Is the World Screwed?

it.

Welcome to Wabi Sabi, the art of imperfection. And man, it's been a hell of a week, hasn't it Jim? Lots of things happening going on in our lives. And what did you start saying? I asked you, what are we going to be talking about today?

Has it never? Yeah heaps. I just, I just want to, yeah, I just want to thank you, Lawrence. Cause last week, I don't know whether it was, I think it was during the recording might've even be before where you said, listen, I just feel like I've been just going within and just withdrawing and probably not putting myself out there as much in social media. I've kind of had this hibernation. went, okay. And literally it's exactly the same thing that I felt. um, you know, when you know, uh, philosophically, we always used to say, you never know how far reaching what you say and do will have an impact on others. That's a chiropractic philosophical tenant. Well, it's had that effect on me and, and it's really taken me some interesting places this week, Lawrence.

Oh, well, I'm sorry for causing you the virus infection. I'm actually in a hell of a week, actually. No, just joking. Maybe it's just that we can't be both at the same time, right?

Nice. Just tag, tag, yeah, yeah, zigzag or yin and yang.

Yeah, well, so tell me like why, you know, what is it that you've been reflecting upon and what's been, you know, what's been on your mind that's caused all this?

Yeah, I think, um, you know what, interestingly, it's going to be very topical, but I think I can trace it back to, we talked about it. find, know, when Charlie Kirk got shot, something happened to me at that time where I suddenly went, irrespective of politics, irrespective of what your view is, I wasn't sure whether there was a change that was happening. just, I just felt that there's something is happening, you know, whether it was. You know, free speech, whether it was hate, whether it was healing that was always going to happen as a result of that. Sometimes you look at world events and you go, I wonder what that's happening. So that that's had me asking different, different, different types of questions. Right. And yeah, I can trace it back to that. And then this week I've really been challenging my own worldviews in terms of what I, what gave me a level of certainty. And, and, and really it was, I think before we started recording last week, we were talking about

Interesting.

certainty and investing. I was telling you about, I'm really, I'm really going down this Bitcoin rabbit hole here. And, um, and, and so you've, um, you know, you've been down that one for a while and I've been, I've had great validation in another um one, I've just gone down a different rabbit hole in the last week or two. So that's really what the journey has been.

Well done on the timing because within a week you get to all time highs. Ever. It's like, well done, Jim.

Ah, yeah. I can, I just say, yeah, yeah, look, I, I, I dilly have, and I suddenly, you know, when you go, nah, this can't be beginners luck, you know, like, um, but I'd been monitoring it and, and, and it was like, okay, I just went, you know, I went, okay, I'm, I'm engaged and I'm doing that, but I wanted to know more about it, but I had to undergo that process of, uh, letting go of. my established certainty in other areas to allow myself to begin another different thinking. So I think that there's something in that, that I wanted to have look at today.

Yeah, listen, like we, just spent the last four hours with our good friend, Rachel, and who's a long time listener, by the way. And so I want to give shout out to Rachel. says she, she listens to every single episode. So the one listener that does listen to us. So we got one anyway. So I spent some time with her and, and we were just talking about like this. And maybe it's like the world. I don't know if it's the world or just us, or maybe we were just getting to this age of where like it's like a reflection.

Mm-hmm. Howdy, Rich. you uh

know, reflecting upon change and change is happening. But I do, I honestly feel it's a combination of all of those, right? I think it's a combination of like where I'm at at the moment, my stage in my life, but I think the world is changing. Like it's the evidence of what you just said about, you know, Charlie Kirk's death and the assassination and not so much to me, it wasn't about the assassination. Like that was in a shock itself, but it's less shocking because there's been multiple attempts. multiple peoples in the last six months. But what was shocking was the reaction to me, like to me was the reaction, ah in which highlighted to the, it's like an evidence to me that the world is shifting. ah And it's showing its cracks, right? And so, and that's highlighted through like what you mentioned is from, you know, not just society, but then there's also like new, an emergent of technology.

Hmm, yep. Hm, yeah.

uh coincide with um new way of thinking around money uh and investments and everything's shifting. And these are always happening, I feel the same way with you. It's all happening in a relatively short period of time. uh Or maybe I'm just more hyper aware, I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. It's just that maybe I wasn't hyper aware of all these situations. But I'm really hyper aware of like all these combination of politics to economics to uh societal nature and psychology that I was never interested in before. But now that I am paying attention to it, it's like really showing that there's some collision course of a shift that's about just about to happen.

Yeah. Yeah, and it's not jumping at shadows. It's actually looking at things and saying something doesn't quite right here. mean, like you talk to farmers and

And so that's sort of where I'm at at the moment. And so, you know, for me is, you know, the world is changing fast. And I think it's really about, you know, figuring out how you fit into the world.

Yeah. Lawrence, I think you're spot on. think what we're talking about here is having an awareness of what's going on around us. And, you know, it's not new. you know, whenever, you know, whenever there's going to be a flood or a tsunami in the lead up to the tsunami, it was all the animals that were moving to higher ground. They just had this sense that something's happening. And that's the kind of sense that I'm getting as a, know, I'm not jumping at shadows, but I just, I look at this and go. Okay. Do you not take on board information and data and evidence that's coming at you? That's going to challenge your worldview. And there's something to be said about staying steadfast in times of challenge, but there's also times we go, Hey, but you know, I, if the car industry was rolling out, I wouldn't have been investing heavily in my shoe, um, horseshoe business at that time. Right. So that's, there has to be something that's that's smart in there. And that's really what.

