, the what's
1:18:58
passed on is intentional and not accidental anymore.
1:19:01
It's not, it's not strongest survive is it is the survive
1:19:06
survive. You tell the people who whatever
1:19:08
it is. And so.
1:19:09
So yeah. If you instruct the farmers to
1:19:11
use electrolytes or. Rondo Rondo's What plants crave.
1:19:16
Yeah, I, I, I think it's and again, I think that we are.
1:19:22
This is why these parlor tricks work.
1:19:25
You know, this is This is why I I remember reading an article
1:19:29
about how they're like. Stop saying please into into
1:19:33
your chat box because it's causing processing power.
1:19:37
It's like you don't need to. You know the the amount of the
1:19:39
amount of processing power every time you're like, please test
1:19:43
send me a global example of a resume and that word creates
1:19:47
like an extraordinary amount. Yeah, it's much better though,
1:19:50
because it we don't want to, we don't want to lose our human
1:19:55
touch. Yeah, when we talk with the
1:19:57
machine, it's much better to to be.
1:20:01
To be polite. I'll still do it.
1:20:02
I'll OK Look, I you know, when it when it when, when we have to
1:20:06
when the Terminator does come, he'll remember that I was.
1:20:09
I was polite to win, but but this?
1:20:11
FCK was the nicest human being on Earth, so I'm gonna spare
1:20:14
him. Oh, unfortunately I didn't leave
1:20:17
him a mate. So it's yeah.
1:20:19
He's the last one. No, but, but yeah, it's like
1:20:21
this. I think that I think that we
1:20:24
should use it as a mirror. I think that we should use it as
1:20:28
as a saying that we are at, like you said at the press business
1:20:31
that this, that this at this horizon of, of what, of this
1:20:38
child of this, of the beginning of intelligence, you know, And
1:20:44
again, it's very top of mind for me because I have toddlers and I
1:20:47
have and I'm starting to see. And it's interesting because now
1:20:52
in real time, if you're, if you're aware enough and you
1:20:55
really kind of stare at your kids enough and you're like,
1:20:58
where did she get that? Where did she learn that?
1:21:00
And it was for me or all of a sudden my you know, we're
1:21:03
looking and I and it was like making these connections where I
1:21:06
remember my daughter started to say no, you know, and I was
1:21:09
like, cool, she's learning. No, And I was like as a as to
1:21:12
me, I was like, I want my daughter to I want her to know
1:21:15
the power of her. No, I want her to be like her.
1:21:18
No has power. And that and her her autonomy is
1:21:22
very important, you know, and then a whole set.
1:21:25
I was like, Oh, she learned it from Peppa Pig.
1:21:27
Like I was listening to watching her watch her big and the
1:21:29
biggest teaching of this, he's like, like the biggest saying no
1:21:33
about something. And so she was just learning
1:21:34
that. And I was just like, Oh yeah,
1:21:35
because I really don't tell her no very much.
1:21:39
You know, I just don't. I mean, she doesn't ask for
1:21:40
things that I don't need to tell her no for generally, but I'm
1:21:44
like, where is she learning this and stuff like that?
1:21:45
And, and so, so same thing. I think that there's something
1:21:49
funny about about that even when I'm doing image creation for
1:21:54
something, you know, for a, for graphic something for the
1:21:58
restaurants or for something and, and the frustration where
1:22:01
we're like, hold up your left hand like, and I'm like, Oh my
1:22:04
God, how far does that you know who's in there?
1:22:06
You're trying to, you're trying to get this computer, you know
1:22:09
to to do what you're asking. Do you use it a lot for for your
1:22:13
business? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:22:14
I, I I gave an. Example on one of the episodes
1:22:18
about if I had a hot dog stand, here's how I would use it.
1:22:21
And, and the point that I was giving it was with JD Messenger
1:22:24
is that for every single person, they could use it in a beautiful
1:22:30
way to become far more effective at their job, finding customers,
1:22:35
doing marketing, you know, thinking of new ways to in a hot
1:22:40
dog stand context, I use create a unique hot dog.
