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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello? Hello, Tyler Brighten here. First video of 2026. I took a little break for those who weren’t following along or maybe you’re coming across the channel for the first time. I was lucky enough, privileged enough to have a little baby girl named Maya, August 14th, 2025. Now that’s my birthday, not 2025.
[00:00:17] I would be a baby, and I wouldn’t be talking to you right now, but way back in 1992. And so it was pretty amazing to bring a baby girl into this world on my birthday. And just a wide range of beautiful emotions and all the stuff that goes on with that.
[00:00:35] Now, it was interesting. I was just powering through for a little bit, creating videos, even when I was in like that chaos. Zone of the first month of having Maya having our first child, Monica and I, and then at some point I was trying to do every week, like a weekly update, like what was happening what was I learning?
[00:00:53] Right around I was about to make a video for the month and just the energy languished there. And I reposted some stuff for work, but I haven’t been really been able to, not, haven’t been able to, but I haven’t prioritized posting on the personal channel.
[00:01:07] Here for a bit. And it’s interesting. You have a baby and then a lot of things change your priorities, change your time changes. I saw some, post about like people who don’t have kids are just like, they’re like on vacation. They don’t even realize it, agree with that sentiment.
[00:01:23] But at the same time. There’s still a lot of quiet moments right now. For example, Maya is sleeping. She’s having a nap that may end anytime soon as a very predictable 30 minute to 40 minute session there. And that’s part of why I’m recording right now. But you still have these moments of quiet, these moments of peace, and you make those more impactful, you make those more worthwhile than maybe you did previously where it’s like, ah, 40 minute doom squirrel session here. You only get these a couple times, so you might as well make them worthwhile. So you do something that you know, impactful, whether it’s at work or at the house, or you play with your dog, any of those things, it kinda changes what you get in those valuable moments of times.
[00:02:01] What you prioritize and what you wanna do
[00:02:03] now, of course I have some bias myself, but I think Maya’s just the cutest little girl in the world. Five months with her yesterday, and you can see here she’s sitting, she’s smiling.
[00:02:15] She is so much more social and aware and conscious. She’s having these longer wake windows. She’s. Recognizing me, recognizing mom. She smiles , when she sees us. It’s such a fun amazing experience. And fatherhood definitely changes you,
[00:02:31] especially when you’re running your own company and you have both the pressure of that and then also your own flexibility and range of what you wanna do and how much you contribute. And so part of it has been workwise that I’ve been understanding myself in this new paradigm with a baby.
[00:02:50] And then part of that is just personally, again, publishing on YouTube. I had this goal this public goal actually hey, can I hit a million views on YouTube? And actually last year I hit it. I hit it earlier than I thought I was going to, and I hadn’t really set much of a goal after that.
[00:03:06] I did wanna get to 10,000 subscribers. Only 25% there and not even, I got monetized, which was great. Now, not making much money from YouTube and that. Place, partly into sort of the prioritization framework here, but I hadn’t really set any goals after this million views. And so I felt this sort of momentum in the enthusiasm wane.
[00:03:27] And then after, several years of, pretty intense effort now, not doing crazy editing or things like that. I saw how much time goes into YouTube and then how much you can get out of it through the monetization element through the advertising. And then, also my own enjoyment of recording video, creating content, editing that content, publishing it.
[00:03:46] All of that became more clear with that data set of two years, and I’d also seen a lot of volatility in that period. I think all of us are experiencing right now. This idea of saturation of content. And that’s hyperinflated by obviously democratization of things like our phones to create content.
[00:04:03] But then a new generation who’s even more savvy and interested in. And then of course now this sort of AI lop factory that has emerged and doesn’t really seem to be going away. It just actually seems to be accelerating
[00:04:16] and so YouTube, in a way has taken a little bit of a backseat as the direct connection to a viable path of a would say, financial incentive or creation. Conflicts with then the even more intense role of, being a father and then wanting to provide, especially with your wife off of work.
[00:04:37] And then, you have this beautiful little child that all of a sudden amplifies your role as a protector and a provider in your household. And it’s not something that is really easily dismissed or, minimize just becomes an innate part of you that like, obviously kicks in when you are leading up to having the baby or even thinking about having the baby. But then once that baby’s there and looking at you and then you laughing and then crying, all these things, it really, ramps it into high gear and it doesn’t go away after that.