Hmm

has made me really stop and reflect. And when I don't know, like I look at, I look at what's going on and you mentioned about, uh, changing perspectives, but I look at this and go, okay, gold's at an all time high right now. Bitcoin, as you said, is an all time high share markets at an all time high. Generally what, you know, whenever we're not sure about what's going on economically, money goes into the stability assets, which is like gold. So that generally means that. There's something there's some kind of times of war. That's generally where there's a flight to quality as it goes, it goes to those kinds of areas and stability. So it's usually the gold and the yen that that usually transfers to. So that to me is like, okay, so this is what's happening externally. You know, I mentioned to you just before we started, uh, about, know, what we're going to talk about today. And I just read during the week, there was a AI actress called Tilly Nord, um, who they were talking about. And he's an AI generated avatar that's starring in a short film that's getting credit for it. And, know, we've talked about these kinds of things and it was Emily Blunt who came out in an interview, an actress and goes, Holy mo we're screwed. We're gone because they can see the writing on the wall. So that's what I have really sat with, I think this week when I, when I talk it out is I've just gone into my cave and just, you know, when I don't know what's going on, I'm just rather than. just going headlong into the wind going, yeah, I've got this. I've just retreated and go, hang on, let's, let's think about this. Let's sit and stay considered. And that's where I've been at, I think, since last week.

There's definitely a lot of challenges like you know, just we are ratio and I actually just talked about that this morning It's like this disruption, you know of society that is gonna be challenging. We're gonna go through some challenging times I think we're all I have high hopes and maybe is this my Optimism in me to say that this the world will be fine and the world will do amazing things I do believe that ultimately but I do fear for the transition period Right? So the transitional period of time where people are displaced and ah we talked about the identity being displaced, like people's identity. And that's a big shift and people are, it's not the jobs, it's about what that job meant to them and their livelihood in terms of how they identify themselves will be displaced. And that causes a very big psychological uh impact on people. And that could really uh stir a lot of things up.

Yeah.

The problem is that I don't think most of these catastrophic events, like I'm not saying this is catastrophic, but most of the catastrophic events usually happen like unknown, but it happens in that moment, right? So like tsunami hits or fire or whatever. But what I've seen, what you kind of mentioned about society, like say the Charlie Kirk stuff that happened, that has been accumulation. of ideologies and things have been changing for decades leading up to this point. I think we kind of, don't know, my sense is I feel like we're so far apart of agreeing to disagree and agreeing to things that was just the norm, which means the norm have shifted if what's acceptable and what's not acceptable. uh I feel like because of that shift, uh we... maybe because I was blind to it or maybe I wasn't paying attention to it, it's just that I'm almost living in a world that I can't believe certain things are actually happening. And there's, before it was more like weird off cases, but now it seems like this is the norm, like this is actually happening and like, wow, what is going on here? How is this acceptable to us? Have we gone to normalize some of these behaviors or normalize,

Hmm. Yeah.

societal norms, I'm not saying this is good or bad. I'm not, there's no judgment. I'm trying not to judge on it, but it does feel like there's this displacement that it's really hard to fit into my reality or how I saw the world. And it's starting to create cracks in it. And maybe it's just me and it perspective matters here, right? Because that's what we're talking about. And so I'm going to use one highlight. I love to kind of continue on this because you said, we said, Gold's at an all-time high. Bitcoin's at an all-time high. Stock market's at an all-time high. I heard something kind of amazing is that that's because we're measuring everything on the US dollar. But if we reverse engineer then and go, okay, let's measure how the stock market is doing in comparison to gold, the stock market is actually down, right? If you measure everything to Bitcoin, as Bitcoin is a standard, it's like the S &P 500 is like 80 % down.

Hmm. Yep. All right.

So it depends on what we're measuring. so we all feel like we are, anybody who owns asset in these asset classes, all feel like we're getting richer, right? But that's only if we measure everything by US dollars. And we had this discussion in my target group last week, which is funny, well, not funny, but it's just like, the base of measurement matters. Because if you measure your whole entire life in US dollars, versus someone who measures their whole entire life in

Hmm.

euros, you actually lost 15 % this year in US dollars without doing anything. Not because you picked the wrong stuff, just because you're measuring everything by US dollars, you lost 15 % against the euro. And that's what we mean by finding the basis of measurement shows a different perspective. And that's challenging to see.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. like you're spot on because when people, I've heard this argument that people say, well, if you, if you look at it is if the measurement is Bitcoin, then everything's actually getting cheaper by comparison relative to that. whatever your base foundation is that you're looking at is things are getting cheaper. it does, it has to be an awareness that we have to have, you know, like in terms of, uh, I think that How I'm interpreting this is there is a changing, changing landscape and some of the things that we're in our control and some of them outside of our control, but it's a case of how can you be nimble and adaptive? All the stuff that we've been talking about almost from podcast one, you know, in terms of that, the imperfection is like, okay, this is the plan that you've got, but the plan, the circumstances are changing. Do you double down on that or do you step back and reflect and not doing something is still doing something, you know, so it's, it's a, but to me, um, this last week for me was like, Hey, I, I really don't know. need to step back and just watch it for a while rather than make a decision either way to, gain that level of understanding in the interim. Yeah. Things have shifted and moved and obviously they've moved in the direction that serves me. And that's, that's great, but that was really. I had to just go, you know, things that I've always had certainty and stability on, they, they have served me well, but is that going to be the right way moving forward? I don't know. You know, like, because I, I'm, I'm just on the verge. think I might've mentioned to you off camera that I'm on the verge of, being able to invest in a, in a, you know, further. I've, and it's really got me thinking about. Well, what I had planned is that still the best avenue to go down. Right. So that's, that's what, what I mean. So it's not a, what, what is made by any means, but it's just like, I need to think about this.

