openpolitics.com

Transcript

00:03
and now without further ado shamov poli
00:08
a Bhatia is founder and CEO of social
00:11
capital which is a technology driven
00:12
investment firm whose mission is to
00:14
advance humanity by solving the world’s
00:16
hardest problems before founding social
00:18
capital Chamath was a member of the
00:20
senior executive team at Facebook and
00:22
held leadership roles at Mayfield fund
00:24
AOL and winamp he was born in Sri Lanka
00:27
grew up in Canada and graduate graduated
00:30
with a degree in electrical engineering
00:31
from the University of Waterloo shamov
00:34
is also an owner and director of the
00:36
NBA’s Golden State Warriors moderating
00:45
the conversation will be DJ co-founder
00:48
of Athos DJ is also from Sri Lanka also
00:52
studied EC at the University of Waterloo
00:53
and his company Athos actually started
00:57
as a senior year design project right
00:59
here at Waterloo which Timnath found
01:01
while he was checking out the senior
01:02
project showcase he ended up funding the
01:04
company moving DJ and his team down to
01:06
Silicon Valley and the rest is history
01:09
please join us in welcoming DJ and
01:11
Chamath
01:13
[Applause]
01:17
so walking up here I was thinking about
01:19
the first time I heard about tomorrow
01:21
which was actually when I was doing a
01:23
co-op term he at blackberry and I was
01:25
trying to add my manager on LinkedIn and
01:28
I saw this guy on the other side it’s
01:30
like some brown guy what he was working
01:33
at Facebook I was like
01:34
they went to Waterloo is brown as a VP
01:37
at Facebook you can do something from
01:41
Waterloo but but but for the rest of us
01:45
oh no you how’d you get started from
01:48
being bomb at Waterloo as in class to
01:51
chew my Polly pinion the barely
01:56
the barely passing class part is the
01:58
most accurate I mean one of my best
02:00
friends one of the best Menem this guy
02:04
herman pack was here was literally my
02:07
savior and it’s not that herman was
02:10
particularly smart because he was also
02:11
an idiot but his two sisters had done EE
02:16
before us and so we inherited every lab
02:20
every test every exam everything you
02:24
could have imagined I was still on
02:25
academic probation
02:26
remember were smart not hard he was top
02:29
of his class he was top of our class I
02:31
was on academic probation I got a letter
02:33
from the Dean of engineering at the time
02:37
who also taught ECE 100 guys to G
02:40
Chaudhary and the letter said you have
02:43
passed because of your labs and I
02:45
thought who thank God for Jane and Julia
02:47
back because otherwise back home in
02:50
Ottawa and I would have completely
02:52
ruined my life
02:53
I mean look I’ve told this story so I
02:57
gave the very short version but my
02:59
parents moved from Sri Lanka to Canada
03:02
my dad worked for the Embassy of Sweden
03:04
and after four years when he was
03:07
supposed to go back through a bunch of
03:09
conditions one was the war and two was
03:12
he was his life was threatened we
03:15
claimed refugee status and we stayed and
03:18
we lived in Ottawa I had two younger
03:21
said I have two younger sisters and then
03:22
I actually wasn’t even supposed to go to
03:25
Waterloo because I didn’t think I could
03:26
get in to be completely honest I had
03:27
mean pretty terrible marks
03:30
in high school so this is a repetitive
03:32
theme here we’ll figure how you gonna
03:36
get to where you are right now
03:41
self-proclaimed but note I had I had I
03:45
had bad marks and so I didn’t really
03:47
know what to do and so I applied when I
03:51
applied for schools in Ontario you have
03:52
to pick three and you rank them and I
03:53
put Waterloo lass and I was like well
03:56
let me put my safety school first I put
03:57
Western and then no offense to anybody
04:02
for wasn’t that was my signal to you
04:05
guys are probably much better-looking
04:06
than us but you’re all now working for
04:09
it so very good so I applied to Western
04:16
and then I applied to Queens and the
04:19
first acceptance I got was from Queens
04:21
and I thought man this is crazy how did
04:23
I get into Queens and I had taken it
04:25
because I just didn’t expect Waterloo to
04:27
accept me and it was like a Monday and I
04:30
was gonna mail it in by a Wednesday and
04:32
in this case my laziness completely paid
04:35
off because before I mailed in the
04:36
acceptance I got the acceptance to
04:38
Waterloo and it changed my life I worked
04:41
for a bunch of random companies during
04:44
my coop terms so that wasn’t
04:47
particularly eventful except that I
04:50
worked at a bank and then after I
04:52
graduated I was I got a full-time job
04:55
there and it was this constant feeling
04:59
of not like it just didn’t fit and I
05:03
quit which totally freaked my parents
05:06
out at the time because we needed the
05:09
money I mean I’ve you know we were
05:11
struggling financially so I was always
05:13
helping them and and at by the time when
05:15
I graduated I was thus almost basically
05:17
the the sole breadwinner of our family
05:20
and so you know it was just a thing ever
05:22
since I was fifteen
05:23
most of my salary just went back to my
05:25
family so it was a thing to leave a job
05:27
where you had a guaranteed salary it was
05:29
quite good to move to Silicon Valley and
05:33
work for a start-up and I worked at a
05:36
company called winamp and my my biggest
05:38
reason I joined it was because it was
05:40
eight other people all at the same age
05:43
or younger than
05:44
and at the time I was 22 and the only
05:47
reason I did it was I was just thinking
05:49
about the risk of working for people
05:51
smarter than me and I thought how could
05:52
these people know much more than I did
05:55
and so we’ll all learn together and that
05:58
ended up being a defining thing because
05:59
what I really took a risk on was just
06:01
the process of learning yeah and you
06:04
very quickly had to become comfortable
06:06
with being wrong and even more
06:08
comfortable with being derided for the
06:10
decisions that internally are you know
06:12
your body is telling you is right for
06:13
yourself that’s a really hard thing to
06:16
amplify consistently over time and it
06:20
wasn’t it wasn’t rewarded quite honestly
06:22
because I moved down to Silicon Valley I
06:23
was working at this company it was
06:25
bought by AOL AOL was rife with a lot of
06:28
turmoil because it had had a stock that
06:31
shot up it bought Time Warner then they
06:34
were decoupling the merger and all this
06:36
chaos people getting fired businesses
06:39
getting destroyed and then finally
06:42
something clicked for me which was I got
06:44
promoted enough times where I had a
06:46
chance to then take another shot and the
06:48
choice was stay at AOL where I had
06:50
become kind of an executive a young one
06:53
25 26 or leave and I left and I went to
06:58
Mayfield and then I was like wow this is
07:00
great I’ve made it oldest venture
07:02
capital firm in Silicon Valley and I
07:06
remember you know like thinking to
07:08
myself I’ve just climbed the top of the
07:10
mountain and within six months I’d
07:12
realized this is not the top of any
07:14
mountain that I wanted to be at the top
07:16
of and I had known Marc through that
07:19
process and I went and I worked at
07:22
Facebook for from 2006 2011 and then in
07:27
2011 I had the same decision which was
07:30
you know when I left Mayfield my parents
07:33
again freaked out they’re like you’re
07:35
making 250 grand a year now like you
07:37
don’t do that to go make $55,000 a year
07:39
what is a start-up what is the Facebook
07:42
you know no it was called the Facebook
07:44
and you know my dad is like it is a book
07:47
of faces
07:48
[Laughter]
07:50
I don’t get it and so you know you’re
07:54
dealing with this but underneath that
07:55
kind of like humor was a lot of pressure
07:57
again and so I didn’t know whether that
08:01
choice is right and then obviously by
08:02
2009 and 10 I was validated and so at
08:06
that point I start to tell myself like
08:08
listen whenever I have a feeling in my
08:09
