Kind: captions
Language: en
can can I tell you a story about the the
Trump election one so I'm Canadian uh
and my Canadian passport I'm like Golem
with the precious like hold on to that
thing as the US goes into all sours of
chaos about three months after Trump is
elected in 2016 I was in a in an Uber
going to a conference and the health the
driver is looking very unhealthy and I
said are you okay uh how much do you
drive he goes oh I drive 18 hours a day
I said 18 hours a day um uh
hopefully you're not at the end of your
shift because that's not great for me as
a passenger then he tells you this
amazing story he was the CEO of a 300
person construction firm and they voted
as a company should they get rid of
corporate Healthcare or not and they
vote as a comp he lobbies for it because
less admin for the company bit more
expensive for the people but more choice
so he votes lobbies and they get rid of
they vote and they get rid of corporate
Healthcare three weeks later he's not
feeling well goes to the doctor and
finds out he's got multiple stage three
cancers riddling his body and now he's
got a major problem because they got rid
of the healthcare he can't get covered
because of the pre-existing conditions
problem so one of those Pops at stage
four and he's a dead man so he literally
starts planning his funeral G gives away
the company plans his end times like
like really right there I'm like that's
incredible but you said that happened a
few years ago you're here now what
happened he goes Obamacare passed I'm
like okay he goes then I could get the
insurance I got the treatment I saved my
life I'm like wow what a journey to go
go through you think you're going to die
and then this thing happens and it saves
your life we pull into the hotel I'm
getting out of the car and kind of a
joke I said I guess in this last
election you must have voted for Hillary
Clinton and he goes no I voted for Trump
and I I was Gob smacked and I said but
but you just said Obamacare saved your
life he goes yeah it did completely 100%
Obamacare saved my life I said but then
you voted for the guy that said he was
going to get rid of it on his first day
he goes yeah and he's getting rid of it
and now I'm back to planning my funeral
I've never been able to square that
Circle you didn't ask him the followup
question I was so if you could go back
and do it again what would you do what
was what would be the followup question
you would ask him I I would have asked
um did you know that was going to be the
outcome and if so did you there's it
that leads me to believe you have a base
assumption that something trumps your
own personal safety I I I I've never
I've never I've I've sat with that like
anecdote for years now I've never been
able to figure that out where people
will literally vote against their
self-interest I don't think anyone votes
against their self-interest I think
there are things that they care about
that they may not be aware of yet so he
may have a philosophical underpinning
that he's not even aware of a value
system that drives him forward because
he the very thing and look I don't know
this guy who knows but just hearing what
I've heard that what I would say drives
him is freedom over everything so hey we
have a healthcare plan but I can make it
better by giving people choice oh [ __ ]
that bit me in the ass but my value
system is still there Trump in his mind
stands for more freedoms and so I'm
going to vote for more freedoms even
though it brings me now obviously I'd
want to push him and like really
understand if that's what he's saying
but I find most people are driven by
value system that they don't understand
but they are driven by it every choice
they make is an echo of a value system
they don't understand can I say
something out of a little bit of anger
at all times I've lived in eight
countries around the world for more than
a year each so I've seen a lot of
different systems Healthcare governance
Etc Canada Europe India you name it um
this whole Vector of Freedom drives me
[ __ ] crazy because it's a complete
it's complete horseshit I feel less free
in the US than most other countries in
the world why are you here oh great
place to do
business fascinating it's a great place
to but I feel I'll give you I'll give
you because here in the US the reason
the US is successful is there's a latent
entrepreneur ship that is unbelievably
powerful and it optimizes in Silicon
Valley where if you build a business and
you fail we call it experience anywhere
else in the bu in the world you build a
business and it fails you're a bad guy
right and this is true around the world
um so we have one Freedom the freedom to
fail freedom to fail is a huge one and
it's institutionalized in bankruptcy
laws it's it's you can fairly elegantly
shut down a company here compared to
other places I built a subsidiary for
one of my businesses to do software
devel vment in India and the mothership
failed and it orphaned the subsidiary