I think that the lesson there before we continue and I was having this great discussion with her today is uh it's actually the spending the time and carving out intentional time to reflect. I don't think we do that enough. I know I haven't and I feel like that's why one of the reasons why I feel the way I feel because I just feel like I've just been doing things, right? Just pushing paper around. And it wasn't until like this week where

Hmm.

I actually had a really good conversation with my friends. I had a couple of friends I actually reached out to and just had a couple of conversations. Just to see that if they could share some perspective. And it was so powerful to just sit back and just someone asked me questions for once and for me just reflect upon it. And not forcing an answer out of me, but just more just like to be able to think. And I've been thinking a lot more. so... One of the things that's important I think I want to address is that it's so, I'm very thankful that I'm in a position that I can have the time to think, right? Some people don't have that opportunity because they're busy doing the things that they need to do to make money to provide for their family. I'm not saying I don't need to do that either, but I'm just saying I just have the opportunity to at least pull back time a little bit. And I think this is why, you know, being away, or carving out time to go to a retreat or to spend some time outside your normality is such an important thing. I used to treasure my 24 hour flight from Australia to wherever in the world because that was my time. Sure, we watched a couple of movies, but it was my time to just sit and just by myself. There's nothing else I can do other than just to think. And that time is like, we just don't spend enough time doing that, I thought. thing to just reflect and meditate and just to let thoughts come through rather than trying to force something to happen or just keep me busy. So that's point number one, I think what you sort of said, like what you have done. um guess. So carving out time, I think that's one of the lessons here. um I want to say to you though, is like, love to kind of hear if you're willing to share is like, what are some of the, you know, thoughts or conclusions that you have around the state of the world?

Hmm. Okay, that's really interesting. I'm happy to go there. Interestingly, when I look back on history, I do like looking at events and I'm looking at things and I look at World War, the World War started when hyperinflation happened in Germany and then that led to a war. And then you looked at JFK and Rosa Parks, basically being assassinated and standing up on a, on a bus in Montgomery, it basically started the civil rights movement. So you look at those events and the reason why I look at the event historically with, with Charlie Kirk is I, I, I, I'm, I'm, uh I'm asking myself whether there's that pivot that shifted and turned towards a more conservative approach in life. So that's the question that I'm sitting in and anecdotal anecdotally and interestingly, you know, a couple of my coaching clients. have actually gone back to their faith in a much stronger place since that event. Interestingly, you know, they've actually gone, I've got to go back to what I know gives me solidity and certainty and confidence. And I don't know what's going on externally, but I know what's going on internally and I can have some revel, some compass. So that's what it's done for them. And you know, when I'm, when I'm talking through people, it can't help, but

Hmm.

cycle me through that filter through myself and go, okay, well, what is important? You know, what is important to you? Is it your, your sense of value, sense of certainty? Is it climbing the mountain? Is it peace? What is it? So that's what has started that, that process, uh, for me specifically, that was the context in terms of what I, what I see, you know, we've talked about it in the past, you know, that I found myself, uh, specifically over the last while. The reason why I read books specifically is I love that feeling, but it forces me to think about nothing other than what I'm thinking about right in front of me. You know, I, I consume a lot of, uh, podcasts and YouTube clips and stuff, and I do that and it's really helpful, but I'm in a hyper arousal state and that, uh, and I had to just basically detach from that because I start getting too wound up in the, and of them themselves. So I can feel it. Uh, and if I don't feel that people around me feel it. And so I just, I have a sense, you know, like if I walk into a room, I can get a pulse and a read on the room pretty well. And at the moment I'm feeling a lot of agitation and angst, uh, going on this. So that's what I think is going on in terms of how that plays out. don't know, but it, but in terms of, uh, you know, I've got a finger on the pulse of what I feel society is talking about right now.

Hmm.

And there, there's the heartbeats just gone up on the pulses a little bit faster. And how that plays out is there. So people are more reactive. Um, people are more, you know, um, concerned, uh, but then, but the people who know what they're about and what's what life is really about there, they've, they've got a conviction in terms of community or faith that I find reaffirming. So that's, that's, they're the things that I'm saying. So thoughts on that.