gut I have to follow it as chaotic as it
08:12
may seem to everybody on the outside I’m
08:15
a reasonably good decision-maker if I
08:17
follow my instincts 2011 I get to the
08:20
same kind of decision point because I
08:22
had been building a product at Facebook
08:24
that didn’t ultimately get launched I
08:25
was building a phone and I woke up one
08:29
day and I was like well if I stay I’m
08:31
now only staying for the money and I
08:34
left and I started social capital and
08:38
it’s crazy and I mean I’ll tell this
08:40
story now because it’s kind of bananas
08:42
to think about this but I had equity
08:45
that was triggered on the number of
08:47
users and basically the incentive was
08:49
stay to get to a billion mau than two
08:51
billion mau whatever yeah and I left at
08:54
750 million Mau and I left enough stock
08:56
on the table that today I don’t know
08:58
somewhere between one and two billion
08:59
dollars
09:00
could you imagine serious money and so
09:03
again like you know my parents didn’t
09:05
understand any of that my family didn’t
09:07
understand any of that and so they’re
09:09
like what are you doing and I’m like
09:10
well I just don’t think if I if I stay
09:13
I’m gonna become a slave to money
09:14
because I have lost the passion of
09:17
figuring out monumental things I was
09:19
incremental II kind of iterating on
09:21
things and at the same time in 2011
09:25
there’s a lot of bad things that were
09:27
starting to happen in the world you know
09:29
if you look it’s sort of like for
09:30
example in the Middle East like there
09:32
was a fruit vendor in Tunisia that lit
09:34
himself on fire
09:36
Egypt started to see the rise of like
09:38
all of this dissent there was these
09:39
massive riots in Paris by all these
09:41
people living in slums all of a sudden
09:43
you would have these targeted bombings
09:45
everywhere and I was like where is all
09:47
of this hatred and frustration coming
09:49
from and now fast forward in the last
09:52
seven years what have you seen it’s all
09:54
a byproduct of this like growing sense
09:56
of like detachment and disassociation
09:59
with the human condition nobody has that
10:02
respect and
10:03
we used to anymore for the people around
10:05
us but I was feeling that in 2011 was
10:08
that the reason that you did not change
10:10
yeah and and and I said what am I gonna
10:12
do I’m not gonna go work in another
10:13
social network I wanted to do two things
10:15
one was basically see if what I was
10:18
saying to myself was right and two was
10:20
be a part of the solution and so I said
10:23
let me go and start working on really
10:26
hard problems again things that were
10:28
non-obvious things that weren’t
10:30
necessarily part of like Silicon Valley
10:33
you know dinner party gossip but we’re
10:36
really about the things that matter you
10:39
know mental health cancer diabetes
10:41
climate change all these things that to
10:43
me I found really interesting and I
10:45
thought if I do something about them
10:47
I’ll feel productive and and so that
10:51
gets me to here which is what I’ve been
10:52
doing for the last seven years looking
10:54
back did you like that feeling that you
10:56
had like a lot of kids haven’t seen that
10:58
thought that well how would you
11:00
characterize that like was it like a
11:01
feeling for like getting bored like what
11:04
is that internal feeling like you want
11:05
bigger problems so this is a this is a
11:08
much very complicated way of explaining
11:12
it and I really really really implore
11:14
you to listen to this okay because
11:15
there’s nothing to do with goosebumps or
11:19
something in your stomach this has
11:21
everything to do with psychology and
11:23
most of the psychology is really around
11:26
how you grew up okay let me tell you how
11:29
I manifest when I’m not in balance and
11:32
when I’m not in balance this is when I
11:35
need to get to balance which is I need
11:37
to change something so what do I do when
11:40
I’m not in balance something in my life
11:42
that I value is out of whack it’s not
11:45
fitting and what happens is I start to
11:49
feel really insecure and really inferior
11:53
about myself and then what do I do
11:56
I manifest that by really beating myself
11:58
up internally okay
12:01
and it’s like the negative self-talk and
12:03
the doubt and then I manifested by
12:05
projecting it on the people around me
12:07
typically the people that I love or care
12:09
about the people I work with the people
12:12
I’m in a relationship with
12:15
to make myself feel superior what I’ve
12:18
eventually figured out is it was the
12:20
pattern that my parents played out
12:22
themselves on me that I had been playing
12:24
out with the people around me except the
12:26
way that my parents played it out was
12:27
because of our poverty and other things
12:29
there was depression there was
12:31
alcoholism there was you know physical
12:33
abuse there was all of this stuff with
12:35
me it was much more deeply psychological
12:37
and nuanced but that was the feeling
12:40
when I was out of balance so it took me
12:42
a long time so I listened to my
12:44
instincts when I got out of balance and
12:46
changed but I couldn’t explain it until
12:48
very recently so what I would explain it
12:51
to you is we all are suffering from or
12:55
benefiting both from the legacy of how
12:58
we were raised
12:59
and it all really dictates your
13:02
decision-making as much as you may think
13:04
it doesn’t it does at the root cause of
13:06
all good and bad decisions is sort of
13:09
your sense of self-worth and that really
13:11
comes from these really important years
13:13
when you were a child and when you were
13:15
an adolescent and where you were
13:17
validated largely by parents and then
13:19
your peer group around you so in my case
13:22
what I have figured out is I care about
13:24
three things I care a lot about
13:26
professional accomplishment I do it’s a
13:29
scorecard that helped me save myself and
13:31
make me feel whole when I felt worthless
13:33
okay I care a lot about sort of like
13:36
social capital meaning like not the
13:39
company I built but the term right and
13:42
what does that term mean it’s a sense of
13:45
affiliation and belonging to the people
13:46
around you right that the ability to
13:49
influence and guide and Shepherd and be
13:51
guided and shepherded and then I care a
13:53
lot about having a few really deep
13:56
profound emotional relationships in my
13:58
life I care about that and so for me
14:03
what I’ve realized is whenever in a
14:05
situation I can explain this now the
14:08
reason I’ve changed is because
14:10
underlying it one of those three things
14:12
were not working and they were not
14:14
working to such a degree that I was
14:16
feeling so out of balance that I was
14:19
basically being in some way shape or
14:21
form projecting on to the people around
14:25
me and it was really affecting my
14:27
happiness
14:28
and in turn their happiness and I really
14:32
think at the end of it all all of us go
14:35
through that loop infinitely and what
14:39
I’ve been able to do because I’m
14:41
fortunate enough to have the time to
14:43
really think about it is get to a place
14:44
to understand it but it’s really
14:49
important because if I at 21 or 22 had
14:54
even barely scratched the surface of
14:56
understanding it I probably would have
14:58
made a lot of different decisions or
15:00
maybe if I had made the same decisions
15:02
let’s assume I’ve made the same ones it
15:04
would have been with a completely
15:06
different mental frame both in the
15:08
moment and then after the moment and I’m
15:10
sure all of you are thinking to yourself
15:11
like how different like of the things
15:13
that you do to yourself to beat yourself
15:15
up how it can get in the way
15:16
it’s unblocking that that allows you to
15:18
do everything and like I just think like
15:21
I’ve been lucky enough to get to a
15:22
simpler place where I can just put that
15:25
in a good frame and act on how do you
15:27
catch yourself when you get get in that
15:29
place like do you have a process for
15:30
that now
15:31
yeah and now I mean like you know to be