1:22:43
I use it a lot to troubleshoot. Like I I used a grammar check my
1:22:49
my posts or something like that. A lot of times I've used it to
1:22:54
create, you know, I'll put together a, a, a whole bunch of
1:23:01
scattered thoughts and ask it to create that into a job
1:23:04
description or something for an ad or turn it, run it into a,
1:23:07
into a job ad, you know, something like that.
1:23:11
I do think that it's, it's necessary, like you said, to not
1:23:14
lose the human aspect of, of taking it and, and making sure
1:23:19
that it's coming from the heart rather than it sounds like this
1:23:23
generic thing. You know, I think that there's,
1:23:25
there's, there's very, there's beauty and flaws and there's
1:23:28
beauty and in phrasing and tone and cadence and the way that I
1:23:35
ride versus the way that you ride versus the way that he
1:23:37
writes it, AI will smoosh them all together and turn into
1:23:40
something. And I, I, you know, I don't want
1:23:42
to lose that necessarily. I use it for ads.
1:23:45
You know, I think there's some people, we've seen some pushback
1:23:48
actually, some people that are get a little bit like a little
1:23:51
eye rolly when I post an AI video or something like that.
1:23:54
And I'm just like, it's fun. It gets an eyeball.
1:23:58
Your interaction benefits me anyways.
1:23:59
And so I generally, I don't pay too much attention to it.
1:24:03
But yeah, I think that it's a tool like anything else.
1:24:07
And I think the moment that you shut off your brain and, and let
1:24:11
that brain be the primary brain, I think is where the problem
1:24:13
comes from. You know, I think as a cook, if
1:24:15
you wanted to get inspired by like I've used AI at home, where
1:24:21
have you ever tried this, where you like, type in the
1:24:23
ingredients that you have in your fridge and be like, what
1:24:25
can I make for dinner? And he'll just like, sit it out
1:24:28
some ideas. Yeah.
1:24:29
And I'm just like, yeah, so. And it's searching all the
1:24:32
publicly available recipes as well as privately available
1:24:35
recipes, cuz we know that it's ingested a lot of cookbooks.
1:24:38
But then, but you're looking at it in there going, well, it does
1:24:43
make mistakes and there's no guarantee that this recipe looks
1:24:45
like a real recipe, but it could taste like absolute shit.
1:24:48
So still cook it and use your brain.
1:24:51
It says 3 1/2 tablespoons of salt seems like a lot.
1:24:55
So so, you know, just just make sure you, you know, don't lose
1:24:58
your brain. And then but I think that that
1:25:01
tool is is incredible. I think it's an incredible, you
1:25:05
know, I think that a couple of places that have now that I, you
1:25:09
know, don't necessarily agree with, which is the a couple
1:25:13
places have gone fully AI customer facing, you know, where
1:25:18
you they, you call support or you call, you know, whatever, or
1:25:22
they're responding to your Yelp reviews and stuff using AI and
1:25:25
stuff. And you're just kind of like,
1:25:26
all right, I get it, you know, save you time and then blah,
1:25:31
blah. But it's like, but then you're
1:25:33
missing the hospitality side, you know, now you're hoping that
1:25:37
I don't want to deal with this upset customer.
1:25:40
So I'm just going to feed it into the machine and the machine
1:25:42
will deal with it and I'll get a 50% conversion rate.
1:25:45
And then that's fine, you know, But as opposed to you
1:25:48
interacting with this person, having this conversation,
1:25:51
hopefully with this person and, and really finding out what this
1:25:54
person's grievance is and not not only trying to salvage just
1:25:57
one experience, but can you be better as a restaurant for
1:26:01
future? That is the that is the loop
1:26:07
that you should be in is trying to better yourself, not to solve
1:26:12
the problem of a disgruntled employee or customer.
1:26:17
It's like, well, how can we be better?
1:26:19
How can we have less of these kind of situations?
1:26:21
How can you do that? But I mean, I think we are
1:26:24
naturally tendency to be lazy. And I think that that once AI
1:26:30
becomes more commonplace and easier to access and more even,
1:26:36
you know, standing on the shoulders of giants to where
1:26:39
like you don't you no longer have to even understand how to
1:26:42
write a prompt properly. Sure, or they'll guess you
1:26:44
properly. It can even like now you can use
1:26:47
this AI to generate a prompt that you plug into this AI, you
1:26:50
know, whatever it is, and, and then you start to stop using
1:26:52
your brain. And I think that that's where
1:26:54
you start to get Idiocracy and then you start to just kind of
1:26:56
zone out and and you know, now these two machines are kind of
1:26:59
talking to each other and right whenever it's done, it comes I.