Interesting. Yeah, I feel exactly the same thing. And I actually almost don't, I don't get a chance to really talk about it too much because, you know, if I bring it up, you know, to Karen, if it freaks her out or gets her scared and, and she doesn't like, and I'm, I pull back a little bit to, to, cause on one hand it's fear. Like it is a bit of fear of like what's the unknown and what's going to happen. But it's also, know everything will be fine because there's nothing I can do to control it either. But it's just, I think you and I probably have the same viewpoint on this is that it's important to kind of keep up to the world events or what's going on. So you can get a pulse of what's actually happening so that whether it be for yourself and for your clients or for your investments, like you, got to keep an eye out because if you can put, can, I mean, easily put your head down away from everything and just don't pay attention. Um, but then we're just sheeps, right? We just get pushed along and I don't know if I want to live that way. I'm however, knowing too much, right? And seeing the trends and you start to realize, I'm like, oh, like this, this could end bad, right? Like, you know, and, and for me it's a, you know, I imagine your head goes, head space goes there too as well. It's like, how's that going to affect your kids? You know, like in, in the next, cause when we say like, and, and, know, things are changing, we don't mean like, you know, I used to think like, okay, well, what do mean? Like next week, like, I sell all my stocks or like what? It's not that it's more like in the next one to three years, right? Something is about to shift. We just don't know what that is yet. And it's already shifting. And because it's slower than normal, not so normal, but it's like, it's a slower process. We just don't think in those terms. And that one of the question I got asked by my friend was in five years time, like, where do you see yourself?

Yep.

And usually I really struggle with those questions, even though I ask that question a lot to my clients and stuff, I really struggled to see that far ahead. But for the first time in my life, I actually felt ah at peace with coming up with what my five years gonna look like, mostly because like five years time, my life, my current life is gonna shift to your life because in five years time, both of my kids will be out of school. in university or graduating from university or at least out of home and which means that me and Karen for the first time in 20 somewhat years, um we would be kind of like, you know, by ourselves, kind of figuring out what life is. And so it really kind of put the perspective that I needed to have, which was like, oh, okay, I could see that. then, but then how do I shape it? How do I like transform it? Or how do I... You know shape it to the way I want it to and I thought that was kind of a really interesting question for the first time I feel like I could actually project fighters, but the point I want to make there was that I've been thinking too short-term for most things and I wasn't taking a longer timeline approach when it comes to things like that, which meaning like Here I am trying to sometimes figure out what I want to do in the next two months or next month or next week even, rather what I should be thinking about is like, how do I want to shape the next five years? And I have a plenty of time to shape it. And I know we all know this logically, but it's just, I don't know, for the first time for a long time where I just felt like, oh, I don't have to recreate or rebrand or, you know, treat this identity like tomorrow. I can shape this and mold it for the next three to five years to get there. Um, and it's like, I know it sounds silly to say it out loud, but that was the thing right because like I was starting a YouTube channel For example, I started like posting it's like I just been posting every week, right? I'm not expecting like to have like all these viewers is like no even though there's a part of my brains like I wish I could have but no it's like No, I gotta do this for like over a year before I even see any results whatsoever and it's like oh, okay long game I kind of focused on the long game and I and I've lost sight of that

Nice. That's actually really, really interesting because we do, we always want the reward for effort. We want to see that. But yeah, I think that's right. know, like holding the long game is very helpful. I had a very similar conversation to what you've just said on a Jujutsu map with someone who's probably in their first... You know, six months of training and you know, they're looking at me and I, and we've got, we're at different points in our career and life. I'm closing in on my black in a couple of disciplines. Um, but my objective, the closer I've gotten to it, the less important it is really funny. You know, like it's what I, you know, it was the, I wanted it and I hunted it down and I've actually detached from that. And I'm actually enjoying that process more because I know that that's long game. So I want to be in my seventies and you know,

Hmm.

actively participating in this. But I think there's been a philosophical shift in the change for me in there as well too. But I want to go back to a point that you, so that just went off on a tangent, just when you said something, I want to talk about the difference between, you know, when you said having an awareness and knowing what's going on, but not getting too wrapped up. It's a little bit like the scene from a few good men with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, if anybody's ever seen it, where

Hmm.

what gives some people's certainties not knowing and allowing them to sleep at night. it knowing that someone's basically up watching the shop or whatever to do that? uh So I think that that's an important component. And if we buy too much into the drama and jump at too many shadows, we start being more fear-based. but it's, I think it's for that happy medium is finding that, that

Yeah.

What's true and what can I use? But then also let me just go back to the, the, the basics, not actually be scared by that, but how do I use it? And the reason why I say that is because, you know, the old, the old saying of, you know, being in the right place at the right time is important, but I think also importantly is knowing that you're in the right place at the right time. And I think that right now we're going through a generational shift. This is equivalent to the Gutenberg press.

Hmm

Uh, the industrial revolution, know, those kinds of places. And for the people who are aware of that change, they're going to be the, you know, all the statistics are there'll be more millionaires created the next period of time who know how to leverage the technology. So it's a really exciting time. It's knowing that it's not fearing that, but it's actually, actually embracing that. And I think that that's what I'm working to do is to go, she go, how do I, can I use this rather than be alarmed or challenged by it?