[00:05:10] And what I’m then working through is, okay, if I’m creating this video right now, what am I not doing? I’m not spending time with my daughter now. She’s sleeping for now. Or at least being very quiet. But I could also be working on Speak ai, the business that I own, and, doing something marketing worthwhile that brings in more revenue and makes our customers happy be
[00:05:30] that could be. Focusing on the, the current platform that we have now, where I could be discovering new opportunities. I could be networking, I could be going out into the world, out of the house. It’s a little snowy here today. But meeting people in person and building relationships with them that are beneficial personally
[00:05:46] Or become, customers of the business that we’ve built here at Speak ai. And so this sort of constant, evaluation, this prioritization framework comes into play once you have a kid. And it’s always there, but it’s amplified. And again, it’s not really this negative thing in a lot of ways.
[00:06:05] It’s this more positive thing that focuses you on. What really matters in your life and in the world. And you can meander through in a lot of ways. But when that pressure comes through, again, this wonderful privilege, this sort of miracle that we’re able to have when you have a child, and there’s no real way to ignore it.
[00:06:25] So that’s a long winded way to, say I’m sorry for not recruiting these videos. I’m back. I know, people who are even subscribed you’re not really these massive engaged audience. And so I think that’s part of it. Like you have these hilarious, sort of naive ambitions when you’re creating that. If you just keep doing it that at some point you’re gonna find this audience. And of course there’s truth to that.
[00:06:46] It’s been proven many times over. But you also see these people who have just been like on Twitch or on YouTube for years with no real growth in their audience or views. And at some point it’s maybe you gotta pivot a little bit or change the kind of content that you’re creating. For me, it’s not really something that I want to do.
[00:07:03] I don’t wanna spend, I complain about this way too many times about, eight hours editing. Even though in the end that might be the content for me that breaks through. Now the question is, even if it breaks through, really what am I trying to achieve? Am I trying to, you make more friends?
[00:07:19] Am I trying to sell more of speak? Am I trying to prove my knowledge and expertise?
[00:07:25] I think all these questions have emerged truly what am I trying to, accomplish. And in some ways that pressure that’s come from having the kid, puts this focus on you. I was hoping in a way it would release some of the existential nature of myself, of constantly questioning meaning and why am I doing this and what is the purpose and all this stuff.
[00:07:47] It hasn’t really helped. It’s actually maybe it hasn’t made it worse, but it definitely hasn’t receded the way that I thought a child might make that happen. And I think, the other, thing and I had a great talk with one of my neighbors just yesterday. He’s like my wife and I, 10 years in the future now they had twin daughters. We only had one daughter. And they’re awesome girls. He had gone through this hustle of 15 years down in the US working hard technology, software, healthcare space, left the company, went back equity, all this stuff now, really good outcome from him.
[00:08:19] He was able to sell two businesses in that time, but basically wasn’t at home during that period and said, it was so intense. There was so much pressure. I look back and I wonder if it was the right thing. And in some ways it’s hard to argue that it wasn’t the right thing.
[00:08:32] He’s in a great situation right now. He’s always hanging out and he’s spending time with his kids, and that was, the outcome of that effort.
[00:08:39] But it really makes you question, you see someone literally 10 years ahead of you who’s gone through it, glad they didn’t continue it, and then also
[00:08:47] wondering if it was worth it. And I think that’s something that, I’m asking myself with right now is what is the trajectory that I’m on. I’m a business owner seven years. I can’t believe I’ve run this software company before that it was an agency. Before that I was. Just persevering through college and university.
[00:09:05] But it’s basically been 10 years running a company with a very small team, relatively bootstrapped myself, very different world from when I started that period to where we are now. Very different person. So much ego and narcissism and. Really even more just trying to prove to people that I was capable of something after a difficult period in my twenties where I felt that I embarrassed myself.
[00:09:30] In many ways that, suffering is over. And so I’m left to re-question, this. Series of choices that lead you to where you are today. And again, some of those very positive. I have amazing wife. I have a beautiful daughter. I’ve been able to buy a house I’ve been able to provide for myself.