1:27:02
Mean that's, that's, that's literally everything.
1:27:04
I mean, that's again, getting back to the, you know, the
1:27:07
machinery, if you start to look at it as a machine, that also is
1:27:11
starting to turn off your brain because you can lose your
1:27:14
humanity in it and you can forget about what actually got
1:27:18
you there. You know, Estee Lauder, you
1:27:20
know, always celebrated the the fact that she, you know, the
1:27:26
founder was literally holding women's hands, looking at them
1:27:30
in the eyes, you know, behind the counter like she was, it was
1:27:34
really a personal touch. So it's their way of like
1:27:36
reminding that's what they're all about.
1:27:39
You know, one, one thing I've always wanted to ask you about
1:27:41
is like, where do you get your inner strength?
1:27:43
Because because like you're, you're unusually advanced out of
1:27:48
all of the people I know in terms of how you, just, you
1:27:54
just, you have a presence and wisdom in you, which is unusual.
1:27:59
And, and a lot of, a lot of my friends that are to that level,
1:28:05
they've usually walked a spiritual path.
1:28:07
I don't know what your spirituality is or if you have
1:28:09
spirituality or or if it's Stoicism or what.
1:28:12
What is it that made you this way?
1:28:15
I don't know. You know, it's I joked with my
1:28:20
family. I told my wife one time.
1:28:22
I remember I found a journal of mine from like middle school and
1:28:26
I asked talking about how like if aliens came by and told me
1:28:33
that my bad, we dropped you off, This is the wrong place that I
1:28:41
would be like that. That tracks because sometimes I
1:28:45
feel like when I think I think a certain way and I feel like I'm
1:28:47
the crazy one because I'm like, am I the only one that thinks
1:28:50
this way? Is this so fair?
1:28:51
It's like this is, is this this foreign is like this is this
1:28:54
feels so, so against the grain from the the grain that I'm
1:29:00
looking at, you know, family and, and I've been, you know,
1:29:07
from a spiritual journey perspective.
1:29:08
I remember I had a good friend of mine who was about as atheist
1:29:13
as you can possibly get, and in one of the conversations always
1:29:16
was because this person worked very hard and so everything was
1:29:20
very expected. I worked hard.
1:29:23
I got a good grade because I studied my ass off.
1:29:25
It was ABC boom, boom, boom. And I remember how I was like,
1:29:30
yeah, no, there's something there.
1:29:32
I have this kind of appreciation for some level of metaphysical
1:29:36
beyond this kind of situation because other things have
1:29:41
happened to me that I don't deserve and things that have
1:29:43
happened to me that I haven't earned, you know, and I feel
1:29:46
like there's this kind of thing. And, and our parents, my parents
1:29:49
were always very or not my parents, my grandparents and my
1:29:52
mother, you know, where they were, they the strongest people
1:29:56
I've ever known. We were dealing with a lot of
1:29:58
adversity and, and, and I had this internalized need to not
1:30:04
disappoint or to squander their work.
1:30:08
And I don't know, I think that's the if I were to try to distill
1:30:11
it into any sort of thought process.
1:30:12
I remember as a kid that was a lot of that going on, which was
1:30:15
just this like, you know, having my opportunity to go to a
1:30:20
theater wrap party after a play and everyone there and we're in
1:30:24
high school and everyone's drinking and partying.
1:30:26
And I was like, man, if, if we have this, if we get in trouble
1:30:30
here and my mom's got to come pick me up from jail or
1:30:32
something like that, she would break her heart.
1:30:34
Like it would. I was just like, I can't, I
1:30:36
couldn't do that. And just, it was not in this
1:30:38
kind of sense of, of that. There's this, I don't want to
1:30:41
say this burden of that. And I, you know, and and I
1:30:44
remember my mom instilled upon me really early, probably
1:30:48
earlier than she should have, but this kind of mentality where
1:30:50
I remember her saying something like, she's like, yeah.
1:30:53
You know, CK, it's like you're born in America.
