March 21, 2025 • 14 mins
What if we brought the same playful energy, the same permission to imagine without judgment, to discussions about AI replacing jobs or the changing nature of education? What if these conversations didn't have to feel like doom and gloom?When we remove the pressure of solving global problems and instead approach them with genuine curiosity, something remarkable happens – creativity flourishes.
The most innovative solutions often emerge not from stressed thinking, but from allowing our minds to wander through possibilities without immediate demands for feasibility. That business idea or community program you've been seeking might be waiting at the end of what initially seems like an impractical thought experiment.
Join us in breaking down these artificial conversation barriers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I don't think we're having enough fun.
I think that we need to havemore silly conversations,
conversations that don't makeany other.
When we get with our familyaround the dinner table, when
we're talking with friends andwe're out and about, I don't
think we're being silly enough.
I don't think we are havingenough fun around our
(00:35):
conversations.
I like to be educated but I'mso frustrated.
(00:56):
Hello to my loneliness.
I guess the endurance is bliss.
Take me back to before the noon.
So I typically go to the gym inthe mornings.
I try to get there around about6.45 am to try to get a quick
little workout in.
I won't brag on it because I'mone of those people.
If I feel like you know, if Ican just get inside of the gym,
(01:19):
like physically, I'm countingthat as a win.
And then everything else thatcomes along with that is just
icing on the cake.
But that is my, my normalroutine and I get a quick kind
of weightlifting session in andthen I normally finish it off on
the treadmill, just really kindof 25 minutes or so of walking.
Don't, don't judge me.
(01:39):
They say walking is one of thebest exercises, but last week I
saw this really a gym regularbut, but this guy coming walking
in from the parking lot, sofrom the treadmill you can kind
of see him walking in from theparking lot.
He comes here all the timearound the same time and he
walks into the gym and he getson the stationary bike which is
literally directly in front ofme, props his cell phone on the
(02:03):
stand, opens up his TikTok onhis phone and immediately gets
to pedaling and pedaling andscrolling on his TikTok.
And I'm not trying to be nosy,I really don't care, most of the
time I have my headphones on,but I mean it's like right in
front of me.
I can't help but look at it,it's like my line of sight, so I
can literally see every postand video that he's watching as
(02:25):
he's scrolling on his on hisphone and you know it was like
30 minutes of adults doing danceroutines, either a dancing or
slipping and falling onsomething.
And he is, I mean, giggling andcracking himself up the entire
(02:48):
time.
I mean scroll after scroll.
I mean he's on this bike.
You know, one hand on thehandle, the other hand scrolling
, he's on a stationary bike andhe's cracking himself up.
Just reel after reel.
Folks falling and dancing,adults.
And I guess you know, we allneed a little laughter sometimes
(03:10):
, for sure.
So I'm not knocking that at all.
So we definitely need laughter,especially around the things
that just don't matter, right?
I mean, you know, who am I tojudge?
We should be very much able tojust smile, laugh, imagine
around these things that reallydoes not matter, I mean, who
cares?
Right?
I mean, if you ask somebody thequestion, who's going to win the
(03:32):
NBA championship this year?
Or you know, shoot, whereshould I travel for my birthday?
Would you rather have?
You know the social media viralquestion would you rather have
$500,000 or dinner with Jay-Z?
Is Drake going to come backfrom this Kendrick Lamar beef?
(03:53):
What might happen if the USdollar loses its value across
the globe?
What if this is our last normalgeneral election for president?
What if we're not going to haveschool or work anymore within
the next 10 years?
I mean, we should just bethinking about these random
questions that really don'tmatter, right?
Let's talk about these randomthings, and I know what you're
(04:16):
thinking.
Some of those questions seemlike mindless, fun random things
to ask ourselves, like is Drakegoing to come back from the
Kindle with Marbief?
But some of those questionsdon't really go together, ronnie
.
They seem a little.
They seem like seriousquestions, right?
Those last few especially don'tseem like mindless questions.
(04:38):
Those are stressful questionsthat you're asking around the US
dollar and what if this is ourlast general election?
Those are stressful questionsthat you're asking.
My argument really is they'reliterally asked with the same or
at least the same tone, thesame mindless activity as the
(05:00):
other ones.
Right, we should take them thesame way, no matter if we're
asking about where should wetravel for our birthday or what
might happen if the US dollarloses its value across the globe
.
So then the next question youmight ask me is okay, well, it
doesn't impact me, right?