[00:09:49] I’ve learned a lot. I’ve had the more flexibility than most. There’s some amazing positive things that have come out of the journey that I’ve been on. And yet there’s other questions that there’s the other side, and maybe part of it is the grass is greener. Or maybe it’s just the, questioning that comes from us all where in many cases we have infinite paths that we could take every day, and each one of those could be a different version of your life. And you play those out sometimes. And so some you think, okay, maybe if I had not been doing this company, or I had joined this company, I would’ve got equity in that company and I would’ve had this outcome, and now it would be whatever and blah, blah, blah, and blah, blah, blah.
[00:10:26] So you start to, roll on that or. And some of that I think is financial incentive, which all of us, have, some desire for. And then I think other times it’s more just connection. I originally moved to Toronto to, connect more with a network of people who was interested in technology, was a little bit faster pace that had more financial upside and then COVID came and spent.
[00:10:48] Years cocooned in our house. And then that pattern for me at least, hasn’t changed that much because I work remotely, I work from home and sometimes the only people that I see are, through, the hockey that I play, the gym that I go to, the sports. And then luckily I’ve now made some friends, but that sort of connective tissue of real world interaction with people that I originally sought and even brought me to Toronto, which was, put off course by COVI was never really restored. And now it’s this entirely different world. And again, after a child, after seven years in that company starting to just reassess. And I think it’s also just this end of a year, start of a new year motion of life that I’ve never fully understand if it was like that’s the natural way that humans are, or again, it’s just the milestones of the new year.
[00:11:37] And then so our life has happened to move in these, waves of seasons and then years that then brings these energies of reflection and clarity and then resolution in some cases what’s really interesting is a lot of these things, I feel like I don’t have that much control over some of the things I do.
[00:11:58] And so what I’ve also been trying to do this year here in 2026 has been focus on some of the things that I have control over. And just one of them has been my own relationship with food and fitness. Previously being a competitive hockey player, that career ending up in a depressive food eating pit, reaching up to 280 pounds, keto it down back to under 200, and then over the past few years.
[00:12:26] Continuing that journey, but then also getting lost in peanut butter jelly sandwiches and my wife’s amazing cooking, which is full of carbs that my body can’t process. And also childhood remnants, which was this gratification or reward system based off sugar. And I said, I don’t wanna do this anymore.
[00:12:44] And I had this victim mentality built around my relationship with food, which is I’m just an overeater, I’m an addict. I can’t control myself. All these things, and it’s always seems to happen for me. There’s a switch that goes off and often it’s before the period that people would start.
[00:13:00] So a lot of people start the resolutions in the new year. I was like, okay, it’s December. I need to do this now. And so I started this journey and it’s a journey that is, not unfamiliar. To me, I’m actually been using at the core FitnessPal in this experience. And the interesting piece for FitnessPal in this.
[00:13:21] This attempt at the Journey has that I’ve been also paired that with chat GBT and taking the the structured information that’s coming from fitness bowel and then plugging that into chat GBT. And it’s almost like this conversational nutrition and fitness coach that has really helped guide me through a lot of things that I wasn’t fully aware of when it comes to fitness, and so what’s interesting here, a 40 day streak. During that period I started at 2 35. Now I was two 10 whenever I was recording this last, and then it’s, I, when I started this back on 1207, I clocked in at 2 35. One point, seen 2 38 on the scale. And my doctor even warned me on my BMI and then I was on a WhatsApp video and my wife’s sister was joking about how pudgy I looked and I looked at myself, phone, what’s up? And I was like, oh my God, you look brutal. And I had really been letting myself go in a lot of ways and again, I had been working out, so I had gained some muscle. I was still trying to, I still need to discern all that and, sorry, I’ll move myself around here. I realize I’m blocking the chart completely. So I started at the 2 35 and now down to, two 20. I weighed myself at yesterday.
[00:14:28] And I’m pretty happy with that loss. We’re at, 15 pounds on here. I was at 2 38 at one of these days here. And so 18 pounds, obviously some of that glycogen, water, weight, all of this. But I’m truly eating into. Some fat at this point. And the interesting piece, I was talking about this with my wife is it’s not really great to talk about things that you’re doing in the moment because you almost get this like dopamine release that you’ve completed your task.