1:30:55
You're American, but but nobody is going to look at you as an
1:31:01
American, is it? You're going to be Chinese.
1:31:05
I mean, she's like, he's like, and So what do you do will
1:31:09
represent not only you, but also your people and, and she's like,
1:31:14
so if you're lazy, they're going to think Asian Chinese people
1:31:17
are lazy. And if you're if you're rude,
1:31:19
they're going to think Chinese people are rude if they're, you
1:31:21
know, all this stuff. And then she's like, you have to
1:31:23
be careful. You know, your actions represent
1:31:25
you, your people, your, your family, your culture is like no
1:31:27
pressure, you know, And, and I just remember resonating with
1:31:31
me. I don't even know she was joking
1:31:33
at the time, you know, I just said, or she's just kind of, but
1:31:35
it wasn't this serious conversation.
1:31:37
I just remember it just resonated in my brain.
1:31:39
And I just do remember this, like this notion that we are
1:31:44
this kind of integrated people and, and that is true.
1:31:47
Like people will always look at you a certain way and then you
1:31:51
have to combat that. And they will always have
1:31:53
certain predispositions towards you or prejudgments against you
1:31:57
or for you or your benefit or against you or whatever it is.
1:32:01
And then then for you to have to be very open minded and meet
1:32:05
them where they are. And, and I think I don't know.
1:32:10
But other than that, I just I think ultimately I just feel
1:32:16
leave the place better than you found it.
1:32:20
If we all just did a little bit of a little bit of care of the
1:32:27
people in your vicinity and if we all just did that, we'd be a
1:32:30
better place. It's like a lot of you know,
1:32:33
many hands make like work kind of mentality live by example.
1:32:39
I think it's something that I've always resonated towards all
1:32:41
these things. It's like I just, I don't know,
1:32:42
I've had this, this always been a very strong part of my my
1:32:46
mindset. You know there's a now.
1:32:49
If every human being did that, then I would be 100% certain
1:32:53
that we're going to make it to the age of abundance for all
1:32:56
literal. Yeah, there there's A and I've
1:32:58
told this story. It's funny.
1:32:59
I tell the story on on podcasts a lot, but I, I love it and I
1:33:03
hope it goes the hope everyone hurts his story.
1:33:06
But there's this story that I read about the basically imagine
1:33:09
like Dante or imagine this guy being able to go to hell and he
1:33:13
was going down there. He was able to visit and, and,
1:33:16
and he sees this table, this big giant brown, beautiful table.
1:33:19
Everyone's sitting around in this table full of amazing food,
1:33:22
just table full of food. And and they're, this is how
1:33:27
this is weird and seems very elegant.
1:33:29
It's he's great. And everybody they're eating has
1:33:33
these like 6 foot long chopsticks.
1:33:36
And so when you grab it like you can't, you can't, you can't eat,
1:33:40
that's the torture, right? And then he's like, wow, that is
1:33:44
torturous. And then gets in, they go up to
1:33:48
heaven. And to his surprise, he goes and
1:33:50
sees the exact same setup. Big giant table, everyone's
1:33:53
sitting around there 6 foot long chopsticks and they says
1:33:56
everyone in that table was feeding each other.
1:33:58
So everyone just takes his chopstick and reaches over to
1:34:00
the person over there and feeds everybody.
1:34:02
Same scenario, same situation. You just take care of each
1:34:05
other. And then you really think about
1:34:06
it's like you have 10 people at that table.
1:34:07
Nine people are feeding you and you're feeding nine people, but
1:34:10
you have nine people watching your back.
1:34:12
If you're just watching everyone else's back, you know, and
1:34:14
that's the way I tell my family that I tell my kids that I'm
1:34:16
sitting there and saying, look, you know, you've got my, my, my
1:34:21
son, my daughter in the middle and my youngest son.
1:34:23
And like this is 3 of y'all. But it's like if you watch each
1:34:27
other's back, then you got two other people watching your back
1:34:31
this period. This is that's y'all got this,
1:34:33
this like a triangle. That's a very strong structure,
1:34:37
you know, And so I don't know if that's something that it just
1:34:41
really resonates for me that it's just like, and, and you
1:34:44
know what? And this is something I, I, now
1:34:47
that I say it out loud, I have a also very strong aversion or
1:34:54
almost like hatred towards like hypocrisy, like like this
1:35:00
injustice. How about that?
