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by Dean Jackson and Dan Sullivan

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Join Dean Jackson and Dan Sullivan as they talk about growing your business and living you best life in Cloudlandia.

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April 9, 2025

Ep152: Exploring Time Zones and Trade

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we start by unraveling the intriguing concept of global time zones. We humorously ponder the idea of a unified world clock, inspired by China's singular time zone. The discussion expands to how people in countries like Iceland adapt to extreme daylight variations and the impact of climate change narratives that often overlook local experiences. We then explore the power of perception and emotion in shaping our reactions to world events. The conversation delves into how algorithms on platforms shape personal experiences and the choice to opt out of traditional media in favor of a more tailored information stream. The shift from curated media landscapes to algorithm-driven platforms is another key topic, highlighting the challenges of navigating personalized information environments. Finally, we tackle the critical issue of government financial accountability. We humorously consider where vast sums of unaccounted-for money might go, reflecting on the importance of financial transparency. <center> SHOW HIGHLIGHTS <ul style="list-style-type: circle;"> </center> <li>In the episode, Dan and I explore the concept of a unified global time zone, drawing inspiration from China's singular time zone. We discuss the potential advantages and disadvantages of such a system, including the adaptability of people living in areas with extreme daylight variations like Iceland.</li> <li>We delve into the complexities of climate change narratives, highlighting how they often lack local context and focus on global measurements, which can lead to stress and anxiety due to information overload without agency.</li> <li>The power of perception and emotion is a focal point, as we discuss how reactions are often influenced by personal feelings and past experiences rather than actual events. This is compared to the idealization of celebrities through curated information.</li> <li>Our conversation examines the shift from curated media landscapes to algorithm-driven platforms, emphasizing how algorithms shape personal experiences and the challenges of researching topics like tariffs in a personalized information environment.</li> <li>We discuss the dynamic between vision and capability in innovation, using historical examples like Gutenberg's printing press to illustrate how existing capabilities can spark visionary ideas.</li> <li>The episode explores the complexities of international trade, particularly the shift from tangible products to intangible services, and the challenges of tracking these shifts across borders.</li> <li>We address the issue of government financial accountability, referencing the $1.2 trillion unaccounted for last year, and the need for financial transparency and accountability in the current era.</li> </ul> <center> Links: <a href="https://welcometocloudlandia.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WelcomeToCloudlandia.com</a><a href="http://strategiccoach.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> StrategicCoach.com</a> <a href="http://deanjackson.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DeanJackson.com</a> <a href="https://ListingAgentLifestyle.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ListingAgentLifestyle.com</a> </center> <center> TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) </center> Dean: Mr Sullivan. Dan: Yes, and I forgot my time zones there almost for a second. Are you in Chicago? Yeah, you know. Why can't we just all be in the same time zone? Dean: Well. Dan: I know that's what China does. Yeah, Well, that's a reason not to do it. Then you know, I learned that little tidbit from we publish something and it's a reason not to do it. Dean: then that was. You know I learned that little tidbit from. We publish something and it's a postcard for, you know, realtors and financial advisors or business owners to send to their clients as a monthly kind of postcard newsletter, and so every month it has all kinds of interesting facts and whatnot, and one of them that I heard on there is, even though China should have six time zones, they only have one. That's kind of an interesting thing. Imagine if the. United States had all one time zone, that would be great. Dan: Yeah, I think there would be advantages and disadvantages, regardless of what your time system is. Dean: Well, that'd be like anything really, you know, think about that. In California it would get light super early and we'd be off a good dock really early too we'd be off and get docked really early too. Yeah, I spent a couple of summers in Iceland, where it gets 24 hours of light. Dan: You know June 20th and it's. I mean, it's disruptive if you're just arriving there, but I talked to Icelanders and they don't really think about it. It's, you know, part of the year it's completely light all day and part of the year it's dark all day. And then they've adjusted to it. Dean: It happens in Finland and Norway and Alaska. We're adaptable, dan, we're very adaptable. Dan: And those that aren't move away or die. Dean: I heard somebody was talking today about. It was a video that I saw online. They were mentioning climate change, global warming, and that they say that global warming is the measurement is against what? Since when? Is the question to ask, because the things that they're talking about are since 1850, right, it's warmed by 0.6 degrees Celsius since 1850. We've had three periods of warming and since you know, the medieval warming and the Roman warming, we're actually down by five degrees. So it's like such a so when somebody says that we're global warming, the temperature is global warming and the question is since when? That's the real question to ask. Dan: Yeah, I think with those who are alarmist regarding temperature and climate. They have two big problems. They're language problems, Not so much language, but contextual problems. Nobody experiences global. That's exactly right. The other thing is nobody experiences climate. What we experience is local weather. Dean: Yes. Dan: Yeah, so nobody in the world has ever experienced either global or climate. You just experience whatever the weather is within a mile of you you know within a mile of you. That's basically and it's hard to it's hard to sell a theory. Dean: That, you know. That ties in with kind of the idea we were talking about last week that the you know, our brains are not equipped, we're not supposed to have omniscience or know of all of the things that are happening all over the world, of all of the things that are happening all over the world, where only our brains are built to, you know, be aware of and adapt to what's happening in our own proximity and with the people in our world. Our top 150 and yeah, that's what that's the rap thing is that we're, you know, we're having access to everybody and everything at a rate that we're not access to everybody and everything at a rate that we're not supposed to Like. Even when you look back at you know, I've thought about this, like since the internet, if you think about since the 90s, like you know, my growing up, my whole lens on the world was really a, you know, toronto, the GTA lens and being part of Canada. That was really most of our outlook. And then, because of our proximity to the United States, of course we had access to all the US programming and all that stuff, but you know, you mostly hear it was all the local Buffalo programming. That was. They always used to lead off with. There was a lot of fires in Tonawanda, it seemed happening in Buffalo, because everything was fire in North Tonawanda. It still met 11. And that was whole thing. We were either listening to the CBC or listening to eyewitness news in Buffalo, yeah. But now, and you had to seek out to know what was going on in Chicago, the only time you would have a massive scale was happening in Chicago. Right, that made national news the tippy top of the thing. Dan: Yeah, I wonder if you said an interesting thing is that we have access to everyone and everything, but we never do it. Dean: It's true we have access to the knowledge right Like it's part of you know how, when you I was thinking about it, as you know how you define a mess right as an obligation without commitment that there's some kind of information mess that we have is knowledge without agency? You know we have is knowledge without agency. You know we have no agency to do anything about any of these bad things that are happening. No, it's out of our control. You know what are we going to do about what's happening in Ukraine or Gaza or what we know about them? You know, or we know, everybody's getting stabbed in London and you know you just hear you get all these things that fire off these anxiety things triggers. It's actually in our mind, yeah that's exactly right, that our minds with access to that. That triggers off the hormone or the chemical responses you know that fire up the fight or flight or the anxiety or readiness. Dan: Yeah, it's really interesting. I've been giving some thought to well, first of all, the perception of danger in the world, and what we're responding to is not actual events. What we're responding to is our feelings. Yes, that's exactly right, yeah. You've just had an emotional change and you're actually responding to your own emotions, which really aren't that connected to what actually triggered your emotions. You know it might have been something that happened to you maybe 25 years ago. That was scary and that memory just got triggered by an event in the world. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Yeah, and the same thing with celebrity. Celebrity because I've been thinking about celebrity for quite a long time and you know, each of us you and I, to a certain extent are a celebrity in certain circles, and what I think is responsible for that is that they've read something or heard something or heard somebody say something that has created an image of someone in their mind, but it's at a distance, they don't actually meet you at a distance. And the more that's reinforced, but you never meet them the image of that person gets bigger and bigger in your mind. But you're not responding to the person. You're responding just to something that you created in your mind. Dean: I think part of that is because you know if you see somebody on video or you hear somebody on audio or you see them written about in text, that those are. It's kind of residue from you know it used to be the only people that would get written about or on tv or on the radio were no famous people yeah, famous, and so that's kind of it. I think that the same yeah, everybody has access to that. Now Everybody has reach. You know to be to the meritocracy of that because it used to be curated, right that there was some, there were only, so somebody was making the decision on who got to be famous. Like that's why people used to really want to own media. Like that's why people used to really want to own media. That's why all these powerful people wanted to own newspapers and television and radio stations, because they could control the messaging, control the media. You know? Dan: Yeah, it's really interesting. Is it you that has the reach, or someone else has reach that's impacting you? Dean: Yeah, I mean I think that we all have it depends on whether you're on the sending end or the receiving end of reach. Yeah, like we've seen a shift in what happens, like even in the evolution of our ability to be able to consume. It started with our ability to consume content, like with all of those you know, with MP3s and videos, and you know, then YouTube was really the chance for everybody to post up. You know you could distribute, you had access to reach, and in the last 10 years, the shift has been that you had to in order to have reach, you had to get followers right. That were people would subscribe to your content or, you know, like your content on Facebook or be your friend or follower, and now we've shifted to every. That doesn't really matter. Everything is algorithmic now. It's like you don't have to go out and spread the word and gather people to you. Your content is being pushed to people. That's how Stephen Paltrow can become, can reach millions of people, because his content is scratching an itch for millions of people who are, you know, seeking out fertility content, content, and that is being pushed to you. Now, that's why you're it's all algorithm based, you know, and it's so. It's really interesting that it becomes this echo chamber, that you get more of what you respond to. So you know you're get it. So it's amazing how every person's algorithm is very different, like what shows up on on things, and that's kind of what you've really, you know, avoided is you've removed yourself from that. You choose not to participate, so you're the 100%. Seek out what you're looking for. It's not being dictated to you. Dan: Not quite understanding that. Dean: Well you have chosen that you don't watch news. You don't participate in social media. You don't have an Instagram or anything like that where they're observing what you're watching and then dictating what you see next. You are an active like. You go select what you're going to watch. Now you've chosen real clear politics as your curator of things, so that's the jump. Dan: Peter Zion. Dean: But you're self-directing your things by asking. You're probably being introduced to things by the way. You interact with perplexity by asking it 10 ways. This is affecting this or the combination of this and this. Dan: Yeah, I really don't care what perplexity, you know what it would want to tell me about. Dean: You just want to ask, you want to guide the way it responds. Yeah yeah, and that's very it's very powerful. Dan: It's very powerful. I mean, I'm just utterly pleased with what perplexity does for me. You know like you know, I just considered it. You know an additional capability that I have daily, that you know I can be informed in a way that suits me, like I was going over the tariffs. It was a little interesting on the tariff side because I asked a series of questions and it seemed to be avoiding what I was getting at. This is the first time I've really had that. So I said yeah, and I was asking about Canada and I said what tariffs did Canada have against the United States? I guess you can say against tariff, against before 2025. And it said there were no retaliatory tariffs against the United States before 2025. And I said I didn't ask about retaliatory tariffs, I asked about tariffs, you know. And that said, well, there were no reciprocal tariffs before 2025. And I said, no, I want to know what tariffs. And then this said there was softwood and there was dairy products, and you know. I finally got to it. I finally got to it and I haven't really thought about it, because it was just about an hour ago that I did it and I said why did it avoid my question? I didn't. I mean, it's really good at knowing exactly what you're saying. Why did it throw a couple of other things in there? Dean: Yeah, misdirection, right, or kind of. Maybe it's because what, maybe it's because it's the temperature. You know of what the zeitgeist is saying. What are people searching about? And I think maybe those, a lot of the words that they're saying, are. You know, the words are really important. Dan: Not having a modifier for a tariff puts you in a completely different, and those tariffs have been in place for 50 or 60 years. So the interesting thing about it. By the way, 50 countries are now negotiating with the United States to remove tariffs how interesting. And he announced it on Wednesday. Dean: Yeah. Dan: He just wanted to have a conversation with you and wanted to get your attention. Dean: Yeah, wanted to get your attention. Yeah, have your attention, yeah, okay, let's talk about this. Dan: Yeah and everything. But other than that, I'm just utterly pleased with what it can do to fashion your thoughts, fashion your writing and everything else. I think it's a terrific tool. Dean: I've been having a lot of conversations around these bots. Like you know, people are hot on creating bots now like a Dan bot. Creating bots now like a Dan bot. Like oh Dan, you could say you've got so many podcasts and so much content and so many recordings of you, let's put it all in and train up Dan bot and then people could ask they'd have access to you as an AI. Dan: Yeah, the way I do it. I ask them to send me a check and then they could. Dean: But I wonder the thing about it that most of the things that I think are the limitations of that are that it's not how to even take advantage of that, because they don't know what you know to be able to, of that. Because they're bringing it, they don't know what you know to be able to access that you know and how it affects them you know. I first I got that sense when somebody came. They were very excited that they had trained up a Napoleon Hill bot and AI and you can ask Napoleon anything and I thought, thought you know, but people don't know what to ask. I'd rather have Napoleon ask me questions and coach me. You know like I think that would be much more