15:35
to be completely honest with you look
15:37
I’ve gone through a very tumultuous year
15:39
you know this past year which is the
15:43
combination of many years of things that
15:46
didn’t feel right I have had deep
15:49
meaningful personal changes in my life I
15:51
got divorced I had deep meaningful
15:54
professional changes in my life which is
15:56
that I was in the business of making
15:58
money for many many other people as well
16:00
as myself and I was not in the business
16:02
anymore of solving hard problems and so
16:05
I’ve had to reconcile and course-correct
16:07
that I’ve had realizations around that a
16:11
lot of the people that I had called my
16:13
friends were as a surrogate family that
16:15
I had built around me to compensate and
16:18
these were all people that were working
16:20
with me or for me that I was paying in
16:22
some way that’s not a family I mean
16:26
respectfully that’s not those are
16:29
colleagues friends friends they’re not
16:32
friends
16:34
coworkers I was about to see her but I
16:40
would have a thousand dollars to act and
16:41
I’m really trying to so so in any event
16:48
but in any event the point is that all
16:52
of these things changed and how I catch
16:57
myself is like I I now realize like in
17:00
that process there’s been moments where
17:03
for example like I’m in a new
17:05
relationship and when I was going
17:09
through a lot of this stuff I would
17:10
project a lot of this on to her and one
17:13
day she caught me and she’s like hey
17:14
listen we have to figure this out
17:15
because this is not you and then I
17:18
thought about it and then what I really
17:19
did was I went back and I thought about
17:20
all the other times that this manifested
17:22
in my life and now unproductive it was
17:24
and it brought me to a place where like
17:26
I recognized the physical
17:27
characteristics of it which is I feel
17:29
kind of tense I feel this thing building
17:32
up inside me and then I and then I start
17:35
to feel like I’m getting short-tempered
17:36
and then I’m getting angry and then I
17:38
get bursty you know and I’ll pick on
17:40
people and you know in the office it was
17:42
so funny because I got Facebook there’s
17:44
all this lore about me and my behavior
17:46
there but fundamentally it was probably
17:48
because I was dealing with a lot of
17:49
stuff that I had never really dealt with
17:50
and so now I’m just learning how to how
17:54
to find the trigger and slow it down
17:56
and go back and say wait either it’s
17:58
emotional or social or professional
18:00
something is happening that I really
18:02
care about that is now I’m taking with
18:04
me now projecting into the world in a
18:06
negative unconstructive way I gotta go
18:08
figure it out
18:08
by the way this is probably not the
18:10
conversation you’re probably but let me
18:14
tell you something okay I have literally
18:16
been checking every box that you have
18:18
been told to check your whole life and
18:20
what I’m telling you is at the age of 42
18:22
what I’ve gotten to is is a realization
18:24
that this is the most important thing it
18:28
gives you the energy to do whatever it
18:30
is you want to do be in a committed
18:31
relationship
18:32
start a business be a productive
18:34
co-worker or a colleague be a good
18:36
friend none of that is possible without
18:39
that kind of stuff really and truly
18:43
and so I’m just giving you that advice
18:44
because you know look you’re about to
18:46
start a hackathon it’s
18:48
fun maybe there’ll be some great things
18:50
that come out of it you’ll build some
18:51
great relationships and friendships
18:52
maybe you get motivated to go and do
18:54
something in the world that’s amazing
18:56
but also take away that this idea which
18:58
is that like there is work that you can
19:01
do on yourself that puts you in a
19:02
position to be excellent and it is
19:05
thankless work because nobody sees it
19:07
nobody values it everybody derives it if
19:10
you talk about it and it needs to get D
19:13
stigmatized because we all carry it with
19:15
us and the minute you on shop e yourself
19:16
from it and leave it you are powerful
19:19
and there’s nothing you can’t do and
19:21
that’s why it’s important
19:34
so a couple of things that you touched
19:36
on one is that about like you basically
19:38
had a feedback system that you over time
19:41
developed into being able to treat just
19:43
teach yourself into figuring this exact
19:46
refining your intuition on when you’re
19:48
gonna react that way are there like
19:50
feedback systems that you built to help
19:52
you learn and refine intuition around
19:54
like the people you hire or the ideas
19:57
you invest in or decisions you make what
20:01
are the systems you use this guy that on
20:07
my team wrote me a letter this week and
20:10
I won’t share it with you but I’ll share
20:12
while she was the love note he told me
20:19
this funny story which I had forgotten
20:20
which is when I first interviewed him I
20:23
actually only gave him ten minutes and I
20:26
forgot that originally when I was really
20:28
interviewing a lot of people my core
20:29
team let’s go back to the Facebook
20:33
example my quark team at social capital
20:35
is the same way our gist he’s
20:37
exceptionally talented human beings and
20:39
they’ve gone on to do great things so
20:42
when I look back like the thing one of
20:44
the things I’m the most proud of is like
20:45
I’ve really found a way to associate
20:47
myself with really credible good people
20:49
that are capable of doing a lot of
20:50
things so how do I not get in my own way
20:53
right and I’ve over these last 10 years
20:55
one of the first things is like
20:57
interviewing and talent I keep these
21:00
interviews the initial ones to as short
21:03
as possible 10 15 20 minutes and it may
21:06
seem brusque and Curt but mostly it’s
21:09
because if I stay too long I’m gonna
21:11
fall into there you know storytelling
21:14
and their narrative and what I’m really
21:16
gonna lose is that like that core sense
21:18
of who they are when they’re still
21:20
initially kind of nervous and like you
21:22
know they’re gonna be their true selves
21:23
because it’s hard to fake it when you’re
21:25
kind of nervous it’s much easier to fake
21:27
it when you’re like comfortable I always
21:29
ask people as well
21:31
teach me something that I don’t know and
21:33
I give them like a minute or two and
21:35
what I’m really trying to understand is
21:37
how well do they understand the things
21:39
that they care about because I think
21:41
that’s really important because a lot of
21:42
times things go right things go wrong
21:44
and if you don’t have the ability to
21:46
care about something
21:47
no matter what it is but something
21:49
you’re basically like a sociopath and
21:52
you’re not a very productive person in
21:55
in in a working context you know when I
21:59
think about investing
22:01
I actually don’t particularly like the
22:04
business of investing as a team I’m not
22:06
very good at it
22:07
a good team player I’m not to be very
22:11
honest with you I’m not you know I I was
22:15
looking at this recently but I’ve made
22:18
three massive investments outside of
22:20
social capital
22:21
the Warriors which by the way I mean
22:24
honesty guys I’ve done you know I’ve
22:30
helped start businesses and cancer
22:31
diabetes education nothing and the
22:40
Golden State Warriors gets the largest
22:42
year I mean it’s cool but anyway so the
22:48
Warriors Bitcoin and in 2013 or 14 I
23:00
made this I I did something which
23:04
created a lot of tension amongst my
23:06
friends at Facebook because I basically
23:08
sold all my Facebook stock in bought
23:10
Amazon we have one fried subscriber here
23:20
thank you
23:23
but all those decisions I made by myself
23:26
and by the way when I made all those
23:29
decisions
23:29
totally derided ridiculed by the people
23:32
around me nobody understood and I just
23:36
felt out of kilter and so I had to do it
23:38
those things by the way I’ve compounded
23:40
at 75% a year and these are sizable
23:43
things so I think I’m just much better
23:45