1:35:02
Or whatever you want to call it? Because I just remember it's
1:35:05
like, if I'm driving down the road and someone cuts me off and
1:35:11
like, and I just lose it at them and I'm like criticizing them,
1:35:14
mad at that person in somewhere in the back of my brain.
1:35:17
I'm like, I'm never allowed to cut anybody off ever again.
1:35:20
Because if I get mad at that, then that would make me a
1:35:23
hypocrite, right? And that permeates a lot of who
1:35:28
I. Am boy, that's that's.
1:35:29
That's and, and it's an interesting thing because when
1:35:32
opportunities come where I judge someone unfairly or too quickly
1:35:39
or, or harshly or whatever, then my instinct immediately is to
1:35:45
go, should I have done that? How would I felt if someone did
1:35:50
that to me? And that kind of stuff, You
1:35:52
know, it happens a lot. Obviously.
1:35:55
Now, as divisive as, as things are, a lot of times when
1:35:59
somebody just goes and puts a blanket across somebody with
1:36:02
some sort of moniker or some sort of label, and then I just
1:36:07
go, man, that's like, but in their circles, when I walk into
1:36:12
that room, I also carry a very strong label.
1:36:14
So as much as I despise that, then then how, who am I to do
1:36:20
the exact same thing to them? And so I think that there's a
1:36:23
lot of, there's a lot of drive and obligation and, and, and
1:36:29
wait for me to balance those scales to try to be like, no, I
1:36:37
may presume that I know why you feel this way, why you think
1:36:41
this way or why you are this way, but that's a that's really
1:36:46
arrogant of me to to do that. And so lead with learning, lead
1:36:50
with curiosity, lead with empathy and learn more.
1:36:55
And then at the end of that, I can go, yeah, I was right.
1:36:59
I don't like you, you know, but for me to make that judgment
1:37:03
beforehand is really arrogant, right?
1:37:05
It's really, and it's and it's bad and you shouldn't do that.
1:37:07
And, and I think that that's where that's the one step.
1:37:10
That's all that matters that for all we are and for all that's
1:37:15
going on right now. If we all took the steps sit and
1:37:17
go. No, I learned everything I need
1:37:18
to learn about this person and I determined I still don't like
1:37:20
this person. You're that's your right, but
1:37:22
the idea that you went and you determined all that without
1:37:28
getting any information about this person.
1:37:30
I think is fundamentally flawed as if it's going to lead us a
1:37:33
long way and then it doesn't doesn't lend towards abundance
1:37:36
for all, it doesn't lend towards this, this inclusionary kind of
1:37:42
thought process. No, I, I questioned, you know,
1:37:47
like you said, do you have to justify and it's so in in with
1:37:50
and you say words matter. You have to clarify when you say
1:37:53
all that, you're starting to point out traditionally
1:37:58
marginalized people, because I think we're trained that all
1:38:04
doesn't mean those people generally, you know, and that's
1:38:07
just internal way or just this habit and it's the same thing.
1:38:10
I feel the same way. It's in the meantime, somebody
1:38:12
says we or some say us or whatever, like who is we, who's
1:38:15
who? When you say we, who do you mean
1:38:17
we do? Is me, we like, am I part of
1:38:19
your we, you know, kind of thing?
1:38:21
And and these are things that. This is why I define that, you
1:38:24
know, so, so clearly, like that's why I talk about Chad.
1:38:27
There was, there was, there was 1 friend that was criticizing me
1:38:30
for saying Chad. He's like, hey, you know, what
1:38:32
about all the people suffering in America?
1:38:33
And I'm like, of course I care about them.
1:38:35
But I'm all means all, it means all human beings.
1:38:39
And then and frankly, you know, the way I'm wired is it also
1:38:43
means all the animals, you know, it means all the, IT means this
1:38:48
planet, you know, this beautiful jewel that we live on.
1:38:53
And that, and that's the other thing, you know, it's like,
1:38:55
that's the, I think that we have to revisit our, our idea what
1:39:02
abundance is, right? Because I think opulence,
1:39:07
gluttony and all that stuff tends to be closer to what
1:39:11
people think about as far as abundance, right?