I mean, you're asking mequestions.
You know it doesn't impact methe way traveling across the
(05:23):
globe does.
Right, that birthday travelimpacts me.
Or you might say well, I don'twant to talk or think about
things that I can't control, butI mean you can't control who
wins the NBA championship.
So why are we talking aboutthat?
Well, well, I can't seewhatever you're talking about.
I can't see that ever happening.
I can't see us getting to apoint where we don't have any
(05:52):
schools or any work.
I don't want to talk about thatbecause I don't want to talk
about things that probably willnever happen.
I mean, I don't think it'llever happen that somebody's
going to offer you $500,000 ordinner with Jay-Z either.
But you ask yourself thequestion over dinner with some
folks, over drinks.
Y'all talked about that, right?
Well, that stuff you're talkingabout, ronnie, is it's gloom
and doom stuff.
That's.
That's too stressful.
I don't want to.
I don't want to stress aboutthat today.
(06:13):
But who determined that it hasto be all doom and gloom to talk
about fun, random things suchas is this our last election
election, right?
What if the US dollar loses itsvalue, right?
What if there is no such thingas education or school or work
anymore?
Why does that have to be alldoom and gloom?
(06:37):
I don't think it has to be doomand gloom at all.
Actually, I think sometimes theonly reason it might feel like
that is because, you know, maybewe don't feel like we actually
have the answer to the question.
If we are asking ourselvesthings like well, you know what
happens if there's no more workor no more school, right?
(07:00):
We feel like we don't have theanswer to those questions.
But even to that extent, I'mnot even sure if that's the real
reason why we feel like it'sdoom and gloom.
I mean, we don't have the exactanswer to what's going to
happen between Drake andKendrick, right?
We don't have the exact answerto that.
So why is it so doom and gloomto think about some of these
(07:21):
extreme type of questions?
It might be because there's apossibility that these extreme
things literally just scare us.
That said, we should absolutelybe looking at these questions
exactly the same.
Take the pressure off ofeverything that we are even
talking about and just examinethe question, just for the fun
(07:44):
of it.
Just for the fun of it.
You don't have to.
We don't have to know orexactly have the solution.
As it relates to the US dollarlosing its value globally.
That's not even really up toyou.
It's not up to us, right?
You don't have to solve that,so you don't even have to be
stressed out about it.
You don't actually have tosolve the Kendrick, lamar and
(08:06):
Drake beef, so you don't have toeven be stressed out about it.
Right?
The problem of AI taking overjobs and education you don't
actually have to be the one tosolve that issue, so why not
talk about it?
Why not talk about it in thesame effortless, mindless,
silliness, imaginary way that wetalk about any of these other
(08:27):
things, such as $500,000 versusdinner with Jay-Z.
Right, we are not responsiblefor figuring out the Drake and
Lamar beef.
It's highly unlikely we wouldever be given the scenario of
five hundred thousand dollars ora dinner with Jay-Z, and we
don't have to solve the issue ofAI taking over all these jobs.
(08:49):
You know, you don't believe,maybe, that it's going to be
possible to not have schools andwork.
Maybe you don't have to evenbelieve that.
But why not talk about it,right?
Why not talk about?
Let's just, let's just not evendream, because some again, some
of this stuff might not be whatwe want.
(09:10):
But let's just imagine.
Let's just imagine what if?
What if this was our lastelection?
What would we do?
What would we do again, not ina stressful way, but what if
this is our last election?
Let's just brainstorm it out.
Let's let's mind map that out.
What would we do?
What would that look like?
How might that impact us?
(09:32):
Could we be doing somethingright now, if that was the case,
that would maybe help us inthat scenario or hurt us, rather
.
These are some of the thingsthat are worth just exploring.
Just exploring and bringingthose things into the
conversation.
Again, there's nothing wrongwith talking about all the
things, about all the possiblescenarios.
(09:54):
There's nothing wrong with evenlaughing about a TikTok dance
over and over again for 30minutes In scenarios.
There's nothing wrong with evenlaughing about a TikTok dance
over and over again for 30minutes.
In theory, there's nothingwrong with that.
But we absolutely should beexploring other different
conversations, other differentsilly I guess you can say
scenarios, and not allowingthose discussions to stress us
(10:14):
out, not allowing it to stressus out.
One of the statements that I'vetold this to a few people
recently.
So Van Jones I'm not going tosay I'm not a fan necessarily,
but I don't listen to him a loton television but what I will
say is that recently he made astatement at a conference and I
(10:35):
thought it just resonated withme.