when I make investments by myself not
23:48
that that’s a particularly great thing
23:50
we’re a much better as a team is when
23:52
I’m in abling really talented to
23:54
technical people or I’m partnering with
23:56
really talented technical people to
23:58
think about big ideas and to feel like
23:59
there
24:01
fearless and that I’ll have their back
24:03
that so that we can go and tackle
24:05
problems that’s where I think I’m a
24:06
really good team member so for me I
24:10
think investing is a little overrated
24:12
quite honestly because I think there’s a
24:14
lot of situational luck and timing
24:16
that’s overlooked I also think it’s
24:18
fundamentally a solitary thing and the
24:22
team orientation I think is probably a
24:25
little misguided and oversold but team
24:29
building around companies and ideas
24:30
that’s fabulous
24:32
there’s nothing better there’s really
24:34
really I mean orders of magnitude away
24:36
from anything else it’s the most
24:38
incredible thing so if you don’t have
24:40
teams and like if you’re investing by
24:42
yourself
24:42
how do you check yourself like how do
24:44
you make sure your venture I’m afraid to
24:46
I’m not afraid to be wrong like I just
24:49
think being wrong is overrated in the
24:51
North American philosophy we we really
24:54
look there are certain times where you
24:56
can’t be wrong if you’re a pilot you
24:59
can’t be wrong or surgeon I get that or
25:01
fear no it’s not true actually surgeons
25:03
make mistakes all the time they leave
25:05
you no utensils or whatever not you know
25:12
but I I get how certain professions need
25:15
to value the sort of like the binary
25:18
distinction of right and wrong but I
25:21
think for most of us it’s really sort of
25:24
like you’re either learning or you’re
25:25
not learning and I think we right now we
25:28
create too much of a like a god complex
25:30
around being right and we don’t
25:32
celebrate enough like the fun process of
25:35
iterating you know and being able to
25:37
like be in the grind with people and
25:39
like like laugh when things don’t work
25:41
that it’s not like the end of the world
25:45
so I I think to me like that’s probably
25:48
the single biggest thing that people
25:49
have to get comfortable with which is
25:52
like just you’re learning you’re
25:53
learning and you either care about that
25:55
or you don’t like if you’re a good
25:57
entrepreneur like we were talking about
25:59
this in the green room nobody should
26:01
grow up to be an entrepreneur I’m sorry
26:04
that’s that’s great that’s ridiculous
26:06
you should grow up to be really angry
26:09
about something in your life that you
26:11
want to fix or change to make better
26:16
do you know what I’m saying yeah because
26:25
then all of a sudden like you’re not
26:27
gonna give up when something doesn’t
26:29
work when something is wrong you’re just
26:32
gonna keep working at it because it’s
26:34
learning but that mindset is only
26:36
possible in that context so I don’t know
26:39
I just think like that’s it that’s a
26:41
really important thing to really
26:42
internalize starting from there like
26:45
there there’s a lot of kids here
26:47
we’re like in what first year second
26:49
year you know high school are you do you
26:53
have to bring your parents here to sign
26:55
the letters but you know like the
27:00
world’s changed a little bit since you
27:01
were in school when you were doing
27:02
homework with the abacus like what
27:08
you DJ that’s what I’ve tasted so good
27:16
though that thousand dollars my gosh Wow
27:19
yes but what advice would you give kids
27:23
going into the workforce now like the
27:26
graduating how should it think about the
27:28
world they’re going into I think it’s
27:31
really really again I’m sorry but I’m
27:33
just gonna give you a very psychological
27:35
answer I think there’s a massive risk
27:39
that so many of us are unfortunately
27:42
raised in an environment where we can be
27:45
tricked to feeling inadequate okay you
27:49
spend 90% of your time on your phone I’m
27:51
sorry but I bet you at points in time
27:53
I’m sorry cuz I’m just gonna ask just be
27:55
really honest how many to any point in
27:57
the day do you feel inadequate when
28:00
you’re on the phone and like interacting
28:02
and whatever site you’re doing
28:03
we’re jealous or naive like envious
28:06
please please please be honest do ya
28:09
everybody okay could you imagine the
28:13
impact of that when that gets compounded
28:15
day after day year after year
28:17
so my advice is really like find ways of
28:23
breaking that cycle and I don’t really
28:26
know the answer I think
28:28
are the answer I think being outside as
28:31
cheesy as that may sound is the answer I
28:33
think like what if you’re in Canada it’s
28:35
cold in the winter let’s go be outside
28:38
there’s lots of things to do in the snow
28:40
but but right you can harvest maple
28:45
syrup you can go fishing in an ice pond
28:49
you can hunt a polar bear I mean there’s
28:54
so many things DJ but my point is like
28:59
um I think like if you’re if you’re in
29:02
your teens and 20s right now I think the
29:05
most important thing is to figure out
29:06
how you yourself are wired and to try to
29:09
basically get those things address
29:11
because it is in a most amplified state
29:14
than it’s ever been like I did not grow
29:17
up deeply insecure in success and no one
29:21
would never say you’re insecure
29:22
no one ever say you’re insecure oh I’m
29:25
deeply yeah absolutely I don’t know how
29:28
do you think you become you know super
29:31
successful you think these people I mean
29:32
look I’ve met these people you think
29:34
these people are normal do you think
29:37
they’re like ho-hum I’m whole let’s be
29:39
friends and have a burger that’s not
29:43
what these people are yeah okay they’re
29:47
not they’re deeply profoundly insecure
29:49
they manifest a lot of that by their
29:52
need to find something that they can
29:54
latch onto that makes them feel less
29:56
inferior ie superior and the success
30:01
tends to be proportional to that feeling
30:03
that’s true and you see a lot of people
30:07
you meet like whenever you meet somebody
30:08
who’s like I’m a teacher and I’m really
30:10
happy that person is whole that’s what
30:15
it means okay and when you meet like a
30:18
super billionaire who’s like trying to
30:20
become a super big a Becca billionaire
30:22
they’re super secure it’s just true it’s
30:27
okay it’s nothing wrong with that but
30:28
that’s just the reality the problem is
30:31
that when I was growing up it wasn’t
30:32
that big of a deal because the things
30:34
that amplified it were minimal they were
30:38
okay
30:39
I had a StarTAC flip
30:41
phone okay at best I had a pager when I
30:44
was in you gonna explain that to
30:46
everybody else a pager a pager is a
30:47
thing it’s like a phone but with up
30:50
things you can touch that just has a
30:52
number of the person that’s calling you
30:53
I mean it sounds ridiculous but I mean
30:56
you felt really cool when you had a
30:58
pager hi listen who had pagers cool
31:02
people and drug dealers okay I did
31:06
there’s a cool is there to be both I was
31:09
neither but I aspired to be both okay
31:17
always hustling like the thing is like
31:23
great so III was I made me felt what I
31:26
felt but I wasn’t completely bombarded
31:28
with things on the outside that
31:29
exacerbated and amplified it kids today
31:32
are and I think it has an impact in on
31:35
your general state of happiness your
31:37
general state of fulfillment your
31:39
general state of belongingness I really
31:41
do and I see it it is a big deal so if I
31:45
was in high school today look you’re
31:47
gonna do what you’re gonna do you’re
31:48
gonna spend your time on your phones the
31:51
way you’re gonna spend your time
31:52
whatever do it but just know that it is
31:56
a drug like any other drug and you have
31:59
to find ways of regulating yourself and
32:01
managing yourself and finding positive
32:03
outlets to replenish yourself and don’t
32:06
trick yourself otherwise otherwise
32:08
you’ll enter the workforce and you’re
32:10