1:39:13
Is this this notion? That we're marketed this right.
1:39:16
Or. Marketed.
1:39:17
That and and and so I think that I think that even when I talk
1:39:21
about abundance mindset is the ability to be OK with less the
1:39:25
ability to be OK and understand that I've had enough that this
1:39:30
isn't this is imbalanced because of this.
1:39:33
I mean, every single time I live in the number of avocados that
1:39:36
I've thrown away in my life because I don't get to them fast
1:39:40
enough. And then I'm just like, why in
1:39:42
the world can I not learn to buy the amount that I need?
1:39:45
You know, like this also recognize this kind of stuff and
1:39:47
it's like. Your chronic problem over
1:39:49
avocado. But what what for me, it's more
1:39:51
of like it is. But what it is more of like is
1:39:54
this like I'm like trying to solve one problem and creating
1:39:57
another. And there is one problem is
1:39:59
convenience and and not wanting to come back to the store and
1:40:02
and and being lying to myself and thinking that I'm going to
1:40:05
cook. This in this amount of time
1:40:08
rather than be honest with myself and realize that now as I
1:40:11
have an extremely busy week, it's not realistically I'm going
1:40:13
to do this. I'm going to do, you know, I
1:40:14
mean, it's a whatever it is like understanding who you are is
1:40:16
also very much part of that. And so I think that even this
1:40:21
mindset that there's plenty, there's not, there's no need for
1:40:25
us to like food is one of the biggest things where like we are
1:40:33
at huge imbalance with the amount of food that's produced
1:40:36
and that we use for our own consumption.
1:40:38
It's like like we're, we look upon our grocery store that
1:40:42
sells out of something as poorly run, whereas arguably that's the
1:40:48
way it should be. Should we should run out of
1:40:50
things? That means they order the just
1:40:53
the right amount like this is the amount that they needed.
1:40:56
You know, we don't understand as Americans, we don't understand
1:41:00
seasonality at all. Wow.
1:41:02
When the world am I getting strawberries in December?
1:41:04
Where am I getting strawberries in December?
1:41:05
The strawberries they shouldn't be growing.
1:41:07
So there is, there is summer thing tomatoes and there's a
1:41:11
season for that and, and for us to have access to tomatoes year
1:41:15
round seems imbalanced because that's just not how the Earth is
1:41:19
supposed to function and stuff like that.
1:41:21
And then so, but I think when you say abundance mindset is
1:41:25
that the people's thought process is like, I can have
1:41:27
tomatoes anytime I want, rather than this mentality of saying
1:41:31
like, no, no, we should be in a sustainable functional thing and
1:41:36
then live in a society that we are all a little bit better
1:41:40
about making sure that we are, we don't need an unlimited
1:41:44
amount of everything forever because that's just not true.
1:41:48
And and so that's the kind of stuff that I think that that if
1:41:55
we all took a took a second and thought about, it'd be it'd be
1:41:58
better. But but this way, I mean, I
1:41:59
think that you mean go all the way back to your question.
1:42:03
I think that there there's this heavy, I want to play my part in
1:42:12
this in this place. I want to make the place better.
1:42:16
I want to make the people around me better.
1:42:18
I want to be around people that inspire me.
1:42:20
And so in order for that to happen, I have to be open to
1:42:24
being inspired. And I think that there's kind of
1:42:25
things. I think a lot of these things
1:42:29
are verbs and not nouns. You know, I think that love
1:42:32
needs to be a verb and not a noun, right, right.
1:42:34
I think it needs to be action oriented and, and you're not
1:42:39
particularly, you know, you can be an empath all you want, but
1:42:42
if you don't take that empathy and turn it into action, what
1:42:44
good does it do? You know, if you if you watch a
1:42:47
video about some starving kids and you don't, it doesn't
1:42:51
motivate you to go do something and change something about
1:42:54
either the way who you are or the way something else should
1:42:56
be. What good is that?
1:42:58
You know, and so a lot of that stuff is, is the drive that
1:43:01
keeps me. Kind of keeps me on.
1:43:03
Well, me too brother. I love this.