Yeah. Yeah, and I think 15 years ago or whatever it was, probably 15 years ago when social media came on board, I knew it was gonna be a big change, but I wasn't smart enough or ready enough to jump on it. I was just focused on doing what I would do. And I can see AI and aware the technology and also with Bitcoin, all those things, like I don't wanna miss this opportunity, so I wanna kinda spend some time trying to learn it. And what came to true was in Spain, you know, last month with my tiger members and on the ride to the airport, we were just, we're just joking around a couple of things. And one of the members was saying they use the same, they have a chat GPT account, the pro account, and the family uses the one same account. And now just, just to put it in context, right? My members are so well off that they have more wealth than most people will ever imagine in their life. And, we're talking 20, $20 a month here, right?

Yeah

So, but they all use, the family uses one account, the kids included, and because they didn't want to spend more than one account. And so the other member joked to me, he goes, so wait a second, it wasn't even about the money thing. He goes, so you only have one pro account for the family and you don't give it to the kids to have their own pro account to the most transformative technology that's known to man at right now. You're not willing to spend $20 a month. And that got me thinking, I'm like, oh damn, am I being selfish that I'm not paying $20 a month for my kids to have this for their schooling and to learn this stuff? And I came home, like I even, like it was actually fun. It took me until yesterday when my daughter, like I said, listen, I'm happy to pay for a pro account for you. she's like, and then she complained to me yesterday, I'm like, oh, I can't do it because I only got a limit. I'm like, wait a second, I said you can, okay, let's get on right now.

Yeah, yeah.

Here's my credit card, let's pay for this thing. Let's not make any more arguments to pay for $20 a month for, again, one of the most transformative technology that's available that we didn't grow up with this stuff, right? And it's not the power of the technology is not what I'm more concerned about. It's like not knowing how to use it in the future that's wrong. So it's like, we've got to train these kids to learn how to think and even including ourselves to

Hmm.

to dabble in it, to not be an expert, but to at least know where it's going so you're on the train. So I've been arguing with my clients, like, guys, you have to use this every day. I don't care for the smallest little things you need to use every day because you need to be on the train. All right? I'm not saying you have to go to first class, but just be on the train. Don't left behind. Don't let the station leave. uh Don't get stuck in the station, the train leaving, because you are not gonna be able to catch up.

Yep.

And the longer you wait, the harder it is to run after that train. that really kind of shifted my thinking on what's available and what's possible right now. We don't know. If you think back like 10 years ago, who would have thought influencers, even a word, and a job that has been created that makes millions of dollars for people, right? That wasn't a possibility back then. And so therefore, if you take that, 10 years from now or even five years from now, there's gonna be things that we don't even know that exist that the people are gonna be making their livelihood, identity and money from. But if you're not on the train, you won't be discovered, you just discover passively.

Yeah, and let's zoom out with the influences. Lawrence, how long do you think they'll last? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There'll be a bit. Yeah. It's, it's just suddenly. Yeah. Like all of that, because anything that could be artificially, uh, generated, I, G you've got, uh, that you basically, if you're, if you're sold on an image and you don't know whether it's real or, or, um, basically generated.

Yeah, I think the top influencers will be there, but the people who are everybody like below that point um is just going to go to the wayside.

Uh, it'll still have the impact on you as a consumer, but the studios, for example, with this, um, to Tilly Norwood, talk about, they're loving it. They're basically going, we can roll out content without having to play for production teams, uh, actors, actresses, the whole lot, you know, and so there'll be beneficial elements, but you know, like it's, it's change and change and change again is really the adaptability of what's coming.

Yeah, it has to be adaptable. And again, I don't know the technical things or how do they, and I'm not saying this is bad or but it's just my thoughts around this one. I remember like a year ago, the writer's strike, the Hollywood Act, written writers and saying like, they're demanding that studios should not gonna use AI to be through the creative process. I'm thinking, you're just trying to save your job. I don't get it, I'm probably in the same position.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But do you honestly think that this is gonna hold up at any point? That this is gonna last that long? For short term, might have a small win for maybe six months or a year, but at some point, the technology is gonna be so good that it's going to change. So you had that opportunity to either go, oh, I feel good for myself, okay, thank my God, my job is safer than six months or a year, whatever the bargaining agreement was. But guess what, a year later, things have changed, society's changed, sentiments change, you're gone. And whereas you could have just taken that same amount of time, it doesn't mean you shouldn't fight, but at the same time, you could actually go, okay, how do I re-skill, re-tool, ah and relearn, adapt, because that was probably more viable, because now you might actually have a better opportunity to be in a position that could utilize the AI that's available to you um to make a change in your life.

Yeah. And there'll be industries that, uh, you know, like, especially like a lot of the data to suggest, you know, plumbers and electricians, they're going to be in high demand, exceptionally high demand. And so there's going to be a shift towards what society values even further. And even to the point where, you know, like things like it. So that's where I was thinking about earlier in this year, this week is like, okay, so if you're, if you're investing your money in an area, That's actually, even whether it's a company, you've got to look at it and go, what's the counterparty risk here? What's the chance that this could go to zero, which is really high in some, some areas. And even, even like, if you look at this and go, okay, let's look at an area we've spoken about before and property, you go great, awesome. The only thing that's, that's not, uh, uh, generatable there is land. if, if AI can generate products from Um, compounds on the ground in itself, a constructed home, which is not unfeasible. Suddenly industry such as building, uh, not, not an issue. So, so this is the part that I mean, it's gotta be, this is where it's what I mean by rabbit holes. Like I've been thinking, but then I've been thinking, yeah, but yeah, but, and, there's no longer a case of, um, basically set and forget. It's like, uh, get involved, monitor it.