right um it took me 7 years to shut down
that subsidiary in India Jesus because
all the political the the regulatory
blah blah blah crap just the thing am I
likely to ever do another business in
India again never because who wants to
go through that hell right whereas in
the US if something fails so we just
merged by the way open EXO into a public
company couple of weeks ago okay called
genius group yeah so we're super
thrilled because it's a global platform
for teaching entrepreneurship and that's
the constituency that we're most excited
about so we're very excited about the
the future there um The
Unbelievable uh potential of in Delaware
when you are doing a merger or whatever
there's this incredible legal framework
called the reparations act or something
whereas if you haven't done your
corporate paperwork that you fogot about
they give you one chance to kind of fix
it all and come clean before you do a
major transaction it's fantastic right
never is that happening anywhere else in
the world uh because if you uh do
something in Paris and under French law
and whatever later I'll tell another
quick story I had a French girlfriend
when I was living in Paris for a few
years and she was trying to get her
identity card because the French
government said everybody has to get an
identity so she goes to the government
say here's my identity I want to apply
and they're like looking all the
paperwork and they go oh problem she's
like what's wrong she says well you were
born in France you have have a French
passport your father was born in France
but your mother was not born in France
that's a problem and she's like but my
mother was a French Citizen and the
reason she wasn't born in France was her
her parents were the commanding forces
for the French forces in Vietnam she was
a military kid so she got born in
Vietnam but she's a French citizen her
par and they're like problem so she's
like okay what do I do so they we need
affidavits from all four of your
grandparents saying that was actually
our daughter da d d d da so she goes
through all of this how to get that and
she shows it to them and they puts it
all together and they go problem she's
like what is it now they said your birth
certificate has
expired because in fras it it turns out
a birth certificate only is valid for
three months and then when you want one
for some reason you have to apply to get
a birth certificate so this is the
bureaucracy that most of the world deals
with that the US has cleaned up a lot of
Canada is even better by the way because
it's a newer country okay so uh that
back that less bureaucracy makes it easy
to build a business and do interesting
new things and that's why I live here I
think by the way I'm going to say it
also for the record I think the US
Constitution is the most important
document ever written but doesn't have
anything to do with freedom we'll get to
that in a minute yeah in what country
did you feel the most free most European
countries at an individual level I felt
very free businesses nightmare because
the Regulatory and cros and bureaucracy
nightmare but I can drive without ever
getting a speeding ticket in Europe
cannot drive here without getting a
speeding ticket is that the parameter
for freedom I don't know I I'm just
telling you paint paint a picture for me
okay let let me give you another example
if I'm anywhere in the world I never
ever see a police
car whereas here in the US I just see
police cars all the time every day
people get arrested in the UK a place
where both of us have lived yeah people
get arrested in the UK for a tweet that
someone separate issues different set of
pin you down on freedom because I really
want to understand this yeah so uh look
in India if I railed against the
government I would be in big trouble
right now so so freedom of expression is
a big problem around the world and I
think freedom of expression is more
powerful here I do there's definitely
Freedom here for freedom of expression
more than anywhere else in the world
okay but this whole Vector of the being
more like the if you vote Republican
because you want more freedom rather
than less is I think [ __ ] just my
personal view having lived um well so
that to me I interpret very differently
so that just sounds like I don't think
Republicans are the party of Freedom
okay yeah but you said that you don't
feel as free in America as you did in
European countries I feel yeah when I
it's it's and there's good and bad to
this so I'll give you an example on both
sides okay so I came into the US once
and my name is s I look a little dodgy
right um and they go sir we have a
problem uh your name matches the name of
an Afghan warlord wanted in cbble for
poppy trading and he's wanted by the FBI
who's super likely use his real name I'm
like okay he goes it's you're a vice
president of Yahoo you're clearly not a
an Afghan warlord um I've got good news
and bad news and I'm like what's the
good news so the good news is I'm pretty
clear you're speaking at conferences