I've been sharing it almostwith everybody, so I got to give
him credit for it.
But he was simply saying that99.999% of Black people in
America, or across the world forthat matter, don't know a
doggone thing about AI.
They know nothing aboutartificial intelligence.
(10:56):
Not only do they not know abouthow to develop AI tools and
machine learning models, notonly do they not know about that
?
But 99.9% of black folks don'teven know how to use AI, can't
talk intelligently about AI, andthat's a very, very sad thing.
That's a very sad thing.
However, however, ninety nine,point nine nine nine percent of
(11:21):
white people don't know anythingabout AI, can't develop it,
can't create machine learningmodels, can't, can't talk
intelligently about it, don'tknow anything about it.
Don't know anything about it.
Don't know anything about it.
Now is actually the time to havesome curious, silly, imaginary
(11:44):
conversations around what ispossible in the future, and it
doesn't even have to be true,right, it doesn't even need to
really matter or be feasible.
Even need to really matter orbe feasible.
But why not think about it?
Why not go off on a five minutemindless journey around?
What if AI actually replacedall the jobs that we are working
(12:08):
on right now?
What if there is no real reasonfor students to be following
the same curriculum that we'vehad in place over the last 80
years in education?
What if we have to completelyreimagine that?
What if we're being forced todo that?
Let's have a simple conversationaround that, right, why not
include the impossible,uncontrollable, unrealistic
(12:33):
ideas into a discussion with ourfriends and our family, you
know, at least sometime thisweek, some time today, and my
suggestion is that maybe, maybe,from all of that silly
conversation around what may ormay not happen, what's realistic
, what's unrealistic, aroundfive hundred thousand dollars
(12:56):
versus a dinner with Jay-Z,drake versus Kendrick maybe,
maybe, out of these sillyconversations around AI, the
future of the dollar, the futureof America, the future of these
elections, without it stressingus out, something meaningful
comes out of that a businessidea, an idea for a community
(13:17):
program.
We can't solve it all, but maybewe come up with an idea for a
program, an idea for a newproduct, a new business venture.
Right, maybe there is somethingout of all that fantastical
imagineering exercise,discussion that we have that is
actually tangible for ourcommunity.
(13:38):
Take the stress off of it andlet's have a silly conversation
amongst one another about whatmay or may not happen in the
future.
This is the Scratchwork Podcast, where we don't fear the future
.
We create it.
One thought, one idea, onedream at a time.
Peace.
I don't think we're having enough fun.
I think that we need to havemore silly conversations,
conversations that don't makeany other.
When we get with our familyaround the dinner table, when
we're talking with friends andwe're out and about, I don't
think we're being silly enough.
I don't think we are havingenough fun around our
(00:35):
conversations.
I like to be educated but I'mso frustrated.
(00:56):
Hello to my loneliness.
I guess the endurance is bliss.
Take me back to before the noon.
So I typically go to the gym inthe mornings.
I try to get there around about6.45 am to try to get a quick
little workout in.
I won't brag on it because I'mone of those people.
If I feel like you know, if Ican just get inside of the gym,
(01:19):
like physically, I'm countingthat as a win.
And then everything else thatcomes along with that is just
icing on the cake.
But that is my, my normalroutine and I get a quick kind
of weightlifting session in andthen I normally finish it off on
the treadmill, just really kindof 25 minutes or so of walking.
Don't, don't judge me.
(01:39):
They say walking is one of thebest exercises, but last week I
saw this really a gym regularbut, but this guy coming walking
in from the parking lot, sofrom the treadmill you can kind
of see him walking in from theparking lot.
He comes here all the timearound the same time and he
walks into the gym and he getson the stationary bike which is
literally directly in front ofme, props his cell phone on the
(02:03):
stand, opens up his TikTok onhis phone and immediately gets
to pedaling and pedaling andscrolling on his TikTok.
And I'm not trying to be nosy,I really don't care, most of the
time I have my headphones on,but I mean it's like right in
front of me.
I can't help but look at it,it's like my line of sight, so I
can literally see every postand video that he's watching as
(02:25):
he's scrolling on his on hisphone and you know it was like
30 minutes of adults doing danceroutines, either a dancing or
slipping and falling onsomething.
And he is, I mean, giggling andcracking himself up the entire
(02:48):
time.
I mean scroll after scroll.
I mean he's on this bike.