[00:14:53] So as I’m saying this, I’m like, why am I even sharing this? I’m not really through the journey that I’m on and my goal here is to get down to I’d like to see 1 99. On the scale, so I still got another 20 pounds to go and maybe I won’t feel that great when I’m at that weight or whatever, we’ll see. But with the food that I’m eating.
[00:15:10] And the way that I’m doing it, that is a very feasible thing. And so throughout MyFitnessPal, and I know people complain about the, the effort that goes into logging at the start. And I agree. I relatively simplistic, I’m not like a big fancy cook, although I’ve cooked some more and then once I have that, I have, basically some recipes that I can copy over. And so I’ve been able to log at least 40 days continuously. I don’t actually think I’ve missed, like literally logging any food. And again, maybe it’s not perfectly exact, but it’s within, the, relatively good estimate to where I want to be, what my goals are.
[00:15:49] And then I’m also logging exercise, which if I, yesterday was a rest day. I haven’t had hockey today, and then the snow came. But you can also see the cardio and the strength training there. And what’s really nice is I can basically just take this, this information here and this is what’s been, I think, helpful to me because it’s not really fun to plug in these.
[00:16:09] Data into MyFitnessPal and not really get a result. So you can see the constant conversations that I’ve been having. And I wish, maybe they’re not there yet, but they should really just have an integration with MyFitnessPal already. And so I can go in here, I can, drop and because the data’s so structured, I can just basically copy this and.
[00:16:29] I dump it in and say, here is, here’s my day so far. And again, I didn’t give it any context, but I could say I have hockey tonight, but it’s now built up this memory of who I am and what I’m trying to accomplish. And then guide me. I could say, Hey, it’s past lunchtime.
[00:16:46] I haven’t eaten that much. I got hockey tonight. What should I eat? And, any red flags or anything I should be aware of. So I still have quite a bit remaining here which is obvious. I haven’t had dinner. And then I’m going to log my hockey, but there’s been a few things that are interesting to me throughout this that I just wanted to share quickly on the journey one, which is.
[00:17:13] Okay. Protein is really everything If you’re trying to preserve muscle, and Al always knew that I was always putting protein in my smoothies and stuff, but to truly understand where I was supposed to be from a grams perspective on a day. . Like knowing in a gram’s weight what I’m supposed to achieve on a daily basis, and then tracking that, and then you audit things and oh my God, I can’t believe I’ve been eating this. And like you realize just how bad some things are, especially sauces, blue cheese, barbecue sauce, mayonnaise.
[00:17:42] It’s like gross. Even what’s been amazing is through the numbers and the analytics, I’ve been able to overwrite the lack of awareness that I had. And so I can’t even eat a piece of chocolate, in good faith. And again, maybe that’s a little too exaggerated.
[00:17:56] I’ve, had Christmas and I had some, some snacks and everything. Now I logged it. So I was very aware and you can see it in the reports here. And that’s a great part of FitnessPal once you build up this history is you can see, the outliers there and you can see what’s causing the problems versus what’s not.
[00:18:09] Or you can say, okay, what it was Christmas and then Boxing Day ate a lot and need to, counteract. That piece here, but it’s come to this moment where a lot of times where before I wouldn’t care, I would say that’s not worth it, or this isn’t fitting in with the sort of goals that I have in this.
[00:18:26] Proactive framework, this prioritization framework that I mentioned earlier, when, thinking about my child has also now been put into place through analytics and numbers through MyFitnessPal, which has been really powerful thing. Now I’m lucky, I’m doing a lot of exercise with hockey.
[00:18:42] I’ve got Frisbee, I go to the gym. I’m lucky to have the flexibility to do that. But.
[00:18:46] Even still very quickly, you can get outta control on what you’re eating. The other side of that is before this, I was a big advocate of ketosis and low carbs. What I’ve learned through this process, evaluating it, is the value of carbs and need for carbs, especially when you are doing that exercise and playing sports.
[00:19:06] And when I don’t eat enough or I don’t eat enough carbs, I can feel the impact on my energy in my mood and my legs now. And now I have this hyper awareness of it before where. I wasn’t really aware. It was just a emotion of life that I didn’t fully understand. And so that’s a really powerful thing.