we've looked you up you're not an Afghan
world I said that's great what's the
problem what's the bad news he goes I'm
not allowed to make that decision I have
to check with was it's like your
coinbase thing I have to check with
Washington it'll take about four hours
you're going to miss your flight have a
seat I'll say you're kidding and
literally I got to the I was coming
across the border enough times that I
got to the point where the Border guys
were like hey Mr ismile how are you
please come aside for the security check
because we have to check with Washington
again that's the bad side right because
you can get stopped for all sorts of
bizarre things I've never seen that
anywhere else in the world okay here's
I'll give you the good side um I had a
very surreal incident in at 911 where
one of my family members who psychic
calls me up in the last two weeks of
August and says what are you doing the
first two weeks of September uh 2001 I
said well I'm working I'm doing stuff
and she said I want you to leave I want
you out of New York City and I kind of
learned enough to kind of pay attention
to this that I took a vacation and I was
in Switzerland um and 911 happens and I
found out later looked up later i'
cancelled a meeting in the World Trade
towers that Tuesday morning to go on
this trip um
and just by accident I was there so now
I have to get back because the company
I'm the CEO of is in big trouble and I'm
on the first plane that lands into
JFK uh after 911 the first flight the
first plane that land lands back in New
York City um and you know Sela smell I
look a bit Middle Eastern my Canadian my
US Visa for Canadian visa to the US was
expiring the next
day so I'm in deep trouble and I got to
the Border guards and they could not
have been more constructive and helpful
and um sensible in common sense in that
environment that I would ever have seen
anywhere else in the world unbelievable
so at at a very deep political level
there's lots of unbelievable freedoms
which is why I think this country is
very powerful however dayto day I feel
less
free H okay so here would be my take on
that let me know what you think um it
sounds like like you have had run-ins
that sound more racist to me than they
sound anti- freedom but I get how if
somebody's stopping you every time you
turn around uh because of your name
because of your nationality whatever uh
that would leave a horrific taste in my
mouth now
Canada throws people's bank accounts
because they donated money to a uh
Rebellion protest I don't even know what
to call the trucker Convoy uh that was
Ultra terrifying they have bills that
compel speech so not just you can't say
this you must say this yes that's insane
from a freedom perspective if people
vote for it they should get what they
want but that certainly does not feel
free uh so agree when I think about what
freedoms matter for me what you're
calling freedom of expression what I
will call free speech is is quite
literally the ability to think and any
country and that would be every country
but America as far as I know does not
have freedom of speech at which point
they are 1984 style compelling the
breakdown of your own ability to think
properly yeah and then you stifle
Innovation you look at China as the
extreme where they're shutting down the
CEOs of the tax sector right they're
going to just kill Innovation completely
shutting down they they are literally
absconding with them taking them
somewhere doing something that makes
their expressions very different when
they come out and you don't you know
this is an important point and I I will
totally Grant you on this one okay um
the ability to Buck against the status
quo is bigger here than anywhere else in
the world and therefore you get
disruptive innovation and that
fundamental Innovation is what steers
the US forward in a very powerful way
this is the whole root of American
exceptionalism
is you see a problem you fix it and I
think that's a magical magical thing and
I think that's why I go back to my point
of I choose to I could live anywhere in
the world I choose to live here it's a
really amazing place however there's
lots of like I I was in a an Uber going
from San Francisco to Marin once and the
driver was African-American and we pull
into Marin and there's a police check at
the side of the world and he literally
starts freaking out like he's shaking
he's completely completely spazzed out
I'm like dude what's wrong he goes you
have no idea what I go through when
police see me behind the wheel and I was
like Wow and it's just something I'm you
know just sits with me uh I don't I
don't have that problem yeah you
unfortunately to me I'm glad you don't
have that problem but you're what you
were saying about uh immigration giving
you a hard time you're not the first
person to talk about that where I
thought you were going with 911 was
since then like things have really just
uh gone downhill that I've heard that
from many people that have downhill in