going to be unhappy why do you think so
32:12
many people job hopped every six months
32:14
nine months I’m sure you have friends
32:16
siblings whatever that are in your in
32:18
their mid-twenties like why is it that
32:20
the average employment rate or the
32:22
average duration of employment in
32:23
amongst you know mid 20 year olds and 30
32:26
year olds is like half of what it used
32:28
to be
32:29
oh I’m unsatisfied oh I’m unfulfilled
32:31
well is it that all of a sudden like
32:34
something is cataclysmically changed in
32:36
world capitalism I’m sorry but the
32:38
answer is no it’s that your internal
32:40
sense of fulfillment and belongingness
32:42
has definitely changed because there are
32:44
other people around you that can amplify
32:46
your sense that they are happier but
32:49
they’re not they’re marketing happiness
32:51
better than you
32:59
so what do you do about it like you know
33:01
you’re great like you gotta figure on
33:03
hard problems
33:04
I really think heart problems means that
33:06
you find out something that really
33:08
upsets you about your the human
33:10
condition in which you grew up in or the
33:12
human condition that surrounded your
33:14
family or your friends or something
33:16
because it is deeply motivational
33:19
because it forces you to course-correct
33:21
all of that stuff that I just talked
33:22
about all of those potholes get filled
33:25
in you know if you have a parent that’s
33:28
suffering from cancer and you can commit
33:30
your life to doing something not only
33:33
will you honor that person in them
33:35
actually the best way possible you will
33:38
probably impact enormous numbers of lies
33:40
positive positively and oh by the way
33:43
you will be mega super deca rich if
33:46
that’s what you want because you can’t
33:49
not be impactful in a place like that
33:51
and not make money as a by-product but
33:54
if you’re like man I’m really mad about
33:56
scooters I’ve got a of the scooter
33:59
crisis you’re actually playing a charade
34:02
about trying to be an entrepreneur and
34:05
arbitrage in what is obvious it’s
34:07
probably not going to work you’re
34:09
probably gonna fail and there’s zero
34:11
chance that when the going gets rough
34:13
you don’t just quit because I’m just
34:17
sorry I don’t understand the boundary
34:19
condition where that matters to you you
34:22
know you may be a person that loves to
34:24
live in the outdoors and you may have
34:25
all these memories when you are young of
34:27
how like you felt whole and complete and
34:29
safe when you were there and now you see
34:31
the earth earth just getting shredded
34:33
apart and so you decide to do something
34:36
at climate change awesome do that that
34:39
energy will guide you that’ll course
34:41
correct it’ll get your insecurities out
34:43
the way you’ll be able to tell all your
34:44
friends you know what I get it you’re
34:46
gonna do your thing you’re gonna market
34:48
your happiness I’m doing this and I’m
34:49
actually happy and I’m gonna work at it
34:53
and it could be twelve years fifteen
34:55
years and something may happen something
34:57
may not happen but I’ll feel like I did
34:58
the right thing for myself that’s the
35:00
solution harp things that matter let’s
35:03
go fix the harp things that matter let’s
35:05
go figure out how to like a
35:06
eradicate this like virulent strain of
35:09
populism that’s emerging in the world
35:11
why are people so angry why are people
35:14
so unhappy let’s fix the boundary
35:18
conditions for them let’s show them a
35:22
better path that’s what you or should be
35:25
doing you are so smart you have to
35:28
allocate your time to these problems so
35:31
find the thing that upsets you and
35:33
pisses you off and go fix it give a
35:43
mental model so you keep to like sort of
35:45
separate our like hey these are hard
35:47
problems worthwhile versus like you know
35:49
what don’t worry about this hard problem
35:51
or you’re going down a wrong path
35:53
there’s never going down the wrong path
35:55
because that’s learning but we have
35:58
things that we basically dot on a line
36:00
of now-ish to never issue and what I
36:05
mean by that is like there’s your
36:06
certain things that would be bananas if
36:09
we could figure it out but I just think
36:11
are just truly difficult with the
36:13
toolkit that we have today like meaning
36:16
the toolkit of physics and math and
36:17
science and our understanding of
36:19
materials etc so some of those some of
36:21
these interesting hard problems are just
36:23
not for today and I and despite like a
36:27
lot of the I think like the PR hype
36:29
around some of these things like you
36:31
know like a looker every year like the
36:34
last 10 years quantum of computing is
36:36
like next year cold fusion you know cold
36:38
fusion is next year so there’s a couple
36:41
these things that I just think are very
36:43
difficult but then there’s a bunch of
36:45
stuff that’s more today what we do is
36:47
the following we basically sit around
36:49
now and we id8
36:50
and we generate a bunch of ideas on a
36:52
whiteboard and then what we do is we try
36:55
to filter and what we do by filtering is
36:58
we get experts so we go to Xerox PARC we
37:00
go to Stanford we go to MIT we have
37:02
about 40 or 50 like sort of profs and
37:05
PhDs and postdocs who know something
37:07
about a lot their thing very well and
37:10
then they teach us and we sit around and
37:12
we learn and we learn and we learn and
37:13
we document and we learn and then we try
37:16
to decide like is this interesting
37:17
enough for us to pursue and then when we
37:20
do that well
37:20
and we say well what how do we learn
37:22
more sometimes we launch experiments so
37:24
we’ll go and do a science project we’ll
37:26
go and you know get a couple of you know
37:28
master students to go and run some
37:29
experiments for us we collect the data
37:31
we see what it’s doing other times we’ll
37:33
bill get a financial person to go and
37:34
look at a market and say is there a
37:36
company we could buy to help us
37:37
accelerate whatever and then we sit
37:41
around we sit around and we wait so that
37:44
we’re not impulsive because the minute
37:46
we make one of these decisions they’re
37:47
probably 15 year 20 year decisions and
37:50
we have to get it right and it’s not
37:51
about the first 50 or 100 million
37:52
dollars because whatever it’s about the
37:54
next 500 700 a billion dollars we have
37:57
to put behind an idea there we have to
37:59
be right we can’t be wrong right so like
38:02
you could say blah climate change but
38:04
unless you’re precise you’re gonna burn
38:06
a lot of money which many people have
38:07
you could say blah Internet access for
38:10
everybody
38:10
but unless you get to the right answer
38:12
in the first version of the problem
38:13
you’re gonna burn in an enormous amount
38:15
of money so that’s our process we id8 we
38:18
learn we were fine we experiment and
38:20
then we basically create a map of how we
38:22
want to pull it off and we Jam Jam now
38:26
rip it in and it’s okay to be wrong yeah
38:29
I think like I say all the time changing
38:32
your mind is free I know you think it’s
38:35
not think about that because you
38:36
probably have like imagine how hard it
38:38
is for some of you once you make a
38:39
decision to change your mind because
38:42
you’re so fixated on like oh my god I
38:44
just I’ve made a decision well changing
38:47
my it’s like look at these pants I love
38:49
these pants and then you know like your
38:53
girlfriend says ah you know these are
38:55
not nice pants you’re like no these are
38:58
great pants
38:59
you know these are the best pants but
39:02
changing your mind is free okay whatever
39:04
you know like the past change that’s now
39:05
that’s a stupid example but it’s like
39:07
you know in business and when you’re in
39:10
a start-up like it’s so important change
39:12
your mind and like you just touch them
39:15
like you know if you’re working hard
39:17
problems being wrong is okay because you
39:19
might incremental progress is theory
39:20
yeah in fact it’s so crucial like if
39:23
you’re working on something that’s