[00:19:23] I think the other piece there has been, when I under fuel, it actually is counterintuitive to fat loss because your body can think that you’re going into a deficit and start to try to conserve energy in more ways, and that’s not something that we want. Constant deficits that previously I thought were worth running to lose weights would degrade my muscle.
[00:19:42] Now I counteract that with enough protein and calories and carbs, and then yeah, lead my body to try to conserve energy. This idea and I didn’t really know much about this idea of like neat. Which is your natural sort of caloric or energy expansion by your body that stays high when you’re not in these big deficits, but if you continuously do that, will, and even for me, this weight loss of, 15 pounds and 40 days, pretty highly accelerated pace.
[00:20:10] And so I’m now monitoring that more closely because I’m not just trying to go for, the goal and then crash and then end up back at 2 35 from trying to keep this , a sustainable habit. That I’ve now built in, and I think for the first time in my life between the FitnessPal and then the chat GPT coaching, I actually have a functional system that’s allowing me to do that while also enjoying what I’m eating, making me feel like I’m eating enough, and then also helping me be aware of.
[00:20:38] What’s not good and what’s good and helping me react on the spot. And so something that’s been really powerful for me as I end 2025 and start this year. I hope I don’t come back to you in six months and you see my face all swollen and all that stuff, but it’s a journey that I’ve continuously been on for years and something that my family has struggled with a lot.
[00:20:56] I think genetically, I’m not fully aware or understanding of what it is. But also just habitually very sugar, dessert driven family. And, even my parents, my family, later into life have struggled with diet and eating and fluctuation with weight. And I want to get this under control for Mya, for my daughter, for my wife, my doctor telling me that I, have a high BMI and something to be, very aware of, it’s such a big detriment to our lives and our hells and our happiness. And then, moments with,, my wife’s sister, which were funny, but wonderful kick in this butt. And even an old friend who I hadn’t seen for a while who got me with a good joke. And I think he saw me when I was maybe in a previous iteration of skinny.
[00:21:36] And, he hit me hard. And I came home and I said, you know what? I gotta make this change. It all piled up at once and led to this. Systematic change that I’m still on and I’m making good progress in. And hopefully we’ll keep you updated ’cause it’s something I’m super passionate about and interested in.
[00:21:51] And it combines all this stuff, the analytics, the numbers, the fitness, the food, the health, all this stuff into a very noticeable outcome that is, immensely important and impactful in my life. And, as someone who’s had a kid a little bit older, 33. I’m 33. We’ll be older when my daughter, and hopefully maybe another kid reaches an age where I still wanna be able to play with them.
[00:22:12] So I wanna be able to stay in good shape and wanna be able to participate in their life happily and healthily.
[00:22:18] So what else is going on? I’m also recording this video mid Jan in February. We’re going to India second time in India. Five weeks, first time, Monica’s parents and family is gonna meet Maya. So it’s a very exciting thing. Now, it was supposed to be a surprise.
[00:22:33] We had Monica’s sister looped in. She cracked. She couldn’t keep that secret alive. And so the secret’s out. The family knows we’re coming. I’m personally okay with that. I think that’s good that they’re like getting ready for us. And I’m super excited, not so excited about a 16 hour flight, but we’ll make it through.
[00:22:49] We’ll, persevere and my business partner just made it through with his daughter. He daughter, he’s back to visit India and he just made it through and I’m glad he did. That’s a long journey. And what I’m also excited about is, looks like we’re gonna have a return to Goa. Which if you don’t know, it’s kinda like Mexico within India.
[00:23:05] Great little beach, coastal area. , down south it’s warmer, cleaner, air and at least Monica’s sisters and their partners are going to come. We’re hoping to get the grandparents, the mama, g, the papa g to come as well too.
[00:23:18] It’s hard to get them away from their village, but we’re gonna try. And so that’s a big trip. I’ll be in a completely different time zone. Maybe I’ll try to record some videos and low quality on my MacBook during that period. But at least I got this one in and is a little bit of an update for anyone who really cares. And of course, as always, I’ll try to chop this up and eclipse and make something worthwhile out of it.