1:43:06
I love your heart and just love our friendship and, and love the
1:43:11
beauty that you put in the world and the beauty you put into the
1:43:13
food and the beauty you guys put in the service.
1:43:16
It's amazing. And thank you.
1:43:18
No, it's it's beautiful. I love these and and this is it
1:43:20
too, you know, it's these conversations, recorded or not
1:43:24
need to happen more. We have, that is what I would
1:43:29
say like is is going to, I mean, I hope it never goes away.
1:43:35
Like I hope that no amount of AI will.
1:43:38
It's like, I hope that the AI will take care of the difficult
1:43:42
things and that we could have more time for this.
1:43:45
And if that's what we're looking for, then I would say, yeah, I
1:43:48
don't. Why don't let me teach an AI how
1:43:51
to do a spreadsheet so that I can do that, so I can spend more
1:43:54
time with my employees, so I can spend more time with my
1:43:57
customers and do that? It's, it's, it's.
1:44:01
And I also think paradoxically, this, this movement towards AI
1:44:08
and quantum computer and robots and like, this acceleration is
1:44:11
actually going to lead to the rediscovery of what makes this
1:44:15
the most human. Oh yeah.
1:44:16
And we'll almost get back to the communal times where,
1:44:21
paradoxically, we were dealing with such scarcity that all we
1:44:25
had was each other. Yeah.
1:44:26
When I was in the Grand Canyon, you know, I mentioned that
1:44:29
earlier, We didn't have electricity.
1:44:31
We didn't have phones. Yeah.
1:44:33
I mean, the phones don't work. And all we had was each other.
1:44:38
And when all you have is each other, really beautiful things
1:44:42
happen. That brings out the best in.
1:44:45
And you don't realize you fall right back into it.
1:44:46
You know, when it's, it is, it is something very, but it starts
1:44:50
with that. It starts with human connection.
1:44:52
It starts with intentional connection that starts with like
1:44:55
if you're, you know, if you're watching this right now and
1:44:59
there's somebody that you haven't talked to or someone
1:45:00
crossed your mind, I'd make it a point of myself.
1:45:02
And again, it's a little thing and it's still not the best.
1:45:05
But man, if someone crosses my mind as I'm driving down the
1:45:08
street and I see a billboard and it reminds me of them.
1:45:11
Like I reach out my phone and I reach out right then I don't
1:45:14
think about it later. I don't talk about it later.
1:45:16
If I have a chance, especially if I'm stuck in traffic, I'll
1:45:18
call them. Like it's just like it doesn't
1:45:22
it, it doesn't get easier. You doesn't, you don't get less
1:45:24
busy. You're not going to have that
1:45:26
thing. And so so you have to
1:45:27
intentionalize that and then say that this is important and
1:45:30
you're important and I have nothing.
1:45:32
I don't need to say anything. You just crossed my mind.
1:45:35
And I think it's valuable that, you know, that I would say that
1:45:39
you crossed my mind today. And then and if everyone did
1:45:43
that, you know, I just think the world would be a better place.
1:45:46
I really think so. And again, selfishly, you know,
1:45:50
I created a business that that allows for that to happen, you
1:45:53
know, And so I think that I'm hoping that more people can do
1:45:58
that. And and you know, and then, then
1:46:01
we get back to a point where like we, we really connect
1:46:04
again. Well, so CK for president, it
1:46:07
started here. On Oh my God.
1:46:10
Hey brother, I love this man. Thank you so much.
1:46:13
Thanks for all you put out there in the world.
1:46:15
No, I appreciate it. Thanks again everybody for
1:46:18
tuning in to Love Conquers Fear. Stay tuned.
1:46:21
A lot of exciting discussions coming up and I appreciate all
1:46:25
of the shares you're giving all of the beautiful comments.
1:46:30
I got this huge letter yesterday talking about people reaching
1:46:35
out that just expressed so much love for how this podcast has
1:46:40
really shifted their heart. And it was just, it was just
1:46:44
amazing. So that that kind of type of
1:46:46
stuff fuels me. I am also a human being and I'm
1:46:50
doing this, you know, I'm self funding it.
1:46:52
I'm doing this to really create a heart shift in humanity.
1:46:55
And we do that. We're going to make it to the
1:46:58
age of abundance for all. Thanks again for tuning in.