39:24
really hard you have to be failing a lot
39:26
because otherwise you’re just basically
39:29
making a bunch of silly riskless
39:31
decisions that you know are probably
39:33
bound to be right
39:34
but that just means you’re gonna fail
39:35
anyways yeah and you don’t create
39:37
something new you don’t add value to
39:39
society but not like the people who in a
39:40
Nobel Prize what do you think their
39:42
processes they’re creating something
39:44
foundational in the world that gets
39:45
recognized 20-30 years later but they
39:48
are fundamentally people who have to
39:49
orient their minds around failure
39:51
failure failure right because it’s it’s
39:54
they’re swinging for the fences each
39:56
time they try to run some experiment and
39:59
I think working on hard problems is
40:00
basically requires that mentality which
40:02
is also I think it’s so much fun because
40:05
then it also allows you to clarify who
40:06
you work with imagine the people you
40:08
collect around you colleagues again not
40:12
family colleagues not friends coworkers
40:14
right who also then care you’re learning
40:20
together you’re living the struggle
40:21
together there’s camaraderie together
40:23
man what an incredible feeling there’s
40:25
nothing better
40:26
literally nothing better definitely so
40:30
now these kids are going into hackathon
40:32
they’re not trying to fail by Sunday
40:36
they’re trying to figure out something
40:37
how do you how do you start like you
40:40
know you have big problems do you want
40:41
to tackle like I don’t want to solve
40:43
small problems I got on a build a
40:44
website like okay you can’t you can you
40:48
can’t solve global warming in the
40:49
weekend right like it’s like eating an
40:52
elephant one bite at a time where do you
40:53
start
40:54
trunk tail well this is this is the
40:59
entree to a really bad off-color joke so
41:02
yes I’m gonna answer it in a different
41:04
way let’s say is anybody gonna work on
41:08
something related to drones
41:15
[Laughter]
41:24
one night – oh you have two guys okay
41:29
with you know two grand
41:30
Oh two grand go two times what I was
41:36
gonna say is like I just think that
41:37
there are probably I would encourage you
41:41
to do two things one is be realistic
41:44
which is I don’t intend to give you some
41:47
you know glib thing above yeah ghosts
41:50
all breast cancer in the next 48 hours
41:51
because it’s gonna be great it’s not
41:55
true and it’s not accurate but I do
42:01
think what’s important is something else
42:03
which is go prove to yourself that you
42:05
can start something and finish it and
42:06
not be afraid of being judged and
42:08
failing so doesn’t really matter to be
42:11
quite honest what you do in the next 48
42:13
hours in my mind it matters that you
42:15
take away the that thread I started I
42:19
created a plan I broke it down into
42:22
small bits I finished it I’m proud of it
42:25
and I don’t care how people judge it now
42:29
take that and amplify that and then go
42:32
and work on something hard and do it
42:33
over the next 10 years
42:44
I think what you said about like having
42:47
a end goal and having a bigger picture
42:49
and then breaking down to pieces is like
42:51
really really important because you
42:52
can’t you can’t solve everything but if
42:54
you don’t have a plan if you don’t break
42:56
you up into pieces like you don’t know
42:58
where you’re trying to get to with with
43:00
this stuff you’re doing right now like
43:02
how are you breaking up into pieces like
43:03
it’s like you’re chewing a big problem
43:06
already like solving hard problems and
43:08
helping other people solve other hard
43:10
problems you started with getting
43:12
information but where else are you going
43:13
with it where else do we get information
43:16
yeah what else are you doing like that
43:18
that’s stage one of the plan I get
43:20
information how else you like how do you
43:22
expand on that like how do you help
43:23
these guys figure out how to break
43:25
problems down how do you how do you
43:27
define MVP how do you define like what’s
43:30
the the problem to break down it’s it’s
43:33
really I mean I don’t I don’t know how
43:35
to answer that question to be honest it
43:37
really just depends on the idea so for
43:38
example like with you yeah right like
43:40
when we were working together what was
43:43
our true core MVP it was basically can
43:47
this sensor be viable right under a lot
43:50
of different conditions that would have
43:52
mimicked real life and so you guys I
43:57
think did a great job of and it took 18
43:59
months basically to break the problem
44:00
down into all little bits that got us –
44:02
yeah the sensor is roughly functional
44:04
yeah so it really just depends on the
44:08
problem itself because it but I think in
44:10
in all of these things the answer is
44:12
always the same which is it’s a really
44:15
unglamorous thing that your litmus test
44:20
should be will you feel embarrassed or
44:23
will people like chide you for that
44:27
thing that’s the right MVP that’s always
44:31
the right MVP when the answers to that
44:34
huh wouldn’t the answer is yes if you
44:36
will feel embarrassed yet or people will
44:39
laugh at you at this thing as a proof of
44:42
concept that is what the MVP is not the
44:45
thing that’s grandiose that answers most
44:47
of the questions where you feel great
44:48
you know telling somebody over a beer
44:51
that’s not the MVP in fact that’s like
44:53
counter-intuitively it’s probably like
44:55
you’re less likely to be successful
44:58
because you’re gonna give a complicated
45:00
answer to all these things and features
45:01
and functionalities and
45:02
blah-blah-blah-blah-blah
45:03
the point is you’re never gonna get and
45:06
you just have to hack something together
45:08
and ship it yeah ship it
45:12
something like that
45:13
oh I wouldn’t have used the f-word there
45:17
baby
45:19
definitely definitely taught me that one
45:21
but couple things one I always
45:24
appreciate when I have conversations
45:25
about you with you is sort of is that
45:35
you you always end up helping reframe
45:38
the problem and help them sort of think
45:40
about something a little bit bigger so
45:42
that you you attack it from a different
45:43
angle how do how do people practice that
45:47
and where’d you get that scale like what
45:48
what are things that they can try to
45:50
help like up level or think in a bit I
45:54
have never been a very linear person and
45:56
I don’t say that in some like grandiose
45:59
way I’ve always been a little random and
46:03
haphazard so that was partly because I
46:07
think again
46:08
I’ve always felt an uneasy with the way
46:12
that I was and I have tried to ask
46:17
questions and learn about things that
46:19
made me feel comfortable and I always
46:22
gave myself time to meander I’m not a
46:25
big book reader I’ve said this a lot
46:28
because I don’t want other people’s 250
46:32
pages of you know expert opinion on
46:35
something because I don’t think they
46:38
probably have it
46:39
I love articles I love journals
46:42
I love Wikipedia I love the web I love
46:45
reading blogs things that are succinct
46:47
force people to tell the truth things
46:50
that are long allow people to tell their
46:51
opinion and so like I’ve always fed this
46:56
thing of just like there’s randomness is
46:59
good for you
47:00
it’s very very good for you finding
47:03
people around you that you don’t
47:05
necessarily get along with in the most
47:07
obvious ways is good for you getting
47:09
yourself out of your comfort zone and
47:11
like
47:11
about yourself is good for you oh there
47:14
is one book that I would recommend which
47:16
I’ve read end to end and I think for me
47:20
and I’m just gonna tell you in this
47:22
immigrant condition or like the the
47:25
psychology of how I helped myself
47:27
it’s called adult children of alcoholics
47:29
and I would really encourage anybody who
47:32
finds any of the first part of what I
47:34
spoke about interesting to read that
47:35
book because it is written in three
47:37
parts and part one is what have you
47:42