[00:23:37] I’m not sure if that’s gonna happen and all. Grab some picks while there and hopefully not completely degrade because the food in India incredible. A lot of it, deep fried, a lot of it not that healthy. You get the range in India, you’ve got like the very, very skinny kinda, string bean type of body, and then you get the kinda the overweight ones and it’s quite a wide, that’s everywhere obviously.
[00:23:57] It’s just hilarious in India. And the diet is such a facet of it there. Super excited, nervous, all the things that go along with, taking your baby on an international trip of that scale for the first time ever. But because we’ve got some accommodations there, it ended up being cheaper than, taking some time in even Mexico for example.
[00:24:16] Obviously the flight’s a little pricey, but we got a good deal or a straight shot, 16 hours. And once we’re there mostly all things paid for, which is that’s nice. We’ll take that.
[00:24:27] In terms of, I think work and technology, man, it’s just such a crazy time. The drama of it all, of course is one thing, and then the actual technological innovation is another, and I think that’s been something that I’ve been. Wrestling with for a long time here now. We started Speak AI back in 2018 and we’ve had some pretty good success with the company at the same time.
[00:24:53] What we’ve seen from other companies in this space. , I have this article I’m working on, which is a comparison is the thief of joy. But man, it’s difficult to look at sometimes. You see these billion dollar valuations. I have friends who are early equity, even at companies like philanthropic, where.
[00:25:10] I did a little chat GBT thread and a person I know worth a hundred million dollars or even more, and it’s like some of the most liquid stock in the world. It’s oh, you see that and you just feel gross knowing how much money people are making while you’re doing well ob objectively, but then comparatively it makes you feel like a little ant and then you see the speed and the money that’s being invested into the space.
[00:25:34] And two things. One, which is one just can’t compete with that. And the second is, why don’t I get some of that? And am I in the vehicle that is the best receptor of that. I think the other thing that then comes into more play where with all these infinite potential, this infinite optionality to build whatever you want with all these agents and co-development that’s happening genetically, it’s then the question of what do you wanna build?
[00:25:59] What do you actually see as the opportunity with so much flux in the space?
[00:26:04] And what do you really care about? So that’s something that has been really emerging for me here right now. We’ve put Speak AI out the company and the platform we just call Speak. It’s a bad branding effort. We’re originally right there. There’s another speak.com, which OpenAI is funded.
[00:26:20] That’s just crushing it, which is , language learning.
[00:26:22] But it’s like. Then all these use cases have emerged throughout the years and all these different customer profiles, and you start to see patterns. And we’ve still remained horizontal, during that period. And this is something that people told me not to do and to continue to refine.
[00:26:36] We never listened to them. I’m, stubborn in that manner. And, it’s interesting because there’s been plays of companies that have done this much more successful, even a company like OpenAI, a company like 11 Labs, now these are incredible companies that are executing on just profound speed and often have, deep connections and wealth already before the companies are built.
[00:26:58] But it showed me, if I looking at that 11 Labs, deep Gram Assembly, ai, open ai, Zapier, these companies that are archetypes of the more horizontal infrastructure company, that really appealed to me in what I wanted to build in some ways that speak. All show that it’s both feasible, but also, very difficult.
[00:27:16] And then, so what’s happening now? I think obviously so many companies are now looking for very niche vertical. Entry points into the space where they don’t think these monolithic companies can come, whether that’s now philanthropic and open AI with these models, or of course Microsoft Google and Amazon.
[00:27:34] And I think one of the questions here now is around this idea, on this path to a GI, especially, you know what? Philanthropic has just been accelerating on. F belief that code development, automatic code generation is actually the path because so many solutions are actually found in little small code libraries.
[00:27:56] And if you have the incredible recursive code development, something like we saw in philanthropic cowork, which has gotten so much hype, basically, how could they build kind of cursor for, or clo code for, real, real people. Not real people.
[00:28:12] ’cause coders are obviously real people too, but more everyday kind of knowledge workers outside of developers. Apparently this was built, within a week and a half, directly by anthropics models. Releases are now being built through Claude Code and it’s becoming again, this kind of recursive framework or almost autonomous co-development system.