useful is to have Napoleon Hill kind of ask me questions, engage where I am and then make you know, then feed me his thinking about that. If the goal is to facilitate change, you know, or to give people an advantage, I don't know. It just seems like we're very limited. Dan: I mean, you know, my attitude is to increase the engagement with people I'm already engaged with. Yeah, like I don't feel I'm missing anyone, you know? I never feel like I'm missing someone in the world you know, or somehow my life is deficient because I'm not talking to 10 times more people that I'm talking to now, because I'm not really missing anything. I'm fully engaged. I mean, eight different podcast series is about the maximum that I can do, so I don't really need any. But to increase the engagement of the podcast, that would be a goal, because it's available. I don't. I don't wish for things, that is, that aren't accessible you know, and it's very interesting. I was going to talk to you about this subject, but more and more I've got a new tool that I put together. I don't think you have vision before you have capability. Okay, say more Now. What I mean by that is think of a situation where you suddenly thought hey, I can do this new thing. And you do the new thing and satisfy yourself that it's new and it's useful, and then all of a sudden your brain says, hey, with this new thing, you can do this, you can do this, you can do this, do this, you can do this, you can do this. And my sense is the vision of that you can do this is only created because you have the capability. Dean: It's the chicken and the egg. Dan: Yeah, but usually the chicken is nearby. In other words, it's something you can do today, you can do tomorrow, but the vision can be yours out. You know the vision, and my sense is that capabilities are more readily available than vision. Okay, and I'm making a distinction here, I'm not seeing the capability as a vision, I'm seeing that as just something that's in a very short timeframe, maybe a day, two days, you know, maximum I would say is 90 days and you achieve that. You start the quarter. You don't have the capability. You end the quarter you have the capability. Dean: And once you have that capability. Dan: all of a sudden, you can see a year out, you can see five years out. Dean: I bet that's true because it's repeatable, maybe out. Dan: I bet that's true because it's repeatable, maybe, so my sense is that focusing on capability automatically brings vision with it. Dean: Would you say that a capability? Let's go all the way back to Gutenberg, for instance. Gutenberg created movable type right and a printing press that allowed you to bypass the whole scribing. You know, economy or the ecosystem right, all these scribes that were making handwritten copies of things. So you had had a capability, then you could call that right. Dan: Well, what it bypassed was wood printing, where you had to carve the letters on a big flat sheet of wood and it was used just for one page containers and you could rearrange the letters in it and that's one page, and then you take the letters out and you rearrange another page. I think what he did, he didn't bypass the, he didn't bypass the. Well, he bypassed writing, basically you know because the monks were doing the writing, scribing, inscribing, so that bypassed. But what he bypassed was the laborious process of printing, because printing already existed. It's just that it was done with wood prints. You had to carve it. You had to have the carvers. The carvers were very angry at Gutenberg. They had protests, they had protests. They closed down the local universities. Protests against this guy, gutenberg, who put all the carvers out of work. Yeah, yeah, so, yeah. Dean: So then you have this capability and all of a sudden, europe goes crazy take vision and our, you know, newly defined progression of vision from a proposition to proof, to protocol, to property, that, if this was anything, any capability I believe has to start out with a vision, with a proposition. Hey, I bet that I could make cast letters that we could replace carving. That would be a proposition first, before it's a capability, right. So that would have to. I think you'd have to say that it all, it has, has to start with a vision. But I think that a vision is a good. I mean capabilities are a good, you know a good catalyst for vision, thinking about these things, how to improve them, what else does this, all the questions that come with a new capability, are really vision. They're all sparked by vision, right? Yeah, because what would Gutenberg? The progress that Gutenberg have to make is a proposition of. I bet I could cast individual letters, set up a little template, arrange them and then duplicate another page, use it, have it reusable. So let's get to work on that. Dan: And then he proved. Dean: The first time he printed a page he proved that, yeah, that does work. And then he sets up the protocol for it. Here's how we'll do it. Here's how. Here's the way we make these. Here's the molds for all these letters. He's created the protocol to create this printing press, the, the press, the printing press, and has it now as a capability that's available yeah well, we don't know that at all. Dan: We don't know whether he first of all. We have no knowledge of gutenberg, except that he created the first movable type printing press. Dean: Somebody had to have that. It had to start with the vision of it, the idea. It didn't just come fully formed right. Somebody had to have the proposition. Dan: Yeah, yeah, we don't know. We don't know how it happened. He know he's a goldsmith, I mean, that was so. He was used to melding metals and putting them into forms and you know, probably somebody asked him can you make somebody's name? Can you print out? You know, can you print a, d, e, a and then N for me? And he did that and you know, at some point he said oh, oh, what if I do it with lead? What if? I do it with yeah, because gold is too soft, it won't stand up. But right, he did it with lead. Maybe he died of lead poisoning really fast, huh yeah, that's funny, we don't know, yeah, yeah, I think the steel, you know iron came in. You know they melted iron and everything like that, but we don't know much about it. But I'll tell you the jump that I would say is the vision is that Martin Luther discovers printing and he says you know, we can bypass all the you know, control of information that the Catholic Church has. Now that's a vision. That's a vision Okay. That's a vision, okay, but I don't think Gutenberg had that. I mean, he doesn't play? Dean: Definitely yeah, yeah, I know I think that any yeah, jumping off the platform of a capability. You know what my thought is in terms of the working genius model, that that's the distinction between wonder and invention. That wonder would be wonder what else we could do with this, or how we could improve this, or what this opens up for us. And invention might be the other side of creating something that doesn't exist. Dan: I mean, if you go back to our London, you know our London encounter, where we each committed ourselves to writing a book in a week. Dean: Yes. Dan: You did that, I did that. And then my pushing the idea was that I could do 100 books in 100 quarters. Dean: Yeah, exactly. Dan: Yeah, I mean, that's where it came from. I says, oh, you can create a book really fast to do that. And then I just put a bigger number and so I stayed within the capability. I just multiplied the number of times that I was going to do the capability. So is that a vision, or is that? What is that? Is that a vision? A hundred books, well, not just a capability right. Dean: I think that the fact that you, we both had a proposition write a book and we both then set up the protocols for that, you set up your team and your process and now you've got that formula. So you have a capability called a book, a quarter for 25 years you know that's definitely in the, that that's a capability. Now it's an asset your team, the way that you do it, the formatting, the everything about it. But the vision you have to apply a vision to that capability. Hamish isn't going to sit there and create cartoons out of nothing. Create cartoons out of nothing. You've got to give the idea. The vision is I bet I could write a book on casting, not hiring, how I'm planning on living to 156. So you've got your applying vision against that capability, yeah. Dan: It's interesting because I don't go too far out of the realm of my capabilities when I project into the future. Yeah, so, for example, we did the three books with Ben Hardy, you know and great success, great success. And then we were going further and Hay House, the publisher, started to call us, you know, after we had written our last book in 23, around the beginning of 20, usually six months after. They want to know is there another book coming? Because they're filling up their forward schedule and they do about 90 books and they do about 90 books a year. And so they want to know do we have another one from you? And we said no not really. But then when I did Casting Not Hiring as a small book, and I did Casting Not Hiring as a small book to write a small book, in other words, I'd committed myself to 100 books and this was number 38. I think this was in the 38th quarter. And then Jeff Madoff and I were talking and I said you know, I think this Hay House keeps asking us for another book. I think this is probably it and we sent it to them. I think it was on a Thursday. We had a meeting with them the next Wednesday, which is really fast. It's like six days later I get a meeting and they love it, and about two weeks later the go-ahead came from the publisher that we were going to go with that book. Two weeks later, the go-ahead came from the publisher that we were going to go with that book. And so I've developed another capability that if you write a small book, it's easy to get a big book. Yeah. So that's where the capabilities develop now. Now when I'm writing a new quarterly book, I'm saying is this a big book? Is this a big book? Is this the yeah? Dean: well, I would argue that you know that you've established a reach relationship with Hay House. Dan: Yeah, yeah, because they're a big multiplier. Dean: That's exactly right. So you've got the vision of I want to do a book on casting, not hiring. I have the capability already in place to do the little book and now you've established a reach partnership with Hay House that they're the multiplier in all of this right Vision plus capability, multiplied by reach. And so those relationships that you know, those relationships that you have, are definitely a reach asset that you have because you've established that you know and you're a known quantity to them. You know. Dan: Yeah, well, they are now with the. You know the success of the first three books, yeah, but it's really interesting because I I don't push my mind too much further than that which I can. Actually, you know, like now I'm working on the big book with jeff jeff nettoff and with the first draft, complete draft, to be in a 26, and we're on schedule. We're on schedule for that. You know. So you know. But I don't have any aspirations. You know you drop this as a sentence. You know you want to change things. I actually don't want to change things. I just want to continue doing what I'm doing but have it more productive and more profitable. Is that a vision? I guess that's a vision. Dean: Yeah, I mean that's certainly, certainly. I think that part of this is that staying in your unique ability right, you're not fretting about what the you've made this relationship with a house and that gives you that reach, but there's nothing you're and they were purchased. Dan: They were purchased by random house, so they have massive bar reach. Dean: Wow yeah. Dan: I don't know what the exact nature of their relationship is but things take a little bit slower backstage at their end now, I've noticed as we go through, because they're dealing with a monstrous big operation, but I suspect the reach is better. Yeah, once it happens, right. Dean: And resources. Yeah, yeah, cash as capability, that's a big, you know that was a really good. That's been a big. Distinction too is the value of cash as a capability. Cash for the c, yeah, a lot, as well as cash for the k. But cash for the c specifically is a wonderful capability because with cash you can buy it solves a lot of problems. You can buy all the vision, capability and reach. That was a lot of problems. It really does. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was out at dinner last night with Ken and Nancy, harlan you know, you know Ken, and and we were talking. He was talking about he's. He's 30, 33rd year and coach and he started in 92. And coach, and he started in 92 and and he he was just talking about how he has totally a self-managing company and you know he has great free days, and you know he just focuses on his own unique ability. You know so a lot of strategic coach boxes to check off there and he was talking and he was saying that he's been going to some other 10 times workshops. You know where people are and he spoke about someone who's actually a performer musical performer and he just saw himself as back in 1996 or 1997 as the other person spoke, and and, and he asked me the question he says when is the crossover when you stop being a rugged individualist and then you actually have great teamwork around you? Dean: And I said it's a really interesting question. Dan: I said it's when it occurs to you, based on your experience, that trusting other people is a lot less expensive than not trusting them. Dean: Right, that's a good distinction, right. That people often feel like I think that's the big block is that nobody trusts anybody to do it the way they would do it or as good as they can do it or they don't have it. You know, I think, even on the vision side, they may have proof of things, but they're the only one that knows the recipe. They haven't protocol and package to, you know, and I think that's really, I think, a job description or a you know, being able to define what a role is, you know, I think it's just hiring people isn't the answer, unless you have that capability, that new person now equipped with a, with a vision of what they, what their role is. Dan: You know yeah, yeah, I said it's also been my experience that trust comes easier when the cash is good. I think that's true right? Dean: Yeah, but they're not. I think that's really. Dan: I think the reason is you have enough money to pay for your mistakes. Dean: Yes, exactly, cash confidence. Yeah, it goes a long way. Dan: Yeah, I was thinking about Trump's reach. First of all, I think the president of the United States, automatically, regardless of who it is, has a lot of reach. Yes, for sure. Excuse me, sir, it's the president of the United States phoning. Do you take the call or don't take the call? I think you're right, yeah, absolutely. Take the call or don't take the call. I think you're right, yeah, absolutely. He says he's just imposed a 25% tariff on all your products coming into the United States. Dean: Do you care about that or do you not care about it? I suspect you care about it. I suspect. Imagine if he had a, you know if yeah, there was a 25% tariff on all strategic coach enrollments or members. Dan: Yeah Well, that's an interesting thing. None of this affects services. Dean: Right. Dan: Yeah, Because it's hard to measure Well first of all, it's hard to detect and the other thing, it's hard to measure what actually happened. This is an interesting discussion. The invisibility of the service world. Dean: Yeah, it's true, right. And also the knowledge you know like coming into something, whatever you know, your brain and something going across borders is a very different. Dan: Yeah it's very interesting. The Globe and Mail had an article it was in January, I think it was and it showed the top 10 companies in Canada that had gotten patents and the number of patents for the past 12 months, and I think TD Bank was 240, 240. And that sounds impressive, until you realize that a company like Google or Apple would have had 10,000 new patents over the previous 12 months. Dean: Yeah, it's crazy right. Dan: Patent after patent. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And my sense is, if you measure the imbalance in trade let's say the United States versus Canada there's a trade deficit. Trade. Let's say the United States versus Canada there's a trade deficit. Canada sells more into the United States than the United States sells into Canada, but that's only talking about products. I bet the United States sells far more services into Canada than Canada does into the United States. I bet you're right. Yeah, and I bet the services are more profitable. Yeah so for example, apple Watches, the construction of Apple Watches, which happens outside of the United States. Nobody makes a profit. Nobody makes a profit. They can pay for a job, but they don't actually make a profit. All they can do is pay for jobs. China can only pay for jobs, thailand, all the other countries they can only pay. And when it gets back, you know you complete the complete loop. From the idea of the Apple Watch as it goes out into the world and it's constructed and brought back into the United States. All the profit is in the United States. All the profit is in the United States. The greatest profit is actually the design of the Apple Watch, which is all done in the United States. So I think this tariff thing is coming along at an interesting period. It's that products as such are less and less an important part of the economy. Dean: Yeah Well, I've often wondered that, like you know, we're certainly, we're definitely at a point where they were in the economy, where you could get something from. You know. You know I mean facebook and google and youtube. You know all of these companies there's. No, they wouldn't have anything that shows up on any balance sheet of physical goods. You know, it's all just ones and zeros. Dan: Yeah. I mean it doesn't happen anymore, but because we have. You know, nexus, when Babs and I crossed the border, we have trusted, trusted traveler coming this way which also requires us that we look into a camera and then go and check in to the official and he looks at us and all he wants to know is how many bags do you have that have? Dean: been in. Dan: And we tell him. That's all we tell him. He doesn't tell us anything we're bringing into the United States and he doesn't tell us anything we're bringing into the United States. And then, when we come back to Canada, we just have our Nexus card which goes into a machine, we look into a camera and a sheet of paper comes out. And the customs official or the immigration official, just you know, puts a red pen to it, which means that he saw it, and then you go out there. But you know, when we started, coach, we would have to go through a long line. We'd have our passport, and then the person would say what are you bringing? And then we'd have to fill in a card are you bringing this back into canada? Dean: exactly, yeah, you remember the remember and what's the total. Dan: You know the total price of everything that you purchased, everything. Dean: And I used to think. Dan: I said you know, I was in Chicago and I just came up with an idea. It's a million dollar idea. Do I declare that I had the good sense not to declare my million-dollar idea because then they would have taken me in the back room. You know, if I had said that, what are you? Why are you trying to screw around? Dean: with our mind. You'll have to undergo a cavity search to. Dan: So what I'm saying is that what's really valuable has become intangible more and more so just in the 30 years or so of so of coach you know that and it's like the patents. Dean: you know we've had all the patents appraised and there's an asset value, but yeah, because this is an interesting thing that in the or 30 years ago you had to in order to spread an idea. You had to print booklets and tape. I remember the first thing what year did you do how the Best Get Better? That was one of the first things that you did, right? Dan: Right around 2000 or so. In fact, you're catching me in a very vulnerable situation. That's okay. Dean: I mean it had to be. Dan: Okay. Dean: But I think that whole idea of the entrepreneurial time system and unique ability, those things, I remember it being in a little container with the booklet and the cassette. Dan: You know crazy, but that's but yeah, because I think it was. I think it was, was it a disc or a cassette, cassette? So yeah, well, that would have mid nineties. Dean: Yeah, that's what I mean. I think that was my introduction to coach, that I saw that. Dan: but amazing, right, but that just the distribution of stuff now that we have access yeah well, it just tells you that the how much the entire economy has changed in 30 years. From tangible to intangible, the value of things, the value of what do you? Value and where does it come from? Dean: And yeah. Dan: I think all of us in the thinking business. The forces are on our side, I agree. Dean: That's such a great talking with Chad. Earlier this morning I was on my way to Honeycomb and I was thinking, you know, we've come to a point where we really it's like everything that we physically have to do is being kind of taken away. You know that we don't have to actually do anything. You know, I got in my car and I literally said, take me to Honeycomb, and the car drives itself to Honeycomb. And then, you know, I get out and I know exactly what I want, but I just show them my phone and the phone automatically, you know, apple Pay takes the money right out of my account. I don't have to do anything. I just think, man, we're moving into that. The friction between idea and execution is really disappearing. I think so. So the thing to be able to keep up, it's just collecting capabilities. Collecting capabilities is a. That's the conduit. You know, capabilities and tasks. Dan: Well, it's yeah and it's really interesting. But we're also into a world where there's two types of thinking world. There is there's kind of a creative thinking world, where you're thinking about new things, and there's another world thinking about things, but you're just thinking about the things that already already exist yeah, my feeling is and usually that requires higher education college education you know, and all my feel is that they're the number one targets of AI is everybody who does a lot of thinking, but it's not creative thinking. Ai will replace whatever they're doing. And my sense is that this is why the Doge thing is so devastating to government. I mean, I'll just test this out on you. Elon Musk and his team send every federal employee and at the start of the year there were 2.4 million federal government employees and that excludes the, the military. So the military is not part of that 2.4 million and the post office is not part of those are excluded from. Everybody else is included in there. And he sent out a letter he says could just return by return email. Tell us the five things that you did last week. And it was extraordinarily difficult for the federal employees to say what they did last. That would be understandable to someone who wasn't in their world. And I think the majority of them were meetings and reports, uh-huh. Yes, about what? About meetings and reports, uh-huh. Dean: Yes, about what? About meetings and reports yeah, we had the meeting about the report. Dan: Yeah, and then scheduled another meeting To discuss the further follow-up of the report. Dean: Yeah, At least in the entrepreneurial world the things are about you know, yeah. Dan: I mean if you said I sent the memo to you and said, dean Jackson, please tell me it would be interesting stuff that you wrote back. I mean the stuff that you wrote back and you say just five, just five. You know, I can tell you 15 things I did last week, you know, and each of them would be probably an interesting subject. It would be an interesting topic is the division between that bureaucratic world. The guess coming out of the Doge project is if we fired half of federal government employees, it wouldn't be noticed by the taxpayers. Dean: Right, it's like a big Jenga puzzle. Dan: How many can? Dean: we pull out before it all crumbles. Dan: Yeah, because there's been virtually no complaints, like all the pension checks came when they should. All the you know everything like that. The Medicare, everything came. Dean: But what? Dan: they found and this is the one, this is the end joke here that they just went to the Small Business Administration and they examined $600 million worth of loans last year and 300 million of them went to children 11 years or younger who had a Social Security number. Dean: Is that true? Dan: Yeah, and 300 million went to Americans older than 120 who had an active Social Security number. Dean: Wow, now, that's just. Dan: Yeah, but that $600 million went to somebody. 0:48:51 - Dean: Yeah, it went somewhere. Dan: right, they were checks and they went to individuals who had this name and they had Social Security number. We had this name and they had social security number and those individuals don't those individuals. The person receiving the check is not the individual who it was written to. So that's like 600 million. Yeah, and they're just finding this all over the place. These amazing amounts of money and the Treasury Department last year couldn't account for $1.2 trillion. Dean: They couldn't account for where it went.2 trillion, you know. Dan: You know, that seems dr evo's one trillion exactly. Yeah, well, it's going somewhere, and if they cut it off, I bet those people are noticed yeah, I bet you're right, I think there's. This is the great audit we're in the age of the great. We're in the age of the great audit. Anyway, I have daniel white waiting for me, okay this was a good one, daniel yeah, it was good, this was a good one. This tangibility thing is really an interesting subject and intangibility Absolutely. Dean: All right, thank you, dan. Say hi to Daniel for me Next week. Dan: I'm booked socially all day, so take a two-week break.

April 3, 2025

Ep151: A Journey Through Technology and Personal Growth

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we start by discussing the unpredictable nature of Toronto's weather and its amusing impact on the city's spring arrival. We explore the evolution of Formula One pit stops, highlighting the remarkable advancements in efficiency over the decades. This sets the stage for a conversation with our guest, Chris Collins, who shares his insights on balancing fame and wealth below the need for personal security. Next, we delve into the intricacies of the VCR formula—proposition, proof, protocol, and property. I share my experiences from recent workshops, emphasizing the importance of transforming ideas into intellectual property. We explore cultural differences between Canada and the U.S. in securing property rights, highlighting the entrepreneurial spirit needed to protect one's innovations. We then examine the role of AI in government efficiency, with Elon Musk's technologies revealing inefficiencies in civil services. The discussion covers the political and economic implications of misallocated funds and how the market's growing intolerance for waste pushes productivity and accountability to the forefront. Finally, we reflect on the transformative power of technological advancements, drawing parallels to historical innovations like the printing press. <center> SHOW HIGHLIGHTS <ul style="list-style-type: circle;"> </center> <li>We discussed the VCR formula—proposition, proof, protocol, and property—designed to enhance communication skills and protect innovations. This formula is aimed at helping entrepreneurs turn their unique abilities into valuable assets.</li> <li>We touch on the unpredictable weather of Toronto and the humor associated with the arrival of spring were topics of discussion, offering a light-hearted start to the episode.</li> <li>Dan and I share insights on the evolution of Formula One pit stops, showcasing human innovation and efficiency over time.</li> <li>We examined the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in protecting their intellectual property and explored cultural contrasts between Canada and the U.S. regarding intellectual property rights.</li> <li>The episode delved into the implications of AI in improving government efficiency, highlighting how technologies reveal civil service inefficiencies and drive accountability.</li> <li>We reflected on the transformative power of historical innovations such as the printing press and electricity, drawing parallels to modern technological advancements.</li> <li>The conversation concluded with reflections on personal growth, including insights from notable figures like Thomas Edison and Peter Drucker, and a preview of future discussions on aging and life experiences.</li> </ul> <center> Links: <a href="https://welcometocloudlandia.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WelcomeToCloudlandia.com</a><a href="http://strategiccoach.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> StrategicCoach.com</a> <a href="http://deanjackson.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DeanJackson.com</a> <a href="https://ListingAgentLifestyle.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ListingAgentLifestyle.com</a> </center> <center> TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) </center> Dean: Mr Sullivan. Dan: That feels better. Dean: Welcome to Cloudlandia, yes. Dan: Yes indeed. Dean: Well, where in the world? Dan: are you? Dean: today, toronto. Oh, you're in Toronto. Okay, yeah, where are you? Yeah? Dan: where are you? Dean: I am in the courtyard at the Four Seasons Valhalla in my comfy white couch. In perfect, I would give it 73 degree weather right now. Dan: Yes, well, we're right at that crossover between middle winter and late winter. Dean: You never know what you're going to get. It could snow or it could be. You may need your bikini, your Speedo or something. Dan: I think spring in Toronto happens, I think somewhere around May 23rd, I think somewhere around. May 23rd, and it's the night when the city workers put all the leaves on the trees. Dean: You never know what you're going to get. Until then, right, it just might snow, and they're stealthy. Dan: They're stealthy and you know, I think they rehearse. You know, starting in February, march, april, they start rehearsing. You know how fast can we get all the leaves on the trees and they do it all in one night they do it and all. I mean they're faster than Santa Claus. I mean they're. Dean: Have you seen, Dan? There's a wonderful video on YouTube that is a comparison of a Formula One pit stop from the 1950s versus the 2013 Formula One in Melbourne, and it was so funny to show. Dan: It would be even faster today. Dean: It would be even faster today. Oh yeah, 57 seconds it took for the pit stop in the 50s and it was 2.7 seconds at Melbourne it was just amazing to see. Dan: Yeah, mark young talks about that because he's he's not formula one, but he's at the yeah, he's at the level below formula one right, every, uh, every minute counts, every second counts oh, yeah, yeah, and uh, yeah, he said they practice and practice and practice. You know it's, it's, if it can be measured. You know that there's always somebody who's going to do it faster. And yeah, yeah, it's really, really interesting what humans do. Dean: Really interesting what humans do. I read something interesting or saw a video and I've been looking into it. Basically, someone was saying you know, our brains are not equipped for omniscience, that we're not supposed to have omniscient knowledge of everything going on in the world all at once. where our brains are made to be in a local environment with 150 people around us, and that's what our brain is equipped for managing. But all this has been foisted on us, that we have this impending. No wonder our mental health is suffering in that we have this impending when you say our, who are you referring to? Society. I think you know that's what they're. Dan: Yeah, that's what they're saying like across the board. Dean: Who are they? Yes, that's a great question. Dan: You know I hear this, but I don't experience any of it. I don't feel foisted upon. I don't feel overwhelmed. Dean: You know what I? Dan: think it is. I think it is that people who feel foisted upon have a tendency to talk about it to a lot of other people. Dean: But people who don't feel foisted upon. Dan: Don't mention it to anybody. Dean: It's very interesting. Do you know Chris Collins? Do you know Chris Collins? Dan: He wrote the really great book collection called I Am Leader. Dean: It's really something. He's a new genius. He's a new Genius Network member. Dan: Oh, Chris, oh yeah, oh yeah, chris, yeah, does he have repair shops? His main business is auto Auto. Dean: Yeah, oh yeah, chris, yeah, he does. He have repair shops His main business is auto, auto, auto dealership. Dan: He does auto dealerships. Dean: Yeah, that's right. Dan: Yeah, chris was in. Chris was in the program way back with 10 times around the same time when you came 10 times. He was in for about two years oh okay, interesting. Yeah and yeah, he was at the last Genius you know, and he's got a big, monstrous book that costs about $300. Dean: Yes, I was just going to talk about that. Yeah. Dan: We got one, but I didn't have room in my bags, you know. Dean: I budget. Dan: You know how much. Dean: I'm going to take and how much I'm going to bring back, and that was just too, much so, yeah, so yeah, yeah. He's very bothered. Oh, is he? Okay, yeah, I don't know him, I just I saw him. Dan: I got that what he talked about was this massive conspiracy. You know that they are doing it to them or they're doing it to us interesting interesting I don't experience that. What I experience is mostly nobody knows who I am. Dean: That's the best place to be right. Dan: They only know of you. Somebody was saying a very famous person showed up at a clinic in Costa Rica and he had eight bodyguards, eight bodyguards and I said yes, why is that expensive? That must be really expensive, having all those bodyguards. I mean, probably the least thing that was costly for one is having is having himself transformed by medical miracles. But having the bodyguards was the real expense. So I had a thought and I talked to somebody about this yesterday. Actually, I said my goal is to be as wealthy and famous just to the point where I would need a bodyguard. But not need the bodyguard just below where I would need a bodyguard, but not need the bodyguard Just below, where I would need a bodyguard, and I think that would be an excellent level of fame and wealth. Not only do you not have a bodyguard, but you don't think you