what sense of the you mean IM experience
feeling wanted is probably how I would
have framed it you framed it as Freedom
which makes me think maybe I'm not
mapping your mind quite correctly um so
anyway that that part I certainly
understand and has always rubbed me the
wrong way yeah uh I tweeted something
out
today around something that America does
this was actually Canadian though uh I
become unhinged when Banks act like my
money is their
money I'm with
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yourself bro and and by the way
Canadians shutting down the bank
accounts was a very bad black stain and
I don't think they're going to get out
from under that for a long timeous right
because if I've got a lot of money am I
going to go to the Canada and trust my
money there I I need to be able to get
to my money and this I think is an
important part of maybe the most
powerful aspect of web 3 why we're so
excited about it is that you can have
full custodial of your money and your
value and nobody can take it away from
you I think that's a really powerful
place okay tell me how I'm wrong the
government can and will take your web
three Holdings people always talk about
the wrench attack I can imagine no
bigger wrench than the US government
they will kneecap you they will imprison
you they will do whatever they have to I
don't understand people who think crypto
makes you immune from the government it
the following thing is true you can
abscond at night get on a boat and go to
a country let's say Estonia that does
not have negative stance on crypto and
because you can memorize your seed
phrase you can escape with your money
much easier so if I'm a German uh sorry
if I'm a Jew in Germany and it's like
1939 hey I'm very grateful for
cryptocurrency because now I can just
bail and I can take my wealth with me so
do not get me wrong I love crypto the
most It's [ __ ] amazing I have so much
invested in crypto I'm a Believer but
when people act like governments can't
come in and take that from you that's
crazy town you can escape easier but who
the vast majority of people should the
government ever decide to they will
seize the [ __ ] out of it give me so if I
if my seed phrase is sitting in England
and I don't know it and I don't have my
sticks with me or anything like that
what's the government going to do put
you in jail oh that's fine they can take
my freedom that's but they will never
get my Bitcoin man this is like your
your uh Wallace moment where you're
being tortured to death I think I think
you you take my life but you take my
crypto this is the same argument I use
against guns right people go I need guns
because I need to be able to fight
against a a government that comes after
me yeah and I'm like they can just they
have bigger guns they do but you were
the one you talked about the Afghans I'm
telling you a distributed
with a reason to fight and their own
weapons and I have not thought a lot
about the Second Amendment I'll be the
first to tell you but I'm like hey when
I look at the the reason they said they
gave us the first the second amendment
I'm like yeah word it you need to be
able to protect yourself from the
tyrrany of just bureaucracy like don't
even make it a fancy word like
government I'm totally good with that
can I just give you my beef on the
second am because I've gone pretty deep
on this um I and and I appreciate um the
US enough that I've gone pretty deep on
all the different structures Etc the US
the the Second Amendment says you shall
not ban the right to bear arms in a
well-regulated
militia not that every Podunk guy should
have a gun it should be in a
well-regulated militia you Congress
cannot pass a law that will stop a
well-regulated militia from over if
Congress oversteps that is the Second
Amendment which is good we pull up H hit
us with the Second Amendment I need to
see that it's bringing home that I've
actually never read actual people forget
uh people there you go a well-regulated
militia shall not be infringed that's
the second amendment who it doesn't say
that it says a well-regulated Mila being
necessary to the security of a free
state the right of the people to keep
and bear arms shall not be infringed now
I read that as saying hey the people may
need to build up a well-regulated
militia therefore I'm not going to stop
people from having guns so what I hear
is guns come first militia comes second
so I could very say people saying look I
hope I don't need to become a well
regulated militia but I need the guns
now oh I see you frame it that way okay
I think that's how it's actually framed
this is where we need Clarity right can
we is that really that can't be the
whole thing no way yeah that's the
entire second amendment that is it is a
single sentence it's a single sentence
is that really true is we're watching my
ignorance unfold in real time the the
amendments are this short I thought
these were like whole documents they get
longer as you go down the list scroll