You know, one hand on thehandle, the other hand scrolling
, he's on a stationary bike andhe's cracking himself up.
Just reel after reel.
Folks falling and dancing,adults.
And I guess you know, we allneed a little laughter sometimes
(03:10):
, for sure.
So I'm not knocking that at all.
So we definitely need laughter,especially around the things
that just don't matter, right?
I mean, you know, who am I tojudge?
We should be very much able tojust smile, laugh, imagine
around these things that reallydoes not matter, I mean, who
cares?
Right?
I mean, if you ask somebody thequestion, who's going to win the
(03:32):
NBA championship this year?
Or you know, shoot, whereshould I travel for my birthday?
Would you rather have?
You know the social media viralquestion would you rather have
$500,000 or dinner with Jay-Z?
Is Drake going to come backfrom this Kendrick Lamar beef?
(03:53):
What might happen if the USdollar loses its value across
the globe?
What if this is our last normalgeneral election for president?
What if we're not going to haveschool or work anymore within
the next 10 years?
I mean, we should just bethinking about these random
questions that really don'tmatter, right?
Let's talk about these randomthings, and I know what you're
(04:16):
thinking.
Some of those questions seemlike mindless, fun random things
to ask ourselves, like is Drakegoing to come back from the
Kindle with Marbief?
But some of those questionsdon't really go together, ronnie
.
They seem a little.
They seem like seriousquestions, right?
Those last few especially don'tseem like mindless questions.
(04:38):
Those are stressful questionsthat you're asking around the US
dollar and what if this is ourlast general election?
Those are stressful questionsthat you're asking.
My argument really is they'reliterally asked with the same or
at least the same tone, thesame mindless activity as the
(05:00):
other ones.
Right, we should take them thesame way, no matter if we're
asking about where should wetravel for our birthday or what
might happen if the US dollarloses its value across the globe
.
So then the next question youmight ask me is okay, well, it
doesn't impact me, right?
I mean, you're asking mequestions.
You know it doesn't impact methe way traveling across the
(05:23):
globe does.
Right, that birthday travelimpacts me.
Or you might say well, I don'twant to talk or think about
things that I can't control, butI mean you can't control who
wins the NBA championship.
So why are we talking aboutthat?
Well, well, I can't seewhatever you're talking about.
I can't see that ever happening.
I can't see us getting to apoint where we don't have any
(05:52):
schools or any work.
I don't want to talk about thatbecause I don't want to talk
about things that probably willnever happen.
I mean, I don't think it'llever happen that somebody's
going to offer you $500,000 ordinner with Jay-Z either.
But you ask yourself thequestion over dinner with some
folks, over drinks.
Y'all talked about that, right?
Well, that stuff you're talkingabout, ronnie, is it's gloom
and doom stuff.
That's.
That's too stressful.
I don't want to.
I don't want to stress aboutthat today.
(06:13):
But who determined that it hasto be all doom and gloom to talk
about fun, random things suchas is this our last election
election, right?
What if the US dollar loses itsvalue, right?
What if there is no such thingas education or school or work
anymore?
Why does that have to be alldoom and gloom?
(06:37):
I don't think it has to be doomand gloom at all.
Actually, I think sometimes theonly reason it might feel like
that is because, you know, maybewe don't feel like we actually
have the answer to the question.
If we are asking ourselvesthings like well, you know what
happens if there's no more workor no more school, right?
(07:00):
We feel like we don't have theanswer to those questions.
But even to that extent, I'mnot even sure if that's the real
reason why we feel like it'sdoom and gloom.
I mean, we don't have the exactanswer to what's going to
happen between Drake andKendrick, right?
We don't have the exact answerto that.
So why is it so doom and gloomto think about some of these
(07:21):
extreme type of questions?
It might be because there's apossibility that these extreme
things literally just scare us.
That said, we should absolutelybe looking at these questions
exactly the same.
Take the pressure off ofeverything that we are even
talking about and just examinethe question, just for the fun
(07:44):
of it.
Just for the fun of it.
You don't have to.
We don't have to know orexactly have the solution.
As it relates to the US dollarlosing its value globally.
That's not even really up toyou.
It's not up to us, right?
You don't have to solve that,so you don't even have to be
stressed out about it.
You don't actually have tosolve the Kendrick, lamar and
(08:06):
Drake beef, so you don't have toeven be stressed out about it.
Right?
The problem of AI taking overjobs and education you don't
actually have to be the one tosolve that issue, so why not
talk about it?