would ever need one. That's the big thing, yeah. Dean: I love that. Dan: That that's good yeah that's a good aspiration yeah, yeah, so far I've succeeded yes, so far you are on the uh. Dean: Yeah, on the cusp of 81 six weeks seven weeks to go yeah, getting close. That's so good. Yeah, yeah, this. How is the new book coming? Dan: Yeah, good, well, I've got several because I have a quarterly book. Dean: Yeah, I'm at the big casting, not hiring. Dan: Yeah, really good. Each of us is delivering now a chapter per week, so it's really coming along. Great, yeah, and so we'll. Our date is may 26th for the everything in um before their editing can start, so they will have our, our draft will be in on may 26th and then it's over to the publisher and you know there'll be back and forth. But Jeff and I are pretty, jeff Madoff and I are pretty complete writers, you know. So you know it doesn't need normal. You know kind of looking at spelling and grammar. Dean: Right, right, right. Is that how you? Are you writing as one voice or you're writing One voice? One voice, one voice. Dan: Yeah, but we're writing actually in the second person, singular voice, so we're writing to the reader. So we're talking about you this and you this, and you this and you this, and that's the best way to do it, because if you can maintain the same voice all the way through, that's really good. I mean, jeff, we have a different style, but since we're talking to the reader all the way through, it actually works really well so far, and then we'll have you know, there'll be some shuffling and rearranging at the end. Dean: That's what I wondered. Are you essentially writing your separate, are you writing alternate chapters or you're writing your thoughts about one chapter? Dan: We have four parts and the first three parts are the whole concept of businesses that have gone theatrical, that have gone theatrical and we use examples like Ralph Lauren, Four Seasons. Hotel Apple. You know who have done Starbucks, who have done a really great job, and Jeff is writing all that because he's done a lot of work on that. He's, you know, he's been a professor at one of the New York universities and he has whole classes on how small companies started them by using a theatrical approach. They differentiated themselves extraordinarily in the marketplace, and he goes through all these examples. Plus he talks about what it's like to be actually in theater, which he knows a great deal about because he's a playwright and a producer. The fourth part is on the four by four casting tool and that's got five sections to it and where I'm taking people, the reader, who is an entrepreneur, a successful, talented, ambitious entrepreneur who wants to transform their company into a theatrical-like enterprise with everybody playing unique roles. So, that's how I've done it, so he's got the bigger writing job than I do but, mine is more directive. This is what you can do with the knowledge in this book. So we're writing it separately, and we're going to let the editor at the publishing house sort out any what goes where. Dean: Put it all together. Dan: Yeah, and we're doing the design on it, so we're pretty steadily into design projects you know, producing a new book. So we've got my entire team my team's doing all the backstage arrangements. Jeff is interviewing a lot of really great people in the theater world and you know anything having to do with casting. So he's got about. You know probably to do with casting. So he's got about probably about 12 major, 12 major interviews that he'll pull quotes from and my team is doing all the setup and the recording for him so so. Jeff. Jeff showed up as Jeff and I showed up as a team. That's great. Oh, that's great, that's awesome yeah, yeah, in comes, but not without six others, right, right with your. Dean: You know, I had a friend who used to refer to that as your utility belt. Right that you show up and you've got strapped on behind you. Dan: You've got your design, got it writing got it video, got it your whole. Yeah, strapped on behind you, you've got your design Got it Right. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dan: And capability crew. Yeah, and to a certain extent I'm role modeling the, the point of the book, you know, and the way we're going about this and and you know, and more and more so, I find probably every quarter my actual doing um of production and that gets less and less and I'm actually finding um, I'm actually finding my work with perplexity very useful because it's getting me better at prompting my team members yes yeah, with perplexity, if you don't give it the right prompt, you don't get the right outcome. You know, yeah, and more and more I'm noticing I'm getting better at giving really, really, really great prompts to my artists, to the writers who are working with me, the interviewers, everything so, um, yeah, so it's been very, very helpful. I I find uh, just in a year of perplexity, I've gotten much more uh precise about exactly what I want. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Yeah, defining right. I mean that's pretty. Yeah, yeah, that's really great. And knowing that, a lot of it, so much of that prompting, that's the language that's been adopted for interfacing with AI, chat, gpt and perplexity. Dan: The prompts that you give are the things. Dean: But there's so much of that. That's true about team as well, right? Oh yeah, being a better AI prompter is a better team prompter. Yeah yeah, being a better AI prompter is a better team prompter. Dan: Yeah, yeah, and you know I have a book coming out Now that I'm talking to you about it it may be the next book that would start in June and it's called Technology Coaching Teamwork and it has like three upward arrows that are, uh, you know, in unison with each other. There are three and I said that I think in the 21st century all businesses really have three tracks to them. They have a technology track, they have a teamwork track and they have a coaching track in the middle and that um in the 20th century, we considered management to be the basis. You know, management is the basis for business but. I think management has actually been um superseded, um by um superseded by electronics, you know actually it's the electronics are now the management, the algorithms are now the management and then you have the people who are constantly, you know, creating new technology, and you have human teamwork that's creating new things, because it's ultimately humans that are knocking off everything you know right. And then in the middle is coaching, and coaching goes back and forth between the teamwork and the technology. Technology will always do a really shitty job of coaching yes, I bet that's true, and teams will always do a sort of shitty job of uh knowing how to use technology and there has to be an interface in the middle, that's a human interface and it's a coaching, because coaching takes in a lot of factors, not just action factors or planning factors, but it takes in aspirational factors. It takes in learning factors. It takes in, you know, all sorts of transformational factors and that's a, that's a mid role. Yeah. Dean: Yes, yeah. Dan: And if you look at what you do best, it's probably coaching. Dean: Yeah, I wonder. I mean that's kind of. Dan: Joe Polish. It was Joe Polish, where he probably does best. He's probably a great coach. Dean: Yeah, I think that's true. Yeah, I think that's true. I've really been getting a lot of insight around going through and defining the VCR formula. You know proposition, proof, protocol and property. That's a. I see the clarity that. You know. There's a different level of communication and intention between. Where my I really shine is between is propositions and proof, like getting something knowing, guessing. You know we were. I was going to talk today too about guessing and betting. I've been really thinking about that. That was a great exercise that we did in our workshop. But this idea that's really what this is is guessing. I seem to have this superpower for propositions, like knowing what would be the thing to do and then proving that. That's true. But then taking that proof and creating a protocol that can be packaged and become property is a. That's a different skill set altogether and it's not as much. It's not as much. My unique ability, my superpower zone, is taking, you know, making propositions and proving them. I'm a really good guesser. Dan: That's my strength yeah. Yeah, I think the what I'm doing because it's, um, I'm really thinking a lot about it based on the last, um, uh, free zone workshop, which I did on monday and, uh, you know, monday of the week before last in toronto, where you were yeah, and and then I did it on Thursday again and I reversed the whole day oh really I reversed the whole day. I started off with guessing and betting and then indecision versus bad decision. And then the afternoon I did the second company secret and it worked a lot better. The flow was a lot better. Company secret and it worked a lot better. The flow was a lot better. But the big thing is that people say well, how do I? Um, I I just don't know how I you know that. Um, I'm telling them and they're asking me. So I'm telling them every time you take your unique ability and help someone transform their DOS issues, you're actually creating perspective. Intellectual property. And they said, well, I don't see quite how that works. I don't see how that works, so I've been, you know, and I'm taking them seriously. They don't see how that works. So I said, well, the impact filter is actually the solution. Okay, because you do the DOS question with them. You know, if we were having this discussion a year from now and you were looking back over the year, what has to have happened for you to feel happy with your progress? Okay, and specifically, what dangers do you have that need to be eliminated, what opportunities do you have that need to be captured, and what strengths do you have that need to be maximized? And there's a lot of very interesting answers that are going to come out of that, and the answers actually their answers to your question actually are the raw material for creating intellectual property the reason being is that what they're saying is unique and how you're listening to it is unique because of your unique ability so the best thing is do it, do an impact filter on what your solution is. So the best solution is best result solution is this. Worst result solution is this. And then here are the five success criteria, the eight success criteria that we have to go through to achieve the best result and that is the basis for intellectual property. Dean: What you write in that thing. Dan: So that's where I'm going next, because I think if we can get a lot of people over that hump, you're going to see a lot more confidence about what they're creating as solutions and understanding that these solutions are property. Dean: Yes. Dan: That's what I'm saying, that's what I'm thinking. Dean: Yeah, that's your guessing and betting yeah yes I agree and I think that that uh you know, I mean, I've had that to me going through this exercise of thinking, through that vision, column you know that the ultimate outcome is property, and once you have that property, it becomes it's a capability. Dan: It's a capability. Now right, that's something that you have. If it's not property, it's an opportunity for somebody to steal something ah right exactly. Yeah, I just think there's an inhibition on the part of entrepreneurs that if they have a really neat solution but it's not named and packaged and protected, um, it isn't going to really do them any good because they're going to be afraid. Look, if I say this, I'm in a conference somewhere and I say this, somebody's going to steal it. Then they're going to use it, then I I can't stop them from doing that. So the way I'm going to stop people from stealing my creativity is not to tell people what I'm creating. Right, it's just, it's just going to be me in my basement. Dean: Yeah, I bet no. Dan: I bet the vast majority of creative entrepreneurs they're the only ones who know they're creative because they're afraid of sharing their creativity, because it's not distinct enough that they can name it and package it and project it, getting the government to give you a hand in doing that Right yeah. Yeah, and I don't know maybe it's just not a goal of theirs to have intellectual property. Maybe it's you know it's a goal of mine to have everything be intellectual property, but maybe it's just not the goal of a lot of other people. Dean: What do? Dan: you think. Dean: I think that once you start to understand what the practical you know value, the asset value of having intellectual property, I think that makes a big difference. I think that's where you're, I mean you're. It's interesting that you are certainly leading the way, you know. I found it fascinating when you mentioned that if you were, you know, were measured as a Canadian company, that it would be the ninth or something like that. Dan: Yeah, during a 12-month period 23 to 24,. Based on the research that the Globe and Mail Toronto paper did, that the biggest was one of the big banks. They had the most intellectual property and if our US patents counted in Canada because I think they were just, they were just counting Canadian government patents that we would have been number nine and we're. you know, we're a tiny little speck on the windshield, I mean we're not a big company, but what I notice when I look at Canada very little originality is coming out of Canada and, for example, the biggest Canadian company with patents during that 12-month period was TD Bank. Yeah, and they had 240. 240, I mean that might be how many Google send in in a week. You know that might be the number of patents. That wouldn't be necessarily a big week at Google or Amazon or any of the other big American, because Americans are really into Americans are really, really into property. That's why they want Greenland. Dean: And Panama. Dan: And Alberta. Dean: Panama, alberta and Greenland. Dan: And the Gulf of America, yeah, the Gulf of America and property. Dean: Even if it's not actual. They want titular property. Dan: Yes. Dean: Yeah, yeah. Dan: And I haven't seen any complaints from Mexico. I mean, I haven't seen any complaints. Maybe there have been complaints, but we just haven't seen them. No, no, from now on it's the Gulf of America, which I think is rather important, and when Google just switches, I mean, google hasn't been a very big Trump fan and yet they took it seriously. Yeah, now all the tech's official. It's interesting talking to people and they say what's happening? What's happening? We don't know what's happening. I say, well, it's like the end of a Monopoly game. One of the things you have to do when you end one Monopoly game is all the pieces have to go back in the box, like Scrabble. You play Scrabble, all the pieces go back in the box at the end of a game. And I said, this is the first time since the end of the Second World War that a game is ending and all the pieces are going back into the box, except when you get to the next step. It's a bigger box, it's a different game board, there's more pieces and different rules. So this is what's happening right now. It's a new game the old game is over, new game is starting and, um, if you just watch what donald trump's doing, you're getting an idea what the new game is. Yeah, I think you're right, and one of the new game is intellectual property. Intellectual property I think this is one of the new parts of the new game. And the other thing is it's all going to be one-to-one deals. I don't think there's going to be any more multi-party deals. You know, like the North American Free Trade Act, supposedly is the United States, canada and Mexico In Europe. If you look at it, it's Canada and Mexico, it's Mexico and the United States and it's the United States and Canada. These are separate deals. They're all separate deals. That's what I think is happening. States, Canada and these are separate deals. They're all separate deals. Oh, interesting, yeah, and that's what I think is happening. It's just one-to-one. No more multilateral stuff it's all one-to-one. For example, the US ambassador is in London this week and they're working out a deal between the UK and the United States, so no tariffs apply to British, british products oh interesting yeah and you'll see it like the European Union. I was saying the European Union wants to have a deal and I said European Union, where is the European Union? You know where is? That anyway, yeah yeah, I mean, if you look at the United Nations, there's no European Union. If you look at NATO, there's no European Union. If you look at the G20 of countries, there's no European Union. There's France, there's Germany. You know, there's countries we recognize. And I think the US is just saying if you don't have a national border and you don't have a capital, and you don't have a government, we don't think it exists. We just don't think it exists. And Trump often talks about that 28 acres on the east side of Manhattan. He says boy, boy. What we could do with that right, oh, what we could do with that. You know they should. Just, you know who can do that. Who can do? United Nations, switzerland, send it to Switzerland. You know that'd be a nice place for the send it to there, you know like that and it just shows you