Hmm. Yeah.

change of data is, is, uh, shows that it's a different pathway. so for me, it's like, haven't been able to go, right, this is a set and forget for 30 years. No, no, it's like a start. Look at that and monitor it consistently. Be aware of how this can change, but factor in that the planned obsolescence that you used to have with um appliances, you've got industries now.

Yeah, absolutely careers, right?

So that's, that's, that's the, yeah. So that, that's where there's, there's no, there's no, um, home run hits necessarily like there would have been before because things are changing so much.

Yeah, the scariest part is for people who crave security. ah Because if you, you know, and there are gonna be people like that who just love security. They just know, okay, if I go into this job, if I do this, I follow the plan, and everything's gonna work out. They're gonna be the most disrupted, mostly because they can't adapt quick enough, right? And that's a challenge. I mean, if you think back to our parents' days, be a lawyer, be a doctor, those are good jobs, steady jobs who always pay well.

Yeah.

I don't know, like a lawyer, they're gone. They're gone, right? And the lawyers who are top lawyers now, they're gonna be fine, right? But the people, but if you don't need ah interns or clerks or whatever they're called when they come in to do in their first article, to do all the research and all that stuff, you don't need them anymore. Well, where do they go? Well, they're not gonna be a lawyer right away, because you gotta go through the rest, but that whole process of becoming a lawyer has to change. And so therefore, like it's,

Yeah, yeah, radiologist. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, their articles, yeah, do their articles, yeah.

Most people got wrong was that we all thought that when AI came about and robots came about was that it was going to democratize low end jobs. the fact of the matter is, is no, they went straight to the top and they're going to democratize the high end jobs. Because that makes more sense because they're the ones who are being paid the most. That has way more value to get rid of someone who's, you you're paying 150 or $200,000.

Yeah. Yep.

job that you can do it for less than 10,000, then it is to remove a $50,000 job for that you can do for 10,000. Like it just doesn't make sense. So therefore they're going after the higher value jobs that can be democratized. And I find that very fascinating and it's going to change. you know, it's very, it's a interesting world because the unknown is there. And so, which means that we have to be more adaptable and more flexible as we move towards the future. And you got to be nimble and the more rigid you are, the more trouble we're going to be.

Yeah. And it's interesting. I that they're the macro trends and views that I look at, you know, that's why I look at that and you go, okay, where, where is this going? What's really interesting? You know, why are the largest organizations buying land and farmable land? You know, why are Blackstone by the single largest purchaser of single hand family properties in the U S why are they doing that? And I think that they're, they're taking a macro trend and looking at You know, things like food production is going to be very important. They're to look at, okay, if, everything is done and, and, and, um, industries are gone, then people are going to need a single family home to live in. And they can always trade down. And what's the lowest tradable point they can get to. think it's single, single family homes, which traditionally weren't, but that's, that's where I mean by you've got to think about this and go, yeah, but what's behind that? What's behind that? Where's the next level of iteration? And that may buy you. more time than just that one step, which was enough to basically snakes and ladders you 15 steps ahead. It's only going to take you two or three up until the next deviation around the river bend. Then you need to adapt again.

Yeah, you got you think about businesses, you know, there's a lot of talk around investment. like betting on boring businesses is safer option that it is to bet on tech because tech is such a wild west. We don't know what's once going to be the winner. And sure, you'll probably get paid off well. And but the reality is, is that actually betting on boring business and I were just talking about one of these businesses where it's like uh dog food or pet food company. Okay, well, pets are not going to go on away. Right. And

Hmm. Yeah.

you know, betting on that, you know, more and more people are going to have more pets because more and more people are online and being more single and not having kids and they're going to need, you know, companionship, they're going to have more pets, which means that, you know, you're going to need to feed them. And focusing on something like that is, is a much better, safer option than just betting on, you know, is Nvidia going to be the next thing or, or not. And even with AI it's like, you know, the big play right now would be energy, right? And

Yes.

because you need a lot of energy to supply the demand that would, you it's just about to head for it. And I remember, it's funny, my daughter listened to a podcast and she heard about this one stock. And so she goes, dad, buy me, buy me that stock. I'm like, are you sure? I'm like, okay. So I bought her some stock. She bought it at six or $8. It is literally at $56 loss yesterday. So this is only a span of like four months. I'm like, holy crap. And you know, she's loving it. Like every day she's just messing with like, it's gone off another 10%. Right. And it's, but it's betting on energy. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they're macro trends, but they're macro trends. They're looking at it going, where's, cause that's the whole thing is like, the trend is your friend, you follow where life trends are going and just hitch a ride.

Yeah, and it's the macro is it's there and but you have to there's a lot of information to sift through, but it is applying your logic, which is, but why does that matter? Or where is it going to affect? And sometimes we have to make some guesstimation. But if there's enough evidence out there to start, you know, seeing it, then you start to begin to go, okay, now where do I put my place my bets on where the future is going to pull?

Hmm.