let me see these are scandalously short
if you guys all knew this and never
tweeted about it uh wow I can't believe
I didn't know this okay yeah these are a
little bit longer so this is an
interpretation it's still really short
wow yeah these are verbatim this is the
whole thing yeah the comment section is
going to be clowning on me it's
unbelievably beautiful I'm going to say
it again the US Constitution Bill of
Rights the most beautiful documents ever
created in crazy in the world right I
always thought when people gave these
bits they were just quoting from a much
larger document no that is hilarious I I
can't wait to see the Twitter comments
as you say but so so this is a
interpretation thing because there it's
a clause it's not saying anybody can
have rights and by the way that it says
a well-regulated
militia by the people um shall not be
infringed so the people can have arms in
a well-regulated militia you and I read
this so differently this is utterly
fascinating for everybody listening that
is not familiar with this I want to read
this one more time pay attention to this
sequencing of these words a
well-regulated militia being necessary
to the security of a free state meaning
you do not have a free state if you
cannot protect yourself presumably from
the tyranny of State exactly so uh the
right of the people to keep and bear
arms shall not be infringed that's
really interesting that to me you and I
read something super different so if you
had a period there the right of the
people to keep in be arms shall not be
infringed that would be fine but it's
not that it's the well-regulated militia
comma yeah so for if you if I mean I
will say this feels like U an admonition
that we should have well-regulated
militias standing which I don't love
that well that's that's okay that's
that's I'm I'm good with that but guns
should be operating inside a
well-regulated militia not everybody in
their grandmother and free conceal and
all that stupidity if you think about
technology and you're able to predict a
traffic jam it's like whoa that's pretty
insightful you may get the car wrong but
you get the idea of mass transit and
people will bump into each other and
it'll slow things down anyway so here
are the the beautiful things that I
think will uh AI will bring and if you
could let me know just yes or no life
extension I think we will live longer
okay uh I think while it probably might
will take a while that AI will discover
new physics yeah okay new physics I
think will have as big of an impact on
our lives as somebody please solve the
grand unification theory in the wave
particle duality of light I have a
Physics degree talk to your boy Eric
Weinstein he thinks he thinks he's got
it uh new governmental structures new
and better better okay yeah policym
should be done with an
AI for example if you want to drop
inflation by 2% do you think it should
be done by AI or should it be heavily
heavily Guided by for example if you say
hey we want to drop inflation by 2%
a human being trying to make policy
looking at all the data has no hope in
making sense of anyone an AI could go oh
do these three things and the human me
can sense check it and go is that
reasonable or not and then off you go I
think we're going to end up with the
chess outcome where the best chess
players are an AI and a human being and
that combination will be unbeatable
because there's still a sense of you
already have the answer to that and that
it's just AI can a human add anything to
the greatest chest yeah Common Sense are
you sure oh yeah can we look that up we
need to look that up I don't buy for a
second that a human can contribute
anything to a chess the best chess
player a human being and a chess AI will
always beat an AI Magnus Carlson when
teamed with chess AI beats chess AI by
itself oh yeah yeah okay that's a noble
thing we're looking that up in the
meantime uh do you think that we will
get free or nearly free energy yes okay
go deep on that one what does nearly
free energy look like like why will that
okay let me go let me give you a graph
that I use in my presentations which is
if you went back 500 years ago the cost
of letting up a building or room was
unbelievably High whale blubber you had
to go kill whales and get the blubber
back and light up a candle Game of
Thrones technology then when found
paraffin and we could create candles
then we invented electricity and the
price of electricity so can I step back
one second this is there's two really
important things about technology that
are important here that people should
understand as we get into this number
one for the first time in human history
we have a dozen Technologies all
operating on an exponential doubling
pattern solar energy every 22 months
drones are doubling every nine months in
their price performance Gene sequencing
every six months Etc the resolution at
which we can image the human brain is
doubling every year for example we've
never seen this many Technologies all