that that was all. All those institutions were really a result of the Second World War and the Cold War, which was just a continuation of the Second World War. So I think that's one of the really big things that's happening in the world right now. And the other thing I want to talk to you about is Doge. I think Doge is one of the most phenomenally big breakthroughs in world history. What's happening with Elon Musk and his team. Dean: Yeah, I know you've been really following that with great interest. Tell me what's the latest. Dan: It's the first time in human history that you can audit government, bureauc, audit government, bureaucratic government, the part of government. You don't see Millions and millions of people who are doing things but you don't know what they're doing. There's no way of checking what they're doing. There's no way for them. And it was proven because Musk, about four weeks ago, sent out a letter to every federal employee, said last week, tell me five things that you did. And the results were not good. Dean: Well, I think the same thing is happening when people are questioned about their at-home working accomplishments too. Yeah, but that's the Well, lamar Lark, you know. Dan: Lamar. I don't think you've ever met Lamar. He's in the number one Chicago Free Zone workshops, so we have two and a quarter and he's in the first one. And he has all sorts of interesting things. He's got Chick-fil-A franchises and other things like that, okay, and he created his own church, which is a very I have met Lamar yeah, which is a very American activity. Dean: It creates your own church, you know yes yes, yeah. Dan: That's why Americans are so religious is because America is the first country that turned religion into an entrepreneurial activity. Got yourself a hall. You could do it right there in the courtyard of the Valhalla. How many chairs could you? If you really pushed it, how many chairs could you get into the courtyard? Let's see One, two three, four, five, not like the chair you're sitting on. No, I'm kidding. Dean: I'm just envisioning it. I could probably get 50 chairs in here. Dan: You got yourself, you know and set it up right, Get a good tax description yeah, you got yourself a religion there. That's great. And you're kind of tending in that direction with the word Valhalla, that's exactly right. Dean: Yes, would you. Dan: I'd pay to spend an hour or two on Sunday with you. Dean: But here's the big question, Dan Would you be committed enough to tithe? Dan: Oh yes, oh yes. Dean: Then we'd really be on to something you know. We could just count on you for your tithe to the church. That would be. Dan: That would really get us on our feet, but anyway, I was telling this story about Lamar. So he and his wife have a friend, a woman, who works for the federal government in Chicago, and so they were just talking over dinner to the person and they said, well, what's your day work, what's your day you know when do you go into the? office. When do you go into the office? When do you go into the office? And she says, oh, I haven't been to the office since before COVID. No, I know we are the office. And so they said, well, how does your home day work? And she says, well, at 830, you got to. You got to check in at 830. You check in at 830, you go online and then you put your j in at 8.30. Dean: You check in at 8.30, you go online and then you put your jiggler on Jiggler, exactly I've heard about this and they said what's the jiggler? Dan: Well, the jiggler moves. Your mouse keeps checking into different. It keeps switching to different files, positions, yeah, yeah, files. And that's the only thing that they can record from the actual office is that you're busy moving from one file to the other. And he says, well, what are you doing while that's happening? She said, well, I do a lot of shopping, you know I go out shopping and we have you know, and they come back and it goes from. You know it'll stop because there's coffee time, so we'll stop for 10 minutes for coffee and then it'll stop for lunch and stop for afternoon coffee. And then I checked out and I always check in five minutes early and I always check five minutes late, that's amazing, isn't it? that's what that's what elon Elon Musk is discovering, because Elon Musk's AI can actually discover what they did, and then it's hard for the person to answer what were the five things you did last week? You know, and the truth is that I think I'm not saying that all civil servants are worthless. I'm not saying that at all. You have it right now. It's recorded here. Your mechanism is recording that. I'm not saying that all civil servants are worthless but I do think it's harder and harder for civil servants to prove their value, because you may have gone to five important meetings, but I bet those meetings didn't produce any result. It's hard for any civil servant and you can say what you did last week. I can say what I did last week, but you were basically just meeting with yourself. Yeah, that's I saw somebody and you produce something and you made a decision and something got created and that's easy to prove. But I don't think it's easy in the civil service to prove the value of what you did the greatest raw resource in America for taking money that's being spent one way taking that money away and spending on something else. I think this is the greatest source of financial transformation going forward, because about 15 states all of them Republican states have gotten in touch with Elon Musk and say whatever you're doing in Washington, we want to do here, and I just he believes, according to his comments, that every year there's $3 trillion that's being badly spent $3 trillion you know, I got my little finger up to my mouth. $3 trillion, you know, this is that's a lot of you know, I'm at the point where I think a million is still a big deal. You know, trillion is uh, yeah, uh. Dean: I saw that somebody had invented a uh algorithm reader. They detected an algorithm in the like a fingerprint in the jiggler software. Oh that, yeah, so that you can overlay this thing and it would be able to identify that that's a jiggler that's a jiggler. Dan: That's a jiggler yeah, you got to because behind the jiggler is the prompter. Dean: The jiggler busters. Dan: Yes, exactly, he was on. He was interviewed, he and six members of his Doge team, you know, and how they're talking about them being 19 and 20 year olds, about them being 19 and 20 year olds. These were part. These were powerful people who had stepped away from their companies and their jobs just for the chance to work with the Elon. One guy had five companies. He's from Houston, he had five companies and he's taken leave from his company for a year. Just to work on the doge project. Yeah, and so that guy was talking and he said you know what we discovered? The small business administration, he said, last year gave 300 million dollars in loans to children under 11 years old wow to their to that a person who had their social security number, their social insurance number. Right, and during that same year, we gave $300 million in loans to people who were over 120 years old. Dean: Wow. Dan: That's $600 million. That's $600 million, that's almost a billion. Anyway, that's happening over and over. They're just discovering these and those checks are arriving somewhere and somebody's cashing those checks, but it's not appropriate. So I think this is the biggest deal. I think this changes everything, and I've noticed that the Democratic Party is in a tailspin, and has been especially since they started the Doge project, because the people doing the jiggling and the people who where the checks are going to the run I bet 90% of them are Democrats the money's going to democratic organizations, since going to democratic individuals and they're going to be cash strapped. You know that they've been. This isn't last year, this goes back 80 years. This has been going on since the New Deal, when the Democrats really took over Washington. And I bet this I bet they can track all the checks that went back 80 years. Dean: I mean, this is that's really something, isn't it? I was just thinking about yeah, this kind of transparency is really like. I think, when you really get down to it, we're getting to a point where there's the market does not support inefficiency anymore. It's not baked in. If you have workers for instance, most of the time you have salaried workers your real expectation is that they're going to be productive. I don't know what the actual stats are, do you know? But let's say that they're going to be actually productive for 50% of the time. But you look at now just the ability to, especially on task-related things or AI type of things um, collins, chris no, chris johnson's um, um, oh yeah um uh, you know the the ai dialers there, of being able, there's zero. Dan: They were doing, um, you know they were doing. Maybe you know the dialers were doing. You know, because some of the sometimes the other, the person at the other end they answered and they'd have a you know five minute call or something like that. So in a day in a day, like they have an eight hour thing they might do you know. 50, 50 call outs 50 or 60 calls yeah, his. Ai does 25,000 calls a minute. Dean: Exactly that's. What I mean is that those things are just that everything is compressed. Now there's no, because it's taken out all the air, all the fluff around it. What humans come with. You're right what you said earlier about all the pieces going back in the box and we're totally reset. Yeah, I think we're definitely that you know yeah and the thing thing about this. Dan: What I found interesting is that the request coming in from the states that they moved the doge you know the process department of government efficiency that I. I think he's putting together a vast system that can be applied to any government you know, it could be, and, uh, and, but the all the requests came in from republican states, not from Democratic states, waste and abuse and waste and fraud. probably for the over last 80 years, has been the party in the United States which was most invested in the bureaucracy of the government you know. And yeah, I mean, do you know anybody who works for the government? I mean actually, I mean you may have met the person, but I mean, do you know anybody who works for the government? I mean actually, I mean you may have met the person but I mean, I don't know. Do you do, do you know anybody who works for the government? I don't believe, I do, really, and I do, and I don't either right, I don't I don't, I don't, neither you know I mean, I mean everybody I know is an entrepreneur everybody I know is entrepreneurial. And yeah, the people who aren't entrepreneurial are the families. You know they would be family connections of the entrepreneurs. I just don't know anybody who works for the government. You know, I've been 50 years and I can't say I know anybody who works for the government but, there's lots of them. Yeah, yeah so they don't they. They're not involved in entrepreneurial circles, that's for sure. Dean: It's Ontario Hydro or Ontario Power Generation. Is that the government? No, that's the government, then I do. I know one person. I know one person that works for the government. Dan: All right, Send him an email and say what are five things you did last week? Yeah, what? Dean: did you do last week? Dan: Oh my goodness, that's so funny, impress me. Dean: Yes. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Yeah. Dan: I think it's a stage in technological development, I think it's a state, just where it has to do with the ability to measure, and this has been a vast dark space government that you can't really, yeah, and in fairness to them, they couldn't measure themselves. In other words, that they didn't have the ability, even if they were honest and forthright and they were committed and they were productive, they themselves did not have the ability to measure their own activities until now. And I think, and I think now they will, and I think now they will, and, but but anyway, I just think this is a major, major event. This is this is equal to the printing press. You know this is equal to to electricity. You can measure what government does electricity. You can measure what government does In the history of human beings. This is a major breakthrough. That's amazing. Dean: So great Look around. You don't want a time to be alive. Dan: Yeah, I mean depending on where you work I guess that's absolutely true. Dean: I've been listening to, uh I was just listening, uh just started actually a podcast about uh, thomas edison, uh this is a really great podcast, one of my great, one of my great heroes. Yes, exactly, the podcast is called Founders. Dan: Founders yeah. Dean: Founders. Yeah, david Sunra, I think, is the guy's name and all he does is he reads biographies and then he gives his insights on the biographies. It's just a single voice podcast. It's not like guests or anything, it's just him breaking down his lessons and notes from reading certain reading these biographies and it's really well done. But he had what turned me on he did. I first heard a podcast he did about Albert Lasker, who was the guy, the great advertising guy, the man who sold America and yeah, so I've been listening through and very interesting. But the Thomas Edison thing I'm at the point where he was talking about his first things. He sold some telegraph patent that he had an idea that he had created for $40,000, which was like you know a huge amount of money back then and that allowed him to set up Menlo Park. And then at the time Menlo Park was kind of out in the middle of nowhere and you know they asked why would you set up out there? And no distractions. And he created a whole you know a whole environment of where people were undistracted and able to invent and what you know. If they get bored, what are they going to do? They're going to invent something, just creating this whole environment. Dan: Well, he wasn't distractible because he was largely deaf. He had childhood injury, yeah, so he wasn't distracted by other people talking because he couldn't really make out. So you know, he had to focus where he could focus. And yeah, there is actually in my hometown, which his hometown is called Milan, ohio. I grew up two miles. I grew up I wasn't born there, but when I was two years old, we moved to a farm there. It was two miles from Edison. His home is there. It's a museum. Dean: Milan. Dan: Ohio and that was 1830s, somewhere 1838, something like that. I'm not quite sure. But there's a business in Norwalk, Ohio, where we moved from the farm when I was 11 years old Ohio, where we moved from the farm when I was 11 years old, and there's a business in there that started off as a dynamo company. Dynamo was sort of like an electric generator. Dean: Yeah, and we had dynamo in Georgetown. Dan: on the river, yeah, and that business continues since the mid-1800s, that business continues, and everything like that. My sense is that Edison put everything together that constitutes the modern scientific technological laboratory. In other words that Menlo Park is the first time you've really put everything together. That includes, you know, the science, the technology, the experimentation the creation of patents, the packaging of the new ideas, getting investment from Wall Street and everything. He created the entire gateway for the modern technological corporation, I think. Dean: I think that's amazing, very nice. I like to look at the. I like to trace the timelines of something right, like when you realize it's very interesting when you think and you hear about the lore and you look at the accomplishments of someone like Thomas Edison or Leonardo da Vinci or anybody, you look at the total of what you know about what they were able to accomplish, but when you granularly get down to the timeline of it, you don't, like you realize how. I think I remember reading about da vinci. I think he spent like seven years doing just this one uh, one period of projects. That was uh, um. So he puts it in perspective right of a of the, the whole of a career, that it really breaks down to the, the individual, uh chapters, that that make it up, you know, yeah, and it's funny, I've written about somebody, Jim Collins the good to great author. I heard him. His kind of hero was Peter Drucker and he remembers going to Peter Drucker and he had a bookshelf with all of his books. I think he had like 90 books or something that he had written, Peter Drucker, and he had them. Jim Collins set them up on his bookshelf and he would move a piece of tape that shows his current age against the age that Peter Drucker was when he had written those things and he realized that at you know, 50 years old, something like you know, 75% of Peter Drucker's work was after that age and even into his 80s or whatever. Dan: Yeah, most of my work is after 70. I was just going to say yeah, exactly, I look at that. You look at all of the things and then at 70, yeah, yeah, the actual stuff I've created is really yeah, that's when I really started to produce a lot after 70. Dean: Mm-hmm. Dan: Yeah, a lot of R&D. I did a lot of R&D. Dean: Right. Dan: Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, my goal is that 80 to 90 will be much more productive than 70 to 80. Yeah, I was talking to someone today interesting, very interesting physical fitness guy here in Toronto and he's a really