lived and it goes into so much detail
47:44
that it was just stunning to me how much
47:48
of that I had lived at the first time in
47:50
my life when I had thought that I was
47:53
suffering alone
47:54
I realized so many other people had gone
47:56
through this so much so that this woman
47:59
and the 70s could write a definitive
48:00
book about it okay that’s section 1 and
48:03
section 2 is it then says here’s
48:05
probably all the traits that you brought
48:06
with you into your adult life and so
48:09
many of them rang true and then section
48:11
3 was here’s how you can start to put
48:13
together a plan to help fix yourself
48:15
adult children of alcoholics it’s the
48:17
only book that I really would recommend
48:19
and it’s not for idle it’s not just
48:21
because you’re you grew up in an
48:22
alcoholic family I just think it’s like
48:24
any any kind of dysfunction it’s
48:26
incredibly helpful the way but otherwise
48:27
I’m me and ER I read a lot I asked a lot
48:30
of random questions and I try to give
48:34
myself other ways of exploring my
48:38
intelligence working on yourself is a
48:41
really meaningful way of working on your
48:43
intelligence you know being alone
48:46
sometimes is a really powerful way of
48:47
clarifying the things that you think are
48:49
important to you these are not all
48:51
things anymore that are valued right
48:53
we’ve stripped it all the way we really
48:55
have in the last 10 years stripped it
48:57
all away and in many ways we’ve
49:00
amplified the worst parts of it
49:02
so I would just encourage it’s sort of
49:04
like work on yourself
49:05
I really think like the next great
49:08
entrepreneur that spouts from this place
49:09
is probably the most whole among us Wow
49:12
yeah I know we’re both thought
49:16
so I have a question for you but before
49:18
I get to that you guys are supposed to
49:22
submit questions via Twitter somebody’s
49:24
gonna go filter those things out and
49:26
then text it to me and then I’m gonna
49:28
ask him those questions and then he may
49:30
answer that but while you figure out how
49:33
to do two questions
49:36
random question what are you guys doing
49:38
at social capital and what are you guys
49:39
doing here
49:41
with social capital well we’ve always
49:43
had a Fellows Program that Fellows
49:45
Program has been about picking some of
49:48
the most capable computer scientists and
49:50
direct our portfolio and directing them
49:53
to work with us so a chance to work at
49:55
companies like intercom slack pathos etc
49:59
yeah we’re hiring and we’re often to
50:01
work at ask our interns we’re here for
50:03
that we’re here to hire for our own team
50:05
so that’s why we’re here and I’m here
50:08
because I’m Canadian and I was it was a
50:10
great chance to come see my mom in
50:11
Toronto and then come see you guys and
50:14
then what’s happening at social capital
50:18
is just about honoring what we started
50:23
and you know it’s really interesting to
50:27
read the press cycles and see how
50:29
inaccurate they are and to feel kind of
50:33
like whole enough to not care to care I
50:36
mean yeah we’ve done an incredible job
50:41
we’ve in investing we’ve made many many
50:46
many billions of dollars in the job of
50:49
incubating heart problems we’ve done in
50:52
my in my opinion even more work that I’m
50:54
proud of and the future we’ll be really
50:57
focusing on how to do that better and
51:00
aligning around a core team of people
51:03
that want to be surrounded by engineers
51:05
and product managers and data scientists
51:06
and just get back to building and you
51:09
know look I spent the last two years
51:10
glad-handing around the world meeting
51:12
rich powerful people and I was gutted by
51:16
a same feeling you had before when you
51:17
would leave yeah same thing I’m not a
51:20
money person who doesn’t doesn’t really
51:23
get me yeah and there’s been several
51:25
times in my life where I’ve succumb to
51:27
it but every time I
51:30
reconcile who I really am as a man and
51:32
as a human being I come back to my core
51:33
truth which is I’m a person that’s a
51:35
builder I like building on hard things I
51:38
like surrounding myself with earnest
51:40
people that care about hard things
51:41
because they share that same passion and
51:44
core energy and I like learning and it
51:47
makes me really happy so that’s what’s
51:49
happening with social capital it’s more
51:50
about having the fidelity and strength
51:55
to honor what we started
51:57
sweet all right I guess I’m waiting for
52:00
questions are coming in a panic all
52:02
right head Shaw asks too much if I win
52:08
hack the north can you transfer Curry to
52:10
the Raptors no I mean guy in the front
52:26
go and I of your hair I mean it has like
52:37
undulate wave that I can see them in
52:39
here that’s really comforting to me
52:54
honestly I don’t know I I think you
53:04
can’t I think the people that own these
53:06
next-gen technologies will decide the
53:09
fate of the world
53:09
oh that’s there’s no doubt gene-editing
53:12
I mean like think about that you know
53:15
think about the implicit
53:17
look III had the I have the honor of
53:20
working with a company that’s working in
53:21
AI on something and half the time I’m
53:25
stunned at the compute power that we’re
53:28
creating half the time I think what
53:30
happens if this fabric gets in to the
53:32
wrong hands and I don’t know the right
53:35
answer I you know I work with another
53:37
company that does a lot of stuff with
53:39
three-letter agencies in the United
53:40
States and sometimes I wake up and I’m
53:43
like weird
53:43
doing God’s work and sometimes I wake up
53:45
and I want to vomit well that’s life and
53:48
you know what I’m glad to be in the
53:52
Sturman drag of that emotion honestly
53:55
because at least I’m the edges I can
53:58
help be a part of some of that decision
54:00
making but abdicating that and naik not
54:02
being there is not the right answer
54:04
because somebody else is going to do it
54:06
and somebody else may not have my moral
54:08
and ethical perspective not that mine’s
54:10
better than anybody else’s but it’s just
54:12
different it’s my own and so I’d rather
54:13
reflect my own than somebody else’s no
54:24
just means that I have to work harder so
54:25
that it’s my turn it’s like it’s like
54:29
it’s like kind of like you know like a
54:31
boxing day sale at Zellers okay and
54:34
there’s a single line you got to wake up
54:37
early man and fight for that space in
54:39
line cuz if they give it away to
54:40
somebody else that’s not right how many
54:51
people do you think I have buying me
54:53
clothes right now also there’s a whole
54:55
lotta people here give me a good example
55:01
mart zara zara zara yeah sorry there’s a
55:06
good one all right
55:07
so one of the questions that came in is
55:08
that how do you find the balance between
55:10
being secure enough to be successful and
55:13
being not insecure enough to be happy
55:17
don’t try to be balanced just be aware
55:20
what is what is balanced mean who cares
55:22
about balance somebody like balanced
55:24
people you want a whole person but a
55:26
whole person isn’t boring you know what
55:29
I’m saying don’t be boring it’s not
55:31
about negating at all it’s about
55:32
honoring it it’s about knowing that it’s
55:35
there and it’s about helping you to
55:37
become better with it I don’t know just
55:40
I felt like ya know makes me feel better
55:42
because I’m still bouncing back between
55:44
security and insecurity all the time and
55:46
at least now you can trigger on it and
55:48
figure out what you want to do good
55:49
times
55:50
not all the time and not very well but
55:52
at times you repeat since you’re taking
55:56
them on the side
55:57
okay the question is he has an idea but
56:01
he’s afraid he doesn’t think there’s
56:03
hope he doesn’t know what to do
56:06
dude I don’t know what to do
56:10
so but I’m just gonna do I think you
56:15
can’t worry about the finality and the
56:17
end state too much like be very selfish
56:21
for a second and think to yourself if
56:23
doing this will make you happy let’s
56:26
just assume the world is screwed you