And that's probably where you come, your conclusion on Bitcoin, right? There's no way you got to gone into Bitcoin if it wasn't understanding the macro of where the possibility of a potential future is going to go. Is it going to come true? Who knows? Only time will tell, but it's, it's, know, you don't go into it just because of the investment, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And for the longest time, yeah, for the longest time, right. I was aware of that and I've gotten into, I got into lithium, you know, and that's been um decimated up until the point it is. it's, so I'm always, I'm aware of what my risk profile is, but I always follow along. But some interesting things happen with Bitcoin that I saw was where you're getting Some of the biggest players in the world are basically now buying into it. So you've got your big people who, who, who are the early adopters of selling out, but then you've got institutions that are coming in and buying in heavy is going to put a floor underneath it. So there's a legitimization of it. So that to me was a critical event that allowed me, made me go, Hey, pay attention here. This is really important. Um, but just like you, your daughters listened to this and going, that makes sense that. And a lot of it is, logical. It's looking at the pathways and the trends and the usage, but it's no different to fashion, you know, because there were times where I'd go, you know, pretend to go shopping and she'd say three months or six months before a company went into receivership. goes, they they're gone. They're in trouble. I go, what do mean? He goes, they're gone. And sure enough, it would happen. Or she'd spot a trend at as a consumer level, uh, and then go, you want to get on board? Like we, And so uh we could see a store. Yeah. And we didn't at the time and, look where that's gone, you know, and, uh, but they're basically finding trends and following them through and just, um, seeing, seeing where society's going, but that, that was, that was the, the conviction point for me. So that's, if I'm going to, I guess, summarize down and come to a point of closure, it's,

Right. A store, you mean? Yeah.

The conversation that we had last week stimulated me to think about things even further. And that took me down my own pathway of not, not retracting, but going into the cave to think about things a little bit, to observe. Cause sometimes we get into the habit of doing, doing, doing and thinking that's the only progress. But sometimes we've just got to collate all the information and sit back and go, how do I sit with this? And just work out what your next step was. So that was a, it was a tactical retreat. uh invest, you know, basically I've invested quite a little bit of time into reading and finding out. And that's why I looked at these two, the two books that I'm looking at is who are the people that are influencing society in the greatest right now, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos in though, in that sphere. So I had to try and go, I want to get inside their head and find out how they see their world to understand them better so that I can understand myself better and what my next step was. So that was, it was a tactical retreat to work out how do I incorporate all that.

And how are you applying that in your life at the moment? And I can imagine, obviously we already talked about how it applies from an investment point of view and where you're put your money. um Where else are you applying some of these thoughts and these macro trends into your life? And I'll use one example why you think about that. For me, it's like, not uh career-wise, but maybe projects that I'm working on or get interested in. um I'm thinking more about where the...

Yep. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

where it's going. So I'm trying to be like Wayne Gretzky, a fellow Canadian to go like, okay, I want to go where the puck is going, rather than what's happening right now and just be trendy. Because, you know, if I copy the trend right now, I ride that trend is easy. But it's gonna be easy for some of the copied as well. But it's like, where can I go where I think it's going to go in a few years time. And so I really spent a lot of time thinking if I am I too early on this? Or am I too late on this? Or you know, that type of thing. So I think I can apply there. Where else are you applying it in your

Yep. Yeah. So great question. So to me, it's more a case of like, so I look at it from within the coaching side of it. I, you know, I, I'm really enjoying that part of it. The, the, the finance company that we're involved in, there are massive that, that we own, there's a massive, um, uh, industry change in how that will, will fan out. So I've changed my, I've divested part of what I was doing. Uh, and I've really doubled down on the bespoke part of a solution as a pipe, but everything that can, that I can see is going to get automated. I've kind of been strategically sort of dissociating from over a period of time. So that's it. uh I see high, you know, when there's, there's a lot of information available, the hand holding someone through that process is going to be valuable specifically. So I think that that's, that's going to be important. uh I think in terms of connection events, live events, those kinds of things are going to be important as well. The human contact and connection. we're investing in that. uh putting time energy, suggest, know, we're catching up next week at a conference, Lawrence, which I think is great. There'll be about 700 people that we catch up with, our 700 closest friends. So that's always going to be helpful. But interestingly, we own a company in a data room in the US and that's been progressing well, but how it's progressing is that we're developing with a view that we'll get taken over. All right. So when, where, where, so it's a strategic decision to go, we're going to hopefully get enough traction to then be bought out by a bigger company. So that's to me is like, we won't have the depth of resources to compete with these people indefinitely, but we just want to get on their radar and that's an out. that's where, to me, it was like, um, and especially with our son too, he's like, we've got a couple of different ideas that we could follow. And so I think for us it's, we're happier to be the initiator to get to a certain level and pass it on rather than feeling like we've got to see it to end point because we don't know what end point looks like. So we'll be happy to get to 40 % and then on, pass that onto somebody if, if, if they, if we can demonstrate value to their, their value proposition. So that's how it's influencing how I'm going about

Perfect. That's good. That's good insight because it's just I'm sure viewers and listeners are always going to want to know like how do they apply because they hear these stories and hear us talk a little bit. Sometimes they don't necessarily know how to apply it because I mean for me it's like learning macro stuff is is that's hard enough to kind of understand it because there's so many moving parts but then applying it to our individual lives because that's the only thing that you actually have control over. It's important right because that's so it's like taking the macro to the micro