[00:28:32] And now obviously there was human guidance in everything. Involved in this, but it’s a example of just how profound this technology is and especially this focus on code generation and debugging and testing, just understanding of that world. And if you look at that, then maybe no even niche use case becomes.
[00:28:51] That unreachable. Now there are, I think, areas where there’s data sets that aren’t available that maybe only you have access to. I think those are hard, but if you can get them, then you do have a competitive advantage there. And obviously these companies with a lot of money to throw around are then trying to access those more specifically and more deeply.
[00:29:08] And so you have competition to even find these sort of data moats within the system. I think there’s another layer, obviously the embodiment of technology, the embodiment of robotics that. We will see come into play that is not quite fulfilled and so doesn’t quite achieve sort of the a GI or the, autonomous intelligence that, some of us envision in that more sci-fi, view of the world, which doesn’t seem to be so sci-fi anymore.
[00:29:35] But I think the general question, or the sentiment, or the feeling or the concern. Is in some ways that these companies like Anthropic, like open ai, are so disruptive that there’s almost no place to hide. And of course then there’s the idea, okay, if you’re a plumber or whatever, then you’ve got some time because the robots aren’t here yet.
[00:29:57] Really their technology is this pervasive force that is reaching out to every little, nook and crevice of society to try to, obviously increase their market cap, but solve every problem. Some for good reasons, some for just, the financial reward.
[00:30:13] But it’s a very, interesting, disruptive time. And I think a lot of us in some ways, as we saw \ the functions and skills that we learned growing up that we thought would be well rewarded and have a long path, be disrupted then so is our own sense of meaning and purpose and who we are. And I think there’s a lot of people and not just this I would say a.
[00:30:36] That’s a horrible classification, but this bottom, rung of society, talk about the K shaped economy and the lower class and then the upper class. But this is being impacted everywhere. Developers, software engineers, doctors, accountants, lawyers, all the way to, laborers and, warehouses and things like this are being impacted.
[00:30:54] So it’s not just such a simple, disruptive force where often wealth accumulates just. Enough into the upper class that it, who have power. I think it’s a risk now that it’s actually accumulating to such a small set of hands that, there’s real concern. Now. A lot of people are pushing back against that and saying, Hey, technology.
[00:31:15] Will disrupt. And it’s this creative destruction that then creates new things. And yes, there’s all this data labeling, blah, blah, blah, and all these stuff. So I think there is validity in that argument, but I think we’re also yet to see that play out. And if you’re not staying on top of it, unless you’re specialized in some sort of real world human interface, environment, then you can be sunset out of a system.
[00:31:38] Very quickly. And this is something I’m thinking a lot about. It combines with my constant existentialism and my constant peering into the future. And so I have to think that, hey, I’m sitting warm and cozy in my house right now with a beautiful baby and wife. But it’s definitely something that I’m thinking about and even something
[00:31:53] ’cause I’m constantly just blabbing on video, but I’m actually trying to write again and try to synthesize my thoughts in a little bit. It more of a way where it’s not just also, GPT slop. I actually, for example, wrote, all of this myself, and talking about, okay, if this is all true, you know how to succeed.
[00:32:11] And it’s not even just capitalism. It’s like techno hyper capitalism that we’re now in, and probably even with a GI in brackets at the end. And it’s something that I’m, asking this idea of late stage capitalism, this Ray Dalio view where it seems like things are coming to an end in some ways and falling apart and, we’re paying more and getting less quality , and there’s just relentlessness in capitalism that’s taking place. The second piece, which is the need to participate and unless you’re on a beach somewhere, as you’ve already grabbed your wealth then you really do have to participate. And , even people who you know, maybe. Leave for a bit.
[00:32:52] They have to, eventually they get bored in their forest or their water or whatever, and they have to come back to society and they’re actually behind and they have to start from scratch in some ways. And of course there’s the the expats and all these Bali people and all this stuff. Who are the digital nomads who maybe finding the balance of this, but in some ways, I think sort of info products and all this stuff that they’re trying to sell.
[00:33:11] That becomes difficult when you’ve just got chat, GPT, and you can get personalized information with context and memory of you. And so I, question the sort of validity and future of some of those instances, unless maybe you have a large, dedicated, loyal audience of people who have followed you a long time.