56:28
might as well be happy until it all ends
56:29
anyways shouldn’t you shouldn’t you
56:33
I mean well there’s there’s no point
56:37
there’s no point you know boom owning it
56:38
cuz it’s let’s just say it’s a fact the
56:39
complete what are you gonna do I would
56:41
just say be happy and my version of
56:44
being happy is I want to work on things
56:45
that I care about so I wouldn’t get too
56:47
fatalistic about all this stuff I think
56:49
we are evolving things in an incredible
56:51
way as a race and as a species the big
56:54
problem today is that these systems that
56:55
are supposed to work for the many really
56:57
only work with a few and they’re too
56:58
asymmetric this is why when you fix a
57:01
hard problem what you really do is you
57:02
level the playing field that’s something
57:04
that’s worthwhile getting in balance and
57:06
so I would not get too hung up on how
57:11
screwed the world is instead I would
57:14
kind of tell myself listen things are
57:17
gonna happen good and bad I have a
57:19
responsibility if I’m capable of
57:20
allocating some of the goodness to as
57:22
many people as possible and honestly
57:24
dude if you’re afraid of all this stuff
57:25
and it freaks you out get to work
57:28
no like right now get to work you
57:30
shouldn’t even be here you know what I’m
57:34
saying like you cannot get caught up in
57:38
your own underwear on this stuff because
57:39
it’s debilitating yeah don’t worry about
57:45
it do a food distribution like you guys
57:48
we haven’t we own value at our company
57:51
call be a player which basically goes
57:53
back to saying like you were a problem
57:55
like the first question you should be
57:56
asking is like what am I gonna do about
57:58
it and then go do it
58:00
like you can’t wait for somebody else to
58:02
solve the problem right so you can take
58:04
the first step and it’s noticeable to
58:06
care about ten things equally that’s not
58:08
true right let’s just say you had three
58:10
pets
58:11
the dog a hamster and a rat don’t lie to
58:17
me and tell me you’d like the rat more
58:19
than the dog it belongs kick-ass rats
58:22
suck
58:22
hamsters get eaten there’s a priority
58:24
okay ideas are the same that person
58:44
cannot be negative don’t tell me that
58:47
your mastery of rhetoric there isn’t
58:51
Kenny the question is Canadian brain
58:54
drain how do we combat it to Hippocrates
58:57
well why did I leave I left Canada
59:03
because I didn’t feel I was I felt at
59:08
home meaning on the one hand I felt at
59:11
home because it had raised me and had
59:13
given me so many things but at a much
59:16
more core level about what I wanted to
59:18
do for the future I did not feel at home
59:19
I did not feel it was a place that could
59:21
embrace risk and failure and I did not
59:23
feel like it was a place that I could
59:25
surround myself with the people that
59:27
would allow me to build what I was
59:28
capable of building I don’t think that
59:33
that’s been fixed yet here so how do you
59:37
fix it I think at one level we have to
59:42
fix the taxation system because
59:45
unfortunately or not there’s a huge
59:47
incentives that comes with taking the
59:49
kind of risk that we take and it’s
59:52
well-established in the United States
59:54
and it’s not here it’s just not and then
59:58
the second thing is that I think that
60:00
culturally you have to find ways of like
60:02
organizing around people that don’t
60:04
celebrate checking boxes and being
60:07
middle of the road being in balance
60:09
symmetry is valued in Canada come along
60:13
get along everybody’s nice and
60:15
hunky-dory in the middle right it’s true
60:18
being an outlier and being spiky is not
60:21
valued and so a lot of people feel out
60:23
of place and if you’re in technology
60:25
you’re probably
60:25
predisposed to being that kind of spiky
60:27
person and all of a sudden you see these
60:29
shiny objects like Facebook and Oberer
60:30
and Google in Silicon Valley and you’re
60:32
like wow I’ll be understood I’ll be
60:34
around my tribe I’ll find connection and
60:36
affiliation so that’s what you have to
60:38
solve you have to solve the financial
60:40
incentives and you have to solve the
60:41
social incentives and community then
60:43
people won’t go one the government can
60:45
control and two is like places like this
60:48
you know and like how these places
60:50
evolve over time can do that I don’t
60:54
think it’s not overnight solve either
60:56
like it takes time for building the
60:57
ecosystem yeah ii support startups
61:01
i was pulling out i was i was this was
61:05
yesterday i was at some shopping center
61:10
near my house in Palo Alto okay and I
61:12
was pulling out of a lot of a stall or
61:16
whatever and this woman was on her phone
61:18
totally oblivious to me kept going right
61:20
through I have it I have a Tesla Tesla
61:25
but I get these drops and the latest
61:29
software dropped that I got basically
61:30
stopped the car for me well cuz I was
61:34
just pulling out and it made a decision
61:36
and it intervened you know I’m thankful
61:38
I am it also turned out I mean it’s also
61:41
true my kids were in the car so it would
61:43
have been a you know really bad thing
61:45
but these are the kinds of expert
61:47
systems we’re building you know there
61:49
there are people right now that are like
61:50
doing an incredible job you give them a
61:52
small amount of data and an image and
61:54
boom they’ll know whether they can
61:56
detect a tumor or whatever all these
61:58
things are possible because of AI so why
62:00
fear that stuff we need a better compute
62:02
fabric so that you could do it faster
62:03
and a better scale I think so that’s
62:07
kind of my view I think I think this
62:08
whole thing of like the robots taking
62:10
over is a little overblown in 50 years
62:12
we’re gonna have to worry about
62:13
something like that but not now
62:14
cool well we’re out of time I have a
62:16
bunch more questions about this stuff
62:18
but how can I say
62:22
okay the blonde the blonde lady I was
62:25
waving this this question is not gonna
62:39
go in a good place huh
62:40
she’s gonna either we’re you can already
62:42
tell right everybody knows go ahead
62:43
sorry miss your question but did you
63:11
just did you miss the point of what I
63:12
said that is what I said I don’t think
63:14
that this is a I’m sorry but like look I
63:17
got exceptionally lucky okay am i proud
63:21
of it yeah is that at number inaccurate
63:24
yeah it’s actually much much better than
63:26
that
63:32
I have nothing to be ashamed of okay so
63:37
but none of that matters that’s my whole
63:41
point
63:41
it doesn’t matter don’t label me by that
63:44
number which is inaccurate to the
63:46
downside by many multiples okay but it
63:48
doesn’t matter what I’m trying to tell
63:51
you is that it matters that you realize
63:53
we are living in a world that has the
63:55
disproportionate percent propensity
63:57
whether you’re rich poor black white
63:59
male female gay straight doesn’t matter
64:02
to make you feel unhappy and yes I do
64:06
think it is the most important thing and
64:08
there are different weights and measures
64:10
for different people and you owe it to
64:12
yourself to learn about what it means
64:14
for you and do it I’ve started to do it
64:17
because I got to these check boxes and
64:19
didn’t feel happy so yeah I’m agreeing
64:22
with you
64:23
there’s nothing I said that is
64:24
correlated with all that stuff that you
64:26
just talked about there’s nothing to do
64:27
with being rich okay one last thing
64:38
before I before you guys go go read that
64:42
book if you care can you repeat the name
64:45
of the book so that everybody catches it
64:46
again adult children of alcoholics go
64:49
read it I mean not all of you need to
64:54
read it but I’m just saying for some of
64:56
it and then take the time to take care
64:59
of yourself and then you’ll be able to
65:02
do whatever the hell it is that you want
65:03
to do and I wish you the best of luck
65:05
and I wish you all the skill in the
65:08
world but I wish you really the best of
65:11
luck
65:13
[Applause]