Yeah.

which is your life and how do you apply it. And there's so many, we just give you several different ways on how you can think it through and apply it to your daily life as well. And I think, yeah, go ahead.

was just gonna say, sorry, I was just gonna say one last thing before you close out, because I'm getting the summary and the close out, I thought I better jump in now before it's too late. Where I'm seeing with clients that I'm working with particularly, like a lot of them are having record weeks, um and we're using technology to improve efficiencies in operations, but ensuring that they have a customer experience that is like, Disney, you know, so that's what they've been focusing and people were being less, less on the, um, the, you know, how do I create efficiencies so that I can take that out so I can focus on engaging with people. And because of that, they're busier than a lot of them have ever been because of that. So that's, I just wanted to add that dimension as well to where you're using it.

Yeah, that's the most important thing, right? Like I think AI has the power and this is what I try to teach my clients is like the AI is you want to embrace it as a co-pilot to be able to help you become more human. And that's the number one priority. It's not for you to think of like an automation or making it more robotic. It's actually to do the exact opposite, to allow us humans to do the human work, which is what people are craving and missing the most, and which is what's going to make you distinctively different. As much as that AI actor or actress, Um, I feel like it may go one or two ways. might be like really successful and everybody will love it. Or, you know, my most likely just spurn off to like, okay, we'll create some great movies. But I think a lot of the human nature of in us will, we'll say, no, I really want to see Emily blunt, you know, do her acting. I want to see the flaws of an actor or actress that she is, um, you know, and do that. Or I want to see, you know, whoever Tom Cruise, you know, do his thing. And I think that realism ah is there. Because I mean, if you look at movies, since we're talking about movies, well, exactly. Exactly.

Live bands as well too are gonna, I think they're gonna be huge. Oasis have done a tour. You look at anybody else and that was just huge here in the UK.

Well, exactly like you were musicians had to adapt from used to selling CDs to make all their money. And there was a change. They fought against, know, um, you know, uh, whatever the streaming service was at the time Napster Napster, and, know, they couldn't make their monies and stuff. So now they have to change their, you know, they fought it and fought it. Right. But again, only for a short period of time they won, but reality, they really is not the change the model, which means that they have to go out there and do their live gigs in order to make the money that they used to make.

Spotify, no, sorry, yeah.

Well, it's the same thing with movies, right? We have all this amazing technologies with all this AI, oh, not AI, but green screens and all these um movie magic that allows people to kind of create these worlds that were never seen before. But there is a fundamental human nature to want to go watch a mission impossible because we know that Tom Cruise is literally hanging off that plane because he is.

Yeah, yeah, he's legit legit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

he's doing it live and he's legitimately doing is not green screen is not there's no protection, you know that there's so there's like that human nature to still crave for that too as well. But they still crave for the you know, the Marvel movies and all this other stuff. But it has also gone to a point where we're almost kind of bored with that. I'll kind of want more of this. Yeah. And so there's like that balance.

It's getting too ridiculous. It's getting too ridiculous. Hey, did you speak? Yeah. Did you see, um, did you hear about the story this week about Spotify, uh, uh, suing a guy who using, um, artificially intelligence, I used AI to generate music and then he had it, uh, stream to other bots. So he had a huge amount of downloads that nobody listened to. And it's like 15 million bucks that they've got to get back from him. Like you kudos to a guy for being ingenious, but that's.

Yes, I that. I'll really...

Yeah, that's when he was gaming the system.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing. Like once you create a certain thing, someone's always going to gain the system and always going to figure out a way. But it comes down to, think there's, you know, as human connections, human as humans, I have a strong feeling that we're still going to want that human thing. Now there are also going to people who don't want that. They're happy to be married to an AI. They're happy to, you know, do those weird kind of stuff. But there's majority of the people, I still feel like they, we're still going to crave for that human connection that we're going to miss very dearly. I think there's, and they think there's enough room. for all appeals, like for all types. And I think that's what's gonna be the big winner at the end of the day is that we just have more choice and you can choose to just be in your room and do nothing and just just consume information or you can actually go and meet people live in the middle of the desert. Actually, I had a friend of mine who just goes, hey, do you wanna go to Sweden and just spend three days in the woods? And I'm like, kind of. And it was like, yes.

Yeah.

Yes to that in a sense, because that's something that's so unique and different and learn how to like start a fire and build a camp and you know that which is so foreign to this world. And because I think there's gonna be still craving for that. So I think there's enough choice around the world to actually choose. All right guys, I hope that was helpful and uh taking some macro stuff to your micro levels of decision making and what your thoughts are your life. you know what I hear from

Yeah. Hmm. I'm good, Lawrence.

you know, Rachel this morning is that she loves these podcasts and listens to every episode. And I really, what I would love for encourage people, we don't really ask of this for most people is that if you can benefit from some of these conversations that we're actually having, tell someone, you know, tell someone and not just because we want more listeners, it's actually more just for them to actually hear it for themselves and go, Hey, is this useful for my life? And then that's what I love to kind of see if Wabi Sabi is useful for their life and their decision making and how they see the world. So that's Jim and I for now. We'll look forward to seeing you back on the next episode. Take care.