[00:33:26] And for some reason in my mind, that sticks out to artists right now, Tyler, the creator, or j Cole, whatever, it doesn’t matter how long they’re gone for, they can come back with an album and there’s so much human connection built to them that. People will show up to see them and they have a, a very good path of surviving and thriving.
[00:33:42] During this time. And I think this term has come up, which I’m starting to think about and now I’m starting to see more, which is this idea of the permanent underclass who as this version of the future seems to be where we’re headed. If you don’t make enough money or have the network or whatever, you may just get stuck.
[00:34:01] And I think there’s validity in challenging that ’cause people can reinvent themselves and do different things. But then a lot of people have constraints of who they are and you know what options they have and where they are in the world and their family, and what they’re capable of.
[00:34:14] And so it’s not so easy for everyone. And so I’m also, I think this is the piece that I’m questioning myself too, this idea of the reality of capitalism and how much of this perspective that I have is real versus generated now by continuous conversations with chat CT, which has guided so much of my information and decision making, whether it’s professionally or with my child.
[00:34:36] Or just how the technology is changing. Am I delusional? Am I stupid? Am I lazy? Like, why? Is there also with this questioning of meaning, is there this lack of motivation that I hadn’t felt, previously? I think that there was a clear a technological problem that I was solving that hadn’t been solved, and as that problem became solved, were just very solvable.
[00:34:58] Even within, natural language prompts, you start to have to reimagine then what is my value and what’s guiding me and motivating what’s firing me to wake up every day. And then again, you add in the layer of having a child at home that’s beautiful and cute and you just wanna play with them.
[00:35:12] It starts to not distort it, but it really, puts that intensity too. I consider it, and again, I talk about, I like these nice things and all this stuff, but the question then becomes, so how do I embrace capitalism? If I’m forced to participate, which it seems like I am because of the things that I want, and I wanna live near the family, and I wanna take my daughter back to India now and travel, then I need to participate.
[00:35:33] I need to embrace. And so understanding, what drives me, and.
[00:35:39] What motivates me and what can help me make the money that I want. Obviously that’s one layer, but then also not be a constant slog in my life. And I know there’s just the reality that’s life sometimes, but if you’re hopefully clever and motivated and strategic enough, you can try to find something that’s maybe a little bit more meaningful.
[00:35:58] There’s always gonna be parts of it that are not fun, but you can try to optimize for more of that than less of it or none of it if you do things in a particular way. And so that’s what I’m at least trying to achieve. And I think many of us in this world of abundant opportunity and access to information, at least for the current period.
[00:36:16] And so anyways, I wrote this article and I’m continuing to work and. I think, it’s interesting as I record this video it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot, which is who am I? And even from someone outside perspective, like how do they perceive me in some ways, I’ve got a lot of things figured out.
[00:36:31] In some ways I just feel lost as ever. Just this lost boy and this crazy, chaotic transitional world. Just trying to navigate through it, be present in the moment and satisfied and happy, while also trying to plan for the future and make sure that. You know what? I think at the very least, the current quality of life is maintained, and hopefully you have some upward trajectory, on it.
[00:36:53] I had been rambling on here for quite a while, so obviously so much more that we could talk about, but this was a little bit of an a tent at creating a video. Again, I haven’t created one for a while. So much has changed since I last recorded a video and Maya was just one month old. We’re now sitting at five months.
[00:37:10] So much good stuff has come out of it. I’m excited. It’s probably awake back here now. I can hear some sounds. I don’t also get some, quiet to record videos like this, but I’ll try to. Be more consistent within my own priority framework to share these updates. And even if I’m writing content, then that’s something if I don’t quite have the.
[00:37:28] It’s not the energy, but something to get up and do the video like this, and then all the editing. But I have been listening to some, great podcasts with Arthur Brooks and I think I’m getting that and Tim Ferriss where just talk about the importance of creating versus consuming and carving that period out in your life.
[00:37:45] And I’m a multimodal creator. Sometimes video, sometimes writing, sometimes I like music. And so today I felt like a little bit of video. Here we are. I hope you got something outta this. I hope. I got something out of this and I look forward to seeing you next time. Have a great rest of your day.
[00:38:00] Bye-bye.