move at an accelerated Pace at the same
time so that's one the second thing that
I think is more profound that leads to
that um um PDI comment I made earlier or
um disruptive innov permissionless
disruptive innovation is that throughout
human history Advanced Technologies
always cost a lot and only a government
lab or a big corporate lab could do R&D
launch new products and services today
for the first time in human history
Advanced Technologies are cheap AI is
cheap uh sensors are cheap solar energy
is cheap the blockchain is open source
anybody can now do disruptive innovation
so that if you couple that with the idea
that technology is amazing major driver
of progress in the world it might be the
only major driver of progress we've ever
seen in the world now you have a dozen
of them that cost very little the
there's going to be a camon explosion of
20 Gutenberg moments all coming down the
pike so if we believe that technolog is
in force enabler for good and and does
delivers that then we're in an
unbelievable um um um Heavenly space for
the future of innovation and all the
things we're going to come seeing out of
it um how quickly we Implement that is
the Big Challenge and that's the problem
now we've been fighting over oil for the
last 200 years big Wars Etc because that
was the cheapest form of energy we are
moving now to solar energy being the
cheapest form of energy and the Big
Challenge is what covers the base load
and I think small nuclear will do it uh
as well as thorium reactors which are
now safe nuclear reactors and over time
we'll find Sal Fusion but that's going
to be a while a ways
away uh so that gives us free energy
yeah free energy means you can
desalinate freely and that means if you
have clean water you take out half of
all the infectious diseases in the world
so the Ripple effects are profound so
energy in the next 5 to seven years will
go to nearly free okay so the
desalinization is a great example I'm
going to say and it's possible I'm I'm
missing something huge here but I don't
think so if energy cost drop to
effectively zero the cost of everything
else will drop drone dramatically
because it takes energy to extract
minerals from the ground uh most of the
things you want in your life are about
consuming energy so uh when you're going
to a restaurant and buying food you're
paying so much of that is the energy
cost for transportation to get the meat
from the farm to the actual restaurant
or the cost of the energy to freeze the
food it's like the number of things that
come down to energy there's ay Arthur
Hayes I don't know you know who he is
Arthur ha amazing guy I've been on the a
couple times amazing amazing and he said
everybody should think of their lives in
terms of how much energy how many
kilowatts essentially can you purchase
with your salary everything else is
going to fluctuate but that's the one
that's going to matter I love that
metric yeah super brilliant and so he
doesn't look at how much am I making
he's only looking at how much does that
buy me and he said it reduces a lot of
the illusion of oh my wages are going up
sure but if your wages don't match the
rise and the cost of energy you could
actually be making more dollars
technically but losing purchasing power
in energy which matters more than people
understand energy touches every little
corner of your life the cost of your
shampoo is tied the cost of your water
is tied just energy energy everywhere
energy the modern world brought to you
by oil so the best metaphor I've seen
for this whole transition comes from
Lawrence Bloom one of my mentors he said
to me you must have paid a lot of money
in another dimension to be living this
life and I was like damn I think you're
right so this is his metaphor he he
looks at at Humanity as different stages
of Rocket lifting off Earth okay so when
you first have a rocket lifting off
Earth you need a really big fat booster
rocket to get you the enough energy to
get you out of the gravity well and so
that's the that's oil that's capitalism
fossil fuel capitalism has been an
unbelievable enabler to lift the world
out of poverty deliver all sorts of
unbelievable Innovation to us products
and services etc etc however when you
have a rocket and it's taking off at a
certain altitude you have to jettison
that booster rocket because that will if
you don't let it go it's going to pull
you back down if then you jettison it
you take on a much more lighter craft
that takes you to the next level so the
question is we are in that transition
point where we need to jettison fossil
fuel and jettison capitalism would I put
it in another way and find that lighter
craft and what is that lighter craft is
now the interesting question for me
going forward but it's a really
important metaphor because it doesn't um
deny the benefits we've gotten from
cheap oil over the last few hundred
years absolutely delivering unbelievable
benefits into the world clip check out
the full powerful episode here and I'll
see you there