Why not talk about it in thesame effortless, mindless,
silliness, imaginary way that wetalk about any of these other
(08:27):
things, such as $500,000 versusdinner with Jay-Z.
Right, we are not responsiblefor figuring out the Drake and
Lamar beef.
It's highly unlikely we wouldever be given the scenario of
five hundred thousand dollars ora dinner with Jay-Z, and we
don't have to solve the issue ofAI taking over all these jobs.
(08:49):
You know, you don't believe,maybe, that it's going to be
possible to not have schools andwork.
Maybe you don't have to evenbelieve that.
But why not talk about it,right?
Why not talk about?
Let's just, let's just not evendream, because some again, some
of this stuff might not be whatwe want.
(09:10):
But let's just imagine.
Let's just imagine what if?
What if this was our lastelection?
What would we do?
What would we do again, not ina stressful way, but what if
this is our last election?
Let's just brainstorm it out.
Let's let's mind map that out.
What would we do?
What would that look like?
How might that impact us?
(09:32):
Could we be doing somethingright now, if that was the case,
that would maybe help us inthat scenario or hurt us, rather
.
These are some of the thingsthat are worth just exploring.
Just exploring and bringingthose things into the
conversation.
Again, there's nothing wrongwith talking about all the
things, about all the possiblescenarios.
(09:54):
There's nothing wrong with evenlaughing about a TikTok dance
over and over again for 30minutes In scenarios.
There's nothing wrong with evenlaughing about a TikTok dance
over and over again for 30minutes.
In theory, there's nothingwrong with that.
But we absolutely should beexploring other different
conversations, other differentsilly I guess you can say
scenarios, and not allowingthose discussions to stress us
(10:14):
out, not allowing it to stressus out.
One of the statements that I'vetold this to a few people
recently.
So Van Jones I'm not going tosay I'm not a fan necessarily,
but I don't listen to him a loton television but what I will
say is that recently he made astatement at a conference and I
(10:35):
thought it just resonated withme.
I've been sharing it almostwith everybody, so I got to give
him credit for it.
But he was simply saying that99.999% of Black people in
America, or across the world forthat matter, don't know a
doggone thing about AI.
They know nothing aboutartificial intelligence.
(10:56):
Not only do they not know abouthow to develop AI tools and
machine learning models, notonly do they not know about that
?
But 99.9% of black folks don'teven know how to use AI, can't
talk intelligently about AI, andthat's a very, very sad thing.
That's a very sad thing.
However, however, ninety nine,point nine nine nine percent of
(11:21):
white people don't know anythingabout AI, can't develop it,
can't create machine learningmodels, can't, can't talk
intelligently about it, don'tknow anything about it.
Don't know anything about it.
Don't know anything about it.
Now is actually the time to havesome curious, silly, imaginary
(11:44):
conversations around what ispossible in the future, and it
doesn't even have to be true,right, it doesn't even need to
really matter or be feasible.
Even need to really matter orbe feasible.
But why not think about it?
Why not go off on a five minutemindless journey around?
What if AI actually replacedall the jobs that we are working
(12:08):
on right now?
What if there is no real reasonfor students to be following
the same curriculum that we'vehad in place over the last 80
years in education?
What if we have to completelyreimagine that?
What if we're being forced todo that?
Let's have a simple conversationaround that, right, why not
include the impossible,uncontrollable, unrealistic
(12:33):
ideas into a discussion with ourfriends and our family, you
know, at least sometime thisweek, some time today, and my
suggestion is that maybe, maybe,from all of that silly
conversation around what may ormay not happen, what's realistic
, what's unrealistic, aroundfive hundred thousand dollars
(12:56):
versus a dinner with Jay-Z,drake versus Kendrick maybe,
maybe, out of these sillyconversations around AI, the
future of the dollar, the futureof America, the future of these
elections, without it stressingus out, something meaningful
comes out of that a businessidea, an idea for a community
(13:17):
program.
We can't solve it all, but maybewe come up with an idea for a
program, an idea for a newproduct, a new business venture.
Right, maybe there is somethingout of all that fantastical
imagineering exercise,discussion that we have that is
actually tangible for ourcommunity.
(13:38):
Take the stress off of it andlet's have a silly conversation
amongst one another about whatmay or may not happen in the
future.
This is the Scratchwork Podcast, where we don't fear the future
.
We create it.
One thought, one idea, onedream at a time.
Peace.
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