great chiropractor so he's working. So I have I'm making great progress with the structural repair of my left knee. But there's all sorts of functional stuff that has to come along with it and he's my main man for doing this. But he was talking, he's 50, and he said you know, my goal is that 60 to 70 is going to be my most active part of my life, you know, from mountain climbing to all these different really high endurance athletics and sports, and so we got talking and I just shared with him the idea that the real goal you should have or which covers a lot of other areas is that, if you're like my goal for 90, I'm just going on 81, my goal for 90 is that I'm more ambitious at 90 than I am at the present. Dean: And. Dan: I said that's what that almost seems impossible, impossible well, well it is if you're just looking at yourself as a single individual yeah but if you're looking at yourself as someone who has an expand team, it's actually very possible. Dean: Yeah, yeah yeah, you're mine are those potato chips no, it's a piece of cellophane wrapped around something. That was the word right Retired. And they've been retired for about five years or so and I hadn't seen them in a couple of years. But it's really interesting to, at 72, the uh, you know the, just the level you can tell just physically and everything mentally, everything about them. They're on the, the decline phase of the thing they're not ramping up. You know, like just physically they are, um, you know they're, they're big, um cruisers. You know they've been going on cruises now every every six weeks or so, but, um, but yeah, no, no, uh, no more golf, no more. Like you see, they're intentionally kind of winding things down, resigning to the yeah. Dan: Yeah, it's very interesting. I don't know if you caught it in the news. It was, I think, right at the end of January. But you know the name Daniel Kahneman. Dean: I know the name. Yeah, thinking fast and slow. Dan: Fast thinking slow yeah, he committed suicide in Switzerland. Dean: I did not know that. When was that he? Dan: was 90 years old, I think it was January 28th. Dean: And it was all planned out. Dan: It was all planned out and he went to Switzerland to do it, because they have the legal framework where you can do that and everything else. And I found it so interesting that I did a whole bunch of perplexity searches and I said, because he was very influential, I never read his book, because I read the first five or 10 pages and it just didn't seem that interesting to me and it seemed like he had. You know that he's famous for that book and he's famous for it, and it seemed to be that he's kind of like a one trick pony. You know, he's got a great book that really changed things. And then I started looking. I said, well, what else did he do besides that one book? And it's not too much. And he did that, you know, 40 years ago. It was sort of something he did 40 years ago. Dean: Wow. Dan: And I just said gee, I wonder if he, you know, he just hasn't been real productive. Wonder if he, you know, he just hasn't been real productive, not not starting in january, but he hadn't been real productive over the last 20 or 30 years and he did that. Dean: Uh, and anyway, you know, I don't know. I don't know that I've been living under a rock or whatever. I didn't even realize that this was a real thing. I have a good friend in Canada whose grandfather is tomorrow scheduled for assisted. It's a big thing in Canada. Dan: Canada is the most leading country in incidents of people being assisted in committing suicide. Dean: Yeah, and. Dan: I have my suspicions. It's a way for the government to cut checks to old people. You know like assist them to leave. You know I mean it's just. What a confusing set of emotions that must bring up for someone you love. Confusing and disturbing about his committing suicide and it's really a big topic, you know, because he was saying you can always get on top of whatever you're experiencing and get useful lessons from it, right? Dean: and I said. Dan: I said, well, you must have reached an empty week or something. You know I I don't know what, what happened I, you know I mean right and uh, cause I I'm finding um the experience of being 80, the experience of being 70 and 80, very, very fruitful for coming up with new thoughts and coming up with new ideas right, you know and what, what is still important when you're uh, you know, still important when you're. you know what is even more important and what is even more clear when you're 80. That wasn't clear when you were 50 or 60. I think that's a useful thought. You know that's a useful thought, yeah, but it's really interesting. I never find suicide is understandable. Dean: I know, yeah, I get it. I see that you think about that too. I've had that. I've had some other people, my cousin, years and years ago was the first person kind of close to me that had committed suicide, and you know. But you always think it's just like you, I can't imagine that like I. I can imagine, uh, just completely like disappearing or whatever you know starting off somewhere else, like complete, you know, reset, but not something that that final, you know. Dan: You know, I can understand just extreme, intolerable pain you know, I mean. I can, I can, I can totally get that. Dean: Yeah, yeah. Dan: Yeah, I mean, it's just you. You just can't go through another day of it. I I just totally understand that but, where it's more of a psychological emotional you get a, got yourself in a corner and that, uh then, um, you know, I don't really, um, I don't really comprehend what's going on there. You know, I I obviously something's going on, but I you know, I, I obviously something's going on, but I, just from, I've never had a suicidal thought. I mean, you know, I've had some low points, I've had some, but even on my low points I had something that was fun that day you know Right Right, right Right. Or I had an interesting thought. Yeah, right. Dean: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'm yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah. Dan: Well, I'm glad we hit on that topic because I said, you may think I know that the person doing it has a completely logical reason for doing it. It's just not a logic that can be explained easily to other people yeah, when you're not in that spot. I get it, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah anyway this was a good one. This was a good one. Yeah, now okay, wait actually yeah, I'll be calling from chicago next week. Dean: Okay, perfect I'll be here, yeah, um, yeah, I want to. I'd love to, um, if we remember, and if we don't, that's fine too, but if we remember, you brought up something the I would love to see and maybe talk about the difference between uh, you know, between 60, 70, 80, your thoughts of those things. Yeah, you're getting to that point I'm 22 years behind you, so I'm just turning 59 right before you turn 81. Dan: So that'd be something I'll put some thought to it. I love it. Dean: Okay. Dan: Perfect, thanks, dan. All right, okay, thanks, bye.

March 26, 2025

Ep150: Unexpected Skies and Local Legends

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, we reflect on how places, people, and experiences shape our perspectives. The conversation begins with casual observations, from warm weather making transitions easier to memorable encounters like “Spam Man,” a mysterious figure spotted at the Hazleton Hotel. We also explore the impact of changing landscapes, both physical and cultural. From real estate in Toronto to how cities evolve, we discuss how development can shape or diminish the character of a place. This leads to a broader conversation about timeless architecture, like Toronto’s Harris Filtration Plant, and how thoughtful design contributes to a city’s identity. Technology’s role in daily life also comes up, especially how smartphones dominate attention. A simple observation of people walking through Yorkville reveals how deeply connected we are to our screens, often at the expense of real-world engagement. We contrast this with the idea that some things, like human connection and cooperation, remain unchanged even as technology advances. The discussion closes with thoughts on long-term impact—what lasts and fades over time. Whether it’s historic buildings, enduring habits, or fundamental human behaviors, the conversation emphasizes that while trends come and go, specific principles and ways of thinking remain relevant across generations. <center> SHOW HIGHLIGHTS <ul style="list-style-type: circle;"> </center> <li>In Phoenix, during a rooftop party, we witnessed a surprise appearance of a SpaceX rocket, which sparked our discussion on extraordinary events blending with everyday life.</li> <li>We explored the curious case of "Spam man," a local legend in Hazleton, whose mysterious persona intrigued us as much as any UFO sighting.</li> <li>We shared our fascination with the dynamic real estate landscape in Hazleton, discussing new constructions and their impact on scenic views.</li> <li>Our conversation touched on unique weather patterns at the beaches near the lake, emphasizing the influence of water temperatures on seasonal climate variations.</li> <li>We delved into the topic of warmer winters, reflecting on how both humans and nature adapt to milder temperatures, particularly during February 2024.</li> <li>Our discussion included insights from Morgan Housel's book, which inspired our reflections on nature's resilience and adaptation over millions of years.</li> <li>We highlighted local activities like windsurfing and kite skiing, noting the favorable wind conditions at the beaches, a rarity in Canada's cold-weather climate.</li> </ul> <center> Links: <a href="https://welcometocloudlandia.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WelcomeToCloudlandia.com</a><a href="http://strategiccoach.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> StrategicCoach.com</a> <a href="http://deanjackson.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DeanJackson.com</a> <a href="https://ListingAgentLifestyle.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ListingAgentLifestyle.com</a> </center> <center> TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) </center> Dean: Mr Sullivan. Dan: Mr Jackson. I hope you behaved when you were out of my sight. Dean: I did. I'll have to tell you something. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the arrangement of this warm weather. For me, it's made the transition much more palatable warm weather. Dan: for me it's made the transition much more palatable. Dean: I mean our backstage team is really getting good at this sort of thing, and you know when we were in. Dan: we were in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago and we had a rooftop party and right in the middle of the party we arranged for Elon Musk to send one of his rockets out. Dean: I saw that a satellite launch yeah. Dan: Yeah, can you imagine that guy and how busy he is? But just you know, just to handle our request he just ended up with, yeah, must be some money involved with that. Dean: Well, that's what happens, Dan. We have a positive attitude on the new budget. Dan: Yeah, and you think in terms of unique ability, collaboration, you know, breakthroughs free zone you know, all that stuff, it's all. Dean: it's the future. Dan: Yeah. So good Well he sent the rocket up and they're rescuing the astronauts today. Dean: Oh, is that right? How long has it been now since they've been? Dan: It's been a long time seven, eight months, I think, Uh-huh, yeah and Boeing couldn't get them down. Boeing sent them up, but they couldn't get them down. You know, which is only half the job, really. Dean: That was in the Seinfeld episode about taking the reservation and holding the reservation. Yeah. They can take the reservation. They just can't hold the reservation yeah. Dan: It's like back really the integral part. Back during the moonshot, they thought that the Russians were going to be first to the moon. Kennedy made his famous speech. You know we're going to put a man on and they thought the Russians, right off the bat, would beat him, because Kennedy said we'll bring him back safely and the Russians didn't include that in their prediction. That's funny. Dean: We had that. We're all abuzz with excitement over here at the Hazleton. There's a funny thing that happened. It started last summer that Chad Jenkins Krista Smith-Klein is that her name yeah, yeah. So we were sitting in the lobby one night at the Hazleton here and this guy came down from the residences into the lobby. It was talking to the concierge but he had this Einstein-like hair and blue spam t-shirts that's, you know, like the can spam thing on it and pink, pink shorts and he was, you know, talking to the concierge. And then he went. Then he went back upstairs and this left such an impression on us that we have been, you know, lovingly referring to him as Spam man since the summer, and we've been every time here on alert, on watch, because we have to meet and get to know Spam man, because there's got to be a story behind a guy like that in a place like this. And so this morning I had coffee with Chad and then Chad was going to get a massage and as he walked into the spa he saw Spamman and he met him and he took a picture, a selfie, with him and texted it. But I haven't that. His massage was at 10 o'clock, so all I have is the picture and the fact that he met Spamman, but I haven't that. His massage was at 10 o'clock, so all I have is the picture and the fact that he met Spam man, but I don't have the story yet. But it's just fascinating to me that this. I want to hear the story and know this guy now. I often wonder how funny that would appear to him. That made such an impression on us last summer that every time we've been at the Hazleton we've been sitting in the lobby on Spam man. Watch, so funny. I'll tell you the story tomorrow. I'll get to the bottom of it. Dan: It's almost like UFO watchers. They think they saw it once and they keep going back to the same place you know hoping that'll happen again, yeah. Dean: Is there a? Dan: spot. Is there a spot at the Hazleton? Dean: There is yeah. Dan: Oh, I didn't know that. Dean: So there's some eclectic people that live here, like seeing just the regulars or whatever that I see coming in and out of the of the residence because it shares. Dan: There's a lot, you know, yeah that's a that's pretty expensive real estate. Actually, the hazelton, yeah for sure, especially if you get the rooftop one, although they've destroyed I I think you were telling me they've destroyed the value of the rooftop because now they're building 40-story buildings to block off the view. Dean: I mean that's crazy. Right Right next door. Yeah, yeah, but there you go. How are things in the beaches as well? Dan: Yeah. You know it's interesting because we're so close to the lake it's cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, you know. Dean: Oh, okay. Dan: You know, because controlled by water temperatures. Dean: Water temperatures. Dan: Yes, exactly, I mean even you know, even if it's cold, you know the water temperature is maybe 65, 66. Dean: Fahrenheit, you know it's not frigid. Dan: It's not frigid. Dean: They have wintertime plungers down here people who go in you know during the winter yeah, but this is that you and babs aren't members of the polar bear club that would not be us um but anyway, uh, they do a lot of uh windsurfing. Dan: There's at the far end of our beach going uh towards the city. They have really great wind conditions there. You see the kite skiers. They have kites and they go in the air. It's quite a known spot here. I mean, canada doesn't have too much of this because we're such a cold-weather country. There isn't the water, it's pretty cold even during the summertime yeah exactly yeah, but the lake doesn't freeze, that's oh, it does, it does yeah, yeah we've had, we've had winters, where it goes out, you know, goes out a quarter mile it'll be. Dean: I didn't realize that Wow. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but not this winter. It never froze over this winter, but we have, you know, within the last two or three winters, we've had ice on the. We've had ice, you know, for part of the winter. Dean: It's funny to me, dan, to see this. Like you know, it's going gonna be 59 degrees today, so, yeah, it's funny to me to see people you know out wearing shorts and like, but it must be like a, you know, a heat wave. Compared to what? You had in the first half of march here, right, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, so that's good. Dan: Yeah, last February not this past month, but February of 2024, we had 10 days in February where it was over 70. Dean: And. Dan: I often wonder if the trees get pulled, the plants get pulled. Dean: It triggers them to like hey, oh my. Dan: God. But apparently temperature is just one of the factors that govern their behavior. The other one is the angle of the light. Dean: And that doesn't change the angle of the sunlight. Dan: Yeah, so they. You know I mean things work themselves out over millions of years. So you know there's, you know they probably have all sorts of indicators and you have 10 boxes to check and if only one of them is checked, that doesn't, it doesn't fool them. You know they have a lot of things that I sent you and I don't know if we ever discussed it or you picked it up after I recommended it was Morgan Housel, famous ever. Dean: Did you like that? Did you like that? Dan: book. I did, I loved. It was Morgan Housel famous ever. Did you like that? Did you like that book? Dean: I did, I loved it. I mean it was really like, and I think ever you know, very, very interesting to me because of what I've been doing, you know the last little while, as I described, reading back over you know 29 years of journals, picking random things and seeing so much of what, so much of what, the themes that go that time feels the last. You know 30 years has gone by so fast that I, when I'm reading in that journal, I can remember exactly like where I was and I can remember the time because I would date and place them each journal entry. So I know where I was when I'm writing them. But I thought that was a really, I thought it was a really interesting book. What stood out for you from? Dan: Yeah, I think the biggest thing is that really great things take a long time to create. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Because they have to be tested against all sorts of changing conditions and if they get stronger, it's like you know they're going to last for a long time. Dean: And. Dan: I'm struck by it because the book, the little book that I'm writing for the quarter, is called the Bill of Rights Economy and the Bill of Rights really started with the United States. It was December 15th 1791. So that's when, I think, washington was just inaugurated at that time as the first president. But, how durable they are, and you can read the newspaper every day of things going on in Washington and you can just check off the first 10 amendments. This is a Fifth Amendment issue. This is a second amendment you know and everything like that, and it's just how much they created such a durable framework for a country. They were about 3 million people at that time and now there are 300 and whatever probably upwards of 350 million. And basically, the country runs essentially according to those first 10 amendments and then the articles which say how the machinery of government actually operates. And it's by far the longest continuous governing system in the world. That's really interesting. But that's why you know I really like things that you know, that you know that have stood the test of time. I like having my life based on things that have stood the test of time. And then I've got, you know, I've got some really good habits which I've developed over the last 50 years of coaching. Got, you know, I've got some really good habits which I've developed over the last 50 years of coaching and you know they work. You know I don't fool around with things that work. Yeah Well, I want to bring in something. I really am more and more struck how there's a word that's used in the high technology field because I was just at Abundance 360. And it's the word disruption and it's seen as a good thing, and I don't see disruption as good. I don't really see it as a good thing. I see it as something that might happen as a result of a new thing, but I don't think the disruption is a good thing. Dean: Yeah, it feels like it's not. It seems like the opposite of collaboration. Yeah, it really is. It feels like the negative. You know the I forget who said it, but you know the two ways they have the biggest building. Dan: I really mean Chucky movie. Dean: Yeah, there was somebody said the two ways to have the biggest building in town, the tallest building is to build the tallest building or to tear down all the other buildings that are taller than yours, and that's what disruption feels like to see in the real estate industry is always one that is, you know, set up as the big fat cat ready for disruption. And people have tried and tried to disrupt the real estate industry and, you know, I came away from the first, the first abundance 360, realizing that, you know, perhaps the thing that same makes real estate possible is that you can't digitize the last hundred feet of a real estate transaction. You know, and I think that there are certain industries, certain things that we are, that there's a human element to things. Dan: That is very yeah, yeah, I mean, it's really interesting just to switch on to that subject. On the real, estate. If you take Silicon Valley, Hollywood and Wall Street, who are the richest people in the area Silicon? Dean: Valley. Dan: Hollywood and Wall Street. Who are the richest people in the area? Dean: Silicon Valley Hollywood and Wall Street. Dan: Who are the real money makers? Dean: Yeah, Wall Street. Dan: No, the real estate developers. Dean: Oh, I see, oh, the real estate developers. Oh yeah, yeah, that's true, right, that's true. Dan: I don't care what you've invented or what your activity is. I'll tell you the people who really make the money are the people who are into real estate. Dean: Yeah, you can't digitize it, that's for sure. Dan: Well, I think the answer is in the word. It's real. Dean: What was that site, dan, that you were talking about? That was is it real? Or is it Bach or whatever? Or is it Guy or whatever? What was? Or is it AI or Bach? Dan: Well, no, I was. Yeah, I was watching. It was a little, you know, it was on YouTube and it was Bach versus AI. Dean: So what they've? Dan: done. You know you can identify the. You know the building components that Bach uses to you know to write his music and then you know you can take it apart and you know you can say do a little bit of this, do a little bit of this, do a little bit of this. And then what they have? They play two pieces. They play an actual piece by Bach and then they play another piece which is Bach-like you know, and there were six of them. And there was a of them and there was a host on the show and he's a musician, and whether he was responding realistically or whether he was sort of faking it, he would say boy, I can't really tell that one, but I guessed on all six of them and I guessed I guessed right. Dean: I know there was just something about the real Bach and I think I think it was emotional more than you know that could be the mirror neurons that you know you can sense the transfer of emotion through that music, you know. Dan: Yeah, and I listen to Bach a lot I still get surprised by something he's got these amazing chord changes you know, and what he does. And my sense is, as we enter more and more into the AI world, our you know, our perceptions and our sensitivities are going to heighten to say is that the real deal or not? Dean: you know yeah sensitivities are going to heighten to say is that the real deal or not? You know, and yeah, that's what you know, jerry Spence, I think I mentioned. Dan: Jerry Spence about that that Jerry Spence said. Dean: our psychic tentacles are in the background measuring everything for authenticity, and they can detect the thin clank of the counterfeit. Yeah, and I think that's no matter what. You can always tell exactly. I mean, you can tell the things that are digitized. It's getting more and more realistic, though, in terms of the voice things for AI. I'm seeing more and more of those voice caller showing up in my news feed, and we were talking about Chris Johnson. Chris Johnson, yeah, yeah, chris Johnson. Dan: This is really good because he's really fine-tuned it to. First of all, it's a constantly changing voice. That's the one thing I noticed. The second version, first version, not so much, but I've heard two versions of the caller. And what I noticed is, almost every time she talks, there's a little bit of difference to the tone. There's a little bit, you know, and she's in a conversation. Dean: Is it mirroring kind of thing, Like is it adapting to the voice on the other end? Dan: Yeah, I think there's. I certainly think there's some of that. And that is part of what we check out as being legitimate or not, because you know that it wouldn't be the same, because there's meaning. You know meaning different meaning, different voice, if you're talking to an actual individual who's not you know, who's not real monotonic. But yeah, the big thing about this is that I think we get smarter. I was talking, we were on a trip to Israel and we were talking in this one kibbutz up near the Sea of Galilee and these people had been in and then they were forced out. In 2005, I think it was, the Israeli government decided to give the Gaza territory back to the Palestinians. But it was announced about six months before it happened and things changed right away. The danger kicked up. There was violence and you know, kicked up. And I was talking to them. You know how can you send your kids out? You know, just out on their own. And they said, oh, first thing that they learned. You know he said three, four or five years old. They can spot danger in people. You know, if they see someone, they can spot danger with it. And I said boy oh boy, you know, it just shows you the, under certain conditions, people's awareness and their alertness kicks up enormously. They can take things into account that you went here in Toronto, for example. You know, you know, you know that's wild. Dean: Yeah, this whole, I mean, I think in Toronto. Dan: The only thing you'd really notice is who's offering the biggest pizza at the lowest price. Dean: Oh, that's so funny. There's some qualitative element around that too. It's so funny. You think about the things that are. I definitely see this Cloudlandia-enhan. You know that's really what the main thing is, but you think about how much of what's going on. We're definitely living in Cloudlandia. I sat last night, dan, I was in the lobby and I was writing in my journal, and I just went outside for a little bit and I sat on one of the benches in the in front of the park. Oh yeah, in front of the hotel and it was a beautiful night. Dan: Like I mean temperature was? Dean: yeah, it was beautiful. So I'm sitting out there, you know, on a Saturday night in Yorkville and I'm looking at March. I'm just yeah, I'm just watching, and I left my phone. I'm making a real concerted effort to detach from my oxygen tank as much as I can. Right, and my call, that's what I've been calling my iPhone right, because we are definitely connected to it. And I just sat there without my phone and I was watching people, like head up, looking and observing, and I got to. I just thought to myself I'm going to count, I'm going to, I'm going to observe the next 50 people that walk by and I'm going to see how many of them are glued to their phone and how many have no visible phone in sight, and so do you. Dan: What was it? Nine out of 10? Dean: Yeah, it wasn't even that. Yeah, that's exactly what it was. It was 46, but it wasn't even 10. Yeah, it was real. That's exactly what it was. It was 46. Dan: It wasn't even 10%, it was 19. It wasn't even no, it was 19 out of 20. Dean: Yeah, I mean, isn't that something, dan? Like it was and I'm talking like some of them were just like, literally, you know, immersed in their phone, but their body was walking, yeah, and the others, but their body was walking. But it's interesting too. Dan: If you had encountered me. I think my phone is at home and I know it's not charged up. Dean: Yeah, it's really something, dan, that was an eye-opener to me. It's really something, dan, that was an eye-opener to me, and the interesting thing was that the four that weren't on the phone were couples, so there were two people, but of the individuals, it was 100% of. The individuals walking were attached to their phones. Dan: Yeah. Dean: And I think that's where we're at right now. Dan: No, yeah, I don't know, it's just that. Dean: No, I'm saying that's observation. Dan: It's like Well, that's where we are, in Yorkville, in front of Okay, right, right, right yeah. No, it's just that I find Yorkville is a peculiarly Are you saying it's an outlier? It's not so much of an outlier but it's probably the least connected group of people in Toronto would be in Yorkville because they'd be out for the. They don't live there. You know most don't live there, they're and they're somewhere. There's probably the highest level of strangers you know, on any given night in toronto would probably be in yorkville I think it's sort of outliers sort of situation. I mean, I mean, if you came to the beaches on a yeah last night, the vast majority of people would be chatting with each other and talking with each other. They would be on their phones. I think think it's just a. It's probably the most what I would call cosmopolitan part of Toronto, in other words it's the part of Toronto that has the least to do with Toronto. Dean: Okay. Dan: It's trying to be New York, yorkville is trying to be. Dean: New York. Dan: Yeah, it's the Toronto Life magazine version of Toronto. Dean: Yeah, you idealize the avatar of Toronto, right yeah? Dan: In Toronto Life. They always say Toronto is a world-class city and I said no. I said, london's a world-class city. Dean: New. Dan: York is a world-class city. Tokyo is a world-class city. You know how, you know they're a world class city. Dean: They don't have to call themselves a world class city. Dan: They don't call themselves a world class city. They just are If you say you're a world class city. It's proof that you're not a world class city. Dean: That's funny. Yeah, I'll tell you what I think. I've told you what really brought that home for me was at the Four Seasons in London at Trinity Square, and Qatar TV and all these Arab the Emirates TV, all these things, just to see how many other cultures there are in the world. I mean, london is definitely a global crossroads, for sure. Dan: Yeah yeah. And that's what makes something the center, and that is made up of a thousand different little non-reproducible vectors. You know just, you know, just, you know. It's just that's why I like London so much. I just like London. It's just a great wandering city. You just come out of the hotel, walk out in any direction. Guarantee you, in seven minutes you're lost you have the foggiest idea where you are and you're seeing something new that you'd never seen before. And it's 25, the year 1625. Dean: I remember you and I walking through London 10 years ago, wandering through for a long time and coming to one of these great bookstores. You know, yeah, but you're right, like the winding in some of the back streets, and that was a great time. Yeah, you can't really wander and wander and wander. Dan: Yeah, it was a city designed by cows on the way home, right, exactly. Yeah, you can't really wander and wander and wander. Dean: Yeah, it was a city designed by cows on the way home, Right exactly. Dan: Yeah, it's really interesting. You know, that brings up a subject why virtual reality hasn't taken off, and I've been thinking about that because the buzz, you know how long ago was it? You would say seven years ago, seven, eight years ago everything's going to be virtual reality. Would that be about right? Oh, yeah, yeah. Dean: That was when virtual reality was in the lead. Remember then the goggles, the Oculus, yeah, yeah, that was what, yeah, pre-covid, so probably seven years ago 17, 17. And it's kind of disappeared, hasn't it compared to you know? Dan: why it doesn't have enough variety in it. And this relates back to the beginning of our conversation today. How do you know whether it's fake or not and we were talking on the subject of London that on any block, what's on that block was created by 10,000 different people over 500 years and there's just a minute kind of uniqueness about so much of what goes on there when you have the virtual reality. Let's say they create a London scene, but it'll be maybe a team of five people who put it together. And it's got a sameness to it. It's got, you know, oh definitely. Dean: That's where you see in the architecture like I don't. You know, one of the things I always look forward to is on the journey from here to strategic coach. So tomorrow, when we ride down University through Queen's Park and the old University of Toronto and all those old buildings there that are just so beautiful Stone buildings the architecture is stunning. Nobody's building anything like that now. No, like none of the buildings that you see have any soul or are going to be remembered well and they're not designed. Dan: They're not really designed to last more than 50 years. I have a architect. Well, you know richard hamlin he says that those, the newest skyscrapers you see in Toronto, isn't designed to last more than 50 years. You know, and, and you know, it's all utilitarian, everything is utilitarian, but there's no emphasis on beauty, you know. There's no emphasis on attractiveness. There's a few but not many. Attractiveness there's a few but not many. And, as a matter of fact, my favorite building in Toronto is about six blocks further down the lake from us, right here. It's called the Harris Filtration Plant. Dean: Oh yeah, we've walked by there, right at the end of the building. Dan: Built in 19, I think they finished in 1936. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And it's just an amazing building. I mean it's on three levels, they have three different buildings and it goes up a hill and it's where the water. You know, at that time it was all the water in Toronto that came out of the lake and they have 17 different process. You know the steps. And you go in there and there's no humans in there, it's all machinery. You can just hear the buzz and that's the water being filtered. It's about a quarter of the city now comes through that building. But it's just an absolutely gorgeous building and they spared no cost on it. And the man who built it, harris, he was the city manager. They had a position back there. It was city manager and it was basically the bureaucrat who got things done, and he also built the bridge across the Down Valley on Bloor. Dean: Yeah, beautiful bridge Right. Dan: He built that bridge and he was uneducated. He had no education, had no training, but he was just a go-getter. He was also in charge of the water system and the transportation system. And you know he put in the first streetcars and everything like that, probably the greatest bureaucrat toronto ever had, you know in the history of toronto this is the finest what year is that building from? yeah, the filtration plant was started in 29 and it was finished in 36 and wow they yeah, they had to rip out a whole section. It was actually partially woods, partially, I think, you know they had everything there, but they decided that would be the best place to bring it in there. Dean: You know it's got a lot more than 100 years. Dan: Yeah, but it's the finest building it's it's rated as one of the top 10 government buildings in north america yeah, it's beautiful. Dean: And that bridge I mean that bridge in the Don Valley is beautiful too. Dan: Yeah, it was really interesting. He put the bridge in and the bridge was put in probably in the 30s too. I mean that was vital because the valley really kept one part of Toronto apart from the other part of Toronto. It was hard to get from one part of Toronto apart from the other part of Toronto. You know, it's hard to get from one part of Toronto to the next. And so they put that bridge in, and that was about in the 30s and then in the no, I think it was in the 20s, they put that in 1920, so 100 years. And in the 1950s they decided to put in their first subway system. So they had Yonge Street and so Yonge Street north, and then they had Buller and Danforth. So they budgeted that they were going to really have to retrofit the bridge. And when they got it and they took all the dimensions, he had already anticipated that they were going to put a subway in. So it was all correct. And so anyway, he saw he had 30 or 40 years that they were going to put up. They would have to put a subway in. So it was all correct and yeah and so anyway he saw I had 30 or 40 years that they were going to put up. They would have to put, they're going to put the subway and it had to go through the bridge and so so they didn't have to retrofit it at all. Yeah, pretty cool. Dean: What do you think we're doing now? That's going to be remembered in 100 years or it's going to be impacted in 100 years? Dan: Well, we're not going backwards with technology, so any technology we have today we'll have 100 years from now. So you know, I mean I think the you know. Well, you just asked a question that explains why I'm not in the stock market. Dean: Exactly. Warren Buffett can't predict what's going to happen. We can't even tell what's going to change in the next five years. Dan: I don't know what's going to happen next year. I don't know what's going to happen next year. Dean: Isn't it interesting? I think a lot of the things that we're at could see, see the path to improvement or expansion, like when the railroad came in. You know it's interesting that you could see that that was we. You know, part of it was, you know, filling the territory, connecting the territory with all the, with all this stuff, and you could see that happening. But even now, you know, this is why warren buffett, you know, again with the, probably one of the largest owners of railroad things in the states, him, yeah, and because that's not changed in 200, yeah, or whatever, 150 years anyway, yeah, yeah, yeah, most of the country probably, you know, 150 years at least. Yeah, and so all of that, all those things, and even in the first half of the 1900s, you know all the big change stuff, yeah, yeah. Dan: Yeah. Dean: So it's funny because it's like I can't even see what categories are the biggest. Dan: Well, I think they'll be more intangibles than tangibles. For example, I think all my tools work 100 years from now. Yeah, I think all my thinking tools work 100 years from now. Dean: Well, because our brains will still be the same in 100 years. Yeah, all that interaction, right, the human behavior stuff. Dan: yeah, yeah yeah I don't think human behavior, um I think it's really durable you know, and that it's very interesting, um, and there was a phrase being used at Abundance that was used about four or five times during the two days that we were becoming godlike, and I said, no, I don't think so. Dean: I guess are they saying in that we can do things because of technology, we can do things. Dan: And I said nah, it's just the next. It's just the next new thing. You know that we've created, but human nature is, you know, there's a scientist, Joe Henrich, and a really bright guy. He's written a book you might be interested in. It's called the Secret of Our Success. And he was just exploring why humans, of all the species on the planet, became the dominant species. And you wouldn't have predicted it. Because we're not very fast, we're not very strong, we don't climb particularly well, we don't swim particularly well, we can't fly and everything like that. So you know, compared with a lot of the other species. But he said that somewhere along the line he buys into the normal thing that we came from ape-like species before we were human. But he says at one point there was a crossover and that one ape was looking at another ape. And he says he does things differently than I. I do. If I can work out a deal with him, he can do this while I'm doing that and we're twice as well. Dean: I was calling that. Dan: I've been calling that the cooperation game but that's really and that's playing that and we're the only species that can continually invent new ways to do that, and I mean every most. You know higher level. And mammals anyway can cooperate. You know they cooperate with each other. They know a friend from anatomy and they know how to get together. But they don't know too much more at the end of their life than they knew at the beginning of their life. You know in other words. They pretty well had it down by the time they were one year old and they didn't invent new ways of cooperating really. But humans do this on a daily basis. Humans will invent new ways of cooperating from morning till night. And he says that's the reason we just have this infinite ability to cooperate in new ways. And he says that's the reason we just have this infinite ability to cooperate in new ways. And he says that's why we're the top species. The other thing is we're the only species that take care of other species. We're the only species that study and document other species. We're the only species that actually create new species. You know put this together with that and we get something. Yeah, yeah and so, so, so, anyway, and so that's where you begin the. You know if you're talking about sameness. What do we know 100 years from now? Dean: What we know over the 100 years is that humans will have found almost countless new ways to cooperate with each other yeah, I think that that's, and but the access to right, the access to, that's why I think these, the access to capabilities, as a, you know, commodity I'm not saying commodity in a, you know, I'm not trying to like lower the status of ability, but to emphasize the tradability of it. You know that it's something that is a known quantity you know yeah. Dan: But my sense is that the relative comparison, that one person, let's say you take 10 people. Let's take 100 people that the percentage of them that could cooperate with each other at high levels, I believe isn't any different in 2024 than it was in 1924. If you take 100 people. Some have very high levels to cooperate with each other and they do, and the vast majority of them very limited amount to cooperate with each other, but are you talking about. Dean: That comes down, then, to the ability to be versus capability. That they have the capability. Dan: Yeah, they have the capability, but they don't individually have the ability. Dean: Right. Dan: Yeah, and I don't think the percentage changes. Dean: Yeah, that's why this whole, that's why we're I think you know, the environment that we're creating in FreeZone is an ecosystem of people who are, who get this. Dan: Yeah, well, I don't think they, yeah, I don't think they became collaborative because they were in free zone. I think they were collaborative, looking for a better place to do it. Dean: Yes, yeah, it's almost like it's almost so, just with the technologies. Now, the one thing that has improved so much is the ability to seamlessly integrate with other people, with other collaborators. Dan: Yeah, now you're talking about the piano, you're not talking about the musicians, that's exactly right, but I think there really was something to that right. It's a good distinction. Dean: It's a really good distinction that you've created. Yeah, I should say yesterday at lunch you and I were talking about that I don't know that we've talked about it on the podcast here the difference, the distinction that we've discovered between capability and ability. And so I was looking at, in that, the capability column of the VCR formula, vision, capability, reach that in the capability column I was realizing the distinction between the base of something and the example that I gave was if you have a piano or a certain piece of equipment or a computer or a camera or whatever it is. We have a piano, you have the capability to be a concert pianist, but without the ability to do it. You know that. You're that that's the difference, and I think that everybody has access to the capabilities and who, not how, brings us in to contact with the who's right, who are masters at the capabilities? Dan: Yeah, you're talking about in. You know the sort of society that we live in. Yes, Because you know there's you know there's, you know easily, probably 15% of the world that doesn't have access to electricity. Dean: Yes exactly. Dan: I mean, they don't have the capability, you know, they just don't have yeah, yeah and yeah, it's a very, very unequal world, but I think there's a real breakthrough thinking that you're doing here. The fact that there's capability says nothing about an individual's ability. Dean: Right, that's exactly it. Yeah, and I think this is a very important idea, but I'm not going to write a book on it. Oh, my goodness, this is example, a right, I had the capability, with the idea of the capability and ability. Yeah, yeah, I didn't have the ability. Yeah, I've heard, do you know, the comedian Ron White? Dan: Yeah, I have the capability to write a book and I have the ability to write a book, but I'm not going to do either. Dean: So he talked about getting arrested outside of a bar and he said I had the right to remain silent, but I didn't have the ability that's pretty funny, right. But yeah, this is really like it's exciting. It's exciting times right now. I mean it really is exciting times to even projecting for the next, the next 30 years. I think I see that the through line, you know, is that you know that a brunch at the four seasons is going to be an appealing thing 30 years from now, as it is now and was 30 years ago, or three line stuff, or yeah, or some such hotel in toronto yes exactly right. Dan: Right, it may not be. Yeah, I think the four seasons, I think is pretty durable. And the reason is they don't own any of their property. Dean: You know and I think that's. Dan: They have 130 hotels now. I'm quite friendly with the general manager of the Nashville Four Seasons because we're there every quarter Four Seasons because we're there every quarter and you know it's difficult being one of their managers. I think because you have two bosses, you have the Four. Seasons organization but you also have the investor, who owns the property, and so they don't own any of their own property. That's all owned by investors. Dean: Right. Dan: Yeah. Dean: So go ahead. When was the previous? I know it's not the original, but when was the one on Yorkville here Yorkville and Avenue? When was that built? Was that in the 70s or the 60s? Dan: Well, it was a Hyatt. It was a Hyatt Hotel. Dean: Oh, it was, they took it over. Dan: Yeah, and it was a big jump for them and that was, you know, I think it was in the 60s, probably I don't know when they started exactly I'll have to look that up, but they were at a certain point they hit financial difficulties because there's been ups and downs in the economy and they overreach sometimes, and the big heavy load was the fact that they own the real estate. So they sold all the real estate and that bailed them out. Real estate and that bailed them out. And then from that point forward, they were just a system that you competed for. If you were deciding to build a luxury hotel, you had to compete to see if the Four Seasons would be interested in coming in and managing it. Okay, so they. It's a unique process. Basically, it's a unique process that they have. Dean: Yeah. Dan: It's got a huge brand value worldwide. You're a somebody as a city. If the Four Seasons come to your city, I think you're right. Ottawa used to have one. It doesn't have one now. Vancouver used to have one. It doesn't have one now. I think, calgary had one. Calgary doesn't Because now Vancouver used to have one, doesn't have one now I think Calgary had one. Calgary doesn't Because it was a Canadian hotel to start with. Dean: Yeah. Dan: And Belleville had one at one time. Dean: Oh, really yeah. Dan: I'm one of the few people who have stayed at the Belleville Four Seasons. Dean: Hotel the Belleville Four Seasons. Dan: Yeah, of all the people you know, dean dean, I may be the only person you know who stayed at the belleville four seasons now, what they did is they had a partnership with bell canada. Bell canada created the training center in belleville oh and uh, and they did a deal four seasons would go into it with them. So they took over a motel and they turned it into Four Seasons, so they used it as their training center. Okay, so you know, it was trainees serving trainees, as it turned out. Dean: I forget who I was talking to, but we were kind of saying it would be a really interesting experience to take over the top two floors of the hotel beside the Chicago Strategic Coach, there the Holiday Inn or whatever that is. Take over the top two floors and turn those into a because you've got enough traffic. That could be a neat experience, yeah. Dan: It wouldn't be us. Dean: Oh well, I need somebody. You know that could be a an interesting. I think if that was an option there would be. Dan: Probably work better for us to have a floor of one of the hotels. Dean: That's what I meant. Yeah, a floor of the the top two floors of the hotel there to get. Yeah, there's two of them. That's what I meant. Yeah, a floor of the top two floors of the hotel there to get. Dan: Yeah, there's two of them. There's two of them. Dean: Oh, yeah, yeah. Dan: There's the Sheraton, and what's Sinesta? Sinesta, right the. Dean: Sinesta is the one I'm thinking of. Dan: That's the closest one right, the one Scott Harry carries in the Right, right right. There you carries in them, right, yeah, well, it's an interesting, but it is what it is and we're, yeah, but we have almost one whole floor now and I mean those are that's a big building. It's got really a lot of square footage in the building. That's what. Is it cb re? Is it cb? You do know the nationwide. Dean: Oh yeah. Dan: Coldwood Banker. Oh yeah, yeah, coldwood Banker, that's who our landlord is. And they're good they're actually good, but they've gone through about three owners since we've been there. We've been there, 25 years, 26. This is our 26th year. Yeah, and generally speaking they've been good landlords that we've had. Yeah, it's well kept up. They have instant response when you have a maintenance problem and everything. I think they're really good. Dean: Yeah, well, I'm going to have to come and see it. Maybe when the fall happens, maybe between the good months, the fall or something, I might come and take a look. Dan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dean: Well, I'm excited and take a look yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Well. Dan: I've been there. Yeah, we have our workshop. We have our workshop tomorrow here and then we go to Chicago and we have another one on Thursday and then the second Chicago workshop for the quarter is in the first week of April. Oh, wow, yeah, yeah, and this is working out. We'll probably be a year away, maybe a year and a half away, from having a fourth date during the quarter. Oh, wow. Dean: Yeah. Dan: Do we? Dean: have any new people for FreeZone Small? Dan: Don't know Okay. Dean: No one is back. Dan: Yeah, yeah, I don't really know, I don't really know, I think we added 30 last year or so it's. The numbers are going up. Yes, that's great. Yeah, I think we're about 120 total right now. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, it's fun, though. It's nice people. Dean: Yeah, it's nice to see it all. It's nice to see it all growing. Very cool, all right well, enjoy yourself. Yes, you too and I will see you. Tonight at five. That's right, all right, I'll be there. Dan: Thanks Dan. Dean: Okay.

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